My short-lived relationship with Blogspot is over- I have a new host so come visit my new site:
http://punkbusinessmanager.com
Previous bandwidth issues should now be resolved for good, so I no longer will need to moderate comments that say "Hey, I couldn't listen to the mp3's you posted".
Enjoy the new site! I have some nice postings in the works that I think all you kids will like.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
The Five
FIVE “NAPALM BEACH/EXCITE ME” 7” (PITTSBURGH, PA- OWN LABEL, 1981)
[OK, I had a few requests to post this one so here goes- I am still using my old host so I apologize in advance for any bandwidth issues. New file host coming next week!]
The great Last Days of Man on Earth blog recently posted the other Five 7”, the “Act of Contrition” EP. I had first heard of the Five back in November of 1995 when “Death Chord”, from that EP, closed out the “Bloodstains Across The Midwest” LP I had just bought (from the sadly-missed Dummyroom record store here in Chicago, sob). It was a haunting kind of psych-punk tune- great! And cool sleeve! I want to hear the whole EP! A few months later I found a copy of the Five’s LP from 1987 (also at the Dummyroom)- um, not bad but not like “Death Chord”. And then time passed- I did not hear the rest of the “Act of Contrition” 3-songer until LDOMOE posted it a few weeks ago. So, in total, I waited nearly 12 years to hear the other two songs on the EP. Maybe you see this coming but I was disappointed. The EP, aside from “Death Chord”, did not do much for me. Oh well, not the first time that happened (although I have to say that I’ve never had to wait THAT many years to hear the rest of an EP).
BUT for my ears there is one other really good Five song- better than “Death Chord”- and that is “Napalm Beach”. Good old B.C. (my source of many KBD rarities in the mid-to-late 90’s) taped this for me 10 years ago, and I still do not own a vinyl copy of this record (good luck finding one for less than $200 or $300). But I think I did a pretty good job transferring this from cassette to mp3. The Five get the haunting feeling down very well on this tune, from beginning to end- it starts off with just some bass plucking and weird noises going off in the background, then the drums and guitar kick in nicely. They build up this incredible tension with the desperate sounding vocals and drum pounding and right when the song hits it peak of tension during each chorus, it then instantly drops off into this great sharp, jabbing guitar noise- awesome! I can’t really make out much of the lyrics but I sense a reference to the classic “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” scene from the almighty movie Apocalypse Now, which came out just a few years before in 1979.
Sorry completists, but I am not posting the flipside, “Excite Me”, because it’s BAD (as in it sucks)- a throwaway ballad-type of wank job that does absolutely nothing for me. Yuck.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Brief Hiatus (After Brief Beginning)
You may be thinking, "Hiatus?! This fucker has only done a few postings and he's already taking a hiatus?! What a sloth!" My wife and I now have another baby at home (another boy- yeah!) so that little guy is taking away from my already-slender leisure time-- which is fine since he's more important than my blabbering about obscure punk records. The bigger reason for the hiatus, though, is bandwidth issues that I have to sort out before I post more music. I'm in the process of finding a newer, bigger host with more bandwidth so once that is figured out postings will resume-- I have a lot of GREAT ideas for upcoming posts. But I want to make sure that you're able to hear the music I post which has been a problem with my current free host (I know, you get what you pay for which was nothing).
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Platinum Blonde
PLATINUM BLONDE “HEY HEY YOU / NO REGRETS” 7” (TORONTO, CANADA- OWN LABEL, 1980)
If you remember Platinum Blonde from the 80’s, you may be asking “What the fuck are they doing here?!?” They evolved into this horrible band that got really big in Canada in the 80’s and had all the trappings of that sad era-- hair-sprayed manes of hair, embarrassing clothes, etc (see photo below). BUT this very first record of theirs, released on their own label, is a superb very catchy, kinda poppy record that is wimpy in all the right ways. I don’t enjoy much poppy stuff, but I think both sides of this 7” are wonderful, especially "Hey Hey You"- dig the bass plucking throughout the tune and the cool middle part where the drums pounds away- that's what I'm talkin about! I have been in love with this single since someone (thanks B.C.) first taped it for me about ten years ago.
I doubt that they released it on their own label so they could support any sort of DIY ethic-- I am guessing that this 7” served as Platinum Blonde’s “calling card” to major labels so they could get a big record deal and all that crap. This 7” is rare as hell (and therefore expensive as hell too)- if you have a spare copy that you want to give away, please consider me a worthy recipient. I ripped these mp3’s from my cassette copy, so these will not be “audiophile” quality and may not sound too good on your five grand stereo and/or your $1,000, noise-cancelling headphones. But, as the Screamin’ Mee Mees famously said on the back of their 1st EP, “Play loud on cheap stereo”. (Or “cheap CPU”, to kind of update it for 2007…)
Here is Platinum Blonde a few years later in the 80's when they sucked... (well, now that I look again at the cover of the 1st great 7", I guess they didn't look much better then either...)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Disorder
DISORDER "FAKE HEADS" 6-SONG 7"EP (IJSSELSTEIN, HOLLAND- OWN LABEL, 1981)
Here's another killer record from Holland! If you're lookin' for one of the Disorders from the U.K. you've come to the wrong place, Chachi. Damn, how many good Dutch punk records were there in the KBD years?! Too goddamn many! Ivy Green, Mollesters, Helmettes, Flyin' Spiderz... the list goes on and on and on. Disorder is a somewhat more obscure one that was sadly not included in 1996's great I'm Sure We're Gonna Make It comp CD (booted on vinyl as Killed By Epitaph double LP in '98, natch). This EP was listed in the Dutch punk discography in the Het Gejuich Was Massal book also from '96. This book is full of lots of nice pictures and what appear to be various stories and anecdotes from the old Dutch scene but I can't call the book "great", though, because it's all in Dutch and I can't read a lick of it (aside from the discography).
The Disorder EP is real tense record with especially great sharp guitar noodling, a singer with a cool vocal style and a touch of artiness, especially on "Glass Eye Threat" (my favorite cut). Nice paranoid lyrics add to the tension. As does the picture sleeve artwork for that matter. There's six songs on the EP- I've included the best of the lot, although all the tracks are pretty good except for one semi-clunker which of course is not included here. The above scan looks grainy because I don't have a vinyl copy of the record and I had to "borrow" a picture of the sleeve from the Het Gejuich Was Massal discography. The EP is rare enough, but sleeved copies are apparently extremely rare so if you own one with PS you definitely have a "cumstain across your record collection". Congratulations!
Glass Eye Threat
Balance of Power
Civilization
* If you have problems listening to these mp3's, I am aware of bandwidth issues with my host. Hold tight, I'll probably have a new improved host in the near future that will resolve all of these issues.
7.27 UPDATE: Oops! I forgot to turn on the Comments when I created this post. They're on now so you can tell me how much you love or hate this record. A few more posts and I'll get my stride going smoothly with this here blogging thing.
Here's another killer record from Holland! If you're lookin' for one of the Disorders from the U.K. you've come to the wrong place, Chachi. Damn, how many good Dutch punk records were there in the KBD years?! Too goddamn many! Ivy Green, Mollesters, Helmettes, Flyin' Spiderz... the list goes on and on and on. Disorder is a somewhat more obscure one that was sadly not included in 1996's great I'm Sure We're Gonna Make It comp CD (booted on vinyl as Killed By Epitaph double LP in '98, natch). This EP was listed in the Dutch punk discography in the Het Gejuich Was Massal book also from '96. This book is full of lots of nice pictures and what appear to be various stories and anecdotes from the old Dutch scene but I can't call the book "great", though, because it's all in Dutch and I can't read a lick of it (aside from the discography).
The Disorder EP is real tense record with especially great sharp guitar noodling, a singer with a cool vocal style and a touch of artiness, especially on "Glass Eye Threat" (my favorite cut). Nice paranoid lyrics add to the tension. As does the picture sleeve artwork for that matter. There's six songs on the EP- I've included the best of the lot, although all the tracks are pretty good except for one semi-clunker which of course is not included here. The above scan looks grainy because I don't have a vinyl copy of the record and I had to "borrow" a picture of the sleeve from the Het Gejuich Was Massal discography. The EP is rare enough, but sleeved copies are apparently extremely rare so if you own one with PS you definitely have a "cumstain across your record collection". Congratulations!
Glass Eye Threat
Balance of Power
Civilization
* If you have problems listening to these mp3's, I am aware of bandwidth issues with my host. Hold tight, I'll probably have a new improved host in the near future that will resolve all of these issues.
7.27 UPDATE: Oops! I forgot to turn on the Comments when I created this post. They're on now so you can tell me how much you love or hate this record. A few more posts and I'll get my stride going smoothly with this here blogging thing.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Johnny Concrete
JOHNNY CONCRETE "COME WITH..." 7"EP (DANDELION- DENMARK, 1980)
Regarding the song "Johnny Johnny", someone I know theorized that this is an openly gay song since Johnny appears to be serenading another boy. I disagree, though, since to be out and open way back in the late 70's punk scene was not cool... but maybe Denmark had a progressive scene and didn't care about such matters (?). Instead, me thinks Johnny is singing the song from the perspective of a young lass lusting after him. What the fuck do you think? Do you even fucking care? If Johnny thought he was hot, though, I have to disagree because- wow- the mullet n' moustache he was rockin' makes me kinda cringe almost 30 years later (see the back of the picture sleeve). But maybe in 1980 a big mane of hair and a 'stache was the hot look in the DK and caused people to fall at your feet in lust. The Dream Police went on to put out another EP in 1981 or 1982 that I have heard is bad metal. I kind of don't ever want to hear it so my image of the band from this whopper of an EP is not tainted, ya know.
Concrete
Johnny Johnny
Jeg Ved Hvor Du Er
Cheap Trick
Bubbles
7.17 UPDATE: I am having some bandwidth issues that are preventing people from hearing the above mp3's. I'm new to this here blogging thing, so gimme a little while to iron out all the kinks.
Regarding the song "Johnny Johnny", someone I know theorized that this is an openly gay song since Johnny appears to be serenading another boy. I disagree, though, since to be out and open way back in the late 70's punk scene was not cool... but maybe Denmark had a progressive scene and didn't care about such matters (?). Instead, me thinks Johnny is singing the song from the perspective of a young lass lusting after him. What the fuck do you think? Do you even fucking care? If Johnny thought he was hot, though, I have to disagree because- wow- the mullet n' moustache he was rockin' makes me kinda cringe almost 30 years later (see the back of the picture sleeve). But maybe in 1980 a big mane of hair and a 'stache was the hot look in the DK and caused people to fall at your feet in lust. The Dream Police went on to put out another EP in 1981 or 1982 that I have heard is bad metal. I kind of don't ever want to hear it so my image of the band from this whopper of an EP is not tainted, ya know.
Concrete
Johnny Johnny
Jeg Ved Hvor Du Er
Cheap Trick
Bubbles
7.17 UPDATE: I am having some bandwidth issues that are preventing people from hearing the above mp3's. I'm new to this here blogging thing, so gimme a little while to iron out all the kinks.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Introductions/Welcome
Fuck! I better get something up here soon since I was linked via the great Last Days of Man of Earth blog and their posting of the wonderful Endtables 7"EP.
If you want an introduction, here it is- I am in my mid 30's and have been into punk and hardcore since 1987. The first punk record I bought was the Misfits "Earth A.D." LP from the local Peaches store in Cleveland, Ohio (remember that chain?!? Yikes!) . Hardcore was my bread and butter until the first four volumes of the Killed By Death comps were reissued on colored vinyl in late 1994, and I promptly bought Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from the great Vacuum Mailorder in S.F. ('member them, too? RIP). I had bought a copy of Killed By Death #4 when it originally came out in 1989 but I was so into hardcore that it didn't quite click for me and it didn't become a "top shelf" record of mine until '94. I promptly dug out my old issues of MRR from the late 80's and early 90's that had the great "Scumpit" record collector articles and combed through them for tips and recommendations of obscurities to check out. I commenced tape trading as in cassette tapes, Chachi (also known in Latin and archaeologists as cassettus tapus)-- this was when them new-fangled CD burners were still $1,000 and nobody used em yet. I began accumulating mass amounts of old KBD stuff on tape, thanks especially to Jim, Jason and Bruce. By this point I had lived in Chicago, and local store Reckless Records was very ripe with KBD stuff so I grabbed whatever I could afford (or not afford since they accepted credit cards).
I've been into "Killed By Death"-type stuff from the late 70's and early 80's since then and am always looking to hear great obscurities from that era. Since the great Messthetics comps came out earlier this decade/century/millennium I've more "formally" gotten into DIY-type stuff. I have also picked up a liking for some 60's punk a la Back From The Grave and, to a lesser degree, some obscure (there's that word again- see a pattern?) deep funk from the 70's. And of course "new" KBD-type bands from the boom of the 90's onward have a special place on the top shelf... which I guess sounds dramatic like I have a swank wet bar in my house with certain records hoisted on high and analyzed like a bottle of good wine and played on a special $10,000 gold plated audiophile turntable. Er, in reality the top shelf is just my white, scratched up 20 gig iPod that has most of my music on it. But my main love over all these other genres is still the raw, sometimes poorly-produced, obscure, limited pressing, passionate, heartfelt KBD punk of yore.
If you want an introduction, here it is- I am in my mid 30's and have been into punk and hardcore since 1987. The first punk record I bought was the Misfits "Earth A.D." LP from the local Peaches store in Cleveland, Ohio (remember that chain?!? Yikes!) . Hardcore was my bread and butter until the first four volumes of the Killed By Death comps were reissued on colored vinyl in late 1994, and I promptly bought Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from the great Vacuum Mailorder in S.F. ('member them, too? RIP). I had bought a copy of Killed By Death #4 when it originally came out in 1989 but I was so into hardcore that it didn't quite click for me and it didn't become a "top shelf" record of mine until '94. I promptly dug out my old issues of MRR from the late 80's and early 90's that had the great "Scumpit" record collector articles and combed through them for tips and recommendations of obscurities to check out. I commenced tape trading as in cassette tapes, Chachi (also known in Latin and archaeologists as cassettus tapus)-- this was when them new-fangled CD burners were still $1,000 and nobody used em yet. I began accumulating mass amounts of old KBD stuff on tape, thanks especially to Jim, Jason and Bruce. By this point I had lived in Chicago, and local store Reckless Records was very ripe with KBD stuff so I grabbed whatever I could afford (or not afford since they accepted credit cards).
I've been into "Killed By Death"-type stuff from the late 70's and early 80's since then and am always looking to hear great obscurities from that era. Since the great Messthetics comps came out earlier this decade/century/millennium I've more "formally" gotten into DIY-type stuff. I have also picked up a liking for some 60's punk a la Back From The Grave and, to a lesser degree, some obscure (there's that word again- see a pattern?) deep funk from the 70's. And of course "new" KBD-type bands from the boom of the 90's onward have a special place on the top shelf... which I guess sounds dramatic like I have a swank wet bar in my house with certain records hoisted on high and analyzed like a bottle of good wine and played on a special $10,000 gold plated audiophile turntable. Er, in reality the top shelf is just my white, scratched up 20 gig iPod that has most of my music on it. But my main love over all these other genres is still the raw, sometimes poorly-produced, obscure, limited pressing, passionate, heartfelt KBD punk of yore.
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