Primitive Offerings

Hey fam. I don't feel missed, but I'm sure in your heart of hearts you believe my absence was the proverbial lump o' coal in your stocking this Christmas. Sadly, I've been rather busy with coming up with household budgets, P&Ls and new design work at the job and coming up with resolutions for 2009. It tends to put posting someone else's records up online on the back burner.
As a backhanded apology, here's Double Dagger's demo, "ALT+0135", originally released in 2003. Whadaya want out of me? If you've lived in Baltimore in the past 5 years, you know who these guys are. If you caught any of the recent Baltimore Round Robin tour, you probably gave these cats a strong look. All I can tell you is that they're still one of the few bands that can get me out to a club, or free college show...whatever the case may be. They've released two awesome, screamy post-punk records, as well as a number of 7"s, in the past five years, and…

It's nearly 3 AM here on the East Coast. My neighbor ran over to us about an hour and a half ago, screaming for us to call the fire department. Turns out he had fallen asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand. He awoke a short time later, surrounded by flame, with his bed ablaze. Somehow in the ensuing confusion, I lost my cell phone and two hours of desperately-needed sleep. I own a rowhome. For those of you unfamiliar, it's like a townhouse, in that it's connected to other houses on the same block, only it's older and isn't made out of pressboard & staples.

Here's Midiron Blast Shaft. No links tonight/this morning, cuz I'm feeling busted out. Maybe addendums tomorrow/this morning from work...










Midiron Blast Shaft - Starts Fires In Your Pants
(click record cover to DL)

RIYL: AmRep, stabbing your thigh with a knife, smoke inhalation

Grind yr fuckin' ears out, jerkface!!!!










Medic - Greetings & Amputations
(click record cover for DL)

RIYL: skatin', Satan, Katan

Photo by Stephen Dowling
I'm too depressed to really write anything. Here's the CD-R that Sam Beam gave me after he opened for Ugly Casanova about 7 years ago at the Ottobar. Is there any difference between this demo and the tracks that have appeared just about everywhere? Hell, I don't know. I think "Red Dust" & "Dead Man's Will" only appeared on the Calexico split. Maybe some better informed soul can hip me to the origins and whatnot.

Postscript: I apologize for the pixelly-azz image below. I still have no scanner, and the only shot of the demo/tour EP I could find was small as hell. C'est la vie.










Iron & Wine - demo
(click record cover for DL)

RIYL: Pitchfork's Best of 2004, banjos, yr sister

I'd love to know why the site traffic jumped from my normal gang of 20 punk rock zombies a day to over 150 folks just today. A lot of kids seem to be watching the Ben Kingsley as Ian MacKaye video I posted back in September. That's kinda cool. I'd just like to know where the hell these people magically came from. As one of my favorite writers once noted, "Comments are the lifeblood of any author, good or bad." So, let me hear from you, interwebs, if you like what you see. Or if you feel I'm only contributing to the further downfall of the music industry with my efforts herein. Either way, a roll call is in order...comment below. It's like a Xmas gift you don't have to pay for!

Speaking of Christmas presents: a co-worker of mine, who knows how into HC I am, dropped my Xmas present on me a little early today.
I haven't read a lot of it, but it's by far the best representation, book-wise, or early American hardcore out there. Get it for th…

Were you aware that the one of the biggest trade shows for Halloween takes place a mere six weeks after Halloween? It's true, it's true. And guess who has to go to it for work? If you guessed "Ape Mummy", then skip past this to the download. Yep, I'm bummed. I really don't want to go to New York. It's cold and far and I already miss my dogs and my bed and my Wednesday night TV...even though it's Monday now and I'm still two days away from splitting town.

One good thing is that I'll have my iPod, and thus I can rock some Dag Nasty. Dance of Dayshas some really good dirt on how quickly DN got rid of Shawn Brown when they figured out he wouldn't have a great deal of commercial appeal. Plus, I love that Dave Smalley up and decided to move to a kibbutz, so Brian Baker decided to replace him with Peter Cortner. Totally pro, dood. Anyone else wonder why D.C. got a big hard-on for embracing that U2-styled anthemic rock sound back around 1…

So I've become most attached to checking the Feedjit feed from time to time, just see who's poking their head in here (more folks than I'd expect), what's getting downloaded (there are A TON of Sense Field fans out there - CREE-PEE!), and who's using a Mac (cue obligatory Apple backpatting). If you write, and enjoy the masturbatory sensation of watching the world come to your door, I fully and heartily endorse this widget and/or bathtime product.

Whatchu got hear is a the only full-length from The Chase, who hailed from the "south of Baltimore/north of DC" 'burbs and generally rocked shit for a few years back at the dawn of the millenium. If you have any desire to listen to screamy, pop hardcore, then this'll be right up your alleyway. These guys used to support just about every fun HC show in Baltimore back in the day. Fun side note: these P.G. County bamas are playing a reunion show in Silver Spring, MD on the 20th of December with At Best. …

Another quick shot as we close out the month of November. Having booked his previous band, Carissa's Wierd, twice before their breakup, I had very high hopes for Mat Brooke's post-Band of Horses project. Chances are you're reading this in the process of completing your collection, so you've formed your own opinions of Grand Archives. I like it alright; in fact, I'd say I like the production and arrangement on these demos more than the finished product on The Grand Archives. However, kinda like Band of Horses (IMHO), the total output doesn't match the sum of the parts.

You're the judge...I'm merely the executioner.










Grand Archives - demo

RIYL: falling leaves, 40 beats per minute, ice cracking under foot

Happy Franksgiving, everybody! As soon as I shit, shower & shave, I'm packing up the fam and driving north to my folks' house, for a bounty of bourbon, pork and potatoes. Hooray!

If you like toys, and you want the dope on what's new, I'd recommend stopping by Plastic Jungle, which I'll be writing for. It's pretty cool; in theory I'll be getting paid to talk about designer toys. Who says there's a recession on?!?

As part of my Lucero bounty, here is the relatively-limited bonus disc from Lucero's That Much Further West. If you preordered the CD from Insound/Tigerstyle, you got this second disc of rarities & live product. Set in the same order as Lucero's 4th record, you get 12 alternate versions that add up to pretty good times. Worth downloading for the piano-driven version of "Mine Tonight" alone. This is one that I'll throw on my iPod if I'm driving late at night.










Lucero - That Much Further West (bonus disc)

RIYL:…

There's a short list of things I never expected to do. Most of the activities I never expected to participate in involve home ownership. Today, I did two of them:

1) Pay a shitload of money for heating oil.
2) Restart a furnace that had been out of heating oil.

Party people, please buy solar, or use gas heat. Getting covered in 24 oz. of heating oil is no fun, no matter what the Hollywood stars tell you from the red carpet...

What you have here is Memphis, TN's Lucero, and the demos from their self-titled record, otherwise known as The Coldwater Sessions. Better men than I can clarify a couple of the song titles; I know a few might be off. And cheers to Gregor at Captain's Dead for the original post. This is in honor of the cold house I've had for the past week. Pour yrself a glass of Booker's and strap those headphones on REEEAAAALLL tight. Cuz, baby, it's cooooold outside...

Lucero - The Coldwater Sessions

RIYL: mid-September, porch swings, rusty chain link

So, yeah, if you like boogie rock, or hipster hardcore, or whatever the hell Vice Magazine is calling it today, you'll like this.

I, of course, like it in secret, behind closed doors with headphones on.

...beats the shit out of the Twilight soundtrack...










Fucked Up - Daytrotter Session

RIYL: Gentle Giant, Wall of Voodoo, Amon Duul II (but NOT Amon Duul I)

I really should be cleaning the house right now, but balls to that. Here's the demo for Baltimore's Liars Academy. Made up of ex-members of Cross My Heart and Daybreak, this quartet released a pair of LPs and and EP on Equal Vision Records before breaking up, then reuniting two years ago for a 7" and a few shows. Great adult emo from a time when we thought the Promise Ring & Saves the Day were going to conquer the world.

Liars Academy - demo

RIYL: Deep Elm releases, chest-tapping, your friends onstage

If you're like me, you enjoy drinking someone else's beer, turning up Negative Approach and running repeatedly into a brick wall. You don't like that, you say? Well, you are missing out. There are very few things better in life than N.A. and a pilfered six-pack of Shiner Bock.

Cheers to Henry at Chunklet and Benn & Rachel at Atomic Books for a rousing Rock Band party last Friday, and for the inspiration for this post. What you have here, in a mere 28 megs of file space, is the first year's output from Grosse Point, MI's finest. What you get is the first demo, the track from the Process of Elimination 7" and the self-titled 7". 21 songs, 18 minutes. You must break something. All of this should be on Guitar Hero, or Rock Band, or some video game.

Negative Approach - The First Year

RIYL: random acts of violence, 1981, shaved heads

It's Sunday. I wish there was a good matinee going on this afternoon. I really feel like going to a show, finger-pointing and running around like an asshole. It must be cuz I've been listening to this demo again. Sick Fix is from D.C. You know what's awesome about these guys? Everything. Released in 2006, this is sick, fast, straightforward teenage sXe HC that have you Xing up and getting caught in a mosh. In addition to this here demo, Sick Fix has released a 7" on Nick Baran's Third Party Records. Both are pretty much must haves, eh?

Sick Fix - demo

RIYL: long-sleeved t-shirts sharpied up with band logos, being 17 & pissed

I never quite got how anyone could slag off Leatherface. And yet I always read damn fools bashing them. I haven't been writing a lot, and today isn't going to bring any real change to that. Anything that could be said about Leatherface has already been said in a more eloquent and heartfelt manner than I ever could. I've had the pleasure of hearing them live twice: in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, I sat outside St. Andrews' Church in College Park, where Frankie Stubbs & co. headlined a Hot Water Music/Panthro UK United 13/Swank bill. I was dead broke, and only about 2 months into an 9 month stay at the University of Maryland. In 2000, Leatherface played the Sidebar in Baltimore. I got and stayed shitfaced drunk, Cross My Heart & Pezz opened, Leatherface lived up their reputation as a fantastic live band, and somehow I made it home, without a scratch. I'm still amazed at the humor, the sincerity and the love that's gone into ever piece of music release…

So when I initially heard about Red Star Records, and their mission to highlight tough-to-find demos, I thought, "Awesome! I love demos!" Then I promptly forgot about them for six months.

Imagine my surprise as I'm dicking around on punknews.org today and see that Red Star, now called Red Sound Records, has released their second record. And it's from Jay Shevchuk. At some point post-None More Black, but pre-LaGrecia/NMB reunion, Jason sat down and recorded some demo material under the name OnGuard. The verdict? It's pretty damned good, especially for a free record. I hear a lot of 90's singer-songwriter here: a dash of Fiona Apple, some Mike Ness, a little Billy Bragg. OnGuard also recorded "Give My Love to Rose" for the newly-released Johnny Cash tribute, All Aboard. I'll tell you...this is a damn sight better than the last None More Black record I spent money on. And that's a fact.

So, please visit the Red Sound Records website to…

I had just written this moderately long screed about how you shouldn't trust hyped rock bands, and that's definitely true. But, in the end, it had nothing to do with what I wanted post today.Mega City Four is easily my all-time favorite Judge Dredd-related band. A lot of the kids here in Baltimore were/are totally fanboyish over MC4, or anything Wiz related. Two songs from this, MC4's first of two Peel Sessions, popped up on my iPod today, including "Clear Blue Sky", one of my favorite songs ever. I think this record had a different cover when it was in my dream the other night, but was definitely at the top of that stack. I can't believe this recording is 20 years old...










Mega City Four - Peel Session, 7/19/88

RIYL: white boy dreadlocks, sincerity, Ned's Atomic Dustbin

I just woke up from one of the craziest dreams I've had in a long time. I dreamt I was helping out at the old record store I used to work at, and Prince Charming Chaz came in with a huge stack of 7"s, CD's and LP's. The 7"s were all old Homestead, Gravity & No Idea releases. All the LP's were Dutch East India Peel Sessions releases. I don't remember much about the CDs, but, somehow, I got the entire lot for the $17 I had in my wallet. One of the 7"s had a vertical lap band with the Assuck logo on it, and was an 8-song comp with Naked Raygun on it.

Not that anyone cares, but it was a very good dream to wake up from.

This is just a super quick one for all you hardcore kids. Besides, the good Senator stole all the vitriol I had stored up for his major screed below. I rediscovered this gem while cleaning my office the other day. When Deranged released Immortality a few years back, they also released a limited run of 300 CDs with a dope acetate cover. So that's where this is from. If you like Japanese D-beat, this is right up your alley. I feel like perhaps I should say more, like how this record had a major impact on my life, but I'd be lying. I found it in a stack of promo CDs, I ripped it, and I've been playing it loudly on my iPod for the past few days. And now I have to run off, since Mrs. Ape Mummy made cookies. Let the circle pit begin!










Crude - Immortality

RIYL: glue in your hair, adding studs to your leather jacket, hard cider


Live at Chaos in Tejas, 5/17/08

Thanks to Sir Ape for the chance to guest blog.

"The kids grow up faster and faster these days." That's not just an aging punk's dismissal of younger kids in the scene, its meant to be as close to a literal statement as possible. I'm old enough to remember the invention of CD's, which makes me feel like a grandpa. More than that though, it means I had to work a lot harder to dig new music when I was in high school. Everything was harder back then; finding new music (before itunes), making a fashion statement (before Hot Topic), setting up shows or tours (before email). It goes on and on. Today it takes 4 minutes to drag and drop a playlist when it used to take 4 hours to fill a blank tape with just the right mix.

The new user friendly underground has been good in many ways, but has had its drawbacks as well. Its also had some unintended consequences which are somewhere in between, and its one of those consequences which I intend to discuss here on the record.

Th…

So the full schedule for the Fest 7 got posted recently, and my jealously is in full effect...GO GET A LATE PASS...STEP! This year, I believe Baltimore is represented by two bands: Ruiner and Deep Sleep. If you're going, do yourself a favor and check out both. They fucking rule, and, contrary to what either band would have you believe, they're all swell cats. Saturday at the Venue looks really fucking sweet: D4, Coalesce, Atom & His Package, None More Black, Paint it Black, Municipal Waste...it's like it's 2002 all over again! Like I said, I'm rather jealous of anyone with the time and loose change to head down to Gainesville in a couple weeks.

In honor of the Fest, and all festing Festers, here's Gainesville's Reactionary 3. This CD was made in preparation for a European tour a couple of years ago. It's pretty fucking fast, amateur and all around awesome. There's also a Soulside cover. Highly recommended.

Reactionary 3 - Euro Euro Y'…

I'm definitely in "writing-for-the-sake-of-writing" mode. For one, I spent five minutes explaning the thought process behind this whole thing to my boss, who, as is his wont, proceeded to shit on it. Well, fuck 'im. And fuck a rock star posed picture, like you see above.

I threatened to post something about Sense Field about a month ago. The initial threat took place on a posting of the Fabric 7" on Zen and the Art of Face Punching (which is maybe the worst record I've ever downloaded...ever). Please. Let me explain something. Most of us are either young now, or were young not too long ago. There are a million musical skeletons in our collective closets. You could be Craig Finn or Ian MacKaye or some other god of rawk and you probably listened to some miserable, embarassing shit when you were 17 like E.L.O., 7 Seconds (circa '87), Madonna or the Spice Girls. Hell, Lemmy played for four years in Hawkwind. Well, I was 17 in 1994, and I listened t…

Independent music is no different from the mainstream in at least one respect. There are records released that sound timeless after 25+ years (Damaged, the Faith/Void split), there are those that sound embarrassingly dated (Break Down the Walls...shit, most of the early Rev catalog), and there are those that make you shake your head and wonder exactly what the hell was going on. They are the proud products of the times...the Spice Girls, the Ray Stevens, the "One Night in Bangkok"s that you'll never be able to shake out of your head, the seemingly-disposable songs and the singers that, ten years since you last heard them, invoke a certain place and time unlike the "greatest" artists.

And while I never saw them live, D.C.'s Ashes is one of those bands for me. I don't know anyone who'd hold them up as some shining paragon of what HC was circa '93, or name them as an inspiration for some current leading light of the scene. Shortly after moving t…

The one positive thing about feeling sorry for oneself is that, when you're a music fan, you'll always have a decent tune to listen to in your headphones...The Fuses were, to me, a band out of time and place during their short-lived Baltimore heyday. Their angular, tense punk rock definitely struck a chord at the turn of the decade. But I don't recall the Fuses ever touring or playing any further afield than New York City. By the end of 2002, they had temporarily split up, with their singer moving overseas to study in England. The drummer had a series of short stays in other local HC outfits, but he was married, and was soon only seen for the occasional Buzzcocks show. The bassist gave banjo lessons. The guitarist altogether disappeared. Stories like these go back to the garage punks of the early 60's. No matter how hard you want to hold on to the glories and joys of your youth, one eventually grows up and moves on, with only a few photos left, and a ringing of…

The devil told me listening to Chris Spencer'sbands was good for me, and who am I to argue with fallen angels?

And, by the way, why hasn't someone come along and reissued all the Matador & AmRep Unsane releases (and, no, that greatest hits thing that Relapse released 5 years ago doesn't count in my book)? It's all brutally awesome noise rock that still sounds fresh to me. If you ever had a death wish, this is probably what would be playing when you carried it out.










Unsane - The Peel Sessions

RIYL: the L.E.S. circa '91, Tom Hazelmeyer's gun collection, Chris X's mustache

I could make a list as long as my arm of vices and pleasures I've abandoned over the years. Weed, speed, cigs, loose women...as I've grown up, I've grown out. But there's one thing I think I'll have a hard time giving up. And that is a good soda. I'm no coffee drinker, so I generally have a soda in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night. But sodas are a funny thing. I'm just old enough to remember when one could regularly purchase soft drinks made with real sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup. I pretty much went full diet soda to avoid HFCS until my doctor mentioned that I was tumor bound with how much diet soda I drank. What was I to do?

Luckily I found Boylan's Natural Cane Soda, which is the soda equivalent of an 18-year single malt, or a pre-embargo Cuban cigar. This is some good stuff. There's a well-rounded flavor here. I detect hints of vanilla, whiskey and lime. The label notes that there's not a lot of bulls…

This wasn't the first record I bought that was released by Ebullition Records (that honor goes to the Downcast 12"), but it still ranks as one of my favorites. Staffed by ex-members of Sinker, Amber Inn existed during one of the great stylistic schisms in hardcore. The summer this came out, almost every kid I knew went straight edge, started listening to Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight and called anyone who disagreed "a fake-ass faggot". Good times, right? 1998 was the year I where I went off the deep end. I drank too much, shit all over most of my friends and went batshit crazy one night on my radio show after some Xed up thugs showed up with ball bats. But Amber Inn was the band that kept me listening to the underground. It led me to Yaphet Kotto, Orchid, Sweep the Leg Johnny, the Ottobar, the Fuses, League of Death, out of the north Baltimore suburbs and into my twenties, which were roaring indeed.

This rip comes from the Amber Inn discography CD, All Roads S…

And so we come to the end of our half-assed feature on Superchinchillarescuemission. A.D.D. Records must not have lost any money on their 4-song EP, so they grouped SCRM together with Tampa's the Tim Version on this 9-song CD. For me, the Tim Version was the revelation here...I hadn't heard them before cracking the plastic, but I kinda got a big ol' .org-core chubby for 'em. If memory serves, you can still find this 5" slab o' plastic fairly easily, although the ADD Records site says this is out-of-print. Definitely worth owning the genuine article...

As a side-note (and this is the really fun part of research): were you aware that the saying "go halves on a bastard" refers to two unmarrieds copulating for the purpose of conceiving offspring? Ha, I love a good euphemism on a Sunday night!










SCRM & the Tim Version Go Halves on a Bastard

RIYL: PUKU13, fishing, the dried-up smell of PBR

I've been super psyched for the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the 2nd full length by Toronto's Fucked Up, this coming Tuesday. Matador Records & Fucked Up are going full out to promote the record, which, whether you are patiently waiting 'til New Record Tuesday to listen to or you've had the leaked record for a month, is fucking FAN-TAS-TIC. Lots of guest stars, lots of circle pit madness...it's a great rock record. So, take the opportunity to check out these three tracks, then go spend $15 on Tuesday.










Fucked Up, "Days of Last"
Fucked Up, "Black Albino Bones"
Fucked Up, "The Chemistry of Common Life"

RIYL: Negative Approach, Pink Floyd, reading Vice Magazine

"Dance of Death" video

Quite frankly, I'm fresh out of give a fucks. I'm sitting in my office upstairs right, and Sarah Palin's voice occasionally wafts upstairs from the ongoing VP debate. I'm getting steadily more depressed every time I hear someone say they're voting Republican this year. Work is not going as well as I'd hoped when I got this promotion. I'm worn out with performing tasks that tangentally apply to what I'm theoretically supposed to be doing on a daily basis. That said, our webmaster asked me to start a toy blog. So maybe I'll get to talk about the badass Kozik & Dunny stuff I'm buying. That might be cool.

At some point in my misspent past I mislaid about 30 gigs of pictures I took between 2000 and 2003. Had this not happened, you would see quite a few pictures I took of SCRM in their last year of existence. That said, here is the 10" released by ADD Records out of Tampa back in 2002. I say 10", although I'd be remiss to no…