various artists - 1999 Teen-Beat Sampler (A Compilation Album)

It seems strange to me that I haven't written more about being a big dork for Arlington, VA's Teen-Beat Records. After all, it's not like I just got into them last week. The Mark Robinson-led label has been a part of my life ever since I moved to Baltimore in '94, having copped Unrest's "Perfect Teeth" shortly after landing there. Here was a sonically different fellow traveler to my beloved Dischord, a place that melded pop influences with DIY ethics and a postmodern visual aesthetic. Along with what was coming out of K Records in the PNW, it was a place where Madonna and Enya could meld with Crispy Ambulance and Cath Carroll into something that was distinct and familiar to this 17-year-old boy.

This is the fourth in the Teen-Beat Annual Sampler Series, and it's a pretty good one, a proper sampling of both the current label roster as well as a smattering of some super deep cuts from the catalog. The Rondells' record was one that I listened to nearly to death in 1999, and their cover of "Like A Prayer" got played a lot on my radio show. There was something familiar about True Love Always' "Faust"; it would be years later that I'd connect that it originated from de Palma's "Phantom Of The Paradise". Versus, Flin Flon, Tel Aviv: their songs from their then-current records laid out a indie pop present very different from what was playing on the radio at the end of the millenium, but just as danceable and worthy of singing along.

Discogs / Teen-Beat

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various artists - Teen-Beat 50

This record will turn 30 years old in a few weeks. This millenial of a compilation is still paying off its student loans, has probably delayed getting married, might have moved back into their mom's place.

A split release between DC's Teen-Beat and NYC's Matador, Teen-Beat 50, as the story goes, was originally scheduled to come out in 1990. which would have made this one of the first ten recordings on the now-indie titan. I'd guess it'd slot into that same space now filled by New York Eye And Ear Control. Teen-Beat was well known for split releases, working with Homstead, No. 6, Ajax, and a host of others; all to get some of the best bedroom indie of the late 80s and early 90s off of cassette and onto wax/CD.

Your listening experience runs the gamut, from Dischord contemporaries Circus Lupus and Autoclave, to goof-assin' from Sexual Milkshake, to an early Carl Newman track from his pre-New Pornographers band Superconductor. A shitton of Teen-Beat luminaries perform: Unrest with 3 appearances, Butch Willis, Jonny Cohen, Andrew Beaujon (on four tracks). This here's the CD release, which has 11 more recordings than the LP version.

I'd held off writing about this b/c I wanted to talk a bit about what Teen-Beat means to me as a counterpoint to Dischord in DC music history, but I never could pull my shit together well enough to make a solid enough essay. Let me say that I feel very lucky haven't been turned onto Fugazi and Unrest almost simultaneously, and to become aware of both frontperson's labels. To discover that sense of possibility, that you could follow your own path and have folks glom onto it...it stuck with me. Clearly.

Discogs / Teen-Beat

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Daniel Striped Tiger - Certain Stuff

When my now ex-wife and I split up after San Diego ComicCon in 2009, I moved back in with my best friend and former roommate, and immediately reconnected with old friends at Charm City Art Space. While there were plenty of bands that I'd kept up with during my marriage, I'd somehow missed out on screamo becoming skramz, and this whole scene of kids of playing freaked-out post-hardcore with such abandon and heart. I'm not sure why it grabbed me so hard as I neared 30, but I think it had something to do with the sincerity I saw onstage and heard on records.

Somehow, I'd missed seeing Daniel Striped Tiger each time they played the Art Space. I was fully aware of who they were: one of those Clean Plate bands that'd come down from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, blaze through for 25 minutes, eat a plate of food, then blow through, only to return three months later. I just took it for granted that they'd be back. And, of course, they didn't. Because disappointment was something I was at peace with, and the cosmos knew I could hang.

"Certain Stuff" collects all the non-LP releases from DST in one handy-dandy 5" optical media disc for their 2009 tour of Australia. At the time, it was the only way to get the tracks from their split with Teenage Cool Kids. I got a rip of this in 2011 from a fellow Art Space member. I've probably listened to "The Great Bust On Antarctica" and "Never In A Million Years" 200 times since getting this. It slaps. It's a shame these folks didn't last another few years, or record for labels that lasted until the Bandcamp era. Bands like Daniel Striped Tiger run the risk of falling into the cracks, being lost to all but the few with deep Discogs pockets. They were fucking magic. Maybe magic should fade away...

Fun fact: one of the guys from DST is in Parquet Courts. I learned this trivia in the course of writing this post, and I...well, I don't feel any more compelled to listen to Parquet Courts.

Discogs

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