Operation Ivy - Unreleased Energy

Operation Ivy was a legendary band by the time I first encountered them, even though they'd only been split up for a few years when I heard them for the first time. Here were these Berkeley (NOT San Francisco) kids who'd pitched in on building their own spaces to play. They, like the Specials and the Offs before them, melded contemporary punk with ska to create something new and unheard. OpIV packed their gear into sedans and toured the US at a time when Hüsker Dü, Bad Religion, and Fugazi were the only punk bands that could successfully conduct a national tour. And they all did it when they were snot nosed teenagers, the same age I was then.

I picked up a tape of the discography before I moved to Baltimore, which would have been 1993, and snagged a copy of the "Hectic" EP for $3 the week before I left Roanoke in 1994. I found this copy of "Unreleased Energy" in the small "Punk" section of the Sound Garden in Fells Point. I remember thinking, "Whew; $15 is a lot for a CD." But it was, ostensibly, three sets of demos cut by Operation Ivy in 1987 & 1988. So I picked it up. I swear I copped it in 1995, but Discogs sources it to 1996, and I'll own my cruddy memory.

This sounds like shit, which definitely makes sense considering how many generations in these source recordings must have been before being committed to CD. But it also suits things, because it captures teenagers making a racket at their least polished. And it's summer music, which is why I've been blaring it from car stereos and back porches for 30 years. It's a great spin for a weekend, or for sharing with your pre-teen niece.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Daphne The Painted Lady - s/t

I turned this one up at a Value Village in September, mainly taken in by the handprint on the cover and lack of immediately-identifiable information online. This turned out to be a really fun discovery. This Los Angeles trio dates from around 2005 (aka the Myspace years), and plays a brand of indie pop along the lines of that dog., the Anniversary, or Karmella's Game. There's a few live tracks on YouTube, but, otherwise, the collected work of Emily, Laura, and Joe might be lost to the age, save for this post. So enjoy this one; it's a recording that should be remembered.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Re-up: Calico Ghost Town - demo

Re-up, 2025: I guess the link broke at some point, but Tracy very kindly checked in with a comment below requesting a re-up AND providing a clarification. Pretty cool to hear from old buds back east. Please disregard any references to Stephen Brodsky or Cave-In b/c, as Tracy notes, that was a different project all together. Still a great demo, and Tracy remains a super rad human!

Calico Ghost Town was a project band created by Tracy Wilson (ex-Dahlia Seed) and Stephen Brodsky (Cave In), where in they tape traded ideas and 4-track demos over the course of half a decade. While they never got an official release (not even artwork), they did get hosted on the Dahlia Seed website (sadly defunct now) for at least a couple years, where I very happily acquired them.

While most folks would probably snag these based on their Brodsky association, I held onto them because Tracy was always such a kind heart to me. I was working my first buying job back in the late 90s, and Tracy was my Caroline Distribution rep, so we'd end up chopping it up and talking about hardcore and emo. She was the cool older cousin who'd make me the occasional mixtape and make sure I got good promos, even though the chain I worked for never ever did any co-op with Caroline. Even a quarter century after the fact, it's still inspiration to share when I can.

Click here to download.

Measles Mumps Rubella – Fantastic Success

I wrote about Measles Mumps Rubella back in May, covering their 2002 demo (still available for download, as far as I can tell). Go check that out to hear the embryonic MMR. This is their final recording; a full length that was long overdue, and that I didn't acquire until just a couple months ago.

I'm not a good fan.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Measles Mumps Rubella – Summer 2002 Demonstration Model

Double Dagger. Jesuseater. Economist. Black Eyes. Crispus Attucks. Q And Not U. Liars Academy. Pageninetynine. Oxes. Municipal Waste. Measles Mumps Rubella. Those were the sounds of my summer twenty years ago. I hesitate to call it a golden age for the Baltimore/DC/NoVA metro area, but it definitely was the first time where I felt I could go to a life-changing show any given night. And I pretty much did.

It was a High On Fire show where I remember seeing MMR for the first time. I remember being really bummed out that there weren't any Baltimore bands in support, but psyched that Black Eyes was going to play. They had already played a few gigs up north, and had just owned the show every time. I knew very little about Measles Mumps Rubella, except that one of the guys was in Panopoly Academy, and another one of the guys had done some stuff with His Name Is Alive. Pretty "meh" credentials, as far as I was concerned at the time.

But they lit it up when they opened up the show. Brett sang and played percussion, alive like Fela Kuti fronting Gang Of Four. In about 30 minutes, they blasted through a half dozen sweaty songs, setting the stage for almost certain disappointment with the rest of the show. It's one of those nights I can only remember in little blasts of sound and light, a feeling more than a concrete memory. I'd see MMR play a handful more times, but they never had the same sort of impact of punks playing disco than they did that night in 2002.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Paint It Black - demo

I think I got this at Paint It Black's second show; a last-minute addition to a Baltimore matinee that I wasn't working, but if it was on a Saturday, I was almost certainly going to attend, regardless of the lineup. Checking out Dr. Dan and Dave's post-Kid Dynamite band ended up being the focus of a day that, if faltering memory still serves, was otherwise full of mediocre mosh metal. It was a bonus that Andy Nelson from Affirmative Action Jackson was in the band, too.

There was a ton of good stuff happening in Philadelphia at the time, and this demo still reminds me why we'd drive up I95 for shows. Lots of dudes consistently topping their earlier bands and riding a cresting wave of DIY into greater attention. THIS is what I wanted to hear.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Re-up: Vesper. & Dan Sartain - tour promo

Note, 24 March 2021: It wasn't via Facebook or News app or Instagram or BBS that I found out Dan Sartain had passed away recently. It was during my nightly scroll through Wikipedia's "Recent deaths" section. It's macabre and a bit weird to discover someone you knew, albeit not well, via such an impersonal method.

Dan's family has set up a GoFundMe to fund his memorial. If this recording means anything to you, and you have a few bucks to kick up, I'd suggest sending it their way to honor a musician who died far too you.

This is easily the weirdest, rarest (?) thing in my collection. I got this unsolicited in the mail when I was splitting time booking at the Talking Head and Charm City Art Space. It had a Alabama return address, and went into the stack of "I'll listen to later". I guess the stack wasn't that big, because I got to it, liked what I heard, and I guess I booked Dan Sartain and Vesper. a show in Baltimore. I say "I guess" because I have zero recollection of booking the show, but a year later, I ran into Dan when he was opening for Beehive and the Barracudas, and he said hi and bought me a beer. It was that kind of time in my life.

Now, there's no listing this on Discogs, although maybe I got the CD-R from the folks at Skybucket Records. Shoot, I'm not even sure I have it still; I'm pretty anal about entering my collection on Discogs, and I don't have an entry for it. Vesper. has a strong "2002 indie vibe" present in their three songs. Having not been able to find out anything else about them surprises me; the songs sound pretty good. The three Dan Sartain songs here all appeared on his 2003 Swami record, "Dan Sartain Vs. The Serpientes", but these demo versions predate the John Reis/Gar Wood sessions. I hadn't listened to these in years, but upon relistening, I remembered why I liked 'em. It recalls a lot of what I like in early rock 'n' roll: tuneful, energetic, sexy, and a little dangerous.

It pleases me to no end that Mr. Sartain not only has a new record coming out soon ("Fall 2020", says ye olde Bandcampe), but that it's all interpretations of 50s and 60s music from American westerns. "Western Hills" has been out digitally since April, but there's a limited-to-500-copies vinyl version headed our way. I'd be remiss to not note that the man is doing a cover of "The Return of Ringo" by Ennio Morricone here; in my mind, that's reason enough to buy it.

Click here to download.

Baroness - demo

I mentioned it a ways back about that time Baroness jumped on a show I booked at the second Talking Head, how they only got a few songs played in the course of an hour on account of failing gear. But they ripped those few songs, and I got their demo for my trouble, and then about three years ago I sold said demo for something like $50, and, phew, is this sentence going on long.

This two song demo was recorded a few months before Baroness recorded "First". They cut early versions of "Tower Falls" and "Coeur" with Pavement drummer Steve West (?!?) in his Marble Valley Studios (I'm guessing in Charlottsville?), and dropped them onto a CD-R with the delightful artwork you see below. Only John Dyer Baizley remains from that initial Baroness lineup, and the band records now under their own Abraxan Hymns imprint, distributed by Warner Music Group.

I remember being really stressed out by them playing, but digging it because it was heavy, and then not really being curious about seeking out their music again. Very off brand for me. But I guess Mastodon and High on Fire filled that niche in my earbrain at the time, and now I'm thinking maybe it's time to give it another go.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Joie De Vivre - You ruined everything that was ever good (2010 Tour EP)

Twas the summer of 2010 and I, newly separated and returned to the Charm City, decided to book a show at my old stomping ground of CCAS. I was flush with cash for the first time in my life, the legacy of my grandfather who'd left me some money. And I decided that I wanted to throw a show the way I thought a show should be thrown, cost be damned. I'd heard a couple of tracks from this band from Michigan called Empire! Empire (I Was A Lonely Estate) who, despite the twee name, made the kind of music that made my heart swell. They were on tour with a quartet called Joie De Vivre from Illinois. If E!E! reminded me of Mineral, then JdV was more along the lines of Elliott, all slow dances and Midwestern charm.

I bought around $200 of barbeque from my favorite brisket joint, filled a cooler full of drinks, and pulled out another couple hundred dollars, because, for once in my life, I had the chance to offer bands I liked the hospitality I felt they deserved. They weren't going to have to schlep it down to Richmond worrying if the gas would hold out, or what they'd eat that night. My new girlfriend put together a dozen to-go boxes that both bands could easily pack up and carry with them. I asked some friends from Westminster to open; these kids from Annapolis, who'd show up late and play too long, begged to get on the bill as support, so I said, fuck it, and put them on. Truth be told, it was a really fun night. Had I not spent a fuckton of money on BBQ (an appreciated gesture, to be sure), I would have paid all four bands and the space AND made a few bucks for myself. As it stands, it was a good way to step back into the world I'd reluctantly left a few years back.

The three songs on this limited edition CD-R were originally released here, and would pop up on a pair of releases over the coming months. "Vicodin Lite" is on the B-side of the Count Your Lucky Stars "Four Way Split" 7", alongside E!E!, Annabel, and the Reptilian. The title track and "Another Month, Another Season", along with a Pedro the Lion cover, showed up on a split with Sleep Bellum Sonno, released by Keep It Together Records out of Wisconsin. Joie De Vivre would release a pair of full-lengths, a grip of splits, and show up on a variety of comps over the years. Their latest release looks to be a lathe cut 12", put out by the folks at Little Elephant in Toledo in 2016.

Here's to doing it right, if only once.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Black Flag - The Complete 1982 Demos Plus More!

See, I told you I'd be right back to some dumb punk rock shit.

The Black Flag/Unicorn/MCA injunction is one of my favorite stories about the music business. Flag signs a deal with Unicorn Records to co-release "Damaged", gaining Black Flag access to better distribution. Al Bergamo at MCA, Unicorn's parent company, hears (about) "Damaged", decides it's "anti-parent", and blocks it from release. SST restickers the 25,000 LP run on Unicorn. Unicorn files suit against Black Flag for breach of contract, leading to contempt of court charges against Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski and a three year embargo against any releases under the Black Flag name.

So it came to be that it took three years, and two lineups, until the Flag would fly again. Robo left his drum stool shortly after recording "Damaged", and in his place would sit Chuck Biscuits, formerly of D.O.A. While nothing official was ever released from this five-piece, they did record a number of demos, collected here on this bootleg CD-R. We get a mix of tracks from "My War" and "Slip It In", featuring Rollins on vocals, Ginn and Cadena on guitars, Dukowski on bass, and Biscuits on drums. I really prefer the '82 quintet. I think Bill Stevenson's drumming continues to get better over time, but Biscuits was at the top of his game on these demos. Hank still hasn't dove full-blown into LSD poet, and Dez on second guitar allows Greg Ginn to go wild, while still retaining an underpinning on the songs. It's also the Dukowski's last recordings with the band before the Duke would move onto SWA. In short, it's a leaner, meaner version of a pair of classic hardcore/grunge records that wouldn't come out for another two years.

And, because I'm a giver, I've left on the 1984 Radio Tokyo sessions that typically appear on CD versions of the 1982 demos. It's three songs from "My War" and an interview, featuring bearded Henry Rollins, stoned Greg Ginn, Kira Roessler on bass and Bill on drums. It's a cool tack on, considering Kira didn't otherwise record any of the "My War" cuts, and I'm always a fan of a "live in the studio" session.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Vile Cherubs - The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats

A comprehensive look at Tim Green and Seth Lorinczi's bands from 1979 to 1989 (from the Thee Evolution Revolution 7")

When you've listened to the Dischord catalog as much as I have, you get real excited when you discover something like Vile Cherubs.

Vile Cherubs seems to have played out from mid-1986 to mid-1988, leaving behind two demos and an LP, "Post-Humorous Relief", that was co-released in 1989 by Dischord. If it sounds to you like it has something in common with Nation of Ulysses, it's because future NoU/Fucking Champs guitarist Tim Green played guitar here as well. It's his first recorded output, along with regular collaborator and future Circus Lupus/Antimony/Quails guitarist Seth Lorinczi & Jesse Quits, soon to play bass for Capitol City Dusters.

I feel like you can draw a direct line from the regional garage 45s that make up the "Pebbles" comps to the demos that make up "The Man Who Has No Eats Has No Sweats". Seeing that Geoff Turner recorded these tracks at WGNS makes a lot of sense; it has more in common with his contemporary band, Senator Flux, than it does with, say, Ignition or Soul Side. I wish I had more trenchant insights for you here. I like it for the same reasons I like New Bomb Turks; it's a big ol' punk rock 'n' roll racket that I wish I'd heard of a lot sooner.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Tropicana '84-'99

Robin and Elaine at the Tropicana, Olympia, WA (from the Tropicana Facebook page)

I have no clue about the origins of this here CD-R I found last year, but it's a winner of rare-ass WA state punk and garage. The Tropicana was an all-ages space in Olympia that only existed for two years, but served as an incubator for bands like Green River, the Melvins, the U-Men, and Beat Happening. The most recognizable name is Tacoma's Girl Trouble, subjects of a wonderful documentary from a few years ago and maker of numerous rackets since 1987. Also appearing are Noxious Fumes, Immoral Roberts, and Young Pioneers, all of whom put out recordings with K. There are four bands rounding out the comp, none of whom put out anything more than demos back in the days. The addition of Wimps, Generic Crib Death, Communicator, and Idle Worship makes this more than just a KBD-style bootleg. This is a really cool time capsule of an embryonic scene that, within a couple of years, would be setting the pace for the rest of the nation.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Crimson Wave - 2013 demo

Crimson Wave (photo by Jeffrey Lash)

There was this wave of bands in Baltimore in 2012 and 2013 that came up all at the same time which, while they may have had dissimilar sounds, all fit together really well. There was Denny Bowen's post-Double Dagger band, Roomrunner. Angie from CCAS joined with Ian from Give to start Big Mouth. Wildhoney came out swinging with a demo and 7" that evoked some of my favorite indie records from the early 90s. But then Sophie, who'd been singing for Wildhoney, left the band to start something new with her friends, and it became one of my favorites.

Crimson Wave was fairly short lived; maybe they were around for two years. But in that time, I'd be hard pressed to miss one of their gigs in Baltimore. It fit well into that nebulous C86 world that's comprised of indie pop, twee, shoegaze, dream pop, and a million other micro-genres from the 80s that got revisited over the past 10 years. Had they been a thing in the 90s, it's a near certainty that their demo would have come out on K Records. Instead, it got a fairly limited release on Rainbow Bridge, which was based in Baltimore at the time. CW would put out a 7" in 2014 with Sean Grey's Accidental Guest Recordings, then call it a day shortly after I moved away from Baltimore.

Why bring it up now? I'd like to say it was a roundabout plug from Sam from Crimson Wave's current band, All Hits, whose new LP is out on Iron Lung. But I was really feeling dirgy today, and this is great, guitar driven, funereal music from a group of women who I miss very deeply.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Lucero - The Coldwater Sessions

Lucero, circa 2017 (photo from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

I had thought about waxing poetic over how in love with Lucero I was from 2003 to 2011. The first time I heard them, I thought it was a perfect mix of the Replacements, Jawbreaker, and Waylon Jennings...the perfect answer to the question, "What happens when punks want to make country music?" I booked them on their "That Much Further West" tour into a warehouse called the Broasis; it was probably the largest gate I'd ever done, but I only made money off of beer. The final time I saw them was in 2011, and involved breaking up a fight between my girlfriend's best friend and a bouncer three times her size. I haven't really listened to anything of theirs since "1372 Overton Park"; I suppose I just got fixed on diving into old RCA records from the 50s, Gram Parsons and "Outlaw Country", Sturgill Simpson and Kitty Wells.

I think I downloaded this from the wonderful, greatly missed blog Captain's Dead back when they posted it in 2007. While the title makes reference to the now-legendary "Coldwater Recordings" tape, this is actually a combination of early demos and different mixes of songs from their early history; I'd guess it was recorded in 1998 and 1999, based on when the songs would appear on a general release. I thought it'd make sense to annotate what you're downloading today. I can't claim this is perfect information, so if you have better or different information, feel free to share it in the comments. Cuz knowledge is power!

1. "Heart So True" - originally appeared on the "A Heart So True" demo. Also known as "Poor Heartache".
2. "All the Same To Me" - originally appeared on the 1998 "Cowboy" demo and 2001 comp "Listen To What I'm Made Of: Songs By and For Shannon Yarborough" on File 13. Later re-recorded for "Nobody's Darlings"
3. "Dangerous Thing" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
4. "Dodging Bullets" - otherwise unreleased or re-recorded.
5. "Drink Till We’re Gone" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
6. "No Title" - also known as "Was That You I've Been Kissing?" Appeared on "The Coldwater Recordings" demo.
7. "It Gets Worst at Night" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
8. "All Sewn Up" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
9. "Raising Hell" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
10. "Banks of the Arkansas" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
11. "It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
12. "All These Love Songs" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
13. "Hold Fast" - an alternate mix of the track that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release.
14. "Ain't No Roses No More" - an alternate mix of "No Roses No More" that'd appear on Lucero's self-titled release. 
15. Instrumental - otherwise unreleased or re-recorded.
16. "Blue and Grey" - an alternate mix of "The Blue and the Gray" that'd appear on "The Attic Tapes".

As an added bonus, please enjoy the flier for the Lucero show I booked 17 YEARS AGO! Goddamn I'm getting old. I think the Spark was the fourth band on the bill, making it a real punk rock show. Nolen from Double Dagger was my photo model; I snapped this tightly cropped shot of him the night DD opened for the Buzzcocks. Crack a cheap pilsner and listen to this one on the porch.

Click here to download.

Swiz - With Ramsey [First Demo]

The musical through line that starts with Swiz is pretty remarkable to me. Setting aside Shawn Brown's tenure as Dag Nasty's first vocalist (my favorite era, BTW), you go:

Swiz --> Bluetip --> Sweetbelly Freakdown --> Jesuseater --> Retisonic --> Red Hare

...plus various roots like 108, Battery, Garden Variety, Severin, Shudder to Think. That's a hell of a nice family tree. You could stretch this out even further, if you care to include all the outstanding design work Jason Farrell has done since the late 80s. For the purposes of this piece, I won't. But I WOULD visit a retrospective of his.

I digress.

Back in the halcyon days of 2004, in between Pedro the Lion and From Ashes Rise releases, Jade Tree Records very quietly posted Swiz's first demo, titled here as "With Ramsey". As the story goes, the band initially played out as a quintet, with Ramsey Metcalf joining Jason Farrell on guitar. However, before Swiz cut their first 7", "Down", Metcalf had left the band, leaving us with the familiar late 80s four-piece hardcore band we all know and love.

I'm rather surprised this isn't available on someone's Bandcamp or blog, or that it hasn't been released as a physical artifact. "Lie" sounds a lot fuller on this demo, compared to the versions that would later appear on both "Down" and "Hell Yes I Cheated". I don't hear any difference between this version of "Taste" and the one on Swiz's self-titled 12". You also get four songs that never appeared anywhere else. All in all, this sounds like a natural progression from "Can I Say"-era Dag Nasty; perhaps a little more hardcore than Dag. Check for yourself. And maybe we'll get a nice lil' 10" of this one day.

Click here to download.

Chromatics - Rat Life Vol. 2

I wrote about "Rat Life Vol. 1" last week, so I felt like it was fair to go ahead and post up "Vol. 2". I really prefer these tracks. They're so stripped down and cold, especially compared to the versions of "Surrogate" and "Three Hearts" that would show up later in the year on "Plaster Hounds". The standout here is the live performance of "Witness". It remains one of my favorite songs by Chromatics. This version predates the "Healer b/w Witness" 12", and has a much icier feel.

Anyway, it's Friday, in case you haven't been looking at a calendar. Play this after dark, fool around with a switchblade, wear fingerless gloves. Stay off the medium drugs. Go check out Vinegar Syndrome's "Halfway to Black Friday" sale, maybe buy yourself a skin flick or some grindhouse. That's the Ape's advice for yr weekend plans.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Chromatics - Rat Life Vol. 1

203 E. Davis St. is Baltimore's version of 315 the Bowery. A decrepit three story house, surrounds by city court buildings and other concrete edifices, it housed three of Charm City's famed performance spaces. In the 80s and early 90s, it was home to Chambers. In 1997, the Ottobar opened, and quickly became the go-to indie/punk space in the city. The Ottobar moved uptown in 2001, and in 2003, the Talking Head moved across town from Mount Vernon to takeover the space. Our story begins there.

I'd started booking shows at the Talking Head (in addition to Charm City Art Space) after it moved in. I was starting to get some bands that played better in a bar than they did in a basement, and I loved the room, so it was a good fit. 20 patrons looked like a good crowd, 50 seemed packed. I saw that Glass Candy was coming through on one of my nights off; I was a fan of their first 7" "Love on a Plate", and they'd played CCAS the year before. I made plans to roll up, have a few drinks, and check out their show. The remaining lineup is lost to memory, but Chromatics were the opener. Their first LP, "Chrome Rats Vs. Basement Ruts", had come out on GSL a few months before, and the split with Die Monitor Bats from the previous year was straight fire. Chromatics did not disappoint. They ripped it for 30 minutes with a mix of the expected noisy punk and a newer dancy sound that would begin appearing on the following year's "Plaster Hounds" release. I remember their merch was non-existent; just a pair of CD-Rs. So I bought them both.

That's how I laid hands on "Rat Life Vol. 1". Collecting demos recorded by Johnny Jewel and Adam Miller ahead of that tour, this, along with "Rat Life Vol. 2", was a harbinger of the icy Italo-disco that Chromatics would echo in the coming years. Some of these tracks sound like they were recorded on a boom box; they pulse like the soundtrack to an uncertain doom. Most of the songs on "Rat Life Vol. 1" would appear in better fidelity on their first two LPs, as well as a few 7"s. I couldn't begin to tell you why half the songs on this CD-R aren't listed (this would be changed on the following "As Ratz In The Basement" CD-R). The unreleased gem here is a cover of Syd Barrett's "Love You", which never got re-recorded. It's more than a curiosity; "Rat Life Vol. 1" sets the foundation for musicians who'd revive a scene and score some amazing films in the coming years.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Infomatik - demo

The fun part about moving to the Seattle area is discovering those local bands that never really broke out regionally. I'm sure you can do the same thing regardless of where you move, but there's a rich vein to be tapped here, dating back to the area's jazz scene in the 40s. The craziest part is the secondary market on something you find at a Goodwill or at the Half Price Books warehouse sale. And much like Greg noted at MusicWhore.org, you have to judge these finds by their covers. That's how I came across a copy of Infomatik's 2004 demo.

To tell the truth, I honestly thought this had been misplaced in the CD section at St. Vinnie's. Infomatik had gutted a 5.25" floppy disc, replacing the magnetic disc with a CD-R. I thought it was a clever package; I'll almost always pick up cheap colored vinyl, die-cut covers, and weird CD trays. If the music doesn't pan out, c'est la vie.

Thankfully, these four tracks DO pan out. Sonically, these cats come from the wellspring of Joy Division, albeit with vocals A LOT more up front in the mix. They remind me a lot of Baltimore's Two If By Sea, a similarly-sounding contemporary who drew more from the Screamers than Interpol. It's a crying shame these guys had to release their own EP and LP; maybe it's just a fluke of the time when they were playing, but I feel like Infomatik could have toured behind a few limited run cassette releases. Regardless, it's a clever package containing four fun, danceable cuts.

TLDR: if you like your synthpunk dancey and spazzy, you'll definitely dig on this. I spent one dollar American on this bad boy.

Discogs

Click here to download.

The Nation Of Ulysses - The Primal Scream Demos

I haven't seen this posted anywhere in a long time, and this was the recording that truly turned me around on N.O.U., so I'm sharing it. I'm going to let Henry Owings, of Chunklet fame, and who shared these cuts with me, tell the tale:

NOU were in Memphis on tour with Bikini Kill in early 1992 to find that the promoter hadn’t actually promoted their show. So the band immediately took to flyering the streets of Memphis. While walking the streets and going into record stores and whatnot, they ran into Primal Scream who were in town recording an album. At their show that night at the Antenna Club, Primal Scream showed up (being 2 of the 5 paying people at the club) and then after the show, invited NOU to come to the studio to record some songs. So the next day, with a slightly irked Bikini Kill in tow, Nation of Ulysses recorded five songs on Primal Scream’s dime in nine hours.

Only in America! Only in the 90s! What a bat shit story. Setting aside the fact that someone totally flaked on promoting a Nation of Ulysses/Bikini Kill show, how the fuck do you randomly recognize a random Glaswegian alternative band and soon-to-be authors of Screamdelica in the street? Serendipity is a thing, y'all.

Henry says his copy only had four songs on it, and I have yet to see what the fifth song was anywhere, so let's just enjoy four cuts that would later appear on Plays Pretty For Baby. And now I'm sad I never got to see them. :(

Download

Double Dagger - ALT+0135

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 they were my favorite band to book for shows. I put my money where my muthafuckin' mouth is, bitches!









Double Dagger - ALT+0135
(click the record to DL)

RIYL: graphic design, whoopin' & hollerin', spastic dancing