Dove - Wrecking Ball

Here's another reason why I'm glad Lost & Found existed when it did. I would have never heard Dove.

Dove was a Revolution Summer-era quartet originally led by Eric and Toni from Red C, with Pete Moffett on drums and Stu Casson on guitar. When Toni died from pneumonia in the mid-80s, Ben Pape stepped in on bass. Their recorded output consisted of a contribution to 1984's "Bouncing Babies" compilation on Fountain of Youth, and what I'm guessing was a single song released posthumously in 1987 on the Olive Tree sampler "DC Rox". It would take eight years for everything they'd recorded to be compiled here under the title "Wrecking Ball", their song from "DC Rox".

Like a lot of mid-80s DC releases, this is both an example of how a lot of hardcore kids progressed after the first wave crested in 1983, as well as demonstrating how much of that work is still missing in action, 40+ years on. A lot of folks rep Second Wind as a great post-Minor Threat band, but good luck not paying high collector prices for a copy of "Security". Madhouse's self-titled LP, recorded around the same time as these Dove songs, is a truly great deathrock record that I've only ever heard on dubbed tapes. I'd love to see more of the records released by DSI and Fountain of Youth around this time to get reissued, even if it's just a straight transfer from the old master tapes.

So here's a good start: you can apparently purchase the CD master for "Wrecking Ball" directly from Lost & Found for 25 Euro. Somebody get on that.

Discogs

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various artists - Fort Reno Benefit Compilation

As summer approaches, I start thinking about outdoor shows. And that's because I spent my formative years driving down I-95 to DC to dodge summer thunderstorms to watch punk rock outside in the dusk of the capitol, on the site of a Civil War fort in Northwest.

There have been shows held at Fort Reno since 1968, but, for me, it was a great way to see Fugazi every year for free. Not that $5 was ever a burden, but it was nice applying that fiver towards making the 3-hour round trip to the historic park. I saw some amazing sets from the DC quartet, and got introduced to a ton of the younger bands from the Metro. A lot of them appeared on this 1997 benefit compilation for the music series, put out by Resin Records. Resin was run by Carlton from the Better Automatic, who put out 16 records over six years, all of which I own and most of which I still view favorably. The big names here are the Dismemberment Plan, Chisel, and Trans Am. Corm was John Davis' pre-Q & Not U band; the Impossible Five put out a single LP on Gern Blandsten and were outstanding when I saw them at the park in '97. I never got to see Smart Went Crazy live, but "Con Art" remains my favorite underheard record on Dischord.

Like all great compilations, this one is a curated snapshot of a scene. Some of these performers went on to bigger things; some of the bands were only heard here. But listening to this (Jesus) 29 years later immediately brings back a Discman velcroed to the dash, stickiness briefly interrupted by gentle winds atop the highest natural point in WDC, and pilgrimages to hear something new and brilliant. That's a great feeling. 

Discogs

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Pilot To Gunner - Games At High Speeds

At some point in the summer of 2000, Dave from the Oranges Band, who I knew through punk rock and would later work with at the Ottobar, informed me that TOB would be opening for Lifter Puller at Brownie's in NYC. Would I like to tag along? Of course I would; I was no dum-dum. To see Lifter Puller in their home away from home, at a classic indie club that I'd never visited before...well, that was a treat too delightful to pass up. So I wedged myself into their van's loft (hangers-on do not get a seat), and off we went to Manhattan.

Pilot To Gunner opened up that show, and I'd be lying if I said they made a major impact on me at the time. It was emo-derived indie rock, not so dissimilar from what was coming out on Equal Vision or Deep Elm at the time. I remember thinking they were probably on their first record with a major label, a la Jimmy Eat World or Shift. It wasn't until after their set, when I took a look at their merch table, that I discovered they were actually on Gern Blandsten, home to Rorschach, Chisel, Native Nod, and a bunch of other North Jersey/ABC No Rio hardcore and hardcore-adjacent outfits. I wished I'd paid more attention, I thought, right up until the Oranges Band started their set.

This one would get reissued by Rykodisc under their Arena Rock imprint, alongside Pilot To Gunner's second full-length. I uncovered my CD copy, obtained sometime before 9/11, just recently, gave it a spin, and found it a perfectly reasonable flash back to the days when I was physically able to fit within a 24" tall space for 3 hours to go see a band. This is a pretty good one, it turns out.

Discogs

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various artists - Energizer Titanium Technology Presents

This sampler, a recent discovery in a tranche of the missus' CD collection, reminds me of Joston's sponsoring the validation sticker on Bart's Hullabalooza ticket on "The Simpsons". Like, what better way to show the kids your battery is the coooooooool battery than to sponsor a sampler of Island Def Jam's finest artists, circa 2005? Still, it's always big fun in my house when I discover an item that wasn't previously listed on Discogs, and this one fits. Add in tracks from Fall Out Boy, Thrice, and Juelz Santana, and this is legitimately a keeper.

Discogs

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various artists - Monitor This! April / May 09

This comes to us courtesy of the Missus' record collection. She brought some truly exceptional recordings to our now-shared collection. And some pieces like this, a freebie that came with purchase of an associated title. I would hope that she purchased Doves' "Kingdom Of Rust"; I fear it was instead Rocco DeLuca & The Burden's "Mercy".

So why share something I mostly don't care about? Well, in the course of researching this series, I uncovered that this was the audio giveaway from the Record Exchange, a branch of which was the first record store I ever spent my hard earned dollars. I bought my first Fugazi record from the Record Exchange in Roanoke, along with demo tapes for a bunch of mostly-forgotten alternative and punk bands from south-western Virginia. "Music Monitor" was just as important a source of information as "Rolling Stone", "HeartattaCk", and "Maximum Rock & Roll". So this sampler, headlined (for me, at least) by Doves, Diana Krall, and Lady Sovereign, brought back a few fond memories of well-spent youth, digging in the crates and discovering a world I knew little about.

Discogs

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various artists - Bread: The Edible Napkin

Look, there's no way I'll ever look at the late 90s as a golden age to grow up punk. You could grow up poor & ugly, yet still be happy, because the shows were typically going to be $6 ($5 with a canned food donation) and if you didn't live in NYC or California, you had no expectations of being offered the opportunity to sell out. So you just did it with a bunch of like-minded nerds and freaks, raised on Lucio Fulci and "G.I. Joe" and Tetsujin-28 and Fugazi shows. If you were lucky, you'd run into folks like Var, who created No Idea down in Gainesville, and they'd introduce you to a world of new sounds.

It's how bands like Braid and Hot Water Music show up alongside Cavity and the Locust, right next to Skankin' Pickle and Against All Authority on the same bill or, in this case, on the same comp. "Bread: The Edible Napkin" came as a CD or double LP attached to No Idea #12. My copy of the zine was long ago donated to the CCAS zine library, but I've held onto my CD copy for almost 30 years since getting it. It's a great snapshot of the underground from that time, featuring names that continue to tour and play regularly, and those who made only slight inroads outside their home scenes. No Idea was always good about that, drawing the bands together under one banner of punk rock, regardless of what subgenre you could group them in. It became aspirational for me, whether I was making my own zine or booking shows, to pull from disparate tribes and bring them all together.

Discogs

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various artists - Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

It feels weird to realize it's been 20 years since I last bought a Tony Hawk video game. But that fact dawned on me as I started writing up this soundtrack, which is the only thing I remember immediately about playing THAW on my 360. The soundtrack was released by Vagrant Records, and contains fourteen bands you'd associate with that era of mainstream punk rock, playing 14 classic punk and hardcore tracks. It's all very America-focused; the players drawn the the U.S., and the Buzzcocks the only band that didn't originate in the U.S.A.

So, is it any good, twenty years on? Well, there's a bunch of SoCal punk/HC represented: Suicidal Tendencies, Descendents, the Adolescents, Fear, T.S.O.L., and Black Flag all have classic songs from their catalogs appear. And the bands performing those tracks sync up pretty well, with Alkaline Trio playing "Wash Away" and Senses Fail playing "Institutionalized". No surprises here...unless you're surprised that everyone acquits themselves pretty well. I mean, didn't Rise Against perform as Black Flag in a movie around this time?

It's on the less expected cuts that this becomes more than the sort of thing you'd get as a freebie at Warped Tour or a cheap-o sampler at Hot Topic. My Chemical Romance cover the Misfits' "Astro Zombies", which is very on the nose and yet still pretty great. Ditto to Fall Out Boy playing "Start Today" by Gorilla Biscuits, the only post-1986 song on the comp, and very well suited to a group of hardcore lifers who somehow put out #1 records in the aughts. Thrice squeeze two Minor Threat songs into their single track, the Bled (who I barely remember) play a deep cut Bad Trains track from "I Against I", and Thursday contribute the aforementioned Buzzcocks song, a very energetic "Ever Fallen In Love". My favorite remains Hot Snakes' cover of "Time To Escape", a Government Issue track originally released on "Joy Ride". It feels a bit incongruous for Mssrs. Froberg, Reis, Wood, and Rubalcaba to pop up here, just as it's an equally odd contribution catalog-wise, but, for me, it's a highlight. Not to mention it's the last song released by Hot Snakes for nearly 13 years.

To answer my earlier question: yeah, both in the rearview AND today, this is pretty decent. There are a couple of duds here (which I won't call out by name), but swap out the 2005 covers with the originals and it's not too far off from the mixtapes I skated to in 1993. Which seems to be the point of this soundtrack in the first place...to recall those pre-X Games years where you'd tear ass around town to build half pipes and ramps that might only last for a few days before getting torn down, soundtracked by tunes made by kids just like you. 

Discogs

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various artists - REV110: Revelation Records 2004 Collection

You can call me out if I sound like a dick, but by 2004, Revelation Records, a record label I had always held in very high esteem, just wasn't throwing its fastball anymore. Just five years earlier, they'd released a number of outstanding records, all branching out from Rev's hardcore roots while remaining in fidelity to the underlying ethos. Farside's "The Monroe Doctrine", the Sparkmarker anthology, the first Judas Factor full length, Kiss It Goodbye's "Choke" EP, and Himsa's "Ground Breaking Ceremony" all came out in '99, and, for me, represented the ways you could evolve hardcore.

But by 2004, that wasn't the case for me. Which is why this sat in a box for a decade plus before I broke it back out to revisit a few months back. Granted, the scene had changed a bunch in the intervening five years. But Curl Up And Die and Since By Men just didn't hit the same way as their predecessors. The idea of a Dag Nasty reunion full length was a lot cooler than the actual full length. The best contemporary bands here were Long Island's On The Might Of Princes, whose last LP had been released by Revelation in 2003, and Oakland's Pitch Black, who played a sort of West Coast punk that wouldn't be out of a place on Epitaph or even a major label in 2004.

If the dating on Discogs is to be believed, it was just a lean year for Revelation. While their distribution wing was still going strong, this sampler and a Since By Man EP were the only records they put out in 2004. The following year, they'd release the Judge discography, the Bold discography, a Shai Hulud rarities disc, and the most excellent "Generations" compilation, arguably one of the best comps from that era. In 2006 came their first releases from Shook Ones, Sinking Ships, Self Defense Family (as End Of A Year), and Down To Nothing.

Discogs

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various artists - Spin This Six

'Twas about two months ago when I shared the fifth volume in the Spin This series, and reaction seemed about as positive as I could hope for a 31-year-old alternative music sample. So here's Volume Six, or VI, as the Latin speakers at Spin put it. This one's a bit less girthy than the previous volume. But it has Archers of Loaf, Goops, and Knapsack, all of whose records populate my regular listening in this year of our Lord Twenty Twenty Five. For less punky sounds, tune in for Morphine, KMFDM, Belly, and the Wolfgang Press. Very few duds here, truth be told. And, daddio, that's all I ever want from free curated listening; something that doesn't exist to reinforce my taste, but to broaden it.

Discogs

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The Musings of Sense Field and Running From Dharma

I don't write about split releases all that often, in part because there aren't a great deal many that I've wanted to revisit. But this one resurfared recently, and upon giving it a few spins, I figured, "what the hell?" and sucked a high-quality, 320kbps rip up into the ol' MEGA portal for your listening pleasure.

I've wirtten a fair amount of Sense Field-related posts over the years, but nothing since 2020, so as one of my favorite bands of a certain era, it makes sense (HA!) to dig back into my recollections and share this latter-day release from 2004. You get a Smiths cover and a live recording of Killed For Less's "Soft". The other two tracks are from Central PA's Running From Dharma. Truth be told, I should be able to remember these guys, but nothing comes to mind, despite an acoustic version of "Drive Not Driving" and their own take on a Marr/Morrissey classic.

It has occurred to me in the writing of this blog that this was the last new Sense Field release before Jon Bunch's death in 2016. What a loss. This is a good way to remember a very good guy.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: This Is A Call! (15 Brainmelting Dispatches From The Golden Age Of U.S. Alt-Rock)

This is a just a front-to-back KILLER collection of what, indeed, was the Golden Age of U.S. alt-rock. Sure, maybe it kicks off with a lessor Sugar song (if you can deem any Sugar song as a "lesser" effort). But things spring right back in with a run of Superchunk/Sebadoh/Shudder To Think/Lotion/GvsB. That's a Murderer's Row of boys and guitars (apologies to Ms. Ballance). Things take a relative break with contributions from Pond and Madder Rose, a pair of bands I definitely vaguely remember from issues of CMJ and Option, but otherwise own nothing by. Then things pick back up with my favorite Built To Spill song, Bob Pollard, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the god-damn Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. It's all capped off with the Grifters, who I only discovered and appreciated in the last few years, and the Jesus Lizard, who I discovered first of all these, and have loved the longest.

I'm not ignoring Red Red Meat for any good reason; I just typically skip the track, the remnant of a poor impression they left me with when i saw them open for Smashing Pumpkins at the Salem Civic Center on the "Siamese Dream" tour. And remembering that reminds me that it took place 31 years ago, which is just...man, that is a terrible realization.

Discogs

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various artists - Back To (Old) School

Confession time: I bought this on account of its cover, which reminded me of the alma mater of one Ms. Rory Gilmore. This is the sort of thing her friend Lane Kim would have made as a mix, had she worked in the radio trade in the mid 90s.

Also, there's a lemur theme throughout the liner notes. Bonus.

I vaguely recall seeing Hits Magazine come into my local college radio station. But I was always more of a CMJ reader, so what Hits was hawking generally passed over my head. No so this compilation. Led off by the beloved Superchunk, who apparently spent money on a radio-friendly mix of "Hyper Enough", this is a shockingly good selection of what was being pushed in 1995. Sure, Semesonic and Toad the Wet Sprocket and poe. are all kind of duds to these ears. But Spacehog and Air Miami still rule; the UK contributions mid-CD are all pretty rad, and Knapsack and Deftones highlight the tail end. There's even a cover of "You Oughta Know" by 1000 Mona Lisas that I remember turning up a few times when hearing it on WHFS.

And now the title holds true, as this all makes up the C playlist of oldies radio around the country. We are all slowly rotting bags of flesh, holding tight to memories of misspent youth.

Discogs

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various artists - Bifocal Media: Kampai Compilation

The Bifocal Media folx have always had my admiration, as well as a fair amount of my punk rock dollars, over the 20+ years I've been aware of them. I first crossed their paths with their first release, a video zine called "The Actuality of Thought" that I picked up at Reptilian and had the likes of Piebald, Braid, and Spazz on it. 'Twas a murderers row of what was punk in 1998, and a great way to get introduced to the bands I'd obsess over for the next half-decade.

They showed up in my life a few years later as they shot thousands of feet of digital video in suburban Detroit at the last Michigan Fest. Jamie and I drove out from Baltimore to rep for Oxes, to see Hot Snakes live (they weren't going to play east of the Mississippi ever!), and to interview a bunch of bands for my radio show. We watched John from Sweep the Leg Johnny climb into a drop ceiling and fall into the crowd during "Bloodlines", Vaz clear the room in a mid-afternoon noise set, hung out with Death Cab for Cutie. And the Bifocal crew was there to document it all.

These North Carolina dudes didn't just record the turn of the century punk rock scene on video. They also put out a bunch of great, under-recognized records, headlined by the Ladderback and Goner from Raleigh. Their first and only comp, "Kampai", came in 2001. It had an early appearance from future legends Strike Anywhere; the White Octave, featuring Stephen from Cursive, also had just released their first record on Deep Elm in past year. Serotonin, Crash Smash Explode, Secret Life of Machines, and Legend Of The Overfiend would all release records with Bifocal during the label's 11-year existence. As they write on the discography page for "Kampai", this was Bifocal Media's contribution to the Great Compilation Pile of the Late Nineties/Early Aughts.

While they haven't released a record in (checks Discogs) fifteen years (!!!), Bifocal Media stays incredibly active with their limited edition t-shirt collabs. I own a bunch of these, and they are both comfy AND fashionable. It's a great way to pick up a Thomas Hazelmyer, a Chris Shary, a Brian Walsby and wear it around town. I say, check 'em out.

Discogs

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Ladd

various artists - Troubleman Mix-Tape

I look at this and think of the old adage, "How you goin' to keep 'em down on the farm when they've seen the big city?"

How are you going to keep the kids from getting even freakier with their sound after they've been on the bleeding edge for years? When they've gone off to college and broken edge and read Baudelaire and taken modern lit and political science and moved past three chords and the truth?

You can't. You never have been able to. It's how we got this comp, 52 tracks from folks who had populated your 7" collection back in the 90s but were ready to reintroduce disco and no wave and free jazz as the  new century dawned and before the world went to shit, all filtered through this lens of basement shows and fanzines. DIY as an ethos, art as a goal. Tell the story however you think fits the moment.

It absolutely shows that it took Mike S. 4 years to put this one together, because it is more than a kwal-lit-tee compilation. It's a perfect mixtape.

Discogs

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various artists - Get Up Kids Last Tour Sampler

This one's pretty straightforward, like a handshake from an Elk.

Back in the good ol' days of 2005, the Get Up Kids decided to call it a day.

They went out on a final tour (as was the custom at the time), taking some of their buds from Kansas out on the road with them.

The gang at Blue Collar Press put together this sampler, featuring each band on the tour plus Matt Pryor's new band for kids.

I presume this ended up in my collection as a result of Mrs. Mummy having attended at least one or two of those shows.

I've been listening to a fair amount of GUK's more contemporary work, so it made sense to me to share this with y'all.

See? Straightforward. Like the answer to the riddle "Would you eat the moon if it were made of spareribs?".

Discogs

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various artists - Thrasher Skate Rock Vol.12: Eat The Flag

It has not been a good day. Or week.

My living situation, never a bright spot in my life on even the best days, has turned very shit over the past 10 days or so. To make a long story short, there's a good chance that, in a week, we may be evicted. We're doing what we can do, which hopefully will take care of the current situation, but who knows? I live in a very expensive part of the country, so even finding a decent place to live going forward will be impossible. Add in a long-standing diagnosis of major depression, anxiety, ADHD, and a possible executive dysfunction disorder issue, and, yeah, things are pretty fucked.

So while I submit a ledger of rental payments and start browsing governmentjobs.com, I'll play this in the background, and harken back to the days where I didn't have to worry about much more than finding a decent curb to skate and not bailing. "Eat The Flag" was the first Skate Rock comp in 12 years, and the only one outsourced by Thrasher to a third party (the now mostly-deactivated Volcom Entertainment). As a result, this one feels a bit more Warped Tour adjacent than previous editions; no doubt, this is thanks to the presence of Alkaline Trio, Gnarkill, and Riverboat Gamblers. But make no mistake; this one is still bona fide. I'd argue it's more listenable than other editions. Pressing this on a DualDisc was an inspired choice for the era. Yeah, this content is probably on YouTube now, but 18 years ago? Slapping this one in your PS2 and hitting play to watch video of Duane Peters and Turbonegro fits really well with the whole premise of Skate Rock.

Discogs

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various artists - No-Fi Trash: A Floppy Cow Records Compilation

I'm not going to say that I have a thing for circa-"turn of the millenium" punk samplers, but I'm not not going to say it, either.

This one came to us from Switzerland, by way of a seller in San Diego, who may have gotten it via Suburban Home Records, then someone who probably received it in some mailorder sometime in the past 20+ years. It has a sampling of the finest names of the era: "Very Emergency"-era Promise Ring, one of my favorite Hot Water Music cuts, the same from the Get Up Kids. There are those who I liked in small does (Sarge, the Anniversary) and those who I avoided wherever I could (Lagwagon, Useless ID). Then there is the vanguard of the early aughts pop punk explosion: New Found Glory, Alister,  and No Motiv.

Truth be told, I dropped the buck on this because there was a Tugboat Annie track that I didn't already own. Totally worth it.

Discogs

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various artists - The Hope Machine

Here's a (at the time of this post) 23-year-old cross section of Long Island DIY, courtesy of a label that, sadly, seems to have not made it through COVID intact. Rok Lok put out an early Loma Prieta record, and did a tape release for my buddy Nick's project about 12 years later. It's a small world that felt a lot bigger back then.

Geez, a lot of these folks ended up playing CCAS back in the day: Latterman, Nakatomi Plaza, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, De La Hoya. A hundred fliers flicker through my mind's eye.

The way the memories have faded, it makes me wish I'd done more party drugs, so I'd have a better excuse for faulty recollections of hazy summer nights. It makes me wish I'd spent a few more weekends in vans on I-95, rather than working a straight job or going back to school. At the risk of wistfulness, I sometimes think of the paths not taken, and where they might have lead. Maybe I would have been in one of these bands, immortalized to be rediscovered nearly a quarter century later.

Discogs

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various artists - Mailorder Is Still Fun!

 Oh sweet zombie Jesus...I forgot to write anything over the weekend. Time to bust out a quick 50-100 words on a 24-year-old label sampler.

"Mailorder Is Still Fun!"...and it still is, really. Asian Man always came correct with a package full of stickers and fliers and every once in a while a 1" pin or tow. It was most welcome getting a shit ton of swag on top of an Alkaline Trio LP or a Link 80 CD.

Extra tracks appended to the end, courtesy of Tomato Head Records, if the ol' noggin recalls correctly. This would have been the place I would have heard Big D and the Kids Table for the first time.

And done with 4 minutes to spare!

Discogs

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various artists - Topshelf Records 2012 Summer Sampler

Another day, another time I forgot to write something. Selah.

We'll keep this short and sweet. This was the state of the union in 2012. Just a step up from basement DIY, featuring a pretty decent mix of emo, hardcore, indie, shoegaze, post-hardcore, and probably some other subgenres I can't remember. A lot of these folks played the Art Space that summer. If a generation in punk lasts three years, then I was probably five generations past what was appropriate for attending these shows in 2012. No bother: I had a good time working the front door and cracking wise to a bunch of kids.

The Slingshot Dakota track is an all-time banger, Pianos Become The Teeth still rip, and I found a Code Orange CD for $2 at the thrift store the other day.

I gotta go; I just encountered a Busch Light commercial with Sarah McLachlan appearing in it. I think it's time to call it a day.

Discogs

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