various artists - Audioflashcard

Note: fixed the link to include the entire comp. Thanks to Friend for leaving the comment.

GSL made it a decade and a half, starting out in Boulder in 1993 and wrapping things up in Los Angeles in 2007, with a stop-over in San Diego. During that time, they released no less than a half dozen records that I still find irreplaceable. Early releases from the Locust, the V.S.S., and Get Hustle built a track record that would soon include the Mars Volta, !!!, and the Rapture. This was the sound of late 90s hardcore growing up. And I'm not talking about the youth crew...these were the weirdos from your town who were booking Born Against and Heroin and Huggy Bear in their basements, then going off to college towns where they'd get into Christian Death or Albert Ayler or Karen Dalton. They'd meld it all together, making sounds that'd turn off every macho shithead and turn on their friends and younger siblings.

This sampler came at the midway point of Gold Standard Laboratories' lifespan. GSL would put out the first !!! full length, a Mohinder discography, a collaborative 7" between xBxRx, Miss Pussycat, and Quintron, the Locust's remix 12", and the first post-At The Drive-In release from Cedric and Omar as De Facto in 2001. The last of those would lead to the Mars Volta, who ultimately reached the sort of popularity that honestly blew everyone's I knew's minds. These were deeply different, viewed with some level of distrust, and thus were deeply, honestly, punker than anything else running at the same time. 25 years on, this still feels pretty transgressive, and makes me wonder why the hell we thought anyone was selling out.

Discogs

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various artists - Repo Man (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Tomorrow is the Iggster's 79th birthday, and to celebrate this audacious occasion a day early, I present the soundtrack to Alex Cox's 1984 classic "Repo Man". Iggy provided the eponymous title track to this soundtrack, which my cursory research tells me came in between the release of "Zombie Birdhouse" and "Blah Blah Blah", the latter of which I bought on cassette sometime in the early 90s because a girl put "Real Wild Child" on a mixtape she gave me. That was my second exposure to Iggy Pop, the first being the 10 minutes of "Repo Man" I watched on HBO when I was 10 or 11 before my mom switched it off "because punk rockers are violent." Well, I showed her; I grew up a punk.

This rip comes from the copy I found a few weeks ago in a nearby thrift store for one American dollar. That's right; I paid less than a quarter of what I would for a gallon of gasoline. Pretty sweet deal. Pretty rad movie. Pretty great soundtrack.

Discogs

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various artists - The Lowrider Sound: Low & EZ

If you're not tooling about this weekend in your 6-4, what are you even doing with your life?

You can make up for things by downloading this fun comp from the good folks at Thump Records, who are as Los Angeles a label as SST or Buddyhead, IMHO. Bonus points if you play it while riding a mower while cutting your yard or cruising around on a minibike.

Discogs

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various artists - I Am Not A Test Market (1994 Restless Winter Yearbook)

It's the winter of 1994, and whilst picking up Brainiac and Guided By Voices records for your cool niece for Hanukkah, a sympathetic clerk at the local record store throws this into your shopping bag. And because who doesn't like free stuff, you smile and thank them. You slap this Restless Records catalog sampler, featuring two tracks each from eight bands, into your Discman with the tape deck adapter, and dig right in. Here's what you hear:

• aMiniature was from San Diego, and came from that angular, post hardcore/math rock tradition exemplified in the area by the immortal Drive Like Jehu. Both tracks come from their second record, 1994's Depthfiveratesix.
• Surrender, You Freak was album #2 from Seattle's Sister Psychic, a band who I'd never heard of until picking this up. Definitely hailing from the Neil Young folk rock branch of mid-90s alternative rock.
• Swains' second and third records got issued Stateside by Restless; these two songs come from the third and final full-length Sonic Mind Junction. Apparently, the folks on Discogs describe them as "progressive house", but I'll just give them the "leftfield" genre and move on with my life.
• Smut were a quartet of Minneapolis punks who made music along the same lines as Babes In Toyland, so it makes sense they put out records via Lori Barbero's imprint Spanish Fly Records. It was tied in with Twin/Tone, which, by this point, Restless was distributing, so BOOM! two tracks from their debut full-length.
• Louisville's Crain was part of the end of Slamdek, and helped bridge that label's weirdo punk/HC aesthetic with the weirdo indie rock vibe that'd emerge via Rodan and the For Carnation a couple years later. Heater came out in 1994 and was Crain's swan song.
• I knew God And Texas almost exclusively from a track they contributed to the Australian comp "Self Mutilation - A Compilation Of Compilations", which I've never owned an actual copy of but managed to acquire a dubbed tape somewhere around 1996 and treasured ever since. God And Texas were one of those noise rock shit stirrers that all gravitated to Chicago; both tracks here originated on 1993's Criminal Element, which is a pretty great record from that era.
• The Hang-Ups, like Smut, hailed from the Twin Cities. Unlike Smut, the Hang-Ups made super tuneful jangle pop and had a record co-produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. He's After Me was released on Clean Records, distributed by Restless, and was the source of the Hang-Ups' two songs contained herein.
• And, finally, a pair of songs from Giant Sand, the still-active, ever-prolific, Tucson-located alt-country band. Purge & Slouch was Giant Sand's third record for Restless, their 10th overall, is now 33 years old, which breaks my spirit, b/c I remember playing songs from this record on the radio in 1995.

So, there you have it. A sampling of an American indie rock label during the peak of Cobain. A lot of it still holds up. But maybe that's because I came of age during this time.

.Discogs

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various artists - Tarantulas Attack!

I've fallen into the HC equivalent of a k-hole over the past few days, trawling through four years of crust and D-beat blog posts on Eastern European compilers to pluck out Swedish and Japanese noise that I don't have digitally. It dawned on me at work Monday that I hadn't posted anything for Mojo Mondays, in spite of the fact that I uploaded a dozen new entries last week. So let's rectify things with a day late post; my favorite sort of dashed-off reminiscence.

The Explosion were Boston hardcore dudes who, after playing in bands like In My Eyes, the Trouble, and Panic, decided to embrace their inner Dag Nasty and play fast, tuneful hardcore. They put out a full length and an EP on Jade Tree, a second EP on Revelation and, BOOM!, they were signed to Virgin freakin' Records. I don't recall any negative scene politics about it at the time. They made good records, they'd been bashing it out in basements and VFWs since we were all kids; no shade, good on them. And, sure enough, they brought along a bunch of their friends from the Northeast with them and started their own imprint, Tarantulas Records.

"Tarantulas Attack!" was the sort of street team sampler you'd get free from the merch table either at the Warped Tour or whatever club show you saw the Explosion. It had one track each from six bands who'd put out records on Tarantulas; the Explosion, the Bronx, the Lot Six, Darker My Love, the Faux, and the Tonsils. Of these, the Bronx has had the greatest staying power; they released their fourth record as Mariachi El Bronx last month and, from all accounts, remain an incredibly entertaining band to see live. Darker My Love was two of the dudes from the Nerve Agents, following the soon-to-be-standard career path of hardcore band to psych rock. I have a vague recollection of seeing them sometime in 2003 or 2004, third on a bill in Baltimore, and definitely thinking "these dudes are going to break big." DML ended up putting out a trio of full lengths on Dangerbird over seven years, all of which are pretty well worth checking out.

As for Tarantulas Records, they gained a reputation over their fifteen some-odd releases for really good looking records that demonstrated how expanded tastes reflected the music one made as they grew more experienced. In less than three years, the TR gang showed how scene kids could evolve and still make good, interesting art. And, shit, that's all we want for our friends in bands.

Discogs

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various artists - Bloodclot

I have no clue how I ended up with this compilation.

Was it the name? Did I misidentify this as a mid-70s roots reggae comp? Or a tribute to Cro Mags' vocalist John Joseph? The cover is giving me mid-90s SoCal punk graphic design. The cover photo reminds me of the kind I'd have taken outside a showspace I went to in Baltimore back around this time. Maybe that's it...maybe, whenever I nabbed this one, I took a wag because maybe I thought it had some deepish cut Orange County tracks, the kind that I've been enjoying digging because I couldn't bother listening to it when it was new.

This is not that. This has two of the most ubiquitous songs of 1998 on it, with "The Rockefeller Skank" and "One Week" both popping up on the front end of this HITS radio sampler. The selections from K's Choice and Spacehog are not the songs that played everywhere. I didn't own either of these records, so it was interesting hearing what their respective labels were positioning as singles. Truth be told: the most interesting songs come on the back half of the CD, with Rufus Wainwright, Emm Gryner, and Dimitri From Paris all making appearances. It's capped off with that one MxPx song that I remember the video from, a pretty solid pop punk track from a band that hailed a ferry ride away from my current home base.

Discogs

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various artists - The Big One / City Of L.A. Power

I was pretty annoyed with Discogs recently, and it's all my own fault.

Right before the holidays, I recieved an order on my Discogs account. It was a simple one off; a Tim Hecker CD, sold for $10, plus shipping. And, hand to God, I thought I'd shipped it. But, friends, I did not. And Discogs shut my account down. Which means I could not only sell stuff (not a huge deal), but I couldn't buy anything. Not with all this Christmas lucre in my pockets. But I took my lumps, quickly refunding the customer once I confirmed that their order was, indeed, sitting two states away in my "Out" basket. But it was only last week that Discogs lifted the ban hammer on me.

This is a long way around the block to this two-fer from Flipside Records, the label attached to the esteemed SoCal zine. This was part of my last order on Discogs, a throw-in with a couple of Infinite Zero splurges. There are some big names from early in their careers here, with Green Day and the Offspring headlining with Bad Religion. The beloved Lance Hahn provided songs from both Cringer and Monsula; he was still a bit off from J Church taking off. There's a collaboration between Melvins and Steel Pole Bath Tub, some AmRep representation from Distorted Pony and Helios Creed, and a track from Sandy Duncan's Eye, who I still think is probably the most underrated noise rock band from this era.

"The Big One / City Of L.A. Power" is missing two songs from the latter; the Paper Tulips' and TVTV$'s contributions can only be found on the 1991 single-sided vinyl. Are we missing out on something? Shoot, man, track down a copy and let me know. I just got back on Discogs.

Discogs

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various artists - Dim Mak Records Sampler, "I'm like a stepping razor don't you watch me i'm dangerous

Long before Steve Aoki became a famed cake thrower, but after he booked HC & emo bands to play shows in his dorm room at the Pickle Patch at UCSB, he was a purveyor of some renown for the cutting edge of indie rock. This 23-year-old relic comes from just before he linked up with Bloc Party and helped break them here in the States. So it has sprinklings of fun stuff from Pretty Girls Make Graves, Panthers, the Gossip, Die Monitr Bats, and the Von Bondies. I'm partial to the contribution from post-Huggy Bear outfit the Phantom Pregnancies, as well as a live Soledad Brothers cut. It's a fun reminder of the time when the hardcore kids were playing house records alongside riot grrrl, and coke mirrors with the logo of your band were a crucial element of your show merch. 

Discogs

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various artists - Live From The Masque: Wewecancandodowhatwhatwewe Wanna Do

The second of three volumes in the "Live From The Masque" series, this one has F-Word, the Zeros, the Alleycats, and the almighty X. So two Dangerhouse bands, one of whom remains an all-timer, along with the group that gave us El Vez, and an early Posh Boy highlight. L.A. circa 1978 was so fucking cool.

Discogs

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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

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various artists - Faster & Louder (Hardcore Punk, Vol. 2)

I didn't pick this one up for a while after I grabbed Volume 1, and it shows up in how my taste developed. Hüsker Dü was on Volume 1, had a reissue of their early Reflex/New Alliance records on Rhino, and an in-print SST catalog. So I was super into them by the time I copped this in 1995. Likewise with Negative Approach, whose discography on Touch & Go was as big a deal for me as "The First Four Years". I'd been turned onto Fear via a dubbed copy of their infamous 1982 Saturday Night Live appearance. And EVERYONE from D.C. covered "12XU" by Wire, leading to purchases of the first three LPs, helpfully reissued on CD by Restless Retro. 

Zero Boys and Black Market Baby, however, were mostly out of print, with some records available on Germany's Bitzcore, which didn't have great distribution in southwestern Virginia. I wouldn't get into the Germs or X or the Dils until Frontier put out their Dangerhouse surveys. Naked Raygun was relegated to rumors and 3rd generation dubs until the Quarterstick reissues came out in the late 90's. I'm STILL not sure I've ever seen a Strangehold record in the wild.

But that's the cool thing about both volumes of Faster & Louder. The songs have a way of burrowing in, so that when you saw that Posh Boy pressing of "Living In Darkness" or a cassette of "Over The Edge", you knew to snap them up, because you'd heard "Bloodstains" and "Romeo" for the first time on a comp CD. This wasn't what was coming out on Epitaph or Lookout!; this was the first wave, where it all began. And while it felt like a different era back then, it was, like, only 10 years old in a lot of cases. There's truly no way to compare it to anything today. But, shit, man, I'm glad this was there for me.

Discogs

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various artists - Faster & Louder (Hardcore Punk, Vol. 1)

Let's celebrate my recent birthday by stepping away from Mojo Mondays to share a pair of comps that, frankly, I'm kind of shocked I've not written about yet. This was my first exposure to the first wave of American hardcore, entering my tiny collection the same year as "Never Mind The Bollocks..." and "Steady Diet Of Nothing" did. An auspicious trio, all things considered. This is one I immediately taped onto a C-60 and played half to death throughout my teenage years.

You can get nitpicky as fuck about the track selection on Volume 1, but I think it's unimpeachable. The first half are just S-class: you could start your mixtape with any of these first eight tracks, from "Holiday in Cambodia" to "Get It Away", and the recipient would know they were in for a very good time. The second half, in 2025, could feel a bit more thematically disjointed. But Redd Kross were once Red Cross and shared members with Circle Jerks, Negative FX opened Mission of Burma's last show, D.O.A. released "Hardcore '81", and the Stains moved to San Francisco, became M.D.C., and released one of the all-time great international HC comps in 1984's "International P..E.A.C.E. Benefit".

This was a mind-melter at the tender age of 15. While missing a trio of key names of that early scene in Black Flag, Minor Threat, and Misfits, this was a key introduction for me, along with the second volume (also released in 1993). Plus: Gary Panter artwork! It'd be cool as hell for a Real Gone Music to reissue this one on vinyl, especially considering I'd love to frame this cover.

Discogs

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various artists - Particle Theory (A Compendium Of Lightspeed Incursions And Semiotic Weapons From Warner/Reprise)

Ah, yes; the rare place to find Elvis Costello, Boredoms, Sven Väth, and Julee Cruise all in one place.

The Warner family of labels, circa 1993, was a pretty rad assembleage. There was big daddy Warner Bros. Records, who released "The Juliet Papers" that year, a weird concept for 16-year-old me to wrap my brain around. Elvis Costello with a string quartet? Don't worry; I get it now. They'd also put out records from the Flaming Lips and Goo Goo Dolls, which actually got daytime airplay on the one rock station in town. Then there was Ms. Cruise, who, at the time, I wasn't actually aware had worked with David Lynch on the Twin Peaks soundtrack.

Reprise was still flogging Mudhoney's first major label record, put out a Boredoms record in the States, which tickles me to no end, and were still trying to break Babes In Toyland big. Their release slate in 1993 was a bit mixed in quality, but I like how weird a mix it is. You just don't see folks throwing around major label advances on odd shit anymore.

There were also co-releases from Sire, 4AD, Giant, Blanco Y Negro, and American Recordings, all bearing either the WB shield or lower-case R. "Alternative" was a pretty big tent back in 1993, and the majors hadn't had a chance to cock it all up yet. For me and many other future college radio DJs, it was a good time to catch a shotgun's blast worth of genre music and absorb it all, even if you weren't totally into it right away. And, hey, this one could have turned out worse. Candlebox put out a record on Sire in 1993 that sold a metric fuckton and very well could have been represented here. The compilers got it right on this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Dune (Original Soundtrack Recording)

My therapist's jaw dropped. "You haven't seen 'Dune: Part Two' yet?" All I could say was "nope". I have a great illogical fondness for David Lynch's 1984 dream piece. I like Denis Villenueve and Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet and Hans Zimmer, but I LOVE Lynch and Sean Young and Kyle McLachlan and fuckin' Toto. TOE-TOE, yo! The Porcaro boys play the tunes for intergalactic subterfuge!

Everything about the soundtrack, including the Eno/Eno/Lanois "Prophecy Theme", is feverish and bombastic. I have a difficult time imagining the film with a more conventional soundtrack. Just as much as John Williams' original trilogy scores and James Horner's score for "Aliens", this is a go-to for me for those head down, focus in moments at work. I can't consider giving room to something that might replace it in my brain. Not to mention that the film score/yacht rock Venn diagram has very little overlap, and I think we should appreciate the rare places that the overlap exists.

So here's a Tuesday bonus. Do something heroic or triumphant today. Remember: he who controls the spice, controls the universe!

Discogs

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various artists - Stones Throw And Leaving Records Present: Dual Form

A tip from me to you, my dear reader: If'n you have an animal you mind, and you are planning on making a move to a new locale, I would highly recommend either sending your beloved dog/cat/parakeet off to a spa, or queuing up something mellow to soothe the savage beast.

So it was that I ended up putting this on while the missus and I packed away/threw away eight years' accumulated detritus. Madam Mummy wanted to know how I landed on this. I told her, "I trust Stones Throw, and it had Julia Holter on it." Then she asked me how I knew Julia Holter. My response was that I probably discovered her when I confused her with Jenny Holzer.

This one's available digitally through the Stones Throw website. I make no promise that you'll find it as relaxing as I do, but you'll feel good supporting L.A. area artists with a little dosh.

Discogs

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various artists - The Infinite Zero Almanac: 1996 Sampler V

I ran out of time coming into today, so it's time for an easy write up. The fifth in the series of six Infinite Zero samplers; this one is one of the more comprehensive, coming as it did in the last year of the reissue label's existence. Most of these are available here on the ol' blog; just type in Inifnite Zero and expand your mind. I'm feeling the cover of this one most of all; the caricature of Rollins, flanked by the Def American and Infinite Zero logos, big, stronge fonts. It's a golden joy to behold.

While lacking the superior graphic design and the even-deeper record selection, it's no surprise that my early exposure to these drew me into an ongoing love of the Numero Group and Light in the Attic. I kind of got a kick out of watch the Grammy pre-broadcast show on YouTube tonight, seeing Numero's 90 Day Men set get a Grammy nom. It's great to see even the most obscure bands get beloved treatment, the expense of which makes a hell of a lot more sense then that double LP Chappel Roan release at $50 retail.

I'm all over the place tonight; forgive me, friends. I'm looking at a big record purge within the month, so my head isn't thinking about anything particular.

Discogs

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David Axelrod - 1968 To 1970: An Anthology

I wrote about David Axelrod last year, a nifty little piece of writing that I'm pretty happy with. So there's no need to revisit how I got to my fandom; just some words to talk about where it's going.

This is the first anthology Stateside put out, back in 1999. Like its successor, it covers Axelrod's three solo records for Capitol, along with tracks from Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderly. The difference here are a pair of cuts Axelrod produced for South African singer Letta Mbutu, someone who I'd never heard before and whose music probably bears the least amount of production fingerprint on it. There are also two songs from the Electric Prunes, who once had too much to dream last night, but here contribute from their final record on Reprise, 1968's "Release Of An Oath". It's bonkers how great these cuts are; psychedelic liturgies from Christian and Jewish traditions. It's holy music like Coltrane's finest; imaginative, cutting edge, totally unlike anything else happening at the same time.

What can I say? I like it. It never leaves my phone.

Discogs

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Trouble Funk - Live

Here's another record that I can't understand hasn't been reissued again. It's one that I'm forever grateful to Henry Rollins for turning me onto. And it's one that I listen to, front to back, whenever I miss living in the DMV.

The almighty Trouble Funk is who I'd play a stranger who didn't know what go go was. Specifically, I'd give them the live record I share here, originally released as a double, white label LP by the band, then reissued on Infinite Zero in 1995, along with a compilation of their early singles. This scene existed on a parallel track to DCHC, and the best of it is just as rare to find, existing today on crumbling tapes and limited dub plates. It's important to remember that Minor Threat's final show in 1983 was headlined by Trouble Funk (and supported by Big Boys). That's not as weird a concept as one might think; it's two localized scenes, propelled by DIY and alternate performance channels.

If you find yourself travelling this week for the holidays, listen to this one in sequence, and see if it doesn't get your ass moving.

Discogs

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various artists - Golden Grouper Vol. 1

The subtitle reads "18 California Bands You Won't See On The Warped Tour!", which is an awfully quaint sentiment twenty years after the fact. I can't imagine anyone born in 2003 involved in music today seeing fulfillment in the grimy DIY world that I lived in. They'd probably think old Uucle Ape has brain worms.

I probably do have brain worms. It has nothing to do with an adolescence spent in basements, garages, and out of the way clubs listening to loud-ass music, tho.

But this comp, from the esteemed and missed GSL, takes a pretty important snapshot of the noisy punk scene in California state circa 2004. When indie sleaze was just starting to fall apart, bands like 400 Blows, Wives, Wires on Fire, and Mannekin Piss were up and touring, making a racket to tens (literally TENS!) of fans across the country. I was one of them.

That time is long gone, y'all, and I don't see it coming back. The circumstances that allowed us to rent out warehouses and storefronts to throw $6 shows for these bands just don't exist any more. I have no doubt that kids today are still finding a path forward; I commend them for it. But I don't envy anyone trying to make or support art today, especially art that is patently anti-commercial. It's a fuckin' drag, every time I think about it.

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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