various artists - Home Alive: The Art Of Self-Defense

Here's what I remember about when this came out, through the eyes of an 18-year-old who lived on the other side of the country from the circumstances:

• Most of the folks I knew were more interested in this for the unreleased Pearl Jam song, the live Nirvana track, and Joan Jett & Kathleen Hanna performing with the remaining members of the Gits than the genesis why Home Alive was created.
• I had no clue what sort of violence women encountered in the world at the time. I would learn.
• I remember thinking, when the promo copy arrived at the college radio station I volunteered for, that it couldn't possibly be worth listening to, on account of being released by Epic Records.
• That's a point of view that is hilarious in retrospect. How many folks got their first exposure to Tribe 8, Lydia Lunch, or ¡TchKunG! as a result of picking this up? There are so many fiercely independent artists here, not to mention the wide range of spoken word performers and poets present.

This is a pretty iconic benefit comp, all things considered, in celebration of a wonderful human whose time came way too soon. Volume 2 would come five years later on the Seattle/San Francisco label Broken Rekids. Along with a trio of 7"s that came out on local label Crash Rawk Records, it's a resounding body of support that still stands up as well as any benefit.

Discogs

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various artists - Throw (The Yoyo Studio Compilation)

Originally posted September 23, 2020. Reuploaded with a new rip of a previously mint-in-shrink copy.

I've been wanting to share my collection of Yoyo Recordings comps for a while, but I think I never got around to ripping the later releases. I've always liked the way that Pat Maley's recordings have sounded, and appreciated what he's contributed to the 90s Western Washington sound (if there is such a thing). If you got stoked on it, he probably recorded it: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Unwound, Beat Happening, and Team Dresch all came into YoYo Studios and made records now considered classics. He's always seemed like the perfect person for a band to make their first recordings with.

It seems to be dormant since 2011, but the 30-some-odd releases on Yoyo from 1992 on still hold up really well. Pat released five comps during that period, capturing both a sample of songs he recorded and released. The first is "Throw - The Yoyo Studio Compilation", released on both CD and vinyl. I grabbed this years ago because it had songs from the above bands, but I think it's worth coming back to for songs from the lesser-known bands. Whether it's the lead-off song from Olympia's Kicking Giant, channelling the K/53rd & 3rd vibe of late 80s indie pop, or Anacortes' Gravel, going grungier, these songs just stick in my brain. The standout for me remains one of the earliest artifacts from Heavens to Betsy. Corin Tucker's voice is SO big on this track; even if I had heard it before I heard "Calculated", I still would have thought that she would have become a big deal.

Discogs

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various artists - Yoyo A Go Go

It's been a few years since I last posted anything from Pat Maley's Yoyo Recordings. But it's been thirty years since the first Yoyo A Go Go, and since I'm less than 80 miles away, as opposed to the 2,800 or so that I was back then, I thought it was time to pay this one a visit, and share it with you fine peep-holes.

Let me tell you what I recollect about this time. I was listening to my cassette of International Piop Underground Convention a lot in the spring of 1994, so when I heard that something similar was going to take place that summer...well, I didn't give it a ton of thought, because how was I going to go from Boones Mill, Virginia to magical Olympia? Especially since I found out a few weeks before school ended that we were leaving the sticks for suburban Baltimore,

But it was definitely intriguing. And, in retrospect, a little bit gumption could have gotten me out there on a four-day Greyhound with more than a few of my hard-earned Taco Bell dollars in my pocket. And who would I have seen? Unwound, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, and Team Dresch remain the big names for me, even this far down the line. How cool would it have been to see Codeine, or Cub, or two thirds of Yo La Tengo, or Neutral Milk Hotel? Would I have even been into it back then? Or would it have been one of those moments I would have only appreciated in retrospect?

I suppose it's better to regret something you have done, rather than somehing you haven't done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get up in someone's face and scream "SATAN!" over and over again.

Discogs

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various artists - Seven Unlucky Sevens

Or as I like to call it, "500 Slampt Fans Can't Be Wrong!!!"

It's seven early 7" releases from Slampt, as true and honest a DIY enterprise as history has even seen. Run by two kids from the North-East of England as an arts umbrella, Slampt was known for awesome cover art and killer lo-fi records. They were like an Tyneside K Records, in kinship with New Jersey's Troubleman Records and responsible for some classic slabs.

Like the insert says, these represent the debut singles for six of the seven bands appearing. You want to hear what the dudes from Franz Ferdinand were doing in their youth? Well, there's a Yummy Fur 7" to check out. Label "owners" Pete & Rach show up with Avocado Baby and Pussycat Trash, the latter of which remains THE great under-heard riot grrrl group from the early 90s. Pete's long-running lo-fi group, Milky Wimpshake, not only had an all-time great name, but also debut here.

You should know by now; I like my punk rock recorded on a boom box and played as amateurly and heartfelt as possible. This one gets me right in my sweet spot.

Discogs

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various artists - A Slice Of Lemon

There's a dude in my NAMI Connection group who started attenting a couple of sessions ago. And of course I noticed him because dude showed up in a denim vest with no less than 40 metal pins and patches affixed. This is not Maryland Death Fest, bullet belt, crusty/grind/doom vest either; it's a pretty straightforward reckoning of the past 40 or so years of metal. Everything from Nuclear Assault and Venom to Motorhead (fuck it, I'm not looking up the hotkey for umlats) and Anthrax. Nothing super cvlt, which I respect.

So, of course, we've started chatting a bit about music, and I think I want to bring him a flash drive with Void and Septic Death and Excel and Hirax on it, just so he can get where I'm coming from. In the course, he asked me what I was listening to recently. So I told him about this.

In short, "A Slice Of Lemon" was a two-disc compilation co-released by Kill Rock Stars and Lookout! Records back in '95. I'm pretty certain I snagged it in my first mailorder from KRS, along with "Pussy Whipped" and (maybe) "These Monsters Are Real". If you want a sample of where things were on the West Coast of North America (with some exceptions, obvs), then look right here. The stand outs on this back when I got it were my first exposures to Elliott Smith, Pansy Division, Excuse 17, and the Peechees; all of which I still listen to 27 (!) years later. There are a few cool one-offs here, too. Gashly Snub is a Melvins spin-off band featuring Dale Crover. Shaken 69 is 3/4 of Operation Ivy along with members of Skankin' Pickle and the Uptones. Even the most obscure bands contribute memorable cuts.

To be perfectly honest, I typically skip the Mary Lou Lord track at the end of disc 2. She just never did much for me.

Discogs

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Raooul / Skinned Teen ‎– Jail-Bait Core / Bazooka Smooth!

Juuuuuussssstttt clearing out the decks here, folks.

"Letterkenny" plays in the background, and my thoughts go to this tasty slab of circa 1993 from the good folks at Lookout! and Willja. The internets tell me that Raooul was a quintet of East Bay pre-teens making a racket, two of whom went on to playing Tourettes and Out Hud. Nice pedigree. Skinned Teen was a real solid UK contemporary of Huggy Bear and Pussycat Trash, two of my fav British riot grrrl bands from that era. Layla from S.T. would go on to write a shitton of excellent columns for MRR...a real reason for yours truly to pick up the esteemed zine for its last ten years of so in existence.

File under: teenagers making a racket. This is never not thrilling to me. I would definitely bootleg this onto a cassette to get it in front of people in 2021.

Discogs

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Adulkt Life - Book Of Curses

I've had terrible luck with computers and the like lately. As noted earlier, I misplaced my HDD, holding the widest part of my collection, and have yet to turn it up. The battery in my MacBook Pro recently gave up the ghost; it was a real trooper, having lasted almost 7 years. Finally, what I had prepped on the servers to share didn't exactly raise my blood pressure. I think I've used the expression before, but I couldn't be arsed to kick out a few hundred words on much of anything. Having a computer go dead and staying busy at work all combined to give me a perfectly cromulent excuse NOT to hunker down.

It's the first Friday in March, though, and so it is that Bandcamp Friday has come to pass. Has it been a year of these yet? It's truly a great excuse/time to support an independent artist. So it is that I come to insist you check out Adulkt Life, a very very sexy band of grown-ass punks from London town who I'd give my eye teeth to see and shake asses in person to once this pandemic ends.

Adulkt Life is fronted by Chris from Huggy Bear, and includes John and Kevin from Male Bonding, along with newcomer Sonny. They jumped up last year with a trio of PDF zines ahead of their first release, an LP released by What's Your Rupture? Sonically, you can hear the members' previous bands, along with a healthy dose of British riot grrrl and post-punk, as well as Chris Thomson-style vocal madness. The first song on "Book Of Curses", "Country Life", musically takes me back to "The Birth Of The Ulysses Aesthetic", all skronky saxophone and hip shaking. Hell, I'd go so far as to call out some musical cues that bring Sonic Youth's "Goo"-era to mind. All of it adds up to a record that's pretty close to the kind of music I'd like to make myself.

Tl;dr? I think you ought to spend a few shekels on "Book Of Curses" this Bandcamp Friday. It'll put ardor in your larder, the dowser in your trousers, take you back to those days of mixtapes and barrettes in the mid 90s. It's a 10-song refreshing dose of the Before Time, and I'm kind of ashamed I forgot to add it to my Best of 2020.

Bandcamp

The Third Sex - Card Carryin'

Here's another one of those records I had in the 90s, sold off or lost or gave away, then recently turned up locally for a couple of bucks. I heard about the Third Sex via a pretty great 7" (their first) they released with Kill Rock Stars in 1995. When I heard they'd made a full-length for Chainsaw, the home of Team Dresch and Sleater-Kinney, I dutifully sent off my $8-$12 in carefully-hidden cash, and six weeks later, I was the proud owner of "Card Carryin'".

Portland lesbians were a mysterious breed, making a better racket and fiercer sounds than any guys I knew at the time in the state of Maryland, so, yeah, I dove headfirst into that scene, despite being a straight, cis, white dude fresh out of high school with a shaved head. "Why are you into those dyke bands?" otherwise progressive buds would ask me. I don't know; like so much other art, I'm drawn to the things on the outside. I mean, yeah, I probably would have fit in better at an Earth Crisis show, but this just made more sense, had greater appeal.

Even 25 years after the fact, I maintain a big soft spot for romantic, political music, of which this has in spades. There's a strong surf sound here, with the requisite energy that comes around with that sort of influence. And the vocal interplay between Trish & Peyton definitely reminds me of Sleater-Kinney from the same period, although there's a lot more weird, silly play going on here, which of course I dig. It's a good old spin, from a time where it was really daring to be queer and play even DIY spaces without getting fucked with. The Third Sex kept it fun, sounded like there was a bright future ahead, and it still sounds great.

Discogs

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Excuse 17 - Excuse Seventeen

The first album from Olympia's Excuse 17, imaginatively self-titled, came up on random the other day, and it gave me pause to reflect.

(Note: whenever I open with some shit like that, you know I'm about to cross into "sniffing one's own farts" territory. I'll try to tamp it down.)

I picked up this download years ago from the late, great Pukekos. As a long-time Sleater-Kinney fan, I was well acquainted with 1995's "Such Friends Are Dangerous", but I'd never seen a physical copy of the debut LP until I moved out West a few years ago.

Why did I pause to reflect? Maybe because this came out when I was 17, and the likes of Excuse 17, and the Need, and Heavens to Betsy, and Go Sailor all seemed so much older and more mature back then. I had no idea that most of these folks were my age, or just a couple years ahead of me, that they lived in a town smaller than mine, but that its insular nature fostered creativity. There was no local version of Calvin Johnston or Slim Moon for me to emulate, so I'd get this fear of doing it wrong, even though there was doing it wrong! So much wasted time, where I could have just gotten up and done it, regardless of what that "it" was.

Anyway, here's Carrie Brownstein's second band's first album.

Discogs

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various artists - Periscope (Another Yoyo Compilation)

I had wanted to post "Tulip", the second Yoyo comp, in this space. But I seem to have deleted it from my hard drive, and the hard copy is in a box in one of my storage units, and who knows when the Christ I'll find that, so here we are.

"Periscope (Another Yoyo Compilation)" is the third release sampling recordings from Pat Maley's Yoyo Studios. This one's as strong as the preceding volumes, with a mix of bands and performances you'd probably never find elsewhere in the world. On the noisier side, you get Mukilteo Fairies, Fitz of Depression, Copass Grinderz, and Bloodthirsty Butchers. If you're looking for something a bit more twee, then check in for Love As Laughter, Go Sailor, or Tattle Tale. Even a pair of indie rock/alternative luminaries make appearances. Beck shows up with a song pre-dating his "Mellow Gold" breakout. But the stand-out has got to be the otherwise unreleased Neutral Milk Hotel cut, "Bucket". It's a winner.

Please forgive the shitty genre tagging on these cuts. I think I ripped this when I was hopped up on goofballs or something.

Discogs

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Bratmobile - The Peel Session

Photo by Pat Graham

If Bikini Kill was the riot grrrl band we aspired to, then Bratmobile was closest to what we'd become. A less shitty analogy: Bikini Kill was the crush a year or two ahead of you in high school; Bratmobile was the girl in your grade who you'd skateboard with and get kicked out of prom with.

Neither of those are putdowns of Bratmobile. I just felt an approachability with Bratmobile that I never got from B.K. As such, I'd like to go back in time and kick my own ass for not finding a way to see them at their 1999 reunion show in DC. I'll admit it; Braid was playing the same night in Baltimore with Kind of Like Spitting, and it was a righteous show. But I still feel some regret.

Enough about me. On to the recording. This was taped right after Bratmobile recorded their "The Real Janelle" 12", and was ultimately their only recording for John Peel's radio show. There's a quick Blur cover, as well as an early version of "And I Live In A Town Where The Boys Amputate Their Hearts" and a trio of cuts from "Pottymouth". All cut live to tape at Maida Vale. Delightful times. May all bands sound as vital and authentic as they do here.

Discogs

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Huggy Bear - Our Troubled Youth

Make yourself a list of the great split LPs. Go ahead, I'll wait.

What'd you come up with?

Is the Bikini Kill/Huggy Bear split there? Yeah? Good, you're a bright kid. You'll go far.

The Huggy Bear side is entitled "Our Troubled Youth", and I listen to it far more than I do Bikini Kill. Granted, I know "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" like a rabbi knows the Torah, but there's some real dirt on Huggy Bear that I find mighty appealing.

The ability to play 1,500 person rooms and the comprehensive reissue program draws sharp relief between Bikini Kill and the relative present obscurity of Huggy Bear. It's a shame, because the British contemporaries to Olympia's finest colored the next 30 or so years of queer and feminist DIY. Maybe they don't get back together to play Terminal 5 or Lollapalooza, but they deserve better than dollar bin obscurity.

Also, above is Huggy Bear absolutely tearing it down on a British equivalent to 120 Minutes.

So here's "Our Troubled Youth". If you like, I encourage you to pin down some of their 7"s, including the outstanding "Her Jazz", which, as far as I'm concerned, is right up there with "Rebel Girl" and "Bitch Theme" as my favorite riot grrrl jams. For now, rock this out.

Discogs

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Tiger Trap - Tiger Trap

Note: reposted from my sideblog. Originally written October 2018.

This may have been the best-selling K Records release at one time, but I'll be damned if I could find a  physical copy until I moved to the PNW and started hitting every Value Village between Bellingham and the U District. And why did I want a copy so bad? Mainly because I'd only ever owned a third-generation cassette version, then a download off some long-defunct blog.

And who gives a shit if one owns a physical copy in 2018? I'm a bet hedger, and I love dead media. I get sweaty palmed when I see some out-of-print indie CD that came out when I was 16. It still sounds just as vital as it did when my girlfriend in 1993 passed me a C-60 with this and some Bikini Kill singles on it. The big difference is I'm not some dumbo in southwestern Virginia; I'm in the stomping ground of this amazing four-piece. Kids making music will never not be awesome to me.

Anyway, here's Tiger Trap's self-titled LP. Ripped from the K Records CD at 320kbps. Enjoy. I found this for $2.

Get one on Discogs.

Download.