various artists - All Power To The People, Not The State

I'm pretty certain I flipped past this CD a half dozen times in various distros back at the turn of the millennium. So how did I end up with a copy in 2024, and why?

The how is simple: I paid less than a buck for it from an eBay seller I frequent. See, when the auction is over, you just click a button and BAM! a week later, a padded mailer or box arrives in my mailbox with this CD in it.

The why is less simple, but still simple. It has a bunch of bands on it that I like: Submission Hold, Gasp, Good Riddance, I Spy, Citizen Fish. It was released in an edition of 1,000 CDs, benefiting a pair of anarchist collectives. I think it was probably released by the fella $eth, whose record is the only other release on Black Star Recordings. It has a pretty amateurish illustration of a cop in riot gear on the cover; it's the kind of spare graphic design that really stopped flying around that time. Yesterday was Mumia Abu-Jamal's 70th birthday. And since a portion of the proceeds from this release ostensibly went towards his legal defense, I figured now was as good a time as any to share.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Farm Sanctuary Benefit Compilation

Clearly, it bothers me that this record is old enough to drink legally. Although, it won't, what with the sXe representation present herein.

Anyhow, it's a nice slice of East Coast DIY, circa 2001, courtesy of the Mountain Collective, home to the bleeding edge of hardcore, screamo, crust, and other far-out version of punk as diametrically opposite from the contemporary Warped Tour paradigm as the Guardian is from the New York Post. How's that for an evocative sentence.

Here's to taking bands like Frail seriously, to coming up with ways to help an urban garden thrive, to scratching a handgrip into that hundred-foot wall you've been screaming at for years, hoping it'd fall. If demolition doesn't work, erosion will.

Discogs

Click here to download.

The Anasazi ‎– Calculating Components And Compound Formulas For Mass Population Reconstruction ... ... A.K.A. Measurement & Control

A week of great potential has emerged here in the northwestern corner of the empire. Cher boi's DVD-ROM drive in the ancient MacBook Pro has gone to the great recycling center in the sky, meaning it's come time to, at the very least, to replace the drive, if not the entire computer. Do they still make laptops with an internal disc drive? Or should I just chip up the $50-$100 to get an external drive, and keep using this here steel-encased marvel of late-aughts Apple technology?

The missus and I have also been engaged in serious talks to relocate back to our homeland of Charm City in the next few months. Let's face it; it's REALLY - FUCKING - EXPENSIVE to live in our corner of paradise, and last month's heat dome laid plain a number of the disadvantages to remaining here. So, here I am, packing boxes at 2 in the morning, with the portable air conditioner working it's lil heart out, and "Bob's Burgers" playing in the background. 100+ years worth of pulp paperbacks and out of print cookbooks, collected over the past five years, all going into 12 x 12 x 12 double walled cardboard.

The Anasazi sounded like the future 21 years ago. Made up of former members of Jenny Piccolo and Casey from Yaphet Kotto, it was the sort of progressive hardcore band that I was taken in by.  It, too, goes into a box, one of the last things I ripped before the drive gave up the ghost, now to be immortalized in 320kbps bit rate, on a blog unbound by time or location.

Discogs

Click here to download.

closer - within one stem

Although readers of this here blog may not know it, closer's 2018 debut record, "All This Will Be", was one of my most unfuckwithable, favorite, most-listened to records of the past five years. No foolin'! It's tough to make a screamo record (or ANY punk record, for that matter) that makes me want to shake my ass and lose myself in the music, but a song like "Hardly Art" takes me back to the late 90s...to clap alongs and group leaps at the drop and mic piles in dim basements with shitty PAs. It evokes bands like Envy, Majority Rule, and Funeral Diner.

And, by Gawd, Ryann hits the drums so goddamned hard it almost hurts. Frontperson of the year, in my humble opinion. And I've never seen them live.

So I'm wrapping up my evening when an e-mail comes through. "New releases from closer", reads the subject line. Cue a badly Photoshopped meme of my head on Philip J. Fry's head, screaming at Bandcamp and the good folks at Lauren Records to take my money. "within one stem" is their new LP, a split release between Lauren & Middle Man Records here in the States, as well as five European labels. I respect the spirit of cooperation that brings this new record to me. The pre-order of 500 first presses on "natural" clear vinyl is live now, and available via closer's Bandcamp site. The full record comes out March 12, but the first song, Side B's "angry flood", is available for download when you preorder.

Get it, or regret it later.

Light The Fuse And Run / Transistor Transistor - split LP

Did we ever call it "screamo" when it first happened? Maybe in the context of bands we didn't like, or obvious poses. Otherwise, the likes of Jeromes Dream and Orchid were just punk bands wilding out, slotted nicely on a four band bill with a straight edge hardcore band, an indie pop band, and a power violence band. "Emo" was for bands on Drive Thru and Vagrant, a marketing term, an easy opening to stick a peg in. This was just punk on the edges of convention.

Level Plane in Philadelphia and the Electric Human Project in Wilmington were two of the many homes for bands making this kind of music. EHP had put out records with Pageninetynine and Joshua Fit For Battle, would drag their distro down to Baltimore for shows. Level Plane had a deeper catalog, but had worked with a number of the same bands as EHP, plus folks like Envy, You And I, and City of Caterpillar. Everybody knew each other, went to the same shows, toured the same circuits. Again, it was just kids making DIY music.

We knew and booked Transistor Transistor because it was Brad from Orchid's new band. The pedigree was good enough for us when they started coming down from New Hampshire. As for Light The Fuse And Run, they were only a few hours down the road in Richmond. They'd already played with Hot Cross in town and were pretty good. Why not do a show for both?

What's lost to my memory now is whether the record was promoting the tour, or if the tour led to the record. All I know is that I found a copy on CD for a buck a few days before Christmas, which unleashed the swell of memories above, like the heat rolling into your face as you walk inside from a wintry yard.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Encyclopedia of American Traitors - self-titled

I associate this late-90s hardcore-bordering-on-screamo band with Frodus, Reversal of Man, and Pg. 99, all of whom I'm reasonably certain I saw them with. They did a split with Orchid, and one with Kwisatz Haderach. They came from up around Lancaster, PA, a town which (oddly) got a ton more "big" punk shows throughout the 90s than Baltimore. So hearing a band like Encyclopedia of American Traitors come out of a town where I saw Citizen Fish and Rancid...it was jarring at the time. It wouldn't be until years later that I learned they were ex-Spirit Assembly, and at least one member would move to Florida and play in Fiya.

Does every generation of punks, when they have enough distance between them and the moment, think that they had the world by the balls? Or were we part of something truly special, unrepeatable? I tell some story about seeing some random band with ten other kids in a dank basement, repurposed into a showspace, and suddenly, to the listener, it's a Velvet Underground moment. It's not that this world was poorly documented; it's that it's one of the last times the world would be mysterious, up for interpretation, grainy like a VHS tape.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Daniel Striped Tiger - Certain Stuff

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

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

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

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

Discogs

Click here to download.

Pageninetynine - live at Best Friends Day, RVA, 11 August 2011

Pageninetynine, circa 2002 (from the Pageninetynine Facebook page)

There are two great things that have come from Sterling, Virginia. One is the comedian, writer, actor, and reason to be on Twitter Patton Oswalt. I'm a fan; I celebrate his entire catalog.

The other is the subject of today's post. Their name is Pageninetynine (or Pg. 99, or Page 99), and even if they hadn't blown up among a certain type of punk rock listener in the years after their initial break-up, they'd still be one of my favorite bands I've ever seen. As time passes, I can only recall fragments, like a montage of amazing moments. There was the last show at the old Ottobar, where Blake or Chris got passed amongst the crowd and kicked a hole in the the ceiling that remained even after the Talking Head moved into the location. There was the last Wilson Center show, and the stage flexing under the weight of a hundred kids pulsing to "By the Fireplace In White". There was the night that they and Majority Rule played with Cro-Mags and Most Precious Blood at the "new" Ottobar; every security guy was onsite to ward off a skinhead vs. hipster brawl that never took place. I also seem to recall them opening for Earth Crisis at St. Andrews in College Park, and a bunch of barbeque jokes being made. So many Reptilian shows, and shows where they were the second of six bands on the campus of Johns Hopkins, and sticky basements in the DC suburbs because there was NO WAY the 9:30 Club was going to let these freaky kids play that stage.

Were they really only a band for six years? There's no chance that was the case; it simply cannot be true, no matter what the historical records say. They were just a ubiquitous part of the scene; the guys from NoVA that fit in so well with what was happening in Baltimore at the time. And they played with such heart, such passion, that one couldn't help but become not just a fan, but rabidly so. Then, one day, it was done, splintering into Mannequin and the Malady and Haram and Pygmy Lush.

Do you remember that time, when you were young and before Green Day was on MTV, when you'd see another kid in a Misfits t-shirt or wearing a painted leather jacket and you'd immediately talk to them? Because you had found a kindred spirit, and there weren't a lot of them out there. It's still like that when I wear the old Reptilian "Document #5" t-shirt I got the week the records showed up in the store. I can't really wear it comfortably anymore because I'm probably 100 lbs. heavier than I was then, but when I DO squeeze into it, I occasionally get that native nod, and every once in a great while, I'll make a new friend. There are far too few shibboleths left in the world, riddles that, upon solving, open up something memorable and previously unseen. Pageninetynine was like that for me.

They've reunited now twice, mostly recently in 2018 and 2019 as a series of benefits for local charities in each town they played. Their first reunion, which I regrettably bailed on, saw them play the Black Cat in DC and at Best Friends Day, the annual Richmond outdoor show every year. It occurred to me that the 2020 BFD would be coming up in a few weeks. Here's that Best Friends Day set from 2011. I honestly cannot remember where I got this initially.

Love your friends. Die laughing. Fucking A right.

Click here to download.

125, Rue Montmartre - 125, Rue Montmartre

Still from "125, rue Montmartre" (1959)

This record came out right around the time I started getting really into Get Up Kids and Braid and embracing the whole "sad emo kid" stereotype. There was little chance of me catching it at the time; it was a white label release by two German labels. But I keep coming back to the 125, Rue Montmartre 7" regularly since downloading it over a decade ago. They were contemporaries of the better known Yage, and really only existed for two years. This falls in that sweet spot of Euro emo-core/screamo/skramz that would, within 5 years, be on that cutting edge of progressive punk and hardcore.

That is a ridiculous sentence. It would be less ridiculous to liken this to a more jangly Dahlia Seed. The incredible German reissue label Thirty Something Records co-released a discography 12" last year with Jason Teisinger's recently revived Belladonna Records. The first press has all but sold out, but there's a second pressing on coke bottle clear vinyl coming later this year. So treat this like a taster, and order that record now.

Discogs

Click here to download.

New music from NØ MAN (ex-Majority Rule)

Maha Shami from NØ MAN

It's a toss up in my house which early-aughts NoVA post-hardcore band we like more: Pageninetynine or Majority Rule. While I've seen the former far more often, it is the latter whose records I revisit more. The 1-2-3 combo of "Interviews with David Frost", "Document #12", and "Emergency Numbers" are around 90 minutes of some my favorite music from that period; full of passion and power...exactly as I want music to be. It's hard to imagine they all came out within 24 months of each other. My enthusiasm has carried over to the regrouping of the Majority Rule trio, with Maha Shami now on vocals, as NØ MAN.

NØ MAN announced their second LP, "ERASE", earlier this morning. Due out this August, there's a limited edition of 100 preorder up live now on their Bandcamp. Released on their own Quit Life label, you can snag a copy on that lovely "smoke" color that always looks so good. If the preview track "DIVE" is any indication, expect some brutal, political hardcore along the lines of their earlier "CUT OUT" cassette from 2019, and influenced by Memphis-style crust and D-beat. Are you sold yet?

Click here to preorder.

What didja buy: Bandcamp Friday in June

Sniffany and the Nits (photo by Upset the Rhythm)

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't planned to buy more than one or two things this past Bandcamp Friday. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...

Let's start by saying something about Death Domain, the release that spurred me to action. Dark Entries, the folks behind the great Patrick Cowley reissues, pinged me with a notice that there were copies of the "Ethidium Bromide" 7" available again. I never got one of these when they were originally released back in 2009, so it seemed like a great chance to grab one. It also spurred me to grab the latest Death Domain jam, "CDC-PSA", a COVID-19 jam if I've ever heard one. No, seriously; Adam has sampled a coronavirus public service announcement and laid it on top of a tense synth-punk snare sound and bubbling keyboard. It's cool to play these three tracks back to back, if only to get a sense of the musical progression present 11 years out. Here's to a fella who I first met due to his Robocop fandom.

I also figured it was high time I picked up the latest record from Baltimore's Curse. I got to book some of Jane & Logan's early shows in Baltimore, and with their regular touring, they're friends from home that I actually get to see from time to time. "Metamorphism" is their third full-length, and first on Fake Crab Records. These folks have been making doomy synth-punk for eight years now, and, dare I say, this is a real breakout for them. This one is less of a cacophony than their previous records, but retains a lot of the slinky ooze that I've always found so appealing about them. I didn't want to make the comparison, but I've listened to this twice since picking it up, and it actually reminds me of Björk's "Homogenic", especially in Jane's vocal phrasing. I also picked up Curse's 2018 split with Cincinnati's Street Sects, for good measure. I'm glad I did; Street Sects' name has popped up around me for years, but I've never had chance to listen to them until now. Their two songs have a real Big Black meets Xiu Xiu vibe. I think I might be in love.

I've always trusted Chris and Jon from Fake Crab's taste in releases; they've put out some great releases over the years, including 2018's Bustdown tape and a pair of Eyelet records that knocked me on my ass. So I took a wag on their final 2019 release, the self-titled 7" from Tokenized. What I didn't know at the time is that this is the newly-renamed band formerly known as Joe Biden. It is little wonder that I loved these four songs. These folks have dropped some of their more PV tendencies and released a four-song EP that reminds me a lot of early Poison Idea. Do they deserve the comparison? Fuck yeah, they do. I would stan this hard if I still lived in the 410.

I wrote about Manuela Iwansson as my comeback post for "Primitive Offerings" back in April. Go back and read it to get up to speed. Go ahead, I'll wait. Night School in the UK is now hosting the digital download for her 2018 12", "Dream Lover", as well as doing mail-order for that 12". I hope this means that we'll be getting a new record this year. I stand by my earlier comparison to Pat Benatar, and add a healthy dose of Berlin. I also stand by my earlier opinion that a total of $40 for six songs across two records is a fucking INSANE price to pay, so I'll stick with digital only on these. I hate being a little crybaby about this, but it really grinds my gears.

Sticking with UK releases that I'm too cheap to buy physical copies of: I've been meaning to check out London's Static Shock Records for a minute. The team at Sorry State Records always recommend their new releases, and Iron Lung is a good US source to pick up their records. So I downloaded the new EP from Powerplant, and I did deem it most good. The marketing text is pretty spot on: this has a strong early 80s synthpunk/new wave vibe, with some damned delightful crooning on "A Spine". I mean, if you're going to wear an influence on your sleeve, Devo is a pretty good one to do so with. I'd be remiss if I didn't note that there's a cassette edition available out of Dreamland Syndicate in Warsaw; it's pricy to ship into the States, but you can always combine your order with the Powerplant LP from last year to amortize the shipping.


One of the joys of Bandcamp is discovering something you'd never otherwise discover, simply by typing in a few keywords. I've been trying to pay greater attention to what's going on in Australian punk since getting the Chats 10" a couple years back, so I picked up the demo from Perth's Gaffer. Coming from the same label as the recent Cold Meat records, I guessed (correctly) that I'd enjoy this. The music here reminds me of my favorite Damned songs, as well as Baltimore post-punk bands like the Fuses and the Miss, while the vocals are straight-up barks. This would fit right in on the early Frontier Records catalog...if they were from L.A. instead of western Australia.

I like a good gimmick. If your gimmick is to play snotty-nosed pogo punk, I'm probably going to enjoy your schtick. If you throw in "vocalist dressed as a nurse", you'll not only have my curiosity, you'll have my full attention. And so it was that I learned about Sniffany and the Nits. This Brighton group released a pair of recordings in the past six months, chock full of feminist fury headlining UK-82 revival tracks. I grabbed the earlier of the two, last December's "I Love You (...But You've Got Nits)" cassette. What can I say about this? Well, if Vice Squad had a decent sense of humor, or Crass's "Penis Envy" was less musically adventurous, maybe they would have sounded like this. I hope that these folks lean into the lo-fi aesthetic, because it all sounds very dangerous and vital coming from a blown out speaker.

Kansas City's Warm Bodies has been on their bullshit for a few years now, making what is charitably described as "weirdo jazz punk" and getting some decent word of mouth. I picked up 2019's "UFO EXTREMO'S", just for shitz and gigz, and I think it might be my favorite purchase from Bandcamp Friday. There's a ton of tape manipulation and freaking out and brain riot going on here; it's a lot for 10 minutes of recordings. I definitely feel like I smoked some Sherm during and after listening to this. I have a feeling that, live in action, these folks are all over the place in the best possible way. I just hit me, on my fifth listen: this gives me a real Wrangler Brutes/Mika Miko vibe. It's just delightfully weird and I want to hear it all the time.

I capped out my purchases for Bandcamp Friday with a little bit of Canadian screamo/skramz. I started following Middle Man Records in Indiana after they released my favorite record of 2018, Closer's "All This Will Be". It'd been on my wish list for a minute, so I picked up the second and final full-length from Toronto's La Luna. This is exactly what I'm looking for when someone tells me I should listen to a modern emotional hardcore band. Vanessa Gloux's vocals here are outstanding; powerful, right to the edge of shrieking at times. The rhythm section does its job, pushing out a throbbing low end, which guitarist Nicholas Field rides to create some really fascinating sounds. This style has always been a favorite for me, going back through La Quiete, Majority Rule, Spitboy, and Current. "Always Already" will be a mile marker for screamo for years to come.

And that's what I got. Now I'm broke. The next Bandcamp Friday is in two weeks, on June 19. Judging by this month's response, and the ongoing social awakening worldwide, I'd guess a lot more artists are going to climb on board and get music posted, tout en suite.

You And I - The Curtain Falls

You hear a record and it immediately makes you think, "Man, I wish I'd have put that out." "The Curtain Falls" is one of those for me.

I have no clue how I never saw You And I play live. Their heyday very neatly coincided with the first big wave of my traveling to shows. They played with a lot of my friends during their lifetime. And yet, even though I bought records of theirs new upon release, I never actually got to see them. Hell, I don't remember them ever playing south of Philadelphia, which I KNOW can't be the case.

So, yeah, it dawns on me I've been listening to this record for over twenty years now. That makes me feel old. Yet there's nothing dated sounding about "The Curtain Falls". This totally fits in with anything getting released on Zegema Beach today. I'll chalk that up not only to a sound that still sounds vital, but also to the outstanding production from Geoff Turner. That's why I think's cool that Repeater Records, who put out those great City of Caterpillar reissues a while back, is releasing a discography double LP in the next several weeks. I really appreciate that this is going to be available again.

Call it screamo, call it skramz, call it hardcore, call it whatever you want to. It still feels honest, sincere to me.

Preorder the discography here.

Click here to download.

Post #100 - Fuck, 20 Years Ago Was A Long Time Back

Here we go. A truly momentous moment. 100 posts...a huge portion of which have come in the past month.

To celebrate this joyous occasion, I've put together this delightful comp. It's 20 songs from 20 years ago. Pretty simple, no? It was a shit year personally, but a pretty great year for music. It was the year I got turned onto Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, and Death Cab for Cutie. It was the year of "Voodoo" and "Supreme Clientele", "The Moon and Antarctica" and "69 Love Songs". I went to University of Maryland for the year, and failed out within 9 months. I moved back to the Baltimore suburbs, started working as a buyer for a bookstore, began going to three shows a week.

I could have turned this into one of those amazing Fluxblog-style surveys of the year; it was the first year I intentionally expanded my listening habits, and my record collection still reflects that. This, however, is a punk-focused blog, and I wanted to stick to 20 songs, so, there you go. I think it's a pretty decent cross-section of what I was buying at Reptilian and learning about from Punk Planet and HeartattaCk. Here's what you're downloading:

1. Spazz, "Let's Fucking Go!"
2. Dillinger Four, "Music Is None of My Business"
3. Leatherface, "Watching You Sleep"
4. Alkaline Trio, "Radio"
5. Strike Anywhere, "Chorus of One"
6. The Briefs, "New Shoes"
7. The Fuses, "Solution R"
8. The Hives, "A Get Together To Tear It Apart"
9. Charles Bronson, "Couldn't Fuckin' Care Less"
10. American Nightmare, "Protest Song #00"
11. Assfactor 4, "Free Tibet and Pussy"
12. Hot Snakes, "Salton City"
13. Skull Kontrol, "Primitive Offerings" (HEY!)
14. Lifter Puller, "Space Humping $19.99"
15. Braid, "You're Lucky to be Alive"
16. Shellac, "Watch Song"
17. Midiron Blast Shaft, "With A Fine Tooth Comb-Over"
18. Vaz, "Statik Electrik"
19. Cutthroats 9, "Prey"
20. Pg.99, "By the Fireplace in White"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll acknowledge the elephant in the room. I recognize that there's a real dearth of non-male, non-white voices in this mix. I had less broad taste 20 years ago. It's probably why I didn't date much back then. But this IS perfect to slap onto a C-60, throw into the tape deck, and play full blast while you bomb around a back road with your best friends, chain smoking and drinking Big Gulps and talking about how the whole of your world is still in front of you.

Anyway, enjoy the mix, and thanks for coming back. This is Primitive Offerings 100.

Click here to download.

hose.got.cable - Majesty

I've been working through the first hour of Star Trek, having called off "Dinner and a Movie", and, instead, just fixed pancakes, eggs and milk.  I have all the epicurean taste of a 12-year-old.  As great as this looks in 1080p, I'm just having a hard time staying awake.  Maybe I shouldn't have seen this four times this summer.  I'm a geek.

hose.got.cable was a bargain-bin discovery for me.  If memory serves, I scored this for $2 from Reptilian on a Sunday when I should have been home, painting a wall or fixing a toilet or doing whatever a typical husband and homeowner does.  But, like I said, I'm a geek.  I like record stores, book giveaways and staying faithful to the people I love.

Back to h.g.c: they were from Richmond and recorded for Old Glory Records. Old Glory was one of those labels like Vermiform, Vermin Scum, and Gravity that was amazingly great in the early 90's and then fell off the map by 2000.  Members of hose.got.cable went on to Rah Bras and Alabama Thunderpussy, which seems like the damnedest thing I can think off.

The nearest sonic touchstone here is probably Frodus.  What you can expect is stellar post-hardcore/screamo that sets things up neatly for bands like Raein & Funeral Diner...hell, most of the European post-Pageninetynine crowd.  The must-listen here is "Chevy Chase, Motherfucker"; to steal a line, it makes me want to run through a brick wall everytime I hear it.  Last note: a label called Cadillac Flambe released a discography which includes this (their only full-length), two singles and two tracks from comps.  I have no clue if that's still in print.

hose.got.cable - Majesty

(click the record to DL)

RIYL: cheap finds, rainy Sundays, geek shit

The Failure Design - demo

It's snowing outside! HOORAY!!! SNOW DAY, MOTHERFUCKAS!!! I'M GONNA GET ALL SKI PANTS UP IN THIS PIECE, YO!!! The Failure Design were a 3 piece (or maybe quartet) made up of Towson U. kids who existed in 2002 & 2003. I remember seeing them at CCAS a few times and thinking they were super energetic. My ol' pal Doug Williams played bass for them when they broke up. Think the typical "I'm singing/I'M SCREAMING" dynamic, backed by proggy jazz-core. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to build a snowman before I go to work... 

Discogs

Click here to download

RIYL: chest tapping, gas attendant jackets, 7/4 time

Flowers In The Attic - s/t

I cannot stress highly enough what a special place to live and go to shows Baltimore was at the early part of this decade. At a time where we were known more for Homicide, instead of The Wire, and long before a bunch of kids moved down from upstate New York to kick off Wham City!, a group of youngbloods came together in the city, just as they had since time immemorial, to play punk rock and all of its bastard offspring. Between legit venues like the Ottobar & the Talking Head and DIY spots like Charm City Art Space & the Bloodshed, a music fan had more places to watch independent music in Baltimore than at any other point in its history. Additionally, a number of bands starting playing shows, pulling from any number of disparate influences and creating some really distinctive music.

One of the bands that made the scene what it was Flowers In The Attic. Female-fronted and influenced by the late 80's ABC No Rio/Gilman hardcore & crust scenes, as well as a healthy dose of circa '85 SST releases, FITA dropped two EPs and a split 7" during their brief existence. Watching them live was a cathartic experience. I never knew whether to bottle up or explode.

Judge for yourself on this, the 1st of two EPs released on Reptilian Records. Members have moved on to work with a variety of projects, my favorite of which is Hollywood. They rule pretty hard.










Flowers in The Attic - s/t
(click the record to DL)

RIYL: side 2 of "My War", "Document #8", chest tapping, stage dives