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 - Sub Pop: Patient Zero

It's been twenty years since the release of this particular Sub Pop sampler, and if you don't think the gravity of the fact that it's been twenty years since "Our Endless Numbered Days" and "Burned Days" came out isn't weighing on me like so many dozens of boxes full of vinyl being moved from apartment to house to apartment to storage unit then homey you're clearly a boomer or a Zedder.

The fun part is admitting that, at least where this spotlight on Sub Pop's discography is concerned, my taste remains pretty fossilized. Still love the Thermals, iron and Wine, and the Catheters, hate the Shins, feel ambivalent about the rest. But, hey, you might be really into Rogue Wave or the Helio Sequence. And there is a Postal Service remix on this that I didn't previously own, so I guess it was worth the buck plus shipping I paid a few weeks ago.

Discogs

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various artists - This One's For The Fellows: A Sonic Salute To The Young Fresh Fellows

One of the things I enjoy about living in the Seattle area is stumbling across the regional releases that I never saw or even heard of back on the East Coast. Rarely are they much money, so it's really easy to stock up on recordings from 15, 20, 30 years ago that I might otherwise not consider picking up. I've ended up with a bunch of releases on C/Z and Up!, all kinds of records from the Murder City Devils family tree...even those bands that might have opened for R.E.M. back in the 90s that I would never have bought at full price.

Case in point: this tribute to the Young Fresh Fellows, released by Visqueen associate Peter Hilgendorf on his BlueDisguise Records, I get power pop a lot more in my 40s than I did in my 20s, so this vein of PNW punky sweetness in literally music to my ears. Hilgendorf assembled a great lineup for this one: YFF contemporaries like Robyn Hitchcock, the Figgs, and the Silos, locals like the Makers, Mono Men, and Presidents of The United States of America, and out of towners like the Groovie Ghoulies and Stephen Malkmus all contribute their takes on a catalog that stretches back to the days of the Paisley Underground. It's pretty good stuff, all told, made all the sweeter that I think I found it for $2 in one of my regular huants.

Discogs

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various artists - You've Just HEARD The Movie, Now Hear This...Hype!

This one had been sitting in a box for about 22 years before I finally whipped it out and ripped it. A promo-only sampler, timed to release in alongside the VHS of Doug Prey's "Hype!", it's five recent cuts from Sub Pop artists. I probably snagged it for the Murder City Devils track; I held onto it for the cover, the simplicity of which still really appeals to me. Not being able to say much about the other four artists on this 5" disc, I guess I should throw this onto my phone and give it a spin in the car.

The sale of this piece is prohibited.

Discogs

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various artists - Revolution Come And Gone

I remember reading complaints about the state of the Sub Pop roster around the same time I became familiar with the label, which would have been around 1993 (I was 15; give me a break). It revolved around the expansion past the confines of Washington state, with Sub Pop putting out full lengths by bands from Boston, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Providence, and Kent. I never got the complaint; Mssr, Pavitt had always shown interest in music far outside the PNW, dating back to the earliest Subterranean Pop tapes. Now, with points on "Nevermind", he and Poneman could finally put out LPs for what now looks like the cutting edge of independent rock.

We complained about weird shit in 1992.

Anyway, this one's a Europe-only release from 1992, featuring a mix of tracks released between 1990 and 1992, along with a couple of unreleased joints. The Walkabouts contribute a cover of "Maggie's Farm"; Codeine offers "Cracked In Two", a "Barely Real"-era recording that wouldn't turn up again until Numero Group reissued that EP in an expanded edition 20 years later. You also get Mudhoney covering Fang, Dwarves, Hole, Earth, Supersuckers, Tad, and Six Finger Satellite, amongst others. Mark Dancey from Big Chief drew a hell of a cool cover.

This one was a penny pickup on eBay from a seller who I've been buying a ton of cheap CDs from recently. Worth every cent.

Discogs

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various artists - Flying Side Kick: Home Alive Compilation II

I hope it's not too obvious that I'm burning off the rest of the comps on my Kraken so I can start fresh once they're all gone.

Shit, I queered the deal.

Today, I learned that Home Alive ended as a non-profit back in 2010, but still teach self-defense here in the Seattle area. I'm glad to hear it.

This was one of the first times I heard the Gossip, Dead Moon, Clarissa's Wierd. I bought it mostly to benefit the non-profit, but it opened me up to a few incredible bands.

Discogs

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various artists - Northwest Ungrunge

Let's kick off 2023 in earnest with a real slice of garbage.

I jest, of course...partially...at least. It's easy, in retrospect, to pick on a comp featuring the likes of Sweaty Nipples, Rubberneck, and Village Idiot. The Cherry Poppin' Daddies are the leading light here, a few years ahead of their 1997 breakout into the mainstream with "Zoot Suit Riot". The rest of this 11-song compilation serves as home to a wide variety of PNW ska, funk, alternative, and metal bands, the likes of which you'd read about in the back of CMJ or your local music tabloid in the early 90s. I lived through it, and it's wild to me to what sort of big tent held "college radio" back in the day.

I dunno...I own worse records; I've paid a lot of money for worse records.

Discogs

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2022: Life Won't Love You Back

If you're reading this, then you've made it. You made it through another year where the world and your brain all tried their damnedest to kill you.

To this, I say, congrats. Have a mixtape.

Discogs says I purchased around 600 pieces of music in 2022. Of those, only 33 were actually released in 2022. This is about par for the course for me these days. So much of what I pick up either comes via the thrift store or via a Bandcamp download. The best thing I got this year was Dischord's "First Six Records" box set; it's up there with any of Numero Group's finest reissues in terms of quality, and a Rosetta Stone of American hardcore. The new Björk and Ed Schrader's Music Beat 12"s are top notch; Ted Leo also did a few digital-only releases which warmed my heart by their existence.

I had planned/still plan to share this via Butterboy's My Compilation Series, an outstanding ongoing weekly that, if you're the kind of cat that avoids streaming and still spends time blogwalking, is worth visiting regularly. The downside to sharing there is there's no room for context, no opportunity to say, "this is why you should hear this." So let's go for the double dip. Let's spell it out and tell you why these were some of my favorite songs from 2022.

1. Poison Ruïn, "Not Today, Not Tomorrow" - let's kick this off with an absolute banger that scratches my metal and crust itches.
2. Brux, "La Mierda De Siempre" - I run with a lot of recommendations that come via Terminal Escape; I find that Robert & I share a number of music tastes in common, so if he writes that he's in love with something, I seek it out. He posted up Mendeku Diskak's latest sampler a couple weeks ago, and wrote this about this Brux track: "shit, if this were a one song cassette with the opening track from BRUX on repeat it would make the essential list." He was right.
3. No Future, "Vampiric Ego Fucker" - this one comes from their 3-song flexi on our local Iron Lung. It's some crusty Mad Max core...perfect for those moments when you're luring QAnonists into a punji pit.
4. Nütt - "Attack! (This Is Our Land)" - self-billed as indigenous hardcore punx from Buena Vista, CA. This is from their first of two cassette releases of 2022, both of which are total jean vest rippers.
5. Soul Glo, "Fucked Up If True" - it's been really rad seeing these cats get recognition for their second full-length. This song really spoke to me, with its theme of the disconnect between privilege and personal politics. It's a topic I'm facing every day now in my work and my personal life, and it's not been easy looking myself in the eye and ensuring I live as true as I speak.
6. Roman Candle, "Gaslighting Isn't Real (You're Just Crazy)" - Sophie's Floorboard is another blog on my roll that I check almost daily. Whether it's to sample someone I've heard of or haven't heard, to fill in a hole in my collection, or to learn about a brand new band without making it out into the clubs, Kevin's kinda awesome for keeping me hip to what the kids are up to. Roman Candle just put out their first EP in October, but drawing from that Ebullition hardcore tradition is a sure way to get me to listen to ya. These cats are down in Vegas, which gives me hope that they'll make their way to the Vera Project in the next year.
7. Stress Positions, "Lust For Pleasure" - Chicago's Stress Positions are another band that debuted this year with a phenomenal EP. "Walang Hiya" is exactly what I'd expect to hear come out of the town that gave us Repos, Los Crudos, and Articles of Faith; a top-notch hardcore outfit that you hope sticks together long enough to tour around and play your local.
8. Snorkel, "Half-Life" - the first of several Earth Girl Tapes-related bands on this mix. Their split cassette with Dumb Idea came out in November and, like so many other things coming out of Hattiesburg, has ended up being a constant play on my headphones at work and my stereo in the car. Just the sort of anti-pro basement punk that I'm always going to adore.
9. Chainsaw, "Emergency" - I think I initially snagged this because I was thinking of the crust-adjacent band from Osaka. These dudes are from Boston, played in bands like Brain Killer, and are drawing the best parts from Anti-Cimex. It's on RoachLeg. If you know, then you know.
10. Puffer, "Live N Die In The City" - another RoachLeg joint, although this one's more No Future Records than Sonarize. I think these folks are from Montreal, making streetpunk fun again with a real rock 'n' roll edge.
11. Foodeater, "Loose Fitting Mask" - hawd-core from Athens, GA. I think I threw this into an order for the ConSec flexi released by Futile Force earlier this year, and was quick pleasantly surprised at how quickly I wanted to mosh it up to this one.
12. The Chisel, "Keep It Schtum" - an emeritus award goes to the Chisel's "Retaliation", which I have been playing hard since it came out in 2021. But this one was a recent purchase, coming from their split 7" with Mess (see track #17) on Mendeku Diskak. As possible outtakes from full-length sessions go, this is a good 'un.
13. Sørdïd, "Blankhead" - yet another RoachLeg jam, this one coming out of their homebase of New York City. If you like D-beat and the hopelessness of existence, then this one is up your alley.
14. Warthog, "Four Walls" - it fucks me up to think that Warthog has been around for ten years. It feels like it was only yesterday that they were flying the flag of "new NYHC band that would fit in perfectly on an ABC No Rio benefit". This is their most vital work, well worth tagging billboards out on I-476 for.
15. Truth Cult, "The Bodies That You Keep" - it's getting harder and harder to keep up with what old friends in Baltimore are up to. I'm staying away from Facebook and Instagram has become nearly unusable. That said, every once in a while, something like Truth Cult's tour tape pokes through the morass, and I'm like, "yeah, I should snag one of those". $10 for four songs feels steep, but if it covers some gas costs on that Turnstile tour, then allow me to chip in.
16. End It, "The Comeback" - speaking of Baltimore buds...these dudes are the standard bearers of the through line of tuff-as-fuk street-level hardcore coming from Charm City that runs back through Trapped Under Ice into Stout into Next Step Up into Gut Instinct. This is their third EP and definitely their best.
17. Mess, "I Don't Like You" - Mexican Oi!, coming from their split with the Chisel. It's a wonderful feeling discovering a band you've never heard of via their side of a split 7" or tape. The mix on their two songs on this split is a little askew...like maybe you could have mixed it slightly more conventionally, but I think that's part of the charm in this recording. It gives it all more of a glammy, British edge that really does it for me.
18. Dumb Idea, "D.H.Y." - from the other side of that Snorkel split. I can't believe I have to write 16 more of these entries.
19. Klonns, "Crow" - there's something in the way that Jensen Ward writes copy for the bands he puts out that immediately grabs me. Case in point: this four song 7" from Klonns, a Japanese hardcore/noise band likened to Death Side, Bastard, and Lip Cream. Shhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeiiiiiittttt, cousin...that's all you had to say.
20. Kalashnikov, "Zuicide Machine" - I'm not sure I've actually seen a physical copy of this, and I'll also admit that I might be misremembering this whole thing, but apparently this is an Earth Girl release, so I asked Hampton for a copy, and it reminds me of I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook.
21. The Real Distractions, "FOSTA/SESTA" - the bonus, digital-only track from R.D.'s 7" on K Records. Tobi Vail made this in between Bikini Kill reunion tours and it fukkin' rules.
22. METZ, "Demolition Row" - one of the few new 7"s I bought this year, and one of two tracks from said 7" appearing in this mix. I've never been a big fan of METZ, but there's something about this song that I keep coming back to. Maybe I was wrong about METZ. Maybe I was wrong about a lot of things...
23. Big Screen, "Count" - eventually I'll run out of songs from Earth Girl releases that I've been obsessing over. But not yet.
24. GEL, "Vibe Fucker" - fukkin' GEL, man. "Violent Closure" was one of my favorites last year, a brutal seven-track banger of a hardcore record that I keep slotted right in between "Age of Quarrel" and "Systems Overload" on my list of "Records That Make Me Want To Run Through A Wall". "Shock Therapy", a split with Bucharest's Cold Brats, hasn't yet hit that level for me, but I've only been listening to it for the past few weeks. And "Vibe Fucker" is such a rad title for a song.
25. Black Dog, "Life Is A Lock" - the last of the RoachLeg releases on my list. This is Discharge worship, with a healthy respect for NWOBHM and early black metal. It's gunslingers sweating in black leather riding a bony stead under an unrelenting sun, like Motörhead scoring a Cormac McCarthy novel. Or if Venom was really good, and they wrote the soundtrack to "Red Dead Redemption III".
26. Daddy's Boy, "Work Won't Love U Back" - Daddy's Boy isn't just a killer outfit from Chicago, and the inspiration to this blog post's title. "Great News" is probably the best record in a lineup of fantastic releases from Drunken Sailor this year, And Jes remains one of the best dudes I've ever had the pleasure to know, a true gem amongst punx.
27. Girlsperm, "Return To Girlsperm" - Olympia keeps on bringing the amazing, but what do you expect when Marissa from the Punks, Layla from Skinned Teen, and Tobi from Frumpies put out a record together, their first in five years? If this is one of the final releases on Thrilling Living, then it's a hell of a climax (more of this in a minute).
28. Judy And The Jerks, "Buford" - you've probably noticed commonalities develop throughout this post. ApeMummy: he loves the Hattiesburg scene, he likes 'em short-fast-loud, he likes to mix the serious and the goofy. And if you've read my blog more than once, you know that I've been beating the drum for Judy And The Jerks for years now. These dudes play like I would want my band to sound. I'm not going to hold them up as some paragon of DIY, but...shit, man...lookit the places they come from, the places they play, the way they present their art. It's what I'm looking for; to be able to deliver meaningful art in an authentic way, with a vitality that can't be faked. This one's a bit of a cheat, since it's been out for a couple of years via the "Bone Spur" tape, but it's allowed; "Music To Go Nuts" came out in August.
29. Adulkt Life, "Book Of Curses" - the title track that didn't make it onto their 2020 full-length. C'mon, like I'm going to pass up a chance to put a new A.L. song on a mixtape.
30. Jawbox, "Grip" - it's a re-recording of a song originally released 31 years ago, with Zach and Brooks replacing Adam and Bill on the track. This is the musical equivalent of when you finally get that Camaro you've been working on for years back on the road. There's a new purr to the engine, a new hum as the frame hugs the curves and you rev it back up to full speed in the straightaway. I'm still thrilled to have heard new life breathed into a song that I've been listening to almost since the day I got into punk.
31. Envy, "Seimei" - like Adulkt Life, I'm going to grant Envy a slot on any best of mix that I make, because I know, even without hearing it, I'm going to fall in love. One of the most powerful bands to ever do it, back with new songs. It's amazing.
32. ConSec, "You're Not Going Anywhere" - you start to run out of interesting things to say in spaces like this, things that aren't just "this punk/HC/oi! band is worth checking out". And that's tough, because a band like ConSec, a band whose discovery led me to other bands and a new scene to explore, deserves better than that. I'll fully admit; I don't have it right this second, tho I'll reserve the right to come back to it at a later date and write more. This song gets right to the fukkin' point in 0:58, a nihilistic napalm attack of a song.
33. Botch, "One Twenty Two" - I cannot even believe this recording exists. A new Botch song in 2022. I guess it was worth sticking around.
34. Fat Jock, "Line Up Eat Shit" - well, if you want to sum up things, I can think of no better song. It's negative as hell and offers not a single thing for the future, but we sing it anyway, because to live with an unbowed back is the finest revenge.

Holy shit, we made it. 34 songs. 77 minutes. This blog is over!

Click here to download.

various artists - Power Flush: San Francisco, Seattle & You

The rare "two cities' scenes" compilation, spread between Seattle and San Francisco, courtesy of Broken Rekids in San Francisco, and the Emerald City's Rathouse Records. There are some strong contributions here, provided by the Gits, 7 Year Bitch, and Alcohol Funnycar from up this way, and J Church, Naked Aggression, and Bedlam Rovers from the land of the Golden Gate. There are a pair of contributions from S.F.'s Mudwimin, including a collab with Steel Pole Bath Tub. Mudwimin were one of those mysterious bands that my riot grrrlfriend had dubbed tapes of, but I had no recollection of ever hearing. 

If there's one thing that comes to mind while I was listening to this, it was, "god DAMN I'm getting old!" I'm sure I could find distro lists from Broken inside 7"s I've owned for a quarter century without even really looking. Just about every band on this list was someone whose records I priced and shelved before the year 2000. It doesn't feel that long ago, but that copyright date doesn't lie. This came out 29 years ago.

The fact that I published "Power Flush" less than 12 hours after most people consumed mass quantities of food during Thanksgiving is mere coincidence, I assure you.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Eye Of The Needle

I am an absolute sucker for spending a few bucks on anything local that I'm unfamiliar with. "Eye Of The Needle", a sampling of 1990-era Seattle (non-Sub Pop categories), fits that description to a T. It took some deep diving on Discogs to determine I was the least bit familiar with even two of the 18 bands/artists here. I'd heard Aaiiee on this Screamers tribute CD that came out about 20 years ago; apparently, they've stayed together as a band of what I'm sure are now 50- to 60-year-old weirdos making weirdo music for fellow weirdos. Laura Love, appearing here as part of "folk-funk feminist foursome" Venus Fury, did a couple of records for Mercury in the last 90s; possibly the major's bid for some Lilith Fair dollars? Other than that, it's a wide swath of music from folks who, I presume, provided a vital enough portion of the greater scene in the Emerald City 30+ years ago, when wee folks like me on the other side of the country were being bombarded for the first time by Mudhoney and Melvins and Fastbacks. A cross-section, if you will. I loved diving into this without any larger context than, "here's a little slice of history that you'll be completely unfamiliar with."

Discogs

Click here to download.

Rocky Votolato - s/t

The first solo record from Seattle's Rocky Votolato. He's a man who, in this day and age, will come to your living room and play to your closest friends and strangest strangers, all whilst you quaff a glass of wine and hum along to "White Daisy Passing". I've seen him/booked him about a half dozen times over the years, and never been disappointed.

It's worth noting (to me, at least) that this was initially co-released by Henry's Finest Recordings. I live about 10 minutes from Henry's Finest's mailing address. The universe is immense, yet tiny.

If you come across him, ask Rocky about acting in "The Edge of Quarrel".

Discogs

Click here to download.

The Stuck Ups - The Stuck-Ups

I'll keep this quick, as the dog will only lay in my lap for so long without being petted.

The Stuck Ups were a turn-of-the-millenium garage punk quartet from Seattle who did two full-lengths for Long Gone John, as well as making an appearance on "Dirtnap Across The Northwest". This, their first LP, is a pretty damned good release from the mid 600's of the Sympathy catalog, slotted right between "White Blood Cells" and "Lack Of Communication". It's a relic of that time when stripped down punk and power pop was getting a lot of well-deserved attention from the general music-buying public. Salad days, my friends.

The dog stirs. Back to my official duties.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Blood On The Flat Track: Soundtrack From The Documentary

I was futzing about immediately following an interview (the first in-person one I've had in eight years) when two things happened. I got an e-mail from a prospective employer, telling me that I would not be hired for a gig I've interviewed for three times. It really bummed me out. I got out of the car and strolled into the chain thrift store, hoping to take my mind off the disappointment of a small rejection. And then the second thing happened.

I stumbled across a small vein of WA state indie CD and weird hip-hop on the shelf. Any time I do so is guaranteed to cheer me up immensely. The hip-hop was a bust; none of the CDs had the right discs in them, so I wouldn't be bringing home those Rhymesayers or Rawkus releases. But there was a bit of gold sitting up there, in the form of the soundtrack to "Blood on The Flat Track". I didn't even know a soundtrack had been released, but there it was, in all its physical glory. It looked to be a CD Baby pressing; a CDr with a barcode, a basic layout, some artwork...just a step up from what you could do with a home computer.

"But the sounds, man, tell me about the sounds!", I hear you hollerin'. There's five Dirtbombs tracks here, compiled from a wide range of sources. That, right there, is worth the price of admission, especially when that price is just a buck ninety-nine. The Kent 3, Bellingham garage rockers of some renown from 20+ years ago, also a quartet of tracks from their catalog. A Frames did a record from Sub Pop about 15 years ago that I remember digging; they contribute a pair of cuts. All in all, there's 18 tracks here, all of which are pretty great, standing proudly alongside any comp of PNW punk rock that Estrus, Dirtnap, Super Electro, or Empty released in the past 20 years.

Whoever put this together provided a pretty great soundtrack to an equally great documentary about roller derby. And whoever dropped this off at the Everett Value Village has my thanks, because it's what I've been listening to for the past few days.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Unwound - live at the Breakroom, 1999-10-26

Unwound (photo by J. Winterberg)

Back before it was Chop Suey, but after it was an auto parts store, 1325 E. Madison St. in Seattle was known as the Breakroom. I never went there, seeing as how I lived on the opposite coast, but I heard many a tale of it, since I booked a lot of WA state bands who played there. And when they'd play a show at the Ottobar or Talking Head, they'd inevitably bring up this spot that held around 200 people that they loved playing.

Unwound headlined there in the fall of 1999, supported by the relatively obscure (but well worth tracking down) Yind and the less obscure Hovercraft. Unwound was a year off the release of "Challenge For A Civilized World", and just starting to debut tracks that would appear on their final studio LP, "Leaves Turn You Inside Out". "Off This Century", "October All Over", and "Summer Freeze" pop up here, not fully fleshed out, but showing the powerful songwriting that'd be developed by the time "Leaves" came out 18 months later. "Laszlo" also turns up here; it wouldn't get its wax debut until Numero Group put the "Empire" retrospective until 2015.

All in all, a pretty great Unwound set. I dunno how you feel about them, but I've always thought they were pretty underrated, truth be told. Check for yourself.

Click here to download.

Post #300: Kind Of Like Spitting - 2004 4-track demos

I try to bring some real quality for every post, but when I hit a landmark like a post that ends in "00", I feel like it's time to really dig deep for something most folks haven't heard. So let me give you something from my old friend Ben.

I met Ben Barnett for the first time when he was opening for Braid and Cross My Heart at the old Ottobar in 1999. Braid was on what was then billed as their final tour, soon to partition into Hey Mercedes and the Firebird Band. I know XMH was playing songs from "The Reason I Failed History", arguably their finest record. But it was Kind Of Like Spitting that blew me away, with a folky emo sound that I hadn't really experienced before. Plaintive songs, cracking vocals, violin accompaniment? Yes, yes, and hell yes! I bought the "Birds Of A Feather" 7" that night, and damn near wore through the vinyl over the next year between listening at home and playing it on my radio show.

When Ben came back to Baltimore the following year, he was playing solo, backed with an Insound tour EP and more plainly showing his influences (Joni Mitchell! Jimmie Rodgers! Leonard Cohen!). I ended up chatting with him for almost an hour after his set in the parking lot next to the Sidebar, just rapping about music and touring and how to deal with depression with art. We exchanged numbers, and I told him to give me a shout if he was coming back through town and needed a place to crash. Within a few years, I'd end up booking him a number of shows, both as Kind Of Like Spitting and with the first Thermals tour. The stays would range from a few hours to a few days, and it was great to chop it up with hot goss about what was happening in Seattle and Portland, giggling about his buddies who were ending up in Spin Magazine.

Sometime in the summer of 2004, Ben came to stay with the girlfriend and I in our garden apartment on Calvert St. for a night or two, and ended up crashing for a couple weeks. It'd been a couple of years since he'd put out "Bridges Worth Burning" with Barsuk, and was pivoting towards a more folky sound. After all, mainstream emo only had room for one sensitive singer-songwriter in Chris Carraba, so why not lean into a love of Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger? Before he split for Philadelphia, Ben laid a CD-R on me of songs he was demoing for a new record. And that's what we have here.

The material from these 17 songs would make up parts of the next two Kind Of Like Spitting full-lengths: 2005s "In The Red" and 2006s "The Thrill Of The Hunt". The arrangements are simple and spare. "Worker Bee" here is just acoustic guitar, double tracked vocals and metronome, which gives this early version a real ghostly feel. "Grapes" from "In The Red" is titled "Line And Sinker" in these demos, and has this wonderful hissy quality that reminds me of Ben's earliest tapes. It's the songs that don't appear in studio versions elsewhere that are worth diving into. There are covers of Neil Young's "Losing End", Bad Religion's "You", and Mojave 3's "In Love With A View", the first of which only appears here. "Cheap Drinks" is a great song that really deserved a fleshed-out version. But the capper here is the beautiful rendition of "This Little Light Of Mine", the lullaby turned protest song. It's really outstanding.

I'll argue that Ben Barnett is one of the most underappreciated singer/songwriters of the past 25 years. There's an integrity and honesty present that few artists possess, and fewer still manage to not to lord over people. He's just a fella, as willing to talk and sing about the folk scene in the late 60s as he is about smoking dank buds. There's more than a bit of Ben Barnett in the character Llewyn Davis, although I doubt the Coens ever listened to "$100 Room". That authenticity, even when there's appeal to turning it all down, can't be manufactured; it just is. And it's present in these songs, whether an original composition or in a cover choice.

If you like what you've heard here, and you've not familiar with the Kind Of Like Spitting catalog, swing by the Bandcamp page, where's there's just a monster amount of music to dive into. As I noted a few months ago, the newest Kind Of Like Spitting release is a tribute to the late Karl Hendricks, benefitting his family. Anything you purchase on the page goes to the Hendricks clan, a worthy spend if ever there was one.

Thanks for your continued visits, friends. Enjoy.

Click here to download.

Iron Lung // Hatred Surge - Broken: A Collaboration

I wish that I'd gotten into Iron Lung sooner. There's really no excuse; I was aware of them back when they did a split with Teen Cthulhu in 2001. But it literally took me moving to their stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest for me to revisit any of their records I'd picked up over the years. And that's a shame, because their entire catalog is brutal.

"Broken" was a collaboration between Jensen & Jon from Iron Lung and Alex from Austin's Hatred Surge. This isn't pleasant, easy going music.. If Basil Poledouris had grown up listening to Napalm Death, he probably would have written music like this for his score to "Conan the Barbarian". It's snakecult slaying music, the soundtrack to a wasteland ride towards glory. It's the opposite of yacht rock. And I'll never get to bang my head to it live. C'est la vie.

There were only around 1,300 of these made; 101 in a Chaos in Tejas press, 1000 on purple, and a third pressing of 170 on red. It's not particularly expensive, unless you're looking for one of those Chaos pressings. I would, however, suggest spending the $3 for a digital copy from Iron Lung Records. It's cheap at thrice the price.

Bandcamp

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The Fall-Outs - s/t

Monday is here, and I need something to start the week off right. So let's kick off with one of the great underappreciated Seattle records. Here's the self-titled Fall-Outs LP.

I wrote about this back in 2009, so I guess it's technically a re-up, but let's pretend it's not, shall we? After all, the writing in that post was straight up garbage, and 11 years have sweetened the taste of this here slab even more. "The Fall-Outs" was just the second release on Steve Turner's (Green River, Mudhoney) Super Electro Sound Recordings, a label chock full of great garage punk and Art Chantry layouts. The Fall-Outs had already been kicking around for seven years when this came out; a tape, a pair of 7"s, and a split all proceeded this release. Guitarist Dave Holmes and drummer Dino Lencioni were joined by Turner here. The result was outstanding.

Of course, I wouldn't experience it for another 8 years. I know I'd heard it in the interim; my buddy Greg, who was a monster Sub Pop fan, stuck in the Baltimore suburbs, had asked me to special order a copy of the 1995 CD issue, and had sung its praises. I wouldn't really hear it, though, until I started working at Reptilian, which kept a copy underneath the counter and played it at least twice a week. It reminded me of the line from "The Simpsons": "Too crazy for Boys Town; too young for Crazy Town." It had a poppier sound than the likes of New Bomb Turks, Mono Men, or the Makers, to name three contemporaries. But it also had an edge to it that ran in the blood of Washington garage bands.

The Fall-Outs were done by the time I got hip to them. They'd made a pair of additional LPs, released a few more singles, and slowly faded into history. Estrus put out their 3rd LP in 2004; I have no clue if it'd been recorded in the previous century, or if they'd reunited for one last run. I still feel like they deserved a lot better. I'd rather listen to this than the Strokes any day.

Discogs

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Sex Vid - Voyeur

I was thinking about mysterious guy hardcore recently, and what a feverish, overblown internet thing it was, conjured out of message board hype and limited run vinyl. Now, it's not that there weren't, simultaneously, a bunch of bands making grimy hardcore influenced as much by industrial music as they were UK82 or the early Touch & Go releases. But to assign sub-genre to highly anti-commerical bands is kinda beside the point, no?

Sex Vid are one of those bands I remember best from that time. They hailed from Kill Rock Stars country, but sounded like they'd been raised on a diet of third-gen Die Kreuzen bootleg cassettes they found while skateboarding down at a truck stop. I'd heard them for the first time on the second Fucked Up mixtape. And, unlike kindred spirits the Repos or Vile Gash, there was no redeeming art option to the presentation. Sex Vid was all degraded photocopies, UHF static, whispers through a ham radio. They might as well have been from a goddamn separate universe from the branding machinery that had been infiltrating punk music for most of the past decade. This was ugly music for the uncool.

Oddly enough, "Voyeur", their final 7", is the one Sex Vid record I don't own a physical copy of. It's a live document from 2008, from their home territory of Olympia. It was also the second of three records they'd release in 2008, culiminating in the "Communal Living" 12". They were cooked by the time 2010 rolled around. Guitarist Dave Harvey has left the most evidence of his post-Sex Vid life; as the good Captain Tripps Ballsington, he's recorded a ton of your favorite records of the past ten years, including the new All Hits and Gag slabs, of which I'm a fan.

Discogs

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Dead Low Tide - self-titled

Spencer from Dead Low Tide (photo from 10 Things Jesus Wants You To Know)

I was later than I should have been, falling in love with the Murder City Devils. I had written them off initially as hipster rockabilly wannabes, based solely on a picture I saw of Spencer Moody in some fanzine. Nothing about music, mind you. I'd just get hip deep into these weird ass takes throughout my early 20s where I'd lean real hard into hating on something, no matter the evidence to the contrary. I mean, if you're going to have shitty, baseless opinions, your 20s are probably the best time to get them out of the way. So I missed every MCD show that came through Baltimore during their run. Ol' Schmucky Magoo over here didn't get hip until I heard "Press Gang" on a Sub Pop sampler that came thru word in an ADA promo box. And BOY did I feel dumb!

I wasn't going to repeat my mistake when I heard of Dead Low Tide, the band comprised of three ex-Devils and Mike from godheadSilo. They'd self-released a 7" in 2002 that I'd picked up and played to death. When they finally made it East, we had heard they were soon to record their first LP, to be released on NYC's Tiger Style Records. Tiger Style was a label I was already paying attention to; they'd put out the second Convocation Of LP, and had put out some killer Rye Coalition records. They had proven they possessed good taste. Between that, the pedigree, and the 7", I figured I'd be due a good time when I saw them.

All I recall of the night is whiskey, and copious amounts of it. So it's fair I don't remember much more than:
1) I saw them at the Ottobar.
2) I remember Gabe, their roadie of some renown, capering about throughout their set and drinking

Description

Jägermeister with me at some point.
3) I woke the following day at 1pm, having missed a film class and wearing a series of mysterious cuts/scratches on my face and down my body to my knees.
I couldn't tell you who else they played with, how they sounded, who I attended with, or how I traveled the two blocks from the show to my 3rd floor apartment. Did I have a good time? Apparently.

As it turns out, Dead Low Tide were not long for this world. They went home to Seattle, recorded this here slab, and promptly broke up. The end. How anticlimatic.

The record's pretty good, tho.

Discogs

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The Beatniks - Moo

THIS is exactly what I look for when I go out thrifting. Bear with me while I explain.

The Beatniks, today, appear to be one of those dad bands, playing covers from the 60s and 70s, at the street fair that the suburbs are typically full of this time of year, COVID notwithstanding. They play well enough, the slot in anywhere on a mixed bill, they offend no one. And that's nice for people. Hell, you can even have them play during dinner at a corporate retreat, and the middle managers will go OFF! Their Facebook page is chock full of testimonials to their greatness, and while it's not my thing, far be it for me to bag on dudes in their 50s to keep making music and getting paid to do it.

However, in 1992, they were a quartet of up-and-comers from Seattle. And this was their self-released EP. And I don't hate it. It has this early 90s, pop alternative sound that slotted in well with grunge, but came from a much cleaner sonic place. The recording and mix from Don Gilmore is really solid; it didn't surprise me to read his credit list and see his work with Eve 6 and Lit. I REALLY like the drumming here, too.

I grabbed this initially because it was a buck, and no one showed that they owned a copy on Discogs. I like being that guy. Sure enough, I found another one deep in Snohomish County, this time for $2, so I grabbed that as well. Even with music I'm not in love with, I feel weird about records being orphaned. Records like this are worth remembering, even if your website refuses to acknowledge it.

Discogs

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