various artists - Fiesta Comes Alive!

This is an all-time slammer of a comp, bringing together live tracks from Fiesta Grande's five fests, running from 1993 to 1997. It ticks so many boxes for me: live from Gilman Street; featuring numerous luminaries from the extreme punk scene; out on the always-choice Slap A Ham Records; a cover inspired by "Frampton Comes Alive".

If you like short, fast, and loud, this is a must have.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Crossed Out - 1990-1993

When you collect records, you inevitably sell off music that you regret disposing of. Such is today's jam, the 1999 release of Crossed Out's discography, "1990-1993".

You could always count on Slap A Ham Records to put out records worth buying. Even a release like "Caveat Emptor" by Ancient Chinese Secret was interesting, if unloved. So it was that I ended up buying damned near everything Chris Dodge released from 1996 on to the end of the label in 2002. Spazz and the "Fiesta Comes Alive" comp were my gateway drugs, Hellnation and Fuck on the Beach were my heroin. Crossed Out was the PCP-laced joint I smoked way too much of.

Bad analogies aside, I'd heard enough "whoa" statements, and fallen deeply in love with power violence in 1999 that, when the Crossed Out discography came out late that year, I bought a copy on CD AND a copy on vinyl. I didn't typically buy multiple copies of records, but I knew I'd probably just leave the CD in my shitbox Grand Prix, so I wanted to have something to play at home, too. The LP lived in the stacks and probably only got listened to a few times before I sold it at an Ottobar flea market for some beer money. I held onto the CD until 2015, when I saw what it was selling for on Discogs, and shipped it off to a new home.

Like a lot of now-legendary bands from the early days of PV, Crossed Out were short lived. They played only 16 shows, which seems insane to me. They released a 7", appeared on two splits and one comp, and they were done with a "Fuck grindcore." by singer Dallas Van Kempen at the Fiesta Grande #1. Hell, they didn't even leave much of a photographic legacy behind. As far as I know, no one from the band went on to additional punk fame. But where the world of extreme music is concerned, you can put these folks up on the Mount Rushmore of power violence.

Discogs

Click here for download.