Sense Field - Under the Radar

I'm definitely in "writing-for-the-sake-of-writing" mode. For one, I spent five minutes explaning the thought process behind this whole thing to my boss, who, as is his wont, proceeded to shit on it. Well, fuck 'im. And fuck a rock star posed picture, like you see above.

I threatened to post something about Sense Field about a month ago. The initial threat took place on a posting of the Fabric 7" on Zen and the Art of Face Punching (which is maybe the worst record I've ever downloaded...ever). Please. Let me explain something. Most of us are either young now, or were young not too long ago. There are a million musical skeletons in our collective closets. You could be Craig Finn or Ian MacKaye or some other god of rawk and you probably listened to some miserable, embarassing shit when you were 17 like E.L.O., 7 Seconds (circa '87), Madonna or the Spice Girls. Hell, Lemmy played for four years in Hawkwind. Well, I was 17 in 1994, and I listened to Sense Field. A lot of it. More of it than was good for me. And I fucking loved them.

I used to bomb around the Maryland/Pennsylvania border, back in '97, up by Conowingo Dam, blasting Building out of the shitty factory speakers of Ben Casey's Jetta. I was young, fer Crissake. I didn't know trite from a hole in my head. They were a pop band...no different from Journey to my ears. And I was stoked for their first record due out on Warner Bros. I waited 3 years for that record, which never came. The label didn't hear a single, or so I was told. And the decision was made 2 weeks before the release date! What the hell was that? A friend of a friend burnt me a CD of the promo that had leaked out. In those pre-Torrent days, this was a true coup. And the record wasn't bad? What was management at the WB thinking?

A few years later, long after the excitement of getting that burnt CD had worn off, I found a promo copy of Under the Radar in the dollar bin at the now-defunct Joe's Music Emporium on Harford Road. So the rip here comes from that. I've never felt so nerdy as to play this side-by-side with Tonight & Forever, the 2001 Nettwerk release that announced Sense Field's return to recorded media. Supposedly, T&F is a re-recorded version of UtR. I dunno...make up your own mind. It's weird to me how eminently forgettable bands who I once loved now sound...

Sense Field - Under the Radar

RIYL: the In-Flight Program sampler, alternative radio in 2002, emo as a slur

Mineral / Jimmy Eat World / Sense Field

Sense Field (photo by Josh Withers)

A quick one, as I'm uploading about a gig of music for your listening pleasure.

This three-way split is about as peak 90s emo as it gets. Mineral, Jimmy Eat World, and Sense Field were, in 1997, about as close as one could get to mainstreaming emo. Mineral was on Crank!, and in between the release of their first and second LPs. Jimmy Eat World was a year off from recording "Clarity", and were a quartet of Arizona kids gutting it out in basements and VFWs with the slightest bit of support from Capitol Records. Sense Field had very quietly been signed by Warner Bros. the year before, and their record "Building" was actually showing up in Sam Goody. It was a weird time, especially since a lot of us had been around for all the post-Green Day/Offspring hullabaloo, and it felt like the mainstream was trespassing in the scene again.

Despite the tension present for a bunch of 19- and 20-year-olds having their youth exploited for the first time, this a pretty great non-album release. None of these recordings are available elsewhere, and Crank! pressed this on nine different colors of vinyl. It's veritable Pokemon of a split single! You get Mineral covering the Willie Nelson-penned classic "Crazy". You get Sense Field ripping through a demo version of "Every Reason", which I think tops the version on the "Part of the Deal" EP. However, the standout here is the Jimmy Eat World track, "Secret Crush", a ripper of a jukebox track at 3:08. This was the song that got me willing to listen to Jimmy Eat World.

Did I play this record on my radio show a lot? You bet I did. Did I put "Secret Crush" on a mix tape? For a girl? What am I, an amateur? You're damned right, I did. I'm sitting here, puzzling to remember if this was made for a tour, or for shits and giggles. I'm very pleased at how well it all holds up for me. I can see why the majors had an eye on developing this for a bigger audience.

Discogs

Click here to download.

The Musings of Sense Field and Running From Dharma

I don't write about split releases all that often, in part because there aren't a great deal many that I've wanted to revisit. But this one resurfared recently, and upon giving it a few spins, I figured, "what the hell?" and sucked a high-quality, 320kbps rip up into the ol' MEGA portal for your listening pleasure.

I've wirtten a fair amount of Sense Field-related posts over the years, but nothing since 2020, so as one of my favorite bands of a certain era, it makes sense (HA!) to dig back into my recollections and share this latter-day release from 2004. You get a Smiths cover and a live recording of Killed For Less's "Soft". The other two tracks are from Central PA's Running From Dharma. Truth be told, I should be able to remember these guys, but nothing comes to mind, despite an acoustic version of "Drive Not Driving" and their own take on a Marr/Morrissey classic.

It has occurred to me in the writing of this blog that this was the last new Sense Field release before Jon Bunch's death in 2016. What a loss. This is a good way to remember a very good guy.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Reason To Believe ‎– When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance

I shared the Reason To Believe EP, "The Next Door", last month, so I figured it'd make sense to follow that up with their only LP. "When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance" featured an all-new rhythm section joining vocalist Jon Bunch and guitarist Chris Evenson. It's a bit more melodic than the EP, a bit more hardcore than the Sense Field demo that'd come out almost simultaneously with this release on Nemesis.

I have no first hand experience with how this was received; I was all of 12 when it came out: at least two years away from having any sense of what DIY was, or knowing even who the Sex Pistols were. I can only imagine, based on the timing of this release with the Sense Field demo, was that it was a classic tale of a break-up just as the record's ready. Which shouldn't take away from the fact that it's quite good.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Reason To Believe - The Next Door

I originally had something incredibly catty all set up to frame why Reason To Believe matters. But I honestly don't have it in me, especially in light of the events of the past few days. Let's give it a straight read, and let you decide if it's worth listening to 30 years after it came out.

Reason To Believe was a purveyor of that peculiar late-80s SoCal blend of youth crew hardcore, Dischord-style emo, and Sunset Strip hair metal. None of that is a dig; I'm not sure that sound could have come out of any place in the country that wasn't L.A. and Orange County. It also couldn't have happened at any other period of time. A few years earlier, and this would have been straightforward, Uniform Choice-like Cali hardcore. A few years later, and you would have got...well, you would have gotten Sense Field, which is what Reason To Believe eventually transitioned into. I remain a pretty diehard fan of Sense Field; "Building" should have gotten the recognition that "Bleed American" got five years later, and their unreleased record on Warner Bros. deserves a proper issue.

"The Next Door" was originally released by Soul Force Records in Scottsdale, a short lived label who also put out a pair of Ripcord American releases and the first Admiral 7". It was reissued after the first pressing by Nemesis Records, whose proprietor Big Frank Harrison also managed Reason To Believe. My copy is on Nemesis, a sharp looking second pressing that still sounds like it was a well-executed play to bring hardcore to a more mass audience. The rip comes from the CD version of RTB's 1990 LP, "When Reason Sleeps Demons Dance". I'll probably share that in the near future. In the meantime, give this a listen.

Discogs

Click here to download.

The Chase - The Better Part of Six Months

So I've become most attached to checking the Feedjit feed from time to time, just see who's poking their head in here (more folks than I'd expect), what's getting downloaded (there are A TON of Sense Field fans out there - CREE-PEE!), and who's using a Mac (cue obligatory Apple backpatting). If you write, and enjoy the masturbatory sensation of watching the world come to your door, I fully and heartily endorse this widget and/or bathtime product.

Whatchu got hear is a the only full-length from The Chase, who hailed from the "south of Baltimore/north of DC" 'burbs and generally rocked shit for a few years back at the dawn of the millenium. If you have any desire to listen to screamy, pop hardcore, then this'll be right up your alleyway. These guys used to support just about every fun HC show in Baltimore back in the day. Fun side note: these P.G. County bamas are playing a reunion show in Silver Spring, MD on the 20th of December with At Best. It'll be like it's 2002 all over again!

The Chase - The Better Part of Six Months

RIYL: punks vs. mods, College Park house shows, ninjas vs. Frankenstein

various artists - Anti-Matter

(Mouthpiece photo stolen from Brooklyn Vegan)

It would appear that the past couple of weeks have been chock-full of 90's hardcore, what with Burning Fight taking place in Chicago this past weekend, and the associated book releasing via Revelation Records this Wednesday. I've been listening to Anti-Matter a lot as a result. I'll put it side by side with any number of compilations released in the past 30 years. This record is loaded top to bottom with a great cross-section of the bigger touring HC and emo bands from the early & mid 90's. What other one place can you get music from:

-Quicksand
-Farside
-Garden Variety
-Chamberlain
-Sense Field
-Lifetime
-Mouthpiece

In late 2007, Norm Arenas & Revelation Records released The Anti-Matter Anthology, which compiled a huge chunk of his hugely-influential zine under one cover. My only beef is that Revelation didn't reissue this record to tie-in with the book release. Oh, well...their loss is your gain.

There's no doubt that I'm high on Anti-Matter because of when I listened to it and the strong East Coast bias to the band selection. But I still say this is totally crucial...a must hear!










various artists - Anti-Matter
(click the record to DL)

RIYL: the mosh, the chest tap, newsprint

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.