45 Grave - Black Cross 7"

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The other day down by the creek behind my house the buzzards (turkey vultures) slowly started coming out for what must have been something dead or dying in the trees.  We never did find it but a couple of days later as we were out hiking you could smell death and decay in the air.   If you check, there are 13 buzzards in the last picture.  Kind of foreshadowing this post.

I know this has been posted elsewhere, like here, Detailed Twang, but if you know me you know that redundancy is not such a bad thing.  Some things need to be said over and over again, just like some records need to be posted over and over again.  This one is that good in my opinion.  I think it was my first purchase at Vinyl Fetish in Hollywood, about the time it came out in 1981.  I had already been exposed to the occult through my family and I bought this one for the record cover alone.  If the cover was cool though, the music just blew me away.  Punk, hardcore, deathrock (in that order?) is the best way to describe it.  If somehow you are unfamiliar with the band check this, 45 Grave for a little bit of info.  This is one of my favorite 7"s hands down... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGVXTX3NHxE]

While doing this post I was kind of enjoying doing some research on the band, checking out their discography and just listening to their music.  I had never heard their first vinyl track, off of the Darker Skratcher comp.  A new wavy cover of an old early 60's tune but kind of interesting... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eed34wTE2h8]

Other than the Black Cross 7", I knew I liked their tracks off of the incredible Hell Comes To Your House comp, but my copy has a needle fracturing scratch on that side of the album.  If you haven't heard that comp you need to because there is a lot of good music to be found there... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4zwXaLLYHc?start=1177]

After these tunes the band basically got completely deathrock and kind of lost me on their other recordings.

In my search I was surprised to find a cover of one of the tunes off of the 7" I posted by none other than the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Kind of a trip but these guys were old Hollywood scenesters so I guess it's no surprise that they would choose to cover one of Hollywood's best. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-fv1o_Tgw&w=560&h=315]

EDIT: Sorry, links to tunes deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...in all seriousness pick up a repress of some of these and support the band/label...

Crass - Feeding Of The 5000

My son hanging and waiting with the horses while I fill the stock tank.  I don't know about where everyone else is at but it's been pretty hot around here lately.  I'm okay until it gets over a 100 degrees (what is that in celsius?) and you get that hot wind blowing.  The part of Kansas we're in isn't known for shade and there hasn't been a cloud in the sky.  I wouldn't mind a rain but then it would be humid as hell.  Oh well a person can always hop into the stock tank, lay down in a creek or head on down to the community pool. I guess we got it from the Crass thing but in high school we used to drive around and spray paint stencils like this one all over the place.  Kind of pointless in a way but it sure was fun.  Grafitti art was really popular back in the mid 80's, the kind that was more artful than these stencils.  I remember the cops checking our hands for paint on at least one occasion but we were clean.  I kept the stencils under the floor mat. Another top ten one here for you all to mull over and like the rest there will probably be some disagreement.  To me this one in particular is too important to at least agree that it is historically significant.  I first got into Crass in 1981 when I bought the Nagasaki Nightmare/Big A Little A 7".  So different from anything I had heard up to that point.  Feeding of the 5000 released before that in 1978, and it just blew me away.  They had so much to say and the way they said it, stood on it's own, at least to my relatively young ears at the time.  What they also served to do for me was to open up the doors on to a lot of other really good stuff both on and off the Crass record label.  Poison Girls, the Mob,  Rudimentary Peni, Icons of Filth, Conflict and so on.  Later on as my friends were listening to GBH and the Exploited, I still favored the Crass stuff as far as Englich punk was concerned.  One thing about Crass is that everyone has an opinion about them and it tends to be more than just they suck or they rule.  A good example is at Peter's killer KBDR site here, http://www.kbdrecords.com/2008/01/30/punk-is-dead/ .  They obviously had an impact and whether that was positive or negative is completely up to you.  I know this is not rare and is still available but because it's in my top ten, I felt compelled to post it anyway, if only for historical purposes.  Let me know what you think. EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSZo8nMtvE&w=790&h=593]

Avengers - S/T 7"

B. I can't possibly respond to all your comments even though I did read them all.  I did want to say thank you and your welcome for you interest in what's going on here.  I look forward to you coming back.

The posts have slowed down a bit around here because my wife and son, who is out for his regular summer stay, have had me pretty busy.   Some of the best kind of busy in my book.  All kinds of things on the agenda, video games, movies, skating, fishing, the pool, my back yard river with the dogs and so on.  I know you guys with families understand.  ;)

 Chocolate animal crackers have become my favorite snack, cheap and yummy.  They are good on ice cream, dipped in peanut butter, or just by themselves as an after supper treat.     When I was looking for info on this post I found the picture of this record (plus my usual crappy photo next to that) and it selling for $90 here,  http://cgi.ebay.com/THE-AVENGERS-PAINT-IT-BLACK-US-PS-45-1983-PUNK-KBD_W0QQitemZ220254141080QQcategoryZ306QQcmdZViewItem .  I think this record is pretty good but man I could use that kind of money.  I got it for $2.49 from the Rough Trade record store years ago and I thought that was a pretty fair price.  Not a bad cover of my favorite Stones tune and the other song is alright too.  Here's what flex had to say if you care, http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/a/300.php .  I didn't look too hard but I really didn't  find very much.  You can get these tracks and some more of their stuff here, http://www.newrapidshare.com/2008/03/avengers-avengers-1978.html EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

VA - Anti-Trendy Zombie Comp 7"

 The highways in the country have traffic sometimes too.  Notice my bone collection, reflected in the windshield?  I'm still getting anywhere from a 70 to 100 hits a day which is cool, but my last several posts haven't gotten but a few comments, especially when you consider half of them are mine.  Oh well, I'm not complaining, there's no stopping me now.  This was one of those record store buys that probably happened when I couldn't find what I was looking for.  these comps were good for that in that you are taking a chance, but you have several bands to choose from.  This one is a Fresno comp so that probably had something to do with the purchase.  Quite the mix here in sounds but I would say the first band has a kind of a hardcore thing going, the second more of a punky thing and the rest kind of in the powerviolence/grindcore vein.  I couldn't find any info about this comp or really any of the bands, so your info would be appreciated.  No year either but my guess is the late 80s, early 90s.  My personal fave is Disposable None, how about yours? EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

Apes of Wrath - S/T flexi

I had this ripped, edited and uploaded but I knew I saw this posted somewhere but I just couldn't remember where.  It was tough to weed out all the unrealted material when searching because Apes Of Wrath comes up with all kinds of stuff.  I found it hear, http://www.7inchpunk.com/?p=734 .  Does that bug anyone that I post stuff that I know is posted elsewhere?  I don't do it on purpose and once again, unless someone is donating something to post, I only post stuff that is in my collection.  The 7inchpunk post is better for info and scans but I don't 80kb/s is enough to dedicate to a band.

I don't think I really knew what I was getting when I got this but wasn't disappointed when I did.  I was into getting flexis at the time and of course this fell into that category, but what I was into was a lot harder than this.  Still has that punk flavor but in that melodic sing songy kind of way.  I don't know, tell me what you think.

EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

VA - No Control At The Country Club Live

Another one in the series of Nemesis Live 7"s as a sort of follow up to the previous post.  This one is number 3 and I actually like it better than the first one I posted.  Visual Discrimination and Bad Religion are the stand outs so that's one tune per side.  This represents the only other one I have in the series, but I did find this best of here, http://x43x.blogspot.com/2008/05/best-of-nemesis-live.html . Not really much else to say on this one so enjoy it or not. EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something... Did find the two BR songs off the 7" on YT... Bad Religion - I Want Something More / We're Only Gonna Die

Was looking for the VD songs on YT, but now luck, instead you get... [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jYgSuMrXQ4&w=560&h=315]

VA - The Iceman Cometh... 7"

Not much to say on this one, the first from Nemesis Records.  I have at least one more of these 4 way live hardcore splits that I'll have to post soon.  The first two tracks don't really stand out for me but the second two do.  The funny thing is that there is some kind of east coast, west coast, Boston, OC rivalry thing going on between these two bands.  And who say hardcore didn't have it's own soap opera drama thing going on.  I liked No For An Answer on a couple of other things I'd heard but I felt like Slapshot was a little too jock rock for me.  What do I know though?  I like the whole concept though of putting out these live comp EPs though.  Flex had this to say, "recorded live at the Whiskey in Hollywood May 17th 1989. 500 pressed on colored vinyl (clear?), hand numbered. Music is quite good, all bands play powerful s.e. hardcore. Not too original, but a good record anyway."  Let me know. EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

Asbestos Death - Dejection 7"

 Can you tell which deck is mine and which is my son's or should I say which deck gets used regularly and which one is nice to look at?  Jason over at http://loresviscera.blogspot.com/ got him the Spitfire wheels and a whole bunch of other gear.  When I got this I was really into the grind thing going on and thought that was what I was getting.  What seemed on the back cover to be a track listing, "Pain the seed.  Mind the soil.  Humanity.  The infection.  Skull.  Grinding.  Shattering.  The drained carcass of humankind.  Remains.  Woe to chain." was actually lyrics to the song Nail.  So instead of getting something like 11 tracks on one side of a 7", I was only getting one.  Needless to say I was disappointed, but in the long run I was pretty pleased with this record.  Slow, deliberate crust, that kind of reminded me of Neurosis.  Flex had this to say, "Slow & grinding death core, not unlike Neurosis, but a lot less intense. B side is an instrumental. Interesting, but too monotone to be good."  From what I've read, these guys only put this out and another 7".  Years later they re-released both on a 10".  Here's both of those, http://eirecore.blogspot.com/2007/07/asbestos-death.html .  I found some live stuff here, http://sludgeswamp.blogspot.com/2007/12/youll-get-sleep-later.html .  If you dig crust, Then I think you'll like this one. EDIT: Sorry, links to tune deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

Dave Brubeck - Greatest Hits

I got kinda spoiled there and had a few posts where there were 20+ comments.  A little on the slow side right now (not complaining at all though), but maybe that speaks for the quality of my posts.  Sorry about that, but that's why I have all those links for you to check out.  Since it's kinda slow right now I thought I would do something that needs posting somewhere and it may as well be here.

  In my life I have wandered all over the place musically in terms of checking things out, but I always had punk/hardcore as my home base.   You can probably tell that from my posts when you look at the categories and to be honest with you I've seen several live shows of bands that fit each of my categories.  During my time I did the Jazz thing a little bit, but really I was just dabbling.  I think to really appreciate it to it's fullest it helps to be a musician.  There is so mush technicality and complexity to it that there is more to it than saying this sounds good.  I was kind of more into the Fusion Jazz thing though and got to see some live stuff in that genre.  My first Jazz concert was Return To Forever (Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Al DiMeola and Lenny White) at the Universal Amphatheater in about 1985.  It was their first concert together in several years.  I actually saw all kinds of stuff at that venue, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams Jr. Joan Baez, BB King, The Weavers and others.  I bet you all didn't think I had that kind of variety in music in me, did you?  Ha, ha, I wander all over the place to the point that people just can't get into this blog.  I do apologize for that, I wish I could give you all the music you want all the time, but that's just not me.  Oh well.  You need to broaden your horizons a little bit and give this stuff a go.  If you truly are a music lover, you need to at least download this and put it in the part of the hard drive you never look in.  If you're a musician you ought to be able to appreciate the crazy time signature of these tunes.  The drummer, Joe Morello, is insane on this stuff.  As far as Dave Brubeck check out this excellent article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Brubeck .  Okay enough babbling on about a post that no one will listen to, but maybe your parents or grandparents could. EDIT: Sorry, links to tunes deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...

Plaid Retina - S/T 7"

 I'm not necessarily a proud smoker, but they need to quit taxing the hell out of me and telling me where I can and can't smoke.    Sort of a follow up to the last post with the first 7" from these guys, released in 88 I believe.  12 songs on a 45 rpm 7" should tell you something about this one, short fast songs.  A nice history here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid_Retina .  I did some leg work for you guys that may be interested and looked to see what all I could find from these guys out there.  I couldn't find everything they've put out but I was surprised to find some live stuff here, http://screamsfromthegutter.blogspot.com/2008/01/plaid-retina-april-4-1990-dc-space.html .  On top of that one of my favorite sites has a track or two from this comp, http://fugitiveequilibrium.blogspot.com/2008/06/attention-sweaty-collector-nerds.html .  I was bummed because after I had it all ripped, edited and uploaded I found this same 7" posted here, http://www.7inchpunk.com/?p=621 .  Not trying to step on any toes but this is a site dedicated to my music collection, so I'm posting it anyway.  Check out what he has there, because I did notice better scans and a little bit more info.  These guys really show that hardcore didn't end in 86. EDIT: Sorry, links to tunes deleted for fear of the copyright police...they were damn good too.  Go give your money to itunes or something...