A.I.D.S.

2010-05-01T18:04:00.002-04:00

I probably won't be doing this blog anymore. I'm sure that's become quite obvious without my needing to say anything though and I'm sure that very little of you care. I am still sharing music on another site though. I've succumbed to Tumblr. Check out my page: Raise & Quell
The Tumblr page is a bit more simple than this blog was though. The idea is that I post a picture that doubles as a link to an mp3 uploaded onto Divshare, which you can then listen to. The pictures match up with the subject matter of the songs, some in quite an obvious fashion while others are more vague. The songs are somewhat random. They are all songs that I love and would like to share with the world but there is no rhyme or rhythm as to what is posted and when, at least not yet. For example, one page could have a techno track followed by a black metal song which is then followed by a synth pop classic and that is followed by a punk song. It's been fun so far.
Goodbye Blogspot!

2010-03-14T21:02:00.004-04:00

I saw the 8-Bit Alliance Tour last night (Anamanaguchi, Sabrepulse, Henry Homesweet, Starscream) and while I enjoyed the big name acts like Anamanaetc and Sabrepulse, I found in Starscream exactly what I think is missing from most 8-Bit. There are only two members and they appear to be quite young and look and act like what I assume is the typical fan of chiptune (scrawny body, somewhat nerdy appearance and certain meek subtleties like constantly looking down while they play and dancing in awkward form), yet somehow this unassuming duo rocked my fucking block off. No shit.

I like most of what is going on with 8-Bit music just fine, but like I said, there is always something missing for me personally. I can listen to a few songs or I can listen to one musician's album and then I have to move on, only to revisit the genre a week or so later and usually for the same short amount of time. Anamanaguchi brought something new with two guitars, a bass and drums, giving you the full sound and look of a rock band that makes watching chiptune in person not a bit weird at all. Sabrepulse has the energy, charisma and charm to give off a party vibe and once again, makes watching "video game music" live not so strange. But both of them still don't really move me. I enjoy them but, well, they're no Starscream.

What Starscream brings to the table is the influence of certain styles of music not normally incorporated in 8-Bit, such as Post-Rock. Throw in some jazzy discord and tons of energy and cook at 328 degrees for 20 minutes and... voilà! Finally some 8-Bit that I don't just like, but I love!

I realize that, naturally, since I am an admittedly casual listener of this type of music, I could very well just simply not know about other groups that are making noise very similar to this and/or I could be jumping the gun by exclaiming my love for this particular group when in reality I don't actually know that much about them at all. But, remember, this is only a blog. Not just that, but this is a blog that is barely updated and that no one reads anyway. So...fuck it? I'll go ahead and say right now that Starscream are my favorite 8-Bit group. Let's see what you think of them. Bon appétit!

Download: Starscream-Future, And It Doesn't Work + Remixes

While this EP is already available for free from 8bitpeoples, the version I've uploaded also includes remixes by the likes of Bit Shifter, Starpause, Covox and more.

2010-02-10T12:44:00.004-05:00

Axes To The Sky were first described to me as a "grindcore" band and at the time that is exactly what I was into, so I gave them a shot. I soon learned to stop trusting the musical opinions of the friend who recommended them to me. ATTS don't play grindcore. They don't play any specific sub genre of metal actually. They are just a metal band, simple as that. Music with great riffs and tons of energy played by a group of long haired goofballs that like to drink, party and listen to metal. Sounds like three million other bands, right? Well, if it aint broke...
Now if you really wanna get down to it, Axes sound a lot like older thrash and heavier power metal, with definite influences from big names like Sabbath (one of the albums I'm posting has a Sabbath pun as the title) and Maiden. But let's not get all caught up in that bullshit. Stretch your neck muscles out, find the tightest pair of jeans you've got, crack open a can of cheap beer and get ready to headbang.

Download: Axes To The Sky-S/T
Download: Axes To The Sky-Always Say Die

Axes are from Lincoln, Nebraska by the way. I never expected Nebraska to have a decent metal scene when I lived there for about 10 months a few years ago, but I was pleasantly surprised. I knew about Wasteoid but there is much more than that, and a good bit of punk history as well.
I'll get into that with another post though.

2010-02-04T12:39:00.002-05:00

Man, the Butthole Surfers are one of my favorite bands. I love the Butthole Surfers a lot. I don't want to get into this and come off like some little schoolgirl with a crush, so you just have to trust me. The Butthole Surfers are great and I probably wouldn't like you that much if you don't agree. And now, with that out of the way, here is a Butthole Surfers bootleg...

Download: Butthole Surfers-The Hole Truth...And Nothing Butt

" A "best of the boots" collection put together by fans, it offers a mix of studio demos and live recordings, as well as a portion of a radio interview. The band liked the compilation enough that they reissued it through Trance Syndicate in 1995, also packaging a Butthole Surfers sticker along with it.

The two demos, "Butthole Surfer" and "Something," were recorded in 1983. Of the live tracks, four were taped in 1985, three in 1986, two in 1988, one each in 1989 and 1991, and three in 1993.

The interview was taped at New York, NY station WNYU on July 28, 1987. All members from that time period are present, including Gibby Haynes, Paul Leary, King Coffey, Teresa Nervosa, and Jeff Pinkus."

Also, a link of interest to anyone that loves the Buttholes as much as I do: Butthole Surfers Anal Obsession Blog

2010-01-01T12:59:00.005-05:00

R.I.P. Roland S. Howard!
In honor of his life in music, here is my favorite work of his (aside from The Birthday Party of course). It is a collaboration with Lydia Lunch

Download: Lydia Lunch & Roland S. Howard-Shotgun Wedding

In this upload I've also included a live album that is the same songs but in different order and of course not recorded in a studio.

2009-12-27T12:22:00.002-05:00

Download: Snares-Sabbath Dubs

Sabbath Dubs is the guy from Venetian Snares doing two dub versions of the Black Sabbath songs "Black Sabbath" and "Electric Funeral". Good shit. Everyone loves Venetian Snares. At least give it one listen.

2009-12-13T20:05:00.004-05:00

40's!

Here is a collection of love songs to remind you of your sweetheart while he's away in the trenches of Germany. You'll find yourself humming along to Frank Sinatra while on the way to buy war bonds and belting out that new Ella Fitzgerald single when you're walking to the factory (sure you're a housewife but in these times we've all got to chip in! If Rosie can do it than so you can you!) Then when he finally comes home you two can sit around your fancy new phonograph player together and smile at the wonderful tunes that once made you somber. If he comes home that is. Happy wartime!

Download: Various Artists-You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

2009-12-01T15:54:00.004-05:00

Well I posted an album of songs from the 1920's in my last post and now the obvious progression would be the next decade. So here's some Guy Lombardo from the 1930's. "Enjoy Yourself" as Guy would say. Because what was a more fun decade than the 1930's? Movies finally had color and sound so you could enjoy films like The Wizard of Oz and Walt Disney's animations in their full beauty, Steinbeck, Huxley, and Faulkner all had works that are now considered classics published, stamp collecting became hot, swing got hip, scotch tape was invented, the Nazi Party came to power, the Great Depression devastated almost the entire world, war was on everyone's mind as there were 5 of them raging on, and so on.
See? Fun. Now everyone enjoy yourself.

Download: Best of Guy Lombardo & His Canadians / Disc 1 / Disc 2

2009-11-20T16:35:00.002-05:00

Ahh, remember the Roaring 20's? No, of course you don't. Do you even remember the week you spent on that era in your American History class in High School? Probably not and especially not if you were half as delinquent as I was at that age. But I can pretend thanks to the ease of access that the internet has granted us. Because of that I am able to find mp3s of songs that were originally released way back in a simpler time when it was not only acceptable to paint your face black and mock an entire race but you could make a career of it! But let's not dwell on that. It was a different time and people were much different. I included this part about blackface because many people who hear some Al Jolson songs like them, but ultimately give him the boot after reading up on his history. I'm not saying it's right or to ignore it, I'm just saying to simply listen to the music. Get lost in this compilation. Use it as something to listen in between everything you'd normally have on. Use one of the songs as something to make a mix more interesting. Use it as a pleasant escape from your modern life. Use it as background music. Use it because the most important thing about blogs like this one and the internet in general is that you can always find information on mostly anything and you can always find a testament to any period of time. Hardly anything can be forgotten anymore. It's so easy to document and research absolutely anything. Which is sort of what I'm doing with this post. So here's Al Jolson's Best Of compilation, a pleasant little sample of what was popular music in the 1920's.

Download: Al Jolson-The Very Best Of...

2009-11-12T20:32:00.004-05:00

Now let's talk about a Post-Punk group who's members went on to play Punk/Hardcore music. The opposite of what's going on in the previous Beautiful Skin post.

Jacket Weather were formed in the early 80's and played "pioneering minimalist-electro-wave", "described in their day as a cross between Joy Division and Young Marble Giants, with some Wall Of Voodoo mixed in". Jacket Weather became Reptile House, a mid 80's hardcore punk group that still sound fresh and nowhere near all the other short, fast and loud clones of that era. After Reptile House the frontman went on to Lungfish and the drummer worked with Samhain. Both Jacket Weather and Reptile House's most popular releases are their 7" EPs so those are what I've uploaded for this blog.

Download: Jacket Weather-When Shadows Move

Download: Reptile House-I Stumble As The Crow Flies

2009-11-12T19:25:00.002-05:00

There sure are a lot of groups coming out at the moment playing Post-Punk/New Wave/Minimal Synth/Synth Pop/Goth/Whatever/Etc influenced music that feature ex members of popular hardcore bands. Cold Cave are getting huge ripping off a few synth pop artists, Louderbach are getting laid by basically making Joy Division songs even more minimal (yeah it's possible, and yeah it's good), some other band is doing some other thing, blah blah, I actually can't think of any more than the last two but that's because I don't really listen to hardcore anymore. But that's beside the point. Whether they feature guys who used to scream who now mumble, this particular type of 80's revival is hip as shit right now. Look at how popular Blank Dogs got and there's nothing original about that other than a bunch of skinny white college kids calling it "shitgaze". And look at Blessure Grave blowing up while straight up ripping all kinds of pages from Peter Murphy's several books. The Killers and She Wants Revenge are making girls get wet while Gang of Four are probably wondering how to keep the pasty nerds from bothering them after their reunion show sets instead of which groupies are the best looking and most deserving of some backstage attention. I could keep going but this is turning into a rant and I know you don't want to hear it. You want the link. The pretty pictures and the free music. That's all blogs are good for. I'm just a cheap whore. So, in short, here are two albums by a Post-Punk/Minimal Whatever group that kickstarted this entire thing and were actually very good, as opposed to just being something hip for messageboard hype.

Download: Beautiful Skin-Revolve

Download: Beautiful Skin-Everthing, All This and More

Oh, you're still here? Well then...

Beautiful Skin were a short lived group started by some guy who used to be in the seminal hardcore group Rorschach and some other guy from Brazil. They released their only album, Revolve in 2001, a bit before the whole Post-Punk Revival explosion and quite a bit before the recent minimal 80's revival thing going on. They were much better than Cold Cave but never got any offers from Radioshack for commercial money. One single (Sex Is A Triangle For The Perfect Square). One album (Revolve). One compilation of unreleased material (Everything...). One tour (West Coast, supported the Locust, Le Shok, etc). That's it. Beautiful Skin are worth remembering though and these albums are worth giving at least one listen if you are at all interested in Post-Punk music, past and present.

bloodstains, speed kills, fast cars, cheap thrills, rich girls, fine wine...

2009-10-10T14:09:00.005-04:00

If you are unfamiliar with the "Bloodstains Across..." compilations, they are fan made bootlegs of rare or forgotten punk songs. Each one is themed around a certain location. The first three were Texas, California and The Midwest. "Bloodstains..." are not just limited to the U.S. though, there are ones for Finland, Yugoslavia, The UK, The Canary Islands, Belgium, Norway, etc. I'm not sure how many there are in total as they might still be made and could continue to be made for years to come, but here are all the ones that I am aware of...

Download: Bloodstains Across Texas
Download: Bloodstains Across California
Download: Bloodstains Across The Midwest

Download: Bloodstains Across Australia
Download: Bloodstains Across Belgium Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across Belgium Part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across Belgium Part 3
Download: Bloodstains Across Chile
Download: Bloodstains Across Denmark
Download: Bloodstains Across Europe
Download: Bloodstains Across Finland
Download: Bloodstains Across France
Download: Bloodstains Across Germany Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across Germany Part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across Northern Ireland Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across Northern Ireland part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across Norway
Download: Bloodstains Across Spain
Download: Bloodstains Across Sweden Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across Sweden Part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across Sweden Part 3
Download: Bloodstains Across Switzerland
Download: Bloodstains Across The Canary Islands
Download: Bloodstains Across The U.K. Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across The U.K. Part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across The U.K. Part 3
Download: Bloodstains Across The U.K. Part 4
Download: Bloodstains Across The World Part 1
Download: Bloodstains Across The World Part 2
Download: Bloodstains Across Yugoslavia

Are there any I am missing? Fill me in and I'll find and post them too.

And if you need any more info such as correct tracklistings, pressing info or recommendations for other similar comps for certain countries, try this great site: http://ickibod.com/comphell/bloodstains.html

2009-09-22T11:39:00.006-04:00

Jack Kerouac will always be one of my favorite authors and I will always think of people who have only read "On The Road" as silly and annoying. So if you are one of those people, please press that little rectangular shaped button in the upper right hand corner of your screen. It's usually red with a white X in the center, you can't miss it.

For anyone who's an actual fan of Kerouac (regardless of whether or not he's hip at the moment) I have for you the first and one of the very few recordings that Kerouac made. This one was done with Steve Allen (famous actor/comedian/writer/musician/etc), who accompanies Kerouac's voice with piano. Following this album was "Blues and Haikus" with Jazz Saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. Kerouac's next and last album was "Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation." All three of these are compiled on a CD titled "The Jack Kerouac Collection" that is still easily available from Amazon if you are willing to spend about $30. Or you could bookmark this page or keep my blog in mind as I'm sure I'll upload the other two albums sometime in the near future.

Download: Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen-Poetry For The Beat Generation

2009-09-13T17:17:00.005-04:00

I'm sure by now most people who would actually enjoy listening to Jandek are aware of him. But some of his most strange and daring work is often overlooked. Which is interesting because the hype about him comes from his being such a mysterious "outsider" musician, yet some of the most isolating albums he's recorded are usually passed on. None of his work is very accessible, but this Spoken Word Trilogy that I've uploaded for this post is even more so inaccessible, being unaccompanied by any instruments at all, not even a few lazy guitar strums. Even the most sincere Jandek fan usually dismisses these albums or hasn't even bothered to give them time at all, and it's understandable. Some songs are half an hour long. Some seem nonsensical, stupid even. Some seem so personal and bare that it makes the listener feel awkward. But I think any Jandek fan should at least listen to these once to get a better understanding of the man himself. Go into them with an open mind and some free time, as these albums are a lot more poetic and also difficult to digest. This is Jandek stripped.

Download: Jandek-Put My Dream On This Planet

Download: Jandek-This Narrow Road

Download: Jandek-Worthless Recluse

2009-08-30T22:53:00.002-04:00

(Edit: Read Before Downloading: I had originally uploaded all three albums to Mediafire but upon further searching I found that all of them were already available for free online, courtesy of the main man behind Rocketship himself. So you only have to click the link to the first album to be directed to a page where you can download all of the albums. Find the albums on that page, click the download icon underneath each one, put in a tiny bit of info and you get the album for free (well, you can donate some money if you'd like, but there's no need). Yes, absolutely free. I promise you. You can even put in a fake name and email address if you'd like for the form and you can even download more of his music for free.)

Another perfect album of clever pop songs dripping with sexuality and confidence, almost enough to make me use the word "swagger" in describing it.
This one comes from a group called Rocketship and is distinctly American rather than the Dutch effort in the previous post of clever pop, "10 Mistakes" by Gruppo Sportivo.
Every song on this album is great. Every transition between every song is great. I am not much of a fan of "indie pop" or "dream pop" or whatever you'd like to call a group like Rocketship, but they are one of the few bands and this is one of the only albums of that type of music that I can always come back to and enjoy without being embarassed or bored at all.
Give yourself a bit of a sonic pick me up and try out Rocketship.

Download: Rocketship-A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness

After this album Rocketship essentialy became the solo project of band leader Dustin Reske. Among singles and a split EP, he released two other full length albums. These were Garden of Delights and Here Comes...Rocketship.
The latter is my personal favorite, despite it coming out exactly 10 years to the month after A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness and featuring only one of the original members. This would normally be a recipe for something quite bitter and unpleasant to me, but instead it's the album that I listen to before any others when I come back to Rocketship.
So in this post I'm also going to include Rocketship/Dustin Reske's other albums.

Download: Rocketship-Garden of Delights

Download: Rocketship-Here Comes...Rocketship

2009-08-22T14:35:00.003-04:00

You have to be one hard boiled something or other son of a bitch to not love this album. I checked it out based solely on the cover and I think the image they chose to use for this group of songs was spot on. So if that picture appeals to you, then try this link on for size...

Download: Gruppo Sportivo-10 Mistakes

I have nothing else to say about this Dutch Pop group. I don't know anything about them and don't care to. Enjoy this album or you're a jerk.

2009-08-19T21:15:00.006-04:00

[The User] is a Canadian based artists collective made up of two men who manipulate the sounds of Dot Matrix Printers to make their interesting brand of minimal electronic music. Music made from the droning sounds of outdated printers with all of the familiar buzzing, thumping and humming that you would never think of as harmonious. Yet here it is, tediously uniform yet strangely rhythmic.

And an explanation straight from the horse's mouth:

"The Symphony For Dot Matrix Printers is a work which transforms obsolete office technology into an instrument for musical performance. The Symphony focuses the listener's attention on a nearly forgotten technology: the dot-matrix printer. Specifically, it employs the noises the printers make as the sole sound source for a musical composition. Leaving the constituent elements untouched, the process imposes a new order upon them, reorganizing the sounds along a musical structure.

Dot matrix printers are thus turned into musical 'instruments', while a computer network system, typical of a contemporary office, is employed as the 'orchestra' used to play them. The orchestra is 'conducted' by a network server which reads from a composed 'score'. Each of the printers plays from a different 'part' comprised of rhythms and pitches made up of letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and other characters. [The User] uses ASCII textfiles to compose, orchestrate, and synchronize sonorous and densely textured, rhythmically-driven music. During the half hour performance, the sounds are amplified and broadcast over a sound system. The audience is also presented with live images of the sound sources: the motions of the mechanisms, rollers and gears are captured using miniature video cameras installed inside the printers and projected onto large screens."

I've uploaded the second part of the project, simply titled Symphony #2 For Dot Matrix Printer. This one was more of a full length album, clocking in at 41:22 rather than the #1 which didn't even reach 20 minutes.

Download: [The User]-Symphony #2 For Dot Matrix Printers

And if you'd like to hear #1 it's been uploaded at Misterioso Impossivel.

2009-08-15T13:48:00.003-04:00

Now I'm going to tie all three of my latest posts together with yet another collaboration. This one also features Boyd Rice and it is weird pop music. There's also a Suicide cover (Rocket USA) . See how nicely this all worked out? In addition to Suicide, the pair cover "Bonnie & Clyde" a classic song from Serge Gainsbourg & Brigette Bardot, a duo that was obviously a big inspiration for these 60's French Pop/Psychadelic flavored songs.

Download: Giddle & Boyd-Going Steady with Peggy Moffitt

2009-08-15T13:38:00.004-04:00

The last post got me thinking about my favorite collaboration album, "Easy Listening For The Hard of Hearing" by Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey. This sounds nothing like Fad Gadget though. Don't expect weird pop music. This release focuses more (a lot more) on both Boyd and Frank's love for using found objects as instruments.

Download: Boyd Rice & Frank Tovey-Easy Listening For The Hard of Hearing

Sorry for the Rapidshare link, Mediafire was being a pain again...

2009-08-15T13:22:00.003-04:00

Download: Vainio/Vaisanen/Vega-Endless

V.V.V. is a collaboration between the guys behind Pan Sonic and Alen Vega of Suicide fame. Great mostly minimal experimental electronics here by some heavy hitters/big names.

2009-07-11T10:49:00.004-04:00

This one is a treat. The Smiths backing famous British pop singer Sandie Shaw for two (three on the 12" version) Smiths originals. The story behind their connection is supposedly that Morrissey and Marr were obsessed with Shaw and were the main reason why she came out of retirement and began playing music again, all because they wrote her a fan letter. So she met with them and then ended up making this record. It got into the UK Top 30 charts and they even had a performance on Top of the Pops (and there's another performance on YouTube of this song, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyx4yJ-RNTQ If anyone reads this and can tell me what program it's from, I'd be really grateful).

Download: Sandie Shaw-Hand In Glove b/w I Don't Owe You Anything

2009-07-11T09:09:00.007-04:00

Ramones covers by three Japanese girls. Very energetic, One Two Schree Fo!

27 Ramones covers en espanol! Tu quieres bailar?!

Minor Threat covers with a Satanic twist, featuring members of Nunslaughter, Midnight, Destructor, Gordon Solie Motherfuckers, ETC. I aint gotta worship!!!

Minor Threat covers done in an American Folky/Country Western style. Guity of Being White definitely sounds racist in this accent...

The Misfats play Misfits covers but change the lyrics so that all the songs are about food. Mommy...can I go out and...grill tonight!

Another all girl cover band, this one does Misfits songs though.

Get it? Gorilla Biscuits...Gayrilla Biscuits...cock on the cover...do I really even need to explain these anymore? Suck it.

Yes they really called themselves Youth of Togay. Bust It!

2009-06-25T08:50:00.007-04:00

It seems like a lot of blogs posted something within the past few months about Doc Corbin Dart, the former front man of punk band The Crucifucks. Of course that's because of Sam McPheeters' article for Vice in which he spent some time with Doc in his own kind of weird and always interesting world. You can read that here: The Troublemaker
But while those blogs did talk about Doc's solo albums and work with The Crucifucks, none of them provided links to download any of Doc's music. So I'm going to compile links to all of the Doc related material I have (everything except his Black Tuesday tape) for anyone who feels like they need to gobble up anything and everything the man has done after reading Sam's interview. I know that's how I felt.

Kill a cop, kill the president, go bankrupt and die. Violent, insane, amusing, maybe annoying? This is the Crucifucks discography. (I didn't upload the first two Crucifucks albums myself because it'd be a waste of time. Every other blog already has them posted.)

Download: The Crucifucks-Self Titled
(Originally posted on: Big Fat Satanist)

Download: The Crucifucks-Wisconsin
(Originally posted on: Big Fat Satanist)

Download: The Crucifucks-L.D. Eye

The beginning of Doc Corbin Dart' solo albums. Patricia was his psychologist. If the title wasn't enough to give it away, yes, he was probably quite obsessed with her. He even has a lyric in one song where he mentions maybe being in love with her and then of course, there is an entire song dedicated to her. This is an amazing album though and my favorite as far as solo albums by people who used to play in a punk or hardcore band. It's really poppy, kind of tragic and awfully sad after you read the Vice article about his life. The first song will still have you bopping your head and singing along with a smile on your face, regardless of the man's pain. It's just so upbeat, sonically. This is a great album. Incredibly accessible without being shallow and cliche. Download this if you don't download anything else in this post.

Download: Doc Corbin Dart-Patricia

This is Doc's third solo album (I couldn't find the Black Tuesday tape which is the second solo album and it looks like no one else can either. If you have it and can get it to me in any way at all [physical dubs are fine for example] that would be great) and it's credited to 26, because that's what he changed his name to. He apparently call himself the Messiah now (tongue in cheek I guess but who knows) and is obsessed with racoons and mysticism.

Download: 26-The Messiah

UPDATE!!! A really nice guy has gone and recorded the streaming version of Black Tuesday from the Doc Corbin Dart Myspace page and then uploaded it to Mediafire. He gave me permission to post it here. And here it is: Doc Corbin Dart: Black Tuesday
It's still Myspace quality audio but I don't think it would be that much better since it's from an old tape anyway. Enjoy. And thank user "viewtifullink99" over at Last.fm for this one!

2009-06-14T11:17:00.004-04:00

"Realicide, the collective band and publications label of the same name, is our endorsement of anti-hypothetical change, anti-narcissistic agenda, progressive anti-escapism, art as a catalyst for dialogue and interaction, art as a byproduct of a life lived, ethically sober compassion and self-sacrifice as an expression of love, against the hell of human institutions and wants."

Sonically, Realicide is a mix between genres like hardcore, punk, gabber and speedcore. This is an updated version of what those anarcho punk bands like Flux of Pink Indians were doing. They're playing hardcore/punk the way it should be played in the 2000's. What I mean by that is that Realicide does it's own thing, sounds original, still loud, pissed, fast and DIY, but fresh and interesting as opposed to yet another band of drunk 20 somethings in Government Warning t shirts acting "crazy" for 15 minutes, AKA the break from drinking PBR at some asshole's house party. This isn't background music and you can't describe Realicide by saying it sounds like a "mix between band A and band B with a little band C thrown in". Keep an open mind and remember that all art needs to progress otherwise all you'll have left are stale copies of copies with different names but the same definition.

Realicide just released a full length official album after about 5 years of a bunch of CDrs, cassettes and online releases. It's called Resisting the Viral Self and I'd suggest you buy it before they run out of copies (500 records, 1,000 cds). I'm going to post a few previous releases as sort of an introduction to the music of Realicide. If you like any of it you'll probably love Resisting The Viral Self.

First, Realicide posted about 9 releases that you can download straight from their website. Go to this page (http://www.geocities.com/realicide/1crew) and scroll down til you see a bunch of yellow text.

Now my uploads...

Download: a few miscellaneous songs
Download: Realicide-Which Is Your War
Download: Realicide-Go! Go! Immolation! EP
Download: Realicide-Outside My Self
Download: Realicide-My Face Is Just A Cast of Frozen Cum and Blood
Download: Realicide/Ctrl+Alt+Del & IDX1274 live on KDVS

One of these is missing the last track and another's last track is "incomplete". I probably got them from Soulseek. Sorry. Normally I wouldn't post an album if even one song is messed up but I really want to have the albums that are a little messed up in this post.

2009-05-27T09:18:00.006-04:00

The Legendary Stardust Cowboy or The Ledge is by no means obscure or unheard of, although he isn't extremely popular and famous either, but you most likely have never heard the name. I'm sure you know David Bowie and are quite familiar with his Ziggy Stardust character though. The Ledge is exactly where Bowie got the "Stardust" from. But Bowie didn't just yank the name, he's a fan and even covered "I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship" for his Heathen album (which also has Neil Young and Pixies covers). The Ledge is stuck somewhere between insanity, genius, self parody and comedy but it all works out so well. If you've ever wanted to hear "Hardcore Country" (and I know you haven't), you're going to love his "hit song" Paralyzed. It's the first song on the album I'm uploading. You can't miss it. It's the one that jumps out at you and screeches in your face. You'll love it.

For some more info on The Ledge watch this news story on him:

And the link...

Download: The Legendary Stardust Cowboy-Paralyzed! His Vintage Recordings 1968-1981

2009-05-17T13:29:00.002-04:00

If you know who these two are (and shouldn't you by now?) then you know what you're getting into. This is a collaboration they did at CBGB's in '98. Fuck your head.

Download: Alec Empire Vs Merzbow

2009-05-14T17:27:00.016-04:00

Do you like PUNK? HARDCORE? Do you like ZOMBIES? GORE? Do you hate THE MAN? THE SYSTEM? ETC? Of course you do you little shitsucker. Gobble this link up and chew on these frantic sounds for about 25 minutes and if it isn't all that I promised you and more...if you don't like it...then I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you can't feel the way I do when I listen to this album, no matter what time of day, what time of year, what mood I'm in, where my life is at or where it's headed. I still get psyched up, tingly, a little nervous, and there's some kind of twitching going on in my ribs that I can't quite explain. I'll probably have to get that checked out but that's another story all together.
Crimson Spectre were (unfortunately [very unfortunately] no longer "are") a 5 piece hardcore/thrash metal/horrorpunk hybrid. But don't get me wrong, when I say "horrorpunk" I'm not talking about whatever you're most likely thinking of. Horror punk in the sense that they played punk rock with a big horror movie influence, but not in the silly sense where all their songs are actually about horror movies that they liked (they aren't THAT metal), although they did wear facepaint during their shows. I think they explained it best with this: "A Ghoul-Punk aesthetic is one strategy among many a band might employ to draw attention to this collective political nightmare and to articulate it in a highly stylized and accesible form...it might also be the most fun."
What's that? You saw the word "political"? Yeah, sorry, I've been leading you on to think you were getting a more thrashier version of the Misfits or something, huh? My bad, you might actually have to learn a little bit or pay attention to the lyrics or something. Crimson Spectre's main trip was that they were either self proclaimed communists or just very influenced by communist theory, I can't remember if they actually pegged themselves or not. This was extremely badass to me at the age of 15 when I sent out my lunch money for their album and got back a CD and a bunch of commie themed propaganda like pamphlets and posters. I didn't flinch about their anti-Bush stance since every band I knew about back then was anti-Bush, but none of the bands I liked were pro-Lenin! Talk about new and exciting.
What you are going to get with Crimson Spectre is fast music, high energy, screamed vocals, tons of energy, very angry, very smart, definetely not your run-of-the-mill punk.

Download: Crimson Spectre-Crimson Spectre

Also: Some site actually has Crimson Spectre lyrics on it! I was going to type them all out but now I don't have to. Great! C lick this link to figure out what all the screaming is about.

2009-05-05T11:25:00.007-04:00

If you haven't been initiated into the BBQ CHICKENS club yet then you are missing out for sure! Loud, fast, punk, hardcore, silly, funny, crazy, Japanese, what more could you want?! This doesn't sound like your typical hardcore punk though. They play a little tighter, production is a little cleaner and they seem to be more about fucking around and goofing off than being angry (there is an anti cop song though!). You can get into it. Trust me. I'm posting their three full length albums.

I'm not really sure why this is called Indie Rock Strikes Back as they are definitely not what you think of when you hear the term "Indie Rock". But hey, whatever! The album is so damn good that you won't care that it's called Indie Rock Strikes Back or that you are spending your time listening to songs about Big Macs and popcorn.

Download: BBQ CHICKENS-Indie Rock Strikes Back

BBQ's second album. If you like the last album, you'll like this one too. Same style, different songs. Apparently they were on an episode of the show Jackass. Remember that show? I guess they either wrote a song about it or for it because one of the songs on here is called "Jackass" and I can make out that he's saying things like "Johnny Knoxville" and "MTV".

Download: BBQ CHICKENS-Good Bye To Your Punk Rock

Their third and last album (so far). This one is all covers. Bonded By Blood followed by Pretty Woman? Come on, you know that's awesome. If The Kids Are United followed by I Like It That Way? You're excited.

Download: BBQ CHICKENS-Fine Songs Playing Sucks

2009-05-05T10:53:00.010-04:00

I actually bought this CD on accident. I thought they were a different band with "Piedmont" in the beginning of their name that I am now ashamed to admit I ever listened to. Fortunately it was a good thing that I mixed the two up. This CD struck all the right chords for me and I can still listen to it years later, and the other band, well...let's talk about something else.

I never really understood why this band didn't have more fans, at least in the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill). I think they are great. What they were going for wasn't the most original path they could have taken but I think they pulled it off pretty well. It's not like people don't dig the modern take on 80's synth pop, because you can take a look at MTV a few years ago and see that they do. So, I don't know. Maybe they aren't that good and I just like them more than I should. Or maybe they just didn't tour enough or whatever. Whatever the reason, this is Piedmont Charisma with their debut full length. If you don't care much for it, at least listen to "Don't Ever Surrender" and "RBK", my two favorite songs on the album.

Download: Piedmont Charisma-Piedmont Charisma

2009-04-27T10:48:00.012-04:00

Here are some solo albums from guys that everyone knows as being the driving forces behind their all too well known punk bands.

Download: Greg Ginn-Getting Even

Download: Vic Bondi-The Ghost Dances

Download: Kevin Seconds-Rodney, Reggie, Emily

2009-04-27T08:36:00.007-04:00

Sort of in the same vein as Jah Division, this post is about a project called Dubmood that makes reggae and dub influenced chiptune music. Well that's not all he does and he's actually quite popular and influential. Chiptune/8bit/etc is quite popular these days but this swede has been knockin it out since '96, back when you would have heard the phrase "chiptune" and probably thought about these dudes:

But instead of squeeky furry creatures being adorable, he looks like this:

And sounds like this: Dubmood-Atari-Ska L'Attak

If you are a fan of Dub/Reggae/Ska/Etc but not really Chiptune, he does a cover of Pressure Drop. If you are a fan of 8bit but not really anything Jamaiican, Goto80 helps out on the one of the tracks. If you don't care about any of this, download it anyway, it's short, sweet and will have you chair dancing, at the least.

2009-04-20T08:59:00.008-04:00

Jah Division do dub covers of Joy Division songs. Simple as that. You will love it. There is also another group called Jah Division from Russia, who came out first, are more popular and have nothing to do with Joy Division, so don't get em confused. The band I'm posting only has 4 songs from 1 release, titled Dub Will Tear Us Apart.

Download: Jah Division-Dub Will Tear Us Apart

(Sorry for the Rapidshare link, Mediafire is once again being a pain.)

2009-04-09T08:18:00.004-04:00

This is the story about a bunch of time I wasted. Well, I wouldn't call it wasted because I had fun and don't regret anything except the not-actually-releasing-anything part. See I decided to start a "record label" AKA a small project where I would release music by my friends or people that I thought had neat little musical endeavors. These were most likely going to be put out on CD-Rs and cassettes, except for the Ben Carr and Gee-off albums, which I was going to get done on professional CDs or at least mimic the process best I could. Either way they were gonna look nice and "real". This didn't work out. The reasons were probably these: I had dropped out of college and moved from Omaha, NE back to my hometown and back into my mom's house, plopping me right back into depression and anxiety. This is the typical story, I had no idea what to do with my life, couldn't get a job, lived with my mom again, hated my town, blah blah, etc. Same ol' bullshit everyone goes through. This made me lazy and kind of a slob. So, you know. Then also pretty much everyone involved in making the music that was going to be released was busy with their other bands, which they all had. Which wasn't a problem of course, those bands were better than the stuff they were going to release on SJ, it just made it harder for them to get around to furthering their SJ projects. I've got more excuses but who cares? What's important is that I was going to start releasing music by some friends and I didn't, it didn't work out. So here are the few releases which were either done or somewhat done and never saw the light of day. Enjoy.

1) Ben Carr-37 Songs About Dogs

Yeah, you read that right. A concept album with 37 songs entirely about dogs. This was my stupid idea and I bugged Ben until he agreed to do it. I got the idea from Tinyfolk, a lo-fi musician who made an album about cats, with 36 songs total. It was supposed to be sort of a "DOGS RULE, CAT'S DROOL" thing, a friendly fuck you to Tinyfolk(who I don't actually know at all but also don't hate, so it's nothing like that).
Ben got about 14 songs done, or at least he gave me 14 songs, who knows what's hiding in the depths of his computer...They are all quite short(the longest clocking in at 2:03), fun, poppy, funny and silly. Ben and I were going to take 37 polaroids of different dogs we saw around his town and then write little made up biographies about the dogs (ie-"Sparky here used to work for the fire department until one day when his supervisor walked in on him and Spots playing a little too friendly in the front seat of the fire truck. Spots gave birth to 4 wonderful little puppies soon after and Sparky was promptly relived of his duties. He now lives in a rusted out station wagon in the woods and comes into town only to bum cigarettes off of the local high school kids.")
We also took a picture at some Daschund Day thing in Carrboro, NC to use as the album cover. All kinds of weiner dogs were dressed up in all kinds of costumes and we took a picture with a little guy who was dressed as a hot dog stand. Unfortunately we never got to see the picture again.
Here's the 14 songs that I got.

Download: Ben Carr-14 Songs About Dogs

2) Gee-off-38 Songs About Sharks

This again? Really? Yep, sorry. Geoff took it upon himself to trump Tinyfolk AND Ben with an album about a more badass animal that would have, count it, one more song. This also never got finished, as you probably figured. Geoff's own words as to why (you have to imagine this in a whiny voice): "But that's a lot of songs!" Boo-hoo. But it really is a lot of songs, especially about an animal that he didn't really know anything about. He made it to only 8 songs, although his songs were all longer than Ben's, so it's understandable. Geoff's shark songs are a lot more somber than Ben's dog songs by the way. Check them out.

Download: Gee-off-8 Songs About Sharks

The picture posted below is a tattoo that Geoff got. It will make sense once you listen to "Party Shark". Apparently Geoff's brother and sister also got this tattoo for some reason. Family fulla crazies, I say.

3) Puss Bubbles-Pizza Patrol EP

Now it's the last of the concepts. This is a lot heavier than the last two postings. I used to call it Pizzaviolence. Hopefully that helps you understand what this is gonna sound like. My friend Steve from Kansas is responsible for these ear punishing tunes that are all about being obsessed with pizza. 7 songs, under 10 minutes, some parts are fast and screeching, others are slow and stomping. You can't really sing along or hum to this one, except maybe to the first part of the last track, Pizza Patrol. I love this.

Download: Puss Bubbles-Pizza Patrol EP

4) Man or Fire-Mao Zedong U Da Bomb EP

More from Steve! Yes! This was very close to being put out as a cassette and would have been the first actual release. Oh well. Man or Fire sounds like jangly, jerky punky stuff. Song titles like "Mad Dad", "We Reul" and "Dragen Ball Z" give off a stupid-in-a-fun-way vibe to the whole thing. That's a good explanation of it actually. Man or Fire sounds like stupid fun. Don't listen to this if you are uptight.

Download: Man or Fire-Mao Zedong U Da Bomb EP

Steve is actually obsessed with China, I guess, so that's why the EP is titled the way it is. He visited there, wants to learn Mandarin and even gave me a cool pink shirt with pandas snuggling on it or something retarded like that. It's now too small for me because I washed it once. Fun Fact: I actually joined Man or Fire for a quick second to play keyboards. We even had a show booked and everything. We were going to (unknowing to the people who booked us of course) not actually play any songs but instead play the theme song from the Muppets on a loop and just destroy everything in sight and pick fights with everyone who showed up. Sadly this never happened. What fun it would have been...

5) Lechies-Wanderer/Intruder

If you can't listen to self indulgent experimental music then skip over this right now. Lechies consists of lots of different sounds all thrown together in an attempt to make them all blend and form a wrecked collage of noise. I can't really give an example of other artists that sound like this because I don't really listen to this kind of thing too much, so my description is going to be lacking. Intruder and Wanderer were originally two different releases but then I decided they'd fit better on one tape, with Wanderer being Side A and Intruder being Side B. I uploaded them as two folders, so just listen to Wanderer first and Intruder second. If you listen at all, of course. There's nothing fun or silly about this one, there's nothing loud about it either. No screams, no feedback. No themes, no jokes. Just experiments with sound. It's nothing amazing and it's not intended to be either. It is what it is.

Download: Lechies-Wanderer /// Lechies-Intruder

6) The Drowsies-We Really Need A Drummer! Demo EP

The Drowsies played pop punk, simple as that. Well it wasn't really that simple pop punk, but it wasn't striving to be something else or to mix in more genres. They were a pop punk band with clever, fun songs about being in love with Bjork, playing with Pogs and food. This demo thing was released as a way to find a drummer. They planned to get their name out and get a little attention and then hopefully through that make contacts which would eventually catch them a drummer. Well, they did find a drummer. But more importantly, they put out 10 great acoustic pop punk songs. With hits like "Christmas Rules", "Don't Shoot Heroin", "How To Make A Quesadilla", "My Bladder's Out of Control" and "I Love Lasagna", The Drowsies will have you -BLAH BLAH BLAH- just listen to them! Like I said, the versions of these songs included are all acoustic but they did become a full band after finding a drummer. They are now broken up and playing in seven thousand different bands.
This was originally going to be the first release I focused on. The Drowsies already released it themselves but I was going to kind of re-release it just for fun, not to find a drummer. I think I really like these acoustic versions better than the electric ones (maybe because I heard them first and listened to them a million times?) and that's why I wanted to re-release it. I don't remember. If I remember correctly I actually did make a few of these and sold some too. Not too much though. Anyway, here you go.

Download: The Drowsies-We Really Need A Drummer!

2009-04-07T07:47:00.006-04:00

Everyone knows Crass and everyone has most of the official Crass albums. But most people that I talk to about Crass have never heard or even heard of this. Maybe that's because it's probably not usually credited to Crass. Penny Rimbaud did all the music but Eve Libertine did all the vocals. So I call it Crass. But you could call it just Penny Rimbaud or Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine I suppose.
When I first got into Crass at the same age that every kid who decides that s/he is a punk and can only listen to punk and will start dressing punk and whatever, I hated this kind of shit. In fact I heard this album and did hate it. I probably just said it was gay or whatever kids in middle school or whatever say. I can't believe I even found this album though...I must have just been trying to listen to every single thing associated with Crass records. Anyway, I found it again only just recently and now love it, of course. That's the way these things go. But I can see why I hated it obviously and I can see why you'll probably hate it. This sounds nothing like Crass or really any band that I can think of.
The music is probably usually described as "modern classical" and "avant garde" although we all know the last one is a bit of a cop out. If you like music that's experimental without being stupid or trying too hard to be edgy and amazing, then you might like this. Most of the songs are short and sound like a dream. In fact the entire album sounds to me like one big cloud of many little dreams all strung together. It's a very nice listen if you enjoy the experimentation of Crass but are tired of the basic guitar n drums take on things, screaming and shouting about the human condition and wars and whatnot.
As for what the poems are actually about or why there are even 50 poems? From the man himself:

"These poems, written between 1968 - 1973 are 'songs to my other self,' a self that exists untouched and beyond the social conditioning that gave me a name, a number, an identity and a finite space in time. They describe the profound sense of unity, peace and love that exists within that other self, but in declaring that love I am also declaring battle against those who would pervert and destroy it. These poems are an expression of my 'revolutionary' purpose, a description of what I know is possible and, because of that knowledge, the reason behind the anger I now feel."

Penny Rimbaud, 1984

Download: Crass-Acts of Love

Penny did another album that was more spoken word (I think) that also featured Eve, called The Death of Imagination. That was more recent, being released in 2001. I've never heard it but I'd suggest you checking it out anyway, if you can. I think Interpunk still sells the CD for $11. Oh if only the store I worked for wasn't going out of business in a week...

dry heat, part II

2009-04-01T07:52:00.007-04:00

In my last post I mentioned two bands called America's Hardcore and Public Enemy. Someone promptly messaged me through this thing and asked me if I could upload some of their stuff or point them in the direction to buy their records or CD reissues. Unfortunately you can't really find their records and they weren't popular enough to get the reissue treatment. Ebay, I guess. Ebay is usually the answer for this kinda thing. If anyone comes across this blog and knows more info about America's Hardcore, Public Enemy or any other obscure AZ based Punk/Hardcore groups, please contact me! Because right now I don't know shit aside from some torn up flyers, a few pictures and what my ears tell me when I listen to the mp3s. I don't even know for sure how I got these mp3s. I just mentioned to some guy I used to talk to and only know from the internet that I was looking for this shit and he mentioned it to some hardcore nerd from like Belgium or some place like that and a week later I had links to download these bands. Cool. Anyway, here you go...

I hardly know anything about this band, really, sorry. They had a silly name and I'm not even sure if the release posted below is a for real album or if it's even titled Our Time Is Now. I posted a buncha pictures of them on their last.fm page though.

Download: America's Hardcore-Our Time Is Now
Download: America's Hardcore-Live Demo

Once again, not much info here. Obviously this is not the hip hop group and no, this is not the sort of well known white power group who also share the name (funny how that works out...black power, white power, same name, heh). These are just some guys from Tuscon playing punk rock.

Download: Public Enemy-Demo

If you liked the pictures I posted or just want to know more about the visual history of Arizona Punk/Hardcore, a good site(and the site where I got those pictures from) is Shaved Neck. It's mostly flyers and pictures but they even have up an mp3 page with a live Husker Du show, Black Flag show and an interview with the guy from Culturcide, among other things. Also check out the links page! Click the picture below to access it.

yeah, but it's a dry heat

2009-03-24T10:12:00.007-04:00

For the past few years I've held Arizona in pretty high regard, sort of romanticizing the idea of the state. The majority of my family is from there and I have visited a few times but that's not exactly why I like the state. I can't really explain it but I just feel drawn to Tucson and those deserts. I hate the heat, I hate snakes, spiders, scorpions, I hate sunburn, etc etc etc. Yet I want to live in Arizona. Can't explain it. I guess it's my California. So partly because of this and partly because of my dad being from Arizona and being a teen during hardcore punk's heyday in Arizona, I'm a big fan of bands like JFA, Mighty Sphincter, America's Hardcore, Victory Acres, Public Enemy(not the rap group), etc. I even started collecting some AZ Punk memorabilia a few years ago but gave up on it when I realized it was too costly of a hobby to do from all the way in North Carolina. I do still have a really neat JFA lyric zine that they made pretty early on in their career, along with a few flyers for shows like when DK came through and whatnot. But those are just from my dad's abandoned collection. So if you're familiar with Arizona then you'll know that I'm definetely a fan of Placebo Records. Never heard of them? Well I'm sure you like JFA, Sun City Girls, Conflict, Mighty Sphincter, The Feederz and the This Is Phoenix Not The Circle Jerks compilation. They were all on Placebo. Spontaneous Combustion Records website has an interview with the guy who ran Placebo if you're interested in more info on the label. Read it here.

Now on to the uploads...Here are some choice Placebo releases. I kept out JFA because, well, come on. Everyone already knows and loves JFA.

One of my favorite bands. This is not your average punk band. Wasn't then, still aint. Fucked up, crazy, mean, funny, sometimes stupid, sometimes genius, deathrock, goth, punk, hardcore, metal, whatever. Mighty Sphincter. This is one of the bands that my dad got me into and made me even more sure in thinking that my dad was much cooler than most dads of the kids my age, who were scolding their kids for listening to radio rap while my dad was lending me his copy of the Ghost Walking/New Manson Family CD without a second thought to it. I loved going to my dad's house on the weekends because my mom would throw away my zines and records if they had curse words in them while my dad would try his best to get me into bands like Mighty Sphincter who crossdressed and who (in my mind at the time, they most surely must have) worshipped Satan.

Download: Mighty Sphincter-Heat House EP

This next upload is what happens when you have members of the Sun City Girls, the Meat Puppets, the Feederz and Mighty Sphincter form two side projects and release a split LP. If you liked Mighty Sphincter then you'll like this. It's not as fast or fucked up or anything, but it is similar. Especially the guitar. All the standout songs are on Victory Acres side though. The rest are good, don't get me wrong, but you can't beat Let's Just Lounge (later re-recorded for a Sun City Girls release), Looking Up the Bottle's Neck and A Cup of Coffee, Please.

Download: Victory Acres/Joke Flower Split

Tired of the goth tinged shit? Alright, check out the Zany Guys then. Silly, immature, good old fashioned suburban white boy hardcore punk rock. This is their 4 song EP called Party Hits Vol II.

Download: Zany Guys-Party Hits Vol II

This is gonna be the last upload as far as the punk stuff on Placebo goes. This Is Phoenix, Not The Circle Jerks was released in 1984 and compiles studio recordings by Mighty Sphincter, Conflict and Soylent Greene on the A side while the B side has live recordings of Zany Guys, Sun City Girls and JFA. Oh, and those weirdos on the cover? Mighty Sphincter.

Download: VA-This Is Phoenix, Not The Circle Jerks

Placebo released punk and punk related stuff for the most part, but he did dabble in other types of music as well. A good example of this would be the Dry Lungs compilations. These three comps included musicians such as Merzbow, Die Form, Sleep Chamber, Severed Heads and Controlled Bleeding, among many others. I think there might have been a Dry Lungs 4 and 5 but they were either on other labels or not official releases or something like that. Anyway, Discogs describes these three comps as "Industrial, Noise, Experimental" and I think that's fitting enough to be my description of them as well, as far as genres go.

Track Listing:
1) Controlled Bleeding-Scourge Tides
2) Etant Donnes-Le Coeur Sert La Corps
3) Neo Zalanda-A Presto
4) Esplendor Geometrico-Untitled
5) Toll-Brute Freeze
6) Vivenza-Unite Concrete Un Bruit
7) HNAS/Mieses Gegonge-Ein Winter Ohne Hautprobleme
8) Jarboe-Walls Are Bleeding
9) Merzbow-Vermin With Carcass
10) Swimming Behavior of the Human Infant- No! No!
11) Maybe Mental-Premystery
12) Le Syndicat-Full of Shit
13) Sleep Chamber-The Beast 666
14) John Duncan-Hanoi
15) Ankh-Untitled
16) Dog As Master-Disastrous Consequences
17) Problemist-Crisis

Download: VA-Dry Lungs Part 1

Track Listing:
1) Croiners-Untitled
2) Jeff Greinke-Uprising
3) Randy Greif-The Hole To Heaven
4) Monochrome Bleu-Ballerina of Manaus
5) Tim Story-Untitled
6) Controlled Bleeding-Letters to the Life Cycle (Part 3)
7) Severed Heads-Clairaudience
8) If, Bwana-Beauty and the Beast
9) Un Drame Musical Instantane-French Resistance
10) Asmus Tietchens-Medienlandschaft 2
11) Jarboe-A Song In the Dark (Excerpt)
12) YBO2-Trash! Crash!
13) Hijoh Kaiden-Deschapelles Coup

Download: VA-Dry Lungs Part 2

Track Listing:
1) Maybe Mental-Will
2) Cranioclast-Siren Song
3) Paul Lemos-On Eating Garbage
4) John Wiggins-All the Truth At Once
5) Carl Michael Von Hausswolff & Zbigniew Karkowski-Royal Music #3 (Beyond The Veil Of Death At The Right-Time Hotel) For Richard Wagner And The Yanomamo Sniffers
6) Greater Than One-The Dark Streets of London
7) Helene Sage-French Pan Pan
8) Un Drame Musical Instantane-Don't Lock The Cage
9) Collectif Nox-Chantzado
10) Phantom Tollbooth-New Age Hell
11) Die Form-Animal Instinct
12) Arthur Potter-With Commercials

Download: VA-Dry Lungs Part 3

If you enjoyed this post, I recommend checking out more Placebo stuff, like these releases:
The Teds-The Eighties Are Over 7" (Placebo Records owner was in this band)
VA-More Coffee For The Politicians
VA-Amuck
all JFA and Sun City Girls albums if you haven't already

Edit: You can DL The Teds 7" and the More Coffee comp at the AZ Local blog:
http://azlocal.blogspot.com/2007/06/teds-eighties-are-over-1981-7.html
http://azlocal.blogspot.com/2007/10/various-artists-more-coffe-for.html

north carolina metal

2009-03-17T08:38:00.014-04:00

Obviously this isn't meant to be some sort of documentation on the North Carolina metal scene past and present, or really anything like that at all. It's just a few bands that played or do currently still play various types of metal and are from North Carolina. They all also happen to be related in the sense that one will be ex members of another, so it makes sense to me to put them all together in one post.

Starting things off is Seven Foot Spleen with their most well known release and my personal favorite, Enter Therapy.
Sludge sludge sludge. That's what you're getting here. Well, sludge, grind and some doom. But this is a heavy, sludgy listen that doesn't fuckin let up. Some tracks really stand out and a small few are pretty standard for this type of music, but still great nonetheless. 12 tracks, one is "hidden" and the longest is 12 minutes with the shortest being 59 seconds. So you should know what you're getting into if you're already a fan of this type of thing.
Download: Seven Foot Spleen-Enter Therapy

Next up is DEMONCY. If you don't know who Demoncy is then you're in for a real nice treat. If you like Black Metal, that is (and recently it seems like everyone does[or at least they "like" it]). Demoncy were originally from Sylvan, NC but he's now located in Atlanta, Georgia. But the album I'm going to post was recorded in NC and he lived here at the time. Demoncy is the project of Ixithra who is joined by others from time to time, but no one else is a concrete member like he is. The thing about this band is that it should be a lot more well known. Demoncy should be as popular as Judas Iscariot and they should have been for quite some time now, instead of just recently getting more attention. Why? Demoncy is one of the best USBM bands ever, among the pioneers of stateside minimalist Black Metal, has been around since 1989 (still going) and has released around 10 albums, not counting the numerous re-issues that have been released since the turn of the century. Plus, the music is fucking great. I mean, I'm no authority on all things Black Metal, or even all things Metal, but I'm not completely clueless either. I can tell when a band is great and hopefully you can too. If you don't download anything else from this post, at least download this Demoncy album, Within The Sylvan Realms of Frost, his seventh album and my personal favorite. If you enjoy it make sure to check out Faustian Dawn, his second album and my second favorite.

Download: Demoncy-Within The Sylvan Realms of Frost (I had to do this on one Rapidshare because Mediafire kept fucking up, oh well)

And as a bonus, here is his 2003 album, Empire of the Fallen Angel, just because I had it uploaded somewhere else an the link is still fresh. These songs are all shorter, faster and more cleanly produced. I haven't decided yet if that's a good thing.
Download: Demoncy-Empire of the Fallen Angel

I don't know much about Anu and I'm sure they (including Drathrul, a contributor to Demoncy) probably like it that way. Anu is also minimilast Black Metal but with more "ambient" parts than Demoncy. This is the sound of night, of darkness, this is Anu's 1999 4 Track Demo. These songs would be used a year later for a 7" EP. I've never heard that record but I think that they just used the same versions of the songs instead of re-recording them. So if you want a physical copy of this demo, get the EP. Well, try to get the EP I should say. I don't know how easy or difficult it would be to find a copy since it has been 9 years and it hasn't been repressed or anything.

Download: Anu-Demo '99

Last and god damn certainly not least: HOUR OF 13.
This is Traditional Doom Metal, the best kind of Doom Metal. Hour of 13 are rehashing the past but fuck it, they do it so well. It's all pretty familiar sounding if you're already into this type of music, but it's never boring. They do it so well. Recommended for fans of Saint Vitus, Pentagram, etc. What do you like to do? Smoke weed? Drink a few beers? Fuck a fat girl? Hour of 13's self titled debut will make all that and more a much better experience. Maybe you just like to chill out on a Sunday night and worship some Satan, you know, the usual. That's cool man, Hour of 13 know what that shit is all about. Let them in. You're gonna dig this shit. I love listening to this album in my car on the highway for some reason. Makes me wanna roll down the windows, grow my hair long and buy a pack of cigarettes even though I don't smoke. Enough of my bullshit though... Hour of 13 has an ex member of Seven Foot Spleen who has also been a contributor to Anu and Demoncy and the other member is ex-Upwards of Endtime and Seamount(another good Doom band). This was released recently(2008) so it should still be still available. Buy it. If you don't like this album then you're a shithead who can't groove. That's it.

Download: Hour of 13-S/T

That's all for now. Maybe I'll do a NC Metal Part II post if anyone actually likes this shit.

boil, boil, boil over boilerman

2009-03-12T08:57:00.005-04:00

I'm not gonna patronize my imaginary readers by explaining who The Minutemen were, what their impact was and is like or the story of D. Boon's death. Everyone knows. No point. So I'll just post this tribute compilation without saying much besides that it was released by Little Brother Records and that you can read the full story on it, by the guy who actually put it together and released it here(Little Brother Records blogspot). There are a lot of really great covers on here and some stinkers, you know, like every tribute album ever. But this one is better simply because these are Minutemen covers. If you don't like The Minutemen then don't bother listening to this or really listening to rock and roll at all. What's wrong with you?

track listing:
sparkalepsy-king of the hill
seam-this aint no picnic
overpass-fake contest
hazel-storm in my house
nuzzle-futurism restated
oswald five-o-tony gets wasted in pedro
joe boon & tony platon-sickles and hammers
the brain surgeons-tour spiel
the 3m company-search
treepeople-shit from an old notebook
vida-99
ethan james & cindy albon-themselves
tsunami-courage
cellophane-more joy
strawman-untitled song for latin america
meat puppets-the price of paradise
crackerbash-the world according to nouns
nels cline trio-self referenced/west germany
dos-do you want new wave or do you want the truth?
experimental polen #68-games
overwhelming colorfast-corona
free kitten-party with me punker
jawbox-it's expected i'm gone
locos borachos-the product
thurston moore-shit you hear at parties
joe baiza-9:30 may 2
67 riot-case closed
kaia-stories
unwound-plight
the meices-political song for michael jackson to sing
blowout-times
corduroy-cut
lou barlow-black sheep
d. boon-interview
minutmen-badges

Download: Various Artists-A Tribute To D. Boon & The Minutemen
and if you enjoy it, be sure to pick up a copy for only seven bucks at Little Brother's site

nuclear noise, chaos and anarchy

2009-02-18T08:23:00.011-05:00

Chaos Destroy are a noise-not-music-styled punk band from Maryland, but I bet you they wish they came from the Land of the Rising Sun. Obvious influences include Confuse and Gai, obvious sound is fuzzed out and screechy and obvious fashion is spiked hair that's longer than your mother's and jackets with so many patches that you can't even tell where one band starts and the other ends. Well, I like to think they look like this. I have no idea actually. They could very well just be some nerdy teenagers in polos recording in their bedrooms while the parents are away for the weekend. Or some hipsters taking the piss out of noise punk. You never know when you don't see pictures. Either way, the music is great (in that terrible kind of way). Fans of modern fuckery such as Chaos Channel will love this. For those of you unaware of this brand of sonic shit, distort your minds for a few minutes and give it a chance. MRR said this about one of their releases: "There is nothing beyond the punishment to form the tunes and it's just noise for noise sake. I just feel that there something missing here. It's just a bunch of banging and screaming." So, you know it's good.

Download the Nuclear Chaos Demo, Nuclear Anarchy Demo and Nuclear Noise Demo plus outtakes *** NEVER YOU MIND, don't download any of this because a member of Chaos Destroy sent me a message on Myspace saying that he doesn't want this up because some of these songs are going to be on a compilation. I figure it won't be the exact same versions since these are just "demos" but hey, whatever, his right. Anyway, sorry if anyone wants to download this. I know a few people have told me through last.fm that they loved this so if anyone else feels the same just ask them on Myspace what is available to buy. ***

Another demo (Music Not Noise) is available at the No Security blog

robot police/police robot

2009-02-10T11:11:00.007-05:00

Baby Buddha was permanently David Javelosa(Los Microwaves) and Charles Hornaday with other temporary and guest members like Los Microwave's Meg Brazill, Poshboy Record's Robbie Fields, and Kathy Peck who played on their first LP, Music For Teenage Sex. They played a not so straight forward type of Synth Pop that's less accessable than what the more popular synth driven pop acts(Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Ultravox, Human League, etc) were playing at the time. The release I'm going to post, Music For Teenage Sex (1981), is their most popular and well known record. Their second after the Stand By Your Man 45 (1980), Music For Teenage Sex includes 4 covers and 6 originals. Standout tracks: We Are Not, Robot Police, the previously mentioned Tammy Wynette cover, All Shook Up and All Night Long.

Music For Teenage Sex was followed by two tours, the Everyone Is My Age LP (1983) and a reformation in 2003. They supposedly have been and are going to continue to play the occasional show in and around Southern California with the original duo of David and Chris. David also has a lot of other endevours, including a solo project titled simply Javelosa that has recorded an album called "More Music For Teenage Sex" among many others. Check out his website for sample mp3s of what looks to be everything he's released so far: Javelosa.com

Download: Baby Budda-Music For Teenage Sex

artifically influenced dumb syndrome

2009-02-10T11:03:00.004-05:00

I'm not exactly sure why I'm starting this blog. Does the internet really need yet another music upload blog made by a young American male who's tastes are not actually that interesting or extraordinary? Probably not. Well, definetely not. So how do I justify this? I don't, I guess. It's stupid, I'm stupid. I'm also bored, which is probably the main reason for doing this. Oh well. Whatever.