Skate Fast! Thrash Fast!

Useless Wooden Toys hail from Mpls, MN. and play some raging, duel vocal hardcore thrash/smith grind about skating, moshing, and not taking shit so damn seriously all the fucking time. Disrobe are from Chicago. They share members with the Rat Bastards, and sound fairly similar, only faster. I'm just not in the mood for a proper write-up at the moment, so just DL this already.

DAGGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (DL)

(Sadly, Chris Johnson, one of the vocalists from UWT was killed one year and a week ago today at a party by some rotten piece of shit. Even though I didn't know him that well, I can honestly say that this was a tremendous loss. My heart goes out to Ryan, Steve, Cookie, and Chris. Thanks for playing in my basement way back when, and I hope you guys continue to skate and thrash with a fervor as yet unknown.)

...please destroy this if you wish to live...

I know that it has been posted elsewhere, but I feel like this needs to be included on my blog, because this is my favorite album of all. You should own it. I believe it's even still printed in the CD format. Originally released on Nick Blinko's own Outer Himalayn Records, and distributed by the delightfully esoteric folks at Southern Records, Cacophony is possibly the most bizarre and fantastic album to come out of the punk and hardcore scene. Weird is a good word for it. But good weird, like the life and work of the man from whom the album's concept draws its inspiration, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. It's funny, but the first time I bought this album and listened to it, I hated it. I even tried to return it. At that point, I had only heard their early, more straightforward EP's and I wasn't ready. Not for the epic work that is Cacophony. For a song by song breakdown of how each track relates to H.P. Lovecraft's life and writing, check out this page. While you are there, dig around the rest of Piss In A Pod, it is definitely the most comprehensive page I have seen about the Peni and their enigmatic singer, Nick Blinko. They've even got some rare live recordings for the grabbing. (Unlike many of their peers, Rudimentary Peni don't tour, have rarely played live at all in the past twenty years, and only release new material every few years). Rumor has it that the initial tracks for this album were recorded in one take, so I tried to keep that stream-of-consciousness feel by making this a 'gapless album'. I hope you enjoy this record as much as I do, but remember that such things should not be writ, and I will not be held responsible for nightmares, madness, or temporal displacement resulting from the playing of this album.

NEW LINK!08/30

Punk Rock 102

Today's lesson:
HARDCORE
Lecture - "Listening to American Hardcore: Whorehouse of Representatives"
Group Study - "Hardcore in action: Toxic Narcotic"

Notes (DL)

"It's far out..."

Every honest comic has acknowledged the influence that Richard Pryor (1940-2005) had on their career. He is the progenitor of our modern humor. There is no way you can listen to this and not see where everyone has been getting their ideas from for the past 30+ years. Did you know that "Bicentennial Nigger" won a Grammy? I didn't. I didn't even know that there was a comedy category.I wonder who had to announce that, "And the winner is... Richard Pryor, Bicentennial Nigger!"/ "Yo, what the fuck did you just call me? I will fuck your ass up, motherfucker!" The material here deals mostly with the old "White folks be like/Black folks be like" observational race humor, but there's enough truth under the surface to keep the jokes from sounding all-out racist or hateful. I'm sure the title will scare away the squeamish, besides. This record was put out a few years before he lit up like a campfire while drinking 151 and free-basing. I'm sure you know all about that, but did you know that he was an animal rights activist? He sure was. I hope you enjoy this fine piece of comedy history as much as I do. [Once again, I did what I could to clean up the clicks/pops and general static. The signal to noise ratio on my set-up is pretty suspect, but I'm fine tuning it.]

Motherfucker (DL)

P.s. If this isn't the album you voted for, don't worry, I'll post up the other ones soon.

"Burn to the Fucking Ground L.A. / Whitey's Gonna Pay"

San Jose was a fun city to grow up in. I know some people from larger Bay Area cities like to shit all over it, but fuck those dudes. The skate scene was, and is, one of the most creative and fertile ones in the country. Just watch the Enjoi "Bag of Suck" video if you don't believe me. They've also had a great music scene (though lacking in equally great venues) over the years. "Bike for Beers" is an annual underground party where they get about five houses, each with a keg and a band or two, around the downtown area. You start mid-afternoon, and rage/bike till the wee morning hours. The cops are actually pretty chill about it, and usually just stand guard at the front in case of fights or other destructive jackassery. After one of the Bike for Beers, I got to hang out with Dean from Stinky Feet Records at his apt. on Pearl Ave (He's since moved, and I didn't know him well enough to know what he's up to these days. If you know, I'd love to hear.)That's his bathroom the dude is sitting in on the cover. The walls were covered in losing scratch-off lottery tickets. He had an amazing record collection (from which he gave me several items that he had duplicates of), every MST3K episode on tape, and was always down to hang out and drink and talk about punk rock. Dean was a good guy. He was also in at least two kick-ass bands: Idiot Bitch and Preachers That Lied. Today, I'm posting the Idiot Bitch "Loser" 7" for your consideration. Male and female vocals, a little melodic, and fairly intelligent in the lyrics dept.
[I apologize for the quality of the rip, I really tried to clean it up without affecting the sound quality of the music. A couple pops in some tracks,still.]

"The Ayatollah of Rock n' Roll-a"

Answer This and Stay Fashionable

So, I've been ripping from vinyl, and I started you out with a couple 7"s, but I figured I should get to some LP's. Since they are more time consuming, and our time here is so precious(?), I thought I'd make sure that whatever I rip is going to be something you want to hear. So, I thought I'd put a poll up, and see if any victor emerges. It's just one click, and it's anonymous, so vote goddamnit!

"Abort the Rights"

Remission have been around, on and off, since '95. I first heard from them on the No Fate Vol II world hardcore comp. (I thought I saw somebody post it, but I just searched it and nobody has an active link. I guess I'll put it up here, sometime soon.) They play vicious, splintering hardcore with the classic screech/scream duel vocal assault. The lyrics mostly deal with the threat technology poses on humanity as we become increasingly more dependent on the silicon teet. Speaking of which: isn't it strange how comfortable we've become with having an electronic two-way communication device with GPS and personal data on our persons at all times? How pissed are you when you can't get a WiFi signal? How many times a day do you log onto a global networking service to let your every action be known? Think about it. Or, don't. Thinking is strenuous. Just relax, it hurts less that way. Well, back to the record - This is a short one, with 6 tracks, each under the two minute mark, but you'll probably end up playing it a second (or possibly third)time through, because it is just pure killer. I have the "Our Days Are Numbered" LP, which I may or may not post at some point. I just saw that Profane Existence released a discography and they have an absolutely amazing deal that you should check out over here. Seriously.

Please place your Identification Tattoo into the scanner... (DL)