Roberto's Rez/Rev-illos Rarities: Another irregular
MRML series powered by the wild generosity of our reader, Roberto:
Enjoy and don't forget to leave our benefactor a thank-you
comment.
Some Revillos (More HERE!) fans really hate this more Blondie-esque ballad but I know that it's just further proof of how strong a song-writer and singer Fay Fife could be.
Roberto's Rez/Rev-illos Rarities: Another irregular
MRML series powered by the wild generosity of our reader, Roberto:
Enjoy and don't forget to leave our benefactor a thank-you
comment.
Longer mix of The Revillos (more HERE!) dancey-but-not-ditzy of "Bitten By a Love Bug" plus a different B-side, "Cat Call", than the 7" version.
A: Bitten By A Love Bug 4:58
Fife/Santini
B: Cat Call
Reynolds/Atom/Rhythm 4:28
Please
remember, the fabulous rips and scans of this deep obscurity come
to us from Roberto - who has more Rez/Rev-illos stuff to come -
so please leave a COMMENT (that's the section where the Jack the Ripper" link is) for our less-then-mysterious benefactor.
Roberto's Rez/Rev-illos Rarities: Another irregular
MRML series powered by the wild generosity of our reader, Roberto:
Enjoy and don't forget to leave our benefactor a thank-you
comment.
The Revillos (More HERE!) get popp-ier as the 80's go on but still manage to sound like an updated girl group on tracks like this one.
A: Bitten By A Love Bug 3:28
Fife/Santini*
B: Trigger Happy Jack 4:34
Reynolds/Atom/Rhythm*
Please
remember, the fabulous rips and scans of this deep obscurity come
to us from Roberto - who has more Rez/Rev-illos stuff to come -
so please leave a COMMENT (that's the section where the Jack the Ripper" link is) for our less-then-mysterious benefactor.
To see my list of ten (more) great Lookout Records singles, please visit The Big Takeover!
We'll end the series commemorating the final end of Lookout Records (more HERE), with a compilation that was actually released by the fanzine, Maximumrocknroll. Of course, this 1987 double 7", was compiled by Lookout records co-founder David Hayes ("It was a Gilman benefit paid for by MRR but I disorganized it" he later claimed). Soon enough, eight of the thirteen Gilman St. mainstays herein would end up on Lookout Records and help to define the label's sound and aesthetic.
In fact the record explains much much of the nineties, like a vinyl Rosetta Stone. Here we have Operation Ivy single-handedly creating third-wave ska, Sweet Baby Jesus clearing the way for pop-punk in general and Green Day in particular, No Use For A Name setting up the Fat Wreck-Chords dynasty and The Yeastie Girlz sparking the Riot Grrl Revolution. Heady stuff.
Tracklist
A1 Corrupted Morals – Where Is He? 1:43
A2 Sweet Baby Jesus – She's From Salinas 2:01
A3 Isocracy – Confederate Flags 2:07
A4 No Use For A Name – Gang Way 2:00
B1 Crimpshrine – Another Day 2:40
B2 Operation Ivy – I Got No 1:15
B3 Stikky – Fun On The Freeway 1:49
B4 Nasal Sex – Freezer Burn 1:48
C1 Yeastie Girlz – Yeast Power 0:35
C2 Rabid Lassie – Contragate 1:42
C3 Sewer Trout – Wally & The Beaver Go To Nicaragua 2:11
C4 Isocracy – ZBHR 0:56
C5 Operation Ivy – Officer 1:55
D1 Sweet Baby Jesus – Pathetic 1:49
D2 Crimpshrine – Rearranged 1:58
D3 Stikky – Moshometer 1:23
D4 Buggerall – Two Taps 2:25
Let us know your favourites from this seminal compilation in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Turn It Around link).
I've got my first take-down notices, plural, from Mediafire this week. Traditionally things would just disappear from my 'shared files' list but now they're getting aggressive and taking down things like this live Mike Ness bootleg that has never been commercially available in any way, shape or form.
Artists and their representatives do have a right to have material taken down, whether it's a commercial release or not and no one here disputes that. However, I wish that all concerned understood that blogs like this one, and so many more, exist to give exposure to under-appreciated or as yet little-known artists We intend no harm to musicians or those who work with them and are willing to do our research to ensure our blogs are not undercutting the very artists we seek to elevate.
I've spoken with dozens of musicians whose work has been featured here from Joey Keithley from DOA to Graham Parker to Dr. Frank of the Mr. T Experience to TV Smith of The Adverts to Kurt Bloch of Fastbacks and many, many others, all of whom have been happy to note that we celebrate music here, keeping alive things that were neglected in some way. Seriously, in four and a half years not one artist has been anything less than happy at what they see here.
So pull down our files, if you believe that what's best in this day and age. But non-commercial blogs that spread unavailable music should not be treated as
pirates for, materially speaking, we gain nothing and take nothing. Music bloggers work hard for no real external reward. Bloggers that both promote music and studiously avoid commercially available material are a part of
the the music world now and should be accorded respect.
Last week on MRML, we mentioned that, "Jesse Michaels former lead singer of Operation Ivy (more HERE), Big Rig and Common Rider has unleashed a powerful full-length from his new band, Classics of Love.
That notice reminded me to backtrack and review Jesse's longest-running band, the only one to have made more than two releases, Common Rider. The band was anchored by Dan Panic of Screeching Weasel (more HERE) and pop-punk producer, Mass Giorgini on bass. However, on this 2001 single from Lookout Records (more HERE) Billie-Joe Armstrong from Green Day (more HERE) pitches in on guitar/BGV's alongside a rotating cast.
The lyrics (see above) are as insightful as ever and the hooks still hit hard. A rip-rockin' release from a man who remains his vitality to this day.
Let us know what you think of the Common Rider era of Jesse Michaels' career in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Thief in a Sleeping Town 7").
“(In 1992) I was still co-producing with Blaise Barton – who had
worked with (Bob) Dylan – I’d always felt that his unique understanding of
where words belonged in a song brought the best out in me, lyrically
speaking.”
Joey Vindictive
Though The Vindictives
self-released their early singles, it was their signing to Lookout
Records (more HERE) that brought the Chicago band a wide audience in the
nineties. While the band would be associated with Screeching Weasel
(Ben actually played guitar in the band's early days) but like all great
pop-punk bands, their lyricist Joey Vindictive had a powerfully
individual way with the word and could be as terse as Dee Dee Ramone or wordy enough to be Dylanesque. Vindictive's lyrics used self-loathing and general misanthropy (see the "Terrible Monster") into something that transcended anger and hatred. Or, as Wikipedia would, have it "The lyrics were often intelligent outrages communicated through intentionally immature self-defeating soliloquies" (Amen, Wiki, amen).
Of course it's not just the words, the music kicked ass with pop-punk tunes loaded with backing vocals, charging guitar work, near-hardcore tempos and, of course, that deliriously snotty kid voice that Joey Vindictive wielded like an angry toddler.
Don't forget to leave a thought on the Vindictives in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Rocks in My Head' Link.)
Just as pop-punk was about to enter its millennial hibernation, Newcastle, USA's The Lilligtons offered the genre one last shot at redemption. Despite being championed by both fellow Ramones-fanatic Ben Weasel (see HERE) and soon after by the Green Day-powered Lookout Records (more HERE) The Lilligtons' of 1999 weren't anybody's knock-off. (However, The Lilligtons' of 1995-1998 were a bit too Weasel/Queer-esque for their own damn good.)
The band's volte-face was most evident both in their rocket-powered tuneage and in their newly focused lyrics which had switched from sophomoric to sci-fi. Gone were song titles like "My Genitals Itch" and "Pom Pom Girls" and in rushed psychotronic late-night creature features titles like "I Saw the Apeman ("On the Moon) and "Invasion of the Saucermen". It was a brilliant experiment, a sort of like a Ramones-Misfits mutation that escaped its captors and bred in the wilds of Wyoming!
Of course, I can only plead with you to go and buy Death by Television or any of the albums by Kody Templeman's more famous band, Teenage Bottlerocket. If you've done so, here's a live set from the Death by Television tour recorded in Chicago's legendary Fireside Bowl. The sound is just fine for this sort of thing and the fact that it's all one track may just increases its force.
Let us know what you think of The Lillingtons in the The COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Live at The Fireside Bowl link).
I love New Hampshire pop-punk legends The Queers but I bet their leader, Joe 'King' Queer, would hate me. Sure I kicked off this blog with a defense of the genius of Mr. Queer (way back HERE) but I've publicly said that his long-time friend Ben Weasel needs a kick in the morals (see HERE). I'd stand by that statement, even if Joe called me a 'wimp' or something even worse: the man's a virtuoso of the epithet.
So to celebrate the music of the Joe & his ever-changing Queers, here' s an out-of-print collection from Lookout Records (more HERE) that collects up a schwack of demos (and one single) that show the band's punkier side without obscuring the pop side altogether. And damn that pop-no-punk-no-pop-no-punk aspect of The Queers is what elevates them above so many of their Ramones-worshiping peers.
1 Granola Head
2 I Hate Everything
3 Murder In The Brady House
Written-By – Ben Weasel
4 I Won't Be
5 Nobody Likes Me
6 I Can't Stop Farting
7 Night Of The Livid Queers
8 Monster Zero
9 Too Many Twinkies
10 Teenage Bonehead
11 Half Shitfaced
12 Hi Mom It's Me
13 I Live This Life
14 Feeling Groovy
15 Born To Do Dishes
16 Junk Freak
17 No Tit
18 Little Honda
Written-By – Brian Wilson
19 End It All
Written-By – Kim Shattuck
20 I Can't Get Over You
Written-By – Lsa Marr
21.1 Never Ever
Written-By – JJ Rassler
21.2 God Only Knows
Written-by Brian Wilson, Tony Asher
Let us know what you think of Joe & co.s pop/punk style in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Later Days and Better Lays link).
Bubba Flower came to fame as part of sixties-psych-pop band, The Avant-Garde. While his partner in The Avant-Garde, Chuck Woolery, went on to fame as a game show host, Fowler put out a solo album, And Then Came Bubba, on Columbia Records in 1970. At this time Fowler was also a session musician working with producer Bob Johnston and ended up playing on Bob Dylan's Self-Portrait and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate. Fortunately for us, it's the influence of the Johnston-produced Blonde on Blonde era (and not Self-Portrait) Dylan that dominates Fowler's songs like "Listen Big City" and "The Pounding Status Quo". "Lament #1" has the mournfulness of early Cohen and "Joli Girl" sounds like Glen Campbell gettin' a little wordy. While And Then Came Bubba, isn't quite a masterpiece, it's a fascinating listen for Dylan-atics and Cohen-heads or those who appreciate all the strange the cross-pollination of sixties country, folk and pop.
1. Listen Big City
2. Louise (My Cajun Woman)
3. Joli Girl
4. Sociological Bind
5. Next Year This Time
6. Pounding Status Quo
7. Lament, No. 1
8. Messenger of Life
9. Yellow Beads
10. On Tomorrow
11. Jenny Love
Let us know what you think of Bubba Fowler and his wild ways in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the And Then Came Bubba link*).
*This rip was created by the hand of G O D over at Sluggisha (possibly NSFW), a most singular curator. Thank him for the Bubba!
Update: For more on Bubba, Cohen and true love go visit 1heckofaguy
Jesse Michaels former lead singer of Operation Ivy (more HERE), Big Rig and Common Rider has unleashed a powerful full-length from his new band, Classics of Love.
After a promising e.p and a strong single, Micheal's & co. have found their fighting form. It's a surprisingly fast and aggressive sound reminiscent of Stiff Little Fingers, Minor Threat, The Adolescents and, of course, Operation Ivy. While some of us listeners may long for even more of the walking bass and scratching guitar Michael's so often incorporates into his music, we can be happy to have his sharp words and mighty choruses propelled by such a fiery band. (Stream the entire album here)
Let us know what you think of the Classics of Love in the COMMENTS section.
Pinhead Gunpowder (named after a very strong tea) are a sort of Gilman Street super-group, the Blind Faith of NoCal punk, if you will. After all the band is centered around uber-sceneststr Aaron Cometbus and prominently features Green Day's Billie-Joe Armstrong and other Gilman/Lookout Records (more HERE) vets. Fortunately, the band always played it low-key - releasing records sporadically, rarely playing live - thereby avoiding any vestiges of hype. They've released a string of albums, singles, split releases and compilation appearances in their twenty-plus year existence without ever becoming widely-known. The group's songs (mostly written by Cometbus but some written by Armstrong under the pseudonym Wilhelm Fink) consistently offer a cool mid-temp punk with sharp-eyed, narrative lyrics, as this live show from 2010 goes a long way to prove.
Let us know what you think of this low-key super-group in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Live at Gilman St. link)
Okay while readers are still offering some back-n-forth on how damaged Screeching Weasel's legacy is (see HERE), I'll offer a final bootleg of a surprisingly well-recorded 1993 show (circa Anthem for a New Tomorrow). Enjoy...
If you survived the late 80's, this is a pretty jaw-dropping line-up
Track Listing: 1. Veronica Hates Me 2. Peter Brady 3. Slogans 4. Falling Apart 5. Teenage Freakshow 6. Leather Jacket 7. I Can See Clearly Now 8. Every Night 9. Kamala's Too Nice 10. I'm Gonna Strangle You 11. The Science of Myth 12. Mary Was an Anarchist 13. Rubber Room 14. Cindy's On Methadone 15. Don't Turn Out the Lights 16. Ashtray 17. Joanie Loves Johnny 18. Totally
19. Let the Sun Shine In
Let us know you view on Weasel, live dead or zombified in the COMMENTS section.
Winepress were a Chicago pop-punk band, who's catchy, fun and bratty songs bore a strong Screeching Weasel (more HERE) influence. Of course without Mr. Weasel's belligerence and with an upbeat Happy
Days-ish lyrical outlook, another point of comparison might be their
slightly-more well-known contemporaries, Weston.
The band only released two singles and a split e.p. with The Fighters
before breaking up, leaving a now out-of-print compilation called Complete Recordings on Harmless Records (home of the band Walker - see HERE) to remember them by.
This post is the product of a request by a reader and a upload from an anonymous donor.
Let us know what you think of Winepress and the bands that Screeching Weasel influenced in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Complete Recordings link).
Yesterday's episode, The Tragedy of the Weasel - see HERE, generated some smart responses, so in hopes of furthering the discussion here's a bootleg that collects up the Screeching Weasel's 1986 demo and a 1992 (?) radio broadcast from the venerable WMFU.
Tracklist
1986 Demo
1 Society 2 Serial Killer 3 I Can't Stand Myself 4 I Hate You 5 Whip You/Shopping Spree 6 Don't Touch My Car/Mother 7 Fred Is Dead 8 Fast Food 9 In The Hospital 10 Leave Me Alone 11 Work 12 Raining Weasels/Pick Up 13 K-Mart 14 Feel Like Shit 15 Oscar Myer/Nothing Matters 16 Devil At McDonalds 17 I Hate Old Folks/Cows 18 You're So Boring 19 Stupid Hippy 20 Bullshit
Live On WMFU Radio (1992?)
21 I Can See Clearly 22 Teenage Freak Show 23 Daddy Is A Whip 24 Jeannie's Got A Problem ... 25 High School Psychopath 26 Joanie Loves Johnny 27 Murder In The Brady House 28 I Wanna Be A Homosexual 29 What We Hate 30 Don't Turn Off The Lights 31 Guest List 32 Veronica Hates Me 33 Ding Bat 34 Cindy Is On Methadone 35 Supermarket Fantasy 36 Science Of Myth/Crying In My Beer
Leave us your thoughts on the Weasel in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the Punk Rock Superheroes link).
Point One: Screeching Weasel were one of the most influential bands of the nineties.
Point Two: Ben Weasel's cowardly attack on two women in Austin in March of 2011 and his subsequent semi-apology and follow-up screed (which combined the self-aggrandizement of Charlie Sheen and the sense of victimization of Sarah Palin) have damaged his band's reputation, possibly forever.
As for point one, I'll still keep listening to my old SW records. But in light of point two, I will not support Ben "Weasel" Foster until he takes personal responsibility, rather then blaming others for the fall-out of his act, and stops hiding behind this mentally unstable idea that he's just playing a 'character'. I do believe the man can sort his shit out, he's overcome some serious problems in his life and he's done a lot of good things for people.
So in remembrance of the mightiness of Screeching Weasel the band, here in one of their primes with Dan Panic on drums, Johnny Personality on bass plus Jughead and Danny Vapid on guitar, is a live radio broadcast from 1993. The set-list, shows the band, and Weasel always needed strong back-up, leaning heavily on the then-new album Wiggle (on Lookout Records - more HERE) and giving those songs an edge that was missing in the recording studio.
1 Intro
2 I'm not in love
3 Second Floor East
4 One Step Beyond
5 Jenny's Got A Problem With Her Uterus
6 Achtung (Authority cover)
7 Automatic Rejector
8 Joanie Loves Johnny
9 Radioblast
10 27 Things I Wanna Do To You
11 Slow Motion
12 The Girl Next Door
13 Sad Little Girl
14 Ain't Got No Sense
15 Cindy's On Methadone
16 Danny Is A Wimp
17 Murder In The Brady House
18 Crying In My Beer / Interview
So do you care less about this Ben Weasel fracas? Is it old news or an open wound? Does it change your view of Screeching Weasel, the band? Do we need another post to talk more about the MUSIC? Let us know in the COMMENTS section(which is where you'll find Live on WZRD).
To see my list of ten great Lookout Records singles (part one) please go visit The Big Takeover.
Monsula(Paul Lee on vocals, Chuck Goshert on guitar, Bill Schnieder on bass and Jeff Stofanon drums) got
tagged as sounding "D.C." a lot in their time. There seemed to be a doppelganger
District of Columbia hidden in the East Bay with bands like Fuel,
Jawbreaker and Monsula playing a gritty, emotional brand of punk that could make Ian Mackaye bob his bald head. Unlike most of their fellow Lookout Records bands (more HERE) and more like their D.C. counterparts, Monsula's songs grew less hooky and more complex as they evolved. This musical shift led some minimalist-types to conclude that the searing "Razors", from their debut E.P., Nickel, was their greatest moment.
So while it's inarguable that 'Razors' is the band's most remembered song (it was re-recorded for their debut album and covered by Cringer) the band were a pummeling live band (they played Winnipeg twice in the early 90's) and their debut album, Structure, has some kick-ass songs like "Indestructible".
A1 Firecracker A2 Missing You B1 Razors B2 When Will It End
Monsula at
the Royal Albert Arms Hotel,Winnipeg
MB
Canada, 1992
So what do you think of Monsula? Of Razors? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Nickel 7" link).
It's clear that Austin's The Capitalist Kids are fixated on old-school Lookout Records bands (more HERE), what with the above single's homage to Mr. T Experience's Love is Dead album and their Too Big Too Fail CD nodding to Screeching Weasel and The Queers as well as MTX. However, as this tribute to Republican boner-bait Sarah Palin and Ayn Rand shows, the band's originality resides in its sarcastic take on curent American politics, which comes off like a mash-up of early Green Day and The Daily Show. Via.
.
The Parasites (more HERE), spent much of the nineties being recklessly prolific, sporadically brilliant and sadly marginal. The1996 single, Hang-Up
did get released by big-time pop label Lookout Records (more HERE) but that never
brought the band the audience it deserved. This single was another
criminally neglected three-song e.p. where Dave Parasite channeled the
ghosts of Joey, Dee and Johnny to create a pop music with guts.
Tell us what you think of the work of these here Parasites in the COMMENTS section(which is where you'll find the Hang-Up 7" link).
Cinder Block was a dominating presence in nineties pop-punk band Tilt (more HERE), which seemed to rub some listeners the wrong way. While perhaps the rub lay in Block's powerful voice, which, since it could effectively alternate between piercing and growling, may have seemed a bit showboat-ish to nineties punk audiences, the most ever-present critique was always of her lyrics. Critics used words like 'elliptical' and 'pretentious' or "Oddly overwrought lyrics...like teenage poetry" to describe her unusual way with words. A male co-worker from the music store I once worked at went out his way to disdain the chorus of "Acathisia", which went something like, "I got these shoes for nothing and they have lasted me forever, searching up and down the long highway".
While I'd be willing to admit that her lyrics do sometimes sound they've come directly from the pages of her writers' notebook, she still has a unique and memorable style of writing. There's not real any analogous lyricist in rock n' roll. Perhaps imagining combination of Brett Guerewitz of Bad Religion and Exene Cervenka of X might offer an approximation of her style. A favourite Block line of of mine, one that may indicate why the band never gained Riot Grrll cred was the line from "Crying Jag", "Everyone knows I'd sell my sister for cigarettes / Why shouldn't I she'd do the same to me". Love it or loathe it, who else writes like that?
Crying Jag
Everyone knows I'm on a crying jag
Pay me no mind I do it all the time
I could show you
Do you want me to show you
Call it a day or you can pay my way
Gonna cry till I'm all cried out
I could show you
I could easily show you
[chorus]
You may say I live on easy street
You can think anything you want to think
Come by some time my door is open to you
Where I can show you how easy I am
Everyone knows I'd sell my sister for cigarettes
Why shouldn't I She'd do the same to me
We could show you
We could easily show you
If you only knew you wouldn't be so upset
What if she's in league with me
We can show you
We can easily show you
Everyone knows I'm on a crying jag
Pay me no mind I do it all the time
I could show you
Do you want me to show you
Call it a day or you can pay my way
Gonna cry till I'm all cried out
I could show you
Do you want me to show you
[chorus]
*
Their Fat Wreck-Chords near-hit "Libel' from 1995 continues Block's singular style ("Can you hear it? Ignorance personified")
To buttress my argument for Cinder & co.'s power (and to put an end to this sprawling post) I'll offer up a good-sounding live show of the band playing a full-tilt set of songs from their two best albums (1993's Play Cell and 1995's Till it Kills) at the mother church of pop-punk, Gilman Street.
What's your view on Cinder Block's lyrics? Let us know in the COMMENTS section. (where you'll find the Live at Gilman St. link).
Reno's pop-punk-rockabilly cats, Cobra Skulls go down to the basement cuz there's something down there - and it turns out it's a feverish take on Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The track is from a 2009 split release with Andrew Jackson Jihad on the Under the Influence 7" series put out by Suburban Home.
Sewer Trout, with the late Jim MacLean, bass, vocals Hal MacLean, drums Keith Lehtinen, guitar Erik Benson were a huge part of the scene centered around the Gilman Street Project. Not only did the band play there regularly, appear on the project's benefit compilation, Turn It Around but they were also an early signee to Lookout Records (which chronicled most of the Gilman bands) putting out this single (Lookout 8) and appearing on the label's ground-breaking compilation, The Thing That Ate Floyd. (More Lookout Records posts HERE)
Sewer Trout hailed from Sacramento and used bratty humour (take that title, Big Black), hooky, almost folky tunes and plinky bass lines to create their Trout-rock sound. The band offer further proof that there never was an exact Gilman St. sound just an attitude.
According to my old Lookout catalog this single, Songs About Drinking,contained a vitally important document called "Is Sewer Trout Really the Word of God?" but I still await someone with a copy and a scanner to prove it's existence to me. Some consider this single their best work, though I say it's the Flawless 10" (see HERE). Regardless of rankings, these seven songs are catchy and clever, especially the Dead Milkmen-like cow-punker, "President of the Anarchist Club".
Please render your verdict on Sewer Trout in the comments section (where you'll find the Songs About Drinking 7" link).
Sewer Trout for President, their other 7", is available at the consistently excellent good bad music so go get it.
Support the band!
