Singles Going Crazy IV

Like Radon (And Tom Petty and Death) Dogs on Ice (bassist Brian McCabe, drummer Paul Arcos and singer-guitarist Joe Popp) hailed from sunny, tacky Florida. D.O.I. may have been an almost-ran in the Jawbreaker-Fugazi 200-meter dash but damnit they ran as if they had a hellhound on their tail. Their higest profile moment was issuing a fine L.P. on Allied Records (founded by artist John Yates,who worked with the Dead Kennedy's Jello Biafra at his label, Alternative Tentacles) called Salt Wound. However, nothing on Salt Wound (or their previous album, Pushin' Rope) ever surpassed the lunatic "On a String" from their 1993 e.p, Housefly. Right from the get-go, the drums go wild, then the guitars leap about before Popp starts bellowing like his lungs are on fire - as a song it's a perfect aural encapsulation of the indie-punk aesthetic in-between the Nirvana explosion and the Green Day aftershock.

Dogs on Ice - On a String

Joe Popp put the the entire Dogs on Ice catalog on line - so go hear more.

P.S. When first posted last year (before all my MassMirror links died) this turned out to be MRML's least popular download ever. Now that you've been stirred by the magnificent "On a String" maybe we can move it's ranking up to...maybe...fifth least popular.

Download Housefly

Singles Going Crazy III

The Invalids (Tony on bass guitar, Sean on drums and Scott on guitar and vocals) wanted to be Green Day and we can enjoy their failure. While failing imitators can achieve serendipitous innovation, East Bay band, the Invalids derivitiveness came out like a cross between the cow-punk of fellow East Bay-ers, Sewer Trout and the gruff pop-punk of Chicago's Screeching Weasel. This 1995 Lookout Records single, "Punker Than Me", is jam-packed with sing-along choruses, off-kilter lyrics, stripped-down chord progressions and the whole damn record clocks in at 6:42!

The Invalids - Punker Than Me

Insubordination Records has put out an Invalids comp, though it does not contain any of the songs from this single.

Download Punker Than Me

Update: the Invalids are back in action (see here) with a new album in the works.

Singles Going Crazy II

Radon (Bill Clower - drums, Dave Rohm - guitar, vocals, Brent Wilson - bass, vocals) released this exceptional set of emo-pop-punk-hardcore on No Idea Records back in 1992. This four track e.p., the band's first release, was "...recorded in Tommy Hamilton's living room & bedroom on Georgia Street in Tallahassee, Florida." To these ears it sound like Rohm and Wilson split the song-writing, with one taking a more Dischord Records sound and one taking a Jawbreaker meets early Green Day angle. Regardless of authorship, the roaring anthem "Radon" (ah the eponymous song!) and the gritty, yet triumphant,"Facial Disobedience" shine right though the muddy production.

Radon - Facial Disobedience

All of these tracks are available on a retrospective CD, titled We Bare All, available from No Idea.

Download Radon 7"

Singles Going Crazy

(Image courtesy of Eyby20 at Photobucket)

Punk bands jam-packed ideas and words into short spaces; hence the necessity of the 7” e.p. A zillion punk band issued seven inches, not for their traditional purpose of ending up on radio, jukeboxes or in the hands of pre-adolescent music buyers (hey, I could afford to buy my friend the Boomtown Rats “I Don’t like Mondays” single for his tenth birthday!) but as the sole way their music could escape their local stages.

The extend play, or e.p., let the band show off more then a couple of songs, often allowing cover tunes or odd tangents to escape. And they played at 33 r.p.m., so if was “too slow” you could speeditthefuckup. The 7” e.p. was that transition between the lowly demo tape and the more rarefied album. Sadly, it could also be a wall. Some bands, when faced with the daunting task of following up crystalline e.p.’s with full albums, just fell apart (even the vaunted Misfits album, Walk Among Us, was considered a let-down after all those blistering e.p.’s like Bullet and Three Hits from Hell).

So many of the obscure bands from the fag-end of the vinyl era (are we still there yet?) re-affirm a heartbreaking truth: most bands have only a few good songs and that later attempts to diversify or recapture the original sound are only the grasping of straws. Bands have a Moment: one time where history and their particular talents align and if they grab it – Bam! - we end up with, at the least, a single. After a few more star-crossed attempts they end up careerists, crack addicts or computer programmers. Writers are the same, Nick Hornby had a rock n’ roll career trajectory; that album of early demos (Fever Pitch), his Moment (High Fidelity) the similar-sounding sophomore album (About a Boy), the Mature album (How to Be Good) and the album that tries to reach old and new fans (Long Way Down).

Glibness aside, this Theory of Brief Moments applies doubly to pop-punk bands. So let MRML (re) present a series; "Singles Going Crazy", wherein we dig-up neglected musical wonders from bands who burned brilliantly, then faded fast.

Kamala and the Karnivores (the Lookout catalog says, "East Bay pop band that featured Ivy, later of Sweet Baby, Kamala, later in Cringer, the Gr'ups, and Naked Aggression, and Todd, of Spitboy. Sweet songs about being in love, killing boys, and black thumbs") sounded a little indie-rock in their tempos and melodies but they pulled it off with a punkish swagger.
Kamala, who got name-checked by both Screeching Weasel and Sewer Trout, wrote sharp and thoughtful little tunes, like this anti-anorexia ripper, "Bone Bouquet".


Their sole e.p., 1989's Girl Band, got tacked onto a gargantuan CD of Lookout also-rans, so if you like it - buy it.

Download Girl Band

Meet Kamala and the Karnivores on my Detrola

Inside, Outside Anarchy

From 1982 onward, D.I. continued the loud, fast and out-of-control Orange county pop-punk of Social Distortion and The Adolescents (both of whom lead singer Casey Royer played with). While they never equaled those bands greatest moments, Casey and his ever-changing band of surfers, did hit a helluva peak with this complete bastardization of Chuck Berry's "Surfin' U.S.A.", featuring new lyrics and and a hopped-up-on-goofballs arrangement.


The cover of Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge" is good but how do you improve on the original?

Download Surfin' Anarchy 7"


Here's their infamous appearance in Suburbia.


Here's a hella catchy song from their best album, Horse Bites Dog Cries.


And proof that that you can't keep a beach-punk down.