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Here’s my numero uno pick for 80’s Crust-Metal hybrids, or UK Crust Metal… Sacrilege “Behind The Realms Of Madness”.  A bit of a no-brainer really, get a band full of guys that used to be in the Varukers ripping of Slayer, Onslaught, Metallica, Celtic Frost, etc. but filtering through their UK82 sensibilities. Then get this tall chick with charged hair and a super rough voice on the mic and wah-lah, a classic. Most of the songs work mid paced thrash type riffs against powerful epic mosh parts, kinda comes off like if after Hear Nothing, Discharge had got into Kreator instead of Van Halen. 

The music is great raw thrash style, with enough hardcore and crust in the mix to make it really stick out, I guess it’s similar to the Antisect lp, English Dogs and Amebix Monolith, but every track just nails the sound so well that I think it surpasses those. I think vocalist “Tam” contributes a lot to the songs being so catchy, she’s one of the best female punk/metal vocalists I’ve ever heard. Really gritty and expressive sounding, stronger than most male vocalists actually. The guitar solos that color a lot of the sections are of the sub Kirk Hammett variety, semi melodic but basically all variations on one theme. The drumming is crunchy and has a lot of cheap echo on it, but that’s part of the sound for these kind of bands, and so with that in mind it doesn’t disappoint. The bass is basically inaudible under the thickly layered guitars which I think are in D-Flat and make the most of the riffs with lots of accents. I dunno, just imagine some punks trying to copy Ride The Lightning and you’re pretty close.

I don’t know why this copy is going to high, maybe some sketchy bidding is going down. I’ve never seen one go much over $50 before so I’d be wary of that. There’s also a pressing on Pusmort, and a blue vinyl version on COR.

Naked Raygun - Flammable Solid 7″ is a contender for the best packaging award. Always just looked super cool to me with the full sized Flammable Solid sticker on the front and lyric sheet on transparent paper. Only 500 were ever made, a one time pressing on Ruthless, and although all three tracks later turned up on the Throb Throb lp in rerecorded versions, this is still probably the most collectible Naked Raygun release for scarcity and overall coolness. The versions of Surf Combat, Gear and Libido are a little faster and maybe sound like a demo session for the album. Raygun were often poppy, but sometimes pretty angular and fractured sounding for a band with a rep as a punk/pop band. Surf Combat, the first track on side A is a pretty good example of that with a garagey drum beat that guitars crash into and then cut back out of intermittently.

You should really check out the seller’s other listings too because there’s plenty of A-list material like the first 2 Meatmen 7″s, Urban Waste E.P., Dangerhouse colored vinyl, Electric Deads, Chiefs…

I’m sick with a cold, brain is is moving like molten magma, but if that magma was snot.  

Here’s a list of band I went to see in September:

Samhain - Initium 

Danzig took the name of the band from Samhain, the ancient Celtic New Year, which influenced the evolution of the modern Halloween. The band’s name is typically pronounced “sam-hane” (i.e. the syllables rhyme with “ham” and “pain”, respectively), though when the word occurs in song lyrics, Danzig himself pronounces it “sa-wun”, in conformity with the generally accepted pronunciation of the name of the eponymous ancient holiday. This is evident in the song “Samhain” itself, and in “November’s Fire” and the Danzig song “Soul on Fire”.

Ham and Pain made me laugh when reading Wikipedia to remember what I think of Samhain, who I first discovered in my freshman year of college. Perfect fall listening, as Halloween is about a month away and the leaves are starting to turn here. Initium was probably one of the first things I attempted to download via Napster as the albums were out of print at that time. How far we’ve come. Even then I knew what a mess of an lp it was, but I also loved it. As Danzig’s first band after the Misfits, it was his big chance to prove that he was the most important piece of that puzzle, and to also branch out stylistically beyond the Satanic Ramones image the Misfits had cultivated since the late 70’s. Unfortunately, it was 1983, and what may have seemed cutting edge and modern then, is painfully dated now. You can take it for better or worse, embracing it, or not, but you can’t ignore things like the over processed fake sounding drums and the cruddy sounding direct line guitar tracking. But you also can’t deny that, even when experimenting with studio trickery and inept-goth rock poses, Glenn is still close enough to his prime that he has more hits than misses by far.

The record begins with one of the worst openings ever, an ambient intro of distortion, echo, and tape noise that was recorded on a 4track (as noted in numerous interviews) and which is painfully obvious from all the “SHHH” and “PUH” that comes from using a cheap mic for Danzig’s awful spoken piece on this track “yoouuu think you know paiiin, you know nothing!” which sounds not even a little bit scary. After what seems an interminable amount of time, the first song actually starts and is pretty good. It sounds like a rougher version of the swaggery blues metal Danzig would play later with vocals on a heavy crooning Jim Morrison tip. The music is extremely simple though, and doesn’t seem to be much beyond a rough sketch. It feels unfinished with only a small difference between the verse and chorus, and not much happening in either one. The next track Black Dream reverts, somewhat, back to the Misfits formula, at least in terms of speed. It probably could have fit in on Walk Among Us okay. It’s good but, it’s not great. The next song is All Murder All Guts All Fun which is a full return to the Misfits sound, stylistically, and lyrically. I think this is worth noting because at least at this juncture, Danzig is still best writing Misfits songs. He tries to cover it up with more heavy metal style drums and vocal over dubs, but it’s obvious the song could have been a Misfits track. It’s also maybe the best track on the album. Succubus follows and is, in my estimation, the first total misfire on the record. Plodding pseudo metal riff, stupid vocal and keyboard fx, and hardly a song under all the muck that’s trying to hide the fact that there’s no song. It’s obvious Glenn was trying to find a new voice, but it’s also obvious he doesn’t know how, and he hasn’t found a way to break out of the box he’s in yet. Conversely we take on He-Who-Cannot-Be-Named next and it’s a perfect example of what made Glenn’s creative voice so good  to begin with. It’s heavy and tuneful, and sticks in your head. Another would-be Misfits track. Shame on the Harry Potter film franchise for not using this track yet.

B-side opens with another low, but for different reasons than before. It’s a remake of the Misfits’ classic “Horror Business”, billed as “Horror Biz”. Glenn tries to add more precision to the proceedings, and adjust the lyrics, but it comes off like a crappy heavy metal cover version. Like those Metallica Misfits covers. So unnecessary and inferior. Luckily the rest of the side (the last third of the lp) takes an upswing, starting with “The Shift”. This song is almost calm in its delivery, and the slowly descending guitar riff has a hypnotic quality. Danzig is crooning something about changing into a werewolf, it’s the first successful attempt on the lp to write a non-Misfits song that’s good. It segues nicely into The Howl, which is of similar content but a little faster clip. Again though a little more subdued and hypnotic which works well with Danzig’s croon. The closer, Archangel, is ironically an unused Misfits song, that sounds very little like the songs they’re known for, and instead continues in the line the previous two songs are. Its got a great, if crude melody, and segues out of the album pretty well. It’s definitely one of Samhain’s signature tracks.

So of course, what would a Misfits related auction be if it wasn’t some uber rare mispressing of the record. Probably like 20 of these or something.

Well, the leaves are changing and the days are getting shorter, so here’s a great lp to play on your headphones while you take a walk in the fall night and contemplate the direction of your life and all that important shit. The Wipers 1981 classic, ”Youth Of America”is their second lp overall, but it’s personally my favorite from their catalog. It’s far less straight forward than ’79’s “Is This Real”, opting for more melancholy and stretched out almost Kraut-rock inspired pieces that emphasize repetition. It’s also extremely catchy, and still very poppy, although the level of mournfulness is probably deeper than anything previous.

A particular aspect of Youth Of America that I love is that it’s produced and engineered by The Wipers main man, Greg Sage (who was already the only remaining original member on this album). The guitars ring and echo with delay and vintage sounding fuzz tones, but are quite bright and defined. A lot of Wipers music is a showcase for Sage’s sinewy and spare guitar lines that sometimes remind me of what might happen if the early (punky) Cure material went on a surfing trip with The Ventures. The Bass is a nice round rumbling sound that fills in the bottom end as the guitar is often playing single higher notes. The drums are tight and snappy, there’s some echo on the snare, but they’re actually fairly compact sounding compared to the vast echo of the guitar. The drumming is typically circular with its patterns, and provides the solid backbeat for Sage to work off of. Again, it kind of takes me to a Ventures type space in my mind, but with much darker music built on top of it.

Side A is the more direct of the two, starting with Taking Too Long, which  is almost power pop in its delivery, right down to the fact that it plays at the optimum pop song length of 3 minutes (well 3:07). Sage works a nice little guitar lead into this one during the intro that gets your toes tapping. He sticks with the upbeat flavor for the next track, Can This Be, which is also right around 3 minutes, and almost goes in a Ramones direction with a Chuck Berry type guitar progression, and a great rock ‘n roll ascending riff in the chorus. By the next song though, Pushing The Extreme, the pop shell is starting to crack a little bit. The song still has a hummable tune, but it’s more aggressive and also a bit more melancholy, with a guitar overdub that sounds like Sage is leaning on a tremolo bar. When It’s Over finds Sage contemplating his on mortality, sounding like a funeral dirge sped up to 78rpms. It works as a nice segue to the second half of the record, its indisputable centerpiece.

No Fair opens side B with a sad sounding guitar dirge, that the bass and drums fill into after a few measures. Sage inserts some spoken prose over it painting a pretty despairing picture from the get go that’s a lament on the futility of modern life. There’s a pause for a couple seconds of silence, and then the bass guitar builds up with the drums before the song kicks into a nice quick tempo. Sage sings in his recognizable mid-range about urban alienation and anomie as the band continues the minor-key assault until a fade out. The title track is the big closer and it’s been noted as a reaction against the increasing brevity that was becoming common in hardcore and punk songs, as it clocks in at about 10 and a half minutes, though it never actually slows down beyond a standard punk tempo.  The melody that the song constantly returns to is instantly recognizable, mournful, and unsettling. The bass and drums pulse in another surfy sounding configuration, the guitar cutting in and out through the duration sometimes issuing sheets of heavy feedback, others soloing, sometimes working the grey area between the two. The lyrics make plain the point of the song from the getgo:

Youth of America is living in the jungle
Fighting for survival with the wrong place to go
Youth of America the pressure’s all around
The walls are coming down the walls are crumbling down on you

When the chorus kicks in, it’s big, arena sized even, maybe almost triumphant sounding but ultimately the track leaves the listener without closure, even fading out, suggesting that it may have actually been longer in its original incarnation.

Of course this is the original pressing on Park Avenue records, though if you’ve never heard it, I recommend picking up the very nice reissue that’s available in most record stores on 180 gm vinyl. Too bad this copy’s in Germany… HIGH postage.

The F.U.’s - My America. Truly a milestone in Boston’s hardcore past. Without much doubt in my mind it’s the best set of songs the F.U.’s ever delivered, obnoxiously sarcastic Pro-America lyrics permeate the proceedings and were quite good at pissing off alarmist punks in the 80’s. I really question if these people had just not been introduced to the concept of sarcasm. What You Pay For, the first song on the record pretty much lays it out: “Responsibility, a bunch of shit..We’ll tell you lies if it makes us laugh…”. Poor Poor Pitiful You and This Is Your Life continued the attack on “the scene” characterizing it as whiny and gossip obsessed. The title track, if you moved past the obviously non-serious “love it or leave it” in the chorus was pretty obviously taking the piss, and Boston’s Finest was a rather unpatriotic attack on the BPD (duh). Choir Boy lamented how the children of those with influence are allowed to get away with basically everything, and Rifle pertained in some way to shooting celebrities, but was essentially a return to the anti-hero worship themes of the opening track. The album closed with a cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s “American Band” annoying and sort of funny. I imagine the reactions of rage by Reagan hating punks who thought they were smashing the system from their bedrooms every time they got wrecked on cheap beer.

…and NOW: Tim Yohannan, being classically F’d with by one of my all time favorites, (the FU’s dummy), in MRR #9.

F.U.’S
J=JOHN SOX
W=WAYNE MAESTRI
S=STEVE GRIMES
B=BOB FURAPPLESINTERVIEW BY TIMT: You have this album called “My America” which just came out, and there’s some controversy as to whether you guys are being satirical or are you for real?
J: Glad you asked that Tim. (laughter all around). Kind of figured you might say say that. No, we are basically pretty patriotic.
T: Uh huh. What’s that based on?
B: This country rules!!
J: Love for McDonald’s hamburgers, among other things. Coca-cola.
W: The fact that we’re not in jail and not starving to death.
J: That too. And we can say what we want to.
T: Yeah, you can say what you want to. But why do you say “America Rules”? What does that mean?
B: It’s the greatest country on earth. I mean, where else whould you want to be?
T: Everybody in every country says that.
B: Well, everybody in every other country doesn’t know anything.
J: How come so many of them come here?
B: Yeah, how come all those immigrants come running to this country?
T: Well, it may be one of the few places for them to actually get some work.
B: Ah, see.
T: But why is there so much unemployment in their countries? Let me throw that back at you.
B: Why? Because they’re too dumb to run their governments. (laughter by band members)
T: That’s how you really feel? That’s a pretty ignorant statement.
B: Well, I only got up to the ninth grade (more band laughter).
T: I’m glad you admit your ignorance.
J: How do you see it Tim?
T: Well, I would say that these people who come here from mostly poor Third World countries are comin’ because there are no opportunities in their countries. Now why the economic structures are like that has to do with the fact that… like people in Latin America… their countries are basically within the capitalist sphere of influence and you have the multi-national corporations which go down there and establish governments that are friendly to U.S. business interests. That means cheap labor, an ability to exploit the resources in those countries. You’re from New England, right? All those companies are leaving New England and setting up in those Third World countries, Korea, or wherever. They prop up these governments, which basically repress people so they can reap profits. So those countries do not get to develop their economies in any kind of balanced way. And that’s how I see it. How do you see it?
J: It’s all my fault. I hate myself! (band laughter).
S: We never said we necessarily liked the government or the people who run the country. We just like America. And what’s wrong with that?
T: Well, he (Bob) said it “ruled”, and he (John) said you’re “patriotic”. So, you’re going beyond saying just “we like America”. What’s the criteria for that?
B: The good far outweighs the bad. When you go over to Canada, what happens? You cross a border, it’s like, phehh, no problem. If you’re in Europe, and you’re trying to cross from one state to another, they strip you and stick a finger up your behind to check what you’ve got there (more band laughter). I mean, you can move around this country free, you can say what you want.
T: As long as no one really pays attention.
B: Oh, if they want to pay attention, fine.
J: That’s another good thing. They don’t pay much attention.
T: The fact is, yes, we do have ‘freedom of speech’ in this country, but in the past, it’s been proven that once people start paying attention to you, if you’re in opposition to what the government’s doing, then you’re in a position to be offed, or be put away, or whatever. Look at all the people who were in rebellion against the government in the sixties. A lot of them got put away, driven nuts, or killed.
B: Or they’re lawyers or head G.E. right now, or something like that.
T: Some of them sold out too, right.
B: They didn’t sell out. They just got wise (more band laughter).
T: Anyway, I think there’s more to it than you’re saying. Yes, there is freedom of speech, but what is that freedom really? Yes, people do come here from other countries, but why is it that they have to leave their countires? It’s not just so superficially easy to say.
J: It’s a good place to come to (band laughter).
T: And I think the whole “Rules” mentality… “San Francisco Rules”, etc., where’s that at?
J: It’s pride.
T: Pride in what? I mean everyplace…
J: You don’t have maintenance without pride (band laughter).
T: Do you think that’s an admirable mentality, saying that this place or that place “Rules”? I don’t think that S.F. “Rules” or Boston “Rules”, or America “Rules”, or Russia “Rules”.
B: Well, I think that Boston Rules, but that doesn’t mean that I hate every band from D.C. or anything like that.
S: Just because you think that something’s the best doesn’t mean something else doesn’t have some good points to it too (band laugher).
T: So that’s the extent of…
B: I would rather be in this country than anywhere else on earth.
T: Sure. You were born here.
B: I don’t know. If I was in Paraguay sitting around…
T: Paraguayans would say they’d rather be there. That’s how it works. If you go overseas, everyone is proud, in a sense, of where they’re from. That’s basic. You grow up somewhere, you have these cultural attachments, and you’re proud of it. What I’m trying to fathom is, are you just proud, or are you arrogant here? I think there’s a difference.
J: Ignoring that question, what I just want to say is what I really hate is seeing these kids who want to be ‘cool punk kids in the scene’… They go out and buy this anti-Reagan t-shirt or something like that and they don’t even know what’s going on 10 feet in front of their face. They just do it to be cool… just jumping on the bandwagon.
T: Yes, I think there’s definitely a trendy ‘be political’ whatever… I know what you’re saying. I think that’s as ignorant as the other side, which is to be trendy anti-political, and not know what you’re talking about either.
J: I had those people in mind when I wrote “My America”.

Crippled Youth - Join The Fight. The original little kid novelty band. Of course later they became Bold which you either love or hate, but Join The Fight is kind of hard to not enjoy. Pretty much these little guys sound like they owned 3 records, 7 Seconds - Skins Brains Guts, DYS - Brotherhood, and Youth of Today - Can’t Close My Eyes.  Speaking of which, did you see this copy of Can’t Close My Eyes on orange vinyl w/ the Batman stamp? If not, just click.

The best song, Can’t You See (sometimes known as I’m Straight), sounds like they’re going for a DYS type song. I think I like it more because it has a more serious vibe, and less of the fun/7 Seconds feel that the rest of the record has. That’s not to say that the fun songs aren’t a good listen too. Walk Tall, Walk Straight is probably the best of them with an end piece that has a little bit of groove to it (relatively). After that comes the well known Positive Scene where numerous prepubescent voices chant “It’s a Positive Positive Positive Scene”. Per square inch I feel like this might be the youth core record with the most backups ever. In Not Just Talk, they take over the entire chorus, in K-Town Mosh Crew the entire song. I feel like most of the spoof straight edge stuff like Crucial Youth and Straight Youth were based a good bit on this particular record, which would probably be falling into self parody if it wasn’t so determined to be serious.

At any rate there’s 3 official pressings of Join The Fight, each supposed to be out of 500 copies. The first press is all black vinyl, the second is on clear, and the 3rd is on black again. Some of the 2nd and 3rd press are have a BOLD stamp added to the sleeve because by that time they’d changed their name. In addition, some of each pressing have a guide ruler visible on the sleeve. Originally these were not supposed to be used, but when they ran out of good sleeves, the label started using them anyway. There’s also a bootleg via Germany from 1991 that has an obviously xeroxed cover, and different (yellow) labels.

 As for that Youth of Today on orange w/ the Batman stamp, only 100 made folks. I think the last one went over $500. These were made only for trading for action figures and other records by Jordan and Cappo so they don’t pop up all that often.

Exodus is a band that got screwed out of a Legacy they assumed would be theirs. If only. Gary Holt at this point insists he doesn’t care, but let’s be real, if Metallica jacked your lead guitarist, and your label took over a year to release your debut album - that album being EXODUS - BONDED BY BLOOD- you WOULD care. Everyone knows the Bonded By Blood story I guess. Originally was going to be called A Lesson In Violence and have different cover art, but someone opted to change this. As it was to be the first release on the Torrid label, pretty much every mistake that could happen did, and by the time it came out in 1985, just about the whole Bay Area thrash scene had lapped Exodus, who were at one time the biggest band in that scene. Bonded By Blood is still a great album, but it came out in the same year as Ride The Lightning and Hell Awaits among MANY others. It’s the Blake Stone Episode 1 to Metallica’s “Knee Deep In The Dead”.

Vocalist Paul Baloff’s classic faux-singing vocal delivery has endeared itself many times over to metal fans, and the Holt/Hunolt guitar duo deliver with great economy and power big meaty thrash slabs but because of the late appearance and additional distribution problems it wasn’t enough to break them into the big leagues. It didn’t help that Holt (the defacto band leader), wanted to polish the group’s sound more, and after a demo session featuring a much more neutered sounding Baloff, they elected to eject him in favor of the more radio friendly Steve Souza (formerly of Testament/Legacy). Ugh. So many mistakes in one paragraph. Blame the band, blame Torrid, whatever. Bonded By Blood is still a masterpiece of straight up thrashing power, no matter what happened after it. R.I.P. Paul Baloff.

OG TORRID PRESSING:

Uniform Choice - Screaming For Change + green vinyl
I love Uniform Choice. Unabashedly. Some serious HC scholarly type may laugh, but in my world this is the finest of the 2nd wave of Straight Edge Hc. Use Your Head is the perfect post Minor Threat positive moshing song. It would be absolutely impossible to make improvements. The rush and speed of the main riff that comes in at the first guitar break. The build-up in the middle. The skank beat and tunefulness of those 4-muted power chords. Pat Dubar’s youthful off key shouting. People scoff at this record like it has some kind of cheese factor, but find me a band that doesn’t have a cheese factor - in any genre. In other words, if you’re too good for Uniform Choice: fuck off. Don’t tell me about the spoken poem tacked on the end. It’s real easy to hit the stop button on my turn table before that crap comes on. Don’t tell me about the lyrics stolen from a greeting card poem. It’s still a good song. Don’t tell me about the lyrical theft from Skewbald. They mined the Dischord sound pretty excessively, and I’m sure the “over-it already” crowd in our nations capitol had a good laugh at best, and an annoyed groan at worst when they heard this one, but seriously - Beefeater - shut it the hell down.

As much as this DOES sound like Minor Threat though (and it really, really does), it has its differences, and honestly, who else are you going to rip off in ‘85 if you’re Straight Edge? But back to the differences… for one: the raging solos, and let me tell you, early on this record was a big reason I wanted to play guitar solos. The way I saw it, all the greats had them: Bad Brains, Warzone, Cro Mags… UC. Pat Longrie tears up quick little 4-measure shred fests in a bunch of the song. The technique is simple, but it breaks up the sound of a lot of these songs and gives them something a little extra. The songs tend to be a bit longer than your average Minor Threat number too, and a few work slower and midpaced tempos which helps the overall pacing of the lp. The guitar sound is a lot thicker too. I’m guessing it’s a few layers of JCM-800 but really cranked the hell up. It sounds a lot more full and “huge” than Minor Threat, I actually think it’s one of the best straight edge guitar sounds ever, and while I’m at it, the drums are basically perfect. Every few seconds there’s a snare roll, and while it may not get them any awards from skill, the snare sounds awesome and snappy and it helps to inject a lot of the energy that the songs have. Top to bottom it’s just 12 perfect tuneful hardcore songs. I’ll put it up against whatever you got.

 Green vinyl there’s probably 300-500 press. Get it while the getting is good.

Motorhead “s/t” + Black Flag “Damaged” - Observing the Obvious

These are 2 of maybe 5 records that basically my entire musical palette is built on. Motorhead and Black Flag both have other records of note and influence, some arguably more-so, but for both bands, their first full length releases were the ones that established them as unignorable forces on the ‘world stage’ so to speak. Both have been scoffed at time and again by fools, parents, critics, and so on as low brow garbage. Noise. Shit. Of course each of these dismissals only serves to qualify what should be obvious to anyone with ears. That each preserves the tradition of Rock N Roll and its original rebellious nature, in full. I mean I shouldn’t have to say it, but sometimes I just flip when I find out people really don’t think Motorhead and Black Flag are the best bands ever.

Rock and Roll was originally just loud electric blues. It pissed off parents and authority figures, and it was cause for concern. As such the disciples of this new form of noise began dreaming up all kinds of imaginary qualifiers and desirable characteristics for a rock band to possess, and viewing it as a misunderstood art form, which in turn was absorbed into the collective consciousness of the music world, and then regurgitated, in a circular pattern, until eventually shit like Genesis was rock n/or roll and the original spirit had been totally warped and obscured. When you hear the distortion thick bass intro at the beginning of Motorhead, or the thick descending guitar line that comes in at the beginning of Rise Above, it’s an invocation of the primal aspects of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and a return to the inevitable. For everything that Rock music can be dressed up as, in the end it’s inherently written into its DNA that it’s animalistic and ‘low’. You can teach a dog all kinds of tricks to make it seem smart, but in the end, you still have to take it outside to piss on a fire hydrant.

As it pertains to this site, I’m of the opinion, that basically everything covered here can have a line drawn back to a handful of records. Probably less than 10. These are 2 of them. Motorhead aren’t really a punk band, but they’re not really a proper metal band, and they’re not quite like any Rock ‘n Roll band before them either, and even though Black Flag can be easily grouped as Punk or Hardcore, they spent as much time deconstructing what that could mean as they did building it up. SO why am I making this post? Some days you just wake up, and remember, no matter what, Lemmy and Ginn are the greatest of all time, even at their most obvious. Sometimes it’s all you need to remember.