Smash and Grab

Chickenhead
Everything Must Go
1993
Vinyl Rip

I know next to nothing about Chickenhead aside from what's in the liner notes of this 7", but I can kind of sum it up by saying they were a punk band from Miami who stuck closely to the DIY ethics that were a big part of the punk scene in the early 90s (the label this record was put out on sold 7"s for a dollar plus a dollar for postage or some used stamps they could clean off and reuse). This was their only record, though there was a demo before this (which I've never heard) and I think they had a song on a Lookout! comp later on. This is punk as all shit and might make you crap your pants it's so good. Or, if like me, you're not wearing pants, it might make you crap someone else's. 6 songs in less than 6 minutes.

Everything Must Go

Slammin' Boys

Iceland
Iceland
1990

The band is called Iceland, and the album is called Iceland, so I'm sure you can guess where they were from. That's right, France.

Iceland

In Search of Peace of Mind

Scorpions
Lonesome Crow
1972

Many people don't realize it now, but Scorpions were awesome in the 70s. I don't mean to take anything away from "Rock You Like a Hurricane" or "No One Like You" (the latter of which is probably my favorite Scorpions tune, honestly), but their earlier work is just on a different plane. This is their debut, and it's all over the place, full of fuzzed out jams, barn-storming blues rock, and borderline psychedelic noodling. Think Led Zeppelin with more jamming, Black Sabbath with faster tempos, Blue Cheer with a little more polish, etc. Klaus Meine is still finding his voice here, and he definitely takes a back seat to the Schenker bros and the tight-as-shit rhythm section of Lothar Heimberg and Wolfgang Dziony (and this is the only Scorpions record they're on). Drop any reservations you might have and spin this a few times.

Lonesome Crow

Sharon Needles

Earl Lee Grace
Blackgrass
1996

I was just getting ready to post The Dwarves debut record, Horror Stories, when I remembered this odd little record, a bluegrass record by Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia. A few of these are Dwarves songs redone bluegrass style, but a few only appear here. The weirdest thing about this record is how good the performances are. All Dahlia handles is the vocals, but he threw together a great session band to lay down the music, and as a result, the vocals are the weakest part. His voice is too distinctively Blag to really work in this context, but it's an interesting little record nonetheless, and the instrumental tracks and the one with vocals by either Dee Lamnon or Karen Raymond (not sure which) could easily fit in on a "real" bluegrass record and no one would be the wiser. There's a fake little backstory in the liner notes about Earl Lee Grace, a 15-year-old banjo prodigy who randomly wandered into Blag's life just long enough to record this album. I wish I had the energy to dig through my cd bins to find it, cause it's pretty funny, but whatever. Funny side note, though, is that the Allmusic review doesn't get that this is a gag, and praises Grace's banjo skills, but points out he doesn't have the vocal chops to keep up with the music. Ha!

Blackgrass

ps. Track #3 is misspelled. It should be Viodinah. I didn't notice until I'd already uploaded and didn't feel like fixing it.

Total Goombah!

The Hanson Brothers
Gross Misconduct
1992

This record isn't really rare or unknown or anything, I just came across it again for the first time in a few years and was quickly reminded how friggin incredible it is. In case you don't know, this is a Nomeansno side project that's simultaneously a tribute to The Ramones and the 1977 hockey film Slap Shot. In the 90s, there were a ton of bands trying to do straight up Ramones style punk rock, and none of them came close to The Hanson Brothers. Also, as a home brewer, I find "Blitzkrieg Hops" pretty funny, even though I'm normally against covers with silly lyric changes.

Gross Misconduct

Bought and Sold

Prong
Force Fed
1988

Before they turned into a fairly mediocre industrial-metal band, Prong played superb sludgy thrash. I was a huge fan of the Victor/Kirkland/Parsons lineup that made their first three records, and while Troy Gregory was a cool enough guy and a talented bassist (he was Newstead's replacement in Flotsam and Jetsam before he too bailed for greener pastures), the dynamic was lost and the band essentially became an outlet for Tommy Victor. I never liked anything they did after Prove You Wrong, which is where the industrial stuff started. It does have a great cover of The Stranglers' "(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)", though.

But enough about that. Force Fed is bat-shit cool. Listen to "Senseless Abuse". The fast riff will blow your face clean off your head.

Force Fed

From Attitude to Action

School of Violence
We The People...?
1988

This is some sloppy, poorly produced, hardcore-tinged thrash. If School of Violence were a hair faster and had a vocalist whose bark wasn't quite so metal (more on him in a minute), I'd be more tempted to call them crossover. There's a little d-beat punk in here too. But whatever, let's not split hairs all day. As far as I know this is their only record, which might be a bummer because I suspect they could've gotten better with a little more experience, not to mention better production. But maybe not. I found this in a dollar bin at the mall when I was in 10th grade or so. I later sold it to a dude named Todd for 5 bucks. I wonder what ever happened to that guy.

At any rate, according to this myspace page, School of Violence had a long revolving door of a career that featured once and future members of both Corrosion of Conformity and Warrior Soul. Keen ears will recognize Karl Agell, who sang on COC's Blind album, on vocals, though his style is considerably less polished here.

We the People...?