You Look Like A Gorilla

The Mopes
Lowdown, Two-Bit Sidewinder
1998

The Mopes were a bit of a 90s pop-punk supergroup, featuring Queers bassist B-Face, Screeching Weasel guitarists Dan Vapid and John Jughead, and Squirtgun drummer Dan Lumley. Their first ep is sort of like beach-party punk. It's a lot of fun, and if you like any of the bands these guys were in, you'll like this too.


Lowdown, Two-Bit Sidewinder

(The Advantage of) Temporary Baldness

Hurl
A Place Called Today
1996

Hurl had the best drummer of any band ever associated with emo.

A Place Called Today

Cut Into Pieces

Vengeance Rising
Once Dead
1990

Vengeance Rising were one of the few Christian death metal bands back in the late 80s/early 90s. This is their second album, and I enjoy it immensely. The unusual subject matter really adds to the charm. Roger Martinez's vocals fall into one of my favorite styles for this kind of music, the strained rasp (as compared to the high- or low-growl). Think of Martin Van Drunen of Pestilence/Asphyx/Hail of Bullets and you get the idea. Musically, VR is pretty standard thrashy death metal of the time, but that's not a bad thing by any means.

It's interesting to note that after finding themselves in massive debt, the band split. Martinez reformed with new guys, put out a few more records, and eventually turned his back on Christianity and his earlier evangelical work. As a result, the later Vengeance Rising records feature more traditional satanic and athiest death metal topics, and for some reason his voice moved into that lower growly register. At some point the rest of the band reformed with a different singer, calling themselves Once Dead since Martinez owned the name Vengeance Rising. It's all very convoluted.

Regardless, this is a killer record.

Once Dead

Funeral Song for Earth

Boris Mikulic
Philia Phobia
1991

Sorry I haven't been posting. I've got crap to do sometimes.

Anyway, here's a pretty good industrial record from Boris Mikulic, aka Herman Gillis from Belgian art rock band Poésie Noire. I was big into tape trading through the Prodigy internet service back in the early 90s, and the other day I found some tapes at my mom's house. One of them was labeled "Al J. Bands and etc." and featured a side A of a bunch of Al Jourgenson's and some of the other Wax Trax dudes' projects, which at that time were often hard to track down. It had some live RevCo stuff, 1000 Homo DJs, Acidhorse, some Ministry b-sides, that sort of thing. Some good stuff. At any rate, the B-side of this tape had Boris Mikulic, and I had 100% forgotten about it. It's pretty good! It's a weird kind of industrial, and sometimes it veers off into noise in a way that is actually annoying, but overall I like it. One song is like heavy metal guitar behind the sounds of a couple boning. It's kind of corny.

But whatever, here's the record.

Philia Phobia

Seemingly Endless Time

Death Angel
Act III
1990

Death Angel were of the second wave of Bay Area thrash, and they released three albums in their initial run. Many people love The Ultra-Violence and Frolic Through the Park. I am not one of them. I think both of those albums are decent, with The Ultra-Violence being the better of the two, but neither are on par with records by Exodus, Testament, or many other second- and third-tier thrash bands of the time. They are corny and sloppy at times in a way that is not charming (in contrast, check Exodus's Bonded By Blood, which is both corny and sloppy, and still mops the floor with 99% of other thrash records). But on Act III, Death Angel got their shit together in a huge way, producing one of my favorite thrash records ever. This record is so good that not even the bullshit funk metal on "Discontinued" can bring it down. There are two ballads, and they're both good. I'm sayin! The opening track, "Seemingly Endless Time", sets the tone for this one and shows that these guys are done fucking around. They're tight as shit, firing on all cylinders for the duration (except for the funk shit, obv).

Then they broke up. They regrouped as The Organization, then regrouped again as Swarm (maybe some other time), then finally, in 2004 or so, regrouped as Death Angel. And what did they do next? Release two shitty records.

BUT, against all odds, they released Relentless Retribution this month, and it fucking destroys. There is one shitty ballad (sounds like Nickleback), and a coupl'a songs are a little too chunky and groovy for my tastes, but overall, it's a killer record, full of great thrash riffing and tight-as-shit melodies. So I figured it was appropriate that I celebrate their return to awesomeness by posting their masterpiece (forgiving the funk, obv).

So, again, I know you guys love those first two records. Please explain to me what I'm missing! Why do I love the early Exodus stuff, but not the early Death Angel records?

Act III

The Separating Fault

Elf Power
When The Red King Comes
1997

You have probably heard of Elf Power, an indie rock band from Athens, GA. They are (were?) a part of the Elephant Six collective, of which Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Of Montreal were also a part. They've been pumping out good quirky, sometimes lo-fi-leaning, sometimes lush and bright indie pop for 15 years now, and pretty much each album falls somewhere on the pretty good to great spectrum. This particular album, however, is really something special. It's very lo-fi, full of fuzz, and borderline psychedelic at times. It's a concept album about the Red King and his kingdom, so it's basically like a few triumphant narratives away from power metal subject matter, which is kind of unusual for this kind of music. But the lyrics fit the music so well, and I can't even put my finger on why.

This record won me over on Elf Power in a huge way, and I'd spent a good 3 or 4 years talking serious shit about them before I heard it. Without going into massive detail, let me just say I hated these guys on a personal level due to an incident at a friend's house (a place known as The Landfill, where plenty of Athens bands played in the late 90s. Where my Athens duders at? Holla.) that involved a friend of mine barfing in some dude's car and passing out in the parking lot next door. This eventually led to Elf Power carrying my friend off and one of them calling me a "bad friend," words that sting almost as much now as they did then.

But then I downloaded "The Separating Fault" one night while drunk and everything suddenly became ok, because holy shit it's good. The whole record is. You can trust me. I'm a good friend.

When The Red King Comes

Injun

Belladonna
Belladonna
1995

As you've no doubt heard by now, Joey Belladonna has joined Anthrax for the third time. On the one hand, I feel like the revolving door lineup this band has is really pathetic and they should really consider hanging it up. On the other hand, I fucking love Belladonna-era Anthrax, so if they're gonna keep chugging along, I'd just assume it be with him up front instead of John Bush (who I never liked with Anthrax or Armored Saint) or Dan Nelson (who sounded a little too Phil Anselmo for my tastes, in the little bit that I heard of his voice). Once, before Nelson joined, there were rumors that former Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitford Crane was going to join, and I have to admit I was sort of jazzed at that prospect. But that was forever ago.

At any rate, I hope they get some new music out there soon, and I hope it smokes, and I hope Belladonna's voice sounds great, and Charlie writes some crushing riffs, and they cool it with the groovy hard rock bullshit they were doing by the end with Bush. I want a killer return to form from these guys. Bad.

But enough of that shit. Here's Joey's solo debut from 1995, a relatively limp record that is still better than most of the Bush-era Anthrax stuff. When this starts, you're gonna be like, "oh yeah, here we go." The opening drums are big and beefy and sound like shit's gonna be all up in your face. But the guitar tone is oddly hollow, and most of the songs are too slow. It was 1995 after all. But anyway, it's a neat artifact, and some of it's pretty good I guess. Also there are song titles like "Power Trip", "Rob You Blind", "Two Faced" and "Mixed Emotions". I guess you could call this Joey's breakup album.

If nothing else I should get plenty of hits on the ol' blog here for people doing google searches for "Belladonna". You know who I'm talking about.

Belladonna

My Way

Low Pop Suicide
On The Cross of Commerce
1992

Man, what a fucking great record this is. Though they never had much of an impact at all, Low Pop Suicide boasted a few hefty credentials. Bassist Dave Allen was in Gang of Four and Shriekback, while drummer Jeff Ward played with Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Nine Inch Nails, 1000 Homo DJs, and Lard before taking his own life in 1993. (Side note: Ward's brother Jason Ward is the bassist for Flotsam and Jetsam, and on their 2008 live album Once in a Death Time, they cover Lard's "Forkboy" as a sort of tribute to Jeff Ward. It's pretty good. I'll post it some time.) Also, before this full length, they released an ep that was, if memory serves, produced by Trent Reznor.

The album isn't as industrial as you might expect, though. There's some noisy industrial flourishes, but this is all live-band, heavy drumming, and mostly crushing guitars. The production has a 90s chorusy sheen to it that suits the music, and guitarist/vocalist/primary songwriter Rick Boston's warbly, strained vocals are a cut above a lot of the 90s alternative crap. There are a few dreamy, almost shoe-gazey tracks breaking up the heavier ones too.

Some of the stuff I post here has been discovered on the internet, or was stumbled upon in dollar bins over the years and that sort of thing. This is one of the ones I bought when it came out and that has never fallen out of favor. I bought this and The Disengagement ep upon their release and listened to the hell out of both. Great stuff that's sort of hard to categorize.

The final minute of "My Way" will blow your balls off.

On The Cross of Commerce

Crepe Paper Hearts

Hickey
Us Vs. Them
1995

Hickey are legendary, so they probably don't belong on this blog, but here this 7" is anyway. All of their stuff is available for download here, but this 7" was my introduction to the band, so I figured I'd throw it up here. The opening track is my favorite thing they ever did, and it's hands down one of the punkest things I've ever heard.

I won't bother trying to write up a big thing about Hickey or Matty Luv or the bands that came before and after. Look up the Voodoo Glow Skulls prank. It's a good one. But they were are lot more than that, and their status at the time is hard to put into words.

Us Vs. Them

I Will Never Die

Turbonegro
Never is Forever
1994

You probably don't know this, but I once played in a Turbonegro cover band. It was an absolute blast. I played 2 shows with them in the Rune Rebellion slot, and they went on to play 2 shows without me after I tragically broke my ankle and couldn't rock out for a bit. Our set mostly came from Ass Cobra and Apocalypse Dudes, with a coupl'a newer (at the time) songs thrown in. I don't think we did anything from the albums before Ass Cobra, but I specifically remember suggesting "I Will Never Die" as a possible cut. Of course I was outvoted for whatever reason. It's a great song.

To get to the point, Turbonegro is a great band. It's almost a shame they're called Turbonegro and dress like they do, because they are all too often dismissed as a novelty or, even worse, taken seriously and offensively. Yes, I realize their original/non-us name is TRBNGR or Turboneger, either of which seem more offensive than the already vaguely offensive Turbonegro. But I trust the band when they say their motivations were actually anti-racism, and I mean shit I listen to Burzum and Peste Noire and plenty of other "questionable" black metal, so whatever. I've typed far too much on this topic.

Never is Forever is a great record, showing the band before they went balls-out punk on Ass Cobra. There's a poppy element to this record that they never touched on again. Just whatever download it or don't I'm tired of typing about it.

Never is Forever

Unrequited Blood

Assück
Misery Index
1997

Some days you want to chill out to the fullest. Maybe fix yourself a drink, crack open the window and let some of that beautiful sunshine and spring air in. Put on the Doobie Brothers, maybe do a j. You know, really just commune with the elements and totally mellow out on some no-jive, no-nonsense cool out time with Skunk, Mike and the boys. Take it minute by minute, so to speak.

Other days, you just gotta crank Assück.

Misery Index

Hell's Motel

MD.45
The Craving
1996/2004

In 1996, Dave Mustaine wanted to do something that sounded different from Megadeth, so he grabbed Lee Ving and Kelly LeMieux from Fear and Jimmy Degrasso from Suicidal Tendencies and slapped down this record. Nevermind the fact that in 1996, Megadeth didn't even sound like Megadeth, but whatevski.

Then, in 2004, as he was remastering the old Megadeth records, Mustaine decided to remaster this one too. Only, lord have mercy, the vocal and harmonica tracks Ving laid down were now mysteriously missing! How could such a thing have happened!? What in the world is a narcissistic, myopic, megalomaniac to do? Why re-record the vocals himself of course. So now it sort of sounds like a lost Megadeth record, or a record of songs cut from mid-90s Megadeth records or something.

None of this is to say that the record is bad, or that the 04 version is better or worse than the 96 version. The riffs are at times kind of bluesy, which suits Ving's "I can't really sing, but I'm too drunk to care" vocal style. But the remastered version is much beefier, and Mustaine's voice suits some of the more straightforward metal songs a little better.

At any rate, here's both versions.

The Craving

My Friends Are Getting Famous

Various Artists
Punk USA
1994

Ben Weasel put together this stellar punk comp for Lookout! Records back in 1994, and to my ears at the time, it was just about the best thing ever. I was (and am) a huge Screeching Weasel fan, not to mention The Queers, Jawbreaker, and The Vindictives, but there are still plenty of great bands on here that I'd never heard prior to this comp too. The Face to Face song completely ripped my head off the first time I heard it, even though I got pretty bored with their sound rather quickly once I delved into their recorded output at the time. Pink Lincolns and Moral Crux are each incredibly underrated, and their songs here are both great.

Coupl'a notes on some of these bands:
-I think Thankless Dogs featured Johnny Thunders' brother.
-Rattail Grenadier featured Mass Giorgini and Dan Lumley, both future members of Squirtgun and Screeching Weasel.
-I love the song by 8 Bark here but have never been able to find any other music by them. If you've got anything, please please please upload it.


I should also note that there was a track by Garden Variety (which forgive me I don't know the name of) that was sandwiched between the last two tracks, and it was really one of the best songs on the record. It was not listed on the album anywhere. I just noticed that it's missing from my album in iTunes, so it's not in the zip I'm uploading. I'm not sure why this is the case, since I ripped this album myself from my cd (but I have no idea where that cd is now). I'm going to try to find my cd and re-rip it and re-upload it, but if it doesn't happen, then that means I sold the cd or something. It really is a shame though, because the song was awesome, and Garden Variety were a fantastic band.

Punk USA

EDIT: So thanks to Tom Jones in the comment section (presumably the Tom Jones), I can now inform you that Thankless Dogs does not include Johnny Thunders' brother, but rather a guy who goes by the name Charlie Thunders. So that clears that up. And in case you haven't noticed, 30% of the time I'm making things up, and the other 70% of the time I'm misinformed.

Storybook

Levelhead
Spooky?
1994 (?)
Vinyl rip

No cover for this one, so that boss flyer will have to stand in. Levelhead was a great pop punk band out of Marietta, Georgia, one of the northside Atl suburbs. My old band Round Ear Spock played with them a few times, and I always loved them. This 7" in particular got worn out on my record player. If I'm not mistaken, we played with them, Total Chaos, and the Voodoo Glow Skulls once, but one of the Voodoo Glow Skulls got super sick and they canceled, so Total Chaos did too, leaving us two local bands to hold down the fort. The Somber Reptile let everyone in for free, and we tore it up. I didn't really like those other bands anyway.

So if you like this record, head over to Beyond Failure and search for their unreleased full-length. Also, bassist Matt Monroe is in a band called Callsign who aren't too far off from Levelhead, though not as poppy. You can hear them here.

Spooky?

Night of the Swords

The Crown
The Burning
1995

I recently found out that The Crown, one of my favorite Swedish death metal bands, has reformed. They have a new singer, but I'm actually cool with that, because my favorite album of theirs is Crowned in Terror, which features Thomas Lindberg (At The Gates, Disfear, etc) on vocals instead of Johan Lindstrand, who was the band's usual vocalist. They even rerecorded the album w/ Lindstrand on vocals once he rejoined, but that version and the album the did after that just don't have the same oomph the earlier stuff had, in my humble opinion. Lindstrand's post-The Crown band, One Man Army and the Undead Quartet suffers from both a stupid name and boring music.

So anyway, I'm pretty jazzed about a new album from The Crown, and the new vocalist, Jonas Stålhammar of God Macabre, sounds great to me. You can hear samples on their website.

I figured this news was good enough reason to post the band's debut from way back in 1995 when they were called Crown of Thorns. After two albums, another band with the same name got ill about it and our Crown of Thorns lost the thumb war or whatever they used to settle the situation, and thus renamed themselves The Crown.

The Burning

Let's Get Hurt

Teengenerate
Get Action!
1994

Last weekend I went to see AC/DC with a friend of mine, and beforehand we were talking about punk rock. The conversation wound its way to the New Bomb Turks, which led me to ask my friend if he'd heard Teengenerate. He had not. It occurred to me that though these guys were pretty well known back in the 90s, their abrupt breakup (a friend asked one of them why they were breaking up when they played their final show in Atlanta, and the response was hilariously excited "I DON'T KNOW!") and the fact that they were from Japan means they've sort of dropped off the radar. Guitar Wolf perseveres, but the far superior Teengenerate drifts of in the sands of punk rock time.

So anyway, this is the punkest record released by any band in between The Dwarves' Blood Guts and Pussy and Turbonegro's Ass Cobra (or the 2003 re-issue of Ass Cobra for that matter). Maybe it's punker than Ass Cobra, actually. At any rate, if you don't have this, get it. Oh, they were originally called American Soul Spiders, and The New Bomb Turks wrote a song about them that appeared on their Drunk on Cock ep, which also included a cover of The Queers' "This Place Sucks". Get Action! has a cover of The Queers' "Kicked Out of the Webelos". So see, it sort of all comes full circle. Or something.

Final note: Some day I'll post 5 4 Baby 3 2 1, the unreleased album by an old garage punk band I was in called The Drummonds, and you'll see just how far Teengenerate worship can get you (the answer, of course, is not very far, which is why the album never got released).

Get Action!

Ain't Nothin' To Do

Nine Pound Hammer
"Radar Love" b/w "Ain't Nothin' To Do"
1995
Vinyl Rip

The greatest redneck punk band in history covering two songs that are awesome in their own right, Golden Earring's "Radar Love" and The Dead Boys' "Ain't Nothin' To Do". Forget all the cowboy-hat wearing, rebel-flag sporting, faux-country posewads; this is the real deal. It's a shame Nine Pound Hammer called it a day shortly after this, paving the way for the far inferior Nashville Pussy, and then the equally inferior reunited version of Nine Pound Hammer. So maybe it's not a shame they called it a day, but rather a shame they didn't stay down. Or maybe I'm just selfish.

At any rate, chug a beer, download this, crank it, play air guitar, and go smash something. Or, you know, be a pussy. The choice is yours.


"Radar Love" b/w "Ain't Nothin' To Do"

I've Got Gingivitis

Show Business Giants
Let's Have A Talk With The Dead
1995

Nomeansno guitarist Tom Holliston invites a revolving door of guest musicians to perform in his side-project Show Business Giants. He's released a half-a-dozen records or so, and this record has always been a favorite of mine. Style-wise, it's a mish-mash of punk, lounge, faux-cock-rock, goofy folk, and just all kinds of other oddball weirdness. And it's really funny, too, particularly "Sound Check" and "The Other Side of Mr. Sulu". If you're a fan of Nomeansno, you should definitely hear this, as you can definitely tell it's one of the same dudes, and and the other two guys play on here too.

Also, I just realized this is the second Nomeansno side project I've posted, which probably makes me look like some Nomeansno superfan, but I'm actually not. I've got a coupl'a their records, but but you know, that's it.

Let's Have A Talk With The Dead

Snot Nose Brat

Tone Deaf Pig-Dogs/No Class
Saved By The Bail
1996

I still haven't bothered to learn how to use my scanner, so that live shot of The Tone Deaf Pig-Dogs up there will have to stand in for the actual cover of this split disc. TDPG were another of the local Atlanta bands tearing shit up in the mid-90s (see this post). They were like a sponge, constantly absorbing members of other bands (members of A Quart Low [who morphed into The Oswalds], Smedley and the Space Cadets, and Round Ear Spock all played in this band at one point or another), but their sound wasn't as new-school or pop-punk as any of the bands they borrowed members from. Fairly straight-forward punk with a nod towards 50s rock and greaser attitude is what you get here. Singer Mike Nickerson's snotty snarl always puts a smile on my face.

Two of the members of this band, Nickerson and bassist Dom Totino, currently play together in a really good jangly rock band called The Letmedowns, but more importantly they've resurrected the Pig-Dogs name for a reunion show this Thursday, September 10th, at Lenny's in Atlanta. Rounding out the lineup for this reunion are Elliot Goff, who I think played in 12 Ounces at one point, and Keefe Justice, who played with The Close, played with The Oswalds for at least one of their reunion shows back in the late 90s, and has been in a slew of other bands, including Minced Oath and Das Assjugend, both with me. So if you're in the Atlanta area, for pete's sake come out and check this one out. It'll be a fun old-school time.

Oh, and of course this is a split disc with No Class, who I believe were from Alabama. I'm not going to lie; I don't think I've ever listened to their half of the disc. That's not a slight on them or anything. I've just never gotten around to it. Let me know if it's any good.

Saved By The Bail

Misanthropy for Beginners

This is just a little mix I threw together for a friend, but I figured I'd go ahead and post it here, even though it doesn't really fit my usual format here. I didn't make a cover for it or anything. But it's a few doom metal songs and a bunch of American black metal. Enjoy.

Misanthropy for Beginners: A Doom and Black Metal Mix
1. Suma- Let The Churches Burn
2. Lurker of Chalice- Granite
3. Wolves in the Throne Room- Behold The Vastness and Sorrow
4. Thou- I Was Ignored, And Judged, And Cast Down
5. Krieg- II
6. Krallice- Timehusk
7. Skepticism- The Rising Of The Flames
8. Nachtmystium- Life Of Fire
9. Weakling- This Entire Fucking Battlefield

Misanthropy for Beginners