26 Years of Nothing

Disfear
Misanthropic Generation
2003

Disfear bassist Henrik Frykman passed away last week after a battle with cancer. If you're not familiar with Disfear, they play crushing d-beat punk and feature among the current lineup former At the Gates and The Crown vocalist Thomas Lindberg and former Entombed guitarist and bassist Uffe Cederlund on guitar. So take those bands and imagine them playing Motorhead covers and you get a general idea of what you're up against here. Fucking great. Rest in peace, Henrik.

Misanthropic Generation

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

George Walker Bush, Texas Ranger

Sadville
Make Ready The Cross
2007

Ok everyone, I'm back in action over here at Casa de Muck. Let's do this.

Sadville hailed from Tennessee, from Knoxville or Cookeville, depending on which band member you ask. Their style should be familiar to many readers of this blog: crushing, crusty metal with a healthy dose of sludge and grind. A little His Hero is Gone, a little Thou, you know the deal. You won't be disappointed.

Rumor is there's been idle chatter about the band reforming, but don't say you heard it from me. Or do, I guess. See if I care.

Make Ready The Cross

Everybody's A Liar

The Brood
In Spite of It All

There was a band called The Brood that formed sometime in the mid-80s that featured a few guys who would later be in Suicidal Tendencies. This isn't that band. These guys/gals also formed in the mid-80s, but were pretty far removed from the California crossover scene. An old friend of mine turned me on to these guys when we were talking about The Dwarves once. He told me The Brood weren't too far removed from early Dwarves. Upon first listen, I thought he was nuts, but then I realized he meant early Dwarves. Like Horror Stories-era Dwarves. So yeah, he was totally right. Warbly, creepy, sleazy garage rock, slathered in reverb.

In Spite of It All

I Turned Into A Martian

The Undead
12 Hits From Hell Uncovered
2007

You know that The Undead is early Misfits guitarist Bobby Steele's long-running project. The Misfits famously lambasted Steele on a widely circulated bootleg by changing the lyrics to "I Turned Into A Martian" to "Bobby Steele's an asshole/fucking cunt," and "Bobby Steele, The Undead suck/they fucking suck!" etc. I wonder if The Misfits had become the biggest band on the planet (like, say, Metallica), would Bobby Steele be super bitter and bring them up in every single interview and still refer to them as "my old band" like 30 years later (like, say Dave Mustaine). But I digress.

The Undead were never that good, but they weren't that bad either. Steele named a live album Live Slayer, which is pretty funny. You gotta give him credit for that, right? But he also always felt it necessary to remind everyone that he was in The Misfits, which is why, I guess, in 2007 he yanked out a full-album cover of The Misits' never-released 12 Hits From Hell album, the only full-length of theirs that he appeared on. It's not very good, but that should not stop you from listening to it. I mean, honestly, if I didn't listen to things just because they kind of sucked, I'd only have like 4 albums on my hard drive.

12 Hits From Hell Uncovered

Big Green Monsters

Various
Make The Collector Nerd Sweat
1989

Here's a classic late-80s punk comp for your ears. This is the shit that was going around when I was first getting into punk rock, and to this day few sounds bring back the nostalgic feeling of being in 8th grade like Jeff Ott's voice over some gnarly Crimpshrine rockout.

But anyway, you know these bands. Mr. T Experience, Crimpshrine, Samiam, Jawbreaker, and The Offspring are household names (in my household anyway). Oh and nevermind the crap they did in the mid-90s, the Offspring song here smokes. The Lookouts featured Larry Livermore from Lookout Records (smart move naming your label after your band, btw), and also Tre Cool on drums. Plaid Retina could'a been contenders. They started out as a sort of crossover thrash band but evolved into great third-tier punk rock. It's a shame they never busted through to the big leagues. Their song here, "Freebird", is actually CCR's "Fortunate Son."

Oh and "Speed" is hands down the best song Samiam ever recorded. Hot shit right there.

The others are bands lost to the sands of punk rock time, but all in all this is a fucking great comp and you're a big dumb twag if you don't download it.

Make The Collector Nerd Sweat

Various Artists
A Sides Part One 1979-1982
A Sides Part Two 1982-1984
1992

As promised, here are the two Crass Records singles collections. I got these both in 1993, a time when I was really exploring punk rock beyond the usual "popular" punk bands. I was getting into some of the newer American bands (Screeching Weasel especially, a favorite to this day), a few old hardcore bands (Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, the bands on that one live NY hardcore comp...what was that called? It had Token Entry, Rest in Pieces, No for an Answer and one other band if I recall), and was just starting to discover some of the stuff from England. I'd been a fan of the Buzzcocks and the Damned for a while, but had just recently become pretty obsessed with Crass. When I stumbled across part one of this comp, there were just enough recognizable names on the disc to get me to plunk down my money. I knew Conflict (I had their live album, Turning Rebellion into Money and a 7") and Captain Sensible. Cool artwork, done deal.

Turns out this stuff was a pretty different breed from the punk, English or American, that I was familiar with at the time. Stuff like Honey Bane, Poison Girls, and The Snipers sounded really out there to my young ears. There's not a song on this one I don't like (though I do usually skip the Annie Anxiety track if I'm being honest). When I posted The Poison Girls record a while back, I mentioned their song on this comp. It's great, and sort of sounds like it could've fit onto side 2 of Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare. For real.

I finally found the second volume while I was on vacation with my family in Florida. The only band I recognized on this one was MDC, but I loved the first one so much I knew I wouldn't be disappointed, and I was right. Anthrax, Omega Tribe, Sleeping Dogs, and Hit Parade all blew me away, and the Lack of Knowledge song on here is probably one of my favorite punk songs ever. Just a really awesome song.

Anyway, I'll admit now what I wouldn't then: the politics these bands were spouting were completely lost on me. I knew there was a general anti-system, anti-capitalism, anti-government stance, and that was enough. I've managed to tune out most of the politics in the music I like over the years (there are some bands I couldn't tolerate otherwise), so the fact that Crass Records considered itself a political movement as much as a punk label matters not at all to me, one way or the other. I liked the songs, the art was great, and it fed into my teenage angst at the time just fine.

For some of these bands, the songs here are all I've heard. Aside from the bands I've already posted, I've got music by Lack of Knowledge, Conflict, Rudimentary Peni, MDC, Omega Tribe, Hit Parade, and Zounds. For the most part, none of it has grabbed me the way these tracks did when I first heard them. Something about these collections, their general weirdness, and the totally foreign imagery and language scratched me right where I itched when I was 15, and so they still do now. Maybe you'll dig it too.

A Sides Part One 1979-1982
A Sides Part Two 1982-1984

The Parents of God

The Snipers
Three Piece Suite
1980

I don't know much about The Snipers. I think this might be their only release, though I'm pretty sure there's an unreleased full length floating around out there that you can stumble across. I first heard "The Parents of God" on the Crass Records comp A Sides Part One, which I bought at Camelot Records at one of the local malls back in 1994. That comp and it's sequel are two records that hit me very hard at the time and still pull in big waves of nostalgia when I put them on (like right now, for example). Next week I'll post them both. I've already posted stuff from Anthrax, Poison Girls, and Flux (of Pink Indians), all of which I first heard on these comps.

Anyway, here are 3 songs from The Snipers, sounding like a Crass Records version of early stuff by The Cure, only lazier and weirder. "Killing An Arab" comes to mind. Check it out.

Three Piece Suite

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

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.

Jump Mama Jump

Poison Girls
Hex
1979

This is a weird little record from a weird band. Poison Girls formed in the mid-70s, and their singer, who went by the name Vi Subversa, was in her 40s at the time w/ two kids. Apparently she heard her kids listening to punk rock and said, "Hey, this stuff ain't half bad," and decided to give it a go. She was born in 1935, which sort of blows my mind. And you know what? She sounds like she was born in 1935.

Anyway, Poison Girls were a part of the whole Crass Records thing, which may be good or bad depending on your perspective. From the music standpoint, I tend to think it's a good thing (ie I like a lot of those bands). Things get into shakier territory when the politics of it all gets involved, but we'll save that for some other blog. But musically this falls into the dark shadows of punk's weirder side. It kind of meanders and noodles, and the vocals often fall into a kind of beat poetry rhythm, but it's pretty cool anyway. Unfortunately, this record doesn't have my favorite track of theirs, "Promenade Immortelle", which sounds like an outake from Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare. It's on a Crass Records comp I've got, though, so maybe I'll post it some time.

Hex

Grande Days

Most People Are Dicks

Ludichrist
Immaculate Deception
1987

Ludichrist were a corny hardcore/metal crossover band from New York. This is a frustrating album, because there are some real nuggets of greatness throughout, but sometimes they try to be groovy or whatever, and those parts are really bad. Also, many claim this album features the very first metal/hip-hop combo in the song "Green Eggs and Ham," because, you know, the world really needed rapping over bad metal riffs, not to mention a heavy version of "Green Eggs and Ham."

But, you know, don't let all that discourage you. When they cut the bullshit and play fast, this stuff is good, and with 19 songs, surely you can find some good ones. Plus, some of this stuff is pretty funny ("Green Eggs and Ham" notwithstanding). Oh, by the way, after Ludichrist broke up, the singer and guitarist (Tommy Christ and Glen Cummings, respectively) grabbed a new rhythm section and renamed themselves Scatterbrain, who you might remember from their minor Headbanger's Ball hit "Don't Call Me Dude." If anyone out there has the first Scatterbrain record and can upload it for me, please leave me a comment. There's a good song on there w/ John Connelly from Nuclear Assault guesting.

edit: holy shit I forgot to mention that "Green Eggs and Ham" goes into RUN-DMC's "Rock Box" about half-way through, and given that that song came out in 1984, it sort of calls into question the whole "first rap/metal song" thing.

Immaculate Deception

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?

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"

Doctor Phibes Rises Again

Kryst The Conqueror
Deliver Us From Evil
Unreleased

Ok. Oof. This is a rough one. Let's just power through it.

After The Misfits disbanded, Jerry Only and Doyle formed this weird metal band called Kryst The Conqueror. Jeff Scott Soto, at the time known as the guy who sang on the first coupl'a Yngwie Malmsteen records and later as one of the dudes who fronted Journey, did the vocals. The bottom line is, he sucks shit on this record. But until the legal dispute between Danzig and the Caiafa bros was resolved, this was "The Misfits". Once they regained control of the name, they basically found a new singer (drummer Dr. Chud was already on board), and released American Psycho (which, at the risk of losing readers, is a record I love).

They never got around to releasing this, though an EP was released that had some of this stuff on it. The bottom line is that knowing this is two of the guys from The Misfits definitely knocks it down a few pegs. HOWEVER, if it wasn't, this is exactly the sort of dumb shit I'd post on this blog anyway. It's corny metal, full of triumphant melodies and silly dark vocals and lyrics. It's not good, but come on, it's not that bad either.

I think they were trying to be a Christian band too, which is totally wtf.

But hey! Whatever, you know I dig this kind of corniness. And a coupl'a these songs are really similar to stuff The Misfits 2.0 did, particularly "Doctor Phibes Rises Again", of which the opening portion appeared as the opening track for American Psycho, only renamed "The Abominable Dr. Phibes". Come on, you know you want to give this one a try.

Deliver Us From Evil

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