happy 4th of july

(feel free to insert your favorite toby keith song here)

four hundred years - transmit failure

released 1998

these folks mix all of the intensity of both rites of spring and fugazi (and if you didn't know any better...you'd think guy picciotto fronted this band)

once the band split up in 2000...vocalist/guitarist daron hollowell and drummer ash bruce went on to join the experimental band bats and mice (which also includes members of milemarker...men's recovery project...and sleepytime trio)

DL: transmit failure

fucked up - let likes be cured by likes

released 2004

this band from the fabelled canadas are single handedly keeping hard core/punk rawk alive...and doing it better than the current new old school bands (ie: terror)

and for all you nerds out there...this was a limited release one-sided live 12" (only 300 were made...and i know that doesn't really matter here because it's posted on a blog...but now you have something to talk about at your next cocktail party)

so put this on...crank it up...and you'll feel like your right there in the action (and you won't have to worry about windmills or karate chops or drunk guys that go by the name "bro")

1 - intro
2 - generation
3 - colour removal
4 - black iron prison
5 - no pasaran
6 - a light that never comes on
7 - last man standing
8 - zezozose
9 - circling the drain
10 - police
11 - endtro

DL: let likes be cured by likes

murder-suicide pact - demo

released 2009

this is a 14 song "demo" (remember when a demo was about 3-4 songs recorded on what sounded like a tape deck in a garage/basement? boy...the times they are a-changin')

ok...pick out a black flag song (i suggest "police story")

then go and get a fan

turn it on and lean down behind it

then scream the lyrics to mentioned black flag song through the fan

and that's what this is all about

tell me you don't automatically think of "black coffee" in the opener "pretty good pretty bad"

this will take you to redondo beach in 1981

you can also find the band's SELF-TITLED album here inside the walls of this blog (twice)

DL: msp demo

Brainiac - Bonsai Superstar

Label: Grass

Year: 1994

Can you believe that there hasn't been any Brainiac posted on this blog before? I mean, what the fuck, right? I had never put any up here because I assumed it had already been covered, but then whilst looking back in the archives, I noticed...no Brainiac. For shit's sake dudes, we gotta do something about that, it's embarrassing. For reals.

I suppose we could have put up any of their records, as they're all really good, but I chose their second full length, as I have a particular soft spot in my heart for it (or maybe that's a heart murmur...I don't know, I'm not a doctor). If you missed out on them during their active years, then I guess you could describe them as noise rock, filtered by the quasi-danciness of Girls Against Boys (Eli Janney did produce this), and layered by synthesizers and Moogs. It yields a distinctive racket, but one that rewards time and time again. 

After the death of lead singer/keyboardist Tim Taylor in a car accident, the band broke up and the members went on to Enon, Model/Actress (with Curtis Mead from Split Lip [small world huh?]), Shesus, and sort of The Breeders. 

DL

The Raymond Brake - Never Work Ever

Label: Hep-Cat

Year: 1996

Every so often you just gotta get back on some of that ole indie rock shit, n'ah mean? And, for my money, the great state of North Carolina (Camel City...big ups!) churned out some of the best, and some of the most memorable of that indie rock back in the heyday of the stuff...the early and mid-90's. I mean, you couldn't walk ten feet without tripping over a band playing rockin, catchy, quirky indie rock in North Carolina. Sure, Chapel Hill got lots of the kudos, but Greensboro, with it's own liberal arts university in town had a sweet little scene as well. A lot of those bands were more abrasive, more primitive, or more artsy-fartsy than the bands centered around the Cats Cradle down the interstate, but The Raymond Brake could have easily competed with the Polvos, Archers Of Loafs, and Superchunks of the day. I think the easiest comparison would be Grifters, but that's me being pretty lazy and I'm sure you can come up with something better. 

Come up with something better because, I gotta go get my grill ready for some 4th of July all-American, independence-ass cooking out tomorrow.

DL

totimoshi - ladron

released 2006

i guess calling the album "burglar" just wouldn't have been cool enough

this was produced by some guy named page hamilton

by now most of you already know of this band (seeing as they were asked for over in the talky box)...so you already know what the band's about and what you're getting yourself into

when i first discovered the band...it was through this album...and for a week straight i drove everyone crazy with it..."ladron" (guitar hooks a-plenty) and "gods of earth" (the bassline is killer,bro) were constantly getting played constantly (and yes...i know that sounds redundant...but i'm proving a point)...it's like gum in your hair

so if you like jucifer...black sabbath ('70-'75)...the melvins...queens of the stone age...denim jackets...and harry caray-like vocals...

DL: ladron

u.s. maple - talker

released 1999

this is what would happen if david yow decided to go into a studio and record his own bob dylan/rolling stones tribute album...

by himself

DL: talker

cky - volume 1

released 1999

ok ok ok...just everyone settle down

listen...if you take away all of the bam margera...all of the jackass...what you get is some music that fits in perfectly with everything else on this blog (just listen to the song "rio bravo" and tell me you don't hear a hint of the melvins)

and come on...you have to admit that jackass was hilarious at the time it was on tv (and they did use the minutemen jam "corona" as their theme song)..they were doing things that you and your friends (wished you) were doing...smashing around in a shopping cart...holding jousting matches inside stores...testing tasers out on one another...running around a golf course with an air horn...throwing flour onto sleeping people...riding bikes into trees...

oh the fun that was had

but then crap like viva la bam...wildboyz...and bam's unholy union started showing up...and then the HIM madness set in...and then the bullet and the gun started to look friendlier and friendlier...

but i'm getting away from the band

as i was saying...cky can fit in with the rest of the jams on this blog...sounding all "stoner rock"-y and grungy and such....and for some reason...their guitar tone always reminds me of rubberbands

so come on,kids...inhale a bunch of airplane glue...take off your clothes...get on a bicycle...and give this a try

DL: volume 1

AND THEY CONSIDER THIS A FUN TIME,MARTHA? WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO?!

black flag - 2.8.85 - los angeles,ca

what you get here is the entire THE PROCESS OF WEEDING OUT album (+1) done live

i'm not really sure where in l.a. this took place...but i'll bet there were plenty of pissed off punk rock folks just standing around with mouthfuls of saliva waiting for hank to take the stage while this was going down

as for where hank was...he was probably off somewhere writing in his journal...and making sure his tiny shorts were seething with just the right amount of sweat

1 - the process of weeding out
2 - obliteration*
3 - screw the law
4 - southern rise
5 - your last affront

*=from the SLIP IT IN album

DL: the process of weeding out +1 live