Hickoids - We're In It For The Corn

Label: Matako Matzuri
Year: 1985

Described as "white thrash" or alternately "cow punk", this band and this record would not make it into my life circa 2011, but circa 1990 it snuck in there, right around the same time a band like Elvis Hitler got in under the radar. As long as it wasn't Bon Jovi or C+C Music Factory (I've got the power!), and could be found in the "alternative" section of the local record shop (preferably on cassette so I could rock it in my Subaru), I would give it a whirl.
Well, time has not been kind to the cow punk genre, and most folks, myself included sort of write it off dismissively as dumb, or pointless, but I dug this record out not too long ago and it changed my mind. While it's not a contender for a Pulitzer Prize or anything, the songs are well written stabs of punk infused garage/country rock. I actually had fun remembering this record and reliving the days when it was new to me.
Maybe you'll have a similar reaction?
If not, I know there are more boring ways to spend 37 minutes than turning this record up super loud and turning off your music snob filter.

* Link is fixed, although sending you to the definition of a "Rusty Trombone" rather than the Hickoids album is hilarious, I suppose you guys probably didn't think so.

DL

NIRVANA - Jason Everman

Year: 1989

It's easy to gloss over Everman's short tenure in the NIRVANA; he was in the band for less than a year, didn't appear on any studio recordings (despite being on the cover of 'Bleach'), and disappeared before the band started picking up notice in 1990. You can see him on the DVD for the WTLO release, playing with Krist, Kurt, and Chad at Rhino Records in 1989, when they were touring with TAD. Jason also played Bass for Soundgarden for a short time, before being kicked out because him and Chris Cornell had a few misunderstandings.

All Cobain really had to say on the matter of Everman leaving the band was that he didn't "fit in."

The general public's contact with Everman has been non-existent, until last year, in an interview with grungereport.net; Everman had seemed to drop off the edge of the Earth. Surprisingly, from the interview he seems to be a pretty well-centered and all around nice dude.

Included with this posts are two shows from the end of Everman's time with the band. July 8th, 1989 features both Kurt and Jason on guitar, while the second, July 15th, 1989, features only Everman playing guitar (as Kurt had broken his guitar two nights before).

It's fucking terrible. But, it's pretty interesting to hear Everman butcher their songs.

1989.07.08 - Live @ Club Dreamerz; Chicago, IL
1989.07.15 - Live at Green Street Station; Jamaica Plain, MA

The band's set is pretty consistent during this period; they play School, Floyd, Love Buzz, Spank Thru, Paper Cuts, Polly, Scoff, Big Cheese, About a Girl, Dive, Negative Creep and Blew, even playing Blandest during their July 9th set (which I've actually never heard a live version of). In the Green Street set, for some reason they skip over Paper Cuts, which isn't surprising for how much of a shitshow it was.

Jason's final show was at the Pyramid Club on July 18th, 1989. A fight broke out during the second song of the set, leading to Everman getting booted and the band cancelling the remaining shows of the tour:


--fred

purple on time

(photo by chris nightengale)

the man that brought us "last one in my mouth is a jerk" has more to say

and you should listen

al johnson is decent

Heatmiser - Dead Air

Year: 1993

Steven Smith's band before becoming The Artist Known As Elliott Smith. Smith formed 'Heatmiser' while attending college in Amherst, MA, relocating himself and the band shortly after graduation. Shit's tight--for fans of Helmet, Seaweed, bowl-cuts, and the 90s.

Heatmiser - Dead Air

--fred

Drunks With Guns - Second Verses

Label: Intellectual Convulsion
Year: 1990

This compilation of rare and previously unreleased music from Drunks With Guns features tracks from the o.g. lineup, and the final incarnation, so it's half, fucked hardcore damage, the other half fucked noise rock damage. Take your pick I guess. I tend to gravitate towards the Die Kreuzen vs. Flipper stylings of the older lineups, but the Lubricated Goat vs. Rusted Shut stylings of the later band don't disappoint (unless you hoping for something in the singer/songwriter vein, then yeah, you'll be disappointed.
Negativity rules.

DL

Brass Castle - Get On Fire

Label: Drazzig
Year: 2003

More terror from one of the louder twosomes currently, or formerly, in operation. Keep your fingers crossed that Brass Castle will one day get it back together to make another record like this one, another soundtrack for your next paint-huffing get together.
Classic rock + noise rock = super good happy fun times!
Listen to this and go do something stupid, I promise it will create a fond memory, if not a permanent scar. Your body needs at least one more monument to your own ridiculousness, right? Brass Castle celebrate the ridiculous! Brass Castle turns all amplification to 10, and proceeds to bash out a series of ridiculously awesome destructo-rock party anthems. Brass Castle will take your hand and guide you through your next folly. Follow them with confidence!

DL

Interpol - Live In Astoria ep

Label: Capitol
Year: 2007

Wait? What? You went from Sweet Diesel to Interpol?
Yes, yes I did.
I like Joy Division, so why wouldn't I like Interpol?

DL

Sweet Diesel - Morning Breath 7"

Label: Engine
Year: 1995

In the days of scouring every word of every liner note on every 7" ever released, the band name Sweet Diesel kept being mentioned, thanked or shouted out, or whatever, from most hardcore or heavy bands in the Northeast United States, yet they were mysterious, nobody I knew had ever heard them. There were never fliers in my town advertising the next Sweet Diesel matinee show. There were even pictures of dudes in bands wearing Sweet Diesel shirts with a Chain Of Strength logo...I mean, what? This had gone on long enough, I simply had to find something by the band to validate the near mythic status they were beginning to build up in my own fragile psyche.
So, there on Engine Records, home of the first Deadguy 7", and an offshoot of the once mighty Blackout! Records, was this Sweet Diesel 7" staring me down. This was it, the time had come to finally sample the fruits of her rich bosoms, could Sweet Diesel be as could as I was hoping them to be?
Well, yeah, sort of. I do like the swaggering rock bravado of Surgery. I enjoy the palm muted grit of Crawlpappy. I tend to like the thick post hardcore groove of Mind Of Matter. I really get excited over the fractured hardcore of Hammerhead. So, yeah, I guess they were pretty all right. Really alright.
Members went on to The Kill Van Kull, The Brought Low, The Monumentals, JJ Paradise Players Club, and Made Out Of Babies.

DL

V/A - Cinco Anos

Label: Trance Syndicate
Year: 1995

One can only assume that this Trance Syndicate compilation was the celebration of five years in the "music business" for the label, but it was also a benefit for a nonprofit in Austin, Texas. But more importantly, it's a benefit for you, the listener who get a survey of mid-period (no menstruation jokes please) Trance Syndicate in all their glory. From pretty post rock to catchy grunge to shoegazer to devastating noise rock to sun baked Texas oddity. Twas a great label at a great time in music, so this be a grand ole collection of sounds.
The bands are:
Starfish
Sixteen Deluxe
Bedhead
Desafinado
My Dad Is Dead
Furry Things
Sweetpea
Cherubs
Pain Teens
Crust
Lowbrow
Ed Hall
Drain
Starfish
Johnboy
A.C. Acoustics
Butthole Surfers
Roky Erickson

DL

V/A - Boston Hardcore 89-91

Label: Taang
Year: 1995

A couple weekends ago in New York City there was a the Black and Blue Bowl show with Gorilla Biscuits, Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front, Absolution, and Maximum Penalty (what? No Outburst?) among others, and this weekend is the big Chaos in Tejas show with Youth Of Today, Cro-Mags and everyone else. So, I was about due for a "Second Wave Of Hardcore" listening-fest, and hearing about those shows was enough to get me going, and got me digging through my records to hear something fast and vaguely positive.
Enter, this compilation culling together the big dogs of the Boston version of the second wave of hardcore, and it will do the job if you're looking for something to take off your shirt and couch mosh to. If only Slapshot had been included...

Wrecking Crew - you like Agnostic Front? Yeah, them too.
Crossface - Leeway mixed with...something
Said And Done - Remember the NYHC Where The Wild Things Are compilation? This would have fit well on that.
Backbone - Speaking of Outburst
Sam Black Church - way downtuned sludge to thrash with those weird Sam Black Church vocals
Maelstrom - metallic mosh that rules hard
Eye For An Eye - this band was sort of the Boston version of Burn on their 7", but this song is straight ahead hawdcore
Intent To Injure - in the tradition of old Boston hardcore....super fast and mean. Hail Negative F/X!
S.T.P. - mid tempo mosh fest, reminds me of the late, great, Line Drive mixed with Nuclear Assault
Suckerpunch - Sheer Terror styled minus the coffee grounds vocals mixed with more Outburst
Only Living Witness - Sick Of It All + Agnostic Front

DL

Understand - Bored Games

Label: Equal Vision
Year: 1994

Well, somebody asked that we post more music that "sounds like Quicksand", so here we are. One qualifier though, Quicksand had a unique thing going when they took the sounds of Absolution, Helmet, and Fugazi and mixed them together to help jump start the post-hardcore genre, so while there were plenty of bands to come along after them and ape that sound, nobody did it as well as Quicksand.
I will give Understand credit though, they at least got Don Fury to record and produce this record, assuring some physical connection to their musical influences. And they come pretty close to a Quicksand doppelganger on occasion, although the vocals are in a different key, and they don't play as heavy as Quicksand, nor as groove oriented. Understand have some Orange 9MM in the mix, as well as some straight melodic hardcore, so they might end up more in the Shift (also on Equal Vision) or Fabric (also from England) camps.
Anyway, you wanted a band that sounds like Quicksand, so here' a band that sounds like Quicksand. I hope you enjoy it.

DL

Caustic Resin - Body Love Body Hate

Label: C/Z
Year: 1993

The first Caustic Resin full length, and a truly unique beast. As a younger man I had a Jane's Addiction phase in high school, as young high school men are wont to do. I really was drawn into their mystical surfer schtick or whatever, and to this day I still really like those original records...mystical surfer vibes and all.
So fast forward to college and I distinctly remember that Caustic Resin was compared to Jane's Addiction by somebody, somewhere, I can't quite put my finger on where I heard that, but just because I don't know when or by whom I heard that information doesn't mean I'm lying. The point being, I thought that Jane's Addiction had been really good, so maybe this band that supposedly sounded like them would be good too, and thusly I searched out Caustic Resin.
My next fuzzy memory of my Caustic Resin journey was of me not really "getting it". They didn't sound like Jane's Addiction so much to my ears (although now, in retrospect, I can hear it. If Jane's Addiction had recorded for SST and were recorded by Spot), they sounded like some kind of 1970's version acid rock version of the Butthole Surfers (meaning more "rock" and less "acid" than the Butthole Surfers). I shelved the album and didn't really give it much thought until years later when I aquieced to give Built To Spill a chance, sorta liked them for a couple minutes, figured out the connection to Caustic Resin, and was all, "hey, I've got a Caustic Resin album around here somewhere".
As an older man, I can tell you that this is/was/and will be a great record. Doesn't matter your feelings on Jane's Addiction, or Built To Spill, or me. I think you'll like it.

DL

Aunt Worm - Saucy Lady 7"

Label: Man's Ruin
Year: 1995

Another day, another weird one from the Man's Ruin vault, this time from Germany, and this time sounding very "Nineties". Know what I mean? Vague funk undertones to their thudding Helmet-inspired riffs, mixed with the occasional guitar flourish straight out of a Primus jam? Ring a bell? Remember bands like Stick? Yeah, exactly.
I bought anything Man's Ruin put out, and for every classic slab of noise rock or stoner bliss, there was one of these records. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have....

DL

Questions For Our Readers

Good people of the internet, I come before you with two questions:

1. What is the best'est and most free'est manner in which to extract music from an Apple iPhone 4 and place it back onto a Macintosh computer? Mind you, I'm not asking about an iPod, but an iPhone 4 specifically. There seems to be myriad software options out there for this very issue, but I would like to hear any first hand experience solving this problem.

2. Are there any requests for music or general comments about the blog that you would like to make public? It would seem that our esteemed leader Ipecac is taking a leave of absence (godspeed Mr. Ipecac), so this internet ghetto is under my sole supervision for the time being, and while I am more than happy to continue with my reign of terror unopposed, I, as a benevolant dictator, will entertain requests so long as they meet my stringent standards of quality (no matter how vague, whimsical, or nebulous those standards might be).