Awesome live (obviously not overdubbed) video from 1980. This was available on VHS back when I didn’t sport a grey beard as I do now.
Unfortunately, my soundcard is damaged, which keeps me from ripping new music for the blog. I hope to get a new one real soon. Be back soon, I promise.
How much I loved this LP when it came out – and I still know every song by heart, even though I don’t spin it as often as I used to!
Too bad STETZ never released anything else beside this, apart from songs on three LP comps («Hardcore Takes Over», «One big Crowd» and “New Jersey’s got it”) as well as a demo tape from 1984, which sounds considerably more Hardcore than the album.
It’s a shame that this LP was never repressed, not on vinyl nor on CD!
And that’s what makes “Songs of Experience” so damn great – its diversity. It has everything, from kinda grim Hardcore (“Suburban Nightmare” and some more moments on the hardcore-y a-side), to the prevalent catchy, quirky, funny, funky, play- and joyful and poppy sounds of your New Jersey College Punkers, telling you stories of beach parties, money miss-spent on tattoos, bondage, the ahs and ohs of love and whatnot. At first, I hardly ever played the calmer b-side (“side Bodacious”), but over the years I learned to appreciate it just as much as “side Aristophanes”.
On this day 11 years ago, on September 11 2001, STETZ’ drummer Wayne Russo was killed in the barbaric attack on the World Trade Center in NYC. «He was a sweetheart of a man. Very goofy, the type to quote Monty Python», Bruce Wingate (formerly of ADRENALIN O.D. etc.) remembers him.
This is a tribute to Wayne, one of the approximately three thousand victims who died on nine-eleven.
Download the entire «Songs of Experience» LP here (.zip archive; hold your mouse button and choose “save as”).
Not too long before HERESY embarked for their first Euro tour in 1986 (together with Concrete Sox – more here), they recorded 6 songs with their original guitarist & singer Reevsy (who also can be heard on the «Never Healed»Flexi). As you know, Reevsy was replaced by John on vocal duty on the tour and then became the permanent singer – and, quite frankly, ruined the band. Some people just have no singing voice and unfortunately, John not only couldn’t sing, he also tried to sound like that guy from Youth Of Today. A worse combination can hardly be thought of.
So before releasing the HERESY / CONCRETE SOX split LP, HERESY decided to re-recorded the vocals and the original version went straight to the vault.
A rather bad sounding cassette dub of a rough mix with Reevsy singing was circulating for many years. In 1990, this by now collectible CD for the first time issued the original version of the split LP songs (among the regular version and «Never Healed»), with Reevsy on vocals.
To my knowledge, it has never been re-released (correct me if I’m wrong), which would be a major mistake, as alongside the debut Flexi, these songs are the strongest moment of the recorded history of HERESY.
Genocide.mp3
Belief.mp3
Visions of Fear.mp3
Nausea.mp3
Release.mp3
In Silence.mp3
Formed in 1979, Germany’s NIKOTEENS released this 7″ on their own. The songs were originally intended to be included on the now legendary «Soundtracks zum Untergang» compilation album, but got rejected by label owner Karl Walterbach (who founded “Noise Rerords” out of the ashes of “Aggressive Rockproduktionen”, when Metal was the new thing and Punk in a general decline in 1983). Reason for the downturn was the song «Bomben über Russland» («Bombs over Russia»).
In 1983, the NIKOTEENS released «Aleah-Oehh», an LP with 19 songs. Unfortunately, the LP contains a number of pretty miserable “fun songs”. If only it had been edited a bit more carefully and the tracklist reduced to the thrash-songs. The following LP from 1986, «Hardcore Holocaust», suffered more or less the same bad editing, again showing great potential, but at the same time ruining it with some really shitty tracks and terrible lyrics.
So what you really have to look up on the internet, are the two tapes they released in between the albums: The legendary «Skateboard Tape» and a live in the rehearsal room recording, called «Hopfenland Tape» (you can easily google them up). Especially the first one is a scorcher and easily among the very fastest bands of the time (1984), with superb vocals, a great rough production and ripping songs.
500 copies were made of this (it was re-released a few years ago, with three bonus tracks – the three fastest songs off the first LP). I could have done without the “Kufsteinlied” and the lyrics …. well.
If this is your first introduction to the NIKOTEENS, do yourself a favor and see what else you can find by them!
Thanks to Tomasso for contribution!
The End.mp3
Bomben über Russland.mp3
Die Mauer.mp3
Kamikaze Heroe.mp3
Kufsteinlied.mp3
PS 1: Looks like the label was supposed to be called “Kein Zurück Label”, as that’s what the hand-stamped innersleeve says.
PS 2: This is one of the greatest songs from the first LP (and not from the EP, as the description says):
Out now:
A very limited edition Picture Disc version of my old band FEAR OF GOD‘s debut EP from 1988.
Superb and quite luxurious gatefold die-cut sleeve, heavy (!) vinyl and sticker insert. Sound carefully reproduced using the original mastertape. Only 300 copies were made. This will not be repressed in this form, so better get yours quickly.
Follow this link to place your order and read more about this EP and some background on its production and the early days of FEAR OF GOD.
PS: What you see in the picture is the sold-out “Die-Hard-Edition” with two extra inserts and a t-shirt.
A stunner, a real stunner of an EP. 6 short songs, each one full with great melodies and rhythm, a lot of RHYTHM. Playing this now, 28 years after its release, makes you wonder why there were so few bands with such a fresh sound and lyrics that may cover the usual subjects of the time, but without ever being of the generic sort (especially on the later three LPs).
Where else but from Texas could such a band come – and where else would they later move than to San Francisco, like so many of the contemporaries.
The LPs that followed (I think after relocating to SF) show the kind of progression you can expect from such a group. Creativity in songwriting, the development of a truly unique sound and a certain routine too. They kinda lost me on the first album already, I must admit, which doesn’t say much about the RHYTHM PIGS music, but of my sometimes a bit simple preferences. I love the hard edge and the playfulness that comes so naturally that on this EP.
I can fly.mp3
Get it now.mp3
Baal.mp3
Military Fairy.mp3
Radio Silence.mp3
The Quest.mp3
Not one day passes without one of your boring emails.
I don’t give a shit about that exciting new band you’re trying to sell. I never cared enough to even download one kilobite of the promo crap you’re offering me. Your bands all stink, they’re all crap and they won’t get nowhere anyway, especially not with stupid wankers like you promoting them. When a band has won a contest or gets rave reviews, that means the band sucks shit. Nobody cares whether or not the singer is a best selling author, the bassist used to be in some other loser band or the drummer is a renowned painter. No, you will not re-invent guitar music and neither will be heard of you in the near future.
Go fuck yourselves, you stupid cunts.
I don’t want to recveive any other “special offer” or “pre-listening” horseshit. It all goes straight to the electronic trash can anyway, so save a tree or a frog or something by taking my name off your stinking mailing lists. Now.
Did you fucking get that?
(First posted on Sept. 1 2009. It’s time for a repost.)
You may have heard FRONT LINE on the glorious 2nd installment of MASTER TAPE (find the quintessential volume one here) – and you know that this band overshadowed the other (very good) bands in terms ofspeed and punch by miles.
Finally, the complete 1982 10-song demo (from which the comp tracks were taken) has been released. And it fucking rules. Simple as that. When Hardcore was a force like music had seen none before. And lyrics like these to boot:
«Spit, fight, curse, kick
Busted bottles, flyling bricks
Spurs, leather, boots, chains
Broken bones, friends in pain
Aggression is a part of me
A cure for life’s monotony». (from «The red Hour»)
Fuckshitupism!
Apparantly only 300 were made of this, so order your copy today!
Comes with lyric sheet, sticker and a digital download (from which I took these three songs). You can order it from Grave Mistake or other distributors.
Having Fun.mp3
Black Eye.mp3
The red Hour.mp3
The first time that I heard (saw) PILLSYBURY HARDCORE was on Flipside Video Fanzine, Volume Six (or was it five?). I immediately fell in love with the band for the song “Hey Bob, what’s up?” alsone and forced about every band to play this with me. What was so exciting was the fact that songs like “Hey Bob” were not music, not noise, not serious, not comedy, just very playful and – plain and simple fun! There simply was no established canon yet, people didn’t feel they had to put every song, every band, every record into strict categories. A lot of naive – I say it again – fun was still involved and thus, a lot more subversion. And the vocals …. these squeaking noises, the bass lines and all that.
“My record collection is phucking rad
Got all the Dischord, almost
All the Touch & Go, almost all the Dangerhouse!!!
I got the Bags single, Yes L.A. too
My record collection my record collection
It’s rad! It’s rad! It’s rad! It’s rad!
Got all the Dischord!!!
“Legless Bull” too
SSD “Kids will have their say”
My record collection my record collection
It’s rad! It’s rad! It’s rad! It’s rad!”
What more can you say?
Oh yes, this band featured Eric Wood, who would later be in PHC and other bands. Right?
Heavy “Phucking” Metal.mp3
Wanna check out my Record Collection?.mp3
Pot is lame.mp3
Pillsybury Hardcore.mp3
7-11 is God.mp3
I love Pomona.mp3
Hey Bob what’s up?.mp3
Back from my round-the-world trip!
Originally, I was going to post my favorite AGENT ORANGE record and that is, of course, the legendary (and in this case, the term is fitting) “Living in Darkness” Mini-LP. I asked the producer, Robbie Fields, to come up with some memories and he in return asked me not to post “Living in Darkness” but “Bitchin’ Summer”.
I asked Robbie if he could write down what he remembers from the actual production process of this EP. The whole material, physical side of record production in the old days is something we rarely hear about, so I thought this would be interesting for a change. As far as my personal take on the music goes, you may insert the usual hyperbolism, especially regarding the two songs “Misirlou”, the Dick Dale standard (taken from “Living in Darkness” and the hardcorey “Breakdown” (an outtake from the same sessions).
Anyway, this is what Robbie has to say regarding the production of this and other Posh Boy releases (slightly edited by me). Keep in mind that Posh Boy will not physically re-press their old releases, but sell them on iTunes exclusively, so this is indeed a bit of nostalgia here.
«There were lots of different vinyl pressings of the e.p.. The first couple of thousands were done by hand in a shack in Hollywood by an eccentric guy called Pete Korelich, who had emigrated from Croatia in my recollection. But Pete spoke Mexican Spanish! Pete was one of these guys who collected old engineering junk and made it work. He probably owned this old tumble down building in Hollywood, with the roof not just leaking but gone in the back.
At some point, he specialized in recording Mexican bands for the then small US market but he had good stuff. In 1982, he needed a “good” studio for one of his bands and he traded record pressings with studio owner Brian Elliot. This was the type of deal that Brian loved because he immediately knew to whom he could broker the pressings … me.
As it so happened, I was pretty broke in the summer of 1982 and I needed a new release but I had max’d out my credit line at my usual pressing plant. So I called Agent Orange and told them I wanted to do an e.p. with the non LP “B” side and outtakes from the “Living In Darkness” sessions. As usual, they were not happy (they never were) but they provided me with the artwork within a few days. Meanwhile, as a selling point, I had decided to extend “Pipeline”, which we did over at Gold Star IIRC, by means of what’s called a music or tape edit. “Breakdown” had been extended already at the studio, as it was necessary to work from the 2″ tape.
I was highly sceptical about the whole deal. Korelich had a couple of functioning manual presses and spare parts for 50! But dang it, the pressings were great. And I remember later running some Social Distortion “Playpen” singles there. In fact, any re-press where we had fewer than 300 sleeves was ideal for doing there. Brian Elliot knew he would always get paid by me for studio time and now pressings and he sure wanted the Mexican musicians to return!
The 12″ turned out a great success. It was a hit in the Honolulu market with “Pipeline”. I would have done further pressings at different pressing plants once the credit ran out at Korelich. However, Pete took in a tenant in the most normal room in the building, another character called Richard Simpson, one of the unsung heroes of L. A. punk rock and early rap music.
Richard had worked for years at one of the great L.A. pressing plants, Monarch, cutting disks. He was extremely well trained and owned his own mastering rig. At an indeterminate age (he wore a shaggy wig that we never spoke about), he set up at Korelich and started mastering everyone’s records and doing tape assembling and the like. Richard had absolutely no ego … he facilitated whatever the customer wanted. He cut some wicked records, ones with monster bottom end. Most importantly, he worked cheap in his ultra low rent location. He was living out in Simi Valley in a very conservative town and yet he chose to commute into the seediest part of Hollywood and have some very strange looking customers.
He was so un-Hollywood. Just a down to earth guy. So look for the “Mastered by Richard Simpson” credit from 1983 onwards.
The Rhino CD edition was deleted 31 December 2009. It was re-mastered by them in 1992 from the original mix tapes and they prided themselves on their superior skills.»
(Robbie Fields, April 2012)
I would like to thank Robbie a lot for taking his time and giving his endorsement.
Pipeline (extended version).mp3
Breakdown.mp3
Misirlou.mp3
Mr.Moto.mp3
Good bad Music