Stink - Celebrate The Fire CDep (Megalomania, 1993) (Remastered)

Despite the name, these guys don't actually smell like a huge fucking bag of rancid cat shit. Too graphic? I didn't choose this offensive band name! (Sorry, my writing skills are a little rusty.)

Based on an MRR review or ad, I believe I mailordered this ep directly from Megalomania Records, along with a 7" by their former labelmate, Strung Out. Hey, I wonder whatever happened to them!

Stink was from the Seattle area, but I'll refrain from inserting some comment about them eschewing the burgeoning grunge sound of the time. Oh wait.

But yes, Stink had more in common with other locals like Sicko or The Fastbacks. Conrad Uno of Egg Studios even produced this ep, as well as the aforementioned bands. Their closest comparison though would have to be Husker Du. A tight 3 piece playing melodic, not quite pop, punk with some nice lead guitars and 2 singers who trade off between somber and upbeat songs.

After this they put out a few 7"s (one on Mutant Pop for the pop punk heads) and 2 CDs on Allied Records. I had one of them remember not liking it as much as this ep, but after listening to this again, I'll have to fill the holes in my Stink collection. That's what she said! What?

Stink - Celebrate The Fire (Remastered) (V0)

01) Something Better

02) On The Outside

03) Diana

04) Happy

05) Don't Give It All Away

06) Never Will Forget

07) Are You Happy?

Upright Citizens - Farewell CDep (Self Released, 1988) (Remastered)

Maybe I've been productive in other aspects of my life, okay?!!!

It took me a while to get clued into a lot of good German punk/hardcore. Like the furious sound of Italian hardcore, German hardcore had it's own unique flavor. Slightly metallic, highly proficient and pretty melodic. Am I racially profiling hardcore bands? Hey, I don't even see color (vinyl), man.

Upright Citizens had a very long tenure, having a similar trajectory as a lot of 80's bands that stuck around. They started out rough, simple and catchy, on par with the old BYO bands. BYO even put out their 2nd album in the US, around the same time they were featured on the classic "Welcome To 1984" compilation. Then they became more competent and unique, with acoustic guitars and folk moments that were never hokey, and meshed well with their inspirational lyrics.

This ep was their zenith, in my opinion. And I don't mean the crappy old TV brand. This ep only featured 3 new songs, but they are awesome. Slightly metallic, slightly folky, melodic as hell, with great guitar parts and vocals. "Farewell" is the standout, and even at 6 minutes and 24 seconds, I can't get enough of it. Funny that the same band wrote the 26 second "Long Songs" in 1983, mostly made up of the lyrics of, "I hate long songs!"

I'm not sure if this ep was actually meant as a farewell as they were dormant for a few years until a live ep in 1991. After that they released one more EP and a full length that were slightly slicker, in the vein of other "popular" 90's punk bands, but still retaining their unique vibe. It's a shame that bands like this, SNFU and RKL didn't get to reap the benefits of the relative sounds that they pioneered, but they each produced some 90's records to be proud of after toiling in the foundation of hardcore punk.

So I'm sharing the CD version of this ep. It actually features 2 additional songs from 1984 that are re-recordings of a couple from the Open Eyes, Open Ears, Brains To Think & A Mouth To Speak LP, but they're also on the Facts And Views EP which is available here, so I'm omitting them. I don't think they fit in with the more mature on this EP anyway. So there!

Also truth be told, I started writing this post about 4 years ago and since then, almost all of their catalog is available on streaming sites. But not Bandcamp. And not remastered. So there again! Or something.

Upright Citizens - Farewell (Remastered) (V0)

1) Farewell

2) L.I.P. (Life Is Pain)

3) Just Thinking Of You

Odd Man Out - ST Reissue (Steve Caballero's Band)

Another old release finally gets a decent reissue. Is that really so hard, every old band I like?!!!

It's just digital, but I already have the vinyl and cassette, so nannynannybooboo to you. I actually just ripped the cassette recently, but this sounds a lot better. Now we just need the Drunk Injuns and Skatemaster Tate (rip) to get on the Beware Records reissue bandwagon. A very slow wagon indeed.

So Odd Man Out was Steve Caballero's band after The Faction dissolved. With him on guitar, they played a kind of dark, gothy, post punk style. I've never really heard the Mission UK, but apparently they were an influence. And maybe since their songs were featured in a Powell video and Savannah Slamma (with possibly the best contest run ever by Jeff Grosso, also rip), it's hard not to hear some old skate rock influences still coming through.

This definitely isn't a band you would automatically like if you liked The Faction, but I always thought they were really unique, and seemed to fit in with the gloomier direction of other old bands that stuck around, like TSOL, Agent Orange, 7 Seconds, etc.

You can find this reissue on sites like Amazon, iTunes, Deezer, Spotify, etc.

B.H.R. - Breaking In! (Signal Sound Systems, 1993)

B.H.R.? Yeah, I don't know much about them. If you like old Guttermouth though, you'll like them. They actually have a split 7" with Guttermouth. I've never really been a big fan of "the Mouth" as they're called (maybe?), but in my never ending quest to acquire rare albums by bands who sound like other bands, I tracked this down a few years ago. I wanted to have a series of posts by bands who sound a lot alike, like Verbal Assault/One Step Ahead, Dag Nasty/Freewill and Strung Out/Redfish. But that would involve posting more than once a year probably.

So with B.H.R. you can expect a similar sound to Guttermouth and maybe the Vandals. Fast, snotty and catchy, but not as hard as say Pennywise or as poppy as Blink 182. Don't expect much lyrically from songs like "Psycho Grandma," "Toxic Surf" and "Frozen Food," but if you dig the rougher side of the SoCal sound, or the early days of Dr. Strange, Nitro or Kung Fu Records, then this might be up your alley. Plus they do passable covers of "Anything" by Dramarama and "Police On My Back" by The Clash.

B.H.R. - Breaking In! (R) (vbr 0)

Mundy's Bay - Goodbye

I know in times like this, the whole world looks to me to make sense of this topsy turvy situation and dish out some words of wisdom, hope and solace. But alas, gentile reader, these delicate fingers, for once, don't know what to type. Do not look to me for all the answers. We must find strength in ourselves, and each other. And drugs. Plenty of drugs.

So they can stop us from going outside, but like the Village People sang, nobody can stop the music.

Well, they could shut down the power grid and we'd be stuck with non electric shit like classical and folk music. A fate worse than Coronavirus!

So I just discovered Mundy's Bay via this song the other day. I've watched this video about 15 times already and sent it to a bunch of my friends, in lieu of asking if they're still alive. This is my kind of stuff. Hooky, dancey indie pop. And the chorus, with that slight keyboard flourish, is such an earworm.

The song is great, but it also makes me miss watching music videos. I guess they're going for a cable access/make-a-video-in-the-mall-machine kind of thing. And watching the drummer bounce along to the beat and the guitarist let loose around 1:59 makes me miss seeing live shows. I know it's only been a short while, but I go to a lot of shows. I had 6 shows lined up just until mid April that have been canceled.

But we can continue to bob our heads and dance in our houses to music like this for the time being. And when this is over, I expect you all to fill the music venues, dance clubs and karaoke nights of your cities and remember how music kept you sane during these ___ months. Years?

And keep taking drugs.

Ayguantu!

Tongo - Chop Suey

Yeah, it's old. You're old! And maybe you haven't seen it before. You're welcome, ingrate!

In other news, all old download links are alive with pleasure. So get off Spotify, dust off your Microsoft Zune mp3 player machine and dig some tasty old tunes.

Minor Threat - Out Of Step (Cassette, Remix Version) (Dischord, 1983)

Hopefully this download makes up for my absence. (And hopefully Dischord doesn't take this down, since it is a very non-standard version.)

I feel like all of my posts begin with delay, absence, disappearance, abduction. The aliens returned me in perfect shape though. Bleep Blork.

So there are a few classic punk albums that were released in very alternate forms:
Bad Brains - Rock For Light: The original mix and the much more available Caroline mix, which was sped up.
Circle Jerks - Wild In The Streets: The original mix and the much more available Frontier mix, which was cleaned up a lot, to its detriment in a lot of people's opinion. Well, a lot of old farts' opinion.
Youth Of Today - We're Not In This Alone: 3 versions! The original mix, a "better" mix, but with the drums off and the version with the vocals and something else re-recorded years later. ("Classic" might be a stretch, but I've come to not just think of them as humorless jocks.)
Snuff - Reach: Alternate test press mix. (Yes, I will include Snuff!)

And that brings us to Minor Threat - Out Of Step. I bought both their tapes from Tape World or some mall shop after seeing Another State Of Mind. They were the standouts of the entire movie for me. I listened to those cassettes hundreds of millions of tens of times, often to the chagrin of my parents on long car rides. They were the perfect mix of musicianship, anger, melody, danger and 3 other things. I followed every band the members did after that. I tattooed their name on my forehead. Okay, not that one.

But I grew up with that cassette. And until recently I still threw it on in the car when I went home to visit my parents. I had since replaced it with the Discography CD, but Out Of Step is the highlight for me. Well at some point I noticed that the CD version of the songs didn't quite sound the same. Some different parts, not quite as punchy. What gives?

I only learned a few years ago that there were 2 mixes of Out Of Step. The original mix is on the CD. The remix is on the cassette version I have. I still don't understand it, since the original mix seems to have some weird effects that you would think would come later.

So I've started to digitize some rare cassettes I have, to mixed results. Some sound muddy. Some have annoying warble. But my old ass Out Of Step cassette, maybe my most played cassette ever, sounds great! Now, admittedly, if you don't listen to music on headphones, you might not notice much. But compared to the original mix on the CD and vinyl, I think this sounds brighter, the bass is punchy as fuck, and since it's from cassette, no annoying clicks and pops. I really can't believe that Dischord hasn't released both versions digitally. I'm sure lots of other people grew up with this version and I find it hard to believe that anyone would prefer the other.

Minor Threat - Out Of Step (vbr 0)