Getting the job of your dreams, winning the lottery, your baby being born; pft! Not EVEN as joyous as an old sought after release popping up on bandcamp!
I think I already mentioned how I mail-ordered a bunch of stuff from Cargo Records, including most of the Nemesis Records catalog. Nemesis was mostly known for hardcore, but there were a few wildcards on there like Fishwife, Pitchfork, The Offspring and a band who put out a couple of my favorite 7"s: Hunger Farm.
Their music is a little hard to describe, basically an awesome mix of indie rock and punk. A description that would also suit another of my faves: Treepeople. Hunger Farm popped up on an old Flipside Records compilation in 1991 that seemed a good fit for them (and appealing to me) with bands like Big Drill Car, Monsula, Green Day and Bad Religion alongside some of Flipside's weirder roster and tastes.
I never learned much about the band, but I loved everything about their 2 7"s; cool artwork, strong vocals, weird lyics and a great rhythm section. I learned later that they were featured in an old Gullwing skate video that I still haven't seen to this day. (Not sure I'm nostalgic enough to sit through an hour and a half of that.)
They released a CD that didn't quite live up to the 7"s, but is still pretty good. But at some point I found out that they had an earlier demo with a couple of amazing songs. I got a crappy copy of it and eventually tracked down the singer of the band who sent me all their stuff on cassette. Unfortunately, he cut off the beginning of one of those awesome songs. It seemed like I would never get a quality version of that stuff. When JGoon and I talked about starting a label many years ago, a Hunger Farm discography was one of the first things I wanted to release, just so I'd have a decent copy of everything.
But in my sporadic search for them on the internet, I found that someone has put up all their old stuff on bandcamp, including the 2 demos that feature all of the songs from their 7"s. Now admittedly, the bandcamp versions of the last 2 demos still don't sound too great, but I will rip the 7"s eventually.
This demo sounds great though for a cassette transfer. I did clean it up a little, matching the volumes a little better and remastering it a tad to the volume of their album. I've been wanting a decent copy of the song "Circles" for a while and now I finally have it! If you've never heard them, that's the song to start with. It's like some kind of new wavey, post punk, dream pop punk hybrid.
The singer has some more recent solo stuff up on ReverbNation under the name Trash Martyr that's pretty good too. He sent me a CDr of songs that I'll have to dig up the next time I'm at my parents' place.
Hunger Farm - Radio Tokyo Demo (1988) (R) (vbr 0)
I, too heard these guys first on that Flipside L.A. comp, and it's really cool you shared this. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRadio Tokyo 1989 & 1990 were sooo good as well. I think 7 of the songs from Radio Tokyo 1989 were in that Gullwing video. 'Circles' was in the video too. I have the video on my channel. But anyway, this band is a real hidden gem and anybody who was able to stumble upon at one point or another are truly fortunate enough to hear such great music.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with what you said in the first sentence btw! Lol
ReplyDeleteI first heard thee guys on a Cargo Records sampler and tried to immediately buy the CD but it was already sold out (Dogma was the song). I searched for information about the band in those early internet days to no avail.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm going through my cds today, find that Cargo sampler and wonder if I will still love 'Dogma.' Yes, it still sounds great after all of these years!
Thanks for the post!
Actually... the song was 'Motion' from the Dogma album.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an expert on the band by any means, but I know a little bit about them, after they broke up the bassist was my friend's roommate.
ReplyDeletethey were an active band in Orange County in the late 80's/early 90's, from the Huntington Beach/Fountain Valley area.
They were Bill Burk on guitar and Vocals, Mike Morris on Bass, and Craig Seki, Scott Lindsey, and then Mike McHugh on drums.
Hunger Farm released two EP's and an LP on Nemesis records.
They split up soon after the LP release, not sure why, but I understood that Bill had some health problems and that ended the band.
Mike Morris would play in the band 16. Mike McHugh would become a recording engineer and producer in Orange County.
I also know they were heavily influenced by bands on Dischord records, and they toured with Jawbox, and opened up for Fugazi at the Country Club in Reseda.
DeleteI saw them at a bowling alley, and Toe Jam which is now Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Long Beach, Ca.