Archive for March, 2005

Ruin – Fiat Lux LP (1986 Meta Meta Records)

In 1986 some friends and I took the train to the city to see a punk rock show at Cabaret Metro. The lineup was 7 Seconds, Verbal Assault, Ruin, and SS20. We went solely for the need to see 7 Seconds and never heard the other bands. While I can’t speak for my friends, I became a fan of the 3 opening acts that nite, and the one that really stole the show in my opinion was Ruin.

These guys had the stage full of lit candles and they came out wearing white lab coats and they tore up the stage. I was totally impressed with them and immediately looked for any records I could find of theirs. The first one I’d find was this one, their second and final record. It had just come out at the time. I wasn’t able to find their first album for a couple years, when my friend, Eric, gave me some records from his collection in exchange for taking care of his cats when he went out of town. I was pretty happy that he gave that to me.

The band’s total output consisted of the two aforementioned albums, and a track on the That Was Then This is Now compilation 7″ on Plus Records (which will be covered here eventually) as well as being on the Get Off My Back compilation.

The band consisted of:
Damon “SouthPaw” Wallis – Guitar
Bloody Rich Hutchins – Drums
Cordy Swope – Bass/Vocals
Vosco Thomas Adams – Vocals
Glenn Wallis – Guitar/Founder/Vocals

After He Ho Rich Hutchins left the band and Paul Della Pelle became their new drummer

I was able to get some history of Ruin on their website, which is run by their singer, Tom.

Ruin was more than music, or at least aspired to be more. Initially, it was a propaganda project . Students of the arts, philosophy and religion, doing lab work with music. Experimenting with a way to be activists for social and individual evolution.

Founded in 1980 by Dr. Glenn Wallis, (then a religious studies’ undergrad), Ruin was ostensibly a model “old school” hardcore “punk” rock musical group. This model was characterized by hyper speed rhythms, banshee lead guitar, raging vocals and ideological lyrics. Countless dime a dozen bands exemplified this style but few were distinguished masters such as Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains or Minor Threat.

During the time this style was in its infancy, Glenn heard the call and joined the mutual evolution. He began scrawling poems to be roared with thrash tempo rhythms; songs that wanted to transcend entertainment.

Glenn was nurtured on artists such as the STOOGES, LEONARD COHEN, the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, SHAM69, and the CLASH. While he was shaping his vision, he was listening to Crass, (anarchist art punk band), and Motorhead, (seminal speed metal band). Glenn became convinced that rock could be a vehicle to help stimulate the transformation of one’s being to a higher stage of development, resulting in positive social behavior.

Ruin achieved headliner status locally in Philadelphia’s mid sized music halls. Live, they experimented with noise, genre bending, pamphleteering, theatrics, and audience participation. They toured across the States a couple of times, and in their small way, helped to promote Buddhism as a means to enrich one’s life.

Their last recording featured their flirting with mainstream rock. Theoretically, they were hoping to reach a wider audience to spread Buddhist ideas further, but basically they were becoming serious about pursuing a career as a rock band. This was frustrating as Ruin eventually found that rock as a business was overwhelming their creative efforts.

During their last year as a group, the band members evaluated their vocation and decided to pursue other courses, assuming they had done as much as they could as punk rockers on a mission.

Over a thousand dollars in debt, they disbanded before punk got pop and missed capitalizing on the growing market for old school punk in new boots.

Glenn is currently a college professor teaching courses in Buddhism. His third book is due to be published by the end of 2004. He used to have a mission.

Awhile back, Blackhole Records reissued both Ruin albums on a CD, but sadly it is out of print. The one thing they did though was remix the album when it was reissued on the CD, which is something I’m almost always against. In this case, I think the vinyl version sounds superior, the remixed version sounded a little too watered down.

In the late 90s, Ruin did a reunion show and they are currently putting together a documentary DVD of the band. You can visit there website here.

Listen to “You” from the record (right click and “save target as…”)

Back in the very early 1990’s, the Daves and I went to see the Melvins play at a little place called Edge of the Looking Glass and a then-unknown band named Helmet opened for them. I was so blown away by this band that I bought the records they were selling (the Helmet first 7″ and a compilation 7″ called Dope Guns and Fucking in the Streets) which turned me on to a whole slew of new bands. That was my first exposure to a label called Amphetamine Reptile, and at the time they were putting out some amazing noise rock records at a time when that style of music was new and exciting. I snapped up every release there was and I was always ordering their records through the mail and eagerly awaiting new releases, especially the 7″s. In my eyes they were the best label around at the time and could do no wrong.

At their height, they started releasing these videotapes that were collections of music videos featuring their great roster of bands. The tapes were hosted by the odd Dr. Sphincter, who was a total nerd but somewhat amusing. In the time the label was active, they released three volumes of the series, and they are all compiled here on this DVD. From the disturbing images of Lubricated Goat playing nude, to the dementia of The Cows, to the sheer greatness of Helmet in their early stages, it is all here in full color and 5.1 sound, that looks and sounds better than the original VHS releases.

As a bonus, the DVD contains all the videos that were going to comprise a fourth volume of the series that never saw the light of day. As time wore on, I lost interest in the label as the newer things they were releasing just didn’t do much for me so a handful of the bonus videos are bands I am not hearing for the first time. Sadly, Amphetamine Reptile Records ceased operations a few years ago and all we have left is a website with some history and insanely priced leftovers that eclipse what the records fetch on ebay, and now this excellent video document of a time now gone. If you were a fan of this stuff, it’s a great couple hours of nostalgia to sit down and watch this stuff, or would make for something cool to have on at your next party.

Get yourself a copy

Amphetamine Reptile website

The next time I received a mystery envelope, the postmark read “New Orleans, LA” and the pictures inside contained Mr. P in places that looked somewhat familiar, as I’ve been to New Orleans twice. I received a couple envelopes from this same place and the first one had 3 pictures in it…

A few days later, another envelope arrived with some more photographic evidence of his visit to the land of beers and beads and will be in the next exciting chapter.

Ism – Attack 7″ (1981 S.I.N. Records)

Ism were pretty well covered here when I wrote about The Big Apple Rotten to the Core I’ll repost the full story that was sent to me “after the jump”.

This was the first Ism single that came out in 1981. Apparently, the b-side, “Queen Jap” was a hit on the Dr. Demento radio show. The song was a spoof of the Steve Martin song, “King Tut”. The A-side, featured here, showed hints of what Ism would become. It was more new-wavey than what followed. After this single, they did their infamous cover of “I Think I Love You” and then their equally great A Diet for the Worms LP.

After that, the singer, Jism, must have gotten bored of hardcore because the Ism records that followed were all pretty much standard fare rock records. While not at all bad, they never captured the greatness of the early stuff. The band came and went over the years and now Jism is serving time in a New York State prison. I actually want to look into contacting him as I’d love to see if I could reissue the early material as it is all out of print and has been for many years.

About a dozen or so years ago, Ism put out a retrospective CD that contained some early material and some unreleased newer stuff. This single was not included on it.

Listen to “Attack” from the 7″ (right click and “save target as”…)

Awhile back, you may recall my writing about the band Negative Element, that my friend Keith Lyons happened to play in. They were featured in a “Selection from the Punk Vault”. You may also recall my writing about finding the test pressing for that record as well and posting some pix of it. Well, there was still one variation that was missing to complete the Negative Element collection and I’m happy to report that I finally have obtained it thanks to Light Dave.

Many years ago, I’m talking probably 12 or so, Light Dave called me up after a trip to Reckless Records and told me of his finding the Negative Element single there used, and that it had a hand-colored sleeve that had an insert with it saying it was limited to 25 copies. I had never heard of this, and since I hadn’t seen Keith in years, I was unable to ask him of its origin. For years I pestered Light Dave to trade it to me or sell it and he always refused. I always kept an eye out in my travels for one but never was able to turn one up. I finally asked Keith about it a couple years ago and he didn’t have one of his own either and said that perhaps Barry Stepe might have one and he’d ask, but I never got an answer on that.

Well, probably 10 years since seeing Light Dave last, running into him at the Slint show on Friday got us to talking and the subject of this record came up, and instead of his refusing to part with it, he said that not only was he sure he still had it over at his dad’s house, but that he’d part with it! So thanks to him, I now have Negative Element completion! Thank you Light Dave!

And here are pictures of the sleeve, handwritten insert by Tom of the band who made it, and the lyric sheet that was also colored (all with crayons!).

Sleeve

Handwritten insert describing the colored sleeve

Lyric sheet

Slint was not the only one having a reunion these past three days, it turned out, they spawned some reunions in my life. Thursday night while waiting outside the Metro for the doors to open for the first of the Slint shows, 3/4 of big’n suddenly walked up to Dark Dave and myself. It was Todd, Mike, and Bill. Now the last time I talked to a couple of those guys, I don’t recall it being that pleasant, we probably argued about something and I hadn’t seen them in quite a few years. We got to talking before the show started and it was a lot of fun to catch up and talk about the stuff we all did together back in the day. I had nearly forgotten just how much fun we all had together back then until we started remembering and sharing the stories of the past. It really left me with a good feeling and I was really happy to talk to those guys again and they all seem to be doing well and have their heads together.

The second nite, while Dark Dave and myself were standing in the spot we claimed with Carl (formerly of Pencil), who should walk up to us? Light Dave! Light Dave was part of the Spontaneous Combustion staff along with Dark Dave, my sister and of course myself (and a little later Young Dave and Bill Dozer). I had not seen or spoken to Light Dave in about 10 years and he was totally cool and we had a great time talking and catching up. I had an extra ticket for tonight’s show and Light Dave was interested in seeing the show again so he also attended the show tonite with Dark Dave, Carl and myself.

The second nite I also ran into Aadam the taper, who I used to talk to at shows all the time back at places like Lounge Ax because we’d all tape the shows. I had not seen him in close to 2 years, since I ran into him at the Rocket from the Tombs show. He cut his hair (he had super long hair for like most of his life I think and far longer than I’ve known him) and I barely recognized him! Aside from the haircut, he hasn’t changed a bit.

The last person I ran into was Demon, who even though he lives a block away from me, I never hear from him or see him. I ran into him at Best Buy about a month ago and we talked so I knew he was going to two of the shows. After we all parted ways after the show, I teased him that I’ll talk to him next in about two years from now when I run into him at Best Buy, because that was how long it was between the lat time I heard from him, and when I ran into him at that store a month ago.

So on top of the great band playing, the Slint shows were fun on an entirely different level as well with all this reuniting of old friends. The only thing I wished was that Lady Combustion would have gone with, but she opted to stay at home and not attend. I would have liked to introduce her to my old friends, some of which she has never met and I would have very much liked her to be part of the fun. I will have to have a party at The Manor in the future and get everyone together again so years don’t go by again without my seeing these people.