Archive for November, 2005

Various Artists
Warfrat Tales Unabridged CD
Avebury Records

If there is one problem with having a vault consisting of thousands of records is that there are plenty of them that you own, yet go ignored and damn near forgotten for years. Sometimes it takes something old being reissued on a CD for you to take notice again and think, “oh yeah, I do have that record, I should play it again”. This record is a perfect example of this scenario.

I bought this record years and years ago for the simple fact it was something old, and had at least one band on it that I was familiar with at least in name. I played it a few times, thought it was pretty good, then filed it away where it sat untouched for longer than I care to admit. Upon placing this new CD reissue in my player, I sit here kicking myself for neglecting it for so long.

In many ways, this compilation CD is similar to the Keats Rides a Harley CD reissue I reviewed awhile back, not just in the fact it shares some bands, but in the fact of the amount of care and extras that went into it. This compilation could almost be seen as a sequel to that one and in some ways it feels like just that.

Warfrat Tales was a compilation LP that was released on Warfrat Records in 1983, it contained nine bands and 15 songs. This new reissue ups the number of bands to 13 and the number of songs to 28, all stuff recorded around the same time as the original vinyl release, many of it was intended to be on this record but was cut for one reason or another. The full band list is; Earwigs, The Gun Club, Hector and The Clockwatchers, The Last, The Leaving Trains, 100 Flowers, The Point, The Question?, The Rain Parade, To Damascus, The Up & Out, Urinals, and Wednesday Week. All of these bands were part of a scene outside of the SoCal Hardcore that was so prevalent at the time. The music ranges from art punk, to pop, to garage, to rockabilly, to 60s psyche, to anything in between. No two bands sound alike, yet they all fit together in some strange reason. I’m particularly fond of The Rain Parade, Gun Club, The Last, and Urinals/100 Flowers songs, but really the whole thing is a good listen from start to finish, which is pretty rare for a compilation to not have songs you end up wanting to skip while listening.

The booklet to this CD, much like the aforementioned Keats Rides a Harley reissue, is another true labor of love. Aside from reprinting the original liner notes from the LP, there is all new liner notes from Vitus Matare, producer of the compilation, as well as Gary Stewart who managed The Last and owned Warfrat Records, and there is a great story by Jason Falkner about how he discovered this compilation when he was a kid and what it meant to him. It really is a great package inside and out, and is not only worth picking up because of the great music contained within, but it is worth getting to support the hard work and love that obviously went into bringing back this obscure compilation for people to remember, or hear for the first time.

The Catatonics - Hunted Down 7″ EP
(1984 Anorexic Nympho Records)

The Catatonics were among the many standouts on the Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Volume Two compilation. Their song, “Descending in E” went on more mix tapes of mine than I could possibly remember. I liked it so much that I wanted to hear more from the band and learn more about them. I found out they had a 7″ which I sought out and procured for the then-small vault. Sadly I never did get to learn much about them other than they were from the New York area and with the acquisition of said 7″, I now owned their entire recorded output.

Recently, a former member of The Catatonics found this website and the past entry where I listed band members I was seeking. His name is Joe Miller and he was kind enough to share a little band history for us.

I was a living in Homer, New York in 1981 when I met Belvy K. and his younger brother Jason. There weren’t many punks in Upstate New York at that time so you tended to introduce yourself to anyone who looked outside the norm. We started jamming at my parents house and wrote and recorded there during the summer of 1981 under the name Frontal Lobotomy. I moved to Florida for a year, but stayed in touch with Belvy, who is a kick ass drummer. Eventually his dad said I could move back to NY and live with them in Camillus, a small suburb outside of Syracuse. I did and we started playing music together again, this time as The Catatonics.

Jason quit the band to concentrate on Hockey. We replaced him with Louie Arrowhead, who also played guitar and sang. We recorded our first demo with Louie, and Belvy’s dad produced it. We played our first gigs in 1983 at a place called the Carousel Club in Syracuse. Those first gigs got us a lot of attention and some good write ups in the Syracuse “New Times”. We didn’t have any other local Punk Rock bands to play gigs with, so we started putting shows together with touring punk bands. Then we wanted all ages to be able to see us so we started renting halls and galleries to put on our shows.

In 1984 we said goodbye to Louie and added Farmer Brown on bass. Farmer would eventually play second guitar and we added Jeff from “Buster Hymen” on bass. We recorded the Hunted Down EP with this line up. We continued putting on shows ( Verbal Abuse, Youth Brigade, 7 Seconds, etc..) and eventually found a place of our own which we called, The Rabid Monkey Club. The Rabid Monkey closed, Belvy joined 7 Seconds, I started playing drums for Stillborn, and the Catatonics faded into obscurity. Belvy would later join the UK Subs, form the band, Libertine and currently sings for Madison Strays. Farmer moved to California and joined a group called Fungus from Palo Alto, where he still lives and races motorcycles. I also moved to California in 1984 and joined Fang playing bass, and in 1988 I started playing drums in Boom and the Legion of Doom under the name “Pork Butt”. I am currently playing bass for The Demonics and am fuckin STOKED, check us out at thedemonics.com

There was 500 of these 7″s made and sadly the music was never reissued. The Flipside comps were at one time reissued on a double CD, but sadly that too has been out of print for about a decade now.

Thanks a lot to Joe for the band history!

Listen to “Never Again” from the record

Last night we had another recording session for our “Live From Combustion Manor” radio show. Sadly out planned special guest, Barry, couldn’t make it out for the show. Hopefully he can come out for the next one. Members in attendance this time were MXV, Senor Citizen, Cheddar Nines, Stiff Mittens, Hanover Fist and Cocoa Hole. Later in the evening, The Duke and Evie came by for a bit and brought a box of some nasty tasting Jones Holiday Soda. The only one I tried was corn on the cob flavor and it was foul. No one liked any of it, and the rest of them sure didn’t smell very good. How can people drink that stuff?

Here’s a few of the many pictures that were taken. The rest will be up on the radio site when the episodes from this session start airing. We still have a couple episodes left yet of the October session, which will be up soon.

MXV

The whole crew sans Cocoa - plus Duke and Evie, and Jones nasty flavored soda.

To listen to “Live from Combustion Manor”, click here.

The first Minutemen single, which just so happens to be one of my favorite releases from the band, came in a few different variations over the years that it was in print. Not only were there a few different US pressings, but there was a foreign one too as SST had a UK branch at one time. Let’s get to it then shall we?

The first pressing was on black vinyl with a large spindle hole. This was in print for many years.

…and then it was pressed on orange vinyl. This orange one for whatever reason seems pretty scarce and my copy is the only one I’ve actually seen. For allegedly being 1000 of a color made, you’d think these would turn up a lot more often.

The record also came on a 10″ around 1990, also on green vinyl and then on black vinyl, the latter of which is still in print. The 7″ may or may not still be available from SST, they seem to press up more of key titles on vinyl from time to time.

So there you have it, the many flavors of the first Minutemen single, a must for every vault!

Anyone reading this know much about how Wordpress works? I have a big problem with it. Suddenly all email from it stopped working. I don’t get any notifications of any sort, not for comments, recovering lost passwords, the people who subscribe to updates don’t get mail and same for subscribe to comments. The entire email system for it just up and died for no reason. I didn’t install anything new and nothing changed on the hosts end. I am pulling out my hair trying to figure out why it just quit on me, not to mention that was a huge function that myself and many people relied on. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix it, PLEASE let me know.

UPDATE: I seem to have gotten it to work to where I get email notifications for comments, but only the comments from posts created using Wordpress, older comments from when I used MT don’t send me emails, but that is how it worked when I installed this thing in the first place for whatever reason. My email system for subsribers is still broken however.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope everyone who reads this has a great day and stuffs themselves into a food coma while eating the best meal of the year. As for me, I’ll be spending the day at my Uncle’s place eating a fine meal and watching some movies.

This year I didn’t have a whole lot to be thankful for since so little went right. I would be thankful if I could find a job. I am thankful, however, for having such good friends. This year my friends have proven to be generous beyond the call of duty and without them, this year would have been a hell of a lot worse. Whether it is treating me to drinks, dinner, sending me a record in the mail, or just coming over to hang out, my friends kick ass, and I’m glad I have them.

I’m also thankful to everyone who comes and reads this site and leaves comments. This year the traffic to this site has really exploded and people seem to really enjoy what I do and that really is the motivation to keep going. I’m flattered beyond belief that people enjoy my writing and the photos I take at shows, and that they seem to like the radio show that the Klowns and I do. Oh, and of course the “selections from the vault”. So thank you everyone and I hope you all have a great day.

And I’ll be thankful when this year is over and hope that 2006 will be a much better year!