Archive for August, 2006

Various Artists – Connecticut Fun CD
Incas Records

In 1985, a little CT label called Incas Records put together a compilation of CT bands who were hanging out and playing at the Anthrax club out there. The whole thing was financed by all the bands and some donations and the entire album was recorded and mixed over the course of one weekend at a local studio. It was a somewhat overlooked but really good compilation that did a good job documenting that scene at the time. The record has been out of print for 20 years now and it looked like it was going to be one of those things that only the most obsessive of record collectors would have while the rest of the world would either not have heard of it, or be living without the music contained in those original grooves. Now two decades later, Incas Records as been resurrected and this compilation reissued on a CD for the world to hear what they may have missed, with bonus track to boot!

The compilation features either the first or the only recordings by Fatal Vision, End Product, Contraband, Vatican Commandos, Seizure, Bad Attitude, CIA, Rude Awakening, Lost Generation, No Milk on Tuesday, Youth of Today, 76% Uncertain, and Punkestra (a band that was made up of all the bands on this compilation). The music was all hardcore of various speeds that just pre-dated the hardcore turning metal trend that happened around that time. As a bonus this CD also contains the lone 7″s by No Milk on Tuesday and Rude Awakening, which if it weren’t for their inclusion in this disc would have been lost forever seeing as neither band recorded anything else outside those singles and this comp.

As much as it pains me to say so, I think this disc actually sounds better than my original vinyl. It was recently remastered and a great job was done on it. The booklet folds out poster size and contains some really nice liner notes from some of the various people involved with the original release as well as this reissue, plus it contains the lyrics and band information for every song on the CD! It was obvious by the nice job that the people behind this disc really had an emotional attachment to it and put a lot of care and time into making it be as nice of a package as it can be.

It’s really nice to see not only an old punk label resurrected, but some old and somewhat obscure recordings that meant so much to old punk such as myself be made available for a fair price so people other than those with lots of disposable money to buy old vinyl on ebay can enjoy this fine old hardcore punk that still stands the test of time and sounds as good to these ears now as they did when I first purchased it in my teenage years! I look forward to seeing what else the new Inca Records has up their sleeves!

Last night, Shigolch and I went over to Alex’s in Long Beach, CA to see Black Fag and Work Sucks. Alex’s is a punk rock bar and if I lived in Long Beach, I’d be hanging out there all the time. It’s a pretty good sized room with good sound, good beers, and good people.

Work Sucks

Work Sucks

First up was Work Sucks. I had never heard of them before until they played. They played a rather basic style of mostly hardcore but would slow it down some. All their songs are about working, and how shitty it is and the singer would tell work related stories between songs and was very entertaining. I really enjoyed their set and thought it was a pretty clever gimmick. Their last song was a longer, more experimental number that was kind of Flipper-esque. I’d love to see those guys again. At the end of their set they were giving away CDs and pens with the band name on there, which would be a perfect thing to bring to the office!

Black Fag

Black Fag

Black Fag followed shortly. I know what you are thinking, that’s a typo right? No, the band is really called Black Fag. They are a Black Flag tribute band but instead of just playing the Black Flag songs, they totally gay them up! It is perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Each band member is a different character like in Black Flag, only the gaylord version. They even alter the songs to make them have more gayety. The best is their rendition of “My War” which they retool as “My Wardrobe” I damn near spit out my beer laughing so hard when that one started. While I’m against new bands covering old punk songs, this is like the only exception because the whole gimmick is comedy and it works perfectly. That band can play those songs to perfection too and imagine a guy in a very Fred Schneider like voice totally flaming out singing “Wasted”. They had some pretty limited, but entertaining, between song banter as well. That show is a must-see if it you ever get the chance! When we left, I was still smiling because it so much fun.

Black Fag

Black Fag

After the show I dropped off Shigolch and hit the road for the journey back to Gore Lodge in Hollywood where I’m staying here out in CA. Since I was the last one home, sadly I got the short couch (1/3 smaller than me!) but the show was so fun, it was worth the discomfort.

A few more pictures after the jump…

Friday night I went with Lisa Fancher to see the Adolescents, Street Dogs, Vacancies and Wrecking Crew at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, CA. Oh yeah, did I fail to mention I’m “on tour” and am out in CA? I guess I’ll have to do another MXV update soon. After driving through some massively shitty traffic and stopping by the Ed Colver exhibit, we went over to the club, which aside from being a pretty nice place, has its own parking lot and it was free parking!

Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew

After finding a nice table to sit at and having some drinks (thanks Lisa!), the show got started. The first band up was Wrecking Crew. Since they couldn’t be bothered to take the two minutes it would have taken to do a google search to find out the name Wrecking Crew was already used by a punk rock band before, I can’t be bothered to describe them, or even find a link to whatever website they may have.

Vacancies

Vacancies

Next up were The Vacancies and they were just the same as they were when I saw them two week ago in Chicago. They didn’t do a whole lot for me last time and this time the only difference was them not playing the Dead Boys cover. So for that alone, they were better this time around playing only their original material with a substitute drummer who just joined them that afternoon.

Street Dogs

Street Dogs

The Street Dogs were next and much like in Chicago, the kids went nuts for them. Also much like in Chicago, their cheap-pop tactics of including “insert city here” into their songs and pandering to the crowd like at an arena rock concert, made them come across as cheesy and phony. They obviously want to be rock stars really bad and must have taken lessons from Kiss concerts as to how to “work the crowd”. They once again did lame covers of Black Flag and Sham 69 songs and once again it was unnecessary. I am pretty sure they even dedicated songs to “the troops” and also to the “street dogs army”. Isn’t there a Kiss Army? Apparently they are incapable of coming up with any original gimmicks. While I found their original stuff last time to be rather mediocre but unoffensive, this time having seen just how cheesy they are with all the attempts for a cheap pop, I’m strongly against them.

Adolescents

Adolescents

This just left the Adolescents. They played a similar set list as they did a couple weeks ago, but this time it was longer and they had more time to talk to the crowd. The crowd went nuts, and was easily three times larger than the one in Chicago. They played all the “hits” except for “Welcome to Reality” which really bummed me out. They seemed to have more energy this time out though, plus Frank Agnew was playing with them since it was back in their homeland. I’m really glad I got to see them play again at a much better venue and it was well worth flying out to CA earlier in order to catch the show!

Adolescents

Adolescents

Hopefully these make up for the poor photos of the last show! More photos after the jump.

Asylum – DVD
Dark Sky Films

Asylum, a film from 1972, tells the story of Dr. Martin who is applying for a job at the Dunmoor Asylum for the Insane. He thought he was going to be meeting with a Dr. Starr, but instead is informed that Dr. Starr has himself gone insane. His replacement tells Dr. Martin if he can figure out who amongst the patients he is to interview is really Dr. Starr, then he gets the job. Dr. Martin proceeds to interview various patients and finds out how they ended up in the asylum, all while trying to figure out which one is Dr. Starr.

The film takes an interesting twist on the classic “who dunnit” story and instead presents it as “who is it” which results with an unexpected twist at the end. Let’s just say the Asylum is no place that I’d ever consider working at having seen this film!

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen. The picture has obviously been restored as it looks very sharp, especially for a 34 year old film! I could detect no glaring flaws in the picture quality and the colors all looked quite sharp. The audio is the original mono mix and was also cleaned up as there is really no hiss and everything sits well in the mix and is easy to hear. The film itself was just shy of 90 minutes long.

Bonus features are thin but the one main bonus was interesting – an interview with one of the men responsible for Amicus films, which this movie was part of their collection of fairly successful but rather obscure horror films of the early 1970s. The interview was 20 minutes long. Aside from that there is some bios and trailers for the Amicus films now out on DVD. There is also a commentary track with the director and cameraman from this film.

If you like mysteries, especially those with a bit of a twist, then this is definitely worth 90 minutes of your time. Star Wars geeks take notice, Peter Cushing had a role in this film as well.

Related links:
Order the DVD from amazon.com

Dark Sky Films website

Saturday night, Lewdd, JP, and I went to the Beat Kitchen to see the Adolescents play. I thought this was the first time they ever played here but they said during the show the last time they played Chicago was at the Metro 20 years ago! Had I known they were here then, I surely would have went so it was news to me. Anyway I was really excited to finally get a chance to see them play after being a fan of theirs for more than two decades.

The Beat Kitchen is small, too small really and narrow, and the lighting is abysmal, so these sadly stand as probably the worst pictures I’ve taken at a show with my equipment. I am going to have to cave in and buy an external flash if they are going to continue to have shows at this place. The two upsides of the club are the fact that it has a good sound system, and parking around the club is pretty easy to find.

The Vacancies

The Vacancies

First up were The Vacancies, they played a rather generic melodic punk. I was sort of indifferent of them until they did a Dead Boys cover, then I was against them. At that point I left to use the bathroom hoping they’d be done when I returned, but they still had a song or two left when I came back. This trend of new punk bands covering old punk bands is getting more and more common, which is shouldn’t’ be. Leave the old songs alone and write your own!

Street Dogs

Street Dogs

Next were Street Dogs. I never heard of them but much of the younger crowd were into them. They feature someone I guess who was/is in Dropkick Murphy’s, a band I’m not a fan of. I was pretty neutral on their decent brand of sing along punk until they did a Black Flag cover. The kids went nuts for it more than their constant pandering to the crowd about how great Chicago is and how they wanted them to clap their hands all the time. I thought I was at a Kiss concert with as much as the singer was pandering to the crowd and trying to get them to clap and sing along, and all the “insert city name here in the middle of the song for a cheap crowd pop” that was going on. The Black Flag cover soured me on them more than the attempts for cheap heat, and then when they did a Sham 69 cover I was thinking it was time to leave but I didn’t want to lose my spot to take photos from. I hope I’ll never have to sit through the Street Dogs again and again, there was nothing wrong with their original songs, there was no need for the covers of better band’s songs! Ugh!

Adolescents

Adolescents

This just left the Adolescents. They took the the stage and promptly got to work tearing the house down. The two original members this time out were Tony Reflex/Cadena/Montana and Steve Soto. They had a 16 year old guitar player on stage with them who could really hold his own. 25 years later after releasing the blue album has not slowed down these first generation punkers, they can still go like they were in their early twenties! They played most of the first album, along with two songs off the newest album, including the most excellent “Lockdown America”. Sadly they didn’t play “Welcome to Reality” but I chalk it up to the fact the show had to end by 9:30pm and the second band got to play way too long. I mean you could have had them not play the two covers and that would have left ample time for the Adz to play a couple more songs! Ah well, it still was a real treat to get to finally see the Adolescents and it was well worth the drive, the crowd, the smoke, and the uninspiring opening acts! If you get a chance to see them before this tour ends, which is soon, don’t hesitate to make the trip out to check them out!

Adolescents

Adolescents

A couple more photos after the jump…