Archive for February, 2009

Channel 3 – One More For All My True Friends DVD+CD
TKO Records

If you think back to all the punk rock bands of the early 1980s who either broke up, went metal, went pop, or generally just started sucking and then breaking up, it’s pretty amazing that more than 25 years later Channel 3 are still around. Sure they fell prey to one of the above scenarios for awhile, then actually did call it quits for a bit only to come back to their roots and redeem themselves in the eyes of their fans. Few bands were able to pull that off.

The band was based on a life-long friendship and if you ever get a chance to meet the two nicest guys in punk rock, Mike Magrann and Kimm Gardner, it will become instantly apparent to you that these guys and their band is about friendship first and foremost. It is that foundation which was made them so good in the first place.

One More For All My True Friends is a documentary on the history of Channel 3. The documentary starts out covering how Mike and Kimm became friends and how that friendship grew to their discovery of punk rock and their idea to start a band. It is told through modern day interviews with nearly everyone who did time in the band over the years with the Mike and Kimm interviews doing the majority of the story telling. The footage is sewn together with live clips of a recent live show at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach where many of Channel 3’s past alumni participated on stage playing various songs from their back catalog. There is also plenty of old photos, fliers, and even some old live footage thrown in to help drive the story.

What’s so great about this story is you won’t find any former band members bad mouthing each other and there was no bad blood anywhere. Equally refreshing is how the band pulled no punches when they covered the “metal years”. They openly admit to the reasoning behind changing their look and sound and what it ended up costing them. That kind of honesty is pretty rare and just made the story that much better. They cover every record and how it got made along with what was going on behind the scenes at the time. It is a fascinating tale from start to finish.

On top of the interesting story, the live footage is great too and it captured a great performance by the band which was also rare in the fact that so many former band members took part in it. That’s another thing you don’t see every day! The documentary runs and hour and twenty minutes which literally felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. The DVD also has bonus material consisting of the Target Video footage that was recorded early in their career (and something I’d never seen before) along with the full live set that was used as part of the documentary. There is also a CD with the live show on it as well which rounds out an already great package.

As a long time fan of Channel 3 I was thrilled that someone decided to do a documentary on a band that somehow weathered all the good and bad times and at the end of the day is in the same place as when they started, good friends playing music together. If you are a fan of the band then picking this up is mandatory.

The Accused – The Return of Martha CD
Unrest Records

This was the third release for The Accused and I think it originally was released by the long defunct Combat Records who are the time were one of the biggest “crossover” metal labels around.

The music on this disc is very similar to the album that preceeded it, but the sound is a bit heavier than the last one. I think they tried to add a bigger feeling of power by thickening up the sound, but the result is the entire album has a bit of a muddy or muffled quality about it. Their “splatter rock” sound was as good as ever but the recording quality (or perhaps just the way it was mixed) was just poor.

I think this was also the last Accused record I ever heard, I’m not even sure if they did anything after this one as at the time I had stopped following them shortly after this was released.  After being out of print for nearly two decades, it’s nice to see someone cared enough to reissue this album and I got to revsit it (my original copy which I think was sent to me on cassette was long gone). If you were a fan of this band, or that of the mid 1980s “crossover” sound, despite the poor mixing job this is still a pretty damn good album and worth checking out.

I just updated the store with some new items, all vinyl including the new Dr. Know and Ill Repute reissues. Check it out right here and please tell your friends.

flu.ID – Iots CD
Exile on Mainstream Records

flu.ID were an experimental hardcore band from Germany who seems to have disbanded shortly after this release. This CD contains all the songs from their previous two 10″ vinyl releases that are long out of print. The songs have been remixed and expanded upon to create a full album and almost become a whole new piece of work.

The music is mostly chaotic hardcore with lots of repetition. They will also branch off into some experimental stuff too that sort of reminds me of The Locust or Racebannon but those elements are attached to a foundation of pretty recognizable metallic thrash. The blend of styles really helps keep them from sounding like every other metallic hardcore band around. The vocals are screamed and brutal and angry just as they should be and the music is very thick and packs a lot of punch. It’s really a shame they didn’t stick around longer as this CD really shows a lot of promise. I guess it’s better to go out on a high note than stick around too long but it seems these guys may not have stuck around long enough as I bet another release would have been even better. Fans of this style of music would definitely find this disc worth seeking out.

Vöetsek – Infernal Command CD
Self Made God  Records

Despite their band name making me think they are some sort of old Finnish hardcore band, Vöetsek hail from San Francisco, CA and have been around for five years. The band has had a handful of releases but this is only their second full length album. Though I’ve seen the name mentioned in the past, this is my first time hearing the band’s music.

Vöetsek take the thrashy sound of bands like Spazz and they metal it up a bit with that late 80’s crossover sound. The vocals shriek and scream and are largely unintelligible. Despite the metal stylings of the guitar work at times, the songs rarely even hit the two minute mark. Vöetsek’s songs are really short, really fast, and really hard. They never slow down for more than a few seconds or seem to stray from their formula which results in many of the songs sounding similar and the album comes off at 17 short intense rapid fire attacks. I found it interesting in short doses (and their songs are short so it makes sense) but think this is the kind of band that was designed for 7″ vinyl releases where you get a bite sized dose that fills you up just fine. I do like how they incorporated the metal style into their thrash without making them sound like a full on metal band, I just wish they’d have provided a bit more variety among the songs.

Related links:

Vöetsek on myspace

Self Made God Records

Last year Nickel and Dime Records did the punk rock and vinyl worlds a service by reissuing D.I. – Horse Bites Dog Cries on colored vinyl. The record had been out of print in the vinyl format for something like a decade, possibly more. I believe when I featured that on this site I mentioned that I hope the label reissues the other early D.I. records on colored vinyl. I got my wish as the label just sent over their latest vinyl releases and it it was the two other crucial D.I. records.

D.I. – Team Goon on red vinyl

This was the first D.I. record which was originally just a self-titled EP. It was later reissued (with a couple extra tracks if I remember correctly) as Team Goon. This is also my favorite D.I. record and has the punk rock classic, “Richard Hung Himself” on it. The red vinyl is a pressing of a mere 500 copies.

D.I. – Ancient Artifacts LP on orange vinyl

This was the band’s second record and first full-length LP. It was every bit as good as the first EP and like it is another one of those punk records everyone should own. This was pressed on orange vinyl which matches the artwork nicely and 500 of them were made.

Should you want to get your hands on these records for your own punk vault, you can order them direct from the Nickel and Dime Records website.