Seeking more band members

If you were in these bands or can put me in touch with people who were, please get in touch.

Ed Gein's Car, Double O, Cyanimid, Born Without a Face, False Prophets, Feederz, Gay Cowboys in Bondage, F, Iron Cross, Kids for Cash, Misguided, Morning Noise, Rosemary's Babies, No Thanks, Plain Wrap!, Porcelain Forehead, RKL, Serial Killers, The Next, Really Red, Middle Class, Negative Trend, Code of Honor, Peace Corpse, Sluggo.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Die Kreuzen]

Die Kreuzen - Cows and Beer 7" EP (1982 Version Sound)

Aside from cheese and beer, Milwaukee's other greatest export was a band called Die Kreuzen. Their name was German for "The Cross". The band consisted of:

Dan Kubinski - vocals
Keith Brammer - bass
Brian Egeness - guitar
Eric Tunison - drums

These same four gentlemen would be the members of the band all throughout their fairly lengthy career.

The band released this, their first record, in 1982 and then hit the road a toured the country, a lot. It would be two years before they would do another record, their self-titled album on Touch and Go Records. That would also end up being their last hardcore record as their sound would change shortly after its release.

One year after their first album, they released a follow up called October File. This album was well received by a lot of press back then, however with only a couple exceptions, nothing on it sounded like what came before it. They started playing longer, and slower songs that had more in common with rock than with punk, and they had this weird atmospheric sound to it. At the time it was pretty unique, and it was pretty good too. I actually liked all the Die Kreuzen records.

The records that followed (all of them on Touch and Go) were in the indie rock vein and were quite good for the genre. They never really seemed to catch on however and after a couple more albums and singles, they broke up.

As to where they are now, I have no idea. Most of their records can be found on CD through Touch and Go Records. This single was released as bonus tracks on the Gone Away CD.

This single had two distinct variations. There was a yellow sleeve version (the rarer one) and the more common white sleeve version. Both came with lyric sheets. A couple songs from this record ended up being re-recorded and were on the first LP.

As always, if you have any additional information or were a member of Die Kreuzen (or even were the guy who ran Version Sound) please get in touch.

Click to hear "Hate Me" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

The many flavors of: Avengers - Self Titled LP

The Avengers probably need no introduction. From the first wave of 70s punk in Northern California (San Francisco to be exact), they were around for a very short time, but left their mark and influenced generations of punk to follow. They were one of the first female-fronted punk bands in the USA, and still to this day remain the best.

The story of this record is one wrapped up in confusion and turmoil. It seems that the label somehow strong armed the band into signing their life away, and also included the Dangerhouse recordings on this when in actuality they had no legal right to do so. This album also came out a couple years after the band broke up. Rumor has it that the band tried to reclaim the recordings and the label actually sued the band over it! When Frontier Records reissued some of the Dangerhouse Records catalog, David Fergusson, owner of CD Presents sued Frontier claiming rights to the Avengers Dangerhouse recordings which was proven not to be true and thus he lost the lawsuit. He promptly filed for bankruptcy upon losing the lawsuit, in an effort to get out of having to pay the enormous legal fees.

All controversy aside, this stands as one of the all time greatest punk albums and deserves a spot in every person's record collection. Unfortunately no one can go out and buy it on vinyl, or any format anymore for that matter, with the exception of a poor sounding bootleg LP. The label, CD Presents, ceased operations years ago and the owner hasn't bothered to reprint it even on CD, or even license it to anyone. It is as if the record is being held hostage and there is a whole new generation of music fans being cheated out of the opportunity to own this mandatory piece of plastic.

While it was available throughout the years, it came in a whole plethora of vinyl colors and variations and I believe this is the record I own the most copies of. If you are stricken with the need for completion, this one will give you quite a headache and a lot of sleepless nights trying to get them all.

The first pressing came on black vinyl. This was released in 1983.

It was then pressed on "Limited Edition Red Vinyl" and had a sticker on the shrink wrap indicating this. This was the version I bought originally when I was in high school.


After that, it was pressed on blue vinyl. It was at this time that a barcode was added to the back cover.

At this point I'm not sure what order these were released in. They were...

Green vinyl,


Clear vinyl,


Purple Vinyl,


Orange vinyl (which seems to be the hardest color to find),

and another on black vinyl with a barcode on the back cover and a different label

There were two different test pressings for this, the original one,

and the second one from 1988 when CD Presents pressed their records at a plant in Mexico.

To further add to the confusion, there was an alternate sleeve. This sleeve was meant to be the one used when this was originally slated to come out on Go Records before it was taken over by CD Presents. There were covers printed in anticipation of this release but they were scrapped. Some sleeves were salvaged and were floating around, then later on 200 were filled with blue vinyl records and sold by CD Presents as a limited edition.

An interesting note that most of the later color vinyl pressings featured much darker cover printing than the earlier black and red vinyl copies. The album was released on CD officially in the 90s but sadly it is out of print and a reissue doesn't look like it is going to happen anytime soon.

Something new to play with

I came home last nite and Lady Combustion informed me that the Tivo got some update and there was a message on it. I read it and it turns out that with the new update that it received, I now have the new Tivo to Go gimmick. What this does is allow me to transfer the shows off my tivo onto a computer, and even burn them on DVD if I want to. Since I already have my Tivo hooked up to my network at home, all I have to do is install one piece of free software on my PC and I'm set. This sounds like it is going to be really cool, especially if I want to take some shows with me if I travel somewhere and watch them on the laptop while on the plane.

Of course, that would mean traveling, which unfortunately I have no immediate plans to do. Unlike last year, I don't think I'm going to get a half dozen free work trips to CA this time out. I do plan to visit there though once things around here settle down, which I hope happens soon.

It seems that people liked the "Many Flavors of..." feature so I am going to make that a regular feature. I am going to have the second installment tomorrow. I'll try and do those once a week if I have the time to keep up with it. Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Doggy Style]

Doggy Style - Work as One 7" EP (1985 Mystic Records)

I believe I first heard of the band Doggy Style by reading the pages of Flipside fanzine. They were a bunch of hardcore kids from Southern California who were also into skateboarding, and since what I was into at the time were "both kinds of music" punk and hardcore, and I spent every free second not at school or a record store on my skateboard, it was a no-brainer to check this band out.

This would be their first release, which I picked up after I got their first album on Flipside Records. The record came out in 1985 and must have sold pretty well over the years back then as there were quite a few pressings. The first pressing had a hard glued sleeve and then would later be repressed with a xerox sleeve with either the mystic or Superseven logos on the front, and it also came on colored vinyl at one point too (500 pressed).

After this single, they put out a really good album, Side By Side, on Flipside Records. A couple of songs on this single were re-recorded on the album. Perhaps their most famous song is called "Donut Shop Rock" a song about, well, donuts.

A one-sided live album followed on Flipside a year later called Live at Sun City. It was a green silk screened record that came in a clear bag with a sticker on the bag with the record info on it. After that release the ugly happened. The band splintered into two separate factions and feuded over the name. At one point there was basically two Doggy Styles, similar to what happened with Life Sentence. One version put out a Doggy Style II album out on Flipside, and the other put out The Last Laugh on National Trust Records. The Flipside version must have lost out, and the remaining Doggy Style, by now a pretty bad rap-rock band, put out one more album on Triple X Records called Don't Hit Me Up then called it a day.

Brad X, founding member and his brother Spike were in another band in the mid 90s called Humble Gods with Doug Carrion who was in the Descendents. Brad X is now in the Kottonmouth Kings who seemed to have garnered a bit of a following but have absolutely nothing in common with punk rock. I do not know what became of the other members of the band.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the Doggy Style records are available in any format. It would be nice to see the Flipside releases compiled together on a CD someday.

As always, if you have any additional information or were a member of Doggy Style, please get in touch.

Click here to hear "10 on 1" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Mr. Potato Head goes to Indiana

In contining catching up with Mr. Potato Head's mysterious travels, I received a big batch of photos from Indiana of our carb filled friend in action. Seems that Mr. P is something of a race car fan. These came in an envelope postmarked from Indianapolis.

There were more, stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the travels of Mr. Potato Head.

Donnie Darko - The Directors Cut DVD

So I used up the rest of by Best Buy gift card this weekend and bought a couple more DVDs for the collection. The one that inspired me to go to the store was one that I've been waiting to come out for awhile now.

Donnie Darko: The Directors Cut. I never saw either version in the theatre, my exposure to it was renting the DVD a couple years ago after a co-worker said what a good movie it was. That co-worker was right, I loved the movie and had planned on buying it for awhile, but then I heard there was going to be a directors cut released so I waited. I never got the chance to catch the DC in the theatre, so I had to wait even longer.

Now I will admit I'm not the smartest guy on earth, and I'll own up to not fully understanding this movie the first time I saw it. Or even the last time I saw it. However that aside, the movie gripped me and that is where the movie really succeeds. It has a lot of different levels of things happening that you can take the simplest thing from it (a messed up kid trying to figure out what it all means and questioning everything in life, which is something everyone goes through), or you can delve deeper into it and figure out (which I did by reading up on it on the internet to see if my theory of what happened was accurate, which is was on a very basic level, and by watching the special features that explain some of it as well) and get a thought-provoking super hero story, or a story about time travel, or a story about parallel universes, etc. In hindsight, there was so much going on in the movie that you could get something different from it on each viewing.

The directors cut adds in a bunch of deleted scenes that better help the story along. Some people in message boards think it spoils the movie, but having seen both I disagree, I think it really helps convey the story a bit better. Lady Combustion never saw the original and she said she'd be way more lost if it wasn't for the little Chapter text blurbs that came up at certain points in the film. There was one musical change too during a scene but it neither detracts or adds anything different to the film, either one was good.

The picture is rock solid and is going to look great on your uber-expensive TV. The sound was equally amazing with its Dolby 5.1 mix that really fills up the room and sounds really cool when Frank is talking to Donnie inside his head. There are a couple cool bonus features too like a documentary on the film and this messed up documentary on the biggest Donnie Darko fan which was funny, and a little creepy at the same time.

I may actually go back and pick up the theatrical cut of the movie since it can be had cheap. It is a shame they didn't include that as an option on this new edition like they did with the T2 special edition.

In a day where movies seem so uninspired and disposable, it is a rare treat to have such a memorable film come out that is not only very thought-provoking and sometimes confusing in a very good way, but one that will warrant many repeated viewings with the ability to have you discover something new every time you watch it. I couldn't recommend this more, so far it is the best DVD to come out this year, and it is going to be a tall order to be able to top it..

More reading:
Official Donnie Darko website (this was very interesting)
An explination of the deeper story in the film (warning: spoilers, don't read it unless you have seen the movie already!)
Order the DVD here

Selections from The Punk Vault [Big Stick]

Big Stick - Drag Racing 7" (1985 Recess Records)

Big Stick were a two piece art-punk type band from New York. They formed in 1985 by John Gill and Yanna Trance, who have been the sole two members throughout their career to the best of my knowledge. They had a very unique sound, mixing drum machine beats with noisy guitars and samples that resulted in a demented sound not heard before.

Their first release was this 7" which came in two different versions. There was a 2 song version, and a 4 song version. Both versions has the exact same sleeve (made for the two song version), the only difference being they stamped the sleeves on the front for the 4 song version to indicate the number of songs on the record (see picture above, and click the link below to see the other version). Why they chose to release two different versions of the same record is a mystery to me, and one that hasn't been explained anywhere I've been able to find.

After the did this one, they put out a 12" EP on Buy Our Records (the label owned by members of AOD and Bedlam) and appeared on a couple of Blast First compilations. They did an occasional record or two during the 90s and also put out a couple records under the name Drag Racing Underground.

Where are they now? They appear to still be around in some capacity, and have a website. This record and the Crack Attack EP were compiled together on a LP/CD called Crack 'n Drag which is only available as an import.

As always, if you have any additional information or are a member of Big Stick, please get in touch.

And since this entry is for Presidents Day, what better track to have for today's feature than this (right click and "save target as...)

Sleeve for 2-song version

The many flavors of: Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

While driving home the other day, the b-side to this single (the song "Boys") came up on my IPOD and between that, and seeing they are playing at that clusterfuck known as Coachella (and only that, and not touring again, bastards!), it inspired me to start another feature here.

The sickness/obsession/hobby known as record collecting can have different afflictions on an individual and perhaps the most frustrating and sleep depriving one is the one known as "completion". You see, it isn't enough for me to own just one copy of a record, oh no, that would be too simple. If the record came on 7 different colors of vinyl, I have to have them all! I seriously own multiple copies of the same record simply because they were on colored vinyl, or a foreign pressing, 2nd pressing, etc. This affliction doesn't affect everyone thankfully, but it always has for me and has ever since I got interested in records when I was in grade school. I used to own foreign pressings of AC/DC albums simply because they had different cover art than the American ones, plus some had different songs.

So while driving, it hit me that I could snap some pictures of these variations contained in The Vault and share them with others who may not be aware of all the different versions. I figured this record was as good as any to start with since I was listening to it at the time, and there was a lot of variations of this record so it makes for a good example (albeit one on the extreme end). Also, I have yet to see an accurate discography for the different colors of this record. It was like one person incorrectly put together a discography and everyone copied it with no one bothering to tell them that there is no such thing as a red vinyl copy of this record, but there is a pink and purple one.

Bauhaus, while not considered punk band today, is a band I hold in extremely high regard. They were around for a short time (from 1979 - 1983) and pretty much helped jump-start the genre of music that is now known as Goth. This was their first record that came out in 1979 and sold thousands upon thousands of copies over the years and until only a few years ago, the songs on this single were exclusive to this record.

The record was, I believe, the second release on Small Wonder Records, who also put out the very first Cure 7". I think this record alone is the reason the label was around as long as it was.

The first pressing of 5000 came on white vinyl with a thin sleeve.

It was then reissued on black vinyl with a thin sleeve, and later with the thicker sleeve that was used for all other pressings.

Then later another 5000 or 10000 on blue vinyl. Of all the colored vinyls, this is the easiest to find.

Years later (we're talking around 1989/1990) they pressed it on purple vinyl with a purple sleeve,

pink vinyl with a pink sleeve,

clear vinyl with a brown sleeve,

and green vinyl with a green sleeve.


They all came out around the same time, and were perhaps all done as one big press run. I don't think they made very many of each color due to the fact that I seldom see anyone selling them.

Throughout the years, there was still black vinyl pressings as the thing never truly went out of print.

The oddest one of all is one I found a few years ago at a record show. This one is clear vinyl with a black sleeve.
I believe these were made right around the time of their 1998 reunion tour as that is when I found them for sale new. There couldn't have been many of those either as that one record show is the only time I ever saw any for sale and I haven't seen them around since.

On top of all that, sometime in the early 80s, they made a picture disc of this too.

The thing did come out as a CD single that came in one of those slimline cases. When Bauhaus did their reunion tour in 1998, they sold a special edition that came in a printed cardboard sleeve and was signed by the whole band and numbered. That is out of print now, but the songs can be found on 1998's Crackle CD, which was a "best of" album.

It seems that what was left of Small Wonder Records is no more as the official website for Bauhaus lists contact info for a law firm in Los Angeles for licensing inquiries for the songs contained on this single.

So there you go, a little Bauhaus vinyl history for you as well as a taste of the affliction known as "the need for completion". Hopefully someone reading this found it interesting and would like to see this become a semi-regular feature. Let me know what you all think.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Mad Parade]

Mad Parade - Self Titled LP (1984 Important Records)

I first heard Mad Parade on the Barricaded Suspects compilation LP. Their song was one of the best cuts on that compilation. I, of course, scooped up everything they released at the time, which was this album, and a 7" on Toxic Shock Records (on which their cover of "Mother's Little Helpler" would get heavy play on my radio show in high school). Mad Parade were really ahead of their time and were one of the pioneers of the whole pop-punk sound, yet they received very little recognition, and sadly went largely overlooked.

I contaced Joey Kelly, founding member of Mad Parade and asked him to share a little history...

Mad Parade started out in 1982, all the bands from LA were playing hardcore and our influences were from NY and the UK - 999, Dead Boys, New York Dolls, Buzzcocks, Iggy. We wanted to be different instead of the circle jerk wardrobe, we loved Clockwork Orange so we wanted to dress like droogies, and we did for 3 shows...until the singer of the StepMothers showed me the Adicts 1st single so we dumped that idea but we still wore dock martins, leather jackets etc. We wanted our look to be interesting along with the music. We made a demo tape with "REAL Horror Show" and "Sex and Violence" that Rodney on the Roq played every week back in 82. The record finally came out in 1984 and it was on rotation on KROQ...and then the fan mail all over the states came, at least 20 letters a week. We were jazzed.

We started playing great shows with our heroes Social Distortion, 999, Toy Dolls, The Lords of the New Church, and getting paid well for a punk band touring all the time. Back in those days punk rock was rare, not like today but I would say there are way too many bands that sound like us that are making millions.

Back then Social Distortion was probally the only one that mixed pop and punk along with image. Which reminds me three times Mike Ness never had his Amp at shows with us and he used to borrow mine. They were getting 1500 for the show and we were getting 200, so finally I got pissed. I told him, "dude you never have your amp", So I told him he should pay me. He said, "Ahhhh how much?" I said, "200", that was the last time we played with Social Distortion. a year later I saw him and our relationship was never the same, along with their drummer Chris who fucked my girlfriend when I was on tour. That was the scoop with those guys, then GoldenVoice started not to book us anymore.

BYO did our next record, A Thousand Words and it sold pretty well. See back in those days, bands would help each other unless they started to take advantage, like Mike Ness. Great bands who we helped and helped us: MIA, UK Subs, Youth Brigade, Vandals, Red Kross, Stepmothers, CH3, Lower Class Brats.

We're doing a tour in April with The Undertones and going to Europe shortly with The Lurkers after that. We just want to hve fun, break even, and drink beer.

The band's second album, released on BYO, A Thousand Words, was a little more on the pop side than the first, a bit more polished but still a really good record. They still put out records from time to time and they still sound pretty much the same, which is a good thing. The band has a website. Their early recordings have been reissued by Dr. Strange Records which you can get direct from them, or you can get them here.

There were two pressings of this record. The original pressing was on Important Records and is pictured above. In 1987 Gutterwail Records reissued the record with a different cover (that looks like a disco record or something) which you can see below.

Click here to hear "Real Horror Show" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

2nd pressing cover

What gives?

There is an unusually high amount of referrals from various Yahoo accounts on the referral feed at the bottom right of this page, and they are all different ones. Does anyone know where they are all coming from and why?

The return of Mr. Potato Head

Long time readers of this blog my recall that I was getting mysterious unmarked envelopes in the mail on occasion that contained pictures of Mr. Potatohead and his various travels. Well, it has been a long time since I last posted some, but that doesn't mean they weren't being delivered to me from time to time. I just never got around to scanning them in. I hope my starchy friend is not pissed off at me for neglecting him and not documenting his travels, so I'm now going to catch up. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, look at the category archives on your right and you can view all the past entries and photos.

This first set contained two photos from some unknown locale. I lost the envelope so I don't know where the postmark was from. It would appear however, that Mr. P likes to get drunk then break the rules, which leads me to think that he is a fan of the punk rock!

Sorry Mr. P for neglecting you, but at least now the people can see what you've been up to.

Dead Boys - Live at CBGB's DVD

This review can also be found on the Spontaneous Combustion site but I added it here too because it deserves a special mention as it is a really good punk artifact.

I don't know where they keep finding all this great footage of ancient punk rock bands, but I am sure glad they keep at it. This is a multi-camera recording from way back in 1977. This features the band at their prime, delivering an energetic set full of all the "hits". The video quality is amazingly good for being so old, while not modern day DVD quality, it is at least hi-quality VHS quality. The sound quality is very good too and they remixed it into 5.1 too, or you can watch it in stereo. The sound is equal to or better than some of their officially released live records. To round off the package is interviews with band that were shot that day, and also an interview with Cheetah Chrome that was done recently and it's amazing to see how he looks then and now! There is also an interview with Hilly Crystal, owner of CBGB's. Stuff like this is a rare find and deserves to be preserved and its great that it has been. Any fan of the Dead Boys and old punk would be hard pressed to find a reason to not have this in their DVD collection. You can order it cheap here

New reviews on Spontaneous Combustion site

I added some new reviews to the Spontaneous Combustion site. There is still more that need to be done but you can view the newest batch here.

Selections from The Punk Vault [L-Seven]

L-Seven - 7" EP
(1982 Special Forces/Touch and Go Records)

No, this is not "that" L7, the girl grunge band from the West Coast. Long before they would recycle the name and spell it slightly different, there was a little band from MI who came first, and they put out only one record on a label that is still active and quite famous today.

When I was in my late teens, I came across this single in my record collecting exploits and got it simply for the fact it was a Touch and Go record. I had never heard the band before as I'd never seen the record at the time, and the band were not on any compilations, which as you all know is how I discovered more bands than I can count.

While searching the web for any information I could find on them to make for a far more interesting read, I stumbled across some message board and a post about the band by a fellow named Ken Waagner, who just so happened to be the band's manager back then. I emailed him and he responded and sent me the following stories that former band mates had written for Touch and Go.

Dave Rice, guitarist for the band wrote...

Wow, trying to remember what happened twenty-odd years ago; this ought to be good...I guess we started L-Seven around '80. Me and Mike Smith were in a band called the Blind that was really great but rubbed all the promoters in town the wrong way every chance we got. We met Larissa and started recording stuff in our rehearsal space and were lucky enough to get Frank, who we really admired, involved. We also had a guy named Chuck on clavinet at the beginning. We were trying to combine, I dunno, Rick James and PIL, I guess. Something like that. Oh yeah, and the Yardbirds, who Frank turned us on to (we actually covered "Heart Full of Soul" and "Over Under Sideways Down"). Then Hardcore happened, which polarized the scene and the band. Larissa met the Necros around then and me and Frank thought they were swell, while Mike and Chuck left, appalled. I have no idea what Chuck went on to do, but Mike joined Figures on a Beach, who eventually signed to Sire records, released a cover of "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" (b-b-b-b baby...) and promptly disappeared into some kind of major label limbo, never to be heard from again (okay, that's not entirely true; Mike contacted me a couple years ago and we talked about me producing a CD for his new band, Fireking, that he had started with Tony from FOAB. He sent me their CD "Live a Little, Love a Little", which sounded just like you would expect something called "Live a Little, Love a Little" to sound. I haven't spoken to him since. Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, I like him just fine, but...). We then stole Scott Schuer and Kory Clarke from a band called the Attitudes. If the Attitudes were around today they’d be like Blink 182 or something, but those guys could play their asses off and wanted to do something more challenging. Good for them. Somehow, two of the big promoters in Detroit thought we could make them some money and sort of took us under their wing. They got us on some big-deal bills, with Iggy and U2 and whatnot and there was a weird feeling that we might “take off” in some way, which made us pretty uncomfortable, as we were, for the most part, pretty dedicated to the whole punk rock thing. I forget when, exactly, we recorded the EP, but it was towards the end. Corey was concerned that we weren’t a hardcore band, so he created a division called “Special Forces” to release it on, which you probably know. Did anything else come out on Special Forces? Just curious. Corey should start a separate hardcore label now, just to be funny. Anyway, Larissa decided to quit, so that was that.

Me and Scott formed the Linkletters with Scott on drums, Ken Waagner, who managed L-Seven, singing, and Bill Methner (R.I.P.) on bass. We played slow, fucked up psychedelic music while tripping our brains out at dozens of hardcore shows. The audience of mostly bald teenage skaters with two-liter Cokes didn’t know what the hell was going on, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Then I went to L.A. and formed Sandy Duncan’s Eye, which released an album on Flipside and, after I left, a 45 on Sub Pop. I’m in Oakland CA now, playing, implausibly enough, in a two piece electronic/hardcore combo called the Gentlemen’s Club. It’ll never catch on, but fuck it all anyway. I’m also doing some crazy improv stuff out here and I’ve gotten together with Scott a few times in the last couple years and recorded some pretty cool stuff with him. If you’re interested, you can find mp3s of it at www.dave-rice.net. Scott stayed in Detroit and played in a band called Sleep and then Turkish Delight and is now teaching English, which I happen to know he speaks beautifully. Kory, inspired by being soundly ridiculed by the entire hardcore scene (nationwide, thanks to the Meatmen!) went full on megalomaniac rock god on everyone and started the Trial, who used lots of echo, and then Warrior Soul, who are evidently the biggest, most important band in the world, according to the website. We can only hope that Kory is one day recognized as the comic genius he undoubtedly is. Frank had the good sense to settle down and be a responsible human being (or so he says).

and Frank Callis, the bass player added:

Dave is right that we started L-Seven in early 1980. I had been playing in a new wave band called Retro, which had one independent release: a 7" with the songs "U-Boat" and "Picture Plane". The original incarnation of L-Seven consisted of Dave Rice and Mike Smith from the Blind (guitar and drums), myself on bass, and Larissa Stolarchuk, who later played guitar as Larissa Strickland in the Laughing Hyenas. After a few months we added Chuck McEvoy on clavinet and sax. We played a couple of gigs with that line-up in Detroit and Lansing. Chuck left first, for personal reasons. (He formed a British-style funk band called "What Jane Shared" that made a small splash then disappeared.) Mike left shortly afterward because he felt that Larissa wasn't a strong enough singer. I imagine that her personality rubbed him the wrong way too. This was in late spring of 1980.

We obtained Kory (drums) and Scott (second guitar) from the Attitudes right away, and the band took on a more focused and harder edge. We played around Detroit, Lansing, and Kalamazoo, with Ken Waagner as our manager and roadie, along with Bill Methner (R.I.P. indeed) as our second roadie. I had made a good connection with Vince Bannon (who was booking the legendary Bookies Club in Detroit) while I was with Retro, and he did help us get some high profile gigs, some of which we weren't ready for (most notably with U2 at Royal Oak Theatre). There was some interest from an associate of his who did become a major figure as a promoter in Detroit, but our attitude didn't coincide with his ideas, and that relationship really didn't get very far.

There was a scene in Detroit at that time, and we did pretty well on our own, with a hard post-punk sound with some funk influence. Larissa called it jazz, as compared to the hardcore punk she was getting into by then. Dave and Kory were the best musicians, and we all could play (and were interested in) more than just straight ahead punk. Larissa really couldn't sing very well, but she projected plenty of attitude up front while the rest of us were basically guys who like to play a show, then get high, drink, and hang out (hoping for a little sexual reward later in the night too). Larissa was heavily in to English punk when we met her (we were all more or less Anglophiles musically), and started a fanzine of her own. She gradually became interested in American hardcore punk, and introduced the rest of the band to that music. At some point, probably through her fanzine, she got to know the Necros, which is how we got to know Corey, long before Touch and Go became a real label. We saw the release of the Necros first EP, along with the other early bands (Meatmen, etc.) associated with that scene. We didn't fit in musically (or politically) with that axis, but they liked our attitude and accepted us pretty much. We were mostly a bit older than most of the kids associated with that scene (I being a good 5 to 7 years older than the rest of the band, who were mostly in their very early 20's at the time. We did shows with some of those bands, and our music gradually became louder, faster, and shorter as a result. We continued playing in Detroit, Lansing, and Kalamazoo for the rest of the year. We had a practice space in Detroit's Cass Corridor at the time, and we opened it up and promoted a few shows (with local and out-of-town bands) there ourselves.

We were ready to record, and Larissa got Corey to agree to release our EP, but I understand that he and Larissa were uneasy with putting it on Touch and Go because it didn't really fit in stylistically with the other stuff he was releasing at the time, so they came up with the idea of "Special Forces", implying some connection, but acknowledging the differences between us and the rest of the bands on the label. We recorded the EP in early spring of 1982 (I can't remember the name of the studio, but it was in Detroit), and I remember driving down to Corey's parent's house in Maumee in early summer to pick up about 50 of the 1000 that were pressed. With the single, we were able to promote the group a little better (myself and Ken Waagner), and we were able to get to Chicago a few times, including a swing through Milwaukee and Madison with the Gun Club, who we rescued after their vehicle died in Detroit. (We made them an offer they couldn't refuse: free travel if they let us open for them.) We also played in New York at least once. By the summer of 1982, there was a lot of tension between Kory and Larissa especially, as Larissa was losing interest in the band musically, especially as she was seeing John Brannon of Negative Approach by then. Kory quit and came back once, but I dealt the final blow to the band when I announced that I was quitting due to personal reasons really unrelated to the band, but the band seemed to be heading toward a dead end anyway. This was probably in January or February of 1983.

Ken chimed in with...

L-Seven changed my life literally, I was hanging out with Kory and Scott and the Attitudes, who I met when they opened for Echo & The Bunnymen in 1980. We went and saw L-Seven play a club one night and began going to every one of their shows, then when Chuck and Mike left, they asked Kory and Scott to join the band, and I followed as manager, soundman, promoter, etc.

We were based in downtown Detroit out of a storefront at 406 W. Willis that was know as the Clubhouse, which was originally Larissa’s living space and the band’s rehearsal space, but, after the closure of the Freezer Theatre, which was a storefront theatre just around the corner from us on Cass Avenue where there were a ton of shows; Larissa moved to an apartment, and we knocked down the walls in the clubhouse and used the materials to construct a stage, and put on all ages shows in that space for about a year. Mind you this was very much in the ghetto.

They toured a fair amount in the Midwest and on the east coast, playing shows with U2, Iggy Pop, The Gun Club, The Birthday Party, The Crucifucks, The Effigies, X, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Bush Tetras as well as countless underground shows and headline shows at different clubs around Detroit.

As we were all fairly young: 19-22 except Frank who was 27, and had a fair amount of success and ambition, we also had all the struggles of being poor kids in Detroit in 1980. Near the end, half the band had developed pretty serious substance abuse problems, our gear was stolen for a second time and the band began to really split over artistic differences as there was just so much going on musically and culturally and they were all absorbed in it, which was both the band’s blessing and it’s curse.

I managed L-Seven from the time Kory and Scott joined the band until the end, and managed Negative Approach until the “album” lineup split up, and also managed the Necros, from after Corey left the band and began to concentrate on Touch & Go full time; I then went on to promote punk rock shows from 1981 through 1985 including dates for Discharge, GBH, Circle Jerks, SSD, Government Issue, The Misfits, Bad Brains, etc. as well as loads of other bands including The Replacements, Soul Asylum The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, The Cult, Sonic Youth, White Zombie, etc.

According to Ken, the record was recorded at a studio called Multi-Track in Detroit, where several of the early Touch & Go Records were recorded such as Necros Conquest for Death and the Negative Approach album. Ken also adds "Oh, and I’m not “out of the business” as Frank mentions, but, he and I hadn’t connected in years. I own a company called Smartley-Dunn and we provide web services for a number of clients including: The Billions Corporation, Thrill Jockey Records and the band Wilco."

There was 1000 pressed of this single and while it doesn't get the attention and hype that a lot of the other old Touch and Go singles does, it is a fine piece of punk rock history and well worth owning. Hopefully someday Touch and Go will do a long overdue singles collection on CD so these old records can be heard and enjoyed again by the masses.

As to where they are now, Ken filled me in on that...

Dave Rice - Guitar
Lives in San Francisco and manages a transient hotel, where he lives rent free and has a studio/workshop in the basement. He is still making music in a group called The Gentleman’s Club <> and has his own website.

Scott Schuer – Guitar
Lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan and is a writer and English teacher.

Frank Callis – Bass
Lives in Detroit and is an architect.

Kory Clarke – Drums
Was last seen in New York pursuing his vision of rock stardom via his star vehicle Warriorsoul.

Larissa – Vocals
Was last seen riding a southbound Damen bus in Chicago 5 or 6 years ago, I haven’t seen or heard from her since.

Thank you Ken for the great information, and for getting the stories from the guys.

Click here to hear "Secrets from the record (right click and "save target as...")

A new tag board

Thanks to the person who commented in my previous post about how I ditched the tagboard, I am now trying another one from a different source (located on your right). This one seems free from pop up ads or any other evil so far, let me know if any of you have any problems with it.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Ill Repute]

Ill Repute - Omelette LP (1985 Mystic Records)

I first heard Ill Repute on either Mystic Sampler #1 or We Got Power: Party or Go Home, I forget which, but I do know I was instantly taken with the song I heard and of course went out and got all the records they had at the time or would put out for awhile. They put out a few 7"s on Mystic, and three LPs before some lineup changes and a label change would occur and after a hiatus, the band put out an album on Dr. Strange Records in the early 90s. Throughout their career they went from hardcore, to rock, and back again.

Ill Repute was from the Oxnard, CA and along with a few other bands such as Dr. Know, RKL and Stalag 13, they coined the term Nardcore to describe their scene and music. All of those bands formed within a couple years of each other and they were all friends.

Thanks to the Nardcore board, I was able to get in touch with John Phaneuf of the band and he was kind enough to put together a band history for me to use for this entry. It was very nice that after all the heat I got on the Nardcore board, that someone was willing to open up and share their stories with me and I appreciate it. So here is the history according to John...

Ill Repute were all high school friends. Jim, Carl and Tony were a grade ahead of me(John), and we all discovered punk rock the summer before my senior year.(1980) They were out of school and I remember I had to be a bit more creative to go to the Starwood in LA on a "school night". We would go and see Black Flag, Fear, Circle Jerks..etc and eventually decided to start our own thing.

I came back from a year in San Diego to find Tony and Jim had the name "Ill Repute" and I think 2 or 3 songs. We had our first practice in my mom's mobile home(she was out of town) in Lemonwood in central Oxnard. Tony on guitar, and Jim on vocals. I played bass, and Carl on drums. I sucked on the bass, so Jim and I switched and the line up was set. It was fall of 1981. Tony and Jim wrote the tunes for the most part..the good ones anyway.

We would practice every night, every song. Always in Carl's garage. Looking back his parents were super cool about the noise we made. Our first paying gig was a new years eve party at the local Alcoholics Anonymous club. They hated us.

I don't remember how I met the guys in Dr. Know and Aggression, but soon we had a full on group of close friends. I remember the early scene to be so fun. Kyle, Ismael, Jamie, Ronnie Baird, to name a few, were hilarious. I remember laughing my ass off on a regular basis at gigs, parties, PEACE Missions..etc. We would all get together and play punk rock soccer in the park. It was probably the only way you would see white, Mexican, and black (Vaughn) and every other race getting along with a common interest. It was definitely one of the best times of my life. Way too many crazy, funny things to remember right now. It would take a month. We had our first "real" gig at the Hueneme Community Center with Circle One, Aggression, Beirgutz and Us. We were so fucking nervous.

As the scene grew, we met folks from Ventura. I remember Brent Beasley, Nutt (RIP) and all the Pierpont guys, (the band MIA) would have great parties and gigs. (There were also punk girls from Ventura which was nice) Then things spread to Santa Barbara with the Goleta Valley Community Center where Gary Tovar threw some of the funniest gigs I ever remember. No violence, great bands..all the big touring punk bands, and we would open up for them. It was a fucking great time.

We recorded a demo and a friend got it to a popular LA DJ, Rodney on the ROQ. He would play punk, along with some bad 60's and 70's shit every Sunday night. He heard our demo and picked our song "Clean Cut American Kid" for his Rodney on the ROQ Vol III. This was a big deal. He had bands like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Adolescents..etc, and he wanted us, We were stoked.

It was cool to be on the comp. It was cool to hear the song on Rodney’s radio show on Sunday nights, and it was cool that people knew one of our songs. There was zero interest in us as a “marketable” band, to be honest, we didn’t even think of it. Those who are old enough to remember the early 80’s, pop music was Michael Jackson and Kaja Goo Goo. We were playing in garages.

A friend of ours from high School, Mike Terry, had some money and said he would help us put out a record. We had done a couple demos at Goldmine records in Ventura, 8pm-8am $100. We would come out with like 15 songs mixed and everything. That deal ended, so we were forced to go to the big city and found a real cheap recording studio in Hollywood called Mystic Records. We just booked a day to record there, met Philco and Doug Moody, and he offered to put out the record.

I don’t know, or care about what people think about Doug Moody. The only part I feel he didn’t follow thru on with Ill Repute is that he did not give us any of the newly released CDs. He did reject our cover art once and just put out the “Omlette” record without us knowing, but he gave us a box when we toured. Back in the 80s he would arm us with boxes of records when we left on tour. We would sell them and t-shirts for gas money. That was the agreement.

I remember Doug would live part time in a room at Mystic. I never got the image that this guy is rolling in cash from his record sales like Shug Knight or something. He would scuff out in his slippers and see what we were up to in the studio. He gave us full access to the studio, where we would record covers and experiment with all kinds of stuff. (He put some of that out too.) Doug, probably in his 50’s then, would come out and would “analyze” the punk movement and compare it to the early black bands in the south.

He would let us hang there, sleep there. He let us record a couple live records in the studio.(where I once saw El Duce puke and saw still wrapped candy in his vomit). The best benefit I would say is having access to the bathroom which means you didn’t have to crap in the shitter at the Cathay De Grande across the street during gigs. I think about the vomit, beer bottles and shit he was left with after we left.

His plan was to just record a shit load of punk bands, which he did. I think over 500 bands. My take is he spent a lot of money on recording all the bands, putting out comps with hideous quality, but hell, it was punk rock.

On our first EP the bass drum track somehow “disappeared” and Carl had to go back and record each kick drum track. He did it by using a spoon hitting the top of a Folgers coffee can. Now that’s punk.

Anyway, Mystic's early “successful” bands were from Oxnard, (with of course the exception of NOFX) were the place that he sold some records. That is where I think the “rip off” part stems from. I just know that no labels would have touched us at the time. The Circle Jerks and Black Flag and DKs were still under the radar at that time. If it was a major label we would be owing them money.

They had some good shows at the Olympic Auditorium, Goleta Valley, Stardust Ballroom..etc. We got to hang and play with a lot of cool bands. We did a couple shows with the Misfits and Black Flag. We became buddies with the Necros who were real nice to us when we were in Ohio.

Anyway, we had a blast. We toured, broke down and toured and broke down. One “Disat-tour” after another. Got our car and trailer stolen in Pittsburgh. That took a lot of steam out of the band for sure. The punk scene got very violent and we would be playing and fights breaking out everywhere. Stabbings, shooting at that place in Long Beach..I forget the name..

We were over it.

We got together in 90 or so and recorded Big Rusty Balls on Dr. Strange records. That was produced in part by the great Jerry Finn, a good friend and now producer of many great punk bands, Pennywise, Green Day, Rancid, Suicide Machines, and Blink's 2 #1 albums. Great guy. We paid him $150 for it and he was Stoked! He’s now a multi millionaire. We laugh about those days.

Anyway, Big Rusty Balls was a post punk type of thing that I thought turned out well. That’s where I left/got kicked out of the band due to a surf trip I had scheduled to France that didn’t correspond well with a last minute gig in Oregon. I got an ultimatum and went to France. (you know the girls are topless there, right?).

Tony kept the band alive with new guitarist and drummers and even after he was the only original member. He took on the vocals and they had some good tunes. I think if they would have dropped the Ill Repute name and went from scratch they could have went somewhere.

Then in 2002 we got back together with all original members for a couple practices to play a Mark Hickey RIP gig. Carl, the drummer was a busy guy and it didn’t pan out with him, so we got Chuck on drums and played a handful of great shows until our official retirement last year.

The more "experimental" record John refers to did come out on Mystic and was called Transition. I don't think they made more than 1000 of those, as it seems to be the hardest Ill Repute record to come by from back then. A lot of their early Mystic material is collected on the What Happened Then CD on Mystic Records that came out a year or two ago.

John also sent over a scan of the flyer for their first show, which you can click below to see.

As always if you have any additional information please get in touch and thanks again John for the great story!

Click here to hear "Count the Odds" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

The hell with that

I had a tag board on the right sidebar for all of a day before I realized that the damn thing was creating pop up ads! I know the solution is probably to pay for the enhanced one, but I wanted to try it out and see if it was worth keeping, and if it was I'll never know because I ditched it, and their doing the pop up ads just ensured that I will never use their shit again.

I apologize to anyone who came by in the past day and had a pop up ad. You can thank the assholes at tag-board for that one.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2 DVD

So today I had a nice relaxing day at home and I dipped into the DVD library and knocked off a couple of things on my "to watch" list. The highlight of what I watched was this.


Godzilla vs. Megagodzilla 2. This is one of two Godzilla movies to come out on DVD this past week (Godzilla vs.the Sea Monster being the other). I used some of my remaining best buy gift card money from xmas to pick them both up. Between the two, this is the much better, and newer film.

There have been a few Mechagodzilla movies, this one was released in Japan in 1993 but never saw a US release on DVD until now. This, along with the rest of the modern G films (post 1990, and not including that American blasphemous pile of crap from 1997), is a much higher budget, more well-made film. For the time, in most cases, the special effects were very well done, especially with the beam attacks between Godzilla and his mechanical foe.

The story starts out with the G-Force (the anti-Godzilla army) preparing Mechagodzilla. While this is happening, Godzilla suddenly appears out of nowhere and starts laying a beating down on the area. Rodan also appears and the two of them have about a 10 minute matchup that ends in a draw and Rodan flying away. Godzilla proceeds to travel to what is likely Tokyo, seemingly in search of something. That something turns out to be the only negative part of this movie.

Baby Godzilla. Yes, a mini monster that hatched from an egg and is the offspring of big G. It has been proven in history that having the baby Godzilla in the movie is a recipe for disaster. Luckily his involvement in this movie is fairly minimal and doesn't distract from the overall enjoyemnt of the film, plus he was done a lot better this time than in previous efforts. So now we know what Godzilla is in search of.

Rodan returns and Mechagodzilla takes him out, or so it would seem. Godzilla and Mechagodzilla have the big showdown. It is a real slobberknocker as good ole J.R. would say. There is lots of beam battles, and beat downs. It looks like our hero (Godzilla) is doomed but he gets help from an unlikely source.

I always prefer the Godzilla movies when big green is a heel. When they turned him full-on babyface in a handful of films in the 70s, a couple of them were just downright cheesy (see Godzilla vs. Megalon). In this movie, Godzilla plays the heel, however through some crafty storytelling, he actually almost becomes the sympathetic babyface by the end.

Visually the DVD looks sharp and is in anamorphic widescreen. It has the choice of original Japanese language w/subtitles, or English dubbing. I opted for the dubbing so I woulnd't be distracted from the action by reading. The dubbing job was for the most part of high quality (unlike the other G film released this week where they used the most annoying voice "actors" you could think of). The sound was just stereo, but sounded good. I would have much prefered a remix to 5.1 sound but what is on there is passable. Aside from a couple trailers for other Godzilla films and a new movie by the guy who did Akira, there is no other extras to speak of.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Insane War Tomatoes]

Insane War Tomatoes - I Rock You Suck 7" (1989 IWT)

You may remember awhile back my covering some Du Page County (a Chicago suburb where I grew up and still reside today) punk bands such as Dead Fink and Happy Toons. There was another one I didn't cover because not only did they not put out a record, but I don't have a copy of their demo tape in the vault, and that was Dangling Units.

When all the above bands broke up, some key members merged and formed Insane War Tomatoes. The Tomatoes were the punk rock Kiss. They were Gwar before there ever was a Gwar. I kid you not, the Insane War Tomatoes had over the top toilet humor laced theatrics long before a bunch of art students from VA decided to play some heavy metal and put together some crazy stage shows. Gwar simply added blood, and claimed they were from outer space. IWT had a singer in a giant tomato costume, a crazy stage show, and a Elvis from beyond the grave who would come out, dance for the people, and proceed to shit all over the stage.

A tomatoes show was guaranteed to be a spectacle and a good time. And the Insane War Tomatoes is the closest thing I ever had to being in a band. Part of the stage show was they had "henchmen" dressed up in all black with a name on their shirt in a direct ripoff from the villains on the old Batman TV show. For a good handful of shows, I was one of those. Our task was to act as Tomato security, and to pelt the crowd with tomatoes, toilet paper and to shoot them with water pistols. I can tell you those shows were a hell of a lot of fun for this then-young punk to be involved in.

The band had a knack for promotion and I played a part in that as well. They had the ingenious idea to print their flyers on stickers and plaster them everywhere they went. I can't tell you how many times Dan (singer) and I would drive all over the western suburbs and stick those thing anywhere we thought people might see them, which often time included schools and parking lots of shopping malls. It worked too, because the band drew good sized crowds of not just punks, but just about everyone in their teenage years.

They lasted a few years and always had some scheme brewing but unfortunately they didn't follow through on half of them or instead of Gwar getting all the recognition, the Tomatoes would be in that position today. In their wake, the band left this 7" pressed on red (tomato) vinyl that in some really great packaging, and also a tape that contained a few songs and a ouji board. All the remaining copies of the 7" were rescued from the basement of the Clown Ranch and are safely stored in Combustion Manor and are available for sale. Sadly, there wasn't enough parts to make more of the Spirit of Elvis tapes.

I contacted former band members, and old local punk friends Kevin Folta and Mike Byrne for their versions of the Insane War Tomatoes history and their stories are as follows.

Mike Byrne:

Like the mythical phoenix, the Insane War Tomatoes arose out of the ashes of Dangling Units, the greatest punk band that only about 12 people ever saw or heard. It was in this darkest hour that the vegetable consciousness awakened in us. I don't mean a peaceful, tie-dye wearing, unbathed vegetarian consciousness, I mean a vengeful, Old-Testament-God, slake-my-thirst-in-the-blood-of-your-swinelike-flesh sentiment.

I have to tell you, the anger felt good, the resentment of countless millenia. Garden warriors simmering to a boil, spilling over the soup cauldron, and leaking over the decaying landscape that was Reagan's America.

That we are remembered primarily for launching a variety of substances at our audiences is not accidental. When you think about it, we were merely trying to jar a vapid and complacent audience out of its stupor. Whether you were being pelted with silly string, tomatoes, or toilet paper, it was a wake-up call.

The message was clear: "Listen up, bub, the vegetable revolution is on it way, and if you don't bow down and agree to be his slave, pronto, the Insane War Tomato will wipe his ass with your pathetic mug. If he has an ass, that is."

And there was music, too. Blending the mysticism of Elvis, the majesty of Kiss, and the piss-poor production qualities of Peace Corpse, we recorded some gem dandies, yes sirree, Bob.

"I Rock, You Suck" is pretty self-explanatory. It was true then, it's true now. "I Live in an Asshole," however, is much more subtle. Its message - that the government was hiding the fact that the world is a piece of crap by spraying the air with Chanel #666, which destroyed the ozone - was eerily prescient of the Clinton era, don't you think? A smile, a wink, a little sex-on-the-side, and everything is A-OK, isn't it America?

Well now it's the Bush era again, and it wouldn't surprise me if the vegetables are steaming once more. Death and destruction hang over us like twin clouds of evil and despair, and nothing expresses that like some power chords, plus maybe a nifty fill between the verse and chorus.

King Bono Juan Jovi Lee Roth Tomato sings very loud. Shrub rocks a kickin' drum. Zook plays the guitar like it was his first time, every time. And I tried not to get too drunk before the sessions, like I did between the all-ages and 21-and-over shows in Green Bay.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that we were way ahead of our time. And probably still are. But the music still sends chills down my spine, as I relive the fear of watching an unlicensed, untested, gasoline-powered flamethrower almost set Club Odyssey on fire, and I think to myself: "We coulda been Great White."

And now for Kevin's

On a summer’s day of 1985 the surviving members of the plane crash that spared 75% of Downers Grove, IL’s most unsuccessful band (Dangling Units) gathered together at Keith Garage. They contemplated the events that brought them together in Dangling Units and the event that almost ended their reign as Chicago’s least known favorite perpetual opening act, never a headliner. They picked up their instruments and moved forward to create a new sound, a ghoulish evil sound borne from the painful disfiguring events of the previous year.

King Bono Juan Jovi Lee Roth Tomato was walking down Rosyln Avenue past Keith Garage and the sound grabbed him like a noose around the neck. Little did he know that he would swing from that same noose as the lead vocalist for Insane War Tomatoes for the next 8 years. The band was a four-piece power trio. Mike “the Indian” Burn (named so from his experience as the body double for Village People impostor Native American Filipe Rose) played lead bass. Zook brought his delinquent mashed-potato guitar stylings to the table, flanked by Shrub on the skins.

The band assembled under the moniker “Insane War Tomatoes” and quickly found audience in local clubs. The show was 50% music, 50% theatrics, 50% booze and 50% fire. The result was a 400-proof explosion of rock ‘n roll mayhem. The music stood as an iron backdrop to the costumery, pyrotechnics and choreography that defined IWT as one of Chicago’s most bankrupt bands. The cost of production could not be quantified in dollars alone as it consisted of many drunken nights of set assembly and costume design in a local sweatshop. The air was saturated with the vapors of adhesives, beer, and the smelly residues of human metabolism.

IWT later would be joined by guitar player J. “the Nun” Martini and released “I Rock, You Suck” / “I Live in an Asshole” on a 7” red-vinyl record. This collector’s edition is a rare find, as all available copies have been systematically purchased and destroyed under provisions of the Patriot Act.

The band was most recognized as the band that never played a venue more than twice. The first show would draw a hearty crowd to witness the homemade pyro, the water cannons, the confetti explosions and frequent nudity. Word would spread, bringing a second show and more people, typically intoxicated teens and sleazy metal chicks, all admitted to clubs with fake ID’s supplied by the band. The eventual destruction of the club with water, paper, food and goo, coupled to the threats of lawsuits from families of endangered youth, typically led to eternal banishment of the band from every place they played. In the 1980’s IWT was irrevocably banned from at least 5 venues in the Chicago area as well as a permanent banishment from DeKalb, IL where NIU’s Duke Ellington Ballroom and Otto’s were sequentially destroyed in 1989.

The band has been accused of being significantly before its time. Before there was a GWAR, before their was a Marilyn Manson or some fat-ass blobbed on grease paint there was Insane War Tomatoes. The legend lives on in oral tradition, passed from mohawked punk dude to mohawked punk dude. IWT paved the way for a future generation of bands to have one guy that wore fuzzy slippers or a pirate hat. IWT was one band that once had the sack to challenge the boundaries of modern music and stage antics, push sound out of its stale box, and the world raised a lighter, yawned and asked for more Winger.

It has been 20 years since that summer day in Keith Garage. Lesser rock gods would assemble for reunions and a fresh tour. However, IWT did it before it was done and treated a generation to an alternative they desperately needed and didn’t recognize. The stage show, the costumes, the mayhem have not been recapitulated since that time with such reckless abandon and disregard for life and limb. IWT was a magnificent institution, a band swirling around the toilet bowl of American music culture, that proceeded, unappreciated, down the shitter, gone forever, leaving only a minor skid mark and a funny smell in its wake.

Where are they now? Dan (Cheddar Nines) now sings in Destroy Everything, Kevin is a scientist in FL and Mike has a family and still lives around Chicago. The band, along with some others from that time, are ordered to do a reunion show in 2007 for the Otto's Soup Kitchen 20 year anniversary reunion show.

Click here to hear "I Live in an Asshole" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Finally the weekend arrives

It has been a long week and I'm glad to see it come to an end. This weekend will be filled with lots of movies and pinball league tomorrow nite. Once again I have to drive out to the middle of nowhere to the the person's house who is hosting league. I don't know why everyone feels the need to move an hour west of where I live or more, which makes it twice that from the city. Hopefully I'll play better than last time, for the last time I tanked pretty bad.

You may have noticed that I added a "recent comments" thing on the left sidebar. I did it because the Nardcore post from a week or so ago was suddenly getting a lot of comments thanks to some action over on their message board. I also did it because a lot of times people will comment on some older Vault Selections and unless one were to go combing through the archives regularly, they might miss out.

I have a few really great and really lengthy Vault Selections coming up over the course of the next week thanks to some band members contributing some really great stories. I really appreciate them taking the time to write out their histories and stories and hopefully more bands will follow suit in the future.

As to what's on the movie plate for the weekend? Well, I used some of my remain best buy gift card to pick up the two latest Godzilla movies to be released on DVD and I'm really looking forward to watching those. Unfortunately, Lady Combustion has an anti-Godzilla bias and won't watch them with me so we will have to take turns.

Now if only this huge headache I woke up with would go away...

Selections from The Punk Vault [Identity Crisis]

Identity Crisis - EP (1980 Cirkle Records)

Unless you live in a cave, you probably heard of the band Soundgarden. What you may not know, is their ties to Chicago, and early punk/new wave music. That is where this single comes in.

In 1980 a group of suburban Chicago high school students formed a band called Identity Crisis. They played a grand total of 5 shows, none of them in the city proper. Before disbanding, they managed to record this lone 7" and get their friends who did Cirkle Records to release it. I think the label was the product of the guys in Epicycle, but I'm not certain. There was 500 of these pressed.

One of the members of Identity Crisis was a fellow named Kim Thayil, who would later move to Seattle, form Soundgarden, and help put "grunge" music on the map, not to mention put out some fine records. And where did Soundgarden get their start? On Sub Pop, which was the label started by Bruce Pavitt, brother of John Pavitt from Identity Crisis! I don't know what happened to the other members of this band.

As always, if you have any additional information, or were in Identity Crisis, please get in touch.

Click here to hear "Pretty Feet" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

UPDATE: Thanks to my fellow record collector Justin F who passed along the email address for John of Identity Crisis, I got the following response from him...

The write up is pretty much on. I often forget that we played out so seldom. As I recall it was Andrew and Robert from Epicyle that recorded us in Kim's basement. It was done very quickly - probably on a four track reel to reel. It was a very exciting time. I'll try to find and dig through old clippings etc. to see if I can come up with any additional tidbits. We did record five songs for a second record that never materialized. It was recorded by a fellow named Tom Staples. I'm much happier with the tracks from this second recording (I actually sing on key and the "British accent" isn't quite so pronounced). Kim's song "Dinosaur Beach" has some very tasty bits and gave me a chance to do some fun (if excessive) background vocals. Perhaps one day these recordings will eventually see the light of day? I haven't seen or talked to Kim in quite some time. I hope to touch base with him eventually. The last time I saw him was when Soundgarden was playing at a large venue down the street from where my group (at the time) was playing a small venue. He stopped by to check us out and say hello - I was quite touched. The last I knew Joe was still playing drums in a variety of Chicago based bands. I also haven't seen him for a while. I've been in a number of bands over the years. The last band - Autoliner - put out two CDs on the Parasol Label.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Mystic Sampler #3]

Various Artists - Mystic Sampler #3 (1986 Mystic Records)

This is the third and what turned out to be the final record in the Mystic Sampler series. By this time a lot of the old Mystic mainstays had either broken up, left, gone metal, or some combination thereof. A few appear on this and there was a handful of newer bands to the label. This was the weakest in the series but still had some good standouts such as The Faction and Government Issue (both who, some 15+ years later, I'd end up doing records with!).

This one seemed like it was slapped together in a hurry. Many of the song titles on the cover are completely wrong, most notably the Government Issue and Ill Repute tracks. There was 1000 pressed on white vinyl, and then another pressing on black vinyl (probably another 1000). I am in need of a black vinyl copy if anyone has one for sale or trade.

There was a plan to do a fourth sampler with a black cover but it never saw the light of day.

Click here to hear "Having Sickie's Baby" by The Mentors from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Even more Gmail!

I just got a ton of invites to give out. You know the drill, anyone who wants one, leave a comment here and I'll hook you up. Provide me with some contact info for anyone in old punk bands who will share their history/stories for this site, and you can have 5!

Selections from The Punk Vault [Mystic Sampler #2]

Various Artists - Mystic Sampler #2 (1985 Mystic Records)

In continuing looking back at a time when the compilation was king, we have the second in the Mystic Sampler series. While Mystic Records and Doug Moody has its share of detractors, one thing that can't be argued is the label and man put out some great hardcore records.

One year after the first label sampler, Mystic released the second one, and it was every bit as good as the first. Once again, this record exposed me to even more bands, most importantly the Flower Leperds, whose song "Preachers Confession" made me an instant fan of the band and made me seek out any and everything they did. Another band that I heard for the first time because of this compilation was RKL, whose track is featured here, and remains my favorite song of theirs. For some odd reason, it was not included on the RKL CD Mystic released in recent past. I would attribute that most likely to Doug being old, and not remembering everything these days.

There was three pressings of this record. The first pressing was 1000 on blue vinyl. The second pressing was on black vinyl (probably another 500 or 1000) and the third pressing was on purple marbled vinyl (around 500 pressed).

I am sure eventually there will be a proper CD reissue of these sampler comps, I know I'd certainly like to see one.

Click here to hear "Evil in You" by RKL from the record (right click and "save target as...")

What font?

OK, do you all like this courier font better, or should I stick with the old one?

Firefox help?

OK, I'm trying to give firefox a fair chance. I installed it, added a bunch of plugins to try and make it work like Maxthon. What I mean is when I click and drag a link, it opens in a new tab. While I can get firefox to do this now, what I can't get it to do is to focus on this new tab that I just made by click/dragging a link! It is annoying the crap out of me. No matter what I seem to change in the options isn't doing a bit of good. Anyone out there know how I can make this work? If I can get it going the way I want, I think I'm going to like it but right now I'm at my wits end!

Update: It seems if I click and drag UP, then it works like I want, any other direction causes it to open in a tab in the background. What gives?!

Dear automobile, please remove your fist

At what is possibly the worst time to happen, my car decided it was time to give me a body cavity search and last nite cost me around 800 bucks for various repairs that were needed. I was hoping when my service engine light went on and the car was starting to run kind of poor, that it wasn't going to cost a lot. Of course nothing with these damn cars is cheap so of course it had to be a lot. It wasn't even one thing wrong, that light came on for like four different problems. Hopefully this buys me another year out of the thing (while it isn't necessarily that old in age, it certainly is in mileage thanks to my last couple years working at Midway and having to use my own car to drive to all the locations for the test program. That SO wasn't worth the crappy mileage pay they gave) because I can't afford to buy a new one right now.

On a brighter note, my replacement laptop was delivered this morning, so I can start setting it up when I get home tonite. I will then commence posting as much stuff as I can gather on ebay to try and recoup the money I just pissed away on my car last nite. There won't be any big purchases for me for quite some time as right now it is a shaky and uncertain road ahead in the next couple months. I can't talk about the reasons for it right now, but everyone please keep your fingers crossed on my behalf, and clicking those ads on the left would be appreciated too. I hate to be a shill, but between the car, and what can't be spoken of, I could really use the money. Had I known when I bought the laptop of the troubles, I certainly would have postponed its purchase.

And to try and end this post on a more positive note, I've had contact with a couple more members of old punk bands this week who will be contributing some stories for future vault selections. Thanks to them, and all the other band members who have shared their stories, and hopefully this good wave will continue and I can keep finding more of them to share their stories in the future.

Just so you won't worry...

Communication with me may be a bit sporadic over the next few days or so. See I bought a new laptop and then wiped the old one clean and gave it to Lady Combustion. Well, it turned out I hated the WSXGA+ screen on the new one so I sent it back today and ordered the same laptop with the WXGA screen. Man, the shit was so small on the one I had that I wonder how anyone could work on the even more hi-res WUXGA screen. The people who work on those must only be playing games and working on photos and don't use it to read anything or view text of any kind. While I haven't been to the eye doctor in well over half my life, my eyes are pretty good to this day and I was straining to read some of the stuff with the screen I had.

Dell seems to be taking their sweet time building and shipping the new one and today was the cutoff to ship back the old one so now I'm stuck sans-laptop until it comes. I do have a desktop computer but I do all my email, etc on the laptop, the desktop is pretty much only used for doing layouts and the S.C. database and any video stuff I take on. I carry that laptop with me all over The Manor since I have wireless. This morning I already started feeling empty without the laptop.

So anyway, if I'm slow to respond to emails, now you know why. I won't be around a computer nearly as often until it arrives.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Mystic Sampler #1]

Various Artists - Mystic Sampler #1 (1984 Mystic Records)

Doug Moody once told me a story about how he invented the compilation. According to him, way back in the 50s or 60s, he owned a record label called Herald, and he was friendly with a particular DJ who has the unfortunate problem of having to go to the bathroom quite often. The guy wished he had a way to not have to sit there playing single after single and always changing records every 3 minutes. Doug decided to press up an album of all of his hit records at the time that were getting airplay, this way the guy could put on the LP, then go drop a deuce and not have to worry about getting back in 3 minutes. This album was titled Herald the Beat and according to Doug, was the first compilation.

Now whether or not he did in fact invent the compilation could be open to debate. What is not open for debate is that his Mystic Records label put out a lot of really good compilations back in the heyday of hardcore. One of his ideas back then was to make a sampler of records on his label, in an effort to promote the label as a whole, thus the Mystic Sampler series was born.

I bought this particular record I think solely for the reason The Minutemen and Suicidal Tendencies were on it. Suicidal's particular track was the first thing they recorded, before they ended up doing their now classic LP. Their song, "I Saw Your Mommy" is a different version than what ended up on that album, and to this day is exclusive to this compilation. Allegedly they were supposed to record a full album for Mystic but then blew it off.

The compilation ended up exposing me to a lot of great bands, many of which had other records on the label, and thus Doug's plan succeeded, I bought those records, and so did many others. Vox Pop was one band I had never heard of until getting this compilation, same with Ill Repute, The Mentors, and a band called Noise God, whose track is featured here. To the best of my knowledge, Noise God never released anything else, and I don't know anything else about them. I would love to find out if they at least had any demos or perhaps a record I never was aware of. If anyone has any information on this band, please get in touch.

Two more Mystic Samplers would follow this one, one of them was great, the other one was just alright. They do rank rather high on my list of compilations however.

The first 1000 of these were pressed on red vinyl. There was then a second pressing on black vinyl. I actually am in need of a black vinyl copy of anyone has one for sale or trade.

Click here to hear "She Had No Shadow" by Noise God from the record (right click and "save target as...")