Selections from The Punk Vault [Ruin]

Ruin - Fiat Lux LP (1986 Meta Meta Records)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Listen to "You" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Dope Guns and Fucking Up Your Video Deck DVD

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

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

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

Get yourself a copy

Amphetamine Reptile website

Mr. Potato Head goes to The Big Easy

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

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

Selections from The Punk Vault [Ism]

Ism - Attack 7" (1981 S.I.N. Records)

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

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

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

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

Listen to "Attack" from the 7" (right click and "save target as"...)

The Ism & Bob Sallese Story
I spent years trying to write a book about the punk rock group Ism but came to a dead end when I was unable to find lead singer Jism and former manager and co-creator Bob Sallese.

This is what I did find out and the following info was gathered over the years after much painstaking research and interviews.

Josef Ismach aka Jism and Bob Sallese were childhood buddies. Both were attending Queens College in the late 70s during the punk explosion. They used to hang out at Max's Kansas City, CBGBs and A7. Sallese was a huge Dead Boys and Ramones fanatic. Jism was some kind of musical genius who was classicly trained and Sallese was a some kind of marketing genius.

There was a period in the early 80s when punk rock was dying because corporate radio was totally in the dark ages as they still are.
Jism and Sallese wanted to keep the movement alive and began booking local bands like "The Mob" and "Butch Lust and the Hypocrites". They managed to promote a huge show at a local Queens club with "the Mob". The club was a mainstream "new wave" club in Bayside Queens where Jism and Sallese resided. It was at this time that Sallese coined the term "Hardcore Punk" during the promotion of "The Mob". It was a term he released to the press and it stuck and spread like wildfire. Others later would try to take credit but this is how it went down.

At the same time, Jism and Sallese decided to start a record lable. It was just something for them to do in a time when things were getting very boring. The first realease was an Ism single "Queen J.A.P./Attack" on S.I.N. Reocrds.

"Queen J.A.P" was a clever spoof on Steve Martin's "King Tut" which poked fun of the Jewish American Princesses and Guidos in New York.("born in Brooklyn NY, moved to Great Neck L.I." ... "she's a Jew and He's an Italiano...a marriage made in Leonards") It became a cult classic with the likes of Dr. Demento whose superiors banned him from playing the song. A DJ from WLIR radio said that when they played it, the phones lit up and was one of the most requested songs ever but management quickly stepped in and banned the song. It was all tongue and cheek and not meant to offend anyone. Afterall, Jism was a Jew and Sallese was Italian. The flip side was "Attack" in which Jism played all the instruments. It went on to become a popular favorite in England and on BBC radio.

Jism quickly put together a band and teamed up with Sallese to write the songs on "The Big Apple Rotten To The Core" The album went on to become a hardcore and punk classic. "John Hinckley Jr., What Has Jodie Done To You" by Ism started getting commercial airplay and was probably the first "hardcore" song to get commercial airplay in NY. It opened the door for groups like "Black Flag" (who were long established on the West Coast) into getting commercial airplay in NY as well. Amy Carter, daughter of former President Carter, became a big Ism fan after the release of "Rotten To The Core".

WLIR nominated "John Hinckley Jr." as "screamer of the week" for two weeks straight but then DJ, John Debello, who hosted the show refused to let it officially win despite receiving 3 times the vote of the pop tune "MICKEY". He was quoted as saying, "I will never let that song win on my show" to other employees.

While the song was getting critical acclaim and much airplay, Jism and Sallese could not get the records to fill the demand by distributors because the record pressing plant was printing them up illegally and selling them themselves and keeping the masters out of the hands of Jism and Sallese. The owner eventually got busted by the FBI for bootlegging Beatles records.

The rest of the "Rotten to the Core" album quickly became a favorite among the punk community. "The Beastie Boys" and Cheetah Chrome of the "Dead Boys" were slated to be on it but couldn't come up with a tape in time.

Ism was now on a roll but the band from "Rotten To The Core" had moved to Georgia and were playing venues where groups like REM were playing. Sallese told Jism to get his ass back to NYC and get ready to record an album. Sallese gathered up the best local musicians from Queens who they knew from the neighborhood.

They pounded out the "I Think I Love You/A7" single with a wild cover photo of two apes doing it doggy style with David Cassidy's head on one and Shirley Jones on the other. David Cassidy went nuts and was publicly saying he was going to sue them because of the cover photo so only a limited number were printed but enough to top all the college charts. The song was another cult classic. Once again, WLIR in NY had entered it in their "screamer of the week" contest after being nominated by veteren DJ Ben Manilla and Steve Jones. Once again Ism was a winner which should have landed them a contract with a major lable but once again, DJ John Debello refused to let it win on his show.

"A7" became a favorite on the NYC punk scene. A7 was a dingy illegal after hours club that was trying to keep the punk scene alive. Jism and Sallese used to hang out there into the "wee hours of the morning".

Faulty records approached Sallese and wanted to sign Ism but before a deal was cut, Faulty filed for bankruptcy and screwed over Jism and Sallese for a chunk of distribution money.

Jism and Sallese brainstormed and swiftly followed up the "I Think I Love You" single with the now very rare album "A Diet For The Worms" LP which many consider to be the best hardcore/punk record to come out of NYC in the early 80s.

Ism was on a roll. They were doing gigs with groups like the Ramones, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, The Smithereens. Sylvester Stallone even popped in to see them one night at CBGBs.

"A Diet For the Worms" became an instant hit on college radio and topped the CMJ radio charts. Everything was going great but Jism and Sallese had different opinions about the direction of the band. Sallese was also upset that the records came back from the plant without crediting him with the majority of the songs which he co-wrote the lyrics or penned the theme. From what I understand, Jism's girlfriend at the time and Sallese had different ideas about the band's next move so Jism and Sallese parted ways.

Jism then released the "Constantinople" EP on Broken Records which did well on the CMJ radio charts. In 1987, Bob Sallese started a new record label. Jism had already recorded some punk/psychedelic tunes in the studio and Sallese released some of these tunes on a "Nightmare At Noon" EP on yellow vinyl on "Raw Power Records". Sallese began managing the band again and they started doing more shows. Raw Power Records then released "The Big Apple Rotten To The Core Vol 2" which featured many of the bands from the first album plus Omer Travers known for breaking into Yoko Ono's apartment and leaving love notes. Jism and Sallese got him in the studio and co-produced the now infamous "New York Cat" by the UFOmer Band which Howard Stern would eventually play on his show. Jism and Travers appeared on the Stern show to promote the album. It turned out that Stern was an Ism fan from their earlier releases.

The "Big Apple Rotten To The Core Vol 2" became another rare punk rock cult classic sort by record collectors. While the music industry was becoming more and more corporate again and there was becoming less and less independent record outlets, clubs and radio, Sallese became disgruntled with the industry. Then in 1989 Scott Eisner, who was a close friend of Sallese and Jism, jumped off the Throgs Neck Bridge which links Queens to the Bronx. Eisner had done the cover photos for "Rotten To The Core" and also did some publicity work for Ism. Sallese needed to get the hell out of New York City and out of the music industry. He took off for the West Coast a few months later and joined the Screen Actors Guild. This time Jism and Sallese parted on friendly terms.

Jism went on to independently release "The Hits That Missed" CD which featured many of the band's songs from the Jism/Sallese era and thereafter. After that he released a limited edition album called "Journey Down Your Drain" CD which included a controversial song called "Love Yer President" and a fantastic punk remake of "Tip Toe Through The Tulips" which Tiny Tim did with Jism shortly before Tiny Tim's death. Tiny Tim and Jism also made a music video together. "The Hits That Missed", "Journey Down Your Drain" and "Tip Toe Through The Tulips" video were released in limited editions mostly for promotional use.

Jism was keeping the band together in 2000 while also playing drums with Dee Dee Ramone on and off. In 2000, Bob Sallese, became worth multi-millions of dollars in other investments and was planning the launch of an all new record lable. However, after stumbling upon certain truths that he shouldn't have stumbled upon, he lost every penny and was having his life threatened from some very powerful forces. He has since been impossible to track down. Jism shortly thereafter was sentenced to 5-10 years in prison for unknown reasons. He now resides in an upstate NY prison and it is believed that he was set up because of the release of "Love Yer President".

The rest is history. Ism records are very rare and a must have for any true collector of rare punk rock.
"A Diet For The Worms" LP recently went for $240 on an internet auction. "I Think I Love You/A7" & the two "Rotten To The Core" Albums run up to $100 and the "Queen J.A.P./Attack" single is almost impossible to find and very sought after (especially in Europe). Every now and then, you can find an Ism release at a great price on the net. Some people come across these releases and do not realize what they are worth.

Al Lestell
President
Rare Record Investor Club

Another very special addition to The Punk Vault

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

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

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

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

Sleeve

Handwritten insert describing the colored sleeve

Lyric sheet

Because sometimes one reunion can cause another

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

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

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

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

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

Three nights of Slint in the Windy City

I got home a little bit ago from the third and final Slint show here in town. It is also their last show ever allegedly. I really enjoyed all three shows, with the second nite being the best of the bunch.

One thing that really was odd, and not limited to their shows here from what my sister told me today on the phone, is the way the crowd behaved at the show. In the lengthy time between songs (often times 3 minutes or more), the crowd was almost dead silent. With the exception of an occasion drunk trying to be funny, people just talked either almost in whispers, or not at all. The crowd seemed to be so mesmorized by the fact they are seeing this band, that they are just sitting there quietly in awe, then loudly applaud at the conclusion of a song. The band wouldn't say a word between songs with very rare exception if Brian would say something that would be relegated to about 1 sentence. It was bizarre and I've never seen anything like this behavior at a show. It should be noted the band were taper friendly and there were plenty of people with gear set up all over taping the shows.

The band played great, and sounded amazing. Their stage presence however was non-existent. They stand up there and it is like they are doing a recital, they barely move an inch! Its not a lot to look at, but they more than make up for it with the great playing, and the great songs. They played the entire Spiderland album and a good portion of Tweez along with the untitled 10". The first nite they opened with "Good Morning Captain" and finished with the last song on Tweez but in its longer version like on the 10". The second nite they mixed it up, played the Tweez version of the aforementioned song, and ended with "Good Morning Captain". This final show was much like the first. Last nite and tonite, they played an unreleased song called "Pam" that sounded like it was written around the Tweez era.

The Metro shows were far better than the Park West one because the sound was way better at the Metro, especially on the second nite. The shows were well worth the money, and I'm really glad that I got to see them. Unfortunately they did not allow flash photography, so I had to take pix without the flash, which is pretty much useless with my camera as it sucks in low light but here's the three pictures that came out the best. They were all from the first Metro show.

Adolescents - The Complete Demos limited vinyl

I just got a package in the mail from Lisa Fancher, owner of Frontier Records. Inside it contained this...

This is a limited edition color vinyl pressing of the new Adolescents demos album that I reviewed last week. It comes on red vinyl and has a really nice full sized insert with lyrics and band photos. The overall package is really nice and is further proof that vinyl is still the best format as it is so much nicer to see these things full sized than in that tiny 5" package of a CD. Thanks again Lisa for the contribution to the vault, and for putting out such a great record!

The record and CD both were released this week. Want one for yourself? You can get them from:
Frontier Records website
Bomp Records mailorder

Selections from The Punk Vault [Peer Pressure]

Peer Pressure - Sound of the '80s 7" (1980 Peer Pressure/Resistance Records)

This is another one of those records that was so obscure that it wasn't until it was put on one of those Killed By Death compilations (bootlegs) that anyone took notice. In fact, it was because of that leading Ryan Richardson to go on a nationwide hunt and document his adventure, that I came to hear of this band and their one and only release.

I ended up getting a copy of this in a trade I did, and I gave up a fair amount of stuff for it. Not too long after that, someone tracked down a friend of the band who had a small stack of them and sold them on ebay for less than the value of the stuff I gave up for it. There's some timing for you, had I put off trading awhile, I would have been able to get one cheaper in essence, but either way I'm glad I have the record.

Ryan did a thorough writeup on the band and his quest for this single over on his site and its well worth a read. I really do miss his MRR columns. Here's a few highlights.

The band was a two-piece band consisting of J Paine and B Estes. They were around 30 years old at the time of this recording but if you didn't know better, you'd swear it was a group of high school kids. J Paine played ALL the instruments on the record while B Estes contributed the vocals. The two were long time friends. They put out this single which they only pressed a couple hundred copies of. One of the members hopped on a greyhound bus and tried to hand-distribute the single to stores in other states (they were from CT). The "band" called it quits shortly after and never played any shows since it would have required them finding more musicians to play all the instruments that J played on the record.

A few years ago, there was a 7" that came out of a few unreleased songs that were recorded before this single. I believe it was Ryan who put it out. One of the members lives in the UK now and the other one lives in San Francisco.

Listen to "Sound of the '80s" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Slint x3!

Tomorrow starts the first of 3 Slint reunion shows here in Chicago. I am super excited about them since I never got a chance to see the band play when they were together and thought I'd never get the chance in my lifetime to see them since they broke up in like 1991.

My first exposure to Slint was shortly after their now-classic Spiderland album came out. My friend, Dark Dave, made me a tape of both Slint albums. I instantly fell in love with the band and went out and purchased the Spiderland album. I was unable to purchase Tweez because at the time it was out of print. I was able to find a copy that a friend of mine at the time had and she traded it to me for some rare Skinny Puppy promo item. Eventually Touch and Go reissued it.

I played the hell out of those records, especially Spiderland which incidentally I bought on one of my many visits to the Poison Town. That album is one of those ones I'd pick if I was stranded on a desert island and could only have a few things to listen to. I play it for just about everyone I have ever come in contact with if they've never heard the band before and I've made quite a few fans out of people over the years.

Slint were pioneers at the time and pretty much invented a style of indie rock now commonly referred to as "math-rock". At the time Spiderland was released, no one sounded like that at all. Years later they have been often imitated but never duplicated. Luckily for some reason, the band decided to do a small reunion tour, and while the tickets weren't cheap, I'm sure it is going to be worth the money. The first two shows are at the Metro, which I'm not really a big fan of these days but it'll be worth the trouble to see them. The last one is at Park West, a place I've never been to before in all my years of going to shows.

I will be attending the shows with Dark Dave, who was the one who initially introduced me to the band and is a long time friend and former contributor to Spontaneous Combustion. Hopefully I'll get a good spot where I can take a few pictures and if I do, I'll post them up here.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Corpsicles]

Corpsicles - Now You're Gonna Leave Me/Big Doings 7" (1982 Arrow Records)

I honestly can't recall where I first heard of this band. I think I saw the name on someone's trade or want list a bunch of years ago and thought it was a cool name for a band and wanted to check them out if I could ever come across their records. I eventually did, all two of them. The band only put out one 7" and one LP before disbanding and few people have probably heard their records. It was the really the fact that they were bootlegged on one of the Killed By Death compilations that a crop of record collectors base their collecting habits off, which got some people to take notice.

When I pulled this single out of The Vault to feature it, I knew it was going to be a very short writeup as aside from knowing they released two records and were from New York, I knew nothing else about them. I never saw an interview in a fanzine with them and I don't remember if I even read a record review of either of their records. Luckily my posting a list of former band members I was looking for led their drummer, Mike, to contact me and he was more than willing to share the Corpsicles story with me to share with the visitors of this site. This is a long one so grab a cup of coffee and have at it. Here's the story from Mike...

Well I'm not really the person to give the best history of how the Corpsicles got started, since in effect I wasn't the original drummer of the band. There was a guy who they played with before me but he never made it out of the rehearsal studio from what I understand.

The band was started by Phil "Freeze" Falcone and his cousin Luke "WARM" Palladino sometime around 1977 maybe even as far back as 1976. They lived around the corner from each other in Brooklyn and they were inseparable. Phil wrote and sang all the songs and played guitar, Luke played bass and sang a few verses (he is the guy singing on the second verse of "Big Doings"). He is also the creator of the pissed tombstone popsicle logo we used. I answered an ad in the Voice (maybe it was the Aquarian) looking for a drummer influenced by the Ramones and the New York Dolls. I had worked with the Ramones on occasion and had been playing in early punk scene bands like Wade Barker (hardly punk but Punk was so undefined at the time).

We talked for a few hours that first phone conversation and that seemed to be an omen that we would make a good fit. Phil most definitely had the gift for gab, always had. He could make friends and talk for hours with anyone! Even a dead guy!

Well we got together that first rehearsal sometime around 1978 (maybe late 1977) and you could hardly tell anyone was a punk at all! I had hair down to my ass, Phill had long hair and Luke had what could be best described as an afro! We came to realize that we were all really Sabbath heads looking for a way to get out all the anger in us! We even played some Sabbath that first night if I remember correctly, not your typical punk warm up repertoire if you ask me...We played about 4 or 5 Ramones tunes just to get warmed up and then started right onto the songs. The first Corpsicle song I ever played as a Corpsicle was "Now Your Gonna Leave Me". They had pretty much invited me to be their drummer before the rehearsal was done.

As I remember it, we didn't even bother to go over any song twice that night, just played the next one without any discussion of how the song went or what was expected of me to play. It was at least two months, two gigs and one recording session later before I even could put the name of the song to the song we were about to play! Such is the way of being in a punk band I suppose! That's the way it was back then!

We did our first show at CBGB's largely because I worked there and had the ins to get us in. It was a miserable show from what all my friends there would say and they wouldn't have said that if it wasn't true! Truth was I had a set list that could have been a Chinese menu for all I knew. I was in the band for roughly two weeks when we did the show! I could see the names of the songs but had no clue as to which song I was about to play! It amounted to a bunch of noise in the end.

At the time there were really only two “punk” clubs to play in the city that would book a punk band. Max's Kansas City and CBGB's. The hardcore punk scene was really just in its infancy at the time and none of the little hole in the wall places had opened up yet. Mudd Club was more of an after hours place at the time and it was impossible to get in there unless you were well known by the regulars there. Punk was giving way to New Wave and Power Pop as early as 1978 and it was getting increasingly difficult for Punk bands, even old wave punk bands like us, to get any bookings in NYC. And being a three piece was sort of frowned on back then for some reason. Everyone wanted you to have a front man for some dumb reason. I think the reason the band lasted as long as it did was because there were only three of us and we became very close because of it.

We basically played in the three clubs there were at the time, Max's, CB's and a place in Brooklyn called Zappas. Zappas was kind of a mish mosh of styles as one day there would be a metal band (Pete Steele was the big act at the time there I forget the name of the band at the time it was just before Carnivore and WAY before Typo), the next a pop band and then the next day a punk band. Mitch Karduna was a friend of mine that I met with my work with the Ramones and he took pity on me and gave us gigs! God bless you Mitch wherever you are! I would have to say most of our shows were played in Zappas. Mitch even let us headline a show there and our opening act was none other than Cyndi Lauper! Named Blue something I forget... We did two shows at Max's if I remember correctly before it died and went to punk heaven. I used to hang there regularly before I started working at CBGB's and I must say of all the places I miss Max's is the place I miss the most!

We actually went on a tour once to Boston where we played two clubs whose names I can't for the life of me remember. Oh wait one was a place called the Channel. I think it was where the Cars made their start but I'm not sure. It was much better than the average club we had been playing at, much larger nice paint job. We played some other small club there whose name I most definitely can't remember... maybe something like Pastels or something poppy like that. All I do remember is I practically got pneumonia packing the car as it was the dead of winter and it was freezing and I was dripping in sweat cause they wanted us out of there! I also remember we did the show mostly on mescaline which probably has a lot to do with why I can't remember the name of the place to save my life!

The trip was fun, the only downside was Phil’s incessant need to fart in a car with closed windows (because it was cold). Phil had this mad evil laugh that you can hear in the song "Confusion" off the album. Every time he would cut one loose you would get the Devil's Laugh out of him!

The only other thing I remember from that tour was the fact that we didn't have a room to stay at on one occasion and wound up staying at some girl's house we met at the show that took a liking to Luke. We didn't ever tour after that I think simply because it cost us more to do than we made! And who was going to give some band they never heard of a guarantee to cover their costs? The funniest moment of the tour was me and Luke looking at each other trying to figure out why some woman asked us if we wanted a "bear" and what we would do with a "bear" if she were to give one to us. We at first thought it was the stuffed variety they were giving away as some sort of promotion and not the draft kind she was offering. It took us a good 5 minutes to figure out what she meant and the confused look on our faces was only surpassed by the curious look she was giving us for not understanding what she said!

Our biggest show was one at CBGB's opening for Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers reunion. Everyone was there including Walter Lure, Jerry Nolan and even Killer Kane! They used all of our equipment and I still have the kit Jerry Nolan played on in storage. Lots of famous drummers played on that kit thanks to my working for CBGB's as anytime they needed a drum kit they asked me! This show with The Heartbreakers was probably our proudest moment since they were a major inspiration of what we did. Whenever anyone described us they used to always say a cross between The Heartbreakers and the Ramones which we took as very much a compliment. We got some write ups for that show and it was one of our best played shows I can remember. It went a long way to erasing the past "just a bunch of noise" remarks my friends had given me from the first show and started people thinking that maybe we weren't as bad as they first thought. Fat lot of good it was by then as the punk scene was really on the way out due to the power pop and new wave genre that had taken over the club scene. Unless you wore orange sherbet colored pants and sang happy tunes about your girlfriend you were not going to get many gigs in the city, and Phil being slightly overweight and not what you call a babe magnet was never going to get to a place where he could write such material! Listen to the songs and you can pretty much tell what Phil’s love life was like! Luke was the babe magnet and I pretty much had one girlfriend the entire life of the band until late in the end of it's history.

Shows were getting few and far between, Max's had closed down, CB's was merely a tourist attraction at that point. Nothing scene related was going on there as metal had taken over as far as a scene is concerned, and that was played out across the street at Great Gildersleeves. The only punk that could be found were shows put together by a tight knit hardcore crowd that would have 6 or 7 of usually the same hardcore bands playing Sunday afternoons at CBGB's. We were not entirely accepted by the hardcore crowd as we were really an old wave punk band. The harmonies we were known for also had a lot to do with that I'm guessing, and so we rarely ever played any of those shows and those were just about the only punk shows you could find. We had been playing in many of the same places these bands played and became fast friends with few bands like Ultra Violence. We would do some shows with them at a place called A7 which was nothing more than an apartment with two Fresnel lights, a PA system, a bar and drug dealers. It was originally located on Avenue A and 7th street but eventually moved to Second Avenue and 1st street in what I think is currently the building the Guardian Angels now call headquarters but I could be mistaken. We usually went on at 4AM when no one was around, I remember this because I would go there after work at CBGB's to do the show! Many times the staff outnumbered the patrons!

We even played an abandoned building that had a collapsed floor, no windows, and you needed a ladder to get into it because of all the rubble of the collapsed floor was below and there was nowhere to set up. It literally looked like the pictures you see of the buildings after the London Blitz’ of WWII! That's what it was like back in the days of punk, you would play anywhere, the opening of a clam shell, anyplace you could plug in and use as the club scene was really that limited. Getting gigs at places like the Mudd Club required payoffs and politics which we were never very good at, why should we be, we were punks!

We did one radio interview that I can remember in Jersey but I can't remember the station it was for, most definitely a college station. It was fun and we mostly just played all the bands we listened to. Like the Cramps, Ramones, the Clash, and the Buzzcocks. Of course we also played plenty of the Dolls and Heartbreakers we could find. We were playing a show somewhere that week and tried to give away tickets to it on the radio show but if I remember correctly no one bothered to call in. I think we also got the DJ who had us on in trouble because we were not exactly what you call FCC compliant in our language and subject matter. I’m sure mescaline came up at least 4 or 5 times as Phil loved the stuff when we were not playing music.

There was one local Fanzine that did two articles on us where they were the first one to describe us as the cross between the Heartbreakers and the Ramones. This actually went a long way to getting us the opening gig with the Heartbreakers, as the girl who was then booking the acts read the article and finally started to understand what we were about. Phil wound up dating the girl who wrote the article but as with everything in Phil’s love life it didn't last. Can't remember the name of the zine it's all so long ago.

The Recordings:

The Single that KBD9 has made something of a collectors item was recorded less than a month after I was in the band. By then I at least knew the song we were recording and had learned it enough to start singing backgrounds on the tunes. Actually I think we first did the backgrounds on the recording and I just started doing them live as well. My contributions to the songs and the style was minimal, if any, aside from the harmonies that became our signature at the time. No punk bands in the city were actually singing in their songs, mostly bad singing (which we had too) and shouting. Hardcore with harmonies became our mantra!

We recorded 3 songs, "Now your gonna leave me", "Big Doings" and "Corpsicles". "Corpsicles" was never released until we re-recorded it for the album. It was never going to be more than a demo tape and was mixed accordingly. Eventually it was decided that to get noticed you had to appear to have your own shit together or have a record deal. Sire Records had already been sold off to Warner Bros, Stiff Records was nothing much more than a good T=shirt ad at the time (If it ain't Stiff it Ain't worth a fuck!). So there was really very little prospect of being signed by anyone. No one was snapping up punk acts the way they used to so we decided it might be better to just release these songs as an independent and it might help us get more gigs if they saw we already had a record out. We remixed the songs to be more suitable for a record pressing and even went to Sterling Sound to have it mastered. We decided to make "NYGLM" the "A" side because that’s what everyone was looking for at the time, power pop. Funny how the "B" Side always seems to be what gets the band noticed as "Big Doings" is the "B" Side of the single. Only 1000 copies were made to my knowledge and most of those I am guessing were given away instead of sold. I don't think we ever re-released them when we ran out deciding instead to just use the money on the album which we figured would get us an even better shot at a gig at the time. Luke did all the artwork for the band. It made it into a few club jukeboxes most notably CBGB’s. The picture on the back was taken at Systems Two recording where we rehearsed and recorded it. Audie the engineer took the picture and I feel bad I can't at the moment remember his last name but for anyone who likes the band you should know that he was for all intents and purposes the fourth member of the band! He mixed and was the lead engineer on every recording ever made and even contributed to what we did on the songs.

I really must apologize to all these people whose last names I can't remember but you have to understand we RARELY ever called anyone by their REAL name back then. Phil used to call everyone "Floyd" just because he liked the name and if he didn't call you Floyd (as in conversations where you really had to know who he was talking about in reference) there was always some other name he would use such a
"Audible" for Audie. Hard to remember names you never used so my apologies to all those whose name I can't remember. It's a long time ago and 20 years and two bands later the names tend to get lost.

The Album was created simply because we were not getting any gigs of importance and largely due to boredom! The main mixer at CBGB's at the time, Tony, asked if he could produce the record and we said ok. In retrospect I feel bad now that we did, not because Tony did a bad job, in fact I think he did a great job, but I do think Audie, who as I have described before as the 4th Corpsicle, took it personally having to share the mixing duties with him. From the album you can tell that we had started to try and tailor our songs to be a bit more palatable to the hardcore crowd as songs like "Scene" and "Sex With You" will attest to. I personally think the Album shows a lot more of what we were about musically. And "Confusion" probably was our best song Phil ever wrote that we did.

A lot more time was spent on these recordings than I would guess was spent on the average punk recording, thanks to the fact that Audie rarely ever charged us for the full time we used. We would binge on coke and work until the light came out much the way we did when we rehearsed.

I'm a little hazy on how many copies of the Album we had printed. I believe it was only 1000 copies but it may have been 2000, again more copies were probably given away than were sold. Bleeker Bobs and a few of the 2nd avenue stores took 4 or 5 copies on consignment but there was never any major distribution of our records other than Phil going in and gabbing to the owner and convincing him to take a few copies and try to sell them. And I can’t remember any store calling us and saying we ran out come bring us more. The punk scene was pretty much gone by that time, metal and the hair bands was in full force, the Misfits had broken up and they were the kings of whatever NYC Punk scene remained at the time! They were pretty much the only punk event you could find.

The End:

As time went on and no gigs in sight, Corpsicles was relegated back to a band who rehearsed for a gig that was never going to happen. Zappa's had closed, CB's was it and it was not really a place that anyone went to unless there was a band there they wanted to see. Bands who were way beyond playing a place like CBs but merely played there because of it's history. Since we never ever truly had a following that was more than Phil's sister and a few of her friends plus the few friends we had made that were in other bands and likely would get comped into the club anyway. We really did nothing but rehearse and hang out as we always did. Even the rehearsals had turned into 30 minutes of set (which was all it took when you had songs that were not much longer than "Sex With You") and 3 hours of paper baseball in the studio lobby!

By then Systems Two had even closed down and we were rehearsing in a place that is still there to this day although has had many name changes since then. (On 1860 Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn. It's now run by a friend of mine named Mike) I even LIVED there for awhile as I moved in with the girl who ran the studio and lived there! This was where the band fell apart and I must admit I am the villain here in the demise of the Corpsicles.

At the time metal was starting to be big business, and I would say 90% of the bands rehearsing there were metal bands. As I was living there I became friends with just about all of them but one band in particular that seemed to me to have something that might take them somewhere. They were mostly doing cover tunes of bands I had been listening to at the time (there were no more good punk band records to buy anymore) they kicked out their singer one day and somehow or other they asked me to sing for them during a rehearsal. They asked me to join but never being one to want to play in a cover band I said only if you stick to the original stuff and get away from the covers. I sang with them and played drums for the Corpsicles for about another 6 months before I finally said to Phil that we were going nowhere and I was going to leave to become a singer. I needed to play for someone other than myself as selfish as that may be, but at the time music and playing it for a living was all I really wanted to do with my life. I was always willing to jam, record and do a show with them. I was even willing to continue rehearsing with them until they found a replacement. And I would have stayed a member but I just needed to know that something aside from just rehearsing was in the cards. They never took me up on my offer to keep rehearsing and I’m sure they were hurt by my decision but I was 26 at the time and at that stage where I needed to know my life was going to constructive as opposed to repetitive and stagnant.

I had heard from Phil on rare occasions since then trying to get the band back together. And my life had become so busy with the success of my metal career (Von Helsing) and job as a video engineer for Financial News Network that I declined. I told him I would play a gig if he booked one and rehearse for it as much as they wanted but he never did book one and eventually I had been in front of a mic and off a kit for so long that I wasn't really sure I could even play them anymore. Eventually I lost touch with Phil and hadn't heard from him again, this was in the late 90's

Last time I saw Phil and Luke was at the Sex Pistols reunion show at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC about 5 or 6 years ago I think. I gave them my number but they never called. I guess they had moved on as well. Phil had been married and divorced. Luke I believe married the same girl he was dating way back during the bands heyday. To my knowledge they never did bother to find another drummer despite the fact I though I was easily replaceable. I do miss them and the great times we had together but I suppose everything must come to an end.

I'm surprised and flattered that the band seems to have been re-discovered after all these years. Hard to fathom how something you did 20 years ago and gave up on could turn into a success. I'm just glad someone finds the music entertaining which is all we were trying to do in the first place.

If you or anyone else ever gets in touch with Phil or Luke please let them know I have been thinking about them and miss them. And I wouldn't mind jamming with them again, never was opposed to it. I am pretty much out of the music business now and design and install Television Studios for Networks with companies like Time Warner.

If there is anything anyone else needs to know about the Corpsicles I'm glad to oblige. Hopefully Phil will get wind of how his baby has taken off. He really deserves all of the credit for what the Corpsicles is and was. It all sprouted from his warped mind and if anyone has a box full of records that have been untouched it would be him. I tend to doubt that any exist but I wouldn't be surprised to find that one box of the album is hidden in his parents garage!

Thanks a lot Mike for the great information. Now I finally know a lot more about the band thanks to you.

Listen to "Big Doings" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Mike also added a little bit of Corpsicles trivia...

A round the label on I believe on the single (maybe both) is a date.I think it's actually part of the serial number ARO001-715 or something similar.

It is a holiday known as St Swithens Day.

We always celebrated St Swithens Day for no other reason than the fact we never heard of it and it was always in the log book the rehearsal studio (Systems Two) used to book the studio. Audie was the guy who took note of it originally. The pictures taken for the back of the album were also taken on St Swithens day. Shows you how warped we were to have little quirks like that! We had no idea who St Swithen was nor what the significance of his day is. It's another one of those things like calling everyone Floyd that we included into our rituals!

The SPCK is a reference to spring creek where we took a lot of pictures we used.

And I suppose it wouldn't hurt to say that at the time:

Phil worked in a Dime Savings Bank
Luke Delivered rented Tuxedos for Zellers
And I worked at CBGB's first as a bouncer and then as the guy who would collect the money at the door.

Thanks a lot Yahoo...

It seems that for some unknown reason, yahoo mail flags anything sent form my spontaneous.com domain as spam and dumps it in a user's bulk mail folder. If you have a yahoo email address and have been in contact with me, please check there for any mail I may have sent you. This especially applies to Bill of Toxic Ranch Records/Peace Corpse as I've been trying to email you.

I can't begin to tell you just how frustrating and annoying this is. I contacted yahoo about this, and in their infinite wisdom, they asked me to send them an email that was received and sent to the bulk folder from someone's yahoo acct. Why that is I don't know, just fucking fix the problem, you know my domain name and I wrote you from it complaining.

I still have plenty of Gmail accounts to pass out if anyone using yahoo mail wants to ditch that shitty service for a better one.

Why NWA TNA will never take off

Well, there is a lot of reasons but the biggest reason why it will never be anything besides a second rate infomercial is simple...

Jeff Jarett

The guy is the least suited to be the world champion/main eventer in any federation. His finisher is the most retarded in the history of the business and no one can sell that sad looking thing right in hopes of making it look good (especially Kevin Nash who is just too damn lazy to even bother trying). His promos are sad, pale, imitations of people he's watched on tv but he can't even copy them right. He stole the Honky Tonk Man's gimmick but does it poorly. His sad excuse for catch phrases are downright pathetic ("slapnuts" and "planet jarett", ugh!), and the only reason he is in the position he is in that company is cuz he and his dad run it.

The guy winning over and over against far more entertaining workers that people would actually want to watch is akin to Triple H having the monopoly on the top spot in the WWE except Triple H is actually entertaining to watch in the ring and is capable of generating genuine heel heat and make you care about watching his matches in hopes of him getting his ass kicked. He actually deserves a spot at the top. When Jeff Jarett enters the ring, you just want to change the channel. He generates the kind of heel heat that you don't want, the kind that sours you from watching the program.

Jeff, give it up and drop that strap to someone far more deserving, who just might make someone care about the product you and your dad are trying to push. You in the top spot is never going to put enough asses in seats, or bring in a decent buy rate for your PPV's. The sooner you realize that, and the sooner you ditch the sports card late nite infomercial shill Don West at your color commentator, the better.

The many flavors of: The Sex Pistols - Submission/Anarchy in the UK 12"

The first two punk rock bands I ever heard were the Sex Pistols and 999. This was back when I was in 7th grade, which was a long time ago. Those two bands opened up a whole new world for me and forever changed my life. I was especially taken with the Sex Pistols, and would buy everything I came across by them. Granted they only really released one proper album, but I bought all the collections, singles, live albums, etc. For a long time I had more Sex Pistols records in my collection than any other band. This was later totally eclipsed by The Damned, but that is a story for another day.

In 1984, Chaos Records from the UK released this two song 12" that contained demo versions of Sex Pistols songs recorded by Dave Goodman. I found a copy of this at JR's Music Shop in Yorktown mall on one of my weekly visits there to buy records (they had a really good punk selection at the time). Despite what seemed like a hefty price tag for a 2-song record, I didn't hesitate to buy it. It was an import so that helped justify the 7 dollar price tag in my mind, or at least was what I told myself to make me feel better about shelling out what was then a whole lot of money to me.

When I brought it home and opened it up, I discovered that it was on green vinyl. I thought that was pretty cool and a nice surprise and I proceeded to play it repeatedly. I told a couple friends of mine who were also into punk rock about the record and soon after one of them bought it and told me his copy came on a different color of vinyl (I beleive it was blue). I remember even at that young age thinking "dammit, I want that color too", something that still plagues me to this day.

It turned out that it came more than two different colors, it came on seven! Back then I never got around to picking up any more copies to get the other colors because there was so many other records to buy. I eventually found a place that was selling them all about 10 years ago and bought all the ones I was missing to complete the set. The rainbow of colors is as follows...

Green vinyl,


pink vinyl,

red vinyl,

white vinyl,

yellow vinyl,

blue vinyl,

and clear vinyl.

A note of complete record nerd interest, all the sleeves and labels were the same and have the catalog number of EXPORT 1 with the exception of the blue vinyl, whose labels say CARTEL 1 instead (the sleeve is the same as the others). I don't know why that particular variation had the different labels. I am pretty sure blue is the color my friend back then bought so it would have been released at the same time.

The music on this 12" has appeared on countless other demos collections and CDs over the years as the Pistols stuff has been reissued and repackaged more times than even The Damned's early recordings. Chaos Records also released a 7" of this with a different b-side and different cover art.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Adrenalin OD]

Adrenalin OD - The Wacky Hi Jinks of Adrenalin OD LP (1984 Buy Our Records)

The first thing I ever heard from this band was their cover of the Brady Bunch theme on the Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Volume 1 compilation. I thought that it not only kicked ass, but it was pretty funny to do a cover of that. I immediately made a mental note to buy anything else they were on. That led me to the now-classic We Got Power: Party or Go Home compilation where their song, "World War 4" (that ends with their rendition of "Pop Goes the Weasel") was a standout and also continued to show the bands sense of humor.

Shortly after that, my friend Gub (who back then was known simply as Scott Conway) brought the first AOD album to school and gave it to me to borrow. He never got it back! I convinced him that it needed to be mine and gave him something for it, like I bought him lunch or something. I instantly fell in love with the record and practically wore it out by playing it so much.

Adrenalin OD (or AOD for short) formed in fall of 1981 by Jack Steeples, Dave Scott, Paul Richard and Jim Foster. They played a bunch of shows and practiced for a year or so and saved up enough money to put out their first record, Let's BBQ, which also resulted in them starting a record label called Buy Our Records.

Around the time that 7" was released, Jim Foster left the band and was replaced by their friend Bruce Wingate. This lineup would remain for the rest of the band's career. A year or so after the release of their 7", the band recorded and released their first full-length LP, The Wacky Hi Jinks of Adrenalin OD. They also appeared on a handful of compilations including the now legendary New York Thrash compilation on ROIR records. It was originally a cassette only release, which has since been reissued on vinyl and CD.

The band toured plenty and also kept their label going until they were too busy to do both and handed the reigns over to their friends in Bedlam to continue with the label business so they could just worry about being a band. AOD released another 7" and then their second album, Humungousfungusamongus in 1986. They also were going to release a split live flexi disc with Bedlam, but the one company that was making flexi's back then, Evatone, refused to press them because they were offended by the foul language on the Bedlam side (Evatone, it turns out, were a religious company). The split was eventually released as a regular vinyl single with no picture sleeve that was sold at shows and through mail-order. It had numbered and stamped labels, and came with an insert with the song info on it.

After the second album, the band slowed down and started venturing off in a more musical direction. This resulted in the Cruising with Elvis in Bigfoot's UFO LP and the Theme from an Imaginary Midget Western EP. Both of them were pretty good records which I still enjoy today, though bared little resemblance to what came before it.

In 1989, with Buy Our Records closing shop (likely a result of being ripped off by countless distributors that went bankrupt at that time), the band found a new home on Restless/Enigma Records and their sound changed even further, however not for the better. Their final release, aptly titled Ishtar, was to put it kindly, a bad record. Even the band will tell you this. In fact, Bruce Wingate chimed in with this:

The first wave of hardcore was essentially killed off by metalheads and straight edge jocks in 1986. Not relating to either type was what got us into punk rock to begin with!

We made a conscious decision to bail on that whole scene, and started playing more '77 style punk. In retrospect, I think the Cruisn' with Elvis album sounds rather British (we all loved The Undertones, and Stiff Little Fingers.) Unfortunately we jumped the gun on declaring punk rock was "back". Everyone else was into double bass drums or unity!

By the time the last album was made, Ishtar, we were sick of; each other, our shitty manager, and "wacky suburban hardcore." We had been playing punk rock for ten tears by 1990, it was a thankless task before Nirvana and Green Day made it a potentially lucrative one.

Ishtar was our attempt to sell out and was made while we were breaking up. Shortly after it came out we were about to go onstage at Maxwells in Hoboken and decided to make it our final show.

A few weeks after its release, Restless/Enigma went out of business and the band decided they had enough and called it quits. The band reunited for the New York Thrash reunion show a few years ago at CBGB's as a sort of closing chapter to the AOD book.

Where are they now? Dave Scott resides in Florida and designs merchandise for bands and manages a band called Nutrajet. Paul and Jack were in a band called Sux and also The Kowalskis. And as for Bruce, aside from playing in Brunch Mummies...

As for me post-AOD, you might want to mention that I was the musical director for two tours by cult singer/songwriter Harvey Sid Fisher (of Astrology Songs fame!) ...and that I found Ben Weasel marrying my ex-girlfriend to be a little TOO derivitave!

Years ago, when CD's were just starting to catch on, Buy Our Records released the first two AOD albums on a CD. However the intro to the song, "Rah Jah" was shortened and altered in fear of a lawsuit for using such a large sample. This carried over to the reissue of the first LP and 7" (along with most of the compilation tracks) on Grand Theft Audio titled Sittin' Pretty.

Bruce had this to say about the song...

"Rah Jah" was one of the songs written before I joined AOD, so I can't be blamed that it was originally called "Mr Rogers is a Child Molester".

If anyone is wondering how to achieve that sludgy guitar sound and drums that sound like cardboard boxes, here is how to do it:
First, pick a studio that has never recorded punk rock, preferably one owned by a guy named Vito. Then, adjust your amp until your guitar sounds like a swarm of bees. Soon after, get the pot dealer who runs your record label to have buckets of fried foods and more cheap beer delivered. You are now ready to "roll tape."

I'm sure there was a logical explanation of why we changed the title to "Rah Jah", but frankly all I remember from twenty-one years ago is that we were really stoned and those buckets of food went quick!

Relapse Records has recently reissued Humungousfungusamongus and Munster Records a few years ago released the bands first demos along with some live material. The later stuff remains out of print and this version of Rah Jah, is forever lost with the exception of being found on the old vinyl.

Listen to "Rah Jah" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Record nerd info:
There was 50 of these pressed on blue vinyl and given away to "punk VIPs".
There was two pressings of this record. The first had a small 7x7 insert, the second had a 12x12 insert.

Further reading:
Interview with Dave Scott on the Spontaneous Combustion site

Get yourself some AOD:
Humungousfungusamongus CD

Mr. Potato Head goes to Sin City part 2

Not too long after the first envelope arrived containing pictures of Mr P's Vegas adventures, I received another one. This came about a week later and was postmarked from the same place. I guess Mr. P must have done pretty well on the gambling to stay for a full week.

I guess that was the end of his adventures in the land of casinos as the next time I received one of the mysterious envelopes in the mail, it was from a different place.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Pariah]

Pariah - Not Satisfied 7" (1981 Disc Print Records)

My first exposure to Pariah came from the Rodney on the ROQ Volume 3 compilation on Posh Boy Records. It was the third and final in the series of great compilations. That song, and my habit of collecting labels as a whole led me to their album (which by the way, is excellent and has recently been reissued on vinyl on Get Back Records) as well as a pair of 7"s that came out around 1990 containing old material.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered that before they recorded for Posh Boy, Pariah had put out a 7" on their own. I was unsuccessful in obtaining a copy for quite awhile until coming into contact with Mike from Pariah, who generously donated a spare copy of this record to the punk vault! Truly a selfless act on his part, and now I get to share this punk artifact with the visitors of this site.

I asked Mike for a little history and here is what he wrote...

Hi all,

MXV asked me to write a little history regarding the first Pariah 7” record which he so graciously accepted into the vault. I thought I’d also try and give you all a glimpse into the history of the band at the same time, so here it goes.

Tony (singer, bass player) and I had known each other since junior high school. Knew of each other I should say. We were both motocross rats (and skate rats and surf rats) and would see each other wearing our moto-jerseys to school. Also, the word around school was that Tony had a bitchin track in front of his house out in the valley (Alhambra valley in Martinez, CA). Some things never change and we are both still moto-rats and ride regularly to this day (Tony has switched to 4-stroke with the new Honda CR450F and I ride a 2-stroke Honda CR250). However, we traveled in different circles and never formally met until high school. In our junior year, we both ended up in a photography class. We became fast friends immediately and have remained friends ever since. Talking in the back of the class, we eventually got around to music and discovered that we each played an instrument – Tony played bass and I played guitar. How convenient, eh? By the way, how many times have you heard of a band formed by high school friends? Must be something in the water! Anyway, Tony and I eventually got together out at his place for a jam. His house had a really cool basement that had a concrete shelf that was perfect to use as a drum riser. It even had a PA. Cool stuff for a 17 year old kid, let me tell you. I soon found out that Tony was really into Punk. I was a total metalhead and had never even heard of punk at that time (this was only 1981, remember), but as soon as I heard those crankin’ guitars on the Dead Kennedys and Ramones records (yep, vinyl) Tony played for me I was hooked. I had been jamming for fun with this other kid from school who played drums and we soon had him out at Tony’s basement for a jam. With Greg Travers on drums, the earliest incarnation of Pariah had been formed. The first songs we attempted were all covers. I clearly remember struggling to play "California Uber Alles" and "Rockaway Beach". Greg and I both had trouble at first getting our chops up to punk tempo, but when you’re 17 it doesn’t take long and soon we were cranking ‘em out.

Now, at this time the San Francisco Bay Area punk scene was exploding. Clubs like the On Broadway, the Mabuhay Gardens and even The Stone were putting on amazing shows with bands like Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, TSOL and other great bands. What an amazing time it was and what amazing shows those were. We were salivating to get on some of those bills and decided our best shot was to start writing our own songs. I still remember a couple of the early songs with titles like "Hostage and Drivin’". Greg even attempted to sing backup on "Drivin’", but soon decided that he needed all his faculties to pound the skins. Ah, what could have been. Keep in mind that we were all 17 and these early songs reflected our youth. Undaunted, we kept at it and eventually had a few songs that we thought were pretty darn good at the time. In order to get booked at the clubs in the city, you needed to send in a tape so we decided to head to the local studio and record a few of the songs. Setting an early precedent, we went a little overboard and booked time at a studio in Concord, CA that was owned and operated by a former guitar player for the Steve Miller band. It was here that we recorded the first Pariah 7” single. This rare single had three songs including "Our Voice", "Not Satisfied" and "Dying in the Suburbs". I still remember recording that single. I remember how intimidated and uncomfortable I felt standing out in the studio with headphones on trying to stay in time with Greg without being able to see him very well through the glass of the drum iso-booth. Somehow, we pulled it off and for all it’s faults, the EP sounds really tight. As I listen to it now, it sounds really strange. I’m such a different person and different player now that it seems like someone else must have been playing on that EP. Time is a strange game indeed. Back to the story, after finishing the recording we had it mastered at the famed Fantasy Records Studios and did a small pressing. Tony did the artwork and a friend of his did the photography. I don’t remember if we even tried to distribute the thing. It was mainly used as a booking tool, which worked very well, by the way. After a few miserable gigs we were soon getting some respectable billings playing with the Dead Kennedys, TSOL, The Circle Jerks, UK Subs, Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Brains, Fear, etc. We even played with the Ramones in Sacramento. So, no matter how we feel listening to the EP now, we cannot deny its important place in the bands history. I hope you enjoyed this self-indulgent reminiscence. If you have any questions send me an email at mdsmith64[at]pariah-now[dot]com. Oh, and check out our new Posh Boy Records release and website at http://www.pariah-now.com. Thanks everyone and thanks MXV!

There where are they now is obvious if you just read the above, the band reformed and put out a new album. I believe Posh Boy might still be selling the 7"s from 1990 as well (which contain old recordings) through their website.

Listen to "Not Satisfied" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Adolescents: The Complete Demos 1980 - 1986

The Adolescents first, self-titled album (aka: the blue album) is among the all time hardcore greats. It came out over two decades ago, and is still as crucial a record as the day it was released. The band went on to record a few more records after it that were good, but they were never quite able to fill the giant shoes of that first album.

Like most bands, the Adolescents recorded a slew of demo tapes over the years that never saw a proper release. However, unlike most bands, the band and Frontier Records (the label responsible for releasing that classic first album) have decided to celebrate the band's silver anniversary (25th) by releasing the complete demos from the first 6 years of the band's existence! When I opened up the package in the mail, it was a most pleasant surprise to find this in there as it is something I would have run out and bought on the concept alone without even having heard these tapes before.

The CD is comprised of 16 tracks with only one song appearing on here twice ("Wrecking Crew", which is among their best songs and has two different versions on the disc back to back). The first four songs are the most difficult to listen as the sound quality is pretty poor. This is because it was originally recorded on a Radio Shack mono tape recorder. While these four tracks won't earn repeat listens due to the archaic nature of the source, it was a welcome move to have them included for historical purposes. They represent the band at its very infancy in 1980 and even then you can see that they were oozing with talent pretty much from day one.

The next four tracks were recorded a couple months later and feature different versions of tracks that would appear on the blue album. Some songs are faster, some have slightly different lyrics, all are rawer versions obviously, and the sound quality is quite good. If these were released on an EP back then, it would have been quite a popular record. The version of "Wrecking Crew is the best of the bunch, but they all warrant many repeat listens.

The next group of five songs were recorded two months following the previous group and were culled from collector's tapes as the original master tapes were lost. The sound obviously isn't as good as it should be but it is better than nothing and it is still very listenable. Included in this is a raw version of the classic, "Amoeba" that features slightly different lyrics than what would appear on the two well recognized versions of the song.

Track 14 is one that you may have heard of before, "Richard Hung Himself". I did not know that it was originally an Adolescents song recorded at the same time as the classic Welcome to Reality EP. Musically it is similar to what D.I. did with it, but the lyrics are very different. While the D.I. version is a classic that can't be bested, it is very cool to see the origin of this song.

The final two tracks were recorded in 1986. This would have been shortly before the Brats in Battalions album would be recorded. The sound quality is excellent.

The artwork is similar to that of the blue album, except this is black and red (as you can see in the picture). So I guess this will get nicknamed "the black album". There are lyrics and some great liner notes from three of the band members inside. This thing has been on repeat since I received it and I have not grown tired of it yet. It is a pretty crucial piece of punk history that was thankfully preserved and released to the world. If you are a fan of the first album, it is a no-brainer that you should have this to go along with it.

The many flavors of: Gang Green - Sold Out 7"

This record has the distinction of not only being Gang Green's debut record, but also it was the first release on the now infamous Taang! Records. Taang was started by a fellow named Curtis, who was a big record collector back in the early days of punk. It was obvious that he was a vinyl collector from the start of the label as evidenced by the many releases that came on different colors of vinyl in limited editions.

The record has three distinct variations and they are as follows...

The first pressing on black vinyl. There was 2000 of these pressed.

There was 1000 released later as a limited edition on green vinyl with a green sleeve. Note the cover photo is different as well.

There was 100 made on clear vinyl with an acetate sleeve. The sleeve is the front only. The record was numbered with a stamp on each label.

The test pressing came in a photocopied sleeve. Note the info hand-written on the inner sleeve regarding the price, etc.

So there you have the many flavors of the Gang Green 7". While the vinyl has been out of print for close to two decades, the music is still available on the Preschool CD on Taang! Records.

Flipside Fanzine, gone but not forgotten

In my mid-teens while in high school, I discovered Flipside Fanzine for the first time when I bought a copy of it at the Rose Records in Naperville (this is when Devon Brock from Out of Order was the buyer and before Naperville became the conceited soccer mom capital of the world). I was an instant fan and I bought every single issue that came out since that first one, and even picked up some earlier ones I had missed. I learned about so many bands thru those interviews and by reading the reviews and even made a pen pal via the classifieds for awhile. I was pretty sad when it quietly just vanished into thin air.

Well, it may be gone, but it will never be forgotten thanks to a tribute website that was done by Michele Flipside. I found out about this via a comment her husband left on this blog. Nice work Michele, the site is definitely a labor of love. It has a good history of the zine and lots of great photos. It is well worth checking out.

And Michele, if you are reading this, I have that Rodney on the Roq comp with the Flipside in it and will get you the info you are missing from it when I get a chance.

The problem with wrestling today

While watching Raw this week I got to thinking about something that has been bothering me about the product for quite some time, something that I feel is partially responsible for the reason they don't have as many bankable stars or even viewers as they have in the past. The reason is simple, with the exception of the world title/WWE title (on Raw/Smackdown respectively), the other ones are useless.

It appears the creative team spins all their cycles trying to come up with a story revolving around the main title on the show, and then try and sell a ppv around that. If they give any thought into it at all, they will spend weeks building up a feud revolving this title. The problem is, they don't bother at the same time to develop any compelling stories for the rest of the roster, and the rest of the titles, and then will slap something together at the last minute that is just filler and expect fans to shell out 35 bucks to buy a PPV that they are trying to sell on one match. The result is a big disappointment that is no different than a random episode of their weekly TV show, just with longer matches that you don't care about because the creative team didn't care enough to try and make the matches feel like they are anything more than picking two names out of a hat.

Case in point: The Intercontinental Championship on Raw. This is currently held by Shelton Benjamin, who is a very talented worker. What has he done since winning that title? Nothing aside from some throwaway random title defenses on Raw against Snitsky, which contained no rhyme or reason as to why he was contending for this title after jobbing to Kane a bunch of times in some lackluster brawls. Wrestlemania 21 is coming up in a few weeks and instead of building an interesting story around his title and someone trying to beat him for it, they put him and 5 other talented workers in a ladder match, but the match isn't for the IC belt, which would have been cool, but it is for a future "world title shot". Six workers that would be well suited to be part of an interesting program for the IC belt are now being used as a throwaway for the one thing anyone focuses on.

Back in the big heyday of wrestling in the 80s, all the belts held prestige. Randy Macho Man Savage winning the IC belt was a big deal. The Hart Foundation being tag champs was a big deal. Not everyone had to be gunning for the belt currently held by HHH or JBL. You actually cared about the other titles too and it made the big ppv's and shows a lot more meaningful, and worth your money to witness. There was very little filler and more time spent building a program around the various titles. Now no one cares because the creative team doesn't care.

There are plenty of people on the roster being under-utilized that would benefit from a compelling program revolving around the tag titles and IC title (and the US title over on smackdown). If they spent the time to build some compelling stories around these titles and make them feel like they mean something again, the fans will buy into these stars more and it will likely help them transition to big money makers in the future. Wrestlers like Simon Dean, Hurricane, Val Venis, Christian, Jericho, Shelton Benjamin and Matt Hardy among others would only be helped by taking the time to use them as something else besides a random meaningless filler match to fill out the card that they had plenty of time to plan, but are so narrow minded that they spent all the time on one thing.

And don't get me started on the women's title. Here you have Christy Hemme feuding for the belt at Wrestlemania when she has never wrestled a real match in her life. While she is now some hot playboy model and that will perhaps in the eyes of management, "increase the buy rate", it comes at the expense of Molly Holly and Victoria, who are actual workers and would help add some meaning to that division and make for a more entertaining match at the company's biggest show instead of having to suffer through Trish trying to carry that match and make it watchable for 10 minutes just waiting for it to end despite the hotness factor of the two women in the ring. There are plenty of other ways to utilize Christy Hemme's hype surrounding her being in playboy without having it revolve around a wrestling match for a title that would be better suited around the waist of someone who can actually work a match. With Lita being out injured, I know the women's roster on Raw is a little thin, but they have two women sitting in the back not being used for weeks, even on Heat that are more suited to be wrestling at Wrestlemania in that match and the TV time given to that match would be a lot more satisfying.

My advice to the McMahon family is either dump the single-minded writing staff you have now, or, if you have to, hire MORE writers if the ones you have can't be bothered to think of the big picture instead of viewing your product with the tunnel vision. Make those other titles mean something again and suddenly your mid card and lower card have something to do and the fans will care about them more, and care about your product more too, then instead of watching your show when there is nothing better to do, they will make a point to watch the show every week like they used to.

I was going to mention the second-rate NWA TNA, but this post is long enough and I'll save it for another day. The problems with that federation would make for just as long-wined a post as this one, if not longer. I covered them in the past on this blog, and a couple years later nothing over there has changed aside from the shape of their ring, which wasn't an improvement.

Selections from The Punk Vault [F-Word]

F-Word - Shut Down 7" (1978 Posh Boy Records)

My first exposure to F-Word was on one of the Posh Boy Compilations, perhaps it was "Posh Hits Volume One" but I'm not quite sure. It would be awhile before I bought their one and only album, which was a live one. To me the band was an acquired taste, they eventually grew on me but the original purpose for buying the record is the fact that if I like a record label, I tend to collect that label as a whole and buy everything they release. In hindsight, I'm glad that I collect the way I do because I came to appreciate a lot of records purchased solely for what label they when I'd go and revisit them later, to which this is a prime example.

F-Word were part of that first wave of Los Angeles area punk from the late 70s. It was fronted by the late Rik L Rik. Since Posh Boy was not only their record label, but their manager, I went to the man himself, Robbie Fields, and asked him to share his version of the F-Word history as was there and here is what he wrote.

F Word! was very much part of the initial 1977 L.A. punk explosion, centered around the Masque, an underground (literally and figuratively) club off Hollywood Blvd. in then seedy Hollywood, California. One key difference: the group members were a little younger than the other groups making their mark: The Screamers, Weirdos, Dils, Alleycats, Nuns, Skulls, Germs, Controllers and Avengers. I came to meet F Word! when working the midweek door for Masque owner, Brendan Mullen, and I was soon asked to manage them.

Of course, I had no prior experience as an artist manager, but I did speak with an English accent and that must have seemed a plus at the time.

The group revolved around the songwriting axis of guitarist Kenny Sercu aka Dim Wanker and singer Richard Elerick aka Rick L Rick (later : Rik L Rik) who must have been 17 at the time. Even younger was the bass player. The drummer was the weak link and soon departed and was replaced by a much older professional drummer out of Chicago (ex City Boys) that I had found, an aspiring actor named David Schultz aka Dutch. Dutch proved the glue that held the group together during their short, incandescent career. He owned a never commissioned checker cab that was ultra reliable as band transportation; he provided some maturity in a very immature mix and he knew that both frontmen had something few had: charisma. So while Wanker played the most anarchic guitar, making you wonder he knew what song they were playing at that moment and Rik was doing his best Iggy impersonation of acting as though he was not supposed to be singing, drummer and bass player provided an awesome backbeat.

Rik became a favorite of all the Masque scenesters. Kenny and Steve the bass player were a little rough around the edges. It was inevitable that Dangerhouse would become interested in the group and everyone wanted to have a single released on Dangerhouse as
1977 folded into 1978. Unfortunately, F Word were a low priority at the Dangerhouse collective and it soon became apparent that the squabbling between Wanker and L Rick were torpedo the group before they went into the studio.

Meanwhile, their dutiful manager had been securing the group prime gigs: opening at the Whiskey for Screamers and The Weirdos and taking them to San Francisco frequently to play Mabuhay Gardens on weekends and playing with the top S.F. groups back then, the Nuns and Avengers. As it happened, the Mabuhay soundboard was always connected to a reel to reel deck and I took advantage by recording the many sets F Word! played at the club. Regrettably, we only had a mono mix from the board and not all the instruments were mic'd. So, at the point where it became apparent that the group was in its death throes I proposed that we give up on Dangerhouse and release the live material; this idea was met with hostility from both Wanker and L Rick who were not happy with people hearing their warts and all performances. But the other 2 members sided with me and felt we had to have something to memorialize the group and its impact. Much later on, Rik L Rik became reconciled to the F Word! recordings and he was extremely happy when top Swedish group Sator re-recorded "Government Official" for their Barbie Q Killers album and charted with it as a single, something that never would have happened but for the release of the F Word! live material.

Count me in as one of the people who is glad that the live recordings came out, as if it not for them, we'd have no document of F-Word. Thanks to Robbie Fields for the story.

The record orignally came with no picture sleeve on black, then later red and white vinyls. The white is the hardest to find and Robbie suspects they did some of those when they pressed the Rik L Rik 7". I actually need a copy of this on black vinyl without the sleeve if anyone has one for sale/trade. Around 1990 it was reissued with a picture sleeve that was numbered on the back and had the silver labels that became common on all Posh Boy releases. This also has the distinction of being the first release on the label.

Listen to "Out There" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

R.I.P. Debra Hill

Debra Hill, co-creator of one of my all time favorite movies, Halloween, has died. She worked with John Carpenter on a lot of films, many of which rank among my favorites and she was in the process of working on the remake of the old John Carpenter film, The Fog.

She died as a result of losing a battle with cancer, something that hits close to home as I have lost family to this horrible disease. R.I.P Debra, and thanks for the fine movies.

Further reading:
New York Times
BBC
USA Today

Mr. Potato Head goes to Sin City

The next time I received one of the mystery envelopes in the mail, it contained the photographic document of Mr. P's visit to Las Vegas. It would appear the little spud likes to gamble and see some shows.

I wonder if he was at the show wear that tiger ate Roy. There was a second envelope sent from the same place too that documents more of his Vegas adventures that will be in the next chapter.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Black Randy and the Metrosquad]

Black Randy and the Metrosquad - Trouble at the Cup 7" (1977 Dangerhouse Records)

Black Randy, if any of the stories in We Got the Neutron Bomb are true, was perhaps the most wild and crazy of all the punks from the early Los Angeles scene. He lived fast and died young and left a few records and a part of a legacy in his wake.

Black Randy was a "con and street hustler" who became part of the blossoming punk scene in the mid 70s. He helped start and run Dangerhouse Records along with Pat Garrett and David Brown. It was no surprise that the label released his own band's recordings of course, and those are perhaps the most "difficult" to listen to of all the label's output.

The band, which consisted of members of other well known, and now legendary, bands, played plenty of gigs and put out three singles and one album (which ended up being the final release on Dangerhouse). Musically they were like a punk rock soul-funk band. Not that the bands sounded alike anyway back then, but Black Randy sounded like nothing that came before, or since. They were perhaps a big joke band, and their lyrics were certainly full of satire, but somehow I found charm in such songs as "Loner with a Boner" with it's chorus of "I'm a loner with a boner and I'm going to telephone her". Incidentally, that happens to be a favorite of Lady Combustion who wondered why I didn't pick that song in favor of the title track of this single, which happens to be my favorite Black Randy song.

After the album was released, it spelled the end for Dangerhouse Records and it wasn't long after that it also spelled the end of Black Randy. Randy died from AIDS not too long after that, a result of his wild and care-free life riddled with drug use among other activities.

A few tracks can be found on the Dangerhouse Volume One and Volume Two on Frontier Records. Sympathy For the Record Industry had reissued the album for a short time, but it seems to be out of print again.

Listen to "Trouble at the Cup" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Return to the Palace

Since the company I work for moved offices last spring to that wonderful toilet known as Ravenswood, a co-worker and myself have been lamenting the loss of our Friday tradition, lunch at the Palace Grill. For those not in the know (or in the city of Chicago even), the Palace is, for lack of a better term, an old time greasy spoon. Think of Mel's Diner but with much better food.

The owner, George, is a super friendly person who remembers everyone who comes in there on any sort of regular basis. He'll come up to you and ask how you are doing and shake your hand. The staff are all very friendly too, and most of them have worked there a lot longer than the 4 years I've been eating there. We hadn't eaten there since we moved almost a year ago so last week we decided to make the trek over there for lunch. It was nice that we were remembered after all that time and the food was just as we remembered it.

The lure of the Palace for myself and some fellow co-workers was the "palace burger". This is a 1/2 pound burger that comes on French bread. It is a site to behold and it tastes awesome. It will sneak up on you however. The first time you eat it you'll think, "well that was a pretty good burger" but then you'll find yourself thinking about it a couple days later and then wanting another one and then the next thing you know, it becomes your Friday lunch tradition. I don't know of any other place that I've been to that serves a burger on French bread, and that bread totally makes the burger, they have some of the best bread around.

Where our new office is, there isn't anything like the Palace. There isn't any place that hooks you in and makes you want to become a regular. Hell, there isn't much there that makes you want to leave the office to eat instead of bringing lunch, unless you hop in the car and drive to Potbellys or Hot Dougs.

I think we are going to have to bring back "Palace Fridays" albeit not quite as frequently since it is a far drive and time consuming, but man is it worth it.

The many flavors of: Necros - IQ32 7"

I covered the Necros in a past vault selection so I'll skip the back story as it can be found there.

This was their second release and was a split venture between Dischord and Touch and Go Records. Back then, and even now, Dischord would do split releases with labels they would help distribute. I don't know the specifics of who paid for what, I'm assuming most of it was actually paid for by the band and Dischord probably was more involved with getting the record distributed.

This single had 3 pressings, and 4 distinct variations and they are as follows...

The first pressing had green labels. There was 1000 pressed. 100 of those were housed in special sleeves that were made for a show at the Endless Summer Skate park. I believe this was due to the fact the real sleeves were not ready yet. The band whipped these up at some print shop. I am not sure what printing technique was used, either screen printing or something else. I do know that many of them look funny due to this printing technique and some were even put into bags while still wet, thus forever attaching it to the bag! These were hand numbered on the back. This version looks like this...

The second pressing was also 1000 copies and had tan labels...

The third and final pressing was again 1000 copies and had white labels. Sadly this was the last anyone would see of these recordings legally as the record went out of print and has never been reissued anywhere aside from bootlegs...

There were also 3 distinct insert variations.

This was the one in the Skate park sleeve...


This was the one that came with the second pressing and was two-sided...

and this one that was in the third pressing...

So there's the story of the many flavors of the Necros IQ32 7", one fine piece of hardcore history.

Selections from The Punk Vault [Avengers]

Avengers - S/T LP (1983 CD Presents)

In hindsight, I guess I could have included this as part of the feature from the other day, but since I like to keep those features as separate entities, you get two Avengers features in one week.

In their short time together, the Avengers made quite an impact and were very influential in the punk rock world. The band formed in 1977 when a 19 year old girl named Penelope Houston moved to San Francisco to go to art school. She met up with some like-minded punks and formed a band and immediately left their mark on the then-small punk scene.

The original lineup was
Penelope Houston - Vocals
Greg Westermark (aka Greg Scars) - Guitar
Jonathan Postal - Bass
Danny Furious - Drums

The band played its first show at the famed Mabuhay Gardens in June 1977. At a some point Jonathan left to be replaced by Jimmy Wilsey (aka Jimmy Blaze). I believe it was due to him not getting along with one of the other band members.

In their time together they put out exactly two records. Their first was the now-legendary "We are the One" 7" on Dangerhouse Records. That was followed up with a 4-song EP on White Noise Records. The band even opened up for the Sex Pistols last ever show at Winterland in San Francisco (well, their last show for nearly 20 years, after which they did a reunion tour).

The band basically fell apart and called it quits in 1979, but stuck together long enough to finish out a few show commitments they had at the time, one of which is now available on the Zero Hour LP that came out last year. After that, Penelope went solo and has continued to record and release music ever since.

This album came out in 1983 and contained a fair share of controversy, much of which is touched on in the "many flavors of" feature on this record. Suffice it to say the band never got paid for it, were sued over it, and their recordings are now sitting in some guys home somewhere in San Francisco being kept from the rest of the world with the exception of some inferior sounding bootleg copies that are floating around. I said it before and I'll say it again, this is one of the all time best punk rock albums and the fact that some kid or some old punk can't go to a record store and at least buy it on a real CD is a crime.

As always if you have any additional information you'd like to share, or were in the Avengers, please get in touch.

Listen to "Second to None" from the record (right click and "save target as...")

Mr. Potato Head goes to Indiana - part 2

A few days after receiving the envelope from Mr. P, another one arrived postmarked from the same city.

That must have been the end of his fun in the state famous for car racing and popcorn as the next envelope I received was from someplace else, which will be covered in the next chapter.