Last week I happily went to Reggie’s yet again, this time to see The Germs (or what’s left of The Germs anyway). They played an all ages show that got off to a nice early start which was fine with me considering it was on a “school night”. We got to the club a little early and treated ourselves to some of the fine food the club serves and then it was time for the show.

Rule 22

Rule 22

Rule 22

Rule 22 were the first band up and are a local band. I’m pretty sure I have seen them before as they looked and sounded familiar to me once they got going. The reason they sounded familiar though could be their resemblance to early Green Day however, so I can’t say for certain if I’ve actually seen them before or not. Their songs were pretty melodic and punchy and they sounded pretty good. There was a small group of kids there who seemed like they came to the show just to see them and were dancing about. The band played about a half hour which was just the right amount of time for me to sit through them without losing interest.

Krum Bums

Krum Bums

Krum Bums

Austin, TX’s Krum Bums quickly followed. They played hardcore with a hint of metal seasoning. All their songs were fast and many sounded similar. They really packed a punch and got the crowd going quickly. The singer would often appeal to the kids in the crowd to dance and they alwasy oblidged and he actually got them going in a proper cricle pit as opposed to the usual human bumper cars of chaos that usually happens at shows. It fit nicely with their somewhat retro sound which made me felt like i was back at a show in the mid 1980s. The band really seemed to win over a good amount of the crowd that night, my only two complaints is their ridiculous name and the fact they soiled a 7 Seconds song by doing a cover of it (during which they invited someone from the crowd to come up and sing it which probably made that kid’s day for sure judging by the smile on his face). If they change their name and ditch the cover song I’d happily see them again.

The Germs

The Germs

After a lengthy setup and sound check process, The Germs took the stage. For those who may not be aware, the surviving members of The Germs decided to take their show on the road with Shane West (who played Darby Crash in the movie, What We Do is Secret) playing the part of Darby Crash. So while they are billing themselves as The Germs, and feature all the surviving members, without Darby Crash they really are nothing more than a Germs tribute band.

The Germs

The Germs

I’ve seen this show a few times before and it never was as bad as I imagined it would be. There is something neat about seeing the surviving members all up on the same stage playing those amazing old punk rock songs. Shane West is about as good of a Darby stand-in as you could hope for except he remembers the lyrics and to sing into the mic a whole lot more.

The Germs

The Germs

They played everything you’d want to hear and the crowd, which was about 95 percent young kids, were jumping all over the place, singing along and just going nuts. Shane passed the mic out into the crowd more often than not and allowed them to sing along. While Shane kept the crowd going, Lorna, Don and Pat played those songs with a smile on their faces the entire time. Just like the last time I saw them it really looked like they were having fun up there.

The Germs

The Germs

The Germs

After about an hour of playing which included one encore, the show was over and the sweaty kids in the crowd gathered themselves up and left the club, seemingly satisfied with the show they witnessed that night. Overall I thought it was a pretty entertaining show from top to bottom and added it to the list of fun nights I’ve had over at Reggies.

After a winter-long show drought I started making up for lost time by going to my second show in as many days last week. This time it was for the classic hardcore band MDC. I saw them play here a few years ago and thought they were still quite good so I was looking forward to seeing them again especially because they were playing at one of my favorite clubs, Reggie’s.

Embrace the Kill

Embrace the Kill

Due to a mix up on my part, I got a late start and when I got inside the club the second band, Embrace the Kill, were part way through their set. They played some really fast thrash with metallic guitars. Their tempo remained constant as the singers would growl and yell their vocals. Their songs were pretty short and to the point and they pelted out one after the other in pretty rapid succession. The crowd was still pretty thin at this point but I saw a few heads bobbing in approval.

Mouth Sewn Shut

Mouth Sewn Shut

Mouth Sewn Shut

Mouth Sewn Shut

Mouth Sewn Shut quickly followed and the size of the crowd also grew quite a bit at this point. I had heard of them before but never heard their music until they started playing. They were a bit similar to Embrace the Kill but with far less metal in the guitar sounds. They were much more straight forward hardcore punk but they also threw in more tempo changes and “mosh parts”. Speaking of mosh parts the kids in the crowd went pretty nuts for many of their songs, and would also do so on command by the frequent pleas from the singer.

MDC

MDC

MDC

MDC closed the show after a fairly lenghty setup process. There was a big banner behind them with some classic early artwork on it that looked pretty cool. The minute they got into their first song the now even larger crowd started going crazy. I got knocked around a couple of times which made shooting photos rather difficult. I quickly moved over to one side to get out of the line of fire and resumed capturing their performance.

MDC

MDC

MDC

They played a lot of songs from the first album, each one resulting in the kids going nuts. They peppered in some brand new material too which sounded a lot like the early material. Over the past couple of decades their sound has remained very consistent which is a good thing. In between songs on occasion, Dave would talk to the crowd or at the very least announce what their next song was. A couple of times he even asked the crowd what they wanted to hear. When they finally got to “John Wayne Was a Nazi”, the kids went berserk! They left the stage for a few minutes to catch their breath and came back and played a couple more songs for an encore.

MDC

MDC

Overall this was a pretty fun hardcore show that had newer bands and one classic one sharing a stage so there was a little something for everyone. Another muscial evening well spent!

Rosemary’s Babies – Talking to the Dead CD
Ghastly Records

Rosemary’s Babies were a very short-lived New Jersey hardcore punk band who were around between 1981-1983. Their sole muscial output consisted of the Blood Lust 7″ EP which came out the year they disbanded. Those of you who are Samhain and Danzig fans will be interested to know that this was the band Eerie Von was in prior to joining Samhain. In fact they credit Eerie’s departure for Samhain as the reason Rosemary’s Babies disbanded.

Now a couple of decades later the music of Rosemary’s Babies has finally available to those of you without trust funds to spend on old punk records on ebay. The original EP along with tons of unreleased material is convienetly available on this CD. This CD actually came out a few years ago, however I think they have again reissued it or something through some arrangement with MVD.

The music is pretty standard fare hardcore punk for its time, the songs are short, fast, angry,and loud. I’ve owned the original EP for over twenty years now and a couple songs from it would always end up on mix tapes I used to make for my car or for people. This CD contains 25 tracks, 20 of which are studio recordings with the remaning songs being live from CBGB’s in 1983. The studio tracks were all remastered and it pains me to say it but they sound infinitely better than the original vinyl (which had a rather muddy sound to it). I don’t know if they remixed it as well but it sounds better than ever. While the disc itself is great, the packaging was kind of a let-down. There were no lyrics or liner notes of any kind. The booklet simply contained a couple of photos and the band logo. I wish they’d taken some time to at least put a band history and the lyrics in the packaging. It seems like it was done very much on the cheap.

I’m always happy when some classic punk from the early days gets reissued so people can hear these great bands from the past. Anyone who is a fan of Eerie Von, Samhain, or Danzig would do well to pick this up for it’s part in history, so should fans of early 1980’s hardcore so they can check out a band they probably missed out on.

In honor of the newly released reissue of Make an Effort, the good Doctor (Strange that is) graciously gave me an extra test pressing of it to give away to one lucky visitor of this site. All you have to do is fill out the form below. The rules are simple.

1. Limit 1 entry per person, NO EXCEPTIONS. If you enter more than once, you are disqualified.
2. Contest ends on Friday December 5th at 11:59pm CST
3. Winner will be chosen randomly and be notified by email after which they will need to provide their shipping address to receive their prize.
4. No purchase necessary

Good luck everyone and thanks to Doctor Strange for providing this sweet gift!

One of the most essential and perfect hardcore punk 7″s of all time just got yet another reissue. I am talking about Government Issue – Make an Effort. This four song piece of perfection has been reissued perhaps more times and on more labels than any old punk record I can think of (I think Zero Boys – Vicious Circle is coming up a close second).

Make an Effort was G.I.’s second EP and in my eyes really took them to the next level and established them as a truly great punk rock band, a title they held in my opinion for many years to follow. They were really one of the most under-rated punk bands of all time and deserve far more recognition than they received.

This time around, Doctor Strange Records is the one doing the reissue honors. One thing that makes this reissue slighty different than all the others is for time in its post-first press history, it is using the artwork and layout from the original pressing, which was lovingly re-created by yours truly!

The record comes in two variations:

Black vinyl

White w/orange splatter vinyl

I think the colored vinyl version looks pretty sweet. If you call yourself a punk rock fan and don’t own this record, fix that now for about the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  Both version can be purchased from the good doctor himself at the Doctor Strange Records website.

Check back at the end of the week for a chance to win a test pressing of this record in the next Punk Vault contest!

Adrenalin O.D. – The Wacky Hi-Jinks of… Adrenalin O.D. 2xCD
Chunksaah Records

My initiation to Adrenalin O.D. (or AOD for short) came at the hands of a pair of compilations: Flipside Vinyl Fanzine Volume One (where their cover of the Brady Bunch theme cracked me up and was awesome) and We Got Power (where their blazing “World War 4″ blew me away, and then ended with a cover of “Pop Goes the Weasel”).  That exposure put me on the path to seek out this album back when I was in high school, and AOD pretty much put New Jersey on the map for me as far as punk rock went. My love for AOD led me to discover that New Jersey was a hotbed of hardcore punk and I couldn’t get enough of it.Their blend of powerful hardcore with a hint of melody and their fun sense of humor really made them stand out from the hundreds of other hardcore bands popping up at the time.

When I got this album in High School, I pretty much wore it out from playing it so much. I viewed it back then as one of those essential hardcore punk albums that should be in every aspiring punker’s record collection and 25 years have passed and I still feel the same way. The songs on this album have withstood the test of time and sound every bit as good to me as they did to my teenage ears. The record has spent the better part of the last 15 years being out of print, only surfacing once on the Sittin’ Pretty collection that Grand Theft Audio released a long time ago on CD, which I am pretty sure is out of print now.

Chunksaah Records saw fit to make sure that this album wasn’t lost in obscurity and has given it a deluxe 2xCD reissue. On this disc is the original album, remastered and sounding far better than it ever did on vinyl (a fact that pains me to admit, but it’s true). It also contains their first EP, Let’s BBQ, which is a classic in its own right.

OK, so you fall in the category of owning Sittin’ Pretty and wonder what’s so different about this release? For starters the album and EP tracks do sound slightly better than the GTA release. This disc also contains a bunch of live material not found on the GTA release but it came at the expense of a few compilation tracks. This release comes with lyrics and liner notes by Jim Testa along with some great flyer scans and photographs. The bottom line is both release have stuff on them that makes owning both mandatory if you are a fan of the band. As a huge AOD fan, I know that both have a happy home in my collection and I was pretty stoked that this came out with some unreleased material on it in a nice package.

For those younger punks out there, do yourself a favor and pick this CD up, AOD influenced a lot more punk rock than you may realize and you owe it to yourself to brush up on your punk rock history. To old timers like myself, here’s a blast from the past that still sounds as good as ever that is well worth the price of ownership.