HARRIET THE SPY // GRAIN

I played Kent, Ohio a lot in the '90s. This might seem geographically illogical since most of those tours started in California, but ANCIENT CHINESE PENIS had a (rare) excellent show there in 1993, so it seemed logical to return when Matt and I hit the road in subsequent years with MULTIPLE CHOICE and FUCKFACE. By the time we rolled through Kent with HICKEY in '96, we had probably played the town more than half a dozen times. Most of those shows were at a weird drug addled storefront called Black Fleck (edit: The storefront was Mantis...Black Fleck is in Europe), and we rubbed elbows with the fellows from SOCKEYE (only played with them once however, and I am pretty sure they only did it under duress...to get us to stop asking). But on the spring 1995 tour, we played a house show with HARRIET THE SPY and realized there was an entirely different DIY punk scene in Ohio (this would have been prime More Than Music Fest era)....it seemed like a thing that was maybe more connected to our reality (I'm telling you, the vibe at those Black Fleck [note: I'm actually pretty sure Black Fleck was in Pottsdam, Germany - John thinks the venue in Kent might have been called The Mausoleum, which would be fitting - see earlier edit, it was definitely Mantis] shows was pretty weird, as if we had just appeared as extra characters on the set of a movie whose plot development that had been sidetracked some time ago by LSD and/or heroin), and I remember that house show being really good. HARRIET THE SPY played, and the whole night was hot and sweaty and positive. Of course....we returned to the weird storefront on the subsequent tour, just because. 

HARRIET THE SPY // GRAIN

Both bands play quintessential '90s DIY hardcore, and though I feel like HARRIET THE SPY is more revered, the GRAIN tracks here hit pretty damn hard. There's a subtle tempo change in "Nibble" that's so well done that it makes me anxious, and they have an overall DRIVE LIKE JEHU vibe. There are a couple of their tracks here from the self titled EP, also from 1994...in case anyone is really keeping track. The tape? Who fukkn knows where I got it. I get stuff.