MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL PRESENTS...

I remember seeing this one in shops when I moved to SF in '95, but for whatever reason I remember thinking it was too......too something. Maybe it was because MRR was The Institution and we felt like we were doing The Real Punk Shit (honestly, we were just two years removed from booking a tour using contacts pulled from microfiche at the college library so we kinda had a point), but really it was probably because I didn't know shit. Looking back though, what an incredible fukkn comp - DEAD SILENCE, CRINGER, NAUSEA, LIBIDO BOYZ, THE DETONATORS, SCREECHING WEASEL (when Ben was just a shit stirrer and had not yet turned into a complete shit), JAWBOX...you get the drill. Basically this was glimpse of the various '90s USDIY punk scenes n 1989, which is a polite way of saying that Tim Yo knew exactly what the fuck he was doing. And even though I never met the man face-to-face, I owe him more than I could possibly type. 

THEY DON'T GET PAID

THEY DON'T GET LAID

BUT BOY DO THEY WORK HARD!

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In other news - REALISTIC in Oakland this evening with some cool bands I'll be seeing for the first time:

PRE-MARITAL SEX

 

Seriously punks, the things you find if you keep your ears/eyes/hearts open will amaze you. As far as I can tell, PRE MARITAL SEX started somewhere around Santa Barbara around 1990 and may or may not have relocated to the Bay Area. Also I might be wrong. Where and whenever they were from, they created a maniacal sex-positive cacophony that was way ahead of its time - California punk with classic UK anarcho energy and early decade USDIY ethos and approach creates some kind of AGENT ORANGE vs. SPITBOY vs. X-RAY SPEX amalgamation and I'm not really sure what's happening but I know it probably pissed off a lot of surfer dude-bros three decades and I know I want more. Fortunately, the kid who scored this demo (and let me borrow it so I could share it with you) copped two other demos....you're gonna get those too. I've said it (many times) before., but I'll say it again now: "You're Welcome." 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLOODY MARYS // BLOOD SISTERS

DISIPLINE

 

Brilliant and brilliantly anthemic Boston punk with serious MISFITS energy.....except DISIPLINE is on an entirely different mission. From "Get Pegged (If You Want To)" to "Consent" to the title track and (far) beyond, these punks make sex and gratification political. Because it fucking is. 

SEXUAL HEATHEN

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I had to edit this post for the Google because there was a butt and/or a weiner in the cover art. 

That shit is bizarre - you consider all of the shit the world today and it's a ding-dong and/or buttcrack that pushes you over the edge....? Sorry kids, the internet that brings us joy will surely be the death of us. 

GERY BURTON // CHICK COREA

 

You got a guy playing a piano and you've got a guy playing a vibraphone thing.....and they're both generally considered to be pretty good at what they do. They made this record called Duet back in 1979 and a pretty famous record label made a cassette version and I rescued it from a thrift store in the Inland Empire (which is honestly a weird thing to call a place when it's not an actual Empire and it's like 50 miles from the Coast). So here you go. 

DUET

DAS DRIP

 

FFO: early '10s NWI punk, early '80s Italian hardcore, late '00s East LA punk, Deluxe Bias. 

I figure that should be enough. 

There are (were) three drips - Sorry State did the second drip, this was the first drip. 

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DAS DRIP

TOTAL DAMAGE

 

It feels good (sometimes) to hear something new (to you) that feels like things you already know. I had never heard Jakarta's TOTAL DAMAGE before a couple of weeks ago, but I knew the sounds - throaty, heavy hardcore with stadium crust undertones, liberal grind parts and a few INTEGRITY ghosts lurking in their collective closet - and now I know the band. Struggle For Existence was released in 2018 but the band started more than twenty years earlier, among the first wave of DIY hardcore from Indonesia. They've grown - and now I'm after a copy of 200's Police Racist Action because I want to hear how this shit started. 

STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

Also there are parts that remind me of Polish crust (think HOMOMILITIA) and the spoken word piano driven interludes are sick and also the tape itself is kinda wrecked so the sound quality is a bit in-and-out in places. You get what you pay for though, and I haven't seen any contributions in a while (or ever). You kids keep it that way, and I'll keep it this way. 

NIGHT PROWLER

 

I got a call from a buddy last night. He's a record dude, grew up on punk in early '80s Boston before moving to SF and going deep down a free jazz hole way back before it was cool, and now he's spending retirement seeking and slinging records (which is something to aspire to, no doubt). One of his jazz connections gave him a tip about an old(er) head looking to lighten his load and after a quick phone chat my dude was on a plane to Boston. He sent me one photo as a teaser - a frame filled with Crass Records singlesall dead mint and most with the original $3.00 price tags still in tact - but the conversation that followed was him just listing off virtually every essential hardcore and punk record released before '85. Wild. "He played guitar in a punk band but wasn't really into the faster hardcore, so the SSD Kids Will Have Their Say was basically unplayed" Shit like that. He stayed up with the dude drinking coffee and digging through boxes until the wee hours in the morning - passing the physical component of one person's connection to an entire scene back into the world...I'm really glad that shit still happens based on personal relationships instead of just record sharks and the internet, you know? Anyhoo, NIGHT PROWLER is the solo project from one of the VACANT STATE (who has been in a grip of other bands dating back to the late '90s).  Crime Wave is the first of four tapes that came out in the early twenty-teens, and it sounds like Boston hardcore with a little tinge of the good upper Midwest shit. There you go...there's the connection. It's tenuous, but it's there. 

CRIME WAVE