CHRISTIE

CHRISTIE are another mystery band (try searching the internet for a band named "CHRISTIE" - and good luck). These six tracks also appear on the flipside of my equally mysterious CYANIDE SCENARIO cassette (which might be an unreleased INTERNAL AUTONOMY recording, though I really can't be sure...but I digress), although in a slightly cleaner fashion. I opted to share the dirtier version, the white wash and distorted hiss suit the brooding melancholic music perfectly. Saccharine sweet female vocals are certainly the focus, but blown out ethereal guitars bring to mind a more rudimentary PRIMITIVES (or perhaps the FIZZBOMBS are a more accurate comparison?) and the songs are easily catchy enough to sit alongside many 80s bands of this ilk, although CHRISTIE clearly never achieved that status. If anyone has any background (or foreground) information, please share...past bands, future bands, other recordings? 

CHRISTIE

WHITE WARDS

The best $2 I've dropped in a record store in ages, this 11 minute WHITE WARDS demo is an absolute stunner.  They combine the noisy self indulgent hardcore approach utilized by fellow Olympians SEX VID with the nihilistic spewings of GEHENNA and drench the whole recording in mystery sauce so you have to dig deeper to find out what the hell they are doing. A side note, last Friday I was driving home from Seattle, and planned a stop in Portland to break up the drive and hang out with friends...I was surprised that there weren't any shows that piqued my interest in PDX-Punk City on a summer Friday, but oh well - I had a great night anyway. Then today, while ripping this tape, I internetted WHITE WARDS and found that I drove through Olympia just as they were destroying a house with the Bay Area's MIGRAINE and ECOLI.  Sometimes I lose, but these eight songs will guarantee you a win, oh fine Terminal Escape reader.

WHITE WARDS

BLACK FLAG in Kentucky, 1984

I know that the historical importance of BLACK FLAG and their approach to music cannot be understated. I know that BLACK FLAG's contribution to American punk and hardcore was immeasurable. I know BLACK FLAG are likely the most enduring hardcore band to come out of the 80s. And I think BLACK FLAG are totally overrated. Their 8 hours rehearsals are legendary, but I have to think that the result of endless time locked in a room together (and together with Rollins, no less) was uninspired performances like the one featured here. After a 12 minute instrumental that must have bored the Newport, Kentucky audience to fucking tears in 1984 (the most groundbreaking thing FLAG did was Process Of Weeding Out; there were plenty of bands making equally ferocious music in the late 70s/early 80s, and not as dumbed down as BLACK FLAG were either, it's just that BLACK FLAG took their show on the road...a lot), Ginn launches into a tired delivery of a brilliantly simple riff, and "Nervous Breakdown" has never sounded so dull. A version of My War's "Can't Decide" completely devoid of any enthusiasm follows (My War was the first BLACK FLAG I ever heard...I gave the record to a friend before side A was even over), but then "Slip It In" sounds good and it seems that 20 minutes  into the set these dudes are finally hitting their stride. I always appreciated the sentiment behind "Black Coffee," but the tune falls flat on vinyl, and this rendition does little to revive the song...or the set. Rollins' presence is vapid throughout, and the 20-30 second lag between songs makes me think that the band were just as bored as he was. By this point in their career, they feel (live and recorded) like they are just going through the motions, appeasing the fans that pay their bills while Greg Ginn was suppressing the inner monster that would go on the make Process Of Weeding Out and form GONE after BLACK FLAG's demise. I can't deny the fury of tunes like "My War" (probably the best song on this tape), and bringing hardcore to the country at large is an admirable legacy, to be sure. However, memories of yourself as a frustrated teenagers blasting these jams on your Walkman on the way to get your ass kicked (again) at school aside, three years into the Rollins era and BLACK FLAG had lost nearly all of their zeal, and perhaps even most of their relevance.

Live at The Jockey Club

(download link removed by the Black Flag Reputation Preservation Society)

I understand that any dismissal of BLACK FLAG places me in a very small minority, and I'd like to stress that I don't hate, or even dislike them, I just think that an inordinate amount of historical attention gets directed at a band who released a couple of killer records and then languished in a "what the fuck are we doing" limbo for a few years too long, fronted by a seemingly self absorbed choad who has made a career out of his stint in the band. There's decent footage of this show on youtube, pretty easy to track down if you want a visual aid. Admittedly the quality of this live recording leaves a bit to be desired, but like I've said already, so does the performance.

TERMINAL TOUR

I've been posting backlogged drafts for the last two weeks or so...I was hoping to accumulate enough so that I could keep up my one-a-days from the road, but alas I cannot. I spent a great weekend in LA with Japan's CROW, followed by an equally great trip through the southwest with San Francisco bands BRILLIANT COLORS and GRASS WIDOW. Four days in Austin, saw POISON IDEA play one of the most pathetic sets of music I've ever seen, saw MORPHEME blow minds, BASTARD NOISE melted my face, and now I'm on the road with SUBHUMANS. Posts will resume June 20th, but until then I encourage you to stop by and see me on tour if you are on the west coast (in addition to my smiling face and the live show, I'll have several early 80s Bluurg cassette releases in tow, as well as the VACCUUM and OPT OUT demos. I brought 100 copies of the NO STATIK demo along, but I got wasted and left them in Austin...some janitor is stoked), and if you aren't then you should just peruse the Escape archives and download the TVOD and DECEASED demos, the shit seriously rules.

SUBHUMANS (UK) June 2010

05 Pomona, CA w/ A-HEADS, ANIMALITOS

06 Los Angeles, CA w/ A-HEADS, RAYOS X

07 Long Beach, CA w/ A-HEADS, TOYS THAT KILL

08 Las Vegas, NV w/ A-HEADS

09 San Louis Obispo, CA w/ A-HEADS

10 Santa Cruz, CA w/ A-HEADS

11 Berkeley, CA w/ MDC, A-HEADS, SAHN MARU

12 San Francisco, CA w/ A-HEADS, SIN ORDEN

13 Sparks, NV w/ MDC

14 Sacramento, NV w/ MDC, RAT DAMAGE

15 Eugene, OR w/ ARCTIC FLOWERS, RESIST, HAPPY BASTARDS

16 Portland, OR w/ ARCTIC FLOWERS, SALTED CITY

17 Seattle, WA w/ ARCTIC FLOWERS, WALLS

ASS

I could go on about ASS for hours, but I'll try to keep it relatively short. Early 1990s I started touring, and on my second tour we played a dreadful show in Kent, Ohio. The gig was horrific, but we were on tour so we probably thought it was amazing, but we did meet some nice folks (and that's really the whole point anyway). The next year when MULTIPLE CHOICE hit the road, we stopped by Kent once again. The show was at the same venue/gallery/hovel as the year before, but this time the show was fucking great, and Kent became a regular stop until that band stopped touring in 1997. Kent is most famous for one legendary act of excessive force in 1970, but for us it was all about these killer folks we were hanging out with and the great music they shared with us. I didn't yet know about "lo fi" music, but these dudes personified it, and we left Kent each year with more tapes of incomprehensible nonsense. SOCKEYE (actually from Stow, Ohio - the next town over) were at the epicenter of all of the noise, and they spawned bands like HORNS, BOY IN LOVE, and today's featured "artist": ASS. Should you choose to download (and I'm certain that most of you won't) you will be assaulted with 44 minutes of the most ridiculous bullshit you have ever heard...in three acts. ACT I features the band playing live in Kent, probably at that shithole that had cheap beer right across from where we always played, then the live recording moves to the sidewalk, and the "engineers" interview some young passersby while ASS continues the assault inside, like a noise beacon through the cigarette fog. ACT II is ten tracks that are the very embodiment of noisecore: few notes, few instruments, just bizarre and unlistenable chaos. And then ACT III is like the chill out after you've gotten all worked up...22 minutes of ambient noise interrupted periodically by disco hits from the '70s and infomercials. This tape has annoyed so many of my friends over the last 15 years, and I'm happy to add my Terminal Escape readers to that list. Listen at your own risk, but please listen.

"CLEAN AS A BUTT"

and other demos

DEVIATED INSTINCT

A twelve song live set that was recorded a month before the 1985 demo I posted back in February. No introduction or explanation really required, DEVIATED INSTINCT were fucking ace. In late 1985, Mid says the band was "still very much finding our feet," but this live set sounds like anything but a band finding their footing. If there were a designated genre for Filthy Anarcho Crust, then I would put DEVIATED INSTINCT at the top of the tree...I'm looking forward to seeing them in September.

DEVIATED INSTINCT live 08/1985

DARGE/SECRET SECT

No bullshit crust attack from Gifu, Japan (DARGE) and Southern California (SECRET SECT). DARGE are noisy and full of hissing madness that melts into a wash of cymbal noise but the vocals and the unmistakable Japanese hardcore rhythm show through the white noise and these songs are the perfect  metal/punk hybrid, not unlike Tokyo's CROW. On the flip side, SECRET SECT deliver three songs of female fronted politically charged crusty hardcore. The recording is off, and the result is disconcerting but that's why I like it...rough and dirty, and maybe they want to be metal but it's not quite working out just yet. 

DARGE/SECRET SECT