Mission Impossible

A friend of mine (if I may say so, seeing that we have never actually met) provided a link for this a while ago in a comment to an older post. But since none of my 5 regular readers (“friends”) has any reason to go through the comments of old posts, I thought I’d post this here to give it the proper exposure that this record deserves. Thus, barely 2 months later I spring into action with cat-like reflexes to continue my quest to worship/post/rip-off the entire Workshed catalogue.

I have no info about this band beyond what you can read on the sleeve. It’s a good record. It’s Workshed. What else do you need to know?

Here goes “the other” WSR #8 (and here the other, in case you missed it).

Mission Impossible

and now to something completely different...

I know it's pretty shallow, but a pretty important part of going to HC shows was always to check out the merch, and particularly to see whether the band had some decent t-shirts. Most of the times I would make a beeline to the merch table (“what they are not set up yet?”) and scoop out the shirts and what other stuff they may have hawked off. I never really collected t-shirts, but I loved them enough (and I still had enough disposable income at that time in my life when I would regularly go to shows) that at some point I amassed a pretty neat collection. My spending habit would have been even worse if it wasn’t for the fact that I am a pretty big guy and most bands never bothered to print XXL shirts for their tours, or had sold all 3 of them in Italy by the time they got to our neck of the woods. So oftentimes bands were inadvertently looking out for my meager student budget by coming to town with a box of nothing but “M”s and “S”s, taking any decision as to whether to have lunch the next day or a nice new t-shirt out of my hands.

However, as everybody knows of course t-shirt sizes vary considerably and if I really liked a band, or if the design of the shirt was really great, physical limitations were often redefined: “Well, maybe I can fit in that “L”… What do you say? They still might shrink? But not too much, right?"

This type of denial led me to buy a couple of shirts that I wore only once or twice before having to admit to myself that it really wasn’t meant to be (Slapshot or Gorilla Biscuits come to mind, and a couple of other US HC bands that were fronted by guys that were a big “M” themselves at best). And I mean, did the tour-shirts for GO! really have to come in that god-awful orange? (“Aww, what the heck, I’ll buy one anyway, I’m sure one day I’ll have pants that go with that color…”).

More often than not I’d sit in the back of the car on our way home and an otherwise perfect concert experience would be tainted by the sting of having to watch my friends try on their new shirts, while all I got were 2 lousy 7”s that I could have gotten at some other show, too (“Yeah, Majority of One they were OK, but I already have so many navy blue shirts…I mean, if you think that looks good…”).

On the other hand, sometimes having spent 3 hours in the car to see what turned out to be a completely forgettable live show might still have been made worthwhile if the merch was good (“at least they had great shirts…”). Then I’d proudly wear my new acquisition in school the next day and any cognitive dissonance about the trip and amount of money spent would quickly be dissolved by revisionist story telling about the awesome show everyone else had missed.

Anyway, below are a few of my favorite early 90’s tour-shirts that have survived throughout the years. All of these are still proudly worn.

Steel Pole Bathtub

Quicksand


Quicksand



Holy Rollers


NFAA



Up-front

OK, this last one is not in here because it is one of my favorite shirts, but rather belongs in the "what were they thinking?" category. While the front is actually quite nice and simple, the drawing on the back is not suited to recruit anyone into the HC (or SE) movement. With the exception of the guy in the yellow shirt in the back, every stick figure in this drawing looks sad, even the ones with the empty heads that are facing away. Particularly the guy ("girl", "it?" What's with the towel-shaped head appendages?), who gets kicked in the head, really doesn't look like he (it?) is getting ready to "break down some walls". But that might be difficult with a broken wrist anyway... At least they all have prominent "Xs" on their hands, that should make them feel better.
And BTW, Up front live was also quite forgettable... So to some extent this is really an adequate depiction of the show that I attended. And I bought the shirt of course before the band had played....

Pittbull

Note the second “t”…

This is another band that I loved back in the day and have recently rediscovered, but don’t know squat about. When I clicked around a bit to find some info about the band I didn’t get very far, which is probably due to the fact that “Pittbull” (even with the extra “t” and combinations of other hardcore-specific words) is not a good search term to google. Plus I get bored easily. So you’ll have to do with a link to the grainy images on LastFM and the tidbit that they were from Detroit, which is somewhat fitting because they remind me a lot of a metal-influenced version of Negative Approach. The main reason for that comparison is the unearthly growl that the singer has, which reminds me a lot of N.A.’s John Brannon (who on a completely unrelated side note is currently fronting another great dirty rock band called Easy Action).

While unsuccessfully combing the internets for some more info on this here little band I saw that you can also dl this and all other Pittbull releases on the fantastic Zer blog. Those later records are actually all really good, too, and maybe in some aspects even better than this self-titled debut, but for sentimental reasons I still like this release (1991 on Nemesis) best and I don’t find myself listening to those other records as often.

You can also still buy a “best of” (no, actually it’s called “the very worst of Pittbull”, ha, ha, so clever, what will they think of next?) from surpriseattackrecords.

Pittbull

VA – Look at all the children now

If you don’t know it already, I am a real sucker for NYHC. Between this compilation here and Blackout’s “Where the wild things are” all the great Non-Revelation bands of the golden age of NYHC are covered. While “Where the wild things are” showcased mostly the harder and/or more metal-sounding bands like Sheer Terror, Maximum Penalty, or Uppercut, “Look at all the children now” leans more towards the “alternative” side of the spectrum. Maybe I am saying this mostly because this record was released by Sam McPheeters of Born Against fame on his Evacuate Records (EVAC #1, 1990), and some of the bands featured here were part of the ABC No Rio scene. But while most of the songs thankfully are not of the “you, me, youth crew” variety (with the exception of Team Effort’s cheesy “t.e.”), most of the songs are actually also not particularly politically charged.

(UPDATE: Looks like you can't trust everything you read on the internet... Apparently, Sam McPheeters did not release this record, but rather another Sam, Sam Fisher (or "Sam Evac" , which you know, makes sense... but who's keeping score, anyway, huh?)

On here you will find several quite well known bands like Rorschach, Citizen's Arrest, GO! and Moondog (Walter Schreifels’ brief project between Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand), and a bunch of really solid bands like Bad Trip, S.F.A. and Yuppicide that never really got their dues. Finally there are number of lesser known bands like Word Discrimination, Bugout Society, or Team Effort that round out (read “drag down”) this compilation.

Some of these songs weren’t so great to begin with but others really stood the test of time. Anyway, overall it is good non-youth crew NYHC and you should take this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane.

Look at all the children now

As a side note: I always liked the less raspy, more hardcore voice of Rorschach’s Charles Maggio better on those alternative versions of songs that made it on compilations like the Forever 7” or this one here. I am certainly in the vast minority on this one, but it needed to be said; so there you have it!

Chuck?…NOW!

From Suburbanvoice Issue 30 (1991) (via Operation Phoenix):

“VOICEBOX - Silence Lies (Workshed): One-off project with Dan O'Mahony (ex-No For An Answer) and Chuck Treece (ex-Underdog) . Bad Brains influenced rock, with surprisingly versatile vocals from Mr. O'Mahony. Powerful and soulful.”

I guess in HC circles this indeed passes as soulful. It’s a little gem of a record that most guys my age probably already know (bring on the reminiscin’…). This is mid-tempo, post-hardcore with a searing guitar and introspective lyrics. And given that it involves Dan O’Mahoney and was released shortly before the 411 LP came out, not surprisingly a lot of the things that I wrote below on the 411 post apply here as well.
I have often heard this derided by hard-line apostles of the SxE church and of the Dan O’Mahoney canon in particular, probably because it is a lot slower and not as “hard” as NFAA (well, probably because it is not NFAA, period).
As much as I like NFAA, and without taking anything away from them, I always liked O’Mahoney’s later bands and projects better. Most of them were musically and lyrically more varied (you know, not so preachy and a bit more personal – “mature” is probably the word I am looking for). This 7" leapfrogs most of these later bands in that regard, too, because it features the great guitar work of Chuck Treece. Anyway, in my opinion these 2 songs here hold up really well, and it’s too bad that this is all that these guys recorded together.
And if you can’t tell by the title of this post, my favorite part is when Dan O' cues Chuck for his guitar solo on "Cold Inside".

So download… NOW!

Can you break through? A SKENE! compilation

The little that I know about SKENE! records (or learned from various sources on the Interwebs) I have already divulged on the Dog Tired and Shades Apart posts below. This comp came out in 1990 and provides an (incomplete) overview of some of the great emo/punk-rock bands from the Midwest that released 7inches on SKENE!, plus a few bands that were probably included for their value of name recognition (e.g. Green Day and GO!).
The record suffers a bit from the very uneven production of the individual songs. There are also a few filler tracks (the instrumental "Means" by Sticks and Stones or the Beef Trust song), but overall this is a very solid and diverse comp featuring a couple of bands that went on to (much) bigger things (Green Day; Fuel), and some that did not get much recognition, but which actually contribute some of the better songs on this record (Angry Son; Dog Tired; Walt Mink, Gneissmaker). Good stuff and (at the very least) a nice document of the post-hardcore/emo sound of the late 80s.

Can you break through?

Dog Tired - A bone to pick with the world

A couple of days ago someone (AdamBomb) left me a comment on the Shades Apart - Neon post, mentioning that he had rips of several other SKENE! EPs, which he was willing to share. Today he sent me the links to said records and one of them was for this great 7" by Dog Tired. This came out in 1989 as SKENE! #7 and is one of my all-time favorite emo records. Here are 4 songs that alternate between intense emotion and headbobbing rock, all tied together with a good dose of melody. What I always liked most though was the singer's unique nasal voice and his under the breath delivery - it's very emo, but it fits very well and comes across as sincere (plus you know the standards were different 20 years ago...).
Unfortunately, I have absolutely no background information about this band. They had another 7", which as far as I remember wasn't quite as interesting and varied as this one. In any case, I have been rocking this thing out all day and thought I should share my joy with the 3 other people in the world who might remember this. Big props to AdamBomb for hooking me up with this!

Dog Tired

UPDATE: AdamBomb just started his own blog. So if you are looking for more old SKENE! stuff (I know I am) I suggest to head over there and ask him nicely, maybe he will upload some more stuff - he already started with "The People's Court" and "Awake".
Also, I found the great SKENE! comp "Can you break through" on Soulseek the other day. If I have a few minutes I'll upload that one, too.

7 Inch Boots – Tamped Concrete and 3 Lieder für Bruce Lee

The great cover of the “Tamped Concrete” 7inch tells you everything you need to know: This is music from skateboarding (or bouncy-ball hopping, or whatever that thing is on the back cover…) straight-edge kids who love Metal and have fun with it. So it is metal-core from a time (1989) before that genre really took off. Plus, for additional novelty these guys are from Germany and that is probably the only reason why I know about them. And now you can, too. 7 Inch Boots were from Mühlheim, a.d. Ruhr, which isn’t too far from where I used to live. If my memory serves me well (and that’s not something that I would rely on) they were associated with, or at least friends with this small collective of people who published a vegan/political/straight-edge fanzine called “Think Again”. The “Think Again” people were a German version of what I imagine the Ebullition people must have been like: All very nice and righteous, and trying to save the planet by not exploiting honeybees and through various other grassroots movements. In any case, I would frequently bump into some of these guys from 7 Inch Boots at shows and I saw them play once or twice (I’d like to say that I saw them open for GO! on their European tour in ’91, but that is probably wrong).

And while this 7inch is very near and dear to my heart and brings back good memories, I am absolutely not posting this for the sentimental value alone. This is really powerful sludgy hardcore.

The second EP “3 Lieder für Bruce Lee” was recorded in 1991, but only released in 1995. Those 3 songs represent a clear progression towards even more sludge and they are more Melvins than hardcore. Not that that is a bad thing, but the intensity of these songs doesn’t reach that of “Tamped Concrete”. Still good, though.

As an interesting side note, the members of 7 Inch Boots would later go on to form Bohren & der Club of Gore (on LastFM). Bohren & der Club of Gore play an ambient, noir jazz, which I have heard described as “music for people for whom the Twin Peaks soundtrack is too hectic”. Yet, the band maintains a distinct dark “metal” aesthetic in their cover art and merchandise. If this kind of “doom jazz” is your thing, too, then you should definitely check them out. Bohren & der Club of Gore (official page). They are still around and apparently doing pretty well.

Anyway, check out these masterpieces of German mosh-core. And if for some strange coincidence you have anything to add about 7 Inch Boots, by all means please do!

7 Inch Boots - 2 EPs