Scout - "Tomato" 7"

Sorry it's been about five weeks since my last post, but I'm a college student these days and I've been enjoying my summer off so, you know, there you go. Some shit I've done since my last post: my special-ladyfriend and I went to Curaçao and drank way too may frozen margaritas, daiquiris, and drinks swirled with the ubiquitous blue / red / green / orange curaçao than we'd care to admit. We also spent too much time doing not a goddamn thing other than sitting on the beach or snorkeling, making friends with multi-colored fish. Moving on from that, I've been brewing tons of beer in our basement, and I've been losing games of bowling I certainly shouldn't have (fuck YOU, Seen Baker!). Anyways, Sean and I are going to see Chokehold play a bunch of songs tomorrow night,and they probably don't feel the same way about those songs that they did twenty years ago, so that's pretty exciting. Somehow, I never saw them the first time around, and the overall the experience should be slightly not as good as this, which I am still kicking myself in the dick for not hearing about, nor attending. Morning Again is also playing, who should probably just play the jams from "The Cleanest War" and their first Immigrant Sun Records 7", and then leave the stage immediately.

ANY FUCKING WAY, this post is about a rad, underrated band from the Atlanta area named Scout. This two song 7" was released by the much aforementioned Moo Cow Records in 1995. These songs were recorded in February of the same year at Sleepless Nights, which was operated by a gentleman named Issa Diao, a few years before he moved north to D.C. and helped start the now (probably) infamous Good Clean Fun.

Here we have a slightly post-hc, in an Unwound or (even more so) Fabric sort-of-way. From what I understand, there was a lot of member "turnover" throughout the history of Scout, including none other than Steve Wishart who played in Car Vs Driver, as well as (at one, early point) Pennsylvania's own Fields Lay Fallow, who were basically better than everybody else circa 1998. Wishart also ran Lunchbox Records, which eventually wound up moving to North Carolina and wound up becoming an important d.i.y. venue in Charlotte circa 2006. Oh yeah, he also released a Bukkake Boys (nicest dudes) record somewhat recently as well as the Inkwell / Hal Al Shedad split your collection is probably missing, much to your chagrin. More relevant to this particular post; Lunchbox released the Freemasonry / Scout split 12" entitled "Familiarity is Friendly, but not Something I Care to Know" previous to the release of this two song 7".

It's good, its rocking, it's 90s Peach State emocore history. Certainly recommended if you enjoy way more popular bands like Sparta or And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead... but were always afraid of checking out quality, passionate, and/or introspective hardcore.

Moo Cow number ten, yo, and recommended by yours truly.

Damn the Hand

Tracklist:
1) Tomato (Asylum)
2) Economics Part I and II (Slalom Through Interpretational Milestones)

Threadbare - s/t ep

Moving, dark, intense and passionate are all applicable adjectives one could use to describe the Minneapolis band Threadbare, who were active between 1993 and 1997. They are one of the more musically-inclined straight edge bands that I've ever come across, as well as one of the more inspiring groups of their era. Threadbare crafted emotionally-charged and intelligently-penned songs that somehow intertwined the two completely differing feelings of depression and/or despair with something that was much more optimistic and hopeful at the very same time, with this dualism often occuring in the same song. The dynamic aspect of their songwriting led to lots of awesome moments on their records. Their discography isn't a very extensive one, yet it was apparent they put more emphasis on quality rather than quantity. All told, Threadbare released three records, and this eponymous ep was their first.

This was originally released as a 2 song 7" on Watermark Records, run by the Jordan brothers who played in New Jersey's Encounter. It was also offered as a 3 song cdep on Minneapolis, Minnesota's own FurFace Records, with the additional track "Penicillin" being pulled from their earlier demo tape (this track was eventually re-recorded for their next release). It's a raw and brooding journey, and although the production isn't quite as full as their next two Doghouse efforts, these songs aren't lacking in power at all.

I used to own a Threadbare hooded sweatshirt which I purchased from Doghouse at the same time their final record came out. It had the flame artwork that is pictured on the cd below. I let some girl I was briefly seeing when I was living in Georgia borrow it one morning, and I never saw her or that fucking shirt ever again. I'm way more than extremely confident she had no idea who the band was, but I do recall her strategically placed Grateful Dead tattoo (but not her name, which in hindsight is worth a chuckle).

"Ignition" and "Hoover" were recorded at The Terrarium in January 1994, and "Penicillin" was recorded at AmRep in August 1993. There is no catalog number for FurFace included. Dudes from Threadbare also played in Bloodline, 108, Snapcase, Krakatoa and The Judas Factor. Genuinely a brilliant band.

-cracking the facade-

V/A - Food Not Bombs Compilation LP

This is one of several Food Not Bombs benefit records that appeared during the 90s, and it was released on Anima Records, a small Canadian punk label based just outside of Toronto, Ontario. Anima put out stuff by notable bands like Jonah, Bev Clone, Drift and the under-appreciated French band Anomie*, with the latter two bands appearing on this comp.

Food Not Bombs, for those who may not be familiar with the organization, is an all volunteer-run group devoted to developing positive personal, political, and economic alternatives to the way food is handled and, at times, used as a weapon or a commodity against people who struggle to feed themselves. FNB essentially collects and serves mostly vegan food items to homeless or sick people. The gathered fare is donated to FNB members predominantly  by co-ops, health food stores, or just all around nice folks who actually care about the suffering of complete strangers and want to make a difference, no matter how small. The collective exists as a direct protest to war and avoidable human adversity, putting people first before profit, which is clearly not how the military-industrial complex that Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the world about in the early 60s operates. You can learn more about Food Not Bombs here.

The record itself a nice mixture of bands that play different styles of punk, and this variety is probably it's greatest visible feature. I bought it not long after it came out from the fantastic and long gone Vacuum Distro, from the San Francisco area. I also think it's pretty great when bands have more than one song on various artist releases, as is the case with this LP. The music ranges from fast, crust-friendly hardcore (Swallowing Shit & Palatka) to classic emotive stuff (Constatine Sankathi) to dirty, messy Canadian greatness with the right amount of bass in the mix (Drift), as well as a band that party-dude Andrew W.K. played in (Michigan's Kathode, pre-Nema). It's a pretty good cross section of what was going on in hardcore throughout the later half of the 90s, which was plenty of diversity. I've already mentioned Anomie, who are pretty easily my favorite band here. Been jockin' them for ever. Something I've never loved, or understood at all, is the cover "art". What the fuck is happening, exactly? Is that supposed a d.i.y. rendition of the famously faked picture of the Loch Ness Monster? Perhaps it is a sock puppet? Some type of alien spacecraft? An artfully drawn chimney? My money's on Nessie, yo.

As with most compilations that were released during this era of hc history that were centered around a specific cause, there's tons to read in the liner notes. It's like you got a free bonus zine along with your mail order, and it made your day when it showed up in your mailbox. Disclaimer: some of these pics turned out better than others, but after trying to get a good shot of the Inso Grey and Holocron inserts for over twenty minutes, I finally threw my hands up in the air, briefly admired my ceiling fan and said "Fuck it Nessie, I'm done".

You'll have to deal with it, dear reader.
This is Anima Records #3, and it was released in 1997.

* Remember how fucking awesome of a drummer Sammy Siegler was, especially considering he was in the neighborhood of 13 years old when he was playing on those classic edge records? Well, the drummer for the female-fronted frenchies Anomie was the equivalent of Sammy, except he was from Europe, played in a DOPE AS FUCK screamy emo band not many people listen to anymore, and was named Remi Chaumet.

- seriously, that cover art -

Tracklist:
1) Anomie - "Alienation"
2) Anomie - "Remise En Cause Revolution Dilemme"
3) Palatka - "The Bus Ride"
4) Palatka - "Washington Park"
5) Palatka - "The Truth About San Diego"
6) Kathode - "Falling Down"
7) Inso Grey - "Lying Vines"
8) Inso Grey - "BBQ"
9) Holocron - "To Be Part Of A Group"
10) Sixpense - "Only The Faces Have Changed"
11) Sixpense - "Adapt"
12) Swallowing Shit - "I May Be PC, But You're A Fucking Poseur"
13) Swallowing Shit - "Welcome To Hell"
14) Swallowing Shit - "I Heard Songs About Animal Rights Aren't Cool Anymore"
15) Constatine Sankathi - "In December"
16) Drift - "Words That Burn My Ears"

V/A - "All The President's Men" compilation LP

Some things just seem like they were made to go together: peanut butter and jelly, Canadians and ice hockey, Pennsylvania and delicious craft beer, and the 1990s and monumental hardcore punk compilations. This one is indeed one of the better examples, and it supplied us with songs by significant bands such as Julia, Ordination of Aaron, Hoover and Ugly Kid Joe. Whoops, I meant Hose.Got.Cable. I did, however, just listen to the UKJ classic "Madman" for the first time in I don't even know how long, so I guess we can blame my typo on that.

This 12" masterpiece is worth the listen alone for the first three tracks. This agglomeration of prominent emo bands is also notable for featuring a few dicks in the artwork, and for being my introduction to one of the best bands ever...SC's Assfactor 4. They start off the record with their utterly victorious "Closed Captioning For The Blind", and shit just straight up continues to rule from there. All the President's Men was released in 1994 by Old Glory Records, who fittingly released records by a few of the bands that appear here and, oh, was fucking awesome. This is indeed a label that should (and does) get mentioned alongside Ebullition, Mountain, Hand Held Heart, Watermark, Art Monk Construction, Kidney Room, Great American Steak Religion and One Day.

Chances are you may be familiar with this compilation already. If you aren't, then you, comrade, are in for a treat. I mean a real serious chest-slappin' goody. Goddamn, the Assfactor 4 and Julia songs are so super good, I promise. Peep it if you missed out the first time around, or remind yourself while you got into quality hardcore in the first place if you didn't.

Old Glory #12. 

- NGR means Old Glory Records -

Tracklist:
1) Assfactor 4 - "Closed Captioning For The Blind"
2) Maximillian Colby - "Petty Fix"
3) Julia - "Forge In Wind"
4) Fingerprint - "Liberation"
5) Policy Of 3 - "Improv Culture Kill"
6) Hoover - "Breather Resist" (not the album version, it's from their demo)
7) Acme - "untitled"
8) Ordination Of Aaron - "Parthenon"
9) Shotmaker - "Pilot"
10) Hose.Got.Cable - "untitled"

Farside - "Keep My Soul Awake" 7"

Keep My Soul Awake is the debut record from Irvine, California's 100% awesome Farside. The songs here, although good, do not match up to later efforts from the band; particularly once guitarist Kevin Murphy (an ex-member of Headfirst and 411) joined 'em. If you think back to the last band you were in, I'm sure said band's early stuff didn't quite match up to your shit once you really started rolling, correct? Exactly.

Nevertheless, these four jams put the fledgling band on the map and everyone on Planet Earth should be pretty fucking happy about that."Third Person Paranoia" and "Keep My Soul Awake" have always been my favorite tracks from this seven inch, and probably will be become yours once you hear them, too. This slab of wax was a nice introduction to an eventually superb band.

Recorded during the summer of 1990 at Don Fury's in New York City.
Crisis Records #1.

- here -

Tracklist:
1) Hero
2) Third Person Paranoia
3) Keep My Soul Awake
4) Boiling Over