various artists - Invasion Of The Indie Snatchers

OK, I start a new gig the day after Memorial Day, so I'm trying to load a few posts into the queue in between chores from Mrs. Ape and sleep so's I can make a good impression this first week. Adulting; what is it?

I've written about a couple of the 100 releases on the defunct S.F. label Allied Recordings before, but not really ever commented on how underappreciated I think Allied is today. It probably has a lot to do with the limited lifespan of the label (10 years, 100 recordings), as well the staunch indie stance Mr. Yates took during its tenure. Being exposed to Allied midway through its life not only helped shape my tastes; it encouraged them to stay broad, to listen to Buzzoven next to J Church next to the Ex and for it all to make sense.

Allied was always good for a great comp, and "Invasion" captures a super interesting snapshot of the great punk underground right after the 1994 major label wave crested and dissipated. The standouts are early recordings from Dillinger Four and Hot Water Music, as well as a J Church song that I ended up playing a lot on my radio show in 1996 because it was just over a minute long and slotted perfectly into those little gaps at the top of the hour. But the cool part of this one, like all the other Yates-curated comps, is many gems appear here. There are bands like Philly's Franklin and Atlanta's Car vs. Driver, who toured and put out lots of great records. There's Peaceful Meadows, V.Card, and Strawman, a trio of Allied standard bearers whose CDs still show up in dollar bins all around. And there are songs from bands like Trench, Water Monitor, and Pound, whose recorded output consisted of this appearance and a demo tape. All in all, it's a pretty cool document, which is what comps are good for.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Fuel - Monuments To Excess

Fuel was derisively introduced to me as "Fuel-gazi". And, yeah, I obviously can hear the similarities; a propulsive two-guitar quartet with hollered vocals. I was told they were the Gilman Street counterpart to the Wilson Center's Fugazi. But these were Bay Area kids, doing their first band, not the former members of hardcore and emo royalty. And even if they were consciously aping another band's sound, fuck, they were good at it.

The key revelation here is a pre-transition Sarah Kirsch on guitar and vocals. Long before she pushed the boundaries of hardcore with personal favorites like Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack and Baader Brains, she made an immediate impact with these amazing sonic textures on guitar throughout Fuel's 17-song catalog. For me, that's the standout. Was anyone in their peer group playing with such speed and technique? I dunno: I was 13 and still two years from my first punk show when they broke up.

"Monuments To Excess" collects Fuel's self-titled LP, a 7" released on Lookout!, and a pair of splits with Ontario's Phleg Camp and Angry Son from Oklahoma. The artwork and design is some of my favorite John Yates work, and is adapted from his earlier cover for the LP. He also compiled the songs for his Allied Recordings; Ebullition handles the vinyl compilation. By the time this came out, Kirsch had moved onto Torches To Rome, while her former bandmates had disappeared from recorded bands. San Francisco's Broken Rekids would reissue this in 2000, but it's been out of print for a number of years. That sucks, because, along with Leatherface, Fuel would set the template up for .org-core to be a thing starting in the late 90s. And if folks are going to pick on Fuel for having a similar sound to Fugazi, then Hot Water Music and Braid and a bunch of other bands owe Fuel some royalties.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Spitboy - Mi Cuerpo Es Mio! 7"

From shanemc05

This was probably one of the first 7"s I ever bought, probably while I still lived in Roanoke. Mi Cuerpo Es Mio! was released by John Yates on his Allied Recordings label...a label that is sadly no longer with us, but responsible for a lot of excellent records in the early half of the 90's. Spitboy was one of the great Gilman St. hardcore bands. If I remember correctly, Adrienne, the singer, used to write for Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, and eventually moved to Richmond after Spitboy broke up. I really hesitate to lump them in with riot grrl, because so much of the KRS/DC scene had that Beat Happening sassiness to it. Spitboy was just so fucking tough...like, "Fuck yeah, we'll fight you and ten of your friends if you fuck with us." I never caught that vibe from the likes of Heavens to Betsy (no offense intended). Spitboy was just hardcore, in the purest sense of the term. And when I was 16, it started some new gears turning in my brain to hear songs like these three...set me on a path searching out more than the standard Bad Religion/Fugazi/Jawbreaker trio that seemed pretty standard in Roanoke, VA, circa 1993.

Mi Cuerpo... was collected with Spitboy's full length on Ebullition and a earlier 7" released on Lookout! as The Spitboy CD in 1995 on Allied. If I hadn't just checked around the interwebs, I would have sworn someone had re-issued this CD after Allied went out of business (I was thinking one of those smaller, West Coast Mordam labels), but that appears to not be the case. There's also a split 12" with Los Crudos and the Rasana 7" out there, but neither of those have seen legit digital releases. All the more reason to own a record player, kids.










Spitboy - Mi Cuerpo Es Mio! 7"
(click the record to DL)

RIYL: MRR circa '93, womyn, brass knuckle HC