VARIOUS ARTISTS - "The Fucking Rice Harvester Compilation" - Tape - 1996

   Rice Harvester was a zine I made for 20 years. A zine is a bunch of paper that someone scribbled on, photocopied for free at a chain store, and then stapled together to hand out on the street so that someone might understand their feelings. For the fourth issue, I compiled a cassette of punk bands to go with the issue. A cassette is a piece of plastic that houses quarter-inch magnetic tape that somehow magically holds music onto it. You put these cassettes into an even bigger piece of plastic or metal with big clunky buttons. These bigger pieces of plastic or metal used to be found for almost nothing at thrift stores or on the street. Anyway, you push down one of those big, clunky buttons and, if everything is right with the world, actual music comes out...or whatever it is that someone recorded onto that cassette.
   SO, like I was saying, I put together a compilation tape that was given out for free with the free zine. I stole every last cassette from chain stores, sometimes just walking right out the front door with a few boxes of tapes in my arms because fuck capitalism and What Is Anything? The tape consists of some local favorites at the time (local at that time meant Huntsville, AL), bands that I wrote to for a song and some far-flung punk bands that were culled from my friend Joey's compilation LP that he never, ever intended to release. Imagine sending off your exclusive song with the intention of having it appear on this cool LP comp, but then it comes out on a free tape with some crappy zine from Alabama. Fuck yeah life!
   THE CRUMBS, from Miami, FL start it off. They were a RAMONES-loving punk band from Miami. They were all fun and everything, but we stopped setting up shows for them once our friend stopped playing drums for them and they said some sketchy shit about women.
  THE SLOBS, from Cincinnati were a weirdly underrated band from the mid-90's and they played sloppy basement punk. They put out a slew of shit, mostly in 1996 and this song, "Politician" did not appear on any of it, as far as I can tell. It's a funny concept for a song. "I don't wanna be a politician!!" Yeah, that's pretty easily avoidable, but a great thing to sing along to.
    JABBERJAW was a Huntsville punk band who always sounded better live than on tape. I saw these three teenagers play a bunch of different shows around town. They were always great, but could never really channel their enthusiasm onto the recording. I asked them to be on this comp and remember being impressed that they knew how to dub a plane crash sound onto their song. I still am. I can't do that shit....still. I love that this song is about being a dead pilot.
   FUN GIRLS FROM MT PILOT were from Nashville, TN and featured four guys who dressed in drag at their shows. The Huntsville scene really liked them, but I was kinda over them by this point. They were really fun and a good band...super bouncy punk and always a good live show, but I just wasn't too enamored like other folks were. What IS interesting is that they broke up and their singer, Cat went on to be a wrestling manager...like total WWF showman style, but on a DIY level. He wrote some articles in zines about it and seeing the similarities to DIY punk was really interesting. This song might be exclusive, but I'm not sure.
   PROPERTY is from Huntsville. They started in 1994(?) and they're still a band. I'm not sure if they've ever left the southeast US. At that time, their shows often included members of the band running headlong into other members of the band and knocking them across the room, completely ending the song. The 5 members of the band brought a lot of styles to the table, but mostly settled into hardcore and catchy punk. They were always great and fun to watch. I bet they still are. I love this song because the teenage singer's voice (Shane) is cracking and the song is just plain great.
  THE GRUMPIES have been discussed at length here, here and here so I will spare you. The two songs on this tape are from their original demo, which I loved so much that I jumped at the chance to be their drummer when the original one quit.
 SWEATER PUNKS were another Huntsville band and their inclusion here is a mystery to me. I don't remember ever seeing them when I lived in town, but their guitarist Seth was always a solid fixture in bands so I probably trusted this new band of his to be good. My friend Jack (also from AL) did some minor detective work (meaning he asked Seth) and came up with this info: The band only recorded once when Jack went over to try out for the band on drums. So, that's him on this recording. The rest of the band was Seth on guitar and vocals and Greg (not me) on bass. This recording never got vocals put onto it, but the song on here was intended as an instrumental. Later, Joey from the 3D's heard this song and asked Seth to join the band. They re-recorded this song as "Spontaneous Human Combustion". Thanks to Jack and Seth for the info!
    THE CRIMINALS were from Oakland / Berkeley and they recorded an exclusive version of their song at Gilman. That's all I'm gonna say because why do you need to know more info about posers?
   JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS was my old band There is more info about the band here.
   WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN wrote the best punk song of the 90's and I asked if I could put it on this tape. They said yes. You can and should find more info about them here and here.
   THE RICKETS were from Olympia, WA and were maybe the only spikey drunk punk band at that point in the town's history. While everyone else was concentrating on twee pop, minimalist punk and feigning pre-teen innocence even though they were pushing 30, THE RICKETS sang about getting drunk, hating their job, destroying Olympia and getting drunk again. Here. they contribute a song about my friend Janelle because it was the 90's and that's what bands did for some dumb reason.
   CHICKENHEAD was a drunken, chaotic machine. This is the last song they ever recorded on the day they broke up. You can find more info about them here.
   That;s it. Enjoy or don't.

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WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN - Rough Mixes - Tape - 1994

   Just how many times can one write about a forgotten band from the 90's and still pass themselves off as a sane individual? I gave up on passing myself off as that at least 20 years ago, so who cares? Recently, my old friend Jack unearthed this recording and digitized it to share with me. He said that the tape just had "Marsh" written on it in sharpie (Marsh played guitar in WTS). Jack thinks that this tape was mailed to him by the band when they were trying to get shows in Alabama back in the early 90's. When I played the first song, I immediately recognized it as "Clock" off of the band's self-released cassette from 1994, but it sounded different. I soon realized that it was maybe a demo version and then I got goddamn giddy as fuck when I found that this version didn't fade out like the "official" version and went on for another 2 minutes and included an extended chorus!! No really, I was jumping up and down in my room like a teenager when they did the extended chorus. It was so ridiculous that I laughed at myself. 

   Next up is "Wheaties" from their two song 7" and I'm pretty sure it's the same version. After that is the unfuckwithable "Couldn't If I Tried", which contains the exact same musical track with a slightly different vocal take. It doesn't diminish from the greatness of this song at all. Many well respected punks-of-a-certain-era of the 90's have named this song as the best punk song from the 90's and I will not dispute that. The tape ends with "Can Man", which has an almost identical bass line as "Wheaties" and I've never understood that. I think this might be a slightly different take than the "official" version but I can't really tell.

    I understand that I didn't tell you anything about what they sound like, but I've just talked about this band a lot and I love them and I'll let you figure out the details. You can read more about them here. 

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    I have not been updating the blog much in the last year, but I intend to change that. I just went on tour throughout Europe and talking to people in person in places like Greece, Basque Country, Serbia and Poland (among many other locales) helped me remember what a large impact music has on people's lives. People had really thoughtful and interesting things to say about the music on here.  Knowing that someone far, far away from me is listening to my friend's band from 1994 who didn't have the resources to make more than 10 tapes is a really incredible thing. 

   And as long as I'm here, I wrote a zine about the 1979 Portland punk band Ice 9, which includes interviews with 2 members of the band. You can order it directly from me at Remote Outposts. 

 Thanks to the people who continue to support this blog, near and far. I hope you're still finding things that you enjoy. And I hope White Trash Superman doesn't take me to the people's court. 

BIG BLEACH / BAGHEAD - "It's The Big Bag Split" - Tape - 2015

   Stardate: 1998. The location was Maxie, MS. The whole town consists of a mobile home, a house, a church and a graveyard. Some drunks lived in the trailer and didn't seem to give a shit about anything. The house was inhabited by three or four punks who invited touring bands to play in their living room. The other neighbors were dead or only around during church services. Even though the only punks in town lived in that house, the shows were always good and people flocked to them from around the state of Mississippi. Some bands that played there were THE GRUMPIES (Starkville, MS), ONE REASON (Cleveland, MS I think they played their first show ever in Maxie), SUDDENLY SUBHAN (Starkville), LES TURDZ (Biloxi), FYP (San Pedro, CA), OPERATION CLIFF CLAVIN (Bloomington, IN) and many, many more. The people who lived in that house were dedicated to making a scene happen in their town, even if they were 4 of the 9 people who lived in the town. Some of the best shows I ever played in my life were in that house...even the show where someone smacked me in the face with a full beer while I played drums, giving me my first black eye.
   At one of these shows, I was breaking down my drumset on the front porch while making small talk with a member of the (kind of bad) funk/punk band from Hattiesburg, a town 30 miles north with a population of almost 46,000. At the time, all I knew about Hattiesburg is that it was a town that had a really stupid speed trap on the interstate where police had pulled me over at least three times and searched our tour vehicles, looking for any remnants of the pounds of illegal drugs we were sure to have. I asked the dude, "Where do you guys have shows in Hattiesburg?" He said, "Aw man, we don't have nothing like this in Hattiesburg! They've got it made down here." I looked down the street to the graveyard and the empty streets as the crows cawed and the crickets chirped. "Yeah, this is excellent, but surely you've something going on...house shows, bar shows, local bands....something?!" "Naw man. We like to jam out down here. It's all set up."
   I didn't really feel like it was my place to explain DIY to the guy, so we both walked back in as another rowdy band started their set. Fast forward seventeen fucking years and this tape is sitting in my post office box. It's really the first time I've heard of or even thought of Hattiesburg since then, even though I've lived more than half of my life in the south. BIG BLEACH and BAGHEAD are two bands from that town. Both bands are basically all of the same people, but sound different from each other. BIG BLEACH is fun, straightforward punk with female vocals. It sounds like exactly what you want to hear in a moldy ass living room. (I wish the vocals were louder). BAGHEAD is uglier, rawer sounding hardcore punk with male vocals that is lurchy and mean. I'm sure that there's been a rich history of punk and hardcore in the south Mississippi scene between that bad funk / punk band and these two bands, but if you're looking for that history here, you're in the wrong place. Big shout out to BAGHEAD and BIG BLEACH for making (and sending) these tapes, putting on house shows in their town and keeping it real.

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BIG BLEACH

BAGHEAD has another demo too. Follow that link to get it.

WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN - Tape - 1994

   For long time readers (or those of you paying attention), this one will be familiar because I've already posted this tape. The reason I am reposting it is because this is one of the first tapes I ever posted on this blog and I had no clue what I was doing. The mp3's in that file sounded awful, but I posted them anyway because I thought absolutely no one was paying attention to anything on this blog. I was wrong. I've been meaning to replace the files for a long time now, but never got around to it. Ever since Mediafire suspended my account, it has been pretty easy to decide which files to re-upload. This one was at the top of the list. If you downloaded this in the past, please delete those files and download this one instead. You will be much happier with the results.
  I only saw WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN once, at a pizza place in a mall in Huntsville, Alabama. It was 1994 and I had no idea that these hair farmers were going to write my favorite song of all time. I also didn't know that in 3 short years, I would be playing in a band with one of them. No...they were just these 4 guys playing these energetic pop songs that are maybe just too wacko or adrenaline-filled to be simply classified as "Indie-rock". They probably spent more time in the air than on the ground. They were jumping around the whole time in this excited way, like they were thinking "Holy fuck, I can't believe 20 people showed up to see us!" You can't really tell from this tape, but their live shows were kind of insane. At their last show ever, the audience was throwing cans of Spam everywhere and a lot of stuff got broken, including the bass players leg after a guitar got hurled into it.
    In a perfect world, these guys would get written up in the indie-rock history books alongside SUPERCHUNK (who are great) and whatever other garbage those people like. Alas, this is our world and WTS wrote my anthems. Songs like "Clock", "Rocket" and "Thumb" have been hopelessly stuck in my head for years. They also wrote "Couldn't If I Tried", which is, in my humble opinion, the best song ever written. This is golden stuff here, my friends. If you head over to the WTS entry on Terminal Escape, you will have everything this band recorded in their short time on Earth. It's all great.
    Marsh went on to play in THE COMAS and now plays in THE OVERNIGHT LOWS with his wife of 14 years, Daphne. I never really knew Steve or Jamie from WTS, so I can't tell you they went on to do. I can tell you that Jayson went on to form THE GRUMPIES a couple of years later. These days, he is making amazing art (as he has always done) and playing music with WACO DEAD and MING DONKEY ONE MAN BAND. He also didn't ever get any credit for writing the guitar hook for that famous BLIND MELON song or for getting baked with Slash from G'N'R (all true).

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The abrupt cut off at the end of "Lb" is how my tape ends. It wasn't a mistake on my part.
Also, this is the 300th post on this blog. Thanks for reading this far.

THE GRUMPIES - "Barn Demos" - Tape - 1998

 
   In the first part of 1998, I spent a lot of time driving between Birmingham, AL and Starkville, MS, sleeping on floors, working in a bookstore, playing shows in little dives and coffeeshops and living really cheaply. I played drums in THE GRUMPIES and we were trying to get our shit together to record an LP for Recess Records. Whether or not we got our shit together is totally debatable, but we did actually drive out to Los Angeles and record an entire LP (plus some) in a little shitbox of a room while some hack with a goatee (I think he said he recorded FACE TO FACE also) turned knobs. That's a story for another day though....
    When this tape was recorded, we hadn't even thought about crossing the Mississippi yet. We practiced in an old-ass barn in Louisville (that's "Lewis-ville"), MS behind Bubba's house. Bubba was Jayson's (guitar/vocals) 95 year old grandmother who made the best cornbread and was quite possibly one of the sweetest grandmas you could hope to meet. She would always make us stop practicing when it got too late (around 7 or 8, I think). Anyhow, this little demo was recorded just for us on the four track in the barn. We were working on new songs for the LP and beyond. Some of these appeared on the LP and some of them never showed up anywhere else. For reasons beyond our control (because we could barely even control ourselves at the time), Amy (bass/vocals) was not with us at the barn that day, so Jayson and I just recorded these songs without her and Jayson overdubbed the bass himself. I always liked how this turned out because I think it was closer to what we were turning into, rather than the hyper-manic, Chipmunk-style pop-punk we were pummeling people with at our live shows. The songs are a bit slower and darker, at times. When we played some of these songs live, you could see the pop-punk kids eyes just kinda glaze over as they waited for us to speed it up.
    The first six songs are Jayson and I in the barn. Songs 7 through 10 are just Jayson playing everything himself in the barn. I will make no excuses for tape hiss and deterioration. This thing has been sitting in a box, rotting, since 1998.

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If you want the original GRUMPIES demo tape from 1996, you can find it right here. I just re-uploaded the files so that you can download it again.

If you want the GRUMPIES LP, you might have to scour the internet. You can buy it on iTunes, but I have no idea where that money goes. I would upload it  here, but I don't feel like getting another file-hosting account shut down just yet. You can still buy the CD from Recess Records. I had to steal my copy of it off of TOYS THAT KILL's merch table because Recess wouldn't give me one single copy. Take that how you want.
(negative views are mine: not representative of the whole band)

"Help Me, I'm Trapped in a Ford Festiva" - Compilation - Tape - 1997

    I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of Alabama and discovered punk when I was in 6th grade through a tape of the MINUTEMEN's "Double Nickels on the Dime." Over the years, I tried to start bands with people who either really didn't want to be in a punk band or just had drastically different ideas of what a punk band was. The day after I graduated high school, I moved 108 miles away to a different small town called Huntsville. I lived in my car for those first couple of months and came to discover a whole new world of punk where people were actually playing the loud, fucked up, vibrant music that I wanted to be playing at that time in my life. It was perfect for me. I met people who put out their own records and set up their own shows in houses, parking lots and thrift stores. It was inspiring, to say the least. Within just a few months, I was playing in my own band and going on tour all over the southeast, making friends that I still have to this day. At the time, I wanted to make a compilation tape to show what was going on in my town (and where it had come from) so that other people would know how awesome it was, but honestly, I don't know if this tape ever reached people outside of Alabama.
   The comp starts off with RICE HARVESTER and THE CACA WOMEN FROM URANUS. I've already written about them, so you can click those links above if you're curious. Next up is THE REFILLS, who were a short lived band from the area that consisted of Neil (from JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS and 565 BURNOUTS), Ben (from RICE HARVESTER, SUCKERPUNCH and now in PINE HILL HAINTS) and Bill Conflict (who did and still plays in RANDOM CONFLICT). They played fucking tough, straight ahead punk that was informed by THE FREEZE and D.O.A. I loved them when they were around and their song "Bleed" on this tape still holds up today.

RICE HARVESTER on the 4th of July, 1998. San Pedro, CA.

   Next on the tape is AOA, which was originally a home recording project by my friends Blair and Ramesh. They would get together and record hours of MEN'S RECOVERY PROJECT (and FAT DAY) inspired noise and weirdness at their houses. After a while, they would come over and kind of force me to play anything in their band, like a drum on a bed or some cans. They had tapes and tapes of this stuff (one of which got stuck in my car stereo for months so that it was the only thing I could ever listen to. When I finally removed it, it destroyed the tape and the stereo...a week or so later, the brakes failed at 3 am and I almost totaled a cop car, but that's a different story altogether.) On this recording, we sorta became a kinda normal punk band for a second. I think I played drums, but I also think I played guitar sometimes. Ramesh played bass and sang. Blair sang and played the keyboard maybe. I think a guy named Pube switched up instruments with me. It was a weird time, but I still like "Black Flag is Boring" and the theme song.

AOA in my room. 1996.

   SHITHEAD JONES is a fukkin punk band and you can read all about their saga here. After that is THE GRUMPIES, who weren't technically an Alabama band, but they played there so often that  one might think that they lived there. All of their songs on here (minus one) were later re-recorded for their LP on Recess Records. These early versions are pretty great and it also includes a ripping cover of "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford.  You can find their demo and other stuff here.

THE GRUMPIES playing in a storefront in Florence, AL.

  GARY COLEMAN BAND were just Blair and Ramesh from AOA playing really minimal stuff. This song was recorded in a porn shop in N Huntsville and is honestly one of my favorite things ever put on tape. The side ends with THE SMEGMAGICIANS, which is my high school punk band that I restarted just to finish out this side of the tape. It sucks. The first song is an AOA cover. I played guitar and sang while my friend Harry played drums. I wouldn't let him hear the song or practice it before recording. The second song is just me playing guitar and drums...and actually it's not too bad.
  Side 2 kicks off with a live set from SHITBOY FROM OUTERSPACE, a band I have already covered here (it's the same set too). They are followed up by the always great 565 BURNOUTS, who have their own entry right here.

A later incarnation of 565 BURNOUTS playing at American Beat Records in Birmingham, AL.

   JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS are up next, playing three songs that I'm pretty sure never appeared on other recordings. Well, two of the songs were definitely on a record, but not these recordings. The first song was never released on anything and it's not that good (but I'm biased...I was in the band). I have no clue where or why we recorded these songs. It could have been recorded in my bedroom or in a "real" studio. No idea. You can find more by the band here.

JOEY TAMPON AND THE TOXIC SHOCKS playing an 8 year old's birthday party in St Mary's, GA. Note that Neil is smoking.

   Joey and Neil from the TOXIC SHOCKS were also in CHEESE ASS CHRIST. They weren't from Alabama. They were from Georgia. You can find possibly everything you ever wanted to know about them here. 

   One of Alabama's first hardcore bands (possibly the very first) was THE KNOCKABOUTS, who come up next on this tape. Their songs on here come from their demo tape-turned -EP from 1982. (well, the demo is from '82. The EP is from '95). You can find more info about them here. The only thing I want to add is that I talked to Ken (owner of Prank Records who released their EP) about them and he said that he might release an LP collection in the future. I guess there's a lot more songs laying around. He's obviously not in a big hurry, but I would be excited if that project ever saw the light of day, Fun fact: The title of this comp ("Help Me, I'm Trapped in a Ford Festiva") comes from THE KNOCKABOUTS. My band (JT and the TOXIC SHOCKS) used to go on tour in my Ford Festiva (with all of our equipment, yes), which is one of the tiniest cars you could possibly own in the 90's. We listened to THE KNOCKABOUTS a lot. When we would listen to their song "Fast Pulse" (included here), we would sing that line instead of the KNOCKABOUTS-penned line of "Help me, I'm trapped in a human body!!"

   MENACE (not really sure if they ever realized there was a classic punk band called MENACE) was a band of teenage punk kids from the burbs who could barely hold it together, but held it together just enough to belt out this rough recording on a boom box. I think I only saw them once and that was only because I drove out to one of their mom's houses in south Huntsville for a band practice. I could be wrong though because I think I have a flyer for them somewhere. One weird thing about this band is that my friend Ramesh sang for them and did not play an instrument, which is ridiculous because he was already becoming a good bass player at that point. Still, you can listen to their song "AUO994" and realize why they got him to sing. 

   THE MACK was somewhat the black sheep of the Huntsville punk family. I believe 50% of that was self-imposed and the other 50 was just punk kids not wanting to admit that they liked pop-punk at some point in their lives. Either way, THE MACK played undeniably tuneful and upbeat pop-punk that was not very popular among the local scene, but I'll bet that they would have been a hit if they had ever managed to go on a tour or two in the mid-90's. Now, you can download this and relive your secret (or not-so-secret) pop-punk past. I will admit now that these songs are good. (Fun facts: THE MACK was the only local band of this era to have an online presence at the time. They are also the only band I've ever "auditioned" for as a drummer...for which I was denied for not being good enough.)

  I'm not talking about the next band. Fuck it. They were from Florida. I was the only one who knew who they were. The first song made me want to learn to play drums. The second song sucks ass.
   15E was an insane sounding punk band that worked as a precursor to THE SLACKERS, SHITBOY FROM OUTERSPACE and most of the crop of 90's punk from Huntsville. The members were Jason (SHITBOY and later XPIA), Joey (JOEY TAMPON, THE SLACKERS, RADIOACTIVES, 3D's, many more and later a born again Baptist preacher), and Mike (SEWER PUNKS and others that flew off my radar). They named the band after the apartment number of the place they shared. This recording comes from a live set at the Tip Top in north Huntsville where the band constantly harangues the audience for being shitty people. Punk. This is all I know about them. They were before my time in that town. If anyone has their demo tape, I will gladly take it.
   The tape ends with local greats THE SLACKERS and THE JAWAS. Everything you might ever want to know about both of those bands can be found here and here. The closing sample is possibly one of the best samples ever committed to tape, in my opinion.

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Re-uploaded 2013

P.S. There's 65 tracks total in this download.
This one's for Ramesh, who was always a fan and supporter of Alabama punk bands.

Now, here's some flyers from that era.

I think this is one of the first punk flyers I ever made, with help from Jason Shitboy. We used to have illegal shows at the Jaycee's Fairgrounds, which was just a gazebo in a parking lot. Sometimes, we paid $100 to use the space. Other times, we just went in and had the show without permission. I think this was one of the illegal times. THE DUMBSHITZ was my old band from Birmingham that I had quit by this point. They didn't show up for this show. Here's a video of them playing in Birmingham after I quit.

This was my birthday show, also at the fairgrounds. PROPERTY was a mainstay of the Huntsville punk scene and I'm confused as to why they're not on the tape. THEE AUTOBOTS was a later band spearheaded by Jack THE MACK that incorporated sax into the pop-punk world.

Great show for $3. Gorin's was an ice cream shop downtown that was dumb enough to let us have punk shows. 

All local bands at Gorin's Flyer by Blair Menace. BLOODY HOLLY was mostly improv-violence. Blair, Jay Kaos and I wore bloody dress shirts and glasses while assaulting people, sonically. I can't even begin to explain the CATATONICS to you. If I can ever dig up their tape (doubtful), it will have its own thing on here.

Another local show at Gorin's. THE SHIZNICS never recorded and I don't remember much about them. THE PANIC BUTTONS should have been on the comp but never got any music to me. They will be featured on the blog one day. Those guys went on to play in THOMAS FUNCTION.

RICE HARVESTER's 1st show. One of the TOXIC SHOCKS' last. PINK COLLAR JOBS were one of the best bands from the southeast in the 90's.

Local times, minus THE GRUMPIES, who might as well have been local. Art by Marsh. Flyer by me.

THE GRUMPIES - Aborted Demo - Tape - 1996

   Longtime readers of this blog may ask "Haven't you already uploaded this demo?" The answer would be "Yes...sort of". I have a confession to make. I lied to all of you. The GRUMPIES Demo that I posted back in June of 2011 was not the actual tape I got in the mail from my friend, Angie in 1996. That post was the second or third thing I ever did on this blog and I was pretty sure no one would ever read or pay attention to anything I ever said on here. Now, I realize that there are quite a few people who read this thing and my need for truth and accountability has become weirdly overwhelming. The tape that Angie sent me was the one that is now contained in this download.
   Back in early 1996, THE GRUMPIES formed in Starkville, MS out of the ashes of the legendary (to me and a few others, anyway) WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN to play some hyperfast, manic pop-punk that went beyond that simple genre description and attempted to define their own way of being. Maybe it was growing up in Mississippi. Maybe it was massive doses of early FLAMING LIPS records and seeing hair metal bands in barns. Maybe it was drugs. I don't know. What I do know is that THE GRUMPIES were doing something that was different and all their own. They managed to wear their influences firmly on their sleeves without sounding like any of them. I love them and when their drummer quit, I jumped at the chance of being in the band...partly because of this tape.

   THE GRUMPIES playing at the gazebo in Huntsville,AL 1996.

    So, the tape...They recorded this demo at their house in Starkville on a four track and then played a couple of shows in Mississippi and Birmingham (where my friend Angie picked it up). After those shows, they decided that they could probably do a better job, re-recorded every song on the demo (same house and same four track as far as I know), added some samples and voila, that is the demo that is more well known and widely available. This one is a lot more rough and rudimentary, but I always liked it a lot too, especially this slower version of "Weather Girl" and Vince's back-up vocals on "In My Past".  If you've never heard this band before, I suggest you follow the link above for the "official" demo and try that one. If you're already a fan, this will be interesting for you.

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TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES FROM DAY ONE - Tape - 1997

   Iggy Scam put out this tape in 1997 and it brought to life a ton of bands that I had only read about (mostly in SCAM, the zine) or heard about by word of mouth. It was a revelation to hear real, live songs by bands with names like DARVIS BROWN AND THE SMOKE ASSES, VANBUILDERASS, LES TURDZ, and KREAMY LECTRIC SANTA. It was more than that. It was fucking exciting and it changed my life. It helped to open up my life to a whole world of complete and utter badasses who mostly have remained that way through the years. This is where I first heard "Revolution Sound" by THE STUN GUNS, where I first heard THE DRILLER KILLERS (who inspired me to make my own shirt with a Sharpie), where I was introduced to the genius of "Can't Take It Away" by THE MORONS and so, so much more. "Stupid Fresh" by KLS still sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. This is also where I first heard THE FUNYONS, a band powered mostly by one man named Steve who plays his simple-yet-insanely-catchy songs only on the streets, which I've always respected immensely. You may also know Steve as the principal songwriter behind ONION FLAVORED RINGS, who have been also churning out quality pop-punk for 10 years, even though they have slowed down in recent years. The cool thing is that Steve still plays FUNYONS songs unannounced on the streets of San Francisco all the time.
   This tape proclaimed "30 bands! 51 songs from The Region!" and that term (the region) has stuck around for all these years and has evolved into "region rock". But what the fuck is "region rock" and why should you care? I can't answer the latter, but I can tell you that the term "The Region" was coined by Cinque Adams. It  is loosely defined as an area in the southeastern US that is shaped like a triangle with points in Dogtown, AR, Tom Foote;s house in Chattanooga, TN and the ruins of an old hotel called "The Mutiny" in Coconut Grove in Miami. Bands from The Region mostly shared (and continue to share) ideologies, band members and much more. I don't want to define it too much because it's not mine to define. It's ever-shifting and belongs to the punks of the southeast. Don't think about it too much. Just close your mind.
   The songs were compiled by Iggy using (I'm sure) the cheapest of equipment and the barest of essentials. The same could be said for many of the bands recording their songs. The music was dubbed onto tapes stolen from chain stores and distributed through the US by touring bands, traveling kids, punk post, and a couple of small distributors. I remember getting 10 of these in the mail from Iggy and they were all snatched up by the punks in my town within a couple of hours. I don't even have a copy of this anymore.

   I did a sequel to this comp three years later, which you can find right here. This comp was originally posted on Region Rock and More, (so you can ask him why all the songs are weirdly numbered and out of order) but is no longer available there since Megaupload was shut down by the feds. I wanted to keep it around and easy to access, in case people want to hear it. It's an important document in the history of southeastern punk rock. This is for Forrest Haye, Andrew Ross Powell, Chris Cottie, Brian Turd, Victor Wiley, Mike O'Brien and any other winners we've lost along the way.

DOWNLOAD///Updated July 2013

 





ONE REASON - Two Unreleased Songs - 2008

   ONE REASON was a band for a good, solid 10 years and I was happy to play bass with them for the last four years of their existence. If I was posting their first album (which the other members of this band would hate immensely), I would tell you all about how this band began, but since we're starting at the end, I guess I'll just tell you that part. We spent the better part of a winter ('07-'08) in Indiana trying fruitlessly to write a new album. Most practices ended with us playing half of a song that we didn't feel that good about or just covering SPRINGSTEEN, REPLACEMENTS and HOT NEW MEXICANS songs. I broke my input jack by laying face down on the floor while playing some of the songs. It wasn't going well. As spring was peeking its ugly, sunny head out, we emerged from Lexie's (drummer) dank ass basement with only two songs...and one of them was only a minute long. Not knowing what would happen with the final results, we headed out to Mike Bridavsky's studio in the rolling hills near Nashville, IN and recorded these two songs ("The Hospital" and "Christmas and Thanksgiving"). We hit the record button and banged out these songs while looking out a huge window at the sun setting behind the hills. Then, the songs got mixed and they sat there while we all went our separate ways. One of them might have appeared on a compilation, but I'm not really sure. I do know that they have been on the internet for a while and I liked playing them a lot when we were a band.
  Now, here's a bunch of old pictures of us....

             In my backyard in Indiana. Pic by Richrd, I believe.

         At Plan-It-X Fest in 2007, I believe. Pic by Ben Rains

 Teaching tagger kids how to spell "Government" in Indiana

  Posing with hundreds of dollars in Mississippi. At the time, none of us knew how to play dominos, which is why it looks like a 3 year old set it up.

                in Baton Rouge, LA. Photo by Chris George.    
    Lexie is now playing drums for DEAD DOG, who are on tour (and in the Bay Area) right now. Go see them, if you know what is good for you. Ginger is playing guitar in TRAVELING and bass in GOOD LUCK. I play drums in NEON PISS and bass in BLACK RAINBOW.

DOWNLOAD ONE REASON

                               That's all folks!

FUCK THE CURSE - Compilation Tape - 2000

   FUCK THE CURSE is a compilation tape I put out in 2000 that served as a follow-up to Iggy Scam's "Technical Difficulties From Day One" tape from 1997. Both tapes chronicle punk bands that reside in a loosely defined part of the Southeastern US commonly known as "The Region". A lot of these bands shared members, tour vans, houses, romantic partners, diseases, and more. I'm happy to say that I put out this tape 11 years ago and I am still good friends with a large amount of the people who played (or still do play) in these bands.
   Most of these songs were not featured on any records and were never on anything else besides this tape. They were recorded in houses, storefronts, warehouses and in some cases, a real studio. The recording quality is all over the place, but that's punk, right?
  The title comes from a JARVIS practice tape where they were talking about how all our friends' bands could not afford to get decent recordings. It just seemed like we were all cursed to have these fucked up recordings and toil in obscurity for the rest of our lives, which is fine.
  That's all....you can read the inserts (included in the download) for more information. Here's all the bands and songs on here...

DOWNLOAD. Updated Aug 2013

MING DONKEY - Solo Guitar Exploration - 1998

   Ming Donkey is a musician, artist, and all around badass from Mississippi. He seems to have music flying out of his pores at all hours of the day, as evidenced by the number of bands he has played in and the stack of original music cassettes he sent me throughout the late 90's. This tape had a few song ideas for our band at the time (The Grumpies) and the longish, guitar-layered, meandering piece that is featured in this download. Most likely, this song was recorded in an old, dilapidated, rat-infested barn in Louisville, MS (that's Lewis-ville, not Louie-ville) on a decaying four track. Also, he was not known as Ming Donkey at this time.
   Nothing crazy intense here....I just think this is a solid piece that is worth sharing. Some of you might want to get really high before listening.

   

 Ming playing in The Grumpies. 1998 in Maxie, MS. Photo by Frankie Chan

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THE GRUMPIES Demo 1996

   My friend, Angie mailed me this tape in 1996 after seeing The Grumpies at American Beat Records in Birmingham, AL.. In her letter, she described these high-pitched, hyper-fast, pop-punk weirdos as being kind of alien and insane. I put in the tape and my life was completely changed forever. I couldn't believe that the recording wasn't sped up because their voices were so high pitched. The songs were (and still are) instantly infectious and I became literally addicted to this tape. I wrote to the band and begged them to come to Huntsville, AL. They did and blew everyone's minds with their live show
  I was so enamored with them that when their drummer quit the band to join the Army Reserves, I volunteered to play drums for them and did so for the next 3 years....then shit got really insane.
  There is a secret alternate copy of this demo that was recorded BEFORE this demo that I may post one day...unless the former members beg me not to let it see the light of day.
   Thanks to Tony Levi and Mike Wilson with the original uploading help on this one.

                                   Grumpies Demo!