SFA - "New York" EP

Blogging time has been scarce lately, but I've had some mp3 rips collecting dust that I just hadn't posted. This short burst of postings will probably come to a quick end soon enough. In the meanwhile, let's listen to some SFA.

In Brendan's brief history of SFA he writes: "The EP was crap. It didn't help that our engineer was doing lines of coke on the mixing board while we were laying down tracks. If you're one of the unfortunate few who bought out first EP, I apologize. It was so bad that I used to break copies of the record before giving it to promoters and zines so they could judge it without having to suffer through it."

Regardless (sorry Brendan), in the interest of hardcore history I'm posting it here. I believe this might be the only vinyl release featuring both of SFA's vocalists (Mike Bullshit and Brendan) singing together. If it ain't the only one, there are few anyway. Just be advised that, as Brendan has noted, it is SFA's worst recording production-wise. But doesn't that just make it more endearing?

Songs:
Intro/Bliss
Once Again
95 Average
Gyroscope
Zip-A-Tone
Finast
RealityJourney


Visuals:
Cover (large)
Back
Insert 1
Insert 2
Vinyl

Fearless Vampire Killers "Target" EP

While Japan is better known for its crusty thrash, grindcore and d-beat, Discharge-clone bands like Disclose, FVK was more like a Bad Brains clone. Unlike the d-beaters FVK doesn't live up to the standards of their hero band (BB) by any stretch of the imagination (especially in the vocals department, in my opinion), but this is nonetheless a classic 80s Japanese release worth a listen.

Songs:
Though We're Youth (Smegma-O-Mara)
One Summer Vacation
All You Offend To My Eyse (sic)
Buffalo Slam
Dept 49
Oh Your Mammy

Visuals:
Cover (large)
Back

SCRAPS - "Aaargh" 7"

I never anything about this band beyond what it says in this record, but the folks at Kill From the Heart have more info…Enjoy.

Songs:
Dubeauf s'en va t'en guerre
Au service de la loi
Macho Klan
Major Shits
I Hate Memories

Visuals:
Cover (large)
Back
Insert 1

Life's Blood Defiance 7" and 1988 Demo

Here is the Life’s Blood “Defiance” 7” along with the 1988 Demo recorded at Don Fury.

7inchpunk.com also posted the 7” so you can compare this rip with theirs and see which you like better. Jay (Jason O’Toole) gave me the green light to post this (MiddleAgedYouth.com had posted it too, but removed it, prompting me to ask Jay if he cared if it got posted).

Random trivia about this record: I happened to be at Dave Stein’s apartment when the first shipment of Defiance arrived in the mail. A couple lucky friends and I got to buy the first ones out of the box. I remember Dave talking about how he thought Maximum Rock'N'Roll would probably give Life’s Blood a better review than many NYHC bands, because he thought they would "Iike the packaging" and because the songs critique a lot of BS in the NYHC scene at the time. He was totally right on. MRR gave it a great review. The look and feel of the cover and inserts look everything but NYHC circa late 80s. Speaking of packaging,another bit of trivia: According to a source close the situation at the time, the cover of this 7″ was made on stolen card stock. MRR’s review, of course, was due to more than the packaging. The music was right on and the lyrics critiqued a lot o’ crap going on in the NY scene then. The only minor MRR complaint (according to Dave K. was that Tim Yohanan said that “Catch our Breath” just sounded so obviously like Blitz that it “it just couldn’t be forgiven.” Dave claims Life’s Blood never played the song life again. I don’t know. For more info on Life’s Blood, see the Middle Aged Youth post.

Eventually I’m going to post a live LB show at CBGB’s as well as some other random LB tracks that I have.


Songs:
Never Make a Change
Left Me Behind
Stick To It
Guilty As Charged
Youth Enrage
Not For The Weak
Catch Our Breath
It's Not In Your Heart

1988 Demo

The demo is all on one mp3 file so here is the song list:
Maximum Security
Left Behind
Never Make A Change
Stick To It
Not For The Weak
Youth Enrage

Defiance Visuals:
Cover (large)
Back
Insert scans coming soon. My files got messed up.
Insert 1
Insert 2
Lyrics

Swiz - "Down" 7"

Between the birth of my beautiful daughter and school, there is precious little time for mp3 blogging of late.

This is the first 7" of the great D.C.-area group Swiz. I saw them multiple times in Albany and Connecticut in the late 80s, including on the awesome "SwASide" tour with Soulside and New Jersey greats American Standard (upcoming post -- American Standard's first LP, stay tuned). Trivia: vocalist Shawn Brown was Dag Nasty's first singer (Aug 1985 - Feb 1986) before quitting to form Swiz. He later sang for a number of other bands, most recently in Jesuseater.

Songs:
Much
Time
Cause
Lie

Visuals:
Cover (large)
Back Cover
vinyl side A
vinyl side B
Insert A
Insert B

A History of Albany, NY Punk & Hardcore -- 1980-1991

I built (and may add to) this compilation of Albany, NY off site, ON THIS PAGE. I didn't have time to test all the mp3s and images, so please write comments here if you find problems with the page.

No Outlet demo

Another post for the Albany folks. Thanks to Carl for providing the track names!



No Outlet was a classic Albany style hardcore ("ASHC" in Capital District parlance) band from the mid- to late-1980s. If you weren't there, you probably never heard of them. Their few releases include this demo and songs on two Albany compilations (see more at Middle Aged Youth's posting of the Albany Style Hardcore 7"). Nate of Gloom Records (and Monster X and a number of other bands) just sent me a live No Outlet show from 1989 (one of their last shows?), so keep your eyes peeled here for that.

I lost my copy of this 1987(?) demo years ago and this replacement copy came with no track list. Carl just sent them in, but be advised that the mp3 files don't have the right song names embedded with them. You'll have to set them yourself on your iTunes or mp3 program. Enjoy.


First Glance
Last Time
Just How It Goes
Push Back/Know Yourself
Loser
Abuser
No Outlet
Thanks

Born Against

Trivia: Most people know that BA featured members of LifesBlood. Fewer know that, at various times, BA also featured members of Citizen's Arrest and Moss Icon. There are plenty of sources on the Web to read about them so I won't repeat it here.

Half Mast
Xmas Eve
9 Years Later
Born Again/Witness to a Rape

This release came with a ton of visuals:

Lyrics 1
Lyrics 2
Stuff 1
Stuff 2
Stuff 3
Stuff 4
Stuff 5

Breakdown - The '87 Demo

Breakdown played my home town a lot in the mid to late 80s. I probably saw them 10 times or so, because a good lot of the Albany kids WORSHIPPED them. Most were the very kids who also idolized Youth of Today and the other Positive bands. This, of course, was strange, since Breakdown’s songs are basically all about drinking and fighting. They were kind of like the drinking man’s counterpart to Boston’s straight-edge Slapshot (who’s singer held a broken hockey stick in his hand rather than a bottle).

My friends and I weren’t … uh exactly into them (although, I always liked "Pipedream," the instrumental that, if I recall correctly, served as their "intro bust"). Nonetheless, when they reissued the ’87 Demo on this 7” record, at least a couple of us scrambled to buy it just for nostalgic purposes. It is definitely a classic from the 80s NYHC scene, even though the recording quality is pretty bad. If I had better software I'd try to remove the hiss, but I use Audacity, which always seems to create distortion when you try to reduce noise.

-- UPDATE: Dec. 17, 2007--
I've been asked to take it down per request of Bill Wilson, who claims to be the owner of the masters of this recording (not a Breakdown band member, but I have no reason not to believe him I guess). I'm leaving the first song by his permission. Bill says this is available on

and dowloadpunk.


Sick People
Kickback
Labelled
Vengence
Your Problems
Pipe Dream

Fear of God

For my money, of all the throat bands of the mid 80s, Switzerland's FEAR OF GOD was definitely the throatiest. Amazing. One of my favorite tracks is Prisoner of Your Ideals, which is all of 14 seconds long!

I bought this record (in 1988?) knowing nothing about the band, but figured any band that covered an Infest song was something I should buy. As it turned out, Erich, the singer for this band, actually put out the Infest LP posted elsewhere on this blog.
When I first heard this record, I assumed the band was taking grindcore (or crust-core, whatever you wanna call it) to its logical, perhaps even parodying extreme, as Sore Throat did on their Disgrace to the Corpse of Sid album. My friend and I decided that the main singer (which, I believe, is Erich) sounded a lot like Cookie Monster and, in fact, on two songs ("Which Way" and "Trouble Maker") there are times where I'd swear the singer WAS saying the word "cookie" ... were the lyric sheet not available to correct me.

That said, however, Erich, a band member who runs the awesome Good Bad Music for Bad, Bad Times blog (where he has some live stuff posted), writes that "the label 'Grindcore' that was attached to the band from 1989 never felt right for us. We thought of FEAR OF GOD as a Hardcore band, because apart from bands like MASTER or REPULSION, Hardcore and poststructuralistic Noise was our main influence."

I removed some of the songs at the request of Erich, who informed me that FEAR OF GOD is about to do a reissue of a lot of their stuff for their 20th anniversary and that this 7" I have is a bootleg anyway! He says that there are more bootlegs of this band than actual official releases. I believe it. I'm sure the Japanese went apeshit over this stuff.


Side 1
Rubbish Planet
Controlled By Fear
Prisoner of Your Ideals
Under The Chainsaw
Trouble Maker
Proud On Your Pride
My Hands Deep In Your Guts
Which Way?
Pneumatic Slaughter
A Life In Rigorism
7 Up

Side 2
Circle A
Running Through The Blood
Raise The Siege
Pelzfotze
I'm Positive
The Two Sides Of The Coin
Locked Away
I've Seen
Absolution
First Class People
Chain (Infest cover)