Noise for Zeros

Do What You Feel (Feel What You Do) 7″
Slampt, 1997

Back in 1997 there weren’t a ton of groups doing angular, Gang of Four-style postpunk, so you gotta give Red Monkey credit for not only being ahead of the curve, but for doing it really really well. Along with their classic releases on NJ’s Troubleman label, this debut 7″ EP on their Slampt label has remained one of the better examples of tightly-wound, tension-filled punk with a sharp political edge. With male/female vocals sparing back and forth ala The Ex and a stripped down, herky-jerk rhythm section, songs like “Not Only” and “18+” absolutely grab you by the throat and demand your attention. Ain’t that what punk’s all about?

DOWNLOAD

Red Monkey – “18+”
Red Monkey – “Not Only”

LINKS

Red Monkey on iTunes

Split 7″
Station Eight, 1994

As much as one can explore the music underground, there will always be treasures buried in time and obscurity. Entire scenes that barely blip on the most thorough subterranean radar may only yield utterly forgettable dreck, but every now and then a snapshot appears that gives depth to a scene that warrants more inspection. Here’s a an example of one such snapshot, this rare split between two Lincoln, Nebraska hardcore bands that captures two overlooked bands doing some interesting stuff at a time you wouldn’t expect this type of noise to be rumbling in a midwestern college town. Judging from the all-lowercase cover art and inside action shot of clean cut kids in band tees, you’d expect Caffiend to be some sort of straight-edge or proto-Emo band akin to Boys Life, Braid, or the Saddle Creek scene that’d soon follow. Instead, their track “Runaway” is an pent up burst of rambling noise skronk accented with intense blurts from a horn section and samples. The flipside by Filter (most definitely not the “Hey Man Nice Shot” Filter) offers more sample-driven chuggage with an even darker, metal sound that Neurosis was perfecting at the time. Both tracks make you wonder what else was going on around these bands and where to hear some more…

LINKS

Posting at TheBandBrokeUp.com

DOWNLOAD

Caffiend – “Runaway”
Filter – “Skinned Knees”

Loaded LP
Bomp!, 1990

Like other small college towns across the midwest, Columbia, Missouri has had its history of raging bands that flame out and disappear before fully putting their town on the map. This trio knocked me over at an Outhouse show in Lawrence before this LP came out and it was years before I finally managed to pick it up. I couldn’t recall what they sounded like and even now it’s hard to pin ‘em down. There’s the loose Black Lips garagey tracks that fit along with the Bomp! Records imprint, but there’s also crazed dirges that come out of left field like “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, sounding like Tales of Terror on a bender. Throw in some thrashy riffs that could hang with the best of the emerging crossover metal bands of the era and you’ve got a noteworthy slab of vinyl that defies easy classification or dismissal.

DOWNLOAD

Three Legged Dog – “Fast Bent”
Three Legged Dog – “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
Three Legged Dog – “Triplets”

43 10″
ActionBoy 300, 1995

A number of great bands in the ’90s were unfairly dismissed as Fugazi clones, and this suburban Chicago group might be the best example of just how great some of these groups could be. Gauge was a young band, which may have kept them from getting the respect they deserve, but they toured hard and put out a body of work that’s well worth a listen, especially this 6-song EP, their final release. Gauge definitely took some inspiration from Fugazi and the dynamic punch of early emo/post-hardcore, but their sound was distinct with throaty vocals and an earnest, utilitarian method of achieving a dramatic punch. At times they’re tense and gnarled, while other times hushed and subdued, offering a slightly math-rock inspired take on what Boys Life and Christie Front Drive were doing around the same time. If you dig this, you’ll also want to check out some of the bands that sprung from Gauge, like Traluma, Haymarket Riot and Euphone.

LINKS:

Stream “43″ on Bandcamp

Hollywood Blood Capsules CD
Choke, 1995

Two bands in the mid-90s were often described as “The Jesus Lizard with female vocals” and strangely enough:

1. Both had the word “jack” in their moniker
2. Both came from college towns
3. Both featured female vocalists with the last name of a U.S. President.

Despite these intriguing similarities, neither really got the attention they deserved outside of their respective hometowns. Considering the novelty and force of each band, it’s puzzling to imagine a time where the output of these groups could be so utterly overlooked and unnoticed. Read more about Athens’ Jack O Nuts here. Like Jack O Nuts,  Ann Arbor’s Jaks employed snaky, propulsive bass and tensely clashing minor key guitar shards — but to a slightly more gnarled degree. And while Jack O Nuts’ Laura Carter had the David Yow-ish howl of a crazy person, the Jaks’ Katrina Ford (who would later go on to Love Life and Celebration) forces the sketchy thrill of a carnival sideshow through a blown-out transistor mic, half rambling, part singing and part screaming. It’s a rambunctiously noisy and fun album with a slight gothic tint. You can find it and their earlier singles collected on the Here Lies the Body of Jaks collection released on Three One G.

DOWNLOAD

Jaks – “Dumb Waiter”
Jaks – “Spider”

LINKS:

Jaks on MySpace
Buy Jaks “Here Lies the Body of Jaks” discography CD at Three One G

(Germo) Phobic LP
Headhunter Records, 1997

Friends and family rarely understand what drives a person to spend countless hours sifting through cubic acres of vinyl in dingy record stores, cataloging and obsessing over music that most people find more worthless than the series of descending pricetags stuck on its jackets. And we’re not talking about collecting. That people can sorta understand. There’s a point to finding something rare and worth a lot of money. For me, however, it’s been hard to explain the thrill of finding something I wasn’t really even looking for, something I stumble across randomly that totally hits the spot — something makes all the searching worthwhile. Whether it’s rare and valuable or worth next to nothing, I could care less. As long as I continue to find music that kicks ass buried in those dingy record stores, you’ll find me happily flipping through the stacks in search of my next fix. This somewhat hard-to-find sophomore album from Tanner is a perfect example. Their debut LP Ill-Gotten Gains found a coveted place in my collection alongside other San Diego greats like Hot Snakes and The Night Marchers (both featuring Tanner’s Gar Wood) and I’ve picked up some of their singles when I’ve come across them. I didn’t even know they had another album, so when I came across this I knew it’d be worth checking out. I was right. This one picks up where their debut left off with tight, punchy riffs solidly played over earnest vocals and hooky songwriting, maybe even better than they did on their first LP. It’s a smoker that will keep me searchin’ for the next batch of quality tuneage.

DOWNLOADS

Tanner – “AKA Meltdown”
Tanner – “Booty”
Tanner – “2 Parts Gas”

LINKS

Official Tanner site

A Modest Proposal CD
Atlantic Records, 1994

During Candy Machine’s 7-year lifespan, the easily overlooked Baltimore quartet managed to put out a few singles and three albums of quality tension rock while never connecting to a substantial fanbase or getting out of the cutout bin ghetto. It’s a shame too, because this album in particular showcases their peculiar version of rigid, art-damaged postpunk that was unlike the multitude of bands plodding similar territory at the time. Sandwiched between Candy Machine’s debut on Skene! Records and their final album split released on ultimate indie labels DeSoto and Dischord Records, A Modest Proposal was released by a major label and promptly neglected. With a deadpan vocals, severe angular guitar, and bouncing bass lines pulling everything together with a precision-steady beat Candy Machine’s big label flop is a relatively unheard treasure.

DOWNLOAD

Candy Machine – A Modest Proposal (59.9mb Zip file)

Nothing Equals Nothing 7″
Dionysus Records, 1991

Following the line from the namesake Velvet Underground song “Black Angel’s Death Song” all the way to current Austin psych darlings The Black Angels, you’ll find a number of VU-inspired troupes carrying the underground freak rock flag. This loose-knit Los Angeles group from the early 1990s put out some inspired singles like this one, which falls somewhere in between the nonchalant scrap pop of Pavement and slo-mo guitar haze of Spaceman 3. The title track “Nothing Equals Nothing” is sneering ’80s So-Cal punk accented with ’60s bongo beats, neatly connecting the counterculture strains of each era to create a timeless hybrid that’s as relevant now as it was in 1991. In fact, it may be even more relevant today in the sonic blender of the MP3 age, where decades of rock genres and subgenres are so easily condensed and referenced.

DOWNLOAD

Black Angel’s Death Song – “Nothing Equals Nothing”
Black Angel’s Death Song – “What Do You Mean?”

LINKS

Black Angel’s Death Song on MySpace

Speed Kills CD
Empty, 1996

A number of my favorite records made me laugh the first time I heard them. Melt-Banana‘s Scratch or Stitch LP was so ridiculously jolting and squeaky that I grinned ear to ear in bemused amazement. Emperor‘s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is so preposterously melodramatic and fast that I still can’t take it seriously. And who can listen to Xerobot‘s dazzlingly robotic Control Panel CD with Greg Peter’s spastic vocals without busting a chuckle? All classic, all amazing, and all noteworthy for an x-factor quality that really made them stand out from the pack. In this great pantheon of underground benchmark albums lies The X-Rays’ Speed Kills CD. While they were part of the mostly unremarkable Gearhead zine garage punk scene of the mid-1990s, they upped the ante with an outrageously loud, fast, and over-the-top take on the whole leather jacket punk rawk thing. I can still distinctly recall hearing the first few seconds of “Racin’ Outta Napolis” for the first time, shaking my head and laughing at the audacity and overdrive of this Nottingham psycho squad. It begins like a number of lesser gearhead punk albums, complete with revving engines throttling to take off, but after a quick count it lurches into crazy territory and races into one of the more noteworthy garage punk records of the genre. Their Empty follow up Double Godzilla with Cheese continued the wacky hi-jinx with the entire album playing backwards after the last track.

DOWNLOAD

The X-Rays – Speed Kills (28.1MB)

Ritual Lips / Grandma 7″
Aural Rape, 1991

Probably one of the most literal versions of the “pigfuck” genre — loosely defined as ugly midwestern noise rock with a nasty mean streak, ala Big Black, Killdozer, Drunks With Guns, etc. — this Omaha band of miscreants was a minor legend in these parts, upping the ante for twisted records and live performances. Being a fellow Nebraskan, I had the opportunity to see them a number of times and still consider them on par with more widely known acts of the era. One particularly memorable scene (as recounted in the Horror Punk 101 countdown last Halloween) was seeing them open for the Jesus Lizard at Gabe’s Oasis in Iowa City. Being a college town, there was a sizable and drunken crowd, and at one point in Ritual Device’s set, singer Tim Moss started tossing out rendering plant refuse into the crowd. I can still see the shocked horror in the eyes of a pair of alternagirls picking up leathery, hairy sow ears, thinking it was some type of sticker toss or something. And that pretty much sums up the Ritual Device experience: ugly, visceral, and unnerving. And brutally rifftastic with a sick sense of humor. Members went on to other heavy ’90s bands like Men of Porn and Ravine after releasing a few other 7″s, a split 10″ with Killdozer, and a solid LP, Henge. Here’s their rare debut 7″…

DOWNLOAD

Ritual Device – “Ritual Lips”
Ritual Device – “Grandma”

LINKS

Ritual Device on Built On A Weak Spot blog
Ritual Device/Ravine history from Lazi-i.com website