Asthmatic Kitty Records is a perplexing label, from soft soothing folky banjo plucking artists to semi-noise projects that have just a handful of "real" songs on an entire album. So where does David "Moose" Adamson's Jookabox project fit in on this scale? Well, let's say it's more noise than quiet banjos. The music is a bombastic, crunching, high energy mashup of blues/rock/hip-hop/house/etc...and yeah, it sounds exactly like it should....quite amazing. Check out his latest, Dead Zone Boys, and enjoy an album that is a "love story meets psychedelic zombie-musical."
This is Anthrax from the UK. They have nothing to do with the NYC speed-metal band of the same name. My skinhead homeboy Brian C turned me to these guys. Their 7” was released by Crass Records in 1982. Like most of the Crass bands, there is a heavy “peace punk” vibe and anarchist sensibility in their lyrics. However, unlike the rest of the Crass Label bands (with the exception of Rudimentary Peni’s E.P.s) they have a very hardcore sound. Download it here.
Side A: 1. Capitalism is Cannibalism 2. Violence is Violence
Side B: 3. Prime to Pension 4. All Things Bright and Beautiful
As a librarian I came across a sticker in a random book one day, all it said was "Malachi Constant." A few days later in the CityPages I saw they were a band and were to be playing someplace I frequented so I checked them out. What I saw was a four piece band full of energy, swinging guitars around with abandon, having way too much fun on stage for the intensity of the music they were performing. Giving humorously odd interviews (claims of accidentally shooting cops and trying to pick fights with other bands with their name), they seemed like a bunch of guys who either didn't care they were one of the better bands in Minneapolis from the late 90's to mid-2000's or didn't feel like putting on a 'hipster' front. In their own words, the bands states that "Malachi Constant is pretty much like your average young white guy poser-progressive band, but we sometimes try to sound like jazz music, and we are conscious of standard rock clichés." Sounds good to me! You can buy their albums here: Malachi Constant at Guilt Ridden Pop
Peter, Paul, and Mary J Blige from their Challenger EP
I love 7 inch records: they are such a great medium for spreading and distributing music. I am pleased that they continue to be used by bands to put out material today. One of the groups sticking to the format is the Los Angeles band Best Coast, who is making a small stir in the independent scene these days. They make straightforward, fuzzed out pop tunes, with agreeable female vocals by Bethany Cosentino who used to play in Pocahaunted. With simple yet great lyrics, they have designed some great pop songs that could easily exist in the early 1960s but don't sound retro. Bethany sings in "That's the Way Boys Are":
When I'm with my guy and he watches the pretty girls go by It hurts so bad deep inside, I wish that I could die Not a word do I say, I just look the other way That's the way boys are
That makes for pure pop perfection.
No Not Fun Not No has all their 7” records to download for free, so get on it before they’re gone. Both of the tracks below are from their Make You Mine 7".
Rich Kids on LSD (RKL) are one the bands that changed my life. Previously caught up in the world of heavy metal, I thought punk rock--with the exception of DEVO--was music produced by talentless, three-chord imbeciles. But after seeing Black Flag in 1984 at the Adams Avenue Theater in San Diego with my good childhood friend David S. I was hooked. That weekend I recorded as many of his albums as I could. Black Flag, Fear, Bad Brains, Battalion of Saints, True Sounds of Liberty (TSOL) EP, Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, Millions of Dead Cops (MDC), Minutemen, Dead Kennedys, GBH, Channel 3, and others.
When I got back to Santa Barbara, I was a changed teen. My metal friends wondered what happened to me. I started to seek out hardcore punk albums in my local record store and through fanzines like Maximum Rock and Roll and Flipside and the skateboarding mag, Thrasher.
It was at this time that I became aware of a local punk band called RKL. RKL was amazing. From the first note to the last. This is truly the music of my teens and was always the appropriate soundtrack whether skating, hanging out, or getting trashed. One of the great things about the punk rock scene at that time was they were regular, down-to-earth people, not like the rock stars of metal.
I remember seeing RKL at the Red Barn in Isla Vista (so many great bands played there) in '84 with my homeboy J.J. Shortly after the show this 7" was released and it still blazes twenty-five years later. Hardcore punk with some wicked changes and excellent lyrics. Seeing them live was even better. There was nothing like it. I had the chance to see and hear them progress over the course of two decades and I feel truly honored to have had that opportunity.
It is hard to say which song or record was the first actual piece of Rock and Roll. Some folks (including myself) argue Rolling Stone couldn’t have been more wrong when they claimed Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right Momma” was the first Rock and Roll track. Elvis himself recognized that he was by no means the creator of the style he would come to represent to white audiences, and he argued “A lot of people seem to think I started this business, but rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Nobody can sing that kind of music like colored people. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.”
The phrase “Rock and Roll” was used as far back as 1916, when the discount record label Little Wonder released a track by an unnamed vocal quartet titled "The Camp Meeting Jubilee.” Take a listen.
I feel that if there was a specific track that could be called the first Rock and Roll record, I would apply the honor to Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight.” A true gem of a song, and worthy of the praise it receives.
So where did Rock and Roll officially begin? Provide us with the track and artists that you think kick started the whole thing in the comments section.
If you go to a lot of shows, you're going to stumble onto some great bands by accident. That's exactly what happened with Great Northern one May night at the Casbah in San Diego. With layered guitars and a synthy background, vocalists Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte voices soar in a call and response style that's highly engaging and beautiful to boot. Their most recent album, "Remind Me Where the Light Is," is a treat to the ears.
This E.P. was released on Upstart Records in 1984. It is the first punk rock album I ever purchased. I found about these dudes in Thrasher magazine and ordered “In Control” through the mail. I guess I am pretty lucky as a lot of people sent Upstart Records money and never received the E.P.
This is classic Nardcore (Oxnard Hardcore). If you like your music, short, fast and sweet than this is the stuff for you. The line-up is Ron Baird (vocals); Blake A. Cruz, Dave Casillas (guitar); John Morris (bass guitar); Larry White (drums); Harry Misenheimer (drums). Casillas went on to play guitar on NoFx’s “Liberal Animation” L.P. (1988).
The album artwork was provided by Jaime Hernandez who did the illustrations for many of the Nardcore bands but is better known for his work on the “Love and Rockets” comics and graphic novels. I can’t count how many people reproduced his skateboarding skeleton on stickers and t-shirts in high school graphics arts classes. You can download the E.P. here. Stäläg 13: Conditioned
Annette Hanshaw was a jazz-pop singer who found some success in the late 1920s. Unlike other minor figures during the Jazz age, there actually exists video recordings of some of her performances, and most of her catalog has now been made available to download. I found a couple old 78s of hers that still sound clean and crisp today at an estate sale a few years back, and I was surprised by the quality of the recordings. Like many other musical figures from the era, she faded away into obscurity after a few years of recording, although she recorded a few tracks later in life in an attempt to revive her career.
Here is her rendition of “Loveable and Sweet.”
And here is a video performance of “We Just couldn’t say goodbye.”
This blog is a place to share music both new and old. We will also review records of the physical and digital variety. Each post will have streaming audio and/or links to mp3s managed by the group or record label, as well as the location to buy the stuff.
It goes without saying that we don't make a cent off of anything we link to on the site. We also don't intend to upset the creators of these tunes, so if you own the copyright to anything found here and want it removed, please contact Roland at rolanddodds(at)gmail.com.
