Discographic Odds and Ends

I've had a hankering to hear a few things that I hadn't considered in much too long and digitizing Lps and hunting down rare things and digging around in various boxes and such because sometimes there's nothing quite like blasting Flipper at brain numbing volume over a couple of beers on a pleasant Summer's night. But then there's always a few straggling tracks somewhere that need to be culled and gathered together for the sake of completeness. So today I'm getting a couple of those cases out of the way and banging out the last few strays of a couple bands that I've been revisiting lately along with the matching compilation singles that go with them.


1. No Alterative - Johnny Got His Gun
2. Flipper - Earthworm
3. Tools - Asexuality in the 80's
4. Ballad of Pincushion Smith

I've had this for so long I don't remember not having it. I picked it up for Flipper. I'm doing it now for Flipper. However it is a pretty essential blast of San Francisco punk. The guitar tone on the No Alternative song is pretty wonderful and it's nice to have at least one Vktms song knowing that I'll never feel justified in dropping the wad of cash on an original copy of the "Midget" single no matter how much I do truly love that song. This is goodness.



1. Spikes - Life is Hell
2. Lewd - Mobile Home
3. Society Dog - Title Role
4. Undead - Hitler's Brain

The follow up compilation single. It's got some nice heavy hitters on it. It's classic punk rock. There's another song about Hitler's brain on it. I don't think I need to spell it out for you what this is going to be like. You're an adult. You make your own choices.



1. the Neats - Six
2. People in Stores - Factory
3. CCCP-TV - Fear That Mindless
4. the Wild Stares - Moving Targets

Propeller Records was supposed to be a nice cooperative label with a small and intrepid group of similarly minded Boston bands getting together to release each others records. It actually worked for a few years and put out seven items before imploding amidst the usual bickering about money etc. you might expect when communal projects go awry. (and most unfortunately before they could release the planned Art Yard "the Law" single) This was the first shot across the bow. It's notable mostly because it has the Neats song "Six" which I still have to say is perhaps their most shining recorded moment and the first thing they ever released. It was a long slow decline for them after that. The Ep "Monkey's Head in the Corner of the Room" and the first Ace of Hearts Lp are both fine slabs, don't get me wrong. But this song just has an extra special place in my heart.
The other track of minimal interest here is the CCCP-TV track mostly because I was briefly in an attempted band in the mid-80's with the guy who plays bass on the track. That band never had a name or got out of the practice space for better or worse. I just remember the experience whenever I hear this one.
The other couple of tracks I find to be pretty reasonable examples of the state of the art for Boston of the era and better than the entire Chicago back catalog.
Another tidbit I've come across in a few places is that the master tapes for all the Propeller releases went up in flames in a fire, so this is it, kids. These won't be made again...


1. 21-645 - Babble
2. Dangerous Birds - Emergency
3. V - Schtized
4. Christmas - I Close My Eyes

The other Propeller compilation seven inch. I wanted the Christmas track. This one is however chock full of good things starting with the 21-645 song "Babble" As far as I know the only traces of this band's existence is this and a song called "Red Red" on the first Throbbing Lobster compilation "Nobody Gets on the Guest List" Both are fab songs. Dangerous Birds are the first band that Thalia Zadek was in before Uzi, Live Skull and eventually Come. (which reminds me that I need to pull that Uzi ep out and give it a listen again...) Propeller also put out a Dangerous Birds single for "Alpha Romeo" which I almost included here until my innate laziness decided to put it off for a follow up post. V is the post-Girls project of David Hild
and then there's Christmas. I loved this band. They'd eventually morph in to the much less interesting to me Combustible Edison in the early 90's hipster Lounge backlash to Grunge. For my money Christmas was where they shined. I saw these guys a lot. I recently pulled out their catalog and began revisiting it. I still like it a lot. This is one of the stray tracks that I still hadn't added to the digital realm. I feel whole again for however briefly until I remember something else. (like that damn Uzi ep...)

And while we're on Christmas strays there's still the single...


1. (the Ballad of) The Invisible Girl
2. Wilhelm Reich

Here it is in all its personal weird and wonderful glory. I still have a very distinct memory of the first time I encountered Christmas. It was at a benefit for the Neats after they'd had a house fire that had not only left them homeless, but had destroyed all their equipment since they'd been using the basement of the place as a practice space. Christmas took the stage in full on pastel Prom wear covered in soot. Michael Cudahy took to the mic, let out a big exhale of smoke and exclaimed "We just came from a really great party at the Neats' house...."