It's been many years since I've posted an old song on here but today's update features one from 2005. The reason being is that this week's Just Some Punk Songs show isn't the usual new release showcase. Instead I'm indulging myself by playing 25 golden oldies. It's going to be a killer playlist and I highly recommend you try and catch it either at noon (UK time) tomorrow (Sunday 24th) (https://gpr.mixlr.com/), or on one of the various radio stations it'll feature on during the week or when it gets uploaded to Mixcloud.
The Ghostwood were a "simple, melodic, snotty, sarcastic pop-punk" band from New Orleans who formed in 2004, split up in 2005, got back together in 2011 and then split again earlier this year. They were recommended for the Just Some Punk Songs internet show by Vista Blue's Mike Patton but for some reason the song didn't load on the night and never got played (though I rebroadcast the show so I could archive a complete version and after I switched the file it played fine). Due to the technical cock up, I'm posting the song to the blog. If anyone's interested in the Just Some Punk Songs show which features The Ghostwood, it's saved here : http://mixlr.com/mick-fletcher/showreel/just-some-punk-songs-request-show-2/
Autistic Youth were from Portland, Oregon and featured Adam Becker (vocals/guitar), Alex Tryon (guitar), Nick Vicario (bass) and Seve Sheldon drums). They formed in 2003, their influences included the likes of The Adolescents and The Wipers and you can find most of their back catalogue on their Bandcamp page : https://autisticyouth.bandcamp.com/.
One Autistic Youth release you won't find on Bandcamp is their debut single Banned From The Roseland. It came out in 2005 on Blind Spot Records and is pretty damn great......
I've asked Randy Smith, of Rebel Time Records (https://rebeltimerecords.bandcamp.com), if he'd be kind enough to select a top 10 list of his favourite Canadian punk songs. His instructions are to show how great Canadian punk music is, a 10 song history lesson. No pressure Randy!
Possibly a pointer to how his list will come out, here's a from one of his favourite bands, "a band that put out some great if somewhat unappreciated records."
Knucklehead are a socio-political punk rock band from Calgary, Alberta, who formed in 1994 and are influenced by the likes of Social Distortion, Stiff Little Fingers and Cocksparrer. Originally a trio featuring Kyle Hegel (vocals, drums), Matt Young (bass) and Clayton MacNeill (guitar), they expanded to a 5 piece and after a couple of changes settled down with Jimmy James coming in on guitar and Eric Jablonski on drums.
They've released 5 albums and a number of singles but today's song is the title track from 2005's The New Black List, which came out on Stumble Records and is definitely worthy of your attention......
There's a whole new world outside And it's getting tense It's not so safe anymore to voice dissent
There's a new generation of McCarthyists With a new black list
So do I know? No I don't know who's a patriot Yeah do I know? No I don't know Who's a patriot
They're not gonna stop until there's only One last choice They're not gonna stop until there's only One last voice There's a new generation of McCarthyists With a new black list
So do I know? No I don't know who's a patriot Yeah do I know? No I don't know Who's a patriot So do I know? No I don't know who's a patriot Yeah do I know? No I don't know Who's a patriot
Any blog that exists to highlight great punk songs should feature the song that I'm posting today.
Forming in Toronto in 2001, Career Suicide are a hardcore punk band who released a couple of great albums, 2003's self titled and 2006's Attempted Suicide (plus their 2004 split album with Australian band Jed Whitely). They've also released a handful of killer eps, including 2005's Invisible Eyes, from which today's song appeared. Another release that featured today's song was Anthology Vol. Two and you can check that out here : https://derangedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-vol-two
It's been a number of years since they last put out any music but they're still gigging (they headlined last month's Not Dead Yet festival) and new material is supposedly on the way.
One of my favourites, the line up on this was Martin Farkas (vocals), Jonah Falco (guitar), Matthew Miller (bass) and Jesse Parker (drums). It's called Bored, Bored, Bored........
An oldie today, and a bloody good one it is too.......
The Suicide Machines don't need much of an introduction as you should be familiar with them but briefly; they got together in Detroit in 1991 (as Jack Kevorkian And The Suicide Machines), they play various shades of punk, ska and hardcore and have released a decent number of classic records.
Despite splitting suddenly in 2006 they've since played several reunion shows and have recorded a version of You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch for an upcoming Christmas compilation. The line up is currently Jason Navarro (vocals), Ryan Vandeberghe (drums), Rich Tschirhart (bass) and Justin Malek (guitar). Hopefully there will be more new material one day.
Most people would probably vote 1996's Destruction By Definition as their best album and hard though it is to disagree, I'm a big fan of their last one, War Profiteering Is Killing Us All. By this time, the songs had gotten a little harder, the politics a little more pronounced but the catchy tunes were still all present and correct. A perfect example being Ghosts On Sunset Strip.....
He told all his friends that he's gonna move out to LA, Burned his bridges, all of them, yeah He's gotta move out to Cali. He's living in the sun, The stars at night under 'em. Underneath the overpass at Melrose and the 101.
That's just the way it goes, It's not the city of angels, It's the city ghosts, That's the way it goes.
So now he's living out here in Los Angeles, As for his addiction, he said he could always handle it. Hollywood all weekend. On Monday back downtown. He thought he'd be famous. In his madness he wallows around.
It's Babylon, it's paradise, it's the promise land. It's Halcyon, it's silicon, it's meth cocaine and heroin. It's Starbucks and it's all looks, it's all real life TV, It's rusty scalpels and dirty needles, it's surgery city.
Now he talks to himself alone out on skid row, Looked around, there was no one else. Is he laughing with the ghost of Marilyn Monroe? The Valley suit is shining on a smog alert hazy day, The last time that I saw him he was down and out, Down and out in LA.
A song that many of you will already be familiar with today but one that deserves a place in any blog celebrating great punk songs.
Ghost Mice are a diy folk punk band from Bloomington, Indiana and currently comprise of Hannah (violon/vocals/bass), Chris Clavin (guitar/vocals/uke), Pascaloo (uke/bass) and Emily (mandoline/melodica/concertina).
Since their formation in 2002 they've released a number of albums, eps and splits, many on Clavin's Plan-it-X label. You can get most of them (and today's song of the day), "name your price" here : https://ghostmice.bandcamp.com/
There's also a Plan-it-X bandcamp with loads of great music here : https://chrisclavin.bandcamp.com/
Based on a true story and originally on 2005's split album with Pretty Hot, this is one of those feel good songs that it's impossible not to love. Free Pizza For Life......
I'm gonna write this in a book one day but for now this song will have to do It's about the lengths you and I were willing to go to to get some free food it was 1997 something I cant remember I'm bad with dates you and I were living in my van everything that we had we had to take and the saddest song ever heard on the radio
was let it snow let it snow let it snow let it snow let it snow let it snow it said we have no place to go let it snow let it snow let it snow we didn't have any place to go it snowed it snowed it snowed
but wait
lets take it back a few years to the day were first met I moved to Bloomington to be a bum you were here on a full mathematics scholarship
I was from a small town you were from a small town we became the best of friends
Where our story begins is where our trouble begins
I never had a dime to my name you liked playing games a local pizza place had a deal 10 coupons got a free 12inch well here's what we did you see the college kids they never cut the coupons out wed dig through the trash and find them a few nights work put pizza in our mouths
we started to wonder where the coupons went after people turned them in so we looked in their dumpster and what did we find we found 140 of them
sooner then later we started making our own when kinkos got the red copy machine one day they busted me the manager said "we don't take photocopies"
So I jumped into the car told the driver to drive as we sped off into the night we yelled
Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza for Life Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life
A few years later you dropped outta school we both spent a few months in our home town we've both been down and out but we were doing our best to get back up now
One night we were sleeping in my van it was fourteen degrees below I woke up because I heard something crack you said it was your foot frozen to the window
Our desperation drove us to dishonesty we were criminals distinctive and vile declared most of the world to be our enemy
we stole checkbooks and credit cards signed signatures that were not ours slice after slice we ate pizza every night we always shared it with our friends gave the driver a mighty tip in our simple minds we had a slice of a paradise
but I guess we took it a little too far cause you ended up doing some time when they slammed the door to your cell I swear I heard you yell
Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life
On the night that we bailed you out of jail it was 2 weeks later you looked scared and pale to celebrate setting you free we ordered some pizza and paid with forgery
cause when they knock you down you cant stay on the ground you gotta keep getting up you gotta keep putting your faith in luck and as we can clearly see that we made some mistakes
for the most part I have no regrets at some parts I feel a little ashamed but it all worked out okay in the end and I think I would do it all over again
sorry your the one they caught I wish it coulda been me my friend I'm not saying we were wrong and I'm not saying we were right all I know is what we want
Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life Free Pizza For Life
"You're sick, you're sick, you're really, really sick....and you don't even know it......."
After I posted a song from India yesterday I was told by The Strange, Obscure, DIY And Outsider Music Group's head honcho Gary Riley that whilst there is punk in India, Nepal is better. So today, I'm adding a song from that country.
Tank Girl were a diy anarcha-feminist trio from Kathmandu who formed in 2005 and featured a couple of members of Nepal's best known diy punk band, Rai Ko Ris. These were Sareena Rai (bass/vocals) and Olivier Bertin (drums), they also featured Sampretty Gurung (guitar/backing vocals).
Most of their songs concern themselves with the exploitation, hatred, sexism, domestic violence, unequality etc towards the women in the Nepalese community. They played many benefit gigs in support of those causes. "Grim as the subject matter might be, Tank Girl's music makes you want to jump around and join them in rebellion against the infuriating reality of sexism."
As for their music, in 2005 they released an album called ...Kids With Guns + Choco Fun!! which received a European release on German label Dorfpunkgangdeluxe. Featuring on that album is a great cover of X Ray Spex's I Live Off You which I was tempted to make song of the day but I decided instead to go with one of their own compositions (if you want to hear the X Ray Spex cover click here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz-PQVeqdy4 ).
If you enjoy ballsy female fronted punk music, you should love this. It's called Eh Bau!......
I've posted quite a few Rip Off Records' acts over the course of the last year or so, it was a fabulous label with a very high % of winners amongst it's roster of garage influenced punk artists. Today it's the turn of New York City's Shop Fronts.
Unfortunately they didn't hang around too long, 2005-6 pretty much covers their lifespan, but they did put out a wonderful self titled album (Rip Off 072) which I recommend you try and track down, as well as a split 7" ep with fellow New Yorkers, DC Snipers, a single entitled Don't Quit, and a follow up called So Sick.
They comprised of Jami Wolf ( ex Zodiac Killers...guitar/vocals), Paddy Bullocks ( ex F-Hole...guitar/vocals) and Tom Dash ( ex Primate 5...drums/vocals) and Alessandra Aliquo (ex Tie-Reds...bass/vocals).
Originally a single on Noma Beach Records, this also appeared on the album, this is a great female fronted garage stomper. It's called So Sick......
From San Francisco, Zodiac Killers formed in 1999 and between then and 2005 they released 4 albums on the legendary Rip Off Records. Founded by Greg Lowery (who was the boss of Rip Off Records and had previously been in Supercharger, The Rip Offs and The Infections), they played the type of loud, fast and trashy punk rock music that is much beloved of this blog. Recorded shortly before they split, album number 4, Radiation Beach, is arguably their best release though they're all great. From it comes this excellent cover of The Notsensibles classic, The Telephone Rings Again......
Right from the start I was born with no heart And I never thought that anything Could tear us apart You proved me so wrong I thought I was so strong But I could never understand
You tear me away Spare me today I sit around just watching you Wear me away I take what I can And you can't understand That it's suicide
You left me alone without a house or a home And your presence is destruction And you've practically shown That no thanks to me You've lost your sanity And you became an unknown
Now you live by the sea And the tranquility Is an easy way to stop you feeling Lifeless and free But with a wave of your hand You are the pride of the land So you forget about me
Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again It's a call from a long lost friend Who called some time ago Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again It's a call from a long lost friend Who called some time ago
Right from the start I was born with no heart And I never thought that anything Could tear us apart You proved me so wrong I thought I was so strong But I could never understand
You tear me away Spare me today I sit around just watching you Wear me away I take what I can And you can't understand That it's suicide
Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again It's a call from a long lost friend Who called some time ago Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again It's a call from a long lost friend Who died some time ago
Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again Then the telephone rings aaa ...gain
The telephone rings again Then the telephone rings again It's a call from a long lost friend Who called some time ago
As far as offers you can't refuse go, the chance to get to biblically know someone in the back of their go-kart is up there with the best of them. To be fair, I probably would thank The Dwarves' Blag Dahlia and then respectfully decline his offer, on the other hand if it was L.A.'s The Holograms doing the asking as they are in this version of one of my all time favourite songs then the temptation to rev it up would be high..... Cutesy pop punk girlband The Holograms have been described as being like "Josie & The Pussycats getting harrassed by G.G. Allin at a really cool slumber party while loaded on donuts, diet pills and cheap champagne." Upbeat happy sounding tunes abound but with song titles like Scene Whore and Your Ex Is Turning Tricks Again you can tell these ladies have got bite. Their album, Night Of A 100 Ex-Boyfriends was produced By Blag Dahlia himself, this is the type of up tempo pop music that it's ok to enjoy. Oh and that promise of go-kart fornication, it's a one time only offer..........
Somedays you just feel like rocking out. An ominous, rumbling guitar intro and then release the hounds of hell.....Western Addiction are another band from San Francisco, forming in 2003 and featuring Ken and Chicken from Dead To Me, they released an album on Fat Wreck Chords called Cognicide (from which today's song comes) before splitting in 2006. Reforming in 2013 they released an ep (listen here : http://westernaddiction.bandcamp.com/album/pines ) and hopefully there'll be more to come. This is The Church Of Black Flag......
This is the church where Black Flag lives Sentiments are born of desperation Where good thoughts come from Monuments in futility Stress and anger, passion and humility But we're above thumbs
This is the church where black flag resides There's no profit, no success, just pride
Nil by mouth with prophetic paint Autistic license, we're always poor and hungry Art just doesn't pay Finding beauty in ugliness Compulsive strides are pensive and second best This is on our chests
This is the church where black flag resides There's no profit, no success and we're tired We're tired!
This is the church free of cognicide There's no profit, no success and we're tired, In the church where Black Flag resides There's no profit, no success, just pride
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