The Vicious were from a town in the north of Sweden called Umea and though they were only together for around 3 years they still carved a name for themselves in the annals of Swedish punk rock. They split in 2007 when drummer Andre Sandstrom left the band and the remaining members (Robert Pettersson (vocals), Sara Almgren (guitar) and Erik Viklund (bass) ) decided to form Masshysteri.
They released a number of eps and one album, 2006's Alienated. From that album, this is a catchy as hell number called Walking Dead.....
I see pale faces walking right by outside. Im sick of seeing uniforms all around so heres my head now wheres the gun? I know your having fun. Turn around Ill walk away walk away...
Today is Dave-Parasite MacKenzie's birthday so it's about time his band had a song featured on this blog.
Formed way back in the mid 80's in New Jersey by vocalist/guitarist Dave and bassist Ron Nole (Ronnie Parasite), The Parasites released their debut, the Lost In The 80's ep in 1987 on Electrified Hair Records.
Pop punk tunes aplenty followed as did numerous line up changes, a move to Berkeley, California and gigs with pretty much everyone that was worth sharing a stage with (Nofx, Rancid, Lillingtons, Teenage Bottlerocket, Queers, Buzzcocks, Green Day, Swingin' Utters, Ben Weasel etc etc etc.....).
The song I'm posting today was originally a single in 1997 on Lookout Records and featured on the Rat Ass Pie album. This version appeared in 2006 on the Retro-Pop Remasters Compilation. It's called Hang Up......
I really didn't want to go to another show, but I got in for nothing I saw you from across the room and I knew why I was there After the second crappy band you grabbed my left hand and wrote your number on it and ever since you walked away, I need psychiatric care
I've got a hang up, I can't hang up when I talk to you, woah! [x2]
I've called you up at thousand times, spent a thousand dimes, but you don't have an answer I wish that you'd try to decide, is it him or is it me You're always putting me on hold, and that's kind of cold, but I can wait forever And if it takes a million dimes, I'll get you eventually
I've been in love before, a couple other times, but you're the one that I need And though I sometimes say things you don't want to hear, I'll whisper in your ear until you see, 'cause
I've got a hang up, I can't hang up when I talk to you, woah! [x2]
I really didn't want to go to another show, but I had to do something I quickly did a double take when I saw both of you there After the second crappy band you grabbed his left hand and walked right by me, smiling and ever since you walked away, you need psychiatric care
and though I know right now that you can't be with me, I hope someday you see you're wrong And though I sometimes say things you don't want to hear, I want to make it clear, my love goes on, 'cause
I've got a hang up, I can't hang up when I talk to you, woah! [x3]
I wake up early nearly every day My mind is blank My mind is weak My mind is grey..... I'm tired of the same old shit I'm tired of dealing with it.....
There's more than one band named The Bayonettes but the song I'm posting today is by The Bayonettes who were a punk band from Toronto and who had a sound not a million miles away from US legends, The Avengers.
Featuring Zoe Dodd (vocals), Mark Pesci (guitar), Mary Ann Guiao (bass) and Bennett Jones-Phillips (drums), they announced themselves in 2005 with a 7" (Dead End Kids/American Song) which was vol 7 of the Art Of The Underground single series. A year later came the single Stuck In This Rut and the We're Doomed ep, both came out on Deranged Records.
Deranged also released the Guilty Pleasure 7" in 2010 but this was after the band had split. Mary Ann Guiao was also the singer with Dangerloves (who also featured Mark Pesci).
Frustrated with the humdrum 9-5 world, this is Stuck In This Rut......
A timeless song today that came out in 2006 on Three Dimensional Records but sounds as though it could have been recorded pretty much any time during the last 40 years. It's by Minneapolis power pop trio Boys Club and it's the title track from their debut single (which can be checked out here : http://threedimensionalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-my-face). 300 copies of the single were originally pressed and quickly sold out so a further 200 were repressed with a Japanese sleeve and they were snapped up too.
Slightly snottier and rougher around the edges than most power pop (which in my book is a good thing), This Is My Face is still catchy as hell, check it out......
A song today from a band that were one of Britain's best hardcore punk combos.
The Steal hailed from Kingston Upon Thames and Brighton and came together in 2005 sharing a love of bands such as Minor Threat, Kid Dynamite and 7 Seconds. Featuring Mark Pavey, Dave House, Richard Phoenix and Lindsay Corstophine, they released 2 superb albums (2006's self titled debut was followed in 2008 by Bright Grey) and splits with Beat Express and Set Your Goals.
They split in 2009 after a farewell hometown gig supporting Paint It Black at The Peel in Kingston but happily this led to the formation of two great bands, Pacer and Sauna Youth (both of whom have featured in this blog).
Dave House has also continued producing solo material and you can check that out, along with everything released by The Steal and Pacer here : https://davehouse.bandcamp.com/
Whilst at work last night I somehow ended up in a conversation about the audiences at Chicago hardcore punk shows. It followed on from an essay written by Kreutzer Sonata bassist Kat Schrapler, the sentiments of which I think The Steal would have heartily agreed. The essay is here : http://www.rockinchicago.org/post/115814698707/op-ed-making-room and to tie in with it, this is The Steal - Wonderstuff.....
The date and time are noted, The flyers on my wall. I couldn't be more excited, I'm just waiting for that call From my friends to pick me up outside, so we can go to the show. we're going to have fun tonight there, even if there's no-one we know.
To these friends I haven't met yet, These songs I've not yet sung.
On the way there we're singing every song we know, Talking about failed romances, whose done what & who said so. I could never have thought that on that night Just dancing on my own, It'd change my whole life, to what I do & who I know.
To these friends I haven't met yet, To these songs I've not yet sung. I didn't know it could take you this far, I don't want to stop now, (So hurry up!) There's still so much to be done.
If you're standing at the back - and you don't want to know If you don't want to clap - are your hands to cold? If you think you're too old - You're never too old! remember why you came here, instead of staying home!
I suppose the first thing to say about today's song is that the band that recorded it aren't the same band that released a couple of singles (Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks and Sink The Whales Buy Japanese Goods) back in the 70's. Although also called The Rotters this lot were somewhat of a shambolic, thrown together outfit from London featuring future Horrors vocalist Faris Badwan on drums as well as Dylan "Rotter" Wigoder (vocals), "Robot" Jess Meek (bass) and Emily "Rotter" Watson (guitar).
Supposedly they were offered a gig and so wrote all their songs in a matter of hours, named themselves after a Jonathan Coe novel titled The Rotters Club and then without hardly any practice went out and performed. They even managed to put out a (triple A sided) single. It should really have been an amateurish disaster but have a listen to Japanese Punk, it was fucking gloriously awesome.....
I think it's fair to describe Los Angeles' The Drips as being somewhat of a punk rock supergroup. Amidst their ranks they could boast members of The Bronx (Matt Caughthran and Joby J. Ford), The Distillers (Tony Bevilaqua), Suicidal Tendancies (David Hidalgo Jr.) and Bullet Treatment (Vincent Hidalgo). They got together in 2000 but due to the commitments of their other bands it took them 5 years before they got round to releasing their debut, self titled, album. This was preceded by 3 singles (Mexico, Broken, 16,6,6) but it wasn't until earlier this year that a 4th single saw the light of day. Featuring a couple of tracks (Fountains/Destroy The Chemistry) from the band's 2002 Tower 13 session, they show why they were hailed as "muscular and melodic....a thrilling blur". If you've seen the Darby Crash movie, What We Do Is Secret, you may have noticed The Drips playing the part of 1980 era Black Flag.
This is the album version of Fountains......
Today's selection is by a band that started life in 1978 in Burnley (in the north west of Lancashire) as a bunch of young kids who wore safety pins in their school uniforms and covered Slaughter & The Dogs songs. Intending to "make silly records and play silly gigs" they comprised Michael "Haggis" Hargreaves (vocals), Steven "Sage" Hartley (guitar), Roger "Rog Sensible" Rawlinson (keyboards), Gary Brown (bass) and Kevin "Ploppy" Hemingway (drums). Back in those days it wasn't always easy getting gigs, punk was very much looked down on and feared by local promoters so the band would often audition at working men's clubs by playing their songs at half speed before turning up for the actual gigs with a healthy contingent of pogoing fans and blowing the roof off.
Not afraid to take the piss out of everyone and everything and bouyed up by their selection as band of the week by Sounds' journalist Gary Bushell, they scored their biggest hit in 1979 with the brilliant (I'm in love with) Margaret Thatcher. A couple more singles (I Thought You Were Dead, I Am The Bishop) and the Instant Classic album followed before the band split (in 1982) as "tantrums, fist fights and arguments about money" took their toll.
Happily, they got back together in 1996 to play the annual Holidays In The Sun Festival before making the reformation more permanent in 2005. The following year they released the song that I've selected today. Often when punk bands get back together, any new material they cobble together doesn't live up to their glory days output, happily this isn't the case here, this song is definitely an instant classic, this is Oh Boy I'm In Fashion......
A blast of English pop punk today from a band I managed to catch live a few times when they ventured up north, this song is a cracker that made my top 10 singles of the year list in 2006. Captain Everything! were schoolmates from Watford who formed a band in 1998. Influenced by the likes of NOFX and Frenzal Rhomb, they consisted of Jon Whitehouse (bass/vocals), Lewis Froy (guitar/vocals) and Richard Phoenix (drums) (Phoenix left in 2005 to join The Steal and was replaced by Blake Davies before returning in 2010). The thing I remember most fondly about their gigs was the comic verbal interplay between the co vocalists, it complimented the up tempo, often humerous, songs well. As for the songs, they released several albums, most notably their latter releases which were on Household Name Records (the re-release of Learning To Play With, It's Not Rocket Science and Buena Vista Bingo Club) though there was just the one single, Bomb Song......
It's 5am on a Saturday morning as I click send and upload today's update. Usually at this time on a Saturday morning I'd be fast asleep, my stomach full of last night's beer and the prospect of a trip to watch football to look forward in the afternoon. All I've to look forward to today however is a long. tedious 12 hour shift at work. Overtime is needed to help pay the bills, so with a heavy heart (and a bag full of punk cds to help pass the time) I bid you all farewell and head to the car.
Nice chap that I am though, I leave you with a song (and an appropriate one which ties in nicely with my story of woe from above). Guttermouth were formed in 1998 in Huntington Beach, California and are famed for their irreverent humour and catchy pop punk platters, their couldn't give a fuck attitude even saw them once chucked off the Warped Tour. Whilst we haven't had a new studio album from them since 2006 they're still gigging regularly (in fact they're on the road thoughout this month). So from their last album, Shave The Planet, this is currently the story of my life, it's called God, Steve McQueen 'The Work Song'......
Well, I swing this hammer from 9 to 5 Been workin' for the man just to stay alive W-O-R-K is how I spell work
Feel depressed, I miss my family Maybe if I work long then I'll feel just fine Haven't smoked in a week My back is kinda tweaked Give me work, give me pride, give me loads of overtime
Work, work, work, work, work, work, work
Well, I work all day and drink all night We fight all morning 'til we get it right Then, we go to school to be a journeyman
My mother works, my father works My brother works and now I work That's all I do is work, work, work, work, work
Lots of pride I get from work Dad says real men have to work A union man gets lots of pride from work
In the bailing fields or on the farm I've only got a tan on half of my arm I work real quick when you hit me with a whip Give me work, give me pride, give me loads of overtime
Work, work, work, work, work, work, work
Well, I work all day and drink all night We fight all morning 'til we get it right Then, we go to school to be a journeyman
My mother works, my father works My brother works and now I work I love to work, work, work, work, work, work
America A country carried on the back of the working man A man with fire in his eyes and steel in his belly A man who could build anything Like a chair or a table, or he can fix a car, or he can fix a radiator Without him you wouldn't be able to drive to work And then you wouldn't be able to work And no one would go to work 'cause
Work, work, work, work, work, work, work
Well, I work all day and drink all night We fight all morning 'til we get it right Then, we go to school to be a journeyman
My mother works, my father works My brother works and now I work I love to work, work, work, work, work, work
Today's update comes from a collaboration between Jay Reatard and his ex girlfriend Alix Brown (previously a member of The Lids). Angry Angles were a fairly short lived Memphis act who released a handful of singles between 2005-6, they've been compared to Wire in several reviews, their songs were catchy and smart slabs of post punk goodness. Unfortunately, a planned album was scuppered when an electrical storm caused a power surge that fried Jay's hard drive, the majority of the tracks being readied for the album were lost. Possibly my favourite of the stuff they did manage to put out and taken from the Apparent-Transparent ep, this is the really rather wonderful You Fell In......
creatures hiding in their holes, hungry with the winter cold, you bring them meat, to wet their beak, to creatures hiding in their holes, you fell in! Woo Pushed in, you fell in to a pit. keeping secrets in a hole, thinking that no one could know, you told someone, to spoil their fun, for creatures hiding in their hole, you fell in! Woo pushed in, you fell into a PIT!
Government Warning formed in 2005 and hailed from Richmond, Virginia. They were together until 2011 and in that time released some of the best hardcore punk music you'll find. The song I've chosen comes from their 2006 classic album, No Moderation. Punknews.org described it as being "a perfect soundtrack for circle pits and skate videos" and i think that sums things up pretty nicely. A biting critique on American dietary habits, Fat Nation is a hardcore punk classic.....
burger king and taco bell addicted to the shit they sell gargling their fat and grease you're countin' carbs but you're still obese
exercise? no fuckin' way you'd rather just fucking pay and pay easy ways out, quick relief but being fat is not a fucking disease
all across the world they thunk were crazy man they say america is just fat and lazy maybe they're right maybe concrete jungles look like urban tombs maybe its true, and were all fucking doomed
twinkies and cathode rays the latest work free fitness craze comatose motherfuckers too lazy for life but low cal , low carb thats no way to survive
welcome to the red white and blue were all fat and lazy and you could be too welcome to the red white and blue where half of us rely on fast food
I'd like you to help me out here and answer the question "what's the best song about The Ramones?" There's plenty of them out there. Personally I think the song I'm posting today takes some beating. Formed in 2001 and consisting of Dave Lazar (vocals/guitar), Dr Robert (guitar/vocals), General Wolfe (drums/vocals) and Baco (Bass/vocals), Dustin's Bar Mitzvah were from Acton in London. They had moderate success in the UK, releasing an album called Get Your Mood On and a handful of singles but it was Japan where they were most loved. A collection of demos entitled Dial M For Mitzvah made the Japanese top 40 album chart (as did Get Your Mood On), they also played a sold out tour over there. Supposedly one of those gigs (in Tokyo in 2006) was attended by North Korea's Kim Jong-un who was impressed enough to try and book them to play a gig in Pyongyang, they'd have been the first western band to play there since 1944 but unfortunately it fell through. They split in 2007 following the departure of their drummer and disagreements with their record label. They reformed in 2011 but aside from a free single that they gave away online i don't think they really got going again? This is their classic tribute to the godfathers of punk, To The Ramones......
Almost 5 months since it's inception and the blog has tended to steer clear of the heavyweights of the punk scene in favour of lesser known but equally deserving acts. My favourite songs of all time are probably White Man and Stay Free by The Clash, Wasted Life by SLF, The Classical by The Fall, She's The One by The Ramones, Vulnerability by Operation Ivy etc etc etc but you've all heard them so there's not much point in posting them. Today though, inspired by the question "what's your favourite NOFX song?" that I saw on a group I'm going to add a song by one of punks bigger names. Formed in 1983, from L.A., currently on vocalist Fat Mike's Fat Wreck Chords label, a hefty back catalogue blah blah blah....they've got an impressive body of work to chose from but my favourite song? I doubt very much it'll top any poll but I'd go for their tale of bondage and depravity in Japan, featuring simple but great guitar breaks, this is Cool and Unusual Punishment.....
