(Messthetics #213)
D.I.Y. with a guitar-genius/nonsense poet only begins to explain Dry Rib and the projects that followed... And things only got cooler, odder, and more idiosyncratic as Rob Vasey's audio insurgency progressed...
Summer 2008:
new at the store: Throbbing Lobster label vinyl stock (1984-88) for sale (finally!): the T.L. story
Out now! Performing Ferrets and Dry Rib
Dry Rib
- Whose last trickle CD
(Messthetics
#213)
D.I.Y. with a guitar-genius/nonsense poet only begins to explain
Dry Rib and the projects that followed... And things only got cooler, odder,
and more idiosyncratic as Rob Vasey's audio insurgency progressed...
Ed Ball of O Level (and later the Times and Teenage Film Stars) saw Dry Rib
first in late 1978 and promptly signed them to his new Clockwork label. He writes,
"Dry Rib were a late '70s three piece group of some indefinable power
- not Powerful in the obvious sense, as in everyone slugging out the same riff...
More the power of musical and lyrical imagination...
"Rob Vasey's guitar style of blurred chord stylings coupled with continuous
tremolo arm pre-empted My Bloody Valentine (or anyone else) by the best part
of a decade. [He] wasn't like Eric Clapton or Paul Weller in way/shape/form...
Which could only be a good thing because, he superseded these fellows for sheer
guitar innovation and songscapes that neither could even conceive of... Rob
was ably supported by two equally intelligent musicians - Andrew Goodwin (one
of the best two drummers I've ever played with - and that includes the so-called
shit-hot session guys) and Mike Mullholland (who could make a Fender Precision
sound like Entwistle, Matlock or a distressed horsefly!)"
Dry Rib's EP received heavy airplay from John Peel, who featured all three
tracks: 'Quail Seed', 'Cruelty of the Victim' and their epic 'Alaska' [the latter
and a demo of 'Quail Seed' appear on Messthetics #102] - and briskly sold through
a thousand-odd copies at the beginning of D.I.Y.'s golden age. They made
several further trips to the studio, with no loss of intensity or inventiveness.
Rob's career next took a more fluid and improvisational turn in a series of
collaborations with various members of the Times' extended family, mostly under
the flag of 'as, hem syrup' (the name taken from a nonsense
prose piece of Rob's), and the lyrics grew even more fanciful. As with Dry Rib,
there's no mistaking any of the material for anyone else's.
There's much more of Ed Ball's account in his liner notes (including diary entries
from the time) - along with every surviving Dry Rib photo, lyrics, the usual
daunting ephemera - and 20 songs and 75 minutes of music on the CD.
Buy
it now
More on Dry Rib at drummer/professor Andrew
Goodwin's website...
Performing
Ferrets - no one told us CD 
(Messthetics
#216)
28 songs from one of D.I.Y.'s iconic bands, including most of
their astonishingly scarce LP, which music-historian / journo / D.I.Y.-enthusiast
Johan Kugelberg described as "the most seminal LP to come out of DIY...
Fantastic over-enthusiastic juvenilia of an almost supernatural beauty."
Whether or not the name was ironic, The Performing Ferrets were very much a
performing band - whose songs clearly grew out of the way they interacted. A
curious rhythm, an engaging riff, an arresting lyrical snippet, and frequently
a Melodica tumble and writhe, ferretlike, into song / groove / experiments that
stood unique on the indie post-punk scene.
The Ferrets started out in Maidstone, Kent, in 1978 but they parlayed academic
careers in Manchester, Portsmouth, Nottingham and Preston into appearances all
over the U.K.: John Peel once lamented that every gig he did there seemed to
be a Ferret there "clutching a demo tape in its sweaty paw".
There's a touch of The Fall and the TV Personalities, a little garage and Beat,
hints of the rhythm-propelled sounds of the Monochromes, Feelies, Beefheart,
Gang of 4/Delta 5 or Diagram Brothers, and a dry wit that had more to do with
the Ferrets' favorite authors and comedians than anyone from the class of '77,
but the Ferrets' response to D.I.Y. was all their own. In "Mandolin"
(performed on a detuned mandolin that sounds like a toy piano) they complain,
"The independent market / Is just a bring-and-buy sale...God help those
who do it small scale / You've got to watch those pennies...You're bound to
lose pounds / We just can't make money (oh no, oh no!)" Their conclusion?
They'd just as soon give their records away for free (though the planned free
flexi never happened).
"No one told us" collects 28 tracks from 1980-82, although only three
rather inscrutable tunes saw wide distribution back in the day on their lone
Peel-championed 45. They also released two cassettes (perhaps 200 each) and
300-odd copies of their self-titled LP. After two years in Manchester the Ferrets
wound down when two of them ended up in Miaow with Cath Carroll, another took
over the editorship of Manchester's legendary City Fun, and a fourth got a doctorate
in immunology. The complete saga's in the 12-page booklet, along with photos,
artifacts, and almost 80 minutes of the Ferrets' finest on the CD. Buy
it at the store
Films, photos and further Ferretmania at performingferrets.co.uk
Messthetics #104-105:
"These labours of love are nothing short of essential
for anyone remotely interested in the area of sonic anarchy of any kind."
-Kris Needs, Record Collector.
Messthetics
#104 enhanced CD: 'D.I.Y.' and indie postpunk from the South
Wales and the Z-Block scene: 1977-81 (part 1)
By the end of 1977 years of music-industry neglect (and
the abrupt departure for London of the few feckless punks that had landed '77
record-deals) had left South Wales fertile ground for D.I.Y. The most basic
instrumentation, one-take recordings and black-and-white graphics ruled the
day, so it's no surprise that not one of the records on #104 sold more than
1200 copies. Mindful of these feeble sales, a dozen alumni of Cardiff's Z-Block
label (and various mates) gave up releasing records altogether, and busied themselves
in a frenzy of increasingly-sophisticated home recording. (We've included just
the tip of that iceberg...) 23 songs on the CD plus six bonus MP3
tracks. 24-page booklet, lovingly documented with histories and photos galore,
PLUS a ėreunion' appearance of the legendary Great Pop Things rock-history
comic. Buy
it.
Messthetics #104 had a half-hour feature
on BBC
Radio 6 (their podcast is available - but only inside the UK), and reviewed
in Detailed
Twang, the Sunday
Times (who called the series 'hugely worthwhile'),
Stuart Schraeder's splendid (if unprintably apropos) shit-fi.com,
The Wire, Record Collector, and elsewhere...
Messthetics
#105 enhanced CD: 'D.I.Y.' and indie postpunk from Scotland:
1977-81 (part 1)
Messthetics' first Scottish installment focuses
on a brief, intense scene of ardently independent bands who got started rubbing
shoulders with 1977 punk then paid no attention at all to London after that.
(London returned the favor.) The sound was based on guitars of all sorts, ingeniously
skewed melodies and unashamed local accents. Naturally, it all fell apart as
soon as "The Sound of Young Scotland" became a marketable commodity, but they
left behind a rich cache of lost 'alternative' hits. Plenty of 'traditional'
D.I.Y., too...
24 songs on the CD plus nine bonus MP3 tracks. 90 minutes of music.
24-page booklet, with band-histories & photos galore.
Messthetics #105 was the "album
of the week" review in Scotland
on Sunday (17 Feb. 08) and a four-bullet review
in issue #599 of The
List, with airplay all over BBC 6, Radio Glasgow and XM Radio
Scotland (who did an interview as well) ...
Buy it at
the store.
track-listings for ALL of the Messthetics compilations are finally online here
He's Dead Jim - Colour Climax/ Monochrome World: Aberdeen D.I.Y.-punk 1981-83 (Messthetics #215 CD-R)
Messthetics proudly presents the should-have-been greatest hits
of He's Dead Jim
- from the first half of their four-year Aberdonian "rammy" of trash
culture and lo-fi melodic punk. HDJ were one of D.I.Y.'s most obscure (and least
likely) prodigies. Despite the evidence of their (charmingly aberrant) songs
on Messthetics #105, He's Dead Jim were a complete pop band, and they were also
prodigious songwriters, from their first lo-fi garage recordings to their very
last ...lo-fi garage recordings. They released
eight full-length cassettes locally - each of them elaborately decorated and
bursting with hummable tunes - but they never darkened the door of a proper
studio. (If they had, they'd be all over Bored
Teenagers or This
is Mod, but they weren't mods at all, so maybe that's just as well.)
The name derives from the immortal (and oft-repeated) words of Star Trek's Dr.
McCoy (although Scottie was the one who came from Aberdeen), and HDJ pay regular
homage to all the usual school-band pop-culture icons from Fireball
XL5 to The
Prisoner. Pure [trash] punk, a lot of Mark E. Smith and maybe some
Billy Childish, as well, mixing it up with peeved-teen quips like "...got
no dry ice / to hide the fact that we're quite nice... / We want groupies (give
us a break!)" ...Etc.
Colour Climax/Monochrome World includes over an hour of music, a complete band history, photos, extensive artwork, and Messthetics' first 'reversible' cover. Buy some here.
Messthetics
#103: D.I.Y. and (very) indie post-punk
from the Midlands, '77-81
The Messthetics #100-series hits the metal-weary Midlands,
where it encounters a sparse but energetic rabble of (mostly) teens -happily
raising their own musical racket, completely outside the mainstream music business.
Faster, louder, and less arty than their "D.I.Y."
counterparts elsewhere in the U.K., the young denizens of #103 include forbears
of Felt, Pigbag, and the Nightingales as well as early incarnations of Swell
Maps, Spizz, and others...
22 songs on the CD plus four bonus MP3 tracks. Lavishly-illustrated and documented
24-page booklet, with histories, photos and ephemera.
Messthetics #103 collects rare tracks from the Versatile Newts [pre-Felt], Swell Maps, Prefects [pre-Nightingales], the Accused, Profile, Hardware [pre-Pigbag], Famous Explorers, School Meals, The Shapes, the Buzz, Domestic Bliss, Cracked Actors, Lester and the Brew, Human Cabbages, 021, and Cult Figures. Also selections from the first releases from Digital Dinosaurs, Spizzoil, Cravats, and Dangerous Girls.
Check out
a
full hour of Midlands D.I.Y. on Resonance Radio with Alex Ogg (No More
Heroes), Paul Panic from the Accused and Simon from Domestic Bliss and
the [hopefully] immortal TrakMARX.com.
And don't miss Everett True's extensive survey/appreciation of D.I.Y. and Messthetics in Plan B #20. Interviews with Messthetics bands, loads of photos and commentary...
Messthetics
#101 & #102
D.I.Y.
and (very) indie post-punk from London and the Home Counties, 1977-81
The Messthetics #100-series launches its grand tour of the U.K. with two full
CDs of London-area D.I.Y. -from some of the most famous, most obscure, and most
idiosyncratic members of an extraordinary scene.
Between 1977 and '83 hundreds of U.K. bands put out their own records and tapes
- usually on the cheap and utterly without apology. With "D.I.Y".,
Punk and everything that came before it collided gloriously with D.I.Y.'s fresh
aesthetic of making and sharing recordings outside of the established music
business -with only the slightest regard for an audience. There's no common
style: instead these songs are united by wit, enthusiasm, musical risk-taking
(especially these London bands)...and a conspicuous lack of pose.
The Wire review (February 2007): "Simply brilliant."
Plan B #18 review (February 2007): "unmatchable"
Mojo review (April 2007): "A mind-boggling array of mavericks, weirdos and experimentalists... More entries in the series are eagerly awaited." (four stars)
Messthetics
#101: Rare tracks from the Scissor Fits, The Rich
& Famous, Exhibit A, Different I's, Acid Drops, Grinder, Take It, the Jimmy
Nipper 5, Funboy Five, Twelve Cubic Feet, Tiny Town, Existence, Collective Horizontal,
Karel Fialka, and The Door and the Window... Never-released material from the
Homosexuals, Blue Screaming, Rejects (the final original from their 1977 demo,
pre-Homosexuals), Different Eyes, Milkshake Melon, George Harassment, Grinder,
TDATW. 16-page book, pix, 22 songs (27 if you count 5 ripping MP3s of related
stuff that wouldn't fit).
Special focus on the Hornsey/North London D.I.Y. scene (Take It, Blue Screaming,
The Door & the Window, Collective Horizontal, Exhibit A, 12 Cubic Feet all
shared members at one time or another), and unreleased treasures from the Homosexuals
(their earliest-yet recording, plus Rejects [before] and Anton Hayman/George
Harassment [after])
Messthetics
#102:
Rarities from Steve Treatment, The Tea Set, The Lines, Vacants, Walking Floors,
Metrophase, Nigel Simpkins, Astronauts, London PX, Restricted Hours, Auntie
Pus, Frank Details, and The Dad. Never-before-heard treasures from the Lines,
Dry Rib, M.L.R., Innerpropriates, Walking Floors, The Syrups, and London PX.
16pp book / 4500-word liners / cool photos / 23 tracks.
Messthetics #102 pays special attention to some of D.I.Y.'s earliest practitioners
and most effective evangelists: many were friends of the late Nikki Sudden and
Epic Soundtracks (and devotees of Marc Bolan): Steve Treatment, Metrophase,
Tea Set... There are Damned connections (ST, Tea Set, Auntie Pus), Times
connections (Dry Rib/Syrups), school connections, some general West London incest - and
a handful of folks who simply stopped paying attention to anyone else and struck
out on their own.
#102 is volume two from the London area. Next come full CDs from the Midlands
(#103), Wales, Scotland, Manchester/Liverpool/Lancashire, the West Country,
South Coast, and East Anglia/Northeast. Somewhere around #112 we'll start over
again with a couple more London CDs, Midlands II, etc...
Praise for Messthetics
Greatest Hits:
"Fully annotated and programmed beautifully, this CD should be part of
everyone's collection...Some of the greatest music that never was." - Byron
Coley, The Wire [full
review]
"The sound of the underground, the hiss of the tape, the amateur pressing,
the sloppiness and sheer sense of glee..." - Bob Stanley, The Guardian.
[complete
article]
"An exemplary collection of home-brewed D.I.Y." (4-star
review) - Uncut
3:AM
made it their 2006
Album of the Year.
Dusted
loved it too...
Messthetics
Greatest Hits:
The Sounds of UK D.I.Y. 1977-80
(Messthetics #100)
As Nuggets and Pebbles were to 60's garage-bands, as Chocolate Soup for Diabetics and Rubble were to freakbeat, and as Killed by Death and Bloodstains were to indie punk, the Messthetics series documents the essential bands of the DIY and the [very] indie postpunk generation of the British Isles. "Greatest Hits" showcases a dozen examples from Johan's worldwide "Top 100 D.I.Y. singles" (from Ugly Things #19) and ten more that are quite possibly even better (including two never-before heard tracks by the legendary Rejects, Bruno Wizard's 1977 band before he formed the Homosexuals). With O Level (pre-Times), Reptile Ranch (pre-Weekend), Six Minute War (pre-400 Blows), Mud Hutters (pre-Spaceheads), Danny & the Dressmakers (Graham Massey pre-808 State, Bjork++) plus Puritan Guitars, Dum Dum Dum, Scrotum Poles, Anorexia, Tronics, Royston, Reacta, Instant Automatons, Exhibit A, Slight Seconds, Steve Treatment, Take It, Thin Yoghurts, Walking Floors, and the Digital Dinosaurs.
Next up are our first cassette-bands sampler Messthetics Greatest HISS, and more regional collections from the South Coast, Manchester, Manchester II/Lancs./Liverpool, the West Country, many more Londoners and a Yorkshire/North-by-Northeast set...
"They could very well be the best power pop band you never heard in your life...If [this] had been released at the time, the Shivvers album would almost definitely have been one of the classics of the genre along with the Dwight Twilley Band's Sincerely and the Shoes' Black Vinyl Shoes." -Dusted
"Many power pop bands of the time had one or two tunes up their sleeves and that was it, but the Shivvers had a basketload...Essential listening." -John Borack, Amplifier
Simply put, the Shivvers may be the best female-fronted powerpop band the world will ever see. It's just that the world wasn't looking their way back in 1980. They had chops, talent, originality, looks... And if they'd been based in New York or L.A. the Shivvers would either have changed the course of music in the 1980s ...or they'd have gloriously crashed and burned in a world-class blaze of hype.
A guaranteed treat for fans of 60's Spector/Brill-Building girl-groups -and
the New Wave-era girl-groups as well, except louder, harder, catchier. Features
H2D's powerpop theme-song "Teen Line" and 11 other studio tracks,
a glorious too-early-for-MTV music video, plus 8 live songs from a radio-broadcast
(and another 4 live on TV video). Double-gatefold insert with extensive notes
and never-before seen photos. 20 audio tracks plus 5 bonus videos:
80 minutes of 100% Teenline-caliber pop!
buy
it at the store
Breck & Scott - Dream You Away CDR (Teenline #205)
When the Shivvers split up in 1982 Jill and Breck retired, Jim and Mike went to Boston, and Scott went to L.A. But Scott Krueger ("KREEger", btw) wandered back to Milwaukee and began a five-year weekends-only collaboration with Breck Burns on Breck's 4-track Portastudio ...that resulted in a dozen heart-breakingly perfect guitar-pop songs that no one has EVER heard -until now. Complex pop with a rare, poignant edge that only seems to come to people after they've made a determined run with a total pop machine (that would be the Shivvers in this case). And for some reason this quality of melancholy is peculiar to collaborations. Fans of the Beau Brummels' astonishing "Triangle" and "Bradley's Barn" LPs will know the feeling I'm talking about, but other examples might include the Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane LP, or Goffin and King's group The City, Richard & Linda Thompson --or even "Runt" (though that belongs to a more troubled pop arena where schizophrenia replaces/mimics collaboration, a la Barrett/Drake/Buckley/etc.)... Anyway....this is a REALLY pretty bunch of songs.
This CD also includes six songs by Breck and Scott's stellar 1980-81 powerpop band The Orbits (that were formerly available on the CD-R version of the Shivvers). buy it at the store
Animals
& Men -Revel in the Static enhanced CD (Messthetics #201B)
demos and singles 1979-1983
Terrific D.I.Y./ postpunk from the West Country (Somerset). Well
over an hour of demos and tracks from their singles, plus a live 1981 video
of "Evil Going On." 12-page booklet with extensive notes, photos and
A+M ephemera...
"Beautifully unmannered female vocal[s] and suitably clattering, skitterish drums" -Everett True, Plan B
"A surefire fix for fans of Kleenex and Delta 5..." -J. Edward Keyes, Magnet
"A witch's brew of The Vaselines, surf and 60's garage.The Fuzzbox-esque half sweet, half swaggering 'It's Hip' and surfy 'The Man with the Spiked-Toed Shoes' could have been one of Rough Trade's finest hours." -Rock Bottom
"The fact that the leading couple met at a Wire/Adam & the Ants show totally makes sense...Their other major influences were American '60s punk and the blues...Everything here seems to point in the right direction." -Ugly Things
"Great material from a band you've probably never heard of, and if they didn't move in sync with rock's historic flow, that's just another reason to find them fascinating." -Jennifer Kelly, Dusted full review
"Credit where it's due...I would never have paid such attention without [the] wonderful Animals & Men compilation first" -Everett True, Plan B (for April 2007 cover-article on Messthetics).
Reviews from 1980: "They deserve to be HUGE" -Mick Mercer, Zig Zag
"'Shell Shock'...is hypnotic, dark and intense. Nearest comparison (intended as a rough guide, not to define/confine) might be Velvet Underground." -NME....
The
best of their immense catalog of cassettes, vinyl and never-released material
1979-1983. The Instant Automatons were not the most
prolific of D.I.Y.'s cassette-culture crowd, but they were arguably the most
influential - and they were the first to start swapping cassettes (instead of
selling them). Homework
#104 & 105
(the last of the American 100-series re-reissues...everything from
here on is all-new!) $9.00
each at the web-store 
Instant
Automatons
Another Wasted Sunday Afternoon CD (Messthetics #210)
The instrumentation is sparse - bass, guitar, and home-built electronics - and
Mark Automaton contributes some of the
finest lyrics in all of D.I.Y...
at
the H2D web-store now.
There's a nice bit about the
'Automatons in Bob Stanley's Guardian
article, too (3/31/06).
Homework
#104 CD (H2D #48B): American "D.I.Y.", indie punkwave,
post-punk & experimental from the letters A & B, 1978-83. Featuring
Bob, Ballistics, Babylon Dance Band, B Team, B.P.A., All Night Movies, Bunnydrums,
Buddha Collection, A-Moms [The Algebra Mothers], B People, Amps, Broncs, Attack
Under Attack, August Sons, Anne Marie & The Pistons, Amazement Company, Ambient
Noise, Boom, Adaptors, Budguzzlers, Blue Collar, Buns, Alcoholics, and Bump
Cars... 26 tracks 
Homework #105 CD (H2D #58B): American "D.I.Y.", post-punk, artwave, No Wave & experimental from the letter "C", 1978-83 (...including a whole buncha bands from the heyday of NYC's newwave/no wave/noise scenes...lotsa girls on both these volumes, too...) Chumps, Come On, Cyclones, Comateens, Crash Course In Science, Chemicals Made From Dirt, China Shop, CCCP-TV, Christmas, Scott Campbell, Cats For Dinner, Chi-Pig, Crap Detectors, Chronics, CIs, Clap, Capital Punishment, Cult Heroes, Clocks, Carsickness, Click, and Cigarettes... 23 tracks
DIGITAL
DINOSAURS -"Huh?" CDR (Messthetics #209):
a
D.I.Y. / postpunk / postthatcher saga...from Coventry, 1980.
Presenting
the Digital Dinosaurs' masterpiece... "Huh?" features some of the
finest tunes to come out of the entire DIY/cassette-swapping free-for-all of
the late 70s/early 80s:
"The concept of 'Huh?' was a loose one
- people living in an Orwellian future 1984 world controlled by goverment and
conglomerates where people are pacified by television. (It's our world isn't
it?)"-Christopher Sidwell
TEENLINE volumes #101...107: The greatest
American powerpop compilations ever, anywhere! The discs for U-to-Z
and A, B & C are at last available --with better sound, more detailed notes,
fresh links...and a handful of new-to-H2D and never-before-released tracks.
(Enjoy the re-mastered/newandimproved volumes #101-103, too! [R, S & T])
TEENLINE #105: American powerpop & pop-rock: U-to-Z (Hyped to Death #34B): X Davis, Windbreakers, Gary Valentine, Upstarts, Yankees, Wayfarers, The Wind, Wild Giraffes, Wishniaks, Jimmy Vigtone, Wednesday Week, Zamp & the Suspects, Van Dykes, Zodio Doze, The Young Idea, Z-Rocks, U.S. Mods... includes a just-added Vertebrats song (the original, non-CD version of "Anyday"). 22 tracks.
TEENLINE #106: American powerpop & pop-rock: A & B (Hyped to Death #44B): Arlis, Artists, Boyfriends, Stiv Bators, Boys Life, Action, Abstracts, Bandables, Astrobeats, Berrys, Ambulance, Craig Bevan, Agents, Beex, Bas Clas, Blue Shoes, Beat Rodeo, Boy Trouble, Blitz, B-Minors... 22 tracks.
TEENLINE #107: North American powerpop & pop-rock:
B & C (Hyped to Death #54B): Cheese, Boys, Boyz, Cheepskates, Comateens, Colors,
Crash Kills Five, The Cold, David Branyan, David Burdick, Clicks, Breathers,
Buzzarians, J.D. Buhl & the Believers, Cheeters, Gary Charlson, Conditionz,
Breakers, Cucumbers... 23 tracks.
Hyped to Death is back!
H2D #1:
Realtors, Reruns, Reactors (TX), Joy Ryder & Avis Davis, Ronnie and the Rayguns,
Reds, Rubber City Rebels, Roach Motel, RPA, Rhythm Pigs, Raunchettes, Really
Red, Regular Guys, Mike Rep & the Quotas, Red Squares, Red Tide, Remedials,
Rave, Rise, R.A.F...
H2D #2: Shock, Social Unrest, Schematix, Saucers, Sillies, Scream, Sinatras,
Sadonation, Sins, Saigon, Skinnies, Silly Killers, Skunks, Slugs, Scraps, 63
Mnre, Sorex, Schematix, Scientific Americans, Shirkers, Sector Four, Soreheads,
Scooter and the Worms.
H2D #3: Stains, Stiphnoyds, Swingers Resort, Suicide Commandos, Stains,
Stevie Stiletto & The Switchblades, Splatcats, Toxin III, Tru Fax & the Insaniax,
Truth, Tot Rocket and the Twins, Tracks, Tools, The 27, Trend, Marc Thor, Justin
Trouble, Teenage Depression, Tools, Tyrants, Tyros, Telefones...
H2D #4: Vores, Voodoo Idols, Vast Majority, VKTMS, U.S. Chaos, Victims,
Wayward Youth, Visitors, U-Boats, Vex, Vamps, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Wussies, Whiteboys,
Victims of Society, Walter Wolff, Wreck'n Crew, Zamp & the Suspects, Ugly, Wages,
Visigoths, Vinny.
H2D #5: Beex, Amps, Alcoholics, Black Market Baby, Breakouts, Willie
Alexander, Jim Basnight, Absentees, Abuse, Active Dog, Ben Wah Torpedos, Ambulance,
Burning Bibles, Bob Blackburn, Blisters, Antiseen, Adrenalin OD, Bum Kon, Broken
Talent, Ambient Noise, Benedict Arnold & the Traitors, Backstabbers, Boize,
Abbreviated Ceiling, Arthur's Dilemma...
H2D #6: Cartoons, Cinecyde, Coldcock, Capital Punishment, Cheetah Chrome,
Candy Apple, Corpse Grinders, Commandos [Worcester], Commandos [Minneapolis],
Contenders, Carsickness, Crap Detectors, Crash Kills Five, Cold Sweat, Chainsaw,
Crewd, Cannibal, Convicted, Chronic Sick, Chronic Disorder, Customs, Crazy Jack
& the Automatics...
The
ZOOMERS -Mike's Apartment CD (Homework #205)
Zoomer
kept gobbling drugs and writing songs and driving along levees at 100 mph, but
before he moved to L.A. and things really blew up, he found his trademark sound.
Fans of huge hooks and grubby recording techniques will find fuzzed-out mosquito-infested
nirvana throughout this sampling of Zoom's 1984-1989 output, patiently preserved
by his pal and #1 fan Mike while Zoomer was off in search of an even deeper
deep end... ("Exist" enthusiasts will be happy to know there's at least 4 more
songs in exactly that same vein along with the more-evolved/more-hummable tracks)...Check
out Zoomer's ever-expanding audio empire at at www.zoomermusic.net and
artwork, too...
The
HOMOSEXUALS -Astral Glamour triple
CD (Messthetics #204) available
from the H2D
WEB-STORE and at finer shops everywhere.
A comprehensive 81-song re-release of the entire Homosexuals catalog to date: their two singles (or three, depending on how you count), The Homosexuals EP, the Venceremos cassette, the LP, and all the stuff they put out under pseudonyms on the Black Noise label (Sir Alick, George Harrassment/Masai Sleepwalking, and the six "bands" on the Ici la bas EP). Plus "lost" vocal parts to 7 songs hitherto known only as instrumentals ...and some mindwarping never-released material. With tons of artwork, photos, brilliant sound...and at least the first half of the Homosexuals amazing bio...Here's more hype and the Complete Homosexuals Discography...
The Midnight
Circus -Richard, Roger, Rodney, Rastus, Raoul, Roderick, Randy, Rupert
CD (Messthetics #208)
Our second "regular"/glass-mastered release. Midnight
Circus are known to a handful of fanatics from the rare Angst in my Pants
compilation EP, but they put most of their energy into the cassette-only wing
of the DIY movement. Nevertheless, they churned out vinyl-worthy DIY-punk tunes
by the score, and unlike most bands that did make it to vinyl -who typically
spent most of their money on pressing and printing-- the 'Circus were free to
blow it all on recording. Here's 21 of their favorite tracks from 1980-1983,
but there was much, much more, and it's ALL great. 10-page insert/bio/photos...
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Direct links to the our entire catalog:
Animals & Men * Chemicals Made From Dirt * Digital Dinosaurs * Homosexuals * Keepers * Midnight Circus * Nurses * Regular Guys * Screaming Urge * Shivvers * Sidewalks * Toxin III * Steve Treatment * Vast Majority * Zoomers-Exist * Zoomers -Mike's ApartmentHomework 100-series * Homework #9 * Homework #10 * Teenline 100-series * Teenline #8 * The Messthetics series (UK DIY compilations) * Hyped to Death (US punk compilations) *
