Pegboy was a band from Chicago who formed out of the awesomely fantastic Naked Raygun. Pegboy features their ex-guitarist and later a bass played from Naked Raygun as well. Other members of the band were in Bhopal Stiffs as well. This is great melodic punk stuff that you should definitely check out if you haven't heard of it. Great vocals, great melodies, and wonderfully cool Husker Du like guitar sounds. FFO: Husker Du, Dag Nasty, Naked Raygun, Sludgeworth
Crimpshrine was a band from the Berkeley, CA area in the late '80s/early '90s that was hugely influential on bands in the area and in punk rock in general. Members went on to form/play in bands such as Pinhead Gunpowder, Fifteen, Tilt, Sweet Baby, Astrid Oto, Cleveland Bound Death Sentence, Thorns of Life, and even Screeching Weasel. Aaron Cometbus, the drummer, has been in a billion bands since Crimpshrine and publishes the amazing Cometbus zine, still to this day, tracking his adventures over the years. The band was hugely influential on giants and contemporaries such as Green Day and Operation Ivy. Their sound is very uniquely their own and modern bands such as The Credentials, Witches With Dicks, Chinese Telephones, Shang-a-Lang, among others, owe their entire existence to this band. Needless to say this is an important band and this is an important record. Messy, raw, punk sounding pop-punk. Calling it pop-punk would be wrong I think however. It's just poppy punk before there was a name for it. GET THIS IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IT. FFO: Witches With Dicks, Screeching Weasel, Fifteen, Green Day
Here is an interview with them from a 1988 issue of Maximum Rock'N'Roll:
Here is a demo from the Boston, MA based band Colin Of Arabia. I'm not the biggest fan of this band, but when I saw them forever ago I picked up this demo and it actually rips.They do an Infest of Behind This Tongue on it, and was supposed to be a seven inch but whoever was supposed to put it out didn't. Any way check this out it's good.
I came across a stack of demo's i got all across New England recently, so stay tuned!!
I'm bending the rules a little bit here, but its crust-mas so who cares! This is the final chapter in the outfit of Dystopia's releases and it is nothing short of killer. Heavy down-tuned anthems of being depraved, drug addled, and miserable. These themes are not the only negativity embodied throw in hatred for EVERYONE and all technology and you have yourself a top-notch album. If you know this band you know what your getting yourself into heavy, down-tuned flowing sludge/punk. If you enjoy this and are looking for similar material the drummer is in a handful of new bands, Ghoul , Asunder , and Carcinogen (Dystopia before they were dystopia, don't worry I will upload there only demo in the next couple of weeks because it rules!). Don't miss this album download and do yourself some hard drugs!
Backstabbers Inc. is a local band from NH, where the writers of this blog hail from. I'm not sure how many people know about this band (hopefully alot) but they mix genre's like its their fucking job and with this album it comes to their high point. After this album and a couple tours the singer took off to join a former guitarist of BSI in Trap Them who I'm sure plenty of people know about also, the drummer for this session left after the recording to join Unearth, The Red Chord and plenty of other bands. But, enough about the history. This album RIPS from start to finish and engages the listener the whole time. I actually don't have the first track anymore (due to a this CD rip being old, and lending my brother the CD and it being ruined) luckily it was just some ambiance which did in fact add to the album so my apologies! I have a recent interview with the guitarist lying around somewhere that I will upload. The band is still together and consists of the two brothers who play guitar and sing, Nick(waranimal) on bass, and Jonah (ALWLWAD, Ramming Speed) on drums. This is a fantastic combination of crust, grind, and punk which does not disappoint. If anyone is interested in anymore albums I have a few kicking around that I could upload after (just comment!)
I got to see their "last" show in Boston which had almost every ex-member present and it was one of my favorite shows of all time, they still rip today especially with their drummer who is phenomenal! And I guess they have a new album coming out in the future? The video below is a new song.
The Marked Men are one of my favorite bands of the last ten years. They play fast garage-y punk rock and roll and are fantastic at it. This record features two songs posthumously released a couple months ago, and recorded last Christmas. Tim Kerr from The Big Boys did the absolutely fantastic artwork. If you've listened to The Marked Men, but not these songs, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR. I don't really have much to say about this band, other then that I think they have no bad songs. Catchy hooks, great melodies, creative songwriting, and somehow it never gets stale. If you like this, check out High Tension Wires, Mind Spiders, and The Potential Johns, which are all other projects by the members of this band. LISTEN TO THIS. FFO: Awesome music, Chinese Telephones, The Kinks?.
The Vicious were a band from Sweden from 2004-2007. They shared members from DS-13 and The (International) Noise Conspiracy and went on to form Masshysteri, which is also the name of a track from this 7". They played awesome X inspired punk rock with harsher vocals and great melodies. The songs are wonderfully catchy amidst a sense of brooding and doom saying. Some of the songs are in Swedish and some are in English, but it really is easy to feel what they're singing about. A lot of themes of alienation and the like, fairly typical for punk. For fans of: X, The Observers, Red Dons, Masshysteri, first wave punk. Anyways this record is awesome, and I'll probably put up another 7" of theirs tomorrow and maybe some Masshysteri stuff in the future. By the way, the artwork and layout are TOP NOTCH. The Vicious and Masshysteri have a really fantastic hand-made style to all their artwork. Check it out:
The tracks are separated in the download into a Side A folder and a Side B folder, but the individual songs are all separate. BECAUSE I LOVE YOU.
It's about 21 mins long and RAW AS FUCK. I ripped and amplified the audio from the archived show, and since I really don't know how to do those kinds of things, its probably not the best quality. But that's OK because it sounds pretty good to me.
Tracklisting: 1. Asphyxiating in a Cosmic Abyss//Afterlife Denied (Eternal Anguish)
2. Familiar Looking Ghosts
3. Odysseys Through Paranoia
4. Assassins in our Midst
5. Untitled I
6. Untitled II
Thank you CJ, Jason, Brendon, and Phil for playing, and thank you Chris Bovio and Spencer Watkins for helping us set it up! Also, thank you WUNH for giving us a means to do this and for being psyched on it. Expect more in the future!
