Tuesday, March 13, 2007

TAPE WORM


Cassettes have made a mini revival as a bedroom musician's medium of choice. Better than Cd-Rs, which feel cheap and somewhat of a ripoff, cassettes just have more class. Nothing worse than ordering a CD and it shows up as some lame CD-R from Staples with a label maker special on the top.

I always felt having a cassette of an available album was like paper money without the gold backing (my same beef with MP3s). Never one to buy an album on tape but i loved getting unreleased gems handed to me in that little plastic package. The only cassettes that survived my moves were the ones that friends have made for me of their bands. So i decided to to rip a few of these dusty, hissy fits and put them up for you to enjoy (and for me to rub in your face)

Prepare your feeble brain for a PUFFTUBE resurrection. After years of (supposed) silence The Tube is finally ready hop outta his candy coffin and plant anti-personnel mines in yr cochlea.
While the rest of the indie/undie world was hopped up on piss poor cle. crap, Pufftube was still cooking up unfathomable sounds. A little know fact: yours unruly is officially the unofficial Pufftube archivist. I have tapes and tapes of cloistered clandestine jams that were being made
during those quiet years. What i have here are 2 rare as fuck tracks from the immediate post "Emergency Peanut" era.

CHATTERY TEETH
SKEW LALLO(W)

In the mid 80s, Kent was the ugly autistic/artistic sister to Cleveland's loud and lumbering big brother. More art damaged and twice as fucked, Kent bands didn't so much kick ass as kill brain cells. THE RAGGED BAGS were one the more "put together" groups of the time (and that is not saying much at all) and one of the least documented. I am not going to front and say i know a hell of a lot about them. These tracks from a cassette that one of their more (in)famous drummers made me explain them the best.

I'M DRUNK
DAZED

The LAUGHING HYENAS were just flat out devastating (well up until da' blues took over). Live they could make you black and blue from the inside out and their first 3 releases are still essential American primal scream therapy. One of my most prized possessions is a tape with their rarely/never heard 4 track and 16 track demos from late summer '86. These sessions were done with their original line up that include Mike Danner (the guy that hooked me up and one of the funniest MFers this planet has ever known) on drums. These 2 cuts are 4 track demos done in a basement in August '86.

HELL'S KITCHEN
EIGHTEEN

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scott Pickering = good friend
Kevin Monroe (Strickland)= husband

Never seen these bands mentioned on the same page before.

Anonymous said...

rockin action!

Anonymous said...

globey in the hizzie.

Anonymous said...

Those Laughing Hyenas demos rule. Their live shows ruled. -Justin

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Birthday Party tribute bands often rock.

E*Rock said...

Oh Man, the links are busted! I want to hear the Puff Tube!