HUSKER DU: GOOFY'S UPPER DECK, MINNEAPOLIS, MN. 8.12.83. SOUNDBOARD RECORDING.

This performance was recorded shortly before the ambitious double-full length “Zen Arcade” was released in 1984 on SST. Having already released "Everything Falls Apart" on their own label Reflex and "Metal Circus" on SST, the Huskers were making titanic leaps forward. If "Metal Circus" was a collection of anthems both slow and fast, "Zen Arcade" was the "Tommy" of underground music. As a themed record about a kid leaving home for the first time to run away to the big city where he finds strange (and often disturbing) adventures, it covers more ground than a Greyhound bus over it's four sides of wax. The songs alternate from raucous angry assaults (nearly all of side 2) to psychedelia to unrepentant pop songs to straight up rock classics. Of course there's some some self-indulgent filler (thirteen and a half minutes of "Reoccurring Dreams") on the record, but nearly every classic needs such a throwaway for good measure.

Goofy’s Upper Deck is a defunct hardcore punk club that was situated in downtown Minneapolis. This venue lasted for only 2 years and shut down in October ’83. The bar was a working class drinker’s den and strip club until the owner employed a broad-shouldered bouncer named Dan Cotlow who was a nascent hardcore punk. Fred Gartner began booking hardcore punk shows on the second floor while Cotlow managed the strip club downstairs. The six-inch stage at Goofy’s Upper Deck hosted such classics touring bands such as Black Flag, Minutemen, Discharge, DOA, Code of Honor, Social Distortion, and Battalion of Saints. Bob Mould was setting up shows at Goofy’s by November of ’82. Goofy’s saw it’s end as a hardcore venue when Final Conflict played there in August ’83 when a full-scale riot ensued. A toilet was ripped out of the floor and thrown two floors below to the floor.

This Husker Du show is almost certainly the preeminent live document of them during their “Zen Arcade” phase in trading circulation that I’ve heard. This performance is also one of the most commonly circulated Huskers shows out there. This soundboard recording isn’t perfect, but the band’s performance is enormously sweltering. Mould’s fervent vocals are equals parts talking, shouting, and singing. His masterful guitar work is laden with feedback that it’s a striking jolt of cacophony. The only word to describe Grant Hart’s drumming on this recording is excessive. Greg Norton’s straightforward bass playing (and Rollie Fingers moustache) rounds out the sound.

John Clegg plays saxophone on “What’s Going On” and “Drug Party”. He was a jazz musician who was on the periphery during the early days of Husker Du. He worked at a record store with Grant Hart in St. Paul and would occasionally jam with the band. Clegg’s saxophone wail adds a psychotic edge to these two tracks that adds to already existing sense of sonic supremacy.

Track list:

1. Something I Learned Today

2. It's Not Funny Anymore

3. From the Gut

4. Wheels

5. Everything Falls Apart

6. Chartered Trips

7.Sunshine Superman (Donovan)

8. Eight Miles High (Byrds)

9. Broken Home, Broken Heart

10. What's Going On?

11. Newest Industry

12. Pride

13. I'll Never Forget You

14. What Do I Want?

15. Data Control

16. Drug Party/ Punch Drunk

17. Out On a Limb

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zrnm0nqj1id

THE AVENGERS: AITO'S, BERKELEY, CA. 10.27.78. AUDIENCE RECORDING.

The Avengers began allegedly as an excuse to display then stylish punk fashion. When all was said and done, they were arguably the best pure punk band in all of San Francisco, let alone all of California. Like fellow Dangerhouse artists X without any of the artistic pretentions, Penelope Houston and her savage backing band elevated a simplistic form of rock and roll to a considerably higher potential. Houston was America’s indomitable rock and roll woman of the late 1970s before Chrissie Hynde came along and dethroned her. Regardless of the fact that the band never stuck around long enough to collect conventional mainstream achievements, they left a great posthumously collected album in their demise. It’s a minor tragedy that producer Steve Jones never actually wound up fully mixing it’s tracks.

This audience recording was made shortly before the Avengers folded in 1979. The recording quality is respectable, stemming from an above average audience source. The performance is ferocious, with Houston’s voice being the strongest point throughout. It’s interesting to hear the handful of songs that were excluded from the full length performed live. Some of these tracks have made it onto the two different collections that have come out since 1999. "Second to None" is introduced as "Baby", thus giving it yet another song title considering the Jones' Professionals called it "1-2-3" on a single B-side.

Overall, this show is a nice glimpse of what the Avengers could deliver live on stage.

Track list:

1. The American In Me

2. Open Your Eyes

3. Uh Oh

4. No Matyr

5. Lonely Girl (Jones)

6. Thin White Line

7. Promised Land

8. End Of The Word

9. White Nigger

10. Second To None

11. I Believe In Me

12. C'mon Everybody (Eddie Cochran)

13. Car Crash

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/?iyfqnry1vle

CRASS: INTERVIEW, NY VAG, SWEDISH NATIONAL RADIO, 1980. FM BROADCAST.

Hailing from Epping, Essex, England, Crass were the leaders of UK punk’s radical left. Although they would never categorize themselves as a leftist group, many of their ideals fell distinctively into this paradigm. As were well-known first-wave UK punk groups sang about the incentives of anarchy, Crass were surely the first band to do something about it. They defined themselves as a more virtuous option to the bands that used the spectacle of anarchism to move product. Crass refused all of the obligatory causes that most other groups rejected before them: organized religion, warfare, sexism, and ignorance. The differentiation was that Crass raised their position to that of sublimated fine art. In an age that was chiefly defined as apathetic and politically dejected, Crass were the principal builders of a template for many to draw from.

This radio interview is a great insight into the socio-political and economic ideologies that set Crass apart from the remainder of pedestrian sloganeering anarcho-punk groups of their era. Various members of Crass speak about their approach pertaining to releasing records independently, activism, gig violence, and political values.

This recording came to me updated but it seems extremely likely that it’s from 1980, considering the song selection features some tracks from “Penis Envy” and they make reference to new 45’s being released by Captain Sensible, Dirt, etc. If anyone has the exact date this was broadcasted, I’d love to know it so I can have the most complete information regarding this recording possible. It also seems likely that an English speaker initially asked the questions and Swedish translations of the questions were edited in afterward. The quality is great.

This recording is the first of many Ny Vag radio broadcasts that I will be making available on this archive. Ny Vag was a radio show that was broadcasted on Swedish National Radio, appearing on channel P3. Ny Vag was hosted by Jonas Almqvist who also performed in Ladernunnan and the Leather Nun. This radio show was incredibly important to the Swedish punk subculture because it gave listeners a opportunity to hear local acts as well as US and UK hardcore punk bands.

I have approximately 20 different Ny Vag shows and would love to acquire more. If you have any and would like to trade, please drop me a line through the email posted on this site.

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0mzynzuyuei

MORE THAN A WITNESS PRODUCT TO RELEASE THE LONG LOST YOUNG REPUBLICANS DEMO

I’m very excited to announce that the house label for this blog, More Than a Witness Product, will be releasing the long lost 1984 demo recordings of the Young Republicans. I’ll be teaming up with the classic Connecticut hardcore label, Incas Records, to finally make this demo available. This release will be the second release for me after the CIA "God Guns Guts & More" reissue LP I have coming out in a month or so. Incas Records and I are working closely with Porcell to make this release the best we can.

The Young Republicans demo is one of the most elusive and obscure items in the history of such recordings. Until recently, I had all but given up on ever finding a copy of this demo as it had evaded me for a decade of looking. Being from Connecticut, one would assume that a copy would eventually turn up after rummaging through the tape collections of many first generation Connecticut hardcore people. Simultaneously, I received a copy of the demo via the singer Sam Collin while Porcell had taken his cassette copy to be digitally preserved in a friend's studio.

Shortly after they broke up, 3/4 of the Young Republicans would go on to play in Youth of Today. In fact, many tracks on the Young Republicans demo would later become tracks on the debut Youth of Today 7” on Positive Force; “Respect For Authority (None)” became “Stabbed In The Back”, “Backyard Bomb” became “Expectations”, and “High School Rednecks” became “Straightedge Revenge” note for note.

There will be a preorder for this release. This will consist of a limited version of the record as a way of paying thanks to the people who made the effort to order from the label. More information about this as the actual release date draws closer.

If you’re interested in carrying this record for a store or distro, please write me at the email posted on this site for wholesale prices.

The above photo was taken by Jamie Keever at the Anthrax in Stamford.

NAKED RAYGUN: VFW HALL, KANSAS CITY, MO. 8.11.84. AUDIENCE RECORDING.

Shortly after Midwest thrash had assigned itself to it's own secluded ghetto, where it would knowingly decide not to challenge the musical aesthetics of other genres, a new type of punk ascended from it's rigid cadaver. Naked Raygun (along with other Midwest imaginative heavyweights like Husker Du, the Replacements, Big Black, and Killdozer) were one of the most promising and fresh groups to emerge from the monotony. Naked Raygun’s magical powers were that they expanded the parameters of what many thought hardcore punk was. Moreover, they abandoned the ensnarements of tuneless thrash while producing punk rock that was strong enough to maybe even be taken into consider by the mainstream music critics. Even if this was never actually achieved, they helped push punk forward by giving adventurous people without mohawks something to take pleasure in.

This recording represents an enjoyable audience recording captured during the summer of '84. This performance is heavy with tracks from "Basement Screams" which were dropped a short time later. When comparing this set list with Naked Raygun live tapes I have from only a year or so later, virtually all of these tracks faded out of their live set.

This performance was originally taped by the gentleman who runs the excellent Oxide Flake website. He does something quite similar to this site in documenting many shows that he originally taped in Kansas and Missouri. This site can be viewed here: http://mrfink.com/oxideflake/

Track list:

1. Knock Me Down

2. I Don’t Know

3. Home Of The Brave

4. Mofo

5 .Stupid

6. No Sex

7. Surf Combat

8. Metastasis

9. Gear

10. The Strip

11. Bomb Shelter

12. Tojo

13. Swingo

14. Only In America

15. Managua

16. Rat Patrol

17. Potential Rapist

18. Dog At Large

19. New Dreams (cut)

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/?znz4khjyvkm

TRUE SOUNDS OF LIBERTY (TSOL): 1980 DEMO.

TSOL exploded out of Long Beach, California in 1978 to develop into one of Southern California’s leading hardcore outfits. Forming from the remains of Johnny Coathanger and the Abortions and Vicious Circle, the original lineup of TSOL were purveyors of political proto-hardcore that bristled with exhilaration. It’s extraordinary to consider how many name changes that Jack Grisham has had in his musical career; Jack Greggors, Alex Morgan, Jack Ladoga, Jim Woo and James DeLauge have all graced the sleeves of TSOL releases. With no less than 5 different stage names, you begin to wonder if he’s a fugitive evading the lawman.

These four demo tracks are outstanding. The sound quality is outstanding. These tracks are in the vein of the first 12” on Posh Boy; the tracks being simultaneously forceful and melodious with a genuine political edge. This demo recording was previously bootlegged onto vinyl in 1994 as the “1980 Demo” 7”. Supposedly 500 copies were pressed but one can never be sure of such information.

Track list:

1. 80 Times

2. Superficial Love

3. You Don't Have To Die

4. Silent Majority

DOWNLOAD:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zcyydyyyjnm