Live on WNYU, Vol. 2: Shaffers and Stun Guns

Back from moving, and posting a bit more often now. The live WNYU sets from the Stun Guns and the Shaffers are already available on Remote Outposts (like damn near everything else), but only as somewhat degraded tape rips. I'm posting cleaner versions here, taken directly from the original DAT tape recorded at WNYU.

Stun Guns - Live on WNYU 1995 (.mp3)
Shaffers - Live on WNYU 1995 (.mp3)

Once again, I didn't carve up any of these sessions into individual songs, so each of these files is just one long track.

Live on WNYU, Vol. 1: Yaphet Kotto, Distraught, Kylesa

From 2005-2007 I was the host of Crucial Chaos, the long-running punk/hardcore/etc. radio show over at WNYU 89.1 FM. You can listen to some of my old sets over at the WNYU archives.

Every once in awhile I would find some DAT tape or CD of an old live set on Crucial Chaos. Some of those sessions have been independently released (e.g. Witch Hunt released their live set on record), but as far as I know most haven't.

Here are a few Crucial Chaos live sets I came across while packing up my stuff to move back to CA this week.

Yaphet Kotto - Live on WNYU April 18, 1999

Distraught - Live on WNYU

Kylesa - Live on WNYU

FYI, I didn't carve up any of these sessions into individual songs, so each of these files is just one long track, and the file sizes are large.

I'll post more of this stuff later in the summer when I unpack all my shit. If memory serves, I should have at least Stun Guns, Nausea, and a few other things...

It's also worth checking out the classic Born Against vs. Sick of it All debate on Crucial Chaos from 1991 on YouTube.

2846 Chapman St. Compilation

2846 Chapman St. (a.k.a. the SPAM Warehouse) was the second place I lived after high school. I think I was only there 9 months or so, but thanks to the coterie of maniacs who inhabited that place I had a lot of memorable moments in that time (including plenty of shady shit I won't rehash here).

This compilation has tracks from a bunch of bands that lived, practiced, recorded, or just sometimes hung out at the warehouse. Included are Tommy Lasorda, Poser Posse, Bozaks, Sexy, Civil Dysentery, Scorpion Death Rock, Dismembers, Fleshies, Weak Leads, and Los Rabbis.

2846 Chapman St Compilation (.zip file)

A lot of these tracks were recorded live; some of them are also available elsewhere.

Hat tip to Dara O'Beirne (of Civil Dysentery fame) for sending me the files. As with many things, this was also already posted at Remote Outposts.

Civil Dysentery discography

In the spirit of this blog---aka a personal wankfest of self-indulgent nostalgia---here's another discography for a band I was in.

I could write about Civil Dysentery for days, though I won't subject you folks to that (at least for now). I wasn't in the band when they started, but I joined pretty shortly after we all moved in together at the Chapman St. warehouse in Jingletown. (Apparently, Jingletown is "one of the fastest growing arts districts in the San Francisco Bay area", but that sure as shit wasn't the case in 2002).

In any case, I loved this fucking band, and though (again) I was kind of a dick at the time, as 19 year olds can be, I have nothing but good memories about playing these songs. Here are the tracks:

Civil Dysentery Discography (.zip file)

• Civil Dysentery "Why don't you love me anymore?" CD
• Civil Dysentery "Live on KALX"
• Civil Dysentery "Just Burried" 7"

I played bass on the CD and on our live set on KALX, but not on the "Just Burried" 7" (I'd already moved to New York at that point). That was a huge bummer for me --- I loved the Guitar Wolf + Melvins style of the songs on the 7", and had chipped in more than usual on the songwriting, if I recall --- but so goes it. I still think the dark groove of "Cancer" (on the 7") was the best thing the band ever recorded.

Once MRR said we sounded like Black Fork and it made my fucking decade, even if they were probably wrong. I also have a reel-to-reel tape of some lost songs I'm willing to sell to the right bidder for $50 and a burrito.

Cropknox: demo tape

Punk is punk. In the 90s I was as happy with the Angelic Upstarts and GBH as I was with Black Flag and the Germs, or Dillinger 4 and Fleshies. I'm a very different person now, but that shit is still true.

Anyways, the Cropknox fell on the mohawk side of things. Good friends of mine --- mostly Davey, but also Mackey and Nathan, and also some people I couldn't get along with (though Taylor was decent, if I remember. Did I just list everyone but one person?). I have some very fond memories of hanging out with these folks in Berkeley, Brooklyn, and various other places. In fact, I shot some B&W photos that ended up on the liner notes of their LP, and took some *very* weird photos at 5am in Bushwick when they crashed with us on tour.

Here's the demo:

Cropknox demo tape (.zip file)

They put out some 7"s too, and a record on Punkcore where they stepped up their riff game. This demo, more than their other stuff, really reminds me of Davey --- it's 80% sneer and Spanish Civil War references. Love it.

The Best Friends: S/T tape

I don't know much about this band, but I do know its a god-damned miracle that I didn't wear this tape out after playing it 1000 times in my Toyota van (RIP). A perfect fucking AC/DC + Sabbath + region rock combination, with absolutely killer guitar, bass, and drum riffs. Un-fucking-touchable.

The Best Friends S/T tape (.zip file)

These guys were from Tulsa, and if memory serves I saw them twice in 2003: once with Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads at Krispy Pickles' warehouse on San Leandro in the Fruitvale, and once at Mission Records with Fleshies, Sexy, and Tommy Lasorda (thanks again to Smitty's excellent Bay Area Punk Database for helping me confirm this!).

Some weirdness on the track listing: the tape lists 10 songs, but there are at least 16 songs on here from the same band (including some dicking around synth sex jam shit at the end). But after that there are another eight tracks from a mystery band. I have no idea if these tracks are from some other, Best Friends affiliated Tulsa band --- maybe an early incarnation of Sunset Beach? --- or if they just dubbed over some random tape that happened to be lying around, and which has no connection at all to these dudes.

Anyway, this is one of my all time favorite tapes, definitely to be enjoyed at high volume.

Duckbutters: Feelin' Dirty EP and unreleased LP

The Duckbutters came out of nowhere. I'd been going to shows around the Bay Area since 1998, and playing shows since 2000 (as I just confirmed using Smitty's excellent database at http://bayareapunk.com/). I thought I knew everyone in the "scene", though looking back that probably meant I knew 50 people in Berkeley, Alameda, and East Oakland. Then in 2002 I moved into the Chapman St. Warehouse, and suddenly all these peninsula weirdos were just around. How had I missed S.H.A.T., the Duckbutters, the Abi-Yo-Yos, and everyone else who came out of the West Bay woodwork at that point? These kids could fucking HANG - their bands were great, and it was always worth the time to bullshit with Dave, Boof, Ramus, and the rest between sets.

Out of all those West Bay bands, I think the Duckbutters were my favorite, though I probably only saw them two or three times. They put out a tape EP on RISK! records, and I believe they were supposed to put out an LP on SPAM before that all imploded (the tape I ripped, from Corbett, says "upcoming LP" on it). At some point (before the tape?), they also put out a S/T CD, but I never really listened to it much, even though the rest of their output was usually in my rotation.

Here is everything the Duckbutters recorded, as far as I know. I don't think these tracks are available for purchase or download or anywhere else.

Duckbutters: Feelin' Dirty EP, S/T CD, and unreleased LP (.zip file)

Boof is now in the Trainwreck Riders and also plays in (or is?) Old Pal. Dave is no longer with us. I never really hung out with Soki, and so I don't know what he's up to these days.