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.

Hoover Flags: Demo and Live

Hoover Flags was a band I was in, a band I loved, and a band that infuriated me. It was also, as far as I could tell at the time, a band that broke up in part because I was a dick. Live and learn. Right after we stopped playing Keith, Duncan, and Kever formed Bad Blood (someone called them the "Newver Flags", which I thought was fucking hilarious).

Anyway, here's our demo, as well as a basically unlistenable live recording, which I think Denise was kind enough to make on her phone in 2006.

Hoover Flags Demo (.zip file)

Hoover Flags live at ABC No Rio (.mp3 file)

The high point of this band will forever be when I put my hand down the pants of Adam from Books Lie thinking he was Kever. Oh, memories...

Modern Machines: three demos

Preamble: right after ripping these tapes I realized that they are already available over at Remote Outposts, and in lo-fi format at MKE Punk. Whoops...

Anyway, I first saw the Modern Machines at Gilman sometime in 2002. I was shit-hammer wasted and traded them 75 cents and an AA chip for two of these tapes (Cancer and Feline Leukemia). The chip wasn't mine -- I found it outside the club -- but it was funny enough for a discount, apparently. No idea when I got the Huberty demo, but it's in here too.

These tapes are a bit uneven -- Huberty, in particular, is not so great (it's pretty clear from the recording and the liner notes that the band was just fucking around on this one). But Feline Leukemia got a lot of play in my tape deck. "A.N.I.A.O." is still a killer cut; the melodrama of "Pierce St." still works pretty good for me; and "Tight pants" still has a great hook.

As anyone familiar with the band knows, there's a lot of Replacements/Husker Dü worship going on here. But the songwriting is solid, and it's more than mimicry.

The Modern Machines were a pretty productive band, but I frankly lost track of their releases after these tapes (even though I ended up seeing them a billion times in Oakland and New York). Enjoy!

Three tapes by the Modern Machines (.zip file)

• Cancer
• Feline Leukemia
• Huberty

Trudie Plungers "Unreleased LP"

I don't know much about (the?) Trudie Plungers. I believe they were Sweettooth on guitar and vocals, Buddha on bass, and Ben Ditch on drums (I could be wrong, though). In any case, I never saw the band, and I don't think they ever released anything official, but my understanding is that this tape is the recording of their unreleased, and only LP.

Trudie Plungers "Unreleased LP" (.zip download)

I first heard this tape in Jordan's car, and then bugged Sweettooth for a copy until he finally gave me a dub with some other rad stuff on it. No album title, no art, no track listings, no nada, just a spraypainted green cassette. This record is a fukking killer though, and I still can't believe that this band wasn't huge. The record has a Jawbreaker/Leatherface/Husker Du sort of vibe--catchy riffs with a buzzsaw guitar tone--but definitely has its own voice and feel to it.

I was briefly in a band with 'tooth himself (were we called Troubled Sleep?), and we covered the song which is the clear summer banger on this tape (aka "fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you").

For the curious, the band name is a reference to some pretty inside baseball shit about early LA punk history. It's worth a read!

Dory Tourette: partial discography

I first met Dory Ben-Shalom, aka Dory Tourette, back in 1996 or 1997. I was in middle school in Albany, CA; Dory was a stranger who for some reason had decided to walk up to the other side of the fence on our lunch break to chat about punk and teach us how to Carter pick a guitar. He was an institution in the East Bay, especially Albany, and could often be found playing his guitar in front of a liquor store or BART station for spare change. ("Playing" seems like too weak a word here: Dory was a beast of a guitarist, and managed to take a bunch of recognizable influences and mold them into his own distinctive, manic style, pushing classic rock-and-roll till it was nearly falling off the rails.)

More eloquent people than me have written at length about Dory, particularly Lauren Quinn (here
and here). I'll just say that Dory was a big part of my teenage life. I played shows with him, lived with him, pushed shopping carts full of empty cans up the middle of Solano with him, and a lot more. He was a force, a character like no other, the flawed but loving antihero of a very specific time and place, and he is sorely missed.

I'm sure there are lots of cassette recordings of Dory playing solo out there in the ether. I'm sharing all of the recorded material I happen to have that Dory played on:

Dory Tourette: Partial discography (.zip download)

This includes:

• The Rock Immortal LP from Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads
• The Versions 7" (aka, wrongly, the Reno 7") from Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads
• Some solo recording of Dory that I think I got from Monica
• The two tracks from the SPAMPLER compilation ("Crooked Eye" and "Miguel")
• The 976 record Old Hat

No album art yet -- that's on my to-do list.

The Rock Immortal LP is still available through Thrillhouse Records. I strongly recommend you buy yourself a copy. At $9 it's a fucking steal. As far as I know everything else is out of print or otherwise unavailable.

Update, Sep. 2017: some unreleased Skirtheads and 976 tracks are up on YouTube now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaabuZ9SdAU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UecfkWDfanQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gAyXNo5ck

Quest for Quintana Roo "Collected Works I/II"

Quest for Quintana Roo had this rad unhinged-but-controlled style which really caught my attention. To my teenaged ears they sounded something like hardcore played by drunk astronauts, and I adored their self-titled EP when it came out on New Disorder records. I probably saw them 8-10 times before they broke up.

In retrospect I guess QFQR falls fairly neatly in the "screamo" bin of the mid-to-late-90s. Still, even within the genre they had a unique sound, I think. I'd say it holds up pretty well.

Jackson from QFQR posted a complete discography for the band, which is available here:

QFQR complete discography (link to blog with .zip download)
(http://questdisco.blogspot.com/)

I remember Chris Kohler telling me that he liked watching QFQR just to see how wide the singer could open his mouth. Strange, the things that stick with us...

Beer Garden "Coming after you!" (200?)

Update: full Beer Garden discography now up at Remote Outposts

As far as I can remember, my first show after moving to NYC in 2003 was Beer Garden at ABC No Rio. I'd been to ABC once before, for this show in March 2002, but only as a visitor to the city. (Speaking of which, I should post the Virginia Black Lung 7" at some point...)

With the sad passing of Beer Garden's Dan Klein a few days ago, this seems like as good a moment as any to share this record. Rest easy, Dan.

Beer Garden "Coming after you!" (link to .zip download)

No album art yet, but I'm working on it.

It also looks like some sort of Beer Garden demo track is available on the ABC No Rio website.

Missive #1

There was a time when I played in bands, went to shows, went on tour, committed petty crimes, and so on. Now I don't. (Mostly.)

In any event, I collected a bunch of records, tapes, and CDs back when, including some that are probably impossible to find these days. This site is a place for me to share some hard-to-find music that, for whatever reason, meant a fucking ton to me at some point.

I'm guessing that this will largely be an exercise in indulging my own nostalgia, but hey, maybe some of you out there will want to hear this stuff too. Maybe not. Let me know.