Bullet LaVolta - Bullet LaVolta EP

Spring ahead. In the words of a friend of mine,  "It's the one day all year where it's OK not to know where the hell you were between 2 and 3 AM."

This was not part of the original late 80's-early 90's collection, at least not on vinyl. I burned thorough multiple copies of this EP on cassette though. It's not easy to find this stuff in any kind of digital format, so I tracked down a vinyl copy not too long ago. I think this is the future direction of this blog as my original 7" collection winds down. I'll dig up vinyl copies for all of the stuff I had on cassette, and the stuff I always meant to pick up but never got around to buying way back when. If anyone has any suggestions for more local/obscure stuff that I'm missing out on from this era, let me know.

This came out right in the middle of my Boston-band obsessive phase where I got into The Volcano Suns, Lemonheads, and Big Dipper. The 17-year old me loved this. It rocked. It had elements of hardcore and metal thrown in, as mentioned here. The black and white welder is a great image. "Baggage" is one ass-kicking song. With some 20 years to look back and reflect, I think it's fine, but not as great as I remembered it. "Baggage" still kicks ass, but the rest of the album seems to have lost some of its luster. Nothing else really lives up to the opening track. The band never quite lived up to it again, either. Their later full length LPs never captured the energy on this 12" 45, and by the time they got a big label deal a few years later, they pretty much sucked.

I decided to see these guys at the Paradise in Boston when I was 18. I had no one to go with me for some reason, but I figured what the hell, I like doing things by myself, and I hopped a commuter train into Boston on a December evening. Of course the band went on later than I thought they would due to a slew of opening acts. Since I had to catch a midnight train home, I left before they finished their set. Unfortunately, the green line train shut down and dumped me out at Govt. Center at 11:55, instead of continuing on to North Station, and I missed the train. This was during an incredible cold snap, and it was about 6 degrees out. While wandering aimlessly and pondering my extremely limited options, I found another guy wandering through the brick wasteland of City Hall Plaza. He wanted to split cab fare back to Allston, as he'd missed the final green line train (they actually used to shut those down at midnight...crazy). We were both freezing and stranded, so striking a deal was pretty easy. I offered up half the cab fare in exchange for letting me crash on his couch. Once the cab pulled up in front of his place, he pulled the "I don't have any money, you'll have to pay the whole fare" trick on me. And I did, (what choice did I have at that point?) leaving me with about $2. It was an uneasy night on a nasty, dingy couch, as I tried to figure out how I was going to get home the next day on no money. This guy's rowdy drunk housemates and friends came and went at all hours, and someone even brought a tiny mewing kitten into the house in the middle of the night. Things finally quieted down by 3:00.

I woke from my light, anxiety ridden sleep at 5AM to the sound of something repeatedly smacking against the couch. It was the kitten, batting around a balled up $20. I scooped up the bill and bolted off the couch. I grabbed my coat, thanked the little cat for letting me take his toy, and got the hell out of there.

A: Baggage, Circuits, Autopilot
B: Dead Wrong, Because You're Mine, Over The Shoulder
Enjoy!