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!

Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot 12" Single

OK, there's really no reason to rip this, as all of these tracks are on Daydream Nation. I guess I could make the excuse that this is some radio edit version (it is; missing Kim Gordon's "Spirit Desire" opening, and another 2 minutes from somewhere) and justify it that way. Truth is, I'm trying to stick to doing something other than a 7" for Sundays, but I ran out of time this week to do a full length LP.

I think I've exhausted my Sonic Youth tales. At least the interesting ones. The thing to note about this album is that I see this as the beginning of them becoming a much more mainstream act. "Teenage Riot", especially this stripped down 4 minute version, is practically a pop song, and it's a million miles away from "Kill Yr Idols". Whether you think that was a smart move by them, or was selling out is up to you. I find Daydream Nation to be their best album. No clue where I bought this.

A: Teenage Riot (edit)
B: Silver Rocket, Kissability
Enjoy!

Operation Ivy - Hectic

A friend told me that this single was placed into a juke box in the place of some pop thing, so when you press the button to play that one, this would come up. Brilliant!

I was inspired to pick it up. It was different from what I expected. Good though. A little different for the time, and foreshadowed the Bosstones and so on.

Two members of this band would go on to lots of fame in the 90's as Rancid.

A: Junkie's Runnin' Dry, Here We Go Again, Hoboken
B: Yellin' In My Ear, Sleep Long, Healthy Body
Enjoy!

Mudhoney/Sonic Youth - Split Single

OK, confession time. I did not buy this back in the day. This was always a single that I really wanted, as I was really into both of these bands, and I joined the Sub Pop thing far too late to get my hands on this. So, I managed to track down a copy on eBay recently. Merry Christmas to me.

I'd never heard the SY version of "Touch Me I'm Sick" before. Mudhoney did release their "Halloween" on a singles compilation, and I have that. I guess SY's song was released on a deluxe edition of Daydream Nation, but I already own the original version, and never bought it again. I have to say, Sonic Youth were far more diverse in what they did (and still do) and are more technically proficient musicians and all, but Mudhoney wins in this little battle of cover songs. It's all in the vocals. Kim doesn't sound comfortable trying to emulate Mark Arm. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me on that one. Oh well.

This was apparently dreamed up before Mudhoney had even released anything, as the guys at Sub Pop sent Sonic Youth a tape, and they liked them so much, they agreed to do a single with them

A: Sonic Youth - Touch Me I'm Sick
B: Mudhoney - Halloween
Enjoy!

Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene

Feeling a bit rushed lately. I've found that I like to be a day ahead. That gives me some time to tinker with the recording, listen to it a few more times, dig up some information on what the band has been up to since then, maybe even edit my random stream of crap writing style, and so on.

Unfortunately, I've been spending my nights at MGH with my super-fantastic aunt these days, and she'll be there for a while, it seems. The prognosis is good overall, but she's stuck there for a while waiting for surgery, which totally sucks. So I visit after work and get home late. These are going to be a bit more hasty than usual in the meantime, and may stop for a few days, though stopping messes up my plans to be done with this endeavor before baseball season really kicks in, which looks to be more interesting all the time.

Anyway, I came back from my latest visit and found that my somewhat loosely organized piles of 7" (the yet to do living and already done dead had been segregated) on the office floor had all been picked up and put back into a vacant spot in the bookshelf. My weak attempt at organization has been thwarted! Undaunted, I reached into the newly unified pile and pulled this out. I picked a winner. Wow, listening to this brings back a lot of memories. Amazing how music can capture all of these moments in time, store them away, and retrieve them all the moment you hear that song again. It had been a while. I've listened to Dinosaur Jr many times since then, but by default, I turn to their You're Living All Over Me album because the opening punch of "Little Fury Things", "Kracked" and "Sludgefeast" just calls out to me, and I blow right past Bug, which features "Freak Scene" and holds all of these long-lost memories.

These guys were flat-out great, and completely unique for the time. Blue Cheer loud, with excellent guitar and wah pedal work by idiot-savant J Mascis that countered his whiny, kinda stoned sounding vocals. Together, it all worked beautifully. I picked up Bug right after it came out based on some reviews and recommendations and was immediately hooked. 

When I started buying vinyl in 1990 or so, this single seemed like a great thing to grab, and the B-side was something I'd never heard before (the ending is a fun noisy mess). I bought a lot of SST from the mid 80s up until I bought some Dinosaur singles, so this marks the end of the label for me. SST seemed to fall apart after Dinosaur went on to sign with a major. Black Flag, Husker Du, and the Minutemen weren't walking through that door anytime soon, and SST seemed to have some managerial issues, too. Sub Pop took over as the indie label of choice soon afterward. Unfortunately, most of those old SST purchases were on cassette (there are a few exceptions...). I've replaced most of the old tapes with CDs, at least.

A: Freak Scene
B: Keep The Glove
Enjoy!