A Personal Message from Zardoz, Plus Video Roundup #2

We got 99 posts and, uh, this is one. I'm going to let Mr. Rambo have the centennial post, but before the videos, I just want to say a little something in the holiday spirit.

I'm not sure when exactly I found Arthur Rambo's blog. Back then it was called He/Sheattle. I think it was around the time of the Doomsday 1999 post. I'd loved that band, and was trying to find out what became of them. (I did find, eventually, that the charismatic frontman Zack Carlson moved to Texas, worked with the amazing film fans at the Alamo Drafthouse, and, oh yeah, WROTE THE BOOK ON PUNKS IN FILM.)

I poked around the previous posts, and added it to my Google reader. It didn't take long for me to notice that Arthur was posting about a lot of bands that I knew at some level personally around high school and college. Raft of Dead Monkeys, The Prom, Drowning in Lethe, The Vogue, Soiled Doves, Suffering and the Hideous Thieves. The list goes on. Once he posted about March 15th and Portal, I knew something was up. Either I knew Arthur or I WAS Arthur. I contacted him, and as it turns out, I wasn't him, but I did indeed know him. Let's just say we had once shared a fleeting affinity for lawn bowling. Longish story. So anyway, before long I was in the proverbial Wonkavator, posting about my favorite things, from the lone album by Display (who, unbeknownst to me when I wrote the post, were actually back together after nearly 10 years and a few months away from playing shows) to the Christmas EP by Fishboy and Carleen Jean Death Machine.

Of my 19 posts, the most popular one is clearly the unreleased Jough Dawn Baker LP. As far as I know, this had only been in the hands of friends of the band, and we were fortunate enough to be the first blog to post it online. This is the kind of thing that gets me excited about posting here. It's our hope that those of you who like this blog will check out and like our Facebook page (we post extra stuff there), tell your friends, and mostly importantly, SHARE YOUR STUFF WITH US. Demos, unreleased/unfinished albums, self-released records, scans of flyers, stickers, photos of shows, VHS tapes, whatever you have. If you can't get it into a digital format, we can help. We just want to be a conduit for all the amazing post-grunge music. This is for everyone who spent their nights at the Old Firehouse, The Grange, Ground Zero, The Velvet Elvis, RKCNDY, and The Paradox.

So, I guess this has turned into my Thanksgiving post. I'm thankful for Arthur for inviting me to write here, for all the people who've made the great music we get to share, and for you, for sharing our love of this stuff.

Now, as inferred by the title of this post, for those who don't haven't liked us on Facebook or may have missed some posts, here's the second batch of videos I've posted from my own VHS tapes.

Raft of Dead Monkeys - Reunion show 1-03-04 at Studio 7

Suffering and the Hideous Thieves - Las Vegas 9-23-03

Roadside Monument - Vancouver 11-13-97 (plus the set that night from the band they opened for, The Promise Ring.)

Pedro the Lion - Vancouver, B.C. 1/31/98 

Pedro the Lion - Vancouver, B.C. 10/11/98

Pedro the Lion - Seattle 6/25/99

The Rapture 10-01-2001 at The Paradox. A bit of a cheat, but they were a Seattle band a couple years before this show.

White Jazz - The 4th Practice

My buddy Benson found this tape at Everyday Music up on Capitol Hill a while back and was gracious enough to let me borrow it for inclusion here. White Jazz weren't around for too long and almost every bit of information I found was from an online show write up from The Stranger in August of '09, which is where I've taken this descriptive paragraph from:

"White Jazz are a new (dare I say super-)group featuring Brandon Nakamura of Teen Cthulhu/Doomsday 1999, Jon Weisnewski of Akimbo, Jeff McNulty of BlöödHag, and Jared Burke Eglington of Patrol. You might expect a band with such a pedigree to combine competently terrorizing metal riffs with a tongue-in-cheek humor meant to deflate not only the metal tough-guy aesthetic, but also themselves. And you'd be right: The band formed to open a show for Pig Destroyer, and they played the show "in silk kimonos and underwear just to bum people out," according to Nakamura. He continues: "We're doing this as a tribute to bands like Excruciating Terror, Crom, and other bands that just destroy basements, ruin lives, and never say sorry." No apologies necessary, guys."

The 4th Practice was released by Wall of Dogs and serves as, I believe, the only available recordings of this all-too-brief unholy musical alliance. I've failed to be able to separate the tracks on this release as many of them run together and I don't believe the tracklisting on the label to be correct, but the whole thing weighs in at just under 10 minutes so you should be able to enjoy it in it's entirety.

White Jazz

Say 10 Hail Marys

Say 10 Hail Marys were a very short lived side project between Brandon of Teen Cthulhu, Jeff McNulty of Blöödhag and Brad of Burning Witch. They played three local shows, released one demo of experimental drone/sludge metal in 2004 and were never heard from again.

Say 10 Hail Marys demo

Teen Cthulhu / Akimbo - Split 10"

I figured I might as well continue on the track Zardoz started with yesterday's entry and post some more early Akimbo. I no longer have a physical a copy of this bad boy but after digging around in my hard drive I remembered I was able to find mp3s on soulseek (yes, people still use soulseek) at some point in the past.

This time around (or should I say the first time around?), Akimbo were joined by the wholly unholy lords of crusted blackness, Teen Cthulhu. This 10 inch contains six songs, three by each band, and if you follow this blog you probably already know what to expect: abrasive, tight and metal-tinged Northwest hardcore.

Somebody got to the blood! (with artwork and lyric sheet scans courtesty of discogs)

Teen Cthulhu / Hollywood Mike Miranda - Split 7"

Hollywood Mike Miranda (bio taken from their myspace page): "Formed in 2000 over some beers at the Cha Cha in Seattle, Washington. Within two weeks the band had two singers, a guitarist, a drummer and a bass player. 6 weeks later the first show was played. We were dead by fall and had a series of shows over winter break. Between April-August 2000 and December 20, 2000-January 5(?) 2001 we played approximately 18 shows. It was fun."

Members: Zane Landreth - Drums (currently a sound guy in LA. Works with Devander Banhart, The Bronx and makes remixes and dance tracks in the duo FURY 666.) .... Rob Baum - Vocals (currently a social worker in Philly.) .... Burke - Guitar (currently in seattle investing money. Has played in Akimbo for last several years. Now in a new band.) .... Jacquie Little - Vocals (Currently still in Seattle. Has played in several bands since HMM.) .... Dylan Roadie - Bass (currently in Seattle. Has been drum teching for a while. Sang in a band in 2004 called STRT SPRX.)

Teen Cthulhu: "Armed with blast-beats eternal and distorted everything, Teen Cthulhu brings a fucking tornado of rusty blades and hammers down upon those who who dare approach the vaulted hallways of White Center, WA. Formed in the year Nineteen-hundred-and-ninety-eight, these men of Cthulhu prayed hard to the twin gods of Metal and Hardcore in search of the black path and were shown the way, walking hand in hand with unknowable terrors on the shores of blood oceans. These Clerics of the metal way have been given maxed out attribute bonuses and enchanted amplification in unholy aid to their Chaotic Evil quest, so be forewarned: Teen Cthulhu will roll a natural 20 and decapitate you in a single blow, no saving throw."

Brandon - Bass, Vocals, Dustin - Guitar, Hank - Keyboards, TJ - Guitar, Vocals, Travis - Drums

This 7" is pretty fucking sweet. Not only does it contain two songs by each band on one side, the other side contains a track written and performed by both bands.

Split 7" (with cover and insert scans)

Doomsday 1999 - Demo & Live Set

I stumbled upon some more Doomsday 1999 material the other day while browsing on Soulseek so I figured I should probably share it with everyone. More garish pulverizing noise grind from this sorely missed apocalyptic Seattle trio.
Demo 2003
Live in Redmond 4-16-04

Nervous System

Alright, you guys are in for a real treat with this one. Today's download is the Nervous System side of the split 7" they did with Murder. Not only is this a three track slab of steaming hot, bone rattling, screamy bass driven noise punk, it is among the most treasured and most listened to chunks of wax that I own. Olympia's Nervous System fucking owned and, having only gotten the chance to see them once, I treasure the vague memories I still have of seeing these guys live.
Do yourself a favor and download this thing: Nervous System / Murder - Split 7"(contains both sides of the split, in wav format with cover scan)

If anyone out there has access to more material by Nervous System please pay it forward and hook me up.

The Powers of Darkness Shall Rain Blood Upon This City For 500 Years

The Powers of Darkness Shall Rain Blood Upon This City For 500 Years are probably best remembered for having an extremely long band name. But, if you actually had a chance to see them perform live, you most likely remember them for their keyboard driven crushing noise grind and their wild and varying stage costumes. The members of the band were Travis Nakamura (drums), Cindy (keyboards), TJ (vocals), Thomas Cowgill (guitar, vocals).

The Powers of Darkness 7" (includes a scan of the cover and lyric sheet)

If anyone out there has a copy of their song "Poised For Sculpting" from the KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles Live Vol. 7 compilation, or any other material by them, please upload it somewhere and send me a link.

Doomsday 1999 - Maniac On the Floor 12" & Racist Unicorn 7"

What is there to say about the almighty Doomsday 1999? They were a brutal, fierce, eardrum piercing grind/thrash band from Seattle. Members have/had played with the godforsaken Teen Cthulhu, the pulverizng Nervous System, the screeching Black Man White Man Dead Man, and the garishly costumed The Powers of Darkness Shall Reign Blood Upon This City For 500 Years.
Zack Carlson - Vocals + Travis Nakamura - Drums + Brandon Nakamura - Guitar/Vocals = 3 guys who have most likely experienced more hearing damage the any air traffic controller that ever lived.

If anyone out there has their demo or any bootlegs, please upload them somwhere & let me know where I can find them
Maniac On the Floor

Special thanks go out to bootarms for uploading the Racist Unicorn 7"

UPDATE: 2003 Demo and a live set can be found here