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.

All About Friends compilation

All About Friends was a zine from Washington State, USA. Issue 5 was printed the same size as the CD, and contains 50 pages of photographs, as well as the tracking info.

1. C.R. - Moss
2. Botch - Rock Lobster (B-52's cover)
3. Impel - Call It What You Will
4. nineironspitfire - Dead (Napalm Death cover)
5. Screwjack - Artifact
6. Threadbare - Vitality (Beyond cover)
7. Coalesce - Cutting Away (Undertow cover)
8. Indecision - Slave
9. Trial - Crucified (Iron Cross cover)
10. State Route 522 - Jumpin' Someone Else's Train (The Cure cover)
11. Jough Dawn Baker - Five Twenty Four (Rage Against the Machine cover)

All About Friends

The Excursion Compilation

The Excursion Compilation was released in 1996 as a showcase of the bands that were then being released by the Excursion Records label. The record is basically split into two parts: the first half consisting the of poppier punk stuff and then the second half which contains all of the hardcore bands. A perfect snapshot of not-so-long ago era, this comp. serves as a fantastic reminder of the burgeoning and multifaceted local scene of the mid 90's.

The Excursion Compilation (with sleeve and insert scans)

Jough Dawn Baker's Unfinished LP

This is big, folks. Arthur Rambo already did a fine job of covering Jough Dawn Baker's official recorded output with this post, but to recap, they were a Bellingham-based hardcore band that split up in the mid 90s and though I barely missed the window on seeing them live, everyone I've heard tell of their shows speaks of them in reverential tones. What we have here, as I understand it, is what was going to be their debut LP. They'd put out a 7", a split 12", and appeared on a few compilations, but this was the record everyone was waiting for. The record was close to done when they split up except for vocals, and it never saw the light of day. There are vocals on a few songs, but this is mostly an instrumental affair. So, a little bittersweet on that front, but hey, it's 28 minutes of Jough Dawn Baker that as far as I know only a handful of people have heard before. This is why we do this. Pungent Sound is for the people.

Grab the 9 songs, ripped at 320kbps here.

Brewing Compilation

The bands on this compilation really need no introduction as they are, or rather were, among the leading proponents of the mid 90's Northwest hardcore scene. Some people take umbrage at the use of the term 'hardcore' being used to describe bands outside of initial wave of hardcore during the early to mid 80's, but I can't think of a better term to describe the sounds that so many bands having been making, not only during the 90's, but all the way up to the present. To me, Nineironspitfire, Slowsidedown, Jough Dawn Baker and Botch and many, many other bands are just as worthy to a place on the hardcore mantle as classic first-wavers like Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat. But, in the end, labeling music as this genre or that genre is just as pointless as it is annoying. You either dig something or you don't. And if you dig the furious, screamy, pulsating throb of any one of the four bands with a track on this compilation, chances are you'll be glad you downloaded this thing.
Brewing

Joughn't Stop Believing

I know I don't update this thing too often but I should probably say that I recently started a new job and have been spending a lot less time on the internet these days. I still plan on keeping the blog going, I've even got a few things in mind for upcoming posts but, until I can find the time for those plans can come to fruition, this will have to do...

2 tracks from Jough Dawn Baker that I wasn't able to include in the original post. A track called Bridgework from The Excursion compilation & an [untitled] track of unknown origin.

Also, I re upped the Soiled Doves album with a bonus track I pulled from my ipod.

Jough Dawn Baker

Jough Dawn Baker were a dark chaotic hardcore band from Bellingham, WA that existed in the mid to late 90's. Members of JDB have gone on to play in bands such as Heiress, Born Anchors, Caparza and Man Years. During their brief existence they released a self titled 7", a 12" split with Vade and had several songs featured on different compilations. Today's collection of downloads is my attempt at compiling their entire discography.
Self titled 7" (with sleeve art and lyric sheet scans)
Jough Dawn Baker / Vade Split 12"
4 tracks from various compilations (features the songs: Muttonfist from the Brewing comp, Bridgework from the Excursion comp, a cover of "Freedom" called Five Twenty Four by Rage Against the Machine from the All About Friends compilation and an untitled track of unknown origin)