Rats and Children - Demo tape

Rats and Children or Dovetail or whatever name we happened to be arguing about during our brief existence was a sloppy political punk band that I played in with a some high school friends during the Winter of 2000. I remember I was sitting at home one weekend, probably watching t.v. or something when I heard a knock on the door. Four of the buddies that I ate lunch with every day were standing there. "You wanna play drums in a band?" one of them asked me. "Sure," I said. And with that they unloaded a bass, a guitar and a couple of practice amps and we set up next to the drums and p.a. in my basement.

Musically, we were all coming at it from totally different places - the singers wanted to be The Blood Brothers and one of them also seemed dead set on being the next Jello Biafra, the bass player had been obsessed with Rancid & was really into the Subhumans, the guitarist was into Melt Banana, Judy Garland & the opera Carmina Burana and I was on an 80's new wave, San Diego screamo and The Doors kick. We'd all met each other at various points leading up to forming the band over a mutual love of punk rock, rebellion and feeling like social outcasts, the typical high schoolers-forming-a-band cliché.

When the group got started, we were all hanging out, reading zines & Zinn and sharing tapes. I remember us listening to stuff like Crass, Conflict, Flux of Pink Indians, Zounds, EC8OR, maybe even some Prince... we had vague intentions of being a 'peace punk' band but, aside from some of the patches we'd sewn to our clothes and the overtly political lyrics, I don't think it ever really ended up being that. Basically, it was a weird mix that kind of worked for little while.

The first five tracks on this tape were recorded on a strategically placed boombox during one of our early practices - Dec. 3rd, 2000 according to my notes on the tape. The highlights include our cover of "Breakin' the Law" sandwiched in between a Spice Girls medley and, arguably, our best original song "Pickled Babies." The sixth and final track, "Socialists For Nader," is from a different tape and it serves as a very rough idea for a new song that never fully came to be - before devolving into an impromptu partial cover of Atari Teenage Riot's "Revolution Action." I think it was probably recorded at our final practice around the beginning of '01.

The reasons the band fell apart were numerous and also pretty typical but in the end we just weren't getting along. I've heard it said that the best way to ruin a friendship is to live with someone but, in my experience, another surefire way to test that bond is to play together in a band - especially one in which there's no clear musical direction and several clashing egos. Though we tried, we never played any shows and only a handful of people ever saw us rehearse or even heard this tape. I don't know if there will be much interest in this slice of goofy, amateurish, noisy punk rock but for me it's something I'm still glad to have been a part of.
-Oliver aka Arthur Rambo

Rats and Children demo

Point of Interest compilation tape #1

The first Point of Interest compilation tape came with the 15th and final issue of the Point of Interest zine (pictured above). POI was focused almost solely on the local 90's punk rock music and this compilation serves as a glimpse into what was going on in the Northwest scene at the time. I remember buying this tape from Jay who ran the POI zine and distro, at a punk show in Woodinville (mentioned briefly here) back in the day. When I took it home and played it in my boombox, my 13 or 14 year old mind was blown away by the sudden realization that anyone who wanted to could put out a tape, compile a zine or form a band. DIY was something I'd heard talked a lot about before but this zine, this tape and that local scene were the first time I'd ever witnessed any of it in action.

Containing 15 tracks of varying sonic quality, our final download in what has been without a doubt the blog's most exciting year in existence thus far, take a look at this tracklist:

01. The Degenerats - Do Society a Favor
02. The Degenerats - Riot Squad
03. The Degenerats - America is Dead
04. John Q Fascist - Manhood
05. Larry - Custom Engine/Stone Cold
06. Flight 800 - Fly the Friendly Skies
07. Flight 800 - Isle of the Lepers
08. Submission Hold - Ed Anger
09. Submission Hold - Analysis
10. Cease and Desist - Crust as a Solution b/w Burnt Out (these two tracks run together)
11. The Bloodclots - Common Cause
12. The Bloodclots - Paint Thinner
13. The Deviants - Beer
14. Mark Bruback - Society's Disorder

P.O.I. compilation tape (I am currently out of town and unable to scan images but when I return I will be updating this post with the actual cassette artwork)

I left in all of the tv show soundbites that were used (in most cases) in between bands but edited out some of the longer silences. The two Cease and Desist tracks were much quieter than everything else on the tape and in an effort to further amplify them it also amplified the accompanying tape noise - also, given their running together, I found it impossible to separate the tracks.

Cannibal - Tryin / Wasted Lives 7" (1985)

I've been running low on things to post these days, what with my usb turntable crapping out on me a while back, but I still browse sites like Discogs, Gemm and ebay regularly in the hopes of finding stuff for the blog. And That was how I discovered this gem, which promptly shot up way out of my price range but, thankfully, the seller had uploaded great quality rips of the two tracks from this release, so a big "thank you!" to whoever you are.

Cannibal featured members of other oldschool local punk bands such as The Fartz, Enstruction and Maggot Brains. This 7" serves as their only apparent release and it is a two track blast of dirty mid-80's Seattle style punk rock that was self-released in 1985.

I don't know any more about these guys, if you've got any information about their history please don't hesitate to share it with us in the comments.

Tryin b/w Wasted Lives

Shitlist - A Cold Slap of Reality 7"

Continuing on the track started with yesterday's post, here's another blast of brutal local crust punk.

Shitlist were a band that existed during the late 90's and into early 2000's. Their only releases that I know of were this 7" and a split LP with Calloused. They were fronted by former Flight 800 vocalist Ryan and if you checked out yesterday's link, you pretty much know what to expect: noisy, hardcore crust punk. Other than the fact that members of the group went on to play in Deathraid and Consume, I don't much else about these guys so feel free to fill in the blanks if you've got any info.

A Cold Slap of Reality (with lyric and sleeve scans)

Flight 800 / Noisome Faugh - Patriotism In Action split 7"

Every October I seem to follow a similar music-listening pattern. At the beginning of the month, as my anticipation for Halloween starts to build, I embark on the journey by listening to some of the earlier Misfits material (Static Age, 13 hits From Hell, etc.), by mid-month as the climate and, with it, my mood darkens I start spinning The Doors s/t debut on repeat and, finally, as we round the bend heading towards the last week or so leading up to the holiday I find myself revisiting the Misfits again, this time though it's their later, more aggressive and fast-paced material - which in turn leads to an all out, several day long binge on hardcore, grindy, crusty punk rock - the dirtier-sounding, the better. Why do I bother telling you all of this, you may ask? Because, in their own ways, these two bands meet all of those criteria perfectly.

Flight 800 were a band you'd usually find sandwiched somewhere on a bill featuring mid-90's local punk bands like Bristle, The Degenerats and The Bloodclots, but their music was always a bit different than those guys and also a bit different from the crust bands they had more in common with. One of their vocalists (the screamer) looked the part, appearing unwashed and greasy with a hard-to-decipher-the-lettering-of band shirt, the other guy (the yeller) however had close cropped hair, thick-rimmed glasses (this is before they were cool, mind you) wore bright colored hawaiian shirts (pictured here). I don't know if their image was conceived intentionally, but the whole thing, especially when combined with the dark and grinding crustiness of the music coming out of the instruments, created something truly unique. I'm sure these guys went on to play in a million other bands but the ones I'm aware of are Shitlist, Deathraid and Consume.

Noisome Faugh are a band I never saw and whose presence on the scene I'm aware of solely thanks to their songs that appear on the flipside off this disc. Somewhat akin to Flight 800, Noisome Faugh were a female-fronted, hardcore/crust group whose members later went on to play with Cephlotripe and the Feederz.

Patriotism In Action

The Finks - Children Of The Finks (cassette)

The Finks were a street punk band that existed in the later part of the 90's. I know next to nothing about these guys other than that were awesome to see live and that I think they broke up sometime in the Spring of '99. This is a 10 track cassette they released that was passed on to me by a friend a long time ago.

If you happen to know anything about this band or what any of the members ended up doing afterwards feel free to leave a comment and help fill in the story.

Children Of The Finks

The Briefs - (Looking Through) Gary Glitter's Eyes b/w Dead In The Suburbs

Happy New Year! Sorry I've been lazy about updating this thing lately. The holidays can be a real pain in the ass and this year was just so rushed & stressful I've barely had time for anything important, let alone ripping records and updating the blog. Thankfully though we're entering in to the home stretch and, as 2011 draws to a close, it's time for the last post of the year and what could be better for that than a blast of snotty old school sounding punk rock.

The Briefs have been making noise since forming in Seattle in the year 2000. Their sound has always stayed very true to the poppier side of the '77 punk style, sort of similar to: The Vibrators, The Buzzcocks or maybe even a less abrasive version Blanks 77. They dropped this chunk of wax in 2002 and I believe I picked it up at Singles Going Steady sometime shortly thereafter.

Enjoy! (in wav format w/ cover scans)

John Q Fascist / The Displacements - Split 7"

Today's download is another of the old mid-90's Seattle punk rock 7"s I rescued during a flood we had down in the basement last winter. This split between John Q Fascist and The Displacements was one of my favorites back when I first started getting into local punk rock. I have to admit that I strongly I prefer the John Q Fascist side of this split, most likely because of the last track, Berserker, which has an intro sample from the movie The Warriors and an angry chorus whose lyrics are "No more fucking Nazi cops! Seattle Police can suck my cock!" The Displacements side of the record isn't at all terrible, I just never really found it to be that memorable. I have no idea what the members of either of these bands went on to do afterwards nor do I know if The Displacements were even from the Northwest, as this record was the only time I ever heard of them. If you were lucky enough to see some Northwest punk shows back in the day, I'm sure you'll appreciate this nostalgic trip down memory lane. And even if you weren't around back then, here's a chance for you to experience some of the sonically preserved chaos.
Split 7"

The Degenerats

Up until now, I've stuck to mostly posting indie, hardcore and screamo records. But, after coming across my small collection of old local punk rock 7"s in the basement, I've decided to start adding some of them into the mix.

The Degenerats were a street punk band from the greater Seattle area, perhaps remembered best for their song "Do Society a Favor, Die". I first saw them play at a show in the old Sorenson gymnasium in Woodinville with The Sheep, Schizoid, Flight 800, The Bloodclots & Bristle. Bristle were supposed to play last but ended up starting a riot in the parking lot which lead to headlights being smashed, bottles being tossed, the show being canceled and Sorenson refusing to put on any more concerts. The members of The Degenrats were Nils on vocals, Randy on guitar, Ryan on bass and Josh on drums. I'm not sure what any of the other guys have been up to, but I know that Nils went on to join Poxy, then Rabid Dogs and he now sings for The Greatest Hits.

s/t 7"