Notes
Hey you-here's a bucket full of
words about the raging music scene
in Vancouver BC. There's fots of cool
little dance clubs like Tommy Africa
(the bouncers aro geeks), Luvaffair
(who show Powell video #1), plus
others. Van is a fave stop for touring
bands like G.B.H., Fishbone, Gang
Green and Rank and File, who have
all visited there recently. D.O.A.
(headquartered there) of course, rule.
Recently, they've been busy recor-
ding their new Lp (tentatively titled
Ready To Explode), and the guitarist
and drummer have been moonlight-
Ing with their combo, The Groove-
aholics, who do sickeningly thrashy
covers of awful seventies disco hits
like Kung Fu Fighting and Car-
90
wash. Two more local Van bands to
keep an eye on are the all-female
Bolero Lava (whose singer Vanessa
is like Lena Horne on a lost week-
end), and Stubborn Blood, who
shredded the stage at Vancouver's
Venue Club recently with No Means
No (Look for them touring the States
soon). The Expo has brought lots
of tourists and bands to Western
Canada. There was a series of punk
shows planned at the Expo, which in-
cluded: D.O.A., Skinny Puppy, Brain
Eater, Poisoned, Bolero Lava and
Slow. Unfortuantely Slow opened
the event with an explosion. The lead
singer pulled his pants down and
started zeig-heiling the Prime
Minister. Needless to say, the
whitebread Expo staff didn't get the
joke and the whole shebang was
cancelled. Word has it that the
cancelled Canadian groups have
banded together and are in-
vestigating suing the Expo for loss of
revenue.
At Vancouver's Town
Pump, the Meat Puppets (who took
three hours to get across the border)
ripped out a totally smoking set. Kurt
Kirkwood looked stoned out of his
mind, his eyes rolled back into his
head and so much sweat poured off
of him that his guitar was actually
dripping. Their set lasted, over an
hour and had the crowd going
bonkers. Don't think that nothing
ever happens in Oregon, Hey,
Portland's hottest spot is Club
Satyricon. It's in the hean of skidrow
by Pleasant Gehman, Carol
Shutzbank and D. Pythias.
(although the club's interior is pretty
nice). Agent Orange recently grac-
ed the place as well as Phoenix,
Arizona's, bitchen, Nova Boys (which
include ex-members of Harvest and
The Dirtclods). These guys shred
original material as well as covers-
from Aerosmith to Shawn Cassidy
They also played the first live show
in Carmel, CA in over fifteen years.
(Since Clint Eastwood has become
mayor, the ban on live music has
been lifted. Let's hear it for the good,
the bad and the ugly-Dirty
Harry!)...All that Mount St. Helens
volcano ash has finally taken effect
in Washington state. Wash, bands
have ingested so much during their
formulative years that the gigs held
in the taverns of Seattle usually turn
into drunken brawls. Two cuckoo
combos out of Seattle are The
Center for Disease Control Boys
and The Cunninghams (named for
Richie Cunningham from Happy
Days). The former is a raunchy coun-
try punk combo, and the latter, lead
by Gary Heffern (formerly of San
Dieigo's Penetrators) rivals Tupelo
Chain Sex for jazzy, out of control
acoustic noise, complete with a
seventeen year-old accordian player
...The Screamin' Sirens played
Seattle's Rainbow Tavern recently
Drummer, Boom Boom Dixon (rais
ed by wolves) was asleep in the tour
van behind the club when' she was
rudely awakened by a slew of cops,
who demanded to know if she'd been
participating in any drug deals. After
explaining she was just sleeping and
her band was to play in the club that
evening, the cops demanded proof
that she was actually in the band.
She then showed them an 8x10 pro-
motional glossy of the Sirens and
one of the officers asked if he could
have the picture. Boom Boom sold
it to him for a dollar...Girl Trouble,
out of Tacoma, Wa., have already
reached cult status. Three guys and
a maniacal girl drummer named
Bon, are great-whacked out of their
skulls in a Cramps/Surf Monster kin-
da way. Chainsaw guitars and a
dorky singer who looks like he's do-
ing exotic Egyptian dances ala Mick
Jagger. They sporadically put out a
zany fanzine called, what else?-Girl
Trouble. It features junk food recipes,
an advice to the lovelorn column and
reviews and interviews of local tour-
ing bands. San Francisco's
Jungle Studs have finally assaulted
this world with vinyl, on the Alter-
native Tentacles label. The Studs
feature the likes of D.H. Peligro (ex-
D.K. drummer) on guitar and Mr.
DePace (ex-Flipper) on drums. Great
big rockin' rollin' sounds that'll reach
sensitive spots in many ears. There's
lots of love in the lyrics, lots of boom
in most all the songs and one hot pic
to clicky-click is "Stella," based on
the famous Brando scene in the
movie Streetcar Named Desire. This
Ip gets two stars and sixteen hand-
claps. In the "I'm seeing ghosts
now" Dept., if you wanna get a pret-
ty good idea of what a punk forefather
really sounded like, pickup a copy of
the album Rock n Rule, The Germs
Ive at the Masque reunion, Christmas
1979. The late Darby Crash shows
how bad a live gig is supposed to be.
Y'know, just when to forget the lyrics,
pretend you don't know where the
lyrics go and just manipulate the hell
out of a suave hairlip diction. It's
fuckin' hot and brings back many
memories to the fortunate few who
had caught the Germs' chaotic
shows. Claps till your hands bleed for
this record. If you thought the cut.
by Shredded Steel was hot on the
last Skate Rock Lp, just check out
their cassette release titled Search
Light. They've got a giant mega-band
sound combined with a few good
slightly surfy waves and hot spot
guitar licks. Steve Steadham works
the drums in this outfit, Dave Bedore
works the bass and moogs and
Michael Fairchild does the rest. (You
might want to catch these guys' skate
action if'n you get the chance). To get
this, write away to: Shredded Steale
c/o Steve Steadham, 564 Ocean-
view, Encinitas, CA 92024. Exec-
utive Slacks new album, Fire & Ice
(on Fundamental Records), is their
best to date. It features a blisteringly
witty cover of Garry Glitter's "Rock
and Roll The Johnsons have
released, their new album, Break
Tomorrow's Day (on Fever/Restless
Records) to fine praise. The band.
along with their buddies The Dead
Milkmen (whose album Eat Your
Paisley is already selling at a hot
pace), have critics sitting up and tak-
ing notice. Philly's new hardcore
band, Legitimate Reasons, have
proved their mettle at an International
Hardcore show with Toxic Reasons,
Cheetah Chrome Mother Fuckers
and Christ on Parade...Savage
Silence has been playing around
quite a bit, straddling both metal and
punk shows. The band's latest gig
had them on a bill with Decontrol
and GBH at Revivals Club in Philly
This was the Revivals' first venture in-
to hardcore and they're not sure at
this point if they plan to con-
tinue Over at the Kennel Club all-
age shows have been happening on
a regular basis. Every other Sunday
or so they've been featuring
matinees with lots of diverse bands.
Recently Kennel hosted a No More
Censorship benifit featuring Seven
Seconds, The Freeze and others.
Plans are already being made for
another one. For those who don't
know anything about the issue of
censorship, get off your ass, skate
down to the nearest zine shop and
check out info. Whatever is involved
in this issue could directly affect you
and what you listen to on the tum-
table. Lehigh Valley's Love Bat-
tery are going through some person-
nel changes. The band is currently
looking for both a guitarist and a
drummer...In the Long Strange Trip
It's Been Department: Hoboken NJ's
Anietam (originally from Louisville,
KY) have released a new album call-
ed Music From Eba...NY's Live
Skull keep getting better and better,
as their new album Cloud One pro-
ves (Homestead). Their show with
Crimes in the City Solution was a
knock-out. If you can't seem 'em live,
listen to their vinyl...Nick Cave has
joined the likes of other singer-turned
poets and is involved in doing spoken
word performance. Diehard fans of
Agnostic Front listen up: their first
album Victim of Pain is being ro-
released, so if you missed it the first
time here's your chance. Be on the i
lookout for them live-they're plan-
ning to hit the road real soon. Also on
the road are label-mates Nuclear
Assault, who are pushing their new
Lp Game Over (on Combat Records).
Check them out for some heavy du
ty metal/punk/rock Boston's
Volcano Suns have released a 7" in
preparation for an album which
should be out any day. It's called All
Night Lotus Party. These guys were
a lot of fun when they played with
Squirrel Bait, Agent Orange and
The Descendents at Trenton, NJ's
City Garden's.. The West Coast's
Celibate Rifles have been tearing up
the east following the heels of their
release, The Turgid Miasma Of Ex
istence on Rough Trade....Adrenalin
OD hit the road again this fall in sup-
port of a new album on Buy Our
Records. Skate-shoppers beware!
Coming soon from JFA (the infamous
one and only) is yet another album.
The band has just finished recording
in the studio, so be on the lookout, it's
The Descendents taking loose control at the Farm in San Francisco. Photo: Tom Cogan.
called "Shut Up!". Mighty
Sphincter have released their new
album on Placebo and are already
tearing up playlists and stores with it.
An interesting note: the release has.
a disclaimer on it a la PMRC style,
but don't pay attention to it...An-
other group of die-hards are also
back: Discharge, with their first
release in four years. The band has
two members on guitar and bass and
are moving from strictly punk into
metal rock as well. But don't let all of
this fool you-at heart they're as
raunchy and rockin' as ever. Check
out Grave New World on Profile
Records. On a lighter note: K-
Cassette recording artists from
Washington, Beat Happening, have
hit the road to tour. For quirky but
meaty music this is a band to check
out. Cover for the sleeve, of the 7",
of the band Run DMC doing the song
"Walk This Way" shot by none other
than ex-skate photog Glenn E. Fried-
man Rein(?). Seems the Clickin' E
has added a name... Fresh Sounds
from Middle America #3 is out. A
compilation of Mid-America bands
like Rabbit Scat, Thumbs, Lions &
Dogs, Micronotz, Iguanas, Von
Bulows and many more. Great, all-
around sounding compilation...
Dyno-bassist Chuck Dukowski, ox-
Black Flag, has been busy-busy-
busy with his new band SWA and
released their second album, Sex
Doctor Chuck ain't gettin' older, he's
gettin' better. Power-driving mad-
house hungry rock and roll here.
Guitarist Richard Ford has left the
band, but has been replaced by a
slashing amazon of a guitar player,
Sylvia Juncosa...LA's the Brood
just released an Lp on Profile Records
and it smokes like burning Spanish-
styled houses. This is how Black
Sabbath would sound if they were
startin' their band this year...What
about that long awaited album from
Sacred Order? E-Ticket, the soon to
be released Lp on Thrash Records,
sports eleven speaker-hungry rash
rippers that pull from some old-style
basic smash your face punk
rock...Now from those fancy
haired, hold-your-face-funny-while-
you-play-stringed instruments boys in
Savage Grace, comes their After The
Fall From Grace album. Hey, we're
talkin' the sound of a tugboat engine
recorded and played back at twice
the speed here. Solid, no kidding-
around, aggressive metal for the
masses...You've all heard of that i
East Coast punk rock mecca.
CBG.B's in New York? Well, word
through the grapevine sez that their
Marquis was recently, unceremon-
lously swiped. The place looks nak
ed now, like a face with no lips. Who
was that masked commando lurking
about?...The Descendents blast-
bombed The Farm in San Francisco
recently, sporting a new female
bassist. Unfortunately, singer Milo
took the proverbial spill, split his head
open and bled all over the stage. He
even had to go to the hospital. Hope
you're feeling better, dude. It was a
great set up to that point anyhow
...And not leastly, but still lastly,
from Thrash Records comes a
posthumous (of sorts) album by the
Faction. Yup, you thought you'd
heard the last of these skate rockin'
legends. No sir. Epitaph yields six
bouncin' boomers, including two
cover songs: The Mamas and the
Papas California Dreamin' and
Generation X's My Generation. This
admirable parting shot for this mark
making bunch is available almost
anywhere, including some mail-order
companies.
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