Your erstwhile photo blogging host has been out on the road with X (Australia) and the A Frames. I apologize for missing last week’s edition. It was difficult finding a good internet connect on the massive drive from Los Angeles to Austin. We’re back in action this week though, with a contribution from longtime MRR columnist Mykel Board. He sent in some older-timers photos from the Continental in NYC, baby.

Handsome Dick Manitoba (Dictators) and Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys), the Continental, New York (photo by Mykel Board)

George Tabb with Furious George, the Continental, New York (photo by Mykel Board)

(We’re working on phasing MRR Radio into this site. Click HERE for the full MRR Radio experience. Thanx!)

Layla and Mariam play only records that are gonna be reviewed in the next issue of MRR! #326 — out next week, dudes…

Download here

Conversions at MRR!

Intro song:
BIG BOYS – We Got Your Money

Layla hearts tuff girl vocals
RATAS DEL VATICANOS – Cancer de Prostrata
LIBYANS – Paralyzed
RELIGIOUS SS DISORDER – Insecurity
CONVERSIONS – No-one Is Watching

Layla investigates the new tuff sounds of doom
PUFFY AREOLAS – 1981
CIRCLE PIT – Total Waste
WHATEVER BRAINS – Love Taps
TIMMY’S ORGANISM – I’m On a Hunt

Mariam blasts some hardcore in your face
CÜLO – Nuke Abuse
HOLY SHIT – Black Out, Call In
ORGANIZED SPORTS – 1086
LOS MONJO – Esclavos
DURESS – Guilt

Mariam doesn’t know where she’s going with this
BEYOND PINK – 150 Spän For Ingenting
CULTURE KIDS – Keep Control
OLHO SECO – Botas, Fuzis, Capacetes
VILE GASH – Life-rot
LAURENCE WASSER – Mummy Gelly

Layla gets twizted on the kitchen floor
TWISTED SHOUTS – Statues Lose
HYGIENE – Fixed Odds Betting Terminal
LÖGNHALSMOTTAGNINGEN – Nyalögnhaser
KITCHEN’S FLOOR – Orbit
BRILLIANT COLORS – Bad Vibes

Outro song:
HUSKER DU – Real World

Possibly Mark Murrmann

Sorry things are lagging behind a little here on MRR.com this week. The absence of the Monday Photo Blog threw us off a bit. What happened to the photo blog, you ask? That’s what we wanted to know too, so we did some research and figured out that some dude name Mark Murrmann (alias “icki”) is supposed to be in charge of said weekly web feature. Further research showed that it’s quite possible that he’s currently traveling with the re-formed X of Australia, who are on tour of the western US, and playing a little-known DIY fest in Austin, TX, called Chaos in Tejas this week.

Our crack team of internet sleuths also discovered a handy website called Google, where we dug up even more dirt on the elusive “blogger.” Turns out he’s been known to take a few pictures himself, and he’s recently published some kind of book! One website, The Rumpus, even managed to talk to him…

We’ll keep investigating. Keep checking in, and hopefully by next week we’ll have gotten to the bottom of this.

Airfix Kits (photo by icki, used without permission)

Clorox Girls (photo by icki, used without permission)

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MRR readers need to know about a great and original new band I’ve been obsessed with — CRAZY SPIRIT. After reading a description on a distro website selling their demo comparing them to the Germs and Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers, (two of my fave bands,) I was compelled to do some further research.

Punks are a little spoiled these days. It used to be serious work to track down the tiniest bit of info on a on a band that sounded interesting but now it’s only a click away. I’m a jaded old punk and that’s whole nother article but this is a good thing because I found Crazy Spirit’s MySpace page and was instantly blown away by what I heard. Shades of the aforementioned bands with hints of Rudementary Peni and some rhythms that reminded me of the old Texas band, the Motards. Seriously, the vocals are like the rabid weasel from some old Tex Avery cartoon — they have to be heard to be believed. Lots of the best foreign hardcore punk influences as well. They were nice enough to float me a demo with a rough mix of their upcoming 7″ even! Like a drooling junkie wanting more, I was hooked. Their artwork is amazing as well.

Well, I’ll let two of the members quote some info for themselves…

From Walker (vox):
We started practicing as a full band almost exactly a year ago. Our drummer, Henry, and our bass player, Sam, wanted to start a band that had early Discharge and Brazilian influences, then they got Eugene, who is the drummer of Perdition, to play guitar. They started practicing in Eugene’s room with tiny little amps and a wooden spool with plastic buckets attached to it as drums. They recorded an instrumental demo tape and then I started practicing with them, singing random shit into an acorn while we practiced. We added lyrics, then had our first show in September and recorded the demo. On a side note, no one seems to think this, but I’d say my biggest influence on singing is Battalion of Saints. We all grew up together and got into punk together, all local NYC/Brooklyn. Now we practice in Brooklyn at the same spot as Perdition and Dawn of Humans at the house of half of the band Question. Sam and Eugene are also in Dawn of Humans.

From Sam (bass):
yo i just read walkers thing it sounded pretty right. the only thing is henry started on a wood box. not buckets. but whatever…. uh the only thing i wanna add is that we love discharge and brazil 80s hc, and the aesthetic of those bands, BUT we did not start crazy spirit thinking “oh how can we sound like discharge”. i feel like a lot of bands nowadays just choose some other band to sound like, or to relate to. i don’t wanna be part of that.

They have a couple 7″s coming soon and maybe even a vinyl reissue of the demo. Keep on the lookout. Seriously.

Crazy Spirit on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/crazyspiritnyc
Blog: crazyspiritmotherfucker.blogspot.com
And you can download the demo on Robert Collins’ blog, Terminal Escape:
http://terminalescape.blogspot.com/2010/03/crazy-spirit.html

David Baird sent us this video, via Facebook, by the should-be-legendary Huntsville, AL, band THE KNOCKABOUTS. It was made by Phillip Wann in 1983. David’s MySpace page is dedicated to Huntsville DIY history, and it’s worth checking out for his audio intro (I thought it was cool, anyway). Thanks a lot!

Here’s an interesting bit from from the September 1984 issue of MRR, reprinted in the 1995 Prank Records 7″ of The Knockabouts’ 1983 demo, from drummer Greg Sklaka:

We wanted to show that you don’t have to be Jimmy Page to be in a band. We wanted to play something basic but very powerful. We really don’t know what the average person thinks of us because we hear “play sickie sado”, than someone says “boo, y’all suck.” Our first real gig was at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in January of ’83 at a talent show with three other bands. I think we shocked everyone there, especially when we played “Sweet Home Alabama”. It was kinda funny, because after we played it, someone yelled “Freebird!.”

If the people here in Alabama would look closely at our songs, they would probably relate to them. But not very many people want to do that, so we’re labeled as shit and we get fucked with a lot, especially by the cops.

Today, we have a name for ourselves, whether people say we suck or we’re good. “Where’s My Vietnam” is probably our best song. Live it’s the peak of our insanity. “I hate your guts” and “The Beautiful” sum up life in Huntsville. I think people who first liked us now have “grown out” of hardcore or the Knockabouts, but to us it’s a definite way of life.

Wonder where they are now…

Lisa Hodapp

by Ivy Jeanne

Lisa Hodapp was a huge inspiration and a punk rock role model to so many people including myself. As a teenage punk girl growing up in South Florida in the late ’80s/early ’90s, I sometimes felt like the “scene” was a virtual wasteland for girls and women getting into punk rock. It felt exclusive and full of machismo, a real boys’ club.

Discovering Morbid Opera was a huge turning point for me during that time. I loved their record so much I’d listen to it on repeat much to the chagrin of some of my friends! In listening to that record, I heard a sound so raw, so strong and so female. I heard the possibilities.

Morbid Opera and other bands with ladies playing in them, made it feel possible for me to follow suit. I’ve been playing in bands ever since, 19 years and counting. In the mid-nineties, I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa and after much bonding, a friendship was formed.

She was always so supportive to the younger generations that came up after her. Unjaded and enthusiastic, Lisa was always ready to start a new musical project and to make new friends. She blew minds with her multifaceted life, a bad ass rocker, a whip-smart lawyer, and a mother to boot. In the mid ’90s there was a brief time that Morbid Opera reformed, and she asked me to join to sing backups. It was a real dream come true! Lisa was still rocking, her latest project was called Fraulein.

It’s always so hard to lose someone so vivacious to an illness as epidemic as cancer. There’s so many unspokens. Let’s start the conversations on how we can truly love and support each other when we get sick. It means everything.

As Lisa leaves us, she leaves us with a little bit of fire, sharpened wits, a real tenderness and a desire to push for something more, to create something more.

Download/listen to MORBID OPERA’s “Polyester Pig” MP3

Yeah, you probably know by now that MRR has a boner for the LA Raw Ponx scene, and you’ve heard us tell you a million times about raging bands like TUBERCULOSIS, LA VOZ, and RAYOS X — who all, by the way, have new records out on Lengua Armada that totally rule. You may have even seen the name POLISKITZO in amongst the aforementioned bands, but I’m here to tell you that this is the band to watch out for.

At any given Raw Ponx show here in LA, there’s bound to be at least six bands on the bill, and up to ten will actually play, and only if you know the bands personally do know who the hell you’re watching. So for like three or four shows there was this one band that always blew me away, but I could never figure out what they were called. That band, of course, is POLISKITZO. They’ve got a demo out on the Raw Ponx official Silenzio Statico label that’s great, but doesn’t quite capture the band’s live sound. They’ve talked about actually putting out a live recording, which would be sweet. For a glimpse of what I’m talking about, here’s a live video from a typical LA show. While the sound quality is kinda crummy, the spirit is there. Keep your ear to the ground for these guys…

Iceage at Klub Kaos, Copenhagen, Denmark (photo by Adrian Delafontaine)

Scavenger Brats at Klub Kaos, Copenhagen, Denmark (photo by Adrian Delafontaine)

Scavenger Brats pit casualty at Klub Kaos, Copenhagen, Denmark (photo by Adrian Delafontaine)

Adrian from Denmark sent this batch of photos back in early April, from the 4th Kaos Klub event. Kaos Klub is organized by Ritual Zine in Copenhagen. Thanks Adrian!

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

If you shoot shows and have photos you want to submit for the MRR Blog, send them to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com. Be sure to put “MRR Photo Blog” in the subject. Include your name, the band, where and when it was shot. Just send your best photos – edit tightly. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

While visiting my hometown of Chicago, my girl Nicole slapped the SORELLA MALDESTRA LP on and it occurred to me that I hadn’t pulled this out of the MRR collection yet. SORELLA MALDESTRA (translated Clumsy Sister) is part of the zeitgeist of Italian punk bands from the mid- to late-’70s era. Their demo tape, Cadavere, was put out by Harpo’s Bazaar, then Italian Records, Bologna in 1979. In 1997, Flowers of Grain released the tape onto vinyl, which, for us scumbag record collectors, can thankfully still be found. The vocals are raw, just the way I like it, and the music is punk and fuzzed out. The album has some weird audio effects, using synths and crowd cheers in the mix, adding a little new wave flavor. The result is some killer tracks, like their “hit” “Cadavere.” This band captures the creativity that existed in the proto-punk days, drawing influence from Zappa and Stooges rock that was prevalent at the time, while delivering a premonition of the awesome punk-as-fuck Italian sound that was to come. They have recently reformed and have twelve new songs out on a CD called Bad Weather that can be found at www.banksvillerecords.com. I haven’t heard it yet, but what ever your opinion of old bands reforming, their first album is worth checking out.

Robert Collins seems like the busiest man in punk sometimes. He’s in too many bands to mention, and if he’s not on tour with one of them, or shitworking at MRR, or touring with the SUBHUMANS (UK), or recuperating from knee surgery, or working his real job, he’s probably spending a good deal of time on his amazing tape blog, TERMINAL ESCAPE.

“TAPES… FUCKING TAPES!!!”
The blog’s own description says it all. Terminal Escape is dedicated to cassette tapes, old and new. Mostly demos, mostly obscure, mostly awesome, and always interesting, Robert has an obvious love for the format, and for music in general. He’s got over 1,000 cassettes in his own collection, and while he admits that tapes are “a total novelty, an archaic format” he insists that any contributions to the site come in as a cassette, even if they started out as a download or a CD. This is the kind of dedication —and insane purism — that we really appreciate here at MRR.

Touring with the SUBHUMANS led to the beginnings of this amazing resource. Vocalist Dick Lucas got tired of hauling his boxes and boxes of old demo tapes each time he moved, so Robert “convinced him that he should ‘donate’ them to someone who appreciates them.” Thus a collection, and a dream, was born. After sitting on the tapes for a while trying to figure out what to do with them, he decided to share them with the world via this blog. With daily postings, and informative write-ups on each tape, Terminal Escape is a must-bookmark for a quick shot of random punk or hours of escape (pun totally intended).

We asked Mr Collins, with the abundance of old and long lost material he has made available, if bands ever see their demos on his blog and contact him complain or thank him.

“Thank me, yes. Complain, no. Free music is so pervasive on the internet, I think it’s kind of pointless to try to chase down people soulseeking / blogging / otherwise giving music away. At least with Terminal Escape, I write about everything I post, include contact information whenever available, and include whatever artwork I have (though with a lot of the old tapes I have little or no art or information). Too many blogs are really just a list of links, and I think that is a disservice to the bands who made the music. If someone is downloading music, it’s far better for them to have background and/or context. A few ’80s bands have contacted me because I posted songs that they thought were long lost, and have asked for my copies to include on discography releases. Of course, the music ‘belongs’ to the bands and/or labels who originally put the effort and money into their release, and I’m always happy to remove any posts if that is the artists’ desire.”

When asked to pick a demo he really loves and tell us about it, Robert replied:

“The CONVULSIONS Electro Convulsive Therapy. There is just something about the band’s approach on this tape, they are so gloriously off, and giving 1000% as if their life depended on it. A brilliant recording. Honorable mentions: THE ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O and CONCEPT OF NONSENSE demos (late 80s Oklahoma) were probably the first two non-mainstream punk recordings that I heard. I got them on a mix tape from a girl I met at competitive drama contests…doesn’t get much geekier than that, does it?”

No, it really doesn’t. So geek out at Terminal Escape. There are tons of tapes to download and read about, and there’s a plenty more to come too…

“I’ve got enough demos to keep the site running daily for another 2-3 years without accumulating any more tapes. Obviously I hope that I will accumulate more, and can keep the site going for longer…who knows when I will get sick of it.”

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