Personality Crisis - Take a Drunk to Dinner (live)

It's Personality Crisis, it's live, it's great quality and it's still Personality Crisis.

Love this band. More here.

Music

The Living Deadbeats - Evil Hearted Blues 7'' (2012)

Every once in a while things happen that remind me why I do this blog, or things happen to reinvigorate me. A weekend or two ago I received a link out of the blue from The Living Deadbeats giving me the opportunity to get an advance copy of their album and their new single, with permission to share the 7''.

Track 1 from the album.

They manage to stand out from the crowd as they're more in the old style punk mode as oppossed to a million miles an hour thrash; some of which is good, but a lot just melds together. I think they could have been dropped into SoCal in 78/79 and no one would have been suprised. I've lifted the following text directly from their site as I couldn't have put it any better: -

In the spring of 2010, vocalist Lindsay Kasting, bassist Pete Fiend (lead singer of legendary 80s powerpoppers The Finks), guitarist Dirty Swagger (Dirty and the Derelicts) and drummer Nadja (Joyce Collingwood, East Vamps), teamed up with  with the intention of doing something fresh and exciting. 

With eyes wide open, they built an original sound that drew on varied musical influences, yet remained faithful to late-70s LA punk. Finally, having scavenged the best parts of the Stooges and the Detroit Cobras to create a rock n' roll Frankenstein all their own, The Living Deadbeats were ready to take on the world. Or at least the West Coast.

The album is REALLY good; it's one of those that you play and immediately hit repeat. They're on tour now across Canada, so if you're in that neck of the woods I'd suggest a few bucks for a good night out watching these folks. Once again I damn myself for being born in the wrong country...oh well until the time they play the UK I'll just play this album to death....which I have been doing since I got it.

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Their website can be found here -> The Living Deadbeats

Track 3 from the new album.

SNFU

A very long overdue post.

The story of SNFU is well documented, but anyway..... The band formed out of the ashes of "Live Sex Show", the first band to feature the Belke brothers and Ken Chinn, who by now had assumed the name Mr Chi Pig.

They burst into my world as a relative unknown having only heard a few compilation tracks. I was offered a copy of their first album, which I bought having not heard it; £4.00 seemed little to lose if it was shit. Happily, I'd stumbled across a classic. The album had a soon to be banned sleeve and came out in different covers for a while. I had the first three. I still have them.

                                        The banned cover

I followed them throughout their history and they never failed to deliver something. They consisted of a revolving door of drummers and bassists, but contained three friends who'd met through a shared love of skate boarding as kids Mr Chi Pig vocals with Marc and Brent Belke on guitars. They lasted through a breakup and reformation from 1981 - 1998 when Brent left the band. Marc left in 2005 and the band once again split up.

Mr Chi Pig seemed to go off the rails in the late 80's with drink and drugs playing an ever increasing role in his life with a severe impact. As it turns out he fractured his skull head-banging when he connected with a fans head; the resulting chemical imbalance mixed with personal traumas and drugs dragged him about as low as you can go. He sold everything he owned and ended up living on the streets of Vancouver as a destitute homeless person.

Since that time he's managed to beat many of his demons and is back on track with a new version of the band and a possible new album.

 
SNFU stood out from the crowd for a number of reasons to me, they had a singer with a distinctive sound, the tunes were intricate and the lyrics didn't follow the normal fashion. You also can't stop yourself from singing along which is a massive plus in my book.

They went on to release 7 studio albums and a handfull of 7''. All the albums have something to offer with none of them being duds, even Better than a Stick in the Eye has peaks, but only just. Their best work is undoubtedly the first two and the last album, In the Meantime and in Between Time which has the behemoth that is "Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump" on it.

A song so good it just has to be heard. Music

Sideburns in the shape of a prairie province,
Bookcased his face, baby
He looked alot like Elvis,
Long before his name became disgraced,
Back when he was young,
Taking care of business in a flash,

I met him at the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Yeah.
I met him at the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, Yeah

He sang deep and low,
Well, he sang in baritone,
And he sang about the buffalo,
He sang about home sweet home,
He sang about cool hot rods
and shiny UFO’s.
He did not sing about,
What he did not know. No, no.

If you don't know this band I highly reccommend all their releases, but especially "And No One Else Wanted to Play" "If You Swear You'll Catch No Fish" and "In the Meantime and In Between Time"; they're all classics. As most of their releases are still in print and are VERY cheap to buy off itunes/amazon etc I won't post them, but I can post the following as they're out of print.

Released in 1987 via the band this was an updated version of She's not on the Menu (dunce mix) with two demo tracks from 1982 on the b-side. Limited to 500 copies on a silk screened cover.

Music

Released in 1993 and long since out of print this 7'' features a re-recorded song from Last of the Big Suspenders and an alternative take of a song from Green and Leafy.

Music

A film was made on Mr Chi Pig a few years ago documenting his, and the bands, history. It's a really good watch, if quite tragic in places, but shows his spirit and determination to beat the shit that dragged him down. You can watch it here - once open click the top link"watch full vidbux" and then click "verify human" and remove the ad.

Headstrong - st (2002)

I have no doubt most people will hate this, personally, I love it.

They started in the early 90's as Bomb32, in Toronto, and were lumped in with 311, Helmet etc. They changed their name to Headstrong and were signed to RCA who jumped on them after a huge wave of public support and could no doubt could smell money.

They recorded this, their only album, in London, Ontario and it was quickly released. In a disgusting show of corporate greed RCA dropped the band 6 months after the albums release, due to poor sales. Disillusioned the band called it quits and split up. Joel Krass posted some of the demos they were working on prior to the split on youtube.

Consisting of:-

Matt Kinna - Vocals
Joel Krass - Guitar
Joe Cohen - Bass
Brian Matthews -  Drums


These guys can really play thier instruments. I'd loved to have heard more from them and this album should be wider knwon. It's not punk, but it's as powerful as hell and has all the vitriol and angst of punk. Enjoy/hate - whatever. :)

The softest track, and single, from the album.

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I've loaded 5 of the 12 tracks so you can get a feeling for what they were like. The album is still available on amazon or iTunes, so if you like it pop over there and buy it; it's only £8 and the band deserve to get their cut.

One of the unreleased tracks.

The Dischords - st (1982)

One of those infamous records you chased for years, but never manage to grab.

Formed in 1980 in Montreal by Guitarist Dave Valente and Drummer Frank Heidt they recruited childhood friends, and brothers,  Tim and Terry Hindley. They started as a covers band taking their lead from the British bands and Ramones. They soon developed a reputation as an exciting live band and gathered a good local following.

The band also had a reputation as being violent and this carried over to their shows where fights were common place. They were big on the local scene, but rarely made it outside of their own ground to gig. By 1983 they'd split. This record was recorded in '82, with no picture sleeve, and only 1000 copies.

There's reportedly a demo recorded in 82, but, sadly,I don't have it. Anyway, this is a great slab of punk rock, enjoy.

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Personality Crisis - Creatures for Awile (1983)

There's certain bands you listen to and end up feeling lucky and robbed at the same time. When I listen to this I can't help feeling sad as it's soooooo good I wish they'd recorded more. Personality Crisis were an instant hit with me from the very first hearing and where ever I go I have a copy of this, car, ipod, desktop, laptop it's a constant. If I were to construct a top 50 albums list this would definitely be in there, I absolutely love it.

Hailing from Winnipeg they formed in 79' as Le Kille morphing into Personality Crisis around '81 and splitting up all too soon in 84'. I imagine most people have heard this, but just wanted to throw it out there just in case. They should have been huge.

Chris Walter has written a good biography on the band that's worth checking out Find it here

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