Dot Dash - Winter Garden Light (2012)

What a lovely way to start a miserable wet and rainy Saturday morning. I check my various e-mail accounts and in the one for this blog I find a link to a band called Dot Dash who grab my attention with the header of "dc band". I click a link and I'm immediately hit by the power of the drumming, the opening track is instantly impressive and hooks me straight in.

Reading further through the e-mail Dot Dash have a real heritage and consist of: -

Terry Banks - Vocals/Guitar (Glo-Worm, The Saturday People, Tree Fort Angst, Julie Ocean)
Bill Crandall - Guitar (Modest Proposal, Adam West)
Hunter Bennett - Bass (Weatherhead, Julie Ocean)
Danny Ingram - Drums (Youth Brigade (dc), Social Suicide, Madhouse, Emmapeel, Strange Boutique, Swervedriver and a few more that I can't think of)

So Danny explains the powerful drumming and with Terry, Hunter and Bill it explains the hook laden songs.

Dot Dash are a very accomplished powerpop/punk pop band, and this album speeds past you at a million miles an hour, not due to it's velocity, but due to the seamless sequence of flawless songs that take you on the musical equivalent of the perfect speed date.

The album starts with Faraway, full of atmosphere, Byrds like guitars and Buzzcocks trade mark "ooohs and ahhhs" and slips into track two, Countdown, equally hook laden and captivating. Before you realise it they've spun your head though a plethora of perfect pop songs and the album is finishing with The Devil's Road. All the intervening songs flow effortlessly into each other and are beautifully constructed with a clear/sharp production. This is a refreshingly uplifting album that I know will sit with me for years to come.

Thanks to the Bandcamp website you can hear the album here. You can also buy the album, for as little as, $7, which is a pittence for such a stunning piece of work.

Their Facebook page can be found here

Rain Like the Sound of Trains - Waiting for the Water ep (1996)

For more information on the band, check out my first post here.

Waiting for the Water was the bands last release and is a straight continuation of their previous releases, but also happens to be my favourite release. Four tracks, and not a bad one between them.

Music

Malefice - Lotus Blossom (1984)

Don't let the crap cover fool you...this is excellent stuff. 

As I've said before, during my trading days you'd get ripped off (Eric Yee - cunt!), you'd also get discs you never asked for, like Beware the Savage Jaw. One I didn't ask for was Overboard 7'' by these guys, but I was immediately interested as the cover reminded me of the Rudimentary Peni drawings -  it didn't disapoint.

This full length release is equally as good.They're hard to describe, but  to say they're a less intense Void would give you an idea and be high praise in my book. This album was recorded before the 7'', so around 1984, but for some unknown reason must have sat on a shelf until it was released in '90. I love it. 

The early lineup consisted of: - 

Timothy Steffes - vocals
John Cobbett - guitar
Mike Clayberg - bass
Jim Richman - drums 

Mike Clayberg went on to MFD.

 Mediafire

Double-o - ST (1983)

Collecting records way back when was a huge delight and also a huge disappointment as you unearthed a new gem/steaming pile of shit. This falls into the former category. It was also a steal as a mate was offered it before I got the chance, the idiot said no. I treasured this 7'' for years  and only played it once, to transfer it to tape, until I was forced to sell it a few years ago.

A band made up of D.C. royalty: -

- Eric Lagdameo "Eric L."
- Bert Queiroz
- Jason Carmer
- Richard Moore

Everything about this 7'' is perfect, from the great thick cardboard sleeve to the musicianship to the great songs. I'd have given my left nut to have seen these guys live.

I still can't understand HOW these guys were not on 20 years of dischord???? Mediafire

Rain Like the Sound of Trains - ST (1994)

Back to these fellas and their self titled album from '94. If you like the 7'' this is better imho.... why don't they make music like this anymore?

Find out for yourself music

Scream - Live at Van Hall (1988)

Scream were a firm favourite of mine and really need no introduction...but here goes.

Formed in 1981 by Pete and Franz Stahl, singer and guitarist, together with Skeeter Thompson, bass and Kent Stax, drums. They would soon be recognised as one of the foremost hardcore bands and released the timeless "Still Screaming" album in 1983. With the addition of Robert "Harley" Davidson they realeased the equally, if not slightly better, "This Side Up" album in '84. A weak, in my opinion, 3rd album, Banging the Drum, followed just before Kent left the band.

He was replaced by Dave Grohl, previoulsy of Mission Impossible, who played on their 4th and 5th albums, No More Censorship and Fumble. The band called it a day in 1990 with Pete and Franz forming the excellent Wool and Dave going on to.......well we all know that right!

I had the good fortune to see these in around '88 with Generic and White Flag supporting. A mate videod the whole night and I still have a copy of the gig on tape......I'll have to get that transferred to dvd some day. It's a great watch as Scream put on a blinding performance.

This gig was recorded in Amsterdam in '88 and is long out of print. Mediafire

Black Market Baby

You would think it's impossible to document the punk/hardcore development of Washington DC without mentioning Black Market Baby. However, if you read American Hardcore - A Tribal History by Steven Blush, apparently it's not. This would then, obviously, also apply to the film of the same name....worth seeing all the same.

I've got to say that Blush has gone from an ill-informed buffoon to a complete moron in his lastest venture.,..I'd urge people not to buy his stuff. He doesn't deserve to make a living off the backs of others hard work.

Now if you read Dance of Days by Mark Andersen, a book of recollections made by people who were there at the time, you'll see this isn't quite right. Black Market Baby were a very important band in DC and are one of my all time favourites.This book is fantastic and if you like hardcore you should buy it, it's a great read.

This band just cannot be ignored. They're more in a punk tradition than hardcore, but have been slotted into either category by many....including me just then. :) They influenced and encouraged the younger punks who would later form the well known bands. They provided the inspiration for John Stabb to name his group Government Issue, from their World at War song.

Being that much older then many of the DC punks they didn't follow the straight edge ethos, but got pissed as farts and were rowdy as hell. Although this could probably apply to Boyd more then the rest of the band :) They were formed out of the ashes of some premium DC bands, D-Certs, Snitch, The Penetrators, Trenchmouth. The driving force behind getting the band together was Boyd, and thank god he did.

To be honest I didn't know who they were when I got my copy of Potential Suicide, but I sure as hell found out after I played it. I devoured any snippet of information about them in the fanzines I imported, but sadly nothing more appeared to be released. Then one day whilst working in a town 40 miles away I wandered into a local market and found a stall selling punk stuff. Here's an album called "senseless offerings" by Black Market Baby, I flip it round and it's the same band.  This album is an all time favourite and I played it into the ground. It's still a firm favourite and an absolute hardcore classic, in the true sense of the term.

Many, many years later I bumped into Boyd on a forum and he kindly supplied me with a couple of cd's.  One of his post BMB band, the Vile Geezers and one of his current bands demo Rustbuckit, both of which are great. I'd feel shitty if I was to load any complete album up here as Boyd and his band mates deserve the cash, so I've grouped together a few tracks to give you a taster.

If you spend some money this year buy "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" a compilation of their stuff...REALLY worth it ---> Here It's really cheap...BUY IT!! This is a retrospective compilation containing all thier recordings including senseless offerings.

Their website is here and it has some nice freebies and good stories on it.

This year's prophet is quite simply one of the best tracks ever recorded by any band anywhere. Music here.

Necros (D.C.) - Hit & Run Demo (1981)

Sorry, I can't tell you alot about this band except it's not the Necros many will know, the ones from Maumee, this is the Washington DC lot. They were right in there with the rest of the scene, but are pretty much unknown.

I have a few more songs by them somewhere that I'll post sometime. They aren't your typical hardcore band, they were more loose and as a result this tape was really enjoyable to listen to. I'll get my arse in gear sometime and dig out more info; pics, band lineup etc.  In the meantime, enjoy.

Mediafire

P.S. The picture is copyrighted, please contact me if you with to use it :)

Rain like the Sound of Trains (1993)

Sheesh...where to start.

This band epitomise the incestuous DC nature better than most. Started in the early 90's by: -

Bobby Sullivan - vocals
Pete Chramiec - Guitar
Doug Birdzell (aka Dug E. Bird)- Bass
Joshua LaRue (aka Josh Payne)- Drums

Between them they were in the following bands: -

Underground Soldier, Beefeater, Fidelity Jones, Sevens, Him, Verbal Assault, Lunchmeat, Soulside, Seven League Boots, Spontaneous Earth, The Sorts, Suture, Las Mordidas, All Scars, Jack O'Fire, The Boom and quite a few more besides.

Developing a quirky, rhythmic, funky sound they showed just how far the "post hardcore" sound could be taken. They gigged extensively, opened minds and entertained, but sadly lasted all too briefly and were defunct by '95.

Here you have their first two 7'' What I Want and Bad Man's Grave. They also released a great album and ep...which I'll upload some time.

Music