Mo-Dettes - Dark Park Creeping 7'' (1980)

I remember hearing this for the first time on the Richard Skinner radio show, sitting with my ear pressed against my hissing transistor radio; I instantly fell in love with it. I thought white mice was a good 7'', but, to me, this is the Mo-Dettes crowning glory. I still can't work out why they weren't huge. How can the Belle Stars still, today, be a name that people of a certain age know, yet the same people answer "who" when you mention the Mo-Dettes.

I owned all the Mo-Dettes releases and remember standing outside volume records having a conversation with a mate about how good they were and another lad saying, but they're a Mod band. Mod/Punk/New Wave...who cares to me they were just a great band and I was in love with their music and their singer Ramona Carlier.

Enjoy.

Music

Bloody Mannequin Orchestra - Roadmap to Relolution (1984)

BMO came onto my radar via a compilation tape I copied from a mate, tbh, as often happened in those days when discovering certain hardcore bands, I had no idea what to make of them. At first I was perplexed at the chaotic noise, it seemed to have no melody or real structure, but after a few listens it clicked. When I got the chance to own this I snapped the sellers hand off. If you've not heard these before then prepare yourself as they are as about as far from an instant hit as it's possible to get....BUT they have a saxophone player and that's worth 90 points in my book.

They sprung into life in 1982 and over the coming months replaced a few people until getting a stable lineup. Names you might know from the band were Sharon Cheslow (guitar) who'd previously been in Chalk Circle, Colin Sears (drums) and Roger Marbury (bass). Sears and Marbury both later formed Dag Nasty with Brian Baker & Shawn Brown. Colin Sears was also in Alloy and the early incarnation of Fugazi. The band were completed by Alex Mahoney  (vocals) and Charles Bennington (Saxophone).

BMO sound nothing like any of those bands, so enjoy or hate whichever it is you feel after getting it. I would strongly advise that you don't give it one listen as it takes a few to sink in. I still love this record.

Music

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Fortified with some nice comments and supportive mails I'm going to plod on and see what occurs.

Another one bites the dust

Mediafire have locked my account after receiving two violations. Both the violations refer to TINY bands that most people on the planet won't have heard about and who sold so few records it's unreal.

When these small bands are released it's in a "limited" run of 1000, so the other 2-3k people in the world who might like the music don't get to hear it. One of the violations I received was for a band who are NOT in print...so what's the point of reporting me? Either make the music available or fuck off.

Both the infringements raised against me came from "Contact Email: herve.lemaire@leakid.com " so feel free to tell this guy he's a cock. 

I started this blog coz I'd been online since '96 and had still not seen a few gems appear and wanted to help people become aware of those bands. However, having said that, since I started I've always struggled with the moral issue of posting music. The artists who produced this music are the ones who put in the work and are the talented ones, so naturally they deserve to earn money of the back of their hard work. I genuinely tried to avoid posting things that were still in print by searching a few places before pressing the post button. I can't lie and pretend that I didn't knowingly post some that I knew were available, but I either tried to post a taster or just wanted people to get to know the band as they were still too obscure.

I don't like sites that post new music and still spend alot of money buying music; around £1000.00 last year. To post new music, to me, is like killing the golden goose; you're helping to kill the thing you supposedly love. If artists can't make money to live then why bother, they may as well go get a "real" job like the rest of us. I know this to be true as a couple of bands I featured have been in contact and told me that's why they stopped. Real talent destined to tread the same 9-5 path as most of us.

I still struggle with the moral aspect of music blogs, but can't help feeling the music industry is missing out. All we have now is an industry obsessed with boy/girl bands who dominate the charts; or stupid fucking rap music - the worst genre ever, oh, and least talented. The labels don't invest anymore, they just want instant results and instant returns. Then when the artist no longer brings in the cash they're disposed of. Exposure to punk, metal, rock bands is so hard to get and I'm not talking about utter pop shite like 30 seconds to mars, I mean real music. I'm not a 12-20 year old so I'm not going to like the throw away music that's fed on Sky TV, so for people like me blogs offer a way to keep up-to-date with obscure music that isn't on Tv or in the few mags that cater for adults.

So where do I go from here?

To be honest I think, sadly, 13th floor is dead. I really cba to find somewhere else to post the old links and mediafire was so user friendly.

A huge thanks to all the people who sent mails of support, you really made me feel like I was doing something worth while. Also a HUGE thanks to all the artists who contacted me, allowed me to continue posting, give me extra info on the band, but most importantly for creating the music in the first place. All the bands I've featured have become the road map of my life. I play their music and I'm instantly transported back in time and place; that's priceless.

cya

Neil

P.S. Buy music and support the bands.

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 Chris Bald 96 - Uglified 7'' (1990)

I've always had a soft spot for Chris so it was a shame he seemed to have stopped producing music so early on. This predates the album listed here. Again this isn't hardcore, but is interesting music that does hook you in and keeps you interested.

This recording, and the album, had Julian Weber  on drums and Ralf N on bass,

Music

Punk at the Beeb

For the none UK residents it might come as news that the BBC has been running a Punk Britannia series on BBC4 recently. On the one hand this is really interesting and encouraging; on the other it’s same shit, different day. This is due to the beeb rolling out the same old faces to talk about music/life 35 years ago. I won't dwell on this too much as I could go into full rant mode, which is never pleasant, but safe to say that so far we've heard most of it before.

This is a three part series where the beeb have, so far, done a "pre punk" episode and a "punk" episode. Charlie Harper has so far made the most relevant quote in that "the first wave was art school students, the second were punks" and I paraphrase there, but the gist is accurate. I'm hopeful that the 3rd episode, due tonight, will go beyond '78 as it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring to hear from the same people that punk died in '78. It didn't; FACT! (I kinda doubt it’ll go past ’78 though).

Alongside these three episodes they have been throwing in documentaries on various people and programme made up of live performances or a collection of appearances on the BBC.

The files below are a recording of TV Smith and encompasses his entire career from his pre Adverts band, Sleaze, through the Explorers and Cheap to his current solo/acoustic career. It has some great footage of the adverts and covers their lifespan from the band we all know to the, very, short lived 1979 incarnation.

Now here comes the apology.

I'm not that up on technology and I have no idea how to compress the recordings I've made of some of these programs, so the links below are large. ….4 gig so it’s best to start this before you go to bed if you want it.

I intend to post all the punk Britannia series along with a couple of the other programs, such as a Poly Styrene documentary and a couple of live progs/compilations. However, as they're so large they have the chance of pushing me over my mediafire limit they will only be available for a limited period of time; probably 3 months. So if you want it, download and enjoy as they will be taken down.

You need both of these to unzip and watch.

Mediafire 1
Mediafire 2

Songs for Snakes - Charcoal Heather (2012)

Songs for Snakes come out of San Francisco (Kenny why haven't you told me about these?) and make music that just blows the cob webs out of my head. When I listen to this I hear Husker Du, Moving Targets, Asexuals, Jawbreaker, The Replacements...... so it can't be bad!

The band comprise: -

Bill Taylor - Guitar/Vocals
Nick Waters - Bass
Paul Furusho - Drums

Undoubtedly the major comparison that will be made here is with Husker Du; Bill's guitar playing is full of the distortion and melodies that Bob used to spit out in the 80's.

That decades alternative college radio would have gone mad for Songs for Snakes had they been around at the time. The blend they concoct with hooks dripping off the guitar, the beautifully rumbling bass and thundering drums is as close to perfection as I've heard in some time. They are exciting, captivating and wholly satisfying. I love this; it's amazingly good. There isn't a bad track on this album and they've been switching place as to which is my favourite constantly.

To me this is pure punk; classic, melodious, catchy as hell and one that I can sing along with to my hearts content.

Two of the bands releases are available here and you get to choose how much you pay for them. I've bought both of them. If you like this then support the band and buy one of the best releases of the year in Charcoal Heather. Sleep through this is also very good btw.

Have a listen if you don't believe me how good this is. My favourite tracks at the moment are:  Charcoal Heather, The Most Documented Man and FEAR

Adam Yauch - 8/5/1964 - 4/5/2012

I awoke this morning to the sad news that Adam Yauch died yesterday due to cancer.

The Beastie Boys first came to my attention via their the NY compilation and then the Polly Wog Stew 7''; which was great. After that time they were a band a followed sporadically, but each time I dipped my toe into their catalogue it produced results. Rap isn't a genre I have a lot of time for, but the Beastie Boys managed to mix it up into something different and enjoyable each time. Such a shame and he was only 47 as well.

TV is already calling it the end of the BB's, I hope not as they always made me smile. However, to me, the Beastie Boys will always a that crazy hardcore band I discovered 30+ years ago.

RIP.

Mediafire

The internet's not always for porn.

Crackles aside, this is pretty gob smacking.