Saturday, August 14, 2010

Red C 15-song demo from 1981


One of many great bands on the Dischord label that only appeared on the flawless 'Flex Your Head' compilation in the early-80s... yet they never released anything else later. This is a shame, because this band is so intense to listen to. This demo is 15 glorious songs, and I think might even be the lost 2nd demo session that Dischord mentions on their site(see below), since the FYH tracks sound quite different than the recordings I present here.
This is what Dischord says about the band: In early 1981, Tomas, who had just moved to the DC area from Switzerland, was walking down M street and smoking a pipe when he ran into a whole crew of DC punk rockers. They were being interviewed by the Washington Post for an article on the punk scene. It was through that meeting that he was introduced to Eric L. from Potomac, a suburb in Maryland. Eric was looking for a drummer, and Tomas was looking for a band, and they ended up forming Red C with Leo and Toni. Leo only played a few shows with the band and was then replaced by Pete, who had been rumored to have been a member of the mysterious band The Stab, along with John from GI. The name Red C may well have come from a favorite Ethiopian restaurant in DC called Red Sea, though there were other theories floating around and the band wasn’t telling. They had a unique approach to music and this resulted in a sound quite different than what most of the other bands were playing at that point in time. They only played six or seven shows before breaking up, but they managed to record a demo tape at Hit & Run studios at some point in the summer of '81 and songs from that session appeared on the ‘Flex Your Head’ sampler. There may have been a second demo recorded in their basement that featured more of their songs, but all of the tapes seem to have disappeared after Toni died of pneumonia in the mid-80's.

RED C 1981 DEMO


I got this recording from my friend JH, along with some other rare DC demo sessions that will appear on this blog as well.

Minor Threat at the Wilson Center in 1982


Do I really need to even say anything about how much I love Minor Threat? No, I don't think so. So I'll leave the band description to the fine folks at Dischord Records: When their former band, The Teen Idles, broke up, Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson decided to form a new band with Ian on vocals. In 1980 they started playing with Lyle Preslar, who sang for the Extorts and wanted to switch to guitar. Lyle introduced them to Brian Baker who started playing bass in November and the band played its first show a month later. Minor Threat and SOA were part of a small wave of new kids and bands in DC, many of whom were not into drugs and alcohol. Some of the bands made mention of this in their lyrics, and Minor Threat̢۪s song "Straight Edge" coined the phrase that is now used to describe a drug and alcohol-free lifestyle. The band played regularly but broke up at the end of the summer of 1981 when Lyle left DC to go to college. Six months later, dissatisfaction with school and a sense of unfinished business prompted Lyle to drop out and Minor Threat reformed in April '82. That fall, Steve Hansgen joined to play bass while Brian moved to second guitar and the band recorded and toured as a five piece until June '83. Minor Threat played a few more shows as a four piece that summer, but they were not getting along. They were unable to agree on the direction of the music, and ended up spending more time arguing than playing in the practice space. Faced with this dilemma, the members decided that it would be better for all involved to shut it down. Ian went on to form Embrace, Egg Hunt, Fugazi and the Evens. Jeff later played in Three and the High Back Chairs. Lyle played in Samhain and Brian formed Dag Nasty and currently plays guitar in Bad Religion.

MINOR THREAT LIVE



This version of the recording is better than the other few I have heard over the years, and was acquired in a trade I did with I guy I was trading with online, though I don't know if he did the rip/transfer himself or not?

Friday, August 13, 2010

A triple threat of live material to start things off...


Here we have three live sets from the show that took place at the BBQ Iguana in Washington DC on December 9, 1989. As you can see by the flier, it was a solid show. Supertouch, Shades Apart, Vision, and Far Cry. I don't have the Far Cry set, but all 3 of the other bands were captured on tape that day, and are presented here from the master tapes. This is one of many 'No Scene Zine' shows I went to.

SUPERTOUCH DL
SHADES APART DL
VISION DL
(Though the songs are split up separately, the song titles are not listed - sorry)



Welcome...

After talking about it for far too long... I finally am gonna do this blog. I have been wanting to do a blog to upload a bunch of the live/rare/demo/etc stuff I have been collecting over the years for so long - but never got around it till now.
What can you expect? Well, you can expect the unexpected... as I have a pretty good amount of stuff I plan to share here. I have been tape-trading since the mid-80's when hardcore first became such a crucial part of my life, and with the digital age I am thrilled to be able to share much of what I have acquired along the way so easily.
I have a big batch of live sets I got from my friend BW that G-Man is transferring for me. These are mostly DC-area shows, many great sets from The BBQ Iguana, The Safari Club, the old 9:30 Club, and many others. My friend JH also helped me out with some great old/rare hardcore demos from Dischord(and related) bands. There will also be assorted things I have gotten that you may have seen elsewhere on occasion - though I am not gonna make that a regular habit. I want this blog to stand on it's own as often as possible with the content you find here.
What will you NOT see here? You will not see anything that in still available as a legitimate release, as I don't want this blog to be something that pisses anyone off. There are enough blogs that are just posting every new release out there - this blog will not fall into that category.
And finally... if you are in a band that is really bothered by a live-set or demo session I have posted, please contact me & I will remove it. I am doing this blog because I love hardcore/punk - not to make enemies.
Without further ado... thanks for visiting & check back often! DB