By request
31 May 2012
MOVING TARGETS Take This Ride 1993
By request
biography
[+]
Springing from the fertile grounds of Boston's parochial hardcore punk-rock scene, Moving Targets
are a little-known but seminal link in a chain that joins hardcore and
other early-'80s Boston music strains like collegiate art rock and
folk-rock to '90s alternative rock.
Forming in 1981 around the songwriting,
blistering guitar work, and emotive vocals of Kenny Chambers, the
original power trio included bassist/vocalist Pat Leonard and the
strong-man drumming of Pat Brady. After a few years of trying to scrape together gigs in the competitive early-'80s Boston rock club scene, Moving Targets'
first significant exposure came in 1984 via Bands That Could Be God
(Conflict/Radiobeat), a record of various Massachusetts punk and
post-punk bands compiled by Gerard Cosloy, the soon-to-be head of the
Homestead and Matador record labels. The LP included three songs
recorded with Lou Giordano, one of the founding producers of Boston's
legendary Fort Apache studio. Giordano had worked with the influential
Minneapolis trio Hüsker Dü, who were clearly a major influence for the
Targets.
Working with Giordano, the band continued
to record, eventually finishing a 15-song demo, which led to their
signing to the Boston punk label Taang! (which is also responsible for
unleashing Lemonheads and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones on the rock
world). These demo songs form the basis of the band's explosive debut
LP, Burning in Water,
from 1986. The album is an essential piece of post-punk, combining the
band's love of hardcore, '70s progressive rock, and classic rock. It
openly showed the influences of seminal art-punk-rock group Mission of Burma
-- a Boston band also capable of punk anthems -- as well as another
Burma-influenced group, Hüsker Dü, who released their legendary LP New
Day Rising the same year as Burning in Water.
Moving Targets
learned a great deal from the 1984 Hüsker Dü record Zen Arcade and seem
to almost anticipate New Day Rising, latching onto many of the same
ideas on Burning in Water:
combining the urgent energy and aggression of punk with the
understanding and reverence for more traditional forms of music. The
Targets do not come off merely as imitators; they are eager students who
have digested various influences and end up sounding like none of them
specifically. Burning in Water
is its own beast, moving punk-rock songcraft into another class. While
akin to Hüsker Dü's output, the Targets possessed a distinctive and
decidedly Boston flair. The LP announced the arrival of an influential
band. Any mid-'80s underground rock & roll band in Massachusetts
would have been affected by its release and the LP also resonated
overseas, where the band toured to some success.
Moving Targets were devastating in a live setting. The original lineup was the best and most magical. Chambers
shredded the guitar and his vocal cords on highly crafted songs. Brady
proved to be an untouchable drummer, fitting fills, rolls, and crashes
into impossibly tight corners like a punk-rock Keith Moon or Neil Pert.
Bassist/vocalist Leonard showed an unusual melodic sense on the bass,
somehow managing to keep up with the incendiary performances of his
partners, while never sounding hurried and rarely approaching the bass
like a guitar, unlike some power-trio bass players.
Alas, the volatile lineup was not meant to last, and was soon fractured. The disarray sidetracked the group and Chambers acted as a second guitarist for a few years with one of the first punk metal bands Bullet Lavolta. All the while, Chambers continued to write for Moving Targets.
Bassist Chuck Freeman entered the fray as Leonard's replacement, the
two sharing the workload for the band's follow-up LP, Brave New Noise,
released in 1989. The CD version of the record includes Burning in Water, making the collection a slam-dunk for fans of intelligent melodic post-punk.
The sound of Fall is a bit more polished, textured, evenly paced, and varied than Burning in Water/Brave Noise, in other words: a somewhat predictable pattern for the band to follow. They parallel Hüsker Dü's development into pop-punk and folk-punk territory, shedding a bit of the more overt Burma influences and displaying some of the more mainstream hard rock guitar work that Chambers had practiced over the intervening years with Bullet Lavolta. But the changes are mostly welcome signs of growth and the songs are rewarding.
That trend continued with 1993's Take This Ride, though this time the lineup had been stripped down to just Chambers as the only remaining founding member. He rounded the group out with Jeff Goddard on bass and Jamie Van Bramer on drums, two members of Boston band Jones Very. The band was simply not the same, missing Brady's pummeling drums in particular. The group now resembled a Chambers solo project, and indeed he did release some solo recordings: Double Negative in 1990 on European label Cityslang (featuring Goddard); No Reaction, which was recorded in 1993 and released in 1994; and 1996's Sin Cigarros. He has been relatively quiet since. Goddard went on to play with the Lune and Karate. Leonard continued to play in local bands and Brady was, at last report, a firefighter.
read more
The sound of Fall is a bit more polished, textured, evenly paced, and varied than Burning in Water/Brave Noise, in other words: a somewhat predictable pattern for the band to follow. They parallel Hüsker Dü's development into pop-punk and folk-punk territory, shedding a bit of the more overt Burma influences and displaying some of the more mainstream hard rock guitar work that Chambers had practiced over the intervening years with Bullet Lavolta. But the changes are mostly welcome signs of growth and the songs are rewarding.
That trend continued with 1993's Take This Ride, though this time the lineup had been stripped down to just Chambers as the only remaining founding member. He rounded the group out with Jeff Goddard on bass and Jamie Van Bramer on drums, two members of Boston band Jones Very. The band was simply not the same, missing Brady's pummeling drums in particular. The group now resembled a Chambers solo project, and indeed he did release some solo recordings: Double Negative in 1990 on European label Cityslang (featuring Goddard); No Reaction, which was recorded in 1993 and released in 1994; and 1996's Sin Cigarros. He has been relatively quiet since. Goddard went on to play with the Lune and Karate. Leonard continued to play in local bands and Brady was, at last report, a firefighter.
CATHERINE Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories 1996
Upped by Kevin
Discogs
Tracklist
| 1 | Whisper | |
| 2 | It's Gonna Get Worse | |
| 3 | Cotton Candy High | |
| 4 | Milkshake | |
| 5 | Four Leaf Clover | |
| 6 | Vegas Glam | |
| 7 | Punch Me Out | |
| 8 | Make Me Smile | |
| 9 | Blacklight | |
| 10 | Don't Touch Me There | |
| 11 | Sign Of The Cross | |
| 12 | The Angels | |
| 13 | Pink Floyd Poster | |
| 14 | Good Luck Charm |
FIG DISH When Shove Goes Back to Push 1997
Upped by Kevin
Fig Dish was one of the many alternative groups swept up in the
signing frenzy that took place in Chicago in the wake of the explosion
of the grunge scene in the Northwest. Everyone was looking for the next
Seattle, and Chicago was as good a city as any, with a roster that
included Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, and Urge Overkill. The band
started in the early '90s when guitarists Blake Smith and Rick Ness left
their respective bands and decided to play together. Adding drummer
Andy Hamilton and bassist Mike Willison, they chose the name Fig Dish
and began to release homemade singles of their Replacements-esque rock.
The band decided to try an experiment, they sent demos to major label
representatives with a note attached saying "Hey (fill in the blank): I
caught these guys last weekend, and they were amazing. Check 'em out!
Your pal, Steve." Many embarrassed label reps gave them a story about
their friend "Steve" recommending the band, but finally an A&R man
from Polydor discovered their singles on his own and offered them a spot
on the label. The band recorded That's What Love Songs Often Do within
three weeks of being signed, and the album was released in 1995 with
several tours following. When the single "Seed" started to hit
alternative rock radio, the band ran across a blizzard in Nebraska which
destroyed their van and their gear. That night the band was recovering
at the hotel when the shell-shocked Hamilton told them that he was
leaving the band to study law. The band stepped back into the studio for
When Shove Goes Back to Push the next year, but they were very
unimpressed with their situation. The album was released with absolutely
no promotion from Polydor, so the band decided to look for a new label.
While searching, they decided to just kill the band and work on other
projects. Willison and Smith started Caviar, while Rick Ness started a
band under the simple moniker of Ness.
read more
TIMCO Gentleman Jim 1996
Upped by Erik
Tracklist ▼
| Louisiana | 5:01 | ||
| Gone | 3:38 | ||
| Fazoud's Lament | 3:08 | ||
| Steal A Car | 4:11 | ||
| 447 | 3:30 | ||
| Adalox | 4:54 | ||
| Marquis De Speed | 3:26 | ||
| Cut-N-Shoot | 2:52 | ||
| Sade | 4:34 | ||
| Not For Me | 7:00 |
22 May 2012
ELEVEN Thunk 1995
Upped by El Diablo Con Queso.
Review
Anyone
who lumped Eleven in with the grunge glut of the early '90s simply
wasn't paying attention. Although it's true that the trio's excellent
self-titled album (actually their second) was mixed with the guitars
loud and fuzzy, the musical sophistication that distinguishes Eleven --
including not only compositional prowess but sheer chops -- leaves most
alternative bands in the dust. Led by the husband/wife duo of Alain
Johannes (guitars and lead vocals) and Natasha Shneider (keyboards and
lead vocals), their primary calling card is a pair of extraordinary
voices, both of which are capable of raw intensity and soulful
understatement. And, while Johanssens' formidable yet immediately
distinctive six-string skills -- which employ a supersaturated, slippery
legato and rich chord voicings -- is impressive, Shneider's
instrumental duties -- which include not only providing the lush
textural and chordal keyboard parts with her right hand, but also all of
the basslines with her left, may be even more amazing. No-nonsense
skinsman and former Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack Irons lays his grooves
right in the pocket, giving the sometimes prog-influenced tunes a
foursquare rock swagger. The band … » Read more
MIDNIGHT OIL 20,000 Watt R.S.L. 1997
Biography
Australia's
Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to
pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and
"Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of, respectively,
aboriginal settlers and impoverished workers, but the group also put its
money where its mouth was -- in addition to mounting benefit
performances for groups like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, frontman
Peter Garrett even ran for the Australian Senate on the Nuclear
Disarmament Party ticket.
The band formed in Sydney in 1971 as Farm, and originally comprised guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey, drummer Rob Hirst, and bassist Andrew "Bear" James; Garrett, a law student known for his seven-foot-tall stature and shaven head, assumed vocal duties in 1975, and the group soon rechristened itself Midnight Oil. After months of sporadic gigs, they began making the rounds to area record companies; following a string of rejections, the group formed its own … » Read more
The band formed in Sydney in 1971 as Farm, and originally comprised guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey, drummer Rob Hirst, and bassist Andrew "Bear" James; Garrett, a law student known for his seven-foot-tall stature and shaven head, assumed vocal duties in 1975, and the group soon rechristened itself Midnight Oil. After months of sporadic gigs, they began making the rounds to area record companies; following a string of rejections, the group formed its own … » Read more
MOVING TARGETS Fall 1991
By request
Biography
Springing
from the fertile grounds of Boston's parochial hardcore punk-rock
scene, Moving Targets are a little-known but seminal link in a chain
that joins hardcore and other early-'80s Boston music strains like
collegiate art rock and folk-rock to '90s alternative rock.
Forming in 1981 around the songwriting, blistering guitar work, and emotive vocals of Kenny Chambers, the original power trio included bassist/vocalist Pat Leonard and the strong-man drumming of Pat Brady. After a few years of trying to scrape together gigs in the competitive early-'80s Boston rock club scene, Moving Targets' first significant exposure came in 1984 via Bands That Could Be God (Conflict/Radiobeat), a record of various Massachusetts punk and post-punk bands compiled by Gerard Cosloy, the soon-to-be head of the Homestead and Matador record labels. The LP included three songs recorded with Lou Giordano, one of the founding producers of Boston's legendary Fort Apache studio. Giordano had … » Read more
Forming in 1981 around the songwriting, blistering guitar work, and emotive vocals of Kenny Chambers, the original power trio included bassist/vocalist Pat Leonard and the strong-man drumming of Pat Brady. After a few years of trying to scrape together gigs in the competitive early-'80s Boston rock club scene, Moving Targets' first significant exposure came in 1984 via Bands That Could Be God (Conflict/Radiobeat), a record of various Massachusetts punk and post-punk bands compiled by Gerard Cosloy, the soon-to-be head of the Homestead and Matador record labels. The LP included three songs recorded with Lou Giordano, one of the founding producers of Boston's legendary Fort Apache studio. Giordano had … » Read more
Tracklist ▼
| Taang! Intro | 1:55 | ||
| Only Life Of Fun | 3:24 | ||
| Fumble | 1:36 | ||
| Answer | 2:41 | ||
| Can You Blame Me? | 1:57 | ||
| Travel Music | 4:04 | ||
| Away From Me | 3:19 | ||
| No Soul | 2:21 | ||
| Blind | 1:56 | ||
| Once Upon A Time | 3:24 | ||
| Overated | 1:13 | ||
| Awesome Sky | 3:02 | ||
| Fake It |
RAILROAD JERK Bang the Drum 1995
320 kbps
Tracklist ▼
| Bang The Drum | |||
| Highway 80 | |||
| Why Don't We Do It In The Road | |||
| Home = Hang | |||
| All Down Hill | |||
| In My Face (Pretty Flower) |
15 May 2012
RAILROAD JERK self titled 1990
Biography
Railroad
Jerk skewer blues, country, rock, and noise into a messy, bohemian
post-punk celebration of roots rock. Formed in 1989 by
guitarist/vocalist Marcellus Hall and bassist/vocalist Tony Lee in
Trenton, NJ, the duo added drummer Jez Aspinall and guitarist Chris
Muller by early 1990; the group recorded their self-titled debut for
Matador Records in 1990. After its release, Aspinall left the band and
was replaced by Steve Cercio; Muller was kicked out of the band and
replaced by Alec Stephen. The quartet released their acclaimed second
album, Raise the Plow, in 1993; after its release, Cercio left the band
and was replaced by Dave Varenka. Railroad Jerk released its third album
-- its most highly-praised yet -- in spring of 1995. Third Rail, the
group's fourth album, also received positive reviews upon its fall 1996
release.
10 May 2012
RAILROAD JERK We Understand EP 1993
By request
Biography
Railroad
Jerk skewer blues, country, rock, and noise into a messy, bohemian
post-punk celebration of roots rock. Formed in 1989 by
guitarist/vocalist Marcellus Hall and bassist/vocalist Tony Lee in
Trenton, NJ, the duo added drummer Jez Aspinall and guitarist Chris
Muller by early 1990; the group recorded their self-titled debut for
Matador Records in 1990. After its release, Aspinall left the band and
was replaced by Steve Cercio; Muller was kicked out of the band and
replaced by Alec Stephen. The quartet released their acclaimed second
album, Raise the Plow, in 1993; after its release, Cercio left the band
and was replaced by Dave Varenka. Railroad Jerk released its third album
-- its most highly-praised yet -- in spring of 1995. Third Rail, the
group's fourth album, also received positive reviews upon its fall 1996
release.
08 May 2012
POSTER CHILDREN DDD 2000
By request
Biography
Poster
Children are a high-energy punk-pop band that formed in 1987 in
Champaign, IL. Playing what they call "post wave" music, their three
full-length releases illustrate why they have a die-hard cult following:
their ability to write hard yet melodic songs and their do-it-yourself
philosophy, which includes driving their own tour bus, creating all of
their own artwork and T-shirt designs, and having their own record
label. A longtime college favorite, Poster Children continue to gain
fans with each hyperkinetic release, including 1990's Daisychain
Reaction, 1993's Tool of the Man, 1997's RFTM, and 2000's DDD.
07 May 2012
MAVIS PIGGOTT In a Dark Suit 1997
By request
Reupped January 2013
Reupped January 2013
Biography
A
hard-rocking, (mostly) female post-grunge band based in Seattle, Mavis
Piggott never caught the attention of the public at large. Less abrasive
than Hole or Babes in Toyland, less girlish than Veruca Salt, their
music fell somewhere in between; it also met with general indifference
from critics, who usually found it solid but lacking distinction.
Guitarist/vocalist Meghan Adkins teamed up with drummer Nicole "Nicky"
Thomas to found Mavis Piggott; Thomas had previously played with the
all-female Dischord band the Fire Party before relocating from
Washington, D.C., to the West Coast. Adding bassist John Wickhart, late
of the recently defunct Hush Harbor, Mavis Piggott signed with Flydaddy
and debuted with a 1995 EP called Late Bloom. Their first full-length
album, You Can Be Low, arrived in 1996 and slipped largely under the
radar. A second album, In a Dark Suit, followed in 1999 and received
slightly more attention, but failed to win them a wider audience, and
the group quietly faded … » Read more
06 May 2012
ARCHERS OF LOAF 7 inches
Vocal Shrapnel 7 inch
1996
Jive Kata 7 inch
1997
By request
Reupped November 2012
Reupped November 2012
NEW SWEET BREATH Supersound Speedway 1995
By request
Biography
With
an influential presence's of Superchunk and Butterglory to top their
own maturity of noise ridden pop, Seattle's New Sweet Breath provided
another step away from the grunge angst in which their hometown became
famous for. Consisting of Graig Markel (vocals/Guitars), Nicholas Markel
(bass), Christopher Hazel (drums) and Stephan Mollmann (guitars), New
Sweet Breath's discography began in 1995 with their first album
Supersound Speedway, before providing 1996 with a slew of releases.
Including three seven-inch EPs and two splits with Sinkhole and Hefty,
New Sweet Breath also provided that year with their second album
Demolition Theater on Ringing Ear Records. Following an US tour and a
signing with Big Top Records in 1997, their third full-length A Shotgun
Down An Avalanche also came out that year.
GREEN MAGNET SCHOOL
1993
Review
Green
Magnet School fit perfectly with much of Boston's heavy rock scene (and
Sonic Bubblegum's releases in particular) -- the six-track Revisionist
EP is a sludge of crushing guitars that seem equally likely to have been
inspired by metal or indie and hardcore. Whatever the source, the band
does a fairly good job with a sound that's in danger of seeming rather
cliched -- some interesting constructions and brief excursions into pop
and punk save Revisionist from banality and actually make it seem like a
fairly good release.
1995
By request
ATIVIN Pills Vs Planes 1996
Biography
Ativin
formed in Bloomington, IN, in the winter of 1994 after Chris Carothers
(guitar) and Rory Leitch (drums) met at Indiana University. Guitarist
Dan Burton joined the group the following spring, cementing the band's
loud instrumental rock sound. Steve Albini andCarl Saff recorded the
band's debut EP, Pills vs. Planes, which was released in December 1996.
The spring of 1997 saw the release of the Modern Gang Reader/Larkin
single, the first of several releases for Secretly Canadian Records. The
band worked with Andy Bryant at King Size on German Water, their debut
album for Secretly Canadian, releasing it in March 1998. A return to
Albini's Chicago studio, Electrical Audio, yielded the four-song EP
Summing the Approach, which was released in the fall of 1998. Interiors
followed after a wait of three years in early 2002. Continuing on in the
same vein as Interiors, Ativin released Night Mute in early 2004.
COLE Idea of City 1998
Tracklist
| 1 | $2 Bettor | |
| 2 | Tropic Of Cancer | |
| 3 | Throw Out The Lungs | |
| 4 | Pigeon | |
| 5 | Means To Discover | |
| 6 | Redress | |
| 7 | Recidivism | |
| 8 | The Coastal Plain | |
| 9 | Bonus Track |
05 May 2012
ELEVEN PICTURES Superficial to the Core 1999
Thanks to Dsvvsd for the up!
Discogs
Tracklist
| 1 | Work It Out | |
| 2 | Weakdays | |
| 3 | Primate Dancer | |
| 4 | Nostromo (Hold On And Let Go) | |
| 5 | Sham Fu | |
| 6 | When I'm Gone | |
| 7 | We're All | |
| 8 | Green, That Is Yes | |
| 9 | What This Beauty Holds | |
| 10 | Fragile | |
| 11 | Little Killer | |
| 12 | Sometimes The Sun |
PICASSO TRIGGER T'ain't EP 1994
Upped by El Diablo con Queso
Biography
The
North Carolina indie punk band Picasso Trigger was formed in 1989 by
vocalist Kathy Poindexter, guitarist Lisa Cooper, and bassist Samuel
Mintu. The trio used several drummers during the early '90s before
finally settling on Johnny Williams. Picasso Trigger released several
singles for local labels during the early '90s, and signed to Alias
Records by 1993. The band's debut album, Fire in the Hole, appeared in
early 1994 and was followed by an EP, T'Aint. One year later, Alias
issued Bipolar Cowboy.
Review
T'ain't
is the step between the aggressive riff-rock of Picasso Trigger's Fire
in the Hole! and the more focused, angular and low-fi LP Bipolar Cowboy
-- on this six-track EP, the band drops some of the trashy Southern rock
influences that hampered the former and develops the scratchy, more
punk-oriented aggression of the latter. As an almost exact midpoint,
T'ain't combines the appeals of both sounds, but doesn't completely live
up to either. It is, however, a step in a very good direction, as
Bipolar Cowboy comes across as a more worthwhile release than its
predecessor.
PULSARS self titled 1997
Upped by Kevin C
Biography
The
Pulsars are a Chicago-based electronic-pop duo led by dance
producer/mixer David Trumfio; the group also features his brother Harry
on drums. After releasing a number of indie records in the early '90s,
the group signed to a major label in 1996, releasing the EP Submission
to the Masters later that fall; their self-titled full length debut
followed in 1997.
02 May 2012
GRIVER self titled 1997
Canadian emo (I hate that word but can't think of a better way to describe it) - good emocore stuff. Check it out.
MILK Succeeding Receeding 1994
Thanks to Erik for the up!
Review
Succeeding/Receding
chugs through its mildly forceful indie-rock structures with a
surprising level of appeal; there's the occasional turn to bombast
("Moping,") but this is more of a constructive slant than simply an
attempt to rock out. The album finds its center in ringing but
off-center guitar constructions, with bass humming hookily beneath and a
slightly spacy approach highlighting some of the more melodic tracks.
This makes for a somehow very entertaining release -- a nearly great
record for the indie-rock crowd.
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