Hardcore Time Capsule: Old School Huntsville Resurrected

Various Artists - Angry Kids Unite: Old School Huntsville Hardcore Vol. I

While this is for all intents, purposes and otherwise, a blog about the 90s, I recently stumbled upon a goldmine that enabled me to take just a few more steps back into my hometown's humble beginnings in punk rock. Peer Pressure Productions has done an amazing and thorough job archiving Huntsville, Alabama's 1st wave of hardcore punk from the early 80's on up through 1995 or so.

It goes without saying that this stuff was a couple years before my time, though, I was definitely aware of it well before I was able to participate. My first brush with that scene came when I was handed a flyer while waiting in line to see Suicidal Tendencies open for Queensryche at the VBCC in 1991. I wanted very badly to go, but was instantly denied access by Mom. She said it was probably dangerous and that there would be gangs there. Of course, there was no need to argue, 'cause parents just don't understand. The flyer though, featuring the names of bands like I.R.S., Skeletal Earth, and Random Conflict (all featured here) with the headline "Angry Kids Unite", stayed tacked to my wall for the next 6 or 7 years.

Getting back on track, I assembled this compilation myself, cherry-picking some of my favorite tracks from Peer Pressure's overwhelmingly large archive. Though they may have been living in the butt crack of America, kids in 'Bama had plenty to be pissed off about in the Regan era. This collection features tunes by Alabama's alleged first punk band The Knockabouts, and one of its longest running, Random Conflict (both of whom I've deemed important enough to post about separately in the coming weeks). Other bands include Monster God/Dog, Humanicide, Snapdragon, Insomnia, Skeletal Earth and I.R.S.

If you too are interested in this stuff, by way of either nostlagia or sheer curiosity, I strongly suggest you check out Peer Pressure Productions' Myspace profile, where you'll find a great deal of it ripe for the taking.

Thee Autobots

Thee Autobots - S/T 7" [Robbie Van Winkle Rekkids, 1996]

It’s been easy thus far to write about almost all the bands on this blog so far in that, to my knowledge, none of them have read or are even aware of the stuff I’ve posted here. But given the frontman for this next selection is a regular contributor by way of informative, insightful comments, I’m a bit more self-conscious than usual.

From the ashes of Huntsville’s least understood, but most notable nerd-punk band Themack, rose singer/songwriter/guitarist Jack Themack (aka Jack Renuzit, now Jack Saturn) and his then new ensemble Thee Autobots. While Themack always seemed like they just wanted to rock out while coming off as misfits by default, Thee Autobots took every opportunity to stand out, even adding a saxophone player to the mix. The pop cultures references didn't stop with the Transformers-inspired name, with Jack and Co. cramming ironic, dated hip hop references, tongue-in-cheek odes to heavy metal, admiration for 80s breakdancing, and goofy samples in every open space.

The result is an eclectic pop-flavored collection of catchy heartfelt punk songs that takes me back to a time before “pop punk” was synonymous with whiny bullshit. Each cover was originally black & white with the Autobots logo hand-colored red.

Thee Autobots lasted little more than a year, and allegedly have at least 16 other songs released elsewhere or not at all, which Jack has been promising to put out for a few years now. Maybe this post will increase the demand? Jack lives in Portland now and is involved with such projects as Natural Bridges and The Online Romance. Bassist Doug Lehman moved to Nashville in the mid 90s and plays in the signficantly known garage rock band The Clutters. Their drummer Solomon still lives in Huntsville last I checked, playing in a rootsy bar band called The Cracker Jacks.

The Liberty Caps

The Liberty Caps - EP #1 [Darwin Records, 1994]

For a guy who hates ska-punk as much as I do, I sure as hell bought a lot of it back in the day. But hey, I was young. I made a lot of questionable decisions: blue hair, LSD, and super baggy jeans to name a few.

Which brings us back to Huntsville and the skatalogical sounds of The Liberty Caps. The 'Caps were around a good while before I came onto the scene. They were among the first local bands I heard mentioned often in conjunction with Huntsville's long-time rock dive institution The Tip Top Cafe -- which is where I probably saw them each time they played (except for Huntsville's annual music festival, The Big Spring Jam).

I don't know much else about them, except to say they were a reasonably popular band in Huntsville, they were around from 1993 to 1998 (and again from 2006 - 2008), and that they played some unintentionally sloppy straightforward 3rd wave ska fused with other roots-based genres.

Attack of the Huntsville Comps pt. II: Fuck the East Bay

Various Artists - Fuck The East Bay, This is ¡NOK! CD [¡Nation of Kids! 1997]

The Huntsville compilation series continues now with the only other one I own (there were several other cassette-only releases I'm still trying to find). Curated by Joey Tampon, this CD release was originally intended as a split betwixt The Toxic Shocks and North Carolina's Pink Collar Jobs. But Joey was never one to waste perfectly good space on any medium, so he filled the rest of the disc as best he could with odds, ends, knick-knacks and previously released material from a whole bunch of other bands as well.

Most everyone was still doing cassettes and vinyl at the time, so that this was on CD was kind of novel. However, given the questionable choice by Joey to dedicate only one track to each band -- streaming each song continuously, back-to-back -- negates most of the convenience of this format. But it may make for a more interesting iPod experience when the Toxic Shocks' 11 song selection comes up in shuffle mode at your next party.

Some of the bands represented here have already been discussed at length, so if you want more info on The Jawas or The Slackers, look at my older entries.

The 565 Burnouts were a short-lived outfit featuring Neil Delbaccio (The Burning Radios, Toxic Shocks), Jason Burke (Shitboy from Outerspace, Xpia), and Neil's wife Penny. They seemed to be modeled after East Bay faves Blatz, released a demo cassette I never picked up, and played out through the Summer of 1995 before breaking up.

Random Conflict I think it's safe to say Random Conflict have been at it for at least 20 years, save for a short hiatus in the '90s. Coming punk the thrashy skate punk scene of the late '80s, even today, these dudes haven't been changed by the times whatsoever.

The Peeps No scene was complete in the mid-90's without a ska band. While both punk and ska remain enjoyable to me to this day, I've grown to loathe the punk/ska hybrid more than Bill O'Reilly, child abuse, and the Holocaust combined. That being said, I can't help but maintain a special place in my heart of hearts for The Peeps. Subject of a recent, somewhat interesting documentary, this 4 to 8 man ensemble contained members from half the bands in town.

Shitboy from Outerspace This is actually Shitboy 2.0. The first version of the band included J. Tampon, and this short-lived, ressurected edition saw him replaced with Jimmy from Property and The Peeps, Scott Cox from Jabberjaw, and probably someone else I'm forgetting. Also, Elijah Horgan of The Peeps and 5 Star Generals played drums. The band was fronted by Jason Burke, later of The Pins, Paperbox, and now Xpia.

Anyhow. This concludes the Huntsville comp series for now. Hope you've enjoyed,.

Attack of the Huntsville Comps pt. I: Incest is Best

Various Artists - Incest is Best [¡Nation of Kids! 1995]

When in the business of excavating the remains of an extinct punk scene, some of your best nuggets come in the form of the old compilation disc. Typically, these are the work of several bands pooling their hard-earned cash together to put out a singular record, or perhaps a label with more groups on its roster than funds in its account. I'm guessing ¡Nation of Kids¡' Incest is Best comp was a little of both.

¡Nation of Kids¡ was a record label, zine, and music collective run by no one in particular in the early to late '90s. In fact, from what I can tell, Huntsville's The Crypt Kickers were still using the imprint in the early 2000's. What we have here is a healthy sampling that represents mid-90's Huntsville fairly well. The tracklisting is as follows:

Shitboy from Outerspace - "Dead World"
The Jawas - "Pointless"
Themack - "Fight Song"
Property - "Zone"
Puddle - "Astro Chicken"
The Peeps - "Punk Rock God"

The title, Incest is Best references, I assume, either or both the fact we all lived in Alabama and/or the fact that almost all these bands share at least one member. Contrary to popular belief, incest isn't as widespread in the South as one is taught to believe. However, incest among bands in a tightly knit music community is still pretty commonplace.

Bands like Shitboy (old school influenced punk fronted by Jason "Shithead" Burke -- later of The Pins, Paperbox, and now Xpia) and Puddle (another Joey Tampon surf ensemble), had more or less stopped playing by the time this comp made it out. The Peeps* -- HSV's compulsory ska/punk band -- were by far the most popular epresented here with Themack by far the least popular. As misfits within a larger circle of alleged misfits, Themack's glorious lack of conventional cool made the Fonzie hipsters recoil in horror (I mean, really, who the fuck had a computer in 1995, anyway? ) Property may have been Huntsville's longest running outfit (with the exception of Random Conflict) counteracting with pluck and spirit what they lacked in the way of technical proficiency.

So here you have it. Those of you who were there will surely experience at least a small flood of nostalgia. Those who weren't may at least enjoy the long lost spirit of DIY and find a good jam in the process.

* The Peeps track cuts off a little early. As the last track on the B-Side, it runs a little longer than any amount of 7" vinyl will allow.

The 3D's

The 3D's - Girls Bikinis Guitars and Blood! [1998, Pequeno Records]
The 3D's - Your Heart is Black EP [1997, Arkham Records]

It’s been a long time, friends. But this blog is back in business -- for at least the time being -- with a few more selections of rare Southern punk rock vinyl.

Despite having every intention of being a traditional garagey surf band, The 3D’s stand out in my head as one of the more coincidentally interesting acts in this very narrow niche I’ve targeted -- and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with the fact I was one of the founding members. Rambunctious, barely-tuned guitars banging out basic mod punk riffs that reverberate wildly in and out of sync with a frenetic, virtuoso hippie drummer sounds on paper like it could really either suck or rule, but definitely doesn’t sound anything like the purist rock n roll outfit Joey Tampon intended. For all intents and purposes, it was his band (lots more about Joey in the posts below). He put the group together and it was his vision we circled underneath and inadvertently deconstructed in the process. As much as he wanted to recreate the purist motives of minimalist pioneers like Link Wray, The Sonics, and Nuggets-era Mod psychedelics, he had to rely on a rag-tag personnel of locals with dissimilar interests to see his vision through, steering it slightly off its course of intention. The result is an exercise in immediacy, efficiency, and just not giving a fuck; a reckless, revisionist romp through ‘60s subculture, filtered through modern punk aesthetics and old-fashioned, small-town Alabama angst.

These recordings are rife with mistakes, fuck-ups, and bad choices. The guitars rarely agree on a tuning. Bad chords, sour notes and the like are shrugged off in every song. The band rarely locks together tight with the songs sometimes teetering on the edge of collapse -- but never do. Somehow it all works. Everyone gets from point A to point B, and it’s all delivered with such urgency and certitude that that actually pointing out the shortcomings would just come off pretentious.

Flowery language aside, The 3D's started as an instrumental surf band and shortly moved into more psychedelic/garage territory but were at our very core still a punk band. We had 3 singers (two represented on recordings) total, 2 bassists (a different on each recording presented here), and eventually 2 guitarists when I left the band and was replaced by Robert Daniel (The Peeps, The Slackers, Counter Clockwise). We toured a bit, released some records, and all in all, it was a good time for everyone.

The first recording here is a long out-of-print 7” called Your Heart is Black. Each of the four songs also appeared on our self-released full length Action-Packed. While Joey sings on all of it, we had a new singer by the time this was released, Kevin Wyle. Kevin was replaced months later by Matt Bakula (The Peeps, The Jawas, Counter Clockwise) who sang on the other selection here, Girls, Bikinis, Guitars, and Blood! -- a 16-song, vinyl-only LP which actually features half the songs from Action-Packed rerecorded (we had a new bassist by this point as well). I still haven’t found my copy of Action-Packed, and the band released another 7” (a split with The Runarounds) after I left the band and which I do not own. So these will have to do for now.

Joey Tampon and the Toxic Shocks

Joey Tampon the Toxic Shocks - S/T 7" [Recess Records, 1997]

Joey Tampon's is a name that's already been mentioned here, will come up quite a few more times in this blog, and is by far one of the most enigmatic figures in Southern punk of the early to late 90's.

Joey was a staple of the Huntsville punk scene for the whole stretch of the 1990's, playing in too many bands to count, including, but not limited to: 15E, The Slackers, Shitboy from Outerspace, The Radioactives, The 3D's, The 45's, Puddle, and probably a bunch more I'm forgetting or don't even know about.

Joey is probably most notorious for his eponymous outfit Joey Tampon and the Toxic Shocks - a snotty, minimalist DIY punk trio featuring Neil Delbaccio on bass (Burning Radios, The Wops), and Greg Addison on drums (The Grumpies, Rice Harvester, Jarvis). A quick google search shows the legacy of this band is alive and well, the centerpiece being this self-titled 7" released on the ubiquitous Recess Records. I recall them touring extensively, piled inside a Ford Festiva with their gear strapped to the roof. During their live shows, Joey often wore a self-styled full body tampon costume while playing. Their songs were based on pretty traditional punk themes of the day. When Joey wasn't griping about the fashion choices of undesirable others ("Duckheads are for Fuckheads"), or the oppressive wrath of Johnny Law ("Magnum P.I.G."), he was raging against the machine with anti-authoritarian, anti-conformity, anti-corporate rants like "Everything's a Product" and "I'm Not Going to Kill Myself For You".

Musically, the Toxic Shocks had a solid bassist, and one of the best punk rock drummers in town, but the defining characteristics of their sound was derived from the fact that Joey couldn't play the guitar for shit. This coupled with his signature nasally yelp results in a reckless, slapdash kamikaze collection of minute long anthems that are surprisingly inventive at times. Speaking on song length, Joey is an incredibly economical dude. Like his previous band The Slackers, Joey managed to squeeze no less then 5 songs on each side, making a total of 10 in the 11.5 minutes allotted.

After the band broke up, Joey started exploring his love of surf and garage rock with bands like The Radioactives and The 3D's. Shortly after the turn of the century, Joey Tampon - a man with the word "fuck" tattooed on his body at least 3 times - did a completely 180 transformation, became a born again christian, a hardcore republican, and eventually a Baptist minister. Maybe having a kid changed him just that much, or maybe it's just switching one dogma for another, but I wouldn't expect to hear anymore punk rock out of Joey Tampon. Though apparently, he's really into bluegrass music now.

The Slackers

The Slackers:
Where Were You in '92? (Fay-Get Records, 1994)
Circle A Your Day - (Nation of Kids, 1995)
Split with Fun Girls from Mt. Pilot (House O'Pain, 1996)
+ 1 Bonus track

I don't have the greatest explanation as to why, but it seems no band truly epitomizes Huntsville's concept of punk rock like The Slackers. Maybe it's because most of their members were crucial components of so many other important bands, or that their style and attitude mapped out the template we'd see in most other bands after them for several years to come.

Either way, at the time, you could not have convinced me there were any cooler four guys on Earth aside from these chaps. On the front lines you had the prematurely balding, righteously outspoken, homemade tattoo gallery and bassist/singer Joey Tampon (15E, Shitboy from Outerspace) whose comically nasal outbursts were glued together with the barnacle encrusted, gravel filled, razor blade gargling vocal chords of Heiko Schrepel whose snarling growl was tailor made for this band. On guitar, you had a very young Robert Daniel (The Peeps) who occasionally chimed in on vocals, and like Schrepel and Tampon, seems to have shared a good bit of writing duties. Of course, holding it all down on drums was Matt Seward, brother to Andrew Seward of Against Me!.

Lyrically, The Slackers covered all the hot button issues of the day. Every tune was an unrelenting attack on figures of authority, the pompous bourgeoisie, conformity, society on the whole (but most especially in the South), poseur punks, and of course, those fucking audacious, fancy pants, limousine-riding, money making rockstars (which is semi-ironic considering Heiko went on grace the Vans WARP Tour and Hot Topic stores across the country as the bassist for One Man Army). Semi-irony aside, these dudes sing it with a burning, urgent conviction and enough "fuck you!'s" to make for a pretty entertaining drinking game.

As it usually works in punk rock, the game is all about instant gratification - or at least "ASAP" gratification. You start a band because you want to play shows and put out records. So as soon as you know 4 or 5 songs, it's time to get on stage and into the studio - which explains why so many of the first E.P.'s by these bands are really sloppy. That's probably the case with "Where We You in '92?" which I would guess was definitely not recorded to a click track. But with "Circle A Your Day", they're starting to get the hang of it, and by the time their last recordings came out, they were a pretty tight band - not to mention economical. The Slackers wasted not an inch of vinyl, cramming never less than 4 songs on a side. For the most part, this is their whole discography aside from a few other compilation tracks and 9 or so unreleased songs that NOK! was later selling as part of a box set. All together, they equal up to about half an hour of music.

The bonus track here is (again) from Recess Records' "Play at Your Own Risk, Vol. 2". Rumors around this time were that The Slackers were in talks with San Francisco punk staple Lookout! Records about putting out a record, but the band's demise came when they ventured out to San Fran - a one show tour - to play that coveted mecca of all things punk in the 90's - Gilman Street. Legend has it that they were kicked out and banned as a result of Robert repeating an offensive lesbian joke throughout their set. I'm not entirely clear on the details or exact cause of this next incident, but according to a story Joey told me while we were on tour together as The 3D's, there was an altercation and they ended up leaving a scared and teary-eyed Heiko behind in Oakland, California, and traveled all the way back to Alabama without him. The band played their last show at The Tip Top Cafe shortly after, having members of the audience come on stage and sing in place of Schrepel (I used to have this on video tape but loaned it to Joey and never got it back).

Matt Seward moved away to go to school at Montevallo. Robert Daniel was playing with in the Peeps at the same time as The Slackers and continued doing so afterward. He started a short-lived rock n roll band called The Deadlines, replaced me as the guitarist of The 3D's, and now plays with The Counter Clockwise. Joey "Tampon" Tacon started many more bands, including The 3D's, The Radioactives, and Joey Tampon and the Toxic Shocks before finding Jesus and becoming a Baptist minister. Heiko came back to Huntsville briefly to get some clothes, sell off the remainder of his possessions, and moved back to California for good. As mentioned before, several years later he was on the WARP Tour as the bassist for One Man Army. According to his Wikipedia page, he's now playing with U.S. Bombs.