Summer Vaction Music: No Fraud

No Fraud - Babewatch 7" [Truth Music, 1996]

So, it’s summer time. I’m sure lots of you Southerners are prepping for your sunny vacations down in Florida (aka, “the poor man’s California”), so I thought I’d dip down there myself for a post on some FLA punk rock.

Once upon a time, I published a little zine called Urine Idiot. It was a badly written, sometimes funny xeroxed rag full of half-baked ideas I usually half stole from someone else. But despite its flaws, it did make its way into bigger zines like Factsheet 5 and Maximum Rock n Roll, and around the continent via various distros and the like. Well, somehow the guys in No Fraud got a copy. Given the “Baywatch” spoof theme of this record, and the fact that I’d ironically interviewed an actual cast member of the show, they thought they’d send me a copy to review. And hey, 13 years later, I’ve actually gotten around to it. In all fairness, I never actually published another issue of my zine after the point in time they sent me this. I’d moved out of my parents house, gotten a girlfriend, and no longer had the surplus of mind-numbing free time I once did.

As far as background, I’ve managed to find a little on the web -- even a Myspace that may or may not be theirs. It’s also likely the No Fraud I’ve been finding info on is a completely different band, but, if I’m correct, these guys came from Venice, Florida (the "poor man's Venice") and had been around since the 80’s, starting up in that cold, flavorless, spraypaint-and-stencil, late-Reagan orgy of thrash, hardcore, and skate punk.

What you get here definitely sounds descended from that ilk, but a little more light-hearted than the usual. There’s some goofy, ham-fisted skits between songs about Baywatch (“Babewatch”), Milwaukee’s Best (“The Beast”), and the usual anti-authority/society stuff. In traditional fashion, they keep it short, sweet, and cram as many jams into a slab of vinyl as possible (7 in this case). Enjoy it, and don't forget to crank it loud on your way down to Panama city.

Bonus Links:
Early No Fraud 7" courtesy of True Punk Metal
Even more music from what may or may not be the same band.

The Crumbs

I have to firstly apologize for the lapse in updates. Things have been a little crazy as of late - plus I'm notorious for starting up projects and neglecting them. But I'm forcing myself to make a post tonight.



The Crumbs - I Fell in Love with an Alien Girl... [Recess Records, 1995]

It seems like I had heard of Miami's The Crumbs long before I actually heard them. They played Huntsville (with the Slackers, I believe) but it was on a school night and my jerkface parents wouldn't let me go. I read reviews of this 7" well before I was able to buy it. I really liked the titles of the songs, the band name, the artwork, and pop punk* in general was the shit I lived for, so I decided I liked it long before I bought it and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Once our local record store (Sunburst, R.I.P) got in stock, I was among the first to snatch it up. Well, it didn't live up to all that I'd grown to expect, but I still listened to it on repeat, ad nauseum. Singer Raf Classic sometimes sounds like a deaf Turkish immigrant straining to shit a melody. But the songs are very solid, and you kind of get used to it.



*I should point out for the younger generation that the pop punk of over a decade ago is a slightly different animal than what most associate with the term now. I'm speaking more of bands such as The Queers, Screeching Weasel, and The Mr. T Experience who employed a much thinner production quality, much simpler arrangements, many many nods to the Ramones, and gave us just a little more attitude than your Blink 182's and Good Charlottes and Paramores. Don't get me wrong, they still sang about some whiny shit. There was plenty bitching and moaning and longing for all the girls that neglected to mirror their affection and admiration. They were just a hell of a lot more punk rock about it.