Rise of the Nashville Compilatons pt.III: Nashville Coming-Fire

Various Artists - Nashville Coming Fire [Vorgo Pass, 1994]

Of all the comps in this series, this is by far my favorite. Upon listening to it, I realized I actually used to crank a cassette copy of this given to me by a friend -- not knowing exactly what it was. I estimate this was released sometime in 1994 -- most of these neglect to put the copyright date anywhere in the liner notes, as copyrights arent' very punk rock. It contains what may very well be Nashville's best known 90s punk bands: Fun Girls from Mt. Pilot, Teen Idols, and The Phanton 5ive. It's also an exponentially poppier record than that scary cover would let on.

I've written a great deal about the Fun Girls from Mt. Pilot before and will post more soon. All you need to know right here is that they were a cross-dressing, hardcore punk ensemble that fared well beyond their home base. Again, a more in depth look at Teen Idols is coming, but for now, just know they were a 50's inspired pop punk group, heavy on harmonies and easily the most successful of any out of this era. The Phantom 5ive are without a doubt the best known - if not only known - instrumental surf group from Music City.

The rest of the bands on this comp actually seem to be little known outside Nashville. I did see Ballpeen Hernia in Huntsville play at some point when I was 15. My memories in conjunction with their Myspace tell me they were kind of a traditional street punk outfit [click those links for more tunes and videos of them playing on the steps of the Nashville Parthenon]. Uncle Daddy is of the upbeat, poppy variety. Not only haven't I heard of Mount, their oblique name makes them impossible to Google. But going from this song alone, I can tell you they were an all-girl trio who played some down-n-dirty Seattle-stlye grunge rock.

As always, any comments you have to fill in the blanks are more than welcome.

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.

Rise of the Nashville Compilatons pt.II : Our Scene Still Sucks

Various Artists - Our Scene Still Sucks [House O' Pain, 1997]

This is the sequel to the compilation I posted the other day. The Nashville Scene article I quoted was actually in reference to this release, but revealing that would have interrupted my flow a little. Since I've know idea who 3/4 of these bands were, I'll let the full clipping tell the story:

Our Scene Still Sucks, a brand-new House O’Pain EP arriving Saturday. The record gathers tracks from several local bands, ranging from the pop-punk thrash of Situation No Win to the grinding hardcore of Process Is Dead. This time, however, the music actually shows signs of health in the local scene, according to House O’Pain’s Donnie Kendall.

“What it’s intended to say is that the Nashville scene doesn’t suck,” says Kendall, co-owner and cofounder of the pioneering local punk label. For the first EP, Kendall notes, House O’Pain had to work to scrape up decent tracks. This time around, he had a wish list of 15 bands, and of those he said maybe 10 submitted quality tapes.

Does the scene still have problems? Sure. Press coverage of punk and indie rock in Nashville is usually minimal, Kendall says, and a brief flurry of outside interest in the local scene seems to have abated. “Last year, and the year before, the kind of music we make started to come out a little,”he explains. “But it’s slipped back underground, which is fine with us.”

For a glimpse into the underground, sojourn to Lucy’s 8 p.m. Saturday night for the Our Scene Still Sucks record-release party, which features Brown Towel, The Vibes, Process Is Dead, Situation No Win, and Junkie War Stories. EPs will be on sale at the door, and the cover charge is $5. And if you really want to keep the local scene from sucking, go to a show and make some noise—or pick up a guitar and form your own band. As Donnie Kendall says, “If more people get into it, it’ll only get better.”

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.

Rise of the Nashville Compilatons pt. 1: Our Scene Sucks

Various Artists - Our Scene Sucks 7" [House O' Pain, 1993]

From the annals of time and the archives of Music City history, I introduce to you now this four part series featuring those sure-fire golden nuggets of punk rock history -- the coveted compilation 7”.

The first is a tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating package titled Our Scene Sucks by House O’ Pain Records. While I like to inject a little personal insight to each of these reviews, I was 14 when this was released and lived about 100 miles south of Nashville, so most of these bands are unfamiliar to me. But luckily, the Nashville Scene is a little more on top of things. They wrote this about the comp in 1997:

Five years ago, House O’Pain Records issued a broadside of a compilation EP under the modest title Our Scene Sucks. The music was snotty, sloppy, and loud—a ragged artifact of underground Nashville in the early 1990s, when House O’Pain and the appearance of Lucy’s Record Shop triggered a burst of local activity. Back then, the EP’s title might as well have been the mantra of the city’s disenfranchised teenage punk audience.

“What it’s intended to say is that the Nashville scene doesn’t suck,” says Kendall, co-owner and cofounder of the pioneering local punk label... [Donnie] Kendall notes, House O’Pain had to work to scrape up decent tracks.

Of the four bands on this comp: Floor, Lethargic, Canibal Holiday and Teen Idols -- the only one I’m familiar with is Teen Idols, who I saw and enjoyed many times in their prime. But, there’ll be plenty more on them later once I gather up a little more of their catalog. In the meantime, enjoy this 7” time capsule and all its DIY glory and anticipate more of them to come.

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.

Highstrung

Highstrung - self-titled 7" [House O' Pain, 1996?]

So, I may not have grown up in Nashville, but I’ve been here long enough to pick up some clues, pieces, and tidbits about the old days from the folks who were there. Much of this info has come in handy now as I write up this little piece on Highstrung, as I’ve found almost literally NO information on them whatsoever (and of course, I rely on your comments to compensate for the insight that I lack).

Highstrung played my hometown several times in the mid-90’s. And though I never caught them, I did wind up playing a show with them in ’98, opening for The Groovie Ghoulies. Young, obnoxious, and ready to fuck shit up, Highstrung weren’t anything special in the way of their tunes, but their live shows were exceptionally entertaining and their members went on to make some pretty great music in various other bands.

If I understand what I’ve heard correctly, Highstrung actually started out as a band called Fecal Matter. Then only two members, they were both somewhere in the ripe young age range of 13-15. Allegedly, there was a documentary made about them -- and I may or may not have just missed them opening for Propaghandi and Cavity in Birmingham, AL in 1996. Legend has it, their mother did not approve of the “Fecal Matter” moniker, and the band wound up changing the name to Highstrung. After adding a few members, they became the band you hear here on this 7”. The tunes are about what you’d expect from a pack of teenage boys with penchant for speedy beats and beer and an aversion to society, convention, authority, etc.

Eric and Dallas of Highstrung later formed thrash punk outfit Booby Hatch (with Donnie Kendall and Chris Fox of Fun Girls from Mt. Pilot), and considerably successful. full-on thrash metal band Asschapel (also with Chris Fox). Highstrung drummer Roger later joined Pine Hill Haints, Natchez Shakers, and fronted Snakeskin Machinegun.