Friday, November 11, 2016

Pravda Tape, 1982, Desperate Times

 Found a cheap and used copy of this rare gem over the internet about a month ago. I'm talking about the Pravda Vol 1, a compilation tape released by Pravda Records in '82. Having a lot of free time on my hands I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to digitize it and share it with my readers. 

 The label was born in 1982 in the home of Desperate Times Magazine in Seattle’s University District. It was founded by Dennis White and Maire M. Masco, both publishers for the Desperate Times, a magazine that was covering the punk scene of Seattle as well as international bands that played the local bars.
 Pravda's catalog featured some of these local acts covered in the zine. In one year period, Maire and Dennis, put together the Mr. Epp EP, "Of course I'm Happy.Why?", a Student Nurse single and the Pravda Compilation tape, an artifact of Seattle's new wave/art rock/post-punk scene.
 Another important mention would be that Dennis White also managed Dadastic! sounds in the recent years, doing a great job in releasing obscure music. Check it out, maybe some of the releases are still available for buying/download here.

 Now back to the tape! Sunworm opens and ends this, over-half-hour, audio time machine in a gloomy manner field with accelerating rhythm sections, squeaking guitars and a monolithic voice. Sunworm also contributed with a song on "The Public Doesn't Exist" compilation and shares John Rogers as common member with Student Nurse. John also made appearances in other art rock/experimental bands such as Steddi 5 or Audio Letter.

 Spectators were a pleasant surprise, especially with the song "Idiot Culture". Rapid-i also, and a bit more experimental. Besides being on this compilation, Joe Despair And The Future haven't released anything to my knowledge. You can see some photos from two of their gigs on Mike's Leach site.

 Student Nurse are contributing to this compilation with only one song and that's a shame because I love them and it seems impossible to get my hands on any of their releases.
 For some reason the Billy Shaffer song volume is kind of low, but I've uploaded it here anyway. Billy Shaffer was the art director for Desperate Times. This is an acoustic/folk track that comes from a home-made tape of demos he recorded.
 Mr. Epp is probably the most expected band on the compilation. They are, after all, the godfathers of grunge! Steve and Marks' band before Green River. Actually the term of "grunge" was first coined in the second issue of Desperate Times, in a letter sent by Mark himself, describing Mr. Epp's music as "pure grunge, pure shit".

Pravda Compilation Tape, everyone! Enjoy!


Thursday, August 18, 2016

Much appreciation for the small record labels!

Wow, you haven't seen me in ages, right? Well I'm still here! Now, you've probably wondered what happened and why I've stopped writing on this blog. Mostly there were personal issues, but all of that stuff is gone now, and I'm here once again. Lately I've started collecting vinyl records. And not just grunge, but also anything related to noise rock, industrial, punk, post-punk, garage etc. Discogs it's a great site, especially if you live, like me, in Europe. I can find a lot of obscure Northwest punk related bands and I don't have to necessarily order them from USA, with those killing shipping taxes.

But enough of that...I will give you one of my latest acquisitions. The Metal Ribbons compilation. This is a 7'' released in '91 on the Tacoma's label Meat Records. I have no idea who own this label but it released some pretty obscure bands. It's a pity their catalog is rather small.

This compilation features Big Satan Inc, A.M.Q.A, Fitz of Depression, all from the WA state and the hardcore band Slag from Tucson Arizona. Now I won't bother covering this last one...actually, come to think about it, I won't cover any of them. Big Satan Inc, and Fitz of Depression, each deserve a post of their own, right? And you can read a fine piece on A.M.Q.A. here.
Meat Records release mostly 7''s, and besides the ones already mentioned above, other bands signed here were Treehouse (Olympia/indie band), Seaweed, Superchunk, what else...Oh, The Fuckers who were supposedly Seaweed's members in disguise and few more others. Like I said, some obscure stuff here!!!


Fitz of Depression's song is also featured on their first album released on Meat Records as well.

So go bellow and click on the links, download them and put them on your phone, drink ten beers, go to work, pee in the subway, and get your ass fired...Don't do that, I'm just kidding!!!

Side A--------> click here for download
Big Satan, Inc -  Zymo Genetics
A.M.Q.A. - Sinister

Side B--------> click here for download
Fitz of Depression - Everybody And Their Dog
Slag - Alive