Special Guest Post. Not another dead Seattle record label!!!

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, but I've been a little busy with the beginning of my second year at collage...also with the moving in and everything. I’ve, once again, left my hometown and I won't really come back until the late next year’s summer.

Having in mind the last post (that is the Stomach Pump one) I've done some research on Penultimate Records. Before I got in touch with the founder, Volker Stewart, everything I knew was that this record label released little material from some of the Northwest legends like Cat Butt, the Derelicts, and of course Stomach Pump. Therefore my dark-spy-side told me I had to find out some inside information. So, I contacted Volker and he was kind enough to answer me with an essay he wrote about his record label:

I guess the label itself was born in 1986 to release a tribute album to a music club in Santa Cruz, CA - the record was a comp called "At Dianne's Place." I had been approached by two other folks, Stephen Long and Rojir Silverstein, to help them with the project as I had some limited experience as a portion of the business that started as Masking Tapes, a cassette-only label, which eventually morphed into eMpTy records, which later split into two entities, and I am sure you can find the grim story about that in a number of places.

In 1987 I moved to Seattle, as it was a cheaper place to be unemployed than Santa Cruz, and I was toying with the idea of grad school. I got to know some folks in the music scene, primarily through the fine folks at Fallout Records and Jimmy the Budman. I decided to pursue Penultimate in the northwest, and the first record I did was the CatButt"64 Funny Cars/Hell's Half Acre" 45. Blake from eMpTy, with whom I had gone to high school in Germany in the early 80s, had moved to Seattle, and we decided to make it a split release, Penultimate/eMpTy. This cooperation continued with the first Derelicts 45"Bullet for Fifi/Sharon Needles", although the release after that (the Derelicts "Love Machine"12") was just a Penultimate release. Blake had at this point started doing exclusive eMpTy releases, and we were in a friendly rivalry from this point on (obviously Blake was infinitely more prolific than I).

eMpTy Germany licensed the Derelicts material for Europe and somehow failed to mention any credit to Penultimate. Oh well. Sort of indicative of how they saw things in general, cf. their later legal action against Blake.

After the Derelicts I stumbled across Love and Respect, a great band featuring Ed from the Thrown Ups, Joe and Whiting fromBig Tube Squeezer, a stand up fellow named Steve LaRose on vocals and occasionally Steve Turner on lap steel. Their show at Squid Row knocked my socks off and we did a 6-song 7" ep("Deep and Heatfelt") and later an LP ("The Love & Respect Record"). Still my fave part of the Penultimate portfolio.

In 1991 I was out of grad school, horribly underpaid, and a little bummed out by Seattle becoming a mecca. When I moved there in 1987, people in California thought I was crazy, and four years later those people were flocking up there. I decided it was time for a change of pace, and moved to Baltimore. Baltimore was a crazy place in 1991, it was quite a change of pace indeed. I figured I'd get some work experience here and go back west, now it's been over 18 years...I put out four 45s here, two by local legends Liquorbike and Helicopter, one by Primordial Undermind, and the ill-fated Stomach Pump 45. I say ill-fated because a good chunk ofthe inventory fell victim to a flood I had in a former house of mine, which also knocked out a lot of the Primordial Undermind 45s. There are probably only about 2-300 of either of these floating around, possibly less of the Stomach Pump.

In 1994 I quit my job as a university reference librarian and started working on opening a brewery/restaurant in midtown Baltimore. That was pretty much the end of my label career. We opened in 1996 and I have been doing that ever since. (http://www.thebrewersart.com if you are interested).

Stephen Long had moved to San Francisco at about the time I moved to Seattle, and he had a few Penultimate releases scheduled there, although only one of them saw release, a 45 by the Bay Area's Los Cerveceros, which featured former members of Bad Posture. I believe he lives in North Dakota now. Rojir had moved to LA long before hand, and I lost touch with him.

So there you have it. Let's just say...another mystery solved.

From "Bullet For Fifi/Sharon Needles":

Bullet For Fifi
Sharon Needles

That's barf rock, and...one day, they just sort of started going...And that was Stomach Pump.

 Sitting on the edge, bettween The Thrown Ups and My Eye related bands, here we have the first Stomach Pump post in the blogspots' history. Musically the band finds itself placed on the same page as The Thrown Ups, although it shares two of My Eye members. From the very first minute of their (only) single -Log Clench/Cake Hole- the band reminded me of the early swamp-punk australian acts, I'd say, the band is like a dry mix between The Scientists and Salamander Jim. Their music is accompanied by this unic voice, something you'll never find at a typical Seattle band(this "typical" line is really funny!!!). Conclusion: Another great, short-lived Seattle band. Therefor it was time for me to hit Google.

The investigation in finding a clue that would eventually lead me to a story began. I've searched ebay in hope of finding a cover of their single, looked for the band's gig posters, but nothing. Finally my search stoped here at this Leighton Beezer interview. But I still needed more of the band's info. So...the only thing left for me to do was getting in touch with one of the band's member. Who would tell the story better than the founder? That's right, I've contacted Leighton to ask him a set of questions about one of Seattle's mysterious bands and he was really kind and accepted.

1.Why did The Thrown Ups split up and when did you formed Stomach Pump?
Mudhoney was taking a lot of Mark and Steve’s attention, so I kicked them out of the band. Stomach Pump formed right afterwards and actually picked up an abandoned Thrown Ups show for our first show.

2.How did you recruit Max Godsil and Duff Drew from My Eye?
I used to hang around a lot with My Eye, and Max and Duffy were a really great rhythm section. I don’t recall the exact details, but basically I think I roped them into it.

3.What about JC, how did you recruit his as the singer and what happened to him afterwards?
JC was a Thrown Ups fan and we got to be friends. When the Thrown Ups broke up, he wanted to give it a try. I’ve found that for the style of music I play, singers are always the hardest to find and I will usually try to build a band around one if I find one. So once I realized JC had a gift for it, I decided to put a band together. He is a talk radio jockey today living in Austin , Texas and goes by the name Jack Blood.

4.Who came up with the band's name and why Stomach Pump?
I think it was me, but I’m not sure. It kinda stuck without a lot of thought. But in retrospect, it was an appropriate name for a follow up to the Thrown Ups. Once you’re done throwing up, you can only get more through mechanical intervention.

5.The band sounds to me like early Australian punk acts, would you regard them as influence?
Not a huge influence, but we were certainly aware of and admired bands like The Scientists, and Lubricated Goat and that ilk. Not too shocking if it sounds like we were wallowing in the same swamps.

6.Was Stomach Pump based on the same improvising idea as The Thrown Ups?
Yes, absolutely.

7.What can you tell me about the shows, who did you share bills with?
We didn’t share too many bills ... we were kind of a scene unto ourselves. We played a lot of warehouse parties and things like that. I remember one show where we were opening for another band and we kept mispronouncing their name just to bug them. I also remember doing a show where Stephanie Sargent from 7 Year Bitch performed with us. I think she ended up making fun of me the whole time and I didn’t realize it until later. My favorite show was at a place right off of Hollywood and Vine in LA, which was reputed to be Bruce Lee’s dojo ... musically, it wasn’t a great show, but it was a lot of fun. The room was designed to amplify sound, so Bruce could speak softly and be heard by a crowd of a couple hundred people, so we set up where the speaker is supposed to stand for maximum acoustic amplification and proceeded to blast everyone out the back of the room – it was painfully loud for the audience. A woman came up to JC and complained about the volume and JC pulled a switchblade out of his pocket and told her to shut up. Lots of fun!

8.Was the Log Clench/Cake Hole Single the only band's release?
Yes. We did put together some informal cassettes if that counts. One was called "The Caucasian Album" and another was just referred to as the "Be a Dick" session. Both were pretty good, but I don’t know where to find copies since I haven’t had a cassette player in years. I’d love to hear them again if anyone else is able to track them down for you.

9.Where did you record your single and who was the producer?
I remember the place, but I don’t remember the producer. It was in a basement studio in Seattle ’s Belltown neighborhood. It was a great place and I think we got a cheap rate because it was new or something. I remember the singer from Coffin Break hanging out, but I don’t think he was the producer?

10.Why did the band breake up?
I don’t remember exactly ... people kept moving in and out of Seattle . JC and Max both moved to LA at different times. There were a few gaps while people were out of town, then I guess the last gap just hasn’t ended yet – JC and Max are still living in different cities and I just moved to NY. Eventually, I started playing with another improv band called El Grande Conquistador (http://johnbeezer.com/music/egc.html). Now that I’ve left Seattle I’ve got a new band in NYC but we’re still going through line-up changes, etc. so we don’t even have a name yet.

11.Could you tell us something about your future projects?
I’m pretty psyched about the new band here in NY. The singer/keyboard player is named Jason Dennie and the drummer is named Jerod Allen. We just lost our guitar player since he moved a couple hours away and started going to night school. I’m also recording a lot of solo pieces just for my own amusement ... some of those are on my MySpace page: myspace.com/johnleightonbeezer

Again...any of you who own The Caucasian Album or Be a Dick Session, please contact me at myhairsprayqueen@yahoo.com

Now that we've got another case solved, enjoy:

Log Clench
Cake Hole

Tit for Tat..."What the fuck is a Bible Stud?"

Like I promissed, My Eye related posts won't stop here..sadlly the gifts will. So there you go..the second part of My Eye's related post trilogy: Founded in '89 by Steve Van Liew after My Eye dismissed, Bible Stud was Steve's attempt to get back to his hard rock/metal roots, what he initialy did with Overlord. Therefor he reunited with Glen Logan, the original Overlord's guitarist and put together the foundation of the hard rock/metal nearly grunge band, Bible Stud. Soon they were joined by Kenny Jakobsen on drums, Dave "Gundo" Gunderson on bass and Ric Vaughan on guitar. Same as usuall the internet was poor in info regarding the band but their myspace was pretty helpfull, here's a copy-paste from it (that is actually an article from the Rocket Magazine, year 1989, writen by Jeff Gilbert):
Sounding better than ever, original Overlord guitarist Glen Logan and vocalist Steve Van Liew have quietly kept their hard rock flame lit all these years, and with their new band, BIBLE STUD, it’s now turning into a four-alarm rock ‘n’ roll bonfire. This is due ,by and large, to Logan’s skill and mastery in songwriting. Tracks like "Blood Red" and "Tit for Tat" show confident swagger, bringing the energy level up from a steady simmer to an irresistible overflow boil. Van Liew’s half-cleared throat vocal style also gives Bible Stud an extremely distinctive, raw sound. As longtime partners Logan and Van Liew have used their hard, street level chemistry, channeling in into vital, pulse-pounding rock. Bible Stud also include Kenny Jakobsen on drums, Dave "Gundo" Gunderson on bass and Ric Vaughan sharing guitar duties.

I gues it was about two years ago...I saw on a web page an article about Bible Stud, mentioning that the band's name had something to do with their practice space. Anyway, any of you who remembers something, please leave a comment. Now back to the story...The band recorded two demos and released a single in '89 Cried/Tit for Tat. In late '90s, getting more further from any grunge influence the band metamorphosed into Crawl.The line-up: Steve on voice and guitar, Ric Vaughan also on guitar, Dave Gunderson on bass (later replaced by Denn Grim) and Eric Fenner on drums. Here's a little something about Crawl from Spin Magazine:
Crawl used to call itself Bible Stud.Overlord before that. You can call it what you want, the band doesn't mind. Heavy(of course), guitar-overdriven(surprise, surprise), and high gloss polished with sandpaper(ouch). Crawl is one of those bands that grows on you-like moss, and before you know it, you're doing the Swamp Thing. No Seattle cliches, just a deep, hypnotic, soulful crunch. Vocalist Steve Van Liew has one of the most distinctive voices this side of a blade sharpener...

I'm happy to declare myself as the first who has ever posted the Stomach Pump Single. Stay tuned...Next time---->Stomach Pump futuring Leighton Beezer from The Thrown Ups and Max Godsil and Duff Drew from My Eye.

Bible Stud-Cried/Tit for Tat (Single)
Cried
Tit for Tat

My Eye: A true vision of "heavy metal underground protest music"

I can't express how glad I am for finally being able to write this post down. I've been trying to track down My Eye story for quite some time now, and I've got to admit that it was a really cool experience, especially the fact that I got in touch with some of the artist themselves.

So, is the mid '80s and the metal titans, Overlord, broke up leaving behind the Broken Toys Ep masterpiece. Former members, Steve Van Liew and Kurtiss Lofstrom, along with Duff Drew (ex-The Trids) and Max Godsil decide to take the Seattle music to a whole new level by founding the noisy/post-punk/proto-grunge band, My Eye. Sadly but not regretable, to avoid the hype and the so-called "scene", around 1988, the band splits. Their recording history: Empty Box/So Much Going On 7'' on C/Z in '87 and a (2 song) contribution to the '89 Another Pyrrhic Victory compilation. To find out more about the band I got in touch with Kurt, the band guitarist, who gave me some basic info about the band.

My Eye formed in '85 after Overlord dissolved due to creative differences, Steve and Kurt began listening to such bands as: Replacements, Husker Du, Sonic Youth, Lou Reed, Big Black, getting further from their metal roots. The band usually wrote music from improvising live. They shared bills with Green River, Malfunkshun, Soundgarden, PopDefect, Feast, Tupelo Chain Sex, Soul Asylum, U-Men, Bundle of Hiss, 64 Spiders, the Thrown Ups, Terry Lee Hale, Skin Yard, Slow, Fastbacks, Jesse Bernstein and probably a few more. A great news was finding out that the 7'' and the contribution on the '89 compilation weren't the only releases. The band had three more cassettes: My Eye, Good to Say by Silence and Generic Psychosis.
The band's membership has never changed, although Kurt mentioned that at their 7'' single release they had some problems with Steve, and he was replaced at their final two shows with two different singers, neither of which had worked out.

Because I was intrigued to find out some inside information, Duff Drew was king enough to answer a set of questions:

1.How were you recruited as the band drummer?

I knew Steve Van Liew and Kurt Lofstrom from their days in OVERLORD. At that time I was the drummer for the punk-glam band The Trids(we were in high school @ the time). We played shows at the Lake Hills arena/roller skating rink, a place where OVERLORD had played many times. The one thing that set the Trids apart from the other bands they played with is that in addition to punk and glam covers(everyone else did the heavy metal thing)we also did originals.I think it was because I played, and wanted to play original music that Steve and Kurt thought about adding me as a member to a new project. I still remember us sitting around trying to come up with the name for our new project. We did one show, a private party, under the name Bad Karma, I think Mark Arm played with us. We shortly then changed it to My Eye.Also, with my punk background, they knew I could play kinda fast, so that might have been another appealing factor. Back in those days, what I lacked in Chops or "Good Timekeeping" was made up for in sheer enthusiasm.I like to smoke pot and drink really cheap beer, that was probably another plus on my side.... ;)

2.Was there any specific thing that attracted you to this project?

Well, Kurt and Steve were from a much more established Band in OVERLORD, and Steve was really good friends with members of the Trids, and that is how I met him. OVERLORD was like a big brother band to the Trids.Specifically, I knew what an awesome guitar player Kurtiss is, and knew that he, like I, wanted to make original, possibly "experimental", music. I was probably attracted to being able to play loud, fast and at times a little sloppy, but always right from the gut, and with no reservations or hesitations ever.I knew that Steve V. L. felt the same way. I knew that our Bassist Max Godsil, whom I went to school with, was ready for the same type of approach and away we went in our beer-soaked glory. Max is one of the most unique bass players I have ever played with.I was also interested because I knew that based on their OVERLORD days, Steve and Kurtiss could get us some "good" gigs.I was attracted to it because I felt that these guys would be fun to hang out with, and that they were very creative individuals with whom I shared a common love of Music and Hedondism, massively fueled by the vigor of youth.

3.What can you tell me about the band's name...who came up with this name and why?

I came up with it. We were changing the name from Bad Karma, we had done show with that name with Mark Arm, but he was fully into Green River.We wanted the name to have something to do with pain...and I said at one point...."hhhhmmmm pain, how bout "OW...My Eye"....then one of the guys remembered Cheech and Chong and said...."Earache, my eye!!!!.....The rest is indie music history

4. In your opinion, what was your best show?

Shows with either SoundGarden, Soul Asylum, or Malfunkshun.

5.What influenced the band to write those gloomy/dark songs?

We are gloomy, dark, hard livin, take no bullshit individuals.

6.What do you remember from the first recording sessions?

I had way more beer than exprerience, Steve and Kurt had more studio experience than myself or Max, but from the Trids, I had a little more studio time under my belt than Max/Bassist."it was all about creating free art, with the goal of a cool song, hopefully.

7.Lyrically, what did My Eye express?

One of our commentors of the day called us "heavy metal underground protest music"....A true definition of our alternative "vision" .

8.Why do you think My Eye didn't have that much success?

Success was not ready for My Eye. My Eye was about Free Arttistic Expression....not gross unit sales for a record company, but we would have been happy to work with any interested company at the time. As Kim Thayil once told me, "had you guys not broken up, you would have been signed to Sub-Pop, toured Europe, and then, who knows".....

Post My Eye, Steve formed Bible Stud, then Crawl, and he's currently playing in The One and Only True Messiah. Max played with Leighton Beezer in Stomach Pump, Kurt is still palying and recording music and has "discovered the joy of 60's Ludwigs". As for Duff, he had played in many bands since, including Beluga and Man Ray. Now he's a session drummer and instructor in Seattle area, and often plays with a band called Ocean of Algebra.

Special Thanks to Duff Drew, Max Godsil and Kurtiss Lofstrom.

From Another Pyrrhic Victory: The Only Compilation of Dead Seattle God Bands:

Harder Trust

Gets That Way

Vexed: A funk-punk "anthology" of the Northwest

Ok, well, I got to admit I’ve spent a little time deciding what band this post should be about. Luckily I passed all my exams (with high grades, too :D ), and I've also spent a lot of time playing -really oughful-at my guitar. I finally made up my mind to write down a post about a non-grunge band called Vexed, I once again couldn't decide what material to post...so I thought why not a bit of all?!

Vexed formed in '84 from the ashes of Death of Marat, and the Drills, the founding members were Milton Garrison (guitar) and Alfred Butler (bass). The band made its debut in '85 with the song "Six Foot Hole" on the Pyrrhic Victory: A Goal Attained At Too Great a Cost cassette along with Soundgarden, Skin Yard, 10 Minutes Warning, Feedback, Mental Mannequin, The Fags, Colour Twigs, The Probes and The Horrible Truth. Next the band appeared on the Bands That Will Make Money compilation in '86, and they were featured on two more compilations before releasing their own material: Lowlife compilation in 1987, and Secretions in 1988. Finally the band’s first non-compilation debut was Maybe 7'' EP in '88. The EP will eventually be included in Cd version of The Good Fight LP.

In 1990 the band made contribution to the famous C/Z compilation Teriyaki Asthma with the song Gwym on vol 4. I read almost 2 years ago on Lamestain that Yeast (another band featured on Teriyaki Asthma , on the first vol) was actually another Milton project....so why not post Solid Alligators?!

The band broke up and reformed in 1992 with Alcohol Funnycar drummer Buzz Crocker. In '94 they released an eight-song LP on C/Z records called Cathexis.

Vexed played an unique style...a mix between funk, art and death rock, nothing what so ever to do with the sludgy, grungy sounds of the Northwest.

Maybe 7''

Xians

The Good Fight LP

Gang Of Youth

Memories Of Things We Never Had

Cathexis

Bled Black

Soulseye

Teriyaki Asthma

Yeast - Solid Alligators

Vexed - Gwym

I'm taking a break once again

Sadly, really sadly my collage exams have just started so I'm finding myself forced to take a break for month or so. So what can I say...good luck to me and I'll be back with a lot of northwest obscurities.See you next time :D

Thrillhammer: The band that led the way for early Portland indie bands

Portland had an amazing scene going on in the early '90s...It was the home place of dozens of indie band, and although it was in a tight connection with Seattle, the mainstream success was quite a different thing there. Unfortunately it was all pointed to one direction, Everclear, God dammit! This and the story bellow are the main factors for hating Everclear:

When I was six or seven years old my elder sister had this Everclear tape that she used to listen almost every day. One day (guess she annoyed me with something) I recorded a couple of songs from a radio station on her tape. One of the songs I'm preety sure it was The Cure Lullaby...Anyway, when my sister found out...ha ha ha , she beat the crap out of me...And that was the day I started heating Everclear or anything that sounded like it. Fortunately, my sister lost the tape when she borrowed it to someone.

Leaving Everclear aside(I've already mentioned their name enough times) I guess you all know/agree that the top three bands in early '90s in Portland were Crackerbash, Pond and Hazel. What you probably don't know is that Pond and Hazel had something in common, and that something was a short-lived band called Thrillhammer. The band formed in 1990 in Portland, line-up consisting of David Triebwasser-drums, Pete Krebs-guitar, Ben Munat-bass, and Peter also wrote the lyrics. The band did a self-booked tour down the west coast and in May '91 broke up. Looks like they released their only album-Ghiftless- with the help of Steve Albini, when they weren't even a band any more.

Ben Munat recalls : We had actually broken up on our ill-fated tour in May of 1991. But when we got home, we heard from Mike Morasky, our friend in Steel Pole Bathtub (who worked for Boner Records), that he had vouched for us with the newly formed German branch of Rough Trade records[...] The album was recorded in a few days at Dogfish Studios in Newberg, OR (which tragically burned down a few years later). We slept in the studio and got on each others nerves. (Well, I remember for sure that I got on Albini's nerves.) I think we probably needed a bit more directing. Albini has always insisted that he's not a producer, but is just an engineer... a sonic documentarian, as it were.

Since the band sounds pretty earth-shacking to me, I would have really loved to listen to another material, if they had released any (to bad they hadn't). This is one of the records that was really underrated and definitely needs a listen and a comment on the bottom of the post with your personal opinion(so don't be shy). Post-Thrillhammer, David joined Pond, Ben formed Rotor with Dale Moerer, formerly of the Oily Bloodmen, and Pond ex-member Ken Adams. Pete joined Hazel, and after that Stolen Sweets.

Thrillhammer - Pretty Dead Girl

Thrillhammer - Motor

Thrillhammer - Bleed

Thrillhammer - Jinx