Here is a group from my hometown (San Jose, CA) that has been making alot of noise lately (literally), Permenant Ruin. Featuring members of In Disgust, Hostile Takeover, Busted Outlook and Condenada. This is some super fast, raw noisey, thrashy, d-beaty, angry stuff. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then get into at Warthog Speak because there are still copies of the red second pressing out of /150 here.
Permanent Ruin is a new San Jose hardcore band that is getting a lot of recognition lately. They are a female fronted hardcore band and are angry as hell. This is some fast, punishing stuff. Rich from Hostile Takeover/In Disgust is in the group so it's not too far away musically. I wish I would have got a copy of this on color vinyl, so I'll have to be on the lookout for it.
I love the layout on this release. Screen pressed red ink on card stock just works.
San Jose Hardcore is back with No Mistake's "Connect the Dots... Complete the Puzzle". This is fast raging hardcore in vein of SSD and Negative Approach. It's always refreshing to see this style of hardcore getting played in the Bay Area.
This 7" covers a unique array of different topics in their songs. Some of my favorites are "Unlucky You" which is about animals that are killed for one or two valuable body parts which is causing certain species to go extinct (see; Rhinos), "Expiration Date" which ponders what we will be leaving for the next generation, and "We Stole Hawai'i"which is about the US stealing Hawaii. Interesting and insightful stuff for a 80's style USHC band.
The red and white vinyl was the limited version with an alternate cover and sold out pretty quick in pre orders. This is out of /93.
The black and red cover is the normal cover out of /675. This was released by Refuse Records, Suburban Thrash, CC Fundacion (Spain) and Guerilla Vinyl (France). So if you're somewhere overthere in Europe and come across it then scoop a copy up! You can download all of these tracks and more for free from their band camp, which also includes a super cool cover of Negative Approach's "Whatever I Do". It's exciting to have these guys playing in San Jose and bringing that old style back.
Here is San Jose's own Factory Minds. I can't complete my top 2011 list without one of the best slabs to come out that year! I'm surprised I haven't posted this yet, because this album is a modern classic. Factory Minds brings a mix of the Clash, the Real Kids and a little Oi! and Reggae influence. Of course adding a little Bay Area flare that you just can't fuck with. Factory Minds formed after the break up of Call to Arms and The Last Chordz and has become one of San Jose's strongest and well known bands. Recently they opened for the Cock Sparrer and Rancid tour. They are one of my favorite live bands to see and it's always so refreshing to go to their shows. At their live shows you rarely see anyone moshing or any of that, it's usually a more mature crowd and alot of couples dancing and having a great time singing along and getting drunk. So awesome. Usually a bunch of chicks go up to the front row to strut their stuff and dance around, haha.
Really awesome artwork. The Vinyl was pressed on Arrest Records and the CD version was pressed on Downtown Academy out of Sacramento, home of bands like Pressure Point and Whiskey Rebels. You guys know how I feel about Arrest Records, awesome up and coming label!
On a sweet Camo Green out of /300. There are still a couple copies left so go scoop one! I can't wait for them to start playing shows again, they've been on hiatus for probably the last 6 months. Hopefully they'll get with it soon!
Comes with a little poster if that's your thing. Check out "Waiting in the Cold" below:
I'm waiting for the last bus... and I'll be waiting in the cold again!
So I needed to balance out all the straight edge stuff I've been posting lately (and it seems that all my next pictures for upcoming posts seem to be of straight edge hardcore bands too) with the extreme opposite with San Jose's ROTTEN FUX. This release came out in 2006 I think on Six Weeks Records. I don't usually listen to music like this, but of course I am biased because these guys are all my friends, and I have known some of them for 10 plus years now. Even looking at the inside of this makes me all reminiscent, playing alot of these shows my self or atleast going to most of them. Love them or hate them, Rotten Fux we're a big name for a long time in the Bay Area hardcore scene, playing a ton of big shows on a regular basis all over the Bay. Rotten Fux name has always been surrounded by controversy as well. You may look at them and see spikey hair and studded leather and not associate this with "tough guy" hardcore, but trust me these guys would fuck you up faster than any of these so called tough guy bands that are playing right now. Rotten Fux we're known for having some of the most violent and crazy shows in the Bay Area, and it wouldn't be a huge shock for them to stop in their seat to beat someone's ass and then return back to the finish up the set, or to have a huge fight of 30 kids infront of the venue swinging chains, throwing bottles and hitting each other with brass knuckles. These guys didn't hesitate to write offensive songs either, with titles like "Animal Torture", "I Like Drugs", "STD Song", "No Chance for Peace", and those are just on this seven inch alone so you can only imagine what the rest of their stuff was like. Either way if you like that fast style, you should pick one up on ebay for $5 here. I know they pressed 500 at the time, and I really doubt there are that many left. Here is my favorite song below from this release, "My Rules":
"Gonna do what I want, When I want, My Rules!"
They don't have much live footage on youtube, being pre cell phone video era and all, but here's a little 30 second clip of what most of their shows looked like. A good time to be had by all!
So this will be the first post of a series of posts I'm going to do called "More than just wax", stuff that has been in my collection for a very long time that has special meaning to me and I'll post little stories with it. For a while now I have been just posting mostly new stuff that I've been getting in and have left out my most sentimental records because I just felt they deserved my attention for a nice long post. First we have The Forgotten's "Class Separation" 7" that was TKO Records' Round 2. The Forgotten is a band from San Jose that still plays every once in a while, but have been inactive for long periods between now and then. During the late 90's, early 00's street punk glory days, the Forgotten were so big they would pack out any place they played. They were truly the king's of the South Bay at the time, and anyone from other parts of the Bay instantly thought of the Forgotten whenever you mentioned San Jose. Some of my best memories from shows as a kid was from Forgotten shows. This was one of the first vinyls I ever bought and I'm amazed it even still plays since it's been spun so many times. I got this about 1998 or 1999 around the time the 2nd pressing came out, and spun this over and over again on my dads record player. This has got to be in all time top 10 favorite 7"s list, ever. This release really started my interest in collecting vinyl, and after this I started to transition from buying Cd's to vinyl. Thanks Forgotten!
The 1st pressing came out in 1997 and was on pink vinyl. I'm not sure of the pressing info on this, I think I read once it was out of 500. If someone could clarify that would be fantastic. As you can see in the first picture, the first and second pressings had slightly different layouts. This was recorded at Studio B, which at the time was recording alot of the Bay Area heavy hitters. This copy took me years to find, but I got one about a year ago off ebay for only $1. It amazes me how much street punk has lost it's value. I remember around 2001, a friend of mine sold his pink copy to another friend for $30 bucks, which was hard for us to wrap our little 13 year old minds around. I even see a pink copy up now on ebay at a BIN of $5.
Here is the 2nd pressing, the actual copy that I've had for years. I know they pressed a bunch on black, probably over a thousand and I think 100 on gray. I have been meaning to pick up a copy on gray, but I haven't found one for the right price. I've seen people post them for $25, but I'm not really willing to pay that much when I know I can probably scoop one sooner or later for only a couple bucks. This record is one of the records that really got me out and inspired to go to shows. I would always go to the Cactus Club on Sundays for their all ages punk shows and when the Forgotten would head line it would be all sold out. I got introduced to alot of my favorite music through the Forgotten, since because of them I bought the "TKO Records Punch Drunk Vol. 1" sampler which introduced me to many of my all time favorite bands. That sampler had the likes of The Beltones, Anti-Heros, The Bodies, The Templars, Pressure Point, Reducers SF, Swingin' Utters, The Workin' Stiffs, The Randumbs, Dead End Cruisers, The Truents and even US Bombs and Dropkick Murphy's were on that damn thing. This was probably the most influential CD on me ever and these are the bands that always have and always will mean the most to me. If anyone from TKO is reading this, PLEASE reissue that compilation on Vinyl! It is far too important to be wasting away on CD format. So there you go... Many of you grew up on hardcore but this is what meant everything to me and made me what I am today. Long live that Oi! punk sound. Check out the title track from this 7" below:
"The common man's screaming down in the halls, while Oi! Boy kicks down the fuckin walls"
Here is one of my favorite 7"s that I own. San Jose's own (RIP) Hostile Takeover - "Youth Grenade" EP. This band was with members of In Disgust before In Disgust. I think this was one of their only seven inches that had Jon AND Trouble on Vocals, as most of their recordings after just had Trouble. I think I may be wrong, but I believe this was their first seven inch? I love the layout, just plain cardboard with a nice thick screen press coming off of it that you can actually feel with your fingers. Plus a great design with the hands throwing blood up on the wall. But this seven inch has more to it than just the great design, lets have a look...
Ok so it looks kind of plane so far, a Xeroxed lyric sheet, plain red labels with no writing, what the hell is so special about that?? Stay with me here, it gets better...
Voila! What the hell, a seven inch made out of a FedEx envelope?! Now THAT is fuckin' DIY and punk as fuck! I have seen handmade stickers out of the USPS mailing stickers, but this really takes the cake. If I remember at the time I think Rich worked at FedEx in downtown San Jose. After so many years the memory fade and it's hard to tell who is who and what is what. It says this came out in 2004, but I seem to remember actually getting my hands on this in 2003 at a show. I may be wrong. Anyways, I have no idea about how many of these were pressed or if there was color vinyl, but there is a copy just like mine on sale at discogs right now for five bucks, I would definitely head over and swoop that one up before its gone forever! Plus they also had an hour long documentary made on them, check out the trailer below, or click here for the link to the entire documentary:
Heres my copy of Maya Over Eyes' "Things Get Worse Before They Get Better" 10". Posting the In Disgust 10" inspired me to post another San Jose bands' 10". Maya Over Eyes is a really great and slept on San Jose band that has been around for probably about 7 years now, if not more. This copy is a self release and they only pressed 250 of them on Grey vinyl. This came out a few years back so I really doubt there are that many left, but they are gearing for a new release and I think they're trying to clear out their old stock so right now it's on sale for $5 at their webstore. Go pick one up to get a piece of Northern California hardcore history on the cheap!!! Plus, they are really cool and down to earth dudes.
I've always felt that hardcore bands are extremely under appreciated in Northern California. Really, any hardcore bands that aren't from the East coast or L.A. get slept on unless if they tour like crazy, or get some dope connections and know all the right people to get on the right labels, tours, etc. Another prime example is Plead the Fifth from Sacramento, that is shitting all over most the bands that are on the bigger hardcore labels, and you're probably saying "Plead the who?". I can say with confidence that there are bands on Reaper, 6131, SFU, etc that couldn't see Maya Over Eyes with binoculars. Peep my favorite track off this record, one of their tracks in Spanish called "Por Vida":
Heres my 10" copy of Reality Choke by San Jose "grind violence" heavy hitters In Disgust. Before In Disgust there was Hostile Takeover, and before Hostile Takeover there was Corporate Villans (yes, misspelled on purpose). Corporate Villans was one of the first bands I played in and a bunch of fun. I remember the day of my 8th grade graduation, I never showed up so I could go play a Corporate Villans show at the "Chemical Free Zone" in Campbell. Way better than any stupid graduation!
Anyways, this release is not really my style but In Disgust was always really fun live and of course they're cool guys. I do know that in power violence, raw noise, grindcore, thrash whatever circles they are considered to be top tier. I don't even know the fucking difference between all those styles I just said so forgive me if I'm offending anyone haha. According to deadformat.net this had 566 on clear, 96 on black (hand numbered), 50 black test presses with silk screened "tooth brush shark" and 4 on black pressed as "b edition" copies. Damn, that is a shit load of test presses? I think it may have been like 50 record release/tour copies or something and 4 test presses, but thats just speculation.
