A huge round of thanks to whoever's listened/supported the show, or harassed me.
More details about the future of the show while I'm abroad next semester will be detailed in a future post.
Zombi- Challenger Deep
Etro Anime- Either Way
Swervedriver- Deep Seat
Doughboys- I Won't Write You a Letter (Live)
Doughboys- You Don't Know Me (Live)
Doughboys- I Remember (Live)
Vanilla Fudge- Ticket to Ride (originally recorded by the Beatles)
Puma Run- Sometimes Lincoln Connor...
Agalloch- The Wilderness
Showing posts with label doughboys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doughboys. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Holy poop! LIVE DOUGHBOYS BOOTLEGS!
I was poking around the blogosphere last night when I should've been writing a short paper on semiotics. My search terms? The Doughboys, of course! I ran across JimmyButtons' blog post about two live recordings he had up for download in September 2007. My jaw dropped. Bootlegs of the Canuck pop-punk greats DID exist! But then I frowned when I found the MediaFire links were dead.
So I quickly shot Jimmy an email and he, generous dude that he is, re-upped them immediately. Yay internets! Yay Doughboys! Yay portable recording devices!
Both are from 90-91ish-- so most likely the Happy Accidents lineup. I'm listening to the NYC boot right now and it's nothing short of fantastic! Check out the updated blog post with download links here and give Jimmy some hearty thanks! I know I am.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Doughboys, Part II: Crush is Fucking AWESOME
Isn't it awesome when two things you love go together great? I was hanging out with Adam Franklin from Swervedriver between soundcheck and showtime in downtown Seattle and when the Doughboys came up in conversation, he immediately revealed that only was John Kastner a good friend, but also a guitar tech for the Swervies when they played Coachella this past spring. Small world. Apparently both bands gigged together some back in the day...what I wouldn't give to have been born a decade earlier...
Crush arrived while I was still at college. Appropriately, the CD was in fact crushed, the case cracked and the lower-right corner of the case broken off. Dismayed, I gave the seller some neutral feedback and threw the album on.
Holy shit.
Better than Home Again? It's sure as shit in the same league, at the very, very least. But here, most of the band's hardcore elements are completely stripped away. In their place? Pop. Outright, catchy-as-hell vocal harmonies even more accessible than on previous records. Polished guitar tone with just enough messiness in the playing to keep things loose and fun. This is a special record, and not like Home Again; Crush is a rare record: incredibly commercial, but entirely guilt-free. The Husker Du-influenced "honest" sound of Kastner and company's vocals are hardly gone, but soaked in just enough sugar.
There's not a bad song on the record. "Shine" kicks it off with a riff that, well, shines like the summer sun. The energy has nowhere to go but up on the chorus of "Melt"-- its soaring guitars beautifully juxtaposed with the slightly subdued but still active bass fuzztone of Peter Arsenault during the verses. "Disposable" briefly takes things down a notch with a tale of a girl who's "drunk again/on Listerine" and who's "just a toothpaste cap/falling down my bathroom sink." Another phenomal chorus. "Fix Me" explodes with a riff that hits you face first. It's also ripe for photogenic slo-mo headbanging in pop-punk. Don't take my word for it, watch below.
Note John singing the prechorus just before returning to headbanging.
You get all this awesome in just the first four tracks. There's still 2/3 of an album's worth of awesome left.
So go to eBay, sort through the dollar bins and find this record. It can easily be had for under five bucks.
I'll post a song or two soon, check back.
Crush arrived while I was still at college. Appropriately, the CD was in fact crushed, the case cracked and the lower-right corner of the case broken off. Dismayed, I gave the seller some neutral feedback and threw the album on.
Holy shit.
Better than Home Again? It's sure as shit in the same league, at the very, very least. But here, most of the band's hardcore elements are completely stripped away. In their place? Pop. Outright, catchy-as-hell vocal harmonies even more accessible than on previous records. Polished guitar tone with just enough messiness in the playing to keep things loose and fun. This is a special record, and not like Home Again; Crush is a rare record: incredibly commercial, but entirely guilt-free. The Husker Du-influenced "honest" sound of Kastner and company's vocals are hardly gone, but soaked in just enough sugar.
There's not a bad song on the record. "Shine" kicks it off with a riff that, well, shines like the summer sun. The energy has nowhere to go but up on the chorus of "Melt"-- its soaring guitars beautifully juxtaposed with the slightly subdued but still active bass fuzztone of Peter Arsenault during the verses. "Disposable" briefly takes things down a notch with a tale of a girl who's "drunk again/on Listerine" and who's "just a toothpaste cap/falling down my bathroom sink." Another phenomal chorus. "Fix Me" explodes with a riff that hits you face first. It's also ripe for photogenic slo-mo headbanging in pop-punk. Don't take my word for it, watch below.
Note John singing the prechorus just before returning to headbanging.
You get all this awesome in just the first four tracks. There's still 2/3 of an album's worth of awesome left.
So go to eBay, sort through the dollar bins and find this record. It can easily be had for under five bucks.
I'll post a song or two soon, check back.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Vinyl Treasures
As the title suggests, what follows are some of my more valuable favorites I've picked out from my LPs. I don't have the most massive collection, but I'm really excited about what I do have. I collect records, but I wouldn't really call myself a "collector" per se because I don't spend massive amounts of money on a single record. As such most of the prized gems from my collection aren't the rarest things out there.
Here are some that have a special place in my heart and/or ears.
My Coroner Collection
A fantastic Swiss technical/progressive thrash metal trio that will surely merit a post of their own on the Squidlair someday. The so-so Noise Records mixing sounds better on these than the remaster CDs I have...Ron Royce's fantastic bass playing comes through quite clearly. I managed to score these from eBay at solid prices; aside from Grin, none ran over 18 bucks.
Top row: 1987's R.I.P.; 1988's Punishment for Decadence (European version with original cover); 1988's Punishment for Decadence (American version with the cover the label put on it...which is cool nonetheless. Skeleton playing a bone with a violin bow! Jimmy Page would be proud.)
Middle row: 1989's No More Color; 1989 maxi-single clear vinyl 12" of "Die By My Hand"/"Tunnel of Pain," both from No More Color; and 1993's Grin, which is the most I've ever spent on a record at $40. I would've never had a chance had I not mentioned on the Atheist forum that I'd give my pinky for it. A few days later, a French guy emailed me about his auctioning off his copy and I pounced. Thanks, Adbhuta.
Bottom row: 1991 "Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)"/"I Want You" 7" from Mental Vortex; 1988 "Purple Haze"/"Masked Jackal" 7" from the Punishment for Decadence era. Their Beatles cover is monstrous, but their Hendrix cover sucks.
Anyone have a copy of Mental Vortex with the original inners (including the poster) intact? Sell it to me.
My Bloody Valentine- Loveless (2008 Aural Exploits Repress)
As previously established, I love MBV. I also love the color red, and and colored vinyl. This is contains all of the above and is number 390 out of 1000. Sounds gorgeous and looks it, too.
Heresy- Face Up to It! (First Canadian pressing)
Heresy are another band I have Tony Pence to thank for getting me interested in. The band were a bunch of Birmingham lads who, along with Napalm Death, ushered in a new era of speed in extreme music. I bought this after buying the reissue of it. Despite the sound differences (the reissue sounds as good as they could make this lo-fi album), this was a fantasic investment. The original pressing contains a little folded sheet not only containing lyrics but also singer/lyricist John's explanations of his songs. He's quite articulate; grindcore, while a genre I often dig, isn't really known for profound thought, but he has a lot of good things to say about a lot of different issues.
According to bassist Kalv, they licensed this record to be pressed in Canada at the same time they pressed it in the UK– and the guy heading up the operation never got back to the band after going ahead with the whole shebang and only sent them a few copies.
Iron Maiden- Live After Death
Iron Maiden need no introduction. This was the first album I ever bought on vinyl, and is basically the best live metal album ever. It has some great tour photos in the inner sleeves, and seeing Derek Riggs art in LP format is like watching your favorite epic movie in IMAX. I'm seeing Maiden this Monday night, and they'll be playing a setlist very similar to this one. Can't wait.
Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream (First pressing)
Tied with Coroner's Grin for the most I've ever spent on a record at forty bucks, also from Tony at Celebrated Summer Records. The current reissues are on orange as well, but not marble orange as both LPs here are. So delicious is the shade of orange that I think of it as something more along the lines of "Siamese Dreamsicle."
Ali Akbar Khan- Ragas of India
I don't know if this is rare or not, but I have an unconditional love of Indian classical music. This was found and bought along with a whole bunch of other stuff for very little at a Rotary auction last year. Khan is/was a very accomplished sarod player and this one-raga-per-side record is very soothing.
Oh, and it has bewbs on the cover. Bonus.
The Doughboys- Home Again
I have also established my love for the Doughboys. The LP of Home Again unfortunately doesn't feature a lyrics sleeve, but the mix sounds much less cramped than the CD version while retaining the sloppy charm.
Nektar
L to R: 1976's Recycled, 1973's Remember the Future, and 1972's A Tab in the Ocean.
Nektar are a fantastically funky prog band with all my favorite textures from that time period- Mellotron, Rickenbacker bass, crooned vocals....I need to throw these on again. My favorite is probably Remember, which is about a blind boy meeting an alien.
Comus- First Utterance (2002 Earmark Records Reissue)
Yes, a repress. This alone was thirty dollars well spent, as it goes for more on eBay and the original will set you back 200, easy.
Comus are a band that will mess with your head, to understate the matter entirely. When I first checked out this album art, my first thought was something along the lines of, wow...will I end up like the guy on the cover?
Then I listened and the answer was a resounding "YES." Let's put on our imagination helms and envision the following: it's 1969. The Moody Blues and Jethro Tull are somehow touring together and, while in transit over a large body of water, crash land on a deserted island in the middle of the open ocean. Scrounging what basic acoustic instruments they could find from the wreckage (the Mellotron is gone, man), they quickly go insane from the solitude and manage to record the results.
That's what First Utterance is like.
Kaveret- Poogy Tales
Last summer, my good friend Alex and I dug through my parents' box of records, which had until that time resided in our garage. Among the mass of LPs we pulled was this- a thinly-packaged white sleeve with a hobo playing hacky sack and a lot of Hebrew letters on it. Alex insisted we play it, and while initially reluctant I finally put it on the turntable. As the music seeped out of the speakers, we were astonished. This wasn't good. It was great. Joyous, wonderfully psychedelic sounds familiar to us from the other '60s and '70s rock we listened to...only this was in Hebrew! It was beautiful and exotic and genuinely happy music.
Turns out my mother had bought the album some thirty plus years ago, when she had worked on a Kibbutz in Israel. Kaveret were huge at the time and she even saw them live.
Apparently this has been reissued on CD. I can't recommend it enough.
Here are some that have a special place in my heart and/or ears.
My Coroner Collection
A fantastic Swiss technical/progressive thrash metal trio that will surely merit a post of their own on the Squidlair someday. The so-so Noise Records mixing sounds better on these than the remaster CDs I have...Ron Royce's fantastic bass playing comes through quite clearly. I managed to score these from eBay at solid prices; aside from Grin, none ran over 18 bucks.Top row: 1987's R.I.P.; 1988's Punishment for Decadence (European version with original cover); 1988's Punishment for Decadence (American version with the cover the label put on it...which is cool nonetheless. Skeleton playing a bone with a violin bow! Jimmy Page would be proud.)
Middle row: 1989's No More Color; 1989 maxi-single clear vinyl 12" of "Die By My Hand"/"Tunnel of Pain," both from No More Color; and 1993's Grin, which is the most I've ever spent on a record at $40. I would've never had a chance had I not mentioned on the Atheist forum that I'd give my pinky for it. A few days later, a French guy emailed me about his auctioning off his copy and I pounced. Thanks, Adbhuta.
Bottom row: 1991 "Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)"/"I Want You" 7" from Mental Vortex; 1988 "Purple Haze"/"Masked Jackal" 7" from the Punishment for Decadence era. Their Beatles cover is monstrous, but their Hendrix cover sucks.
Anyone have a copy of Mental Vortex with the original inners (including the poster) intact? Sell it to me.
My Bloody Valentine- Loveless (2008 Aural Exploits Repress)
As previously established, I love MBV. I also love the color red, and and colored vinyl. This is contains all of the above and is number 390 out of 1000. Sounds gorgeous and looks it, too.Heresy- Face Up to It! (First Canadian pressing)
Heresy are another band I have Tony Pence to thank for getting me interested in. The band were a bunch of Birmingham lads who, along with Napalm Death, ushered in a new era of speed in extreme music. I bought this after buying the reissue of it. Despite the sound differences (the reissue sounds as good as they could make this lo-fi album), this was a fantasic investment. The original pressing contains a little folded sheet not only containing lyrics but also singer/lyricist John's explanations of his songs. He's quite articulate; grindcore, while a genre I often dig, isn't really known for profound thought, but he has a lot of good things to say about a lot of different issues.According to bassist Kalv, they licensed this record to be pressed in Canada at the same time they pressed it in the UK– and the guy heading up the operation never got back to the band after going ahead with the whole shebang and only sent them a few copies.
Iron Maiden- Live After Death
Iron Maiden need no introduction. This was the first album I ever bought on vinyl, and is basically the best live metal album ever. It has some great tour photos in the inner sleeves, and seeing Derek Riggs art in LP format is like watching your favorite epic movie in IMAX. I'm seeing Maiden this Monday night, and they'll be playing a setlist very similar to this one. Can't wait.Smashing Pumpkins- Siamese Dream (First pressing)
Tied with Coroner's Grin for the most I've ever spent on a record at forty bucks, also from Tony at Celebrated Summer Records. The current reissues are on orange as well, but not marble orange as both LPs here are. So delicious is the shade of orange that I think of it as something more along the lines of "Siamese Dreamsicle."Ali Akbar Khan- Ragas of India
I don't know if this is rare or not, but I have an unconditional love of Indian classical music. This was found and bought along with a whole bunch of other stuff for very little at a Rotary auction last year. Khan is/was a very accomplished sarod player and this one-raga-per-side record is very soothing.Oh, and it has bewbs on the cover. Bonus.
The Doughboys- Home Again
I have also established my love for the Doughboys. The LP of Home Again unfortunately doesn't feature a lyrics sleeve, but the mix sounds much less cramped than the CD version while retaining the sloppy charm.Nektar
L to R: 1976's Recycled, 1973's Remember the Future, and 1972's A Tab in the Ocean.Nektar are a fantastically funky prog band with all my favorite textures from that time period- Mellotron, Rickenbacker bass, crooned vocals....I need to throw these on again. My favorite is probably Remember, which is about a blind boy meeting an alien.
Comus- First Utterance (2002 Earmark Records Reissue)
Yes, a repress. This alone was thirty dollars well spent, as it goes for more on eBay and the original will set you back 200, easy.Comus are a band that will mess with your head, to understate the matter entirely. When I first checked out this album art, my first thought was something along the lines of, wow...will I end up like the guy on the cover?
Then I listened and the answer was a resounding "YES." Let's put on our imagination helms and envision the following: it's 1969. The Moody Blues and Jethro Tull are somehow touring together and, while in transit over a large body of water, crash land on a deserted island in the middle of the open ocean. Scrounging what basic acoustic instruments they could find from the wreckage (the Mellotron is gone, man), they quickly go insane from the solitude and manage to record the results.
That's what First Utterance is like.
Kaveret- Poogy Tales
Last summer, my good friend Alex and I dug through my parents' box of records, which had until that time resided in our garage. Among the mass of LPs we pulled was this- a thinly-packaged white sleeve with a hobo playing hacky sack and a lot of Hebrew letters on it. Alex insisted we play it, and while initially reluctant I finally put it on the turntable. As the music seeped out of the speakers, we were astonished. This wasn't good. It was great. Joyous, wonderfully psychedelic sounds familiar to us from the other '60s and '70s rock we listened to...only this was in Hebrew! It was beautiful and exotic and genuinely happy music.Turns out my mother had bought the album some thirty plus years ago, when she had worked on a Kibbutz in Israel. Kaveret were huge at the time and she even saw them live.
Apparently this has been reissued on CD. I can't recommend it enough.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
You Don't Know Them
But they still rule.
This post is about the Doughboys.
Before I delve into sentimental "what the record means to me" waxing and a summary of their career, I want to give a shoutout to mah boy Tony Pence at Celebrated Summer Records. His recommendations never disappoint.
A few months ago I had a jonesin' in me. I'd been playing Husker Du's Warehouse: Songs and Stories record now and again ever since I'd found it on cassette last summer, and couldn't get enough of the Descendents' classic Milo Goes to College. Something inside me was thirsty for punk-based music imbued with melody–and not in the manner of Green Day-Blink-182 crap I'd been subjected to all of middle school.
So I walk into Celebrated Summer one fine Friday and try to explain to Tony the sort of sound I'm looking for. He hardly hesitated before whipping out the Doughboys' second record, 1988's Home Again, on CD and popped it in. It wasn't as intense as the sound I'd wanted to hear, but the conglomeration of the music and the imagery in the jacket completely sold me. In the former department, the lo-fi production grabbed me immediately (in a good way) and everything about the tunes seemed to simply sound honest. In the latter, I opened the sleeve to see pictures of guitarist/lead singer John Kastner doing an insane jump with his Les Paul outstretched. Other guitarist/singer John Cummins was in mid-headbang. Brock Pytel was sweating his ass off on the drums and John Bondhead, crouched with his bass, almost looked like Mike from COC did in the mid-80s. I couldn't help but feel the hair length kinship, even though the dudes' dos were in crusty dreads. To top it all off, they all sang lead in every damn song. Sweet.
I bought Home Again on the spot and I'm still listening to it all the way through these days. Right from the disc's opening seconds, "Buying Time" has you jumping stokedly up and down. There is a whimsical, nonchalant youth about the album that seems to revel in its state of semi-slackerdom. "I don't care/if I never sleep again," sings Kastner on "Never Sleep." "I don't care/if this highway never ends." The record closes with the sole tune Bondhead penned, the ballad "She Doesn't Live There Anymore," a downright charming jam with soft acoustic plucking underneath the usual wash of flanged-as-hell distorted electric guitars. It also features a fantastic simile in the description of the girl Bondhead focuses on: "She had hair just like the wheat in Colorado/and every time we pass those fields I have to wonder/because they're waving there just for me/I can't wait to get back home again and leave."
After purchasing the previous album Whatever (1987) on vinyl and having it mailed home to Seattle
(I have no turntable out here at school), I downloaded the album digitally for further investigation. A solid batch of tunes, to be sure. There's certainly more intensity as most of the
record melds a blazing hardcore punk sound with the pop that would eventually become more prominent down the line. Amusingly, the video for "You're Related" reminds me of '90s Nickelodeon. Pssst...click here to check the record out.
As of today, I've got their third record, 1990's Happy Accidents, headed my way on purple vinyl. I'm substantially stoked but haven't been able to find it online yet. With that said, if the songs are a tenth as awesome as they are in this live footage from what I believe to be the tour for the same album in Florida circa 1991, color me excited.
Their next full-length, 1993's Crush, marked a change to a predominantly powerpop sound. "Shine" was evidently a Top 40 hit while I was still in preschool.
After this record, Cummins was the latest casualty of the band's semi-frequent lineup changes (the rhythm section from Home Again was long gone) and was replaced by Mega City Four's Darren "Wiz" Brown, who unfortunately passed away due to a blood clot in his brain on December 6th, 2006. According to Tony, the record is still good–better, even– than the band's early material. It can be found for a dollar darn near everywhere...so don't be a moron like yours truly and pay $5.50 for it.
At this time the band was signed to A&M. They put out Turn Me On in 1996 and broke up after touring as the opening act for the Offspring. Their La Muejere demo was reissued in 2003, and I've seen a rare live German tour 7" from the Home Again days on eBay. This band is worth your money.
And now, the band/their crew talk about their cocks backstage.
This post is about the Doughboys.
Before I delve into sentimental "what the record means to me" waxing and a summary of their career, I want to give a shoutout to mah boy Tony Pence at Celebrated Summer Records. His recommendations never disappoint.A few months ago I had a jonesin' in me. I'd been playing Husker Du's Warehouse: Songs and Stories record now and again ever since I'd found it on cassette last summer, and couldn't get enough of the Descendents' classic Milo Goes to College. Something inside me was thirsty for punk-based music imbued with melody–and not in the manner of Green Day-Blink-182 crap I'd been subjected to all of middle school.
So I walk into Celebrated Summer one fine Friday and try to explain to Tony the sort of sound I'm looking for. He hardly hesitated before whipping out the Doughboys' second record, 1988's Home Again, on CD and popped it in. It wasn't as intense as the sound I'd wanted to hear, but the conglomeration of the music and the imagery in the jacket completely sold me. In the former department, the lo-fi production grabbed me immediately (in a good way) and everything about the tunes seemed to simply sound honest. In the latter, I opened the sleeve to see pictures of guitarist/lead singer John Kastner doing an insane jump with his Les Paul outstretched. Other guitarist/singer John Cummins was in mid-headbang. Brock Pytel was sweating his ass off on the drums and John Bondhead, crouched with his bass, almost looked like Mike from COC did in the mid-80s. I couldn't help but feel the hair length kinship, even though the dudes' dos were in crusty dreads. To top it all off, they all sang lead in every damn song. Sweet.
I bought Home Again on the spot and I'm still listening to it all the way through these days. Right from the disc's opening seconds, "Buying Time" has you jumping stokedly up and down. There is a whimsical, nonchalant youth about the album that seems to revel in its state of semi-slackerdom. "I don't care/if I never sleep again," sings Kastner on "Never Sleep." "I don't care/if this highway never ends." The record closes with the sole tune Bondhead penned, the ballad "She Doesn't Live There Anymore," a downright charming jam with soft acoustic plucking underneath the usual wash of flanged-as-hell distorted electric guitars. It also features a fantastic simile in the description of the girl Bondhead focuses on: "She had hair just like the wheat in Colorado/and every time we pass those fields I have to wonder/because they're waving there just for me/I can't wait to get back home again and leave."After purchasing the previous album Whatever (1987) on vinyl and having it mailed home to Seattle
(I have no turntable out here at school), I downloaded the album digitally for further investigation. A solid batch of tunes, to be sure. There's certainly more intensity as most of therecord melds a blazing hardcore punk sound with the pop that would eventually become more prominent down the line. Amusingly, the video for "You're Related" reminds me of '90s Nickelodeon. Pssst...click here to check the record out.
As of today, I've got their third record, 1990's Happy Accidents, headed my way on purple vinyl. I'm substantially stoked but haven't been able to find it online yet. With that said, if the songs are a tenth as awesome as they are in this live footage from what I believe to be the tour for the same album in Florida circa 1991, color me excited.Their next full-length, 1993's Crush, marked a change to a predominantly powerpop sound. "Shine" was evidently a Top 40 hit while I was still in preschool.
After this record, Cummins was the latest casualty of the band's semi-frequent lineup changes (the rhythm section from Home Again was long gone) and was replaced by Mega City Four's Darren "Wiz" Brown, who unfortunately passed away due to a blood clot in his brain on December 6th, 2006. According to Tony, the record is still good–better, even– than the band's early material. It can be found for a dollar darn near everywhere...so don't be a moron like yours truly and pay $5.50 for it.At this time the band was signed to A&M. They put out Turn Me On in 1996 and broke up after touring as the opening act for the Offspring. Their La Muejere demo was reissued in 2003, and I've seen a rare live German tour 7" from the Home Again days on eBay. This band is worth your money.
And now, the band/their crew talk about their cocks backstage.
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