Here’s a seven inch record by Oakland band Hers Never Existed. This came out around 1998 on Big Mama Records (I put 1999 in the tags – sorry). They also put out a couple lps and at least one comp song (“Critical Pedagogy”). And it looks like the four songs from this record were included on the “A Static State of Developmental Disability” lp. So if you like these songs, maybe try buying that full length (New Disorder).

They’re an all-female trio, and remind me a bit of Sleater-Kinney. Big guitar, relentless, snare-driven drumming. Soaring vocals!

Hers Never Existed

In addition, my film-mate and I just finished up the trailer to our cats and skateboarding series, Sassy Moves Today. We’re happy with it. It was a long journey to the Power of Love Ollie. But we made it. And we’re all the better for it.

From the pallid, jangly melodies submerged within the final recordings of Honeywell there surfaced a more realized model of the members’ psychedelic, garage rock inclinations. Los Cincos, rooted in surf guitars and garage dirges, first came together in 1994, and, with a seemingly constant rotation of members (often just to different instruments), stuck together until 1999.

I have both the double 7 inch and the CD versions of the record displayed above. Here is the CD version for you all. The differences between the two are: The CD has two extra songs – “The Phantom Attack,” and “Marching with Mr. Mustard”; “Barbituates” has a couple more minutes added to it (starting after the backward warp-pipe); and “I am Victoria” has expanded from a modest 5 minutes to twenty two minutes (the extra time is spent in an extended jam, and then with various recordings, both audio and “field”). This record came out in 1998 on Sympathy for the Record Industry.

Also included in this post is this Japan-only release (on Horen, 1997) of a collaboration between Los Cincos and April March!

It’s a 7 inch. Two songs, both closely related to one another. “Baby Blue” begins with horns (making me, for a moment, think of Spoon’s latest… in all honesty), setting an up-beat, but laid-back beat to carry the record from sunny California beaches to “Winter Caves.” April March’s sharp vocals (as usual, sung in both English and French) pair up nicely with Los Cincos’ rich, twangy melodies and punctuated rhythms. The Choir backs up the two tracks with lush, but almost lo-fi harmonies that keep it from being too reminiscent of clean ’60s pop. Toward the end we feel the cave icing over, filtering out the sparkle – seasons never lasting and always repeating, until soon we are left with just a persistent mid-end buzz.

Los Cincos

This was requested. It’s been posted elsewhere in the past. But here it is here. But wait! Probably don’t download it yet, because I don’t have the track names. I swear that I remember this coming with an insert containing the track names and the lyrics. And I’m pretty bummed out that it’s not contained in my cover anymore. I don’t know what to do, except hope that someone leaves a comment with the track names! Then I’ll update the zip. Everything’s fine. Thanks.

This split came out on Moganono Records in 1999 (possibly 2000). In a previous post, where I said something about Peter from Ettil Vrye being in Sinaloa, what I should have said was Peter from Moganono being in Sinaloa, along with two of the guys from Ettil Vrye. Please accept my correction.

This record was limited to 300. The cover is handwoven (mine, said Peter, with “extra love” – there are some heart-shaped stitches).

Today marks the first day I’ve listened to the Tipping Canoe side of the split. It’s good! Kind of reminds me of Merel. Ettil Vrye is good, as well. Here is a review of the split. It is an excellent split, and well worth your ears and hearts.

Ettil Vrye / Tipping Canoe

I think it’s funny when people go on to describe Mohinder’s music as being symptomatic of the tensions and paranoia arising within Silicon Valley’s technological and economic ascent. I’m not one to argue with such assumptions, but I am one to shrug at them. However, if I were of a different spirit, and felt like making up funny postulations that make me sound like a know-it-all to those who don’t know I’m full of shit, I would venture to submit that Ruhaeda (whose 2001 album is featured in this post!) continued that tradition, and managed to capture the persistent angst and wild speculations surrounding the build-up to the supposedly-apocalyptic Y2K. Except instead of Y2K being a way lame and disappointing bust, Ruhaeda’s tense, repetitious rhythms, jazzy infusions, and melancholic strains that at a specified moment are suddenly punctured to bleed in a maelstrom of speed and fury are acting as a sort of coulda-been. Basically, what if when the time came everything fell apart? Well, Ruhaeda provides such coverage.

Ruhaeda were around in 2000 to 2002, and featured members of Makara and Under a Dying Sun. I used to have this album on CD, also, but I made the mistake of lending it to a really stylish romulish guy who only listened to At the Drive-In and I thought could do to hear some other bands. And so I had to transfer this from vinyl. The song order is different on the vinyl version. This album is all they released (but I’m guessing there’s a demo out there, and if anyone has it I would really really like to hear it, please), and it was a multi-split release from Unfun Records, Level Plane Records, A Strictly Amateur Films, Ape of Essence, and Pictora Pilota Records. I don’t know how many records were pressed, but I don’t think a lot, given that only a few months after this came out I had to trade a distributor the Ghost Dance comp for his last copy (I came into a few copies of that comp, so this was okay with me).

The day after Christmas in 2001 I took a bus from my parents’ house to Oakland, CA to stay with some guy I met on Skylab Commerce (anyone remember that?) and see the Ruhaeda show that he set up in San Jose. It was Ruhaeda, Sutek Conspiracy, the Get Get Go, and maybe one other band. Ruhaeda’s set was terrific – notable for massive amounts of pressurized energy released in short, tight bursts. They ran out of steam after about 12 minutes or so. (what a metaphor, eh? really says something about this music we like listening to.)

I brought my dad’s camera along with me. This marked my first time ever trying to take photos of a band’s set. I basically just held the camera above my head and hoped the guys were in the viewfinder. It turns out they mostly weren’t. Here is the best of the bunch.

One of my favorite records! It’s totally great and it fits in along a progression, of sorts, stemming from Mohinder and then Makara. The record also fits in a great sound ensemble, made from field recordings and other sounds.

Ruhaeda

Update: Ruhaeda’s drummer, Jerry, uploaded this live set. It’s from January 22, 2002, and was aired on the UC Santa Cruz radio station, KZSC. It was one of their last shows, and has a couple songs not on the album. Ruhaeada – live

Another update: Leo acquired and then uploaded their demo! Download it here.

One time I ordered the Ettil Vrye/Tipping Canoe split lp, and the guy with the stash, Pete from Ettil Vrye, also threw in the demo tape of his new band, Sinaloa. I was excited to hear the new band, since that Ettil Vrye stuff was, in my opinion, the best new hardcore I’d heard in a good many months. But, I don’t know, this demo didn’t get a lot of plays on my tape deck. It didn’t quite compare. However, it’s a demo! They’ve put out a lot since, and people are into them. Plus I think it falls in line with the tapes I’ve recently posted – kind of the same time period and similar sound and feel. Three of the songs from this demo were later re-recorded and put on the Fathers and Sons album. And Hardcore for Nerds recently posted the Sinaloa split with Ampere.

So here you go. I guessed this as being from 2002 (I’m starting to recognize that it’s not that I’m lazy, but that I am developing a fear of googling things – I think I’m afraid of what I may find, even when such fears are ridiculous.. that’s why I guess so much, and then just wait to be corrected in the comments.).

I am going out of town for a few days, but will be back next week with some more posts.

Sinaloa – Demo

On an historical and somesuch note, Flesh Colored Christs existed in San Diego for the Spring of 2001. They put out a few demo tapes, plus this anthology tape of everything: five songs (plus, side two of the cassette contains earlier recordings of the first four songs from side one.. included here). These tracks are gritty living room four-track recordings, sort of akin to that one early (October 2002) Honeywell radio show recording which I like so much. Except with less high end. But stick with it – the first half of the first song is especially dingy, and when listening to it I feel like I’m trudging neck deep through a muddy canal. But then it lets up a bit, with a cleaner guitar to provide slight release from the dirge. Or maybe it’s just that at that point my ears become accustomed to the recording. At any rate, it definitely forces one to listen closely.

On a musical note, when I first heard this (in 2001) they reminded me of a more early/mid-’90s sound, reminiscent of the type coming from that mentioned above, and maybe Inkwell (and, at the time I got this I thought they reminded me of Heroin, but I’m not hearing that as much now… it’s probably that now my vocab is less limited) – slower, more deliberate and openly emotional sections, with hints of melodic guitars entrenched within piercing vocals, and then accented with furiously fast bursts of mayhem.  But I’m also hearing similarities to bands from their era, such as Arroyo Seco (posted below) and Numbers are Neutral (and also, the part where he says “my hands are open” reminded me almost too much of Ettil Vrye’s, “body lays lifeless”…but anyway..)

I enjoyed this. Limited to 100!

Booklet includes lyrics and explanations, and some pictures.

[Flesh Colored Christs][1]

[1]: https://blueskiesabove.us/noise/Flesh Colored Christs.zip "Flesh Colored Christs"

We almost named this band Christ on the Bus. This Machine Kills is the first band I ever played in. I believe it was 1998. Brett (Not for the Lack of Trying, Stephen Hero) and I began playing together, then Steve (Dim Mak, the Fire Next Time, DJ Kid Millionaire or something, etc.) soon joined up on bass and vocals. A few months later we recorded six songs and put out this demo tape. Two songs from it went straight on to the split 7″ with Bury Me Standing (we played our first show with them, a little before recording this, and they totally liked us). We played lots of shows in Santa Barbara and Goleta, some in Los Angeles and San Diego, and a couple in Arizona. I was in the band for about eight months before I quit. We played these six songs at every single show. After I quit, there were some member changes/adds, and they released more splits, some comp songs, and an lp, and they toured all over the place.

I made the covers for the demo tape, but, um, I don’t think I have any left. It was pretty ghetto, though – just photocopied photos with lyrics pasted over. One time I made lyric sheets and handed them out at a show, and I’m sure I have those somewhere… Anyway, it was fun to be in a band, playing shows and making things. And I don’t think I did too bad on drums, considering that I really wasn’t all that good or experienced. My ideal recording for the drums on this would feature more cymbals and snare, and less hi-hat.

I don’t have any photos. Sorry. I remember seeing one once, and it showed me playing drums right-handed. It was backwards.

This Machine Kills – demo tape

Also, while I’m not playing in any bands right now, I do play pinball in a pinball gang called the Crazy Flipper Fingers. And, this Saturday the 10th (tomorrow), at 2pm, the National Public Radio show Weekend America will probably feature a segment on us. So check it out, if you can. The website will probably archive it later. I don’t have any mic time, though. They came to a meeting, which are always rowdy and loud (us playing pinball at a bar), and I didn’t bother going on the record. But I should have – I mean, when else will I get a chance to be on NPR? Oh well. My gang name is ROM.

Update: The segment got pushed back to I don’t know when.

As I mentioned I’d promise I’d post, here is the Arroyo Seco demo tape. Six songs in total. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember where or why I got this (possibly reviewed it for HaC, possibly heard about it from somewhere and then ordered it from the band). I don’t remember if I’ve seen them, even. Their last.fm page states them to be pre-Life At These Speeds. I know that they toured with Quest for Quintana Roo. So that puts this around 2000 or so. I’m pretty sure this is all they released.

It’s really good. It’s got some Yaphet Kotto/Funeral Diner-life guitar harmonics, slow, melodic parts bitten hard by abrasive, loud mayhem, and multiple vocalists screaming their faces off – real emotional turmoil.

Arroyo Seco

I was standing outside the garage known as the Biko House, and I heard someone screaming. So I rushed inside, only to discover the screams coming from a nerdy-looking blonde kid on guitar. Nothing to fear.

They were Quest for Quintana Roo. I bought the six song CD (on New Disorder) they were selling. And then later got the split 7″ with Uphill Battle (on Lo Pan), and another 7″ (on Chongo Smash/Reeducation). I think the CD is the best of the records here. But the 7″ is good, too. The split is a little so-so – I think it was recorded inside a tin can. Edit: I take that back; their stuff on the split is now my favorite, and it sounds perfect. The songs arevery piercing and frantic and raw and even gruesome. They really lay it all out. It’s stinging, fringe stuff. (Reminds me of some bits from Usurp Synapse.)

They have a few other releases, as listed on their website, but this is all I have. All three mentioned, plus inserts, can be found in the zip below. They were from Oakland, CA, and around from 1999 to, I believe, early 2002. And I think the singer/guitar player later sang for Funeral Diner.

I liken them to the likes of Ettil Vrye, Bright Calm Blue, and such. Songs about interpersonal relationships, alienation, being lost and found.

They mention Arroyo Seco in the liner notes of the 7″. So I think next I’ll post the Arroyo Seco tape I have.

Uphill Battle was from Santa Barbara/Goleta. They were originally known as Crawlspace – and I have that demo somewhere, but I’m not sure where that somewhere is. I was friends with some of the members, and I saw them many times. They play fast, tight, and anguished metallic hardcore. They signed to Relapse a little after this split came out. I used to spend all my viewing time at their shows staring at the drummer, because he’s absolutely amazing. Their side of the split has one song, and it’s great. That last minute and ten is intense.

Quest for Quintana Roo

I saw Countervail many times at the pickle patch. They were from Ventura, about 30 minutes south of Goleta, so they came up a lot. I always looked forward to seeing them. What I remember from the shows was the singer screaming his bones off with his head between his knees, accompanied by a relentless, pummeling wall of sound. They sort of looked tuff, but the music wasn’t at all your standard straight edge chugga stuff. Well, they could certainly chug, and there are some breakdowns, but they took more influence from Rorschach and One-Eyed God Prophecy (and, in terms of steady, driving hardcore, from OEGP’s later incarnation, The Black Hand).

The CD-ep is called An Empty Hand for a Heart. It came out on Phyte Records in 1998. Four songs.

Countervail