Memories of Tomorrow

XXX - Some Ideas are Poisonous (1995)

2007-09-10T00:31:00.002-04:00

First I have to apologize for the lack of posting lately. I went on vacation and pulled my back. It's been downright painful to sit down.

This is a compilation of straight-edge hardcore bands that didn't (and still don't) have the "typical" straight-edge moshcore or youth crew sound popularized by bands like Earth Crisis and Youth of Today. I remember hearing about this compilation and waiting desperately for its release. Being straight edge was never terribly important to me, but for some reason it was vital for me to know that being straight-edge didn't have to mean being a violent, hardline, jock.

The liner notes, written by Ebullition/HeartattaCk founder Kent McClard, talk similarly about straight-edge. It's not about belonging to a crew or regurgitating breakdowns, but rather it's a choice a person can make that will affect other choices in their life.

Musically, Some Ideas are Poisonous has some of the best bands of the day. Monster X, Portraits of Past, Policy of 3, Groundwork, Pogrom, Threadbare, Shatter The Myth, Endeavor, None Left Standing, Trees Without Leaves, Prozac Memory, Via, Well Away, and Frail.

XXX - Some Ideas are Poisonous [83MB]

By All Means

2007-09-17T16:36:00.002-04:00

By All Means hailed (hails?) from Modena, Italy and were (are?) part of the La Scintilla squat. Their first LP Blind Side, was a mix of youth-crew style music and anarchist lyrics. Their sound got more crusty as they progressed, yet they somehow managed to not regurgitate the classic D-beat style. In 1999 they toured the U.S. with Avail, a band that has always had a firm foot in the DIY camp.

They are the nicest guys in the world and play a mean game of foosball too. The guitar player Gallo now plays bass in Headed Nowhere.

Blind Side (1993)

Fino a Qui (1998)

Snake Nation (1989)

2008-02-04T22:45:00.001-05:00

Snake Nation was a side project of Corrosion of Conformity’s Woody Weatherman featuring fellow CoC-er Mike Dean and Brian Walsby (known for drawing the original artwork for 7 Seconds Walk Together, Rock Together, among other things). I’ve been meaning to post this since I started this blog, and since there seems to be a lot of Corrosion of Conformity buzz on a few other blogs recently I figured now was a good time.

Snake Nation was born from a time of turmoil for CoC. Their singer and bass-player had just left, and finding replacements was not going well. Apparently Woody had some songs kicking around, called up Brian and asked him if he would be into playing on the project. Mike Dean came with a few old songs he had written for CoC just before he left. A few new songs were written. A Blue Cheer cover was thrown in for good measure.

Musically, Snake Nation are somewhere between classic, 1980’s Corrosion of Conformity and Blue Cheer. Really. It’s kind of psychedelic and punk at the same time. The production isn’t so hot, it was recorded on the cheap and they pocketed the budget they didn’t spend. The engineer thought it sounded like Foghat! What’s important is this is the last of the “old” punk CoC sound, before the “new” metal/southern rock CoC took hold. I consider it the lost Corrosion of Conformity record.

For those interested in further reading, I present the following links:

This is Snake Nation's only release. Rumor has it the cassette version has extra tracks. The download is a rip of my personal vinyl. If you contact Brian Walsby, he's been known to make people CDRs for a few dollars.

Snake Nation (1989)

Kritická Situace - self titled (1993)

2008-02-21T14:10:00.003-05:00

Kritická Situace, or Critical Situation, were from the Czech Republic. This is their one LP from what I can tell… Everything I can find on the internet is in Czech. They used to have a website, but it’s gone… You might be able to find it on the Wayback Machine, but I didn’t feel like looking.

Musically, Kritická Situace aren’t too far off from 4 Walls Falling. Melodic hardcore, with youth-crew and metal influences. I know my old band was greatly influenced by their song-writing, especially in the early days…

Kritická Situace (1993)

The Sky is Falling...

2008-01-09T09:31:00.000-05:00

Two nights ago, our ceiling fell due to water damage and broke my laptop. I was using that laptop to rip vinyl for posting on this blog... So my choices are severely limited, until I can get another computer to rip vinyl. I still have my desktop, so I can post CDs.
Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident.
If you're interested in pictures, they are here.

New Direction

2008-11-19T09:42:00.002-05:00

I'm going to stop posting here. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop posting, though my volume of posts decreased when my ability to convert vinyl into MP3s came crashing down.
Memories of Tomorrow has a new home: http://automattack.net/mot/. I'm merging it with my personal blog, however you can read or subscribe to only my music posts at that address.
Two main reasons for the move:

to consolidate my blogging into one place.
to move away from file sharing sites like Mediafire or Zshare. I'm hosting the downloads directly now! If any of the download links are broken, please let me know. I'll re-up them.

Thanks. I hope to see you in my new home.

Virus 100 (1992)

2008-06-24T20:29:00.004-04:00

All right, this update is long overdue. I appreciate all the traffic in my absence.
Virus 100 is Alternative Tentacles' 100th release and a tribute to the Dead Kennedys. This is one of the best punk/metal/wacko compilations out there. There's really a broad range of genres on this one, and many different takes on some Dead Kennedys favoriites. Some faithful to the original, and some, well... not.
There's the wacked out rock-a-billy of Evan Johns and Mojo Nixon, metal from Napalm Death and Sepultura (fucking brutal), hip-hop stylings of the Disposable Heros of Hiphoprisy, and some weirdness from Faith No More, Kramer, and NoMeansNo, whose acapella version of Forward to Death is nothing short of amazing. A big highlight for me is Les Thugs version of Moon Over Marin . Who knew the song was tuneful?

Track listing

Police Truck - The Didjits (2:18)
Too Drunk to Fuck - Evan Jones and His H-Bombs (3:38)
Halloween - Alice Donut (5:11)
Let's Lynch the Landlord - Faith No More (2:53)
Nazi Punks Fuck Off! - Napalm Death (1:21)
Forward to Death - Nomeansno (1:12)
Chemical Warfare - Steel Pole Bath Tub (3:31)
Saturday Night Holocaust - Neurosis (6:51)
Moon Over Marin - Les Thugs (5:28)
Ill in the Head - Victim's Family (2:41)
California Über Alles - The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (4:47)
Winnebago Warrior - Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors (3:29)
Drug Me - Sepultura (1:49)
Insight - Kramer (3:06)
Let's Lynch the Landlord - L7 (2:01)
Holiday in Cambodia - Sister Double Happiness (4:16)

Virus 100 (1992)

Declaration of War

2007-12-19T12:34:00.005-05:00

We declare the death of vices through straight edge, which is our solid moral. We believe in it as a means to reach the real conception of that which surrounds us while still remaining pure. We do not tolerate any form of vices because these do not permit the individual to utilize his senses and make him regress to a low level of existence making him a slave to substances which are harmful to his mental and physical health, surrounding him with false values that make him live in a permanent illusion, keeping him busy realizing nothing instead of the communion between soul and matter which should be the goal of every existence. A vice is anything which forces you in behavior that has nothing to do with the realization of yourself. When you feel the need to drink a Coke, to have a chewing-gum, to eat junk-food, to have a beer or a joint, it is not you who really wants this but these substances that impose themselves on you, in a neurotic-consumer (sic) cycle that enslaves you to the point where you depend on it psychologically and even physically. These are all things brought forth by a cultural system that wants you acceptant of these rhythms of consumption, so as not to leave you space to think freely, to know, criticize and propose . One doesn't need this shit to live! Drugs confuse your perceptions so as to make you more vulnerable while prey to artificial paradises that make you as active as an idiot, a servant to substances that make you feel happy even when they are smash you. Liberation of conscience? It's its annihilation. Those who drink, smoke, dedicate themselves to vices, poison themselves and harm us with their stench, showing pride for the noose that tightens around their neck. This is why we are forced to wear gasmasks. They are sick and doctors shouldn't feel any compassion for them while healing them. Force can be used to change the ideas of these sinners.

With the holy message of straight edge we also preach the perspective of a new social order which buries that of multinationals and of profit as the one reason for living. We are not for communism as that dictated by the parties that identify themselves in it. Marx was a guide for us all but his intuitions must be updated to our present world. Let us learn from those who have touched social themes before us, but let us also use the criteria of knowledge-criticism-proposal in this case as well. Ours is a post-Fordist era with a crucial importance focused on the management of information, Let us not limit ourselves to re-proposing economic theories that do not consider the real dynamism of the market. Let us not continue dreaming of conquering Winter palaces, red guards, French Mays and barbudos. Because there will never be a revolution. The system is a complex machine that absorbs everything, even mass revolts which are only its phases of transition on the road to a new balance, a settlement of society itself. It has happened, instead, that the direction of the system doesn't occur through the masses but because of secret powers. Therefore, why not use theses secret powers to push society in the right direction? This way instead of being puppets we would be puppeteers. Equality isn't even the goal to reach. To each according to his merits. We have to settle that each person should have what one deserves and should be put in a position to deserve what his mental capabilities allow him to. The mass is ignorant and cannot be taught adequately because it is a mass. The mass must allow its voice to rise through a concentric circle-type collectivism. The common good will be the standard used to decide, single realties must be protected. Let us therefore infiltrate into the power systems pretending to play by the rules. Remember: mimetism is our weapon.

This is why we hide our identity. The exhibitionists are reached by the counterpunches of the reactionary forces. Ours is total iconoclasm, as happens with this record that will piss of many who did not expect such an attack on their peaceful moral of passive music consumers. The voracity of collecting will therefore be made vain by our work. Style is unnecessary when it is used as only an empty manner. This is an attack launched with an instrument that you all dispose of: your stereo. To re-discover past values which can also be the future, Never lower your guard, do not turn music into boredom for wimps, have the courage to have balls. Otherwise, to listen to something new we will have to play the old records at 45 r.p.m. instead of 33.

X Gasmask X 1994

All Chrome - Flounders Flyers College and Canada (1999)

2007-11-12T17:51:00.002-05:00

Try google-ing this band and see if you come up with more than me... I don't know shit about All Chrome other than they sound remarkably like Verbal Assault. My friend Derik turned me onto them when my old band was on tour. We were driving around New Jersey looking for a record store and he pops in a tape of this CD. Flounders Flyers College and Canada was released by Ferret Music and is a discography I believe... Like I said I could find nothing about them.

All Chrome - Flounders Flyers College and Canada (1999)

Groundwork - Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent (1994)

2008-01-25T17:53:00.000-05:00

To go along with this post on Corgeasm, I present Tuscon, Arizona’s Groundwork. Typical of many bands of that time, they lasted a few short years but had a large impact on hardcore in the mid-1990s. Their brutally heavy yet emotional style set them apart from many bands.

This record, along with Unbroken’s life.love.regret, came along at just the right time for me. I was looking for something a little heavier than bands like Indian Summer, yet not the tough-guy, straight edge, moshcore of Earth Crisis and 25 ta Life. When A Prayer for the Dead finally kicks in, it still sends shivers down my spine. The bass is so heavy. Bands like this make we want to start bands of my own, just so I can make music that might touch others the way this touched me. Cheesy, I know…

As usual, I don’t know much about this band. I heard that some of the members went on to another band called Absinthe. This CD is an incomplete discography release, combining the Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent LP, their side of the Unbroken Split, the Living in Fear and Lay Down 7 inches, and their track from the Lacking Mindset compilation. Missing is their tracks from Land of Greed… World of Need, a split with Undertow, and possibly more…

Groundwork - Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent (1994)

Land of Greed... World of Need (1994)

2007-12-10T08:59:00.000-05:00

First Let me say that this is long overdue... Please accept my humble apologies.

Trustkill's first release was a split with Watermark, a benefit for homelessness, and an Embrace tribute. Knowing me, I probably bought it for the Avail track, or maybe even Lifetime. Regardless, this has an all-star lineup of mid-90's hardcore all covering the Embrace album, including Nations on Fire, Current, Undertow, Groundwork, and Rancid.
All the bands take Embrace and make it their own, leaving the listener wonder "Where have I heard this before?" But the highlight for me is really Current's version of Dance of Days with Matt Weeks' operatic singing. It shows the limitations of Ian MacKaye's singing at the time, and though his singing has improved greatly since then, I can't help but wonder what it would have sounded like if Current would have covered the whole album.

Groundwork's track is incredibly heavy. Rancid somehow manages to make Embrace sound like, well... Rancid. Altogether this is a great look at mid-90's punk and hardcore, along with a loving tribute to a pioneer emo band.

Land of Need... World of Greed (1994)

Track List:

Give Me Back - Nations On Fire
Dance of Days - Current
Building - Undertow
Past - Groundwork
Spoke - Outspoken
Do Not Consider Yourself Free - Sparkmaker
No More Pain - Function
I Wish I - Blindfold
Said Gun - Avail
Can't Forgive - Rancid
Money - Lifetime
If I Never Thought About It - Process
End of a Year - Farside
Last Song - Ashes

Stuff...

2008-01-14T17:17:00.001-05:00

~~Mediafire not only deleted all my files, but deleted my account too.~~ If you want me to re-upload something, just comment in this post. That said, can anyone recommend a good file sharing site?

Also, I changed the look. What do you think?

Kilara - Southern Fried Metal (1999)

2008-01-14T21:46:00.001-05:00

Virginia’s Kilara was one of my favorites during the late 1990s. My band did a short tour with them and we all made quick friends. They were similar in sound to bands like Down, yet more heavy, more punk, more down to earth, and more approachable. Kilara took equal parts blues, punk, metal and bluegrass to cook up a fierce, chaotic, cacophony of, err… southern-fried metal. As far as I know, they were one of the first, and certainly my initiation to the sludge-metal/southern-metal genre.

Formed as a side project of then-Avail-drummer Erik Larson, members went on to be in Alabama Thunderpussy, Page 99, and others. Southern Fried Metal compiles their 7–inches, splits, and demo.

Kilara - Southern Fried Metal

Face to Face - Over It (1994)

2008-01-06T00:46:00.001-05:00

I think I was the only one of my friends to like Face to Face for some reason. Neil from Tribal War Records turned me on to them after I inquired about their first LP reissue on Fat Wreck Chords. I always thought they were southern California’s answer to Chicago’s Pegboy, simple, melodic punk songs that were energetic and easy to sing along to.

While I liked their music, I always had mixed feelings about Face to Face. There were rumors (and demos) floating around of their hair-metal band background and doubts of their intentions in a scene that was rapidly becoming more and more dogmatic about it’s D.I.Y. ethic, and becoming more of a commodity to be capitalized on. Along with Green Day, Jawbreaker, and Samiam, Face to Face signed to a major label subsidiary, the poorly named Victory Music (Victory Records was a well-known hardcore label from Chicago), on which Over It was released.

Over It compiles some tracks from previous singles and EPs, but also adds a second guitarist, Chad Yaro, to “fill out the sound.” The added guitar tracks and re-mixing made this record of familiar songs sound unfamiliar to me. The sounds is more full, that’s for sure. But gone was that familiar Westbeach Studio sound, and in it’s place was a grittier, fuzzier sound. It took me a while to get used to, and left me wondering if this was the future sound of Face to Face and melodic punk. This was not to be the case, as their next album, Big Choice, had the cleaner sound I liked.

Face to Face - Over it (1994)

Manliftingbanner - We Will Not Rest (1995)

2007-08-26T00:04:00.001-04:00

I don't know too much about Manliftingbanner honestly. Communist Straight-edge hardcore from the Netherlands. Features ex-members of Lärm. After their breakup in February 1994, members of Manliftingbanner went on to bands like Dead Stool Pigeon, Mainstrike, and Seein' Red.

We Will Not Rest re-issues their 10-inch and 7-inch releases with a few bonus tracks recorded during those sessions. It's solid stuff that will have you circle-pitting (is that a verb?) and finger-pointing in your bedroom.

Commitment
Never
Sister
Donkey Shot
Still Straight
Rage
Blow Your Brains Out
If
No Compromise
End the Fear
Willing
Balance the Books
Consume & Kill
The Other
New October
Empire
Blood
Spirit
One of Them
Myth of Freedom
Sister, Part 0
End the Fear, Part 2

http://www.divshare.com/download/1734761-b2a

Samiam - Don't Break Me (1992)

2007-11-01T23:22:00.001-04:00

When I got this 10-inch I had recently discovered Samiam. I was entranced by their blend of emotional crooning, swirling, wall-of-noise guitars, and punk energy of their second album Soar blasting from the speakers of my local indie record store. The next week I found their self-titled album at the college radio station where I was a DJ and played a few tracks on the air to get more familiar with them.

In the liner notes of their early records, the pictures of them playing live had one member (Sergie?) wearing striped t-shirts. This, along with their Dr. Seuss inspired name and cartoon graphics, made me feel like they shared my dorky childhood identity. When I went to see Samiam live, I noticed they didn't have a roadie, not even to peddle their t-shirts and stuff. When I approached them about it, they promptly offered me the job. I politely declined, but offered them a place to stay the night.

It's safe to say that Samiam made bands like Hot Water Music, Boy Sets Fire and As Friends Rust (notice a trend here?) possible.

So anyway, Don't Break Me was a teaser, if you will, for the upcoming album Billy. It has a few new tracks and 3 acoustic versions of older songs from Soar, Underground, and their first LP.

Samiam - Don't Break Me (1992)

Encyclopedia of American Traitors

2007-10-21T17:33:00.001-04:00

New Jersey's Encyclopedia of American Traitors shared members with bands like Spirit Assembly, Yaphet Kotto, and Fields Lay Fallow. Their sound was chaotic, yet more metal influenced than many emotional hardcore bands. Their tougher-than-most sound was complimented by their tougher-than-most looks. When I saw them at Dick Street, I remember ogling the guitar players sleeve of tattoos and thinking they were the toughest looking, and sounding band I had ever seen that I wasn't afraid of. If you can't guess from the band name, the lyrics are extremely political

This is their Discography CD from 2002 which includes both 6”s, the split 6” with Kwisatz Haderach, the split 6” with Orchid, as well as comp tracks and a bonus Black Sabbath cover at the end.

Encyclopedia of American Traitors - Discography (2002)

Disembodied

2007-10-06T10:42:00.001-04:00

Disembodied were from Minneapolis and had an influential sound that was heavier than almost every other hardcore band. They down-tuned their guitars farther than seemed possible to still get actual notes from them. Their sound was similar to Unbroken but darker and more polished, probably due to better musical competency (let's face it, a lot of life.love.regret. is downright sloppy) and better production in the studio.

One of my favorite breakdowns ever is from "Dislocation" on If God Only Knew... partly because it's not a typical breakdown, and partly because it sounds like the guitar player's wrist is going to fall off. Musically it chugs a long in E, but one guitar is downpicking 16th notes the whole time(!) while the other does a rhythm part that makes your head bob.

Here are my three favorite releases. They all happen to be EP's.

Existence in Suicide (1995)

The Confession (1996)

If God Only Knew The Rest Were Dead (1998)

Eucharist - self titled LP (1996)

2007-09-27T00:16:00.001-04:00

The one time I saw Richmond, VA's Eucharist, they blew me a way. An awesome brutal attack of hardcore and noise. Their singer had done my band a favor and booked a show for us in one of those art lofts that seemed to constantly spring up in Richmond. I wasn't really expecting much from these kids I didn't know. As the hometown crowd gathered while they were setting up, I began to think that they knew something I didn't. After their set, I bought the LP right then and there.

I think Jeff from the Mountain Collective probably said it as well as I can. "Eucharist is one of the most underrated bands of the '90's. Pure, skull-crushing hardcore that brings to mind both Econochrist and Rorschach with even more of a straightforward, thrashy assault. Heavy, dark breakdowns (the head bobbing kind not the kick-boxing kind) fill the gaps between blasts of all-out venomous thrash. The lyrics are negative, frustrated, misanthropic diatribes against the misery of other people and everyday life."

As far as I know they only released this LP and a few tracks on Nothing's Quiet on the Eastern Front, a great compilation of East Coast hardcore circa mid-1990's.

Eucharist (1996)

Track List:
Plague
Born In A Mess
Exit
Promised Splintered
Spoon Fed
Fangs
Praying For Failure
Body And Blood
Frozen Minds
You've Been Had
Sensory Deprivation
Invincible
Fooled Again

Vacation

2007-08-28T23:44:00.001-04:00

I'm going on vacation so I won't be able to post anything for a week or so... I suggest taking a peek at some of the blogs listed in the links section if you haven't already done so.

See you soon.

Welcome

2007-08-19T00:11:00.001-04:00

Hi. This is yet another MP3 blog. I decided to do this after seeing/reading a lot of other MP3 blogs but none of them focusing on punk and hardcore from the 1990's.

For me, the 1990's were a revival of sorts. I got into punk in 1983 or so, but lost touch with current bands when I went away to college in 1988. I realize that's sort of backwards from what happens to most people. But I went to college in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina.

Anyway, around 1993 or 1994, my friends did two things that changed my life. They asked me to play drums in their band Blownapart Bastards. Their drummer was leaving for a year to go to school in Scotland. I said, “Yes.” I had seen them play a few times before we were friends. Blownapart Bastards were exciting, political, and most of all, sounded punk as fuck. After seeing Blownapart perform I realized that you didn’t have to be a band like the Descendents, 7 Seconds, or the Dead Kennedys to be punk, and made a conscious decision to make friends with them.

The other thing they did was they started having punk shows at their house, aka Dick St. At Dick St. I got to see bands like Dillinger Four, Indian Summer, Deadguy, and Los Crudos. I would go to every show and buy records from band I liked. Then we went on tour! I bought more records, saw more bands, etc… Since then I’ve traveled the world, recorded and release records of my own, I even ran my own record label briefly. I’m so lucky that I found a way to do all that.

Assfactor 4 - self titled LP (1995)

2007-08-21T00:37:00.001-04:00

There was nothing quite like Assfactor 4. Formed from the ashes of 2 other Columbia, SC bands, Unherd and Tonka, Assfactor 4 were the fastest, most frantic band I'd ever heard at the time. They played a million miles an hour and the only way I could tell they were all playing the same song is that they stopped and started at the same time. Still, they made me shiver when I got to see them. They were that good.

What made Assfactor 4 stand apart from most of the screamo bands of the time was their straight-forward, catchy style and the amazing speed they played. The drummer would count off the song and play as fast as he could, start to finish. No quiet melodic parts, no calculators needed. No crying. Just fast and furious.

Here's a video I found on another blog:

Assfactor 4 is their first LP, after a slew of 7-inches, compilations and splits.

Hey Stinky
Life is Wacky
I Reckon
Mama Yongue
Fuck Hate Breeders
This Shit is for the Birds
#1 Main
Dear Grampa
Burger-Rock
Billy I Got Your #
Dorothy
To the Bowers That Be
Deliri-Loco
Can't Fight the Feeling
Nuked Up Dreams
Rosewood
Attempted Control
Assfactor 4

http://www.divshare.com/download/1669482-20a

Undying - This Day All Gods Die (1999)

2007-08-19T16:52:00.001-04:00

Undying were from Raleigh, NC, vegan, straight-edge, and played a blend of metal and hardcore. Not like the tough-guy, vegan-moshcore bullshit that was going around at the time (and still is), but rather Undying pulled the best parts of metal (melodic guitar lines) and paired it with some of the most exciting parts of hardcore (political lyrics and some seriously brutal breakdowns). Recently a friend pointed out that not only was their sound a self described mix of Unbroken and My Dying Bride, but so was their name. It took me, what, 8 years to realize that?

When Undying played, they were explosive. I always wondered how the guitar players could jump around and play so perfectly at the same time. Undying were also into the writing of Daniel Quinn. So much so that they used shell imagery and put the Ishmael web-site on the original release of this CD. This contributed to what I saw as much needed freshness in the world of hardcore. It wasn’t about being cool, or being preachy. It was about good music, thought-out lyrics, and love of what they were doing.

This Day All Gods Die is their debut release from 1999. It was later re-released in 2001.

Intro
This Day All Gods Die
Lay This Life Down
Fire of Life
When the Heavens Shed Tears
For Liberation

http://www.mediafire.com/?b5tmdgm0twm