Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Napalm Death - Leaders Not Followers and the Originals


I’ve been trying to do this thing for so long and now I actually did it, finally! It was some three years ago when I stumbled upon a blog post which featured all the original songs off the Rage Against The Machine’s all covers album Renegades. And I think it was a very good idea and I was compelled to do the same. And the first thing that I thought of was Napalm Death’s Leaders Not Followers 1 and 2. The plan was to download the songs I do not have in my collection, that is, all the death metal covers from the Leaders 1 and 2. Sounds like a good plan, so I thought. So I started with the first one which only has five tracks plus a hidden track from the Dead Kennedys. The thing is I only have the Slaughter’s Strappado and Dead Kennedys’ Plastic Surgery Disaster. So I have to download the four remaining tracks. Death’s 1985 Demo Back from the Dead was easily available and also Repulsion’s Horrified but I hit a brick wall with Pentagram’s. I thought the Pentagram here was the doom metal band from the seventies but it turned out it was a Chilean proto-death metal band which only released a cassette demo from which Demoniac Possession came from. Back then, I can’t find any blog with Pentagram’s demo. I actually found one but the link was dead. So I abandoned that little plan of mine. And I didn’t even bother to download Raw Power’s Screams from the Gutter not until later on, and I actually found and bought the two-in-one CD of Screams and After Your Brain and have posted it earlier.

Then a couple of days ago, I had an idea of reviving that little project of mine, hoping that someone might have posted the Pentagram’s demo. And what do you know it was posted on several blogs. So I downloaded that sucker and ripped my CDs of the Discharge, Cryptic Slaughter, and so on. I thought it was smooth sailing from here on since I already got the Pentagram demo but I was so wrong. I still encountered some minor bumps like the Devastation track for example. I thought the Devastation covered by Napalm was the thrash metal band but it turned out there were at least three bands named Devastation. So I did some research looking for every releases of the three Devastations and the tracklists for each release. Then I finally found it. It was the Chicago band Devastation which only released a demo, and a re-recording of the said demo Creation of the Ripping Death. But the biggest problem was Wehrmacht track from Leaders Not Followers 2 called Fright Night. I only read about Wehrmacht because of their ties with Cryptic Slaughter but I haven’t heard most of their releases. I actually downloaded Shark Attack a couple of years back but Fright Night’s not in that album. So I looked for all the Wehrmacht songs on all of their releases including their demos but there’s no song called Fright Night! I so determined to finish this project that I’m not gonna quit that easily. So the next thing I did was find a key word, look of a song with “Fright” or “Night” in the title. I found one song called Night of Pain from their demo Death Punk while browsing a blog called Lockjaw. So I DLed the Death Punk demo and listened to it. Alas! It’s Fright Night! I even looked at the lyrics in Leaders and tried to compare it with Night of Pain and yes, it’s the same. Then, I found out that song was re-recorded for the album Biermacht. The sound from Biermacht was ‘cleaner’ than the demo, of course, but somehow I liked the demo better than the Biermacht version. That’s why I included the Death Punk version as a “bonus track.”

I can now appreciate the Leaders compilation e more since I already heard the originals. And while downloading Insanity’s Death After Death, Master’s Unreleased 1985 album, Massacre’s Chamber of Ages Demo, I was also reading the bloggers’ thoughts on these bands since I really wasn’t into this type of music in the first place. I found out that these bands really deserve to be called Leaders Not Followers! Nate from True Punk and Metal even commented on how great Master’s sound was, “There really wasn't much else out that sounded this real back then. These recordings put Venom to shame.” Now, that’s sacrilegious to some Satanist circle! Hehehe. But really, I found a renewed respect for death metal, a genre I long overlooked along with black metal. But that all changed when I heard these bands. From the break-neck speed and sheer brutality of bands like Insanity, Master, Massacre and Devastation, I felt like I lost a lot of time after ignoring death metal for so long.

Aside from the originals, I also included Napalm Death’s Leaders Not Followers 1 and 2 just in case you don’t have them yet or just plain lazy to rip them. :)


Enjoy and Happy Easter!!!


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Napalm Death - Leaders Not Followers

the Original Leaders Not Followers


Napalm Death - Leaders Not Followers 2 and the Originals



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Napalm Death - Leaders Not Followers 2

Original Leaders Not Followers 2

Friday, March 19, 2010

Alex Chilton Tribute


Another sad day for music today as one of the greatest songwriters passed away. Alex Chilton was only 59 years old.

Alex Chilton started early in music, he was just a teenager when he was with the Boxtops. After Boxtops, he teamed-up with Chris Bell forming the power pop group Big Star. After just three albums, the band disintegrated and Alex and the boys went their separate ways.

Big Star, especially Alex Chilton, influenced a lot of the so-called college radio bands. From REM, to the Replacements, the Posies (Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow toured with the reformed Big Star in the nineties, but remained with the Posies), Teenage Fanclub, Garbage, Matthew Sweet, the Bangles… the list goes on.

Upon learning of his death this morning, I immediately compiled all the Big Star / Alex Chilton cover songs I have. Some I got from the net and some from my personal collection. This includes an excellent cover of Thirteen by the Counting Crows (I don’t like band personally but their live rendition kicks ass! I forgot where I got this), the classic Bangles version of September Gurls, Evan Dando’s cover of Ballad of El Goodo, Teenage Fanclub’s great version of Alex Chilton’s Free Again and Cheap Trick’s take on In The Street from That 70’s Show soundtrack. I also included the Mats’ Alex Chilton – for me, the ultimate tribute! Most of the songs here are covers of Thirteen and I think Holocaust from Third/Sister Lovers.

Tracklist

1. Bat for Lashes - Kangaroo
2. Cheap Trick - In the Street
3. Counting Crows - Thirteen
4. Denison Witmer - Nighttime
5. Elliot Smith - Thirteen
6. Evan Dando - Ballad of El Goodo
7. Garbage - Thirteen
8. Kathryn Williams - Thirteen
9. Kind of Like Spitting - Thirteen
10. Magnapop - Thirteen
11. Mary Lou Lord - Thirteen
12. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - Back of a Car
13. Okkervil River - O, Dana
14. Rainy Day - Holocaust
15. Son VOlt - Holocaust
16. Superdrag - September Gurls
17. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Ballad of El Goodo
18. Teenage Fanclub - Free Again
19. the Bangles - September Gurls
20. the Replacements - Alex Chilton
21. the Resentments - Thirteen
22. Tommy Keane - Hey! Little Child
23. Wilco - Thirteen


Download Here


The blog Power Pop Criminals posted the Not the Singer But the Songs - An Alex Chilton Tribute. The Power Pop Criminals posted both the CD and LP versions of the tribute. Get it HERE.

Power Pop Overdose posted the Small World, a Big Star Tribute album. Get it HERE.

And if you still don't have the three albums of Big Star, you can get it from Chasm Filler blog. You can get #1 Record/Radio City HERE, and Third/Sister Lovers HERE.

You will certainly be missed.

Alternative TV - The Radio Sessions


Here's a request from Snargles. Tracks 1-4 is from Peel Session, December 1977, tracks 5-8 from Peel Session, July 1978, tracks 9-11 from Street Level Radio 1981 and track 12 is from Bangkok Radio 1986.

Enjoy!


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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Antischism - Discography


Ah, noise! I miss it so much so I am going to do something about it. Actually I bought some CDs about two weeks ago and I’m going to post some of them. But before we get into that, here’s Antischism’s Discography. This CD collects almost everything the band did from the All Their Money Stinks of Death to their various EPs, except their full-length album Still Life. I gave them a listen this week and I almost forgot how I love this band. The sound the bass player created was so awesome and different, but what’s cool is how it fits perfectly with their sound. You got to check it out to believe it. My personal favorite is Flesh of Another. It somehow reminded me of I Am the Hunted by GBH. The song started out with this melodic riff, then blasts off into a maniacal frenzy. Luv it!!!

Moving on to the CDs I bought. The first one was Rovsvett’s Boll-Mats Bjuder Pa Bullkalas & Kaffe...1984-1987. Personally, I don’t know much about this band other than they released a Poison Idea cover album called Burning the Gay Nuns during the nineties. So I did some research on this release and found out that it a collection of singles and live recordings starting off with the eight-song EP called Jesus Bar en Tomte. The live sets include one from Copenhagen in Denmark on the 5th of April 1986 at Ungdomshuset and Live from KFUM in TranĂ¥s, Sweden on the 18th of September 1983. The record is everything you expect from a Swedish HC, fast and hard! But honestly, I thought that it was lacking something which I cannot pinpoint. Production maybe? I honestly don’t know but don’t get me wrong I love this record and I think it’s better than some of the hardcore from the same era.

Next up is Raw Power’s Screams from the Gutter/After Your Brain two-in-one CD. I swear I already downloaded this one I think last year in some blog but only Screams from the Gutter, not this two-in-one CD. Then I found it with the Rovsvett CD and grabbed it immediately. These Italian HC/thrash pioneers are great. The songs consisted of straight ahead HC/Crossover with great lead guitars and some songs actually reminded me of the Accused which is not a bad thing. This is a killer album so you better grab it if you don’t have it yet. We Shall Overcome is a great anthem!

Then I also found the compilation called Louder Than Hell. I think I saw this one too in some metal blogs. It’s a five song comp from Hirax, the Accused, Toxic Narcotic, Municipal Waste and Voetsek. All the songs are topnotch but Municipal Waste’s Mind Eraser is the real standout here.

The last one for this post is Cluster Bomb Unit’s Stumpf Ist Trumpf. I already posted this one a long time ago but somebody requested for a re-up so here it is. This is actually a tour CD for their Asian tour and includes covers of No Security (Chaos UK), State Violence State Control (Discharge), Polizeistaat (Mob 47), Rotten to the Core (Rudimentary Peni) and Who's Gonna Fight the 3rd World War (Subhumans).


Enjoy!!!

*** Special thanks to my good friend Erin E. for the title bar picture.


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Rovsvett - Boll-Mats Bjuder Pa Bullkalas & Kaffe...1984-1987


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Raw Power - Screams from the Gutter / After Your Brain



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VA - Louder Than Hell



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Cluster Bomb Unit - Stumpf Ist Trumpf



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