J Church and more - Rainy Summer - Ein, Zwei, Polizei

BENEFIT TRIBUTE
I’m really self-conscious and I suppose anyone that knows me has some idea about this. So it’s always been really weird for me to ask for money even when it’s to save my life and pay my medical bills. Chad Riley and the folks at Vinehell saved me in more ways than one by avoiding all of that awkwardness and putting together a tribute record to J Church and Cringer. There are 30 bands on the comp and it’s all quite overwhelming. It’s a very kind gesture.

It’s also great for all of you assholes who like my songs but think I have one of the worst singing voices you’ve ever heard. Fair enough. Now you’ve got 30 people who CAN sing doing my songs and for the most part playing them better than me.
The comp is called “Let’s Do It For Lance” and you can reach Vinehell at www.vinehell.com.

RECORDS
I’m still in the process of mixing down some demo material. I was really sick again (nothing serious) and I’ve started a new kind of dialysis. So things have slowed down. Hopefully it’s not too late if you are one of the people out there waiting for J Church songs for your comp or 7” or split EP or whatever. I’m getting my shit together.

LET THE TRIBE INCREASE
Been working on the book a lot. Just finished a piece on Exit Stance and am working on a chapter all about anarcho fanzines. I wanted to talk to the guy from Toxic Graffiti, but he’s a real writer now and there was just way too much bullshit to go through. I did get great interviews which will cover Vague, Kill Your Pet Puppy, Class War, Hit Ranking, Scrobe, Guilty of What and Obituary.

RECORD COLLECTING: PREFACE
I’ve recently, with the help of my shrink, come to terms with the idea that I’m a lifelong record collector and there’s not much I can do about it (that last part is all me, not my shrink). I think it’s worth noting that at least in my crazy mind, there are two very distinct types of record collectors and I think the difference is as ideological as it is personal.

The first kind of collector is the one that we all hate. It’s the one you think of when you hear “record collector scum”. These are the people that are the completists. They can’t just have one Misfits record. They need them all, in every color, in ever pressing, never to be played. Their version of OCD means they’re never satisfied until they have the complete discography of a band even if they only like one song. For some collectors, they need an entire discography even of bands they don’t like at all. I’ve met completist collectors that don’t seem to like music in the first place.

Within this group of unhealthy drones, there are those who not only need complete collections, but don’t want anyone else to have that access. Let’s say they find a store that has five copies of the Plugz EP on Slash (which will never happen). These are the people that will go to the store, buy a copy for themselves and break the other four copies. Not only does this increase the value of their copy, it means other collectors are even less likely to find the record. This shit really happens.

This kind of collector tends to be a loner. What they do lends itself to out of control competition and paranoia. You talk to these people and you don’t feel like you’re sharing knowledge or having a friendly discourse about rare music. It always seems to be about them and their pursuit and how they can put you down. It’s more hyper-individualism and these collectors get further and further away from reality into some pretty dark places.

I like to think I’m not one of those people though I’ve gone through phases where I thought I needed every foreign edition of every Clash 7”. One day I realized I was bidding on a Japanese edition of “Rock The Casbah” and thought, “what the fuck is wrong with me?” I don’t do that shit anymore.

I’m the kind of collector that is into it for the hunt. I love going to record stores and I don’t really give a shit about how rare something is. If I dig it, I dig it and that’s all I care about. I’m just as stoked about finding a decent vinyl copy of the first Raspberries LP as I am about the “Bullet” 7”. It’s all equally good music with nice looking cover art.

For me, this makes record collecting the opposite of being a completist and a big part of it is the social aspect of it. I think you need to work with other people to be a real collector because a lot of the good stuff is hard to find and you can’t just throw money around. If I’m out on the hunt and I find something that I know a friend in London or Philly or somewhere else needs I’ll grab it for them. I know that I have friends that would do the same for me. Plus, I know that if I really need something that I know is easier to find in London, I can ask Sean to keep an eye out for it. This form or record collecting has led to some of my strongest and most lasting friendships.

I really do enjoy record shopping. I love the thrill of thumbing through the stacks in a shop I’ve never been to. I love combing through trade lists ESPECIALLY if they’re not on the internet. When I look for a record on Ebay, I feel like I failed somehow. I love going to record swaps, even today when most dealers prefer to work online. For me, the greatest record shops around the world all have a dollar room. The ones that don’t had better either have an amazing selection or a very specialized field. Fuck CDs and fuck MP3s. It’s all about the process. Thumbing through records is fun and either you get it or you don’t.

As a collector nerd, I really do have a love for little record shops. It’s really impossible to find anything at the mall or in the chain stores. I wouldn’t say that I’m happy that Tower is gone. But I hadn’t shopped there in years. Even shops that aren’t really aimed at collectors, like Aquarius in San Francisco or Other Music in New York, are a lot of fun for me. Instinctively, I avoid Sam Goody, HMV, Virgin and whatever else of that ilk still exists in the world. In Austin I feel lucky we have End of an Ear and Sound On Sound (though I never seem to make it up north). The dollar room at Friends of Sound has been a lot of fun (though they’ve already up their prices on a lot of things). I’ll never forget the first time I went to Japan and a friend took me to a little out of the way record shop that specialized in punk vinyl and I was able to get the first Boredoms 7” and “Stop Jap” still sealed. I had the same joy the first time I stumbled into Distortion in Amsterdam or the Record and Tape Exchange near Portobello Road.

It’s almost as if that by not being a completist and focusing on the hunt, I’ve made an ideological decision about my collecting. It’s like becoming a Marxist because you’re poor and you realize that there’s nothing for you personally in capitalism. It’s like becoming a vegetarian because meat makes you feel sick. Ultimately, it’s nothing to do with books or things you read. It’s how what you already feel is encapsulated by those ideas. That’s the kind of record collector nerd I am.

Hopefully, this will be the first in a series of rants and un-cohesive thoughts I’ve been tossing around about collecting. I don’t know if it will make sense.

IN THE J CHURCH LISTENING ROOM
FINALLY PUNK “s/t” 7”
I’ve only seen this band once, but I think they’re my favorite band in Austin at the moment. They are certainly the most interesting musically. I often get really despondent living in this town and the music scene is part of why I feel like moving. But Finally Punk are great and I’m sort of shocked that considering there are a lot of interesting people in this town that there aren’t more adventurous bands of this nature.

Finally Punk, in some ways, are perfectly fitted with this later KRS, post-post punk thing that’s happening in the underground. More in tune with groups like Erase Errata or Mika Miko (both great groups) and less to do with stuff like the Liars or Black Dice (who I couldn’t care less about), Finally Punk are as much about fun as they are about subversion. Each song could be a page from the Guided Missile catalog; short and, uh, angular. They manage to cram about a dozen songs on this EP, which is a whole live set for a group like this.

The fact that they are shamelessly amateurish is a big bonus. Live and on record, every song sounds like it’s on the edge of total collapse. It’s the kind of wonder that makes the Raincoats sound like Rush. There are even moments when the songs might almost be getting annoying. Before you have time to be bothered, it’s over. I’ve listened to this record 10 times since I got it. I can’t wait to hear more. I really hope they some day record that fucked up Nirvana cover they did live.
(Wonk Records)

HARD SKIN / FUCKED UP split 7”
I had never heard of Fucked Up before this record. But what do I know? Street punk from who knows where that is remarkably like the Cockney Rejects in some respects. Very rough around the edges with brutal vocals. Sounds good up against the melodic guitar lines though there’s nothing “pop” about this track.

Hard Skin do my all-time favorite Blitz track, “New Age”. I love that new wave-y EP even though for most people it was the beginning of the end for that group. One of the greatest Oi choruses of all time, this track is as much an inspiration as “Blind Justice” from the Business or “England Belongs To Me” by Cocksparrer. The Hard Skin version isn’t especially better than the Blitz version. But it’s always good to hear this song. They also cover “1-2-3” by the Professionals, one of the great tracks to be left off of “I Didn’t See It Coming”, and speed it up making it a bit more urgent. The Professionals were a greatly underrated post-Pistols outfit and maybe this will stir up some new interest and get a “Fabulous Stains” soundtrack in the works.
(No Future?)

MENTAL, THE “Extended Play” LP
The second release from Demo Tapes is as great as the first though in a totally different territory. Whether you are into anarcho punk or KBD, the first 7” by the Mental is one of the few rarities you will probably never find. The band featuring Dick Lucas, pre-Subhumans, barking out the most primitive punk ever is totally unique, totally cacophonous, garage punk. Only a few hundred pressed, I’ve never even seen this record. A second EP was also recorded though never released as the band split when they finished school.

Since then, Bluurg has put out some interesting CDR compilations one of which includes all of these recordings. I don’t know about you, but as much as I want to love the populism of CDRs, they just don’t have much weight with me. Plus, the Bluurg discs were mostly for trainspotters as the MP3 style quality wasn’t ideal.

So working with Demo Tapes, all of the Mental recordings have been documented on this fantastic 12” EP. Eight amazingly raw punk anthems in the way that really represent “raw punk”. A lot of record reviews say “raw punk” and when you listen to it you get some slick metallic sounding production. This is fucking raw. The band sound like they’re about to collapse in a heap with every track. It’s not really much like the Subhumans (who benefit from being extremely tight). But it’s fantastic in a different way.
(Demo Tapes)

PROFESSIONALS, THE “I Didn’t See It Coming” LP
I remember hearing “Little Boys” on the KTUH punk show and reading about Jones and Cook’s new group in Trouser Press. I was even thrilled at the cover. Maybe it was just me. But I remember thinking there was no other record cover like it. I wasn’t even sure if I liked it.

Now, when this record came out, 1981, I was pretty much deep into SoCal hardcore and was pretty non-plus-ed by this record. I loved “Little Boys” but the rest of the record sounded like weak versions of the non-Rotten Swindle tracks. A year later, I would see Jones for real playing at the 50th State Fair with a sad group called Chequered Past (who should have been super cool with Nigel Harrison and Clem Burke or Blondie, one of the Sales brothers and Mr. Pamela Des Barres) and that was the end of my fascination with any non-Rotten related post-Pistols projects.

There is certainly a little filler on this record and Jones’s voice, while great at times, can be just horrible on songs like “Friday Night Square”. But the record has more than it’s share of great power pop as good as “Silly Thing” or anything by the Rich Kids. “Little Boys” still rocks even harder than I remember and is great (though I have to admit it makes me suddenly feel very sentimental). “The Magnificent” and “Payola” are also fantastic pop songs with chimey guitars that actually remind me a lot of the second Partisans LP. Subway Sect were a pretty underrated band and bassist Paul Meyers and rhythm guitarist Ray McVeigh do a good job here.
People always talk about there being some sort of Chuck Berry thing to Jones and the Pistols. People say that about this record too. I don’t see that anywhere. They weren’t rewriting rock ‘n’ roll. But they were as much a good pop group as they were a rock band. But, fuck, that sax is awful.
(Virgin)