Brian's Favorite Record, By The Stones That Is

Greatest hits collections would give you Ruby Tuesday. Let's Spend the Night Together. Mother's Little Helper.

So I didn't understand the greatness that was Flowers.

Until Liberating it from the vinyl collection. Collecting dust. Sneaking it upstairs. To listen to in its entirety.

Side A. Side B. Over and over. Middle school. High school.

Brian loved Flowers. Loves. Ruby Tuesday in particular. Those memories separate from my solo listening parties.

Memories nonetheless.

As much as I love the band. And always have. I own very little. Start Me Up is one of my earliest memories of rock music.

The Rolling Stones - Flowers. A Christmas gift. Years ago.

Gavin from Burn

When I got into hardcore I never had a huge interest in New York Hardcore. Outside of the Revelation standards.

I knew a lot of the older bands. I loved Agnostic Front. But this was from a time when punk was punk. And the hardcore sub-genre wasn't even on my radar.

I knew Cro-Mags. Warzone. Murphy's Law. But in the mid-nineties. My interest wasn't there.

But mostly. I was listening to the popular sounds of the day. Vegan metal. Ebullition screaming. Generic "emo." I can think of myself as a victim of the era. But I don't.

I still loved Mouthpiece. Turning Point. 108. And even Shelter to a lesser extent. So I knew better options existed.

I've come to love New York Hardcore. Beyond Revelation. Yet I still wax nostalgic for things considered less than hardcore by most. Earth Crisis. Snapcase. Struggle. Still Life. Unbroken. Chokehold. A broad base of listening. I don't see the point in limiting hardcore. To a certain time. Certain bands.

What I did ignore during the nineties. Until about pretty recently. Meaning this past year. Is a lot of New York Hardcore of the nineties. Wreck-Age-centric.

I recognize most of it. As not being very good.

Bad Trip is one.

Die 116. The other.

My searching. My purchasing. Has not gotten too involved. But I hope to find more bands. In compact disc form. To add to my collection.

Die 116 - Dyna-Cool. A Very Distro purchase. On sale. More Wreck-Age NYHC recommendations welcomed.

Deadguy, Rorschach and the Work Ethic

Deadguy and Rorschach have always been linked in my mind. I know they shared some members. It's more than that. I can never think of one without the other.

I think it goes back to something in the Very catalog. Like so many things do. So many memories of circling items for my birthday or Christmas. When it was on newsprint.

I think Nicole Orlando gave me my first copy.

Circling items. Handing it to my mom. As mentioned before on here. She dealt with her share of labels and distros over the years. The same held true for skateboards. As it did for music.

Phone calls. Mailing checks. Pre-Internet. Well. Pre-Internet as we know it. CompuServe world.

At some point around graduation or the start of freshman year. I picked up Work Ethic. Something about the cover has always stood out in my mind. It's very clean. Almost like New Order. Or Erasure. But nothing at all like that. Only to me. No one else.

Maybe the way "Deadguy" appeared.

It isn't worth trying to make sense of. Or understanding. Personal impressions. Not worth investigating.

Unrelated to my feelings on album artwork. I was interested in Kiss It Goodbye immediately. Upon hearing about them.

I never followed up. Or through. Never purchasing an album.

Kiss It Goodbye - Demo. I'm sure this was posted on Livewire at some point. And I'm sure that is where I got this digital version.

M*********t Weekend

Michael G's body destroyed the wall.

The house was shown.

Chad cuddled.

Michael A sported a classic 7 Seconds t-shirt.

We listened to ELO.

7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together. Acquired online at some point. What little I have to say on 7 Seconds. Has been said.

[Image via www.vintageshirtstore.com]

Regrets

I never saw Crud.

Crud Is a Cult - Triple Corpse Horror. From Sam.

[Image via www.thcphotography.com]

Louisville, Kentucky

I've been to Louisville. Once. To the airport actually. Welcomed by Colonel Sanders. A statue at least.

I went to visit Jen. She was an intern. In Lexington. I flew into Louisville. She picked me up. Drove me to Lexington. I picked up a cheap Black Sabbath tape at a gas station. During the drive.

She had an old Jetta. It was a pretty great car.

I remember her pointing out an ugly apartment building in Louisville. However. My mind pictures an apartment building in Barcelona. Gaudi.

Going into the trip. I didn't know much about Louisville. Lexington. Kentucky. I ended up liking it. I like it. I would like to go back. Part one in my not so secret love of The South.

My true love is The Deep South.

Prior to this trip. Everything I knew about Kentucky. Beyond Sanders. Was related to Louisville hardcore. Slamdek.

Actually introduced to me by my cousin's friend. During the 1994 World Cup. He had an Endpoint disc. He was not into hardcore. But had this Endpoint release. Discography maybe.

I like and liked a lot of the bands to come out of Louisville. Except for Enkindel. The Enkindels. I wonder how they hold up. Probably not well. I'll wait for Very to discount them further.

A few years ago. And by a few. Probably seven at this point. Tim and I were discussing the top ten bands of various scenes or labels. He pointed me to a discussion on The Black Table. And the rest is post-Syracuse history.

By the Grace of God - Three Steps to a Better Democracy. From Very Distribution. On sale. Of course.

I Knew Mike Would Take Me Up on the Offer

I said I would post the Slow Life EP that came with Phantom Phorce. If requested.

It was requested.

For a period I was only ripping B-sides from singles and EPs. I am rectifying that situation as I go through my iTunes.

This EP was ripped during the space saving era.

Super Furry Animals - Slow Life. Part of Phantom Phorce. See below.

This Is Not About Asteroid #4

Colin's house. Deep Dale. East.

It was a party. His parents were there. As well as friends from school. Anthony as well. I hadn't seen him in some time.

I was sitting by the stereo. With Eric. And Sean. Colin's brother.

I wanted to listen to Aja. Rock jazz. Jazz rock.

Eric. Sean. Me. Discussing My Bloody Valentine. The Verve. Northern Soul.

Alcohol fueled. The conversation moved to Spiritualized. Excitement over Spacemen 3. Mentions of Spectrum.

(I never enjoyed Sonic Boom's post-Spacemen output.)

Maybe I would prefer Spectrum now.

The conversation turned. Brian Jonestown Massacre. To the Stones. Logically. Their Satanic Majesties Request. Never heard of it. I thought I knew most Stones records. I did not.

I didn't think anything would top Flowers. I expressed that opinion.

Within a few days I went out to buy the album. Something did top Flowers.

The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request. I picked this up around 1999. Not sure where.

Credit Goes to VH1 Classic

Watching VH1 Classic. Their "video" came on. It was the standard "video" aired for bands of the era.

Live footage. Or lip sync footage. From an American Bandstand, Soul Train, Top of the Pops. And their equivalents.

I liked what I saw. Going forward I would casually look for releases.

This was prior to Seth's wedding. My parents were going as well. I took the train down early. A day or two in D.C.

Before the wedding. Fourth of July wedding. Fourth of July weekend rather. In Maryland.

Possibly the same trip as Dizzee Rascal and The Streets. Possibly not.

I arrive early. I often did. Chad was still at work. I picked up his keys. Took the Metro to Arlington. Dropped off my bags. It was hot. Sweaty hot. D.C. hot.

I made my way back into town. There was a bar next to Chad's office. I have spent many hours in there. Waiting for him to finish work. This particular day. I made an early appearance.

Around lunch. Maybe mid-afternoon. I had food. Drinks. More drinks.

I made a friend. As afternoon drinkers tend to do. He had lived in South Africa. And Australia. We talked. He put on The Easybeats. We talked more. He was shocked I had heard of them. This went on for an hour or so. No substance. Drinks. Easybeats. South Africa. Australia. I couldn't contribute on the last point.

I was useless by the time Chad arrived. The night had just started.

The Easybeats - The Very Best of The Easybeats. Christmas 2007. Finally.

Twenty Years of Listening and I Missed It

I never heard it. Or knew of it. Until the past year. When I started buying the deluxe editions of the discography.

I stumbled on it. I had no idea. I knew. And know. Everything before. And everything after. I knew from early on. Even as a new fan. A child.

I had never seen the album. Much less heard it. The artwork didn't impress me at thirty. I doubt it would have at ten.

I know some songs. Of course.

A mystery release. To me. Maybe not to others.

The Cure - The Top Rarities 1982-1984 (Disc 1) and (Disc 2). Purchased online from Barnes and Noble. I used a coupon. And a gift card. This is as far as I've gotten in the deluxe purchasing.