His Hero is Gone, Medicine demo

I saw His Hero is Gone in New Orleans in 1997 or 1998 at a tiny warehouse space off MLK called The Temple of the Becoming. Andon did a reunion show to open, and that in and of itself was pretty insane--with them thinking Shaggy wasn't going to show up, and him running in the door at the last possible second and grabbing the mic just as the vocals to the first song were supposed to kick in. He ended up puking in front of the stage after their set. So then His Hero is Gone plays. And they were amazing. And after that, these crazy bywater-style circus freak weirdos start putting all kinds of metal rods in the face and lighting the ends on fire, swinging a flaming ball and chain around the small space just inches from folks' faces. I only wish I had heard more of His Hero is Gone before seeing them live--like so many amazing bands who I would catch live before really getting into, Avail, Dropdead, Tragedy, etc--I would've flipped out if I had only seen them a year later.

For people who don't know anything about His Hero is Gone, they were from Memphis, Tennessee and played music that was dark and heavy. This is real hardcore. Ex-members of Copout, Man With Gun Lives Here, and Face Down. Folks from this band went on to be in Tragedy, From Ashes Rise,Deathreat, Call the Police, Dimilaia, Warcry, and Union of Uranus.

uncut live set at the Shelter Club in Tokyo, February 18th a long time ago

Medicine demo tape
Like Hell
View from a Holding Cell
Ghosts of Regret
Explosion
The Oracle
Of Thieves
Descent
Thank Your Lover in Sincerity
Bombs Away

Robinsons post-discography tracks

It's Just Rock & Roll
Slow Down
Vanessa
She's Basically My Girl
Cruisin'
I Keep Hitting on Girls, They Keep Hitting Me
Hop to the Record Shop
You're Just a Cover
You Can't Run From the Sun
Bryan Funck Ripped Us Off
I Love You (But the Game is One)
Bye Bye Baby

I Wanna Be a Ramone
Fun Times
Do the Gal-I-Gator
I'm Doing Fine
The Lucky One
Punk Rock Girls
I Should've Known Better
Tell Me Why
It's OK
She's Coming Over
I Hate Sonic Records
Excited
Dianna
Heathcliff Theme Song
Lovely Day to Break Up
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Where's the Rock & Roll?
Butch
Rock & Roll High School

Heathfliff / Suzie
Vanessa
She's My Girlfriend
I Hate Sonic Records
Stay the Same
Pulling Strings
I Keep Hitting on Girls, They Keep Hitting Me
Beat on the Brat
KLSU
Lucky One
Bogalusa
Punk's Not Dead
She Likes the Beatles
Beat on the Brat
She's Coming Over
Adam's Kazoo
One for Me
829 Kurt
Angela
And I Will Be with You
Hold Your Hand
Forty Dollars

Marrow tour demo

From the ashes of Greyskull comes Marrow. The new band includes Adam and Tony from Greyskull, Justin from Degania, and Parker from Taiga. Great, amazing hardcore. They're still looking for a full time bass player. Anyone live in the NW? The photo above is by Paul Smith. The demo below is three songs they did for a recent tour with Sojourner, a few songs that will probably be on the full length they're about to record.

Water Liver Fire - 1st Movement
Water Liver Fire - 2nd Movement
To the Lighthouse

Greyskull demo

One Christmas I got an email from a guy named Adam from a band from Tacoma, Washington called Greyskull. They were touring with Bafabegiya from Reno. They wanted a show on Christmas night, and some friends were already throwing a show at the infamous Dixie Taverne. I explained to them ahead of time that it was a bar show, but that they didn't card and that this was well known, so the show was all ages for all intents and purposes. Well, when they got there, someone was carding, so they were basically like "F this s!" and left. I think they tried calling me, but this was before I broke straightedge and had a cel phone. So they took off, and that was that. Until I moved to Oakland following the hurricane. I went and saw both bands open for Requiem at Gilman St., and dude from Bafabegiya got up and said "I love Gilman, blabbidle blah blah. You know, New Orleans just got hit by this hurricae or whatever, and it might never get rebuilt. We tried to go there once and the show wasn't all ages, so we didn't play. So who cares if New Orleans ever gets rebuilt? F it. Gilman rules." What a cracker.

Well, throughout all this tom foolery, I finally got to meet Adam from Greyskull who is sometimes awkward, but definitely a swell dude. Greyskull pretty much blew me away. It was like the second coming of Catharsis even more so than with Die Young. After this demo, they did a few splits, and had recorded a full length LP that was going to be released on Crimethinc. But they had some kind of band drama and broke up instead. Adam is now in Marrow, Tony is in Marrow and Owen Hart, Stephen is in Graf Orlock (and he also played in Owen Hart for a minute, I think), and Jules played in Elphaba. The picture above is by Seth from Mohoram Atta. The tracks below are from Greyskull's 2004 demo.

Rainbow Glitter Unicorn vs Rambo Nuclear Uniform
Smuttire
The End Result of Four Years in Temp Labor
Vegan Death Squad
When You Use the Word Gay as a Pejorative, You Sound Like a Big Fucking Idiot

Tragic Girls End Up Like This unreleased LP

When Shanga was first telling me about her new band, I think she said something about them being a hardcore band, or maybe just that they were hardcore. Anyway, I had this image in my mind of some sick ass all girl band, combining elements of the grindy late 90s screamo and the dark and chaotic late 90s hardcore. Unfortunately, Tragic Girls End Up Like This are more in the indie rock Sleater Kinney vein. Oh, well. They still ruled. The band featured Erin (Ovary Action), Sarah (Ovary Action), Shanga (Ovary Action pretty much), Emily (Hatchback), Cassia (New Bloods, My True Love) and Laine. This recording was done just a little bit before they broke up by James Whitten and Eric Martinez. It also features Amy Martinez on cello, I think.

Man of God
Mutiny
Femicide
Separate
Till Something Breaks
Dance Song
The Death of Me
Reflection
Ghost
Beckoning

The Carrie Nations demo and live sets

One time my friend Scott Beecher was coming through New Orleans on tour with the Carrie Nations who were playing a show at Nowe Miasto with This Bike is a Pipe Bomb. Not really a fan of Pipe Bomb, I went to the show to hang out with him and support Nowe Miasto. Am I glad that I did. Carrie Nations totally blew me away, and I wound up having their demo in my car on repeat for the next couple of weeks. Later on, I ended up doing a few shows for them in New Orleans, playing with them in Athens, and helping out some of their other bands. They broke up in early July of 2005, and I saw their last set in Athens where they basically played every single song they knew. It was amazing. Their other bands: American Cheeseburger (John), Dark Meat (Forest), Hot New Mexicans (Ian), and Welcome Home Nemo (Ian's solo thing which he was actually doing before Carrie Nations broke up as well). The picture above was taken by Eric Martinez on February 6th, 2003 at the show they played at the 829 House in Baton Rouge with the Robinsons.

demo:
Farming Communities
Occupation
Girlfriend
Former Babies
Citalivinded
Dumpsters as Providers of...

The Carrie Nations Are Ready to Party live CDR:
Magnum
Red Dawn
Bad Ideas, Brick Walls
Tri County Vampires
Ready to Party
Top Gun
Hell to Pay / Farming Communities
Sofa King
Former Babies / Red Dawn
Top Gun
Raving Notion / Civalivinded
Caveman
Outro

old interview that also has two mp3s from Be Still

The City is the Tower demo

Nathan Jesse lived here for a while with Jonathan West (Ghostwood, Gathered Here, etc.); then he moved back to his hometown of Albuquerque to be with his 12-year-old Christian girlfriend and "go to school." That didn't last, but he eventually finished college out there with a sweet degree in Philosophy and a love for straightedge hero Friedrich Nietzsche. In between all that he was in a pretty tight band called The City is the Tower. They were sort of sassy screamo, maybe influenced by a lot of that Level Plane stuff--but actually really, really good. There were plenty of great sing along parts, but not overdoing it the way bands like Comadre might, and they also still delivered on high energy and emotion. Nathan would eventually return to his real home in New Orleans, and Rob would move out to Boston to play drums for Constants. There's talk of CJ moving out here, but who knows? And where is Nathan? Is he still representing the ABQ, bee-yotch? Well, even though these guys are all split up across the country, they just played at South by Southwest, and they're meeting up in Albuquerque this summer to write and record new songs for split seven inches with Drowning with Our Anchors (San Francisco) and Thou (Baton Rouge). And after that, they plan on touring Europe in July 2009. Here are the five songs from their Party Ideas demo.

Hey, Uh... Could You Please Tell Your Dickhead Friend to Shut Up?
Dr. Whistletooth, D.D.S.
Wait, What the Fuck is a Panthomy?
Fhore or SSS-Hicks
Yuma, Yama, Yoma