The Minutemen Duo/Watt and Hurley - Live at ATP (2003)

You like The Minutemen? Everyone should like them. If you don't know about them then get reading and hearing up on your history. They will enrich your life. Obviously the band ceased to exist after the tragic loss of D Boon back in 1985 but Mike Watt and George Hurley have got back together on a few select occasions. Just that wonderfully tight rhythm section laying it down. Here is a live recording from an All Tomorrows Parties show in LA back in 2003. They rip through 26 classic tracks.  For all these shows, Watt even set up a guitar and amp at the other side of the stage in memory of D Boon.

The Minutemen Duo - Live at ATP 2003

Jackals - S/T 7" (2010)

Been at Supersonic this weekend. Hands down equal parts awesome, eye opening and inspiring. I managed to pick this up while I was there. Been meaning to get it for some time and it was one of those "oh, that's handy" distro finds. Jackals are from Norwich. They have two vocalists. They are most definitely a hardcore band but veer close to power violence and crust during the course of this 7" and this recording is available free for download. It does mean you will miss out on the quality looking green/grey splattered vinyl and I do implore you to try and pick this up. It is being released jointly by Holy Roar, Power Negi, WWHRD and Wineblood and is easy enough to get hold of. Nice and aggro.

Jackals - S/T 7"

Busey week.

Yes, the living legend himself, Gary Busey. This week involves re watching most of the Busey in my collection and reacquainting myself with his deranged genius. In the firing line are.......

Act Of Piracy

Bulletproof

Plato's Run

Hider In The House

Bull - Tinbox 7" (1990)

We all love Big Black don't we? Agreed. Well everyone knows what Albini did afterwards. What of the others? Durango is a lawyer nowadays. Pezzati continued making music with Naked Raygun. But the most interesting was Dave Riley. Equal parts sad and awesome. Sad because you just have to read his blog to understand why and awesome because he briefly played in this here band. Bull. He only recorded this 7" with them and performed one very drunken show from all accounts.
Bull are still close to Big Black in the sonic spectrum but then there really aren't.. Obviously there is a real dude hitting the drums behind them. Nowhere near as mechanical or regimented as Big Black, they possess a looser, almost "jam" like quality. You get the feeling these songs just happened.
If you dig Big Black then you will dig this. Use that as the starting reference. Then enjoy.

Bull - Tinbox 7"

Also there seems to be a video of this singles B-side "Revolver" accompanying some serial killer montage on YouTube. So seeing as we like both...........

Vaccine - Demo (2009)

A short Sunday post. My current favourite discovery. Aggro as fuck, nihilistic, pissed off straight edge hardcore. Angry at everything including other straight edgers. Some dudes from Ampere, Relics and Orchid playing fast and short. This demo clocks in just over two minutes with 5 songs. Superb stuff.

Vaccine - Demo

Albums that influenced Oliver #1 : Mr Bungle - S/T (1991)

The 15 albums post got me thinking. I can't possibly settle with those 15. There are so many albums that have influenced me through life that it would be pretty pointless trying to list them. So taking a leaf from the old blog and my friend Paul's series of similar posts over at Because I Said So, I have decided to revive the infamous "Albums that influenced Oliver" series like Jason Voorhess in Friday 13th Part IV when he gets that huge spike through his chest and gets struck by lightning.
I was going to waffle lyrical about how awesome and influential this album was to my impressionable young ears. If you can be bothered hunting out the old  piece of shit blog then you can read about it all there. Suffice to say there was a time when I could nearly play all the bass on this album track by track, back to back ( sadly I no longer have the discipline or stamina to do that these days). Other than that I can't really say anything about this album other than it is truly one of those lifetime albums that stays with you. It has stayed with me.

Mr Bungle - Mr Bungle

This is going to be a continuing series. More than likely not very regular, just dropped among my other posts like dirt out of a trouser leg.

No Comment - Downsided 7" (1992)

The definitive example of west coast hardcore/Slap-A-Ham power violence. I was always aware of the name but only really got round to getting hold of this a couple of years ago. Pretty shonky I know, Considering. I couldn't believe how intense this was and how musically accomplished the whole band was.. You just need to listen to Raul's drumming to understand. Allegedly they used to give him speed before gigs so he could keep up.

No Comment - Downsided

A raging classic.