Various -- No Age - A Compilation of SST Instrumental Music
- Artist: Various
- Title: No Age – A Compilation of SST Instrumental Music
- Year: 1987
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1987 – Bought it when I worked at Mother’s Records in Hampton, VA.
- Keeper: Maybe
This SST compilation of challenging instrumental music is full of big names, cult names, and just names. Check out the list below and decide for yourself which artists belong in which categories. I have records by many of these folks and I’ve also seen a number of them live. I don’t know if I’ll ever play this double album again. Some tracks were fantastic, but some were just annoying post-prog-rock-for-nerds. Again, decide for yourself who belongs where.
- Black Flag
- Blind Idiot God
- Henry Kaiser
- Elliott Sharp
- Lee Ranaldo
- Lawndale
- Glenn Phillips
- Pell Mell
- Paper Bag
- Scott Colby
- Lawndale
- Paper Bag
- Universal Congress Of
- Steve Fisk
- Gone
- Alter-Natives
- Elliott Sharp
- Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser
- Artist: Tad / Pussy Galore
- Title: Damaged I / Damaged II
- Year: 1989
- Format: Vinyl 7 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1989 – Bought it for myself at our store RIP Records in Norfolk, VA.
- Keeper: Maybe
This is a combo 7 inch with Tad on one side and Pussy Galore on the other. I suppose I could’ve filed it under P, or Various, but I have it under T just because. In our actual record collection that is. Both songs are Black Flag covers, “Damaged I” and “Damaged II”, which were both on Black Flag’s break-out album uh… “Damaged.”
I guess that original record made a big impact on folks for trendy indie artists to be recording covers from it only eight years later, in 1989. Another 16 or so years later and that seems a little strange. I bought the original Black Flag “Damaged” album in 1981. I loved it then as an angsty teenager, but it’s not the kind of thing you want to play often. Same goes for this 45. It’s kind of fun to have two cultish bands doing covers of a cultish band on a 45, limited edition of 2500, but I doubt I’ll ever play it again. And in the late 1980s no record label was cooler than Sub Pop. So cool in fact that even though my brother and I owned a record store we had to get this one just like everyone else, by joining the Sub Pop Singles Club.
- Artist: Of Cabbages And Kings
- Title: Face
- Year: 1988
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 6
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1988 – Bought it for myself when we had RIP Records in Norfolk, VA.
- Keeper: Maybe
This is not happy music. OCAK has had its share of stars from the music world underground. Including members of The Swans, Glenn Branca, and drummer Ted Parsons. Ted was the long-time drummer for one of my all-time favorite bands, Prong. I’ll drone on about Prong when we get to those records.
Like I said, it’s not feel-good music. It’s heavy, but not metallic, more primitive with some occassional jazzy “out” playing. That weird album cover looks like the Pixies’ stuff, but I don’t think it’s the same artist. Not sure about keeping it. If you search for them you might find another band with the same name from the ’60s. Try adding the album title.
- Artist: La Muerte
- Title: Death Race 2000
- Year: 1989
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 7
- Owner: Tracy
- Acquired: 1989 – Bought it for myself when we had RIP Records.
- Keeper: Yes
I was reading about these guys at Trouser Press and I realized that I got into them near the end. Apparently in their earlier work they were influenced by Birthday Party/Nick Cave. I never noticed from this record which is heavy, in a more conventional way, but the vocals are similarly intense or insane, you decide. In some ways it’s similar to Head of David in the way the riffs are layered up to create these fantastic metallic dirges, but, again, the vocals are way more intense.
