Saturday, July 14, 2012
A History in Flyers
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Yes, I’m Still Here
It was recently brought to my attention that several of this site’s links were broken. It seems that MediaFire has the habit of randomly deleting files. I re-uploaded everything that was missing—if anyone finds any more broken links in the future please write me at the e-mail address listed at the right and I’ll fix them ASAP. Thanks. And while my posting rate has obviously slowed quite a bit, I am planning on posting some new stuff in the coming months—stay tuned.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Initial Detonation-1997 Demo
1. Did You?
2. Homeless
3. Mary Kay Commandos
4. Pro Life???
5. Rehumanize Yourself
Enjoy
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Itch Releases A Benefit Album For Joplin
As I’m sure everyone knows, a devastating tornado hit Joplin, MO on May 22nd, killing at least 138 people and destroying a large part of the town. Many of the fine bands profiled on this site hailed from there. It’s very fitting then that the Itch, a Springfield/Joplin garage rock act has released a live recording with all proceeds being donated to the Joplin United Way. I really encourage everyone to give generously to this cause. You can find the album download here.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Magic Bean
The Magic Bean has been a fixture in the Springfield DIY music scene for fifteen years now. I remember going to punk shows there when the place fist opened on Kimbrough. It later moved to a location on National across for MSU, where it remains today. I personally dealt with the Bean’s owner Jeff many times when booking shows, and I’m glad someone finally made the effort to put up a Facebook page expressing our collective feelings towards him. Here’s to you, Magic Bean.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Now Or Never-1991 Demo
Ah, we come full circle. The very first post on this blog was the Now Or Never live tape. In that post, I said that NON was the best punk band to ever emerge from the Ozarks. This demo tape confirms that opinion, even if I think the live tape is better. It features a lot of songs not on the live recording, and the rough production can’t hide the fine paying by the band. Thanks again to Dave for providing this stuff.
1. Ten Second Song
2. Now Or Never
3. Ignorance
4. Sexism
5. Changes
6. Stagnation
7. Censorship
8. The Seven Year Itch
9. Cynical Cycle
10. Dr. Frankenstein
11. Expectations
12. Backwards Thinking
13. Fuckhole
14. Thin Man
15. Muckraker
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Force Fed Patriots
1987 Demo
1. Edge of a Knife
2. War Games
1988 Demo
3. Force Fed Patriots
4. Polyester Beauty Queen
Flag Flying Parade Demo
5. Bush Duke Puke
6. Force Fed
7. Faith
8. Myself
9. Saturday
10. Fuckin Shit
11. Mistake
12. Hello?
13. Circus
14. Man
15. Rage (live)
16. Mirror
17. Snake
18. Myself II (live)
19. Hello? II
Thanks again to Dave for getting this stuff to me.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Heart Of Rock ‘n Roll Is Still Beating
A while back I wrote a post speculating that there wasn’t much going on in Springfield these days as far as hardcore punk rock goes, but was hoping to be proven wrong. Luckily, I was. I was recently in my hometown, and managed to catch an honest-to-God punk show downtown at Nathan P. Murphy’s. About 40 punks showed up, which is roughly what we drew back in the day. First up was Rogue Nation, a harsh sounding four-piece with an aggressive style (nice Body Count cover, guys). They have a demo CD, several tracks of which are available on their website. The second band that evening was Mr. Bucket, and quite an experience they were. Tight, fast, and raunchy, the band sports some catchy songs as well as a charismatic female vocalist (I think just about any kind of music is improved by female singers). If you’re in or around Springfield anytime soon, check to see if either of these worthy acts is playing. And for God’s sake bring some earplugs. (It’s been too long since my last punk show-I forgot to bring mine. My ears were still ringing the next day.)
On a side note, I recently hit the punk rock mother load in the form of a box of tapes sent to me by Dave, the singer in Now or Never. Lots of choice old stuff, some of which I didn’t even know existed. I’ll be transferring the tapes and posting them over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Arkansas Punk Rock Compilation CD
Enjoy
Friday, February 12, 2010
Fistfight In The Parking Lot
Friday, January 29, 2010
Seduction Of The Innocent: How One Kid Got Into Punk Rock
I grew up on a small beef farm about half an hour from Springfield, and attended k-12 in a small town of about 3,000 white people. I went to my first “real” underground punk show around age 16, in 1990 or ‘91. Months earlier, a friend named Chip and I saw the Dead Milkmen and he was wearing a shirt he’d bought at the show when he was shopping somewhere with his mom. Upon seeing that shirt, these two crazy looking people gave Chip a birthday card that had “happy birthday” scratched out and the time and directions to a show at the Commercial Street Club scrawled inside. Later, he showed me the card and we decided we’d go if we could gather up a couple of carloads of friends for safety. Punk had an exaggerated reputation for being violent, as did all of Commercial Street at that time. I remember it was one of Now or Never’s earliest shows, and I think Walking Octopus or The Rising Sun may also have played that night (they were older local punk bands) and headlining was a band from KC or St. Louis or thereabouts, they may have been called Never Alone or something like that (I just remember they also had “Never” in their name). Now or Never made by far the biggest impression on me of all the bands, but the event itself, the whole unconventional scene, the freaky punkers, the radical political overtones, the dilapidated venue casting menacing shadows on eerie old railroad tracks in the bad part of town, just the absolute craziness of it all completely captivated me and immediately I began to fall in love with the punk movement. None of the other people I came with seemed impressed at all, and none of them ever came to another show, except for Chip who occasionally made one, but I distinctly remember only missing two shows there (one for sickness, one for girlfriend issues) for the next several years until Dave stopped booking at that venue.
Friday, January 15, 2010
A Punk Veteran Tells His War Stories
Wow, I’m afraid to even begin to try to answer this, there were so many. There were many shows that seemed to lift me out of my body in an ecstasy I’ve since learned may be akin to religious experience. A positive, joyful, profound release and enlightenment on many levels is what I took away from countless shows, but the ones that make the most interesting stories are the opposite, where serious violence occurred or even where its threat immensely intensified everything. This always seemed to be provoked by nazi skinheads.
There was a show where a fearless band named Demise (from Detroit? Minneapolis? Milwaukie?) stood up to very offended, very angry, and very much larger skinheads during a terrifying live set. What’s just as impressive, Demise came back several months later and played for us again! This time the knuckleheads didn’t show up but the band told us about having their house burned to the ground by angry nazis in their hometown!
There was the time Dave decided to book a show at an old bar further down Commercial Street for a change. Schlong (from the Bay Area, maybe?) was the out-of-town headliners, but they never got to play. Skinheads went on the rampage early on, there was lots of blood and people running everywhere, I hid behind the bar with all the members of Schlong who surprised me when they said they had never seen anything like what was going on and shouldn’t we call the cops!? There was an African-American bar nearby, and eventually an actual riot of sorts broke out between their patrons and the skinheads on the street in front of the bar. That’s when we made our escape, while bottles were thrown at us and cars suddenly screeched to a stop and reversed in high speed away from the melee!
Then there was the return of the infamous, legendary NYC hardcore band Born Against. There first show at Commercial Street dropped our jaws to the floor – none of us had ever witnessed anything that hardcore. But nazis had been waiting for their second visit all day at the club, and attacked them with brass knuckles and such as soon as they tried to exit their van! They fled and called Dave, who set up another venue for them at a friend’s basement and started spreading the word to regulars on where to go. Somehow the nazis found out where it was and showed up in force. After some crazy violence in the guy’s house, the nazis were driven outside and SHARPs were called who quickly showed up and began a face-off with the nazis in this guy’s front yard! I saw clubs, chains, weaponized vodka bottles, an actual meat cleaver, and even a flashed gun before cop sirens started blaring in our direction and everyone scattered. That was the infamous end of the Commercial Street Club (which has now become a police sub-station!). Our town gained some notoriety as Born Against thanked everyone in Springfield, MO who saved them “from certain death” on the inside cover of one of their last albums. Last but certainly not least, there was the GG Allin show in Joplin, for which the aforementioned Syphilis opened, but that’s a whole other phenomenon in itself!
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Rowskabouts
Friday, December 4, 2009
Hubcap-Rob And Wes Like Cake Any Way You Slice It Demo Tape
1. Let’s Go!
2. Pokerface
3. Go Hair
4. Rob n Roll
5. Noodles
6. Wes Side Story
7. Agent 99
8. Go
9. Obstruction
Enjoy
Friday, November 20, 2009
Big Bad Chubba-Tha Bootleg! Demo Tape
1. New Shoes
2. Murder Lane
3. Silly Girl
4. Chubba You and Me
5. 42 Cigarettes
6. Kill the Kid
7. Crockett Express
8. Untitled Instrumental
9. On-Line Love
Enjoy
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Chris Schultz 1972-2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Noise With A Beat Compilation Cassette
Download
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Debs
Friday, August 7, 2009
The Vault of Punk
Friday, July 24, 2009
Barbie Holocaust-1996 Demo
1. A Bomb
2. When I Grow Up
3. Sue the World
4. Sick of It
5. We Will Become U
6. Erase
Enjoy
Friday, July 10, 2009
Fugue-Sings Your New Favorites CD-R
1. Riot
2. Dan is Dumb
3. Drunken H.S. Girls
4. Randy
5. Through My Head
6. Cristina King
7. Begin or Lose
8. Media Dream Girl
9. Take a Stand
10. Litterbug
11. (No) Boneheads
12. Point Lookout
13. Lovin' You Is Stupid
14. Thinking
15. Good
16. Pukin' Over You
17. Nine Seconds of Silence
18. My Devil
Enjoy
Saturday, June 27, 2009
11 Blade
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Rising Sun-United We Stand Demo Tape
1. America
2. Think for Yourself
3. Afraid
4. We Don't Care
5. Fight
6. Co-Existence
7. Fight Back
8. You Just Want
9. Confusion
10. Help Me
Enjoy
P.S. The above photo of the tape cover was jacked from a blog posting by Laurie, a scene regular from the old days. She posted a bunch of other pictures of memorabilia from the old Springfield underground music scene; you can see the rest of the photos here.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Other Ozark Underground
Forgive me for getting non-punk for a moment, but I don’t know how this website has escaped my attention for so long. The Underground Ozarks is a way cool webpage with accounts and photos from people who have explored some of the forbidden places around SW Missouri. They cover some sites I was familiar with already (Albino Farm, the Acid Tunnels [pictured], and my old day camp Ritter Springs) along with some that were unknown to me (the MSU Tunnels, Phenix). The site hasn’t been updated in a while (although the message board is still active), but it’s still a great resource on a little known part of the Ozarks.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Walking Octopus-Unreleased Demos 1986-1992
1. Lynching at the Hoedown
2. Gone Are the Days
3. Draining Out
4. Shithead
5. Jellybean
6. Moving
7. Sex With A Russian Spy
8. Insects Inherit the Earth
9. Blueshead
10. Changes Come
11. Stupid
12. Untitled Instrumental
Enjoy
Friday, March 13, 2009
A Lesson In Punk Rock Economics: The Harper’s Bizarre Ledgers
Monday, February 23, 2009
Unteen
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Shameless Commercialism
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Vaginal Discharge-Froth CD
Enjoy
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Ozark Punk Rock Gets Even More Mainstream Coverage
Update:
Ben, the author of the above-mentioned piece, also published some material on the Riverfront Times blog that didn’t make the cut for the regular article. The additional stuff tells the story of Roger and Jeanene, who were involved in the bands Encrusted and Initial Detonation, as well as the DIY label/collective Reality Impaired. The blog article also has a link to an in-depth examination of Jeanene’s appearance of Extreme Makeover, with a healthy amount of criticism over her decision.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Abrasions For The Palate Compilation Cassette
Released in 1994 by Teufelsdrockh Music, a local label, this professionally recorded tape comp. was described in the liner notes as a collection of “Springfield Alternative Rock”. It featured tracks by bands active in town in the early 1990’s, including Brine, Uncle Fester (a pre-Brine four-piece act), the Psychonauts (who played tolerable alt-rock), Devolve (a two-piece drum machine band), and Dunce Cap (a short-lived garage/punk act that included members of the Cheerleaders and Walking Octopus). Stu, a member of Dunce Cap, has a web page here that has an interesting timeline of the Springfield punk rock scene from about 1978 to the mid-1990’s. (There was an all-girl 70’s punk act from Springfield called the Debs? I must have the tapes!)
Uncle Fester-Inbred
Psychonauts-Butterfly
Dunce Cap-Hamburger Job
Devolve-We
Brine-Local Business Hero
Uncle Fester-Sore Thumb
Uncle Fester-Side Show
Dunce Cap-The Tall Years
Psychonauts-Green Grass
Devolve-Helen
Brine-And Now
Psychonauts-Fighter Pilot
Devolve-Going Down
Download
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Trixie And The Merch Girls-DIY, Meatmarket Hotline, and Dead Giraffe CD-Rs
DIY CD-R
1. I Wish... |
2. Buy It Grrrl |
3. My Cock |
4. Four Two Four |
5. Piggies |
6. Lick It Up |
Meatmarket Hotline CD-R
1. I Ain't Goin' Nowhere |
2. Ouch! |
3. Candy, Snacks, Gas |
4. Basement Song |
5. Rock & Roll Nightmares |
6. It's So Nice |
7. Eggs |
Dead Giraffe CD-R
1. Gabe, Can We Borrow Your Gun? |
2. Worms |
3. Pluggie |
4. Song for Adam |
5. BB Man |
6. The Bass Amp has Arrived |
7. Little Chinese Man |
8. Dead Giraffe |
9. Train Song |
10. Fine Lines |
11. Conan, We Love You |
12. Leavin' People Hangin' |
13. It's Me |
Enjoy.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Itch
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Forgotten Punk Clubs Of Springfield
This club was originally run by an old-time punker named Frank, and was later passed on to Dave, the vocalist of Now or Never. Situated in the Commercial Street community building, it operated from circa 1988-1992. Some fairly big acts like Clutch played there. Ironically (or maybe appropriately) the space now serves as a substation for the Springfield Police Department.
The Pink House was the residence of Mitch (now Midge), singer and bass player of Boring Dog Cheese Guard. The place was a mess, an old shack-style house on the west side of town that seemed to constantly be on the verge of falling down. Mitch let various bands use the place as a practice space, recording studio, and occasional venue. I remember one memorable show on a Labor Day (I think it was 1994). Disarm set up their gear and started to play at full volume on the front porch of the house. Not surprisingly, the neighbors called called the police, no doubt frightened by the large group of punks and skinheads congregating in the front yard as well as the sonic chaos that was Disarm. Midge no longer lives there, and it looks as though the house has been pretty heavily renovated, with aluminum siding now covering the striking pink paint job of the old exterior.
Culley’s was a shithole of a bar just off the downtown square that occasionally hosted punk shows. Grout played there quite a bit in the late 1990’s. It eventually became a favorite hangout of the local Nazi skinhead crew. From what I understand, a wall collapsed inside the place a while ago, and the owner felt it wasn’t worth repairing. The place is still shuttered today.
Maybe the most infamous club in Springfield’s sordid punk history. It operated out of an old storefront on the corner of Dale and National in north Springfield for about eight months around 1996-1997. The venue had a bad rep as a violent place that was not undeserved-I personally saw several people get hurt there bad enough to warrant emergency room trips. To make matters worse, the band Violent Karma practiced there, and brought their drunken skinhead friends with them. Negativity aside, there were several great shows there, among them bills featuring Naked Aggression, Earth Crisis, and Mustard Plug. The place eventually shut down due to lack of heat (the owner wouldn’t fix the gas pipes). In another bit of irony, the space is occupied today by the Nu-Brew coffeehouse, which is a church/Christian rock venue.
Probably the overall best space ever occupied by a Springfield punk club, the Looney Bin was located in a storefront on Commercial street, a couple of blocks down from the old Commercial Street Club. It was a huge space, with a loading dock in back and no neighbors nearby to call the cops. It was open for about a year from around 1998-1999, and had a couple of great shows. Today it’s a used furniture store.
This club was run by some people from the band Thee Fine Lines, who had also been involved in running the Looney Bin. It was open from about 1999-2001. Its name was a bit of a misnomer, as the address was in fact 425 Walnut St. rather than 423. The downtown club was well run, and got some big acts in as well as serving as a venue for some lefty political meetings. There were plans to try to get a federal loan and turn the place into a youth community center, but they fell through and the space is currently vacant.
Last year, the voters of Springfield approved an ordinance banning persons under 21 from any establishment that makes the majority of its money from liquor sales. That, plus a lack of a viable all-ages venue makes booking shows difficult. Today punk shows in Springfield are few and far between, with many of them happening at Billiard’s, a downtown bar that is willing to rent its back room.
There were also a bunch of fly by night punk-friendly clubs in Joplin (Culture Shock, the Dead Cowboy, the Warehouse, Better Than Bemo’s, etc.) as well as some in far-flung places like Ft. Smith, Fayetteville, and Pittsburg, KS. But somebody who knew those places better than I will have to write a history for them.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Ozark Punk Rock Gets Mainstream Coverage
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The Aleatoric-To The Celebration Of All Slain Hope CD-R And Forever Yours 7”
To The Celebration Of All Slain Hope CD-R
1. Melvin Udal
2. Strapped To A Track
3. Subtle Reversements
Forever Yours 7”
1. Let The Devil Wear Black
2. For My Farewell
3. Subtle Reversements
Enjoy
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Richards-Demos
1. 120 Seconds
2. Loretta
3. Conform or Die
4. No More Room
5. Let’s Go to Michigan
6. Cops
7. She’s an Idiot
Enjoy
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sodomites-Copulation in the Nation CD
1. Flesh Gordon
2. Psycho Girl
3. Spring Valley Shopping Mall
4. I Can’t Fuck Your Wife
5. Freaks
6. Adolescent
7. Scum
8. Larry
9. Good Time Classic
10. Die
11. I Hate What I Do
12. Deborah
13. Good One
Enjoy
Saturday, September 27, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Peacekeeper Missile-Demo
1. How Can We Fight?
2. Bloodied
3. Immune
4. How Far Are You Willing To Go
5. Another Nail
6. Secure
Enjoy
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Looking for Memories
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Disarm-Demo Tape
1. Fake
2. Power
3. Joe Blow
4. Lonley
5. I Can't Think
Enjoy
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Ozark Babylon-VHS Tape
This is a little-seen, full-length (112 min.) documentary on the Ozark punk scene released in 1998. It contains live footage and interviews with General Zod, Initial Detonation, The Rowskabouts, Satan’s Ice Cream Truck, Brine, U$MC, Vanilla Christ, and Grout. It also has interviews with some of the regular scene people around at the time, as well as random silliness. It’s a great portrait of the Ozark punk subculture of the 1990’s, showing both its high and low points. The interviewees talk about a lot of the issues that plagued the scene then, like backbiting, the lack of local support for the bands, and the Nazi skinhead problem (the infamous Born Against Nazi incident is mentioned at one point). Considering the amount of work that went into the video’s production, little was done to promote it, and only about 30 copies were produced. It’s gratifying to be able to post it here to a worldwide audience.
Update: When Megaupload ceased to exist a few months ago, it took this video file with it. Rather than post it in chunks on Mediafire, I decided to just upload the whole thing to Youtube. You can see the movie here.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Giant Penguins-s/t CD-R
1. This Girl Sucks
2. Juvenile Living Dead
3. Commercial Street Kids
4. Denton Affair
5. Surfin’ Samurai
6. Pit Bull
7. If Lee Ving Was My Dad
8. I Want To Believe
9. Black Widow
10. Melissa
11. Garbage Man
12. Spud Boy
13. La Magra
14. Plastic World
15. Speed
16. It’s the End
17. I Want To Believe (live)
18. Black Widow (live)
19. Denton Affair (live)
20. Garbage Man (live)
21. You Hate Me and I Hate You (live)
Download
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Grout-Do You Have 12:38 To Waste? Cassette
First, there was Pisser. Pisser was comprised of a bunch of drunken metalheads from Springfield who put together a six-piece joke punk band. Pisser was either really funny or incredibly boring, depending on how intoxicated both you and the band were. After a while, four of the members of Pisser decided to start a slightly more serious punk band called Grout. Early on, their singer Froggy wore a bald knobbers mask on stage and would throw around a painful-looking chunk of wood, referring to it as his “Grout Stick”. They released a demo tape called “Self-Made Morons” that was not particularly good. After another year or two, the band went through a lineup change, got a kick-ass drummer, dropped the Grout Stick silliness, and settled into a redneck-tinged variety of punk music along the lines of Antiseen or Cocknoose (although I would rate them as better than either of those two bands). They released a professionally recorded tape entitled “Do You Have 12:38 To Waste?” in 1996. It’s included here, along with a bonus track recorded the next year.
1. Fender Bender
2. Government Cheese
3. Idiot’s Life
4. A-Ward
5. No Means Maybe
6. High Class Loser
7. Picture of Health
Bonus Track:
8. Missing Dick
Download
Update:
Grout got back together recently with a different lineup, and is playing shows occasionally in Springfield. Check out their MySpace page here.