Hum - Fillet Show *plus b-sides and rarities

In honor of Hum's upcoming New Years Eve and New Years Day shows at the Double Door in Chicago I'm gonna post their virtually unknown first album. I only very recently found out about these shows and tried to get tickets but of course, to no avail. This album is also another recent discovery. I've known about it for a while now but only acquired it as of late. I think the first thing you'll notice right off the bat is some one else takes over lead vocal duties other than Matt Talbot on a couple songs. Those also tend to be the songs that sound least like what people came to recognize as Hum's sound. Also, the lush drone, expansive song writing and almost metal-like wallop is traded in for more of a poppy, stripped down indie-punk sound more similar to that of their neighbors in the Poster Children (who will show up on here eventually). I'm very glad they developed the way they did. This is by no means as essential as "Electra 2000" is, that being the first album from the "quintessential" line up. This is however kind of a neat glimpse into where this band started out if you are a fan and a nerd like myself. 

"Fellatio???"

Also, I'm gonna include the most relevant b-sides and rarities I acquired from h-u-m.net. If you're a fan and haven't ever checked that site out, do so. From what i can tell it's a fairly well maintained fan site. There are some full demos, videos and wallpapers for download and other info that might be worth a look.

"It's the waste of a song..."

For your viewing pleasure we have a video for "The Pod". The first song off their major label debut "You'd Prefer An Astronaut". Shit, I didn't even know a video for this song existed!

If you are one of the lucky ones who gets to see this on New Years...bite me. (I remember seeing this 120 Minutes and being amazed by their drummer. He hits hard as hell!!!)

Tad b-sides and rarities

Tad is the shit! You should really know this by know. The whole ax wielding, ex-butcher/lumber jack insano redneck mystique rules! Sheer genius! I mean seriously, who wouldn't want to party with (or listen to jams by...) this guy?! 

Redefining heavy in the age of Sub Pop, Tad should have been huge. (No pun intended.) Tad was the human embodiment of the sound he created. Taking their name from the main man himself, the sheer girth of their sound was only ever rivaled really by the Melvins.  Squealing, belching, grunting, riffs just throbbing...it truly does sound like a fucking maniac beating his guitar with a rack of lamb ham-fistedly into oblivion. Especially on this older, more primal sounding stuff. That's not to say there is no musical value here. Tad truly had an amazing ability to combine a real "wam and thud" mentality with a pop sensibility and some descent vocals. They always "tongue in cheekly" played so beautifully into the persona created that you couldn't help but smirk along and sell the legend with 'em, sweatily head banging the whole way. I mean fuck, the guitars sound like a fucking chain-saw!

This is a collection of early 7" b-sides and compilation contributions I entitled "Kills Roaches Dead". The title is lifted from the back of a Tad shirt I got when I saw them open for Soundgarden on the "Superunknown" tour in high school. This might not be absolutely everything but it's all I could find and I think honestly, it's a pretty comprehensive collection. Missing are some of the post-"Infrared Riding Hood" 7"s. I read recently here that there is a plan in the works to release those songs and other unreleased recordings from the time right before Tad called it quits sometime in '09. 

Here's the infamous "banned from MTV" video for "Woodgoblins" playing up the lumberjack thing. They were deemed to ugly for MTV's sensitive eyes. hahahaha

Here's Tad performing live on some random talk show or something. 

Here's a teaser trailer for the Tad DVD that's out entitled "Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears".

It is highly recommended! 

Stompbox - Stress *plus some b-sides

I by no means feel like I'm reinventing the wheel or revealing some great secret here by posting about this band. I've seen it a couple other places (shit, their own bass player has it posted on his blog) but for me not to would be weird because this album was one of my favorites growing up and is still one I love to jam on more than an occasional basis. 

I've heard it said that they sound like "Neil Fallon fronting Helmet" and i guess for the most part this could be true. Imagine further maybe if "Inhaler"-era TAD and Page Hamilton started a band and invited early Clutch's Neil Fallon and Iron Lung of Scissorfight to trade off on vocal duties. However, unlike the other bands I've mentioned so far, Stompbox had way more of a bouncy "moshable" quality. Maybe it was that hometown Boston hardcore influence sneaking in. 

I first discovered this band on Headbanger's Ball and was instantly hooked by there ultra heavy, down right hammering, staccato groove. It also didn't hurt that I was completely stoned and their singer resembled some grungy, bellowing burn out that would always be down with "puffing a J" with ya. There was always something very tongue in cheek about this band that 

I admired. Could've been that they had songs called "Carry On My Wayward Son" and "Fool For The City" that had nothing to do with the classic rock originals. For the most part the album maintains it's heavy, head bobbing riffathon giving way to frequent melodic "grunge like" vocal tendencies. Even though Stompbox play some "lunkhead-ish" type of metal I think some real solid musicianship shines through. I remember reading the vocalist was the original choice to front Geezer Butler's GZR project. It would've been a lot cooler if he did.

"I AM NOTHING..."

Like S2R in my previous post...Stompbox was another fantastic band that was scooped up in the post-Nirvana signing frenzy, slated to be the next "Big Thing", was improperly pushed, failed to put up winning numbers and was subsequently dropped.  I spent years after trying to find anything else recorded by this band as this was there only "proper" release. 

Recently, much to my surprise, I came across the only previously read about "Travis" EP on iTunes. Even more surprisingly, through blogging around, I acquired unreleased tracks from the "Stress" recording session as well as some rare comp tracks. Most of the tracks are re-recorded songs from the "Travis" EP but there's a couple I hadn't heard along with a Gang Green cover "Alcohol" (b-side to the Halloween Day Massacre 7") and a cover of the Tree (another awesome Beantown band!) song "Question Abuse". I've compiled those plus the only un re-recorded "Travis" track "Lobotomizer" and another single b-side I had here under the fitting title "Now, What's It Worth". 

As always, you can find a shit load of copies of "Stress" here for cheap or in bargain bins across America.

Here's the "No Woods" video I saw on wheeed. A lot of people feel that Disturbed ripped off the verse riff. I couldn't agree more! 

Here's a interview with the previously mentioned bass player, Patrick, telling what happened post-"Stress".

This is mother-fucking hilarious!

I think i just swallowed a tea bag?! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Season To Risk - In A Perfect World

Grunge-y 90's noise rawk/The Jesus Lizard worship from Kanass City, MS.

Swept up in what was the "Grunge" signing/feeding frenzy of the early 90's, Season To Risk seems far too ugly for a major label. Maybe Colombia big wigs just figured their melodies would get sweeter with time. No wonder they didn't know how to push this band. This is the second full length from this criminally underrated act and their final LP for Colombia. With producing credits going to Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Helmet, Unsane, Swans) and art credits going to Derek Hess, it only further complements S2R's rawest and darkest release. I remember not being overly fond of it myself at first being a big fan of their self titled debut. It was just so noisy and hard to distinguish the bass from the guitars. Oh, but how it grew on me like some sick, puss filled boil. It seemed to speak to my drunken, alienated, misguided late teenage self. You know, it still speaks to the early 30's version of that same asshole to this day. "Absolution", "Terrain Vague" and "Time Bomb" seem to stand out though I feel every song on here is a keeper. Grinding bent guitars, jagged, distorted bass rhythms and tight snappy drums lend themselves nicely to Steven Tulipana's poetic, fuzz box, carnival-barker ranting. Aptly titled "In A Perfect World"...indeed, in a perfect world this would be huge. 

Myself and a friend of mine at the time drove two hours in a snow storm to see them on tour for this album. Due to the weather, we ended up being the only two there. Well, besides the three misdirected middle agers that were sitting at a table in the back of the bar. The fact that they were only there for drinks and "atmosphere" became evident when they got up and left half way through S2R's second song. They played to "us" that night. The show might as well been in my living room. They played our request of  "Snakes" off the first album and  obliged us the favor years later at a far better attended show in the same town. Even though we almost died twice on the way, it was so worth it and remains to be one of my favorite concerts to this day.  

"...you will always feel this way."

There are also 127 copies on Amazon for a $.01 so pick up a hard copy you slacker!

"Bloodugly" video

"Jack Frost" video