Testing British Accents.After the entry in which I talked about bands such as Cider and The Darvocets and more of the Clevo scum punk bands I received a mail from Paul who does Non Commercial Records and also plays in several of those bands such as The Inmates, Cider, The Darvocets and probably a bunch more. He gave me some more detailed info about what bands share members, what some of those bands put out so far, whether or not they’re still around etc. I thought most of the stuff he told me was pretty interesting and since I said some not-so-straight facts in my first post here’s how it really is:
Paul is the lead sing and guitarist in Cider. Aaron Melnick is the bass player. The drummer Bobby was the drummer on the first Ringworm album. Paul is also the lead singer of The Inmates. Both Melnicks are in The Inmates. Aaron plays lead guitar and Lenny plays bass. The Inmates was always going on at the same time as Integrity, but most people never knew because they didn’t want to use a name to get them popular. Unfortunately at that time all of the members had five other bands so they never got the chance to tour or anything. The drummer of The Inmates is Wedge who also was the drummer of the H-100s, 9 Shocks Terror and The Ruiners (the original hardcore Ruiners that is). Upstab has the lead singer of H-100s and The Ruiners Chris Erba as the singer. Upstab has no former members of Ringworm or Integrity in them, only a few members of Puncture Wound and that’s it. Upstab will be touring Europe in 2006, don’t miss out for some confronting hardcore. The Darvocets has Paul on guitar again, Alien Obsessed Larry on vocals, Chris Pellow on bass who was the original bass player of Ringworm and guitarist of Apartment 213 and Bobby from Cider on drums. The Darvocets have a more late ‘70s sound going on.
Other Clevo punk bands that I found out about since my previous post are: The Wolfdowners, Brainwashed Youth and Windpipe.
The Wolfdowners play a noisy mix of influences combining The Stooges, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy, Radio Birdman, Coltraine and a shitload of punk and hardcore bands thrown in as well. At least, that’s how they describe themselves… I don’t hear too much Thin Lizzy or Joy Division or any of those bands in their sound though, only a little bit… It’s a cool band nevertheless. The Wolfdowners feature, surprise surprise, members of Cider, The Inmates, 50’s Fists and Brainwashed Youth. So far they put out a demo in 2004 called Wolf It Down on Non Commercial Records and a 12” should be out soon on Parts Unknown Records. You can listen to a song by them here.
Brainwashed Youth have two releases up to now, a demo which can be found on Battle Of The Worst Bands comp on Non Commercial Records (one of those songs ended up on the Dark Empire comp as well) and recently they put out an EP, again on Non Commercial Records, entitled Testing British Accents. From one I can tell this band also features Aaron Melnick and Paul. The other names on the EP are Whiskey Breath and Dan Sabu… I need some more time to figure out who they are. You can listen to an MP3 from the Testing British Accents here. A Brainwashed Youth 12” should be recorded now and will be released on Non Commercial Records.
Windpipe is a band from the early ‘90s of whom Non Commercial Records will put out the demo on a slab of 7” vinyl. That demo was actually never officially released, but now after 15 years someone cares enough to actually do so. I’m curious as how they sound as I’ve been told they sound like Infest meets Siege. This band featured Chris Erba on vocals as well, Chris Pellow on bass, one of the guitarists and drummer from Confront after they broke up. Should be good.
Other releases that Non Commercial will be doing soon are: The Battle Of The Worst Bands on vinyl. This battle features the first Cider EP, the first Darvocets EP, the Ruiners EP (the three first releases on Non Commercial Records, put out in the early to mid-‘90s), plus the infamous Brainwashed Youth demo. Only 300 will be pressed, so if you want this you will have to be fast. I have the CD version of this comp already and it’s pretty solid and packed with stuff. The other release that will be out on Non Commercial Records is a Cider CD that will feature the first two EPs, unreleased demo tracks and live songs. There will be a nice booklet with this CD giving a good representation of the band’s history.
What I personally like about Non Commercial Records is that they totally didn’t steal their name, even for hardcore’s lower standards this label is definitely non-commercial. Their releases are cheap, their CDs are made dirt cheap and when you order from Paul you get a sweet package with a handwritten letter and free stuff inside, total pre-internet style. The only other band with the same punk approach/attitude I can think of is Kangaroo Records (thinking of the look of that Direct Control EP for example)…oh yeah, and maybe Back Ta Basics back then, but that actually was more out of greed rather than out of a punk attitude I guess.
Oh yeah, as I mentioned before already, Painkiller Records will be doing the vinyl of the new Darvocets record and The Inmates reissue. Gloom Records will be doing the CD version of The Inmates’ discography.
Now that we’re still talking Cleveland, let’s talk about that obscure ‘80s band called The Guns. Possible to half the readers know as that other band on the Bowel CD. As even Kill From The Heart doesn’t even offer any info I tracked down a bit of info by myself through several informants. The Guns’ stuff that’s on the Bowel CD is actually an unreleased LP. They had recorded it to put it out on Toxic Shock Records, the label that put out the Peace Corpse EP and the Decry “Falling” LP, but it got shelved. What did The Guns then officially put out? Well, only a few songs on two different compilations. The first compilation they appeared on was an Ohio hardcore compilation LP called The New Hope (’82-’83 era), they had two songs on that one “I’m Not Right” and “Locked Inside”. Other bands that appeared on that compilation were The Agitated, Zero Defex, The Dark and a few more bands bathing in the annals of obscurity. The other compilation The Guns appeared on was They Pelted Us With Rocks And Garbage, an all Clevo comp (with a bunch of artsy bands on) put out by Negative Print Fanzine, the song they contributed was “Your Mistake”. This song can also be found on the Bowel CD. The band actually got together in 1982 when two friends, Scott Eikin (age 12) and David Araca (age 13) of the band The Dark, formed their
own side project, The Guns. In 1983 they recorded for The New Hope comp that was put out by Scott’s older brother and singer for The Dark, Tom Eakin (a.k.a. Tommy Dark). In 1983 Sean Saley/Wright quit the drums in Starvation Army and joined The Guns as bass player. Those three dudes played tons of shows from late ’83 through ’84. In ’84 they recorded the album that never got a proper release with Scott Lasch. In late ’84 Sean Saley/Wright left Cleveland (and also The Guns) and moved to Washington DC where he joined Government Issue to play drums. The Guns weren’t done yet, they carried on with Scott Silverman on lead guitar and Bob Ries on bass through 1987. Scott Eikin went on to be in many bands, David Araca had a bit of success with the band False Hope and he also played in Integrity. Scott later also did Stepsister together with his brother Tom that also had Tony Erba in the ranks. David Araca passed away in 1994, age 26.
I hope to have enlighten you a bit again on the Cleveland scene with this post and if people have more info for me, feel free to e-mail me. I’m an information addict. Next Clevo time I’ll be talking about Midnight and Boulder.
Paul is the lead sing and guitarist in Cider. Aaron Melnick is the bass player. The drummer Bobby was the drummer on the first Ringworm album. Paul is also the lead singer of The Inmates. Both Melnicks are in The Inmates. Aaron plays lead guitar and Lenny plays bass. The Inmates was always going on at the same time as Integrity, but most people never knew because they didn’t want to use a name to get them popular. Unfortunately at that time all of the members had five other bands so they never got the chance to tour or anything. The drummer of The Inmates is Wedge who also was the drummer of the H-100s, 9 Shocks Terror and The Ruiners (the original hardcore Ruiners that is). Upstab has the lead singer of H-100s and The Ruiners Chris Erba as the singer. Upstab has no former members of Ringworm or Integrity in them, only a few members of Puncture Wound and that’s it. Upstab will be touring Europe in 2006, don’t miss out for some confronting hardcore. The Darvocets has Paul on guitar again, Alien Obsessed Larry on vocals, Chris Pellow on bass who was the original bass player of Ringworm and guitarist of Apartment 213 and Bobby from Cider on drums. The Darvocets have a more late ‘70s sound going on.
Other Clevo punk bands that I found out about since my previous post are: The Wolfdowners, Brainwashed Youth and Windpipe.
The Wolfdowners play a noisy mix of influences combining The Stooges, Joy Division, Thin Lizzy, Radio Birdman, Coltraine and a shitload of punk and hardcore bands thrown in as well. At least, that’s how they describe themselves… I don’t hear too much Thin Lizzy or Joy Division or any of those bands in their sound though, only a little bit… It’s a cool band nevertheless. The Wolfdowners feature, surprise surprise, members of Cider, The Inmates, 50’s Fists and Brainwashed Youth. So far they put out a demo in 2004 called Wolf It Down on Non Commercial Records and a 12” should be out soon on Parts Unknown Records. You can listen to a song by them here.Brainwashed Youth have two releases up to now, a demo which can be found on Battle Of The Worst Bands comp on Non Commercial Records (one of those songs ended up on the Dark Empire comp as well) and recently they put out an EP, again on Non Commercial Records, entitled Testing British Accents. From one I can tell this band also features Aaron Melnick and Paul. The other names on the EP are Whiskey Breath and Dan Sabu… I need some more time to figure out who they are. You can listen to an MP3 from the Testing British Accents here. A Brainwashed Youth 12” should be recorded now and will be released on Non Commercial Records.
Windpipe is a band from the early ‘90s of whom Non Commercial Records will put out the demo on a slab of 7” vinyl. That demo was actually never officially released, but now after 15 years someone cares enough to actually do so. I’m curious as how they sound as I’ve been told they sound like Infest meets Siege. This band featured Chris Erba on vocals as well, Chris Pellow on bass, one of the guitarists and drummer from Confront after they broke up. Should be good.
Other releases that Non Commercial will be doing soon are: The Battle Of The Worst Bands on vinyl. This battle features the first Cider EP, the first Darvocets EP, the Ruiners EP (the three first releases on Non Commercial Records, put out in the early to mid-‘90s), plus the infamous Brainwashed Youth demo. Only 300 will be pressed, so if you want this you will have to be fast. I have the CD version of this comp already and it’s pretty solid and packed with stuff. The other release that will be out on Non Commercial Records is a Cider CD that will feature the first two EPs, unreleased demo tracks and live songs. There will be a nice booklet with this CD giving a good representation of the band’s history.
What I personally like about Non Commercial Records is that they totally didn’t steal their name, even for hardcore’s lower standards this label is definitely non-commercial. Their releases are cheap, their CDs are made dirt cheap and when you order from Paul you get a sweet package with a handwritten letter and free stuff inside, total pre-internet style. The only other band with the same punk approach/attitude I can think of is Kangaroo Records (thinking of the look of that Direct Control EP for example)…oh yeah, and maybe Back Ta Basics back then, but that actually was more out of greed rather than out of a punk attitude I guess.
Oh yeah, as I mentioned before already, Painkiller Records will be doing the vinyl of the new Darvocets record and The Inmates reissue. Gloom Records will be doing the CD version of The Inmates’ discography.
Now that we’re still talking Cleveland, let’s talk about that obscure ‘80s band called The Guns. Possible to half the readers know as that other band on the Bowel CD. As even Kill From The Heart doesn’t even offer any info I tracked down a bit of info by myself through several informants. The Guns’ stuff that’s on the Bowel CD is actually an unreleased LP. They had recorded it to put it out on Toxic Shock Records, the label that put out the Peace Corpse EP and the Decry “Falling” LP, but it got shelved. What did The Guns then officially put out? Well, only a few songs on two different compilations. The first compilation they appeared on was an Ohio hardcore compilation LP called The New Hope (’82-’83 era), they had two songs on that one “I’m Not Right” and “Locked Inside”. Other bands that appeared on that compilation were The Agitated, Zero Defex, The Dark and a few more bands bathing in the annals of obscurity. The other compilation The Guns appeared on was They Pelted Us With Rocks And Garbage, an all Clevo comp (with a bunch of artsy bands on) put out by Negative Print Fanzine, the song they contributed was “Your Mistake”. This song can also be found on the Bowel CD. The band actually got together in 1982 when two friends, Scott Eikin (age 12) and David Araca (age 13) of the band The Dark, formed their
own side project, The Guns. In 1983 they recorded for The New Hope comp that was put out by Scott’s older brother and singer for The Dark, Tom Eakin (a.k.a. Tommy Dark). In 1983 Sean Saley/Wright quit the drums in Starvation Army and joined The Guns as bass player. Those three dudes played tons of shows from late ’83 through ’84. In ’84 they recorded the album that never got a proper release with Scott Lasch. In late ’84 Sean Saley/Wright left Cleveland (and also The Guns) and moved to Washington DC where he joined Government Issue to play drums. The Guns weren’t done yet, they carried on with Scott Silverman on lead guitar and Bob Ries on bass through 1987. Scott Eikin went on to be in many bands, David Araca had a bit of success with the band False Hope and he also played in Integrity. Scott later also did Stepsister together with his brother Tom that also had Tony Erba in the ranks. David Araca passed away in 1994, age 26. I hope to have enlighten you a bit again on the Cleveland scene with this post and if people have more info for me, feel free to e-mail me. I’m an information addict. Next Clevo time I’ll be talking about Midnight and Boulder.
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