Voice of America: I Will Tell 12"

Here's a bonus 12" since I haven't uploaded anything new for a little while. This is a mysterious and extremely rare 12" EP from a UK band called Voice of America. There is almost no information about these guys anywhere, aside from the fact that it was produced by Captain Sensible. This should have been a new wave classic, but instead only a few were pressed, and not too well distributed.

Voice of America: I Will Tell 12"
1986, An Ammunition Communication

A		I Will Tell
B1		Story Of Love
B2		V.O.A.

Download the record here!

Lung Overcoat: Climbing the Hill EP, 7", and more!

Lung overcoat is a band that will be forever linked to another similar band in my mind, Necropolis of Love. I found each band's 12" EP (Climbing the Hill from Lung Overcoat, provided here, and "The Hope" EP from Necropolis of Love, which can be found on this great post-punk blog here.) on the same day over a decade ago. Both bands were from the USA in the early to mid 80s, with a decidedly UK post punk/goth sound.
I found the two records about 12 years ago, back before music blogs were even a glimmer in the Internet's eye, and the both were extremely mysterious. There was no info on either band on the net back in those days, and I had to fill in the blanks myself. Did they release anything else? Did they go on to form other bands? Did anyone else in the entire world know of their existences? (answers: yes, no, and yes, although at the time it felt like I had discovered a band that was all my own).
Lung Overcoat now has a myspace page, but they are still criminally underrated. This is the kind of unknown band that post punk fans long to discover. While you may not feel that this band is your own hidden secret the way I did so many years ago, you can surely appreciate the great dark post punk sounds herein. I've included the band's entire output - a 7", a 12" EP, a song from the first "Doctor Death" compilation on C'est la Mort Records, and even a demo song. Enjoy...

Internal Silence 7", 1983, Scolex Records

A		Internal Silence
B		Past Lives

Climbing the Hill EP, 1986, Scolex Records

A1		Sickroom
A2		Voice In The Box
B1		Life In Holes
B2		When Dreams Drag On

Download everything here!

Insulin Reaction: What's the Point LP & Witchfinder General 7"

Here are the two releases from the band Insulin Reaction: their debut 7", and their 1988 LP. Both are pretty obscure, and the LP can be found for quite cheap (like, $5 or so) on gemm.com or ebay occasionally, which is a nice relief. This group is notable for including two ex-members of dark punk band Peace Corpse (Tracy Lee Garcia and Julianna Towns). Unlike Peace Corpse, Insulin Reaction is dark post punk very much in the Cure vein. What I find most interesting about the band is that they use no guitar - they have two bassists, a drummer, and a keyboardist. With two basses, the songs have a dark, ominous quality to them with very few bright, treblous noises appearing. The only problem is that the combination of dual basses and low production costs cause an extremely murky sound on the 7"; thankfully this was corrected for the LP. The LP is quite good; although many of the songs sound a bit similar, there are some classics, especially Darkzone and Secrets. Anyway, enough jabbering, you probably want to download the records. Do so here:

Insulin Reaction: Witchfinder General 7"
1987 Icon Records
1. Witchfinder General
2. Ride to Forever

Insulin Reaction: What's the Point LP
1988 Bobok Records, Ltd.
1. Lonely Lady
2. Reconstruction
3. Want
4. New Way
5. Darkzone
6. Factory
7. Blacksuit Man
8. Difference
9. Machine
10. Crossfure
11. Secrets
12. Cannibals

Download the LP and 7" here!

Crimson Ivy: Spiritual Vision LP & Existence/Here We Are EP & Epithet Records stuff...

Here are both releases from San Francisco Bay Area band The Cure Crimson Ivy. I've been meaning to post these for quite a while. When I saw that Curious Guy posted the Autumn Cathedral LP (on the same label, Epithet Records) a couple days ago, I figured these records would be good companion pieces. The Cu- CRIMSON IVY was a darkwave/post punk band fronted by Russell Ficklin, who (at least on the LP) wanted soooooo much to be Robert Smith. From his voice to his hair, he was L'il Robbie Smith Jr. However, while it is quite derivative, it's also very good, with equal elements of electro and psych. And the EP takes it in a bit of a different, slightly more New Order-ish and synth-oriented direction, with more earth-loving hippie-ish lyrics.

Extra Epithet Records bonus! If you're interested in hearing another great band from this cult label, check out And Tears Fell. All their songs from their first album, Sidhe, are available for free download. They are a bit darkwave, a bit shoegaze, and a bit alt-rock. Definitely recommended if you like the Crimson Ivy and Autumn Cathedral stuff.

Also! If you check out the comments on the Autumn Cathedral post at Phoenix Hairpins, an anonymous poster uploaded some Autumn Cathedral demos, the Count Past Five 7" (a mod/powerpop band), and the Mute Angst Envy Archetype + Trust CD.

Even bonuser! You can now buy the previously out-of-print and aforementioned Archetype + Trust CD from the Kitchenwhore Records website.

I have several Epithet/Americanon Records catalogs that were packed with the 12"s and EPs on the label, and have been trying to obtain the full discography.
Here is the full discography, to the best of my knowledge:
EPOS1: V/A "Anthology 1: An Awakening" (I believe this was a Europe-only comp to try to promote the label to the more like-minded European market. I've never seen a copy of this before.
EPOS1: Red Weather "Gray" (same catalog number as above. This was only released on cassette and CD_
EPIC1: Crimson Ivy "Spiritual Vision" LP (vinyl-only)
EPIC2: Autumn Cathedral "Asleep Within Waves" (CD and vinyl formats... the CD is extremely hard to find)
AMLP1: The Rise "Fortunes Ride" (CD, cassette, and vinyl formats)
AMLP2: Merv Spiegel and the Penguins "Spitting Tree" (vinyl and cassette only - this is decent alt-rock/post punk)
VERSE1: Count Past Five "Bad Boys of Brighton 7"" (this is the only release from this band; they were a straightforward mod/powerpop band; the song "Bad Boys of Brighton" is a catchy track)
AMEP1: The Electra "Isaac, Felia, the Alley, Bricks & Rain" (mini-LP. I've never seen or heard this before)
CANT01: Crimson Ivy "Existence/Here We Are" (vinyl-only EP)
CANT02: Mute Angst Envy "Trust" (vinyl-only EP)
?????: And Tears Fell: Sidhe (CD? Vinyl? Cassette?)
?????: And Tears Fell: Circe (CD? Vinyl? Cassette?)

Also, there are loads of non-music releases on Epithet Records that were given catalog numbers, a la Factory Records. Poems, covers, lyric sheets, tour flyers, photos, t-shirts, and stickers are all listed in the catalogs
Any help in filling in any gaps would be appreciated, especially regarding the And Tears Fell releases, since I've never actually come across physical copies of them...


Anyway, back to the records at hand: The Crimson Ivy LP was released in 1988; the EP came out in 1989.

Spiritual Vision LP:
1. Insomnia
2. A Vision
3. The Moon
4. Giving In
5. The Decisive Effect
6. Forever
7. Kiss of Death
8. You
9. Two Shadows

Existence/Here We Are EP:
1. Existence
2. Awkward
3. Here We Are
4. Serenity

Download both the LP and EP here!

Infant Bonds of Joy - Selftitled LP

As requested by Elektro80s, here is the selftitled LP from San Francisco industrial/synth band Infant Bonds of Joy. This was a trio consisting of Ricki Sara Bennett, James Davis, and D. E. Kohls, who recorded the record with engineer/producer Greg Jones (RIP).
Anyway, this record was released in 1986 on the UK-based Public Records. It comes in a plain sleeve with glued-on artwork. The music is a mix of industrial/EBM, darkwave, and synthpop.

Apparently all the members have now contacted me, so it's great to see that everyone is doing fine! David Kohls filled me in on the history of the band:



"A (not so) brief Bio of IBOJ by David Kohls:


I came to SF from Lansing MI in 1982 drawn by the fantastic music coming out of the City in those days. Especially I liked bands recording on the Ralph Records label, and yes, I do know a member of the Residents, though I would only tell for money or food...

Boe came from Lansing 6 months later. We met up then got together with Billy Mitchell, another Lansing transplant. Billy was the drummer we'd worked with in our Lansing band "i-Tense". I seriously don't think any of us made any phone calls or anything in plans to emigrate to this great land, but here we were... I met Ricki through a Bay Guardian ad and along with a singer/girlfriend, the five of us launched Dinner Noise, a band basically built to perform a multimedia conceptual performance piece thing. We wrote a lot of music for that - a lot of it pretty good stuff.


Next, Boe and I formed the band Wimpy Savage. Very loud, unstructured, male, and in retrospect with a sound based on a Mattel drum machine which was a great sound that I don't think ANYONE else had. Boe and I have very fond memories and demo tapes of that era and our current film production company carries the same name.

Billy (and I, for a short time) did a stint with the Part Time Christians based out of Concord - kind of a bowling punk thing. Singer Dave B. is still in the area. PTC is definitely a band you freaks should clamber over if clambering is indeed what you do.

Unfortunately , Billy fell for that old diabolical call that has felled so many fine musicians. Too soon he was done and it's too bad cuz Billy was the finest drummer, maybe overall musician, I've ever worked with and he left us without a drummer.

Around this time (1985) Boe and I started writing a new set of songs. Ricki became involved and added her own (much different!) sensibilities to our sound and then we met reknown saxophonist Normal Salant who decided we'd be the perfect band for his first stroll in producer shoes. We rushed out a few more songs and made the record at Gregory Hale Jones' (RIP) recording studio. Greg was the engineer on the project and produced "WhyWhyWhy" and "Boo!". I think it's obvious to anyone who has heard the tracks that those 2 cuts sound much different than the bulk of the LP produced by Salant.

Overall the record has a lot of regrets as I suppose all records do. It is interesting though in that it caught an unusual sound in a twisty little musical time and especially it catches - showcases, actually - some of the blips of the technology of the time. Most prominently is the Roland 707 drum machine used throughout the record. There was no swing in this lock step monster and not terribly great samples either. I regret I didn't make better, more creative use of its limitations. Instead I got caught up in trying to make it sound like a drummer.

Also showcased is the wonderful Moog Prodigy synthesizer (not even Midi capable!) still highly valued for it's kick-ass bass capabilities. Most of the other keyboard sounds were produced on the Juno 120(?) a good midi-enabled synth. Did take advantage of some midi stuff, mostly triggers from the 707 and sequencing on Greg's Apple II computer! The recording was done on a 24 track board on 2 inch, mixed down to 1/2 inch and mastered at Fantasy in Berkeley."

Thanks a lot for the thorough background on the band!


Click here to download the album.

Track list:
1. Simple Anwers
2. Glorious Din
3. A Reaction
4. Why Why Why
5. Pointed Sticks
6. I Like Some Fun
7. Just Like Spoons
8. Boo!

(note: I accidentally called track 7 "Just Like Sticks" in the .zip file. Also, I didn't crop the cover images. D'oh!)