Besides Asides

Krupted Peasant Farmerz were a San Jose punk band, that for me, really bridged the gap between 80s hardcore punk and the poppier punk that dominated the 90s. Yet, they didn't really sound like the SoCal bands of the Epifat dynasty. They were largely a political band but had a good sense of humour about what they did. This is a collection of their out of print early material - that is also out of print. There are a few rips of this out there on other blogs but this is a high quality CD rip. Enjoy!

Most of the stuff I post in the Get In Where You Fit In feature has never been released but I decided that albums that received limited release such as tour only records, promotional albums or limited online releases would also sort of fall under this feature. That is where the (Canadian) Subhumans' 2005 Demo EP comes in. It was released as a tour only CD when the band reunited in 2005 and I got a digital copy of it a number of years ago through a trade. I feel like these guys are one of the better old acts that has come back together in recent years and I think it partially has to do with the band still containing many of their original members. While not quite as strong as their classic material this is still some darn good stuff. Enjoy!

Take Manhattan were a kind of indie/punk band from Bloomington that merged raucous punk rock execution with a down home rootsy songwriting. They were probably influenced by the popular folk-punk movement of the 2000s that Bloomington was swept up in but they didn't have that amateur feeling you get when you listen a lot of the Plant-It-X crowd. There is still that enthusiasm but also really solid songwriting to back it up. If I had to make some comparisons they remind me a little of Two Hand Fools and the New Pornographers having a dance if that makes sense. In their short existence they released a sole EP and went their separate ways, but I know that the drummer Greg now plays in the two piece Outdoor Velour. They have since put their EP An Audio Coloring Book up  for free on their bandcamp. So head on over and czech it out.

The Crush were a pop punk band from Minnesota that really really wanted to be Jawbreaker. While no Blake Schwarzenbachs they did a pretty damn good job of it. However, I guess imitation only gets you so far because they released two LPs, one 7" and made an appearance on a Jawbreaker tribute and then faded into obscurity. Today I am posting their second LP because I believe it to be the stronger of the two. It received slightly larger release on Billy Joe's Adeline Records and it saw the band developing a bit of their own identity. Jason Miller, who I believe played guitar and sang in The Crush (it may have been bass) now plays in the alt-country tinged Evening Rig so you should check them out too.

This was out there on other blogs I think (at least before the recent purges) but once again this is a high quality rip from my own collection. Enjoy!

A few years ago when I started this blog I posted up an Against Me! collection. When going over material I pulled from the blog I discovered that collection was one of them. There was a few problems with it: 1) I don't post any major releases from bands that are still in print and a good chunk of the collection was made up of demos that have since been released on the demo album Total Clarity and another chunk were released on the EP, New Wave B-Sides. 2) Against Me! are an active band still releasing music and their b-sides will continue to grow making any collection I try and make ultimately incomplete. I thought about reposting it and decided I'd do a collection roughly spanning their first decade as a band from 2000-2010 (with a few songs from 1998). I wasn't going to repost it if it was just going to be the same things either so I added a few gems that I hadn't included in the original collection to make it worthwhile for a re-download if anyone managed to get it the first time.

The first two additions on this version are alternate versions of "National Myth" and "Burning Bridges" that came out on the tape comp We're Here To Ruin Your Fun. This is a rare tape among AM! collectors but there seems to be a single rip floating around the net of these songs but there is horrible tape feedback/signal noise on it. I went in and edited out all that noise and these are likely the best versions you will find out there, really clear. Another addition is the full band acoustic version of "Miami" that for some reason didn't appear on Searching For A Former Clarity or Total Clarity. The sound quality was never great on it but I tried to clean it up a bit and do a amateur mastering job on it so hopefully it sounds better than the usual copy out there. "Mia Bella California" is a demo that Tom Gabel recorded on the road sometime in 2006 between Searching... and New Wave that never ended up being re-recorded and it makes sense as it is a bit different than the direction they went with New Wave I think. far as I can tell is pretty rare as other than hardcore collectors it isn't really out there. The last real gem on here is the full band acoustic version of "Up The Cuts" that didn't make New Wave or any of it's singles. I personally like this version a bit better, it is more reminiscent of the band's older material.

So this is a mostly complete representations of the band's b-side and rare material from their first ten years. There is a few alternate mixes of "Thrash Unreal" that only appeared on label promo singles and a few alternate versions and unreleased cuts from White Crosses that may only be in the possession of the band but I think a few collectors out there may have them. If anyone has any of these shoot me an email and please share if you like the stuff I've done on the blog. Anyways enjoy the collection!