The Tweenagers 7" California Clones/Brown Cal Sun (Hollywood Records 1980)

  Oh, the joy of living in California. Love it or hate it, I have called it home for my entire life. For all the sunshine and fun, it has more than it's fare share problems. A couple of those problems were perfectly addressed on this seldom seen 2 sider. The Tweenagers put out this one and only 7" in 1980 on Hollywood records and then seemed to disappear. The little info I have on it is that Johnny Forever was a member and that either most of these were junked or someone is sitting on a box of them somewhere. Either way, not many of these are floating around out there. Both sides are undeniably catchy and well recorded. These songs bring to mind another great California band from the same period, The Shock. They have a similar style of writing in that they have a very balanced blend of melody, power, and spite. In my internet digging I did find this page that has a little info on the band http://www.qm21.com/mystical30.html It seems they played around at the right places. Too bad there's not more info out there on them.

Side A: California Clones


Side B: Brown Cal Sun

Twisted Value 5 Song 7" (Weasel Records 1985)

I've been sitting on this one for a while now but work and moving have taken up the majority of my spare time from doing too much with records. The neglect has been driving me crazy but I finally have a break which means catching up on recent acquisitions and getting reacquainted with some old standbys like this one. Now, I'm not a big fan of their name because it sounds like a modern day Nu Metal band, to me at least, but their sound couldn't be farther from that. Twisted Value released this one and only 7" in 1985 out of  Fort Wayne Indiana. Their location surprised me a bit as I would have guessed they were from the East Coast, maybe Florida based off their sound. That just makes me like the record even more knowing that they were from what was most likely a non existent scene. I really don't know much else about the record or band other than an insert exists which unfortunately my copy is missing. Out of the 5 songs, H20 is my favorite. The crude lyrics and fuzzed out guitar really put it over for me. The song is about turning your faucet on and having shit pour out instead of water. Ya, I know, who hasn't had that happen to them? The song I'm Sick Of You is a close 2nd with a nice mellow intro which quickly turns into a blown out assault lyrically and musically. For some reason, I have a feeling the band may have been a one off studio job. Hopefully, this post will fish out some much needed info and maybe even that insert for me.

SIDE A
Song 1. Legal Murder


Song 2. I'm Sick Of You







SIDE B
Song 3. Social Outcast


Song 4. H2O


Song 5. You Give Me Lice

Unabombers 7" 6 Minutes Of Hell (Hellbound Records 1996)

Without even hearing this one, the cover makes it an instant buy. An oversize envelope sleeve with a crude silk screen job has always been a tempting combination for picking up a record that you've never heard. It can also backfire and turn out to be a bad Emo/Screamo record as the 90's were known for churning out. During that period of the 90's, the whole DIY/Emo/Ebulition records thing was kicked into full gear. I'm not necessarily saying that that was a bad thing. There were just a lot of records being pumped out with numerous micro scenes trying to stake their claim in that scene as well. In short, an over abundance of mediocre to shitty records were floating around. Fortunately, this record was far from that. The Unabombers were a short lived (About 7 months) Washington band that did one U.S. tour and one record. 500 were pressed, but only 200 came with a booklet and all were on red vinyl. The record itself is a relentless 6 song noisy, hateful,rager that never lets up. Pick your King era, Poison Idea comes to mind when describing their sound. When the Unabombers called it a day, guitarist Nate Manning and guitarist Gabe, resurfaced in the Murder City Devils where they have gone on to find fame and fortune.

Side A

1. Prepare The Transmitter


2. Pistol Whip


3. 45th and 8th


Side B

1. Van-Eating Suicide Pack


2. Windstorm 95


3. More Gold

The Terrorists 7" Crazy Life/Cry Girl Cry (Rorschach Records 1981)

Howdy everyone, it's been a while. I'd like to start 2012 with my best score of 2011. This 2 songer was quite headache inducing for me ever since I caught wind of it's existence a few years ago. Outside of a couple of folks around Bakersfield, the only other mention of the record that I had heard of was from collector great, Johan Kugelburg, on one of his blog posts. It has flown way below the radar of most collectors due to the simple fact that almost all of the records were thrown away by a band member. Coincidentally, another Bakersfield band and KBD alumni, The Lizerds, had the majority of their record pressing tossed out by a band member as well. Dumping their records wasn't the only thing these two bands had in common as the guitar player of the Lizerds also played on the Terrorists 7". Before I got the low down on the record, I questioned rather or not it even existed. After speaking with a couple of people who were involved in the scene back then and getting conformation that the record did really exist, I felt that getting a copy of my own was a pipe dream. The pressing info that was given to me was that a cringe inducing 107 copies were pressed to which 20 copies were sent to Rough Trade records in San Francisco, while a few copies were given away around town and some tossed out at a show only to be broken and thrown back at the band. Around 1985, a band member threw out the remaining press of between 70 to 80 copies. Out of the 2 songs, Crazy Life is my favorite. In a nut shell, if the guitar player of the Endtables joined the Grim/Klone Band and they dropped the drummer for Metal Urbain's drum machine I think it would sound like Crazy Life. The flip, Cry Girl Cry, falls somewhere between the Minutemen and Pere Ubu with it's bouncing base line and scratchy guitar skronk. Enjoy!

Almost forgot to say thanks to Greg and Chris Goodsell and also to Ronald AKA "Ron Jon Silver" for the background info on this one.

Side A: Crazy Life


Side B: Cry Girl Cry

The Crash Street Kidds 7" Sweet Sally/I Don't Love You Anymore (Self Released 1977)

This 2 songer was unearthed here in Bakersfield a few years ago and I still know nothing about it's origin except for the obvious. I do know that they are not the Minnesota band with the same name who released the "Little Girls" LP in 1982. I'm guessing they got their name from a Mott The Hoople song since the spelling is the same. The A-side is a catchy Power Pop number with Glam overtones that shows the band had chops. The solid drumming and vocal harmonies really stand out on this one. The B-side is a slower Beatles esque ballad with, again, great harmonizing vocals. There is no address on this thing and only 3 last names for the writing credits. I've Googled this thing to death and have found nothing.

Side 1: Sweet Sally


I Don't Love You


Man Killer


The One


UPDATE: With the help of Brian Devereux, members of the Crash Street Kidds have been contacted and their story has finally been unearthed. A big thanks goes to Brian, and band members Dave Warnke and Joey Sparks for the info and photos. CSK were from Porterville California which is a small town between Bakersfield and Fresno. The earliest line up of the band started in 1972 with Dave Warnke and Jeff Gilliam. By 1975 Joey Sparks joined on Bass and Brent Annestad took over on drums which would end up being the line up that recorded the 7". The band gigged around central California mainly playing parties, dances, small clubs and bars. The guys were very into Glam which is pretty obvious by their name but during the mid to late 70's, people around Central California weren't interested in hearing that kind of music. The guys would do covers by everyone from Alice Cooper to the Doobie Brothers, mainly to keep the local yokel satisfied but would also manage to slip in New York Dolls and Velvet Underground covers as well as their own tunes. In 1977 they booked themselves time at a recording studio in Fresno where they laid down the 2 tracks that would make up their one and only release. They sold their records at shows and anywhere else they could. The record was well received and even made it to local radio. The band continued playing up until 1980 and even recorded 2 more songs that they never released which I have uploaded for your listening pleasure. They played their last show on March 8th 1980 at a club in Porterville.