Insubordinate - Demo

While the rest of the contemporary hardcore world was concerning itself with message boards, labels, mass distribution, fests and the like, Insubordinate was doing what their name implies; not taking part. To describe the band as 'fun' would be an immense understatement. Through its duration as a band, Insubordinate played numerous guerrilla shows, wrecked a nightclub, shot off fireworks at fests, and basically just made shows fun. In a time when Olympia had virtually no hardcore punk bands the four-piece that was Insubordinate held the torch.
This demo tape was Insubordinate's first release with artwork by yours truly. The songs on the tape are about a variety of different subjects ranging from scene politics, general discontent with authority figures, national politics and economics accompanied by a nice little musical interlude to carry us through. I can't count how many times I've listened to this tape but I love it. On the tape is the original line up consisting of James, Ian, Brando and Ryan. Ryan later moved to California and Sean Naito of Trainyard fame took his place.



One of my fondest memories (pretty much ever but mostly concerning music) is when Insubordinate wrecked the Vault. The Vault is a bar/nightclub in Olympia that hosts 'foam parties' and many other mid-life crisis and college dweeb predicated events; all things that hardcore punk has nothing to do with. In 2006 the dudes from Tacoma were trying to get a venue off the ground that became known as 'The Viaduct'. In order to raise money for the venue they booked a benefit show in Olympia. It should be mentioned that we didn't know this was a benefit show. Getting it shut down was not out of any sort of spite for the Viaduct, albeit we would have wrecked the show even if we had known it was a benefit because it was at the Vault. I'm not sure why they didn't just network through Olympia hardcore patrons to get a show but whatever the reason fate had it the show would be at the Vault. Before the show began it was already decided the venue was going to be destroyed. Necessary preparations were taken and the fun was set in motion. Before the show everyone walked around the venue looking for things to throw, destroy, etc. Insubordinate began setting up and you could feel the tension. To add to the ridiculousness of the night Insubordinate started with a cover of "Sugar" by System of a Down; as soon as the first note was played things went fucking ape-shit. All at once things exploded. Boxes upon boxes of glossy vault foam party fliers were tossed from the balcony along with industrial sized bottles of ketchup, mustard and an entire side of ham. Wrinkled newspapers stuck to everything as someone dressed in the alligator suit (I forget who it was) opened up two guitar cases full of water balloons and began hurling them. It looked like it was snowing garbage. So much was flying through the air constantly it appeared everything was suspended there. Everyone covered in ketchup, mustard and soaking wet pushed forward among the confusion to sing along with James, donned in a rasta wig, to System of a Down lyrics. Robert (of LQD NLZ, Mondo Aggro fame) jumped off the dancing cages to pull down the enormous vault banner hanging above the stage. It took a while but security began to react. The power was cut leaving everyone chanting "IN-IN-INSUBORDINATE" over stand-alone drumming. People began getting tackled by security guards. Robert was full on nailed by some huge burly guard but escaped long enough to run outside, turn on a fire hose and throw it inside while spewing out water. The crowd as a collective picked up as much gear or important items as possible and bailed out the door. We all met back at the Wiener Shack, recounted the hilarity and then proceeded to be held at gunpoint by 11 police officers that night (unrelated incident). Easily one of the best days of my life. I always wondered why the Viaduct was weird to us and it wasn't until recently that I put two and two together; "Oh shit, we wrecked their benefit show". Hey man, that's what happens when you book a show at a bullshit club. Olympia doesn't talk it, we live it. Enjoy da tunes, and read the lyrics.



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Trainyard - Demo

Here it is ignoble browsers, the Crème de la Crème of all that is music. Aside from just predicting the Obama election and oncoming alien invasion, Trainyard took the brunt of the Olympia hardcore scene in 2006. At a time when the scene consisted of basically Insubordinate, Nervosa and Sex Vid, Trainyard took the reigns and guided Olympia music in an unheard of direction. I know, shameless self-promotion, but it's fucking true. Up until that point I can't think of any Olympia band that has sounded anything like it. Some may say that it's a good thing nothing has sounded like it and that Trainyard is stupid, others may praise and enjoy it and still many are indifferent. The former of these are usually people who do not enjoy fun in any way shape or form.



Trainyard is easily the most fun band I've ever been in. The group of people is perfect and said party always has a great time together. At its humble beginnings Ian Bracken sought me out to jam because we both enjoyed late 80s NYHC and metal. Although we didn't have too much of a particular influence we were going for I seem to recall Ian often citing Merauder as an influence for some of his songs and I had pushed for a blend of a contemporary hardcore feel similar to No Warning. Fortunately it turned out sounding like neither, it took on a life all its own.



Originally Josh Simpson of Ancient Head infamy was going to sing but Ancient Head stole him from us thus spawning the Ancient Head Trainyard beef (which in actuality was never real except to one person who shall remain unnamed). Without a singer Ian recruited Adriana to the team seeing as she also shared similar musical influences. Ian soon decided to switch to doing vocals and his brother James of Insubordinate and Crazies fame hopped on guitar; a perfect candidate seeing as we practiced at his house. Conflicts of interest occurred when a myspace was created and James left the band and Bob took over temporarily. After a very long break the love of Trainyard's life Sean (of insubordinate fame) joined on the six string filling a void that was long expanding in the heart of the Trainyard collective. A Canadian tour and many shows are now beneath our belt despite the fact that we have never had merch and have never released anything aside from a demo. We've been what could be innacurately described as recording for a record for over a year. We'll see what happens with that.
As far as it goes now, we are back on the map. Our Osiris D3s are laced up and JNCO jeans frayed to perfection. Below is a link to the 2007 Demo and two tracks recorded for an Oly Comp that never got used. Without further ado, some words from Ian:

"Trainyard stands for many things. A lot of focus on the lyrics is related to being yourself and thinking independently from your peers, the media, and authority figures. Lyrics are about everything from politics, individuality, sexuality, drug culture, and authority figures. Trainyard is definitely not afraid to take an offensive or satirical stance at things that people hold very dear to their hearts."

Musically, Trainyard writes whatever we feel like writing, sometimes to a humorous extent. Rather than pigeonholing ourselves with a music writing hardcore formula, we pull from everyone’s individual musical interests in the band creating a musical style that cannot be mimicked.



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Red & Black - Taste the Rat EP

Red & Black's sophomore release was dubbed Taste the Rat and recorded to cassette just recently (the best music format). The tape features all the demo songs re-recorded faster plus the addition of five new songs and a Reagan Youth cover. The cover was recorded two measures too short at the beginning so we did some fine tuning to make it our own. We originally planned on covering the Dick's "Lifetime Problems" but couldn't find the lyrics anywhere. Neither the original or the boot of the 7" has the lyrics. After recognizing this conundrum we put on a Reagan Youth record and jammed out "Go Nowhere" a few times then recorded it. All the songs were recorded in one day by Alek Gayton in addition to the In Debt demo which I will put up later. The sound quality could be described as better than the Chester's House sessions but it would be a stretch to call them decent. Alek recorded them well but a bit bass heavy. Steven went in with a downloaded mastering program and came out with what you hear... To further prevent listening pleasure the songs are heavily ladened with audio samples. Although our original idea was to make our own stupid audio samples we forgot last minute and threw these together. Beginning, end and sometimes within the song you have the pleasure of hearing our chosen samples. A select few have recordings of the bass heavy mix without samples and we intend to keep it that way. If your are interested in getting a copy of the tape just email me (rjjuicemaster@yahoo.com). Tapes are $3 and tapes and a shirt are $5. We also dressed up quite interestingly for the recording session (see pictures). My dad gave me some bags of his old clothes and many of them were quite impractical but hilarious. Without further ado. XXX













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Mondo Aggro - Demo Tape 2009

Follow up to New Years story... here's Mondo Aggro's demo tape. I missed them the first time because I had to pick up McKenzie from the ferry (Sixes and Red & Black played as well) but fortunately was able to pick up the demo tape the next time Robert came down to hang out. The three piece that is Mondo Aggro is awesome in its simplicity. Robert has always had a knack for writing catchy lyrics quicker than you can begin brainstorming. This coupled with Miles' blazin' licks form a wonderful punk medley. I'm quite partial to the tracks "Pay To Skate" and "Concerned Citizens". If you dig LQD NLZ check out da new lineup. I've been jamming it more often than not.







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New Year - Mix Tape

New Years, if you're a punk, isn't really that exciting; unless of course you're a party kid, in which case you're either uneducated or not a punk. While the Tacoma and Seattle scenes had their large venue shows Olympia decided to do something a bit different; namely, plugging in anywhere with an outlet and playing for as long as we can. The first stop was the play-shed of a school because it was raining a bit. Joined by friends from Bremerton/Redmond Mondo Aggro set things off to a good start. Jamming included their demo tape songs a Joan Jett cover and a DRI cover. Skanking, circle pitting, nakedness and thrashing ensued. After a while people started stopping by and checking things out. The spectacle of soda cans and people running around to punk music in a play-shed lit by Christmas lights on New Years was of moderate intrigue to the neighborhood. White Wards set up to play but not before cops showed up. The cop was able to bear witness to an original song and a negative approach cover until it became apparent he wasn't having it. Seeing as we were on private property there was no need to make it any sort of spectacle of standing up to authority. The idea of moving to public property out of his jurisdiction came up. We packed up and headed to a Gazebo in a business district in Lacey. Although the park was closed they still had power running to their Gazebo. White Wards finished their set and Trainyard set up to play. It was quite wet so many spills were taken but all in good fun. The power shut off so Red & Black and Total Disgrace were unable to play but the New Years was well spent. To all you nerds who acted like jocks and went to teen parties this year; suck it. You talk it, we fucking live it.
In the spirit I chose to make a mixtape. I apologize for the length but I only have 90 minute tapes. In the future I'll just make fake ones for the purpose of sharing that are shorter. I began with mainly snotty hardcore punk bands like F, Deep Wound, Hated Youth, the F.U.'s, the Freeze, the Insults, Adrenalin OD, Chronic Sick, etc. but it soon took on a life of its own. The commonality in all the songs is that, for the most part, they rage the whole way through. Kick of your new year correctly. The songs are out of order in the zip files and theoretically you could put them in any order you wanted. Mine was as follows:
Hated Youth - Hardcore Rules
Deadline - ICA
The F.U.'s - Radio Unix USA
Adrenalin OD - Old People Talk Loud
Heart Attack - Society
The Freeze - Sacrifice Not Suicide
Heart Attack - God Is Dead
Die Kreuzen - Hate Me
Angry Samoans - Coffin Case
MDC - I Hate Work
Deep Wound - I Saw It
Gang Green - Snob
The Insults - Their World
Youth Brigade - It's About Time That We Had A Change
CIA - Love & War
Government Issue - Religious Ripoff
Gang Green - Rabies
Deep Wound - Sister
Deadline - Apathy
Deep Wound - Don't Need
F - Spit It Out
Jerry's Kids - Crucify Me
Void - Think
DRI - Marriage
Minor Threat - Seeing Red
Rich Kids On LSD - Why?
Negative FX - Protestor
Chronic Sick - Mucho Macho
Ill Repute - Fuck With My Head
Crucifix - How When Where
The Mob - Step Forward
Battalion Of Saints - My Minds Diseased
Mecht Mensch - Wasted Youth
The Worst - I Wanna Stop
Hated Youth - For The Cause Of Christ
JFA - Out Of School
The Mob - Unity Lives On
Reagan Youth - USA
Koro - Dear Sirs
Life Sentence - Peacetime Death
Ill Repute - In Society
Deathwish - Break The Chains
Crucifix - Prejudice
Youth Brigade - Last Word
Youth Youth Youth - Greed
Agitated - Death Warmed Over
Battalion Of Saints - No More Lies
Adrenalin OD - Suburbia
CIA - Hazard
Negative Gain - No Life At All
Government Issue - No Rights
Dr. Know - No Exit
White Cross - Suburbanite
The Mob - Crucial Point
Chronic Sick - Dress Code
PTL Klub - Sea Of Hate
The F.U.'s Drug Of Choice
F - No!
Negative FX - IDNTFS
The Insults - You Know Too Much
Heart Attack - Victim's Inquisition
Stalag 13 - Sometime
Necros - Satisfy
Hated Youth - Help Yourself
Chronic Sick - Reagan Bands
The F.U.'s - Peer Police
Battalion Of Saints - Second Coming
YDI - Enemy For Life
Mecht Mensch - Land Of The Brave
Angry Samoans - Tuna Taco
JFA - Cokes & Snickers
The Fix - No Idols
YDI - Friends
Teen Idles - Get Up And Go

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Red & Black - Chester's House Sessions

Some shameless self-promotion; Red & Black is da best. The young Adam Barnes and I had always talked about starting a band together, and had tried, albeit with a lack of drive, previously in the summer of 2007 at the Tiki House. A new line-up was in order... Steven had moved back to Olympia and with the newfound friendship of Joey, things looked promising. Steven had written a handful of songs that we turned into this tape in a matter of a few hours. Within that small amount of time we were able to not only record the tracks but had done all the lyrical writing and even made a music video. All this and more within a day. In terms of sound I would say its comparable to the hard sound of the early 80s midwest scene with the fun of skate punk and Cali nardcore bands. Think a negative approach that skateboards and is into having fun. Nevertheless I should warn, if you're looking for a contemporary hardcore sound... you may want to look elsewhere. The recording quality is just below awful and is a bit difficult to listen to. I think it's sweet that way but we'll see how others feel. All the lyrics were written that day (and many lines were cut which makes some seemingly nonsensical) so the vocal timing is a bit off and everything was recorded on a tape recorder with Adam yelling into it. We hit record on the tape player, played live, recorded us playing for the video and then afterward cracked open some sodas and got some pizza to film funny filler clips for the video. The video was posted earlier.



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Sunset Riders - Split w/ HiJinks

Instead of reading what I have to write, I'll share some thoughts from Griff:

"Sunset riders is the product of my first band i contributed to/wrote for. I had been in a few bands before, but didn't write, so when this band started it was my chance to have it sound how i liked my sounds. Being influenced by fast and straight forward music, naturally that's how i wanted my band to be. I've never been a great writer musically/lyrically, i just have always sang about problems in my life/around me that not only can and have affected me but many can connect with on an easy level.
Views, ideals, and beliefs change with people and i have grown to understand and accept that, but i will continue to sing and rep what i hold close to me. We are not a straight edge band, though we have some straight edge members, including myself.
Hitting a wall lyrically has been a speed bump for me and the band, and it doesn't help that we all start up other bands and the focus shifts to newer things, but i hope 2010 brings more shows and more activity. I have some songs cookin in my head i hope to get out there and hopefully on a demo sooner than later in the new year.
ALWAYS.RIDE.DIRTY.
XXX"

This split marks the last release Sunset Riders has done to date. The record contains two original tracks and a cover. I wish there was more sunset material and I hope there will be more in the future. As far as their hiatus is concerned, they're playing their first show in quite a while on Adam's birthday. Peep the details at OurSound. For now enjoy the listenings.

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