Heavy Sounds From Hippyville - Side B

*flip*....*click*

* King Missle - "Jesus Was Way Cool" - "if he wanted to...he could turn sugar into cocaine...or vitamin pills into amphetamines" Need I say more?

* Strange mix of "Readings on the Beat Jack Keuoack, John Zorn covering Orenette Coleman and early 70's Budweiser commercials.

* Krack - "Infection" rather good, nasty noise rock with burly guitars.

* Hedgehog - "Burning the Green" stoned out, loose, Dinosaur Jr.-like indie rock from Santa Cruz. They had a few 7"ers. The song is actually about a forest fire not taking bongloads, though.

* Silverfish - "One Silver Dollar" - bad-ass UK punkish/noise rock with female vocals. They did a couple of albums all of which were pretty good.

* Dinosaur Jr. - "The Lung" - a great, huge rockin' semi-epic, totally unforgettable and tons of great guitar work. This show in particular got me way into Dino Jr.

* Buffalo Tom - "Birdbrain" - Dinosaur Jr. Jr. some called them back then. Except the vocals were a lot different they just weren't as out of control. I'm hearing more of a Screaming Trees influence. Not a bad band but they only had a handful of songs that really stuck out and this is one of them.

* Public Enemy - "Bring 'Da Noise" - Motherfuckin' Public Enemy! While I dug a lot of early hip-hop like Run DMC & even some of the first few LL Cool J albums. Although,
P.E. was the first band that a HUGE sound. The DJ made a super lame error in running a "why you should donate" promo during the intro. "THEE....Public Enemy!"

* Public Enemy - "Don't Believe the Hype" - A perfect example of how they bridged the serious and comical. Especially that odd background voice that keeps going "WHooooooo-haaahhh!"

* Last Poets - "Jonestown" I still hear this thinking - "Whoa -what was this?" Radical, political, African-American poetry/proto hip-hop. "I'm driving a white horse into my main vein..." All kinds of shit going on in this. Told from the perspective of a junkie who's "jonesin'" Rather grim and still holds up.

* Dr. Know - "Mr. Freeze" Killer, slightly metallic hardcore. My tape cut off during this song and it took me YEARS to figure out who did this. It made sense that it was Dr. Know as I liked their "Plug in Jesus" LP that I borrowed from my sister but for some dumb reason I didn't tape that. (Yet I taped crap like Lizzy Borden and Kiss' "Animalize" what was I THINKING"?). Some band called Slayer covered this song.

The station also had a Middle Eastern show called "Unfiltered Camels" which I found is still on. I listened to it a few times during the first Gulf War.
I can't tell much from their website what exactly they're playing aside from some standard indie fare but a few suprises. I discovered like their metal show called "Hell Bent for Heavy Metal" that played "Gladiator" by Nasty Savage! The rest of the metal programming leans towards "moldy oldies" like AC/DC, Ozzy and new crap like Black Label Society.

Heavy Sounds From Hippyville - Side A

A few weeks ago I fished out a tape of a college radio show "Zen Crux" from
KZSC UC Santa Cruz's show. This show was from about October or November 1990. After 14 years in Pleasanton, my mom sold our house and we moved out of our apartment across town. So I split to Santa Cruz. I picked it up down in Aptos when I worked at the Pixie Plaza market. Pixie Plaza was a convienience store that catered to mostly drunk idiots. One of it's biggest selling items was this foul concoction of fruit juice and hard alcohol - called Cisco.

This particular "Zen Crux" show was during their pledge drive which normally would've been irritating but the DJs made it pretty fun. This was college radio in the age before Pitchfork and even before Nirvana. This was indie rock with an emphasis on ROCK. I'm not saying that it's perfect but take a look at this list of bands & songs and see how different this is from the puds who play The Decemberists and Death Cab For Cutie and feel like they're doing something "cutting edge". The problem with a lot of college stations and so-called "indie bands" isn't so much that they don't rock (OK, maybe it IS!) but it seems to be that the bands that take real risks get overlooked.


SIDE A

* Screaming Trees - "Ocean Of Confusion" - Seriously rockin', perfectly melodic and catchy. The Van Conner brothers and Marc Langean worked so well together. It's a damn shame they've gotten overlooked after Nirvana hit it big. Lanegan's solo stuff is fantastic as well. I lucked out and saw them play live twice in the same night when they opened for Sonic Youth.

* Mustard - "Lady Day" (live on KZSC). Mustard along wiht Hedgehog were played a lot on Zen Crux and it's precursor show Zen Bubblegum which was essentially the same show with a different co-host. This song is a John Coletrane cover even though I've never heard the original it has that odd mix of hippie jam band mixed with passable '68-'71 era psych rock interplay. I was always suspect about Mustard as they were from Santa Cruz AND had a song called "Groovy Waters".

--- DJ back announces calls Mustard "local, groovy band" and says about Screaming Trees "another underground band makes the majors". Interesting as this was in the pre-Nirvana time. He also played "Stargirl" by Seaweed which I had on another tape. They played this song a lot but it wasn't till I heard their debut on Sub Pop "Weak" when I got really into Seaweed. I got to interview them in 1993 for KSJS. They were really nice, funny guys. We talked about all kinds of stuff outside their band like Venom, AntiSeen and strange cover songs of Lee Hazelwood songs. (i.e Einstrüzende Neubauten's version of "Sand")

Seaweed like a number of bands in the 90's got pretty bad as time went on. Their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" was just the beginning. They just seem so goddamn smug playing that shitty song. I have yet to hear their one & only major label album "Spanway" but it apparently is pretty spotty. Although this video is pretty cool. Oddly enough in 1994 they were ahead of the curve by showing 80's retro stuff like Pre-X Games era BMX bikes and dudes in 3/4 sleeve concert tees. I can relate, gimme
Diamond Turbos and a Rush '84 tour shirt & I'm good.

* Stooges - "I Wanna Be Your Dog" - The first time hearing this oddly enough. It still sound raw and powerfully (no pun intended). The Stooges haven't haven't been worn out by nostaligia trips for me. At least not yet. I went out a week later and got a copy of "Raw Power" on gatefold LP at Logo's for a scant $3.50. Still plays just fine.


* Helmet - "Repetition" - Another first. Once I heard that first riff kick in I though "whooa- what the HELL ? This is FUCKING HEAVY!" Riff after after and even a guitar solo? Wait this was metal or at least really close. Thing is the vocals are either shouted or almost spoken. This was the new stuff on a label I had just discovered then - Amphetamine Reptile -which I read about in Maximum Rock N' Roll. I heard a few of their early releases on KFJC but Helmet was really new. Helmet live was another story. They became a one trick pony. I saw them once in 1992 second to last on the bill with Quicksand, Gray Matter (D.C., the Discord band not Grey Matter which was a medicore "alt.rock" band in early 90's San Jose), Hammerhead (the AmRep band) and Melvins (who headlined). Helmet was pretty dull live. The first time I saw them they got blow away by the openers and the headliner. Then the next time they out outshined by both the openers - Therapy? and Jesus Lizard.

* Boredoms - "Bubble Pop Shop" even though I had heard the Boredoms via Maximum Rock N' Roll's radio show on KFPA a few months earlier - THIS was something way the fuck out there. Screaming male and female vocals, bashing drums, audio martial arts ("hi-yah"), and some insane variations of "We Will Rock You". I later found out that this LP sounds incredible awesome played backwards.

* Wedding Present - "Kennedy" - I never heard of "the Weddos" (as N.M.E. would called them) before this. In college I had 4 friends that had most of their records. This is a pretty phenomenal track especially considering the time. Plenty of bands (re: lame ones) played 'jangle rock" guitar but the Wedding Present played it and fast with a huge bass line with a enough variation in the chords that kept your attention. Really sarcastic lyrics with the refrain "too much apple pie".

* Victim's Family - "Supermarket Nightmare/Polka" Victim's Family is one of those bands in the 90's I wanted to really like but never really could. They played great but they songs were kinda samey. Fast bouncy, slightly funky and proggy bass lines both of these tracks are above water but overall they just never really did much for me. I bought a copy of "White Bread Bread Blues" at the original Streetlight Records in San Jose. Anyone remember when they were in that converted house next to the freeway?

--- DJ #1 backannouces - "...(the Boredoms) that was the Japanese answer to the Butthole Surfers" DJ #2 "Can you say that?" "Rollins would want you to donate to KZSC...it's a very Rollins, punk rock thing". (DJ #1 says "grooviness" again, WTF?)

* Rollins Band - "What've I Got?"/"Tearin' Me Apart" - While I think I liked Black Flag when I first heard 'em (it was "My War" around early '85) I just forgot about it in the onslaught of metal obsession. These two songs go me into Rollins Band (as did his killer cover of The Pink Faries "Do It") that made me go back and check out Black Flag. I saw Hank & a guy named Don Bajemia do spoken word in December of 1990 at UCSC. It was in a lecture hall that held about 400 people. I briefly talked with Henry after the show - he signed my copy of "High Adventures in the Great Outdoors". He seemed pretty cool but really overwhelmed and intense (go figure).

* Negativland - "Car Bomb" - I had heard Negativland's "hit" "Christianity Is Stupid" a few times and even listened to their bizarre "Over The Edge" show on KPFA earlier in the year but this song was really different. This is Negativland at their most straight up punk yet it's still pretty weird. It's a list of different car parts with a fast thumping beat and a clocking ticking down, explosions and the crazy, shouted chorus of "...Carrrr-- Booaaammmmmb!"..."covered in a bumpersticker that says...'no other possibility".

*Click*...Time to flip over the tape.

Happy Pants Pumpkin Dance

Helloween's video for the song "Halloween". The festive action going on can only be described as the "Happy Pants Pumpkin Dance". Check for the cameos by Klaus Nomi clone and band mascot Mr. Pumpkinhead (what IS his name anyway?). The song was originally 13:19 and was cut down to a little over 5 minutes. Thus the weird "where the hell did this guitar solo come from?" effect. The U.S. version was cut even more The chopped a few frames since the original European version showed a woman's nipple through her sheer dress. Typical of MTV that they can show Steve Tyler of Aerosmith dry humping some dumb model but if some real looking German girl's nipple shows through her dress - forget it!

Also of note the band warns on the LP "anyone caught spelling the song "Halloween" with a 'e' or the band name with an 'a' will be turned into a pumpkin!"

The night this video premiered on "Headbanger's Ball" (sometime in August of '87) I got back from my visiting my cousins in Nevada City. My clothes smelled of the Sierra Foothills red dirt and which mixed with the freshly wafting stench of the cigarettes that came from a letter I just opened. The lettter was from Chrissy, my pen-pal in Connecticut who was a severe metalhead (and worked as a stripper but that's another story). I was simulateously reading through Chrissy's letter with her record collection attached. My mom walked into the room while my eyes were flipping between "Death - Scream Bloody Gore (LP), White Lion - Prey (tape)" and the visuals on the TV.


Mom: "Who's this?"
Me: "It's a band called HE-LL-O-Ween" (Emphasizing it was about "HELL" and therefore unsafe and unparent-friendly) "...they're from Germany."
Mom: "Wow...these bands you're into are from all over the world, huh?"
Me: (Suprised) "Yeah....they are um...this other one they played video of a few minutes ago is from Japan!"

Granted it was the lame-ass E-Z-O but hey at least it was representing the United Brutha & Sistahood of Metahaaaooool!

It was also at this time that I had penpals from Austrailia, Sweden, Newcastle UK (Venom, Raven & Newcastle Ale, oh my!) and some place called New Jersey. I didn't have too many female friends in high school but I had a LOT of them as penpals. Why I did clue in and go visit them is beyond me.

Heaven And Hell - Story Behind The Album Cover

This an audio interview with Lynn Curlee who did the cover to to Sabbath's legendary album "Heaven and Hell" (as well as as B.O.C.'s "Agent's of Fortune, B.O.C. means Blue Oyster Cult NOT Boards of Canada). Now (to paraphrase Ronnie James Dio on "Live Evil")

The name of the album 'Heaven and Hell' this is 'Heaven....and Hell'

"Sing me a song you're a SINGEAH!..."

check it out here

"Do me a wrong you're a bringah of EVIL!"

Voting Green - Part I

I first got stoned in June of ’84. It was the end of 8th grade and my school Wells Junior High even had a graduation ceremony. I think I held on to my diploma for exactly one week. I knew that wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. I hadn’t really been around weed at least among people my age. There were a few people that got stoned at Sandy Bueno’s party early that April (see “My First Party” from Stoner Wall I). I’m guessing my parent’s smoked a few joints incognito style at some of the parties they had with my dad’s co-worker friend Rich, who used to crack up laughing and pound on the walls. After my parents split my mom was dating this sorta hippie-ish shop teacher from the high school she taught at. He had some summer house in Denver where my mom visited him at. My sister said they experienced a certain kind of…”Rocky Mountain High”.

Pop culture also invoked the weed thing – it was hard to not be conscious of it. From cheesy TV shows like

“Facts Of Life” (which had at least two episodes that dealt with weed) and
"Diff'rent Strokes" to Afterschool Specials like
“Stoned” with Scott Baio and even more ‘serious’ fare like the “The White Shadow” - a TV show that had A LOT of anti-drug episodes). At the same time there was headshops a plenty. The Carter Administration seemed to be a bit lax on the Federal laws and even in the first few years of the Reagan era drugs like weed were still pretty common and considered at least “normal”. In the summer of 1981 I went on a road trip through Northern California and Southern Oregon with my mom an her then boyfriend, Don.

I stayed in the back of his camper whilst I listened for any sign of rock music on his tinny radio. Unfortunately all I could come up with was the occasional baseball game or “pop country”. The game faded in & out far too often so alas Juice Newton, Dolly and Glenn Campbell won out. I took a long sleep and woke up trippin’ out to the sound of rushing water. “Where are WE?!?" I thought we had parked in front of a lake but it turned out it was the Shasta River and a few steps outside the camper I got a an amazing view of the mighty Mt. Shasta. I bought a bunch of basketball cards at the KOA campgrounds. (A few of which are worth some good coin but alas I don't even have a friggin'
Tree Rollins card to my name).

We stayed in Shasta for a day then traveled further north into Oregon. In Oregon we stopped in Ashland which didn't look too exciting though the part we were in had some cool "old west" type of architecture. Then again we had some of that junk in downtown Pleasanton.

Next was the town of Medford. We stopped near a park where I wander off through. Lots of dark greenery, a few hippies and weirdo looking folks that I avoided. I saw a few ducks in the creek which I didn't get to visit too long because one of the hippie weirdos was approaching and I didn't wanna waste any time with 'em being a mere 11 year old whose more into Star Wars, baseball and hard rock than weed and 'the Dead. I wandered off to the nearest group of stores. The first one I went into was a record store/head shop thingy. I had no clue what a headshop was but it had drug paraphenilia laid out completely normal like it was bread or cheese. Remembering the "Facts of Life" episode from a few years earlier I knew the name of these "smoking cylinders" was "bongs". There was a lot of psychedelic stuff, too. Having not lived through the 60's I hadn't seen a lot of this imagery aside from the few trip I took to Tower Posters in Berkeley with my dad. Tower Posters didn't have the psych swirlies and paisley done up too much - it was more of regular rockers place - with Cheap Trick beltbuckles, Van Halen bookcovers and the occasional political shirt or naked girl poster.

Going back to June 1984 there were a few guys who were gonna party on graduation night. I was inviting by this guy named Jimmy who I had know since at least 5th grade. Jimmy had generally been cool with me. Rumor had it that he was "more advanced" in terms of partying. Allegedly taking acid in 6th grade and meth around the same time. Luckily he was only bringing weed this night. Along with Jimmy came Jason K. Jason K. was a troublemaker type often in trouble for taking back teachers, stealing stuff from stores, smoking and drinking. He had a New York accent, too. Given that he looked kind of like Ritchie White in
Over The Edge made him seem that more cool and dangerous.

Also joining us this evening was Scott & Steve F. both of whom had stayed back in 7th grade and graduated in our class. Both of 'em were generally tolerable. Steve F. Scott with the short stature and annoying nasly voice. Steve F. with the muscular build (he was later on the high school football team) and rather "burly dude voice". Steve F. seemed to gravitate to the idea that I was still a "weed virgin". Jason brought a big 'ol bottle of white wine. I sold it to me for a scant $3. It wasn't Thunderbird but whatever the 1984 equivalent to "2 Buck Chuck" was. So it was cheap nonetheless. Around 7:30 we all gathered a began to party. Our location - Donlon Grammar School was suprisingly NOT suspect to the cops. This despite the fact that we were in an alcove that faced out onto a busy street.

Jason brought out his bong - a real D.I.Y. deal - ceramic and glazed in loud red and yellow. A real shop class job. The type that you tell the teacher is a "flower vase" for your "mom". Jason showed me how to smoke out of thing and after a few flicks of the lighter I finally got the whole lighter/inhaling while listening to bubbling water thing. I coughed a bit and exhaled a tiny bit, too. It was rough going but it felt good. I took in some of my wine. This process repeated itself at least two more times two when I said "whoa...dudes....how LONG have we been HERE?!?" Scott said "it's only 8pm, duh." This 1/2 hour felt like 3 hours. I continued to take at least 4-5 more bongloads and eventually drank all my wine. I suprisingly didn't have to hurl. Thankfully they all warned me about this. Not only were these guys being nice to me which was always had an iffy potential but I was always partying with them. This was the beginning of an really stoned summer...

1980s Demos: Part I

In the "stone age" before the internet, bands made demos. Here are a few I've checked out lately (via the internet, go figure). I'll add a few MP3s later.


ANTHRAX - Anthrax - Howling Furies (self-released 1983)

I think it was one of the guys in Overkill who said that "Anthrax weren't a thrash metal band when they started they used to come out in leathers and do all these Accept/Judas Priest type of moves". This makes sense in understanding the bands evolution. Thrash Metal didn't appear out of thin air - it was a progression. It also makes sense that James Hetfield was in a band called Leather Charm before Metallica and Slayer wore striped t-shirts circa 1982 (Hell who DIDN'T?!). Here were have the weird bridge between what Anthrax was (confused sounding 'typical but good' 80's metal) and would become (a bad-ass group to make you go "Metal Thrashin' Mad").

This starts off with one of the tracks from that showed up on their debut LP a year later "Howling Furies". Neil Turbin seems to be singing at an even higher register than he did on the LP. He's a passable and workable vocalist. Although he doesn't seem to have that individual quality that made Joey Belladonna stand out so well. (That said I love their first LP). The next song "Hate" is really fast and filled with histronic vocals. Anthrax at this time seemed to write song pretty generic lyrics about "hell" and kids in trouble. This song is near classic but the solos come out of nowhere. The loose played solo worked for Slayer and Bathory but NOT for Anthrax. "Pestilent" or "Pestilence" (as some have it listed) is almost too ridiculous to believe. The riffs and bass are just fine but the vocals are WAY too high register and way too clichéd. See every half-assed band on Metal Massacres I-X.

If the high register weirdness threw you off - the weirdness continues with the "Dokken/early Motley Crüe" with hard-riffing" feel of "Satan's Wheels". The title of which seems to have nothing to do with the lyrics. One of the lines are "you're mind is hanging because it only goes as a far as ROCK N' ROLL"...Your parents are gone...and the ladies of the evening are your only friends." Sure was a long way from writing about the S.D.I. and getting caught in moshes. The instrumental "Across The River" (also later appearing on their debut LP) is done up with TONS of dive bombers and squirrelly "Maiden on speed" trickery. Interestingly this was their 4th of 5 demos before the "Soliders of Metal" single and eventually "Fistful of Metal".

HOLY MOSES "The Bitch" (Self Released, January 1986)

This one's a bit odd because it's the 8th demo released by a band before their first LP. Many bands in the 80's took 2-3 demos before they got a deal with a label. (i.e. Metallica's "No Life 'Til Leather" and "Power Metal" demos leading to "Kill 'Em All" or Megadeth's " ) Holy Moses was/is (they still exist as of this writing) a German speed metal band with female vocals. The thing that makes H.M. stand out on this demo is raw, brutal vocals. By song #2 "Roadcrew" it's uncomprehensible-Sabina Clausen (if this actually IS her?) sounds like Lemmy after drinking about 8,000 liters of everclear and smoking about 9,000 cigs. On "Queen of Siam" and "Walpurguisnight" and "Burning Rest" she's more akin to Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics (who seems to be a influence judging by the outright inane snarl that Claussen possesses). The doomy to rockin' "Burning Rest" works pretty well but again Claussen is just too messed up in the vocal department. Not too audible and just sloppy. In all it's not a terrible demo but really too raw and hard to believe that this led to their signing. Hence giving way to their much tighter sound on their debut LP "Queen of Siam" later that year.

L.A. KAOS - "Demo '83" (self released, 1983)

This is Katon De Pena's pre-Hirax band which is much more traditional/New Wave of British Heavy Metal styled than the crossover/thrash. This is much closer to the "poppy" side of Iron Maiden or a variety of melodic N.W.O.B.H.M. It's quality is pretty muddy with the tape fading in & out. Still there's a certain joy to Katon's reassuring "posi" vibe "People come and go...life goes on that's one thing we all know." This is underscored with a nice dual lead. I'm not sure of the line-up on this recording.

Metal Archives lists two line ups:

Katon De Pena - Vocals
Jimmy Kiechle - Guitar
Johnny Tabares (Cold Blood (US), Hirax, Phantasm (US), Weapon 13) - Drums
Eddie Guadardo - Drums

Mark II line up is Hirax before the fact:

Katon W. De Pena - Vocals
Bob Savage (Cold Blood (US), Hirax, K.G.B., Weapon 13) - Guitar
Gary Monardo (Cold Blood (US), Hirax, K.G.B., Weapon 13) - Bass
Brian Keith (Hirax, K.G.B.) - Drums

Track 2 "She's A Man Killer" sounds like a LOT of hard rock/heavy metal bands from 1981-83. Really generic lyrics, cowbell, basic riffing but overall not bad considering the time. If YOU were alive in 1982-83 YOU would've been wearing a tiger-stripe shirt and checkboard Vans along with everyone else. The 3rd track is the most unbearable. "My Baby" - simple, traditional rock n' roll but still De Pena knows how to make even the worst songs sound like they have something to offer. "Y.B.D." is semi-fast with a long-ish countdown type of chorus. It's only 3:25 but it drags on for far too long. "Runnin'" closes things out with a tight riff and De Pena's classic vocals. This track should've been released as a 7". I'm sure if it was it would be a huge collector's item today.


VIOLENT FORCE - "(Welbert) Dead City" (Self-Released, February 1985)

Dirty hardcore/punk influenced speed metal from Germany. These kids were from a town north of Dusseldorf- Velbert. Velbert is up in the Mountains of the Berg region. I couldn't find any concrete info on the city of Velbert. Although the wikipedia says it's main manufacturing base is in "mostly metal based, typical products include locks, hinges, small tools, hoseclamp". Giving their proximity to the Ruhr Valley and their town's penchant for making metal (literally)...it's no doubt they were influenced by their surroundings and likely isolation.

Here we have 4 killer tracks in the vein of early VoiVod, Sodom, Exodus with a little Motorhead flavor in the bass (after all V.F.'s guitarist/vocalist was named Lemmie, yes with an 'ie' instead of 'y'). This is much more concised and avoids most of the redundancies that bands like Dark Angel and Vio-lence would make careers out of. The extreme tough riff on "Destructed Youth" launches into that 'typical' but brilliant Germano speed attack punctuated with phrasing of words like "Fea-ah", "Destructive Youth...De-structive Life...Drinks and drinks make me flyyy!" Unfortunately for V.F. they only did one LP "Malevolent Assault of Tomorrow" on Roadrunner in 1987. I don't know if it's ever been re-issued but this if this demo is indicative of the rest of their work...man, look out! You can check out an interview with these guys here

Intro-ugh!

This is the beginning of the continuation of my zine from the late 90's: STONER WALL. Said zine was a big-ass print deal and my idea for part II has been delayed forever...until now. Part I was reviewed in zines like Zum. It was also was listed in the an issue of "Book Your Own Fuckin' Life". I also sold it at Aquarius Records (San Francisco), Axis Records and Comics(Alameda) and Radio Free Records (San Jose). I also attempted to sell a few at a Slobber show at 924 Gilman when I was the makeshift "merch guy" for that band of Redwood City "dork-core" punks.

So what the hell is "Stoner Wall" about you might ask? Heavy Fuckin' Metal! I say those three words with pride. Although much of heavy metal culture has permeated so much of "normal" culture in recent years. Everything from overpriced "vintage Iron Maiden" shirts to celebrities and "cool kids" in Ozzy wristbands and $40 trucker hats that say "Ass, Gas or Grass..." or "ironic mullets" (ugh!) and ad nauseum. This dude encapsulates it pretty well.

Now it seems a lot harder to say "what" kind of metal you like not just because of the sheer number of subgenres but the vast number of bands and releases out there. A lot of it is bullshit but the amount of truly great stuff is equal if not duplicated by what happened in the 80's.

That said, this blog will be some weird but true stories about life in Pleasanton, CA during 1984-90 (and a few flashes back even further). This is not really gonna be about how the 80's were great. They weren't. I don't live in the past, I'd rather learn from it. Plus there will be commentaries/criticisms on music, movies, books, and other stuff related to hard rock/metal. A lot from the past but some from the present, too.

Enjoy!

Note: The title is an ode to the underrated thrash/power metal band
from the 80's Nasty Savage and their first demo "Wage of Mayhem".