Lost, forgotten & unreleased punk / hardcore – Volume I
First installment of my series, focused on recordings and videos of punk and hardcore bands that have been lost, destroyed or simply forgotten.
Bad Brains – Quickness with John Joseph singing
There are conflicting reports of this tape’s existence, the whole thing might just be made up. In the summer of 1989, the Bad Brains were set to record their fourth full length LP, which would be released on Caroline Records. During the initial planning stages, both HR and his brother, drummer Earl Hudson quit the band. With the ink on the contract dry and the studio time booked, Dr. Know called Cro-Mags drummer Mackie Jayson and singer John Joseph to fill in and complete the record. And they did. But during the mixing stage, HR and Earl rejoined the band. The final version of the record came out in September of 89, with Mackie’s drum takes intact, even though Earl appears on the front of the record and is credited as the drummer. But the real tragedy here is that John Joseph’s vocal mix was deleted. Rumors of a reference copy have been circulating ever since, but have never actually surfaced.
Minor Threat – Rehearsal Tapes
Minor Threat practiced in the basement at Dischord house and recorded most of these practices onto cassette. I have it on good authority that the band members have numerous tapes of these sessions, 99% of which have never been heard outside that basement. Guitarist and Bassist Brian Baker told me in 2002 that “There is a shoebox filled with tapes. A lot of them are just 90 minutes of us yelling and screaming at each other.”
Sex Pistols – Jubilee 77 Film
On June 7th, 1977 the Sex Pistols chartered their own boat on the Thames River. Their plan was to sail past the Westminster Pier and the House of Parliment as a mockery of the Silver Jubillee, which was a weekend long celebration of the birthday and 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II ruler as queen. Under the direction of manager Malcolm McClaren, the boat launched and the band played. The entire events of the day were apparently captured on film, including the abrupt ending when the police forced the boat to dock. When the boat docked, many of the band members and entourage were arrested. In the midst of the chaos, they lost equipment and their film was confiscated by the authorities. This entire chain of events was recreated for Alex Cox’s fictional Sid & Nancy movie in 1986. Sadly, the scene lacks context and only alludes to what really went on that afternoon.
Rites of Spring – Mike Fellows Is Dead cassette
This starts with a fake acoustic song called “Arbor Day”, bassist Mike Fellows gets two lines into the song before singer Guy Picciotto screams and “End on End” begins. Recorded at Inner Ear with Don Z in 1984, this six song demo has never had a proper release. The band sounds extremely raw and unpolished at this early stage, but there is still a huge amount of depth and experimentation (phantom percussion, tape loops, backwards guitars) happening even on this initial recording.
Gorilla Biscuits – Pizza LP
Gorilla Biscuits were still playing shows in 1992, their music was clearly headed in a different direction than they outlined with their Start Today LP. By that time they were dressing like Soundgarden, I wish I was kidding about that. They started advertising their follow up record, which was called The Pizza LP. They even had a video ad at the end of the In Effect home video which said the record would be out soon. They made Pizza T-shirts (but only sold them at one show, which happened to be in my hometown of Trenton at City Gardens) which have been highly sought after on eBay. People were super psyched about this record, but the fact is that they never actually got around to making it. GB had been playing a few of the songs live, including an incredibly catchy one called “Distance”. This one, along with several others were parted out for the Moondog demos and first CIV record.
Buzzcocks – 1976 & 1978 Demos
None of the bands early recordings with Howard Devoto have had a proper release. Before the “Spiral Scratch” EP in 1977, the band had a several songs written and recorded on four track. Their 1978 Twelve Reasons demo is outstanding, 11 songs with decent quality. All of this material deserves to be cleaned up and properly released!
Bad Brains – Dr. Know’s mix tape
Along with the still unreleased Stealth demo tape, the Mind Power demo tape and the aborted 171-A session, the Bad Brains still have plenty of unreleased material. This mix tape is rumored to be about 20 to 30 minutes long, and contains several Bad Brains songs that have never surfaced, recorded between 1979 and 1982.
Black Flag – Unreleased 1982 LP
Black Flag was involved in a huge lawsuit surrounding the distribution of their first LP, Damaged, which turned into a three year fiasco that left them unable to release any new material until the case was settled in early 1984. During that down time they wrote over thirty songs and toured extensively. In 1982, right as the lawsuit was beginning, they recorded ten songs with Spot and never released them. I’ve heard rumors that this was intended to be their next LP, but with the legal trouble they just ended up re-recording most of them on later records. This recording was made with the Dukoski, Ginn, Biscuits, Cadena and Rollins lineup, and has been bootlegged several times as “1982 demos”. The two songs that didn’t surface anywhere else, “What Can You Believe” and “Yes I Know” are both amazing.
Descendents – Unreleased 1979 LP
After releasing the Ride The Wild single, the Descendents wrote and recorded demos for an full length LP. The unnamed project and most of the songs were abandoned in 1980, when Milo Aukerman joined the band. The full record was performed once in 2002, with original members Frank Navetta, Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson taking turns singing.
Void – Potion for Bad Dreams LP
Ten song LP, recorded in May 1984, never released. Ask anyone who has heard this and they will tell you exactly what it sounds like – weirdo heavy metal. The kind that only Bubba Dupree and Chris Stover could have written. Sounds similar to Amebix and late 70’s Black Sabbath. By this time they had lost interest in playing as fast as humanly possible, and that’s really what makes this suffer. John Weiffenbach’s lyrics are practically undecipherable, the lines that you can actually make out just leave you guessing. There is a huge amount of confusion about the end of this band. Dischord’s website says they broke up in the winter of 83, despite the fact that they were still playing shows and recording up until at least the fall of 1984. There’s even a picture of Void playing the Newton Theater in July of 84 in Cynthia Connolly’s Banned In DC. Personally, I think it’s amazing that nobody can cut through their shroud of mystery and that’s the way it should stay – I never want this band to be fully explained or dissected.
