Seventeen song live set from the winter of 1977. By far the longest Voidoids set I’ve ever heard. Plus, a diverse setlist keeps things moving. This file has complete versions of both sets they played that night, the early set and the late set. The late set is far better, after a few drinks the band loosened up and fixed the mistakes and false starts of earlier that night. Highlights: six minute version of “Betrayal Takes Two” with incredible improv in the midsection. The band wanders into a completey-fucking-nuts version of “You Gotta Loose” before busting out their CCR cover, “Walking On Water”.

Almost fifty minute demo tape of Moss Icon, the late 80’s post-hardcore from Baltimore / DC area. Had some version of these songs on various tapes and records, but it’s awesome to hear this all together like it was supposed to be heard. High quality rip, too. Love this band’s lyrics and moody style, their discography is super messy and confusing and I can’t help but think sometimes that this element is part of their design. They re-recorded some of these songs for 1993’s “Lyburnum Wit’s End Liberation Fly” (try saying that five times fast) but these versions are much more raw and focused. Highlights: “The Life”, their theme song, “Cape of Holes”, a Sonic Youth style jam that I’ve never heard before with lots of tempo changes and over-processed guitars. Although my fave has to be “Nov 10th (Autumn Whirlwind)”, which devolves into a tangled mess of guitars, drum fills and scattered poetry.

Twenty song set from The Heartbreakers that needs to be heard to believed. Sounds like this one could be soundboard. Highlights: show opens with a high energy version of “Chatterbox”. Throughout the entire song you can hear a girl screaming (very audibly) well into the break. “Just Because I’m White”, a blues standard turned on it’s head, and “Chinese Rocks” with harmonica. So that’s where Guns N’ Roses got their shtick.

Viv played in The Slits and plays three songs with her new band. Interviewed by Mark Riley here, she talks briefly about The Slits, admitting that she didn’t listen to music for one year after the band split up. She plays three songs, “Sea”, “Home Sweet Home” and “I Want More”, all are pretty decent indie rock with an obvious post punk influence. She kinda sings and chants like she’s under a spell. Maybe she is. At one point in “Home Sweet Home” she chants, “I hate my beautiful clean white pristine interior designs architect build neat tidy minimal” and then screams “SHOES OFF!”. Great stuff. The thing that I love most about The Slits is how they just don’t care about modern song structure. Some of their songs are just endless verses or weird combinations of tempo changes. It’s like they never heard The Beatles or simply didn’t care. Not sure what the legality of this material is, but I’ve been seeing more and more BBC rebroadcasts all over the internet lately.

Six song set as Swiz played live on WFMU. Pretty sure this was taped during their northeast tour with American Standard. Great recording, band sounds super raw. Shawn has a lot of reverb on his vocals, which is not an effect they deployed on any of their studio recordings, but it actually works really good here. Highlights: “Wash”, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Shawn so angry, even with Dag Nasty or Sweetbelly Freakdown. Also, “Draw” which hadn’t yet been released on their debut LP. That chorus is still off-the-wall, the way it completely drops out of time. Helmet gets all the credit for that style, but these guys were way ahead of that.

Boston’s one and only Volcano Suns, destroying Emerson College’s student run radio station WERS one riff at a time. Mandatory for fans of Hüsker Dü and all things Am Rep. This tape is missing a bunch of song titles, but is still worth checking out because these guys were just doing something totally different than most of their peers. This year was like the height of REM and Prince, of reduced emotions and sullen ballads. Drummer Peter Prescott has no intention of reducing anything, or slowing his tempo, and thank god for that. Here, the Suns play twelve songs on Easter Sunday, 1985. Recording sounds great, almost no loss. Guitarist David Kleiler holds everything together, creating some odd riffs that only exist outside of Public Image Ltd records.

I’ve heard of this band, but hadn’t actually heard them until now. They put out one LP on Sire Records in 1978 and one single that same year, called “(I Wanna Know) Who’s Been Sleeping Here”. Pretty standard fare NYC punk rock, not as fast or as clever as The Ramones or The Dictators, which isn’t saying much. But it turns out guitarist and singer Jeff Salin can really write a great rock n’ roll song and gets great range with his voice. Highlights: “Head Over Heels”, a love song for creeps and “Attacked, Seduced and Abandoned”, a mid-tempo blues stomp with some interesting breaks.

Ten song set from early Soulside. Tape is a little muddy, which is weird and shitty because almost every Soulside recording I have sounds bad. Bobby Sullivan can sing, just so you know. I think on a lot of those records, he’s kinda holding back. Here he sounds nothing like he does on their “Trigger” LP and reaches for more dynamics. Highlights: “Problems Faced While Traveling” with a kind of staggered chugging intro, and an acapella version of the Doobie Brothers “Black Water* (incorrectly labeled here as Dixieland) while Johnny Temple tuned his bass. “Trigger” and “Baby” are pretty great too.

Desperate Bicycles were a manic post punk band who released a slew of weird singles. Here they play three songs, all are pretty incredible and follow no particular pattern at all in songwriting. Originally conceived as a studio recording project, DB actually ended up influencing American new wave both lyrically and graphically. Highlights: “Sarcasm”, because “talking is a tricky thing” and the lazy “Smoke Screen” which sounds like a sloppier, punk version of The Bats but is still pretty outstanding. Singer Danny Wigley really hits some great notes and the way he layers his vocals on top of the existing bass line is noting short of genius.

Soundboard tape of this short-lived Dischord band. After Rites of Spring broke up, Michael Hampton joined the band in place of Michael Fellows, while Eddie Janney moved from playing guitar to bass. They made one studio record that recently got re-released during the Dischord remaster series. This tape is from the soundboard but still sounds kinda muddy, maybe it came from a second or third generation master. Unfortunately the speed of the tape gets slower and slower until it’s almost funny. By the time they reach “My Better Half”, the tape is significantly slowed, at that point Guy sounds like he’s huffing glue out of a paper bag. Highlights: the background vocals are clearly audible throughout the set and sound great, “This Time” and “Shadow” the later of which falls out of tune and they manage to pull through with the help of explosive drummer Brendan Canty. Food for thought: how many freaking community centers does this town have?