January 31st, 2010 by The Faintest Ideas // Drummer
Kontaktlim is such a punky name it’s ridicolous! It’s like calling a punk band the Safety Pins, the Glue Sniffers, the Pogo’s or the Mohawks!
Well, never mind the impact adhesives as this is some fine pop punk from one of the first wave bands that took the longest time to get their shit together and end up on vinyl. The boys formed the band in 1978, never played outside their home town and spent 4 years rehearsing before they managed to put these 3 tracks on a platter. At least I’m glad they ended up with one release under their belt before they stormed on to other bands.
The 2 bonus tracks are taken from the Aktiv PR compilation LP that was released in 1981 and apart from Kontaktlim and a bunch of waveish Eskilstuna bands had a killer song from the band Trick that unfortunately never released anything else to my knowledge.
It’s that time again. Time again to post a killer punk record from the States. An overlooked record it seems. A.D.’s crank out two insanely great tracks. Living Downtown gives those who’s longing for a hit their fare share. In there is a guitar solo that works! Fits the song just perfect for once(unlike most guitar wanking solos in Metal. Hi Erich!). For those who’s feeling a bit tuff you can skip to Testing which is a bit faster and simpler nonetheless very great. And hold and behold here’s another guitar solo which is a bit too wanky for me. But even so they let it blend in quiet nicely with the whole arrangement of the song. Fuck I start to sound like a reviewer or like someone who actually knows music. Time to stop.
January 20th, 2010 by The Faintest Ideas // Drummer
Here’s a little 7″ I avoided for a really long time, first after hearing friends say that it wasn’t any good at all, and then after hearing it and thought it was too slow and boring. None the less I decieded to pick it up a few weeks ago and realized that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was the first time I heard it, but rather quite catchy. It’s not as good as one of their songs on the “Vand oss inte ryggen” compilation LP but still worth a post as I think it might be a new record for a lot of you guys as it still remains uncomped. Both songs were meant to be included on one of the “Fasten your seat belt!” compilations, that unfortunately never got released, but as I’m a very kind man all 6 unreleased records in that series will be posted here later on.
Pogo Peter labeled this record as 77 punk in The Encyclopedia of Swedish Punk, but I would rather say that it’s poppy punk in the veins of Tant Brun, but given more of an 80s feel in the production.
Legendary split with Italy’s Hitler SS and Tampax. Not worth the amount it goes for if you ask me and a proof that rare doesn´t always equals quality. I got mine for free by a collector years ago and decided to keep it. Slave by Hitler SS is GOOD and the vocals reminds me of Vibrators V2 era. Naked and Punk Is Dead No Solution bores me to death. Complete crap. A funny thing is that they claimed to be former members of London SS ha ha. Then we have Tampax. And yes UFO Dictator, the most talked about song on this split, is good for 2 minutes then it’s not funny anymore. Tampax(In The Cunt) is a great song title too bad the song don’t live up to it’s name. So why post a record that I’m not that fond of? Cause it’s regarded as a classic and now you know what not to spend your money on.
Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos
I was born the same year as Kurt Cobain and caught on Nirvana when Nevermind was released. It was a great album. I never understood the extreme hype though. And it seems like I was in good company since Kurt Cobain always claimed there where other bands that deserved as much or more attention than Nirvana. When Kurt blow his brain out it came as no surprise considering the life he lead. I wasn’t devastated as many of my peers. Remember how much shit one of my friends got when entering the local club the night of Kurts death with a special home made t-shirt featuring an incredible crude and simple cartoon of Kurt blowing his brain out. Ola the bass player in my old band Raped Teenagers got incredible pissed off. Can understand that now sort of. It was just too early. As I said I wasn’t devastated. It was sad but I didn’t feel much cause their music didn’t mean that much to me. Simple as that.
So I was surprised over my reactions when I read about Jay Reatards death two days ago. I got upset. Really upset. Been surfing the web several hours since then reading and watching stuff about Jay. Unlike Nirvana, Jay Reatard made music and lyrics that I could relate to alot more. Especially since he went solo and the release of the incredible Blood Vision album. It was punk. It was pop. It was raw. It was hectic to say the least. Urgent as hell. I played and still plays it alot. You could clearly hear he got inspiration from early punk but unlike 99.9% of todays so called punk bands he didn’t try to emulate the past. It was for real and he made the music he made his own.
Just as I was fortunate enough to watch Nirvana live at Roskilde festival in 1992(?) I had the chance to see Jay with his band in March last year. Easily one of my top 5 shows of all time. The band was tight as hell and they played the set at break neck speed. What sounded as pure pop songs on record was transformed into pure punk blasts cutting the length of the songs into half. The show was so intense I can still feel like I’m there when thinking about it. I never took the chance to speak to Jay since I’ve never been the guy feeling the urge to talk to other bands except when I used to set up shows myself. And I’ve also felt awkward when people wanted to talk to me after playing a show myself. So I just chit chatted for a short time with the bass player when buying some merch.
Jay been a man of many myths and stories. There’s even a whole thread only about Jay on the Terminal Boredom blog where all sorts of stories and rumors are circulating. Just as there’s many people telling how nice he was to them there’s an equal portion of those who’ve experienced otherwise. And those who’ve experienced both sides. After following and reading about him during the years he reminds me alot of one my closets friend who could be a real asshole to others when drunk. He manage to have some respect for me when drunk though we fought each other a couple of times. A constant itch that won’t go away no matter what you do. A sense of constant dissatisfaction. Hate for sure. And at the same a wish for acceptance and just to be loved even though you punch and piss on people on the way. Just like a troubled child would do in lack of better tools. I won’t defend his behaviors, though I can recognize myself in some parts of his stage persona. The constant urge of wanting to fuck with the audience for some sort of reaction.
If Nirvana where overrated during their time Jay Reatard was sure underrated though he was on his way up and was becoming the indie scenes new darling. Jay constantly evolved musically and I so looked forward hearing and watching what he was up to next, but now it’s over. Fuck it. Bye Jay.
Here’s one of my many fave songs with Jay Reatard. See Saw.
