Wormbath - Ornamental Horticulture

This is kind of an interesting find. I found this 7" packed inside with another thing that I had bought, and didn't realize until I got home what it was. And I have to say, this is the best record I've ever found inside another record. Now, I don't have a good picture of the cover, because I don't have a cover. I was able to find a mirror of the band's geocities site in order to find out some info on this. Wormbath was a band out of Royersford, PA (north-west of Philly). They have a pretty standard early to mid-90s pop punk sound, reminiscent of Screeching Weasel, and maybe even early Green Day and early Blink 182. The song topics are pretty much the same, too; girls, school, a general feeling of inadequacy paired with the strong desire to do one's own thing; you know the deal. Put out in 1996, the band has this to say about it:

This, our first vinyl release, was recorded in Myke's front room, by Myke's dad on our newly acquired ADAT digital recorder thing. It featured four songs that we felt were our best at this time: Always Rain, My Friends, Hopeless, and I Like it Better. It was a lot cheaper to record, since we did it all ourselves, mixin and all that.  It turned out to be a really good record in my opinion, but I guess not too many of the kids in our area have record players cuz we sure still have plenty.

Writer's note: if you guys have so many lying around - send me one! I want a cover.

So there you have it, Wormbath's "Ornamental Horticulture." Download it below, listen to it, share it, enjoy.

Download @ 320kbps

Domo Arigato - Soymilk And Punk Rock!! E.P. (Japanese Band)

The fear when buying random punk 7"s in languages you don't understand is always that you might inadvertently tell all your friends about some neo-nazi group. Luckily, Domo Arigato offers songs called "Destroy Racism!" and "Stop The Slaughter," so by all means, tell everyone you know. Discogs mentions that this band only ever played one gig with 3 songs, and that the lineup live was entirely different than that on their recordings. Apart from this 7", supposedly translated Soymilk And Punk Rock!! E.P., their only other recording I can find is the Chaos of Destruction 2 compilation, where they play the first 2 songs from this release. It's a shame because they rock pretty hard, even though they only seem to know one chord progression and how to move a capo around. Still, it's worth a listen, even just to chuckle a bit at the weird semi-hardcore singing and uniformity among songs. Sidenote: I don't know what they're saying in any of these songs, even though the second two are in English.

Discogs Link
Download @ 320kbps

Split Week Day 4: John Q Public / Product Four - Split

Today's split features John Q Public, from Gainesville, and Product Four, from Alberta. John Q Public offers 5 songs and Product Four a mere 2. John Q Public's side sounds like an early Blink 182 in the instrumentals, with a bit more screaming in the vocals (imagine if Mark Hoppus was covering Pennywise). They sing about adolescent days: getting kicked out of school, hating the government, that kind of thing. Product Four's first song is about crooked promoters and kids at shows. The song is catchy and jumps around in style. Their second song is an aptly-named "Too Long." It's under 4 minutes, but it feels like it goes on forever. In the words of NOFX "It's got back-up vocals in just the right places."

Buy this release from Middle Man Records
Download @ 320kbps

The ID3 tags incorrectly list Product Four as "Public Four." Feel free to fix them. Or not.

Split Week Day 3: Dare Dare Devil / Exxon Valdez - Banzai

Today's release comes from France. Both these bands (particularly Dare Dare Devil) have that heavy French sound which is influenced heavily by their accents. The cover seems to be an ongoing battle for top billing, which is strange because Exxon Valdez can't keep singing about how they "don't care about the things you do." Exxon Valdez finishes their side with a few hardcore songs, which are much stronger than their less hardcore stuff. Dare Dare Devil plays fast, and remind me a bit of Tagada Jones, though not as brash. The bands also cover one of each other's songs, which I always think is cool (though less so when I don't know any of the songs anyway). As a sidenote to people in charge of pressing records: don't ever press 2 sides at different speeds. Why would you do that?

Discogs Link
Download @ 320kbps

Split Week Day 2: The Eccentric Souls / Squirt - Split

This split from 1992 features The Eccentric Souls, whose only release this is, and Squirt, who put out another 7" in their career. The Eccentric Souls took Side A to question what they'll be like when they get old (a topic covered much better by the Descendents years later on Everything Sucks). Their sound is pretty standard, but fun, and the bass line is pretty solid in the song. Squirt sounds kind of like a punk ZZ Top (only instrumentally and not vocally, sadly) and perform their song "Young Man Blues" about all the hardships of growing up in 1992. The mixing on this release is kind of atrocious, but luckily if it's so bad that you really hate it, they give you an address to write.

Discogs Link
Download @ 320kbps

Split Week Day 1: The Drugs/The Drugs - The Drugs vs. The Drugs

Seriously, how many times can you put the word 'drugs' in a release? This split features 2 bands both named The Drugs, from Brazil and Holland, and was put out by an Italian label. Released in 2003 (though the songs are as old as 1999), this is an interesting release. The first side features the Brazilian band, whose songs are good, even if they drone on a little long. The Dutch Drugs offer a hint of psychobilly in their 2 songs. I picked this up at Recycled Records in San Francisco. The guy who sold it to me was definitely on Drugs.

Discogs Page
Download @ 320kbps

A week of splits starts on Saturday

You heard that right - 7 days, 7 splits, at least 14 bands. It starts on Saturday because that's when weeks start now.