No Marching Parades aka Brad Post #6

Ah, to be a young idealistic folky again. So before he was shouting about the ills of the world with Act of Faith, 18 year old Robert W. Fuller was singing about happier times in a little outfit from Duluth called No Marching Parades. With his trusty notebook in hand, he sang with sensitivity and belted ‘em out straight from the heart; his 17 year old pal Robert M. Frey by his side strumming away all the hate in the world.

Managed by a young and ambitious Angelos Petrakopoulos, No Marching Parades released one demo cassette, “9:00 am - 3:00 pm”, featuring ten original songs. It all was recorded in only a couple hours by Alan Vining on August 16, 1990 at Dwarf Studios in Chamblee.



They played out often at open-mic nights at the Freight Room in Decatur as well as a handful of times at Limerick Junction in the Virginia Highlands. The boys were not of drinking age and in order to perform at the Limerick Junction they had to promise management that they would not try to order any alcohol, nor could they let their ages be known. They also opened once for Fun Mud at the Avondale Towne Cinema.

Though I never heard the tape until just recently, I knew of it and always had heard jokes about Rob Fuller’s infamous red cowboy boots. If I had heard their demo back then I would’ve made fun of it (as well as Mr. Fuller) and chalked it off as wimpy shit. Now that I ain’t so mega punk anymore I can really appreciate this with its great song structures and musicianship. I’ve listened to it at least five times since transferring it to the computer. That fucker Mr. Fuller has one helluva voice with tons of range.

Rob and Rob were always around the Petrakopoulos residence and young Chuck was a huge fan of them. I give him major props for being open minded enough even back then to recognize this as a local masterpiece. To this day he can (and happily will) start to sing any song from the tape.

So the below images are all the records that Angelos kept as band manager. EVERYTHING was documented from the costs of recording to printing to tape duplication. My personal fave being the sheet where they made a list of "People who will buy tapes". Of course mom is on there!
































































































































































































So after a year or so the boys hung it up and AOF came knocking on Rob's door. Or vice versa as you will soon find out in my AOF post. A big thanks to Chuck for letting me dig in the files that his brother Angelos kept meticulously organized for all these years. And I thought I saved everything...

Habeas Corpses - "A1 Good Copy" 5 Song Demo

Here is the download: Habeas Corpses Demo

This is a 5 song recording done by the late great Habeas Corpses, featuring Ben Davis (Purkinje Shift, Moreland Audio, Home of the Wildcats, Lumens, Noot d' Noot, and several others) as well as two other guys I didn't know celebrating their love of The Germs, Misfits, and other late 70s, early 80's punk/hardcore. This is from an era before everything went literally to your head - it is genuine rough and ready stuff. Whenever I listen to this, I automatically think of the Lazy Lizard Lounge, which was the basement mini-club under the Somber Reptile during the 1993-1995 era, and would host plenty of performances by bands such as Habeas Corpses. In fact, I'm sure a band like this was playing to five people in every punk bar across the country at this time, maybe cutting themselves with glass bottles (as HC sometimes did), engaging in horrible stage banter (as HC and every other band at that time did), and eventually imploding after a certain threshold of soul crushing had been reached. See for yourself here and here.

Habeas Corpses played a few bigger shows with Car vs. Driver, but even then we were in very different musical worlds. They were on the border between playing more hardcore all-ages venues like the Somber Reptile and the Wreck Room, but also bars like Dottie's, and not really fitting in at any of them. I didn't personally know Ben Davis until after he took the math rock plunge and started The Purkinje Shift, and rolling our daily Tortillas burritos, but I have since gotten to know him very well and consider him a great friend and one of the most respected musicians I know. Who would have thought?

King-Kill 33' - "Sex You Will" and "We Never Went To The Moon" Singles

Here is the Download: King-Kill 33' Singles

First off, I would highly recommend visiting the King-Kill 33' Myspace page, as they have done a great job of posting all the important information that you need to know about the band, including videos, interviews, pictures, etc. So I will just share some of my own personal tidbits about them and you can get the facts on your own time.

I knew King-Kill 33' through their "We Never Went To The Moon" single, which was a classic around my stereo in the early 90's, and one of my favorite songs of that time in Atlanta. Even though I never personally saw them play, their presence in the Atlanta experimental rock scene was definitely felt, and of course in later bands Pineal Ventana and Tenth To The Moon, both of which included King-Kill 33' members. As mentioned on their page, they came from the scene that included Dirt, Go-Devils, Magic Bone, Snatch and Bad Egg Salad, although musically and visually (especially through their multi-media performances), to me they stood apart from the others and brought a Chrome or a Von LMO type atmosphere to their sound and presentation. It was great that we had a band like King-Kill 33' in Atlanta at that time, keeping things weird yet unpretentious, and inspiring us to push boundaries ourselves.

Something I never noticed before on the 2nd single was that it was put out by Vinyl Communications, the Chula Vista label responsible for the launching of seminal bands such as Heroin, Tit Wrench, Cringer, etc. It is a great match for a band such as this, and really makes you think of what might have been for these guys. Thanks to Squidchip for the 1st 7" and thanks to King-Kill 33' for leading the way.

Here is the artwork for both singles: