Venosity - Full of Veins

Here is the download: Venosity - Studio and Live

First off, I would like to thank Venosity's original singer Craig DeOreo for these recordings. I never got to see Venosity myself back in the day, but only knew of them through the fact that it was the first band my friend Matt Mauldin (Bloodspoon, Car vs. Driver, Chocolate Kiss, Sonn Av Krusher) played in, and all the great flyers for shows they played. From what I understand of their history, they were high school kids pounding out thrash metal of various sorts in Atlanta during the 1991-ish time period, playing shows with Ghost Story, Nihilist, OCB, FUCT, etc. at venues like Visions and Ozone outside the city. The only other member of this band I have gotten to know over the years is Cade Lewis, the current bassplayer of Jackson County Line and a guy that I also played with in Chocolate Kiss with Matt. Cade is one of the coolest guys I have ever known, with a really natural playing style that can work in any musical setting, so it blows my mind to imagine him playing bass on these recordings. Of course certain aspects the music did not age so well, but the musicianship is impressive for such young players, and you can see where they were headed as a band. I don't know the circumstances of their demise, but soon afterwards Matt Mauldin started Bloodspoon with some of his Milton High School classmates, and went onwards to Wreck Room superstardom. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the band members, but I'm sure Craig, Cade and Matt can fill us in.

Aslund Constant - The End of an Era in 1997

Here is the download: Aslund Constant - 1997 Demo

Since I don't have any pictures of Aslund Constant to include here, I am using another picture of Bryan Fielden on the drumset in its place. Aslund Constant was the combination of Bryan Fielden and Craig Dempsey from The Forty-Two on drums and guitar, Lewis Lovely from Scout on bass, and our favorite Somber Reptile soundman John Archer on guitar. They existed around 1997, around the time the 1994-1996 bands started breaking up (Scout, The Forty-Two, Wheeljack, etc.) and starting new bands with different combinations of members (Aslund Constant, Chapman Park, The Mascara Aesthetic, etc.). Most of these "second wave" bands were pretty short-lived, but then went into a "third wave" which had a much longer shelf-life and went in noticeably different directions from the original mold. For example, after Aslund Constant Bryan went on to play drums in San Agustin, Craig Dempsey started At the Price of the Union, Lewis Lovely started Red Lab recording studio (now The Living Room under Ed Rawls), John Archer doing sound stuff, and on and on. So I look at Aslund Constant as being one of these last bands of the initial era of Atlanta mid-90's house show postpunk, before it fragmented beyond recognition.

In my opinion, the music holds up to anything from that time period, although the only song that was ever officially released by them was on the Food Not Bombs compilation posted here previously. I was really surprised at how good of a drummer Bryan was, as I only previously knew of him as a guitarist. Now I can't even think of him playing guitar after so many years behind the kit. It is also the only recording that I have with John Archer on guitar, since to me he has always been the guy putting mics on my drums and making smartass comments. Soon Lewis would be pretty much exclusively behind the board as well, becoming the touring soundman for pretty much every band out there as well as a resident soundman at MJQ/Drunken Unicorn. 1997 was a transition year for these guys, but definitely worth a listen. Thanks to Kelsey Wilson (All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, The Weight, Thoroughbred) for the tape.

Tweezer and Spider Virus - The Split CD

Here is the Tweezer download: Tweezer "Autoerotic Squirrel Pants"

Here is the Spider Virus download: Spider Virus side

I have been sitting on quite a bit of Tweezer material for awhile now, but since they are playing this Sunday October 3rd at Ria's Bluebird with The Rent Boys and Rizzudo (music starts at 4PM), I thought it might be a good enough time to start posting some of it up. Here is a split CD from 1994 with fellow noise rockers Spider Virus, who I remember as a band name from that era but never saw them myself. They take the first "side" of the CD, with some great heaviness and some weirdness thrown in, at least on this release. I guess they seemed to have quite a history after this, which you can find out about online, but the real focus of this post is Tweezer.

Tweezer was Atlanta's preeminent noise rockers during the mid-nineties. Not as arty or damaged as BOB or Pineal Ventana, but the more aggressive member of the family. Kind of like the pissed-off son of the Quadruple Felony group. They were a great band, and I hope to get more posted on them and about them as time goes on. Otherwise, I hope to see you at Ria's, and enjoy some classic material from all these bands.

Here's the track listing and some indecipherable artwork. Does anyone remember Alien Records and what other releases were on the label?