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?

Before there was Act of Faith aka Brad Post #8

Information by Jonathan Dixon.

I was in a band called The Crooks when I was at Duluth High School in the late 1980’s. It was a really cool band but, as usual, it fizzled quickly. The band consisted of me on guitar, Derek Frost on vocals, Matt Majoili on bass and Rick Puig on drums. Derek drew all of our fliers.

We were taking Matt's vert ramp down in Norcross in the Summer of 1988. I knew three chords on a guitar and Rick had a drum set at his house down the street. I also had a bass and Matt started messing around with that. We would take the ramp down during the day (we were being careful so that we could rebuild it elsewhere) and we would play music in the evenings. We did that for about a month and then kind of forgot about it.

Derek was at some kind of out of state camp for the Governors Honors Art Program. When he got back I was telling him about the band. He was the one that got us playing again with him singing. Emmet Howle started coming around and began acting as our manager. He actually was pretty good at it. He started getting us shows at Visions and The Pit. We played with several local bands and even opened up for SNFU once. We probably played about 20-30 shows.

The Crooks two night stand at Visions; Friday, February 17th, 1989 and Saturday, February 18th, 1989. Yep, you counted right; four hand drawn fliers for the same show.

The Crooks with Belyle at Visions; Friday, March 10th, 1989.

On Thursday, March 23, 1989 we drove to Athens and recorded six songs at Underground Sound.

Check out the Crooks demo.

Derek called it quits the following spring in ‘89. We briefly had Chris Jennings singing for us (a metal dude from Norcross) but it didn’t work out. Rick later moved away and I went on to start Act of Faith. Derek drew early fliers for AOF, as well as the covers for our two tapes and the "Soul of One" 7".

The Crooks opening for SNFU at The Pit; Spring of '89. Animosity was also on the bill.

No More Heroes aka Brad Post #7

June 16, 1996—a date that will live in infamy—the band known to us as Act of Faith played their final show. After playing together in one form or another for eight years straight they decided to call it quits and play their final gig on a Sunday afternoon at The Point (just as God would have wanted it).

Luckily, Chuck Petrakopoulos recorded it to DAT off the soundboard. There also is video of the show, which I hope to one day soon put on Youtube and post here.

The unique thing about hardcore bands is that if you just listen to their live recordings you might think they sucked (what without seeing the stage antics and audience participation etc.). When you're jumping into the crowd you're sure to miss a note or two.

For the time being to illustrate my point, this is an earlier clip of the band playing their staple singalong, "Stepping Away", at The Wreck Room. The audience never could quite get the vocals down on that one…



The last show audio can be found here. Along with the usual song suspects you came to love from AOF, they also played "Candle In the Corner" (a Difference cover) and a new unreleased song called, "All Too Real". The final lineup featured on this recording is Rob Fuller on vocals, Ken Saluzzi and Carter Davis on guitar, Josh Terrell on bass and Jonathan Dixon on drums.

Also playing the show that day was Crisis Under Control and I'm sure at least one other band but can't remember who. If you played it, please let us here at Beyond Failure know and I'll add you.

All photos were taken by Elizabeth Brown/Beard. Elizabeth, with her trusty camera always in hand, was an integral part of the documentation of our scene. She recently has been taking all of her negatives to Walgreens and having them scanned to disk. She has been so kind to send these to me (which I cannot thank her enough for). Hopefully soon I will have a post dedicated entirely to the images that she captured of our bands. Just to warn you members out there from other bands, AOF was her favorite. They got more lens time with her but there still is a nice smattering of all parties involved.

Classic Footage From Our Faves

Henry Owings has been posting some great things up on his YouTube channel, including some of the Atlanta bands I have written about on this blog. Please check out everything he has, as it is quite the treasure trove. Also, something nice about these clips is that they include multiple songs and give you a more realistic impression of the show - breaking guitar strings, people walking in front of the camera, awkward pauses between songs, everything. If anybody knows, I would love to find out what other bands played on these shows, or more information on the shows themselves.

The Martians at the Point - March 26, 1994

Jerry Fuchs-era, what more can you say?

Fiddlehead at Somber Reptile - May 14, 1994

The Deaf Waiter material in prime form - the Somber Reptile almost looks spooky.

Dirt at The Point

Not sure of the date on this one, but great to see nonetheless. I love Greg Webb's multiple camera angles and video effects.

Slumberjack at Dottie's - May 24, 1994

Great to see classic Dottie's in video form again, and great to see Slumberjack totally going for it.

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...