Fiddlehead - Hometown Heroes

Here is the download: Fiddlehead en masse

Songs:

1. Waiting with Dave

2. Hard Genny

3. Lock End

4. Bleat

5. Slingshot

6. Sourdive

7. King Friday

8. Coppertop

9. Good Numbers

10. Bone Idle

11. Gordo

12. Breaker

13. Ex-Lion Tamer

14. King Friday

15. Sour Dive

16. Hard Genny

17. I Can Make You Young Again

18. Moneyman

19. Circles

1-6 from "Dod e" CD

7-13 from "The Deaf Waiter" CD/10"

14-15 from "Refuel" Compilation

16 from "Bag of Jakes" Compilation

16-17 from "The King Must Die" Compilation

18-19 from "Moneyman/Circles" Single

Fiddlehead was an amazing Atlanta band that seemed to exist on a different plane from what I was doing at the time, which is strange since I ended up playing in a band with one of them for 5 years. I saw them only a few times, once when the opened for Fugazi at the Masquerade in 1991 when Fugazi was touring under the Repeater album, once when they played the Somber Reptile in 1994 with Car Vs. Driver and Hoover. While I was in high school playing clubs like Milo's and The Wreck Room, they were releasing records on a national label (Allied Recordings), they were touring the country playing clubs (not houses), and they were writing some awesome songs, especially considering the era in which they existed. I still think “Waiting With Dave” is one of the best songs ever to be written by an Atlanta band, then or now. That song was all they needed to be brilliant, but they released several 7”s, comp tracks and an Album/10” before moving on around 1994. The lineup included Geoey Cook, Mike Haggerty (who joined the Navy when Fiddlehead broke up and then later played in John Brown), Bruce Bohannon (who played guitar in bands such as Freemasonry, Copa Vance, Monte Casino, Jumpstart), Kip Thomas on drums in the early part of the band (later to be in more bands than you can mention), and Kyle Spence on drums in the later part. Kyle Spence, along with Jerry Fuchs, are in my opinion the two best drummers Atlanta has ever produced. Kyle has played in and maximized the greatness of so many bands over the years, including Fiddlehead, The Martians, Harvey Milk, The Tom Collins, and even played with J. Mascis on some tours and who knows what else nowadays. At the time, Fiddlehead were the kings of post-punk in Atlanta, and I'm glad to have gotten to know at least some of them better over the years. I have included everything I have of theirs, but I'm sure there is a demo tape or something out there, so if there are any songs missing, please let me know.

There are several urban legends about Fiddlehead, one is that Kip promised Bruce once that if he drank an entire bottle of hotsauce in their van, he would go in and buy Bruce a guitar. Bruce did it, and Kip bought the guitar for him. Also, supposedly when they were on tour they were supposed to play a house and the owner/promoter completely flaked on them and didn't set up the show, so they went to their van, got a fire extinguisher, and unloaded it on everyone in the house before leaving. Lastly, there is a great photo montage on their myspace page where they pass the Guns n' Roses tour busses on the highway and Bruce sticks his butt out the window with GnR Sux! written all over it. I'm sure there are plenty more, but that is all I can remember at the moment.

Here is what someone wrote about Fiddlehead in a blog called

Built on a Weak Spot:

Fiddlehead was a tiny band that existed in the early 90’s that were based out of Atlanta, GA. They put out a few 7 inches, a 10 inch record, and two CD’s before calling it a day. I had no idea what I was going to do for today’s update, but earlier I was just sitting around listening to my iPod, and the song “Gordo” happened to pop on from their album The Deaf Waiter. It had been awhile since I had heard it, but it immediately reminded me at how great this band was. Their history is sort of an unfortunate one, as they were never satisfied with the recording of The Deaf Waiter and along with that would run into label issues when it came to getting paid, which according to their page on MySpace, is still an issue unfortunately. However, through whatever frustrations, thankfully the band stayed together long enough release what they did.

Below: Artwork from the "Dod e" CD on Allied Recordings, which was a collection of two singles on the label (1992-1993)

Below: Artwork from "The Deaf Waiter" Album on Allied Recordings (1994)

Insert from the "Refuel" Athens-Atlanta Compilation CD (1993)

Insert from the "Bag of Jakes" compilation single (1991)

Artwork from the "Moneyman/Circles" single (1991)

Third Season

Here are both demos for download: Third Season Studio Recordings

Here is a live show from 1990 (flyer included above): Third Season Live at Visions 1990-07-20

Third Season is a band that I knew first from "The View" compilation, and until a few months ago, the only song I ever heard of theirs was "Poison in the Water" from that tape. Luckily, Steve Wishart and Kip Thomas have provided both demo tapes they made as well as a live recording from Visions back in 1990, which I have included here.

As you may know, Third Season was the band that the guys in Fiddlehead were in during their high school days, including Kip Thomas on drums (Fiddlehead, Freemasonry, Galanas Cerdd, Chocolate Kiss, Haricot Vert, The Forever War), Mike Haggerty on bass (Fiddlehead, John Brown) and Bruce Bohannon (Jumpstart, Fiddlehead, Freemasonry, Galanas Cerdd, Haricot Vert, Copa Vance, Monte Casino) on guitar. Instead of Geoey Cook, they had Jason Hall singing, which gave the band an entirely different feel. Steve Wishart, who gives his perspective below, and I both personally love his singing style, and thought he really added a great melodic element to their music. There was kind of a mid-period Dischord style to them, like the band Three or Soulside, that I really enjoy, and also a Morrissey/Michael Stipe element, which is really missing in the proto-emo music of the time. This Three/Senator Flux style was also along the lines of what Chocolate Kiss was trying to do later, and I remember Jason coming out to a lot of our early shows. So even though I never saw them play live, I think they are a great band of the 1989-1990 era, and especially considering they were in high school playing this stuff - it is really impressive.

Usually when I'm writing about a band that was before my time, I will contact old friends that have a history with the band and ask them to write something. My old bandmate from Car vs. Driver, Steve Wishart, has this to say about them:

I first meet Kip Thomas and Mike Haggerty at a Swiz, Shudder To Think, and After Words show at The Pit in the summer of 1989. I would see them regularly at shows over the next several months and chat with them a bit, but it wasn’t until early 1990 that I knew they even played in a band. My band at the time, Something To Prove, got invited to play a house show over in Dunwoody with Spiney Norman and a band called This. “This”, later better renamed Third Season, consisted of Kip Thomas on drums, Mike Haggerty on bass, Bruce Bohannon on guitar, and Jason (I forget his last name at the moment) on vocals. There are three things I remember about that show….1) My brother’s cheap cymbal kept flipping inside out during our set… 2) Jeff Ferguson yelling “Burning Thought”, a reference to the band he was in with Mike and Kip before as I would later learn…. and 3) This (Third Season) blew me away! James recently wrote about character building shows here recently, for me this Third Season show was one of those.

Third Season definitely took influence from the mid to late 80’s DC Dischord emo sound, but they put their own twist and uniqueness to it. They had a rich melodic powerful sound that was poppy at times and moody at others. Besides the well written songs and Bruce’s always amazing guitar playing, one of the features that stood out most about the band was the vocalist Jason. He had a soft almost feminine voice and did these really quirky dances while he was performing – some you could liken to a mime in a box. Not surprisingly, this didn’t make them very popular with the more macho hardcore crowd. As you can humorously hear on the live recording here at Visions, one of the more intellectual skinheads probably that hung around there at the time says into the recording mike “This band sucks.” But those of us who loved D.C. emo rejoiced at the existence of Third Season. And honestly, by the mid 90’s half the emo bands out there would have killed to have this type of sound and Jason as a vocalist as this style become even more prominent and popular.

I don’t know exactly how many shows Third Season played, but I know I saw every one they had in the Atlanta area – at house shows, Visions, Milo’s, etc. Their last show was on November 23, 1990, at the new Visions down off Buford Hwy. The original booking for the show was Crisis Under Control, Act of Faith, Chuckwagon (Craig from After Words new band), and my band Such As. Third Season showed up and asked if they could squeeze on to the bill and Such As obliged to give them some of our time. I remember them introducing several new songs at this show and that they were quite divergent from their previous stuff – much heavier and powerful. It’s clear that the band was heading into a new direction and they ultimately decided to ditch Jason for a vocalist that better fit their more aggressive and powerful sound. Just over a month later on December 30, 1990, at the Wreck Room - Kip, Bruce, and Mike introduced Fiddlehead to the scene with Geoey Cook replacing Jason on vocals.

Third Season, as well as Fiddlehead, were a big inspiration and influence to me. Unfortunately, not many people have had the opportunity to hear the brilliance of Third Season. For years I thought about putting these recordings out on Lunchbox so the rest of the world could finally hear this amazing band. Lack of finances and those that I did have going into current bands prevented that from ever happening. But here they are now for all to listen to and share, and hopefully some overdue respect for another great Atlanta band that never got its credit.

Fiddlehead - Hometown Heroes, Part 2

Here are the downloads:

Fiddlehead's Last Show Ever (Midtown Music Hall - July 24, 1994)

Fiddlehead Live on WFMU - July 4, 1991

Fiddlehead Live at The Masquerade - January 1991

Fiddlehead Live at The Wreck Room - 1991

As always, here are all their recordings: Fiddlehead Complete Discography

I have included the song Tophat, which was a classic from their early demos, graciously provided by Mike Haggerty. I believe everything they have recorded is now included, but please send me whatever I might be missing!

Here is my second post for Fiddlehead, one of the greatest bands ever to exist in this town. You can read my previous post here. I would like to truly thank Mike Haggerty and Geoey Cook for participating in the interview below, and providing so much history on the band. Thanks (i.e. tightly packed bowls) to Kip Thomas for loaning me his tape collection, so I could transfer all these shows. Much more is coming from this guy. Also thanks so much to Such As alumni Steve and Scott Wishart, who helped identify most of these songs on the recordings. Also, Mike wanted me to let you all know that the final show at the Midtown Music Hall (recorded by Henry Owings, of course) is to be enjoyed for nostalgic purposes only.


Fiddlehead Interview
Mike Haggerty (M) - bass, Geoey Cook (G) - vocals
2008-09-25 at 97 Estoria in Cabbagetown
James Joyce (J) – interviewer

J: Basically the idea was that I did the original Fiddlehead post on the blog without talking to either of you guys or Kip, I thought “all that stuff is pretty much out of print or really hard to find, and it’s some of the best local recordings out there”.

M: Unfortunately we’ve lost or taped over everything.  I’ve got some really great pieces like I’ve got one rejection letter from Jello Biafra and you can’t decipher what the fuck he’s saying.

G: But he liked our first single.

M: He loved us, and he said “thanks a lot, and we look forward to hearing more”, because Allied, the guy John Yates, was the graphic designer at AT (Alternative Tentacles), so he was going to hear all our stuff anyway, so Jello was like “I’m looking forward to hearing your record come out”, and then it was “sorry you didn’t make it to Alternative Tentacles”, but on the flip side…

G: I don’t think we would have been a good fit for AT anyway.

M: Yeah, they were kind of squirrelly at the time, but the thing with Allied was that they had such a varied sound. They really never had their own thing like a lot of the other labels did, and I think that was kind of their downfall, like an “emo-core” or something.

J: It was just too spread out.

M: It was really spread out. He really liked bands from the south for some reason, and that’s why he picked bands like Buzzoven and us and some other bands.

J: But it wasn’t so regional, it seemed like whatever he was into he would put out, like if it was from Chicago, or wherever.
G: He was a guy with a very wide variety of tastes. I remember when we were out with him in San Fran for 3 or 4 days, they guy was listening to everything from Jazz to AC/DC to the Jesus Lizard. But we met some neat bands. Strawman was a lot of fun, they were one of our label mates, we played some shows with them.

J: So much of the Allied catalog is gone because unless you listened to those bands or had those albums, they kind of disappeared. I don’t know where I could find a Strawman album these days.

G: A world of difference. And now I couldn’t even imagine the whole Myspace element to it, a completely different avenue to take now.

M: And even recording, Geoey was talking to Franklin doing that interview with the Swervedriver guy, and he was asking him “so who are you recording with?”…”recording with?” you don’t go to studios anymore, you got ProTools, you and your buddies sit around and top 40 records are made.

G: He was telling me he recorded a whole record of vocals on his Ibook.

M: Another thing is all of our stories … we didn’t have cameras. Video cameras were so expensive back then.

G: God I wish. I tried every year to get a video camera to take on tour, and I only knew two people that owned one and they were like “whoa, the thing’s like two thousand dollars, man, no way”.

M: And there’s really not a lot of video footage of us playing either.

J: It was kind of cool, like the “Waiting with Dave” stuff is heavy from that period, in it’s own way, but the “Deaf Waiter” stuff, Bruce turned down a little bit, took out a lot of the overdrive but it was wasn’t quiet music. It was kind of in this mutation stage, like the album after that would have come more to this point. It was really transitional, in a way. It’s kind of cool, because there’s not so many bands that are heavy and make quieter music that sounds anything like that. Sounds bizarre, really unique.

M: They kept billing us as avant garde, which I guess was like “nothing else like it, don’t really know what to tag it as”, and we got a lot of that. Of course there were people from the south always thought we sounded a lot like bands from Chicago, people from Chicago didn’t really see that element and saw more of the south in us, stuff like that.

J: What in the south did they see?

G: We got the Chicago sound more than anything.

M: I think there was kind of like a do it yourself, kind of backwoods, Slint-y kind of flair to it. I love Slint, and there’s no way them and us could ever be on the same league or playing field at all but sort of like that “twang”. Or whatever, that made it “not northern”. Or California, because California at the time was all “digigigigigi happy happy happy, political”, you know. Like “three chord monte” happy, political.

J: More pop-punk stuff.

G: And more like technical, I mean like the Jesus Lizard of course, that kind of sound, more mechanical, angry sound.

J: The type of rock that people of your age was making at that time. It was an element of the times, because a lot of those songs would be totally crazy to write them now, this is totally coming from somewhere else, but at the time it sounded more “in place”. My guess was that this is what the older guys were doing at the time. You didn’t really question it, you just thought it was cool.

M: We put a lot of time into making up the songs and putting them together in such a way, almost trying to throw the crowds off. Taking beats out, switching it up just a little bit. Basically we felt that all the little nuances on a record make it more durable. You can listen to it longer and go “wow, I never heard that little figure there before”. So we left a lot of that in there.

G: That’s a good way to put it, that it makes it more durable. And not that there’s any comparison between us and something like Bitch Magnet. Ben Hur, today is a great fucking album. It’s a great record because it has so many nuances, and so many layers.

J: That was from its time.

G: Very dated in the grand sense.

J: I wouldn’t say “dated” in a derogatory way at all, but that was the great music of that time. It took a long time for you guys to write songs. You said you would take a lot of time on songs, would you work on a song for a couple of months and really tear it apart? I know songs that Kip played on, Kyle played on later, and Kyle would totally switch it around drum-wise and bring in different dynamics to everything.

G: There was a lot of perfectionism in the band. There would be a never ending change of variations of the song. It would start out as one thing and end up as something totally different. We might take 5 or 6 months for that.

M: It was a big change for me, because when I was playing with John Brown, they guys that I was playing with were from GA Tech, and they were really rigid and would come in and have “A-prime, B-prime, C-prime”, and they would have this shit all mapped out. They would sit in their living room by themselves and they would come in and this was the song. Fiddlehead was never like that. There was never a controlled environment, it was always total chaos. We would come in with ideas, and it would be more of a jam session, but then it would result in a week or two, or maybe even a month of perfecting and pulling elements out and adding elements in. One of the contributions that I always ended making was that I was always the one to come up with the end of the songs. All the grandiose stuff, just basically taking things and tweaking it out a little bit, taking a beat out of it and adding something.

G: You would write a lot of the main stuff too. Some of our best songs Mike wrote without a doubt. Hard Genny, Waiting with Dave, Circles. All that early stuff.

M: Collaborating and working with Bruce, for the longest time that whole setup was very, very good. Basically it started coming apart when there was a lot of label interest, and it was too early of a time, you know, to be 21 and this lady from Warner Brothers telling us that we’re never going to have to work again and all this weird shit, and it fucks with your head. Then you record with Albini 3 months after Nirvana did, and then you have to sit and wait for all these people that sit in a room with all these suits on, and that was a different generation of AR at the time. They all died off and the next generation would have been totally like “hell yeah”.

J: That would have been the same era of the Jawbox’es, and other bands getting signed.

M: That’s what caused it – Nirvana’s going there and so is Fiddlehead. They thought we were going to be the next, in fact they offered us a spot in a gig in LA opening for Nirvana, but we couldn’t make it.

G: Yeah, and I regret that. We were supposed to play a seminar with Nirvana, and it was 3 or 4 months after that, Kurt was dead. I was like “damn, I wish we’d done that”. But it was one trip to LA, probably 2 grand.

M: We couldn’t finance it, we couldn’t have done it.

J: Realistically, these guys (the label) could have picked you guys up. I forget the terminology, when they pick you up and just hold you there. And then they just sit on you for a couple of years, and they just string you along and eventually they either put out your record and put you on that grind, or they just drop you.

M: It’s really weird because at the time Touch and Go was sending us letters, and we were recording with Albini and that recording was going in so many hands all at once and it was so nerve-racking. Just that whole experience, we should have recorded with David Barbe hands down. Hands fucking down.

G: It was interesting, we were talking with this girl from Touch and Go named Christa, right, and when we went up to Chicago, she just loved the Dod E stuff. So she was like “oh, can’t wait to hear this you guys, come by, we’ll do dinner, bla bla bla, whatever”, so we’re up there recording, and we dropped by unannounced, gave her the tape, and we never heard from her again. They were expecting that Dod E sound.

J: But then again, that’s such a monumental thing to do. To go back at that level and be like “let’s start over”. Fugazi can do it, but.
M: At that level, to have Steve Albini’s phone number, and to call him up, and to book a date, and to have Superchunk call and say “hey man…”

G: David Yow called when we were hanging around, and Steve was gone and the phone rang and I picked it up and I knew the second he said anything that it was David Yow.

M: Being young we were so impressioned by all that, and because we were such big fans of his but it was a big disaster, because it just didn’t turn out.

G: You don’t ever want to put together a record in front of somebody you have so much admiration for.

M: Half of those songs on the recording, most of those are single takes. We didn’t have a budget, we didn’t have a lot of time to do it, so basically everything was single take.

G: We did it in 3 days.

M: And it was all live. All separate rooms, and most of it me and Bruce were in the same room, and it was in his basement. You can imagine that setup, it’s pretty tight.

J: At that time, I guess. It’s funny, like on Refuel you can hear the difference recording it in a different place, like King Friday on both records. 

G: Overall it was a fantastic experience, and for me being so young, touring at that time was a whole different, not everybody was doing it at the level that we did. We did 3 national tours plus Canada. Those were the best summers I ever had. Just a blast, time of our lives.

J: No Europe, just US and Canada.
G: We were trying. We sold more records in Europe than anywhere.

M: That was the big dream. We never toured for our last record, so that was the plan, we were going to Europe.

J: It was all real patchy at that point, because after that record came out, it was really hard to see you guys.
G: There was only a couple of shows after that record came out.

M: We played the Rodan show and that was it.

J: I don’t even look at it that way, because to me it was a great local release. Local heroes that are making the big album, and the Dod E stuff the same way. This is a band playing cool music in our town that we can actually buy their album.

G: You can see them at Somber Reptile every weekend!

J: But they are on a national label, and they have real distribution. Everyone else is putting out their own 7”s, or demo tape.

M: That was my approach as a manager. I always thought outside the box, being Atlanta. I pretty much ignored Atlanta and started working the nation.

G: Mike was responsible for every out of town show. Booked all 3 tours using Book Your Own Fucking Life. He spent 8 months on the phone to put together a 6 week tour.

M: The other thing was, I would make decisions, and at the time you are 21, how the fuck are you going to make a decision about Warner Brothers?

G: You booked the first tour at 19, you turned 21 on the second tour.

M: I was really too young to be making these decisions.

J: But it’s good life training. Touring trains you for everything. So much about life I learned from touring or skating.

G: Absolutely.

M: Our first tour we fished change out of the capitol fountain. Me and Doug just rolled up and “fuck it, we’re hungry, we want a cheeseburger”. So that’s the kind of tour it was.

G: For me at that time, we were young, we were broke. I think I made $500 a month or something at the time. The first tour, we were hungry. We ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly. The second tour we basically broke even. I left home with $200, I came home with $200. And the last tour, I left home with $200 and came home with $400, so we could make a living off this, I was having the time of my life. When you’re that age, you can live off 5 bucks a day.

J: Did you use the band fund for everything you did on tour?

G: I forgot what the percentage was, but let’s say we got paid $100. Each person would get $10 and $60 would go into the gas.

M: These guys would steal whatever was left that we needed. Food, they were the biggest friggin thieves.

J: Would you leave town with $5 in your pocket and go “okay, I gotta make this work”?

M: Totally - it was nuts. Leave town, pay your bills and have a box of strings, and that was 50 bucks. I hope we can make it!

G: I remember we could totally easily live off of $5 each. We ate a lot of 69 cent bean burritos from Taco Bell, tons of peanut butter and jelly, junk.

M: Garbage – shit we would never eat now.

G: It was awesome times, and the thing that blew me away the most was that, when you play in town, pretty much you play for your friends, always. It’s always the same 30 people that are there.

M: Not after they did that Creative Loafing article. That show, there was so many fucking people there that I’ve never seen before that just showed up.

G: That’s true, but I’m talking about touring. From the beginning, and our biggest show we played was in Vancouver. We were 4000 miles from home, and we had people singing along, that knew the words, it was crazy.

J: That’s what Allied does for you.

M: There’s more fans in Europe than in the US.

G: We got lots of foreign fan mail, from France, Germany, Ireland. It was fun.

J: Did you play a lot of houses at first, or were you always sticking to clubs?

M: We kind of did. We payed our dues, like all other bands.

J: Playing clubs is paying dues too, at least at the house the person who lives there will be at the show.

M: We would take, for example, Green Day put an ad in MRR, “we’re going on tour, call our home number” and play a show with us. I was like “hey, what’s up Billy Joe, we’re in Atlanta and we want to set up a show” so we set up the shows. So that way, obviously we’re going to fucking open up, so we got Green Day coming. Shit like that.

J: And they would help you out, hopefully, in San Francisco.

M: Yeah, we did play in San Fran, but it wasn’t as a result of them. It was more from Allied. But we played with them, they were there.

G: That was at the moment that Dookie broke.

M: They had all brand new equipment, all that shit and it was packed.

G: It was a totally different scene. When we played with them here, they stayed a Mike’s house.

J: Was that the one at the Existentialist Church?

G: Yeah, we’ve got that on tape actually.

J: I missed that one. We couldn’t find it, that was the problem. We were driving around in a car. I was 15, and we could have been in another part of Atlanta for all I knew, but definitely not in Candler Park.
M: It’s so funny that it’s right there by Little 5.

J: And now you pass it everyday.

M: I don’t know how we found that venue, but that’s the kind of things that we were doing back then, which was thinking outside of the box of what most other people were doing. We would get in the van, and then try to find the venue and it would be some crazy shit like that. We also did Staab – John Staab from GI, we did a show for him there. It was a lot of fun meeting a lot of crazy new people.

J: Getting out of town is the big deal.
M: Then you become local legend. As soon as you leave town …

G: Everyone’s reaction is different. When you’re playing even in Charlotte, they’re like “you’re the out of town band, you’re not our friends that play here every night”. That was the thing that blew me away was that the reaction was totally different. We never get that at home.

M: There were some really great moments, like in Vancouver, and that other time when that guy said “oh man, my arm’s broken, I gotta get out of here” and he’s in the pit and we didn’t usually have a pit at our show, but we were in North Carolina, so they do pits there and he had a broken arm and he said “hey man, help me out” so I pull him onto the stage, they guy climbs onto the speaker set and dives into the crowd. Okay bro, help me out!

J: So there was Third Season, and you switch singers and you (Geoey) come in, and there’s Fiddlehead, Kip is gone and Kyle comes in and you knew Kyle from…

M: From a band called Figure. We saw them at the Wreck Room, and basically he said “I want to jam with you guys”, which we already had a drummer, so we all kind of huddled, and we were like “let’s just see what’s going on”.

G: The minute we saw him, we were like “damn, that kid’s good”. At the time he was like 13, drum solos like Neil Peart, it was insane. I don’t know if you ever heard any of the Figure stuff, but it was very radio friendly. So we were like “this kid’s great”, and then Mike and Bruce jammed with him, sort of behind Kip’s back.

M: We basically wrote “Waiting with Dave” in a day, and we were like “there’s no way we can not play this song again”.

J: It’s hard to go up against Kyle, that’s the deal. If you’re going to go up against Kyle, you’re going to lose.

G: He told us straight up that he wanted to play for our band, bottom line.

M: Kip has a handful of drum beats, he still does. And they’re good. And so does Kyle for that matter, but Kyle’s very dynamic.
G: Kyle’s got a lot of variety in him. He just throws all kinds of little extras in there and he’s got good stage presence.

J: Because you only had the Moneyman 7” and demo with Kip on it, and you did one or two tours with him?
M: We did one tour with him – in ’91.

J: And Kyle kind of ended the band as well. He moved on.

M: Yeah, he did. He moved to Athens.

J: And he was already in the Martians by that point. Because I remember he played with you guys at the Midtown Music Hall with Rodan, and the next night at the 40 Watt with the Martians and Rodan.

M: Yeah, and Kip got his just reward when he took Bruce. Kip pulled Bruce out of Fiddlehead for Freemasonry. We were about to get Jerry (Fuchs) to play drums for Fiddlehead. And Bruce quit before that happened.

J: That would have been a weird switch, because it would have been from Fiddlehead to Martians and Martians to Fiddlehead. Switching the drummers.

M: It was a big distraction, and it probably would have done us a lot of good not to have it happen. And I think I have a lifelong fear of success. There is something that always stops me a few steps short from really knocking a homer.

Here are also some random thoughts pulled together by Mike Haggerty:

The GNR story…

We were traveling across the upper 48 and going from the Midwest to the east coast. We had noticed a lot of the same nights we were overlapping dates that GNR were playing. So as we were cruising on a toll road in Pennsylvania, we came across two big tour busses. We had a hunch it was them but we confirmed it when we saw the backstage pass hanging in the driver’s window. At the time I thought they were a bunch of douchebags so I had the idea we ought to moon ‘em and write GNR on one of my ass cheeks and SUX on the other as we went by both tour busses. Our tour helper and comic relief manager, Doug Ahern had the task of writing it on my ass as we barreled down the highway just behind the GNR caravan. We went by the first bus with my ass hanging out and not much happened. As we passed the second bus you could see the silhouette of Slash’s fro and the cig dangling and a couple of bimbos sitting at a card table in the middle of the bus on our side. As we approached the bus the bimbos opened the window and hung out of the window, shot us a bird and were screaming fuck you! Doug managed to get the prep photos which are on the myspace.com/fiddleheadband page. The tragedy of it was the he also slung open the side door of the van and tried to get the money-shot of the bimbos flailing but the camera was out of film or did not work.

There was a-whole-nother element to this band with regard to our mischievousness. Really, the other guys. The fact that if you did not pay us for our show as contracted we would often leave with a new microphone. We really did not care if we were blackballed. The Milwaukee story about the fire extinguishers and firecrackers is a good example of that. And you forgot to mention that we threw two packs of black cats in that house and then unloaded the entire fire extinguisher. The gutter punks wrote a whiney letter to our label saying we were a great band but we were a bunch of assholes. That evening we camped out and ate humbling “chicken dogs” roasted on a stick with much laughter. We were fearless. Bruce was at a punk show in the late 90’s and one of the bands playing was from Milwaukee. Anyways, the guy comes up to Bruce and says, “You ever heard of Fiddlehead?” Bruce did not know what to say and just hesitated long enough to let the guy say, “Those fucking guys trashed my friends house. What a bunch of assholes? I would like to have a word with them.” Bruce then answered, “No, man. I have never heard of them.”

When I played with Fiddlehead and opened up for Fugazi to a totally packed house at the Masquerade, I was a senior in high school. I remember chicks that would not speak to me in the halls at high school were all suddenly my friend. Some of them came up to say hi after the show. There was awkward conversation like ”Hi, I’m Cheryl. I was in your home-ec class.” I was officially a bad ass but I was so out of touch socially that I never realized it. Nor did I stray from my long-time girlfriend until that became a long distance deal much later.

I think the story of sort of a fearless abortion of a band and all our experiences would make a fucking awesome movie. I think people your age and mine are starving for something like that that shows cool old bands from the 90’s on the marquee again. To show the sense of naivety and optimism that existed before 911. When kids were heavily involved in the music scene. Back when Atlanta was not such a cosmopolitan city and still suffered from the damage done in the civil war and had kind of a bad name in the north and out west. Now A&R people look this direction and back then I don’t think people really did that much. Being from the south was a negative thing.

We got to meet all of our heros:
Fugazi
Kurt Cobain & Nirvana
Page Hamilton & Helmet
John Staab from G.I.
Jawbox
Bobby Sullivan from Soul Side
GvsB and the rest of Soul Side
Steve Albini
Green Day at the rise to their household brand
Volcano Suns
…

And that’s what was really priceless.

Mike

The View: An Atlanta Compilation 1984 - 1990

Here is the download: The View Compilation

Here is the track listing:

01: Ban KA - Ode To Phil Phons

02: Neon Christ - Drawn In (Savior)

03: Gardens Of - Sacrifice

04: After Words - Things They Never Taught You

05: Stickmen - Rusty Musty Mildew

06: Jumpstart - Wasted Breath

07: Dead Elvis - Beercore

08: Kicker Boys - I Don't Scare

09: O.C.B. - Try To Understand

10: Groundwork - Life Sentence

11: Threshold - Raging Dawn

12: Face - Second Half

13: Full Frontal Nudity - The Good Doctor

14: Third Season - Poison In The Water

15: Balrog - The Incident

16: Such As - Empty Words

17: Wrong Answer Zoo Breath - Trees Again

18: Act Of Faith - On My Own

19: No Walls - Never Fall Apart

To me this is the seminal local Atlanta compilation of the early 1990's, or the late 1980's, if you want to be technical about it. This is the tape that introduced me to local music, and provided me a great overview of the bands that came before. This was kind of an overview of Atlanta bands from the late 80's, as after 1990, very few of these bands were still around and playing, and I got to see very few of them myself. Act of Faith of course takes the title of longest surviving band of this compilation, as they were pretty much just starting when this came out. I bought this tape on the street in Little Five Points, from someone affiliated with Lunchbox Records, although I'm not sure if it was one of the Wishart brothers, I just remembered a dude with a box of these tapes who was asking random people on the street if they wanted to buy a copy. I was in 10th grade at the time, and it really opened my eyes to bands outside the typical SST, Touch and Go, Homestead, Dischord, etc. bands of the time that I was currently listening to.

I ended up playing in bands with a few of these guys (i.e. Such As and Third Season), and have featured several of these bands on this blog (i.e. After Words, O.C.B., and Act of Faith), but some of these bands I have heard of very little outside this compilation. Ban KA, Stickmen, Kicker Boys, Groundwork and Face were bands that I may have seen on a flyer or two, but definitely never owned any other releases by them. Neon Christ is one of my favorites, and funny enough probably the first punk band I ever heard, as my friend Miles Peterken used to play for me a dubbed Neon Christ tape long before I ever got this release. Car vs. Driver actually did a cover of Savior on our second album, partly because it is a great Neon Christ song but also as an homage to the bands of Atlanta's past. William DuVall, the guitarist from Neon Christ, joined the SST band Bl'ast! after NC split up, and then formed No Walls in Atlanta (also featured on this compilation). He has also done a ton of other music, and now is the current singer for Alice in Chains. Here is an interview done between him and Randy DuTeau, the singer from Neon Christ.

Jumpstart was Bruce Bohannon's band before Third Season, who was before Fiddlehead, who was before Freemasonry, who was before Galanas Cerdd, who was before Copa Vance, and so on. Dead Elvis is of course just awesome and hilarious at the same time. They played this year at the 688/Metroplex reunion show, but I unfortunately I didn't see them. Kip Thomas told me that Threshold was this super religious proto-emo band, but other than that I know nothing about them. Midget Farmers once played a show with Balrog at The Wreck Room, and I met one of the guys in the band when I went off to college in Athens in 1993, and he was super nice as I remember. Such As was of course Steve and Scott Wishart, later in Car Vs. Driver, Scout, etc. As for Wrong Answer, I never got to see them live, but I remember meeting a few of the guys when Car vs. Driver played in Bloomington, IN. I will post their single sometime soon.

23 February 2009 Update - Steve Wishart, who was one of the guys that put this tape out, commented with a complete history of this release and the associated bands, which you should really read instead of my ramblings above - and here it is. Thanks Steve!

The story behind "The View". Several of us at the time felt that Atlanta not only had a great upcoming crop of punk bands, but a great history of punk bands as well that weren't being heard. The effort mostly lead by Jeff Ferguson, Doug Ahern, Chris Foley,Kip Thomas, and myself was to create a comp that showcased the great bands of Atlanta's recent past and its current ones. From the proceeds of the comp we would begin to put out records and build an Atlanta punk label - following the model of DC and Dischord. We made 500 tapes and sold them for $5. We sold out in a couple of months. The money then was funneled into the first Fiddlehead 7" and the Bag of Jakes comp 7". Some money from the comp also went into the Wrong Answer 7" but it was mostly financed by me personally.

So The View was also the birth of Lunchbox Records. Although originally a collaborative effort amongst a group, most dropped out quickly leaving me and Doug running things - then it was only me.

Chris and Doug did most of the work on compiling the bands here and getting copies of the songs and permission to put them on the comp. So a couple of the bands I didn't know that well or have more than what was given for the comp, but here is summary of some of the bands:

BAN K.A. - old Atlanta band that I don't remember who was in it or what they did after, but one guy in the band ended up demanding money from us and threatened to sue us after the comp can out. I think we paid him $50-$100 or something. If I remember the story correctly Phil Phons from the song was some skeezy promoter in Atlanta that everyone hated.

Neon Christ - the forefathers, the legends, one of the greatest Atlanta punk bands in my opinion. I loved this song from the second I heard the opening note. When car vs. driver decided to do a cover I knew immediately that this was the song I wanted to do. Matt was immediately on board and when we asked James so was he. Jonathan had never heard it though, so we played it for him and it was unanimous. This song is just so gritty and the style and sound of Kip's guitar is just incredible.

Gardens Of... - this was Neon Christ minus Kip and Jimmy moving from drums up to guitar. This band was amazing, but the song here was later day Gardens Of... and doesn't really capture how amazing this band really was. I have a live recording of them that is just incredible. Just think of Neon Christ continuing to progress and that is what the live recording is like.

After Words - another of my all time favorite Atlanta bands.

Stickmen - I saw play once or twice. Great band. Some members went on to One Soul Down, but after that I don't know.

Jumpstart - Kip Bohannon's band prior to Third Season/Fiddlehead. I love this song!!! Wish they had recorded more. Maybe Bruce has some tapes we should get from him.

Dead Elvis - always a great and fun band to see live. Put out 7" and there is Live at WREK recording of them also.

Kicker Boys - they put out a great 14 song album. If you can find it, buy it!Threshold - as James said they were a really religious band. Chris Foley I believe was in this band and the reason they are on here because he helped put the comp together. This band was either post or prior to Now or Never - another Chris Foley religious punk band.

Face - this was Geoey Cook's band prior to Fiddlehead. He might have more recordings from this band also to share.

Third Season - this was pre-Fiddlehead (Kip, Mike, & Bruce) with Jason on vocals. Great poppy DC-emo band. James has a post coming of their recordings.

Such As - well we have much better songs that we recorded so I don't know why we put this one on here. Got to live with the decision though. I was 17, Scott and Brian were 15. I stopped signing lead vocals after this band, this song is a good example why! One day I will get the Such As recordings to James for him to post.

Wrong Answer - Atlanta's version of an East Bay Lookout band. Put out a 7" on Lunchbox.

Act of Faith - pre-Rob song. Everyone knows Act of Faith so not much to add here.

No Walls - just amazing song that once again shows how much of an incredible guitarist Kip Duvall is. After Neon Christ, Kip was briefly in B'last (the SST band), then Final Offering, and No Walls.

Groundwork, Full Frontal Nudity, and Balrog I don't really remember much about at all. I think the guys in Fiddlehead know more about them though.

So there are obviously a lot of other great bands from the 1984-1990 era that didn't make the comp, but this still remains a good overview what existed at that time.

Here is the artwork - Lunchbox 001!

Please get in touch if you have any other releases by these bands - I'm interested!

Atlanta Singles Week 32 - Bag of Jakes (1991)

Here is the recording - Bag of Jakes

The Bag of Jakes 7" is another one of those iconic local relases from my high school years. I can remember seeing the cover at Tower Records when I would go down there late in the evening to check out new music. At the time (1990-1992) Tower Records at Lenox was the main place for the suburbanite to get good music in Atlanta. They also had a local releases section, and it exposed me to the releases by Lunchbox Records like the Bag of Jakes 7", the Wrong Answer Zoo Breath 7", the View cassette tape, etc. Little did I know I would be playing in bands with some of these guys a few years later. At the time there was a whole scene of bands in Atlanta that I was completely separated from, and luckily the guys at Lunchbox and other labels took their records to Tower for consignment so people like myself could pick up on it. I never saw Dirt, Figure or Oily-O play live, as they were just too early for my time, but of course I got to see Fiddlehead around this time open for Fugazi, and probably has the biggest legacy of these four bands (although you can make a case for Dirt with Mount Shasta, Dirt as a band themselves are probably not as well known now as Fiddlehead).

As for the artwork, I don't know much about the cover photo, but I remember Kip telling me that the squirrel picture on the back was when he and some friends drove to DC to see Jawbox and made friends with this little guy in the park and snapped a picture. The thank you list is great, especially the "thanks to the US Navy for taking Steve off our hands". Steve joined the Navy for a few years before we started Car Vs. Driver, and was enrolled in their nuclear energy program, but was discharged due to severe headaches he would experience while in school. I think the experience gave him the drive and organizational skills to run Car Vs. Driver like he did and made us so productive for the 2 years we were together.

I noticed that Figure had Kyle Spence playing drums. So right now I have him playing drums in Figure, Fiddlehead, The Martians, Harvey Milk, The Tom Collins, J. Mascis and the Fog, and I remember playing a show at the Somber Reptile back in the early days and an opening band called Radio played, and he was on the drums for them as well. Are there any others I'm missing? As for the songs, I think I like the Dirt number the best. I really wish I had been able to see them, probably more than any other Atlanta band then and now. I am still looking for the "Sahara of the Bozart" album - does anyone out there have it? If so, then I will post an unofficial Dirt discography including the 2 7"s, the She-Male Sugarpussy LP, and this album. Stay tuned. Also, once I get a copy of the Maritans demo, I will post their stuff ASAP.

Inserts and back cover for the single:

Refuel - 8 More Bands from Athens and Atlanta

Here is the download: Refuel - 8 More Bands from Athens and Atlanta

I would have to say that this is the quintessential compilation of Athens and Atlanta from the 1993 time period. You have the best these towns put forth that year: Fiddlehead, Bob, The Martians, Harvey Milk, Slumberjack, all contributing several songs including what is basically a complete 7" by each band. Of course there were some more obscure bands on the comp (The Hard Ensemble, The Go Figures, Regina Strap), but overall a great compilation. I wish they put one of these out every year, as it would have been an excellent representation of the best bands around at that time, but unfortunately Self-Rising Records was finishing their run soon after this release, and this was it on the Fuel/Refuel compilation series.


Slumberjack was the rhythm section of After Words with a more midwest noise-rock slant. I will be posting their 7" and demo tape soon, so if anyone has any stories and info they want to share on these guys, please send me an email.


It doesn't get much better than Fiddlehead in this place and time. You can see my other posts on Fiddlehead here and here. As I have said before, they were as good as any band of their form, but just happened to come from what was at the time an overlooked part of the country and never got the recognition they deserved.


I don't know much about the Go-Figures, although I see that David Barbe (Mercyland, Buzz Hungry, Sugar) played bass on the recording. Of course he helped out so many of these bands over the years, and is really a key supporter of Athens music more than pretty much anyone out there.


Also don't know very much about The Hard Ensemble, but the guy in the back with the Pere Ubu shirt looks he means business.


Regina Strap is another miscellaneous band on the compilation. Some of the names look familiar to me, but I'm not sure.


Lilburn's finest. I have posted some BOB on this site before, but if anyone wants to send me copies of their albums after Complex Organism Blues, I'll gladly take them and post them here.


The Martians have also been covered extensively on this site here and here. Once again, a great band, and is long-hair Jerry wearing suspenders in this photo?


Harvey Milk have by now received more acclaim than probably any other Athens band from this era, and they absolutely deserve it. There isn't much else I can add here, but I do have one Harvey Milk story from the old days. Car vs. Driver played with them and The Holy Rollers at the Somber Reptile on April 13, 1994. Although I didn't know it at the time, I thought Harvey Milk was the Holy Rollers, and when they finished their set I left the show thinking it was over, and completely missed the Holy Rollers play. Later that night Harvey Milk stayed with some friends in Home Park, and their van was stolen including all their instruments, amps, etc. It was the first time I ever saw benefit shows held to buy a band new gear.

Here are the remaining pages of the insert, including another little story and a picture of someone's IV catheter.

The King Must Die Compilation - 1992

Here is the compilation: The King Must Die

I never owned this tape back in the day, but it was in the pile of stuff from Chad Wiener, so I transferred it to CD and had a listen. Many of the bands I had already known before. Midget Farmers played with Balrog at least once at the Wreck Room, and I met one of the guys later in Athens who was supercool. I saw the Labrea Stompers open for Gas Huffer at Hoyt Street Station in Athens, and seen several of the Jim Stacy bands since. Roosevelt was my favorite band that I never got to see, and was even scared to talk to Ballard the drummer for years afterwards just because of my awe over that band. Fiddlehead of course was awesome, and this tape has some good Kip-era songs included. Hayride was always interesting and had some crazy songs - I played in Finletter with the guitarist's brother Brian Sweeney when I was in high school. I had heard of the Fuzzy Sprouts, Thornyhold, and Flap from back in the day, but I believe this is the first time I actually heard their music. Overall, I think it is a good picture of what local bands were like back in 1992. A lot of chorus pedals, a lot of plucking/slapping on the bass, some bad overall songwriting, but in general a decent compilation.

What is my favorite on here? Of course Roosevelt, as "Scooter" is still one of my favorite local songs, and "FNA" by Balrog is pretty awesome, and "Andre" by Lagerhead is not too bad as a band/song I never heard before. "Hard Genny" by Fiddlehead is one of my faves of theirs, and Hayride's music always entertains. What do you think is my least favorite? You would maybe think the Fuzzy Sprouts song, but it's so far down that plucky/funky backroad that is so seldom travelled these days, it almost makes the song awesome in its time-capsule quality. You only need to hear 10 seconds of it to know it is from 1992. Lenny is pretty bad, but comparable to Red Emma from the State of the Union comp or many other female-fronted groups of the time. Really the absolute true clunker on this comp in Audiac. Their name is familiar, but does anyone know these guys now? I'm not one to talk, as I have been involved with some bad stuff over the years, but in terms of this compilation, it is the goat. At MJQ, Ed tells me that at closing time they used to like to turn on the house lights and blast "Reign in Blood" by Slayer, and that usually cleared the crowd out pretty quickly, but then everyone started getting used to it and kind of looking forward to it every night, so a new strategy had to be developed. I would recommend playing "Swish" by Audiac from this compilation, as I think that would effectively shut down any party anywhere. They really don't make 'em like that anymore.

The tape cover, one-sided


The insert that came with it (nice rant) - click to enlarge

The Martians Live Recordings

Here is the folder containing the shows: The Martians Live Recordings

Of course you can find the studio discography here.

Here are the individual shows themselves, provided by Henry Owings along with Henry's comments in quotes:

February 25, 1994 at the Shoebox in Athens
"The February 94 show might be the last show with Jerry. It was at least the last show with him in Athens. I went to their shows religiously at that time although I only recorded about every other show I went to of theirs."

July 15, 1994 at the Atomic Music Hall in Athens
James' comment: I believe this the show where they were billed as Polyestrogen mentioned by Henry, as it was in Athens right before the Rodan show at the 40 Watt, which was the first time I saw them with Kyle on drums.

July 28, 1994 at the 40 Watt Club in Athens - Part 1
July 28, 1994 at the 40 Watt Club in Athens - Part 2
This was the show opening for Rodan, the day after Fiddlehead opened for them at the Midtown Music Hall in Atlanta, which was Fiddlehead's last show.

September 3, 1994 at the 40 Watt Club, Athens
"40 Watt Sep94 was opening for The Jesus Lizard and GVSB. I think they got the double single that I helped put out in time for the gig."

October 29, 1994 at the 40 Watt Club, Athens
"40 Watt Oct94 show was opening for the Cows I believe........"

January 3, 1995 at the Midtown Music Hall
"The Midtown MH show.........opening for Hammerhead and Shiner I believe." For those that were not around at the time, the Midtown Music Hall was in the place where the second room is now located in the Highlander at the Midtown Promenade shopping center. That room seems pretty small these days considering the great shows that took place there.

January 13, 1995 at the Empty Bottle in Chicago
"Chicago 95 shows were while they were recording their Allied album with Albini. I think they were banking on the fact that Touch & Go would see them perform as I think (or rather might recollect) that one of these shows was with Mule. Both recorded by Dave Bychowski from Neutrino."

January 18, 1995 at Lounge Ax in Chicago
See above

January 20, 1995 at Dottie's
"Dotties show was with Harvey Milk. This was back when the stage was later where the pool tables were. Kyle stared at me their entire set. Horrible sound. You can hear it on the tape."

April 8, 1995 at Atomic Music Hall
"The April 95 show I remember being when they were trying out the "slow" Martians. Opening for Guzzard."

Here are some flyers, also provided by Henry:

Henry's comment on this show "Note the show where they opened for Gastr. Even though they were about as far musically away as Tony Conrad and Gastr, they really wanted to open up for the guy from Squirrel Bait and Bastro. Went over like a lead balloon."

To be filed in the "way more music on one band than you would ever need" , but thanks to Henry for all the recordings, flyers, notes, etc., it makes my job easy.

Joe Myers Scrapbook - Part One

Joe Myers (Inkwell, Re/Model, Black Venus) recently loaned me his flyer collection, which is really a scrapbook of classic Atlanta shows and bands long gone. Of course you can click on any of these pages to get a full-size view. When Joe put together these scrapbooks, he would only cutout the lineups for each show, and not the date or venue, but I will try to fill in the blanks wherever possible. The above page was from the Metroplex and included several great shows from the 1988-1992 era, including TSOL, Kingface, MDC, HR, Plasmatics, Angry Samoans, The Undead, The Blasters, Gardens Of, etc.

Here is a page of shows from the Somber Reptile and Wreck Room, circa 1993-1994. We have the WGHR and Mike D fests, plenty of Act of Faith, Car vs. Driver, Crisis Under Control, Inkwell, Quadiliacha, etc. shows and many of the first Avail shows in Atlanta.

The Masquerade has hosted more amazing shows overall than any other Atlanta venue. Many of the pages above and below highlight their golden era from the early 1990's. This page includes several Quicksand/Seaweed shows, 7 Seconds, the first Warped Tour (hosted in the Masquerade music park), DRI, and the skate show that I went to in 1991 with Bill Danforth, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk where they built a halfpipe and literally hosted a skate demo in Heaven. I went with my skate posse, and my friend Matt Kew got Bill Danforth's wristband, which he bit off to give to him and also heard Bill utter the infamous line "it's not a good session unless you're bleeding", or something to that effect.

Just another listing of the varied shows from early 1990's Masquerade, including the Nirvana/Das Damen show on October 6, 1991, Frank Black opening for The Ramones in 1994, Foo Fighters opening up for Mike Watt in 1995.

More Masquerade flyers, and some Roxy and possibly Center Stage rolled in. Here is the Car vs. Driver show with Samiam and The Toadies at the Masquerade in 1994 (my last show playing there until 2009), Corrosion Of Conformity with Dirt and Dark Overlord in 1989, Bad Religion with Green Day and Seaweed in 1993.

Just a general Masquerade flyer from March/April 1996, including Fugazi with Seely, "Dear You" era Jawbreaker, Girls vs. Boys, etc.

Here is the Dischord page of shows, including the Fugazi shows of the late 80's/early 90's. The first listed here with Porn Orchard was in 1989 (missed that one), the second with Daisy and Fiddlehead was in 1991 (my first Fugazi show), the shows with Shudder To Think were in 1993 and the March 28/29 were from 1996. The amazing Jawbox/Girls vs. Boys/Freemasonry show from 1994 is here, as well as the Drive Like Jehu show at the Somber Reptile where Sunny Day Real Estate played in the Lazy Lizard downstairs in 1994.

The only show I saw on this page was the Gwar/Melvins show in 1992. Some other interesting shows by Mule, Bad Brains, and the Neurosis/Antiseen/Fiddlehead show in 1994 must have been something.

Now we have the metal page. Mercyful Fate, COC, Voivod, Testament with Nuclear Assult in 1990. Classics.

More metal, noise rock, etc. from the Masquerade and Roxy. The Jesus Lizard/Tar/Dirt show from August 13, 1992 as well as the Jesus Lizard/Girls vs. Boys/Martians show from September 24, 1994 were key early 90's events.

More indie rock from the Masquerade. I went to the Dinosaur Jr./My Bloody Valentine/Babes In Toyland show on February 23, 1992 and it blew my head off. The Superchunk/Faith Healers/Unrest show from February 27, 1993 was the first time I saw Unrest, although my first time seeing Superchunk was when they played with Mudhoney, which I cannot find here. The Stereolab/Unrest show from the Somber Reptile on November 8, 1993 is listed here, which was amazing. I remember Unrest going into the crowd to wait for their encore as there was no backstage. So many great shows.

More punk shows from the early 90's, including Rocket from the Crypt with Clawhammer and Scout from January 30, 1994 (I had no idea Scout ever opened for RFTC). The Queers with Car vs. Driver, Levelhead and Habeas Corpses at the Somber Reptile on March 25, 1994 where Steve Wishart vomited behind his amp.

Of course you have to include the ska page. The Bosstones with Seersucker at Center Stage on June 25, 1993 was the only time I got to see Seersucker - strange lineup. There are some shows with local ska bands the Skats, The Go-Steadys, Brumski, I'll even count Seven Foot Politic in there.

Lastly, here is a monthly calendar for the Masquerade in September to October 1991, including the Mudhoney show, which I believe was the time Superchunk and Gas Huffer opened for them, Dirt opening for The Cows. What a collection of shows.