Breakups/Sex Offenders Split 7" Wound Up Records 1995

Breakups/Sex Offenders Split 7" Wound Up Records 1995 No Cat#

This is some mid-90's teen punk from the Kansas City area put out by Wound Up Records. The bands, The Sex Offenders and the Breakups, by appearance appear virtually identical, they took a photo in the same place, they kind of look the same, and they recorded at the same place (Red House Studios).

They do manage to separate themselves from each other with their respective sound. For one, the Sex Offenders feature a female singer that can swear with the best of them. The first track on their side, "40oz", manages to drop the F-bomb over a dozen times in what must be less than a minute long track. The Sex Offenders also take a more hardcore approach to their punk rock than the Breakups. They fall somewhere between the 80's suburban punk scene and DC, they'd probably like to be more DC, but they weren't good enough players.

The Breakups take a much more traditional punk approach, almost falling back on a really early Social Distortion sound. They're certainly punk damaged, but the underlying sound is still basic rock n' roll, just speed up and simplified. They aren't trying to break down the walls like the Sex Offenders.

NH band on Wound Up, the Tunnel Rats

But, the key to both bands is that they represent an honest attempt at punk rock. There were two teenage scenes in KC; the snotty suburban kids that took their cues from popular acts like Green Day and the short lived ska-revival and on the opposite side, the suburban kids that desperately wanted to be gutter punks that found Bad Religion and went backwards in time to get to the good stuff. They waved the DIY flag and had their parents never bought them a Honda, they would've liked Crass more. These kids represented that better side. In fact, the Sex Offenders were so punk rock, they went out of their way to give some, "No Thanx To" on their side of the lyric sheet by calling out the lamest teen punk bands in the 90s KC scene, the Gadgets.

The label, Wound Up Records, attempted to make a go at it in the mid-90's releasing multiple 7"s and a
cassette comp. They even attempted to get a roster with out-of-towners (featured to the side, but not discussed, because they're not local...).

The Sex Offenders 

Black Calvin Shooter HC 1995

Black Calvin Shooter HC 1995 CAT #HC007

If you just got the first song, "Savior", out of this EP, it'd be money well spent. Listening to it now, it recalls the best aspects of grunge, but is an absolute bruiser. A sludgefest, so much so you think you're spinning at the wrong speed.

This EP was released in 1995 on Craig Comstock's own HC label. It's a solid collection of tracks, and speeds up a bit by the third track, "Lemon," which stands as another highlight filled with noise rock reminiscent of the Jesus Lizard with a bit more melody, but insane out of control guitars.

All around, it's just a great EP, just bruising and relentless. You have to be in a certain mood to really enjoy it, but if you're angry or want to punch things, this can fit the bill nicely.

Boy's Life/Giants Chair Worn Thin B/W Ever Present Split EP HitIt! Recordings 1995

Boy's Life/Giants Chair Worn Thin B/W Ever Present Split EP HitIt! Recordings 1995 CAT#HIT-09

This 7" is so Kansas City...well, except Giants Chair had Wisconsin roots before attending KCAI and HitIt! Recordings was based out of Chicago...but, other than that, you can't get more Kansas City than this.

The bands were both torch carriers for the early, post-hardcore emo sound coming out of Kansas City in the 1990s. Boy's Life took their out of tune guitars and Dischord-esque style a bit more national because ultimately, they were on a better label than Giants Chair. The song "Worn Thin," is a perfect example of the band, strained vocals over the top of so much guitar.

Giants Chair stayed a bit more hidden than Boy's Life nationally, but their sound was equally as influential. The track "Ever Present," displays the band's attacking style. Everything up front, all at once before they take a step back and dismantle the song before bringing it all back together again. It's high energy and stands well on it's own in the context of this single.

Equally as Kansas City about this 7" is the sleeves were done at Hammer Press. The simple, elegant design make it worth every bit of $3 you probably had to pay when it was first released and the $20 you'd have to pay today.

Split 7"

Butterglory Wait For Me Merge 1995

Butterglory Wait For Me Merge 1995 CAT# mrg084

This is both early Merge Records and early Butterglory. It's almost hard to believe that given Merge's current roster with the likes of Arcade Fire, that Butterglory would be on the label if they came out today. The release itself is number 84 on Merge's catalog. It's so simple and a far way away from the label's current glossy looks. The sleeve is just a folded over piece of paper that's screen pressed. The two 7"s included though, they were pressed on virgin vinyl, which in 1995, might have been the only option considering record plants were becoming fewer and fewer, but, let's just call it the early-era of Merge quality.

This release lists Visalia, California as home to Butterglory, so it pre-dates their dominance on the Lawrence Lo-Fi scene (which, never really existed, but you know). The formula was still the same back then for the band. Matt Suggs and Debbie Vander Wall cutting out some clever lo-fi pop tunes with some help from whoever was willing. They sound a lot like Pavement without the unexpected blasts of guitar and feedback. There are other elements, Debbie's plaintive vocals give the tunes a Moe Tucker Velvets feel. And Suggs is a witty songwriter, just at this time, pretty enamored by the lo-fi scene. All four songs are worth owning, even if you're not a completest, the EP is worth picking up if you happen upon it.

And, maybe Merge would still take a chance on Matt and Debbie's lazy brand of pop music. The label has certainly supported Matt Suggs throughout his career. They've also championed their back catalog recently so maybe a Butterglory retrospective is in order soon. (Would also be sweet to have that White Whale LP and Suggs' solo efforts on vinyl).

STUCK

The What Gives Up All Night With Bus Stop Label 1995

The What Gives Up All Night With Bus Stop Label 1995 CAT #1012

The What Gives almost exclusively belong to Jon Harrison.  It's really his thing with the help of others.

If you don't know Jon Harrison, all you have to do is listen to this.  He's into records; worked for years as the primary in-store buyer and pricer at Love Garden Sounds in Lawrence, KS.  He's into power pop and 60's Anglophilia; one time webmaster for the short lived Little Hits.com and if you get onto big time Power Pop webboards, he's among the most respected voices.  He's pure Lawrence; he moved there in college never left.  He's also incredibly tall, you'd think his tie to Lawrence would have been basketball he's so tall, but it was the music scene and school.

The What Gives songs are pure Jon.  Sweet, sappy, power-pop gems with a ton of 60's influenced harmonies, chiming guitars, and almost exclusively about heartbreak.  The tunes also got a nice bedroom pop appeal about them, very homespun and natural production.  It's a smattering and scattering of just a million different obscure pop influences.  You could say you hear a lot of the Byrds in his music and you'd be right.  You'd also be right about saying you hear the Beach Boys or the Beatles...Or the Bongos, or Let's Active or the Nerves, it's all there.  The songs were produced by local producing extradonaire, Ed Rose.  The songs feature a plethora of great Lawrence talent, mainly because Jon's a pretty awesome guy.  I don't think there was ever a hope of this 10" becoming a massive success, Jon just had some tunes and everybody agreed to put down some tracks.  Can't imagine a whole lot of money exchanged hands on this project.

Harrison still plays locally, usually under the moniker, The Harrisonics.  He sometimes spins his amazing record collection at fantastic Lawrence establishments.  He no longer works full time at the Love Garden, but friends told me he sometimes works a day or two out of the week to price and grade some records.  He's actually a teacher now at Lawrence High, which makes you think, it's time for a Robert Pollard transformation, could use another guy like that and Harrison has the tunes stored up.

I Can Stay Up All Night

The Vitreous Humor Self Titled E.P. crank! 1995

The Vitreous Humor Self Titled E.P. crank! 1995 CAT# crc003

Man, this came out so long ago.  In fact, nearly 20 years ago.  I wasn't even done with high school at that point.  I love this EP, everything about it.  Been listening to it since I first heard on 105.9 The Lazer nearly 20 years ago.  I know every song by heart, so much so, that if a tune pops up on my iPod it feels strange when the next track doesn't follow.

Not going to front though, the vinyl sounds like crap.  Pretty sure crank! just took CD master and put on vinyl; the high ends distort and it sounds muddy.  CD is superior, but that's usually the case with 90's vinyl.  Kind of hoping there's some sort of 20 year anniversary remaster edition in the works.  However, if you go to the band's Facebook page, it appears the band is trying to regain their masters and do something to that effect, but are having a difficult time doing so.  Apparently, crank! is reluctant to give up the rights.  I would be too, but c'mon, there's not a huge market here, let the band do something with their songs.  Or, if you're so confident the masters are worth bags of money, put something out...the band and the label both benefit.  If it ever happens, I'd really like some sort of retrospective like the Posthumous release, but done up on vinyl.

About this release and band, years ago, when I was working at a grocery store in Lawrence, KS, my co-workers and I were assigned to check out the Community Mercantile.  Oddly, the co-workers I went with were both really into music (actually, they were part of a band called the Ample Branches) and I spotted Danny Pound doing work.  Jokingly, but half-serious, I told my co-workers that "grocery bagging guitar player" (Regrets reference which went over their heads) is the best musician in Lawrence.  They questioned it, but sure enough, I had a copy of this CD in my car to prove it.  Played some tunes for them, obvious choices, "She Eats Her Esses" and "Looper".  Sadly the first response was not jaw-dropping in awe, but was, "Sounds a lot like Archers of Loaf, but better than I thought."

This incident happened approximately 5 years ago.  And, DAMN if my co-worker wasn't right about the Archers sound.  I love Archers of Loaf, but I'd never put into the context of Vitreous Humor.  For me, Vitreous Humor came first.  Groups like Vitreous Humor, Boys Life, Kill Creek, and Shiner being played locally on the radio were a gateway to your Superchunks, Archers of Loafs, and Sunny Day Real Estates of the world.  I had literally spent most my adult life thinking Vitreous Humor was the most original thing to come out of Topeka and Lawrence, Kansas...ever.  I thought the world of this band and everything Danny Pound did later.  But, in one statement I began to question it.

About a day later I came to the conclusion (senses) that despite the obvious North Carolina influence, no one squawks like Danny Pound.  Archers weren't this unabashed and out of tune, they weren't as random, and never as emo as Vitreous Humor.  Vitreous Humor is amazing and I'm holding to it.

Looper

Giant's Chair Red And Clear Caulfield 1995

Giant's Chair Red And Clear Caulfield 1995 CAT # 15

This came out in 1995 and at the time, the group was best described as post-Hardcore.  Similar to other Kansas City bands such as Shiner, Season To Risk, and Molly McGuire, but with a high art value.  By the time the band called it quits, they had become a fairly influential and highly regarded as Emo pioneers.

I think the "emo" tag is mostly due to association with the Nebraska label Caulfield that released most the band's catalog.  Caulfield put out Denver band, Christie Front Drive, who were favorites within that scene.  At that time, indie labels were still thought of as a brand.  For example, you'd buy the Christie Front Drive CD, LP, or 7" and you'd get a small catalog of the labels other releases.  Each album would have a short blurb about how great it was and at some point, you couldn't resist, you started buying other stuff the label put out.  See Sub Pop and Dischord, those labels were brands and worked it to great success.  Caulfield was the same way on an even smaller scale and Kansas City's Giant's Chair was one of the first acts the label put out.

Ultimately, Christie Front Drive with their mumbled lyrics and 3 minute intros were very much an emo band.  Giant's Chair, not so much.  However, due to their popularity within the scene, many later bands began grabbing ideas from them.

Either way, they're a pretty phenomenal band and still sound amazing today.  I believe I'm correct when I say they formed as students at the Kansas City Art Institute.  Very much in the Quicksand realm of post-Hardcore, start stop dynamics, lots of guitar, sing to scream choruses.  They do throw in the high art value by concentrating on dynamics rather than volume.  Like Boys Life, they also loved to drop out of tune for effect.  I always loved how their songs would hang on an idea, like a choppy guitar riff for 30 seconds to a minute, before charging on into a totally different direction.  "Kick the Can" has always been one of my faves on the album and represents the group well and provides insight as to why everyone considers them "Emo".  "Full on Flat White" does as well and since I couldn't find "Kick the Can" on YouTube, it's linked below.

Full On Flat White

Boys Life S/T Crank! A Record Company 1995

Boy Life S/T Crank! A Record Company 1995 CAT #CRC004

First, the mid-90's was an amazing time for KC & Lawrence's music scenes and it was an amazing time for indie rock.  However, it was an awful time for vinyl.  If a band was on a "true" indie in the 90's that was other than say, Matador, they were lucky if the album was mastered for vinyl.  Rather, and likely to save money, the CD master was slapped onto vinyl in effort to be cost effective and still give the indie-rockers what they wanted at shows.  Crank! was no exception, this pressing suffers problems and I remember the CD version sounding much more crisp.  Just saying.

Moving onto the album, in highschool, this was as cool as a Fugazi record.  I mean these guys were relentless.  Out of tune guitars blazing, their early days were frenzied attacks on song structure.  And, they were in or near my hometown, that was exciting.

The band was picked up by the Crank! label after founder, Jeff Matlow, put out the first Vitreous Humor 7".  Matlow was familiar with the local scene after signing the Manhattan band, Truck Stop Love, to the Scotti Brothers label as an A&R guy.  When Scotti Brothers refused to sign Vitreous Humor on the account that they already had a band from Kansas, Matlow quit and decided to go it alone.  Along the way, he picked up some other locals.  He signed Boys Life and another Kansas City band, Uncrush.  His label brought a ton of  attention to the area.  And, when Crank! released Mineral's Power of Failing, suddenly, Viterous Humor and Boys Life became associated with the developing emo scene.

The record isn't emo.  It's post-hardcore.  Similar to Jawbreaker, Quicksand, and Fugazi.  It was recorded by Mark Trombino from Drive Like Jehu and it shows.  Trombino didn't let the band hold back, it goes from a restrained whisper to an all out assault.  The LP does suffer a bit of same-ness, in that, after a while, you get it, they're going to whisper, scream, guitar feedback, end.  It's a bit formulaic.  However, the out of tune guitars and occasional out of key yelps keep it interesting.  Second, working with Trombino allowed the band to explore their genre and develop as a band.  The song 'Temporary' which was first recorded for a split 7" with Vitrous Humor (previously discussed) is slowed down here, showing the band was focused on sound and texture and not just old punk rock tricks.  And sure, they borrow from Drive Like Jehu, but this is Kansas City, we had no fucking clue who that band was until we heard this.

Golf Hill Drive
Lister

Paw Death To Traitors Double LP A&M 1995

Paw Death To Traitors Double LP Promo Copy
A&M Records
CAT# 69712 4070 1995

Paw is destined to become a sought after grunge band.  Give it another few years, about the time when everybody starts remembering how "great" the 90's were.  When people start wearing flannels and combat boots to the 90's themed office party and talking about how much they loved JNCO jeans.  At that point, Lawrence, Kansas' Paw will garnish the type of attention they always deserved.  Collectors will focus on grunge and punch themselves in the face when they realize they could have listened to this back in the day rather than Bush.

Honestly, though, I'm not too sure Paw really wanted to be a grunge band.  You listen to Dragline and hear a song like 'Jessie' and it's clearly grunge, but I've always wondered how much of that was forced by being on a major label.  It's almost as if their hand was forced on Dragline to be Nirvana from a Cowtown.

I did enjoy Dragline, but to me, Death to Traitors feels a bit more honest.  The grunge with a "twang" isn't completely abandoned, you'll hear it on the first song.  But, this album gets a lot more melody and harmonies, less screaming and more musicianship.  Melody and musicianship have always been more a part of Kansas music than "twang", anyways.  We're much more roots rock than we are country.

And back to my original point, someday Paw is going to be highly sought after by collectors.  They'll be Grunge compilation albums and some of them will feature tunes like 'Death to Traitors' and 'Hope I Die Tonight'.  They're going to search out this album and discover it's softer side with songs like 'Texas' and 'Last One', then they will throw away their Sponge and Stone Temple Pilots CDs.  This is better.

Lawrence, KS It's not just grunge

Death to Traitors