Baby Opaque - Pain, Fears, and Insects 7":
My Friend Died / I Fell Apart // I Don't Need to Understand / Blue Crimson / How Now Brown Mao
1000 on black vinyl w/insert
Cloaca CL901, 1984

Lineup: Michael Dean - bass, vocals / Todd Wilson - guitar / Michael Berube - drums / Adrian Ossea - backing vocals (on How No Brown Mao) / Peggy Tully - backing vocals (on How No Brown Mao) / Ken Wilson - backing vocals (on How No Brown Mao) / Eddie Jetlag - backing vocals (on How No Brown Mao)

Label Notes: Michael Dean's label.

Recording Info: Recorded in two hours at Inner Ear, September 29, 1984. Engineered by Don Zientara. Produced by Baby Opaque.

Notes: Mine came with two inserts--a lyric sheet and a Christian tract entitled "Rock and Roll - the Devil's Revival?" There were several different color covers--the band used whatever stock the copy shop had.

Reviews: Take the Minutemen, Void, and Sun Ra. Puree in blender. Add angst, depression, and alienation. Season to taste. Serves 1000.

Beaver - S/T 7":
Trendy / Georgetown Sucks / Video Disease / Punch Him in the Head / Limited Nuclear War // Life is a Joke / Vladimer / Boring / KKK-FM / No Messages
black vinyl w/insert
Choice Cuts EST21, 1981

Lineup: Tom Cleaver (Tom Lyle) - guitar, lead and backing vocals / U-Dub - bass, backing volcas, lead vocal on Vladimer / Cy Fi - drums, backing vocals

Label notes: Choice Cuts was a record store.

Recording Info: Recorded 1981/10/10, remixed 1981/10/12 at CAB Studios. Engineered by Tom Scott.

Notes:

Reviews:

1981 test pressing:

2000 test pressing:

2000 commercial releases:

Black Market Baby - America's Youth 7":
America's Youth // Crimes of Passion
?? test pressings
no commercial release
unknown label BOD 1, 1981

Lineup: Boyd Farrell - vocals / Keith Campbell - guitar / Paul Cleary - bass / Tommy Carr - drums

Recording Info: Recorded in June of 1980 at Track. Engineered by Mark Greenhouse, produced by Ted Niceley.

Notes: Pictured are all the variations I know of. Only one pressing on 007. The 2000 red vinyl A side, abd black vinyl B side are shown. All my copies of the 007 reissue have a lot of excess vinyl around the edges, which is why they look kinda lumpy.

Reviews: Sonically this is the most powerful thing BMB ever released--huge fucking guitars, monster bass, pounding drums, snotty lyrics, and a seriously bad attitude. Crimes of Passion is pretty rudimentary, all the instruments are playing the same thing and the words are kinda dumb, but this is rock and roll, not Shakespeare. Am Youth is a killer tune in every respect.

This is the infamous single-that-never-was. No one seems to know the true story behind this, but I can shed a little light on it at least. In the summer of '80, the band recorded four tracks with Ted Niceley, World at War, America's Youth, Crimes of Passion, and Back Seat Sally. There was talk of releasing two singles from the session in almost immediately--the World at War / Backseat Sally 7" was s'posed to be available by Thanksgiving of '80. By April of '81 it still hadn't happened, but there were now allegedly THREE Black Market Baby 45s on the way, presumably Potential Suicide, War / Sally, and this one. The test pressings were done right before the Potential Suicide tests, definitively placing this in late spring '81.

Anyway, this record was test pressed (maybe 15-25 copies?), then abandoned, and no one seems to know why. Boyd says it was because he didn't like Crimes, a holdover from the Snitch. Skip says it was because the sound was too dry. Dave Champion, who wrote the liner notes for the reissue, chalks it up to procrastination and poor finances.

In the end America's Youth (along with World At War) was released on the Connected compilation LP in October of 1981. The master tape for the session was lost, leaving this test pressing the best-sounding source for Crimes of Passion.

Blah Blah Woof Woof Band - Watermelon Funk Song 7":
Watermelon Funk Song // Tribute to the Cosmic John
black vinyl (no PS)
Blah Blah Woof Woof 7041-31, 1977

Lineup: Steven S Dukes - guitar

Label notes:

Recording Info:

Notes:

Reviews: A side is a good one--layered, complex horns, stinging funk guitar, and occasionaly bursts of synth. B side is a noodly excercise in moogsturbation and half-assed guitar wankery. I'd lump this in with the artier side of proto-punk--like if Pere Ubu had a boner for James Brown, Ornette Coleman, and Frank Zappa instead of the Stooges and Velvet Underground. To further its outsider and avant-garde pedigree, the guitarist had a huge boner for John Cage (the 4:33 of silence guy): he studied with John for a while, wrote the B side of the single about him, and even had "Thank You John Cage" printed on the labels. Audible influences include Zappa, James Brown, and jazzy jerkoffs.

Blue Rockers - You Never Know LP
You Never Know / Glances / My Mind Blues / What is Now or Thou / Dreamin' // Constipation / Blues Power / Driftin' / Kansas City / Come On
black vinyl
Sound Records 5311, 1980

Lineup: Billy Gordon - lead, rhythm, and slide guitar, vocals, sax, flute / Bob Miezel - bass, rhythm guitar, vocals, harmonica / Mark Leon - drums / Brian Connelley - drums / Pete Wilson - bass

Label notes:

Recording Info: Recorded at Red Brick Recorders by John Miller and Track Recorders by Mark Greenhouse. Produced by Billy Gordon.

Notes: Copy pictured is autographed.

Reviews: I bought this hoping it would really be blue rockers--dirty rocknroll ala Little Richard and the Stones at their filthiest. Instead it's just a bunch of limp blues rockers. Competent, but not at all exciting.