This video was shot at the last Doomed To Obscurity (DTO) (of this lineup) show which was at the Tritone. To me DTO had a sound that was kind of a mix of old Hardcore and Garage rock. Probably because of the influences of all the past local bands the members were in. DTO is made up of Roger Bodine (Grisly Fiction, Underraga, Suktub, Heroics) – Bass / Chris Hunter (Red Paint People, Mothra) – Guitar / Jason Clouser (Kitschchao) – Guitar / Jason Ranck – drums / Billy Taz (Mama Volume, Angus Kahn) -Vocals (2005-present) / Tristan Egolf – Vocals (2002-2004) At the bottom of the videos I put a video for the song Better Days with animation by Judith Schaechter which is my favorite song from the lineup with Tristan. He was also the singer for Kitschchao and an author – sadly he died in 2005. Below the videos I made mp3’s of the audio from the video if you want them.
Homo Picnic headlined the very first hardcore show I went to in Bethlehem PA. I bought their T-shirt but didn’t see them since my friend who drove had a junior license and we had to be home by midnight.
After I moved to Philly I made up for it by seeing them allot.
Besides seeing then at their shows you could usually see members of the band at all the other shows or by the keg at parties. I believe Days of Grey was their only full album.
If you want to check out an earlier demo tapes and videos Click Here
Go to Homo Picnic’s Facebook page
To get Days of Grey (25th Anniversary Remastered Edition) Click Here
Besides Scram I don’t think there is another band that I have seen as many times (or ever will) as Electric Love Muffin. For the first two years I lived in Philly I saw them (and usually Scram) it seems like at least once a week. I think my memory might be right this time. The very first show I saw in Philly they played with NOTA – the show got broken up by the cops but then Scram was playing at another party in West Philly later so, the trend of seeing both bands started on my first night of shows in Philly. I’m not sure why but the venue that sticks out for me was seeing them at Tops which was the space above McGlinchey’s. Probably because their rules on carding where somewhat lax at the time (although I might have been straight-edge at the time so who knows.). Electric Love Muffin were always fun to see and they would throw in some great covers like Highway Star (often with guest singers), Venus and Norwegian Wood. I always thought their sound seemed influenced by Minneapolis bands like Huskers and Soul Asylum (Pre-MTV days). As far as I can tell from searching the web none of their records are currently available to buy so I’m putting them up here. More info at Tape Wrecks site
UPDATE: All three albums are remastered and up on bandcamp now so I removed the song links below – for more go to the Electric Love Muffin site.
Brian is in two current bands Poppy with Kate Campbell (Guitar & Vocals) & Craig Heim from Scram (Drums) & Brian Campbell (Bass & some vocals) Check out their new album at bandcamp. & Mt Vengeance which is Rich Fravel (Uptown Bones, Ashtabula, Latimer) – guitars and vocals & Brian Campbell – bass & Nick Santore – drums
Foxy Contin is Rich Kaufmann- Guitar plus Vox & Michael Stifel- Bass plus Vox & Ravine Vaneer- Guitar plus Vox & Michael Barndt- Drums minus Vox
Playdooh Meathook
Produced and Arranged by The Electric Love Muffin Recorded at Spectrum Studios, October 1985 Originally released in 1987 Remastered in 2022 by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service
Rassafranna
Produced by Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo & The Electric Love Muffin Recorded at Studio 4, Philadelphia in 1988 Originally released in 1989
Produced by The Electric Love Muffin & Joe “The Butcher” Nicolo & Originally released in 1990 Remastered in 2022 by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service
Get Off My Back is a record that I always thought about buying when I was at Record Exchange or Third Street. But I always found something new to buy instead, until one day it wasn’t around anymore. Luckly it was up on the Last Days of Man on Earth blog (Tons of good stuff check it out) so I finally at least could download the songs. So here is the post from that blog.
Get Off My Back – Philly Hardcore Comp (82)
So last Saturday they had their “Legends of Hardcore” show in Philly and it looked like a blast. The lineup was pretty killer and included a couple of my favorite old school Philly HC bands; McRad and YDI. If Ruin was on the bill it woulda been perfect.
First thing you’re gonna notice is that YDI played an extra set with special guest vocalist Sab Grey. So yeah…it woulda been an excellent show and I am bummed that Philly was not close enough to drive to (ala Louisville). If I were still living up in Boston…Shit, I woulda been there!
Unlike Boston (or DC or NYC), The Philly scene never got the props it deserved. It had a slew of great bands, a strong scene and was close enough to other big east coast cities to be connected. So why do we not refer to Philly with the same hushed reverence we refer to these other towns?
The answer is maybe that Philly did not have as much of an identifiable sound and look as these other towns. It also had no singular independent label to rally around like a Dischord or a Modern Method. It basically just had a slew of great bands, many of whom were featured on this great 1982 compilation. The quality of the vinyl is a little crackly but hey, whatcanyado?
YDI – Enemy For Life, I Killed My Family: YDI were a cool band. They definitely had that mean, gnarly East Coast sound. I Killed My Family is a bit silly but Enemy for Life fuckin’ rips.
FLAG OF DEMOCRACY – Murder Castle, Suburban Cowboy: No doubt the best FOD tunes I have ever heard. These tunes blaze! Murder Castle has got a great breakdown. Way better than the FOD track on the flipside comp thats for sure!
BLUNDER BOYS – Conspiracy, I’m Afraid of the Night, Middle Class Morals: Average at best hardcore with a rather annoying singer. Originally went by the name “Crib Death”. One of the lesser bands on this comp.
LITTLE GENTLEMEN – No Justice – No Law, No Crime – No Flaw: Another mediocre tune. The Little Gentleman were pretty prolific and went on to release a seven inch and two full length LPs. Another one that doesn’t do that much for me.
AUTISTIC BEHAVIOR – TV Messiah, Power Head: Brilliant manic hardcore with a slight Cali edge to it. Power Head reminds me a bit of a real intense Saccharine Trust track. Good shit! Did these guys ever do anything else?
RUIN – Proof, Love Dog: Quality-wise Ruin were head and shoulders above most other bands. I wrote them up earlier so I wont go to into it. These are some of the earliest recorded Ruin tracks and they had yet to develop their fully realized style. Even in their embryonic form, Ruin were a great band though and these two tracks kick off side two with a great jolt of dharma-tinged HC.
INFORMED SOURCES –Right & Wrong, Dense Pack: OK stuff. Kinda west-coastish. The vocals are a little flat but the playing is very tight.
SEEDS OF TERROR – Brain Down, Straightedge: When it first kicked in I thought it sounded like The Urinals! Basically, it has the same production value as the first Urinals 7 inch. Quality-wise the tracks are nowhere near the quality of The Urinals. OK stuff…..
McRAD – Inflation Dub, Ejected: Super early McRad tracks preceeding the Dominant Force EP. Inflation Dub is a great reggae-tinged hardcore track. Ejected is just a classic old school HC track. McRad is still going strong today!
THE HEATHENS – Oohleigh at Great Adventure, My Twin From Hell: Amazing shit. Tight as hell spazz-core. Kinda like a trainwreck between Stark Raving Mad and Deep Wound and the Minutemen. Fuck! Who were these guys?
All in all, this is a super-tight set of US Hardcore made at the height of the moment in 1982. Quality wise, I think it is as good as the Master Tape, Flex Your Head or This Is Boston Not LA. I wonder why it does not have the same reputation as those comps?
Thanks to George for hooking me up with this comp too. I’m hoping that we have some Electric Love Muffin coming soon!
This post is the second of three Philly compilations posts
A box set of 4 7″‘s put out in 1994 by WKDU. There are 16 bands all from the Philly area with a pretty wide range of styles. Below the tracks I have put up scans of the cover and the insert that came in the box – each band got a page of the insert.
This post is the first of three Philly compilations posts I’m going to try to get up today.
That Was Then This Is Now 7″
This 7″ from Plus Records came out in 1986 and songs by Ruin, FOD, Scram and Electric Love Muffin. If I remember right the picture on the front (see below) was of the torn down Love Hall (Hence the that was then). For 86 this was a good representation of probably the most popular bands in the Philly scene but certainly not all of them. The 7 inch came with a insert that I scanned and you can see below plus stickers which probably went on one of my old skateboards, where it stayed in pristine condition since I was not a very good skateboarder.. Here are the 4 Tracks
Basically I’m starting this blog to share some bands from the Philly scene and some live recordings I’ve made. I decided to steal a title of a Ruin song as the name of the blog simply because Ruin is Philly’s best band (then, now and perhaps ever). Ruin was always an amazing band to see live and just stood out from the rest of the bands in the 80’s hardcore scene. I’m not really very good at writing about music (I much rather just listen to it) but I’ll try. The best way I can think of to explain why Ruin was the best band is Philly was when I saw that Ruin was playing I looked forward to that show as much as any touring band that maybe only came to Philly once a year or maybe even once ever. I’m not sure how many times I saw them but I can’t remember a bad show. At the three reunion shows from 1996 (?) it was hard to believe that it was a reunion except that everyone came out of the woodwork’s to be there and Ruin were great. I’m not going to try to explain it if you haven’t listened to them check out this live stuff I put up here or go to their site: ruinrocks.com. I have two live Ruin shows and I did my best to split it up and label the songs (if I’m wrong on any please let me know)
Added 3 photos from Brett (Noise Addiction II) – The rest are pictures that were taken by Pete Emerick at one of the Troc shows from the mid-80’s.
The flyers are mostly from a CD-ROM compilation of flyers called Artifacts of the Improbable by James Lewes.
To the best of my knowledge all of the music links are for recordings that are out of print but if you enjoy what you hear, buy other records and support the artist(s) and/or labels: if you don't approve of having your material displayed and would like to have it down...
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