I’m very excited for this next chapter of the Record (Re)Collection. David “Space Beaver” Guillas, guitarist for Propagandhi, talks about Nomeansno’s 0+2=1 a. Propagandhi’s new record Supporting Caste hits the stores on March 10th. Any self-respecting punk rocker already has the date marked down, I’m sure. Enjoy the read.

I was born in 1979, which means I was a rambunctious pre-pube teenager when all those melodic “punk” bands exploded out of California in the early-to-mid ’90s. To my puny, undeveloped brain these bands were the shit–I could not get enough. But as a year or two passed I started to feel like that scene was getting stale. I yearned for music from bands that progressed–that didn’t stagnate in order to accommodate a temporary craze fueled by dollar bills. Just when it seemed that punk music had nothing left to offer, a friend introduced me to Nomeansno–more specifically to their album from 1991 0+2=1. The fire was rekindled.

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I was reading Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad and I came to The Minutemen chapter. They’re a fantastic band and the title of the book even comes from one of their songs of all things. You’d be surprised at how big an influence the band have had on indie music, probably just as much, if not more so, than other “big” independent underground bands.

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Let’s face it, who doesn’t love at least one Elvis Costello record? True, the man may be judged for his latter day sins at this point, but the man created some perfect pop records early on in his career. The Gay Blades guitarist/vocalist Clark Westfield examines Costello’s Armed Forces in his Record (Re)Collection. Check it out below. Be sure to check out The Gay Blades latest full-length Ghosts, out now from Triple Crown/4Never Records.

“Alison” is a song that lives in the ether of music history. It’s a song that everyone knows, but when you are a kid, you never bother to know who the artist is. It isn’t The Beatles or The Stones. It isn’t Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. It isn’t even David Bowie, not that you know any of his songs besides “Captain Tom” anyway. “Alison” sounds like something in which Steely Dan (who you know cause your dad loves “Reeling In The Years”) might have had a hand in, and it really is good enough to live on the fringe of the great song lists. It’s pleasant and interesting enough to remember the words, but as a budding adolescent barraged with terrible pap and no cool older siblings, it’s never intriguing enough to really turn you on.

But a bunch of years later, when the old man plays My Aim Is True in its entirety, however, I finally discover the context in which “Alison” exists. On a record of bashed out concise pop songs, so brittle and urgent, so refreshing and yet so ancient sounding, the very plain and jazz tinged ballad is luckily the red herring. It’s an important discovery, because even though I love the collection of songs, I feel myself loving the artist even more. True, My Aim Is True is as brilliant a debut as one could hope for and This Year’s Model is a nearly perfect pop effort, but Elvis Costello’s third full length, Armed Forces, is just fucking aces, and in this humble, barely literate fan’s opinion, it is Costello’s best work.

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For this installment of the Record (Re)Collection-Fest 7 Edition, Chris Vandeviver of Sakes Alive!! writes about Crime In Stereo’s 2006 full-length The Troubled Stateside. We highly recommend that you check out SA!!’s brand new 7-inch Act I and that you go see them at The Fest 7. They will definitely be one of the highlights. Read on. 

Crime In Stereo - The Troubled Stateside
By Chris Vandeviver

I know it seems like an older record would make sense for a Record Re-Collection. And honestly, D4’s Midwestern Songs and Circle Takes the Square’s As the Roots Undo immediately jumped at me. However, these monumental albums are obvious tomes. Crime In Stereo’s Nitro effort, though, doesn’t strike me as obvious as the aforementioned. My life, however, was brought back full circle due to this brilliant album.

Imagine the image of this modern (young) man: forty hours a week at shitty, near minimum wage hell; walking half an hour each morning at 5:30 a.m. to work, and 2:30 p.m. home to being tired as hell; no direction, and musical efforts imploding to ego-maniacal twenty year olds; your roommate fucks up and sends your rent money to his school loan collector, and by the time you find out you are being served an eviction notice, thus forcing you to return to the parents that you try so hard to avoid. Did I mention life sucked? Cause it did.

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When I was trying to figure out which band to feature first in our Fest 7 segment, Leatherface was the obvious choice. I am insanely excited to these punk rock legends in the flesh down in Gainesville. I recently asked the band to talk about a record that meant something to them when they were growing up and guitarist Dickie Hammond sent me a story involving the Stiff Little Fingers’ classic Inflammable Material. We’ll have some more from the Leatherface crew in the next few weeks so be on the lookout for that.

Band: Stiff Little Fingers
Record: Inflammable Material
By Dickie Hammond

It was November 1978. I had just moved with my family from Morpeth, Northumberland, England to Ryhope, which is a village outside Sunderland. The school I went to was Ryhope Comprehensive [and] it had the worst record in the North East. I was twelve and my only saving grace was the Sunderland Football Club, who I supported from the age of six. They had a school disco at dinner time and punk was the music being played. That’s when I first heard “Alternative Ulster.” It was the greatest intro and song I’d ever heard.

I had a paper round and saved up two weeks money, £5 at the time, and went to HMV and there it was. “Suspect Device,” “Wasted Life,” “Barbed Wire Love,” “Alternative Ulster,” “State Of Emergency,” and “Breakout” were the first ones that stood out. I wore the grooves out on it. It still sounds as fresh today as it did thirty years ago. Pure fuckin class!