Rolling Rooms: A Blog the Jerk! Comp

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I basically grew up in the late '70s and early '80s. At least those were the formative years of me sneaking my first beer, managing to score a few copies of Oui magazine from a friend, trying cigarettes and weed for the first time, and watching all kinds of things on cable my mom didn't know I was watching.
Back in those days a young kid could glean from movies that a. you weren't cool without a cool car and b. you will never get laid without a cool car. and c. beer and weed were cool (this was pre Nancy Regan, remember). The "cool cars" back then (according to Hollywood) were Corvettes and Custom Vans. The film "The Van" and the van featured in "Rock n Roll High School" left a permanent mark on my brain, and though my first two cars were neither of those things, I have gone through life with van-envy. Until now.
That's right, I finally got myself an old Chevy van! A 1983 G20 with a diesel engine (vegetable oil conversion kit included). Am I excited? HELL YES. Of course parking it in San Francisco is going to be a nightmare (as of this post I'm picking her up in a day or two).
Well, 'till I pick her up, I have been obsessively "vanning" the internet. I Joined a couple of online van sites, been reading mechanic manuals on my van, and constantly visioning all the custom things I wanna do to her. I also made this Van-tastic (yeah I went there) comp for my first trip out with her!
I'm not posting a track list since some of it is major label, in print stuff...but it's a "mixtape", so no harm done. It's pretty freewheelin' and I tried to mix some old hits with some more obscure stuff (like the James Rolleston song from "Bad News Bears in Breaking Training" and "S.O.U.L.")

Vankhana

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Tony Rojas

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Most of San Francisco knows Tony from being in Shotwell (and Flophouse and his other current bands), however, hidden deep in the recesses of Tony’s closet (according to Jimmy Shotwell) lie boxes of Tony’s solo CD. It’s too bad there aren't more out there, 'cause for a while this didn’t leave my stereo and a lot of people would really dig it.
It might not be for every fan of his other bands — some of it sounds more like Chance the Gardner or Wonderful Broken Thing rather than the sorta Mission District peace punk (if that’s what you wanna call it) he normally plays — but if you’re like me and like mellower stuff too (Bill Fox's solo stuff comes to mind on “Brother”) you might wanna give this a chance. There’s also a couple garage rock stompers, a little bit of Cheap Trick, and some good ol' political lyrics, including a better, acoustic version of Shotwell’s “R U Insane”.

Salt of the Earth

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The Meat Sluts

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The definition of a "good time at a show" is a Meat Sluts show. I don't know if it's their cute outfits, occasional contests or guy bounding about in a giant hot dog costume, but they also have good catchy garage punk songs to back it up. I generally hate "prop rock" bands, but they ain't no "prop rock" band.
The Meat sluts feature ex-members of the Double D's, the Loudmouths, and the Womentors. Scarlet (the most exuberant drummer in the city) also plays in Lost Puppy . The Meat Sluts are a band that encourages elbow raising and I've definitely been pretty wasted every time I've seen them. Also, even tho' one of 'em is vegan and one vegetarian you may still find yourself covered in Oscar Mayer corpse by the end of their set. Last time I saw them at the El Rio, the whole place stunk like a 3rd grader's lunchbox.
Anyways, the band gave the OK to have their CD posted here, so check it out, and next time they're in your town, go check them out!

HubbaBubbaBaby

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Glam!

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Glam, glitter, bubblegum...I was never too sure what the major differences were, but I used to eat all that shit up like a Jolly Rancher covered Pixie Stick. This fine compilation will school all but the highest authority on the genre — most bands on here barely put out a single or two, I think — and will make the less jaded step into some knee high sparkle boots and get down.

I scanned the insert at a readable size and included it, since there's a wealth of info on the bands (and some snazzy photos). Great songs, obscure bands, what's not to like??

Do Ya Wanna Touch?

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MRR Radio

While I'm figuring out what to rip and trying to muster up the energy to do a whole slew of new posts, my friend Ron asked me to be a guest DJ on his Maximum Rock n Roll podcast. I like what I played, and the other guys played some killer tunes -most of which I'd never heard before. So check it out! Lots of DRUNK fun!

link to podcast page. Right click "download", or just click it to play in browser.

MRR

Monster Comp Time!

Howdy folks,

Been busy and not ripping anything —and prolly won't for a few days yet, but in the meantime I was a guest blogger over at Illogical Contraption, where Shelby gave me the blog theme of "Monsters". I made a 38 (?) track comp so check it out if ya wanna!

How to Make a Monster

Haunted Garage

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Let's go back to 1990 Hollywood. There was no band in L.A. more fun and entertaining than Haunted Garage. Not The Duchess Se Sade, not the Mentors, not even Celebrity Skin. Live, in a spectacle of fake blood, mousetraps and gore gore girls, you'd hardly notice that their songs weren't very good. Unfortunately, this being an MP3 blog and all, it's their songs — not a live video — that I'm posting.
I remember one show I went to on the morally bankrupt "Sunset Strip" had Tool and White Zombie opening for these paragons of gore. I think they opened with a woman giving birth to singer Dukey Flyswatter that night. I can't remember. But I still have a photo of it somewhere.
Last time I saw Dukey he was at Mondo Video (RIP) browsing the horror, and shorty after I moved back to S.F. they played a reunion show that I can only imagine was amazing.

Satan Of The Morning

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Kryst The Conqueror

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1989 was not really a good year for two Misfits to release a classic 80s metal sounding record. Maybe there really never was a good time for this to be released. Back then I was burnt on stuff like Maiden and getting into the noisier punk records being released. Still, I couldn't resist picking this CD up a couple decades ago in a cut-out bin.
you know what? It's a pretty damn decent EP of 1984ish metal. It's like they didn't care (or were aware) of what was happening in music at the time. they got Jeff Scott Soto (of Yngwie's Rising Force) to come in to the studio, called him "Christ the Conqueror" and made him sing some awesomely corny fantasy lyrics. It's not often that something I thought was a total joke at the time becomes a personal favorite.
Anyways, most of you remember this one, but maybe you haven't heard it in a long time. It may have grown on you since you last gave it a spin, or maybe it's like what my mom said in the late 80s: "The music of today finally makes appreciate KISS".

Thunder Thruster

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Cheap Dates / Candy Snatchers split

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For a while, Man’s Ruin was doing this weird thing where they’d release a 10” from two bands, then a few months or so later, issue a CD with both bands on it – but Kozik would design the cover so that you’d never know that it was a split. Such was the case with my band where we got all the “glory” and local hardcore band "the Idiots" got the short end of the stick (and UPC code). In this case, it was the Cheap Dates.
Anyways, you all know who the Candy Snatchers are, so the Cheap Dates were good friends of ours from the bay area fronted by my buddy and ex-roommate Pete Jay (Black Queen, Wormwood, etc…), and featured Shane White’s brother Jason on drums. They were a really good and creative band, but perhaps a little too weird for some of the persnickety garage rock scene. Check em out, and listen to what’s not the best Candy Snatchers songs ever, but still pretty decent stuff.


This Is Rock N Roll!

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