PRIVATEWAYS

 

SHE SAID

From their debut 7"

PUNK INFECTION 2013

My weekends are generally free of Punk Infection.  Most consist of huge breakfasts (the only point in the week where I eat anything before 12pm), uncontrollable sadness and working on the FTP print zine.

Turns out that I could've just gone to this fuckin' thing and been terminally infected with Flat Tire Punk.

Instead, I remain an enormous failure.

Kudos to anyone who saw this.  Your life is infinitely cooler than mine.

Gasoline Goner

LOOK AT THOSE GODDAMN SUITS!  Pure fuckin' sleaze!!!  

Gasoline's lone Goner single (their 2nd) impossibly walks the tightrope between the theatrical ridiculousness of Guitar Wolf and wise-learned-man punk scree.  The word "VICIOUS" comes to mind.  Youtube'd for your pleasure below.

An under-appreciated gem, I say.  Perfect music, HOLY HELL.  The band's finest hour by a gigantic margin too.  Goner gets it.

Crash And Burn, Vol.0

 

Title page (featuring an absolutely primo live shot of THE KNOCKS) from the debut issue of Crash And Burn, a fantastic Japanese glossy fanzine.  First published in 2002 by a member of the great ROCKBOTTOM, Crash And Burn had the good sense to come outta the corner swinging with an article on Needle Records.  

We've got an informative interview with Masa 17, head-honcho of Needle (not to mention ex-member of both COCKSCRATCH and PRIVATEWAYS), ready to roll in the print version of FTP.  This feature will include a detailed dive into everything released on the label thus far.  Very exciting!

New GIMMIES 45!

The Gimmies have been a fun band to track over the last decade.  Their debut K.O.G.A. 7" is a true marvel and one of the few Flat Tire Punk records that seemed to penetrate Western eardrums during "The Dead Years" circa the turn of the century.  Since that debut, they've scattered a bevy of comp tunes, released a couple CD-only albums (always a tough proposition) and a handful of decent-to-great singles, the finest being their most recent releases on Pop'n'Roll and Unfold.  The onslaught (by Japanese standards, anyway) continues with their new single, their 3rd in the last 2 years, which CAN BE PURCHASED DOMESTICALLY via the always reliable Modernist label.  "Kids And Neighbors" offers up big-guitar punk rock that measures up to the very best currently available.  Loud rocker shite you'll adore, I tell ya.

BUY THIS SINGLE

Mental note: COMPS

Chloroform (CD/LP, Mangrove)
Ad Vice (CD/LP, Mangrove)
Neo Wave Nastros (CD/LP, The Modernist)
No License (CD only, License)
King Size Needle (CD only, Needle)
Mangrove 2002 (CD only, Mangrove)

Just off the top of my head.  Suggestions welcome...

Why does this exist and why do I love it so?

I'm taking coffee break (who am I kidding:  72oz. Cherry Coke break) from worthlessness to discuss a matter of great import:  Kead Dennedys.

Not even lyin', dawgs.  Kead Dennedys are a Japanese DEAD KENNEDYS cover band who, for reasons absolutely positively unknown, released a 7"EP on the illustrious K.O.G.A label in the mid 1990s.  WHY???  Probably because someone actually said they could, which is startling as all fuck.  Cover, wait...excuse me.  TRIBUTE bands don't "do" records, right?  It just doesn't happen.  How many Mini-Kiss LPs do you have?

Yet, I lurve it.  The real "Too Drunk To Fuck" was the very first punk rock single I ever owned and I'll fly its colors until the day I die.  BUT I also admire the band's execution, especially Ishikawa's channeling of Jello Biafra's vocal style.
 

But yes yes yes, absurdity is the true selling point.  The record's very existence is ridiculous.  Seek it out to hear (my fave) "Police Truck" and "Bleed For Me", both rendered as faithfully as the title track.

There simply has to be a back-story here.  What other bands were these guys in?  Did they pull it off live or was this strictly a studio affair?  Has Brandon Cruz entered the fold yet?  If you got the info, I'm all ears...

Parachute

PARACHUTE

RIDICULOUS

NO RECORDS

EX-COCKSCRATCH

EX-PRIVATEWAYS

ALL BALLS