This is the other band I know of from Tombstone, “the town to tough to die,” where I saw a seven year old kid smoking cigarettes last time I was there. MGNT came along after the first wave of Cochise County bands. I’m sure all these guys grew up seeing those early bands, but they are removed from that scene by time and sonic differences. They drew more from post-Operation Ivy 90s ska-punk bands, but like Hell Day there is a naïve originality that adds some charm to it. It’s an early recording from Scott Becerra’s 4 AM studio in Sierra Vista and you can tell that the band and Scott were still getting their shit together, but the rough recording adds to the charm. The guitar sounds like a banjo and the saxophone sounds like a clarinet. If this was recorded in a proper studio it would be over polished and way less fun sounding. The songs are pretty catchy and that holds the whole thing together. Guitar player Ray Walker would move to Flagstaff and be integral to the Robothouse scene there in the early-mid 2000s, putting on shows and playing in bands like JETOMI and, more recently, joining and quitting Feel Free. Drummer Chris Ziegler would move to S. California to work as a writer and occasionally play music. I used to randomly run into him at shows or parties when my bands were playing out there regularly.
Man, you are on fire.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't have a copy of the Temper Tantrum 7", would you? I lost mine years ago, but remember it was catchy as hell.
Also, Bob Thomas went on to play bass for Pathos. And Chris and Bob were in a band with the singer from Hell Day.
ReplyDeleteAwesome blog. Would love to hear anything by teen suicide, Swing Ding Amigos, and any band from Nogales or Tuba City. Also, you probably already have it, but I can email you Malignus Youth's acoustic version of the Mass (well, like two or three songs from it).
Missed out on Temper Tantrum. Sounds familiar like I saw their name on a flyer, but I never saw them play and definitely don't have the 7". Were they a S. AZ band?
ReplyDeleteHoly shit I didn't know there was a My Gun Named Trina/Pathos connection! Just 20 minutes ago I got home from practicing with Pathos drummer Andy Bell in a new project we got going with Brandon Ugstad (Spill Blanket/Absinthe etc.)
Missed out on Teen Suicide (was that a Hector Jaime project?) I got all the Swing Ding Amigos releases including some real rare stuff which will make it's way to this blog eventually. I'm more ignorant of the smaller towns in N. Az and only know of Blackfire from Tuba City (if that's where they're actually from)Anybody that can fill in these gaps please get in touch.
No I don't have the acoustic version of the Mass and Yes I want a copy! I was one of those people that recorded the live-over-the-phone broadcast on KXCI in Tucson and I copied it for many friends.
EPGNSENP, do i know you?
ReplyDeleteChris from MGNT was also in the Shitty Wikkets, a short lived band with me and Tony A from Emo Summer and a bajillion other bands. most of those songs are on my blog, 1000yesterdays.wordpress.com, which hasn't been updated in over a year. it's loud, fast, shitty punk rock with a tape deck in lieu of a bass amp but the songs came out pretty decent, all things considered.
i kind of lost steam on updating the blog when i realized my Los Federales demo tape had a big section erased...would love a rip of that...the one with Boobies, Tough Guy, etc.
what band were Chris, Bob and Stockton in?
Temper Tantrum was from Phx or Tempe, i believe. connected to the wooden blue records bands, Carrier, Hupscratch, and Jimmy Eat World...one or more of them were in And Her Son a few years later (94? 95?) but i've lost touch since.
re: Malignus, of course i would also love to hear the acoustic mass. there's also a recording of them that has a song called "Dead Band" and the original recording has a stuter or a skip or something, because every one i know who has a copy has the same skip in the same spot. i don't have a recording of that anymore but really wish i did.
I have the first Blackfire cd, but nothing else from them. would love to hear more.
Speaking of Nogales, did Nope ever record anything? i saw them live once and they rocked, but i never saw or heard from them again.
oh, and i got a note from someone when i linked to the Hellday post that there is another tape they put out. i can't recall which songs were on it, but it was sooooo good to hear those songs again.
Liked the blog. Dig that shit up. You probably have a ton of great records I want to hear. I remember reading about Emo Summer in the great Probe magazine.
ReplyDeleteI lost track of my early Los Federales demos but I have a lot of their other recordings which will show up here soon.
Missed Temper Tantrum but my band Hobart used to play at a church in Chandler around that time with Carrier and Wellington and Absinthe and some great touring bands (like Shotmaker and I Spy). I have the Carrier and Wellington 7"s which will show up here eventually.
The only real rare Malignus shit I still have is the file I included in the Missa Brevis post. I had a great video tape of a DPC show of Malignus in their prime when they were playing hour plus sets with cyclone circle pits for every song. After the show me and my friend Dan interviewed them for our zine, Unit 33, and that interview was reprinted in Maximum Rock N Roll. The whole interview was also on the video tape. When I lived in Flagstaff I lent this tape to Erik York from the American Deathtrip, who I was in a band with at the time and I haven't seen it since. He said he was going to lend it to Mikey (Malignus drummer, who was also in Flagstaff) I was supposed to get that tape to Danny Pimple, who recorded early Malignus records, so he could post it on YouTube. He already has many good Malignus/Dover Trench/American Deathtrip videos on YouTube under the user name Lethal Jesus.
Missed out on Nope from Nogales, but I remember seeing stickers and thinking it was a record label. Maybe both? Was Max from Social Outcast/Roche 22/Stripper Killers in that band?
Holy crap, Social Outcast. I was going to ask if they ever recorded anything but i only saw them once (at a show i booked at Fab Ave) and never heard of them again.
ReplyDeleteThey kicked out the bass player (or he quit, i can't remember) in the middle of that show, ON STAGE. He was clearly new to the band, and they kept making fun of him for fucking up his parts, and finally he stormed off, and they just kept making fun of him on the microphone between songs. "hey dude, how are you getting back to Tucson?" , etc. And then the singer lit his boots on fire.
And Max let me try on his leather motorcycle punk rock jacket once (before the show i mentioned above) and i was amazed that more crusties didn't have back problems cos it weight about 30 pounds.
I don't know if Max was involved in Nope or not, but I want to say he wasn't. They played in SV one time or two times, and it was like this dreamy surfy Arizona desert sound...I hope they recorded something and you get ahold of it. I got the impression they were a few years older than Max would have been at that point.
I've got a friend who lives here in Colorado who was friends with Malignus, and has a bunch of recordings that are awesome. I hope to see her sometime this week and pick over her collection.
I also have a box of my own vhs-C and vhs apes of shows i filmed back then at Fab Ave and the DPC. I wish I had an easy way to post them to youtube...
Posted link to acoustic mass songs in the Malignus Youth comments section. I hope it works; it was my first time using media fire. Actually, Josh sent me these mp3s years ago.
ReplyDeleteI saw Nope twice. The singer/guitarist was in either Swing Ding Amigos or Shark Pants for one of the shows I saw, at least. I also saw the Nope drummer's drum set for sale at the Chicago Music store. I think they put out a cassette but I may be making that up.
That's cool that Andy is still playing in a band (I think he's the only Pathos member that still does, although James T might be in a chinese band for all I know). Also, James Martin shares songs on Facebook that are musical versions of Bible verses, a few of which I really like.
Teen Suicide were a band consisting of Rose Coomers and Seth "Hunx". They were the first band I saw that was kind of 21st Century hipster punk (in a good way since they were first). I only saw them once.
I played Fab Ave. once with my band Failure to Appear and I don't think it was that Social Outcast show, but that description of them sounds about on par for all the shows I saw of them. You'll be happy to know that Max hasn't changed one bit and still plays in bands that sound similar to Social Outcast and all his shows go down pretty much like the one you described.
ReplyDeleteYeah Max wasn't in Nope. When I was thinking about a Nope/record label connection I think I was confused with Chemo records, which I think had some kind of La Merma connection. I'll ask Isaac (Swing Ding Amigos, Shark Pants, Lenguas Largas) about Nope next time I see him. Sounds like it was a pre-Swing Dings project.
Never saw Teen Suicide, but I did see Coomer's Explosion a number of times. I think it was just Coomer and Seth. The same band with a different name? I remember not liking them. I do like some of their current projects, Harem and Hunx, even though Hunx kinda comes of as just a gay(er) version of Nobunny.
JC, when did Failure to Appear play? i probably saw you, and that name sounds hella familiar...i left in October of 95...
ReplyDeleteFailure to Appear started on a Thanksgiving of, I think '94 or '95 and lasted a couple years at most. I'm pretty sure we played at Fab Ave. and it might have been the show you described where Micky Sixx lit his boots on fire and Max was a total dick. Both those things happened so often that its hard to remember. Time frame doesn't seem to line up though so I could be over crossing Beer Gut memories with FTA memories. The bands coexisted for a while. FTA recorded with Scott, but didn't play too many shows, mostly house parties at a punk house across the street from Tucson High with the Blacks and the Spites, who lived there. Some of the members of FTA ended up living there till the landlord kicked them out and they threw and epic trash the house party. That band was me, the older guy playing with my younger brother and his friends. After we split up those guys went on to form Rust In Piss, Umbilical Noose and Birds Ate My Face. It's funny because I've been listening to the Shitty Wikkets and that's the sound we were shooting for (with a little more melody), but none of us knew what we were doing so we totally missed. Only output was a song on a tape comp. called "Only 14% Defunct" ('97) put out by Travis Spillers and the 12" comp., "If the Drugs Don't Kill Us the Boredom Will" ('98).
ReplyDeleteOh wow! Thanks for posting this! Trina was on a comp in the 90's with a band that I later joined, Sandpaper Love. The AZ Dept. Of The Underground Comp. I think I still have it somewhere...
ReplyDeleteYes I have that tape and plan on posting it soon. I remember seeing Sandpaper Love a few times. I never heard the CD "Where's the Donkey Sex?" but I remember the cover art work being fuckin' hilarious!
ReplyDeleteHey Jarrod,
ReplyDeletethis is scott b. from S.V. love your blog. it brings back a lot of good memories. MGNT, FTA, shitty wickets, hobart - it was an honor to have the opportunity to work with these guys.
i've got that SPL cd and a bunch of other stuff i've recorded over the years. hit me up. scott.becerra AT cox DOT net.
SCOTT! I'm sending you an email now so I can get the scoop on what you still have. I hope you have some of the stuff we did (any of the bands) in the studio but also want some other stuff. Hope your doing good!
DeleteGreat blog! Many memories of Malignus, Fab Ave, Blackfire, Sandpaper Love, MGNT, the Shitty Wikkets, and others like Inbred Jed, PS9, Suffer Child, Anyface, Kindered Spirit. I’ve been up in Flagstaff for a spell with more of the metal scene- Spitshine, Crib Deth, Land’s Edge, Defenastrate, Hex3, Angst, Vermin Christ, and Virathas (currently). I’ve crossed paths over the years with Ray (MGNT) at some Jetomi shows and Erik York used to be in Super Colossal Beast with my drummer, Drew Glenn (FUME Bros., Defenastrate, Hex3, Angst, Vermin Christ/ singer for Virathas) back in the early 2000’s. Small world! Black Fire disbanded, but reformed as a duo sometime before 2009, with a new name. Let me know if you’re trying to find any particular music up north in Flagstaff, Tuba City, or Prescott areas and I’ll try my best! Same goes for venues!
ReplyDeleteI just stumbled across this blog doing research, my previous post is tagged as unknown. My name is Rick and I can be reached at brusterio81818@gmail.com (Flagstaff, Tuba City, Prescott post)
ReplyDelete