Rhythm Collision "A Look Away"




Ah, Rhythm Collision. The first time I heard about them was at a friends' record store a night they were playing a show they decided to stop by and do an in store except they didn't actually play any songs. I wanted to go to the show but it was 18+. Even worse I didn't know how uncool it is to ask a punk band for signatures but they didn't seem to mind.. I still have a signed 7"... It might go for $1.50 on eBay on a good day. Regardless of how monetarily worthless pop punk records are now, Rhythm Collision is still the shit.

Rhythm Collision - A Look Away

Hagfish "Rocks Your Lame Ass"






The first time I heard of Hagfish was when I went to go see Bad Brains during the middle of the week to a room of about 30 people in the mid-90's. Bad Brains played a bunch of shitty songs off their "God of Love" album but the band that opened, Hagfish, was awesome. The first impression I got of them is that they saw Green Day on TV and decided to start a band. They were a bunch of guys dressed in suits and they thought it would be cool to say sarcastic things and spit on the crowd. While this might have been very 'fuck the system' if they were in an arena playings to hords of people it was just kinda lame to a bunch of people that had nothing better to do on a school night but to go see a show. Despite their dumb stage presence they played some awesome songs and their music outweighed their stupidity for me. Outside of their catchy Green Dayesque songs they seem to like to talk about vagina a lot.. A lot more directly then most bands. After this album they signed to Honest Dons and put out a much more mediocre album.... Man, one day someone in one of these bands is going to find out who I am and kick my ass for talking shit but anyways here are some songs and a video.



Hagfish - Crater
Hagfish - Buster

Back in the Day

Jon Cougar Concentration Camp




Jon Cougar Concentration Camp pisses me off.. They came out with a string of 7"'s that were amazing a decent album and then all of a sudden they signed to BYO Records and became shitty. It would have been better if they broke up after their first album and could have been a legacy, but no, they had to stay together and suck. BYO Records seems to have a habit of this as that last Clorox Girls record wasn't really my favorite either. Anyways, The singer sounds a lot like Jawbreaker ala Unfun... or Jolt.. or Everready.. I know I've already mentioned these bands a bit on this blog. I think they rerecorded some of their 7" songs after this and totally butchered them. In fact, I think they've recorded "Back in The Day" at least 3 times as it's on another 7". This is probaby my favorite record by them and here it is in it's entirety.

Jon Cougar Concentratio Camp - Not Afraid
Jon Cougar Concentratio Camp - Back in the Day
Jon Cougar Concentratio Camp - Some People's Kids

In Like Flynn

In Like Flynn 7"




Probably never known outside of Florida, In Like Flynn was around for a very brief period in the mid 90's. Bill from Discount played in the band and their 7" was on Parking Lot Records which was Discount's DIY label. You used to be able to find multiple copies of this record everywhere despite how great it is. When I worked at a record store someone once came in trying to get rid of a whole stack of them. He ended up donating them to me and I gave them to a bunch of friends and still couldn't get rid of them all. I think i'm down to two copies these days. Anyways, they sounded kind of like J Church or Cringer but a lot faster. In reverse order the 7" is even better as the last song is the best, in my opinion at least.



Here is the 7" in all it's glory.

In Like Flynn - Checkers
In Like Flynn - Sucker Pop
In Like Flynn - Choices

Doc Hopper

Doc Hopper "Meilor"




Doc Hopper was from Boston and was initially on Ringing Ear Records along with Sinkhole (see below) and others. They were around for most of the 1990's and released many records some of which i'm sure are still available.



Here are a couple tracks.

Doc Hopper - Meilor
Doc Hopper - Geiger

Nothing Cool

Nothing Cool "For You"




Perhaps mostly remembered for their split 12" with The Lillingtons is Nothing Cool. While the band name doesn't really promise much in the way of something worth listening to the music is quite contrary. I bought this 7" back when it came out and could not stop listening to the first song "For You". The other 3 songs were OK but fuck, this song is great. I'll be honest and say that not one of their songs on any of their releases could compare to this song for me. In the vein of Jawbreaker, Jon Cougar Concentration Camp, Screeching Weasel, Fuel and Everready...

Nothing Cool - For You

Not to be confused with... (Part 2)

The Automatics "Self Titled"



Not to be confused with many other bands who have used the name, The Automatics were from Portland, OR and one of the finest bands on Mutant Pop Records. If you took any other pop punk band around at the time and added stimulants you would have something close to what The Automatics resembled. They still have a website but it's to tell when it was last touched as the first line states "The first issue of Jesse K's soon to be classic fanzine about beer and punk rock features reviews of the top punk records of 1998". So it could be recent and the zine could be looking back at the top records of nearly 10 years ago or the more likely scenario is that the website hasn't been updated in 10 years as the discography section ends right around 1997. They later went on to release their last album on Go Kart Records named "Murder Suicide" but by then for me either the charm had vanished or the album was not as good.. I don't even remember what it sounded like at this point. The two songs below are off the much beloved first album.

The Automatics - Hangin' at EJ's
The Automatics - All the Kids Just Wanna Dance (new version)