Various - San Diego Is Burning [2004 Loud + Clear Records]

 

Some well (ish) known bands (Black Heart Procession, No Knife) and a lot of unheralded and unknown bands from the mid-oughts San Diego scene. Wide range of styles here. Lot's of good stuff. I'm partial to the Twenty First Century Lepers track because of the terrible vocals that I love, and the Resolver track, for it's Hum-ness. 

1. Comfortable For You - Double Barrel Breakfast Cereal
2. Kill Me Tomorrow - Xerox My Hand
3. The Black Heart Procession - From The Shores Of A Washed Up Heart
4. Goodbye Blue Monday - I Am The One
5. Via Satellite - Close As I Can
6. Sleeping People - Nasty Portion
7. Hot Like (A) Robot - To Die For Glue
8. No Knife - Riot For Romance! (Remix)
9. Channing Cope - Jung Hao
10. Bunky - Rodents In Love
11. Champagne Kiss - Her Name Was Kanada
12. Twenty First Century Lepers - Pills
13. Lowcloudcover - Chowder Head
14. Sin Sin 77 - Lies
15. Manuok - Happy Cause
16. The Dropscience - One Lung And A Heart Full Of Fear
17. Ryan Ferguson - Wait For Me There
18. Resolver - Inside Synthetic
19. Waterline Drift - The Owls Are Not What They Seem

DL

Azure Days - Anything For You EP (1991 Grapes)

 

Early 90's Irish indie rock, but sounds a lot like the mid-80's. A Johnny Marr-ish guitar tone and Andy Rourk-ish bass lead to a Smith-y sound at times (especially track 1), but there's bit of Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) in the vocals, and a lot of Psychedelic Furs in the songwriting.  It's a bit derivative for, but it is well done and may scratch a nostalgic itch. 

1. Anything For You
2. Azure Days
3. White Horses
4. Back Down To Justice

DL

Death Crisis / Diatribe Split (2011 Too Old To Die Records)

 

A must have. Death Eyes feature San Diego scene stalwart Alberto Jurado. Diatribe are a legendary local band purported to be among the first D-Beat bands in the USA. That's just the internet talking, I have no idea if that's true. As I was getting ready to post, I realized this is a free download from the Death Crisis Bandcamp page, so go do that. 

1. Diatribe - Veneno Politico
2. Diatribe - It's In The Blood
3. Diatribe - False Flag
4. Death Crisis - Problem Reaction Solution
5. Death Crisis - Comfort Shelter Lies
6. Death Crisis - Can't Die Young
   
   

Tin Tree Factory - Rough Cuts (2004 Maplehood Rekkids)

 

TTF is an acoustic / folk project of St. Louis' John Druelinger. I see it referred to as folk punk, but like a lot of sub-genres, I don't even what that means. This is a pretty rare CDr, with the cover being screen printed on lined paper.  Quite a change of pace from Lowbrow.

1. Wiped Clean
2. End Is Nigh
3. Bridge Afire
4. Work Will Make You Free
5. Unfinished
6. Coldwater Creek
7. Jumbled Hair, Missing Toes
8. Skin & Bones
9. 71 Million Miles Of Wire
10. I Need To Leave The Country
11. Dantes Inferno
12. Sleepy Song
13. Time Foretold
14. Change

Bandcamp

DL

Lowbrow - Sex Death Violence (2001 Crook'd Records)

 

Look, I like death metal, but an entire album of post-1991 death metal is a bit of a chore for me. There's not a whole lot left to mine out of the genre (cue the "yer stupid check out band x, y, and z" comments, which I welcome). So I was happy to see mostly sub 4:00 track times on this. But I was pleasantly surprised, which I shouldn't have been since Lowbrow hailed from Florida, the death metal capital or the world, and featured Allen West of Six Feet Under.  Nothing groundbreaking, but solid. 

1. March
2. Destroy Yourself
3. Sex, Violence, Death
4. Addiction
5. Trophy
6. Enforcer
7. The Hatred You Create
8. Free Ride
9. Maniac
10. Rights

DL

The Designer Drugs - By Rx Only (2008 Altercation Records)

 

Not the greatest band name or album title, but for a pretty unknown band whose sole output is seemingly this CD, it's a pretty fantastic album. Glammy garage-y punk with female vocals. Yeah, a bit derivative at times, but there's a lot of raw talent on this, and I'm pretty surprised a band with this sort of confidence went nowhere (or so it seems, if I'm wrong, let me know). 

1. Shot Up!
2. Red Carpet
3. So-Called Saint
4. The Running Song
5. Crime Of Mine
6. Los Bandidos
7. This Plastic Fantasy
8. Coke In The Bathroom
9. Victory And Violence
10. Frostbitten
11. Room 313

DL