Various - Hog Butcher for the World

This is a compilation of alternative bands from the Chicago area circa 1987, and it really is much more "alternative" than the cover would suggest - lots of it is rather quaint indie rock, not pigfuck noise you might expect from looking at the cover or flipping it to find a Big Black song in the track listing. Some of the bands here really remained obscure for a reason, but there is good stuff on it - the aforementioned Big Black in a strangely "funky" sounding edition, the dark Americana of an early version of Freakwater (here called Mojo something-or-other - I first thought it was an alias for Mojo Nixon, but the Internets say otherwise), a cool track by the pre-fame Urge Overkill, two nice otherwise unreleased songs by Joe Haggerty's Bloodsport and (already featured on this blog) Precious Wax Drippings, and so on. Nothing to really get your panties wet about, but still worthy of preservation.

Track listing:

1. Bloodsport - Ink of Your Soul (3:50)
2. God's Acre - 1-2 a Boy's Life (3:33)
3. Mojo Wishbean & Trippy Squashblossum - Little Black Train (2:35)
4. Urge Overkill - Last Train to Heaven (3:41)
5. Precious Wax Drippings - No Place I Can't Go (2:17)
6. The Garden - Walking through the Darkness (4:41)
7. Big Black - Big Money (live) (2:42)
8. The Defoliants - The End (3:51)
9. Permabuzz - Drivin' (3:20)
10. The Sapphires - Evil Eye (2:54)
11. Ungh! - Turn the Light On (2:39)
12. Material Issue - Chance of a Lifetime (3:04)
13. End Result - Truly Evil Thought (2:48)

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Death Disco - Demos

Death Disco were a Croatian post-punk band based in Zagreb, hailing from Split, and sounding like they were from Belgrade. They reminded me most of the legendary Yugo band Sarlo akrobata, perhaps a bit faster. They were active throughout the first half of the '00s, released one album, and quit soon after - which was a pity because they were getting better all the time and could have become a really great band; as it is, they were always fun live, and had some really cool songs, some of which were never released but are preserved in the form of the first half of this collection of demos. Along with the unreleased stuff I've added the two demos that were available from the band before the release of the album, one of which is a kind of a test run for the album, and the other an embryonic version of the band that sounded completely different than the final version. If my memory serves, the "band" at this point consisted only of the bassist and the guitar player, and the tunes were constructed via e-mails from Split to Zagreb and back. This demo does have its moments (and a great song title in "Buena Vista Death Dub"), but they've gotten much better when they became a real band. Nowadays, the bassist plays in a synth-pop band called Hemendex, the guitar player lives in Amsterdam, and the drummer is a writer with six published books (as of 2012).

Legendary photo of bassist Narantxa in my father's living room after a Death Disco show in Osijek.

Track listing:

1. Reli Sutjeska (2:01)
2. 66 (2:06)
3. Rezervni dijelovi (2:24)
4. Ja sam sisao s trake (2:15)
5. Meatball's Party (1:24)
6. Bunny Kebab Song (2:31)
7. Photo Death (2:39)
8. Kravate (3:49)
9. Seafood Restaurant (2:49)
10. New V (3:12)
11. Bunar (2:01)
12. Cekici (1:21)
13. Tajnici hoce na paradu/MIG A4 (2:18)
14. Roboti (1:28)
15. Paviljon (2:41)
16. Dijagrami (1:11)
17. Tramvaji dole (1:42)
18. Test (1:32)
19. Televizor (1:35)
20. Skare (Crveni signali demo) (2:14)
21. Slucaj (Crveni signali demo) (1:10)
22. Francuski brijaci (Crveni signali demo) (3:54)
23. Sudbonosno da (Crveni signali demo) (1:40)
24. To se ne jede (Crveni signali demo) (0:28)
25. Crveni signali (Crveni signali demo) (2:00)
26. Icepick 001 (Wrap the Pump demo) (2:56)
27. Cour'd Mallarde (Wrap the Pump demo) (4:49)
28. Killer Movie (Wrap the Pump demo) (4:40)
29. Braunnoisé (Wrap the Pump demo) (2:37)
30. Gold (Wrap the Pump demo) (5:24)
31. Buena Vista Death Dub (Wrap the Pump demo) (0:58)
32. I Like Little French Girls (Wrap the Pump demo) (4:31)

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