Case Closed? comp CD

The full title of this compilation is 'Case Closed,? An International Compilation of Hüsker Dü Cover-songs' (yes, with the ',?', no idea what that is about). That should give you a pretty good idea of what this compilation is all about, a tribute to Hüsker Dü, the legendary Minneapolis band from the 80s which started out as a hardcore band but soon started to add all kinds of influences to their sound. The band would in turn influence a ton of bands, and especially their albums 'Zen Arcade' (1984) and 'New Day Rising' (1985) are landmarks.

This tribute album was released by Snoop Records out of Germany in 1994 and features bands from the USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Norway and Australia. Bands include Sick Of It All, Only Living Witness, Big Drill Car, NRA, Motorpsycho, Alloy and Gigantor. This compilation was also a sort of benefit for Artists United For Nature, an artist-based non-profit organisation for preservation of nature. I don't know however if it has any relation to the project of the same name that did the cheesy 'Yes We Can' single in 1989, a project similar to Band-Aid.

Anyways, what's nice about this comp is that the bands chose songs to cover from all stages of Hüsker Dü's career. I'll be honest and say I am not really into Hüsker Dü all that much, let alone have intimate knowledge of their discography, but this compilation is pretty cool, it's got a wide range of styles and most bands do a decent job. So give it a chance.

Case Closed? comp CD

4 In Tha Chamber - Unstable Foundation MCD

4 In Tha Chamber was a hardcore band out of the Bronx, NYC. They were formed in 1996 by Dave Mitchell (ex-Without A Cause/Fahrenheit 451), and in 1997 their 'Unstable Foundation' MCD was released on Extreme Championship Wreckords. ECW (a reference to then-popular Extreme Championship Wrestling) was a label run by 4ITC's singer Jon. Heavy & semi-groovy NYHC with a slight rap-influence, 4ITC had their own sound going on. They had some problems with their line-up and commitments outside of the band, causing the band to go through several periods of inactivity. In 2000 they released a full-length called 'Existence' on Kingfisher Records and even toured Europe in 2001. Shortly thereafter the band pretty much quit, but then reformed a few years later, with a new singer, and a heavier sound, under the name 4 In The Chamber. This resulted in the excellent 'Memories Die' CD in 2007, which they released themselves again. After that CD the band folded but again reformed a few years later, this time under the name Unstable Foundation. Under that name they released one album that I know of, which I unfortunately do not own. The last thing I heard of Unstable Foundation is that they were looking for a new singer.

Anyways, if anybody has their other stuff (especially their split with As They Die on Moosestyle Records, from 1999), please leave a comment.

4 In Tha Chamber - Unstable Foundation MCD

Trial By Jury - 1991 demo

And another Trial By Jury request. Not that I mind, Trial By Jury were awesome. Here's their 1991 demo. It has a few songs on it that did not make it on the 7" version of this demo, which was released on Reflection Records in 1992. Reflection Records also did 7" by bands such as Green Rage, Counter Punch and Framework. Anyways, back to the demo. Early 90s new school hardcore with that typical crunchy guitar-sound and spoken/shouted vocals, this is the kind of stuff I live for. I love this band, I'll probably be posting the remainder of their discography sometime soon.

Trial By Jury - 1991 demo

Chilmark - Mosaic 7"

Another request. Chilmark were a post-hardcore/emo band from Barnstable/South Yarmouth, MA. The first time I heard this band was on the 'Boston Hardcore - In Memory Of...'comp 7" on the amazing Moo Cow Records, from 1994. Chilmark had already released 2 self-titled 7"s by then (commonly referred to as the 'Driftwood' 7" and the 'Mosaic' 7" respectively), which were released on CMK Records and Used Gears Records in 1992/1993. I believe CMK Records was renamed to Used Gears Records and was in fact Chilmark's own label? Moo Cow ended up repressing both 7"s, in 1994. Also in 1994, Chilmark's last recordings were released, the 'Fifteen Fingered Man' MCD, again on Used Gears Records. I have no idea what happened to the band members unfortunately. If you're into 90s post-hardcore/emo however, give this band a shot.

Unfortunately my copy doesn't come with an insert, sorry. And even worse, my copy is in pretty rough shape, I tried to clean up the sound as best I could, but don't expect great sound quality, sorry about that!

Chilmark - Mosaic 7"

For those interested, I don't have Chilmark's 'Driftwood' 7", but someone posted it on youtube:

Triphammer - s/t CD

Here's another request. Triphammer's self-titled CD has been posted on a few blogs before, but it seems most/all links are now expired. Which is a shame, this band from Salt Lake City, Utah was awesome. I even posted their 1997 demo as one of my first posts here. Unfortunately those are the only 2 recordings this band ever released to my knowledge. This CD was released on the awesome Life Sentence Records, at a time when every release on xLSRx was an instant buy. I haven't kept up with the label after around 2000, but in the 90s, they released pretty much nothing but awesome records. Anyways, Triphammer... Like the demo, this is incredibly heavy mid-tempo metalcore, 7 songs with an average length of 6+ minutes, and not one dull second among them. Anyways, if you haven't checked out this band yet, please do, you won't regret it. More requests coming up soon.

Triphammer - s/t CD

Trial By Jury - Fortune Cookie CD

Here's a request made by someone on my old post on Trial By Jury's excellent 'Ignite' 7". This was Trial By Jury's final release, the 'Fortune Cookie' CD, which was released on Outback Records in 1993, the band folded sometime later that year I believe. Outback Records had released Trial By Jury's 'Alter' 7" the year before, a 7" that already showed signs of Trial By Jury's attempt to incorporate more influences into their music. Like all TBJ records, this is great stuff, although truth be told I play this album the least of all their records. It's hit or miss, and at times it feels like the band wasn't quite sure what direction to go into, because of the at times funk-like bass which doesn't always work all that great, and some ideas that didn't work out too well in my opinion such as a pretty weird, and bad, intro and a pretty useless instrumental tacked onto the end of the last track. There are some great tracks on here such as 'Paper', 'Sirens' and 'Self' but also a couple of tracks that do nothing for me like 'Crest'. Having said that, it's still Trial By Jury, so the good far outweighs the bad for me.

Trial By Jury - Fortune Cookie CD

Lifeline - s/t MCD

No, this is not the current Lifeline that is fronted by Don Foose of the Spudmonsters. This particular Lifeline was formed in 1997 in Massachusetts and as far as I know only did some demo's and this MCD. Information on this band is quite scarce, so if anybody has any more info, please leave a comment, this band seems to have gone completely under the radar. This MCD was released in 1998 by Break Even Point Records, a prolific Italian hardcore/punk label that released records by European bands as well as US bands like Endpoint, Backlash and Lifetime. Lifeline played an odd mix of raw and fast East coast hardcore with almost youth crew like vocals. It doesn't work 100%, and the vocals are definitely the weakest part of the band, but I've also heard worse. But more burly and gruff vocals definitely would've worked better with this band. Still tho, give it a shot.

Lifeline - s/t MCD