rev. norb Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Rev. Norb & the Onions – s/t

sfilzen — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 20:03:07 +0000

Rev. Norb & the Onions – s/t 2014. Certified PR Records. High speed punk from Wisconsin. Rev. Norb (Norb Rozek) has been a fixture (legend!) in the northeastern Wisconsin punk scene for, like, ever, fronting bands like Suburban Mutilation, Depo Provera and Boris The Sprinkler with his particular brand of insanity for over 40 years. I’ve never heard of the Onions but it looks like they’re from Manitowoc; Rev. Norb has fronted a few of their releases. Rev. Norb & the Onions is really really fun, which is exactly what I’d expect from a band fronted by a man once described (according to the Boris The Sprinkler website) as “a grown man who resembles a gigantic grasshopper” who often sports a ridiculously oversized headpiece/mask and gold lamé (as seen here from the Boris performance at Dirtnap Fest in 2022).

My top tracks are all punchy, slightly ridiculous and very very clever, Norb’s wit delivered at hyper-speed, always: “(She Got) Thought Crime” (“she got crazy flipper fingers that she stole from someone else”), “Oddy Knocky” (“there’s corsets made of macaroons and panties made of vinyl”), “I’m Shit” (“well I’m just a player with my beefy five-layer, I’m drinkin’ purplesaurus rex”) and “Eating Quisp From Someone Else’s Bowl” (no need to provide an example).

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Suburban Mutilation “The Opera Ain’t Over Til the Fat Lady Sings”

sfilzen — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 20:50:50 +0000

Suburban Mutilation “The Opera Ain’t Over Til the Fat Lady Sings” 1984. 2014 reissue on blue vinyl, Beer City Records. 80′s hardcore punk from Green Bay, Wisconsin. We’re heading up to Green Bay tomorrow for a show (not a punk show, though) and it’s been awhile since we’ve been to ANY shows but even longer seeing one in Green Bay. In the 80′s I saw a ton of bands up there…not Suburban Mutilation as they were broken up before I was going to shows though I definitely saw Rev. Norb (SM’s singer) a few times over the years – he continues to perform with Boris the Sprinkler. It’s fast, hard, loud as pretty much all hardcore punk is, with a dose of juvenile humor, vague 80′s political commentary (ie one of my favorites “El Salvador Stomp” – “Brand new dance that you can do because Uncle Sam wants you. Find yourself a nice dictator, shoot first ask questions later…”), and general anti-suburban culture rants (another favorite is “Plastic Chicken” – “I go down to the shopping mall, see all the suburban mothers! Oh they like to go shopping with their suburban daughters!”). Other top picks are “Ya Buncha Morons” and “Regurgitate” (which is hilarious – “1234 You’re a fucking preppy whore! 2468 You make me regurgitate!”). I got a copy of this record from my friend Chris (originally from Green Bay) awhile back – he is credited with taking some of the photos on the record sleeve.

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Depo Provera “The Depo Provera EP”

sfilzen — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 19:27:14 +0000

Depo Provera “The Depo Provera EP” 1989 (no label). Four song 7″ EP of snotty punk from Green Bay. We’re heading up that way this weekend for the Easter holiday and usually tune the car radio to 105.7 WAPL at some point (its playlist hasn’t changed much since the 1980′s when we lived there: we’re guaranteed to hear Aerosmith, Rush, Ratt and Zeppelin at some point) and the liner notes inside this EP are hilarious, including this: “No particular thanks to WAPL for not even being able to pony up a paltry 3rd place in their blatantly rigged 1987 Battle of the Bands in which we ascended two levels beyond our predestined fate!” Also amusing, the EP was “Engineered by some guy at Breezeway [Studios in Waukesha, WI] who never heard of the song ‘Sister Ray,’” and “if you’re interested in the honest breakdown, Jamie [Shimon, guitar, vocals] wrote the music and some of the words, and Norb [Rev. Norb Rozek, vocals, also known for Boris the Sprinkler, Suburban Mutilation and generally being a character in the Valley scene] wrote the rest of the words. While drunk.” It’s also fun reading the long list of people thanked, which include a few people I know/knew (of) from both Milwaukee and the Fox Valley.

Anyway, the four songs are short, funny and impertinent. Side A has “Liquid Personality” which is about doing shots and getting drunk, and “Class Reunion” extolls the benefits of reconnecting with old friends (kidding! lyrics include “those four years were nothing but a waste…friendships die when years come in between”) with a “wild neo-Townsend geetar break.” Side B’s “(I’m Not a Date I’m An) Alcoholic” is boisterously rude: “so I drink myself sick, I don’t give a shit and in the morning I take two Tylenol. Yeah I drink myself sick, I gag on my vomit.” The last track, “You Need Me,” is a surprisingly faithful cover of The Honey Bees, better known as Ginger, Mary Ann and Mrs. Howell from Gilligan’s Island, which appeared in the 12th episode of Season 2, “Don’t Bug the Mosquitoes” first aired December 9th, 1965.

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Rebel Waltz “The Last One To Die Is A Rotten Egg”

sfilzen — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 20:21:56 +0000

Rebel Waltz “The Last One To Die Is A Rotten Egg” 1991, Erosion Records on 10″ blue vinyl. The Vault boy and I are heading up to the Fox Valley for a few days (he’s off school for the summer) so I thought I’d dig out some local late 80′s/early 90′s music. Rebel Waltz hailed from Oshksoh, WI and were active from ‘85 to ‘96. I know I saw them a few times opening for other bands around Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay, though for whom I can’t recall – most likely at least one of those shows was Soul Asylum (probably more like 10, it seemed that Soul Asylum passed through every other week in the late 80′s). Their stated influences are bands like The Byrds, Stiff Little Fingers and their namesake, The Clash (the song “Rebel Waltz” appears on Sandinista!). From their Facebook page: “We played a ton of gigs during the height of our popularity. The fact that we had a PA probably helped a ton with that but we got to open for Social Distortion, Soul Asylum, and The Tragically Hip to name a few. We met hundreds of great musicians over the years.” The band did reunite to play a few shows in 2015 and 2016, including one for the locally infamous Rev. Norb’s 50th birthday.

Rebel Waltz recorded The Last One To Die Is A Rotten Egg at Smart Studios in Madison, WI around the same time Nirvana was doing some of their recording for Nevermind. The grunge influence on this 6-song EP is obvious, though much more melodic: Midwestern-nice punk/grunge. If I didn’t know these guys were from around my hometown, I’d guess that they were from the Minneapolis area, with a sound that is very Replacements-esque (and Soul Asylum-y). Audio links to the record, or any single track, seem to not exist but their album Rubber Walls from 1990 does so if you are so inclined, you can listen to that.

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