touch and go records Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Negative Approach “Tied Down”

sfilzen — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 20:27:48 +0000

Negative Approach “Tied Down” 1983. Touch and Go Records. The first (and only) LP by the Detroit hardcore punk pioneers. Relentlessly tough, angry and growling. We saw Negative Approach play a couple of years ago when they toured with 7 Seconds; though not the original lineup which disbanded after Tied Down‘s release and tour. Singer John Brannon seemed just as intense and ragey as he reportedly was back in the day.

Negative Approach at X-Ray Arcade 2022

Tied Down is super-aggressive, even for early 80’s hardcore standards. The roary/screamy style of singing has never been my jam so about half of the tracks on this very short album are a bit much. But, I really do like a few of them: the title track “Tied Down” is great, and “Nothing” slows down just enough to make it a real ass-shaker punk anthem. (While “Evacuate” also slows down, it goes all the way to sludge and mud mode). The vocals on “Live Your Life” are actually (mostly) understandable and the riff is catchy! (It’s still brutally hardcore though).

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Killdozer “Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite”

sfilzen — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 19:13:24 +0000

Killdozer “Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite” 1984. Bone-Air Records. Recorded and produced by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, WI. (This copy a ‘89 reissue on Touch and Go Records) Brutal pre-grunge noise rock from the Midwest. Heavy on the bass, heavier on the droning guitar and drums, growls and grunts punctuating the vocals. Not ass-shaking nor slam-dancing (well, maybe the hyper-speed bridge on “Farmer Johnson”), not so much shoe-gazing, more like shoe-glaring. Solid Wisconsin references: Side A is “Side of Pork” and Side B is “Side of Beef,” while the song titles also mention Midwest living (the aforementioned “Farmer Johnson” plus “Man of Meat” and “Ed Gein” – that last one actually kinda bouncy, even a little catchy). My favorite track is the almost-funky “Dead Folks” but more for the music than the message. Killdozer became somewhat infamous for their cover songs on later releases; on this debut LP they record their version of John Fogerty’s “Run Through the Jungle,” theirs an excellent and menacing funeral dirge’d tempoed hallucination.

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Die Kreuzen “Pink Flag”

sfilzen — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 20:18:07 +0000

Die Kreuzen “Pink Flag” b/w “Land of Treason” 1990. Touch and Go Records, produced by Butch Vig. Die Kreuzen’s cover of Wire’s “Pink Flag” seemed appropriate for today; its refrain is “how many dead or alive?” set to a dirge-tempo (which of course eventually speeds up to a more Die Kreuzen breakneck speed). Wire’s original appeared on their 1977 debut Pink Flag, an influential, innovative and amazing first wave punk release. “Land of Treason” is a cover of the Germs’ track from the 1979 LP G.I. and one of my favorites from that album. I love love love the Germs and am admittedly heavily biased, but Die Kreuzen does an adequate job, at least musically. Danny Kubinski is a great guy but his high range punk scream just can’t match Darby Crash’s menacing growl.

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Big Black “Songs About F–king”

sfilzen — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 16:39:22 +0000

Big Black “Songs About F–king” Touch and Go Records. Yesterday, September 10th, marked the 30th anniversary of Big Black’s final LP release in 1987. Steve Albini began Big Black in ‘81 as a one-man sound machine and was soon joined by members of Naked Raygun, releasing several EP’s and singles and one other LP (Atomizer). Big Black knew Songs would be their last recording and intended it to be – as the title more than subtly implies – a big middle finger to everyone and everything, the songs all teeth-rattling industrial noise rock filled with lyrics about the monstrous tendencies of the human condition. The title was also a direct response to the censorship impulse of the 80′s; Ablini stated in a recent Rolling Stone interview “the Parents’ Music Resource Center was trying to rein in the subject matter of popular music and art at the time. We wanted to explicitly decline to participate in that reining in. We wanted to make filthy music. We wanted to make our records. We wanted to be explicit about our willingness to offend people.“

Songs is not an easy record to listen to – it’s rage on vinyl, darker than midnight, violent and anxiety-producing (my heart rate has noticeably increased just listening to it). “Fish Fry,” seems innocuous enough at the start, the title Midwest-adorable, the beat a bit bouncy, but then atonal guitar dissonance screams through with a tale about a murder after a fish fry. Another song, “Columbian Necktie,” details a particularly brutal form of killing and “Kasimir S. Pulaski Day” a mobster shooting. “Bad Penny” is about the scenester asshole that sleeps with all the girlfriends. Conclusion: people suck. Thank goodness for the cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” which provides some lyrical relief – just a model, being beautiful, drinking champagne, no blood or violence.

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