SOURBELLY, Fat 4 (cassette, 1993)

I'm actually laughing as I type now because Hogarth is gonna kill me for sharing this one (so let's nobody tell him, okay?). I'll explain why in a minute, but first, a few words about Brian himself and how this band came to be.

Brian was one of Will's friends who used to come out to all sorts of shows. He was also one of the people who'd come by every so often to watch bad '80s horror movies until all hours with me and Will. I remember giving Brian a couple of guitar lessons at some point. Okay, Brian is a big guy (used to play college football) with big fingers, and although he had a Telecaster (which has a wide neck), he still had a lot of trouble getting those barre chords to ring out at first. But that didn't stop him from putting this band together.

Their first show was at the Wright State Rathskellar in 1992. Honestly, it was excruciating. They got lost a lot, and it seemed Brian was always squinting down at his guitar, which meant he wasn't singing directly into the microphone, so it was hard to hear the vocals, which were probably the strongest part of the group. But you could tell there was some talent there. You could legitimately figure they'd improve.

My impression is that Brian has always regarded this cassette as total shit. If you see him around, try mentioning Fat 4 and you might see the "Fat-4 Face," which is a look of disgust so abject, so pure that most of us could only manage it if we were actually served a plate full of real shit in a fancy restaurant.

To be sure, this cassette is not a display of finely crafted musical talent. The band really does sound like they've been playing for only a couple of months. The arrangements sometimes lack direction. There's one part where I'd swear that the guitar and bass are playing two different songs. That being said, there's still much to enjoy here. Brian always had the edgiest voice in Dayton--raw, powerful. Positive comparisons to NIRVANA and THE RAMONES aren't out of the question. It's rough, but it's good. And of course, SOURBELLY would get a whole lot better. Download Plasma Boy if you don't believe me. And watch this blog for SOURBELLY's self-titled second cassette (with Gregg Spence on drums).

Track notes:

• "Johnny" was later re-recorded (with a different drummer and bass player) for SOURBELLY's second cassette and also appeared on the Cro-Magnon compilation 1101 E. Second Street.
  
• "Ed" was written about one of SOURBELLY's first practices.
  
• I've always wondered who "Card Shop Cate" was about, but I never asked.

Track list:

1. Johnny
2. Ed, Ed Chicken Head
3. Card Shop Cate
4. Pet the Rabbit

Download it! (13 MB) (link re-upped on 2-1-2013)

take care

---Jones

Cover scans: TOOBA BLOOZE, SOURBELLY, THE UNDERDOGS

At the end of this post, you'll find a download link to a package containing scans of the packaging for the previously posted rips from TOOBA BLOOZE (The Viper's Drag), SOURBELLY (Plasma Boy, vinyl and cassette versions), and THE UNDERDOGS (unreleased Essential U-Dog Poop). The UNDERDOGS scan is just of the cassette and label with Ben's handwritten song list. The other two are complete scans of the inserts and cassettes.

Note that these are high-resolution scans (300 dpi), which means that they will be gigantic on your screen. When MS Internet Explorer displays a JPEG in its own window, it's set up by default to shrink it to screen size (unless you've changed the settings). I believe Netscape does the same thing. Also note that the download package contains more pictures and at higher resolution than either the scans that were available with the previous postings or which are shown to the left.

Some random things that occurred to me while looking these over:

On The Viper's Drag:

• In the late '80s, Refraze was the place you recorded on a decent budget, as opposed to Cro-Magnon, which is where you went when you had no budget. Great records came out of both studios though. And although there were other places to record (Cybertechnics, Hidden Music), these two seemed to dominate until about 1993.
  
• Michelle Saez took the cover photo and some of the others. My intention here was to write a brief comment on her. But the more I typed, the more I started remembering, and now the brief comment is long enough to merit its own entry (which will probably go up in the next couple weeks). For now, suffice to say she was a photographer/poet/artist/etc. who was attending WSU in the late '80s. She was also a key figure in the Alternative Fashion Show fiasco of 1988.
  
• Gail tells me that Skyp Krantz, who is in the thanks list "for 'Crunchy,'" designed the little Tooba Dude logo (which I guess is named "Crunchy," although everyone I knew just called him the "Tooba Dude"). Skyp also used to work the door at Canal Street Tavern and played drums in THE JITTERS and HANG'N PRIDE (I'll be sharing some HANG'N PRIDE soon).
  
• Gary "Beatbox" King apparently still works at Refraze and has since 1984.
  
• Note the superimposed head of Rod over the old drummer on the photo taken with the Clearwater Police.

On Plasma Boy:

• Notice how Brian thanks a lot of people on this record but conspicuously omits my other band at the time, COLAVISION? Where's the love? Hey, BRIAN! Put the fucking coffee down, pigfucker! Coffee is for closers!
  
• George Bradley later played in THE JACKALOPES and, until recently, THE STORY CHANGES.
  
• John Shough is a great engineer and musician. He recorded a couple of bands I was in during the late '90s and tons of others. You can find a good summary of his career here.
  
• I assume that the Tod Weidner who did the artwork for this is the same Tod Weidner from SHRUG, but I can't be completely certain.
  
• Psionic Graphekwerkes (which did the layout) is really the multi-talented Chris Wright: guitar player, singer, songwriter, artist, web designer, and overall creative brain. The only other credit I can find for Psionic Graphekwerkes is a layout for a 1996 SWEARING AT MOTORISTS cassette, but Chris has done various graphic and web type services for plenty of bands and clubs around Dayton over the years. In the '90s, he played with Chuck Pietrzcak in the art/math/emo rock band NOSTROMO (from whom I'll be sharing something in the future). Later, he was in THE WEIRD NOW. He's still playing and doing stuff around Dayton, but I'm not sure what his current band is.
  

On Essential U-Dog Poop:

• For obvious reasons, I didn't rip the other side of this cassette.
  
• Ben's handwriting sucks.
  
• Do you have any idea what those arrows are supposed to mean?

Thanks to Gail for loaning me the SOURBELLY vinyl and Grog for the U-DOGS cassette.

These downloads are now located with the records that the graphics come from.

take care

---Jones

SOURBELLY, Plasma Boy 7"/cassette (1995)

Since Angelle commented on "Half," I figured I'd post the rest of Sourbelly's best recording. Plasma Boy is a 4-song EP released on vinyl and cassette in 1995 (the rip here is from the cassette). Although Sourbelly went through a number of lineup changes over the years, singer/guitarist/songwriter Brian Hogarth was always there. When Plasma Boy was released, Sourbelly was...

Brian Hogarth - guitar, voice
George Bradley - bass
Mike Chase - drums

This one is pretty straightforward Ramones-style pop punk -- melodic, catchy, loud. A popular style at the time, even more so today -- and Sourbelly did it better than most.

Track listing:

1. Half
2. Untitled
3. Victim
4. Freak

Download it! (10 MB) (link re-upped on 2-1-2013)

take care

---Jones