Slew 09 The Show // The Pics The whole East Bay pop-punk explosion had it’s beginnings while I was dealing with high school in Appleton, Wisconsin during the late 80’s and early 90’s. At The Record Exchange, a used record shop that no longer exists, I saw records by Sewer Trout and Isocracy that looked cool and had funny song titles. I bought ‘em both and really liked the Sewer Trout record. It was on a small label called Lookout Records and I started noticing adds in MRR and Flipside for Lookout Bands. Then I saw The Mr. T Experience play in Green Bay. It seemed like every month or so some other kick ass record would come out on Lookout. The Operation Ivy LP Energy is a damn near perfect album. There was a poppier sound on these records that I hadn’t heard before since I was listening to Septic Death and DRI way more than The Descendents. It ended up being the perfect soundtrack for suffering through high school and college. What happened later after Green Day got signed and Rancid got huge sorta got me out of the whole East Bay thing but I look back at the music put out from 1988-1992 with fondness. We hope you enjoy it. - Mike D. 1. Operation Ivy: Soundsystem - Energy LP (Lookout Records, Lookout 10, 1989) As I just said, this album is perfect. I had it on tape and I would play that shit on my walkman over and over again whenever I’d go on roadtrips with my family. As I type this I distinctly remember sitting on a beach at a lake in northern Wisconsin listening to Energy. All day I’d listen to my tape of it while reading the Stephen King’s first Dark Tower book. Everyone I knew went apeshit for this record and like Green Day’s - 39 Smooth, it seemed to be in almost everybody’s tape deck for like half a year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_%28band%29 2. Cringer : Retrograde - Time For A Little Something 7” (Vinyl Communications, VC-23, 1991) I love the shit out of Cringer and miss the shit out of Lance Hahn. Not because I knew him or anything, it was just good knowing he was out there somewhere making music. Now that he’s passed away it’s one less truly good person in the world and that’s a little sad. No worries, I’ll just play some Cringer and it will all be fine. I mean...they put Winnie The Pooh and The Peanuts on their records for chrissakes. How could anyone be in a bad mood when they listen to Cringer. http://www.cringer.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cringer_%28band%29 3.Mr. T. Experience: I Love You, But You’re Standing On My Foot - Milk Milk Lemonade LP (Lookout! Records, Lookout 49, 1992) I would love it if I still had the t-shirt I got at the Mr T. Experience show when they came through Green Bay. It was black and white and I thought I was cool cuz the Mr T. Experience were more of an obscure band and everyone else had Black Flag and Circle Jerks shirts. I bought it while they were on the Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood tour and I got the record of the same name at the show too. After that record I bought everything they put out for quite some time until John Von left the band and started the Rip Offs. I don’t know why I stopped listening or paying attention, but I know everything up to and through their Love Is Dead LP is essential pop-punk greatness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mr._T_Experience 4. The Wrong: Drunk With You - Ethyl Merman Jism Spoon LP (Flux Records, FLX 1.2, 1989) There isn’t a whole lot of information I could find about this band and I don’t think I ever really knew much about them. The Wrong had songs on a couple of old East Bay comps and my friend who worked at the Record Exchange told me to buy this. I don’t think I’ve played it in over 10 years. http://comrademotopu.com/WrongBiopage.htm http://www.apemandesign.com/wrong/mp3.html 5. Sweet Baby: Resuscitation - It’s A Girl! LP (Ruby Records, 1-25822, 1989) I love this record. Nothing but songs about girls. Sweet Baby used to be Sweet Baby Jesus and i think Very Small Records put out one record with Sweet Baby of the Jesus