The Ochrana - demo / live@CBGB

Another ol' NY band requested from a friend... The Ochrana was formed in '87, by drummer David Patti (after The Naked & the Dead and The Children's Zoo) and vocalist Guy Richards Smit (Addictive Manifesto). They usually played with Of a Mesh.
Their sound is dark and bleak and danceable. The material here consists of four demos recorded in Oct 23 '87, with "Empty" added in summer '88. The rest are live material from CBGB (and one from Tramps).
Smit now does performance art, video art, and painting, as well as performs as a member of Maxi Geil! & Playcolt.

1. "Empty"
2. "Turnabout"
3. "Eastern Bloc Baby"
4. "Angalique" (sorry for odd cutoff at the end, if I find a way to fix it I will...)
5. "Why"
6. "Streams of Reality" (live at Tramps, Feb '88)
7. "Child of Anger" (live at CBGB, Apr '88)
8. "Turnabout" (live at CBGB, Apr '88)
9. "Trust This" (live at CBGB, Apr '88)
10. "Streams of Reality" (live at CBGB, July '88)
11. "Kill Party" (live at CBGB, July '88)
12. "Empty" (live at CBGB, July '88)
13. "Channel" (live at CBGB, July '88)
14. "Change Your Ways" (live at CBGB, July '88)
15. "Deviation" (live at CBGB, July '88)
16. "Angalique" (live at CBGB, July '88)
17. "Sun on My Face" (live at CBGB, July '88)
18. "Singularity" (live at CBGB, July '88)

Yaaaaaaay, enjoy

Soundclick (source): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=130207
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theochrana

Bitter Grace - ...God and the Abyss

Bitter Grace is an '85-born Manhattan goth band. Due to constant line-up changes, the band wasn't really able to release this album until 1997, and it wouldn't be another 7 years until they released their second album in '06, Shimmer (which I hear added more EBM/electronic dance-components to their overall goth sound; haven't listened to it myself yet).
Anyway, I can't help but slightly compare 'em to the Sisters of Mercy (on some songs) with a singer that sometimes sounds a tad like Peter Murphy, but that's just me. Pretty fun stuff overall, very catchy at times! "Ashes in the Rain" and "Precious" are my two personal favorites.

1. "Beneath the Ocean Black"
2. "Special One"
3. "Sane"
4. "Nothing Here"
5. "Ashes in the Rain"
6. "Precious"
7. "The Very Last Goodbye"
8. "God and the Abyss"
9. "Fever"
10. "Burning Kisses"
11. "Requiem"

8-) <--- look, it's Andy Eldritch, hee

Official: http://www.bittergrace.net/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bittergrace

The Children's Zoo - demo / live@CBGB

(Sorry this month's been slooow)
Here's another one NY goth band that I dug up from Soundclick.

The Children's Zoo were born in 1986 and broke up in mid '87 for reasons unclear. They were apparently quite interrelated to other NYC goth bands, with members from and/or later forming other groups (The Naked & the Dead, The Ochrana, 99 Stellavista, and others). Bassist Christopher Bollman reformed The Naked and the Dead in 2002, and now plays in Bell Hollow.
The band went through a couple drummers in their early stages before settling down on a drum machine. I'd say their sound is overall bleak and somewhat dreamy (thanks mostly to Bollman's love of chorus/flange, heehee). They recorded some demos around the first half of '87, I think that's what these first six songs are (the rest are some excellent live material).

1. "Trap Door"
2. "Gojira Rising"
3. "The Stick Figure"
4. "Back of the Boat"
5. "Making the Rounds"
6. "Trap Door (version 2)"
7. "Intro" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
8. "The Ultimate City" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
9. "Coin Tambourine" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
10. "Scarecrow Waltz" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
11. "Vacant Lot" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
12. "A Residential Delivery" (live at CBGB, Jan '87)
13. "Stained Glass Color" (live at Lismar, Apr '87)
14. untitled 1 (rehearsal July '87)
15. untitled 2 (rehearsal July '87)

Sweeetness here

Soundclick (source): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=129994
Myspace: www.myspace.com/thechildrenszoonyc

Scarecrow - demo / live@CBGB

A buddy of mine requested some old New York bands some time ago and I went searching like a madman for them. I found a couple of his requests at Soundclick (someone there has a lot of access to these gems!).
I had to download all the songs individually, you can too if you want to (check links in this post). I'm just making it easier for you guys by compiling it myself. ;) Some links there were broken so erm, I just got it from their Myspace instead when I could, but it's lower quality, sorry!

So, among those, I'm starting with Scarecrow, a kinda Siouxsie-ish goth band born in late '83. They were apparently very influential to the NY goth scene in their day. According to their Myspace, they had a 3 song demo (the same first three tracks here; but you can hear more demo/studio songs there). My personal favorite is "Mother's Crawling", I just find it a twistedly dark song! The remaining huge portion of it is the band playing live at Manhattan's CBGB venue (the venue famous for all those punk bands and such), in January and March '84.

1. "Mother's Crawling"
2. "Blood in My Dreams"
3. "Concrete is My Pillow"
4. "Blood in My Dreams" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
5. "Laughing Effigy" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
6. "Pan Bang" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
7. "Down in Flames" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
8. "Mother's Crawling" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
9. "Anteroom" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
10. "Concrete is My Pillow" (live at CBGB, Jan '84)
11. "Temple" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
12. "Blood in My Dreams" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
13. untitled (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
14. "Anteroom" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
15. "Water's Edge" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
16. "Laughing Effigy" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
17. "Mother's Crawling" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)
18. "Concrete is Your Pillow" (live at CBGB, Mar '84)

Here it is!

Soundclick (source): http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=130196
Myspace: www.myspace.com/scarecrownyc84

Red Wedding - Up and Down the Aisle

First post for the new year! =D
Red Wedding was an openly gay (save for a few members) Los Angeles post-punk band. They only had two EPs as far as I know; this one in '82 and Nails in '84. The band has played among many other acts, including Killing Joke, Specimen, Gun Club, 45 Grave, Romeo Void, and more.
Vocalist Michael and guitarist Spyder still make music as Michael & Spyder, now as a more ambient music duo ( official site | Myspace ).
Anyway, this is a really awesome EP with a fast, pulsating sound that gives it a deathrock edge, and I also really enjoy the lyrics throughout. Highly recommended!

1. "Drums"
2. "Marsha in Pictures"
3. "Sleeping on the Airplane"
4. "All (Dressed Up)"
5. "Think About It"

Check it out! =D
(images from Google & eBay finds)

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/originalredwedding

Life in General / X-15 - s/t (Life in General)

Seattle post-punk band. Originally went by the name X-15, then they changed their name to Life in General (which they made this release by), then I think they went back to X-15 after another band came aboard with the Life in General moniker. They've opened for The Clash, PiL, Lene Lovich, Missing Persons, and more.

Phoenix Hairpins also has a copy, I'm sure of better quality too. But hey, I didn't wanna have ripped it for no reason, so here it is anyway! =P

1. "Respite Lost"
2. "The Fog"
3. "That's Life"
4. "Affliction"
5. "One Way"

Clickies
(images from web and eBay finds)

Official Site: http://www.webspawner.com/users/x15lig/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/x15
CD Baby (w/ bio): http://cdbaby.com/cd/x15

God's Acre - Ten Gospel Greats

So every once in a lil' awhile, I'll have something that doesn't belong in this predominantly post-punkz blog. Mostly because I have it here and don't really see it anywhere else and someone out there might wanna check it out.

Starting with this Chicago grunge band! God's Acre was signed to Wax Trax! Records, who are most famous for their post-industrial releases (Front 242, KMFDM, Laibach, Revolting Cocks, etc), so this is a curious surprise in their line-up. ...Also probably why it was misplaced into the gawf/industrial section of my college radio station where I discovered it *cough.

This 1990 album is just about pure grunge though. The singer's voice reminds me of Kurt Cobain even, and they opened for Nirvana once.

1. "Wood"

2. "Killingtime"

3. "Hot Mama"

4. "12 Stories Face First"

5. "Hippie Trilogy"

6. Untitled

7. "2 = No One Else"

8. "Riff'O'Rhama"

9. "7 Things to Do on Speed"

10. "Want"

11. Untitled

12. "Bummin #2"

13. "Mississippi Queen"

Try it here

Myspace: www.myspace.com/godsacrechicago