THE KABINBOY UPDATED

The Kabinboy from Ireland were an instrumental band who existed from 1998 -2001 and were oft compared to the likes of Neurosis but i don't see that comparison at all and I'm a huge fan of Neurosis and anything like them, though i wouldn't be surprised to see them playing on the same bill, I can't really describe them as, being damn heavy and instrumental there's not much to compare them to and they have a fairly unique sound, I do feel they have a slightly Stoner/Sludge type vibe to them but that again is not 100% accurate and selling them short. 

They released 2 x 7"'s, 2 x split 7"s,a split CD and a 10" and that was them done & gone and due to the fact that most of their records or songs did not have any titles and were instrumental and the fact they were quite short lived and obscure it's almost impossible to find any info on the net about them..... unless you happen to be a trainspotter like me! I discovered these looooong after they were split up tho I was aware of them at the time they were around in the late 90's but back then there was no internet access like there is now so if you couldn't find it on a distro list or get to a gig then you were screwed plus they were quite popular on the underground at the time so it was impossible to get your hand on the records! 

Anyway with much searching and a bit of buying i managed to round up of their tracks from downloads, vinyl rips and a rip of their awesome split CD with John Holmes (Another GREAT UK hardcore band that split up) This kinda thing is what this blog is all about putting things up that are obscure and rare and took me days and hours of surfing to find and/or buy so that you can have them with the click of a mouse! You could call Kabinboy hardcore or metal or whatever you like but they are one of those rare bands that really can't be pigeonholed. All i know is they created a big buzz when they were going and i can assure you it's well deserved.

About this file it contains everything they released, Here's your tracklist...


1 & 2 - Untitled 1st 7" 1998

3,4 & 5 - Untitled 10" EP 1999

6 - Split 7" W/ The Large Mound 2000

7 - Split 7" W - Redneck Manifesto 2001

8 & 9 - "The Hated & Debated" 7" 2000

10,11,12 & 13 - Split LP/CD W/ John Holmes 2001

14 - 2 Live tracks recorded 27/2/98 From "Alive In Ireland" Compilation CD 1998

 They are taken from my own vinyl rips a couple of downloads i found online a 320kbps rip of the split with John Holmes a youtube video that i ripped mp3 from and 1 track I managed to buy a download of from amazon of all places! anyway I put it all together ran them through an equalizer to clean up the sound as best i could then made a CD and ripped it back onto the computer so this file is all at 320 kbps. All the tracks are tagged "Untitled" (cos they are) but I've put in brackets after each track what release it comes from etc some of the tracks aren't sparkling quality but that's the joy of vinyl i guess? But this collection is a million miles from unlistenable i assure you! Not being too conceited here but from my what my research tells me this is the the only place  you'll get a full and decent quality discography of this great band anywhere on the net trust me I tried before putting all the work in to make one myself and I want to keep great music like this around for other people to discover with ease as it seems a real shame to me that a band with great songs and an original style that lasted such a short time but left such a brilliant set of music should be consigned to the dusty basement of music history. If someone from the Kabinboy reads this post if you have the masters of all this stuff you should put together a discography of decent quality and put it on bandcamp or something I am sure I can't be the only person who would want to see this great music released in decent quality! But in the meantime here's my version ENJOY....

The Kabinboy Discography - Mediafire

BACK FROM THE GRAVE VOL 1- 10

So where to begin, I know very little about this series I basically stumbled across the recently released Vol 9 & 10 of this series whilst looking for other stuff on a new albums download website on the cover of the album it had the tagline "RAW BLASTING  MID 60's PUNK" on the cover and my curiosity was piqued and i thought why the hell not. I am a fan of 60's Garage and Rock 'N' Roll type stuff when it's done well. So whilst i waited on my download i discovered that "Back From The Grave" is a project of Crypt Records home of the greatest Garage Rock that exists and responsible for unleashing such titans as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Oblivians on the world so my hopes were high! (look for BIG posts on both these bands soon as I had completely forgotten how great JSBX & Oblivians are)  I also discovered that Vol 9 & 10 were a sort of re-launch of the series the last release had been Vol 8 having been released back in 1992. So download completed let's see what it was all about I hit play and was i disappointed? HELL NO! Whilst the tag line of "RAW BLASTING  MID 60's PUNK" may have been a bit overblown it has to be said there are some utterly great tunes of 60's Garage Rock 'N' Roll on there.

So before I say anymore let me tell you a bit about what I've posted here.... So Obviously when I discovered i really liked these Vol 9 & 10 comps I decided to do a bit of research into Vol's 1 - 8 so from what i can gather it was a vinyl series started by Crypt in 1984 however in 1994 they decided to reissue Vol's 1 -8 on CD but due to their being more space on CD than a 12" vinyl they mixed the comps together some tracks were omitted etc and to me it sounded like an unholy mess!!! But after i looked them up and went looking for downloads I found that the absolutely brilliant Surfadelic blog (Check them out HERE this guy knows his stuff and definitely lives for this music! he has presented a veritable library of lost & rare 60's surf and garage music tell them Dave at Under The Surface sent you) and he had posted Vol's 1 - 8 ripped from original vinyls! JOYYYYY!!!! So i downloaded those and I then had the whole set however much as i am/was grateful for that post after extracting them i discovered that 1 : they were at 128 kbps 2: they were completely untagged other than the file itself having the name of the band and track that was it!!!! So i had 8 albums 2 of which were doubles 164 tracks with no tags, titles,numbers nothing!! so i spent the best part of 6 HOURS(!!!!) ordering, Tagging , finding covers etc etc and now I present them to you here....

So I can't claim to know anything about any of the bands on here I have no idea who they are where the music was sourced from or anything all i know is there are some great band names and some great music on here I was going to try and describe it to you but I'm at a loss for descriptive terms or reference points here but I described it to a friend thus...

"y'know how there's some great 60's bands that have those 1 or 2 rocking gems in their back catalogue? well imagine if there was a whole series of albums where EVERY song is one of those gems"

 there's some great fuzzed out guitars snotty vocals crazy subject matter and some bands are as fuzzily heavy as some of the "Rock" that would come along at the tail end of the 60's/Early 70's however without the macho posturing and histrionics. Best reference i can give you is if you have heard the awesome "Nuggets" compilation well take that as a reference point and dig deeper for the rawer, sloppier garage end of things and there you have it the "Back From The Grave" series here's an excerpt from wikipedia...

"Unlike many garage rock compilations, the Back From The Grave series focuses exclusively on the rawer and more aggressive side of the genre. Psychedelic rock is categorically excluded. The series also includes very few pop or folk oriented songs. As a result, the albums are primarily populated by louder songs that are characterized by fuzztone guitars, rough vocals, and are clearly influenced by groups such as Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, the early Kinks, and the Pretty Things. The lyrics and performances tended to focus on anger, lust, and cheating girlfriends, matching the often chaotic music. According to the liner notes, the songs were recorded by American groups, between 1964 and 1967"

However do not expect all of these bands to tear out of the gate like The Stooges on steroids, whilst some of them do a lot of this is fairly melodic 60's rock and a product of the more known bands of the time influencing them. I heard multiple "rip offs" of more famous 60's standards in among the more original pieces So there you go if you are a sucker for that 60's recording and instrument sound that many bands try to emulate and fail to and you just can't get enough of it then shit here is just shy of 200 tracks of primo garage rock that is just completely addictive as it is completely great!

So as I said Vol's 1 - 8 are taken from vinyl whilst the crackle and pop of the vinyl is not really audible whilst listening on a stereo i did notice it just slightly more when listening to it on my mp3 player however considering these are literally unheard of 60's bands and i have no idea how they were found/sourced i personally think it adds to the charm of these great songs also do NOT be put off that Vol 1 - 8 are from vinyl and are only 128 kbps because believe me they are terrific quality as if they had been trashy in any way i would not have posted them. Vol 1 - 6 are single albums Vol 7 & 8 are double albums. Vol 9 & 10 are single albums and are taken from CD at a tasty 320kbps.

Before I go i cannot stress enough how great it is that Crypt Records managed to unearth such a vast library of unheard gems as there are very few repeats of bands through the series so where they found this stuff or even that they knew it existed is a testament to the conviction of music fans who just really wanted to share music they love with the world,that being the primary reason I do this blog. So that being said and in that spirit here I am sharing it with you just utterly BRILLIANT stuff, thoroughly enjoyable and just great FUN! Enjoy....

Vol 1 - Mediafire

Vol 2 - Mediafire

Vol 3 - Mediafire

Vol 4 - Mediafire

Vol 5 - Mediafire

Vol 6 - Mediafire

Vol 7 - Mediafire

Vol 8 - Mediafire

Vol 9 - Mediafire

Vol 10 - Mediafire

THE KIDS

So... I happened upon The Kids by pure chance a friend of mine on facebook posted a youtube video of one of their songs and i was curious about this Belgian punk band and i looked them up and lo and behold they were utterly brilliant!!!

As I've literally just got onto this band a few weeks ago I can't claim to have much knowledge about them at least no more than anyone else could find with a quick google search! What I can tell you is they were formed in Belgium in 1976 by Ludo Mariman and 2 brothers named De Haes the younger of which Danny on bass was only 12 when the band formed and was not even allowed into some venues to play their gigs because of this!! They released 2 albums in 1978 their debut "The Kids" and a second "Naughty Kids" They had a career beyond that had quite a few albums and singles but I have yet to investigate those and thought I'd stick to what was released during the original period of the punk explosion.

What i can tell you is these guys play some of the best frenetic fast paced garage punk I have ever heard this is every bit as good as anything released by their British peers there's no denying this is definitely punk but there are far more nods to stuff like the Stooges or The Ramones or the Buzzcocks than the more yobbish stuff however "Facist Cop" does smack of ripping it's chorus off from "E.M.I." by the Sex Pistols!!! anyway don't let the use of the word "Punk" put you off this is some great catchy and memorable stuff these guys should have been huge this is more like a high speed MC5 or something there's definitely a huge blues/rock 'n' roll influence on their music except obviously played a helluva lot faster!!!

So it took me a while to source decent downloads of their albums but i managed to snag debut "The Kids" at 320kbps but 2nd album "Naughty Kids" is only at 160kbps but is really good quality and WAY better than the vinyl rip I had before. "Naughty Kids" has a bonus track from their "No Monarchy" 7" and as a further bonus you get the "Never Mind the Pistols Here's The Kids" EP with 5 live tracks from 1978 and a bonus previously unreleased studio cut "No Work"  and that pretty much rounds up their 70's work as I say i have yet to venture beyond that however i am considering buying the 6 CD Kids "Anthology" so you can sure bet if I do I will update and expand this post! Yeah they ARE that good!

All I can say is if you like the sound of this just give em a try I normally avoid anything tagged "punk" however these guys are just utterly great and have been getting heavy rotation round here plus I feel the "garage" tag suits them much better they have more in common with bands like Radio Birdman than the Pistols or something!! It's free so if you check em out what have you lost? 2 mins to download an album 1 min to listen and decide if you like it or not? 3 mins ?? not a lot to ask when they could be your new favorite band and if you're here reading this you sure as shit know they wouldn't be here if they weren't good!!

So here you go some high energy rock'n'roll/garage/punk, think what you will but it shocks me that something this great was happening in Belgium in the 70's and I'm only hearing about it now!! GO GO GO!!!!


The Kids - Mediafire

Naughty Kids - Mediafire

Never Mind The Pistols... EP - Mediafire