Thursday, September 22, 2011

Solid Attitude

Solid Attitude is a garage punk band from Iowa City. Starting in early 2010 as a side project to the band Viking Fuck, the band now consists of Matt Fenner on guitar, Mickey Shaw on vocals, Walker Neudorff on drums, and Brendan Wells on bass. As far as the band's influences ago, bands that stand out to me would have to be Black Flag and the Stooges and I'm sure some garage bands that I don't know that names of.



Solid Attitude originally formed as an alternative to Matt, Mickey, and Walker's synthpunk band Viking Fuck as a way to alleviate stress from that band's frequent show schedule. Matt dropped the keyboard and picked up the guitar, Walker added a floor tom to his stand up drumming style, and Mickey, well, still does vocals but with more of a strapping approach. A set consisting of 3 punk rippers was written and the trio started playing shows, completely frantic right off the bat: their first show was played with Yuppies at Public Space One in Iowa City and involved a 5 minute set ending in couch cushions being thrown at the crowd.



Soon enough, after playing a few shows and warming up to the new sound, Brendan Wells, of the band These Needles and NERV, was added to the band as the bass player after he approached the band about the idea. After playing some shows with this freak on bass (including opening for Skeletonwitch... god, I miss the Warehouse), Kyle from the band Cacaw (among many, many others) from Chicago asked the band to record an EP to be put out on cassette on his label, Rotted Tooth Recordings. Six tracks were recorded at the Viking Fuck House onto 4 track by Mickey, and Kyle liked the CDr so much he decided to put the songs out on 7" titled Prison Water. All the art was done and screen printed by Mister City Press.



1. Ghost Worthy
2. SMA (Solid Mental Attitude)
3. Constant Garbage / Totally Droll
4. Squirrel Trap
5. TV Life
6. Prison Water

Click to download.


A great 7" right here, nasty fuzzy guitar solos, gritted teeth bass, with chunks of noisey feedback throw in for good measure; this is just a good solid slice of current Midwest garage punk. The release show for Prison Water was in Chicago (where Rotted Tooth Recordings is based from) and was the first show of a 2 week long midwest tour for the band in late 2010. I'm pretty sure the band got stuck in a snow storm in Indiana for 3 days, if I remember correctly. Bummer dudes.



ANYWAY, they get back to town safely and start writing more songs and playing more local shows with the likes of Chicago's White Mystery and Detroit's Tyvek among many, many others. This is the time period, to me at least, where Solid Attitude totally buckled down and refined their berserk live performance. The performance itself became a lot tighter and a lot more aggro as far as Mickey's conduct goes. Often times they would close shows at The Birdcage, Mickey and Matt's house venue, and people would go bonkers, much to the bands dismay (lighten up, guys... but I guess moshing resulting in holes punched in the ceiling and beer and broken glass everywhere sorta sucks). They've been on their shit ever since.






Spring of 2011 rolled by and Summer was coming up, so the band began to plan a tour out east, down the coast, then back west through the southern states with their pals in the Omaha band Yuppies. At this time, the band was planning to release a tape on the Iowa City label Night People, but they ran out of time doing that, so they opted instead for a self released split tape called This Bogus Earth with Yuppies. What's cool about the recording of this tape is a majority of the vocals are recorded as a live stream of consciousness, but you may not know that just by listening to them.


(Thanks Jason Salek for the scan)

Solid Attitude side:
1. Shit Business
2. What Does Pussy Feel Like?
3. Shopping Mall
4. Bastard
5. Punk Beer
6. Get in the Trunk
7. No Comply

Yuppies side:
1. Banana Now
2. Getting Out
3. Sensations
4. What's That / Easy Night

Click to download.



The punk parts are a bit more freaked-out, the chill parts are a bit chiller, and it's all around a lot more rawer than the 7". This Bogus Earth, I dig it. This tape came out at the tour kickoff show at The Birdcage. I think there was some Australian band playing the show too, but I don't recall the name. They were garagy and drunk, and that's about the extent of what I remember about them. Whoops! Either way, the tour was 3 weeks long and I'm sure it went well and they had a ton of fun.

Okay, download the tunes, listen to the tunes, this shit is good. Solid Attitude is practicing in my basement right now as I type this, trying some new songs out for a Night People tape that is actually going to happen this time I hope. They're sounding good, and if you want proof for yourself, go check out a show.



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UPDATE
04/11/2012

Solid Attitude has been a pretty god damn active band, playing shows and going on tours whenever possible. At the end of last year the band headed north from their home in Iowa City to Cedar Rapids (what a long trek) to record all of the new songs they had been working on with a guy that plays in the Wheelers if that means anything to you. His name slips my mind. Sorry. The tracks they recorded were put to tape and released on Brendan Records with artwork done by me.



1. 3D
2. Part 1
3. Part 2
4. PCP
5. Slow Surf
6. Solid Ettiquette
7. Punk Beer
8. 2nd Newest
9. 3rd Newest
10. Volume
11. Newest

Click to download.



How punk. Obviously the names of these songs area all just placeholders and I'm sure they'll have them all truly named by the time Rotted Tooth Records re-releases these songs onto 12" in time for a tour the band is planning to the west coast this coming July and August.

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UPDATE
1/21/2013

So, Solid Attitude's LP on Rotted Tooth came out on schedule and they went on tour to promote it.  Even though Maximum Rocknroll bagged the final artwork for the record as "shitgaze bullshit" (or something similar, stay in California forever and get mugged by a junkie in Oakland please), the art done by Justin Thye of Goldendust and Wet Hair is actually fantastic and it was definitely my favorite record cover art from last year.  The record itself, finally ending up being called BB Gun Picnic, is one of my favorites of last year, too.  Noisy and very, very catchy frantic punk rock with the stream of consciousness vocal thoughts of a mad man on top of it all.  It's poppy, but it's not pop punk.  Slight hints of snotty hardcore pokes it head through every so often.  It rules.  The last track, Smoking Sheets, is the best ender for a record I've heard in awhile.  Oh yeah, let's get this straightened out once in for all: this record was recorded by Tucker Burns at his studio in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Buy the LP from Rotted Tooth!


1. Black Wall
2. Shit Business Pt 1
3. Shit Business Pt 2
4. (Cool) With Me
5. Black Pocket
6. Solid Ettiquette
7. Punk Beer
8. Can't Chill Out
9. Disco Nap
10. Volume
11. Smoking Sheets

Click to download.


Solid Attitude has a few records planned for the future, with a 7" on Sweet Rot out next month.  It's gonna be good.  The band is planning a two week east coast tour in April, so be on the lookout for that.


 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Big Box

Big Box is a grungy punk band from Iowa City. The band consists of A. Havlin on drums, G. Jackson on bass, A. Luksetich on guitar, and C. Samek saying shit into the mic. Each and every one of them is and has been in other bands in the Iowa City area that you should probably check out (The Tanks, Supersonic Piss, etc.), but that's not why we are gathered here today.




If I remember correctly, Big Box formed later in the Spring of or early in the Summer of 2010. When exactly it was really doesn't matter. What does matter is the crunchy, fuzzy and fucked tunes this band makes with a completely depraved vocals over it all. There's definitely an early Nirvana (and other Pacific Northwest bands) meets Black Flag vibe going on, with hints of black metal in the riffage. It's nasty, that's for sure, so you know G.G. is a big influence.

After playing through the Summer and into the Fall and developing their mean live set, the band procured the help of David Earl to help them record their self titled demo. In November of 2010, the band recorded 5 licentious tracks in the Hall Mall of downtown Iowa City and released them on tape on Sunday, January 23 at the Blue Moose Tap House with Aseethe and Enabler. All art created by Donnie Bandy.



Side A
1. Intro
2. Jerk Dreams
3. When It's Easy

Side B
1. Brat Mouth
2. Fuck To Me
5. $5 Gummy Bear

Click to download.


I'm sure Big Box has plans to play more shows and play more around the Midwest when the time comes, that time probably being this coming Summer. I mean, I'm not a mind reader or anything though, so don't take my word for it. If you're able to catch a show, do so, and make sure you headbang. Watch out for C. Samek's steel-toed boots, however.



If you wanted a physical copy of the tape, get in contact with A. Luksetich by emailing him at adamluksetich@gmail.com. There's only 100 copies, so if you wanted one, I'd pick up the pace. In the meantime, download and play air guitar when no one is looking.



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UPDATE
04/11/2012

Big Box has gone through quite a change. Adam Havlin left the band and yours truly, Joe Milik, took up the responsibility of playing drums. The first show with this new line-up was day two of the Firecrack 500 Festival at the Blue Moose in Iowa City in July of 2011. After playing a few more shows like this, I think maybe just two including one at 109 N. Dodge with god knows who, Andy Buch was added on second guitar. The addition of a second guitar player allowed for a much fuller sound as well as some pretty sick guitar soloing between the two guitars. It's sick, trust me, I have first hand experience.



We played some shows with this lineup, a memorably moshy one being with Night People's Lantern at the Breast Imagining Center, and wrote a ton of new songs that we went in to Flat Black Studios in January 2012 to record. The songs on this recording came out sounding a lot fuller and a lot harder than the demo, but of course it would with Mr. Luke Tweedy working his studio magic. Outside of a small internet release (or whatever you want to call it), this recording remains "unreleased", but I'm sure you're gonna see it on wax sometime in the near future. Thanks to Donnie Bandy, again, for the amazing art.



1. Disease Is Crawling
2. Cut Up
3. When It's Easy
4. Burn Victim
5. Eat Something
6. Camera Shy
7. Like Another Drink
8. Brat Mouth
9. $5 Gummy Bear
10. Stagger On, Leashed

Click to download.

Any big time $$$ label$$$ should get in contact about releasing this on waxx. adamluksetich AT gmail DOT com or eatapes AT gmail DOT com. Since this recording session, however, Andy moved back to Des Moines. Currently Big Box is working out who is going to play guitar in his place and working on playing some out of town shows in the near future. Deal.

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 UPDATE
1/21/2013

The "unreleased" Big Box LP finally came out on wax thanks to Radio Is Down records out of Olympia, Washington.  After multiple long and drawn out sessions where we tried to come up with a name for the record including "Fucked At The Dump", we finally settled on Die Now.  I'm really stoked on how it came out.  It's a perverted, dirty sounding record.  Music you should listen to while applying corpse paint then rubbing your face in the dirt covering a filthy basement floor.  It's tough, full of stompers and a few rippers, and I would mosh to this live if I wasn't in the band.  Donnie Bandy is responsible for the cover art and Joe Milik, me, did the art for the back cover.  You can pick it up from us at a show or from the label!


1. Disease Is Crawling
2. Cut Up
3. When It's Easy
4. Burn Victim
5. Eat Something
6. Camera Shy
7. Like Another Drink
8. Brat Mouth
9. $5 Gummy Bear
10. Stagger On, Leashed

Click to download.


We went on a two week midwest and top of the south tour in October in support of this LP.  Recently we have been writing new songs alongside playing local shows and may soon be releasing a tape on Hurts To Hear, although nothing is solid at this point in time.