Allright, first of all, welcome to my blog! I've decided to name it `Records from The Vault` since my intention is to post links to records that are either out of print and that you can't find anywhere, weird stuff, and records that made a big difference in my life etc... I will mainly post punk and metal records since these musical forms are my main interest, but you will also be able to find, as mentioned earlier, weird stuff that I judge mandatory for you to download and listen to... Since I'm a pretty busy guy, I won't post a hundred records a month since I have to take the songs from various vinyls, tapes, and CDs and put them in mp3 files. I'm almost sure that a lot of records that I intend to post in the future are already available somewhere else on another blog. I know that it would be easier to link that file and so on... but I think the fun of a blog is to do it all by yourself. Yeah, I strongly believe in the Do-it-yourself ethic and that's probably why I'm still listening to punk after all these years... Anyway, hope you'll enjoy my posts and feel free to leave comments!
My first post is a record that I've been trying to find for a long time. Last winter, as I was looking on eBay and getting bored coz I couldn't find anything that I like for a reasonable price (there's no way I'm gonna pay like 50$ and over for a record even if it's rare... I mean, it's only punkrock right?), I almost uncounciously typed `General Fools` and... There it was! The infamous split 7" with the mighty `Shitfit` and for like 5$! I double checked the shipping price and it was like 5 or 6$. As my life was suddenly becoming exciting again, I clicked on the `Buy It Now` button and it was mine! I received it a week later and when I finally listened to it... I felt shivers down my spine. It shows that when your patient, you can find cool records on eBay for reasonable prices. But now you may be asking yourself: `What the fuck are these bands? General Fools and Shitfit? Are they supposed to be cult bands or what?`
Well the answer to these questions is yes and no. You won't find references to these bands in the punk Hall-of-fame (if there is one, huh?), But if you lived in Sherbrooke, Drummondville or Montreal in the province of Québec during the early 90's and you were part of the small but prolific hardcore-punk scene (also known as the `Crust` scene), these bands are probably cult to you or at least bring back some good memories of cheap beer, mescaline, and smelly armpits!
These bands were at te forefront of that scene along with the likes of `Global Holocaust`, `Self-Control`, `Néophobie`, `Human Greed`, `Immoral Squad`, `Flokons Givrés` and so on... All these bands were different in what they were doing, but they were all part of that small scene. However, some of these bands went further than others, and it's the case for `General Fools` and `Shitfit`. The two bands played Toronto and also went on a tour together across Canada where they played a lot of gigs and got fucked up. Unfortunately, the two bands broke up around `94 so I never got the chance to see them play live. Since I was born in 1982, I was only 10 years old when these bands were living and playing Sherbrooke (my hometown).
However, when I was like 12, my friend's brother (who was 3 years older than us) grew his hair, started smoking, started wearing combat boots, army pants, a bomber jacket and got really interested in all sorts of knives. I was like `Wow, this guy is turning way too bad!`. His bedroom door was always closed and he never wanted anyone to go in his bedroom. So one day, as soon as he was out (probably at a damn good show downtown), we sneaked into his bedroom just to have a look. This is just human nature I guess. If someone forbids you to do something or to go somewhere, you have to go there! I was really overwhelmed by the place. It was kinda dark and small and there was a Québec flag on the wall with a `Dead Kennedys` symbol in the middle of the flag done with black electric tape. There were knives like everywhere, cigarettes and something that would change my life forever... a `Dead Kennedys` CD (Give me Convenience or Give me Death). We listened to the first track `Police Truck`over and over again and I was like - `Fuck! This is sooo good!`. Then we opened his drawer and found a handful of dubbed tapes. There was one from 'Les Stooles' (Massacrés), a rocknroll punk band from Sherbrooke that used a beat-box. There was also a `B.A.R.F.` tape with their infamous cover of Damnation's `Le P`tit Poisson`. This song fucking blew me away! But what really changed my life at that moment was the tape from a radio show hosted in Sherbrooke featuring an interview with Les Stooles. These guys were goofing around and seemed like total losers and fuck-ups... I fucking loved it! Funny thing is that I met the guy hosting the show a couple of years later and still talk to him once in a while. He was part of that 60's style garage band called Les Machabbées which I'll probably post one day. Anyway, I started listening to that radio show every week from then (it turned out to be years, and it turned out to be me hosting a punk show a couple of years later) and heard for the first time General Fools and Shitfit. General Fools strucked me because of its weird sound structures and I somewhat loved the name. Shitfit was different, more violent, and the vocals of Max of Tomorrow are totally unforgetable and funny (but still amazingly good). A couple of years later I found a copy of General Fools first and only full-lenght still wrapped. I also got a tape copy of the Shitfit side from their split with Human Greed. Anyway, with the years I managed to get all their records on vinyl (both bands never made CDs) and for me, they are true classics of my youth and punk in general.
Funny fact, is that I met this strange looking guy 2 months ago at a party...it turned out to be General Fools bassist. I asked him some questions concerning the myths and legends surrounding that band like that the signer (a girl) was drinking 40 oz. bottles of alcohol on the stage... he told me it was not true... But he assured me that he can't even remember some parts of the tour they did with Shitfit. He barely remembers when they were playing... Alcohol, oh Alcohol, I want you in my brain (G.B.H.).
The whole thing was recorded in Ottawa in July 92 and mixed in Montreal in February 93 and released by Poussin Records. The record was 4$ at the time and it was possible to get 10 copies for 25$ Cheap! I don't know how many copies were pressed but it's written on the sticker of the Shitfit side... REPRODUCE AT WILL....you know what you have to do!
Hope you'll enjoy this piece of wax! Here's the link:
Download or Die!