Thursday, December 24, 2009

Straight Ahead collection revised



File revised on Dec. 12, 2009 for far superior sound quality on all the studio tracks. Trust me, it's worth the download.

I figured i'd finally put together a collection of all the best sounding Straight Ahead recordings i could find. First off is the entire 12 song demo. 9 of these 12 songs were released on the End the Warzone compilation 7" on One Step Ahead Records in 1986, alongside some other great bands (Larm, Pillsbury Hardcore and Attitude Adjustment). The entire demo included here sounds great and has a nice loud, full sound, and is by far my favorite material by this band. Fast and chaotic, short but memorable songs. Just perfect, no bullshit hardcore. Also included is a nice sounding rip of the classic Breakaway 12" ep released in 1987 on I Risk Records (and bootlegged countless times since), and a set recorded live at CBGB in March of '87. Of all the live sets i've heard by this band, this is my favorite. Good sound quality, great performance, and they play just about every song they ever wrote, including 3 unreleased songs, Knockdown, The More Important and Take Control. There's also a couple of songs from the NYC Mayhem days (actually, most Straight Ahead songs are just modified NYC Mayhem tracks), and Amount to Nothing is a re-working of Nothing Song. To top it off there's a cover of Agnostic Front's "Friend or Foe" with Vinny Stigma singing along on stage. Ending the collection is an interview with the band recorded live on WNYU's Crucial Chaos. Enjoy.

Straight Ahead Collection

Tommy Carroll - vocals

Craig Setari - bass
Rob Echeverria - guitar
Armand Majidi - drums

According to various sources, Tommy Carroll played drums on the Straight Ahead demo (credited as XXX), and Armand played on the Breakaway 12". I've also seen Gordon Ancis (NYC Mayhem) credited for playing guitar for Straight Ahead. Maybe the demo?

Besides NYC Mayhem, members of Straight Ahead also played in Youth of Today, Sick Of It All, Rest In Pieces and Agnostic Front. Probably many more as well.

Supposedly there is a session recorded live at Don Fury studios from 5/20/87 with the unreleased songs. For reasons i'll never understand, it seems nobody is allowed to hear it, as it's under "lock & key".

There are many other recordings of live Straight Ahead shows. The ones i know of are: CBGB 3/16/86 (first show), Albany 6/22/86 (i have 3 songs from this one, it sounds ok, but the bass is very overpowering), CBGB 7/20/86 (there's video of this show as well), CBGB 3/21/87 (possibly the set i posted although mine was labeled 3/1/87), CBGB 5/3/87 (last show). If anyone has any decent quality rips of these shows, please get in touch. I'd love to make a second collection.

27 comments:

  1. I think I got the TOKEN ENTRY WMFU set somewhere. will dig for it...

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  2. Born w/Out a Face! One of my faves, really looking forward to that, Happy Holidays Vin!

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  3. yo Vinny,you make me pretty curious now with your writing about the sound quality:))
    and i really hope you can find something from last option:))
    i know i'm early for that but happy new year

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  4. I THINK I have the Token Entry on FMU too. I'll look for it this week.

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  5. Hey Vinny, here's somethings you might want to look at for your token entry post. enjoy i hope it helps... - Ohwellmonkey
    wetlands nyc, 6/4/95
    http://www.mediafire.com/?zz2fdmv3f0j
    live reunion show
    http://www.mediafire.com/?yjzmyntqmmm
    Live on wnyu
    http://www.mediafire.com/?zmwjdrw2wmm

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  6. i think a BWaF 2xLP was supposed to come out, but i don't know if it has materialized yet. you might want to check the Punks Before Profits site...

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  7. Thanks everyone, hope you all had a good holiday.

    Anonymous, thanks for the uploads. I have both those sets, but i appreciate it.

    eastcobb, thanks for the heads-up about the Born Without A Face 2xLP, i'll look into that.

    Pabst Benedikt and William, hopefully one of you guys pull through with that WFMU set. Pat Duncan put out a cassette years back that he gave out to donaters which had various songs recorded live in the studio. One song was a ripping version of Jaybird. Ever since i heard that version of the song i've been trying to track down the set.

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  8. Just saw this on the Punks Before Profits site:

    BORN WITHOUT A FACE LP IS BEING POSTPONED. We hope we can cont. this down the rd but for now it will be postponed check back for updates on this project.

    I guess i'll hold off for a while, but hopefully this doesn't turn into an Infest or Hated fiasco. Those demos are so damn good, they're screaming to be heard.

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  9. I gotta thank you for posting all of this classic material. I own a lot of this stuff from tape trades but really bad 10th gen copies. You've done a GREAT fuckin job enhancing the quality of these recordings. THANKS!!!

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  10. Hey Stormy. Claude here. Did ya contacted Mike D about Show of Force? What about Gilligan's revenge? Or Anti Style, or Crowd Control?

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  11. awesome stuff from my youth! excellent job with this blog and thank you!

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  12. Hey Claude, i never contacted Mike about those bands. Do you have his contact?

    The Gilligan's Revenge demo is on the Old, Fast & Loud blog, although i've been told it's incomplete.

    Everyone else, thanks for the encouragement. And don't pass on that new Straight Ahead collection.

    Infest 2xCD up next. So far i cleaned up Slave, Mankind, the demo and some comp tracks, and it sounds so damn good.

    Cheers!
    Vin

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  13. Thanks brother! Great quality!

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  14. totally unrelated to this post, but i'm totally stoked on the hated stuff that was put up.

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  15. Hey! Thanks for stopping by! BIGGGG fan of your blog for a long time. MOAR!

    Nick
    Black Sun Gazette

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  16. big fan of your blog. i'm really looking forward to the born without a face stuff. i love those 7"s and have wanted to hear more ever since i heard that there were 2 more demos out there.

    btw, did you see this post in the sticks and stones entry? a remastered version of that album would be awesome! and maybe the full demo.

    jack terricloth said...

    oi- just remastered Inner Revolt incidentally while transferring the 1987 demo and "World To Be Saved . . ." . If anyone would like it without the cassette tape flange let me know- i don't think we'll ever re-release the whole thing.

    nj/hc

    cloth
    October 1, 2009 12:35 AM

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  17. Neal, thanks for pointing out that comment from Jack. I responded to it, so hopefully he gets back to me. I went to the WIFS site but can't seem to find a contact on their site. Do you happen to have an email address for him? Thanks.

    The Born Without A Face will be the next thing i work on after Infest, which is almost done finally. Should be some new posts coming soon.

    Vin

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  18. hey, vin. i saw on that website's forum that someone mentioned your request for the cleaned up album. and there's some question form called "what would jack do?" i'm not sure if someone really checks that. hopefully he'll see your post or the post on their forum.

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  19. token entry on fmu ishttp://www.mediafire.com/?ya2gbmx4jwt

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  20. Tim, thanks for that set! I can't wait to check that out tonight.

    Neal, no word yet from Jack. If anyone has an email or any other contact, please let me know. I'd love to get that remastered version of Inner Revolt on here.

    PANKERIJADA, your blog is killer.

    Vin

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  21. Tim, that's a link for the WNYU set (which i already have posted), not the WFMU set. Thanks anyway.

    Vin

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  22. Tim, that link is for the WNYU set (which i already have), not WFMU. Thanks anyway!

    Vin

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  23. I used to have a cassette of that Token Entry WFMU set...one of the BEST live sets, EVER! AMAZING soundboard quality. I wish a copy of this would turn up!

    Kevin from SF

    kevin@bendersbar.com

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  24. 3/1/87 was a Sunday so I'd go with that date over 3/21/87, which was a Saturday. Just sayin.

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  25. Respect Your Blog But Don't Compare A Noisy Shit Band Like LARM From Holland With Great NY HC Bands..... Im From There Area and that Band Sucks... Take It From Me.... Fxxxng Nisy Crap.... US HC Rules In My Country... Larm Can't Play But Make Shitty Noisy Shit!

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  26. Any chance of re-upping this??

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