Sunday, April 25, 2010

Bad Trip - 1988-1992 anthology



Great hardcore punk from Queens. This is everything the band recorded between 1988 and 1992. They released 2 more records after 1992, but the band went in a more indie rock direction with those releases, and i wanted to keep this as a document of the band's hardcore material, as well as keep it under 80 minutes. Great sound throughout. Thanks to Mike Fairley, Andy (Mortville Records), Brian Meehan, Dirty Steve and Rick Smith for helping out with music, scans and info. Enjoy.

Bad Trip: 1988-1992 anthology

Fred Muench - vocals
Marcos Siega - guitar
Luke Montgomery - guitar
Brendan White - bass
Erik Matheu - drums

Tracks 1-7: Positively Bad 7". Recorded at Don Fury Studios in January of 1989 and released the same year on Bell Bottom Records. Repressed in 1990 on Wreck-Age Records. Excellent debut. The tracks here were taken from the CD version of the Fear and Loathing LP, where they appeared as bonus tracks.

Track 8: Chop Chop comp 7". Released in July of '89 on Skene Records. Other bands on the comp were Constant Grief, Payback, Vicious Bite (formerly Under Pressure), and the great AbombAnation. 1,000 made, lyric booklet included.

Track 9: New Breed comp tape. Yet another band (that makes 15 for this blog) that was on the legendary cassette put out in 1989 by Urban Style Records aka Freddy Alva and Chaka Malik (Burn). Of the 3 different recordings of this track in this collection, this is by far my favorite.

Tracks 10-11: Look At All The Children Now comp LP. These 2 killer tracks were recorded at Don Fury Studios in November of '89 and released by Evacuate Records in 1990. This was the first release by the short lived Evacuate Records, and a great document of the more "alternative" (for lack of a better term) side of the NYHC scene closing out the '80s. Bad Trip starts off this comp, and are followed by SFA, Moondog, GO!, Yuppicide, Bustin' Out, Citizens Arrest, Bugout Society, World Discrimination, Team Effort, Rorschach, Product 19 and MAS. Besides a few lackluster tracks, this is a great compilation. Citizens Arrest steals the show (of course) with Won't Allow and the monstrous Death Threat. The album came with a 16 page booklet containing lyrics and other info. The other 2 Evacuate releases were the Yuppicide 7", and the Inflatable Children 12", both also released in 1990.

Tracks 12-13: GO!/Bad Trip split 7". Also known as the "Split Tour ep", released in September of 1990 on Skene Records. Two more great tracks, including an extended version of the song Fading Away (from the Positively Bad 7"), with a nice 2-minute Black Sabbath medley finishing off the song.

Tracks 14-23: Fear And Loathing LP. Recorded by Don Fury (who also produced, engineered and mixed the album) during August-November of 1991. Released in 1992 on Wreck-Age Records on both LP and CD. The CD also contained the first ep and the song No Easy Answers from the Look At All The Children Now comp as bonus tracks. LP tracks here taken from CD version. A bit more metallic sounding than the band's previous recordings, but i love this album.

Tracks 24-30: Demo. Recorded at Don Fury Studios in January of 1988. These songs were recorded before Marcos joined the band, so there's only one guitar player on these tracks. Some great exclusive tracks on here like Faces Go By (my personal fave), Trip To Nowhere and Joe Cool. Sound is a bit rough on these recordings, but it sounds great to me. Solid, raw, late '80s NYHC demo. Can't ask for more.

Between 1993 and 1995, the band recorded 2 more records. The Elevator 7" (1993 Wreck-Age), which i like a lot, and the Buzzy LP (1995 Wreck-Age). Both records recorded at Don Fury Studios. During this time, Luke was replaced on guitar by Arty Shepherd.

Buzzy was dedicated to the memory of Herb "Buzzy" Meier and Hank Matheu. It seems to be a "love it or hate it" album. I haven't heard it enough times to form a solid opinion, but i'd say check it out yourself. It should be pretty easy to find online.

Bad Trip have recently reformed and are playing shows again. You can check out the band's Myspace page here.

After Bad Trip, guitarist Marcos Siega went on to direct music videos, and from there went on to direct various Hollywood movies etc. He even directed 9 episodes of Dexter!! Check his IMDB page here.

Jordin Isip, who did much of the band's artwork, went on to become a well-known illustrator who's work regularly appears in the Village Voice, and even Time magazine. You should check out his amazing website right here.

17 comments:

  1. Good news!

    Bad Trip is reuniting at ABC No Rio with GO! and The Inflatable Children.

    Going to be one heck of a show!

    Be there and be square.

    The show is June 12th!

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  2. Awesome as always Vinnie. I didn't realize that this was the 15th band you've done from the comp, thanks for making these incredible collections available & chronicling all the New Breed-related bands.

    When are you gonna do a B&Q page on Facebook?

    See you at ABC on June 12th!

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  3. No problem Freddy. I also have a Show of Force collection, but i don't know if Dijan wants that stuff online. If you're in contact with him, please ask for me. I got his number from a friend, but feel weird calling.

    I'll get around to that Facebook soon.

    And yes, i'll definitely see you at the GO!/Bad Trip Show in June. Can't wait for that.

    Vin

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  4. I always liked Bad Trip (good band, good guys) and seeing Wreckage Records releases available for free on the internet makes me smile.

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  5. Thanks a lot for the great post!
    "Fear and Loathing" is a very underrated album. I never got into "Buzzy" much. It suffers from a real bad production. What was going on with Don Fury at the time? I think I read somewhere that he was updating his equipment at the time. Quicksand's "Manic Compression" was also ruined (I think the name came from that) as well as Yuppicide's "Shinebox".

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  6. JL, you're spot on about Don Fury's production.
    We recorded several times with him from the late 80's to the early 90's and production quality was slipping.
    Our first album had a much better production thanour second album.
    We did a follow up two song ep and the levels are completely fucked on the B side halfway into the song for no reason.
    A year later we came back before our third albu just to record four songs to have on hand to give to a couple of different compilations.
    They were butchered.
    he had gotten a click counter drumulator to keep time and used the track to keep our drumer consistent... an unnecessary waste... (who cares if verse on is 240 beats per minute and verse two is 230?)
    He insisted on mixing them on his own... fine, we trusted him.
    What we got back was four ruined songs where he had left the drumulator track in the final mix... loud.
    He was going through some rough personal distractions at the time and I still call him a friend, but that was not a good period to be in his studio.

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  7. Topnotch post .. as always!

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  8. Awesome, thanks so much! I can't wait for the show at ABC!

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  9. Looking forward to seeing some old friends next week. Thanks for the blog, some great stuff in here.

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  10. awesome post. is anybody out there that has any info or has the actual music by the Emotive Drive? i have their "the power inside" 7" but no turntable where i live at now, and can't seem to find it anywhere on the net.

    or maybe if anyone has any info on the band at all?

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    Replies
    1. Emotive Drive 1989 dem just digitized for free download:
      http://emotivedrive.bandcamp.com/

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  11. I have the Emotive Drive ep. I also have the Perverted Nerds (pre-Emotive Drive) demo, I may post that eventually.

    Vin

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  12. Hello to all in bloggedquartered.blogspot.com.

    I try to search any albums of Bad Trip for a long time...finally i found an Anthology in your blog.

    Thanks!!

    Best regards from Northern Chile.


    Alfredo.

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  13. Yo, amazing work putting all this stuff together!!!I saw BAD TRIP at the Ratt in Boston, 89 or 90. Such a fun band, they put a trampoline on stage, kids were diving off it. Nuts. Awesome times....thanks, Adon

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  14. Hey there. Any chance of getting a re-up of this 12 years later? Can't find this anywhere. Thanks either way.

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