You Can't Evade Those Dead Zen Men........

This is Aesop. He lives in San Francisco but grew up in Florida. He has played the part of drummer in a bunch of bands most notably The Fuck Boyz,Hickey,Ludicra,and most recently Agalloch. Why should you give a damn about this. Well,because Aesop is the creator of the best blog out there: Cosmic Hearse.
Beginning in November 2007,he has worked his ass off to bring his readers(riders) to places they had surely never heard. Rarely do I stop in and find something that isn't new to me.(I can think of maybe 5 or 6 times
since I started reading this past June). Posts range from obscure Japanese punk,lesser appreciated NWOBHM bands,great but criminally overlooked Doom,and lots more. Seeing the dedication he puts in day in and day out is one of the reasons I decided to start In Green Mountain Hell. There aren't too many people that post every day and that is definitely not lost on me.
Besides all this and raising a 7 year old, Aesop plays drums in the wonderful psychedelic metal band Ludicra. While all of their albums are favorites,I at first thought to post their first album Hollow Psalms so you could hear the progression that comes with each new album.I posted their 2nd Lp Another Great Love Song instead because you can already get Hollow Psalms at Cosmic Hearse here.
From the acoustic intro of The Only Cure,The Only Remedy to the fade at the end of Aging Ghost,this is song for song as good as anything I've heard in a long time. In addition to these 2 great records the have a third Lp named Fex Urbis Lex Orbis that is even better.You can order that from Alternative Tentacles so please do if you like the others.The vinyl is only a measly 9 dollars so support. Aesop was nice enough to let me post this one.
Also worth checking out are some of the members side projects. Guitarist John Cobbet's Hammer's of Misfortune features some of the most brilliant songwriting you'll here these days. As with the Ludicra albums,it is recommended that you check them out in chronological order. Bassist Ross Sewage has played in a bunch of Death Metal/Grindcore acts throughout his life and currently plays in Impaled and Ghoul. Last but not least,guitarist Christy Cather also plays in Beer Craft. Also check out her old outfit,Missile Command.
I almost forgot it after all that but alas my friends, here is Another Great Love Song.
In case your interested,I also offer up Aesop's old band Hickey's first Lp. Want to learn more about them? Go to the tribute site for the deceased Matty Luv.
This site will tell you everything you want to know about this great band. Also included are a whole shit load of Mp3's of the Fuckboyz,tons of Hickey songs,and the hilarious Dr. Dredel. Get your Hickey album here. And if do you visit Matty Luv.com , don't miss out on "Everything I learned about Sex I learned from K.I.S.S.

Stay tuned for some pure sickness from back in 1985...........................Troy

Scheiss Scheiss Scheiss

Have some raw German punk from 1983,go ahead take it. It's yours. Vorkriegsphase were gone before anyone knew it. They released 1 Lp named Auf In Der Tod and an Ep named Scheiss Kreig.

Both of those are put together in one nice and neat file for you. Scheiss

Wendy Got Her Gun

Straight out of my retro-teenage punk rock fantasy into Green Mountain Hell and hopefully out of your speakers,here is the chainsaw swinging queen of many hearts,Wendy O' Williams. As is well known,Wendy was singer for the Plasmatics,actress(Reform School Girls,Candy goes to Hollywood,etc.)
animal rights activist,among other things left to your imagination.
Wendy supposedly got her start as a performer at age 6 tap dancing on the Howdy Doody show. a mere 20 or so years later,she met Rod Swenson aka Captain Kink and joined his newly conjured outfit The Plasmatics.

I could waste your time and mine rewriting a history of this band that has been told and retold over and over again 'til the point of banality, though I won't.

What I will explain is that,though I think everything with her name on it is worth checking out, there is absolutely nothing better than the rock opera Maggots The Record.



By far the finest written work of her career(whatever that means), this album just never gets old for me.Sure,Coup De 'Tat had the epic "The Damned" and W.O.W. had the heart wrenching ballad Opus in Cm7, neither of these records were solid all the way through like Maggots was.
Based 25 years in the future(in 1986) on an environmentally ravaged planet Earth,this is the origin of the Apocalypse according to Wendy. Giant mutant maggots multiplying by the second to devour us , a punishment for the enviromental abuse doled out by humankind for years upon years. No happy ending here,just complete imminent annihilation . Musically,this is by far the most thrash influenced of her efforts. Containing only original guitarist Wes Beech and a bunch of "Kip Winger" stunt double look alikes,this is a far cry from their late seventies/early eighties ouput.
Get Maggots the Record.
The other albums I have mentioned are also here for you to download.

Coup De 'Tat

W.O.W.

And just for the pure novelty of it all,here is the cool Wendy O and Lemmy collaboration on Tammy Wynette's Stand by Your Man along with their very own duet No Class.
Get that here.
After the Plasmatics,Wendy retreated to Storrs,Connecticut and continued on as a wildlife rehabilitator and dedicated her life most passionately to improving the lives of animals on this planet.
In 1998,at the age of 48,Wendy O Williams journeyed into the woods near her home where she lived with partner Rod Swenson, accompanied with only her trusty 12 gauge shotgun and ended her life. This excerpt is from her suicide note:I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm.

None of the Above

It is late but here is what you get today.Tulsa,Oklahoma's finest,N.O.T.A.
These guys have been going strong for almost 30 years now with vocalist and guitarist Jeff Klein being the one dedicated constant.
He has written on these two releases,some classic pissed and angst ridden mid western hardcore. Others may have said it better but I love this band and always will. Check out the song Identity Crisis on the self titled Lp. One of the best punk songs of the early 80's

None of the Above


Toy Soldiers EP

For Steve, my valliant attempt to save your life.................thank me later.............

A Perfect but Unlikely Match.

Honestly,the real reason for this post is that I have been looking for a reason to use this Black Flag hair cartoon forever. And since I have been a fan of Saint Vitus since I swiped a copy of their tape Hallow's Victim out of the bargain bin at NRM when I was 16 and there is a lot of great footage from this one show in Ontario,Canada back in 1984 , I am going to capitalize on someone else's hardwork and link you to these videos. They are from Scott Reager's first tenure with the band and the sound quality is shockingly excellent. Check out the intensity of Saint Vitus's guitarist Dave Chandler. He is one of my heroes. Also at this show were the mighty Black Flag and I rounded up all the videos from this show I could find. This is actually the best footage of Henry Rollins I can remember seeing.
In no particular order........

Saint Vitus videos:

War is Our Destiny
White Stallions
Saint Vitus
White Magic/Black Magic
Zombie Hunger
Darkness
Hallow's Victim
Pray(er) For the Masses

Black Flag videos:

My War
Can't Decide
Nervous Breakdown
Rise Above
Slip It In
Jealous Again
Police Story
Revenge
Wound Up

Damage to the Mask

Painkiller,formed in 1991 by the threesome of John Zorn,
Bill Laswell,and Mick Harris and joined by guests such as
Justin Broadrick(Godflesh,Fall of Because,etc.),Yamatsuka Eye(Boredoms,Hanatarashi),Mike Patton(Fantomas,Faith No More,Tomahawk,etc.),Buckethead,Makigami Koichi,and
Keiji Haino. John Zorn played the saxophone. Bill Laswell
played the bass and Mick Harris did what Mick Harris does
playing his manic drums. This bands' studio recordings are
an absolute mess though that is precisely why I love them.
Today you get the Painkiller: Collected Works box set. It contains their

first two albums Guts of a Virgin and Buried Secrets
and a bunch of other shit as well. If you can conjure the ferocity of Scum era Napalm Death inseminated with colliding streams of banshee like saxophone assault,
you haven't even begun to imagine this.



This is Bill O'Reilly's soundscape to his worst fucking nightmare.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

HALSEYCAUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Attention Bands!!!!!!!!
In need of some artwork for your next release?
The stuff you see here is the work of the one and only Halseycaust. Residing in Portland,Oregon and originally from Massachusetts,her covers are gaining recognition all over the world. Having done work for great bands like:Toxic Holocaust,Vindicator,Dismantle,Black Market Fetus,and Tiger Junkies among others, she is just getting better and better on every project. Don't miss out. You can contact
her directly at

Halseycaust@yahoo.com. Seriously, she without a doubt is putting out some of the better artwork you will find so get in touch with your concepts.

Another November Show............................

I have no clue who the rest of the bands are but I dig the
Danny Devita kids so here you go.

November 22nd in Ludlow, VT.......Danny Devita and a bunch of other bands. Anybody else heard of any of these guys????


Black Flag and Saint Vitus videos tomorrow.

Weight of the World is playing in Burlington this Friday.



That is all........................................

Two Great Suburban Showdown shows coming up.

This is just a quick post to let you guys know about a couple of shows coming up.
Vitamin X are from Holland and are a great straight edge hardcore band. Parysytic hail from Virginia and are one of the best bands out there today. If you want to here something by them, here is their demo.
Parasytic are also playing three dates at Kattacombes and one at the Thrash Can in Burlington. Support them if you can.....

Also for those of you who liked the Upright Citizens albums,here is the original version of the song "Holocaust" by Crisis.
Can anyone tell me about The Thrash Can in Burlington, i've never heard of it???????????????????

Dark Side of their Mind

I''ll tell you right off the bat that though I have been a fan of this great German band since my high school days,any real concrete history to do with them has eluded me still. I picked up a copy
from an old Rutland punk back around '96.
The albums name was Open Eyes,Open Ears,Brains to Think and Mouth to Speak. As great in my opinion as anything Minor Threat or any other now well known U.S.hardcore bands,this is one of those records that I really allowed to shape my being back then. I loved it that much.

So,without much at all to say about these guys,I present the Upright Citizens,who was by my standard the best German punk band of the '80's.
Here are their first five releases in chronological order.

Bombs of Peace 12"

Make the Future Mine and Yours LP

Open Eyes.....LP

Facts and Views 7"

Kiss me Now 12"

This one goes out to Michael Manfredi,my partner in crime back then(and now,you just can't get rid of some people!!!),who was with me the first time we heard this. One of those first time listens that you never forget.....

They had 2 other 7inches after this. Good luck finding them because I sure as hell can't.

I will post some videos I dug up a bit later....Troy

UNLEASH THE GUOMUNDSDOTTIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You all have heard of Bjork,whether it before her less than popular political views,her red carpet fashion exploits,or maybe even,though less likely,her eccentric songwriting. But before all this notoriety, she was the voice of the Icelandic treasure K.U.K.L.


K.U.K.L. ,Icelandic for witchcraft,was originally was conceived as a super group of various members of Icelandic bands like Tappi Tikarrass,Purrkur Pillnik,Spilafifl,and Medusa.I'm quite sure that none of those names mean a damn thing to you,but that is hardly the point here. They played their first show in Reykjavik,Iceland's capitol,opening for Crass on September,20th 1983. Shortly thereafter they released their debut,the 2 song ep Songull.
Get Songull here.
Around a year later, K.U.K.L. presented their first full length,the hypnotic Eye LP.
Released on Crass Records in 1984, the album named after the 1928 book "Story of the Eye" by George Bataille. The Eye was a far cry from anything that had come out on the label prior and bore a more experimental sound influenced by acts like Killing Joke and Einsturzende Neubauten,albeit with Bjork's instantly recognizable voice wailing and shrieking over top .Really, I challenge you to name a more distinct voice than this!!
Get The Eye here.
After touring the rest of Europe extensively for the better part of the next 2 years,
K.U.K.L. returned in 1986's Holiday's in Europe.(The Naughty Nought)
Recorded by Penny Rimbaud and once again released on Crass Records, they gained the distinction of being the only band other than Crass to release a second record on the label.
Take the Holiday in Europe here.

This would be where the K.U.K.L. would end their legacy on. Bjork and a couple other members continued on in the much less riveting Sugarcubes before she went on to her much documented solo career which I won't touch on here.
With this said, I will leave you with this eulogy written by an unspecifies member of the group:

"The engine idea of KUKL was to cause a change in society through music using it as a means of transmission. To this end, the group refused to fall into commercialism and only used to appear during special occasions so that they could keep their quality of inspiration. KUKL’s members kept the stance that the power is within us and what we do. By listening to their music, people would become an integral part of that power transmission, even without wanting to.
Without holding out an accurate definition of their philosophy to avoid being type-cast, KUKL members considered that there is more in life than what is predetermined. They wanted to light other people’s minds avoiding restrictions since nowadays music served as a tool to numb people while those in the post of authority watched how we all go down to doom.

KUKL pointed out that we shouldn’t be satisfied with our own life’s style, our arts or attitudes. By having this in mind when music was concerned, KUKL introduced an incongruence in the psychic of their audience and as they did not use it to its own profit, individuals would have room enough to fill in with themselves. A non conformist attitude would bring another new wave of listeners. The option is being oneself."

Take from that what you will.

In addition to these albums,they also released a live album. If anyone out there has it,email me because I would like to hear it. That is all.

No, The World weren't Pretty back in '78

Meet the one and only Wards!!!!! Formed in the summer of 1978 by Tea Curley and Beano Parker up in Burlington. Influenced by the Dead Boys among others,they recorded the songs for their first release "The World ain't Pretty and Neither are We" around 1981 but due to financial hangups,the record never saw the light of day 'til '83.This Ep has some great raw tuneless punk rock and overall all the songs are decent,though I must say,the opener "Weapons Factory" is far and away the best song this band ever wrote. Get this here.


In 1984, The Wards headed back to the studio to record their first full length. Recorded by Lou Giordano,who had already made a name for himself recording Boston legends SS Decontrol and The Proletariat, thay released this on tape taht same year. Titled, Ripped off in Boston, it got it's name for the sole reason being that their van was stolen from Kenmore square during the sessions. While I don't dig it quite as much as their first record, it still is a good listen in continuance. You can rip this off here.
In addition to these,they released another 7inch named "Don't Make U.S. Shoot the Pershing II. I have never heard it but there is testament speaking of a track called "Spray Children" that is considered by some to be their best song. Couldn't tell you but if you have this in digital format,get in touch so I can put it up here.
The Wards are still going strong and their next show that I know of is on November 15th at 8pm at the "Thrashin Fashion show at the VFW in Winooski,VT.

Check out this video:

Live in 1996

KUKL up next.........................leave comments below..............

Come on Down..............

Tomorrow night at the Unitarian Church,C.V.P.J. will be offering us a chance to see Slacker Uprising,Michael Moore's newest movie. Come see it if you don't have anything better to do. Even if you are not a Michael Moore fan, their should be a good turnout. Come and meet some new people then..................................Troy

Hey bands,

email me when you book your shows so I can put them up here, it couldn't hurt the turnout.....you know?