h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Will head off to the post office in a minute. According to the kitchen scales, your package weighs 675g - the biggest thing I've ever sent in the post

I think we're going on a little road trip to Cornwall today, so I'd better find my Clash tapes. Having friends that can drive is so much fun!

Hi Rocketman, just recieved your parcel ....... thanks, a brilliant start to my weekend.
There is stuff on its way to you as well - might arrive Sat?

I have just transfered your last tape onto CD - Good riddance + Hot Water Music are really good.
Operation Ivy has not left me convinced.
The faster tunes are cool but when the go all ska, it's as if it's an afterthought?

Speak next week after i've played and read your stuff

I got your CDs and comic this morning. 'Ruptured Dog' is so funny! Who is the person 'T. Maim'? You?

You're right about Operation Ivy. Their faster songs are pretty cool, but the ska does seem like an afterthough sometimes. It's the same with an awful lot of ska, and the reason why I'm not really a fan of the genre. I suppose Operation Ivy were one of the very first punk/ska bands, so you can't hold too much against them.

Have a good weekend. I know I'll be enjoying my new cds

Yep, tony maim is/was my stage name!
I've got some more knocking around somewhere but they are mixed in with my stupidly large comic collection and will take time to locate.

The Eels and Us Bombs go very well together - the quiet before the storm.
I know I can be shot for saying this but I found the Minor Threat stuff very good but after a while, a bit samey and repetitive. In fact
I probably could say that about a lot of sXe bands ........ maybe if they got pissed a bit more, they might write some tunes or melody in their sets!

Thanks for the 'zines .. really good reading .. and so many pages ..all the 'zines in my days were 8-12 pages thick max! <smiley showing very old punk>

What did you think of your cd's?

Did your 'zine ever get off the ground?

Content-wise the zine is finished, we just haven't had time to put it all together yet. School, exams, coursework and learning to drive seem to have taken priority over our zine. It will get done though, I promise.

I suppose Minor Threat's songs could be thought of as a bit repetitive but then that goes for a lot of punk/hardcore bands who play in a simple musical style. I think there is a discernible difference between the music that they played at the start of their career compared to that released towards the end. 'Salad Days' or 'Good Guys (don't wear white)' are certainly a lot more melodic than 'Filler' or 'Straight Edge'

I really like my new CDs, thanks. I've only listened to the Stooges CD once so far as I haven't had that much time to sit down and listen to the whole CD in one go, but I have played the Adverts/MDC one quite a lot. At the moment I'm trying to decide who I prefer out of MDC and the Dead Kennedys

I'm not slagging them off though (M. Threat) maybe I should slip in and out, rather than playing all in one sitting! The same critiscism I can also apply to MDC.
Ploughing through the 'zines, in reviews, they often describe bands as d-beat. What the hell do they mean?
Have you heard No Choice - Dry River fishing?
It seems right up my street.

Have you ever thought of doing reviews for RTB etc .... they say they need lots of 'em.

What do you want next?
SLF is waiting ..... I only have the one track by The Litter. This comes from the countless '60's garage rock albums I own ....all tracks by bands who have long been forgotten or who only did a single ......... I could do a compilation of similar "Litter" type bands + put on some originals of "Acid Eater" tracks?

Sorry about not replying faster superdog, my connection's been playing up

Not sure about D-Beat. Down Beat, maybe? It certainly isn't in the dictionary! I've certainly heard the term 'down beat' used to describe some kinds of hardcore before.

I haven't heard No Choice yet, although I know the release you mean. I'll see if any of my friends have it.

Doing reviews for RTB would be really cool, although I don't know any of the people that do it, so I wouldn't want to appear like I was using their zine to get free records. It really annoys me when record reviewers don't bother to talk about the music, but just say "This sounds like early Ramones". Making comparisons is a really lazy review technique, especially when the comparisons are to equally obscure bands. I think RTB have a compilation CD out at the moment of loads of European bands... I'll have to see if I can get a copy.

A 60s garage compilation would be perfect. What would you like?

I would love another Hot Water Music album (by the way, I have the track listing for "A flight and a crash" which i will forward)

Have Good Riddance done more than 2 albums? Do you have them?

Will have to check your list against the copmilation tape you made me ..... or is there stuff that you have that I have not heard.

I think you know the stuff I like now!

Good Riddance have done five albums, and I have four of them. I'll make you copies of 'Operation Phoenix' and 'For God and Country' if you like.

I don't own any more Hot Water Music stuff personally but my friend/love interest who's a student in London () has another one of their albums on vinyl. I'll get her to make you a copy on cassette, and I'll record 'For God and Country' on the B-side as I have it on mini-disc

Have you heard the (International) Noise Conspiracy? I'm tempted to send you a cd of theirs....

Give in to temptation !!!!
You have not steered me wrong yet.

Much to my surprise (these things normally take me ages) I sent a parcel off to you this afternoon ....... no idea how long they take to arrive ...... wait and see

Your amazing box of tapes came when my friends were round, and we looked through them together. They think it's so cool that I have a trading friend.

The stuff in the box is all really cool. Of course, I haven't listened to it yet, but there's some great names in there I'm slowly going to work my way through.

I've been really busy this weekend as my student friend came back from uni, so we spent the whole time hanging round together listening to the Stooges *way* too much (if that's possible . I've also been having problems with the CD writer thing so I'm not quite ready to send you your CDs yet. Sorry.

Also, she forgot to make the Hot Water Music tape for you. I'll get her to record it for you plus some other cool stuff that she has, if that's ok? I played her Ruptured Dog today and she made copies of your CDR compilations because she thought they were so good

I'm glad the box arrived safely, by the way, you can never play the Stooges *too much*

There is some more Stooge ep material if you want some?

Do you want to wait a week or two before your cds to give you time to listen to tapes or shall I send them soon?

I forgot to say, sometime could I have the whole of Four Letter Word - "Nasty piece of Work" ....... those 6 tracks you did have whetted my appetite!

Did the 'zine trade against postage make sense?

Yeah, it made perfect sense.

I'll definitely be wanting more Stooge material in future, but the EP is not a major priority right now as I'm not bored of the three albums that I currently own yet. I *will* be wanting the EP in future though.

Send my things through whenever you like. I'm not bothered about waiting, but don't rush/put yourself out to get my stuff to me. Send them second class to save money

I'll make you the (I)NC CD-R in a minute, swiftly followed by Good Riddance's 'Operation Phoenix'. My main problem is finding a post box to send your stuff in, as I live in a village and go to school in (another) village. Assuming it's not raining or I'm not detained for some misdemeanor, I'll try to post your stuff at lunch tomorrow.

Do you want the entire 'Nasty piece of work' album, or just the omitted tracks?

Dammit, I've run out of CD-Rs so I can't do your CDs. I'll see if my friends have any that they could lend me tomorrow, hopefully they will.

If that fails it may be a few days before I get to buy some more.

Sorry about that

Can I have the whole 4 Letter word album? Cheers.

There is no rush for my stuff, yesterday I took a load of CDs down to the 2nd hand shop and traded them for: among others:-

Descendants - Everything sucks
Offspring - 1st
Exploited - live
Vandals - Hitler bad, Vandals good
Bad religion - The new America

I have no idea what any of then sound like, so will be occupied for a while............ as you can see, all older stuff, nothing new, so I can't add to the reviews page ..... sorry...... I feel bad, you have done loads and I have only done 1 poxy book review!

I like everything sucks, it makes me want to drink coffee and be a geek. Did you know that their singer has a PhD in microbiology? Also, the drummer was in Black Flag for a while and produces Good Riddance records. I don't know which is the better achievement

I don't know much about the Offspring (apart from that I dislike 'Conspiracy of one'), the Vandals or Bad Religion. Strange that...

Still no CD-Rs, although I did go to the huge new 24 hour Tescos during lunch to look. They had tapes and MDs, but no bloody CD-Rs

Mini-review of my second hand stuff!!!

The Offspring's 1st 3 albums are far superior to the stuff they are doing now.
I'll slip a couple of earlier tracks on something for you.

The Vandals are shit! I've heard so much about them but fast pop punk tunes with *wacky* bits in them and half-arsed funny/offensive lyrics don't really do it for me.

Bad religion was a let down as well. This is one of their recent albums and it's been watered down so much for radio play, that any energy or urgency has been replaced with bland, overproduced mtv friendly pretend *punk*.

I'll stick to Bad Brains instead!

Not heard anything by the Offspring other than Americana and Conspiracy of One, which I both disliked. More songs would be cool.

From the two Vandals songs that I've heard plus your review I think it's safe to assume that I dislike them.

I've heard a few good Bad Religion songs, mostly of the 'Generator' and 'Suffer' albums. I think they must be slightly older than your one. Quite good, but I see what you mean about their new stuff sucking and being MTV-friendly. I hate MTV.

Still no CD-Rs, god dammit. I have all the songs uploaded onto my PC, I just need to burn them on to CD

At the moment I'm listening to a mixed tape that I found in your box with some cool stuff like Rocket From the Crypt, Victims, Gaza Strippers and Teenage Head. It's good.