Well, here's another Local compilation that I know nothing about, which was released at a time when I was pretty active and just beginning to run around in the Scene. The title of this release, Free Aspirin And Tender Sympathy, came from a sign that was on one of the last gas stations on Las Vegas Blvd. heading south outta town, a bit of a tongue in cheek statement to the countless millions who left Sin City broke and hungover. Some of these bands on here sound very familiar, with names I recall seeing on flyers, like Offta Mars and Scrubs, and some of them I saw play a few times, like Vermin From Venus, Wholes and Sausage Hostages, and only 1 band on here, Lethal Injection, is still around and gigging under the same name today. Speaking of same names, the fantastic artwork for this release was done by Dirk Vermin, and is great example of the stuff you'd find in his Betty Page inspired fanzine / Punk comic book or whatever it was he was doing at the time. Derrick Wells, the singer for Vermin From Venus, is really Dirk Vermin, so if you didn't know his real name already, well now you do! Kind of like finding out that Clark Kent is really Superman, right? Yeah, I know. Anthony Hudak, who used to be in Self Abuse, drums for Vermin From Venus and Under My Skin on their respective tracks on here, and MJ-12 features Todd Sampson (RIP) from Sampson's Army / M.I.A. singing and playing on a very Replacements sounding tune. Pablo Diablo And The Little Red Devils feature Pablo Schwartz, who also used to be in M.I.A., and Mike Fouts who used to be in F.S.P. on their catchy little tune (he's also in Cries And Whispers, who also appear on here), and Mudslide features Gina Mainwal on drums, who later went on to play in the No W.T.O. Combo with Krist Novoselic, Jello Biafra, and Kim Thayil. Not bad for a Local girl, huh? ;-) And the Sausage Hostages feature the guy who gave me this compilation, Jeff Murphy, on guitar and a guy named Cubby on drums. I'm not gonna ask. "Dirk Vermin" (that's how it's listed on the insert) plays guitar for Knuckle Sandwich, who turn in a song that sounds like it could of been on the Beach Blvd. compilation, and this CD comes to a roaring conclusion with the brutal as all gets Lethal Injection track called New York. Released on the Behemoth Records label and produced by Derrick And Darran Wells and Anthony Hudak, this release is a real good collection of what some of the Legendary Punk bands of the 80's later evolved into sonically, and the music on here is an eclectic mix to be sure, running the gamut from Punk to Pop to Psychedelic to pure Pablum puke, with some bands on here having no shame in hiding where they liberally "borrowed" riffs and melodies from, and others turning in some OK sounding music with the time they are allotted. Yeah, some of the material sounds extremely dated and sonically lacking but hey, what can you expect? This compilation is almost 20 years old, and despite all that, some of the stuff on here sounds pretty good. Give it a listen for yourself and see what you think of it. Free Aspirin And Tender Sympathy was released by Behemoth Records, which I don't believe is active anymore, but they do have a Discogs.com page full of their releases, and you can click here to go check that out. I believe Behemoth evolved into Wood Shampoo, but I'm not really sure about that. Regardless, Wood Shampoo is run by Darran Wells, they have a Facebook page (click here to go to it) and you should support him and all of his past and future endeavors. Support Local Music and Enjoy this compilation from 1993, a unique snapshot of a long gone time here in the Las Vegas Music Scene. Again, Thanks to Jeff Murphy for the info and for giving this to me to put on the website. Very, very appreciated Sir!
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I know NOTHINK about this band. A lot of people who's musical opinions I just kind of tolerate rave on and on about these guys and how important they were to the Scene back in the daze. After finding absolutely bumpkins about them on the Inter-webs, I thought I'd try to put something together about the band after this demo of there's kind of fell into my lap. Area 51 was comprised of James Bagley (Vocals), Brian Brassfield (Guitar), Mike Nicholas (Bass) and Frank Klepacki (Drums). James, I believe, was in 5150, another seminal Las Vegas band at the time. The band honed their musical chops by playing the usual back yard kegger parties and places as diverse as Cafe Espresso Roma to the Henderson Elk's Lodge. I guess if you had to label them, I'd call them Crossover, or Punk Rock, with an emphasis on the Rawk part of it. Rock Music played by old Punk dudes. :-) The material is good, the guitar work on here is phenomenal, the rhythm section kills it, and Jame's vocals are great. So why didn't these guys hit it big? I dunno. They played constantly, don't know if they ever toured, and they did release a few more demos after this one, but it was always with different members, including Ed from Papsmear, another under appreciated Las Vegas band. Area 51 carried on despite the line up changes, and after a while they just sort of disappeared, with Brian later reappearing in the late 90's with a band called Phatback with a guy named Velton, who was one of the later day Area 51 bass players. They were doing the whole white boy Funk thing and it was just terrible. Anyways, their contribution to the L.V.H.C. scene cannot be overlooked, so here it is, their 1st demo tape, from 1991, and in some opinions, the best thing they've ever done, and I present it to you for your listening pleasure. Special Thanks to Jeff Murphy for letting me copy this and allowing me to put it up here on the website. Thanks to All Hail Bob for the help with digitalizing it from cassette tape and then re-mixing it.
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