Tooth and Nail Records catalog, circa 1995 or thereabouts

                                                           ...click on the above to enlarge...

If Tooth and Nail Records did anything really well, it was the marketing of a pre-existing nineties alternative culture to throngs of Christians clamoring for something that was at once edgy and safe.  As I owned nearly every release in this catalog and sported a Tooth and Nail hoodie to boot, I count myself as having been among the throngs.  I never made it to Lollapalooza, but to this day if I hear someone say "pet the fish," my first thought is not innuendo.

They say hindsight is 20/20, though I'm not sure if that's still the case when viewed through a sardonic lens.  Much of what I then devoured seems laughable now, while some of it still holds up nicely.  I suppose there's a life lesson in there somewhere, and I'd love to examine it, but there's just too much to unpack here.

1) Wish for Eden - Pet the Fish - Oh, the nineties...a time when "abrasive rock" was a phrase that could sell records.  And sure, I suppose that's what they played, a sort of testosterone-infused dude rock that could just as easily have come from Palm Desert as Seattle.  Overall, none of it was very cerebral or memorable, especially the lyrics, but it was cool enough at the time.

Lots of weird 90s dude mosh action in this clip, which is otherwise pretty shitty as far as camera work is concerned.

2) Focused - Bow - "California doesn't fear this band but we do!" - A statement like that begs for further explanation on both counts, and harkens back to the cryptic statement about Huntington Beach record labels in the Helpless Amongst Friends liner notes.  Anybody with any insider knowledge about any of this weirdness is encouraged to speak up.  BUT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THEY HYPHEN!  "Hard-core." Why does that bother me so much?  Is it because I'm an aging fan of hardcore?  Is it because I'm an English teacher?  Does it bother anybody else?  Also, Focused didn't sound like the Crucified, Rollins Band, or Snapcase, which, holy Jesus, is not spelled "Snap Case."  For more on this record, check out my riveting exploration of the early Christian hardcore scene.

3) Starflyer 59 - s/t - I love early Starflyer, though in my opinion the best thing they ever recorded was the Gold album and that Goodbyes Are Sad 7" that I never should have sold.  But that's not what we're here to talk about - we're here instead to talk about how "melodic noise pop" seems an odd descriptor for this album, though I suppose it was melodic, noisy, and a rock record.  And while Starflyer didn't sound just like the Pixies, for example, the reference kind of makes sense, sonically speaking.  Anyway, I'll gush more about them later on.  In the meantime, enjoy the following, even if the vocals maybe grate on you a little bit.

"Next Time Around" is the B-side from the Goodbyes Are Sad 7", which has minimal relevance here.

4) The Crucified - s/t - This is a reissue of their debut album.  I'm not sure where Pantera comes into play, nor will say that this really is one of the best records ever made.  I will say this, though -- however good Anthrax, or Hirax, or whatever thrash band you want to talk about may have been, they weren't as good as the Crucified was at their best (though for me, that's on their later album, Pillars of Humanity).  For the sake of credibility, I'll offer that it pains me to say so, given how boneheaded many of Mark Salomon's lyrics were.  We're going to have to take Pillars... apart at some point.

Fifth member?  Jesus, pictured at left.

5) V/A - Helpless Amongst Friends - Everything about this description bothers me.  I discuss the album itself here.  What I forgot to mention, however, is the implications of the title and the artwork, which seem to suggest a life of eternal damnation in hell.  Yikes.

6) Unashamed - Silence - They were heavy, but were they that heavy?  Extremely heavy?  I don't know.  Anyway, those comparisons mostly work, especially as Unashamed existed at a time in the mid-nineties when bands were combining metal and hardcore in a very different way than that of the crossover thrash of a decade or so earlier.  Slayer would become an important part of that formula for hardcore bands, Christian and secular alike, as the nineties progressed.  I talk about this album in greater depth here.

7) Blenderhead - Prime Candidate for Burnout - So much of this catalog is a remembrance of my high school years.  I had a full page ad for this record (from Heaven's Metal?) hanging in my locker one year.  I still love the record cover as pop-art.  And I still think the music is some of the most interesting that Tooth and Nail ever put out.  Not sure what corporate pharmaceutical companies have to do with anything, but whatever.  This is extra angry, and, I suppose, in its way, a punk record, and, if I'm fair, super hard to describe.  Somebody on YouTube said they sound like Suicidal Tendencies.  That person was wrong.

8) The Crucified - Take Up Your Cross/Nailed - Early Crucified, less polished.  Not altogether like 7 Seconds or Minor Threat, necessarily, but same ballpark.  Definitely not like the Descendents, which is even more misspelled here: "Decedents" ???  Anyway, this is also a reissue.

9) Plankeye - Spill - I can't remember the exact circumstances of this purchase, but looking back from the future I sincerely hope that it wasn't the description of "groovy power pop" that swayed me to buy this record.

Slap bass, rhyming couplets, misappropriated revolutionary rhetoric.  What the hell was I thinking?

10) Sometime Sunday - Stone - This is one of a few records in this catalog that I never owned, though I wonder if a long-term borrowing situation from JH counts.  Sometime Sunday sounded like Alice in Chains, which is to say that it was overwrought bluesy grunge from the Pacific Northwest.  I remember some kind of controversy around them, though, as a result of this album... I think maybe somebody said the shit word during some conversations excerpted in a hidden track, blowing the delicate minds of listeners everywhere.  What's weird is that the profanity became a distraction from the real transgression - the terrible cover art.

This is damn near unlistenable.  

11) Chatterbox - Despite - I couldn't tell you a thing about Nine Inch Nails/Ministry/Al Jourgenson/Wax Trax except what I learned later on, years removed from the zenith of the industrial scene, but for some reason or another, there was kind of a vibrant Christian industrial scene that thrived for some time. This particular project featured Jeff Bellew, bassist for the Crucifed, and Scott Albert of Circle of Dust (and a million other projects).  They made music that was pretty riff-intensive, driving, and, well, look, am I supposed to feel bad in 2012 that I don't really feel like I know how to talk about industrial music?

12) The Blamed - 21 - I used to love this album, named, if memory serves, for the 21 hours in which it was recorded.  It was pretty much just simple, fun punk rock.  It was not, in any sense of the word, a thrash record, despite what the ad copy says.  I also find it telling that Tooth and Nail compared the Blamed to the Crucified and Crashdog.  Those are apt enough comparisons, I suppose, especially the latter, but it suggests to me now that the label didn't then have a handle on what was going on in the larger punk scene, just the Christian one.

Weirdly, this was all I could really find of this album online.

13) Joy Electric - Fairy Tale Melodies - I believe I received this as a Christmas gift from JR2, which seems fitting, given the candy canes.  It says it was Bliss Records' first release, an imprint that I don't think anybody ever heard anything about ever again.  It also says it's recommended if you like (RIYL) Erasure, Dee-Lite [sic], and New Order.  I suppose that's different than actually sounding like those acts, which is good, as Joy Electric really didn't (well, okay, maybe New Order), but I suppose fans of those bands would enjoy Joy Electric well enough.  Really, though, all I want to do now is listen to "Groove is in the Heart."  JR2 and I were remembering today a story about an older burly weirdo in high school yelling at us to "turn off that video game music!"  I saw Joy Electric live a few times and left nonplussed; Ronnie Martin's vocals were rarely in tune.

I mean, what the hell, right?  Why not?

14) Starflyer 59 - She's the Queen - This EP, like most early Starflyer material, has absolutely stood the test of time.  It features weird electro and fifties lounge versions of existing songs, as well as new songs drenched in guitar.  Here's the thing, though.  Ever since getting into Starflyer and reading ad copy like this, I've never felt I had a good understanding of what the hell shoegazer was supposed to be.  Other bands I've heard since that share that label seem to use a lot of weird drum machine tracks that I could never quite get into, but maybe that's just me.  I will say, however, that Dinosaur Jr., Buddy Holly, and lounge music actually seem like pretty good points of reference for this particular EP.

15) MxPx - Pokinatcha - "21 tracks that freaking rule!"  Look, we don't need to fancy it up with terms like "melodic punk rock," MxPx were and are and will always be, seemingly, a pop-punk band.  I don't know that they ever really sounded like the Offspring, but I suppose they do more here than they ever would again.  Rancid and Green Day seem like fair enough comparisons.  I remember hearing about some kid somewhere who had made a tape of Green Day songs and the MxPx songs that aped them.  I guess the punchline is all of the internet accusations suggesting Green Day of stealing riffs (and damn near entire songs) from others (most notably Dillinger Four).  The clear moral here is that we all could probably stand to listen to a little bit more Dillinger Four, but way back when, before I had discovered those hometown heroes of mine (or Bracket, NOFX, or Propagandhi for that matter), MxPx was something to get excited about, and this record is probably their most raw and energetic, if somewhat vapid.

I chose this song both because I am not a nice person, and also because if I had recorded something this asinine, I would fully expect it to be thrown in my face at every opportunity.

16) Havalina Rail Co. - s/t - I've never quite understood what the hell "Hold on to your wigs and keys!" was supposed to mean, but I do know this: this was neither a swing nor a jazz record.  It was really cool and creative, but as the nerdy high school jazz band kid walking around with a Dizzy Gillespie t-shirt on, I found these labels to be incredibly misleading.  Looking back now, I suppose the inclusion of folk and pirate music - as well as the invocation of both Neil Young and Tom Waits - should have been suitable clues.  This band remained really cool and creative throughout their career.

Many thanks to Chris White for the scans.  Keep 'em coming, folks!