Philadelphia Bands

Rudipherous, when were you in Philly?

As a child, something like 1973-1978. As an adult: 1989-2008

But also went to Temple 1983-1987, and worked and played there most of 1987-1989.

Rightly or wrongly, my paying attention to local rock (and related fringe things) was largely limited to the 80s.

lol i wonder if you're friends with any of my friends who were doing the whole lancaster ave punk squat thing in the 90s

I wasn't doing anything that interesting back then, although it's certainly possible that I might at least know someone who knows them. I smoked a joint at the Fake House once. That's about the closest I got to that scene.

I saw RUIN and Scram! much more often than any other local bands (not counting the Sun Ra Arkestra). Also, a lot of my experience of the bands from that era was via WXPN and WKDU (especially 78-83 before I started college).

(Or Relache, not that they were even a band of any sort.)

Relache! man, talk about nostalgia. ever go to a show at the funk dungeon? or hang out at the crass house at temple?

i think i moved there in 1988. just in time to see karen finley at the painted bride.

Nope to both of those. Was that a house occupied by Crass fans or something?

I know there were a lot of houses for different organizations (though that sounds unofficial!). I was in the honors program at Temple (not really what it sounds like) and when I first started there, they still had their own house. I think my college years (and beyond) would have been a lot more interesting if they had kept that house.

Like most Temple students (at that time--probably still?) I commuted. Had crushes on some of the Yardley girls who headed home every day in more or less the opposite direction.

yeah, it was just a big punk party house at temple. they would have shows.

funk dungeon was a huge cavernous warehouse space in north philly where they would have massive parties and shows in the 80's. i did acid there once and had to walk home to center city in a snowstorm. that was frightening and memorable. and it took forever. it was miles from center city. but temple people would go there.

You were probably at least safer thanks to the snow, but it doesn't sound like a great idea overall. Was Funk Dungeon north or south of Temple?

I was kind of a wuss in terms of what venues I would venture to, or what crowds I wanted to be around (although generally keeping a distance from skinhead punks was not such a bad idea).

i want to say it was on cecil b. moore so not that far north actually. it probably just felt like a million miles that night. nowhere i would have gone sober. i used to walk everywhere in philly when i was young. mostly during the day, but i would start walking north or west or south and just keep going. looking for records usually. i never took buses. just walked. but i never really "hung out" much outside of center city. that was my base except for a brief time in west philly.

at night sometimes i would walk to a show at the khyber from my place and then take a cab to my door when it was done. i was all about getting in and out in a hurry.

it was all so long ago. i don't think about it much anymore. it wasn't exactly cool to be in philly in the 90's. though it was a perfectly okay place to live. when we moved rufus was 2 months old and now he's 14! already many moons ago.

scott, where in west philly were you?

False nostalgia, incidentally, because (a) a lot of these bands were mediocre at best, to be honest and (b) I wasn't really having such exciting times nor was I that immersed in these scenes.

scott, oh yeah, I used to walk all over the place all the time (though took occasional public transportation and cabs). I miss that. I remember walking back from the Chestnut Cabaret to Spring Garden/Art Museum Area. Even when I was doing salsa dancing, I used to walk home to center city from Delaware Avenue at 2AMish and never really had problems.

Sounding so old.

https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=RfCSdfNZ0LFPrHSm0ublXdzhdrDFhtmHhN1u-gM,UakgnonR5rqJUHsssYdlg7jwUTIdLQP-nBC-u3EcLDeSC2o3QVqHgIspvyvp0mvRJGHghZlw1_U4ysu1HBgZ0OIhTVMNKw4e6zKFI0yLdkT1wpl1UmjYEef2U2z0aWCPxKTT8KKoLoRVauNbaTnMswvZ6Xqf7GhnWg4YeGvspZBlEyLohL-ngVQ_RGtMWhRsWvTBQCK6v8Kyp-v_mrf38NFa0xfcpV1bHg

that's where i lived in west philly.

i used to have to take the trolley to the subway to old city to work in the morning. maybe that's why i walked everywhere for the next decade.

wow I live two blocks away from where you lived! it's a v happening neighborhood these days.

I was going to put this on a Christgau thread, but it's only tangentially related to him (because it took me forever to find it, it became the most elusive A-record from his '80s book for me): Persian Gulf's Changing the Weather. Once through, and the two songs that jumped out were "It's a Good Thing" and "(I'm So Glad I'm) Living in the Free World." The latter struck me as good, not great, but I thought it pretty interesting how it anticipates Neil Young by five years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABntttO9pKA

Some missing RUIN tracks finally appearing on youtube:

Great Divide, psychedelic speed metal/punk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2qGOu9xZkQ

From their previous album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flf-TrOVk0A

etc.

Did not mean to make this into a nostalgia Saturday. That usually happens when I'm a bit depressed, which I'm not today.

My other favorite from Fiat Lux follows something like the Great Divide formula:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO-b1bJgMhM

Altar, good inspirational hardcore:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buylfmEkjUo

And the classically brief Rule Worshipper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZLhB3hZgdc

Apparently this is all a result of their two albums being reissued last year which I missed.

They plead being but coming persists!

You tell 'em!

Oops, ruined it:

They plead being but becoming persists

He-Ho is such a good album. I used to prefer Fiat Lux. I think I like my favorite Fiat Lux songs more, but He-Ho has pretty amazing flow:

https://open.spotify.com/album/78INC6nI6P9fgXYuU4qJMA

Throw in a few bonus tracks of course and that throws off the flow. Mouse was not on the original album. Don't even know where that came from.

Although the one-two punch of You and Make Believe at the beginning of Fiat Lux is nothing to dismiss lightly.

Nice to see these reissued on Southern Lord alongside so much Boris!