various | huggy nation/kisser boy kisser girl

i've posted a couple of tracks from this before (in 2006!), but never ripped the whole thing, so here it is in all its glory. this is still one of the best compilations i've ever heard, partly because it contains some fine songs, but mainly for the spirit and energy it conveys. i bought it from a then rare visit to rough trade in covent garden and was immediately inspired to do it myself. the whole concept is so rough & ready, it was hard to listen to it and not want to have a go.

anyway, for the uninitiated, this comp encapsulates the emerging brighton riot grrrl scene, with huggy bear at its epicentre, featuring:

huggy bear
blood sausage ("fuck you & your underground" is probably still my favourite song from that scene)
ascension
the legend!
furbelows
mambo taxi
limpstud
mambo taxi
gabby lionheart
noosong
derv

the tape is full of snippets of film dialogue and uncredited music, some of which is identifiable and some not. as such sometimes it's hard to say when a track finishes and another begins so i just stuck with the official tracklisting. anyway...

tape released by soul static sound in 1992.

get.

the element of crime | the things you do for love

rowdy one-off release from a riot grrrl supergroup, featuring members of linus, huggy bear, blood sausage, skinned teen and sister george.

according to skinned teen's layla "chris wrote the lyrics crouched down in the tube station we were waiting for bratmobile to come. the studio was toe rag [later made famous via jack white's patronage], which is the same place a lot of billy childish/holly go lightly stuff was recorded, really rad old equipment and atmosphere too. it was a drunken party style recording, songs all written on the spur of the moment."

sounds like they had fun.

7" released by soul static sound in 1993.

get it.

blood sausage | fuck you & your underground

this song is taken from a compilation that absolutely inflamed me, back in the day. bought in the rough trade shop in covent garden, when "the nation" was in the grip of riot grrrl fever and every other bugger was starting a fanzine and releasing tapes. i think that day i bought about 5 different tape compilations along with a handful of fanzines. go into rough trade today and you'll be lucky to find any zines, let alone any tapes, a sad state of affairs indeed.

okay, so almost no one releases tapes these days, but it's suprising that the shop has never sold many cdr compilations and diy dvds. perhaps a sign of how much commercialised the shop is these days? or a sign that the diy scene relies solely on the internet? why is it that underground dvds are huge on the grime scene but virtually non-existant in the shambling/indie/etc world? maybe someone should do something about it. er anyway, back to blood sausage...

needless to say after rushing home and playing the tapes and reading the zines my friend and i started our first fanzine and our first tape. we also spent the next few weeks wandering around school saying "fuck you and your underground" (very very quietly - we were good boys).

try it, it's infectious.

:::blood sausage - fuck you & your underground (taken from the 1992 compilation kisserboy kissergirl curated by huggy nation, [aka huggy bear] and relased on rough trade shop label soul static sound)

i've ripped the rest of the tape too - people like huggy bear, kicking giant, mambo taxi - but haven't got round to chopping it up yet...