[cont.] As great as this is for any Liquids fan, I have a feeling that some people won’t be happy about me posting this. I’m not talking about Liquids themselves, no, I’ve been posting Indiana’s trash on this channel since day one, I’m sure if they didn’t want me doing this one of them woulda reached out to me by this point to tell me to stop. I’m talking about a niche group of punks that’ve got their heads shoved so far up their asses that they’re completely incapable of listening to reason: Discogs nerds. And by “discogs nerds”, I don’t necessarily mean people who edit their music databases and sell music at reasonable prices, those people are harmless and I appreciate their efforts. I’m talking about those dimwits who flip shit on Discogs for stupidly-inflated prices, along with anyone else who shares that fucking stupidly-backwards mindset. It’s more than just ripping people off that irks me about them, it’s about the shitty trends and reclusive behaviors that they perpetuate in contemporary punk that sours the experience. Why do people pretend like punk is some elite society where only people from the area can apply, and everyone else is expected to either dig a hole into their wallets or fuck off? Assholes will be assholes, sure, but the worst part is that people actually buy into it, literally. I die a little inside for every tape I see that sells for $30, or even more than that. You ever see that Coneheads tape selling for $250 dollars? Jesus. They’re pieces of plastic, punks shouldn’t be accepting of this, at all. I hate that people are expectant of either paying $30+ dollars for a tape coming out of the Midwest, or not getting one at all. It shouldn’t be about that, it shouldn’t even matter. Yet people gauge the hype of a band just by how much their tape sells for on fucking Discogs. We should really all be unanimously spitting in these guys direction, they’re entirely missing the point. They’re just taking advantage of both the artist and the listener by making huge profits off of an artist’s musical efforts that they didn’t do jack-shit for aside from attend some basement show to pay a guy less than $5, only to go on Discogs and completely rob a gullible punk who’s been conditioned into thinking that paying x10 the price is totally normal. I can’t help but sympathize with some of these buyers and sellers sometimes, because they don’t really see how counter-productive it all is; 99% of this shit isn’t going to matter in 10 years. Pass around tapes with friends, spread good music and have fun with this while it’s still relevant. It’s nothing but hunks of plastic at the end of the day. You’re all just trying to make something out of nothing, and it’s doing more harm to our dumb community than good. I don’t know, capitalism wins again, I guess. Well, anyways, the whole point of this tirade is that these sort of Discogs purists are the same sort of people who get upset when someone like me publicizes their favorite “underground” tape, when they’re not even in the position to dictate whether or not it’s allowed to surface on the internet. Leave that up to the bands, you fucking hack. If they want the video down, they’ll contact me, and I’ll take it down. The input of some nobody in their respective scene doesn’t mean shit, I couldn’t give two fucks about the exclusivity of your personal music collection. I’m just trying to do people a favor and spread good music, is that really such a bad thing? Oh, sorry, my bad, I didn’t realize that you’re less of a special-snowflake because some nobody on RU-vid shared a rip of your favorite tape, I’m so so so so sorry. Shit. You get it by now I’m sure, I’m likely preaching to the choir here. I’ve just been looking for a reason to talk about this, because it does tick me off a bit. Like, whatever, punk is punk, why bother taking it so seriously, y’know? I’m aware that I could’ve just made an ass out of myself for getting so heated over it, but then again, I tend to punk every day of the week, so yeah, I’m pretty passionate about it. You can’t blame me for that. At this point, I’m just the right person to talk about this. A lot of punks are paying attention to me these days, and are willing to take my opinions into account, so I might as well just preach something that matters to me. Plus it’s a little bit of a personal feud between me and these jerk-off purists. Why is it that I get flak for sharing music and making it easily-accessible to punks from all over, while these turds sit in the back with their tape collections pretending that they’re anyone fucking special? I never proclaimed myself to be some sort of punk authority, seeing that I do nothing but disparage my character all day, but I at least know that I’m not the bad guy here. I’m taking time out of my day to share music solely so it can reach people’s ears easier, why is that a reason to hate me? Oh, right, right, I’m killing punk, my bad. I forgot that this is a cult. …oh, Liquids. Forgot that’s what we’re listening to here too. At this point, I’ve kinda run out of steam for writing, but it’s fine, because everyone and their mother already knows who the Liquids are, so I don’t need to waste much breath by saying that they’re one of the best punk bands to come out of the Midwest in these past few years, period. They’re a punk group from Indiana that’s been active since 2014, featuring prominent punk-boys from the area, namely Mat Williams (or I guess as the cover spells it, “Willims”), Clay Fritz, Antonio Holguin, and maybe-maybe-not Mark Winter (as well as Kevin Taylor in the past). At this point, the band has released a demo, two EPs, an LP that’s set for a physical release later this year, and another new 7” that’s going to be released on Brazil’s “Yeah You! Records” around December. And, of course, we’ve got the fabled “Live At Mat’s House” tape, which I’ve been begging on my hands and knees for ever since it dropped in late 2015. Only now can I finally listen to this baby, and it’s everything I would’ve hoped for: live recordings of five Liquids staple-songs, including “World of Shit”, “Ants”, and “Spurs n’ Furs”, all prefacing a sixth secret slowed-down rendition of “Heart Beats True” that’s hidden at the end of side B, which only plays after two whole minutes of dead air (that I’ve edited out 90% of, for posterity). Along with those six tracks that you already know and love, there’s two renditions of the same song, which is entirely new and previously unheard of (The second take of the new song is simply an instrumental, albeit with a more-vicious intensity), and a return to an older song which was only featured on The Coneheads’ “Live! With Liquids Time” cassette. I’m not so sure on the name of that particular track: on The Coneheads tape, it’s listed as “Dark”, but on the same release, the other Liquids’ track, “Permission Slip”, was named “69”, so who knows what the actual name of the track is? I sure as hell don’t, since I don’t have a track-list to go off of here. Ah, whatever, it’s not a big deal. It’s more Liquids to tide you over until you can get your hands on that new LP or 7”, you can’t ask for much more than that. Enjoy, nerds! Thanks to Dave in his highest, we worship thee unto infinity. Fly a kite!!! !!!
Nah, I don't think bands should even be held responsible for their merch to be widely accessible like that. They're a band first, y'know? They make music for people to enjoy, and if they're not keen on going through all the effort to release a tape or vinyl, especially with a run of high count, then it should never be held against them. We're not the ones to be demanding anything from them, we should be thankful that some are even willing to do it in the first place, even if it's only limited to 50 or whatever. Plus, that's where the fun communal aspect of punk comes in, where we sit around and share tapes with one another via trading or gifting to people who can't get ahold of it by normal means. Like, I'm basically just gifting music to people, and its fun. It may be atypical when it comes to most music genres, but I think it's a tiny part of punk that makes it charming. That's just me though, I'm sure people who're only interested in getting ahold of the music in the first place can get a little peeved by it.
I live in Los Angeles and can not, for the life of me, get any physical copies of Liquids, Coneheads, etc. music. I even tried driving to Indiana to go to a show or local record shop! Didn't make it past St. Louis though, I got sick... so I mailed a letter and a check to the address written on this tape, and never got anything. I even texted that damn number, only having a vague response back. I have not turned to Discogs yet, but I'm really trying to do my punk part here. Looking forward to having the Liquids lp sell out later this year before I can order one.
