Ragman Records Archives

Page_5_Girl-I_Try_Hard.zip (43.0 Mb)

My other “unauthorized” extra Page 5 Girl release, I decided to put together this little EP because the version of “I Try Hard” recorded for Chick Capsule originally extended into a rather interesting noisy jam that was then edited out, and I thought the full version was kinda cool and I wanted to put it out. A couple other interesting oddities are thrown in as B-sides.

Page_5_Girl-The_Night_of_Psycho_E.zip (23.2 Mb)

Page_5_Girl-House_of_Fat_Ladies.zip (38.3 Mb)

Two early Page 5 Girl cassettes each consisting mainly of a live recording. The Night of Psycho E chronicles the first Page 5 Girl live show, in the basement of Tyler Crew’s mom’s house, with Switchstance. Steve plays some bass along with vocals here, and is backed up by Tyler Crew and Caruso, who were also in Switchstance. This makes for interesting, stripped-down, two-bass/no-guitar arrangements, but was also the first that Switchstance frontman Eric Sterrett had heard of Tyler and Caruso’s little side project, flying into a jealous rage over Steve’s usurping of his rhythm section, giving this tape its title. Having only four songs worked up, they played them twice. The original cassette also ended with What If The Man? performing “Stone Cold Loaded” (their only live performance ever), but that is omitted here by some silly arbitrary decision of mine years ago. It should be found with Avocado as a bonus track.

The majority of House Of Fat Ladies is a rather raw early performance by the well-known Potter/Caruso/Peck/Hoffman lineup at a house party in the basement of the house where my friend Jon Simmons had previously lived with his mom. Who lived there when this party was put on I don’t know. An early Rob Jenson band, Showgirls, also performed at this party, and the show was promoted largely through phone calls, causing some parents to become upset over answering messages which they thought were inviting their kids to come watch dirty movies.

Page_5_Girl-Shot.zip (26.1 Mb)

Page_5_Girl-Vacations_in_Space.zip (29.6 Mb)

Steve Potter’s first Page 5 Girl releases, recorded mainly by himself on karaoke machine with Caruso occasionally handling the bass parts. The Shot EP was the “main” release, whereas Vacations In Space was intended as a companion collection of oddities and stuff that wasn’t good enough (the cover art even declares, “this tape is a waste of money”). There’s a suave cool about Steve’s solo stuff that never fully came through in the full band lineup that came together later, but that phase of Page 5 Girl was awesome in other ways.

No_Consensus-What_Stupid_Does.zip (90.7 Mb)

In a way, it’s kind of a shame that this Ragman classic didn’t get posted here earlier, but then again it would have been equally a shame to have used up all the good material early on and be coasting on oddities and goof-offs now. This is where things really started to get pseudo-serious. An extensive full-color insert, printed front and back, custom-made stick-on labels on the cassettes, lots of copies home-dubbed up front.

Some No Consensus fans still consider this our best album; it’s hard to say for sure since it’s hard to even compare one No Consensus album with another, and here in particular, the songs are all over the map — genre goofs are still a big part of the mix, whether it’s punk rock (“Society Sux, “Bunk”), power ballads (“Johnny”), or goth (“Ben’s Touch”), but there are a number of interesting, more sincerely undertaken stylistic diversions of our own — simple folky tales (“Eric”) to Sonic Youth-esque noise freakouts (“Pretty, She Said”) and so many interesting points in between that you almost have to hear it to believe it. This was a young band going through a sudden creative explosion, and less than fully concerned with whether anyone was taking notice because we seriously felt like it would never end. Arguably, it never did, right up to the band’s demise, but after the uncertain first steps of Telepathic Etiquette, this was the initial burst. And in this case, two previously unreleased extra tracks.

By the way, the sooner someone loans me a copy of the (amazing) cover-insert from Sun Shines Like Tomorrow, the sooner that excellent follow-up (and a ton of sweet bonus tracks besides) gets posted here. So if you have one, comment here and give me you email address.

So I’m playing in Why Make Clocks these days, and come to find out that the drummer, Will Tarbox, was one of Exit Drills’ few “fans” in Des Moines, where we played two, maybe three times — both times at a little DIY venue called The Fallout Shelter, and once of which was set up by the band he was in at the time, Mondo Cane. I remember that show having something like 14 bands crammed onto it and Mondo Kani was the only one I really liked.

So anyway, here is most of my stash of Exit Drills live recordings. Missing from this is E.D.I.T.H.’s first show, which was at Stebs with Luxt, but I do have that — just need to transfer some of it from cassette yet.

By the way, I’m in search of anyone who still has a copy of the “Broke-Ass Demo 2002″ CD-R — the one that has the same picture on the cover as Flight Attendants “Nightmares.” If you have even just mp3s of this, get in touch with me, because there are tracks on it that I simply don’t have anymore.

E.D.I.T.H.-Stacy_Is_Legal.zip (19 Mb)

Exit_Drills-Live_at_Question_Mark_12-29-2000.zip (27 Mb)

Exit_Drills-Live_at_the_Reverb_11-30-01.zip (50 Mb)

Exit_Drills-Live_at_the_Reverb_6-21-2002.zip (22 Mb)

Exit_Drills-Live_at_The_Reverb_3-21-03.zip (20 Mb)

Exit_Drills-Live_at_the_Reverb_5-3-03.zip (20 Mb)