How Could Hell Be Any Worse?

 Eighty-D - First and Second Demos (2002-2003) Eighty-D was a punk ska band formed around 2001 or so by some friends of mine at Central High School where I went in Philadelphia. There were different early line-ups but Billy played guitar and sang, Sharky played drums, Adam played bass, Rich sang (not on the demo) and Billy's cousin whose name I don't remember played lead guitar. I was pretty good friends with Billy and when he played me their first demo, I was blown away by how good of a songwriter he was. It was during an era when there was a lot of really good ska coming out mixed with pretty aggressive overly distorted guitars ala Against All Authority, Link-80 and Leftover Crack. And Eighty-D was definitely in their moment. Unfortunately, the only track title I can remember from the first demo is track 1, "Leroy X" but I still love this whole demo that was probably recorded some time in 2002. I did some mastering on it to tighten it up a bit. TRACKLIST 1. Leroy X ...

 The Town Managers - More Kingsessing Sessions (1998) [2023 Remaster] As someone who was pretty active in the Philly punk scene, I regret that I never once got to see The Town Managers live and I don't have copies of either of their EP's (Yet!). When they were in their prime, I was busy being in 5th grade and, thus, unlikely to have stumbled into any West Philly basement shows, much as I would have liked in hindsight. In the wake of the Dead Milkmen's initial breakup in 1995, prolific and brilliant guitarist Joe Genaro (or Joe Jack Talcum) already had several new projects going on including Butterfly Joe and Touch Me Zoo. Then he formed the punk/funk/rock trio The Town Managers with Brian Michael (who played in Umiak! and has played with Joe on MANY musical projects) and Chris Peelout (from the band Firepussy and, later, The Low Budgets with Joe.)   Note: The Low Budgets are the single greatest non-edible thing to come out of Philadelphia. Actually, come to think of it, ...

 Downhill Frenzy - ...Relax, It's Just a Demo (2001)  When I started high school in 2001, there was a short list of bands known to be made up of members of our school, Central High in Philadelphia. The guy I knew from this band (I'm pretty sure) was named Adam and I know he was one of the horn players. I'm sure he's the one who gave me this demo. I can't be certain if I ever saw them play but I know that around the time of this release they had started playing a couple of high-profile ska shows. The one that comes to mind is King Django. I do love this 6-song demo though. It clearly sounds 80% like Less Than Jake but it's got really great energy and the band is pretty tight. I always wanted to see if they released anything else and how I could get it. If anybody knows anything about this band, please tell me in the comments. The copy I have became pretty damaged, and I had to repair the audio and then I did a little bit of mastering and created an album cover. I...

 Kill Hands - Demo (2006) So this is a demo that was handed to me while I was doing live sound and recording in Philly at a place regrettably named Philafunk Live when I was about 20 and in college. Joe Hardcore who mainly worked for R5 Productions ended up setting up a lot of high-end punk shows there and I ended up getting to help out with live sound, video and recording for bands like Near Dark, None More Black, Have Heart and Shai Hulud. I'm assuming I actually saw this band play and then asked for their demo but I can't really remember. All I know is that the two tracks on this long-lost demo sound amazing. I did almost nothing really to touch them up. This punk/alternative/post-hardcore band seemingly vanished into thin air before they could take off on what seems like could have been an amazing career. I went to their myspace page but those don't seem to work correctly anymore. Other than that I can't find a single shred of evidence online about what these musici...

 Twin Peaks - Pit of Doom [Demos and Unreleased Tracks] (2023) Twin Peaks is the name I've performed under for the last 20 years. I know that other bands have come up since with moderate levels of success but I, distinctly, am Twin Peaks. These songs were all recorded between 2006 and 2012 although I recently added the vocals to the song "Hip Star" which was supposed to be a track on what would have been a Twin Peaks chiptune record. But then, instead, I just decided to do a whole separate 8-Bit band called Burlington Hate Factory. Tracks 2 and 8 were demos for the album "Dang High Volt (2006) but most of the songs (Tracks 1, 4-7 and 9-11) were demos for what would become the album "It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To" (2009) that my friend Evan dug out of the digital dumpster. That album was actually recorded 4 times before we got it right (And Steve, the producer, wants to record it again). I used to make "demos" for my albums that w...