PHOTO ARCHIVE UPDATE 12/29/09

Collapse, Bad Yodelers, Iceburn's Reunion, Reviver, Cool Your Jets, Flyers and more... here.

THE REAL MCKENZIES FEATURING KARL ALVAREZ

Candaian folk-punks, The Real McKenzies, will release a CD/DVD of live recordings in the near future. Those live recordings just so happen to feature Karl Alvarez of Massacre Guys/Bad Yodelers/Descendents/All fame.

PHOTO ARCHIVE UPDATE: BAD YODELERS, BRAINSTORM, SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, COOL YOUR JETS, DEAD KENNEDYS IN SLC

Head over to the Salt Lake Hardcore Photo Archive! If you're a Flickr user, add us to your contacts: grudgecityhc@yahoo.com.

BAD YODELERS TRIBUTE PAGE ADDS NEW SONGS

www.myspace.com/badyodelers

THE SALT FLAT COMP: AN SLHC MUST-HAVE

Lumberjack, Bad Yodelers, Decomposers, Waterfront, Riverbed Jed, Stoneface, Makeshift and Mayberry

Download it over at the Salt Lake Hardcore Blog.

NEW TUNES ADDED TO THE MYSPACE PAGE

Bad Yodelers, Waterfront, Climb, Lifeless and Cherem covering The Smiths' "Meat is Murder."

HERE

SALT LAKE HARDCORE 101: BAD YODELERS

• Bad Yodelers on MySpace
• Order Bad Yodelers records here.
  

The Salt Lake Hardcore scene has become known for integrating experimental metallic heaviness and dark melody into traditional hardcore punk. This began with the work of one band: Bad Yodelers.

The earliest incarnation of the Bad Yodelers played its first show in 1983 in the basement of Jon Shuman's house (bassist of Massacre Guys) alongside the earliest incarnation of another classic Salt Lake act, Victims Willing.

In the same year, the band recorded its first demo with its second singer, Brian Szugye. The demo featured a cover of Dr. Seuss' "One Fish Two Fish" and landed the Yodelers a now-historic opening spot with Discharge at the Salt Lake Indian Center. Szugye left the band before the show though and his replacement, Norman Frazier, dove off the stage during the band's final song, knocking his front teeth out on impact. Road manager Kevin Golding took over vocals after the show.

[On a totally tangential but interesting note, Kevin Golding was a California native who moved to Provo with his family in the early 80s, played with Bad Yodelers and Napier's Bones, and booked a number of shows at the Salt Lake Indian Center for acts including Black Flag, Battalion of Saints, Husker Du, and Minor Threat! These are shows of legend. Husker Du showed up late, after most of the crowd had left thinking the show would be canceled. They played to a handful of people, were psyched to receive $20 and used it to buy beer and pizza for all. Battalion of Saints played to an equally small crowd and threatened to beat Kevin up for it. Back to the Yodelers.]

1984 saw the release of an eleven-song cassette. The record was locally-lauded and won over a large fan base along the Wasatch Front. The Yodelers also set off on their first tour of the Rocky Mountain West. Golding left the band later in the year and Karl Alvarez of Massacre Guys became the band's 5th frontman.

Alvarez's arrival marked a shift in the band's style from its punk roots to a more experimental, metallic sound. The band recorded nine songs with Alvarez and toured extensively before he left the band to join melodic punk legends, the Descendents/ALL. A long-time friend Dow Patten fronted the band briefly before setting sail for San Francisco. Laura Jones, who went on to front Salt Lake act Commonplace, played two shows with the band before splitting due to creative differences.

In 1986, the band acquired its 8th-and-final vocalist, Terrance DH of The Stench. The band signed with European label Semaphore Records soon after and released the album, I Wonder, in 1989. I Wonder introduced the world to the polished version of the Yodelers' new hardcore/punk/thrash metal amalgam. They toured Europe the same year.

1991's Window saw the band moving toward a more refined post-hardcore/rock sound that would carry into 1993's South and the subsequent formation of the members' next project/re-naming, Season of the Spring. SOTS released a powerfully-emotional, self-titled album in 1993 but sadly disbanded shortly after.

Terrance DH shifted his focus to the band Magstatic, and now plays with Danger Hailstorm. Guitarist Mark Allen is now an assistant professor of psychology at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Karl Alvarez continues to play with the Descendents and All. He's also played with acts the likes of Gogol Bordello, The Last, Underminer, The Vultures, The Real McKenzies, and The Lemonheads.

SALT LAKE HARDCORE 101: THE STENCH

• The Stench on MySpace
• Order The Stench records here.

Renowned for their surfer looks and unique melodic hardcore-rock sound, The Stench kept the city's scene alive through the late '80s.

The band released six albums -- 86's Zigamewa (Raunch), 87's Crazy Moon (Running Records/Cargo), 88's Saltair (Running Records/Cargo), 89's Old Style (Mysophobic), and 90's S/T (Leone Trust) and Four Before (Flatline Records) -- before disbanding in 1993.

Songwriter Terrance D.H. honed his singing skills with The Stench before moving on to front Bad Yodelers, Magstatic, Daisy Grey and various solo endeavors. He continues to release solo music and leads local rock band Danger Hailstorm, while enjoying a successful career as a music engineer at Salt Lake's Counterpoint Studios. His resume includes work with artists ranging from Air Supply to Sum 41.

The Stench reunited in 2007 alongside fellow Salt Lake old-timers Iceburn and Clear for SLUG Magazine's 18th Anniversary. Slug released a DVD about the reunion show titled, Making A Scene, that can be purchased at numerous local spots and online here.

SALT LAKE HARDCORE 101: MASSACRE GUYS

• Massacre Guys on MySpace

What do the Descendents, Speedway Cafe, CBGB and the roots of Salt Lake hardcore have in common?

Massacre Guys

The band began as the brainchild of two Arizona natives, Jon and James Shuman, during the summer of 1979. After penning a fictional zine called "The Leisure Cambodian," the brothers decided to make one of their fictional bands, The Massacre Guys, a reality. They moved north in 1980, and enlisted Salt Lake's Stephen O' Reilly (a.k.a.  Stephen Egerton or Steve-O), James Owens (a.k.a. Jimmy Germ Warfare), and Paul Maritsas to bring one of Salt Lake's most legendary hardcore punk bands to life.

Many of the band's early shows took place at the house-party pad of Steve McAllister, located on 21st South and Redwood Road. Bands like the MGs, The Boards, Atheist, Plants and Angles would play the basement every weekend. That is until a gang of rednecks crashed one of the parties, clashed with a gang of skinheads from Long Beach, and someone ended up getting stabbed. A separate account his it that an out-of-place hippy pissed off a skin from San Francisco and received said stabbing. McAllister would later relocate to NYC to become the sound guy at CBGBs.

The Massacre Guys released two cassettes between 1980-81, Bloody Baggage and Bad Medicine. The latter was recorded by Steve McAllister who would later become the sound man at CBGB. Paul Maritsas left the band shortly after these recordings for college, and eventually founded the Speedway Cafe. Jimmy Germ left the band around this time as well. The Guys enlisted close-friend Karl Alvarez to fill Paul's spot, along with Paul Krowas on 2nd guitar and Phil Miller of local reggae/ska act 004 on saxophone.

In 1982, the band recorded "twenty more songs in a hippy's cedar-paneled basement on the east bench of Salt Lake County." Toxic Shock Records released six of these as the Behind the Eight Ball EP. Tours alongside legendary acts such as The Dead Kennedys, JFA, TSOL, Bad Religion and The Faction followed. In 1984, the MGs entered the studio again to record the Rider EP for Unclean Records (which included an early version of the song "Schizophrenia" that would later appear on the Descendents' 1987 album, ALL).

How would that song end up on a Descendents record? We're getting there.

In 1985 the MGs began to dissolve. Paul Krowas moved to Kansas and Stephen to Virginia. The remaining members enlisted other local artists for a handful of shows over the next year, but it simply was not the same. Stephen returned to SLC for a final farewell show with none-other-than Black Flag at the Salt Lake Community Center, after which the band went on an "indefinite hiatus."

Karl Alvarez sang for Bad Yodelers for awhile before relocating to Southern California to join Stephen Eggerton in legendary melodic punk band the Descendents (there you go). Alvarez has also played with Gogol Bordello, The Last, Underminer, The Vultures,  and The Real McKenzies. He recently joined the reunited Lemonheads. Eggerton runs Armstrong Recording Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Jon Shuman went on to play with the Boxcar Kids, Wonder Crash, A.U. (with brother Jamie), the Qualitones, Dollymops and PCP Berzerker. He is currently working on a rock musical. Guitarist Paul Krowas now plays with Kansas City's The Throttlers. As we mentioned, Maritsas went on to form the Speedway Cafe and also played in the band Angle. Various members of Massacre Guys can be found playing MG songs around Salt Lake City to this day in the band Die Shuman Bruder.

The Massacre Guys reunited in the summer of 2009 for a benefit show. Videos from the reunion can be found on YouTube.