Over the edge

Just yesterday I got my new Personal & The Pizza's new 7" on Bubbledumb records. The new 7" has the song "Brass Knuckles" on it, which I think is their best jam yet. It's a Ramones worship riff and has similarly inspired lyrics. Most of their tunes are Stooges/Ramones rips, but about pizza. I wanted to write this post in praise of Bubbledumb Records and their numerous releases. All of their releases thus far are top notch, and I feel capture the musicians finest moments.

The Trashies - Life Sucks LP is the very first release on this label, and it's pretty lo-fi type toilet rock. Not exactly in the same vein as GG (a lot more playful), but there are several homages to him throughout the album (including him saying, "I hate you mother fuckers" from Todd Philips Hated). I feel like most people often overlook this particular release primarily due to the fact that there are still copies of this record floating around, and people only like "super lmtd edition shit spackled vinyl" brosef. The song "Plasma Date" (as featured on the Myspace page) is probable the finest moment of the album, but "I'm High, So What?" and "Sweat Pants Boner" are also pretty awesome jams. The Trashies seem to be very reminiscent of Pere Ubu, particularly with the vocals. Probable not my most favorite release, but a good album for $9.99.




The second release is the infamous NoBunny LP that got everyone in a shit fit. For those of you who don't know, this LP was originally being sold directly from Bubbledumb, who is run completely by Dave, and more or less out of his apartment. This prooved to be a very difficult project that required Dave to glue photo copied album covers on pre-existing discount bargin bin record sleeves, spray painting them, and then putting the records in. While most people wouldn't find this particular project to be an issue, the demand and hype behind the album resulted in flooded orders by record junkies (who we know are way worse then other junkies). In addition, many of the LPs were pressed at United Pressing Plant, which is a notorious pressing plant for pressing records on shitty vinyl and then shipping out warped records. Some copies of this album appear on pink vinyl, and I would someday love to own a copy of the original Bubbledumb press (I have the 1-2-3-4 GO! reissue, and this marks the only Bubbledumb release I don't have). This record came out in early 2008, and some people claim to still not have copies of this particular record, although I think some people are just trying to benefit from an unfortunate situation (since Dave tries and ships out all the remaining orders). This particular record is the primary reason why most people consider Bubbledumb Records to be a poorly run label, even though every release afterwards has gone pretty smoothly. In my personal opinion, the only reason why people still bitch is because they can't get their grubby hands on the new Bubbledumb releases and that means "poor distribution." I find that claim to be pretty funny considering I've somehow managed to get a hold of everything else released thus far with relative ease and I live in Portland.

I don't really know what's left to say about this record? "I Am A Girlfriend" is probable my favorite jam, but "Mess Me Up" is also another Nobunny classic. The cover of "Somewhere New" by the Yolks is a good cover, however I find the original to be a thousand times better. Great Ramones worship type music that is so much more than that at the same time. Classic of our time for sure. 1-2-3-4 Go! Records decided to reissue the Nobunny LP (in the same year of it's release) due to the dilema behind the record and the high demand the record had and was selling for on ebay. I landed my hands on the reissue that was on yellow/gold wax (300 copies) included with a live NoBunny cd titled Live Love.

The third release on Bubbledumb is the Eric and The Happy Thoughts 7" that is a pretty remarkable piece of music. This is one of the very few groups that despite all the static and lo-fi dynamics that make up this 7" that I can actually hear through it and completely adore. "Never Gonna Do It" and "Indiana Girls" are the two better tracks, although "Ride, Ride, Ride" is still a very good track on its own as well. This record is pure pop. Simple chord progressions that rely whole heartedly on the wonderful melodies. I really do enjoy this record.





The fourth release on Bubbledumb is my favorite and happens to be the very reason for finding Bubbledumb records oh so long ago. Sometime ago in 2008, I stumbled upon the Hunx & His Punx myspace where I had heard "Hey Rocky" for this first time. I thought to myself that it was a wonderful song and that I'd love to pick up the record someday. Unfortunately, Hunx hadn't done any deals at this point with any labels and the "Hey Rocky" single wouldn't come out till close to a year later. Hunx would release his Rob's House "Gimme Gimme Back Your Love/You Don't Like Rock And Roll" single and Bachelor "Crusin" single prior to this release. In addition to this single, I have every Hunx single to date, and he has been one of my favorite new artists to come from this current Garage/Punk craze as of late. Great Ramones worship punk fused with the Ronnettes sung by the gayest/punkest guy in Rock and Roll. I fucking love it. I finally met Hunx at the PDX East End show a about three weeks ago where he recognized me from myspace and asked, "Are you Kerbstomp?" I was pretty shocked that he would even recognize me. That gave me a pretty good laugh, and ended up buying a T-Shirt and a pin for $12 bucks. Easily the best Hunx song in my book and probable my favorite Bubbledumb release to date.



While I don't have the Poppets 7" yet (yea, so I lied I don't exactly have ALL the releases), I do plan on getting my hands on one VERY soon assuming that Green Noise gets it. Either way, I'll end up searching around online for it until I can find one. From what I've heard on myspace, this 7" sounds to be very promising.

The most recent release (done in conjunction with the Poppets) is the new "Brass Knuckles" 7" by Personal and the Pizza's. I've already touched on this one I know, but hot damn is this song sweet. I cannot wait to see these guys at SMMR BMMR (assuming they are still planning on playing), and I also have every release of these guys to date. I ordered this 7" directly from Personal, and he included a nice hand written letter with it. They also have an extremely limited tour 7" split with Coconut Coolouts that I plan on getting from them hopefully directly after their tour with them, because the song from this upcoming 7" is golden too. Check out the video below, it's the music video to "Brass Knuckles"!