THE SKATE CLASSIC VINYL FIND
Yeah, sometimes it pays to get up early. Recently I found these goodies at the flea market for a rather fair price. But before you get overly envious, the ex-owner stored those in an extremely humid environment in basement in Brasil so the records are not exactly mint anymore, with the exception of the NO MERCY which is the best of the three anyway. So I spent my weekend re-discovering the greatness of some old Venice skate bands. Too bad the guy did not also have a mouldy copy of the first BEOWÜLF LP for me to complete the package. That record has got to have some of the worst lyrics ever. It is also a runner up for best non-SUICIDAL TENDENCIES band from that era. Out of the three bands NO MERCY, EXCEL and BEOWÜLF the "Widespread Bloodshed" LP is my favourite. At the time they were Mike Muir's best band and way better than the SUICIDAL TENDENCIES stuff and if I remember correctly the guys were recruited to the ST team as the band headed for more (rock) stardom.
I remember when an old friend of mine in Berlin had the "Welcome to Venice" compilation and taped it for me. This must've been around 1986 and we were eagerly waiting for new SUICIDAL songs after their stellar first LP. On the "Welcome to Venice" compilation they are one of the weaker bands and it was the first time for me to hear the other three (EXCEL, NO MERCY, BEOWÜLF). Back then EXCEL was my favourite. Almost ten years later when I was touring in Europe with the Vancouver band STRAIN and we spoke of the musical greatness of NO MERCY and luckily a few days later we stayed at a friend's place who had the LP so we taped it and then repeatedly listened to it in the van. Absolutely great music for driving long distances! So fucking evil -- E-V-I-L!
The EXCEL "Split Image" LP you can see above included the well mouldy flyer for EXCEL merchandise -- as all Suicidal Records releases had flyers for merchandise like skateboards or shirts. Back in the day I sent them some hard earned cash for two shirts which I never received. So Dan of EXCEL, if you read this (yeah right!), you owe me 20+ bucks -- with interest.... or two shirts. We spoke about it at your gig at the ECSTACY in Berlin on your first tour. There is much debate about which of the first two EXCEL LPs is better. Somehow I still prefer the slightly rawer debut which sounds somehow unfinished musically.
Labels: excel, flea market, no mercy, skating, suicidal, venice, vinyl
