Get to Work

Fresh Meat was a band. Fresh Meat are no more. Fresh Meat hated a lot of stuff. Fresh Meat flipped a merch table of a touring band one time when I saw them. Fresh Meat put GG Alin on one of their t-shirts. Fresh Meat toured. Fresh Meat destroyed. Fresh Meat were awesome.

Included are the Breathing Problems 7 inch, the Fashionable Idiots 7 inch and the Summer Blowout Demo which is the entire catalog, minus the LP which never was released, except in tape format. All rip.

Fresh Meat

Check it out and track down both records on their respective labels, but the Summer Blowout tape might be harder to come by. Still patiently waiting for my copy of the Hair LP tape. The mail must be slow.

Out of My Head

Anxiety. Paranoia. Hate. Reclusion. Garbage. Asshole. If Josh's choice of words for some of the titles to Middle America's songs weren't a good enough indication of what you were getting yourself into with the band, give one song a listen and you'll figure it out pretty quickly. Harsh, negative and depressive hardcore with an early 80s vibe that left you feeling, surprisingly, a whole lot better after listening. Middle America sprang out of the LV scene putting on some killer live shows that were as short as they were intense. If my memory serves me, the one time I caught them, Josh ended up inside of a trashcan by the end of the set. They managed to pull off a demo, a seven inch on Home Invasion Records, a seven inch on Fashionable Idiots, and a tour with Fresh Meat before playing their final show in August of 2009.

Depending on how you look at it, the final show was either a disappointment or exactly how they wanted it. They played first on an outdoor, all day festival, where they were at least ten years younger than most of the bands. There were benches and due to the early time slot, there was literally no one standing up front. To me it was a complete bummer, because to me, the band was so good, but it didn't make them hold back in the least. The final set was exactly as it should have been, short, brutal and intense. They covered "Sick People" and it was incredibly perfect, and made me so happy, despite the lack of crowd reaction. I took the photo above during their final breakdown and really hope that the video from that set surfaces some day.

Fashionable Idiots still has copies of the "Scars" 7 inch available and I highly recommend grabbing one, before you are kicking yourself while searching on eBay for one in a few years.
I am pretty sure the Home Invasion Record can be found to purchase with a little effort searching around the various distros on the web. Track them down. Josh was always super nice in hooking me up with MA stuff and I want people to check them out and be as stoked as I was on them.

The link below contains the following:

Middle America Demo
1. I Hate You
2. I Hate Myself
3. Elitist Asshole
4. Regurgitated Garbage
5. Hard To Avoid
6. All the Same
7. Live Set from Jan's Room

Scars 7 Inch
1. Every Night
2. Reclusion/ Scars

S/T 7 Inch
1. It Repeats/ Out of My Head
2. Anxiety/ Scraped/Paranoia

MIDDLE AMERICA

Big Plans

I've been digging a lot of the Fashionable Idiots Records releases as of late. I hate to say it, but I just happened to order this Condominium seven inch as an add on, but I am very glad I did because I've been listening to "Barricade" a lot ever since. The track reminds me a lot of Black Flag with the chugging bass intro into the screaming guitars and vocals going from talking to howling. "Big Plans" is the b-side and is good, but "Barricade" is definitely the stand out for me. It's really good and you should check them out. Then again, what do I know?

http://www.fashionableidiots.com/