Honor Role
Rictus
LP
(Homestead Records, 1989)
Longer write-up to come . . .
In the meantime, amazing guitarist Pen Rollings came out sometime in the 90s or 00s. When Merge Records released a compilation CD of all Honor Role's releases, this song was the only one omitted, not counting the songs from the split cassette they released with Graven Image in the early 80s, Your Skull Is My Bowl.
4 biased opinions:
make it stop, oh please god make it stop........
Awesome! I used to have this album on cassette but haven't been able to find it recently, and was definitely bummed at how hard it is to find this one song online. Thanks so much.
For the record, there are two pre-discography Honor Role releases, both featuring the 3-piece lineup with Pen Rollings singing. They contributed 8 songs to the Your Skull Is My Bowl cassette, which was a split demo with 6 songs by Richmond hardcore band Graven Image on the other side. There's also a 9-song 7 inch from a year later called It Bled Like A Stuck Pig. Stuck Pig actually features a version of "Early Grave," which was later rerecorded for the Pretty Song LP, but otherwise is just as short/fast/loud as the Your Skull Is My Bowl material. The songs from the cassette were reissued about 5 years ago as the Demo 1982 7 inch, by No Way Records. If you're good at googling you can find mp3s of all 17 of those early songs floating around online. I totally recommend doing so.
Glad to be of service!
BTW, I did mention Your Skull Is My Bowl in the never-completed write-up. I'm not sure how I managed to space and leave out It Bled Like a Stuck Pig, other than I was in a hurry to get the song posted.
If you wanna get super-into-it, of course, there are also the two Battered Youth songs on The Master Tape compilation LP. ¾'s of BY went on to be in Honor Role (Bob and Steve Schick plus Chip Jones).
One of the things I was gonna mention in my never-completed write-up was Honor Role are the only band I have ever seen to leave an audience in stunned silence at the end of a performance. It was one of their final shows, at D.C. Space up in Washington. The intensity of their performance was borderline frightening, honestly. When they finished, the room was dead quiet. Not a peep. Not even a pause followed by applause. Just . . . silent.
After Honor Role, Pen went on to play with math rockers Breadwinner (named for his Ovation guitar, no doubt), improv rockers Butterglove, who also featured Rebby Sharp of the also featured here combo The Orthotonics, and instro-metallers Loincloth.
Vocalist Bob Schick went on to lead Coral after Honor Role split. They released two albums and three 7"s. I don't have the final 7", but the other four things are pretty great.
I seem to remember "Bled Like a Stuck Pig" being a pretty terrible record.
Bob Schick also went on to Dynamic Truths, who just released an album a year or two ago. Very good, very "rock" (like Honor Role), from the two tracks I've heard.
Post a Comment