Another Damned Seattle Compilation

Another Damned Seattle Compilation
Compilation album by Various artists
Released October 1991
Recorded 1990–1991
Genre Punk rock
Label Dashboard Hula Girl

Another Damned Seattle Compilation is a musical tribute to 1970s punk band The Damned, featuring tracks recorded in 1990 to 1991 by 18 Seattle area bands and released on Seattle's Dashboard Hula Girl Records.

Recording

Upon hearing Seattle pop-punk band Flop's cover of The Sweet's "Action" in 1989, Dashboard Hula Girl Records co-founder Chris Swenson and Flop bassist Paul Schurr discussed releasing a split 7" vinyl of The Sweet cover versions by their respective bands, Flop and Big Satan, Inc. Several other Seattle bands were suggested to record songs the project, and Swenson approached guitarist Kurt Bloch for possible Fastbacks and Young Fresh Fellows contributions. Resistance to the source material was met from several members of three out of the four bands, and the idea was shelved. In the following months Swenson learned of Mudhoney's recent recording at Egg Studios of "Stab Your Back" by The Damned, and quickly reinvisioned the release as a full album of Damned covers featuring only Seattle area bands.

Through the second half of 1990, 18 Seattle bands signed on to the project with song choices. In the winter of 1990-1991, 15 of the bands recorded their tracks with Jack Endino and Chris Hanzsek at Reciprocal Recording, with each band allotted 3–4 hours of recording time over several weekends. Young Fresh Fellows and Mudhoney recorded their tracks at Egg Studios, The Purdins recorded theirs at Electric Eel Studios. Three bands originally scheduled to record but not appearing on the compilation were Cat Butt, Tad, and Nirvana: Cat Butt unable to record because of the band's dissolution; Tad declining because of tour conflicts; Nirvana unable to commit due to their signing with DGC Records and Gold Mountain Entertainment in the midst of recording schedule negotiations.

An early concept of sequencing the album to tell a story in the style of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" or "Animals" albums was abandoned in favor of creating a compelling, cohesive 72 continuous minutes of music. Using burgeoning digital editing technology that allowed for experimentation with the cross-fading and timed spaces before and after each song, detailed attention was spent on to how best to make each track complement the others during the album's sequencing and mastering.

The title for the album was given by Kurt Bloch and erroneously attributed to Scott McCaughey on the album's liner notes. The album's cover artwork mimics the pie-in-the-face cover of The Damned's debut album "Damned Damned Damned", and features Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks, Young Fresh Fellows), Dan Peters (Mudhoney), Paul Schurr (Flop), Matt Wright (Gas Huffer), and Blaine Cook (The Accüsed). The cover photo and many of the interior collage and band pictures were taken by Kirk Jones.

Release and reception

The record was released on both CD and vinyl in October 1991. The CD version contained 19 songs, and the vinyl version was released with 17 songs. A limited edition gatefold colored vinyl (500 blue in US, 500 red in Germany, 500 green in UK, 500 yellow in Europe) was also issued with a bonus 7" featuring songs by Gruntruck and Motorhoney, neither of which appear on the 12" vinyl release. Dashboard Hula Girl pressed all the CDs, and entered into a contract with Musical Tragedies Records in Germany, who pressed the vinyl and distributed both versions outside the US. The CD was pressed twice for a total of 10,000 units, the black vinyl was pressed once for 5,000 units, the gatefold colored vinyl + bonus 7" was pressed once at 500 per color above.

A bootleg CD was released in Japan in 1992 on the Dog Style Rock label.

Tracks

CD version

  1. "1 of the 2" performed by The Purdins
  2. "Fan Club" performed by Young Fresh Fellows
  3. "Love Song" performed by Coffin Break
  4. "Machine Gun Etiquette" performed by Skin Yard
  5. "Suicide" performed by Gas Huffer
    • original version on B side of "Love Song" 7"
  6. "Neat, Neat, Neat" performed by The Accüsed
  7. "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" performed by Love Battery
  8. "Psychomania" performed by Motorhoney
  9. "Anti-Pope" performed by Freak
  10. "Disco Man" performed by Flop
  11. "New Rose" performed by Hammerbox
  12. "Born to Kill" performed by Derelicts
  13. "Nasty" performed by Gruntruck
    • recorded for "Nasty" episode on The Young Ones BBC television series, original version on B side of "Thanks For the Night" 7"
  14. "Stab Your Back" performed by Mudhoney
  15. "Smash It Up" performed by The Posies
  16. "Melody Lee" performed by Big Satan, Inc.
  17. "Wait for the Blackout" performed by Whitey
  18. "Hit or Miss" performed by Fastbacks
  19. "Life Goes On" performed by Young Fresh Fellows

Vinyl version

Side A

  1. "1 of the 2" performed by The Purdins
  2. "Love Song" performed by Coffin Break
  3. "Machine Gun Etiquette" performed by Skin Yard
  4. "Suicide" performed by Gas Huffer
  5. "Neat, Neat, Neat" performed by The Accüsed
  6. "I Just Can't Be Happy Today" performed by Love Battery
  7. "Wait for the Blackout" performed by Whitey
  8. "Anti-Pope" performed by Freak

Side B

  1. "Disco Man" performed by Flop
  2. "New Rose" performed by Hammerbox
  3. "Born to Kill" performed by Derelicts
  4. "Stab Your Back" performed by Mudhoney
  5. "Smash It Up" performed by The Posies
  6. "Melody Lee" performed by Big Satan, Inc.
  7. "Hit or Miss" performed by Fastbacks
  8. "Life Goes On" performed by Young Fresh Fellows

Bonus 7" single

  1. "Nasty" performed by Gruntruck
  2. "Psychomania" performed by Motorhoney

Record Labels

Dashboard Hula Girl Records DBHG 002 (USA 1991)

Musical Tragedies MT-149/150 (UK, Europe, USA - Single + Colored LP in Gatefold; non-gatefold 12" black vinyl 1991)