Let's Build A Carcass

Koen and Stinky recently shared compilation LP's that were formative influences.  The compilations that shaped my tastes (more than any album) were mixtapes.  Growing up in the suburbs without older siblings, I started exploring outside the musical mainstream by trading tapes with penpals, who I found via fanzines.

The Miami Carcass was a fanzine based in Oxford, Ohio (home of Miami University), and the guy who ran it (whose name I have regrettably forgotten) was kind enough to share advice on starting my own zine as well as sending me tapes.  It was 1981, so a lot of the first wave punk bands were gone.  Hardcore and anarchopunk were on the rise. "No Values" and "No Government" were nihilistic, raw and revelatory.

I was buying vinyl, tapes and zines by mail (and traded zines after starting my own).  There were so many records I wanted to hear, but I couldn't afford them all.  I asked my friend at The Miami Carcass for Crass, The Fall, and Adam & The Ants, because I had read about them in the World Update issue of Slash.  I also asked about records that were reviewed in the Carcass.  A couple of Ohio bands (Toxic Reasons and Dementia Precox) were on these mixtapes, as well as some wonderful surprises like P-Nissarna's pisstake of Plastic Bertrand.  

My interest in The Fall, Rough Trade and San Francisco punk begins here.  Let's Build A Carcass (today's share) features most of what was on those mixtapes. 

PREVIOUSLY ON JONDERBLOG: WQFM'S "Q-Wave", a Milwaukee radio show that also helped me discover new wave, punk and local bands.