THE ATTICA UNDERGROUND - Polarity Of Personalities 7"

In high school I spent a lot of time hanging out at Ernie November, the record store in downtown Mankato, MN at the time. I bought a lot of records and CD's. I bugged the employees a lot. I especially bugged them about hiring me when I turned 18. Eventually I turned 18 and graduated high school and they hired me. My first boss there was a Sioux Falls, South Dakota transplant named Erik Torkelson.

It's not very often you have a boss in any job that is into the same records as you, and for my first record store boss he was excellent for recommending some bands based on the stuff I was into. One of the bands he informed me about was his old hardcore band from 1997 in Sioux Falls called The Attica Underground, which he was the vocalist in alongside drummer Becky Hanten, who also played drums in Cadillac Blindside, The Book Of Dead Names, and The Kill In Me.

He played the 7" for me at work one day and upon hearing the beginning of the first song on side A, I knew I had to track down this 7". It wasn't long before I came across a used copy at the Ernie November store in Sioux Falls, SD while on a roadtrip to see a show and I've recommended this 7" to many friends since then, although it's not easy to find by any means, unfortunately. Erik eventually quit the record store and moved back to Sioux Falls to join Examination Of The... as their second (and eventually only) bass player.

Aside from Erik and Becky, two of the members of The Attica Underground played previously in the Sioux Falls band Jedi, which was the opening band of the first punk show I ever attended (I'll upload their 7" sometime in the future). The 7" also features backup vocals from Shawn Glassford, who is currently in Starfucker.


THE ATTICA UNDERGROUND - Polarity Of Personalities 7" (Counterfeit Records)

01. Identify Misconceptions
02. Tales From Sector Zero
03. 77th Encounter
04. FPC

VIVA KNIEVAL - self-titled 7"

Without a doubt, Kathleen Hanna is one of the most important female figures in punk rock. Bikini Kill is one of my favorite riot grrrl bands. But few people are aware that before Bikini Kill Kathleen Hanna fronted a short-lived Olympia band called Viva Knieval.

The four-song 7" from Viva Knieval was released in 1990 on Ultra-Sound Records. I'm unsure if any of the other members aside from Kathleen Hanna went on to or were in notable bands, aside form bassist Zeb (a.k.a. Louise Olsen) who prior to Viva Knieval played with The Go Team (The Olympia, WA band with Calvin Johnson, Tobi Vail, Kurt Cobain, etc... not the current UK band).

Viva Knieval went on a two-month tour and when they returned to Olympia after tour, it was then Kathleen Hanna hooked up with Tobi Vail and started Bikini Kill and if you don't know the story from there, you can buy the Bikini Kill catalog at the Kill Rock Stars website. I recommend the three 7"s (of course) or the compilation CD which collects all three singles, aptly titled "The Singles", as a good starting point.

To my knowledge this four-song self-titled 7", recorded in Minneapolis, is the band's only recorded output, released after they disbanded, and pressed in an edition of 1000 copies. This is pretty raw and there's some vocal parts that you have to push through, but overall it is a great document of a female musician who would become one of the most influential figures in the riot grrrl movement of the 90's.

NOTE: The track listing on the back cover and the center labels have the order of the B-side songs switched. The track listing below and the order of the MP3's is from the center label song order.


VIVA KNIEVAL - self-titled 7" (Ultra-Sound Records)

01. Boy Poison
02. Die Vermin
03. Dog
04. Kalvinater

SMATCH - self-titled 7"

The perfect first entry to my obscure 7" mp3 blog is one of my favorite 7"s for more than a decade; a four-song 7" by a short-lived band called Smatch, from Flint, MI.

Smatch played at the skatepark in my hometown of Mankato, MN. They played when I first started going to shows, and it was all new to me. I don't remember too many specifics of the show, but they had a 7" and were giving stickers away. Unfortunately I didn't get the 7" at the show, but came across a used copy of the 7" at Ernie November, the local record store in downtown Mankato, at the time. I bought the 7", took it home, and discovered the song with swearing in the lyrics was scratched out on the vinyl. I took it back the next day and got my money back. Turns out the kid who sold that record (along with some others) was a super-Christian and couldn't listen to music with swearing, so he took a sharp object and scratched those songs out of all his vinyl. Ridiculous, right?? A while later convinced a friend to sell me his copy of the 7" after getting sick of the cassette I had someone dub me from their 7".

Somewhere over the past 14 years I obtained a second copy of the 7" too, as a back-up, without the insert, but I don't remember where. The 7" has a cool "DIY" cover, it comes with a few different band logo stickers and a few different pictures of the band and you can make your own cover. I never did, being the record collector nerd that I am, of course.

I don't know much else about this band, unfortunately. At some point I was able to locate a compilation of Michigan bands that had a song from them, and the compilation was dedicated to the singer of the band who was killed in a car accident, and thus ending the band's career.

SMATCH - self-titled 7" (self-released)

01. I Am Nowhere (You Are Nothing)
02. Gene
03. Pygmy Remover
04. Dakota