Like a lot of punk rockers, cassette tapes ruled my life in the 80’s and early 90’s. I didn’t have a record player and I didn’t get a cd player until a while after they were readily available. I relied on cassettes - be they legitimate releases or dubs of vinyl records or mixtapes or, the topic of today’s entry, demo tapes - to get most of my music.

FV pal O.B. recently got this cool tape player thing that digitizes cassette tape audio. He then set to digitizing some of his old demos. Here now are 2 demos for you…

Back in the late 80’s, no skate session would be complete without some punk rock tunes blasting forth from a beat up, sticker covered boom box. Whether it be classic albums from the Circle Jerks, JFA, Dead Kennedys or demos from local lights like TCO, Misunderstood, and Pointless, cassettes provided the soundtrack when carving a ditch or hitting the launch ramp. While punk rock vinyl lives on, the humble audio tape joined the 8 track in the media trash heap. Kind of sad really, because back in the day it was pretty rare that a punk band ever put out a 7 inch record, let alone a LP. So bands put a lot of effort into their demo tapes. They gave them names (none of this Demo 2004 shit), filled them with lots poorly recorded songs (10-20 tracks was the norm), and packaged the shit out of the cassettes with stickers, lyric sheets, and artwork. The demo tape was the bands statement to the world and its legacy. Unfortunately all too often, these jawns ended up eaten by a walkman or lost underneath a car seat or, horror of horrors, dubbed over with grunge rock after the owner sold out.

Luckily some of these demos have managed to survive and, thanks to ION’s realization that nerds want to digitize everything, these dust covered antiquities now have second a chance at life.

Utilizing this marvel of modern technology, Fun Vampires resurrects two nearly forgotten Delaware Valley band’s demo tapes - two tapes that when blasted on a boom box would guarantee to make any skater carve harder and ollie higher.

Failsafe Get the Point Demo

Failsafe were from boondocks of South Jersey. Back when Tabernacle was pretty much still the Pine Barrens where everyone got shitfaced on some dirt road in the woods, these guys managed to create some cool punk rock. The band was influenced by Seven Seconds, especially the vocals. The drummer went on to form NJHC legends Turning Point. I’m not sure how long Failsafe was around, but they definitely played both the Frankford Y and the legendary Steve T Art Fund Skate Jam at some kids ramp by the Burlington Center. The fantastic pre-computer cover art that looks like it was developed over a semesters worth of detentions. Warning: this demo will make you want to watch a Bones Brigade video.

Head-On Together Demo

To this day, Head-On are Delaware’s greatest hardcore band. Better than Infection, Walleye, Stormwatch, Dunamis, Boy Sets Fire, and anything involving Darren Walters. This band was years ahead of their time, combining traditional straight-edge music and themes with more experimental, acoustic tracks with proto-emo lyrics. And tons of echo. The intro to “Land of The Too Cool” still rules, just replace mall with Myspace and the shit is relevant as ever. The drummer went on to play in No Escape.