I think the name of the record says it all. For those of you unfamiliar with THE ABSENTEES, they were a fairly obscure punk band from Long Beach, CA in the early 80s. They came out with a single, "Tryin' To Mess With Me b/w FUM" in 1981 and were since forgotten. That is, until their song "Tryin' To Mess With Me" was put on Killed By Death #7 (if you're unfamiliar with the KBD comps, do yourself a favor and get off my blog. Then promptly kill yourself) in the early 90s, thus creating a shitstorm of record dweebs going to all ends of the earth to get their slimy phalanges on a copy of it. Good luck finding it nowadays, there was only 200 released and they go for about a grand a pop. What we have here are some studio outtakes from '81. Little known fact: Randy Scott played drums in this band and eventually went on to join MODERN WARFARE, the greatest fucking band of all time. From Mr. Scott himself: "Don't be afraid to ride that floor tom sometimes. That's what I did on the 45 recording of 'Tryin' To Mess With Me,' when I started with THE ABSENTEES. Jello Biafra liked it enough to drive down to Long Beach to get the record back in the day. Others accused me of ripping off THE DAMNED and their song 'New Rose.' All music is taken from previous work and changed here and there. Joke?" Indulge yourselves.
4 Previously Unreleased Punk Rock Faves From 1981
