If you are going to pay homage to Little Rock punk you would have to include this band....Substance was actually from North Little Rock (Sherwood to be exact) the reason I mention this is because I actually grew up in NLR. I came across these guys through drummer Colin Brooks' brother Justin. He played this demo that I have posted tonight and it was a life changing experience. I had not had my radar set to the punk rock for very long and didn't even know that it even existed in Arkansas. The fact that there were local bands putting on their own shows, booking tours and releasing records (especially at 15-18) was amazing to me. I hung out with Justin a lot through skateboarding, went to many shows together. As I mentioned before Substance was actually my first punk rock show. I bought this demo from Colin for about 3 bucks and have had it ever since. This band formed out of the ashes of the Numbskulz and Step By Step. I used to watch these guys practice sometimes and play shows (all the guys had a lot of energy especially Shoban and Colin) and it was always amazing. The memories of walking in to the Brooks house and hearing Colin practicing is still fresh in my mind. Substance released a second demo which had this demo plus some new songs on it. I'm not sure why they put the first demo on with the new songs rather than releasing a second demo, I'm guessing it was a money thing. But this is the original demo with the train tracks on the cover. After the first two demos Substance recorded some other stuff some of which hasn't been released (although there is a song on the towncraft movie soundtrack that was released). The band recorded a song for the 1992 towncraft compilation and a CD before breaking up in 1994. Members would later go on to be in The Big Cats, Red 40, and Daniel Zanes (Del Fuegos fame) and Friends. I have managed to clean up some of the noise (hiss and slight buzzing) from the tape, but keep in mind this was ripped from a tape that is 20 years old.
Substance--1990 Demo
i had that cd at one point....just don't know what happened to it.
ReplyDeletei have the demos and cd, if interested, ben.
ReplyDeleteAre you in LR? Is there anyway I can get a copy of those demos? Id be glad to provide blank CDs and compensation for your time.
DeleteThanks
I've been on a Towncraft soundtrack kick this week since going to White Water Tavern on Saturday and seeing its new CD jukebox with tons of old and new Little Rock bands in it. I wish I'd managed to snag one of Substance's CDs when they were still available. I was lucky enough to find a copy of Trusty's "The Paul Years" for a reasonable sum last week.
ReplyDeleteSubstance is my favorite LR punk band of all time. The first time I saw them was at Vinos in the early nineties(90/91) and they opened for Living Sacrifice. They had the most high energy show of all the bands at that time. I had a demo that had a pic of some kids on a traintrack and it had (handwritten)"Strawberry Fields Forever" on it, this was before "Do Nothing King". I cant remember the playlist but it was one of the best albums ive ever owned. If anyone can steer to where I can get this collection of songs it would be greatly appreciated. My email adress is chinro3@gmail.com
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ReplyDeleteKids playing on a playground