Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Dag Nasty - Field Day (1988)


Happy New Year. After saying that music download file blogs suck I've decided to post an out of print album for download. So I guess my New Year's resolution is to stop saying things I will later contradict(actually it's not).

Anyway now that it's 2008 it's been 20 years since above pictured album was released. Dag Nasty were a highly influential pop-punk band during the 80s. Some credit them with being one of the originators of the emo movement. I first heard of Dag Nasty in the late 80s/early 90s due to pre-internet tape trading being one way of discovering new bands(to you). I was interested in hearing Minor Threat and was sent a tape with Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album because Dag Nasty featured ex-Minor Threat members. To my ears at the time, the more personal lyrics and punk sound crossed with pop was much more appealing than Minor Threat's straight edge thrash which had lyrics and a philosphy that meant nothing to me.

Eventually I discovered a double CD which had both Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album and Can I Say. Can I Say features Dave Smalley(who is now better known for fronting Down By Law) on vocals and retains a hardcore punk sound but Wig Out at Denko's has Peter Cortner on vocals and largely due to his vocals is more pop-orientated.


Dag Nasty had a reputation as a straight edge band partially due to having an ex-Minor Threat member. The Wig Out at Denko's song Crucial Three hints at the 'rules' of straight edge set down by Minor Threat. However during the time of Field Day Dag Nasty had decided to experiment with being coke-heads so some of the band's recording budget disappeared on 'inspiration'. At times it sounds like Peter Cortner is singing with a bad dose of the flu. However the song All Ages Show sounds like it could have come from Field Day and was my reason for searching high and low for this album. Field Day never earned Dag Nasty any money however Peter Cortner still receives royalties from Wig Out. The band cover The Ruts song Staring at the Rude Boys, Wire's 12XU (when the band played this live many people thought they were discovering the guitarist's better band as Minor Threat also covered the song. There are re-recordings of the songs I've Heard and Under Your Influence(which features a tacky Led Zeppelin 'baby baby' part) which originally appeared on Can I Say with Dave Smalley on vocals.

Field Day is very much a mixed bag of alternative/pop/punk/metal and at least one song sounds rooted in 80s glam metal. It seems fitting that guitarist Brian Baker joined the glam metal Junkyard a year after the recording of this album. After Dag Nasty finished touring this album they became more or less a studio band with Dave Smalley on vocals that seems to release an album every ten years.

Download Field Day here

Link now goes to a rapidshare link from another blog.




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