I first met these guys under somewhat tumultuous conditions in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. One of the guitarists of DAUGHTERS, who I was touring with at the time, had issue with a guy in Louisville for knocking up his girlfriend's sister and generally being a deadbeat dad about it. Coming from a somewhat broken home situation, the DAUGHTERS vocalist announced every song they played that night with alternate song titles:
"Normally this song is called 'Pants, Meet Shit', but tonight its called 'Crowd, Meet Piece of Shit Deadbeat Dad'", etc.
While DAUGHTERS was performing, I could see members of the crowd getting visibly agitated. Here were these surly guys from Providence, Rhode Island basically spitting in the face of one of the locals... who was definitely there at the show and very upset, gathering up the biggest dudes he could find. I watched this unfold from a vantage point behind the merch table, fully expecting an ugly brawl to erupt at any time.
The "biggest dudes he could find" mentioned above, turned out to be part of COLISEUM and the bulk of BREATHER RESIST, who were also set to play after DAUGHTERS that night. Fortunately these guys actually had level heads, and didn't recklessly defend their friend (who, in the end, was clearly the one in the wrong). Long story short: the tension was high the whole night, and their set sort of suffered as a result. The whole show did really, but it ended on a lighter note when some young attendee completely unrelated to all parties involved tried to start a drunken argument with the DAUGHTERS guys over it.
"Why u comin to my town n' talkin shit?" again and again was all this belligerent fool could muster, and in the end with barely a retort from any of us, this kid was bawling his eyes out. He essentially ran away crying, which made NO sense but was pretty hilarious and shifted the mood a bit. Maybe off topic, but the point of all that is that my first impression of BREATHER RESIST was badly skewed, and it wasn't until I formally met them a month or so later that I realized what they truly had going on.
I'd jumped in the van with STOP IT!! for a weekend of shows (another story for another day?) which including a loose festival in North Carolina. BREATHER RESIST were also on the bill, and before they played I got a chance to talk to them about the DAUGHTERS/Louisville fiasco a bit. Lo and behold, these big scary looking dudes were totally friendly, approachable and generally very warm people. I hit it off with them right away with some mutual friends and interests, and was thoroughly blown away when they played. Almost like a bastard cousin of BOTCH, but with roots in the old Washington, DC scenes instead of those in Washington state.
An enormous amount of equipment was lugged in and set up by these guys. Four longhaired n' lumbering, barrel-chested beasts dressed entirely in black loaded in a sheer mountain of music gear, nearly a WALL of amps, creating an absolutely daunting image. Then the tunes kicked in: the lights hidden in some of the speaker cabinets blaring unexpectedly & directly at the crowd while these heathens furiously headbanged to the offkilter jams. The volume was incredible and the impact intense. I left with my jaw dropped, and the rest of STOP IT!! were equally impressed, despite their very different sound and varied musical tastes.
That's the memory of BREATHER RESIST that sticks out to me the most: the impact and fury of that first proper performance I witnessed that day. They became friends, stayed at my house over the years, turned into YOUNG WIDOWS and PUSHER, and continue to remain people I respect and admire today. YOUNG WIDOWS is still one of my favorite "heavy" bands going, and I feel somewhat privileged to have witnessed their progression.
What's included in this download is everything I could find by BREATHER RESIST that isn't on their two most widespread/album releases Only In The Morning and Charmer. I doubt it's everything non-album that they recorded, but its everything that I have or could find.
They released a handful of splits (w/ HARKONEN and SUICIDE NOTE), three additional singles ("Patent Cruciform Casket", "The Second Half" and "Full Of Tongues") and some additional tracks are included here as well, including demos/early versions of a couple songs that ended up reworked for YOUNG WIDOWS' debut album, Settle Down City. 17 tracks in total here, some of which have been available on blogs elsewhere, but most weren't ripped at a very good quality. I got as much of this direct from source as possible, and added in a few extra things that I've squirreled away over the years.
* download BREATHER RESIST - Non-Album Tracks (via MediaFire)
* download BREATHER RESIST - Non-Album Tracks (via RapidShare)
* download BREATHER RESIST - Non-Album Tracks (via SendSpace)
It should be noted that three tracks found in the download above are still in print on the split with SUICIDE NOTE, which is still available from Hawthorne Street. They had 15 copies left of this 2xCDep as of the blog posting, so please pick it up if you like those jams ("Rock N' Mass", "Bad With Dates" and "Working Title"). The two tracks from the "Patent Cruciform Casket" casket-shaped vinyl picture disc are also still available (see below).
We do our best to stock available BREATHER RESIST releases and their subsequent "members of" bands (PUSHER, YOUNG WIDOWS, BRAIN BANGER, BLACK CROSS, BAD SECRETS, etc) in our Online Store, so definitely check out some of this stuff if you like what you hear:
* BREATHER RESIST (and related) in the Robotic Empire - Online Store
Enjoy!
