South African Punk & Alternative Underground Mixtapes

We Did This Records Mixtapes [South African Punk & Alternative Underground]

The We Did This Records Mixtapes are now streamable from YouTube! They are mostly intact outside of a few tracks being flagged by CD Baby. Hopefully these can be some company for people while we are all under COVID-19 lockdown. We would like to say a massive "THANK YOU!" to everyone who helped out with The Dumpies tour, and everyone who came to support! We got through it a week before the world flipped upside down. We would like to caution people against falling for any of the conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19, while at the same time encourage everyone to watch out for cops and military (they are not friends), and share with us and with each other any information on things like rent strikes or any other way of organizing (in isolation) against our landlords, bosses, and evil capitalist overlords.

What can people do to help? Let's keep conversations going.

The Dumpies Tour Dates!

*art by Amelia Daubermann​

The Dumpies are coming to you all the way from Austin, Texas! The band is a 4 piece that blend energetic Ramones style punk rock with splashes of hardcore and garage rock. Here are their tour dates!

Tour - https://www.facebook.com/tours/597635037733191/

Fri 28 Feb -Johannesburg
The Dumpies Play Zoolake Bowls​l

Sat 29 Feb -Pretoria
The Dumpies Play Grind Bar​

Sun 1 Mar -Melville
The Dumpies Play Smoking Kills​

Mon 2 Mar -Durban
The Dumpies Play The Winston Pub​

We 4 Mar -Port Elizabeth
The Dumpies Play Pool City​

Fri 6 Mar -Cape Town
The Dumpies Play Evol​

Sat 7 Mar -Cape Town
The Dumpies Play Trenchtown​

Tour promo video that we made before we had to move the 1st of March show from Soweto to Melville.

More info:
https://www.facebook.com/wedidthisrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/recordswedidthis/
https://twitter.com/WeDidThisRecord
http://www.thedumpies.com/

Our Interview:
http://wedidthisrecords.blogspot.com/2019/07/we-did-this-records-presents-dumpies.html

Our 2019 mixtape featuring The Dumpies:
https://we-did-this-records.bandcamp.com/album/mixtape-2019

Interview: Taryn & Pete from Let's Rage Together Podcast!

Taryn Mansfield & Pete Thoreau

Please tell us a bit about yourselves and your history with punk rock and veganism / animal rights.

Taryn&Pete: Both of us come from the South African hardcore scene, which is where we met and became friends more than 10 years ago. We've both played in a couple bands. T played guitar in Among Friends and Brainwreck. Pete played drums in Towers, Provider and Peasant. We've also organised shows, tabled literature and vegan food etc. We were both initially exposed to veganism / animal rights (liberation) through hardcore, and are both quite active.

So Let's Rage Together is on its 15th episode and going strong. What motivated the starting of this project and has the motivation changed in any way?

Taryn&Pete: We've always enjoyed having long, intense debates and critical discussions about literally anything and everything. One day Taryn's husband Brett suggested that we should start a podcast to record and solidify the conversations we were having. That's also where the name comes from; us sitting and raging together about everything. The “Let's” in the name refers to our motivation to encourage other people to engage in critical thinking and discussions, both with us directly and with each other. We wanted to create a sense of community in talking about issues of justice and the concept of total (or collective) liberation, for both human and other animals. The motivation's still the same. We had no idea what we were doing or if anyone would even be interested in what we had in mind, but we were honestly just keen to learn and challenge our own thinking, regardless of whether anyone listened or not. We're stoked to have reached this point and that we're still doing it.

So far how has the reception been and what has been the most popular episode? Also what are your personal favourites?

Taryn&Pete: We've received mostly positive feedback, more often from people overseas in places like Europe and the US than South Africa. We have had positive feedback from here too though. We're pretty sure that a lot of people really don't like our opinions though and we just don't hear from them. The most popular episodes have been Episode 5: Smash the Patriarchy; An Introduction to Feminism, Rape Culture and Toxic Masculinity, Episode 8: White Privilege, Episode 10: Anarchy! An Interview with Aragorn Eloff and Episode 11: Are All Animal Rights Activists Worth Supporting?. These are probably also our favourite episodes.

What do you think our odds are that we can escape the mess we have made of everything (namely the environment / climate, and our economic and social relations) and in turn grant animals freedom from subjugation.

Taryn&Pete: It's hard to answer this question without seeming super negative, but answering honestly, unless there is some kind of radical, drastic change, and we manage to get rid of capitalism, in our opinion, we're pretty doomed. That said, we still feel that it is worth fighting as hard as we can against that anyway. The science also points towards us as a species not being around for much longer, being the cause of environmental collapse and the sixth mass extinction, taking millions of species out with us. We should all be using less water, recycling, not flying, not reproducing, riding bicycles and going vegan, but in our opinion, while capitalism is the dominant system those things will only get us so far. While the Earth, humans and other animals are seen as commodities, labour and resources, we are digging our own graves. Capitalism relies on infinite growth on a finite planet and is simply unsustainable. Even with the best intentions, trying to find solutions within a capitalist framework will ultimately fail. We don't think that we will ever see animal (including human) liberation under capitalism. “The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.” - Audre Lorde.

Is punk a sound or a philosophy for you?

Taryn&Pete: Both. There is a separation between the genre and ethics. In our opinion it's pretty frustrating when a “punk” band has no punk ethics or politics. What is the point of just singing about getting drunk or something?

What's new on the music horizon and what are some hopes for Let's Rage Together in the new year?

Taryn&Pete: We've actually just started a new Anarchist Vegan Feminist hardcore band called Domestic Violence with our friend Pat (Corax, Conqueror, etc.), so watch this space. As far as LRT goes, we just want to keep putting out more episodes, high quality content, and find ways to reach more people who will be interested in what we're doing.

Questions by: Shaun

*for more info and snazzy cups go to - http://www.letsragetogether.co.za

STOP RAPE CULTURE / WOMXN ARE NOT OBJECTS T-SHIRTS (Pre-orders)

Hello people of earth. 

We interrupt your programming to inform you that the patriarchy smells like shit, capitalism is a dumpster fire spreading through the Amazon rainforest, and you should pre-order a shirt, hail Satan, and punch a cop!

Pre-orders = R100 per shirt
Girl cut sizes = XS to XL
Boy cut sizes = M to XL
(Professor Oak wants to know what shirt cut you want)

Confirm orders via wedidthisrecords@gmail.com (We are going to go to print once we have a large enough batch to print.)

Please make the subject line Femicide Shirts. This will help with filtering / admin. Please include size, cut, and design.

We will not be doing delivery. There will be house pick up points (in Johannesburg) and available collection arranged at We Did This Records & Goat Throne shows.

We will also take orders in person.

(Edit for clarity: The 100 rand is the price given to us by the printers. This is not a for profit initiative.)

Everything is shit. Here are some things going down.

With solidarity and sadness for not being able to take part in the #SandtonShutdown #AmINext womxns march today, due to the coercion of capitalism and being employed in Sandton by the capitalist tentacle monsters, I would like to give some attention to two intersectional protests happening. 

The one being Africa United Against Xenophobia And Gender Based Violence, happening tomorrow,

and the other being the Global Climate Strike, on the 20th.

Post by: Shaun

We Did This Records Mixtape 2019!!!

So we skipped 2018... we also skipped 2016... this may unintentionally become an every second year thing due to the fact that productivity is troublesome. Here is Mr Conley William Annandale (CW CHRIST / DJ NON THREATENING) giving away our ages... "Growing up in a small town I had few options of getting music. My favorite was buying any local alternative magazine coupled with a mix COMPILATION CD. This changed my life forever. Something as magical as music became tangible and got me to witness my first local show and the rest is history."

Tracks include:

1. Hated Related - Self Resentment Blues

2. Shameless Band - Impicabadala

3. Cortina Whiplash - Fun Tunnel (live at Arcangelmusic)

4. The Shabs - Can You Hear Us At The Back

5. Monday Morning Justice - Legacy of shame

6. All These Wasted Nuts - Noisy Song

7. return to worm mountain - return to worm mountain

8. The Meerkat Mob - The Last Postcard from Suburbia

9. DevilSpeak - Internal Shrapnel

10. laserchrist - What's the Use? (Based in England from Durban, South Africa)

11. The Pissups - One Way Bus

12. Sloppy Folk - Chaos Hold

13. Apocalypse Later - Happy

14. Deadly Bites - Monster

15. The Bad Ass Execs - Its a Bad Time

16. MOUSE - Electric Face

17. Taekwondo Sleepover - FLOAT

18. Caution Boy - Mysterious blood

19. Make-Overs - Let's See (if it sticks)

20. SEXTAPE - DEATH DRIVE

21. The Medicine Dolls - A Conscript Aiming To Miss

22. Crumbs - Weary Woes

23. Jon Shaban - Place That I Belong

24. Rambling Bones - 60 Hours

25. Matt Vend and the Tender Ten - Past The Facade

26. Cami Scoundrel - Hollywood Demo

27. Misled - Why are you still here?

28. Swatting Bats - Easy Targets

29. HARBINGERS - CARMAGEDDON

30. Undead Generation - We're The Youth

31. Weed Dealer - Wasting Your Time

32. Pollinator - Beige

33. Goat Throne - Goat of Misery

34. Write Off - The World Is Going To End

35. PEASANT - DESTINED TO DIRT

36. Mad God - The Crawling Chaos

37. No Comply - Die On This Planet

38. Part-Time Pirates - Prevail

39. Slippery When Wet - Dealer Principle

40. Klumbsy Oxx - Kung Fu That Flu

41. Fake-bit PoZeurs - Opposition Everything

42. Bombaby - Techno Gimp

43. Her Stems Spiral - Sobbed The Swaying Spirit, "May I Have This Last Dance?"

44. follow me follow you - Once Upon a Forest

45. Tale of the Son - 31:7:18:i:T2 (improvised track)

46. Jessica Freedom - I Dream Of A Heaven

47. Taryn Mansfield - Down

48. Wolfgang Marrow - Credit Card Kids

49. Jon Shaban (featuring Jay Bones and Alex Muller) - We Did This

The following are a few tracks from some overseas bands who have toured here with us. The Dumpies being a really rad band from Texas coming round FEB/MARCH next year!

50. A Reptile Dysfunction - Six Beers Down

51. Yer Mudder - Call The Hotline

52. Blame Thrower - Best Friend

53. The Dumpies - Icewall

54. Leftöver Crack - Don't Shoot

>> https://we-did-this-records.bandcamp.com/album/mixtape-2019 <<

We Did This Records Presents: The Dumpies from Austin, Texas!

The Dumpies, from Austin, Texas, blend energetic Ramones style punk rock with splashes of hardcore and garage rock. Since the start of 2017 they have released four impressive records named after athletes. The latest being named after the South African runner Zola Budd. Between February 25th and March 11th 2020 (My mind can't properly process the year...) The Dumpies will be hitting up shows around South Africa. Get amped!

We will post the show dates soon! The following is a short interview with the band!

The latest album is named Zola Budd, after a South African Olympic runner. What's the story behind the name?

Dumpies: To us Dumpies, the real test of life, the rubric we measure ourselves by, is our failures. It's about fucking up, making mistakes, hurting people you love, especially when it involves your heroes. You take responsibility, you accept, you learn. The figure of Zola Budd represents how messy and tragic and complicated shit can be, and how it's important to make mistakes and keep moving. Plus she ran barefoot, which is pretty badass.

What are some of your hopes regarding touring South African, end of Feb / early March, next year?

Dumpies: Touring has always been an opportunity to interact and share artistically culturally and socially with people we would otherwise have never met. After traveling and playing music in Chile, Argentina, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia we wanted to push that to another culture and continent. South Africa in particular seems like such a deeply complex and layered place - the intense mix of so many cultures and environments and histories all interacting with each other. We mostly want to come and learn and soak things up and meet new friends and lift each other up and party together. Like Youth Bridge sang in ’Sink With Kalifornia’…..“I don’t care if you’re from North, South, East or West, I live for humanity, forget the rest.”

How is the scene in Austin, Texas?

Dumpies: The scene in Austin has issues, but is ultimately solid. The best shows still happen under bridges and in illegal spaces. There is a lot of bullshit music in Austin, because of things like SXSW. But there is still a super tightknit community of folks around—bands like Army, Mujeres Podridas, Body Pressue, and labels like ihateiskate really help keep things alive in this city. Our singer and guitarist live in Austin and our Bassist and Drummer live in Oregon, so we don't get to play locally much as we want to.

What draws you to playing in a punk band?

Dumpies: We’ve all been doing it for so long it’s basically second nature to us at this point, like blinking our eyes or taking a shit. I’m not sure any of us would know what to do if we weren’t doing this. Punk is a collage. It can be anything. It’s not how you dress or the bands you listen to or your job or lack of or anything. It’s an attitude of embracing and releasing at the same time. Be open to embrace other cultures scenes and people. Be able to release your energy and artistic output without judgement or inhibition. It’s a mindset, a thread that runs through all fabric of your life and what you do.

I get a strong Recess Records feel from the band. What do you all think of bands like Fleshies and Toys That Kill (F.Y.P)?

Dumpies: Hovercraft Records (home of the Dumpies and run by Mark and Tim) was started in the spirit of Recess Records. Todd Congelliere has been putting out loud energetic snarky music of his own and his friends unchanging to any trends and doing it really well year after year. FYP is one of our favorite bands - from the old albums like Dance My Dunce to the latest album from Toys That Kill all that stuff is inspirational and just delivers (Sacia said that the Dumpies song ‘Witch Love’ sounds like Tim ripped the bass line off of ‘Toss My Cookies’ but he disagrees) Fleshies too! That scrappy Oakland early 00’s sound that Jello put out on Alternative Tentacles and then picked up on Recess Records fits grooves and inspires us too. We were never cool enough to see The Fleshies live but the videos look like we definitely missed a spectacle, though I think Joel could give John a run for inspired lyrical gymnastics. And at a Underground Railroad to Candyland show 8 years ago in Portland, a drunken Tim ran up to Todd C. —  took off his shirt to show him his FYP tattoo on his chest — and yelled some rambling acclamations —  only to have Todd look at the ground and shirk off into a corner to avoid the maniac.

Questions by: Shaun