Landmind Records was formed in 1984 by Dan Schneider and Andy Young. The label put out four 7" singles and two 12" EP's in its short existence. The label and the many folks behind it, were a major force in the Du Page County (that is southwest of Chicago) punk rock scene in the mid 80's. Also tied to the label were a clothing imprint (Shit on Toast) and an ill-fated punk club (Keith Garage) that never got to see the light of day outside of having two shows in Keith's (Keith was in Happy Toons, and before that was in Negative Element, who had a single out on Version Sound) parents' garage! Also spun off from the label was the Landmind Underground, a collective that met regularly and planned on putting on regular punk shows and give the suburban punks something to do. The first show was held at Otto's Soup Kitchen (aka: the garage of Spontaneous Combustion Manor) on Memorial day 1987, where money made selling food and t-shirts was used to rent out a VFW hall for a planned big punk rock extravaganza. Tickets were sold in advance and everything, and then a few days before the event was to take place, the VFW owner reneged on the agreement and forbid the show from taking place, which ended up taking all the wind of of the collective's sails and everyone ended up going their separate ways.
The label put out some excellent punk singles by some great bands, all of whom were friends. The music still holds up well today and in fact, there are countless bands today that were influenced by this music without even knowing it. Unfortunately as with most obscure punk records from that era, these records are long gone and somewhat rare. There will never be any kind of official reissue of these records as the master tapes are long gone as is a lot of the artwork. Fortunately I kept everything I had in the punk vault and I have compiled a cdr of the records from the cleanest copies found in the S.C. vault, cleaned them up with soundforge and may offer a limited number for sale in the near future, not to mention provide those involved with the label and those in the bands, a document of that era that many of them did not save.
Where are they now? Dan Schneider still resides in Downers Grove, one of only two of the original DG punks to remain in town and carry the torch of punk (your humble narrator, MXV, is the other) and has a new band, Destroy Everything. Andy Young joined some crazy cult years ago and gave away all his belongings, including a sweet record collection, which he FOOLISHLY did not give to MXV to be preserved. Members of some of the bands ended up playing in other bands such as Rights of The Accused, Tar, Triple Fast Action, Insane War Tomatoes, among others.
Dead Fink/Happy Toons - Rest in Pieces Split 7"
Released 1984
500 Pressed
Pressing variations: Most had lyric inserts
By the time of this release Happy Toons had broken up and Dead Fink had changed their name to God (with the "G" backwards) and then broke up shortly after. Members of both bands went on to form Insane War Tomatoes, a band that was much like Gwar, except Gwar didn't exist yet. Dead Fink had recorded more tracks after this single that unfortunately were never finished and are lost forever.
Political Justice? - Stating the Truths and Healing the Wounds 7"
Released 1985
500 pressed
These guys were from Glen Ellyn, IL. Brain St. Clair and Wes Kidd ended up joining Rights of the Accused after Political Justice broke up. Before this single, the band had recorded a demo tape too which I still have a copy of, and were on the Immense Decay compilation.
Regular sleeve
Tour sleeve
Blatant Dissent - Is There a Fear 7"
Released 1986
1000 pressed
Pressing variations: Unknown amount of copies with "Tour Sleeve". Most copies came with sticker and lyric sheet.
Hailing from DeKalb, IL, this band played punk rock with a huge Naked Raygun influence. In fact, this was recorded by Jeff Pazzatti and Iain Burgess! John Mohr, who sang in Blatant Dissent, ended up forming the band Tar after they broke up. The band released a second single on Mohr's No Blow Records and had recorded a LP that never saw the light of day until Tar became popular and Glitterhouse Records in German decided to release it.
Denied Remarks - Ross' Car 7"
Released 1986
500 pressed
These guys played upbeat pop/punk not unlike the Dickies and Buzzcocks. The title track was about Ross Vondersmith's (singer of Dead Fink) Duster, that if memory recalls, sat broken in his driveway like forever. Andy Young, Landmind Co-owner sang and played the drums in this band. I heard he later joined some crazy religious cult and gave away all his
possessions.
Precious Wax Drippings - Ain't We a Wishing Bunch 12" EP
Released 1987
1000 pressed
Note: Split release with Fat Bat Records/Landmind Records
These guys were really more of a post-punk college rock type band. This was actually a split release between Fat Bat Records and Landmind. Dan said Fat Bat didn't want the Landmind logo on the record covers. They must have lost that argument and the logo is on the back cover. This was more of Andy's idea to put out and this pretty much spelled the end for Dan's involvement with the label as it was definitely moving away from punk rock. This band featured Johny Machine who, if memory serves, ended up in a bunch of other Chicago area bands and also the Poster Children.
Material Issue - 12" EP
Released 1987
1000? Pressed
Note: Split release with Big Block Records/Landmind Records
At this point, the label was run solely by Andy as Dan wasn't interested in putting out pop records. These guys ended up having a fairly big hit later in their career and were on some major label. I have a copy of this record but don't know much else about it as I was not a fan of the band and wasn't hanging out with Andy when this was released. This was the last release on the label before Andy moved on selling flowers at airports or whatever it was he did after joining the cult.
