Vegas Archive: Boba Fett Youth – ‘If This Is Living, Freeze Me In Carbonite,’ Self-Titled 7″ and ‘Outtakes and Practice’ (1994)

Mar 3, 2014 Posted by Lance Wells In Vegas Archive Tagged Boba Fett Youth Comments 2

Click here to download If This Is Living, Freeze Me In Carbonite

Click here to download the self-titled 7″

Click here to download Outtakes and Practice

[ezcol_2third]Welcome to Vegas Archive, a feature where we re-release music from local bands that are gone, but certainly not forgotten.

Today we’re bringing you ‘If This Is Living, Freeze Me In Carbonite’ (1994), Self-titled 7″ (1994) and ‘Outtakes and Practice’ (1994) from local punk band Boba Fett Youth, who were active from 1993 to 1997.

Maybe I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but Boba Fett Youth should go down as one of the most important bands in the history of Las Vegas punk rock. Not only did these dudes have their own band, but they had their own record label, they went on tour, they booked tons of local shows, and they all did their own zines. I learned so much about the Do-It-Yourself punk ethic from the guys in BFY, and I was lucky to become fast friends with them.

I am extremely excited to help with this three-part series on Boba Fett Youth for Vegas Archive. BFY guitarist Nate Robards can tell the band’s story better than me, so I’ll hand it over to him from here. Enjoy! – Lance Wells

Boba Fett Youth was formed around late ’93 early ’94 by Boyde Wenger (bass) and Andrew Kiraly (vocals). It was basically one of those bands where a few friends got together and said “Hey, let’s start a punk band! What do you want to play? Bass? OK, I guess I’ll sing!” They found short time guitarist Andy Bullock and my pal drummer Chris Crud and within weeks I was in the band. We all did our own zines and went to just about every show in the scene. Now we just needed instruments and we could start contributing to the noise!

We practiced in Boyde’s warehouse which doubled as an art studio for various locals, as well as a crash pad. The place was big enough to throw shows, which we did several times before they started getting busted by the cops.

Our first real show was at a place in the desert called The Caves. All our friends showed up in droves donning Star Wars’ masks and lightsabers and kicking up tons of dirt. We were really lucky to have tons of support due to all our previous contributions to the punk rock scene and the years that we played together were a blast!

One show from this period of the archives that comes to mind was a Halloween house show. The crowd was just absolutely going nuts in this cramped garage with people crowd surfing and the band members so squeezed together that our instruments were upright. By the end of the show, I finished the last two songs with three strings left on the guitar, blood all over it, and Andrew disappeared into a swirling mass of people. Pure wonderful chaos! We used to joke that with our limited musical ability (which improved with time) we were 25% music and 75% performance. Performance meant jumping into the crowd and breaking stuff while the one good musician in the band, kept the loud noise together with his solid beats.

Part one of the archive is quite special to me because it has the only recordings that were done before Chris left town and Milo joined the band.

Our demo, If This Is Living, Freeze Me In Carbonite, was recorded live by Bil Hooper on a 4-track in our warehouse shortly after we formed. The tracks are: “Make Up Mike” (a tribute to a cross dressing punk that used to hang out at Café Roma), “Unsigned” (which we remained throughout the band’s existence), “What Is This Thing,” “Culture Factory,” “Beer Song” (I always thought Andrew wrote that one about Boyde), “Anthony Robbins Tribute” and “Punker Than You.”

The self-titled 7” record came out in late ’94 on Boyde and Andrew’s local label, Bucky Records. It featured a photo of Aaron Crotts wearing a speedo, a backpack, and a Yoda mask while slamming in the pit at our first show, along with a cool cover by Greg Higgins. It was also recorded in our warehouse by Bil, although we tracked our instruments this time. The tracks are “American Nihilism,” “Steal Shit,” “Maim and Employ,” “Make Up Mike,” “Anthony Robbins Tribute,” “Irony Street,” and “Bike Power.” “Bike Power” was a top 10 song at quite a few college stations for a while, including UC Davis, where we eventually went to play a radio show.

One of the outtakes included in this release is a cover of “Lexicon Devil,” originally by The Germs. It was a practice recording for the 7” and is quite rare! The final odd tracks are practice songs that we did in the warehouse. We often had a tape recorder going during practice to help us write songs and get better. I think adding a few in the archive really shows the essence of what we were about back then. Just a bunch of dorky kids playing music and having fun. Parts 2 and 3 will be coming soon. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy!

-Nate Robards