Mystic Records Part 4 (1984)
Before I get into it, check my want list here and get in touch if you have any of these. I posted a full discography here.
1984 was probably the most notable year for Mystic Records in the punk realm. It saw them put out a slew of good hardcore records, including Nardcore classics Ill Repute What Happens Next 12”, Dr. Know Plug In Jesus 12” (on sub-label, Ghetto-way Records), False Confession S/T 7”, RKL It’s a Beautiful Feeling 7”, and the Nardcore compilation. They also put out a few punk comps, including Copulation, featuring all songs about the police, Party Animal (a comp with 40 bands) and their first sampler LP, Mystic Sampler #1.
Let’s get into the comps first. Mystic would do a ton of compilation records - most were pretty bad. These ones from 1984 are pretty sick and have some notable bands/tracks.
V/A Party Animal Mystic Records, 1984
The 2nd edition in the We Got Power trilogy. It’s not as good as the first one but not as bad as the 3rd one. There is such a glut of generic hardcore bands by 1984 and Mystic is here to document them all!
Believe it or not, this thing is on Spotify. These 40 band Mystic comps are wild when you’re listening on LP at home cuz if you lose your place, you’re totally fucked on knowing what band was what.
So shoutout to Sweden for Staffan, IKEA’s Expedit storage line, and Spotify for ever so diligently organizing this comp that probably drove many a punk to just listen to reggae instead.
V/A Mystic Sampler #1 12” Mystic Records, 1984
This one is notable for having an alternate version of “I Saw Your Mommy” by Suicidal Tendencies.
1984 gave us the Nardcore comp. Tony Cortez did an amazing job putting it together and I’d argue this is some of the best Scared Straight and RKL material out there. I talked to Tony about it on episode 76 of 185 Miles South, so check that out here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
V/A Nardcore 12” Mystic Records, 1984
V/A Copulation 12” Mystic Records, 1984
One of the best Mystic comps, featuring the best song by America’s Hardcore and it has Black Flag’s “Police Story” on here as well. Liner notes clarify that the Black Flag and Government Issue songs were not recorded at Mystic.
V/A It Came From Slimey Valley 12” Ghetto-Way Records, 1984
Pretty good comp here featuring one of the few America’s Hardcore songs that made it to vinyl plus many of the Mystic regulars and Circle One.
A couple comp reviews from Big City Fanzine #7:
Onto the Punk LPs…
The G.R.I.M. Getting Revenge in America 12” Mystic Records, 1984
Below is a misprint. Apparently there were some in 1984 as well. Side A is The Grim and side B is Long Beach Southernaires. Doug Moody must’ve found some more of those misprint LPs at some point and hilariously repackaged them as a “best of” collection with photocopied covers. Shoutout to John for hooking me up with this one…now go buy a Burning Dog record!
Ill Repute What Happens Next 12” Mystic Records 1984
Check out my substack post on Ill Repute here.
Philco Raves was on episode 69 of 185 Miles South and if I remember correctly he said that Ghetto Way was a sub-label carve out for him. I’ve also heard rumors that Dr. Know didn’t want to be on Mystic because they refused to be on the same label as “that shitty party band from the valley, The Grim.” With all this old stuff, who the fuck knows? Regardless, Philco put his stamp on this record via the B-Side matrix that reads “PHILCO TONGUE BUTT.”
Someone tell Kyle to stop being a shy-boi and come on the podcast.
Shoutout to the garage walrus!
Dr. Know Plug In Jesus 12” Ghetto Way Records, 1984
Subterfuge Who’s The Fool 12” Mystic Records, 1984
Onto the punk 7”s…
Manifest Destiny We Love Our Country… Mystic Records, 1984
RKL It’s A Beautiful Feeling 7” Mystic Records, 1984
False Confession S/T 7” Mystic Records, 1984
Ill Repute Halloween Live Mystic Records, 1984
Mystic was mostly known for punk but in 1984, they continued to put out other genres: gospel (Long Beach Southernaires), rockabilly (Shakin’ Snakes), hard rock (Angeles), post-punk (Corpus Delicti), psych (The Steppes) and more.
Bone Cabal “Work/Hollywood Cowboy” 7” Mystic Records, 1984
Shakin’ Snakes S/T 7” Mystic Records, 1984
Angeles We’re No Angels 12” Mystic Records, 1984
Incognito Rockers S/T 12” Mystic Records, 1984
Infinite Symphony Gypsy Majic 12” Mystic Records, 1984
This one wasn’t on Youtube so I ripped it for you freaks. Spoiler alert: it sucks!
Corpus Delicti The Joy Of Living 12” Mystic Records, 1984
Steppes S/T 12” Mystic Records, 1984
1984 saw Mystic do a religious sub-label that put out two releases.
Long Beach Southernaires He’ll Be There 12” Mystic Classique, 1984
The 2nd Mystic LP by the Long Beach Southernaires. If someone has the first one, get at me!
A Day Of Pure Righteousness 12” Mystic Classique
This is a true weirdo Mystic-related record. I ripped the first three songs off it so you guys can hear it. It appears to just be a choir singing some religious songs.
Mystic Records had a reputation of not paying the bands and being a pretty sketchy label. I’m not here to debate that topic one way or the other today, but one point I do want to make is Mystic definitely can’t be accused of not promoting their records. Here are a bunch of ads I gathered from 1984:
C-ya in 1985!
- ZN