Mystic Records: The Final Chapter (The Book)
I recently picked up the Mystic Records book and goddamn…what a great final flameout to end this journey.
If you want your own, you can pick it up from Mystic directly and lucky you…it’s on sale! My copy was donated to the cause by Standards in Vista, so if you’re ever in North County San Diego it is now your duty to go buy records from Colin.
First things first, that Ill Repute/Dr. Know page advertised on the Mystic site isn’t even in the book so who knows if there are multiple different versions or what. There was also no FREE CD so I’ll never know if it was full color or not. My book was shrink wrapped so it’s not like it fell out or something.
I believe this came out in 2016 or 2017.
Smash play on that Screeching Weasel track above cuz it serves as the perfect backdrop for this stupid journey we’re about to go on.
Let’s get into it…
Iconic cover…riveting stuff. A man, a dog, and a CD compilation from 2006. How can you not smash that purchase button? Honestly, the pic of Doug and the Mystic house dog from Party Animal is cool. The CD is a collection of old songs that appeared on Mystic albums in the 1980s and wouldn’t be included in anyone’s top 50 Mystic releases. You can see where this book is going…
On page one they lay out the “Mystic lands”: Nardcore, Hollywierd, and Slimey Valley. No one has ever referred to Nardcore as a place other than Doug maybe. Also pictured is a dude in a Don’t No shirt, a band who did a 7” on Mystic in 1985.
Alright, some Mystic history - let’s get the skinny from the source!
Never mind, that paragraph broke my brain. Three random Mystic LPs share the page.
Oh cool…a whole page dedicated to an internet radio show. This is the classic stuff folks bought a $75 book for.
Check it out - a fact! Doug Moody did indeed start Mystic Sound in 1968, you should read all about it here. Cool picture of him with Steve Brenner and Philco, both engineers at Mystic. Also pictured are B-side Mystic labels and the cover art for a 2004 CD that included the We Got Power compilation and the B-side of Party Animal. Seriously.
Maximum Rocknroll was the 1992 CD repress of a cassette called “E” Is For Everything from 1989. The art pictured in the book is a variation of NOFX’s 1988 LP on Mystic, so literally everything in that paragraph is wrong. Also pictured is what looks like a screen shot from the Mystic website (LOL).
Two-page spread time. Here we have some live photos from an event called “Rockin’ Bob’s 50th Birthday Bash.” On the second page in the bottom left cover, that’s The Grim. No idea who the other band is. There’s also a framed poster to commemorate this night. There have been three Friday, June 21sts in the last 25 years: 2002, 2013, and 2019 so I’m assuming Bob’s 50th b-day party went down on June 21st, 2013. Happy birthday, Bob!
Alright…the Nardcore comp. Let’s get some history on one of my favorite albums of all time.
Never mind, it’s just a list of bands who were on the comp and some bullshit about Nardcore expanding to Portland (DA FUQ?!). The version pictured is the 2002 CD reissue. This book sucks.
Here’s another picture of The Grim and another paragraph that will break your brain. The page is titled “California Hardcore Punk” but PTL Klub is from Boston.
On this page we have a cropped piece of art that was used for some Mystic advertisements in 1983. Of course the one in the book is altered because we’re not really documenting anything here, are we? Are we?! Also included is a list of bands.
Here we have two album covers: the first RKL LP (classic) and a 2006 CD that compiled the first two Mystic Sampler LPs. Then we have a picture of dude, who likes to accessorize, singing and a list of some compilations on Mystic. About that list…Return to Slimy Valley never came out. They have We Got Power II and Party Animal both listed, but Party Animal WAS We Got Power II. Facepalm.
Alright, here we have the Best of Dr. Know CD from the 2000s, some Mentors art based off of the Live in Frisco 7”, and a Manifest Destiny clipping. Then there’s some flash art I don’t recognize and I’m assuming Y.A.P.O. and Gerbil Turds (what are we doing here, people?) are 2010s era Mystic bands (why?).
Side note here…I talked to Doug about doing a Retaliate record right around the time those Burning Sons records were coming out. It was a sick deal that was hard to pass up. I pay for recording, mastering, and pressing and give him half.
Paying to be on Mystic is worse than pay-to-play local gigs and it’s hilarious to see some bands still doing it when Doug isn’t even involved anymore. Have some fuckin’ dignity.
Sick, another photo of The Grim. The top left photo is actually really cool and appears to be early ‘80s buttons, keychains, etc. Sheiks of Shake were 1979 and Hey Taxi were 1980, so that stuff is pretty old. More of that would be cool but instead we get a picture of Doug Moody swimming and another paragraph that will break your brain.
Cool piece of art from Marc Rude who drew the cover of Earth A.D. and the two Battalion of Saints 12”s from the ‘80s. He also drew the covers for a few Mystic albums: Let’s Die, It Came From Slimey Valley, and the Social Spit LP. Of course you’d never know this from the book because they did nothing at all to explain his connection to Mystic.
This page contains a scan of 1/8 of the Party Animal insert.
That top sentence should be in the Smithsonian. The album pictured is a live Agression CD that came out in 2005. Another brain-breaking paragraph.
If I spent $75 on this book, this might be the page that finally made me throw it out the window. What in the actual fuck, man?
No idea who Spam 69 or Bikini Strike are and neither does Discogs. Monster Mash Hollywood Party is a compilation that came out in 2016 on streaming services only. If you can make sense of the bottom-left blurb you must either be in Mensa or have a brain as smooth a racquetball - nothing in between.
I will attempt, but this wasn’t easy. Apparently that’s a CD where a label called Cathay De Grande Hollywood took songs from the NOFX’s So What If We’re On Mystic 7” and interspersed them between a bunch of songs from a Swedish band called Fornicators. As the CD insert says, NOFX hung out with them in Sweden so I guess this split totally makes sense. DA FUQ?
Shoutout to Drop Kick Murphy’s and Clash. This CD insert was written by the same author as the Mystic book, don’t you think?
No idea what any of this. What is classic Italian HC band Raw Power doing here in what looks like a bad BBQ joint ad? Hickory smoked hardcore…let’s go!
Top left is the cover of the excellent Copulation LP that came out in 1984. Rigor Mortis put out a song on the Slimey Valley comp in ‘84. No idea what the other stuff is…shouldn’t the book tell us? Wishful thinking. Great design work here.
Alright…we have a photo of the Super Seven Sampler #2 (for some reason with a greenish hue), the cover of Slimey Valley and the RKL 7”. Then we have alternate artwork for the Copulation LP and the 2003 Best of Agression CD. No idea who Anti Social or Civil Disgust are. Bad Religion had their two worst songs appear on a Mystic comp in 1983 but I’m not sure what this art is from. Maybe it was from the insert? Mine didn’t have one. I believe the bottom left photo is of Candace who now runs Mystic (and most likely the uncredited author of this masterpiece) with some dude in a cool hat.
$75 for this thing and we couldn’t even get a final page. Ok, ok…fan fiction time. I’ll make one.
Ok fixed…totally worth $75 now.
Back to page flippin’…
Shout out Shutterfly.
The back cover is the cover of a 2005 CD that compiled the Airstrip One comp and the Instigators Live in Berlin LP. Yes, really.
This brings us to the end of the Mystic Records book. That was some bullshit.
Want to read it all again? Go back to part one.
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- ZN
Great review! Glad you stopped me from seeking it out haha. Though I would never pay more than 30 for such a thing. Btw, pushead did Someone got their head kicked in, not Marc Rude. Maybe you meant Slimey Valley.
It’d be great if someone did a legit well done Mystic book. Unfortunately, this type of book seems to be a closer fit to the true Mystic vibe.