The First Karate 7" and S/T album Are Now Available on Spotify! (The Long and Winding Backstory)
I can’t believe that headline I just wrote is real. I’ve been thinking about Karate being heard on vinyl and then streaming for years. Literal years. I even took part of my time with Ian MacKaye at the Dischord House to ask if he could find out more information about those records when he was at the next family dinner with Geoff Farina. I was met with, “Tom, no one cares.” Brushing off that scoff and many other throughout the years, I met many that felt the same way about this band. It kept me going, it kept this dream alive.
It started in high school. Jericho, Vermont. It was 1995. Fugazi was coming to town and I couldn’t go. It was on a week night. Also playing this show was Unwound and Karate. I have zero recollection of how this happened but prior to this show I had contacted Karate through their label at the time, Self-Starter Foundation. Again, my AOL email was all I had to reach out and I must have found an email and said I had a zine. It was true, I did. It was called Realistic Fiction and I made copies using the high school copier and gave them out to friends. Huge deal for Karate I know. Little did I know that not only did the band agree to do an interview but Chris Newmyer at Self-Starter Foundation sent me a 7” to my house. I still remember getting it and not containing my excitement. I had an email interview and this 7”. This was 12 years before Washed Up Emo even began but I had the itch. This is it. I have to do this. Music. Something. I saved the interview with Eamonn Vitt from the band and through my absolutely horrendous questioning prior to their show in Burlington with Fugazi and Unwound, I didn’t notice until years later that felt iconic as the memories built up about this band. I was their first ever interview. Eamonn said it in the email and I’ll share that one day or for something special later.
The interview never came out in my zine, Realistic Fiction. I am not sure what happened. Maybe it was a girl, the assignment due for Chemistry that I failed, or something else. It never went anywhere. I kept the letter in my 100 moves across this country and NYC apartments. It was there, waiting for me. I always felt bad, it never was published and felt this kinship with anyone that uttered their name and it was instant friendship. “Oh you know Karate, ok, we’re good.”
I got to see Karate live in 97 or 98 (the years meld together) and it was the dissonance, silence in songs, lyrics I actually pay attention to and everything I wanted in a band. It was a house show in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I was going to school nearby at a place called Elon, that was a college, now a university. No, I wouldn’t be able to get in now. I basically spent four years going to shows and getting records sent to us at the radio station, WSOE. I played as much Karate as I could on my radio shows and with that cherished 7” and CD collection it wasn’t hard to turn others onto the sounds of this band. Back to the show, my best friend in school, Mike, his brother, was the drummer of the band on tour with Karate. They were called Chisel. John Dugan was his name and his bandmate, was Ted Leo. That Ted. Quite a house show. I remember buying a shirt, not being able to hear out of my right ear and the ride back through the woods to Elon still thinking about that letter, doing something more.
I started the podcast in 2011 and with 10+ years of music biz I was making plenty of connections and friends. The podcast was slowly making a name with a few high profile folks coming on and making an impact like Mike Kinsella or Jim Adkins. The Karate 7” still in my possession, the download era in full effect still and I knew I had to somehow get Geoff Farina on the podcast. Three years later, 2014, it happened. Geoff agreed to come on and thanks to John Dugan for helping make that connect. We spoke, I could tell he wasn’t skeptical of the name of the show, the idea of the word around emo, etc. It was still amazing to have him on and chat and put a stake in the ground for the podcast. On the cutting room floor of that episode is me asking about vinyl, streaming, etc. The word then was that it was not going to happen and he was busy with other things. Fair enough. I don’t push, he came on a podcast with the word emo, let’s leave it at that Tom. I did.
Later for the 2nd volume of the Anthology of Emo series, I wanted Geoff included in the book. He was gracious and agreed to let me put the interview in the 2nd book. More people needed to know about this band, continue to bang the drum while the YouTube links and those that ripped the CDs or had the overpriced vinyl sat waiting for the rest of the world to catch up. Things started to go off a bit with the 2nd volume last fall.
On top of the pandemic, everyone was home and more people were available to be interviewed. I spoke to two individuals that put this over the top. I’ll say this. It wasn’t just me wanting this. I’ve been vocal enough to take time out of my limited minutes with my hero Ian MacKaye to ask this, let’s not forget that. I began to hear others voicing this and it was fantastic to hear. Two people helped this along like no other. Ken Shipley, who I had on to talk about his label Tree Records, who now co-runs Numero Group. And Garrett Rothman, from Junction. After the podcast, both of these talks turned to hours about the era, the things that were lost, and could this maybe work out. I’ll say this again, I wasn’t the full story or the catalyst. There are many in this and I just connected some dots, said it was fucking worth it.
Here we are. Full circle. The first interview, the first 7” is now streaming (along with the full-length.) They’ll be interviews, features, articles, popular writers giving their kudos and revisionist history. The world deserves this and not just for the few that could afford the vinyl or the ripped the CDs for those friends. It’s worth it because the band can get paid their due and see where this goes. This matters. The first interview, the first 7”, the first thing to be streaming. It matters. This era of the late 90s, is lost between the smart pop-punk and the “we only have an email to show for us.” Filling in the holes, filling in the stories has been my mission since starting Washed Up Emo in 2007 and will be until I die. I was one small instrument in this project and hope it opens up for the world to see this beauty of a band lost to the world prior to the Internet. It’s now out there, alive and waiting for you to hear.
As I think about my old room in Vermont, wintertime, using my dad’s old record player, putting this 7” on, hearing those first notes. Thinking now, this is available for the world. No more first, just everyone. It took years, it took a team to make this happen. Find that unknown and share with the world for yourself and one day they’ll be many more to listen along side you. Love that about the internet and what’s next for this drive I can’t stop doing. There’s more to uncover, there’s more to uncover with Karate. See you there.
Tom Mullen
4/1/2021
