PERSONNEL:
Kipp Shives: vocals, guitar
Scott Taylor: guitar
Milton Hall: bass
Brian Kennedy: drums

TRACK LISTING:
Side A
Sweetest Girl I Know
At All
Soul Sista
Ghetto Blaster: Somebody 1996
Sid & Nancy
Am I Punk Enough to Love Ya?
It’s Been a Long Time Since 1989
Kootchypop Situation

Side B
Teenage Revolution
Bored Suburban Youth
Drinking with the Winos in Bars
Situation Overload
Frank’s Hot Dogs
Blastro Ca-Castro
Lilly
Sara

“At All” b/w “Kootchiepop Situation”
Edisto Records, 1996
“Backseat” on Edisto Sampler 33-1/3 7″ EP

Ghetto Blaster, In/Humanity, Sticky– Annies, Thursday, 23rd
I must admit, when I heard that my fellow Free Times writer and self proclaimed “Podunk Rock Journalist”, Kipp Shives, had started his own band, after years of promoting everybody else, I was skeptical. After seeing a recent show, however, count me among the fans of Ghetto Blaster and their take on the stereotypical indie-rock guitar band sound. Shives plays a loose, limber guitar style characterized by casual riffing and lots of effects to fatten up the three piece’s sound, which is anchored by a solid, if anonymous, rhythm section. The songs themselves are what puts the band over the top, obnoxious odes to being a punk rocker in a non-punk world, with a large dose of humor and sarcasm included.
— Kevin Oliver, The Beat, Columbia (SC) Free Times, March 22, 1995

Swinging, snarling, smirking — always smirking — squalling, punishing and funny, stinking of beer and Carolina tobacco, Ghetto Blaster’s Eras Of Rock is a ’90s indie-rock gem! The writing here is very strong; the performances urgent, sweaty, and rubbertight; and the recording low-ish-fi but satisfyingly loud and clear. “At All” b/w “Kootchiepop Situation” was released as a 7″ single by Edisto Records in 1996, and other songs appeared on compilations every year or so, but Eras Of Rock never got a proper release, which is baffling and a damn shame!

In 2013, Kipp Shives (love that guy’s name) put all of Eras Of Rock online as a YouTube playlist, if you prefer to listen to music with pictures. (Might sound better too; I haven’t checked.) Kipp also has a bunch of songs up on Soundcloud, but he’s added nothing new since 2015.

UPDATE 27 Aug 2024: Kipp replies on Zuckface: “Thanks for writing up this soon to be 30 year old cassette, Jim Santo. It was recorded in Sugar‘s mini storage practice space in Athens, GA with Mercyland‘s David Barbe & Jack-O-Nuts‘ Brooks Carter on state of the art 8-track A Dat in one whole day for $150 and our drummer was late. I think we beat 22 or 23 songs out of those guys and cut this down to what you have here. Thanks again for giving Eras yet another resurrection.”