HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Chung King Can Suck It'' is a limited-pressing colored vinyl album by New York City band
Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
, containing the original version of what was to be the '' Bringin' It Down'' album. The title of the album is a direct insult to the Chung King recording studio in New York City (then known as Chung King House of Metal).


Album history

Judge had gone into Chung King with only one three-day weekend of studio time block-booked in order to record their first album, since band members John Porcelly and
Sammy Siegler Sammy Siegler (born March 21, 1973) is an American rock drummer, notable for his many contributions to the New York hardcore scene. Siegler also filled in on drums for artists like Limp Bizkit and Patti Smith. Discography With Project X * ''S ...
were set to tour with their main band
Youth of Today Youth of Today is an American hardcore punk band, initially active from 1985 to 1990 before reforming in 2010. The band played a major role in establishing the " Youth Crew" subculture of hardcore, both espousing and evolving the philosophies ...
in Europe later that month. The studio was home to many of the popular (and now legendary) rap acts of the day, including the
Beastie Boys The Beastie Boys were an American Hip-hop, hip hop and Rap rock, rap rock group formed in New York City in 1979. They were composed of Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Mike D, ...
,
Run-DMC Run-DMC (also formatted Run-D.M.C., RUN DMC, or some combination thereof) was an American hip-hop group formed in Hollis, Queens, New York City in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the mos ...
and
LL Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip ho ...
; Youth Of Today had recorded their third album ''
We're Not in This Alone ''We're Not in This Alone'' is the third and final full-length studio album by New York hardcore punk band Youth of Today. It was originally released by Caroline Records in 1988. Background and songs Youth of Today had broken up briefly in 198 ...
'' at the same studio earlier in the year, so Porcelly and Siegler were already familiar with the place. According to a 2005 interview with Judge guitarist
Porcell John "Porcell" Porcelly (born February 3, 1967), also known as Paramananda Das, is an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the 1980s Hardcore punk, hardcore bands Young Republicans, Violent Children, Youth of Today, and Judge (ban ...
in ''
AMP Amp or AMP may refer to: * Ampere, a unit of electric current, often shortened to amp * Amplifier, a device that increases the amplitude of a signal Arts and entertainment Music * After Midnight Project, Los Angeles alternative rock band * A ...
'', all three of those acts had already been using three of the four separate facilities in the studio complex, leaving Judge with what was at the time the least technologically advanced of the four rooms. To complicate matters, the
recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...
the band had been assigned by the studio was a full-blown cocaine addict – an irony given Judge's militant anti-drug lyrics and moral code. During the second day of the sessions, the engineer on duty failed to show up for work, forcing the band to work with another studio staff engineer totally unaccustomed to recording punk rock music. After the sessions were completed, Porcell and Siegler listened to the finished mixes while on the Youth of Today European tour and came to the conclusion that while the performances were good, the recordings were not up to the standards of what they had done in the past with Youth of Today. The drum tracks in particular do not have the punch typical of other Revelation releases at the time, and the overall mix is considered to be thin. A phone call to lead singer Mike "Judge" Ferarro confirmed that he too was unhappy with the finished album, and the group chose to shelve the session and start over in a different studio. Unfortunately for Revelation, label owner Jordan Cooper had already paid for the mastering of the record and the plating of the vinyl stampers – a point in the manufacture of record too late to fully prevent the release of an album, especially for Revelation Records, which was then still a small
independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...
that Cooper was running out of his home. With advance orders already coming in for the as-yet unreleased album, Revelation decided to press a limited run of 100 white-vinyl copies of the album, assigning it catalog number REV:-1 (negative one), and sending these copies to tide over fans who had advance ordered ''Bringin' It Down''. As is customary the record pressing plant produced a 10% overrun of the album and as a result 110 copies were delivered. Each copy has its number stamped on the bottom corner of the back of the sleeve however the printing on the jacket notes a pressing run of 100 so with the additional 10, those extra sleeves had the "100" altered to say "110". This record has been much sought after by collectors ever since. Judge then scheduled time at Normandy Studios in Rhode Island – the same studio where The Cro-Mags recorded their second album '' Best Wishes'' in 1988 – to record a proper version of their first album, '' Bringin' It Down''. The two albums are similar in track listing for the first eight songs; ''Chung King...'' features two songs, "Holding On" and "No Apologies", that were not rerecorded for ''Bringin' It Down''; "Where It Went", written after the ''Chung King...'' sessions, takes their place. The ''Chung King Can Suck It'' album remained a rarity (in spite of two different bootleg editions of the album), and was sought after both for its collectibility and the two rare Judge songs it contained, until 2005, when Revelation compiled all of Judge's recorded output – ''Chung King Can Suck It'' included – for the CD '' What It Meant: The Complete Discography''. In May 2015 a copy became the most expensive sale on
Discogs.com Discogs ( ; short for "discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''The N ...
, fetching $6,048, a record that stood for a year until David Bowie's second album, ''
David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
'', sold for $6,826. However, on November 20, 2024 Revelation Records announced a remastered version of the record and a vinyl repressing for the first time in 35 years, which includes some new photos by Jeffrey Ladd and a reversed-out version of the original white album cover. This remastered version also marks as the 200th release on Revelation Records.Judge to Reissue Remastered Version of Infamous 1989 LP, Chung King Can Suck It
/ref>


Track listing

#"Take Me Away" #"Bringin' It Down" #"Hold Me Back" #"Give It Up" #"The Storm" #"Hear Me" #"Like You" #"I've Lost" #"Holding On" #"No Apologies"


Musical personnel

* Mike Ferarro – vocals *
Porcell John "Porcell" Porcelly (born February 3, 1967), also known as Paramananda Das, is an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the 1980s Hardcore punk, hardcore bands Young Republicans, Violent Children, Youth of Today, and Judge (ban ...
– guitar, backing vocals *
Sammy Siegler Sammy Siegler (born March 21, 1973) is an American rock drummer, notable for his many contributions to the New York hardcore scene. Siegler also filled in on drums for artists like Limp Bizkit and Patti Smith. Discography With Project X * ''S ...
– drums, backing vocals *
Jimmy Yu Jimmy Yu (born 1968), also known as Guo Gu (果谷 Guǒ Gǔ), is a Chan teacher and a scholar of Buddhism. He was the bassist for the American 1980s hardcore bands Death Before Dishonor (the original) and Judge. After his youthful days in hardco ...
– bass * Lukey Luke – backing vocals * Alex Brown – backing vocals *
Tom Capone Tom Capone (January 1, 1966 – September 2, 2004), born Luiz Antonio Ferreira Gonçalves, was a Brazilian music producer and guitar player. Born in Rio Negro/PR, Brazil, he died in Los Angeles hours after leaving the 2004 Latin Grammy Awards sh ...
– backing vocals * Kevin Egan – backing vocals * Jay Anarchy – backing vocals


No producer or engineering credit

No formal producer or engineering credit is given on either the original album sleeve or in the CD booklet of ''What It Meant''. On ''Chung King Can Suck It'', the producer credit is given as "He Who Can Suck It", and no engineering credit is given. In the liner notes of ''What It Meant'', the credits are more blunt: The producer credit reads "Not produced" and the engineering credit reads "Engineered by some cokehead loser." If the album had been released in a proper manner, guitarist John Porcell would have taken credit or co-credit for producing the album, as he did with all of Judge's recorded output.


References


External links


Revelation Records' hidden page on ''Chung King Can Suck It''
{{Authority control 1989 albums Judge (band) albums Revelation Records albums Albums recorded at Chung King Studios