One of my favorite bands “back in the day” was Government Issue from, appropriately enough, Washington D.C.. They were one of the few bands from the Class of ’81 to actually stay together for any amount of time, releasing a string of excellent records throughout the 80s. I saw GI many times and they were a great live band as well. I knew they were going to break up the last time I saw them, at the Pyramid in NYC, because they so clearly lacked the aggressive energy that had made their previous live shows so memorable.

While I have a large amount of GI vinyl, I nonetheless picked up their Complete History Volume 1 double CD set awhile back. I’ve had in on heavy rotation lately and it’s great stuff. But even I, a diehard GI fan, cannot fathom why they felt the need to put FIVE different versions of the song Sheer Terror on here, four of them on disc one. I like that song as much as the next punk, but I don’t need to hear it four times every hour each time I play disc one! GI frontman John Stabb was notorious for dressing and acting in ways calculated to annoy people (and indeed that is what Sheer Terror is all about), so I guess this is his way of ensuring his spirit lives on.

On the Sheer Futility front, I’ve just put up a new article called Prophet of the Sleepers in the Game Writing sidebar to your right. This is an adventure I wrote for the Legend of the Five Rings RPG back in 1997 that was never published. You can find out why (well, at least somewhat) in the introduction to the article. Enjoy.