Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Music Underground Archive at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, a collection of recordings from several decades of punk, alternative and underground rock bands from Bethlehem and beyond.
Some audio tracks may contain offensive lyrics. Listener discretion is advised.
Notes: Many of these bands have had their works collected and digitized by Frank FOE, who compiled demo tapes and published albums under his record label F.O.E. (Freedom of Expression). From the 2000s to the present, Chris “Reject” and his Bethlehem-based label Square of Opposition has taken up the mantle of publishing albums for the Lehigh Valley underground scene, as well as punk and hardcore bands from all around the USA. They were both kind enough to donate their recordings to BAPL, as was Lance LaBar’s Bethlehem-based Killer Tofu Records. Killer Tofu Records has released a wide variety of punk, indie, electronic, and experimental bands from the Lehigh Valley. We are thrilled to preserve and showcase this unique collection here!
This collection includes professionally recorded CDs, digitized 7″ vinyl records, lo-fi demos, recordings of live shows, homemade tapes, and sessions literally recorded in somebody’s basement. (Ray’s basement, to be exact.)
Music can be streamed here or downloaded for your personal collection. To download a song, click the menu icon at the top of the music player to expand the list. A download icon will appear on the far right end of each track. You can also show your appreciation for a track by hitting the Like button or sharing the track on Facebook and Twitter.
To support this project and projects like it, make a donation here!
Anonymous
Hardcore punk with members from Philadelphia and Allentown, active in the mid-1990s.
Atomic Chickens
The Atomic Chickens were “4 dorks from the Lehigh Valley who wrote pop-punk songs about whatever ridiculous things were on their minds at that moment.” The “Greatest Hits” compiles songs from three cassette tapes the Atomic Chickens released in the early 1990s, along with demos and practice recordings.
The Clap
The “oldest of old-school punk in the Lehigh Valley”, The Clap helped define the underground punk scene in the early 1980s.
Crack Babies
Experimental Lehigh Valley-based band with pop and psych influences. Active in the 1990s.
Fat Head
Melodic power pop punk band from the Bethlehem. The Lehigh Valley Archive compiled demos and unreleased tracks that Fat Head recorded in January and May of 1995 at Warehouse Studios.
FC
FC was a metal-influenced hardcore band from the Lehigh Valley that formed in 1985. Their full-length CD, It Don’t Get No Louder, was recorded at Signal Studios but never officially released.
Follow Fashion Monkeys
Punk/hardcore band from Bethlehem that helped define the Lehigh Valley underground scene during the mid-1980s (1984-1988). They released one self-titled album in 1985. After their break-up, FOE eventually published some of their unreleased tracks on a 1996 single, as well as on compilation albums such as Get The Hell Out (which can be found under Various Artists).
Forthright
One of the Lehigh Valley’s earliest examples of the “straight edge” subgenre of hardcore. Active in the late 1980s.
Grieving Eucalyptus
Melodic pop-punk with some 1950s influences. Based in the Kutztown area, Grieving Eucalyptus was a key player in the Lehigh Valley’s pop-punk scene during the mid-1990s.
