va - don't forget the punks of bangkok one sided 12''

va - don't forget the punks of bangkok one sided 12''
i got this from my friend katz in l.a.,ca a while back and dicided to put it on here for no good reason, heres a recent email from him about it since listening to it again got me curious.

the comp was the idea of luk haas, who does TAM'89 records, to whom i was one of the inspirations for him starting a record label. it was for a friend of his he had met while in thailand, "dok mohok"... for a living he would sell used clothing at the open market and would work as an extra in low budget movies whenever they need punk thugs in it. he got severe eye injuries when one of the movie lights blew up in his face, leaving him blind... luk wanted to find a way to get him some bux to get much needed medical treatment. i offered to put out a benefit comp 7" to help out in gathering money for the cause. luk gathered up some bands and sent me the trax. the reason why it ended up coming out as a one-sided 12" is because there were too many trax and i didn't want to delete any of them, so that's what happened. i spent a total of $800 on the project, as i wanted to keep costs down. i shipped a bunch of copies to various distros for free on the condition that whatever they made from the sale go to luk haas, who would then wire the money to a friend of his working at the french embassy in neighboring laos, who also knows dok mohok, who set up a special bank account for him just to make sure that the money actually got to him safe and secure, as dok and his family lived in the slums where mail delivery is pretty much regretable. dok would eventually get the first $500 from the sales of the benefit comp, of which paid for his eye surgery, the back rent owed on his shack, and the school fee for his young daughter. through the surgery he was able to get a small fraction of his sight back... enough to discern light and dark shades, but still legally blind. he continues to sell used clothing at the markets stalls. the last i heard about dok mohok is that he is still blind but doing okay. at least the effort we put in did go a long way, as it helped pay for so many other expenses. it also let a lot of poeple know that there was a scene in thailand, of which great interest would be shown in bands from indo-china region.i hope that gives ya an idea what good it was able to do? take care! cheers!~katz