SCUM

More of the same - sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to come up with words for these Monday posts. You people come here for raw, noisy, blown out blasts of hardcore influenced by '80 bands from Scandinavia and Japan who were in turn usually influenced by '80s bands from England...well, OK mostly just the one band...and then distorted to oblivion. That's what SCUM do, and they are very fukkn good at it. This is why you visit, the guitars are piercing, the vocals are harsh and desperate, and the pace is relentless. Success.

NUCLEAR WINTER

FAITH ADDICTION

Hardcore. Four songs in two and a half minutes. Florida. Killer vocals. Really fast. Good breakdowns. Snare drum sounds like a hollow turd but it sill doesn't mean that this band isn't really good. Probably better than yours, in fact (nothing personal). No Reprieve used to sell these, but they are gone now (the label is still there, and still good, they just don't seem to have the tapes anymore). I bet you are glad that I shared it with you, since you might have to wait until some teenager grows up and gets married and sells all his/her tapes in a lot on the internet to get a copy for yourself.

FAITH ADDICTION

INANGER

Cassette version of the Reality Blind EP on Tribal War (please read the interview with Neil/Tribal War in the recent MRR, excellent stuff) and an excellent rehearsal recording. 15 tracks in all, driving political punk from Scotland...exactly what you need.

WITHIN THIS CORRUPTION

U-GIT

I'm not sure if this was a compilation packaged for actual release, or if it was just a mix tape of bands that Dan Riffe played in or was a fan of.  Dan's bands VAN GOGH'S EAR (will share their unreleased Clear Album soon - brilliantly subtle psychedelic noise) and ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O make appearances on this comp, along with BIG SKIN HEARTS and freaked out sounds from NOEL BOLTE. The SONS tracks are the highlight, a complete assault of fuzzed out psych-punk guitar mania that even makes the cover of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" sound good, tasty jams for the freaked out hippie queer trapped inside each and every one of us.  Circa 1992/3 in my corner of Oklahoma, guitar noise and punk rock were on a collision course with frequently fantastic but often shitty results...Dan was an accidental mentor, and made me several mix tapes while we worked together and played in a couple of bands. It was through him that I first heard WRETCHED, NOTA and a host of other forks in the road that got me pointed down the right path and I blasted the shit out of all of those tapes countless times. Hopefully they will all eventually stop by The Escape for a visit...and we'll start those visits with U-Git.

U-GIT COMP

GRUDGES

It has all of the appeal of low end heavy death metal, but the majority of this platter is delivered with a bare ferocity typically reserved for grinding DIY crust. "Marylin" is the slow paced exception, and provides more than enough gutteral punishment to satisfy even the most gluttonous of visitors while "Net Worth" lets '90s NYHC sneak into the mix with guilt ridden success. A new band with personnel from TERROR LEVEL RED and DEATH FIRST, this will grow hair on your chest.

GRUDGES

SENTENCIA

For whatever reason, the Spanish seem better than just about anyone else on the planet at making painfully amateur hardcore punk sound like the most intensely brilliant music on the planet. KANGRENA and MG-15 in the '80s, with bands like DESTRUCCION and today's visitors SENTENCIA carrying the fine tradition well into the new millennium. Über simplistic and rudimentary ramshackle hardcore built on the D-Beat model but delivered with a grade school charm and an urgency impossible to fake. The vocals are desperate and pained, while the guitar and bass struggle to keep up, even though they are playing the most simplistic three chord punk imaginable. Nine songs in ten minutes, but then you get to listen to them all over again, this is pure brilliance. Vida O Muerte was recorded in 2007 and is well worth your internet time, and your euros if you can track down a copy.

VIDA O MUERTE

63 EYES

Far removed from most of the fodder that worms its way onto Terminal Escape, this tape slowly wormed its way into my ears and I can't seem to shake it. Late '80s college rock from West Virginia, this falls somewhere in between MOVING TARGETS and VIOLENT FEMMES. If you want to get even further away from typical Escape posts, apparent 63 EYES frontman Todd Burge is still active and making music (he even worked with some dude that won a grammy), but I'm guessing that his current output won't be to most of your liking. This tape, however, is a perfect blend of not quite commercial guitar rock and Homestead/SST influenced post-punk/pre-alternative sounds - a poor quality and well worn cassette enhances the washed out 25 year old warble that somehow gives this music a legitimacy that it would have if I managed to uncover a long forgotten self released CD. No artwork, no song titles, very little information...and I'll get to work tomorrow earning back the punk points I have just squandered.

63 EYES

After a pleasant email from Mr. Burge this afternoon, I request that you visit the up-to-date 63 EYES bandcamp here, or peep his current solo efforts here. The demo I unearthed was a poor reproduction of the first 63 EYES cassette release, which you can still get directly from the band.