TEMPESTA

TEMPESTA play crushing modern crust...the kind that will make you happy if new Euro-crust is just not quite metal enough - or perhaps if you find that the metal coming out these days just doesn't have enough of a punk edge. The vocals are what make this for me; harsh and brutal, and spit out with sinister precision. The music is a charged metallic onslaught filled with more than enough riffing and thrashing madness to please the most judgemental hessian, with start/stop riffs and a crushing pace that hardly lets up for longer than a gratuitous intro. TEMPESTA are all of the good things about fast and nasty hardcore - and they come to us via cassette courtesy of Trabuc, which is a mark of quality if there ever was one. Oh yeah...there's a KREATOR cover that kinda rules.

DEMO-NIACA 2011

UNWISE

Another two song banger today, this time from Kobe's UNWISE. Gruff and unintelligible vocals and a ramshackle delivery that all but omits the guitar from the mix make this sound like cookie monster with a speech impediment singing for VERRÄTERISCH. UNWISE have been kicking around since the early '90s, and have several worthwhile releases under their belts (1993's Worth Of Existence on Vinyl Japan is especially sick, though it frequently languishes in the discount bins for some unknown reason), but this demo shows them at their most primitive.

UNWISE

SHIT MAYOR

I can't even pretend to describe this. I can only say that SHIT MAYOR are awesome, and that the two song, seven minute investment required to discover whether or not you agree with me is a rather wise gamble. Maybe this is somebody's idea of an inside joke, or maybe some modern day outcasts managed to create a demo that sounds like a garage punk version of 1000 HOMO DJs, and either way I am smitten. 

SHIT MAYOR

TOTAL WAR

I dare say that Vancouver is in the process of supplanting Portland as the punk capital of the West Coast, especially after our visit there last weekend. Killer show, great bands, and amazing punks (not to mention the carloads that were raging in Seattle show the night before). And now, enter TOTAL WAR. Blazing blown out Scandinavian influenced chaos that will melt your face for the next ten minutes - you can practically feel the studded jackets digging into your arms as you flail about...completely freed by the distorted riffs digging into your ears. Yeah, it's that fukkn good. TOTAL WAR.

TOTAL WAR

WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN

FUCKFACE crossed paths with WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN twice on our 1995 US tour. First in Biloxi, Mississippi, where we played with five touring bands and a couple of local ska acts in a rented hall, and then in New Orleans on afternoon that followed the most exceptional (frightening) displays of alcohol consumption I have ever seen (participated in) and our drummer was still talking to his dead friends (out loud) while we were playing. The following year, we got towed to a show they arranged for us sometime near Christmas (I can't recall if it was in Starkville or Columbus, and I don't remember if WTS or Jayson's next band THE GRUMPIES played...I just know it was real close to Jesus's birthday, and kids got crazy - perhaps because they were crazy). WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN are from Starkville, Mississippi, and their songs will seep under your skin and melt your icy jaded veins...this tape and their other demo were on heavy rotation in the van for many tours to come, and we were happy to spread the word to friends back home. Their sound is dredged through '90s poppy punk, but their delivery is all adrenaline and alcohol, placing them somewhere between HICKEY and SUPERCHUNK on my "awesome melodic bands from the '90s" meter. These tracks became WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN's only two EP's, Punk Rock Hero and Couldn't (If I Tried) b/w Wheaties, both released in 1995 or so. "Couldn't (If I Tried)" is as close to a perfect song as I've ever heard, and the words still get stuck in my head on a regular basis. The other two songs on this tape, "Can Man" and "Staring At Your Walls," never made it to wax, but they are both brilliant in the same innocently mature manner as "Couldn't (If I Tried)," and shows a band years more advanced than their actual years. In a different world, WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN would have (should have) been playing to hundreds of college punk fans for the last half of the decade, but in our world, they recorded brilliant songs themselves on a 4-track, released the songs themselves on cassette and EP (using the imprint Did It Ourselves Records), and filled a handful of lives with memories. That's a pretty nice legacy.

PUNK ROCK HERO

MÜLLTÜTE

This sweet little banger was waiting in my mailbox when I came home from a long weekend of rock 'n roll, and it made me want to jump right back in the van and do it all again. Gruff and stripped down old school hardcore punk from Germany, combining what we love about early '80s magic with that undefinable quality that makes Deutsch-Punk stand as its own subgenre. The production is raw, giving the guitars exactly right ratio of crunch to clarity, and the drums are dominated by the hi-hat, like so many killer lo-fi recordings from the golden years. 13 1/2 minutes of pure punk, dig it.

MÜLLTÜTE

Tour ends tonight in Oakland. Thanks to all who stopped by.

SMILES

Sorry kids, no comp today. Instead here is almost an hour of washed out echo-heavy UK punk from SMILES. True, many of these songs would have benefitted from a few quid and a studio mix down, but punks spend their money on glue, not making records....right?

SMILES

We are hitting LA tonight and sharing the stage with the Raw Ponx. Terminal Escape loves DRAPETOMANIA and TUBERCULOSIS, and MANIA was sick last night in Long Beach. We are fukkn stoked to play with them all tonight. See you there, Southern California punks.

ELEKTRODUENDES

It will be hard to accurately explain exactly why (or how much) I love this band - it's just totally simple female fronted Spanish punk executed to complete perfection. Super melodic jams that positively command excessive pogo dancing around your room (or car, or the sidewalk, wherever you happen to be listening). This tape from 1998 was their first release, and preceded a fantastic EP and a 12" that still gets regular rotations at Casa de Escape. When music can make you feel like a carefree teenager, but still make you feel like you are in a world where things matter, even when you can barely understand the language...that's just good fukkn music.

ELEKTRODUENDES

MAN FRIDAY

On the first ARTIMUS PYLE tour to Japan in 2001, we had two drivers for the two legs of the trip. The first was a somewhat legendary guitarist for a Tokyo hardcore band who arrived to pick us up almost 2 hours late, and promptly threw his boots at a wall shouting "I AM FUCKING DRUNK!!" (it was just after noon, by the way), and then grabbed his bag of SLAYER and EXODUS tapes and we were on our way. The second driver was the vocalist for MAN FRIDAY, who was substantially more mild mannered and extremely pleasant to tour with. In a perfect world, I would keep in touch with all of the nice people that I have met over the years I've spent touring and playing and setting up shows, but the world is far from perfect. I am also far from perfect, so I'll just post the nice dude's demo on the internet ten years in the future and tell him "Thanks."

MAN FRIDAY

MARTYRDÖD and NO STATIK at The Pink Mailbox in Isla Vista tonight. Then we will walk to the beach, and it will be fantastic. Maybe even romantic.

ADMASS

The second demo I have from these inept geniuses is filled with nearly an hour of criminally primitive punk. Three studio tracks assaulting Garry Bushell (he is apparently the biggest cunt in the world), Princess Diana and the mayor of Weymouth (also a cunt, in addition to being a big fat prick, apparently) respectively, are followed by a barrage of crude and plodding rehearsal tracks, complete with band fights over who is playing which not incorrectly. I love this shit, and sex obsessed teens ("Fuck You Not Love You," "Artificial Masturbation") sometimes create amazing sounds, even when they lack any semblance of technical proficiency. In fact, sometimes those are the sounds that are the most amazing, because the frustration is right out front and the emotion is pure. I posted their first demo almost two years ago, and I give extra credit to anyone brave enough to endure both in one sitting. Let me know how it goes...

ADMASS 2

NO STATIK and MARTYRDÖD return to San Francisco tonight, joined by YADOKAI at The Knockout. We have a new EP, the Swedes have a US pressing of 'Sekt" which is stellar. Southern California tomorrow!

ROTOZAZA

Total noise assault, with an approach that resembles LÄRM's "speed over quality" as much as the well worn distortion laden "noise not music" mantra. ROTOZAZA deliver 14 songs of screeching manic hardcore punk and a dislike for all things nuclear and governmental. I concur.

14 TRACK DEMO

Tour continues today, and we will be in Sacramento tonight. Come get DBeated to death, and see if Ruby's ribs are still intact. (That last bit is only funny if they are indeed still intact.) 

LAZY DOGS

Killer Mötorpunk from one shredding ex-ANNIHILATION TIME guitarist meets late '80s UK metal punk madness (which really just sounds like MÖTORHEAD anyway). LAZY DOGS come from Oxnard and rip through 6 songs of neanderthal lowest common denominator thrashing punk rock 'n roll with searing leads and throaty vocals, double bass drum exactly when you expect it, a bullbozer of simple low end bass lines - everything done exactly the way it should be. Perfect for long overnight drives filled with gratuitous steering wheel drumming and/or insane parties in some unsuspecting kid's mom's house. I feel like a chump for skipping them in Texas, but I felt like I had to go watch PERDITION and MANIPULATION, so really it was a win/win for me. 

LAZY DOGS

UNIFORM CHOICE

I doubt that anyone here needs a primer on Southern California's '80s straight edge heroes, right? This 1984 demo dishes out 10 blistering numbers with all of the fury that made their debut LP a complete classic combined with the raw purity that can only come from a demo. Sure, the lyrics can be distracting, even laughable at times (not a judgement on straight edge as a genre or a lifestyle, just an honest observation about the "after school special" nature of the words to most of the songs), but there is undeniable power in songs like "Sober" and their anthem "Straight And Alert." Just four years after this demo, UNIFORM CHOICE plopped out their pathetic attempt at a sellout record, and quickly vanished from the punk radar, but thankfully some enterprising label cranked out these demos as a double EP to remind us what they had once been. More 7 SECONDS than MINOR THREAT, this demo is a clear standout in the relatively limited world of Southern California straight edge hardcore. No cover...just the lyric sheet (complete with what may be a cigarette burn) for your enjoyment/entertainment.

UNIFORM CHOICE

LIFE OF MONOTONY

As the title suggests, this 2006 comp feature half a dozen acts from Minneapolis, that bastion of cultural diversity mysteriously plopped in the middle of the great Northern plains. THE AGENDA tracks that start the tape might be my favorites - expertly written and intelligent hardcore punk with hints of Gravity Records styled guitar action, but the whole tape is packed with winners. BABY GUTS are snotty and smart with a singer who reminds me of Ivy (BLACK RAINBOW, MIAMI, LOS CANADIANS), just a little lower on the rasp-o-meter...fierce and deliberate punk. GANGLION inject needed art into the noise/thrash punk thing and create a mess that could easily be mistaken for primitive black metal with its shrieking vocals until meandering riffs and clean guitars compete with the vocals and the listener is left wondering what kind of crazy ride the band is trying to take us on. You've heard surf punk? Well crank up THE MOJO SPLEENS and dig this surf hardcore, motherfukkr - easily the greatest (read: worst) snare sound I have heard in my entire life, I could not make a better sounding snare drum if you paid me, and the songs are excellent. Ripping lo-fi hardcore from FRIENDLY and then the tape wraps up with three riot grrl dreamers with amazing soulful vocals courtesy of DAISY'S COMPACT MICE. As much as I loved THE AGENDA tracks at the start of the tape, these songs have me totally smitten. Insistent and punk as shit, but utterly charming at the same time. Most of these bands have records that are worth seeking out (DAISY'S COMPACT MICE? Anyone...?), and this tape serves as a perfect introduction to the less crusty underbelly of the capital of Midwestern punk. (Don't want to get into a pissing war over this Midwestern punk capital shit, Chicago rules super hard and has an obvious legacy, and Milwaukee will always have a piece of my heart - in addition to having CLITBOYS and PROSECUTORS - but it seemed like the right thing to say when posting a tape from Minneapolis. And besides, they have a LOT of punks living there, and the town ain't all that big, you know?)

LIFE OF MONOTONY

MARTYRDÖD tour with NO STATIK starts today in Seattle. A show with WALLS, SLOWMOTIONS (Tokyo) and a band called CRAZY SPIRIT seems like a pretty nice way to kick things off, yes?

TERMINAL ESCAPE...

Terminal Escape turns two years old today. Almost 700 posts, each one (except one - I had a slip up, and it won't happen again) taken from a cassette and turned into shitty audio files by me.

Thanks to everybody who stops by regularly, to everybody who stops by occasionally, to everybody who downloads something out of pure curiosity, and to everybody who leaves comments. Thanks to the people who don't leave comments also, but not until I'm done thanking the people who leave comments.

This is where the magic happens...

WHITE WARDS

When I pressed 'play' on the deck to start the first WHITE WARDS demo last year, I had no idea what I was in for, but after seeing the band, being blown away by the band, and blasting their recent EP on Iron Lung, I was well prepared this time. This radio set from Portland features 13 of the most searing live minutes you are likely to encounter for quite some time. Cut from the US hardcore mold, but pulled and tweaked and fukkd in so many different directions that the result is just pure and glorious chaos. The guitar on the cover of NO TREND's "Too Many Humans" is something that should be studied by all serious students of the wonderfully oppressive sounds of indulgent hardcore. A great band on tape and in person, and I fully expect more magic in the future.

Live on KBOO

NO STATIK is playing in WHITE WARDS' hometown tonight. Olympia denizens come visit, and the MARTYRDÖD tour starts tomorrow in Seattle!

PALMS SPRING

Innocent and unabashedly open two piece from San Francisco who create honest and simple music. The presentation is as stripped down as you could ask for - lilting but melancholy female vocals and a guitar strumming atonal chords with a complete lack of pretension. The drums play busy and often complex beats with determination, but they remain in the background even when it sounds like Keith Moon is trying to hold back while keeping the beat for soul baring minimal post punk. The lyrics are often uncomfortably personal, which makes their innocent delivery even more crucial. This definitely deserves to be filed under "not typically my thing," but recently I have been filing it under "listen to this often."

NIGHTWALKER

I'm picking up some Swedes at the airport today, and the pre-MARTYRDÖD tour shows start tonight in Oakland. Bay Area residents come to Sugar Mountain for a night of crushing doom and metal that sounds nothing whatsoever like the demo posted today:

ROUT

This five song mystery was tacked onto the back of a rehearsal tape that I'll get up eventually, but the studio session from ROUT greatly overshadowed those rough practice room tapes from another UK band. ROUT dish out killer punk tunes with an odd edge that reminds me of the THE BLOOD, high quality stuff that should by all rights be well known and documented, but I have come up with a big goose egg when trying to find information about these chaps. The sound is more akin to late '70s UK punk like EDDIE & THE HOT RODS than the mid '80s anarcho band they were paired up with on this tape, but regardless of the era or background, these tunes are absolute killers. "The Separate" and "Danger" are the clear standouts - both would be undeniable classics had they been committed to wax. Fukkn good shit, because you have earned it.

ROUT

SHAVED WOMEN

It's Monday, and you have likely stopped by for some distortion laden insanity. Enter SHAVED WOMEN, who are neither female nor sans hair. This is not the raging DBeat madness laced with distorted axemen that shallow fans might have come to expect from Mondays. SHAVED WOMEN are, however, distorted and fukkd in all the right ways, so dig this live show presented in two 9+ minute movements and recorded in pure glorious analog - a curse upon the digital (never mind the ones and zeros that allow you to listen to this magic through your headphones).

Live @ APOP

GIGANT

Early '90s Japanese metallic hardcore at its finest. GIGANT unleash 25 minutes of quality ripping madness featuring a guitarist who sounds like he was lifted directly from ACIDIC SOIL records. After the thrashing I got tonight, I need this...and you do too.

GIGANT

GOD HARVEST

Burly, distorted and nasty hardcore from Florida with overt and in your face metallic tendencies. Imagine HIS HERO IS GONE ingesting a steady diet of Scandinavian metal and US hardcore, and then listen to your imagination at maximum volume and think of everything that is wrong with the world. The next eleven minutes of your life will be filled with an unforgiving hatred, and you will know that you are not alone.

GOD HARVEST

LOS MUERTOS CAMINAN

There were piles of killer records in Austin last weekend, new releases, limited releases, cheap used fodder and $100+ foreign flexis. But perhaps the best thing I picked up in Texas (admittedly, I haven't made it through the whole pile, and I opted out of the expensive stuff) was this tape that I snagged in a dark corner of Broken Neck Friday night. When I see a dude cruising around a warehouse with a box of compilation cassettes, you best believe that my finest Abraham Lincoln is going to find my way into his hand, and this dude was no exception. 20 songs, 10 bands, and the finest punk that Los Angeles has to offer, starting with GENERACION SUICIDA (a mix of GORILLA ANGREB and VICIOUS meets early LA punk in the most beautiful way imaginable) and continuing through Escape alumni of the melodic (POLISKITZO, RAYOS X) and brutal (THE HELPLESS, KRUEL) varieties. FUKKR SS live up to their moniker and sound exactly as you hope they would, WORST ENEMY play street punk the way only Southern California drunk punks know how, and MUNDO MUERTO deliver two of the most blazing pogo punk songs I've heard. Wrap the tape up with SABER M and killer tracks from LA VOZ and you'll understand why I am so pleased with that dark corner exchange at 3am on Friday night (Saturday morning, technically speaking).

THE WALKING DEAD

DE HØJE HÆLE // MIG & MIN VEN

For those who need further proof that the Danish are really good at punk, may I present DE HØJE HÆLE and MIG & MIN VEN, two bands who crank out a racket so familiar sounding that you would swear you already have their records, but so catchy that you will be too busy shaking ass to bother looking. Both bands hit the US in 2009, touring through the Deep South to places that no self respecting Euro would ever be found alive, and I'm sure that the sweaty stench of gyrating unbathed flesh that filled the dank bars in the backwoods of Mississippi on that tour is a thing of legend around those parts - tall tales of a van full of sharp dressed super models who unleashed a barrage of distorted garage punk on an unsuspecting handful of yokels and then vanished into the night. DE HØJE HÆLE lean towards the early '00s bands that came from Copenhagen, but with a lo-fi sensibility that will perk up the ears of the most discerning ironic moustaches. MIG & MIN VEN opt for pure and raw garage punk with no low end to speak of, drunk and ready to party. Plus, there are boobies on the cover.

DE HØJE HÆLE // MIG & MIN VEN

SCAPEGOAT LEMONADE

A few months ago there was this dude selling tons of really awesome (or at least really interesting looking) '80s cassettes on The Machine, and I threw my hat in the ring on a few of the auctions - who doesn't need more early US and European hardcore and punk tapes, right? Well, apparently a few other people needed them too, because after the dust settled, this tape was the only one peeking through my mail slot, and I was only $1.99 (plus shipping) poorer. SCAPEGOAT LEMONADE play weird and vaguely UK influenced punk with an apparent attempt at alt rock glory (clearly this last part was a fail). "The Trap" is a legit killer, and easily the best song on the tape, but the most interesting thing is that these dudes lived two blocks from my house. My van is parked in front of their house right now, in fact. Bernal Heights represent! BH/HC!

SCAPEGOAT LEMONADE

OUTER SPACE

Elements of FRAGMENTS and EMERALDS join forces and create an epic minimal opus that will take you where the name suggests: OUTER SPACE. If the galaxy were a celestial desert, and if its residents ate a steady diet of hallucinogens, then Light Demonstrations would be their language. Incredibly sparse ambient sounds that build with excruciating patience over two cassettes. Released last year by Deception Island, OUTER SPACE is like existential weed.

LIGHT DEMONSTRATIONS

(And yeah, I did bother to scan in the white printed on white cover for this cassette, because the image is cool. Even if you can't exactly see it.)

CONTRAST ATTITUDE

You would think that after the last five days of shows in Austin that The Escape might be tempted to mellow out a bit. You would think that, and you would be wrong. Japan's CONTRAST ATTITUDE should be well known to even casual fans of chaotic Japanese hardcore or the legions of noise mongers stateside who have been overtly aping the sub-genre for the last few years, and they sound MASSIVE on 2009's Apocalyptic Raw Assault without sacrificing any of the mayhem. Take notes.

APOCALYPTIC RAW ASSAULT

TEARGAS

These Australians got a shitstick for their recent Bay Area shows - one mediocre turnout and one lost venue that equaled no show at all. What's worse, I was out of town and didn't even get to see the mediocre one, and was responsible for the one that fell through. Minus five points for me. TEARGAS are a juggernaut of Japanese influenced hardcore with soaring guitar leads and vocals full of frustration and rage - awesome shit, and their new LP on Narm Discos/Hardcore Victim is a total killer. Get this demo today, order the record tonight. They are playing in Austin tonight, but NO STATIK is playing down the street at the same time, so minus five more points for me.

TEARGAS

NASIKUZUSI

Lightning speed Japanese fastcore from 2009. NASIKUZUSI blast through seven songs in eight minutes, just insanely tight and fast US influenced hardcore with zero time for bullshit . Also, it's really good.

NASIKUZUSI

ARTIFACTS FROM VENISON CREEK

An amazing artifact, this compilation was released in 1983 in a run of a scant 20 copies by a collective of punks from the New Brunswick town of Moncton. Chronicling an incestuous scene that featured musically diverse (and in the context of early '80s North American punk, quite original) bands, Artifacts From Venison Creek starts with the drum/vocal art punk of THE WHORE MOANS (1978), then moves on to killer sloppy Midwestern sounding punks THE ROBINS. The 0.5 McMEGADARES tracks are recorded live (at their only performance), and are probably more akin to early college rock if presented in proper form, but that's just a breather before DEATH CAMP - great angular KBD punks who blow through four live burners, probably my favorite tracks on the tape. HYPERACTIVE ADULTS and VAN KLEEK SOCIETY share a member and both play variations of dreary goth with drum machines and affected guitars, VKS (technically from Toronto, but featuring a Moncton transplant) could easily have polished up their recordings and dished out truly memorable tracks, but they existed for just a few short months in 1982, and these demos are all we get. After a FLIPPER cover from another short lived band (NOTHING), STATE CONTROL and CANCER SOCIETY make their case for status as stars of the tape: ripping hardcore that could easily sit along with sought after gems of lo-fi early '80s HC/punk, though the recordings are live and raw and the attack is a little slower than raging HC fans are probably used to. DAGDA MOR close the tape with catchy art/post-punk tracks that struggle to be discovered through the white hiss of live cymbals. Many of these bands' existence was only a blip on the chronological radar of small town punk (STATE CONTROL started in October 1982 and called it quits in December), and this tape makes up the only recorded output for several of them. Artifacts comes with a ridiculously detailed booklet (hand written and glued, of course) discussing the history of both the bands and scene that surrounded Venison Creek: "Venison Creek formed as an idea in 1978, as an ass kicker to all the glitter and shit of old rock ways." 

ARTIFACTS FROM VENISON CREEK

FENCED

OPT OUT played with these girls on our recent tour and they blew us all away - young, smart and vicious hardcore. When they started in late 2010, none of them had played an instrument, and while that beginner status may be evident on this demo, the pure, unjaded and insistent attack is easily worth a dozen rehearsals. The NEGATIVE FX cover is 1:37, and it's their longest track by a full 30 seconds. I wish I could have turned being young into something awesome, but thankfully FENCED is doing it for me.

FENCED

ANTIMOB

Most excellent crust tinged hardcore from Greece's ANTIMOB. There are flashes of euro-crust heaviness on this 2007 demo, but ANTIMOB manage to sound totally original within the admittedly narrow confines of that subsubsubgenre, cranking out seven tunes that draw from the same influences as Germany's THE NOW DENIAL. Awesome guitars, delivering motörcrust with weapons better suited for full on sweaty bar rock (it's a combination that works brilliantly) - there is nothing fancy here, but everything here is good. Stand out track: "In Front Of The Machines," full length coming later this year (supposedly and hopefully).

UNCONSCIOUS

The well publicized festivities in Austin start tomorrow, but things are ramping up tonight with this photo show, featuring my wife and a load of good friends who take really awesome pictures. If you are attending the well publicized festivities in Austin and are getting into town tonight, then I expect to see you here: