WARCRY

 

Sometime in the mid-2000s I was at an afternoon show in Austin talking to the first guitarist from WARCRY (maybe on the patio of a bar-b-q joint because....well, because Texas). While we were generally chipping it up about whatever and waiting for the first band to start, a raging DBeat song started blasting over the PA and we both took note (perhaps because it was loud enough that casual conversation was rendered temporarily impossible). After a moment, he commented that the then-relentless wave of DBeat clone bands had gone too far and that he was tired of hearing DBeat everywhere and more or less dismissed whatever new DBeat clone band had wormed its way onto the too-loud afternoon bar-b-q show playlist. We both laughed, since he was kinda right, and black clad two riff wonders did seem to be coming out of every dark alley around that time. And then the pick slide for "Without Warning" dropped over the PA and we were both struck momentarily silent, realizing that the band the WARCRY guitarist was dismissing was, in fact, WARCRY. Then we laughed more.

10 TRACKS NOISE

BURIED

This is hardcore that doesn't seem to exist anymore, and that is something that I lament more and more as I get older. BURIED's politics are personal and urgent, unfettered by adulthood or the crushing realizations that sometimes come with it. Musically, this is melancholic basement hardcore, fronted as much by Grant's guitar (that's Grant from ANIMAL FARM, WARCRY, TALK IS POISON, OJOROJO and others, in case you need a nudge) as by the soul baring idealism in the vocals, with an intensity not derived from playing faster or harder, but rather from simply meaning it more. Wisconsin has a rich punk and hardcore legacy dating back well over 30 years, and I am quite pleased that I was fortunate enough to get a glimpse, however brief.

LEADERS, MACHINES AND LIES

BACTERIA

They dropped this demo off and then disintegrated in a flash, and unless you were in Portland in the very early 2000s, you probably missed them entirely. Much like MIDNIGHT, their past and future projects probably over shadow them (the rhythm section would spend the following two decades forming the foundation of WARCRY), but there's something about the rock solid hardcore fronted by completely unhinged vocals that sets BACTERIA apart. Ten songs in less than a quarter hour. 

BACTERIA

UNKNOWN PLEASURES

I know I've posted plenty of things that I haven't known all that much about, but this one might take the cake. I have the J-Card you see above, and an address for Graeme in Scotland. This was on a tape with the ANOTHER WARCRY demo (killer killer shit, the same tunes that were on this mix tape posted last fall, highly recommended) and a brilliant but unreleased ALTERNATIVE ATTACK recording that will go up in the coming days, but who the fuck are UNKNOWN PLEASURES aside from a band who liked JOY DIVISION enough to take their record as a moniker? Clearly they are indeed JOY DIVISION fans, judging from the songs they plodded through at this rehearsal sometime in 1985 (including a side-splittingly horrible cover of "She's Lost Control"), but aside from that gem and one DAMNED tune, UNKNOWN PLEASURES slog through relatively uninspired and rather mellow mid 80s UK punk. What's interesting is simply that I've never heard of it at all (nor had anyone I spoke to), and the internet provided only fruitless searches for answers. And so I post...

UNKNOWN PLEASURES

JUST A KILLER MIX TAPE

Fridays seem to come along much quicker since I started posting comps and mix tapes each week.  I think this phenomenon is primarily because these tapes are way more tedious to rip than a simple demo tape.  But there is something magic about a truly killer mix tape, and ones like this make all that typing completely worthwhile.  I doubt there are undiscovered gems on this tape that no one has heard before (the bands new to me were ANOTHER WARCRY, who are bad ass, and POTENTIAL THREAT, who I have just never heard for some strange reason), and I also doubt that there are previously unknown songs by bands you already love like SACRILEGE, PANX ROMANA, SLIME and OHLO SECO.  But when a mix tape works, it fucking works, and that's all there is to it.  Segueing from 4+ minutes of ALIEN KULTURE's post punk track right into a 10 second rager from ANTI DOGMATIKSS and then diving right into a bizarre and awkward spoken word bit from LITTLE BROTHER to wrap up the second side...that shit works like a charm. Tracks from ESKORBUTO and ROTAVATORS were chopped off sides A and B respectively, which is the only bit of poor planning exhibited by this unknown cassette assembler, except perhaps the unimaginative naming of the tape (every good mix tape needs a good name, and Various Stuff doesn't really cut it).  Dig in...just download and listen to this shit, and pretend there's a bunch of tape hiss instead of mp3 buzz (I know there really isn't any such thing as "mp3 buzz," I was just trying to make digital audio files sound, you know, cool).

VARIOUS STUFF Side A

VARIOUS STUFF Side B