HARBINGER

 

If you know....then you know, and I don't need to write any words. You'd probably like that, but I am going to do what I do anyway. Sorry. 

WORDS: I hate to call a thing a supergroup, but sometimes the shoe kinda fits. Not even a Bay Area supergroup though - an East Bay supergroup. Eggplant (BLATZ, Absolutely Zippo), Mink (FLESHIES, S.P.A.M., Geekfest) and Aaron (CRIMPSHRINE, COLBOM, Cometbus) teamed up for this live-at-Gilman recording in 1998 and a brilliant follow up EP on Riisk. It's pretty much exactly what you think it might be - raw guitar '90s East Bay melodic punk with a serious DILS bent. If you know, you know. But some of you might not know....and that's why I'm here. You're welcome. 

EARTRAINING FOR CORPORATES

CAVEMAN

 

Massively devastating sludge / PV that will stop you in your tracks. In just eleven minutes, CAVEMAN lay waste to all of your hopes and dreams....which were useless anyway. You always knew that deep down inside, all CAVEMAN did is reach in and pull that reality out. Useless. Enough about you though, let's talk about CAVEMAN. 

SENSELESS

RAINCOAT

 

This is what happens when USHC gets dropped on a bunch of so-called Third World punk kids.....you get blown out, earnest hardcore that teaches the teaches. Listen to the closing chorus of "Self Doubt" and ask youself if you need anything else from hardcore....and realize that you don't. 

HOUSED

LE GUICHE FANTASTIQUE

 

Tthe story of LE GUICH FANTASTIQUE is a brief one, but the concept is a brilliant one. Jay told me once at the Nightbreak in San Francisco that he came up with the idea so that he could be in a band but not have to deal with as many people...so he built a guitar robot that he could control with his feet. There was still a live drummer though, and LE GUICHE FANTASTIQUE was not long for the world because Jay built a robot (and then some more robots) that took care of that "problem" too. Listening with 30 years in the rear-view mirror is interesting - I hear connections to era appropriate Bay Area punk (ALL YOU CAN EAT and HICKEY, specifically) for sure, but there's also an undeniable MITB comparison with the noise laden bass heavy dirges....the people and the approach were totally different of course but it's uncanny on tracks like "Bye Bye Kitty" I'm left trying to make it make sense. It's not supposed to make sense though, it's history. For the six people in this world who were yearning for that thread to connect SKANKIN' PICKLE to CAPTURED! BY ROBOTS....you're welcome. 

TAINT MISBEHAVIN'

AUSTRALIAN RADIO

I love listening to these tapes. People used to record the radio because they wanted to. Because they thought the might hear something that they wouldn't be able to hear again. Some of them were surely documenting and others just wanted something to listen to later (like Tivo...which already makes me sound an ancient human), but some people recorded these things because they were obsessed, and this is how we found things then. I recorded KMOD's distant static-laden Sunday broadcast of album sides in the '80s because how else was I going to hear Perfect Strangers? Just like I devoured Evergreen college radio broadcasts that Eric Hill's brother passed to him and Eric dubbed for me - because there was no internet and we wanted to hear everything that we could. So anyway, here's a Melbourne broadcast from December 29th 1984. Loads of the sounds on this tape was new to me....so it still works, you know? Don't ever stop consuming sound. 

"AUSTRALIAN RADIO"

INNUENDO

 

For those of you who don't know, there's a pretty killer little punk scene in Milwaukee these days. There has also been a pretty killer little punk scene in Milwaukee during virtually every era of punk since punk had eras....punk I don't want to digress or divert attention away from INNUENDO's 2024 banger. Insistent and infectious hardcore recorded in the spirit of the greats, even though those greats were great 40 years ago and INNUENDO are great now. So don't think about the history or the context - think about furious treble-heavy USDIY hardcore punk made by awkward Midwesterners....there's a template for that shit. And it fukkn works. Think about that, and you'll think about INNUENDO. 

PEACE & LOVE

Unlawful Assembly is flying the flag here. I suggest you pay attention to everything that label touches.  

WOLVES EYES

 

For all of the black metal posts over the years, I have probably declared that I don't know shit about black metal in half of them(or more). And here I al 16 years after I started, still feigning ignorance as I listen to Quebec's WOLVES EYES. We aren't going to get into the name (because literally....how can you not know?) but we are going to talk about the brilliance of rudimentary and rote black metal with distracting croaky frog vocals. The music is the equivalent of baby-skin's-first-Oi!-band dupa-dupa but translated to minor chord Scandinavian black metal with.....those creaky ass vocals. But like I said, I don't know shit about black metal so maybe it's not actually funny (even if it's not....it kinda is). Regardless, I blasted this tape yesterday like three times and tried to figure out what I would say when I posted it...turns out I didn't really figure out anything to say but damn I like listening to this shit. 

NOSTALGIA IN OUR SOULS