TV DRUGS

 

I really like listening to punk. Sometimes I go far too long without having my ears shredded live, and sometimes I go days without sitting down (in my case: pacing back and forth) and really listening to records at volume. But I blast these tapes...I rip and/or edit something damn near every night that I'm home, and these built in iMac speakers have pump countless low fidelity hours of DIY punk and noice into my earholes. Sometimes I'm distracted while I'm ripping - work, Murder The Cat, dishes - and the sounds are just kinda 'there' until I edit. But if I'm editing in a hurry I might not spend real time with these little plastic cases until it's their turn to share them here. I'm not proud of the attention that I'm (sometimes) not able to give but.....life gets in the way of living sometimes. Sometimes. Not today, but sometimes. Today? Today I'm listening to TV DRUGS on repeat. I sat down with TV DRUGS whle it was ripping and I got lost while I was editing, wondering how I could describe the magic I was experiencing....apparently I came up with nothing because here I am talking to you about shit that has nothing to do with TV DRUGS, you know? This shit fucking demands attention. This is a 'stop what you're doing and recognize" kind of tape. I hear '80s California beach hardcore, I keep hearing rockabilly in the double snare hits on "Medicated" and speaking of "Medicated" there's a desperate MEDICATION TIME energy in the vocals that I am way the fuck into. Urgent '10s North 'Merican DIY stomp vibes creep in with some frequency, but it's tracks like "Consume" and "How Far?' that push envelopes and challenge descriptors. Look, TY DRUGS released a ripping hardcore punk tape back in 2021, pure and simple. Listen properly and you'll get way more than 'just' a ripping hardcore punk tape. I've learned my lesson. 

FFO: EVERYTHING TERRIBLE

HEAVY STENCH

 

For starters: "Trash Can" is among the fiercest hardcore bulldozers you will experience today. This week. This month. It's fukkn intense, and the rest of the Death Or Danger demo is on the same level - beautiful, pure and fierce. The replication is a little muddy but that shit settles in real quick because it's punk and that's what we're used to (we're used to getting what we get, you know?) and I swear it adds extra tension to moments like the rumbling drums on the start of "Full Cycle." If you like your shit anxious and on the edge of collapse, then this HEAVY STENCH joint is going to tickle you like it tickled me. 

DEATH OR DANGER

DISKÖURSE

 

Another book that you are encouraged to judge by its cover. If you're thinking booze-fueled bombastic DBeat dis-tortion then your thoughts are on the correct path. And this path will lead you to 2017's Love Noise, Equal And Peace! from DISKÖURSE. The piercing white wash of the crash cymbals are a bizarre highlight - a noisy recording glitch instead of manufactured distortion perhaps, and it adds an element of tension that falls right in line with tracks like "N.Q.N." and "Alcohol Attack" that sound just barely out of tune enough to make you grit your teeth and regret that last beer you had before bed. Pure and beautiful kång as interpreted by some '10s crushers from Indonesia....I was into this tape when I listened for the first time and ripped it last week, but I'm fucking with it hard this morning. And if you're wondering whether or not there's a cover of "Warmachine" on this tape? Of course there is. 

LOVE NOISE, EQUAL AND PEACE!

WARCYCLE // ZUDAS KRUST

 

Total fucking bulldozer annihilation in the form of nine relentless bursts of chaos from Indonesia and Australia. Perth's WARCYCLE start with an intro that harkens AXEWIELD and then unleash crasher crust hell on alls mortals foolish enough to stand in their way. For their part, Jakarta's ZUDAS KRUST offer four sinister grinders captured on a recording that demands repeat listens. The bass tone is formidable and damaged and the guitars are either *just* out of tune or these punks are avant-crust geniuses...I'm comfortable assuming they are both, of course. "Ini Hidup Apa" is a one riff exercise in patience and makes me want to re-listen to the rest of the recording with more focus (and volume). So that's what I'm going to do now...

WARCYCLE // ZUDAS KRUST

G*U*N*N*

 

I think I maight have shared a G*U*N*N* tape before but I don't feel like clicking through the archives to check because I'm listening to "Can't Stop" on repeat at maximum volume and pretending I'm a teenager wrecking shit in my bedroom while my parents pound on the door. And still, "Thin Blue Line" is the real banger - the one song that highlights how slightly out of tune the guitar is (the guitar that also sits bizarrely outside of the overall mix in the most interesting way). This punk is furious and this punk feels honest...and as the outro attests: "You wanna hear the truth, hit up the G*U*N*N* from OC." 

DEATH OR DANGER

SIEMPRE EN NUESTRO CORAZON

 

You have to understand....DIY punk in Indonesia didn't really start to take hold until years after several generations and movements had evolved and mutated in the so-called First World. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? had a plan to go in 1999 that never materialized, but when CFD was there in 1997 I was on the back of Aca's scooter cruising to the US consulate for some bureaucracy and he casually pointed to a government building and told me about the students who were barricaded there in '97 fighting military cops for days and days. Punk kids.....fighting the fucking army. It was presented so casually and it really put the whole "fighting the system" thing into perspective, you know? Then we had to escape some bandits attacking motorists from an overpass, fixed a flat tire and I forged signatures on a bunch of passports....it was a fucking day. Anyway, this comp dropped in 1997 and that context is pretty important as you listen - you're talking about baby punks who had access to the traditional started bands and the first few waves of US, European and Australasian DIY all at once and I can't even imagine what that information overload must have felt like. Limited access and unlimited date and...well, what if GORILLA BISCUITS and and GISM and CROSSED OUT were on the same plane? Siempre En Nuestro Corazon is what you get. STRAIGHT ANSWER, GENOCIDE, ANTISEPTIC, DIRTY EDGE, CRYPTICAL DEATH - there are more, and every single track is a slammer. Fidelity optional, passion and intensity mandatory...this is the realest compilation I have listened to in a long long time.

WALK TOGETHER ROCK TOGETHER

U.N.I.T.

 

Screaming, squirming, stomping hardcore from the mean streets of San Antonio, Texas. A quick peek at the song titles offers a clue: Violence. Control. Nothing. Fear. And to simply state that U.N.I.T. deliver on the promise those four words bring would be a criminal understatement. Woke up today to a (new) world of shit around me (if you're paying attention then you'll see that it's the same world that surrounds you) so I blasted these S.H.I.T. vibes and looked behind while looking inside. Even when you can't control the violence, it's nice to think that (even for a moment) you have nothing to fear. You do, of course. Shit is terrifying. But the next seven minutes are going to be glorious. 

THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO & THERE IS NOTHING TO DO