ASTRAL BUTCHER

 

I played with them once. It was in Sacramento - it was probably with NO STATIK even though my brain keeps telling me it was SUICIDE BOMB) - and ASTRAL BUTCHER felt fucking dangerous. They were like the drug dealers who showed up to the high school dance and lurked in the shadows. They played with irreverence, they destroyed with abandon. They fukkn destroyed the joint. 

CEMETERY GOATS

FILE UNDER: Blistering high-end black psychedelic metalcrust power trio.

SPUR

 

This one almost made me question my commitment to physical tape rips....because the shit is so damn demanding and in your face and I feel like the murky lo-fi replication kinda pulls back the power. But I am a purist, so you get what I got. And you're gonna get smacked in the damn mouth by Florida's SPUR just like I did. And when the pit-churning mosh part in "Scraping By" drops you're going to be yearning for fidelity just like I was...and don't even get me started on "Headache" because the desperation is particularly palpable there. the point isn't what's lacking though, because this tape is ready to be party blasted. This tape is pumping out of a shitty ass speaker while young kids attempt new tricks at the downtown skatepark. This shit is real punk - it's desperate and honest. This punk is real shit. 

COWBOY KILLER

SUCCUBUS

 

This one will be tough to describe so I will try to use few words (but more words than I spent on the glorious TOURIST tape a couple of days ago). SUCCUBUS are clearly drawing from classic goth and dark wave but SUCCUBUS are just as clearly rooted in punk sounds so the result is....different. They hit like retro dark wave but they also beg to be filed alongside RAKTA and UNA BÉSTIA INCONTROLABLE and they sound like fukkn punks, particularly on "Judas." Only three songs on 2020's Coherence - soaring and determined. They are still active and still pushing boundaries...

COHERENCE

PRE-MARITAL SEX

 

Next mission is to bootleg the three PRE-MARITAL SEX tapes I borrowed from that dude in Fresno a few months back. Anyone who can successfully justify this band's legacy languishing in the shadows owes me a sandwich....but that's a sandwich I will never eat because PRE-MARITAL SEX deserve all of the accolades. This band's should be on the lips of people who (still) speak of TEAM DRESCH and SPITBOY, but these women had a fukkn saxophone too. Songs like "Feminine Hygiene Blues" just wouldn't hit the same today, and "Big Scrotum" places a tongue so firmly in cheek that I'm left speechless. So yeah - expect a Tape-ography before the end of the year because it needs to happen. 

BLOODY MARYS

TOURIST

 

Powerviolence.

TAKE FIVE

ISABELLE MAYEREAU

 

Truly one of the most beautiful sonic accidents I've ever stumbled into. ISABELLE MAYEREAU's self titled 1978 release (not to be confused with her 1977 self titled release) would likely have stayed in the unknown realm forever had I not happened on a criminally small handful of tapes in a thrift store....but I did. And I will never be the same. I don't understand the words, but the swells in "Souffle en L'air" made me weep. I'm not ashamed. To the contrary, I remain encouraged. Apparently "Tu M'écris" was a hit and I can understand why even though it may be my least favorite track on the tape - I prefer the sparse guitar in "Difference" and the space offered by "Aquarelle." It's a genuinely moving release...I found it by accident and it will stay with me forever. 

ISABELLE MAYEREAU

KAGAMI

 

I feel like it was just yesterday when I posted a five minute long hardcore tape that felt like the greatest thing since sliced bread (a ridiculous saying, by the way....sliced bread is fine, but it's nothing special unless the bread itself is special). These five minutes come from Tokyo circa 2021, and they manage to grab early '00s fastcore, US82 by way of TOTAL FURY style retro hardcore and modern Japanese treble heavy punk all at once. They get in, they get out, there's no bullshit. Who wants bullshit? Nobody wants bullshit.

KAGAMI