02 November 2024

ON THE BLOCK

 



Remember that shit I said about Oi! the other day? Well...Welcome to Asheville, punks. Three songs from ON THE BLOCK, who's moniker had better some kind of pisstake about the streets. Most notable to left coasters is Jerome (APEFACE, SNUGGLE) on guitar, but these tracks don't need no stinking pedigree at all. "Blocked" is a dark street punk anthem for the ages and the other two are straight slammers. Sass's vocals land somewhere between gruff UK82 and Carl McCoy and the tracks are addictive as fuck and I am so totally here for it. 

01 November 2024

SVENSKA SPELMANSLAG

 



Look....this shit doesn't sound that great. Some punk probably nicked the tracks from youtube and dubbed them in a garage in the Central Valley on a tape deck they stole from St. Vinnie's. But here's the thing: It's not supposed to sound great. If you aren't sold on the irrelevance of fidelity by the time AVSKUM's "Livande Begravd" starts then I don't really know what I can possibly do for you. For the other TE readers in their right mind who aren't familar with the comp, I offer you this: MODERAT LIKVIDATION, SNOBB SLAKT, BRISTLES and PUKE mingling with lesser knowns like FRENETIK AGONI, SVEA SKANDAL, ORIGINAL SIN, KURI I KUVÖS and two absolute killer from SUBWAY ARMY. I missed a few I'm sure, but when you're dealing with primal SvenskPunk of this caliber...well, you get a little flustered. Essential blasting.


31 October 2024

MANIACS

 



I've been blessed with a healthy handful of under the radar street punk slammers lately, and this collection of hitters from THE MANIACS stands proud at the top of the heap. Not my subgenre of choice, but I can listen to "Bovver Brigade" and "Cause Of Violence" all fukkn day and then some. The full package is well worth digging into - 2014's CDr release Survive on cassette with the Strength Of Oi! tape from 2016 housed in a beefy box with a booklet filled with more than enough images and word to make you feel like you (were) there. You want a hitter from Singapore that lands squarely between COCK SPARRER and CRIMINAL DAMAGE? You found it with THE MANIACS.  



30 October 2024

D. SABLU

 



Well documented and rightfully fawned over garage damaged stomps from New Orleans, D. SABLU has (not so) quietly earned a reputation for destructive hooks. It's one of the dudes from CASUAL BURN, but truth told I only know of the latter because I'm low key obsessed with the former - the No True Silence full length platter from earlier this year only intensified that obsession. A decade (plus) later, this shit fills the Reatard void I didn't even know I felt...and apparently I felt it deeply, because I want more and more. These songs dropped in 2022 (for a tour, obviously) - there are more, and you can start here or here. Just start please, and don't stop.


29 October 2024

DUMSPELL

 



If you dig back through the archives, you'll find several posts where I talk about the magic of the Everything Is Not OK gigs that Ross curated last decade. It was truly something else to see other people (and punks but not just punks) feeling seen and celebrated, and I dare say that I haven't had any (or at least not many) punk related euphorias that have matched those weekends in the years since. The Mississippi punks were a huge part of those vibes, rolling up en masse and supporting each other. Lifting each other up and making sure that the rest of us saw their friends and their scene for what is was - creative, vibrant, determined....important. So today, seven plus years after a long drive back to California, I'm jamming this two song DUMSPELL tape and thinking to myself "yeah...that shit really was magic." And I'm grateful to (have) be(en) a witness. 

28 October 2024

ENERGIA 80

 



Fidelity be damned on on ENERGIA 80's debut. The hardcore attack is real, the hooks are undeniable, but the sonic damage is truly something to behold with your ear holes. Hard to really tell what noise making device/s they are using while the flanged bass is holding the whole thing together like a lonely goth kid holding onto an umbrella in a windstorm at the beach. Vocals sound like the ghost of a child wandering around in a cemetery in a never released redux of Hocus Pocus and the guitars......? Well, there are sounds that might be coming from guitars anyway, and they are swirling around like smoke from a cauldron. Smoke from space or smoke from the depths? That's for the listener to decide, but only ENERGIA 80 truly know what kind of trip they are on - and Szégyen Kazzetták keep on delivering the goods.  

27 October 2024

AFFRONT

 



Tough as nails, raw as fuck hardcore from Chicago. AFFRONT don't need a justification and you don't need to know their pedigree. You just need to listen. Listen to "Speak" and listen to "Merchants Of Death" and know that this is what hardcore sounds like when you take away all of the bullshit. When you take away all the nonsense. This is what you're left with. Eight minutes of pure. That's it....AFFRONT is pure.