STELLATONE

 

Another day, another under-the-radar regional banger. If you weren't in the southeast (or Mississippi), then you might have missed STELLATONE completely, but these kids pumped out a solid batch of releases during the 2010s and their brand of classic US punk tempered with spaced out heavy blues/psych deserves attention. You're gonna hear WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN and MISFITS and FLAMING LIPS and ADOLESCENTS and BLACK OAK ARKANSAS and LOST SONDS and goddamn the whole this is just so fukkn catchy that it's hard to believe.  Hattiesburg.....who knew, you know?

ASTRONOMICON

BIG LAUGH

 

As USDIY hardcore in the 2020s seems to be increasingly anchored by bands from the smaller "scenes" (don't ask me to justify this stance, it's just a vibe) labels like Unlawful Assembly are fast becoming go-to sources hot current hotness, much like Not Normal buoyed the upper Midwest scenes in the 2010s. Anyway, before SLOGAN BOY and INNUENDO  and NECRON 9....there was BIG LAUGH. Sure, the Consume Me LP on Rev is a monster, but this 2019 demo....this is basement hardcore. 

BIG LAUGH

KALX - BALE BOND

 

I repeat: These KALX broadcasts are an absolute treasure. From free jazz to classic gospel and soul to proto-industrial to frustrated noise punk to an absolute banger from a ( new to me) post-DMZ band called LYRES. An embarrassing era-appropriate track from IGGY POP flows into ESG's "You Make No Sense" ...then you remember that 45 minutes earlier you were listening to DON CHERRY, JOHN TCHICAI and ALBERT AYLER wailing into "CHRYSTAL BELLE SCRODD's "I Death" and that shit doesn't happen on the radio anymore. These broadcasts opened eyes and changed lives, and this set from Bond is casually brilliant beyond words.

KALX - 03 NOVEMBER 1986

SOFT CELL

 

Hot on the heels of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, SOFT CELL were already deep in the well documented throes of consumption by the time The Art Of Falling Apart was released in 1983. An incredibly adult synth pop record - a parade of upbeat dancefloor bangers with Almond's sweet lilt delivering legitimately dark tracks like "Loving You, Hating Me," "Forever The Same" and "Numbers," an incredibly introspective assault on consumption and promiscuity. Listening to this record in real time (or in the years after its release when I was a young teen discovering and devouring UK synth and new wave) it was just another collection of songs....I am a middle aged man now and my ears, head and heart are different. The Art Of Falling Apart is a mature and real collection of songs anchored by a tortured two verse title track. Makes me want to dance like I'm too young to drive and can't identify with any of this. Don't dismiss SOFT CELL, they're (far) more than a kitschy cover tune. 

THE ART OF FALLING APART

=============================
I'm skilled at the art of falling apart

It's the holding together, together forever

Trying all of the vices is what's doing the damage 

All the good things are bad things 

And I'm paying the prices

ARMOR

 

They do shit different in Florida. You surely know this, but rarely have you heard a better example than this ARMOR demo from 2019. It's the hardcore that you love, just delivered with a murky, dangerous, desperate edge that makes it clear that ARMOR are....different. Mayhaps no better example than "Age Of Machine," a full on juggernaut of galloping fury that slides into the down low crouch and squirm of "Daydreaming" that puts the whole thing to bed. You know these sounds, you just don't know them like this. Not yet. 

ARMOR

======================

SENSUAL WORLD

 

I love everything about this - the urgency, the WIPERS caliber drive, the....songs. This is the shit that you need/ed then but it's still here for you now. You're welcome. Punk rules, ok?

REHEARSAL #2

FASLE TRUCE

 

There is perhaps no better example of Covid Creativity than Austin's FALSE TRUCE. From the isolated mind of Chris Pfeffer (STORM THE TOWER, SEVERED HEAD OF STATE, CRIATURAS, SIGNAL LOST, THE ALTARS, J CHURCH, MEADOWLARK, OBEDIENCE....need I continue?) came eight doses of urgent and force-filled BLITZ-influenced punk with subtly dark undertones. The aptly named MMXX sounds like we felt; full of joy and determination in the face of uncertainty and deceit. It had been a while since I visited these tracks....and of course they're just as powerful today as they were then. When it comes down to it, we're in the same world we were in then.

MMXX