ELLEN RIPLEY

 

This one is really tough to describe, but it scratches all of the right itches. You're going to to hear heavy KrautRock sounds and elements of anarchist post/art punk mingling with early '80s Czech punk innovators (think FPB and MICHAEL'S UNCLE) and proto-goth punk. To really listen to "SGR A*" is to hear early PINK FLOYD reincarnated as sonic Scandinavian activists in a reality far removed from any tangible comfort zone. The beauty of ELLEN RIPLEY is that they own everything they touch - it only takes a few bars to forget what you might have thought they were emulating. If this were a just world, then ELLEN RIPLEY would be music for the masses. This is not a just world, so ELLEN RIPLEY is music for oyu. 

BODY PACT

CARDINAL

 

Saw CARDINAL in San Diego a few months back and was blown away. On a night full of theatrical black metal with capes and candles and props galore, this subdued trio from San Francisco calmly set up their gear, clean guitar with no effects, corpse paint so casual that it made you wonder if they wore it every day.....and they blew the fukkn doors off. Mesmerizing, haunting, imperfect, sinister, raw....true. Luckily Demonstration 2025 captures their essence, but you must see CARDINAL live to experience their power. 

DEMONSTRATION 2025

PEACE VAULTS

 

It's a cool thing when a homie hands you a few tapes in a taqueria on Mission Street...it's especially cool when every. single. one. of those tapes is a straight killer. Prisoners Of Time is one of those straight killers. UK anarcho, modern DIY goth and '90s dorm experimentation (they gloriously clash with raw bleak metal by way of screamo) vocals and vibes that take me back to "discovering" alternative goth/alt bands in 1980s Oklahoma. PEACE VAULTS hit that way, and if you know what I mean when I talk about them....I hope you know what I actually mean. "The Young Kite" deserves a very (very) special place in your rotation.   

PRISONERS OF TIME

CASING

 

Raw, bombastic, devastating, grinding industrial sludge madness from London. 

Damn this shit is good. 

PATTERNS OF DETERIORATION

ASSAULT

 

The third ASSAULT tape that got rescued from that antique mall in SLO last year, 1900's self-titled swan song shows Orcutt's finest still ripping through SoCal hardcore-at-the-beach burners....but they are just a little more "mature," you know? There are a few meandering melodic bits and a couple of times when I (almost) think I hear rockabilly vibes. Vocals are the weird point here (especially the back-ups) until you realize that it's their ever so slight off-ness that really helps the band stick the landing. ASSAULT weren't perfect, even though listening to "No Morals" and "In Between" will make you wonder why they still remain (relatively) undiscovered.  

ASSAULT

COOKING COURSE

 

I work primarily in a downtown type area, and many of my co-workers choose to take their midday meal breaks at local restaurants. Now, in this capitalist (verging on post-capitalist) society, I fully recognize that these meals fuel a measurable part of our local economy and contribute to the engine that helps sustain employment for countless humans who depend on this behavior to support themselves and their families. I remember getting the occasional falafel with John in Milwaukee, and I absolutely imbibe in the occasional falafel in these modern times....but I choose to direct my money and my time elsewhere (it's as much about the time as it is about the money, honestly), and I prepare my midday meals in advance. And yesterday, while I was preparing broccolini with s-l-o-w cooked urad, air fried tofu and rice, I listened to this tape....the second in a six part cooking series narrated by Vincent Price. He was talking about French food shit that was not at all vegan and totally different from the shit I was cooking - but damn I enjoyed the listen. 

COOKING COURSE #2: DINING AT VERSAILLES

TUNGA PENETRÁNS

 

What a gloriously filthy quarter hour these punks have offered us...and I will accept their offer with verve and enthusiasm. Chaotic, blown out, stripped down Hungarian DBeat delivered with the weirdest fukkn style imaginable. I(t's a sound you've heard before....you just haven't heard it quite like this. Listen to the guitar (and the vocals) on "Leépülés" if you don't believe me. 

A LEGJOBB FÉREG