JAN GARBAREK GROUP

 

You aren't going to get me to attempt to speak with any intelligence on Jan Garbarek or his grouo....because I have none. Intelligence, that is. Apparently he's Norwegian and is famous for playing the saxophone. I shelled out a few bucks for this tape because it was on ECM and late '70s ECM had some weird shit - I like to gamble. This isn't that weird though, just some smooth and mellow proggish jazz that sounds like a record that was named after the description of a photograph. I found it to be a pleasant listen. 

PHOTO WITH BLUE SKY, WHITE CLOUD, WINDOWS AND A RED ROOF  

ED HALL

 

ED HALL's 1988 debut defies any real descriptors, because nothing sounded like them then and nothing has sounded like them since. They played Norman with some frequency when I lived there, and the live shows were a spectacle that incorporated film and light in a way that most of us had never experienced. They seemed like the third point on a triangle anchored by LIPS and SURFERS but even that assessment may have been based more on geography than any kind of sonic reality. fIREHOSE meets Frizzle Fry at a SCRATCH ACID show and they all roll up on an after party at a fraternity's haunted house - that's what this shit sounds like. But man, watching their drunk ass film guy loop tape into three projectors so each member's head looked like it was on fire? It's the little things that stick with you. 

ALBERT

IT'S ALL ABOUT FUCKIN' RAGE

 

I hope you're sitting down, because this thing is going to knock you on yr fukkn ass. A perfect assemblage of early '00s DIY hardcore and crust focused on USA (A.O.S., DISSYSTEMA) and Sweden (CROSSING CHAOS, AVSKUM, DISKONTO, PROJECT HOPELESS) with SICK TERROR (Brasil), DISBEER (Austria) and RECHARGE (Germany) filling in the gaps. A strong tip of the hat to Indonesia's Hardcore Curse Records for not only putting this compilation together, but for including a couple of shit-fi tracks from countrymen DICKHEAD so all of the punks know wheat belongs where....and DICKHEAD absolutely belong sandwiched between AVSKUM and DISKONTO even if (especially if?) their tracks sound like absolute shit.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FUCKIN' RAGE: A Compilation Of International D.I.Y. HC/Punk Bands

THE ERECTIONS

 

There's a special place for this brand of punk. TOM & BOOT BOYS were my introduction, I snagged the Punk s Are Alright EP on my first trip to Japan and couldn't tell if I was listening to some proto/retro spikey punk attack or the sound of the future. The answer, of course, is that I was listening to both at the same time. Japanese punks have flown this flag proudly for so long that a cottage industry of supporters and worshippers have taken punk clichés to heights that even those 1996 boot boys couldn't have imagined. This is pogo punk as life - not as a lifestyle, mind you....as life. Stand Up Fuckin' Punks started it for THE ERECTIONS - their first vinyl release after a couple of CDr demos. That was fifteen years ago, and here in 2026 we are talking about "Noise For The Boys" and feeling grateful for punk. 

STAND UP FUCKIN' PUNKS

GOODIES

 

Sometimes simple is best - there are formulas and clichés and there are "the way things are done" and sometimes the things are done a way for a reason.....because it works. You ever been playing with a heavy and/or crusty band and you jcome up with a riff that hits just right and you realize that it's a(nother) version of 0-3-5 and you chuckle and you play that shit even harder because you know you (once again) worked your way into perfection? GOODIES are like that, but in a power pop, indie/garage kind of way. I'm launched backwards two decades to BAYONETTES and DANGER LOVES and then another batch of years to FASTBACKS and VASELINES but with tinges of '80s college/alt and/or twee....and it's just fukkn right. Tomorrow I'll blast some crust or something, but today I'm gonna hang out with "Never About You" because it is perfect.

SO BITTER!

TRAILER HITCH

 

I don't know where this one came from, but my evening stopped dead when I popped this TRAILER HITCH tape into the deck a few nights ago. I first confused this with THE HITCH from northern California (ex-SAKÉ, THE GODS) and I'm not entirely sure that I was wrong...but good gracious this is some gloriously damaged mountain crust. You're gonna hear KILARA, VICTIMS FAMILY, KEPONE, MOLLY HATCHET, KARMA TO BURN, ANIMAL FARM....you're gonna hear tracks that some fools would dismiss as stoner rock but you know better. I don't even know what's happening in my ear holes most of the time but the instrumental track labeled as "07" is as close to perfect as you're gonna get today. 

TRAILER HITCH

THROBBING GRISTLE

 

A group that should need no introduction. THROBBING GRISTLE changed the game completely, no just just with their sounds but with their approach to creating and presenting those sounds. Don't take my word for it....take theirs.

BEYOND JAZZ FUNK: TG PSYCHIC RALLY IN HEAVEN
23rd December 1980 London