COOKING COURSE

 

More recipes narrated by your friend Vincent Price. More echo this time, as the legendary noir villain walks us through recipes from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Never stop looking, young punk....you never know what you may find. 

COOKING COURSE #1: FOODS FROM THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE

SANGUINE MOON

 

The polar opposite of yesterday's bludgeoning, Portland's SANGUINE MOON creep their way into your soul with one 19+ minute dungeon synth missive. Raw, distant, bleak, minimal.....haunting, introspective....complex in its deliberate simplicity. It would be a lie to say that I seek these sounds, but it would be dishonest to not acknowledge how tight their grip on me is. 

HAUNTING DREAMS OF AN ANCIENT TIME

REFRACTIVE ERRORS

 

Five minutes. Five pieces of distorted, bombastic fastcore punctuated by the terrifying squirm of "Psychosis." There's really not much to note other than the brutally sinister and overtly dangerous energy that REFRACTIVE ERRORS puts into their sound - even the bits with hooks (I'm talking "Useless And Consuming" here) sound like Satan themself has taken over the songwriting for ADOLESCENTS or some shit....and then it's just over. And you realize you haven't really been breathing. 

REFRACTIVE ERRORS

DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK

 

You remember twenty-ish years ago when EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING dropped in from heaven and changed the way a (punk) generation of hardcore (punk) listeners approached listening to blatantly simply and simply brilliant punk music? Well, DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK are like that but they are from Budapest and the sounds owe as much to awkward UK post punk the indescribable intersection of dark wave and '80s college/alt as they do to '10s NWI freak punk and/or NEON PISS. Essentially what I'm saying is that DEHIDRATÁLT FEJEK, much like EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING, sound like a thing that you already love and feel connected to.....before you even realize it. "Térkövezett Hala'l" is perhaps the single best example, but literally every track on this tape hits and Szégyen Kazetták wins again. 

GONDOK

THE CAVEMEN

 I got Sex Bomb Baby as a promo when I was in high school and I simply didn't get it - I thought "Ha Ha Ha" was a funny novelty song, but I didn't....get it. I saw FLIPPER in Norman, Oklahoma sometime around 1991 and still didn't get it (even though I knew it was important and I was supposed to get it). The next time I saw FLIPPER was at El Rio in San Francisco sometime in the early 2010s, I lasted a few songs but got to see a former coworker (a 60+ year old SF punk OG) throw a beer at them and tell them they should go back to shooting heroin (said former coworker was 'formerly alive' a few months later). 

ANYWAY......

I only talk about my weird irrelevant and inconsequential relationship with FLIPPER because "Ca Ca (My Wall)" kinda hits me they way that the aforementioned encounters did. THE CAVEMEN are different though - it's FLIPPER for sure, but with THEE OH SEES and a splash of Albini (see: "Ritual") and THE SPITS for good measure, all presented on a tape that was duplicated on a pile of turds and eventually sinks into the depths of murk. It's okay to observe, young punks. It's okay to be curious and still not understand. Real freaks will remain distant - even from other freaks. 

BAND IN B.C.

WEST COAST MENNONITE MEN'S CHORUS

 

While it feels kinda weird to get behind some likely reactionary religious shit, I'm holding on to a few things:

• The sounds are legit haunting and (at times) low-key beautiful.

• IDK, seems like there are a few parts of The Texts that suggest that The Prophets were socialists who practiced street level harm reduction, and that seems generally chill.
• The logo with the face coming out of the cross is sick.
• It would be easy for someone with more and/or different skills than me to turn these tracks into some seriously diabolical missives, even with and/or and especially because of the spoken sermons between tracks.

• "It Is Finished" is about fighting and war and shit, and has words like 'demons,' 'evil, 'devils' and 'glory' in the lyrics. Sounds tough.
• Listening to this tape makes me feel like I am watching a movie with extended family who I like but don't really talk to or feel connected to while a oaring fireplace warms the room. 

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this is related to the WEST COAST MENNONITE CHAMBER CHOIR tape I posted several weeks back, if only because I bought them at the same place at the same time (100 American cents for both, in case anyone is asking).

MENNONITE MEN IN CONCERT: SONGS OF REDEMPTION AND PRAISE

FUSELAGE

 

Hard to figure out what to say here....total modern post/art punk and/or emo college/alt freak outs with a cast of guest artists who seem to shape the sounds - moving from "Trigger Warning" to "Needle" is a perfect example and it sets the stage for a captivating listen. You've got the herky-jerk of "I Chase Cars" and the driving power of "Backyard Wrestling In Pecos County" interrupted by "Condo Rock"  and 0:44 of free jazz. Yeah, you've got yourself a weird fukkn listen.  

FUSELAGE