HUMAN

 

Gloriously blown out chaos from the sun baked streets of Fresno, California - HUMAN make it clear they are the real fukkn deal long before this five minute demo is over. Maximum energy high distortion pogo freaks, exactly the kind of noise I want when I need to be reminded what a fukkn shit we're in. These are folks responsible for Power Glove Dub and a deadly series of DIY gigs and happenings, including a pop-up shop in Fresno's Tower District this afternoon....so if you find yourself rolling up (or down) CA-99 then you've got yet another reason to stop and hang out for a spell. I mean...if you like punk. You like punk...don't you? 

HUMAN

ABYSSAL

 

Doom is hard y'all. And when you're setting up in a sweltering warehouse to play for a cowd of maybe half a dozen people...? Doom gets real real hard. That was the scenario facing Tijuana's ABYSSAL afew weeks ago in Fresno, and I was one of the "maybe half a dozen" in attendance. They got their shit dialed in and calmly announced 'We're going to play one long song for you" and then embarked on an absolutely epic journey of sound. You could hear a pin drop in that warehouse during the introduction...and then came the tonnage. This is the hard part - because doom is (to a large extent a formula) and the audience often knows what's coming, the artist needs to surprise the listener with the how more than the what. And when ABYSSAL got heavy that night, we weren't surprised as much as we were completely blown away. It was hot, the room was awkward, and the band was mesmerizing....doom might be hard, but that night it was as if there was nothing else in this world more important than doom. It was perfect, and listening to A Deep Sea Funeral will always take me back there. 

A DEEP SEA FUNERAL

ROTTERS

The nerds are gonna know "Sit On My Face Stevie Nicks" (the nerds-in-training should get to know it) and there's a solid retrospective LP that came out in the '00s that captures a lot of the brilliant madness of THE ROTTERS. But tape traders....man, those fools had our backs before we were even paying attention. This discretely (read: poorly) labeled cassette has two brilliant bare bones ROTTERS sessions, one labeled Moor Punk College Session (1979) and one label Mystic Session (1984) and I swear if the fools who collected material for the aforementioned LP had had access to this tape then it would have been a double album. "Thank God I'm Damned" sounds demonic, "Autolobotomy" hits like a lost KBD burner, "Delousing Shower" is like DWARVES with roughshod GERMS energy. These songs are absolutely in your face and the recordings are about as perfect as you can ask for. So if you're tryna get a little dirty this Wednesday morning...then look no further. 

THE ROTTERS - MYSTIC & MOOR(E)

THE ROTTERS - MYSTIC & MOOR(E)

DEFACEMAN

 

The Yard Sale For World Peace family of artists is exactly what I want from a label and a group of creators; I never know what I to expect and I always expect that I will be engaged and intrigued. DEFACEMAN playing A Poem About You is no exception (of course) and after several consecutive listens I am still wrapping my head around a truly magnificent collection of sounds. Outsider poetry, primitive punk, reimagined sound....interesting. "Interesting" as in: a cassette that holds your interest. This is what the special artists offer us, and I am (still) here for it. 

DEFACEMAN PLAYS A POEM FOR YOU

LEBENDEN TOTEN // SKITKIDS

 

This tape was released twenty years ago. 

Let that sit there for a minute. 

This tape was released twenty years ago. 

•••

When I first started posting on Terminal Escape in 2009, I was sharing seminal UK crust demos that were just barely twenty years old. And now...I'm posting a split between two bands who are my contemporaries, and the tape is twenty years old. 

Weird things happen when you don't die, I suppose. 

DISTORT THRASH DISTORT HOPE

KONTRA

 

Fist banging beer pounding street punk from San Jose.

  Walk these streets is what we do / Can't you see that we're sick of you.

I'm wondering what exactly it is you're waiting for, punk? 

TERROR CONSTANTE

MOCK EXECUTION

When MOCK EXECUTION exploded out of Chicago a few years ago it kinda felt like the floor dropped out from underneath me. It wasn't that we'd never heard anything like them, it was just that MOCK EXECUTION did the shit better. The riffs were fire (like, every single riff was fire) and the delivery harnessed a ferocity that defied description. And now....a half decade and several heralded vinyl releases after that first tape split my ears into pieces, Milwaukee's Unlawful Assembly gives them a platform to demonstrate that they still dominate the cassette format. 

 

REBELS WITHOUT A CAUSE