SATELLITE

 

When CFD went to Indonesia in 2008, SATELLITE were OGs. We didn't play with them (would have loved to, of courser), but the shirts were everywhere and bootleg CDrs seemed to be in every distro. I snagged a couple and jammed them when we got home and.....there was just an urgency hiding in the simplicity of their songs that I couldn't seem to wrap my head around. While I still can't put a finger on why they are so good, this copy of 2000's About War And Violence serves as an excellent reminder (to me) that STELLITE do the fukkn thing right, and sometimes that's worth way more than a bunch of words trying to describe why and how. Sometimes.....it just is. A little out of tune sometimes, a little loose most of the time, a little rudimentary in general and absolute fucking fire from start to finish. Because the shit is real, and when it's truly real you can hear it. When it's truly real you can feel it. 

ABOUT WAR AND VIOLENCE

WEST COMBAT

 

I was trying to figure out exactly why Reality Is War hits so perfectly. I got deep enough into the jams that I almost forgot I was trying to solve a mystery, and the the opening bars of "Tom & Jerry" solved my mental mystery. It's the damn guitar - sounds like a metalhead just landed in a small town and couldn't find any thrashers to play with so he recruited some spikey punks. The thing about this metalhead though...he plays it ultra loose and the guitars come off kinda unhinged as a result. If you can't read between the lines here....this is a serious compliment and ultimately it makes WEST COMBAT stand out from the crowd. I think I know what you want, and ripping anthemic street punk from Jakarta is what you need, and that's exactly what you're getting today. 

REALITY IS WAR 

           

MEAT PUPPETS

 

There are probably some people reading this who don't realize that they need to listen to early MEAT PUPPETS recordings from two sessions in November of 1981. You might be one of those people and, if I'm being honest, I was one of those people until I popped this morsel in my ear holes. So if you are one of those people who simply don't know (yet) until now.....? You're welcome. Because now you know. Desert weird is an entirely different kind of weird, and these recordings are so gloriously fukkn raw that it makes me feel like I never need to listen to the first two LPs again (even though I'm going to listen to them on my ride downtown as soon as I eat this sandwich). Again...you're welcome.

FIRST ALBUM OUTTAKES

CONCRETE NIGHT CENTAUR

 

Another offering from Yard Sale For World Peace, another journey into the most curious recesses of the mind. P.E.A.C.E. Benefit is...something. It listens like aural voyeurism to the point that I want to look over my shoulder and see if my downstairs neighbor is walking through the wall to ask for privacy. Not walking through the door....walking through the wall. Blips and bloops share space with eerily manipulated found sounds struggling to exist in the damaged analog medium until "Complete Shame" ends the cassette like an elegy. It's the only 'song' on P.E.A.C.E. Benefit and it packs a serious punch...desperately distant vocals and a painfully minimal acoustic guitar expand to occupy nearly four minutes of sound, though the sounds will sit with you for a while after the sound ceases. 

P.E.A.C.E. BENEFIT

GULAG

 

Got this little piece of magic from Matt a few years back and was extremely pleased to pull it out earlier this week for a late evening rip 'n blast. As I confessed a few years back, I'm far from a Greek punk aficionado, so I file this shit in the extremely pleasant "listen and enjoy" category....although this shit piques my interest at a dangerous level. GULAG hit the same verve that DAVOVA PSYCHOZA did when I first heard them in the back room at MRR decades ago - it's addictive and melodic punk and it sounds like it's not just coming from the other side of this world...more like another world entirely. Simultaneously gorgeous and intense, these tracks are culled from the Big Talk EP, In The Showyard LP and the debut Είσοδος Κινδύνου 0°C 12" from 1987 and literally every song feels essential. So enjoy Γκούλαγκ like I did...and because Matt is a real one, there are a few SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS tacked onto the end of the mix. 

GULAG

DEMON SYSTEM 13

 

I remember the first time I dropped the needle on Aborted Teen Generation - it was one of "those" punk moments that you just keep with you. It was instantly familiar but it was also new...and it was more. I ordered a copy from Ebullition based on a MRR interview (my copy still has the ghost image of the Goleta address that pressed through the polysleeve), and I was not remotely disappointed. We hosted then in Oakland, and arranged summer travel plans to see them in Reno and Chico because...things were different and we were younger and that's just what you did then. So imagine my excitement in the new reality when I laid eyes on this tape while BAD WAITRESS was playing in LA last weekend....because I love the shit out of DS13 but I didn't have this tape. Well, now I do and my new reality self is giving a hearty nod to old (young) me for knowing what the fukk was up, because motherFUKKR this is (still) the shit that I need. The Studio Shit demo is more raw and in your face than that first EP, and the live set from Nyköping (aka Fukktown, apparently) is straight fukkn fire, even though and/or especially because Tom talks a lot. Fukk dude...I love punk and/or hardcore. 

THE COMPILATION SESSIONS + LIVE IN FUKKTOWN

SOCIAL DRESS

 

Overt and in your face street punk a la WANKYS, TOM & BOOT BOYS or any other modern punk with gruff, snotty vocals and a healthy UK80 obsession. The real genius was keeping the demo at four songs (including a SPECIAL DUTIES cover), not because the songs aren't great (they are) but because even greatness has limits. As presented, however? This is damn near perfection.

SOCIAL DRESS