DYE

 

This was the first one. There was another one that came after this one, but this one was the first one. Snarling, honest, urgent, in your face hardcore punk....that's what this one is. That's what the other one is too, but that's what this one was first. "Frustration" is the sound of kids burning shit in a parking lot. "I'm Important" is the sound of crying while smashing the face of the people who jumped you last week. DYE is the sound of mid-teens North American punk, and it sounds even better now than it did then. 

DYE

DANIEL CRAIG

 

For a recording (or a manipulation of a recording) to sounds like an event is a special thing. A Past Yet To Come is an event, a journey, and....experience? You aren't watching a nonexistent film while these sounds play....you are the star. You are the only character. DANIEL CRAIG creates a sonic environment with meticulously manipulated sound/s and I'm left wondering whether they were created or conjured. The most subtle and deconstructed techno undertones and/or interludes break up atmospheric events. These aren't songs, they aren't movements. These are more than moments - DANIEL CRAIG creates something that just is. Perhaps more than any other release I've shared here, 2020's A Past Yet To Come feels like an entity...it feels like the past is now. 

A PAST YET TO COME

09 FEBRUARY 1988

Pat effortlessly rolling from GENE AUTRY to THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL pretty much exemplifies the joy of listening to these tapes. LOU REED into PHYLLIS DILLER? Makes perfect sense. A set that includes HALF PINT and SHINEHEAD leads into the event calendar and then 3 MUSTAPHAS 3 brings it home...folks who have been paying even casual attention shouldn't need an introduction to these tapes - simply not knowing what you're going to get is a part of the joy - because what you get is always going to be good. 

KALX - 09 FEBRUARY 1988

GRUMBLE

 

Fuck me, man - Region Rock as a descriptor is such a motherfukkr. The shit is easy to hate on...if you're an asshole (or me). But if you actually listen? Shit, tell me something I want from punk that's not here and I'll tell you it's something from punk that I don't need. Except relentless DBeat - I do need that shit. And GRUMBLE does not offer that, so I can still listen to other records and tapes (which is good, variety is important). But I'll be fukkd if I can't listen to this shit and feel like everything is right...and that's especially weird (and perfect) because 35 years ago I was listening to people 10 years older than me make me feel like I wasn't alone - now it's people 20 years younger than me doing the same fucking thing. I know that's a lot of numbers and math is a real piece of shit, but my point is....right now, this GRUMBLE tape is doing everything right.

MILLION DOLLARS

...help me realize every day ain't so great...

THE CALL-UP

 

First thought when I popped in the only release from Oakland's THE CALL-UP was "Damn...I missed another one." Whatever I was doing in 2015, I wasn't seeing this trio in the flesh, and that was a mistake. Second thought I had when I popped in the only release from Oakland's THE CALL-UP was "Damn...this hits me like the first time I heard NEON PISS." THE CALL-UP were harnessing that energy and those hooks and mixing in UK indie/alt by-way-of AIRFIX KITS...a product of their environment perhaps, but also mayhaps a product of the same influences that led to those other (also great) bands. Eight songs here, more than worthy of a full LP release and packed with infectious, angular, laid back, deliberate punk. Whatever I was doing in 2015, I was clearly fucking up. 

THE CALL-UP

MUCH BAND

 

File Under: Things I'm Not Trying To Describe. MUCH BAND are equal parts free form jazz and jam band and hippie prog and indie/alt and....look, punk: MUCH BAND sound like whatthefuckever they want to sound like, and if you can't at least appreciate that then you are on the wrong fucking team. It's not as if you need to like it, but you must recognize it. 

LITERALLY TOO PLEASURABLE

ACAUSTIX

 

People and pundits have used the word blistering to describe hardcore punk recordings for as long as there have been people and pundits and hardcore punk recordings. One listen to ACAUSTIX and you will realize that all of those people and all of those pundits were premature....this is blistering. Relentless clenched fist punishment with a touch of Swede influence and infectious swing that the Texans seem to know how to inject better than just about anyone else. Howling '90s crust vocals remind you that you're listening to something different, especially on "Die Here Now," the catchiest (and slowest) number on the tape. This thing is just......it's literally swoon-worthy punk. It's what I want. It's what I need. Motherfukkrs at RoachLeg did us all a favor.

ASYLUM TEST NO.1