RANDYS

As even semi-regular readers have surely gathered by now, I spent my teenage/pre-punk and formative early punk years in Oklahoma.  I hated it, and found little there to inspire me...except for the things that inspired me to leave, which I did.  While at the time I viewed the state as a cultural wasteland, in retrospect there were pockets of creativity that fueled my existence, or perhaps made my very existence possible, and these Sunday Oklahoma posts were meant to celebrate the pieces of normalcy that I clung to while I lived in that in(s)ane place. To most people, Oklahoma's hardcore/punk legacy pretty much starts and ends with N.O.T.A. (and with good reason, they released one of the best hardcore LPs of the 80s, hands down), but the only N.O.T.A. I ever saw was a second rate reformed version in '92 or so, and honestly it was just OK (pardon the pun).  My Oklahoma was bands like CONCEPT OF NONSENSE, CHAINSAW KITTENS, ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O and GLUE who rarely made even a blip on the radar of most US rockers.  But before the Oklahoma I knew, or the violent intensity of Tulsa in the 80s, Oklahoma was home to a small but stellar crop of freaks and weirdos...I can't pretend to be an expert, as my first exposure to a lot of this music has come in the last few weeks, but my mind is blown that these sounds came from my old home state, and it kind of excites me. I was contacted by a nice gentleman named Blake via this site a few weeks back (conveniently, he has also relocated from Oklahoma to San Francisco) and while I was recovering from surgery and mostly bed (or chair) ridden he dropped by and lent me a box of cassettes: several 80s BCT comps that will start making Friday appearances soon, and two Maxell XLII tapes that floored me.  An older punk was nice enough to make Blake these mix tapes of art/punk/hardcore/freakout bands from Oklahoma, he was nice enough to share them with me, and now I am sharing the first installment from those tapes with you.  Oklahoma City's RANDYS released only this one four song EP in 1980 and from the sultry guitar lick that opens "Aggravated," you know it's gonna be a killer.  This has all the makings of a Midwest KBD classic, and if they had been from a punk mecca (Cleveland, Chicago...hell, even Indianapolis) I imagine this would be a highly sought after gem.  The mid tempo "Crummy Town" and "Future Tense"  are rather more subdued but totally infectious, and "Extraterrestrial Environmental Blues" is a fukkn brilliant bizzaro punk gem that would have made it to every mix tape I made in high school...if only I had known it existed.  It is maddening to know that all of this music, indeed this whole other world, was just 85 miles from where I was languishing in frustrated solitude, and I had no idea. 

APPEALING TO THE MASSES EP

I snagged a cover scan (in all of it's small, low resolution glory) from Collector Scum, so I suppose these bands don't waste away in complete obscurity...at least the nerds know who they are. But then Ross was nice enough to send me a good one, so now you can see in full detail just how ridiculous the cover is. If you would like to have your very own copy, holler at Dan: drshafer12(at)gmail(dot)com. Incidentally, he did not die in a mobile home fire.

CARNAL KNOWLEDGE

Girl power hardcore from Brooklyn, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE come off as the gender flipped equivalent of last week's CULO post.  CK deliver their vocals with the same intensity, and the music has the same awkward but furious power, but instead of songs about getting wasted, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE offer "Call Me Bitch, Meet My Fist." This is completely in your face and insistent hardcore that nods liberally to the good shit that happened in the 90s, both style and content, and I endorse it fully. The demo ends with the killer track "Why," and if this slightly more mature song is any indication of what these girls had in store for the future, then shit would have been amazing, but methinks they are finished.

CARNAL KNOWLEDGE

PUNK...THE ACQUIRED TASTE!

Are these Friday compilation tapes getting old?  I was kinda wondering if that was the case, until I popped this one into the Magic Terminal Escape Digital Sound Converter Machine and heard how awesome it is.  Just like the cover proclaims: "22 Punky Tracks!!" and this shit smokes from start to finish.  Everything here is from the UK except for the excellent addition of Italy's S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain) and the post S.I.B. "skunk" band DIOXINA (that's 'skin" and 'punk' shoved together in the same genre, and these dudes made it up in 1983)...the S.I.B. tracks are two of my favorites, while the DIOXINA stuff falls a little flat compared to other shit they did in later years...but that's as close as this comp comes to a dud, and nearly everything else fucking shines.  The two EXIT-STANCE tracks make my hair stand on end, especially the epic A-side closer "Witchtrial,"  and XPOZEZ here are as good as I've ever heard them.  SCREAMING DEAD offer appropriately gothy tracks; DISTORTED live their name to the fullest (why have there not been more bands called DISTORTED? It just makes sense...); live female fronted shit from HAGAR THE WOMB; demo tracks of two SUBHUMANS classics; killer songs from BUTCHER; and the always worthy Scots POLITICAL ASYLUM round out the roll call on this C60 comp.  If POLITICAL ASYLUM's "Trust In Me" sounds a bit familiar, then please follow my little story:  The singer has lived in the SF area for many years now, and when I heard the opening bass line to this track I gave him a ring (actually, it's the only bass line in the song).  "Did you know that the bass in this tune is lifted from BLACK FLAG?" I asked.  "Sure, it's '6 Pack'" came the reply.  Shameless, and kinda brilliant.  This tape came to us in 1983(?) courtesy of Rentaracket Recordings, which was an offshoot of Odsunsods fanzine, and came complete with a mini-zine featuring band info, contacts and shitloads of punk graphics...yeah man, punk compilation tapes rule.  Enjoy your Friday.

PUNK...THE ACQUIRED TASTE!! (side A)

PUNK...THE ACQUIRED TASTE!! (side B)

TRAUMA ZONE

Here you you go, punks.  TRAUMA ZONE.  Don't know jack shit about them except that the band was from Warrington and these three scorchers come from 1983.  If you can write a song as good as "Revolution '84," then I want to come over to your house and party.  This shit is awesome.

TRAUMA ZONE

EVERY SMILE'S A LIE

Those seeking a raging punk number to counter yesterday's CAGES post please come back tomorrow.  But for readers who have more than a little dyed black hair and eyeliner in their past, and who perhaps spent a chunk of the 80s with the brooding sounds of third rate goth bands...I offer EVERY SMILE'S A LIE.  This insipid turd comes from 1987 and sounds like a very ill advised marriage of dark, minimal early SISTERS with bouncy acoustic HOUSEMARTINS, and then they start playing NEW MODEL ARMY covers 'round the campfire.  They must have been so very, very serious.

EVERY SMILE'S A LIE

CAGES

Nothing sounds like CAGES.  This two person project manages to capture frustration and reproduce that emotion in the form of sounds that are unique and mesmerizing.  From the opening of "Approaching White Light" that sounds like a child's toy drenched in pain and sorrow, Nola's vocals launch into beautiful distorted torment, and minutes later the track descends into live drones that carry on for the next seven minutes, lulling you into a complacency that is shattered by the banshee shrieks that close the song.  "Dying" starts more traditionally, and while perhaps unpopular, brief comparisons to Icelanders BJORK and SIGUR ROS are both relatively on target, though CAGES treat their sounds with such  obvious and careful aggression that these comparisons are quickly lost in the swells. Almost painfully minimal, the music that serves as the vehicle for these affected vocals quickly becomes the focus, and the result makes the vocals even more jarring when they do rear their head.  The 12 minute "On Dawn's Side" builds slowly to the most cacophonous moment of the tape, a stream of white noise interrupted only by occasional howls that descends into excruciatingly absent, almost nonexistent sounds that melt into the comparatively normal sounding "Dirty Lungs." Another version of "Dying" closes out the tape, this one longer than the first by 60 seconds that are made up primarily of ear piercing noise and walls of distortion delivered by the band's lone instrumentalist.

There can truly be no way to describe CAGES other than "experimental." No one sounds like them, and this band appears to be so deeply personal that I cannot imagine that anyone ever will.  CAGES have an extensive body of work, including several other live recordings (the tracks from Immovable Object are all live recordings from Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois).  This is not "on the bus headed to work" music, nor is it the kind of thing that might get you fired up for a body sculpting workout session, but if you've ever felt alone the way that most of us have, then these sounds on a dark night will drive home the understanding that we will always be alone.  This is beautifully haunting music.

IMMOVABLE OBJECT

THE SIX AND VIOLENCE

A couple of weeks ago while I was laid up after surgery, our friend Jon was visiting from the east coast and dropped this gem off on the bedside table for me.  I thanked him because something that looks this ridiculous and comes from New Jersey circa 1985 is probably going to be a pretty good listen, but I had no idea what I was in for.  Off the charts in the "off the wall" category, THE SIX AND VIOLENCE start their 40 minutes of nonsense with "Hamburger Hairdo" and then continue with "I've Got A Bomb And I Wanna Use It," "Bursting Bladder," "Death To Guidos" and a rager called "Fuck This" that sounds like it was recorded on cardboard boxes. This is goofball hardcore at it's finest here, there's just as much WEIRD AL in these songs as there is SACRED DENIAL, just as much ADRENALIN O.D. as CHRONIC SICK (actually, more ADRENALIN O.D., but I was trying to drop more Jersey references) but after one brief listen I was in love.  Jon, who gave me the tape, confirmed that the band members and their duties in the tape liner notes are indeed accurate...there was one dude who played drums, another who played the cymbals, and they were set up separately.  Jon swears he has seen the photos to prove this, and even so I am skeptical, though who can doubt the idiocy level of the folks who brought us "Fascist Ice Cream" back in 1985?  Certainly not me.

LETTUCE PREY

BLEMISH

To an outsider in Norman, circa early 1990s, BLEMISH were the cool kids.  While we were recent transplants from the shithole towns all over the state who had finally embarked on the first stage in our escape by moving to a "progressive" and "cultural" college town, these kids all went to Norman High, and even though they were younger by a seemingly huge gap of 2-3 years, they knew everyone, and were already "in" before I had even thought of moving to Norman. Musically, they were like CHAINSAW KITTENS-light, but nowhere near as good, and for some reason it always seemed like they were gonna make it.  They didn't.

PLAYGROUND

SOCIETY'S VICTIMS

Killer UK82 shits from Scotland's SOCIETY'S VICTIMS,  who apparently laid down these tracks and then called it a day.  Guitar leads are the highlight for me, especially the echo drenched wanks on "Army." After that first scorching track, things mellow out a bit, and the result is pretty standard UK anarcho fare, but that lead guitar is more than engaging enough to hold my interest.  Punk rules.

CHAINED TO YOUR BELIEFS

BORNEO 3-WAY MASSACRE

This will be the most exhausting 20 minutes of your entire fucking day, unless you plan to exercise or something stupid like that.  As the title suggests, this is a three band split tape from the island of Borneo.  Borneo is made up of four territories, two Malaysian, one Indonesian, and one tiny ass country called Brunei. These three bands all come from Malaysian Sabah and they all fucking rage.  MURDEREDXBYXYOU are raw grinding crust with shrieked vocals, brutal MATI KATAK are my faves on this tape with their occasional 90s rhythms and and out of time, screamed to oblivion vocal attack.  KILL OUR LEADER  are crushing grind/powerviolence that is not too far removed from the heavyweights of the genre. This tape is a three band, 21 song ass whooping that clocks in at just over 19 minutes, which means that by the time you finish your coffee, you will have likely decided that your job is fucking stupid.

BORNEO 3-WAY MASSACRE

CULO

This band makes me want beer, and you know that they have a LOT of it. Thrashing basement punks from Chicago bash out eight songs wrapped in hate and ambivalence with an urgency so intense that they couldn't even wait to get a bass player, and in a rare moment of luck, their lack of low end helps this shit sounds more intense.  With songs like "Padded Cell," "My Brain," "Solanium Suicide" and "Go Blank," you know there is a heap of frustration packed into these tracks. Here's the band, and here's the demo:

My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down

KRONSTADT UPRISING

The history of this band is pretty well documented, both here and many other places all over the internets.  These three songs come from 1985, after some folks probably thought KRONSTADT UPRISING was past their prime, and indeed these tracks are much more polished than the earlier demo I posted, but this is still ultra catchy brooding UK punk, and the songs keep growing on me...I even find myself humming along to the initially ridiculous backing "aaahh-aaahhs" in "The Horsemen," much to my own dismay. "The Horsemen," along with "Part Of The Game," appeared on the Part Of The Game EP (which Tim Yo referred to in MRR as "78 in 85," and I'd say that is pretty accurate...but then the dude did know his punk rock pretty well), and this cassette adds the sleazy sounding "Live For Today."

KRONSTADT UPRISING demo 1985

     

TUBERCULOSIS

Any readers who pay even a little bit of attention to Terminal Escape have likely picked up on my affinity for a certain crop of bands in Los Angeles, and TUBERCULOSIS is the seed that is helping that crop grow.  These kids are positive, active, cooperatively minded and punk as shit...plus, their bands rule.  When was the last time you heard a woman introduce a song about masturbating on public transit and manage to make it sound intense and serious instead of funny (I mean, it is kinda funny, but it never comes off that way).  Ultra raw hardcore punk in Spanish and English recorded live and it sounds so fresh and vibrant, even though they are playing a style we have all heard before. TB members form the nucleus of Silenzio Statico and run a tape label and distro, audio/video zine, info shop/record store AND they put on shows in East LA and South Central.  Get this tape, then go back and get POLISKITZO if you neglected to do so last week...shit rules.

TUBERCULOSIS

DEAD COPS

DEAD COPS were from Tokyo, and blazed their way through the scene there for about a year in 1983/4, releasing the rather ho-hum Kill The Cops flexi on ADK and this ripping live tape.  43 minutes of blistering hardcore and utterly inane between song banter from their American singer Roger Armstrong (who went on later to form the excellent thrash band SiC, and now lives in LA...he has a blog, check it out here it you like).  While the noteworthy aspect of this band has often been the gaijin on the mic, I suggest that you ignore the vocals here, which are pretty much on par with standard second rate 80s US hardcore fare (not good, not bad, just there), and listen to the fucking guitar!! Classic Japanese hardcore riffing on songs like "Both Sides Of The World," "Drop Dead" and the very unfortunately titled "Piece Of Your Cunt" give a clear glimpse of the magic that guitarist Tatsu would later create as axeman for the brilliant GASTUNK.  The playing is fucking flawless, and the leads would sound ridiculous if they weren't so perfect.  Bass duties are handled by Jha Jha, who would go on to sing for LIP CREAM (and later JUDGEMENT), making this a pre-supergroup of sorts.  They are somewhat all over the place stylistically, with the traditional Japanese style in the songs I mentioned before sitting  alongside very American punk sounding tracks like "Death To The Rich," "Kill The Cops," and "Sludge," that borrow so much from MDC's musical and lyrical output that it makes it impossible to think that the name DEAD COPS could have been an accident.  I wish that the Kill The Cops flexi had come close to this intensity.

Live at Shibuya Yaneura, January 1984

HATE FARM

This is the first post thus far on Terminal Escape that does not come from a cassette that I held in my hand, I almost opted out in favor of keeping the blog "pure," but I had to start my descent somewhere, and cheers to Ross for getting the ball rolling...

In the early 1990s, the 20 miles between Norman, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City could just as easily have been a fortified national border.  There were bands in Norman, some played fast and most drank (excessively), and those of us who toured used roughly the same network as the bands from OKC (then again, in 1992 there weren't exactly a lot of networks to choose from).  But while those of us in College Town, USA (version: Oklahoma) skipped class and played our keg parties and got gigs opening for whatever flavor of the month national touring act happened to be passing through like ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, SUPERCHUNK, or maybe FLIPPER...those kids in Oklahoma City were The Punx. I mean Punx like huffing gas and spanging and getting into fights with whoever, or themselves if that's all that was available, and we barely even knew that their bands fucking existed...probably because most of them were too fucked up for their bands to move from the bedroom/hangout/ rehearsal space to actually playing shows.  The shows they did play were legendary though...lots of summertime park gazebo gigs that featured every band that had at least thought about having a practice someday and the shows lasted far longer than anyone's patience did (these events were likely called "Punk Picnics"), house parties that evolved into drunken brawls that went from entertaining to unnerving to terrifying in the space of one drunken outburst (the aforementioned FLIPPER played one of these in OKC the day after my band played with them in a stale college strip rock club in Norman, and I remember hearing that GWAR played out of costume as well, and while that seems quite unlikely, several trustworthy friends claim to have been there), and every so often there would be a gig at a dance club (there was a seemingly endless supply of dance clubs around Oklahoma City at the time, mostly goth, and they would have shows...well, they would have a show, and then that would be it until the club changed owners).  

HATE FARM demo

I was trading emails with my friend Ross about Oklahoma punk (old and new) and he mentioned that he still had this demo, I realized that I had never heard them recorded and asked him to send me a copy.  Imagine my surprise when it fucking ruled!! HATE FARM were a hicktown version of BLATZ, but they were far from a carbon copy.  Three vocalists fronting a seven person atonal assault on the senses...an absolute mess.  These are pretty much the same descriptors when discussing the live shows, except that on the demo it works brilliantly.  Chaos fucking punk from Oklahoma.  It's worth noting that HATE FARM featured ex-members of HATE PARTY, also from Oklahoma City, and I would really like a copy of that demo as well.  ...Anyone?

SACRILEGE

There's really nothing to say, is there?  SACRILEGE were about as close to perfect as I can imagine in 1984.  The sound on these early recordings is simply unbelievable and Tam absolutely sets the standard for female metalcrust vocals, a standard that great bands have been measured to for over two fucking decades.  I know this shit has been passed around forever, been booted countless times, and that there are several different recordings of many of these early tracks, but here they are once again, because they are just that fucking great:

Apartheid // Blind Acceptance // Dig Your Own Grave

THE RAW POWER OF LIFE

Fuck me if this isn't one of the best comp titles ever, and don't think for a moment that these Germans wasted a great title like this on a mediocre comp...oh hell no.  This thing rips from start to finish, 60 minutes of killer mid 80s hardcore from West Germany, Holland and Scandinavia.  INFERNO, RAZZIA, ANTI CIMEX, DESTRUCKTIONS, RATTUS, NUCLEAR, NEUROTIC ARSEHOLES, PANDEMONIUM and in case you aren't already convinced, then how about two tracks from J.R.'S MOTHERFUCKERS & THE HOLY GHOST that will make you wonder if FLIPPER relocated to Europe in 1984 and started demolishing the punks' idea of what music should sound like.  Sound quality here is pretty much all great, with the the possible exception of the live NEUROTIC ARSEHOLES tracks, but the live sound breathes unbelievable life into the NUCLEAR tracks, and the raw crust on this comp (RATTUS, ANTI CIMEX, DESTRUCKTIONS...maybe not crust but you know what I'm getting at, right?) sounds so good it made my skin crawl.  I suppose it could have been the scabies, but not likely...it was probably the guitars.  Another Friday comp tape..I need to put up a stinker next week, because after the Finnish comp last Friday, I don't want you kids getting to accustomed to this level of quality.

RAW POWER OF LIFE Seite 1

RAW POWER OF LIFE Seite 2

I believe that the INFERNO tracks are from the demo I've got floating around somewhere (I should find that thing and share, it's REALLY fucking good), who knows where the NEUROTIC ARSEHOLES and NUCLEAR live tracks are from, and while I've seen these CIMEX and RATTUS tracks before, I just can't recall where and they might be different versions.  Good thing for me I far prefer rock to research...that way I allow myself way more time to rock!

And for those of you who speak Deutsch, feel free to peruse the liner notes while the rest of us pound our fists into the air.

LIFE SENTENCE

I don't remember LIFE SENTENCE being nearly as good as this live tape leads me to believe they were.  Blistering 80s USHC that cranks through 15 songs in half an hour while still managing to squeeze in plenty of banter, and they respond to the audience heckle of "Too Fucking Slow!!"  with a version of "Punks For Profit" that would have made RKL proud.  Recorded in Chicago in September 1984 , this set fucking rips. Get into it.

Live at The West End, 09/1984

A.P.P.L.E.

In the 80s, anarcho/peace punk belonged to the UK.  I would say this was because they did it better than everyone else, but with only a few exceptions, no one else even did it at all.  New York City's A.P.P.L.E. were one of those exceptions (along with TRIAL from San Francisco), and their unabashed peace-filled approach to the world of punk and politics resonated in the form of their legacy far beyond their scope of actual influence.  I even heard of A.P.P.L.E. in Nowheresville, Oklahoma and I remember how excited I was when I finally tracked down one of their records and prepared to listen to these stalwart supporters of peace and equality for the very first time.  They were terrible...I mean seriously awful.  I still don't know what record I first listened to, but I confess that I never really bothered tracking down any of their material after that fateful afternoon.  

Perhaps my musical horizons have broadened, or perhaps I didn't start with the right release, but this 1986 cassette release from A.P.P.L.E. packs all of the peace punk punch that I was hoping for when I first took the band for a test spin some years ago.  Forceful female vocals that could have proudly fronted any number of influential bands from the other side of the proverbial pond, and far better than average songwriting that suits the excellent guitar parts quite well.  The politics are pretty standard fare for todays well read anti-establishment punk rocker (which I'm sure all Terminal Escape readers are, yes?) but in a relatively apolitical 80s New York City punk scene more famous for junkies and political conservatives than flag waving activists, I imagine that A.P.P.L.E. endured more than their fair share of attacks, verbal and otherwise.  Neither Victims Nor Executioners is an 8 song attack from 1986, the second cassette release from A.P.P.L.E. (I think), and it comes with an extensive booklet that I am shocked has lasted the last 24 years mostly in tact.  Three of these tracks appear on the On The Edge compilation posted last fall, the others are just as awesome.  If you've never heard, then dive in, and if you have previously eschewed (as I did), then give it another shot.

NEITHER VICTIMS NOR EXECUTIONERS 

PIG HEART TRANSPLANT

PIG HEART TRANSPLANT is the brain child of the guitar half of Seattle duo IRON LUNG, and he creates his noise ensembles using whatever material and personnel is available at the time.  This cassette was recorded in Seattle and Portland in 2007 and features some of PHT's harshest work I've heard; aurally offensive and seemingly without purpose...total noise.  16 tracks blast and whirr by in under ten minutes, and since it would have been nearly impossible to correctly isolate the tracks, the song titles are below, edit as you like.

PURE FILTH

Side A:
1. Soap Scum
2. Pissed Happy Troglodyte
3. Here Comes The Mind Numbing Labor
4. Throbbing Headache
5. Roughage
6. Kill Your Seed
7. He Forced My Hand
8. Deep Throat Pork Chop
9. Urinal Cake

Side B:
1. Turd On The Floor
2. Your Showbiz Teeth II
3. Doing It Again In The Land Of Noise Tapes And Honey
4. Whitesnakehouse
5. To The Quiet Date Rapist
6. Highway Trust Fund Star

PHT reached staggering heights in 2009 with the release of the Hope You Enjoy Heaven LP and the Public Humiliation live collaboration with IRON LUNG and WALLS, but there is something pure about the earlier recordings...pure anger, pure carnage, and indeed Pure Filth.

SUCIO PODER

Brilliantly executed mid tempo 80s Spanish punk, recorded in Australia in 2009.  Naysayers abound when it comes to simply rehashing a style or aping a genre, and I agree that bringing something new to the table is generally a good thing, and something to be rewarded more than recreating music that was perfected 20 years ago.  However, if you're going to rehash, ape, worship, or pay homage...you might as well make it as good as these four tracks from SUCIO PODER.  They know what they are doing, and they are very fucking good at it.

SUCIO PODER

CONCEPT OF NONSENSE

When it comes to punk in Oklahoma, Tulsa has always seemed to have their shit dialed in way better than Oklahoma City or the university towns of Stillwater and Norman.  The tradition that started with N.O.T.A., a band well worthy of any midwestern state hanging their 80s punk legacy on, continued with ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O and CONCEPT OF NONSENSE.  CONCEPT were fronted by Chad Malone, who was one of the first active networking DIY punks I ever met.  The first show I played outside of Norman was at his house, The Sensual Underground (also the working name for his label for many years: Sensual Underground Ministries), and he was at that point the most viscerally anti-religious and enthusiastically pro-punk person I had ever met.  After CONCEPT OF NONSENSE, Chad went on to sing for BROTHER INFERIOR (his best known and most travelled project by far), ASSEMBLY OF GOD and currently BRING DOWN THE HAMMER, but this is the shit for me: the birth of Malonecore.  There is another demo that predates this 1993 tape by a few years, a girl I had a crush on sent me a copy when I was in high school, but I've lost it long ago (hint, hint: I need a replacement).  Control is a metallic riff fest with relentless hooks, uncompromising lyrics, and a genre defining vocalist: 20 minutes of classic Okie hardcore to get you through your Sunday? Hell, yes.

CONTROL

POLISKITZO

POLISKITZO are one of the many bands killing it in the Los Angeles Raw Ponx scene.  I've posted others before, and there will surely be more in the future.  These kids are punk as fuck, and write infectious songs while they are at it.  These new punks sound like a blast from the past without ever seeming tired or derivative...just fresh raw punk.  I could go on for ages, but instead I'll just have you listen to this shit, and you will surely understand.

POLISKITZO

FINNISH PUNK

It's been a couple of months since I've put up an old fashioned mix tape, so here's this Friday's various artist excursion: 60 minutes of stellar Finnish punk and hardcore.  I was never really drawn to the Finnish 80s stuff, the bands most often featured on the backs of the cool kids' jackets were typically too atonal and never quite grabbed me.  But fuck my life if I had heard this killer mix as a youngster...I would have been ruined for all other punk!!  TERVEET KADET start off with three ragers (it's kinda what they do...rage), then come solid beefy tracks from THE WIDOWS that are ultra catchy.  If you know Finnish punk you know LAMA, and their tunes are great for discovering, revisiting, or just simply drinking to, and then come STALIN (not the Japanese STALIN) whose vocals are out of this world...I mean the dude sounds like he is from Saturn and is very confused by all the things he sees here in this strange land of saunas (Finland, that is).  Side A wraps up with more TERVEET KADET (including the 13th song on the side, "Mull On Liian Lyhyt Sanky," and I challenge anyone to write a more blistering hardcore number, the shit is absolutely perfect) and a band called TYHJAT PATTERIT, about whom I know nothing except that they are great and punk...punker than me, probably punker than you, and they can put together one hell of a catchy chorus.  Side B is more of the same, and by "the same" I mean more awesomeness: more LAMA, two rippers from RATTUS, more WIDOWS ("The Famous Five" is an instant classic), even more LAMA, VANDAALIT and their twin guitar attack that should have made them famous, dirty punk from THE MEAN ONES and then the whole thing wraps up with rough as hell demo versions of two LAMA songs that appear in the middle of the second side.  Basically, unless you plan on listening to The Horse on repeat all day, then this is the Finnish hardcore that is going to get you through your day...though listening to The Horse about 20 times in a row would be pretty awesome.

FINNISH PUNK Side A

FINNISH PUNK Side B

KILLER MIX TAPES ARE THE BEST. 

CRAWL

I can't really put my finger on exactly what CRAWL did right on this tape, but I cannot stop listening to this 6 minute shit attack.  Crushing powerviolence that sounds like it was recorded with one room mic in the deepest recesses of a very large cave.  Even though they would probably hate the idea (I guess this from songs like "Hipster Chokehold"), I feel like CRAWL add an art bent to the simple hate filled start/stop/fast/faster approach to the genre, and the quality of the recording lends weight even more to this  opinion.  8 tracks in just under 6 minutes, and that includes a tape hiss and noise ensemble that plays out the final two minutes of the tape.  CRAWL fucking rules hard, get into it.  I am having surgery today, and I hope this is what it will sound like while I fall asleep.

CRAWL

If you like this (and you should), drop the dudes a line and pick one up of your very own here.