THE MENTAL // STUPID HUMANS

I know it's not really a compilation, but this split cassette features a pre-SUBHUMANS Dick (vocals for THE MENTAL) and Bruce (guitars for STUPID HUMANS) and since the tour starts today, its seemed fitting to bend the rules just a touch. The eight MENTAL tracks compile 1979's Extended Play EP and the Kill The Hostages EP recorded the following year, but not released on wax until the Demo Tapes label reissued both recordings on one excellent LP. The STUPID HUMANS songs (originally released on Bluurg as a cassette) will sound familiar to most of you, since Bruce took them along when SUBHUMANS began, and here you can listen to "Society," "All Gone Dead" and a score more classic SUBHUMANS songs - but slower and with another person singing. A little confusing for your average superfan, but the second wave of UK punk just doesn't get any better than it does when done by these chaps, and I look forward to spending the next three weeks with them.

THE MENTAL // STUPID HUMANS

We start tonight in New York City...find the rest of the US tour dates here, and stop by and say hello (apologies to the Southeast and Northwest). I'll have my re-issue of this cassette (as well as a few early live SUBHUMANS tapes) in tow, along with new the new VACCUUM demo (the old one too), the NO STATIK 12" and 45 on cassette, and the OPT OUT demo. 

WHITE GUILT

Second demo from WHITE GUILT, who manage to capture one of the most perfect guitar tones I've ever heard. Great songs buried in a wash of ugly and angry sounds, and great lyrics shrouded in introverted rage - "Human Flood II" is the best song you will listen to today. My friends at Drugged Conscience never seem to disappoint.

DEMO II

Last show of the OPT OUT tour tonight. New York City: come get wild...

ALTERNATIVE ATTACK

The P.M.A. demo was one of the first posts on The Escape, but this unreleased session destroys those tracks. Brilliantly snotty driving UK punk - these 12 songs were meant to be an LP but the session was scrapped, though I cannot imagine why. "Police State" is the song of the day.

ALTERNATIVE ATTACK

INVASIÓN

If you are visiting Terminal Escape on a Monday, then it's very likely that Spain's INVASIÓN need no introduction, but if they do need an introduction then read on. From the start, their's was very professional approach to raw DBeat hardcore - everything is perfectly distorted, the highs are perfectly piercing, the vocals are masterfully affected. It's all completely intentional, though that doesn't make it any less perfect. After this four song demo, INVASIÓN dished out two twelve inchers in rapid succession and graced the US with a killer string of live performances before morphing into DESTINO FINAL and gracing us with more of the same madness. Get the records, or just listen to the demo - you win either way.

INVASIÓN

POISON

Not some obscure hardcore band, not a missing link in the lineage of punk history, but those Sunset Strip via Pennsylvania transplants that cashed in on glam metal in the most extreme way imaginable. This live set is not a show and not a gig, it's a Rock Concert - complete with guitar solos and inane banter from the stage. I am not ashamed to admit that I still own the copy of Look What The Cat Dragged In I bought from TG&Y when it came out (the pages of Circus told me it was an essential new release), and I am also not ashamed to tell you that I thought a couple of the girls in the band were totally hot. Whatever, the drummer has an ALF tattoo, which should serve as some kind of vindication, right? 

POISON live in Detroit, 1986

You gotta cry tough, out on the street, to make your dreams happen

You gotta cry out, out to the world, to make them all come true

PUNK EI OLE KUOLLUT

Do I need to tell you that you need this? Scandinavian fury from a dozen different bands, some you already know like TERVEET KÄDET, RATTUS, KAAOS and SUBHUMANS (not Scandinavians), and some you might not (RUTTO, IDO-59, NUKKETEATTRI, VAPAA PÄASY and others). Most of the jams are from Finland, though the tracks from Sweden's HUVUDTVÄTT (perhaps more commonly known by the English translation HEADCLEANERS) are clearly the standouts. Released in 1981, this comp sits pretty near the start of the Scandinavian hardcore timeline, and the tracks are raw raging examples of the power that was to come from the region. Enjoy your Friday.

PUNK EI OLE KUOLLUT

Denizens of Kansas City: OPT OUT tonight at The Studded Bird...come say hello.

LIVID

The number of scenes and subgenres and social cliques that make up the various punk scenes in virtually any major city is mind boggling, but I am still sometimes amazed at how great the divide can be. LIVID played at Thrillhouse last weekend, and I felt like a complete outsider all night long, even though I was just a few blocks from my house. It ruled. To be in a room packed with so many people who are completely in their element is amazing, even (especially) when you are out of yours. The bands were good (check out SEX HAIR if you missed it earlier), but LIVID were better than good. Their sultry and aloof approach to writing songs creates a sound that is unlike anything I've heard, even if the songs themselves are presented within the admittedly narrow confines of punk. The opening riff to "Be Kind" is as instantly addictive as anything I've heard since NEON PISS, and they are easily two of my favorite current bands. I imagine Diane will have copies of the tape on the OPT OUT tour, and if you live in the waistline of America, then I suggest you come and get one.

LIVID

FUCKFACE

This band mastered flying by the seat of their (our) pants. Seven tours in just over three years, including eighteen weeks on the road over two separate stretches without so much as a demo tape. We moved to California with the intent of spreading our nonsense around the world, and I think we succeeded. After an admittedly dreadful debut EP and a split with our newfound Bay Area Brothers, we went to Big Rehab studios to make the record that was to our document for our 6 month US/Canada/US/Japan/US juggernaut. With Aaron/MENSCLUB and Matty Luv at the helm and piles of drugs guiding the way, we recorded this magic on a souped up four track...and the record wasn't ready for tour so we made these cassettes. The tour was epic (drove through a cornfield to gain access to the Canadian frontier, shit my pants, met my wife, got really sick, took PCP, destroyed two vans and a pickup truck, got caught jerking off in a log cabin...all kinds of fun), and we finally got the records 7 weeks into the journey. 

DON'T HATE US 'CAUSE WE'RE...

I'm leaving for tour today with OPT OUT (click the band name dummy, our tour dates are right there). It will probably be less dangerous than my adventures with FUCKFACE, but my time with that band got me hopelessly hooked - and the thought of a Wednesday night in Salt Lake City with three touring bands is all of a sudden bizarrely appealing. I'll still be posting more sporadically from the road so your needs will still be met - but don't be mad if I miss a day here and there...I'm busy rockin'. Come see the shows, and bring me your tapes.

PEOPLE

Far from the raging DISORDER via GAI worship that makes up much of the world's modern noise punk, Japan's PEOPLE offer up nine tracks of snotty, distorted mid tempo Enjoy Punky Nights style happy and calculated chaos with a singer howling and moaning over guitars that set their nonsensical racket to rudimentary UK styled punk for fans of THE WANKYS, but slower and more deliberate. The final tune is an absolutely killer dirge, but the whole thing just rules...

PEOPLE

ABUSIVE ACTION

How many bands just like this must have existed in every region of the US in the mid 1980s? Frustration pounded out in the form of fourteen bursts of adolescent hardcore punk from a mystery town called Mahopac - draw a triangle using Poughkeepsie, Yonkers and Danbury, Connecticut as your points, and Mahopac would be in the middle, not likely a thriving center of hot hardcore action.  I would compare them more to California punk (their later appearance on a Mystic comp would suggest that I'm not alone in this), though a clueless and gloriously inept vibe is present from start to finish and gives the whole demo its sprinkling of fairy dust that makes it a winner. Tracks like "Elmer's Pud," "Butthole Buddies" and "My School" pretty much confirm my teenage suspicions, and ABUSIVE ACTION will satisfy any cultured lo-fi '80s hardcore monger. 

THE YOUTH OF TODAY HAS TOMORROW'S SAY

OUTRAGE // DIMINISHED RETURN

This tape was in a pile of gems that Devon placed in my care for a while, and since I know Devon as I do, I was not surprised at all to find this South African split cassette amongst the heap of Bay Area thrash metal and South American pop punk. OUTRAGE are female fronted anarcho-crust, and their three songs would have fallen right in line with bands of the same ilk making similar sounds in the US or Europe around the same time (1995), but with a drummer who seems like he'd rather be in a metal band (a pairing that works well for the most part). 

With OUTRAGE I only have a lyric sheet to go on, but unfortunately the only tool at my disposal to help with DIMINISHED RETURN is a little friend I like to call "google." Also from South Africa, they farmed members off to THREE CHORD THEORY after their demise (I know this only through the website of the Malaysian band CARBURETOR DUNG), and created classic punk. "Jungle Jive" is a pure burner, and will rev your inner pogo machine to maximum RPMs (and help you recover from the flute laced first track that left you all confused inside). Great shit, with a subtle ska flare that doesn't detract in the slightest. I wish I had more from both bands to offer, but three apiece will have to suffice.

OUTRAGE // DIMINISHED RETURN

NO JUSTIFICATION

I shouldn't need to convince you to check out '80s international anarcho/punk/hardcore comps, should I? If you need convincing, then trust me (that should be all you need). If you are still leery, then I'll tell you that No Justification includes tracks from HATE THAT SMILE, MEDIA CHILDREN, BROTHERHOOD (their tough ass youth crew is a welcome treat on this mostly punk comp), TT TASK, Greece's GULAG, EVE OF THE SCREAM and more. Little information about several of these bands, and a few never appeared to have made it to vinyl, which is a shame since every track here is at least solid (if not great). And if you still aren't convinced, then I'll start to tell you how much time I spend every week ripping, editing and uploading these multi band comps - seriously, that's a lot of clicking and typing.

NO JUSTIFICATION

VIVISECT

This was a gift from a follower of The Escape, and after much delay I am regifting it to you. Raw and metallic anarcho crust from Texas...enjoy.

THE BASTARDS

CONTEMPT

CONTEMPT. Like what I often feel for a frighteningly large portion of humanity. Sadly, there isn't an '80s anarcho band called COMPASSION so I can celebrate the other, smaller part of humanity. Don't know when the demo is from, don't know under what name it was released. Do know that it is good.

CONTEMPT

NEGATIVE STANDARDS

Epic and masterful dark hardcore from Oakland, NEGATIVE STANDARDS take politics into the future of hardcore without turning their back on the brilliant personal-is-political crust of the '90s. Throw in a touch of German metallic hardcore, and don't forget samples and electronics to shroud the whole thing in mystery. Half of ACTS OF SEDITION are in this band, if that matters to you (it should), and the band members contribute as much as they create...worth your time in so many ways. The whole thing is packaged with photos and a big ass, impossible to file, black envelope, and it all looks fukkn bad ass, which takes the '90s thing over the deep end in the best way possible. Get the tape here, or here, or selfishly choose to not actively support the band or their labels and just steal the music...with my help, of course. I'm only here to help.

NEGATIVE STANDARDS

OS LEGAIS

You want a campaign for musical destruction? Brasil's OS LEGAIS has got you covered. This is a complete shit-krieg, and totally inept in every aspect. It might be art, but the execution is so flawed that it manifests itself as the purest and most fukkd noise punk that I've heard in ages. 

OS LEGAIS

      

1997 self titled demo, 28 "songs"

"Bulhorgia" demo from 2000, 18 "songs"

SEX HAIR

Went to a show at Thrillhouse tonight, and I am so happy that that place is so close to me. Four bands played....they were all at least kinda good, but two of them were completely awesome - and one of those bands is from Portland and known as SEX HAIR. I can't endorse the name or their use of text language in song titles, but fukk me if the band isn't band is awesome...so get into these jams. Happy birthday Fred.

GIRLS GONE WILD

NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR

In the mid '00s, when the town of Copenhagen meant nothing more that GORILLA ANGREB and NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS to most people, there were still Danish punks playing uncompromising political crust. Punks like NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR. Not trying to ape anything or recreate a style from the past, NDT just bulldoze through eight tracks packed with wailing leads and crushing riffs. An anguished dual vocal Scandi-crust assault recorded in 2005...and it's worth noting that the guitarist is an excellent cook. 

NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR

YOUR NAME HERE

I cannot fathom someone looking into the world of Tim Kerr and not being inspired. Inspired to do something - to create, even if no one else pays any attention. This mix tape was made by Tim, and features just a tiny sliver of a musical output spanning three decades. THE BIG BOYS are included, along with BAD MUTHA GOOSE AND THE BROTHERS GRIMM (the first Kerr band I heard, they came up to Norman a few times a year when I lived there), KING SOUND QUARTET, LORD HIGH FIXERS ("Godzilla vs. King Baby" is a hopelessly awesome swamp stomp, and the closing track on the tape successfully harnesses Pharaoh Sanders and meshes with a '60s beat movie soundtrack music - amazing), POISON 13, MONKEYWRENCH (with Mark Arm, one of my favorite collaborative supergroups) and JACK O'FIRE (whose cover of "Joe McCarthy's Ghost" defies description). Soul filled swaying rock from NOW TIME DELEGATION and two stunning tracks from TOTAL SOUND ACTION COMMITTEE complete the collection (their 11+ minute "Freedom" is mesmerizing, even though the end gets snipped). The tape was made available to those who bought his Your Name Here book, a collection of Kerr's paintings that highlights the people who have influenced him to create. Listen to the music, look at the art...the worst that can happen is you might feel like doing something.

YOUR NAME HERE

LAST RITES

All hail home taping! I found this gem on the backside of the tape from which I culled the POST MORTEM shit last week - these tracks from Scottish punks LAST RITES come from 1984's Fascism Means War EP (check out THE BLOOD style guitars on "The Dreams Of Many," subtle but brilliant) with the A side "We Don't Care" from their debut single thrown in (B-side gets cut off before the first chorus). The first single is notably less impressive ('80s Britpunk at its unimaginative worst. This band plods forward uneventfully, spitting out hackneyed lyrical clichés along the way. It sounds like they don't care, so why should anyone else? - Tim Yo, MRR #7), but the next record is a quintessential UK82 scorcher. Cheers to someone in the past for putting this wax on tape - enjoy.

FASCISM MEANS WAR

SEASON OF EVIL

I'm not going to try to convince you that this is awesome....but SEASON OF EVIL are awesome. Totally ridiculous mid '90s, mid tempo straight edge mosh metal from New Zealand - listen if you dare.

PURIFIRE

$2 OUT THE DOOR

I completely dismissed this band based solely on their ridiculous name (for my foreign friends, the phrase "$2 Out The Door" is found on 40 ounce bottles of cheap malt liquor in stores in the poorer neighborhoods of the US...just another way for The Man to keep you down), but it seems that poor decision making in the band name department doesn't translate into poor music making in the rock and roll department - quite the contrary. These kids are from my neighborhood (shit, I might even be friends with them, I wouldn't know because I thought their name was stupid and I never went to see them, even when they played three blocks from my house, so if we are pals, them I'm sorry I made fun of your band's name), and create a ruckus that appeals to the same part of my brain that digs MINUTEMEN, while reminding me inexplicably of THE VSS. Bass and drums often just provide the background for the soaring vocals, but when the music steps to the foreground and you let these songs sink in....well, suffice to say that I shouldn't have dismissed them based solely on their name. It sounds like some miscreants just accidentally made some hipster music for the rest of us to like, without all the expensive clothes.

COINTELBROS

KOROVA

Honest and brutal, chaotic and sincere hardcore punk shrouded in noise and layered with sound. KOROVA hail from Alabama and embody the very essence of Noise Punk, even though they are far from the shoelace around the forehead "Finland '82 reincarnated as a 00s crasher crust warrior and I have DISORDER running through my veins, motherfukkr" set. Four brutal studio tracks that capture the intensity of early '90s Southern hardcore/crust and then bury it under walls of sound, and then a live set on the flipside that proves that the intensity isn't just a product of 4-track magic. Happy Monday...

DEMONSTRATION #7089

TV FREAKS

And why not stay in Toronto for another day? It's a very nice city, the health care is comprehensive and inclusive (and well worth the extra tax hit), and I once passed out in a phone booth covered in my own vomit there. On a subsequent visit I snuck into (well, walked right into) a TV studio and watched THE CURE play a few songs on air (Robert Smith looked, as one tour mate put it, a "bloated booze whale"). TV FREAKS are from Toronto, and they play edgy garage punk that reminds me of a more tuneful and slightly less dangerous FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS. They are very good, much like the city they are from. Enjoy.

TV FREAKS

CRUCIFUCKS

CRUCIFUCKS. I can't think of a band before or since who has approached them in pure, unpolluted weirdness. Doc Dart is from Mars, but his Jerry Lee Lewis meets crazed hobo routine never seemed even remotely contrived. The songs were plodding deliberate punk, like if FLIPPER had been good (yeah, I know FLIPPER are important in the same way that CRUCIFUCKS are, but don't try to convince me that most of their output isn't garbage), but there are these bizarre hooks in their tunes that combine with Doc's 

vocals to create a legendary band. Like the little picture box says, this recording (good quality live sound, not great, but good enough to enjoy) is from Toronto, between the release of their self titled LP and Wisconsin, and features Doc Dart between song banter at its finest. He really gets going as the set rolls on, but the band is on fukkn fire the whole time. This comes through the glorious world of tape trading, slapped onto the flipside of what was then the newest ELECTRO HIPPIES demo....awesome.

CRUCIFUCKS live in Toronto

Here's an interview with Doc Dart circa 1984, not packed with bizarre outbursts or anything, but a good quick read: Look At Kill From The Heart

FROM THE CROTCH OF THE BIBLE BELT

1994 compilation of Tulsa, Oklahoma bands assembled by BROTHER INFERIOR's ginger haired axeman. There was a time in the '90s that this armpit of a suburban wasteland with a history drenched in race wars, native oppression and cultural nothingness was a crucial stop for touring acts, and the shows were fukkn amazing. Many of the bands on this tape (and the members of those bands) were the reason for those killer shows - BROTHER INFERIOR were at the center of it all (though they deliver easily the most dispensable track on the tape), while their proteges BOB OF TRIBES shocked us all with their teenage skills when they toured the states in support of BROTHER INFERIOR. The grandaddys of Tulsa hardcore (N.O.T.A.) reunited in 199something, and contributed two songs to this compilation (not up the the standard set by their '80s releases, but two excellent tracks, and Jeff's voice still has that certain indefinable something), while fellow oldsters ILLEGITIMATE SONS OF JACKIE O turn their psychedelic punk shits into pure rocking magic, complete with Dan hootin' and hollerin' like a damn fool over his own guitar leads. SONS side project CHRISTMAS are represented, as are 9 IRON, THE LEPERS, (good) ska from THE REFRESHMENTS, Escape veterans CONCEPT OF NONSENSE and the brilliantly named THE KIDS WHO NEVER LEARNED HOW TO COLOUR INSIDE THE LINES, who were one of my favorite live bands at the time. MATT TAYLOR (would have been college rock in a different world, but instead is just good lo-fi introspective music), THOSE FUCKERS (surprise song on the tape - it's a weird dance thing, but recorded like a punk song, and it rules) and ELFWARE (noise offshoot of the criminally undersung WELFARE) round out the lineup....and now that you know what you are in for, I suggest you start downloading and prepare yourself for a trip to the place that was, at the time of this tape's release and according to it's license plates, "OK."

FROM THE CROTCH OF THE BIBLE BELT

POOR CHOICE

These dudes were kind enough to mail The Escape a coupla tapes last year, but I get easily distracted and POOR CHOICE is just now making its way into your earholes. I could tell you that this demo features 7 hardcore songs in well under 6 minutes, and has songs like "Government Jerks," "Thrash Can" and "Midwest Nobodies" and you would probably get the idea, right? But that wouldn't clue you into the dark and ugly guitar tone (I know it's a lofty comparison, but the guitar sounds like fukkn VOID), and the vocal delivery is awkward and perhaps initially off putting, though I think it's the one aspect of POOR CHOICE that completely seals the deal. The dudes that used to be Frankenjew now call them selves Eat The Life, and they are responsible for this mess.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE END OF MY LIFE

SUBNORMAL

SUBNORMAL unleashed this complete scorcher in 1983 and then seem to have faded away. Excellently crafted UK82 punk played at breakneck speed and with fukkn stellar guitar leads that appear sporadically so the listener still gets excited when they swoop in. This demo features 13 songs, five of which appeared a few months back on the Slaughter Of Innocents blog (clearly these tapes came from the same source material, as they feature the same blips and clicks from duplication). I named the tracks based on the lyrics I could make out, so my apologies to band members if I screwed it up (of course, you could rectify this by dropping me a line and setting the record straight). This one has been on repeat all morning, just killer killer tunes - get yourself some.

SUBNORMAL

THE GIFT

For most of their first demo, Washington DC's THE GIFT come off like a really good, modern, DIY version of HOLE (and say what you want, but Pretty On The Inside was kinda bad ass in 1991). But THE GIFT add bizarre dark elements and brief forays into primitive black metal - and somehow they make the transitions seems logical. "An Unforgivable Invasion..." sounds like a lost HICKEY track until it sinks into blasting screaming chaos, while searing soaring female vocals and an appropriately distant recording give the whole demo a ritualistic feel. I realize that these references seem like they should have no business sharing space on the same cassette, but this grows on me with each listen.

THE GIFT