VACATION

I'm leaving for tour today, so no posts for a while. I know that this will be difficult for all of you, but I am confident that you will be able to pull through. First stop: El Segundo, California to pick up these bad boys:

"Everywhere You Aren't Looking," new 10 track LP on Prank Records

And then we will play a few shows in Austin at the annual extravaganza that is Chaos In Tejas. First show this Thursday (31 May) with NASUM, GAS CHAMBER, WHITEHORSE and others. We are playing Sunday 03 June at End Of An Ear for the release of Rumpshaker Zine's book release (since we come from the '90s), but not before we play the Third Annual Prank Records Breakfast Show, Saturday 02 June with our pals NEGATIVE STANDARDS and a solo karaoke act (as if a hardcore show at a coffee shop called Cheer Up Charlie's at 11am wasn't ridiculous enough). If you are on time, then you can get one of these for free:

"Never Be A Martyr b/w Earhammer Soundsystem," new 45

100 copies on black, free of charge, because apparently a hardcore show at a coffee shop with a dude doing karaoke at 11am in fact was not ridiculous enough. If you are not the punctual type, or perhaps find yourself nowhere near the great state of Texas this Saturday, then you should buy a copy from our friend Ken here (and you don't even need to wait until Saturday - the motherfukker has them NOW). I didn't make very many, and I assure you that it is an excellent record. Why would I lie?

Then tour starts, FORWARD and NO STATIK for a week (dates here), and then I'll be chauffeuring FORWARD for another week through the Northwest. It will be great. Daily posts will resume upon my return in late June. Lots of folks have sent in tapes that I haven't had time to dig into yet. I will, and I thank you. For those of you (most of you) who didn't notice, yesterday's BONEHOUSE demo was my 1,000th post. That's pretty fukkn nuts, and you'll see me in a few weeks.

BONEHOLE

Biting electronic drones. Disconcerting swells and crashes, dark and all encompassing with brief respites in the form of ambient angst. One solid hour of brilliantly crafted and wholly engaging noise from a British dude living in South Korea. Released in a criminally limited run of 40 copies by Czech label Rauha Turva.

PURE 4th

PERMACULTURE

Instantly hooked. PERMACULTURE harness urgent '80s UK anarcho punk (think FLUX, A-HEADS) but present their wares with the intensity and precision of present day hardcore punk. The songs are just so fukkn good, they speak completely for themselves, so I won't try to speak for them. Vocals from NUCLEAR FAMILY, everything else from Ryan (CONFINES, SOCIAL CIRKLE, Side Two). Wow. 

SWALLOW WHAT YOU'RE GIVEN

FINISH BANDS

I suppose I could have done some research on this one, maybe dropped Markku a line to see if all of these bands are indeed even Finish (sic), but I didn't. Instead I just jammed the shit out of this 43 minute mix over and over. Fukkn crucial shit, more punk than hardcore, and all awesome. Some bands you'll probably recognize, while others will be rage inducing mysteries...26 tracks presented to you without information, the same way the tape came to me. Maybe I'll send somebody a present if they feel like figuring out all the songs and artists? Probably not, but maybe. 

FINISH BANDS

CHIT CHAT

Smart, sharp airy garage sounds. Instantly hooked by surf influenced reverb drenched guitars and '60s garage psych by way of '80s female fronted indie bands. This is me swooning. Fans of previous posts from STARING PROBLEM, AMERICAN SUN, PALMS SPRING and PARLOR will want to take note, and those who enjoy CHIT CHAT will want to check out those other bands. Did I say swooning? Yeah, I did. Love this band.

CHIT CHAT

THE MANUAL AND THE MACHINE

I posted their first tape a few months back, but San Francisco's THE MANUAL AND THE MACHINE have stepped up the weird for their second casseffort. Haunting and cacophonous bursts of unrestrained frustration, punctuated by childishly enthusiastic drums that spend the entire demo putting the listener on edge - almost as much as the pained and frustrated personal-hardcore-by-way-of-poetry-slam vocals. Background drones will lull you, while senseless guitars swarm through the mix with an urgency that embodies the entire sound of this tape. I don't expect everyone to like Social Services, but for those that get it, this band is completely mesmerizing in the same way that early SONIC YOUTH, EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBATEN and PUSSY GALORE recordings transcend talent and exist on a purity of vision that sets them apart from their peers. Yeah..that good.

SOCIAL SERVICES

SUB RATS//HABEMUS KAOS

Raw and ugly Spanish hardcore from the mid '00s. Ten tracks from SUB RATS, a disjointed romp through gruff vocals and primitive DBeat. Half as many songs from HABEMUS KAOS, slightly more metallic but still more of the same rudimentary raw crust punk, this time with a few Scandi-solos thrown in for good measure. Nothing pretty about this one, just fist pumping gold.

SUB RATS//HABEMUS KAOS

CRUTCHES

Bombastic Swedish hardcore in the classic CIMEX tradition. A wall of powerfully raw guitars cuts through the recording like a scythe and the snare lurches everything forward - always faster - with the machine gun intensity. Anarchist politics on their sleeves and venom frothing from their mouths, this is hardcore. From the first fucking note you will be at attention, from the second note you will be sold.

CRUTCHES

On the flip side of their six song creamer, CRUTCHES offer up a mini mix tape, featuring FREEDOOM, CRIMEN, SEPSIS, and CONTORTURE.  Killer demo, find CRUTCHES here.

VICIO

Absolutely blistering demo from 2000 delivered by crazed punks from Laredo, Texas. Whether these are influences or manifestations, I hear the garage churn of THE DICKS, the unhinged hardcore chaos of early WRETCHED, the strained cracking vocals of D. Boon (especially during the mid tempo section of "Terrorized") and the untempered raw passion of Latin American hardcore. I have been listening to this incessantly for days.

VICIO

DEVIATED INSTINCT

Four killer tracks tacked onto the end of a live set from 1985 (posted here). DEVIATED INSTINCT should need no introduction, but the uninitiated should prepare themselves for some raw and primitive UK anarcho crust. Two studio burners, followed by two live (or perhaps rehearsal?) tracks. Maybe this is for purists and/or completists, but maybe it just rules.

DEVIATED INSTINCT

LET THEM EAT PASTAS! LET THEM EAT SHIT!

Mid-90's international comp from the folks at Spock Productions. A few acts you are likely familiar with (WAT TYLER and THE GR'UPS deliver live performances that justify their status, while CITIZEN FISH have never sounded more inebriated than on this recording), but the highlights on this comp are the unknown bands. ONE BY ONE sound like NAUSEA interpreted by a churning, metallic CONTROPOTERE, easily the best tracks on the tape. W.O.R.M. and THE SHREDS manage to make the melodic side of the '90s sounds raw and insistent (no mean feat for these ears), Germany's BOOT DOWN THE DOOR are solid and burly take-no-prisoners hardcore, and there's a bizarre electronic/dance song by Florida's SPHERE LAZA that is going to be getting a lot of spins around TEHQ. Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Italy and the US are all well represented here. You won't get any punk points for listening to it, but the reward for listening to killer jams tends to be rather personal, in my opinion.

LET THE EAT PASTAS! LET THEM EAT SHIT!

WOMEN OF THE PORE

The motherfukkrs at Hamburger Tapes just don't seem to have any boundaries whatsoever. WOMEN OF THE PORE dish out two beautifully harsh noise tracks on this cassette, totaling just over 4 minutes. The closing moments of the tape are tense and disconcerting, while the A side is just relentless waves of sound crashing with unpredictable rhythm on your head...over and over. Get loose, my friends.

WOMEN OF THE PORE

SVÄTSOX

From the othe side of the tape that brought us the Oorwormer comp a couple of weeks back comes the essential debut full length from SVÄTSOX. Ruins clocks in just under 30 minutes, and delivers first rate angular post punk from start to finish. I've heard the band mentioned in the same breath as THE EX, and it's a legitimate comparison...this record is restrained angular punk at its finest. Dive in kids, get to learning.

RUINS

PUKEOID

Raw and nasty Midwestern hardcore in the ugly tradition of that glorious and beleaguered region. Eight songs in less than six minutes. There's a record out now on Not Normal, the same people who released this cassette.

PUKEOID

"I don't want your fucking life // I don't want your fucking sickness // I don't want your disease // I don't want that shit for me."

SYSTEMATIK

From the ashes of (or at least the guitarist of ) Vancouver's UNLEARN comes SYSTEMATIK. Lighting speed hardcore with searing guitars and a vocalist that can actually manage to convey his live frustration through recorded media - a rare feat. Four tunes on this demo, blown to shit with the chaos reigned in just enough...unhinged intensity at its finest. Worth it for the solo in "World Of Misery" alone, this four song banger will give you exactly what you came here for.

SYSTEMATIK

SHIT

Who doesn't want to start their Sunday with 5 minutes of downtuned blackened crust/metal mayhem? Dummies, that's who. Since you are not a dummy, you are about to be treated to some of the most primal and vicious death metal crossover you've ever heard. Making the right choice is good sometimes, and sometimes it means you get SHIT.

EN LA PENUMBRA

ANDANADA 7

Two decades old, and still every bit as amazing as when it was released. On A Mala Hostia, Madrid's ANDANADA 7 (still active today, by the way) blast through insanely catchy political punk, similar in vibe to DAVOVA PSYCHOZA (actually, I hold this record in the same league as that Slovokian band's Antropofóbia, also released in 1991). On tracks like "Sobre Dos Ruedas"and "Autodestruccion" ANDANADA 7 just fukkn rage, but the guitar  still takes the lead and the hooks are undeniable. "Un Cadaver Mas"and "La Bocaes Para Gritar," however, are just brilliant damn punk songs. I'm glad I stumbled across the cassette version of this classic - forceful mid tempo Spanish hardcore tinged with Oi! punk undertones (check the tape's opening and closing tunes if you have any doubts)...yeah, this is as awesome as I remember. 

A MALA HOSTIA  

BEATS

There is no sense in me pretending that I am anything approaching an expert on these sounds. Just three acts make up the A side of this mix tape, Nigeria's CHIEF COMMANDER EBENEZER OBEY and KING SUNNY & HIS AFRICAN BEATS with a couple of tracks from Senegal's TOURE KUNDA to round out the party. Mesmerizing sounds that I love, whether or not I know anything about them or their historical relevance (CHIEF EBENEZER takes the cake for me, if anyone is keeping track). From northern Africa to musically rich Jamaica for the flip side, 45 minutes of classic ska from well known acts (TOOTS & THE MAYTALS, JIMMY CLIFF, BURNING SPEAR, DESMOND DEKKER) and deeper cuts from ERIC MORRIS, THE MELODIANS, LORD CREATOR and others. Again, I am no historian here, but these sounds make me want to delve deeper - and that, dear readers, is the power of a good mix tape - even though I get the feeling that this is just a vinyl comp committed to shell form (at least the Jamaica side), it still has the same effect as if one well meaning historian spent one alcohol soaked evening sharing the best possible examples of a genres to all his/her friends. Highlights for me? LORD CREATOR, CHIEF COMMANDER EBENEZER OBEY, AUGUSTUS PABLO, and SOUL VENDORS. The shit is good, enjoy.

AFRICAN SOUNDS // JAMAICAN SOUNDS

ROUGH ROPE

Yeah, I suppose I could go off on some tangent about that Amphetamine Reptile label and how the stuff from that sub/sub-genre still eclipses half of the music that I hear today. And yeah, I could say that at their best, ROUGH ROPE remind me of TORCHE's hooks, every bit as infectious, put through a righteously aware noise rock via raw punk filter - this shit is ugly as sin and catchy as all hell. Tennessee weirdness gone totally awesome, brought to you from members of Escape veterans GRAVEBOUND. If "Blues Hammer (Detroit)" doesn't connect with you in some manner, then it's possible that we cannot be friends. This will change you.

DEMOS + WIZARDS

SIGNALS // ERODE AND DISAPPEAR

This is either a brilliantly executed noise release or a gorgeous mistake, but I present it to you today in the manner that I received it. SIGNALS made a much celebrated appearance on Terminal Escape a couple of years back, and that post result in this cassette showing up in my mail slot quite some time ago. I've tried to examine possible motivations, but I've come to the conclusion that this split release is just backwards version of what these two bands mean for their split to sound like. Like I said - either that, or they are geniuses. And regardless, this is a mind fukk in all the right ways.

SIGNALS // ERODE AND DISAPPEAR

BLYTH POWER

Active since 1983, BLYTH POWER is the voice of drummer Joseph Porter (THE MOB, ZOUNDS) and is still active today. This band tastes to me the same as my imagination tells me a  salad of BILLY BRAGG and CRASS would taste. Demo Tapes Records gave early recordings from these gents the vinyl treatment last year, but they've been cranking out music consistently for nearly three decades. Might be a little too pub folk-y for some, but the warble in the vocals fit the almost-accessible punk perfectly. No one sounds like BLYTH POWER. This tape? No info other than what you see in the photo - only a couple of song titles that I pulled from my admittedly limited vinyl archives and no clue when this demo was recorded. Someone will download it and share their knowledge with the rest of us though...I can feel it.

BLYTH POWER

ASPEX

I'm not sure that fans of Mondays at The Escape can really ask for more than this. Members of KRUEL, DEAD NOISE, THE HELPLESS and others crank out seven tunes. You know who their influences are, you've been listening to them every Monday for a couple of years now and ASPEX are better than most of them.

PEACEFUL LIFE IS NOW YOUR NIGHTMARE

Self released stateside, and given the pro-cassette treatment from our friends at Black Konflik. 

DIPPERS

Smart and snarky hardcore from New York City makes another visit to The Escape, one side live and one set of superb studio tracks this time around. "2 Chill 2 Drill" is a masterful piece of restraint, while the rest of the jams on the studio side are packed with addictive and feisty hardcore punk rock - just the way you (should) like it. The live side is full of tasty treats like "Drinking And Doing Drugs While Texting And Driving" and "Light My Farts" but don't let the song titles fool you - these kids mean fukkn business. Great shit, need to go back to New York so I can see them. Find these fools here, and download the music by clicking on the green words that say HOME RUNS II, because that's the name of the tape.

HOME RUNS II

SKRAPYARD

Every bit as ugly and primitive as the neanderthal cover implies, SKRAPYARD plod through five tracks of gutter Oi that will make you question your affinity for new wave music and wonder why you aren't flailing around in a circle with your elbows in the air like an asshole. Nasty, rough sounds that hate you almost as much as they appear to hate cats...this is beyond childish, but it's kinda awesome. SKRAPYARD is the sound of middle aged rednecks who just discovered NEGATIVE APPROACH for the first time, open mic night at Buster's Tavern in Elgin better look the fukk out.

SKRAPYARD 2010

OORWORMER

Three cheers for bored teenagers copying records onto cassette for their friends. Oorwormer is an essential 1982 anarcho/post punk comp from Holland, and some well meaning punk rocker presented her/his copy with a homemade cover and some crafty editing (the VERZ ED tracks are "Shit, so not on this tape" - though I think that the space time continuum limitations of a 90 minute tape might have been a factor as well, as this comp clocks in just under the 45 minute mark without the VERZ ED songs, so I can only imagine the extra effort required to make a cool cover and a cohesive package with two songs crammed onto the SVÄTSOX Ruins side of the cassette - that's the record taped onto the other side of this shell, naturally it will appear here soon...making tapes is tough work, kids - way harder than crafting a playlist). Two songs each from 13 different seminal Dutch acts, B-SOCIAL and RED ORCHESTRA are my least favorites, though on their own they are still stellar, which let's you know a bit about the exceptionally high level of quality on this comp. NV DE ADEREN turn in two scorchers and might be the punkest act here in the traditional sense, the brilliant INDEX, angular addictions from ZOWISO, dirty melancholy burners from GRRR (fukkn love the guitars), and female fronted bass driven sounds from ASBEST that remind me inexplicably of THE CURE's early recordings. THE EX turn in their expected quality, and the comp rounds out with ATIMS, ZWEMBADEN, HANGDOGS, and  SVÄTSOX - if anyone has a copy of this comp lying around gathering dust, I assure you I will give it a good home.

OORWORMER

SURROGATE ACTIVITY

I've posted some shit from these fools before, and since I love this band I'll post some more. As if THE GRUMPIES had somehow been trained to stay between the lines, SURROGATE ACTIVITY crank out insanely infectious and indescribably adorable punk tunes. While "Freezer Aisle" is a burner of a love song (sounds like one, anyway, don't actually know what it's about), "Worry Cycle" is just a burner of a song. Female fronted and appropriately dirty sounding melodic jams from Newfoundland, today's post features their second demo from 2010 (cleaner, slower) along with their 2011 tape (faster, way more distorted). These punks live really far from my house, and that is sad. Fans of THIS IS MY FIST, GRUMPIES, VANBUILDERASS and punk in general take note and start to swoon.

SURROGATE ACTIVITY 2010/2011

SHORT WALK

Urgh, a music war upon your face. Brutal and blistering shit attack from Milwaukee that will crush the shit out of your mind. Members of HOLY SHIT, ABADDON and THE BUTTS have stepped up their game for this tape, and the result is a dozen songs in less than 7 minutes - vocals at their very breaking point, devastatingly heavy for the brief respites from breakneck speed, and so fukkn fast when they want to be. The riffs are the kind that make your exclaim "YES!" as soon as the shredding begins, SHORT WALK pull no punches.

SHORT WALK

LIABLE

Two nasty industrial dirges from LIABLE. I'm not going to try to read too much into this (or suggest that you read too much into this by writing too much about this), but these tracks are ugly and mean. "Hypocrisy" sounds like the awful and uncomfortable union of THE NORMAL and THROBBING GRISTLE. Yeah - it's that good. Disjointed and disconcerting sounds, from the Nostilevo family, of course.

SILVER/HYPOCRISY