MONKEY BRAIN

Undoubtedly dated catchy punk from Curitiba. Delivery is splotchy at times, and the combination of East Bay pop and US DIY melodic "hardcore" (that's what we called it then, kids) is likely to send anyone under 35 running....but fukk it. "Searching For A Better Choice" is still a banger, and I'll even take the damned ska track(s). So there. 

WAKE UP TIME!!

STRANGERS

I've said it countless times: It doesn't have to be revolutionary....it just has to be good. Vocals that hide their own intensity behind softness, and an overwhelmingly laid back rhythm section that patiently urges the whole thing along while shamelessly swinging. Check "It's Not Alright," the most burning cut on this 2015 demo, and I challenge you not not get down. Southern Californians are fortunate to have this act in their midst....I've only seen it once in the flesh and I was a sweaty mess when they were finished.

STRANGERS

STRANGERS

Absolute freak show. Desperate, driving hardcore with clean fukkd guitars and manic, deranged vocals. Like '90s basement hardcore on steroids (or crack), Chicago's STRANGERS sound honest and earnest. Makes me feel.....hmmmm, I guess it just makes me feel. Not sure if "Games Again" or "Apolitical" is the creamer here, but I will happily take the whole five goddamned minutes on repeat. 

STRANGERS

PYKA

Oh geez, I'm sorry - I thought you said you wanted to have your face melted. That's why I chose to share this fierce Connecticut grind act with you....because I thought you wanted you face melted. Tuneless treble rebels on a blast beat bender - you won't be singing along, you'll be running for cover.

TOO FEMME TOO FURIOUS

TERRÖRSTRIKER

Fuuuuucccckkk this is what I want. Sinister death/thrash from Russia...no need to reinvent the wheel when the shit rolls true. And this shit?! My monkeys, TERRÖRSTRIKER are a fukkn machine. Eternal cheers to Reforestation (again) for bringing these sounds to my ears. 

HORDES OF ARMAGEDDON

DEALING & TROPICAL BODY

A quarter hour of dark electronics and tortured manipulations from DEALING (for the more curious, I believe this outfit is associated with the decidedly more filthy SACRED FOLLOWERS).  Four tracks from TROPICAL BODY on the flip, and as much as I dig the entirely of this tape, the distant rhythms and high end hiss of "Minimal Structure For Aircraft Travel" is the piece of work that keeps me coming back. Check the 4:25 mark, when that hiss peels back to expose the rolling swarm of synth pulsating under the beats...this is the shit that I want. Don't get me wrong here, all four tracks of lo-fi psychedelic techno are stellar, I don't want my affinity for that one song to imply that this is outfit is only good for one track - quite the opposite. Our Love Was Real is an excellent pairing and deserves repeated listens (as expected from Ascetic House), and I expect that you will be very pleased to give this tape the proper attention.

OUR LOVE WAS REAL

BRIDGEBURNER // SKUFF

Nasty, noisy crust/grind from Canada. BRIDGEBURNER are a classic, churning power trio, while SKUFF lose the guitar and make things even filthier. Get dirty, punks.

BRIDGEBURNER // SKUFF

TRABALHAR PARA MORRER

I honestly thought I had posted this already, perhaps because I've been listening to it so much lately, but the search window in the top left proves me wrong (again), so....here's the 1998 demo from TRABALHAR PARA MORRER. On the face, this is pretty rudimentary hardcore punk, but intensity doesn't have to come from blinding speed or complex riffs - T.P.M. have the thing that makes simple punk so hopelessly addictive. Listen to the chorus of "Bombaricados" - it's so fukkn simple, three chords walking up and walking down, but it kicks me in the ass every time I hear it. VULPESS comparisons are certainly not out of line with multiple female vocals and a jerky, urgent pace throughout, but T.P.M. have a touch more hardcore creeping into their sound. 14 track demo presented here, and in the link above you can snag their 2001 full length, released around the time they stopped, and two songs recorded a couple of years ago. See what happens when I try to find out if I have actually done a thing that I think I have done? You win, that's what happens.

T.P.M.

MUDO AUXILIO

There are things that I understand, and there things that I just enjoy. And then there are the things that are outside of my field of knowledge, but that I like enough that I want to understand....things like MUDO AUXILIO. Five bleak, quasi-industrial synth dirges that sound more terrified than terrifying and hold my interest completely. The murky pulse of "Avarice" that closes this release is worth the price of admission on its own, but the totality here demands to be consumed as a unit. Repeat listens recommended. 

REVENANT

HORSE & DEER

Oh...I'm sorry, did you miss these freaks earlier this year because you don't live in the Bay Area? Sometimes, even amongst the bullshit...sometimes we still manage to win around these parts. Manic insanity from Tokyo, HORSE & DEER plow through 8 tracks of frantic distorted Plasma Speed Punk - launching themselves between riffs the same way they launched themselves through the air. Song construction that defies description, but casts an eye towards the energy they bring to every fukkn live show. Next level.

STRANDING

MANHUNT

I would say that I'm sorry for the short break...but I'm not. Shit happens. Life gets in the way. But this shit is always there for you. And what do I mean when I say "this shit"? I'm talking about Australia's MANHUNT. Five creamers. Seven minutes. Desperate and vicious. The few sepos lucky enough to see them in the flesh earlier this year know what I'm talking about. ..the rest of you are about to learn.

PERMANENT PAIN

UNSCHEDULED VACATION.....YOU WILL HAVE MORE TAPES SOON.

PUNISH OR BE DAMNED

I know that when I posted Vol. 2 a few months back I asked The Cassette Gods to place a copy of Vol. 1 in my hands. So anyway, Cassette Gods, I just wanna say thanks. Just like the (sub)title suggests...."38 AntiSocial Punk Songs With Synth or Keyboards"....I'm not sure what more you need to know. From C.C.T.V. (2015, Indiana) to ROCK BOTTOM AND THE SPIES (1981, Los Angeles) to MIZZ NOBODY (1979, Sweden) and KAOS (1982, Yugoslavia)....yeah, you shouldn't really need any more convincing. The shit is straight gold.

PUNISH OR BE DAMNED VOL.1:
38 ANTISOCIAL PÜNK SONGS WITH SYNTHS OR KEYBOARDS

SICK LLAMA

2009 cassette from SICK LLAMA, one of the (many) aliases of Fag Tapes empresario Heath Moerland. It's like a digital stream of consciousness, but with a constant and underlying surge. I find Equity particularly engaging, and have for years....imagine the intersection of blips and whirrs noise and mesmerizing ambient electronics....can you imagine that? I can. So can SICK LLAMA.

EQUITY

FINAL

Several weeks ago, I saw this band in Santa Rosa. They were fukkn great. Then, a few days later, I saw them in San Francisco, and they were even better. Do you like punk? Because I do.

FINAL

THE PINK BOLTS

Full on, flesh out Valley Girl-era new wave creamers from 2016? Fukkn sign me up, you monkeys. I have no idea what the agenda is here, but holy shit do these two tracks (yeah, it's a cassingle) hit the mark. Synth punks get ready to wring out your panties, and retro geeks start taking notes, because this shit is about two steps short of Game Over. I'm almost glad there are just two, because perfection is a tough thing to fukk with. 

SEX GYM b/w I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE ME

BAD ORGASM

Filthy Florida grind from 2007. Twelve songs in fourteen minutes, and I'm probably glad they didn't include lyrics. Enjoy your holiday, Americans, summer's over...the rest of you mutants just have a good Monday.

GENITAL LEPROSY DEMOS

TROIKA

Catchy ass female trio from Madrid. Multiple vocals, whoa-oohhs when appropriate, straightforward and addictive, in the indescribable way that it sometimes seems only Spanish punk can be. New band...this demo just dropped a few months ago. Enjoy. 

TROIKA

TONGUE PARTY

From play, this one bangs hard. I reviewed this tape in the pages of Maximum Rocknroll a while back, and when I read those words for reference (research is good...sometimes a tape hits me differently on a different day, if I'm in a different mood, or if I am drunk - that's to be expected, right?), and I can't think of anything to say that I didn't cover in that review. So here you go: "I want my independent rock 'n roll music to sound like this. Low end fuzz like THE WHIP, soaring and distant lead vox yearning to break free like DASHER, and a guitar attack that just nails heavy psych-punk. And TONGUE PARTY fukkn jams like a full throttle freight train on wide open tracks. Full cream status. It's over before it really sinks in...so your only option is repeat listens."

TONGUE PARTY

GASMIASMA

I guess this is a super group? Whatever man. Grinding, grim and nasty DBeat hardcore from Louisiana delivered live and furious on the radio. Check the bass at the start of "D-832 Mortar Waste" and you'll be taken back to a time when the shit was less calculated, more filthy, less predictable, more reckless....and dare I say better? At least in some ways, I suppose it was. Derivative, definitely, but these fukks give zero fukks, and I like that. 

KRVS (KADAVERS)

CAGES

Buffalo duo CAGES have been wowing and confusing me for a decade. Dark and mesmerizing sounds that move from hypnotic electronics to avant-folk and then they travel to other places with a confidence that is terrifying. Describing CAGES would be nearly impossible, even for someone who talks as much as I do...but this collection of recordings is a pure motherfukkr. Listen to "If It Flies, It Dies" at maximum volume and you will never be the same. The minutes will take years off of your life, and still feed you.

COMPLAINT AND RIOTS WE SHOULD LEAVE TO CATS

Find CAGES here....their entire recorded output is celebrated at TEHQ (though, admittedly, the celebrations are mostly on special occasions....occasions that demand introspection and emotion) and the live experience is not of this world.