MEDICATION

Sometimes I can't exactly explain why I love it, or exactly what it is that I love. And sometimes I feel like if I even tried, that most of you would shy away and look elsewhere for aural sustenance. Sometimes there are sounds that just strike a nerve and I need them, even if they are not sounds that I feel like I should "like," per se. Need is stronger than want, and need is certainly stronger than like. "Count Me Out" is exactly what I'm talking about....I was rapt before the music even started, and once it did I was helpless. So today, there are no descriptors. No comparisons. Just.....suggestions. And affirmations.

DAILY AFFIRMATIONS

COLLAPSE SOCIETY

Noisy and chaotic beyond belief, poorly reproduced and suffering from waves of hiss, ramshackle mania with vocals mixed way too high and bass distorted to a near noteless rumble. In other words: perfect. I think this is how these sounds were meant to be listened to, and COLLAPSE SOCIETY has been doing the thing for fukkn 25 years. Noise Not Music, motherfukkrs. 

DEMO '93

CELL ROT

Dear Americans: Hope you had a pleasant weekend, and that your "holiday" was satisfactory. Dear Everyone Else: This holiday weekend thing is bullshit, it's mostly just gluttony and fake appreciation. You know what is not bullshit? The drums during the breakdown to "Punishment." That shit is real as fukk. CELL ROT are from Oakland, and were born out of the ashes of EXHAAUST (basically same band with a different vocalist). Three songs here....and holy fukkn shit are we in for a treat if these fools stick around for a while. Looking forward to seeing them in the flesh on Friday....I guess sometimes living in this cesspool nation isn't entirely shitty. So yeah....it's Monday. Have a nice week.

CELL ROT

MOON BLOOD

Yesssssss punk. Get ready. Tighten your shoe(boot)laces, because you are about to go fukkn wild. Straight for the throat feminist pogo hardcore mania from Las Vegas with vocals that'll make you rip your heart out and die for punk. This is what the shit is about, motherfukkrs, I want more and more and more. Fast, raw, serious fukkn punk. 

CRAMP

GENEVA JACUZZI

Blind purchase here (what's $5 to an uppity dude with a job, right?!), but the second I heard that weird digitized voice from the past pretentiously groaning something about "eating your sex"  I knew that I had made the correct decision. Lowest common denominator primitive proto-electro (techno?Italidisco? house? who knows?!?!) presented with what I can only assume is blatantly calculated precision and an aspiration for something resembling actual and real "success." My assumption here is that this outfit is highly regarded in some alternate universe (read: cocaine users in their 20s), but I confess that on more than one occasion since that blind purchase, GENEVA JACUZZI has filled my home and my earholes. Choice track: "Macho Island." You're welcome. 

TECHNOPHELIA

CHAMBER OF TORTURE

Put your internal serach for peace and light on hold for thirty minutes and sink deep into CHAMBER OF TORTURE's realm of sinister death metal. Do it. I can tell you from experience that it will act as a cleansing...and the more volume employed, the deeper the cleanse. The hate and the dishonesty will still be out there when you are finished, and you will still need to address the ills (of the world and of your soul) just as before - but imagine doing so after a full immersion. It's worth it. 

BEHEAD BEFORE INTERNMENT

ATROPELLO

Ugh....just YES. Eight minutes of light speed hardcore, complete tracks crammed into sub-minute bursts without leaning on blasts or fastcore trickery. Listen to "Control" and hear the vocals shred during the machine gun snare hits that make up the chorus - this is what I want!! - and the mosh that follows is so quick and to the point. Everything is here. This is the first of two demos Buenos Aires, Argentina's ATROPELLO band has given us this year....let's hope that there are more in the future. 

ATROPELLO

LIQUIDS

Like the sharp edge of a knife, but when you're too drunk to be cooking. Smart, snappy punk burners from the same crew of midwest mutants responsible for CONEHEADS, CCTV and a bunch of other shit that the kids scooped up before you even knew you were supposed to like it. Pay attention, and you will be rewarded with tracks like "Piss On Me," which is without a doubt the coolest creamer you will hear all damn day. 

BRANDON'S IN JAIL

11.11.16

I made this mix tape for a friend. I thought I did a pretty good job making everything flow, then got to the end of Side B and perfectly timed the remaining space to a weird CHARLIE TWEDDLE track (as any tape maker knows all too well, timing the end of each side is key, and we always keep an arsenal of short, poignant numbers up our sleeves for mometnts just like these). Boom. It was about to be done. So I dropped the needle, I unpaused the recording and I went to pop open a celebratory beer...because a good mix tape is an accomplishment worth celebrating. And then an enemy known only as "auto-reverse" reared its head, and before I knew it, the first 10 minutes of the Side A had been replaced with the gentle crackle of a needle knocking at the matrix...fuck. Normally, I could have just recreated the first few selections, but I had started this particular mix with a self-edit of PHAROAH SANDERS' "The Creator Has A Master Plan" (a controversial tape making tool, but one I am comfortable utilizing when appropriate) and it would be impossible to nail that timing again...so I started over. Many of the same tracks found their way back into the program, but offerings by SCREAMING TREES, PTARMIGAN and BEHAVIOR didn't seem as appropriate to the overall vibe and were replaced with WAYNE NEWTON, THE BODY and BRUCE GILBERT. I am very pleased with the tape, and have listened to it many times since (re)completion. While it brings me pleasure to share this here, and I hope that it brings you pleasure also...nothing can compare to the feeling of packing up a tape to mail to someone far away. Imagining it reaching their hands and then filling their ears...it's why we do this. And sometimes it's our very reason for existence. 

11.11.16

EARN // MIRROR TO MIRROR

The rain has subsided and the light is oppressive while I type, which makes it hard to take my mind back to the first time I listened to this cassette. Making something that is instantly engaging even when quiet and deliberate is difficult...which makes it even better when it works. EARN works - patient and peaceful ambience, dark without being oppressive or negative...file alongside the things that we feel more than hear, things that are difficult to describe. A natural progression to MIRROR TO MIRROR on the other side...slightly more energy, slightly more hope. Maybe wait until it's dark. 

SYMPATHY // SOFT YEARS

SPRY JAUNT

I ripped this one at the same time as the UHNB I posted a few days ago, and they go well together. SPRY JAUNT come off like a bedroom Beat reject, trapped in another time and/or dimension (or maybe just wandering around San Francisco sometime in the drug addled '90s). acoustic guitar musings and stream of consciousness ramblings don't always work, but Whichever You Prefer hits just right this morning. 

WHICHEVER YOU PREFER

MANIA FOR CONQUEST

MANIA FOR CONQUEST deliver perfectly executed light speed DBeat hardcore. Sometimes you think you know exactly what to expect, you just don't know how good it's going to be - and this is one of those times. They hit every base, and even the atypical diversions ("Noise For Peace," for example) aren't exactly surprising, but fukk do these North Carolina mutants do everything right. You hear a part coming and you think "oh shit - I bet they are gonna do this other thing next!" and then they do the thing but it's faster and tighter and so much better than you though it was gonna be....and this is going to keep happening while you listen, until you find yourself stomping around your room with clenched fists. You've got both demos in the DL today, and certified banger status is guaranteed. 

ARE WE DOOMED TO REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST? // DESPAIR CONTINUES

NEMA VOPIA NEDELJOM UVECE

Blistering 1986 Yugoslav comp featuring S.D.T., PROCES, YUGOSLAV SUN (this ska track breaks up the hardcore, and almost ends up being my favorite song on the tape), IDIOTI, OPASNE IGRE, PATARENI and others. Noisy, chaotic, raw bursts of punk and hardcore from a time and place that is long gone.

NEMA VOPIA NEDELJOM UVECE

UHNB

A quiet cacophony of distant sounds, this UHNB recording comes off like some lost VELVETs shit propelled into another millennium....and not necessarily the "new" one. I don't know how to categorize this at all, the sounds are mystical and even transformational, but then they can so effortlessly lapse into impossibly simple acoustic guitar and vocals and it still makes perfect sense. I have zero context for this recording, but these sounds are on motherfucking point, and I appreciate every minute of this cassette. 

UHNB

CHAPTERS

I could write something esoteric here about stages of life and the changes that we live through as we turn its various and sundry pages. I could....but that would be self indulgent, no? Instead: treat yourself to twenty five minutes of dark and haunting noise scapes. CAHPTERS is haunting and numbing, I was immersed instantly. So yeah, turn another page I guess, who knows what the next chapter brings...

DEMONSTRATION '13

CYCLOSARIN

I don't want to live my life 9 to 5, 9 to 5 // I just want to live my life my way

These Southern California punks bounce on top of a bombastic and destructive low end to create one hell of a racket. I'm reminded of early '90s US political hardcore - PIST, AUS ROTTEN, SUBMACHINE (ok - the latter mostly sings about beer, but you get the idea). It's simple, it's to the point, and some days that's all I need. Like today. 

CYCLOSARIN

RUMPE DARRA

You see those people dancing? There on the cover? Maybe you want to be with them.....or maybe you want to be them. I don't judge. I'm gonna tell you "1983: Sweden" and your underthings get a little moist....but the people. Why are they dancing? Why don't they have mohawks or leather and/or studs? Are they punk or not? I don't know, punk....it was 1983. I was eleven years old and I didn't know shit that wasn't RONNIE MILSAP or MERLE HAGGARD. It was Sweden. I lived in Austin. So I don't know if this trio were punk...or not. You know how to find out....

RUMPE DARRA

HONEYBATH

Someone want to tell me how I completely missed this shit? It's like that late '80s college rock rehash stuff that's popular these days, but force fed meth and HICKEY. This Bay Area band fukkn cooks, and they sound legitimately unhinged...maybe there's more than this demo. Maybe I could use the internet to find out. I probably won't, because I've got more tapes to rip. Thanks $1 bin, for this little jewel. 

NEXT

RUT

They've got it. The thing. That something that grabs you right out of the gate and spins you around until you don't want to do anything except go harder. The singer....her eyes when she rages, fukkn full. Fukkn fierce. Even when you see the breakdowns coming they still shake you to the core and the hardcore (mind you, "the hardcore" sums up the entire release) is on fire from start to finish. Check the subtle and flawless downstrokes on "contempt" - shit goes from killer to DESTROY! in the blink of an eye. I'm sure there's more to come from these kids, and I wait eagerly....in the meantime I'm gonna keep watching them play and feel good about the future of punk. 

RUT

TONNE

Melancholic, but calm and reserved. Not depressed....but perhaps resigned. 

CHOICE

THE DARK

Could listen to this band endlessly. Want to listen to this band endlessly. LA's rockers THE DARK have, to date, only given us eight recorded tracks (four here and four included in this post), but ughhhhh those eight tracks are head and shoulders above just about anything. '80s Japanese punk, AMEBIX, MOTÖRHEAD....and constant drive. Listen to "Badge And Gun" and try to not clench your teeth. The shit doesn't have to be hard, y'all....it just has to be right. THE DARK is right. 

THE DARK

NATIVE SUN

When people talk about "garage rock 'n roll," NATIVE SUN is not what they mean....but it's what I wish they meant. Soulful and sweaty, bluesy burners, and with a chorus like "I see right through you" leading you right into the screaming solo that kicks in at 1:28? Fukkn A punk, you're doing the damn thing, and you're doing it so well that you have to fade out after the six minute mark because you just don't know how to finish....or maybe because you don't want to stop. Vintage Motor City crashing headfirst into modern psychedelic rehash, and the result here is the very definition of success. 

I SEE THROUGH YOU

FULL EFFECT

Come on, punk. Look at this tape and tell me you don't know what it sounds like. The thing that you think it probably sounds like....? Yeah. That's it. Brasilian beat down hardcore, studio tracks from 1998 on one side, live bangers from 1996 on the flip. 

FOR ALL THE EFFECTS

SCUZZ

I was spinning the new SCUZZ full length a few days ago and I thought "damn - this is even better than the tape." And then I went home and pulled this creamer out of the pile and I thought "damn - it's a good thing I don't have to choose." I'm not here to tell you that one is better than the other, because they are both oozing with cream. I'm not here to tell you that cerebral mutant hardcore is awesome, because you already know that. SCUZZ come from the weird part of New York, the part that gave us ECFU, ACID REFLUX, ANAL WARHEAD and a host of others...I miss going there on the regular. 

SCUZZ

MEATHEAD

Thick and meaty hardcore, blown to shit and extra ugly. Do not expect nuance or subtlety. Expect to be leveled. Expect six minutes of brutality. 

WORLDWIDE

OBJETO AMARELO

A hypnotic offering from long running São Paulo outfit OBJETO AMARELO...eight pieces of patient and deliberate electronics with soft, spoken vocals. Tracks like the opener "Dia Vermelho" could have easily stepped directly out of the experimental '80s brushes with the then-burgeoning new wave scene. Elements of early HUMAN LEAGUE (I'm talking "Being Boiled" era) creep in and out, while "Crepsucular" is a simple and perfect electronic/synth chill out (this is my favorite track here, if only because it breaks up the vibe ever so slightly and sets the listener up nicely for the driving and comparatively heavy "Propostas Solares" and "Amigo Nuclear" to close the tape). If you aren't careful, Dia Vermelho will play on repeat all day....but I would suggest resisting neither the sounds nor the urge to let them sink all the way into you. 

DIA VERMELHO

OBJETO AMARELO is the product of Carlos Issa, responsible for several noteworthy projects and collaborations, and a part of the TEST BIG BAND (a thing I am fucking dying to see in the flesh). Released and distributed by São Paulo's Dama Da Noite Discos.