JEREMY YOUNG

More engaging intellectual sound from another established sonic manipulator....named Jeremy. JEREMY YOUNG's treatment of drones and feedback is probably more suited to a cloudless night than a vibrant summer day - attention to detail that moves beyond mere patience and into a reverence for the sound itself, Young hooks you with simplicity. His subtlety morphs into anxiety during the journey, but peace is waiting at the end. 

CHANTS BENEATH THE BED OF THE FURNACE BROOK

More on the background and construction of this release HERE. 

JEREMY BIBLE

Dark synthesizers envelope primitive soundscapes throughout JEREMY BIBLE's The Journey Of Enoch. Academic assemblage of a wholly engrossing and timeless sonic excursion.  It is a score for which there will never be a film. 

THE JOURNEY OF ENOCH

OUTSKIRTS

New York City punks doing it right - OUTSKIRTS' 2016 demo deposits a scant ten minutes of earnest hardcore and then leaves you to contemplate. No flavor of the month bounce, no artificially tweaked anything, no pandering. Yes breakdowns, yes intensity, yes power, yes honesty. There's a full length recording that dropped earlier this year....highly recommended.

OUTSKIRTS

say you'll be here but you can't handle tears

say you'll be there but you don't believe in strength

think once it's done, it's done - don't see how it goes on and on

can't stand to see you powerful

LUCHAR POR VIVIR

Two tracks from 1997 that would appear on their Inocente Mundo de Sueños demo the following year, Uruguay's LUCHAR POR VIVIR are the kind of thick neck hardcore that only seems to catch on with the punk kids when no one is looking. And this morning...no one is looking. So throw the lid up on that hoodie and put your mean mug on. I don't need this shit often, but when it's time, nothing else will hit the spot. 

ANIVERSARIO '97

DELETER

This one dropped at the same time as the NO STATIK What Did You Give Away When You Gave In? EP on 25 Diamonds, which is how I heard about it. I appreciate a label that is all over the place, releasing what they like instead of just focusing on moving units - because if you feel it, then surely it will show...and the units will move themselves. Or not. But I was extremely happy to have our hardcore slab paired up with this sonically advanced offering from DELETER. Cold future sounds with the same ear toward early Rough Trade that made even the most jaded perk up when those first INTERPOL and FRANZ FERDINAND records dropped in the early/mid '00s. Because good is good, and that's what these kids are. Levitate The Pentagon with stick to you like glue....if the soft Butler-esque rasp of "Kill The Comedian" doesn't resonate in some way, then maybe we need to talk about broadening your view a bit. Listen, and listen repeatedly. DELETER have earned it. 

LEVITATE THE PENTAGON

UNIFORM

You see, this is what dark and introspective punk is supposed to sound like. Not like 1984 reborn as a new band who sounds like they wish they were alive in 1984...but like a band weaned on this shit who find themselves as a bunch of grown ass adults with punk and nihilism flowing through their veins. And they just can't help it. As much MISSION OF BURMA as FLUX OF PINK INDIANS, and with a presentation that sounds as urgent (and relevant) as anything you're going to hear this week (year). Atlanta bred, with a members of list that'll make you drool (WYMYNS PRYSYN, DASHER, BRAIN F≠, NURSE, CHEAP ART...I mean, if you pay attention then you get the drill), and UNIFORM manage to land at, or dangerously near, that formidable heap. "Evolve To Dust" invokes HIS HERO IS GONE with the leads, "Parallel Android" conjures early CHROME demos, and the "Nuclear Winter (BRITE GUSH)" demo has the winning and/or endearing character of current NWI punk....this collection listens like a stroll down a very dark path. There are teeth lurking in the trees, monsters hiding in the shadows, and ultimately you just want it all to envelop you. So let it. 

DEMO + NO TRENDING 

Also, they called themselves "Funeral Oi" on the internet, which is pretty cool. 

PISS PISS PISS

I miss this. PISS PISS PISS sound like they predate the replacement of intense with pretense. It's fast, heavy, pissed, frustrated, powerful - it's all of the things that I need modern punk to be, and it churns like a motherfukkr too. I never saw PISS PISS PISS, but I have a feeling that no one cared...which kinda makes me love this demo even more. Fukk the flavor of the month and crank "Schilieren Lines" real real high...PISS PISS PISS just walks in, kills, and walks out with confidence. What the fukk more can you possibly want?

NEVER HERD OF AMEBIX

CHARLATAN

A rare dose of retro smoke-filled black room hard synth dance music that sounds like it was recorded 30 years ago...as opposed to the hordes who sound like they are trying to sound like they recorded 30 years ago. This is Wreck Room on NW 39th. This is IKON. This is MFTU. This is digging for records at Bill's in Dallas before you had even heard of Mystic or Dischord and you just wanted something to make you feel like you weren't alone. This is gazing at your shoes because you simply didn't know how to look anywhere else. This is just.....really good. 

SUPERMAX

LIL TITS

Chicago's LIL TITS are like a drug addled beating. I'm not sure if it's you or your assailant who are on The Drugs, but one of you is definitely not in this reality but the beating doesn't stop. Monotonous, atonal drunk garage with a bombastic presentation, like if SMUT (MN) had the guts you always kinda wish they did. They take some kind of unknown witch garage sound and play it fast and loose and heavy, and it's scary how well it works. This tape was recorded live at Chicago's Empty Bottle in 2015 - and while perhaps that means I should have posted it on Escape Is Terminal instead (still active, with lots of recent bangers...just saying), I feel like freakout traxxx like "Slay Ride" and "Peaking" deserve the full treatment. I mean - their last EP was called Freak Flag, so obviously I am all in. 

CREEP DAY

DIGGING IN WATER

I mean - it's Friday, so why not just go with the compilation that was dubbed on the A Side of yesterday's MURDER BURGER tape? 1987's Digging In Water is as close to a "quintessential" compilation as it gets, a total snapshot of UK punk as the scene/s in general was/were shifting from the anarcho vs. '77 and/or '82 tug-of-war to the rages that defined the latter part of the '80s. As a result, you've got OI POLLOI and ENT, DISORDER and RIPCORD, CONCRETE SOX and CHAOS UK...plus C.C.M. and VICIOUS CIRCLE for good measure, to remind you that there was still an ear pointed towards the outside world. Curious and/or noteworthy - the tracks sound like the tracks on the wax, but this tape has everything in a different order and with a few (slightly) different edits (mostly as tracks come in and out). Considering the source, but I'm guessing that this collection predated the vinyl release. Regardless, this comp crushes and I'm extremely glad that Taf copied the tracks for Brett and that the tape landed in my hands 30 years later. 

DIGGING IN WATER

RIPCORD's "Single Ticket To Hell" is such a devastating burner - it basically defies description. 

MURDER BURGER

Someone want to help the rest of us out with this one? The home-copied tape has the seminal 1987 Digging In Water compilation, plus these six insanely crucial UK punk tracks attributed to MURDER BURGER. "Every Eight Seconds" was recorded by DISORDER (it took me a while to realize why it sounded so familiar), but everything else here was new to my ears....and it's all sick. The recording (and/or) reproduction is a little rough, but MURDER BURGER offer quintessential UK anarcho with gusto (check the raw churner "De-Liberation") and I'm fully addicted. I want to know more, and I want everything to remain a mystery. Anti-patriarchal, pro-animal rights, clenched fist pogo punk...

MURDER BURGER

NATURAL MAN & THE FLAMIN' HOT BAND

It's like if you could cram the greatest party ever onto 1/8" magnetic tape. That's what NATUAL MAN & THE FLAMIN' HOT BAND sounds like. High energy rock 'n roll drenched in saxophone and layered layers of back up vocals and soul-filled ass shakers - like BIG BOYS and DEVO and CCTV and DEAD MILKMEN and all that shit. I can only imagine what kind of energy these kids put off in the flesh, but I hope to someday turn imagination into reality. 

NATURE ROCKS

THESE BASTARDS

From a blip on the Bay Area radar to a looming behemoth on our current landscape. THESE BASTARDS have been not so quietly laying waste to every out of the way venue they can find for a couple of years now, but they released Old And Pissed last year and....fukk. Irreverent, erratic West Bay insanity with manic blasts and riffs that defy explanation. The demo was good, and while you always kinda hope that a band progresses after their first recording - THESE BASTARDS went straight steamroller on the tracks, and the recording is full and filthy. Relevant brutality from some serious OGs - members of MORBID LIFE SOCIETY, SLOBBER, VENKMAN, AGENTS OF SATAN....if you get it, then you get it. Choice cut: "Red Snake Whip."

 OLD AND PISSED

Released as a 12 minute EP, but a choice few copies got crammed in plastic cassette shells to pass out to folks in Japan while Stoney was on vacation.  

APRIORI

Short lived raucous San Francisco punks. One demo, that's it. 

Top Track: "Cosmic Psycho (Free Love Ministries)"

APRIORI

UNEXAMINE

I referred to UNEXAMINE as "violent" and "abrasive" and "exceptionally dark" when I shared 2014's Property in these pages. In the four years between that release and the unveiling of Lower Animal last year, I dare say that this monster has only grown more fierce. 40+ minutes of formidably harsh noise...this is what it sounds like to get your ass kicked in the middle of an unrelenting avalanche of steel. You will probably want to tear yourself away at some point, this is exhausting. 

LOWER ANIMAL

THE CHEIFS

Copped these bangers off of the same mix tape that gave us the Who Cares comp, continuing evidence that the more you learn the more you learn that you don't know....or know about. Los Angeles' THE CHEIFS (their spelling, not a typo) produced those Who Cares tracks and the now $400 Blues EP in 1980...and that was it - even the comprehensive discography reissue only managed a half dozen extra cuts (all bangers though). So here's Blues plus "The Lonelies," eight filthy raw smoking minutes of early California punk.

BLUES

All hail early tape traders, and Dr. Strange re-issued that discography most recently...you never know what you find when you start digging.

DOG CITY, USA

If you pay attention, then you've probably heard that Hattiesburg, Mississippi has been the coolest uncool spot in North America for the last few years. Reports of shows there are almost universally positive, and the vibe from the punks I've met from there is positive to say the least. Also....the bands kill, and that helps. There's something weird and awesome about one conversation with one person moving from CAPITALIST CASUALTIES shows in the '90s to the political climate in Jefferson County, where my mother grew up and the road in front of her house was informally named for her father and her high school was still segregate until after she graduated. But I'm not here to talk about the history of Mississippi, I'm here to talk about EYE JAMMY and DUMSPELL and DEEDEE CATPISS & THE FUZZCOFFINS. Because Hattiesburg punk rules, ok? They rolled deep and they support the hell out of each other and they make you feel like you wish that you lived in a scene that was as tight as theirs...which makes you wonder why you don't work harder to make your own scene like theird. JUDY & THE JERKS, SOFT SPOT, PLEATHER and DISCO LEMONADE round out the mix, and one listen will have this college hamlet on the "must hit" list for your next tour. 

DOG CITY, USA: A Compilation From Hattiesburg, Mississippi

SWEATS

Can we talk about how good this band is? I mean, alternately I can just post a link to the demo (and the band) and you can listen and then we can discuss. Or you can just accept that SWEATS are really fukkn good and we can discuss from there. Up to you. Actually it's not - I'm the one typing. They are good. So yeah...let's talk about hardcore. You like hardcore? Cool. Me too. Turns out we all like SWEATS. I'm still trying to figure out why there's only one demo but hey - I'll take what I can get when it's this fierce. 

SWEATS

DEAN J. GRENIER & HEJ FUND

I don't really need to try to dig deeper here than the obvious, so......guilty immersion, modern electronic club/DJ sounds on this 2015 collaboration. It builds, each cut adding layers and creating moods, and when everything clicks it hits me just fukkn right. If you're looking for guitars....I'll see you tomorrow. 

GRIST

IDLE VISION

Why not spend another day in Texas? The Valley this time, for IDLE VISION's smart 2015 sleeper filled with '80s Rough Trade sensibilities and offered with a shroud of swing that the modern dark/art rehash set seems to be constantly reaching for. BLURT meets EDDY CURRENT at a Valley Girl screening? Ahhhh, never mind the comparisons, if they aren't off target then they are surely pretentious. Just listen as they drop the would be/should be movie soundtrack standout "Soft Girl" right in the middle of five ice cold stunners....yeah, Valley punks are geniuses. 

IDLE VISION

Covered In Blood....

EKSTRAKTION

As mentioned yesterday, I present the 2013 demo from short lived Texas band EKSTRAKTION. Sharp, no bullshit, bombastic DBeat punk from some of the finest heads in the game. Nine songs, one DISCHARGE cover, fifteen minutes, flawless. 

EKSTRAKTION

SAVAGE REPUBLIC

I put off digging into this band for years, knowing that it would be a decision that justifiably required a significant time commitment...and '80s Los Angeles freaks SAVAGE REPUBLIC were worth the wait. File somewhere between Confusion Is Sex, ¡TCHKUNG!, contemporary late '80s SST, early UK anarcho-punk and BEATNIGS for reference, but SAVAGE REPUBLIC exist(ed) on an island of their own making. With a discography every bit as daunting as their sonic legacy, their no rules approach to sound and song is one that defies and befuddles the casual listener. I didn't start with I Married Thurston (by chance and convenience, 1989's Customs earned my first listen), but it's among my favorites in an extensive (to say the least) collection of live and demo recordings released by the band during their run. Settle in and dig deep. 

I MARRIED THURSTON

Today marks one full decade of Terminal Escape. I know that the blog has been a passé method for the dissemination and consumption of music for some time. "Everything is on youtube" or all of the new bands are on bandcamp or "fuck it I'll just listen to whatever is on spotify" - and most of that is true and almost all of that makes sense. Because working for stuff is hard, and it takes more effort, and because you have to know where to look. Sometimes it's clunky, sometimes it's not cool, and sometimes it even sounds like shit...but some of us keep looking. Just shy of 3400 posts and uploads, another 1500 live recordings on Escape Is Terminal, and I still rip everything in house on (for now) a gorgeous 1980s Yamaha TC-520 that I bought for $80. Thanks to everyone who's sent me tapes, thanks to everyone who's left a comment here or there to let me know that people are paying attention. I figured for a while that I would stop posting when I hit the ten year mark because...I mean, that's long enough, right? But I'm looking at shelves of unripped tapes, The NUCLEAR FAMILY Live In Japan mindfuck just taunting me, a really sick CIRCLE JERKS set from '83, the EKSTRAKTION demo that flew under the radar a few years back, that new JAD recording...well, you get the idea. So I'll be back. Tomorrow. Hopefully you get something good out of it.

DOISEU MIMDOISEMA

There's a lot to unpack here. So much that DOISEU MIMDOISEMA almost come off like a piss-take, trying to see if you can swallow all of these pills at the same time. There's irreverent and feisty punk, sounds that would have sounded appropriate in any number of regional micro-scenes in the '90s, and it feels like this is the base camp from which these Brasilians start their excursions. But what about the lazy and comically dreamy "Espatifada," or the psychedelic freestyle funk/rap "Epilético?" These aren't tracks that come off like a band trying to make a joke, they sound like a band who are genuinely all over the damn place - "Chamegro Latrino" is an endearing bass/drum/keyboard track, the smooth 311-demo-by-way-of-the-Caribbean "Entre a Oferta e a Procura" and there's an untitled closer that sounds like an actual teenage garage band from 1995. Which is perhaps exactly what DOISEU MIMDOISEMA were....there were no rules, no internet models to follow, creativity mingled with concepts (however bizarre) and ideas were explored. Nothing was by the book, because we were (all) still writing the book. Maybe things were better then, and hopefully there are always more chapters in the distance. 

DOISEA MIMDOISEMA INVADE CAPÃO CITY

OHIO PENITENTIARY 511 JAZZ ENSEMBLE

The story is pretty simple: A couple of heads (including Sonny Rollins' nephew) were in the Ohio state penitentiary in the '60s, and they had a band with several other inmates (of questionable musical talent). The Ohio State University band visited the prison and ended up jamming with these dudes, and a few members hatched a plan to record a session with them. These four tracks were the result of that session, recorded in the prison's chapel. Meandering and overwhelmingly peaceful jazz, borrowing from classic bop and meandering through the spiritual and psychedelic sounds and influences of the time.  "Counterry Bossa Devan" and "Psych City" are the two mainstays, while "Java Man" hits hard on the organ and the horns are unleashed. "Mantra Dance" is the floor banger, with booming drums and a wildly swinging trumpet taking the lead - perhaps the most "typical" of the bunch, but perhaps the most infectious as a result. The history of the recording is as cool as the recording itself...and I can assure you that Hard Luck Soul sounds very very cool. Another artifact offered for modern consumption by the heads at Loathed Sound. 

HARD LUCK SOUL

REZILLOS

Short and sweet:

You know REZILLOS (or you should). 

You know BBC. 

You're familiar with the 1970s. 

Worth mentioning:

Four tracks.

Recorded from BCC in the 1970s...as in probably by a teenager in their bedroom late at night.

Low(er) fidelity than you might think means high(er) tension than you might expect.

Excellent DJ gaff in the middle of "Destination Venus."

REZILLOS 

I always forget that "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" is a fukkn FLEETWOOD MAC cover. How weird is that?

FOSSOR HOUSE

Super short lived and vaguely mysterious, San Francisco's FOSSOR HOUSE didn't really "come and go" in a flash," rather they lurked under the radar for a few years before fading so quietly that you wondered if they were ever really there. With this two song cassette and Performing Borders as the apparent entirety of their recorded output, a casual observer could be forgiven for missing them completely...even though it would be that consumers lost. These were '00s kids grown up as '10s young adults, and they were reaching back to the late '80s for inspiration and turning that inspiration into something distinctly theirs. MISSION OF BURMA, MOVING TARGETS, the melodic and forceful Midwest, second wave DC - FOSSOR HOUSE take what they need from wherever they find it. Most people probably knew their other bands a little better, but I dare say that this could be the one with real staying power. 

WESTERN SESSION

CHRISTOPHER DONALDSON

Noisy, monotonous and awkwardly hypnotic audio fuckery - a twenty minute journey that goes absolutely nowhere and just leaves you rooted and confused. Shit-fi manipulations punctuated by erratic percussives....Rhythm Nation basically listens like an institutional treatment. Or a cry for help. 

RHYTHM NATION

TOXIC NOSTAGLIA

North Carolina hardcore. Ripping, abrasive, chaotic, erratic, fierce, DIE KREUZEN double taps and construction, shades of FILTH but (way) faster, kinda makes you feel weird. On the inside.

TOXIC NOSTALGIA