июльские дни (JULY DAYS)

 

Июльские дни (JULY DAYS) have made appearances here before, I just need to remind you that there is more. If this were dressed up right (and if we're honest, from North America or Western Europe), there's no reason why you wouldn't be talking about июльские дни  the way people talk about INTERPOL or ICE AGE or even BLOC PARTY - we're talking indie/dark wave/goth of that caliber. And to be clear, I celebrate records from all three of those bands.....or maybe I should say: all four of those bands. Because I just added this Russian outfit to the list. 

КОЛОКОЛ

JUST SAY YES

 

This tape is going to leave you with a lot of questions. I don't know what's happening at all. "Burn The Flag." "Ronald Reagan." "City Of Industry." And the title track "Puffing The Lord." The Howard Stern samples (and interviews?). This brand of metal was half a decade out of date half a decade before Puffing The Lord was released....but still it kinda works and the politics seem spot on. Sometimes you listen to a cassette and it makes you wonder about life choices. It's just....it's a lot. 

PUFFING THE LORD

SUPERIORITY SOUNDS

 

Last year I made a couple of mix tapes for a restaurant in New York, starting a series called Superiority Sounds. Not sure if they listened to them or not, but the point of the mix tape is the making and the giving, so I decided to make (and give) another volume. Of all of the mix tape I have made in my life, this one might just be my favorite. I hope they listen to it. 

SUPERIORITY SOUNDS V.3

VAIN AMBITION

 

I suppose if the whole theme of your band is songs called 'Job #' then it's gonna sound fucking pissed. And VAIN AMBITION sounds absolutely fucking pissed. Three doses of churn and grind from San Diego. Check "Job 13:2" and think about your life. 

MY SUFFERING IS COMFORTLESS

ODILIO GONZALEZ

 

Odilio stopped by these pages last year with a greatest hits collection. As good as that collection is (I mean - by definition, it's full of the greatest hits, right?), this full length from 1979 is darn near perfect. The raw, honest lilt in Gonzalez's voice, the backing choruses, the varied pace as the songs pass by. You want to know what a backyard family party sounds like....? It sounds like this.

ODILIO GONZALEZ CON NIEVES QUINTERO Y SU GRUPO

BODY COP

 

This was one of the first "current" tapes I shared in the early days of Terminal Escape. I revisited the band recently and....damn does it still hit. Noise drenched downtuned sludge dirges with vocals that sound like they've....like they've just given up. And this tape was all we got. 

BODY COP

M.F.O.S.

 

Not much background info here, just a ripping slab of late '90s Southern California hardcore. The delivery is crank fueled and unhinged and the vocals are almost LOGICAL NONSENSE level maniacal...I would have flipped my shit over this in 1997 - kinda like I'm flipping my shit right fucking now. Thanks to Lalo for this burner!

M.F.O.S.

SEX SNOB

 

What the fukk - why not keep it regional and weird for another day? When SEX SNOBS still lived in Oklahoma and needed a drummer, they passed copies of this tape around. No idea how I ended up with it - I can't play drums for shit. I'm pretty sure they got it covered, so no need to call the number. You should probably start your own band. 

SEX SNOBS

NATURAL CAUSE

I'm going to accept that the target audience for this recording is REALLY small, but the few of you who know and or get it....get stoked. Madison, Wisconsin's NATURAL CAUSE were the perfect balance of DIY Midwest hardcore, blistering technical metal and PLAID RETINA-esque prog hardcore - we can debate whether or not that balance ever needed to exist but it fukkn worked for those kids. This recording comes courtesy of Tim (also responsible for the SOCIAL INTERROGATION tape) and has four songs from a NATURAL CAUSE rehearsal (or show?) sometime in the early '90s....the recording is rough, you've been warned. Like I said: "the target audience is really small."

NATURAL CAUSE

LA PLANETE DE TOUS LES DANGERS

 

I have become low-key obsessed with the compilation tapes released by Acts Of Defiance from France in the late 80s and into the next decade. Top quality international punk/hc collections that seem to always manage to reel you in with the candy you know you want (in this case: THE SNAPPING BOGSEATS,  FINAL BLAST, CIVILISED SOCIETY?, THE DIRTY SCUMS) and then smash you over the head with under the radar freaks like DISTURB, RICHARD III, PIN PRICK and LD50. La Planete De Tous Les Dangers was the first of these comps...and the search for the rest continues. 

ACTS OF DEFIANCE: LA PLANETE DE TOUS LES DANGERS

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ROTTEN UK

 

Just in case you thought the cheeze 'n sleaze was for the glam rockers, ROTTEN UK is here to remind you that the punx are the sleaziest lot of all. Upstate New York just breeds 'em different I suppose. They have more records than I can count, so here are nineteen doses of howling metalpunk, with the emphasis on fucking punk. Listen to "Destroy" on repeat. 

PUNK CULT FETISH

SNOOPER

 

Enter The New Realm Ov Sound: SNOOPER, aka SNÕÕPER. I don't even know what these sounds are. It's a swarm of mutants on a steady diet of CONEHEADS and helium. Pre-1980 DEVO on 45rpm, but working their way through the Sun Records catalog. You think you have a couple of SPITS records and you've seen THE URANIUM CLUB BAND so you know what's up - but SNÕÕPER has some news for you, and you ain't ready. There's so much more that I need; so much more that I need to know. So many questions. 

COMPILATION OF THE...HITS

FLIPPER

One of my coworkers lived with Klaus Flouride and some of the FLIPPER folks in the 1980s (maybe not at the same time but also maybe at the same time). Think about what it does to your brain when a random guy you work with just casually mentions that his roommates were people from bands that you felt were untouchable when you were a teenager...and then just shrugs it off because they were just his roommates, you know? He doesn't really care to talk about punk shit, just kinda blows it off if I ask, but he interviewed FLIPPER when they reformed in 1990 and it's a casual (and casually interesting) chat. 

FLIPPER • 22 APRIL 1990

INVALID

 

You surely know the recent LP on Sorry State (if you don't - you need to), so here's your reminder that Pittsburgh's INVALID dropped a steaming pile of fury a few years ago. Their sound is in line with furious USHC to be sure, but this monster is undeniably Pittsburgh through and through. It sounds like Pittsburgh hardcore - I just don't know how else to describe it. You hear Corey's bass ruble in the break that starts "This Life" and you just fukkn know. It's a churn, and it all rushes by you in a blur that forces you to search for the nuance - it's there, but you might be to busy breaking everything and questioning life itself to stop and listen for it. Look at the cover...INVALID is just fucking ugly. Like life. Pittsburgh (still) knows what's up. 

INVALID

KALX - MAD MAX

Mad Max was on a fukkn tear in 1985. Ninety plus minutes of knuckle busting hardcore, hip swinging rock 'n roll and snotty punk all packed in real tight (because it all belongs together, of course) as broadcast on the evening of December 17th. The broadcasts from UC Berkeley's KALX that Pat left behind will be a source of joy and/or wonder for many many more year, long after I've stopped sharing them here...

KALX - MAD MAX
17 DECEMBER 1985
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Other Mad Max broadcasts here. And three more volumes of the 'Wright Copy' series compiled from Pat's extensive archive will be ready for consumption in August. 

THE ENID

 

The lines that separate new age from prog and schmaltz from ambient get very blurry the closer the subgenres get, but it's fine to listen to something and not know what it's supposed to be called. In fact, not knowing what you're supposed to be hearing and just hearing will probably make for a better listening experience all around. So listen to Inner Pieces, a collection of pre-1986 recordings from prolific English prog and/or new age and/or ambient outfit THE ENID. Listen to Inner Pieces, and let yourself hear. 

INNER PIECES

Reading their disclaimer, I'm struck....like, "If only that could work," you know? 

And also....could it?

KANTA KANTA

 

I've been to exactly two shows since I first saw them in June 2021, so it's not very bold to say "I haven't seen a band as good as KANTA KANTA in a fucking year!" but believe me when I say that I probably won't see a band as powerful as KANTA KANTA for the rest of this year and beyond. Steel yourself, the next four minutes are going to blow you away, and Frankie's vocals in "Minana Sakit" will just fukkn ruin you. Another killer from the folks at Aklasan Records. 

ETERNAL GARDENS
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Hitting the road for a couple of weeks with SUBHUMANS - west coast with a touch of Arizona and Nevada to keep things spicy. Stop by if you want to say hello to the top half of my face, wear a fukkn mask, and support local DIY punk as safely as you can. I'm going to be supporting local DIY punk by watching KANTA KANTA open the show in San Francisco tonight. If you bring me punk and hardcore tapes and I'll probably trade you for a spot on the guest list. 

FATUM

 

Скверна, the first release from Russian stench mongers FATUM, is well over a decade old now, but it'll still spread tension throughout your entire being. Formed in the DEVIATED INSTINCT (by way of HELLSHOCK) mold, they've created massive waves with a string of LPs (the most recent is a devastating split with DECADE) and the nuclear of all of that crust can be heard here. Maniacal, churning metalcrust of the highest order.  

СКВЕРНА

INTOLERANCE

 

The thing about the first INTOLERANCE demo is....it's the damn vocals. The hardcore is sharp and kinda awkward - a slurry of ripping '80s euroHC and DIY political 'core that took over the following decade, a precursor to the throwback backs that would emerge near the end of the century worshipping at the altars of HHH and INDIGESTI....too late for one trend and years ahead of another. But the fukkn vocals - that growl dominates this entire tape with a gruff and manic intensity that sounds like a series of commands - check the yell that opens "Mire A Tu Alrededor" then scrape your jaw off the floor when the rest of the song drops. The metallic hardcore is intense and the dated recording only puts my ears more on edge, but when they break into furious blasts (this is 1993 remember, and the DIY kids weren't really doing that yet...at least not on a large scale) INTOLERANCE is an absolute beast. There's an EP recording (tacked onto the end of this tape) and an LP that are pretty easy to come by - I think both might get skipped over because the cover art hasn't aged as well as the sounds - and then several other recordings that came out after they reformed in the 2000s....but where should you start? You should start right here: with a blistering critique of The Hate Generation. 

LA GENERACION DEL ODIO

HICK TRACY

 

Here you go, freaks - this one started it all. Started what? The HICK TRACY demo back in 2018 was the first release on Deluxe Bias, and it was like those first fat gentle raindrops that fall before the damn clouds open and the basement floods. Buzzsaw US garage hardcore that sounds ripped out of '90s Columbus (if you know what I mean) and the first in a seemingly endless stream of totally ripping and impossible to find releases from a true freak label with a roster full of....well, full of freaks. 

HICK TRACY

DISSCHARRRGH

 

As promised yesterday, time to DBeat yourself to oblivion. Six doses of bizarrely demented DISCHARGE worship from Iron City that straddle the line between idiocy and genius, followed by eight minutes of....of something else. This isn't going to make you any smarter, but it'll make you want to crush all of the beers before you go to work. Also, I think I got the song titles fucked up. 

DBEAT ME OVER THE HEAD WITH A PLANK

GRUPO ALBORADA

 

Some listeners might need to get past the pan flutes (it's worth the effort) before the traditional Andean folk of GRUPOA ALBORADA can really settle in. Others will be instantly grabbed by the group's honest vision. And others will wonder where the DBeat is (it's coming tomorrow). These folks moved on to more spiritual and/or new age sounds in the '90s...but I'm going to stick with "Cuerpo de Mujer" for the rest of the day. 

MY FARAWAY LAND

ILLICIT

 

Revisiting this ramshackle brilliance after a few years on the shelf (and eleven year after it first appears in these pages), I'm struck by what an impact inept punk can have. When the band is just not quite right, just listening can make me anxious in the best way - which is exactly what ILLICIT do. Plodding, deliberate, determined, rudimentary UK punk slogs likely recorded sometime in the early 1980s. Comments to the initial post indicate that the band were from Telford, and that's all the background I can offer. Imagine DEATH SENTENCE (UK) deconstructed and fukkd to hell, bashing through their teenage years in an absent's parent's garage. Rough? Absolutely. Pure? Absolutely. Listen to "Bombs" and don't think about what you're hearing - think about what they were hearing. 

THIS IS JUST A PRACTICE TAPE

RECOPILACION PRO-VEGETARIANA

 

Pretty fukkn self explanatory today - twenty eight blasts of pro-animal rights mid 1990s crust/hc from around the world. INTOLERANCE, EXCREMENT OF WAR, HIATUS, FLEAS & LICE, SEDITION, HELLKRUSHER, ACTIVE MINDS, , NATIONS ON FIRE, CONFRONTATION, INTESTINAL DISEASE, MEDIA CHILDREN, SCRAPS....do I need to go on? Because there's more. 

HARDCORE PO EL DERECHO A LA VIDA, A LA LIBERTAD Y AL RESPETO DE L@S ANIMALES

CONDENADA

 

Rarely have I seen a live band as intense as CONDENADA. Rarely have I seen a band that felt as real as CONDENADA. I said all of these things a few years ago when I wrote about their Not Normal collection - all those words still fit, and I recommend listening to those recordings also so you can hear the full realization of their sonic mission....but I still return to this demo. Everything is rougher, presented with all blemishes in tact. There haven't been many like them, but we could surely use one now. 

CONDENADA

THE N*IDS

 

OK, internet sleuths...do your thing. This one came from the depths of Pat's archive, and I know nothing beyond what you see (and hear) here. They aren'y amateurs, that much is clear - THE N*IDS hit like a crew of early US rockers who've matured (like a lot of bands did in the later part of the 1980s), with a liberal dusting of Aussie garage punk. Sixteen songs from 1989, and the more I listen the more I like what I hear - lead guitar is ugly (and way too loud in the mix), lyrics are irreverent and kinda dorky, a through line between NEGATIVE TREND, SoCal skate rock CELIBATE RIFLES. Yeah...I keep listening, and it keeps getting better. So let's go, nerds - you tell me about this shit. Maybe everyone else already knows and I just arrived late to the party without an invitation. 

THE N*IDS? THE NOIDS? 

MR. POOT PICKS THE HITS

TURMOIL // IGNORANCE // DEPRESS

 

Glorious international hardcore collaboration from the turn of the century. Seven burners from under the radar Yokohama raw thrashers IGNORANCE (there's a self titled EP from 2003 or so, purple cover, not hard to come by....do it), then a few catchy but ultra pissed tracks from Malaysia's DEPRESS wrap up the first side. The flip, however, is all about Turkey's wildest DIY hardcore export: TURMOIL. Raw, manic fastcore that sounds like sonic through line from LÄRM to SPAZZ. Tracks from two different sessions here, and the second batch have a bombastic early Earache vibe - I was only familiar with the REGENERACION split before this tape, and I'm honestly kinda floored. Scroll on by at your own peril, kids. 

TURMOIL // DEPRESS // IGNORANCE

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