SHITBASTARD

 

I remember when I first heard of the Washington SHITBASTARD all I could think of was the Arizona SHITBASTARD who were (at that point) only a few short years in the past.  Never mind though, the Washington SHITBASTARD changed their name to SPITTING TEETH shortly after the release of Bust It! and then WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? played a few shows with them before they fizzled and Evan hooked up with COLD SWEAT...in case you wanted a trip down memory lane disguised as a history lesson. Seven doses of blasting fastcore that closes with a "Septic Slam," a track that hits me like SOD covering PENTAGRAM...you still reading? You ain't moshing? Weird. 

BUST IT!

KÖNTRAKLÄSSE

 

Holy shit this tape has aged well. Just as the new century dawned, at the intersection of DOOMSDAY HOUR, DYSTOPIA and SCARRED FOR LIFE came KÖNTRAKLÄSSE, a Long Beach juggernaut that was arguably greater than the mere sum of their parts. Think G-ANX, SUNDAY MORNING EINSTEINS, UNCURBED...formed in the image of the Swedish maters, this is pure and unfiltered kång. I saw them at Gilman Street and even my memory doesn't do this tape justice. Somehow there are only four songs and somehow those four songs have never been put to wax, which defies all logic. 

KÖNTRKLÄSSE

CONTORTION SESSION

Someone else knows more that I do...but CONTORTION SESSION were a late '80s hardcore skate punk band from Houston and this ten song demo fukkn slams. Groove on the primal metallic stomp of "The Reaper Awaits." Cringe at the homophobic lyrics to "Anti-Fashion."  Imagine yourself surrounded by a bunch a sweaty neanderthals...the third generation tape even sounds muggy, just like it should.

CONTORTION SESSION

BODY & SOUL

 

I've listened to this a few times recently, and it's one of those recordings that is nearly impossible (for me) to consume casually. You can put it on while you're doing something else, just because you like sound and you need to have sound in your life (tinnitus is a motherfukkr, y'all), but you'll find (I find) that soon the 'something else' just fades away and you're left with Max Roach on the drums and Artie Shepp on the saxophone and they're just speaking to you in a language that you can't quite understand...but you listen. Because you want to learn. You want to learn their language because you need to understand what they are saying but you know that you will never NEVER never be in that place with them much less be on that plane with them. A stunning encapsulation of two masters at the top of their game in Paris, released in 1976 and referred to as Sweet Mao. Imagine a sound so powerful that the song titles alone are political statements. Imagine two people so completely consumed by the moment that they each know what the other is going to do with no communication beyond sound in the moment. Yet another example of why I am grateful for the now-defunct Loathed Sound label....

BODY & SOUL

THY INFERNAL

 

In a very real sense, THY INFERNAL is everything that yesterday's ARGUMENT? post is not. Released in 1997 at the very front end of the first real wave of USBM, Satan's Wrath is a fully realized searing black metal assault, absolutely massive and bleak in every way. Guitar melodies drive the title track, a minor solo driven by punishing double bass before the return of the verse and a chorus of demonic screams. The ungodly crunch during the first half of "Our Past Victories" defies all sonic logic, because sound is simply not meant to be this fukkn sketchy and/or evil. But THY INFERNAL are both. There are only four songs here, all of which were rerecorded for their full length released in 1999 (also titled Satan's Wrath)...brace yourself.

SATAN'S WRATH

* For the dedicated few, I will note that the band includes VITAL REMAINS, IOMMI STUBBS and IMMOLATION in their thanks list. If you're one of those dedicated few, then you'll understand why I mention it...

ARGUMENT?

 

The absence of rules is what's supposed to keep this shit interesting, right? Like a cloudy anarcho punk troupe from Los Angeles, a dual vocal trio with no guitar and only occasional blips and whirrs to augment the ploppy bass and forceful, thoughful (read: forcefully thought filled) lyrics that dominate this first tape. ARGUMENT? do not seem even remotely interested in writing (or performing) anything even close to a song, much less a hit song - the title track that closes this 2016 tape leaves me almost frustrated...and interested. In other words: it worked. 

DESPITE HER LOVE

AT JENNIE RICHIE

 

After 4700+ posts, I feel like I should give myself the latitude to create absurd new subgenre descriptors from time to time, and I will take advantage of that latitude now. Since the early 2000s, Washingtons AT JENNIE RICHIE have cranked out dozens of releases with titles like Rectums Merging and Maximum Minimalism, perfecting and then manipulating their surrealist psycho-industrial ambience into new and disparate sound amalgamations with each recording. 2005's Absurd Machine Drama came near the beginning of their journey - two subdued and understated sonic excursions that fill just over one quarter hour with a murky presence. There is more (there is so much more) but I recommend that you start slow, because AT JENNIE RICHIE will prove more than happy to overwhelm the aggressive visitor. 

ABSURD MACHINE DRAMA

ACROPHET

 

Mind melting Midwest thrash assault. Brookfield, Wisconsin denizens ACROPHET would wrap the decade with two full length discs on Triple X Records (where they were overshadowed by bands like JANE'S ADDICTION, D.I. and MIND OVER 4), but you won't be surprised to hear that this demo session captures the band at their most primal. Seven determined apocalypse thrashers land like COC smoking Hell Awaits in the fast lane, almost like they recognize the limitations of the relatively (but appropriately) primitive recording and compensate by playing everything harder...and faster. I have to think that every suburban enclave had their ACROPHET in 1987, but I have a hard time imagining that all of them raged this hard.

THE ANSWER WITHIN

=====================================
Friends of The Escape did a very nice reissue of this tape for folks interested in a physical copy. Those folks (and folks interested in BUTTHOLE SURFERS and ANTI-STATE CONTROL tapes or HICKEY photozines) are encouraged to click HERE. 

HRTL

 

A relatively recent and completely random discovery. Mesmerizingly minimal Czech techno (and if you coin the term Czechno you'll never have to work again) from HRTL aka Leoš Hort. The sounds feel so incredibly meticulous and intentional with no wasted beats or blips or whirrs and the result feels...realized. Recommended listening for those in need of completion. 

HYDROXID

LOS MONJO

 

There were a few years around the turn of the decade when LOS MONJO were on the tip of every Bay Area's punk's tongue. I'm still not exactly sure what it was that clicked - they're awesome to be sure, but there are a lot of awesome bands, you know? - and listening to Sencillos this morning I still can't quite pin it down. But ain't that the beauty of punk (sometimes)? That you don't need the why as much as you need the undefinable feeling that this is the shit that I fukkn need right now. Enter: LOS MONJO; four brothers from Guadalajara who built hook after hook upon a foundation of rough Mexican punk, like Meixco's contemporary answer to CRIMINAL DAMAGE or some shit. Listen to "Afiliados A Otras Tierras" and "Reyes De La Destruccion" and then you'll know what's up.

SENCILLOS

YEGG WAR

 

Two legends combine efforts on 2020's Yegg War, a record (and tape) that still gets (very) regular spins at TEHQ. Dark and/or stark reality from LUKE SICK with a horror rap soundtrack from WOLFAGRAM...both have appeared on these pages before (and will again), but I shudder to think about a collection of sounds heavier than this. 

YEGG WAR

MASOCHISM

 

Yet another stunner from the Lie Detector / East 7th / Suck Blood crew, MASOCHISM's guttural metallic hardcore makes me feel some kind of way. Mostly pissed. Like many of the bands from this sub-scene, the band falls more or less in line with sounds you already know....but somehow they are just more. Over the top, blown out stench played at light speed - I just don't know what else you could want. 

PLAGUE OF WARFARE

DAGGER

 You want to find me a more furious dose of Midwest hardcore punk?
Go ahead...I'll wait.
Nothing?
I didn't think so. 
Seven songs. Seven minutes.

HEXES

ARKHAM HEARSE

 

One of the more legitimately mysterious pieces of USBM, The Starry Wisdom is a clinic in primitive underground dungeon synth. Recorded just a few years after the genre defining Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost (and perhaps not coincidentally not long after MORTIIS played San Francisco at the first Lucifer's Hammer event), ARKHAM HEARSE's sole member Nex creates a murky world shrouded in confusion, each movement an awkward, unsure step into darkness....children's instruments and hallucinogens his only guides. There are stumbles, precisely why this artifact works so well, but there are also pieces like "Wolves In The Walls" and "This Sovereign Sorrow," casual bedroom masterpieces discarded upon creation. This is not a recording you can write off by saying "you had to be there," because it was created in nothingness...and ARKHAM HEARSE will take you to nothingness. A journey presented in eight understated missives. 

THE STARRY WISDOM

25 AUGUST 1987

Another KALX broadcast, this one (as the title suggests) from the 25th of August in the year 1987. All over the place, just like a college radio broadcast was supposed to be in 1987. Just plug into this shit and pretend your day isn't real. Pretend your life isn't real. And if you nestle the earbuds in deep enough, your reality won't be real. For a while. Don't want to get too precious and faux nostalgic, but goddamn this fake reality feels like it was better than the real one. Than this one. Better than dying, I guess.

KALX - 25 AUGUST 1987

DATA UNKNOWN

There aren't supposed to be rules, which is why a band like DATA UNKNOWN comes as more of a realization than a surprise....because when punk opened the doors, this is the freak shit that was walking out of the closets and into the world. Then came the damn rules, of course, and we got stupid CRO-MAGS. Luckily for us, someone lets the door ajar, and the weirdos are still sneaking out...a reminder of what we're leaving trapped inside. 

W/P

SCUM NOISE

 

In addition to having one of (if not the?) best band names ever, Brazil's SCUM NOISE were responsible for some brilliantly filthy stench/grind in the 1990s. I first heard them when Ben repressed the first EP twenty years ago (when it was a decade old) and I was floored - simplicity delivered with unbridled fury. The tracks here are from that record and the follow up live EP, their first full length Chaotic Distress, live CIMEX and SHITLICKERS covers and tracks from a 1997 demo that I only know about because it's listed on this compilation. This shit is raw and beautiful - listen to "Kill And Die" at least three times today. 

THE LANDLESS DEMO COMPILATION

GROSS

 

I posted a GROSS tapeography that included these five songs a few years ago, but I feel something different when you year them isolated (side note: this is a problem with discographies and collections in general - no way that classic two song 45 sounds as good when the songs are sandwiched onto an LP with a bunch of other should-be-stand-alone bangers...but I digress, it's what I do). GROSS sound like misanthropy. GROSS don't sound angry so much as just disgusted. Done. Like a band who are just finished caring, and the titles drip with sarcasm; "Positive Changes," "It's Better This Way," "There Is So Much Celebration," "Big Changes" and "My Cool Friends" read like subheaders on a detailed termination notice casually tossed on the bedside table by an author who thinks on his way out...I Have Never Felt This Good. 

I HAVE NEVER FELT THIS GOOD

FATAL STATE

 

Hard charging, relentless Portland hardcore. For reference points - think something between DETESTATION and SPAZM 151 with fierce vocals that remind me of Mariam from CONDENADA. The delivery is flawless, and "Terrorist Pigs" makes me wish hell would rain down from the sky and purify humanity. Their previous recording is good, but Pura Rabia is something else - you want to talk about a band firing on all cylinders, then let's talk about FATAL STATE.  

PURA RABIA

ANDRES SEGOVIA

 

If you want to hear some asshole write intelligently about Spanish classical guitar then you are absolutely on the wrong fukkn web page. But if you woke up this Sunday morning and felt like cracking open a cold ass beer and watching the sunrise (or the snow fall) while listening to some Spanish dude fukkn rip the steel rounds off his hollow body six string stallion then you could not be in a better place my friend. This dude died in the eighties, but you can still feel the power of his fingers while he slays Mozart and shit. You can still hear the passion pour from his soul while his eyes roll backwards in his skull during "Loyenda" and you can taste the savage salt of his tears while his guitar gently weeps on "El Testamento De Amelia" with no DBeat in sight. No throat searing vocals necessary. No one yelling "Go!" before the blasts. Just ANDRES motherfucking SEGOVIA; a Spanish dude whose appendages were at one with the motherfucking guitar. Cheers.

GUITAR

HALT

 

No nonsense North American hardcore punk. Shit lands like '80s LA with a tinge of '80s Midwest and it's exactly what I fukkn need this morning. There's a connection to the BLAZING EYE, HATE PREACHERS, Lie Detector scene, but honestly after the tempo change in "Malum" I don't give half a fuck where or when this comes from because I'm tripping over myself reaching for the volume knob. 

HALT

EL FUTURO ES NUESTRO

 

A beautiful time capsule from the turn of the century featuring twenty five DIY hardcore and punk bands from Latin America (and the Latin American diaspora in the United States). For those who were in the mix in real time, you'll recognize ACCION DIRETA, AUTONOMIA, FUERZA X, KONTRAATTAQUE, ABUSO SONORO and perhaps a few more. Lurking just out of the range of most North American ears were bands like PERSONAL CHOICE, LUCHAR POR VIVIR, POLIKARPA Y SUS VICIOSAS, ANFO, PIREXIA, and LLOKALLA FEO. Then there ar the bands that were new discoveries altogether: 7'31, LA SANTA INQUISICIÓN, PUTREFACCIÓN, NUESTRAS SEÑORA VIOLENCIA. The 'first world" punk blinders do such a terrible disservice to punks, so start digging.

EL FUTURO ES NUESTRO: 25 BANDAS LATINAS

RESIST

 

Listen to "Hypnotized" a few times. It's so plainly....simple. Formulaic. Typical. Even the guitar break that comes out of nowhere is completely predictable. And it goes so fukkn hard - the power is undeniable and it hits me even harder as a middle aged man than it did when I was in my twenties. RESIST were ubiquitous in the '90s DIY world, so much so that you were never surprised when you came across a new record in a distro (or dollar bin) but maybe you were never excited either, because you knew exactly what was in the grooves. And if you were one of those people (full disclosure: I was) then I urge you to revisit one of the sturdiest examples of USDIY political hardcore. Maybe you know what's coming...but you keep listening because you want what's coming. You want the melodic sixty seconds that closes "Refuge." You want the brutally simple off the rails repetition of "It's A Beautiful Day." You want determined idealism housed in clenched fist black clad alcohol fueled punk. And that's exactly what you get. Draw a line between POISON IDEA and SPAZM 151 and you're going to bisect RESIST. 

THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

UTAH JAZZ

 

Biff always hyped UTAH JAZZ, so I guess the real crux of this post is: Always listen to Biff. Instead of talking about Biff, I'll bleat a couple of sentences about the band. In a word, they're feisty. Like sixties garage filtered through seventies punk - think SEEDS by way of AVENGERS - UTAH JAZZ shouldn't exist in a new century DIY punk framework...which is of course exactly why they should exist in the new century punk story. The flute in "Florida" is just the icing on the cake. Always listen to Biff.

IN RETROGRADE

PUTREFACTION SETS IN

 

I don't give two shits about goregrind....at least I didn't think I gave two shits until a couple of weeks ago when Clay sent me a copy of this fukkn masterpiece. Maybe it's not even goregrind (or not actually goregrind), but whatever the fuck it is I WANT MORE. I'm gonna blast "Putrid Deliquescent Mass" on the bus on the way to work this morning. 

REPUGNANT INCEPTION OF DECOMPOSING PAROXYSM

MORE SMOKE // TOTAL CEREAL

 

Noisecore Argentine vs. Noisecore Utah in an eight song, four minute grudge match. 

MORE SMOKE // TOTAL CEREAL

SOMNO PROFUNDANTE

 

Fucking other worldly synth from New Mexico - there might not be a better night driving soundtrack this side of PHARAOH OVERLORD's III. Something like S U R V I V E at their most primitive on a serious I See Good Spirits bender, this tape transmits heavy ethereal electronics that are at one with the organic form....they positively breathe. And I can't think of a better title than Mortal Feel.

MORTAL FEEL

 

04 MARCH 1986

Another journey to the past glory of '80s community radio, split into two parts. The first ninety minutes are  a hodgepodge of world music, funk, psych, dub, acid rock and an absolutely slamming Bill Haley track, all hosted by Pat Wright....and then shit gets real good. I like DEVO as much as the next guy (read: not nearly as much as Jon Kortland), this forty five minute special had me mesmerized. Wild primitive demos and live freakouts, like a fan club celebration on air thirty seven years ago today. There's something extra rad about hearing the early sounds exalted while their commercial success was still fresh in listeners' minds. True and actual freaks with no apparent through line...and that's why radio rules. 

KALX - 04 MARCH 1986

 

CUR

 

What happens when you trade fidelity for mania? CUR happens. This is shoelace headband ramshackle raw punk for the glued out masses - tortured and awesome. It's not even five minutes long, I recommend listening on a loop. 

ÍNUGAMÌ

TIME FRAUD

 

TIME FRAUD just nails it. This tape is the soundtrack for every fucking rainy day. The soundtrack for every melancholy. The soundtrack of your past dragging you back. TIME FRAUD is sound of your memories...or maybe just mine. Perfection is rarely this simple. 

TIME FRAUD

THERE IS A PLACE NOT FAR FROM HERE

WHERE YOU COULD GO, YOU COULD DISAPPEAR

I WILL BE THERE AND YOU WILL BE SAFE

THEY WON'T HURT YOU MY FRIEND, YOU CAN GET AWAY

YOU CAN GET AWAY

OLD CITY

It's fine to be a um of your parts when you're made up of the best things, and that describes Portland's OLD CITY in a nutshell. Members of ADELIT@S, ASS END OFFEND, DEAD CULT, SQUALORA cranking out gruff, addictive dark punk that conjures COMPLICATIONS, LEATHERFACE and Greg Sage while sounding like nothing except OLD CITY. I confess that I came to the band late (this tape is from 2016), but it gave me an excellent opportunity to ingest everything at once...which was a definite positive. Choice cut: "Peaceful Atom"

A SUBSTANCE NEVER SEEN BEFORE