VEXX

 

I saw VEXX once (I think it was at the Honey Hive...and it might have been the night that I got lost on my bicycle and it took me three hours to get home) and I was completely floored. A sonic reminder that punk rock music is rock 'n roll music...just kinda damaged. So here another PNW blast (like yesterday) recorded live (like yesterday) that's probably better suited for the other blog (like yesterday). Listen to the guitar in "Stress" and blast "Don't Talk About It" on repeat, folks...trust me. 

VEXX LIVE

NASTI

 

Maybe I should put this tape here instead - it is live after all. But I don't pay as much attention to that blog as I should (and neither do you - it's a nasty cycle) and this recording is a monster that needs to be devoured. NASTI, recorded live in 2018. That's all you need to know. Maybe I'll put that NEUROTIC ARSEHOLES tape on Escape Is Terminal tomorrow, that tape is really good. 

LIVE NASTI

14 AUGUST 1987

Two full tapes from a/nother stellar afternoon on KALX in Berkeley. Sometimes I think posting these tapes is somewhat lazy because...what's there really to write about? But then I listen to the gorgeous and seamless blend of hardcore, dub, punk, rock 'n roll, outsider music and the other worldly glimpses into the past with gig listening and news reports from another time and I think, "nah, the lazy ones are the people who don't listen." Just over three hours, as broadcast on the 14th of August, 1987. Thanks, Pat.

14 AUGUST 1987

SHAVED APE

 

The folks at Sorry State released this tape in 2022.
This is hardcore punk music.

SHAVED APE

ACID PIGS

Two middle fingers from ACID PIGS to the stupid fucks who dismiss the late '80s (and the decade that followed, for that matter).  Imagine some kids from Denver getting sloppy drunk, blasting NOTA and early NYHC then and piling into mom's garage and just going hard. Rehearsal demo? Yeah, it's raw. Don't even know if this is (was) a proper demo or just a relic a time when your mailbox was the window to the underworld. I had heard them on the Colorado Krew comps but one song on a comp (even a slammer like "White Lie") is less likely to stick with you than a collection of heat like this...even with the stupid AC/DC cover. Someone needs to give this shit the proper treatment. 

ACID PIGS

YELIR x LUKE SICK

 

Five short blasts of old school Bay Area rap - the sound of summer hangs and day drinking. I may not be able to speak on Dankstah Sweatin' from any kind of 'informed' postition because this simply isn't my world, but I listen to "Raised By Rap Tapes" and I'm just fukkn dead - LUKE SICK and the Megakut family don't even know how to deliver a dud...everything feels tight. Everything feels right. And if you can't bounce to "On A Dankstah Route" then I just don't know what to do for you. 

DANKSTAH SWEATIN' TAPES PLAYER

CHARRED REMAINS

 

If you aren't here to learn, then why are you even here?

(powerviolence as life metaphor)

THE POWER OF HASH

VANISHING DMC

 

A monster collection of freaked out noise punk tracks from a trio assembled to highlight the genius of FLAMING DRAGONS OF MIDDLE EARTH frontman Danny Cruz, who passed in 2017. VANISHING DMC were a vehicle for Cruz's vocals as much as for his unique sonic creativity, and the result lands somewhere between KARP and THE NIPPLE 5...heavy and weird. The love and respect that went into this posthumous 2020 release is clear...and nothing sounds like VANISHING DMC.

WORLD WAR IS OVER: RED DRAGON

KALX - MAD MAX

A ninety-five minute chunk of what seems like a stellar broadcast of punk, hardcore and swinging rock 'n roll. Emphasis on garage punk slammers, not a single dud in the whole damn bunch. Every single Mad Max tape I've pulled out has been an absolute killer, and this set (filling in for Steve) is no exception. 

KALX - MAD MAX
04 APRIL 1985

ACKRUT

 

There was a (very) sweet spot in the evolution of melodic hardcore where bands seemed to be able to get away with playing catchy (even poppy) punk, but playing it like a hardcore band. The riffs here are infectious (sometimes bordering on syrupy sweet) bouncy and addictive while the vocals are gruff and the pace is relentless and aggressive. "Sakese De Aqui" with its ska undertones is perhaps the best example, but the tape is filled with hooks that should, on paper, made me want to turn my ears elsewhere. Instead, I just want to blast "Churumela" all damn day. Late '90s Mexican punks probably weaned on a diet of PROPAGANDHI and the classics that lands somewhere between CRUDOS and GRIMPLE? Yeah, I'm in. 

MEREKETENGUE

SCHRAPNELL

 

I'm not sure how you drop a dual vocal hardcore assault like this and then....nothing, but that's exactly what SCHRAPNELL did. One self titled cassette in 2012 followed by silence. Piercing femme vocals backed by guttural growls, all sitting atop ruthless crust tinged euro-hardcore that lands somewhere between TO WHAT END? and FLEAS & LICE. There's something about the guitars that make me want to pull out the OTTAWA record, but it's more of a feeling than a sound. This is an uncompromising document - I just wish there were more. 

SCHRAPNELL

SICK LLAMA // THURSTON MOORE

 

A deadly London performance captured in 2016. Guitars cautiously manipulated to create an entirely different plane for your ears to exist in (on), a clarinet that sounds like an underwater creature seeking a new life on land, two people who are masters of their craft as individuals just feeding off of and into one another for thirty nine minutes. It's something else. 

SICK LLAMA // THURSTON MOORE

TOTAL CHAOS

No...not that TOTAL CHAOS. The TOTAL CHAOS who dropped a couple of impossibly good dark UK punk singles in 82/83 but no one talks about for some weird reason. Start talking.

TOTAL CHAOS

 

GRAWLIXES

 

Piercing, furious noise punk from update New York. If you think this sounds familiar, it's because they re-recorded their 2021 (also on Brain Slash) demo in 2022 - only other band I can think of who pulled that move was PAXTON QUIGGLY. They made everything a little more squelchy time around (no complaints), and "Customer Hell" is still work of pure brilliance. Nonsensical brilliance, but brilliance nonetheless.

NEVER MIND THE WORST ROCK 'N' ROLL SWINDLE HERE'S GRAWLIXES

MARIACHI VARGAS DE TENOCHTITLÁN

 

One of my favorite nights on tour (ever) was spent at Plaza Garibaldi with Mapex and Natha. It was so totally low-key and maybe a bit of a dud by "nights out in a foreign country" standards, but I was in a fucked up place and generally not well and that night settled me. The sights, the sounds, the friendship....and the casual realization that if you can't smile while listening to mariachi then seriously what is wrong with you? 

PASODOBLES

NOSFERATU

 

Look, there's a reason why NOSFERATU were (are) as hyped as they were (are). They do a thing, they play fast hardcore punk, and they do it wild and they do it fast. They don't take from the masters - they learn from them, and there's a difference. To listen to "Solution Absolute" is to not to know what hardcore sounds like, rather it's to know what hardcore could sound like. 

THE 'A COMPOUND' SESSIONS

OBIEDO METALPUNX COLLECTIVE

 

Got a box of Filipino rippers from Zepol (KILLRATIO) a couple of weeks back and I've been itching to really sink my ears into everything (or let everything sink into my ears). This tape from the OBIEDO METALPUNX COLLECTIVE is the first one I've spent proper time with and it keeps hitting harder every time I listen - rough and raw punk and hardcore from three bands out of Naga City who've banded together and formed their own gang of sonic terror dealers. Brutally harsh vocals drive OMNIPOTENT through four blasts of hardcore ripped out of the early '90s USDIY crust annals. URUR lay a steaming pile of raw blackened crust at your doorstep...not for those with weak constitutions. Then the tape ends with MALICIOUS EXISTENCE taking sound to raw extremes - guttural bursts of raw PV-tinged grind/crust that will make you question your fucking reality if you listen at the proper volume. And I stringly suggest listening at the proper volume. There will be more blasters from Zepol's package on these pages eventually, but I'm gonna be stuck listening to this shit for a long ass minute. 

D'BEAT BASTARDS

ON WINGS OF SONG

 

Eighty-seven minutes of subtle repetition. 

OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA

...couldn't have said it better myself, so I didn't even try...

LEFT UNSAID

A blank tape with no cover, a hand written label that reads 'LEFT UNSAID' and that's it. See, people give me things that they're about to throw away because I'm convinced that if I can "rescue" just one recording from a life of obscurity then the hoard is all worth it so I ask everyone to just please make me that one last stop before the trash. I'll toss the trash after I comb through it (I swear), but one person's trash is....well, one person's trash ends up on a blog. I'm not here to entertain a discussion concerning a life of obscurity versus a life on the pages of this blog and/or how much those two lives may (or may not) intersect because the simple fact is that this tape was going to be thrown away but it wasn't, and now you can listen to it. Sounds like metallic hardcore from the '90s - like ANIMAL FARM but played by folks who listened to early East Coast metalcore. There's a band on the internet called LEFT UNSAID who were maybe from Connecticut so maybe it's the same band. Also, maybe it's a different band. Maybe no one has ever heard this before. Probably not, but also maybe. 

LEFT UNSAID

DELETER

 

Both of these songs should be commercial hits. There are only two songs on this tape, and both of them are worthy of large scale appeal and (dare I say) success? Carefully rafted and expertly delivered dark indie pop - I dropped Franz and Interpol references when I posted their full length a few years ago, but lazy comparisons do a disservice to a track like "A List Of Demands." And "Mention You" is even better for fuck's sake. 

DELETER

VASTUSTA

I'm just not really sure what more you could want this morning than.....than this. Fierce, brutal Finnish hardcore with buzzsaw guitars and a tinge of Burning Spirits in the vocals. Absolutely fucking relentless, and the perfect prequel to 2015's also perfect though slightly more advanced Kohti Lohdutonta Huomista. Karoline just walked by me and commented "Who's this? Sounds like a ripper." Listen to that woman, folks, she's a smart one. 

DEMO 15/12/2014

PARASITES OF GAIA

 

So hard to nail this one down - it's loose and dirty and they land like a dark garage / indie / shoegaze outfit...but they hit hard and they feel like a gnarly hardcore band ripped out of the late '70s LA freak punk scene. "Middleman" is like a lost damaged BAGS track, but then "Land Of Nob" rolls into "Alliance" and this organ drops in (seriously) and....maybe you should just listen to Parasites Of Gaia instead of reading me try to blabber about it. Shit is cool and doesn't sound like anything else, which is a (very) good genre.

PARASITES OF GAIA

CYANIDE TOOTH

 

The first side of this tape is a mind fuck - a sonic melting pot that hits like TG intercepting desperate battle communiques from another reality. A collection of constructions that culminates with the brutal repetition of "Press The Mesh Techno Animus" before "Shadow Enforcers" closes the side with the exact opposite of a come down. But it's the 25+ minute title composition on the flip that solidifies Midnight Climax Operation as a journey through other worldly realms of sonic power. A soundtrack to a disorienting existence. A(nother) mind fuck. A collage that paints a picture far darker than any of its individual components. CYANIDE TOOTH conjured a...a masterpiece. 

MIDNIGHT CLIMAX OPERATION

JAMS 2

 

A coninuation of the excellent Jams (And Other Erotic Daydreams) mix that appeared in these pages last year, Jams 2 is a blistering collection of early century international punk. This is essentially the mix I would have cranked out in 2005, but instead it was cranked out by a pre-Music Not Noize Badenhop (still worth scouring the posts on that long defunct blog, by the way) with a finger on the pulse and an ear to the past.  GAUZE to AMDI PETERSENS ARME...TERVEET KADET to LA FRACTION...TZN XENNA to BORN DEAD ICONS...RUDIMENTARY PENI to SKITKIDS. This is the tape that would have melted the brains of a teenage starter punk then and a tape that lights a fire under my middle aged ass today. The embodiment of the All Killer, No Filler ethos, I can only hope that there's a third volume lurking...somewhere.  

JAMS 2

LA MERMA

 

These sounds so permeated the '90s that a millennial punk would be excused for not delving into the nuances that distinguish the first FACE TO FACE record from SCREECHING WEASEL and GRIMPLE's Up Your Ass. Of course the three are worlds apart, but...I'm just saying. FUCKFACE played a really weird show in Nogales in 1996 - massive stage so tall that attendees had to stand thirty feet back just to see the bands. One four channel vocal PA to power guitars, vocals and a wholly unnecessary snare drum mic. Don't remember who played (hell, it might have been LA MERMA), but I traded one of our shirts with a neighborhood dude on the street for the shirt off his back - a weird skull and the name of the town twisted into a crude Metallica logo that read NOGALES - Where Shit Happens. We didn't get into any shit that night, but I wore that shirt for fukkn years. Anyway...file LA MERMA alongside aggressive and melodic late '90s hardcore and punk bands, not entirely unlike the ones I mentioned earlier, and know that they came from a place where shit happened. 

CIUDAD FRONTERIZA

SOLARIZED

Expect forty minutes of dark, tense hardcore with understated nods to JESUS LIZARD and BL'AST (though there's nothing understated about the band). The sound is advanced, developed, intentional...and powerful. To listen to "Work Without Weapons" is to listen to the result of the process without having to think about the process itself. Whether it's an official designation or not, I'm filing SOLARIZED under 'adult hardcore' until someone invents a better descriptor. Descriptors tamp expectations though, so perhaps you should just use the volume knob* and reach your own conclusions? 

A GHOST ACROSS HELL FROM ME

 * I realize that most modern devices utilize either volume buttons or finger swipes on touch screens, but neither hits the same in the context of thew written word...so you get a knob.

CONSUME

 

The effect this music has on me is visceral and it's surprising...even to me, and even today. Analytically, CONSUME were a by-the-numbers DBeat influenced North American crust/punk band - which is not to say that they weren't special, just that they were doing a thing that a lot of bands were doing at the time. You'd be right to file them alongside BORN/DEAD and many other bands who clung to clenched fist filthy hardcore instead of bowing to the more melodic stadium crust trend that would eventually take over the decade, and surely CONSUME belong in that camp. But CONSUME are different...this shit is anxious and damaged - they sound drunk...like angry drunk. Mad at everything at taking it out on themselves. To hear "Logical Limits Exceeded" is to hear a song written out of sheer spite. CONSUME simply sound like they had no fucking choice.  

CONSUME

G.R.O.S.S.

 

A killer high end extravaganza from G.R.O.S.S., further cementing my belief that the Maritime Provinces have been home to some of the best DIY punk bands in the world for the last few years (check the recent CELL DETH demo, also from Sewercide). Hard to describe how much the sonic presentation does for the tracks here - great, snappy punk chops (the longest is "Rift," clocking in at a whopping 1:10) turned into piercing shots by trebled out garage hardcore guitars and a muffled, raspy sweet croon where you might expect rough and tumble snarls. Comes off like a loud, sweaty basement show where everyone is moving...do they have basements in Nova Scotia? I need to find out. 

G.R.O.S.S.