ATRAKO

 

I've blabbed about ATRAKO before, but....will you please just listen to me? Because I'm right sometimes, and this is one of those times. ATRAKO deliver powerful, in your face punk and it's just so damn good. I've talked about the band before, and I haven't changed my mind. 

NO HAY FUTURO SIN CONCIENCIA

FIREBRAND

 

Good luck finding a duo more compelling than FIREBRAND. The members' respective resumés start to tell the story, but the way Candice and Osa make the minimal sound like everything you could possibly need is perhaps unparalleled. "The Way We Were" is a perfect jerky dance number and "Hot Out" is as addictive as anything I've heard since - shades of early Rough Trade to be sure, but this band made a stamp that is (was?) truly their own. I guess this would have been a good tour to see...but I'm glad that someone else did, and I'm glad that they bought the tape, and I'm glad that they sold the tape to a record store in New Mexico. And I'm glad that I bought it. 

TOÜR TAPE

CAGE KICKER

 

I have two CAGE KICKER tapes that have been sitting on a shelf for months just waiting for....waiting for me. And do you know what it's like when you really dig into something and realize that it's just been there...waiting patiently for you? Waiting to be discovered. Waiting to be experienced? Waiting to be the soundtrack to you crushing everything in your path? Well, that's what it felt like when I blasted CAGE KICKER for the first time, and that's what it felt like when I blasted the shit out of CAGE KICKER just now....so I'm gonna just assume that CAGE KICKER was basically waiting for me. And I'm glad they did, because this tape rules. 

CAGE KICKER

PENETRATION CAMP // DISEASED VISIONS

 

Gloriously damaged shit-fi noise....these are sounds for people who might (incorrectly) think that there's no art to noise. These noise/s are carefully calculated, meticulously manifested, intentionally incarnated. Noise is important....in this case (and on this day) the context is less so.

ALARMIST SCUM // SCUM ALARM

DJ UDJAT EYE

It's no secret that I find true beauty in the art of a well crafted mix tape.

DJ UDJAT has crafted a perfect mix tape. 

Highest recommendation. 

DJ UDJAT EYE

 

HOARDER

 

HOARDER has been here before, but Buried sounds a lot fiercer than I remember them. Not complaining, it's exactly what I'm looking for and honestly it's something I need a little bit of every damn day. Ripping, relentless hardcore punk from Olympia, Washington. That's the headline, that's the story. This band rules.

BURIED

SANCTION A

 

If you come here looking for the second coming of Montreal's best DIY punk export, then you're going to be disappointed, because SANCTION A are not trying to be BORN DEAD ICONS, though half of that band is present in this one. However (and you're a dick if you aren't still reading, but then if you aren't still reading then you're not even going to know that you're a dick), SANCTION A were doing something so different and so wholly interesting on this 2017 demo that if you're still thinking about Salvation On The Knees after you hear "Sacrifice" then you clearly aren't listening. Simplicity is the key, with sharp vocals barked over Blinko blunt song construction with (still) that Greg Sage vibe that Francis just can't shake (and we're glad). Eight songs here, ad the title suggests, and I can only hope that there are (or were) more lurking somewhere, more that will be recorded or unearthed someday. I'm patient...took me six years to hear this one. 

8 SONGS

DUTCHMAN

 

Early noise/rock experimentations from BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER alum and Enterruption impresario Wm. Rage. Drum machine proto punk punctuated by noise rants and experimental missives released in 1993 - DUTCHMAN aren't creating a trend on this tape as much as they seem to be finding their footing but....damn it's a good listen. And to think I was doing BRUTAL GARDENERS in Oklahoma at the same time? We'd have surely been friends. 

OTABENGALOVEME

KOMATIITE

 

For the traditional working person, today marks the beginning of a new week. Another week. The first day of another slog. A new beginning with a very very predictable end. It' doesn't have to be like this...but it's going to be like this. So - ears open, punk. Volume up, punk. KOMATIITE. Move to Maine, play raw hardcore, listen to "Final Breaths" and give up. There's always another way. 

KOMATIITE

CURRENT AFFAIRS

 

You could almost swear that you heard this on a grainy third generation VHS copy of a 120 Minutes broadcast....if you were an Old like me, that is. Blatant WAX IDOLS by-way-of BANSHEES vibes in the song construction and the guitar delivery, but CURRENT AFFAIRS do an excellent job of adding their stamp where necessary. Listen to "Cheap Cuts" which is going to become one of my favorite songs from 2017 that I didn't hear until 2023. They dropped a full length this year that I'm going to listen to this morning on my commute...in case you needed any insight into how I plan to spend my day. I'm not really concerned with how you spend yours...as long as you are taking care of yourself. 

"OBJECT"

FATIGUE

 

FATIGUE are at least the third FATIGUE on these pages, and they are a great FATIGUE. Perfect '90s grunge re-tooled for the modern age, like L7 reborn as DASHER (yeah, I know the DASHER demo is a decade old, but it's still "modern" right?). Fully realized and perfectly executed. Check "Fake Smile" and know that there's a radio station in the universe that really does play all of the hits that are only hits in your head. 

PRECIOUS RAGE

VERMIN RITES

 

We were moving from the aughts to the twenty-teens, finally getting comfortable with the fact that we were out of the '90s and that we had emerged from the first decade of a new century that some folks thought we'd never see....and we had emerged mostly unscathed. I had just moved back to California a couple of years earlier, I was active in three more or less functional bands, and there was hope - at least for a present if not a future. It feels like yesterday, and it seems like a lifetime ago. It was 2010 - and this is what DIY North American hardcore sounded like. Adult but still young. Still pissed. Still optimistic because of how shitty the world is because it means you're still connected with the Forces Of Good trying to help. Not mysterious (that was a different trend), but also not confident. Very very fukkn real.

VERMIN RITES

BAD WAVE

 

Often when I get a grip of new (to me) bangers, I like to spread the listening out instead of listening to everything start to finish all at once. So ever since I received a box of killer tapes from Zepol a few months back, there's been this stack of Pinoy hardcore on my shelf winking at me....and every now and then I gran a new (to me) one and I blast. Last week it was BAD WAVE, and oh fukkkkkkk me I guess good things come to Wizards who wait. In your face hardcore with serious (and shameless) PV and metal undertones, BAD WAVE just makes you (me) want to destroy, and closing with the criminally ominous outr "Dare" just seals the deal. It's absolutely nasty, and It's exactly what I was waiting for...it's exactly why I waited. 

BAD WAVE

CATHOLIC GUILT

 

The first offering from CATHOLIC GUILT is an all out five minute dark hardcore assault spread out over three concise bursts. Guitars and vocals ripped from the clutches modern day goth punk and forced to play relentless hardcore stomps...forced by a rhythm section teeming with '80s USHC energy. They cranked out a couple of small slabs and two stellar big slabs during their few active years, but it should come as no surprise that I recommend starting with the self titled demo...that's just how I am.

CATHOLIC GUILT

 

NUCLER BLUD

 

The way I understand things, sometime in or around 2021 the members of Oakland's ULTRA kinda fizzled. Decided they maybe weren't really feeling things and the band just kinda faded. Then they decided to inject new life into their creative orb by doubling the speed of their songs, and the result is NUCLER BLUD who debuted a week ago in San Francisco supporting AVSKUM (who were, of course, stellar). This plan of theirs, it worked really well. Really well. The six songs on Form Raze are all fukkn stunners, propelled by fierce snarls and a buzzsaw guitar that is tweaked just right so that it never enters mindless fuzz territory (note: mindless fuzz is wonderful, but NUCLER BLUD have songs that need to not get lost). This introduction is only eight minutes long, but these punks are on their way to some serious shit. You've been warned.

FORM RAZE

SHITDOGS OF WAR

 

I've been on the hunt for the second tape from Baltimore's SHITDOGS OF WAR ever since the abomination known as Songs Of Shit And Hate graced my earholes nearly twenty years ago. But if you are patient, and if you are open...then you might find it where you were never looking. There aren't many like this, and SHITDOGS OF WAR shine even among the few. Raw, messy, murky, irreverent, fierce....the sound of shit. In your ears. It's the way they did it that made (and still makes) them so special; I guess not giving an actual fuck makes all the difference. 

DISTORT FALSTON 

GxGxGx // FLESH COLLAR

 

Two pieces from GxGxGx backed with three pieces from FLESH COLLAR. Absolute mindfuckery from the demented folks at Wet Cassettes...that should be all you need but I'll continue. FLESH COLLAR sound like a torture chamber and GxGxGx sound like the bedroom drum machine hardcore band performing the soundtrack, so.....you're welcome?

GxGxGx // FLESH COLLAR

ENDLINGS

 

A collaboration between a dude from DEERHOOF and a dude from New Mexico. A collaboration that transcends either of those links and then some. A collision of two creators who eschew boundaries just as I should abandon descriptors. A collection and/or collisiopn of fukkn sound that transcends explanation of context because it just...is. An unbelievable recording. 

ENDLINGS

DISCOS CORROSIVOS

 

Regional comps rule, okay? So here are 42 punk and hardcore freak songs from the Buenos Aires metropolitan area and after a couple of listens I think pretty much every song on this tape rips. BARDO, NO CALLES NUNCA, SUGGESTION, LOS CAIDOS, MATA 7, FACASSO and sooooo many more. File under all sub-genres of DIY punk and hardcore and file under "bands I need in my life" and fukkn devour this shit. You're welcome. 

NO SABIAMOS COMO HACERLO, PERO LO ESTAMOS HACIENDO​.​.​.

SQUELCH CHAMBER

 

People use terms like "cacophonous" and "disorienting" to describe shit like this. But SQUELCH CHAMBER embody these descriptors in the most gloriously confident way. Bursts of chaotic grind drenched in noise, industrial slogs with tortured vocals, static laden doom missives...and a cover that breathes new (and needed) life into later-Rollins era FLAG.  I dare suggest that Everything Turns To Shit is not only necessary listening, Everything Turns To Shit is correct. 

EVERYTHING TURNS TO SHIT

WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN

 

There's not really much that can be said about WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN. Simply put, they are among the greatest unheralded DIY punk bands of the 1990s, and those who are familiar the band already know this. But how to describe them to the uninitiated....? That's tougher - and that's why I started the post with "there's not really much that can be said..." because what do you say about something that is damn near perfect? FUCKFACE played with them in Mississippi in 1995 and we were floored, a frenetic mess of flawlessly crafted pop punk songs played at maximum speed with an intensity that stood in defiance to their endless cache of hooks. They were so incredibly in it that the songs themselves would have been an afterthought if the songs themselves weren't absolute classics. "Can Man" and "Staring At Your Walls" (titled "Clock" on this tape) and several others are on this tape, along with "Couldn't (If I Tried)" which is just...well, it's a perfect song. This band was special. This band is special almost 30 years later; there simply haven't been many like them. 

WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN

REVERSE CORPSE PAINT

 

Nameless, faceless, emotionless bleak metal from Southern California. I don't know anything about REVERSE CORPSE PAINT beyond the obvious realization that the name implies a slight irony in the approach. But...the result? This shit is deadly. Raw as fukk. all encompassing assault...breathless. 

REVERSE CORPSE PAINT

SIMFUCKERS

This shit is just fukkn naaaaaasty. Wild and chaotic new century noise punk from the mean streets of Adelaide. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but this SIMFUCKERS outfit is (was?) an absolute disgrace. In other words: You need these sounds in your ear holes. 

SIMFUCKERS

GUINEA KID

 

Midwest hardcore punk rules, OK?
OK.

GUINEA KID