25 December 2023

SKALV

 

There's no place like California's Central Valley, and it get gets even more interesting as you travel south towards Los Angeles. Bakersfield is the last bastion of sun baked agricultural freakzone - close enough to the "cool" megalopolis and all of its culture and self assigned relevance to feel within reach....but one hundred miles is a motherfucker, and walking those streets feels more like Madera or Stockton than Hollywood (or San Pedro). What does that mean? Fuck, I'm just a middle aged transplant from Oklahoma rambling on the night before god's birthday over here, but it seems to me that the punk from places that are a little *off* often sounds a lot more *on* if you know what I mean. We're talking about the place that brought Munoz Gym to the punk world. Jerry's Pizza was an institution when I got maced there on New Year's Eve 1998 and is still hosting gigs in its shitty ass basement. Bakersfield is just different, and the punk that comes from there sounds a little rougher around the edges. Enter: SKALV. Fidelity be damned, this five song metallic crust attack from 2015 lands just fukkn right - raw, intense, honest...fukkn brutal. SKALV sounds like sun baked punk working class from a place that's just out of reach. 



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