FEAR OF NOISE

 

Fear Of Noise always seemed like they had everything fukkn dialed. Their fests were compact and not overwhelming, trading quantity and pretense for quality and efficiency - get in, have fun, connect with your people, have a good night, do it again tomorrow. Also, the lineups were fucking deadly, as evidenced by this cassette that replaced the ill fated 2020 edition. A veritable 'must listen' list of West Coast hitters at the turn of the decade with predictably heavy San Diego representation. SCREAMING FIST and PROVOKE lock arms with LÖCKHEED (Portland), AGONISTA and VIOLENCIA (Tijuana), SYRGAS (Sweden) and locals VILE REALITY, BLINDING GLOW, DISCOVERY, NEGATIVE BLAST, a true freak cut from D.WREX and loads more. Twenty six slammers in all, courtesy of Speed Creamer and the nicest fest I've been asked to play. 

FEAR OF NOISE 2020

THE CLASS

 

Perhaps "I Just Wanna Be Alone" is the summer anthem that we all need in 2024, or perhaps it's just me. But 2019's Pulang Demonyo tape is absolutely the dose of Pinoy street punk I needed on this fukkn Thursday. All praise to the folks at Struggle Records in Naga for dropping this burner in my lap, now go crank "Resist To Exist" knowing that this the fire that street punk is supposed to bring. 

PULANG DEMONYO

HANGYAKU

 

So I posted another one of these Hangyaku tapes a couple of years ago and I'm officially on the lookout for as many volumes as I can get my filthy hands on. That tape featured three upstate NY bands, while this one captures the DIY touring '90s in a nutshell - Boston mutants FAT DAY on one side and Pueblo, Colorado maniacs FANATICS on the flip. They were both in the studio at the same time, and these are shows that just.....they don't happen like this any more. Maybe the internet killed these combinations, maybe there are just more options now, maybe I'm just too old and tired to notice today's magic - all I know is that I miss this shit. FAT DAY rips through twenty four tracks of their inimitable freakness in as many minutes and wrap up with a rare interview clip that reminds me how uniquely original and important they were. Flip the tape over and you get FANATICS laying pure waste to WRPI studios over the course of thirty seven minutes...pure and unhinged high desert speed crust with a ten minute interview to set the stage. The '90s were a time - we got stranded at FAT DAY's house and they fed us after they got home from work and school every day for a week. We went to FANATICS' house dead set on doing piles of drugs. And succeeded. Then they came to our house and did the same. And now a lifetime later I'm a middle aged man in the midst of upheaval and....and here are my memories captured on a college radio station in Troy, New York. So yeah, I'm looking for those other Hangyaku tapes. 

HANGYAKU Vol.3

GULLIVER

 

It would be easy to dismiss this band based simply on the title of their 1995 cassette, but I implore you to listen. GULLIVER opens with "I Don't Belong To You" and those nasal vocals that defined an era of melodic punk, and then the song kicks in and you hear '80s SoCal oozing out of the chords....and you know something is different. I hear '77 NYC on "I Don't Belong" and then they just settle into a groove that is, admittedly, Simple, Fast and Melodic! - it's also a groove that is really fukkn good.  "Country Man" is a would-be anthem for a generation of small town working class (pop) punk kids (they were from Barretos, the capital of Brasilian rodeo) while "Cog Of Gear" is lightning fast and conjures ROUSE vibes - hell, even the damn BEATLES cover (almost) works. None of the nine tracks touch the two minute marks while that simple, fast and melodic groove just keeps churning. These are the nuggets that will (always) keep me digging. 

SIMPLE, FAST AND MELODIC!

NUCLER BLUD

 

And then there was now...and now there is NUCLER BLUD. Devastatingly calculated in their approach, and rarely have I been more drawn to a band's determination to stay on the rails and remain completely hinged. Saw them for the first time a few weeks back and was not at all disappointed, then came home and had my ass handed to me by the two sub-60 second burners on this gig only cassette. Pay attention, young punks. 

CORRIDOR b/w FROWN

NIL

 

And ten years after FIX MY HEAD there came NIL. A different crew of Oaklanders, this time crooning their way through an LPs worth of addictive old punk with MISSION OF BURMA and casual '80s college/alt vibes. This is one of the tapes that grabs me a few songs in after I've accepted that it's not going to grab me (though here it was the solo in the second track that turned me around). The best things happen when you're least expecting them. 

SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING

FIX MY HEAD

 

Four blasts of straight Bay Area fire from a lifetime ago - FIX MY HEAD were kicking when I moved back to SF, but they dissolved shortly afterwards. Just furious California hardcore punk of the highest order. Will did an EP and there was the split with KNIFE IN THE LEG, but this recording....? Like I said at the start of the paragraph: Four blasts of straight Bay Area fire. 

FIX MY HEAD

DJ UDJAT EYE

 

When the first DJ UDJAT EYE mix dropped into my box last year, I was chuffed before I popped it in the deck. You see, Dave doesn't fuck around.....and if Dave took the time to create and reproduce a mix? It's gonna be good, and it is good (of course) - but that tape still didn't prepare me for this volume. Seven minutes into the first side and We've moved from ALBERT MARCOEUR to VOLYA to MAGDA MAYAS infected with PIG DNA....and that only lays the foundation. This is an expertly crafted cassette, a collection of sounds and creations that is far greater than the sum of its parts. RINGO STARR. NO COMMENT. MARION BROWN. NEFTALI. PEGGY LEE. SUPPRESSIVE PERSON. A truly crafted and curated mix is so much more that a simple collection of songs, and this is is so much. more than even that. An altogether other worldly listen that I cannot recommend more highly. 

DJ UDJAT EYE

SFO

 

Figured they might have been from the Bay with the name (it's an airport), but they're from Chicago. I ripped an L7 set from 1991 the other night, and that primed me nicely for this trio - plodding, in your face, guitar heavy sludge/punk...I'm real into it, and I wish the second side hadn't been all fucked up and warbled so I could hear all six songs. Listen to "U-Lock" and smash shit, because it's Thursday. 

SxFxOx

JUVENTUD PODRIDA

 

When I say "volume yields," I generally mean that listening to punk at higher volumes yields more satisfying results. Today however, when I say "volume yields," I mean that increasing the volume on JUVENTUD PODRIDA's 2014 behemoth La Naturaleza de la Bestia will make you want to kill things. Anything in sight, anything you can get your hands on (or around). Inanimate objects will reanimate just so you can feel them slip into the other realm. These four songs are the sounds of absolute destruction and primal desperation realized. Total modern crust destruction, this should have been the blueprint for the last decade...holy shit. 

LA NATURALEZA DE LA BESTIA

JERALD

 

No idea where this came from (welcome to my hoard), but there are mobile numbers and no email addresses in the insert so I'm gonna guess 1990s. Music is kinda prog/indie with Japanese pop overtones (vocals particularly) and a serious MINUTEMEN bent on the last track. It's overall really...sweet. Sometimes we need a nice thing in our day, and Jerald are very nice. Also, is the cover upside down...? I think maybe it is.

SUMMER

G*U*N*N

 

These OC punks just get the fuck in, get the busy and get the fuck out. Early POISON IDEA vibes and heavy Southern California dirty beach hardcore, with interview clips and shit between tracks. It's so deadly simple and raw....it's what you need. 

I WANNA MAKE A REQUEST

LAST QUOKKA

 

Goddamn, these Aussies are just straight fukkn fire. It's as if the Birdmen themselves crash landed in a pile of early '00s punk infused indie - I'm talking NEW RACE by way of STROKES or FRANZ FERDINAND reimagining HITMEN here, and Perth's LAST QUOKKA are flawlessly on point for all of it. Jam "My Girl" into "Piggy" and know that you've found it...and you can find a lot more here. 

RED DIRT

...and there were grass stains on my jeans...

EVICTION PARTY

 

I may have occasionally dismissed Region Rock in these pages and I have surely disparaged the subgenre in person, so imagine my distress when I hear something that clicks just right and I realize that...."fuck, I think this is that subgenre I casually knock without really knowing what the fuck I'm talking about." We all get judgy from time to time so I'm not going to beat myself up over it, and I'm not even sure that that is what this is anyway so there's that too. But when I hear something that clicks just right, I keep listening. The music sounds strained, the musicians themselves sound strained - as if even these relatively simple melodic punk songs are just out of reach. The vocals nail that JAWBREAKER by way of DOOM after three packs of Lucky Strikes vibe, and if it weren't for the clean guitar some of these tracks ("My Debts To You" particularly) could have been born in a Rust Belt basement in the 1990s. Maybe the appeal of Region Rock is the darkness-by-way-of-hope energy that permeates the sound in a way that transcends the music or the lyrics. Or maybe that's just EVICTION PARTY....or maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about. That's always a possibility worth considering. I'm gonna have more coffee now. 

EVICTION PARTY

MY SURF CRYPT

 

Just a real solid mix of underground surf bangers put together by someone called Cold Vomit. THE REVELS, CHIYO & THE CRESCENTS, THE VULCANES, THE FIREBALLS, MANUEL & THE RENEGADES, THE PAGENTS and more, all presented with requisite crackle. I challenge you to find a more perfect chilling in the afternoon and into the night compilation, and when you do...? Share it with me.

MY SURF CRYPT

PLASTIC HEAP

 

I love a band that feels like they were born in the wrong time and place. A new century grimy punk band from Ohio who would have made more sense playing with TRAGIC MULATTO and FRIGHTWIG but here they are in my living room with a lurch and a squelch and a mid tempo burner called "Wild Strawberries" that channels all of the right kinds of sonic damage. I posted another tape a few years ago (it's good too) and I'm going to revisit that one as soon as I finish writing these words, because we need more bands that don't quite fit, you know?

RED TAPE

JIMMY C. NEWMAN

 

Spent last weekend in sunny Fresno, California shopping for a couch. Hit a few furniture super stores and scoured second hand market places online and mostly struck out before we made an appointment to meet with a kid selling a slightly stained brown number for a cool $75. Looked comfy enough and we are probably going to stain it anyway so we headed over....but wait, there's a Goodwill on the way so we decided to pop in. The couch selection was atrocious, but they had a few tapes (and let's be honest here, that's the real reason I suggested stopping) and I snagged some private press '80s white mystic shit and this jammer from Louisiana's JIMMY C. NEWMAN. Jimmy C. Newman & Cajun Country was released in 1986 with his radio hits and time on the Louisiana Hayride barely visible in the rearview mirror, but "Rhinestone Cajun Rides Again" is a dusty floor '80s country stomper of the highest caliber, proudly announcing that Newman had assembled new ensemble and his brand of Louisiana swing was back in action. The cajun influence that defined Newman's career is blatant on tracks like "Tawna Woo Woo" and "Cochon De Lait," adding a distinct swing to a tape that is filled with could-have-been hits like "Good Ole Boys From Louisiana" and "My Toot Toot." We ended up grabbing that $75 couch from a nice kid who was willing to deliver it for a few extra bucks, and it turned out the stain probably isn't bodily fluid. Basically? It was a really nice day with a few really good scores. 

JIMMY C. NEWMAN & CAJUN COUNTRY

HEDIA

 

The answer to yesterday's post is New Mexico's HEDIA. They are so simple and honest, so sonically straightforward, so....so real. There's no description necessary, this tape is little more than a collection of sounds presented as deliberate individual thoughts. This tape is patience and understanding. This tape is telling you it's okay to do the wrong thing, even if you already did the thing. HEDIA is...patience. I don't think I have ever described a recording as patient before today....HEDIA is patient. Patience. It's okay. You'll be okay, I think.

TO QUIET, CAUSE SLEEP OR REST

•••

GOOD NIGHT

CONTORT

 

A few days ago I woke up and I thought everything was pretty chill. I was dealing with the eternal fallout from some difficult decisions, I was putting one foot in front of the other and everything seemed basically okay. Hesitantly and cautiously okay but....still okay. And then it wasn't. And then I wasn't. It was fucked up. I was fucked up. It was disappointing. I was a disappointment. It was ugly, awful, damaged. I was damaged. I still am, and I don't anticipate a change in that status. This life is a fukkn mess, we humans only make it worse - and these sounds do nothing but reinforce this reality. I'm not sure what you though was going to happen when you woke up today....but it's this. 

ENDLESS MYOPIC BASTARDS

COMPLETED EXPOSITION

 

I wish I could describe the detonation that was COMPLETED EXPOSITION when they landed in California a lifetime ago (it was only something like ten years, but still). Absolutely unhinged sonic savagery that projected vibes that you just needed to soak up. It was no different when we shared a floor with them in Osaka on the last CFD tour, except that seeing them on their own turf might have been ever better (even though I knew what to expect). This band isn't a secret - 625 and RSR have released records and there are splits with BASTARD NOISE, WOJCZECH and EXTORTION among others, but this six minute detonation started it all twenty years ago. TO say that the shit "holds up" would be a criminal understatement.

PROGRESS AND HARMONY FOR MIND

THE MUSIC FRONT

 

A late '80s recording from post-URBAN BANDITS Arnold Morales (re)issued for new generations of punks. THE MUSIC FRONT are more '77 punk with a serious ear to the would be pop hits that came out of the first wave/s of UK punk. "Radio" deserves to be packaged for cult status - the song is more than worth the entire cassette on its own, but it shares space with "Start A New Day" and "Till I Kiss You" and seven other should-have-been classics. It's hard to believe that a session this good was kept quiet for over thirty years, just a perfect listen from start to finish...and the punky reggae anthem "What Is A Friend" as a closer? Yeah, I'm gonna be listening to this one for years (and years) to come. 

THE MUSIC FRONT