MANIACS

 

I've been blessed with a healthy handful of under the radar street punk slammers lately, and this collection of hitters from THE MANIACS stands proud at the top of the heap. Not my subgenre of choice, but I can listen to "Bovver Brigade" and "Cause Of Violence" all fukkn day and then some. The full package is well worth digging into - 2014's CDr release Survive on cassette with the Strength Of Oi! tape from 2016 housed in a beefy box with a booklet filled with more than enough images and word to make you feel like you (were) there. You want a hitter from Singapore that lands squarely between COCK SPARRER and CRIMINAL DAMAGE? You found it with THE MANIACS.  

OI! AGAINST RACIAL PREJUDICE

D. SABLU

 

Well documented and rightfully fawned over garage damaged stomps from New Orleans, D. SABLU has (not so) quietly earned a reputation for destructive hooks. It's one of the dudes from CASUAL BURN, but truth told I only know of the latter because I'm low key obsessed with the former - the No True Silence full length platter from earlier this year only intensified that obsession. A decade (plus) later, this shit fills the Reatard void I didn't even know I felt...and apparently I felt it deeply, because I want more and more. These songs dropped in 2022 (for a tour, obviously) - there are more, and you can start here or here. Just start please, and don't stop.

"LIVE" FOR TOUR

DUMSPELL

 

If you dig back through the archives, you'll find several posts where I talk about the magic of the Everything Is Not OK gigs that Ross curated last decade. It was truly something else to see other people (and punks but not just punks) feeling seen and celebrated, and I dare say that I haven't had any (or at least not many) punk related euphorias that have matched those weekends in the years since. The Mississippi punks were a huge part of those vibes, rolling up en masse and supporting each other. Lifting each other up and making sure that the rest of us saw their friends and their scene for what is was - creative, vibrant, determined....important. So today, seven plus years after a long drive back to California, I'm jamming this two song DUMSPELL tape and thinking to myself "yeah...that shit really was magic." And I'm grateful to (have) be(en) a witness. 

COWBOY SLUMBER PARTY

ENERGIA 80

 

Fidelity be damned on on ENERGIA 80's debut. The hardcore attack is real, the hooks are undeniable, but the sonic damage is truly something to behold with your ear holes. Hard to really tell what noise making device/s they are using while the flanged bass is holding the whole thing together like a lonely goth kid holding onto an umbrella in a windstorm at the beach. Vocals sound like the ghost of a child wandering around in a cemetery in a never released redux of Hocus Pocus and the guitars......? Well, there are sounds that might be coming from guitars anyway, and they are swirling around like smoke from a cauldron. Smoke from space or smoke from the depths? That's for the listener to decide, but only ENERGIA 80 truly know what kind of trip they are on - and Szégyen Kazzetták keep on delivering the goods.  

ENERGIA 80

AFFRONT

 

Tough as nails, raw as fuck hardcore from Chicago. AFFRONT don't need a justification and you don't need to know their pedigree. You just need to listen. Listen to "Speak" and listen to "Merchants Of Death" and know that this is what hardcore sounds like when you take away all of the bullshit. When you take away all the nonsense. This is what you're left with. Eight minutes of pure. That's it....AFFRONT is pure. 

A DEMONSTRATION OF AN AFFRONT

THE CLOWN

 

Oh my fukkn stars this is the punk that I needed today!! Full on street punk anthems clash with early DCHC influences to create a whirlwind of hardcore sounds that'll make you feel like you are sixteen again....or make you wish that you knew what the fuck was up when you were sixteen. This one dropped in the late '90s when Indonesian DIY punk was exploding with adolescent exuberance, and that energy absolutely translates. Drop "Riot (July 27th)" into "Sick Life" on a 45 and pretend it's a lost Killed By Hardcore heater and watch the nerds sweat...this shit is perfect. 

STATUS QUO

GREY NURSE

 

Pretty sure they were from New York and, considering the 2013 recording date on this self titled slammer, that kinda helps explain why they seem to have flown mostly under the radar. To us left coasters, the early '10s were awash with nuke york and toxic states and an avalanche of bands whose sound and aura kicked DIY punk in the fukkn teeth. A lot of that shit had (has) some real staying and some of those bands and labels truly left a mark....now that the dust has settled, the new has worn off and those kids who upset the system are now institutions, you can see some of those marks, even if they are faint. But what of GREY NURSE? Was NYC fucking with their interesting, passionate DIY hardcore in their world filled with fashion, cocaine and misanthropy? Maybe they were, but on this left coast I had no idea....until now. You can hear where they are coming from, but the great ones can put something familiar in front of you and still leave you floored, which is what their sole release does to me. Take the second track "Born Into This" as a prime example - in just 80 seconds GREY NURSE encapsulate all of the sonic protein that I need in my musical diet, and every second tastes delicious. The foundation is early '00s hardcore, leaning as much on the emotional tinges as the blasts and breakdowns - take the quiet middle section of "Excuses" or the gentle landing in "Born Into This" as evidence that, quite simply, these cats knew exactly what they were doing. The vocals on "Asleep." The nod to Kirsch with the guitars that open "Stolen Language." The sheer intensity of the closer "Old." Each subsequent listen reveals more moments...and that's an indicator that the recording you're listening to is, in fact, truly great. So maybe GREY NURSE weren't with the in-crowd at the time, or maybe they just were just a blip and didn't have time to jump in the water...I'm not here to analyze sub-scenes or do a post mortem on trends that dominated past decades, today I'm just here to suggest that you listen to this GREY NURSE tape, because it's really good and it sounds like they really fucking meant it. 

GREY NURSE

CIRRHUS

 

CIRRHUS were an ugly band. Raw, forceful black metal with no pretense or nuance and vocals that sound like a desperate animal just before expiration. And then....listen to the guitars. Listen to the sounds. CIRRHUS were truly a beautiful band. 

PROMO 2012

MYSTIC PRIESTESS

 

MYSTIC PRIESTESS listen like the full realization of a concept, an if the band was a plan hashed out meticulously over years and scenarios before the first rehearsal. Influences? Sure, and perhaps they're even obvious.....but moments into "Toxic Masculinity" and where MYSTIC PRIESTESS are coming from is the furthest thing from your mind. All you care about is who MYSTIC PRIESTESS are and what they are doing now (or at least what they were doing up until 2020). It's something special to listen to something you can so instantly understand and still continue appreciating through the very last note - and their 2017 debut on Transylvanian serves as a reminder that we (all) deserved more of them than we got. 

MYSTIC PRIESTESS

EXCESS EXPRESS

 

A few weeks ago I took my lady friend to see Toronto's BAD WAITRESS at Permanent Records Roadhouse in LA - extremely good night at a very chill spot with a courtyard so we could avoid the testosterone and hang out with our Canadian pals before they played. They were (predictably) fantastic loud as fukk, but.....the bar doubled as a record store, and there was a wall rack of cassettes right in front of the stage. Now, a lot of things have changed in my life over the last couple of years, but if you put a wall of cassettes in front of me, then I'm still gonna be distracted. No way I covered everything (it was dark there was a band playing) but I snagged this one because scrawled across the case in black marker I saw "STEAL THE, LOVE EE. IT'S FREE." So look, either the band gave them away (good move) or it sucks so bad that the store can't sell it or it just got lost in the wall rack and someone realkized that the tape has been sitting for years and no one is buying. Either way, I'm here to help and I felt like a winner when I walked out that night to rest up for a trial board the following morning (where I was also a winner). After daylight observation, my hopes were not exactly sky high - borderline MINOR THREAT-sitting-on-a-porch-in-Virginia cover vibes, but the cast here all present as mustachioed Los Angeles cool guys (this is not a diss - I'm a bald bearded middle aged man living in San Francisco, after all - it's just how the band presents on the cover). Judgement aside, I was not at all prepared for the sounds that were waiting for me....absolutely straight dusty barn floor singer/songwriter country without a shred of irony or pretense. The hits roll off their fingers and you can practically feel your boots kick up when the guitar hits the pick up notes that lead into the solos - it's a thing, and EXCESS EXPRESS nail it. Opening bars of "Side Hustle" are a straight rip of "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" so my critical ears were on alert for frauds and posers but by the time I got to "Devil's In The Details" I was straining to make out every word so I could follow the story lines and figure out the hidden themes that simply must be lurking underneath the twang. The vocals take a couple of track to settle in, but ultimately they are what seals the deal for me because they play it straight instead of searching for something that they are not (even though at times the music kinda begs for it). Authenticity is a motherfucker, and it's a real hard thing to fake - fortunately it doesn't sound like these young gents are trying to be anything at all, they're just playing some damn good country/rock songs. Headed back to LA in a couple of weeks...might stop by the Roadhouse for one of those delicious NA spicy margaritas and watch Kelsey smile and roll her eyes at me while I try to find the other nuggets hiding on that wall rack of cassettes....even if I have to pay for them.

A-FRAME SESSIONS

SATELLITE

 

When CFD went to Indonesia in 2008, SATELLITE were OGs. We didn't play with them (would have loved to, of courser), but the shirts were everywhere and bootleg CDrs seemed to be in every distro. I snagged a couple and jammed them when we got home and.....there was just an urgency hiding in the simplicity of their songs that I couldn't seem to wrap my head around. While I still can't put a finger on why they are so good, this copy of 2000's About War And Violence serves as an excellent reminder (to me) that STELLITE do the fukkn thing right, and sometimes that's worth way more than a bunch of words trying to describe why and how. Sometimes.....it just is. A little out of tune sometimes, a little loose most of the time, a little rudimentary in general and absolute fucking fire from start to finish. Because the shit is real, and when it's truly real you can hear it. When it's truly real you can feel it. 

ABOUT WAR AND VIOLENCE

WEST COMBAT

 

I was trying to figure out exactly why Reality Is War hits so perfectly. I got deep enough into the jams that I almost forgot I was trying to solve a mystery, and the the opening bars of "Tom & Jerry" solved my mental mystery. It's the damn guitar - sounds like a metalhead just landed in a small town and couldn't find any thrashers to play with so he recruited some spikey punks. The thing about this metalhead though...he plays it ultra loose and the guitars come off kinda unhinged as a result. If you can't read between the lines here....this is a serious compliment and ultimately it makes WEST COMBAT stand out from the crowd. I think I know what you want, and ripping anthemic street punk from Jakarta is what you need, and that's exactly what you're getting today. 

REALITY IS WAR 

           

MEAT PUPPETS

 

There are probably some people reading this who don't realize that they need to listen to early MEAT PUPPETS recordings from two sessions in November of 1981. You might be one of those people and, if I'm being honest, I was one of those people until I popped this morsel in my ear holes. So if you are one of those people who simply don't know (yet) until now.....? You're welcome. Because now you know. Desert weird is an entirely different kind of weird, and these recordings are so gloriously fukkn raw that it makes me feel like I never need to listen to the first two LPs again (even though I'm going to listen to them on my ride downtown as soon as I eat this sandwich). Again...you're welcome.

FIRST ALBUM OUTTAKES

CONCRETE NIGHT CENTAUR

 

Another offering from Yard Sale For World Peace, another journey into the most curious recesses of the mind. P.E.A.C.E. Benefit is...something. It listens like aural voyeurism to the point that I want to look over my shoulder and see if my downstairs neighbor is walking through the wall to ask for privacy. Not walking through the door....walking through the wall. Blips and bloops share space with eerily manipulated found sounds struggling to exist in the damaged analog medium until "Complete Shame" ends the cassette like an elegy. It's the only 'song' on P.E.A.C.E. Benefit and it packs a serious punch...desperately distant vocals and a painfully minimal acoustic guitar expand to occupy nearly four minutes of sound, though the sounds will sit with you for a while after the sound ceases. 

P.E.A.C.E. BENEFIT

GULAG

 

Got this little piece of magic from Matt a few years back and was extremely pleased to pull it out earlier this week for a late evening rip 'n blast. As I confessed a few years back, I'm far from a Greek punk aficionado, so I file this shit in the extremely pleasant "listen and enjoy" category....although this shit piques my interest at a dangerous level. GULAG hit the same verve that DAVOVA PSYCHOZA did when I first heard them in the back room at MRR decades ago - it's addictive and melodic punk and it sounds like it's not just coming from the other side of this world...more like another world entirely. Simultaneously gorgeous and intense, these tracks are culled from the Big Talk EP, In The Showyard LP and the debut Είσοδος Κινδύνου 0°C 12" from 1987 and literally every song feels essential. So enjoy Γκούλαγκ like I did...and because Matt is a real one, there are a few SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS tacked onto the end of the mix. 

GULAG

DEMON SYSTEM 13

 

I remember the first time I dropped the needle on Aborted Teen Generation - it was one of "those" punk moments that you just keep with you. It was instantly familiar but it was also new...and it was more. I ordered a copy from Ebullition based on a MRR interview (my copy still has the ghost image of the Goleta address that pressed through the polysleeve), and I was not remotely disappointed. We hosted then in Oakland, and arranged summer travel plans to see them in Reno and Chico because...things were different and we were younger and that's just what you did then. So imagine my excitement in the new reality when I laid eyes on this tape while BAD WAITRESS was playing in LA last weekend....because I love the shit out of DS13 but I didn't have this tape. Well, now I do and my new reality self is giving a hearty nod to old (young) me for knowing what the fukk was up, because motherFUKKR this is (still) the shit that I need. The Studio Shit demo is more raw and in your face than that first EP, and the live set from Nyköping (aka Fukktown, apparently) is straight fukkn fire, even though and/or especially because Tom talks a lot. Fukk dude...I love punk and/or hardcore. 

THE COMPILATION SESSIONS + LIVE IN FUKKTOWN

SOCIAL DRESS

 

Overt and in your face street punk a la WANKYS, TOM & BOOT BOYS or any other modern punk with gruff, snotty vocals and a healthy UK80 obsession. The real genius was keeping the demo at four songs (including a SPECIAL DUTIES cover), not because the songs aren't great (they are) but because even greatness has limits. As presented, however? This is damn near perfection.

SOCIAL DRESS

SILENT ORDER

 

Here it is, the shit Mondays were made for. The shit that used to fill the void left by the evaporation of freedom and the return to reality for weekend warriors turned office zombies. When I started posting so-called 'noise punk' tapes on Mondays, it was a different time. When I started posting so-called 'noise punk' tapes on Mondays, I was still in VACCUUM and the world of extra-damaged and over-manipulated hardcore was a world where rocks were still being uncovered. VACCUUM hasn't existed in well over a decade now, and so many rocks have been  uncovered by over-manipulated and extra-damaged hardcore freaks that they started playing generic street punk as some weird kind of revolt.....but the gems are still there. There are still sonic reminders from the past reminding you that on this day - the start of your week of futile toil - you are making the wrong decision. Because what you should be doing is searching desperately for more noise. There are bands who tortured their instruments for you....and you haven't heard them yet. Ottawa's SILENT ORDER did it in 2014 and they did it for you. To remind you: It's Monday. You fucked up. It's all noise. 

SILENT ORDER

DARK DAYS

DARK DAYS happened just as I moved back to San Francisco - not even just if I barely missed them or if I wasn't even close, since the onset micro-scenes means that if you aren't completely in a loop then you're completely outside of it. Regardless of the why, I've spent a fair bit of time with 2009's How Have We Done This in the years since and I am (still) impressed by the band's ferocity. The shit is just....ugly. GEHENNA and COP OUT vibes. Some bands have raspy, desolate sounding vocals; with DARK DAYS it's the whole fukkn band. It's only six minutes, of course....sometimes that's all you need to get your point across. Sometimes that's all you need to communicate desperation. 

SURVIVAL: MONEY IS THE KEY

ATRET

 

I first heard ATRET on Max's Barbaric Thrash Demolition comp more than twenty years ago - that was only three songs though, so I was psyched to pull this discography cassette from a box of tapes form Indonesia recently. Forty tracks of blistering fastcore/grind from Yogyakarta, I'm not sure what else you could ask for...you can ask for something different if you like, but I don't think you're going to find it here.

DISCOGRAPHY

••••

KALX CHRISTMAS

 Remember those appliance stores that would have Christmas In July!! sales to try get your parents to buy shit they didn't need or couldn't afford? Well this is like that, except it's October and I'm not selling anything - I'm offering. On the 25th of December in 1984, a gentle man named Pat Wright put this broadcast over the Bay Area airwaves via radio station KALX in Berkeley, and for this we are (all) grateful.

KALX - 25 December 1984

S.O.P.S.

 

Barebones and beautiful, 2015's Singing And Pogo from S.O.P.S. is littered with should-have-been anthems like "Fuck Police Fuckin Crew," "Living On The Street," "Fuck Seniority" and "Government Slaves." Steady 4/4 drums and blistering buzzsaw guitars challenge conventional concepts of what is 'good' by cranking out one burner after another, shamelessly addictive high energy Indonesian street punk of the highest order. Please don't look for anything revolutionary here...unless you are trying to be a part of the S.O.P.S. revolution, of course. 

SINGING AND POGO

WEAKLING

 

I don't know how black metal entered your world in the '90s, but it was this weird organic anomaly that just appeared in mine. Punks and punk adjacent metalheads started chattering about these bands from Scandinavia, of course there were the churches and shit that gave the whole thing an element of 'hmmmm, this is interesting' even beyond the music. On tour in 1995, FUCKFACE came across an interview with BLACK FUNERAL and we clowned that dude relentlessly in the van (later found out he worked at a Pizza Hut in Indiana and lived with his mom) before we used a quote from the interview as the center label for the Don't Hate Us 'Cause We're... EP and still...black metal was just curiosity. Meanwhile, black metal was consuming the scene in San Francisco - Lucifer's Hammer started hosting shows on Tuesdays and were responsible for MAYHEM, MORTIIS, EMPEROR, IMPALED NAZARENE and countless others playing a dive bar on Folsom street...on a Tuesday. And while this was happening....people were starting bands, and these bands made it very fucking clear to casual consumers that this new 'thing' was much more than a curiosity; this shit was for real. There was UNHOLY CADAVER - a recording project that came out of THUNDERCHIMP and evolved into HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE. There was LUDICRA, who featured the guitarist from HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, the guitarist from MISSILE COMMAND, and the drummer from HICKEY along with Jessika from a drunk band called KETAMINE.

And then....there was WEAKLING...WEAKLING were different, and 1999's Dead As Dreams is as much a genre defining record as anything I can conjure. The drummer from SANGRE AMADO, the guitarist from FUCKING CHAMPS and the dude from VOMITORIUM made something that changed everything.  And then in 2023 this dude I know wanted to sell a bunch of tapes and I offered to help him more the units.....couldn't put a price tag on the WEAKLING tape so after some friendly discussions it lives with me now. This shit is so important (to me) that I don't give two shits how important the band was (is) in general - no one in North America did this better. Period. And this is seventy five minutes of proof.These tapes were dubbed off sporadically - I never saw this for sale anywhere....you got a copy of this if you were there, you dig? So I am honored to give this copy a (new) home. If you don't know....listen. 

DEAD AS DREAMS

HOT MESS MONSTER

 

For the days when you need to listen to punk that makes you feel free. For the days when you need punk to make you feel free. No constraints, slightly awkward and stilted, honesty and uncomfortability holding the same space...the feeling you get as a person from a pretentious place walking into a place where no one cares about anything about you - they just care about you. Though this was recorded in the mountains of North Carolina a decade ago, HOT MESS MONSTER are making me (helping me) feel those feelings this morning and I'm going ton listen to "The Rigors Of Self-Improvement" several times before I face the day.

ALL FIVE OF US