SPECTRES

 

Hard to believe that SPECTRES have been in the game for almost twenty years now (check last year's stellar Presence full length), just as it's hard to believe that when they first popped onto the collective punk radar it was still novel to hear punks making new wave and/or goth sounds. While that progression is almost a given in these 2020s, Vancouver's SPECTRES have spent the in-between times forging their own path towards something that is instantly familiar. Nostalgia is a perfect dark wave recording - period, You don't need the DIY scene context or the members-of or anything else, just know that these sounds stand completely on their own. If you're from my "era" and came up the way I did, then you're going to hear things that make you feel at home (THE FIXX, THE CALL, THE ALARM), but these punks make all of it theirs and I'm kinda beside myself while I listen to "Along The Waterfront" on a tape that came in a box of crust and grindcore tapes from Indonesia. Do yourself a favor....savor this one. Please. It's special. 

NOSTALGIA

STAND CLEAR

 

There was a hot minute in the early 2000s when it felt like there were three kinds of hardcore - there was retro-PosiCore, Y2K fastcore and crust (an all-emcompassing and criminally non-descriptive descriptor). Of course there was power violence too, and shitpunk and shit...but the whole point of my stupid declaration is that STAND CLEAR rehashed the first two of those first three subgenres as well as any band I can think of. Breakneck SXE 'core with perfect breakdowns - the shit makes me feel like I felt when I was listening to OUTLAST on 24th Street back in 1999. Scottzy was making fun of me (which was fair) and still all I wanted was more of that lighting fast finger pointing shit with those breakdowns, you know? That's what Starting Point feels like, and if you know me (or read these posts) then you know that's a very (very) high bar. They make an SSD song sound better than SSD did, and they just fukkn rip - and STAND CLEAR are still doing the damn thing in 2025. 

STARTING POINT

VOIMATON

 

Maybe I should have dropped this on the live blog, even though most of y'all skip that one completely (your loss). Because it's live, I should...but because I had never heard (or heard of) VOIMATON before I snagged a party pack of dead stop metal tapes a few months ago and I suspect most of you haven't heard (or heard of) them either I dropped it right here. In your lap. So you can let the downtuned death/doom cover and smother you. You're welcome. 

LIVEWIRE LOUNGE 2019

BOTTLED VIOLENT

 

Talk about a fukkn time warp - Bandung's BOTTLED VIOLENT perfectly manifest TOTAL FURY's turn of the century manifestations of early '80s DC hardcore. They make it completely seamless, neither aping one nor copying the other but flying both flags proudly and alongside their own. Because this hardcore belongs to all of us, and BOTTLED VIOLENT have made it theirs. Get ready for five minutes of magic.

BOTTLED VIOLENT

EDNITA NAZARIO

 

With titles like "Ese Muchacho," "La Prohibida" and "Machismo" and a cover that brings that Tanya Tucker photo to the forefront of my aged mind, I was sold before I even heard the smooth serenade of The Ponceña Diva sweep over me. Nazario envelops you like an evening novela, the soundtrack to the Puerto Rican adaptation of Dynasty that never actually existed. Keep digging, punks.

AL ROJO VIVO

 

GRASP OF DYNAMITE

 

A few weeks ago we went to see a bunch of black and death metal bands in San Diego. Some of them were pretty satanic and it was generally a really good gig....but I still left feeling like I wanted something else. Not necessarily something more, just something else, you know? Apparently what I wanted was GRASP OF DYNAMITE. A blackened satanic metal infused crust assault that is distinctly and undeniably punk in approach and delivery, Satanik Krust Impera does in four songs what those six bands tried to do all damn night (with the exception of CARDINAL, that shit ruled...but I digress. "In Darkness We Alive" in-fucking-deed. 

SATANIKA KRUST IMPERA

SOCKEYE

 

Can't remember if this was a gift from Food or Poopy, but three decades later it s a gift from me to you. So many of the hits are here, mingling with live tracks, alternate takes, misfires and...well, it's SOCKEYE. 

SPACE $5 // SOME DUMB SONGS WE HATE

===

EÄZZ

 

Welcome to the mind of Afli Fisrifan, a place where thought and emotion spill out in the form of shoegaze guitars and swaying leads. Hard to believe that this is a product of 2010s Indonesia and not my early 20s, but here we are pushing up against the year 2026 and here I am in a sonic time machine. EÄZZ embody the sound and the energy flawlessly, so whether you're reaching into the your own past or Alfi's future....you'll be held closely, escorted gently and you'll be forgiven if you get lost along the way.

AISLE 

MARVELOUS

 

Wild Japanese fastcore in the early '00s tradition with all of the hooks and quirks that made that shit stand out (think FUTURES / JRRH and the like, but with a bit more melody from the riffs). It's over in a flash, but MARVELOUS leave their mark and then some over eight absolute rippers. Crew For Life manifested the wax, and the fine folks at Thrash Tapes were nice enough to repackage inside a plastic shell for Western consumption - I can only imagine what these cats are like live (but I'm gonna assume it's killer).

BARENO!!!

SKITKIDS

 

I truly hope that this needs no introduction, and I suspect that for most readers this will be a reminder to go (re)listen to one of the best releases of the '00s and not any kind of new discovery. SKITKIDS were a product of their time and place, and when Besöket Vid Krubban dropped it completely changed the game. I remember Mick giving me a copy in Philly and being stoked to crank it once I got home...he warned me devilishly that I was not prepared but even still I underestimated. It was like INEPSY and ANNIHILATION TIME and fucking TOTALITÄR all at the same time, but faster and wilder than any of them. The were shit-hot fire on stage, and as good as Onna For Pleasure was...this is possibly the only recording that came close to capturing that shit in the flesh. Hard to imagine anything hitting like this ever again. 

BESÖKET VID KRUBBAN

PENELOPE HOUSTON AND THE BIRD BOYS

 

Another recording that (likely) came before the 1988 release of Birdboys. Like the session posted last year, this features songs that would appear on that game changing LP and is a brilliant early glimpse into a group led by one of the most iconic figures in early SF punk. It's a beautiful and grounding collection of songs...and remember that this was recorded less than a decade after AVENGERS played the final SEX PISTOLS gig. Also worth noting that the opener "Harry Dean" rips the lead from "Knife's Edge" off of AVENGERS guitarist Greg Ingraham's never-really-released solo demo from 1984. 

PENELOPE HOUSTON AND THE BIRD BOYS

OUTRUN X SHADOWS

 

Another addition to the seemingly endless NecroSignatures (Occult) Library of sound. Each contribution different from the last, and often giving no clues as to what the next chapter might have in store. OUTRUNXSHADOWS effortlessly floats between manipulations of subgenres, creating distinct sounds that defy description or categorization - this is truly one of the most unique things I have heard in recent memory. Dark wave, bleak lo-fi metal, indie/punk, synth-pop....it all makes sense here and it all feels right here. Somewhere On The Southern Front, something incredibly special continues to simmer - it started with OLD THRASHERS REUNION a few years back, and this small band of freaks have delivered nothing but genius ever since. I offer this post (and the embedded links) with highest recommendations. 

OUTRUN X SHADOWS

BARRIO MUSIC

 

My mother is visiting for a few days - and she's from Mississippi so when I say "visiting" I mean to use the very act of visiting in the very present participle tense of the verb - we visit. Especially when it's raining and kinda cold and I get a little under the weather to go hiking....we visit (which is technically the imperative if I recall, but I digress). Anyway, I was finishing the edits on this monster volume of Barrio Music earlier this week and she instantly noticed the opener "Knock Three Times" (TONY ORLANDO & DAWN) - she said that her mother had disapproved of the implied infidelity in the track...but she paid a little closer attention to the tape after that (and I bumped the volume accordingly). Soon it became hit after hit after hit and she had stories about several of them as we cruised through other Barrio volumes; one was her deceased brother's favorite song, another was the soundtrack to her first ever slow dance on her first date, and several were just in the glorious category of "oooohhhh, that's a good one!" as we listened, eventually moving on to (and through) the East Side Story comps). And I started to think about the universal nature and appeal of these tapes. The context is cool no matter how you look at it - popular tracks (and under-the-radar would-be standards) from a bygone era created and/or appropriated by low rider and inner city subcultures, then collected by fans-turned-bootleggers from Mexico in the 1980s....yeah, that's a story. But really, the shit is just timeless. And while the songs and the collections tell a story, so does each song tell its own. Stories of love and loss and excitement and heartache and heartbreak and of happiness and innocence. And I like stories....a lot. It's part of the joy of visiting. 

BARRIO MUSIC Vol.3

BESTIAL ABYSS

 

Picked up a satanic black metal tape at a gig a couple of weeks back and the dude was like "this is another band we play in - take this one too." And just like that, I discovered BESTIAL ABYSS. Sonic savagery of the highest order, primal beats buried in a consciously murky production so it sounds like the very recording itself is marching to a slow and deliberate death before being plunged into chaotic madness. This is what I want my black metal to be like - I want it to sound fucked up, I want it to feel ugly, I want it to sound dangerous. BESTIAL ABYSS is all of those things and more. The lurch of "Trampled Under Blighted Foot" will turn your stomach....this is what I want. 

PROMO MMXV

TIME TO KILL

 

It's easy to imagine these Tehachapi, California rippers igniting the pit on a bill with THE NEIGHBORS in 1996 or with HOLIER THAN THOU in 2004 or with TORTURE UNIT in the early 2010s. But time and place is everything and TIME TO KILL were landlocked for a few years in Tehachapi, California....which means that the erstwhile denizens of Tehachapi were privy to some absolutely sinister drunken hardcore back in the late 2010s. So here's a fierce and uncompromising five song motherfukkr from a time when it was time to kill. 

TOSSIN' EM BACK

MASS GRAVE

 

Not at all unusual to find multiple artists who have chosen the same moniker, but it's not typical to see several in similar eras and genres. So to be clear - this is not MASSGRAVE the face melting crust/grind band from Vancouver, this is not MASSGRAV the crust 'n roll band from Stockholm, this is also neither the German death metal MASS GRAVE nor the French death metal MASS GRAVE. This is the Bulgarian grinding death juggernaut MASS fucking GRAVE and thank the god/s that Canada's Funeral Hymns reissued this 2013 masterpiece a few years back or it may have been forever lost in the CDr demo abyss. This is the kind of grind that makes you realize after each track that you haven't really been breathing, but you barely have time to reload oxygen before the next round of grievious bodily harm commences. All consuming grindcore rooted in OSDM, this is the shit that will make you not care about anything else while you're listening, and that is exactly the kind of listening I'm looking for these days. Hail.

FADE OF LIFE

FRAGMENT

 

Maybe it was just because it's been a minute since I blasted FRAGMENT, but this tape knocked me completely on my ass when I popped it in last week. This is the same In The Dust that Desolate released on wax six or seven years ago and I swear it hits harder in a 2025 world dominated by retro 'hardcore' and punks who've grown out of the genre/s and seemingly turned to dark wave for excitement (don't get me started). This is thirteen minute of pure hell - distorted and chaotic crasher crust rooted in DBeat, speed and confusion (or CONFUSE-ion, if you're picking up what I'm laying down). Every single EP is a killer and all are recommended - I'm not even going to say this one is the best (that status might be reserved for the Serial Mass Destruction EP on Sewercide) - this one hits just fukkn right in the moment though. Listen to "Final Stand" before you do anything you think is important today and I reckon you'll change your mind as the Maritime dominance continues....

IN THE DUST

OBLIGASI

 

It's an absolute shame that these kids only cranked out this one tape, but good grief it's an absolute beast. Eight blasts of late-decade power violence from Malaysia - high/low vox, crushing neanderthal stomps, discordant fast riffs that hit like nails on a chalkboard punching you in the face. There's an INFEST cover too, but by the time you get through "Democrashit" and "Weak" that track is barely more than an afterthought. 

OBLIGASI 

PRIMITIVE

 

Sister band of the equally uhhhhh....primitive DENIM posted a few months back. PRIMITIVE (and I dare say there are fewer bands more aptly named) dish out six minutes of utterly ignorant Oi! that's more than a little (and very intentionally) rough around the edges. Say what you will, but when you want to turn it off and just stomp around a bit....well, this shit hits the spot. 

PIGS FOR SLAUGHTER

LUPITA D'ALESSIO

 

Today is for '80s Mexican smooth pop rescued from a thrift store in Pomona on the way to House Of Fortune last weekend. So now I've given you The Sleeping Lioness and a portal to one of the best meals you'll ever have...two things that you didn't know you needed, and I can't think of a better soundtrack to a wonderful meal. It's still early, you've got time to plan you're evening. You're welcome. 

SOY AUTENTICA... Y PUNTO

UFFIZI

 

This short-lived trio would have been just as comfortable on a bill with SISTER FUCKER as with LIVID....but they were just a few years too late for either. The songs are so gloriously honest and bratty that they could have come from literally any era from 1978-present (which is their charm and their staying power) but they are quintessential mid-10s Bay Area. But really, I'm posting Nous Sommes Riches at 12:11 on 12/11...because you need to hear "The Fucking Song" immediately. 

NOUS SOMMES RICHES

MEZTISOUL

 

Half hour chill-house mix from Central (CA) Valley's MEZTISOUL. Bump under heat during the Season Of The Disappearing Sun if you'd like to have the same listening experience I had.....and it was a sensational listening experience. 

PRESCRIPTION PART 1

VAARALLINEN

 

Spent some time at practice tonight learning an IMPALERS cover that we may or may not play in a few days, and honestly I can't think of a better  thing to settle into than this VAARALLINEN tape. The bands that tweak the DBeat formula and make it sound different are special bands - and these punks from Singapore do (did) exactly that, just like those punks from Texas. This is the 2012 demo with tracks from the Hautausmaa EP crammed onto one cassette, and if need a reminder that Scan-DBeat hardcore rulz then I suggest you look no further. Shit is absolutely mental, even (especially) while it's more than a decade in the rearview mirror. "Ei Jumalaa" at full volume, all damn day. 
 

SOSIAALINEN KONTROLLI

TOPSY TURVY

Seven minutes of dual vocal Indonesian crust brutality. Not exactly sure what else it was that you thought you needed today, but rest assured you didn't actually need that...you needed this. You needed it before, and I gave it to you. You needed it again today. You're welcome. 

ELEMENTS OF RESISTANCE