WEREWOLF JONES

 

I posted a different WEREWOLF JONES tape last year and I stand by the words that I slurred then. And today I will add to those words that WEREWOLF JONES are old punk for a new reality. Because people like pretentious comparisons and impossible combinations, please take STOOGES, MOTARDS, JESUS LIZARD and LAUGHING HYENAS and make a band out of those sounds. But also make it a hardcore band. I should have posted this on the live blog because it was recorded live (at the Outer Limits Lounge), but y'all don't look at that one (you should though - theres good shit there in general and also today) so it's here. This shit hits right. Brace yourself.

STROH DOWN

SOCKEYE

 

How do you describe SOCKEYE to the uninitiated? Folks who've spent any time here should already know (as should anyone who paid attention to US DIY freak shit in the 1990s), but...how do describe SOCKEYE to someone who simply has no idea? And I'll take it a step further and ask: How do you explain SOCKEYE to someone who has only existed in the internet era? I don't think a SOCKEYE could organically evolve today, in a world that is curated and intentional. SOCKEYE were....different. They took not giving a fuck to new levels before not giving a fuck was even a thing. Confrontational and/or intentionally offensive bands had come before them and outsider art punk was already passé long before they started in late '80s Ohio, but the level of "fuck it" that SOCKEYE projected can't be understated. For the newcomers: think THE DEAD MILKMEN and SCHLONG with an (early) ANAL CUNT sense of "humor" if such a thing actually exists (existed). Alternately, what if a bunch of boob and poop jokes formed a band? Like, maybe this is just the sonic embodiment of an eyeroll. I've Got An Indian Reservation In My Cum is a collection of (then) unreleased cuts recorded between 1989-1991 on one side with live sets from 1990 (opening for SUCKDOG) and 1991 (opening for POST MORTEM) on the flip. It's a lot....90+ minutes of innocent immaturity that feels more welcome in today's very adult and very real reality than I can properly explain.

I'VE GOT AN INDIAN RESERVATION IN MY CUM

LAMICTAL

 

Three minutes. Four songs. Northwest Indiana rebirthed in Southern California....When I think about Los Angeles, I want to think about seeing LAMICTAL be total freaks in the Sunset a couple of months ago. I don't want to think about what I think about now. But that's what I think about. Fuck this shit. Fuck ICE and all the acronyms. It's fucking scary....hopefully it's also steeling. 

VIOLENT CONVULSIONS

AMASUNZU

 

Ten minutes of insanely ugly powerviolence from Hungary. Pure blast mania of the highest order, like a band trying to conjure GODSTOMPER's unhinged chaos and the precision of IRON LUNG at the same time.....and I'm telling you, punks: It works. 

AMASUNZU

TOWANDA

 

I haven't spent any time with TOWANDA in quite a while, but listening to Freak Of Nurture makes me want to spend some quality time with their entire catalog because these four songs are absolute life changers. Modern dark punk attitude and presentation drenched in late '80s college/alt and current indie and grunge and shoegaze and...something. I don't know what the something is, but "The Antiheroine" sounds like TORCHE and WHITE LUNG in a bouncy castle and I am so fukkn here for it even though "Vanity Project" is really the game changer. If you won't listen to reason....there's always TOWANDA. 

FREAK OF NURTURE
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Also: FUCK I.C.E.

SERIOUSLY. 

NO BUSINESS

 

I know I blabbed about NO BUSINESS waaaaaay back in 2024, but I would like to (again) not that they were a short lived and extremely good band from Oakland. It's like they stood in the modern world and reached back to the early 1990s and borrowed the punk shit from early grunge and used it to build the foundation for a few timeless punk songs. I appreciate them for that. Even though they are all jams, "Stop Saying Sorry" is the jam.

 NO BUSINESS

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN

 

 • I know that most punks my age only have "Take The Skinheads Bowling" as a reference, but I beg you to broaden your sonic horizons.

• There's a killer BUTTHOLE SURFERS set from 1987 (or so) that I 'released' and CVB were the openers.

• CBV played a few weeks ago in SF. A coworker gave the following report: Me at 25 going to a show: "FUCK YEAH! THESE ARE MY PEOPLE!" Me at 56 going to a show: "Oh FUCK. These are my people."

• Violins have never sounded more appropriate.
• We are at a bad trip.
• "Take The Skinheads Bowling" is one helluva jam, but "Circles" is even better.

II & III

ZUDAS KRUST

 

I like the ZUDAS KRUST approach. Lots of releases (so many you can't really get a handle on them all) featuring tracks from the same recordings. You regurgitate songs and sessions because what are the chances that punks are going to seek out every single one...right? Nah, punks are looking for something to pop into the deck and crank up while they clench a fukkn fist - how many people are going to know that half of these tracks are from the Matanza Y Muerte Masiva tape that I posted more than eight years ago...? Not many. So here you (all) are again: one half hour of raw and uncompromising DBeat hardcore from the streets of Jakarta. Maybe it's all been released on other tapes and/or CDrs....but have you blasted "Punx Cinta Damai" today? Well....? No? Then you're welcome, because this shit is next level. Also they cover that SHITLICKERS song (again).

A LOYAL SLAVE TO THE APOCALYPSE ORDER

PUBERTY WOUNDS

 

It's entirely possible that I have posted this before - I recall it had a yellow cover but I recognize the weird ass cover and I swear I've had my life changed by "The Slow Apocalypse" before "The Slow Apocalypse" changed my life (again) after work yesterday. This shit is like modern noise punk at the altar of JESUS LIZARD - the damage is so focused and deliberate that the shit is straight terrifying. So yeah...maybe I have posted this tape previously, but it's giving this reality a meaning now. And that's important.

STRANGE EDGE 

PLASTIGLOMERATE

 

Ever wanted to be serenaded by some genius from England with layers of noise and voice and sonic manipulation? Ever wanted to hear sounds your familiar with manifest as chaos? Ever wanted to hear what chaos sounds like? If yes, then I give you PLASTIGLOMERATE. Is it harsh noise? Yes. Is it also something else and/or something special? Also yes. You know what's a trip though? After this tape led me down a rabbit hole, I think this absolute crusher might be my least favorite PLASTIGLOMERATE release. Go figure.

XINXIN NIL

STATE IS DEAD

 

Three bands, and I am very glad I have not been hired to pick a favorite. RSG are raw crust-tinged fastcore/grind. SOCIAL DISTRUST are harsh, uncompromising and in your face crusty hardcore. AGGRESSOR have this bizarre clean guitar tone that almost sounds like it's sending a hearty fuck you to the rest of the band (and you) which is why that guitar is the thing that makes this band hum - shit is just unhinged and blown to fukk hardcore blasts. I'm glad that my job is just to share with you and not choose, because each of these three bands are straight up deadly. Thirty plus tracks filling up more that forty minutes.....listen to "No Seniority" by AGGRESSOR before you do anything else today. Please and thank you (and you're welcome)

STATE ID DEAD: 3 THRASHCORE SOLUTIONS

VISCOUNT

 

Yo - I was not expecting this shit. Not at all. This VISCOUNT tape was mixed in with some raw grind and primitive DBeat tapes because I'm disorganised and at first glance I figured it was maybe more of the same (which would have been fine) - I was wrong as fukk. VISCOUNT is the brainchild of Lucy from HYGIENE and PRIMETIME and though this is their first (and thus far only) release, it shows a vision completely realized and presented with confidence. Retro '80s dark wave energy (of course), and then throw in a bit of SHOP ASSISTANTS, TRVST, TJO....WAX IDOLS even. If goth twee is a genre then VISCOUNT bears their banner. If good music is to your liking then this tape will stop you dead in your tracks. 

10 PAST 10

REIVERS

 

Under-appreciated hardcore bands, Exhibit A.
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REIVERS were a blip in the Bay Area....I feel like I only saw them a few times and I know none of their recordings (that I have heard) capture their live intensity. Kate as a vocalist was pure power with no qualifiers, and hearing her trade off with Will on this recording gives me chills. The replication is blown to fukk (long-term visitors will note that this can be an endearing quality - power is power and the physical manifestation is real) and these four songs are basically a reminder that tolerance for intolerance is overrated. Sympathetic Shock is a killer record....this tape is pretty damn good too. 

STATE EFFECTS // TRAIT EFFECTS\

ADAM VOID

 

This one slid in the mailbox a few weeks ago. Three streams of sonic consciousness captured and hurtled into a different time....like STEVEN JESSE BERNSTEIN rediscovered as a train hopper or BUKOWSKI as a tattoo-faced busker in front of a WalMart in rural Tennessee. You don't make these sounds by accident, these are sounds created from compulsion - this is the intersection of art and struggle and life. There's no traffic signal, but there is a lot of traffic.

POVERTY IN THE U.S.A.

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It's the little things that keep you going, you know?

NAILBITËR

 

Five minutes of buzzsaw Indonesian kång. Really can't think of a better way to lay the foundation for the first full week of June. Look at at the calendar and wonder where the first half of the year went, blast "Nation On Fire" and wonder where your life is going. 

NAILBITËR

WIPES

 

Some punks in the 40-and-older set gonna listen to this and blurt out TOTAL FURY and RAZOR'S EDGE and I want you to listen to me when I say: 'They're right.' Don't know where this band came from (hint: it's Japan) or how I missed the EP on Crew For Life or the BOYCOTTT SENTENCE split (hint: I'm old and out of touch), but I'm here now and I am on Team WIPES. Shit, I'm the fukkn team captain or the head cheerleader or some shit. "Stupid Sense Border" into "Midsummer" is pretty much perfect, and I take this moment to give thanks to Thrash Tapes for the domestic cassette version of this unsung masterpiece (the Japanese wax is on Hardcore Survives, and is now atop my need list).

W.P.O.