BURN UNIT

 

It's 2025, and there are (likely) people in this world who think there is no place (in this world) for ignorant hardcore. But here's the thing/s: which actual world is (this) world, and also what the fuck is "ignorant," right? Lower Central Valley Hardcore of the highest fucking order here, utter destruction creeping in under the cover of punk....one quarter hour of visceral power. There is absolutely a place in this world (my world....our world) for BURN UNIT. If your knuckles are bleeding...? That's your problem. 

BARELY HUMAN

CHARLES MINGUS

 

I left Ponca City in 1990 when I was seventeen. Enrolled in classes at the University of Oklahoma and moved into the dorms (required for first year students) and learned some life lessons that I should have paid more attention to (especially in retrospect). Spend a few months working in the scraping room at the cafeteria, which was every bit as nasty as it sounds) and then got a job as a graveyard baker at the hippie cafe, where I would remain until I left for Los Angeles in '94. The bakery was run by a powerful woman named Beverly who new her shit and took no shit - lots of stories and lots of laughs and just generally a good person to work with and/or for. Her partner was a jazz pianist who occasionally helped out and would sometimes just chill in the wee hours after gigs....and it was on these nights that I had my first real exposure to jazz. I really only "knew" the starter artists that would get mentions in mainstream rags so I understood that John Coltrane and Miles Davis were important and I had that Spy vs. Spy record andthought I knew something about Ornette Coleman (I didn't). But Beverly and her dude would play Sun Ra, Cannonball Adderley, Gábor Szabó, Pharoah Sanders, MODERN JAZZ QUARTET and countless other acts that I had never heard of while they tried to describe to me the nuances of free jazz, hard bop, Afro-Futurism and third stream. I never fully switched gears and I never really dove in, but those lessons and those sounds made the $4/hour I was getting for those bakery shifts seem more than worth it. Somewhere in that mix was my introduction to Charles Mingus....which is obviously the only connection between that story and this post. Check Larry Coryell's guitar on "Noddin Ya Head Blues" because that shit is just....damn. 

THREE OR FOUR SHADES OF BLUES

BRICKLAYER

 

I can't even with the lineage here, and I can barely even think about getting into an honest analysis of the contents. You like intense, raw hardcore / punk? Then you like BRICKLAYER. I have a vague unfounded memory of CHARLES BRONSON covering HÜSKER DÜ's "Bricklayer" and slagging off people who worshipped at the altar of Zen Arcade on the lyric sheet, but it turns out they were actually covering "Punch Drunk" which doesn't change the fact that I felt slagged off when I read that lyric sheet. How does that relate to this band called BRICKLAYER? Well.....it doesn't, but somehow that anecdote felt relevant. You know what else feels relevant? This Washington band called BRICKLAYER. Apparently there's an LP that I need, several of these songs are on it. 

BRICKLAYER

DEHUMANIZED

 

Treat DEHUMANIZED as a reset; let their sounds drag you back into the depths. Brutal and unforgiving OSDM with proto-slam breakdowns that were way ahead of their time (in 1998). Let Prophecies Foretold act as a reminder that the primal can be beautiful....shut out the noise and sink into beauty. The noise will still be there when you're finished, and your path after "Doomed To Die" fades away is entirely yours. 

PROPHECIES FORETOLD

SUMATERA DISTORTION

 

Wild fukkn hardcore/DBeat comp with eighteen bands from Sumatra I had never heard of until yesterday. The cover says nineteen bands but.....maybe I just suck at editing which in turn sucks for you if you're tryna figure out what is what. But don't concern yourself with annoying details like than because every song rips so fukk it. Right? Right. Hardcore, grind, DBeat, crust, modern dupa-dupa squirms...the island of Sumatra fukkn delivers. CFD played the capital city of Medan in 2008 and there were 27 bands on the bill...I think it was a Tuesday. This collection was released in 2021 and all of the raw energy is still there - I'd love to go back and do that all again. Fukk - what I would give to just do the whole fukkn thing over from scratch, you know? Experience it all for the first time again. Instead there's this...and it's a killer consolation prize.  MEJA MAKAN, B.O.O.T., TOTAL GALAU, KUBU RIOT, THE PUNX TERIGU, TORRENT, RAWAN and loads more. Comps still rule - enjoy your Friday. 

SUMATERA DISTORTION: CASSETTE COMPILATION

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Tell me this isn't the most TE-appropriate description you've seen on these pages.
DISTORTION CASSETTE COMPILATION

SPLEEN

 

More punks and skins (and black met'lers) playing hopelessly catchy dark punk. More instant classics, this time from Montreal's SPLEEN. There's a hint of RED DONS and maybe even a sprinkle of Nuggets here and there to keep it (even more) interesting. SPLEEN might have flown under your radar for a while, as then did mine....but you don't have an excuse anymore. 

SPLEEN - "II"

C.A.M.O.

 

Remember the early 2010s when it seemed like every raw punk and their distortion-damaged cousin started making hard driving DIY goth punk? It was a magical era to be sure - a (brief) blip in time when FUNERAL PARADE grabbed everyone by the throat and I had an epic drive to Portland. VAASKA gave way to DESKONOCIDOS and every DBeat show had a band with lots of delay pedals on the bill. You see, C.A.M.O. isn't just a sound - C.A.M.O. is a fucking moment. If you missed it (and there's no shame whatsoever if you did), that moment is here now. Live it with me. 

COMBATIVE ANTHEMS MOTIVATE OUTCRY

EMERALD STARA

 

"These guided meditations are designed to help you explore crystals and crystal energy, and to contact and experience your ever-expanding self and the wonders of your own being. To assist you in aligning with your intrinsic knowledge, wisdom and love and to help you release your own innate powers of creativity into your physical world."
•••
She said it - why would I try to say it any better?
•••

A DROP OF LIGHT: CRYSTAL VISUALIZATIONS

STELLARIUM

Some of the killerest and most perfect shoegaze rehash/worship I have ever heard. Ever. From anywhere or any time. Full stop. You want to rewind to Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1988 and I would have kicked OCEAN BLUE to the curb, maybe even that SUNDAYS disc that floated around my collection for longer than it should have (even though it's still great and the "Wild Horses" is better that I am comfortable admitting). STELLARIUM are all those references plus STONE ROSES and the first two RAKTA records and Bug-era Dino Jr. all at once. If it sounds like it was meant to be.....it was. They were. The shit is real. Rarely have I listened to a thing and wanted so fukkn badly to have the entire thing in my mind all at once.

STELLARIUM

PORTUGUESE BAND OF SAN JOSE

 

Maybe I'm just checking to see if you're paying attention, but this is the shit I snag whenever I can. This was important to someone in the moment - I still have (somewhere) the 1989 OMEA 12" with my name buried in the credits....so I get it. From a strip mall thrift store to the internet, may your accomplishments live, oh Portuguese Band Of San Jose. Thirty-one years later, we remember and we honor you. 

PORTUGUESE BAND OF SAN JOSE - 1994

ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ

 

Earlier this week I had an early start in Santa Clara (for the far-away visitors, that's about 45minutes south of San Francisco, where I live) and I didn't feel like listening to news and/or current events on my drive, even though that's typically my go-to "entertainment" when I drive. I scanned the FM dial past the religious shit and the weird low frequency R&B stations hoping for some public radio drive time avant entertainment and a folk-ish song grabbed me so I hovered...and then I stayed. The DJ was talking about artists I'd never heard of but then he'd mention JOHN FAHEY or PAULINE OLIVEROS between tracks and I figured it was a station I should stick with. I was right....it was good - so good that I kept the digital dial in that same spot for my drive back to SF later that morning. The station? No clue, didn't pay attention. The artists that serenaded me as I drove south towards inescapable corporate drudgery? No clue, didn't pay attention. But while I was listening....I was there, and that was exactly what I needed. Because I wasn't here (which was, to be fair, there when I was listening then). ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ doesn't sound anything like anything that I heard that day....but I didn't know what to do with ACCIDENT INSTANTANÉ until that moment, shit had just been sitting here waiting for the right day. And on that day, I knew that the right day was this day. 

PASSION VICTIME

TERJE RYPDAL + MIROSLAV VITOUS + JACK De JOHNETTE

 

It's hard to believe that this is a three person project, but jazz be like that sometimes. Drum forward, hard driving, surreal and ethereal....it's like being invited to someone else's trip, you dig? Prolific Czech bassist MIROSLAV VITOUS (from WEATHER REPORT), Norwegian guitarist TERJE RYPDAL who ECM called the "tone poet of the Stratocaster" and American drummer JACK DeJOHNETTE who has played with Miles Davis (he's the main drummer on Bitches Brew, so there's that), Alice Coltrane, Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins and.....I'm wondering why you still need more. Listen to the cymbal laden ambient masterpiece "Den Forste Sne" and the cymbal-laden "Will" and then...go back and listen to everything else here. Carefully. Don't just hear the sounds....listen to the sounds. Deeply listen please. 

 TERJE RYPDAL // MIROSLAV VITOUS // JACK De JOHNETTE
Can you imagine how many brilliant ECM records there are....? If I decided to dig in I feel like I might never come up for air.

FUNKADELIC

 

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert here....I'm just tryna shake my ass while I get ready for work. 1975's Let's Take It To The Stage is an absolute clinic - psychedelic afro-futurist boogie of the highest order. If you haven't, then please do. Your ass will thank you.

LET'S TAKE IT TO THE STAGE

TRAIN IN VAIN

That quote kinda says it all, right? To think that in 2005 there was a band in Indonesia trying to revive the 2001 Bandana Thrash period....well, there was, and I would have lost my shit if I had seen TRAIN IN VAIN in 2001. Or 2005. Or literally fucking ever. Thirteen songs in eleven minutes, blistering fastcore of the highest order. There's a BETERCORE cover, and blasting this shit made me think of the WHN? show with BETERCORE in Mannheim very (very) long time ago. If I recall correctly, we talked about peanut butter.

FULLSPEEDFASTTERROR

LUKE SWEENEY

 

BOWIE, CUDDLY TOYS, MOTT THE HOOPLE, CHILTON, T. REX, FANTASY....the blueprint has been public domain for decades. Any interested party should know how to make it happen and make it right, so why is it that acts like LUKE SWEENEY only seem to appear once in a blue moon? And why do they always seem to be lurking in the shadows? If this were a self released two song 45 released in 1974....? Well, you know. 

MISS ME? / TIE MAO TO MINED

PERDICIÓN

 

What an absolute fukkn beast. PERDICIÓN came from out of nowhere (actually they're from Tijuana) and knocked me on my ass in a Muay Thai gym a couple of weeks ago. Raw and brutal lo-fi metallic crust with a serious classic heavy metal bent. You know the sounds, and PERDICIÓN felt like an old friend the instant I heard them. 

TRANSTORNOS CTÓNICOS

CLUB FOOT ORCHESTRA

 

There was something different about CLUB FOOT ORCHESTRA. Equal parts '80s prog-ska and WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY, they just play so confidently weird that you might just forget that you think that you don't like whatever it is they're playing. I don't know what it is (was), and I don't even know if I like it. But I still listen. Repeatedly. 

KIDNAPPED

ZOLOA

 

Remember the early '10s when the punk underworld was buzzing with every new Silenzio Statico release and the closet metal freaks were salivating any time a new Crepusculo Negro tape dropped? And then there was ZOLOA....the were both worlds. All of the worlds. Raw OSDM and DISRUPT  and ScandiCrust and black metal destruction and MISERY all at the same time (likely on different turntables at different speeds). Tell me "Sicario" doesn't waste your ass and I'll tell you we aren't friends - simple as that. It's the mid '20s now, and I still buzz when I blast this shit. 

PLATA O PLOMO

D-70's

 

This was a freebie that Paul from Ragin' casually tossed in the pile when I snagged that grip of Lowrider and Barrio comps. Dude just added it to the pile like it was nothing special because he rolls that deep in the special shit...and rest assured that this is special shit. I could tell you it's essentially a disco comp, and you'd probably decide to blow it off. I could tell you that you probably know most of the songs here, and you'd probably decide that it's not worth your time. But you see.....those would be wrong decisions, because this mix is one of the best dancefloor smashers I have heard. Period. Every song is a straight killer, the sequence and the segues are simply flawless. PETER JAQUES, GIORGIO MORODER, SYLVER CONVENTION, DONNA SUMMER, THE MUSIC MAKERS, THE TRAMMPS, FOXY....and even though there is so much more, this comp is so much more than the simply sum of its parts, you know? Listen at full volume, and appreciate the generosity of others. 

D-70's

VAQUERO.S

 

Sometimes you just wake up and you want to feel good. You are conscious of the negative, you're aware of the challenges, you might even feel helpless in the constant struggle against both....but you yearn to approach everything with a positive determination. VAQUERO.S are perfect for times like these. You can feel the honesty in their voices and you can soak up the joy that they take in enjoying life itself, even if that life holds a boot on their neck (I'm not saying life did that to them, but if it had.....then VASQUERO.S would still party, you know?). Listening to VASQUERO.S on a day when every dickhead you see is either going to spend the day whining about an anniversary or political division, listening to VASQUERO.S feels like watching a liter of blood gush out of a Nazi's neck......because in that moment, you feel like everything is gonna be okay. Because Nazis are really bad but ballads and accordions are really good, you know?

(ESTEREO)

WIRE

 

• I first heard WIRE around the time of the mid-era Ahead and I was super into it. I didn't know anything about their origins and/or influence, just as I couldn't begin to comprehend their context or influence - it was just a really cool and danceable new wave record that sounded somehow....different.  

• I saw WIRE only once, roughly thirty years after A Bell Is A Cup...Until It Is Struck was released. They played at Slim's in SF and I was pleasantly floored at how much they did not give a fukk at all about their hits or the songs that most attendees likely wanted to hear. I think they mostly played stuff from Nocturnal Koreans and Send but I can't really be sure, I just know that people were filing out and I was enthralled.  
• I am low-key obsessed with solo Bruce Gilbert material, particularly Insiding and The Shivering Man, this information is interesting perhaps only to me and does not in any way relate to Document And Eye Witness by WIRE. I also was a big fan of HE SAID when Hail was released. I still am. 
• These recordings are incredible, capturing the band at the very onset of not giving a fukk. I read somewhere that this Rough Trade release represented the end of "the first era" of WIRE but I almost feel like this was WIRE intentionally killing external perceptions of that era. Listen to what they did to 12XU and think about a band wanting to defy and destroy convention in real time. This wasn't "art punk," this was "punk" in its purest form. Sound without rules. 
• This 1981 release compiles songs performed and recorded in 1979 and 1980. Songs performed and recorded by a band who were clearly exhausted by punk conventions just a few years after punk's inception. I think all rational and reasonable listeners of punk are grateful for their disdain and /or disillusion because how fukkn boring would it be if we just listened to DAMNED and UK SUBS all the time, you know?
• DAMNED and UK SUBS are both great bands....WIRE is, was and will always be more interesting than either. 

DOCUMENT AND EYE WITNESS

YOUTH AVOIDERS

 

I was assigned to review a record by YOUTH AVOIDERS forever ago and I recall needing repeated listens to fully wrap my head around what they were doing. It was never a matter of whether or not I liked it, it was trying to figure out where they were coming from and what their intentions were.....and honestly I'm still not sure. From a foundation of consistently driving and intentionally repetitious punk very much along the lines of LES THUGS and/or LA FRACTION, YOUTH AVOIDERS add a melody that owes more to OBSERVERS than their country-folk, there's the (almost) Deathreat Davis vocals...and there's something extra infectious about the clean guitar that pierces through the mix. There's a world where someone might hear these sounds a couple of times and think "Oh cool, I've heard shit like this before" and move along. I get it - and I admit that I was dangerously close to doing the same thing myself but something kept drawing me in and demanding that I pay closer attention. Listen to that something, because it's here. YOUTH AVOIDERS have the indefinable something that allows them to morph punk music that you understand and recognize into punk music that you feel. 2018's Relentless was their final release (I believe), and it capped an almost decade long string of recordings that deserve a place on a very short list. 

RELENTLESS

MINUS

 

Raw and brutal Indonesian street punk. It retrospect, it sounds kinda hopeless.....which is probably why I like it. Twenty-one songs, metallic and desperate. 

DISCOGRAPHY (1992-2000)

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

 

Doubling up on the comps this week to take a look at what the tastemakers at Maximum Rocknroll were shoving down our throats 32 years ago today. Honestly, this is a little taste of why some of "us" (I'm talking about some nebulous, royal "us" as in 'a general vibe not necessarily supported by facts') started to sour on the mag during the middle of the '90s. There was a perception that Tim & The Gang were moving away from hardcore and the burgeoning (and more metallic) crust/PV movements and just leaning on rehashed garage rock standards and classic "punk," just as they famously slammed the door on what was then called emo so drastically. Never mind the motivation behind any of the editorial decisions or the validity of any of these impressions....just listen to this radio show and know that, simply put: the nebulous, royal "we" were wrong. Garage rock? Sure, tons of it. Absolute screamers from PSYCHOTIC TURNBUCKLES, PSYCHOS, HEADCOATEES, MOE TOWN. Pre-alt/grunge explosion early cute from SMASHING PUMPKINS and MODHONEY. You've got NAPALM DEATH, FRUMPIES and GERMS in the same hour. And then there's the real reason we did (and still do) tune into MRR Radio - unknown and under-the-radar tracks from PRESSURE 28, FIGHTERS, JUDGE NOTHING, WOMBELS (the surprise highlight of this show for me), KEEP and others. These shows are fukkn priceless, period. And that magazine was (is) an institution for a fukkn reason. 

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #594

CHANNEL THREE

 

How far they fall...and how fukkn fast. Listen to CHANNEL 3 shredding live in 1982 and then imagine that this abomination was recorded just three years later - it's wild. You can talk about contemporaries who released seminal hardcore/punk recordings and then descended into the murky butt rock underworld; SSD is an obvious example, F.U.'s get mentioned as well but My America still rips even though it's not a raw hardcore record. Sticking with California though, T.S.O.L. is the easiest comparison but fukk man....at least they were gradual, at least Revenge is still a pretty good record and honestly I actually liked Hit And Run when it came out in '86 (still have the copy I snagged when it was current, in fact). But these assholes went from one of the best SoCal punk songs ever ("You Make Me Feel Cheap" from 1982's Fear Of Life) to a ripping sophomore effort in '83 to....this piece of garbage. Like, it's like a full fucking hour of the montage song from '80s teen movies - the song you hear the edgy band in the club playing when the square girl is going to meet the mysterious boy in the leather jacket, But this is the wholesome version. Look at the cover photo/s - it's like they were trying to ape GANG GREEN's party-punk aesthetic but make it suitable for a photo spread in Teenbeat. Even the songs that seem good in the moment (I'm looking at you, "Penance Of Passion") are sonic turds when you listen with perspective - it's like a grundgingly palatable version of a thing that fukkn blows, you know? This was released on Enigma, who were also responsible for the aforementioned Hit And Run shortly after this complete waste of resources....almost makes you wonder how many other bands they sucked the soul out of in the 1980s. To be fair, THE DEAD MILKMEN and WIRE were both on the roster at the same time so clearly the label wasn't all bad, but there were a lot of people on the payroll who presumably signed off on this release...and that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of their hiring practices or quality control standards. Someone even approved the AEROSMITH cover - and it's a song that's only memorable because of the title (which is admittedly good - but this version sucks more than the original, which totally sucks). I bought this tape for $4 last weekend at a shop in Fresno along with an ALBERTO Y LOS PARANOIAS album that I hoped would be better than it is, a coupla ELVIS records and a folk jammer I snagged because it had a cool gatefold photo of a dude chilling on an outhouse shitter. And after listening to all of them, I only regret one of those purchases and I'm left wondering why this recording even exists. So...enjoy?

LAST TIME I DRANK...

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UPDATE: After feeling disgusted with myself for digging so deep into this tape, I decided to check 1989's Rejected and it sounds like it's even worse. Man, I fukkn love those first two records though, and they are still active...kinda sound like SMITHEREENS-tinged California melodic punk now.