OPIOD CRISIS

 

This is the kind os post that could end up as one declarative sentence or a stream of drool and babble while I fall over myself trying to explain and/or define every nuance - logically it will end up somewhere in the middle but the point will be the same: Do. Not. Skip. This. There's something in the water in Vienna these days, and there are some kids there who rival 2000s Boston in their ability to take a thing, emulate it, and make it their own. First it was BACKYARD, who worshipped at the altar of PLUTO/NO LESS/DOOMRYDERZ. Then I heard TONAL SHIFT and I couldn't stop thinking about that show in Pomona a lifetime ago (mostly TOTAL FURY though). And then there was this....three pieces of low end distorted filth that bridge a gap between DYSTOPIA and hell. I implore you to focus on the way OPIOD CRISIS use distortion and recording limitations to make "Prenatal Exposure" (particularly the beginning) sound as demonic as anything I've heard - the song itself feels possessed. And then there's the title track "Favelas De Brutas," a seven-plus minute opus that left me absolutely stunned. These kids take their craft so much further that simple worship, and I can only imagine what it will be like when they make their next move. 

FAVELAS DE BRUTAS

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.
----

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.

====================================

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.

SPOOKY VISIONS

 

There's something particularly and peculiarly special about a solo project when everything hits, you know? Of course we all love when a group of individuals present as one fine tuned sonic machine, but the freedom of one vision unencumbered is something truly unique. And when it works, it's beautiful. SPOOKY VISIONS works - fiery synth punk that is undeniably punk. We're talking late '70s first wave California shit reimagined in a new century Rust Belt basement (or closet) - a project that owes everything to the past while borrowing nothing. Instead, SPOOKY VISIONS create the shit they wish they had been able to hear in their own adolescence....so you don't have to wish. You can just have. You're welcome.

SPOOKY VISIONS

ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK // DC HARDCORE

                               

Here's the deal: If someone had given me this tape in 1985 then my life would have been different. Maybe? But that didn't happen, so I have this life. I didn't have "Barbed Wire" in my life in 1985, just like I didn't have (this) "Action Man" in my life in 1986. Instead I had "The Biggest Lie," "In Sight" and "Whatever" and I am certainly not complaining.....but as I take a breath to think about how this tape would have (might have?) hit my teenage self....? Damn. I had a copy of the P.E.A.C.E. comp, but it was from my friend Eric's older brother and the bands were listed alphabetically so it was really just a mess. Shit was important even though it was a confusion that lasted well into my 20s. This tape though? The shit is all right here - in your face. Flex Your Head and A Country Fit For Heroes are both mandatory comps that are both somehow more important when collected with a few era appropriate DC bangers (MINOR THREAT, MEATMEN, THE FIX) and UK essentials (DAMNED, SCEPTICS, AMEBIX). Make mix tapes for your friends, that's really the entire point of this post. Also, punk rules. I guess it would have been super cool if someone had given me this tape in 1986, but mostly I'm happy that I blasted it today, in 2025. UK and DC essentials, just as the scrawls suggest. The shit is important. Punk is important. 

HARDCORE BANDS // ENGLISH SKIN AND PUNK BANDS

THE FREEZE

 

My hand slipped when I was scanning the cover - that's gonna happen when you're cranking seminal Boston hardcore at 2am and I don't feel the need to apologize. Still blown away at the progression from "I Hate Tourists" in 1980 to this infectious hardcore masterpiece just two years later, but really I just don't understand why this record isn't up on the altar alongside the USHC essentials. This is the 1990s Taang! reissue that was available in bargain bins throughout the 2000s - pretty sure this copy was $5 at the store on Melrose on a WHN? SoCal trip, and it's still available for $6 direct from the label. That's how the classics should be, and Land Of The Lost is an absolute classic. Probably the most California sounding Boston act (check "Sickly Sweet" in particular), this record (tape) is nothing but track after track after track and I can't think of a better way to spend a Thursday. So yeah...if you're still thinking about that blurry cover scan....? I'm don't really know that I can help you and you might not find what you need here. For the rest of you though.....THE FREEZE.

LAND OF THE LOST

UNDER

 

I shared this one a few years ago, but I just uncovered a duplicate and popped it in the deck last week and I found myself scraping my jaw off of the floor five minutes later so......so I'm sharing it again. UNDER deliver some of the purest, nastiest emotive power violence I have ever heard. Period. "Uneven" into "Barriers" is a master class in drawing the listener in just to crush their soul. "Faults" makes you beg for fidelity. The simple brutality of "Throne" is numbing. UNDER are an unsteady bridge between MOHINDER and ACME, a bridge that collapses before you can get to either. 

E.P.  #1

VIDEO PRICK

 

Olympia punk rules, okay? They don't have a 'sound' and they never did - they have fukkn heart and honesty. VIDEO PRICK are (were?) no exception, just another band that reinforces the rule. The rule that Olympia punk rules. Okay?

VIDEO PRICK

RAMPAGEOUS // DICKHEAD

 

What happens when the noise is not manufactured? When the chaos is simply the inevitable result of going too hard and too fast and not giving a fukk? DICKHEAD happens. What happens when you want to grind so desperately that you don't care whether or not you are capable of grinding effectively? When you grind anyway? RAMPAGEOUS happens. Suffice to say that this split is not for the faint hearted or for fidelity hunters.

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CRUST PUNK VIOLENCE // DISTORTION AGAINST SYSTEM

CHARLES MANSON

Anyone who wants these tracks probably already knows how to find them, so I guess this is for the folks who didn't know or never thought to look. Was Manson a musical genius? Nope. Is "Look At Your Game Girl" a kinda beautiful earworm? Definitely. Bonus here is Geraldo Rivera's 1988 interview that was sensationalized and broadcast as Live From Death Row - it felt salacious and dangerous at the time, and it's hard to imagine that we were barely twenty years removed from Manson as a cult leader when I was a teenager. Anyway, here's some murder hippie guitar jams. 

LIVE FROM DEATH ROW

POP HYSTERIA

 

Strap in. Aptly named POP HYSTERIA create a space between BLURT and fIREHOSE and they ooze confidence while they occupy that space. It's been quite a long time since I have heard a band pull off a sound this effortlessly, "To Live And Die On The 405" is the most important song you didn't know you needed. 

PAPA STEREO