KAKERLAK

 

Twenty minutes of brutal and disorienting harsh noise wall punctuated by a few subtle respites. Actually....there are no respites.
This shit is just sonic brutality.
Kinda like an ocean crashing into your face.
I could say so many more things, but....just listen.
Loudly.

THIRST, HUNGRY, SEX & SAFETY

Yes...Play at High Volume.

THE EXPLOITED

 

Starter bands are a weird animal - the cool kids seem to steer clear of them (publicly), but please will someone try to convince me that SHITLICKERS hit harder than the first three (or six) EXPLOITED records? Ask me which one I "like" more and I'll give you an answer, but I will also put "Rival Leaders" up against anything you have to offer, and I'll die on that fukkn hill. "Warsystem" is cool and perfect and everything (of course) but if you want to tell me that it's objectively better than "Psycho" or the title track here....well, that's gonna be a discussion. DIY punk and hardcore rules, straight up and no question - but there's a reason why starter bands are "Starter Bands," you know? It's where you start. Group Sex and In God We Trust, Inc and Hear Nothing... and Damaged and Zen Arcade are essential, that's why there are hundreds of thousands of copies pressed and you can find them in any reputable shop. Well, perhaps the most single genre defining UK82 record was released by THE EXPLOITED....in 1983. And you should al know every note of eery song. Fuck me this shit is so good. 

LET'S START A WAR...SAID MAGGIE ONE DAY

**************************************************
I've only seen THE EXPLOITED once - and it was in an environment that was perfect for a complete shit show experience that would completely crush all expectation and adulation. 

They were fucking untouchable. 

PRAXIS // ALTERCADOS

 

I hope it never seems like I'm buried in or obsessed with nostalgia here - I love sounds. Period. I have connections with a lot of sounds and some sounds are important to me for different reasons than other sounds are important to me...but I get a charge out of listening to something that meant something for someone else to create. I always have, I still do, and I hope that I always will.  That said....this split makes me feel nostalgic, and that's okay. Two ripping political fastcore bands from Chile circa 2000. That's it y'all, that should be all you need. ALTERCADOS give serious LIFES HALT vibes while PRAXIS land closer to what we called "melodic hardcore" at the time, and there are moments where I feel like I'm listening to a subgenre of Japanese punk that I can't quite put my finger on*...plus the lead guitar is out of fukkn control. I like 'em both, but the ALTERCADOS side is legit next level shit. So I heard it for the first time and I thought of shit from a different era-  but this is from a different era and I'm hearing it for the first time. Fukk - what if this split is actually just a time machine?

LA MAQUINARIA DEL DESCONTENTO

* Yes, I fully realize how stupid it is to compare something to a "subgenre of Japanese punk that I can't quite put my finger on." Sorry. 

LUCEMORTIS

 

A few weeks ago I (we) went to a metal show and LUCEMORTIS was playing as we walked in. Shit was putrid. Chaotic. Manic. Brutal. Messy. It was great. Make up and chalices and incense and all that shit. It was great. Later, we were watching this other band set up. I don't remember the band's name, I just remember that these fools (they were children) were concentrating on affixing their cloaks and coordinating a simulated (theatrical) sexual assault instead of making sure their guitar amps worked. Then they started playing and it was admittedly pretty cool, but I kept thinking about LUCEMORTIS. Those kids? It just felt calculated and intentional - it didn't seem natural. But LUCEMORTIS? Shit, it was as if these dudes had been chilling in their cousin's living room doing bong hits and talking about Satan and shit when someone was like "bro - we have a gig" and they grabbed the inverted cross candle holder (with chains) that was already set up in the living room (with chains on it) and stumbled down the corner to lay waste to some dive bar. These dudes just felt real, you know? You can't quantify it, and you can't put a finger on it - but in the world of (modern/underground) metal, LUCEMORTIS just hit/s different. 

HELLUCINATIONS OF INFERNAL PSYCHOSIS

HEAVY TEMPLE

 

It's hard for me to describe which (and how many) nerves this one struck a nerve when I listened the first time, but I can assure you that that nerve count has only increased with subsequent blasts. IDES OF GEMENI, MOTÖRHEAD, LOST GOAT, PENTAGRAM, SLEEP - it's all here...and there's more. But the "more" is HEAVY TEMPLE. Which is to say that this band deserves to be classified and categorized with those aforementioned references because.....I don't know man, I'm just a middle aged dude with an opinion. And in my opinin, this HEAVY TEMPLE is really fukkn good and the rest of their shit is really good too.  

CHASSIT

WEST COAST MENNONITE CHAMBER CHOIR

 
Remember in the '80s  (....maybe '90s?) when some dark house/techno maniacs discovered Gregorian chants? I feel like it kinda happened around the same time as that one ENYA conquered the Western World, but maybe I've got that all mixed up. Anyway, someone should start fucking with chamber choir remixes and I suggest they start with Mennonite chamber choirs. Not surprisingly, this tape doesn't sound shit-all like those Gregorian chants or ENYA, I'm just saying there's an opportunity here for...someone. 

SONGS OF EARTH, ECHOES OF HEAVEN

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MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL PRESENTS...

I remember seeing this one in shops when I moved to SF in '95, but for whatever reason I remember thinking it was too......too something. Maybe it was because MRR was The Institution and we felt like we were doing The Real Punk Shit (honestly, we were just two years removed from booking a tour using contacts pulled from microfiche at the college library so we kinda had a point), but really it was probably because I didn't know shit. Looking back though, what an incredible fukkn comp - DEAD SILENCE, CRINGER, NAUSEA, LIBIDO BOYZ, THE DETONATORS, SCREECHING WEASEL (when Ben was just a shit stirrer and had not yet turned into a complete shit), JAWBOX...you get the drill. Basically this was glimpse of the various '90s USDIY punk scenes n 1989, which is a polite way of saying that Tim Yo knew exactly what the fuck he was doing. And even though I never met the man face-to-face, I owe him more than I could possibly type. 

THEY DON'T GET PAID

THEY DON'T GET LAID

BUT BOY DO THEY WORK HARD!

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In other news - REALISTIC in Oakland this evening with some cool bands I'll be seeing for the first time:

PRE-MARITAL SEX

 

Seriously punks, the things you find if you keep your ears/eyes/hearts open will amaze you. As far as I can tell, PRE MARITAL SEX started somewhere around Santa Barbara around 1990 and may or may not have relocated to the Bay Area. Also I might be wrong. Where and whenever they were from, they created a maniacal sex-positive cacophony that was way ahead of its time - California punk with classic UK anarcho energy and early decade USDIY ethos and approach creates some kind of AGENT ORANGE vs. SPITBOY vs. X-RAY SPEX amalgamation and I'm not really sure what's happening but I know it probably pissed off a lot of surfer dude-bros three decades and I know I want more. Fortunately, the kid who scored this demo (and let me borrow it so I could share it with you) copped two other demos....you're gonna get those too. I've said it (many times) before., but I'll say it again now: "You're Welcome." 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLOODY MARYS // BLOOD SISTERS

DISIPLINE

 

Brilliant and brilliantly anthemic Boston punk with serious MISFITS energy.....except DISIPLINE is on an entirely different mission. From "Get Pegged (If You Want To)" to "Consent" to the title track and (far) beyond, these punks make sex and gratification political. Because it fucking is. 

SEXUAL HEATHEN

==========

I had to edit this post for the Google because there was a butt and/or a weiner in the cover art. 

That shit is bizarre - you consider all of the shit the world today and it's a ding-dong and/or buttcrack that pushes you over the edge....? Sorry kids, the internet that brings us joy will surely be the death of us. 

GERY BURTON // CHICK COREA

 

You got a guy playing a piano and you've got a guy playing a vibraphone thing.....and they're both generally considered to be pretty good at what they do. They made this record called Duet back in 1979 and a pretty famous record label made a cassette version and I rescued it from a thrift store in the Inland Empire (which is honestly a weird thing to call a place when it's not an actual Empire and it's like 50 miles from the Coast). So here you go. 

DUET

DAS DRIP

 

FFO: early '10s NWI punk, early '80s Italian hardcore, late '00s East LA punk, Deluxe Bias. 

I figure that should be enough. 

There are (were) three drips - Sorry State did the second drip, this was the first drip. 

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

DAS DRIP

TOTAL DAMAGE

 

It feels good (sometimes) to hear something new (to you) that feels like things you already know. I had never heard Jakarta's TOTAL DAMAGE before a couple of weeks ago, but I knew the sounds - throaty, heavy hardcore with stadium crust undertones, liberal grind parts and a few INTEGRITY ghosts lurking in their collective closet - and now I know the band. Struggle For Existence was released in 2018 but the band started more than twenty years earlier, among the first wave of DIY hardcore from Indonesia. They've grown - and now I'm after a copy of 200's Police Racist Action because I want to hear how this shit started. 

STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE

Also there are parts that remind me of Polish crust (think HOMOMILITIA) and the spoken word piano driven interludes are sick and also the tape itself is kinda wrecked so the sound quality is a bit in-and-out in places. You get what you pay for though, and I haven't seen any contributions in a while (or ever). You kids keep it that way, and I'll keep it this way. 

NIGHT PROWLER

 

I got a call from a buddy last night. He's a record dude, grew up on punk in early '80s Boston before moving to SF and going deep down a free jazz hole way back before it was cool, and now he's spending retirement seeking and slinging records (which is something to aspire to, no doubt). One of his jazz connections gave him a tip about an old(er) head looking to lighten his load and after a quick phone chat my dude was on a plane to Boston. He sent me one photo as a teaser - a frame filled with Crass Records singlesall dead mint and most with the original $3.00 price tags still in tact - but the conversation that followed was him just listing off virtually every essential hardcore and punk record released before '85. Wild. "He played guitar in a punk band but wasn't really into the faster hardcore, so the SSD Kids Will Have Their Say was basically unplayed" Shit like that. He stayed up with the dude drinking coffee and digging through boxes until the wee hours in the morning - passing the physical component of one person's connection to an entire scene back into the world...I'm really glad that shit still happens based on personal relationships instead of just record sharks and the internet, you know? Anyhoo, NIGHT PROWLER is the solo project from one of the VACANT STATE (who has been in a grip of other bands dating back to the late '90s).  Crime Wave is the first of four tapes that came out in the early twenty-teens, and it sounds like Boston hardcore with a little tinge of the good upper Midwest shit. There you go...there's the connection. It's tenuous, but it's there. 

CRIME WAVE

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

 

The (very) early '90s must have been an interesting time at MRR. Like...maybe you didn't yet know that everything was about to change but you were at the helm of the most influential ship in the punk rock ocean and it was still DIY and it was still underground (mostly) and '80s hardcore was juuuuuust starting to give way to '90s DIY experimentation and the subgenres that we take for granted now were just starting to splinter and....and if you were inside the Belly Of The Bible when it seemed logical to have SOULSIDE and CRINGER and EYEHATEGOD and CHUMBAWUMBA and MELVINS and NEGAZIONE and GUTTERMOUTH and FOUR WALLS FALLING on the same radio show? Well, that was a special fukkn time. 

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #498

PESTILENT DEATH

 

So...life experiences aren't the foundation of these posts, but I do tend to lean on them to create a context so: PESTILENT DEATH. It was a few weeks ago and we were in San Diego laser focused on eating and relaxing (we achieved both). There was a show at Tower Bar - several metal bands I had never heard of and (who doesn't like adventure?!) so we rolled out. Missed PESTILENT DEATH (because who thinks a metal show at a sad ass alcoholic bar is gonna run on time [it did]) and aside from CARDINAL (different story entirely - stay tuned) it was a night of near misses. I could digress for paragraphs...instead I will focus on the band we didn't see - because PESTILENT DEATH deserve more than just your attention. PESTILENT DEATH deserve your fucking obedience. Apocalyptic death and devastation of the highest order...motherfukkr. 

PATHWAYS TO INFINITE MALIGNITY

CSUF STATESMEN BIG BAND

 

Featuring Paul Osserman on "Lead Bone" and the Bridges Brothers anchoring the Rhythm Section, this collection of recordings from the Cal State University (Fresno, not Fullerton) Big Band back in 1988 is....well, if you're trying to hear some college kids bang out some ragtime/swing cuts then it's the fukkn shit. Because that's what this is. Pete Van Per Paardt rips the 2nd Trumpet and Marla Ragland owns the 2nd Tenor and this ensemble (directed by Mark A. Marin) dishes out a solid hour of....well, something you might not expect to find 24 hours before you download a brutal death metal demo. But that's what's happening....and I'll see you tomorrow. 

SWINGZ STILL THE THING

SPORADIC

 

I ran into my pal Mike at OMC tonight when I was loading in for rehearsal (new VEXXYL track is utterly disgusting in the best possible way, by the way) and we had a pleasant stop 'n chat. In addition to the band he's been working on with Laura and HannahLynn for the better part of a decade, he said he's got a new skate-rock project in the works. I was intrigued....because of course I was intrigued. Mike said it's skate-rock because all of the members are skaters even though it doesn't fit the "skate rock" genre stereotype, and I was like "shit dude - coming from a guy who has never skated who was in a band that wrote songs about skating? this is a real skate rock band you're talking about!" Can't wait to hear his shits....and also this SPORADIC tape is rips and I bet it's really good to skate to. Maybe not? I don't know. I don't skate, remember? Never have. Twelve Y2K fastcore rippers in less than thirteen minutes here...also, none of the songs are about skating except "Skate And Destroy" which is about skating (and the title does stronly imply a pro-skating stance). The rest of the lyrics are fierce and political and I think if I skated I would probably want to listen to SPORADIC. Also there's a VITAMIN X cover, but the discussion about that band's relationship with so-called "third world" DIY punk is a discussion for a different day. I've said enough (read: too much and/or nothing) here - this tape rulz. 

HALF PIPE ON YOUR HEAD!

GARY LAMB

 

If you want to be real about it, if you want to be honest, then you'll acknowledge that there are some serious heavy hitters mingling amongst the schlock in the Bay Area's new age and early Windham Hill-adjacent realms. You had your forgettable pseudo new-age visionaries to be sure, but the hitters were....well, just spend some time with In Search Of The Turtle's Navel and get back to me if you still have any questions. This tape isn't on Windham Hill but there are time and place associations (these things matter) so I snagged Watching The Night Fall when I saw it tempting me with a 99¢ price tag. Life changing? Nope. Worth the price of admission? Absolutely. On the face it's "just" piano and....Marin County (it's not from Marin County - shit is complicated so please just stick with me here). This is the soundtrack of 1970s Bay Area idealism removed from reality, relocated to the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge (or down CA-85) with the Deadheads and the suit & tie hippies to a world comparable to that of crust punks with DISCLOSE backpatches growing vegetables and creating community in the suburbs just beyond the reach of the inner cities they still champion/ed. It's not a slag - gardens are fucking chill and I look forward to having another one in another life/time. It's just that....GARY LAMB is the sound of that, even though he is neither (I said it's complicated). Lamb is a Bay Area (Santa Cruz ish) native who was probably born into the life that others invaded....and this, my friends, opens an entirely different and equally different line of conversation. 
You see....sometimes it's just better to listen to the sounds. 

WATCHING THE NIGHT FALL

EMBALMED SOULS

 

Old school death metal crashing into a vicious low end cacophony...and that's Brasilia's EMBALMED SOULS summed up in a sentence. Pay attention when these dudes get heavy because it's exactly what you thought you wanted - throw those guitar leads on top and you're just going to be staring at your speakers before "Hatred To The Sacred" is finished. Mouth agape, feeling ignorant. Like...why did you ever even think of listening to anything else? What a waste. "Poisoned Conspiracy" comes next, and your faith in humanity is restored. 

FIRE AND SULFUR SALTE YOU

"...to hell with your beliefs..."

POWER OF IDEA

 

How the fukk does this band still get overlooked?! Yellow Thrash is a brilliant piece of grinding Japanese thrash, and there's no logical reason why the band is not held in the highest regard....but you can still find the records in bargain bins. Heavy speed/thrash metal influence, which truly sets their brand of Japanese hardcore in a league if its own....this was the first full length, and to really appreciate "Fashionable White Rice" into "Brownrice" is to know that POWER OF IDEA were more than just a band with a bottomless barrel of riffs - these punks fucking meant it.

YELLOW THRASH