COUMADIN

 

(This) reality breeds desperation. Unspeakable stress collides with constant uncertainty, and it feels heavy beyond words (sometimes). It feels like a weight that envelops and suffocates you - limiting hope first. Air second. This is what COUMADIN sounds like. Like a slog. Disorienting. Slow-motion excrutiation. 

COLD EYES

ONE BAD PIG

 

The fifth full length from Austin's premier (?) christian punk band is shockingly good - even though much of the enjoyment comes from the eyerolls while reading the lyrics. "You're A Pagan" is a legit thrash/punk ripper and there are several tracks here that transcend ideology. Serious party punk with occasional Dr. Feelgood vibes and more funk/punk undertones than anyone should be comfortable with. I sit with these tracks and read the lyrics and....well, there's a lot of confusion here. The 5+ minute hair metal anthem "Cut Your Hair," the would-be should-be SXE thrasher "Sober Up" that turns into a skamedy (that's ska+comedy) track, "Never Forget The Cross" in its entirety....there's just a lot here. I have a lot of questions - I'm a curious person. 

I SCREAM SUNDAY

The only tag this thing gets is TEXAS. 

WEEKEND AT GRITTY'S

 

I don't know how many times I will tell you that a well crafted and curated mix tape is a wonderful thing....but here I am telling you again today that a well crafted and curated mix tape is a wonderful thing. Weekend At Gritty's is the seventh in the Pinhole Mixtape series (the first five volumes are already here - the sixth is....well, you're gonna have to wait for Halloween or something) and the brilliance in construction is perhaps best demonstrated when the curator rolls effortlessly from NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL to JEF THE BROTHERHOOD to a cut from Return Of The Living Dead. This mix is soundtrack heavy, which makes for an even better "casual" listen that allows you to relax and drift before yanking the leash with cuts from SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET, JESUS AND MARY CHAIN or THE SQUALLS. It's a gorgeous listen...highest recommendation.

WEEKEND AT GRITTY'S

SLYTTER

 

Wild freak and/or dirt punk amalgamation...like SONIC YOUTH conjuring STOOGES, CRUCIFUCKS, FLIPPER and '76 NYC punk at the same time and making you feel like you were an idiot (are...present tense...you are an idiot) for not understanding. It doesn't just make sense, SLYTTER feels perfectly relevant and/or present. Punk can be messy and confusing. Punk be like that sometimes.

TÆNKER PÅ DIG

DEATH RIDGE BOYS

 

Punk needs DEATH RIDGE BOYS more now than it did a decade ago when the band first reminded us that punk is protest music. "Leaders Don't Speak (For Me)" is the flagship for my ears even though every track is a stone cold classic - clenched fist power chord punk of the most inspirational order. "Out Of The City" into "Right Side Of History" will remind you that punk doesn't just offer.....punk demands. Listen. 

RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY

I believe in truth and justice - everybody has the right to be free
I believe in human rights and basic fucking decency

I believe that black lives matter - I believe in the women's march

I believe in the veterans who stood with the people at Standing Rock

SOUTH MARKET STREET JAZZ BAND

 

Sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself, and the folks in SOUTH MARKET STREET JAZZ BAND seem to want to enjoy themselves at all times. "Earnest dixieland jazz from San Diego" is a sentence I never thought I would write and especially not on these pages....and yet here we are. Once again I emplore you: pay attention to the tapes in those charity shops and thrifts stores, because they may bring you joy.  This one brought me some, and I will take all I can get. 

OH BABY!

ANTISOCIAL ACTION

 

Not going to bore you with the lineage here (though ANTISOCIAL ACTION's sole proprietor first appeared here more than a dozen years ago and the output has never stopped). What's important is noisecore. 40 tracks in just over ten minutes - carefully thought out and constructed anarcho violence and unfiltered bursts of reality addled mania. Half-minute quasi-DBeat/blastcore micro masterpieces interspersed with a barrage of sub-5 second bursts of noise. "Mangled Musick" as an example - a fully formulated abrasive (and arguably perfect) raw hardcore track followed by eleven songs that collectively consume a mere 62 seconds. And this ain't speed trials, it's not about how many and/or how fast, but the assault as concept approach is both notable and beautiful. "Anti-Tech," "Rotting Body Of Android," "Caught Up In Gears Of Slaughter" - this isn't noise for show, this is sonic abuse made out necessity. There are two more tapes....sadly I only have one of them. 

ROT IN CHEMICAL WORLD

STELLATONE

 

Another day, another under-the-radar regional banger. If you weren't in the southeast (or Mississippi), then you might have missed STELLATONE completely, but these kids pumped out a solid batch of releases during the 2010s and their brand of classic US punk tempered with spaced out heavy blues/psych deserves attention. You're gonna hear WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN and MISFITS and FLAMING LIPS and ADOLESCENTS and BLACK OAK ARKANSAS and LOST SONDS and goddamn the whole this is just so fukkn catchy that it's hard to believe.  Hattiesburg.....who knew, you know?

ASTRONOMICON

BIG LAUGH

 

As USDIY hardcore in the 2020s seems to be increasingly anchored by bands from the smaller "scenes" (don't ask me to justify this stance, it's just a vibe) labels like Unlawful Assembly are fast becoming go-to sources hot current hotness, much like Not Normal buoyed the upper Midwest scenes in the 2010s. Anyway, before SLOGAN BOY and INNUENDO  and NECRON 9....there was BIG LAUGH. Sure, the Consume Me LP on Rev is a monster, but this 2019 demo....this is basement hardcore. 

BIG LAUGH

KALX - BALE BOND

 

I repeat: These KALX broadcasts are an absolute treasure. From free jazz to classic gospel and soul to proto-industrial to frustrated noise punk to an absolute banger from a ( new to me) post-DMZ band called LYRES. An embarrassing era-appropriate track from IGGY POP flows into ESG's "You Make No Sense" ...then you remember that 45 minutes earlier you were listening to DON CHERRY, JOHN TCHICAI and ALBERT AYLER wailing into "CHRYSTAL BELLE SCRODD's "I Death" and that shit doesn't happen on the radio anymore. These broadcasts opened eyes and changed lives, and this set from Bond is casually brilliant beyond words.

KALX - 03 NOVEMBER 1986

SOFT CELL

 

Hot on the heels of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, SOFT CELL were already deep in the well documented throes of consumption by the time The Art Of Falling Apart was released in 1983. An incredibly adult synth pop record - a parade of upbeat dancefloor bangers with Almond's sweet lilt delivering legitimately dark tracks like "Loving You, Hating Me," "Forever The Same" and "Numbers," an incredibly introspective assault on consumption and promiscuity. Listening to this record in real time (or in the years after its release when I was a young teen discovering and devouring UK synth and new wave) it was just another collection of songs....I am a middle aged man now and my ears, head and heart are different. The Art Of Falling Apart is a mature and real collection of songs anchored by a tortured two verse title track. Makes me want to dance like I'm too young to drive and can't identify with any of this. Don't dismiss SOFT CELL, they're (far) more than a kitschy cover tune. 

THE ART OF FALLING APART

=============================
I'm skilled at the art of falling apart

It's the holding together, together forever

Trying all of the vices is what's doing the damage 

All the good things are bad things 

And I'm paying the prices

ARMOR

 

They do shit different in Florida. You surely know this, but rarely have you heard a better example than this ARMOR demo from 2019. It's the hardcore that you love, just delivered with a murky, dangerous, desperate edge that makes it clear that ARMOR are....different. Mayhaps no better example than "Age Of Machine," a full on juggernaut of galloping fury that slides into the down low crouch and squirm of "Daydreaming" that puts the whole thing to bed. You know these sounds, you just don't know them like this. Not yet. 

ARMOR

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

SENSUAL WORLD

 

I love everything about this - the urgency, the WIPERS caliber drive, the....songs. This is the shit that you need/ed then but it's still here for you now. You're welcome. Punk rules, ok?

REHEARSAL #2

FASLE TRUCE

 

There is perhaps no better example of Covid Creativity than Austin's FALSE TRUCE. From the isolated mind of Chris Pfeffer (STORM THE TOWER, SEVERED HEAD OF STATE, CRIATURAS, SIGNAL LOST, THE ALTARS, J CHURCH, MEADOWLARK, OBEDIENCE....need I continue?) came eight doses of urgent and force-filled BLITZ-influenced punk with subtly dark undertones. The aptly named MMXX sounds like we felt; full of joy and determination in the face of uncertainty and deceit. It had been a while since I visited these tracks....and of course they're just as powerful today as they were then. When it comes down to it, we're in the same world we were in then.

MMXX

FALSE FLOWERS

 

Saw FALSE FLOWERS last weekend at Bottom of The Hill, opening for two other bands whose names I can't remember. After their set those other bands didn't matter. After their set, nothing mattered - because their set was perfect. It's hard to apply monikers like "goth punk" to FALSE FLOWERS because these punks are elevating every subgenre they touch, and their performance was a master class. Listen to the chaos that closes "Another Lullaby" and know that dark punk done properly should never be relegated to a novelty genre. Listen to "Unsafe Numbers" and know that dark punk is just fukkn punk - this shit is literally everything. Watch FALSE FLOWERS live and know that punk can be better....that it is better. 

That show was really fucking good - this band is really fucking good. 

FALSE FLOWERS

ALABAMA

 

The first non-country concert I saw: STRAY CATS @ Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. 
The first real punk show I saw: THE DEAD MILKMEN w/BABY M in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 
Perspective is wild, because there were probably less than six years between these two events.

The first record I bought with my own money: CHARLIE DANIELS BAND Million Mile Reflections.
The first cassette I bought with my own money: ALABAMA My Home's In Alabama. 
The first punk tape I acquired: Tough call, but I traded Nikki Jorgensen my copy of BON JOVI's Slippery When Wet for her copy of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' self titled debut in 1986. 

Notable: 
• Several country concerts pre-dated the benchmark gigs - RONNIE MILSAP, KENNY ROGERS, HOYT AXTON, WILLIE NELSON, DOLLY PARTON and others. Living in Austin had its perks, even though I could have been seeing DICKS and BIG BOYS if I had been a couple of years older. 
• I read a review of HÜSKER DÜ's Flip Your Wig in an issue of Creem that I picked up from the magazine rack in Safeway; it inspired me to shoplift a copy of Candy Apple Grey a few weeks later when I was on an orchestra field trip to Oklahoma City and we went to the mall (because shopping malls were a novel treat to us small/er town kids). Shit blew my mind. 
• My step-cousin visited in 1987 ands saw that I was getting close. She bought me Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death, Never Mind The Bollocks and X's See How We Are and helped me bleach my jean jacket and paint the evil dude from ST's Join The Army on the back. I am eternally grateful, and will always remember how disappointed she was with that X record. 
• Two shows I wish I could revisit now that I know more things: GRIMPLE @ Kelly's Bar & Grill in Norman, Oklahoma (1992 I think) and BORN AGAINST in Cudahay, Wisconsin (1993). They were both milestone gigs, but I was clueless.

Really though...I still am.

THAT FIRST TAPE
My mother cleaned some shit out of my sister's room recently, and handed me a small bundle of tapes that survived the decades. Not quite ready to listen to the tapes of her talking and singing yet, but I was very happy that she held onto the shit from my younger years. I've listened to this tape hundreds of times - but last week I popped this physical copy in a deck for the first time in thirty years was truly special.

DJARABI SONGS

 

A gorgeous collection of upbeat West African love songs from artists that will be new to all but the most studied TE visitors, which is typical for Little Axe compilations. Contributors include WASSOLA FANTA, TATA DIAKITE, MAMOU SIDIBÉ and others, closing with a lament to the Sahel from IMMA BABA COULIBALI. Many things in and of this world are very ugly - these sounds are beautiful. 

DJARABI SONGS

ASPS

 

Sometimes it takes less than ten minutes to make you reconsider. ASPS is the solo embodiment of Andrea Blake (CHROME DOME, VACUUM) and their sole release is a dose of gloriously dark, minimal(ist) Australian synth that will remind the careful listener of WAX IDOLS and TJO. The causal listener will experience dark and deliberate sonic beauty...and isn't that enough?

ASPS

FUN CONTROL

 

I saw FUN CONTROL last weekend in a batting cage in San Francisco and they opened with the first song on this tape....here are the thoughts that I had watching this song live, which correspond perfectly to the thoughts I had listening to the tape for the first time:

HICKEY

CAPITALIST CASUALTIES
Y2K Thrash 

D-CLONE

UNA BESTIA INCONTROLABLE...and then I'm hearing '90s Merge Records shit start the second song before more erratic thrashcore wastes my sorry ass. More songs bring more brilliance and more confusion, because the current crop of San Francisco hardcore bands give no fukkn shits (and that's before we address the "Emptiness" issue - when you listen you'll understand). I haven't even scratched the surface.

TEST RUN

GRASP OF DYNAMITE

 

This is the embodiment of '00s stadium crust never realized......except that it was realized. TRAGEDY and and THE TOTAL END and ZEROID and FALL OF EFRAFA and....GRASP OF DYNAMITE but a decade later. They took the sounds and the energy and made it something else entirely. Something you already know but something you've never felt before...not like this. 

THE ABYSS

FULL MEAT JACKET

 

There's another (relatively well known) release titled My War but goddamn that shit if that shit doesn't escape me because it doesn't sound nearly as fucked up as this shit. FULL MEAT JACKET come off like a real and desperate internal struggle manifested as improvisational noise punk. If mental anguish had a sound, it would be FULL MEAT JACKET. If emotional frustration was a band, it might be FULL MEAT JACKET. If punk lost all pretense....it might sound like My War in 2004 (say it out loud to get the rhyme). 

MY WAR

The label boss says it better than I can, naturally. 

SOLVENT

 

Bombastic, raw Covid-era DBeat from Seattle. Six minutes of insistent distortion drenched urgency punctuated by a 55 second manipulated missive that sounds like you're standing at apocalypse beach watching studded jackets wash up onto the shore. That's how I want the world to end. 

SOLVENT