PAUL O'NEILL

 

A perfect mix tape is truly a thing of beauty. I am pretty good at them, but perfect....? I don't know that I'd go that far. Dave makes perfect mix tapes, and Jensen is a master. August though....August outdid himself with Paul O'Neill. No genre is off limits, so you get JAMES BROWN into STRANGULATED BEATOFFS. You get UNSANE into SMALL FACES. You get DENIECE WILLIAMS into BIG'N. You get COP SHOOT COP into JAMES BROWN (again....and it's the same song, which is genius).  YOu get ED HALL because August lived in Texas. The segues are perfect, every song is a banger, I'm just here hoping that he put PISSED JEANS after PAIN TEENS because the band names rhymed and more people need to know WELLINGTON because...well, just trust me. August is a one of a kind, a truly brilliant and beautiful being. And he makes a mean fukkn mix tape. So think about that while you're listening to STEPPENWOLF's "Hippo Stomp" and wondering what you've done with your life on this final day of the traditional work week. 

PAUL O'NEILL

DEAD LOCK // CHOS R.I.

 

First thought? Spending a slightly drunken evening in 2024 listening to a recording DEAD LCOK made in 2002 makes me feel like I felt when I spent countless sober evenings in 1993 listening to a recording GRIMPLE made in 1993. It's the tinny buzzsaw guitar, the snotty raspy vocals, the all go/no slow approach...it's fukk in every song and its punk as fukk, one of the fiercest sides I've blasted in a long long time. But there's a flip...and instead of mimicking the chaos punk on the other side, CHAOS R.I. thankfully opt for raw treble heavy grind and its a perfect combination. I don't know how many (more) reminders I need to convince myself that I love discovering new (to me) punk....actually, I don't need to be reminded. I love this shit. 

LIKE IT OR BE LOOSERZ!!

TV DRUGS

 

I really like listening to punk. Sometimes I go far too long without having my ears shredded live, and sometimes I go days without sitting down (in my case: pacing back and forth) and really listening to records at volume. But I blast these tapes...I rip and/or edit something damn near every night that I'm home, and these built in iMac speakers have pump countless low fidelity hours of DIY punk and noice into my earholes. Sometimes I'm distracted while I'm ripping - work, Murder The Cat, dishes - and the sounds are just kinda 'there' until I edit. But if I'm editing in a hurry I might not spend real time with these little plastic cases until it's their turn to share them here. I'm not proud of the attention that I'm (sometimes) not able to give but.....life gets in the way of living sometimes. Sometimes. Not today, but sometimes. Today? Today I'm listening to TV DRUGS on repeat. I sat down with TV DRUGS whle it was ripping and I got lost while I was editing, wondering how I could describe the magic I was experiencing....apparently I came up with nothing because here I am talking to you about shit that has nothing to do with TV DRUGS, you know? This shit fucking demands attention. This is a 'stop what you're doing and recognize" kind of tape. I hear '80s California beach hardcore, I keep hearing rockabilly in the double snare hits on "Medicated" and speaking of "Medicated" there's a desperate MEDICATION TIME energy in the vocals that I am way the fuck into. Urgent '10s North 'Merican DIY stomp vibes creep in with some frequency, but it's tracks like "Consume" and "How Far?' that push envelopes and challenge descriptors. Look, TY DRUGS released a ripping hardcore punk tape back in 2021, pure and simple. Listen properly and you'll get way more than 'just' a ripping hardcore punk tape. I've learned my lesson. 

FFO: EVERYTHING TERRIBLE

HEAVY STENCH

 

For starters: "Trash Can" is among the fiercest hardcore bulldozers you will experience today. This week. This month. It's fukkn intense, and the rest of the Death Or Danger demo is on the same level - beautiful, pure and fierce. The replication is a little muddy but that shit settles in real quick because it's punk and that's what we're used to (we're used to getting what we get, you know?) and I swear it adds extra tension to moments like the rumbling drums on the start of "Full Cycle." If you like your shit anxious and on the edge of collapse, then this HEAVY STENCH joint is going to tickle you like it tickled me. 

DEATH OR DANGER

DISKÖURSE

 

Another book that you are encouraged to judge by its cover. If you're thinking booze-fueled bombastic DBeat dis-tortion then your thoughts are on the correct path. And this path will lead you to 2017's Love Noise, Equal And Peace! from DISKÖURSE. The piercing white wash of the crash cymbals are a bizarre highlight - a noisy recording glitch instead of manufactured distortion perhaps, and it adds an element of tension that falls right in line with tracks like "N.Q.N." and "Alcohol Attack" that sound just barely out of tune enough to make you grit your teeth and regret that last beer you had before bed. Pure and beautiful kång as interpreted by some '10s crushers from Indonesia....I was into this tape when I listened for the first time and ripped it last week, but I'm fucking with it hard this morning. And if you're wondering whether or not there's a cover of "Warmachine" on this tape? Of course there is. 

LOVE NOISE, EQUAL AND PEACE!

WARCYCLE // ZUDAS KRUST

 

Total fucking bulldozer annihilation in the form of nine relentless bursts of chaos from Indonesia and Australia. Perth's WARCYCLE start with an intro that harkens AXEWIELD and then unleash crasher crust hell on alls mortals foolish enough to stand in their way. For their part, Jakarta's ZUDAS KRUST offer four sinister grinders captured on a recording that demands repeat listens. The bass tone is formidable and damaged and the guitars are either *just* out of tune or these punks are avant-crust geniuses...I'm comfortable assuming they are both, of course. "Ini Hidup Apa" is a one riff exercise in patience and makes me want to re-listen to the rest of the recording with more focus (and volume). So that's what I'm going to do now...

WARCYCLE // ZUDAS KRUST

G*U*N*N*

 

I think I maight have shared a G*U*N*N* tape before but I don't feel like clicking through the archives to check because I'm listening to "Can't Stop" on repeat at maximum volume and pretending I'm a teenager wrecking shit in my bedroom while my parents pound on the door. And still, "Thin Blue Line" is the real banger - the one song that highlights how slightly out of tune the guitar is (the guitar that also sits bizarrely outside of the overall mix in the most interesting way). This punk is furious and this punk feels honest...and as the outro attests: "You wanna hear the truth, hit up the G*U*N*N* from OC." 

DEATH OR DANGER