SURAM

 

Four slabs of lo-fi bluesy stoner doom with some of the most desperate vocals you will hear this week. While the first sentence does a pretty good job of summing up Tanpa Kepastian, I feel it's worth noting how much the raw production and delivery adds to SURAM's appeal. Some bands rely on production, some bands don't need the production and still benefit from it. SURAM exist outside of it and the shit is filthy. "Alam Liar" is the choice cut - creating a space for themselves somewhere between BLUE CHEER and DOPETHRONE. You can try to figure out how they pull that off if you like, I'll just be here jamming. 

TANPA KEPASTIAN

INYECCION

 

I remember having a hard time putting INYECCION in a box that made sense when this bomber dropped a few years ago. By the time Porqueria came out I think the collective punk world had more or less figured out what do 'do' with them, but this demo was a complete head scratcher. You know the sounds - raucous Japanese pogo, Latin American anarcho/DIY hardcore and fierce UK punk are all here in spades - and INYECCION make it feel like you haven't heard them all together like this. Full force dupa-dupa with ferocious shrill vocals trading off with a sharp bark...and that guitar. GAI caliber sonic damage giving these riffs the fukkn business. I figure folks probably lumped them in with THE WANKYS and the like (right?) and they weren't wrong if they did. For me.....? I'm gonna lump them into their own fukkn world. 

INYECCION

JUST A PRODUCT

 I've shared a couple of JUST A PRODUCT demos before, and these songs also appear on the Free As A Tree demo so maybe one could argue that I don't need to share them here today. But some piece of shit yuppie didn't have to call SFMTA and have my van towed for blocking their driveway today....but they did it anyway. Here's the thing though; while you can not honestly argue that I actually blocked their driveway, you can certainly argue that these tracks are worth listening to (again). If ever there was a band that bridged '80s UK punk and '90s college/alt/grunge, then Bulgaria's JUST A PRODUCT is exactly that band. 

8 TRACKS

FOGBANK

 

This shit is fukkn nasty and after the weekend that just dominated my reality FOGBANK is precisely what I am looking for. Take S.H.I.T. caliber squirms then inject shirtless '80s Detroit energy and a healthy dose of ferocious Midwest basement hardcore and....well, FOGBANK are precisely what I'm looking for. "Fed Smoker" on repeat is all I want in my life today, and raw bombastic hardcore is what I need. Tomorrow I'm gonna start with "Marlboros And Molotovs" and then probably terminate existence. Because....why bother? Hardcore rules. 

[REDACTED]

FAMILY STONED

 

First off, FAMILY STONED is legit one of the coolest names I can remember hearing. Next....? FAMILY STONED are (still) one of the coolest bands I can remember hearing. Timeless early-(last)decade collage/alt on speed - hopelessly infectious and gloriously awkward except when they're perfect.  You ever hear something lazily described as "early '70 Ann Arbor meets late '80s Amherst with a tinge of sad drug addled college basement/alt" or do you read boring analytical descriptors? Just curious. "I'm not the man who wears the crown" sayeth the vocalist....and I couldn't agree more. 

DON'T BE ABOVE ME

STAND PROUD, STAND DISORDER

 

Seventeen Yogyakarta street punk bands you've (probably) never heard of unless you're from Yogyakarta. I'm not from there....hell, I've never even been there....but I have heard a fair few street punk bands in my day and I didn't know anyone on this taper until I heard this tape. So let us learn together, punks. Let's learn about PO'O'OI!, POSON OF YOUTH, S.L.S., SOUTHERN DISORDER, DIRTY CIVILIAN, PEPPERMINT and more. Let us get loud and coarse. 

STAND PROUD, STAND DISORDER

KASIDAH

 

Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî is a long form poem from the 1800s, presented here by Daniel Higgs with sonic interpretation/s by Buck Curran and Jefferson Zurna. "The Kasidah is essentially a distillation of Sufic thought in the poetic idiom of that mystical tradition." It's Thursday as I write this. 

THE KASIDAH