DEATHBED

 

As far as I can tell, this relic is the sole artifact left by a raw and depressive blackened death act from Chicago called DEATH BED. It takes them a full five minutes to start cooking, and even then they stop for a doom interlude just as you start to fall under their spell. But then.....from that point on my friends, this shit is bliss. Howling vocals in the death via screamo vein and a shameless reliance on simple riffing. They use force instead of nuance, so much so that "Hell Is Where The Heart Is" feels almost natural in its desperation by the time you get there. Do not come seeking fidelity; come here for passion and bleak honesty. 

DYSTHYMIA

OSCAR PETERSON

 

I will never pretend to be knowledgable in this realm, but I know what I like and I honor my connections to sounds. This is me with Barbara and Morris in the Lovelight bakery at 3am - Barb taking care of business while Morris was still flying from the gig he had played that night, trying to help but distracting me and frustrating her in the process. He was so consumed, obsessed...he was so into it, and he wanted to share his joy. I feel that, and that feeling transcends genre. This 1964 recording is something special - shit is simply beautiful. Morris knew that (and Barbara understood and let him hold court and hold space in that bakery), and I remember. I'm grateful and I remember. 

THE TRIO: LIVE FROM CHICAGO

MAGICAL MIND

 

Remember when I was stumbling over myself on Thursday, trying to find words to describe and/or provide context to THE WALLFLOWERS? Well, none of that here. Just pure, unadulterated, disorienting noise. One hour and twenty-four minutes of noise. Some damaged beats come in on "Part 2" (around 55 minutes into the torture). They are absolutely terrifying. It's like one of those sleep sound machines, except it's hard wired to make you lose your fukkn marbles. Strap in.

WIATHI

EXHUMED CORPSE // DOUR

 

Dark and filthy sonic murk from two sides of the same damaged coin. I keep wanting EXHUMED CORPSE to go somewhere, to do something.....and then DOUR takes out the garbage. The conscious deliberation required to create a release like this is enviable. 

BLOOD FILTER

VOIMATON

 

Maybe I should have dropped this on the live blog, even though most of y'all skip that one completely (your loss). Because it's live, I should...but because I had never heard (or heard of) VOIMATON before I snagged a party pack of dead stop metal tapes a few months ago and I suspect most of you haven't heard (or heard of) them either I dropped it right here. In your lap. So you can let the downtuned death/doom cover and smother you. You're welcome. 

LIVEWIRE LOUNGE 2019

WRATH

This CD was in one of the last promo packages I received when I was doing radio in Oklahoma, though by 1990 I was immersing myself in whatever goth and/or industrial and/or punk stuffs I could get my hands on so I wasn't particularly juiced on some Midwest thrash metal. But Insane Society scratched an itch even then, and when I saw a pristine copy of the cassette sitting on a shelf last week, I did not deny myself a little trip down memory lane. This was the third and final album released in WRATH's initial run (they got the band back together in the '10s) and their sound was fully realized here. Razor sharp mid tempo US metal clearly weaned on The Big 4 with a hollow rumbling bass vocals that teeter on the edge of being too over the top. Choice cuts are "Swarm" and "Law Of Lies," both a touch faster and more melodic, and the glorious stomp of the title tracks, but you really need to crank the whole thing - preferably while working on bikes in your garage or something. 

INSANE SOCIETY

ARMAGEDDON EXPERIMENTAL BAND

 

Tempted to just leave this one here and see if y'all know to do the right thing.

So I'm going to just leave this one here.....you know what to do. 

CRIES FROM PLANET EARTH

AFFRONT

 

Tough as nails, raw as fuck hardcore from Chicago. AFFRONT don't need a justification and you don't need to know their pedigree. You just need to listen. Listen to "Speak" and listen to "Merchants Of Death" and know that this is what hardcore sounds like when you take away all of the bullshit. When you take away all the nonsense. This is what you're left with. Eight minutes of pure. That's it....AFFRONT is pure. 

A DEMONSTRATION OF AN AFFRONT

LOS CRUDOS

 

I'm going to assume that LOS CRUDOS need no introduction in this community (and that's what we are...right?), and I'm also going to assume that this assumption is correct. This Polish release from Plague tapes collects the '91 Libertad demo, "500 Años" from the In The Spirit Of Total Resistance comp and a radio show recorded very early in the band's run.....basically? Essential shit. So here you go - maybe you didn't need an introduction...maybe you just needed a reminder. 

1492-1992: 500 AÑOS DE VIOLACIÓN Y ASESINATOS

MOCK EXECUTION

When MOCK EXECUTION exploded out of Chicago a few years ago it kinda felt like the floor dropped out from underneath me. It wasn't that we'd never heard anything like them, it was just that MOCK EXECUTION did the shit better. The riffs were fire (like, every single riff was fire) and the delivery harnessed a ferocity that defied description. And now....a half decade and several heralded vinyl releases after that first tape split my ears into pieces, Milwaukee's Unlawful Assembly gives them a platform to demonstrate that they still dominate the cassette format. 

 

REBELS WITHOUT A CAUSE

SFO

 

Figured they might have been from the Bay with the name (it's an airport), but they're from Chicago. I ripped an L7 set from 1991 the other night, and that primed me nicely for this trio - plodding, in your face, guitar heavy sludge/punk...I'm real into it, and I wish the second side hadn't been all fucked up and warbled so I could hear all six songs. Listen to "U-Lock" and smash shit, because it's Thursday. 

SxFxOx

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING

 

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING presented a solid ninety minutes of deranged acid house damage to start Reel Torque's series of focused mixes that has been kicking for over a decade. A dark and debaucherous journey through new beat, funk and industrial-tinged EDM that would have sucked me into the series from the start had I only been focused in that direction. As it is, the rest of the 30+ tapes in the series appear pretty hard to come by, but I'm in the market if anyone's holding. 

REEL TORQUE VOL.1

PRODUCT KF

Think about the time you first heard COMPLICATIONS. Think about how familiar it sounded even though it sounded completely new (to you) in that moment. Think about how excited you were to have discovered a new band with a new sound who were actually a new band with a very old sound. That's how I felt when I listened to PRODUCT KF last week....and now I can't stop. 

PRODUCT KF

 

I.B.M.

 

Pararhythmic sex obsessed acid drenched acid EBM from Chicago's I.B.M., a release that opens with the deliciously distorted title track "Eat My Fuck" and then drags the listener through an hour of dirty trance inducing glory. Eat My Fuck feels filthy, Eat My Fuck feels magical...Eat My Fuck fits perfectly. The only question is: Are you ready?

EAT MY FUCK

RAZORXFADE

 

They were a quick blip around the turn of the (last) decade, but RAZORXFADE's blip was fukkn loud. Completely unhinged Midwest SXEHC with wild song construction and a COLD SWEAT caliber vocal assault and the way the guitars break in the recording - tiny amps bursting at the fukkn seams with squelches and squeals permeating any dead space in the songs - puts the listener on edge from start to finish. I recommend paying particular attention to "Choke" crashing into "Called Out" because...well, because that shit is just something else. Six songs in a little over seven minutes, and then the 12" they dropped in 2011 was the final word....

RAZORXFADE

COMPRESSIONS

 

Chicago's COMPRESSIONS were but a blip, and I believe they had vanished before I knew the blip had blipped. PEDESTRIANS, LOSER LIFE, PILLAGE, MANIPULATION personnel teaming up for an eight song kick in the gut that doesn't sound anything at all like CONVERSIONS or COMPLICATIONS or any other band I can think of that starts with a CO. COMPRESSIONS are born from the POISON IDEA by way of CAUSTIC CHRIST school of USHC - the sound of determined sonic nihilism. "You Do Not Exist" on fukkn repeat all day. 

COMPRESSIONS

FUCKED UP FUCKIN SYSTEM

 

Three motherfukkrs from OKlahoma City hooked up with a fierce motherfukkr form Chicago sometime in the mid-teens. They thought it was going to be a one off because they were all friends and it was a good excuse to hang out....next thing you know they went on your and made a couple of demos. You like LEMONADE? You like JUDY & THE JERKS? Then I'm thinking you're going to like FUFS, because these motherfukkrs.....

FUFD UP // TO BE A FUF

CONDENADA

 

Rarely have I seen a live band as intense as CONDENADA. Rarely have I seen a band that felt as real as CONDENADA. I said all of these things a few years ago when I wrote about their Not Normal collection - all those words still fit, and I recommend listening to those recordings also so you can hear the full realization of their sonic mission....but I still return to this demo. Everything is rougher, presented with all blemishes in tact. There haven't been many like them, but we could surely use one now. 

CONDENADA

THE BUG

 

THE BUG were one of the most crucial USHC outfits. Their complete lack of pretension clashed with their confident ownership of the live setting - there was nothing else that mattered in the world when they played because they were putting out everything that they had - it was casual chaos. It was fukkn real. And when their dust settled, two tapes and one EP are all that remained. The brightest ones do burn the hottest. 

WHAT'S BUGGIN' YOU?

PRONOUNCED DEAD

I know what you're thinking...you're thinking The Wizard done gone and lost his mind because PRONOUNCED DEAD already stopped by The Escape so why am I posting it again. Well, first I wanna remind you that I posted that other shit like twelve years ago, and that's like three punk generations. And second I urge you to look at the track listing closely, because this one is different from that one. And besides, Chicago bands from the '90s who never really toured don't get enough press, and PRONOUNCED DEAD deserves way more press than punk will ever give them, so why the hell shouldn't I heap a little more on? Exactly, because the shit is so damn deadly. So here's another dose of the John Finaldi P-Beat (if you aren't familiar, check HIGH ON CRIME and KUNGFU RICK) driving six doses of bulldozer Chicago crust. This band was the embodiment of relentless ruthlessness.

PRONOUNCED DEAD