MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

 

It's really cool (for me) to revisit 'old' things - to revisit things that were created in a different time and consume them with the perspective that only time can provide. And with that perspective, this episode of MRR Radio that was broadcast thirty years ago today resonates with such incredible force that it makes me pause for a moment......

I was living in San Francisco and active in the San Francisco DIY punk scene starting around 1995. I always felt 'outside' in some way (if nothing else, I was new and poking around the perimeter of a scene that was well established long before I was even remotely aware), but by the end of the decade I certainly felt like I had my place. When I pulled this MRR tape out of the box though....I realized how completely outside of everything I was (then and now), and I knew before I popped this tape in the deck that this was likely going to be more about a person than an institution. The 717th episode of Maximum Rocknroll Radio was DJed and curated by Ken Prank, a Bay Area transplant from originally from Alabama who was quietly in the process of changing the face of USDIY hardcore when he put this show together, and just a quick look at the playlist will tell you that he knew exactly what the fuck was up years before anyone else did. URANUS, STATE OF FEAR, SPAZZ, POISON COLA, FRIGÖRIA, LIP CREAM, POWER OF IDEA, NEKHEI NAATZA, THE GAIA, OUT OF TOUCH, SUPPRESSION, DISKONTO, SLIGHT SLAPPERS, INSANE YOUTH, VIOLENT HEADACHE, INTEGRITY....you know most these bands, several are are more or less household names now, and some were the standard bearers for late-decade hardcore, but a collection like this at the start of 1996? Dude. Ken put this shit into the world while he was booking studio time for HIS HERO IS GONE to record the EP that completely changed the game....he knew what the fukk was up before the rest of us and has remained steadfast in his commitment to the real shit for the three decades since. Drop a MAKERS track and some unknown Latvian hardcore  (you ever heard of VOMNOSONOLOPPUS, punk?) in between SUPPRESSION and SPAZZ is really just casually letting everyone know you're a genius. 

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #717

Of course this post is all about the importance and the reach of MRR as an institution, but it was the people that made the shit important. 

Still is. Thanks. 

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

KLONNS

 

It's hard to explain how something can simultaneously sound this raw and this bombastic, but then it's also hard to describe how KLONNS can feel so completely original within the admittedly restrictive confines of blown out hardcore. Then again, maybe you describe it the way KLONNS do...maybe you explain the sound as the New Wave Of Japanese Hardcore. They first popped on my radar with last year's Crow EP from Iron Lung Records, and digging back in their catalog since then has been a true joy. This tape combines the first two self released cassettes - twenty minutes of black metal tinged grinding crust destruction. Essentially just regular Tuesday stuff around TEHQ. 

DISCOGRAPHY 2016-2017

FEROCIOUS X

 

The Osaka show in 2006 - Kevin brought us a killer spread and scored Jensen and me copies of the new but already scarce Befreia Från Vånda EP before the show, and then FEROCIOUS X blew the fukkn doors off the joint. On a night where we saw FRAMTID, SPRIAL COLLECTIVE and CROW, it's noteworthy that FEROCIOUS X made the impression that they did. And nine years later I was beyond chuffed when I saw that we were playing with them again...and again they were an absolute steamroller. They translate to the recorded medium effortlessly - pure sonic devastation, exactly when you need. That Osaka show in 2006....that was one of the good ones. 

SVÅRT ATT ÖVERLEVA

MAKE WAR NOT LOVE

 

Not sure there's an appropriate way to write words about this comp without just blurting "Look at the bands, dummy" but I'm gonna try. A Euro boot from the early '90s (when these tracks were practically contemporary but already legendary), Make War Not Love compiles a handful of Japan's most legendary first wave hardcores in one place. It's been re-booted several times by and for generations of new fans - COMES, GISM, KURO, CRIME sharing space with lesser knowns HEADLESS and ANTISEPTIC, this is as close to essential Japanese hardcore as you can get without any GAUZE tracks. 

MKE WAR NOT LOVE

SCUMBAG

Completely fucking unhinged Japanese hardcore circa 1988.  "Happenstance" is on the Enjoy Your Youth.. comp (which I just sold - why did I do that?) and everything else here either appears on the FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS split or the Have Fun More Fun demo. This copy is from the Pat Wright archives, so it may have been a dub from someone, or a promo sent into Gilman or KALX. No matter really, the point here is wild ass hardcore (think IDORA or IDOL PUNCH, not your typical fare) and Pat writing "hardcore - 18 year olds" on the label. Because the band were 18 year olds? Because hardcore 18 year olds would eat tracks like "Fuck You Arch Girl" like it was cereal? Either answer is acceptable. 

SCUMBAG

HEARTWORK

First demo from Niigata's HEARTWORK, whose two EPs and split with MASAKARI are some of the best under the radar Japanese hardcore of the '00s. I kinda want to just leave it there, and let these 5 1/2 songs say everything else....so I'll just add that out of all of my trips to Japan, seeing HEARTWORK in Saitama in 2009 was an absolute highlight. Pay special attention to the opening 1:12 of "Worthless."

 

HEARTWORK

WITHOUT SYSTEM

 

Absolutely devastating under the radar Japanese hardcore from WITHOUT SYSTEM. There's a disc on HG Fact from the early '00s that I think gets overlooked far too often - maybe it's the decidedly non-punk looking cover, maybe it's because it's CD-only...but it smokes - but these five tracks are unbridled and raw fury. Walls of backing vocals, searing metallic leads, one clenched fist anthem after another in the classic Burning Spirits tradition...the fact that a band this powerful can fly under the radar blows my mind. 

機械脱却

MALIMPLIKI

 

When UNARM played Oakland a few years ago (they were amazing, and there were fire trucks), I tried to convinve vocalist Nanae to get her other band MALIMPLIKI to the USA. I conspired with Saira, it seemed like the plan was going to work....and ultimately it did. Kinda. They toured...the East Coast. And I'm sure they melted faces. So instead of seeing that trio in the flesh, I find myself blasting the shit out of their discography regularly, some of which is compiled on this monstrous cassette. Manic, distorted, noisy Japanese distrash, MALIMPLIKI just attack as if they don't know what else to do. It feels honest, and it sounds right. If your week starts on a Monday, blast the shit out of this and consider it over. 

DISKOGRAFIO 2014-2017

SCARECROW

Essential hyper speed DBeat mania from North Carolin'a SCARECROW. Members of DRUG CHARGE, SKEMATA and others....riffs for days and ugh the fukkn power of this motherfucker is unreal. The drums are unreal. The tracks are unreal. The rolls in "Ouroboros" are unreal. Just listen over and over again and make it louder each time - I haven't heard anything this crucial in a long long time. 

SCARECROW

And to make things a little sweeter, this tape came on a Sony HF-60, which ordinarily would be a tad excessive for a 4-minute demo, so Usman filled the rest of the space with hardcore EPs from 1985. VELLOCET, STENGTE DØRER, CRIME and a few more - all mandatory listening, and all introduced by our hardcore host for the day. Get amongst it. 

CRUCIAL SECTION

Y'all know CRUCIAL SECTION, right? I mean, you fukkn should, and I won't bother introducing them except to say that they have been at the center of of Tokyo's DIY fastcore/hardcore scene for twenty years now. They seemed like kids when we first met them...then again, we were just kids ourselves. When WHN? were in Japan in 2000, Guitarist Wada (aka Shithead) heard that I wasn't familiar with SO MUCH HATE so he went home and taped How We Feel and Blind Alley for me. The following year when ARTIMUS PYLE played with them in Tokyo, he had this tape waiting for me - then unreleased bursts of ferocious and urgent fastcore that sound every bit as intense and relevant today as they did 18 years ago.. 

SHITHEAD TAPE

Wada in 2000, photo by Karoline:

NEVER DIE!

NEVER DIE! drop one of the best late '80s Japanese hardcore rips I have ever come across, with rffs so spot on that I had to check myself a few times and wonder if they were, in fact, from Japan. The drums are all wrong though - beats are straight with no lurches, I can't think of any double taps in JPNHC, and the cymbals (in addition to being buried in the mix) never accent the riffs the way Muka-chin does. The drums are awesome, don't get me wrong, they just aren't Japanese Hardcore drums and this is clearly a Japanese Hardcore band, or at least an homage to one. There's flattering in imitation of course, and this four song banger rages hard no matter the intention. Screaming (but tasteful) leads and furious speed picking in the fast(er) parts (check "Carry The Flame" for confirmation here), and the yeeeeooowls will clench your damn fist for you. Good job, punks...I wonder if you'll try to sneak an LP by us next?

NEVER DIE!

AZAGTHOTH (UK) + '80s JAPANESE METAL/PUNK

The title of this mix should really give you all that you need. Well known Japanese hitmakers GHOUL (Jerusalem EP - 1985), THE EXECUTE (Hardcore Temptation EP - 1983), THE CLAY (Middle East Combat Area EP - 1984) and POISON (Mystery Temptation EP - 1986) join forces with a slightly more under the radar banger from CASBAH (1987's Infinite Pain EP, which has appeared here before but deserves a revisit) and R.U.G.'s wild NWOJHM-esque Deathly Fighter/Crazy Bomber 45. These are all mandatory releases, and most command serious coin (because they are mandatory)....so crank these degraded twenty year old mix tape quality reproductions and save your coffee shop tips. But the real highlight here is AZAGTHOTH's 1987 filthy deathrash masterpiece Shredded Flesh demo. The only non-Japanese act on the tape, AZAGTHOTH was a short lived Shane Embury side project and they were absolutely disgusting. To listen to "Bloodsucking Freaks" is to forever alter your perception of what is music. Three tracks here (P.D.C.," "Dwell On Death," "At Our Leisure") that don't appear on most (any?) of the track listings I've found online, but the dude who made this for me was teenage penpals with the people involved, so who knows. Dig it: Mix Tapes > Youtube Algorithms. 

CASBAH, AZAGTHOTH and more....

DEEF

All hail the non-profit bootlegger, I suppose, because how the fukk else am I gonna hold this shit in  hand? DEEF's 1984 Real Control demo is fourteen tracks of nihilistic Japanese punk violence, starting with the sinister stomp "We Kill All Punk Rock Heroes" and only getting meaner from there. Fast, raw hardcore punk - pure, simple and rarely heard with this kind of filthy precision. Check the two chord STOOGES-esque intro to "Y" and the way it launches into a three different two chord fits played with maximum intensity, or the unhinged BAD BRAINS caliber fury of "幻想的教育論" into "キ・ン・タ・マ!?"...it seems so easy, but I promise that it is pure genius. I'm surprised someone hasn't already slapped all of these demos on wax. 

REAL CONTROL

UNARM

I'm going to assume that Tokyo's UNARM need no introduction at this point. Maximum energy Japanese hardcore of the highest order, period. Four songs on this banger, released for their West Coast tour in 2017....relentless rage and riffs for days. 

THE MOB OF SURVIVORS

S.O.B. // ROSE ROSE

My first trip to Japan was in 1996, scabbing (poorly) on bass for my pals ALL YOU CAN EAT on the opening slot of a package featuring NUNCHAKU and GARLIC BOYS. Everything about the experience was new to me, and I met people whom I still consider friends....that's what the touring thing is supposed to be, right? In Nagoya, I traded broken English and non existent Japanese conversation with a woman during the show - conversation that mostly consisted of one of us blurting out band names and the other responding in the affirmative, in the negative, or in the confused. Mostly in the confused. The point is that this woman was shocked that I was not familiar with S.O.B. or ROSE ROSE, and she asked for my address. One result of that exchange was the tape you see here, and it's a cassette that still gets popped in from time to time, even though the ROSE ROSE wax has been a part of my collection for nearly 20 years (I have a Vicious World CD buried in a box somewhere too, but CDs in boxes are a different story). I don't think this was the finest S.O.B. era....but they were way ahead of the curve in the world of brutal metallic hardcore, S.O.D. and SLAYER influences sneaking into the Japanese hardcore realm. Sure, I'll still take Don't Be Swindle if I have to choose, but fortunately we can have both in the internet age. ROSE ROSE on the other hand, has perhaps never been more fierce than on 1990's Liquidation. Off the rails blasting fastcore/crossover...this was, after all, the band that gave Max Ward the title for his one page demo zine, Mosh Of Ass. Both bands are still very active today (the last time CFD played in Osaka, S.O.B. were playing a club down the street on the same night - plus there was KAFKA and VOĈO PROTESTA at Bears while we played with TONE DEAF and FEROCIOUS X...it was a tough night), but not surprisingly I'm still gonna reach for this home made mix every damn time. 

S.O.B. // ROSE ROSE

COMMUNICATES

SHIT COFFINS hit the road wit these Tokyo rippers a couple of months ago - sweetest dudes, and absolutely raging on stage. Many bands have a live energy that cannot be harnessed by magnetic tape, and I don't think I'm alone when I say that this is even more likely the case when the the bands are from Japan. And still, I don't think people knew what hit them when COMMUNICATES blew through town. Full throttle, maximum energy, and non stop positive vibes....plus Koki's leads are just ridiculous. After a decade in the game, their discography is limited to two (excellent) EPs and a split with SQUARE THE CIRCLE, and now this raw ass seven song banger that they recorded themselves before the tour in August. I'll get back in the van with these four gentlemen any damn day - 行くぞ!!!

US WEST COAST & MEXICO TOUR TAPE

(COMMUNICATES at Bert Vaughn's Desert View Tower. Jacumba, California)

CURTAIN RAIL

Sometime in the late '90s there was SPAZZ show at 924 Gilman with CURTAIN RAIL, only the Japanese band never showed up. Word came in as bands were loading out at the end of the night that they had broken down and were stranded with the dude from Conspiracy Evolve at a hotel in Kettleman City. Not wanting to miss seeing these ragers in the flesh, and knowing how much it must suck to think about spending half of your tour stranded in the Central Valley, I drove south instead of driving home, and found myself knocking on a hotel room door around 4am. Four excited dudes opened the door and asked with a mix of curiosity and excitement, "Gilman Street?" The language barrier was severe, but eventually they understood that they had, in fact, completely missed playing at Gilman with SPAZZ (which, in the year 199whatever, was pretty much the holy grail for a fastcore band from Japan) and so we took a short nap before heading back to San Francisco for an afternoon show at Mission Records. That 20 minutes was well worth the late night run, as CURTAIN RAIL were a dervish of stops and starts and manic blasts with warp speed death metal riffs sneaking into their brand of Japanese Hardcore, just a complete and total assault in every way. And then I drove back to LA to send those dudes home....

CURTAIN RAIL

One of the guys would go on to play in COFFINS (which perhaps help explain the metal tinge to those riffs), but the CURTAIN RAIL are just as deadly 20 years later. The To Be With You 12" is one of the most overlooked gems of the era, and I still come across it for a pittance. These recordings were sent to me after that batch of California shows...

FINAL BLOODBATH

Essential Japanese DBeat crust, FINAL BLOODBATH dropped a handful of tracks in the early '00s spread out over two demos and two EPs. That's it...but when it's this good maybe they looked at their body of work and simply thought "well, fukk it - we did the damn thing so that's it." Uchida caliber distortion on tracks like "We Have Freedom" and a snarl that is Japanese hardcore personified, both serve to lift what are essentially fifteen year old by-the-numbers Dis-tracks to a justifiably legendary status. It's fukkn perfectly raw and indescribably powerful, and Black Konflik were nice enough to make all of the tracks available for convenient consumption. 

FINAL BLOODBATH

DESTRUCTION

Under the radar Japanese hardcore re-delivered to the masses by Black Konflik. DESTRUCTION present like a full on crasher crust outfit, but they nuance with blasts and with anarcho punk and - *gasp* - emotional and/or impassioned segments....the result is notably more memorable than you average second tier blown out crust outfit. Compare to ACME, or even 1000 TRAVELS OF JAWAHARLAL at time, and then consider their roots in the galloping hardcore that their island nation is known for. Yeah....it's real good. Choice track is the 5+ minute "Believe It," and after blasting this collection I surely believe. 

KESEI GAINEN NO HANKAI: DESTRUCTION 1998 - 2011

Link replaced, appreciation as always to those who keep me in check. Mistakes happen, but can you really complain about "accidentally" getting the DECONSTRUCTION demo in your file folder? No...I didn't think so.