THE MAJESTIC

 

This one asks more questions than it answers, but once the solo in "All Rise" hits you won't even remember what you wanted to ask because you will be consumed with rock 'n roll. THE MAJESTIC hit so many nerves that I hesitate to communicate all of the vibes; garage punk, GLUE (OK), Jay Reatard, Tom Petty, skinhead ska, GEORGIA SATELLITES, Japanese pop punk, X-RAY SPEX.....hopefully you understand the challenge I'm confronted with here. Multiple vocals, keys and saxophone only when appropriate, wildly addictive soulful punk. THE MAJESTIC came out of nowhere and I'm all flustered - 101/10 would recommend. 

HOME

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

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

HEAVENLY BLUE

 

The Provinces keep delivering, this time with a new offering from HEAVENLY BLUE. They've sharpened their sound to a jagged point, polluting '60s garage punk with sinister snarls and gloriously damaged psych guitars. 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS fucking with Japan's MASTURBATION and/or SONICS reinterpreted by ghoulish South of Market meth fiends. The previous releases have all been great, but these Nova Scotia punks have absolutely outdone themselves here, and I think it's about time for a full length.

KNIFE

SUPERCHARGER

 

This one was just tacked onto the back end of some other tape that had nothing to do with SUPERCHARGER and/or '90s Bay Area garage punk. Some completely different thing clearly documented by someone who knew what was up, and three (plus) decades later it serves as a reminder to me (and you) how fukkn tuff early '90s garage punk was. For no logical reason whatsoever I associate the subgenre (and era) with Austin, Texas (actually, there is a very logical reason and it's the MOTARDS / FUCKEMOS split), but listen to "Lost Cause" and/or "Sooprize Package For Mr. Mineo" and know that the greater Bay Area knew what the fuck was up with this shit. Damn, it was probably SUPERCHARGER (and MUMMIES) that made Tim turn The Bible towards the garage shit and if that's the case....? Fuck man, fair enough. "San Bruno" is maybe the most gloriously bleak punk track I have ever heard, and Reatard acolytes would be well advised to take notes across the board. For whatever reason this encouraged me to listen to THE DONNAS...for that I am grateful. 

SUPERCHARGER

ROCKET 455

 I mentioned this one the other day - just a solid mid-90s Detroit garage punk slammer from ROCKET 455. Get Hip slapped these tracks and a bunch of others on a comp called Go To Hell, but it was just titled Demo '94 on the mix tape that landed in my hands. Either way....it's good and dirty - I'm into it. 

DEMO '94

WATCH FOR ME GIRL

I was ripping a ripper last week while I was getting some other shit done, so the jams were mostly lurking in the background. I heard RAMRODS blast through two sets of late '70s Detroit proto-punk followed by a VIKINGS single, then the tape flipped and there was a ROCKET 455 demo from 1994 and mostly this shit is still in the background but I'm still grooving pretty hard on the sounds.....and then I heard the guitar. I knew the song instantly, but the knowledge was buried in the recesses of my sad, cluttered brain. I stopped to focus because this track demanded full attention - the guitar riff I recognized was from DMZ, but this was different. Better, even. And I kept listening; SINIASTER SIX, SUPERSNAZZ, TEENGENERATE, DEVIL DOGA, ACTION FAMILY, THE WOGGLES blast their way/s through timeless bangers from DMZ and I was reminded how bananas the '90s Japanese garage punk scene was just as I was reminded how much DMZ still flies under the radar. TEENGENERATE covering "Mighty Idy" is probably the highlight of your day and in case you're wondering...? No, I didn't get anything else done that day. 

WATCH FOR ME GIRL

ACHTERLICHT

 

You want to talk about something being greater than the sum of its parts? Then let's talk about ACHTERLICHT. The opening burst is dirty, fuzzed out hardcore that made me think of (LA) STAINS, then before you can blink the other sounds creep in and then before "Exaltation" starts you're listening to some lo-fi hi-NRG garage punk and how the fukk did we go from STAINS to SPITS without inflicting mental whiplash on the listener? Don't know, don't care. Want more of those guitar solo, want more period. Luckily for me (and you) here have been three releases since this 2023 demo...

ACHTERLICHT

VELVET MONKEYS

 

VELVET MONKEYS were so damn far ahead of the curve, and this collection of oddities and live cuts shines the spotlight squarely on that reality - even the shit they didn't bother releasing in real time blew the doors off of everything. "All The Same" is a picture perfect '80s college alt number that would have smoked TEENAGE FANCLUB except that this song came half a decade earlier. 1981 version of "Everything Is Right" fukkn screams. The damaged BEATLES mini-set is a thing you didn't know you needed (you do), and the demo version of "You're Not There" is Milwaukee DEATH caliber dark genius while "See You Again" is simply a perfect power-pop track disguised as garage punk. Even the damn TROGGS cover works.  So yeah - maybe you didn't know you needed VELVET MONKEYS in your life, but now you don't have an excuse. 

ROTTING CORPSE AU-GO-GO
(IMPRESSIONS VOLUME ONE)

MOJO HAND

 

I keep finding things that I missed in real time and I guess maybe that's just part of what being mildly obsessive is all about. I don't need to find everything or to hear everything, but I don't ever want to stop looking. MOJO HAND may have been a short blip, but what a fukkn document they left. Dusty Nuggets-tinged garage punk that feels utterly timeless (it was recorded a decade into this millennium) and screams for volume and beers and lighting shit on fire. If there was ever a band that sounded like they were very fucking seriously about good times and good jams, that band was called MOJO HAND. Grande from FIELDS OF FIRE and Harley from RABIES, though you mutants probably know them from ANNIHILATION TIME and THE PHANTOMS (respectively), but once you hear their "Let It Bleed" you won't give two fukks where it came - you'll just be grateful that it's here with you now.

THE COMPLETE MOJO: THEIR COMPLETE RECORDED WORKS 2009-2010

WEREWOLF JONES

 

I posted a different WEREWOLF JONES tape last year and I stand by the words that I slurred then. And today I will add to those words that WEREWOLF JONES are old punk for a new reality. Because people like pretentious comparisons and impossible combinations, please take STOOGES, MOTARDS, JESUS LIZARD and LAUGHING HYENAS and make a band out of those sounds. But also make it a hardcore band. I should have posted this on the live blog because it was recorded live (at the Outer Limits Lounge), but y'all don't look at that one (you should though - theres good shit there in general and also today) so it's here. This shit hits right. Brace yourself.

STROH DOWN

DOGMATICS

 Some shit from Boston's DOGMATICS played on the radio sometime around 1984 (or so). You know those bands you don't know you need until you know you never had them? DOGMATICS fit that bill - probably flipped by the reissues dozens of times....but that won't happen again. A bunch live(?) acoustic songs here that may or may not be related, but they were on the same tape and you know how I tend to operate. So enjoy.

DOGMATICS

BLUE CHEER MIX TAPE

I ripped two ripping BLUE CHEER sets from 1968 last week, and there was some other shit on the tape that I liked even better. Honestly, one of the BC sets kinds sounded like shit but it's still BLUE CHEER from 1968 so it's worth it, you know? But it was still the other shit that got me all charged up, so here you go: EJERCICIOS ESPIRITUALES (probably '80s, probably Spanish, definitely rocking fuzzed lout garage punk with keyboards and wildly distinct vocals). MINT TATTOO was a BLUE CHEER offshoot I had never heard of but I'm not actively seeking their sole LP from 1969. Then there are four sweet ass '60s lite-psych numbers from a band I can't identify. Mix tapes rule, even and especially when they are accidents. 

BLUE CHEER MIX TAPE

TEENGENERATE

In the '90s SF world in which I existed, there was a general consensus that the Maximum Rocknroll folks were old and elitist and their institutional affinity for "traditional" rock 'n roll was outdated and irrelevant. That wasn't the case, and I wonder (now) if the adherence to some strict garage/punk sound was actually a revolt against the metal and indie and grunge sounds that permeated so-called punk sounds at the time but...I was an outsider so who fukkn knows. But what about this TEENGENERATE demo? So...in in something like 1996 TEENGENERATE played Kilowatt in SF and it was a "thing" at the time because they were popular in the MRR world that loved garge punk and I went to the show and they were really good. After the show.....

TEENGENERATE 1993

Look....there are stories I could tell related to the night of the Kilowatt show and the band in general, but I will spare you the uncomfortable reading and I will share you a killer eleven song garage punk banger from 1993. You're welcome (twice), but it was a really funny story. 

FLUFFERS

 

I like when you can hear a little bit of a band's history inside a band's sounds. Gloomy German punk vibes (GRAUZONE, EA80) ooze out of a snarky garage punk banger and the result is the sole release from FLUFFERS. Again, it's hard to imagine a band releasing something this solid and then going silent, but I guess 2013 was the year for these kids. Wish I had been there for it. FFO: NEON PISS,  early '90s college/alt, SKATE KORPSE, REATARD-related projects. 

FLUFFERS

LIQUID ASSETS

 

Wipe the snot from your upper lip (use your sleeve, dummy) and feast your earholes on LIQUID ASSETS. Not sure if they're referring to their sweat or your blood, but this marble mouthed garage hardcore is as precious as fluid commodities come these days. Or those days. "You ready to rock, everybody?" someone in the studio asks before they launch into "Europhile" and it's like "I'm Guilty"-era CURRENT and Floyd's Texas DICKS are sucking each other off in front of me while I'm drinking my morning coffee and the liquid assets are just...everywhere. I feel rich. And wet. 

LIQUID ASSETS

COOL MUTANTS

 

I've been laid up sick for the better part of a week and still feel like a pile of moldy socks stuffed in a skin suit - headed to the Billion Dollar "Healthcare" Corporation this afternoon to get a chest x-ray to see if I have pneumonia, feeling pretty damn privileged that I can just get that shit looked into instead of stressing about the money or access or whatever. Who knows what the world of health care in this lost country looks like in a few years, but we're already the worst of all of the so-called "first world" nations (and most of the second and third) and I don't really feel any institutional motivation to move the collective US (get it?) in a positive direction, so I'm gonna really savor this x-ray, just in case. Normally when I'm feeling under the weather, I plow through cassettes - ripping and uploading and scanning and pontificating and whatnot, assuming someone will eventually read my missives, but sleeping bathed in sweat for 16hrs a day doesn't really lend itself to many extracurriculars...I did manage to handle this COOL MUTANTS slab for 2012 and honestly it's putting a smile on my face this afternoon. Think REATARDS, M.O.T.O., SONICS SPITS and you aren't going to be surprised, but there's a lot to be said for some hi energy comfort food for your earholes when you feel like shit. 

COOL MUTANTS

D. SABLU

 

Well documented and rightfully fawned over garage damaged stomps from New Orleans, D. SABLU has (not so) quietly earned a reputation for destructive hooks. It's one of the dudes from CASUAL BURN, but truth told I only know of the latter because I'm low key obsessed with the former - the No True Silence full length platter from earlier this year only intensified that obsession. A decade (plus) later, this shit fills the Reatard void I didn't even know I felt...and apparently I felt it deeply, because I want more and more. These songs dropped in 2022 (for a tour, obviously) - there are more, and you can start here or here. Just start please, and don't stop.

"LIVE" FOR TOUR

MY SURF CRYPT

 

Just a real solid mix of underground surf bangers put together by someone called Cold Vomit. THE REVELS, CHIYO & THE CRESCENTS, THE VULCANES, THE FIREBALLS, MANUEL & THE RENEGADES, THE PAGENTS and more, all presented with requisite crackle. I challenge you to find a more perfect chilling in the afternoon and into the night compilation, and when you do...? Share it with me.

MY SURF CRYPT

LYSOL

 

Magic isn't an accident, folks. Sometimes it's intentional and calculated, sometimes we call something "magic" simply because it's too damn good to describe by any rational and/or normal means. LYSOL are intentional and certainly calculated, but are LYSOL magic? I'm not saying they are, and I'm not saying they are not - I'm saying that their grunge infested bluesy garage punk manifested as uninhibited, nasty 2010s DIY hardcore is (was?) something truly special. And that, my friends, sound like magic to me. 

ON THE CORNER