DROWNER

Haunting and disconcerting pieces of minimal electronic noise, DROWNER creates an entirely new atmosphere...and then crushes it. Making sounds that are so very simple seem deeply complex and worthy of genuine emotion is the real achievement of Burning Room, a tape that feels like the companion to an experience that you have missed out on, but are living now through other minds. 

BURNING ROOM

A THRASH FROM THE PAST

A non-stop hour of raw early Bay Area thrash metal demos and from some of your favorites and a few under appreciated ragers. The MORDRED tracks suffer from poor reproduction (and interruptions that I can only hope are someone's little sister pressing record on a teenage hessian's boom box), but the primitive power of "Burned At The Stake" cannot be hidden by a mere lack of fidelity, and this is easily my favorite jam on the tape. In the context of crucial mix tape construction, the choice of "Guitarmony" by ANVIL CHORUS to follow such a certified scorcher is questionable (not to mention exceptionally un-evil), so I'll suggest that this instrumental be used as a three minute cool-down before getting your face melted by some live Baloff & Company - who themselves get thrashed into the ground by ULYSSES SIREN fukkn screaming through three unrelenting tracks to close out the first side of the tape (the last of which is cut short by a poor mix tape planner - he was probably baby sitting his little sister though, so it's cool). Manic, technical and purely evil high end thrash insanity of the highest order. San Francisco's favorite teenage Filipino speed metal warriors DEATH ANGEL open the flip side with their seminal three track Kill As One demo from 1985, with the 11+ minute instrumental "The Ultra-Violence" still shining like a beacon of adolescent metal mastery (the drummer was fukkn 13 when they recorded this shit). And in case that instrumental isn't scary enough, two rippers from BLIND ILLUSION close out the side (a side once again prematurely cut off by a lack of preparation on the part of our baby sitting hessian). Get out your puffy white hi-tops, stuff a comb in the back pocket of your high waisted denims...and drink beer.

A THRASH FROM THE PAST

What high school metal mix would be complete without the personal touch of some outsider art? 

Not this one. 

VEGETABLE

I was hooked immediately by the disjointed and minimal sound of VEGETABLE's EP a few months back - the off kilter "Castration Frustration" anchored that single with a perfect marriage of UK post punk weirdness and early DEVO awkwardness. I was out of town when they came through on tour, but after hearing this ten song tape I really hope that they will hit the road again soon, as the EP only hinted at what VEGETABLE were capable of. Songs like "Anatomical" could have easily found a home in the artiest corners of the early SF punk scene, when there were no rules. Guitar leads the band, often taking the single note melody to the forefront while the vocals lay back with an overtly urgent intensity that is enhanced by cracks brought on by an ultra lo-fi reproduction that does as much battle with tape hiss as with musical convention. Words like "quirky" and "challenging" could be used to describe VEGETABLE, their approach is anything but traditional, but these short bursts of oddity are simple and catchy, like pretentious dance punk stripped down to its barest frame and presented in its purest form. Plodding and deliberate, bringing to minds as varied as THE GOVERNMENT (Toronto), THE GIRLS (Boston) and THE FALL. More addictive with every listen, don't say I didn't warn you...and I think this might be a teaser for a full length in the near future. Let's hope so.

VEGETABLE

UNDERGANG

UNDERGANG are a part of the resurgence of old school death metal that some friends of mine rave about. Filthy, mid tempo churning insanity with gutteral vocals...this two song teaser for their next LP was released for their jaunt with ACEPHALIX earlier this year. Of course, I didn't see them on that tour because the night they played SF I waited in line to see KREAYSHAWN, who was just starting to blow up into a media frenzy of racially charged hipster confusion, at some nauseating 16th & South Van Ness flat hat and flavored blunt-o-rama (we didn't make it in, thankfully, and I honestly think that the two hour wait in line was more entertaining - and enlightening - than seeing the show would have been). Realizing we had skipped out on a sure thing (ACEPHALIX and UNDERGANG) for a random shot at ridiculous mainstream merriment, we jetted up to the Tenderloin just in time to miss the metal show at a tight pants,  coke in the bathroom (nah, fuck it, coke it the corner),  please somebody just fuck me before I pass out shithole popular with people younger and hornier than me. With no successes in two attempts, we went to a nondescript second story joint around the corner and strutted down the bar kicking over people's drinks, all three of us screaming karaoke "Holy Diver" while a room packed with norms got on their knees and thrust frat boy metal horns in the air. After last call, our host invited us over for BBQ on his roof (it was 2:30 am), and when we declined he promised that next time we would "do it right," and honestly that scared me a little bit. It was a good night, and I drunkenly listened to these two songs several times when I got home, wondering if seeing them live would have been as interesting as the night I had just experienced. I'm guessing probably not, but it would have been way more metal.

UNDERGANG

HOODED

Only three songs on this demo, and only one of those seems to fit with their typical hardcore band logo...but typical or not, that's the song that that I fukkn love. "The Ultimate Asshole Theme Song" is the circlepit-your-fukkn-asses-off-during-the-fastcore-part-and-then-finger-in-the-air-dogpile-the-singer-for-the-sing-along-part song, and it rules, but the first two songs on this tape are more in line with '90s discordant emotional hardcore, FUGAZI is an obvious and not unwarranted comparison. Smart and thoughtful hardcore that never lets good songwriting get in the way of making good songs. We didn't get to see HOODED in action on the CONQUEST FOR DEATH tour in 2008, but they were some of the best folks we hung out with on the whole SE Asian trip...I am ashamed that it's taken me this long to post this demo, and I hope these dudes are all doing well.

CASSETTE SINGLES

This is straight edge with another edge...originality that breaks down walls and shows that critical thinking and humor are closer to the core than backstabbing macho bullshit.

- HOODED, 2008 -

THE INJECTIONS

UK noise Oi! from WANKYS personel. Irreverent and undeniably catchy...if you aren't careful then you might find yourself in the middle of a one person pogo party in your kitchen screaming along with "Oi To Nori" as you prepare lunch. Not that this happened to me, I just want you to consider yourself warned. 

POGO DISCHORD!!

FANSHEN

There must have been thousands of bands like this in the late '90s - chaotic and inwardly directed emotional hardcore delivered with genuine youthful passion. On their 1997 demo, New Jersey's FANSHEN pull off a marriage of those distinctively discordant riffs so typical of the era and the unbridled vocal aggression of the Midwest hardcore greats - "1492" is packed with NEGATIVE APPROACH styled fury, and the song struggles to contain the vocals (vocals that start with "fuck me / fuck you / fuck fuck fuck / who the fuck / what the fuck / I don't give a fuck") with great success. Less than six minutes of music, enough frustration to fill an adolescence.

FANSHEN