17 September 2011

SACRILEGE


I suppose I don't really need to put forth the effort explaining SACRILEGE, right?  This live set from metalcrust masters comes from Leeds in 1986 features songs from Behind The Realms Of Madness and Within The Prophecy. Put to cassette by Negative Insight fanzine (and distributed with the excellent first issue along with a killer 1991 live set from DISASTER). Sometimes the guitar is out of tune, but he fixes it at full volume.

16 September 2011

LET ME SEE THAT OTHER HAND


If, as the title suggests, this is indeed The Now Sound Of Montreal, then perhaps I like that city even more than I thought I did. This tape doesn't look like much, but it's a screaming introduction to a musically diverse underbelly worlds away from the hardcore and crust bands that have made Canada's greatest angel dust laden 'burgh famous with most Escape readers. Ten songs here, starting way out in left field with MUFTAH IBN AL-KHALISS and then continuing through STOOGES influenced and vaguely indie rock sounding JESUSLESFILLES, snotty  and sharp garage punk from THE AVERSIONS and SILVER DAPPLE, who close out the first side with a dreamy noisy pop song that launches me back to a time when college rock was not yet a dirty word, and originality (and personality) were still celebrated by bands sporting that descriptor. The flip is weirder, and I dare say better, with dark and brilliantly off kilter BOBO BOUTIN starting the side followed by MINGO L'INDIEN launching into a simple (and simply addictive) dance punk jam drowned in synths. LES BIBERONS BÂTIS slink even further away from punk (in fact, this sounds like MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT sucking on Robotussin, heavy on the samples). The down tempo vibe is broken up by a short blast of hi energy bedroom dance music from LE MONDE DANS LE FEU before the tape wraps up with a mesmerizing psychedelic guitar drone from ENCYCLOPEDINE VL, giving a wonderful treatment to a BRIGITTE FONTAINE number with vocals that are absolutely worthy of such a task. This comp is full of bands that exist so very far away from any scene that I have ever been associated with, and perhaps that is part of the appeal - even though their intent here seems to be more mainstream (I base this impression on the web presence of Vintage Violence, who are responsible for this release). Intent be damned, BOBO BOUTIN, ENCYCLOPEDINE VL and I are about to go pick up MINGO L'INDIEN down on rue St. Laurent and we are going to have a party - even the punks like to wear fancy shoes sometimes. 

15 September 2011

HOLY SHIT!


Hard to believe that this nonsense is a decade old, and that I first saw this band nine years ago. But time waits for no one, and those fukkd up Adderall junkies that delivered the most irreverent thrashing noisy hardcore that Beer City could handle are now wizened old men who have hung up their raging shoes in favor of day jobs and family life. Long gone are the days filled with beer from the discontinued and expired liquor store in the suburbs and the house shows and the arguments about who is sober enough to walk a wagon to the beer store on the East Side to buy the 48 pack that comes in an octagon and only costs $13. The nights of pharmaceutical speed and shotgunning cans of whatever is cheapest are in the past, right alongside memories of watching HOLY SHIT! blast through 20 a song set, then emerge from the basement ten minutes after they started and watching the steam rise from their shirtless bodies into the Wisconsin winter air. Now they are watching football with their families on the weekend, hosting potluck dinners and sharing potato salad, talking about their jobs. Tabman doesn't writhe on the floor anymore, and Andy has traded these 45 second blasts of Midwestern hardcore damage for the 9 to 5...it's hard to blame them, this rock and roll stuff is hard. It's cool though, they've left us with good jams, good shows, great memories, and a ballsy DIE KREUZEN cover. This is as raw as punk gets, and the longest of these fifteen tracks is a hair over a minute.


(HOLY SHIT! play tonight in Oakland at Sugar Mountain with YOUR PEST BAND from Japan, and tomorrow at Thrillhouse in SF with my buddies in COPS! ... Residents of the Bay Area will do themselves a favor by attending)


14 September 2011

RUTILATED POWERHAUS


This tape comes courtesy of the mind behind ROSENKOPF, and features some of the most enrapturing bedroom synth marches I've ever heard. I got this one in New York earlier this year, a collection of home recordings and minimal electronic dirges that has lurked in the background at Terminal HQ frequently since I returned from that tour. Rutlated Powerhaus pays homage primitive electro industrial/goth without recreating or aping any specific era or band...haunting vocals soar sparsely above KRAFTWERK styled blips and drones, and you would swear that a JOY DIVISION melody was being manipulated in one instant, before being whisked off on an aural journey that brings TANGERINE DREAM to mind as much as THROBBING GRISTLE. There is a second ROSENKOPF cassette release out now, featuring a full line up, but these tracks are a perfect interlude. 

13 September 2011

EYESORE


If you are like me, then you've been waiting for some band to equal the TOTAL FURY's majestic 13 Songs full length. The seemingly effortless mastery of early USHC on that record remains virtually unparalleled (even by TOTAL FURY themselves) since its release 11 years ago, but it appears that their countrymen EYESORE are up for the challenge. Recorded in 2008 and put to cassette by Hardcore Survives, these six tracks are fukkn perfect. Worth a listen if only for the guitar breaks, this will have you out of your chair in no time, and the start to "Nothing For You" will launch you through the ceiling.




12 September 2011

SCUM


Got this little burner in the mail last week from A Friend Of The Escape from a band who said they thought they would be perfect Noise Punk Monday fodder. SCUM were right. Following the set guidelines for their various chosen subgenres to a fukkn 'T' and blazing through raw as fuck Scandi/Japan influenced noisy hardcore. Just the way you like it.


11 September 2011

BROTTSKOD 11


Raw and brutal Swedish DBeat. I'll take the easy route and list the members of: WARVICTIMS, ELECTRIC FUNERAL, DESPERAT, TOTALT JÄLVA MÖRKER. They aren't reinventing the wheel, and the path they travel upon is well worn, but there's something magical about witnessing true masters at their craft.

Band: Here
Label: Here