RAYOS X

Los Angeles has not made an appearance on The Escape in a while. Around the same time I realized this, I saw the second RAYOS X demo sitting on my shelf. Lonely. Waiting to be shared.  My next move was an obvious one, and here is your tape: Sufrimiento. Stellar Spanish language sing along ass shaking punk rock from a band that plays punk better than anyone has in years. There is nothing new in what they do, and they do it with casual perfection. Awesome.

SUFRIMIENTO

Get their first demo here, check out a blog from one of the dudes here, and if you live in San Francisco then go see these motherfukkrs tonight at El Rio with LA VOZ and GENERACION SUICIDA. In my daily list of reasons to stay alive, these three bands in one room is very near the top.

GIVE THEM LOVE

From the same Acts Of Defiance camp that brought us No Pasaran! and No Justification comes 1989's Give Them Love, another 60 minute excursion into the world of under appreciated hardcore punk. AGITARE BENE, WHY AM I, MK ULTRA (not the Chicago band, but easily the best songs on this tape), KRULL, C.B.D.S. and a host of others....it's an international comp packed with bands you've never heard of, and most of them are really good. I assume you are downloading now, unless you are too busy clicking "follow," which is really the only proper way to thank me, aside from leaving comments.

GIVE THEM LOVE

PRIMARY COLORS

A few months ago I was in a one week band with my pal Jon, our friend Anton from Sweden and our buddy Ken on vocals. We joined forces for four days and then recorded on the fifth - and against all better judgement, we decided to play a show the next day. Ken had barely heard our songs, so we decided to play only 5 of them (we wrote and recorded 20 or so), and it was super fun. While we were loading for that show at Thrillhouse (which included THE SMELL and some others), I was perturbed by a band from Oakland who insisted on loading in all of their own equipment instead of participating in the glorious spirit of sharing that frequently takes over very small spaces when multiple bands are playing...but no, these dudes had to use their own cabinets, their own steel drums, and their own computer music making things...and it was kinda aggravating. Fred assured me that they were good, and I generally trust him (or at least trust his concept of what I will and won't enjoy), but I just could not imagine that this band  was going to be any good at all. And besides, I was tired and had just spent money on an exceptionally awful falafel across the street and really wanted to go home. But I stayed to see PRIMARY COLORS...and I'm glad I did. The live NITZER EBB vibe is somewhat lost on this recording (except "Dog In Red," which is not coincidentally my favorite song on the tape), but the miscellaneous percussion sits front and center, and the distorted keyboards conjure up dirty dance clubs hours after closing time. Their live show was a sweaty mess - the same all encompassing feeling that swept over me the only time I saw THE VANISHING - a calculated and subversive percussive assault devoid of all but the most primal urges and surges. PRIMARY COLORS are an intense cacophonous party - who doesn't like to party?

PRIMARY COLORS

I retract all of my negative first impressions from these dudes when they were loading into that show. We can all be too judgemental at times, and that afternoon was one of my times. These sounds could not possibly been made on our shamefully normal equipment, and I now completely understand why PRIMARY COLORS had no interest in borrowing it, even if it seemed like it would make things easier. Also, the singer kinda sounds like Sonny from THE VSS and Trent Reznor, and that's rad.

BLOOD PATROL

'80s Bay Area thrash metal? Meet modern heavy metallic crust. Now, you kids have a seat and watch some horror movies and your mom will be back soon with some cookies...unless she gets eaten by a monster or something.

BLOOD PATROL

DEKODER

Female fronted goth/post punk from Montreal, these songs sound instantly familiar and welcoming. Perhaps it's because this is descendent from the same species of underground music that first pulled me away from pop music, but I felt an instant connection to this music, as if it had been in my life for years. The vocals drip with Siouxsie's influence and the guitars are ripped from the hands of grudgingly infectious bands like INTERPOL and returned to a circa 1979 Bernard Sumner, where they belong. Subdued and deliberate, calculated and penetrating, there are only four songs here, but DEKODER are nothing short of brilliant. 

DEKODER

Write 'em and see if they still have copies: dekoder(dot)muzyka(at)gmail(dot)com

RATFACE // DESPERATE HOURS

You surely know the drill by now - a noisy drunken hardcore assembly recorded live on the radio from Pittsburgh's RATFACE (and yeah, for those keeping track, the band features dudes from ANNIHILATION TIME and FLAK) backed with a noisy drunken hardcore assembly from DESPERATE HOURS, who hail from the oh so very hippie beachside college 'burgh of Isla Vista. Or maybe they are from Santa Barbara, which is really just the insanely wealthy version of Isla Vista, but either way they rule. Have a good week.

DESPERATE HOURS // RATFACE

LETHEAN

Gloriously amateurish and inept UK punk. LETHEAN only cranked out this one demo session as far as I can tell - a ramshackle journey through 30 minutes of earnest but talentless political blasts. Things like timing and tuning seem to have not occurred to these chaps, and the result is just brilliantly awful. Needless to say, I love it.

LETHEAN