CHEMOS

Got this little banger in the mail a few weeks ago, and it had an obi strip that read Portland's Only Band. Well, Queen City, y'all motherfukkrs are lucky if this is the shit you get to listen to every night - I mean, I'm sure it gets boring without Steve Miller Band on the radio, and I like Poison Idea as much as the next guy, but if these are your only jams then you could do WAY worse. So revel, Portland, revel in the 1-2-1-2 drums and the damaged ass vocals doing battle with themselves while the bass pounds through relentless bouncy eighth notes and the guitar is busy just being punk (listen to the title track, and take notes, it's a perfect punk guitar track). Like, really punk. Short bursts of noise and weirdness to keep you on your toes, but CHEMOS are as straightforward as it comes and still manage to sound like they are from outer space. You know this....you've just never heard it done like this. Perhaps because you've never heard it from the only band in Portland. "Cleanly" is the choice cut, but all five are winners.

PETITE DOG

Also, the tape came with a nice note. Cute animals in parachutes, space ships, flags...really nothing more one can ask from thank you note stationary.

PYRE

My heart started beating a little faster when I saw this package from Reforestation, even before I knew what was inside. But even still...this shit blew my mind. It's difficult for me to imagine precision death metal to sound any more primal than PYRE; they don't play, they unleash. The four and a half minutes of "Merciless Disease" will leave you breathless...and that's only the first song. There are eight more. Downtuned, churning, primal and something well beyond fierce, this Russian act is an absolute force...and Reforestation Records has not disappointed me yet.

HUMAN HECATOMB

BAD BOYFRIENDS

Bare bones, no nonsense garage punk from Arkansas. Vocals perfectly tweaked and then reverbed just a little bit extra (for good measure), while the band plows through Goner jams galore. Raw, basic and a sound that is perfectly and intentionally dated. Sometimes you shouldn't have to think too much - sometimes simple is better....but I swear that "Little Girl" could be a crushing hardcore banger.

SONGS YER MOM TAUGHT US

ARVO PÄRT

I'm no expert, I can't pretend to be. I was introduced to Arvo Pärt by my bandmate Betsy in the late '00s and since then I have explored only casually...but the results have been quite rewarding. Estonian by birth, Pärt was initially influenced by baroque composers, but was received poorly by authorities when he started to expand his horizons. Allowed to emigrate in the '80s to Austria, he began to delve deeper into the untraditional, and is considered a pioneer of holy minimalism....yeah, I don't know what that  is either. Subtle and extremely intense music, and it's worth nting that this entire recording was conducted with Pärt in presence...just because that makes it heavier. Like I said: the results have been quite rewarding.

THEATER OF VOICES

JUANITO 4 GUNS

Killer comp of mostly under-the-radar hardcore/pv bands. CALLATE from Chile start out with three tracks of frantic grind with crushing sludge dirges, then Japan's FLAT SUCKS dish out ultra chaotic spastic bursts that bring to mind acts like FUTURES and DKs - hard to put a finger on what exactly  they are doing, but suffice to say that when I was playing the tape my lady friend commented "wow, that is awful" to one song and "who's this? I like it" to the next. San Francisco's VENKMAN are up next - eight tracks of fastcore and comedy (typically at the same time) before our Italian friends xDELOREANx drop four downtuned numbers influenced by West Coast pv/thrashcore. All four acts are quality, and will inject a healthy dose of irreverence into your serious consumption of sounds. It's good to be a little irreverent.

JUANITO 4 GUNS

FATIGUE

FATIGUE is a new hard hitting hardcore band from San Francisco with boys from SCALPED, SYDNEY DUCKS, MERDOSO and a host of others. FATIGUE was a ripping early '90s melodic hardcore band who put their songs on a tape that eventually made its way to me with no background, just song titles. I say early '90s just because...well, listen to it and tell me this doesn't sound like it was recorded around '93 or so? Hints of SNFU, BAD RELIGION, early NOFX, and the whole thing smacks of a time when "melodic" and "catchy" didn't mean pulling punches or taking your foot off the gas. There are tracks like "Bite" and "Falling Over My Keys" that come off like early OFFSPRING, but irreverent rippers like "Alcomohol" more than compensate. Two separate recordings here, the first batch of tracks are definitely more polished and aggressive while the second are decidedly more amateurish but no less capable (and yes, I realize that "Cheers!" and "Ahhhh Shit!!!" are ridiculous, but I find that both are signs of the times as much as the style of punk FATIGUE is playing). So yeah, check out FATIGUE, and also FATIGUE have a single on Warthog Speak that is quite good.

FATIGUE

HANGING ROTTEN

Filthy and primitive grind that slips periodically into bouts of classic Southern sludge. HANGING ROTTEN deliver both with venom, and if you can imagine BUZZOV•EN dishing out sub-minute bursts of grind then you're starting to get the right idea. Standout track is "Regret," which is thirty of the brutalist seconds ever and features a blast that isn't even human, but there's nothing on this demo that I don't want to listen to again. These tracks were released on wax by Putrid Filth Conspiracy and I see the record in used bins with shocking frequency (the two extra tracks on the B side of that LP are scrape-your-jaw-off-the-floor good), but until you wise up, I offer you a digital version of the initial cassette release.

HANGING ROTTEN