TOXIC NOSTAGLIA

North Carolina hardcore. Ripping, abrasive, chaotic, erratic, fierce, DIE KREUZEN double taps and construction, shades of FILTH but (way) faster, kinda makes you feel weird. On the inside.

TOXIC NOSTALGIA

TEMPERANCE

It was a time and a place, I guess. We played with these bands a lot on the first couple of FUCKFACE tours...down tempo, emotive (if not outright emotional) vocals and those lead guitar chords way up on the neck, all with a few chugs to keep them from sounding like straight radio rock. I think I will have an eternal soft spot for this subgenre. It's not a soft spot I am proud of and not one I can explain or justify, but it's a link to that time and that life. TEMPERANCE is an extreme example, nothing more than some guitar squeal between them and BUSH at times, and a vocal delivery that reminds me more of Billy Corgan than anything I would associate with punk and/or underground music. And yet, to throngs of young boys across the northeast....this was hardcore. Searching For Silence came out in 1995, it was the only TEMPERANCE full length after a couple of EPs and then....well, I guess they found the silence they were searching for. No other bands of note, no "ex-TEMPERANCE" on flyers after the turn of the century, no chatter on message boards about Rhode Island's most crucial emo/'core export, just a few tracks and then nothing. 

SEARCHING FOR SILENCE

Also - it looks like someone left this tape on their dashboard for a few months in 1996 while they were listening to ALICE IN CHAINS and/or PROPAGANDHI and the thing started to melt. Still sounds fine, but the shell is fukkd and the B-side doesn't play. Completists and the generally curious are welcome to scour the internet for the other four tracks....but I'm telling you they sound pretty much like the first four. I bet Daniel Gatewood loves this band. 

SELF ABUSE

Culled from a ripping TDK D60 filled with '80s Las Vegas hardcore, it's hard to figure out why someone hasn't unearthed this SELF ABUSE demo before now. Advanced North American hardcore punk from 1983, hints of 7 SECONDS/YOUTH BRIGADE melody and full speed ahead 'core that hurtles from one song to the next with a CLITBOYS-caliber fury. No titles, no info, just an internet search that led me to a few tracks on the Viva Las Vegas cassette comp, a particular affinity for the guitar tone (and riff) that start the fifth track and the obligatory pro-beer faux country closer. Also, I think one of these kids was in M.I.A., and I think I'm gonna blast Murder In A Foreign Place today, because it's been a while. 

SELF ABUSE (Las Vegas)

Someday I'll be old but now I wanna be free

MEET CAFE TAPE COMPILATION

Further evidence that the more you learn, the more there is to learn. Meet Cafe zine released this tape in late 1983, a collection of mostly Vancouver/Victoria bands with HATES (Houston) and FATAL EXISTENCE (Pennsylvania) representing the USA. Most (all?) of the Canadians were new to me, and digitally connecting the dots led me to not just RED TIDE, DEAD END, MERE MORTALS, BILL OF RIGHTS and IMMORAL MAJORITY, but a whole cadre of associated bands that registered barely a blip on the radar at the time, but quietly left some crucial early '80s punk in their wake. Other represented acts are POLKAHOLICS ("Zap The Universe" is a perfect dose of synth/freak punk), SILENT MINORITY and TOMATARAMA, and there is genuinely not a bad song to be found in the mix so I'm not gonna start picking favorites. You just have to keep digging, because I don't ever think you'll get to the bottom. Ten bands, 24 tracks, 45 minutes. 

MEET CAFE TAPE COMPILATION

SPEEDWITCHES

A killer two song dose of stoned psychedelic biker jams from Malaysia's SPEEDWITCHES. The fuzzed out guitar has me hooked before the riffs even sink in, a dirty maxed out single track attack that brings to mind Japanese classics like BLUES CREATION. They take their time developing structures (two tracks here span over 20 minutes), meandering along the way for solos and hallucinations to remind you that the journey is absolutely the most important part of the journey. More listens only bring more comparisons that span decades and continents, which leads me to believe that SPEEDWITCHES are perhaps without time and/or space....just floating on the rock with no destination other than rock 'n roll. 

You can certainly call this stoner rock if you are so inclined, and it's obvious that SPEEDWITCHES are well versed in the SABBATH, SLEEP, KYUSS school. But the psychedelic end of the heavy spectrum represented in these tracks is what really sets them apart. They aren't aping any of the shamelessly retro bell bottom doom bands, they sound like they are actually from another time and another place. See above comment: more listens.

SPEEDWITCHES

JONATHAN CANADY

It's several minutes into "Dreaming" before JONATHAN CANADY is even consciously audible on 2013's Am I Dreaming/Yellow?, which gives you a glimpse into the patience that is put into this release. Moogs and analog synths dragged unwillingly through one hour of trance inducing monotony, a soundtrack to a performance of futility and fear repeated countless times daily. Jonathan Canady comes, as if from another planet, to show us a mirror into ourselves.....and also: what he is doing to and with those synths demands commendation. 

AM I DREAMING? // YELLOW

FEEDING CHAIN

Three songs here, and Public Execution hits every bit as hard as the mutant mosh intro to "Hope You Suffer" makes you think it will. Six minutes of primal, knuckle dragging North American hardcore punk...it's a classic formula, and it still fukkn works. 

PUBLIC EXECUTION