COACHWHIPS

Hot, reckless and nasty lo-fi garage punk. Everything cranked up real high, this is ass swinging rock 'n roll distorted to oblivion...just the way it should be. Night Train is a compilation of outtakes and demos comes as no surprise to those in the know, and is likely of little interest to visitors looking for clenched fist hardcore punk. But if you are uninitiated and you know what's good for you, then you'll take 111 seconds to blast the track that this collection takes its bame from and you'll wonder consciously where COACHWHIPS fall on the SUICIDE >>> OBLIVIONS spectrum. And you'll listen some more, and then you'll realize that SPECTRUM should have been capitalized in that last sentence and you'll understand why some people just don't have the time or patience for anything but the very best. Also, "H.C. She" is pretty much the toughest rock song of all time. 

NIGHT TRAIN

PESSIMIST

Howling, primitive, fierce black metal from Los Angeles. Everything sounds like it was recorded at the other side of a deep and dark canyon, but the guitar and vocals specifically come off as distant and terrifying. The drum sound is, well....unique. Like an actual physical dervish manifested behind the kit and just went fucking insane - but that more or less describes the entire recording. This was recorded in 2013, but no release information is available aside from the recent (re) issue on Nihilistic Mortality. The band has members associated with CORPSPAZM (and probably the label itself), but mostly the band is fucking deadly. There two buried cuts in addition to the five listed listed offerings, followed by a killer Hector Lavoe track that either means they used a recycled tape or they have good taste tempered with a sense of humor...I'm voting for the latter. Destructive mysterious guy black metal possibly played by punks might be my new favorite genre. 

 BREAK THE SPELL

NAKED AGGRESSION

I could go off on so many tangents here...I first crossed paths with NAKED AGGRESSION in Albuquerque in 1992, I did a show for them in Norman, Oklahoma in 1993, Karoline's world in Wisconsin overlapped with theirs before they relocated to the Bay Area as the darlings of MRR...and then quickly moved to LA.  The first two EPs have survived innumerable record purges over the years, and I'm not really even sure why, but their brand of idealistic "we can do it!" punk somehow still hits a nerve. Attended the recording of March March Alive at Gilman where Kirtsten encouraged the crowd to scream and sing along, but please don't bump the microphones or get too crazy because they were recording a live record (checking the date***, it must have been one of my first trips to Gilman, in fact). Decided to skip the show at Cocodrie in '98 - the show that they cancelled because their guitarist Phil died - then our entire house drove to Chicago to see the "intimate" Fireside Bowl show on the mid '00s reunion tour and went home with virtually all of the raffle prizes. Crossed paths with them on several (and/or countless) SUBHUMANS tours and am constantly amazed at how Kirsten's punk revolutionary-by-way-of-school teacher vibe keeps appealing to new crops of kids....and it does. I still hang onto everything up until (but not including) 1998's Gut Wringing Machine, but I think that aside from those first EPs recorded while the band was still in Madison with Nate and Cyrus on bass and drums, 1994's March March Along is the high point. It's (slightly) less cheesy, and the songs are just good fast idealistic punk. I don't need it every day, but I'm always happy when I put it on. And yeah, I still have the record and the tape. 

MARCH MARCH ALONG

SIERPIEN

There's an indescribable cold that specifically Eastern European punks effortlessly inject into every pore of their punk. It makes the punk sound dark, and it makes the dark punk sound positively dreary...and it sounds honest. Moscow's SIERPIEN float in a world entirely their own, even while the vocals remind me (sometimes) of the first two ARMIA records and the sounds bridge between worlds of '80s dark college alt/punk (FOR AGAINST, MY DAD IS DEAD) and modern DIY dark wave, but yeah, they sound like nothing but SIERPIEN. Incredibly prolific, there are several available releases before and after this 2015 four songer, but I feel like it's an excellent middle ground to use as a starting point. Plant your feet and prepare yourself to travel forward or backward, there is no wrong decision. 

торжество

FIND THE SPOT

A few bands have put the Seoul hardcore scene on North American radar over the last few years, but if you think it's just SCUM RAID and SLANT then you're simply doing yourself a disservice. DEAD GHAKKAS, KITSCHES, JORDAN RIVER (I only know the tracks no the Seoul Compilation Tape, but oooooof!!), ARRYAM...the list is long and it gets longer. FIND THE SPOT creeped into my vision (well, exploded into my vision is more like it) a few years ago because of their association with homies like CRUCIAL SECTION, FLIPOUT A.A and COMMUNICATES, and those connections are a pretty good starting point for a sonic comparison. Short, fast hardcore bursts with a damaged guitar tone and energy oozing out of everything. When they drop hooks, as in "엠창," they grab you and simply don't let go, perhaps because the majority of their attack is focused on the short, fast, loud end of the spectrum. Not one, but two NEGATIVE APPROACH covers, which is a weird move...but I kinda like it. 

사상검증 

SHINY BROWN

Seven minutes filled with whirling riffs and howling fastcore burners. These shits dominated the landscape in the early '00s....and these five cuts from 2013 makes it easy to see why. I like hardcore punk music. 

SHINY BROWN

LUNAR TIDES

A crushing and powerful 40+ minute offering from one half of LIŁITH. Heather's approach to soundscape is enveloping and fills every crevice with a sonic haze - electronics mingle with manufacture sounds and lament filled howls to become one pure expression. LUNAR TIDES is not to be experienced casually, and I share it today as an opportunity to cleanse your aural palate and your consciousness. 

ABRACADABRA