CARNAGE

You don't need the qualifiers here, you don't need the context. You don't need to know that Killing Machine was a one-off from a formidable outfit who tore up the Oklahoma City metro area for a few years from the late '80s to the early '90s. You don't need the anthropological background to make you say "oh, it's pretty good considering...." You just need to hear "No Solution" and "Artery" and the title track  "Killing Machine," because after you blast that shit, all you'll be asking is how the fuck have I never heard this before and how can I hear more?!?! The bad news is that you probably can't hear more, unless you're beer buddies with the fellas and they've got some unreleased demos floating around in their closets (note: if you fall into this category, then drop me a line...we need to talk). The good news is that every minute of this CARNAGE tape is just as ripping as the three songs I mentioned - total thrash assault in the spirit of EXODUS. Except the cover...that song fucking sucks. But still, I consider eight out of nine a solid win. 

 

KILLING MACHINE

PAX TITANIA

 

I'm going to (once again) say that I don't really know shit about noise. But I know what I like, and I can (sometimes) offer a half assed explanation of why I like it. It's the rhythm here - PAX TITANIA kinda throb their way through these two live recordings from 2007/08, venturing into what might (in another world) be a minimal techno set but staying firmly planted in raw, weird, improvisational ambience; so much more trance-like than what likely get's passed of as "trance" as a subgenre. The second piece, recorded at the venerable Tampa Noise Fest, is fucking masterful - primitive electronics punctuated by harsh noise that devolves into a series of erratic fits and starts, that then gets absorbed by hard synth driven pulsations...like Peter Shilling finally tracked down ground control, after it was too late. Dig it. 

LIVE IN PHLORIDA

J.O.C.K.

 

Olympia was a wild place in the early '10s. Olympia is still a wild place, and it was a wild place long before the New Century....but it was definitely a wild place then too. J.O.C.K. was a wild band, and they sound like they should be from Olympia - jerky and weird, kinda epic but also kinda thrown together. Lots of voices coming at you from different parts of the mix, it sounds like a band still searching. Picture them on a bill with RAGANA, but also it lands somewhere between GR'UPS and SPITBOY on the "pick your early '90s reference" chart. If you weren't aware of this chart....well, it exists. No Assumptions dropped in 2012, and J.O.C.K. seem to have dropped out shortly after that, which is too bad. 

NO ASSUMPTIONS

BLUE NUN

 

Let pretend everything is cool. Lets pretend the world isn't crumbling before our very eyes. Let's pretend it's along weekend and we are in a convertible with the top down and it's a sunny afternoon. For just six short songs, let's pretend that it's 1983 and the only thing we're really scared of is the abstract fear of a nuclear war instead of the very real threat of a civil one. BLUE NUN? They are the band playing on that late summer day when everything is just fine and life is good. They are (or were?) a power pop band from SF and they sound like their cover art looks. They're like the one song on the Footloose soundtrack that still holds up almost 40 years later...which is a trick analogy because that whole soundtrack slaps.

BLUE NUN

ANCIENT FUTURE

 

On the one hand, maybe this is a little bit of what everyone needs. On the other hand....what if inner peace actually breeds docility? With that in mind, I only make occasional visits to Visions Of A Peaceful Planet and similarly hopeful and/or grounding bullshit. Because there is no hope, but there's nothing wrong with a little reset...as long as you aren't deluding yourself. Never stop fighting. 

VISIONS OF A PEACEFUL PLANET

DICHOTOMY

 

This monster is on loan from a friend in The Mission, and now that it's time to give it back, I find that I pretty desperately need (ok, "want") a copy of my own. Eleven minutes of frantic, anguished light speed hardcore that lands somewhere between raw black metal and '90s screamo, even though it's really just a completely unfiltered sonic interpretation of a brutal reality. The rhythms/riffs are mostly driven by the bass, the drums are like a off balance 45rpm blast beat lock groove played at 33, vocals something between ASSHOLE PARADE and PAXTON QUIGGLY while the guitars....fukk man, they're just a wave of torment washing over the whole mix. The sonic presentation, even if it's just a lucky accident, needs to be studied - even copied. It's wild. Intense. Free, whether in spite of or because of its utter desperation. 

CAN YOU RECOGNIZE YOURSELF?

U.Y.U.S.

 

U.Y.U.S. were from Houston. If they had been from New York then both of their LPs would be $100 records, instead they're $20 records. The tape says (DEMO) but I'm pretty sure all four of these tunes are on their self titled 1989 slab. Shit rips. 

(DEMO)

All eyes on Texas today. All eyes on California in two weeks. Then it'll be something else. Some new horror. Some different assault. Some other place. Something else that is so wild that you just can't believe it can actually be happening because you thought "we" were "better" than this. We aren't. We are this.  And we won't have enough eyes to keep an eye on all of it...and at some point the heart is simply going to run out.