BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER // SLATES

 

A cassette that begs the question: What if I just listened to noise all the time? Is it the person on another plane who wants (or needs) to fill their life with these chaotic and oppressive sounds? Or does a life voluntarily filled with these sounds create, over time, a different person? Foreboding and calculated power electronics from BLUE SABBATH BLACK CHEER, an ominous sonic journey that feels like a constant crash. Rumbling low end harsh noise from SLATES, a disorientation through sound - the aural equivalent of being buried by an avalanche while your family watches you disappear. So I ask again...what if these were the only sounds?

BLACK OCTOBER // UNTITLED

ALIEN BOYS

 

It's like that stripped down dupa-dupa '10s punk stomp, but raised on a steady diet of SNFU and SMUT and more...mature. Vancouver's ALIEN BOYS sound like a band playing their guts out, instead of a band calculating their moves and trying to sound "like this" or "like that." Seven blasts of anthemic and fiery Vancouver punk from on this tape from 2016...and while you're looking, may I recommend the Night Danger LP? Because while this tape lays the groundwork, that shit is fully realized. 

SELF-CRITICAL THEORY

SOPORS

 

Can't put my finger on it, but this SOPORS tape just sticks with me. Perfectly crafted pop songs, but recorded kinda like shit, sometimes kinda inept, indescribably 'sweet' (but in the way that Dory Tourette was 'sweet,' which is to say: 'sketchy'). Eight songs, and "Read To Me" is such a gloriously addictive piece of trash. I love it. Can't defend it, but I do. 

SOPORS

ATRAKO

Second (and last?) demo from LA's ATRAKO came a couple of years after No Hay Futuro... (which came out a couple of years after Irvin hooked me up with a copy of the recording), but no matter really because everything is on this tape. That first demo is raw and pissed, while the five tracks on Contaminados harnesses some of that rage and reigns in some of the wild edges. Some of them, because it's still a kick in the face. Six live songs (in less than seven minutes) close out the tape and leave me wondering who more people didn't talk about this band during the exceptionally fertile 2010s explosion. But fuck it, because here they are now. 

CONTAMINADOS

SHITLOAD

Another nail of insanity into the lid of the coffin that was The Before. And we move into The After filled with uncertainty and chaos and lies, serenaded by SHITLOAD. One quarter hour of mania recorded on the heels of a third vaccination dose - 5G microchip noizecore. 

MORE VACCINATED THAN YOU!

 

GIRL DRINK DRUNKS

 

Every time I pop this one in, it completely changes my outlook on the day. The energy flies in the face of every aspect of this grim fucking reality, and I find a certain pep in my step...even if I'm not walking. Just the right amount of snot, just the right amount of hook, just hit after hit after hit. It's like an early '00s SOVIETEES / OBSERVERS fireball manifested as a battering ram trying to break down the wall to the new century. The jerky proto-robotic chorus of "Eat The Static." The simple stomp of "Ain't Gonna Make It." The addictive punk of "Pills" (pun intended). You've been warned, this fucker just won't quit. 

GIRL DRINK DRUNKS

STORM THE TOWER

Fourteen songs from one of the most overlooked Texas exports of the 2000s. While the DIY hardcore world was obsessing over sonic tonnage and relentless Scandinavian DBeats or 'who can play faster' and relentless blasts, these fellows were delivering indescribably powerful and energetic punk led by a guitar that confidently took Mould's proven formula into the new century. Chris was well known for his prowess behind the drum kit (SEVERED HEAD OF STATE, J CHURCH SIGNAL LOST, CRIATURAS and many many more), and I think that STORM THE TOWER was all too frequently described as his "other band" by people who didn't really take the time to dive into the songs. Their loss. All of the fury of the era is there (jam "Ice Age" at volume and tell me I'm wrong), but these songs stick with you for days, and Chris's guitar truly stands out. Two recording sessions on this tape, the 2003 recording that would become the J CHRUCH split (plus a killer INSTIGATORS cover) and the 2002 recording that would become the  Song For FM EP and four more songs that I don't think were released elsewhere....pretty much everything before the 2006 EP on Little Deputy (which is, not surprisingly, also very awesome). I used to fucking love this band. I still love them, but I used to too. 

A NATION IS ONLY AN EXCUSE FOR A CRIME