TWO-FISTED TALES

 

I've said it already and Im going to keep saying it as long as I keep feeling it: Comp Tapes Rule. Flush Productions from Richmond, California started cranking out a shitload of them in the late '80s (I am absolutely in the market for other volumes - please slide into my DMS) and really had things humming by Two-Fisted Tales, their seventeenth volume. We're talking way late decade shit here, so expect some pre/proto college rock and even some funky jams, but WORKING MOTHERS should have been a hit and more NAKED HIPPY tracks are always welcome in my life.  FORTHRIGHT, YOUNG LORDS, INFECT (holy shit on this one, for real), GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE and loads more. A solid hour of "who the fuck is this" followed by "why haven't I heard this before now?!" because, like I've said before: Comp Tapes Rule. 

TWO-FISTED TALES

SSTD

 

Coolest name. Coolest logo. Wildest no bullshit Texas punk stomps from the UGLY and/or SLIMY MEMBER camp. Dallas was ripe in the mid '00s man, for real. "Sanitized" on repeat. 

SSTD

SOCKEYE

 

Listen to the first few tapes and think about an alternate reality - one where SOCKEYE evolves in to a raging hardcore band who tempers blazing riffs with irreverent wit. Then again...maybe that's what happened, and maybe the rest of us (still) take ourselves too seriously. 1989's It's A Crazy Elderly World features "Everyone I Know Is An Asshole," "Kill Yourself," "Messiah Sandwich" and an early version of their future hit "Sexual Retard" along with DOORS and CRASS covers. I've met the people who make these sounds - but I really want to meet the people who listen to them. 

IT'S A CRAZY ELDERLY WORLD

ENSEPULCHER

 

And this, dear reader, this is what I want death metal to sound like. Down tuned, disgusting churns with Swedish DBeat drums. Four songs in under eight minutes from two absolute savages from fukkn Fresno, California. No bullshit, just brutality. I seriously do not know what else you could want. 

NO SANCTITY IN DEATH

KKAAOOSS SUBTERRÁNEO

 

Prepare your earholes maniacs, because the next half hour is going to be an absolute test of your tolerance for chaos. Or more accurately: for KKAAOOSS. Mexican hardcore punk captured live in 1987 - raw, primal, intense, powerful Mexican hardcore punk. Inept? Yeah, perhaps that too. But "Sin Régimen" is without a doubt one of the most furious blasts I have heard in my entire fukkn life - so completely off the rails and unhinged that I almost need to take a break before listening to the rest of the tape. Complete and total chaos, young punks. Don't say you weren't warned. 

EN VIVO

DANKSLOB

 

There's this crew of heads on the Peninsula that has been not so quietly cranking out should be hits for years now, and they don't really seem to play by anybody's rules but their own. The beats are consistently filthy, and the verses are dark and witty - unapologetically West Bay rap that puts you in (their) reality. Decades of listening to music, decades of wanting to hear new things and hip hop/rap has never really clicked with me - I maybe hear a thing I like here and there but nothing that's make me want to keep digging - and now these days my eyes are peeled for new drops from Megakut and Tinted Windows and they haven't let me down yet. You want music that paints you a picture and takes you to a place...? Step into this world. 

DANKSLOB IV

WIREHEAD

 

One of the many (many) (ok, countless) tapes that slipped by me when it was initially released a few years ago. Fortunately I'm patient, and a few weeks back I got to experience Vancouver's WIREHEAD like it was all brand new. Because it was brand new. To me. Full on BUZZCOCKS through a SOVIETTES filter energy, presented in massive pegged-in-the-red fidelity just begging to be blasted. Not new anymore, this is ten minutes destined to become an old friend. 

cs.04.05.13.15