ENAMEL

 

Another dose of mid-teens USHC that slipped by me in the moment...amazing what you miss out on when you're focused on not falling the fuck apart. Philadelphia 2016, nice and squirmy the way the kids liked it back then, but it's the way that ENAMEL surge forward that really grabs me. It's as if they settle into a tempo and then...the drummer holds them back just enough to feel them try to catch up when he kicks it back up. The bands are completely different, but it's the same way I sometimes feel about Markley's drumming in ECONOCHRIST - a rock steady four on the floor with a looseness around the pace instead of within it. Most of you are going to notice the vocals, and that's okay because they are in your face and full of fire. Some of you are going to pay attention to the guitars instead and that's okay too because they are a swarming duo of no bullshit North American hardcore riffs and they are exactly what I need today. But I'm still gonna hone in on that rhythm section because they're giving me pause, they're making me think and they're making me listen. I guess I should have paid more attention in those twenty teens.

ENAMEL

MILK CULT

 

On the 1994 MULTIPLE CHOICE and the 1995 FUCKFACE tours (same band, different drummers, different band names - it made sense at the time) we listened to basically the same tapes over and over. I'm sure there were others, but the three that I remember are (in order): 

1. A homemade mix that with a full ECONOCHRIST album and BORN AGAINST's Nine Patriotic Hymns

2. A promo copy of BUZZOV•EN's Sore

3. MILK CULT's 1992 opus Love God

I'm sure there were other tapes, but these are the ones that will stick with me forever. I can talk to you about MILK CULT from a position of ignorance if you prefer, but basically it was a side project from two of the STEEL POLE BATHTUB dudes heavy on beats and samples. And I still love this shit - not (just) because it's good (and it's really good), but because it reminds me of a then. Reminds me of a time when sometimes we did stupid shit and didn't even know it was stupid, and sometimes we did stupid shit because we fucking did what the fuck we wanted to do. Dip into MILK CULT if you like, and take a trip back into (a different) time with me. It's nice there. There are jerks and assholes and bad people still - but they are more abstract and distant. They are other (even though we still hate them), but they just don't fucking matter, you dig? 

BURN OR BURY

LIP READERS

 

Dreary and hopeful jangle pop for a day when you might need something to calm you down. LIP READERS sound like they have been transported from a different time and place to remind you to have a few a deep breaths, maybe a puff of this reefer and just take it easy on yourself. It's cool. 

CLEAN KITCHENS

•••

I was not familiar with Refry Records before I stumbled across this tape. 

Late once again, I guess. 

ÇAYÎR

 

In their promotional blurb, Szégyen Kazetták make the distinction between intentional noise and weaponized noise....ÇAYÎR are both. I could just say something like 'completely damaged new century hardcore punk from Budapest' and I would be accurate, but what this outfit does on their debut recording is something different within those admittedly limited boundaries. From full blown noise assaults to outsider repetition masked in distortion, all fronted (or barked at) by gruff desperation. Feeling hopeless today? Again? Listen to "What Will You Concent" on repeat please....it will help. 

ÇAYÎR

УЧИТЕЛЬ ТРУДА

 

You know the feeling you get when you hear something for the first time and you just know that you've heard it before? That's UCHITEL TRUDA in a nutshell...gruff, catchy and timeless Moscow street punk that sounds like a band you've listened to a thousand times. But you haven't...but you will. You know?

NE V OBIDU

BLOBS

 

There's something about Buffalo. Upstate New York in general of course, but specifically Buffalo. I've always liked the town, I'm drawn to it in much the same way I'm drawn to much of the Rust Belt - just feels like a place where the people are real because...well, why bother being anything else, you know? It's not perfect, it's kinda busted here and there, but it's also not a place trying to be anything it's not. And the bands.....seriously. Quality and quantity, and a town responsible for CAGES and GAS CHAMBER and SKATE KORPSE is a town you're going to want to pay attention to, you know? So anyway, here's the BLOBS tape that came out in 2015. Hot swinging high energy punk with a relentlessly walking fuzz bass and sonically advanced clean guitars that make you wonder if someone from BLOC PARTY is moonlighting in a basement in upstate New York schooling some grimey punk kids. There are horns and synths too, but you might not notice them because they sound like they just...belong. You're going to want to dance and you're going to smile, but you'll also never forget that you're listening to a no bullshit punk band. Because in Buffalo...you get all of it. Because it's all real. 

SHAME

CHEAP DRUGS

You ready? You ready for some shit to crash right into your fucking face? You ready to eat your own fucking thoughts? Are ready for life to kick you in the gut and laugh while you fall to the ground breathless, clutching your stomach as if it was your reality? Steel yourself punk, because that life thing that just fucked you up? It's your fault. This shit ain't easy. It's ugly. It's fucking hard...and you're going to be wrong. A lot. Go ahead...try. It's going to hurt. Good luck. 

CHEAP DRUGS