EBB & FLOW

 

For readers who do not want to have a good day, GREENLING and JUNKYARD BURIAL alternate tracks, creating a north--south noise loop for the duration of the Ebb & Flow. Dizzying and disorienting tracks from the GREENLING and completely maxed out distortion worship from JUNKYARD BURIAL...there's nothing about this release that approaches calm or normal. Just maximum punishment. 

EBB & FLOW

NERVESKADE

 

Do you remember when this happened? The noisy, chaotic shit was already a thing and other bands had started pushing the envelope to be sure but NERVESKADE was different. And after NERVESKADE...? Everything was different. 

NERVESKADE

SELF-IMMOLATION MUSIC

 

Appropriately dreary desert psych from Leeds. Serious '90s REV + SPIRITUALIZED + LIPS vibes, even more so than on their debut in 2020 (Psychedelic Unknowns was released the following year), and the way SELF-IMMOLATION MUSIC deftly annihilate the simplest riffs is.....something special. There's something truly special about a band who sets their sights on a goal and then surpasses it, and that when these chaps (continue to) do. 

PSYCHEDELIC UNKNOWNS

TROPICAL DRIPPS

 

There's no way that a description using words can do TROPICAL DRIPPS justice. Hell, if I described them to myself I probably wouldn't even be interested - but this is why we listen. Simple and stripped down Canadian indie with a little sprinkle of lo-fi glam and....and some surf guitars? Yeah, I know. It doesn't make much sense but oh my stars does it work. "Sludge City" should be (or should have been) a smash hit somewhere, especially with the chorus that deftly lands the 95 second song, and then the close out a three song cassingle with a surf instrumental? Like it was a whole ass record? I can't explain it folks, I'm just here to speak truth and tyhe truth is that I love these TROPICAL DRIPPS. 

WRONG WAY

and bonus points for taping an alternate cover onto the outside of the case...

PUNK AND HARDCORE MIX TAPE

Sometimes you just need to pop it in and crank it up, and sometimes I'm here to help. Here's an absolute banger from start to finish, packed with some straight up classics. SHATTERED FAITH and the only US BOMBS recording that matters mingle with the HITLER SS split with TAMPX and a few choice cuts from PERMANENT GREEN LIGHT and HUMPERS, all backed with an entire side of VKTMS. Whether you're just getting started or you feel like letting someone else take the wheel, this tape rescued from a would-be throw away box of unmarked cassettes is going to be the soundtrack for your day.

PUNK AND HARDCORE MIX TAPE

Also I kinda feel like I just wrote the copy for a mix tape infomercial and I wish that had been a thing in the '80s because I for sure would have bought one...probably the whole set. 

WET SPECIMENS

 

Sometimes I'm (slightly) torn with proper live releases. Like, they should probably go on Escape Is Terminal but really that blog is more for live recordings and not live releases, but also I am more or less the boss around here really I can put whatever I want wherever I want it....so WET SPECIMENS are here (also they are here). Two bleak hardcore slammers and a dark WIRE cover - seven minutes of howling upstate New York mania for your earholes on a Thursday morning. Worth noting that the Johnny Moped set I posted on that other blog earlier this week is a total face melter. 

LIVE AT DON FURY STUDIO

BLANK BODIES

 

Folks are gonna be sifting through the under the radar remnants left behind by the mid-teens for years to come. Like beach explorers with metal detectors, confident that if they just keep their eyes open they will uncover a forgotten (or passed over) gem. And herre I am, completing the metaphor while blasting some 2015 Denver hardcore before work on a Wednesday in 2024. BLANK BODIES has a disorienting lower register that makes me queasy and a raw, open throttle assault that is enviable in any era. Five songs in six minutes. Get in, get it down, get out...and never stop searching. 

DISTORT DENVER