GULLIVER

 

It would be easy to dismiss this band based simply on the title of their 1995 cassette, but I implore you to listen. GULLIVER opens with "I Don't Belong To You" and those nasal vocals that defined an era of melodic punk, and then the song kicks in and you hear '80s SoCal oozing out of the chords....and you know something is different. I hear '77 NYC on "I Don't Belong" and then they just settle into a groove that is, admittedly: Simple, Fast and Melodic!. It's also a groove that is really fukkn good.  "Country Man" is a would-be anthem for a generation of small town working class (pop) punk kids (they were from Barretos, the capital of Brasilian rodeo) while "Cog Of Gear" is lightning fast and conjures ROUSE vibes - hell, even the damn BEATLES cover (almost) works. None of the nine tracks touch the two minute marks while that simple, fast and melodic groove just keeps churning. These are the nuggets that will (always) keep me digging. 

SIMPLE, FAST AND MELODIC!

NUCLER BLUD

 

And then there was now...and now there is NUCLER BLUD. Devastatingly calculated in their approach, and rarely have I been more drawn to a band's determination to stay on the rails and remain completely hinged. Saw them for the first time a few weeks back and was not at all disappointed, then came home and had my ass handed to me by the two sub-60 second burners on this gig only cassette. Pay attention, young punks. 

CORRIDOR b/w FROWN

NIL

 

And ten years after FIX MY HEAD there came NIL. A different crew of Oaklanders, this time crooning their way through an LPs worth of addictive old punk with MISSION OF BURMA and casual '80s college/alt vibes. This is one of the tapes that grabs me a few songs in after I've accepted that it's not going to grab me (though here it was the solo in the second track that turned me around). The best things happen when you're least expecting them. 

SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING

FIX MY HEAD

 

Four blasts of straight Bay Area fire from a lifetime ago - FIX MY HEAD were kicking when I moved back to SF, but they dissolved shortly afterwards. Just furious California hardcore punk of the highest order. Will did an EP and there was the split with KNIFE IN THE LEG, but this recording....? Like I said at the start of the paragraph: Four blasts of straight Bay Area fire. 

FIX MY HEAD

DJ UDJAT EYE

 

When the first DJ UDJAT EYE mix dropped into my box last year, I was chuffed before I popped it in the deck. You see, Dave doesn't fuck around.....and if Dave took the time to create and reproduce a mix? It's gonna be good, and it is good (of course) - but that tape still didn't prepare me for this volume. Seven minutes into the first side and we've moved from ALBERT MARCOEUR to VOLYA to MAGDA MAYAS infected with PIG DNA....and that only lays the foundation. This is an expertly crafted cassette, a collection of sounds and creations that is far greater than the sum of its parts. RINGO STARR. NO COMMENT. MARION BROWN. NEFTALI. PEGGY LEE. SUPPRESSIVE PERSON. A truly crafted and curated mix is so much more that a simple collection of songs, and this is is so much. more than even that. An altogether other worldly listen that I cannot recommend more highly. 

DJ UDJAT EYE

SFO

 

Figured they might have been from the Bay with the name (it's an airport), but they're from Chicago. I ripped an L7 set from 1991 the other night, and that primed me nicely for this trio - plodding, in your face, guitar heavy sludge/punk...I'm real into it, and I wish the second side hadn't been all fucked up and warbled so I could hear all six songs. Listen to "U-Lock" and smash shit, because it's Thursday. 

SxFxOx

JUVENTUD PODRIDA

 

When I say "volume yields," I generally mean that listening to punk at higher volumes yields more satisfying results. Today however, when I say "volume yields," I mean that increasing the volume on JUVENTUD PODRIDA's 2014 behemoth La Naturaleza de la Bestia will make you want to kill things. Anything in sight, anything you can get your hands on (or around). Inanimate objects will reanimate just so you can feel them slip into the other realm. These four songs are the sounds of absolute destruction and primal desperation realized. Total modern crust destruction, this should have been the blueprint for the last decade...holy shit. 

LA NATURALEZA DE LA BESTIA