SHIZOPHASIA

 

It's not often that a band sees, reaches for and achieves a vision with this much success. It's as if the entire trajectory of SCHIZOPHASIA was laid out by and for them before they played a fucking note and it shows, especially when you look back at their body of work. Ferocious noise punk injected with and interjected by noise and electronics, sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition. The releases can be challenging (part of the appeal of course), but you always feel like everything you're experiencing is a part of someone else's plan whether it was a part of your plan or not. And a decade after the release of 3000, I have to say that feeling tracks. 

3000

JUSTIN WILSON

 

I was digging in Fresno a few weeks back, looking for some relic from a different time without knowing exactly what kind of relic of from what time because...that's how thrifting works. If you're trying to find a '_____' then you'd just go to the '_____' store, right? It's the adventure and the mystery and the unknown that keeps us digging, and so I was digging. And I dug until I pulled out this Cajun Comedy tape and then I figured "yeah...this is probably all for today - this is what I was meant to find" and 25¢ later I was on my way out the door. I suggest pulling up a chair here, maybe cracking open a cold one this afternoon (as I did on that afternoon a few weeks back) so you can really settle into Justin Wilson's brand of story telling - because it's really more about the stories than the comedy here, and anyone who knows me knows I enjoy a good story. Maybe I should start recording my stories and leaving them in thrift stores for future searchers....

HUNTING WITH JUSTIN WILSON

Cajun Humor Recorded Live!

AUTONOMY

 

I first shared this tape a long time ago, when Terminal Escape was in its infancy and blogs were still a way for people to search for and discover new or new-to-them sounds in the post-SoulSeek pre-YouTube world. I posted this AUTONOMY tape when things were better, when the world wasn't a shambles and it still felt like the good times were real. AUTONOMY started in Carbondale (which serves as a weird triggering omen for this typist) but they moved around a lot and they released several other recordings after this 2011 cassette. Some of the shit is really good but nothing ever touched "No Need" so I was pleased to pop this one in just as I am pleased to re-share it with you, dear visitor. Things are different now and there are asterisks and exceptions to everything good, but this is still the best AUTONOMY release, so why not reach into your own past and listen to sounds of determined frustration that were recorded before your frustration was determined? 

AUTONOMY

•••

DISABUSE // COMMIT ARSON

 

Don't be fooled by the DISABUSE logo font, just a brutal dose of thrashing crust culminating in a gloriously stilted DISCLOSE cover that shows the band trying to reign in their assault to fall in line with standard raw DBeat fare. The fact that they can't quite pull it off only shows that their machine is built to fukkn blast. COMMIT ARSON go straight for the throat on the flip with more face melting dual vocal grind/crust tracks...your knuckles are going to be sore after listening to this shit. And your ears will be bleeding. To visitors who didn't want to be smashed in the face with the raw shit from Philippines today? Well, you can't always get what you want....but these two bands have got what you need. 

FULL BLAST OF ANGER

LESTER

 

Now I'm gonna live my life my way // Fuck you and fuck what you say...

•••

I don't think it's possible to describe how and/or why this LESTER tape is so good, so maybe just trust me on this one? I'm thinking about dropping references as varied as GOMEZ and early '80s Los Angeles punk, but I also can't shake the fact that "F*#k School!" hits me like the first time I hear AFTERBIRTH's "Mr. Louis" and if you know what I mean then....then you definitely know what I mean. LESTER are so baseline, so utterly predictable that you almost get surprised when you hear exactly what you expected to hear at every turn - right down to the ballad that closes the tape. It just works, and sometimes it's better to appreciate instead of analyzing it. 

WORRY ME

OUT OF DREAM

 

Somewhere there's a blog where you can just stream the entire Fag Tapes catalog, right? Like....there must be? I admit I've never checked bandcamp (I also admit I will be disappointed if it's there) and I'm sure that many of the releases are on the tube of you but...this shit is supposed to be scattered around, so I'm kinda glad that there's not an immediately apparent one-stop-shop. I used to think that I was going to to eventually snag all of the Fag Tapes tapes but when I got to 50 or 60 I realized how out of my mind I must have been to have such a thought (truth though: I still wonder if it's possible). FT305 is OUT OF DREAM, an improvisational mental breakdown captured on tape. Three untitled movements running something just under forty minutes. Audio collapse in the pre-digital realm, collected and re-presented through an antiquated digital forum. These releases are all connected, and connecting the pieces is half of the fun - experiencing the sonic experimentation is the bigger half, of course. Think about Max Nordile and the Hair Clinic / Music For People / YSFWP family of artists and think that the Fag Tapes Family of Artists was on a similar mission a decade and a half ago and they never stopped...some of us are still trying to catch up. 

OUT OF DREAM

•••

And of course I checked. And of course there is a bandcamp. So if you've been searching for SICK LLAMA, some BARF THOTH or a copy of Let's Fuck This Dog by SUPER STREET 14 then it looks like you don't have to do anything more complicated that use a common search engine. Kids these days.... 

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

 

At the tail end of the Thrash2K wave in the Bay Area there was a band who just might have spawned another resurgence if the starts had aligned differently. STOCKHOLM SYNDROME were in your face, political, serious - STOCKHOLM SYNDROME were punk. Spencer and Max were Bay Area fixtures (VULGAR PIGEONS, THE SHIVERING and all things 625 respectively), Tim was fresh blood from the UK (that NERVES/SUBSTANDARD split is still straight fire) and they combined forces to create an absolute juggernaut. Ten songs in eleven minutes on the debut Deathfuckers cassette, then personnel challenges contributed to a quick fizzle shortly after the One Way Out EP brought most of that same session to wax. Shit holds up though, and 625 joined up with YOFC to compile the demo and an unreleased session on a much needed posthumous long player....speaking of, you know today is June 25th, right? 6/25. 625. All hail one of the most influential, enthusiastic and honest DIY punk labels ever. 

DEATHFUCKERS