SOCKEYE

 

Ahhhhh SOCKEYE. Early (1989) live recording from Ohio's finest purveyors of whatever it is that SOCKEYE purvey. There's a radio interview too, because someone thought it was a good idea to put SOCKEYE on the radio. There's simply nothing like it. 

A BUNCH OF STRAIGHTEDGE FUCKS TRIED TO RUIN OUR FUN - BUT FAILED

HAROLD TURGIS

 

I waxed on about HAROLD TURGIS a few months ago, and here's the second of three tapes I received in a very timely package from England. These sounds arrived when I was in need of some grounding, some unscheduled quietude, and The Sentinels and Satellite both provide exactly that while also offering (temporary) (safe) escapes through sound. Turgis creates sound in an apparent vacuum, paying attention to the sounds themselves more than the environments that conjure them...and as much as I was hesitant to listen to Satellite because my experience with The Sentinels was so perfect, this experience was (also) exactly what I needed. You're worth it. 

SATELLITE: 1997-2021

MIXED COMBAT

 

I hadn't pulled this tape out in fucking years before I ripped it earlier this week and....well, this is the part of the blog where I feel compelled to tell stories. To reminisce and remember by click clacking away at a solitary keyboard with the tinny sounds of forgotten years reduced to digital files screaming at me from a pair of desktop speakers. These are the tapes that transport me - it's not that the sounds are good (they are), it's the place in time that these particular sounds represent. It's the space they hold. It's knowing that in today's punk there is another scene holding a similar space for a different punk. And if I'm just click clacking away just hear my own memories come out of my fingers....then so be it. Because they are really good memories. 

MIXED COMBAT VOL.1

YOUTH IN ASIA

 

I would like to introduce you to a creature known informally as The Indianapolis Screamer, the rare and elusive monstrosity responsible for a raw and mysterious hardcore assault that will make you shudder. Before you have a chance to prepare your wits, you'll look down and see them scattered all over your small, trivial world and you'll be stuck gathering them while sick society laughs at your misfortune....and The Indianapolis Screamer? They will have forgotten you and moved on to remind another poor misguided soul what this life is really like, what this existence is really for. Some call them YOUTH IN ASIA...I hear the sound of dark gods. 

NUCLEAR WASTE ABOMINATION

ZYGOTE

 

No introduction necessary....right? Two blokes from AMEBIX and two from SMARTPILS, that should be enough if you don't already know. There's the collection on Skuld that was the introduction for most folks (including me), and the LP on MCR that was a little harder to track down (before the internet), but this tape was elusive as fuck...so I reissued it in the early TE days. No one sounded like ZYGOTE then, and no one has sense...and I swear these two recordings hit me harder today than they did when I first heard them.

ZYGOTE

IN TIME

 

I listen to IN TIME and I wish that they had been in my life in 2001. They didn't exist in 2001 (fukk, they were probably still children in 2001), but I try to not let semantics and logistics get in the way of my dreams, especially when I'm dreaming about seeing hardcore bands in a time and place where they would have made the greatest impact (on me). IN TIME doesn't make me nostalgic for that time...but IN TIME makes me happy that someone else is living that reality today. Of course this demo comes from Extinction Burst, a label who pretty much embody all of the feels this hardcore demo dropped in my lap today. Play it loud, punks. Play it so loud you can feel it. Because it helps. 

IN TIME

FUCKHEADS

 

Holy fuck is it a face blast to crank this tape after it sat on a shelf for a decade!!! FUCKHEADS took the over the top noisepunk guitar manipulation that NERVESKADE dropped on the DIY world in the late '00s and injected it into a blistering embodiment of intense rapid fire East Coast hardcore. The foundation is hardcore punk - period - and that's what makes their treatments so perfect. Absolute face melting supremacy with erratic ADHD guitar treatments that make FUCKHEADS simultaneously difficult and fascinating to listen to, and check "Traitor" to learn about appropriate BPM implementation in hardcore punk. I feel like future punk is creeping in from the past to tap me on the shoulder and remind me that it's not quite time to die...yet. July 25th 2024 and listening to FUCKHEADS makes me feel alive. 

2011 SUMMER TOUR TAPE