TONAL SHIFT

 

Remember twenty five years ago when TOTAL FURY kicked North America in the ass by reinterpreting '80 DCHC and making it sound impossibly familiar and completely original at the same time? The hardcore they were drawing from was twenty years old when they were doing their shit (or by the time that shit made it to us), and they were doing it without the benefit of immediate digital access to all punk. Vienna's TONAL SHIFT are doing the same thing, but they're pulling the meat off of a forty-five year old bone and fuuuukkkk does it sound juicy. I haven't heard a band use this formula this well since 13 Songs, and they use the distance and perspective to their extreme advantage. "Act The Big" is quintessential early Dischord leaning into Rev Summer sounds, "Mentally Checked Out" has the adolescent strain that made (makes) the pure pre-internet hardcore feel....different. Even if this is a band who stepped into the world and looked at all of their options and decided, "we're going to do that" instead of making something 'new,' what they've done is take the 'that' in question and make it new. They've made it theirs. And now it's ours. 

THE E.P.

RIBBON

 

Look - the tape sounds like shit, but you know I'm  gonna give it the way that I get it and I'm not sorry about that. But really you should get the sounds from RIBBON direct because the replication here is as bad....but the tracks are fukkn bad ass. Then again, listing to this shit as presented kinda makes me feel like I'm having auditory hallucinations and it's a completely different listening experience. But the tracks....the sounds...RIBBON. Let's talk about this shit? Yes, let's. High end hyper energetic punk with drums way up front and an enviable early '80s manifestation that feels and sound unmistakably now. And that's the shit, y'all. If there were justice in the world, then "Unchained" would be my summer anthem because it's a perfect damn hardcore punk song. But because my brain is weird (and there is not justice in the world) I'll probably spent the hot months with this stuck in my head like it has been for the past three weeks (which is fine, shit slaps). RIBBON goes so damn hard, punks, and they're doing it right....do this. 

RIBBON - DEMO

TERVEET KADET

 

If you described to me all of the things that make quintessentially Finnish hardcore so distinctly Finnish, you'd probably be describing many of the qualities I seek and enjoy in a hardcore band. So it doesn't make sense that when I first started hearing the Finnish classics....I wasn't moved. It seems unaccessible in a way that's difficult to articulate, but it was also a long ass time ago (and honestly I think that fans of Finnish hardcore might even be pleased to hear that someone heard 'their' music for the first time/s and thought "nah...this isn't for me"). The spell was broken in 2003 when Markku suggested that I guy a copy of The Horse and that record didn't just make TERVEET KADET click, it made the whole damn thing make sense. Anyway, I got this bootleg that says it has tracks from 1983 + 1984 demos plus a 1983 gig in Syke and the tape fukkn rips start to fin(n)ish. So song titles, but your listening device must have a volume control toggle or knob or button so use that instead and think of the years I lost by not "getting it."

DEOMOS (83, 84)

GUNS FOR AFGHAN REBELS

 

I know what you're thinking - you're thinking "It's Friday so there's probably (hopefully) going to be a mix tape" and "There's been so much crucial Indonesian shit on The Escape lately, I would love a collection of bands I've never heard of from the world's fourth most populous country." Good news, punk: I have got you covered. THE STUPID are harsh, relentless and out of tune. MEINKAMPF (in addition to having a really unfortunate name) are also out of tune and have the weirdest duel vocal trade offs. DISPARATY are uncompromising ramshackle hardcore street punk (and also pretty much out of tune).  THE PLAGIATOR play catchy gruff punk anthems - kinda like WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN with super harsh vocals but from the world's fourth most populous country and definitely drunker (and also they are also pretty much out of tune most of the time). It sounds like the bands just lined up outside the studio and walked in one after another and banged their tunes out on the same equipment while the engineer slugged homemade swill and didn't move a single fader. Look, I would be lying if I told you that any single song on this tape was going to improve your life, but we listen to punk to hear punk - not to improve our lives. Sometimes we get both, but we're here for the punk.  So it's Friday, and I've got some intriguing Indonesian tapes burning a hole in my shelf...so you're welcome. 

GUNS FOR AFGHAN' REBELS: DOUBLE SPLIT EP

MASTER BEDROOM

 

I don't want to fill these pages with reflections on un-lived past lives, but....a 1992 Wizard hearing these two tracks in Oklahoma would have lost his shit. The 2025 Wizard hearing these tracks in California is also losing his shit, but it's different somehow. I'm not exactly sure how.......not exactly, but it's different.  Whatever you are and/or wherever you are now, you need these sounds. This is SUICIDE for the new real(ity), this is Reality for the new Now. "Toxic Megacolon" to the future freaks....

CASSINGLE No.1  

GARY GILMORE MEMORIAL SOCIETY

 

I wasn't ready for GGMS. I didn't know what I was getting when I pulled off the slip cover, but I surely wasn't expecting....this. GARY GILMORE MEMORIAL SOCIETY would have ruled my world in 1990, a world dominated by experimentations in experimentation in general in a time when punk, new wave, industrial, proto-indie sounds all held equal space in my head (and heart) because the people who could help show me what was "cool" weren't in my life yet (and thankfully, still aren't). The slow, breathy, almost absent-minded sounds would have held me like a baby in those days, provided me comfort and offered me an escape. "I Don't Wanna Go Out" would have been my reason to not go out before I even knew I would have bouts of crippling self induced anxiety decades later. "Do You Ever Think Of Me?" would have been my reminder that....no, they don't....while the gorgeous no-fidelity acoustic swell of "Kind And Loving Things" would have offered support in spite of everything. These are quiet, distant anthems for the never-was and hope for the never-will-be. A subtle trio from the past, honest and intentional sounds damaged by time and degradation. Absolutely gorgeous...there aren't many releases that hit this hard, so please don't skip this one.

LEAVE ME ALONE 1987-88

I won't be the last one 'cause there's nothing left to be

R.'N'R.

 

I started with the I've Had It / Your Rules 45 and it was interesting mostly because no one was doing that then. Then came the Manic Ride/Dead Alive full length (I know there were other 7" bangers in between - I'm just talking about what passed through my earholes) and it was like.....I dunno, if I want THIN LIZZY I'll go listen to THIN LIZZY and even though that's not really what R'N'R was doing it still felt like the energy they were trying to conjure and let's be honest here: AT released II the same year The Infamous And Notorious came out and are we really going to have a discussion about preferred punk interpretations of rock 'n roll? The were Boston Hardcore royalty by 2004, but still....ANNIHILATION TIME. Anyway, this first demo passed my desk a few weeks ago and it was (is) a really fun listen - surprisingly rudimentary considering the future output from this crew of Scene Giants. Four rock 'n roll / hardcore hybrid tracks from folks responsible (in part) for THINK I CARE, INNUMERABLE FORMS, VACCINE, BOSTON STRANGLER, RIVAL MOB, BATTLE RUINS, MIND ERASER and about a dozen other bands...but really? You had my heart when you ripped the Metal Health cover, because that was The Wizard's first hard rock record. 

DEMOLITION