ROGERNOMIX

I don't know how many different ways I can describe them, but ROGERNOMIX is just unbelievably brutal. Raging dual vocal Scandinspired hc/crust delivered with an unrelenting intensity. It's gonna be tough to get geographically "privileged" North Americans to pay attention to a band from New Zealand, but I'm pretty sure that last year's SE Asian tour (from whence this tape came) was a smashing success....and again, these songs are just devastating. 

AOTEAROA ANNIHILATION

For your enjoyment, my computer farted and turned the entire B side into one erratic four minute shamble...so of course I included it here. You're welcome. 

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

My introduction to THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS was The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse LP in 1990, and I scooped The Maria Dimension as soon as it dropped the following year. Both records were on Play It Again Sam, a label more known for proto-industrial and acid house releases, so for years the band was linked (in my band) to that scene - it's the only reason I checked the band out in the first place (and where is THE CASSANDRA COMPLEX now....?). It's an association that's not entirely unwarranted but, since the early 1980s, The DOTS have consistently held a zone far outside the realm of simple classifications. Psychedelic and ethereal sounds that might owe more to early PINK FLOYD than to experimental and electronic music, The Maria Dimension is full of in depth orchestral arrangements, with tracks like "Pennies For Heaven" serving as multi-layered sequels to "Just A Lifetime" and "The Pleasure Palace" from the previous record. While there's no "I Love You In Your Tragic Beauty" here (though I would argue that there are few equals to that song on any record released by any band at any time....it's like the fucking "Angel Of Death" of melancholic psychedelia), the collision of Krautrock and shameless individualism with a true hallucinatory sonic experience ("The Grain Kings," lights off, full volume) makes for a record that I might enjoy even more than its predecessor. Oh...I snagged this cassette in a 50¢ bin somewhere in Arizona, so....the hunt is still worth it. 

THE MARIA DIMENSION

EXTREMITY

You can call it ignorant old school death metal if you want, and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong...but you'd be dismissing the drum fill in the main verse of "Crepuscular Crescendo" if you did that. And that would be extremely fucking stupid. 

EXTREMELY FUCKING DEAD

LIBIDO BOYZ

I've heard my wife occasionally mention this Mankato, Minnesota band for the entire time I've known her. I'm pretty sure she met them when they played with ECONOCHRIST and DEMISE in Minneapolis in 199something, but that part is irrelevant** (though the video of the show that Milton took is fukkn killer). What is relevant is that for some reason I have thought, through all these years, that LIBIDO BOYZ were basically a forgettable early '90s pop punk band. I have no excuse for this thought, but that's how the band became compartmentalized, even though I had never heard them. Well, I got a few Midwest gems from my pal Daniel earlier this year, and this seven song demo was in the pile....so it seemed it was time to learn what I (thought I) already knew - except that the contents here are light years from my expectations. Nothing poppy, and nothing even remotely forgettable, LIBIDO BOYZ are straight ahead Midwest hardcore punk; maximum energy, maximum intensity, with just the slightest hint of a tongue buried in that cheek somewhere. "Who You Are" is a perfectly executed blasting rager that would be perfectly at home on Master Tape or America's Dairyland, and there's not a clunker in the mix. I admit I'm kinda floored, and feeling a little foolish for twenty years of dismissal....but there's always time to (re)learn, kids. 

LIBIDO BOYZ

I mentioned this revelation to Karoline, and she replied simply and concisely "they were fun live," as if to casually imply that I should pay more and/or better attention to her. And even if that wasn't her implication, it's the truth...

**That part is also incorrect. The connection was through Madison, Wisconsin band INSPECTOR 12. But the footage Milton took from those ECONOCHRIST shows is still very good. 

EXECUTION TECHNIQUES

Do you know how I feel?

This is how I feel. 

BETTER OFF

CHINO HORDE

I've extolled the virtues of this era of US DIY punk and hardcore countless times in these pages. Hardcore was "done," and nothing had really fallen in to take its place. The midwest emo scene hadn't yet fully taken hold, grunge was right around the corner (but the punks still listened to MUDHONEY) and FUGAZI was still mostly an underground thing unless you were a cool kid. And there were no rules. This CHINO HORDE tape from 1990 features versions of several songs that would make it onto records in the ensuing years, and it's hard to explain why and/or how these sounds are so refreshing. It's real, I guess, just some kids from Arkansas doing their thing. Two of the dudes formed THUMBNAIL, and one of the dudes (the one who ran File 13 Records, which is crucial to the documentation of '90s Arkansas DIY punk - a weird niche, but an important one) moved to California and would later play in PINHEAD GUNPOWDER, GREEN DAY and...CALIFORNIA. 

CHINO HORDE

KEPARAT

You might hear some pretty straightforward distorted DBeat hardcore with barked, snotty vocals...but context is important. In the late 1990s, the hardcore scene in Indonesia was still relatively young, and these kids....they were fukkn insane. Raw, blown out rippers and a middle finger pointed straight at high towards authority (especially cops, of course), KEPARAT must have been positively devastating in their prime, and even more so surrounded by hungry punks discovering that there was a world of noise at their disposal. All praise for reissues, I suppose, because none of the 100 copies of this demo that dropped back in '99 are likely to ever make it anywhere near my grubby mitts. 

KEPARAT