FATALITY

I've said it before, but there must be thousands of bands that are only not considered crucial because of when they existed, not where they were from or what they played. Imagine for a moment that FATALITY was from San Francisco, circa 1984...seminal Bay Area thrash without a doubt. But take the same band and drop them in 1990 San Jose, realize that they existed in the same time and place as ASBESTOS DEATH and ask yourself if you think anyone gave half a shit about a band playing thrash metal. I'm guessing they didn't....but I'm damn sure that this demo melts my fukkn face in 2014 San Francisco, so someone please tell FATALITY that their legacy is in good hands. Colossal backing vocals, screaming guitars and an appropriately relentless pace - listen to the singer gurgle "crime pays the fukkn rent" and you'll wonder whether you want to grab your high top white sneakers or a knife (I suggest both). The whole thing (all three songs of it) is damn near perfect - this monkeys knew exactly what they wanted to do and they crushed it on their only release, nevermind that grunge and crust were hot on their heels. Raw and brutal thrash metal: you're welcome.

FATALITY

CRIMINAL WAVE

RITUAL CONTROL played a show in Chico, California in the spring. It was everything you want from a house party filled with misfits and miscreants, and the 15 or so people crammed into that hole they call a basement had a fukkn blast and made us feel welcome. It was a good reminder that sometimes you need to get away to simply get real - and when I was done taking my picture next to a teenager duct taped to a barstool in the kitchen, I watched CRIMINAL WAVE rock the shit out of that sweaty ass hole in the ground and the kids that weren't drinking and playing video games in the living room showed their appreciation enthusiastically. Southern California sound, small town hardcore determination. I was pretty sure this demo would rule when Miles told me he was gonna drop one in the mail...and for once I was right.

XEROX

OCTAFISH

This 1989 demo was in a pile of stuff I got from a friend years ago and I just kept skipping past it until this past weekend....it was worth the wait. You want this to be some lost goth punk gem, and it gets close at times, but this is pure psychedelic freakout gold - tracks like "Old Nik" and "Drop Dead" just burn and the guitar is impossible to contain. Listen to the vocals on "Professor Heed," it sounds like she is so busy losing her shit that she can barely make it over to the microphone to lay down her tracks, and then the guitar starts off with some theremin sounding shit lurking under the surface, taking only a short break before filling the last 90 seconds with solos while the drums keep surging forward. I can't tell (nor do I care) where these maniacs were coming from and the recording is rough around the edges at times, but this near-hour long demo is going to be one hell of a reward for you monkeys brave enough (read: smart enough) to take the plunge. 

DIRT FILTH AND MAYHEM

Also, more than once when listening to this for the first time, I thought, "This kinda sounds like AMEBIX." Tell me I'm crazy.

SILENCER

Good Morning: "Black Poison." "Lycanthro Drunk." "Ruin." I mean, you already know what you're about to get into, right? SILENCER does exactly what you need them to do, and they do it with military precision. Blistering Scandi-by-way-of-PDX hardcore crust punk with hollow vocals and tasty leads (but only when appropriate...which is apparently often) and that half gallop, half fist in the air thing that people who love things that are awesome seem to be into. Because people who love things that are awesome are smart people. You want to be smart, right? Then I suggest you start studying.

INCENDIARY MATERIALS

ABSTRACTER

Epic doesn't even come close. Oakland's ABSTRACTER soar, pulling a blanket of suffocating despair over you while you listen. Only three songs on this 2012 tape (also released on vinyl and CD), confidently accelerating to a swampy KYLESA-esque crawl at their very fastest, but spending most of the time slogging through riff after powerful riff before laying back and letting the atmosphere take over. Black metal minor chords sneak into the slower parts, even though the reviewer that pegged them for an offshoot of that genre would be a very very lazy reviewer - Tomb Of Feathers is dark, heavy, and beautifully menacing, even if the torment seems to be pointed inward. And to think that this band is right under my very nose...

TOMB OF FEATHERS

ORGAN

It takes a lot to make something that I can't really talk about. I talk a lot. But I don't know what the fukk these kids are thinking and this short (short!) demo confuses me. Two short and super intriguing keyboard (organ?) driven soundscapes and two brutal and excellent lo-fi bass/drum powerviolence eruptions. Three minutes of magic on a 60 minute blank tape...that's all I know. 

ORGAN!!

THE SHOWBOAT EXPERIENCE

Before we trolled the internet looking for new (or old) sounds, those of us lucky enough to live in the broadcast range of someone more enlightened or informed would crowd around the radio and listen. College stations were the obvious sources of many early punk educations, but I remember tuning into a hazy KMOD from Tulsa and adjusting the foil outside my window so I could hear their "deep cut" classic rock LPs on Sunday nights (I recorded many of them, and the thrill of snagging an early '70s DEEP PURPLE record as a 13 year old was immense). When I was 15, I started a new wave radio show on the AOR/easy listening/schlock format station in my small town, and ran with it until I left town, so hopefully someone tuned in to hear whatever gems I had unearthed during the week (though for the first couple of years it was mostly non-single cuts off of CURE and VIOLENT FEMMES with a DEAD KENNEDYS or THRILL KILL KULT track thrown in here and there). Maybe (probably?) the internet will take over completely (or maybe the radio format will just transfer to the internet, as with the still excellent and still weekly Maximum Rocknroll Radio whose show this week features pals of mine) but there's something special about the static swelling in and out of a poorly recorded cassette recorded by a kid hoping to hear something new, and last winter I definitely cruised through Grants, New Mexico at 3am listening to a certifiably ill black metal show on a Native community station. Found a place to park on a hill where I could get a clear signal and I just listened...

TIM & PAT: THE SHOWBOAT EXPERIENCE

Anarcho punk, late '80s college rock, reggae weird snippets, and two dudes talking about tunes they like and generally being weirdos. Exactly what we want.