TEENAGE WAISTBAND

I suppose I could be lazy and just refer you to Greg's assessment of this east coast outfit, but you're worth too much for me to just phone it in like that. And the tape warrants more than a casual "this dude said it sounds weird, check it out" - because it's really out there. Like, really out there. Guitar sounds drawn from '80s avant/post/art punk, shrill vocal squeals that land somewhere between MELT BANANA, BRATMOBILE and OLD SKULL are dropped with precision over drunken lurches masked as songs...and it all works. But it's weird as shit. The longest track on the demo, "Transitions Into Victory," features the most damaged sounds coming out of a guitar while the drums and bass lay back with an early '80s Rough Trade groove and the vocals start to get a soulful swagger, but that's as close as TEENAGE WAISTBAND get to anything normal on this 2011 release...and they make sure to wipe that impression clean with the tape's closer "Ghost In The Boombox." This one took be by surprise. Enjoy.

I SAW WHAT I WANTED TO SEE

INFERNAL SLAVE

Every bit as raw and primal as the cover suggests, San Jose's INFERNAL SLAVE take memorable black metal riffs and mask them in shrouds of blinding hiss and some of the poorest production I've heard...and of course that is why they are great. The vocals particularly shine on the title track, but their desperate animal-backed-into-a-corner vibe is present throughout. Sinister and truly demented sounds. This one sounds truly disgusting, kids....and I'm sure you will love it.

OPPRESSED BY INFERIOR

HICKEY

Sometimes you live with people and they are just your roommates, and you don't actually realize what a huge influence they are having on your lives until years later. I cannot tell you how many casual conversations with Matty have etched themselves into my brain over the years, or how many life lessons I accidentally learned from by simply being in the same room while he was talking. The songs are timeless but the band was so much more than that, and anyone lucky enough to see them knows it. This tape contains just one song, and it is one of my favorite HICKEY tunes (different version than the one on the LP, for those keeping track). By far the shortest post I've ever had on The Escape, but far from the least important. RIP, dude...I can't believe it's been thirteen years.

HER PROSTHETIC HANDS

Don't try calling...but that's the number the VGS made all the death threats to, in case you were curious. The Hawaiian Mafia too, but Aesop says that one was legitimately kinda scary, so I won't make jokes.

APATIA

More stuff I scooped up in Poland on my first trip to Europe, I think I came home from that trip with four different APATIA tapes. I suppose they will all find their way home to The Escape eventually...Odejdź Lub Zostań is from 1994.

ODEJDŹ LUB ZOSTAŃ

HERDS

The only thing I didn't like about seeing HERDS live was Jon's guitar sound. It was fukkd, tinny, piercing but with no definition...and of course, that guitar is what puts this band's demo over the edge. Ripping '00s US hardcore with a blown to smithereens buzzsaw ripped straight out of Japanese noise punk. "Antlers" is the banger, the dichotomy between that guitar and Dave's rumbling bass is more apparent here than just about anywhere else and it swings like a motherfukkr, while "Fading" is a perfect whirlwind of Y2K fastcore dished out by people who should know pretty well how to handle the genre (members of CHARLES BRONSON, KUNG FU RICK and THREATENER here, among countless others). There are a few vinyl slabs kicking around, but of course I deal in tapes...this one is from 2008.

HERDS

DEEP PILL

Another selection from the dizzying array of contributions from the Ascetic House family, DEEP PILL implants a half hour of trippy minimal techno into your body with 2013's High Dose. Building up and cooling down throughout the five tracks, this tape seems to settle into the background at times...until you realize that the rest of your day has receded and you are paying attention to nothing but these sounds (the 4:10 mark of the second track is where this really starts to take hold, and it never lets go). This label never disappoints.

HIGH DOSE

SIREN

I remember hearing about this band and reading their name all over the place when I first moved to San Francisco. And I'll be damned if hearing SIREN for the first time twenty years later doesn't take me right back to those days - anthemic Bay Area punk with an earnest approach that leans as much towards AVAIL than 924 Gilman. Four tracks on this 1996 demo...I guess it pays to have friends born and raised here who turn into adults and get sick of their teenage cassette collections.

BECOMING WHEELS