KARATE!

I remember hearing/seeing this name a lot during '90s East Coast jaunts, but I don't know if I had ever (consciously) heard them before my pal Daniel gave me a handful of old demos this past summer. I am pretty sure I would have hated it then - just no teeth, you know? But my middle aged self has come around (a bit) to some of the sounds I dismissed as a tunnel visioned twenty something, and the meandering FUGAZI-meets-shoegaze-and-puts-on-a-backpack vibe is suiting me just fine this morning. It doesn't always have to be about breaking shit. 

KARATE!

LOS CAÍDOS

I was excited to see these Argentinians when they finally made it to the USA earlier this year, and was please (but not surprised) to find that their high energy dual vocal hardcore translated perfectly to the live environment. As concept releases go, their Somos Latino America cassette from 2015 is prime material - twenty covers of bands from all over Central and South America, and LOS CAÍDOS go pretty fukkn deep, taking care of the obvious spots (Brasil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru) and also hitting Honduras, Panama, Bolivia, El Salvador, Uruguay and others. It still sounds like them, which is the cool thing, and means that it bangs from start to finish...and it means that you are likely to find a handful of new bands that you'll want to know better. GUERILLA URBANA track is possibly my favorite, but that could change tomorrow. 

SOMOS LATINO AMERICA

LUNACHICKS

I always thought LUNACHICKS were way tougher that L7 or BABES IN TOYLAND. The Cookie Moshter EP blew me away at the time, and they just seemed so bad ass (and high). I consulted Karoline on this and she said she was firmly in the L7 camp ("Fast And Frightening"?! she said, and suggested that LUNACHICKS always seemed less serious) and I confess that listening to this MLP recorded for a Japanese tour in the mid '90s makes me think that my wife is probably right. If there were no joke-y vocals then this band would be deadly, because when they are tough? LUNACHICKS will fucking crush you, and they swing ("Curve Of Mother's Axe") at all times. But it's hard to forgive the "More Than A Feeling" cover included here...but I'll keep cranking "Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board" for the rest of the day anyway. Because even if Karoline is right on this one, that song is a certified banger. 

SUSHI A LA MODE

DANIEL HIGGS

As of this afternoon, I have been married to a woman named Karoline for twenty years. What's weird is not that I have spend essentially my entire adult life with this woman, but that I am old enough to have been married for two decades. But....I am old, and I hope to get older. With her. 

THE FOOLS SERMON Part 2

This is one of my favorite HIGGS pieces, and the organs on this interpretation complete the package help to complete the package. It becomes not just a rant, but a sermon. A lesson. 

BAD SAMARITANS

Agoura Hills is essentially halfway between LA and Oxnard....that's where BAD SAMARITANS were from, and that's where BAD SAMARITANS sound like they were from. Bordering on metallic late '80s crossover but with moments of weird noodly surfer shit, plenty of NardCore....and rooted in LA punk. Trepidatious listeners will need a tolerance for (or at least a contextual understanding of) funk punk. Trust me, it made sense at the time - and "My Betrayal" is a true creamer, regardless of context. 

BAD SAMARITANS

ASS // COLON PIPE

This is what splits should be like, y'all. Wild and loose cacophonous punk from Minneapolis's ASS on one side (remnants of the overly prolific '00s will remember their pink LP cover from the middle of that decade), like a Midwestern future FILTH (or that's what many of us thought at the time) ringing in that dupa-dupa 1-2-1-2 drum beat damn near a decade before it seemingly infected every corner of punk and hardcore. But to mix it up on the flip, ASS is paired up with COLON PIPE. Five bursts of tortured electronics on their side, defying construct or classification. Elements of techno creep in occasionally, and moments sound like primitive video game soundtracks ("Azmile Quite Convinzing" most particularly), both doomed to be overshadowed by overbearing synth blasts. Disjointed (almost) to the point of unlistenable at times, but that is most certainly the point. So I guess your week is gonna start out kinda weird, and you are welcome for that. 

ASS // COLON PIPE

LAPIS

I am well aware that modern advances in digital recording have resulted in an unfathomable explosion of independent small scale electronic/synth/goth acts born out of bedrooms and curiosity...but as we are showered with fragments of hardcore bands resurrected or reincarnated as shrapnel from these eruptions, with the flaming remnants of former loners now empowered by second hand synths and pirated plug-ins, I would never suggest that I am disappointed. Because there are acts like LAPIS. Two people from Oakland making dreary sounds that could have come from any of the last four decades (present decade included in this count), but LAPIS comes from now, and these four tracks are stellar, particulary "TECH-NI-QUE," the only even remotely upbeat number on their first demo. I hope that this is just an appetizer....I am ready for the main course. 

LAPIS