The March 2010 issue of Maximum Rocknroll is hot off the presses! Our cover feature is an interview with DEATH, the almost forgotten, classic 1970s Detroit African-American proto-punk band. We also talk to straight-edge rockers DEFENSA ABSOLUTA from Peru, and we get the skinny on the controversial band DRY-ROT, whose religious undertones have caused quite a stir. Midwest mutant hardcore kids KIM PHUC reveal their secrets, and we hear from Japan’s answer to Pushead, Sugi, a legend in the world of Japanese hardcore record art. We’ve also got an interview with Michigan’s art-noise party-starters, DRUID PERFUME, and we leave you with a huge list of our contributors’ top ten favorite records from 2009. All that plus tons of columns, news, and the most extensive record, book, and zine review section in punk!

Get this issue of MRR here:

Your location: US $4.20 Canada $5.25 Mexico $7.35 World $10.50

You can also order by mail: send $4 in the US/$5 Canada/$7 Mexico/$10 worldwide to: MRR • PO Box 460760 • San Francisco, CA 94146 • USA …or just SUBSCRIBE!

Angela Owens gives us four from the Southeastern USofA:

Failures @ Lunchbox Records, Charlotte, NC, December 28, 2009 (photo by Angela Owens)

Iron Lung @ 1982, The Fest, Gainesville, FL, October 31, 2009 (photo by Angela Owens)

Salvation @ Lunchbox Records, Charlotte, NC, December 28, 2009 (photo by Angela Owens)

Young and in the Way @ The Brewery, Raleigh, NC, September 11, 2009 (photo by Angela Owens)

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

If you shoot shows and have photos you want to submit for the MRR Blog, send them to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com. Be sure to put “MRR Photo Blog” in the subject. Include your name, the band, where and when it was shot. Just send your best photos – edit tightly. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

Thanks to Helge for responding to our last post with these photos of Tim Yohannan and SF’s late, great record store and hangout, Epicenter. If you have more photos of Tim or Epicenter, please send ‘em our way! webzine {at} maximumrocknroll(.)com

This week we’ve got a different type of From the Vaults post. These photos were loaned to the magazine by former coordinator Martin Sprouse, to be printed along with an interview we ran for the 25th Anniversary issue in 2007 (MRR #291, available in Back Issues). I found them in a folder on my old computer last week as I was clearing everything off before leaving it on the sidewalk. Now you get to see ‘em in color! (Well, except for the black and white one…)

Martin Sprouse and Tim Yohannan at the MRR House, 1987

Martin and two unidentified people, building 924 Gilman St., 1986

Martin interviewing Tim for Leading Edge fanzine, 1984

Martin and Bones (of 76% Uncertain), 1984

I am so fucking stoked on LA VOZ right now! They come out of the same LA “Raw Ponx” scene as bands such as TUBERCULOSIS, RAYOS X, RABIA AL SISTEMA, and POLISKITSO, and play high-energy, timeless yet fresh-sounding hardcore sung in Spanish.  I had the chance to catch them while in LA over the weekend, and before they played, I was told that seeing them would be “like 2001 all over again.” Given that some of my favorite hardcore came out during this era, and that the person telling me this doesn’t hyperbolize, I was already super excited to see them, and they actually exceeded my expectations live.  Comparisons to LIFE’S HALT go beyond the superficial.

Check out their MySpace page for the usual riffraff.  Not sure how many demos they still have, but a 7″ will be out soon on Lengua Armada.  I’m listening to these songs as I write this, and they hone the best elements of those on their demo.

LA VOZ + circle pit! (photo by OldHC Robert)

Also, I want to give a huge kudos to this scene.  I’d seen TUBERCULOSIS and RAYOS X up here, but seeing them in their own town and watching these kids, who probably have more reason to be punk than most, getting excited, dancing, singing along to all their friends’ bands, and making shit happen in general was rad and super inspiring.  Along with a bunch of great bands, this scene has also spawned a record store, radio show (not just an internet one either), and Fronteras Desarmadas, which is both a print and video zine with contributions from a lot of these kids.  For more info and updates, check out myspace.com/rawponxla.

Weekend Nachos @ the Blvd, Boyle Heights, CA. 6 December 2009 (photo by oldhcdude)

Big news here in the MRR photo department. Needles & Pens in San Francisco is hosting a photo show of work from the blockbuster MRR Photo Issue! Details:

Needles & Pens presents
Maximum Rocknroll Issue #321’s Release Party & Photo Show

Maximum Rocknroll #321 is a special photo issue featuring contributions from over 75 punk photographers from around the world. Among the list are: longtime MRR contributor Murray Bowles (If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries…), Helge Schreiber, (compiler of the last MRR photo issue, Welcome to Cruise Country, 1987), 924 Gilman St.’s house photographer Larry Wolfley, Brazilian photographers and editors of Fodido E Xerocado, Mateus Mondini and Daigo Oliva. Also, Karoline Collins, Chrissy Piper, and Patrick Baclet (publisher of the photobook, Out of Vogue). Plus, garage punk turkeys Mark “Icki” Murrmann & Chris “Canderson” Anderson. …and many, many more!!

N&P will be displaying photos featured in the issue and more. Photos on the walls! Photos in the mag! Lots and lots of photos!

Please join us for the opening: Friday, February 12, 2010 • 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Needless & Pens
3253 16th Street / San Francisco, CA 94103

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The photo show will be a benefit for MRR, with money from prints sold going to help out the mag. We’ll also have postcard sets from photos in the show. Sure to be a blast. If you’re in town, drop by!

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

If you shoot shows and have photos you want to submit for the MRR Blog, send them to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com. Be sure to put “MRR Photo Blog” in the subject. Include your name, the band, where and when it was shot. Just send your best photos – edit tightly. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

Portland’s ARCTIC FLOWERS may be important to some folks based purely on pedigree. And yes, the skill and experience of guitarist Stan (ex-Signal Lost) and drummer Mike (of a million-and-one great bands, including, currently, Defect Defect) definitely shines through in this band. But the other half of the group, newcomers Lee and Alex, on bass and vocals respectively, land the knockout punch with killer, dark, melodic vocals — just the way I like ‘em — and a solid as fuck rhythm section.

Arctic Flowers’ sound is unabashedly UK anarcho, but not in a way that sounds derivative and hackneyed. The songs sound tough as fuck, and don’t delve into cliché, as this genre so often did in its golden age. Isn’t that the best we can ask from a modern age punk  band — take what we know and love, make it your own, and do it well? If we were giving grades, Arctic Flowers would be at the front of the curve.

Arctic Flowers, as seen in the MRR Photo Issue (photo by Paul Curran)

And for your listening pleasure, here’s their 4-song demo!

Arctic Flowers – “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” MP3
Arctic Flowers – “Neon Tombs” MP3
Arctic Flowers – “Blue Heelers” MP3
Arctic Flowers – “Technicolor Haze” MP3

Today we have four hot photos from Diana Lee Z in Philadelphia:

Attentat at the International Waters House, Philadelphia, 2009 (photo by Diana Lee Zadlo)

Vulcan at Disgraceland, Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 2008 (photo by Diana Lee Zadlo)

The Holy Mountain at the Bread Box, Philadelphia, Oct. 2006 (photo by Diana Lee Zadlo)

Cannabis Corpse at the Where House, Philadelphia, 2009 (photo by Diana Lee Zadlo)

Wanna submit a photo for the MRR Photo Blog?

If you shoot shows and have photos you want to submit for the MRR Blog, send them to: markmurrmann {at} gmail(.)com. Be sure to put “MRR Photo Blog” in the subject. Include your name, the band, where and when it was shot. Just send your best photos – edit tightly. Three to five photos is plenty. We will be exercising a little quality control here…not everything sent in will be posted. Please size your photos so they are 500 pixels (72 dpi) at the longest side.

There are a lot of awesome photographers out there shooting shows…and there are a lot of unseen archives of old shows. Show us what you’ve got!

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Stay tuned for news about the upcoming MRR Photo Issue photo show at Needles & Pens in San Francisco. The opening will be February 12th. Mark your calendars!!!

No particular reason why I chose this 1988 single from the UK’s Mega City Four for this weeks’ From The Vaults post, aside from the fact that it’s a great melodic punk record — and while not necessarily obscure, the band might be unknown to some readers of MRR. In fact, I’m not all that familiar with the Mega City Four myself. I do know this is their first proper release, and there were a lot more to follow; from what I’ve heard of their later stuff, it’s even more in a pop direction.

Anyway, Miles Apart/Running in Darkness is a very cool little single, and any fan of late-’80s melodic punk bands from the UK should give it a listen. To my ears, it’s got more of a Stiff Little Fingers feel than, say, Leatherface, who were heavily influenced by Hüsker Dü. But what do I know? Check it out for yourself:

1. Miles Apart
2. Running in Darkness

Sadly, frontman Darren “Wiz” Brown passed away in 2006. Here’s a link to an unofficial (but very comprehensive) Mega City Four webpage: www.megacityfour.co.uk

It’s great when it’s hard to explain why a band is so awesome. It means something new and larger than words is at work in their music. Umeå, Sweden’s MASSHYSTERI is that awesome. The elements are easy enough to lay out. There are the surf-drenched guitars, the complementary lady/dude vocals and the rock ‘n’ roll frenzy of X, some of what has been brewing in Denmark and Sweden over the last decade with bands like GORILLA ANGREB, and NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS, and the ashes from which this band sprang: THE VICIOUS. But there is something more than that here too. It’s tuneful hooks that grab you and drag you into bleak and feral songs that threaten to pull you in two once you’ve been snared. It’s simultaneously melancholy, frantic, and joyfully danceable. It’s something wild and new and wholly it’s own.

For a taste, here’s a video for one of their iconic songs, “Tvivel,” that is totally simple in concept, but spellbinding to watch. What would it look like to undo the damage of war, to rewind, unbomb, unkill? Plus, how many punk bands actually have concept music videos, not just blown-out YouTube clips?