Heavy, powerviolence-influenced hardcore from San Francisco. It’s got what you’ve likely come to expect from this genre: the fastest of the fast and the slowest of the slow, with very little in between, changing quickly back and forth between the two acceptable tempos. The standout track for me is “Victim,” which breaks the mold and […]
Read full "First Dose cassette" review
What we have here is dance punk rock’n’roll for indie punk spaces jammed into crumbling strip malls. It’s dancy, loud, abrasive, and grooving. The vocalist, Ali Carter, is channeling Kathleen Hanna at her angriest, and there are more than a few times that you’ll pick up some LE TIGRE vibes in the lighter moments. In […]
Read full "Covert Contracts LP" review
Populism is not the Left’s friend.
Read full "What’s Left?" column
If any MRR readers out there are still questioning the need for a book of feminist punk history in 2020, allow me offer the following example: consider a certain popular book on the history of Spanish punk that includes a section listing important countercultural figures and musicians in Spain during the 1980s. Out of a […]
Read full "Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot" reviewLive from shelter-in-place: new tunes for unreal times
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:33 — 51.8MB)
This LP is a collection of songs recorded between 2016 and 2018. VACATION is from Cincinnati, and reminds me of a lot of the ’80s Ohio indie rock bands. The music is lo-fi and fuzzy. The vocals are distinctive and quirky, employing interesting phrasings. The songs are catchy, but not quite singable. Not that I […]
Read full "Zen Quality Seed Crystal LP" review
Primitive Species from 2017 was a refreshing fusion of obnoxious techno-like intensity and primitive hardcore punk energy. ARSE’s identity sounds like a drunken, stumbling warning of something very ugly and violent coming your way. You can also dance to it if that’s your thing. Safe Word doesn’t bend radically from the face-melting formula previously introduced, […]
Read full "Safe Word EP" review
In the days following the defeat, people took to the internet, as people in shock often do, to talk about the ‘what next?’
Read full "No More Bad Future" column
Jos Houtveen is the bass player of the legendary Dutch hardcore punk bands Seein’ Red and Lärm. In 2011, he had to quit his bands and give up playing music due to serious ear damage due to multiple infections and exposure to noise. Against all the odds, Jos was given the OK to perform again […]
Read full "Jos of Seein Red on the Reversal of His Hearing Loss" Interview