9 Shocks Terror @ VFW, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 1 Sept. 2001 (photo by Chris Minicucci)
Work on the MRR photo issue is slowly winding down. Over 80 people from around the world sent in photos, totaling over 850 photos! It’s gonna be a knockout! Look for it early next year and stay tuned here for updates.
Hey, wanna submit a photo for the photoblog? Look here.
The band, and friends
Along with LOTUS FUCKER, NO MINION, and THE GUILT, DEATHRATS can be added to the list of killer DC hardcore bands that have started up in the last couple of years. This band’s demo knocked me on my ass a few months ago, and it was just pressed on 7″ by To Live A Lie, limited to 300 or something. Here’s the review I did in MRR magazine:
One of the best hardcore demos I’ve heard in a long-ass time. DEATHRATS play ‘dark and heavy’ hardcore that is likely influenced by bands such as DROPDEAD, DEATHREAT, TO WHAT END?, and SKITSYSTEM among others, with a lot of great riffs, cool instrument breaks, crucial feedback at exactly the right moments, and vocal phrasing that works really well with the music, all played a bit faster than usual for this style. Christine’s livid vocals seriously send chills down my spine, and there’s a refreshing earnestness and intelligence to her anger, as she takes on people that project their own misery onto how they treat others, how the male gaze keeps her from developing a positive self-image on her own terms, and how the need for girls to stop hating each other and band together is just as relevant now as it was in the heyday of Riot Grrrl. All of this serves as further proof that girls/women in punk have more reason to be pissed than their male counterparts…
The band’s blog can be found at deathratsdc.blogspot.com, with show info and downloads and what not.
System Fucker @ Hokage in Osaka, Japan. 1 Nov. 2009 (photo by Kenta Nakano)
The Tenants
“Submind/Noise In My Head” 45
(Rent’s Due 001, 1981)
This stunningly great 7″ is a mystery of mysteries.
When I happen across unfamiliar records with Tim Yo covers* in the MRR library, they usually turn out to be something good, or at least interesting. But this one is by far my favorite “discovery.” The Tenants played slow- to mid-tempo punk/post-punk that is both dark and melodic (think Wipers, Zounds, or more recently The Estranged). With its driving rhythms, the jangly, layered guitars and clever vocals (both in execution and lyrically), I’m surprised this record isn’t more well known and loved.
But don’t take my word for it. Have a listen!
Tenants – “Submind” MP3
Tenants – “Noise In My Head” MP3
I can’t find any info on the band itself. They were from San Francisco, but I haven’t met anyone here who ever saw them. There was another band called the Tenants around the same time — from Canada maybe? — I saw their LP in Amoeba and got excited until I figured out they weren’t the same. The only other tidbit I know is that “Noise In My Head” appeared on a comp tape that Calvin Johnson put out with the same title a few years ago. Maybe ol’ CJ could fill in some details for me…
*Tim Yohannan, MRR’s founder, used to modify some of his record covers by adding his own artwork — usually, it seems, for bands he particularly liked, or when the original cover art was just too boring. (Note that every record in the collection has the green tape, so that’s not a special for this cover.) The back cover on this Tim Yo mod features a clipping from the San Francisco Chronicle‘s article on the eviction of the International Hotel in 1977 — not far from the Mabuhay Gardens, aka the Fab Mab. You can read more about that event here. The front cover has a photo of the band that could’ve been from any number of local music rags at the time: Another Room, etc.
Of course, anybody with any info on this band or record should leave a comment here. Cheers!
By Anna Brown, from issue #319 of MRR.
Punx don’t go to the gym. Everyone knows that. We skateboard, ride bikes, and walk long distances across the city at night. We dance like athletes, but you won’t find us on the treadmill or in the weight room. Because punx are not joiners, and we do not fraternize with squares unless forced to, and because we can always go on a long-ass bike ride when we finish this beer. At least, that’s how I used to think.
Punx are also good quitters. I quit sports in high school so I could stay out all night at shows. I quit skateboarding when I couldn’t take the concussions. By my late twenties, in the midst of a deep depression, I found I had quit leaving the house. When I busted the fly on my most forgiving stretch jeans and realized I had seen every episode of Friends, I knew I had to do something rash.
I never thought I’d say it, but the gym saved my life. In spite of myself, I have become a big fitness proselytizer. If Henry and his Dolphin shorts don’t do it for you, if you are more Death Wish Kid than Positive Youth, listen up.
For years, I lived on King Cobra, Totino’s Party Pizza, ice cream, and other junk from the corner store, procured with any change left over after buying smokes. I skated, and was a vegetarian, but obviously not for health reasons. I took huge amounts of drugs and smoked like a fiend, sometimes two packs a day. I smoked through colds, did drugs when I had the flu, slept and ate sporadically, and was prone to long bouts of depression.
Suddenly, I was not a teenager anymore. Miserable, overweight, unhealthy. I had had many friends die way too young, and for dumb, mostly avoidable reasons. I had to change. Read the rest of this entry »
Lebenden Toten @ Mala Sangre House, El Monte, California. 10 January 2009 (photo by Don Seki)
Wanna submit a photo for the photoblog? Look here.
On a recent road trip I had the great fortune of happening upon a totally awesome new band: FROZEN TEENS. Since they’re from Minneapolis, I can’t help thinking they sound a bit like the great SUICIDE COMMANDOS with a little early REPLACEMENTS vibe… but with very much their own unique sound. The ‘Teens infectiously memorable demo sounds strangely timeless — like it was recorded in the far past — or on another planet. And the lyrics make you shiver with their simple brilliance. This CD was on constant repeat for the whole trip home, and if you don’t know: it takes a really, really long time to drive from Minnesota to California.
You can hear Frozen Teens on their MySpace, but here’s a track they don’t have on there. It rules.
Frozen Teens – “Hopeless City” MP3
P.S. The drummer, Ski, just let me know that they recently recorded nine more songs. Can’t wait to hear ‘em!
Armada Racun at Rock Ahir Pekan, Gampingan; Yogyakarta, Indonesia (photo by Wandi Rana)
Wanna submit a photo for the photoblog? Look here.
For this month’s cover feature/tongue twister we’ve got “Punk On Kuollut, Eläköön Hardcore” a retrospective of the birth of Finnish hardcore! Also in this issue: interviews with early ’80s hardcore legends, THE FIX; Pittsburgh hardcore miscreants SLICES; the Midwestern-by-way-of-Russian PINK REASON; and Dubai’s first punk band, GANDHI’S COOKBOOK. We have San Francisco sounds covered with interviews with the NODZZZ and post-punk- and C86-influenced BRILLIANT COLORS. We’ve also got the Messthetical SCROTUM POLES, the classic Northwestern punk sound provided by GUN OUTFIT from Olympia, and some Canadian hardcore courtesy of POSITIVE NOISE. All of this plus a Goner Fest photo spread, and of course all the usual columns, news, and more punk rock reviews than you can possibly conceive of!
Go to our BACK ISSUES page to order this issue.
I first heard of the Breeders (not the ex-Pixies band) on some website where their Zen Punk EP was compared to fellow Midwest bands Mecht Mensch and the State. Wow! That’s one way to get my attention quick. The record was one of the first I made a point of checking out the first time I visited the MRR record library. Now, I definitely wouldn’t say it lived up to the “hype” (if you could call it such), but it’s nevertheless a cool li’l 7″ and still pretty obscure.
There are two things I like about this EP. The first is how the two sides are so different — the A-side track, “Future Amnesia,” is sorta in between post-punk and “quirky” new wave. Amusingly, when the record was reviewed in the magazine (Issue #17, see below), this song was compared to Loverboy! Ha. I guess… but I still kinda like it, if only for the fact that it’s so incongruous to the other two songs. I dunno, maybe that’s what most of their other songs sounded like?
The other thing I like about this three-track EP is that one of the songs is called “Fuckheads (Uncool Slamming).” I mean, what more can you say about that?
Now, aren’t you curious what it sounds like? Well, listen for yourself:
1. Future Amnesia
2. Fuckheads (Uncool Slamming)
3. Zen Punk
And if you’ve got any info on the band, please post a comment!
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