This shouldn’t be a sudden realization to anyone, but every era, generation, and microcosm of punk/hardcore has its benchmark records that define the sound, attitude, and climate of what is going on in the moment. To me it’s records like Young Loud and Snotty, (GI), Jealous Again, Pick Your King, Loud and Clear, Dehumanization, My War, Can’t Close My Eyes, You’re Only Young Once…, Wind of Pain, Severing the Last Barred Window, the TALK IS POISON 7”s — I could go on for a while — that embody this, and I personally consider 1993’s lone 7” from the Bay Area’s JOHN HENRY WEST to be among them. Not only is it one of the best of its time, but one of the best of all-time, so the review gods are a-smiling on me this month.

Much like HEROIN, people like to throw around words like “emo” and “screamo” when referring to JHW, but that shit can be left at the door, ‘cause this is hardcore, plain and simple. Hell, even with its near complete lack of machismo, there are some parts in here that could be described as “hard” by some standard — and I just now noticed some riffs that were definitely copped by another popular Bay Area hardcore band from a few years back, that I won’t name, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense to me. JHW’s songs were usually fast, incredibly driving, dynamic, pissed off, technical, noisy and often chaotic, with great, tuneful chiming guitar melodies similar to Revolution Summer-era DC punk; a great light shining on my ideal sound for youth in the early 1990s.

Front to back, this record is like one guitar flourish, vocal pattern, and stomping intro after another that will no doubt get stuck in your head once these tunes get enough spins to become familiar. The vinyl part of this reish has the 7” on the A side, and the trax from the 3/12/93 and A History of Compassion and Justice 7” comps, plus two unreleased joints (!!!!!) on the flip. The two new ones, “John Henry West” and “Ammunition Aired,” fare perfectly well alongside songs that have been with me for the last eighteen years, and I can’t help but listen to them one-by-one, several times in a row like they are in catch-up mode, before moving on.

To be honest, I only bought this reish for the unreleased stuff, since I already had the rest, but that was before I knew about the accompanying 22-track CD, which has JOHN HENRY WEST’s demo tape, seven live songs from their 50th/last show at Gilman, and nine songs from the band playing a radio sesh at WUSB on Long Island. None of the songs here are exclusive and are all better represented sonically on the releases and non-releases that are on the LP part of this package, but the Gilman set is definitely chock full of that reckless abandon and chaos that one would expect from this band in a live setting (sadly, I never got to see ‘em), and similar can be said for the radio show, which ends with a short interview; all of which I’m stoked to have. I’m normally not one for reissues, but this package got the full glorious treatment that it was due and I can’t recommend it highly enough to those unfamiliar with one of the all time greats, and still worth it for those in the know for the two new tracks alone.

(Ebullition Records)

What can really be said about this wild bunch? First off, I think that people who say ISTERISMO sounds like WRETCHED, or DECLINO, or IMPACT, etc., are just confused or have never heard those bands. Maybe there are some lifted riffs hidden in there, but if you can point me to someone that can pick any riffs out of this fuzz, I’ll eat my hat. (Not really, I actually don’t care one bit, so…) Yes, they are fast, and yes, they sing in Italian, but these noisy Japanese punkers have a sound all their own. Bottom line is that this band plays awesome raw hardcore that fits in with the whole blown-out, violent, roaring sounds that the shoelace-headband set of neo-hipster noise crusters are all aflutter over these last few years. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because this scene (in Japan especially) has produced some of my favorite wild hardcore records in recent years, and the ISTERISMO EP Non Puo Sopprimere il Mio Conflitto—which is collected on this here LP—is one of them. This discography LP, also contains their trax from the Deny the Report vol. 5 CD, Yotsuva, and Hardcore Inferno comps, their first demo, split tape with TERROR, and a live cassette. There’s a lot of music here and very little variation, so if hissing feedback, screaming maniacs, and unrefined walls of noise hurdling at you at 100 miles per hour isn’t your thing, steer clear, but for me it’s bliss. (540 Records)

Sometimes music is great because it’s adventurous and fresh and new and other times it’s great because it’s classic and/or timeless and simple. This LP falls under the latter category. The majority of this record tows a PISTOLS-esque line of London ’77 and even Madrid ’82/’83 right down to the overly bratty, Mr. Rotten influenced vocals with elements of LA BROMA DE SSATÁN and TOREROS AFTER OLÉ, as well. ESCROTO DE RATA occasionally picks up the pace to an almost hardcore tempo on a coupla trax, but spends most of the time sort of plowing along. My rudimentary knowledge of Spanish (with the help of Google Translate for some of the naughtier words) tells me that they didn’t call this record Punk Rock Sex Trash for nothing, with the lyrics covering all three of these subjects, and often at the same time/in the same song. With that said, this really is an insane record, and I use the word “insane” with more of the dictionary definition in mind than a purely dramatic adjective to describe wild music. I say this because the general flow of Punk Rock Sex Basura is occasionally broken up by bits of pure maniacal outbursts taking the forms of weird voice manipulations, eerie synth lines, or just straight up demented laughter. Couple that with the drawings of Venus de Milo in bondage, wild masturbating punk women, and a cover featuring a punker with a guitar in one hand and a severed cock-andballs in the other, you should know what you’re in for. This record is ruling and the snot flows like wine. (La Vida Es Un Mus)

Right from the starting gun this comp is quite awesome. The first band here, POISON PLANET opens with a song called “The Victim,” which bears a postscript on the lyric sheet that reads, “Drugs and alcohol taken willingly do not make you any less culpable for your actions.” Right fucking on. I see my opportunity, and I’m taking it… This is such a simple concept to grasp, yet since we live in a world where everyone is “victimized” and “targeted” at a seemingly constant rate that excuses like “I was fucked up,” or “I was drunk,” have become just another acceptable reason to be late, reason why you ended up in the hospital, reason why you were unfairly targeted, reason why you started a fight, the reason why you crashed your bike, or worse, killed someone with your car. There have become so many “outs” to responsibility that actually carrying on as an actual human being has taken a back seat to finding a way to pull a fast one. This is nowhere more apparent than in the punk scene. Living in the Bay Area you see the (many) downsides of what happens when our little “progressive bubble” in which we live enables such a voluntary and careless abuse of self control to somehow convince an entire forward-thinking local culture to believe it’s “just the way it is.” At this point, I should mention that I am not edge, and in fact, drinking a beer right this very second, so this isn’t some sort of straight edge or various “–ist” type of rant, I just understand the concept of responsibility and realize that I’m not the only person that lives on this fucking planet, which a lot of people can’t fucking grasp. And to me that is what straight edge is really about—the ability to separate responsibilities from habits and to not embrace this “victimization” as some sort of cultural lighthouse to guide your life by and realize that your actions are just that—your actions—and to separate yourself from that mentality. I’m tired of paying for your mistakes with my time, with my money and with my patience. These concepts simply require the ability to use your fucking head, and we all need to remember that. Which, in a perfect world is why we are the fucking punx! Some are born to be mules, some generals, some sheep, but no matter who you are, in the end beliefs are beliefs, and if you actually have them and you hold true to them, you have a leg up on most people. Holy fucking tangent! On to the music… As one might expect, the majority of the tunes on here are classic fast hardcore with a few crewsh breakdowns here and there. The four bands that split this 7” are POISON PLANET, whom I already mentioned (and they drop some serious rippage), BOILING OVER, COLD SHOULDER and COKE BUST. All four seriously deliver angry tunes that have great fast parts and great mid-paced rogering, but COLD SHOULDER stands out most to me and are the fastest band on this comp. The inner sleeve boasts that this is the “new face and attitude of straight edge,” and I’m really glad it is. Ripping tunes. (Third Party Records)