Reviews

Acouphenes!

Genital Juggling / Jodie Faster split LP

Don’t judge a book by its cover, lesson one: this fukkn record. The stupid cartoon claymation cover would turn most punks off before they even saw the band names, and I confess that I never would have given this slab a second thought if it were not my punk duty to do so. And holy shit did I eat my thoughts as soon as JODIE FASTER started cranking through five absolute rippers that sound like nothing at all except (apparently) JODIE FASTER. A raw drum attack that reminds me of RUDIMENTS, a penchant for don’t-give-a-fuck combined with serious chops à la SCHLONG, open chord clean guitars like JASPER THREAD, and an overall purity in their ferocity that I haven’t heard since I saw ROLEX last year. I didn’t want to turn the record over. But I did. And GENITAL JUGGLING delivered the same energy on the flip—just as much irreverence in their song construction, but with a SoCal hardcore tinge, and aggression replacing the quirk on the A-side. Listen to all of the records, punks—even the ones you think aren’t up to whatever your bullshit “standards” are—because chances are good that you are wrong. This record is definitely right.

Jodie Faster Blame Yourself LP

Seventeen songs here, with the longest clocking in at 1:29. Short, fast, hardcore songs that strangely don’t use distortion on the guitars. I don’t particularly know how I feel about this. The songs are good, but the lack of distortion is off-putting to say the least. I wanna like this, and I think I do, but the sound of the guitar is fucking with my brain. Like it’s seriously giving me a borderline panic attack. Hahaha.