Reviews – MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

CaveXrage I Believe in CaveXrage cassette

Raw and energetic, bare-bones, treble-heavy snot punk. Cut from the mold of ’10 NWI starlets and 70s working class punk…then they injected the mold with SXE hardcore. With lyrics like “We got boys and we got girls / Pittin’ hard and pittin’ fast / CAVEXRAGE feel the blast” and “If you don’t know who your friends are / You better find out who your friends are / Who’s true? Who betrays you?” (not to mention “Twisted in My Head” in its glorious entirety). You want to say this is core delivered tongue-in-cheek, but…

The Illiterates Demo cassette

Adolescent New York punk that properly uses a tried-and-true formula: simple box riffs, honesty, and energy. The cover of BAD RELIGION’s “Along the Way” helps to place which brand of punk they are going for, and while it’s easy to imagine these kids developing into a style that’s more “commercial” and less “punk,” in their current manifestation it sounds like some teenagers bashing shit out in the garage. The ILLITERATES (all fourteen and fifteen years old) are the first band on Poop Stick records, started by a nineteen-year-old to chronicle the young bands in his hometown (respect).