Reviews

Psychic Hand

Borrowed Man Borrowed Man cassette

BORROWED MAN does six point-blank punk killers on their first tape. After a misleading little garage rock intro, the band rips into speedy, brooding, and gritty pounders in the vein of early DC hardcore like MINOR THREAT and YOUTH BRIGADE. The songs are covered in exasperated shouts that remind me of a young Ian MacKaye, and punctuated in places by these awesome, piercing, spectral guitars. The songs are concise and potent, and it gets pretty wild. On “Circus,” he talks about wanting to kill a clown, and even starts barking a little bit. Where the hell did these guys come from? Oh yeah: Jackson, Mississippi. It’s good, and they’ve got my attention.

Father Thing Father Thing cassette

Kooky, zany, weirdo hardcore punk from Jackson, MS featuring members of NEUROTYPICALS and BIG CLOWN. FATHER THING blasts through six tracks in just over seven-and-a-half minutes. That’s not a lot of time, and they don’t waste a damn second of it! Switching from spastic, revved-up fastcore to mid-tempo synthesizer squealing breakdowns in the blink of an eye. Okay FATHER, you’ve got my attention. This absolutely rules! Thankfully, the entire demo is available for listen on the label’s Bandcamp page, as the copy I received was indecipherably dubbed and this review would have been much much different if I went solely based on what I heard on my warbly tape. You better believe I have since re-dubbed my cassette off the online tracks, as I plan on getting some serious mileage out of it.

Hammer and the Tools Hamma cassette

Seemingly all of greater Mississippi underground punk came together to create this frenzied second HAMMER AND THE TOOLS demo. The band, from Jackson, features members from BIG CLOWN, and it was recorded in the southern punk mecca of Hattiesburg, MS by Hampton (Earth Girls Tapes, JUDY & THE JERKS, BAD ANXIETY, and countless more). Seven songs of kooky, witty, quirky, clangorous hardcore punk that somehow feels both intelligent and incredibly juvenile. Add in a weirdo, manic, indecipherable spoken word noise track and you’ll likely find yourself “Contemplating the Tool Box” as well.

Neurotypicals Something in the Attic cassette

This Jackson, MS act ends this cassette, their second release after their July 2022 demo, with two covers—the NERVES’ “Paper Dolls” and WIPERS’ “Mystery.” I don’t think either track works particularly well (I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a WIPERS cover), but it should give you a rough sense of what these folks are going for on the rest of the cassette. And I think it mainly works! Most of the six originals, although played much faster than either of the bands they’re covering, do kind of blend Sage’s straightforward, oddball melodic punk with the more overt pop of the NERVES. It ends up sounding a bit like a more fucked MARKED MEN, thanks in part to a tinny boombox production and some loose overdubs. I dig it! They do throw you one curveball, though. “Janie Says” is this weird semi-reinterpretation of the VELVET UNDERGROUND’s “Sweet Jane” mixed with the similarly named JANE’S ADDICTION track—an odd woozy ballad that runs for over four minutes smack dab in the middle of a bunch of sub-two-minute scorchers. At the very least, I guess it’s interesting.