A RAMONES-core trio from the banks of Lake Ontario, GOLDEN SHITTERS play your typical SCREECHING WEASEL-styled pop punk. Fun and catchy stuff, and if you dig these kinds of tunes, GOLDEN SHITTERS will be right up your alley. Otherwise, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill bubblegum punk. I bet they’re a lot of fun to see live, though.
Cool excavation of youthful Toronto hardcore from the erstwhile Ugly Pop label (who’ve assembled some quality archival works in the last several years). These recordings, supposedly compiled from not one but three early ’80s sessions, have been kicking around the cassette-trading/file-sharing underground for a bit and are now seeing their first proper release. The LP opens with a BL’AST-esque stomper before kicking into thrash-speed intensity. If This Is Boston-era GANG GREEN is your shit, then you need this. There have been some questionable ’80s HC reissues lately (NEGATIVE ELEMENT demos?) but MICRO EDGE delivers the goods quite pleasingly, and at 45 RPM there’s not much room for filler. The sixteen-page “skate mag” booklet includes no lyrics, though to quote the liner notes, the vocalist “had a knack for catchy phrases about cops, greed, parents, skating, and of course…assholes” so you’re probably not missing any heavy political dissertations. One-time pressing of 500 copies and already sold out from the label, so buy now or regret later, eh?
Sometimes it’s refreshing just to be somewhere familiar, and that is proven deftly by these Toronto traditionalists on this ten-track full-length. The tempo is up there, the guitars are dirty, and the snotty energy doesn’t let up from beginning to end. There’s not much to wax philosophical about here, it’s just one of those bands that has the punk fundamentals down and executes again and again. In a genre full of pretenders, it pays to do your homework and these fine folk have done just that.
RAW POWER is a life-changing band. Years ago, when I first got into international hardcore, the early output of these Italian maniacs represented a gateway to a new sound and a new way of thinking for me. Their first LP Screams from the Gutter is a stone-cold classic of unhinged screaming and bonkers guitar work, but the recording that truly blew my young mind was their demo from 1983. Often referred to as the Brown Studio demo, this rough and tumble recording largely circulated on cassette tape in punk’s international network of friends until the dawn of the internet age. Somehow, despite being one of the very best examples of furious Italian hardcore ever recorded and despite every random third-rate band from the 80s getting deluxe reissue treatment in recent years, the ’83 demo had to wait until 2019 for its vinyl debut. The packaging for this reissue is modest, with nary an overpriced gatefold or a nostalgia-filled booklet in sight. But the music, with its tornado of guitars, screaming-like-someone-is-chasing-me vocals, and fucking punk cowbell is as urgent and necessary as ever. RAW POWER was the epitome of Italian hardcore, and unlike some of their dour international peers in Scandinavia or Latin America, they brought a measure of goofy fun to their wild hardcore sound. A furious party indeed.
Two old tracks from a short-lived Toronto group circa 2011 released as a 7”. While the songs are over ten years old, they manage to concurrently feel fresh and timeless. These songs would be right at home on a Lookout! Records release from the ’90s, or a No Idea release twenty years after that. While having pretty different runtimes (one at less than two minutes and the other at over four minutes, respectively), both tracks are massive sing-alongs filled to the brim with hooks and energy. I’m glad Ugly Pop gave these anthems some new life by rereleasing them, and hope they find a whole bunch of new ears to appreciate.
