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A collection of tracks recorded between 2015-2017, mostly previously released. This Boston band cranks out college-rock-meets-tuneful-punk-meets-indie-rock. Think early SOUL ASYLUM, DINOSAUR JR, and SUPERCHUNK with a range of tempos. It’s nice to have these tracks on one convenient CD. A very tuneful and underrated band.
Sputtering muscular no wave sax/drums/bass trio—No New York fans take note! This has that downtown New York sleaze funk jazz fuck urge down. But maybe with the politics of the CAMBERWELL NOW?! If GANG OF FOUR was free jazz? Mostly because of that bass sound. An Oakland abstract anti-gentrification-art-against-work sound. Alejandra’s vocals rule; she should definitely be the singer of all bands! No joke! Max’s wild wail interspersed with her vocals is some sort of wild planet where D BOON sings back ups for CASTRATION SQUAD, but it’s free jazz. This sorta sound could be punishing, but instead it’s a pleasure. Why not?!
Truly delightful synth punk snot from New Orleans, featuring cretins from killer groups including BLACK ABBA, TRAMPOLINE TEAM, BUCK BILOXI, GIORGIO MURDERER and so forth! I love it when it’s the same people in all the bands! Clear evidence of a creative scene volcano hive situation. PSCIENCE is a lo-fi dream with throwaway dollar store guitar sound and synths from a bargain basement new wave-scape. This is not savage synth punk like say, SCREAMERS or LOST SOUNDS, it’s more like that footage of the B-52S playing a house party in 1979 or whatever?! Falling apart good times is all you can ask for as the world shudders to an end. This is great! Gimme more.
I put this on expecting wild destruction Á la LOST SOUNDS, but after listening to the A-side I would say it’s low on the “end of the world” synth punk destruction sound?! “Buried” sounds like a goth MODERN ENGLISH to me. Maybe it’s the vocals?! The B-side is more savage and maybe more true to what I have heard about this Bobby Hussy band, but the A-side is almost like a pop song! Like I can imagine KROQ playing it circa 1986?? I would even recommend it to you if you were a fan of more chorus pedal darkwave/goth stuff alongside that Memphis wave sound…
Eight songs of melodic, choppy Midwestern popcore with a lot of emphasis on lead guitar. The solid songwriting chops and earnest vocals are making me think of STRAWMAN (maybe it’s an Ohio thing) and in their finest moments (to these ears, particularly the song “Evaporate”) they sound like outtakes of Grant Hart-sung HÜSKER DÜ material. There are places where the guitar leads are a bit overdone—but with some trimming of the fat and a bit more focus on the buzzsaw melodies, INVISIBLE ENGINE could be quite a unit.
Third LP from these Minneapolis thrashing metal-punk veterans’ project—BONEFIRE features members of MISERY, SOCIAL SCHISM (UK) and TROUBLEMAKER (CA). Snarling anthemic hardcore with a no-fucks-given attitude. Lots of catchy breakdowns, a tight double kick pedal that won’t let up, and bass grooves that add a lot of ingenuity to pretty standard albeit furiously charged compositions. The guitars are fuzzy, the vocals are gargled, the riffs are dirty. Everything sounds filthy and punk as fuck, but the morose bridges are taken with pause, and the recording was handled with a lot of care. Oh geez, and this is an Enormous Door mastering job, who up the ante again. So good. Fade and Decay is easy to get into, and features signature sounds from said members’ bands, while putting forth a unique, shadowy, and saturated new offering. I’m reminded of KILLING JOKE, INSIDE OUT, HIGH ON FIRE, VARUKERS and CHAOS UK, all at the same time. I mean…
You know, this doesn’t groove at all or fit into any cute category I can regurgitate back to you. It sounds like it was recorded accidentally onto your ancient Walkman while still in your backpack. It’s most certainly quite strange, and wild as hell. It’s like if a caveman on acid were attacking some random instruments with the amp settings all on 11, locked in a shitty bar overnight with someone who I think knows how to play the drums. This is a definite room clearer, a show ender, an immediate bummer, a reminder that life is too short, and I really fucking love it. The very last song has actual words that you can understand, but fuck that, you little shits aren’t going to make it that far.
As expected, HIDDEN SPOTS fucking delivers. Sure, it’s pretty melodic, which isn’t usually my thing, but the passion and positive energy that oozes out of this record are pretty damned undeniable. Eric’s lyrics alone can read like a call to arms against monotony, bigotry, greed, self hatred, or whatever else in this fucked up world has got you all flustered. A punk should never feel alone in this shitty world, knowing there’s a person as caring as him down in Tennessee. You know, it’s actually pretty hard for me to review this slab, because even though I’m a fan, I know that with this being so melodic, and produced so well, many a proper punk full of angst and with a lust for bile won’t give this the listen that it deserves. Do yourselves a favor and pick this up, pin the lyric sheet up over your bed, and drink plenty of water.
This is super sugary ’90s bedroom pop. Way outta my jurisdiction, as this comes off more like a low-budget, even more jangly JULIANA HATFIELD than I’d like. This release flirts with noisy rock at times, but the sugar shines through. This is well done, if you are into the sweeter candy styled stuff.
I’m sure this is already sold out, as it features King Khan and Bloodshot Bill (not Barbecue Bill, as I have written down here in my notes), so act fast, if that’s your thing. I think you kinda know exactly what to expect with this. Super bare-boned, early BILLY CHILDISH-inspired, distorted even though it’s acoustic, wonderful harmonies, yet still ridiculously simple. I feel this shit gets more credit than it deserves, but at the same time, it’s really fucking good. Yeah, I wanna be a snob and hate on this real bad, but I just can’t do that.
A second album of newly recorded covers from these UK punk old timers. Still a great band after all these years, we are treated to versions of “Immigrant Song,” “Search and Destroy,” “This Is Rock ’n’ Roll,” and the uptempo version of “We Will Rock You” as well as eight other tasteful oldies. It’s a lot of fun, and it sure beats the usual “live cover” on the flip side.
This Philadelphia melodic punk band plays uptempo stuff that reminds me of early FACE TO FACE and ’90s-era NOFX. Think Fat and Dr. Strange. This was OK, but nothing stood out to make it rise above the pop punk heap. Still, a good band for the Philly pop punk locals.
This UK band rocks pretty hard. Great riffs and choruses with a bad attitude. Along the ways of TURBONEGRO, MOTÖRHEAD, and early DAMNED. Although lots of bands give us relentless guitar rock’n’roll, this really hits the mark tune-wise. Great full-length!
I certainly love guitar leads and frenzied hardcore, so DC’s RASHŌMON speaks my language. Those of us asking for more since their slick demo tape a couple years back have gotten as good of an answer as we could’ve hoped for. Dual riffs are blissful and radiant, sometimes swerving toward discordant and reminding me of ARTICLES OF FAITH. But this could just as easily been plucked from the Bloodsucker roster, as there is a definitive Japanese hardcore influence, made most obviously apparent by the Japanese vocalist. The warm, dry production highlights the glorious guitar and vocals, but the serious drum mastery deserves to not go unnoticed. Innovative drum fills and transitions are easter eggs scattered all throughout these six tracks. I’m sorry, but I just don’t care about the novel etching on the flipside of the disc, but I can simply ignore that in this case because the record is so damn great!
Did you know that despite the increase in both the price of everything and in digital listening, that the 7″ EP is the perfect hardcore punk format? Sometimes I wonder if it’s still true, and then a record like this comes along and reaffirms everything I think I know and live for in a punk record. Six simple and frantic blows in perfect succession, leaning on a tight and confrontational delivery, lacking absolutely nothing. The first track is a nice lesson in drum fills. Limited to 200 copies, so hurry!
The vocalist seems to be channeling INDIGESTI on this latest offering, and I’m therefore charmed. IDIOTA CIVILIZZATO is a Berlin-based band featuring punx from Spain, Australia, and Italy—the Italian vocalist does well to catch the ear of any discenring ’80s Italian hardcore fan. After a demo, EP, and LP, they impressively keep the quality high and awesomely idiotic! Four more excellent tunes for thrashing, accompanied by consistently amateurish cover drawing.
A heavier mix of ’90s dude hardcore with an odd amount of FUGAZI-type time changes and chords. These guys have definitely progressed musically in the decade or so that they have been churning out aggressive rock-y hardcore. A turn-off for me, though, is the vocals, which are spoken-screamed with no regard for the tempo or key of the music. I kinda prefer their much earlier output. The music was still ruff’n’tuff, but the singer sang along pretty well. I’m a prude, though. For those who enjoy testosterone-laden hardcore of yesteryear without being asshole bros (as their lyrics are still pretty sweet), this seems like a keeper.
To be honest, seeing a CD-only release by an American band in 2019 land on my “desk” is the shit that keeps me up at night in a cold sweat, and this little bastard did not disappoint. I assume this was meant to sound like some Rikk Agnew-era goth punk, with their reverb-drenched rock and just plain odd synths, but it falls pretty damn flat. Oddly enough, there is a completely endearing, super adorable, absolutely unrecognizable cover of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” at the end, which kinda made me like these guys a whole lot.
Self-described psychobilly from Germany, 2019. Tough sell for me, gotta tell ya. DEGENERATED sound bloated and needlessly theatrical even by the standards of the genre they grease up to… It’s like they’re reducing rock’n’roll to the carnal core, but getting it terribly wrong with each strip-down attempt. A big miss.
A puzzling and primo UKDIY excavation tracked during the golden era, but now seeing proper release all these decades later. Whisper-celebrated and/or faintly chided for their own scattered offerings, GOOD MISSIONARIES are mostly thought of as a footnote to the more well-known ALTERNATIVE TV, the band from which they sprang. This outdoes any of previously available GOOD MISSIONARIES product, I says. Liners nail it: “the impatience and aggression of punk, but the wandering curiosity of experimental music.” Dubby meander, brat barking, horny skronking, punk that leaves dents. Nerd shit, but quite right to these ears.
Two guesses as to where this lot is from. We Stand Defiant comes with the perfunctory middle finger ethos (and cover art) and there really isn’t much there beyond that. Big guitar punk indebted to DEAD BOYS and the ilk: less brain cells, more bruised knuckles. Pure lash-out stuff, very ugly and tough, but not even a tiny bit memorable.
Kitchen-sink punk noise from Mexico City. TELEKRIMEN are about as “garage punk” as a band like early LOST SOUNDS were, which is a wonderful thing: dark and bloody punk with a recognizable ’60s garage foundation, but damaged enough that it mutates into something more interesting. The less-compelling moments (barely-beyond-trad surf and R&B swipes) are basically just workouts designed for live gyration rather than at-home pondering, so sweat appears to be of more concern that brains here. Fitting as they probably kick ass live.
This is a purely incredible record, made by some of the sharpest punks in the game. To put my love for it into context: When I was in high school, I discovered BORN/DEAD, which completely rocked my world and sort of shaped my taste in hardcore punk—catchy, rocking, versatile, political, with muddy guitar tone and barking vocals. If that band had continued, and got better and more experimental, you would have SHIT COFFINS. The guitar riffs are unrelenting, I heard a little TOTALITÄR in the D-beat parts, a little CHAOS UK in the mid-tempo punk parts, and maybe a little DROPDEAD in the hardcore parts. Nothing but pure chaos on the drums. The lyrics, sung with aggressive desperation, read like a book. They seem to center around carried pain, possibly trauma. “I close my eyes and it’s all I see / Presence is fear / consuming the past — fervency of now / This darkness will last.” The song “Benchmarks” has lyrics that I thought were actually pretty positive: “There is not hope beyond what you can hold / Life is loss / Hold onto hope no matter the cost.”
Despite the limitations of being a bearded trio, FAMOUS & FALLEN do a damn fine job of melding the best of melodic hardcore and driving pop punk. Not as fast or as shiny as GOOD RIDDANCE, or as poppy as SCREECHING WEASEL, but they are nevertheless firmly planted somewhere in the middle, and to more than good effect. Excellent musicianship, singing, and songcraft make this well worth tracking down.
Five tracks of dark but high-energy punk, with songwriting that sounds like it draws some influence from melodic Scaninavian punk, and dramatic vocals a little like X. The unconventional post-punk drumming adds a lot to the sound, and catchy minor chord progressions create tension and anxiety. Includes most of what you’re likely looking for in a dark punk tape, with some cool and spooky special effects right at the end of the final track.
This record sounds like a DIY Brain Machine hijacked by anarchist hardcore punks and reprogrammed to rearrange your psyche. The concept of the record is that redemption lies in liberating the body from the mind to achieve freedom from dystopian, fascist control. The artwork includes a poster proclaiming, “YOU ARE THE INFINITE,” and “FREE THE BODY FROM THE MIND.” Brutal, blasting hardocre riffs and vocals appear intermittenetly, drenched in reverb and effects in a cyclone of chaos. This is not a noisy hardcore record. At least half the tracks are totally electronic and edge toward slow, sludgy, angry dance music. It always frustrated me that ATARI TEENAGE RIOT was so almost good. Glad to see this record taking a page from the same book but putting together something truly excellent and completely punk. The irony of the futuristic artwork and theme wrapped around such an archaic object as a vinyl record is not lost on this reviewer.
In their first release since 2015, PLEASURE LEFTISTS return with ten brooding yet upbeat post-punk tracks. The songs are awash with emotion and interweaving layers of instruments, while singer Haley’s vocals cut through with dramatic melodies. The deathrock sound is still present, with a strong SIOUSXIE AND THE BANSHEES, ’80s-style undertow. What the band gains through restraint and thoughtfulness here leads to a sound that is solid, but a bit less adventurous than their original 2015 full-length, The Woods of Heaven. Recorded by Stan Wright of ARCTIC FLOWERS, it’s beautifully and intentionally produced without sounding over-produced.
This fourth full-length release from Columbus, Ohio’s GOOD SHADE goes between extra fast, melodic power-pop and more tender, meandering ballads. The moments of glory are the simple, understated interludes between overwrought vocal melodies and multi-multi-layered guitar leads. While the band has a full lineup for live shows, all parts of the recording are written, performed, and recorded by one member. It’s an impressive accomplishment, but not likely to appeal to fans of punk.
Remember when punk used to be silly and tough and mercilessly antagonistic all at the same time? This weird EP channels the rawness of ’80s punk like CIRCLE JERKS or BORN AGAINST, plus something a little extra artsy. I haven’t heard anything simultaneously this smart and this dumb in a long time. It sounds like fun.
Devised and released to coincide with CTMF’s recent shows in Oakland, Brave Protector serves as semi-souvenir from that weekend-long happening, which I saw and thoroughly loved. The album is a recently-recorded re-up of many BILLY CHILDISH favorites, spanning several of his prior bands, all performed with enough immediacy to prompt spit-take. I’m a lifelong fan, having long ago committed many of these songs to memory with almost sickening devotion, and I still think this performance and collection is urgent and fuckin’ ace. A personal sweat affair too: hand-stamped, artist-assembled, probably long gone by the time anyone reads this review. There will surely be more to come, and it’ll be better than just about everything else.
Cunning, expert-level post-punk, bite-sized for your fearful pleasure. “Experts in Skin” ranks just as high as any hit from their recent show-stopper LP, purposeful punk concluding with a layered sax battle. The flip is poppier but prompts sly smiling rather than “lite” thoughts. Still makes me nervous, but you can dance to it. So good that it must be a joke.
DATA DRUMS finds Memphis’ Chuck Vicious operating outside of OSCARS, but without a step lost. I’ve always appreciated the DIY/punk that he’s released over the years, with the nowadays DATA DRUMS sounding more together and driven than I was expecting. No complaints here. Shades of early WIPERS may be the most obvious touchstone, but the tunes are uniformly cool, off-kilter, and uneasy in a compelling way.
MALCRÍA of Mexico City plays rhythmic, punctuated macabre punk with the demented tones of RUDIMENTARY PENI meeting the urgency and chokehold of SIEGE. The bass bombards forth, while the guitars sizzle under smashing drums with feral unexpected thunderous attacks. Songs are short and tight, filled with raw power and unbridled energy boiling simultaneously as a lidded cauldron ready to erupt. Very tense, very real. The Spanish vocals are screamed and megaphoned across the spiraling, flaying hardcore tracks. As the play progresses, shadows of FORÇA MACABRA, CONFUSE, PART 1, SEPTIC DEATH, and RAJOITUS rear their ugly heads. MALCRÍA has concocted a fresh stab of distorted, demented, threatening hardcore. Cool your head with this all summer, and into the fall crispness. Songs as crispy as dead leaves on fire.
My wife walked in on me playing this CD, and remarked that she both liked it, and that it reminded her (in terms of song structure, harmonies, et al.) of the BEATLES. Now, bear in mind, she hates pop punk, and the BEATLES are still the gold standard for pop. So, I don’t really have much to add. BRACKET, despite their championing by Fat Mike, and the grudging respect of my wife, have been the unsung heroes of pop punk for well over 20 years now. And apparently, they still have it, and then some.
This band has spent a while steeped in the glory days of UK ’78. Yup, not UK82, but at their best, this channels the likes of EATER, the VIBRATORS, and (of course) the first CLASH disc. Lots of that mid-paced rock’n’roll/pub-rock-infused punk, and suitably melodic. My only real complaint (given that I’m partial to both UK ’78 and ’82) is that at sixteen tracks that are around three minutes each, this disc tends to drag on and on. Back in the day, you couldn’t get more than twenty minutes a side on the ol’ long playing vinyl before the sound started to deteriorate, which is still a handy rule for anything longer than a 7″ I’d posit.
This CD collects STATE DRUGS’ recordings from 2015-2017. They excel at the end of melodic hardcore/pop punk that would have been called college rock in the ’80s and ’90s. And indeed, they wear their influences on their sleeves, with a workmanlike cover of the REPLACEMENTS’ “Left of the Dial.” At their best, they remind me more than a tad of the MOVING TARGETS and the NILS. Excellent indeed.
I have to hand it to the man. Since the end of the mighty RAMONES (and let’s face it, even after Dee Dee, the songwriting took a deep dive), ol’ CJ has done a great job of both keeping that distinctive sound alive and helping refine it, rolling it seamlessly into the 21st century—albeit with a few guitar solos that would make Johnny roll in his fascist grave. Which is a long way of saying that this is fucking good. Far from being a sub-par RAMONES cover band, CJ’s songwriting is up there with Dee Dee’s contributions to the band when CJ was handling the bass duties. He is producing songs of the caliber of “Pet Semetary” and “Poison Heart,” and his tribute to the late, lamented Steve Soto in “Rock On” is a case in point. This is really fucking good. Even if he does now have a beard.
I’m not alone in thinking (well, Ben agrees with me at least, and he should know) that the apex of the mighty SCREECHING WEASEL was Anthem for a New Tomorrow. Wittingly or not, this trio have spent an eon or two steeped in it, channeling its excellence in this here offering. I rest my case.
The first thing I heard about AUTOCLAVE as a teen in the early ’90s was that they were an “emo” band, whatever that means! I mean I guess all music can be considered emotional? This is not paper-bag fall-on-the-floor flail, however! Featuring the otherworldly voice of Christina Billotte (SLANT 6, QUIX*O*TIC, CASUAL DOTS, etc.) and the wild guitar styles of Mary Timony (HELIUM, WILD FLAG, EX HEX, etc.) this is a DC supergroup in my mind, but this was their high school band I think!?? It definitely has a sincere seeking feeling, some sort of post-Revolution Summer dream haze, maybe that’s why the mailorder lumped it in with the early ’90s emo scene but I would place it in the realms of post-punk explorations if you must genre-ize every sound. For fans of ONE LAST WISH and WIRE?! Christina’s voice is truly beautiful, the lyrics are so perceptive and thoughtful and her basslines remind me of WIRE songs and Nikki’s and Mary’s chopped up guitars over it are a textural dream. They are able to create this urgent yet dreamlike quality that is quite a feat. This is a vinyl version of a CD that came out a few years ago that compiles the 10″ and 7″ with a couple unreleased songs, including a super sick cover of the Nintendo classic “Paper Boy!” This is truly the sound of my youth, a mixtape in my walkman skating round town, reading about the wild DC punk scene in Erin Smith’s Teenage Gang Debs and Tobi Vail’s Jigsasw fanzines and wanting to telepathically transmit myself to a zone where teenage girls knew about DEAD MOON and the WIPERS.
INDEX is the sound of the doomed dream of the ’60s. Intoning wild sound sculptures with a bedroom garage stance, a space/earth/forest lens but also a lonely gas station feeling, a wood paneled rec room to return to. Some of it has the impression of the spun-out doom of certain live VELVET UNDERGROUND bootlegs but without the avant-garde—more of an outsider art perspective?! Style in a most devastating manner though, true mystery and horror embodied in those guitar tones, an other worldly clatter that destroys and rebuilds rock’n’roll for those looking for a new way to drive thru the apocalypse. INDEX were responsible for two highly sought-after private press LPs from the late ’60s with a wild mix of end-times-sounding cover versions and originals reverberating the desolate sound of Michigan through the ages! This LP is the second in a two-part reissue series (the first is a compilation of the original songs from the two ’60s LPs) whereas this is all unreleased reels found in a band member’s closet! I didn’t get the first volume because part of the appeal of this band’s records are the insane cover versions, and skipping those seemed callous to the collector?! I mean, their version of “8 Miles High” from the first LP turns the song from a hazy LA dream to a desolate Michigan mushroom nightmare, clangy and desperate and much more real… A totally different trip. I advise buying all of the releases immediately and feverishly consuming them! If this doomed unrestrained vision appeals to you I would also recommend checking out Laguna Beach’s the ELECTRONIC HOLE from the same era—another earth-shattering trip.
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?
I love rare formats, and I also love tiny things, therefore I wish the archive had tapes, or I wish I could just file this release between our 5″ and 1″ records. This cassette features one song from each band. LIFES opens with a short clip of the intro to PRINCE’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” and proceeds into a steady roar of grating, distorted, blasting guitar and plaintive screams. I particularly appreciate the lyrics of this song, which were inspired by the questions of a four-year-old girl about life and death. It’s actually pretty long for a grind song—it even has a bridge. The HIRS COLLECTIVE track has a very melodic opening with building tension, then the overpowering drums hit you with a stampeding thrust. The limitations of my microcassette player speaker means I can barely hear the guitar and bass, but it’s a consistent scrape in the background under partially sung, partially shouted, and partially spoken vocals. Ends with white noise beaming as if through a slowly rotating ceiling fan. The song is dedicated to all our lost friends, and the lyrics are very powerful—harm reduction politics and compassion as well as support. There are only 25 copies of this release, but it comes with a dainty lyric sheet with beautiful art detailing gloves, a photo of LIFES playing in the woods, and the HIRS name stretched out to appear as prison bars with blue femme hands with long nails gripping the bars, and the words “burn every prison” below.
Seven tracks of brooding, menacing, driving punk rock. Minus the vocals, it actually sounds very reminiscent of the dark rock that JELLO BIAFRA was producing during that era of solo collaboration records—particularly the JELLO BIAFRA/DOA combo, and not a million miles away from the GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, either. Technically this is a CD-R, but the production and packaging are pretty slick.
The subtitle of this (so far as I can ascertain) all-German compilation translates to “28 Bands Cover NOTDURFT.” ’Tis all in German (both the liner notes and the singing, not to mention the names of the vast majority of the bands), so I really have no idea what they are going on about. But it does sound pretty damn good. CAMINOS quite wittily/cleverly weave in the defining riffs, melodies, and solos of “Holiday in Cambodia” into their track—the majority of which sounds nothing like the DEAD KENNEDYS stylistically. UGLY HURONS do the third-wave pop punk-with-horns ska thing very well, while the POST-ROFT offering wouldn’t have sounded amiss on the UK DECAY long player. The highlights for me are definitely HANS AM FELSEN, who sound like the driving melodic punk with male/female twin vocals of PARANOID VISIONS at their height, along with two of the synth pop offerings from EIN JAHR and GEN NULL, the latter of whom bring to mind the best of CAPTAIN SENSIBLE’s solo offerings. I’d never heard of any of these bands prior to this disc, but am delighted to make their acquaintance, for sure.
I’m not ashamed to confess that I’ve always had a real soft spot for STRUNG OUT. Over the last three decades they’ve pretty much perfected that seamless blend of metallic driving melodic hardcore, complete with the twin guitar solos, false harmonics, and layered vocals. Imagine the IRON MAIDEN Killers line-up covering NO USE FOR A NAME’s ¡Leche con Carne! Or BAD RELIGION having a go at the best of THIN LIZZY. Yup, it’s that good, and it still works.
This is garbage. I don’t even think it deserves a review. All you need to know is that the B-side, “Ordinary Guy,” is wildly problematic. The music also just plain sucks—the worst version of bar rock, cringy from start to finish.
This is the first record that’s ever made me cry. I felt a deep, personal connection to the concept, and the record’s power—both in terms of lyrics and musical brutality—left me mindblown. This release seems a bit more dynamic than their others: there’s some chaotic, interesting guitar parts on “Bomb in the Sky,” and a cool SACRILEGE-type galloping intro on “The Solution (Is Resistance).” The singer’s signature snarl sits on top of the mix, delayed and distorted in just the right amounts. My favorite track has got to be the last one, “Jihad, Jihadi.” The riff reminds me of something EXOTICA would do, and the lyrics sing like an anthem. It seriously gives me chills.
Solid hardcore punk record in the vein of BLACK FLAG, RKL, and fellow midwesterners ZERO BOYS. Surf-y drums, dynamic riffs, heavy reverb and treble on the guitars, and wreck-your-throat raw vocals. They catch you off guard, and keep you enthralled through all sixteen tracks, like mid-tempo rocker “Decimal” which features some weird horn or something. Maybe just a poorly played saxophone? Whatever it is, it’s punk.
When I picked up a 62-song CD with unrelentingly negative (but really funny!) song titles, I thought for sure this was going to be some kind of RUPTURE clone. The BORN SHIT STIRRERS are definitely not that—they are something much stranger and much more interesting. The songs are mostly very, very short to be sure, but the band’s sound joins the speed and song structures of early DRI to the drunken chaos of UK82, especially DISORDER and CHAOS UK, and the acerbic wit and melodic sensibilities of SCREECHING WEASEL, with female vocals that sound very much like Stacey of MANKIND? and CALLOUSED. VILENTLY ILL are probably the most similar contemporary band I can compare them to, though the SHIT STIRRERS are a full band and are much less influenced by early USHC. The band is based out of Fukuoka, but is composed primarily of expats from the US and UK, which is an interesting dynamic that is primarily played out in the lyrics, which excoriate the punk scene, elements of Japanese society (especially bureaucracy), work culture, expat life. This disc collects all three of their studio recordings and a live set (“At Budokan,” heh) in one handy package, with art and lyrics included. If you want to know more, there’s a fucking hilarious mockumentary about the band called Born to Stir Shit floating around that’s definitely worth a watch.
On the face of it, there’s not a ton of appeal to a collection of 25 punk covers from bands that are punk-adjacent at best. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but this was actually a pretty easy listen. Mostly hailing from Europe, the bands included cover a wide range of styles that includes dub, cumbia, ska, tango, and the latest weird iteration of GUTS PIE EARSHOT. Highlights include DUBAMIX (anarcho-dub!) offering up a DJ SHADOW-esque mashup of CRASS, the CLASH, DEAD KENNEDYS and BERURIER NOIR, an impassioned take on “The Guns of Brixton” (“Armas de Barrio”) from Spain’s ESKORZO, Italian band ARPIONI proving that “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” is a much better ska song than it is a pop track, and KUMBIA QUEERS high-energy, tounge-in-cheek cover of LOS VIOLADORES’ “Una, Dos, Ultraviolenta.” As you can tell, most of the covers are of the CLASH and other big names, but there are some pretty cool curveballs as well. As a whole, this isn’t something that you’d play for your crustier acquaintances, but if you need a record to put on when you’ve got squares over, this is a pretty good choice.
