For review and radio play consideration:
Please send vinyl (preferred), CD, or cassette releases to MRR, PO Box 3852, Oakland, CA 94609, USA. Maximum Rocknroll wants to review everything that comes out in the world of underground punk rock, hardcore, garage, post-punk, thrash, etc.—no major labels or labels exclusively distributed by major-owned distributors, no reviews of test pressings or promo CDs without final artwork. Please include contact information and let us know where your band is from!
This is a 9-song demo, featuring some great sounding punk. CRIMPSHRINE have a 77 sound, somewhat along the lines of SLF. Besides their material, this tape features 2 songs each of some recent Berkeley bands like SOUP, BASIC RADIO, SWEET BABY JESUS, KWIK WAY, and DISTORTED TRUTH. Well worth picking up.
A whole new band (except for vocals) since their 7″, this one will delight speedcore and metal-influenced punk fans. Lots of production, big guitar sound, and even colored vinyl copies. Classic TVOR inner sleeve layout, but the outer cover? Stiv?
JESUS AND MARY CHAIN meets DREAM SYNDICATE. Can they be sued for this?
COC seems to be sidestepping the whole speedmetal/crossover scene with this new release. Their sound now takes influences from mid-period DISCHARGE and early BLACK SABBATH, but COC still has the two things most other punk/metal bands lack: originality and intelligence. Thumbs up.
Quintessential British Oi! with all the melodic aspects melded to the street lyric themes. A powerful guitar emphasis makes some of these tracks quite enjoyable from a musical point of view, but this is not OI POLLOI.
Pretty good RAMONES-y punk with a hard to hear organ. Fairly enjoyable tunes but something sounds a little out of sync.
Vicious, ultra-fast thrash not unlike early D.R.I. If you’re an insane mega-thrasher, this tape is definitely for you.
Yeah! These guys are right on target; ferocious punk and thrash with angry lyrics slagging sexist goons, vigilantes, homophobes, and other lamos. Cool stuff, keep it up! Booklet enclosed.
One raunchy LINK WRAY-ish tune, one world beat-ish tune a la the BEATLES “She Said,” one ballad and one college FM-sounding instrumental. For a band that can rock, they sure seem shy to do it on vinyl, opting instead for a commercial sound.
Following in CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN’S footsteps, these SF kids rock only slightly more garage-y than their forerunners but they still have one too many folk ballads. A couple cute songs like “Golden Gate Park ” are good fun, but otherwise it makes me feel like moving off Haight St. and soon.
I sure don’t remember the first EP by this Swedish garage group being as tough as this. They start off with angry fury like the early NOMADS and finish it off with some great abrasive harmonic playing to prove they deserve their foothold as an international psychedelic punk band to watch.
Excerpts taken from this East Coast outfit’s four year existence. Contains live and studio material with varying sound quality, but all is powerful thrashy stuff.
Pretty enjoyable 77 punk with good energy and tunes. Not as tight as I’d hoped, but at least on one song, “Jo Dassin,” they sound almost like SOCIAL DISTORTION.
A decent retrospective of one of early punk’s finest bands. Pop punk that lasts, mostly dealing with the insanity of love. Their catchy tunes, great harmonies, and hard drive are virtually unmatched (the punk BEATLES?). Still, you should try to pick up all the original releases as this retro just scratched the surface.
A fine, star-studded, post-mortem release, rich with vocal and instrumental interludes, the classic dissonant balls-out rockin’ and the words…are inspirational. It’s a composition that’s well conceived, executed, and received. Too bad it’s the last.
A self-produced EP is an admirable effort and these two bands pull it off in a good spirit. Both bands utilize an early punk sound. Switzerland’s GNA GNA take influences from the RED CRAYOLA school but here they rock harder than their first single. W. Germany’s BAD ATTITUDE combine hardcore and punk styles into two catchy songs. A good EP.
French Oi! with a fast crunching sound quite unusual for this style of music. “Oi” is my favorite track here, with its haunting vocal choruses, though the other two tracks have power to spare.
Spotness, you bet. Produced, paid for, played, written, sung, and art by the almighty Spot. And although it’s a little self-indulgent at times, it’s also a masterpiece of composition in both silly ditties, calculated garageness, and elaborate, intense, rockin’ instrumentals. Pretty damn weird but pretty damn good too.
Two “embarrassing” tunes, as MYKEL BOARD terms his latest release. Embarrassingly good, actually. One is a rager, one a slow diatribe, both well done and up to his usual quality (?), and both appeared on the German comp LP, The Power of Love.
Great fast punk with lyrics about TV, ignorance, etc. Very energetic stuff here with excellent production to boot. Watch for these guys.
Here is GG ALLIN with 45 minutes of raw, intense debauchery. Some may call him sexist, violent, or stupid, but some of these tunes are catchy! Not for the easily offended or “politically correct.”
Four songs that range from slow to mid-tempo and grind out simple, harsh, melodies. The female vocals add nice harmonies but are done in such a way that most of the songs gain a strong gothic feel to them. The message is a serious, political, pro-awareness theme both in the lyrics and booklet.
Not sure where the “Memphis” part comes in, though at times there’s a slight CRAMPS influence. Otherwise, this is raunchy rock’n’roll meets early punk with screeching female vocals. Real rhythm, basic stuff with ultra-trebly production.
These New Yorkers have finally released a record that does them justice. A collection of clean, powerful hardcore with committed positive lyrics. Not as fun as their live show and a little short on innovation, but this is still a good LP.
Fans of Japanese metalthrash will suck this baby up, though the lyrics here are highly intelligent. Growling, slashing, metallish noise — well, you know.
Neo-Mersey R’n’B, but nothing too wild. Would have been cool in ’65, though…
This LP doesn’t really have the zip, or even the overwhelming angst of many of Greg Sage’s previous efforts. Maybe it’ll grow on me, but I wanted to be taken to a stranger different place…and got half way there.
WILMER X has a good rep in Switzerland as a great live band on par with the NOMADS, with maybe a bit more of a rock influence. This new studio has a much more swinging R’n’B feel to it with some real neat harp playing.
“Next summer” is a pretty pop tune with really quirky lyrics, but the flip is a cool pop punk tune with femme vocals, a more rocking B-52s. A giveaway single.
This self-declared skinhead band hails from NYC and puts forth seven raw, demo-tape quality hardcore anthems which are similar to early AGNOSTIC FRONT, lyrically and in mentality. However, WARZONE takes the straightedge path. Patriotic graphics leave me skeptical.
A more punky PIL meets early MEKONS with a GANG OF FOUR lyrical bent. Excellent five-song debut that exudes intelligence, drive, and what’s so good about punk. Get it.
Here’s a good mid-tempo punk band that reminds me of the melodic sing—song French punk, and I hate French punk, but this is okay. The flip is kind of like MADNESS! Strange record, but a good group.
Relative unknowns like SCHLIESSMUSKEL, CRETIN HOPPERS, TARNFARBE, A.N.A.L., and others play punk, thrash, and post-punk. All bands are from Germany, and this is a fun, non-commercial effort.
60 minutes of wicked thrash noise from the likes of LAST OPTION, CIRCLE OF SIG-TIU, CONDEMNED ATTITUDE, and more. Rockin’ stuff here.
Another excellent 60s punk series but this one deals strictly with garage trash from all over the world. Unfortunately, no liner notes, but the raucous sounds from Europe and Canada make up for it. Hot, hot, hot.
Kind of a companion to Garage Punk Unknowns. Here you get 58 instrumentals spread out all over three records, all from 1957 to 1965, and all really lean to-the-point rockers. There’s very little filler as you go from surf to punk and rhythm and blues.
Thrash to the max from a number of Swedish acts, including MOB 47, RAPED TEENAGERS, AVSKUM, and many more. Lots of brutal stuff here.
Ninety minutes of good stuff featuring many of the “Comp Tape Faves”: HALF OFF, FALSE LIBERTY, INSTED, and many more. Pick up this swell tape.
A four-band, one track each regional comp from Hagen. Hottest tracks are by CZERNY SMIERTELNY (sounds Polish to me) and SJORBUT, but WICKIE and HEMMUNGSCLOSE EROTIK are both enjoyable. Good indie punk effort.
Mucho good stuff here by bands like INSTED, FALSE LIBERTY, CORRUPTED MORALS, and more. Just basically a consistently great tape.
BCT bounces back with a hot EP featuring Italy’s WRETCHED and RAW POWER, Sweden’s MOB 47, QUOD MASSACRE from Yugoslavia, SATANIC MALFUNCTIONS from the UK, FUNERAL ORATION from Holland, and PSYCHO from the US. Get this one!
Pretty darn good stuff here from nine US acts, including NO FRAUD, CORRUPTED MORALS, SEWER TROUT, and more. Good song selection plus clean production add up to a good comp.
One of the best of the 60’s garage punk series, maybe second only to the Back from the Grave set. Some really incredible finds throughout each volume, complete with hilarious and insightful liner notes. RECOMMENDED.
An all-Welsh comp featuring one song each by CLASSIFIED PROTEST, I MOBSTER, BUGS, YR ANHREFN, ELFYN PRESLI, and HERETICS. Faves: BUGS (sounds like DESPERATE BICYCLES), ELFYN PRESLI (great pop punk), and HERETICS (charge old punk).
Hey, yet another indie UK release, this one featuring the DISTURBED, LIVING DEAD, LEFT FOR DEAD, and SILENT COMMUNITY. One track each isn’t enough to drive any real conclusions, but these bands all convey a basic, unglamorized punk appeal. Honest.
An international comp with HOMO PICNIC (U.S.), KAZJUROL (Sweden), QUOD MASSACRE (Yugoslavia), and INSTIGATORS (England). Four bands, four styles (pop-thrash, speedmetal, pop-punk and thrash). Good selection, good production, a worthy effort.
Another Filipino sampler — this has 16 love songs from the DEAD ENDS, BETRAYED, PRIVATE STOCK, and others. Fair to good punk musicianship, good sound quality.
An 11 band comp from Toulouse, some bands being PIN PRICK, BLA BLA SHMURZ GROUP, and GREMLINS AFFAIR. Good 4-track recording, a good pop-punk sampler.
A 180-minutes benefit comp for the opening of an anarchist center in SoCal. Acts include DIATRIBE, APPLE, GUERILLA URBANA, and more. Well worth buying. Booklet included.
Hot punk and thrash with slight metal influences, but not too much. Lyrics are in the personal/political view. Great stuff guys, keep it up! Lyric book enclosed.
