Reviews - MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

Jeff Hill Band The Pathway Tapes 1977 EP

The JEFF HILL BAND were a power pop three-piece based in London during the late ’70s, fronted by the eponymous Jeff Hill. They released only one single during their brief existence, 1979’s “Something’s Wrong With My Baby.” The four songs featured on The Pathway Tapes were originally recorded for the Chiswick label in 1979, and here they’ve been released at long last by Lisbon’s Different Class, who have done God’s work in unearthing several similar forgotten punk/garage/power pop groups over the years. Despite forming in the UK, the JEFF HILL BAND has a decidedly American (and specifically New York) flavor, sounding more akin to MILK ‘N’ COOKIES than the JAM. While there’s nothing revelatory about this lost EP, it did endear itself to me after several listens. By-the-numbers late ’70s power pop isn’t always enough to thrill me, but the songs here are sweet, simple, and toe-tappingly infectious. Won’t change your life, but it’s hard to dislike!

Lumpen Corrupción 12”

I mentioned in my review for their debut EP that LUMPEN is the spirit of South American punk dissidence, and this opinion hasn’t changed. This is what punk should be! Ravenous yet catchy UK82-styled hardcore punk with the wrath of a thousand dissidents who are fed up with all the violence and corruption that they were born into and who took matters in to their own hands in order to change things. Corrupción is as amazing as their debut Desesperación, but it has a few surprises. Aside from the CHAOS UK-meets-CRIMINAL JUSTICE hybrid, they managed to do a post-punk-ish song called “Anti-Patria” which is pretty bleak, and I could hear a whole album of songs like this. To end the record, there is a kick-ass ULTRA-VIOLENT cover, but with Spanish lyrics that prove that bands don’t need to succumb to the pressure of singing in English to sound good or get included. LUMPEN and fellow countrymen PRIMER REGIMEN are for sure the best Latin punk bands at this moment! Renuncia a tu vida!

Mad Mojo Jett Partyville EP

This is energetic rock’n’roll, energetic enough that it borders on frenetic at times. With rockabilly, Americana, and punk influences, this is lead-guitar-heavy garage rock. At times it gets a little swampy and there are some KINKS influences in the guitar work. I’d call it Anxiety Rock. My wife thinks it could work as a spaghetti western soundtrack.

Dan Melchior Loud Version LP

I think I’m turning into my dad. The man loved a lame high-concept cover album. JOE JACKSON jumpin’ and jivin’ through some swing tunes, RICKIE LEE JONES doing stuffy-nose jazz covers of kids songs, DREAD ZEPPELIN being an embarrassment to humanity—just absolutely his shit. I’d been subjected to so much of that kind of stuff growing up that when it dawned on me that this record was a collection of blown-out (“loud”) covers of MELCHIOR’s own back catalog (plus a couple of fresh covers), my eyes reflexively rolled right out of my head. But stripped of my sight, a heightened sense of hearing kicked in, and I think I came out really loving this record. The noisy production gives the taut, bare-bones numbers I loved from This is Not the Medway Sound (an under-appreciated record!) a fuller, looser vibe, while the relatively stripped-down versions of full-band tracks like “Hungry Ghost” really push MELCHIOR’s songwriting to the forefront. It’s kinda a shame that I don’t have any kids, because I can easily see myself foisting this on a car full of tweens who are neck-deep in Nintendo Switches or whatever and dad-splaining to them, “Now, DAN MELCHIOR has been making music for over twenty years, and on this record he’s playing louder versions of some of those older songs…,” and so on and so forth for the full 30-minute runtime of the album.

Organ-ism Nací Muerto cassette

Incredible debut of this Milwaukee band. It’s nine short and punchy tracks of a very streetwise and very violently aggressive D-beat. Paradoxically, it feels quite intimate. Lyrics en Español, but the hate is universal. “Pudre Por Me” is one of the best punk tracks I’ve heard in 2022.

Pastry Boys Above Us Only Pie cassette

Seven-song novelty cassette with songs about pastries, baking, and nibbling in general. The songwriting is surprisingly good despite the novelty nature of this project. Somewhere between power pop, glam, and mod revival kinda stuff, PASTRY BOYS keep you really entertained the whole cassette through and are witty enough to force a few smiles throughout the listen, with their self-identified genre of “chouxgaze” being one of the more quippy attempts. Very entertaining.

Renegade Leathers Booze, Sex, the Devil CD

Rockabilly-tinged and liquor-drenched. There, I just wrote this PDX band’s next album title for them. Featuring a member of the awesome BITCH SCHOOL, this band sticks to the over-21 crowd with tales of alcohol, fornication, and yes, Satan. It’s soulful in the vocal department and the band is good with the chops thing, but overall it’s not off-the-rails enough for me. Not horrible, but my standards are pretty high for this kind of thing to stand out from the endless supply of disposable CDs floating through here every month. Better luck next time.

Save Our Children Save Our Children demo cassette

Another scorching-hot banger from Austin, Texas. Seven deadly punk hardcore anthems in under seven minutes, as per punk tradition, in a GANG GREEN-meets-JERRY’S KIDS mash of ferocious energy. From the sound to the logo, this band exudes old school hardcore the way it is supposed to be. Even the lack of information about the band feels like the old days. Tune in and get transported to the ’80s!

Susans Susans cassette

SUSANS are a three-piece bass/drums/ukulele combo out of London, Ontario. It appears they’ve been active for a few years now, and this is their first full-length. This is art-punk with an aggressive, occasionally demented edge. Vocal duties (largely delivered in a declarative shout) are split between bassist K. Cuz and ukulele player Gabe Nestor. Nestor’s ukulele adds a spindly, classically DIY quality to the whole affair—it doesn’t really rock, but it suits the paranoid songwriting. Tracks like “Nine,” “Impress Your Neighbors,” and “Too Much Info” are anxious and wiry, while “Hands” and “Toro” find the band sounding messier, less restrained. “Hands,” an ode to handwashing written at the outset of the pandemic, incorporates both melodica and sampled speech. They end it all with the buzzing, feedback-laden noise-punker, “It’s Okay (To Be Weird.)” I happen to agree.

The Units Live at the Deaf Club 1979 LP

This is an uncovered live recording of the UNITS playing a completely ripping set at early SF punk spot the Deaf Club. Whatever synths they were using must’ve been able to take a beating, because it sounds like they are pummeling the keys and tearing the knobs off the panel here. The set comprises mostly what would be their first LP, and the band is fully frenzied from the start of opener “Cannibals.” The short-circuited arpeggiator, bent timbres, and careening synth squelches are maniacal and still ahead of their time to hear even now. Even with all their futuristic machine sounds, their very human drummer puts a physical power behind the band, giving the songs life and energy. They close out with the all-time hit “High Pressure Days,” with that monstrous backbeat wallop on it that no drum machine could replicate. The recording is astoundingly good, a clear but still gritty document that proves the power of the band in a live setting. The songs are so energetic, catchy, and danceable, and their sound so one of a kind, it still blows my mind that more of the world didn’t catch on to the UNITS at the time, even in the burgeoning rebranding of punk as new wave. Yes, in a better world, we would’ve had a fully-realized SCREAMERS studio album, but in this world, at least the UNITS are getting proper reissues of theirs, and hopefully well-deserved fair due as pioneers.

Reviewer Corby Plumb
Label FDH
Issue MRR #470 • July 2022

The Wilful Boys World Ward Word Sword LP

The WILFUL BOYS keep things loud, but also like to bring out their songs’ different qualities, be they aggro or poppy, lurching or raging. The vocals are a talky drone just as often as a hardcore snarl. My favorite songs restrain the ‘core just a little and dash in some pop or discordant noise. Sometimes it’s nice to get your angst sideways.

Aldi Ost Aldi Ost cassette

Seven songs of mid-tempo, surf-infused hardcore punk from Berlin. Catchy, memorable songs with vocals occasionally sounding a bit like Keith Morris. ALDI OST seems to be pissed for all the right reasons, poking fun at security guards, hating cops, griping about SUVs, and on my favorite track of theirs, coming down on the drug-fueled toxicity of rigid, emotionless “Masculinity.” Their self-proclaimed “male-fronted punk” angle and the pin-up centerfold-style sticker of the singer included with the tape definitely gave me a little chuckle. Very solid debut cassette and I can’t wait to hear more!

Billiam 8 Hours in Billiamville EP

While I have developed a general aversion to the unabashedly quirky and messy styles of what is commonly referred to as “egg-punk,” BILLIAM has managed to win me over a bit with this little eight-song garage banger. There’s a frankness to these frantic and grooving tunes that makes the weirdness quite tolerable, and songs like the synth-driven “Soup Season” and the dreamy “Metal Bed” are just so damn catchy it’s hard to resist. This is probably my favorite collection that he’s put out thus far. He’s got a number on here entitled “B-Beat” where he pounds out a rudimentary D-beat for a few seconds before flatly proclaiming “I don’t get D-beat,” which I can totally understand because I used to not “get D-beat” either, back when I was stupid.

Claimed Choice We Won’t Give In LP

I love old French Oi! It can often be a really beautiful thing. Catchy and streetwise but almost touching in sincerity and feeling, as heard in bands like CAMERA SILENS or SNIX. This new Lyon band goes for a less traditional sound than their elder statesmen, but it still rocks pretty hard to the shaved noggin. Well, only one of these folks has the proper haircut, but don’t hate, as they mix in nice glammy rock’n’roll guitar to some perfect, gruff “TEMPLARS meets R.A.S. marching through the French sewers”-style vocals. It’s a little like what CROWN COURT was doing early on. Fine by me, and it should be fine by you if you know what’s good for you.

Die Verlierer Die Verlierer LP

We’re only halfway through this latest trip around the sun, but I have no doubt that this debut will rate as one of the best punk records of 2022. There’s an appealing sleaze emanating from DIE VERLIERER. They wear suits like cooler-than-thou continental types, but they rock the fuck out like gutter-dwelling amphetamine enthusiasts. Debonair, but damaged. “Die Zeit” kicks off with thrilling, dark energy like SODS on Minutes to Go. This smashing opener is backed up by “Die Verlierer” (“The Losers”), which pulls a similar trick by effortlessly channeling Dagger & Guitar-era SORT SOL. But let’s not paint DIE VERLIERER into a Denmark-shaped corner—I’m just trying to establish the rarified atmosphere that we are floating in. A slashing guitar tears into “Intrige und Libido” and ratchets the tension up as the bass lands every punch it throws, and the barely-in-control singing is like DIETER MEIER at his incandescent early peak. I’ve probably listened to this song at least a hundred times in the last few months. Absolute punk perfection. “Plastic Life” is like the encore of a gloriously shambolic STRANGLERS gig; I can almost hear the crowd singing along like a chorus of shithoused angels. DIE VERLIERER can actually swing, and this skill alone sets them apart from a vast landscape of indistinguishable simulation rockers. “Mann im Mond” is the CURE reincarnated as street toughs; fierce romantics, sensitive brawlers. “Nichts Funktioniert” is desperate and flailing punk that demonstrates true mastery of the form. This is the kind of song to inspire hordes of punks to treat desolate urban sprawl as the adult playground it surely is. Structures, after all, are just objects to bounce ideas off; bodies too. Just keep your eye out for the cops. That’s when “X Ray Vision” comes in handy. “Deadgirl” is the kind of love song no one writes anymore. That could be a positive development—from a certain point of view—but hey, fatalism is hot, and always will be. Listen, I don’t make the rules. Speaking of which, “Into A” is an epic last gasp that shamelessly nicks the BIRTHDAY PARTY’s “Deep in the Woods.” If you’re gonna steal, do it from the best, and yeah, add some phased vocals to the funeral proceedings and drag that sucker out like a corpse ‘til it’s six feet under. Hell of a record here.

The Dogs John Rock / Younger Point of View 7″ reissue

Reissue of the Detroit band the DOGS’ debut 7”, originally released in 1976 after the band moved to Los Angeles. The two songs reveal the band’s hippie roots. “John Rock” is an ode to MC5 manager, White Panther Party founder, and pothead poet JOHN SINCLAIR. It is a rollicking, catchy tribute. The B-side “Younger Point of View” utilizes a groovy psychedelic ’60s free love sound to sing of the end of the hippies, and I would assume the band’s hippiness too, as their next release two years later would be “Slash Your Face.” The original 7” had no sleeve, so this reissue uses the werewolf from the original label as a cover.

The Dumpies Roberto Clemente EP

Astoria, Oregon’s the DUMPIES knock up some dirt with their Roberto Clemente EP, named after the Puerto Rican baseball player. And while traditional sports culture and punk ethos haven’t always walked hand-in-hand, I guess we are mixed up in everything now, and maybe that’s okay. All said, the track list reads like the snotty-as-ever garagesters they seem to be, with “Pot Moms,” “Eat Ass Do Crimes,” and “Garbage Zen,” to name a few. This six-song EP comes in at just over five minutes, with the longest song (1:19) being the SHANG-A-LANG cover “Commotion” that makes for a great anthemic ender. It’s catchy and fun like something you’d hear in a college basement, while being slightly more informed, with the song brevity of a hardcore outfit. Have a five-minute beer and listen up.

Ex Parents Ex Parents demo cassette

Originally released in February of 2020 and limited then to a mere ten copies, EX PARENTS decided to utilize the downtime that was about to be thrust upon us all to send their demo out to be remixed/mastered and have artwork done by Keith Caves, who is undeniably one of the best in the biz! So here we have the newly remixed/remastered/reissued/hand-numbered (out of 50 copies) EX PARENTS four-song demo tape of pop-infused hardcore punk. I can say with utmost certainty after playing with them in their hometown of Roanoke, VA last month that the tape doesn’t hit as hard as the band does live. That doesn’t at all mean that it’s not a solid demo, merely that the band’s live sound couldn’t quite be captured. As someone who is a bit of a completist when it comes to music, I can’t help but wonder how that originally mixed batch-of-ten tape sounds. Are we getting the DIY version of “the great rock’n’roll swindle” here? Can’t wait to hear the record that is allegedly in the works.

Fatal 6 Songs cassette

Featuring members of SCARECROW and OUT COLD, Raleigh’s FATAL delivers a slick exercise in traditional USHC stylings on this aptly-named cassette. These six blasts of pounding hardcore are produced in a way cleaner fashion than their accompanying artwork would suggest. In a world increasingly inhabited by echoes, distortion, etc., FATAL opts to come through loud, crisp, and clear. Favorite track: “Ghost on the Shelf.”

Fuckface Fuckface cassette

This was a really nice surprise in the mail. As an ex-resident of the city formerly known as San Francisco, I managed to witness this band several times throughout their career, at clubs, warehouses, and municipal waste sites that no longer exist. I saw this crew develop from a snotty hardcore band getting faster and heavier, eventually melding into the blackened, druggy beast unleashed on their Little Deputy EP and self-titled album. Their vocalist Matty improved both vocally and in fashion sense while the band got tighter and significantly more evil. This tape shows them right in the middle, I believe, showcasing all the older hits and including some excellent between-song soliloquies and wisdom. It’s raw and fucked-up as all hell and you should buy three copies immediately.

Lakka / Samorast split cassette

Killer Czech/Slovak emotional hardcore split release. LAKKA starts with blistering, anxious, passionate European screamo (think DOWNFALL OF GAIA, SHIKARI). SAMORAST has a more distinctly Eastern sound—similarly emotive but thinner and slightly more abrasive. Both bands are new to me, both bands are incredible, and both bands remind me how much I miss honestly over posturing in hardcore in general. Naturally, there’s substantial overlap, but this split feels real, and that’s worth a lot in these times.

Lexus 2 EP

I couldn’t find out much about this band other than it appears to be one person’s project. They play guitar and bass and program the drums. It’s not my usual cup of tea, but the first several tracks are perfectly serviceable, crusty D-beat. Later, some tracks, like “Prep 2 Freak” and “2 the Bone,” get a little experimental and weird. “I’m Not Crying I Got Smoke in My Eyes” closes out the EP with nearly three minutes of moody piano.

Milk TV Anorak / Bowery Swing 7″

MILK TV channels early ’80s post-punk and it’s coming in loud and clear. I heard a bit of DELTA 5, MERCENÁRIAS, and DEVO in the mix. The songs’ melodies and rhythms sneak up on you in a great way. They can seem awkward or aimless at first, but in no time you’re in the midst of a totally weird, totally danceable number and you realize you’ve been headed there the whole time.

Prowler Prowler demo cassette

Man, what the fuck is it with Denver? What have they got in the water there to make their HC so sick? PROWLER is another addition to Denver’s hardcore domination. This is hardcore punk the way it should be done (in my humble opinion). The influence from bands like the ABUSED, NEGATIVE APPROACH, and YOUTH OF TODAY is apparent, while also not being cheesy like a lot of YOUTH OF TODAY clones can be. It’s loud, it’s fast, it’s pissed-off, and that’s all it needs to be. I think this one rules—give it a listen and you’ll feel the same way. Stoked to see what PROWLER has coming up next.

Rövsvett Jesus Var En Tomte LP

Swedish hardcore masters RÖVSVETT need no introduction. 2020 marked the 35th anniversary of one of the most brutal hardcore records ever to come out of Europe, Jesus Var En Tomte. Prove me wrong! This time, it has a new mix that makes it sound even fresher, with an added 22 bonus songs, including “Fast” (from the same recording as the rest of their second EP Jesus Was an Elf, with a new mix), and finally a live recording of the classic “Ultra Huset”. Hard to imagine someone playing blisteringly fast yet so precise like this back in the day, whilst other bands achieved classic status with way sloppier and mild recordings. Truly an underrated band.

SOSS 2022 cassette

Frenetic drum-machine-driven solo project punk from Mobile, Alabama. Four original tracks and a DANZIG cover. It’s fast, it’s catchy, it’s weird, it’s got unexpected hooks and tempo changes, it’s everything you could possibly want in a solo project. That is to say it’s everything I want in a solo project, I’m not gonna tell you what you should want, but you just might want to check out this killer cassette by SOSS. Oh, and I just discovered that there’s an additional four songs not included on the tape or on Bandcamp, unless you download the entire album from there, and they’re top-notch. Not sure why these weren’t included on the cassette, but I am pleasantly surprised to have uncovered them.

Tord Epònim EP

TORD is a solo recording project of Barcelona artist Blai Subirats Nuez, and this release appears to be their first solo effort (after a couple of splits). The EP is made up of four tracks of drum machine post-punk, pairing CURE-esque guitar atmospherics with industrial-ish beats. Some quacky vocals and a dash of eggy quirk help to keep this from being a totally rote affair, but it’s hard to say this packs any big surprises. This stuff ends up sounding best when they opt for harsher textures like on the track “Què Faràs Demà,” but everything here is listenable. A perfectly OK record!

Warthog Four Walls EP

At this point, everyone knows or has heard of WARTHOG. They’re one of those bands that with everything they release, be it records, merch, or other publicity stunts (billboard!?!?), will get major attention. To get this sort of attention nowadays with bands spawning left and right is admirable, so there must be an “it” factor to them. With that being said, the sons of Larry are back with their third self-titled EP in a row. Yes! They are delving more and more into metal-oriented territory with recognizable influences of proto-bands like VENOM or CELTIC FROST, but still go fast on the POISON IDEA-styled hardcore. WARTHOG is at the top of the game and has been a major influence on American hardcore, and they are quickly spreading that influence to Europe as well. But you have to see them live to witness the full force of the WARTHOG attack! Highly recommended!

Wrong War Fixed Against Forever LP

Debut LP from Chicago’s WRONG WAR, this HC album is fast, tight, and angry. The socio-political tension can’t be missed, from the band’s moniker to each and every song. The opener “Words Were Mere Words” shouts in its chorus, “And how I / Long for / Those days when / Words were mere words. / And how I—let it align.” A reckoning with cancel culture, as in we should be responsible for what we write and say and how it makes one another feel? Or an actual desire to not be accountable? Although the lyrics are all shouted, they are clear and you don’t need the liner notes to make them out—that said, the messages are vague and trope-y…the war machine (“Count the Days”), religious falsehoods (“Direct Function”), foolish patriotism (“Escape Clause”). But I don’t know, maybe I’m just oversaturated with being reminded of how shitty everything is, was, will be, etc. Anyway, if this fuels your rage, they released a second LP (Once Upon a Weapon) earlier this year, and I can only imagine what they’ve got to say since this release came out in 2020.

V/A Demons Inside Us: 20 Years of Phobia Records LP

If you’re looking for a fantastic, frenzied collection of contemporary Scandinavian and Eastern European hardcore punk, here is your comp. Twenty-one tracks of blistering heavy käng-and-roll, classic crust, and D-beat, comprising various levels of speed and distortion, yet compiled thoughtfully in pace and tone. All your favorites are rumbling the pots off your speakers here: PARANOID, EARTH CRUST DISPLACEMENT(!!!), ABSOLUT, PARASIT, DISSEKERAD (you need Dis LP), UTSATT, WARCOLLAPSE, SVAVELDIOXID, VOIDFILLER, SLUTET (you need Dis LP), and much more. Several decades of Scandi-beat punk-tuated melody and passion come though over the course of this LP, covering a bit over two decades from the Czech Republic’s punkest label. An excellent sampler from Phobia Records. Sixteen-page zine and poster included. Only a few are left on gold vinyl. Comp is a ripper, zero slouch tracks, and I enjoyed it even more while revisiting it to write about it.

Ammo Web of Lies / Death Won’t Even Satisfy LP

The fine, formidable hardcore of AMMO comes in with a rabid intensity that approaches TOTALITÄR levels, but this New Jersey band manages to apply that ferocity to traditional USHC song structures with beefy breakdowns and what have you. I’m hearing JERRY’S KIDS influence, maybe it’ll conjure up some other memories for you. Turns out this is the guy from NIGHT BIRDS getting some hardcore out, and it’s nicely done, with “Answer to a Lower Power” being my favorite cut of the bunch.

Burning Flag Matador LP

On their third album, BURNING FLAG keeps on waving their determination for everyone to see. The Halifax group is equal parts political punk and metal; their formula is based around crushing Scandi-styled crust but sometimes they reach ENTOMBED-like heaviness and groove, with emphasis on the groove, and some dissonant, apocalyptic GODFLESH industrial bleakness thrown into the mix. The themes of Matador explore misogyny, toxic masculinity, and societal corruption, so it’s a record filled with politics just as it should be.

Controller The True Sense of Strength Within LP

Busting out of Lehigh Valley, PA comes CONTROLLER with their debut full-length release after two cassette tape releases. This is heavy hardcore, with heavy emphasis on the word “heavy.” This LP is packed to the brim with stomping riffs to get your blood boiling. There’s also a pretty strong thrash metal influence in several of these tunes. And, of course, an ungodly amount of guitar divebombs. Exactly what you’re looking for in music like this. If you like your hardcore much more on the metal side, you could certainly do much, much worse than The True Sense of Strength Within. Recommended.

DEB5000 Debutante cassette

Auckland, NZ punk four-piece with all its female members coming out of other bands (though I haven’t been able to find which ones) to create the ridiculous, the fabulous, DEB5000. Take one look at the cassette cover, it’s amazing; take one look at the track list—where’d they come up with this shit? “Bad Guts” about gastro-intestinal problems, “Keanu (Wyld Stallyn)” that makes a song out of Keanu Reeves characters. I think “Termite Queen” rocks the hardest and makes a great metaphor for female strength. This is some wild Down Under punk rock, and I would recommend.

Discreet Dead Man’s Line cassette

Latest release by DISCREET from Austin, a band which consists of members of ’00s outcast hardcore veterans TOTAL ABUSE, CREEPOID, SKELETON, etc. playing ’80s-style USHC with noise rock influences. The cover consists of Tony Kiritis kidnapping Richard Hall and holding him hostage on live TV after being upset about falling behind on a mortgage (Hall didn’t end up getting killed). An expression of the devastating, confusing, traumatic, ugly realities of our society. For fans of the members’ previous outputs or FLIPPER, BRAINBOMBS, SACCHARINE TRUST, VOID, SST, you get the idea.

Doppler Radar and the Local News Kissing Booth / Scalp Me cassette

DOPPLER RADAR AND THE LOCAL NEWS from Indianapolis, Indiana brings us a two-track cassette, a format commonly known as the cassingle. “Kissing Booth” is an skramz-esque track with artsy spoken word vocals on top of herky-jerky, math-rock-style starts and stops. This is backed with “Scalp Me,” a more straightforward powerviolence-y track that mostly sounds like the vocalist is one of the Gremlins in the classic movie of the same name. A mere 23 copies of these were released in Italy and already sold out. It seems this is from the 50 North American copies that were made, of which copies are still available.

Goosebumps Walkaway Beware of Dog CD-R

Nasty and hopelessly infectious lo-fi Illinois punk. You ever wonder what would happen if MC5 rebirthed themselves as a 2010s emotive and hi-NRG indie pop band? Because that’s the shit that’s on my plate at the moment, and I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do with it. You ever listen to a sound and instantly know that it hits you in some kind of way, but not know what kind of way that is…? That’s what’s happening to your humble reviewer right now. It’s not even on the internet, so I feel like I’m on this island alone…but I like how this island sounds.

Hot Load Love Bag Demos cassette

Five songs of revved-up, sleazy, booze-soaked Los Angeles rock’n’roll. Barked, distorted vocals on top of nasty riffs, driving drums, and wailing butt-rock bluesy guitar leads. This is the second pressing of the HOT LOAD demo, the first press of 50 copies apparently having sold out fast, so don’t sleep on the sleaze.

Lacking / Road Pig split cassette

Here’s a tape you can blast in the car and loop over and over. LACKING’s contribution is three tracks of blink-and-you-miss-them hardcore crammed into less than a minute each. “Ego Breathe” stands out as a mosh pit anthem. They manage, especially on “Dis-semination,” to change tone and time signatures a couple times in 44 seconds. ROAD PIG’s two tracks, while still hardcore, bend more towards metal with strong D-beats. “Deathmachine” is a ripper. Sadly, there weren’t any lyrics or liner notes with the tape.

Lamictal Doctor’s Orders cassette

A groovy, garage-fueled egg attack, LAMICTAL is the solo project of a gentleman named Alex from California. Clearly he’s not lying when he states that he “doesn’t care what the doctor says” on “Doctor Says,” as this tape sounds like he’s abandoned prescriptions to create his own kind of medication.

Reviewer Jason Harding
Label Goodbye Boozy / Popular Affliction
Issue MRR #470 • July 2022

Gage Maurie A Compilation (In No Particular Order) cassette

I alluded to this in the last review I did for the label, but it bears repeating. Spared Flesh rules! If for some reason you’ve been sleeping on them, it’s time to wake the hell up! Everything that dude has put out has been compelling (at the very least) to great. And this release is no exception. This time he’s serving up the first two demos (with the track lists reordered—hence the title) from Portland artist GAGE MAURIE, whom you may know as the frontman for acts NO KNUCKLE and FIB. It’s real good—fifteen tracks of lo-fi bedroom musings that touch on anything from slacker rock to the contemporary punk herky-jerk of the URANIUM CLUB or even woozy, Southern-fried psych folk. It reminds a bit of the stuff PRINT HEAD is doing but maybe a bit less noisy and less scattershot. Dig in!

Merked / Slag split cassette

Total and complete grindcore devastation. The samples of righteous violence between MERKED songs make everything even more intense (“I swear on my fucking mother, if you touch her again you’re dead”). Dark and heavy grind-churn savagery that makes me scared to flip the tape…fortunately, I’m playing on an autoreverse deck. SLAG continues the savagery on the flip, pure San Jose grind supremacy. Of all of the records (and tapes) I’ve listened to this month, these are absolutely the most brutal sounds I have heard—fans of grind and violence are well advised to not sleep on this shit. Absolutely colossal release.

Nag Halloween 3 cassette

They say that when you’re a punk rocker, every day is like Halloween. At least, that’s what Al Jourgensen said back before he heard BIG BLACK. For the Atlanta punkers in NAG, I bet every day is like Flag Day. BLACK FLAG Day. Actually, maybe Veteran’s Day. Cuz these cats have been around for a minute now, and they slay every time they press record. As you can surmise, this live set was recorded last year on October 31st. Fuck it, let’s call it a “dead” set, and while there’s no Jerry in sight, it is full of satisfying jump scares. All of the songs come from last year’s Observer full-length, and while this is definitely FFO (for fuckfaces only), if you ain’t down with NAG’s vibe, then you can show yourself out.

Pänika Wear Your Own Fur, Asshole! EP

Wroclaw, Poland’s PÄNIKA offers some angry, political, raw hardcore punk on this 7″ release. Lurching forward in full force from the off, this EP has some back-breaking fast tunes on it with some heavy-hitting, pogo-y tunes sandwiched in between. A real ferocious listen—really solid stuff!

Restraining Order / Warfare split EP

Two songs of short, fast hardcore/punk from each band here. Both bands play a style of music that is not easily pinned down. Is it hardcore? Yeah, but there’s also heavy street punk influences as well. I mean, hell, RESTRAINING ORDER’s song “Undercover Cop” almost sounds like it could have been a pre-Do or Die DROPKICK MURPHYS song. There’s definitely a little something for everyone here.

Ruined Age No End in Sight cassette

These four tracks of straightforward, crusty hardcore don’t give you a chance to breathe. “No End in Sight” showcases the grinding guitars, solid D-beat drumming, and bleak lyrics that make this tape so dang good. The vocals remind me of Chuck Schuldiner’s on DEATH’s classic debut Scream Bloody Gore, though this is far from death metal. The final track is a cover of DISCLOSE’s “War Cloud” and is a wall of brutality.

Smallspeaker This Record Kills All Trend Scums EP

A great new single from Japan’s SMALLSPEAKER. The band features Hiroshi Otsuki of the REGISTRATORS and Masa Seventeen of COCKSCRATCH. Three songs of overblown, trashy garage punk. Dirty, nasty, and cool. “Pop Killer” is my fave, but all the songs are great. The sleeve is screened on an 8” envelope and makes the whole package look really nice. Now I just need to find one of these.

Split System Climbing EP

Melbourne punks from STIFF RICHARDS, SPEED WEEK, and the BLACK HEART DEATH CULT joined forces to form SPLIT SYSTEM during one of the breaks between their city’s COVID lockdowns. Once back under lockdown, though, the band had to turn into an email project, with each member self-recording their parts at home. But you wouldn’t be able to tell from listening to this thing—it sounds great, thanks in part to a fantastic mix from Mikey Young. The four tracks you’re getting here are a bit early BLACK FLAG, a bit Raw Power STOOGES, and a bit EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING, which on paper sounds good as hell. But, I don’t know, these songs just aren’t doing it for me. There isn’t anything bad on the release, and everything is competently put together—it’s just that nothing stuck with me once the record was off.

Targets First Blood cassette

This is a 1:58-long promo tape, so I’ll keep this review in the same fashion: quick and to-the-point. TARGETS is an unrelenting one-man assault of fast hardcore with a fixation on murdering, a shower of sonic bullets that hit every target. Killer (pun intended) artwork by the legendary Mark McCoy of CHARLES BRONSON fame, and with that said, this band could be on Youth Attack, so you get the picture. Shooting to kill!

The Wake On Our Honeymoon / Give Up 7″ reissue

Before they were Factory-backed, joyless JOY DIVISION/NEW ORDER adherents, and later saccharinely sweet Sarah Records twee-poppers, the 1982 debut recorded offering from Glasgow’s the WAKE was an exercise in anxious art-punk with a streak of youthful naivety, almost like a schoolboy-fronted JOSEF K. “On Our Honeymoon” launches straight into a deliriously loping bassline caught in a gravitational pull somewhere between Peter Hook and Three Imaginary Boys-era CURE, with skittering, disco-flecked drums and scratchy guitar running at odds against paper-thin wallflower vocals; it’s a two-minute rush of spiky, minimalist brilliance that immediately set the bar at a height the band would fail to ever hit again (hot take). On the flip, “Give Up” sinks into monochrome post-punk malaise as if NEW ORDER had never discovered the dancefloor, with wavering, saturnine keys and a tenuous edge of despair in vocalist Caesar’s delivery, all set into motion again by that darkly melodic bobbing bass. A single that’s been given a new life as a reissue once already this century and thus far from a lost-to-time obscurity, but that all-timer of an A-side makes a pretty strong case for yet another revisit.