Reviews

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!

Phantasmagoria / Sectss Nyk Lives split LP

Wildly dark apocalypse split featuring the work of Nyk Radar, who passed away last year. PHANTASMAGORIA dishes out a heavy CRAMPS-influenced assault, supremely damaged in a “who’s that band of zombies playing in the dungeon” kind of way, and Radar’s yowl will slide under your skin like a needle. SECTSS (with Radar on guitar) are a more primitive beast, with Radar’s guitar piercing through the mix with a death-surf vibe. There’s nothing pretty about this split, neither the premise nor the execution, and there’s a (black) magic quality to an artist being able to reach from the grave…and grab you by the throat.

Plastics Plastic World EP

God, this is good. Pummeling and crunchy, with winding riffs that dart around with speed and precision, and hollering vocals that reverberate off the walls with chilly stoicism. If societal collapse has brought us anything, it’s brought us the best global hardcore scene in history. Let’s be grateful for that silver lining on a toxic cloud. This stands strong amidst the newest crop of art-tinged hardcore bands that smartly knits post-punk angularity with ’80s-indebted ferociousness to great effect.

Print Head boringboring cassette

One of the like six or seven cassettes this project released in 2021. If you’re unfamiliar with PRINT HEAD, the anything-goes no-fi recordings of prolific Canadian Brandon Saucier, this is probably as good a place as any to start. The five tracks on this release are easier to digest than the potentially daunting (though very excellent) 25-track compilation cassette that Discos Peroquébien put out last year, and it’s less likely to rankle than his cassette of PARQUET COURTS covers. And you’re getting a pretty good idea of what PRINT HEAD is all about—minute-long vignettes exploring a variety of punkish sounds. The first few tracks hew a little closer to the garage-y end of the punk spectrum with a touch of DEVO-core (you just can’t get away from it these days!), but it’s never really eggy—think if early TYVEK was a little more herky-jerky. And the rest of the tracks take some of the tunefulness that you’d find in mid-’90s GUIDED BY VOICES and weds that to the concrete-slicing jazzy funk-punk of early MINUTEMEN. Really compelling stuff—give it a go!

Systema Ášltima Guerra LP

From the infamous hub of punk in Colombia known as Casa Rat Trap comes yet another great punk band, SYSTEMA. They live and breathe punk there, and it shows in the endless pit of talent they keep putting out on a consistent basis. SYSTEMA gathers members of AMENAZAS, MURO, DOOMSDAY, SINNACIÖN, and ALAMBRADA, all coming from Rat Trap. Ášltima Guerra sounds like a Colombian punk singing for a Finnish hardcore band from the ’80s. If you like your hardcore angry and raw,then go get this one!

Tupperware Finicky EP

These Olympia punks (on a Wyoming-based label) have a knack for putting out releases where the artwork depicts the sound perfectly. The maze-dwelling, mace-wielding cretin from their previous cassette has been revealed as but one of many “X”-eyed demons, who have now progressed to menacing the world at large. The fact that they chose to illustrate their kitchen-convenience-invoking moniker sword and sorcery style also cracks me up.  Musically, much like the last one, this messy and manic hardcore tape is over before you know what hit you.

Wild Wings Foil Landscape LP

This ham-fisted Ohio power trio rocks big and burly, with elements of hard rockers like MOUNTAIN and PINK FAIRIES. They also have an early ’80s punk vibe sounding like ZERO BOYS or GEZA X. You can tell they rock hard in a live setting, as the sweat and hair would be flying gratuitously. Pick it up. Smells not included. 

The Antelopes Breaking News cassette

Early ’80s UK collective the ANTELOPES have a colorful and winding history, ending their brief run as CLASS OF ’76, but unfortunately the music doesn’t compel one to follow all the membership twists and turns. Musical history is always worth the effort of excavation, but the tunes themselves don’t quite deliver. There’s clumsy attempts at smoky Eastern European late-night tavern jazz alongside awkward stabs at disco and power-to-the-people funk. On “Mississippi Line,” these Brits lay down an awful blues pastiche that makes the ROLLING STONES’ most ham-fisted takes seem legit. The dubwise post-punk of “Hour of Light” is pleasant enough, but it’s followed by the schmaltzy mush of “Keys to the Kingdom” that warbles on for six long minutes. As evidenced by this collection, not all the unearthed post-punk that glitters is gold.

Bärchen Und Die Milchbubis Endlich Komplett Betrunken LP

A new collection of the (almost) complete works of early ’80s German group BÄRCHEN UND DIE MILCHBUBIS, who brought a playful naivety and shambolic charm to the Neue Deutsche Welle—their smiling teddy bear mascot was like a knowing wink that they were operating on a different wavelength than, say, D.A.F. or MALARIA! The stripped-down, melodically off-kilter bash of their 1980 debut EP Jung Kaputt Spart Altersheime was very much of a piece with their Hannover scene peers and labelmates HANS-A-PLAST, and by 1981’s follow-up LP Dann Macht Es Bumm, BÄRCHEN UND DIE MILCHBUBIS had developed a more fully-realized sense of self, one that artfully encompassed 39 CLOCKS covers (taking the VELVETS-gone-electro drone of “DNS” and turning it out like NICO fronting KLEENEX), sparse drum machine pop (back to that local 39 CLOCKS connection!) breaking into a full-on pogo charge on “Manager,” solemn, brittle post-punk (“Tiefseefisch”), and proto-twee/C86 jangle (“Muskeln”), all without fully abandoning their initial wild, freewheeling punk spirit (see “Pogo Liebt Dich” and “Spaß” for proof positive). One of Dann Macht Es Bumm’s fourteen tracks got left behind on what is otherwise an exhaustive round-up of the MILCHBUBIS discography (where’s “Hab Doch Keine Angst”?!), but there’s a handful of live tracks circa ’80–’83 and a 2021 re-do of “DNS” to make up for it; more than enough bang for your buck.

Big Jar of Mayo Cassingle cassette

This is actually quite good, but the name and packaging are way dumb, so I never would have heard it if not assigned for review. Everything’s a bit warped here, and I’m hearing something like if the FREEZE were art-punks with a splash of modern snot along the lines of LIQUIDS. Two solid songs in a little over two minutes. Mayo is fucking gross, though.

Blonde Revolver Red Ruby EP

What we have here is the debut release from new Melbourne label Rack Off, who are looking to shed light on female-identifying and gender-diverse acts, and the debut EP from BLONDE REVOLVER, a new Melbourne six-piece with members from FUTURE SUCK, DELIVERY, and GUTTER GIRLS (among others). They apparently started as a BLONDIE cover band but now play plainspoken, fairly straightforward Aussie punk with a bit of a post-punk edge courtesy of an ever present synth that provides a sinister undercurrent—it sounds like a mix of AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS and the LOST SOUNDS. The five originals here are solid enough, and they do a really cool cover of the URINALS’ “I’m a Bug,” kinda turning it into a GARY NUMAN track. But the highlight of the record (and maybe my favorite moment from any release in 2021) is the little “waaa” that the singer yelps to punctuate the (pretty great) line “I’m an alpha baby, and you’re a beta bitch” on “Pocket Rocket”. Fuck—it’s good!

Clear History Bad Advice Good People 12″

CLEAR HISTORY is a minimalist post-punk trio from Berlin. Sonically, their tunes have all the hallmarks of the genre: single-string guitar parts and slashed-out chords, dual vocals that bounce back and forth, safety-pinned together by steady, uncomplicated drumming and unfussy basslines. You can probably hear it in your head already as it creates a diagonal line in your ear space. The vocals are more impassioned than most of their genre, but I wish the music felt the same. The production is flat and more like a studio demo than what I’d expect from an LP. I wish there was more of a feeling of it sounding live or in a room, but it all sounds like it’s on the same stereo plane without a lot of action or dynamics. The limitations of the style just tend to remind me so much of what I’ve heard in the last five years from similar-sounding bands. I’m sure they’re compelling live and there is definitely an audience for it, but at the moment I’m not it.

Decade / Fatum split 12″

Russia’s FATUM should be no strangers to fans of brutal clenched-fist stench, and I dare say this is some of their fiercest material to date. Powerful dark metal crust, with full attention paid to the “metal” part of that descriptor. Canadian crusters DECADE stink up their side of the split with a destroyed collection of blown-out, metallic D-beat with a signature high-end snarl—if this is commentary on some of the questionable eras in the archives of D-beat history, then I dare say they hit the mark (and that bass tone—oooof!). Polished power from FATUM, damaged churn from DECADE—Malaysia’s Black Konflik released this on CD last year, happy to see it’s getting the treatment it deserves.

The Electronic Circus Direct Lines / Le Chorale 7″ reissue

This one-off synth-pop single from 1981 is one of your “underground by circumstance, not by design” scenarios, in that the main guy behind the ELECTRONIC CIRCUS, Chris Payne, was a biggish deal in the genre at the time (GARY NUMAN band member with a co-writing credit on VISAGE’s “Fade to Grey,” which I’m guessing has been a decent source of income since). He had a hit on his mind when releasing “Direct Lines,” it seems, but the world thought otherwise. Still, like plenty of other obscure early ’80s synth, it’s picked up an audience via YouTube, including Jensen from IRON LUNG, who’s given the single its second rerelease and first remaster. It’s solid stuff: briskly paced, with self-consciously space-age swirly keyboard FX and vocals erring on the dramatic side of paranoia. “Direct Lines” is of a piece with bands of the time like OMD, even if you can tell it was never likely to push the same pop chart buttons. “Le Chorale,” the B-side song, is a portentous instrumental built around pleasant electric piano.

The Ex Dignity of Labour LP reissue

A release of this nature—an artistic info-dump essentially—would overshadow many lesser bands’ music. There are scads of hardcore and crust records throughout the ’80s and ’90s where the information provided is important and relevant, but the music itself is a grab-bag of forgettable songs and stereotypical genre exercises. Alas, the EX are in a class by themselves, even back in 1983. Released concurrently with the excellent Tumult LP, all eight “Sucked Out Chucked Out” takes are dense with grinding machinery, as the band pushes its sound beyond agit-punk and into more experimental territory, employing accordions and tape loops. Originally released as a 7″ box set, Dignity of Labour was partially recorded in the remains of a Dutch paper factory that had stood since the 18th century, and even had played a role during the Netherlands’ battle against the Nazis. In the 1970s, the factory was purchased by a multinational corporation and began producing asbestos. In other words, a post-industrial death spiral, one which is detailed in the accompanying booklet. The EX soundtracks these events with rare prowess and raw ingenuity. As individual songs, these tracks aren’t as strong as the majority of the EX’s catalog, but taken together—as a material protest, as a piece of history, as an act of resistance—it is an impressive work.

GlenXCoco You Can’t Sit With Us cassette

Grinding, low-end hardcore stomps with a killer high/low vocal attack and fierce lyrics (animal rights, rape apologists, street harassment, realities of wage-based classism). Nice metallic leads drop in just when you think you’re getting another crust assault. This one dropped in 2019, and they’ve cranked out a few more bangers since then—San Jose still reigns, y’all.

Living World Future Built for Self/Ubuntu cassette

LIVING WORLD is from Pittsburgh, baby, and they don’t care what you think about the majestic hoofed mammal on the cover of their cassette. They just want to hit you with the punk, which in this case is some messy, echoed vocals beamed over a frenzied hardcore thrashing drenched in panache. Unique breakdowns punctuate each distortion-strewn song and there’s a ton of character to these twelve tracks. One of them is a NEGATIVE FX cover, which should give you an idea of what we’re dealing with here. These guys have a knack for song titles too (“G-Bong,” “Crack Mountain,” “Crime Person,” etc.) Go listen to it, already.

The Monsters You’re Class, I’m Trash CD

It feels like there’s been a steady flow of product out of the LIGHTNING/REVEREND BEAT-MAN camp as of late. Here’s another long-player of the best of the bunch, the MONSTERS. You get much of the same matching-suit Euro kind of garage trash rock. This is especially true on songs like “Smell My Tongue” and “Get Drunk on You,” which are great but nothing really special. It’s the noisier psych and horror-inspired numbers such as “Carpool Lane,” “Devil Baby,” and the two versions of the song “Dead” that make this really a thing. There’s two great Euro horror-inspired videos of these latter tracks online as well, which are pretty swell. COVID has been kind to the MONSTERS and allowed creativity to flow as to create some memorable art here. They’re just so Swiss! Look at their pictures and you’ll know exactly what I mean. I feel like the LSD has gotten pretty good there lately, so tune in, drop in…blahhh.

MxAxMxA Долгожданный первенец CD

This Russian band seems to spend as much time shredding your face as they do taking the piss out of…seemingly everything. Wild, technical death grind and pure noisecore experimentation coexist in the world of MXAXMXA, often in the same song. You’re going to need to take a pill before you dive into this one…hope you pick the right color.

Nervous Twitch Nervous Twitch LP

Super catchy pop punk from NERVOUS TWITCH on their fourth album. It’s hard to miss the ’60s pop influence—think the CHIFFONS or the SHANGRI-LAS, tinged with UK punk attitude. In this way, they sound like contemporaries of the SLITS, but are in fact contemporaries of one of 2020’s favorites, RIBBON STAGE. I love “Not Everyone’s Out to Get Me” for being so damn upbeat while singing “Fuck yes I’m at my best / Fuck you I’m stronger than ever.” Get TWITCH’n.

Paprika Paprika cassette

The latest and greatest in the new generation of noisy, tornado-strength punk. This NOLA-based group delivers echoing, grime-encrusted bangers that exemplify why contemporary hardcore is maybe the height of the genre. Fierce and filthy, this band gets straight to the point: aiming down sights at the violence of the capitalist grind while never outstaying their welcome. The way the final track “Insane Machine” cuts out makes you feel like you’re only worthy to catch a glimpse of the band and its many strengths—brilliantly leaving you alone in the silence wishing you could hear more. Unforgiving harsh punk that you must grab a copy of while you can.

Potemkin Sludge Vol. 2 cassette

You read the title…right? Read it again. If anyone thought Sweden’s POTEMKIN was finished with sludge after Sludge Vol. 1…well, that was a foolish thought. Filthy, downtuned, distorted, ugly, mean. This music is like a pool of quicksand filled with glass. Sometimes heavy bands hit a stoner groove, but these fuckers just obliterate everything in their path on a tape filled with songs the length of power pop anthems. Looking forward to the third installment.

Realm of Terror Accelerated Extinction cassette

Loose, jangly crust Á  la early DOOM demos or ABRAHAM CROSS, with the buoyancy of some early ’90s grind like UNRUH or ACRID. Tight-as-fuck snare and grizzly basslines, sizzling feedback cross-channeling buzzsaw strings and ugly vocals. Lots of breakdowns in the DEVIATED INSTINCT/APARTMENT 213 sense, while constantly driving forth like DEFORMED EXISTENCE or CRUSADE. Low levels of subtle dirge, DISCLOSE riff-raining terror followed by more breakdowns. This is so good. Heavy as fuck with a hard stance toward animal liberation and this world of constantly accelerated pollution. This is worth your attention and speaker destruction. Six tracks of obliterating, downtuned crustcore guts, in a D-beat skeleton, a total distorted onslaught.

Reiz Das Kind wird ein Erfolg LP

Catchy melodic hardcore from this Mannheim, Germany band. Most of these songs have that Fat Wreck/Epitaph sound: bouncing bass, fast punk, and call-and-response vocals (in German). If you like LAGWAGON or WIZO, you’ll probably like this fun and well-produced record. Stand-out track, “Öffentlich und Daheim,” has a great pop punk melody with harmonized vocals. REIZ would fit right in on one of those ’90s skate rock comps and are definitely recommended if sunny, upbeat punk is your jam.

Scalple Skillful Butchers LP

SCALPLE is back with a new LP, Skillful Butchers, after their devastating debut World Gone Bad. With members and ex-members of MEMBRANE, RAZORHEADS, URCHIN, INFERNÖH, EXTENDED HELL, and TERRORIST, one can only expect a great record. Ten songs of fast-paced hardcore with a thrashy feel, bordering on the ’80s fastcore sounds of RIPCORD, HERESY, or ELECTRO HIPPIES with USHC undertones. Dynamic and relentless drumming, overlayed with metallic riffage and growling vocals. The intros and interludes are done by Maggot Champagne a.k.a. PHARMAKON, who is no stranger to working with punk bands. Be it ’80s-influenced fastcore or ’80s USHC, this is an hardcore album in its essence and it fucking rips! Play fast or don’t!

SEMTEX 87 C.I.B. demo cassette

Scab-ripping HC that’s newly emerged from the Perth scene (Australia not Scotland—you probably realised this already) and bundles the city’s thrashier and effusive anarcho sides in one unit, with two EXTORTION dudes and one from COLD MEAT, to name but two. C.I.B. is a six-song demo tape whose title refers to the Commonwealth Investigation Branch in Perth, and more specifically a dude who drove a tank into the side of it by way of revenge for a past cop brutalizing. (Search “1993 Perth tank rampage” on Wikipedia if you feel so inclined.) It’s seething, raw ur-hardcore all the way, maybe like the FIX or someone but with gruff-as-hell vocals from Rhys Davies, putting me in mind of Nicholas Sarnella in ARMS RACE.

Spectres Hindsight LP

Vancouver outfit that blends anarcho lyricism with post-punk while leaving room for some ’80s pop beats. If in print this sounds a little wandering, I recommend giving the first, politically-driven track “Cold War” a listen compared to the last track “Tell Me,” which comes off as a new wave love song—hanging in the balance is an album that achieves this reach. If you’re hooked, they’ve got four previous LPs at the ready.

Action Park You Must Be This Tall to Die LP

This album opens with a soundbite of a commercial for the fabled/doomed amusement park from which the band takes its name, and from there the listener is treated to twelve poppy, melodic, hook-laden songs that sound like they were just unearthed from a time capsule buried sometime in the mid-’90s. There’s enough here to keep me interested while listening, just not enough to make me reach for this for repeat listens. That said, 1995 me would have been all over this record, for sure.

Bosque Rojo Bosque Rojo cassette

BOSQUE ROJO is a band from Montreal that sings in Spanish. They released this cassette with the great label A World Divided, specialized in giving focus to bands from the Mediterranean (Southern Europe, North Africa, and Middle East). This is a band with a very classic Spanish sound: sharp political lyrics, a voice that spits fury and truths, a thunderous rhythm section, and guitar that creates quite addictive walls of noise, often with touches of dark post-punk. It’s forceful. It’s catchy. You can feel the knack for personal hits in all four songs, but I highlight “Solostalgia” and “Muertos en Vida,” sublime punches to the face of conformity. The truth is that I already want them to record a full album.

Brute Spring The Perilous Transformations of Kid Spit cassette

Face-melting, hi-energy electro (punk?) blasts from BRUTE SPRING. There are elements that fall in line with late ’80s dancefloor industrial, with lots of skittish, erratic action that lives in a damaged world all its own. The mid-paced moments (“Furious Veins,” the six-plus-minute mindfukk “Spiritual Leader”) are where the band will likely find followers among fans of the damaged depths of the Play It Again Sam catalog and peripheral acts like CLOCK DVA, while the manic pummeling of “Orange Strain” and the opener “High Tension Wire Manipulator” hit like primitive industrial synth on a bathtub crank bender. This one is a total winner.

Ciggie & the Darts Liquor, Leather, Denim & Darts cassette

I was expecting a pack of thick-accented Aussies with this band name. Instead, I get a trio of Canadians outta Ottawa, which has to be at least second best in toothless alcoholic status. Seriously, this thing smokes, and even looks like a full pack of reds. A nice mix of MÖTORHEAD, ANNIHILATION TIME, and pub rock like EDDIE AND THE HOTRODS. The singer sounds like GARY GLITTER and MEAT LOAF on a sulphate bender. A tight trio musically keeps everything at just the right level of sleazy. There’s even a fucking piano! Not a loser song in the bunch. Smoke up, Johnny. Ha.

Cold Brats Punk in the Digital Age Extended LP

Solid collection of negative hardcore from this Bucharest, Romania band. This LP is a compilation of tracks recorded over several years, and it shows because the sound and direction change a bit from song to song. What COLD BRATS do well is raw vocals over mid-tempo chugs, like HOAX with occasional sinister organ backing. “Split Saber” and “Republic of Dust” are great spooky bummer blasts. “Hollow Point” works in the same mode with a dissonant guitar figure that empowers the bad vibes into real bad vibes. Where the band loses me a bit are on tracks where they get silly with the vocals. “Life, and Nothing More” has a goofy spoken part with someone describing how a knock at the door interrupted them watching “Finding Nemo.” It’s Mike Muir-demanding-a-Pepsi silly and halts the momentum that the first few tracks build up. A skronky no wave sax wail and the return of screamed vocals in the chorus help it, but barely. “Banana” tries it again with a mostly instrumental, noisy surf-inspired song with the only lyric being the song title. It’s a weird shift in tone for those two tracks and would surely get the skip if this were a CD. Other than those two weirdo outliers, this is a good soundtrack for bad days.

The Cravats The Colossal Tunes Out LP reissue

The CRAVATS have never sat easy in the history of the anarcho-punk genre they’ve often found themselves in. While affiliated with CRASS via their label and Penny Rimbaud producing the single they released, their anarchy (if any) was less political than artistic, closer to the absurdism of Dada. Their sense of humor was also more upfront, in a silly surrealist Monty Python way than the often dour anarcho bands’ chants against bombs and starving nations. Musically, they were far more imaginative and complicated in their arrangements—Rob Dalloway’s guitar sound is both dissonant and twangy, featuring odd chords and the occasional rockabilly flourish, the Shend’s bass and Dave Bennett’s drums savored upfront, stomping and shifty in tempo. Svoor Naan’s saxophone has always been the band’s red herring, often lending them the ill fitting description of “jazz-punk,” with my argument against that being: would anyone call X-RAY SPEX “jazz” just because of Lora Logic’s horn lines? Due partly to this, the CRAVATS haven’t had the eternal back-patch legacy of their labelmates, or been able to stay in print perpetuity. The Colossal Tunes Out LP never even made it to CD aside from tracks on The Land of the Giants compilation, so this reissue by Overground is momentous in that respect at the least. Truth be told, I’m a huge CRAVATS fan, and interviewed lead vocalist the Shend for my zine 1ten years ago. When I saw this had been reissued, I scooped it up immediately as it’s my favorite of their releases. Not a real album as much as a compilation of their singles, there’s still a cohesion between the songs, and it’s the finest example of the CRAVATS’ off-kilter and adventurous musical world. The first side starts with the maniacally dubbed-out vortex of “Off the Beach,” the reverby surf punk riffs on “Terminus,” and the woozy cut n’ paste musique concrete of “Firemen.” The classic Crass Records single “Rub Me Out” (maybe their most well-known moment) highlights the B-side, and the psycho swarming clarinet and bugged-out swing of “Daddy’s Shoes” is maybe the closest thing to a real jazz-punk moment the band has. Any fan of the artier strains of post-punk like the FALL, SWELL MAPS, or PERE UBU, or mutant new wave like DEVO or the SUBURBAN LAWNS (even modern practitioners of the style Á  la CONEHEADS or URANIUM CLUB) would be wont to give the CRAVATS a serious listen. They even do an uptight and twisted cover of “Working in a Coalmine” like the spud boys from Akron did. If reading this review turns at least one more person on to the band, then my writing this is a success. Hopefully enough attention will come from this reissue that maybe we’ll get a chance to see the band’s multiple Peel Sessions come to vinyl in the future.

Dead Stare Dead Stare cassette

This is extremely raw and lo-fi crusty art noise. I say “art” because there is something unearthly, irreverent, and rebellious about this. It is so basic yet ensnaring. Riffs sound like early DISCHARGE or STONE THE CROWZ played through a blender with very raw black metal pedals. Lyrical pace is performative and reminds me of the FREEZE at times, and the percussion is primitive MURDER JUNKIE madness. I like this. It’s jangly and off-putting. It’s distorted and creepy. It is hardcore and mechanical. DEAD STARE is obtuse and deranged. This is a very bleak tape with sparks of brilliance throughout.

Deck in the Pit In a Lane 10″

DECK IN THE PIT skronks and undulates in the lineage of the MAGIC BAND as well as their Australian forefathers VENOM P. STINGER, especially in tumbling-down-the-stairs fake jazz drumming, which is really the most standout component. The bass farts along with the clanky knotted-up guitar, but it almost seems unnecessary. I appreciate the vocals not being goofy or growly, but there isn’t much presence or attack, as if there was an apprehension to the production and performance. Everything could be a bit nastier, freakier and more far-out for my tastes. This is a 2016 recording session being released in 2021, and as an archival document of a band that was, it’s fine, but I’d be a bit more interested in hearing what these folks have been creating more recently.

Exxxon More Gas cassette

Upon first listen, I thought I’d heard loads of groups like this before. Seemingly recorded through a turd filter, I thought this was “just” bass-and-drums minimalist punk with indecipherable yelping vocals. I keep coming back to it though, and the writing is wiry, clever, and it hits like a crunch to the skull. It’s funky, too! Like, you could and should dance to these less-than-lo-fi punk cries to burn down the corps that are killing us all. Don’t be like me, a jaded snob: let EXXXON into your heart and listen immediately and often. It will beat your ass and bleed your drums.

Good Looking Son Fantasy Weekend 12″

This is some fantastic pop music. It’s soft and pretty and kind of reminds me of bands like the SHINS. I’m guessing these guys grew up on a steady diet of ’60s garage music with a sprinkling of folk thrown in. It’s got a certain etherealness to it. It could be the vocals or it could be the controlled and measured pace. I really dig this.

Liiek Deep Pore LP

Enjoyed the debut LP (or 12″ or whatever eight songs in fifteen minutes is best labelled as) by Berliners LIIEK nearly two years back, and they’ve more than consoled it with Deep Pore, a longer and slightly slicker eleven-tracker. Its post-punk rhythms can get decently funky, though you wouldn’t confuse this for quote-unquote dance music; basslines have a tonal depth that borders on gloomy, but the three-piece is too peppy to be goths or anarchos (compared to, say, either of the DIÄT LPs, to studiously pick out another Berlin band). At their punkiest here, that being “Take on a Dramatic Scale” for my money, they’re not a country mile from a band like SARCASM, I guess. I’m enjoying this album a bunch, and if this review lacks direct praise for LIIEK’s stern, choppy bassline-driven songs, it’s only because I’m f(l)ailing to comfortably box up a release with lots of familiar sounds sewn together in a slightly unfamiliar way.

Mankind? Discography LP

In ten-plus years, this is probably my most personally-invested review; one that brings back a lot of important memories for me, as I am sure this release will be for many of you readers, too. In 1996, I moved from NY to New Haven, CT for art school. But what I learned and gained in New Haven, besides some lifelong friends, was that the city’s punk scene was extremely active in socio-political activism, from benefit shows, Food Not Bombs, and protesting the retail and polluting spaces and industrial zones in the area. Various anarchist proactive reactions were happening. Punk was actually happening, in real life (prior to this cyber age we are in now, but I digress). A club downtown called the Tune Inn was where I would begin going from NY, and of course continued to, when I lived in New Haven. Politically, the scene was heavily anarcho-voiced, with sounds ranging from street punk to grinding crust. I was very interested in all of this. Distros, pamphlets, tabling; the message and this movement. MANKIND? was winding down around this time, but I befriended Chris “Picasso” who went on to form a couple lesser-known acts like ARCHAIC PAX and ANGUISH as well. Of course, Bill Chamberlain of BEHIND ENEMY LINES, the PIST, REACT, and DEVASTATION was on guitar and concurrent vocals in MANKIND?, with Al Ouimet and Rick Abott also of the PIST, Stacey of CALLOUSED (on vocals as well), and Jeff Wilcox of BRUTALLY FAMILIAR. In sound, MANKIND? initially could be compared to DIRT, with some balance of NAUSEA (their cover of “Electrodes” is included on this), though they were more contemporaries of CONFLICT, ICONS OF FILTH or AUS-ROTTEN in tone. But today I can only say this is MANKIND?—the one and only. Chris has full lungs on every measure and every track, and Stacey’s delivery is just as relentless, firing off passionate, detailed lyrics with backing exclamations throughout. Really, the balance between Stacey and Picasso is the voice of thousands and a conversation in solidarity. As the ’90s moved on into the millennium era, the lyrical writing style of many punk bands became pithier. Vaguer. Metaphoric. I am not saying this is lazy at all, but MANKIND? was far from that on every measure. The messages were clear and highly detailed. This was not a punk band I could simply agree with. MANKIND? and the surrounding scene forced me to question my own white suburban comforts. Animal liberation, sexism, and homophobia, Ecocide and nuclear power, The fucking death sentence. The remastering here is incredible! I have two MANKIND? EPs and the Pogo Attack compilation, but this sound engineering blows everything I’ve ever heard from the band to smithereens. The strings are incredibly fuzzy and crispy, the vocals, main and backing, are a forefront of rage and skepticism. The drums have never sounded so impactful. The playlist does not skip a beat of intense DIY attitude, Freedom, awareness and equality—outro-ing with their cover of CRASS’ “Punk is Dead.” Included you get a gorgeous collection of color photos, flyers, handwritten lyrics, setlists, photos of pins from that time period, all the liner art from releases and comp appearances, a thorough explanation of “WHY” [sic] they use a question mark in their name, and current ideas of how to make a difference in your area or on a larger scale. In short, this is an amazing collection of the efforts from MANKIND? and a reminder of the roots of punk, and really the point of caring about it, wherever you stand in DIY punk. “Hopefully I’ve made an impact and I’m not just wasting my breath…Punk’s not dead if you know the cause.” MANKIND? certainly got that then, and clearly still does. Yes, you need this!

Nameless Creations Pain-Powered Machine / Things That Serve 7″

Great new single from Warsaw’s NAMELESS CREATIONS. Having three LPs behind them, their droning post-punk sound comes well established, with songs that are longer and tend toward the macabre (look no further than the cover). The lyrical poetry is what captures me here, and with the vocals more spoken than sung, you hear every bit. The B-side is my pick of the two, with its wickedly depressing ender “Luck is lost, truth generates pain / Things that serve, bind like chains.” Dorian’s vocals aside, this group goes beyond guitars and drums (throughout their career), adding keys and violin here that do well to accompany their ghoulish sound.

Passionless Pointless Passionless Pointless cassette

German trio that lands somewhere in the damaged BABES IN TOYLAND and/or Bleach camp. There are some pretty obvious comparisons to a couple of particular femme punk vocalists from the same era, but it’s just the vocals—the tunes here are dirty power-trio slogs. If you experienced this the first time, then it fits like a cozy sweater. If this is your first time, though…”Married Alive” will give you chills.

The Q-Tips There Are Those Who Drill Violently! EP

The Q-TIPS are a synth punk duo from Munich, made up of Ms. Juliette (sequencing) and Mr. Brotzeit (programming). They also apparently refer to themselves as “The Kids of the Drill Hole.” Anyway, they play trash can/KBD punk similar to the SPITS but with a harsher industrial sound,  interspersed with cartoony bleeps and bloops. The production on these four tracks really packs a wallop—the overall sound is crunchy and satisfying—and the vocal performance is pretty great. But—I don’t know—the songs just aren’t there for me. Maybe if they played them a little more straight or really leaned into the numbskullery, but as-is I found this to be a pretty middling release. I know you’re generally not supposed to do this, but I think if you take a look at the cover, you’ll be able to judge whether or not this is for you.

Rats Tenera è La Notte LP

Second album from first-wave Italian post-punk outfit RATS, originally slated to come out in 1982 but completely shelved until Spittle’s archival efforts late last year. After their 1981 debut LP C’est Disco, which melded 99 Records-style downtown rhythms and careening art-punk abandon with the ascetic, mechanized throb of Euro minimal wave, RATS picked up a chorus pedal or two and shrouded themselves in a gauzy, soft-goth early 4AD/Factory haze for Tenera è La Notte. Vocalist and synthesizer player Claudia Lloyd would leave the band after this record, and the RATS discography that followed (they released new material up to 2013!) took a sharp decline in her absence—her often double-tracked vocals are both ethereal and commanding, bringing a radiant glow to the otherwise standard issue SIOUXSIE/JOY DIVISION signifiers (metronomic bass lines, death-disco drumming, melancholy guitar chime, etc. etc.) in tracks like “Notti Di Mostri” and “Specchiarci.” “La Lancia” has all of the dark and brooding urgency of XMAL DEUTSCHLAND minus the Teutonic severity, and the primitive pop beat of “Una Bella Serata” even comes close to beating the SHOP ASSISTANTS and the PASTELS to their own game by a couple of years. Truly undeservedly unreleased until now, bellissimo!

The Shine The Shine cassette

We’re starting off with a very rock’n’roll/rockabilly vibe. This is reinforced by the packaging of the tape. Good for me that it moves beyond that. Almost every rockabilly band I’ve ever heard sounds like a cover band to me. The sound sort of bounces around with clear influences from rockabilly, power pop, ’60s soul, ska, and more. At times it’s got a great jangly catchiness. Overall, I like it, but I find the sound a bit scattered.

Shitdogs Reborn cassette

This tape collects both of the SHITDOGS’ classic 1981 EPs—Present the History of Cheese (previously reissued by Last Laugh on double-7″) and You Bet! Crawling out of the Baton Rouge swamp, both these records show a band knee-deep in muck but one that isn’t shy from writing good, catchy songs. History on Side A is packed with KBD gristle like “Raw Meat,” which brings the punk snot but also acknowledges the band’s garage rock roots. You Bet! delves even deeper into the SHITDOGS’ love of Nuggets, culminating in the cemetery-cruising “Under Slithery Moons,” but not before cracking a couple jokes on “Can Opener.” Pop this sucker in your Suzuki Samurai’s cassette deck and flip the next kegger on its head.

Static Shock Static Shock CD

From the first drop, Scotland’s STATIC SHOCK owns the speakers. Full-throated hardcore punk with a nasty vocal delivery and an approach that teeters on the edge of crossover (I’m talking guitars mostly) with a tinge of street punk while refusing to let go of their hardcore roots. You can picture the whole pub singing along to “I Still Believe In D.I.Y.” and it looks pretty great.

Tower 7 …Peace on Earth? LP

Entrance to a Living Organism was an excellent start of a career for TOWER 7. On D4MT Labs they were able to stand out as an outfit, as most of the bands that come from that label do. Fast-forward to …Peace On Earth?, the new LP out through both Roachleg Records and D4MT. This NY band goes straight for the jugular. The fast parts are fast as can be and the slow parts contrast really nicely. Insane tempo shifts that disorientate and an overall suffocating feeling about their music. TOWER 7 is a great fast-paced hardcore band worth the listen!

V/A It’s An Action Benefit Comp cassette

It’s An Action Tapes is a new non-profit label out of Michigan with a focus on effecting positive change via good music, and this comp puts them off to a solid start. 100% of the proceeds of this release go to help out local families who are housing kids formerly detained at the US/Mexico border as they try to reunite them with family. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it’s a great tape filled with favorites from the current punk landscape. There’s bangers from MUTANT STRAIN, NYC’s KALEIDOSCOPE, WHITE STAINS, CHRONOPHAGE, and more, as well as special treats like URANIUM CLUB live in Italy and a weird scrapped instrumental demo from Austin’s INSTITUTE. Great stuff, they’ve raised some decent money so far, and it looks like you can still grab one at the link below.

Anybodys Acts of Endurance EP

Second release from the Vancouver, BC trio ANYBODYS. These four tracks comment heavily on our socio-political climate and exemplify that equality is still an uphill battle, as in “Excuse me / You’re looking right through me / Into and out of me / I don’t care” from “Do We Disgust You?” I think the last track, “RFK (2020 Version)” rocks the hardest—hopefully they’ll continue down this path while fighting the good fight.

 

Battlefields 4 Track Demo cassette

Ugh. Absolutely killer demo from Pittsburgh’s BATTLEFIELDS. This is a straight ripper material, nasty hardcore with blown-out (un)production that approaches the off-putting level of discordance found on the amazing VIOLENT CHRISTIANS 7″ from last year (check out the damage on “You Made You”!). These are the kind of riffs that could incite riots, and the grimy delivery wins it the fuckin’ chef’s kiss. On repeat.