Listen To The Silence, Let It Ring On...
Random thoughts, crass commercialism and all the latest sick punk jams
What Could Have Been
There was something missing from punk and hardcore writing, something that really had never grown into it's own form. You'd learn about scenes, communities, what shows were like - you read about what punks were like, how fast an album was, you'd learn about the ethics of punk, about the community - but the writing never allowed for the music itself to be taken seriously. We put out Year of the Pig in 2007, what we felt like was a moving, serious examination of abuse against women in Canada, and Martin from Crudos thrashed it in MRR because it was too long and slow.
Punk journalism offered you a window into a lifestyle, but it was lacking in giving credit or examination to the massive musical influence underground music has had on mainstream culture.
- Mike Haliechuk from Looking For Gold
I’ve been rolling this critique of punk rock music writing around in my head a lot this week - there’s a lot of truth behind it and it presents a challenge to people like myself who fancy themselves a journalist of punk. The context of most punk rock writing is that of a fan(zine) - tiny PR operations for whatever ear melting noise the scribe is into that week. Like the music, most of it is short, sharp, declarative and meant to be consumed in a brief, snackable chunks while sitting on the toilet or riding the bus. Deep examinations of lyrics, analysis of cultural impact and context, or even just taking deeper dives around recording or musical tonalities are abandoned in favor of terse descriptive prose. I mean read my reviews, that’s what I do.
It can be argued that punk doesn’t need verbose rambling - the point is to strip away all the bullshit and get to the point. It should be raw, brutal and over before it even begins - this is typically the stance I take. That said, I wonder if this is always the right path to take. Should I be writing 1500 words on a SEX DWARF record? Are there even 1500 words that could be written about a record that sounds likes a deranged Swede yelling over a blender running through a chain of 400 distortion pedals while banging on a snare drum?
I’ve not really enjoyed a complete Fucked Up record since probably 2005 but I think they are an incredibly important band. Yes, that is me saying this band has had me mostly going ‘meh’ for 20 years while still seeing the value of the art they produce and the way they produce it. Their recent song “Cicada” is probably one of the best bits of pop music I’ve heard in years and if there is anything to know about me it’s that I’m a sucker for a beautiful, well written pop song. Fucked Up is band that started out as one of the most the perfect hardcore punk bands and then evolved beyond what punk could offer or understand.
Some of the smartest, most savvy, and creative people I’ve met have been through punk - there is no disputing the cultural impact of this music on the greater world. My constant frustration is the lack of vision and realization of people’s ability to take those ethics and those skills and allow punk to grow beyond the circle the wagons mentality. There needs to be space for bands to evolve, grow, and find success as they define it without having to become part of a greater ecosystem they might despise.
Punk for me has always been about creating space for things to happen. Sure I’ve got a lot of opinions on music and am a notorious hater of anything that hints of masturbatory bullshit or worse, metal. Actually worse, indie rock. I want primitive stripped down, primal, face smashing, high octane fury. I want body fluids flying and swarms of bodies piling on each other and I deeply crave than that exchange of energy between the band and crowd. I want the whole room to feel as one entity, surging with unbridled vitality.
But I also recognize that at the end of the day, what matters most about punk isn’t the words, its not the sounds of loud guitars and pounding drums - what matters most is the context in which it is made. I want more Fucked Up’s doing expansive twenty minute songs, no matter how annoying I find them. I want people to be able to create the art they choose to make and to be able to do it outside of the context of mainstream rock culture. I don’t hate it when my friends become successful but I only bemoan the fact that punk has become, in someways, so insular and navel gazing that we lack the vision to be and do more. I want more deep dives, more deep thinking and for punk to strive to present itself as an actual threat to the greater music industry rather than needing to go running to its embrace because we haven’t done the proper work to create a more sustainable alternative.
There’s been a lot of virtual ink spilled this week around the announcement of Pitchfork getting gutted and rolled up under GQ this past week and while what said publication focussed on never really appealed to my musical tastes, the annihilation of a once vital, independent source for long form writing into music outside of the mainstream pop world is always awful. There is a lot that can be said that’s negative about the shift towards saccharine dribble in more recent years and certainly there is a valid critique to be made of how awful some of their reviews could be but looking at it in the here and now, the concept of music writing which takes a fuller perspective into the work created and the context of the artist is something that is deeply needed.
So what to do? Am I going to start babbling, one thousand words at a time about the new Nightfeeder EP? Or write lengthy screeds around the first Madball EP? Probably not but I do think the answer sits somewhere in the middle and I’d love to explore the possibility of such a thing with people.
Current Listening
Here’s what I’ve been listening to this week, outside of the stack of new releases of course, presented without comment. All of this is, of course recommended.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes LP
Big Youth - Screaming Target LP
Cross - No Beginning No End CS
Dillinger Four - Midwestern Songs Of The Americas LP
Daydream - Reaching For Eternity LP
Butch Cassidy Sound System - Butches Brew LP
And Now For the Noise…
Slightly gruff pop punk - its taut and impactful with forays into 60s Nuggets vibes with Farfisa-esque organs providing a musical infrastructure to the slightly jangled guitars and lockstep rhythm team. At one point this gets painted as another guitar rocker to be blasted after you tire of your MUMMIES or GORIES records but I think there is a bit more on offer here.
Stomping 1-2-1-2 punk rock from Philly (I think). Simple snarling music with just enough focus on melody buried behind the fuzz and snarl to push over the top. The title track has this cool slightly dissonant ominousness about it which is compelling.
This is fucking great - tuneful punk from the Bogota braintrust that birthed bands like MURO, TRAMPA and ALAMBRADA. This leans into crafting pogorific, singalong punk mainlining ESKORBUTO, PELIGRO SOCIAL and the like, transforming it into their own take on the formula. When done right, its absolutely powerful and these folks do it to perfection.
New wave guttural Oi? On the one hand this has that stripped down, bruising stomp with strained, shouted vocals over minimally distorted guitars (in the old French skinhead style - more SNIX than WARRIOR KIDS) but its soaked in chorus pedals.
More elegantly produced yet powerful melodic French punk. Lilting guitars that rise to massive choruses and artfully constructive bridges driving the overarching melody and punch. Theres a lot here which reminds my old ears of that first PSYCHEDELIC FURS LP but more punk in its approach. Great release.
Heavy as shit Greek crust which sorta tips over into full blown BOLT THROWER style metal. Demon monster vocals snarling in an indiscernible manner over molasses thick slabs of crunching guitars with occasional dips into epic riffing and fretboard fireworks.
Lo-fi and moderately inept Florida punk Purposely a messy shit fit of noise not music but less of the typical d-beat variety and more aligned with the garage rockers.
GÖTRI - …How Shall We Comfort Ourselves? EP
To look at it, I thought I was headed to the land of filthy German crust but when the needle hits the wax I’m greeted with hyper as hell, trashy garage punk. Lo-fi, fuzzy hardcore punk in the HENRY FIATS OPEN SORE way of things. Quick and dirty songs played at high velocity.
Thick, punchy hardcore punk from Australian - it sizzles along at a quick, hammering pace. A bit of the same feeling here as those early WARTHOG tracks.
Staccato and blown out blasts of primitivo English punk - mid-tempo and almost mechanical in its efficiency in the same way as Death Church-era RUDIMENTARY PENI though a bit more deviant in its lyrical approach.
LETHAL - Hardcore Music Time CS
Vicious and raw hardcore which takes mid-tempo deviations into stomping angularity before descending back into a more straightforward manic volley of crushing noisy thrashing. Just three songs here but there’s a lot going on to check out.
I feel like I’m destined to never see this band - I guess one of the misery’s of being old and punk is being more likely to have the minor incidents of youth turn into tour ending injuries as you creep into your 40s and beyond. But I’m not hear to yammer on about the ins and outs of aging, let’s talk about the unrelenting and absolutely sizzling d-beat fueled punk to be found on this, NIGHTFEEDER’s latest release. The velocity has been turned down a bit on these three tracks making for more of bulldozer punch to the jaw than you might expect - three blasts that take the DISRUPT and STATE OF FEAR thing and hone it to more perfect conclusion. Killer.
There’s something joyfully simple about these four tracks of soap’n’spikes style punk from Costa Rica - a return to a simpler time in my brain that probably never existed. A time of days swilling cider in the park, nights watching a 10th generation copy of the East Coast Pogo Attack VHS, and just a life spent living the chaos while perfecting the fine art of spiking your hair using bars of glycerin soap.
Totally crushing, stadium crust in the later era of DISFEAR or WOLFBRIGADE from former members of DEAD STOP and JUSTICE. It is masterfully executed with sweeping melodies and guitars that play off while the bass and drums drive the tempo forward and what’s that? Random keyboards to fill the space and increase the sonic pressure. It is this massively epic and expansive onslaught and I’m not sure why I’m not seeing more people chatting this record up. Monstrous in all the best ways.
Furiously high octane and totally primitive Quebecois d-beat attack. You can almost smell the glue bags and sloshed beer while a sea of black clad, dis obsessed maniacs thrash away. I love this shit.
RAS 84 - Rien Ne Pourra Effacer LP
Catchy as hell, singalong inducing French street punk in that early CLASH meets the more stripped down Out Come The Wolves era of RANCID. Big emphasis on melody and hooks while maintaining just enough speed to avoid the plodding that can sometimes infect this sort style.
French Oi of the less produced and more energetic sort - just for tracks of taut and to the point punk for sta press trouser and boot aficionado in your life. Reminds me a bit of the Return of Jacques De Molay years of THE TEMPLARS.
One man rocknroll infected thrashing d-beat punk - killer riffing with splash and pizazz without going fully down the wank-o-rama path. Just two songs but they leave me wanting so much more.
Six tracks of thrashy, crossover style punk taking cues from both RKL (in its used melody) and CRUMBSUCKERS (in just how metal it is). Intricate heavy metal guitar work with mountains of speed and this snarly vocal attack. This would have fit in quite well with the whole late 80s Bay Area thrash scene with bands like EXODUS, TESTEMENT and VIO-LENCE.
Beautiful weirdo rock from Dayton - I mean its the home of BRAINIAC, GUIDED BY VOICES, the BREEDERS and its a bit of all of that. Massive hooks, dense layers of guitars and synths while not losing sight of the fact that they are assuredly a bunch of outsider weirdos. Truly alternative music in that it takes a lot of pop sensibilities, soaks them a vat of liquid acid and copious amounts of time spent staring at the wall in your basement and cranks track after track of freaky sugary pop but laced with something a bit more nefarious.
Crass Commercialism Alert:
I’ve had a few people hit me up recently for prints of photos posted to my Instagram so, as a general reminder, I’m always happy to make prints of anything you see. Here are my prices for the most commonly requested sizes, in inches:
4x6 - $10
8x12 - $30
12x18 - $75
16x24 - $150
24x36 - $250
Prices do not include postage, which will need to be calculated dependent on where you located and how many images you would like.
All photographs are professionally printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper with a lustre finish. I can offer prints of fine art papers if you would prefer - get in touch for a quote on that.
That said, I have a few prints currently taking up space on my shelves that I’m happy to offer up for a reduction in cost - these are 16x24 and I’m currently offering them for $75 each plus shipping - if you are in Richmond and want to pick it up, I’ll throw in a frame for $10:
Interested? Email me at razorbladesandaspirin@gmail.com and we’ll work out the details.
In Other Art News…
One of my goals for the new year is to start making more portraits of people, I’ve not done much of it in the past and I feel like it’d be a fun challenge to hone this skill. My initial thought around this is to start shooting people in the ‘their’ spaces - art studios, practices spaces, bedrooms, bar they work at - whatever spaced they feel defines them. Please get in touch if you’d like to be part of this project.
Amen to your essay on punk writing, but I must also say that your reviews are perfect and give me just enough info in a bite-sized chunk to know if I want to check it out or not. I found some of my favorite releases of last year (and favorite of this year so far [Kuken]) through your reviews. So thanks. I look forward to reading every week.