Can't Get There From Here
Ramblings About Southern Rock, How The Bible Belt is Cranked Around My Brain, & Of Course A Healthy Helping Of Blathering About The Latest & Greatest Punk Records...
A Fucking Mandolin
I’ve been thinking a lot about R.E.M. lately - I know most of you reading this are like, wait, am I reading the right shitstack? Here’s the thing, baby me, first getting into music thirty-five plus years ago was briefly obsessed with them after catching the video to “It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” randomly while sitting up late one night watching MTV at the tender age of twelve or thirteen, and was fixated. The rapid fire delivery of the lyrics, the overarching disaffected loner feel to those words and the accompanying video really connected with me - as someone who spent a lot of time alone - listening to records, reading books, and feeling disconnected from the greater world - Michael Stipe & company helped me to mentally bridge the gap and make connections just as much as reading scene reports in Maximum Rocknroll or mail ordering records from such exotic locations as West Germany or London or New Jersey.
I’ve oft thought about how younger punks will reference Cobain’s comments around bands like Flipper or Vaselines or the Wipers as being revelatory. As a child of Alabama, stranded in the rust belt ruin of Toledo, Ohio, it was interviews with the four lads from Athens talking about Big Star, Velvet Underground, Wire, Pylon which helped to form my early musical education outside of shorter, faster, louder. Michael Stipe stating in an interview in Spin (or maybe it was Rolling Stone (as though it matters)) that the best live band in America was someone that neither he nor the interviewer knew that as currently headlining a VFW hall was unbelievably transformative in how I came to understand independent rock music, punk, indie, etc.
While excluded from Michael Azerrad’s tome, Our Band Could Be Your Life, they floated in an adjacent orbit, spending early days playing the same touring circuit up and down the country, and as their fame grew, going so far as to bring along Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen, etc on tour. I mean, R.E.M. is oft cited as one of the impetuses for the dissolution of Minor Threat, as members wanted to pursue a more “mature” sound. A tale as old as time - the primal angst of youth manifests itself into the primitive rage of 1-2-fuck-you hardcore which then gives way to the self involved navel gazing of your mid 20s cuaing former ragers to transform themselves into producers of tepid indie rock, but I digress.
Despite my disdain for the latter, R.E.M. somehow to managed to dodge that bullet (at least in my stupid brain) as they started out cranking out awkward yet tuneful pop that represented a steady diet of late 60s/early 70s Laurel Canyon rock, obscure country, jangly UK power pop, 40s standards, 70s hard rock, and a plethora of random underground noise. If anything, they were the first record collector band - the amalgam of auditory sponges, fixated on soaking up every bit of influence they could, coming together, and vomiting out to create something uniquely their own.
I’ve been rolling around this theory of Southern Rock in my head - like not Allman Brothers or Molly Hatchet or whatever but more the rock that spawned from the concusive explosion of late 70s punk and early 80s hardcore, the sounds brought forth by the ill fated Sex Pistols tour across the South and desire to tell your shitty, “War Eagle!” yelling redneck uncle to go fuck himself. I’ve long felt that punk in the South is unique in both its struggles and sounds from even that which existed in other parts of the USA. Almost twenty-five years ago I interviewed From Ashes Rise and the words of bassist Ryan Teetzen discussing the difficulties and challenges of being punk in the South still ring in my head - by the year 2000, no one batted an eye at punk identifiers in places like SF, Portland, or even Columbus, Ohio but in bum fuck Mississippi, it could still get you beaten up. Cops still harassed kids in a manner that didn’t exist elsewhere and the Bible belt still felt tight around your throat. Without experiencing it firsthand, its a hard thing to comprehend.
Yes, yes, yes, you are probably thinking - but really, Thorn, can you just get to the point? Hold on, I’m getting there - I mean I think I am. Wait, do I have a point? Well look, here’s my basic thought - Southern rock, punk, indie, whatever basically breaks down along the lines of Pylon, R.E.M., Superchunk, Eyehategod, Avail, Corrosion Of Conformity, Drive By Truckers, and His Hero Is Gone. Everything is an outgrowth of one of those bands. No, I’m not including the Texas bands because everyone knows Texas is it’s own planet. Maybe you could throw in NOTA, and perhaps you should, but in many ways I feel like they have just sorta drifted away into the ether, which is insanely depressing to think about.
Look, the idea I’m rolling around is those eight bands provide the foundation for what is the current world of Southern rock music - like ethically, sonically, etc. No this isn’t a fully formed idea yet, so yeah, be on the outlook for me to riff on this a lot more in the weeks, months, years, to come, but I feel it is something that holds water. This isn’t to exclude the influence nor the importance of the Knockabouts, or Honor Role, or Antischism, or Death Piggy, or Random Conflict, or Assfactor Four, or Radon, or Koro, or the Cooters, or Joey Tampon & The Toxic Shocks, or The Eat, but like I said, this is a theory I’m working on in the public sphere - so by all means, argue with me. Maybe it’s all bullshit. Who knows?
(Yes, I referenced three bands from Alabama in that list in anticipation of an email from Ken Alabama aka Ken Prank.)
Anyway, it is funny how these things go - my 1987 discovery of Document and subsequent obsession soon gave way to fixations on bands like Youth of Today, Bad Religion, & The Circle Jerks. By the the time Green was released in November of the next year, I was moderately interested but a bit disappointed. It was more pop in its focus, less obscure, and less explicitly southern and gothic. Don’t get me wrong, those elements are still there but the feeling of the arcane and obtuse had started to give way to frankly goofy shit like “Pop Song 89” and “Stand.” Sure, there was still that feeling of the ominous somber moodiness which attracted me to them (“I Remember California” with it’s Didion-esque description of the land of gold that was, “Orange Crush” as well, despite it’s rock bombast making it less so). By this point, I was full on obsessed with hardcore, punk, and fixated on tracking down the more mysterious, unknown, and rare. R.E.M. was on a trajectory towards becoming one of the biggest stadium rock bands, albeit the most unlikely and bizarre candidate for that role, and I was headed into the basements, shitty clubs, and whatever space had power for a PA and amps to plug into which is where I’ve basically stayed ever since.
Obviously, R.E.M. didn’t need my fandom - their 1991 release Out Of Time was completely lost on me. My high school girlfriend waited in the line outside the local record store to buy it at midnight on the release day, and upon first listen immediately regretted it. Mandolin? “Shiny Happy People"? No thanks. At that point in my life I was more concerned with Nausea and Endpoint and Born Against than the ins and outs of a jangly band on an upward trajectory toward superstardom. But, I still can’t discount the lessons they taught me - an obsession towards soaking up every bit of music I could, care about the songs you write, always controlling and owning what you produce, doing things your own way and damning the rest, and perhaps my favorite thing - no one cares if you aren’t perfectly in tune, or you flub a note if the feeling is there. You aren’t the Allman Brothers, just play the damn song.1
Jefferson, I Think We’re Lost aka Pass The dust, I Think I’m In Erectus Monotone.
All this thinking and yammering about jangly pop and alternative rock when that term meant something has got me thinking about various, perhaps long forgotten, gems and miscellaneous nuggets of pop, noise, indie rock which I enjoy and perhaps you’ve not heard or at least not heard in a long time. Here’s goes something:
Oh man, Unrest “Six Layer Cake” what a delightful little ditty - its got all the nerdy indie pop basement dwelling sugariness one could ever want. If you got a mix tape from me in or around 1993 this would show up wedged between some Man is The Bastard oscillator soaked screed about shoving an screwdriver in someone’s naughty bits and then like Quicksand’s cover of The Smiths.
I love all things Erectus Monotone - its perfectly disjointed, ambling, rambling, angular, yet somehow soaked in an obsession of tuneful melody and pop sensibility. For those keeping score, Kevin Collins from Days Of.. and Double Negative sang plus cartoonist Brian Walsby played drums - Walsby also played in Scared Straight with Major League Baseball pitcher Scott Radinsky, who finished his playing career with a 42–25 record, a 3.44 ERA, and 358 strikeouts in 481+2⁄3 innings pitched. Radinsky also only gave up 33 home runs throughout his career, an average of 1 every 14.5 innings. Fun, right?
Most people know Poster Children were pre-Hum, right? Or maybe they don’t? I dunno - you know Hum, 90s noiserock that other men my age who also suffer from the affliction of having grown a beard to compliment their receding hairline and expanding waistline think is “the best.” I saw Hum a few times and never really liked them - especially in contrast to Poster Children, at least in a live setting. I think this is their radio hit or at least they would play it all the time on the local college station in Toledo.
I always though Harry Pussy was from Columbus, at least in the pre-internet days before you could look up every random thing about every random band. They were actually from Miami, who knew? This is less pop and certainly jangle-free but more complete and utter musical destruction. I loved them then and I love them now. Is this free jazz? Is this even music? Who cares - play it really loud. Fun fact, one of the folx who did time in Harry Pussy also played in the magical Stun Guns, who also had a member in the legendary Chickenhead, the guitar player of which is now in Bikini Kill. Cool, right?
Do people still care about, think about Huggy Bear? God, I loved Huggy Bear - like just the punkest shit every. Screaming, inept, feedback soaked noise not music - everything about them was perfect. I saw them once with Frumpies & Harry Pussy in a basement art space after watching Royal Trux & Fudge Tunnel play to like 50 people in a 1000 cap room. Just perfect.
Just one more - Milky Wimpshake are just a delight, yeah? UK indie punk about the importance of being serious in your politics but not to take yourself too seriously. I celebrate everything they did and their latter project Red Monkey, which is a bit more angular and dancey in a Gang of Four sort of manner.
More Noise and Other Disturbances
Just a quick reminder - I only write about things I like, if I don’t write about it, I either didn’t like it or haven’t heard it yet. If you send me something to review, I’ll probably write about it though keep in mind, I’m just one person doing all this so it might take a minute. Want me to write about your release - get in touch! Am happy to cover both physical and digital stuff, as long as I like it, I’ll write about it. Also, like the print zine, this is a one person operation - I always feel like I’m really behind and not doing enough and am trying to reconcile that with having a life beyond trying to wreck my hearing.
Rampaging, slightly disjointed in all the best ways D-beat punk from Spain. It’s a got a bit of jangle and swagger to it - setting itself apart from the legions of overly distorted, charged and spiked masses. The riffs have hooks and the drums just punch that energy to eleven!
This is sick as shit Norweigian hardcore punk done in the old style - you know X-Port Platter records, STENGTE DØRER, BANNLYST, etc. Riff heavy, tuneful with mountains of energy - its just all go, go, go!
Thick slabs of totally brutal, strutting UK punk - taking a ton of cues from the classic 80s era of CONFLICT and their Mortarhate comps but amping it up for the modern era. Absolutely vicious stuff with takes that hammering, staccato delivery, melds it with moments of discordant riffing to really provide the feeling of angst and discomfort. Essential.
Hey check it out - that’s Amanda MacKaye on vocals, which is great as I don’t think I’ve heard their vocals since DESIDERATA - so what does this sound like? Sorta, angular, dancey, post punk from the early EX meets RONDOS meets early GANG OF FOUR sorta thing mixed with an artsy 90s Dischord vibe, if that makes sense. Its cerebral, powerful, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Fucking great, fuzzy garage punk from Minneapolis. In many ways, this reminds me a bit of the stuff being cranked out by DirtNap records in the early 2000s. Catchy as hell and a total party starter, painting visions of sweaty nights in cramped basements or kitchens or wherever. Super fun.
Jangly Spanish indie pop - the vocals sorta swirl and ebb in this dreamy fashion that gives me all the feels. It’s hella catchy stuff with a lo-fi approach.
More Spanish dream pop - light airy infectious stuff in that early 80s New Wave sorta way. In my brain keeping thinking of the PLIMSOULS but you know, less aggro, if that makes sense.
Mind meltingingly good demo from former HAIRCUT and current IVY CREEP folx - stellar riffing, powerful vocals and a massive production which truly services the power of this crunching hardcore punk unit. Plenty of infectious speed and just the right amount of mid-paced breakdowns to just really drive the point home. Fucking great!
Caustic, thudding Clevo-style hardcore stomp (but from SoCal, weird right?) more from the CIDER/H100s side of the house than the INTEGRITY/RINGWORM side. Menacing in that sketchy dude who does too much PCP sorta way. Great stuff.
Cimitero - Il Culto della Carogna
Moderately blown out Italian, two piece punk - it’s got a creepy-eepy feeling of ominousness which is a nice twist on the 1-2-1-2 pooka-pooka attack.
DEATHCHARGE - Midnight Road 12”
I remember getting all the early DEATHCHARGE singles over 20 years ago and there is no way I would have ever suspected they would have ended up sounding like this - I mean the road from primitive, early DISCHARGE style punk to what really feels like a much more interesting and decidedly more punk SISTERS OF MERCY dancing with THE CULT might make sense now in hindsight but there’s no way my brain twenty years ago could have predicted this. Dark, moody, and completely ominous in a very spooky 80s, Propaganda magazine photoshoot sorta way. If you fuck with goth shit, the HOME FRONT stuff, and have fond memories tied to the smell of clove cigarettes like I do, this is definitely on your list of things to pick up.
Burly SoCal hardcore punk that is just this bulldozer of mid-paced, angry as fuck musical angst. The guitars literally just sound like a wall of bricks coming at you while the drummer has this almost metronomic steady hammer approach which invokes a feeling of impending doom.
DISCIPLINA LIMITAR - Yo también yo no
Slashing guitars and quick drums paired up with this sorta slacker vocal approach which makes the whole thing come off like if SEBADOH or DINOSAUR JR members didn’t drift off into the indie rock ether after DEEP WOUND but instead did something more discernibly punk. This is a good thing.
THE DRIN - Ekude The Torch 12”
Ohio based post rock? Record store guy core? I mean that sorta thing with all the love - it’s dense yet expansive quasi rock that never really gets around to rocking and has all the feeling of smoking weed all day, rooms smelling of incense, while being equally excited about some 70s comp of Persian folk pysch, a WARLOCKS record, Syd era FLOYD and SUICIDE. Not the normal thing I would pick up but if the fact I’ve been blasting this at maximum volume all day tells you anything… you ever party with WOODEN SHJIPS?
Burly Bremen punk - its got that sorta late 90s/early 00s Deutschpunk vibe but through a Colombian filter, if that makes sense. Just a relentless pogoriffic hammering attack of punk rock fury.
FRIED REALITY - Dissolved Mind Tape CS
Absolutely feral sounding hardcore punk mayhem from here in Richmond - the vocals on this really make it for me, just this snarling, rabid onslaught of dripping venom layered over pummeling distort-o-rama hardcore punk. Killer.
Swedish ripper GEFYR just smack you across your melon with a total kångnave onslaught in the classic Swedish manner - think TOTALITÄR partying with NO SECURITY. On the flip we have the relentless UKHC d-beat thrashers RAT CAGE, who should need no introduction at this point and provide three tracks of infectiously catchy punk certain to get fists a pump’n and thrashers a’thrashing.
JUMPSTART PLOWHARDS - Round Two LP
Oh shit! Check it out - its Todd from TOYS THAT KILL/FYP getting down with Mike Watt from MINUTEMEN. It’s catchy, infectious grooved out in that MINUTEMEN-y way but with a smidge of a dark WIPERS vibe. Stuff like this is really inspiring to me - old folks taking the forms, twisting, manipulating, and creating something new, interesting and a bit different than what came before. Fucking great.
Indonesian hardcore punk leaning hard into that early Dischord feel but sans distortion - it sits in the same line of thinking as Japan’s MILK or K-Town’s AMDI PETERESENS ARME. Quick bursts of jangly hardcore energy, am super down with this.
MENSCHENFEIND - Czas Apokalipsy 10”
Mid-paced hardcore with occasional metallic crossover injections with leads and crunchy breakdowns - for me, this lacks the velocity I typically crave in my hardcore as its more groovy and mosh driven. My understanding is this is more a project band featuring folx from FORESEEN, HIGHSCORE, JUSTICE, NO TOLERANCE, etc. for those keeping score.
MOLDY - Unnecessary Existence EP
Blasting hardcore with bursts of speed busting into sluggish breakdowns from Paris. Super into the Kool-Aide man on the cover, because… I mean its the fucking Kool-Aide man.
NYHC™ styled hardcore from Indonesia - moshing grooves, occasional bursts of speed, and tons of swagger.
Quick paced punky pogo attack with from Germany - light on the distortion buy high on the energy. In many ways this reminds me a bit of HENRY FIATS OPEN SORE in how its almost like a garage punk band playing at hardcore velocity, if that makes sense. I mean, there are even some total surf guitar riffs which come creeping in but they go by so fast that you almost don’t catch them. Really enjoyable listen.
Thrashing and rollicking hardcore punk - is this chain punk? Who fucking knows - here’s my take, it rips. It has that same feeling of urgency both in the vocal attack and the guitar work that you might find on COMES No Side. I love it.
Tasty little ripper of a tape filled with relentless, snarling, lo-fi hardcore punk. Killer blasts of speed running hard up against catchy as shit strutting mid-paced breaks and back again. Perfect.
Dense emo in the melodic punk sorta way rather than the twitchy spastic manner of thinking. Despite being Spanish, this gives me all the feels of Germany’s TURBOSTAAT, at least their earlier records though it is probably more inspired by TEXAS IS THE REASON and post No Idea Records era HOT WATER MUSIC.
Danceable, post-punk from Long Beach. It’s funky in that MINUTEMEN way but with an ear towards KLEENEX style Euro feels. Super fun tape.
More of that good-good Baltimore-via-Richmond, DC Revolution Summer-era inspired emotive hardcore. Catchy riffing and passionate vocals inflected with a sense of urgency that can be lacking. The production is a bit more polished sounding than bands like WRONG WAR, JADE DUST or AMUSEMENT but it sits firmly in that same auditory camp of bands drawing from that deep well of mid 80s Dischord sounds, so drink deep.
RÉSILIENCE - Grise Époque 12"
The deluge of infectious yet grimey French punk and oi continues - you might recall RÉSILIENCE from last year on their EP and this is more of that same mid-paced, melodic yet guttural skinhead rocknroll that I lap up like my dog cameling up water at the end of a hot day. Super catchy and totally powerful.
SKAMFLÄCK - Synka Alla Klockor För Midnatt LP
Fourteen tracks of Swedish hardcore punk from members of SVART SNÖ, AGONI, ACURSED, SUNDAY MORNING EINSTEINS etc where we see them taking the classic d-beat, kångnave sound and adding this moody almost despondent feeling to it - moody at times, melodic at others with this pervasive dissonant riffing accenting the more traditional fist pounding onslaught of mangel. It’s a dense and powerful record, taking old forms and manipulating them into something new and interesting.
SKULLNBONE - A Requiem For The 21st LP
Fist pumping punk rock with hints of punk’n’roll, garage rock feels sprinkled in for a hint of something different. Quite catchy stuff that reminds me a bit early 80s OC punk.
Pissed off as fuck, blasting Australian hardcore punk - lotsa interesting riffs, speed and tons of catchy breakdowns. It reminds me a bit of TØRSÖ though a bit more strutting and grooved out than those Bay Area rippers.
SPANISH NEEDLES - Sifting Through the Wreckage 12”
Infectious melodic punk from Florida with a bent towards a working class politics in their lyrics - big catchy riffs accented by powerful production that gives me all the feels of late 90s No Idea style stuff and a smidge of Bay Area punk like AMERICAN STEEL or JAWBREAKER. Super down.
Well this just comes at out the gate at a full clip and goes straight for the throat. Ripping Canadian hardcore soaked in speed with occasional sludgy breakdowns which come out of nowhere and just hits you full on in the gut. Great!
TEINI-PÄÄ - Mietin Minne Meet EP
Dreamy jangly Finnish garage pop with lilting melodies and this overarching airy feeling. Lots of 80s new wave style keyboards accenting the melodies and guitar leads which bring to mind some the lazy Sunday feels of of BELLE & SEBASTIAN.
THOU is fucking unstoppable. Just utterly brutal slabs of face melting, skull crushing heavier than shit sludge rock that just pummels and throbs. The production on this is just utterly massive and induces almost a sense of dread in how just slowly grinds out the riffs, enhancing the pummel of the drums and makes the vocals just sound like this searing electrocution of your cerebral cortex. Absolutely relentless. Play as loud as possible at all times. Just unreal.
NYC punk that is a bit jangly and bops along - it is insanely catchy, with plenty of singalong inducing choruses and while it’s fairly straight forward in its approach, it has this sorta dark wave, neo-gothic injection into their approach that makes it a bit more compelling. There’s a lot here that makes me think of early Spanish punk, like a band that would play with LARSEN or VULPESS without sounding like either.
THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE - Trenchsewer/Heartshot LP
Absolutely ugly, moody, and dark hardcore that takes a similar approach to the form as 90s German bands like ZORN, MORSER, AMBUSH, etc. It’s expansive, leaning into some of the lessons of mid-period NEUROSIS, with an emphasis on contrasting moments of serenity with monstrous moments of crushing heaviness or mad blasts of speed.
I swear to Jah, if I see one more grindcore band whose tone is soaked in four hundred and thirty six different distortion boxes tuning on stage I’m gonna lose it. Like, “order a pizza, have it delivered to the show, and then throw it at them” lose it. Like, “force myself to vomit onto their pedal board” lose it. You get the idea.
Dude! I still love everything up to GREEN, though Life's Rich Pageant is where the money is! I'd have to say though, New Model Army was always my No. 1 (non punk/metal) band.
Oh, and cheers for the NOTA mention, ya know I've tried me damnedest to keep their flame going over the years! (if you haven't seen I posted their last demo w/ a different singer) on my YouTube channel! Cheers man!