How In The World Is It December?
It's nearly the end of the year and yet the hits keep coming...
Punk Versus the Literal Devil
It’s been a roller coaster of death the last couple of weeks - on the good side of things, we finally saw the death of Henry Kissinger - the man Anthony Bourdain once accurately described as a “treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag” and quipped “Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands” in his 2001 book A Cook's Tour. If you want a full run down on this piece of shit, I can’t recommend my friend (and fellow WORLD BURNS TO DEATH fan) Spencer Ackerman’s piece in Rolling Stone ripping this notable war criminal to shreds.
But with every moment of joy comes the inevitable morning after come down and that came for me in the form of learning of the passing of the brilliant Shane MacGowan. It’s really unfortunate that, in some people’s minds, Shane and the POGUES were just like frat-boy-get-drunk-in-March-fight-with-strangers music but he was so much more. He was a brilliant song writer, musician and historian. His early bands the NIPS and the NIPPLE ERECTORS are just as important in the development of early punk as any other. Like too many of our ilk, he was a beautiful, overly sensitive soul who could never break free of the notions of romantic self destruction so embedded in the life of so many artists.
And of course this week started out with the passing of Geordie from KILLING JOKE - words fail me to convey the level of influence his guitar playing had on modern music, punk and otherwise. You can hear it in the dissonance and drone of bands as varied as GODFLESH, SIEKIERA, AMEBIX, NIRVANA and even METALLICA. His playing was innovative, complex and beautiful. If you’ve not spent time with KILLING JOKE, here’s a good start.
Also, I can’t recommend their 2006 LP Hosannas From the Gates of Hell enough - it’s an epic, ferocious blast of ear drum rupturing delight.
Crass Commercialism Alert
I can’t quite decide if I’m into this or not but I created an ever growing list of punk books you can find on Amazon. Given it is ‘that’ time of year I figure you can send this to your mom or weird uncle and they can buy it for you - I figure they’re probably not going to go to the cool record/book store in town anyway. If they order from my list, I get a small cut - so that’s cool. I’m gonna keep adding to this list as new, cool shit comes out. So check it out and keep coming back to it.
In other news, I’m working with my printer, Mixam, to make available some my back issues available via print on-demand. Just another experiment to help get these back issues available for those that missed them… I’m going to start out with issue 15.75, which is a half sized, full color, all photo issue originally produced for a recent photoshow at Vinyl Conflict and then issue 15, which is the most recent full sized issue of Razorblades & Aspirin featuring interviews with Spiritual Cramp, Gel, Vidro, Gag, Destruct, Cancer Christ, Tozcos, Yambag, Keith Marlowe, Linda Aronow, Brook Smith and Piotr Królikiewicz and more!
Also, Also - I recently did some layout work for two releases on Solid Brass Records for some early 90s punk legends, Cleveland’s GRAIN and the pride of Canada SHOTMAKER. I’m really proud of how both these releases turned out - if you are fan of that early 90s emo/angular post-hardcore thing and have never checked them out, get on it.
If You Hear Any Noise, It’s Just Me & The Boys…
ABOLITIONIST - A Pernicious Truth LP
You know how late 80s/early 90s Dischord bands had a certain sound? No, not FUGAZI but sort of… more like JAWBOX or SEVERIN. Clean yet massive production, angular riffing that still manages to rock - you know, ‘post-hardcore’. This is sort of like that - complete with poetic while remaining direct lyrical approach from a left wing/anarcho angle. Limited to just 115 copies on vinyl so get to work.
AMUSEMENT - Dead On The Inside EP
Ex-DEATHREAT & FROM ASHES RISE but this doesn’t sound anything like that - melodic in that mid-80s super inspired by punk but moving towards college/indie rock sorta thing - think MOVING TARGETS meeting MISSION OF BURMA for some pizza with later era HÜSKER DÜ. It’s powerful, anthemic stuff - I know they have a lot cooking in the lab and I can’t wait to hear it.
Total fucking scorching hardcore from here in the sublime city of Richmond. Think United Blood-era AGNOSTIC FRONT rammed headlong into NEGATIVE FX. Just go-go-go! Absolutely fucking ruling.
Quick paced, reverb soaked blasts of fairly straight-forward hardcore punk. Just two tracks but compelling stuff out of Indonesia.
CLASS - If You’ve Got Nothing LP
Total power pop meets Spirit of 77 style UK punk. It’s got these shimmery slightly jangly guitar bits and is soaked in catchy melody lines. There are echoes of those UK bands that sorta spanned the gap between the glam/pub rock thing and the punks - like a bit of early EDDIE & THE HOTRODS or some of the 101ERS stuff.
More rampaging hardcore thrash from here in Richmond - just a total hammer to the face raw punk attack taking cues from the likes of URBAN WASTE or AGNOSTIC FRONT. Outstanding.
Slightly metallic and moshy German hardcore which doesn’t sacrifice speed for heaviness or incitement of dance floor violence.
Trashy, lo-fi, and infectiously dancey garage rock from France - its a fuzzy, keyboard driven delight which brings to mind an army of striped maniacs getting worked up into a sweaty frenzy.
CROSS - No Beginning, No End CS
Now this, this is my shit - 1000mph hardcore punk that takes the RIPCORD/HERESY formula off the shelf, scuffs it up a little bit, modernizes the production to appeal to the noise not music maniacs. Snarly vocals are buried a little bit behind the gnarly ass wall of distortion and rampaging drums. Fucking great, great, great!
Self described as “two-steppin, shit talking, hard core” and I feel thats a pretty good assessment. There is a lyrical focus on being loyal to your crew, being real, etc. Musically, its fairly mid-paced with an emphasis on getting to the mosh bit.
Fun fact: translated to English, their name means Dog Tooth, I like dogs. Even if I didn’t like dogs, I’d be into these Brazilian rippers - fairly primitive and straight forward hardcore that makes me think OHLO SECO with the dude from LACK OF INTEREST taking over the vocal duties. Really cool.
ET ON TUERA TOUS LES AFFREUX - Tu Veux Du Sale, Tiens En Voilà CS
Mid-paced, strutting hardcore from France with high pitched vocals. Lots of groove and mosh with occasional blasts of speed.
EYETEETH - Negative Reinforcement EP
Violent thrashing heavy hardcore with occasional forays into death metal style riffing from the UK taking on religion, drugs and the legacy of British colonialism. Four tracks that are seemingly over before they even began. Total ripper.
Seven blasts of grinding, power violence influenced ear rupturing noise from North Carolina. The vocals remind me a bit of SPAZZ’s trade offs between Dan Lactose and Chris Dodge.
Thin production that makes DARKTHRONE’s A Blaze In A Northern Sky sound like a METALLICA record but despite that and the logo this owes more of its musical legacy to GODSTOMPER. Just three quick blasts of bass powered mayhem.
Thick as shit, mid-pace hardcore from Baltimore. Lots of breakdowns and cool riffs paired with bursts of speed and an appealingly raw production style certain to get people moving.
THE GENTS - Responsible Dog Walker EP
Super fun, trashy garage rock with plenty of energy and hooks. Its noisy and bit messy but the emphasis on quality song writing shines through - the track “Parents’ Evening” is great ear worm of a song. Bonus points for the cutest record cover.
Heavy noise-rock in that MELVINS meets KARP meets BIG BUSINESS sorta way - is this post rock? Expansively full production a la KYUSS with an emphasis on the big riff. Hey, check it out, its the drummer of LAUGHING HYENAS…
JODIE FASTER/CORRUPT VISION - Split EP
If you’ve not partied with JODIE FASTER before, you are in for a treat - short, fast and loud blasts of hardcore punk played at 1000mph with nary a distortion pedal in sight. An absolute delight. On the flip CORRUPT VISION, cranks out a similar musical style albeit with distortion pedals. Solid split.
INSTILL - Reasons to Remember EP
Epic and massive sounding emotional hardcore in that later TURNING POINT meets ONE STEP CLOSER line of thinking. Massive, metallic production emphasizing big guitars and build ups to finger pointing and dog piling inducing sing-a-longs.
LAUGHING CORPSE - Demented Thoughts Posed As Dark Comedy CS
Really cool stuff from these DC punks - its a bit like the missing bit between Eye For An Eye and Animosity era CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. It’s got the wild quasi metallic riffing of the latter with the primal hardcore ferocity of the former. Super sick.
LIQUID SUPERCHARGE - The More I Know You, The More I Hate You EP
Rock inflected punk in that ANTISEEN meets RANCID VAT or even early TURBONEGRO sorta way from Croatia. Mid-paced with lotsa fretboard gymnastics backing up this guttural vocal approach.
Lo-fi, trash rock take on the DISCHARGE thing - garage rock with d-beats from Spain is probably the easiest way of describing it. That’s not a bad thing, for sure. I rather enjoy this given that most bands doing the style in the common era tend to lean on the same cacophony of distortion and reverb approach.
FEELING FIGURES - Migration Magic 12”
Perhaps the craziest thing about this record is that it caused me to learn that K Records is still active - which rules! Its a fuzzy, noisy take on 80s UK indie pop movements which gave us the likes HOUSEMARTINS, ORANGE JUICE, etc but you know more punk and messier. A delightful record.
Ominious and moody punk out of Bordeaux - its got that same creepy vibe to be found on the early GUN CLUB mixed with a smidge of KATE BUSH. Gothic, moody, dark wave that sorta washes over you like being in a room filled with chain smoking, clove cigarette aficionados. I love this.
MORTECINA - Canciones Horribles CS
Primitive punk with slight metal bits from Colombia. Snarly vocals, pooka pooka drum attack, lots of fuzz and a recorded on a boom beel.
Distorted to the max, ripping, noisy hardcore from Denver - four blasts of primal thrash. The cover of the demo rules - its this sorta goofy but totally cool drawing of a vampire lording over a terrified, hunched over person.
Newish UK band taking cues from early CEREMONY and cramming into the same cocktail shaker GEL (or maybe SPY) uses, shaking it up and drinking it down. It’s this sorta strutting, mid-tempo swagger of a record.
POZO / RITO - Mañana, Nada Split EP
Two bands from Colombia - both play a fairly straight-forward, pogo-rific style of punk that wouldn’t feel out of place on the Punk & Disorderly comp. POZO is a bit more hectic, noisy and modern in their style while RITO leans more into a VICE SQUAD sorta vibe. Both sound like they’d be great fun to see while packed like sardines into a jam packed basement.
SAVIOUR COMPLEX - Chance Your Arm LP
Incredibly earnest sounding, mid to late 90s emo - in some moments its a bit like if TEXAS IS THE REASON was more chaotic, rough around the edges and frantic, while in others there are hints of that Sarah Kirsch style intensity that could make this fit in more with the Ebullition records side of the house.
THE SCOFFS - Factories In Heaven
Bouncy, anthemic punk with big choruses and tuneful vocals and great working class lyrics about the vision of a world beyond work. As the usual for stuff with this clean of a production, it takes me a few listens to really get into it but thats just because I spend most of my time listening to things that sound like a blender run through a distortion pedal. I’m really into how powerful the singer’s voice is.
SECRETORS - Comparing Missile Size Vol.1 EP
This is wild - unintelligible snarling vocals, rabid pace, songs that finish before they really start and crazy ass riffs that lean heavy into an early Randy Uchida sorta thing - hell the title song’s riff is practically an homage to “Endless Blockades For The Pussyfooter.” Totally feeling this
Well, the band’s name is Japanese, the songs are in Spanish and they’re from Norway but, what about the music? It’s a metallic juggernaut that owes much to the more primitive side of Brazilian thrash (think maybe SARCOFAGO but probably more like Morbid Visions-era SEPULTURA) but with the massive production style of more modern death metal bands.
THEE SYCK BUBBLEGUM - Fuck You CS
Super thin, blown out and sounding like it was recorded first on a boombox then played through a transistor radio, where it was recorded yet again. You ever listen to that 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS track “You’re Gonna Miss Me?” The whole thing has that sorta 60s wild teenage punk rave up feeling to it. Hell, there’s something about the vocals here that really brings up visions of the Evil One aka ROKY ERICKSON.
TRIPPER - People Die Every Day CS
More quality hardcore out of Baltimore - slightly dissonant in that early 90s sorta way. The vocals have that desperate quasi emotive plaintive yet still punk sorta thing with these sorta disquieting guitar bits which occasional move into grooved out hardcore before collapsing back into a quiet-loud-quiet pattern. Like if you told me this was an outtake from say the Give Me Back or All The Presidents Men comp, I’d probably believe you.
Heavy, down tuned crust in a very late 90s manner - this moves at a pretty quick clip downshifting into these slow and heavy bits with melodic overtones. This listens like they’ve spent a good deal of time studying HIS HERO IS GONE, especially the Monuments to Thieves LP - it is kind wild how some of the riffs sound like missing bits from the writing of that record.
Raw and rough around the edges hardcore punk from Brazil that drinks from the same well as US bands like SPY. It’s heavy, noisy and while it’s not slow it never really reaches hyper velocity.