Razorblades & Aspirin Shitstack...
an irregular survey of random thoughts, reviews, photos and bullshit...
The internet is still a toilet stall…
Greetings fellow mutants, nerds, rippers, and ragers - welcome to the non-print version of Razorblades & Aspirin. No, the zine isn’t going away but the print version is on hiatus for awhile - it’s a lot of work, a lot of financial outlay, my day job has been taking too much time lately and besides I’ve been exploring different ways of doing the thing; different sizes, formats, paper stocks, etc etc. But that’s all a bunch of backstage nonsense that I’m sure anyone really cares about…
That said…
So what’s all this then? Well, ideally what this will turn into is a sorta weekly newsletter with yammering about recent shows I’ve attended, photographs, reviews of records, interviews (old and new), and other miscellaneous bobbles & bits. Basically, a lot of the same stuff you’d find in the print version of Razorblades Aspirin but here instead of there. Cool?
Oh Christ on a crutch, you think - more dumb shit in my inbox?
So yeah, this is an experiment - you’re getting this in your inbox because you were subscribed to the old R&A email list. Like that list, this will probs be irregular but a lot more interesting - find it annoying, by all means unsubscribe. That said - I may make a paid subscription option to help support the publishing of the zine, as well future special projects such as books, records, art prints, etc. Let me know if this would be something you’d be into.
So let’s start here…
I recently published a couple things intended for the recent Richmond zine fest - an all cut and paste style, 20 pg, photocopied zine filled with old interviews from old zines plus an interview w/ Totalitär I did which I dubbed Murder The Sons of Bitches and then another, newsprint, four page broadsheet entitled Icepicks at Dawn. The former is all gone, the latter I still have copies of but am only really interested in trading or giving away at shows - that said, the content contained within can be found here… so lets get going…
Recent thoughts…
The first time I heard the Buzzcocks was in the fall of 1986, sitting in a junior high shop class in Perrysburg, OH. I remember uncomfortably giggling over the lyrics to “Orgasm Addict” as you do when you are 12 and everything is new and there are girls and adults around. I soon after bought Singles Going Steady and beyond the hit, I didn’t get a lot of it. It would take a bit of age and a few broken hearts to come around to the notion of being in love with love.
Pete Shelley had this gift for snark buried in sweetness - crafting hooks that cover bitterness in syrup. Listening back, there is just this sense of joy in being the jilted one. Subversively sexual, he crafted songs that encapsulated so much of the feeling of being young and dumb and full of cum. I mean if nothing else we can all relate to the feeling of falling in love with someone we shouldn’t have and the sensation of that particular different kind of tension.
Punk rock has a love affair with death—we sing songs about it and celebrate the misery and self-destruction that leads to it. I think about the line in the Zounds song that goes “…did he jump or was he pushed?” a lot. Certainly, this world can be a miserable place and the moments of joy that should be the focus of our lives often get obscured by the perceived horrors of living. We cope as best we can but we give too much of ourselves to the anger, to the outrage—and that anger, rather than an energy, often turns into a venom that slowly infects and strangles us.
Ginsburg starts off “Howl” with “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…” and I think about how many pure geniuses I’ve seen turn into shells of their former selves. We embrace romantic notions of self-destruction in our youth and never learn how to process the trauma that lead to it, instead allowing ourselves to slowly suffocate in its grip.
I firmly believe suicide is not an immediate thing—I mean it is, and it isn’t. In some ways, I fully believe the heart attack that killed my father was a self-induced as the noose that took another friends life—the rope was just much longer.
We give ourselves to our passions to the point where sometimes they claim us—so many tales of great musicians, writers, artists, etc ravaged by the things they feel they need to do to keep going. To produce what they do—sometimes it eats them alive.
Bikini Kill had a song that went “…I will resist with every inch and every breath I will resist this psychic death” and I think about it a lot. The struggle to retain my own mental health in the face of the world around me and the overwhelming, anxiety drenched sense of loss that feel is almost too real at times.
So what does this have to do with Crossed Out?
As a photographer, I spend a lot of time looking around the room, partially to insure that I’m not get smashed in the face by some stage diver but also in a constant lookout for those glimpses of people’s reaction to music. There is a meditative joy in the cacophony of 400mph noise for so many of us. I have captured so many images filled with shit-eating grins, moments of delight blended with fear as someone is about to take flight into a crowd, flashes of people engorged with laughter while a blast of disharmonious noise swirls around them.
And to me this is the start of how we fight back, but its not the end all be all. A lot of really corny straight edge bands have even cornier songs about friends and unity but if nothing else, it’s really important to keep in mind that you are never alone. There is a simplicity in the reaction we have to this music that sparks a chain reaction of friendships which lead to a life worth living.
The important thing is we stay alive—this world is a truly terrible place sometimes and I don’t bemoan anyone giving up or giving in but no one dies alone.
Nine Shocks Terror
What follows is an interview I did with Cleveland legends Tony Erba & Wedge about twenty-three years ago. Nine Shocks Terror were such a transformative band for so many people, myself included - they flipped the script on hardcore in the late 90s. Certainly they were a primal blast of rampaging hardcore but this wasn’t just tuneless thrash - there is an emphasis on musicianship, catchy riffs, and a drive towards just crushing the audience with their ferocity.
For a long time people just thought of you guys as the H100s with Steve singing instead of Chris - so I’d like you guys to talk about the transition from H100s to Nine Shocks Terror...
Wedge: The whole H100s with a different singer thing pretty much came about because - well the stuff that was the first Nine Shocks Terror EP and one of the songs on the split with Devoid of Faith were songs from that stuff that we recorded and never put vocals on. The song “Not a Fucking Anthem” that’s on the first album that was also written as a H100s song and we did a couple H100s songs live cause we were like - “Alright — we got six songs, we’re going out on tour with The Gaia in like three weeks - uh hehehe - ok which H100ssongs do we want to do?” It was kinda tough at first cause people were always making comparisons but at the same time we left ourselves open for that - you know some of the shows we booked - we were like “Well, yeah, it’s just H100s with a different singer ya know? Put ex-H100s on the flyer - it’ll draw people’ ‘ or whatever - but at the same time people were like “Well I don’t know man, you guys aren’t as raw or abrasive as that was - or it sounds a little different” Well yeah, no shit dummy that’s why it’s not called H100s, but we sort of set ourselves up for that because of the way we were booking earlier on and the way we were like “Oh yeah it’s just that band with a different singer.” Actually the first time we ever played out in Cleveland with Steve singing it was pretty ugly - you know we were playing in front of a bunch of people who had seen H100s that were a bunch of our friends and everyone having the stupid and sarcastic sense of humor that they have - you know after the first song they’re throwing bottles at us going - “Hey man that kid ain’t no fucking Chris - Chris was much better...” I mean they were just being sarcastic - just being assholes but at the same time we got all pissed and we’re like “Hey fuckheads! This is a different band that’s playing up here - what the fuck?! I mean you wanna scream ‘That’s not the H100s well guess what? What did it say on the fucking flyer?” Then again we did set ourselves up for that.
Tony: H100s was a band that was short and sweet - I’m glad it ended the way it did. It was a crazy crash and bum type band. There’s no way we could have had that band tour any long period of time, it was too chaotic, I think we played two complete sets the whole time the band played out. It was the most pissed off band. It was not the type of thing that you could do for any length of time because we would have gone to jail - someone would have got seriously hurt - that’s the trip we were on. I’m glad it ended before it turned into a parody. Nine Shocks is a band we’ve done a lot more with, it’s a lot more stable band. We’ ve got a great line up... It’s a band that will hopefully be around for years to come... we can just do a lot more musically and a lot more lyrically... H100s was designed for maximum kill count and Nine Shocks Terror - it’s a different vibe, a different attitude, a different approach to both bands - and that’s the main difference...
Wedge: Yeah adding onto that the whole H100s thing was kinda like the way I look at it was it was sorta like primal scream therapy for us cause Tony hadn’t gotten over all the stuff with the guys from Face Value and me and Chard had come from a pretty interesting history of a band called Gag Reflex that nobody has really heard of but there was a lot stress and a lot of tensions over that band breaking up and Chris was just fucked with way too fucking long and way too fucking harshly and the fucking shit that was coming out of him and the rage that was coming out of him... you know there was a couple of times where on the ways to the shows we had to fucking seriously contemplate going to hospitals because he’d be freaking out in the back of the van, with his face all smashed up from the night before, drinking a bunch of cough syrup and smoking angel dust unexpectantly. You could see his heart pounding out of his chest and everyone else had been awake for three days on the road trying to calm each other down. It was just fucking mayhem. We were going to fucking kill ourselves and that’s the way it basically fucking ende d - we almost did kill ourselves. By the time it got down to Nine Shocks and we got our shit together and got all of our personal differences aside it was like “Alright we got that out of our systems - now this is what we really want to do. Now it’s time to get down to business.” When Chard left it was really weird, actually it was kinda expected but we weren’t really expecting it right then and there - we had a tour booked where we were going to be going out with Drop Dead on the road we had stuff ready for the studio and he just decided that he couldn’t be bothered to go into the studio one day - so we were like “OK fine” so we got this kid Mike who played in this local band Grudge Match, who were were going to work in as a second guitar anyways cause we were sick and tired of Chard being drunk and free form soloing every set that we were playing for the last year. Let’s just say Chard drank away $58,000 one year - I’m not exaggerating on that. That combined with just being as fucking chaotic and the way he lived, it just wasn’t working, so we were gonna work Mike in as a second guitarist and when Chard didn’t show up at the studio we were like “Alright, you’re playing the guitar parts.” Chard calls me a couple of days later and is all like: “You muscling me out?!” and I’m like “No, you can come down and do the lead parts” and he’s like “Yeah well, it looks like I quit, whatever.” We took Mike into the band, he’d only been playing about six months before he started with us but after about two or three months of playing out regularly and just playing guitar cause he had nothing else to do, he was fucking phenomenal. He put us light years ahead of where we were at the time, but his head just wasn’t into it - he was all about: “Hey I play in a band. People should be catering to me, I don’t have to carry equipment… aww I hate going out of town, how come we don’t get a hotel room?’ Well you know, we’re not fucking Black Sabbath you know? and after awhile he just no showed for a show and we were just like:”Alright fine. See you later and five days later we played a show with Kevin and he’s been in the band ever since, and he’s clicked like he’s been there since day one. His style’s different Chard was like a bastardized Chuck Berry on a crack binge and Mike’s was really technical new school metal type stuff but he definitely had a rock base - his dad played in a bunch of old rock bands in Cleveland and sorta taught him a couple of licks, plus he sat down one night when we were on tour with Boulder and made those guys show him three or four different riffs and those guys are pure rock right there, that helped his playing a lot too but his but he just didn’t have his head into it. I really don’t know much about Kevin’s background or where he comes from in guitar playing but he’s got… instead of a boombastic in your face pure rock style, it’s more of a... like the way he plays solos instead of throwing as man notes as possible into what he’s doing he’s almost just trying without trying to sound foofy or anything like that - but he’s almost trying to put like atmosphere to it - with a lot of harmonics and and a lot of what he’s been too is like, knowing the kid wouldn’t expect him to write some of the absolute blazing thrash stuff that he’s been writing. You know from a lot of the stuff he listens to is more mellower melodic type stuff, but you know he clicks really well and he’s got the same sick sarcastic sense of humor that we have and it’s worked out really well...
Tony: Kevin’s a great player - you hear a lot of Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü) influences a lot of Brian (Minor Threat). He plays very textured and very shimmery type sounding and some of the stuff we’re writing - 1 don’t think a lot bands are writing the type of songs we do - half them are total thrashers and he rest of them are underground heavy prog rock type stuff - almost like a real Queens of the Stone Age type of vibe. Kevin’s a great player and plays with a lot of feeling and with a lot of complexity and a lot of atmospheric type of feeling allowing us to take a song that would’ve been a simple thrash song before making it into a thrash song that’s got a lot more character and flavor to it...
You guys are older than a lot folks involved with punk - what keeps you guys so motivated to stay involved?
Tony: I dunno... all I ever wanted to do when I was kid was just to play in aggressive rock bands and try to avoid having to work for a living. So I’m still slogging away - I just like playing aggressive raunchy music, that won’t ever get played on the radio and plus we have undertaken our mission to slaughter all the crummy crap assed gimmicky bands out there with our mighty sword of rock...
Wedge: I sorta remember what it used to be like... hey it’s nice that there’s a million bands and a millions records out now - but there is so much shit that you have to wade through and I guess that I just guess got this thing in the back of my mind where I keep thinking that something incredible is gonna happen again so I may as well stick around, besides I kinda like the lifestyle. If that sounds stupid well maybe it is and that’s just me, oh well.
You mention liking the lifestyle - do you view this as some sort of legitimate alternative to mainstream life, do you see yourself doing this like 20 years from now?
Wedge: I think I’d look pretty silly with a pot belly going bald with a a bad mohawk in 20 years, but yeah I guess I do, I mean I’ve been into the whole punk rock lifestyle since I was like 12 or 13, just never got out of it no matter what the bands of the month or the politics of the month were and all the people who have come and gone. There was always something that I liked about it, always something that gave me energy, kicked me in the ass. You know the basic ideas - you know all the stupid cliched shit of “fuck the system,” “create your own life” or whatever. Regardless of how much I might get jaded - I don’t kiss anyone’s ass, I live my life on my own terms. If that’s punk rock - yeah! If it’s not, oh well.
Tony: Well, I’m sure when I’m fucking 50 years old I’ll still be slogging it out in some scummy fucking basement playing fucking rock. There’s nothing better than playing aggressive, catchy, ballsy, abrasive fucking rock and roll and that’s all I want to do. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. No reason to stop now - as long as there are people who like our band - want us to play we’ll fucking keep playing. When this band eventually breaks up, I’ll move to another state and start another band. Why the hell not?
Why keep it on a DIY punk level as opposed to trying to “make it”:
Tony: ‘Cause that whole thing is fucking full of shit. When Face Value started getting on a bigger level I started to see more and more how fucking ridiculous it is, with agents and fucking managers and this and that. I want nothing to do with that. I’d rather do it all myself and just control my own destiny. The trends and the climates of the music scene change from day to day - you’d have to be a hole thinking that you’re gonna fucking have any sort of longevity in todays rock and roll market if you’re looking to be big. Right now the fucking Papa Roach’s and bands like that are getting played on some radio stations and they’re popular with todays youth... but the winds of change will blow that away. You can blink and that’ll be over and we’ll be back to bad synth pop of the 80s. So I’d rather just stay with something concrete. I just love meaty ballsy kick ass riff rock. That’s not a joke. To me all the classic early hardcore punk bands, the first generation, they grew up listening to that and that’s why their records sound so good, so kick ass, so creative. Now you have bands that are like eighth generation fans, it’s so diluted and watered down from its original influences - those kids have never even heard one of them records, and they wouldn’t even know where to start. That’s why it sounds like a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox. After a while there’s just no meat or substance to it...
Wedge: Yeah well you know like some other really killer bands are like Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust - I even listen to a lot of like prog rock/art rock stuff like early Yes, early Genesis, King Crimson, Roxy Music - stuff like that and I’m sure a lot of people are turning their noses up going like “Aggh! I’m gonna chuck their records out!’’ But I was really young hearing that stuff and once you get past the pompousness and the bombastness of some of the stuff there’s some really powerful stuff going on there and some really catchy heavy riffs that are going down. It’s like some of the songs I’ve written for this band. I’ve lifted riffs from old reggae dub twelve inches I have or ripped off a Black Oak Arkansas riff or something like that... We’re not afraid to rip a riff off that, change a few notes and change the tempo... I mostly listen to a lot of prog rock, a lot of art rock stuff and I know I’m gonna get beat up for saying that but... I can’t help it - one of these days I’ll show you my collection of Genesis bootlegs...
Tony: We especially have a passion for early UFO, Budgie, Thin Lizzy, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, of course Black Sabbath goes without mentioning, The Five, early Bob Seger System, all early Detroit rock and roll, that shit was just challenging, it was creative. it really just fucking knocked your balls in the dirt. It was the basis for all the aggressive punk explosion that happened with all the first wave of punk bands.
Do you think that where you grew up has a lot to do with the music you are into now? I remember growing up in Toledo that sort of 70s riff rock was all you were ever exposed to...
Tony: I think it definitely has something to with where we grew up - at one point Cleveland had a radio station WMMS and in the 70s it was the best radio station in the country. They played album cuts and went very deep into album cuts - play a lot of stuff. I mean they’d play a ten minute long Pat Travers cut and then play something off the first Elvis Costello LP. It was a very eclectic station and that shaped a lot of the creativity and a lot of the influences that we have. Just that whole scene every fucking band who was anyone - underground, arena rock, whatever - they all played Cleveland at one time. It couldn’t help rubbing off on us.
Wedge: Another thing we lucked out with in Cleveland in the early 80s all the college stations in Cleveland were really really vehement in that they wouldn’t play anything that was programed on one of the more commercial stations and I mean there are some towns that have community stations that might play something sort of obscure and then whatever the CMJ (College Music Journal) sends em, but in the early 80s there were like five radio stations in Cleveland you could pick up 30 miles in any direction where, I mean it was just weirdos that had incredible record collections that were just popping up playing whatever. Most of it was free form, so you’d hear like DRI or Rattus or something like that. Then they’d like to slip in a Black Sabbath bootleg or a Yes demo or something like that. I guess it does make the connection, hearing the stuff together. I mean you hear a slow part in a totally raging thrash song and five minutes later the guy’s dropping on a Curved Air record and you hear almost the exact same riff albeit totally fucked up with like keyboards and operatic singing over top of it. Of course you had to sit through crap like Gentle Giant, but afterwards you get to hear like Discharge or something. There were like five radio stations doing that up until the mid 80s. There’s still a couple that are pretty good, WRUW still does stuff like that, WCSB does but the other stations just play whatever the flavor of the month is or whatever CMJ sends them… it’s kinda depressing now but, if you click around you can still find good stuff. It might have something to do with some of what’s coming out of Cleveland cause there’s a lot of younger kids who are getting into it, who hear that kind of stuff and have a respect for it, even if they don’t even like it...
Tony: I mean at least back in the day it was a dirty industrial town and people just found solace in rock and roll. The last bastion of true fucking American underground rock and roll is DIY punk rock. So I see no reason to leave. I have no problem playing to more people, no problem making some money at gigs.. but it’s gotta be on my terms. I have no fantasies about getting rich off doing this, that’s why I keep a day job to keep my music as fucking pure as it can be....
Wedge: Everyone thinks because they can pick up guitar and noodle something really cool and they can play some crazy off-time rhythm that there supposed to be some kind of primadonna. You know people should be kissing the ground they walk upon, fuck that. I don’t think that there should be a barrier between who’s on stage and who’s in the audience. When we go to shows, we’re out there watching the bands we wanna see. Those people in turn are usually watching us... I mean there’s other stuff we can play, but I’ve seen what goes on in those scenes and I have friends who plays in those kinds of bands and get into it and its just so fucking jaded, there’s no real energy and there’s no real emotion in it cause it gets sucked out with the business end “Oh we have to have agents, we have to have promoters... we have to have this such and such money or we’re not going to step on stage and we gotta get paid before that...” I mean fuck that. Yeah you do have to get paid, you have to survive when you’re on the road, but at the same time it doesn’t take $30 tickets and fucking agents, promoters and security agents. Five, six, seven bucks at the door with 50-60 kids there as long as a percentage of it’s going to the bands to get ‘em to the next show, or pay for a van that blows up on the side of the road. I mean i ain’t got no problem with that and for some reason or another a whole lifestyle has popped up around it and a lot of the ideas and the people associated with it are a lot of the people I’ve always thought of.... we all sorta think on the same wavelength... I guess as long as I feel comfortable with that and I don’t feel too alienated I’m not going anywhere...
You have a reputation for some pretty chaotic, anything can fucking happen shows, what do you think helps creates that element..
Tony: Well, I’m flattered by the response that we get. I think its cause kids realize that we just don’t give a fuck, we’re sincere and we just don’t know any other way to live or to play. Kids pick up on it that we’re not fucking around, we’re not joking around, we’re not a goof band or a gimmick band. We’re just very honest people, we’re playing just to entertain ourselves not entertain anyone else. Kids know it’s a challenge when they come to our gigs, they know it’s a challenge and they better rise to itt. Kids pick up on that, and at the same time it’s not a destructive bad evil type of thing... it’s a very happy shit eating grin thing, kids fucking jumping off the drums, the amps, high fiveing each other, every kind of freak and outcast getting down ya know? That’s what I’ve always wanted, every kinda freak, miscreant to fucking go off. It just started in the last couple of years, it just took off, we’re like the token band where like we’ll play these shows where there’s a lot of political bands, a lot of emo bands and kids will like, sit politely and clap and have a nice response and then we play and the kids will just fucking go apeshit... It’s like we’re the token band where you’re allowed to do that but hey I don’t mind being a token in that respect...
Wedge: Not to try to sound egotistical or like we got a big head or anything but i think that some of it has to do with musical aspect that we got going on I mean there’s a ton of bands out there and a lot of the bands are really good but 60-70% of the bands you see playing around, you know they picked up a couple records a few weeks ago and said “oh yeah we can sound like this’’ and don’t really have too much emotion or too much soul in what they’re doing... a lot of us we don’t just listen to hardcore/punk like a lot of people who are like “oh that’s all I can listen to xyz, I can’t buy anything on a major label.” Well you know, just because something is on a major label doesn’t necessarily mean its bad, I mean there’s a lot of really good older music out there that’s like really heavy and really aggressive, being in to a lot of that probably adds some of that into what we’re doing, just helps with the energy level - and the connection: I guess it’s just makes it a little more catchier. Plus Steve’s lyrics, I don’t wanna talk for him since he’s not here, his lyrics aren’t exactly “Stop doing this! you better do that! this is right! this is wrong!” You know? It’s more like random observations that are come’n out and a lot of it sounds like nonsense, but at the same time there’s a few lines thrown in here or there that are getting his point across. For some reason or another it gets people pissed off to the point where they wanna start throwing bottles and throwing chairs at us, don’t bother me none. I mean I’ve been hit in the head with two by fours, chairs, bottles while we’re playing, just keep right the fuck on playing. I’ve had my drum set smashed in front of me. Hey if the energy level is going there and the kids are still going - If I’ve got a drum in front of me I’m gonna keep beat’n on it keeping it up...
Chuck Berry or Little Richard?
Wedge: I’d have to say a tie. Chuck Berry is the king of rock and roll, but Little Richard, any guy that puts out a record called Little Richard’s Grooviest 17 Original Hits! I mean come on how can ‘you go wrong with that… Also, he proved that you got to do a little gender bending to rock hard...
Tony: Chuck Berry without a doubt, although Little Richard had a lot going for him, like before his gigs he’d have his girlfriend fuck Buddy Holly while he sat in the comer and jacked off… I mean you talk about motivation for a gig. Chuck Berry man the guys a legend - I mean having Cheap Trick as his back up band playing in the Terminal Tower bus station in Cleveland and he wouldn’t teach them any of the songs but was just like “When I tap my toot, you do the change” and like the guy tucking taps his foot every second of the song…
Wedge: Not to mention there’s a scene in Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll where Chuck Berry is showing his backing band the songs for his 50th or 60th birthday celebration or whatever... He’s got Keith Richards playing second guitar to Chuck Berry sit’n there for like 20 minutes going “Uhuh you ain’t get’n that note right” get’n him all pissed off and anyone who can piss that uptight limey wanker off is alright in my book. Besides Keith Richards deserves that because that’s the man who taught him everything....
Gauze or Lip Cream?
Wedge: That’s a toss up - the first time I heard Gauze I thought they sucked then I smoked a bunch of pot and listened to the songs on the Thrash till Death LP and thought they were the greatest band ever and that the Lip Cream stuff on there blew but I heard Lip Cream before I heard Gauze. Besides, Lip Cream is just Chuck Berry riffs with hardcore punk and Gauze just absolutely destroys. Tie absolute tie...
Tony: I give the edge to Lip Cream, they’re my favorite Japanese band and one of my favorite bands of all time. They’re just playing basic fucking rock song structure barreling out the ass - big, bad, fucking guitar player windmilling the whole time pulling out these incredible Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry licks and the fucking singer is throwing the mic stand at people and fucking making videos where the take a god damn mini van and paint night rider on it and throw a girl wrapped in carpet out on the street. They’re kicking their amps over in their basement and filming it and fucking light’em them on fire and having big torches on the side of the stage... and they have songs called fucking Johnny He’s Never Die and Bigfoot (He’s Chicken Killer). I’m all about it man. The Cream and then Gastunk close second...
Wedge: Two other bands that are a close second for me are Ikkashinjgu and another band called Kyojinbyo, look out. I mean they both broke up about 10-12 years ago but look out...
Wretched or Raw Power?
Tony: Raw Power without a doubt fucking You are the Victim is within the top three of all records ever recorded: drumming incredible, bass playing incredible, guitar playing phenomenal - singing completely over the fucking top, off the fucking charts. Some of the catchiest riff you’ll ever fucking hear. I strive to make Screams From the Gutter part two.
Wedge: I’d have to say there’s absolutely no contest - cause not only do the fucking Wretched destroy, they never ever ever had a drummer who could play in time and that made them even better. Now with Raw Power, I mean like Helder (drummer) the kid was like fucking 14 years old playing like he was fucking 50! Ah god! Both bands were just totally different styles of music. Wretched was all about knocking your face off and screaming about the realities of living in the gutter in the middle of Milan whereas Raw Power was from the sticks and... there’s just no comparison... you really know how to get me all screwed up on these here...
Final thoughts?
Wedge: We got a twelve inch coming out on Sound Pollution pretty soon and maybe a split LP with Tomorrow from Japan, a band who just totally destroy that I just took on tour in the Midwest - totally blew my face off. They rip. Boycott Coalition Records, fuck those guys, the biggest wolves in sheep’s clothing I’ve ever dealt with - other than that - definitely check out what’s going on in South America because as far as raw punk and hardcore that stuff’s been kicking my ass across the floor - check out what’s going on in Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela right now. It’ll blow your face off, if you like raw sloppy hardcore that’s genuinely pissed - none of these bald faced 12 year old kids who are pissed off because their dad cut their allowance off.
Tony: We’d just like to say thanks to everyone who comes to our shows, everyone who gives us a chance. I don’t think that we sound like any other band, I know it sounds corny and ridiculous and asskissing but really to be able to go out of town and see your friends stay in their house, hang out, make friends and travel. That’s what it’s all about to me, meeting people that I’ll be friends with for the rest of my life because of a shared interest in music and underground culture. And the fact that we can fucking kick out the jams and make kids happy with our music and our live shows, that’s what it’s all about. Boulder is the fucking best band around.
Recent listening…
A lot of cues are taken from the late 80s stench core playbook - its crusty stomping hardcore which has alternates between RIPCORD style thrash and then more meandery bits that almost sound like RUDIMENTARY PENI. Killer live band.
Thick and heavy production on this French d-beater. Brings to mind some of the early DISFEAR or SEVERED HEAD OF STATE stuff. Thunderous, utterly massive guitars with occasional forays into stadium crust melody and a vocal approach that is guttural in that early WOLFBRIGADE sort of way. Its a winner for me.
They may be from Wisconsin but they got that NYHC strut down. Heavy but still moving at a quick clip. The production on this is just massive but in that manner that serves the ferocity of the songs rather than detracting from it. Killer stuff here.
CICADA - We Are Going To Kill You Tape CS
Super gnarly, thrashing hardcore punk from right here in Richmond, VA. Really into the snarling vocals (bit of a guttural YDI meets UNITED MUTATION feel to them) which are layered over a moderately chaotic musical approach that hits at a bit more controlled VOID.
DEATH RIDGE BOYS - Too Much Bullshit LP
Decidedly left wing street punk from Portland brought to you by the same brilliant mind that gave us COPOUT and TALK IS POISON. Totally draws from the same well that gave us ANGELIC UPSTARTS and CRIMINAL DAMAGE. Its hard and angry as shit while being incredibly catchy.
This is so fucking good - just a relentless onslaught of Scandi style hardcore punk in the classic style but brought to you by a bunch of French folx. Its got that same style rampaging approach that you find in those later era TOTALITÄR records - burst of thunderous speed mixed with this beer sloshing, face crunching stomp. Outstanding stuff.
DELCO MF’S - The March of the MF’S EP
Totally unhinged ripper from the city of brotherly love - blown out, 1000mph attack which mostly forgoes any sense of melody in favor of just smashing you about the face over and over. Don’t worry there are short moments where you can catch your breather but they are few and far between.
DESTRUCT - Cries the Mocking Mother Nature LP
You all should know this band by now and if you don’t well... get on the party train, there’s still plenty of room for you to be found! Ripping kångnave style d-beat fueled hardcore from Richmond - think BASTARD, think FRAMTID - them the vibes. Total rager.
DRILL SERGEANT - Grim New War EP
More killed stuff from these Philly noise merchants - its a pretty mean and tough sounding record but not in macho way. More like in I’m just so fucking pissed and I’m not gonna take it anymore fashion. Plenty of mid-paced vitriol, swagger and angst with too brief flashes of jackhammer speed.
ELECTRIC CHAIR - Act of Aggression LP
There’s so much packed into the 15 minutes that make up this record it almost feels a bit purposefully claustrophobic. Chaotic instrumentation where things are just layered so tightly that these is no room to breathe, layered every so delicately under a modern day Darby Crash vocal attack. Its wild how something so careening and chaotic can also be so melodious and catchy. A Perfectly perfect, wild ride.
FORCE MAJEURE - Force Majeure LP
Killer, skinhead rocknroll - when people do this style right, I just lap it up. Its mid-paced, anthemic, and stomping stuff. You like TEMPLARS? Get on this party train.
Richmond has so many great bands right now - its just fucking wild to me. Well here’s another tasty hunk of distortomatic, rip roaring hardcore punk - soaked in reverb and infested with a gargling glass vocal approach it hits in all the right ways.
HEAVY DISCIPLINE - Your Scapegoat 12”
Ferocious, where-were-you-in-82? Boston style hardcore - I’m mean what else would you expect from Painkiller Records? Its got hooks, a heavy boot stomp’n beat to it and plenty of velocity. Think BOSTON STRANGLER, think FIT FOR ABUSE - just unreal good.
Totally reminds me of those early 00s Copenhagen bands or even the whole No Way records thing - snotty, minimally distorted, ripping hardcore punk which studies the early 80s USHC model deeply but produces their own spin on it. Excellent.
Look, I know it sounds crazy but sonically this has huge YOUTH OF TODAY vibes - but like a modern, primitive, and decidedly punk YOT. Its got a garagey production style with occasion drifts into weird guitar solos but imagine all that but through Ray of Today’s vocal style. I love this so much.
Pooka-pooka, pogo-riffic punk from Chile (at least originally - I think now members are sort of all over). Its quick paced and soaked with energy with a bit of an early EXPLOITED feel. I love this band so much.
LETHAL - Lethal’s Hardcore Hit Parade EP
More of this please! Totally high octane, ripping blasts occasionally slowing down for stomping head bobbing moments.
I listen to this and all I can think is like, what if RIXE were less of skinhead/Oi band and more of a hardcore band? Similar affection for hooks and well crafted singalong bits but with need for speed.
This Mexican band continues to do no wrong in my book. There is a strong BLITZ vibe to be found here - both early and late era. The hooks! Oh god, the hooks on this are just so geat - if only they would tour the USA...
Snotty, infectious punk - I really love this Richmond band’s approach - sure, its got plenty of pummeling speed but it highlights it with a lot of just weird twists and turns.
NOSFERATU - Society’s Bastard LP
One of the finest USHC bands going these days - hailing from Texas, they just hammer away at a ridiculous velocity that feels like its on the cusp of falling apart at any moment. One of the most blessed things about the internet is that now everyone can hear the KORO EP, study it, learn from it and then do their own take on that idea. By no means derivative, this takes notion to newer, even better places. Unreal good.
Just absolutely dripping in layers of noise and distortion, these Oly rippers continue to steamroller on in a monstrous onslaught of chaos. Sonically, it pays homage to bands like GAI and GLOOM with a dour ‘life is shit’ lyrical outlook. Noise! Noise! Noise!
PLANET ON A CHAIN - Boxed In LP
I mean its a band made up of folx from LOOK BACK & LAUGH, TEAR IT UP, TALK IS POISON, etc so its not a surprise that it is just this ferocious platter of ear damaging, blazing speed which alternates to a face smashing, mid-paced onslaught and back again. Dave It Up’s vocal approach is always a delight but the drumming on this is the real stand out, its just unreal. Brilliant stuff.
Full on UNITED MUTATION vibes from this Richmond band - chaotic, twisting and turning, super raw punk apparently fronted by a monster. Sounds like a basement demo recording but the songs are great!
They’re from Sweden but the lyrics are in Polish and it sounds very classically Polish - its dark and moody yet melodic and assertive in its approach. I need more of this please.
STIGMATISM - Ignorance in Power LP
Now this... this is my shit - rapid fire blasts of primitive hardcore that leans heavy in the early AGNOSTIC FRONT meets NEGATIVE FX way of thinking. Bursts of speeds crashing headlong into brief moments of dog piling mosh. Great!
So thats this time…
I welcome your feedback on this - like I said, my hope is to put one of these out every week or so. Sometimes it will be a lot, sometimes it will be just a few record reviews, or photos but I hope you find value here. Thank you for reading.
