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Various: Greek Punk ’82-’91 (Fan Club) Latest in a series of incredibly well-done compilation tapes resurfacing rare, vintage punk rock from around the globe. This series (which is unnamed… someone didn’t go to school for marketing!) is like a modern version of the old BCT Tapes, but the availability of basically everything on the internet means that the bar has been raised. We expect even more obscure bands and certainly better sound quality, both of which are present here. While I’ve always heard that Greek punk and hardcore is a thing, I’ve never really investigated it before. I was familiar with a few of the names on this compilation (Stress, Ex-Humans, and ANTI), but by and large I’m hearing everything on this compilation fresh. While there isn’t enough information for me to say for sure, it sounds like the compilation proceeds somewhat chronologically. Most of the bands on the first side have a classic Eastern European punk sound that I associate with Pekinska Patka, while hardcore (primarily of the noisy and raw variety) takes over on the b-side of the tape. Unfortunately my inability to read or type the Greek alphabet prevents me from being more specific (or, indeed, from researching many of these bands further, which is one of the chief joys of an enterprise like this), but if you like going down YouTube rabbit holes or scouring Soulseek for the most obscure 80s punk you can find this comp and the others in the series are all essential.

Various: South American Punk 81-90 cassette (Fan Club) As I’ve mentioned, this series of top-notch international compilations collects obscure tracks that you’ve most likely never heard, and it does so with excellent sound quality and thoughtful curation. If you’re a fan of the old BCT Tapes or compilations like Killed by Hardcore this is going to be your kind of thing. While I’ve heard a few of the bands on this compilation of 80s South American punk (Los Violadores, who are a personal favorite, as well as G3, Los Invasores, Leuzemia and a couple of others) there’s still so much here that wasn’t on my radar, which is all the more impressive because the quality here is astounding. While the Greek compilation that I also wrote about this week gave us a loose narrative of the transition from punk to hardcore, this cassette (with a couple of exceptions) sticks largely to one style, but it’s a style that I can’t get enough of. I don’t know if there’s a name for it aside from just “punk,” but these South American bands seem to be more influenced by British punk than bands from other parts of the globe. In particular, it seems like they might have been listening to lots of Rezillos, Stiff Little Fingers, and maybe even Asta Kask as most every track here has a fast, bouncy, and pogo-able rhythm and an instantly catchy vocal hook or two. If you’re looking for d-beat you’ll be bummed, but those of us whose tastes lean a little more toward the ’77 set will flip out at the degree of quality here. If you don’t find yourself looking up at least half of these bands on YouTube or Soulseek after listening to this tape I have doubts about whether you’re a true punk lifer.

Deseos Primitivos: demo cassette (self-released) Three-song demo cassette from this new band out of California. Deseos Primitive have a super catchy, mid-paced punk sound with big, catchy vocal hooks. My mind immediately springs to contemporary bands like Juanita Y Los Feos or Rata Negra, but comparisons to catchy old Spanish punk like Eskorbuto or 70s UK bands like the Rezillos, the Adverts, or even the more melodic Vice Squad songs are also appropriate. The recording is clear and powerful and all three songs are top-notch. The only bad thing I can say about this tape is that it’s a total tease… the world needs a full-length from this group as soon as possible!

Beyond Peace: What’s There to Be So Proud of? 7” (Slugsalt) Second EP from this band out of Iowa. I quite enjoyed their first self-released EP (which, as of this writing, we still have in stock). I find that there’s often something special about hardcore bands from outside the major metropolitan centers. Like older bands such as Clitboys and Mecht Mensch, there’s something slightly left of center about the way that Beyond Peace approaches hardcore, and I’m always drawn to bands like this. Nowhere is this more apparent than the record’s short and sweet opener, “Burn It Down,” which is built around quirky, lunging rhythms that come at you like a deranged person with a rusty knife. I also really like the whiplash tempo changes on “What’s There to Be Proud of?” and the noisy guitar chords that pop up in “Staring Problem.” If your idea of hardcore is a bunch of kids banging away in a basement in Nowheresville, USA trying to play as fast as possible, you should check out this record and get your annual reminder that the spirit is alive and well.

Arse: Primitive Species 12” (Erste Theke Tontraeger) Debut vinyl from this Australian band. Discogs says the band originally released this as a limited edition cassette, but Erste Theke did the right thing by getting this on vinyl because it’s a killer release. I like bands that fall on the dividing line between noise rock and hardcore, and Arse are right in that pocket, using pogo beats, wild and noisy guitar solos, and a nihilistic vocal bark that will appeal to fans of Geld, Gay Kiss, Walls, and other bands that trace their lineage back to Black Flag’s My War. Far from just a copycat band, though, Arse strike me as more artsy and ambitious than any of the aforementioned groups. I hear this in the guitar solos (which are particularly unhinged, like Ginn and Hendrix on a bunch of bad drugs), but even more on the two songs that end each side of the record. These aren’t so much songs as abstract noise / electronic pieces that flesh out the world hinted at in those guitar leads into a full-on post-apocalyptic soundscape. Far beyond your typical “dude stringing together a bunch of guitar pedals and hitting them at random,” these intricately composed pieces scratch the same itch as Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream. That this recording began its public life as a limited edition of 40 cassettes makes me hope that Arse get even more ambitious once they realize the world is listening. In the meantime, though, this album is fascinating.

Dark Web: Clone Age 12” (Erste Theke Tontraeger) Debut vinyl from this Philadelphia group. The label describes them as “goth-tinged post-punk,” but I don’t really hear that. It’s dark, but instead of post-punk I hear the dark garage-punk sound of Jay Reatard or the Adverts, cut with the irreverence and the sing-song quality of Citric Dummies (who are on the same label, so it makes sense why this caught Erste Theke’s ear). With twelve tracks (it’s amazing how few punk 12”s these days have that many songs) Clone Age goes a lot of different places, which makes for a record that will stick around your turntable longer than more one-dimensional releases. My favorite track is “Life of Crime,” which is one of the most Jay Reatard-esque songs on the record. The interplay between the bass and guitar is great here, with the bass player working a simple, two-note riff while the guitar player circles around it, switching nimbly between more melodic and more dissonant harmonies. If the aforementioned references pique your interest, you’ll no doubt find a lot to love on Clone Age.

Crazy Bull: The Past Is Today 12” (self-released) I can’t think of a more apt title for the debut full-length from this Philadelphia band. As you can tell by their logo, artwork, and their music if you give them a listen, they’re going whole hog on the retro 70s rock thing, though you can still hear punk in the band’s fast tempos and high energy level. Aside from the obvious points of comparison like Annihilation Time and North Carolina’s own Mind Dweller, the band that keeps coming to mind when I listen to Crazy Bull is Sir Lord Baltimore. Their Kingdom Come LP is one of my favorites, and just like that album The Past Is Today is a non-stop barrage of heavy, blues-inflected rock riffage. If you aren’t familiar with Sir Lord Baltimore, Crazy Bull also have a ton of Black Sabbath in their DNA, but they don’t have any parts I’d describe as doomy. If Sabbath had an entire LP that was nothing but fast and frantic songs like “War Pigs” and “Hole in the Sky” it might sound like The Past Is Today. While some might dislike how hard Crazy Bull leans into the retro rock aesthetic if you love classic rock riffs I can’t imagine you wouldn’t love this album.

C. Memi & Neo Matisse: No Chocolate 7” (Bitter Lake) Bitter Lake continues their project of reissuing cult Japanese music with this 1980 7”. You may recognize C. Memi’s name from Bitter Lake’s previous release, a reissue of her Heavenly Peace EP, but this earlier recording finds her working in a more punk / rock milieu with her previous band. Listening to this single, you’d think Japan was at the exact mid-point between New York and Germany (maybe it is if you take the long way around?), as this sounds like the early CBGB scene smashed together with the more experimental tendencies of the original Krautrock bands. On the a-side the former influences take center stage, and if you’re a fan of Television or the Talking Heads (“No Chocolate” even sounds like “Psycho Killer” in places) it’ll get your toe tapping with its big, angular art-rock riff. Over the course of the song, though, the band’s experimental side comes to the surface as they add a vocoder effect on the vocals and a wild, Alice Coltrane-esque piano solo takes over toward the end of the track. It’s a strange ride, but an exhilarating one. The b-side is more meditative and more Krautrock-sounding with its minimal yet propulsive beat and cosmic-sounding tape manipulations. I would love to hear a full album (or even a recording of a live show) as it feels like this single only scratches the surface of what this group was capable of, but the wealth of ideas on display here will keep this single from getting filed away any time soon.

Inmates: Government Crimes 7” (Ultra Sonido) I’m surprised it’s taken someone this long to reissue Government Crimes, as it’s right up there with the H100s’ Dismantle EP as one of the most infamous records from an infamous scene. While bands like the Inmates, H100s, 9 Shocks Terror, and Gordon Solie Motherfuckers didn’t reinvent the wheel when it came to making hardcore music, what they did (and do!) better than just about anyone else is embody a spirit of undiluted nihilism. Government Crimes is hardcore as a shamanistic ritual wherein you summon the combined spirit of Darby, Sid, Jerry A and Sakevi, surrender your body to them and hope you wake up with all of your limbs intact. Trying to intellectualize this record is useless, as listening to it is like standing in the middle of a wild bar fight when you’re too drunk to understand what’s going on around you, let alone escape or defend yourself. If that’s your vibe and you don’t already own an original of this, you know what to do…

Paranoid: Jikangire 12” (Konton Crasher) Three-song 12” single teasing this Swedish band’s upcoming full-length. The a-side track is from the album and the two songs on the b-side are exclusive to this release. If these three tracks are any indication, we can expect that their upcoming album, Heavy Mental Fuck-Up!, will be different from their first one, Satyagraha. On that record Paranoid seemed fascinated with the swirling layers of feedback and dramatic dynamic shifts of Disclose’s later records, but these three tracks find them moving toward a more straightforward hybrid of anthemic crust and Burning Spirits-style Japanese hardcore. Speaking of which, “Jikangire” is more or less a reworking of the song “Mirror” by Death Side. Paranoid have borrowed rather famous riffs before (one track on their Praise No Deity EP cribbed from “Into Crypts of Rays” by Celtic Frost) and their many cover songs make no secret of their indebtedness to their influences. That’s far from uncommon in today’s punk scene, but “Jikangire” borrows more flagrantly than most. The two tracks on the b-side are in a similar vein, with a heavy, metallic crust sound that reminds me of Doom or State of Fear. These tracks are cool, but fans should know they’re rather different from the old stuff. Still, I’m looking forward to hearing the full articulation of this new direction on the upcoming album.

Wonder Bread: Complete Solid Gold Hits 7” (Digital Regress) Debut vinyl from this one-person project. Four of these five songs represent the cream of earlier cassette releases (none of which I’ve heard) and there’s one exclusive track, “My Dad Was in a Hardcore Band.” It’s funny that this 7” arrives at Sorry State the same week the Egg Punk / Chain Punk meme(https://i.imgur.com/lzChCbg.png) took over the online punk world because one could interpret the central conceit of “My Dad Was in a Hardcore Band” as an egg punk critique of chain punk. Maybe that’s a stretch, but I thought it would be a funny line to include in this description. Anyway, Wonder Bread remind me of projects like Spodee Boy, BB Eye, and Race Car, i.e. bedroom recording projects by people who are into Devo, but were weaned on hardcore and/or Ramones-based punk, which smoothes out some of Devo’s art-ier edges. Wonder Bread are good at the sound, and if you’re a fan of the aforementioned groups, you’ll like what they do. However, more than their music, the defining aspect of Wonder Bread is their irreverence. Three of the five songs (at least) are spoofs of “the scene,” their primary target being that most parody-able of foibles, pretension. Interestingly, though, my favorite track here, “1011,” is the EP’s least irreverent moment. The interplay between the instruments is something special, reminding me of how the Australian band Brando’s Island uses a vibraphone to create an unsettling atmosphere. Complete Solid Gold Hits is a strong debut and I hope it’s not the last we hear of Wonder Bread.

Drux: S/T 12” (Static Age) Debut LP from this hardcore band out of Leipzig, Germany. Drux take influences from 80s US hardcore, but they sound European, mostly because their music isn’t as pretentious or as beholden to its influences as most American bands. It doesn’t sound like Drux are trying to recreate another band’s sound. Instead, the only prerequisites are that the music remain loud and fast, and every other tenet of the genre is liable to alteration and/or improvement. This isn't an avant garde record, though; it’s straightforward but the songs are full of touches that sound like no one but Drux. The closest comparisons I can think of are Amde Petersens Arme and Mülltüte, two other European bands who sound like they’re inspired by the best of USHC, but committed to making it their own. This is too smart to become a hype record, but if you think hardcore is still an artistically viable genre I recommend checking out this record.

Cruelster: Riot Boys 12” (Lumpy) Second 12” from this Cleveland band. They share members with Perverts Again, Bulsch, and Roobydocks, so if you’re following that scene this is already on your “to-buy” list, and rightly so. This group of people is making some of the most innovative, interesting, and contemporary-sounding punk I’ve heard, and Riot Boys is an essential piece of the puzzle. However, even if you can hear how interesting, important, and great it is, it will still try your patience. That’s because, while other parts of the punk scene try to create a kind of punk (or, more broadly, liberal) utopia, Cruelster engage with the shit the rest of us do our best to ignore, and it’s fucking ugly. Nowhere is that clearer than on the lengthy sample that starts the album. The narrator reads a letter to the editor of a Captain America comic book, and as the letter unfolds we gradually understand the writer is a nut. The letter continues to get weirder until it culminates in a series of death threats against the editors. Of a fucking Captain America comic. This is the perfect segue into “Crisis in Local Government Part III,” whose chorus (insofar as you can call anything in a Cruelster song a chorus) is “I want to see American Sniper / I want to see Bradley Cooper as Chris.” While their music is jagged, awkward, and interesting, what’s unsettling about Cruelster is how they dig deep into this mentality, pushing past the Fox News caricature and getting at the mundane—and human—thought processes behind it. It’s a place most punks won't go, and for that reason it’s worth going there. That Cruelster marry this aesthetic to weird, interesting, and powerful music is either the cake or the icing, depending on your perspective.

Shipwrecked: We Are the Sword 12” (Foreign Legion) Shipwrecked’s debut LP received a ton of hype a few years ago, but I never heard their releases so I’m coming to this one fresh. My first impression is that it makes sense that Shipwrecked were hyped in 2012 because their brand of Boston hardcore worship is similar to the first Boston Strangler LP, which also came out that year. Once you get past this LP's long intro (it takes up nearly the entire first side) you get a big helping of meat and potatoes hardcore that sounds like SSD and the FU’s thrown into a blender. The label’s description mentions that metallic influences creep in on this record, and aside from a few guitar leads that would fit well in a Battle Ruins song I’m not sure I hear much of that. While I tend to prefer hardcore that’s less straightforward, I understand why Shipwrecked get so much attention as they know their way around a hardcore tune.

Dark Thoughts: At Work 12” (Stupid Bag) Second 12” from this Philadelphia band that wears their Ramones influence on their collective sleeve. However, Dark Thoughts has always seemed like a hardcore band playing melodic, Ramones-inspired punk rather than a true pop-punk band, as evidenced by the Negazione and Betong Hysteria shirts members often wear when they play live. I’ve always said that dressing like you’re from one scene but playing music in the style of another is a sure path to success, but in actuality Dark Thoughts’ secret sauce is their incredible songwriting. At Home, while sounding very similar to their great first LP, strikes me as an improvement. The songs feel snappier and more direct (the LP also feels shorter, but I haven’t checked whether it is) and the Ramones influence is closer to the surface. Dark Thoughts don’t just ape superficial aspects of the Ramones’ sound, though. The big riff (and even bigger vocal melody) in “Psycho Ward” sounds like it could have been a deep cut hit off Halfway to Sanity or Brain Drain, while “Don’t Wanna” is just as clear an homage to Leave Home as the record’s artwork. As someone who was never hardcore enough to sell off my Screeching Weasel records, I’m right in Dark Thoughts’ key demographic. If, like me, you thought that the pop-punk section of your record collection was no longer accepting new entries, I suggest you board this bandwagon.

Contrast Attitude: 12 Track Compilation 12” EP 2018 12” (Distort Reality) Just like the title says, this record compiles material released between 2010 and 2014, including their Black & White EP, splits with See You in Hell, Aspects of War, and Final Bombs (the latter on vinyl for the first time), and their contribution to a CD compilation called Heal. Even though this LP covers a few years worth of releases, the sound here is consistent, more like a proper 12” EP than a compilation. If you haven’t heard Contrast Attitude, it’s safe to say that they’re acolytes of Disclose; they even thank Discharge, Disclose, and Kawakami on the insert. While they don’t have that extra magic that places Framtid on the top of the heap, they’re masters of the style, and better than 95% of the bands attempting anything similar. If you follow labels like Brain Solvent Propaganda and Distort Reality (which this is on) you’ll want to nab this.

Coupe Gorge: Troubles 12” (Offside) After a few cassette and 7” releases here’s the debut 12” (though it’s one-sided with a cool screen-printed b-side) from this French oi! band. Most oi! bands nowadays (at least the ones worth listening to) have some hardcore in their sound, and Coupe Gorge are no different. I’d place their sound in the part of the spectrum that’s more oi! than 86 Mentality, but more hardcore than Rixe. Their songs are short and to the point, with not a single one over two minutes and a couple under one minute, so this 8-song EP begs you to play it over and over. It’s also expertly sequenced, stringing together a bunch of rippers that remind me of the Negative Approach LP, climaxing with the melodic, Blitz-esque “Mise á Mort,” and then closing things out with the big mosh riffs of “J’Avance Seul.” Fans of Dead Stop, Crown Court, LP-era Negative Approach, and 86 Mentality take note.

Donkey Bugs: S/T 12” (Lumpy) Debut release from this new Cleveland project, and while Cleveland is a city that produces a lot of head-scratcher records, this might be the head-scratchiest of them all. Donkey Bugs build songs around sparse drum machine rhythms and vocals with other instruments (mostly synths, from the sound of it) weaving in and out, but it would a big stretch to call this synth-punk. The label’s description mentions the Residents, and that’s the closest comparison that I can think of. Like the Residents’ music, Donkey Bugs’ songs feel deconstructed, with anything familiar or conventional purged, leaving only a weird, distorted skeleton of a song. The melodies and lyrics are also bizarre and surreal. They remind me of the songs that I make up when my partner goes out of town and I get three or four days into being alone. At that point I go a little crazy and make up strange little songs about my cat or what I’m making for dinner or whatever, and at their weirdest they might resemble something on this record. I hesitate to mention it because no one out there might agree, but something about this record reminds me of Royal Trux in places, though Donkey Bugs’ music is far more sparse (as the description mentions, it’s even dub-y in places) and less chaotic. If you’re looking for punk or hardcore you won’t find it here, but if you’re a Cleveland punk mega-fan (particularly the weirder stuff from that scene) or you’re the person who seeks the weirdest, most surreal music you can find this may be something you can hang with.

Trash Knife / Dumb Vision: Split 7” (Kitschy Spirit) Split 7” pairing Philadelphia’s Trash Knife with Madison, Wisconsin’s Dumb Vision. Trash Knife are a known quantity around Sorry State as I’ve loved all of their previous releases. If you haven’t heard them before, they play snotty, hardcore-y punk that reminds me of the Avengers, but with melodic, Buzzcocks-type leads peppered throughout the songs. That formula remains intact for their three songs (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!), but there are two key differences. First, with three songs crammed onto one side of a split 7”, these songs are shorter and more to the point than previous Trash Knife songs. Second, the production here is piss raw, super noisy and blown out. I would have been skeptical that such raw production would work for Trash Knife since there’s so much going on in their music, but the nastiness brings out the band’s acerbic side and makes for a thrilling listen. As for Dumb Vision, this is the first time I've heard them. They’re more of a pop-punk band than Trash Knife (who always struck me as hardcore-meets-77-punk) and remind me of early Lookout!-era Queers or the first Lillingtons LP. However, their recording has just as much noise and filth as Trash Knife’s side, and while I’m not a big pop-punk guy the spoonful of vinegar helps this medicine go down. This is just the kind of no-nonsense punk split you don’t hear much anymore.

Mint: Demo Two cassette (Slugsalt) Second tape from this Philadelphia band. We carried their first one, which reminded me of poppy anarcho punk like Crisis or Zounds, but they sound rather different here. My first impression is that the singer’s voice reminds me of Kathleen Hannah; like Hannah, their pipes sound huge and carry big, broad melodies that beg you to sing along. The guitar riffs also remind me of riffy Bikini Kill songs like “I Like Fucking” (or, alternately, riffy Bratmobile songs like “Not in Dog Years”), but despite those two similarities Mint doesn’t sound like a riot grrrl band at all. They sound like a punk band making music without worrying too much about what they sound like, but rather taking riffs and melodies and working them into fully realized songs that someone would want to listen to. By contrast, Mint make it clear how many other bands are way too beholden to their influences, which holds many of them back from developing their voice as effectively as Mint has across their two tapes.

Mujeres Podridas: Sobredosis cassette (Todo Destruido) Second tape from this ripping punk band out of Texas. Their first one was good enough to get a vinyl pressing on Symphony of Destruction, but this one is even better. You probably know their vocalist Dru from her other bands Criaturas and Kurraka, but she has a different style in Mujeres Podridas. Usually I think it’s a bad idea for a singer to be in more than one group because vocals are so individual and so central to a band’s sound, but Dru has such flexibility and inventiveness as a singer that she can make all three bands sound distinct from one another. She has this one move she does on the first track where she expels all the air from her lungs at once in a way that’s not quite a yell or a scream… it’s somewhere between a scream and a hiss, and the only vocalist I’ve heard do something similar is Chitose from the Comes. On this tape you get four tracks, two blistering hardcore rippers and two more mid-paced songs. The first mid-paced song, “Misterio Planeta,” leads with the bass and approaches the catchiness of Agent Orange circa Living in Darkness, while the last song, “Golpe Tras Golpe (Desechables)” is more anthemic a la the Avengers or Ultimo Resorte. I’m a huge fan of every band that this group of people starts, but with this release it seems like Mujeres Podridas has found their voice and established themselves as just as important and vital as the members’ other bands.

Syndrome 81: Béton Nostalgie 12” (Black Water) Discography-to-date collection from this French oi! band. When most Americans hear the phrase “French oi! band” their mind probably jumps to Rixe, but Syndrome 81 don’t sound much like Rixe at all, at least most of the time. Sure, there are similarities (particularly on their earlier tracks, originally released on cassette way back in 2013) as both bands are steeped in their native country’s long tradition of oi! music. However, while Rixe seem like perfectionists, whittling down each part of the song until it fits into the Rixe aesthetic, Syndrome 81 are more willing to go out on a limb with their songwriting. By the third track on this release, “Recouvrance,” the band is experimenting with criss-crossing melodic lines on the guitar and bass and more melancholic, minor-key chord progressions. While oi! has a reputation for being restrictive as a genre (one might even say dumb), Syndrome 81 incorporate a wide range of sounds, tones, and textures. It always still sounds like oi!, but oi! in wide screen. In this respect Syndrome 81 reminds me of the Beltones, another band who wasn’t afraid to expand the oi! formula to incorporate dark, melodic pop in the Leatherface vein.

Cremalleras: Mercado Negro 12” (Thrilling Living / Cintas Pepe) Second LP from this two-piece hardcore punk band out of Mexico, and while I don’t believe I heard their first record, the Thrilling Living seal of approval piques my interest. Dropping the needle on this I find raw, wild, and expressionistic hardcore that finds a perfect spiritual home on a label run by someone who plays in Mozart and Neon. Cremalleras aren’t as art-y as either of those two bands, but they share a visceral explosiveness. This is music that comes from the gut and the heart rather than the brain. It doesn’t sound like Cremalleras spent much time fussing over the details, but what they do well is let loose, and like Wretched, Negazione, or Void, their music seems to reach inside your body, grab you by the intestines, and force you not only to listen but more importantly to feel what they’re playing. I’m sure some people will nitpick details like the recording quality (which is very lo-fi), but if you open yourself to hearing this record, it’s difficult to deny its power.

Den: Deep Cell 12” (Paradise Daily) Perhaps the weirdest release of this update comes to us from Australia’s Den. I’ve been struggling to describe it to people, which is always a good sign for me. The pithy description I’ve come up with is “Total Control meets symphonic black metal,” but that only tells, at best, part of the story. The label’s description mentions Christian Death, and while I haven’t spent a ton of time with those later Christian Death records, I think there’s a similar vibe here. Den’s music is dark, but there’s a spirit of celebration… it’s the sonic equivalent of the new romantic fashion for painting your face like a corpse but dressing in frilly, ornate Victorian finery. Death is coming, so live for today. The label’s description also mentions Magazine, and I hear that too. Like Magazine, Den’s synth lines have a Wagnerian grandiosity, though they make me think of Dimmu Borgir just as much (hence the “symphonic black metal” tag in my description). I’m sure that many people will hate this, but I’m charmed by Den’s baroque boldness.

The Fits: Bored of Education 7” (Ugly Pop) Ugly Pop dips their bucket back into the well of 70s Canadian punk and comes up with this noteworthy single from Toronto’s the Fits. The real hit here is the title track (curiously, on the b-side), which is a blistering proto-hardcore burner that would have fit right in on the “Screaming Fist” single by fellow Torontonians the Viletones. While “Bored of Education” is the hit (and I’m surprised it hasn’t been comped more often), the other two tracks are solid too. While they don’t reach such blistering tempos, their grimy, nihilistic sound reminds me of a one-off single from that grey area between second-wave UK punk and UK82, music by people who weren’t so much jazzed on punk’s artistic potential, but rather its ability to articulate the grinding pointlessness of young adulthood. As is usual with Ugly Pop, you get liner notes that add historical context and top-notch reproduction of the original sound and artwork.

Preening: Nice Dice 7” (Fine Concepts) Latest in a spate of recent releases by this no-wave band from Oakland, California. As on their previous releases, the quirky rhythms and skronky saxophone abound. While Nice Dice is a brief single, Preening goes several different places in its 7-ish-minute run-time, from the mutant funk of “CPD” to the anti-rock “Effigy.” I’m sure I’ve said this in descriptions of their previous records, but I’m still struck by how free and alive Preening’s music sounds. Having grown up listening primarily to more straightforward hardcore and punk, I always thought making music is like following a recipe… you might tweak the mix of spices or add or subtract an ingredient or two to suit your individual taste, but the basic recipe is stable and familiar. However, Preening don’t sound like they’re following a recipe… they sound like they’ve taken the ingredients, thrown them into the air, then rolled around in the mess on the floor. That might sound like a backhanded compliment, but it’s not. Preening’s indulgence in this transgressive joy is what I need to (Calgon) take me away from a life filled with worry, anxiety, and frustration.

Rapid Dye: Nurture or Destroy 7” (Paradise Daily) Debut 7” from this Australian hardcore band… I thought I remembered reading that there were notable “members of,” but I’m not able to find that information. Or maybe I imagined it. Anyway, when I was listening to this record, I wrote a note to myself that it sounds like it could have come from Toronto, and then I look back at the label’s description and indeed they compare it to Urban Blight (who were definitely from Toronto) and Violent Minds (who I think were kinda-sorta from Toronto, at least for a time). The title track is the hit with its thick, meaty, oi!-infused main riff that could slide right onto a record by masters of mosh like Glue, Bib, or the aforementioned Urban Blight. They pick up the pace for the rest of the record, going for more of an early Agnostic Front / Abused type of vibe, but the riffing remains sprightly and interesting. Rapid Dye are a competent, even exceptional, hardcore band, but the most striking thing about this record might be the production, which swirls with as much noise and feedback as a Confuse record. Combining that production and the band’s songwriting makes listening to this record feel like fighting a swarm of bees with a burlap sack over your head. Oh, and it's limited to only 200, so this one won't stick around long enough for you to figure out whether the cool guys will like it.

Slumb Party: Happy Now 12” (Drunken Sailor) After an earlier 7” on Erste Theke Tonträger, here’s the debut LP from this UK band. It’s an ambitious record that resists classification, evidenced by both the all-over-the-place label description and the string of off-the-wall comparisons I’m about to throw at you. Since I can’t sum up Slumb Party’s music, I’ll list some of the things that I was reminded of while listening to Happy Now: Sauna Youth’s snappy punk; Downtown Boys’ ecstatic, sax-fueled punk; the skronk-punk and mutant funk of no wave groups like the Contortions; Andy Partridge from XTC’s plaintive, melodic vocals; Voodoo Glow Skulls’ jittery, manic ska-punk; Madness’s inventive and very British horn melodies and arrangements. Another listener may hear none of those things, but the point I’m trying to make is that Slumb Party’s music feels free of rules and boundaries. They aren’t a band who has honed their sound and focused all of their attention on doing one thing perfectly, but rather they’re an orgiastic musical free-for-all that darts around like a startled rabbit. I’ve listened to this record four or five times and I still don’t feel like I have a handle on it, but it keeps pulling me in. Obviously not everyone will have the patience to engage with a record that demands so much from you as a listener, but those of you willing to invest your attention will love this utterly singular record.

La Urss: Nuevo Testamento 12” (Discos MMM) Fourth album from this veteran punk band from Spain. I’ve always thought La Urss was great (especially live), and I remain confused why they aren’t bigger. Perhaps Nuevo Testamento will be the one that pushes them through to wherever they’re trying to go, because it’s a real step up. If you were watching their discography like a movie, Nuevo Testamento is when things transform from black and white into brilliant color. This isn’t to knock their other records (which were also excellent), but Nuevo Testamento adds another dimension to La Urss’s music. In particular, it seems like the band has transcended punk rock, at least to an extent. They still sound punk, but they’re also more than that, with a wider range of sounds incorporated into their sonic palette and their songwriting growing to accommodate a wider range of moods and textures. They’ve always been able to craft a great pop hook, but on Nuevo Testamento they deploy those hooks in the service of something greater, something more like art than just a bouncy, fun punk record. God bless labels like Discos MMM and Todo Destruido for making sure that there are great records like this in the world even if they won't move a bazillion units.

Vittna: 2 Songs + Live at the Hive cassette (self-released) After a scorching demo last year, Raleigh’s Vittna follow things up with this five-song cassette. The first two tracks are from an upcoming 7”, while the other three are recorded live in the band’s practice space (including the Sacrilege cover they’ve been playing live for a while now). If you missed the first Vittna cassette (shame on you!), the band features the creative core of Raleigh favorites Blackball, but to my ears they amplify the more haunting and unique aspects of that band’s sound, making their strengths the central focus rather than just an added spice in a main meal of meat and potatoes. Specifically, those interesting aspects are the quirky / surprising rhythms and the dark and melodic guitar work. Not that Vittna aren’t a hardcore band—they are—but they’re a densely layered, ambitious hardcore band in the vein of Articles of Faith or Everything Falls Apart-era Hüsker Dü, albeit with more Discharge influence than either of those two bands displayed on the surface. If you’re looking for a more modern reference point, Sickoids’ great No Home LP is a great point of reference as the balance between explosive gestalt and meticulous and subtle composition and performance is similar here. Fortunately there’s enough music on this tape to keep it close to the player for the next couple of months, but it really has me salivating for the full 7”, which is the point I guess. Highly recommended.

Forward: Another Dimension 7” (Farewell) You know, I’ve been buying Forward records for close to two decades now, and I think Another Dimension may be the first one I’ve listened to without secretly hoping that it was a Death Side record. I think that says a lot more about me than it does about the band… Forward has always been great and I’ve enjoyed their records a lot, but for all of their basic similarities (loud guitars, Ishiya’s vocals, etc.) they are a different band than Death Side. Now that their reunion shows are a semi-regular occurrence, I can get past the Death Side thing and appreciate Forward for what they are, which is a unique and powerful band. If you’ve followed Forward’s career there aren’t many surprises on this latest record. While they went through a period in the early 00s when they sounded quite poppy to my ears (they actually sounded similar to Paintbox, albeit without Chelsea’s trademark guitar heroics), on their last several releases Forward has sounded invigorated, with a faster and heavier sound that recalls their great While You Alive EP, but more fleshed-out and with heavier production. Like Motorhead (to whom they pay tribute here by dedicating a song to Lemmy), Forward knows who they are, and while they’re always growing and developing the core of the sound remains unchanged. And like so many strong records that came late in Motorhead’s catalog (like 2004’s blistering Inferno), Another Dimension probably won't draw in anyone who isn’t already onboard the Forward train, but the band's longtime followers will love it.

Apocalypse Now: 4 Track EP 7” (Distort Reality) Debut EP from this raw punk band out of Portland. Maybe it’s just because I don’t follow the scene closely, but I think it’s cool that there are all of these hardcore bands in Portland that I don’t know about, and then suddenly they’ll drop a record on a label like Distort Reality or Black Water. Sometimes those records disappear without much comment and other times the hype machine will catch on (usually belatedly), but they’re always an interesting listen because Portland is home to so many musicians who are master craftsmen of hardcore and d-beat. Speaking of which, Apocalypse Now features former members of Bog People and Deathcharge, and what little information about them exists online simply says they play in the style of Anti-Cimex. Anyone familiar with Anti-Cimex’s discography knows that can mean any number of things, but Apocalypse Now sound the most like Cimex circa their self-titled 12” EP, when they got a little more song-oriented but hadn’t rocked out to the point that they did on Absolut Country of Sweden. Even more, Apocalypse Now remind me of Deathcharge’s early stuff. Like their The Hangman single in particular, these four tracks are d-beat, but d-beat overlaid with a brooding, almost melancholy atmosphere. That atmosphere isn’t as prominent as it was in Deathcharge, but it’s still there, buried deep in the structures of Apocalypse Now’s riffs and arrangements. While this EP is unpretentious and straightforward in its presentation, that atmosphere elevates this well above the level of your typical 2010s d-beat revival band. If you like d-beat but you aren’t a purist and still believe bands can do something interesting with the format in this day and age I highly recommend checking this out.

La Misma: Negociacoes de Pas Continuae Como Fazemas Fabulas 7" (Toxic State) Has it really been three years since La Misma’s excellent debut LP? I guess it has… time flies! As one might expect given such a long gap between releases, Negaciacoes doesn’t sound exactly like La Misma’s older releases, though the sound is similar. The core is still based in the Toxic State sound, but what I like about La Misma—particularly on this release—is how loose and jammy they are. In my own bands, we compose everything meticulously… when we write songs we decide to play this riff four times, then that one six, and on and on until the end of the song, and we play it the same way every time. However, La Misma’s songs are more fluid and organic, like they’re based around grooves rather than composed as discrete sections and then welded together. Consequently, there’s something about La Misma’s music that reminds me more of Fun House-era Stooges or Can, although on the surface they sound nothing like either of those groups. What they have in common is that each song has a groove. The groove is the song's core and the rest of the band works around it. You might hear a catchy lead guitar melody pop out for a second or the vocals might come out front for a little bit, but the groove is persistent and keeps the songs chugging along with a motorik-esque hypnotic quality. The band foregrounds that unique aspect of their playing on this EP, and consequently it's more realized and original than La Misma’s previous releases, which were already outstanding. As always with Toxic State you also get cool packaging packed with artwork and information (including English translations of the lyrics, which is always helpful for those of us trapped in our monolingual bubbles), so here’s another one on Toxic State that gets the “highly recommended” tag.

Porvenir Oscuro: S/T 7” (Always Restrictions) Debut 7” from this punk band that has been kicking around New York for a minute; they released a demo last year and now they transition to wax. While Porvenir Oscuro are from New York, they remind me a lot more of a lot of Texas bands than the sound I associate with New York punk (and Toxic State-affiliated bands in particular). Like bands such as Vaaska and Criaturas, there’s a lot of classic punk lurking deep within Porvenir Oscuro’s raw punk aesthetic. The sound of the guitar and drums are indebted to Discharge, but they build songs around straightforward verse/chorus/verse structures more akin to what you’d find in UK82 punk like Vice Squad, albeit with melodies and riffing that are both more sophisticated than that comparison would seem to indicate. I also hear the propulsive but still poppy hardcore of Finnish bands like Appendix or Lama in PO’s sound, and as a sucker for punk that balances rawness and rage with structure and composition I can’t help but fall for this EP. If your tastes run in a similar direction, I don’t think you can go wrong with this record. 

S.H.I.T.: What Do You Stand For? 12” (Iron Lung) Coming hot on the heels of their recent discography-to-date LP on LVEUM, here’s the long-awaited debut LP from Toronto’s S.H.I.T. It’s funny, I might not have noticed it if I hadn’t spent so much time with the collection LP so recently, but S.H.I.T. has changed things up for this LP. A lot of that might be down to a change in the drummer position, as Ivan from Kremlin and School Jerks now mans the skins. The first thing you’ll hear is that S.H.I.T. is way faster on this release than they’ve ever been before. They blaze along at a scorching, Kremlin-esque tempo for the entire record, only slowing things down for the final track, “Losing in the Twenty-First Century.” Everything else is familiar—Ryan’s vocals still have a ton of reverb and the band remains an unfathomably deep wellspring of classic riffs—but the faster tempos change the overall vibe somewhat. Listening to earlier S.H.I.T. releases was like riding a rickety old wooden roller coaster, like the car could fly off the tracks at any moment, or maybe the entire structure would splinter and send everyone hurtling toward their deaths. They seemed unstable, and consequently dangerous and terrifying. However, on What Do You Stand For?, S.H.I.T. are in full-on battering ram mode. Rather than a rickety old wooden coaster that makes you fear for your life, this is one of those newfangled, heavily engineered coasters with wild top speeds and an impossible number of twists, turns, and loops. In other words, S.H.I.T. is now on the level of finely honed, razor sharp hardcore bands like Blood Pressure and Impalers. I’m sure some people will prefer one era of the band over the other, but even if their center of gravity has shifted, S.H.I.T. remains one of the most powerful and exciting hardcore bands in the world. 

Faux Depart: Au Pied Du Mur 12” (Doomtown) I thought it was a shame that Faux Depart’s excellent first tape didn't appear on vinyl, but this record is so much better it’s appropriate that this is their vinyl debut. That first tape was a great, upbeat garage-punk record in the vein of the Marked Men, but Au Pied Du Mur expands on that formula. There’s more variation in the songwriting, with moments of knotty rhythms, lots of different tempos (well, they’re all variations of “fast,” but they range from “pretty fast, dude” to “whoa!”), cool criss-crossing guitar and vocal melodies, and variations in timbre and texture. As much variation as there is, Faux Depart wrap all of it up in the same gratifying pop song structure and brilliant melodic sensibility they displayed on the first tape. Au Pied Du Mur reminds me of how dynamic Dillinger Four’s sound was on Midwestern Songs of the Americas, so if that crossed with the Ramones-based pop sensibilities of the Marked Men and Radioactivity sounds like it might be up your alley you should check out this record.

The Landlords: Hey! It’s a Teenage House Party! 12” (Feel It) Reissue of this 1984 hardcore LP. On the surface this LP wouldn’t seem like an obvious candidate for a reissue since the band is rather obscure, but Feel It has done an amazing job of putting together a package that presents the music in the best light and adds some much-needed context that helps you appreciate these tracks even more than if you stumbled across an original copy. The Landlords were from the sleepy little university town of Charlottesville, Virginia, and while Charlottesville is more or less off the punk rock map (this despite Feel It's has reissues of several cool records from that city), its proximity to DC and Richmond meant that bands like the Landlords could take advantage of those scenes’ fringe benefits, like being able to play with national touring bands and being able to record in Don Zientera’s legendary Inner Ear Studio. Indeed, Hey! It’s a Teenage House Party is a great sounding record, with the same bright and punchy sound of the early Dischord releases that Zientera also recorded (and thanks to quality remastering from the original tapes this reissue likely sounds even better than the original). Musically, on this LP the Landlords are very much a hardcore band and could fit right in on regional hardcore compilations like Flex Your Head or Why Are We Here?, but there are also hints of the more musically complex sound that the Landlords would develop on their later recordings (collected on the Fitzgerald’s Paris LP, also on Feel It). It’s like Articles of Faith’s early material in a way… the Landlords are trying very hard to be a hardcore band on this LP, but there are innumerable hints they’re so much more than just a hardcore band. As I mentioned before, the sound on this reissue is top-notch, and it also comes with a full-size zine jam-packed with liner notes and never-before-seen photos. If you’re in to the Radio Raheem school of hardcore archeology you’ll find a ton to love here, but any lover of early 80s US hardcore will get plenty of spins out of this one.

Protomartyr: Consolation 12” (Domino) I must admit that I’ve been hot and cold on Protomartyr lately. I’ve listened to their records as they came out (we even carried their early singles back when they were first released) and loved everything up to Under Color of Official Right, but then they started to lose me. The The Agent Intellect and Relatives in Descent are rather dour records… they were extremely dark, and I’m not sure if iall of that darkness was too much for me or if I was just not interested in hearing something so not punk, but those records never clicked with me like the earlier ones did. Further, while I’ve always loved the band’s ambition, parts of those latter two records may have crossed the line between ambitious and pretentious. That’s not meant to be a slight against those records… many of my favorite records of all time are so heady and such intense listening experiences I barely ever listen to them. I never put on Joy Division’s Closer or Wire’s 154 unless I’m in exactly the right mood, but I know that when I am in that mood they will hit me hard. Anyway, the four tracks on Consolation are something of a retreat from the depths of darkness probed on the last two LPs. There’s more of a spring in the band’s step, the tempos are sprightlier, and the arrangements are denser, without the vast, open spaces of their recent stuff (which is another thing that those records have in common with Closer). Adding Kelly Deal from the Breeders on backing vocals is also great. It’s like a trump card in the band’s back pocket… whenever Kelly’s voice pops into the mix my ears perk up and I stop whatever I’m doing and just listen. If you’ve also drifted away from Protomartyr this is a good place to jump back aboard, as these four tracks won’t overstay their welcome, and they’ll also remind you of why we all flipped for this band in the first place.

Headsplitters: Tomorrow 7” (Brain Solvent Propaganda) Debut EP from this New York band and it is a beast. While I know Brain Solvent Propaganda primarily for releasing raw punk and d-beat, Headsplitters combine aspects of that sound with more straightforward, even metallic hardcore. The production is beefy and noisy a la Pollen or Vägra, but the riffs and songwriting (and the vocals to an extent) remind me more of a band like Direct Control. In other words, the mix is roughly 85% classic US hardcore and 15% thrash/metal… if you like older, not-quite-crossover like Attitude Adjustment’s early stuff (particularly their pre-LP recordings), COC, or Final Conflict this will be right up your alley. The production and performances here are explosive, using the everything-in-the-red crust sound of the Shitlickers EP. If you like wild and noisy hardcore you will not do much better than this in 2018… highly recommended.

Bound: Lost Songs 7” (Warthog Speak) Compilation of three unreleased and/or hard to get songs from this 90s hardcore band out of Massachusetts. I remember seeing Bound’s name in zines around this time, but I never saw them and never laid hands on any of their records. They remind me of many bands I saw in the late 90s… the pictures on this record really bring me back to that time… big pants, two-sizes-too-large Quicksand t-shirts, baseball caps, shows in VFW halls… it looks like Bound’s experience of 90s hardcore was similar to mine. Anyway, like I said these tracks remind me of many bands I saw back then, but they’re so much better than I remember many bands of this ilk being. In particular, they remind me of early (i.e. Halo in a Haystack and earlier) Converge, but these tracks explode out of the speakers in a way that those records never did. I suppose that’s why Warthog Speak is getting these songs out there. Even though these tracks are outside of that label’s typical wheelhouse of 80s-inspired hardcore, these recordings are so explosive they deserve to be heard. I’m sure I lost many of you at “90s hardcore band,” but if you have a soft spot for this style I’d recommend checking this out. While it doesn’t have the technical complexity that bands like Converge and Cave In were exploring, what it lacks in finesse it makes up for in brute force.

Alienation: Bitter Reality 7” (Warthog Speak) Latest 7” from this great Canadian hardcore band, and the eleven songs crammed onto this 7” are proof they haven’t changed their habit of writing short, fast, and loud rippers. The comparisons are the same as what I made on their earlier records… Neos, Siege, Septic Death, Deep Wound, and other 80s bands that pushed the limits of how fast hardcore could get. Those bands existed in a pre-grindcore world, and Alienation are similarly oblivious to grind… they never use blastbeats and their songs are structurally straightforward hardcore songs in the vein of Negative Approach, only they’re played at the maximum speed they can reach before they disintegrate into an incoherent blur. The production is bright and punchy but still raw, the performances are tight, and the whole thing rips out of your speakers with the crazed force of a wounded lion. If that sounds like your idea of a great hardcore record then it’s obvious that you need to get this on your turntable post haste.

Insinuations: Prompt Critical 7” (Feel It) Feel It Records reissues another piece of punk ephemera from Virginia; while most of their earlier reissues are from the hardcore era, this one goes back to 1979. The band released the original in an impossibly rare edition of 100 copies, so you might as well give up on ever acquiring one of those and grab this reissue if you’re interested. Musically, Insinuations are a bit of a head-scratcher. Not punk by any current usage of the term, Insinuations come off like a group of artists and intellectuals excited by the possibilities of punk but not interested in “being” punk or following the scene’s rules and conventions. They smash together a number of sounds on these two tracks… I hear the music hall sounds of Tom Waits’ early stuff, the deconstructed rock of Pere Ubu, the home-made rhythms of no wave groups like DNA and the Theoretical Girls, and the robotic funk of early Devo. I don't know if Insinuations listened to any of those things, but those sounds were being made around the same time and it’s clear that Insinuations were breathing the same air. If you’re looking for fast and dumb KBD punk a la Freestone you’re barking up the wrong tree, but if you like the artsier sounds of bands like Pere Ubu, x_x, American bands similar to the UKDIY scene, or if you're into the history of punk in the mid-Atlantic and Virginia you should check this out.

Neurosis: Pain of Mind 12” (Neurot) Reissue of Neurosis’s first album from 1987. This one abandons the updated artwork featured on the Alternative Tentacles reissue from 1984 (which I never liked) and updates the original release’s cover illustration to fit Neurosis’s present aesthetic. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that was a wise choice, but I suppose it could have been worse. Many people only know Neurosis as the progressive metal band they’ve become, but this early stuff differs greatly from that. While it’s still metallic, it’s 100% a hardcore record. I’d put it in a similar category to what bands like Born Against, Nausea, and Rorschach were doing around the same time. These bands were rooted in the 80s hardcore aesthetic, but felt constrained by its limitations and were seduced, to a greater or lesser extent, by the artistic possibilities of metal. What emerges is a sound that’s very different from crossover—which prioritized the speed and heaviness that were metal and hardcore’s common language—and more like a prog-ified version of 80s hardcore. Imagine if King Crimson had grown up going to shows at the Vats and listening to records by Verbal Abuse and Agnostic Front and you’re in the ballpark. This was a real moment in time, and I'm not sure if there are still bands making music like this. This album is a classic of the era, bursting with ideas and innovations. Unless you’re one of those dullards who think hardcore died by the mid-80s this is an essential, classic album and I’m glad to see it’s back in print.

Regional Justice Center: World of Inconvenience 12” (Forever Never Ends) Debut 12” from this hardcore / power violence band. Honestly, I don’t listen to much of this stuff, but something about Regional Justice Center caught my eye. I checked it out, and I was pleasantly surprised. Stylistically, Regional Justice Center meld the power violence and Youth Attack aesthetics (Mark McCoy did the artwork as well) with tougher hardcore elements. Normally that mix doesn’t do it for me, but Regional Justice Center’s songs are Byzantine mazes of stops, starts, and tempo changes that keep you guessing as to what’s coming next. There’s a Celtic Frost-esque cut-and-paste aesthetic in how jagged and unexpected the transitions are. The riffs themselves are interesting, and they never hang around long enough to come off as trite or overplayed. On top of that foundation of jagged, proggy hardcore you also get powerful vocals and clear, heavy modern production. If you listen to power violence and/or you follow the world of Youth Attack Records this is a no-brainer, but this is original, exciting, and well-executed enough that Sorry State’s crowd can get down with it too.

Geld: Demo 7” (No Patience) We were just raving about Geld’s 12” on Iron Lung, and now here’s a vinyl pressing of their demo (which we also carried back when it was a humble cassette). When I wrote my original description about this demo I noted that it sounded like hardcore with a streak of experimentalism, but it sounds a little different listening to it now in light of having heard where the band has gone after. Those experimental elements that don’t feel like the central focus here take the center stage on the LP, and while this demo is still a progressive hardcore record, at its core it's still a hardcore record. Specifically, it’s a hardcore record that’s very much in the tradition of Damaged with its dense layers of noise and overwhelming sense of claustrophobia and anxiety. Doubtless there are people out there who prefer this more straightforward recording, but I’m pleased that Geld seem to be moving in a direction that emphasizes and develops what’s unique about their sound. Still, this recording is an absolute rager, and there’s a reason that hardcore bands continue to articulate the emotions I mentioned above… they’re more or less universal and hardcore is uniquely positioned to articulate and explore these emotions, and Geld are far better than most at doing so.

Damagers: S/T 7” (Deranged) Debut 7” from this new Toronto band… actually, it’s their demo pressed to vinyl, but this is definitely a fully realized release and the actual demo didn't circulate widely. You might think from the imagery (bricks, baseball bats, etc.) that Damagers are a NYHC-type band, but they’re not at all… honestly, this 7” isn’t all that different from the new Tarantula EP that came out at the same time. While Damages are quite tough-sounding, they have a lot of catchiness and a lot of rock and roll in their sound, though the raw production recalls the legendary NYHC recordings from Don Fury’s studio. To me Damagers sound like an amped-up, hardcore-ified take on something like the Dead Boys or GBH… at their core they sound like a rock and roll band but the absolute meanest, heaviest, and ugliest rock and roll band they can possibly be. The recording here is raw and powerful, the songs are downright explosive… there’s nothing not to like here. If you like hardcore you’ll dig this.

Dirty & His Fists: Demo 2016 7” (Negative Jazz) Demo-on-vinyl from Californian punks Dirty & His Fists. We carried this back when it was a cassette, and I still stand by what I said about it then, so here it is again for your convenience: “Demo cassette from this new punk band out of California, and it's a real standout to me. While the effect on the vocals and the way some melodies are constructed and performed immediately recall the Spits, overall Dirty & His Fists fit in snugly in that magical little spot between punk and hardcore that I just can't get enough of. Some of their songs lean more toward hardcore and can start to sound a little like Sorry State favorites S.L.I.P., while other more mid-paced tracks can sound like a less Ramones-y Screeching Weasel at their toughest. I mean, the band comparisons are beside the point because it's clear that Dirty & His Fists aren't simply trying to sound like another band... their songs are too well thought out and their voice to singular and well developed for that. In a word, they just sound like a punk band, and a punk band with great songs, a great recording, and a powerful performance. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one get repressed on vinyl at some point because it's just that good. Highly recommended.”

Cold Meat / Ubik: Split 7” (Helta Skelta) Split 7” from these two Australian bands, both of whom we’ve heard from before. Cold Meat are up first and deliver two originals of their amped-up, garage-ish punk rock. If you’re a fan of their other stuff or similar bands like Helta Skelta or the Shitty Limits you won’t be disappointed as this is grade A, energetic, song-oriented punk rock. They close out their side with a cover of “Love in a Void” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. “Love in a Void” has never been one of my favorite Siouxsie songs, mostly because the band got so much better once they got a little more ambitious, but Cold Meat’s version tightens up the playing from the original version and reveals the great classic punk track lurking below the sloppiness of that early Banshees lineup. As for Ubik, they have one brief original and a cover of “Nausea” by X. While Ubik’s previous 7” had a Crisis-esque anarcho-punk vibe, their original here is a brief and blindingly fast pogo-punk number that has all the catchiness of their earlier stuff but way more energy. Most of their side of the split is devoted to the X cover, and while it’s solid and fun to listen to, I wouldn’t say their straightforward, stripped-down version does anything super exciting with the track. I would have preferred more original material over the covers, but the covers are still fun to listen to and I’m glad to get at least some new material from two bands I like a lot.

Von Gam: 1GenPunk 12” (Ken Rock) Don’t be fooled by the graffiti logo on the cover… this isn’t a Cold World side project, but rather some vintage 70s Swedish punk. Von Gam released a two-song single in 1980 (that’ll set you back $200-300 if you’re lucky enough to find one) and a (presumably) even rarer cassette in 1981, and from what I can tell from the not-very-Anglophone-friendly packaging this LP collects the single, a few of the songs from the cassette, and some other assorted tracks. It’s easy to see why the single goes for so much money, because Von Gam play great 70s European punk with a distinctly rock and roll flavor… fans of the Kids, Lost Kids, and Rude Kids (hell, maybe there are even some similar bands out there that don't have the word “kids” in their name!) will eat this up, as will fans of more modern bands in this vein like Finland’s Achtungs or Sweden’s Baddat for Trubbel. Von Gam dabble in some other sounds too… there’s some ska on this LP’s deeper tracks and more mid-paced, Clash-inspired songs, but the best songs here are absolute scorchers that will blow the wig off of anyone who has more than a few plays on their collection of Killed by Death compilations.

Denim & Leather: Sacred Autism 12” (Drunken Sailor) After a pair of standout 7”s, here’s the debut LP from Manchester’s Denim & Leather. I always feel the need to point out that the band’s name gives an incorrect impression… it makes me think they’ll sound like Motorhead or something, but Denim & Leather are one of the most progressive, artsiest hardcore bands around at the moment. In other words, if angular riffs, densely layered sounds, surprising rhythms, and thought-provoking lyrics are the things you want from a hardcore record you are really going to like this one. If you’re looking for some straightforward band comparisons, fans of Bad Breeding, No, Una Bestia Incontrolable, labels like Iron Lung and La Vida Es Un Mus, and bands who live in that fuzzy space between DIY hardcore and AmRep-style noise rock should be sure to check this out. I’m reluctant to describe this any further because it’s just something you have to listen to and appreciate for what it is. The record is jam-packed with ideas and Denim & Leather clearly have labored over its recording and presentation. It is a real feast for the ears, and if the above references have you intrigued I suggest you pick this one up with all due haste.

Stiff Love: Trouble 7” (Neck Chop) Debut 7” from this new band out of Olympia, Washington. My band No Love played with them on their recent tour and they were great live, but this 7” is even better. Stylistically, Stiff Love have a really cool vibe… there are elements of classic punk, 60s garage, and power-pop, but it skews very far toward the punk, particularly with the fast and loose playing and the raw production on this 7”. I’m reminded a lot of Nikki & the Corvettes’ best tracks, but Stiff Love are even punker than that reference would indicate. The songs themselves are super dense with a ton going on… each one generally has a great main riff, a cool lead that comes in over top of the main riff at some point (they’re a twin-guitar attack BTW), and catchy vocals that are more of a rhythmic yelp than melodic singing. Despite the fact that there’s so much going on the songs never feel overworked, which again probably comes at least partially from the loose playing style (which is totally drenched with swagger) and the rough production. Stiff Love are such great songwriters and musicians that I can easily imagine them taking the path of a band like the Donnas or the Hives… with more “professional” production this is a band that could get really, really big. Or they could just keep putting out records as good as Trouble and they’ll develop their own rabid, cult-like audience. Or maybe they’ll break up and these tunes will get comped on a future volume of Killed by Death and we old-timers will talk about how we remember when you could pick this thing up for six measly bucks. Highly recommended.

ISS: S/T 12” (Drunken Sailor) ISS mania continues with this latest release, which is a vinyl reissue of the band’s first self-titled cassette full-length, which was original released on Rich from Terminal Boredom’s Loki Label in 2015. I’ve been immersed in the world of ISS lately, but I hadn’t returned to this first release in quite a while and I’d forgotten how different it is from what they’re doing these days. Nowadays, I think of ISS’s music as having three essential layers: the sampled drums and original bass line that make up the “song,” another layer of irreverent samples, guitar solos, and other stuff, then Rich’s vocals blaring out insanely catchy lines over top of all that. However, ISS hadn’t really added that middle layer when they did these tracks, so they sound quite minimal next to, say, the 7” they just released on Sorry State. While I would probably say that I like the newer stuff better (though, to be fair, I’m the type of person who almost always likes the newest stuff best), the advantage of the more minimal style of this LP is that it’s much more immediately catchy. The vocals are very clean-sounding and right up front in the mix, so you’re singing along with “Back Taxes and Anaphylaxis” and “Freemasons Run the Country” on the second listen, whereas the denser, newer material takes a few listens for your ear to fully decode. In my mind, though, every second of ISS music is essential listening, and even if you have the original cassette I would highly recommend upgrading to this superior format.

Acid Attack: Suburbia’s Dream 12” (Radio Raheem) Reissue of the entire recorded works from this UK82 band out of Portsmouth, UK on the always-reliable Radio Raheem label. As the label’s description indicates, simply referring to Acid Attack as a UK82 band glosses over much of what’s interesting about them. They may well have been trying to emulate bands like GBH, Vice Squad, or the Exploited, but if that was the case they missed the mark by quite a bit, albeit in a very interesting way. Acid Attack never quite reach the full-on thrash tempo of songs like the Exploited’s “Dead Cities,” and that combined with the extremely loose playing gives the band a vibe more like any number of extremely homespun vintage anarcho demos. As Jeff pointed out to me, the bassist and guitarist are quite frequently out of tune and out of time with one another… they also occupy pretty radically different tonal ranges, with the bass very muffled and low-sounding and the guitar super bright and right up front in the mix. It probably sounds like I’m ragging on the band, but something kind of magical emerges from the looseness of the playing, and personally I find the much rougher tracks on the first part of the record a lot more interesting than tracks like “Animal Sound” that are a little more together musically. As is usually the case with Radio Raheem, this reissue features elaborate packaging, including a lengthy full-color booklet and some of the coolest cover artwork I’ve seen in a long time, so even if you buy this and find out that your appreciation of semi-inept UK82 punk doesn’t run quite as deep as you thought it did at least it’ll look super cool when you flip past it in your stacks.

Hellbent: 1983-1984 Demos 12” (Radio Raheem) Radio Raheem reissues another lost 80s HC band, and this time it’s New York’s Hellbent getting the treatment. It’s funny, I don’t recall ever hearing of Hellbent before this reissue came out, which is particularly surprising because 1. this stuff absolutely slays and 2. they played tons of legendary New York punk shows, and their name is right there on flyers that I’ve seen many times before… why didn’t I ever think to investigate the band that played the first Samhain show along with YDI? Well, at least my oversight is rectified now. Stylistically, Hellbent are definitely on the more metallic end of hardcore. They mention Discharge, Venom, and Motorhead as inspirations, but to me they sound quite a bit like Broken Bones’ early stuff, only considerably faster and meaner-sounding. As the bassist notes in this reissue’s liner notes, while most straightforward hardcore bands wrote riffs by moving power chords around the neck as quickly as possible, Hellbent’s songs were built around more complex and metallic licks, to the point where I could imagine them playing with a demo-era Metallica and going over extremely well. The vocalist also sounds a lot like Eric Eycke from C.O.C., which gives mid-paced songs like the swampy, Sabbath-inflected “Ballad of Ed Gein” a very Eye for an Eye type of vibe. I could do without some of the covers at the end of the record, but if you’re a fan of this type of metal-infused hardcore punk—i.e. you love records by bands like Broken Bones, English Dogs, and C.O.C.—I can’t recommend this one highly enough, and of course the typically beautiful and informative packaging from Radio Raheem always sweetens the deal as well.

The Shifters: Just Sat Down 7” (Digital Regress) Latest 7” from this band out of Melbourne whose releases all seem to sell out more or less instantly. I doubt this one will be any different because it’s just as good as, if not better than, their previous ones. Descriptions of the band have a habit of mentioning both the Fall and Flying Nun Records, and it’s easy to see why, as the Shifters tend to rely on the repetitive song structures of the former but have a bit of the pop sensibility of the latter. While band’s debut cassette (which was recently re-released on LP) has more of the dreamy vibe of the Clean, this 7” reminds me a lot more of the Fall, particularly the period between Dragnet and Slates. “Melbourne & Monash Youth League” specifically could be a Dragnet outtake with its off-kilter, cheapo keyboard sounds and deadpan vocals. As I mentioned in my description of their cassette, the interplay between the two vocalists and the blatant Fall-isms also remind me of the UV Race. I suppose there isn’t much more to say… I’m sure I had a lot of you at “Australian band inspired by the Fall,” but even if you only dabble in that sound this is well worth checking out as it’s a cut above for sure.

Erik Nervous: Assorted Anxieties 12” (Neck Chop) US pressing of this collection of Erik Nervous’s previous releases. Just to annoy everyone, this version actually features one track that wasn’t on the Drunken Sailor version, while that version features a track that doesn’t appear here. Does that mean that you need to buy both? Well, that’s certainly the implication, but obviously they’re merely courting the die-hards. Anyway, we carried several of these releases back when they originally came out, but for some reason I think they sound even better together on this LP. Maybe it was the plan to bring together these EPs into a ripping full-length right from the start, but if not it sure was a happy accident, because just like the Buzzcocks’ classic Singles Going Steady, Assorted Anxieties sounds more like a coherent LP than a compilation. If you haven’t heard Erik Nervous, he often gets grouped with the whole Coneheads / Liquids scene, presumably because he’s from the same part of the country, relies on some quirky rhythms, and writes broadly pop-based music. I suppose that fans of those groups probably would be into Erik Nervous, but he definitely has his own thing going on as well. In particular, Assorted Anxieties is a lot more stylistically diverse than either of those bands, dabbling in everything from mutant funk to slightly dreamy, Flying Nun-style post-punk to saccharine pop and even metal (there’s a pretty legit cover of “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden). It’s all well-developed, well-recorded, and well-performed… despite Erik Nervous’s well-deserved reputation for being prolific, nothing here feels tossed-off, underdeveloped, or otherwise less than awesome, so if you’re a fan of this type of quirky, catchy punk (i.e. you follow labels like Neck Chop, Total Punk, Lumpy, Erste Theke Tonträger, and Drunken Sailor) now’s as good a time as any to get on the Erik Nervous train.

New Vogue: S/T cassette (self-released) Debut cassette full-length from this Canadian project. This recording seemed to be getting a little bit of attention from the YouTube punks a few weeks ago, but I’m glad to see that it also has a physical release, 1. so that we can carry it and 2. because I think it’s really good and warrants the gravitas that comes with a physical release, even if it’s just a cassette. I wouldn’t be surprised if some label offered to press this up on vinyl, though, because it’s absolutely killer. New Vogue has a sound that incorporates elements of both garage-punk and post-punk… they tend to rely on the kind of jittery rhythms that I associate with post-Carbonas garage-punk, but their music feels really dense and layered in a way that I associate with post-punk bands, particularly bands like the Fall. At times New Vogue reminds me of the first couple of Whatever Brains LPs (before they started getting really dark and weird), but I think that fans of Atlanta bands like Uniform, Predator, and GG King would dig this a lot, and people into the whole Lumpy Records-type scene would probably be into this too, though New Vogue strikes me as a lot more ambitious than some of those bands, who tend to have a looser, rawer sound. If you’re into those worlds at all I would recommend giving this a listen because it is really, really cool, and eons beyond most cassette-only releases of this ilk.

Era Bleak: demo cassette (Dirt Cult) 7-song tape from this new band out of Portland. I usually associate Dirt Cult with the type of earnest pop-punk that Razorcake magazine covers (which, I realize, is an over-simplification at best), but Era Bleak isn’t like that at all… rather, they’re a post-punk-style band with a heavy emphasis on the punk. They remind me of the Nots from Memphis in that they play at garage-punk speeds, have a kind of apocalyptic, perhaps even slightly sci-fi vibe, layer their songs with sheets of noise, yet somehow manage to pull catchy songs out of the din. With 7 tracks on this tape it’s closer in length to a lot of full-lengths these days, so grab this along with the New Vogue cassette and consider your appetite for well-crafted, densely-layered post-punk sated.

Tozcos: Sueños Deceptivos 12” (Verdugo Discos) I liked Tozcos’ previous 7” quite a bit, but this LP is even better, an explosive yet intricately crafted and precisely performed slab of punk rage. Tozcos are really fast and really tight, and while you can hear a little bit of Discharge influence in their riffing, the songs have more of a put-together, borderline pop kind of structure, and some riffs even get ever so slightly melodic. In terms of contemporary punk Vaaska is a really obvious reference point (though Tozcos don’t have the over-the-top guitar solos), but it probably makes more sense to dig into to the deeper / older influences. Basically, Tozcos sound like lightning-fast UK82 punk, like the fastest and best songs by the Exploited or Vice Squad, but even more like the first- and second-gen European hardcore bands influenced by those groups… everything from Lama to Svart Framtid to Malinheads. Sueños Deceptivos is pretty much perfectly produced and the band sounds like they’re laying into every single note that they play. If you like your hardcore punk free of flash and pretension, but still 100% raging, this should be at the top of your “to buy” list.

Suburban Lawns: S/T 12” (Futurismo) Reissue of the lone 1983 full-length from this American post-punk band with the tracks from their Baby EP tacked onto the end of side B as a bonus. It’s funny, Suburban Lawns have come up in conversation a couple of times over the past few months, and my position has always been that I like them just fine but they never really clicked with me as much as I thought they should. Well, after keeping this reissue next to my turntable for a week or so I finally get it. I feel like it always takes me a minute to warm to music that comes from this post-Talking Heads era of music. I’m not sure whether or not it’s historically appropriate to lay the credit / blame for this sound at the feet of David Byrne, but it does seem to me like there’s a certain strain of early 80s American music that’s very much of a piece with the Talking Heads, in particular the way that they roboticize (some might even say whitewash) funk rhythms, embrace intellectualism (particularly academic and fine art culture), and simultaneously celebrate and deconstruct / critique pop music convention. I hear elements of this in a slew of early 80s bands like the Feelies, XTC, and even the B-52s, but none of those bands are as blatantly influenced by the Talking Heads as Suburban Lawns. Maybe it’s because this music is a little more complex and demands more of the listener or maybe it’s just because pretension is one of my big pet peeves (please, do refrain from pointing out that I am a pot, these bands are kettles, and all of us are black), but for all of these groups (Talking Heads included) it took a while for me to warm to them, but then when I finally did I liked them quite a lot. Or perhaps it’s because for all of my wariness of pretension, I really do like art that has a lot of depth, that feels like it’s been labored over, thought about, and deliberately crafted and honed. I definitely get that impression of Suburban Lawns… this is music as high art, music that both demands and rewards the listener’s thought and attention. So, if you just like to pound your fist along to dumb punk while you slam beers this is probably going to sound like nails on a chalkboard to you, but it almost certainly pairs well with a vintage merlot and the dusty stack of New Yorkers on your coffee table.

Sediment Club: Stucco Thieves 12” (Wharf Cat) Latest LP from this long-running band from New York. I’ve seen them described on occasion as playing in a no wave style, though I’m not 100% sure I’d use that term. I’ve been listening to a lot of no wave-influenced music over the past few months (which you may have noticed if you read these descriptions regularly) and for some reason I’m inclined at the moment to think about what no wave is. I always thought before that no wave was music made by people who didn’t assume that traditional musical skill or talent were prerequisites for making interesting music, but a lot of the stuff I’ve been digging on lately—Sediment Club included—is quite complex and skillfully performed… I mean, try playing some of the stuff on the latest No Babies LP… that group can outplay any prog band you put them up against. Sediment Club aren’t nearly so flashy as players, but their music is still quite complex. More than that, though, it feels totally free, encompassing a very broad range of styles, tones, tempos, and textures over the course of this rather brief 45RPM 12”. Sure, some of it sounds like 80s Sonic Youth and there are some mutant funk vibes here and there (like the track “Hydraulic Saint”), but I get the distinct impression that those sounds aren’t there because Sediment Club want to sound like a vintage no wave band, but rather because those sounds were the best way to get across the ideas that they were trying to articulate. And maybe at the end of the day that’s the power of no wave. It isn’t that the musicians who play this kind of music dismiss skill or talent, but rather that they dismiss the rules and conventions that keep music in neat little boxes. Regardless of how you classify it, though, Stucco Thieves is a rich and varied LP that takes you to a whole bunch of different places, all of them very worthwhile.

Liquids: Hot Liqs Revenge 12” (Neck Chop) Latest LP from this midwest punk powerhouse. I’ve been fully on board with Liquids since they first started putting their recordings out into the world and I’m always excited to hear new material from them. If you haven’t heard the band, they sound to me like a mix of the Coneheads’ quirky punk with the youthful energy of the early Lookout! Records catalog, but filtered through the aesthetic of piss-raw DIY hardcore and garage. At the same time, though, I feel like that description does the band a disservice because they really do have their own distinctive sound… while I could see you liking Liquids if you’re into anything from Teengenerate and the Reatards to early Screeching Weasel to the catchier end of the No Way Records sound (stuff like Acid Reflux or Social Circkle), there isn’t anyone out there (at least that I’m aware of) that sounds precisely like them, which is truly the mark of a great band. In addition to their distinctiveness and their facility with a pop hook, another thing that I love about Liquids is that there’s always a giant helping of fuck you attitude included in everything they do. They’re very Replacements-esque in that there’s almost an element of self-sabotage at work in choices like recording some of their best songs with abysmal fidelity or making their bulging discography almost deliberately confusing, with tracks appearing on multiple releases, sometimes in the same version and sometimes not, different versions of the same release sounding radically different (I’m not sure if this is the case anymore, but for a long time the digital versions of Hot Liqs that were available online were vastly inferior to the vinyl version on Drunken Sailor), and a handful of records that had ridiculously limited / hard to get pressings. Also like the Replacements, while these choices seem to push away the casual listener, they’re basically bait to the super-fans… Liquids is going to be hard to digest for the casual bandcamp surfer, but those of us who tracked down the 7” only released in Brazil or one of the 111 gold vinyl copies of More than a Friend that were only available from Drunken Sailor (and yes, I am a member of both of those clubs) feel like we’re in an exclusive club, which makes us like the band even more. I doubt any of this is deliberate on the band’s part, but it’s worth noting as Liquids’ manner of presenting themselves is often as interesting as their music. Anyway, as for Hot Liqs Revenge, those of us who are on board the Liquids train will obviously find a lot to love here (even if we’ve heard a bunch of these songs before), but I’m not sure this is the best place to start with Liquids if you haven’t heard them before… a lot of the production here is super, super raw (though it varies a lot from song to song) and with a full 20 tracks that all bop along at a rather similar tempo it’s a lot to digest. So, if you’re just getting into Liquids I’d recommend starting with Hot Liqs, but if you’re one of us who just can’t get enough then you already know this is essential.

Citric Dummies: The Kids Are Alt-Right 12” (Erste Theke Tonträger) Latest 12” from this unique punk band from Minneapolis and it is a full-on scorcher. When Citric Dummies released their first demo tape the main thing that stuck out about them was the strangely haunting, baritone vocals, but they’ve moved away from that vocal sound on subsequent releases. Usually I think it’s a shame when a band drops a trademark part of their sound, but these songs are so damn great that I’m not worried about it in the slightest, particularly since so many of the other aspects of sound have gotten even better. Musically, Citric Dummies remind me a lot of Rip Off Records bands like the Rip Offs or the Zodiac Killers, i.e. bands who combined the catchiness of ’77 punk with the energy, speed, and precision of hardcore… they also remind me quite a bit of Golden Shower of Hits-era Circle Jerks in places as well (not least in their lyrical fixation on scatalogical imagery). In other words, they’re the kind of band that could probably get a respectable pit going at either Goner Fest or Damaged City. The style here is pretty straightforward, so the real question is, “does it rip or not?,” and I am here to tell you that it fucking rips. Highly recommended if you like punk.

Pineapple RnR: S/T 7” (Lumpy) Debut 7” from this band out of St. Louis. I hadn’t heard of them before, but doing my research I find that they did have an earlier demo tape. Anyway, the two sides of this 7”, while not sounding totally different from one another, take slightly different tacks. The two tracks on the a-side use a saxophone-bass-drums-vocals arrangement (though I hear a bit of guitar in there as well, I believe) and remind me of the skewed, left-of-center pop of Essential Logic or a less up-tempo X-Ray Spex. Pineapple RnR are hardly a tribute band, though… they don’t sound like they’re trying to be like those bands, but rather those are just the closest reference points that I can think of for some rather unique music. The instruments are all locked together in the manner that you would expect from a hardcore band, but the way that the sax melodies soar above everything gives it a unique feel, particularly when the dramatic, bellowing vocals pull in a slightly different direction. As for the songs on the b-side, the guitar replaces the sax as the dominant instrument, but the songs are no less delightfully skewed with this more conventional punk band setup. If you’re a fan of the early Rough Trade Records catalog and you still follow contemporary DIY punk (particularly if bands like Shopping, the World, and Downtown Boys are among your favorites), then Pineapple RNR should absolutely be on your radar. This is undoubtedly one of the more exciting things I’ve heard in 2018 so far and I can’t wait to see what this band does next.

Skeleton: S/T 7” (Super Secret) After a couple of earlier flexis, here’s the debut hard vinyl from Austin, Texas’s Skeleton. It’s funny, maybe I’m out of the loop but I haven’t heard a lot of talk about this band even though they seem to tour heavily… they’ve been through Raleigh twice in the past year even though they live 2,000 miles away. It’s all the more baffling given that their brand of hardcore is raw, direct, and delightfully free of posing and pretense. With most hardcore bands nowadays I can tell more or less what they’re going for and where they’re coming from, but Skeleton sound totally unique, like they’re making things up from scratch as they go along rather than piecing together ideas from their influences. Consequently, this is about as authentic-sounding as you’re going to hear an early 80s-style hardcore band sound in the year 2018… it could seriously be dropped right into the early catalog of labels like Touch & Go, Dischord, or Version Sound, even if it would have been one of the darker and weirder records on those labels. It definitely has some of the Nihilism of bands like Blight, Crucial T, the Nihilistics, or even No Trend. I could also see fans of the more straightforward releases on the Youth Attack label being into this, though it’s perhaps even more straightforward and less art-y than Cult Ritual or the Repos. At any rate, if you like your hardcore mean, dark, and authentically 80s sounding I would highly recommend checking this one out.

Primer Regimen: Ultimo Testamento cassette (Discos MMM) Latest from this punk/oi! band out of Bogota, Colombia. To me, Primer Regimen sound like what would happen if you stripped the rock and roll influences out of Ruleta Rusa or the ripping solos out of Vaaska and replaced those distinctive trademarks with the much more on-the-nose oi! sound of Rixe. The songs are fast, but not too fast, and built around anthemic, UK82-style choruses, but they’re a little too sprightly and the melodies and riffs are just a hair too complex for the music to be described as oi!, at least without some significant qualifiers. It’s stripped-down, unpretentious, and low on flash, so if you like to pump your fist along to Punk with a capital P this one will do the trick.

Lysol: Teenage Trance 7” (Neck Chop) Latest 7” from this band out of the Pacific Northwest and it’s another scorcher to add to their discography. Lysol have sounded slightly different on each of their releases (at least the ones that I’ve heard), and Teenage Trance is no different. Whereas their last single on Total Punk was a blistering slice of hardcore, this time around they slow things down just a hair, particularly on the b-side, which locks into a swampy, Stooges-esque groove that I’m sure will remind more people than just me of Hank Wood & the Hammerheads. While their last single on Total Punk was so short that I felt like I couldn’t get a handle on it, Teenage Trance keeps us from pinning Lysol down because of its stylistic diversity… are they the blistering hardcore band that plays the verses of “Teenage Trance,” the catchy punk band that plays that song’s choruses, or the in-the-pocket rock group on the b-side? They’re great at all three modes, and just like their last one this single leaves me salivating for a future LP that brings together all of these compelling aspects of the band’s sound into a coherent, unified vision.

Against: Welcome to the Aftermath 12” (Radio Raheem) The latest release from Radio Raheem Records, the absolute gold standard for punk / hardcore archival releases, is this collection from Venice Beach d-beaters Against. Generally, d-beat is a word that I associate with the past fifteen years or so of DIY hardcore (I still vividly remember the first time I heard the word, which was around the year 2000), but the history of American d-beat actually reaches back quite far. There’s Detroit’s Heresy, the Iconoclast, Crucifix, Diatribe, Final Conflict… I’m sure there are plenty more as well, not to mention legions of bands (D.C. Youth Brigade, SS Decontrol, Siege, etc.) who were clearly very, very influenced by Discharge but don’t quite qualify as full-on Discharge worship / d-beat. However, Venice’s Against certainly do qualify as such, to the point where they almost sound more like a modern d-beat band than a group from 1983. In the photos on the fold-out poster insert (in case you aren’t aware, information-packed inserts are pretty much de rigueur for all Radio Raheem releases) you can see that the band also appropriated aspects of Discharge’s look, with spiky hair and leather jackets, but their cut-off t-shirts and faded jeans betray the fact that they haven’t totally lived down their Southern California roots. As for the music, it totally rages. The LP collects a demo recording from 1983 and an aborted EP from 1984, and while I like the ’83 recording on the a-side a little bit better they’re both killer 80s hardcore punk recordings with that warm and clear analog sound that no ProTools filter will ever truly replicate. And the music, of course, is pure Discharge worship with furious d-beating the entire time and quite a few of the riffs and leads pretty much cribbed directly from the masters themselves. In other words, if you were stoked when the Heresy and Diatribe reissues came out you should be very stoked about this, as it’s very much along the same lines and of a similar level of quality. If you just want another ripping d-beat record in your collection this will definitely hit your sweet spot, but if you fancy yourself a scholar of the genre’s history then this reissue is 100% essential.

Heresy: Face Up to It: 30th Anniversary Edition 2x12” (Boss Tuneage) Heresy’s Face Up to It is a legendarily poorly recorded record, and the deal with this expanded reissue is that they took the original multi-track tapes, restored them, and completely remixed the album to correct the problems that plagued the original release. Actually, it sounds like there was a fair bit more involved with the restoration project than that. Since the original album was recorded with triggered kick and snare drums, it sounds like they had to completely reconstruct the drum tracks using modern, more natural-sounding samples. So, how good of a job did they do? Well, the first thing that I did was pull my original copy of the album off the shelf (actually it’s the original Dutch pressing on Konkurrel, but I can’t imagine it sounds that much different than the UK version) and give it a listen. I have to say it doesn’t sound nearly as bad as I remember. Certainly the whole thing is very muggy sounding and the tracks are overly compressed, making it sound like you’re hearing the band rehearsing in the next room, but you can hear the drums well enough that tracks like the ripping opener “Consume” still have quite a lot of impact. I mean, despite all of the problems with the record, it’s still pretty legendary and I’ve kept a copy for myself all these years so it’s not like it’s total crap. However, throwing on the reissue you immediately hear a vast improvement. The whole thing sounds clearer and brighter, and the mix is more even; on the original the guitar is way too loud and the bass is essentially inaudible. The drums in particular are a huge improvement… in particular, the snare doesn’t dominate the drum mix in the way that it does on the original. Interestingly, the improved sound makes for a radically different and much improved overall listening experience. I’ve always enjoyed the standout tracks on Face Up to It like “Consume,” the title track, “Network of Friends,” and “Trapped in a Scene,” but the lesser tracks always struck me as very forgettable, even on my most recent listen to the original pressing. Of course the standout tracks still sound great on the reissue, but tracks like “Too Close to Home,” “Against the Grain,” or “Into the Grey,” which never made much of an impression on me before, now stand out as absolute scorchers that approach (and perhaps even meet) the sheer blinding speed and ferocity of From Enslavement to Obliteration-era Napalm Death. It’s something of a cliche to say that listening to an updated reissue is like hearing a record for the first time, but the cliche holds true for this particular reissue, and if you are a fan of this album I can’t see any reason why you would ever listen to the original version again after hearing this, which is something I can’t recall saying about very many hardcore punk reissues in the past, especially ones that seek to “improve” fundamentally flawed records. I should also mention that in addition to the vastly improved original album, you also get an additional 1-sided 12” that includes what I believe are outtakes from the recording sessions, including a bunch of covers of bands like DYS and Siege, rerecorded old tracks like “Never Healed,” and a few other bits and bobs from the cutting room floor. And then there’s the liner notes and repackaging, which are tastefully done even if they aren’t quite as on-the-nose authentic as, say, the reissues on Radio Raheem. Basically, if you like Heresy, the late 80s UK hardcore/thrash/grindcore scene, or the late 80s proto-grind/power violence scene of bands like Larm, Ripcord, and Infest this is a highly recommended purchase.

Thieving Bastards: Complete Musical Disasters 7” (SPHC) Debut 7” from this long-running UK band, and it’s a real treat for you scholars of ineptitude out there. The label’s description mentions a number of different milestones in the history of ineptly played and recorded punk records, but Thieving Bastards strike me as a little bit different than most of them. When you talk about something like Wretched, Ohlo Seco, or Larm, I get the impression that those bands were trying their best to be raging hardcore bands, but they fell well short of the standards of fidelity and musical ability that most listeners would have had at the time (or now, for that matter). However, it doesn’t seem like those bands were unaware of or deliberately ignoring those standards… they just didn’t meet them. It’s only in retrospect that people appreciated the political dimension of choosing to play what you want to play (or can play?) regardless of technical ability or your degree of ambition as a musician. (By the way, I should note here that I don’t actually know what I’m talking about… I was born in 1979 so I certainly didn’t hear or appreciate this stuff the first time around.) Thieving Bastards, to me at least, seem to be doing something a little bit different. Basically, it seems like they’re not really trying at all. They’re not trying to write good songs, they’re not trying to play them well, and they’re not trying to be a cool band that all of the cool, well-connected people with good taste will like. Basically, they seem to me to be a giant middle finger to all of that. It’s almost like a realignment of punk’s values and priorities, and a more or less explicit challenge to the listener. “You think that you like raw music? You think that you don’t care about pop melodies or mainstream (over-) production values? Well, try listening to this!” It is, in a word, shit. Listening to it and trying to approach it on it’s own terms, I’m forced to ask myself, “how do I feel about shit?” Do I like it? If so, then why? If not, then why not? To me, it’s very much the same challenge that Cecil Taylor issued to the world of jazz, just in a different format. Perhaps this is an overly intellectual reaction to this music and what I’m really supposed to do is allow this primitive pounding access to my caveman brain, which would presumably respond with something like “LOUD! GOOD!,” but hey, we are who we are, and I’m a middle-class intellectual approaching middle age. If you are of a similar station in life and you like music that questions your values at the deepest level then this might be something you’d be interested in, but if that’s not the case I have a feeling that you’re really, really going to hate it.

No Blues: S/T 7” (SPHC) Debut single from this new band out of Hamliton, ON, a city which also gave us Teenage Head, one of the greatest punk/power-pop bands of all time. No Blues can definitely be described as power-pop, but they don’t really sound anything like Teenage Head… I guess that I was just showing off my knowledge of punk rock trivia there. Anyway, No Blues DO sound a lot like Tenement’s early singles and first LP, and they also remind me of more recent bands like Booji Boys and Liquids as well. Like those three bands, No Blues sound like a band who perhaps came out of the hardcore scene, but are now allowing themselves to do things like sing melodically and write songs in major keys, but maybe they’re also a little embarrassed to be expanding their horizons, so they drench their very bare-bones, 4-track-y production in a bunch of reverb and distortion. This isn’t a bad thing at all, and if you’re into what Booji Boys and Liquids are doing you’ll like the way that No Blues go about things. While I definitely hear those bands’ production styles in these three tracks, the melodic sensibility is much more like Tenement, in that instead of pop-punk type influences I hear a slight undercurrent of 90s alternative rock, particularly in the vocal melodies and the big, hooky guitar riffs. At any rate, this 7” is pretty much the perfect balance of pop and punk, and if you like any of the aforementioned bands you should probably go ahead and check it out.

Marée Noire: demo 7” (Offside) Demo-on-vinyl from this French band, though if you didn’t know what language they were speaking in you’d probably be willing to bet a large amount of money that this was some lesser-known release on the Partners in Crime label. Marée Noire remind me a lot of the more straightforward hardcore bands from that whole crew, namely Deathreat, Talk Is Poison, and Balance of Terror. While it’s by no means their defining attribute, they also have a little bit of the melodic sensibility of Tragedy and From Ashes Rise, but the songs here are pretty much uniformly fast and very hardcore (i.e. zero stadium crust vibes). Even the band’s logo and the typefaces remind me of the Partners in Crime aesthetic. It’s not every day that you hear a new band playing this style of hardcore, so if you’re into this type of thing I’d definitely recommend giving them a listen.

Parquet Courts: Wide Awake! 12” (Rough Trade) I’m not really sure what other punks out there think about Parquet Courts… they’re obviously a big and popular indie band (they even recently played on Ellen!), but I’ve always thought they were 100% legit. Every year or so there seems to be another new album, and it’s always great. It’s kind of like what I imagine it must have been like to follow the Fall in their early 80s heyday. Not only do you know you’re going to get a bunch of great music (and like the Fall, Parquet Courts are kind of “always different, always the same,” to paraphrase John Peel), but also I’m always particularly interested to hear the lyrics, as Parquet Courts are one of the few bands that I listen to who address contemporary topics in a way that I find intellectually stimulating. In fact, Parquet Courts strikes me as serious and interesting in a way that very, very few bands today are. They constantly push forward without being pretentious about it, and they seem to be comfortable enough in their own skin that they can pursue new ideas with a seasoned confidence that few rock bands in this day and age possess. So, what’s my take on the new album? Well, first I should say that I think that their last one, Human Performance, was a real high-water mark in their discography. That record seemed to open up new vistas in their sound and level them up as a band, both musically and lyrically. It hit me hard when it came out, and I’ve continued to revisit that record every few weeks since, with it growing to become one of my favorite records of the past several years. Where does a band go from there? Well, my initial impression is that on Wide Awake! Parquet Courts have decided to get weird. Sure, there’s plenty of the band’s sprightly post-punk here still, but they seem newly emboldened to incorporate new elements into their sound. They revisit the quasi-rap cadences that we heard a little of on Human Performance (and cop a little bit of vintage 90s Dr. Dre production vibes on “Violence”), do a total Tom Tom Club-style white funk freakout on the title track, and even inject some Warren Zevon-esque jaunty piano into the closing track, “Tenderness.” It’s a staggeringly eclectic album, and all the more impressive given that the band is so strong at playing all of this rather different music. And as is usual with Parquet Courts, the topical lyrics remain a highlight, particularly tracks like “Violence” (speaking of unexpected influences, I hear a lot of Gil-Scott Heron on that one) and the title track. Like all great art, regardless of medium, Parquet Courts tackle complicated subjects in a way that honors their complexity without reducing them to slogans or pithy witticisms, and they actually push me to see the world around me in a way that’s a little different than how I saw it before. So, like I said at the beginning, I have no idea if the punks are listening, but this is another fantastic Parquet Courts album. Here’s hoping that this band eventually has a discography that is as lengthy and as interesting as the Fall themselves.

Patois Counselors: Proper Release (Ever/Never) Debut album from this group from Charlotte, North Carolina; they had an earlier 7” on Negative Jazz, but this album finds a more appropriate home (in my opinion, at least) on Ever/Never Records. I think that the first thing I heard about Patois Counselors is that they covered “Couldn’t Get Ahead” by the Fall, and you can still hear a lot of the Fall’s golden era (basically, everything between Perverted by Language and The Frenz Experiment) in their sound, as well as synth-infused modern bands inspired by said records (I think they share a lot of their sonic pallette with Whatever Brains, but there are probably more nationally-known acts that would be a better frame of reference for someone not from North Carolina). It’s funny, though, because for all of the sonic similarities to the Fall in particular, Patois Counselors don’t really sound like the Fall to me. Their music communicates very different feelings than what I get from any of the Fall records that I’ve spent time with. The Fall have this way of wandering around a song like they could honestly not give a fuck whether they ever find the hook or not (though they almost always do), but Proper Release feels meticulously, almost relentlessly composed. Not only do Patois Conselors want to find the hook, they want to find all of the hooks, and they want to get them all in the song. I have no idea how it was actually put together, but it doesn’t sound to me like the songs came out of a band playing in a room, but rather a composer sitting with a ream of staff paper or a producer with a laptop, a hacked copy of ProTools, and a 3-day weekend at their full disposal. In other words, every moment of every track is jam-packed with stuff, stuff that seems labored over, considered and reconsidered, moved around, then moved back again with the manic, introverted energy of an obsessive compulsive person rearranging their furniture. Even the lyrics are like that… songs like “So Many Digits” seem like they might have started out as pop songs, but the moment of clarity that provides the emotional apex of a pop song has been deliberately obscured, worked and reworked into something more cryptic, even sinister. Maybe it’s because I just finished Gilles Deleuze’s book on Francis Bacon, but the songs remind me of one of Bacon’s canvases, which seem to start out as fairly conventional portraits, but are interrogated so meticulously and so compulsively that, as Deleuze says of Bacon’s portraits, the head becomes meat. Now that I’ve lost 99% of my readers, I’ll say that if you enjoy the density of ideas on records by artists like King Crimson, Kate Bush, Voivod, Enslaved, or Charles Mingus (is this the first time those artists have all been mentioned in the same breath?), but you also like loud and distorted guitars and synthesizers then let me introduce you to one of the most unique and exciting records you’re likely to hear for some time.

Cammo: demo cassette (self-released) Demo cassette from this new band from Raleigh featuring members of a whole lot of other bands. They describe their sound as “scumgaze,” which makes perfect sense as soon as you hear it. So, here’s the background; if you’ve followed the musical projects of Sean Livingstone, you’re in for a real treat. I jumped on board this train when Sean was in New York’s Pollution, which was followed by Shoxx and then Bandages once he moved back to North Carolina, though he was in bands before that that you might be familiar with as well. Of the members’ lengthy resumes, Sean’s feels the most relevant as the way that Cammo smash together Celtic Frost and 90s noise rock with a dash of shoegaze harmony and texture is very much akin to some of the things that were happening in his aforementioned bands. However, the other members also bring their own thing to the table. Drummer Evan is/was in Whatever Brains, Das Drip, and numerous others, and he’s one of the most powerful and rock-solid drummers I’ve ever encountered, and one of the few people who I can imagine hanging with the monstrous stack of amplifiers behind him when Cammo plays. Then there’s Justin from Double Negative and Davidians on second guitar (Cammo doesn’t have a bass player, though I promise you won’t miss it… they’re still impossibly heavy), and if you’re familiar with the music that Justin has made you’ll also hear plenty of telltale marks of his hand in these songs. So, there’s the story so far. There’s a pretty good chance that if you’re a follower of what Sorry State does you’ll be interested in this band, so go ahead and give them a try.

Child’s Pose: S/T 7” (Nervous Energy) Debut EP from this new London group, and fans of that city’s incredible DIY punk scene of the past decade or so will be salivating at the mention of a lineup featuring members of “Sauna Youth, Nekra, Sarcasm, Woolf and a hundred other top set London groups.” Sauna Youth fans in particular should get stoked, as these four songs from Child’s Pose remind me a lot of Sauna Youth’s poppier moments like “Oh Joel” and “Transmitters,” which is high praise indeed as those are some of my favorite punk tracks of the past several years. Even though they don’t share any members, this EP also reminds me a lot of Good Throb’s LP… while Good Throb’s other material could be pretty abrasive and even no wave-y, the LP found them embracing their poppier side, and while Child’s Pose’s songs here are probably a little more musically complex, they have a similarly ecstatic, sing-along quality to them. Also, like Frau and Snob and a number of other recent punk bands from the London area, there seems to be something subtly intellectual and sophisticated in Child’s Pose music, but they manage to bring across those qualities while still very much keeping the focus on the visceral thrill of singing along to a catchy, energetic, and minimalistic punk tune. I’ve probably done Child’s Pose something of a disservice by writing more about their scene than the actual band or record under consideration, because they’re clearly far more than just a product of their environment… I just find that particular environment so fascinating and so rewarding to follow that I guess I just let this description get away from me. Long story short, though, it’s a brilliant record and you should buy it!

Debbie Downers: Eat My Skorts cassette (Helta Skelta) Debut cassette from this killer new band out of Perth, Australia. The label’s description mentions Kleenex / Liliput and the Petticoats as frames of reference, and while I definitely hear elements of that, to my ears Debbie Downers are a lot more traditionally punk rock than those references would indicate, reminding me as much of their fellow Perthians (Perthers? Perthagineans? Perthenesians?) Helta Skelta and other amped-up, minimalist punk/garage bands in the early Wire tradition (see the Urinals, Shitty Limits, and other bands referenced in my description of the new Gen Pop record). In other words, these songs are completely infectious (without ever tipping over the line into cheesy) but also downright explosive on the energy meter. This is the type of band that is so good that you could imagine them getting huge, but also so legit that you’d still keep liking them even after they’re playing the bigger venues in town that you don’t really go to anymore. Really top-notch stuff.

Skrawl: demo cassette (self-released) Demo cassette from this new blackened punk band out of Rhode Island. While I’m not super familiar with this style (honestly I don’t even really know if Skrawl would describe themselves as “blackened punk” or if there are even enough bands doing this kind of thing to call it a genre or style), I was a big fan of Raspberry Bulbs and Skrawl have a similar thing going on, and are just as exciting to my ears. The core of the sound is straightforward and punishing metal-punk in the vein of Hellhammer, but Skrawl also have a bit of the more harmonically complex Norweigan black metal style in their sound, particularly on the standout first track, “Soul Scrawl,” as well as some mid-paced parts that seem just as rooted in the traditional hardcore breakdown as they do in Tom Warrior’s riffing style. The recording is warm and organic-sounding without being too lo-fi, and all of the tracks feel really interesting and well-fleshed out. I could see this demo getting attention from Youth Attack Records fanatics as well as people into punk-influenced black metal like Wulkanaz… if that sounds appealing to you I highly recommend checking this one out.

The Just Measurers: Flagellation 12” (Emotional Response) Reissue of this 1983 LP, which is the lone release from this Homosexuals-affiliated band from the UKDIY scene. Of course UKDIY is less a genre or style of music and more of a catch-all term that refers to a whole lot of different kinds of music being made at a particular historical moment when the establishment of an independent distribution network helped to prompt an explosion of self-produced, independently-released music. This scene—insofar as it was a scene—was highly eclectic, with bands differing from each other rather drastically, and many bands even made radical changes in style from song to song, which is certainly the case with the Just Measurers. I can hear a whole heap of influences slammed together willy-nilly on this record, many of them peculiarly British… I hear some melodies that sound like they’re rooted in old Celtic folk melodies, a lot of the mid-century music hall sounds that so clearly fascinated Ray Davies from the Kinks (or maybe the Kinks themselves are the direct influence?), the more avant-garde, electronic and musique concrete type of sounds that you’d hear on the BBC as sound effects and themes (like the Dr. Who theme, for instance), as well as influences from the more familiar worlds of punk and (particularly) post-punk. If you’re looking for a record where the drummer just does the d-beat the whole time then move along, but if you have a taste for the highly eclectic, defiantly British music of this era—particularly bands like the Homosexuals, the Astronauts, and the like—this LP is well worth hearing.

Sodom: Requiem 12” (Fan Club) Unofficial pressing of this cult Japanese punk band that I was familiar with through lo-fi Soulseek downloads and YouTube rips. Regardless of the lineage, the Sodom cassette is a must-hear if you’re a fan of 80s Japanese punk. Much like Gauze’s first LP, Fuck Heads, it sounds to me like the Sodom tape sits right on the bubble between the earlier ADK Records-type Japanese punk sound and the more metallic, Discharge-influenced sound that I associate with the mid- to later 80s, though in most respects it’s further toward the former sound than the latter (kind of inverting the proportion of those two influences that you hear on Fuck Heads). Like a lot of the recent fan club pressings of classic Japanese punk that have been floating around, the audio here appears to have been sourced from an official CD reissue (which I honestly didn’t even know existed until now!), and is consequently top-notch… it’s like night and day from the nth-generation cassette rips of this that I’d heard in the past. Basically, if you’re a fan of bands like the Execute, G-Zet, the Sexual, Anti-Septic, et al you’re going to want to pick this up, or if you’re the patient type wait on the official reissue from FOAD that is apparently in the works.

Pro Patria Mori: Where Shadows Lie 12” (Demo Tapes) This vinyl version of Pro Patria Mori’s 1986 cassette is about as comprehensive and carefully produced as any punk reissue I’ve ever seen. Before we get to the packaging, though, let’s talk about the music. The years around 1986 seem like a very interesting time in the UK punk scene as the whole Crass / anarcho thing seems like it was very much on the wane and a new, more metal-influenced sound was on the ascent with bands like Sacrilege, Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, and Axegrinder getting started and/or hitting their stride. Pro Patria Mori strike me as very much a product of that transition. Their incorporation of poetry into their music and their aesthetic feels very grounded in the bohemian world of Crass, as does their tendency to experiment with what sounds like tape loops (or at least very repetitive song structures and super open arrangements). However, Pro Patria Mori have no problem transitioning from this bohemian experimentation into some of the most brutal and primitive thrash-punk I’ve heard… one minute Where Shadows Lie might sound like Wire’s 154, and just a few minutes later you’re listening to something that sounds like Side A of Napalm Death’s Scum. Occasionally their punk can be a hair more tuneful—occasionally approaching something like early Upright Citizens or maybe Legion of Parasites—but the first two modes that I mentioned are the predominant ones. Yes, it’s kind of a jarring combination, but it’s an exhilarating one, and one that I can’t imagine really happening at any other time or place. Oh, and this isn’t some mega-raw demo-quality thing either… the sound on this reissue is full, clear, and powerful in a way that bands nowadays would kill to sound like. All of this adds up to something that is both a historical curiosity and a genuinely ripping punk record. Now that I’ve argued that the music is really interesting, I should note that this comes with one of the most extensive booklets I’ve ever seen in a punk record. It’s basically a full-size zine collecting what seems like every scrap of information relating to the band… you get everything from zine interviews, photos, and flyers to copies of the band’s correspondence with Peaceville Records (though, unfortunately a release on that label or any other never came to fruition). I love reading about this era of punk, but this booklet makes me realize that most of what I know comes from secondary sources and after-the-fact reflections, and the wealth of primary source material here is a real window into the time and place as well as the rich culture that operated with this music at the center. So, whether you just want to hear a criminally underrated slab or whether you’re an amateur scholar who loves learning as much as possible about a release’s context this reissue is totally essential.

Impalers: Beat Session Vol 5 cassette (Shout) The latest Beat Session cassette is from the almighty Impalers! As I’ve noted before, the Beat Sessions are kind of an updated, modern take on the Peel Session… quick and dirty, but still studio-quality recordings that balance the immediacy of a live performance with the fidelity of a well-done studio recording. Here, Impalers give us a blistering 6-song set that spans their entire catalog, from the latest LP all the way back to the first 7”. As with the Peel Session versions of your favorite classic tracks, it’s fun to play “spot the difference” and listen closely to how these songs might sound with a slightly different tempo or how a different instrument might pop out of the mix in a way you’re not used to, though there are also more substantive differences, like the much-abbreviated version of “Psychedelic Snutskallar,” which shaves the 10+ minutes of the original down to less than 3 and a half. The Impalers’ latest LP is one of the best hardcore records of the past several years, and if you like raw hardcore punk you owe it to yourself to hear it. Beat Session Vol 5, on the other hand, may not be the place to start with the band, but fans will eat it up, as once you’re turned on to the Impalers you’ll want to savor every moment of music that they release.

Riña: Aquî No Eres Nadie 7” (Thrilling Living) Proper debut EP from this Mexican band (their previous one on Cintas Pepe was their demo pressed to vinyl), and if you thought that they couldn’t keep up the blistering pace of that first recording you are dead wrong… Aquî No Eres Nadie is a perfectly scorching slice of hardcore punk. I often talk about bands who sound like they’re teetering on the brink of punk and hardcore… what I mean by that is that they retain the catchiness and the forward momentum of punk, but play it at the blistering tempos of hardcore. I’ve always been partial to bands like Teen Idles or the Middle Class who have the vibe, and Riña do as well. They also have one of the most perfect guitar sounds I’ve heard in a while, dense and heavy with more of a vintage fuzz sound than a full-on, blown-out overdrive/distortion type of sound… in other words, kind of like the first Minor Threat EP. This record is just a brilliant explosion of raw and passionate punk energy… forget the genre clones, this is the real shit. Highly recommended.

Destruct: Human Failure cassette (Agitate) Demo cassette from this new band out of Richmond featuring members of Firing Squad. However, there really isn’t much of a trace of Firing Squad’s USHC sound in Destruct, which is pure Scandinavian d-beat worship a la Anti-Cimex and Shitlickers. Of course there are a million bands going for some variation of that style, but for my money Destruct is one of the best I’ve heard. Seriously, this tape just absolutely rips for all 6 and a half minutes of its runtime. I’m not really sure what else to say about it as there’s not really anything terribly new about the Kawakami-esque vocals, Discharge-derived riffs, or blown-out (but still very dense and powerful) production, but every single last detail is executed absolutely perfectly. In that respect they remind me a lot of Impalers… while Destruct are a lot more straightforward in their approach, there’s a similar sense of every detail being labored over, but not so much that it sucks the life out of it. If you’re into what bands like Impalers, Sunshine Ward, and Fragment are doing I really wouldn’t hesitate to pick this up. It’s a real gem.

Brown Sugar: Long Strange Drip 12” (Feral Kid) Man, I was just searching the Sorry State site to see what I had written about Brown Sugar in the past, and I was surprised to find that there hasn’t been a single Brown Sugar release for sale on the current version of the Sorry State site. Has it really been six years since Brown Sugar broke up? I would have sworn it was only 2, maybe 3 years ago. Beyond just the whole “time flying” cliche, it’s particularly interesting that Brown Sugar’s heyday was nearly a decade ago, because that’s pretty much the deepest trough in the “pop culture life cycle.” In other words, shit that happened ten years ago is generally seen as super uncool (the 80s were super lame in the 90s, the 90s were super uncool in the 00s, and so on as long as there is a popular culture). However, Brown Sugar seem really, really cool in the year 2018, all the more so because they were doing something that was so cool and inventive back when most of us were at band practice trying and failing to rip off the Mecht Mensch EP. Brown Sugar had a little bit of that in their sound for sure, but they also had a lot of other stuff as well, and their musical eclecticism would foreshadow (or maybe even influence?) all of the weird, quirky punk of today, particularly stuff from the Coneheads / Liquids / Lumpy & the Dumpers universe of bands. This collection starts off with a cover of “Hey Joe,” one of the band’s earliest recordings, and it’s telling. For some reason I always thought of Brown Sugar as a hardcore band who got kind of weird toward the end, but the very fact that they did “Hey Joe” at the very beginning shows that they were looking at hardcore way, way differently than most bands were in the 2008 heyday of the No Way Records era. Over the course of this compilation (which encompasses just about everything the band did save the Sings of Birds and Racism LP) they get better at incorporating their unique stew of influences into their faster, more hardcore tracks, but it’s amazing how much of that was there right at the very beginning. Anyway, there’s so much here that it doesn’t really make sense to go through it all bit by bit (and the liner notes do a pretty killer job of that anyway, albeit through a similarly fractured lens as the music), but it all sounds really, really great today. This band was clearly way, way ahead of their time, and it’s awesome that they finally seem to be getting the recognition they deserve. Now, let’s see a repress of the LP!

Shatterbox: Strung Out on the Line 12” (Dig!) Official reissue of this private press power-pop obscurity from 1981 Seattle. Power-pop can mean a lot of different things to different people, and Shatterbox offer a particular take on it… rather than the polished pop of bands like the Cars or the Nerves, they’re more on the trashy, Stones / Dolls-influenced end of the spectrum, but with a pop sensibility that’s more early Lennon/McCartney than Jagger/Richards. I was listening to this in the store and Jeff noted that it reminded him a lot of the Exploding Hearts, which I can definitely hear on tracks like “Dance Tonight,” “Too Much Traffic,” and “Anytime” (which seems to borrow the main riff from the Beatles’ version of “The Hippy Hippy Shake”). For me, there are two dangers with this kind of power-pop: that it gets to sappy / syrupy or the band just doesn’t have the songwriting chops to deliver real hooks. Shatterbox have neither of these problems. Strung Out on the Line is exactly the type of raw, catchy, and aggressive music that you’re looking for when you head down the rabbit hole of private press late 70s / early 80s power-pop, and if you’re a fan of that style this is well worth checking out.

Daudyflin: Dauþiflin 7” (Iron Lung) I’ve been a fan of Iceland’s Daudyflin for a little while now, and this new EP continues to refine their manic, almost psychedelic hardcore. It’s funny, listening to this new EP I can’t get out of my head how much it sounds like Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers’ classic Furious Party EP—it has a really similar chorus-drenched sound and the singer is nearly as unhinged-sounding as the wild man who sang for CCM—but after going back and listening to Daudyflin’s previous records this doesn’t sound that much different. However, everything does seem to be pushed just a little bit harder here… it’s a little faster, the production is a little more in-the-red, and the whole thing just sounds a little bit rawer and wilder. It’s not every day that a record is able to capture that level of wild intensity, so if that’s the type of soundtrack you like to put on when you’re smashing everything in your house, taking too much bad acid and wandering around a post-apocalyptic urban hellscape, or standing in the middle of a demolition derby then I can’t think of a better way to spend $7.50 than making this record a permanent part of your life.