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Rik & the Pigs: The Last Laugh 12” (Lumpy Records) The Last Laugh compiles tracks from two (very different) recording sessions Rik & the Pigs did just before they broke up in 2018, performing a mix of new songs and older ones that had appeared on the small pile of singles and tapes the band released over a couple of years. Rik & the Pigs had a distinctive sound that imbued snotty, early 80s-style punk (think Negative Trend or the Lewd) with a Stones-y swagger and a penchant for catchy choruses. The a-side tracks on The Last Laugh were recorded by Mike Kriebel (of Shout Recordings / the Beat Sessions), giving the Pigs a clear and beefy sound that’s very different from the fuzzy lo-fi recordings they put out when they were active. Rik & the Pigs sound great in hi-def, particularly on “Life’s a Bust,” a punk blues that adds two additional minutes of negativity to the version that appeared on a Feel It Records single in 2016. The b-side’s recording, courtesy Tony Santos, is rawer and fuzzier like the Pigs’ previous records. While the recording is nastier, the material is even more anthemic, particularly the Dead Boys-esque “It’s Alright.” More than just outtakes or leftovers, The Last Laugh is as good as anything Rik & the Pigs released when they were toast of the scene, and I’m glad Lumpy Records got this into the world for the faithful still carrying Rik’s torch.

Mr. Node: I Don’t Go Out 7” flexi (Roach Leg Records) Some of you might remember the Montreal band Thee Nodes, who put out a handful of EPs and did a bunch of touring around 10 years ago. After a decade-long absence, Thee Nodes’ costumed frontperson Mr. Node has reemerged as a solo artist on hardcore punk label Roach Leg Records. I can’t say I saw that coming! While the whole thing is very unexpected, the two songs on this flexi rip, meeting Roach Leg’s consistent level of quality even if it’s a little different from their usual style. Both songs here, “I Don’t Go Out” and “Vaccinate Me,” are COVID-themed, and the songs themselves are powered by a drum machine and guitars fuzzed to oblivion, but the riffs have a classic punk feel and despite the overwhelming rawness of the recording, a solid pop structure undergirds everything. The star of the show, though, is Mr. Node himself, his distinctive squeal instantly identifiable and sounding like no other vocalist I’ve heard before. It all comes together with a very KBD feel, sounding like something that could have come out on Total Punk as easily as Roach Leg, so check this out if you love stuff that sounds both catchy and fucked.

Jailer: Demo 2021 cassette (self-released) New York’s Jailer caught my attention because they share a member with Sirkka, whose 2020 cassette was one of my favorite releases of that year. While Jailer’s tape boasts a stylish design sensibility and perfect DIY recording that reminds me of Sirkka, the sound is very different. Gruff and midpaced, Jailer doesn’t seem to ground their sound and style in any existing aesthetic, and consequently these songs have a classic feel that makes them seem like they could have come from any time or place in punk’s history. The riffs and songs are straightforward, but they just work in a seamless and elegant way. The adjective that keeps popping into my head is “meaty.” If all-flash, no-substance “worship” bands are like empty calories, Jailer is like a big bowl of brown rice, tofu, and vegetables… unpretentious, but nutritious and satisfying. The closest comparison I can come up with would be UK82-era bands like Mayhem or Blitzkrieg… bands that weren’t as intense as Ultra Violent and not as anthemic as Blitz or Crux, but had good, solid songs and a strong sound that can hold your attention without begging for it. The closest Jailer gets to flash are the catchy, multi-tracked lead guitar melodies that pop up a couple of times (most memorably on the closing track, “Human Momentum”), but while these moments might be the ones that stick out on your first listen, it’s the solidly constructed tunes that will keep you flipping this tape.

Asylum: Is This the Price? 7” (Demo Tapes) Demo Tapes, a sister label to La Vida Es Un Mus and Sealed Records, brings us a vinyl version of this obscure 1981 tape from Stoke-on-Trent, birthplace of the almighty Discharge. Formed in Discharge’s wake, Asylum took the “noise not music” aesthetic to its logical limit. In fact, while Asylum may have influenced subsequent noise merchants like Napalm Death and presaged noise punk groups like Confuse and Gai, I think the music captured on this release is even more extreme and chaotic than those bands’ output. While Asylum made their racket with musicians’ tools—guitar, bass, drums, and voice—when i listen to Is This the Price?, I question whether this is music at all, something I rarely do with even the most extreme and noisy music. While there is a hazy sense of rhythm underpinning the drummer’s thrashing and the vocalist’s shouts, I’m hard-pressed to identify even the vaguest sense of order in what is emanating from the guitar and bass amps. Yet, despite my inability to hear any sort of structure, Asylum’s “songs” have arrangements, since there are moments when one or more instruments drop out and then rejoin the cacophony, apparently on cue. Maybe these are songs, but played and/or recorded with such little regard to convention that they have nearly evaporated? I’m not sure, but I know that Is This Price? is a new (low? high?) bar for wildness, chaos, and disorder in my record collection. If that’s your thing, you gotta hear this. If not, then move along… there’s nothing for you to see here.

Barrera: S/T 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Visiones Nocturnas is the debut release from Barrera, a punk band from the Mallorca region of Spain. My introduction to this record was someone describing it to me as sounding similar to the noisy stylings of Sial from Singapore. I hear some similarity in the blown-out distortion of the guitars, but Barrera primarily plays at slower, more menacing tempos. The opening song “Confusa La Historia” begins with a swell that leads into a thick, permeable wall of noise. The pounding drum groove is heavy on the toms and pulses with a mechanical, marching-like rhythm. And while the drums hold everything in order, the song feels like a tense beckoning for disorderly conduct. On the surface, Barrera is mostly easily described as a hardcore band. But much like La Vida says in their description, with their restrained, brooding sense of doom, the band evokes a feeling that is alluring, sexual, and dangerous. The singer fumes with this disdainful and hypnotic persuasion that forces the listener to be engaged, but also terrified. The songs collected on this 12” are like a ceremonial gathering around a funeral pyre. I imagine someone being burned at the stake. The sound creates such a powerful illusion of dread. Barrera’s music is nightmarish, yes, but this is a nightmare that I want to revisit.

Ztuped: Are You Stupid? 7” (11PM Records) Esteemed hardcore label 11PM brings us another banger, the debut vinyl release from Washington DC’s Ztuped. The fittingly titled Are You Stupid? really begs this question of the listener. The label’s description compares Ztuped’s music to the lowbrow, drug-addled punk legacy of bands like School Jerks and Cülo. Drugface, whose art has graced several Cülo record sleeves, has even lent a killer illustration for the cover art on this EP. But contrary to the low-IQ hardcore the band name and artwork suggest, it becomes clear very quickly when listening to this EP that Ztuped are too intelligent for their own good. Don’t get me wrong; the hardcore contained within goes off the rails. Still, what I hear is a bunch of young ragers who know how to construct interesting songs. And despite all the chaos, the turbulent riffing and neck-break speed drumming are executed with such airtight precision that it’s difficult to describe what I’m hearing as “dumb.” Cülo were proper mutants whose antics felt deserving of their own Saturday morning cartoon. Ztuped come across more like queer punk cyborgs designed to lead all of us jaded, belly-scratching neanderthals into the future—which admittedly also sounds like an amazing cartoon. Again, you have to ask yourself, “Are You Stupid?” Yeah, especially if you don’t buy this record.

Game: Legerdemain 12” (Quality Control HQ Records) Game’s previous LP, No One Wins, came out on Beach Impediment Records in 2019, and while I liked that record, after I saw Game live, it was clear they had an even better record in them. Legerdemain gets a lot closer to capturing Game’s live power. I was going to write that Game had changed up their sound since No One Wins, but I went back to that record and the elements are there, but they’re communicated so much more clearly on Legerdemain. No One Wins’ bulldozer sound created a wall of brute force, but Legerdemain’s subtler mix highlights the riffing, which is very metal in style, but also fluid and melodic, with memorable lines and melodies that remind me of Tank’s Filth Hounds of Hades. The riffing anchors the songs, but the other instruments have more room to breathe too, with the drums showing off a propulsive yet heavy, Cro-Mags-esque gallop. The vocals might be a sticking point for some as they have a cartoonish quality, but I like them. Most hardcore vocals are one-dimensional and either fade into the background or, at best, provide a rhythmic counterpoint, but Ola’s vocal lines are memorable, and I was singing along with bits like “revelations of DOOOOOM” by the second listen. With six songs in less than 15 minutes, Legerdemain is all excitement, without a moment that drags or overstays its welcome. The physical packaging is also stunning. The jacket is not only beautifully designed, it’s printed with an old school letterpress, which has a totally different (and far superior) feel to the digital offset printing you see most often these days. There’s also a large, poster-sized lyric insert that follows the package’s red, black, and white design scheme. Exciting, fresh-sounding hardcore punk wrapped in flawless packaging makes Legerdemain a no-brainer. Pick up the US-exclusive white vinyl from us while you can.

Anti-Cimex: The 7” EPs Collection box set (Sonarize Records) Anti-Cimex has reissued their music a couple of times in the new millennium, which is something we should all be thankful for. Their records are cornerstones of international hardcore, and they should always be in print and available so they can inspire new legions of bands. Those of us who have lived through a few of these reissue campaigns might notice subtle differences in the philosophy behind and execution of these new reissues, but the important thing is the music… if you love raw hardcore punk, these are records you should know like the back of your hand. New label Sonarize Records released a collection of Anti-Cimex demo recordings on 12” a while back, now they’re back with this box set containing reproductions of Cimex’s four 7” EPs. This is a little different than the similar box that Brazil’s Nada Nada Discos released in 2013. That box contained the three proper 7” EPs, Anarkist Attack, Raped Ass, and Victims of a Bomb Raid as well as a flexi compiling Cimex’s contributions to compilations, while Sonarize removes the flexi and adds in the Fucked in Finland 7”, a three-song live record recorded in Finland in 1992. Sonarize has put a lot of work into doing proper reproductions that get you as close to the original EPs as possible, reproducing small details like how Anarkist Attack’s front and back sleeves came as two separate pieces of paper, while Raped Ass came as a glued pocket sleeve and Victims was a foldover sleeve. The sound is also clear and loud, which is a relief because I was a little disappointed with the sound on the Wretched 7” box set that Agipunk (which is affiliated with Sonarize) released a few years back. The box itself is beautifully designed, and it comes with a thick booklet full of photos, flyers, and a ton of fanzine interviews, many conducted while the band still existed and some retrospective interviews done as recently as a few years ago. And best of all, the price on the box is very reasonable. If you don’t own these releases on any physical format, this is a great opportunity to get them in your collection, and Sonarize’s detailed repro editions will deepen your engagement with and appreciation for these records if you only know them from digital streaming. And even for people like me who already have a couple of different physical versions of Raped Ass and Victims (which, I think everyone would acknowledge, are the band’s two most important records), getting Fucked in Finland and (especially) Anarkist Attack in nice repro editions like this is worth the cost on its own. I’ve particularly enjoyed revisiting Anarkist Attack. While the band’s lineup and sound hadn’t yet solidified, it’s still a raging EP and I think it would be a well regarded and important record if it was the only thing Anti-Cimex had ever released. Long story short, they did this collection right, and if you’re in the market for something like this, you will not be disappointed. Here’s hoping Sonarize continues their well-done reissue campaign with Cimex’s 12” discography.

Home Front: Think of the Lie 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Now with close to 250 releases under their belt, our friends at La Vida Es Un Mus continue to deliver consistently fantastic releases in the world of punk. But for every Disclose reissue or new, crushing hardcore band out of Spain, we receive an occasional dose of melody. Think Of The Lie, the debut release from Canadian group Home Front, craftily synthesizes some of the most notable and familiar sounds of 80s UK indie pop and post-punk. The first track, “Flaw In The Design,” brings New Order to mind with its era-accurate sounds and production, coupled with the group’s intelligent songwriting and arrangements. Lush, sweeping synthesizers and chorus-laden guitars top warm and pounding 808 drum machines. The singer has a voice not unlike Robert Smith, simultaneously wavering and passionate. La Vida likens the group to Second Empire Justice-era Blitz, which is a dead ringer comparison to describe punkers who have taken the plunge into this sonic territory. In more recent years, many punk groups have reached into the deep reservoir of new wave history to find a blueprint for their band, but the end product can seem dull or contrived. And while Home Front wears their influences on their dayglo ascots, the songs are so tastefully executed and rich with conviction that you can’t fault them. Home Front unashamedly shies away from edge, and instead commits to crafting a full-on pop record that feels both nostalgic and fresh.

S.H.I.T.: Hidden in Eternity 7” (Iron Lung Records) Over 3 years have gone by since these Canadian sexual humans in turmoil released their debut LP What Do You Stand For? Finally, S.H.I.T. has returned with 2 brand new tracks of intense noise on the mighty Iron Lung label. Vocalist Ryan Tong’s beautiful artwork on this new single presents an amorphous structure that radiates pink and blue, which could be read as either organic or cosmic. This is also a great way to describe S.H.I.T.’s music. The band always delivers a pulverizing brand of hardcore with a barbaric, pummeling rage, but creates an atmosphere that feels strange and otherworldly. Jonah Falco’s mix on these two blazing tracks is thick and weighty, making the band sound more powerful than ever. The A-side track “Hidden In Eternity” hits the listener immediately with repeated, pounding blows, but an eerie, inescapable notion of claustrophobia lurks just beneath the surface. The third installment of “Eraser” is a refined blast of raw energy that closes with the goosebump-inducing battle cry: “Fear is the killer, the killer! Fear is the killer in my mind!” It’s a shame that after such a long wait, we’re only provided 2 songs to consume, but this single is one of the band’s finest moments and will leave you feeling satiated for a while.

Body Cam: S/T 7” flexi (Violent Pest Records) Violent Pest Records brings us the debut from this new hardcore band from Nashville, Tennessee. Body Cam is definitely a hardcore band, but their thin and scratchy sound and distinct lack of toughness push them more toward the (for lack of a better term) egg punk camp, which makes sense as Spodee Boy and Erik Nervous both appear in the credits on this one (as recording engineer and mixer, respectively). The five songs jammed onto this flexi are short and ripping fast, and what sticks in my memory most are the Circle Jerks-esque tight rhythmic changes, which I hear most clearly on the track “Active Shooter.” While there isn’t much room for frills, you can’t deny the energy on this five-song, five-minute dead sprint.

Gotou: S/T 12” (Inu Wan Wan Records) The new label Inu Wan Wan Records hit me up about carrying this, their debut release, and I was instantly sold. Gotou is a three-piece band from Sapporo, Japan, and their sound is different from what Sorry State typically carries. I’d place them on the artiest edge of post-punk. Malaria! is the closest comparison I can think of in terms of the overall feel (the label’s description makes the same connection), but Gotou’s sound isn’t too different from the least pop moments on LPs by Wire, Joy Division, or the Cure, but you don’t get the contrasting moments of pop those bands offer. Gotou base their songs around repetitive grooves, the drummer banging out angular, non-rock patterns, the bassist looping simple and hypnotic lines, and the guitarist tending to make rhythmic and percussive sounds rather than melodies. The vocalist has a deep moan that’s a bit like Nico’s baritone, but (if you can imagine it) even colder and with less affect. The music is tense and nervy, with only the last track, “Go To U,” offering something slightly more melodic. Gotou’s music isn’t rock or pop, but if you have a lot of records from this more experimental edge of the post-punk scene—I’m thinking of bands like Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten, early Swans, etc.—you’ll hear that same spirit in this slice of confrontational art music.

Desenterradas: Danzando En El Caos 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) Danzando En El Caos is the first vinyl from this Mallorcan group who released a well-regarded demo back in 2015. If you’re a fan of Madrid’s Rata Negra, Desenterradas will make you think of them immediately, since their singer’s voice has a similar tone and the band plays a similar style of brooding, melodic post-punk. Desenterradas sounds more post-punk than pop, though, with the vocals relying more on rhythmic staccato patterns rather than soaring melodies and the haunting keyboard melodies adding subtle textures to the punkier guitar riffs. With ten tracks averaging around 3 minutes each, Danzando En El Caos offers a lot of bang for your buck, but it might take a few listens to digest since most of the songs are in similar keys and tempos… it’s crazy that a 30-minute LP feels long in this day and age! The more music the merrier, though, especially if you’re a fan of these dark and catchy sounds.

Laughing Gear: Freak Lemons 12" (Heavy Machinery Records) Freak Lemons is the first vinyl release from this Australian synth-punk band. I’ve seen the term “synth-punk” used to describe a wide array of sounds, but Laughing Gear’s take is minimal, danceable, and dripping with venom. It’s in the same universe as late 70s / early 80s bands like the Screamers, Nervous Gender, the Normal, or maybe even Suicide, but just as all of those bands sound different from one another (despite being mean-sounding bands that rely heavily on synthesizers), Laughing Gear doesn’t sound like any of them or anyone else I’ve heard. While “mean” and “hard” are the adjectives I’d reach for first, you can hear subtle hooks lurking in the background, giving the music more staying power than your average collection of knob twiddlers. Songs like “Possession” and “Flake” have a kernel of pop somewhere at their center, barely discernible in the final product except from the fact that you can hum the songs to yourself after a couple of listens. Other tracks like “Fillet Station” lean more toward dance music, sounding like a misanthropic and negative version of New Order, and “Tread Count” ends the record on a spacious abstract note a la Nurse With Wound. I thought Freak Lemons sounded original and exciting on the first listen, but every subsequent spin reveals more richness and subtlety.

Sperma: S/T 12” (Static Age Musik) Originally released in 1979, German label Static Age Musik has faithfully reissued the self-titled 12” EP by Swiss punk band Sperma. Over the course of their brief existence, Sperma released a handful of singles before disbanding in 1980. This eponymous 12” EP features 3 tracks of jangly guitar-laden, melodic punk tunes informed by the UK punk from that era. From a musical standpoint, Sperma doesn’t sound too far off from a primitive version of Stiff Little Fingers. A song like “Radio” is more akin to the syrupy pop stylings of bands like Protex. My familiarity with the Swiss language limits my understanding, but the band’s lyrics appear to be a confrontational commentary on a bleak, grey period. I’m no expert on the state of living in late-70s Switzerland, but my brief research in attempting to translate the lyrics led me to envision the conjuring of a generation’s bitter perspective. The one song sung in English, “No More Love,” dismisses any relevance of the notion of “peace and love” from the lingering hippie generation. Lyrics in the other songs show contempt for the cultural assortment provided by mainstream radio or propose to eradicate the police state. The blending of all these elements makes for a charming snapshot of a young band who were perhaps underdeveloped as players, but were swept up by the energy and power of the burgeoning punk movement. The packaging on this Static Age reissue includes a 20-page booklet, which provides plenty of insight into the band’s history as well as many unseen photos and flyers.

The Electronic Circus: Direct Lines 7” (Iron Lung Records) As I wrote in my staff pick a few weeks ago, I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to the Bandsplain podcast. Host Yasi Salek does this thing when she plays a song she likes where, just after it ends, you hear her voice come in and she says something like “what a motherfucking god damn gorgeous song.” That’s how I feel about the a-side of this single. “Direct Lines” is a great new wave song with a strong, danceable electronic beat and an anthemic (yet slightly melancholic) chorus you can’t help but sing along with. The Electronic Circus was a project helmed by Chris Payne, who played synths on Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle and co-wrote the Visage track “Fade to Grey” (talk about a pedigree!), and while the Electronic Circus was meant to be his solo vehicle, they only released this lone single. While the b-side doesn’t do much for me (a pretty but insubstantial-sounding instrumental), the a-side is a full-on New Romantic banger. Much like the excellent Dorothy single just reissued on Sealed Records, I’m psyched to have this one-off pop nugget reissued in its original format as the lord intended.

Alien Nosejob: Paint It Clear 12” (Feel It Records) For his last several records under the Alien Nosejob moniker, Jake Roberts has been exploring his hardcore influences, which resulted in the three excellent records on Iron Lung. For this latest record, his first for Feel It, Roberts is back to a more familiar sound, though not without some new wrinkles. This time Mikey Young serves as producer, and while I’m not sure how much of the credit is due to him, Paint it Clear feels like a subtler, more varied and accomplished Alien Nosejob record. There’s still plenty of the poppy punk with bright synth melodies that fans of the band love on tracks like the opener “Artistic Vision” and “Jetlagging,” but other tracks feel like new territory. “Leather Gunn” is my favorite track with its memorable power pop guitar hook (which reminds me of something the Boys or Exploding Hearts might have done), but there’s also the disco-infused “Duplicated Satan,” the Stranglers-esque piano ballad (!!!) “The Butcher,” and the swirling, almost psychedelic “Phone Alone.” Rather than just a collection of belters, Paint It Clear feels like it has space to breathe, each song having its own distinct identity. It even has a strong finish, with the epic-sounding “Bite My Tongue.” This subtler, more ambitious version of Alien Nosejob feels like a perfect fit for Feel It Records, and fans of both the band and label will be pleased with Paint It Clear.

Socio La Defekta: Kreski 7” (Beach Impediment Records) Beach Impediment Records presents the debut record from this new Japanese hardcore band. Socio La Defekta features members of Malimpliki and Unarm, and their sound, while classifiable as crusty hardcore, is difficult to pigeonhole. Part of this is because Socio La Defekta are adept players, able to modulate between Framtid-style bashing, noisier interludes that might remind you of Confuse, and bigger, more metallic riffs (like “Maigranda Kago”) within the space of a single short, action-packed song. The highlight of Socio La Defekta’s sound, though, are the dual lead vocals. Both vocalists are strong in their own right, but the way they alternate and double one another’s lines adds an extra layer of dynamism to these six tracks. With 6 tracks on a 33rpm 7”, Kreski feels weightier than your average hardcore EP, yet it packs a dizzying amount of twists and turns into its 10 minute runtime.

Antibodies: LP 2021 7” (Sewercide Records) Don’t let the title fool you. The latest release from Canadian hardcore rippers Antibodies may contain 10 songs, but they are all tightly squeezed onto a bite-sized platter. The recording is super blown out, with the gritty guitars mixed red hot. And except for the mid-paced final track, this 7” is packed to the gills with a series of one-minute-flat bursts of energy. Against the primitive relentlessness of the music, the vocals don’t sound like meat-headed grunting by any means. The singer actually sounds rather quirky. Maybe not as far left of center as, say Crucifucks or Saccharine Trust, but the singer definitely has an unusual sensibility. The vocals have this reckless, almost desperate quality about them, and the singer sounding like they’re flying off the handle only adds to the band’s rawness. Even though the record is 10 songs worth of material, the experience of listening to this record is like a vortex. So much happens in a short amount of time, and it whips past you so quickly. Antibodies’ new “full-length” definitely warrants repeated listens, and you will feel bludgeoned each time.

The Clean: Tally Ho! b/w Platypus 7” (Merge Records) Merge Records has just released 40th-anniversary editions of two of the earliest records by New Zealand’s the Clean. First up is the Clean’s debut single, 1981’s Tally Ho, presented in a lovely reproduction of the (extremely collectible) original packaging. The packaging that is the draw here, because these tracks have been issued many times on various anthology releases, and they are cornerstones of the band’s catalog. “Tally Ho” is one of the most joyous pieces of music I’ve ever heard, a song that brims with enough energy and positivity to uncross the arms of even the most dedicated curmudgeon. While the melody is a little twee, it’s impossible not to fall for that broken down organ, whose sound provides the perfect counterbalance to the melody’s sticky sweetness. The vocals are infectious too (who doesn’t want to yell “tally ho tally HO!” at the top of their lungs?), and if you are a fan of ramshackle pop music like the Television Personalities, Swell Maps, Pavement, or anything in that universe, you probably consider this an all-time classic. The b-side, “Platypus,” is a solid song, but while “Tally Ho” is buoyed by the rough production, “Platypus” suffers a little from the murk, especially if you imagine the track with Boodle Boodle Boodle’s crisp sound. I’ve bought “Tally Ho” several times in my life already, but I’m keeping this one around for the pretty packaging and the frequent occasions when I need a two-and-a-half-minute injection of pure pop adrenaline.

The Clean: Boodle Boodle Boodle 12” (Merge Records) Second in Merge’s 40th Anniversary reissue series is Boodle Boodle Boodle, a 5-song 12” EP from 1981. While “Tally Ho” was a triumph, the Clean didn’t rest on their laurels here, totally changing their sound yet arriving at something just as exciting. It’s apparent that you’re in for something different from the beginning of the first track, “Billy 2,” with its chiming, crisply recorded acoustic guitars. While the sheen here is different to “Tally Ho,” it’s also apparent that the Clean were no one-hit wonders, as the a-side of Boodle Boodle Boodle is a 3-punch combo of upbeat pop with driving, punky rhythms and infectious choruses. If “Tally Ho” sounds of a piece with the ramshackle UKDIY scene, Boodle Boodle Boodle presages American indie rock, and it’s hard to imagine Guided by Voices, Pavement, and Jay Reatard didn’t pick up a few tricks from it. After the triple feature on side A, side B starts with a slow jammer and the record ends with “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” one of the Clean’s many longer tracks, this one sounding like the offspring of The Velvet Underground & Nico and Neu!. As with the “Tally Ho” single, I’ve heard these tracks before, but I’m pleased to have the awesome original cover art restored here, and Merge’s edition also comes with a booklet / zine packed with comics and collage art that only came with the record’s rare first pressing. Since this came out I’ve been listening to Boodle Boodle Boodle constantly, so much that I’d worry my partner was getting sick of it (if it were possible to get sick of a record so great). The Clean also released a 7” and a 12” EP in 1982… here’s hoping Merge brings us 40th anniversary editions of those next year.

Sedición: En Las Calles 12” (Esos Malditos Punks) Last year Esos Malditos Punks reissued Sedición’s 1991 album Verdaderas Historias De Horror. Now they’re back with a reissue of the Mexican punk band’s previous album, 1990’s En Las Calles. While Verdaderas Historias De Horror was only a year later, En Las Calles sounds like a different band, possessing none of the death rock flourishes of that record. Instead, what I hear is a thuggish, brutal hardcore punk sound with oi! elements, in the same universe as S.O.A. or Negative Approach, but sloppier and nastier… perhaps there’s more of the simple and brutal oi! music of bands like L’Infanterie Sauvage or RAS in Sedición’s DNA? Despite the sloppiness, the music has a lot of variety and character. Songs have different lengths, structures, and rhythms, which keeps En Las Calles exciting all the way through. I’m a sucker for this early 80s fuzzy guitar sound (it’s a lot like the first Minor Threat EP), and the nasty tones complement the gruff and confrontational nature of the music. While this came out in 1990, En Las Calles is a must for early 80s international hardcore heads, as it possesses a similar fury to records like Anti-Cimex’s Anarkist Attack, Olho Seco’s self-titled EP, or Ratos De Porão’s Crucificados Pelo Sistema.

Autarkia: Punks Al Slam 12” (Maldito Ruido) The first release from the new label Maldito Ruido is a reissue of Punks Al Slam by Autarkia. Originally released only on cassette in 1994, Autarkia is another great example of hardcore from Mexico during the flood of activity in the late 80s and early 90s. Musically, Autarkia isn’t too far off from their peers Massacre 68. The band’s songs are mostly based around a pounding umpa-umpa pogo beat on the drums, falling somewhere between the disorderly framework of Confuse and the anthemic songwriting of classic oi! and UK82. Apparently, this reissue has been remixed, but it is clear the original recording is RAW. The fuzzy texture of the guitar tone is so thin and noisy that it almost doesn’t resemble a guitar anymore. But underneath the sonic quality of the recording, the production adds to the charm because the band’s nastiness and gruff attitude really shine through. The singer sounds vicious, delivering hooky sloganeering choruses that the punks can readily chant along with. The photos of the band on the front cover say it all. With liberty spike mohawks standing at attention, Autarkia ‘s crude but tuneful take on hardcore hints at an early version of street punk. Punks Al Slam reads like a style-defining classic in the history of Mexican punk. Check it out.

Low Life: From Squats to Lots: The Agony and XTC of Low Life 12” (Goner Records) From Squats to Lots is the 3rd album from this group from Sydney, Australia. Their previous record, Downer Edn, really clicked with me back in 2019. I approached that record with no expectations, and while it would have been easy to dismiss it as yet another good contemporary post-punk record from Australia, I returned to Downer Edn repeatedly, entranced by something I couldn’t put my finger on. Oddly enough, even though I was looking forward to From Squats to Lots, my experience with it has been similar. The first listen or two had me thinking it sounded more or less like Downer Edn, but again I find myself reaching for this record all the time. I guess Low Life is a grower, not a shower? Part of that might be that most of the songs on From Squats to Lots rumble along at a similar tempo, rarely deploying dynamic shifts in volume, tone, or texture. (An exception is the hardcore-ish “Cza,” which will help you believe Low Life shares a member with Oily Boys.) While it might strike you as a little same-y sounding on the first listen, From Squats to Lots is full of nooks and crannies hiding countless hooks. The sound reminds me of the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead or Echo & the Bunnymen’s Porcupine. Like those records, From Squats to Lots has a subtle but strong rhythm section that contrasts with a feather-light touch on the higher frequencies. Again, my brain reaches for comparisons to the most 60s-influenced UK post-punk bands who took the layered, melodic psych of Sgt Pepper’s, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, and S.F. Sorrow and grafted it onto Joy Division’s brooding aesthetic. And as with their countrymen in Total Control, while it’s easy to reach into the past for points of reference, Low Life sounds fresh, like music made for today. And while I’m here, note that we also just got in a repress of Low Life’s hard to find first album, 2014’s Dogging, so look forward to my thoughts on that in a future newsletter.

Bad Brains: Rock for Light 12” (Org Music) The ongoing Bad Brains official reissue campaign has arrived at their second album, 1983’s Rock for Light, and I have a lot to say about it. I’ve always felt like Rock for Light was obscured by the lengthy shadows of the two monumental albums that stand on either side of it in the Bad Brains’ discography: their self-titled cassette on ROIR and 1986’s I Against I. You’ll find plenty of people who name one of those two records as their favorite Bad Brains release, but it’s rare to find someone who rides hard for Rock for Light. This is understandable, because the album has some flaws. The most egregious is the recording, which doesn’t suit the band at all. The Bad Brains were one of the most powerful bands ever to pick up instruments, and a great producer would have just thrown up some microphones and gotten the fuck out of the way. Rock for Light, however, throws a ton of very dated-sounding reverb on the drums and mixes the bass so low as to be nearly inaudible. It sounds so much worse than the more primitive and lower-budget recordings on the ROIR tape and the great, underrated Omega Sessions, and listening to it makes me wonder how anyone, at any point, listened back to it and thought to themselves, “this sounds really good.” But you know how you can make a thin, uneven recording sound even worse? By speeding up the tapes and pitching everything up half a step, which is what happened when Rick Ocasek and Daryl Jennifer remixed the recording for Caroline Records in 1990. That recording sounds odd, inhuman, and significantly worse than the original mix, and of course that was the version that was pressed throughout the 90s and 00s, and that’s still the version of the album on streaming services. (For good measure, they also shuffled around the track listing, butchering the original sequence’s flow.) Now that I’ve gotten all of my shit-talking and complaining out of the way, I want to insist that Rock for Light is still a great album that every Bad Brains fan should love. Despite the flaws in the production and recording, Rock for Light is a recording of the Bad Brains, who were still one of the greatest bands ever to walk the earth, and that shines through these flaws. The band is fucking blistering, at the top of their game, and Rock for Light captures them at an incredible moment. They were clearly headed toward the intricate, metallic I Against I material, but they were still playing that complex material at warp speeds. When I think of Rock for Light, I think of tracks like “Coptic Times” and “Joshua’s Song,” intricate mazes of music dense with tempo and rhythmic changes, most of it delivered with inhuman speed and precision. Interestingly, Bad Brains choose to contrast these more intricate songs (which I assume they must have written later), with a handful of bangers re-recorded from the ROIR tape (which, to be fair, hadn’t come out on vinyl when they recorded Rock for Light) and new recordings of some of their earliest songs like “Attitude.” The reggae tracks on Rock for Light are also some of the band’s best, with “Rally Around Jah Throne” and “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth” sounding much more distinctive and memorable than earlier reggae songs like “I Luv I Jah.” While the track listing might look like a hodgepodge from our 2021 perspective, the result is an album that is intense but brimming with variety and expression. If it weren’t for the production missteps, I think most people would regard Rock for Light as the Bad Brains’ crowning achievement. While the remixed / sped up version is a crime against hardcore, when you listen to the original version (which is what you get with this new pressing), it’s easy to listen past those flaws and appreciate the greatness captured here. And since many of these tracks don’t appear anywhere else, it remains an essential piece of the Bad Brains puzzle.

Why Bother?: A Year of Mutations 12” (Feel It Records) Sam at Feel It Records has a knack for finding innovative and exciting new bands that are (at least before he puts them out) flying under the radar, and Why Bother? fits the pattern the label established with bands like the Cowboys, Sweeping Promises, and Smirk. Like those groups, Iowa’s Why Bother? sounds fresh and exciting, making music that’s grounded in the past without being bound by it. A Year of Mutations (which compiles tracks from previously released DIY cassettes and lathe cuts along with several new tracks) encompasses everything from driving, Spits-esque punk (“Buried in the Landfill (of My Mind)”), Electric Eels-style art-punk (“There’s Something Out There”), 80s-sounding indie rock (“Hum Drum”), and surf-inflected, California-style punk (“More Brains”), the disparate styles linked by the band’s restless creative energy and the charmingly lo-fi recording style. While I’m all for a band finding a formula that works and sticking to it, Why Bother?’s eclectic sound makes A Year of Mutations feel rich and fleshed-out in a way that much of the underground and DIY music I listen to doesn’t, yet everything still coalesces around the energetic and driving rhythms you want from punk. A standout release even within Feel It’s impressive catalog.

Death Gasp: Executioner cassette (Audacious Madness Records) This new tape from Pittsburgh’s Death Gasp caught me by surprise. While the artwork might lead you to expect straightforward crust, Death Gasp’s sound is heavier, gnarlier, and more interesting, incorporating metallic elements that remind me of bands like Amebix, Rigorous Institution, and (later-era) Crow. I love raging crust, but a track like “Ghost of the Bombs” illustrates how it can be even more effective when it’s contrasted with something else, starting with a writhing, Amebix-esque chug and building toward the main part of the song, which charges along at a Doom-style clip. Death Gasp’s sound is powerful on the metallic parts, with the guitars hitting gnarly low frequencies that even the heaviest doom bands would envy. Executioner is a real standout, and I hope we get some vinyl from Death Gasp in the future.

Barren?: Distracted from Death… Diverted from Reality 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) You may remember Paris’s Barren? (the second band of this week’s update with a question mark in their name) from their contribution to Symphony of Destruction’s 4-way split 12” with Douche Froide, Litovsk, and Alarm, and now they’re back with their own full-length record. While the label describes Barren? as peace punk, they’re a long way from the skittering, Penny Rimbaud-inspired rhythms or the blaring hardcore of many bands who adopt that moniker. Instead, Barren?’s sound is straightforward and streamlined, bringing to mind another great 3-piece political punk band, the Mob (the English one, not the New York hardcore band). Like the Mob, Barren? build their songs around soaring, anthemic vocals that bring an emotional dimension to the political and social topics they address in their lyrics. There’s very little in the way of flash; no guitar leads or dramatic breakdowns, just driving, anthemic punk with big, shout-along choruses. Distracted from Death also features beautiful packaging, including an eye-catching Crass Records-style poster sleeve and obi strip.

My War #9 zine Belgium’s My War zine is back with their 9th issue, and this zine only gets better and better. It takes a big commitment to make a print zine nowadays, and Kristof’s passion for punk and hardcore is evident on every page, through both the visuals and the dense and lengthy text. My War is printed in full color, and takes advantage of that format with large, full-color photographs that set the scene for the informative writing. As usual, interviews are the near-total focus of My War, and Kristof’s interviews are thoughtful and deep. In a world of content meant to be digested in half a second as you scroll past on your phone, I come to print zines looking for depth, and My War delivers. This issue features interviews with Leper, Ian Mackaye, Bad Breeding, Bootlicker, and more, plus a short diary of Kristof’s experience at this year’s K-Town Fest. Nothing here feels shallow or perfunctory, and anyone with a deep passion for punk and hardcore will love it. Please never stop, Kristof. The world needs you!

Distort #58 zine The fifty-eighth issue of the long-running Australian zine Distort is out. I’ve been reading Distort for a long time (since close to the beginning I’m sure), and I’ve always admired this zine’s unique voice. Where a zine like My War takes a documentary approach to hardcore punk, DX at Distort (true to its name, I suppose) seems to delight in making things cryptic and slightly illegible, in keeping with his emphasis on what he calls “cult hardcore.” The band interviews are impressionistic and brief, but always leave me with a curiosity that sends me back to the music. This time around there’s a retrospective on the UK magazine Class War, interviews with Australian groups Prostate, Perspex, and Oily Boys, and (my favorite part of this issue) a feature on artist Sam Ryser about the one-of-a-kind band shirts he makes with magic markers. This piece includes color photos of the shirts along with Sam’s brief but interesting reflections on the pieces. Distort consistently pushes back against the rote and the conventional, and I’m always happy to see the current punk scene refracted through DX’s unique lens.

Blammo: Onomatopoeia 12” (State Laughter) State Laughter brings us the first release from this young group from Atlanta. Onomatopoeia’s beautiful DIY packaging will draw you in, but the music will keep your turntable busy, as this is unique and exciting stuff. Blammo’s minimalistic, bass-led sound might remind you of arty post-punk bands like Kleenex or As Mercenárias, but Blammo wanders out way further on the artistic ledge. The main vocalist alternates between a mocking baritone and a slurred speak-sing, often repeating incantatory phrases like “fortune favors the bold” until their meaning twists, inverts, and eventually dissolves. The rhythm section is the star of the instrumental show, grooving and hiccuping while the guitar, way back in the mix, pushes the limits of “thin and scratchy.” Blammo can be subtly poppy on a track like “Bad Advice,” but they’re as likely to be inscrutable, as they are on “The Wall.” It’s an intriguing mix, and if you like underground, contemporary art-punk like the Cochonne 12” on Sorry State or the recent album by XV we raved about, give this a shot.

Anti-Metafor: Kommuniké 12” (D-Takt & Råpunk Records) Anyone who has spent a little time with the Sorry State newsletter knows we love a straightforward hardcore ripper, but even more, I love when a band makes something unique within a genre that many assume long since ran out of ideas. On one hand, Kommuniké is definitely a d-beat record, not out of step with the typical stuff that Sweden’s mighty D-Takt & Råpunk Records puts out. On the other hand, though, it doesn’t sound quite like anything I’ve heard before. The closest point of comparison I can come up with is Montreal’s Absolut (incidentally, another D-Takt & Råpunk band). Like Absolut, Anti-Metafor doesn’t so much combine punk and metal as they exist in a liminal space where distinctions between the two genres dissolve. On the hardcore end, we have the pounding drums (right at the front of the mix, as they should be) and the harsh vocals (which remind me of Bastard), but the bass and guitar have a thin, trebly sound that is more like the production on Norwegian black metal records. The songs themselves also dance across these lines, with raging verses and choruses giving way to long instrumental passages centering on lengthy guitar leads that are at once melancholy and triumphant. It might sound like stadium crust if it had stadium sound, but that thin and trebly guitar sound again brings to mind the trance-inducing atmospherics of the Norwegian black metal scene. These subtleties might fly over the head of the d-beat novice, but those of us with a collection full of black and white covers and an inordinately large “D” section in our alphabetized stacks will appreciate what Anti-Metafor has accomplished here.

Stingray: Feeding Time 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) LVEUM brings us the debut EP from this new London hardcore band featuring Tin Savage, whose artwork you know from countless underground hardcore releases over the past several years, on vocals. With a membership that pulls from the New Wave of British Hardcore’s A-list, Stingray has a heavy, powerful hardcore sound that shows more than a little crossover peeking in around the edges. While that’s not too different in principle from what Power Trip (and the loads of bands they have influenced) do, Stingray’s take on crossover has none of that Bay Area Thrash polish, sounding more like the bands from mid and late 80s New York who had a grittier, nastier take on the sound. Feeding Time makes me think of records like Agnostic Front’s Cause for Alarm and Crumbsuckers’ Life of Dreams, but with the jackhammer production that you hear in the best underground hardcore of today rather than the (often awkward) bigger-budget studio recordings on those records. Totally punishing.

Dorothy: I Confess / Softness 7” (Sealed Records) Sealed Records digs up another obscurity, and this time it’s the one-off single by Dorothy, whose sole single came out on Throbbing Gristle’s label, Industrial Records. Along with Dorothy (who played drums in the band Rema Rema under her middle name, Max), the lineup on this single includes Genesis P’Orridge and Alex Fergusson, who would shortly form the group Psychic TV. (According to Discogs, Dorothy / Max was also invited to join Alternative TV but declined, though she briefly joined the group many years later.) “I Confess” sounds to me like a novelty pop song, its primitive synthesizer and faux-naïve vocals sounding like something they’d play a clip of in a documentary about punk to stand in contrast to the “authenticity” and “realness” of the new punk scene. This being Genesis P’Orridge, there is an element of subversion, though. The song’s lyrics are a Catholic-style confession in which the singer owns up to liking the things teenage girls like—boys and pop music—though there are hints of seediness, like the “magazines in shrink-wrapped covers.” Like Crass’s “Our Wedding,” it sounds like a troll, but also a total earworm. The b-side is probably a little more palatable to your average Industrial Records fan. While the synth sounds are still a little cheesy, the tough-sounding disco beat make it a secret weapon in any goth night DJ set.

Jack Pitt: Forever Punk photo book Forever Punk collects the work of UK-based photographer Jack Pitt, spanning the years 2011 to 2020. While Pitt was based in the UK during much of this time, he also spent some time in Vancouver and attended a bunch of important punk fests during this period, so rather than a document of a local or regional scene, Forever Punk feels more like a comprehensive overview of the underground punk and DIY scenes over the past decade. The bands Pitt was seeing are right in line with the stuff Sorry State covers, and you’ll see lots of our favorites represented here, from Torso to Extended Hell to Framtid to Public Acid, along with legions of other bands… the book is 230 pages, with several page spreads featuring multiple photos. Pitt also includes a few pieces of reflective writing about his photographic process and how it has developed alongside various changes in the punk scene. While these pieces are brief, they color the way I look at the photographs, giving them more of a documentary feel than your typical punk rock live shots. Anyone who closely follows underground punk and hardcore will enjoy Forever Punk’s documentation of the scene, but photography nerds (and/or people who really enjoy Razorblades and Aspirin zine) will get the most out of Forever Punk.

Vatican Commandos: Just a Frisbee 7” (Radiation) Vatican Commandos released their humorously titled Just A Frisbee 7” the same year as their debut Hit Squad For God in 1983. Even in the small time between these releases, the band went through some serious changes. Firstly, Moby is no longer in the band and is replaced by guitarist Mike Pollock. With their Connecticut hardcore elders CIA at the helm as producers, you can hear a lot of the CIA influence creeping its way into Vatican Commandos’ sound. Decidedly less raw and turbulent, the band heads in an even more anthemic, sing-along direction that there was an inkling of on their first EP. The band doesn’t seem to fear musical experimentation, incorporating some funky bass lines and auxiliary percussion from time to time. Predominantly mid-tempo songs feature light-hearted lyrical themes about cow-tipping and the like. The final track on the EP, “Let Down Again,” is a fast-paced ripper more akin to the first 7”. Just A Frisbee is a different beast than the ferocious first EP, but still a stone cold US hardcore classic with a plenty of ear candy and catchy riffs. Not to mention, the cover art was drawn by a young Rob Zombie. Pretty wild. Vatican Commandos were just a blip on the radar, only releasing one more 12” EP before disbanding in 1985. Definitely worth grabbing this EP if you’re a fan of the more melodic side of 80s US hardcore.

Soup Activists: Riling Up the Neighbors cassette (self-released) I saw this tape being passed around the digital punkosphere, and when I checked it out, I was really surprised. The first track Soup Activists hit us with is “Subdivision,” a pretty conventional, poppy punk song that deals with familiar punk subject matter. Its zippy tempo and off-key vocals remind me of the many bands who emulated their Screeching Weasel records in the 90s, but after that first track, Soup Activists go in very different directions. Tracks like “TVs in the Orchard” and “Q+A at Disneyland” remind me of the Dead Milkmen with their thin, jittery sound and lyrics and vocals that toe the line between sarcastic and more introverted and heartfelt. However, “I Surrender,” “Plenty of Garbage,” and “Send Me a Butterfly” stray even further from the conventional punk template. “I Surrender” is a pain-drenched ballad built around emotive vocals and a melodic, descending riff, and while it reminds me of UKDIY groups like Cleaners from Venus or the Television Personalities, the presentation differs totally from the anglophilic groups who take inspiration from those bands. For instance, Soup Activists rely on a similar aesthetic framework as Itchy Bugger, but the presentation here is even more raw and ragged. While I can dig deep into my record collection for a few reference points, Soup Activists sound nothing like anything I’ve been listening to for the past several years. I’m sure some people will hate something that sounds so different, many people will ignore it, but I could also see this clicking with a large contingent of people and starting a whole new trend.

New Vogue: Volume 2 12” (Casbah Records) Canada’s New Vogue caught my ear with their two cassette releases, and now the latest of those, Volume 2, has been pressed on vinyl. Here’s what we had to say about the cassette when it came out: “I flipped over New Vogue’s previous cassette when it came out back in 2018, and this follow-up reminds me why I love this band so much. New Vogue reminds me of bands like GG King, ISS, Predator, and Blood Visions-era Jay Reatard, all of whom bring to noisy punk a talent for writing dark pop songs. This self-titled tape (like their previous one), is just hit after hit. Take a track like “Safe on the Autobahn,” which starts with a brooding bass line and robotic-sounding verses, leads into a pre-chorus section that builds the tension and introduces a little melody, then—BAM!—explodes into an anthemic chorus. I can’t help but yell along, “I feel safe on the autobahn / I feel safe!” As I do this, my mind wanders to seeing Jay Reatard several times throughout 2007 and 2008 and doing the same thing along with “My Shadow” and “Nightmares.” And as I let the track play through, I’m reminded “Safe on the Autobahn” also has whole different middle eight and outro sections that are just as good as the other parts… and tracks like “Birdman” and “Reptile” are just as great. I can’t get over how awesome this tape is. Get this now, but someone needs to step up and give the world some New Vogue vinyl.”

DYE: Rules cassette (Dirtbag Distro) Rules is the second cassette from this band from Kansas City, Missouri, and with fourteen tracks of blistering US-style hardcore, it feels more like a cassette full-length than a demo. DYE’s sound is raw and drenched in snot… too fast, dangerous, and nihilistic to be called anything but hardcore, yet avoiding the tough-guy attitudes and reliance on musical cliche that marks so much hardcore. While the sound is raw, the playing is super locked in, with sudden and precise rhythmic shifts that remind me of powerful players like Damaged-era Black Flag or early Poison Idea. Pick Your King and Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes are the closest reference points for Rules, particularly the way it offers you a choice between appreciating the sophistication and precision of the music or diving into the dark and unhinged world articulated by the lyrics and vocals. Classic USHC heads should make sure not to skip this one.

R.O.B.O.: Contaminas 7” (Discos Mecago En Dios) We’ve been following Madrid, Spain’s R.O.B.O. for years here at Sorry State. They’re about to release their third album, but in the meantime, they dropped this four-track EP to whet our appetite. According to the label, 2 of these songs will be re-recorded for the full-length, while the other two will remain exclusive to this release. If you haven’t heard R.O.B.O., they play snappy, upbeat punk rock that borders on hardcore. While the songs are catchy, they’re constructed on a hardcore template, with two of these tracks clocking in under a minute and the other two barely any longer, all of them buzzing along at an energetic clip that never gets so fast the melody gets lost. And the melodies are great, reminding me of the Marked Men or Radioactivity, but shorter, faster, and leaner. With only four minutes of music, this EP packs a lot in a small space and has me suitably curious about the coming album.

Various: Flip: Sorry OST 12” (Euro Import) Part of me wonders how niche the demographic is for a skate video soundtrack. That said, having been heavily into skateboarding myself, Flip: Sorry stands out as one of the most memorable and iconic videos from the 00s era. It’s hard to forget Johnny Rotten’s role as master of ceremonies, takin’ the piss as he introduces each skater’s segment. In my mind, the idea to detach the music from the iconic visual of the Flip team destroying handrails is an interesting concept. The back cover of this LP doesn’t mention any musical artists. Instead, the track listing shows only the name of each skater and the title of the song featured during their clip. While there are some famous artists whose notoriety is not linked to Flip Skateboards, there are a few songs that seem deservedly contextualized as part of this skate video. I’m sure there are die-hard Placebo fans out there, but I have a hard time associating “Every You, Every Me” with anything but Mark Appleyard skating. A couple of my favorite skaters like Geoff Rowley and Ali Boulala both tear it up to Gray Matter songs. For a change of pace, Rune Glifberg skates vert to a cold, electronic and more era-appropriate number from Prodigy. Looking back, if the Flip company could get permission for their usage of all these songs, then they locked down an impressive roster of heavy hitters, which I would prefer to most Hollywood movie soundtracks. I’d almost forgotten the video features legendary classics from The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. One of the most memorable scenes from the video is the animated recreation of Arto Saari’s epic bail on a handrail, which apparently almost killed him. That chilling moment is followed by back-to-back bangers from Bowie. Sure, you’ll have to imagine the sound of spinning skateboard wheels while spinning this yellow splatter vinyl, but at least you get a diverse collection of hits on this LP. Plus, you get a bonus sheet of stickers to plaster all over your skate deck! …or more realistically, your turntable.

Various: Between the Coasts cassette (No Label) Between the Coasts is the first release on the new Milwaukee label No Label, and it’s a compilation of contemporary midwest hardcore and punk (well, mostly midwest… LA’s Rolex appear for no apparent reason, other than that they rip). The vibe reminds me of 80s cassette-only compilations like Charred Remains or Barefoot and Pregnant, which were heavy on content and packaged with the aesthetic sensibility of a DIY hardcore demo tape. There are a handful of names I know—Slogan Boy, Big Laugh, and Deodorant among them—and a bunch that are new to me. None of the tracks are duds in my book, but the standouts include Eggnort’s knotty hardcore, Slogan Boy’s vicious, Poison Idea-influenced USHC, and Deodorant’s Minutemen vibes. With twelve tracks for only four bucks, you can’t go wrong with this one, so get hip to what’s happening in flyover country.

Kohti Tuhoa: Väkivalta 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Helsinki band Kohti Tuhoa has cemented themselves as mainstays of Finnish hardcore. Since their emergence onto the scene 7 or 8 years ago, the band’s discography boasts 3 full-length LPs and a couple of 7”s. Their self-titled first release on Svart Records presented listeners with 6 blazing tracks of noisy, chaotic raw punk. Even from the beginning, it was clear the band was hellbent on dismantling any notion of formula. Over the course of their 3 LPs, you can hear Kohti Tuhoa expand their sound and bring a fresh sonic identity with each release. I remember hearing the Elä Totuudesta EP from last year and thinking it was their strongest release. Their songwriting seemed to move in a more tuneful direction, but Elä Totuudesta only hinted at the experimentation on their brand new EP Väkivaltaa. The opening track “Suden Hetki” is a minute-long instrumental that functions like a brooding, ambient mood piece to set the tone. Then we launch into “Häpeä,” which is unique to any song Kohti Tuhoa has ever released. Drawing more inspiration from anarcho and post-punk, the propulsive, driving drum beat and cold, melodic sensibility recalls early Killing Joke. In direct contrast, the B-side serves up 3 tracks of explosive and chaotic hardcore—but not chaotic like the noisy, crusty sound of their previous releases. The band seems to have broken down creative barriers, throwing ideas against the wall and, as a result, they’ve put together a batch of inventive and well-orchestrated crushers that feel unusual and exciting. Kohti Tuhoa has found a killer stride with Väkivaltaa, and I’m itching to hear an LP’s worth of material heading in this new direction.

Malevolence: Apparitions 12” (Supreme Echo Records) Between this and the Eve of Darkness book I wrote about last week, I’ve been immersed in Canadian metal for the past couple of weeks and, I must say, I’m not mad about it. While Eve of Darkness focused on Toronto-area metal from the 80s, Malevolence was from the west coast (Victoria, BC) and was mostly active during the 90s. The material collected on Apparitions originally came out as two cassette-only releases in 1992. While these releases are referred to as “demos,” they’re very well recorded and polished, standing toe to toe with the highest-profile thrash releases of the late 80s. The material on Malevolence was recorded during one session, with the two cassettes devoted to the band’s newest material (Apparitions) and re-recordings of songs from the previous lineup (Race to Infinity).I’d describe all the tracks here as heavy thrash with a technical bent. They remind me of Forbidden in that Malevolence’s technical proficiency set them apart from the thrashing masses, yet they keep the focus on speed and heaviness and never descend into prog (an accusation you could level at some technical thrash bands). Malevolence could have lit up the world if these recordings came out in 1986 or maybe even 1988, but when I listen to Apparitions with my 1992 ears, it’s easy to see why Malevolence didn’t gain more traction. By 1992 (a year after Nevermind came out), thrash was in its death throes as a genre, and beyond that, the public’s taste in rock music was trending toward the more visceral, even primitive… the more commercial end of metal got consumed by grunge, while the extreme end of metal moved toward death and black metal. Removing my 1992 ears, though, in 2021, Apparitions is just a ripping, accomplished album that anyone into that late 80s thrash sound will enjoy. Further, like their recent Neos reissue, Supreme Echo rounds out the cool artwork with an LP-sized, full-color booklet where drummer Loran Werrun tells the story behind these sessions, the picture rounded out with heaps of photos and flyers.

Languid: A Paranoid Wretch in Society’s Games 12” (D-Takt & Rapunk Records) We last heard from Edmonton, Canada’s Languid with 2018’s Submission Is the Only Freedom, a bass-heavy record that fused Celtic Frost’s lumbering low end with Cimex-style riffs and songwriting. While the songwriting is similar on this new LP, the production this time around is more refined, dropping the blown-out low end in favor of a crisper sound that reminds me of Anti-Cimex’s Absolut Country of Sweden. As with that album, the clear sound and the steady, fast-but-not-blistering tempos emphasize the riffing, which deserves the spotlight since it is both catchy and inventive. All of A Paranoid Wretch in Society’s Games is strong, but given the more composed vibe on most of the album, it stands out when Languid deviates from the formula, however slightly. Thus, the mid-paced tracks “Government Power” and “Tattered Minds” are the standouts for me. If the zombie viking on the cover (also featured on the giant poster insert) draws you in, I doubt you’ll walk away disappointed.

Paprika: S/T cassette (Iron Lung Records) Funny story, I actually offered to put out this tape, but Iron Lung beat me to the punch. No hard feelings… if I had the choice between Iron Lung and Sorry State, I’d choose them too! I thought I’d share that factoid to emphasize the point that New Orleans’ Paprika bears both the Iron Lung and Sorry State seals of approval. Paprika plays a style of dense, dark hardcore with inventive, complex riffing, vocals drenched in delay, and a mid-range-y guitar sound you can feel in your teeth. Like Public Acid or Drugcharge, Paprika takes bouncy, pit-provoking hardcore and fuses it with darker undertones that seem like they’re borrowed from black metal or underground death metal, though it’s difficult to point to specific musical similarities to those genres. With six songs in about as many minutes, this tape leaves me wanting more. I hope we get it too, because if Paprika is already this fully formed at their starting point, their next steps will definitely be worth paying attention to.

Maximum Joy: Stretch 12” (1972 Records) Maximum Joy… who doesn’t want more of that, right? Fortunately, this late 70s / early 80s post-punk band from Bristol, England’s name isn’t a misnomer. Maximum Joy drew personnel from Glaxo Babies and the Pop Group, their sound of a piece with dub- and funk-informed post-punk bands like Delta 5, Gang of Four, and Essential Logic (a band I’ve been digging hard for the past several months). This is a reissue of their first 12” single, Stretch, a record so infectious that the New York label 99 Records pressed it up for the US market in 1981, where Maximum Joy fit right in with 99 bands like ESG, Liquid Liquid, and Y Pants. The single’s A-side, “Stretch,” centers on a heavy funk groove, fast-paced and danceable, with a semi-skronky saxophone providing extra grit. The b-side, “Silent Street / Silent Dub” swaps out the funk for reggae, placing the heavy bass at the front of the mix and bringing in a delay-effected trumpet that reminds me of Miles Davis records like Live Evil. Adrian Sherwood later produced Maximum Joy’s debut album, and this track sounds a lot like what the artists on Sherwood’s On U Sound label (Creation Rebel, African Head Charge, New Age Steppers, etc.) were doing around the same time. Stretch may be short, but it’s long on power and historical significance.

Nasti: Life Is Nasti 12” (Iron Lung Records) It’s been four years since Nasti’s previous LP for Iron Lung came out. They’ve dropped a few limited cassettes in the interim and undergone some lineup changes, but this new 12” shows them no worse for the wear. Besides being from the label’s home state, Nasti fits right in with Iron Lung’s roster of original, forward-thinking hardcore bands. While there are some ignorant, wall-demolishing riffs on Life Is Nasti that might remind you of their label mates Gag, they counterbalance those crowd-pleasing riffs with a propensity to get loose. Just listen to the way the opening track, “Self Sucker,” alternates between a locked-in, almost industrial-sounding march and another section where the guitars wander off into space. This tug of war continues for Life Is Nasti’s entire 15-minute runtime, taking in moments like the triumphant, guitar-solo-over-mosh-part in “Stud Gods” to my favorite part of the record, the bit in “Lip Licker” where Nasti lays down a gripping melodic line composed entirely of feedback. Fucking wicked.

Echo & the Bunnymen: Ocean Rain 12” (Rhino Records) The wait is over, and now several classic albums by Liverpool indie darlings Echo & The Bunnymen are back in print as part of Rhino’s Rocktober series. As the flagship band for small UK imprint Korova, Echo emerged alongside bands like The Sound as part of the wave of exciting and interesting, but more radio-friendly, side of post-punk. Their fourth album, Ocean Rain, released in 1984, was Echo’s last release on Korova before signing with WEA. Held by many Echo fans as one of their best and a landmark album, Ocean Rain adds ambitious and lush orchestral arrangements to Echo’s signature melodic pop hooks. This album had huge hits in the charts in the UK and garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. “Silver” and “Seven Seas” are among the notable cuts, but in retrospect, the huge number off of this album (and one of the band’s most recognizable and definitive songs) is “The Killing Moon.” With the breakout strength of this album, it’s a shame that Echo & The Bunnymen aren’t a primary recommendation compared to indie giants like The Smiths or Jesus and Mary Chain. Certainly, Echo must have had a huge impact on the burgeoning Britpop movement to come. That said, for all their success, Echo always seemed like a black sheep of sorts. Within all the beauty and memorable melodies, their music can also be quite haunting and dark. But if you’re looking to hear a moody indie classic that captures a band just before their rise to mainstream success, Ocean Rain is a must.

Eve of Darkness book (UXB Press) Back in 2018, Toronto’s UXB Press released the book Tomorrow Is Too Late, a beautifully designed, phone-booked-sized tome documenting the 80s hardcore punk scene in that city. Now they’re back with the companion piece, Eve of Darkness, which does the same thing for the 80s Toronto metal scene. As before, the book is large and thick, packed with photographs, scans of paper ephemera, and detailed text about the scene. About half of Eve of Darkness provides capsule histories of each band, proceeding in chronological order based on when the groups started, and alternating between oral history-style sections and more traditional band biographies, with the more popular and better documented bands getting several pages to tell their story with text and images. I can’t imagine any Toronto metal or hard rock band you wanted to read about isn’t represented here, from the biggest names like Anvil to well known underground bands like Sacrifice and Slaughter right down to dozens of bands who only played a handful of gigs or managed a demo session or a photo shoot. While the band histories are informative and entertaining, I like the other sections of the book even more. These sections address topics like key clubs, promoters, and important gigs. Eve of Darkness is a rich sociological account of this subculture, with a level of detail that allows the reader to feel immersed in the world of 80s metal. Since so much of the book is about how the local Toronto scene intersected with the national and international metal scenes, the book is fascinating for anyone interested in metal’s history, particularly how that history played out at the street level. If you’re looking for what the typical music book gives you—some cool stories and a list of new bands to check out—Eve of Darkness delivers, but it’s so much more than that… a real cut above as far as these kinds of books go.

Burning Sword: II cassette (Earth Girl) Hattiesburg, Mississippi lays another cassette on us, but this time there’s a wrinkle: Burning Sword doesn’t play hardcore or punk, but slow and churning doom metal. The riffs here are less Sabbath and more Sleep, slowed and deconstructed to the point where the structure dissolves into a maze of thuds, bordering on Sunn’s abstract, heavy drone. While Burning Sword’s tempos and heaviness are par for the course for doom metal, the lo-fi sound and the short songs (most around two minutes or less) connect this to other Hattiesburg acts like Judy & the Jerks and Bad Anxiety. If you’re one of those people who complain that their attention span is too short for doom metal, give this a try, as it packs all the trippy heaviness into a tight, six track / twelve minute container.

Maggot Brain #6 zine (Third Man Records) I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: Maggot Brain is killing it, and it’s an essential read for anyone into the sounds of the underground. Maggot Brain reminds me of late 80s-era Forced Exposure in that they cover what they’re passionate about without regard to how many units it’s moved, focusing on out-there sounds from the fringes of the underground. Rather than hailing things for obscurity’s sake, Maggot Brain is devoted to widening their readers’ musical horizons, pushing against all the algorithmically generated recommendations designed to give you more of the same. Maggot Brain is also just good reading; I read every issue cover to cover, and even if a particular artist isn’t something I’d check out on my own time, it’s cool to know a little about who they are and what they’re doing. Oh, and there is always some punk rock content, of course! This issue features an interview with Zigyaku from Gudon, Bastard, and Judgement (an abridged version of a piece that appeared on General Speech’s website a few months back), a conversation with / about Aaron Cometbus, and a photo spread with a bunch of unseen photos from the late 80s / early 90s punk / indie scene, alongside content about genres as diverse as jazz, new age, country, and classic rock, among many others. Like I said, Maggot Brain is essential reading for the open-minded music fan.

Sistema En Decadencia: Nuestro Legado 12” (Hardcore Victim) After a handful of tapes and EPs, Australia’s Sistema En Decadencia brings us their first big vinyl, and it is a total fucking crusher. Sistema En Decadencia takes inspiration from Kyushu noise-core a la Confuse and Gai, but like more recent groups such as D-Clone and Horrendous 3D, they pay close attention to the dynamics of tone and texture (as opposed to riffs and rhythms) and push the recording technology to its 21st-century limits. This is the type of record that, if you’re blasting it while your housemate or partner walks into the room after a long day of work, they will almost certainly tell you to turn it the fuck off right this second. Since the sound of Nuestro Legado is so important, if you are interested in this record, I recommend you experience it on vinyl. While most of the time I don’t feel like there’s a huge difference between the digital and vinyl versions of a recording, the cut they got on this record is insane… it sounds like a dump truck unloading a couple tons of bricks onto a trash compactor that’s crushing hundreds of television sets, all of them blaring white noise at maximum volume. Not only is it louder than the digital version, it’s more dynamic too, with the manic kick drum becoming the focal point of the mix in a way that’s very different to what I hear via Bandcamp. If all this sounds like your cup of tea, I recommend snagging a copy of this limited-to-300 pressing while you still can.

Collapsed: S/T 12” (Phobia Records) Phobia Records brings us the first LP from this metallic crust band out of Montreal, Canada. Like their labelmates in Warcollapse, Collapsed’s sound takes cues from the heavy, metallic crust bands of the 90s… think Doom, State of Fear, and bands of that ilk. Collapsed’s sound is heavy on the low end, in line with the massive sound of big 90s death metal records. Collapsed’s gutteral vocals and catchy mid-paced riffs also remind me of classic death metal, but they replace death metal’s blasting and thrash beats with driving d-beats. That’s pretty much the story with this album… a spooky death metal intro here (“To the Last Breath”), a total crust pounder there (“Recurent Saga”)… it’s a Frankenstein monster built out parts taken from two different species, but Collapsed reveals their fundamental compatibility. If your tastes span that crust/death divide, this will get your fist in the air.

Echo & the Bunnymen: Heaven Up Here 12” (Rhino Records) Rhino Records has been reissuing a bunch of Echo & the Bunnymen albums on vinyl as part of their annual “Rocktober” reissue series. Since we’re big fans of Echo here at SSR and listen to their records all the time in the shop, we grabbed a stack of each of them, since the originals don’t turn up as often as we would like. Here we have Heaven Up Here, Echo’s second album, originally released in 1981. The band emerged from the same Liverpool scene that brought us the Teardrop Explodes, and while psychedelia played a big role in both bands’ music, for their first couple of records, at least, they were riding the post-punk wave. Heaven Up Here might be Echo’s most post-punk album, jettisoning some of the punky poppiness of the first album, Crocodiles, and focusing on a more drum-centered sound that took a lot from Joy Division. While haters might nitpick about Echo copping so much from Joy Division, it’s hard to deny the band could play their asses off and injected heaps of invention and excitement into that framework. The drums are dense, inventive, and sound fucking incredible, while the guitars eschew the rhythmically focused style of many post-punk bands in favor of a melodic, psychedelic maximalism. While the band’s ability to construct a great pop song hadn’t quite hit its peak, as this style of brooding post-punk goes, Heaven Up Here is top shelf.

Vains: You May Not Believe in Vains But You Cannot Deny Terror 7” (Dirty Knobby Industries) If you’re itching for yet another obscure 80s punk gem from Seattle, look no further than The Vains. With a title like You May Not Believe In Vains, But You Cannot Deny Terror combined with the vintage, horror movie poster-style picture sleeve, the presentation of this EP screams Killed By Death. And rightfully so, since each song on this EP featured on a KBD compilation at one time or another. Originally released in 1980, these 3 tracks of explosive, high-octane punk rock sound like a stepping stone to the burgeoning wave of American hardcore just over the horizon. Under the radar as it may be, all 3 songs feel like classics in their own right. For being a young band, Vains do not sound primitive by any means. The band knew their way around writing a song, and the production on the recording is crisp for a snotty 80s punk band. The teen angst opus “School Jerks” is instantly memorable with the hooky refrain “It’s a pain in the ass/to try to get to next class” and out-of-control guitar wankery. “The Fake” credits bassist Nico Teen as songwriter and vocalist, which is the alias for a young Duff McKagan. If 10 Minute Warning, The Living, and The Fartz weren’t enough, then you can add one more great early Seattle punk band to McKagan’s resume. This 7” is a must-have for anyone looking to experience a snarling transitional record in history of hardcore punk.

Personal Damage: demo 7” (Test Subject Records) From afar, LA’s Personal Damage seemed to make a big splash when they released their demo tape a few months ago. After that small run of cassettes sold out super quickly, these 5 songs of lean and mean hardcore punk have been re-released on a single-sided 7” flexi. Personal Damage appears to be the brainchild of just two people from the LA/Santa Ana area who also play in groups like Hate Preachers and Abuso De Poder. If you’re a fan of early 80s California hardcore, then you’ll feel right at home listening to this flexi. Like their contemporaries White Stains or Chain Whip, Personal Damage takes a few pages out of the book of the distinctly old school, snotty, punky side of LA hardcore. The first Wasted Youth LP or the Circle One Demo are suitable points of comparison. The 50-second opening ripper, “Shit’s Fucked,” is also a dead ringer for The Fix “Vengeance,” but with that unmistakable LA punk guitar rhythmic approach. The vocal performance oozes with charisma and personality, but is also seething with OC-style frustration and dark humor, all presented with a Cadena-esque lackadaisical aloofness. The flexi is also housed in beautiful DIY packaging. The cover art is screen printed in black and silver and contains a 12-page, risograph-printed lyric booklet stapled inside. Much like the cassette, this run of flexis is super limited, so snatch this ripper while you can.

Smirk: EP 12” / cassette (Total Punk Records / Iron Lung Records) With this new EP, Smirk has the unique distinction of having a simultaneous release on Iron Lung Records (cassette) and Total Punk Records (vinyl). That should be a clue for you that this EP is special. As Dominic mentioned in his staff pick a few weeks ago, Smirk’s EP offers seven crackling tracks of punk-infused pop. Not pop-punk, of course, but something far less stylized. While they don’t have the faux-English qualities of bands that emulate their style, Smirk reminds me of Cleaners from Venus, Television Personalities, and the Times, all of whom made homespun pop music informed by punk’s DIY aesthetics and emphasis on energy and drive. While I am, of course, a punk to my bone, it’s the poppiest moments of EP that hit the hardest, like the wistful closing track “Lost Cities” and the bouncy and sunny “So Original,” with its cool Wilko Johnson-esque rockabilly riff. Each track feels like its own little universe though, and the EP’s variety and brevity is an infectious combination.

Prison Affair / Research Reactor Corp: Split 7” (Erste Theke Tonträger) You don’t see split 7”s as much these days; even rarer are splits like this one, which features two well-matched bands, great artwork, and an EP’s worth of non-throwaway material from each band. If you like either Research Reactor Corp or Prison Affair (and if you like one, you almost certainly like the other), you’re going to want this EP. If you haven’t heard them, both bands play that Coneheads-influenced style of egg punk, but they’re far from interchangeable. RRC is more abrasive, with harsher vocals, more manic grooves, and hooks that center on bursts of synth squelch. Prison Affair is more laid-back and melodic, building their songs around intricate, high-speed lead guitar riffing. Both bands offer three tracks, and if you’re a fan of this sound, it’s hard to imagine you won’t walk away satisfied.

Dog Flashback: demo cassette (Foreign Legion Records) Foreign Legion Records brings us the demo tape from this hardcore band from Chicago. According to Bandcamp, this demo came out in December 2019, but I’m glad Foreign Legion has given it a wider release. Longtime followers of Chicago hardcore will clock Ebro’s distinctive vocals right off the bat, and fans of his band Punch in the Face will love Dog Flashback’s pure hardcore sound. That being said, this recording is looser and rougher around the edges than the PITF stuff, but the approach is similarly streamlined. The guitar is a blizzard of power chords (punctuated only a couple of times with unison bends or chaotic bursts of noise), the vocals and bass charge forward without letup, and the drums pound away with power while leaving room for plenty of catchy rolls and fills. It’s very much in the style of SOA, Negative FX, and Negative Approach, but in the hands of these hardcore veterans, the style sounds classic rather than tired. The tape ends with a chaotic run-through of “Arms Race” by B.G.K. No bullshit here, just rippage.

Warcollapse: Bound to Die 7” (Phobia Records) Bound to Die is the latest EP from this long-running Swedish crust institution. While Warcollapse is a name I’ve known for many years (I often think about their memorably titled first album from 1995, Crust as Fuck Existence), I can’t recall hearing them. On one hand, they sound like I would have expected: heavy, Doom-style metallic crust with high production values and an emphasis on heavy low-end frequencies. However, while there’s plenty of fist-in-air, grooved-out banana riff action, there’s a lot going on in these four tracks to keep your ear interested. I love the rhythmic quirks in the chorus to the first track, “Manipulerad,” and the guitar leads are rocked out and drenched in wah-wah. My ear gravitates toward bands with a looser sound, but it’s hard to deny Warcollapse’s power when they lock into a groove, particularly on the memorable mid-paced parts. Maybe this sound would get tiring on a long 12”, but these four tracks are a long way from wearing out their welcome.

Judy & the Jerks: Live in NWI cassette (Earth Girl Tapes) Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s Judy & the Jerks are back with this new tape, which captures them live in a basement in Hammond, Indiana. I’ve been a huge fan of Judy & the Jerks since I heard them, and this 10-song live tape is a welcome addition to their discography. The gig itself sounds wild… you can hear the crowd going off during the mosh parts, yelling between tracks, and dragging the band back for an encore at the end of the set. While some live recordings can seem sterile, this one crackles with energy. And the band’s performance is spot-on. I’m amazed that the singer can keep up with those high-speed vocal acrobatics in a live setting, and while I hear a few flubs here and there (it’s a wild basement show after all!), they rip through their complex yet catchy songs with explosive energy. As I’ve said before, Judy & the Jerks always radiates pure fun, and that’s as true of Live in NWI as it is of their studio releases.

Koma: Internment Failure 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) I’ve been listening to this first LP from the UK’s Koma all week, and I feel like I’m only just finding my way into it. I had been listening to the record on streaming while taking walks in the warm (i.e. not unbearably hot) fall North Carolina weather, and the album’s subtleties have interesting corollaries with change from summer into winter, which seems to happen fast by the standards of geological time, but as a human you need patience to see and appreciate it. Things clicked for Koma when I sat down with the vinyl, as they do with a lot of records. The dense, monochromatic illustration on the cover where there are distinct skeletal shapes, but it’s tough to tell where one element ends and another begins; the dimly lit band photo on the back cover where you can only just discern human shapes in a dark, medieval-looking building; the murky production that refuses to cede attention to any one element, a writhing sonic morass; the fractured lyrics that touch on themes like isolation and the supernatural, but resist efforts to wrench easily summarizable meaning from them… Koma’s sound and visual aesthetic are woven from the same cloth. Their music feels introverted, troubled, even hard to listen to at times, which is a strange emotional register for hardcore to occupy. And Koma is hardcore… loud, fast, and heavy, but with none of the grandstanding or feel-good vibes you get from other points on the genre’s lengthy continuum. It might not be for everyone, but it’s a powerful statement.

The Freakees: Freakee Deakee 7” (House of Timothy) Freakee Deakee is the latest release from this prolific punk/garage band from Los Angeles, and it’s an all-analog production with no computers used at any point in recording or manufacturing the record. I don’t think I’d heard the Freakees before (though Sorry State has their earlier split 7” with Launcher in stock), and I’d describe their sound as restless and raw, but tuneful and memorable. The Freakees remind me of the Reatards in that the songs have a straightforward rock and roll / garage foundation, but they’re performed with a sense of total abandon. Listening to a ripper like “Republicans,” I imagine the singer starting the song with an ill-advised face-first stage dive, then climbing back onstage to perform the rest of the song through a veil of blood. Freakee Deakee drips with this don’t-give-a-fuck energy, at least until the last track, “Freakee Friday,” which careens into a stumbling, post-Funhouse druggy haze. If you like your rock and roll raw, loose, and visceral, this one’s for you.

Bad Anxiety: demo cassette (Earth Girl Tapes) Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s Earth Girl Tapes brings us the 4-song demo tape from Bad Anxiety. Bad Anxiety is another one of those projects where one person plays every instrument, and the person in question here is Hampton, who also plays in Judy & the Jerks and a bunch of other Hattiesburg groups. The sound is full-bore hardcore punk with an emphasis on high energy and catchy songwriting. I hear a lot of Circle Jerks in Bad Anxiety’s sound (perhaps because “Police” bears more than a passing resemblance to “Red Tape”), but the vocals are snotty and carry a touch of melody. Maybe it’s because I just spun this record the other day, but the vocals remind me of Lumpy’s in Cal and the Calories, though the music is more akin to Fried E/M’s blistering hardcore. The first three tracks are sub-1 minute sprints, with the EP ending on a (comparatively) mid-paced note with “Big City,” a more rocking track with great, sarcastic lyrics that sounds like something the Controllers or Angry Samoans might have come up with. This would have made for a killer 7”, but this limited-to-100 cassette will have to do.

General Speech #10 zine I often say I’ll read pretty much anything having to do with punk, but a lot of the things I read—zines, books, or stuff on the web—are of poor quality, often with shoddy research, poor copy editing, and ugly and/or non-functional graphic design. General Speech is impeccable in these respects, an underground punk zine crafted with the obvious care and attention to detail that one usually has to shell out a bunch of money to a team of professionals to get. As note-perfect as General Speech might be in these respects, it still strikes me as the purest expression of the concept of the music fanzine that you can find in the punk underground. While most zines adopt, to some extent or another, the tropes of mainstream music publications, the editor Tom’s passion for music seems to be the guiding principle for what lands in General Speech. Tom revels in the details, both the small details of better-known releases and the minutiae of lesser-known punk. For instance, the biggest bands featured in this issue are probably the Damned and Chaos UK, but the articles delve deep into the recesses of those bands’ stories. The article on the Damned is a lengthy feature on Tom’s favorite non-album tracks, while the Chaos UK feature is an interview with the photographer who took the photo on the cover of the band’s Short, Sharp Shock album. Elsewhere in the mag there are features on the obscure Japanese cassette label X.A. Record, the Chilean band Ignorantes, and older groups Fallout, Six Minute War, and Private Jesus Detector. These interviews are rich in detail, Tom’s obsessiveness well matched with the interview subjects’ candor. The cover star and centerpiece of the issue is a long interview with Mune from Paintbox, and while many western publications that attempt to interview Japanese punk bands have trouble penetrating the language and cultural barriers, this interview is gripping for anyone deeply into Japanese hardcore. The writing in General Speech is beyond reproach, but the visuals are just as good, with Tom’s collection of punk ephemera and unimpeachable graphic design skills proving to be an unfuckwithable combo. If you’re anything like me, you’ll pore over every inch of this fanzine and return to it again and again. Totally essential.

Nekropolis Iluzija: S/T cassette (Doomed to Extinction Records) Nekropolis Iluzija self-describes this release as anti-war and anti-military themed. And at first glance, this cassette’s bleak, black and grey cover art along with peace punk symbolism led me to assume that this tape would sound like crust punk. But within 10 seconds of hearing the first song, it was clear that rather than guitar-heavy crust, this tape is a synth-laden electronic project. While this band is based out of San Francisco, none of the lyrics are in English. I believe the band’s name translates to “Necropolis Illusion” from Croatian, which is fitting, because their sound is totally reminiscent of 80s Eastern European coldwave and post-punk. The sparse, cold, but decidedly musical song structures are well crafted, and dense with electronic textures that feel authentically vintage. This tape sounds like a tribute to 80s minimal synth and coldwave that is so well done that it’s almost surgical. The lo-fi, mechanical drum machine is drenched in sweeping, high-pitched synth melodies that sit blaringly loud in the mix. While I don’t understand the words, the vocals are the focal point and have some surprising moments where they shift from restrained invariability to spine-chilling whispers to intense aggression. They sneak in an interesting cover version of a song by Serbian hardcore band Proces, which is a cool little thematic nod to the Yugo area. A must have for those anticipating the stark cold of winter.

DShK: Power for Them, Pennies for You cassette (Bitter Melody Records) Five-song demo from this project based in Asheville, North Carolina. DShK formed during lockdown as a response to the anger and frustration the surrounding events provoked, and the feeling is palpable… there’s an undeniable electricity running through these songs. The Herätys cover is a nice tip of the hat, as DShK has a similar knack for fusing inventive, complex riffing with a sonic template that leaves room for nothing but total assault. Fans of modern mangel, this is right up your alley. I’m unclear whether DShK is a continuing concern or just a onetime thing, but I hope they stick around because this rips.

Rearranged Face: A Rare Caged Fern 12” (House of Timothy) I first saw A Rare Caged Fern circulating on Bandcamp, where the cover art captured my attention. I gave it a listen, liked it, and ordered some copies for the store. Since the vinyl arrived, I like it even more. While Rearranged Face has some of the superficial trappings of egg punk (like jittery rhythms and mutated rock and roll riffing), A Rare Caged Fern is too unique to sum up with a simple genre description. The closest thing I can think of to Rearranged Face in overall vibe is Suburban Lawns; moments also remind me of early B-52’s (without so much camp) or Uranium Club (but less distant and cerebral). Rearranged Face builds songs around catchy, repetitive riffs, but spice things up with weird sci-fi noises, a yelpy vocalist, and jammed-out parts that edge into Can territory. “History of Things to Come” has some of the angular drive of Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction,” while “Chain Brute” breaks up the vibe with a cool disco beat. I’m struggling to get across what Rearranged Face sounds like, and while that can make for a frustrating writing experience, I love that this record’s sound isn’t quite like anything I’ve ever heard before. Fans of the more Rough Trade-informed end of the DIY punk spectrum (think the World or M.A.Z.E.) will love this, but A Rare Caged Fern is unique and charming enough that it will catch ears outside that world, too.

Razorblades & Aspirin #13 zine The latest issue of Razorblades & Aspirin is out! Hopefully most people who are into Sorry State are aware of Razorblades & Aspirin already, but if you aren’t, you need to check it out. You may think to yourself, “why do I need to spend money on a physical zine when I spend half my waking hours scrolling on my phone?,” but this magazine is a showcase for the richness of print. The zine’s focus has always been on beautiful photography reproduced at large scale, high detail, and full color (where appropriate), and if you think the experience of poring over every detail of one of these images is functionally the same as scrolling past something on Instagram, then the two of us have very different ideas of what makes for rich engagement with a piece of art. As with previous issues, the writing in issue #13 is just as interesting as the visuals, including interviews with cover stars Zulu, Jerry A. of Poison Idea, the director Otto Buj (who did the recent Dope, Hookers, and Pavement film about the 80s Detroit hardcore scene), and several others, including several punk-affiliated photographers, who always offer an interesting and under-appreciated perspective on punk. I’m also amazed that a quarterly publication can turn me on to so much great music… I spend every day of my life looking for new music to listen to, yet each issue of Razorblades & Aspirin adds a big stack of artists to my “to check out” pile. I’m not aware of a current punk zine that offers anywhere near this much bang for your buck.

Soul Patrol: Mara 7” (Feel It Records) Feel It Records brings us a reissue of this rare and obscure punk single from the small town of Many, Louisiana in 1979. While a handful of copies of the sleeveless original exist, most everyone will hear Soul Patrol for the first time here, with Feel It adding snazzy new sleeve artwork (courtesy Drew Owen of Sick Thoughts) as well as an insert featuring brief liner notes and a few archival clippings. While, by 1979, the US punk scene was in full swing (or even over in some people’s eyes!), Soul Patrol sounds more like a proto-punk band, their music rooted in the regional garage-punk bands of the Nuggets ilk, but grown more aggressive and confrontational, dropping the beads and flowers in favor of shitty beer and denim. Think of bands like the Dogs (Detroit), Crime, and Destroy All Monsters and you’ll be in the ballpark, but there’s a don’t-give-a-fuck hopelessness here that captures something unique about being a rocker in the deep south. Only two tracks, but they’re both quality KBD bangers.

Prision Postumo: Live in LA cassette (No Solution) The No Solution tape label brings us the latest release from Santa Ana’s Prision Postumo. After carrying their demo 7” and debut LP Amor, Salud, y Dinero, this new tape Live In LA!! provides some insight to Prision Postumo’s energy as a live band. The DIY, black & white presentation has the feel of a home-dubbed live tape that would be passed around among punks in their local scene. No frills—there’s not even a track listing, which forces the listener to immerse themselves in the experience of attending a SoCal punk gig. As we’ve mentioned in our previous descriptions about Prision Postumo, they definitely fall into a more tuneful, melodic category of punk and hardcore. I’ve heard them compared to the Peruvian Rock Subterraneo scene, but when I hear the umpa-umpa drum beats and anthemic, hooky choruses, my mind immediately reminisces about the Oi!-inflected street punk of early 00s Punkcore. The sound of the live recording is raw, but clear enough to decipher what’s going on. It’s apparent that Prision Postumo played super tight at this show. It’s cool to hear moments of chatter in the crowd between songs and also to hear the audience sing “whoa-ohs” along with the band on the slower, sing-along numbers. It’s easy to imagine a group of punks with their arms around each other’s shoulders, drunkenly unified while stomping in a circle pit at this gig. I know I would’ve had my boots strapped on and ready to pogo. Definitely a cool listen.

Set-top Box: Max Headroom 7” (Polaks Recorxds) Set-top Box previously released a compilation of two cassettes on Erste Theke Tonträger; now they’re back with a new, stand-alone 4-track EP on France’s Polaks Records. Max Headroom continues with the style Set-top Box established on their earlier cassettes: a jittery, pop-infused, yet homespun take on what we now call egg punk. I know everyone hates that term, but when something has this trebly lo-fi production, robotic-sounding rhythms, and Chuck Berry riffs twisted into angular shapes, you have to call a spade a spade. While Set-top Box’s sound is consistent with the egg punk world, their songwriting is strong, with the synth-led “Climb the Latter” summoning the pop sheen of Freedom of Choice-era Devo and “DNA” reminding me of Ausmuteants’ nervous synth-punk. A solid grip for those of us who like catchy punk tunes with grit and personality.

Strong Boys: Homo 7” (Static Shock Records) If someone played me Strong Boys for the first time without any prior knowledge of the artwork or the lyrics, I might assume they were a bunch of aggro boneheads playing tough as nails hardcore. With the deep, gruff vocals and the mosh-worthy, yet jangly, Oi!-infused hardcore styling, Strong Boys sounds eerily like 86 Mentality. The band also reminds of me the slightly more regional ilk of laddish bands like The Flex or Violent Reaction. While the tough as nails descriptor rings true musically, Strong Boys is a band that defies expectations. With their quite frankly titled new 7” Homo, Dublin’s Strong Boys are an unabashed gay hardcore band with lyrics confronting the church, ignorance, and homophobia, among other topics. This band combines a powerful variety of seemingly disparate ideas to make one explosive cocktail of a hardcore band. If you were to take an across-the-pond lad sensibility, mix it with the leatherboy presentation of Limp Wrist, add some thoughtful and confrontational lyrics, maybe a Number One for good measure, and then make it sound more like Negative Approach, then you’ve got Strong Boys. An essential slammer for a multitude of reasons.