Piss: S/T 7"

The great STATIC AGE label is on a roll these days: Last month they brought us a SPERMA 7", now it's time for a PISS 7". So the PISS trio from Berlin finally got its SHIT together and put out an EP, about time! Their great demo from 2013 is already a little worn out. I used to say that they were the best recent Hardcore Punk band from Berlin that was not on the "Berlin Tristesse" compilation. But that does not really matter now, as there are so many good new bands in town, most of which don't sing in Swedish. What I also love about PISS is that they are touring like crazy. Unless you have an ocean between yourself and Berlin it's likely that they will play your shitty burg soon -- or played there last week without you noticing. For some reason the band is also hip with folks who have never seen them, even people from Texas and the notorious CVNTNATION. And when they play locally, they get a strange mix of folks out. Maybe this is because of Robins (vox & git) exquisite dress sense? But back to the music on this platter: I think they recorded around 15 songs and only picked the best 5 for this EP. Then went back to record another EP. Judging by what I hear on this platter, the next best 5 songs from the same session would probably make most other bands proud, but we might never hear them. Esp. "Spränga Allt" is a sure hit and recycled here from the demo. This is totally unhip sounding, straight-up hardcore punk the way it should be played. On the perfect vinyl format for this sound. Do yourself a favour and buy this before the masses discover this band and maybe ruin the fun for us.

Our take: Is piss uglier than shit? It's not a question I really want to spend my time thinking about, that is unless you capitalize those words and make the question about the band's Piss from Berlin and S.H.I.T. from Toronto. Like S.H.I.T., Piss do that thing where they combine the kind of punk that's been coming out of New York for the past several years-- the Toxic State kind of sound--with big and gnarly-sounding d-beat hardcore Framtid (California's Odio also ply a similar trade, but don't have a name that allow me to write as clever of a blurb). To get back to our guiding question, though, Piss are even uglier than S.H.I.T. While the approach is similar, Piss reach new heights of nastiness but just being looser and and uglier than just about anything I can think of. There are even parts where the bass and guitar sound like they're straight up out of tune with one another, and while the effect in unsettling, it's weird and off-kilter in a really rad way. Throw in some super cool artwork (including a beautifully screen printed, three-panel fold-out cover) and you have a record that is well worth adding to your collection.