This fierce, frenetic Oakland band isn't afraid to take a kitchen sink approach to their brand of avant-garde metalcore... ok, maybe they don't include the metaphorical kitchen sink but they do cram in lots and lots of saxophone! That's on top of a heavy, mean, rockin' blend of grind, punk, black metal, prog, etc.
Dunno if they ever really exceed being just the sum of their overt influences (we'd guess the likes of Dillinger Escape Plan, John Zorn, King Crimson, Botch, Guapo, Motorhead, Slayer...) but they do make a nasty racket that even metalheads normally adverse to jazz and/or saxophones might find headbangingly worthy. So if "Yakety Sax" meets metal sounds good (or good n' weird) to you, check this out! As a bonus, this includes a Quicktime live video for their track "We Enslaved Elves To Build Our Death Machine"!
Another jam packed issue of THE punk rock rag. Dense with bands you've never heard of, scene reports from places you've never been, and ads for hundreds of records you didn't even know existed. A killer little chunk of newsprint that keeps punk rockers around the globe connected!
This month, scene report for Asheville, North Carolina, Spanish punk rockers the Webelos, Danish punx Hjertestop, an excerpt from a book in the works about the anarcho/crust scene, this time focusing on The APF Brigade, the Desperate Bicycles, more reports from New Orleans, pix from the Southkore Fest in Chicago, Texan punk rock photographer Bill Daniel, Swedish hardcore outfit Svartenbrandt, an interview with Disconvenience, the Rosenbombs, Up The Voltage as well as tons and tons of book reviews, record reviews, movie reviews, letters, news and columns!!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Newest issue of this long running Bay Area punk rock institution. Still newsprint, still punk as fuck. This issue is appropriately the "Is Business Killing Punk Rock?" issue! With a huge article (just part one mind you) on DIY punk rock and the imortance of independence, with contributions from punk labels like Jade Tree, G7 Welcoming Commitee, Dr. Strange, 625, Havoc, Dischord and more. And of course loads of interviews with a bunch of bands / artists / writers we've never heard of: Soviet Valves (AUS), Suburban Death Machine (US), Frustrations (US), George Hurchulla, author of Going Underground: American Punk 1979-1992, as well as a bunch of cool excerpts from a forthcoming book by AQ pal and J-Church frontman Lance Hahn about Crass and all those anarcho bands, this time around, Icon A.D. and Dominant Patri, also a Vitamin X tour diary and finally an article about now defunct NY club ABC NO RIO.
And as always tons of book reviews, movie reviews, record reviews (only punk rock, and only independent labels), loads of letters, a bunch of columns (including a very metal one by former AQ mailorder monkey Elliott), punk rock news, scene reports (Greece, Czech Republic) and lots more.
Another blast of punk as fuck-ness from this Bay Area bastion of punk and DIY. This month, part two of the article Business And Punk Rock with contributions from the folks who run Fat Wreck Chords, Ebullition, Sound Idea, Razorcake, Give Praise and a bunch more, scene report: Poland with a list of loads of Polish bands, interviews with and articles about The Lawrence Arms, Imperial Leather, Magrudergrind, Boom Boom Kid (don't worry, we haven't heard of most of the bands featured in MRR either!), part two of the Vitamin X tour diary. tons and tons of columns, including one by former mailorder master Elliott, lots of letters, news, politics, book reviews, record reviews and MORE!
People have been freaking out about the Mayyors for ages now. Before we had even heard them, we knew we HAD to hear them, cuz that's what everyone we knew was telling us. Then we were lucky enough to get them to play our South By Southwest showcase, and whattayaknow? Everyone was right. They destroyed, wild and punk rock, and a little new wave, and s upper distorted and weirdly poppy, pretty much exactly what we could have hoped for. One person we knew even flew from another state JUST to see the Mayyors, and managed to see them play 8 or 9 times. And loved every single minute of it.
We got a bunch of these 12"s a while back, and they sold out in a heartbeat, before we could even get it reviewed. We got a few more, but then those too were gone in a flash. So the band finally repressed another batch, so now here's your chance, however fleeting to snag one of these 4 song 45 rpm 12"s, same as the first pressing, but now in plain white stamped sleeves, instead of the first pressing's gross dirt covered jackets, but it's the sound that matters, and the sound here is ferocious. Snotty, snarly, fuzzy, punky, noisy, catchy, druggy, crumbling ultra distorted guitars, wild pounding drums, yowled effected vox, tons of feedback, FX all over the place and THICK corrosive buzzing bass that drives EVERYTHING. Imagine maybe a poppier, less fucked up more new wave Rusted Shut, that same sort of chaotic noise rock, that while druggy, manages to be a bit tighter and a whole lot less on the verge of total collapse, while remaining awesomely chaotic.
The final track might be our favorite, the same sort of revved up Brainbombs style dirge, supercharged, and eventually growing more and more and more distorted and in-the-red, culminating in what might just be the raddest post-Buttholes drug rock noise guitar freakout EVER.
We did get a ton of these, but they'll probably go quick, and the band did say they would press more if this pressing sold out, but it could mean a bit of a wait if you don't grab one now.
More distinctly not very black metal weirdness from some of our favorite black metal weirdos. If you might remember back to the most recent Meads release, In The Name Of God, Welcome To Planet Genocide, we were all sort of knocked for a loop by the band's new direction. Or directions. From the very Crass like cut and paste political cover art, to the punky crust and other weirdness inside, these freaks had gone and outweirded even their own weird selves. So now we have the latest single, and it seems, at least for these three songs, the band have abandoned the black metal entirely. All covers. All classics. Stiff Little Fingers, The Ruts and The Stranglers. All done pretty straight, not black metallized or anything, just raw crusty pounding melodic old school punk rock. The Stiff Little Fingers cover is a jam, an awesome song so done straight it's still an awesome song, the vocals appropriately raspy, the guitars buzzing and the drums pounding. The Ruts cover features original Ruts guitarist Paul Fox and sounds as kick ass as the original. The only place things get extra weird is on the final track, the Stranglers cover, where the vocals are strangely processed and sound about as close to black metal as anything here, but then we've got Mirai from the band Sigh with insane blasts of crazy prog synths, and some new wave female background vocals. Sounds like a bit of a mess, and it sort of is, but it's also awesome and totally rocks in this amazingly unhinged way.
Meads fans who were thrown off by the lack of buzzing blackness will be even more confused by this triple shot. But if you're into metal and punk rock, you could do way worse than hearing these killer tunes revamped and twisted up a bit by the always brilliantly baffling Meads.
Cool old school black and white skull cover. All the records are hand numbered and signed on the label by all the band members. Probably limited too...
The return of our favorite crust punk obsessed black metal horde, Meads Of Asphodel. Not sure if they've always been so into eighties punk, but over the last few records, the band have seen fit to mix it up, sprinkling classic covers amidst their epic pagan black metal jams, seems like a weird mix, but somehow, in the twisted sonic world these guys inhabit, it sort of works.
Two new tracks, a creepy, medieval intro, buzzy synths, rumbling drones, a growled distorted proclamation, some weirdly cheesy piano, tinkling chimes, sirens, a serious dose of whatthefuck, which gives way to 7 minutes of totally majestic, and classic sounding pagan blackness. NWOBHM inspired guitar harmonies, wrapped around pounding drums, chugging black riffs, the arrangements convoluted and complex, peppered with soaring synths, creepy processed vokills, some haunting interludes, with more of that creepy spoken word, and then right back into the tangled epic thrashing. And then it's on to the covers, some of which make perfect sense, some of which don't at all, which only makes them that much cooler. Doom, Hellbastard and Conflict, the Meads versions of which are appropriately raw and pounding and thrashing, the Hellbastard track has some strange piano melodies draped over chugging guitars and monklike chants, the Conflict cover is weirdly produced, turning the metallic crust punk into something almost cabaret sounding. We had never heard Skeptix before, but the Meads version is awesome, fierce and fast and melodic and heavy as fuck, definitely gonna have to track down the original. Then there's the last cover, going waaaaay back to the roots of heavy metal, The Kinks' "You Really Got me", which the Meads tweak, making the main riff minor key, so it definitely sounds black metal, the vocals over the top and WAY goofy, at first it seems so silly, but as the track plays on it makes some sort of twisted sense, and definitely suits the Meads' fucked up sound.
The Meads share this disc with countrymen Old Corpse Road, a sort of naturalistic folk flecked black metal band, but barring the intro of the first song, there's nary any folk to be found, the band spitting out epic, almost orchestral sounding blackness, not that far removed from Cradle Of Filth, with keyboards WAY up in the mix, wild shrieking vox, even some creepy plonking piano melodies, and that's when the folk comes in, the band breaks down into a sort of jig, launching into a jam that wouldn't be out of place on a Finntroll record, complete with group sing along, incredibly catchy, and the more we listen to this, the more we find ourselves digging these guys. Three looooong tracks, super dramatic, over the top, keyboards all over the place, wild vocals that slip from deep croon to hysterical shriek, a tangled almost circusy bit of blackened chaos that is totally kicking our asses. Which means WAY recommended, for both Meads AND Old Corpse Road, and we definitely need to hear more OCR...
It seems like most of the music coming out of Brooklyn these days has been tending toward fey eighties beholden electro pop or gloomy Cure worshipping synthwave, but it's not all eyeliner and Siouxsie lunch boxes happening over there, at least based on the debut from Meek Is Murder, who might as well be called The Meek SHALL BE Murdered, cuz this is some seriously kick ass poser disposing heaviness, displaying a darker, seriously more fucked up and chaotic sonic side to everyone's favorite borough.
Recorded by Converge's Kurt Ballou, and definitely not that far removed from the Converge / Coalesce sonic axis, Meek Is Murder traffic in a dense, gnarled mathy metalpunk crush, that shifts deftly from dirgey downtuned sludge to crazed hyperdense metalcore fury, with plenty of twists and turns in-between. Nine short sharp blasts of tangled metallic mathpunk, most of the tracks clocking in at 2 minutes or less, 3 or 4 closer to 60 seconds, culminating in a final 6+ minute epic.
The record begins with an intro of sorts, a churning seasick dirge, with rad syncopated drums and rib cage rattling metallic chug, all wreathed in woozy spidery leads, before launching directly into "Return Void", the opening blast the sort of shit that makes pits explode, but then the double kick comes in, and the song blossoms into a weirdly melodic mini-epic, a sort of metalcore Godspeed almost. But it's the title track that might be our favorite, a galloping Speedwolf like classic thrash, laced with a tangled shreddery that at times sounds like a less demented Mick Barr, unfurling woozy harmonized classic metal harmonies over the roiling metalpunk below. From there on out, it's some of THEE best mathed out heaviness, we've heard in ages, we're reminded at time of Kiss It Goodbye or Deadguy, heavy as fuck, with almost proggy arrangements, but shot through with some serious melody, fractured by super dynamic stop/starts and wreathed in thick sheets of feedback. The bulk of the record clocks in at less than 15 minutes, but the songs are so jammed with tripped out parts and intricate arrangements, killer riffing, rad melodies, it feels like way longer, until the record finishes off with "Garbage Collector", which sounds like a more metal Dazzling Killmen, churning noise rock math metal radness, with some amazing, weirdly melodic, droned out breakdowns, as well as a seriously epic, brooding, slow build Godspeed-ish final movement, that pushes MiM's sound way beyond most other typical punk/metal outfits, and is fast making this, and these guys, a new aQ favorite.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!! 100 of which are white, and while they last we've got the white ones. Hand numbered.
In the bizarre musical world of Japan's Melt Banana, seven inch singles are hedgehogs, and MB's got a whole mess of em, most WAY out of print and long unavailable. So finally, all of these long sought after hedgehogs, all released between 1994 and 1999, have been gathered up, gussied up, digitized and released on one single compact disc. 13 Hedgehogs featuring all of MB's tracks from the singles "Hedgehog", "It's In The Pillcase", "Untitled (Piano One)", "Eleventh" and "Dead Spex" as well as their tracks from splits with God Is My Co-Pilot, Discordance Axis, Pencilneck, Target Shoppers, Stilluppsteypa, Plainfield, Xerobot, and Killout Trash. Phew. 56 tracks of maniacal squealing and squeaking, stop-start, ultra dense, mega complex confusional punk / grind / pop / whatthefuck! So ridiculous and so totally amazing!
Geeze! Can't believe it, this must be the most melodic, "normal" (ahem) album from Japan's Melt-Banana yet, but it's still ALSO totally spastic and unhinged and extreme. Actually the more melodic, non-hyperspeed elements here make the other stuff all the more insane sounding. There's (only!) 18 caffeinated tracks on this disc, chock-a-block with bug zapper guitars, thrashing drums, and yelping vox, of course. But also: catchy hooks, sing-a-long choruses? Yes. It's been four long years since their previous album, Cell-Scape, and we guess we'd forgotten just how listenable that one was, surprising us at the time too. Melt-Banana had taken their trademark manic Boredomsey hardcore sound and tamed it just a bit. Well they do that here too, turning in a speedy, spasmodic pop-punk masterpiece that sounds something like the Ramones or Green Day bouncing off the walls in a bizarre experiment somehow involving chipmunks, crack cocaine, and computers... ok, dunno what that means either. But the point is, this is making us crazy in a good way, it's as if the more "conventional" Melt-Banana becomes, the more paradoxically disturbing they really are. And if you really want pure old school M-B HC noisiness, well there's a batch of shorter, seizure-like songs on the second half of the disc (tracks 11-17) that should do the trick. Well worth the wait.
It's been WAY too long since we've seen Melt-Banana live, they are definitely one of THE raddest live groups ever, sonically brutal and precise and manic and impossibly complex, their stage presence unbeatable, the whole band bouncing around wildly non stop, the guitarist perpetually clad in surgical mask, the vocalist a tiny whirling dervish, it's pretty awe inspiring, and wild pogo pit inspiring too.
So this killer live set might tide us over, the sound is incredible, you would never know it was a live record unless you were told, and might not even believe it then! They are in fine form, the record opener is awesome, about as slow as they get, a killer midtempo jam, all freaked out effects and processed vox, lots of buzz, squiggly guitar weirdness, all set to the frenetic drumming, before the band launch into a burst of lightning fast hypergrind, insanely manic and frantic and frenzied, the vocals a staccato chirp, the drums spastic and chaotic, the guitar though, spitting out incredible riffs, then all sorts of impossibly tangled squelches and glitchy fragmented melodies. The songs blow by in a blur, which makes the slower tracks all the more powerful. "Cat And The Blood" is a droned out prog jam, all wooshing synths, and surprisingly restrained vocals, and muted guitar squiggles, before once again spitting out a handful of manic metal grind microjams before finishing off with two epics (4 and 5 minutes respectively), first "Last Target On The Last Day" a gorgeous tripped out space jam, super atmospheric and heavy, long drones, and warm swirls of synth underpinning an almost doomic groove, finishing off with the super atmospheric and cinematic "Humming Jackalope, Waiting For The Storm", all Theremin-like melodies, clouds of cymbal sizzle, washed out bass rumble, and streaks of total Tangerine Dream like synth shimmer before finishing off with a burst of white noise crunch. Phew. Epic and incredible and heavy and wild and wonderful. Definitely don't miss MB next time they come to your town, and check this out to remind yourself what you've been missing.
Latest blast of squeak and skronk and blast and grind from these ultra cute, but totally dangerous Japanese pop punk grind craziness. This is the perfect way to experience MB, two ultra short, but still impossibly complex blasts of chaotic grind pop. Like getting beaten to death with a big fuzzy sack full of bunnies, cute but still fierce and freaked out as fuck. Or imagine being eaten alive by a gaggle of glow in the dark, rainbow colored cartoon characters, painfully cute, anthropomorphous fuzz balls, all soft and cuddly, but with sharp fangs and a truly deranged look in their eyes. NO ONE sounds like Melt-Banana, well okay, sometimes Fantomas does, but when they do, we just wonder why they're copping MB's style. We love Melt-Banana.
Super limited 5" vinyl, released on HG Fact (the same label that releases all the Corrupted records!).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fans of Japan's Melt Banana know that they're always great at doing covers. On their side of this split 7" they do "Monkey Man" by Toots And The Maytals. Really. And of course they sound like they're on 45 even when they're on 33 like they always do, super hectic, the least-mellow reggae you've ever heard. Some of us thought it was a cartoon theme or music from an ad for a kid's toy or something. There's also a Melt Banana original called "Operation: 3rd Attack" on here, with some turntable scratching, that's equally wild.
The flip side features US ska act Big D And The Kids Table, they do an original and a Ministry cover ("Thieves")...there's got to be some novelty value in that. Actually, we *think* they're a ska band. But even their original sounds more like a metal or hardcore band with a horn section than your typical ska stuff. So, kinda cool too.
OK pay attention because this is confusing. The first twelve tracks on this disc are the first time on cd (the vinyl is out of print) of the soundtrack to the film Tropic of Nipples. Participants include noted rockcrit / Blue Oyster Cult lyricist Richard Meltzer, Guided By Voices head honcho Bob Pollard, the legendary-since-the-'70s noise outfit Smegma, and something/one called Antler.
In various permutations these folks cobbled together a soundtrack that's equal parts GBV-style fractured pop and totally annoying declamatory utterances (like the Nihilist Spasm is also wont to do) over a bed of random noise.
*However*, this cd also issues some material never before available, notably six tracks of Meltzer's punk band Vom, who were SO GREAT! Releasing one record in '78, they played an absolutely rippin' Voidoids-Richard-Hell-style, fiery three chord punk. So great, boy are these guys due for a proper reissue. (Maybe Peter Buck will do it, he's reportedly their #1 fan.) Other extras include a song Pollard wrote with the late Jim Shepard.
Worth the price of the disc if you like the three VOM samples below. If you're not into those, I can't strongly recommend the rest of the material here.
Twenty-six songs! This used to be a mere ten. Yes, "26 Songs" is an expanded reissue of the out of print "10 Songs". Recorded live to 2-track in 1986 by the line-up of Buzz, Dale, and then-bassist Matt Lukin (who later defected to Mudhoney), this was indeed 10 songs from the mighty Melvins' earliest daze, when their Black Flag / Black Sabbath meld was at its most obvious, potent, raw (and fast, some of the time!). Utterly essential heaviness in other words. Did we say "mere" ten? Not really, since every one of those ten songs is forever embedded in the mind of this Melvins fan. "#2 Pencil" -- so doomy and vile a song. "Snake Appeal" -- the guys rip through what could be an old Corrosion of Conformity thrasher. "At A Crawl" -- well, that's the Melvins right there. Etc., etc. And, like Ipecac's reissue of another early Melvins classic, "Gluey Porch Treatments", there's a bunch of garage demos and alternate takes added on to make Melvins fans salivate, as you can compare multiple, grungier, faster takes on "10 Songs" songs (and some other tunes you'll recognize). The disc winds up with the drug-addled ramblings of their old pal "Hugh" as an added bonus (which means that this disc, despite the title, really features "only" 25 actual songs). It's just too bad the new cover design for this new version is so computer-done and busy and typical of recent Melvins packaging (forget the flowers, guys!). We much prefer the stylish simplicity of its earlier incarnation(s). But, the extra tracks certainly make up for our aesthetic quibbles about the graphic design!
MPEG Download: "Easy As It Was" [/audio/melvinseasy.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Easy As It Was" [/audio/melvinseasy.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Grinding Process" [/audio/melvinsgrinding.mp3]
Well, they're here. Melvins fans, giddyup. Seriously, what to say? The four classic early Melvins records newly reissued on these two double lp sets (why'd they do it like that? dunno) are all ESSENTIALS. Back on (remastered) vinyl for the first time in 15 years, they're too old to have much in the way of reviews from us previously, when originally released, so we figured we'd have to write new ones, and we could, heck we could go on and on about 'em. But really, most folks who are likely to buy these already know what they're all about, right? And if for some reason you are a fan of sheer heaviness, and buy records, and these AREN'T in your collection, then, well, all we can keep it simple and say YOU MUST BUY THESE!
This paring brings together the Melvins' "holiday" record (at least, we always put in in our holiday music section when that time of the year came 'round, and it always sold!!), a four song ep from 1991, originally released on 10" vinyl, that featured three short rippin' tracks on the A-side (including the mighty "Hog Leg"), and an epic sludge drone fest on the B-side, "Charmicarmicat", over 12 minutes long, that sounds more or less like the blueprint for the first Earth album (though that was released the same year, so it can't really be). Meanwhile, 1992's Lysol, excuse us, for legal reason they're now calling it Lice-All, another fucked up Melvins classic, that features, along with several originals, covers of both Flipper (they do "Sacrifice") and Alice Cooper (not one but two songs!) all sounding perfectly Melvins-y.
Includes download!
The words "Footloose and fancy-free and out of school" come from your speakers, beginning the disc and thusly, we embark on the career of that "juggernaut of pummel" known as the Melvins.
Here is a collection of "never heard before" (demo, live, rehearsal) recordings dating back to 1983! Remember 1983? I do...ugh! Anyways, a "pre-Dale Crover" line-up (which includes a young punk-ass named Matt Lukin on bass, you might also know him from another little band, Mudhoney?) bashes and thrashes it out with songs and tone reminiscent of Flipper / Bad Brains / Fang / Poison Idea / Black Flag -- this is NOT to say they sound like they are emulating the aforementioned legends, we're just saying that the Melvins, at such a tender age and still without the "other greatest drummer" Dale Crover, pretty much came into this world screaming and wailing. Buzz Osborne definitely is / was / is blessed / cursed as a "5-string motherfucker". Word. The liner notes by Buzz go on about how they were hacks at the time, but LEGIONS (after listening to this) will attest to "the power of the riff" that a (pre) King Buzzo packed at the age of 20 somewhere in Shithole City, WA (or maybe it was the town next to it?). This release is packed with all the fury and "pent-up-ness" that only comes from growing up on the outside of "cool" or "rich". (Well, it speaks to me, anyways...) There are songs on here that show up shortly after -- and many years later -- down that ugly road of "former bass players"...
It's refreshing to hear (punk) rock like this right now. There are even funny moments of (drunken?) banter on here that will make you laugh and think back and reminisce (or not) on your own "destruction ride" through your late teens/early twenties, etc. The actual sound on this thing is incredibly solid too, for something from the "golden age of hardcore".
A must own, if you will. But you already knew that, didn't you?
Won't go into too much detail here, since if you're not already a bit obsessed with the Melvins, you're probably not gonna need a 200 page book about em. But thos of you who ARE into the Melvins. WAY into the Melvins will definitely need this. Over two hundred pages of artwork, photos, tour diaries, discographies, interviews, stories, inserts, ALL the artwork from all their releases and more. Also includes a greatest hits cd. Odds are you have most of it, but there are a few surprises. Definitely super cool and gorgeously laid out. And of course, limited!
Well, they're here. Melvins fans, giddyup. Seriously, what to say? The four classic early Melvins records newly reissued on these two double lp sets (why'd they do it like that? dunno) are all ESSENTIALS. Back on (remastered) vinyl for the first time in 15 years, they're too old to have much in the way of reviews from us previously, when originally released, so we figured we'd have to write new ones, and we could, heck we could go on and on about 'em. But really, most folks who are likely to buy these already know what they're all about, right? And if for some reason you are a fan of sheer heaviness, and buy records, and these AREN'T in your collection, then, well, all we can keep it simple and say YOU MUST BUY THESE!
Ozma, from 1989, is the one that first turned us on to the genius of this band. Nonsensical lyrics, Black Sabbath meets Black Flag heavosity like nothing heard before (yeah, Flipper, yeah Gore, sure but Melvins took it to another level). Dale's drumming, Buzz's vocals, sheer brilliance. Bullhead, from 1991, was maybe even better, and heavier, really, somehow. Among other great tracks, it's got the song "Boris", which inspired a certain band from Japan. 'Nuff said.
Includes download! Which has a bonus track!
Well, if you're a Melvins fan you know that not only do these weirdos still make awesome albums (their most recent, The Bride Screamed Murder, we raved about when it came out a year ago) but they also still utterly slay live. With, what, almost 30 years of experience, they are as potent as ever. We just saw 'em live the other day, on the first evening of a two-night stand here in SF, doin' songs from Houdini, Lysol, and Eggnog, and boy their current 2 drummer line up sure packs a wallop. And guitarist/vocalist Buzz still looks striking in his mumu and outlandish 'fro. The Melvins are a heavy band of world-historical stature and we expect 'em to keep on rocking for at least as long as their forebears KISS!
So, as fans, of course we're curious about this new live album, and expectations are met, performance-wise they're on top of their game. The real question surely any fan has, is just what songs get the Melvins/Big Business treatment, there's 13 tracks here mostly showcasing the best of their more recent material but also digging into their massive discography for a few old faves. The first five tracks are Big Biz era stuff, from 2008's Nude With Boots (this recording comes from that tour) and 2006's Senile Animal, then they reach waaay back for an epic rendition of "Eye Flys" from 1986 opus Gluey Porch Treatments, followed by "Tipping The Lion" from 1996's Stag (a good choice, just 'cause we hardly ever pull that one out to listen to, but this makes us want to), and then it's back to Senile Animal stuff, four in a row, before, wha? a voice and drums version of "The Star Spangled Banner", that's right. They were feeling patriotic, apparently. Or just wanted to fuck with people, more likely. Then, for the grand finale, they offer up an anthem of their own, a crushing, extended version of "Boris" from Bullhead (1991), which will remind you why the band Boris chose that name!
If you're a Melvins fan from way back, but haven't acquainted yrself with their modern double drummer incarnation, this should convince you it was a good idea, and that they've still got songs to compete impressively with past "hits", a few a which you get to hear here as well. And if you're not a Melvins fan, well obviously live albums like this aren't intended for you anyway, so why are you still reading this review?
Has it really been two whole years already since the last Melvins long player, the supremely rockin' Nude With Boots? They've been around so long and yet remain so vital and prolific and reliable, it always seems like they just put something out the other day, yet each release is a marvelous surprise. This is their third album since they recruited bass/drums duo Big Business into the band, and this phase of the Melvins' storied career has been a fruitful one.
The first minute or two of the first track "The Water Glass" starts off sounding very much typically thunderous heavier than thou Melvins... but woah, hey, it then takes a MAJOR turn into, what, a rhythmic marching band drumline thing (why not, they've got two drummers), with call and response vocal chant, the Melvins as cheerleaders or drill sergeants gettin' pumped up and ready to go. We're smiling like fools, and confused, what IS this? It's somehow like the MC5 or Dictators meet the Boredoms or go-go music or, we dunno, it'd be awesome and hilarious to see this live. Wow. All right, fair warning, this is clearly the Melvins getting weird on us, something of course they've have always had a knack for. Nude With Boots had its experimental moments, as all Melvins records do, more than moments sometimes, to varying degrees of accessibility, and this one ups the ante, coming closer in WTF?-ness to their recent radical remix album Chicken Scratch... and this time in ways that we don't think we've heard from them before.
All the while keeping it damn catchy, and HEAVY too, at least some of the time. Right on cue, track two again kicks out the jams in old school Melvins style... but a percussive breakdown isn't far away. Neither are cinematic keys, herky jerky prog parts (Ruins-esque, even, or Nomeansno-ish), quirky POP, frenzied metal, and plenty more random what the fuck weirdness, as warned. Such as a ploddingly odd, semi-abstract cover of "My Generation", ferinstance, or the lonely harmonica and hymn-like a cappella of the album's final track, "PG X 3" (and that's not even what's weird about that one). As always, they're part Kiss and The Cars, heavied up and punk rocked, and now we're realizing that Sparks just might be another big fave of theirs.
So, go along for the ride, trust us. And them. Ok, maybe "Hospital Up" is a bit of a throw-away (random improv scatter there). But otherwise, we're sold. And maybe it's the frequent vocal holler, echoing with chorus effect, or the double drummer bombastic battery, but this album sounds particularly triumphant. As well it should. One of the best bands ever, once again deliver the goods. And it can't be easy, after, what, 30 albums??? All we know is, THE MELVINS RULE. End of story.
A Melvins album without Dale Crover playing drums? What's next, is Buzz gonna get a normal haircut? Well, wait a sec, let's explain. On their latest, Tres Cabrones, Dale moves over to bass (no prob there, he plays guitar in Altamont, and played bass long long ago in Fecal Matter with a pre-Nirvana Kurt Cobain) letting one Mike Dillard take over the drum stool. Mike Dillard having such rights 'cuz he was in fact a founding member of the Melvins, leaving the band long before they ever made a name for themselves. Now (temporarily, we assume) he's back, and the band gets to hang out with their old buddy and pretend like it's 1983 again (that's why it sez "1983" on the back, or is it the front, speaking of which, why just one goat, shouldn't there be three?). But they're not playing old songs, at least, it doesn't sound like it. Sure, there's a bit of juvenile silliness (such as, a truncated cover of "99 Bottles Of Beer"!!) not that the Melvins don't always often include some silliness on all their records. But mainly it sounds like the usual solid Melvins music they've been making for decades, heavy and catchy and all that good Melvins stuff, topped with Buzz's distinctive vocals. They once again display their brilliant ability to meld off-the-wall weirdness with classic sounding, hard rockin' riffage, so there's plenty of new tunes here that any Melvins fan will be fully stoked on, whether it be the chugging slow-and-low creepy-crawl of something like "American Cow" or the distorto-glam stomp of a track like "Doctor Mule", among many highlights here. As "reunions" go, a total success!
What's next, we wonder? We guess when you've made sooo many albums (this is, like, their 22nd) to such a high standard of quality, you wanna keep things interesting and challenging and find ways to be different. Hence of late Los Melvins have seemingly been approaching each recording session as a stand-alone concept/project, what the all-covers disc that preceded this, and the Melvins "Lite" album that came before that (with Mr. Bungle's Trevor Dunn on bass), etc., etc. Heck whatever works for them, we're just happy they're still going and going strong.
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Just got this in TODAY, no time to really "review" it, no need to either, as we only got a handful and it's limited edition vinyl from the MELVINS after all. Here's the facts: "A limited edition three-track 12-inch EP from MELVINS featuring a long version of "Dies Iraea" and a remix of "It Tastes Better Than The Truth" on the A-side, and a 9-minute version of The Wipers' "Youth of America" on the flip. None of these tracks have appeared on vinyl prior. Limited to 2,000 copies (with 1,500 for distribution) pressed on silver/gray vinyl, with artwork by Steven Parrino".
If you were going to create a comic book that would appeal equally to fans of Harvey Pekar (American Splendor) and punk metallers the Melvins, Brian Walsby's Manchild would be it. It IS it. Autobiographical, confessional comix about his life, love, and music. Lots and lots of music. Much of this is devoted to stuff about indie/punk/HC/metal, back in the day... Especially for anyone of a certain age, with nostalgia for the '80s and '90s underground rock scene, this is a must! Walsby is a good artist, and writer, and in fact almost each and every panel found on these many, many pages (this is thick!) is packed with text you'll need to squint a bit to read, but it's worth it.
We haven't read the whole thing yet, but we can tell you that in this issue, there's a bunch of stories about bands he's been in (ferinstance Walsby played drums for Snake Nation, with CoC's Woody Weatherman and Mike Dean, and he was also in Shiny Beast, wow, we had no idea) and stuff about his life now, like how he met his current girlfriend, who has a toddler, what what that's been like.... He illustrates some other folks' tales about quitting their jobs, there's a two-page piece about Jason Newsted, all sorts of random, cool shit, usually pretty funny or weird or interesting, sometimes really something to think about.
In addition to the longer stories, there's plenty of one-page and half-page bits, good laughs like the one about reformed '80s hardcore bands, renamed: 700 Seconds, Middle Aged Threat, Adult Brigade, Youth Of Yesterday, Post-Adolescents, Semi-Negative Approach... Or the one about Jimi Hendrix in Heaven, getting pissed that he's required to "jam" with every other rockstar who dies and goes there after him (he's like, "I finally get Janis and Jerry off of my back... and then I have to play with this...'Dimebag Darrell'?").
The comic book would be worth it by itself, but sweetening the deal, this is shrinkwrapped with a LIVE MELVINS CD! Entitled Pick Your Battles, it's about 50 minutes long, presenting 15 tracks taken from two shows, Berkeley back in 1989 and Boston 2008. True Melvins fans want this, even if they don't like comic books, but why wouldn't you like comic books, especially this one?
It's a comic book! It's a Melvins cd! It's pretty darn cool is what it is. Cartoonist Brian Walsby spoofs and skewers various icons of old school punk/alt rock culture, and puts his own personal family history on the page too ("My Old Man!"). It's mostly subversively funny, sarcastic stuff. Lots of chuckles for those with a bit of nostalgia for the good ol' days of '80s punk rock for sure!! One of our favorite comix in here is "Whatever Happened To You Favorite Eighties Hardcore Mascots" which imagines the DRI "thrash guy" finding a new career as a school crossing guard, and the Black Flag bars being sold to Hank Williams III who "dropped one bar and used the rest for his new logo." Some of the other pieces in this fairly thick book include an illustrated article celebrating TV's SCTV, a Walsby/Melvins 2006 tour diary, a memoir entitled "How I Survived Grunge", "The Rules Of Young Rock Bands" (which include holding the microphone like a glass of wine, and combining two kinds of bad singing: whiny, nasal and hysterical screaming), several comic strips about The Dios (a la The Osbournes), a tribute to Cheap Trick, and much much more. If you like stuff like Peter Bagge's Hate or Chunklet magazine this is for you.
This book makes a perfect team up with Walsby's old pals, wise ass scene vets the Melvins, who contribute a 20+ minute cd to the package, entitled "The Making Love Demos". These eight songs are DIY four-track recordings from back in '87, from the Buzz/Dale/Matt lineup, several of which later wound up in re-recorded form on their classic Ozma album, and some you've never ever heard before. Wow. Melvins fans are gonna be stoked. Heavy grinding nastiness, perfectly filthily home-recorded, that's way more punk than grunge.
We've reviewed a few records by ultra heavy metallic math rock duo Reflector, so we were curious to hear Mental Terror, the grindcore side project of 1/2 of that band, and while we were expecting something super heavy, dense and ultra metallic, instead, it's super fucked up, ultra lo-fi, wildly chaotic, and totally damaged, sounding more like Mick Barr crossed with Faxed Head, stumbling, dizzying blasts of unhinged heaviness, that seem to be crumbling into something akin to a metal Shaggs, the vocals a wild, hysterical shriek evolving into a demonic howl, the songs super tangly and proggy, but loose and on the verge of collapse, totally what the fuck outsider grind, that is leaps and bounds better and weirder than we expected. It's seven songs on one side, so it's short, but so brain meltingly sweet, pushing all our demented music buttons, not even metal or grind enough to only appeal to those folks, in fact, it's so fucked up, metalheads might be severely bummed, instead, this is way more recommended for anyone into damaged weirdness and ultra confusional avant grade heaviness, which is probably most anybody who digs stuff on the Rock Is Hell label. Fucking GREAT!!
Pressed on transparent green vinyl, one sided with a cool silkscreen on the other, visible through the vinyl, LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!!
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After wowing fans of underground music a few months back with a long-awaited cd reissue of material by pioneering French punk-industrial act Metal Urbain, the Acute label is back with a sequel -- the 1980 album from Metal Boys, the band that Metal Urbain morphed into after their '78 break-up. After a few years of failed studio sessions and line-up shake-ups and random gigging, that is. But in 1980 leader Eric Debris and co. returned under the guise of Metal Boys with this album. What with the rise of New Wave, perhaps it seemed the the scene had caught up with them, but not entirely -- their music is way more twisted and dissonant and experimental than most New Wave pop that's for sure! And their new incarnation still retained the fuzzed guitars, sci-fi synths, and tick-tock drum programming that made Metal Urbain so great. The biggest difference was their new singer, a woman named China who sang in English not French (which makes some of this sound just a bit sillier than Anglophones might have thought about Metal Urbain). There's 19 tracks here, including 9 previously unreleased bonus tracks, incorporating hints of everything from rockabilly to proto-house to Devo-isms to industrial noise-scapes. Perhaps of special note are the two seven-minute bonus tracks from what was supposed to be an Eric Debris 12" release, truly spaced-out slices of minimalist Geiger-counter disco entitled "Disco Future" and "Outer Space". And maybe they did know something about disco future -- as we said before in our review of Metal Urbain's Anarchy In Paris!, this reissue couldn't be more timely. What these guys were doing 25 years ago is definitely the in sound, now. Sooooo retro-hip. Definitely don't buy any more Liars or Chicks On Speed or The Faint or DFA stuff, or anything like that until you've checked out these originators.
Nope, Metal Urbain weren't a metal band, they were PUNK, way back when. This seminal '77 punk outfit were basically the French answer to the Sex Pistols. Only, with synths -- a la Suicide -- along with their guitars (no bass), and a customized Korg Minipops 120 keeping the beat. Their urgent tick-tock metronomic rhythms, distorted guitars n' synth effects, and shouted French vocals (with clever and shocking lyrics, we're told) still sound great 25 years on.
Metal Urbain are one of those bands whose legend has grown in inverse proportion to the availability of their recordings (kinda like last list's Record of the Week, the Homosexuals). Now, at long long last, all their crucial cuts are available again on this compact disc, so you can judge for yourself how rad Metal Urbain really were. With their noisy raw rockin' and avant-garde style, we'd say pretty rad indeed. Though their songs can't quite compete with the Pistols' classics, they match 'em in attitude and get mega bonus points for their use and abuse of electronics, which makes them ultra fashionable today. Really, what with today's electro-clash art-punk scene, this is the perfect time for Metal Urbain to emerge again. Chances are you're already a Metal Urbain fan without even knowing it... Punk history buffs will need/want this too (first record ever on Rough Trade!) but we think whether you "need" this or not, you'll probably like it.
The 24 tracks found here, a few of 'em previously unreleased, argue for this band's unique charm.
Who can resist such primitive drum machine action, sizzling synth blasts and whooshes, and sheer anarchistic punk energy? Of course they're brimming with punk snottiness (they're French after all). But their punk is tinged with proto-new wave (a few of the later tracks definitely veer in that direction) and psychedelic elements, drawing on the band's early influences from Eno, Fripp, the Velvets and Hawkwind! Though, despite the talk of "robocore", "spacepunk" and "terrorbeat" in the (lengthy and interesting) liner notes, they still sound closer to the Ramones, than, say, Atari Teenage Riot. Still, Steve Albini claims Metal Urbain, via nth-generation cassette tape dubs, as an inspiration for Big Black, and we can believe that too. Great stuff.
Debut blast of noisy, filthy, swaggery, feral, gloom punk from this SF trio, who go by the lovely sobriquet Meth Sores, and these guys definitely live up (or down) to the name, spewing a seriously caustic brew of jagged, crumblingly distorted guitars, blown out bass buzz, yowled, reverbed vox buried in the mix, and a barrage of chaotic drum destruction, this raw, primitive sound only further enhanced by the medium, a hand made, one sided lathe-cut 7", which makes the sound that much more lo-fi, and in-the-red, perfectly suited to the group's vibe, but the end result is so awesomely distorted and damaged, it's hard to imagine the band sounding this good, and this utterly trashy and fucked up in the flesh. But check out the sound samples, it's the tracks before being carved into that slab of plastic, and goddamn if it doesn't sound just as good. Think Joy Division crossed with Lubricated Goat, or the Unsane covering Iceage, or something that fantastically noisy and gloriously gloomy, two totally blown out psychedelic noisepunk goth / gloomwave noiserock jams, easily some of the coolest local stuff we've heard in a while. And yeah, SUPER LIMITED too.
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Odorously belched from the cesspit of Lucifer's most depraved sulphur kegger, Midnight have returned as subtly as a spiked fist in a circle pit to deliver only their second proper full length since first slithering forth from Cleveland's fetid devilwomb over a decade ago. Those most cult and initiated know what's on tap here: Only the filthiest blackened punk & roll clatter in the truest MotorVenom mold, vocalist Athenar's depraved howl literally sounding like Cronos reborn. The songs ranging from uptempo necksprainers to mid tempo plodding fist pumpers, but always fucking dirty, fucking rowdy, and above all really fucking catchy. In fact, that's the only real noticeable difference between No Mercy For Mayhem and these hooded menaces' previous output - the hooks. Every song is an instant sing-along speedball, chockfull of brainworm choruses and dangerously addictive riffs - it's basically impossible not to get caught up in all the sleazy fun. So no, this ain't no grand departure for Midnight, but who in the hell would want that?? No Mercy instead finds them refining their sound to the point of bloody leathered ecstasy. Obviously recommended for fans of the aforementioned Venom and Motorhead, but also newer upstart maniaxe like aQ faves Speedwolf. But don't think about it too much. Just turn the stereo on, turn your brain off, turn the cross upside down, etc etc. And then spend the next 36 minutes losing your mind. (Satanic side note: Include a bonus live disc for further aural devastation!)
Hooky -and- haphazard, and nicely lo-fi, yes it's another batch of early '80s UK DIY goodness, rescued from oblivion by Hyped To Death's Messthetics series! Leicester's Midnight Circus, who considered The Instant Automatons (reviewed last list) their mentors in the whole DIY cassette culture art punk thing, appeared on one collectable vinyl comp (Angst In My Pants) as well as on many many self-released cassette-albums with titles like Pre-Natal Counseling, The Bland Craze, Galvanizing The Dead, and Do Modern Atoms Wear Fashionable Clothes.
As per general Messthetics standards, they weren't terribly musically accomplished, but they -were- creative and fueled by much post-adolescent angst... Perhaps the Arctic Monkeys would have wound up like The Midnight Circus if they grew up 30 years earlier. Expect their Gang-Of-Four-ish guitars to be accompanied by beer can percussion (or crudely amplified metronome, or at best a cheap drum machine), that sort of thing, which of course we totally dig.
This is a "best of" of sorts, compiling tracks from that comp, their cassettes, and previously unreleased recordings as well circa 1980-83 and it includes scads of liner notes and cool black-and-white graphics in the 10-page cd booklet, as you should expect from these very thorough, labor-of-love Hyped To Death productions.
Milk Music's Beyond Living lp was the sort of record we could barely keep in stock. The band hyped to high heaven for ages before we actually heard them, but somehow, when we finally did get an earful, it more than lived up to all that hype, an explosive hybrid of classic nineties indie rock, fuzzed out noise pop, equal parts Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du, the Wipers, and fuck, pretty much every band we've loved from the last four decades. Fuzzy and hooky and heavy, jangly and crunchy, super melodic and crazy catchy. But still pretty goddamn punk. Which is why we were pretty surprised when we discovered their new record was on Fat Possum, home to the Black Keys among others. But then they were sort of primed for mainstream success anyway. And while we're definitely digging Cruise Your Illusion, the group's sound has changed a lot. At first blush, it's way less fierce and furious, more laid back and fuzzed out. The Dinosaur vibe is huge, right down to the guitar tone, fat and buzz drenched and blown out. Not to mention the fact that once we're 3 or 4 minutes into the record we're already in full on psychedelic guitar jam territory. But you know what? It suits them, and it still sound pretty great, you just have to prepare yourself for something a little less sweat soaked and headbangable, it's more that sort of bounce up and down, nod along nineties style college rock jangle, there's definitely a big shoegaze vibe going on too, with some of the songs boasting explosive tranced out riff heavy blissouts, but for every one of those ("Cruising With God") there's another shuffly jangly groover ("Crosstown Wanderer"). We're tempted to think these guys are actually engaged in a super high concept musical hoax, but if that's the case, why are some of these songs so goddamn great!
The vocals too, way higher in the mix than last time, wavery quavery keening about-to-break sad boy indie rock vocals, reminding us again of Dinosaur, but of course also early Soul Asylum (back when they were GREAT), and in fact, there's a huge Soul Asylum / Replacements / Husker Du feel to the whole record, which is most definitely not a bad thing. We'd be surprised if folks who dug Beyond Living didn't dig this too, but in some cases, it could be borderline too jangly and indie poppy. But for folks who love that era, and that sound, there's probably not a new band doing that old sound better than these guys.
When we first listened to Meltdown, we found ourselves crazy obsessed with the title track, a killer slab of synth heavy drum machine driven cold wave electro, with cool squiggly Perrey And Kingsley like analog melodies over the top, the sound raw and urgent, a bit frenetic, dizzying and psychedelic and a little bit noisy too, but also atmospheric and cinematic, definitely reminding us a little of the current crop of retro-futurist synthscapers. The rest of the record, at first blush, could hardly compare, sounding more like a straight ahead garage rock. But a strange thing happened - the more we listened, it was like all the sci-fi synthy weirdness and electro-noisiness of that title track seeped into all of the others, revealing the record as something so much more, an awesomely psychedelic melange of crunchy garage punk, seventies new wave power pop, and brooding cold wave gloom pop, with some of the songs all jangly and fuzzy and garage-y, while others are more weirdly robotic and futuristic, although even the poppier jams are peppered with rad theremin like squiggly melodies and thick buzzing synths, all tangled up with super hooky classic fuzzy punky garage pop, giving them a cool retro-future-pop vibe, and making them a bit more dark and tense than your typical garage rock. Elsewhere the band craft some seriously perfect power pop, sounding like some lost Yellow Pills style B-side from the seventies, all kinetic and crunchy, big chiming jangly chords, super melodic basslines and kick ass propulsive drumming, but the strangely new wave-y vocals once again change the feel just enough to make it sound totally original (or at least as original as something so beholden to sounds past can be).
Imagine Thee Oh Sees via Gary Numan, or the Ramones if they were on Captured Tracks, or maybe even Bare Wires covering Snowy Red... this is fast becoming a new favorite.
92 minutes of live Minor Threat footage, from three shows (1980, 1982, and 1983 in DC and NJ), including a Q&A session with Ian filmed in '83. There's a sixteen page booklet in here as well. Haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but we imagine all true Minor Threat fans will want this. And punk fans of today (if you're reading this) could probably learn a thing or two from these kids... man do they look young in the pictures on the DVD case!
Elsewhere on the list you'll find a review of Sleep's Dopesmoker demo reissue. One track, 60+ minutes, and slooooow. Well this here Minor Threat demo re-issue is pretty much the exact opposite. Eight tracks in 9 minutes. And faaaaast. It would be even shorter if they took out the before song banter/studio talk. No new tracks, just demo versions of those amazing songs that started it all! 'Minor Threat', 'Stand Up', 'Seeing Red', 'Bottled Violence', 'Small Man, Big Mouth', 'Straight Edge', 'Guilty Of Being White', and 'I Don't Want To Hear It'. Also available on 7"...
All time classic! Remastered and comes with a digital download.
All time classic! Remastered and comes with a digital download.
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While this is noisy, chaotic metalcore (a la Converge, Coalesce, Botch, Cave In) on Victory, there -are- some twists: First of all, these guys are from far-off Iceland (and to prove it, they even got an ex-Sugarcube to sing on one song -- not Bjork though)
At the risk of getting a huge amount of grief, we have to be honest and admit we were never all that into the Minutemen. Sure we dug the concept. And the energy. And the politics. And they seemed like super cool guys. And of course they were down with all of our favorite bands of that time, Black Flag, Descendents, Husker Du, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, the whole SST stable. But their sound, at least at the time, was just a little too funky. Watching this movie though, definitely gives us pause, and had us re-evaluating, and it's suddenly so obvious how much those guys owed to groups like P.I.L., the Pop Group and especially Wire, and now, how much they beat the current wave of new wave post punk revivalists to the punch by 20 years.
As a film, though, We Jam Econo is as much about the time and the scene as it is about the band. Amazing interviews with all our punk rock heroes all grown up, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Jack Brewer, Dez Cadena, Nels Cline, Kira Roessler, Lee Ranaldo, Raymond Pettibon, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, David Markey, J Mascis, John Doe, Jello Biafra, Milo Aukerman, Joe Baiza, Chuck Dukowski, Flea, Grant Hart, Greg Norton, Curt Kirkwood, Colin Newman and loads more. But it's pretty much the Mike Watt show, as he drives around in his old beat up Econoline, pointing out all the punk rock historical landmarks that are now Petco's or condos, as he gives an insane rambling account of the Minutemen's convoluted and endlessly fascinating history. There's some amazing live footage and a cool interview with the whole band, and D. Boon does seem like the coolest nicest guy in the world. And the tragedy of his passing really hits home after living vicariously through those years via this film.
Not sure that we necessarily LOVE the Minutemen now, but we do dig them a bit more, and the movie was awesome, and there are for sure a few songs that stuck, and will have us hunting down some Minutemen discs for sure.
Includes tons of amazing footage, and lots of extras, including videos, a set of acoustic covers performed live, uncut interviews, deleted scenes and more. The second disc includes 62 songs from three live performances, at the Starwood in 1980, at the 9:30 club in 1984 and at the Acoustic Blowout in 1985. Also includes a massive booklet packed with photos, notes from the filmmaker, and liner notes from David Rees who does the killer comic Get Your War On!
NTSC. All Region.
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One of TWO new rad reissues on this week's New Arrivals list on Jussi from Circle's Ektro label: the other one, a long overdue reissues of the debut lp from legendary eighties NY noise rockers Rat At Rat R, and this one, a collection of everything ever recorded (we think) from this SUPER obscure DC hardcore outfit, who shared some connection (and at least one member) with the late great No Trend. We consider ourselves at least a little bit punk savvy, and we had never heard of these guys. They did get a mention in the American Hardcore book but beyond that they were pretty much a mystery. This cd gathers up their 1983 demo (from which came their sole single) and a handful of unreleased tracks, all recorded by Government Issue's Tom Lyle, and while we were expecting just straight forward blasts of harDCore, which would have been just fine, this is WAY weirder and cooler, and it's easy to see why Jussi dug it enough to release it.
Sure there's plenty of blasting pounding punk rock, but that's only a small part of MFC's sound, they spend much of their time unfurling weird droned out atonal guitars, dense tribal drumming, thick buzzing bass, the vibe almost more gloomy and gothy than punk rock, check out "He And She", which almost sounds like it was accidentally plucked from the Rat At Rat R reissue, the same sort of gloomy noise rock weirdness. Or "Pennies From Hell", which is sort of funky, but still noisy and angular, rife with jagged guitars and a weird heavily effected warbly bassline, or "Penny Dub" which is exactly what it sounds like, an instrumental version of "Pennies From Hell" with the occasional bit of vocal chopped up and delayed and sent careening into the ether. Some of the tracks are dirgey and crusty and slither ominously, others seem to be typical punk blasts, but start out with weird dubbed out drums, and then have strange sing songy vocals, while still other tracks sprawl into dub-punk space jams, and even at its most punk, inevitably the band twist it all up into something seriously and gloriously fucked up.
WAY recommended, includes a fold out poster style insert with extensive liner notes.
Wow, has it really been over two decades since this band's last studio album? Yes, 'tis true! And it's been almost half a decade since their albums received their very welcome reissues, and two years since their reunion tour. Seminal, cerebral post-punks Mission Of Burma have returned to the recorded domain, putting many newer bands to shame and sounding as fresh and dynamic as when they themselves were in their youth. Much like the recent return of fellow veteran greats Killing Joke, fueled by much fierce, dissonant energy, M.O.B. rise again to do battle after a lengthy absence. Fortunately they haven't done what many other reunited bands make the mistake of doing -- that is, attempt to modernize their sound or keep up with the young pups. Clearly none of that was needed. From the very first song on ONoffON, M.O.B. come tearing out of the gates, and only gets better as the album progresses. Heavy, churning and expressive, the guitars chop and sear, the bass rumbles and boils, the drums propel and punctuate with expert precision. Indeed, the last few songs are arguably the album's best -- also a bit reminiscent of the angular art-punk of NoMeansNo or Wire. Note: The vinyl version contains a bonus song, a cover of The Dils' "Class War"!
Once post-punk legends Mission Of Burma got their engines all revved back up and running at full throttle (with 2004's potent studio album ONoffON) after about two decades of silence, there was nothing that was gonna shut 'em down. These guys are determined to keep churning out their unmistakable kick ass rock. The Obliterati definitely keeps up the fevered propulsive energy of its predecessor and perhaps ups the ante even further -- The album reconfirms these Bostonians' vitality and once again lays many of their younger counterparts to waste. This is music with heft and wisdom, both lyrically and musically. Seldom is raging so articulate. Listen, learn and love 'em.
NOTE: The first pressing of the cd includes a bonus dvd featuring previously unreleased live footage of the band at Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA on December 2, 2004!
The Mits are a Bay Area combo with lots of crunchy guitars and feisty girl vocals... very much in the grand ol' Lookout! Records tradition of energetic East Bay / Gilman Street punk pop.
By way of Madrid Spain comes Moho (mold in Espanol), a three piece juggernaut of dirt head rock fury so ferocious they give seasoned rockers like High On Fire, Electric Wizard, EyeHateGod & Grief a serious run for the (drug) money.
"....He Visto La Cruz Al Reves" (loosely translates to "I Have Seen The Cross Of The Misfortune" or better yet "I Have Seen The Cross Inverted!") is a furious groovy sludge rock jam, a stoned stumble through the garden at midnight.
Many of the songs start with big fat riffs, slowly building into some serious sludgy groove, drifting way off, gradually working up to a loping midtempo, before dragging it back down into the murk.
Moho are fully capable of kicking it up a notch too, but on this release (their second outing), Moho tend to lay way back "in the pocket" and just bludgeon your blissed-out melon over and over again in a "let's-beat-these-instruments-to-death-till-they-are-destroyed -over-and-over-again!!!" kind of way, and at the same time, a furious throat-full-of-rocks vocalist is howling wildly right in your ear - in Spanish no less - so don't fight it, just GIVE IN to the supreme Hessian power of Moho!
Comes with a DVD chock full of live footage of the band in small venues, "passing the pipe" and rocking out at a house party. They definitely look like they are a fun band to see play live...
A great hard to pin down metal outfit you should most definitely check out!
