Maybe you remember some years back we used to stock compilation cd-rs in an amazing series called Messthetics, devoted to all kinds of cool tracks by obscure British DIY artpunk outfits from the late '70s/early '80s? Well those cd-rs are long gone now, but at last here's a real cd collecting a bunch of the "greatest hits" from that series! Since almost by definition these bands didn't really have "hits", it's really more the complier's choice. We're sure it was tough to pick and choose from all the good stuff (there were like eight cd-rs in the series) but definitely not hard to make this disc a good 'un, and they've certainly included quite a few of our favorites: Scrotum Poles, Instant Automatons, Steve Treatment, Take It, Thin Yoghurts, Danny & The Dressmakers, and more, 22 tracks in all, from rare singles, cassette comps and other dusty sources. Styles range from distorted new wave dance tracks to twee pop to utter experimental punk n' electronics. Some others on here include such bands as Anorexia, Digital Dinosaurs, Puritan Guitars, Mud Hutters, Reptile Ranch, O Level, and pre-Homosexuals formation the Rejects.
Seminal DIY outfit The Desperate Bicycles oddly enough aren't on here, but they are in spirit, as all these productions hold true to or were inspired by their slogan (a lyric from one of their songs), "It was easy, it was cheap: go and do it!" Yeah! The tracks compiled here remain equally fun and inspirational even today, twenty+ years later. As with the original Messthetics cd-rs, this release includes copious small-print liner notes about each band/track, as well as an essay about the whole messy aesthetics of the DIY movement, explaining how it differed from (and was a reaction to) the mainstreaming of the punk rock boom of '77. And there's full-color (but still mostly black and white xerox style) reproductions of flyers and singles cover art included too.
There's several full-length discs from Messthetics bands either already out or coming soon from this label, as well as an upcoming series of geographically-based Messthetics comps also on regular cds like this one. So stay tuned...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The title and art give this record a kitschy, cheap look, which is unfortunate 'cuz it's actuallly really good. And whats with the title? My girlfriend... don't even get me started. The songs are stripped down and raw yet catchy. Perfect punk party music. A couple songs sound like direct covers with different lyrics. A totally fun record. Familiar punk riffs, but songs you've never heard.
When Soul Jazz released the comp "New York Noise" a few years back it was not only an amazing collection of lost gems from NY circa '78-'82, it was also the perfect document showcasing the blueprints of sounds that were beginning to be echoed again all over the globe. Dance-Punk, electro-clash, no wave, dub infused funk..all sounds that were blossomed in the heyday of the NY Underground music scene, now were being mimicked everywhere you looked. With Volume 2 we weren't sure if they would be able to put together as cohesive and overall exciting package as they did with the first one, but low and behold they have. It starts off with pt.2 of "Ungawa" by the rhythmically chaotic all female outfit Pulsallama. Along the way we got hit so nice and hard by Rhys Chatham, the person who basically channeled his studies of minimalism with LaMonte Young into blissed out and blistering no wave. Y Pants demonstrate their everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to pre-riot grrrl glory. Red Transistor show off no-wave at its rough and tumbling best. Glorious Strangers provide the best funk/dub leaning track on the record with instrumentation that you could mistake for a new Tussle single. Jill Kroesen melds pop and skronk like they've always meant to be together. Sonic Youth reminds us of their glory days (and makes us feel old). Damn, this is making us wish we were back in NYC during this era...such vibrant and distinct energy!
Almost 30 years ago, Brian Eno caught wind of a bunch of nihilist musicians in New York's East Village, who were turning the punk revolution on its head in constructing a rock polyglot of mangled free-jazz, Theatre Artaud histrionics, sex-crime funk, and teeth-gnashing rage. Eno gathered together the four major projects from this scene -- The Contortions, DNA, Mars, and Teenage Jesus & The Jerks -- and brought them into the studio in order to document the messy dynamics of this short-lived community. The resulting compilation was the legendary No New York compilation. Depending on who you ask, these four bands on the No New York comp were the only bands to truly inherit the much ballyhooed No Wave throne, much to the chagrin of like-minded projects coming from other neighborhoods of New York City. For reasons that by now have long been forgotten, No New York has remained out of print for decades, thus attaining a mythological status not only for collectors but also for hundreds of art-rock bands who so badly wanted to wear the No Wave badge of honor.
Eno had deliberately engineered these recordings buried in grit and mud, hoping to reproduce the frenzy of the Velvet Underground; and even he admitted that these bands had made better sounding recordings for various other labels. Eno's strategies paid off in unifying each and every band through a anxious kineticism that each band would later take in different directions. Led by the spasmodic James Chance, the Contortions overdosed on James Brown's swagger in their sharp funk grooves bloodied by Chance's vocal phlegm and spittle. Teenage Jesus & The Jerks had a 16-year old Lydia Lunch at their helm, scraping air-raid sirens violently across her guitar and adding equally ear-splitting vocal shrieks on top of The Jerks' sweaty militant march. Mars may have been the most sonically adventurous of the four in their toxic psychosis that evolved from throbbing avant-punk riffage into narcoleptic improviation. For the No New York compilation, DNA was in their monstrous synth plod and guitar shard phase which sounds so intesne and so so good.
Shitty Japanese bootlegs of No New York have surfaced from time to time, sporting poor digital transfers of roughly handled vinyl, so it's nice to have this offically licensed Russian import which is quite nicely packaged and has much improved sound quality.
Okay, whose w-a-c-k-y idea was this??? Today's "punk" bands take aim at today's top 40 hitmakers. On the "punk" team? Dynamite Boy, Stretch Arm Strong, Noise Ratchet, Nicotine, Reach The Sky and a dozen more. Some of their targets? Destiny's Child ("Survivor"), Pink ("Get This Party Started"), J. Lo (I'm Real"), Britney Spears ("...Baby One More Time") and the
FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER! FINNISH PUNK! PRE-ORDER!
Holy shit does this look amazing. 4 cd's, 132 songs, 78 bands, 5 hours of classic FINNISH PUNK! Comes with a massive 76 page booklet (probably in Finnish though, but bet there are lots of pictures!). We don't have this in stock, nor have we even seen one, but we freaked out when we found out about this and thought you might too. We hardly know any of the bands, Terveet Kadet, Radiopuhelimet, a few others, but considering how much we dig those bands, and Finnish music in general, this seemed pretty amazing. They are a bit pricey, so we're only gonna get as many as we get orders for, so think long and hard, if you want one, add it to your cart, and we'll have one for you in the next few weeks, hopefully. Needless to say, this is a pre-order, so whatever else you order will NOT be held for these, we can ship your Finnish punk box on its own when it arrives, or with your next order. And if you weren't already convinced, have a gander at all the cool-sounding acts/songs on the track list:
CD 1:
1. Briard: I Really Hate Ya
2. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Olen tyoton
3. Eppu Normaali: Poliisi pamputtaa taas
4. Problems?: Ei taa lama p��h�n k�y
5. Pelle Miljoona: Lahdetaan kiitamaan
6. Se: Ei asfaltti liiku�
7. Pelle Miljoona & N.U.S.: Vakivalta ja paihdeongelma
8. Eppu Normaali: Nipa�
9. Maukka & Nahkatakit: Tahdon sotaa apatiaa vastaan
10. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Pelkistettya todellisuutta
11. Problems?: Tapan aikaa
12. Ratsia: Lontoon skidit
13. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Sapinaa�
14. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Mulla menee lujaa�
15. Eppu Normaali: Mekin tehtiin rakkautta
16. Ratsia: Ole hyva nyt�
17. Pelle Miljoona & 1980: Nuoret sankarit �
18. Ratsia: Tama hetki ja tulevaisuus
19. Hassisen Kone: Muoviruusuja omenapuissa
20. Problems?: Katupoikien laulu�
21. Hassisen Kone: Hassisen Kone�
22. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Viesti�
23. Problems?: Maanantaina
24. Ratsia: Taalta tulee yo �
25. Hassisen Kone: Rappiolla �
26. Pelle Miljoona Oy: Moottoritie on kuuma�
CD 2:
1. Kollaa Kestaa: Musti sotakoira�
2. Sehr Schnell: Orja� �
3. Ypo-5: Energia on A ja O �
4. Briard: Fuck The Army
5. Sehr Schnell: 18 v.v.k
6. Karanteeni: Kaljupainen gangsteri
7. Sensuuri: Kirjoitan seinaan
8. Sehr Schnell: Vaihda vapaalle � ��
9. Kollaa Kestaa: Kirjoituksia kellarista
10. Loose Prick: Mua potkitaan paahan
11. Sehr Schnell: Neuroottiset pohkeet �
12. Ypo-5: Mari pogoaa �
13. Widows: Famous Five �
14. Briard: Miss World �
15. Karanteeni: Sid Vicious �
16. Vaavi: Mihin jai punk? �
17. Vandaalit: Ala pilaa nuoruuttasi
18. Ypo-5: Kaupunki muistaa nuoria
19. Karanteeni: Ei ole meilla mitaan paikkaa �
20. Sensuuri: Kaupunki nukkuu��
21. Widows: Wall Of Berlin �
22. Loose Prick: Kaupunki elamaa �
23. Kollaa Kestaa: Jaahyvaiset aseille�
24. Vaavi: Tytot hymyilee �
25. Kadotetut: Anna syd�mesi �
26. Vaavi: Rakkauden orjat ��
27. Widows: We�re Comin�
28. Sensuuri: Hengissa lapi Helsingin
29. Vandaalit: Betonikolossit � �
30. Fucking World: Human Rights
31. Kadotetut: Hiljaiset kyyneleet
CD 3:
1. Lama: Totuus loytyy kaurapuurosta
2. Rattus: Muotipunk
3. Terveet Kadet: Vapaa Pohjola�
4. Lama: Nimeton
5. Kohu-63: Paavola � � �
6. Terveet Kadet: Mull on liian lyhyt sanky
7. Kaaos: Kytat on natsisikoja �
8. Cadgers: Kaaosta taa maa kaipaa�
9. Appendix: Ei raha oo mun valuuttaa
10. Rattus: Rajoitettu ydinsota � �
11. Bastards: World Burns To Death
12. Terveet Kadet: Tornion kevat �
13. Riistetyt: Poliisivaltio �
14. Lama: Penisten vapautusrintama�
15. Maho Neitsyt: Ne ei myyneet mulle viinaa �
16. Kohu-63: Kaatakaa rauhanjuna �
17. Riistetyt: Ala luota systeemiin
18. Nato: Helsingin yot
19. Antikeho: Suomi -83 �
20. Maho Neitsyt: Mika mun paassa nykii �
21. Dachau: Huomenna haudassa
22. Lama: Ajatuksen loppu �
23. Unicef: Kakimassaa �
24. Kaaos: Mellakka � �
25. Destrucktions: Hinta�
26. Tampere SS: Painajainen olohuoneessa � �
27. Riistetyt: Systeemi tappaa �
28. Fucking Finland: Loputon sota� �
29. Marionetti: Palvele valtioo �
30. Terveet Kadet: Jeesus perkele �
31. Appendix: Huora � �
32. Bastards: Jumalan sotilaat���
33. HIC Systeemi: Ei ikina �
34. Kansan Uutiset: Koira on parempi kuin poliisi �
35. Aivoproteesi: Porojen maa �
36. Klimax: Suvivirsi � �
37. Varaus: Syyllinen �
38. Riistetyt: Bella Ciao �
39. Vaurio: Musta unelma �
40. Maho Neitsyt: Ei tippa tapa � �
41. Kansan Uutiset: Ankee aamu
42. Mellakka: Kiitollinen kansalainen � �
43. Pyhakoulu: Sa keinut �
44. KTMK: Kalinka� � �
45. Euthanasia: CCCP (Stalishnaja Hojo)
46. Maaseudun Tulevaisuus: Verenkuva � �
47. Radiopuhelimet: Saalimattoman ovela mies� �
48. CMX: Lapsi � �
CD 4:
1. Popeda: Erkki ja Leena
2. Se: Tulitikkutytto � � �
3. Vihan Muna: Terasmies �
4. Wrum: Takapihojen rocktahdet
5. Hellhound: Pakoon neonarmeijaa �
6. Raime: Ottaa paahan �
7. Paat: Jet set � � �
8. Tinneri: Mustavalkoinen maailma
9. Sig: Lauantaina � �
10. Se: Punk on typeraa �
11. Maukka ja Nahkatakit: Kun sa tuomitset mut
12. Paat: Rotat �
13. Hymy Taskinen & co: Hei, tytto, hei! �
14. Korroosio: Hei hei hei � �
15. Rattlers: Vaahtopaat�
16. Lola Ego: Kaupungin tytto �
17. Xtaasi: Er�s lauantaiyo �
18. Woude: Vanhat pierut
19. TV:n Orjat: Tavallinen ihminen � �
20. Vau!!: Yo asematunnelin keskitysleiriss� � �
21. Hurskas: Isanmaa huumaa �
22. 000: Silminnakija
23. Teurastamo 5: Elavia ruumiita �
24. 013: En jaksa enaa �
25. 000: Tanaan taalla, huomenna poissa� � �
26. Ne Luumaet: Sam pani kai jotain juomaani
27. Reds: Sydamenmurskaajat �
We reviewed this a while back, a mind blowing, ear destroying, super limited collection of strange sounds, noisy weirndess and fractured heaviness, all gorgeously packaged in a silk screened box with inserts and buttons and all kinds of stuff.
We discovered a small handful of these tucked away, and figured some of you may have missed out the first time around. Maybe your last chance to snag one of these....
Everyone around here is a huge fan of weirdo music label Rock Is Hell, as are most of you judging from how fast we sell out of their stuff and how quickly it all goes out of print. Pretty much everything on Rock Is Hell has blown us away, the Dig That Body Up It's Alive lp, the crazy Nate Denver's Neck etched one sided lp box set thing, the super limited Octis lathe cuts, the XbXrX / Total Shutdown double 5", all gorgeously packaged and jam packed with mind melting sounds. With that in mind we worked out a special deal with Rock Is Hell, which will give AQ customers first (and maybe only) crack at this ULTRA limited 7" box set!!!
The set is limited to only 400 copies, it was almost completely sold out on preorders, minus the 8 or 9 we just got, so this will be your last and only chance to get one of these, if you didn't already preorder one. All the records are on white vinyl with white labels, and the records are housed in a silkscreened cardboard box with an inlay and 2 buttons designed by BONGOUT (http://frre.fr.freee.frfr.e.free.fr/). And all the copies we got have the secret bonus 7"!!! Only 50 or so of those! The singles included are:
Foot Village (USA)
Z's (USA)
Sasqrotch (USA)
Child Abuse (USA)
Death Sentence: Panda! (USA) / Fugu & The Cosmic Mumu (AUT)
Bulbul (AUT)
Bug (AUT) / Reflector (AUT)
Rokko Anal (AUT)
So if you want to be one of the lucky few to own this crazy chunk of sonic and visual weirdness, click the buy button and you'll be all set! So there you go, don't blow it!!!
And remember, ROCK IS HELL!!!!! ----* ----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed : ----* If you want to order one of these, just searcgh for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart! 3 INCHES OF BLOOD "Here Waits Thy Doom" (Century Media) cd 15.98 ACCUSED, THE "The Curse of Martha Splatterhead" (Southern Lord) cd 13.98 AFRICA GERMANY GERMANY MEXICO TURKEY AUSTRALIA "s/t" (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 25.00 ALTAR OF OBLIVION "Sinews Of Anguish" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98 ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN "UTP_" (Raster Norton) cd+dvd 32.00 ANTLERS, THE "Hospice" (French Kiss) cd 12.98 ARGUS "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 ASTRA "The Weirding" (Rise Above) cd 13.98 ASYLUM "The Earth Is The Insane Asylum Of The Universe" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 BEHEMOTH "Evangelion" (Metal Blade) cd 15.98 BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER "split" (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98 BIRDS OF AVALON "Uncanny Valley" (Volcom Entertainment) cd/lp 14.98/13.98 BLACK JOKER "Watch Out" (Olde English Spelling Bees) lp 21.00 BLACK SHEEP "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse 2" (Invada) 2cd/2lp 31.00/39.00 BLIND BLAKE "Bahamian Songs" (Megaphone) cd 17.98 BLK JKS "After Robots" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98 CABLE "The Failed Convict" (The End) cd 12.98 CONGA DE LOS HOYOS "Carnival Music Of Easern Cuba" (World Audio Foundation / Soul Jazz) cd 17.98 COURTIS, ALAN / BRUCE RUSSELL / EDDIE PREVOST / MATTIN "The Sakada Sessions" (Azul Discographica) lp 27.00 DDAA "Action And Japanese Demonstration" (Fractal) cd 27.00 DELAY, VLADISLAV "Tummaa" (Leaf) cd 14.98 ELECTRIC PRUNES, THE "Mass In F Minor" (Reprise) lp 14.98 ESPVALL, HELENA & MASAKI BATOH "Overloaded Ark" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/21.00 ESSO TRINIDAD STEELBAND, THE "Van Dyke Parks Presents" (Bananastan) cd + dvd 16.98 FENRIZ' RED PLANET / NATTEFROST "Engansgrill" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00 FLUXION "Inductance" (Echospace) 12" 13.98 GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98 GRASS WIDOW "s/t" (Make A Mess) lp 12.98 HABOOB "s/t" (Long Hair) cd 27.00 HARBOURS "No Souvenirs" (HR) lp 14.98 HEALTH "Get Color" (Lovepump United) cd HEIMS "Worship Or Die" (Moribund Cult) cd 15.98 HOOD, ROBERT "Minimal Nation" (M-Plant) 2cd 17.98 ILL WIND "Flashes" (Sunbeam) 2cd 25.00 JAFFE, SARA & MIA CLARKE "The Art of Touring" (Square Root Books) book + cd 19.95 JANDEK "Not Hunting For Meaning" (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98 KUUPUU "Lumen Tahden" (Time-Lag) cd/lp 15.98/29.00 LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN "Sabor A Fresa" (Vampi Soul) cd 22.00 LI JIANHONG "Classic Of The Mountains And Seas" (PSF) cd 22.00 LITMUS "Aurora" (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98 MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "C'est La Derniere Chanson" (K) 2cd 13.98 MASERATI "Passages" (Temporary Residence) cd 13.98 METH TEETH "Everything Went Wrong" (Woodsist) lp 14.98 NECRONOMICON "Strange Dreams" (Garden Of Delights) cd 22.00 PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART "Come Saturday" (Slumberland) 7" 3.98 PLAIN RIDE "House On The Hill" (Ektro) cd 14.98 PUMICE "Perservere" (Soft Abuse) 7" 6.98 RAVAGE "End Of Tomorrow" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98 ROCKCELONA "La Bruja" (Estereo Fonico Country) cd 25.00 ROXY MUSIC "s/t" (Virgin) lp 21.00 ROYHKA JA RATTO JA LEHTISALO "Hiekkarantaa" (Ektro) cd 14.98 SARKE "Vorunah" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00 SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY "Dance With Action" (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 29.00 SINISTER REALM "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 STONE GARDEN "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98 SUCH HAWKS SUCH HOUNDS (Long Song Films) dvd-r 16.98 SWASHBUCKLE "Back To The Noose" (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98 TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "Archive 1" (Jinya) 5cd 95.00 TREE PEOPLE, THE "Human Voices" (Guerssen) cd 17.98 V/A "A Orillas Del Magdalena" (Domino Sound) lp 14.98 V/A "Electric Asylum Volume 3" (Past & Present) cd 17.98 V/A "La Belle Epoque" (EMI / Zonophone) cd 14.98 V/A "Songs In The Key Of Z: Volume 1 & 2" (Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98 V/A "The Midnite Sound Of The Milky Way" (Big Beat) cd 16.98 V/A "Transmissions From Sinai" (Arthur) cd 13.98 VIVIAN GIRLS "Everything Goes Wrong" (In The Red) cd 13.98 VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98 WARDRUNA "Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga" (Indie Recordings / Fimbullijod) cd 21.00 ZOMBY "Digital Flora" (Brainmath) 10" 14.98 ZOMBY "One Foot Ahead Of The Other" (Ramp) cd/2x12" 14.98/25.00 _______________________________________________________________________ Please place your order via our website. [1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings! [2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive. [ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.
We've all been huge fans of Geoff Mullen's for a while now, and were appropriately freaked out by his recent mindblowing Armory Radio double lp reviewed a few lists back.
But in addition to crafting gorgeous and epic buzzing stringscapes, he also started up a label called Rare Youth, to not only release some of his own records, but to help document the vibrant Providence underground rock scene. As if that scene needed ANY more documenting?! Well, in fact if this comp is anything to go by, it most certainly does!
A super bargain priced double cd (not cd-r), collecting nearly 40 tracks from a bevy of random Providence noisemakers. Some you probably know, Furisubi, Area C, Kites, Black Forest / Black Sea, Workdeath, Black Pus (Lightning Bolt sideproject), but most you probably don't: Unicorn Hard-On, Haunted House, Russian Tsarcasm, Teenage Waistband, Petal Boat, Pedestrian Deposit, Feral Children, I Would Eat That Pizza, Siren Cult, Lucky Dragons, God Willing, Total Gym, Red Delicious and tons more!
The record opens with Black Pus' buzzing blown out noisejam freakout, and from there on out, the sound careens wildly from washed out murky dronemusic, to crushing crumbling white noise skree, to super lo-fi drum jams, to murky punk rock pound, to gorgeous rainy day piano, to gentle tangles of fluttery folk, to super dense blackbuzz noiserock, lo-fi, damaged casio electro-core, creepy 8-bit Goblin style soundtrackery, to gorgeous warbly droned out dreamscapes, touching on a million other sounds and styles, most that don't even have names yet, and require super hyphenated and tongue twisty descriptors.
Needless to say, while very few folks will love EVERY single thing here, most of the tracks and the bands offer up some awesomely twisted, noisy, dreamy, damaged, freaked out sonic weirdness, that in most cases definitely left us wanting more. Dying to hear more music from Haunted House and Summer City just to name a couple.
Super deluxe handmade packaging. A thick cardstock gatefold sleeve, with paste on bright orange artwork and tracklistings, inside a fold out Xeroxed mini-poster with band info and cool art.
Another compilation (number four, duh) of fast and furious, pummelling fastcore/grindcore/metallic punk rock. Some bands you know: 324 (from their recent split with Corrupted), Ruido, Unruh, Damad, Lack Of Interest as well as a ton of bands you don't: Haymaker, I Found God, Overpowering, Self Inflicted, Progeria, Halo Epidemic, Dudman, Pretty Little Flower, Inspite, Hawgjaw, Low Threat Profile and lots more. If you like this kind of stuff, you probably gotta have this.
Every city in every state, every country, has its own little musical scene, one that has grown and changed over the years, bands playing gigs, recording records, breaking up, moving on to other gigs, finally getting real jobs and settling down and having families, those records and gigs and bands forgotten. But think about all the places, all the cities, all the years and decades, and how many bands and records that we've never heard or heard of must be lurking out there. Records that were given to friends, consigned at the local store, or just stashed in the garage or basement. Rare record reissues are nothing new, and there's enough that they can't all possibly be good. In fact it's gotten to the point where if a record is old, and nobody heard it, it suddenly becomes a rarity worth unearthing. Which is not always the case. But with all those records out there, all those forgotten bands, some with only a song or two legacy, it's worth digging though all the rest, on the off chance of stumbling on to something amazing. And scenes have always fed off themselves, often where there was one good band, there was two, and where there was two, there was a whole bunch. Which brings us to Rocky Mountain Low. A killer collection of seventies rock and punk rock and power pop from Colorado, which is a place we're pretty familiar with, at least from the eighties onward, but we didn't know a single band here, and some of these groups are amazing. AND, for such a sprawling varied collection, there's very little chaff. In fact, this could very well have been a Numero Group reissue, super well researched, incredible song selection, a totally unknown lost scene, a bunch of amazing bands, and tons of killer tracks, maybe a bit more punk rock and lo-fi, but then, that's fine with us.
The Ravers are crunchy and jangly and sound like they're from Minneapolis, Radio Pete might be our favorite, effortlessly creating some gloriously rough edged reverb drenched garage pop, the sort of thing all those new groups are desperately emulating, sounds like Ariel Pink or the Oh Sees or Ty Segall if they were from the early seventies, the Front are snarly almost metallic sounding punk rock, Defex kick out the muddy murky bass heavy jams, all squiggly angular leads, wild drumming and killer pop hooks, the Cells are total Romantics style new wave power pop, the Profalactics are all yelpy Riot Grrl sounding lo-fi punk rock three chord lo-fi crunch, the Instant are woozy low fidelity punk pop psych, a lot of this reminds us of Guided By Voices too, that sort of British sound filtered through a US punk rock aesthetic, and it goes on and on. So many kick ass bands, so many amazing tracks, a double lp AND a cd, with a massive full color magazine sized booklet, jam packed with extensive liner notes on EVERY band here, cool stuff for sure, and an awesome glimpse of yet another lost and forgotten scene...
Got a few copies of this cd-r compilation via our pals the Oakland band Pigs, who have a track on it taken from their album Illuminati House Party, that we know a lot of you liked. Other acts also on here, and equally AQ-approved: US Christmas, Shit And Shine, Sons Of Tonatiuh, and a bunch more (13 in all) that are all pretty great. Although it's a diverse selection of bands, somehow the tracks that appear on this comp all go pretty well together. There's a tilt towards mathiness and heaviness, and also to weirdness and psychedelia, all good things as far as we're concerned. Lots of it is instrumental, as well.
We won't bother to describe the entire disc track-by-track (especially since it's cheap enough, just buy it!!) but will mention a few things that stood out... Shane Perlowin from prog-punk outfit Ahleuchatistas starts things off with a lovely bit of solo guitar action, vaguely exotic-sounding, something that Six Organs fans should enjoy, though the hypnotically jittery track by Ahleuchatistas proper that pops up later on the disc is more in line with the technically complex, frantic rockin' we've heard from 'em before on their Cuneiform albums. Meanwhile, Russian (???) band The Grand Astoria do a pretty rad space-rockin' cover of a song by Ash Ra Tempel. And then there's the oddly monickered yellowthief (a grindy duo consisting of drummer "yellowsun" and guitarist "yellowmoon") who contribute six tracks, all but one of 'em short sharp shocks of mathy spazz (and some moody melody) barely longer than 30 seconds apiece, with gibberish song titles. Ruins and Hella fans ought to dig, and we'll definitely be on the lookout for more from yellowthief in future.
Oh, and Pigs, if you haven't heard 'em yet, do their song "Lurch" which is exemplary of their Sabbathy, Melvinsy sound. The heaviest stuff here is probably by Sons Of Tonatiuh, though, who get two feedback-laden tracks to kick out the ugly doom jams, Eyehategod style. Shit And Shine don't wimp out, either, wrapping the disc up with a crushingly distorted atmospheric soundscape of sorts. And the other bands we haven't yet mentioned (The Wayward, The Asound, Akris, Enoch, Yuugen Syndrome) are all worthy too.
Certainly a cool comp that turned us on to some neat stuff we hadn't heard before, from denizens of a particular (and somewhat peculiar) underground scene that we hadn't quite conceptualized previously, though now it makes sense that these bands would all belong together on this comp - to the extent that you could almost listen to this and pretend it was ALL by the same, really amazing band! Comes with a sticker, too, by the way.
Here's one of those Good News, Bad News reviews. The good news is this 4cd box set is really fantastic, the bad news is that it's out of print and we only have 3 copies to sell. It actually came out over a year ago, but somehow we utterly missed out on it then, whoops! Too bad 'cause we probably would have made it Record(s) Of The Week! Sticking to the good news side of things, once we did finally find out out about it, despite it being already out of print, we fortunately were able to acquire a small handful of copies from Drag City, who as luck would have it had just received a few back in a return from a European distro. So, THREE of you out there are in luck. But might not know why, yet. What's the deal with the Total Groovy? Well, a while back, we reviewed what was then a vinyl-only Drag City reissue of an album called Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners, which appears as one of the discs in this box set. That lp of previously unreleased material came from the archives of Pete Shelley's own Groovy label, the Buzzcocks' singer's DIY outlet for the krautrock inspired, avant-garde experimentation of himself and his friends, and the other three discs in this box are reissues of Groovy's first three original lp releases, all from 1980.
So, first off, here's more or less what we said about Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners back in 2011:
Best band name ever? Definitely a contender. Never really thought that Pete Shelley of famed UK punks The Buzzcocks had anything like this in him, but this album is pretty damn good - almost living up to the ridiculous moniker! Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners was Shelley's oddball synth-wave project that began even before the Buzzcocks broke up in 1981. Back then, he took up the habit of inviting any number of unidentified 'guests' over to his studio to jam with anything and everything in the place; and these Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners recordings came from the many tapes that he made by these means circa 1980-1984. Who those guests in Shelley's studio might have been is anybody's guess. Ours? Maybe Eric Random, maybe Francis Cookson (who co-founded Groovy with Shelley), maybe Sally Timms from The Mekons. Regardless, the resultant recordings are an electronic-heavy art-punk with plenty of weirdo synth meanderings, Keith Levene sounding guitar splinterings, dub-inflected basslines, and scatterbrained effects. None of the punk-pop hooks of the Buzzcocks are found here, even when guitars, bass, and drums enter the picture; it's pretty much all about the studio as instrument with lots of effects swarming about the drum machine rhythms and bare-bones post-punk grooves. One could think of The Storm Bugs, Crawling Chaos, The Psyclones, or Jeff & Jane Hudson.
Then there's the other three, equally confusional discs also found here: the oscillator insanity of Shelley's solo lp Sky Yen, 41+ minutes of delightful knob-twiddling distorted drone actually recorded in 1974; some shambling drone-rock and dadaistic vocals shenanigans from a soundtrack by Sally Smmit And Her Musicians (aka Sally Timms, Pete Shelley, and others); and a record with four untitled tracks of lo-fi industrial improvised (?) rock from a unit called Free Agents. All stuff for which the terms 'weird and wonderful' were doubtless invented! Each disc comes in its own cardboard sleeve reproducing the original album art, the Free Agents one complete with miniaturized insert advertising the Groovy catalog, and tip-on cover. Also inside this eye-catching, Op Art adorned box is a booklet containing an interview Drag City did with Shelley all about everything Groovy, talking about other related projects like The Tiller Boys, revealing various influences (Eno, Can, Ralph Records), etc.
Totally great for anyone into the oddest of Messthetics tracks, NWW list stuff, or even the Boredoms' Super Roots series. Again, kicking ourselves for idiotically overlooking this when we could have gotten more, argh. So now it's first come, first served (and since we have so few, if you're mailordering this, it's always a good idea to pick an alternate as well). Good luck though - sorry to provide such a big review of something we probably won't be able to sell you!
Another lovingly compiled (by Scott Hull of Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Pig Destroyer no less!) sonically hateful selection of extreme heaviness, grind metal, powerviolence, hardcore, punk rock, and pretty much everything in between, buzzing and blasting and brutal as fuck. A handful of bands we already loved, and a whole bunch we'd never heard of before, it's kinda like the metal mix tape you wish your mean metal older brother would make you.
So let's start with the we know and love. California crew Lack Of Interest spit out 7 tracks in about 4 minutes, blazing blasting punk rock, Noisear spit out insane bursts of frenzied grind, impossibly fast, super dense and twisted and complex, Drugs Of Faith do their dirgey punkish death metal, sludgey and sloppy and chaotic, the mighty Crom offer up "Hags" the longest track on the comp, a grinding, thrashing slab of whatthefuck heaviness, slipping from punkish blast to churning doomy chug, the vocals shrieking and grunting and howling, it even gets sort of pretty for a moment, but only a moment, fuck we love these guys, Ohio pigfuckers Apartment 213 spit out some serious powerviolence, a Neanderthal sonic pummeling, grunted vox, even slipping in a little groove at one point, but mostly just beating your ears bloody with their closed fist crush, Despise you kick down 50 seconds of churning, blasting grind, 2 songs blow by in a blink, but they cram some serious sonic punishment into less than a minute, Voetsek are the only female fronted outfit in this boys club, and they lay it down with some super technical grind metal, and some seriously ball melting vox....
Then there's the bands we're hearing for the first time here: Hummingbird Of Death, Marion Barry, Owen Hart, Septic Surge, Population Reduction, Superbad, Three Faces Of Eve, Idiots Parade, Triac and more, our faves being Hummingbird Of Death, not just for having the best band name ever, but for their chaotic, frenzied on the verge of collapse powerviolence freakouts, Owen Hart's metallic grinding thrash, infused with plenty of classic old school metal riffage, Septic Surge who get their drummachinegun on, a dizzying hybrid of twisted electronic glitchery and caveman heaviness... We could go on and on, a head spinning selection of audial brutality, crushing heaviness, blasting brutality, an overwhelming 74 tracks, all jammed into 78 minutes, by 19 bands, for anyone who likes it fast and heavy. Comes with a massive booklet, all old school punk rock style with each band getting a page for lyrics and photos and contact info. Awesome.
LEVIATHAN ALERT!!! EXCLUSIVE UNRELEASED LEVIATHAN TRACK ALERT!!! LEVIATHAN COVERING BLACK FLAG ALERT!!! What the fuck? It's true though. More on that in a second. We all dig skating (although most of us are not to good at it), and love to watch crazy skaters around town, often fucking themselves up in the process. Who doesn't? But typically skate rock has often been, well, not really that interesting. Okay, so maybe most skate rock sucks. But this Thrasher Skate Rock disc has a lot going for it, not the least of which is an unreleased Leviathan track, "The Third Blind Wound"! Most Leviathan obsessives will most definitely find this one track enough reason to pick this up, but there's some other killer stuff on here too. Exclusive tracks from a bunch of other bands including locals Hightower, and the always kick ass S.T.R.E.E.T.S. (an acronym for 'skating totally rules, everything else totally sucks') as well as some killer DVD footage including a documentary about skating in the 80's and 90's and a live performance from Norway's Turbonegro.
This is one of those dualdisc thingies, that won't play on some stereos so be warned!
This comp is sort of an advertisement, a promotional item, which would normally turn us right off, but this disc killer, and it just so happens to be promoting a line of hand crafted 'caveman' effects, created by none other than Nelson from Man Is The Bastard, Sleestak and Geronimo. Wondering where those fucked up sounds were coming from? The damaged electronics on the Geronimo record? Well, most likely it was a Trogotronic device helping to create that racket. They look beautiful and sound even better. Check it out:
http://www.thumbprintpress.com/trogotronic.htm
So this here comp features a who's who of noise artists who apparently endorse Trogotronic. But you know what? Even if you had no clue what the hell Trogotronic was, this comp would still stomp your ass. Check out the lineup:
Geronimo, Unicorn, Sickness, Drunk On Blood, Mike Shiflet, Torso, Bastard Noise and more and more. The sleeve even lets you know which Trogotronic device was used in each specific track. We can't tell you how close we've come to blowing our paychecks on some of these noisemakers. But for now, we're happy to make do with this disc. First off, an unreleased Geronimo track, worth it right there. An awesomely creepy electronic krautrocky crawl, all crumbling and distorted, low end crunch beneath, squealing high end siren like skree. Sounds like an outtake from their full length, which it probably is, and which of course means it's awesome! Drunk On Blood, another Man Is The Bastard side project, offers up a symphony of electronic jackhammering, pounding and pulsing, almost musically, percussive and relentless, and weirdly listenable. The Sickness track is a heaving wall of analog fury, crumbling and crunchy, the Bastard Noise track is downright pretty, a sea of squelches and a distant beastlike howling, Torso unfurl some seriously creeped out hissy dronemusic, Unicorn offer up a weird symphony of shrieks and stumbling percussive clatter, Astrogenic Hallucinating spits out some fucked up, horror movie analog video game music, we could go on and on and on.
All the tracks here are pretty amazing, some textural and drone-y, others blown out and white hot, still others, rhythmic and abstract, at the very least, you'll probably listen to this like crazy and do some serious damage to your speakers, worst case though, you'll end up like us, freaking out and NEEDING some of these noisemakers for yourself, then you can do some REAL damage!
Beautifully packaged in a fold over, silkscreened sleeve.
Punky noisy label Troubleman records has put out many awesome records; this comp is a low-priced way to check out tracks from a bunch of their current, recent and here-very-soon releases. Features a ton of AQ and customer fave bands! Dig it: Erase Errata, Wolf Eyes, Glass Candy, Orthrelm, The Walkmen, Subtonix, Pixeltan, The Roger Sisters, Songs Of Zarathustra, Meta*Matics, The Flying Luttenbachers, The Panthers, ABC's, Numbers, Kepler, Red Monkey, The Lack, Touchdown, Milky Wimpshake and Pussycat Trash, plus an Erase Errata remix by Adult (from the upcoming Erase Errata remix album).
MPEG Download: ERASE ERATTA "Marathon (Adult. Remix)" [/audio/eraseerratamarathonrmx.mp3]
MPEG Stream: ERASE ERATTA "Marathon (Adult. Remix)" [/audio/eraseerratamarathonrmx.m3u]
This box set commemorates Dischord's first 20 years as a label and is an amazing and lovingly put together artefact. Three cds, with one track from each band on the label (including one track from each band on the seminal "Flex Your Head" compilation). The third disc is all unreleased material and contains some very early video footage of The Untouchables, The Teen Idles, SOA, Faith, Void and Deadline. 73 songs in all (21 unreleased) and a 134 page book with full page bio for each band written by Ian MacKaye, Jeff Nelson and Henry Rollins. This label has been such an inspiration to so many labels, bands, stores, activists, individuals, whatever. Hard working and obviously still in love with music even after all these years. The box set is sequenced in chronological order which is kind of cool because you get a feel for the way the bands and the label progressed, and because it's such a family affair, being that all the bands were from D.C., there are people showing up in a several different bands, so it illustrates the individual changes and transformations as well. So nice.
The 50 bands are as follows:
Teen Idles, The Untouchables, State of Alert, Minor Threat , Void, Youth Brigade, Government Issue, Scream, Iron Cross, Red C, Deadline, Artificial Peace, Faith, Skewbald, Marginal Man, Gray Matter, Rites of Spring, Beefeater, The Snakes, Dag Nasty, Embrace, Soulside, Egg Hunt, One Last Wish, Fire Party, Ignition, Three, Shudder to Think, Happy Go Licky, Fugazi, Lungfish, Fidelity Jones, The Nation of Ulysses, Holy Rollers, Jawbox, Severin, The High-Back Chairs, Autoclave, Circus Lupus, Branch Manager, Slant 6, Hoover, Trusty, Smart Went Crazy, The Crownhate Ruin, The Warmers, The Make-Up, Bluetip, Faraquet, Q and Not U.
Reissued international hardcore punk comp from the punk bible... features Terveet Kadet, Crucifucks, Rattus, Raw Power, The Stalin, and many many more. Classic stuff.
Subtitled "Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown" this is a brilliant collection of dubbed out and reggaefied punk and new wave b-sides circa '77-'81, demonstrating the Jamaican dub influence on the youth culture of music and rebellion in England and elsewhere, back in the day. The underground dancefloor avantgardists of today can cop these styles, but this is the real deal, with tracks from well-known acts like The Pop Group, Killing Joke, The Slits, PIL, The Clash, Grace Jones and Stiff Little Fingers, plus some more obscure bands as well, like Red Beat, 4 Be 2, and Basement 5. Some cuts are actual echoey dubs, others are more about the Jamaican influence, and the dub concept of studio as instrument. All are pretty cool.
The Ruts' "Jah War" starts things off in deceptively ordinary fashion, pretty much straight up reggae (not a dub), though it does succesfully demonstrate this comp's thesis regarding the influence of reggae on punk (with The Ruts eventually becoming Ruts DC, subject of an anthology on Select Cuts we recommended a while back)... That's followed by Mikey Dread's dub version of The Clash's "Bank Robber" which of course sounds pretty much like The Clash, but dubbier. It's with track three, "Wild Dub" from Generation X, purportedly the first punk dub ever cut, that the punk-dub collision starts to get really interesting. And if Billy Idol's old band's dub attempt is cool, you can only imagine what more some of the more out-there groups came up with. For instance, dig the bizarre sounds of The Slits, whose disjointed dub of "Typical Girls" comes off like Italian 'rock concrete' deconstructionists Starfuckers by way of Jamaica, all cut-up and sparse and loopy. Definitely a highlight. Meanwhile, you've got The Pop Group setting an example for current acts like Out Hud/!!! to emulate, 4 Be 2's weird Irish hoedown skank, the throbbing "Turn To Red" by Killing Joke (from a super-rare 9" record), and Grace Jones' 1980 Chrissie Hynde penned dance classic "Private Life" with bass and drums from Sly & Robbie. And more... Former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten is a ubiquitous presence, in addition to PIL's quintessential "Death Disco", there's a bunch of other John Lydon productions on here, including a great track from Vivien Goldman ("Private Armies") dubbed up by Lydon and Adrian Sherwood. Goldman, former singer with the Flying Lizards and reggae writer for the punk weekly Sounds, contributes the disc's liner notes, with an enthusiastic, informed, she-was-there-then-and-cares-deeply-about-it-now perspective. So, totally, recommended -- everyone who loved those great Disco Not Disco and/or In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilations will want to check this out for sure!
We often lament the fact that many of our favorite bands predate the list. Bands we love and obsessed on, but whose records, and often entire careers, came well before we began our bi-weekly chronicling of musics weird and heavy, dense and brutal, lovely and catchy. Slint's Spiderland has a one line review ferchrissakes!!!
And then there's Man Is The Bastard. The supreme rulers of West Coast Power Violence. A throbbing, churning, dual bass-ed behemoth. A crushing low end onslaught, double basses, crushing drums, howled vocals, swirls of caveman electronics, amazing graphic design (that ubiquitous MITB skull!), political lyrics, challenging subject matter, intense artwork, they were the ultimate D.I.Y. punk rock dirge metal outfit. If you don't own any MITB records, stop right now, and make it happen, any one into heavy, thoughtful brutality, or into experimental and extreme outsider punk rock, needs to own every bit of Bastard they can get their hands on. It's hard to imagine a punk rock band who hasn't been influenced by MITB. In fact the crustcore back pack crowd that you most often equate with legendary epic metal lords Neurosis, you'll find are almost ALL sporting the MITB skull somewhere on their persons, back patch, button, tattoo, it's probably more ubiquitous in this generation than the Black Flag bars or the Einsturzende Neubauten figure. And for good reason. MITB were not only heavy, they were fucking weird, not metal, not punk rock, not noise, but all of those things. And not only did MITB leave an amazing musical legacy, the various members all continued on, taking various bits and pieces, vestiges of what once was Man Is The Bastard, and incorporating them into a whole new world of noise and sound.
Thus we have No Skull Left Unturned. A triple cd collection of mostly new recordings from all the various Man Is The Bastard offshoots (only the Sleestak tracks are previously released). An eclectic bunch for sure. From drone to noise, to ambient to post rock and every possible hybrid in between. Some groups we already know and love, some we're only just discovering, others we're re-discovering and digging all over again. Even if you're new to the world of Man Is The Bastard, this is a killer comp, that will definitely appeal to folks into noise, drone, punk rock, metal, but for MITB fans, this is the motherlode! About the coolest thing short of a reunion or a brand new MITB record.
Before we talk about the bands, let's discuss the packaging. HOLY SHIT. We've seen amazing packaging, but this is so deluxe, and so gorgeously and meticulously hand assembled, true to the D.I.Y spirit for sure, but so over the top. It would be worth it for the packaging alone. Let's start from the outside and work our way inwards.
An oversized grey envelope, sealed with a metallic silver wax seal, bearing the imprint of the MITB skull, affixed to one side of the envelope is a library card pocket, inside, a card with the names of each band typewritten. Flip it over, the MITB skull is printed in black metallic ink, and a clear transparency is affixed over the top. Inside, there are FOUR zines, each with a hand printed silkscreened hard cardstock cover, printed in oranges and blacks. Inside the first, Sounds, are the three cds, a track listing, liner notes, photos and track info for each band on the comp, in the back are two pages of stickers, one with stickers for the comp and all the various bands, one a whole page of MITB skull stickers, along side the cds, are an embroidered patch and a pin, both bearing the same skull image. The set is numbered on the inside of the cover. Limited of course. The second zine, also housed in a silkscreened card stock cover, Discography, is just that, a complete discography of Man Is The Bastard and MITB related bands, including tons of reviews from various zines and magazines, as well as a full color poster featuring the covers of every single MITB and related release. Zine number three, Interviews, is ultra thick, packed with tons of interviews with all the various members of MITB, discussing everything from music to politics, touring, art, reviews, Japanese fans, drugs and loads more. Also included in this zine is a hand screened MITB bookmark, no doubt to use as you work your way through all of this text. And finally, zine 4, Images, is even thicker than the Interviews zine, with tons of images, photos, posters, interviews as well as most, if not all the liner notes and inserts from all the various MITB releases. All 4 zines tied together with a piece of twine and sealed in that envelope.
Phew! And we haven't even gotten to the music yet. Which is just as intense and impressive as the packaging:
Let's start with Amps for Christ who are probably the most well known of the bunch, at least around here. Henry Barnes was the noisemaker for Man Is The Bastard, with his homemade amps (Amps For Christ!), lo-fi duct-tape electronics, screwdrivers and bastardized circuit boards, he added a weird caveman lo-tech sheen to MITB's churning bass heavy power violence, but post-Bastard, Barnes took his Amps and created a strange world of jangle gypsy folk, lilting strum and soaring joyful bagpipe like buzz. A glorious field of fuzzy sonic flowers and sparkling sunshine, all woven into bouncy jigs, doleful drones, simple strum and dreamy childlike melodies, but peppered with strange spoken word, machinelike robotic, murky loping krautrock, and raga like buzz. The tracks here run the gamut, featuring the usual Amps guests contributing dreamlike female vocals, keening violas, and extra strum and pluck, all woven into a constantly confusional world of bent circuits, blown out guitar buzz, summery afternoon folk flutter, and ominous dirgey strums.
Then there's Unicorn, who have been a big favorite around these parts, with their washed out minimal ambience, dark drones and atmospheric drift. The Unicorn tracks here are much more varied, the first a strange electro soundscape of crunchy beats and distorted vocals, feedback squiggles and damaged synths, the second more of the Unicorn we're used to, barely there drift and shimmer, a faraway pulse, then the third a murky midnight forest jam, recorded from beneath the earth, everything muffled and muddy, smeared rhythms, and mysterious insect sounds, like No Neck doing Chain Reaction.
Probably the most prolific and most direct of the MITB offshoots is Bastard Noise, whose output has been nearly impossible to keep up with, and who embraced the noise side of Man Is The Bastard (hence the new monicker) ditching most of the bass and rhythm in favor of a much more static and generally harsh sound. That said, their blend of caveman electronics and black ambience is quite compelling, from huge ambient sprawls of softly shifting black whir, to freaked out walls of pure fierce sound, a thick swirl of soft white noise and manufactured alien soundscapes, harsh and brutal, noisy and intense, but also weirdly inviting and impossibly listenable.
Bastard Noise teamed up with Japanese junk-noise unit K2, for long stretches of chaotic, kitchen sink, electronic noise freakouts: malfunctioning electronics, damaged amplifiers, squalls of loops and stuttering glitch and buzz and grinding crunch.
Antennacle are a new name to us, not sure which Bastard is involved, but they contribution to this collection is one epic 20+ minute soundscape, ominous expanses of insectlike buzz, spare percussive rattle, low end hum, blessed out shimmer, brief stretches of glimmering outer space FX, chunks of feedback, occasionally assembled into strange alien rhythms, a constantly shifting soundworld dipping into territories as far reaching as Dead C murk, Keening Sunroof!-like ur-drone, No Neck style folky clatter and Wolf Eyes-ian electronic landscapes.
Hierophant is another new name to us in the field of post Bastard offshoots, this one another American / Japanese team up, all electronics and field recordings, woven into a jagged field of low end thrum and hissing high end buzz, abstract percussion, and clouds of Merzbowian rrroooar, swirls of spaced out FX, a discordant din, the sound of a noise rock band crashing headfirst into a junkyard gamelan. Long stretches of what sound like field recordings of some alien swamp, all indescribably chirps and croaks, suspended in a muddy viscous black bog, over which thick sheets of coruscating high end feedback drift like storm clouds.
But probably the most exciting stuff here are three previously released tracks from Man Is The Bastard noiserock side project Sleestak. It exciting to hear what a more mellow MITB might have sounded like, an ominous low slung brutality, bass heavy dirges, moody malevolence, more a sort of beautiful brutal post rock. A loping bass line wanders through a field of hiss and hum and buzz, spacious and spare, almost like a meaner more malevolent Low or Bohren. Slowcore peppered with bursts of twisted noise freakouts, and distant bits of shortwave squiggle, a very Slint-like vibe, with the guitar locking into super hypnotic loops, over lurching downtuned bass, drifting detuned melodic fragments, if someone didn't know better, they could definitely mistake this stuff for some super obscure Touch And Go or AmRep noiserock band. Killer stuff. Previously released, but we'd never heard these tracks before, and will absolutely be hunting down everything we can find. In fact, this whole comp will have most of you digging for discs by all these bands. And our waning love of Bastard Noise has most definitely blossomed again after digging into these tracks. Absolutely and totally recommended. And of course the best part of a comp like this is that it got us all excited about Man Is The Bastard again, and that shit sounds as good as ever.
Man Is The Bastard! Crossed Out! Infest! Spazz! No Comment! Capitalist Casualties! All hail WEST COAST POWERVIOLENCE!! And the glorious sounds borne from their legacy...
Not sure how we managed it, but this is the first we've heard from noise rock heavies Vaz, which is kind of weird for a couple reasons, one, this is their 3rd or 4th record so far at least, and those past records were on some seriously kick ass labels, and two, Vaz is in fact two members of the late great AmRep outfit Hammerhead, who we LOVED. But better late than never, and this is indeed a serious chunk of blown out super hooky and heavy noise rock, pop at its core for sure, but wrapped in some thick, crumbling ultra distorted riffage, not to mention some tripped out psychedelic guitar action, anchored by the drums, a wild chaotic pound, and the vocals, surprisingly melodic, which positions Vaz more alongside other poppier heavy rock combos like Torche, but Vaz definitely twists up their sound, atonal and off kilter, jagged and frenzied and frantic, sleeping easily from twisted crunch to soaring hookiness and back, with a definite brooding downer pop vibe running through some of the songs too. And some ridiculous hooks tucked amidst all that crunch and pound. We gave this a quick listen when it first came in, and thought it sounded pretty good, but when we finally sat down to really dig in, it quickly became a new fave, sounding suddenly like some impossible hybrid of Nomeansno, The Melvins and Torche, with a hint of the Wipers� and we've been listening to it like crazy ever since, which pretty much says it all.
Killer stuff, and definitely recommended for fans of heavy pop and poppy heaviness.
Packaged in swank silkscreened jackets, includes a free download as well.
We were lucky enough to have Vaz play our most recent South By Southwest showcase, and while we were already fans, of their previous band too, late great AmRep heavies Hammerhead, seeing Vaz live knocked our fucking socks off. Furious and heavy, mathy and dense, and impossibly tight. One of the best drummers we've seen the songs roiling, furious math/noise rock blowouts that totally decimated. This is a super limited reissue of their long out of print debut full length, and fins the band just emerging from AmRep mode, the sound super rhythmic, pummelingly hypnotic, but rife with crazy melodies, hooky as hell, which seems impossible when you're listening to these crushing noise rock blowouts, but these guys come from a time when melody and heavy rock crush were not enemies, it was all in how you got the two tangled up, and even a decade ago, Vaz had already mastered a unique strain of heavy/hooky/rhythmic/mathy noise rock that still sounds incredible.
Opener "Blocked By Satellites" melds a woozy groove to some skittery drumming, droned out guitar, and some seriously crushing riffage, a churning unfuckwithable noise rock gem, that is the perfect example of what made/makes these guys so good, a soaring crazy catchy chorus, the grinding verses and main riff still infused with a subtle bit of melody. But if that track is Vaz at their noise rock heaviest, follow up "Meld W/U-90" is a pop song by comparison, sounding like a precursor to the sludge pop of Torche, emotive vocals draped over wild almost tribal drumming, and layer after layer of buzzing guitar, it does slip into more chugging heaviness, but even then, that main melody will stay stuck in your head for AGES. Oh and yeah, there's some rad mathy freakout, but it leads right back into that crazy poppy verse. And so it goes, every track heavy and hooky in equal measure, weird arrangements, twisted almost-avant guitaring in places, a sound that definitely dates it to a specific time (actually, this originally came out in 2001, but it sounds gloriously mid nineties!), but one that pushes all our, and we're guessing your, heavy / noise / math rock buttons.
LIMITED TO JUST 100 COPIES, each cover hand silkscreened, and each a different color.
The latest from these noise rockers find them delving even further into melody and poppiness, but fear not, their AmRep roots are still showing (two members of Vaz used to play in the late great Hammerhead!), and while much of the sound on recent records is still on display, churning riffage, wild, mathed out drumming, thick buzzing bass, super rhythmic and hypnotic, even in our reviews of their other records, we mention sludge poppers Torche, and describe their sound as being both hooky and heavy, and at least for the first few songs on Visiting Hours, hooky seems to be winning, and we're digging it! It actually sounds a bit like a noisier, mathier Husker Du, with plenty of downtuned chug, and the aforementioned wild drumming, but the vox are way more up front, and weirdly, it kind of reminds us of a noise rock My Dad Is Dead, the same sort of wistful melancholia, especially and specifically in the vocals, and while the sound occasionally erupts into something more noisy and AmRep-y, it always seems to slip back into something more poppy and melodic. That said, as the record progresses, it gets more dense and chaotic and heavy, and by the last song on the first side, it's (d)evolved into blown out math rock radness, until the vocals come in, which deftly pushes it back into poppier realms, without losing any of the heft. The B side follows a similar pattern, but culminates in a churning, gloomy, extended moody dirge, that sounds like Vaz-style death rock and it KILLS. Here's hoping that signals a new sonic shift toward some more tripped out noisy, gothy death rock from these guys in the near future!!!
Huh, what's this? Vee Dee? It's got black and white, 'fucked up and photocopied' looking graphics, let's put it on...wow, some unknown punk rock outfit from decades past? The first song "Flashes Of Her" could be something by Radio Birdman, or maybe even a song off of that Simply Saucer album... Now, this other track is reminding me of the Misfits. Good stuff. What's the story? Is this something outta the pages of Black To Comm fanzine? A band from one of those Bloodstains comps? Nope, these boys are from the here and now -- Chicago to be precise -- and they sure know how to make a retro-sounding (and looking) punk record that kicks ass. They obviously must have cool record collections. But of course that by itself doesn't mean when you get up on stage you're gonna kick the jams out in a manner worthy of your heroes. However, Vee Dee rise to the occasion: they are worthy. They've got the hooks and the history books, so to speak. As you listen to this, you'll hear echoes of classic '70s and '80s punk, everything from the Buzzcocks to Crime to Black Flag. Cleveland's various underground '70s heroes are doubtless another of Vee Dee's inspirations. Lyrically, they're brave enough to sing lines like "The son of Altamont / was dancing with sister Watts" and do songs about the "TV Police" and being a "Blood Zombie" and make it work. Some of the lyrics read like your stoner 11 year old brother wrote 'em but that's rock and roll poetry ain't it? Give me a catchy song called "Kaleidoscope Death Ray" any day! Allan's new rock fave, went straight into his iPod top 20...
Holy shit, is this long overdue, another incredible publication from the mighty Bazillion Points publishing house, this one, a long in the works compilation of the complete collection of the legendary Touch & Go punk zine, not the label, WAY before the label, there was this zine, an incredible collection of incendiary, funny as fuck, snotty and irreverent punk rockness. The work of Dave Stimson and Tesco Vee of the mighty Meatmen, Touch & Go set out to chronicle all of the happenings in the punk rock world, positive AND negative, never hesitating to call bullshit on any band or any record, but just as likely to heap crazy praise on sounds or folks so deserving.
Most of us were too young to be reading T&G back in the day, during the zine's 4 year lifespan, 1979-1983, it was several years before we discovered punk rock, and over the years, we probably only ever saw one or two of the 22 published issues, and always wanted more. So for most of us, this our first chance to experience Touch & Go in its entirety.
Classic old school layout, xeroxed in black and white, and hand assembled, covering all things punk rock all over the Midwest as well as in LA and New York and San Francisco and Boston and any other place kids were making a racket. Inside you'll find pretty much all the bands that mattered (and STILL matter): Black Flag, Minor Threat, Negative Approach, Die Kreuzen, Poison Idea, The Necros, Crucifix, Iron Cross, Discharge, The Misfits, the Avengers, Battalion Of Saints, JFA, SSD, 7 Seconds, the Effigies, Bad Religion, the Minutemen, the Fix, Scream, Faith and more more more. The book also adds essays by Byron Coley (Forced Exposure), Henry Owings (Chunklet), Peter Davis (Your Flesh), Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat / Fugazi / Dischord), Steve Miller (The Fix), John Brannon (Negative Approach), Corey Rusk (Necros / Touch & Go Records), Tesco Vee (The Meatmen), Keith Morris (Black Flag / Circle Jerks) and Henry Rollins (Black Flag / S.O.A.)!
As with all Bazillion Points publications, the book looks incredible, color cover printed inside and out, oversized soft cover, glossy, embossed, with printed fold over flyleafs, and classic flyers covering the end papers, while inside, every single issue, and every single page, close to 600 of 'em actually, of arguably the most important punk rock zine EVER.
So totally recommended. No self respecting music nerd / punk rocker / zine freak should be without one of these...
Record number three from these American noisemakers living in Japan, who apparently have decided that while they're there, they should make the heaviest, loudest, ass kickingest RAWK possible, and hell, doesn't really seem like it could get more heavy, loud or kick ass. Or mean, it is called Listen To This 1000x Then Kill Yourself after all, and there's a note inside crediting there artwork to Stephen O'Malley, even though there's virtually no art at all, we can only assume they're taking the piss. But it's all about the sound inside, and contrary to all the above, it's actually surprisingly melodic, as well as murky, a little lo-fi, definitely super rocking. The first track is a pretty freaked out slab of cyclical hypno-noiserock, a bit like a less spazzed out Lightning Bolt, but from there on out, while still heavy and a bit noisy, it's much more melodic, the second track is all big booming guitars, chords ringing out, blurred and buzzy and droney, the drums abstract and splattery, the track after that is downright dreamy, a sort of Japanese psych take on the Necks, hypnotic, loping and washed out and dreamy, yet still distorted and in the red, just not KILL YOURSELF in the red, more like eyes closed letting the blissed out heaviness wash over you.
It might be the recording, but this new Veee Deee, for all its implied misanthropy is really listenable, heavy, and hectic, manic and a little metal sure, but really warm and psychedelic, even the last track, which is more unhinged and angular and chaotic, with wild free drumming and tangled guitar skree, it too is weirdly melodic and surprisingly not fucked up. The louder you play it, the more the heaviness and freakiness reveals itself, maybe that's true of all records, but even with headphones this is a seriously dense and heavy chunk of noisy psychedelic post rock radness. If you have the other two, definitely grab one of these while you can, but even if you missed out, this is definitely worth picking up for the heavy rhythmic psych inclined out there.
Comes in cool handmade packaging, and includes free link to what's basically another full-length: To All the Girls I've Loved Before - Which One of You Gave Me the Clap?, a hi-fi antithesis to Listen To This 1000x Then Kill Yourself.
Not to be confused with the double e'd Midwestern punk rockers Vee Dee, this is the triple e'd Veee Deee and are American expats living in Japan. Well, at least one of em. AQ customer and long time pal Clay, most well known around here for sending us scathing (and hilarious) anti Keiji Haino hate mail, doing his very best to get Allan all riled up, much to the snicker delight of Andee (another misguided Haino hater).
Anyway, this is all sort of funny, as the sound of Veee Deee is not all that far removed from Haino's white noise psychedelic squall. Whoever is handling the ax duties here, could probably meet Haino on the sonic field of battle and hold his or her own. Dense flurries of rapid fire runs, weird moaning chords, bits of reverbed soft strum, all wound around some fierce and furious drumming.
While there are some Haino-ish elements, this falls way closer to modern freaked out spazz rock a la Strom And Stress, Coptic Light, Hella, Lightning Bolt, especially on the first track, with the band locking into hyper complex convoluted grooves, occasionally slowing things down for some tripped out drift, other times erupting into full on distorted crumbling NOISE. Someone must be manning the recording deck, as there is plenty of fucked up glitch and production weirdness. The second track (of three) is much more rock, with a seriously angular riff, wailed emo vocals, the drums still a chaotic clatter, sounding a little bit like Drive Like Jehu, slowing down for some minimal groove a la Stinking Lizaveta.
The final track mixes the disparate sound of the first two, a definite post rock post punk groove, but here muted and muddy, buried in a sludgy mix, emerging from a cloud of glistening atonal guitar splatter, and throbbing bass, tinkling chime like ambience and what sounds like croaking frogs, and finishing off in a flurry of buzzed out distorted skree. Cool stuff. Can't wait to hear more...
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What do you get when your band is made up of Shane Embury (Napalm Death), Kevin Sharp (Brutal Truth), Buzz Osbourne (the Melvins) and Danny Herrera (Napalm Death). Well, if you were to believe (don't) the sticker on the front of the jewel case the answer would be "the most handsome band in punk rock." However, the reality is a band that sounds like classic Napalm Death but with a very hi-fi, decidedly unpunk production. Which is a good thing. Massive and heavy. Makes me fantasize about Napalm Death's classic Scum album recorded in a state of the art studio in 2004. If only... But for now, revel in the classic crusty grind of Venomous Concept, replete with an album cover collage of wartime atrocities and a very anarchy-like VC logo. Comes with a video playable on your computer. Minor gripe: The cover art is on a clear sticker stuck to the front of the jewel case, which means if the cover breaks, which they often do, your VC record is suddenly without its proper cover (which -is- actually pretty cool, a clear spine / skull superimposed over the black and white photos).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
2006 steel cage match, a brutal grind metal hardcore duel to the death between Japan's epic grindthrashers 324 and the old school Earache style supergroup Venomous Concept, feturing Shane And Danny from Napalm Death, Kevin from Brutal Truth and Buzz from the Melvins.
Cover artwork by Kevin Sharp.
Yet another collection of fantastic and far out musical weirdness from Finnish madman Verde, also known as Mika Rintala, one time member of Circle and Extroverde, but by now, much better known as a mad scientist instrument builder, whose records are constructed using the various and sundry electronic devices Rintala designs and assembles. The inside cover of Verde's new disc offers up a cool snapshot of some of these contraptions, all brightly colored, with tubes and switches and levers and speakers and knobs, and all placed in front of a field of blossoming flowers.
They may be pretty and colorful, but those machines can create pretty out there sounds, which Rintala deftly mixes with bits of jazz, looped droniness, and hypnotic rock. Fans of Circle and the various Circular offshoots will definitely find much to love here. Analog synths swoop and shimmer, wrapped around a repetitive guitar figure and some sizzling cymbals, deep pulsing bass tones throb underneath atonal steel string clang. The result a little bit new age, a little bit abstract electro, pretty hard to describe, as is the whole disc, from old timey jazz accompanied by what sounds like whales songs, wreathed in tape hiss and whirring fuzz, to ominous downtuned looped low end rhythms, peppered with percussive thumps, and squalls of creepy robotic buzz, to wildly malfunctioning electronics wrapped around off kilter guitars and thick sheets of feedback, to gorgeously warped chamber music, played on what sounds like the inside of a piano and some thick warbly rubber band strings, to gorgeous minimal rhythmscapes, with muted percussion, and mesmerizingly woozy melodies, fractured detuned steel string guitar, found sounds, a men's choir speaking not singing and more weird sounds and musics than we could ever find words for.
The cool thing about Verde records, and this one is no different, is that these are not just collections of 'weird sounds', or even sonic experiments, these are actual proper (or perhaps IMproper) songs, pieces, movements, they just so happen to be composed and recorded using a motley collection of hand assembled machines, which if anything, makes the music of Verde more bizarre, but also, way more special and unique.
At long last the highly anticipated debut from VHOL is here, via Profound Lore. Highly anticipated 'cause VHOL, if you don't already know, are a "supergroup" of sorts. Actually, as far as we're concerned, in more ways than one. Firstly, VHOL (dunno if the name is supposed to be in all-caps, but it looks good to us like that) is formed by members of several other groups we like, band that might not be household names required of supergroup status, but probably ARE household names where people who read the aQ-list dwell. And on top of that, they're all amazing musicians so it's "super" that way too. VHOL consists of guitarist John Cobbett (Hammers Of Misfortune, ex-Ludicra, ex-Slough Feg, etc.) and his former Ludicra bandmate, drummer Aesop Dekker (also of Agalloch, Worm Ouroboros, etc. - and a noted blogger too), plus on bass Sigrid Sheie, who is also in Hammers with John. And making this more than just a San Francisco scene thing, on vocals is Mike Scheidt from Portland's mighty sludge-space-doomsters YOB. With these individuals involved, it sounded pretty good on paper, and now the proof is here, it actually sounds extremely good for real as well!!
Prior to hearing this, we'd been informed that the concept behind VHOL was "psychedelic D-beat" music or something. Well... ok, sorta. Aesop's a punk drummer at heart, to begin with (remember Hickey?). And yeah, having Scheidt provide his unique soaring screaming vox, all spacey and wavery and effected, can't help but make this sound psychedelic, plus the preponderance of mindboggling guitar solo shred from Cobbett helps in that dep't too. Early reports that had VHOL being a full-on Dis-core Crust-Metal band were somewhat misleading, however. Just like Ludicra, Hammers, heck ALL their other bands, this is a hybrid of a whole bunch of different things. And ends up being its own special thing.
But if we had to say, sonically this perhaps aligns closest with John & Aesop's previous outfit, avant-black metallers Ludicra, and with the more black-metally side of Yob. There's some delving into doomy, post-rock depths at points, plus of course Scheidt's distinctive vocals. So a cross between Ludicra and Yob, perhaps. But with some of the grandiose artistry of Hammers too. And both hectic punkish attack and sheer rockin' NWOBHM-inspired old school metal moments as well. Lots of them. Which is really what makes this for us. What a combo - and it works. Both energetic and epic, with churning riffs, intricate soloing, pounding rhythmic chaos, and actual catchy songwriting too. Our knack for finding buried "pop" music in the most unlikely, ugly places is not to be thwarted here, especially ferinstance on track four, "Grace", where some very effective, very poppy hooks are hiding, amidst that track's dense ripping architecture that conjures the sci-fi spectre of old (and new!) Voivod - a connection also suggested by this disc's very Away-like cover artwork, done by Cobbett himself.
Crucially, Scheidt puts on quite a performance, varying his vocals in cleanliness, from clean-ish to unclean, layered over each other even, doing death grunts and blackened rasps and guttural screams as well as his trademark higher-pitched, but distorted wailings - even getting into almost '80s metal ballad territory on the album's closer, "Songs Set To Await Forever".
Favorite tracks are hard to single out, they're all good, but "Arising" really, really impresses - a rollicking tour de force that kinda reminds us of certain latter day Darkthrone efforts, a la some tracks on their recent The Underground Resistance. Some of the same influences at work perhaps.
All in all, VHOL lives up to expectations (whatever they were!), certainly quality-wise. And perhaps confounds some others. But definitely doesn't disappoint. In fact, we might be digging this more than some of the VHOL folks' "main" bands right now, and that's saying a lot.
Awesome old DC band.
It's a good week for rock n' roll. Uh huh, look out, Baltimore (or as they prefer, "Baltamont") psychpunk badasses Vincent Black Shadow (the REAL Vincent Black Shadow) are back! If you heard their AQ (and Julian Cope) recommended debut, you know exactly what to expect. If you're new to the VBS, well, think wretched rawk action and psychotic reaction. Simply put, this is trashy Stooges worship at its uber-distorto, heavy-ass best!!! Just take a listen... that vocalist is a streetwalking cheetah with a heart fulla napalm, am I right?! Goddamn right I am. He's backed up by reckless riffing, the guitar strangulation plenty raw and primal. You're not gonna need to be told that this is obviously meant to be played loud. It's a throbbing testament to bouncing off the walls and breaking shit (and maybe rolling in broken glass and peanut butter). Ah, life's simple pleasures. File with such outwardly bound jams-kickers as The Heads, Cope's Brain Donor band, and Boris (circa Pink). But with more of an ugly attitude. Like maybe the Pissed Jeans wrestling with Plastic Crimewave.
Nine tracks, a little over a half hour. On the short side maybe, but that still means the cops are gonna show up to tell you to turn it down (and stop stomping around, jumping off the furniture, disturbing the neighbors, etc.) long before the record's over. Which means...fuck the neighbors, fuck the cops... you're going to jail.
Just got a handful of these limited, lathe-cut (by Peter King in NZ, natch) seven inches directly from the now defunct Baltimore band Vincent Black Shadow, an outfit whose two full-length records we've previously raved about for bringing the Iggy-influenced, ugly ragin' raw rawk action with such authentic energy and attitude. Too bad they broke up, sadly before completing their third album which was to be called Baltamont. Some of the VBS boys are in a new band, called UNNH, and others in one called Murder, so we'll look out for those. In the meantime, we've got this final farewell 7" slab of VBS's psychotic party pleasing punk... Hear 'em kick out the jams in their usual Stooge-ly style on the A-side, "Nazi Gold". And then on the flip, you get their frantic interpretation of Queen's catchy speedster "Sheer Heart Attack", from News Of The World. With VBS singer's snotty sneering snarl, and their relentless rhythm section's careening drive, here it sounds almost like something by the Sex Pistols - more "God Save The Queen" than Queen! Well, the Sex Pistols meet The Sweet... which might have been what Queen was going for too, on the original, it came out in '77 after all.
LIMITED EDITION, clear vinyl, last copies.
Here's a vinyl only release, limited to 500 handscreened numbered copies natch, of this the debut platter from Baltimore psych-punk heavies Vincent Black Shadow. Piquing our interest, Blue Cheer and Boris are name-checked by the label, but what you'll really hear (and the press materials also mention this) is a heckuva lotta Iggy influence. The raw Iggster vocals and the grungy grooves hit that Stoogey sweet spot for sure. Julian Cope needs to hear this... the label would be wise to send him a promo. Definitely up the (grimey, dark, piss-coated) alley of anyone into Cope's Brain Donor band... or Thee Hypnotics (remember them?) or, of course, The Stooges themselves. Which reminds me, we've still gotta list those new deluxe Stooges reissues with the bonus discs... anyway, if swaggering drug-addled rawk with cowbell and blown out bass and wah guitar does it for you, that's what VBS does here pretty darn well. And it's true that describes some Blue Cheer and Boris too...
We'd like to hear more. Bet they might be a decent, drunken live proposition as well. And tho it's LP only, we'd encourage a cd release someday. For now though you gotta grab the LP before it's gone.
Full length number two from these local post punk noise poppers, and according to the liner notes, it might also be their last. But with VC, it's pretty hard to tell if they're taking the piss, usually safe to assume they are. And while their self-titled debut was gloriously lo-fi and ramshackle, noisy and chaotic, enough that we made it our Record Of The Week, A Celebration Of Taste manages to be even MORE, with much of it sounding like it was recorded in a cave, or a huge metal box, or underwater, on what we can only assume is probably a broken 4-track, everything with dying batteries, but then out of some impossibly impenetrable murk, will emerge a burst of crunchy, fuzzy power pop, that sounds like an unearthed gem from back in the day. So we figured this one too had to be another Record Of the Week...
Check out the opening 1-2-3 punch, "(I'm A Star) In Outer Space" is some seriously classic songsmithery, jangle guitar galore, some impossibly catchy guitar melodies, plenty of background buzz, keening vocals and hooks for days, but the tinny, no-fi production makes Guided By Voices sound like U2, but then there's "Micro Flesh", which takes that same sound, and piles on the murk, treble turned to zero, bass to ten, then slowed down, so it's a muddy, woozy, warmly creep, grinding, and gristly, before suddenly, "Faster" explodes into action, sounding like some weirdo lost Mod outfit from the sixties, this still lo-fi but cranked up, gloriously noisy and psychedelic, feedback everywhere, and buried under all that noisiness, a fucking killer, classic jam.
And so it goes, these guys dipping their toes into seventies power pop ("I Was Never Young" sounds like an outsider Purling Hiss), glammed out punk rock stomp ("Malleable Love"), all swaggery hip shaking crunch, total experimental noisescapery ("Abductors Pt. 1"), fifties style balladry filtered through cracked modern noise rock, and crumbled into something barely songlike ("Hairline-esque"), super distorted fuzz pop a la GBV ("Someone In This House")... Needless to say, we could go on and on and on. But if anything, this new one is somehow both more fucked up and damaged, and more catchy and well crafted, than their debut, that well crafted-ness pretty much entirely disguised by all the noise, and weirdo production, and detuned damage, and constantly in-flux production, and the varying degrees of shitty sound, but it's all glorious, and freaky, and psychedelic, and catchy and freaked out, and we're really really really hoping this isn't the last we're gonna hear from these guys, cuz this record is some seriously next level outsider pop genius! Fucked up and utterly confusional obviously, but then that's a big part of what makes it so goddamn great.
Includes two inserts and a download code.
For those who missed out on the super limited demo cassette from this SF lo-fi noise pop / post punk outfit, four of the tracks from that tape, have been re-recorded with a full band for this 7", and sound even better now. As we mentioned in our review of the now out of print tape, VC were born from late great punk pop weirdos the Sopors, who basically went mostly unheard outside of their little scene (which also included tUMULt pop heroes the Ovens!). And while Violent Change, at the time of that tape, was essentially a solo record by Sopors mainman Matt Bleyle, has since then, become a proper band, and now also includes Tony from the Ovens. And all of the above mentions of the Ovens is not for nothing, cuz Violent Change definitely has the same sort of pop vibe as the Ovens, but where the Ovens take the Beatles and Weezer and the Champs, Violent Change are a much more twisted and lo-fi proposition, an obvious comparison is definitely Guided By Voices, in fact, we'd imagine fans of GBV would flip for these guys, who kick out perfect pop jams at the drop of a hat, but don't shy away from getting more punky, or twisting a perfectly good pop song into a gloomy chunk of deeply crooned post punk dirgery. That said, the bulk of this four song 7" is some of THEE catchiest lo-fi pop you're bound to hear EVER, with excursions into blasting punk rock, noisy freakouts, and a moment or two here and there that position VC as a dead ringer for the Ovens, but the whole thing is way more fuzzy, and ramshackle and gloriously lo-fi, and punky and catchy and is definitely convincing us that Violent Change might be our (and possibly your) new favorite local band!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered, includes a download coupon as well.
Debut release from this new SF band, born from late great punk pop weirdos the Sopors, who basically went mostly unheard outside of their little scene (which also included pop tUMULt pop heroes the Ovens!). And while we're doing our best to track down copies of the Sopors lp to review, we've got this new record from Violent Change, at the time of this tape essentially a solo record by Sopors mainman Matt Bleyle, although since, the band has been expanded to an actual group that includes Tony from the Ovens. And all of these mentions of the Ovens is not for nothing, cuz Violent Change definitely has the same sort of pop vibe as the Ovens, but where the Ovens take the Beatles and Weezer and the Champs, Violent Change are a much more twisted and lo-fi proposition, an obvious comparison is definitely Guided By Voices, in fact, we'd imagine fans of GBV would flip for these guys, who kick out perfect pop jams at the drop of a hat, but don't shy away from getting more punky, or twisting a perfectly good pop song into a gloomy chunk of deeply crooned post punk dirgery. That said, the bulk of this tape is some of THEE catchiest lo-fi pop you're bound to hear EVER, with excursion into blasting punk rock, noisy freakouts, and at least one track that is a dead ringer for the Ovens, but the whole thing all fuzzy, and ramshackle and gloriously lo-fi, and punky and catchy and probably the most listened to tape in the shop!!
When we reviewed the last record from fucked up noise rock weirdos Violent Students, here's how we summed them up:
Dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding repetitive, caveman gar(b)age scuzz-rock weirdness. And very little has changed since. This new record, if anything, is even more spectacularly shitty sounding, impossibly lo-fi, a crushing, crumbling avalanche of crust and filth and sonic grime. We love this band so much, that we're desperately afraid it's all a put on. Like it's not possible for a band to be this naturally demented and inspired, for a band to create a record like this by happenstance. We tend to think it must be a noise rock prank like Faxed Head, a bunch of super talented musicians, slumming, purposefully creating utter depraved sonic sickness. But we hold on to the hope that these guys are for real. That they live in some fucked up squat in some nowhere town, and rock out in their own filth, busted amps and out of tuned guitars, the mic plugged into the shitty stereo, the floor covered in beer bottles and broken glass and used condoms, al the windows busted, and the neighbors desperately afraid to call the cops, cuz these guys are UNHINGED.
Equal parts vintage Butthole Surfers, Rusted Shut, Black Mayonnaise, Liquorball, the guitars not so much riffing as spewing gouts of buzz and howl and squeal, the drums in a constant state of being hurled down the stairs, a blown out cacophony, and the vocals, a dizzying effects drenched caterwaul, malfunctioning delay and reverb and echo, all every howl and hoot and bellow exploded into a barrage of swirling tripped out abstract noise, the recording impossibly lo-fi too, the sound on the verge of crumbling to pieces, the loud parts clipping constantly, making everything even more muddy and murky, and then there's the random sampled audience applause throughout. For all its primitive amateurism, it's also sort of next level, high concept, the final track, "A Handy Magician", nearly 18 minutes long, is barely a chunky noise rock dirge, instead it sounds like some weird mix of This Heat and No Neck Blues Band, and accidental art rock, swaddled in black smears of noisy, and thick swaths of sonic filth. These guys, whoever they are, have created some seriously inspired, and fantastically fucked up and fractured avant minimal noise rock whatthefuck.
Which needless to say, means this is so entirely and utterly recommended. Includes a download coupon AND a poster!
You want to know just how dirty, filthy, scummy, sludgy, noisy, fractured, fucked up, damaged, demented, crusty, sloppy, shitty, sweaty, punk as fuck, fuzzy, freaked out, warped, doomy, downtuned, plodding and repetitive this latest tape by the Violent Students is? Well, it made short work of not ONE, but TWO different tape decks. Just sent them cowering and crying to wherever it is that broken and emasculated tape decks go. We recently discovered these Philly based dirge-scuzz caveman freenoise weirdos and were immediately smitten, well as smitten as you can be with a group of brain damaged Neanderthals beating you to death with feeding back guitars. Which in our case is VERY!! So if you need another blast of damaged Buttholes influenced drug drenched stomp and stumble, then act fast, we got a bunch of these tapes the band pressed up themselves but they won't last long.
Listening to Virulence, you'd never guess that these guys would eventually become the stoner rock outfit Fu Manchu, cuz this stuff is pretty far removed from what we think of as stoner rock, twisted furious metallic punk rock, equal parts Melvins sludge, Black Flag gnarl and old school hardcore punk. Not to mention other varied heaviness like Swans, Bl'ast, Neurosis, Posion Idea... The riffs are Greg Ginn-ish for sure, tangled and angular, the songs lurching and lumbering, the bass fuzzy and distorted, vocalist Ken Pucci howling and yowling over start stop churning metallic crunch, shrieking feedback, sludgey grungy low slung punkmetal thud, with the band occasionally digressing into those awesome sort of late period Black Flag jazzy metal dirge meanders, the stuff that alienated the punks, but totally hit the spot for a lot of us. Serpentine melodies, wrapped around grinding angular riffage and chaotic drummage, bursts of old school punk pound butted up against woozy dirgey heaviness, fucking awesome stuff for sure.
This disc collects their debut album, along with a handful of live tracks, and their original demo, which is way more punk, but sounds as heavy and kick ass as ever.
Includes a massive booklet with tons of liner notes, reflections for the various band members, photos, old flyers and more...
Holeeee Shit. THIS RULES!
Void were one of the original DC Hardcore bands (though they were actually from Columbia, Maryland, making them the only other non-DC band besides Lungfish to wind up on Dischord - they were that good), sharing a legendary split with fellow gods the Faith. Aside from some tracks on Dischord's Flex Your Head comp, nothing else was ever released in the band's lifetime from 1980 to 1983. Fortunately, other recordings have been floating around for a while, which leads us to this essential document of great raw sounding demos and live tracks from one of the craziest and most fucked up early hardcore bands out of the whole lot.
Trying to describe this band's music is no easy task. First off, they were totally insane and unhinged sounding, with the witchy shrieking vocals of John Weiffenbach standing WAY out from any other singers of the era, and probably the best hardcore guitarist after Greg Ginn in the form of Bubba Dupree, who was capable of wringing the most evil sounds out of his axe. The rhythm section of of Chris Stover (bass) and Sean Finnegan (drums; R.I.P.) held things together, just barely, and one can imagine that nobody else would have been physically capable for this job. At times, Void seem like they will collapse within the tornado of evil sounds they create, and the results are almost psychedelic in intensity, not to mention unbelievably noisy. It would be easy, but perhaps misguided, to draw comparisons to early black metal (still a few years to go before crawling into existence...), mostly because of the creepy woodcut images of death and pestilence in their artwork. At the same time, the chaos and fury of Void are, in a way, very, well... METAL. All the talk of "fucked up" metal bands that goes on around these parts DON'T MEAN SHIT when you throw on a Void record. One of the most underrated and one of the best, Void tapped into a sound that continues to confuse and inspire in the best ways imaginable.
Would totally be a highlight on this list, if we had few more copies, but we only scored a few.
FUCK YEAH.
The mighty Void, OG hardcore godfathers, legendary outsiders, and one of the most frenzied sounding bands... EVER... finally see their long unreleased material given an official home under the most sensible imprint: Dischord. It's certainly about time, not only because these songs have been known of and bootlegged for ages, but also because the world seems, in the last few years, to be in the midst of something resembling a hardcore "revival", despite the fact that this type of music has never gone away and always flourished in the depths of the underground. Case in point, THIS album. Void, though from Maryland, were part of the storied and uber-influential DC scene of the early '80s, a small but tight knit community of likeminded angry young men (mostly) who would play a prominent role in defining the course of independent music as an identity that carries on to this day. Still, pigeonholing Void as merely a "DC HarDCore" band doesn't do much to inform virgin ears what to brace themselves for. Their sound was darker, noisier, and more extreme than most other bands operating in the early '80s, and these guys, to this day, sound unlike anyone else - they're untouchable - and their legend and rabid fanbase continue to grow and grow. Indeed, the evil sounds of Void will be most thrilling to new listeners while old fans will find plenty of reasons to rejoice upon seeing the Dischord logo on the back of a new archival album from one of the label's most beloved bands.
The material here, a whopping 34 songs, spans the entirety of Void's brief but fruitful (at least in terms of actual recorded output) career, and contains the legendary demo session recorded at Hit and Run Studios in November '81, two sessions done at Inner Ear Studios the following month and in June '82 (the bulk of which, not contained here, ended up as the band's contribution to the monumental Faith/Void split), and a couple of live songs, including what the Ian MacKaye penned liners presume to be the last song the band ever played. All the classics turn up, sometimes more than once - "War Hero", "Condensed Flesh", "Time To Die", "My Rules", and so on. The fidelity here - raw and upfront - is perfectly suited to the mean sounding hurricane of noise Void whips up, while between song banter reveals a band that appears to be having one hell of a good time making their magic. And suffice to say, they still hold their own within the hardcore genre as one of the most unique, original, and crazed bands, even 30 years later.
Along with Dischord's also recently reissued edition of Faith's Subject To Change (which includes that band's first demo - we promise to list this one soon), it's sort of like Christmas 2.0 here at aQ, at least in terms of classic hardcore punk. What else do you need to hear other than the record itself?
FYI, the vinyl version happens to be out of stock, hoping we'll get more...
Been meaning to review these for ages now, finally getting around to it, the first two records from this legendary Boston band, originally released on the legendary and now defunct Homestead Records label, and who are often compared to Husker Du and Mission Of Burma (the band that drummer / vocalist Peter Prescott played in before the Volcano Suns), the latter especially appropriate since Prescott's drumming was a big part of MoB's sound, as was his occasional singing, and it definitely sounds like some of Burma's songwriting stuck with him.
But Volcano Suns were much more of a pop band, meant to be more fun and a little bit more light hearted than Burma, the songs catchy, the riffs super memorable, but that doesn't keep much of the music from being brooding and intense and complex, super rhythmic, and hypnotic, with long instrumental passages butted up against super catchy choruses, like the Merge website says, these songs are so good, and so memorable, that they really do sound like greatest hits records. We hadn't listened to either of these in ages, but throwing them on recently, we remembered pretty much all of these songs, 20 years later! And they still sound pretty fresh considering how much indie rock has changed over the last two decades.
All-Night Lotus Party was the band's second record, originally released in 1986, and found the band getting a bit darker, and a little more aggressive, the guitars heavier, but without sacrificing any of the pop smarts that made the first record so awesome, and like that record, pretty much every song here is a could have/should have/would have been hit. Catchy as all get out, but super rocking and intense.
This is the first time either of these records has been available on cd. This reissue includes a ton of bonus tracks, B-sides, etc., including some really odd covers, including the Beatles' "Polythene Pam", the Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Center Of The Mind" and Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins"(!!)...
Been meaning to review these for ages now, finally getting around to it, the first two records from this legendary Boston band, originally released on the legendary and now defunct Homestead Records label, and who are often compared to Husker Du and Mission Of Burma (the band that drummer / vocalist Peter Prescott played in before the Volcano Suns), the latter especially appropriate since Prescott's drumming was a big part of MoB's sound, as was his occasional singing, and it definitely sounds like some of Burma's songwriting stuck with him.
But Volcano Suns were much more of a pop band, meant to be more fun and a little bit more light hearted than Burma, the songs catchy, the riffs super memorable, but that doesn't keep much of the music from being brooding and intense and complex, super rhythmic, and hypnotic, with long instrumental passages butted up against super catchy choruses, like the Merge website says, these songs are so good, and so memorable, that they really do sound like greatest hits records. We hadn't listened to either of these in ages, but throwing them on recently, we remembered pretty much all of these songs, 20 years later! And they still sound pretty fresh considering how much indie rock has changed over the last two decades.
The Bright Orange Years was the Volcano Suns first record, and was originally released in 1985, very reminiscent of Mission Of Burma, a killer collection of classic indie rock, equal parts that classic Homestead sound, with a little SST thrown in for good measure, the songs range from jangly and hooky, to dense and rocking, to noisy and chaotic, but all of them super catchy. We loved this record back in the day, and we're loving it all over again now.
This is the first time either of these records has been available on cd. This reissue includes a ton of bonus tracks, B-sides, etc., including a pretty cool live cover of Prince's "1999" that transforms the original into a weirdly angular post punk jam...
