**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Super rad ultra crazed blast of old school Portland punk from this short lived outfit. So short lived in fact that this two song single from 1979 is all they ever managed. The sound is feral and punk as fuck, but also weirdly new wave and a little electronic, equal parts Devo and the Units, the title track a pounding blast of sinister electro punk, driven by a maniacal organ pulse, thick fuzzy low end, and some maniacal vox, peppered with some awesome angular guitar, and a super tripped out staccato second half that is about as close to a deranged sing-along as we can imagine, totally killer, and irresistible, we've listened to it like ten times in a row, a dirgey swaggery jitter-punk classic. The B side is less bizarre, a more standard (but only slightly) chugging punk rock blast of political indignation, furious fist in the face, fuck the man radness. So recommended.
OMG!, as they say. It doesn't happen very often, but once in a lucky while, one of us here at AQ will suddenly find out about some impending reissue and just about jump up and down exclaiming, "AT LAST!!!" We're talking about holy grails, like Bruce Haack's The Electric Lucifer, and Moolah, and Joakim Skogsberg, and Pandemonium... All of which we made Records Of The Week, by the way. So, last week we had another such exciting moment, when it was revealed that THIS album had just been reissued on cd, for the first time ever (barring bootlegs).
Not to be confused with a host of other Covens out there, this Coven was a uniquely doomy, gothic metal band from Detroit, who released but one record, 1987's Worship New Gods. No, we've never ever even seen an original lp copy - this band is pretty obscure. You might find a track of theirs on a DJ mix by Darkthrone's Fenriz, but that's about it. To give credit where credit is due, we first heard of Coven thanks to the great metal collector nerd website The Corroseum [www.thecorroseum.com], who had reviewed and raved about Worship New Gods with enough enthusiasm to get us to, ahem, track down for ourselves personally one of those bootleg copies previously mentioned. That was several years ago, but now, though, thanks to Shadow Kingdom, we've got a legit version we can happily share with all of you.
The Corroseum review said of Coven that "they sound like no other metal band that ever existed", yet went on to explain how in FEEL Coven could conjure comparisons to the likes of Cirith Ungol, Celtic Frost, Bathory, and even Bauhaus (more on that angle in a minute). We may as well quote the conclusion of their write-up: "Some dark, cloudy, angst-ridden days you cannot listen to anything else but Coven." Quite a recommendation, we had to hear 'em! And when we did, we fell in love. To the extent, that, like the Pandemonium, this became something for Allan & Andee here to daydream about trying to properly reissue ourselves. Fortunately, Shadow Kingdom were a little more proactive about that than we were, and here it is.
Pagan-proud true martial metal, '80s steel that those into the epick, eccentric likes of Manilla Road and Max Planck ought to bow down to. But that's hybridized with even heavier, doomier fare, a la Black Sabbath and Candlemass (triumphantly lumbering opening track "The Riddle Of Steel" definitely shares some DNA with Sabbath's "Electric Funeral"). That's the metal side of it. But there's more: Coven also convey a strong post-punk, '80s gothic death-rock vibe, at the same time. Think Bauhaus, The Mission, Christian Death, and 45 Grave... And, thus, like The Corroseum said, they don't sound like any other -metal- band, exactly. There's just something so haunting and magical about 'em.
What really puts these songs of blood and fire over the top are the stirring, echoing vocals, they sometimes struggle and strain, but that only enhances their emotive appeal. And, again, goes a long way to making this band indeed not sound like any other, their music massive and murky and melodic, swirling and psychedelic. Their battlecries from a bygone age are doomy and druggy (well, if Vikings did drugs) and oh so atmospheric.
Reissued with a 16 page cd booklet full of lyrics and vintage photos in both b&w and color. No liner notes, though, but in some ways that adds to the mystique, in fact, maybe they should have left out some of the photos, too...
SO glad this has been made available. Until now, all we could do, was reference 'em in our reviews of the underground epic metallers Realmbuilder, and hope that somebody somewhere would know what we were talking about. Now's your chance to find out. Don't miss it. 'Cause Coven's record is definitely some under the radar weird genius, a truly lost gem of metal, and more...
SF's Crack:WAR strike back with two new tracks of electro street hustle with slovenly vocalisations. No, they didn't tour Africa, but their fans sure act like animals at their live shows. Wild.
We reviewed the first three reissues from legendary punk rock outfit Crass a few lists back, and now here's the 4th (of 6) in the series Anarcho-punk legends Crass are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
These records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all the Crass records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Christ The Album, Crass's 4th full length, might be the group's most famous (or infamous), again not shying away from controversy, right down to the record's title, and of course the lyrical content, sonically, Christ found the band sounding as full and lush and well produced as ever. The sound was still frantic, and frenzied, blasting and thrashing and relentless, but surprisingly polished, and the band at their least 'punk', the tracks rife with killer hooks, and plenty of pop, but the record itself remained difficult, and as concerned with the message as the music, loads of samples, all the tracks beginning with a little filmstrip style beep, followed by snippets of newscasts and interviews and various other politically charged recordings before the songs kicked in.
And nowhere was this poppier sound more evident than on "Beg Your Pardon" which sounds almost like their own version of "Train In Vain" (the song infamously left off the sleeve of the Clash's London Calling, supposedly because it was WAY too poppy, although officially it was because the track was added at the last minute), which is funny, considering Crass' outspoken disdain for The Clash, but "Beg Your Pardon" is impossibly hooky, with jangly guitars, irresistible melodies, and at times does sound quite a bit like the Clash. There's also the brooding, super rhythmic "Birth Control Rock 'n' Roll", with its frantic drumming and harmony vox, and the soaring, epic, drone-y and almost proggy "Reality Whitewash", and we could go on and on...
After this, the band would release just one more record (the sprawling single song/album Yes Sir, I Will) so Christ definitely stands as the final testament to Crass's sonic journey from the raw punk of The Feeding Of The 5000, to the polished pop flecked punk found here.
Like the original vinyl reissue, the original disc is augmented by a second disc, a collection of demos and studio outtakes, called Well Forked - But Not Dead, and like the other reissues, there's a massive booklet including liner notes and lyrics, as well as a fold out poster, all housed in a super swank slipcover, which fits together with all the other reissues, the various covers combining to form a single image. Cool.
These anarcho-punk legends are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
These records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all three of these records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Feeding Of The 5000 was the group's incendiary debut, originally released in 1978, and almost didn't come out, as the pressing plant refused to carry it due to the lyrical content of the opening song, an intense spoken word rallying cry against religion, against God, filled with violent images and foul language, all over a field of buzzing feedback. They replaced the song with silence, in protest, and then and there decided to start their own label, which then re-released the record the way it was initially envisioned. And even now, 30+ years later, FOT5K is a fierce, frantic chunk of pure punk rock, wild chaotic angular guitars, wild scowling urgent vox, caffeinated drumming, samples and snippets of spoken word, all wound up into something frenzied and frenetic, heavy on the hooks, whether intentional or not, these songs manage to be angry and caustic and intense, but still catchy as hell, the lyrical vitriol reflected in the relentless punk rock energy, just a glorious collection on intense, emotional, swaggery, ramshackle, energetic, sweat soaked, pop flecked, PUNK, that has definitely remained as fresh, and as lyrically relevant as it was all the way back in 1978. Which speaks well of Crass, but not so well for the state of the world...
Included as bonus tracks are various live sessions and studio demos, some of which show another side of Crass, sounding almost like some sort of busking skiffle band, all shuffly and Billy Bragg-ish(!). The packaging is incredible, a gorgeous slipcover, which judging from the design is meant to join together with the other 5 reissues to form a single huge Crass logo, inside is a massive booklet with new liner notes from the band, all the lyrics, as well as photos and artwork, there's also a reproduction of the original insert, a fold out poster with the distinctive Crass artwork, a poster on one side, collages,and the lyrics as they were originally printed on the other.
These anarcho-punk legends are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
These records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all three of these records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Penis Envy was record number three, released in 1981, and was a serious shift for the band, and easily their most polished and accomplished, but the changes were big, first, all the vocals are female this time around, and in keeping with this new more feminine vibe (or more likely it was all a single concept), the lyrical focus of Penis Envy, as is suggested by the title, is sexuality, specifically how it relates to women: feminism, marriage, sexual repression...
And the music, wow, the opening track sets the stage, a little flurry of synthy weirdness, the sound strangely proggy, it quickly launches into a super hooky minor key angular punk pop workout, the riffs woozy, the guitar sound crunchy, the drums powerful, the bass thick and low slung, and the vocals incredible, powerful and emotional, passionate and BAD ASS, spitting out some seriously intense lyrics, a wickedly sarcastic tale of feminine subjugation.
And so it goes, the whole record a fantastically and fully realized groove heavy punk rock blowout, that seems to sonically foreshadow the various post punk bands that would eventually cite Crass as an influence, lots of tension and release, horns, even harmoniums, plenty of drones, and intricate arrangements, bizarre vocal harmonies, super distorted buzz, some almost funkiness, some proto-electronica, that dub vibe in fell effect, choral voices, swooping backwards sounds, super strange, but really kick ass production, hard to believe this record is 30 years old, especially considering how many bands are making sounds just like this now, and probably don't realize, Crass were doing it decades ago, and doing it better.
One of the best stories about Penis Envy, is when the band somehow conned teenage girl's romance magazine to include Crass track on a giveaway flexi disc, credited to Creative Recording And Sound Services (yep, Crass), sonically on the surface, it was a sweetly innocuous pop song, but it was Crass after all so the subtext is much more damning, and needless to say, when the hoax was revealed there was a bit of an uproar. That track is included here, as is a collaged soundscape combining the original track with responses to the hoax, as well as an archival track and a rare 2003 remix.
The packaging is incredible, a gorgeous slipcover, which judging from the design is meant to join together with the other 5 reissues to form a single huge Crass logo, inside is a massive booklet with new liner notes from the band, all the lyrics, as well as photos and artwork, there's also a reproduction of the original insert, a fold out 6 panel foldout with that distinctive Crass artwork, the original blow up doll album cover, collages and graffiti and lyrics...
These anarcho-punk legends are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
These records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all three of these records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Stations Of The Crass (another poke at the Catholic Church, just one of many) was record number two, and was released in 1979, and found the band's sound shifting pretty dramatically. Their lo-fi sound not so lo-fi at all, and it wasn't just the recording, the band sounded way more confident, the songs catchier and more complex, the vibe more new wavey in places, the root sound was the same, jagged sharp guitars, pounding frantic drumming, but the bass is way more of a presence, sometimes getting seriously woozy and new wavey, introducing some definite dub vibes throughout, like a leaner meaner Clash in places (although there's at least one fuck you shout out to the Clash), and the vox, even more intense this time around, anguished and super emotive, sometimes spoken in a super thick cockney accent, other times vitriolic yelp, and often breaking down into a super intense tortured howl. To these ears Stations was when Crass finally became a musical force to rival their already established political and punk rock force, the music powerful and more mature, heavy and hooky and more able to convey Crass' anger and disappointment and fury in the form of sound.
While the original Stations came accompanied by a collection of live tracks, those have been left off, and in their place, as bonus tracks, is a 1979 Peel Session.
The packaging is incredible, a gorgeous slipcover, which judging from the design is meant to join together with the other 5 reissues to form a single huge Crass logo, inside is a massive booklet with new liner notes from the band, all the lyrics, as well as photos and artwork, there's also a reproduction of the original insert, a fold out 6 panel foldout with the distinctive Crass artwork, collages and graffiti, and the lyrics as they were originally printed on the other.
We reviewed the first five reissues from legendary punk rock outfit Crass over the last year, and now here's the sixth and final in the series, and as we mentioned in the other reviews, we're so thrilled that these anarcho-punk legends are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. In case you missed the reviews of those first five, here's what we had to say about Crass the band (before we get to Ten Notes On A Summer's Day):
Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
And these records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all of these records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again.
Ten Notes On A Summer's Day was the final proper Crass record, originally released in 1985, and like on past records, displayed yet another dramatic stylistic shift, this time toward something much more European and avant garde, two tracks, one an instrumental version of the other. The music loping and rhythmic, atonal and a bit abstract, jazzy at times, proggy at others, definitely not punk, at least not in the traditional sense. Blurts of synth, wild squalls of free jazz drumming, spidery melodies, all manner of vocals, choral, choir like, at times the sound is super academic, at others, warped and woozily whatthefuck. The instrumental version ditches the drums in addition to the vocals, transforming the sound into something much more swirly and shimmery and atmospheric, still angular and atonal in places, but much more blissed out and hauntingly ambient, not nearly as prickly as the vocal version.
The reissue tacks on a handful of bonus tracks, remixes and unreleased jams, the sound tending toward the experimental, collaged and chaotic, one track sounds like weird warped eighties MTV pop, albeit more tweaked, while another sounds like Current 93 style apocalyptic folk, the vocals a dead ringer for David Tibet, while the last track is a lovely bit of haunting choral music, that near the end splinters into some twisted synthy angular pop weirdness. Wow.
Like the other reissues, the packaging is incredible, a gorgeous slipcover, which is meant to join together with the other 5 reissues to form a single huge Crass logo, inside is a massive booklet with new liner notes from the band, all the lyrics, as well as photos and artwork, there's also a reproduction of the original insert.
We reviewed the first four reissues from legendary punk rock outfit Crass over the last few lists, and now here's the 5th (of 6) in the series Anarcho-punk legends Crass are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.
These records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.
Legendary for a reason, all the Crass records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Yes Sir, I Will was Crass' last 'official' album, and was originally presented as a single album long track, spread out over both sides (making it the longest punk rock song ever!), and unlike the overt poppiness of Christ The Album, Yes Sir is dense and tense and tangled, rife as always with samples and sonic snippets, even a haunting piano ballad, the music was furious and vitriolic, dueling male/female vocals, over crunchy angular riffing, all wound around frenetic drumming, the production raw and brittle and a little lo-fi, the entire record mostly improvised, Crass version of 'jazz', much of the lyrics culled from a poem by drummer/vocalist Penny Rimbaud, an attack on prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her handling of the Falklands War, it's a pretty intense record, sonically and lyrically, and very ambitious, especially for a 'punk' band, but by now Crass were far from the typical punk band. The extra tracks here, a bonus disc entitled "Why Don't You Fuck Off", is a 2002 'jazz remix' imagining of the whole record, which is about as 'jazz' as the record proper, a slightly noisier and more chaotic take on the original, although there is some saxophone
Like the other reissues, there's a massive booklet including liner notes and lyrics, as well as a fold out poster, all housed in a super swank slipcover, which fits together with all the other reissues, the various covers combining to form a single image.
This anarcho-punk classic, recently reissued on cd, now available again on vinyl!!
Anarcho-punk legends Crass are finally getting the deluxe reissue campaign they always deserved, but probably never really wanted anyway. Having spent the seventies and eighties kicking against the pricks, these DIY iconoclasts pretty much lived and breathed punk rock like few others since, making music, putting on gigs, setting up squats, coordinating political actions, starting a label, creating art, making films, advocating animal rights, environmentalism, feminism, direct action, anarchism, pacifism, criticizing various subcultures, encouraging dialogues, and encouraging participation and protest, and obviously, and perhaps most pertinent to this here review, making some of the most awesome punk records EVER.�
Their records sound impossibly and incredibly fresh, intense and dramatic and emotional, heavy and hooky, jagged and jittery, their ideals clearly on display, backed up by musical muscle, pop smarts, and some super original and innovative sounds and songs. The crazy thing, revisiting these records again, is how much they've influenced modern underground music, there are at least a handful of bands, who now with these records fresh in our ears, sound almost criminally beholden to Crass: Arctic Monkeys, The Fall, Louis XIV, Art Brut... the list goes on.�
Legendary for a reason, all the Crass records should be required listening for punks and metalheads and hell, anyone into underground sounds, and are totally worth revisiting, we had sort of forgotten how goddamn great all three of these records are, and even if you still own beat up original copies, there's enough extra stuff, music and artwork wise, that they're totally worth picking up again...
Yes Sir, I Will was Crass' last 'official' album, and was originally presented as a single album long track, spread out over both sides (making it the longest punk rock song ever!), and unlike the overt poppiness of Christ The Album, Yes Sir is dense and tense and tangled, rife as always with samples and sonic snippets, even a haunting piano ballad, the music was furious and vitriolic, dueling male/female vocals, over crunchy angular riffing, all wound around frenetic drumming, the production raw and brittle and a little lo-fi, the entire record mostly improvised, Crass version of 'jazz', much of the lyrics culled from a poem by drummer/vocalist Penny Rimbaud, an attack on prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her handling of the Falklands War, it's a pretty intense record, sonically and lyrically, and very ambitious, especially for a 'punk' band, but by now Crass were far from the typical punk band...
This monstrous 7 piece experi-metal ensemble has been around for years now. Alternately referred to as either 'that metal band with the trombone player' or 'that band with the worst name ever.' Let's address both of those issues right off the bat. They do
Brutal noise collage from SF (relocated from Pittsburgh, PA) grind activists Creation Is Crucifixion. Three super long tracks of dynamic harsh electronics and rumbling drones. Comparisons to Bastard Noise inevitable, CIC's aural palette is similarly aligned with that of Monde Bruits or Russell Haswell's.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Reissue (with improved artwork, and a jewel case so Allan can finally buy a copy) of this amazing slab of pummelling grind. Super political, and anti-technology, 1000 mile-an-hour, hyper complex and totally intense grindcore.
Awesome co-operative release between southwestern political grindsters Creation is Crucifixion, Critical Art Foundation and the Carbon Defnese League. Beautiful box with a cd/cd-rom and a huge perfect bound book. The book examines the 'reverse engineering of
The resurrection of dub reggae music and its influence on post-punk in the late seventies and early eighties didn't really take off in America as it did in Britain. It seems that the aura of Thatcherite austerity policies that were taking their toll on the impoverished lower classes and urban council-flat populace as well as the increasing population of young Jamaicans whose parents emigrated en masse to England after World War II due to a British labor shortage, caused a reinvigoration of the pounding rhythms, industrial echoes and rolling bass of dub as a music defined by struggle. You can still hear this sonic thread as it has evolved over the years through drum and bass, grime and dubstep. But Adrian Sherwood's On-U label was the first on the beat in the late seventies when he began to produce the first Creation Rebel albums which presented a heavy urban take on classic dub and reggae sounds and re-tweeked it with the stoned out spaciness of Tangerine Dream and the Grateful Dead. Collaborating with another Sherwood produced-group, New Age Steppers, a rotating collective of punk and reggae musicians that at one time included Ari Up from The Slits, Keith Levine from P.I.L (both featured here) and Mark Stewart (The Pop Group) amongst its members, Threat of Creation was released in 1981. Channeling the raw energy and urgent spirit of roots, punk and reggae, into a cerebral concoction of mind-expanding rhythms, pensive social dissatisfaction and scorching sonic decay. This is the first vinyl reissue since its release and it's as sonically hard-hitting and socially relevant as ever.
More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave.
This issue from 1979 features a cover story of Jello Biafra for Mayor, an interview with (then just a radio show) Maximum RocknRoll, as well as a super profile of the Vancouver punk scene (Pointed Sticks, DOA). Also, Craig Lee of the Bags, a Paris scene report and a perplexing (i.e., trolling) interview with local contrarian Johnny Genocide of the band No Alternative. The best piece might be a first-person account of the seduction of punk from a self-identified sadomasochist lesbian, who found aesthetic and emotional community in the chaos of the infamous Valencia St. venue, the Deaf Club.
What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago.
Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!
More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave.
A super 1980 issue featuring legends DKs, Angry Samoans and Zeros, as well as a great document of the Alter Boys and their (then) new performance space, Club Foot. Also fascinating is an article on demystifying the record production process, a Germany scene report and interview with the legendary Nervous Gender. And the polemic from the Art Police - destroyers of boring art - isn't half bad either.
What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago.
Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!
More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave.
Another stellar 1980 issue featuring a wider assortment of artists - Vktmz, Geza X, Social Unrest, Pink Section, Alex Chilton and the Flamin' Groovies. Also, articles on the Reno punk scene, Brian Eno's use of the tape medium, the looming commercialism of punk, and a trenchant piece about shock value art inspired by Noh Mercy's inflammatory "Caucasian Guilt." Not to be missed!
What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago.
Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!
More old zines from the vaults! This is from a very limited quantity of new old stock of this fantastic late '70s / early '80s San Francisco punk zine. Creep sprung up from the void created when Search & Destroy ceased publication, with a fresh local bent and coverage of the Next Wave.
Final 1981 issue of this great, long lost SF punk zine: "If you love God, burn a church." Articles on Crass, Flipper, Jamaican reggae, local promoter Paul Rat, Bryan Ferry, Roky Erickson and the usual local news and controversies of the day. Also notable - an interview with Olga de Volga of the Lewd/VS and her not-so-ironic use of leather/BDSM imagery, appropriately dubbed "Bondage Rock."
What makes Creep stand out - aside from the plethora of mind-bending new wave graphics and ads - is its earnest and intelligent commentary on punk as a movement and musings on why it wasn't going to go away any time soon. The political and social critiques of youth culture are surprisingly still interesting, even in a San Francisco that barely resembles itself of 30+ years ago.
Recommended if only just for the vintage aQuarius recOrds ads, but you should know by now that you probably want to read this. And obviously, very very limited quantities available!
Originally released for this year's Record Store Day, this seminal slab of SF punk is now available to the world at large, the first in what will hopefully be an ongoing reissue campaign of all the singles from these legendary punks. This 7" was originally released in 1976, and while some younger folks might not remember Crime, they probably remember the A side, "Hot Wire My Heart", as it was covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!!
Digitally remastered from the original master tapes, housed in an exact reproduction of the original sleeve, pressed on crazy tri-colored red, white and blue vinyl, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
Now finally, also reissued on vinyl! Thanks to local label Superior Viaduct. When we got the cd version of this on Kitten Charmer late last year, we didn't happen to make it a Record Of The Week, but probably should have. We certainly sold enough of 'em for it to have been the Record Of The Week by default. So, now that it's on vinyl, let's make it official! (Oh, and the cd version is now gone it seems.)
The first proper, non-bootleg reissue of classic material from this seminal SF punk group came in the form of a demos collection released on John Reis from Rocket From The Crypt's Swami label, and in that review, we offered this concise description of Crime: "Crime proclaimed themselves to be San Francisco's 'First and Only Rock and Roll Band'. That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish - they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs�"
And now finally this long in the works, OFFICIAL singles collection sees the light of day, now on vinyl too, gathering up the groups iconic first three (and only) singles, along with what is essentially a whole record of previously unreleased studio tracks! Up first is there debut single, "Hot Wire My Heart", which was famously covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!! "Terminal Boredom" is a furious blast of nihilistic punk rock, laced with plenty of poppiness, a killer main guitar melody, and some mush mouth vocals, that perfectly capture the titular mood. The flipside of that single starts out loose and sloppy, and practically falls apart, before they launch into "Dillinger's Brain", which manages to sound nearly as loose and sloppy, somehow without actually falling apart!
"Frustration" is up next, and the group inject some power poppiness into the aggro punk stomp, with a super catchy main riff, as well as more kick ass guitar melodies (sort-of leads?), before they finish off the singles proper with the B side that gives this collection its name, a Black Flag sounding doomy dirge (SF's doomed for sure), all churning creep, before things crumble into chaos halfway through, only to explode into some serious almost surf punk sounding crunch, that quickly devolves into some snarly, sonic swagger.
And if that weren't enough, there's NINE extra tracks, most of which sound like classic Crime, except maybe for the weird electronics flecked "Gangster Funk", but stick around for the crushing alternate version of Crime's classic "San Francisco's Doomed"!
The first proper, non-bootleg reissue of classic material from this seminal SF punk group came in the form of a demos collection released on John Reis from Rocket From The Crypt's Swami label, and in that review, we offered this concise description of Crime: "Crime proclaimed themselves to be San Francisco's 'First and Only Rock and Roll Band'. That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish - they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs�"
And now finally this long in the works, OFFICIAL singles collection sees the light of day, gathering up the groups iconic first three (and only) singles, along with what is essentially a whole record of previously unreleased studio tracks! Up first is there debut single, "Hot Wire My Heart", which was famously covered by Sonic Youth, and listening to the original, it's easy to hear why SY were drawn to it, with its droned out melodies, killer hook, and noisy guitars (especially for the time), in fact, it actually kind of sounds a little Sonic Youthy in its original form, which is pretty remarkable. The flipside "Baby You're So Repulsive" is all swaggery knuckle dragging snarl, and like the A side is surprisingly noisy and is definitely prescient, knowingly or not, of what would follow. There's some strange stuttery lurches too, which make this just slightly damaged, and a fucking killer jam that sounds as good now as it did 35 years ago!! "Terminal Boredom" is a furious blast of nihilistic punk rock, laced with plenty of poppiness, a killer main guitar melody, and some mush mouth vocals, that perfectly capture the titular mood. The flipside of that single starts out loose and sloppy, and practically falls apart, before they launch into "Dillinger's Brain", which manages to sound nearly as loose and sloppy, somehow without actually falling apart!
"Frustration" is up next, and the group inject some power poppiness into the aggro punk stomp, with a super catchy main riff, as well as more kick ass guitar melodies (sort-of leads?), before they finish off the singles proper with the B side that gives this collection its name, a Black Flag sounding doomy dirge (SF's doomed for sure), all churning creep, before things crumble into chaos halfway through, only to explode into some serious almost surf punk sounding crunch, that quickly devolves into some snarly, sonic swagger.
And if that weren't enough, the cd tacks on NINE extra tracks, most of which sound like classic Crime, except maybe for the weird electronics flecked "Gangster Funk", but stick around for the crushing alternate version of Crime's classic "San Francisco's Doomed"!
New liner notes, including some from Thurston Moore, as well as a few rare photos and reproductions of the original 7" sleeves!
Kudos to John Reis' Swami label for finally making this long-awaited reissue a reality! San Francisco's Doomed was originally a bootleg of Crime demos from '78 and '79 that first saw the light of day a decade or so ago, and now is remastered and reissued with two bonus tracks and liner notes and photos and all that. So thanks to Swami, SF's *still* doomed. (It's been a good year for "holy grail" punk cd reissues: first Metal Urbain, now Crime!)
I guess there's three sorts of people reading this review: there's the folks who already know this band and have been waiting and waiting for something on cd and will be down here in, like, two seconds to buy a copy. Then there's those of you who have heard *of* Crime but never really heard them, who are curious if they really were as important, essential, kick ass of a punk band as you've been told... well, they are! So get down here now too. Finally, there's those of you for whom Crime is just another name, maybe you've heard of maybe not, but it's got no special significance. For you, the history lesson (in brief): Crime released their first single in '76, proclaiming themselves to be San Francisco's "First and Only Rock and Roll Band". That hyperbole of course ain't quite true but indicates the level of punk attitude you're in for here. Hard rocking, fast, and snotty, Crime were violent and stylish -- they kicked out the jams in SFPD uniforms and shades! This definitely belongs on the same shelf with your Iggy & the Stooges and Dead Boys discs...
This reissue includes 2 alternate-take bonus tracks from the same '76 session as their debut single (btw, a Crime singles comp is forthcoming someday on Revenant, we're told). Very recommended, punk fans! And, like Jim Jocoy's photo book We're Desperate, a reminder of when living in SF was actually probably pretty cool... not that it's not cool to be here now...but there ain't no freakin' bands like Crime prowling the city anymore these days, no sir!!
The misanthropic Italian grindcore legends, the one and only Cripple Bastards, return with a brand-new full-length (no, not another singles collection!) on former Brutal Truth drummer Rich Hoak's Deaf American imprint. Giulio the Bastard, Alberto the
One of many bands to call themselves Crisis, the British punk Crisis formed in 1977, forging alliances with Rock Against Racism and the Socialist Workers Party. Thus, Crisis established themselves as one of the earliest punk bands to use a musical platform as a vehicle to promote a leftist agenda. Musically, Crisis focused on the tight aggressive punk blueprint already established by The Buzzcocks and Warsaw; and the band broadcast their political messages through rudimentary / easily-decipherable lyrics in the form of anthemic proclamations delivered with an urgent cockney sneer. Over their brief four year career, Crisis' principal songwriters Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford (both of whom went on to form Death In June in 1981 with Wakeford later founding Sol Invictus) became disillusioned with the Trotskyist agenda they first espoused and acquired positions that would be more aligned with the aesthetics of anarchism. Holocaust Hymns compiles all of the tracks from their Hymns Of Faith mini LP as well as the tracks from their Peel Sessions and their three singles. Holocaust Hymns is a very important punk document that acts as a curious counterpoint to the bands that came after Crisis, most notably Death In June who has nurtured much controversy around their neo-Nazi imagery.
How can you not love a band called Schnauzer? You can't. Not. Love them! We discovered a super fucked up looking cd in a bargain bin somewhere and bought it just cuz the band was called Schnauzer, and of course it was awesome and of course we were immediately obsessed. So here's a brand new disc from these miscreants, and just so you now what we're talking about here, the cover features a mugshot of some shifty looking dude with a wicked devillock, the songs are called "Total Lunatic" and "Blasted Beyond Belief", and here's a message for the listener in the liner notes: "Do NOT attempt top contact this band. Any efforts to do so will further agitate the members of Schnauzer. If you don't like us now, you CERTAINLY won't like us should we become angry. LEAVE US ALONE." Fuck yeah! And the sound? A furious pounding metallic hardcore, a howling vocalist that sounds a bit like Fozzy The Bear from the Muppets, filthy, cruty, blown out, heavy and MEAN as a Schnauzer!
It's a split with some Cleveland band called Crossface, who are cool, NY style hardcore, short pounding and brutal, two tracks, but it hardly matters really, it's ALL ABOUT SCHNAUZER!!!!!!!!
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL, with a bonus track NOT on the cd version...
We heard a lot about this before we got it in which fired up our curiosity just a little bit. Like it says in the title, this obscure post-mod trio with the cool name has been trumpeted as the "first punks" to come outta Blighty, kicking out the jams with an antisocial sneer and snarl long before the Sex Pistols and the Damned and all the rest blew up in '77. And on the strength of the seven tracks here recorded circa 1969-1971, they were indeed pretty darn punk and ahead of their time (at least, in terms of bands who made it into the recording studio). Loud fast rules with these guys, most of the tracks being uptempo rockers, though the lumbering "Love Fighter" will be welcomed by all '70s proto-metal lovers, and supports the argument that these guys are just as much a proto-metal outfit as proto-punk, being something that fans of Buffalo, Toad, Budgie, Nazareth or Black Sabbath would enjoy. Indeed, some of the riffing on here might quite well remind you of Sabbath, and we weren't surprised to learn that they'd opened for the likes of UFO and Atomic Rooster. Metal? Punk? Same dif back then really. The distortion, fuzz, and 'raw power' attitude on display should qualify 'em as pioneers in either camp. Crushed Butler were heavier than the Pink Fairies, anyway, and that (awesome) band is already rightly heralded as punks before their time. So we'd say that the legend of Crushed Butler is hereby confirmed... alongside the Fairies and Third World War and a few others in England (and the Stooges in the States, of course, and some European freaks too) they trashed the happy hippy scene of the day for something uglier, grottier and more dangerous.
Anyone into metal/punk/hard rock history should find this quite a blast.
Before the cd edition came out, there was a 10" vinyl version of this, but that's long gone and this new 12" vinyl edition, as we said, includes bonus material not on the 10" OR the cd.
We heard a lot about this before we got it in which fired up our curiousity just a little bit. Like it says in the title, this obscure post-mod trio with the cool name has been trumpted as the "first punks" to come outta Blighty, kicking out the jams with an antisocial sneer and snarl long before the Sex Pistols and the Damned and all the rest blew up in '77. And on the strength of the seven tracks here recorded circa 1969-1971, they were indeed pretty darn punk and ahead of their time (at least, in terms of bands who made it into the recording studio). Loud fast rules with these guys, most of the tracks being uptempo rockers, though the lumbering "Love Fighter" will be welcomed by all '70s proto-metal lovers, and supports the argument that these guys are just as much a proto-metal outfit as proto-punk, being something that fans of Buffalo, Toad, Budgie, Nazareth or Black Sabbath would enjoy. Indeed, some of the riffing on here might quite well remind you of Sabbath, and we weren't surprised to learn that they'd opened for the likes of UFO and Atomic Rooster. Metal? Punk? Same dif back then really. The distortion, fuzz, and 'raw power' attitude on display should qualify 'em as pioneers in either camp. Crushed Butler were heavier than the Pink Fairies, anyway, and that (awesome) band is already rightly heralded as punks before their time. So we'd say that the legend of Crushed Butler is hereby confirmed... alongside the Fairies and Third World War and a few others in England (and the Stooges in the States, of course, and some European freaks too) they trashed the happy hippy scene of the day for something uglier, grottier and more dangerous.
This digipack cd (a slightly expanded version of a 10" released a few years back) boasts in-depth liner notes and archival graphics. There's just two drawbacks: it's only 21 minutes long, and that's only because of the inclusion of an alternate version of what's probably our least favorite song as a bonus track. BUT it's 21 minutes that anyone into metal/punk/hard rock history should find quite a blast.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Originally released overseas earlier this year by Australian label Homeless, this degenerate debut by Aussie noiserock scuzz-merchants Cuntz was reissued domestically by Permanent Records last month as a limited Record Store Day release, limited to just 300 copies - like the Homeless edition, vinyl-only, and already now out of print, of course. However, we still have a tiny handful of copies (like, 3 or 4) left over so we figured we'd list it; better act fast if you want one.
Thus we needn't say much about this, and heck if Permanent reissued it you know they had a good reason! Cuntz will definitely do for all your Down Under, downer rawk needs. These misanthropic Melbourne punks specialize in songs of dissipated existence, drinking and doing pills, the singer's gruff vocal gargle spitting out profanity-laced anti-wisdom, backed by plodding rhythms and broken shards of sludgy riffage played with a quite brittle, "shrieky" distorted guitar tone, complete with treble-damaged soloing. It's delightfully maddening and miserable. Imagine an Australian Pissed Jeans, maybe, or these guys' '80s/'90s predecessors Venom P. Stinger (going back further, the Sick Things) on a hard drug binge. Get it (quick) if you like your rock ugly and unhappy, but with a sardonic sense of humor.
Speaking of sardonic humor, we love how the record ends with a brief birthday song. Hilarious. "Wake up, it's your special day, you're the special little guy, it's your fucking birthday... Happy fucking birthday mate"!
Vinyl-only documentation of these Melbourne bad boyz assault on America last year, consisting of live recordings of many of the scuzzy, sardonic ugly rock "hits" off their two lps for Homeless and Permanent, recorded at WFMU, Gonerfest, Death By Audio and The Earl (in Atlanta, where the Chunklet crew must have seen 'em). We wish we'd witnessed one (or more!) of these shows ourselves, sadly we didn't, but blasting this LOUD while jumping around the room after downing a few tins of beer ought to give an idea. Noisy bad attitude Aussie punk as catchy as it is shambolic, that's what Cuntz dish out, live AND on record. Must have been a good time. Still can be if you grab one of the 450 copies pressed of this!
This impolitely named band is back from Down Under with another irreverent dose of negative-fun, punked out rock, throbbing with abrasive sonics and wallowing in their own bad attitude. In other words, a real cool time if you dig stuff like Flipper and Pissed Jeans.
Gruff vox sing about all sorts of sick yet quotidian subjects, backed by feedback laced, splintery guitarwork, with tracks like "Solid Mates Theme" almost delving into Brainbombs hypno-sludge territory. Dunno what life's really like in Melbourne, but these aren't jingles the Tourism Board would be happy with. We sure are, though, when in the mood for some humorously abject scuzz punk!
Gatefold sleeve, comes with a digital download.
This Las Vegas metalcore outfit returns with part 2 to their previous We May Be Through With The Past... cdep. So you can expect more of their heaviness and clever, oft lengthy song titles -- better'n The Locust, some of 'em. This disc's "Nuclear Waste? Bring That Shit. (We Want A State Full Of Radiated Super Heroes)" really can't be beat. And like the first ep, this is decorated with nifty but fake Chris Ware / Acme Novelty Library artwork ("We hope you never see this travesty of a mockery of a sham" is what they say to him in the liner notes).
After seeing Curlupanddie lurching across the stage, opening for Darkest Hour a while back, I'm a firm fan. And this disc is more evidence of their abilities. They merge Coalesce, Today Is The Day, and black metal while remaining open to a lot of other sorts of experimentation. The fourth of the four songs on here, "God Is In His Heaven, All Is Right With The World" is the kind of thing that will get your housemates coming in and asking, is that the same record you had on a second ago? as it does the metal / post rock hybrid thing that's all the rage with the kids these days while bringing in even weirder elements like sly breakbeat backing and melodic mellow indie-rockisms. Cool. Hopefully they'll never have to join the army (as per song #2: "If This Band Thing Doesn't Pan Out We're Joining The Army").
This six-song ep is the latest cd offering from Las Vegas metalcore act Curlupanddie. Screaming, crushing metalcore a la Converge, Coalesce and old Cave In. A buncha crazy kids who we can always count on for great, A Minor Forest-esque song titles (e.g. "I Don't Give A Shit If I'm In Outer Darkness, I'll Make Friends") and swank graphic design along with their superior metalcore. This disc sports fake Chris Ware artwork (though Chris Ware does gets thanked, so maybe he approved of the, uh, emulation?), which is a bit puzzling. Much like the drum machine weirdness on the disc's final track... Like we said, crazy kids.
MPEG Download: "I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With" [/audio/curlupanddieihate.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With" [/audio/curlupanddieihate.m3u]
What happens when a middle aged, extreme noise musician suddenly gets all voodoo "drum circle" on us? Cut Hands is what happens. Ethno-forgery, not exactly, ethno-freakery more like it!
Let's say this up front, so there's no confusion: this Cut Hands disc is bloody awesome, and nobody here at AQ (except maybe Jim) is all that big of a Whitehouse fan, either. We mention that 'cause Cut Hands is the new project by William Bennett, the perverse genius (?) behind infamous '80s industrial noise terrorists Whitehouse, who are up there with Merzbow in the noise that annoys pantheon. We appreciate the extremity of Whitehouse, sure, but unlike Merzbow, never really enjoyed listening to 'em all that much (maybe that's the point). As a result, we really weren't aware of the extent to which, in recent years, William Bennett had been getting into this so-called "Afro Noise" bag of his, with some of his more recent Whitehouse albums (like 2003's Bird Seed, which contained a track called "Cut Hands Has The Solution") incorporating the use, and probably abuse, of authentic ethnic Central African instruments.
Although, we do remember when, in 1997, Bennett's label Susan Lawly put out an amazing compilation, now long out of print, called Extreme Music From Africa, that we totally loved. It featured a bunch of mysterious artists like Rorogwela, Vicious Teengirl, Electricity Featuring Fire Eater, and National Bird, that we'd never heard of before or since, doing tracks that somehow combined what sounded like genuine African tribal music with Whitehouse style noise... and was really quite listenable, too! We always half-suspected it might not have been on the up and up, that the bands weren't really from Africa, and were instead the work of Mr. Bennett and friends, and we'd still like it just as much anyway... Cut Hands certainly makes us further assume that might be the case, since our description of the sort of sounds found on Extreme Music From Africa would also describe this Cut Hands disc quite well: "Chanting and hand drums are buried in washes of hiss and white noise. Merzbow style blasts of crunchy feedback dissolve into tribal rhythms and explode again into shards of jagged buzz. Intense and aggressive and totally great."
In any event, Cut Hands is the next logical step in Bennett's "Afro Noise" obsession. While there is of course an electronic noise component to this, it almost takes a backseat to the rhythmic, almost machine-like intensity of the hand percussion. Bennett has apparently amassed quite a large collection of Congolese and Ghanaian percussion instruments, and he puts 'em to use here, 13 varied tracks of primal, polyrhythmic, electro-acoustic pulsations. Djembes and doundouns played with jackhammer precision, mixed with washes and waves of hiss and drone. Some tracks attack with feedback, others are more quietly sinister and even shimmeringly atmospheric. There's one track with vocals, declaiming something in what sounds like an African language, amidst divebombing distortion and shuddering glitch, while the rest are purely instrumental. And all it is frighteningly trance-inducing. It's kind of insane, kind of incredible. We like, a lot.
Every now and again, it's always healthy to rock out to some good, old fashion, trashy, hard hitting, fuzz drenched garage rock. All the better if the band is trashy as heck, we're talkin' Stooges meets the Misfits, or something like that. Either way, Da Willys is a garage punk machine, too cool for school with a KILLER female vocalist who sounds remarkably like to Danzig. YES! Pretty straight-forward stuff, guitar driven songs full of drunken swagger and bad boy (or girl) aggression and raw energy. Exactly how we like it.
With so much of San Francisco's music scene lately dominated by blown out garage rock and charming garage pop it's kind of refreshing to encounter a local band operating in a completely different orbit. Dadfag carry the spirit of dirty, sloppy and dangerous damaged punk. Like Lydia Lunch jamming with The Fall and Flipper or Pretty On The Inside era Hole. Scenic Abuse is filled with urgent and irreverent sounds that tap into the more warped and reckless side of artpunk glory. Like early Bikini Kill stripped of its righteousness and doused instead in danger and unpredictability. We love how within their uptempo, fully charged, fucked up sound there is still room for variety, as they show different sides to their sound throughout the record. We're also reminded a bit in spirit of the now defunct San Francisco relentless noise punk band So So Many White White Tigers. We're always stoked to see folks find a way to use the influence of punk in a way that doesn't feel tired or played out, and Dadfag have succeeded quite nicely in bringing their own energy and vision to a legacy that will always ring so loud and true.
Okay, odds are most aQ list readers aren't gonna be interested in this. But in the spirit of aQuarius, and the sort of open mindedness we try to engender here, hopefully a few folks will give this a chance, cuz it's actually pretty great. The math sounds bizarre and it most definitely is, take two parts Fallout Boy, two parts Anthrax, and one part Every Time I Die (literally, it's members of those bands!), and this is what you get, a bombastic blast of super heavy, ultra melodic, catchy as hell classic eighties style hard rocking heaviness. Big riffs, wild leads, pounding drummage, some super epic clean vocals, classic metal guitar harmonies, all wound into super hooky heavy jams that kick tons of ass.
"We've Got A Situation Here" is THEE one here, a pretty much perfect pop song rendered in shades of chug and crunch and wail and blast and pound. The guitars crunchy and heavy, the vocals throaty and what you might expect from the dude from ETID, but with a chorus most bands would kill for, not to mention some seriously heavy breakdowns, one in particular that seriously swings and sounds almost like Pantera or Down. And the rest of the songs are pretty much just as good, born from a shared love of Thin Lizzy, it's got that kind of classic rock vibe, some songs sounding a little like Kiss, others more like Queens Of The Stoneage or Foo Fighters, but the Damned Things, definitely temper their poppiness with some serious heaviness, and some killer songs. Scoff if you must, but some of us (mostly Andee) have been listening to this like crazy!
All the Damned you will ever want or need on 3 cds. Damn!
There sure seems to be a lot of mediocre metalcore bands around these days, metalcore is the pop punk of this decade. Every kid is mixing in some heartfelt emotion with their pounding metallic pummel. Thankfully Darkest Hour is not one of them. These guys have been chuggin' along since 1995, believe it or not. In 2003 they released Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation which was a dark and brutal masterpiece that channelled the Swedish style of the late 90's through a modern metal aesthetic. The follow-up is this here disc and is called Undoing Ruin and their label has done them no favors touting it as "the next Ride the Lightning" or "the next Slaughter of the Soul". Not really fair to US or THEM. Time, as always, is the only way to tell�
What Undoing Ruin brings is this: lots of back and forth chunka-chunkage, some dry-throated screaming, lots of mid-tempo Mastodon-like drumming with loads of little fills and splashes, some killer melodic twin dive-bomber leads whipping wildly back and forth but always in control. For all you metal "purists" out there who would never dare listen to a "Victory Band" or some crappy metalcore band, do yourself a favor, swallow your pride and check these guys out!
If Darkest Hour were on Relapse odds are they would be way better positioned to hit their target audience: metalheads. that said, they don't seem to be doing such a bad job turning little punks onto some very heavy metal! There are even some brief acoustic breaks and cool little melodic bits sprinkled here and there, but it's not long before the pummeling onslaught renews. Reminds us of former metallic greats like Beyond Possession, the Accused, there's even some serious Slayer Reign In Blood / Meshuggah style fretboard dynamics goin' on. You gotta love that.
There is NOTHING emo or screamo or even hardcore about this release despite the label affiliation. Darkest Hour just keep getting better and better, tighter and heavier, and the proof is in the epic /melodic / power / thrash / core of Undoing Ruin.
