New Year's Eve: Highs.... [a mix, again]

Yeah, so I promise f'real that I'll be posting new music, including all the albums that've been piling up in my PO box and email box, soon. But in the meantime, it's New Year's Eve and I have a date with any and all substances that come my way....said substances may include a bit of dancing, and I'd imagine you'll be having a similar night, y'dig?

In that spirit, this is some music to get mad crunkface to.
Lonely for the high scrapers....

1. TV Girl-I don't care
2. Les Sins-Lina
3. DannielRadall-Soulman
4. Niva-Ghost in my Head
5. Blank Dogs-Collides
6. No Wave-Clearing
7. Keep Shelly in Athens-Cremonia Memories
8. Okinawa Lifestyle-Black Sea Shark
9. Clive Tanaka y Su Orquestra-Brack Latin
10. Alejo Gui-Fuck
11. Waskerley Way-Pombo Pombo Pombo
12. Korallreven-Honey Mine
13. gngsgns.-wlknthnght
14. Luminary Youth-Darjeeling Temptress

Lost Cherrees-A Man's Duty, A Woman's Place

Man, I just threw this on at random as I'm sitting around my room trying to figure out something to do with my day off besides drink coffee and read stuff on the internet. Good story, right? Anyway, I was knocked to my proverbial feet (definitely stayed seated, thank you very much) by how fucking outstanding this EP is. It's the sophomore effort of Scottish anarcha-feminist punk band The Lost Cherrees and, if I do say so myself, stands out as a breathtaking platter of boundary-pushing, hip-shaking postpunk interwoven with a cutting feminist critique. One of the first female-fronted UK anarchopunk bands of the 1980's (A Man's Duty...was released in 1984), TLC (tee hee) was quick to establish themselves in the genre, rising up to number 4 on the UK indie charts and playing shows with the likes of Conflict, Flux of Pink Indians, Hagar the Womb...I'm sure it's all written on the back of a jacket somewhere. And John Peel thought they were hot shit. That dude had some fucking TASTE.

The the thing that stands out about this band to me, at least on this record, is that they take the rhythmic engine that was propelling pogoing pub punks listening to Blitz and The Varukers, and used it to create driving but sophisticated pop songs.

With the lead-off track 'Blasphemy,' TLC establishes an almost doomy atmosphere, but with hooks and rhythm that no doubt packed more than a few mid 80's British dancefloors. Shit's in league with Siouxsie herself, IMO. '

'No Trouble' picks up the ambiance a little bit as the band cruises through UK Postpunk Aptitude Test #6782: Competence with Basic Reggae. Probably the least interesting song on the record, but it's catchy and the guitar solo about halfway through adds a sort of surf/psych tinge that keeps things interesting.

'Living in a Coffin' is perhaps the standout track of the EP. It's fast but relentlessly catchy, at times almost resembling a seriously darkened and reverbed-out second cousin of pop punk. But on the whole this is unquestionably the more artsy/postpunky wing of the UK anarchopunk scene of the 80's getting fucking explosive.

'Sexism's Sick pt. 1' kicks off with one of the best post-punk hooks. Ever. Period. The song after that is pretty basic (though things get a little weirder in pt. 2) but it really doesn't matter. It's just one of those tunes that holds up on its own and can be played again and again and still sound good. Luckily, in the hands of TLC we also get to hear it creatively fucked with and, most impressively, turned into a tuneful, crunchy bridge/chant "Break down the wall/Bridge the gap/Sexism's sick!" Word!

'Sexism's Sick pt. 2' makes a perfect cap. Apparently not satisfied with simply making an uber-catchy driving postpunk song, TLC takes its basic chords and fucks it up a bit more, this time with wistful acoustic guitar plucking going into rough n' tumble fuzz-drenched madness. This massive EP closes with manically bouncing drums and bass overlaid by a guitar tone akin to the robo-buzzsaw effect on display in Blitz's 'Someone's Gonna Die' and wailing vocals carrying messages about feminist struggle that would be impressive from a band today, let alone in 1983.

A Man's Duty, A Woman's Place

Carburetor Dung: best of 2011 mixitup

I hate making lists these days but, good interweb pundit that I am, my Top [insert number here] lists will be up at some point around the New Year. In the meanwhile, here's a mix of some of my faves from the Lester Bangs school of noiseschlock to tide all you weirdoes over...happy boozin'!
smash it up!

1. The Band in Heaven-Sleazy dreams
2. Shoppers-I
3. Art Fad-.......
4. Piresian Beach-Take Me
5. Catholic Spray-Kiss the Smack
6. Kent State-Walk Through Walls
7. Whatever Brains-the Fisher
8. Bass Drum of Death-Nerve Jamming
9. Natural Child-A Man Makes His Own Way
10. The Alright Alreadies-Disconnected
11. Royal Headache-Eloise
12. Triptides-Beneath the Sun
13. Sex Church-Dull Light
14. Horrible Houses-Midlands
15. Sarongs-Police Chase
16. Acid Kicks-Masonic Tide
17. Opus Null-Alkotmanyos anarchia
18. Broken Water-Kansas
p.s.-I think that the Broken Water track actually is from 2010, but, uh, I got the record it's taken from this year...sofugginwhatyeah?

Metro Decay-Ypervasi LP (1984)

The computer I'm typing this entry on is from 1995, and I'm frankly amazed I was able to upload an image of the cover, so there ain't no verbal or lyrical fireworks in this entry, folks.

Anyways, Metro Decay's 1984 LP Υπέρβαση is a classic of Greek new/cold/whateverwave. Dudes gigged around Athens a lot in the '80s, opened for The Fall, Birthday PArty, etc.
"Εισαγογν στην κίνηση" is probably my favest track on heer: they totally steal the structure from Joy Div, but throw in some Greek instruments to give it a MD-unique feel.

The version I'm posting butchers the Greek-script track titles; they're posted below.

Merry Xmas, folks.

*EDIT, 10.31.12: I reup'd the file. DOWNLOAD HERE. *

"Υπερβασν" was recently re-released; check out an interview with the band from last year here.

1. Μαύρος Κύκνος
2. Ανάμεσα Σε Δύο Κρεσσεντα
3. Το Ταξίδι
4. Εισαγωγή Στην Κίνηση
5. Απειλή
6. Παιχνίδια Στην Επιφάνεια
7. Το Πάγωμα Του Πάθους
8. 'Έβενος
9. Υπέρβαση
10. Λίμπιντο

Now Slaying in The Bay 2

Stressors

Stressors is a group of upstanding young gentlemen from the suburbs surrounding the East Bay and, like their forebears of the 1980’s, they are busily showing up the city kids by playing fast, loud, mean hardcore steeped in discomfort and frustration. I have similar feelings about this band that I did growing up and seeing Chicago acts like The Repos, Fourteen or Fight or No Slogan: these dudes play straightforward USHC “the way it was meant to be done” but go beyond just nailing a time-honed formula. There’s a dark, ugly abyss rolling the always-satisfying combinations of breakdowns and scissor beats that makes Stressors stand out from the crowd of decent-to-good USHC acts around today. These dudes are making a profoundly fucked contribution to modern hardcore. Awesome.

Wild Moth

Noisy and wistful pop cranked through tortured amps cranked to maximum awesome. Wild Moth wastes no time in making with a cacophony of hooks and croons whose assault on your eardrums leaves a sticky residue in your brain. Pretty, almost bubblegum components are thrown together in a manic frenzy. The result is an absurdly satisfying fusion of big, lush songs played with a bare bones DiY fundamentalist aesthetic. More plz?

Your Enemy

Overwhelmingly fast and brutal grind from Oakland’s Lower Bottoms, Your Enemy, simply put, slays the motherfucking shit out of anyone within earshot of their brutal sensory assault. Featuring 3 members with a pedigree that includes such varsity-level sonic destructors as ThousandsWillDie and Circle of Eyes. They’ve got a demo up online for your listening pleasure, as well as their half of their upcoming split with HumanxWaste, a band soon to be featured here.

Bruxers

Bruxers is a new band out of San Jose who, as their first recordings are still getting ready to come out, have already made a name for themselves smearing audience’s faces in their nasty encrusted death metal around the bay. Truly unholy and rotten, Bruxers combine the brutal tonalities and breakneck speeds of old-school death metal with gnarly, doomish crust sensibilities and a raw, DiY aesthetic. This shit is absolutely not to be missed. Watch for their recordings on Deific Mourning and Gay Scientist Recordings in 2012.

Home for the holidays, or, Terror Boys: A mix.

 *bands/people who have sent me music in the last week: I'm slowly working my way through it, your stuff will be up at some point soon.*

I'm catching a plane in an hour for my ancestral homeland of Chicago, which I haven't been back to in over a year. When there, I usually revert to the affective state I was at when I moved out, i.e., I become a taciturn, mindless drunk brimming over with meaningless vitriol.

So what better way to celebrate devolution than by throwing on some classics about violence, unemployment, Thatcher and....violence? NONE:

DO YOU FEEL ALRIGHT?!?

1. Blitz-Someone's gonna die tonight
2. The Clash-Career Opportunities
3. The Newtown Neurotics-Kick out the Tories
4. Decry-Falling
5. The Mau-Maus-Society's Rejects
6. Uproar-Rebel Youth
7. GBH-Sick Boy
8. Culo-Toxic Visioms
9. Filth-Banned from the Pubs (Peter & the Test Tube Babies cover)
10. TDA-TDA
11. The Partisans-Police Story
12. Cro-Mags-Hard Times
13. Minor Threat-Stand Up
14. Intensified Chaos-Intensified Chaos
15. Negative Approach-Ready to Fight
16. Ultimo Resorte-Violencia
17. Criminal Damage-Anesthesia

Horrible Houses-Midlands EP (2011)

Ok, this is the third Horrible Houses release I've reviewed for Drug Punk, and I still can't get an angle on what dude is up to or going for. I've also decided that this is a good thing.

The obvious influences-John Fahey, Guided by Voices, maybe some White Light/White Heat-era Velvet Underground-don't at all explain the end product. On this, the HHs' third[?] release, they've really found their groove. The previous two releases had highs and lows, but the three tracks on "Midlands" are focused and fine tuned.

"Out of Tune Piano for Meadow Man" (I love the song titles from this band) is probably the best cut out of the three. Opening with muttering and a minimal, warbling guitar line, it segues quickly into HH's trademark, myopic lounge jamming: hazy guitars, monotone drumming, and casually worded, throwaway vocals.

I still haven't managed to get all the way through "Tempel [sic] Jam," but it moves through several stages, from raga-esque droning to scratching guitar treble.

Anyways, if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you've probably heard Horrible Houses already. This EP doesn't move in a new direction so much as refine and purify what was already happening. Get into it, if you haven't already, here. Horrible Houses lives here.

The Observers-So What's Left Now? LP (2005[?])

"I was a teenage zombie...." pt. 4 (in a semi-occasional series)

The following account may or may not be a conflation of two different events. Don't make no nevermind nohow, noways....

Mid-way through high school, I fell in like with a well-read (she knew of Burroughs!) girl from Chicago's south 'burbs. All I knew about the south 'burbs back then was that Screeching Weasel was from the general vicinity, so she musta been cool, right?

Naw, no dice. First time we did an all-day hang, we wandered around Chicago, so young and uncool, we couldn't even score street drugs. What a dismal situation...ended up making out by the river. Don't ask which one. We were stone sober. The next time we hung out, we went to the beach, then to some rich kid's house by the beach, where  I proceeded to get so bombed on downers and anti-depressants that this girl  made out with a friend of mine (I think...I was on A LOT of vicodin and xanies)for 15 minutes while I sat across from them, so wasted I couldn't move, let alone protest. My friend drove me home that night with the counsel of "dude, forget about it." Words of wisdom.

Awhile later, we were hanging out at a friend's house. Shit was ok...she wasn't making out with my friend, right? Wrong. We smoked a spliff, drank some wine...did some dancing, even! Washed Out, Okinawa Lifestyle, all that good shit! Talked about life, love, and other such hippy nonsense....by time we got to the bar, I was 2 grams and a bottle 'n' a half of wine into the evening. By the time she disappeared with a different friend, I was too wasted to do other than lean against the bar's wall, chain smoking and incoherently mumbling self-pitying garbage ("why does HE get to have her...but I don't?!?") to a friend who courageously heard me out. I vaguely remember passing out to Pink Reason blasting from my speakers at full volume, dreaming of Xanax. Hey you! Got some Xanax?

This is probably the best punk LP of the '00s. It has everything: heroin-level addictive hooks, brutally introspective-yet-social lyrics, jaunty bass lines....Fuck you! Like it!

*EDIT, 1.5.14: Re-up'd the LP, get it HERE.*

Art Fad-Vatos LP (2011)

I had just gotten home and was headed beerward when this tidbit of Potato State garage crossed my desk. Since I was gonna close the night by playing Blitz at top volume, per the last five nights, I figured a little variety was in order....

....Caldwell, Idaho (where the fuck is that?)'s Art Fad (best clever-dumb band name I've heard this year?) blares out coupla 7-8 tracks of scratchy, trebly, hollered surf rock from landlocked climes. I can't imagine what life's like in Idaho-the very name conjures up images of Snakes (Rivers or otherwise) and radical Republicans....but this shit's good, dude.

The songs sorta melt into each other like sequences in a downer binge (think MDMA-Vics-Cods), and the singer just hollers clipped phrases over insistent percussion, and the result is something I'd like to see in a basement, 10 beers into a weekend bender. The minor-note soloing on the seventh track is particularly sick.

Shit was recorded by one of the masterminds behind Teens, for what's it worth. Fuck you, listen to it!

Cemetery-demo CS (2011)

Ok, so I'm obviously re-posting this from Terminal Escape, but it's justified for two reasons: 1) I've known the singer since high school, which means cronyism demands I draw attention to this; 2) this is one of my favorite demos of 2011.

Awhile ago, I was ranting about the sad state of neo-post-punk. Death/goth punk has also been making a massive comeback lately,
and Cemetery knows their history inside and out, but this isn't a mere nostalgia trip. These hard-drinkin' dudes from my hometown drone out 6 tracks of grinding, lightly distorted and atmospheric death punk a la Christian Death, et. al. "Reptile Walk" is a blaring, hellishly well-done call to arms for all of you who rock bullet belts to the goth prom. "Voices in the Ceiling" and "Voices in the Walls" nicely cap off each side with atmospheric, synth-drenched mood-setters.

What really sets Cemetery apart from the competition is the songwriting. These guys have constructed 6 tight, remarkably well-executed songs, not just a squalling mess dumped on cassette tape. The guitar is especially cool, confirming my suspicion that guitarists in this genre owe a lot more to Dick Dale than, say, Tommy Iommi.

GET INTO IT! Hang out with Cemetery here. Stay tuned for info on their first record....

*EDIT, 10.10.12: Reup'd the demo, get it HERE. *

*EDIT, 7.30.13: FINALLY GOT AROUND TO RE'UP'ING THE DEMO (AGAIN, FUCKERS): HERE *

Police Repression in Indonesia

So some of you have already heard, but for those of you who haven't, earlier this week police in the Indonesian community of Banda Aceh conducted mass arrests of all the punks they could find.

They're being subjected to "moral re-education," which means humiliation, illegal detainment, and general deprivation of basic human rights by the state.
You can read about it here.

Aborted Society Records is doing a MIXTAPE CHARITY DRIVE that you should totally participate in.

Send mixtapes (cassettes or CDRs in slip cases) with as much music as possible crammed on by December 30th to:
Aborted Society Records
attn: Mixtapes for Aceh
1122 E. Pike Street #1377
Seattle, WA 98122-3934
USA

Kent State-Walk through Walls EP (2011)

I have to respect anyone brazen enough to cover Guided by Voices, and a classic like "Pimple Zoo," nevertheless. Kent State does it pretty well, and they do shoegazey, chainsaw pop pretty well, too, on this, their third EP.

Featuring members of Baltimore's Deep Sleep, Kent State blasts out seven tracks of slouchy, buzzy, '90s-worshipping noise pop on "Walk Through Walls."  The best track is "Secrets for Sale," a wonderfully echoing, reverb-drenched slacker jingle-jangle perfect for summer days spent sippin' lemonade (or winter days wishing it was summer and drinking Jim Beam).

Like I keep sayin' on dis heer blog, the various strands of '90s underground rock-shoegaze, jangle pop, grunge, etc.-are back with a bang these days, and Kent State is doin' it well...check it out if you've worn out the grooves on your copy of "Alien Lanes" from excessive play.

Kent State lives here; you can buy the EP here.

Teenagers-2 song demo (2011)

Any music critic at some point has to face the arbitrariness of taste. For example, there's no essential, objective reason that I absolutely love these two songs, whereas I find Best Coast's whole catalogue offensive, and couldn't get past the schmaltzy schlock quality of Tennis' first LP.

So don't get pissy with me if you think these two songs are just more surf-garage nostalgia. They are. But there's something to them that makes Teenagers rise above the legion of bands quarrying the Phil Spector sound for all it's worth...the vocals have an open, naive quality that fits the music exactly, and the instrumentation is almost note-perfect girl-group garage: minimal guitar chords and a rollicking beat.

Teenagers is from Warsaw, a city not noted for its surf or beaches, but they've captured the California sun in musical form remarkably well here.

Winter is well upon us in the northern hemisphere, but Teenagers' demo is gonna be keeping me warm until the New Year. Check it out, here!

Alone & Forsaken VII: I don't live today [...maybe tomorrow].

"When your late night friends leave you/in the cold grey dawn..."-The Rolling Stones

Hope and despair are the same damned thing. Hope consists of winged flights of absurd elation, detached from any tangible reality, that feeds on its own momentum until something triggers a crash-landing back in reality.

Despair, similarly, is a sucking void that, left to its own devices, separates you from reality and drags you down its twisting path of blackness until, ideally, one of your friends smacks you over the head and forces you to start interacting with the world again...
In that spirit, here's another chartbuster in the A&F series. I may have already put some of these songs on previous mixes, but ask me how much I care.

"Hush, little thrush...."

1. The Wipers-Doom Town
2. Middle Class-Out of My Hands
3. The Mountain Goats-Hellhound on my Trail
4. Neil Young-Tired Eyes
5. Rosa Eskenazi-That'll Teach you [Για να ξερής Αλανιάρα]
6. Tom Waits-Innocent When You Dream
7. Sun Kil Moon-Heron Blue
8. Songs:Ohia-The Black Crow
9. Pink Reason-Thrush
10. The Rolling Stones-Loving Cup

Peopling-s/t EP (2011)

I've been meaning to review this thing for weeks, ever since it showed up in the mail, and I apologize to the guy behind Peopling for my sluggardly ways.

Anyways....Peopling is a one-man operation outta Brooklyn. This 6-song ep is somewhere between Dominick Fernow/Prurient-style savagery and fucked up, bedroom synth punk. Usually Peopling verges closer to the former, but on the opener, "come home eccentric," there's a trashed synth beat lilting along with the warbled voiceovers. "Regprog" is simple, hulking, lunking, clunking power electronics; sorta like what Fernow might make on a softer day.
I think that "summer such and such" is the best song on here: strummed acoustic guitars leaven the usual squalling hiss, and there's some cool found-sound type burbling in the background....

I really don't listen to much power electronics these days, but this EP was versatile enough to hold my interest. Unlike most power electronics albums, it's appropriate for smokin' weed on the beach as well as nodding out in a heroin haze.

CHeck dude out, and BUY THE EP, here.

Kontaminat-2011 demo

Punk bands in 2011 generally boil down into two groups: those who are young, inexperienced, and eager to learn-as-they-play (Culo, Birth Deformities, et. al.) and those who, like Kontaminat, have been doing this so long, punk is in their DNA.
Hence, it's no surprise that this demo fuckin' slays. Whereas they seemed headed in a crushing, Framitid-style wall of noise in the live videos I've seen, on this demo Kontaminat has headed in a direction closer to Deathreat than Kochi City Madness. Everyone's favorite Chicago HC hearthrob, Mike Thrashberg, has mutated into Joe Denunzio's (Ebro's?) ghost on this demo: harsh, admonitory barking rides a wave of unrelenting, but refreshingly well-mixed, US hardcore.

I don't have a lyric sheet in front of me, but with titles like "Tenure Hellstorm," you can't go wrong. The mix is relatively clean, which is great 'cause all the instruments pull their weight-the guitar fuzz on "Team Player" is closer to post-punk than hardcore butchery, and I love Pat's bass riffing, especially on "Costume." In short, Kontaminat is one of Chicago's best new HC bands, and you should, uh, getcha punk on and catch 'em on the 27th. Details to follow.

They say it's lonely at the top.... I'm reposting this from One Track Hell, which I cordially thank for boosting the volume on the recording. Contact the band, and try to scrounge a copy of the tape, via THIS!

Hedge Fund-demo 11.11 (2011)

Hardcore punk has reached an interesting point in the last few years. As the grunge/shoegaze revival gathers steam, there's a temptation for bands to jump ship to the sunnier climes of MBV-/Nirvana-worship. Despite musical disparities, I see the whole "mysterious guycore" thing as riding the wave of '90s fetishism percolating of late: "oh cool! these guys were in bands in the (late/mid-)90s! They must be cool!"

Hedge Fund, a new band from Boston, straddles the line between HC and sloppy, gazey mucky muck. This four-track cassette demo is essentially hardcore punk played with a grunge attitude (or grunge played with a punk attitude). The opener, "Locutus" (sick Star Trek ref., no?) mines the vein Thulsa Doom quarried ages ago-piledriver drumming and overloaded guitar chugging.
But the next three tracks go in for the sort of fuzzy, squalling, meandering guitar I associate more with new bands like Psychic Blood as much as traditional HC name checks like Siege. It makes for some interesting listening: straightforward, shrieking intensity mixed with more complicated, grinding sludge.

Y'know ya love it. You can buy the radness here.

Bootblacks/Monozid split 7" EP (2010)

 I hate Interpol. Those bastards didn't respond to Peter Hook when he submitted his CV to them, when they were looking for a new bassist! MOre broadly, I despise the revival of the dancey end of post-punk over the last decade, in anodyne, safely depoliticized, rhythmic form for the moronic suburban masses. Those bastards don't deserve Gang of Four. They deserve Miley Cyrus, or whatever it is that civilians listen to (is Miley Cyrus a musician, even?).

Like Talking Heads said, "this ain't no party/this ain't no disco."  At its best, post-punk was dangerous, provocative, nerve-wracking, and, yes, funky. But there was always a message and a point behind the sinuous basslines.

So I was pleasantly surprised when that "post punk" the guy from Leipzig's Monozid used in his email linking me this split meant "post punk like The Pop Group," not "post punk like Gang of Four/some dance band." Brooklyn's Bootblacks churns out two taut, threshing floor tunes built around pummeling drumwork and laser-wire guitar. Monozid grinds out the sort of frantic, anxious, declamatory buzz dance that I associate with mid-period Ex or The Pop Group. The guy's voice is suitably hollow, the guitar dense as steel wool, especially on "Shame of the Nation," where it sounds like a howling insect.

The post punk revival in the States has, for the most part, produced a heaping pile of hipster shit, with Pitchfork media buzzing over the pile, leering away. But these two bands convinced me that, even at this late date of the 2010s, people can still do something worthwhile with off notes, stutter-step drumming and leading bass.

Check it out here. Monozid lives here. Bootblacks live dissa way.

Alone & Forsaken VI: November.

I've been wired on cheap speed and bad beer and worse coffee for the last fort-eight hours. So I hereby legally and officially disclaim any responsibility for this post. It's all on you, as Bane said in some shitty song about unit pride I loved when I was a teenager (I wish mofos on livejournal had catalogued their show in Chicago in 2003...stagedives and bro-downs with bullet belts, eat yer heart out!).

Some of y'all might take offense to the fact that Beirut is included on this mix, and follows Joe Strummer, nonetheless. Fuck you. I ain't comparing Zach Condon to the venerable Strummer legend, far from it-no one's gonna match Joe. He's a hero in deez heer parts. I just happen to think "East Harlem" sounds real good. Deal.

Go away, blow your brains out!...November.....

1. Pink Reason-Winona
2. Tom Waits-November
3. Grazhdanskaya Oborona-Ej, babica blevani!
4. Joe Strummer-Good Times Role (Rude Boy outtake, Joe Strummer solo!)
5. Beirut-East Harlem
6. Glass Cake-Friend Forever
7. The Mekons-Garage D'or
8. The Scrotum Poles-Night Train
9. Elvis Depressedly-Turn Blue
10. Dirty Beaches-North West Sea
11. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis-Moving On
12. Popol Vuh-Selig sind die, die da hungern
13. Eluvium-Requiem on Frankfort Ave.


p.s.-Bands/musicians that have been sending me stuff-I'll post reviews of your material soon, shit's been hitting the fan here at Drug Punk HQ lately.

(Young) Pioneers-We March! 7" EP (1995)

Please don't misunderstand this. I'm not going folky on ya, nor am I a huge (Young) Pioneers fan...in fact, I find their LP downright obnoxious. The whole folk punk movement was and is fucking stupid; back when I was 17 or so, I was real into dressin' all in black and acting like I was part of some sort of political movement.
I wasn't. Even more so than most sub-niches of punk, folk punk was and probably always will be a haven for overprivileged white kids (like micelf, natch!) who feel super-duper guilty about being...uh...white and overprivileged...and take it out by dressing like hobos and signing about...being hobos.

But this EP Is fucking great. In fact, Billy Bragg and Joe Strummer's Mescaleroes work aside (which really ain't part of the American folk punk schtick anyways), this is all you need to hear from this end of the punk spectrum. (Young) Pioneers specialized in poorly-constructed, ramshackle and "heartfelt", mildy distorted anthems about...uh...whatever Vermiform Rex bands sang about. Politics? Point is, usually this was an annoying formula but for whatever reason these four songs are majestically inept, instead of just boring and smug.

The guns of New Year's Eve. I bought this off Martin, the singer for crudos/Limp Wrist, when Straightjacket Nation toured the States...good luck scroungin' a copy, and no, youse cants haves mines!

*EDIT, 9.15.12: I reup'd the file. Get it HERE. *

Culo-Toxic Vision EP (2011)

Ever since these guys crawled out of Elgin back in 2008 or so, my friends can't stop raving about 'em. Elgin, for non-Chicagoans, is a benighted suburb somewhere out in the cornfields west of Chicago. I'm guessing it's a boring, intellectually crippling place to grow up in.

This EP spouts anger and frustration out of every pore, like a lonely alcoholic on a Saturday night. The first few tracks are atonal thrash, with the guitar and drums careening into brick walls completely removed from each other. Slowly, coherence starts to emerge, especially on the last self-titled track: the "Discharge-meets-Ramones" comparison I keep hearing from Chicago friends finally makes sense on "Toxic Visions."

This EP bears out my friends' claims that Culo is one of the hottest new(ish) HC bands in Chicago...they're not reinventing the wheel, but they know exactly what they wanna do, and they do it perfectly. Bash in a few brain cells and get in the circle pit, dipshit.


Tired, bored, angry. Buy it! Over at Deranged Rex.

Raw Nerve-Midnight EP (2011)

He took another drag of his cigarette.
"Sounds familiar. Just the same old routine...it's like Sally Timms said, in that Mekons tune, back in the '80s...what was it? Oh, yeah. This. 'But if I never see you again, I'll die....
Whatever you want, you'll never find the beginning of it. That's why you'll always be too late...Whatever happens, it'll be the thing you didn't want to have happen. Whatever doesn't happen will be the thing you want. Take your choosing. As you like. You always get what you don't want. Now you're talking just like me. It's an eye for an eye, as we move over the darkness...."
"Yup, cycle of shit. What are we doin' tonight?"
"dunno. Ain't shit to do."

....oh, yeah, Raw Nerve's Midnight EP. It's good. It's loud. It's noisy.

"These things happen. Mistakes are made." This is out of print. Buy other shit on Youth Attack!, support the cause. Whatever that is.

Fuseism-Keep Movin' 7" EP (2011)

I should start this review by saying that I'm not an expert on contemporary emo, and certainly not the international scene. I was a bit surprised that emo (in its original, Revolution Summer, post-harDCore sense) caught on across the pond, since it seems like such a quintessentially  bourgeois, American indulgence.

That aside, this 2-song EP ain't too shabby. One of the things I couldn't stand about Rites of Spring was the whiney vocals that were mixed way too high. Fuseism (is this a new ideology? Budapesters,let me know) thankfully keeps the preachy/confessional stuff to a minimum, and bangs out some good mid-paced punk. The singer certainly sounds like RoS/Embrace-era Ian MacKaye, but his voice is more one of the instruments than the show-stealer, which gives this EP a leg up on some of their mid-'80s influence. The opening guitar riff on "Believers of Fuseism" especially caught my ear, although the song drags a bit at the end.

Are you a believer in fuseism? Check out their bandcamp page for more info, and on how to pick up a physical copy of this. I really dig Fuseism's aesthetic sensibility.

Punk, que punk? Y Ahora que? Compilation (1983)

The older I get, the less I understand how I was able to imbibe such  heroic amounts of booze as a young'n....I feel about as lively as a wet ferret hung out to dry by a fur trapper, and half as smart.

So, dear reader, I'm dumping this on you: a 27-track compilation of early '80s Spanish (Catalan, Murcian, Galician et. al.) punk...there ain't a dud among them. It sounds like all the bands recorded live into a boom box, but whatevs.

I'm re-posting this from Robert's original on Terminal Escape. Hopefully this is justified (hangover aside) by how good the music is, first of all. Also, I re-formatted the tracks so that the individual bands appear as the "artist," which should make it easier to find more information on each band, for those who want to.

Ahora que!

Alone & Forsaken V: The Guns of New Year's Eve.

I got falling-down drunk tonight and won't remember most of whatever it was I did tomorrow. In that spirit, this installment in the A&F series wallows full on in the moronic '90s revival currently sweeping the nation.

Whereas everyone else (including me, usually) is fixated on shoegaze and grunge, this mix goes trawling through the monument to quiet, defiant failure that was the '90s punk scene.
I haven't listened to most of this stuff since I was, at the oldest, 17. Looking back, the early '90s were a much more innocent time in the punk scene: these bands wore their hearts on their sleeves, unabashedly and without the violently nihilistic, sneering tone that's dominated DIY punk since the early '00s. Los Crudos should be on here somewhere, but I lost their discography a long time ago. Two of the songs are not from the '90s, but thematically and emotionally belong there. The last one is a surprise. Dig it.

...I shoulda been kissing you....

1. Jawbreaker-Kiss the Bottle
2. Crimpshrine-Second Generation Junkies
3. Smoking Popes-Not that kind of girlfriend
4. Fugazi-Merchandise
5. Operation Ivy-the Crowd
6. (Young) Pioneers-The Guns of New Year's Eve
7. Filth-The List
8. ihatemyself-Conversations with Dr. Seussicide
9. Some Velvet Sidewalk-Cat & Mouse
10. Black Tambourine-For Ex-Lovers Only
11. Crash & Brittany-It is Chemistry
12. Lorelei-Sometimesmethinks
13. Glass Cake-Foster City
14. Electrelane-To the East
15. a surprise.

Psychic Blood-Strain 7" EP (2011)

It seems like the cultural necrophilia vulture has full alighted upon the late '80s/early '90s. Like any revival wave, this one has had some ups and downs. The last time I was in Olympia, I saw a certain band, which shall remain nameless, shamelessly referencing....Staind. Seriously? What the fuck?

Psychic Blood lands quite opposite that strain of stupidity. I've read a lot of stuff calling them "shoegaze," but I don't think that fits. Both these songs are a bit too dynamic for them to fall among the MBV acolytes. The title track opens with a massive, rolling riff that eventually melds into contorted drumwork and snarled, echoing vocals-kind of like a grunge song if those assholes in Seattle were angry more than apathetic.

"Drudgefest" is just that: in the best grunge tradition, Psychic Blood melds fast punk aggression (especially in the blown out guitar) with slamming, brooding metal. The whole thing sorta just melts into squalling contortions towards the end.

This is a lazy review (I've been reading about this crap for 8 hours, gimme a break!), and I'm not doing Psychic Blood justice. They definitely tip their hat to more than a few Touch & Go/SST/Sub Pop luminaries on this EP, but their tightness and aggression really set them apart from most of this current wave of wanna-be-Seattle '91 kiddies.

You can download the "Strain" EP here. Or don't wait for the download and instead get high while listening to it on Soundcloud. If your copy of Tiger Beat magazine (do they still publish that thing?) hasn't arrived yet and you need some new teen heartthrobs, doods have pictures here.

Now Slaying in the Bay

I hate loading stuff onto Mediafire and also happen to live in a magical fairy land where each morning the sun rises and shoots supernatural rays of awesome at the ground, incarnating rad new bands wherever they land. This combination of factors has led to the creation of "Now Slaying in the Bay," an excitingly irregular feature where I will get my blurb on about rad bands playing around recently. Now, without further ado, the first installment of Now Slaying in the Bay:

Lycus-This band, both live and recorded, is a truly destructive sonic force to be reckoned with by anyone with a predilection towards the heavy/crushing/plodding end of the musical spectrum. Lycus plays melodic, even lush, funeral doom that is as decadently slow as it is calculatedly excessive in its brute heaviness. I think there are still copies of their Demo MMXI tape floating around out there, and if you can grab one, it’s one of the best ways around to spend a few bucks. If not, or whatever, or something, kvlt, uhhh, anyway you can listen to it at their Bandcamp.

Whirl-My friend and I saw this band play live the other day. “They sound like falling in love” was the immediate review. That pretty much sums it up when it comes to SF shoegaze fundamentalists Whirl. They’re overwhelmingly huge; I believe I counted 3 guitarists, a bassist, keyboardist, and drummer. Their pop hooks are so fucking sugary sweet you can’t stop taking them in until you’re in a coma, and they’re too catchy to get out of your brain for more than a few minutes. It’s almost too much, but it’s not, so it’s damn good. Stream their entire Distressor LP at their Bandcamp!

Swamp Witch- If you do drugs and like droning, tortured doom metal, then you’ll probably understand why the concept of chopping and screwing a droning, tortured doom metal track is a thoroughly good one. Swamp Witch has now done us all the courtesy of incarnating that concept as a reality, forever etched into the B side of their debut tape release Gnosis. On the A side, SW lumbers through three massive slabs of humidity-putrefied drone doom for the truly wretched. Tapes just sold out, but the whole A side is streaming at the Swamp Witch Soundcloud and can be downloaded here. The B-side version of the title track, as chopped and screwed by DJ Dreemz, can be found on Youtube.

Connoisseur- Like the finest hardcore bands of the 90’s, Connoisseur’s lyrics speak for themselves in absolute terms. All you need to know is they are straightforward doomy grind with lots of blast beats and slow parts. Now for the quotes:

“What if one day/A burrito ate you?/Think about it.”

“Hand me a beat bong/And pay with your life/Broken glass shards caked in resin…”

“When life has you on the edge/And you think you’re going to fall/Smoke marijuana.”

“I’ve smoked more weed than you’ve/Ever seen in your life/Fuck you…”

Now, look inwards. Based on your reaction to these quotes, you now know whether you like this band. I think they fucking rule, and they’ve started playing new songs live that are above and beyond what’s recorded on the Stoned Back to Life demo whose tracks you can listen to at their Soundcloud. If you’re not high now, you never were.

The Repos/Fourteen or Fight Split (Gloom, 2004)

First of all, can I just comment on how amazing this cover is? I can only say that I wish more hardcore kids were rockin' DIY '70s stoner metal jeans these days instead of crotch-crunching designer denim.

On that note, if you're familiar with this blog, you're familiar with my love of The Repos. Not much to be said about their side: seven retarded, magisterially executed tunes about...uh...whatever.
Not many people outside of Chicago remember Fourteen or Fight, which is a shame. They were just getting started when I began going to DIY shows; I saw them maybe 3 or 4 times. They were great. No fuss, no muss, no fancy art school shit; these guys belted out direct, barebones hardcore with Frank's desperate, earnest vocals cresting the

riffs.

Light up that bong, and dive into this fucked feast from Gloom. It's long out of print...be an aggressive collector, and try EBay.
*EDIT, 9.20.12: REUP is HERE.*

*EDIT, 1.9.14: Re-up'd it again, HERE!* 

Sarongs-s/t CS (Prison Art/Velidox tapes, 2011)

Like the work of DNA, who deconstructed rock 'n' roll into twitching bits and glued it back together with twisted rhumba bridges, Sarongs' first album is a series of precise arguments as much as a collection of songs. Almost unique among the slew of bands that have resurrected no wave in the last few years, Sarongs keeps the distortion to a minimum, and the result is a remarkably versatile album.
"Pedestrians" begins as a fairly straightforward post-punk tune, but chops up into two or three distinct parts. "North Face" jerks the listener in the other direction, into frantic drum fills and yelped vox-the singer sounds like he's trying to jump out and away from the rest of the band, and the song's held in place by the sneering female chorus line. It's like hearing two people get in a screaming match with an epileptic fit going on.

This would be a very boring release if "surf+no wave song arrangements" was the only thing going on here. Not so.  On the last two tracks, "Mineral" and "Goodbye Horses," Sarongs veers into truly fucked, truly evil ground. Using sustained, pulsing guitar, plodding drums, and plaintive vocals, both songs create a distinct sense of lurking menace....like the feeling you get walking home late at night, with someone following you just out of sight.

Sarongs is up to no good on this, and it fuckin' rips. Winter's just around the corner, and this is a good soundtrack to curling up under a filthy blanket with a bottle of peppermint schnapps, hiding from the cold and your demons.
Listen to it and BUY IT here. Check out Prison Art tapes, too.

Brainbombs-Urge to Kill LP (Load, 1999)

"I was a teenage zombie..." pt. 3

My first year of high school was noteworthy for the cast of freaks, druggies, and general n'er do-wells whose constellation I entered immediately upon matriculating from Catholic elementary school. I was a spry young lad with brain cells to spare, and boy, was I sparing with them that first year!
One of these characters, whom I'll be referring to as Ally, was extra-special special. She had arrived in Chicago from Nowheresville, Midwest (i.e., Indiana), and alighted upon my fair 'burg with a vengeance. By which I mean, this girl raided her father's medicine chest each morning for a cocktail of...what didn't she have? Codeine. Valium. Adderal. That antihistamine that rednecks use to make meth. Dayquil. Nyquil. Oh, and just for good measure, a Sunny Delight 20 ounce screwdriver.

Sometimes, Ally would share her bounty with me. One sunny Wednesday morning, we got started early. Popped some Valium at 10 am, an Adderal each at 11, and split the screwdriver over lunch. By 12:30, life was melting all around us. Nothing the teachers said made sense, the other kids kept telling us to stop drooling, and apparently Ally started nodding off in the midst of a chemistry set while I was ranting like a machinegun about Jorg Haider (yes, Jorg Haider). This merry day was brought to an end when Ally swandived into a bleacher during gym class. I made my escape out a back door and spent the rest of the afternoon hiding in the bathroom, mumbling to myself about globalization in a drugged fog.

The Urge to Kill LP is the history of that day on record. I just didn't realize someone had predicted it so accurately, a year before it happened! Listen to this and understand Billy Bao.


Mass murder on a scale you've never seen.  Dee Brainbombs lives here. You can buy this LP here.

*Edit, 12.10.13: I finally got around to re-upping the file. You can now revel in Brainbombs' majesty HERE *

Alone & Forsaken IV: In a lonely place.

 "Hidden cracks that don't show/they just constantly grow..."-Elliott Smith, "2:45'

It's finally almost cold enough to start rockin' ye olde black
leather motorcyle jacket out in these here parts, so it's probably also time for a small dollop of misery to start emanating from yonder mediafire files while you sip some box wine and sink deeper into autumnal malaise, dontcha say?

Enjoy, dear fux.

The Cure-The Hanging Garden
Xeno & Oaklander-Shadow World
The Hands of Cain-In a Dark Cell
Metro Decay-Iaonio (itunes butchered the song title, sorry)
Total Control-Love Performance
Twent Four Hour World K 7
Mushy-Kether
Joy Div-Isolation
Autumn-Not Afraid to Die
Iggy-Tiny Girls
Blank Dogs-Racing Backwards
Maria Minerva-California Scheming
HTRK-Fascinator

Ultratumbados-MMVII demo (2007)

Ultratumbados was just getting started when I left Chicago for sunnier climes, and I only saw 'em a coupletwotree times. They killed it, always.  I first heard them mentioned as "that band that just does Warsaw covers," and they shared members with Population.

This demo contains nary a Warsaw tune, although there is a sick take on my favorite Eskorbuto song. This, their LP-length demo, still surprises me three years later for its snotty, fresh blast of songwriting and how well these guys threw '77 punk and goth into a melodic stew all their own. My faves iz "Soy un Elegido," with its pummeling drumwork, and the hollow guitar tones on "Desnutrido Como un elefante."

Peeps dis shit if you like your punk melodic, your goth rockin', and/or your guitarists large.

Mierda! Only fifty copies of this were made, but contact the band here, and you should be able to find copies of their 7" and, I think, LP(?).

Natural Child-1971 LP (2011)

I should start this review by remarking that, from everything I've read, the early '70s were a remarkably awful period for pop music. There were gems, sure, but I don't really think fetishizing the era of Yes and EMerson, Lake and Palmer makes much sense. Punk happened for a reason, people.

But whatever. This LP is one of my favorite rock albums of the year. Spanning the full spectrum of Stones worship from ballsy swagger ("Hard Workin' Man") to pseudo-tender ballads ("Let it Bleed"), Natural Child is a perfect soundtrack to a nice evening spent reflecting on the deeper mysteries of Wittgenstein's Tractatus while knocking off that bottle of Rebel Yell you've been avoiding for so long.

White boy, this is what I gotta say.... Check out Natural Child's blog  or dis heer to pick up the LP and for tour info.

*By the by-"natural child" was the polite term for "bastard" back in dee day. Are these Natural Children implying they're Keith Richards' unacknowledged progeny?*

Some Velvet Sidewalk-Pumpkin Patch 7" (1991)

Like most people who know of them, I first heard Some Velvet Sidewalk in that grunge documentary, Hype!. Generally I'm not a fan of twee or the whole K Records thing, but SVS burped out some pretty sweet lo-fi slop back in the early '90s. These songs all indulge in some of that infamous K Records cutesiness, but the last one, "The Real World," has one of the most wicked guitar lines I've heard recently.
This is a pretty good accompaniment to a cold, gray fall day (which is what almost every day is like up in Olympia....).

How I wanted to have some fun.... All of SVS's work is out of print, as far as I know, unfortunately.

Opus Null-Dagasztott semmi demo (2011)

Yes, the cover is incredibly retarded, even more so that whatcha usually see here on Drug Punk. Moving past that, this ain't too shabby at all. I know very little about Opus Null; this turned up in my inbox a few weeks ago.
These ten tracks are standard lo-fi punk fare: basic drums, fuzztone guitarlines, chanted lyrics in Magyar. Starting with "Vasutas," they throw in some wicked synth riffing that fleshes out the thrashing quite nicely.
Opus Null isn't the most original band I've ever heard, but so fucking what? I'd listen to this over Youth Attack! mysteriousguycore any day 'o' the week.

Magyar misery. For more info on Opus Null, go here.

The lyrics and song titles are in Magyar, but someone (thank you!) very kindly translated 'em for me-here they are in English, for those who care:

1. Fucking Thomas Joseph

2. ( roughly: someone who participates in public life / something that is a part of the public life )

3. Railroad worker

4. Dear Rousseau

5.Antiage

6.Hello Furkó dot

7. Youngster

8. Fucking Fat ( geci means "cum," but in slang Hungarian uses it as "fucking" is used in English )

9. Szijjas (Proper noun? Roughly it means: someone who has a belt or something that has a belt )

10. Angular momentum

The Band in Heaven-Seven Minutes in Heaven EP (2011)

This is some of the raddest garage psych I've heard all year. "Sleazy Dreams" is a rampaging, precisely honed piece of howling fuzz that grabs attention with a killer guitar line and never lets go.
"If you only knew" jerks you around in another direction altogether; swirling, whirling psychedelica that verges into Brianjonestownmassacre territory...that's how fucking good The Band in Heaven is on this release.

Feels like heaven.... I think this is still available on Norse Korea. You should buy it. Now.

Shoppers-Goodbye to All That. CS (2011)

This is all over the internet, but there's a good chance non-Stateside peeps haven't heard 'em yet, so there ya go. Rochester, New York's Shoppers are one of my top 5 "bands I started listening to this year." Noise punk has been making a a big revival lately, and this tape does have a consistently abrasive tone. But underneath the throbbing itch are melodies and intensely emotional lyrics....no realities of war or free speech for the dumb, here, rather songs about ugly situations and problems with no solution.
In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that Shoppers sound like Rites of Spring, if RoS weren't pseudo-profound mopes, and instead had even an ounce of subtlety.

Hit me harder. I think this cassette is still available from the band, you can contact them here. While you're at it, pick up their debut LP, Silver Year. Majestically trashed, emotional punk (yeah, fuck you, I just used that phrase on Drug Punk!).

TV Girl-S/T EP (2010)

 I'm too hungover and tired to bother review something new today, y'dig?

These are songs about boring hedonism and not givin' a fuck. Best throwaway line: "I smoke a pack of Reds and drink a six pack every day/I wanna stay sane and there ain't no better way...."

When I was younger I used to listen to big important bands like Aus-Rotten and think I identified with their songs. These days, my horizons are a bit narrower...you will love this EP if you've ever woken up dazed and confused on a Sunday morning, with someone you don't recognize next to you in bed....the sex was shit, but it's better'n'nothing, right?

Hahaha. Check out TV Girl's other rad shit at Band camp. Due to possible legal troubles, this one may not be around long, so grab it1

Horrible Houses-Songs for Halloween EP (2011)

ESL [English Second Language] teachers are always told that Scandinavians speak better English than most Americans. Apparently this talent for absorbing things I thought to be essentially Anglophone extends to Americana, too.

The dood who does Horrible Houses is Swedish, but these songs sound like ? and the Mysterians if, instead of hailing from Chicago, they were a bunch of downed-out druggies playing in a Missisippi lounge band ca. 1971. No, not southern rock, but monotonous, droning garage interspersed with shimmery guitar notes, old-timey fiddles, hurdy-gurdys, and found sounds. No context, no flash, just relentless fidelity to the groove.

This is the second Horrible Houses recording I've reviewed for DP, and the project still doesn't make any fucking sense to me. Ironic wink-wink, nudge-nudge? Anarchonistic avant-garde? Uniquely Swedish take on Cpt. Beefheart's ramblings?
You be the judge. Amble on over to dude's band page for contact info, and maybe to find physical copies of his stuff.

Alone & Forsaken III: "God Says 'Fuck You.'"

"All alone. No one to talk to. Come over here so I can talk to you."-Lou Reed, introduction to Please Kill Me

Yup, it's another installment in the chartbusting, record-setting "Alone & Forsaken" series over here at Drug Punk Aitch Kew. This one rides a steady wave of brooding misanthropy until culminating in the gurgling bloody mess that is Billy Bao and Brain Bombs. Electric Eels are almost civilized in comparison!

Get stupid.

The Ramones-Now I wanna sniff some Glue
Negative Approach-Negative Approach
Sex/Vid-Authority of Scripture
Cult Ritual-Hunger Pains
Coughs-Life of Acne
Cold Sweat-Dead End Decision
Flipper-Ever
Blight-Be Stupid
Billy Bao-My Life is Shit
Brain Bombs-Slutmaster
Filth-Today's Lesson
Pigeon Religion-Huge Bummer
Electric Eels-Sewercide
Running-Klassic Rok/Classic 'Ron
Scratch Acid-She Said
Absum-side A of Discography CS

Royal Headache-s/t LP (2011)

"I was a teenage zombie..." pt. 2

...later on that same winter, there was a party at the Black Hole, a filthy apartment in one of Chicago's low-rent districts, with piss-stained couches, empty beer cans everywhere, and massive Confederate flags on display.

I spent much of this party in the corner guzzling Milwaukee's Beast with the anarchapunk girl mentioned in the last post. Shit was goin' good. We talked about Fleas & Lice and vegan recipes for like an hour....ah, youth, eh?

At some point, we adjourned to the beach, because it was obviously a great idea to hang out on the lake at 3 AM in the dead of winter. While the rest of our friends tried to get a joint going in defiance of the wind, I made a move. Total repulsion. "Whoah, what the fuck are you doing?" "Uh...I dunno..." "I can't do this." "Why not?" "Because I have to go on the swing set." And then she sat on the swing for awhile. I think I finished off the night slamming the rest of the Beast while blasting "Realities of War."

I wish that this LP was out then, so I coulda drunk myself into oblivion to it insteada Discharge. Royal Headache wouldn't have made that situation any less retarded, but certainly they'd be a better soundtrack to teenage humiliation. The singer's wistful moan really sticks in your mind after the needle lifts, and the bouncy riffs offset the melancholy under the surface, especially on "Honey Joy," my favest baddest assest track eva.

This is really happening. BUY THE FUCKER! RH is best Aussie band I've heard since Eddy Current Suppression Ring.

*EDIT, 9.7.12: I reupped the file. You can get it HERE. Please keep checking GOner for a re-press, as thing is one of the best rock LPs of recent years, easily,*

*EDIT, 5.31.13: Re'up'd the file. AGAIN. Do Royal Headache the courtesy of buying the LP, which you can do HERE or HERE. You can download the LP, for previewing purposes, HERE.

Das Nembutals-Like a Raging Lebensborn EP (2011)

"I was a teenage zombie..." pt. 1

I spent much of the years 2003-04 drinking bad beer and getting into trouble with a punk crew I shall refer to as the Kids of the Black Hole. Mid-way through the winter, I fell in like with one of the anarchapunks in the crew. She had everything! Silly-colored hair, a bad attitude, and serious drug problems!

The first time we hung out was at a bad loft party somewhere on Chicago's north side. Halfway through a terrible Screeching Weasel cover band, she dragged me into the bathroom. Assuming we were gonna makeout, I was happy as a heroin addict with a fix. That's when she sprinkled some crushed Valium on a bowl fulla weed and started smoking, then handed it to me. After a few minutes of this madness, my head started spinning. As we emerged from the smoke-filled bathroom, we fell over each other and arose to find the cops busting up the party.

My head felt like this EP when I climbed out from under said anarchapunk gal, blitzed on bad weed, worse beer, and crushed downers, to be confronted with some of Chicago's finest: fucked up and painful in a way that made perfect sense. It's a side project from the fine folks who do Piresian Beach.


LISTEN TO IT HERE, fux.