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.

The Repos-S/T LP (2003[?])

Ok, somehow I weaseled my way into a Bologna hotel that's fancy enough to play wanky early-90's Paula Abdul-soundin' R&B lite (gimme Little Richard, mofo!).

It's weird pretending to be a fancyschmancy adult, lemme tell ya-a feeling I'd imagine the Repos know quite well. This band was like someone giving a speech s/he doesn't believe in and-trying to look very serious about it, but can barely keep from cracking up and laughing at themselves. "Look, we're in a hardcore band in 2003! We release records on a label run by an asshole! The joke's on you...and us! Ha! Gimme a beah!

and our figurehead...  This is a Youth Attack! release. Surrender all hope of paying less than what Mark McCoy's farts go for on EBay to get it. So go buy something from THE ROPES. N'duh.

The Repos-Hearts and Heads Explode LP (2006)

"Failure takes a lot of effort so I'm digging half a hole"-The Repos, "Half a Hole"

The Repos were one of the first bands I saw when I got into DIY hardcore in 2002/03. Even as a charming and precocious young lad with bad acne and X'd hands, I was quite impressed by their blitzkrieg bop-they never played a set longer than 11 minutes or so. Their last show in Madison, with Punch in the Face and way too many other awesome bands, was the social event of the year for midwestern lumpen like micelf.
   
Almost a decade later, I'm still listening to them as a morose grad student who watches paint dry when not reading medieval court records. The Repos are perfect for all sorts of drunken oblivion, but especially the slamdancing-around-your-bedroom-in-joy and drunken-nihilistic-torpor types. Nuts to yer "mysterious guy"/YouthAttack fetishism, The Repos were a special sort of smartdumb awesome that only the Midwest is capable of producing. So sit back, crack a six pack, and wait for the punch in the face that is The Repos in all their glory.

Goddam that rotten prison moon. Shit's madmuch outta print (it's a YouthAttack release, whaddayathink?), but the boys are in a new band. Called The Ropes. Sometimes playing Repos songs. If you haven't seen them yet and live in Chicago, you're either in a coma or a fool. While waiting for the next show, check out an interview with The Repos (not the Ropes, mind you).

*EDIT, 9.20.12: REUP is HERE.*

*Edit, 1.9.14: Reup'd it again, HERE.*