P.S. Eliot-Introverted Romance in Our Troubled Minds LP (2009)

I'm posting this not out of a sense of obligation, or because it popped up in my inbox, but because this band is great and, although P.S. Eliot called it quits last year, they embody so much of what I love about punk, and loved when I was a 13-year-old rockin' out to Bane, and still, as an utterly nihilistic 26-year-old, want to believe in.

As far as I can remember, my 13-year-old self was into anarchy, feminism, youthful emotions, and a whole lot of insanity. Spilling yer guts to that special someone on a moonlit night in July. Drunkenly burbling out your emotions to yer friends as they patiently nod and sip on their .40s. Slam-dancing passionately, ignoring the hipster shitbirds who look at you reprovingly.

Yeah, P.S. Eliot, bad band name aside, sum up all of this residual level of emotions that still inhabit every punk album I listen to. DIG IT or forever find yourself asking why your high-school crush hates you. Lyrics lives heer.

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.

Pink Reason-By a Thread 7" (2007[?])

 "Dope is just pot for people who wanna be hardcore"-Kevin Failure

've you ever had one of those nights where you go to bed at 5 am and wake up at 8 am 'cause you're still so drunk that you not only can't get to bed, but can't even lie on your back without getting the 'spins?
  This little three-song baby is the soundtrack to the day following that night. The first song, "by a thread," is tinny, relentless, and catatonic to the point that the only appropriate response is to sit there in a drunken stupor, numbly nodding along to the bangclang in yer brain.

"The Devil Always Wins" is pretty much our anthem over here at Drug Punk. For a guy whose work ostensibly owes so much to Russian punk, Kevin Failure fucking nails the sort of acapella Delta Blues stomp you'd expect to hear on one of those Smithsonian Angola Work Camp comps. Play this one when noon strikes and you're just sober enough to start piecing together how many friendships you destroyed last night.
   "Down on Me" returns to the abject, thudding spiral of "By a Thread." There's an element of warmth to this song though-maybe its the Vicodin inertia of Kevin Failure's voice. Then around 2:45 the whole song temporarily shifts into scroll-saw hell before settling back down into its static haze.
    So if you're having one of those Sunday mornings where you don't even want to be able to put together a coherent thought for fear of what you'll remember, throw "By a Thread" on and revel in your own slime.

A cheap holiday in other peoples' misery.

*EDIT, 9.15.12: I reup'd the file. Download BAT HERE. *

This thing is long out of print. But check out this interview! 

Then, mosey on over to the good folks at Siltbreeze, and buy Pink Reason's magnum opus, Cleaning the Mirror.