DOGFIGHT

I was familiar wit this '90s Minneapolis act by name only for many many years before I heard them. Saw the name around on flyers for missed shows, heard the band mentioned in passing during jaunts through the Midwest, plus Karoline had a gloriously threadbare DOGFIGHT shirt that was a mainstay during the first several years of our marriage before it was deemed a relic. But I believe that my first proper introduction was when I popped this tape in last week. Acquired from the Daniel Gatewood collection two summers ago, I just kept putting this one off, more interested in the things I had never heard of or the things I already knew I liked and wanted to hear more of, DOGFIGHT always slipped into the "listen to this later" category (the scourge of too much stuff and too many tapes, really: the hundreds that are in line, just waiting for love and recognition, constantly pushed to the side and into the shadows by some newer, fresher, cuter kid at the dance...). But, good things come to those who wait (or, in this case, to those who procrastinate), right? I feel like DOGFIGHT couldn't exist in 2017, and if they did, they would be shoved into some obscure art punk subgenre to be celebrate by a criminally small minority of the larger punk scene (cue '90s nostalgia rant here). Lazy and funky freakouts with multiple vocals, a horn section, and songs that are overwhelmingly dominated by furiously clanging and shockingly proficient bass guitar. File alongside SUBMISSION HOLD, DOG FACED HERMANS, CRASS at times, but all of these categorizations only mean that DOGFIGHT was doing their own fucking thing and didn't sound like anything. Which is exactly why this tape hits me just right, even though I'm hearing the band 20+ years after I should have. 

DOGFIGHT

FORMALDEHYDE JUNKIES

You remember the mid 2000s when this band exploded and Andy just wrecked everything in his path with complete disregard for personal safety? I remember that, and it was awesome. Skimming in the wake of those Danish bands who aped everything so precisely in an ocean of full stacks and misanthropy, these dudes were like a fukkn sunrise hurting your eyes so bad you have to look away. Five tracks in five minutes...I want this back.

FORMALDEHYDE JUNKIES

TONGUE PARTY

From play, this one bangs hard. I reviewed this tape in the pages of Maximum Rocknroll a while back, and when I read those words for reference (research is good...sometimes a tape hits me differently on a different day, if I'm in a different mood, or if I am drunk - that's to be expected, right?), and I can't think of anything to say that I didn't cover in that review. So here you go: "I want my independent rock 'n roll music to sound like this. Low end fuzz like THE WHIP, soaring and distant lead vox yearning to break free like DASHER, and a guitar attack that just nails heavy psych-punk. And TONGUE PARTY fukkn jams like a full throttle freight train on wide open tracks. Full cream status. It's over before it really sinks in...so your only option is repeat listens."

TONGUE PARTY

GEIGER COUNTER

Do you remember when I used to post compilation and mix tapes every Friday? Yeah, those things take long time to edit and I'm on fukkn vacation. You know what doesn't take too long to edit? Raging Minneapolis crust. You know what sounds killer while I'm on vacation? Raging Minneapolis crust. You know what GEIGER COUNTER do? They play raging Minneapolis crust. And I thank them for that. 

FEAR TOMORROW

MALA LECHE

Four bursts of Midwest freak punk. You can listen TWELVE times in less than one hour, and I suggest that you do. Because the eighth time "Tracate La Leche" rips through your speakers you will start to feel the change. Inside. And near the end of your hour, on the eleventh "En Celo" listen, everything will become clear. And those last five minutes? The dozenth time these four creamers bang their way into your soul, wild ass keys and mutoid vocals just going nuts? THAT is when you will start to break shit. You will be very efficient. 

MALA LECHE

LEMONADE

The cassette detritus from my visit to Everything Is Not OK2 a couple of weeks back will likely be clogging your RSS feeds for months to come. Punk, contrary to the way too many people treat it, isn't a contest, and the whole weekend was top notch - but of course there were a few sets that really knocked me on my ass. Watching this Minneapolis outfit casually shred the sidewalk in from of a clothing boutique at three in the afternoon...well, that was one of those sets. Fast and furious and wholly unpretentious shit that swings the way few bands can these days, and when the singer took the time to talk to the gathered throngs - the difference between her delivery and the delivery of someone talking at an audience was palpable - you remembered why this punk stuff is so good, so powerful, and so important to so many people. I lost my shit. 

LEMONADE

MARCUS NOISE

The blatantly simple riffs, the funky drum beat, the gruff neighborly vocals...the prevalence of SubPop sounds (and, to a lesser extent, the desire for what was perceived as SubPop success) had a massive impact on underground scenes in the early '90s. Some people surely saw it as little more than another progression, a new interpretation of loud music that was rooted in another old interpretation of heavy music...for others it was their initial gateway into something other than radio rock (ironic, since it's closer to radio rock than most other brands of "underground" music - probably why it so quickly became radio rock). I suppose I was somewhere in the middle, but my musings only relate to MARCUS NOISE anecdotally. So many moments on this 1992 demo are perfectly engineered for the time, straddling Northwest aggression and Midwest pre-emo DIY....it sounds dated the minute you press play, but I suggest working through that and getting to tracks like "Breakneck" (odd that my initial go-to is an instrumental, but it's the jammer here) and "Choke" and listen to why so much of the '90s nostalgia and rehash is, in fact, justified. But I contend that this stuff was so accidental that the rehashes are rarely more than a tiny notch above cringe worthy...I mean, I want to hear something as unexpected as the end of "If Glass Was Broken" today, I just don't want it to sound contrived.

OPEN YOUR EYES, AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH

HIVE

I played in a band called MALACHI towards the end of my stint in Milwaukee - fun band with a stellar bunch of folks...played a dozen shows in our hometown, hit Europe for three weeks in 2009 and then called it a day as the members gradually relocated (not all of us - Russell still lives in The Promised Land).  One of the two guitarists was a cat named Dathan (ex-SKULLTIME, ARCHITECTS OF THE AFTERMATH), who lived in Panama for a year(ish?) and then split for Minneapolis, where he started a band called HIVE (with some other people from bands with a way higher profile than our little outfit ever mustered). Quintessential epic crust...riffs for days, a constant low end heavy chug, and a singer with a rasp well worthy of the Northwest elite. If nothing else, HIVE stands out for the intensity and speed they bring to the game - even the slower, more melodic bits ("Reversal Of Fortune") will have you clenched tight...the knife edge that this band straddles creates a legitimate tension with even a casual listen. Comparisons aren't really necessary, but if you monkeys like the sound of a black clad apocalypse with full stacks, then here you go. Thanks for the envelope, Dathan...the rest of you should thank him too.

 HIVE

LISTEN UP!

Killer, if fully predictable, Midwest hardcore. The shit is built for dog piles and the breakdowns are textbook entry level hardcore. Perfectly placed gang vocals belt out cringe worthy lyrics...it's kinda great.

LISTEN UP!

PRAXIS

The first thing you have to do is get past the thwapping paddle boat sound of the bass drum. As soon as you do that, you'll be able to sink your teeth into some seriously brutal early '90s communist crust from St. Paul, Minnesota. Ultra low end vocals grunt and growl while the band churns their way through three tracks of the heaviest caliber - primitive death metal stripped of all schlock and reduced to its purest (and ugliest) form. Lyrics and info are included with the music file to remind you that these dudes are not fucking around...the third and final tracks here is a fukkn crusher. So get crushed.

Kb CHETY - TOWARDS THE LIGHT

NO MORE

No more brutality. No more murder. No more getting away with it because you're a cop. We keep saying the same things over and over again, yes....but we keep saying the same things because the things are still fukkd. I'm a grown ass man, and I teeter between complete disillusion and complete fury. This demo is really good, and I need this.

XNO MOREX

CONDOMINIUM

Listen to this shit. Minneapolis' CONDOMINIUM were a hardcore band way ahead of the curve when this demo dropped in 2008 - simple and rambunctious with classic USHC vocals and riffs galore. There were two 45s that followed this demo and set the groundwork for a band that has sporadically cranked out some incredibly good records. Four songs here, rawer and more driving than most of their vinyl output, but no less compelling - from a great hardcore demo to a really great guitar driven band. It's music that you understand, but you keep listening because it's good and because it sounds new. Accolades of the highest order.

CONDOMINIUM

Members of DOLPHIN and QUESTION, so those who know me know that I was biased before the first note. But I was also not disappointed.

ELFTENBERRY

My guess is that this 1991 demo was meant to rocket some midwestern outfit into the college rock stratosphere. It might have fallen a little short in that department (though, to be honest, the name probably held them back as much as anything else), but this is quality early '90s guitar driven alt rock with more than enough punk and weird to keep it interesting. See early FLAMING LIPS and SOUL ASYLUM for references.

PUPPET CRUNCH

WORK. SLEEP. DIE.

Grindcore from Canada and the USA...that should really all you need, but in the interest of comprehensive coverage I'll delve a little deeper. Some of it sounds neurotic (PIZZA HI FIVE, COKSKAR, LT. DAN), some of it is just all out manic grind (NIMBUS TERRIFIX, P.L.F.), some of is is noisy and weird (DISLEKSIK, HITOKIRI), some of it will change your mind about grindcore (COOKED AND EATEN, TU SUFRES), some of it is raw (SIX BREW BANTHA, PAUCITES), and some of it is just great (ARCHAGATHUS, OBACHA). I don't know if you need Introductory Grind 101, a refresher course or a swift kick in the ass, but there are no duds on this comp. Even if the noise bursts from YOSO MONO are my favorite tracks....

WORK. SLEEP. DIE.

TRIAL

They don't really seem to make this kind of hardcore anymore. Metallic riffing and tones, stylistically leaning towards the New York brand SXE but with a determination seemingly unearthed primarily in Midwestern basements. The solo in "Security" reminds me of later SUICIDAL, and even though this 1991 demo sounds dated...I miss this.

TRIAL

CROSSCURRENT

Burly and raw Midwest straight edge from the early '90s, there are only three songs on this tape but CROSSCURRENT dish out pure perfection. The metal that eventually corrupted so much 'core in the '90s is certainly present here, but in it's primitive state the influence just kicks the hardcore in its ass. Vocals are flawless for the style and the politics are as evident as the power, even on such a short tape.

CROSSCURRENT

I'm straight and clean and I'm proud of myself

TOTAL TRASH

These maniacs sent me their second tape a few weeks ago and as much as I was smitten by the wash of noise on that first release, the mask of screeching distortion has been (at least partially) removed here to reveal pure and brilliant songs. Shades of '90s Gravity Records, a childlike admiration for SONIC YOUTH and adolescence spent listening to Midwestern hardcore and East Bay punk...these are all things that I imagine helped create TOTAL TRASH, but the band could just as easily be an earnest and filthy modern grunge/indie outfit cranking everything up louder than it should be...or a perfect accident.  You Don't Try is infinitely cleaner than last year's self titled release, but these hooks are still being bashed out with the subtlety of a jackhammer - and yet still the hooks are there. "Daddy Imarichgirl" is faster and more intent this time, while "Bugz" is the hit, a dreamy upbeat and hopelessly infectious number with off kilter (and ever so slightly off key) vocals that is followed by most determined and angry dirge that TOTAL TRASH have offered up thus far to close out the tape. All of it was good last time...it's better this time.

WE DON'T TRY

Good way to get your shit noticed when mailing it to Terminal Escape HQ? Make it look like this:

BRAIN TUMORS

I don't always make good decisions. Like there was the time that BRAIN TUMORS played in San Francisco, probably with some other bands that I really like. I didn't go to the show, I did something else instead (I was probably working about two blocks from this particular venue). But since I don't even remember what I was doing instead and I do remember that I didn't see BRAIN TUMORS, then clearly I made a bad decision that day. It's cool though, because I have this demo and on other days since the day of the BRAIN TUMORS show that I missed I have probably made some pretty good decisions. 

BRAIN TUMORS

And speaking of bad decisions, some dude in Santa Cruz is having a show today with ABSURDO, CONQUEST FOR DEATH, DIE HARD, REPLICA, NO STATIK, FAMILY STONED.

In his apartment.

STRAY BULLETS

Our shows in Minneapolis in the mid-90s were always kinda weird. We got the impression that no one liked our band - we weren't even 10% as punk as these people were and our brand of hardcore was lightyears from the Profane Existence crust assaults that were synonymous with the Twin Cities (and on one tour in 1995 we had pink patches...if you've been to Minneapolis, then you know how ridiculous that must have been, and I assure you it was even more ridiculous than you think it was). But somehow the shows were still good, and we were treated like fukkn kings while we were there (I realize in hindsight that we were simply treated like punks treat touring bands when they have the means and actually give a shit, and I definitely used the shows we had there as a model when we started hosting bands en masse), and even though everyone looked like apocalypse punks. the bands were not all crust warriors (there's more to Minneapolis than MISERY, it seems). I can't remember if we played with them there or if I saw them on tour elsewhere in the States, but I unearthed this STRAY BULLETS demo a few weeks back - I probably hadn't listened to it in well over a decade and I was floored. If I called this pop punk then I wouldn't be lying, but I assure you that there are the fukkn punks, and I still see Talon cruising around SF these days and he is still punker than most motherfuckkrs that collect mp3 files (not you, I mean the other people who frequent Terminal Escape, you are punk as fukk). Talon's vocal snarls are worthy of far more attention than they have ever received, and "Down The Drain" is the catchiest song you will hear all damn day - if the chorus doesn't hook you then the guitar lick surely will. It's a story of a bunch of shit that doesn't make any sense - a bunch of squares from Oklahoma, a pop punk band dressed like Mad Max, a shitload of crusties making everyone food and giving us beer and being ridiculously nice...basically this tape is about good times and great memories and friendships (even if they are casual) that will last a lifetime. Punk rules, ok?

STRAY BULLETS

IMPETUS INTER

Quite some time ago, I heard that the guitarist from DESTROY was in this band who were totally different from DESTROY (I think someone told me they sounded like RITES OF SPRING, which I guess I can kinda see but probably wouldn't make the comparison myself). So I checked them out and the LP sounded like late '80s DC manifested as Midwestern '90s basement rage. I liked it, and I still do. Nearly two decades later I play in a band with that guitarist, and our short tour is over tonight, so there you go.

IMPETUS INTER