FACE TOMORROW

Perfectly executed and determined positive Y2K//SXE hardcore from Seattle. Of course, you would have guessed that if you had read the "Rain City Straight Edge" thing on the cover. Moshes on point, breakdowns on lock, cheat beat fastcore parts dialed in. It's all of the things, you know? And some of you....some of you know exactly what I mean. 

RAIN CITY STRAIGHT EDGE

HERE

NOWHERE MEN

DC based two man recording project...snotty hardcore with a few detours that are easier to embrace when there's only one person writing the songs (I'm talking about the NINE POUND HAMMER-esque untitled second track...though that one could be a cover that I don't recognize because I'm not cool). One demo in 2014...and thanks to the internet it will live on forever in the ether...instead of in a show box in some kids closet waiting to be "discovered" like the '80s versions of projects like this one. 

NOWHERE MEN

WHITE WARDS

Y'all don't really need a lesson on this, do you? Washington state mutant hardcore kids, though they done growed up years ago. Blown to shit KEXP recording, I can only hope that some 30something who thought they were gonna jam some public radio on a Saturday evening got an earful and turned this shit off as soon as Joey urped up at the beginning of "Lot Lizards." This shit is ugly, my friends. (you're welcome)

WHITE WARDS live on KEXP

PUBLIC SUICIDE

This 2013 demo is the most glorious collision of early '00s fastcore, ugly '90s SoCal powerviolence and boys making dogpiles all over other boys in the spirit of East Coast hardcore. PUBLIC SUICIDE hit all of the buttons, they flip every switch. And they turn all of those switches to the "ON" position. Five tracks, 4 minutes and 14 seconds - and 64 of those seconds are the instrumental intro. It's so simple, there's no reason it should be this good.....and yet it is totally this good. 

PUBLIC SUICIDE

MISLED YOUTH

You already know about this shit, right? I mean, both of the singles are straight screamers, but you might have let the demo slip by you since it came out a few years earlier. Don't fret, I'm here to help. Now, enjoy this healthy slab of harDCore. 

MISLED YOUTH

SOGGY CREEP

I woke up today with the first track from the SMOKERS demo implanted in my head. Naturally it came up on my "random" shuffle during my commute (because, the universe...obviously), ensuring that I would be humming "it kinda defeats the purpose..." all damn day. But as soon as that song was finished, I thought about this demo from Olympia's SOGGY CREEP....there's something so plainly good about this shit. Moody, driven rock music of the highest caliber that would have fit in nicely in my early '90s rotation before I fell hopelessly down the hardcore rabbit hole. This banger is from 2014, and I recommend their subsequent releases just as highly.

WORRY LINES

MAGGOT MINDED

Hard to comprehend that the seeds of the current (and now, I suppose, recently past?) crop of mutant hardcore in and around Olympia, Washington were planted more than a decade ago. But alas, it was 2006 when we shared a mobile home with WHITE BOSS at a show that ended with a massive trash fire out back and chants of "MEGA! MEGA! MEGA!" as freeks threw compressed combustibles into the blaze. Low fidelity reality from the radical libertarian void, circa 2007: SEX VID, SISTER, FUNEROT, HIV, HORRIBLE, and LOOSE CHANGE. Pull up your trousers.

MAGGOT MINDED

COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON

Another in the long list of under appreciated bands that The Escape enthusiastically celebrates, Seattle's COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON has dropped some serious tonnage during their run. Like a rabid pack of wolves, they charge at your earholes from the first "go" and never let up, subtle melodies lurking under gritty buzzsaw guitars and fierce dual vocals, while a driving snare batters relentlessly. Epic light speed hardcore/crust with all of the teeth that you need and none of the trappings that keep getting the subgenre dismissed by flavor of the month naysayers....(don't get me wrong, sometimes the flavor of the month can be delicious too, but you get my point).

TURN INTO SHADOWS

DREAMDECAY

I mean...you guys all know about this shit already. Right? Because you should. If you don't....? Well then now you do and you no longer have an excuse. So there.

F.R.A.N.K.

THE PINK BOLTS

Full on, flesh out Valley Girl-era new wave creamers from 2016? Fukkn sign me up, you monkeys. I have no idea what the agenda is here, but holy shit do these two tracks (yeah, it's a cassingle) hit the mark. Synth punks get ready to wring out your panties, and retro geeks start taking notes, because this shit is about two steps short of Game Over. I'm almost glad there are just two, because perfection is a tough thing to fukk with. 

SEX GYM b/w I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE ME

MYSTERIOUS SKIN

Snagged this in February at the Still Not Quiet On The Western Front gig in San Francisco. Smart, ripping hardcore from Seattle who are even better than this (excellent) cassette would lead you to believe. The only thing missing from these six songs is the attitude that they project on stage - fierce and hard blasting '10s hardcore rage with just a tender touch of early SoCal seeping out of the riffs. Not very much...just enough. Break shit.

HARD GRIP

NASTI

Snotty snarling hardcore with a sleazy garage rock presentation. Saw these fools in Oklahoma earlier this year and they killed - was not at all disappointed by this tour demo, but I confess that the Ex-Static tape is even better. Three tracks here, and one of them is a POISON IDEA cover...I steer you wrong so rarely, so just do the thing, ok?

THE TOUR TAPE 2016

THICK SKIN

DC fukkn exploded a few years ago - I know, it's not like shit ever really died there, it's just that the crop of new bands was exceptional...and there were a lot of them. This cassette compiled two recording sessions (the only two?) from THICK SKIN, rabid hardcore/PV with fierce breakdowns and relentless fast bursts...and check the guitar wanking on the intro to "Stress Related Aneurysm.". Simple, to the point, and damn near perfect.

THICK SKIN

OUTLOOK

It's always possible that my historical recollections are a little off, but I place OUTLOOK at the crest of the wave of Olympia punk that has crashed down on the rest of us for the last several years. Urgent hardcore, notable both for Adriana's vocals and guitars brutalize riffs and leap up for quick licks when appropriate. Check the backing vox on "Not In My Name" and realize that these kids always seemed to roll with a crew, so that even when they were in your town, half the sea of mutants up front would know every tempo change and every word...then listen to "Dead Peasants" and realize that OUTLOOK were lightyears beyond basic. The vinyl releases are also recommended...

VISION

THE ACCÜSED

1987 recording of tracks that would be included on the More Fun Than An Open Casket Funeral full length. Fast, anxious crossover thrash from a band at their absolute prime - when these dudes were firing on all cylinders the result was scary. Worth noting that this is presented as a four song promo, one of which is scrawled out by hand on the cover...but there are five songs. Hey man, beer helps.

4-SONG PROMO

MORDANT

I was excited but hesitant when I first put this one in....I am friends with a member of the band, and didn't know they played music until MORDANT started up. So I probably waitied longer than I should have to dive into this tape (I mean, what if it was a stinker and I ran into my pal in public and they asked my opinion.....? hashtag: awkward), but even on my most enthusiastic day I could never have imagined that MORDANT would be this incredible. Eschewing virtually every modern hardcore trapping imaginable, they channel mid '90s chaotic emotional hardcore flawlessly...and my jaw is on the floor. Because they don't just embody the sounds (which they do really well, by they way); the tension is there, the intensity is there...they just fukkn nail it. Mostly high end vocals try so hard to give up but they keep getting pushed ever further, scattered and manic structures that are ruled by constantly meandering bass lines and a guitar assault that holds nothing back. Guitar/vocal combo in "Ruined Machine" reminds me of MILEMARKER, the subtle bass octave drop in "Justines Of The World: Unite" is indescribably perfect....and the whole fukkn thing reminds me of ONE EYED GOD PROPHECY. Do you have any idea how many times I have thought or said that I wanted bands to start trying to sound like ONE EYED GOD PROPHECY instead of primitive knuckle dragging hardcore? A lot of times....so many times. So yeah....thanks, MORDANT.

MORDANT

ODD MAN OUT

Devastating Washington state hardcore combining vigilance and determination with intelligence and serious riffs. Fists clenched from start to finish, aside form a portion of "XXX" this is a pure primal churn from start to finish. From the Olympia/Seattle family that's brought you a bunch of bands that you already love...now listen to "Pound For Pound" and punch a hole in the wall.

ODD MAN OUT

ACCÜSED

1987 collection of outtakes and live tracks from a band that should need little introduction. If you are like me and think that Martha Splatterhead is "fine" and More Fun Than An Open Casket Funeral is actually not really essential at all, then I suggest you get into this cassette immediately. As the title suggests, these bangers all pre-date their first studio platter, and everything contained in this plastic shell is fukkn gold. The later stuff here flirts with the crossover/thrash they would become famous for, but way more punk tracks then I was expecting (foolish, I realize, given the timeline of these recordings). So yeah, I shouldn't have to talk about the band, because you already know them - you just might not have known that they were this good. That's why I'm here...you're welcome.

THE ARCHIVES TAPES 1981-86

Was it colored by hand...? Maybe.

EYE OF NIX

Sometimes it's best to not describe things, but to just be blown away by them. Seattle's EYE OF NIX are a truly unique combination, a swarm of gloom and sound fronted by pure power. So heavy...and so weird.

EYE OF NIX

PURE DISGUST

Just one of the killer DC demos I snagged on the NO STATIK tour last winter. I remember holding up the stack and Nick just went "That's 2013, a year of DC hardcore," and he was right. Not a clunker in the bunch (NUCLEAR AGE and CORRECTION have already stopped by The Escape), and each one has a slightly different feel - as if the same crew of kids tried to make each of their bands distinct. So I guess PURE DISGUST is the kinda street punk/hardcore hybrid, with marbly vocals and amped up Oi! riffing (things that go together extremely well, apparently). Five bangers in under eight minutes, and the intro "Blind To Race" smokes anything on Don't Forget The Struggle, Don't Forget The Streets (which I listened to for the first time ever tonight on my way home from work - true story, good record), while the second half of the song goes somewhere...well, somewhere else.

PURE DISGUST

Apologies for the fuckup on yesterday's NO STAND CREW link, even Wizards make mistakes. 

It has been repaired.