ONLY TEN BETWEEN US

Positive hardcore doesn't necessarily have to be all slick and polished...in fact, I kinda prefer the shit to be a little rough around the edges. Iowa's ONLY TEN BETWEEN US can maybe use a little sanding (and a little tuning), but fukk their raw ass '80s guitar and constantly cracking and creaking teenage vocals go a long long way towards making me not give half a shit how rough this demo sounds.  The riffs are basic but good, the attack teeters on chaos in (almost) the same way as a certain late '90s LA band did on their first EP, and the melodic leads are endearing (even if they put a time stamp on the demo). "INAA" is the killerest track - "I'm not afraid anymore!!!" is a great way to open a track. Get into it, sing along, jump on the dogpile in your mind while they sing about the joys of believing in positivity, even when staring at life's of grim realities like in "Yeah Right, That Kid Fucking Jumped". It'll put a smile on your haggard ass face.

YUOUTH POSI SNACK ATTACK

I don't care if you're from the other side // All I care is that you've got HARDCORE PRIDE

NERV

There was a house show in Oakland a couple of weeks ago. A lot of cool bands, bands people were excited about for various reasons - some justified and some superficial. The show was a killer; eight bands, I was on my way home before 11pm, and even the worst band I saw that night was pretty damn good. But there was a band from Iowa on the show that no one was talking about, a band who only a handful of people seemed interested in, a band that wasn't wearing cool punk uniforms...a band that absolutely leveled the joint. I've babbled about NERV here before, and I was quite excited to see them live, but I was fukkn floored and couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Simply put: This is what I want from hardcore! Bare bones, completely honest almost to the point of self deprecation, fast as shit and songs that grab you and force you to engage. Heavy on the '80s Midwest hardcore influence (I'm talking Touch & Go, early Chicago), this is raw and completely unpretentious with manic jams that seem to give zero fukks about current rehash trends and knuckle dragging Oi! riffs repackaged as hardcore (a trend that I fully back, for the record). Listen to the drums hesitate and lurch into the full speed strained vocal attack of "Bug," the single note riffing that starts "Shut-In," the guitar break in "Dig A Hole"...these dudes so casually pack so much power into eight minutes that it's kinda unreal. Their new single is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. And for the record, the rest of the show was really fukkn good and I had a blast, but no one touched NERV that night. 

I don't know who I am // I don't know where I stand

NERV 3

Find NERV and other shockingly good sounds from Iowa here. Seriously.

NERV

If this one looks familiar then you are paying attention. Here's what I said about this cassette in my post last September:

Iowa ain't a hotbed for hardcore killers. I came from Oklahoma, not exactly punk's ground zero, but Iowa? Shit is rough. Perhaps NERV are trying to go back in time and rewrite their state's hardcore legacy, and if that's the case then this demo is a great start. Screaming hardcore ripped right out of the backwards attitudes that dominated '80s Midwestern culture. This is teenage anger dished out in sub-minute bursts - addictive riffs bashed out at a frenetic pace and frustrated vocals barely keeping it together. The guitar leads alone make this worth the price of admission, nine songs in as many minutes. Maybe my opinions about hardcore in The Hawkeye State are worth reconsidering.

And then I got an email from Joe a few days ago. Joe took exception to me seemingly clearing Iowa off the punk map and he let me know that Iowa's hardcore legacy did not need any rewriting. As proof, Joe included a link to a CD comp he made spanning Iowa punk and hardcore from 1983-2013. While there are a few bands I recognize (FORCED EXPRESSION, TEN GRAND, SONG OF ZARATHUSTRA, BLACK MARKET FETUS and MODERN LIFE IS WAR should all be relatively familiar names), there are 30 bands on this comp and the vast majority were new to me - and awesome. A healthy helping of the '90s pre(and proto)screamo the Midwest and Plains were so good at cranking out (ECLIPSE OF EDEN, THE KINSHIP, IN LOVING MEMORY..., SWING BY SEVEN), some weird shit (PATRICK SWAYZE'S GHOST, LOS VOLTAGE), some terrifying hardcore (TOO PURE TO DIE, AGRESS, APPROACHING NAIN, OMENS) and a killer cross section of newer ferocious punk bands (NERV, BIG BOX, SUPERSONIC PISS). I missed some, to be sure, but since I mentioned punk "history," I gotta talk about the five bands from the '80s....every single one of these tracks is an absolute stunner. ABCESS (Midwest hardcore punk madness), PREACHERS (totally demented and furious), PENT-UP AGGRESSION (this is Killed By Hardcore perfection), STIFF LEGGED SHEEP (nasty blown out hardcore)....and then there's HUMAN ERROR. The 61 seconds that make up HUMAN ERROR's "Mig 21" are simply insane; MOB 47 by way of THE FIX, and every bit jaw dropping as either. Seriously. Maybe you're too cool to admit that METH AND GOATS are punk, but I can assure you that this HUMAN ERROR track with blow the fukkn doors off of whatever you thought Iowa was capable of. 

NERV

And so I included Joe's comp in the file that contains Joe's band NERV. You can also get it directly from him, via the excellent Iowa Hardcore blog, and you can blast the new NERV EP here. I assure you that this too, is awesome. Being set straight has never sounded so good.

NERV

Iowa ain't a hotbed for hardcore killers. I came from Oklahoma, not exactly punk's ground zero, but Iowa? Shit is rough. Perhaps NERV are trying to go back in time and rewrite their state's hardcore legacy, and if that's the case then this demo is a great start. Screaming hardcore ripped right out of the backwards attitudes that dominated '80s Midwestern culture. This is teenage anger dished out in sub-minute bursts - addictive riffs bashed out at a frenetic pace and frustrated vocals barely keeping it together. The guitar leads alone make this worth the price of admission, nine songs in as many minutes. Maybe my opinions about hardcore in The Hawkeye State are worth reconsidering.

DIE

UTOPIA PARK

An about face from yesterday's primitive thrash metal assault, but still no closer to the studded jacket wearing, pogo inducing insanity that keeps you coming back for more, I present you with 20+ minutes of glorious drum machine driven pop music. UTOPIA PARK are from Iowa, and create this wonderful soaring sound that takes me back to Restless-era FLAMING LIPS while reminding me how I felt when I first heard ANDREW W.K. without doing anything in particular to sound like either. It's hard to take them seriously, but it's also hard to not get into it...so I find it easiest to not resist. Special award for the weirdest MISFITS cover I've ever heard.

UTOPIA PARK