SKIN GRAFT

An early portal into the world of cripplingly prolific noise artist SKIN GRAFT, these two tracks take you on a 30 minute journey through ambient field recordings, subdued but harsh industrial and manipulated electronics. Rather than a slap to the face, 2007's Drug Addict drags you through the slog and pulls you under layers of sound until it feels like your drowning so that even 12 minutes into the first track, when the sound starts to release its hold, I find myself bound even tighter. This is lights-off-music, and among the first of many dozens of SKIN GRAFT releases over the last decade...like a premonition of dark Future Times. 

DRUG ADDICT

SLUGBUGS

Freaked out weirdo synth slogs from a crew of Ohio mutants who seem to have dished out two demos a coupla years back and then just slurked of into the mist. TAPEWORM level outsider vibe on these four cuts, the longest of which clocks in around 1:12 (after the intro). Get it. 

WANNA BE SLUGBUGS?

FIZZED

It's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and there's a heat wave taking over one third of these United States. Political turmoil abounds, food riots in Venezuela, BRExit looms, refugees in the so-called third world take minds off of throngs of homeless in the world we call our own...and yet the thought of sitting in the shade with a cocktail seems like it might just solve everything. And with the right soundtrack, it just might...at least for a little while. Equal parts VELVET UNDERGROUND, JOY DIVISION and MERCURY REV, if you mind is ready, then Ohio's FIZZED are going to suit you perfectly. 

1st

MOLLUSK // STORMBREWER

Two Ohio two pieces join forces on this collosal split. I mean, like, a really really huge sounding release. MOLLUSK is imposing and desperate, slow motion intimidation so massive and so peaked that you'd never miss the bass. STORMBREWER are on a sludgier trip - a little more groove, and little more swing, and a throat baring intensity from the vocals - use FLOOR as a comparison and you'll be in the right neighborhood. My first taste of either band...dreadful stuff.

MOLLUSK // STORMBREWER

LIQUID DRAINO

This is an aural time warp as much as a demo. Dayton, Ohio's LIQUID DRAINO sound like a combination of mid '80s Dischord, 7 SECONDS, and the collective DIY punk output in the year 1990. This shit fits so perfectly in my ears...even the almost ska-meets-"Miserlou" instrumental "Dinosaurs." There are some sure individual winners ("Dinosaurs," "Blow Up The World" - the singer's chuckle at the 1:02 mark is perhaps my favorite part of the tape), but the entire tape is fukkn great, and "Innocence" is a track to be played on repeat for hours on end...if you want to stay punk forever, that is. I do. And I hope that the "kids" who wrote the words below 25 years ago had some clue how much an old ass man was going to love singing them in the future. 

OOPS! ANOTHER DAY.

You threaten us with your "real world"

well this is as real as it gets

pushed in a different state of mind

trying not to forget

all of the worries and all of the fears

and all of those wasted years

I won't forget the pain...of being innocent

*********

just kids...living our lives

just kids....wondering why

just kids...we're just kids

SHREDDED NERVE

An incredibly difficult to digest collection of tracks from SHREDDED NOISE. I am inclined to believe that the folks at Chondritic Sound issued this 40 minute release as two cassettes simply because devouring the aptly titled Failing To Maintain in one sitting might drive you mad. Electronic chaos and pseudo-rhythmic industrial damage combine forces here in the most gloriously cacophonous manner. Not for the weak.

FAILING TO MAINTAIN

SHREDDED NERVE

2014 brought me two fantastic releases from Cincinnati's SHREDDED NERVE, both on the Chondritic Sound label. Hanging In The Balance is a collection of loops, audio collages and aural manipulations that transform into cascades of lurching sound. Even when SHREDDED NERVE approach crescendos, the delivery is still hesitant, preventing any comfort whatsoever for you, my dear listener. "Left In Capable Hands" is the most cacophonous, and there are two breathy respites following each of the tape's anchor pieces. Perhaps best suited for intent listening...

HANGING IN THE BALANCE

DANG OLSEN

I'm not sure what kind of shit you find on your street but, one morning in 2012 when I was walking to the bus stop, I found this DANG OLSEN cassette sitting on some yuppie endorsed seating area that should have been a parking space for a working stiff that probably had to park two blocks from her/his house. I didn't know what it was, but it was a tape....so I picked it up, because why would you leave a tape sitting on the street? (found a Jonathan Richman record there a few weeks later that I snagged and then sold on the internet for $20 to a guy who said he "knew me," so thanks, seating area) Turns out the sounds are solid as fukk ambient/synth/psych pieces with forays into goth (#07) and straight atmospheric noise (#12/13) that are every bit as successful as the more "normal" sounding tracks - and how much would I love an entire release based on that first track (#01) and its aggressive synth attack? So Much! The street giveth, my followers....the street giveth. Good Fortune Infinity is right, motherfukkrs...look to the street. (Also, #4 is absolute fukkn bliss.)

GO ASTRAL

I know nothing about this creator...but I want to know more.

BLACK DOVE

There were a handful of really killer mid '00s bands that might have slipped by those who didn't live in the upper Midwest - East Coast tour circuit.  I probably saw FIGHTING DOGS a dozen times and they were always crushing...but how many people in California talk about them today? Same goes for Ohio's BLACK DOVE; powerful and infectious low end hardcore with a touch of the melodies that were perhaps too common at the time (and perhaps not common enough today?) and a glorious metallic churn on the mid tempo bits. The songs are expertly constructed, the combination of riffs will make the nerds keep rewinding to figure out what just happened...it's easy to puke up verse/chorus/repeat over and over again, while BLACK DOVE cram six different parts into a two minute hardcore banger without sounding like they're even trying. First 80 seconds of "Black Doves" might be all you need to make it through a tough day....now I need to dig up a DISMAL demo.

BLACK DOVE

This self titled demo is from 2005, and the tracks also appear on their excellent 2008 full length. Members went on to NUKKEHAMMER, VILE GASH, TOMES and many others.

SPINE SCAVENGER

A welcome Chondritic Sound reissue of SPINE SCAVENGER's 2008 cassette release, Pigs. The 14+ minute title track alone is a mind melting exercise in sound - layers of monotonous synths assaulted by waves of noise, descending into sparse analog manipulations. The remaining missives are like an extended cool down from the opening composition, more reserved and almost soothing...until "The Embryo" scrapes nine minutes of looped abrasion across your face. The sound is primitive, the execution is superb.

PIGS

TOUGHSKINS

There aren't even words for how good this is. SOCKEYE dudes incarnated as an Oi! band gone knuckledragging metal...and yeah, it's as good as you think want it to be. Of course it is. 

RUMBLE STILTS SKIN

Kindly get the fuck out of my way ma'am, so I can enjoy Oi! music like a fukkn man

I'd ask you to come too, but your brain ain't fully formed

I can fukkn tell cuz your head isn't shaved - Oi!

- "Date With Oi!"

Physical copies from Rescued From Life

BOMB BUILDER

One of the more underrated bands from the crop of Ohio '00 maniacs that brought us 9 SHOCKS, GORDON SOLIE, INMATES, MIDNIGHT and heaps of others. This five song banger takes Thrash2K energy and shoves it into the face of rampaging Japanese hardcore, and it's every bit as blistering as it should be considering the personnel involved. Shawn gave me this tape (I think on the Start Something tour in '01, but I might be wrong) and it fukkn leveled me...the EP is good (and too often looked over), but this thing makes my head spin.

DEEMO '01

CRUELSTER

You can't make this shit up, and you can't fake it. The guitars are ugly, the vocals are filthy and hateful and the songs are catchy as all fukk. The next five minutes are going to remind you why you love punk rock and why you have (hopefully) dedicated your life to it. And if you haven't yet dedicated you life to it, then perhaps this tape is exactly the motivation you need. Draw a line between WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN and early FUCKED UP and throw in an affinity for (the good kind of) skinhead music - high praise, to be sure, but this tape warrants it.

CRUELSTER

BASEMENT BOYS

Maybe this is what happens when gnarly hardcore dudes start a tongue in cheek Oi! band, or maybe these are gnarly skinheads with a penchant for knuckledragging US hardcore. Regardless of the origination and/or motivation, the breakdowns here are serious shit and BASEMENT BOYS treat UK street punk with complete disrespect, just dominating the sound with girth and testosterone. One song about fighting, one song about mutual respect and an intolerance for oppression and one about their arguably unhealthy obsession with breasts...and then there's the uncredited maximum energy techno track called "The Dominator" that reinforces the impression that these dudes would be pretty fun to hang out with.

DEMO II: THE DOMINATOR

The Tower Skins cannot be denied // /The Basement Boys, they are worldwide

MANIMALS

A few years ago (....ok, it was a lot of years ago), a good friend of mine suggested that I buy this really shitty looking horror punk record out of a dollar bin (he already has all of the records, so he is the perfect friend to shop for records with). I bought that record, and it was awesome. These four songs are not on that EP, but their metallic approach to punk is every bit as evident on this demo as it would be on their killer 12" EP. The influence they take from a certain band is obvious - especially in the vocals - so I've included a few songs from that band in the DL to get your juices flowing (the tracks were on the  same mix tape I ripped them MANIMALS shit from).  But what you really should be stoked about is the four songs from a mid '80s Ohio shock punk juggernaut. "Rot In Hell" tonight indeed motherfukkr.

MANIMALS

SOCKEYE // VACATION

Terminal Escape will be taking some time off. A few shows with SUBHUMANS, a weekend in Austin for some fest thing, two NO STATIK shows (one at 3:00am and one at 11:00am, which is pretty stupid) and the first show with my new band RITUAL CONTROL. The Escape will be back in action in ten days or so (I know there are a lot of requests for re-ups, I'll get those sorted when I get back), but I'll leave you with SOCKEYE. No introduction should be required, but if this is your first taste of Stow, Ohio's weirdest export then I simply ask you to take a deep breath. 

WARNING: BURN HAZARD

Also - I did an interview for the excellent Drug Punk blog last week. It's not often enough that an interview makes me think, and I appreciate the opportunity.

PUBERTY WOUNDS

PUBERTY WOUNDS went from intense and raw to just plain ugly. This is genuinely disenfranchised noisy hardcore - blast the intro to "Ex-Boyfriend Voyeur" and you're moshing. Guaranteed.

STRANGE EDGE

JASON ZEH

Swarms of all encompassing sound...subtle, precise and intense. Listen with the lights off.

JITTERS

LUASA RAELON

Ohio's LUASA RAELON sounds like fog. Subtle swells of brooding and pervasive sound that sink into you. It's dark but totally comforting - that is until "Glorious Times" hits like a jolt of lightning, crashing to earth with the nuance of a bulldozer. While the final two tracks fall more in line with the opening of Beyond The Gates, the cacophonous interlude between the first and last segments shines a more sinister light on the final two compositions. A powerful audio journey.

BEYOND THE GATES

PUBERTY WOUNDS

In case you haven't noticed, I often snooze on things I should pay attention to. Sometimes it's because I'm distracted, sometimes it's because I think I'm paying attention to something more important, sometimes I just make bad decisions. In 2007 CONQUEST FOR DEATH made an East Coast/Midwest adventure with our pals BREAKfAST and we hung out with this nice dude in Baltimore. In 2012 NO STATIK made an East Coast/Midwest adventure and that same dude was at our show in Columbus. He gave me this tape. I lost it. Then I found it (almost a year later) and the shit is mean as hell. These are seriously uncomfortable sounds.

PUBERTY WOUNDS