"MY LIFE"

Prepare to enter a mind filled with wonder and brilliance: The mind of August Alston. Almost two hours of improvisations, prose, ramblings, creations, noise, and constructs that will confuse most, annoy some and enthrall a few who appreciate the wavelength of The Other and the existence of The Different. Revolving (eventually) around the recurring track "Condo Woman," My Life aka Not A Lack Of Interest Cover is an actual journey to another place that lies dormant inside and rests just below the surface - a place that is more destiny than destination. Have a nice trip, and I'm not sorry if you never truly return. 

MY LIFE aka NOT A LACK OF INTEREST COVER

CONDO WOMAN: BAD NOISE 2016

PMS84

This was one of my favorite straight punk demos from 2016, and I straight up missed the fukkrs when they rolled through town because I was at work. In the world of excuses, which is simultaneously the lamest and most understandable (or, at least in my case, predictable) excuse imaginable. Tough as nails and more infectious that anything else you're gonna listen to today....

PMS84

INVERSION

Portland melodic crust that, as the title suggests, is delivered with the pure power that comes from DIY recordings. I am fully aware that this style of hardcore is out of vogue with the stomp mosh kids and the Oi! revivalists, but I'll be damned if it doesn't just hit the right nerve every now and then. 

BASEMENT DEMO

DISPOSSESSED

Twenty minutes of Rose City doom spread over three tracks. Portland's DISPOSSESSED are heavy beyond heavy, and the deliberate way they pummel is enviable. Bleak and devastating. 

BESEIGED

HEAVY HANDS

Portland hardcore. Fast. In your face. The riff that opens this six track monster is a crusher. And the creepy crawl inducing bass at the beginning of "Daily Dose"? Yeah, you're breaking shit. Missed these kids in SF back in September, but pretty juiced to be playing with them in PDX later this month. Tough as nails. 

HEAVY HANDS

CANDACE

Brilliantly crafted airy pop tunes. Three of them. I waxed at length when I first posted this Portland outfit a few months back, and all of those words ring true Return To Zero as well....apparently these ladies know how to write a fukkn song because they keep doing it over and over again. I mean, "Midnight Blue" could be a lost OCEAN BLUE or SUNDAYS track, and that's high muthafuukn praise for this grey(ing) beard grind freek geezer. Perfect is hard to fukk with, y'all. 

RETURN TO ZERO

Worth noting: CANDACE recently stopped using (the superior) moniker IS/IS for very obvious reasons....

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Nasty garage hardcore, noisy pogo punk, blown out distortion fests, angular no wave...what the fuck do you want that this compilation doesn't deliver? Sandwiches? Well those don't come in plastic shells (at least they shouldn't) so eat these tracks or no dessert. CUM, SPETSNAZ, FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT, CHEMOS, THE OINTMENT, MPK, FRANKY...and some guy named Steve. 

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Link repaired...thanks to all who let me know I fukkd up. It happens sometimes....

WEIRD FEAR

One demo and they were gone, but Portland's WEIRD FEAR left a serious mark...if you can listen through the low fidelity haze. Spastic bursts of ferocious hardcore, as erratic as they are intense, this 2011 demo comes off like the second coming of MUKILTEO FAIRIES fed a steady diet of late '90s West Bay Coalition. The moniker is perfect, the tracks are awkward and panicked and...well, weird. "Everything Is Now" is the creamer, hearing it gradually turn into hardcore after a MINUTEMEN-on-blast introduction and then stumble to a close made me rewind several times before I would let myself continue to appropriately titled "High Time Anxiety." The only complaint is the recording quality, but any listener worth their mettle will be over that and raging in no time. That's what volume knobs are for. 

WEIRD FEAR

CHEMOS // MPK

I mean, the title says it all, right....?

UNDER THREE MINUTES FROM TWO SHIT GROUPS

MACHO BOYS

Short and sweet today, punks: MACHO BOYS are from Portland. MACHO BOYS rule hard. MACHO BOYS are important. MACHO BOYS are not what you think. MACHO BOYS are doing it right. I want to be on the MACHO BOYS team. MACHO BOYS. 

TOUGHEST BAND IN HARDCORE

CALL THE POLICE

I always thought CALL THE POLICE were one of the more under rated PDX supergroups of the '00s. Top notch classic punk/HC riffing through a supercharged modern hardcore filter, with Ginger's vocals up front and strong, reminding me more of Amy from NAUSEA than any of the other bands who garnered such comparisons. And just like the heavyweights, you got one tape and one record....and that was all.

WORLD CRASHING IN

CHEMOS

Got this little banger in the mail a few weeks ago, and it had an obi strip that read Portland's Only Band. Well, Queen City, y'all motherfukkrs are lucky if this is the shit you get to listen to every night - I mean, I'm sure it gets boring without Steve Miller Band on the radio, and I like Poison Idea as much as the next guy, but if these are your only jams then you could do WAY worse. So revel, Portland, revel in the 1-2-1-2 drums and the damaged ass vocals doing battle with themselves while the bass pounds through relentless bouncy eighth notes and the guitar is busy just being punk (listen to the title track, and take notes, it's a perfect punk guitar track). Like, really punk. Short bursts of noise and weirdness to keep you on your toes, but CHEMOS are as straightforward as it comes and still manage to sound like they are from outer space. You know this....you've just never heard it done like this. Perhaps because you've never heard it from the only band in Portland. "Cleanly" is the choice cut, but all five are winners.

PETITE DOG

Also, the tape came with a nice note. Cute animals in parachutes, space ships, flags...really nothing more one can ask from thank you note stationary.

IS/IS

This Portland outfit just nails it. So casual and confident, they just stroll in and just ooze out flawless dreamy fuzzed out noise/pop. Bass lines drive most of these tracks, while guitars swim in the aether, a relationship that bears more than a passing (and extremely flattering) comparison to Fraser/Guthrie circa Blue Bell Knoll, when they really dialed the shit in (I'm probably in the minority there, but you get my drift...). IS/IS veer effortlessly into garage pop on "Sideways," and reaching deeper into their repertoire it seems that this success isn't a fluke, and the band pulls off a brilliant '90s alt/indie number with "Gleam," but their excellence is rooted in the way they approach relatively simple melodies and breathe life and mystery into them. Listen to "Rune." Listen to it a lot. I stumbled on this cassette in a bargain bin and purchased on a whim and a fondness for the cover (don't think I'm a baller, the thing was a dollar), and IS/IS is my favorite accidental discovery in years, even their stabs at a rudimentary grunge rehash are worth your time. For fans of STONE ROSES, WAX IDOLS, early PINK FLOYD, MBV, COCTEAU TWINS...and sheer bliss.

IS/IS

EMASCULATOR

Oof...this one is a crusher. So much greater than merely a sum of parts, Portland's EMASCULATOR combine the white hiss of damaged guitar with a rhythm section worthy of the du-pah-du-pah hall of fame and a vocalist than lands between LEBENDEN TOTEN and HUGGY BEAR. Shit might not make sense, but it's soooooo good. Far from a mere collection of sounds, there are tracks galore on this thing and it all works, down to the noise/fastcore surging out of the explosion on "Male Fantasies" and the vocals samples bridging tracks. Really really solid noisy mania, you're welcome.

THREATENING VISIBILITY

CRIME ZONE

Noisy and demented hardcore from the creep depths of hell....tweaked and manipulated and distorted to oblivion with what might be a ghost from the cassette's previous life murmuring in the background of one channel. So fukkd sounding and gloriously hellacious, CRIME ZONE are about to pollute the next 13 minutes of your life with madness. This is the shit that used to make Mondays so good around here....maybe we should start playing that game again, no?

CRIME ZONE

PRESSING ON

Straight up: this is the best demo I've heard in I don't know how long. PRESSING ON quietly dropped this absolute monster a few months back and I was speechless when I heard it...Grant's guitar is unmistakeable and Will's voice is every bit as powerful as expected, but these boys hit a spot that I haven't had tickled in quite a long while. This is as close to perfect as you'll find on the internet...or anywhere else for that matter. Listen to the breakdown on "Breaking Through" (dude, when that breakdown falls right back into the rage....? It's magic) and you'll think I'm right. And then you'll listen to "No Capitulation" and you will break shit. Seriously, shit will be broken.

PRESSING ON

  I look around, and I don't know what to say // overwhelmed by all the bullshit that's headed our way // the future may look dim, but I know one thing is true // I'm gonna rise above this shit if it's the last fucking thing I do

TIME X

Screaming political straight edge (obviously) fastcore - this was the shit that turned me on my ear in the early '00s, and Portugal's TIME X were way ahead of the curve (and the pack) with this 2001 demo. Nine blasts of fierce and uncompromising hardcore played with maximum intensity. The excessive samples are also an indicator of the time, but here they make it clear where the band is coming from and provide welcome breathers instead of killing the flow. Listen early and listen often. 

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

AGHORI

This is one of those recordings that just takes you away. Released in painfully limited quantities in the early '00s, Blackmass Of Hate was given the proper (cassette) treatment by Parasitic Records a few years ago (thanks for that). A quarter hour into this release, when the drums painfully slog through the last moments of "The Imp Of Perversion," is the first time that I was aware that AGHORI were not permanent...and still it seems like their presence will continue indefinitely. Crushing, somber, all encompassing doom in three excruciating movements that will rattle your bones and your soul. Should go without saying that maximum volume and darkness only serve to enhance the experience...let it sink in.

BLACKMASS OF HATE

EXCAVACATIONS // BLACK EAGLE CHILD

Sometimes, the discount experimental section at your local record store can be your friend. Two separate doses of layered ambiance from Portland's EXCAVACATIONS and Milwaukee's BLACK EAGLE CHILD. Both acts compliment each other well....EXCAVACATIONS have an calm but eerie ambiance not dissimilar from some SIGUR RÓS stuff, while BLACK EAGLE CHILD offer a campfire comfort that I'm not ashamed to say I quite enjoyed. An excellent way to end the day, and $2 well spent.

EXCAVACATIONS // BLACK EAGLE CHILD

VX GAS ATTACK

Some people may have thought that the resurgence of metalcrust in the early '00s was some kind of passing fad. I can assure you that if more bands of that ilk were this good (or, dare I say if any of them had ever been this good) then the genre would never have viewed as passé. A juggernaut of dual vocal mania with screaming leads and a relentless pace. There are people in this band who are (or have been) in other bands that are also important, but such comparisons would only serve to cheapen VX GAS ATTACK. These sounds just makes me shake my head...rarely will your ears come across a thing done this right. Don't snooze, you're worth it.

POLITICAL SUBTERFUGE