RAW TOFU

Unrepentant animal rights hardcore recorded in a fukkn toilet. The result is somewhere between noise punk and pure shit-fi madness, with politics louder than the voices shouting them and guitars that might be out of tune (the recording is so shitty you can hardly tell). Five "studio" tracks, including a CONFLICT cover (because of course there's a CONFLICT cover) followed by one uncredited anarcho track (it's pretty cool, any help here?) and six live RAW TOFU bangers...because after my enthusiastic assessment of their demo, I'm sure that you are scrambling to get to the lowER fidelity live recording. Right?

HOW MANY MORE LIVES MUST BE LOST BEFORE YOU OPEN EYES AND SEE THAT MEAT MEANS FUCKING MURDER???

Seriously though: I genuinely appreciate how shameless and in your face and idealistic bands like RAW TOFU were (and, thankfully, ARE). And I will take those out of tune guitars with a tired but earnest message of hope any fucking day...

THE NOIDS

QUESTION: If a band of mutants from north Texas half my age delivered a really killer set of freak punk in a Christian coffee shop slash art gallery slash cafe slash church at four in the afternoon and then they were selling home made dubs of their tape for $3 that looked like they probably sounded like crap and definitely didn't have anything but the laziest, most last minute phoned in "art" posing as a cover for said tape...would I buy it, rewarding their laziness with my hard earned money? Or would I just download the tracks from their bandcamp page?

ANSWER: You know what I did.

MODERN LIFE

SAWPIT

This band's records are too often overlooked in my opinion. Crazy catchy '90s melodic punk with an unmistakable (even if unintentional) Bay Area influence, they released one EP and two splits (FORMER MEMBERS OF ALFONSIN and BONESCRATCH) before calling it quits sometime around the turn of the century. I feel like they came to the states once...but I can't really be sure about that. I can, however, be sure that this tape feels very good.

1st MATERIAL

PUNISH OR BE DAMND

Shit man, not really much to say about this one except that if you're gonna make a mix tape to open minds and melt ears...it should be like this one. 30 Minimal Synth Or Tracks With Keys jams through an hour of creamers from 1978 through a few months ago, and every fukkn song is essential. Starting shit with ALGEBRA MOTHERS sets the tone at weird, and that's where the tone stays - NERVOUS GENDER, BELINSKI ZID, SPITS, BLACK RANDY, SCREAMERS (duh), SM NURSE, THE UNITS....and an obligatory version of "T.V.O.D." because that's kinda where the shit started, right? It flows right, runs the spectrum of punk bands with keys through purely synth driven freak shows, and this tape holds your attention from start to finish. Also....cramming that BLITZ track in was such a sick move - this is a perfect mix tape. Someone send me #1 please.

PUNISH OR BE DAMND #2: 30 MINIMAL SYNTH OR TRACKS WITH KEYS

BIB

Pretty massive sounding Midwest hardcore. Following the "everything louder than everything else" approach to recording, their already colossal riffs feel kinda like an avalanche when the bottom drops. They added a (third) guitar at the EINOK2 show, and the wall of beef on that stage was imposing before they hit a note...listen to the discordant chugs during "Baby Worm" and it won't be hard to imagine how terrifying it was. Squirmy affected vocals veer things from huge to weird...and these tapes are dubbed so hot that it hurts to touch 'em. Plop this band in New York or Toronto or Boston and everyone would be soaking their drawers and humping their legs...that's why the middle of the country rules, punks.

BIB

As is often the case, the physical cassette manifestation that I try to capture here has a different vibe than the digital version...it's not a better or worse thing, but this is how these punks sold be the tape, so this is how I share it with you, you know? I want my experience to be your experience.

TIME OUT

Total relentless fury. Out of control Swedish hardcore with howling desperation from dual vocals,  perhaps too fast and loose to still be DBeat. Eight tracks spanning thirteen minutes, this 1998 demo just crushes from the first rumble of "For How Long" and only lets up long enough for a few depressing and ominous missives from the annals of history. The 1-2 punch of "Backstabbed" into "Orgies Of Insanity" is textbook, a thing worthy of repeat listens and scholastic analysis. Riffs upon riffs delivered by piercing guitars....it's like being hit in the face by a freight train over and over and over. And still you scrape your jaw off the floor and do it all again. 

.....HISTORIES WARNING

STILL LIFE

For years, the only thing that I knew about STILL LIFE was that they weren't punk. Maximum Rocknroll (in)famously determined that their record on Ebullition didn't meet whatever threshold there was for determining punk vs. unpunk and refused to review the record, prompting the birth of HeartattaCk 'zine from the folks at Ebullition. Considering the musical climate at the time - MRR leaning more towards raucous garage punk and a head spinning proliferation of emotional hardcore bands playing slower, longer songs (and let's be honest, the last track on this demo opens with acoustic guitar strumming for 70 seconds and then the vocals kick in with "This is a song about Love! Love! Love! For life!" - it isn't really surprising, even though I think that with older ears (in this case, mine) there's little doubt that these sounds fall under the punk umbrella. I never listened to STILL LIFE at the time, not because some Authority had deemed the band not punk, but because what little I heard didn't really appeal to me. I wanted fast and I wanted in your face, and if I wanted emotional and introspective then I would crank some MOHINDER, you know? But for whatever reason, these sounds made by suburban Southern California teenagers appeal to me now, in my mid-40s. Go figure. 

STILL LIFE

ZUDAS KRUST

I picked this little creamer up in Indonesia on the CFD tour in 2008 and unearthed it when I moved last summer. Still furious, still chaotic and energetic as fukk, still killer - and then I saw a flyer for a show in Jakarta this Friday and it made me want to plop down the cash for a plane ticket. Would love to fist bang wildly in the flesh....but I'm afraid this tape is gonna have to be enough. It's cool though, because it's a wild ass ride.

MATANZA Y MUERTE MASIVA

And in case you find yourself in Jakarta this weekend....do yourself a favor because this gig is a fukkn BANGER (and that's just looking at the bands I'm familiar with!). Cheers to the punks we met while we were there - hope to come back and do it again!!

KAPPA CHOW

Garage punk is supposed to sound like it doesn't give a fukk, right? Like the band is half drunk and almost forgot to even bother coming to the gig but since they are here they are going to get sweaty and work on the other half of their drunk while showing show how effortlessly they can crank out hit after hit. "Shrug It Off" is a perfect pop/rock 'n roll track demented to oblivion, "Love Drug" is an impossibly simple 67-second creamer, "Knee Jerk Reaction" is quintessential power punk, and "I Don't Like You" is just pure damage. Cigarettes hanging in their mouths not because they are trying to be cool, but because they forgot they were smoking. Too busy rocking.

"TOUR TAPE" 2015

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

WORSHIP BLACK TWILIGHT

This is where it all started, at least for the uninformed and/or geographically challenged minions. Six offerings from the artists that made up the initial nucleus of Black Twilight Circle in Los Angeles, who would spend the ensuing years creating some of the most dissonant and interesting black metal in The Americas. One track each from ASHDAUTAS, VOLAHN, ARIZMENDA, KALLATHON, AXEMAN and KUXAN SUUM, most available on other Crepusculo Negro releases, and many previously shared on this site...Worship Black Twilight makes it clear that this force was formidable from the start.

WORSHIP BLACK TWILIGHT

RIVERBOYS

From the '90s, when "melodic punk" didn't make you feel dirty inside. Good tracks - fast, catchy, addictive...what's not to like?

DON'T LOOK BACK

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

HOLY MONEY

An otherworldly raw doom detonation with a solid skull foundation. You want HOLY MONEY to unleash, and you know they can...but they refuse. This one will keep you on edge.

EGODEATHSLUDGE

FAST FUCKERS // ШАРМ СС

Truly filthy and chaotic sound from Russia to start your week. FAST FUCKERS hail from Краснодар (Krasnodar), near the Black Sea on a little Russian horn surrounded by Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey and Kazakhstan (translation: really far from my house), and they crank out brutally fast and fukkd sounding hardcore with (accidental?) discordant metal tinges when they blast. AF and GAG covers have appears on previous releases...these kids know what's up and they are doing it right. Their buddies from ШАРМ СС (CHARM SS) come from Yakutsk, and in case you ever feel isolated, that charming little hamlet lies just FOUR DAYS' DRIVE to the east and north of Moscow...alternately, it's just a little further from Yakutsk to the North Fucking Pole than to head straight south to Beijing. Even in The Internet Age, I think that the most remote punk scene on earth has created, not surprisingly, some of the most demented sounds on earth. These five tracks are chaotic, disturbing, frustrating/frustrated, and so so good. This is the torment that North American bands so often try to manufacture. Seven digital and physical releases before this split and the death of their bassist in 2015...eternal hails for keeping things fucked up.

FAST FUCKERS // ШАРМ СС

Lost Cause Records: here

ШАРМ СС: here

FAST FUCKERS: here