SUBMISSION HOLD

I suppose that we never really should have been friends. In 2017, in the internet age, I seriously doubt that we ever would have been friends or even crossed paths at all. FUCKFACE were uncouth, snotty, drunk, sloppy and irreverent. SUBMISSION HOLD were concise, serious, witty but controlled, overtly political and exceptionally mature. And yet we stood outside the picture window at Koo's Cafe in Santa Ana, laughing together and watching the local band inside that converted living room and collectively wondering if any of the kids would bother to stay at the show to see either of our bands. They were having van trouble, our tour was almost over, we brainstormed ways to get them safely to their next show/s, we traded information and we promised to cross paths again. Then in the fall of 1996 we did cross paths in Vancouver (they were the relatively sane and conventional conclusion to one of the weirdest 36 hour periods of my life, in fact), John soaked the couch in their very well put together home before we headed east and I apologized the next time we saw each other....and we all laughed about it. Bands didn't sound like SUBMISSION HOLD then, and they surely don't today....and I dare say that it's even more special today, in the internet age, to cross paths with people as special and as real as those Canadians. 

VETERANS OF THE COLA WARS

NEGATIVE RAGE

It's rough around the edges like drunken garage punk. It's dark and brooding sometimes, but more like COMPLICATIONS than modern day pseudogoth. It's got catchy songs like early LA hardcore, but you don't notice them at first because it's kinda presented like some some kind if indescribably "00s Midwestern punk revival (I know what I mean so you don't have to). Also....it's really good. Let's call it NEGATIVE RAGE.

SENSITIVE CITY

My brain hurts....does yours?

GENEX

More howling, distorted, mysterious, bombastic hardcore punk music. Crank the mosh that starts "Enemy" before you do anything important today and you'll be prepared for anything life throws at you. You won't be prepared for the start/stop riffs that follow, but reality will be yours for the dominating. Luckily, I'm still not tired of this shit, because there's a lot more of it to find. 

HUMAN RITES

BLACK PILLS

Last year, to celebrate the birthday of white America, STERILE MIND played a show in Vancouver and then drove 16 hours to play a show in a park in Santa Rosa, California with two bands from Colombia. It seemed like a good idea in theory, and when we rolled the whole thing out.....? It was, in fact, a good idea. It's hard to explain to civilians what "we" do, and telling a stranger about that Vancouver show would surely be met with agape jaw/s and curious eyes....because there were like 13 people there. And they certainly didn't seem to care. But the show was good, you know? And we played with BLACK PILLS, and when we talked to them, it seemed like we were all on the same team...and being on the same team is so much more important than being cool or being liked, you know? These freaks dish out MASSIVE emotional hardcore, and since we met them last year they've toured Cuba and Brasil (maybe more?), which means they are rippers that I am jealous of. It's a good and inspirational jealousy though, so I'm OK with it. More, please. 

BLACK PILLS

INEXTREMIS

How many more of these gems have yet to be unearthed and offered to hungry ears? From 1984, At The Point Of Death is an atmospheric death rock masterpiece - deadly plodding pieces with calculated vocals that fall back and sooth when appropriate....only to envelop you. This was new to me when Nostilevo released it a few years back....no history, only history. Superb.

AT THE POINT OF DEATH

TINGLER

If this 1998 tape had been released a decade earlier, then TINGLER might have been heralded as some ground breaking guitar driven noise rock outfit. Tongue in cheek (but not really funny) presentations of mid tempo hook laden tracks bashed out by seriously damaged and dirty stringed weapons. File alongside first wave grunge and early AmRep....you just need a time warp to get it there. I'm thinking this band existed in every college town in the USA by 1994 or so, but this one comes from Toronto, and maybe time is different up there.

TINGLER

"If only you were single, you'd make my pee pee tingle"

MARGARET THRASHER

I really liked this band. Listened to their recordings, even had some exchanges with some of them through the (e)mail before I saw them live, so I was quite excited when I saw they were coming to Chicago sometimes in the late '00s. Chicago was 90 miles away, but it was a drive that I made frequently to see or play shows, no big deal....because punk rules. So I went to the show, I think I remember CONDENADA playing as well, but I might be wrong, and I was in a super shitty mood when I got there. Lurked in the corner by myself, tried to not talk to anyone, didn't even say hello to the members of MARGARET THRASHER that I had corresponded with. And then, a few songs into their set, I just left the show and drove home. Whatever had me all depressed seems pretty stupid this morning, because this demo is great and I would really like to have seen this band live...you think life offers do-overs?

"EUROPE" DEMO 2005

AUBE

It's supposed to rain here today...so I guess this one will be perfect. Driving, brooding, dark punk with a rock solid rhythm section and a meandering guitar that lands somewhere between Love-era CULT and BELLICOSE MINDS. It's straightforward, and fans of the subgenre will be well pleased because these Canadians touch all the bases with equal vigor on this 2013 release, and the reverbed Revolution Summer vocals don't hurt one damn bit. Perhaps I was drawn because the first 98 seconds of the opener "Exil" remind me of one of my favorite current bands, but I certainly stuck around because these kids fukkn nail it. 

AUBE

KALI

Fierce and emotive (note the difference between this and emotional) grinding hardcore from Alberta. Pulls no punches, takes no prisoners, gives lots of fucks, leaves nothing on the table. Pure power.

KALI

CARCASS TOSS

Filthy metalpunk with that 1-2-1-2 stomp that suits lo-fi nihilist metal so very well, Nova Scotia's CARCASS TOSS dive right into "House Of Maggots" and never let the intensity wane. Beyond primitive, these tracks offer nothing but the marrow...tortured guitars and manipulated vocals dominate a recording that pierces more than entertains...and pay close attention to the subtle slow down when "Suicide Wolf" kicks in, because you'll be moshing. File somewhere between HOAX and BONE AWL...unless you just want to file under "break shit music." Derivative maybe. Trite probably. Deadly definitely. 

DEMO 1

BRIDGEBURNER // SKUFF

Nasty, noisy crust/grind from Canada. BRIDGEBURNER are a classic, churning power trio, while SKUFF lose the guitar and make things even filthier. Get dirty, punks.

BRIDGEBURNER // SKUFF

SCHIZOPHASIA

True freeks turning punk sounds into mangled space-fi noise. In the world of demented noise punk and people trying so hard to be noisier and more chaotic and more distorted than everyone else, Ottawa's SCHIZOPHASIA are so very far out there that comparisons are useless. Bypassing virtually all of the punk this time around and embracing noise and aural hallucinations with equal vigor, 5000 is on another plane entirely, and serves as a perhaps predictable progression from previous releases (all recommended). Antiracist anarcho/industrial/mutant/NOISE. Indescribably weird...

5000

BLOOMER

Pure and complete damage. Slow motion and excruciating. Industrial carnage, analog distortion and waves of manic sound, all carefully constructed, layers and presented for your discomfort. This 2010 release is an extremely harsh toke. 

BOLO

LOWEBRAU

When I reach blindly for a new electronic artist, this is exactly what I hope I will grasp onto. Mental dancefloor punishment from a Quebec outfit that knows exactly how to find a groove and drive it right into the dirt and then resurrect it in the most glorious manner imaginable. This is '80 Acid House and Detroit Techno crashing headfirst into those new kids flying the EBM banner and then just when you aren't paying attention you're neck deep in industrial brutality. This shit is so goddamn good I don't really know what to say aside from-----listen to these sounds. And check LOWEBRAU, because ">" is just the tip of the iceberg.

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SUPPORT

Early '90s Canadian straightedge mosh with overt influence from then-contemporary METALLICA. I can't really justify this thing without context, but the only record I could find of the band band was their inclusion on a cassette comp with EARTH CRISIS and BURST OF SILENCE. My old band played with BURST OF SILENCE at SitCom in Indianapolis in '94 and we chilled outside watching some gutter punk inject alcohol while they were playing...because it was weirder to us than watching a Canadian straight edge band. What is this band about? I have no idea? I remain intrigued after several listens...

SUPPORT

Sorry about the screeches - tapes are killer, but sometimes The World wins.

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

EXISTENTIAL DREAD // NEVERMIND TAPES

I've been sitting on this pile of crap for a while now (a couple of years, actually), so I figured I would dump it all on you at once so that true shitcore fans can spend the rest of the day cleaning their panties, and adult visitors can move along, free to return tomorrow for some grown up music without fear of being assaulted by tracks like FRANK GOSHIT's "Fuck The Keyboard."

Two now defunct labels, clearly run by the same (or similar) casts of characters, EXISTENTIAL DREAD and NEVERMIND tapes. Both cranked out a handful of appropriately limited (I'm talking 10-20 copies each) releases in the early '10s, releases lacking in anything approaching artistic merit. Garbage. Shit. Unlistenable nonsense. Included in today's post are the entire EXISTENTIAL DREAD catalog and five of the seven NEVERMIND TAPES releases...NVM-05 is a killer cassingle from DJ DICKWALLS, shared here back in 2012, but NVM-01 D//CEREGHINI's I Went Back To College has somehow escaped my clutches. NVM catalog numbers 08 & 09 are CDrs, so even though I want you to hear RAGING DICKBRAIN as much as you want to hear RAGING DICKBRAIN, that will have to be left to another site...but this will hold you over until then.

The contents....? Total noise. A few of the "artists" flirt with sounds that are actually engaging (CHIEF THUNDERCLOUD, PANTIES) while others are just nonsense (the 114 second two track I Don't Need You cassingle from TURKEY TITS comes to mind). You want one-man-vocal-only noisecore? FRANK GOSHIT has got you covered. Or maybe you want to listen to BOBBY and JAMES go to war on the Elephant Man Behind The Sun: (ultra) Fecal Frenzy Noise Core Battle split? You have options here, you freak.

I'm not saying you need this....but you need this. If only as a sociological study. Pure mutant sounds, nothing more. I have no idea why someone would bother making them, much less reproducing them (even in laughably small quantities). But as you're shaking your head and acknowledging your superiority....listen to BLEEDING IN THE MOONLIGHT's version of "Lean On Me" and ask yourself if it's not damn near the most brilliant thing you've ever heard. OK...maybe "brilliant" is a bit of a stretch.

EXISTENTIAL DREAD // NEVERMIND TAPES

FIGHTINGxCHANCE

Quintessential early '00s SXE hardcore. Melodic guitar leads, earnest lyrics, circle pit parts and dogpile parts...shit is all here, kids. FIGHTINGxCHANCE was a short lived project made up of Detroit and Toronto punks...captures the era perfectly. Members went on to play in NO WARNING and, if the internet is to be believed, this.

FIGHTINGxCHANCE

I've never fucking done it, never fuckin will

drink a fucking substance, I know can fuckin kill

social status, do it because it's cool

do it to be accepted, you're plain [sic] the fucking fool

-----------------

you say he made you do it, you try to shift the blame

but who drank the liquid? you're all the fucking same

too weak to take control, too weak to quit the game

drinking's not a "disease," it's just fuckin lame!

MOON HAG

One of the riffs in the quieter part of "End Of Haze" sounds like PINK FLOYD. Nothing else on this tape sounds like PINK FLOYD. Instead they sound like a bunch of raucous snots with a penchant for snarky vocals and heavy riffs and garage punk chaos. And '90s Olympia. Yes, all at the same time.

DEMON