MUJERES PODRIDAS

If you know the players, then you know you're in for a banger. Eddie (VAÄSKA, MIRROR, CRIATURAS) and Dru (CRIATURAS, MIRROR, KURRAKÄ) team up (again) and dish out even more addictive Spanish language punk. MUJERES PODRIDAS are a little less urgent at first, but they've traded the speed for a truly magnetic vibe, a sinister creep with Dru's vocals bellowing and beckoning and snotty, crackling '80s punk guitars...until the final track "Un Día Mas" ramps the intensity up to close a very short and very very good initial release. It's amazing that new versions of the same animal just keep sounding awesome to my ears....

MUJERES PODRIDAS

TREATMENT

Weirdo Texas shits that would have fit well on the early '00s Hydra Head roster. Anger, technical hardcore and bold guitars.

CONTROL BURNS // STITCHED

ZOTZ // KURRAKÄ

Mexico City's finest dark punks meet Austin's fiercest dark punks. These two were made to be on the same cassette. 

ZOTZ // KURRAKÄ

MIRROR

I'm not trying to break the next big thing here, but I like to make sure you're getting everything you need. Austin's MIRROR have been kicking around for a while, people from several other bands that you already (should) know, but it wasn't until I saw them in New York earlier this year that I truly understood what The People were talking about. Destructive and passionate hardcore, delivered under a wash of madness...shit just sounds demented, and I love it. The recent(ish) EP is mandatory material, and this demo is pure cream. Check the drums in "Univseral Dismay." Get it. 

MIRROR

AMYGDALA

We played San Antonio with these kids on the RITUAL CONTROL '13/'14 tour, an onslaught of hardcore delivered by people who were consumed by their own power and emotions. Their vinyl offerings are all great, and I hope to see them in the flesh again....but this demo? A baker's dozen of relentless drum machine driven one man grind/PV that's gone in less than ten minutes, the self titled 2010 banger from AMYGDALA is pure head spinning brutality to be filed alongside PARLAMENTARISK SODOMI and other mindfukkrs. Not at all what I was expecting...but exactly what I was wanting.

AMYGDALA

JUST SHORT OF LIVING

Perfect old school youth crew from Texas. The riffs, the backing gang vocals, the breakdowns....if this is your shit then you couldn't really ask for much more. 

JUST SHORT OF LIVING

Note: This demo is meant to have six songs, but my B-side is blank. You get what I get, punks...

DYE

My pal John asked me how to describe this brand of punk the other day, and I was at a bit of a loss. Someone wanna tell me what this currently exploding subsubgenre is called...? Because these Texas mutants are doing it right as fukk. A perfect 1-2-1-2 stomp, but it's almost UK Oi! sometimes and I heard REAGAN YOUTH references at least twice....and you can fukkn dance your ass off to it. DYE straight kill this shit, and I included whatever the weird shit was on the flipside of the tape because I like you. 

DYE

FÖRFALL

OUGGHH!! South Valley Texans fukkn cream through insane Japanese influenced hardcore with screaming leads. I don't know what you thought you needed today, but I can assure you that FÖRFALL is all you will need. Relentless. Excellent. 

DECAY

My demo has three tracks...so that's all you get from me. There are eight on the internet...and I can assure you that the other five are worth your time and effort. 

OBEDIENCE

Yes. Whirling guitars with just the right amount of SoCal punk twang, a relentless drum attack that's just a little too high in the mix but you don't mind because this is like Thrash2K but with swing...and zero cheat beats (if you know what I mean, then you know exactly what I mean - and if you aren't sure then you'll have to research on your own because that subject deserves its own post) and unhinged adolescent vocals that remind me more of Ernesto/LIFES HALT every time I listen (check "New Wasteland" in particular). The lineup alone should be enough to have you running for the DL icon on your screen (vocals from DEAD NATION, TEAR IT UP; drums from SEVERED HEAD OF STATE, SIGNAL LOST, countless others) but, 39 seconds in when you hear the guitar breakdown in "Cutthroat," you know that OBEDIENCE isn't just coasting on their pedigree. Again I say: Yes.

OBEDIENCE

METH LEPPARD

Sometimes you just want to grind, right? Sometimes you just want ignorant simplicity and devastating ferocity, and you shouldn't have to choose. Nor should you have to slog through piles of technical shitcore with fake riffs and triggered drums. Nor the endless barrage of sexist bullshit associated with the porno and gore scenes (note: I definitely realize that I just typed the phrase "porno and gore scenes" and it definitely made me laugh). Sometimes.....? Sometimes you just want to grind. I was in Texas a while back and my pal Clay brought me some tapes - he gives me way more things that I give him, and I want to return the favor but he just has SO much more cool (and, likely, cooler) shit than me. This banger from METH LEPPARD was in the mix, and has been on regular rotation ever since I got home. For the doubters, the NAPALM DEATH cover ("Siege Of Power") is on fukkn point....and it might be the slowest track on the tape. 

METH LEPPARD

CRYPTIC VOID

Filthy punkgrind creamers from Texas, CRYPTIC VOID are even better on this (four minute cassette) release than last year's Psychomanteum. Relentless grindcore with zero bullshit and nothing even remotely resembling a fukk to be given anywhere near this recording. Sometimes you want to get primal. PaleoGrind. 

WASTELAND

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

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

BODY PRESSURE

One of the fiercest sets from Everything Is Not OK last weekend was from Austin's BODY PRESSURE. Short, no bullshit blasts of ugly hardcore that assail sexism, patriarchy, sexual predators, and racism with a shameless and personal determination. You can act as mean as you want on stage, but a simple explanation to a track like "Man Meat" packs way more intensity than the collective efforts of a bunch of little boys trying to shock a crowd. Presentation is important, but substance wins every time...and this tape is pure power.

BODY PRESSURE

INSTITUTE

These Austin kids nail it, and they did so right out of the gate on this 2013 demo. Simultaneously dreary and peppy, they sneak darkness into pogo friendly first wave punk numbers - part of it is the guitar leads, but the drab vocals are obviously a key factor. Perhaps it's all totally calculated, and I quietly suspect that it is, but when I hear anarcho punk and WARSAW-era art school jams co-mingling like this? I'm just saying I start to care a little less about the motivation when the end result is really good. Several vinyl releases have followed for those who haven't already taken the plunge...

INSTITUTE

THE JUDY'S

I kinda felt like this band was the poor man's DEAD MILKMEN. I mean, the cow on the cover didn't hurt, but it was mostly that jangly guitar and endearing adolescent sense of humor masking legitimate social commentary...and some killer tracks, of course. THE JUDY'S weren't as fast or as in your face as their Philadelphia contemporaries, but they were also a little earlier to the dance - 1981's decidedly more new wave killer Washarama dropped a full two years before the first MILKMEN demo. Tracks like "Joey The Mechanical Boy" and "Ghost In A Bikini" have a DEVO by way of B-52's flare, while much of this 1985 release is just punk-lite presented as palatable new wave...or maybe it was snarky new wave that appealed to punks. Whatever, I was a new wave kid just trying to hear anything new that I could shove in my earholes, and I listened to this thing hundreds of times in my teens. 

THE MOO CASSETTE

NIGHT CRIMES

A two year old creamer from these Texas mutants, NIGHT CRIMES take a mere seven minutes to shove six tracks of fierce USHC down your craw. Manic, erratic, powerful, fast, ferocious...and more hooks than grandpa's tool shed. Soundtrack for your afternoon: "Beat Each Other Up."

NIGHT CRIMES

INGRATE

Paying eternal homage to The Riff and making a case for headlining every neanderthal hardcore fest this side of Barcelona, a bunch of mutants from McAllen, Texas just dropped this 3 1/2 song demo that will destroy you. Guitars overpower everything in the mix and they are just barely in tune, drums sound like paper sacks, vocals are demented and constantly cracking...it's damn near perfect. The mosh parts are deadly and INGRATE only get weirder when they speed up. I hope they make more songs soon...and I hope they never move to an actual city because whatever they are drinking down there is working quite well. Main riff in the verse to "The World's A Pigsty, We're All Shitting In It" is all you need, the rest is just gravy.

INGRATE

WWC

Froeseian electronic deposits and bastardizations of primitive techno/EBM, on 2013's Meditations/Industry, WWC spend 90 minutes either convincing doubters or mystifying rock purists. That mystification turns quickly to numb acceptance when one realizes that these monotonous works have wormed their way under your skin. The hint of dirt on "30.26367, -97.77082" makes it the standout track for me, but perhaps more as part of a collection of brilliant analog electronics captured organically. A random purchase from Obsolete Future, and a smashing success at TEHQ.

MEDITATIONS/INDUSTRY

KURRAKÄ

I missed these Texas punks in SF last weekend, battling the one-two punch of jet lag and eviction made leaving the house seem all but impossible (even though it would have been the best thing for me, of course). And, as usual: my loss. KURRAKÄ deliver brilliant space age pogo punk with nods towards '80s Spain and distant shrieks echoing straight into your skull - as good as this 2012 demo is, their vinyl releases are even better and the live presentation is transcendent. Most TE visitors are already familiar, but this is for the uninitiated. Pay special attention to "Hermanas de la Obscuridad," so simple and so damn good. 

KURRAKÄ