SIAL

Searing and intense hardcore from Singapore that harnesses many of the clichés du jour and manipulates them into something entirely their own. Something entirely SIAL. This and the recent XRDM tape are two of my favorite drops from 2017....I think I need to go back to SE Asia.

SIAL 

MAGNETIZER

I could listen to this shit endlessly. Abstract beats, psychedelic synths, TANGERINE DREAM vibes filtered through a Millennial Filter, future/past throwback presence - it's hard to tell if Post-Body is accidental brilliance or a calculated manipulation....but by the time "Jacked In" starts I could fukkn care less because I just love these sounds. For anyone keeping track, this is the solo manifestation of the MOZART drummer. Get down. 

POST-BODY

KARATE!

I remember hearing/seeing this name a lot during '90s East Coast jaunts, but I don't know if I had ever (consciously) heard them before my pal Daniel gave me a handful of old demos this past summer. I am pretty sure I would have hated it then - just no teeth, you know? But my middle aged self has come around (a bit) to some of the sounds I dismissed as a tunnel visioned twenty something, and the meandering FUGAZI-meets-shoegaze-and-puts-on-a-backpack vibe is suiting me just fine this morning. It doesn't always have to be about breaking shit. 

KARATE!

Also - pretty certain that I fukkd up the edit so that the track presented here as "Starfish" is actually the reprise of "Dating Is Stupid" - apparently the ACTUAL "Starfish" is not included on my cassette. 

LOS CAÍDOS

I was excited to see these Argentinians when they finally made it to the USA earlier this year, and was please (but not surprised) to find that their high energy dual vocal hardcore translated perfectly to the live environment. As concept releases go, their Somos Latino America cassette from 2015 is prime material - twenty covers of bands from all over Central and South America, and LOS CAÍDOS go pretty fukkn deep, taking care of the obvious spots (Brasil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru) and also hitting Honduras, Panama, Bolivia, El Salvador, Uruguay and others. It still sounds like them, which is the cool thing, and means that it bangs from start to finish...and it means that you are likely to find a handful of new bands that you'll want to know better. GUERILLA URBANA track is possibly my favorite, but that could change tomorrow. 

SOMOS LATINO AMERICA

LUNACHICKS

I always thought LUNACHICKS were way tougher that L7 or BABES IN TOYLAND. The Cookie Moshter EP blew me away at the time, and they just seemed so bad ass (and high). I consulted Karoline on this and she said she was firmly in the L7 camp ("Fast And Frightening"?! she said, and suggested that LUNACHICKS always seemed less serious) and I confess that listening to this MLP recorded for a Japanese tour in the mid '90s makes me think that my wife is probably right. If there were no joke-y vocals then this band would be deadly, because when they are tough? LUNACHICKS will fucking crush you, and they swing ("Curve Of Mother's Axe") at all times. But it's hard to forgive the "More Than A Feeling" cover included here...but I'll keep cranking "Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board" for the rest of the day anyway. Because even if Karoline is right on this one, that song is a certified banger. 

SUSHI A LA MODE

DANIEL HIGGS

As of this afternoon, I have been married to a woman named Karoline for twenty years. What's weird is not that I have spend essentially my entire adult life with this woman, but that I am old enough to have been married for two decades. But....I am old, and I hope to get older. With her. 

THE FOOLS SERMON Part 2

This is one of my favorite HIGGS pieces, and the organs on this interpretation complete the package help to complete the package. It becomes not just a rant, but a sermon. A lesson. 

BAD SAMARITANS

Agoura Hills is essentially halfway between LA and Oxnard....that's where BAD SAMARITANS were from, and that's where BAD SAMARITANS sound like they were from. Bordering on metallic late '80s crossover but with moments of weird noodly surfer shit, plenty of NardCore....and rooted in LA punk. Trepidatious listeners will need a tolerance for (or at least a contextual understanding of) funk punk. Trust me, it made sense at the time - and "My Betrayal" is a true creamer, regardless of context. 

BAD SAMARITANS

ASS // COLON PIPE

This is what splits should be like, y'all. Wild and loose cacophonous punk from Minneapolis's ASS on one side (remnants of the overly prolific '00s will remember their pink LP cover from the middle of that decade), like a Midwestern future FILTH (or that's what many of us thought at the time) ringing in that dupa-dupa 1-2-1-2 drum beat damn near a decade before it seemingly infected every corner of punk and hardcore. But to mix it up on the flip, ASS is paired up with COLON PIPE. Five bursts of tortured electronics on their side, defying construct or classification. Elements of techno creep in occasionally, and moments sound like primitive video game soundtracks ("Azmile Quite Convinzing" most particularly), both doomed to be overshadowed by overbearing synth blasts. Disjointed (almost) to the point of unlistenable at times, but that is most certainly the point. So I guess your week is gonna start out kinda weird, and you are welcome for that. 

ASS // COLON PIPE

LAPIS

I am well aware that modern advances in digital recording have resulted in an unfathomable explosion of independent small scale electronic/synth/goth acts born out of bedrooms and curiosity...but as we are showered with fragments of hardcore bands resurrected or reincarnated as shrapnel from these eruptions, with the flaming remnants of former loners now empowered by second hand synths and pirated plug-ins, I would never suggest that I am disappointed. Because there are acts like LAPIS. Two people from Oakland making dreary sounds that could have come from any of the last four decades (present decade included in this count), but LAPIS comes from now, and these four tracks are stellar, particulary "TECH-NI-QUE," the only even remotely upbeat number on their first demo. I hope that this is just an appetizer....I am ready for the main course. 

LAPIS

LURCH

I know that plenty of stuff slips by me, but I swear that I was paying attention in 1999. Maybe LURCH just slipped under my radar? Maybe they never made it far enough outside of Pleasanton to raise an eyebrow on anyone planted in San Francisco as I was at the time (though, to be fair, WHN? started practicing and writing in Pleasanton sometime in 2000, so even that isn't an excuse)? Of maybe this band never strayed from the path between their garage and the sports bar in the strip mall where they laid waste to a bunch of jocks on the third Thursday of each month. Fukk man, I don't know how they escaped me, but I'm glad to have them now. Dirty, filthy, guitar heavy and kinda psychedelic noise rock that would have formed a nice bridge between DYSTOPIA and UNSANE (or, if you want to keep the references era appropriate and Bay Area specific, CUTTHROATS 9). Loads of samples between tracks, and the band's overall approach borders on disturbing throughout the recording - the awkward stops in the middle of the distorted fukkd up riff the makes "Endocrine" seem like it about to cook (it cooks later) are a perfect example; it's just uncomfortable to listen to, but in the best possible way. So even if I didn't find out about LURCH for almost twenty years.....? better late than never I suppose.

THE "BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY" EP

IBERIAN PANDEMONIUM

Another installment in the excellent series of regional punk compilations from the fine folks at Commodity Tapes. As with Brazilian Pandemonium, there are plenty staples included (RIP, VULPESS, ESKORBUTO, MG15, ULTIMO RESORTE, IV REICH) but some ear popping discoveries for all but the most comprehensive (read: nerd) listeners (L'ODI SOCIAL, ESKORIATZA, COCADICTOS, VOMITO, CODIGO NEUROTICO, many more). 30 bands in all, grouped by region (Andalusia, Canary Islands, Madrid, Catalonia, Aragon, Basque Country), my only critique might be the absence of Portuguese acts, but perhaps Ben is just saving up for a Portuguese Pandemonium sometime in the future....

IBERIAN PANDEMONIUM

PAZAHORA // ENSLAVE

Singapore's most intense metal/crusters, active for well over a decade, PAZAHORA perfectly mix melodic Euro crust with raging classic Japanese styled hardcore....stellar leads and vocals 

that stab you right in the fukkn heart. Japanese veterans ENSLAVE inject subtle '90s USDIY bits into their raging dual vocal attack. Their rolled back DBeat number "Rootless Wanderer" might be my favorite on the split, though I am very happy that I don't have to choose. Both of these bands have been cranking out consistently killer tunes for longer than most US bands have existed...this split from 2013 - initially released on both of the typical formats, recently regurgitated in a soulless plastic shell for nerds like me (and you....?) - comes highly recommended.

PAZAHORA // ENSLAVE

DOMENICO MODUGNO

A full bodied collection of schmaltzy Italian songs that is every bit as robust as the covers suggest. Domenico Mudugno was a staple in the late 1950s and through the '60s, and this kind of grandiose escapism is a thing that I think everyone con use from time to time....even if the escape is temporary and artificial. I mean, I've been known to watch '70s The Newlywed Game and '80s Press Your Luck reruns from time to time. So, same/same. 

MODUGNO

MOTORHOME

A surprisingly compelling thrift store score, this release was about 7 years too late for the indie stardom that it deserved. With elements of HOUSE OF LOVE, SMASHING PUMPKINS, DINOSAUR JR. and other guitar heavy college/alt rock noteworthies, if this record had come out on Homestead or Matador in 1987 then I have little doubt that people would swoon "my sweet....valentine" and that the dreamy and distorted interlude "Hope" would have made it onto countless high school mix tapes constructed with attempted late night silence in my bedroom in Oklahoma. But alas, Sex Vehicle was released in 1995, when the underground and DIY scenes had made a full departure for lilting radio friendly indie/pop, even with heavy guitars, and so here we are....twenty five cents at a St. Vincent DePaul in New Mexico gets you a good listening piece of history. And two decades later, those seven years don't seem like such a big deal. 

SEX VEHICLE

D.J. LEBOWITZ

Old(er) San Francisco residents may (or may not) remember D.J. LEBOWITZ (and I only use the past tense because I have not heard him mentioned in a while, I assume and hope that is still alive and kicking). I put him on a show in Norman, Oklahoma with NAKED AGGRESSION in 1993 and he stayed at my house...it was weird. He is weird. I am familiar with this cassette (also available on wax, because it was the '80s) and the brilliant Smoke, Suffer and Die EP, an exercise in aural torture the likes of which most people can only imagine....but LEBOWITZ is most noteworthy for is reworking of punk classics as works for solo piano. "Holiday In Cambodia," "Judy Is A Punk" and "Racism Sucks" make appearances here, and I can assure you that his catalog is endless. Released by Fowl Records (FUCK-UPS, BLACK HUMOR, VERBAL ABUSE)....which makes perfect sense and no sense at all at the same time. Sometime in the early '00s, D.J. LEBOWITZ was playing piano at lunch time in a downtown San Francisco shopping mall food court, because we all have to end up somewhere. 

BEWARE OF THE PIANO

All jokes aside, I still genuinely enjoy letting this record fade into the background and then get shocked back by the familiar melodies of punk classics. Also, I have fixed the empty link to the Future Is Death post from a few days ago. We all make mistakes, thanks to the many who (politely) reminded me of this.