CHASM

Saw this Kansas City trio last spring in the middle of the afternoon in a depressing bar on the south side of Oklahoma City while some gutter punks who I casually knew a lifetime ago played pool in the back. It was a churning and frenzied set that lacked all pretense, no small feat in the world of regurgitated SABBATH/PENTAGRAM riffs. Perhaps it's the vocals, or perhaps it's the lumbering pace, but CHASM also manage to exist in that decidedly retro world while exuding more than enough originality to separate them from the masses....and this is why I was excited to see them twice earlier this year. Still good. Still loud. Still chill as fukk to watch. I was pleased. 

CHASM

Q

Maybe you know about this St. Louis outfit. Maybe you don't I didn't. Then, at about 1:30am on a cold night in Oklahoma City last March, I found out. So now it's your turn.

CQMBQ

SELF HELP

Hard driving St. Louis punk with the kind of loose, casual hooks that reminds me of OBSERVERS and '90s East Bay. But perhaps it's the vocals that really make SELF HELP stand out, powerful, up front belts that harness Anna Joy Springer's legacy and rockets it into the new millennium (and yes, I know that Anna Joy is still never active in this millennium, but I'm trying to make a pointless analogy here). Killer two minute creamers, one after another...addictive as hell. 

SELF HELP

WILD HEX

Dirty, blown out punk rock that struggles (successfully) you mask what are really excellently crafted pop tunes. But you don't know that, you just hear some distorted rock 'n roll and you get drunk and wild. And that's totally fine, because that's what you are supposed to hear. I hear bits of several '90s acts seeping through this five song banger, but mostly these St. Louis monkeys dish out high caliber grungy punk...and I like it. "Death Rattles" is that track for this guy, if only because going out on a fast note was a really good idea.

II

SKI MASK // EYE FORMATION

SKI MASK play aggressive mutant hardcore/punk fronted by a singer pushed to the very brink...of everything. They play six songs. EYE FORMATION sound like they just stepped out of 1979 and they are pushing the realms of punk and rock 'n roll to their very brink. They play five songs. One band is really good...but the other band is really good too. It doesn't make any sense that they are on the same cassette, but that's why it makes me happy. Favorite SKI MASK song: "Coffe Pot." Favorite EYE FORMATION song: "Short Song" (though "Metal Heads" is really really sick).

EYE FORMATION // SKI MASK

MIDWEST MUTANTS

MIDWEST MUTANTS

Not exactly a mix tape this Friday, more like a mix zip filled with short run demos from some of the most deranged hardcore bands that the dilapidated cornholes of the Midwestern USA is cranking out. Three installments in the 2012 Halloween Cassingle Series on Spotted Race, two songs each from Belleville, Illinois' LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS and TRAUMA HARNESS (the former personifying the term "deranged" I dropped earlier, and the latter injecting much needed aggression into the current trend of reverbed goth-esque dark punk) and KOWABUNGA! KID from Champaign who play deliberate and plodding punk with an attitude that will draw you in faster than you can lament the death of the family farm or blue collar manufacturing. More dark shits, but this time with blown out NEGATIVE APPROACH hardcore barks from LAUGHBOY, plus the much hyped (by at least two of my friends) first demo from LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS and an essential banger from St. Louis' NOSBOS, who the label describes accurately as "ĂŒber slimey." These are punks that have existed below the cool radar for so long that they've created their own world, and the world looks pretty fukkn sinister to these eyes. I suppose it's possible that I'm just getting old and that these bands are basically made up of kids I don't know, which is why I think they are "under the radar," but fukk it man: I don't care why they are awesome, I just want to hear more. More from these bands, and more from the kids that they will assuredly influence. Listen to the jams and then mailorder some tapes, they are $2 each for fukks sake.

in order of mention:

LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS

TRAUMA HARNESS

KOWABUNGA! KID

LAUGHBOY

LUMPY AND THE DUMPERS

NOSBOS

CIVIC PROGRESS

Fast, straight forward shit rooted in early '80s (east coast) punk/HC. Never saw this St. Louis band, but this is exactly the rapid fire shit that made me jump for joy in the mid '00s, and still does now. Born from the same admiration that birthed TOTAL FURY, but with an eye pointed a few metropolises up Interstate 95 towards Boston. A five year old interview with the singer here, 9 songs in 10 minutes can be found below.

CIVIC PROGRESS

I hate the world and I hate all of you // Maybe it's true - I'm no fun

VOIGHT•KAMPFF

It's no secret that punks have taken to looking to the dreary sounds of decades past, but the nucleus of VOIGHT•KAMPFF have been working on these sounds since the last millennium and their efforts will reward your earholes with music dripping with dark basement sounds. Far from a goth punk rehash, this project leans heavily on guitar driven post punk, so much so that it's easy to overlook the superb brooding vocals and even to miss the subtle keyboards and concentrate on the gloriously simple guitar leads. The two fellows at the center of VOIGHT•KAMPFF know exactly what they are up to and are no strangers to killer sounds (one dude from CARDIAC ARREST and one from FORMALDEHYDE JUNKIES/DAMAGE DEPOSIT), but this is easily their finest work to date. Easily (though mistakenly) lumped in with both Swedish melodic sounds like VICIOUS or with the current '80s dark punk resurgence, this is one of the few fortunate bands who sound instantly familiar and fiercely original at the same time. There's vinyl coming soon, and I couldn't be happier.

VOIGHT•KAMPFF

BASE APES

This is small town 1980s. Waynesville, Missouri isn't quite the middle of nowhere - the famous Route 66 cruises leisurely through the dated downtown, and Fort Leonard Wood (named for my Great-Grandfather-in-law) is a mere 10 miles down the road which means that young recruits and grizzled vets often use Waynesville as their playground. St. Louis lies a little more than two hours to the east, leaving the town of just a few thousand pretty much to its own devices socially. So what do you do in 1987 if you are a frustrated high school hessian in Waynesville, obsessed with GG ALLIN and MISFITS, coveted DEAD KENNEDYS and METALLICA records sharing shelf space in your parents' basement, sneaking tall cans of Bud Lite in drainage ditches dreaming of an escape? The answer is simple: you start a band. BASE APES cranked out a healthy handful of tapes during their four year run (which not coincidentally coincided with the high school tenure of the members), bedroom heavy metal with punk teeth put awkwardly to 4-track with the help of beer and adolescent frustration. Instrumentals like the 6+ minute "On The Move" are simply head scratchers, but the majority of this tape (which features some but not all of the tracks from the first BASE APES demo from 1988) is classic small town angst - a vehicle for inside jokes and a shared experience, driven by a drum machine and screaming guitar solos. Several more tapes followed (fortunately for the modern day researcher, founder Sambone is a graphic designer and has put the band's entire story online), and the band continued their assault on small town existence until 1990. BASE APES aren't going to change your life, but they certainly shaped the teenage years of the members, and I can only imagine how much richer my world would have been as a 15 year old had I known that such a band were possible in the midst of such cultural isolation.

BASE APES

SUCKED DRY

I like hardcore, and within the realm of hardcore, SUCKED DRY are really fukkn good. Seriously, the slow part in "Human Smoke Stacks" is simple but astounding, and you are going to love it. Total rage in 423 seconds or less.

SUCKED DRY

EXECUTION TECHNIQUES

Dark and vaguely industrial noise that weaves drunkenly from harsh droning sounds ("Chastised" and "Forgotten") to more structured and synth drenched distorted anti-music ("Fiery Triumph" and "Forget Your Dreams"). These four tracks make up the entirety of Salvation Is False Hope, a 22 minute journey into a bleak wonderland. EXECUTION TECHNIQUES have dished out a few cassettes before this one, but their vision has been achieved here, and I thank the fine folks at Drugged Conscience for making it available. Highly recommended, though probably more for dark winter listening.

SALVATION IS FALSE HOPE

SHAVED WOMEN

It's Monday, and you have likely stopped by for some distortion laden insanity. Enter SHAVED WOMEN, who are neither female nor sans hair. This is not the raging DBeat madness laced with distorted axemen that shallow fans might have come to expect from Mondays. SHAVED WOMEN are, however, distorted and fukkd in all the right ways, so dig this live show presented in two 9+ minute movements and recorded in pure glorious analog - a curse upon the digital (never mind the ones and zeros that allow you to listen to this magic through your headphones).

Live @ APOP

STREET LEGAL

I know - the cover is probably the best thing you've ever seen, right? I was so totally prepared to ridicule the shit out of this release when I popped it in the player...I mean, BUTTHAND?! Turns out Butthand isn't just a snortle inducing name for a tape, it's a fukkn killer demo from Kansas City's STREET LEGAL. Female vocals, great bass work that drives infectious hooks deep into your subconscious so that tomorrow at work I'll be mentally humming "Fast & Free" but I won't know what the song is or where it came from - it will just be in there. Can we get back to the cover for just a moment? Yeah, that's an ass superimposed on the back of a hand flipping you off. Similar vibe to the equally killer NECRO HIPPIES demo, even though they don't really sound that similar...they feel similar, and that's what a vibe is all about, ain't it? Seven songs - great tape - get into it.

BUTTHAND