Not dead yet

Sorry this blog has been quiet for a long time. It's not dead yet, but life has been hectic and I often find myself doing better things than sit in my room and digitize old cassettes — I currently work full time, play in 3 different bands, help book shows locally, release records, etc.

Expect more tape rips in the future, but please don't hold your breath, it may take time.

In the meantime, feel free to check out my shitty podcast called Poison Waves... It's in French, but if you don't speak French you can at least enjoy the tunes!

Poison Waves podcast

D.S.B. - "10 Raw Tracks" Demo (Japan, 2008)

A ten song affair released for Tokyo's D.S.B. 2008 European tour. Most songs are not excusive to this release and alternate versions can be found on their records, but this is a different recording so it's still an interesting document I guess. Got to see them twice on that tour and they were raging. Funny thing is I bumped into their drummer Eiji three years later at a show in Yokohama, Japan, and first thing he did was thanking me for letting him borrow my cymbals when we opened for them in France... 3 years earlier! That was so cute. He opened an all vegetarian falafel joint in Tokyo called Vespera (which is also the name of his current band), so make sure you hit it if you happen to visit Japan. But I digress… No need to introduce D.S.B., they were a seminal Japanese hardcore bands for over two decades, with a string of releases behind their belts ranging from solid to totally awesome. When digitizing the tape I realized that side B has a fairly better sound quality than side A. Not sure if all copies are like that, but hope you enjoy anyway. Radical Fight Back!

D.S.B. - 10 Raw Tracks Demo (Japan, 2008)

GENITAL DEFORMITIES - "Profession Of Violence" demo (UK, 199?)

Unlike the name suggests, Genital Deformities is far removed from a Carcass-like gore grind combo. Not sure exactly when this demo was recorded/released but I somewhat remember getting it in the mail circa 1990, or maybe '92, though this is a rough guess. Hazy memory doesn't get better with age. I'm pretty sure it follows the "Shag Nasty" LP, and it is also heaps more appealing if you ask me. It's dirty, grinding (not in a "blast beat" grind way though), political, guttural metallic crust/punk, the way only Brits know how to churn it out. Mandatory anti-Poll Tax song included! Not sure who these guys were but there was at least one Excrement Of War member involved. This tape was reissued a couple of years later on vinyl as a split LP with Nuclear Death (the Polish one, not Lori Bravo's infamous pioneering US death metal band). Do yourself a favor and check it out if you like your crust punk ugly and metal ridden… I know I do, and this bloody little ripper has been a personal favorite for over two decades.

GENITAL DEFORMITIES - Profession Of Violence demo (UK, 199?)

GODZILLA - "Victim" demo (France, 1996)

As promised a while ago, here's the very first 4-song demo tape by Godzilla, the early death metal incarnation of the band now known as Gojira. Already heavy on the ("Human"-era) Death influence. Not much to add to my other entry about the band, except my underground minute of fame was helping them lay out this demo cover at the time. The right chanel sound level is pretty low on the first two songs, my tape is like that and I'm way too technologically retarded to figure out how to fix it. Sorry.

GODZILLA - Victim demo (France, 1996)

Fixed links

There were a couple of dead links so I re-upped the missing files (i.e Boston Strangler, Lawless, and Semen demos). But to my greatest dismay, I couldn't fix discs 9, 10 and 11 of the Reference Of Female-Fronted Punk Rock boxset — all of which had corrupted tracks. It looks like my copies of the CDRs are damaged as my computer won't extract those songs. My deepest apologies for this.

HIATUS / HEALTH HAZARD - "Don't Think With Your Dick…" split live tape (Belgium/UK, 1994)

Two of the most popular '90s "Euro crust" bands gathered on one tape, both recorded live in the South-West of France in 1993-94 and released by Utopia Tapes, a cassette label run by Fred a.k.a "Tony", also drummer for Enola Gay, Vomit Yourself, and Disbeer. I got the opportunity to see both bands on stage at the time and they were super solid, as those recordings can attest. The Hiatus side was recorded in Auch on August 17th 1993 and the sound quality is excellent. Soundboard recording. I really had a soft spot for this band, they always killed it live and were our own French-speaking, heavy drinking, continental answer to Doom. Talking of which, the tape ends with Hiatus' hilarious studio rendition of Doom's "Relief" taken from the split 7" shared by both bands. The Health Hazard side has a much rougher audience recording (Toulouse on February 22nd 1994) but is still totally listenable. The UK band logo was (and still is) on a lot of patches and shirts, for good reason. Blazing fast thrash/crust with raging female vocals. Ex and future members of just about every band in the UK ever, an attempt at a family tree would give even the most die-hard genealogist a headache within minutes. There's also the Not Just A Nightmare EP as bonus material to top it all off. The tape came with a really cool booklet featuring lyrics, pictures, collages… They don't make them like this anymore.

HIATUS / HEALTH HAZARD - Don't Think With Your Dick… split live tape (Belgium/UK, 1994)

DESPERDICIO - "Maqueta 2010" demo (Japan, 2010)

Japanese punks master the art of paying tribute to their favorite bands from far away lands. We've all heard bands ape the Finnish (Poikkeus, Lakaus…), Swedish (Frigorä, Ferocious X…), Italian (Tantrum, Isterismo…) and of course UK sound, singing in broken languages they don't really speak at all. And I'm in no way blaming them: many more non-anglo saxon bands are guilty of this when they sing in English, mind you. Desperdicio hail from Sendai, a city hit really badly by the 2011 tsunami, and you can tell they're trying to emulate the "ramshackle d-beat" sound of more recent Spanish bands like Destrucción, Firmeza 10, Semen… Though when I asked him, their sempai singer Tsuyoshi confirmed that he didn't speak a word of Spanish. I saw them live in Tsuyama less than two months after the March 2011 tragedy, and they had insisted on driving 15 or so hours just to play this show, even if everybody was still in shock. Only in Japan! This is a short tape, only 4 songs including a Varukers cover. They released a 7" on Overthrow Records shortly afterwards.

DESPERDICIO - Maqueta 2010 demo (Japan, 2010)