THE VIEW: AN ATLANTA COMPILATION 1984-1990

All hail region specific compilations, and especially ones that focus on overlooked eras and/or regions. The View piles over an hour of under the radar punk and hardcore onto this comp, and it's fukkn great...but first off, NEON CHRIST's "Savior" is one of the greatest uncelebrated tracks from a band known primarily for playing faster and looser than anyone on the planet, this song is just pure power and should be considered essential listening. The rest of the comp is excellent, with dips into the proto/pre college radio/alt that put the  post hardcore era on the map mixed in with basement DIY and punks breaking out of the then "traditional" formulas. Highlights for me include ACT OF FAITH, KICKER BOYS, THIRD SEASON and STICKMEN....but I am only two ears. 

THE VIEW: AN ATLANTA COMPILATION 1984-1990

The Atlanta specific Beyond Failure blog made an excellent post about this compilation many years ago. Worth checking for a local's perspective alone, but the comments from the label and other people involved and influenced by the tape at the time are well worth a read. Careful though - I got caught up in some pretty lengthy Atlanta nostalgia...and I'm definitely not from Atlanta. 

AD NAUSEUM

Bands try to manufacture this kind of primal chaos, but the discerning listener can see right through them. AD NAUSEUM, however, were the real deal. The first of several cassette releases, 1982's self titled demo is an assault of inept anarcho punk delivered with raw and pure desperation, fighting through tape hiss and a guitar pegged to the right, tracks like "What A State" bang two riffs back and forth like a manic pinball machine. Most of the tape is made up of rudimentary slogs, a verse chorus verse chorus verse chorus stop structure repeated song after song, teenage punk at it's absolute finest. Like I said...you can't make this shit up, and when it's real you know it. 

AD NAUSEUM

The tape includes a ten song session (I have to assume this is a rehearsal recording, because if they paid someone for this then they are either really drunk or really foolish), followed by a 19 song set from March of 1982....as if to prove that the ramshackle performance captured on tape is, in fact, really what AD NAUSEUM delivers. I shared this one a few years back, but after a few loud listens last week and the realization that many pre-2013 links have long passed into the digital ether (yes, I know...no, I won't/can't fix/replace them all) it seemed that a revisit was a good idea. Cheers to the kids who do and who go hard, whether they know how to or not. 

ALL YOU CAN EAT

ALL YOU CAN EAT were like an earworm in the early '90s, you couldn't escape them. Danny B, Myron and Devon worked with a rotating cast bass players before landing on Craigums and essentially conquering the world while acting as a life line connecting San Francisco to the rest of the DIY world. You might think that San Francisco, itself a hub of punk to people around the world, didn't need a life line - but ALL YOU CAN EAT connected an entirely new generation of punk and punks to their contemporaries in the far corners of the planet in a way that the (then older) establishment simply couldn't...plenty of parallels to current scenarios and scenes within scenes, but they did it with postcards and letters and handmade tapes, and they formed bonds (for themselves and the people around them...including myself) that would last lifetimes. Europe was easy, the network was there and bands had been using it for a decade before ALL YOU CAN EAT started playing shows....so they never went to Europe. But there were arguably the first US DIY band to tour Japan, they booked tours in Brazil, Argentina, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand....through the fucking mail. Their energy and antics on stage were epic (also: notably photogenic), and it was the legend of those performances that transcended their recorded output, while their seemingly insatiable lust for adventure and the beauty of international DIY punk transcended the shows themselves.  They presented as a goofy pop punk band, but tracks like "Lucifudge (You Thought It Was Over)" showcases their love for ripping '80s crossover, and the influences run as deep as the list of sub-subgenres that record nerds continue to pull out of their collective ass(es)....ALL YOU CAN EAT were always so much more than they presented. This recording has most of their hits ("I Saw Your Girlfriend In A Movie," "This Die Cast Metal Has Life," "Food Fight") plus a track called "Everything Sucks" that predates the DESCENDENTS track and Danny B said he did not remember writing, playing or recording. My point is that these dudes were very important....these dudes are very important. And not just to me.

STRONGEST MALT

THE STEELERS

I appreciate the way these folks do it - a steady trickle of two song cassettes, contents as sparse as the presentation. Lo fidelity dream pop, fuzzed out like the sonic version of the photocopied cover, wrapping two lazy chords around the eight minutes contained inside. It's almost as if the more you listen, the less there is to actually here, which is an art in itself....and this is, apparently, a mission more than a theme. 

LIVING//SPIES

XRDM

XRDM dropped this short offering last year, further reinforcing their status as Kota Kinabalu's fiercest export. Nine tracks in just eight minutes, Fashkodato! is an all out dual vocal fastcore assault, with more nods to low end '90s DIY crust than their previous releases. The piercing highs of Nzt's vocals create a monstrous contrast with the choruses of gruff low backing vox, and then "Avoidance" kicks with a gloriously adolescent bridge before Nzt takes the song to its close. It's theoretically simple shit, really...but these kids are just so fucking fierce. Drums barely hold it together for the fast parts and then somehow tighten up on the blasts...maybe because this is a machine that was built from the start for pure speed and uncompromising power. Third World Hardcore Forever. 

FASHKODATO!

I want to see this band live...

FALSEHOOD

After six years, a welcome return visit from Edmonton's FALSEHOOD. Black, pummeling crust that's more refined and more sinister than on their 2011 debut, which means that FALSEHOOD was even more devastating. An uncanny knack for moving with ease from HHIG styled blasting to all encompassing depressive doom and then filling the cavernous void in between the two with epic ferocity, the almost 8 minute "Deceiver" is a perfect example of what a band can do if they just allow themselves to spread their wings and soar. Pigeonhole this as "blackened crust" and cheat yourself, or listen at full volume with half a heat on and treat yourself. 

FALSEHOOD

Bonus points for taking the band pic taken in front of a peaceful stream and photo-shopping them in an apocalyptic graveyard...

SHAVED CHRIST

I don't remember when I met Jason Griffin, but I feel like I've know of the dude for a solid 20+ years. HICKEY crossed paths with his band TRES KIDS during one (of many) jaunts through the Southern States, and there's a pretty famous photo of someone from the band passed out next to a pile of vomit, curled up around a HICKEY CD...and over time these are the associations that stick with you. I missed DIVORCE, I missed NO, I feel like I maybe played with GOAT SHANTY in Richmond in 2002, definitely saw AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER in Texas in the mid-'00s, then NO STATIK played with HARSH WORDS in Atlanta in 2013. The point is, it's not like we are tight or anything, but man, I really like that dude...and he hits the drums really good. Like, really good. I also missed SHAVED CHRIST, who claim one of the coolest monikers in modern hardcore and are complete rippers. Like TOTAL FURY crashing headlong into NEON CHRIST, these Georgia kids just fukkn burn through forced, disjointed and ultimately destructive US hardcore punk. No fancy studio work, just one screaming (loose) guitar track amped up higher than the rest of the mix and a crew of fellas banging the shit out of some punk because that's what they fukkn do. There was one six song EP that came shortly after this 2011 demo - I suggest seeking out that slab. You need it. 

SHAVED CHRIST

Listen to the one guitar overdub in "No Crux" and then come talk to me about punk. Fukk.

EAST SIDE STORY vol.3

From the smooth funk of FRANKIE KARL's "Don't Be Afraid," there can be no doubt that this installment in the East Side Story series is going to be a winner. Just as the earlier volumes shared here (and, to be honest, the many more to follow), prepare yourself for a twelve track journey through time. The curators were smart to maintain a few solid pillars, and LLOYD PRICE, BRENDA & THE TABULATIONS and THEE MIDNITERS are welcome returns from Vol.2 (the former even dropping "Just Because" in the third slot for the second time, an either bizarre or brilliant move). But THE DELFONICS, a sultry cut from ROBERT & JOHNNY, THE SUNGLOWS, and ETTA JAMES' simple sweet "My Dearest Darling" set the stage for yet another collection of essentials. The hits keep coming, the hits never stop....Killed By Death for the kids who were cool before you were born. 

EAST SIDE STORY vol.3

All I need
Is someone like you
My dearest darling
Please love me too

......

Oh nothing, nothing, nothing in this world
Can keep us apart
Unghh, my dearest darling
I offer you my heart

......

-- ETTA JAMES "My Dearest Darling"

RIDE 4 A FALL

I don't know much about this Minas Gerais band, and this short demo might be their entire output. There's a flyer that pops up from their show in Belo Horizonte with CATHARSIS and POINT OF NO RETURN (the Brazilian one, obviously) from back in 2000, the year this was recorded, and those two bands seem to be a decent place to start for stylistic comparisons. Forgive the next level pixelation, as it was a sign of the times as much as the brand of hardcore delivered by RIDE 4 A FALL. I am just short of declaring that this demo (likely not first generation, but from the collection of my pal Renzo) was duplicated using corrupted mp3 files, but the erratic way An Evil Engine jumps between and within tracks is one of the things that makes this such a nostalgic listen. Not nostalgia for something from my own past, but for something from a different past altogether. 

AN EVIL ENGINE

PORCJE ROSOŁOWE

This one requires patience and full attention. Meticulously calculated builds and swells while the background crumbles seemingly inside your ear, Polish duo PORCJE ROSOŁOWE (de)construct primitive electronic sound in a most casual(ly beautiful) manner. Ballet is not just a trip, it's a journey.  

BALLET