a lot's happened but nothing's changed...

shit, just like that a month will creep up on you and all of a sudden you have a bunch of unmailed packages sitting next to your desk, a bag full of dirty laundry, and a neglected blog. it happens to the best of us, and it happens to me too. i've got a couple unfinished posts hanging around as drafts including one that i may actually finish reflecting on reunion lps by "classic" bands that have dropped in recent months.

since uploading blawnknox's cassette the following has happened:

-recorded for a newish band last saturday called Step Forward
-mind eraser played CBGB's w/ fucked up, warhead, forward, tragedy (probably the best lineup we'll ever play with)
-the producers of snakes on a plane have been worried about sustaining the hype on their film until its release date, so i joined the street team.
-cooch picked up an unplayed copy of the malefice 7" on blue vinyl (meaning it has the additional track and sounded really good when copied)
-i read the complete incomplete ballad of halo jones
-rigorous intuition had to open a new site for maybe some shadey reasons
-my associate damian established a presence in the blogsphere
-and the inmates lp became available to the masses

and now that that's out of the way, let me introduce you (because i'm guessing you've never met) to hail of rage's "fucking pissed" e.p. - a 90s dollar bin piece worth far more than the price you're actually going to pay for it when you next come upon it.



unlike most of the other bands i've heard from connecticut's early-90s torrington crop hail of rage dishes out sort of an americanized post slapaham version of extreme noise terror or doom, reminding me a bit of holocaust in your head and bury the debt filtered through the sensibility of crossed out and infest. i understand the weight those names carry and i'm quite confident this isn't far behind them even with the endless parade of terrible music inspired by each of those bands. i kind of can't believe that one that mixes the 2 could possibly be good especially from 1994, but this thing just fires on all cylinders start to finish. tight guitar breaks, driving d-beats, grinding blasts into midpaced mosh riffs, gruff vocals spit at 200mph... basically it's all there, about as good as it gets. legitimate brutality.

i was only turned onto this shit recently, while mind eraser was recording "glacial reign" when will (owner/opporator of dead air studios) noted that i'd most likely enjoy it. while RSR records has managed to release a cd retrospective, it unfortunately features this e.p. not only out of its original order, but also remixed with an added guitar track, and while it's still pretty powerful it's just not the same. i can only ask WHY?

the original press of this sleeper is on Fetus records, with a yellow vinyl repress on Anomie. besides this and the afformentioned "discography" the only other release the band had was a split 7" that's so utterly forgetable and below the bar set by this one that it might as well not exist. so here's yet another one that's all but totally slipped through the cracks into obscurity purgatory, entirely unjustly i might add. Hail Of Rage - Fucking Pissed:

01 Amorality
02 Conciet
03 The Feeling's Mutual
04 Static
05 Act Of Virility
06 Purity
07 One Of Them
08 Priorities
09 Scourge
10 A Glance Ahead
11 Thinning Blood
12 Fetal Position
13 Conclude

Haunting You With Your Past...

so the irony of this blog has become that as soon as i got it to combat at work bordom, work has become very busy. in addition to that "wtf", after this post i may have to stake out some new webspace unfortunately (wtf). also i just didn't do much linking this time as it was mostly inspired by the hours of free time i seem not to have. don't worry i'll bring it back.

the music today is a bit of a break from where i've gone before. for your listening on this entry i present Blawknox's "self service island" cassette. a highschool favorite of mine.



1. Sack Of Doorknobs
2. Start Again
3. You're Wrong
4. There Should Be A Warning
5. Hachet Job
6. Automatic
7. Starfleet Commanders


blawknox were based out of lee highschool which is only a few miles from the house i grew up in and at they performed at the first sort of hardcore but not really hardcore show i ever went to. describing them is kind of a pain in the ass as they were a highschool band, but it's that quality that's their greatest strength. you get some black flag , you get some melvins, you get some 2 note shellac/jesus lizard churning, you get angry teenagers, you get the obligatory hatred of authority and society, you get blawknox. a lot of people who know this tape would probably laugh for even bringing it up, but in my opinion it has way more to offer, holds up way better, and is performed much more convincingly than most other punk and hardcore coming from the dc area in the mid 90s. "prove me wrong kids. prove me wrong."

track one breaks out with a pscyho surfy riff that coulda come right of the instrumental side of family man setting the pace with atonal riffs, choppy drum fills, and driving bass (all delivered with surprising percision for a bunch of minors). as track 2 "start again" gets going with a deceptively catchy riff the vocals kick in, hoarse, irritated and railing on everything, and though the singer may try and tell you otherwise, i think it sounds fuckin cool. there's nothing that beats the voice of an angry teenager in a punk band. i could go track by track and keep talking about all the cool shit but it's not necessary. the beauty of music like this is it can only be made when the musicians aren't totally conscious of what they're doing. before anyone realizes that they amrep'd the early SST catalog and got a skater somewhere in the middle of puberty to rant over it, the band's gone, the members are in college rock bands, at bars, or just denying it ever happened, and the sands of time sweep it away.

so if you're feeling adventurous, enjoy blawknox. it's brutal though maybe not in the most obvious way. i've been jamming this for 8 or 9 years now and i still get a charge out of it. reviews, opinions, and other more blog-like shit forthcoming...all hail highschool punk.

Haverhill Fares Well... I guess?

first off for your emping convenience -


Malefice - "Overboard"

Carrion
Lost Sheep
Overboard

So this one was released on DSI records from Northern Virginia in the early 80s with various hand colored sleeves (mine is silver and pink). If you know of DSI at all, chances are it's because of the first United Mutation 7" which they released and which also has a fractional number in the dischord catalog (which is probably the reason you know of it in the first place). In truth there's several other cool or failing that at least historically interesting releases on DSI, a Fairfax based label (not far from the area I lived out my childhood and adolescence). Probably the best of all these besides that first UM 7", is Malefice's Overboard. I happened upon it in a record store by my parent's house this past Thanksgiving, and just looking at it I knew it had to be some cool punk/metal hybrid. When I got it home and threw it on I wasn't disappointed either. Sort of a mix of Void, the aforementioned United Mutation, and some Venom, maybe just a little bit of the Obsessed? The vocals are never quite as off the charts as Void or UM but they still rip pretty hard and the guitars waver in and out of control in a similar vein. The second pressing of this record comes on blue vinyl and has an additional track (TRADE THIS TO ME), and they later issued an lp in Europe. I'm under the impression they may have some songs on the Mutopia comp, which my copy of this record contains an ad for, but there's some dispute as to whether this comp even exists, and so far I've come up dry in trying to hear a copy. I know at least one member did some time in United Mutation and I've heard that they have some common membership with the long forgotten Media Disease (anyone want to get rid of that double 7"?). Enjoy the unholy racket of Malefice, and if you have more info on them or songs/records by them please get in touch.

ETC.
This weekend I hit up a newish record store in Haverhill MA this past weekend called Welfare Records. It's run by this dude Mike whom you may know from Welfare Records the label, or Second Coming Records a former Boston store. I wasn't really sure what to expect rolling out there, but when we got into the store it was pretty clear this place is the real deal as far as punk record stores go. Tons of cheaper to mid-range rarities, as well as a few high priced items. The spread was really even in terms of different subscenes covered (late 70s kbd style, early 80s HC, crust, indie/post-punk, youth crew/NYHC, plenty of recent stuff) and all the bins were pretty full. I didn't pick up anything major but did get my favorite Crude album on vinyl, the Uruku 7" which i've had an eye out for, and an extra chopping block E.P. among several other things. This all lends a lot of weight to my theory that if you're going to run a record store you need a comprehensive knowledge of whatever kind of music you're going to focus your sales on (another good example of this being Armageddon).

The real shocker though was when Mike offered to show us the space he's been working on below the store, where bands can play. Again I had no idea what to expect but when we got down it looked really nice. A soundboard, stage, and a sunken in part of the floor where the people watching the bands can stand. I think they're in the process of applying to have a liquor license so the bar there can be active too. Upon seeing this I stated "wow you could probably record band's demos during the day on that soundboard" to which Mike replied "oh we can just do that in the studio I'm building next door. He took us over there next, and though things are still being sound proofed and set up there was already a computer w/ a protools setup and a pretty nice 1" tape machine.

So to wrap it up this place seems pretty legit, they're doing everything the legal way (sprinkler systems, permits) and it seems to be coming together well. This makes a good segue for a review too...

Pure Hell - Noise Addiction - Welfare

So while we were on our visit to welfare records I picked up this cd which Mike released on his label, also Welfare Records. I guess this is some philly based afro-punk from 1978, that until this point only produced a 2 song single. Generally with collections of this type (super obscure band, tons of "lost" material) it turns out that most of their songs suck, and there's one or two hits. For that reason this one is quite a breaking of the mold. The band recorded 3 sessions over the course of 1978 that take a bit of the classic motörhead sound, a bit of the sleaze of the dead boys, and then throw a little more speed and recklessness on top of that. The guitars are just absolutely on fire the entire time slashing and burning their way through track after track of doped up proto hardcore bliss. Solos are played on top of solos, wah wah pedals are abused, and for all the buzz and screech and noise, they never sacrifice a good tune. It's hard to believe something like this can have been so under the radar for so long, but it's kind of a great feeling to think that every once in a while something this great can still surface. Included as a bonus is a dvd which I still haven't sat down and viewed but apparently it has vintage live footage with studio songs dubbed over it ala those old target videos. I mean as a bonus disc I guess that's cool, it's not like it's being sold extra. The only complaint I can muster about this thing is that the text on the cd is all in that ugly ass CHILLER font and in neon green at that. If I never see that shit again it'll be too soon. Thankfully I heard him saying something about a re-done layout with some Caroline distribution backing it. Hope so because this deserves a good treatment like that. Oh there's a great photo/print collage too with a couple photos of them hanging out with sid vicious and a few live reviews/promo shots from that time. I can't recommend this enough to fans of 70's punk, garage, early hardcore, etc.

reviews 5/02/06

trying to get some mp3 content up so maybe i'll make daily additions for the time being. outbid on an OG master shirt today - what the fuck.

uploaded rorschach's "needlepack" e.p. for some reason they left the a-side off that discography. i know it was later re-recorded, but that's kind of revisionist. i'll take the crackle and pop of my old vinyl over the bogus mastering job they used on that cd. i heard charles wants to reissue it with improved mastering and maybe some additions but i ain't holding my breath. this is my favorite rorschach release despite being only 3 songs and a noise intro. so disgusting and crawling. the '84 era flag vibe really comes through on these songs too. anyone who wants to trade me the split with neanderthal i need it very much. when i was in stop and think clevo gave me an extra copy of remain sedate. took me a minute to wrap my head around that one.

Rorschach - "Needlepack"


Ugly/Skin Culture
Bone Marrow Biopsy
Laryngitis

reviews volume I -

kvoteringen - roffarens marknad 7" - (terrotten records)
bought this on cooch's recomendation from the havoc distro and it ended up being better than expected. pretty by the numbers anti cimex style core which i tend not to buy a lot of because for me it often blurs together, but this is definitely above average. a nice shitty recording adds some character to a pretty meat and potatoes d-beat attack, the back cover has a photo of an 8 track and some beers which i assume was the recording setup. the vocals and drums are pretty in the red but it sounds more out of necessity than some kind of artistic choice (which i think is cool). maybe it's a little too trebley but that's probably because this was recorded on cassette with cheap mics. some of the songs push towards a Doom or Mob47 type pacing and speed which is cool too. i dunno there's not too much to say, genre fans should be enthused. glued sleeve, green vinyl. there's some weird thing at the end where the needle skates across the vinyl mid song, then the song starts over, then it does it again, and the song's over. possibly a prank?

sick of talk - s/t 7" - (chainsaw safety)
first heard this band when they sent a demo to painkiller. i remember thinking it was pretty good but for whatever reason we stalled a long time on asking them to do a record, and when we did they'd already agreed to do one with CSS, at least i think it was something like that? anyway i feel like i waited for this to come out for a while so i was pretty excited that it just appeared one day without any advance warning. i guess they take the thrashy sort of post youth crew approach like infest, citizen's arrest (7" era), early capitalist casualties, or more recently the think i care 7"s and the fya demo (which you haven't heard unless you're from new bedford) - basically just alternating between chunky moshes and speedy blasts with crew backups. the songs have a really youthful anger and delivery that has a lot more personality than a lot of the self proclaimed neo-"power violence" releases that are dropping lately (which this should probably be compared to). it's not really original but what it might not have in that department is made up for in the overall charm of the songs.

recording-wise it's just the right ammount of rawness, almost like a demo, a real bash it out in an afternoon type quality to the sound. the packaging kind of blows though. looks like those the horror 10"s didn't sell very well because someone just chopped one of those sleeves down to 7" size, turned it inside out, and screened some picture of a guy shooting himself on it. kind of a bummer when you notice the horror jacket was full color photo quality semi gloss (especially if you've heard that record - because this is obviously way better).

upstab - w/ report 7" - (way back when / even worse rec.)
these are the other tracks recorded in the same session as the last E.P. so in that way it's more of the same, but there's nothing wrong with that. actually one of these songs was previously on a comp and another was on their "first" 7" which was an official bootleg type deal of a demo. if you don't know, this is another one of those cleveland punk bands in the tradition of 9 Shocks, GSMF, H-100s, etc. (and featuring members of some of those). snotty, violent, pre-deathside japanese style hc via '82 touch n go USHC, if that means anything. I dunno, it's good. If you already hate this scene this will probably just fuel your fire, but if you're real then you probably know these guys are part of one of the last bright spots on a seemingly dimming horizon. Glued full color sleeve which looks real nice and is a bit different looking than I expected with some sorta weird digital art combined with drawings. it looks pretty good though.


smartut kahol lavan - magnetic storm - (leguna armada)
so here's punk band from israel. how exotic. sami sez the name means blue and white rag. i really had no idea what to expect and was kind of skeptical if people were only into it due to where it's from but it's a really catchy good chunk of music (10 songs). actually i find it fits in well with a lot of the other leguna releases and kind of puts itself between the likes of the tragetelo lp, the new granada 7" and maybe the pitf 7". i know i could give it some older comparisons (maybe some finnish stuff, some US stuff) but nothing ever sounds like what people say anyway. The lyrical situation is, not surprisingly, difficult, each song is printed only as an english translation and the translations seem very literal and thus broken, for instance:

USURER Wherever i go/ they'll always point at me/ conspiracy theories/ are my blessings// immune to all/ beacause hatred against me is eternal/ Goy kill goy and they're coming/ To hang a jew//Usurer - that's me/ Usurer - that's my fate// Every toll dignifies the worker/ besides my contribution/ which is regarded as sin/ so let's go to the bitter end/ murder expulsion or conversion

i'm pretty sure it's a rejection of the prevailing religion and state or at least some kind of expression of the violence associated with that, but the details are pretty foggy. either way this record is definitely pretty cool, comes in your typical leguna armada multi-color hand screened sleeve and if it looks a bit typical, it at least looks pretty good.

allow me to reintroduce myself...

welcome to the newest installment in my ongoing legacy of internet idiocy. when wondering to myself why i thought this was a good idea, the only reason i could come up with was daily boredom, mostly in the work place. i have a good bit of down time at certain times of the day and this seems like one way to combat that. or maybe i just like to hear (read) myself talk about nonsense. also i thought that i could add myself to the seemingly unending list of sites offering complimentary mp3s to visitors. mainly i'd just like to share some things i think are cool and may not be easily findable on mp3 which is obviously the preferred format in this ipod age. some could be more unknown than others but i'm not really striving for obscurity.

so here we are. volume the first. i took it easy this weekend, worked on some design projects, had some new mind eraser songs posted to the painkiller site and also worked on making sure things are coming along with the impending tour and album artwork. Caught up on some reading, and went to see scapegoat open up for kylesa and victims. they pretty much crushed everyone and made one hell of an argument against musical innovation in hardcore.

For your inaugural listening indulgences...

Chopping Block's Grizzly Fetish E.P.



a self release on Blood Soaked Records from '91 or '92, and though it isn't worth a whole lot in dollars to your average record scummer, it's kind of a pain to find. a couple of canadians with their ears closer to the ground than mine recommended this as some first rate infest worship, which is a pretty accurate. To be more accurate though, it sounds like a bunch of longhair slayer fans grabbed a copies of the Infest 7"s and did their best to mimic the sound from the vocals to the riffing, to the lyrical content (serial killers, hate for police, general declarations of rage), right down to an instrumental outro. what gives it away as a counterfeit is the double bass and china cymbal laden drumming and the obnoxiously gratuitous guitar solos. even so, this record is an ear scorcher. i've sort of been waiting for it to take off in the wake of the latest power violence craze as a hot ebay item, but so far... not so much.

according to my sources the mastermind behind this band, dave keck, filled in on bass for infest at a couple later shows, and the thanks list here does shoot out to a few of the notables of that scene, but by and large i think this was something that was sort of on the fringe. Enough bullshit... chopping block.

My Politics
The Man The Myth
213
20 Lashes
Lead Shower
The Streets
Consume
The Rapist