November 2011 Reviews
By admin on Nov. 25, 2011.
Sick Fucking O
Demo
Members of Voorhees are back with a new band that sounds like…Voorhees. Obviously, not as classic as Spilling Blood Without Reason, but good angry 82 era hardcore that will be enjoyed by fans of Voorhees for sure. Cool Devo cover at the end.
Defile
Demo 2010
Fast, angry, hardcore somewhere between midwestern style and power violence. I bet live you can hear a bit of Rorschach in their sound too. I’d like to hear more.
Slowburn
Demo
Members of a variety of NJHC bands including Spirit, Vision, and Floorpunch playing melodic, Turning Point, style hardcore. This isn’t too bad, but it’s not something I would listen to that often. The members of this band have done much better before.
Beware
Demo
Members of Stick Together and a few other PA bands doing pretty bland Chain of Strength style hardcore that has all of the flaws most 1980′s “melodic,” nearing emo, hardcore bands have. The generic 88 styling of Stick Together are way better. I’m shocked by how many people are so into this.
Bloody Hammer
Demo 2010
Moderately generic Oi! trying to sound like all of the classics. This isn’t a bad effort at sounding like Four Skins, one of my favorites, but isn’t something I will listen to much. I don’t dabble too deeply in this genre during modern times, but check this one out if you love this stuff.
Good Times
Demo
This was handed to me on the way out of a show. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be serious, but the music moves between 88 style hardcore to chugga chugga idiot metal. Add in some pretty misogynistic lyrics and this is pretty shitty.
Hatred Surge
Deconstruct LP
Rescued From Life Records
Taking cues from bands like His Hero Is Gone, Neurosis, and Mind Eraser come this LP by Hatred Surge. Brutal hardcore with alternating male/female vocals. This is one of my favorites of the past few years.
Rorschach
Remain Sedate Reissue LP
Gern Blandsten Records
While I like Protestant a lot more than this one, the first Rorschach LP is an essential part of the evolution of post youth crew hardcore in the nineties. The influence of late eighties bands like Breakdown can still be heard from their very early sound, but so can the incoming influence of bands like Bl’ast!, Voi-void, and Die Kreuzen as well. As with Protestant, the resisue is greatly aided by remastered sound.
Miles Davis
Bitches Brew Live CD
I highly doubt this is a legit release, but worth checking out. The liner notes are hilarious though: the writer acts like NO ONE has ever heard live material of Davis from this era. Tape traders have avidly passed around shows from his electronic years from a damn long time. Ignoring that is comical. There are better shows out there.
Young Republicans
Sabatoge Your Cookout 7″
More Than A Witness Records
One of the great holy grails of the tape trading circuit when I was a teenager was the Young Republicans demo. As you probably know, members of, and songs, from this tape moved to New York City and did a slightly more well known band called Youth Of Today. This demo is pretty generic early eighties hardcore that isn’t bad, but doesn’t really stand out. Worth noting is the songs that did move over to Youth of Today and eventually Project X as well, which is an interesting historical note. Just for that, I strongly suggest picking this up.
Waste Management
Get Your Mind Right 7″
Painkiller Records
Wow!!!! Serious SSD worship from this Massachusetts band. The music is more in the vein of early NYHC bands like The Abused or Agnostic Front, but the pleading, sick, Springa style vocals are unbelievable. I hear a little bit of Crucifix too (SSD meets Crucifix? Fuck.). This would have fit in nicely alongside records on XClaim! or Rat Cage. Nice cover of “Fight,” out of nowhere, in the middle of the record too.
New Lows
Self Titled 7″
Lockin Out Records
Somewhere amongst Word As Law era Neurosis and Humanity Is The Devil era Integrity comes The New Lows’ debut single on Lockin Out. this is a style can be fall apart quick because of too much chugga chugga or experimental bullshit, but The New Lows keep it together. My only complaint is a few too many kickbox style mosh parts. That shit is so corny; however, the band can’t be punished for the idiotic way a crowd way react to them.
DropDead/Converge
Split 7″
DropDead did a split with…Converge? Okay. The DropDead side of this split is pretty good, up to their usual good standards. Converge are just not a band who have ever interested me. Post hardcores love that shit.
Wasted Time
Futility 12″
Grave Mistake Records
Wasted Time come back with an excellent followup to their debut 7″, this time heavily soaked in Kings of Punk era Poison Idea and Oi! bands like Blitz and 4-Skins. Wasted Time is able to tread between an authentic old style and more modern production and stylistic values. This is one of the best records of the decade.
Innumerable Forms
Dark Worship 7″
Hell Massacre Records
Justin Detore’s death metal project is exactly as awesome as it sounds. Serious old school death metal which really stands out in a genre I don’t dive too deeply into outside of most of the classics. A lot of the newer Mind Eraser (Justin’s day job) material in somewhat in this vein, or at least heavily influenced by it. Excellent and worth tracking down.
Gasmask Terror
Black Sun Fake Gold LP
Solar Funeral Records
Gasmask Terror are an interesting band whose sound falls somewhere between UK82 and D-Beat styles. I think this LP drags a little bit, but I think I have a general distaste for longer records in this style from most bands outside of the heavyweights like Discharge. This is definitely worth checking out.
Waste Management
Power Abuse 7″
Painkiller Records
Yes!!! Brutal SSD style hardcore from members of Mind Eraser. This record takes the best of early Boston and New York with some seriously raging lyrics (especially “Too Much Unity”). A definite contender for record of the year.
Reviews For The Week of July 18th
By admin on Jul. 18, 2011.
Talk Is Poison…one of the best bands of the past 15 years…
State of Alert
No Policy Bootleg LP
This is a pretty complete bootleg LP with all of State of Alert’s recorded material. The No Policy 7” on Dischord, the tracks from Flex Your Head, two demos, and a live set. I’ve heard all of this before, but completeists will dig having all of this in one place. Why hasn’t Dischord done a discography for them already?
Various Artists
Brutal Supremacy Compilation Double 7″
Painkiller Records
The long awaited debut compilation from Painkiller Records does not let down. Mind Eraser and Scapegoat continue to plow through their always excellent careers with a nice handful of unreleased versions of songs from each band. Hatred Surge seem to have had some lineup changes, but I am still reminded of His Hero Is Gone when listening to them. Iron Lung are a band I had heard about for awhile, but never really heard before. They remind me of some late eighties Touch & Go bands like Shellac, Butthole Surfers, etc and some of the nineties Gravity Records emo bands. Pretty decent stuff. All bands are worth your time.
No Hope For The Kids
Angels of Destruction b/w Cold Touch of Death 7”
Backwards Masking Records
This is definitely my favorite NHFTK record. The A side is a heavy, melodic song that reminds me of the Adolescents a lot. The B side is a faster song with some riffs pretty reminiscent of The Misfits. A two song single is about all I can handle from this band. I did not like their LP.
Christian Mistress
Mother of Mercy b/w The Hereafter 7″
Nasjonal Records
Fantastic Venom soaked metal from this Portland band. Great riffs and changes without become boring or tedious, which a lot of metal gets for me very quickly. A lot of people think the vocals sound like the singer of The Gits, and I can definitely see that.
Free Spirit
Free Yourself 7″
Triple B Records
One of the few impressive youth crew records of the past…oh, let’s say, 15 years or so, combine “second tier” bands like Confront and Hard Stance with a bit of Token Entry to put out a great seven inch. I think there is a lot of potential here, unlike most of the junk coming out of this genre.
The Rival Mob
Hardcore 4 Hardcore 7″
Six Feet Under Records
Members of bands like No Tolerance and Mind Eraser (including one of the illest dudes I know, DFJ…his tweets during the Royal Wedding should be taught in schools) playing hardcore somewhere between good Madball and good Ringworm. I love how noisy Doug’s bass is on this record. This sounds modern without all the stupid chugga chugga or tough guy poses.
Supertouch
WNYU LP
Horror Hotel Records
What more can you say about this? The Supertouch NYU set is, by far, the definitive recording of the band. You probably already have this from the tape trading circuit (my rip was the one frequently passed around for years it seemed), so this LP isn’t super essential. It’s a nice idea to get definitive copies of NYU sets. I’d love to see a label do a series of them.
Soul Swallower
Devour LP
Painkiller Records
Back after a multiple year hiatus, Soul Swallower follow up on their debut seven inch with more ugly hardcore in the vein of Citizens Arrest, Napalm Death, and Rorschach. There is a sense of progression here towards a more noisy, ugly, sound. Some of these songs had been on demos recorded around 2006 (one recorded with a member of DropDead), but there are new ones here too. A candidate for record of the year.
California Love
Reaping The Whirlwind LP
Members of Look Back & Laugh playing power violence in the style of No Comment, Neanderthal, and other California bands. This is pretty good, but I rarely listen to it. If you’re a big fan of this style, I would still check it out because I bet you’d like it.
Reveal The Truth
Courage 7”
Pretty generic thrashy youth crew style hardcore from this Florida band. This reminds me a lot of many of the bands on the old Voice of 1000′s compilation. If you can’t get enough of this style, you’re love this band.
School Jerks
Control 7″
Cowabunga Records
Serious early Black Flag worship from this Toronto band. Think Jealous Again era Flag. This band has been progressing quite nicely as each release goes by. I would highly recommend checking this band out.
Maggot Minded
Tape Compilation
A tape compilation with primarily west coast bands. Most bands play decent modern hardcore with the highlight being HIV (ex-members of the excellent band Cold Sweat).
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Signifying Nothing Episode 04×02
By admin on Mar. 15, 2011.
Taste of Fear-Pro Life=No Mind (Split With Disrupt)
Madball-We Should Care (Ball of Destruction)
Agnostic Front-Crucial Changes (United Blood)
Obliteration-Fascist System (Self Titled)
Capital Scum-Final Nail In My Coffin (Clutch The Flag)
Cop Out-Burned Down (Self Titled)
Mind Eraser-Withdrawal Symptoms (The Prodigal Son Brings Death)
His Hero Is Gone-Leash (Fifteen Counts of Arson)
The Proletariat-Bread & Circus (Soma Holiday)
Government Warning-Arrested (Arrested)
Trauma-Policy of War (Demo)
Political Asylum-Flight of Fancy (Solitary)
Fear of God-Two Sides of the Coin (As Statues Fall)
War Cry-The New Age (Not So Distant Future)
Messiah Force-Silent Tyrant (Female Fronted Heavy Metal 1976-1989 Disc Two)
Off!-I Don’t Belong
Dag Nasty-Circles (With Shawn)
Mauser-Social Lobotomy (Summer Tour Record)
Corrosion of Conformity-Prayer (Animosity)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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This Week’s Memo
By admin on Jan. 3, 2011.
One of my students pointed this out the other day: our War-Pig-In-Chief Barack Obama continues the wars of the previous administration (and seems to be moving them to Pakistan as well). So much for “change,” suckers. My student then commented sarcastically, “boy, isn’t it great that there are monthly protests in Washington to end the war since Obama got in?”
Oh. Whoops. Yeah.
Funny how that all stopped once Bush was out of office. Democrats are just as pathetic as Republicans. The only reason anyone marches now is when Jon Stewart commands it. How pathetic. Monsanto, Coca Cola, Microsoft, and Blackwater run this country. The differences between the major political parties in this country are about as sincere as those between professional wrestling factions.
You’re just another serf to them. But don’t worry kids, American Idol starts soon! I bet Lindsay Lohan will have some coke fueled idiocy to keep you entertained too. Plenty of American style Soma to go around.
Playlist
Mauser-Summer Tour EP
Cro Mags-Live At Wellington LP
Cro Mags-Unreleased 1984 Demo
Government Warning-Arrested 7″
His Hero Is Gone-Fifteen Counts of Arson LP
Agnostic Front-United Blood
Cop Out-S/T 7″
Big City: Nice & Loud Compilation 7″
Adolescents-S/T LP
Capital Scum-Capture The Flag LP
DRI-Dealing With It LP
American Youth Report Compilation LP
The Avengers-Self Titled LP
Big City: Ain’t Too Pretty Compilation 7”
Meat Puppets-II LP
Faith-Subject To Change LP
Sun Ra-Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy LP
Saint Vitus-Hallow’s Victim LP
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Signifying Nothing 03×05
By admin on Nov. 21, 2010.
I think, at this point, the podcast is going to be canceled, or, at least, released in a different form than weekly (I’m thinking maybe a longer, monthly, show? Man, I can’t imagine how Al does two hours a week!). Since the show came back for the fall, listenership has been sporadic. This will leave the written portion of Signifying Nothing as the main focus. I have a large backlog of reviews to post, plus some other features I’d like to implement. Let’s see what happens as we experiment with this new format. Hopefully, people care enough to check it out. I feel like hardcore is so splintered off into such obscure mini-scenes these days that people don’t go outside of their safety nets to check out anything, but I hope they do.
Now, let’s get going with some reviews. Still unloading the backlog, so there will be a bit from the past years and today as I go along. I refuse to do that “_____ bankruptcy” bullshit that people do with email, rss feeds, reading lists etc.
Mind Eraser
The Prodigal Son Brings Death 7”
Youngblood Records
As I said on the podcast a few weeks ago, Mind Eraser got really good while we were on hiatus for a few years. As this band continues to evolve, they combine Systems Overload era Integrity with the speed and thump of a band like Citizens Arrest, Taste of Fear, or Rorschach. Harsh, angry, hardcore. Still available from our old friends at Youngblood Records.
Trauma
Demo 2009
Members of Tragedy and other Memphis/Portland tree bands get together to play fast, 82 style hardcore that reminds me a lot of Deathreat and Call The Police. I’m not sure how active this band is going to be, but hopefully there will be something more from this band.
War Cry
Not So Distant Future LP
Feral Ward Records
More members of the Tragedy Portland/Memphis tree playing Discharge inspired hardcore. Fans of Tragedy or His Hero is Gone will also dig this record a lot. I can hear some influence of bands like Crow and Judgment as well. Another great band coming out of the Portland scene. Still available from Feral Ward, who is a great label with a lot of good releases.
No Bullshit Volume Three Compilation 7”
No Way Records
The third compilation in this series is just as strong as the others. Highlights on this compilation include Life Trap and one of the final recordings by Out Cold. The absolute highlight is the inclusion of Double Negative, one of my favorite current bands. My favorite aspect of this series has been the new bands I have been turned onto via it like, for example, Socialcide or Life Trap. A great example of how lively newer hardcore bands can be. As far as I can tell this one is out of print.
I had seen these before, a long time ago, but check out these great videos from the early nineties. For all the horrible bands during that period, bands like Assuck, DropDead, and Rorschach continued to create excellent hardcore. Check out these videos from South Carolina:
Playlist
The Proletariat-Soma Holiday LP
Taste of Fear/Disrupt Split 7”
Frank Wright-Kevin, My Dear Son LP
Political Asylum-Solitary 7”
Fear of God-As Statues Fell LP
War Cry-Not So Distant Future LP
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