Month: Apr 2021

HANGNAILS – The Middle Distance EP (self released, streaming)

On By personalpunkIn PUNK ROCK, Reviews, Uncategorized1 Comment

Fresh recordings from restless New York bunch

HANGNAILS’ 2017 debut (reviewed here) is a curious mix of AGAINST ME! angst and BRIGHT EYES introspection. Four years and a new line-up see the band embarking on a different sonic direction.

The four tracks on this new EP “explore themes of social rot and tensions within and between the self and the other“. The title song offers up an agitated landscape of twangy, post-punk guitars and fidgety rhythm section. Kicking off with a hint of desert-punk Americana, it moves into JOY DIVISION minimalism before landing a furious “I’m never gonna be finished”! chorus. Alienated Young Man utilises beefy bass with gentle guitar and vocals to veer between sympathy and barely-repressed anger. The Lucky Few is the closest they get to new wave power-pop and, despite feeling a little under-developed, exudes a delightful charm. The EP concludes with Sell Me Sickness, bringing us back to that restless agit-indie sound and another immense chorus.

HANGNAILS cite WIRE, MINUTEMEN, WIPERS and THE REPLACEMENTS as influences. There is certainly an economy to their music reminiscent of the former two, though these songs have more warmth, punctuated by moments of simmering fury. Restless, inventive and spirited, whatever their influences, HANGNAILS’ are beating their own path on The Middle Distance. Hopefully, a full album will be coming down the line soon. Great stuff.

Stream on Spotify here.

https://hangnails.org/

Three For Review: TOKYO LUNGS Soul Music LP, HAZARD PROFILE Slime EP & RUKOUS Kaikki Saastuneet Tuhotaan LP

On By personalpunkIn PUNK ROCK, Reviews, Uncategorized3 Comments

International lockdown hardcore

TOKYO LUNGS – ‘Soul Music’ LP

This English duo, made up of James Domestic (THE DOMESTICS, BRING THE DRONES, PI$$ER) and Simon Battery (DOMESTICS and CASUAL NAUSEA), follow up last year’s well-received debut 7″ with a full album, cramming 24 tracks into just 19 minutes.

Only five songs breach the one-minute mark, so brevity is king but there is plenty of variety in song-writing to keep the most jaded hardcore fiend salivating. A track by track breakdown would get old quick, so here’s a snapshot… there’s the opening 29 second catharsis of Countdown To What?, blunt hardcore shocks like No More, Tyrant, We Surveil Us and Disinfect peppered throughout and the occasional ’77 punk/hardcore vocals of the likes of Lockdown and Breakdown. And so it goes, killer after killer of savage hardcore with hooks. The pointed lyrics suit the music, with titles like You Don’t Even Think You’re A Racist, Punk Shit/Shit Punk and Turn Left. A manifesto for the times, they tackle those who parrot terms such as ‘communist’ and ‘socialist’ as pejoratives (You Don’t Even Know What It Means), racists who fail to see the reality of their own bigotry and the Tory governments handling of the pandemic. And lockdown, of course.

PI$$ER aside, most of James’s projects could be described as ‘stripped down’ and TOKYO LUNGS is no different. On Soul Music, he really pushes the envelope – clattering, rough-core punk with everything turned up loud. Primitive and powerful, it sounds like they stuck a microphone next to the amps and pressed record on a four-track. That’s a complement.

TOKYO LUNGS, with their beady eye for songs and substance, have crafted something of a no-frills, hardcore punk classic. Rooted in the early 80’s American sound but with added brutality, à la OUT COLD, they have no small similarity with the likes of RIPCORD, themselves in thrall to the Boston h/c blasts of the 80’s. Crucial.

That front cover art though…

Labels: Kibou (UK) and Amok (Germany)

205 on black vinyl
65 on white vinyl
SPECIAL EDITION (40 only worldwide) : White vinyl with 7″ (brand new gold on black artwork)

HAZARD PROFILE – ‘Slime’ EP (Limited)

Finally, Kibou release some hyper-speed hardcore. Sounding like a squalid, squat-dwelling CHAOS UK main-lining COKE BUST, these five grizzled stormtroopers take in elements of power-violence, third tier ’77 punk and early 80’s US hardcore over the course of these five brief but memorable songs. Amusing artwork completes the picture for a solid piece of inventive lunacy. Off the scale. Negatives? By the time you’ve dropped the needle on the record and sat down with a cuppa, you’ll have to get up and flip it over.

Labels: Kibou (UK), Urinal Vinyl (UK), Sanctus Propaganda (Poland) and Sick World (New Zealand)

RUKOUS – ‘Kaikki Saastuneet Tuhotaan’ LP

10 tracks of coruscating sheetmetalcore with zero warmth, sung in Finnish. A cross between INSECT WARFARE and any modern d-beat band you care to mention. Sounds like it was recorded in the clenched teeth of a whiteout in the Arctic tundra. Brrrr.

Labels: Kibou (UK) & Cimex (Sweden)

All three releases are available to pre-order from 9th April, official release date is 23rd April 2021. Order from:

https://kibourecords.bigcartel.com/product/tokyo-lungs-soul-music-lp-limited-versions


https://kibourecords.bandcamp.com/

new punk reviews: THE CLOCKWORKS, HANGNAILS & BORN SHIT STIRRERS

On By personalpunkIn PUNK ROCK, Reviews, Uncategorized4 Comments

From Ireland to Japan, via New York

THE CLOCKWORKS

Galway band THE CLOCKWORKS recently signed to Alan McGee’s Creation23 label heading to the fading lights of London. McGee has said that they are the best band from Ireland since MY BLOODY VALENTINE. A bold claim indeed. They certainly fit into the current glut of post-punk bands clogging up the Radio 6 Music playlist and have in fact found a home there. New single Feels So Real walks a slightly different litter-strewn street to their previous output. The guitars are more dense and the song has a desperate quality with a queasy sense of big-city foreboding.

Sirens whine / As hopefuls line / Up for the club / Looking for love /In the dark / Blind man’s bluff of the heart… Tripping over bottle tops, skip round syringes / Trollies in the river and gates off their hinges.

Feels So Real

Vocalist James McGregor has a rich tone that sounds like David Gedge tackling a Nick Cave song. It took a little time for this song to gets it’s claws into me but it soon snagged and wouldn’t let go. If you like SHAME, CABBAGE, SQUID, FONTAINES DC, et al, with added darkness, you should give these a try. The band are on tour later in the year with INHALER. Feels So Real is available for download/streaming here.

HANGNAILS

New York’s HANGNAILS have re-released their 2017 Burn Time EP (self-released), featuring three meditations on life, death and the stealthy passage of time. HANGNAILS lean more towards the indie-rock end of the spectrum but have character due to some of the influences detected in these songs. I’ll Be Damned sews together a jaunty ditty with ‘death awaits us all’ lyrics and, with the vocalist’s similarity to Laura Jane Grace, winds up sounding like later AGAINST ME! covering a BRIGHT EYES song. Time Lost sports nagging guitars and a chunky bass with more of that AGAINST ME! shading in the vocals and song structure. Insatiable seals the deal with an electric-folk number that goes for full melancholy BRIGHT EYES dirge and it works beautifully. The band now have a fresh line-up and are working on a new release so it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. Listen to Burn Time here.

BORN SHIT STIRRERS are a motley crew of UK/US ex-pats, sorry, immigrants, based in Fukuoka in Japan, joined by an equally motley bunch of locals. Highly prolific, they churn out short, irreverent and snotty songs about stuff they think will offend. Ordinarily, these charming ditties last less than a minute, so Richard Gere stands out at an epic 2:24 of complete and utter lunacy. Male and female vocals that talk, sing and shout, often all at the same time, backed by fun, pound-shop punk rock. I can’t fathom what the obsession is with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts but there you go. Audacious, throwaway funny business featuring none other than Mike Watt (MINUTEMEN) on bass and Reverend Norb (BORIS THE SPRINKLER) on backing vocals – I know, right? Crazy times. This track is from a forthcoming split EP with LEDZEPVIETCONG on Serial Bowl Records, out of England. The EP is out in July but Richard Gere is available for digital download here.

SEIZED UP-Marching Down The Spiral 7″ EP (Cursed Blessings Records)

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Canadian label, Californian punk

Formed in 2019 in Santa Cruz, California by members of DISTILLERS, GOOD RIDDANCE and BL’AST, SEIZED UP have the pedigree without sounding like any of those bands. Marching Down The Spiral, the follow-up to 2020’s Brace Yourself LP (Pirates Press), is a three track affair of hard-hitting, sociopolitical punk from the North American tradition of bands like D.O.A., SUBHUMANS and VERBAL ASSAULT.

First track Forum of Decay takes potshots at the worst aspects of social media and its alienating influence. Angry, tight and chugging, this is mid-80’s US punk rock with an inevitable ‘grumpy old men’ aspect to the lyrics (“No substitute for real air!”). Peppered with some great DEAD KENNEDYS lead guitar discordance, it’s a fine opener. Dead Zone Denied is more of the same, mid-paced chug, with some interesting turns. These two tracks are crying out for group shouts but then I think most punk choruses should have them, so maybe that’s my blind spot. The final track Marching Down The Spiral is king here: stop-on-a-dime US hardcore with a juicy pick-slide, breakdown and, right at the end, some backing vocals.

This sound harks back to a time around the mid-eighties when American hardcore bands were incorporating ‘rock’ elements, taking a little more care with the song-writing and refining their anger. These guys have been around the block a few times and that shows in their solid musicianship, attention to detail and lyrical concerns. The imagery and delivery bring to mind the hugely underrated Welsh band FOUR LETTER WORD and trust me, that is a complement right there. Highly recommended. Available for pre-order now, vinyl drops 9th April 2021. Follow the link below.

Cursed Blessings Records was started in June 2020 by Al Nolan, frontman for Canadian punk band ALMIGHTY TRIGGER HAPPY and seem to have an interesting collection of releases so far. Worth a look here.