PARANORMAL

 

The feeling I had when I first pressed play....It was familiar, but I haven't felt it in a long time. It's about feeling immediately connected to a sound, about not knowing what exactly is going to happen next but already knowing that it's perfect. You want to talk about vibes, we're talking about a continuation of the NHFTK ---> NEON PISS pipeline and I swear if PARANORMAL had forged onward they could have achieved such heights. It's so well done I don't even really feel like I need to say anything else....gorgeous, ramshackle, infectious melodic punk. It's mostly spot on, but it's the just-barely-off parts that makes it even better. 

PARANORMAL

DOGGISH BOYS

 
I don't even know what to say here. Just listen, okay? A wild and unhinged spectrum generated hip-hop mix tape orbiting the mind of JEFF DOGG. Chopped and/or Screwed drug addled rap dispatches like you've never even imagined from the Pinhole Family.....the shit sounds weird, the shit is infectious. I feel like this is something Aesop would have created and/or released (which reminds me that I should hit that dude up to say hello). Just listen, okay?

DOGGISH BOYS MIXTAPE

UPRIGHT CITIZENS

 

In the mid-2000s I was on a tour that stopped in Pittsburgh. At Andy's place after the gig, most everyone crashed out while Andy and I nerded out about records and life and shit. I had never heard UPRIGHT CITIZENS so Andy slapped the record on the deck....and everything changed. It's just a perfect record start to finish. Classic DeutschPunk influenced by their North American contemporaries but beyond that, the record is just fukkn good. I was as sad that it had taken me so long to find them as I was excited that I was able to be reinvigorated by the discovery. If you in 2026 is like me in 2006, then you're welcome.  

OPEN EYES, OPEN EARS, A BRAIN TO THINK & A MOUTH TO SPEAK

BONEMAGIC

 

Been wondering what do do with this and what to say about this for (quite) a (long) time, and even though I'm not sure if today is the right day to talk about BONEMAGIC.....here we are. Classic, brilliant '80s industrial worship of the highest order - CLOCK DVA, NITZER EBB and mid-decade Wax Trax! punctuated with complicated dirges like "Unified Violence" and dark ambient missives like "Welcome To Sinew" or the vaguely SKINNY PUPPY-esque "Tales Of Hate & Separation." There is a lot more BONEMAGIC where this came from - more than a dozen releases under this moniker alone (there are other monikers) - but Meat Concrete is a gloriously dark place to start.

MEAT CONCRETE

BAR D WRANGLERS

 
I was on the bus Sunday evening after a pretty miserable day, mindlessly scrolling social media. The Grammys had just ended and the mainstream internet was all abuzz; the surrounding hubbub was a pleasant but temporary distraction from reality, so I scrolled. There were a lot of artists I don't care about and a lot of artists I've never heard of using their moment in front of the microphone to actually speak out and call out some of the bullshit that has consumed so much of the insanity that has clouded the minds of people who give a shit over the last year (or so). It was refreshing and honestly a little surprising. Some highlights....
BILLY EILISH said "No one is illegal on stolen land. Fuck ICE."
SHABOOZY said: "Immigrants built this country. Literally."
ISRAEL HOUGHTON won the award for best Contemporary Christian Album and said: "To those who are hiding in the shadows in America, those who are scared, we are citizens of a kingdom that cannot be shaken and that will not end."
KEHLANI said: "I hope everybody is inspired to join together as a community of artists and speak out against what's going on. Fuck ICE."
BAD BUNNY said: "Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ICE out. We’re not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens, we are humans and we are Americans."
And then there was TURNSTILE. Apparently the people in this band come from the DIY hardcore/punk scene, but they sound a heavy/alt outfit with a few (admittedly sick) generic 'core riffs and some 311 groove parts...shit lands like a weak ass SNAPCASE rehash to me, but a lot of people I know love them and swear their live shows are good. They are an important band, those people say. They are innovative and they are bringing the spirit if DIY punk and hardcore to mainstream kids and that's a powerful thing, they say. Well, TURNSTILE won the Best Rock Album Grammy and I bet they used that platform to say some shit about the state of things in this country (and this world).....
TURNSTILE said: "The community we found through punk and hardcore music has given us a safe place to swing in the dark and land somewhere beautiful. So to our family, our friends, our partners, our peers and to Baltimore: Thank you. We love you."

Damn, that band is a fukkn waste. If you want to hear what TURNSTILE would sound like if they were good, listen to THIS and lose me with any nonsense about how TURNSTILE are relevant to punk in any way. They are a commercial rock band. Period. Nothing wrong with that, I like plenty of commercial rock bands....just call it what it is and please don't reference punk and hardcore when you talk about them.

Anyway, there's a group of actual die hards from Durango, Colorado called THE BAR D WRANGLERS and they play a mix of classic country and western swing and fuck me if this version of "San Antonio Rose" ain't a straight banger. Throw in the JERRY REED influenced "Parkin' Worries" and standards like "Cool Water" and "Ghost Riders In The Sky" and you've got yourself a bona fide winner. They are Durango's Favorite Family Entertainment Since 1969 for a reason, y'all.

WAY OUT THERE

AYPEROS

 

I often write about things that remind me of other things - about listening to things that make me thing about other times when I listened to other things. That's Nihspra in a nutshell, and I am fucking frothing while I introduce myself to AYPEROS because these sounds are emblematic of one of the best times in (my) punk history. This is mid-'00s stadium crust; PDX SweDe-Beat infused with black metal and CELEST(E) blasts and then just.......fukk man, just listen to the title track here. Please. PLEASE. 

NIHSPRA

XAMPLES

 

What is this.....? This is early '10s LA raw ponx unrealized. This is MANIA and DRAPETOMANIA. This is ADOLESCENTS and SADICOS and also UK82 and Group Sex and all of that shit, because what is this shit really....? It's punk. Shit is fukkn punk. PERIOD. Like seriously, what else do you need. Seems like XAMPLES were ever so slightly on the back end of the SoCal wave that stopped all of the (us) old(er) punks dead in their (our) tracks....but that's just context. Today is really just seems like this tape fukkn rules and the title track will blow your mind.

END OF THE LIE

JULIO IGLESIAS

 

You know him as the guy who did the duet with WILLIE NELSON, but Julio's career started more than a decade before he moved from Spain to Miami. Dude had hits in German, Portuguese, German and Italian in addition to crooning in English and his native Spanish. 1980's Hey! might be his pinnacle of swinging Spnish pop - there are some syrupy sweet crooners and some tracks that should have been on Love Boat or Fantasy Island montage segments. This tape is appropriate damaged (read: 'well loved') and some of the cuts present as extra weird or slightly tweaked, but I feel like this is a come-up when you're turning songs like "Morrinas" into cavernous burners. Look, there's a reason why Iglesias is a household name, and Hey! is a good reminder that it's not just about the radio hits. 

HEY!

ASSAULT

 

More under the radar Central (California) Coast hardcore from the late '80s. The OG hardcores had moved on (read: 'matured') and there were droves of teenagers who had grown up on the shit and were trying to emulate the sounds that lit a fire under their asses when they were in their early teens. Meanwhile those OGs were making How We Rock or exploring funkmetalpunk or some shit. '90s DIY experimentation hadn't grown roots yet, and there was this sweet spot where you had punk smoking ripping '80s hardcore records in a time when the general trend setters had stopped caring about ripping '80s hardcore. Listen to "Never Ending Greed" and "Animal Rights" here - shit is like Hear Nothing.... and NOTA in a blender and I can't believe it hasn't been unearthed and repackaged for modern consumption and reverence. As far as I can tell, there's only one vinyl offering from ASSAULT, but the three tapes currently in my possession (on loan) are fucking burners....this one might be the best. 

ASSAULT

HARSH R

 

Channel late '80s dance club angst in the modern era and you're going to get... HARSH R. God/s this recording is simply beautiful - I could dissect this shit (with a lot of words), but it would really just be me using a lot of words to say the obvious. Physical World is the embodiment of the obvious, and sinister primitive industrial sounds that are (obviously) critical to our....well, these sounds are critical. That should be all that you need. 

PHYSICAL WORLD

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL

 

It's really cool (for me) to revisit 'old' things - to revisit things that were created in a different time and consume them with the perspective that only time can provide. And with that perspective, this episode of MRR Radio that was broadcast thirty years ago today resonates with such incredible force that it makes me pause for a moment......

I was living in San Francisco and active in the San Francisco DIY punk scene starting around 1995. I always felt 'outside' in some way (if nothing else, I was new and poking around the perimeter of a scene that was well established long before I was even remotely aware), but by the end of the decade I certainly felt like I had my place. When I pulled this MRR tape out of the box though....I realized how completely outside of everything I was (then and now), and I knew before I popped this tape in the deck that this was likely going to be more about a person than an institution. The 717th episode of Maximum Rocknroll Radio was DJed and curated by Ken Prank, a Bay Area transplant from originally from Alabama who was quietly in the process of changing the face of USDIY hardcore when he put this show together, and just a quick look at the playlist will tell you that he knew exactly what the fuck was up years before anyone else did. URANUS, STATE OF FEAR, SPAZZ, POISON COLA, FRIGÖRIA, LIP CREAM, POWER OF IDEA, NEKHEI NAATZA, THE GAIA, OUT OF TOUCH, SUPPRESSION, DISKONTO, SLIGHT SLAPPERS, INSANE YOUTH, VIOLENT HEADACHE, INTEGRITY....you know most these bands, several are are more or less household names now, and some were the standard bearers for late-decade hardcore, but a collection like this at the start of 1996? Dude. Ken put this shit into the world while he was booking studio time for HIS HERO IS GONE to record the EP that completely changed the game....he knew what the fukk was up before the rest of us and has remained steadfast in his commitment to the real shit for the three decades since. Drop a MAKERS track and some unknown Latvian hardcore  (you ever heard of VOMNOSONOLOPPUS, punk?) in between SUPPRESSION and SPAZZ is really just casually letting everyone know you're a genius. 

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #717

Of course this post is all about the importance and the reach of MRR as an institution, but it was the people that made the shit important. 

Still is. Thanks. 

SUPERCHARGER

 

This one was just tacked onto the back end of some other tape that had nothing to do with SUPERCHARGER and/or '90s Bay Area garage punk. Some completely different thing clearly documented by someone who knew what was up, and three (plus) decades later it serves as a reminder to me (and you) how fukkn tuff early '90s garage punk was. For no logical reason whatsoever I associate the subgenre (and era) with Austin, Texas (actually, there is a very logical reason and it's the MOTARDS / FUCKEMOS split), but listen to "Lost Cause" and/or "Sooprize Package For Mr. Mineo" and know that the greater Bay Area knew what the fuck was up with this shit. Damn, it was probably SUPERCHARGER (and MUMMIES) that made Tim turn The Bible towards the garage shit and if that's the case....? Fuck man, fair enough. "San Bruno" is maybe the most gloriously bleak punk track I have ever heard, and Reatard acolytes would be well advised to take notes across the board. For whatever reason this encouraged me to listen to THE DONNAS...for that I am grateful. 

SUPERCHARGER

SPEEDKILL // BERBAHAYA

 

Ten minutes of churning, in your face thrash that....man, the shit just fukkn grooves. The first SPEEDKILL cut has serious NUNCHAKU vibes and settles into something akin to the first HAUNTED record, while the BERBAHAYA tracks are full throttle cruising grind/thrash. There's nothing fancy here - they get in, they destroy, they get out. Not sure what else you could possibly want. 

OPIUM PEMBUS MORAL CANDU NADA NERAKA

MISTER BARCLAY 505

 

Look....if you're paying attention at all, then it's very difficult to feel normal right now. It's very difficult to imagine a return to anything even close to normal, or how challenging the path to that return might be. Feeling helpless is fine; feeling helpless is normal. So while you're feeling helpless, here are some innocent lo-fi home recordings from a relatively nice looking fellow from Albuquerque. When I got this tape, it kinda felt like everything was more or less okay (even if it wasn't). So it's kinda pleasant to take a minute and listen to the sounds of DAVID ISAAC BARCLAY now and think about that time and rage cry for a bit before returning to the bitter and very very real knowledge that even if things do return to a kind of normal....you won't be alive to see it. FUCK DHS. FUCK ICE. FUCK MAGA. 

ULTRA LO-FI DEMO

WARTZ

 

I frequently say that I'm at a loss for words and then say a lot of words and I fear I am about to do the same thing again but.....I mean, how else can you approach WARTZ? Manic and maniacal madness that owes equal dents to F.U.S and early 2010s NWI punk and primitive UK82 hardcore....six songs in seven minutes. and every second is perfect. 

WARTZ

1-800-REMIXES

 

If you weren't alive when (most) these songs were unavoidable then mayhaps you can't really grasp what a comfortable listen this is. I was there though - I was high school kid with a weekend job as a small town commercial radio DJ and I heard damn near every one of these tracks countless times. I didn't hear them like this though, and there's a magic in this era-appropriate collection. Until today, I never knew that MC HAMMER name dropped Oaktown in "U Can't Touch This" (which is followed by DIGITAL UNDERGROUND and EN VOGUE, two more outfits that helped put the East Bay on the mainstream map around the same time ECONOCHRIST moved out from Arkansas), and until today I never knew that JANET JACKSON collaborated with HEAVY D on a remix of "Alright." And Canada's JANE CHILD dropped one of the most essential freestyle bangers ever with "I Don't Wanna Fall In Love" and she's basically the arctic Sheila E or some shit. Basically, I learned a lot of things today. MICHEL'LE, ROB BASE, JOHNNY GIL round out a remix tape that was hopefully distributed out of the trunk of a stolen Camry...and could have provided the soundtrack for every episode of In Living Color. 

1-800-REMIXES VOL.1

If anyone has a line on subsequent volumes....you know where to find me. 

KAKERLAK

 

Twenty minutes of brutal and disorienting harsh noise wall punctuated by a few subtle respites. Actually....there are no respites.
This shit is just sonic brutality.
Kinda like an ocean crashing into your face.
I could say so many more things, but....just listen.
Loudly.

THIRST, HUNGRY, SEX & SAFETY

Yes...Play at High Volume.

THE EXPLOITED

 

Starter bands are a weird animal - the cool kids seem to steer clear of them (publicly), but please will someone try to convince me that SHITLICKERS hit harder than the first three (or six) EXPLOITED records? Ask me which one I "like" more and I'll give you an answer, but I will also put "Rival Leaders" up against anything you have to offer, and I'll die on that fukkn hill. "Warsystem" is cool and perfect and everything (of course) but if you want to tell me that it's objectively better than "Psycho" or the title track here....well, that's gonna be a discussion. DIY punk and hardcore rules, straight up and no question - but there's a reason why starter bands are "Starter Bands," you know? It's where you start. Group Sex and In God We Trust, Inc and Hear Nothing... and Damaged and Zen Arcade are essential, that's why there are hundreds of thousands of copies pressed and you can find them in any reputable shop. Well, perhaps the most single genre defining UK82 record was released by THE EXPLOITED....in 1983. And you should al know every note of eery song. Fuck me this shit is so good. 

LET'S START A WAR...SAID MAGGIE ONE DAY

**************************************************
I've only seen THE EXPLOITED once - and it was in an environment that was perfect for a complete shit show experience that would completely crush all expectation and adulation. 

They were fucking untouchable. 

PRAXIS // ALTERCADOS

 

I hope it never seems like I'm buried in or obsessed with nostalgia here - I love sounds. Period. I have connections with a lot of sounds and some sounds are important to me for different reasons than other sounds are important to me...but I get a charge out of listening to something that meant something for someone else to create. I always have, I still do, and I hope that I always will.  That said....this split makes me feel nostalgic, and that's okay. Two ripping political fastcore bands from Chile circa 2000. That's it y'all, that should be all you need. ALTERCADOS give serious LIFES HALT vibes while PRAXIS land closer to what we called "melodic hardcore" at the time, and there are moments where I feel like I'm listening to a subgenre of Japanese punk that I can't quite put my finger on*...plus the lead guitar is out of fukkn control. I like 'em both, but the ALTERCADOS side is legit next level shit. So I heard it for the first time and I thought of shit from a different era-  but this is from a different era and I'm hearing it for the first time. Fukk - what if this split is actually just a time machine?

LA MAQUINARIA DEL DESCONTENTO

* Yes, I fully realize how stupid it is to compare something to a "subgenre of Japanese punk that I can't quite put my finger on." Sorry. 

LUCEMORTIS

 

A few weeks ago I (we) went to a metal show and LUCEMORTIS was playing as we walked in. Shit was putrid. Chaotic. Manic. Brutal. Messy. It was great. Make up and chalices and incense and all that shit. It was great. Later, we were watching this other band set up. I don't remember the band's name, I just remember that these fools (they were children) were concentrating on affixing their cloaks and coordinating a simulated (theatrical) sexual assault instead of making sure their guitar amps worked. Then they started playing and it was admittedly pretty cool, but I kept thinking about LUCEMORTIS. Those kids? It just felt calculated and intentional - it didn't seem natural. But LUCEMORTIS? Shit, it was as if these dudes had been chilling in their cousin's living room doing bong hits and talking about Satan and shit when someone was like "bro - we have a gig" and they grabbed the inverted cross candle holder (with chains) that was already set up in the living room (with chains on it) and stumbled down the corner to lay waste to some dive bar. These dudes just felt real, you know? You can't quantify it, and you can't put a finger on it - but in the world of (modern/underground) metal, LUCEMORTIS just hit/s different. 

HELLUCINATIONS OF INFERNAL PSYCHOSIS

HEAVY TEMPLE

 

It's hard for me to describe which (and how many) nerves this one struck a nerve when I listened the first time, but I can assure you that that nerve count has only increased with subsequent blasts. IDES OF GEMENI, MOTÖRHEAD, LOST GOAT, PENTAGRAM, SLEEP - it's all here...and there's more. But the "more" is HEAVY TEMPLE. Which is to say that this band deserves to be classified and categorized with those aforementioned references because.....I don't know man, I'm just a middle aged dude with an opinion. And in my opinin, this HEAVY TEMPLE is really fukkn good and the rest of their shit is really good too.  

CHASSIT

WEST COAST MENNONITE CHAMBER CHOIR

 
Remember in the '80s  (....maybe '90s?) when some dark house/techno maniacs discovered Gregorian chants? I feel like it kinda happened around the same time as that one ENYA conquered the Western World, but maybe I've got that all mixed up. Anyway, someone should start fucking with chamber choir remixes and I suggest they start with Mennonite chamber choirs. Not surprisingly, this tape doesn't sound shit-all like those Gregorian chants or ENYA, I'm just saying there's an opportunity here for...someone. 

SONGS OF EARTH, ECHOES OF HEAVEN

=======

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL PRESENTS...

I remember seeing this one in shops when I moved to SF in '95, but for whatever reason I remember thinking it was too......too something. Maybe it was because MRR was The Institution and we felt like we were doing The Real Punk Shit (honestly, we were just two years removed from booking a tour using contacts pulled from microfiche at the college library so we kinda had a point), but really it was probably because I didn't know shit. Looking back though, what an incredible fukkn comp - DEAD SILENCE, CRINGER, NAUSEA, LIBIDO BOYZ, THE DETONATORS, SCREECHING WEASEL (when Ben was just a shit stirrer and had not yet turned into a complete shit), JAWBOX...you get the drill. Basically this was glimpse of the various '90s USDIY punk scenes n 1989, which is a polite way of saying that Tim Yo knew exactly what the fuck he was doing. And even though I never met the man face-to-face, I owe him more than I could possibly type. 

THEY DON'T GET PAID

THEY DON'T GET LAID

BUT BOY DO THEY WORK HARD!

========

In other news - REALISTIC in Oakland this evening with some cool bands I'll be seeing for the first time:

PRE-MARITAL SEX

 

Seriously punks, the things you find if you keep your ears/eyes/hearts open will amaze you. As far as I can tell, PRE MARITAL SEX started somewhere around Santa Barbara around 1990 and may or may not have relocated to the Bay Area. Also I might be wrong. Where and whenever they were from, they created a maniacal sex-positive cacophony that was way ahead of its time - California punk with classic UK anarcho energy and early decade USDIY ethos and approach creates some kind of AGENT ORANGE vs. SPITBOY vs. X-RAY SPEX amalgamation and I'm not really sure what's happening but I know it probably pissed off a lot of surfer dude-bros three decades and I know I want more. Fortunately, the kid who scored this demo (and let me borrow it so I could share it with you) copped two other demos....you're gonna get those too. I've said it (many times) before., but I'll say it again now: "You're Welcome." 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BLOODY MARYS // BLOOD SISTERS