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

D.I.Y. CONSPIRACY VOL.2

 

Sometimes with the comps I don't know if it's better to just go: "here. it's a comp. the tracks generally fall into ____ genre. enjoy?" or if I should dissect the shit track by track. It's even harder with collections that aren't genre specific because the dissection can get really pedantic and I feel like I'm gonna lose you...and I don't want to lose you. So anyway....here's a compilation. I've posted a few of these Covid-era collections previously and I'm pleased to say that reaching for a 'new' volume still gives me those good shivvers because I know I'm about to bump a bunch of tracks I've never heard from bands Ive never heard of. This second volume is more about the catchy almost-garage shits, and listeners would be forgiven if they mentioned SOVIETTES and./or REATARDS when referring to bands like GULG BEACH and LA VASE, but then there are some rippers on the flip from GHETTO GOSPEL and SKARA and there are some primitive blackened punk/metal shits from UDDA so maybe there isn't any kind of theme at all. Maybe the intent was just to collect a bunch of good ass bands from all over this flat-ass planet and present them in one place for you to listen to. If so? Success.

DIY CONSPIRACY VOL.2

MIND TRAP

 

Hopeless, nihilistic USHC from Berlin. MIND TRAP reeks of working class '80s Midwest 'core, stained jeans and out of breath with sweat dripping from their collective brow. How they manifested this sound so brilliantly from Berlin is anyone's guess....or you you could just revel in "Left Alone" and how they hang on the high note in the intro for a half beat longer than they 'should' and it makes you grit your teeth a little harder. Hardcore is supposed to make you grit your teeth. Now listen to "Perseverance." You're welcome.

DRESDEN SESSIONS

FLUFFERS

 

I like when you can hear a little bit of a band's history inside a band's sounds. Gloomy German punk vibes (GRAUZONE, EA80) ooze out of a snarky garage punk banger and the result is the sole release from FLUFFERS. Again, it's hard to imagine a band releasing something this solid and then going silent, but I guess 2013 was the year for these kids. Wish I had been there for it. FFO: NEON PISS,  early '90s college/alt, SKATE KORPSE, REATARD-related projects. 

FLUFFERS

DELTOIDS

 

Absolte face melter from Berlin's DELTOIDS. It's hard to believe that a band can drop a recording that's this essential and then just drop out, but it seems like that's exactly what they did. I suppose if you're going to leave the world with six minutes of music then you might as well make then count, which is exactly what these cats did. So blast "Lab" all damn day and wish that you were one of the lucky ones who got to see DELTOIDS live. 

DELTOIDS

KEM TRAIL

 

Suspend belief for a brief moment (or for fourteen minutes) and let Ach Cola Acht Bit take you to a place where punk eschewed guitars and sonic fury and found a home inside video games. DBeats make way for power-ups, clenched fists open up to hold controllers and the chaos is contained inside your screen. I was initially inclined to wonder why this exists, but now I'm left asking myself how it can feel so right.  

ACHT COLA ACHT BIT

DANIEL CRAIG

 

For a recording (or a manipulation of a recording) to sounds like an event is a special thing. A Past Yet To Come is an event, a journey, and....experience? You aren't watching a nonexistent film while these sounds play....you are the star. You are the only character. DANIEL CRAIG creates a sonic environment with meticulously manipulated sound/s and I'm left wondering whether they were created or conjured. The most subtle and deconstructed techno undertones and/or interludes break up atmospheric events. These aren't songs, they aren't movements. These are more than moments - DANIEL CRAIG creates something that just is. Perhaps more than any other release I've shared here, 2020's A Past Yet To Come feels like an entity...it feels like the past is now. 

A PAST YET TO COME

QUATTRO STAGIONI

 

I'm going to guess that most North American DIY thrashcore/grindcore/fastcore freaks were introduced to this German outfit the same way I was - either the EP on 625 and/or the immaculately packaged split 5" with IRON LUNG. All of the tracks from those records are here rubbing elbows with their demo, a healthy batch of live recordings and a 12" that I never knew existed until this tape landed in my lap. Relentless start/stop mania with face numbing blast beats and throat shredding vocals, not sure what more you could ask for, really. The uninitiated might want to take a deep breath before diving in (57 tracks is a lot of fukkn tracks when you're talking about sixty second blasts), but just let those blast beats wash over you and feel the joy of New Century Euro-Grind fill your old, jaded veins. 

DISCOGRAPHY

DIE LETZTEN ECKEN

 

Absolute next level '80s EBM worship. Drawing from the dark clubs of East Berlin, sputtering NDW and hard hitting dance floor bangers.....DIE LETZTEN ECKEN land somewhere between CABARET VOLTAIRE and NITZER EBB without aping or suffering from anything that came before them. Shit is perfect. 

TALISMAN

MORON

 

You like to get noisy and weird. You like to swing like a motherfukkr. You like when it sounds like '80s synth punk but it also sounds like Olympia hardcore. You like to get fucking throttled. I have news for you. You like Music From MORON.

MUSIC FROM MORON

THE TANGLED LINES

 

If you live in North America then the weather outside your front door is probably kinda daunting. Good day to stay inside and blast a solid hour of blistering '00s German fastcore, right? I loved this band starting with the DICK CHENEY split and always kinda felt like if they had started five years earlier then people would have gone apeshit (and hopefully they did go apeshit while I was in the wrong hemisphere). They did such a good job of keeping the listener guessing ("Fatal Call" anyone?) and when they just unload (which was most of the time) they are ruthless. Anyway - maybe it's cold where you are, but THE TANGLED LINES fukkn ruled...and this tape has all of the songs. You're welcome.

DISCOGRAPHY TAPE

WHOLE WORLD 1

 

A most excellent dose of synth-heavy art/freak punk to carry you through the weekend. Whole World 1 comes from Germany, and features bands who came through Germany and crossed paths with the creators. Featured bands include TOP DOWN, NUNOFYRBEESWAX, THE BUGS, FREAK GENES and THE DO NOTHINGS - and I dare say there's not a single clunker during the whole half hour..though TOP DOWN's "Let's Do It" steals the show.

WHOLE WORLD 1

CAGE KICKER

 

I have two CAGE KICKER tapes that have been sitting on a shelf for months just waiting for....waiting for me. And do you know what it's like when you really dig into something and realize that it's just been there...waiting patiently for you? Waiting to be discovered. Waiting to be experienced? Waiting to be the soundtrack to you crushing everything in your path? Well, that's what it felt like when I blasted CAGE KICKER for the first time, and that's what it felt like when I blasted the shit out of CAGE KICKER just now....so I'm gonna just assume that CAGE KICKER was basically waiting for me. And I'm glad they did, because this tape rules. 

CAGE KICKER

FATIGUE

 

FATIGUE are at least the third FATIGUE on these pages, and they are a great FATIGUE. Perfect '90s grunge re-tooled for the modern age, like L7 reborn as DASHER (yeah, I know the DASHER demo is a decade old, but it's still "modern" right?). Fully realized and perfectly executed. Check "Fake Smile" and know that there's a radio station in the universe that really does play all of the hits that are only hits in your head. 

PRECIOUS RAGE

PISSY

 

Straight up and no qualifiers, PISSY released one of the coolest tapes I heard last year. The spanish language two piece from Berlin sounds like a wall of sonic punk mania - lyrics barked with a stark ferocity over jerky neurotic stomps that are indescribably infectious. Art punk no wave meets hardcore meets early '80s anarcho. PISSY sounds familiar, PISSY sounds demented, PISSY sounds demanding, PISSY sounds fukkn alive. "Luz Ardiente" is a top ten coolest songs in my world right now....PISSY is fukkn cool. I hope there is more.

MIDE TUS PENAS

THE FOG

 

The thing that makes THE FOG so (extra) sick is that the vocalist sounds like an absolute fucking demon. Their relentless hardcore stomps are something, but those desperate throaty missives are something else. Choice cut: "Out Of Touch" if only for the slow down at the 0:37 mark because that shit...that shit is special.

THE FOG

LEVITATIONS

 

Germany's LEVITATIONS sit apart from the hordes. Dark punk roots with an unpolished delivery that leans on the punk part of that descriptor, but LEVITATIONS swell and sway with the fervency of WAX IDOLS, IS/IS or even INTERPOL. 2016's Dust is a gorgeous and instantly addictive recording (there's a vinyl version as well, recommended of course) - the drawn out close to "Assisted Suicide," songs that listen like they sing ("Worn Out" as a specific example), and the desperate deliberate plodding pace of "Everything" and I could (naturally) continue but this isn't a recording to dissect. This is a recording to spend time with. 

DUST

REVENGE

 

Live German punk captured in the Baltic city of Lübek almost thirty five years ago. Raw, loose, fiery, off the rails...I mean, that's what you're after, right? Fidelity queens look elsewhere.

"FINALE" LIVE IN LÜBEK 21/10/88

GLAAS

 

This is how you do it. You're about to drop an LP and you know it's a killer, so you tease your would-be listeners and soon-to-be fans with a three songs tape and in (far) less than seven minutes they (we) are hungry. This is what GLAAS did back in 2021, and please believe that I snatched that LP and slapped it on the turntable as fast as I could. Guitars are cold and sharp, keyboards never dominate - they just remind you periodically that this is different. And it is. ICE AGE and/or INTERPOL vibes from a band that is....punk. "Concrete Coffin" is the hit of the century - of course I know that we are barely a quarter of the way through the century but will you please just let me have my moment?

GLAAS

SCHRAPNELL

 

I'm not sure how you drop a dual vocal hardcore assault like this and then....nothing, but that's exactly what SCHRAPNELL did. One self titled cassette in 2012 followed by silence. Piercing femme vocals backed by guttural growls, all sitting atop ruthless crust tinged euro-hardcore that lands somewhere between TO WHAT END? and FLEAS & LICE. There's something about the guitars that make me want to pull out the OTTAWA record, but it's more of a feeling than a sound. This is an uncompromising document - I just wish there were more. 

SCHRAPNELL