Minutemen - The Punchline

If you've stumbled upon this blog somehow, you probably enjoy the Minutemen to some extent. In fact, I can't recall meeting anyone (online or off) who didn't really like their sound, let alone hate them. This is the first piece of their discography I picked up after catching wind of them back in mid-high school, and it's probably my second favorite album of theirs. I don't know why I keep picking albums that were really pivotal to my musical growth - they're hard to review objectively and I typically end up talking about myself more than the actual album. Whatever, though, this blog has 3 followers. Anyhoo, when the Minutemen first started out, they played super short, speedy, angular, scratchy, jazz/funk-informed punk songs right when hardcore punk was first taking off. I know that descriptor could describe pretty much their entire discography, but the songs on What Makes A Man Start Fires are slightly longer, slower, and more post-punk-y, Double Nickels On The Dime is more rock and pop-based while retaining all their classic elements, and 3-Way Tie For Last is not very good. Oh, also, the songs are long and they're formatted more like regular rock songs with choruses and D. Boon sings everything instead of rhythmically rambling and yelling. It's alright.

But here, almost every song clocks in at under a minute, there's 18 tracks, and the entire album is over in 15 minutes. Namesake-y. Despite the brevity, almost every track on here is memorable and catchy, give or take one or two go-nowheres. I know bringing up the quality of Mike Watt's bass riffs is really obvious (and there's certainly more to the band's sound) but his riffs are easily the most standout feature, and what got me into these guys in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, they're funky as hell, and give the songs a herky-jerky feeling since they're crammed into such short, fast songs. D's guitar playing is really scratchy and sharp sounding, but it's nothing like what he'd go on to do in subsequent releases, and Hurley's drumming is tight and precise. I suck at reviewing tonight.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2yodml2mzi2

I know I haven't exactly made this sound like a dazzling release, but it really is. It's catchy, tight, noisy, fun you can listen to over and over again due to it's teeny running time. I'd probably recommend this to anyone who's never heard the Minutemen - sure it's nowhere near as incredible as Double Nickels, but it's also not as overwhelmingly long for newcomers. Oh, and happy new year and shit. I don't care.

Roskopp - s/t

I decided before I made this blog that every month would produce at least 10 posts, whether they be provided solely by me or with help from whoever else wants to contribute. I guess you could consider it an attempt at self-discipline or establishment of a "creative schedule". Either way, there's only like 2 days left before the month ends and only 8 posts to show for it. On with the forced review, then:

I've mentioned it a jillion times already, but I used to be a huge grind buff. Like, it was pretty close to the only thing I listened to for 2 straight years. Thinking back, I find it curious that I didn't suffer a serious head trauma beforehand, because I can hardly imagine sitting through that stuff everyday, constantly, for over 700 days without switching it up with something less corrosive. Well, I guess I had some Tegan & Sara in there somewhere... of all possible non-corrosive musical units. Regardless, almost everything I liked back then still sounds great when I'm in the mood for it, especially the bands plucked from the Aussie and Czech scenes. Roskopp is a member of the former collective, and were one of the bands I was most excited about amidst my aforementioned obsessive period. Unfortunately, like most grind bands from down under, they take a long fucking time between releases. Examples: Captain Cleanoff releases their s/t EP in 2001 - follow it up with a full length 7 1/2 years later. Fuck...I'm Dead releases Bring On The Dead in 2001, then a split with Engorged in 2002; plan to release new full length in 2007; never release anything again but are still touring. Vaginal Carnage release demo in 2001 and EP in 2002; vocalist dies; still waiting on new album.

Okay that last one doesn't count.

Anyway, Roskopp are a three piece who formed in 2004 as Bonehead before swapping monikers and recording a demo a couple years later. The dude who runs Crucificado Pelo Sistema Records apparently liked the material too much to allow them to drop it as a poorly circulated cassette, so it was released as a 7" EP in 2006 (that you can still pick up here on nifty "splatter" vinyl: http://www.vinyljunkiedistro.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_39&products_id=8542). Roskopp aren't exactly reinventing the wheel with their brand of high-paced grind, but just like their regional brethren, they've somehow found a way to take a well-worn formula and make it not only fresh and exciting, but catchy as shit without sacrificing aggression. These guys sort of sit on the fence between grindcore and goregrind, with the high speed takes appropriating the former and the moments of groove and the pitch-shifted gurgles finding more in common with the latter. These songs actually have hooks and hold their own as songs instead of mere bursts of unmemorable aggression. Here's a pretty high quality live video of an as-of-yet unreleased song:

Here's the EP with a handful of bonus tracks I harvested from by the goodness of my heart.

gimme a few hours to find my external hard drive!

If you dig these guys, definitely check out Captain Cleanoff, Fuck...I'm Dead, Agents Of Abhorrence, Die Pigeon Die, Super Fun Happy Slide (of whom I once designed a t-shirt), Doubled Over, and The Day Everything Became Nothing. All of them are pretty top notch.

Jawbreaker - Unfun

If I was someone else, I'd comment on how integrated I am with this album, and as such, a purely objective review might be difficult to accomplish. Unfortunately, my reviews are intelligible at best, so let's not pretend my relation to this album will make this post any worse. I know I've mentioned it before, but mid-high school, I transitioned out of a 2-year strong, pure grind/death/crust/powerviolence "phase" using early emo as my aeroplane. Man I hate that song. "Music Is My Aeroplane", I mean. Was that the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Bleeeeaaahhhh. But yeah, somehow I stumbled upon emo as a non-putrid cultural force and became completely enamored with it. Being a soggy sack of angst at the time, the emotional chord changes, introspective lyrical matter, and raw vocals were just the outlet I was looking for, and shortly thereafter, I found Andy Radin's "fourfa" website.
As such:

"Jawbreaker - Unfun and Bivouac LP/CDs. Beautiful, angsty pop-punk with a huge minor-key edge, deep, incisive lyrics that cut right to your soul, and a keen sense of when to relax, when to build up, and when to just blast it out at full power and scream."

Pairing that descriptor from the "emocore" page with my friend Tess' name-drops of the band, I figured tracking down Jawbreaker's discography was in my best interests. Oddly enough, I found a copy of Unfun just a week after in the used bin at ye olde corporate music megastore, "and the rest is history". I don't know why, but that cliche has always annoyed me. The "history" includes me listening to the album in question constantly for several months on the bus, at work, during lunch, and whenever else. While the music here is definitely indebted to the emocore sound from DC hardcore's wake, it's real significance for me lies in making pop-punk finally seem like an appealing concept. Unfun is simultaneously the most gruff and the most bouncy thing in the band's catalog, and sounds sorta like the template for every non-folk punk band you hear labeled as "orgcore" nowadays. If you're partial to that gritty, soulful, melodic punk style and don't have this, make it a priority to procure a reissue while you can. Remember a few years ago when Hot Topic was going to be the sole purveyors of this album's reissue? It's hard to believe, but that was actually on the table for a while. Oof.

Unfun is an incredible batch of songs, though; every track is fantastic, with the opener ("Want") being the first love song I ever really related to. Songs about heartbreak or infatuation are one thing, but a song about shyness and a desperate need to articulate your feelings about someone really hit me hard at the time. I feel like I should also mention that Jawbreaker has a knack for throwing in long, built-up, instrumental endings to some of their songs ("Fine Day" and my favorite, "Busy", for example) that really enhance the songs more than closing with a chorus ever could. Also, Samiam totally burgled that concept from this album. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't steal the songwriting capabilities with it. AW SHIT. IN THE RAW. But its all really accessible up until the B-side opens with the darker "Softcore" and "Driven", but they grow on you with a few listens.

http://www.mediafire.com/?zyzy5cdy00w

I'm not sure if I'd call this my favorite Jawbreaker album (it's admittedly difficult to decide considering Bivouac and 24 Hour Revenge Therapy exist), but it's definitely up there, with or without the buckets of nostalgia I hung off it. I don't know why exactly, but this always felt like the band at their most honest and straight-forward. I can't exactly supply examples to support this claim, as it's sort of a vibe, but maybe you'll notice it too if you're familiar with the rest of their albums. Plus, whenever I've talked about how much I like this album, people tend to use the word "underrated" to describe it. If you're desperately seeking indie cred because only superficial bullshit can validate you, this is your Jawbreaker of choice. Or the Busy EP, I guess. ONLY the Busy EP.

Oh. Did I mention the lyrics? They're good. Read 'em I guess.

Iron Lung - Sexless/No Sex

This could end up being an unusually short review for me. I'm just starting it a few minutes shy of 10:30 and need to be up and peppy tomorrow morning for work in the ol' produce mines. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but sometimes you just have to risk being groggy at the crack 'o dawn for Iron Lung's sake. Consisting solely of a drummer/vocalist and guitarist/vocalist, I'm tempted to label them as a "dynamic duo"; I have self-respect though, so let's just settle on "awesome 2-piece powerviolence band" instead. They're also from Washington and formed in '99. These aren't particularly interesting facts, but I usually like to squeeze in a little background info in these reviews. Use it wisely.

Iron Lung are a really obvious choice when picking a musical unit that's truly more than the sum of it's parts, as it's literally mindblowing that just two guys could create an album that sounds as heavy, pummeling, and enveloping as the one to your left. Sexless/No Sex is the band's third full length (unless Cold Storage is a compilation), and as far as I'm concerned, the best thing they've ever done. In the past, the band focused primarily on the ultra-high speed aspects of powerviolence, but like Weekend Nachos, the past few years have shown the band heaping on more and more elements of sludge. Being a huge fan of Dystopia and especially Man Is The Bastard, it was really exciting to hear one of my favorite bands taking up this particular torch, especially with a guitar tone this great. It almost sounds like it was tuned for one of those annoying "mathcore" bands with a quadrillion different confusing time signatures packed into every song (but in a non-incriminating or annoying way. I'm a shitty writer) :

Sexless/No Sex features 20 tracks in only 21 minutes, but there's not a note out of place or any reason not to flip this back to the A-side once "Cancer" ends. I'm not Mr.Knows-Shit-About-Competent-Musicianship, but I've probably listened to this album a gazillion times since it came out and have yet to locate a sour moment. The vocal trade offs are great, and the way the band careens back and fourth from crushing sludge to blasts of manic hardcore is like a party in my ears that I'm inviting you to through illegal downloading:

http://www.mediafire.com/?wyjg0tdt0nv

I still hate my worthless husk for missing these guys' performance at Maryland Deathfest.

Also: whuddyaknow, that wasn't very short at all. Of course, now it's almost midnight and I should've been in bed a while ago. Dicks.

Dinosaur Jr - Dinosaur

I guess this is technically the self-titled, since Dinosaur Jr. didn't add the suffix until late '87 or early '88 after a legal dispute with some other band called Dinosaurs with ex-members of Jefferson Airplane and some band called Country Joe And The Fish. It should also be noted that the last.fm page for the insecure Dinosaurs has under 3,000 listeners. Roughly 402,000 fewer than the band they tried to disband. OH HOW TIME MAKES FOOLS OF US ALL.

Uninteresting factoid aside, this was the first Dinosaur Jr. album I picked up, and one I used to put in my figurative top 10 albums list in high school. I think their third album, Bug, probably reigns as my most listened Dino album at this point, but this one is still great for sentimental and listening values.
If you're familiar with the two following albums, this is pretty dissimilar to the super-loud, pop-inflected, guitar rock featured on those. It also isn't boring, which separates it vastly from the entire remainder of the band's catalog. What we have here is a completely scattershot approach to songwriting, with elements of jangly pop, Neil Young-esque rock, hardcore, metal, and folk (which is almost completely absent in the rest of their albums), all mixed in a really idiosyncratic, absorbingly weird fashion. As such, it's a pretty difficult album to describe considering the only real cohesion here stems from the prevailing sense of disarmament. "Forget The Swan" and "Repulsion" are great guitar driven pop-rock songs, "Quest" and "Severed Lips" are mopey folk-rock, "Mountain Man" is noisy punk-esque rock, and "Pointless" is a weird, indescribable mess of mumbling, strung-out guitar, and dissonance. My favorite track on here is probably "Does It Float", which starts off as a bouncy, catchy folk-punk number that turns into a screaming, stinging, sea of guitar noise for no apparent reason. Good stuff.

I guess if I was being objective, I'd call this album "a ramshackle snapshot merely hinting at the greatness the band would later embody" or something Pitchfork-y and annoying like that, but I just love the songs way too much. It's true, they did get leagues more cohesive and "rockin" on the next two albums (and as such, you may actually wanna check out You're Living All Over Me or Bug before this one) but this is definitely the band at their most esoteric and interesting. Unfortunately, everything after Bug is pretty dull (not terrible), mostly due to J kicking everyone out and turning it into an ego-stroking pop-grunge act with a lot of wanky solos. Whatever though, he gets a free ride for life on those first 3 as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.mediafire.com/?t191m0sm2b5

Oh, actually, their two reunion albums with the original lineup are pretty decent. Check those out, too.

Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

Swans is a monster of a band, producing some of the most raw, eviscerating music since the band's inception in 1982. Frontman Michael Gira disbanded the group in 1997 after releasing a vast amount of music and tweaking the band's sound on several of their releases. The band's early releases were slow, heavy and raw, song's often dragged on while Gira grotesquely moaned and shouted best seen on either Public Castration Is A Good Idea or Filth. Eventually Jarboe would join Swans alongside Gira and proceed to evolve the group's sound further.

Alright, I'm going to stop giving you guys and gals the history of Swan's as if going to google isn't as easy as just twitching your fingers. The band has a fairly interesting history as they continue to evolve, reform and assault the eardrums of many innocent boys and girls who's worlds are no longer delightfully sugar-coated. Before I continue though, check out this Swans song.


In my experience a lot of people actually laugh at this song. But I think that's because let's face it, it does sound a little ridiculous. But after a listen or two I started to really appreciate it and beauty of the lyrics.

Michael Gira really writes fantastic lyrics. I remember an instance in which I listened to this song a few times in a row to hear what Gira had to say. Anyway, I dare you (double-dog) to listen to this song several times in a row and try not to feel at least a little manic-depressive. There is not much music out there with the ability to do that.

Well now I think you get the idea that I really like Swans. But you're probably asking, "why would anyone want to feel MaNiC-DePrEsSiVe listening to music?!" Well here's my theory - that's because it's art, it's supposed to make you feel something in return for giving it your attention. So I ask the reader (if there are any of you reading this catastrophe of a post) to take some of your time to appreciate the beauty of Swans.

The record I uploaded is a great start for a Swans newcomer. It's much more accessible than their older material but still holds on to that gold-old fashioned Swans charm of turning your frown well...back into a frown. As you work backwards into their catalog, one of the first thoughts that may cross your mind is "Holy shit." because as I've mentioned earlier, it is raw and it's almost intimidating to listen to. However some of Swans' 90s releases aren't as heavy and will not convince your grandmother you're summoning Satan. I highly recommend downloading White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity. I'll give you a link for that record as well.

http://www.mediafire.com/?5zl41n16yy9bn6g - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky.

http://www.mediafire.com/?i1b7epgy2bixbwz - White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity

Coke Bust - Lines In The Sand

Coke Bust have an appealing name. I'm not sure if that's considered a universal truth, but I thought it was amusing enough to check them out back a couple years ago, and I'm pretty glad I did. If you've never heard of these guys before, they embody a few of the essential traits of an early DC hardcore band - playing at breakneck speed, embodying straight edge philosophies, and sounding truly pissed off. These are stereotypes exacted in a positive light, mind you.
Lines In The Sand is the group's third release and first full-length since their formation in 2006, and it's probably my favorite item in their catalog so far. Of course, I have yet to hear the new Degradation EP, but I figure if these dudes can make an LP in this style consistently great, they should have no problem tackling another EP. That was sort of a joke, by the way. This album's only 17 minutes long. Works for me. I'm a big XBrainiaX fan, for the record.
To clarify, when I said these guys were a straightedge hardcore band, I didn't mean in the dumb-as-shit mosh warrior sense, but more in the mid 80's sense, when playing fast as shit was still essential, but not played with quite as much reckless abandon as it was at conception. Well-practiced hyperspeed, if you will. Coke Bust are stylistically somewhere between the aforementioned strain of hardcore, early youth crew, and blasting powerviolence. Try to imagine a mix of Scholastic Deth and a cleaner-sounding Infest as interpreted by a contemporary like Ceremony or Punch (minus the melodic tendencies). They're kinda like that, and they're really fucking good at it. These guys pack every essential trait of the genre in tight without ever sounding generic or repetitive, but instead, passionate and leaner than the pack with a great head for variation. There are no predictable mosh riffs here, or lame, wiry-sounding leads played over dopey breakdowns, but there is enough groove here to get you flailing around and stomping between high speed assaults.

http://www.mediafire.com/?h1ynzxwu3ye

CoOl StOrY: I was a straight edge kid for almost 6 years before deciding I was being hypocritical. To rectify this, I dabbled in just about anything I'd previously rejected (aside one-night stands) to figure out whether or not I was truly on board with the SxE demeanor. Substances were imbibed, and fans were hit with shit, and as it turns out, I still have no particular interest in drugs or getting wasted. I don't plan on calling "a pledge to the edge" again, but the lyrics these dudes employ definitely strike a chord for me. It's not often I come across a band who promotes the clean lifestyle while advocating legalization of those same substances. Can't we all be this reasonable (ie agree with me)?

Cult Ritual - LP 1

Cop-out reviews are finally outsourced. This is the third and final installment of "Steve Re-Posting Old Shit" - from now on the reviews will either be fresh from the noodle or... stolen from other blogs. So probably only the first part. This is a pretty lazy one, though, and definitely doesn't do this incredible album justice, but whatever. Just try to multiply all praise by 2 or 3 to understand how awesome it is. Or listen to it, I guess. I don't know.

"Approaching this album was a little intimidating, as up until this point, Cult Ritual have kept their trifecta of top notch releases below the 10 minute mark. The release of a full length - especially regarding hardcore - typically reveals whether or not the band in question is capable of bearing close to their roots without turning into an interminable bore. For a recent example, see Bone Awl's Meaningless Leaning Mess - an album full of quality songs, but bogged down by a running time too great for the number of ideas presented. Fortunately, Cult Ritual can handle an LP's length and then some, as their 4th self titled disc is easily their greatest and most infatuating work so far. Armed with a crusty, warm, production sound and a slew of great riffs, these guys offer up a platter of U.S. style noise melded with scathing hardcore punk, fragments of melody, sound samples, a 3 minute exercise in minimalist drumming, intelligent lyrics, crushing sludge, and enough variation from track to track to lead me to believe these guys could tackle a double LP with little fatigue. Yes, these guys are hyped to shit, but they really are as great as you've heard."
Get it here.
And I'd tell you to buy it here, but apparently it went OOP already. Woops.

I should've also said: "these guys offer up a platter of scathing hardcore punk melded with U.S. style noise". Also, despite existing for such a short period of time, this album is so OOP it's reached absurd prices on ebay... like in the 150 range. God dammit, Youth Attack Records, repress this shit already so the little elitist circles who own this epic can dissipate in the waves of time.

I guess they're not really "elitist" for owning this. They just got there in time.

Still, fuck those guys.

Common Rider - Last Wave Rockers

If you managed to slog your way through that botched mess of an Operation Ivy review, you may have uncovered that I not only enjoy Operation Ivy, but moreover, the heroics of one Jesse Michaels. That is, unless I didn't even mention my fandom for Jesse Michaels in said review. I really don't feel like going back to re-read it, so let's assume I did mention it for the sake of the present review's continuation. So yeah, while I love Energy and have listened to it countless times, I'm gonna have to be cOnTrOvErSiAl and state that the ditty to our left blows anything Op. Ivy ever did completely outta the water.
Common Rider was Jesse Michael's third musical unit following the dissolution of the short lived Big Rig, who released one 9 minute EP in '94 and split up two years later. Last Wave Rockers debuted in '99, and sounds like the logical next step into maturity as far as ska-punk songwriting is concerned. The tempo is slowed, the melodies are far more developed and poppy, and the ska has been upgraded into rocksteady. This is one of the few albums I can think of that has a lot of variation from track to track without ever losing an ounce of cohesion. All the songs have such a relaxed, confident, feeling, and sound like they've been practiced and trimmed down hundreds of times, performed with nothing to prove to the audience but all the energy and vivacity that comes with that disposition. I don't know if that'll translate to anyone reading this, but that's about as perfect of a description I can muster. The production is clean-as-a-sterilized-object (catchy!), and every instrument sounds perfectly crisp and balanced, with Jesse's lyrics spat out with incredible rhythm and cadence. The hammond organ and sax bits definitely add to the disc's overall warmth, especially on tracks like "Carry On" and "Walk Down The River", as well as Heather from the "eh, alright" Teen Idols' back up vocals on a handful of tracks.
I've probably listened to this album well over a hundred times since I picked it up, so I can say with no doubt that if there's any flaws here, I haven't been capable of spotting them. Every track is extremely accessible and well-written, but here's one I've heard a lot of positive feedback on:

If I had to choose my three favorite songs on here, I'd probably have to go with pop punk-y "True Rulers", the closer "Dixie Roadrash", and the adorable "Deep Spring", which sounds almost nothing like the rest of the album, but still fits in perfectly. I've easily played the latter a zillion times, but I have to stress how difficult it is to just pick 3. Or even 6 would be harsh. The whole thing is really that good. Without further ado:

http://www.mediafire.com/?k5zgynjwzdt

These guys would go on to record one more full length, an EP with Billie Joe from Green Day on guitar, and a split EP with Against All Authority before calling it quits in 2003. All of them have their merits and are worth checking out (especially This Is Unity Music), but from my perspective, none of them could've possibly topped this. Jesse Michaels finally has another band together named for the opening track on this album, "Classics Of Love", but play in a more rock-oriented vein than the preceding stuff. I'll probably cover that and the aforementioned Big Rig EP in a future post...

Punch - s/t

Here's another review pillaged from my shite olde blog since it caters to 0% of it's rinky-dink audience. The writing is kinda doofy, but hey, I'll say the same exact thing about this intro after a few months pass. I'm thinking it's a good time now to stop aspiring to look back upon my words and find them to be indispensable parts of a complex and spine-tingling body of work.

"Punch is a fantastically fresh and tear-ass'ing youth crew damaged powerviolence (or "fastcore" if you want to spat about it) unit with a collective straight-edge and vegan mandate that doesn't really fucking matter because as is the case with most hardcore, the lyrics are smothered to intelligibility by the Nah, I kid, we're all good enough sports to have the lyric sheets tattooed on the inside of our eyelids. Ooh, but there is a song about bikes:

RIGHT OF WAY

Always thought that one is one, but I guess that’s not the case, because now I know two does not equal four wheels. Better step aside- where you’re going is not as important as where they’re headed.
Unless it's metaphorical. The music ist fucking krieg, though. Quite a few bands in this niche sacrifice technicality and songcraft for adrenaline-OD'ing frenzies, but Punch is way leaner than the pack, with bursts of melody amongst the frenetic blasts and intelligently structured vocal delivery, replete with tasteful "crew" shout-outs. Lastly, vocalist Meghan's impassioned, top-of-the-lungs, screaming is god-tier quality and makes me yearn to hear more "goils" (as Peter "The Corpse" Steele may have said) pick up the mic for this brand of intense hardcore. I was planning on seeing them in New Yawk Shitty, but my friends ended up bailing or something and adding to the canon of grim memories on getting lost at the subway was too much to bear."
Get it here.
Then get it here.
Also, I was kidding before. The lyrics are quite good.

EDIT: oops, looks like you can't actually "get it here" anymore. You CAN pick up a neat t-shirt or their excellent sophomore LP there, though.