Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters

Okay, so the vegetarian thing is working out pretty well so far. I've gone down about 10 pounds unfortunately, but damn do I look good in a skimpy, sheer negligee for my gentlemen callers. Also, I'm a faux-veggie. I forgot to mention that, likely because no one on the entire planet cares so I wasn't feeling much pressure: basically, I'll eat meat on the basis that animals tend to eat meat, but not corpses bloated with antibiotics and force-fed mono-crops conducive to a slew of illnesses. Either way, that's my irrelevant intro this review.

This album is amazing. I know a lot of people tend to lean towards Fresh Fruit... and Frankenchrist when picking favorites, but for me, this is the single best album the Dead Kennedys ever released. I'm not gonna go through the history again, but basically I transitioned from death metal and grindcore to powerviolence and crust punk to anarcho and theeeeeennnn... good buddy Steve (I'm one of 4 Steves) lends me this album and the progression finally hits the roots. Plastic Surgery Disasters was the second LP length release by the band, and a total embrace of the hardcore velocity they hinted at with their debut. As such, the ur, "musicality" is taken down a notch in order to crank up to jet-speed, but the songwriting is just as memorable as ever. Plus, the B-side is all slower songs if that's what drew you in on Fresh Fruit... assuming anyone has ever been drawn to a punk band by the relative slowness. I dunno. I'm not really feeling too focused on honing the literary elements of this review, today.
The production on this album has garnered some complaints over the years for being as tinny and rough on the ears as it is, but I for one think it's the cornerstone of appeal. The raw, messy, but coherent sound is the stuff of legends, and the kind of production style I found loads of affection for through countless grindcore/hardcore/early death metal listening benders. Apparently it was intentional, though, as Jello revealed in some old interview that they wanted the sound to be just as paranoid and ear-trashing as the lyrics and vocal histrionics. Fucking heroic stance. The band's musicianship shines through as great as ever, though, with tons of catchy riffs, melodies, and creative hooks - it's just noisier than most people are used to when approaching a classic hardcore/punk album.
I'm not sure I could really pick highlights from here since this album actually makes my top 10 albums of forever list, but if you've never heard it for some reason, downloading "Well Paid Scientist", "Halloween", the epic "Riot", and the surprisingly pleasant "Moon Over Marin" probably won't make you curse your ears for not being vestigial. Every track is gold, though, so you may as well just grab this linky below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?oy0jemvyjej

I just stole this link from google, so I have no idea whether it's the original master or not, or whether the In God We Trust Inc. EP is tacked on the back, but there 'ya go.

Paint It Black/Punch/Iron Chic/Vaccine/Zombie Dogs Show

I think I mentioned this show a few posts back, but if I didn't, here goes.
A few weeks ago, fellow staff dudes Sean and Jack noted on facebook that they were attending a show in Brooklyn headlined by Paint It Black. Seeing as NYC is about as far as I'm typically capable of traveling on a loaded school & work schedule, I made an exaggerated "ooo!" face and made my way to the show's page to check it out. I'm a fan of Paint It Black, and I really like Iron Chic, but the fact that Punch was finally playing another show in the area was what sold me, especially since I fucked up 2 opportunities to see them in just the past year. Ever since the heroic and totally missed Bammy Rabbit (or Tabitha) of the "Kamikaze Tailspin" blog introduced me to Punch through a conversation on last.fm, I've given them a pretty regular spin. They're probably my favorite current hardcore band, and Bammy's description of their live show (as well as the ridiculous distance she traveled to see them on their s/t LP's launch gig) had me convinced there was necessity in hearing them in person.
Unfortunately, I slacked a bit and didn't watch for the tickets to go on sale EVERY GODDAMN SECOND and they sold out almost instantly. I guess it had to do with Paint It Black barely ever playing or something. I dunno. I responded to one girl's offer, but then she started a bidding war and the price bloated up from 12 bucks to 60. In a last ditch effort, I-
You know what? Who cares?

1.) Zombie Dogs
Alright, so the show opened with Zombie Dogs, a local all-girl hardcore band I'd never heard before. They put on a decent show despite how few people in the audience seemed to be familiar with them, but all I kept thinking was "This band sounds like a 45 played on 33". Well, maybe their condition isn't that extreme, but the correlation certainly wasn't irrelevant, especially when I listened to the recorded versions afterward. The four are pretty obviously influenced by classic 80's hardcore - and who could hold it against them? - but I feel like I'd really dig them if they'd approximate the reckless abandon of their influences.
Check 'em out:

http://www.myspace.com/zombiedogsnyc

2.) Vaccine
Didn't show up. Frownie emoticon. They're really good, though, so that implied frownie emoticon is legit as they come. They're made up of members of Think I Care, Ampere, and a couple others and play that ripping brand of straight edge powerviolence only someone with a heart of stone couldn't love. Also: almost every living being. It's easy to forget how extreme music dances on the fringe. They've got a great demo out, as well as an EP I haven't heard, and apparently a 5" in the works. 5" records are hilarious.

http://www.vaccinexxx.blogspot.com/

3.) Iron Chic
Sean just reviewed these guys a few weeks back, which you can check out here.
Iron Chic is one of the jillion post-Latterman bands, and probably my second favorite following the incredible RVIVR. Also, they apparently boot many an ass in a live setting, and within seconds threw half the audience into a screaming, flailing, trance. It's bands like this that really require the listener to get the lyrics down, because there's really nothing more cathartic and energizing than screaming every word with the vocalists and audience melding into one gigantic chorus. Even though it got lost under the screaming sometimes, they were extremely tight, and the instrument-less vocalist (pictured above) had an hilarious stage presence, looking like he was rolling on E or something, with his fingers curling through his hair as he swayed back and fourth. Awesome.

http://www.myspace.com/ironchicsmyspace

4.) Punch
Punch were easily the highlight for me, completely justifying the past year's struggles. The singer, Meghan, humbly introduced the band, feedback rose, and the band's brand of ass-tearing edge-violence exploded without another word. Admittedly, I probably thrashed around a bit too much for the current, Winter-induced patheticness of my physical being to handle, but hey, sometimes sacrifices must be made for punk rawk. I guess it goes without saying that the band completely floored me, but, well, there it is. Being a pretty proficient not-musician, I've always been amazed to witness a band perfectly replicate the inhuman speed, aggression, and tightness they display on record, and Punch did just that. If you're a fan of these guys and haven't seen them in the flesh yet, I highly recommend paying way too much for a secondhand ticket at the last second. Probably the most fun I had since the Capitalist Casualties performance at last year's Maryland Deathfest where this monster truck of a man picked me up and threw me into a bunch of crusty girls. Good times.

http://www.myspace.com/punchcrew

5.) Paint It Black
To be honest, before this show, I probably hadn't listened to Paint It Black in over a year. At the tail end of high school, I went into a super heavy Lifetime/Kid Dynamite/Paint It Black/New Mexican Disaster Squad melodic hardcore phase, reveling primarily in the fact that they all sounded like somewhat different incarnations of the same band (topically, not dissimilar to the post-Latterman family I mentioned earlier). Due to the time spent apart, I can't say they were quite the release Punch and Iron Chic were, but they put on a great show nonetheless, with the highlights of course, being the small handful of songs I could actually recall the lyrics to. Bonus points go to the vocalist for his introductory rant about "bro shit" like feet first stage diving and whirling dervish moshing being exclusionary and "no longer part of this scene." A few points get knocked off because he made me feel bad about losing my shit to Punch and I'm a vindictive jerk.

http://www.myspace.com/paintitblack

All in all, an incredible show I'm glad I shelled out for. Unfortunately, me, Jack, and his friend Mike came home (back to Jack's dorm) to a drunken pit of screaming, glass-breaking, cacophony that wouldn't let up til 4 AM - arguably not the best conditions to fall asleep to.
Apparently Hoboken celebrates St. Patrick's Day 12 days early?

Black Flag - The Process Of Weeding Out

(apparently I forgot to publish this review after I wrote it. oops.)

Black Flag need no real introduction - especially from a 20-something kid from the New York countryside. Chances are, if you like pretty much anything on this blog, you like or are at least aware of Black Flag and the impact they had on punk rock; namely, helping to pioneer hardcore punk, creating one of the most dark and idiosyncratic punk albums ever with Damaged, and then unapologetically following their own muse for years despite alienating much of their original audience. The EP in the upper left corner is a product of the latter phase, and one of the two most consistently discredited albums they ever released. Since I happen to like it a lot, I figure at the end of days, when I've left my corporal body and stand at the gates of an other-wordly utopia, I'll finally be able to cash in this golden ticket of indie cred for never-ending, constantly infatuating pleasure. Or at least, that's my theory on the reasoning behind hip youths smugly dismissing peers and subtly self-aggrandizing using the hard work of musicians and artists they've never met. I mean, come on, why else would they do it?

Now it's no secret that I like way out there bullshit about as much as punk (check out my old blog as testament), so The Process Of Weeding Out works as a happy medium. Instead of taking the hardcore, Sabbath-y sludge, or dopey heavy metal route, the band decided to further explore the sort of raw, quasi-jazz damaged improv-rock they inhabited the B-side of Family Man with. If you're not familiar with Family Man, it actually does deserve a lot of the dismissal it gets. The first side features Henry doing some pretty excruciating spoken word, but if you didn't immediately take it off the table when the needle stung the center, the B-side is actually pretty good. Not as good as this, though, [redundancy]which is why I'm reviewing it of course[/redundancy]. Sorry, I'm tired.
Anyway, The Process Of Weeding Out is 4 tracks clocking in at a little under a half hour, and features Greg Ginn in peak "losing his shit" form, letting lose a flood of messy, stinging guitar improv on top of a somewhat more composed selection of bass and drum grooves. When I first heard this, I was kinda disappointed that Ginn didn't really get more aggressive, but after a few listens, it began to make more sense. There's a lot of repetition here, especially in the title track, but the loose playing style keeps everything sounding fresh and hypnotic throughout. If you're an established fan of the band, you know they always take a while to sink in, and this is no exception - it sounds like Black Flag regardless of how different the material is.

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

Biohazard-Urban Discipline

This record is a great. A necessity I'd say. Chamber Spins Three into Punishment into Shades of Gray into Business. Can't beat it. Just found out I'm seeing them at some show in Mass with Blood for Blood in March I think? Gonna be sweet.




Fun fact: My little brother thinks this band is sweet. He's 8. He says the guitar parts are "groovy". He's right. Thanks for the input, Nick.




Here's proof. Great video. Check out Rick Ta Life


Download it!
http://www.mediafire.com/?2ddoiny4jnn

Personal favorite song: Business

Check out State of the World Address while you're at it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?uijz0zfjlwt

Descendents - Milo Goes To College

Time for another block on text on the internet! Yeah! So this is an incredibly obvious choice for a punk-centric blog revolving around my favorites or now and then, but hey, let me once again remind you (myself) that this blog's "followers" include two staff members out of three. Also one of them is me so I'm alerted when another staff member writes something. The first Descendents LP, Milo Goes To College, is considered a classic by pretty much everyone, cemented in the annals of musical history for furthering the developing of both pop punk and the melodic hardcore non-scene a few bounds, leaps, etc. Basically, the band took the speed of hardcore and melded it with some left-field pop sensibilities, packed it full of wonderfully melodic basslines, and developed the whole nerd-chic bands would pillage and forcibly conform to for years on end. Oh, and then the band members formed ALL at some point, who were super-saccharine, girl-crazy, nerd-pandering, garbage that took all the thematic elements of the Descendents and applied them to dull, generic, pop-punk.

I guess I could technically stop there without any repercussions. Those are usually all the things I cover in these reviews reduced to a single paragraph. BUT ANYWAY, this album is the 1982 followup to the ridiculously brief and comical Fat EP, and features 15 crucial tracks in something like 23 or 24 minutes. I don't remember. Either way, it was here that the band began to buckle down and write more focused, less nonsensical material - basically this is to Fat what Dirty Rotten LP is to Dealing With It! - all presented in a super energetic, not-quite-polished aggression with tons of memorable hooks, especially in the vocals and bass. Milo's lyrics are mostly a continuum of the angst/youth/girls triad found on the preceding EP, but now injected with lots of non-satirical misogyny and really naive-sounding sexism. Fortunately I discovered (and loved) this album a few years before any semblance of social awareness set in, because currently it's difficult to ignore such gross quips as "take a girl out, she won't fuck you, after you just bought her a gram of coke" and "the only fish I smell are on the deck of my boat". I guess they both might require some elaboration. Eh, just listen to the album and you'll get it. Pretty much every song is along the whimsical lines of "women are whores and cockteases", though.

http://www.mediafire.com/?flsgh0snt2z

I don't know if I made this sound like a worthwhile album, but it is. It's really incredibly good. The thing about the Descendents, though, is that they have a lot of really, really, really fucking awful songs, too. In fact, I made a list:

10.) Hurtin' Crue
9.) Parents
8.) No FB
7.) All-O-Gistics
6.) Van
5.) Enjoy
4.) Blast Off
3.) Sour Grapes
2.) Orgofart
1.) The Days Are Blood

They're in order of least-worst to worst-worst, by the way. And "Parents" is really catchy and has a great bass line, it's just incredibly stupid. Maybe I shouldn't have included it. After this album, though, the band got less and less good until they ended up with their good and bad songs completely distilled and polarized into either trait on the ALL album. Basically, if it's played in a pop-punk vein, it's good; if it's played in horrendous, sub-Black Flag style, it's... yeah, bad.

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.

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.

Weekend Nachos - Unforgivable

Here's a sub-review I did for Weekend Nachos' incredible 2009 album, Unforgivable. I actually already posted this as part of three-piece hardcore showcase in my other blog, but I feel there was a good chance it was lost on what little audience I had. Of course, this blog is brand new and so far, has only 3 followers, so being lost on a small audience might trump being lost on no one. Also, two of those followers write for this very blog. One of those two is me. Hrm.
Anyway:

"With a name bespeaking such incredible frivolity, your irony detector's should short-circuit when this bubbling cauldron of dark, humorless, and brutal, hardcore-and-sludge inflected powerviolence punches you square in the eardrums with it's teeny little balled up fists perfectly evolved to frictionlessly navigate the human auditory canal. Weekend Nachos have been kicking the veritable ass since 2004 (presumably) and have a few EPs and a full length preceding Unforgivable, and recently, an EP of pure sludge proceeding it. It's always nice to bear witness to a band unveiling their best work to date, and Unforgivable is totally on my nonexistent "Top 10 Of 2009" list somewhere. Y'know, floating in the intangible ether. Just like fellow face grinders Iron Lung's Sexless/No Sex "opus" (ie an album I like a lot), Weekend Nachos take this opportunity to further baste themselves in the sumptuous tar prepped by sludge cuistôts Eyehategod and low-end Man Is The Bastard, giving this album a biting dynamic betwixt the powerhouse blast-a-thons of yore, comparatively rockin' hardcore punk, and crushing doom riffery. It's nice to see Relapse Records can still throw a fastball here and there."

Get it here.
Buy it here.

The Shitty Limits - Beware The Limits

Alright, so for my first post I'd like to introduce you to a band called The Shitty Limits. Their sound takes elements of garage rock and 80s Dischord Bands and 70s punk rawk. In my ignorance I've never heard of a band who blends these things together so deliciously well. The Mr. Smoothie of punk rock.

Download - http://www.mediafire.com/?myoejmohdon

This is more of a test....except lengthier reviews in da future