Neanderthal - Fighting Music

This will probably end up being a really short review since I'm still on the road, but well... I guess circumstances could be more inappropriate for a band whose discography clocks in at 10 minutes.

"Oh yeah, I'm traveling right now. I don't know if I mentioned that before, but its why I haven't updated lately. Expect more regular posts come mid-March!", he typed excitedly, unaware of the irrelevance of his words. It seemed the internet had turned its back on him a long time ago; like the light from a collapsed star, the dissolution of his audience would take a lifetime to become apparent.

Neanderthal's lone EP is the stuff of legends: incredibly influential, hopelessly un-dated, and incomprehensibly expensive on ebay. Consisting of a pre-Man Is The Bastard Eric Wood and Matt Domino of Infest, Neanderthal was an extremely short lived project that single handedly kicked off (and coined) powerviolence as a genre. At this point, Infest had existed for several years, and No Comment had already put out their first EP, Common Senseless, but this is really where it begins stylistically. As such, Fighting Music is about as pure as you're gonna get, and contains all the scuzz, filth, and heaviness the genre provided before the great emo/90's hardcore gentrification struck.
As the name might make you think, the sound this band produces is primitive, brutal, and mammoth spearing as fuck. Imagine the speed and tantrum-like, bellowing rage of Infest mashed up with creepy, Rorschach-esque riffs and the tremendous grit and intricate basslines of Man Is The Bastard. It's about as rad as that descriptor might lead you to believe, and fits snuggly alongside a number of EPs I've raved about in the past - a short, but really fulfilling listen.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ilzmnzu2mqt

I've never been able to confirm this, but I've heard that Joel Connell of MITB (then of Shrimper label weirdos, Refrigerator) was somehow involved with this band. Does anyone know if Neanderthal performed live shows? If they did, I gotta conclude that Joel filled in on either drums or guitar. Matt Domino is listed in the liner notes as handling both in this EP's liner notes, but I kinda doubt he was doing that Happy Flowers thing where he'd slide his foot around the strings while drumming.

Maybe that was too obscure of a reference.

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)?