shudder to think "the pony express record" (1994)

another record on a major label, that makes two in the past month, but both are worth posting......STT is easily one of the top 5 bands of the past 20 years in ANY genere....this record is a snapshot of the band at the very pinnacle of their game (it would be a steep, tragic descent later, starting with the "50,000 bc" record) its totally unique......craig's vocals seemed to be the wellspring for the vocal stylings of later bands like racebannon (although mike anderson took wedren-esque vocals to a new, psychotic realm) and party of helicopters.........anyways this is an alternately rockin and bizzare album...guitar licks all over the place and sassy vocals up the ass....in a good way!......just one of those records that stands out....waayayyyy out.....for some reason ive always wanted to group this band (maybe its just this album) with craw, even though they sound nothing alike, i get kinda the same feel from both bands, im not sure why......anyways a great landmark album that everyone should listen to at least once.......

pony express record

my '94 shudder to think shirt, haha.

Thoughts of Ionesco : Upward, Inward, and Under

not sure if i posted this one yet................anyways they deserve it.....rip your head off and shit down your throat core.

complete "all systems go" (2004)

the second (and final) album from this power-packed danish band....these dudes sound like they just fling themselves around they way they play this stuff.......tightly packed rocking/pounding hardcore with an epic, desperate feel to it.....very similar to fellow countrymen, lack (who i saw in 2003 and who were great live) political lyrics.....harsh vocals.......very heartfelt, sincere attitude overall..."all systems go" indeed....one of those bands that seems to have fallen through the cracks........check it out...

all systems go

The 244 Gl @ White Rabbit Freiburg (04.04.2010)

so they are still active.......oudve liked to have seen this..

handrail "fossil" "7 (1999)

so i found this band on  the great sempre in bilico blog........holy shit......talk about hitting the sweet spot, tuneful melodic indie rock right in line with the turnips, springhills, firesides and rusty jameses who were plying their wares around the same time....in other words, perfect late 90s euro melody........the first song, "russian roulette with a bon bon" alone is worth the price of admission.......ive had that song on repeat for a couple days now and its not stale yet.....anyways this was a sideproject of some of the one fine day guys, an italian band that called it quits too soon......in fact i would rather those dudes quit OFD and just continue with this band instead.........anyways highly recommended if you miss/dig this sound as much as i do.......





fossil

SEAWEED start with BELL HOUSE Brooklyn NYC April 22 2011

kinda pissed i had no foreknowledge of this.............but from the looks of it, great show......definatly one of the great bands of the past 20 years.......

dead inside "no:4" (2002)

this british band hailed from london and were active between 1999-2002. featured an ex vocalist of hard to swallow.  i only became aware of them through a split they did with the italian band one fine day (their debut cd was one of the first things i posted on this blog). anyways it took me a while to find their releases but damn if that search didnt pay off in spades......really excellent rockin hardcore in the vein of most of mike kirsch's bands (torches to rome/john henry west/bread & circuits) and louisville bands like by the grace of god, black cross, flower & casket, ect.....there also a bit of black flag influence that shines through too.......im kinda kicking myself for taking so long to find this shit, its that good......its too bad they never toured the states...they'd probably be big, at least in louisville......gets my stamp of approval quite handily.

no:4

the kevorkian solution "invokation" (2002)

this UK band rose from the ashes of koreisch and slavearc....not as good as either of those two bands (in fact, nowhere near the caliber of koreisch IMHO) but still a pretty good band......what we have here is expirimental effects grind, meaning short chaotic blasts interspersed with weird ambient passages or noise......dataclast/dischordance axis/umbrella/pig destroyer/creation is crucifixion all come to mind, but this is more chopped and mutated than most of them (the dataclast and umbrella comparisons are closest though)..i dont listen to alot of this shit anymore, but my 8-years ago-self probably would have gone apeshit over this stuff.........check it out.

invokation

opposition "pre-packaged" "7 (1995)

ladies & gentlemen, i bring you opposition, not the UK band i posted previously, but in my opinion, the best boston band no ones heard of......messy, fast, brutal, ragged hardcore of the mid 90s on figure four records......black flag, infest, rorschach, lebensreform and citizens arrest in a blender, this record being the end product.....actually not too dissimilar from fellow unappriceated bostonians, dive. a band i would give my left nut to see reunite.....im kinda mystified as to why these dudes werent more popular.....i guess they were too busy listening to shitty bands like converge or blood for blood.....oh well.......

opposition "7

Spiral Chord

another excellent japanese band. ex cowpers if memory serves correct.

[LIVE] COWPERS - 玻璃～斜陽

cowpers live. playing something off their last album, who' title escapes me at the moment.......got a kind of hot snakes/jehu thing going on here.....awesomeness.

the craving "fans will shit their pants" (2003)

\\\\

this was one of the later albums from the craving. it came out on scene police in 2003. more german noise rock in that jesus lizard vein, but perhaps a bit more sassy......quite good, like most of their catalog.......a band that never got their due......

fans will shit their pants.

salt "auscultate" (1995)

in the 90s sweden was known for hardcore. lots and lots of good hardcore....well lost in the shuffle of the refuseds, the separations, the doughnuts, were a band  playing music along different lines, but with the same spirit......salt was nina ramsby, daniel ewerman and jim tegman.....musically they played dischordant, hard edged rock with pop sensibility......sonic youth, shudder to think, even separation could  all be considered influences here....this was their one and only major label full length (on island records) and "bluster" was their semi-hit off this album..i know they did another record after this one called "Delay Me Down and Make Me Wah Wah!!" but i havent heard that record in so long that i forgot what it sounded like........anyways the music is on point more often than not and i like ninas vocals alot. after 16 years i can still say this shit holds up really well and i recommend this album wholeheartedly.

auscultate

chinchilla "101 italian hits" (1996)

heres another album ive been really digging into lately.....this came out on crisis records, the revelation offshoot in 1996...this band hailed from southern california and was apparently all female. im only aware of this album and the "little king" ep.  in any case the sound they create is unique.....i can catch a few passing flecks of various infleunces here and there........a little bit of evergreen here, a dash of salt (swedish band from the mid 90s) there......some kooky riffs that kinda recall bakamono......for some reason, i really like the vocals....sometimes she sounds like a female jeff garber or alan epley, but thats kinda beside the point. they are most certainly their own thing and i love it........being that they were on a revelation subsidiary, i can kinda see the reason for their obscurity......i cant see their style of music being very popular at all with the kids who were regular listeners/buyers of typical revelation bands or their merch back then......i think this band might have made more waves if they had been on gravity or kill rock stars or dischord.......in any case the kid with the underdog t-shirt's loss is my gain....and yours.

101 italian hits

the nolan gate "sent by rays" (2003)

remember mothman? that  new jersey band that has the split with okara back in the 90s? well they never broke up....just changed their name sometime in the late 90s and have remained active ever since....this is their first full length (i think) under the new name.....the sound is a continuation/evolution of what mothman was doing......noise rock/hardcore with a thick groove...........think helmet, quicksand, breadwinner, loincloth, hell no, ect.......not really the most popular sound over the past decade, but goddamn if these dudes havent perfected it.....

sent by rays

the opposition "breaking the slience" (1981)

well to slightly contradict my last post, there were a few things that came out in the 80s that i did connect with and love.......the first piece of music i ever bought was the police's "zenyatta mundatta" cassette in 1990....my first show was the cure on their "wish" tour in 1992.......however theres only been one early 80s band thats really stuck with me through the years, that band being opposition........unlike duran duran and the cure, their music still has a hold on me for whatever reason......its just catchy and moving...these guys were truly concerned with the state of the world they lived in, maybe that was what seperated them from the cures and the duran durans of the world....anyways its what would easily get the "80s post punk" tag today....for me its head & shoulders above most of the rest of the acts that kicked around at the time............they originally hailed from london, but moved to france at sometime in the late 80s (they remain immmensely popular in france )......this was their first lp.....really good moving stuff that i would recommend even if you arent really into this style.......

breaking the silence

Dazzling Killmen-Serpentarium-Critical Mass

when people talk about hardcore classics, their usually talking about black flag, minor threat or bad brains (who i could never stand, despite making a sincere, concerted effort to do so) well this band here, this is one of my "classics", my "seminal/gamechanging band". these guys basically helped give birth to the sounds that please my ears the most. this was my beginning of hardcore......i had "face of collapse" before i had "damaged" or "salad days".......i guess because i was too young to be active in punk rock in the 80s is probably why i never had any real connection to most of the stuff that came about in that era.........people think its weird that i dont give two fucks about the cro mags or bad brains but its just not what i grew up listening to, they dont make sounds that appeal to me......dazziling killmen on the other hand, was one of the bands that pretty much set the standard for everything i was to like down the road.......

sex prisoner "7 (2010)

i know a few other blogs have posted this in the past 6 months but goddamn! its just too good a record/band to not post it...........arizona's sex prisoner are the resurrection of gehenna/unruh, with a little more grind sprinkled here and there of course.........perhaps the best new thing ive heard in a year or so......i cant recommend it enough...........a sex prisoner/knelt rote split lp would be a wet dream come true.....anyways check this shit out!

sex prisoner

john brown battery "the only normal people are the ones you dont know that well" (2001)

what i believe to be the final release from this much overlooked chicago outfit.......rough, melodic, full of heart,  built on the same musical template as small brown bike, jawbreaker and several others who built this ragged emotional style of music up from nothing....extremely sentimental about these dudes 10 years on......they played grand rapids who knows how many times during their rather short bandlife, even had a song about the city.......great dudes, great band, check it out........

the only normal people..........

buchenwald "7 (1995)

on my way back from florida........was a great trip, busch gardens, lots of sun, lots of fun, amazing. anyways here is a forgotten german gem from the mid 90s. buchenwald was as brutal as their name suggested....thick  intense charging hardcore with burly monsterous vocals. members went on to be in kill flavour alongside members of abc diabolo. excellent.

buchenwald

bovachevo "ancient skeletons" ep (2010)

this is the latest release from this worcester, mass, unit. you might remember their first record, all instrumental and all black flag/b'last/sst records worship, well the black flag influence is still prominent, but this time around, they;ve added vocals and taken their sound in a more hectic, hyper direction, occupying the nebulous middle ground between black flag and the swing kids....overall it sounds very similar to an old swedish band, last match (whose discography i posted on here last year). the strained screaming vocals remind me of dennis from refused at times, and of frank staplefeldt from murdock at others.....these guys are making serious strides.....easily a band to look out for now and in the future. wholeheartedly gets my stamp of recommendation.

ancient skeletons

cloud rat - songs from the xtra vomit split (2010)

cloud rat is one of the best bands in michigan right now. somehow they found a near perfect balance between grind and pissed ugly hardcore...also awesome as fuck live.....as stated, these songs are from a split cassette with xtra vomit (who ive still yet to hear) great lyrics, great music. hope to see them again soon! you should know whats up by now.

cloud rat

bows "blush" (1999)

this is a BIG departure from 98% of the stuff ive posted on this blog, but its just such a damn good record.........hailing from the UK., bows is the brainchild of  long fin killie's luke sutherland, beautiful trip hop done in the best of the tradition....perhaps even better than portishead.......huge seamlessly orchestrated walls of beautiful jazzy electrified sound capped partially with sultry female vocals, then other times with luke's distinctive semi-whispered vocals, that floats through you like some kind of erethreal luminous cloud most of the time....just really ucking good stuff, and im not really all about triphop, but i know good shit when i hear it......."big wings" britannica" and "sleepyhead" are standout tracks.....

blush

the 244gl "club of the sons" (2003)

first full day in florida here and im back with another nugget.........another german hardcore powerhouse from the early 2000s.......244gl played furious ugly metallic hardcore with a somewhat slick edge....they were also female fronted but you wouldnt know that from these vocals.......after the first song i was convinced mike edwards from unruh had found his way to germany and started a new band, but no, these ugly ragged vocals are comming from a girl! (i dont wanna sound sexist, but i havent heard too many girls who can project like this girl can) the band produces a huge, generally ugly sound to match the vocals.....drawing on death n roll here, a little dischordant coalesce-style riff there, and a dash or two of hardcoreified black metal ala suicide nation or even darkest hour, topped of with some slick production and you have this winner of an album....there were a few times that i thought this record had gotten too slick, but thankfully the overall quality of the music outweighed any complaints by a massive margin. an excellent record from an excellent band (who, sadly, i dont think are around anymore)

club o the sons

sap/coward split lp (1997)

im in florida for a week now, just got here.......hot as fuck out and im in a library........anyways time for another obscure record for you guys!  i first heard of these two bands while flipping through a very distro catalogue in 2000.......the description of this record being all chaotic and noisy piqued my interest, but i never could find the record until relatively recently.....anyways sap were from austin texas and put out a few records (split with polio which has been posted on shinygreymonotone) and a "7 (circular breather) on little deputy that im still trying to find......anyways their shit is looser than "truth or dare" era madonna and all over the place...its like if UOA/harriet the spy drank cases full of jack or jim beam before they got in the studio.......disjointed is only the beginning..its not nearly as tight as their song on the polio split, on which they sounded only slightly inebriated......the drumming, however, is tight and keeps the music together as a whole......love what they where doing and wish that they could have recorded a proper lp, might have gotten them noticed more.........on the other side we have coward from milwaukee, wisconsin. they play some rather burly, crusty, noisy, sludgy stuff that recalls alot of the bovine records catalog.....nothing special, but not bad either.....anyways here it is:

sap/coward

astoveboat "new bedford" (1999)

first musical post of april! (im still in the middle of my trip down to florida so im lucky i got some time to post this) astoveboat were from the new england area,im not sure if it was massachusetts or rhode island, it was one of the two....ex glazed baby bassist, dale cunningham was in this band....soundwise its drunken tales of the sea and life aboard whaling ships, cavorting with hookers in port and harpooning the big one.......its all drums and bass with some effects here and there...repetitive grooves in a rather dark atmosphere with rough drunken vocals...i heard they played dressed up like admirals and captains from the 19th century live.........would have liked to have seen that, but as usual, i was a few years late on this one....check it out!

new bedford

on my way to florida

staying at my sisters in south bend right now.........900-some miles to the florida border.....probably wont be there till sunday...........fuck im blasted.........

concrete "nunc scio tenebris lux" (1999)

here we have another italian band, concrete, who seem to have been kicking around italy for a long time in the 90s making dark, scary complex hardcore...i bought this cd from ebullition back in 99 and have listened to it on and off for years........this might in fact be their last album, but i cant be sure of it........anyways they have a pretty big sound reminscent of stickfigurecarousel at times and systral at others.....the vocals really set it apart though...their sung...not in a shitty "grunge" or "hard rock" way, but very melodically, multiple members of the band sing together, or at least thats what it sounds like, anyways its all in italian which puts more of their own unique spin on it...there are harsh vocals too, but not so harsh that the human element is gone......just very strained yelling.....anyways this band is great, its just too bad that i know so little about them...

nunc scio tenebris lux