zeroid "2001-2002"

one more german band that played flawless and amazingly brutal hardcore in the early 2000s....perhaps the most underrated of the bunch.......soundwise its the highest evolution of the his hero is gone style ive heard to date..........in fact the his hero is gone/union of uranus split melted together is probably the most accurate portrayal of the sound i can give you......on first listen all i could hear was the huge cloud of noise this band creates. upon subsequent listens, the true intricacies of their music slowly reveal themselves....complex riffs, interlocking drumming and steady basslines all exist underneath the noise. i also detect flecks of  the bremen and canadian sounds here and there.......this is the kind of music tragedy should have been making instead of the crap they do now......by all possible means i urge you to cop this shit.......definatly one of those bands who's existence was all too short......

2001-2002

wheel and the fence demo (2001)

from cedar rapids iowa and containing members of brazil and several other bands, wheel & the fence play (played?) noisy indie-core that perfectly occupies the space between man i fell in love with and evergreen. one could also point out dinosaur jr or even the lemonheads as influences too...songs are short, sweet and immensely memorable....excellent stuff from yet another band i have only the barest traces of information about..........

wheen & the fence demo

Born Under Saturn - Desert & Dream Of Bricks

underrated? i think so.

alloy -s/t (1993)

this band was an "all-star" band of sorts containing members of articles of faith (vic bondi), dag nasty, cro mags (roger marbury),  murphys law and handsome. members are now in report suspicious activity. musically it isnt too far from phleg camp, bitch magnet or even squirrelbait.....80s style DC-ish/louisville-ish stuff from the early 90s...maybe one of the last bands doing that kind of stuff at that time......political lyrics and just damn good music........check it out!

alloy

malakhai/shanara split (2000)

this was a split between two rather obscure bands of the late 90s, malakhai, from lansing michigan and shanara from somewhere in germany.  malakhai  were a band i can vouch for as being really fucking good, having seen them live a couple times.....tight pissed metallic hardcore with a drummer who loves his doublebass peddle.......shanara are kinda the same, but with a slightly higher end/emoish sound and somewhat tinny sounding drums. they remind me alot of the italian band to die for who were doing the same thing around the same time.  pretty typical late 90s metellic mosh, equal parts chug and dischordance.  it was a time when bands were making the transition from the older chugging mosh sound of the  early-mid 90s to the tech/mathy metal sound that would become prominent from the early 2000s onward. both bands play their chosen styles well and even though im a bit more partial to malakhai for being the familiar locals, shanara are/were definatly no slouches either.........

malakhai/shanara

dynamic ribbon device "crackertax" ep (1998)

this was the band that formed between the first time trocar broke up/went on haiatus and when they reformed to record "citywater".......im assuming this came out on littleman records???.....kinda noisy, grooving spastic stuff like nation of ulysses/drive like jehu a bit....from what i remember they were pretty decent live too........had a chance to buy one of their shirts at radio kilroy but declined......(what was i thinking?) anyways, another obscure, short-lived kalamazoo band from the 90s lost to history......

crackertax

failed "a series of setbacks" (2011)

another one of those bands that came out of nowhere recently and blew me away.......i still don't know where they come from (which dearborn do you guys hail from exactly?) but fuck if they don't crush my ears in such a great way....same noisy psychotic approach as  today is the day/tantrum or even thoughts of ionesco (a little)  excellent for my first time hearing them.........the drumming could be a tiny bit tighter, and the vocals tend to be a little bit weird and black metalish at times but thats nitpicking on my part......i know next to nothing about this band but i already have them in my top five of 2011.......here's to hoping the end up in yours as well.

a series of setbacks

zorn: den alle lust will ewigkeit (1996)

heres something different from germany.......haunting, powerful, almost gothic hardcore with raspy black metal-esque vocals.....a sound apart from everything else that was happening in germany in the mid 90s.........extremely underrated and excellent. a masterpeice of uniqueness IMO.......one of those bands thats almost totally forgotten and a sound not replicated even 15 years on........check it out!

zorn

youtube

so ive been making a bunch of videos on youtube recently. check em out!



http://www.youtube.com/user/twinpeninsulas?feature=mhee

IRM-Four Studies For Crucifixion

sweet music to my ears

UNSANE - "Scrape"

remember this classic?

cloud rat s/t lp (2010)

from mt pleasant michigan comes a blast of furious grind/hardcore delivered by a band called cloud rat.......these guys (and girl)  play some of the best ive heard in a long while, and ive heard tons of bands like this over the past 15 years......lyrics seem to be very thoughtful and somewhat based around old japanese folklore (at least some of the time) artwork reminds me of the art done by the dude from baroness. they also shred live and are a band id love to see again...and again....and again....to put it simly they are one of the bands that get me stoked on new music and give me hope that the modern state of hardcore isnt a barren wasteland full of bullshit posturing and soulessness afterall.......please go see and support them!

cloudrat

comply or die "shanghaied" (2011)

the second record i got for review in my email.......this is a sampler of 3 songs that will be on their upcomming full length to be released in august......and if its any indication of what is to come, mark me down for one.....anyways this band hails from northern ireland (the land of my ancestors...at least some of them anyway....my grandpa was born in county down...) belfast to be precise....the music on display is some heavy punk n roll (to my ears anyways) it actually reminds me of kill the messenger or even swiz, but with more rock and attitude...i like it alot and hopefully they bring the ruckus to this side of the pond sometime soon....

shanghaied

my thoughts about saturday's show

everyone was awesome, the atmosphere ive expirenced at the DAAC has been consistently fun and amazing. ive begun to look forward to the next show everytime i go down there.......anyways im gonna get to the bands....procession were the first to play and played 4 or 5 songs....this  was probably one of their last michigan shows in  a while since one of their members are movoing to NY and britty is moving to ann arbor......in any case they were great, i hate to say anything remotely negative about this band because they play such achingly beautiful music and i love the fuck out of them, but it sounded like they were rehearsing in a garage, the sound just didnt seem to be as full as it could have been.....but thats nitpicking on my part, they ruled overall and i HIGHLY recommend anyone and everyone reading this blog to go and see them on their current tour (if i had the money, id follow this band like hippies follow the grateful dead)

heres a few procession/caulfield tour dates that i know of:


6.6.11 Astabula, OH @ West End 2153 EARLY SHOW w/ Procession
6.6.11 Cleveland, OH @ Tower 2012 LATE SHOW w/ Procession
6.7.11 pittsburgh, pa @ Helter Shelter w/ Procession, Heartless and Code Orange Kids
6.8.11 buffalo, ny @ Sugar City w/ Procession
6.9,11 syracuse, ny @ badlands w/ Procession
6.11.11 allston, ma @ Butcher Shop w/ Procession
6/14  DC  @ Asefu's - PROCESSION (mi), GEFFIKA (chicago), FORDISTS
6.15.11 charlotte, NC @ the milestone
6.19.11 - Louisville, KY @ Tyler's House w/ Procession
6.20.11 - Carbondale, IL @ TBA w/ Procession




they will also be playing in florida and probably georgia/tenessee/south carolina/ virginia/ect, just keep an eye out for the dates/flyers......






caulfield was up next and played some loud intense dark crusty hardcore with grind and post rock tendencies.........maybe the loudest band ive seen in 5 years or so.........even louder than gaza (and that band is fucking loud) their vocalist, (the short bearded dude whos name i didnt get) is an awesome dude who gave me their full length free after i told him i drove 400 miles to see the show (i actually did!) a month ago i'd never heard of caulfeild, now i cant get emough of their shit........their on tour with procession and beartrap and you need to see them.....






beartrap was the third band o the night and was basically everyone in caulfield with the beartrap singer singing....he told me the rest of the band couldnt go on tour so he called up caulfield to see if they would play the beartrap songs with him.........worked out splendidly.......fast brutal hardcore........got a shirt, maybe next time, i will be able to see this band with all members intact and see if their as good as the all-caulfield version.




up after them were truth inside who were from panama city florida and played energetic positive youth crew style hardcore...their singer kept bouncing around like he had springs in his nikes and the basssist kept "knee jumping" like he was in a strife photo or some shit...i got half bodied, half drop kicked by some huge dude in a gorilla biscuits shirt.......im not complaining though, as the dude next to me got completely obliterated by the same dude.......this led to some post-show drama between said huge dude and some girl who didnt take kindly to his style of dancing (which is understandable) anyways, they were positive and taked alot about unity n shit..........not blazing any new trails, but not horrible either.......




lastly damages set up and....well.....did some damage (alot of it to my exposed eardrums, lolz) they were a suprise to me as id never seen them before.........of course its been 8 years since i kept track of what was going on in grand rapids so what do i know about whats good or not down there.......anyways they played nice loud, fast and ugly hardcore......i hope to get further acquainted with the burgeoning scene down there and maybe make some lasting connections........ill be down on the 28th so if any of you grand rapids kids are reading this, come up and say hi!




i always leave a show with a euphoric feeling, unfortunatly, its soon replaced by the sudden realization that im stepping back into my crappy life on the drive home, followed by a post show mini depression.....maybe its the fact that i live in a place thats so far removed from whats going on downstate and i dont get to take part in it as much as id like to.......anyways leave me comments......

truth inside @ the DAAC 6/4/2011

beartrap @ the DAAC 6/4/2011

caulfield @ the DAAC 6/4/2011 (pt3)

caulfield @ the DAAC 6/4/2011 (pt2)

caulfield @ the DAAC 6/4/2011 (pt1)

Procession @ the DAAC 6/4/2011 (pt2)

Procession at the DAAC, 6/4/2011 (pt1)

DAAC show pix

procession

caulfield

truth inside

damages.

enjoy the pix!

ill get to a review when i post the vids.

update

going downstate to see procession tommorow, there may or may not be another update before i leave........expect pictures and video sunday  =)

37500 yens demo (2004)

the very first output from france's kings of two man instrumentalism........i might even like it more than the cd....its so damn good!.......they seem to be getting a bit more word-of-mouth-momentum lately, lets hope it continues and they record a new album and get their asses over here for a tour.......one of the best demos ive ever heard, definatly in my top 5 all time demos.............if you dont like this, your deaf.

37500 yens demo

thema eleven/gnu split "7 (2001)

an old gem of a split between two great, yet underappriceated czech bands........thema eleven playing a long tension filled and explosive song with some electronic flourishes............gnu on the other side, play more of their unique noise rock........excellent stuff here.......more people need to check this shit out........the czech republic was a goldmine of great bands in the 90s/early 2000s, this is just one more of the hidden gems from that era........

thema eleven/gnu split

aghast/tekken split cd (2001)

so here's a review i did or the original michigan hardcore (hosted on the (now long defunct) plus/minus records website) messageboard back in 2002, i don't think my reviewing style has changed much in 9 years, but its fun to take a look back...its kinda funny to think ive been doing this on and off since 1998.....anyways two french bands i was really into back then......they both don't really hold up for me now, but im sure theres someone reading this who will appreciate the sounds...

(Michigan Hardcore webzine, 2002 | U$A) "AGHAST/ TEKKEN " s/t " - mcd (aspidistra/ weewee) 2 french bands team up for an unlikely split, Aghast brings 2 songs of amazing emotive hardcore (think Jasmine and other classic french emo bands with a hint of something heavier, maybe since by man or something like that) while Tekken sound like the french version of Mk Ultra, fast grinding, and very very sloppy, both bands are good, but i personally lean towards the aghast stuff so if you like powerful and emotive or just like it fast and messy, id recommend this cd." aghast/tekken