Sweep the leg johnny - Similarities

degollado - dark of the day (2011)

ive been waiting for this record for a while now..........this band is from strasburg virginia and play some amazing hypnotic post rock/sludge....3 long songs that alternate between wandering drone, tweaked grooving and outbursts of white hot noise...sometimes it reminds me of  conifer, at others, regulator watts....highly anticipated and well worth the wait........this was an automatic top ten of the year record for me....it really is that good......i cant wait for these two dudes to tour so i can see these songs unfold live.........a band that gets my 100% stamp of approval easily......YOU HAVE TO HEAR IT!

dark of the day

Gasp - Love For The Retarded Strands

skylark lp (2010)

its been made abundantly clear to me this year that i need to keep my ears open, because there is so much good new music out there.......including this band from london whose lp was yet another in a year of now-innumerable musical revelations for me  (even though this came out last year)........anyways they play some twinkly jagged, buoyant hardcore with pissy vocals (not a bad thing) reminds me alot of an old providence band from the 90s called jetpak........kind of a balancing act between shellac/jehu/guzzard abrasiveness and cap'n jazz/bells on trike twinkle....i could also draw ready comparisons to older german bands like craving/kurt/ENIAC....all in all this is a great record and hopefully the band will hit the states sometime soon......id like to hear more!

skylark lp

cynarae ep (2011)

the musical suprises keep rolling in........ I've only just discovered this band myself and i can safely say after one listen this has made my top ten for the year......this band hails from seattle and recorded/released this over the summer (august) some thick ugly dirty hardcore here...like the DNA of his hero is gone/unruh/thoughts of ionesco/systral were spliced together to create a new devastating musical superbeast......it works REALLY well too as i havent heard anything this ugly and intense since the knelt rote lp sometime last year.. another plus is that these songs have great lyrics and after you download this record, youll find that they have full expanations of the meaning of each song also...keeping the DIY socio-political spirit alive in hardcore.......really fucking awesome.......heres to hoping these dudes come east sometime soon, i might even be willing to donate my basement for a night......A+ effort.

cynarae

the best kept musical secrets of 2011............

the following list is made up of bands that put out great records under the radar this year......(i left cloud rat and the shoppers off this list because  they seem to be getting the attention the rightly deserve and are popping up in alot of people's top ten lists already.....)

red forest hunter

degollado

onodrim

sex prisoner

procession

fell types

monkey (still holding out hope for the full length to be released before the end of the year)

sans aids

failed

skylark

all bands i wholeheartedly recommend

serotonin - "universal time constant" (2003)

ever have a record that you buy, not knowing exactly what you'll get and then have it surprise you in the most pleasant of ways? well that's the scenario that occurred when i bought this particular album back in 2003.........i knew this Murfreesboro Tennessee band  by reputation among friends who had seen them........"really intense complex stuff" i was told..........after one listen i concurred......it could be put in the "math rock" category, but its so much more than that...they play their music with more passion and heart than any math rock band i've heard............the color and emotion of this stuff explodes out of the framework and engages your ears/brain/heart directly.......that was the quality that keeps me listening to this band  several years since they called it quits.......some could draw comparisons to shit like cap'n jazz (especially their early stuff) but id say thats a bit off too, as  tim kinsella & co never touched the heights of complexity and emotion that serotonin routinely mined during their existence......anyways this record was one of their later releases and im pretty sure if you like music that makes you think AND feel, this is your bag........

universal time constant

marjan crash - the 434 sessions (1993-96?)

FUCK! thats all i have to say right now.......the theme of this year continues as ive unearthed yet another unknown gem......this shit blew me away......easily ties the shoppers as the best thing ive heard this year........i mean holy fuck, these songs are amazing!........i posted this band's "cruise dakota" cdep a year or so ago and i like that album, but these songs (especially the 4 or so songs they were recording for an lp) are VASTLY superior.......there are 7 tracks in all here......the first two recorded early in the band's carreer in 1993 with don fury in NYC....just huge burly hardcore that beats the living shit out of everything.........reminds me of the first threadbare "7 but tougher and much more bludgeoning........this shit is huge and scary......the next four songs are from what i've heard was an aborted attempt at an LP that i believe were recorded in 1996......i cant be sure of that though, so if your in the know (or better yet, in the band) let me know the deal.......anyways the band evolved radically away from their early sound, although the intensity and impact still remain in spades......those songs are flowing noisy works of fucking art.... noticeable shoegaze influence colliding with noisy hardcore that takes cues from both DC & san diego......i once compared the vocals to peter steele on a morphine drip...i still say thats still pretty much the case here (although the early vocals were much more shouty/screamy) and their still only half intelligible, buried in the songs themselves......this time i feel that the vocals somehow work better on these songs than on cruise dakota.....overall it seems to have a slightly "gothy" sheen to it........anyways amazing amazing shit..........something ill be jamming on the regular far into the future.......the last song  (ben sway bar) is from their demo (im guessing 1992-93-ish) is inline with the don fury sessions stuff, very tough and hard with thickass riffs busting your head open........daddy like! old forgotten tunes from a band that probably would have made quite the splash (deservedly so) if they had stuck together and finished the LP........as it stands, its only a glimpse of what they were capable of........ im pretty sure alot of you will dig this as much as i have...........

marjan crash - 434 sessions

Marjan Crash - Wide Ferrari

best song ive heard in a LOOOOONG TIME!

show of bedlam - five songs (split w/jucifer) (2009)

i came accross this after one of the boneblack dudes responded to my post about their lp a little while back.........he said this was one of his other bands, so i checked it out and goddamn if it isnt fantastic! yet another musical  revelation for me this year.......weird sludgy stuff with dramatically sung female vocals.........noothgrush/grief with a side of bratmobile (vocally)? i also hear a tiny bit of commonality with a band like three mile pilot in certain songs...........i know the comparisons are weird, but its what my ears are telling me right now............it could all change when i listen to this a few months or years down the road, but for now, these are the best comparisons i can make......these five songs are from a split with jucifer....a band whose name ive heard tossed around alot but have never actually heard for myself.......i always thought they might be one of those scandi-rock bands like hellacopters or turbonegro, but who knows.......anyways this band is still active and this is a great introduction to a new-ish (for me) band that i havent heard before......hopefully youll like it as much as i have.....

show of bedlam (split w/jucifer)

EBAY FLAKE ALERT

scott miller (wavesofaethyr)








i bought two shirts from him....never got them.........emailed him several times, no response.......filed a paypal claim............fuck this cocksucker.........










AVOID THIS SCUMBAG PIECE OF SHIT RIPOFF ARTIST AT ALL COSTS!

national sunday law "the fifth ape" (2010)

now for another one of those bands that no one seems to have known or talked about, at least no one i knew/know........national Sunday law hailed from los angeles and played what i can only describe as two-man  prog-math hardcore......i dug the shit out of their demo and would listen to it many times a day for several months.........i couldn't get into their lp (la storia di cannabali) as much....kinda sounded like a halfassed tarantula hawk at times(not that that's a bad thing) and the lp art looked like a first draft for a baroness album cover......but this record redeems all that....ranging from drifting noise to back to basics straightforward (for them) hardcore/prog............"last flight of the dodo" is the centerpiece song here.........so fucking good.......its too bad these guys called it quits last year. if they would've kept going in this vein i could see them going places.....members went on to gravitron and some other bands...anyways enjoy!

the fifth ape

kwisatz haderach - 7 & split with encyclopedia of american traitors, (1998)

one of the first 10 or so records i ever bought........in fact im pretty sure i snatched this one up after a great review in an issue of heartattack in 99 or so.......i guess it had already been out for months or even a year by then.........anyways what we have here is some fucking intense, epic emotional hardcore from virginia in the union of uranus vein, but with a bit more melody and space.......i especially love it when this band slows down from the fast crushing stuff and does some interesting things riffwise.......lyrics are obscure and dune references are rife (as evidenced by the band's moniker/song titles themselves) one of those bands that kinds fell through the cracks even though they were superior to the heavy hitters of the time (orchid, yaphet kotto, im looking at both of you) members went on to virginia black lung and fighting dogs (and maybe onodrim?).....also includes the two songs from the split with EOAT (litany against fear and ya ha chouhada)....definatly recommended........

kwisatz haderach

boneblack lp (2011)

.this record/band took me by surprise (that's sorta been the theme of the year for me with music).......maybe the first band that i had to check out just from viewing a youtube video of them playing/bantering........i was actually looking for footage of wolbachia and these guys popped up in the cue.......anyways one thing led to another, i went to their blog and started gushing about how great they were and i downloaded their lp and listened to it for a couple hours straight......raging female vocalled crust with some gloomy ambiance from montreal.......i don't generally listen to much crust...mainly because IMO, there's a certain sameness with most of the bands in that genre and it all blurrs together for me......i guess maybe i should give it a chance more often because this band/record payed off in spades........unfortunately they seem to have broken up already (maybe already isn't the best word since they apparently had been around a few years) one of those bands i discover too late and never got a chance to have any personal contact with........all in all, a great record from seemingly great people..........check it out!

boneblack lp

cromwell discography (1995-2000?)

a discography of sorts from a detroit band of the 90s........comprises their "7 and splits with scout and thoughts of ionesco..........they evolved from a dischordant moshy hardcore band (with days of our lives samples!) at the outset, into a weird noisy almost pop punkish at times sound on the split with scout and finally into a heavy grooving noise monster on the late (ionesco split) material...........i remember they had a website way back in the day and had talked about recording a full length which was supposed to "come out soon" but apparently never did...........id love to hear it if it exists.......members can now be found in year of the pig.........all n all another forgotten page of detroit  hardcore history....

cromwell

honeywell discography (1989-1994?)

currently my favorite band of the 90s.........these guys were the black flag/minor threat/negative approach of "emotional hardcore" and their lp is the benchmark to meet for all the bands that came later............unfortunatly none ever came close to touching the energy level or sheer pissed-off-ness of honeywell in their prime.....that was especially what i loved about this band.....they were pissed and you could  feel it in their music.......no sassy bullshit (which seems to have creeped into other bands of this style that came later) here,just genuine fucked up angry hardcore slathered in an acidic bath of noise and speed with the occasional erie, beautiful introspective part, (the last 4 minutes or so of "christ") political lyrics and the trademark ear peircing vocals that were another aspect of this band that i loved so much.......and they were doing this all starting in the late 80s when this style was practically unheard of as of yet........paving the way for  everything that would come later..........members went on to volume 11 (who were good, but infected somewhat with the sassy virus i talked about earlier) los cincos, one eyed richard and a bunch of other bands.......this is essential if your into 90s hardcore at all.....

honeywell discography