hollow earth / couchfort / traitor / slaves to the pavement @ loaf house, marquette, mi, 4/13/13

well im back........saturday night i went to my first show of the year.....hollow earth and traitor, both from detroit, were up to play keewanawesome fest, and played marquette on their way back downstate........this was my second show at the loaf house and just like tenement, it was fuckin fun..........locals couchfort where  first up, playing a set of their rough edged - melodic hardcore....their sound IMO, is still in the process of  being shaped and smoothed out, it came across pretty rough, but the emotive core and melodies were in place, and i see this band only getting better with time, no dissapointment for me with these dudes....slaves to the pavement were up next, i think they are from negaunee, but im not sure......anyways they play melodic hardcore on that now somewhat elusive wavelength between pop punk hand hardcore, it has elements of both, but its neither.....anyways they were proficient in what they do, tradeoff rough vocals n all.....but i cant say im a megafan.........nice dudes and good live energy in any case..........after then the first of the two detroit bands, traitor, took the floor......their sound consisted of tough metallic hardcore of the kind  played by lots of bands from the late 90s to today...kinda like gehenna if they had a strong east coast/NYHC influence.....nice dudes and pretty big sound..........lastly, hollow earth set up and played the best set of the night....this is a band whos name ive seen around alot, but who ive never seen until saturday night...i know they were heavy on the mosh tip, with an ex shai hulud member (no idea which one was in that band) n all.....was expecting something good, but i just didnt know how good.......anyways the start their set and play some thick, heavy, sonically nuanced mosh that seems to draw both from the 90s and more modern sounds......hard to make comparisons, especially live.....maybe botch, maybe black kites, maybe turmoil, anyways it was just fucking great. there was a small conflict between the vocalist of hollow earth and a drunk dude who spit on him....no idea weather it was intentional or not. but it was soon resolved and hollow earth went on to play a killer set......all in all it was a great show. marquette seems to be putting itself on the map through the efforts of certain individuals and from what i see, the arrow is pointing way up for punk in northern michigan..........

couchfort

slaves to the pavement

traitor

hollow earth

psychic blood drrrty "7 (2013)

 

 

 

new pyschic blood record here......dunno if its out in physical form yet.......anyways 2 new songs of their patented noise-drenched melodic formula, this time with a bit of hot snakes/tanner influence showing through here and there........really good stuff, i just hope they make out out here next time they are on the road. highly recommended!

 

 

 

 

psychic blood

 

 

 

 

man vs humanity s/t lp (2012)

had no idea these guys were still together...........they were from germany and active in the late 90s...had a bunch of "7s and splits and then put out a full length on troubleman (weird choice of label, but then again simonetti did put out stuff like anasazi, so...)  thick, dark, HHIG-inspired hardcore thats ugly and socially conscious.....a real nice listen, and one of the beter things ive heard in the past 6 months.....

man vs humanity

mean man's dream demo (2012)

so im back....was taking it easy, just chillin for a while....i update when i feel like it now. ive got a little backlog of stuff id like to review so maybe april will see more posts than previous months.........anyways today im reviewing the demo of a boston band called mean man's dream......this was recorded a little over  year ago and im not sure why i didn't get ahold of this then, but in any case this is some fucking intense shit.......heavy ragged dirty hardcore that has one foot in the modern crusty metallic hardcore of bands like cynarae or full of hell and the other planted firmly in that special sweet spot only a few bands in the mid 90s managed to hit....... raging yet fucked up damaged hardcore with their own unique spin........heemeyer and permanent night live in the same neighborhood musically, but they reside on breather resist ave while mean man's dream sits a few blocks away on the corner of  deadguy terrace and ice nine lane......insanely good is what id call this, especially for a demo.....you get your moneysworth with killingsworth i guess.....haha....in all seriousness, this is right up there with the gay kiss and cloud rat albums as far as good things ive heard this year and it easily would've made my top ten list last year.........despite the fact that this band doesn't play many shows, id love for them to maybe hit the midwest sometime......would be great to see how all this fucking power translates live.....A+ effort!

mean man's dream