I don’t fully understand the significance of the band name—I spent the first part of 1981 frantically scooping up the Los Angeles hardcore records that appeared (correctly) to be a harbinger of something important, I spent the middle part discovering mail order and thereby catching up on bands like the Zeros and Boyfriends which I’d […]
I was telling Joey from Mad Parade (the man behind the label that released this) that, with this compilation, and its predecessor, The Sharpest Cuts, he single-handedly upended my disdain and dismissal of anything by 999 beyond their first two LPs as landfill fodder. As before, this pulls together tracks from assorted rare and out […]
It goes without saying that a band called Abolitionist is going to have politically charged songs. What needs to be said is how good these politically charged songs are. On the surface, A Pernicious Truth is a solid punk record, but the meat of these songs are in their lyrics. Abolitionist have an agenda with […]
A fantastic, mature, punk-influenced rock record. Their sound takes a tasteful pull from some great genres, bringing to mind CBGB’s, early Los Angeles Dangerhouse punk, disco, glam, and gothic lounge music. Imagine if Franz Ferdinand didn’t become a popular band and you didn’t have to feel guilty listening to them. Advertisement can do that for […]
Bit of a head scratcher, this one, with ever/never Records leaning heavily into its “specializing in music for adults” tag line. The record is a collaboration between two outfits: Al Karpenter from Spain and CIA Debutante, a duo with members from Australia and France. It’s a seemingly inaccessible collection of avant garde minimal synth pieces […]
On this set of collaborations with tourmates Sunik Kim, Dominic Coles, and Triple Negative, Al Karpenter go deep into avant, liberated sonic territory. The pieces are electronic, fractured, nearly incoherent. No structure, no easy answers. You could say it’s somewhere between unhinged Fall remixes and abstract haunted house sounds. Can’t tell if it works or […]
I don’t normally care for thrashy metal punk, but this record is in a category all its own. Angry, leftist, and unapologetic, each song stood on its own, making the overall record feel like a flawless collection of pent-up rage at the world today bottled, shaken up, and ready to explode. The opening track is […]
Yes, this is a one-song single released on a 3.5” hard disk. I don’t have a 1997 Compaq Presario, so I can’t say for sure what’s on the disk. The accompanying download code gets you an ASCII lyric file, cover art, and a unique font. There’s also “Obsolete,” a two-minute crusty anti-authority rager. It’s typical, […]
The album and song titles are the first thing that caught my attention with this record. “Subtle Tease,” “Illuminaughty,” “Little Seizures,” et cetera are silly plays on words much like The Fucking Champs used to name some of their tunes (“Vangelis Again” is the apex of this device and likely won’t ever be topped). The […]
The members of Autogramm may be spread across a few cities (Vancouver, Seattle, and Chicago), but their sound remains as cohesive as ever on their third album. For those who might not recall my reviews of the previous two, Autogramm is a clinic in expertly crafted synth pop/rock and the new album continues on that […]
Avskum have been cranking away for forty-one years! Forty-one years that have gone by in one massive blast of Swedish d-beat hardcore that has reverberated endlessly, and will probably continue to do so long after the final bomb blast. I fully expect a UFO will stumble upon our galaxy, pick up radio waves of an […]
Much more than a band with a great name, Chicago’s Aweful delivers a powerful debut LP created during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Members Traci Trouble, Lucy Dekay, and Izzy Price coalesce into a killer trio after spending time in other bands including The Wanton Looks, Mystery Actions, Youth Dekay, The Velcro Lewis […]