JUNE UPDATE
THE MEN immaculada LP
Out now - Repress of THE MEN’s self-released album originally limited to 500 copies. 8 songs of desperate, fuzzed out, riff laden punk/post-punk. But this release really is an excellent mash of shoegaze and drony soundscapes with buried vocals beneath it all. Dreamy at times and get that Sonic Youth vibe. Their new album just came out on Sacred Bones records.
TERRIBLE FEELINGS
Expect the north American press of the TERRIBLE FEELINGS ‘impending doom’ this August. Here are a few kind words from MRR that will serve as a good introduction to many:
There is a chance that this may be my new favorite band, which is a bold claim to make from a measly two song record. TERRIBLE FEELINGS, from Malmö, Sweden, sound like they are taking cues from THE WIPERS, GORILLA ANGREB, KNUGEN FALLER and BURNING KITCHEN while maintaining their own voice in the music. It’s difficult to write and produce a two song 45 that people will actually listen to more than a couple times, but this record has me flipping the thing over and over repeatedly because these two songs are both fucking amazing. “Impending Doom” hooks you in with the first staccato guitar chord and keeps your attention throughout the whole song. The lyrics are about losing your faith in just about everything and are so terribly bleak that I wanted to write a letter to the band to make sure they didn’t kill themselves immediately after recording this. On the flip side is “Death To Everyone”, which keeps the bad times rolling. The music is upbeat and poppy, but the lyrics are about complacency and forgetting about your dreams. There is musical interlude that sounds just like that part of that one GERMS song that says “I want out now!”. You can sing those lyrics along with this part and it fits in thematically but doesn’t detract one bit from the song! Clean guitars, steady drums and emotionally dark lyrics all combine to make you dance and feel like shit at the same time Listen to this and imagine living somewhere that only has five to six hours of daylight in the wintertime. This will definitely be one of my favorite records of the year and hopefully there will be enough bleak winter months over there to inspire a full LP
Listen to the 7” here: http://soundcloud.com/terrible-feelings
BRAINKILLER
Review of their LP from MRR 338
I have to admit that I am a BRAINKILLER fan. In fact I celebrate their whole catalog. With that said this Lp is pretty damn badass. Yes, it is more of the sound that BRAINKILLER has crafted by melding together the best parts of Japanese hardcore with the intensely deep American HC roots. This band manages to move fluidly into FRAMTID musicality from early DEATHREAT, and DEVOID OF FAITH, barking mean, growled sometimes chorused vocals. I know the comparisons have been made before, but that’s what this shit sounds like, maynge! The initial UK peacepunk spoke word moments are actually quite good. The dude is pissed, incensed and rabid. The first song on the B-side, “the cure” makes me wanna fucking tear my face off. Goddamn…Those relentless drums sound like an ape wildly pounding the shit outta itself. Distorted high-end guitar fuzz tones hit your brain in the most ugly sonic assault while delivering some infectious riffage. The bass hits you in the throat and seems to have no restraint. The lyrics deal with the religious myth, the end of the world and how fucked everyone and everything is. The call to action is made and it is convincing. Some may argue that these themes are old news, but I would disagree. Punks are pissed for a reason, assholes, and we aren’t gonna stop being pissed. This is brutal, heavy, mean and angry. It might make you cry, but BRAINKILLER fans don’t cry… we do push ups and dance in a circle. Fuck yeah.
NEO CONS
Review of their 7” from MRR 338
I was stoked to find this in my review box because I heard it was coming out soon and I’ve been extremely curious about it. I’ve not been let down! NEO CONS play raw, in-your-face hardcore with a garage punk twist. There’s a lot of hullabaloo about the singer of the band hailing from the godlike 86 MENTALITY, but really this is something totally different and stands entirely on its own (plus he was the drummer in 86 MENTALITY, not the singer). Yeah, it has a similar angry, driving hardcore approach, but it has a DWARVES-like punk aggression as well, and the combination freakin’ works! And then there’s the one song that almost sounds like a lost tune from DOA’s Hardcore ’81 LP, which is a damn good thing. All six tracks on this EP rule. You might have to listen to it a couple of times before you reach an epiphany, but it will certainly happen. Recommended!
B-LINES s/t 12” (DY189 split release with Nominal)
Review from eyeplug.net
Hailing from Vancouver, four strong Canadian upstarts B-Lines know a thing or two about punk rock insurrection. Their debut long-player is anything but lengthy, with a total of just nine songs. A typical track runs about a minute in length (the longest on the LP is 1:54). The LP flies by in just under twelve minutes. I played it three times back-to-back on the way to work this morning.
Stating their primary objective as ‘doing shows’, B-Lines claim to be inspired by a shared love of vinyl and cassette tape culture. The band are allegedly pinning their hopes on their collective ‘bad taste’ confining them to eternal ‘obscurity’. We like that! Rolling self-confessed influences such as Red Kross, The Angry Samoans and The Descendents into a silver king-sized Rizla, B-Lines forge a sound that strips cobwebs at will, and in these increasingly convoluted and over-produced digital times, that’s half the battle won from the get go!
When you grab a copy of this from iTunes, be sure and download a copy of The B-Lines EP ’n’all. That way you get another six songs, including the morontastic ‘Social Retard’, and the rather splendid ‘Dryer Fire’. Then you can take time to track down a vinyl copy on Deranged Records, but don’t hang around, there are only 500 copies!
In terms of sonic lineage, B-Lines riffs are spiky, their guitars sound immaculate. The bass cuts space like benzodiazepines cut heroin. The drummer could give Animal from The Muppets a run for his money. The songs have titles like ‘Hastings Strut’, ‘Psychedelic High School’ and ‘World War Four’. The singer yelps and shouts, in fits and starts. The music surges then falters, the tempo rarely alters. It’s all over before you know what’s mugged you, time for another hit.
As you may have noticed by now, I have resisted the temptation to conform to post-modern-standard-music-hack-technique and inflict personal observations with regard to who B-Lines remind me of, or who I consider they ‘sound’ like. In the current climate, the words ‘punk’ and ‘rock’ should surely suffice. All you need from me is my assurance that if you like Punk Rock and you trust my judgement, then B-Lines is a record you should move heaven and earth to own. It’s the perfect companion piece to Tyvek’s ruling Nothing Fits (In The Red, 2010). No comparisons, no hyperbole, no generalisations, no hacking jacket required. B-Lines: punk rock and fucking roll.
UP NEXT
NEGATIVE LIFESTYLE 7”, VACANT STATE 12” and TERRIBLE FEELINGS 7”