Eunuch - Castration 7" [2013]

Ok, I haven't been writing much lately but this record came in the mail months and months ago so I gotta get back to it. Here goes:

Mid-tempo grooves, Stooges riffs, and a whole ton of mental anguish and paranoia borne out of the desperation of living in Kansas City, Eunuch bring no new tropes to the grungepunk idiom on this bass-driven 7" out on XO Press. Not that they care, and neither should you. This is not a record for sitting around, craft beer in lap, searching for some kind of political or cultural message within it. No, this music demands thrown bottles or a lurching dance. Love or hate I mean; look at the other acts on the XO roster: names like Meat Mist, Robert Plant's Dingleberry, a record entitled 'Pussy Cola,' (Fugs, anyone?) ... this KC crowd doesn't seem to take itself to seriously. Listen to 'Endless Drone Strikes' enough times, though, and the bass will drive you mad. 

Listen here. Inquire with soitoldthemto@aim.com to obtain a physical copy.

2013 Top Whatever

This is not a top 10 because (a) there's not 10 of them and (b) I make no presumption of knowing what the best releases of 2013 were. Hell, I'll be finding out a lot of that in 2014. I'm no fukkn music critic but I know what I like, and this stuff is what I can best recall listening to from this year. Look elsewhere if you want to read some nerd gush about the world-shattering innovations in Yeezus.

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Parquet Courts - Tally All the Things That You Broke

Not as good as last year's Light Up Gold,  but good enough to tide you over til the next LP. Overall the mood set is light, you could bop your heard mindlessly to these tunes, but the words are too clever and thoughtful to ignore so use yer brain. The more you use it, the more it works.

VA - Beyond Inversion CS

Excellent compilation tape released by Accidental Guest featuring Hysterics, Technicolor Teeth, Perfect Pussy (see below), and 20 more of today's greatest punk hitmakers. The initial run quickly sold out, but they're doing a second pressing so don't fret young ponx. My favorite ones on here are probably the tunes by Split Feet, Roomrunner, and Potty Mouth but really a solid comp all around. Oh and it's for a serious good cause, with proceeds benefiting Rachael's 

                              Women's Center in Washington, D.C.

Milk Music - Cruise Your Illusion

Reel life American rock and roll, this. Echoes of Neil Young and Les Rallizes Dénudés give Cruise Your Illusion a compelling sonic palate. There's a slacker vibe, a thorough knowledge of parents' record collections, and a flawful punkness underlying these confessions and lamentations. Some parts might get a little noodley for some of you, but for the most part it's driving rhythms and leads that are simple but scorching nonetheless. I like how the vocalist can't really sing that well, but goes for it anyway, riding on nothing but pure nerve. Welcome to the real fukkn world, brother.

VA - Not Normal Presents: Welcome to 2013

Wrote this one up eight months back, still one of the best documents of punk this year (even though it was all recorded before 2013). Currently in its second pressing at Not Normal.

Colleen Green - Sock It to Me

Thirty-five minutes of pop mastery. Songs about boys and girls and heavy shit. Vocals to die for. Simple, romantic tunes you can't help but join in on. I can't formulate complete sentences to describe this album, but I like it a lot.

derTANZ - Kaktusz

The singer of this band sent me their debut album when they released it in April, and listening on-and-off I struggled to box it into enough words to convey what's going on here. They call it 'free punk;' I still can't quite articulate it beyond saying it's sounds like the fallout of an existential disaster, and channels the noise and goth sounds of Pop Group//Jesus Lizard//Birthday Party etc. plus the general weirdness that has permeated the last 30 years of south-central European punk (e.g. Disciplina Kičme). Recorded live in an empty post-socialist community house in the Hungarian village of Ersekvadkert, these songs cast their bleak gaze upon a Future which will surely embody the "interesting times" of the apocryphal Chinese curse. These songs contain the palpitating heartbeat of a million lost minds, waiting for the other boot to drop and finish things off once and for all. Over your cities grass will grow. 

If my words don't convince you, the wiz's review over at Drug Punk surely will.

Kremlin - Last Last EP

I gotta admit listening to Kremlin never made me think much of 'em. It sounded like punk that sounded like punk, it was competent, catchy, all of that -- but never gave me goosebumps or a dopamine rush or anything. Maybe I shoulda seen 'em live ... anyway this final release of theirs really does it for me, way better than Drunk in the Gulag. They play around with the guitar more, with cool leads and melodies you don't hear as much on their other stuff. Best song is the title track at the end, with its genuine rock hooks (and acoustic guitar?!). Sad to see 'em go after hearing this.

Lumpy & the Dumpers - 7"

Band of the year.

Puke Skywalker - Fantastic Planet EP

Sample-based electronic pop that really nails it on this release. If you ever wanted to know what a chopped 'n' screwed Johnny Thunders or GG Allin sounded like, look no further. Fantastic Planet continues in the vein of the last few Puke Skywalker releases with progress-ively stronger composition. See how many samples you can spot.

Robert Pollard - Honey Locust Honky Tonk

I can't keep up with Robert Pollard. For all I know dude has released a dozen records this year, either solo or with Guided By Voices. In any case this is the one I've been hooked by. If you are at all familiar with his work, you know what to expect; Pollard produces crucial pop songs like most of us shed dead skin. 

Trauma Harness - Dead and Loving It

Gloomy postpunk outta southern Illinois with all the reverb you want with none of the artschool sheen you don't. This is the second annual report of Trauma Harness's contribution to the Spotted Race Halloween series, and it's at least as good as last year's cassingle. Covers of hallowed tunes by John Carpenter and Alice Cooper plus a couple of their most menacing originals. Buy the tape: come for the tunes, stay for the awesome insert.

Libyans - Expired Language

This band has been around for some years now, and though I'm not real familiar with their past work, everything about this record is tight. From the playing to the song parts to the production -- those guitars! those backing vox! -- Expired Language strays far enough from the tropes of hardcore that its accessibility might convert a few normies. 

Tony Molina - Dissed and Dismissed

This could be one of the best of 2013 for sure. Dead-on perfect pop songlets somewhere between They Might Be Giants and Weezer, each track bookended with an arena rock guitar lead ... this is not very different from Tony's band Ovens at all, but man, it all comes across really well here. In case the creative connection to Guided By Voices isn't obvious enough in the songs, he goes ahead and covers "Wondering Boy Poet" but it fits so well it sounds like it could be one 

                              of his own.

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Demos of 2013:

Perfect Pussy - I have lost all desire for feeling

This demo retains the noise blasts and world-falling-apart melodies of Shoppers, but they manage to sound more melodic AND more pissed off. This is a powerful fucking band, and I'm excited to see what they do in 2014. Read the lyrics too, goddamn.

Violations

Six nuggets of tough '80s hc worship from the Belleville/STL area. Can't find any digital audio for this one, so just take it from me that the guitars sound like powerdrills and it's fukkn great. Get it from Spotted Race/Lumpy Rex.

Big Zit

Best Chicagoland band of 2013?? Come find out at the stacked all-day show event with Tenement, Lumpy, and more going on in Northwest Indiana the day after new year's.

Mystic Inane

Dance, mutant.

Nancy

Keep dancin'.

Gas Rag

Looks like this got the vinyl treatment, courtesy of Hardware Records.

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2014 watch out:

Hysterics 7"

This was supposed to come out this year but got delayed. Probably will be on my 2014 list. Order up at M'lady's Records.

Tenement

photo cred: Daniel Fernandez

They've been making brilliant -- actually brilliant -- power pop for some years now, but I think the rest of the world is about to find out.

Mystic Inane - Demo [2013]

At certain hardcore shows, the kids don't bother with shoving elbows or macho mosh ritual violence, preferring instead to fling and flop and squirm across the floor like a zombie being dragged by fishing line. I don't know what the shows are like in Louisiana (other than drunkenness and playing under bridges), but Mystic Inane seem like a band well-suited for this kind of unskilled herk-jerk "dancing."

Their demo has been sitting in my tape deck awhile since it came in the mail. Four songs, each hovering around two minutes, emitting sputtered beats and atonal guitar deviations in the vein of A-Frames (+ the various bands affiliated with them). To make an arbitrary Chicago connection, it reminds me of the Daily Void, but less apocalyptic and more juvie. What this stuff boils down to, though, is discomfortable, mid-to-fast besnotted punk -- tight but with just the right amount of looseness to get the listener unhinged. Highly recommended. It looks like they just played with Glue and Gas Rag in New Orleans, a lineup I imagine was pretty explosive. 

Stream it at their bandcamp, download here. Get yourself a copy: contact mysticinane (a) gmail, or send $5.00 ppd to 3111 Palmyra St, New Orleans, LA 70119.

Lumpy & the Dumpers - Sex Pit

I posted this band's 7" and demo CS a while back, and well they just released a video. Check it out you stooge.

Nancy - S/T CS [2013]

Punk n roll channeling the sort of AM radio sounds that probably inspired the Heartbreakers or the Dictators, or the more rockin' moments of Big Star. None of those name-drops are very accurate in describing Nancy, though. For a style that's been done to death for the past 60+ years, it amazes me that a band could come up with tunes that sink in as deep as these ones do. Really though I don't spend much time thinking about influences or the merits of 'originality' when I'm listening to this, because the songs quickly make that shit irrelevant.  And there are some serious earworms on here -- just try to remove "Midnight" or "Malt Licker" from your head once you've heard 'em. Hands down, this is one of the best releases of 2013.

Listen here, then get yerself a copy from Eat the Life (second pressing is now available!). And keep an eye out for the Nancy 7", comin' at you some time soon.

Michael Wohl - Home Recordings v. I [2013]

This tape was in my mailbox last week so here I am telling you about it. Michael Wohl plays folk/blues in a style that's not usually touched by anyone under the age of 70. That's not a slight; what I mean is when you hear the term 'folk' these days your mind's more likely to conjure Joni Mitchell or Dylan (or, if you're a tool, Fleet Foxes or some such lifeless swill), and 'blues' is understood to be even more sonically restricting. My point here is that a long time ago, folk and blues were understood to be one and the same, and it was in fact redundant to call it by both names. Anyway, the sounds on here are of that school, solo guitar music channeling the likes of Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and John Fahey. In fact the fourth tune, the traditional 'Poor Boy Long Ways from Home,' borrows from an arrangement by Fahey.

Growing up, I heard quite a bit of folk and blues from the latter half of the 20th century, but once in a while my dad would put on something closer to this, and I always found it mesmerizing. The pure moods distilled into self-accompanied chord melodies have a transportive quality. There's a fear in me that despite the all-encompassing archival nature of the internet, music like this is at risk of being lost. So I'm glad Wohl is out there, still making it heard. Maybe it'll move some of you to pick up a guitar and learn to play like John Hurt.

Stream/order here.

BIG ZIT

Now that they've let this loose on the net I might as well pass it along. Big Zit have been tearing up midwest basements over the past year and it's about time you heard em. Other people have already said this but I'll repeat it in agreement: these are some of the most freaked-out vocals I've heard in quite a long time. Really excellent tunes, especially the first one; it's no surprise that this band shares members with Ooze because they're both so fukkin groovy. To add to my general disorientation upon first popping this in my tape deck, the last song on my copy is a magnetically-degraded version of "Voice of Q" ... this band is a total cultural assault.

BZ Int'l Plyrs Clb Prznts:

Total Trash - You Don't Try CS [2013]

Total Trash came thru town a coupla weeks ago on the tail end of their recent tour. They slayed the room with crunchy riffs and winning stage/floor presence. Their 7" is out right about now, and while it's good, this tape from earlier in the year wins out coz it's a little more raw and angry (to my ear). Plus they do a Germs song on this one. Besides Wild Child, Total Trash are probably the best thing Minneapolis has going right now as far as this ignorant monk can tell. Shambling punk with dynamic (a)-melodic vocals and a guitar that sounds inspired by Bitch Magnet. And they know how to draw you in with a slow tune without it getting stale, as evident on the last track "Know." All-around solid release. 

You can get through their bandcamp, pay-what-you-want for digital or cough up a few bones for the actual tape. 

Lumpy & the Dumpers - 7" [2013]

Gonna make this a quick one, coz I'm driving down to St. Louis to see these freaks play with Dawn of Humans tonight. If you've been paying any attention at all, you already know Lumpy & the Dumpers are one of the active best bands in the midwest, if not the country. Hell, at this point they've got bands in cool-guy towns like New York ripping off their sound. This 7" continues in the vein of their previous cassette releases, twisting hardcore punk out of its stale formulae and injecting an unhealthy dose of slime muck. All three songs on here are rippers, but if I had to pick, I'd go with the last one. 

Anyway, this is up on bandcamp for pay what you want, but as with all of Martin's visual art this is one you should really get a physical copy of. 

Lemme see you nitwits pogo

NORA & the JANITORS

Whatever kind of alienation I might experience in the bland drunken cornfield that is a Big Ten college town, I have to imagine it's orders of magnitude worse in North Dakota. That backwater state seems to be coming up more and more in the news, as cannibalistic oil conglomerates sniff around for new sources of global warmth for the rest of us to bake in. They're already burning off enough crude for the flames to be visible from space. Meanwhile, regressive politicians play off their constituents' latent rural misogyny to close the state's one abortion clinic, tugging the nation backwards with the most stringent ban in the country.

Enter Nora & the Janitors, slamming their head against a brick wall of willful ignorance in the most listenable way possible. These two tunes bounce along somewhat like Orange Juice, but instead of said band's carefree joviality, this reeks of  the bitter resignation I associate with '80s Siberian punks like GrOb or Yanka. It can't be easy to work such desperate howling -- with lines like "fell asleep, it was July // woke up, it was November // did I kill that cop? I can't remember" -- into synthed-out, guitar-driven pop songs  and have it come off as well as it does. I dunno, people will probably compare this to the Smiths, but I get the feeling that's not where Nora et al are coming from. Whatever it is, I've had "Banister" on repeat for weeks now, and have yet to tire of it. Maybe my favorite song of 2013 so far. I shouldn't even be devoting this much text to a two-song single. But this stuff really affected me, and it deserves a wider audience.

These two songs are coming out on a tape split with a Minneapolis band I can't find any information on. For now, get this single at N&tJ's bandcamp.

LAUGHBOY

It's fun to watch a band develop their sound in the live realm. When I first started seeing Laughboy play, their songs were masked by opaque, blunt-force hardcore noise overload common to many young bands. Over the course of a couple years' worth of shows, a unique sound started to take shape. They've been billed as 'cosmic' or 'psychedelic' hardcore, and those descriptions seem apt enough on this cassingle released by Spotted Race. The three short songs contain frantic vocal howls cast amongst psychedelic guitar reverb, buttressed by a murky low end that hits like an asteroid collision. Whether on tape or on your computer, the songs have the raw, shitty hardcore fidelity you all know and love. Have a listen to the a-side, which personally I can't get enough of:

On April 13 Laughboy will be playing the Midwest Zine Fest aftershow with fellow C-U locals Chain's Gang and Unnerve. Like the Fest itself, the show will be at the Urbana Independent Media Center. Show starts at 8:00, fb details here for those who seek them.

nothing like being with bitter fools

VA - Not Normal Presents: Welcome to 2013

Fuck. Where do I start with this comp? Ralph really outdid himself on this one. It's got nearly everybody on it: twenty-eight songs in forty minutes by seventeen bands from Chicago, the Midwest, the USA, THE WORLD. The record wastes no time, with an exciting start by Basque punks Hondartzako Hondakinak. I'd never heard of them before but I'm glad that's no longer the case. Further on in the comp the sounds run the whole spectrum, from the psycho-saturated ramonescore of Cülo to the power-pop punk of Tenement to the cosmic hardcore of NASA Space Universe to the angular UK palpitations of Good Throb to the raging Spanish-language thrash of Porkeria to the Minutemen-invoking funkiness of Big Crux ... if I don't stop here I'll just end up listing all the bands. But really, every cut is crucial. I should mention that this is Ooze's vinyl debut -- but don't worry, they haven't cleaned their sound up one bit.

Sample the tunes here, then buy a copy at Not Normal. For your own damn sake don't sleep on this one; the wax sounds great and it comes with a full-size 20-page booklet with band infos, lyrics, and some sick artwork. For what you're getting the price is a STEAL. 

Gas Rag - Gas Rag CS [2013]

Saw these dudes open for Crazy Spirit back in January, and their set was early enough in the lineup that it didn't suffer from the ridiculous overcrowding that came after. Besides that they were one of the highlights of the night. Rapid, nihilistic drug-punk songs about the drone war and other things that tug at your angry damaged heartstrings. The six songs thrash by in less than five minutes that I know you can spare, punk. Give it a spin; if you dig it, email durso1753@gmail.com for a copy of the tape.

War pervert

CHAIN'S GANG

Debut cassette from Urbana Illinois featuring members of Kowabunga! Kid, Witch in Her Tomb, and Horrible Things, to name a few. Chain's Gang is of the new crop of hardcore bands that have formed here in the past year. Not a lot of bands can sound this heavy and snotty at the same time. Stomping pharmaceutical nightmare rhythms caked with guitar muck and psych-punk fuzz. Keep an eye out for these reprobates; you'll want to see them before they see you.

Write to Crippled Sound, for a copy of the tape. Website hasn't been updated in a while but I've seen that there's been a second pressing so they're still available.

Broken glass, beat yr ass