DAS DRIP

 

FFO: early '10s NWI punk, early '80s Italian hardcore, late '00s East LA punk, Deluxe Bias. 

I figure that should be enough. 

There are (were) three drips - Sorry State did the second drip, this was the first drip. 

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DAS DRIP

SUBCULTURE

 

I really should pop this onto the live blog (but you know I don't always do that when I "should" because rules are for suckers). I should also leave all of the context and importance to the folks at Sorry State who are responsible for the important document. This SUBCULTURE shit is a clear labor of love, which should not for one fucking second imply that this SUBCULTURE shit isn't important and/or essential (hint: it's both). This is just USHC that you might no know about if it weren't for a dedicated crew of fans from North Carolina who simply refused to let them die. I recommend grabbing the Fred 12" if you haven't already, and I demand that you blast this 1986 live recording today. 

LIVE '86

ADAM VOID

 

This one slid in the mailbox a few weeks ago. Three streams of sonic consciousness captured and hurtled into a different time....like STEVEN JESSE BERNSTEIN rediscovered as a train hopper or BUKOWSKI as a tattoo-faced busker in front of a WalMart in rural Tennessee. You don't make these sounds by accident, these are sounds created from compulsion - this is the intersection of art and struggle and life. There's no traffic signal, but there is a lot of traffic.

POVERTY IN THE U.S.A.

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It's the little things that keep you going, you know?

SCARECROW

 

North Carolina's SCARECROW are one of my favorite current US hardcore bands. When I see them live, I'm gonna lose my fukkn shit. Three searing tracks backed with three essential covers - their version of "Kill The Police" is so far beyond essential. Are there hordes of current US hardcore bands I have yet to hear? Certainly. When I listen to SCARECROW, I simply do not care about the bands I haven't heard yet. 

SJÄTTE MASSUTDÖENDET NÅR NORDEN!

DRUGCHARGE

 

I saw them in Oklahoma City at one of Ross's EINOK first and....they were so fukkn good. But really is was the next time I saw them, that's what did it. It wasn't the music, though the music was straight fire. It wasn't the outfits, though seeing a 6'3" beefcake dreamboat in (barely any) leather and stilettos will certainly leave an impression. No....it wasn't any of that. It was the smell. DRUGCHARGE smelled like sex and punk and dirty ass and oh my stars it was incredible. It was like a flavor enhancer that made every other element of the band even better. This was recorded live....and I wish you could smell the pleasure. 

ALIVE WITH PLEASURE!

BUZZOV•EN

 

Story time - it'll be a little disjointed perhaps but the shit is all super (?) important... 

    I heard about BUZZOV•EN when ANCIENT CHINESE PENIS were in North Carolina in 1993. I was eager for anything new at that point in my punk life - I grabbed Hate Box and Wound based on someone's recommendation, and my mind was blown. The next year when MULTIPLE CHOICE were on tour, we listened to a promo cassette copy of Sore until the reels fell the fuck off. The singles I snagged on that ACP trip were good, but Sore was (still is) something else entirely, and when we saw them in Providence on that '94 jaunt? Fuck. Top ten sets ever - period. My first real experience being scared of and/or by punk...shit was actually dangerous and you were experiencing a band on the very brink of collapse just by being in the same room. That set had (has) staying power.

Fast Forward Four Years.....

    MULTIPLE CHOICE morphed into FUCKFACE and then crashed into a brick wall in 1998 leaving shards that birthed ARTIMUS PYLE. The three of us recorded with Billy Anderson in April. There were a lot of drugs. There was a whirlwind couple of weeks that included WORD SALAD covering "Angel Of Death" with Dino on vocals and DAMAD was in town too and we woke up a dude from HIGH ON FIRE at three something in the morning because we felt like we needed to hear what our recording sounded like on a stereo that wasn't John's Honda's tape deck and we played our first show. I'm not sure what exactly happened in what order, but a lot happened (and there were a lot of drugs). Shortly after Billy finished our single, he rolled into Toast Studios in SF with BUZZOV•EN...who showed up with no riffs. No songs. They just showed up with several days booked at an expensive recording studio on some label's dime. Billy called me a few days in, said that Dixie was recording conversations with crackheads on Mission Street while Kirk was scouring porn VHS tapes for potential samples (because it was the '90s and you couldn't have a sludge/crust record without samples) - he asked if I had anything they could use. I brought a few things down to the studio, including an educational record filled with first person testimonials aimed at keeping kids away from the horrible world of drugs. I offered that whole record, but noted one bit that FUCKFACE had used on their then-recent LP (guess which bit BUZZOV•EN used....? Cant think...can't think can't think can't think). After they finished the recording, BUZZOV•EN played a matinee show at Gilman. I walked in with Kirk and Billy and stared slack jawed as Kirk snarled at the teenage volunteer working the door "I'm gonna burn this place to the fucking ground" while getting his hand stamped. Their set that day was....something. There was fire. 

Fast Forward Some More Years....

    I was in a record store in Echo Park shooting the shit and drinking some beers when BUZZOV•EN came up in conversation. Turns out I was shooting the shit with the person whose label's dime funded that 1998 recording session - a session that had (at that time) still not produced a physical release. Small world, right? 

••••

    This is my copy of the 1998 San Francisco session that Billy gave me before the mix and master was complete - the tracks that eventually became Revelation: Sick Again that finally saw a proper release on Hydra Head in 2011 or so. There were a few forgettable recordings that came out after Sore (most notably that awful Gospel According...II on Allied) and there are some more recent releases that I admittedly haven't spent time with, but this....? This is BUZZOV•EN. If you listen with a discerning ear you can probably tell that some of the songwriting is phoned in, but you can also tell that these dudes were absolutely in the pocket on that tour - I think it was the first with Dixie on bass and he seemed to kick Kirk in the ass in a really good way. There's aren't many bands like this in the world - not now and not ever. Welcome to violence.

SONGS 1, 2, 3 FROM CASSETTE.

SONGS 4, 5, 6 FROM D.A.T.

ON THE BLOCK

 

Remember that shit I said about Oi! the other day? Well...Welcome to Asheville, punks. Three songs from ON THE BLOCK, who's moniker had better some kind of pisstake about the streets. Most notable to left coasters is Jerome (APEFACE, SNUGGLE) on guitar, but these tracks don't need no stinking pedigree at all. "Blocked" is a dark street punk anthem for the ages and the other two are straight slammers. Sass's vocals land somewhere between gruff UK82 and Carl McCoy and the tracks are addictive as fuck and I am so totally here for it. 

RIDE OR DIE

HOT MESS MONSTER

 

For the days when you need to listen to punk that makes you feel free. For the days when you need punk to make you feel free. No constraints, slightly awkward and stilted, honesty and uncomfortability holding the same space...the feeling you get as a person from a pretentious place walking into a place where no one cares about anything about you - they just care about you. Though this was recorded in the mountains of North Carolina a decade ago, HOT MESS MONSTER are making me (helping me) feel those feelings this morning and I'm going ton listen to "The Rigors Of Self-Improvement" several times before I face the day.

ALL FIVE OF US

CONCUSSION

 

How am I not supposed to follow CONCUSSION (NY) with CONCUSSION (NC)? The decision makes itself. First impression/s are a mishmash of DAMNED and the My America, which doesn't make sense but it's an impression more than a description, you know? Once you let it settle though, CONCUSSION are clearly rooted in '90s USDIY punk and they seem determined to breathe new life into an approach that's tried and true. Wild how many blips I hear that inspire comparisons - I swear I hear CRIMINAL DAMAGE, AVAIL and THE SIPTS in "Silence" (not coincidentally, it's the best song on the tape). The guitar sit on top of a gloriously raw recording with crash cymbals piercing the mix, cementing the Great Decade vibes.  Maybe though.....maybe it is okay (or would have been okay) for me to just say that I really like this tape, and I wonder if I can dig up another CONCUSSION for tomorrow (suggestions/submissions welcome).

CONCUSSION

ADAM VOID

 

Everything yesterday's post was not, today's post is. Every door opened by yesterday's post remains closed today, as ADAM VOID takes your hand and guides you to a completely different place. It's weird here, slightly off in a myriad of indescribable manners...but it's nice here. Simple. Things are okay here even when they are hard, you know? Simple sounds, casually constructed and presented without pretense because things aren't really that important. We aren't really that important either, and it's good to be reminded how rudimentary everything can be. We are just vessels, and these are just sounds created by other vessels...other folks who seem to be having a pretty good time just being okay. Not bad, ADAM VOID, not bad at all.

STOWAWAY ON A SINKING SHIP

BRAINXTOILET

Y'all, this shit is just nasty. Filthy. A full power grind assault in seven disgusting movements...to hear the guitar slide up the neck in "Blessed" is to hear heaven.

PAINMAKER

 

AUTARCH

 

What an absolute beast from Asheville's AUTARCH. After The Light Escaping and the their split with LNDBRIDGE I kinda felt like they were establishing themselves as the flag bearers for modern epic crust but....this two song EP is damn near perfect. Powerful, emotive and beautiful - this is still nothing compared to seeing them live (only once for me, unfortunately), but this comes as close as anything they've released. 

EXCESSION // EXCISION

 

XIPHIDAE

 

The careful manipulation of sound fascinates me. To the outsider, elements of noise (and particular segments of the "noise" community) seem to thrive on the chaos - the all encompassing nothingness, the absence of anything that could be defined as structure. As the noise gets more cerebral, however, it occupies a space where even the strictest adherents to accepted sonic norms may be forced to recognize the meticulous collection, creation and construction of sound. Carry on a bit further, and you start to drift into a reality that mirrors primitive new age music. Alternate plane ambiance. Tweaked slightly or abused with abandon, these are sounds that have a home in the unused corners of your cerebral self that need to be fed even when there is no appetite (or taste). And when sound arrives here, when sound takes you here...it's not an accident. 

WAKE OF THE HOODS

AL BURIAN

 

Hard to imagine anything landing further from yesterday's content than this vaguely mysterious cassette from AL BURIAN. On the one hand, I want to talk about the acoustic singer/songwriter shits and bedroom 4-track action that cannot not remind me of Matty noodling incessantly in the pantry in 1996. The total but accidental and undeniably amateurish bliss of the two instrumental tracks that split this tape in two parts. The random and unrecognizable MOTÖRHEAD cover that sounds like it was recorded in 1973. Extraneous Music is the perfect title. But on the other hand, I just want to mention that I booked a matinee show at Mission Records in the summer of 2000 with MILEMARKER, THE RIIFS, ESPERANZA and FLOATING CORPSES. And it seemed completely normal. 

EXTRANEOUS MUSIC

THE UNVOICED

 

I felt like someone just splashed cold water in my face when I put on THE UNVOICED - this shit shocked me thirty years into my own past and made me feel like it was all new again. The Gatewood! cassette is scrappy, snotty, feisty DIY punk from a time (1990) when USHC influences were still dominant but bands were straying in their own (weird) directions. The vocals will make you smile and cringe...and sing along: don't think about what you want but what you have // and if we come across as a little weird, you're not so normal yourseeeeeeeelllfff

GATEWOOD!

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But even better than those eleven songs is the other North Carolina shit some punk used to fill up the rest of the tape. The demo from YOUTHFUL IRREGULARITY is brilliant early Dischord worship with a posi tinge - possibly my favorite discovery on the whole tape. Quintessential DIY basement hardcore from TONKA - an eight song rehearsal with songs like "Butt-Ass" and "Co-Ed Dance Song" and a couple of funk breakdowns that may or may not have been tongue in cheek, but their accents alone are worth the price of admission (and a couple of these kids went on to ASSFACTOR 4). Three raw hardcore rippers from Raleigh's LIVING IS SHAME (who might actually be called LIVING IN SHAME?). An eight song dose of catchy hardcore from RIGHTS RESERVED, and a you Al Burian fronting CELIBATE COMMANDOS on what's listed as the Food For Thought demo, though I can't find most of these tracks anywhere else. All of this shit is listed as being from 1990 or 1991, and I give all thanks to the young punk who decided that THE UNVOICED just wasn't enough...

MACHT NICHTS

 

Five brutal minutes of frustration from 2013 North Carolina. The responsible parties went on to RED DEATH, PROTESTER, INNUMERABLE FORMS, PURE DISGUST and a host of other heavyweights, and MACHT NICHTS makes it clear that they knew exactly what they were doing from the start. Raw, smart hardcore with obvious PV/fastcore influence - sub-30 second bursts of pure energy. And then they close with "Mental Mirror," a track that takes up almost half of the recording time and gives just a little glimpse of what these kids were (and would be) capable of. Ugly...like us. 

MACHT NICHTS

SKEMÄTA

 

First off, SKEMÄTA did it backwards on Sanctioned Genocide - they started the thing with the obligatory midtempo DBeat stomp they typically comes somewhere near the end of the first side (take Neverendinglasting, for example) and then they shred expectations on the B side (or, in the case of the cassette, on the final two songs). So it's kinda like getting beaten up before you get scared...but still getting scared after you get beaten up. It's very confusing. What's not confusing is the pure power that this band had - just the right amount of metallic discordance (check the last 20 seconds of "Hierarchy" in particular, just before the pummeling returns to close out the song) and no shortage of unhinged shred. You hear ghosts of their collective pasts (and futures) all over the recording (DRUGCHARGE, DOUBLE NEGATIVE, FATAL, STRPIMINES, LOGIC PROBLEM, PUBLIC ACID, SCARECROW...there are more); the title track has a DIE KREUZEN vs. Technocracy vibe that is just so fukkn sick and it still sounds like SKEMÄTA. Every record is essential (especially in retrospect) and these three burners just make me wish I'd seen them more than once.  Good luck. 

SANCTIONED GENOCIDE

EDIT: I've seen them three times. San Francisco, Oakland and North Carolina. Age is a motherfukker. 

ADAM VOID

An individualist sonic marauder, A:VOID defies all arbitrary classifications. Appalachian roots searching for sustenance from urban waste, a life of social isolation providing fertile ground for aural autonomy. New Depression Era Rambler collects and repurposes the grey water runoff from generations of backwoods civilizations - treating the audible sludge with turpentine to make it fit for consumption by gutter punks, would-be-Kaczynskis...and pretty much no one else. This isn't a listening experience...it's an experience. 

 

NEW DEPRESSION ERA RAMBLER

SCARECROW

Essential hyper speed DBeat mania from North Carolin'a SCARECROW. Members of DRUG CHARGE, SKEMATA and others....riffs for days and ugh the fukkn power of this motherfucker is unreal. The drums are unreal. The tracks are unreal. The rolls in "Ouroboros" are unreal. Just listen over and over again and make it louder each time - I haven't heard anything this crucial in a long long time. 

SCARECROW

And to make things a little sweeter, this tape came on a Sony HF-60, which ordinarily would be a tad excessive for a 4-minute demo, so Usman filled the rest of the space with hardcore EPs from 1985. VELLOCET, STENGTE DØRER, CRIME and a few more - all mandatory listening, and all introduced by our hardcore host for the day. Get amongst it. 

MEAT GROUP

Ferocity. Pure, raw, honest and brutal. The tortured single note guitars, the blasts that burst out of the middle of riffs, the bass that starts "Pricks," the VOID meets Eye For An Eye off the rails damage that taints the entire recording even when it crashes headfirst into straight USHC like "Wrong." North Carolina's MEAT GROUP appear to have left us with this lone cassette...but fukk it's a monster. 

 MEAT GROUP