ANTISOCIAL ACTION

 

Not going to bore you with the lineage here (though ANTISOCIAL ACTION's sole proprietor first appeared here more than a dozen years ago and the output has never stopped). What's important is noisecore. 40 tracks in just over ten minutes - carefully thought out and constructed anarcho violence and unfiltered bursts of reality addled mania. Half-minute quasi-DBeat/blastcore micro masterpieces interspersed with a barrage of sub-5 second bursts of noise. "Mangled Musick" as an example - a fully formulated abrasive (and arguably perfect) raw hardcore track followed by eleven songs that collectively consume a mere 62 seconds. And this ain't speed trials, it's not about how many and/or how fast, but the assault as concept approach is both notable and beautiful. "Anti-Tech," "Rotting Body Of Android," "Caught Up In Gears Of Slaughter" - this isn't noise for show, this is sonic abuse made out necessity. There are two more tapes....sadly I only have one of them. 

ROT IN CHEMICAL WORLD

80HD

 

When 80HD dropped a few years ago, the hype was all about their energetic live shows and aerial explosions. People rushed to get to the internet to show the rest of the world how high they jumped, overfiltered grainy black and white photos with mullets and humans flying across phone screens. You never heard people talking about the music except that they were fast....but the shows were lit. Two mini LPs and five years after the demo and that first West Coast tour though, might I suggest revisiting the almost unparalleled sonic detonation that is 80HD's Demo 2021? The hype was real, and this blur of j/o riffs (hi Max) propelled by a hailstorm of galloping thumps doesn't merely stand on its own without the stench of sweat and beer interrupting the surge of Gen Z punks scrambling to get the perfect photo - the context breathes new life into the special kind of hardcore this band was creating. Perhaps 80HD is best listened to alone at 5:30am before the coffee is finished brewing - without context and without filters and without peer promotion. That's when you can hear 80HD and feel their fury unencumbered by the noise. Seven crucial, life affirming minutes on this cassette, re-experienced (by me) the way punk was not meant to be experienced; in the dark and in the flesh accompanied by nothing but a soft snore in the background and the waft of impending caffeine from the next room. Not gonna lie though, thee jumps did look sick.

80HD

COLIN LANGENUS

 

One Side: A multi-instrumental freak out captured live in 2007.

Another Side: A collection of improvisations collected by Colin Langenus between 2005 and 2008 and manipulated to create.....this.

SON OF BEETHOVEN // HIGH AS HELL

HIGH AS HELL

SKATEBOARD & THE PUNKS

 

I remember a conversation a lifetime ago about the then-changing dynamics (and admittedly, economics) of DIY punk record production, distribution and consumption. The internet changed shit (...duh) and there were so many more options - options in general but specifically options without the realm/s of things classified as DIY punk. Gone were the days when a mediocre band could self release a mediocre EP and go on tour and hit a few distros and move 1000 copies (or more) with relative ease while the "bigger" bands could reliably crank through five times that number. We were (at the time of this conversation) in a place where even the flavor-of-the month bands would struggle to sell more than a few hundred records and hope that their online streams and bandcamp DLs might result in enough visibility for their live shows to be well attended. Maybe they'd sell some shirts, you know? And it's not about money - it's about survival. It's all connected. Anyway, as a contribution to this conversation, my buddy mentioned a band from Buffalo called BROWN SUGAR who dropped a stellar full length back in 2011 and flew through 500+ physical copies like it was 1994 when they hit the road. See, the internet didn't care....but the punks did. Tour. Put it in their faces. Play shitty shows where none of the people are cool - they'll recognize that you aren't cool either and you will all realize that you're on the same team. Fuck selling records, it's about getting to the next place to connect with new freaks - or connect with the one freak in that next place, you know? 
Why do I say these things? Because the dude who played guitar for BROWN SUGAR later played in a band called SKATEBOARD and also in a band called THE PUNKS. Each band released a demo in the 2010s and some genius packaged them on one destined-to-be-overlooked cassette in the 2020s. But let us not get bogged down in the connection to a conversation about punk economics, instead lets talk about how fukkn much undiscovered DIY punk lights a fire under our collective ass. The five tracks from THE PUNKS are enough to make your old-ass self want to go start a new band (tonight) and the twenty punk minutes on the SKATEBOARD side...well, sometimes the shit is life affirming even if there isn't a story attached to it. This time though, there is. Kinda. 

SKATEBOARD & THE PUNKS

DANNY KAYE

 

Pretending isn't always bad. Faking it isn't always negative. Sometimes even a little white lie to yourself can help you make it through. Deception is a motherfucker though, so keep yourself in check. But if you want to spend 20 minutes with a national treasure from another time, from another reality, then allow me to offer Mr. Entertainment DANNY KAYE for your listening and escaping pleasure. Go ahead; lie to yourself. Everything is fine. Everything is fun. This isn't a dystopian hellscape. You aren't quietly counting the days, hoping that your life comes to a natural end before everything implodes. You aren't looking over your shoulder wondering how long until they're after you. It's all good "Down By The Riverside" though, and today is the first "Great 'Come And Get It' Day" of the rest of your life. Enjoy.  

MR. ENTERTAINMENT

SCHENECTAVOIDZ

 

Gonna guess they're from Schenectady. Don't get me started on a nostalgic Western New York DIY punk journey because that was a happier time and it would just make me sad. Instead, blast this bombastic schenectadic slammer from 2022, long after all of my friends had left. There's an analogy in there....somewhere. In here though? Pure metallic hardcore power - think ANS and INEPSY (twenty years after both), all speed and fury to the front. Ten songs, twelve minutes. Apparently someone (not Nate) from DOF (and INTENT) is in this band and if you're from upstate you're gonna hang your hat on that shit....because you should. Off the map hardcore is the realest fucking hardcore, and you can quote me on that. 

WAX VOID

MAE WEST

 

You might not think that this shit is important....you also might be wrong. "Why Don't You Come Up And See Me Sometime?" said Mae West. Said the woman who slurred "When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better" and a thousand other quotables. In a way, this listens like a salon Americana version of a Reiko Ike film....but maybe that's the tail wagging the dog (without the blatant sex). Check the key solo in "Frankie & Johnny" and just known that West was light years ahead of her time. 

 

NAUGHTY BUT WISE

DEHUMANIZED

 

Treat DEHUMANIZED as a reset; let their sounds drag you back into the depths. Brutal and unforgiving OSDM with proto-slam breakdowns that were way ahead of their time (in 1998). Let Prophecies Foretold act as a reminder that the primal can be beautiful....shut out the noise and sink into beauty. The noise will still be there when you're finished, and your path after "Doomed To Die" fades away is entirely yours. 

PROPHECIES FORETOLD

MANDRILL

 

In the never ending world of things I didn't know I needed in my life, I present MANDRILL. I feel like I have had them forever, but I heard them (consciously) for the first time in July 2025. Better late than never, yeah? Sounds I never knew I needed until I had a taste - these kids shared the stage with JAMES BROWN and DEEP PURPLE and if you need a more rousing endorsement than that then I'm not really sure I can help you. Gorgeous 1970s psychedelic funk that channels SLY STONE and PHARAOH SANDERS with equal ferocity and in real time. There are twenty MANDRILL albums to choose from, and I would be an ignorant fool if I said that you should start with this one - but I started with this one and it's amazing. 

JUST OUTSIDE OF TOWN

DICTATORS

Special? I mean, maybe not. Killer? Definitely. Dubbed as the Lonesome Dick Manitoba demo from 1976. Maybe that's correct info, maybe not. I'm just here to jam a little two song bang-bang-banger from NYC's DICTATORS.

LONESOME DICK MANITOBA

SPOOKY VISIONS

 

There's something particularly and peculiarly special about a solo project when everything hits, you know? Of course we all love when a group of individuals present as one fine tuned sonic machine, but the freedom of one vision unencumbered is something truly unique. And when it works, it's beautiful. SPOOKY VISIONS works - fiery synth punk that is undeniably punk. We're talking late '70s first wave California shit reimagined in a new century Rust Belt basement (or closet) - a project that owes everything to the past while borrowing nothing. Instead, SPOOKY VISIONS create the shit they wish they had been able to hear in their own adolescence....so you don't have to wish. You can just have. You're welcome.

SPOOKY VISIONS

NAUSEA

 

Maybe you don't need to be introduced to NAUSEA (though today your lucky day if this is your introduction), but maybe it's been too long since you blasted some seminal NYC political crust, and holy fukk 1987 NAUSEA was just a different animal entirely. An absolutely blistering half hour captured in the WNYU studios, featuring an early version "Godless" and a performance of "Clutches" that will make your skin crawl. Extinction is a perfect record, no question.....but if NAUSEA had released a record in real time with this kind of raw intensity? Shit would have straight up altered the trajectory of US DIY hardcore.

CRUCIAL CHAOS

IVY

 

Mid-decade Big City freak style on full display with Public Access, capturing two IVY offerings from 2013 & 2014. The "Hooks? Yes. Fidelity? No." model is an extremely effective one, so much so that I found myself revisiting the EPs to see if I liked them as much as I enjoyed feeling this distortion pierce my skull. Fun fact? I didn't. Now I do. It's all about "What You Know," you know? Then feel the guitar on "Antsy" for the win.

PUBLIC ACCESS

SLINKY X

 

I love a tape that asks more questions than it answers. It's like when I listen to FANTASY (which doesn't happen nearly as often as it should) and I can't decide if the band is simply brilliant or just a brilliant pisstake (or both). And here I am listening to SLINKY X wondering if they are conjuring T. REX or VASELINES and accepting that it's probably neither but also potentially both....you know? And if you know what I mean, then you know what it means to love listening to a tape that asks more questions than it answers. Darn. is fully realized, brilliantly constructed and simply gorgeous to listen to. If Todd and I had listened to this in our 1991 Norman, Oklahoma living room we would have bent to the altar of SLINKY X....which makes me wonder how Todd is doing these days. I'm gonna write him tomorrow - because friends and shared experiences are not just important; they are irreplaceable. 

DARN. 

NANDAS

 

This scene did for New York in the mid-'10s what the Silenzio Statico ponx had done for LA a few years earlier. I don't mean NANDAS specifically (or even Toxic State in particular), but for a while you could just tell something was happening and you knew that it was something you wanted to hear. Even if everything didn't grab you (me), you (I) still picked it up and checked it out because there was a thing happening and that's what happened when I copped the Exo EP and I fukkn loved it. Murky, cold, monotonous pogo squirms fronted by uncompromising demented snarls? Yeah, that's the shit I was looking for at the time, and NANDAS delivered. I missed the demo but I caught up eventually (obviously, because here it is) and a decade later I'm still mentally moshing....

DEMO SPRING #)14

SWANS

 

I have a complicated relationship with SWANS. I get it - I truly get it. Pushing envelopes and provoking thought in realms of sound and humanity is itself an art form, and few artists were doing either with as much verve as SWANS in the 1980s. The sounds....? There was Glenn Branca and of course SONIC YOUTH so the casual deep diver would be intrigued but not shocked. Challenging traditional concepts of music is one thing, but sitting down with "Time Is Money (Bastard)" when I was in high school was something entirely different. Hearing Gira mumble "You should be violated. You should be raped. Don't fight back: I need you." as a fourteen year old will stick with you, you know? I truly wonder if you can push boundaries artistically without pushing them in in reality, and later encounters with people in and around Gira's circle would give credence to what was once simply a wonder. Does it negate the art....? I don't think so. But it makes my relationship with the art more complicated. The whole point was to make the consumer uncomfortable, so....success?

TIME IS MONEY (BASTARD) • A SCREW

NUCLEAR FAMILY

 

I listen to these songs often. I like all of the NUCLEAR FAMILY releases and I will avoid trying to choose a favorite...they just did it right. This was the first recording, followed by a cassette in 2007 and an EP in 2009 before wrapping their run in 2010 with a full length and another cassette. I shared this a few years ago but, like I said, I listen to these songs often....I encourage you to do the same.

NUCLEAR FAMILY

OUTRAGE FACTOR

 

Some people are just geniuses. I have a few in my orbit and I feel lucky to know them - their compulsion inspires me. Biff is one of those people, and a couple of years ago he got a hair up his ass to make an '80s USHC band to he could get better at playing drums. Oops, motherfucker got a hair up his ass and made a perfect USHC recording. Blatant stylistic ripoffs that are just disparate enough that the whole fukkn thing ends up sounding more like a relic than mimicry....file this recording alongside ADOLESCENTS, ZERO BOYS, Blood, Guts & Pussy, CIRCLE JERKS and no one would ever know the fukkn difference. And some cat in Buffalo just whipped the shit up on a whim then recorded and played everything himself. Shit makes me want to puke before I get dressed and go to my stupid job in the morning. (I'm a) sellout.

NOTING EVER CHANGES

GREY NURSE

 

Pretty sure they were from New York and, considering the 2013 recording date on this self titled slammer, that kinda helps explain why they seem to have flown mostly under the radar. To us left coasters, the early '10s were awash with nuke york and toxic states and an avalanche of bands whose sound and aura kicked DIY punk in the fukkn teeth. A lot of that shit had (has) some real staying and some of those bands and labels truly left a mark....now that the dust has settled, the new has worn off and those kids who upset the system are now institutions, you can see some of those marks, even if they are faint. But what of GREY NURSE? Was NYC fucking with their interesting, passionate DIY hardcore in their world filled with fashion, cocaine and misanthropy? Maybe they were, but on this left coast I had no idea....until now. You can hear where they are coming from, but the great ones can put something familiar in front of you and still leave you floored, which is what their sole release does to me. Take the second track "Born Into This" as a prime example - in just 80 seconds GREY NURSE encapsulate all of the sonic protein that I need in my musical diet, and every second tastes delicious. The foundation is early '00s hardcore, leaning as much on the emotional tinges as the blasts and breakdowns - take the quiet middle section of "Excuses" or the gentle landing in "Born Into This" as evidence that, quite simply, these cats knew exactly what they were doing. The vocals on "Asleep." The nod to Kirsch with the guitars that open "Stolen Language." The sheer intensity of the closer "Old." Each subsequent listen reveals more moments...and that's an indicator that the recording you're listening to is, in fact, truly great. So maybe GREY NURSE weren't with the in-crowd at the time, or maybe they just were just a blip and didn't have time to jump in the water...I'm not here to analyze sub-scenes or do a post mortem on trends that dominated past decades, today I'm just here to suggest that you listen to this GREY NURSE tape, because it's really good and it sounds like they really fucking meant it. 

GREY NURSE

CONCUSSION

 

I'm not sure where this came from, but it's here now and I am grateful. Crust tinged thrash metal insanity in four fierce movements and I don't know what more I could possibly ask for. Enjoy your week, mutants. 

AGE OF INTOLERANCE