FORM RANK

 

You've heard sounds like this before, but the beauty of punk is this: You've never heard these sounds. Addictive and anthemic Los Angeles street punk, doing to kids today what CRIMINAL DAMAGE did to us twenty years ago. We had heard sounds like that before too...you see what I mean?

FORM RANK

PRIMITIVE

 

Sister band of the equally uhhhhh....primitive DENIM posted a few months back. PRIMITIVE (and I dare say there are fewer bands more aptly named) dish out six minutes of utterly ignorant Oi! that's more than a little (and very intentionally) rough around the edges. Say what you will, but when you want to turn it off and just stomp around a bit....well, this shit hits the spot. 

PIGS FOR SLAUGHTER

DENIM

 

What happens when smart punks play ignorant Oi!? DIY mutants have been answering this question (repeatedly) for a solid decade and if they don't stop soon I might start shaving my head. Wait - I already do. Might shave my beard but also probably won't do that....but I might start listening to skinhead music with some (more) frequency. Because DENIM do the thing that so many "traditional" skinhead bands don't seem to be able to pull off - DENIM do the thing that smart punks do when they play skinhead music; they make the shit sound punk. Knuckle dragging skinhead music with a knuckle dragging hardcore sounding singer? I'm fukkn here for it, punk.

NO REMORSE • SKIMASK JUSTICE

.....and I need to clarify: "Ignorant," "Knuckle Dragging" and "Skinhead" are all terms of endearment in the context of this post. These descriptors are meant to contextualize the sounds, not the caliber or qualities of the people making them...

STAND PROUD, STAND DISORDER

 

Seventeen Yogyakarta street punk bands you've (probably) never heard of unless you're from Yogyakarta. I'm not from there....hell, I've never even been there....but I have heard a fair few street punk bands in my day and I didn't know anyone on this taper until I heard this tape. So let us learn together, punks. Let's learn about PO'O'OI!, POSON OF YOUTH, S.L.S., SOUTHERN DISORDER, DIRTY CIVILIAN, PEPPERMINT and more. Let us get loud and coarse. 

STAND PROUD, STAND DISORDER

OUTSKIRTS PUNX & SKINS

 

Fukkn stunning late '90s collection of raw street punk and proto Oi!, the first of three volumes that capture the early stages of Indonesian punk finding its own place and voice. Thirty bands here, some are straight killers (DEVASTATED, THE MORONS, DISINFECT OPERATION MILITARY, MAWAR BERDURI, RENTENIR, IGNORANT FLEA to name a few) and there are a few clunkers to be sure, but if you want your eyes to peel and your face to melt and you want your mind blown.....then thank the folks at No Label Records. 

OUTSKIRTS PUNX & SKINS: STREET SOUND OF REVOLUTION

CRUX OF VIPERS

 

Punk deserved more from CRUX OF VIPERS. Punk deserved CRUX OF VIPERS to exist as more than a project. But we're used to not getting what we deserve and appreciating what we have. This tape is so fucking good. 

CRY TUFF GLORY

NO MAN'S LAND

 

You've probably noticed the swarm of Indonesian punk tapes occupying these posts over the last few months and if you're anything like me you start sweating when you see (even more) DIY punk shits that you suddenly need in your life. NO MAN'S LAND started in 1994 when Indonesian punk was in its infancy, and sometimes things just hit different when you can feel how real they are. Ultra basic tupa-tupa political street punk will make you feel alive, young (at heart) punk. And if you need a hearty dose of earnest ramshackle Oi! with serious @PATIA NO energy...start sweating. 

GROW AWAY FROM THE SOCIETY

THE GLASNOST

 

I woke up this morning around 7am with a cat purring in the crook of my knee and the sun washing over my face. Clicked the space heater on to take the bite out of the chill, hung out with the cat for a few minutes and then got out of bed to feed the cat and make some coffee. Took mental stock of shit I need to take care of before I head to Oakland for REALISTIC practice in a couple of hours (yeah, old people schedule rehearsal on weekend mornings) and I thought about Indonesian communist Oi!. "Wow, I really want to blast some clenched fist communist Oi! from Indonesia while I drink my coffee this morning,' i thought. So I did. And now you can too. 

WE STILL FIGHT AND AGAINST

SENANDUNG CANDALA

 

Hard skinhead stomps with blatant UK77 influences on this 2014 Indonesian comp. D'ORMAS, PRAHARA, MURDERAT, BRETEL, THE GANGS were all new to me, as was AGGROTHREAT who ironically offer the two softest cuts on the tape. Bonus instrumental ska number from THE BOSSES to close the second side and...well, what's not to like? Exactly. And when there are new sounds to discover and a lot to like, that's when we keep listening.

KOMPILASI SENANDING CANDALA

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

MANIACS

 

I've been blessed with a healthy handful of under the radar street punk slammers lately, and this collection of hitters from THE MANIACS stands proud at the top of the heap. Not my subgenre of choice, but I can listen to "Bovver Brigade" and "Cause Of Violence" all fukkn day and then some. The full package is well worth digging into - 2014's CDr release Survive on cassette with the Strength Of Oi! tape from 2016 housed in a beefy box with a booklet filled with more than enough images and word to make you feel like you (were) there. You want a hitter from Singapore that lands squarely between COCK SPARRER and CRIMINAL DAMAGE? You found it with THE MANIACS.  

OI! AGAINST RACIAL PREJUDICE

SOCIAL DRESS

 

Overt and in your face street punk a la WANKYS, TOM & BOOT BOYS or any other modern punk with gruff, snotty vocals and a healthy UK80 obsession. The real genius was keeping the demo at four songs (including a SPECIAL DUTIES cover), not because the songs aren't great (they are) but because even greatness has limits. As presented, however? This is damn near perfection.

SOCIAL DRESS

BUNGA HITAM

 

Threw this one on when I was digging through the 'to be listened to' box and ended up sticking with it for a couple of rounds. Some folks gonna listen to COCKSPARRER or some other kind of infectious street punk with hopelessly addictive choruses....but me? I'm gonna hum along to this shit I can't understand and crank "Menghancurkan Dan Membangun" for the third time in a row.

UNTUKNU KOMUNITAS

••••
SUBHUMANS hit Templeton, California with HUMAN tonight.

Always pysched to see them in a smaller town, but particularly and specifically excited to sneak away to Paso Robles with Kelsey and hit The Vreamery.

KREMLIN

Those tapes I got from Indonesia are turning into a seemingly endless stream of heat - a treasure trove from the first few waves of SE Asian DIY punk and hardcore. I have never heard of most of the shit in those packages (and there's another one on the way), and this burner from KREMLIN is one more reminder that you're simply never going ton hear all of the punk. Keep listening, keep digging, keep searching - I fukkn beg you - and you'll never hear all of the punk. As a reminder, I present twelve maximum energy commie street punk blasts from the streets of Jakarta recorded more than twenty years ago. This fuckin' system is still like a dictator, punk is still important...and punk fukkn rules. 

THIS FUCKIN' SYSTEM IS STILL LIKE A DICTATOR

THE WASTED

If the punx aren't doing it for the punx, then why are the punx even punx?

PUNX FOR PUNX

 

DEATH RIDGE BOYS

 

It's impossible (for me) to put on a DEATH RIDGE BOYS record without getting sucked in completely. This band doesn't "sound like the classics," this band sounds fucking classic - absolutely essential modern rock 'n roll steeped in street punk and North American hardcore/punk. All pretense stripped away, no hook off limits, politics on their sleeves right next to their hearts...with three covers to remind you where they are coming from. Gonna blast this shit while I ride six miles to sit in a cubicle and think about my decisions. 

BOOTS ON THE STREETS

SAVAGEHEADS

 

Y'all remember this shit, right? Hardcore punks have flirted with street punk and Oi! since forever, and there have surely been some notable wave and notable successes, but ......this fukkn SAVAGEHEADS demo cleaned house when it dropped. Game changer. "Prisoner Of The CIA" sounds like fukkn BAD BRAINS and LA FRACTION at the same time - how does that even happen?

SAVAGEHEADS

MONSTER SQUAD

 

Just a band of kids from Vacaville - too far from The Bay to be Bay Area and buried too far in the Sacramento suburbs to be a cohesive part of the scene. So, as you do when you're kids and you don't know the rules, they made their own scene and twenty-five they're still the fukkn kings. I think I first saw them in the mid-'00s in Baltimore when a SUBHUMANS tour crossed paths with MONSTER SQUAD supporting CASUALTIES. I had heard about them from folks back home, these kids who exploded out of nowhere reminding a bunch of old scene 'heads that punk could still be (and look) fukkn punk and they did not disappoint. Attitude right, songs tight...they just clicked, and they haven't stopped clicking even as they've grown into adults.  So how do you celebrate two and a half decades of punk and friendship? You re-record songs from the demo you made when you were kids, and you record it the way you recorded it when you were kids. The result is I Love Punk and....my dudes, I love punk too.

I LOVE PUNK

NO TIME

 

Yet another band that I seem to have missed....and fukk how did I miss this shit? Boots on the fukkn street Pittsburgh punks NO TIME will get under your skin and into you head and make you (well....me) feel like there's no other punk that I need. 

NO TIME

MENDEKU DISKAK

 

Weird that a promotional Oi! sampler was one of my favorite releases of the year, but once you blast this fukkr you'll understand. Nine essential punk cuts from Basque Country, Spain, Mexico, Virginia, and England that will make your fukkn knuckles bleed. Shit, if this were a one song cassette with the opening track from BRUX on repeat it would make the essential list, so the rest is just gravy. So listen to SELF-INFLICT and ZIKIN and spend a few minutes thinking about what punk and the fine people responsible for Mendeku Diskak have given to you...now think about what you have to offer to punk.

PROMO KASETEA VOL.2