DISIPLINE

 

Brilliant and brilliantly anthemic Boston punk with serious MISFITS energy.....except DISIPLINE is on an entirely different mission. From "Get Pegged (If You Want To)" to "Consent" to the title track and (far) beyond, these punks make sex and gratification political. Because it fucking is. 

SEXUAL HEATHEN

==========

I had to edit this post for the Google because there was a butt and/or a weiner in the cover art. 

That shit is bizarre - you consider all of the shit the world today and it's a ding-dong and/or buttcrack that pushes you over the edge....? Sorry kids, the internet that brings us joy will surely be the death of us. 

MELEE

 

The thing that made MELEE cool is that they were so decidedly not cool. They seemed to sit at the perpetual kids' table while the USDIY scene subdivided itself and anointed royalty in the early '00s. Meanwhile, they delivered consistently ferocious raw hardcore every bit as fast as the th/en vouge Y2K thrashcore explosion, harnessed the political (and sonic) rage of CRUDOS and made the shit sound like they owned it.  Were they game changers.....? Perhaps not. But this demo, along with the EPs and splits that followed over their brief existence, have aged extremely well. Unpretentious, honest hardcore. 

MELEE

WATCH FOR ME GIRL

I was ripping a ripper last week while I was getting some other shit done, so the jams were mostly lurking in the background. I heard RAMRODS blast through two sets of late '70s Detroit proto-punk followed by a VIKINGS single, then the tape flipped and there was a ROCKET 455 demo from 1994 and mostly this shit is still in the background but I'm still grooving pretty hard on the sounds.....and then I heard the guitar. I knew the song instantly, but the knowledge was buried in the recesses of my sad, cluttered brain. I stopped to focus because this track demanded full attention - the guitar riff I recognized was from DMZ, but this was different. Better, even. And I kept listening; SINIASTER SIX, SUPERSNAZZ, TEENGENERATE, DEVIL DOGA, ACTION FAMILY, THE WOGGLES blast their way/s through timeless bangers from DMZ and I was reminded how bananas the '90s Japanese garage punk scene was just as I was reminded how much DMZ still flies under the radar. TEENGENERATE covering "Mighty Idy" is probably the highlight of your day and in case you're wondering...? No, I didn't get anything else done that day. 

WATCH FOR ME GIRL

PROLETARIAT

 

Gratitude to the old punks who captured and distributed this shit. PROLETARIAT are perhaps (somewhat) under-appreciated, but this boot shows that real-time punks knew what was up (I see you, Felix). A live WERS set and tracks from Soma Holiday and the elusive Distortion demo....you need this. A full 60 minutes, and you need all of it. "Events / Repeat" on repeat, and then "Options" forever. 

RADIO SHOW BOSTON

THE FREEZE

 

My hand slipped when I was scanning the cover - that's gonna happen when you're cranking seminal Boston hardcore at 2am and I don't feel the need to apologize. Still blown away at the progression from "I Hate Tourists" in 1980 to this infectious hardcore masterpiece just two years later, but really I just don't understand why this record isn't up on the altar alongside the USHC essentials. This is the 1990s Taang! reissue that was available in bargain bins throughout the 2000s - pretty sure this copy was $5 at the store on Melrose on a WHN? SoCal trip, and it's still available for $6 direct from the label. That's how the classics should be, and Land Of The Lost is an absolute classic. Probably the most California sounding Boston act (check "Sickly Sweet" in particular), this record (tape) is nothing but track after track after track and I can't think of a better way to spend a Thursday. So yeah...if you're still thinking about that blurry cover scan....? I'm don't really know that I can help you and you might not find what you need here. For the rest of you though.....THE FREEZE.

LAND OF THE LOST

BRAIN KILLER

 

Damn, this band is severely under appreciated. Maybe there were just too many bands doing *this* at the time, but really I think it swas because there were a heap of other  bands who were doing this a few years earlier and punk attention spans are criminally short. But hindsight is a motherfukkr, and the BRAIN KILLER material doesn''t just hold up - the shit shines. Raw, powerful, noisy, manic hardcore punk from Boston - live shit, some covers, punk, no song titles, no compromise, off the rails. And also punk. 

BRAIN KILLER

SAY GOODBYE

 

Meaty. turn of the century Boston hardcore - reared on the classics with a forward focus that's even more keen in retrospect. The foundation here ;ands somewhere between early '80s Boston and late '80s NYHC, but in 2002 the USDIY world was filled with barely retro-posi and Y2K fastcore energy...all of that shit is here. Then consider that the nuclear of SAY GOODBYE would later be connected to MIND ERASER, WASTE MANAGEMENT, THINK I CARE, RIVAL MOB and a host of others? Well, you see where I'm going here. SAY GOODBYE's 2002 demo was the launch point for a lot of this shit, for a lot of these dudes, and the vision is absolutely clear on these four tracks. "Don't Lean" to start your day, punk.

SAY GOODBYE

DOGMATICS

 Some shit from Boston's DOGMATICS played on the radio sometime around 1984 (or so). You know those bands you don't know you need until you know you never had them? DOGMATICS fit that bill - probably flipped by the reissues dozens of times....but that won't happen again. A bunch live(?) acoustic songs here that may or may not be related, but they were on the same tape and you know how I tend to operate. So enjoy.

DOGMATICS

R.'N'R.

 

I started with the I've Had It / Your Rules 45 and it was interesting mostly because no one was doing that then. Then came the Manic Ride/Dead Alive full length (I know there were other 7" bangers in between - I'm just talking about what passed through my earholes) and it was like.....I dunno, if I want THIN LIZZY I'll go listen to THIN LIZZY and even though that's not really what R'N'R was doing it still felt like the energy they were trying to conjure and let's be honest here: AT released II the same year The Infamous And Notorious came out and are we really going to have a discussion about preferred punk interpretations of rock 'n roll? The were Boston Hardcore royalty by 2004, but still....ANNIHILATION TIME. Anyway, this first demo passed my desk a few weeks ago and it was (is) a really fun listen - surprisingly rudimentary considering the future output from this crew of Scene Giants. Four rock 'n roll / hardcore hybrid tracks from folks responsible (in part) for THINK I CARE, INNUMERABLE FORMS, VACCINE, BOSTON STRANGLER, RIVAL MOB, BATTLE RUINS, MIND ERASER and about a dozen other bands...but really? You had my heart when you ripped the Metal Health cover, because that was The Wizard's first hard rock record. 

DEMOLITION

PANDEMIX

 

Even though they named themselves four years too early, these Boston punx kicked the fukkn doors in with Pathological Culture. From the monologues in "Total Immersion" and "Conceptual Fuck" to the off the rails unrealized UK anarcho on pharmaceutical speed vibes in "Second Opinion" just wind them up and hear them roar. They've grown into a new and compelling animal since 2016 and the new(ish) Love Is Obliteration is a total killer that showcases this early vision fully realized...but in typical elitist fashion I'm still gonna point you to the demo first because you gotta start where shit starts, you dig? Four modern hardcore burners that manage to not sound like anything you've heard....or at least not like anything you're comfortable with (which is arguably more important).

PATHOLOGICAL CULTURE

MFP

 

Sometimes you just want the good shit with no frills...sometimes you just need MFP. Three meaty hardcore stomps from a Boston crew with a pedigree longer than your list of grievances. From the up-tempo "Death Delights" to the flawless DEAD BOYS cover that you didn't know you needed to hear until you hear it and you don't want to hear anything else. So you go back to the beginning.

MFP

FUCKHEADS

 

Holy fuck is it a face blast to crank this tape after it sat on a shelf for a decade!!! FUCKHEADS took the over the top noisepunk guitar manipulation that NERVESKADE dropped on the DIY world in the late '00s and injected it into a blistering embodiment of intense rapid fire East Coast hardcore. The foundation is hardcore punk - period - and that's what makes their treatments so perfect. Absolute face melting supremacy with erratic ADHD guitar treatments that make FUCKHEADS simultaneously difficult and fascinating to listen to, and check "Traitor" to learn about appropriate BPM implementation in hardcore punk. I feel like future punk is creeping in from the past to tap me on the shoulder and remind me that it's not quite time to die...yet. July 25th 2024 and listening to FUCKHEADS makes me feel alive. 

2011 SUMMER TOUR TAPE

HANGYAKU

 

So I posted another one of these Hangyaku tapes a couple of years ago and I'm officially on the lookout for as many volumes as I can get my filthy hands on. That tape featured three upstate NY bands, while this one captures the DIY touring '90s in a nutshell - Boston mutants FAT DAY on one side and Pueblo, Colorado maniacs FANATICS on the flip. They were both in the studio at the same time, and these are shows that just.....they don't happen like this any more. Maybe the internet killed these combinations, maybe there are just more options now, maybe I'm just too old and tired to notice today's magic - all I know is that I miss this shit. FAT DAY rips through twenty four tracks of their inimitable freakness in as many minutes and wrap up with a rare interview clip that reminds me how uniquely original and important they were. Flip the tape over and you get FANATICS laying pure waste to WRPI studios over the course of thirty seven minutes...pure and unhinged high desert speed crust with a ten minute interview to set the stage. The '90s were a time - we got stranded at FAT DAY's house and they fed us after they got home from work and school every day for a week. We went to FANATICS' house dead set on doing piles of drugs. And succeeded. Then they came to our house and did the same. And now a lifetime later I'm a middle aged man in the midst of upheaval and....and here are my memories captured on a college radio station in Troy, New York. So yeah, I'm looking for those other Hangyaku tapes. 

HANGYAKU Vol.3

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

SUNSHINE WARD

 

I dunno - maybe I should still post this shit on the Live Blog (because it's live) but....this shit needs to be blasted. Twenty plus minutes of sweaty, studded, raw Boston hardcore released for their summer tour in 2016. Readers looking for pretty things should just come back later, because SUNSHINE WARD are anything but. 

THERE WILL BE QUIET....AFTER THE GIG

 

FOREIGN OBJECTS

 

If it seems like I've been on a bit of a 2010s deep dive lately....perhaps that's because you are perceptive. Maybe I just missed a lot from that era, maybe I just blind grabbed from a shelf that happened to have a lot of nuggets all hanging out together, but I'm not complaining and I don't think the minions will be either after they revisit (or are introduced to) FOREIGN OBJECTS. Sharp, urgent Boston punk with fierce femme vocals right up front drawing from '90s Olympia as much as early punk. There's a killer three band split with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY and DEFECT DEFECT and I kinda feel like that a perfect place to squeeze this band in, though the distinctive vocals are such a huge focal point that it's really hard to try to put them in a box with any other band/s. And this tape appeared in 2011 (a format variant of the Vinyl Rites 12" released the same year) because that's apparently the year I'm supposed to be paying attention to at the moment. Focus Track: "Words Of War."

NO SENSATION

PUNK SINGLES

Remember a few days ago when I posted that (killer) SOCIAL UNREST demo and talked (for the umpteenth time) about how cool mix tapes are and what an invaluable service the tape makers and traders provided for their contemporaries (and countless punks to come)? Well, allow me to present this unnamed slammer probably created sometime in the early 1990s by persons unknown. DOGS, NUNS, EAT, ANGELIC UPSTARTS, THE FREEZE THE FUCKIN' FLYING A-HEADS, NORMALS, BLEACH BOYS, MOLESTERS, SLEEPERS....all tracks taken from singles that were probably (almost) affordable when this tape was put together. Solid as fuck from start to finish - this is the kind of tape that distracts you when you put in on while you're hanging out or trying to do shit. also the kind of tape that makes you want to just sit and listen and think about all of the records you don't have. 

PUNK SINGLES MIX TAPE

WRECKING CREW

 

I'm pretty sure it was Chris(tine) who turned me onto this record, which was probably less than ten years old at the time. In general terms I was more of a Midwest/West Coast guy (geographically and sonically), but I was always hungry for sound in that pre-internet reality...and this Boston shit? Yeah, I was all in. Zero bullshit full throttle hardcore punk with tinges of metallic crossover and intense marble mouthed vocals - Balance Of Terror is a second tier starter record for lots of folks and for good reason. Sonically, WRECKING CREW land somewhere between CRUCIFIX and NYHC....but in 1989 I suppose that meant they sounded dated to some (guessing here, I was teasing my hair and putting songs by THE CURE on mixtapes for girls in 1989). Never mind the context though, the record fukkn slams and still gets frequent spins at TEHQ. When my pal Mike asked if I wanted his tape copy....? I wasn't bummed. 

BALANCE OF TERROR

INNUMERABLE FORMS

 

Would INNUMERABLE FORMS have ever appeared on my radar if not for the connections to DIY punk and hardcore? Unlikely. I also don't give a shit how or why I started listening to the band...I'm just glad that I did. Arguably the finest, purest, fiercest example of doom laden death metal that graces my shelves. Two tracks here, a teaser for the Philosophical Collapse full length that got trapped in a "tour promo for a tour that was booked and then Covid happened and who even knows when the record is going to come out" cycle. No matter, the title track will make you forget that time even exists. 

PHILOSOPHICAL COLLAPSE // DESPOTIC RULE

OUT COLD

 

You'll hear a lot of respectable heads laud OUT COLD as one of North America's unheralded greats. Their discography is formidable to say the least, but the fact that they were leaning this heavily on rock 'n roll on their elusive first demo is more than a little noteworthy. This shit dropped when punk was confused, and it sounds more like a hardcore band that would snuggle with ANTISEEN instead of a group who would (justifiably) grow into a thing of Boston legend. Bonus points for using a live recording as your first demo....blast "Can't Win" and gratitude to Mark for all of the sounds. 

DEMO 1991