DÉFAITE

 

If someone wants to get into a deeper discussion about subgenres and why I like what and when I prefer one thing or another and which sounds push certain buttons in certain ways...? Well, obviously if you've been here before then you know I can do that. To a fukkn fault. But sometimes you're talking to a civilian and you just want to say you listen to punk music but then they want to start with a story about how they saw TOOL or took their kid to see SUM 41 and they try to create a false equivalence and there's no hierarchy or judgement but it's just....different. It's not the same and they aren't going to understand (and that's okay). And sometimes in those moments if someone seems receptive, I think about playing them a punk music to show them what I mean when I listen to punk music - the next time that happens I'm going to play DÉFAITE. The shit just captures so damn many things that make punk perfect - CRIMINAL DAMAGE, SOVIETTES, LES THUGS, NEON PISS, GENERACIÓN SUICIDA....you know, punk music. I like punk music. 

DÉFAITE

PARANORMAL

 

The feeling I had when I first pressed play....It was familiar, but I haven't felt it in a long time. It's about feeling immediately connected to a sound, about not knowing what exactly is going to happen next but already knowing that it's perfect. You want to talk about vibes, we're talking about a continuation of the NHFTK ---> NEON PISS pipeline and I swear if PARANORMAL had forged onward they could have achieved such heights. It's so well done I don't even really feel like I need to say anything else....gorgeous, ramshackle, infectious melodic punk. It's mostly spot on, but it's the just-barely-off parts that makes it even better. 

PARANORMAL

TÉLÉCOMMANDE

 

Here's another repost. Even though TÉLÉCOMMANDE's swan song only popped up here five or six years ago, I recently snagged a copy with a cover and I know that if I just quietly edited a post from 2018 then something like zero people would even notice. My admittedly mild OCD would be satisfied, but that wouldn't do shit for the minions who have yet to experience this brilliant but relatively short lived French outfit. I mentioned SOVIETTES and SPITS when I first posted this tape in 2018 and I'm gonna stick by those references while I think about how much you're going to enjoy spending your Sunday  listening to high energy French punk with heavy synths. Lots of tasty morsels in those old posts...treat yourself. You're worth it.

EN LÍGNE DE MIRE

PINKU SAIDO

I was hooked the second the UK tinged guitar lead pulled me into the first track. It was a ruse, of course, because this French act only flirts with those early '80s hooks enough lure in those among us who are scare of hooks....I didn't need to be tricked into falling head over heels for this tape, but I understand the motivation. Over the course of six tracks, PINKU SAIDO manifest as a brilliantly melodic punk band, taking a determined path through a forest that has seen the footsteps of THIS IS A FIST, SLEEPERS and LA FRACTION leave footprints slowly obscured by time and trend. As the comparisons suggest, this is hard driving and forceful, with powerful femme vocals delivered in Japanese....and these bands don't come around very often. 

PINKU SAIDO

LÉGITIME DÉFONCE

I first heard of LÉGITIME DÉFONCE from their late '90s split with San Jose's KRUPTED PEASANT FARMERZ, but I never looked any further (and honestly kinda forgot about them). Then this homemade collection appeared on my shelf (that's more or less how it happens around here) and it was like a time machine taking me back to the tours when we played a handful of tapes until they were transparent, sweating and drinking and discovering everything, us against the world. This was the punk that we listened to on these tours - not this band per se, but this was the sound that escorted us across North America and we would have loved this tape if it had been on our radar. High energy, snappy, melodic French hardcore....mid '90s hardcore that holds up extremely well, even if in retrospect there's a little too much NOFX in the mix. This tape features their self titled 1995 debut and the slightly rougher sounding ¡Ya Basta! from the following year...and I'm glad it lives on my shelf now. 

LÉGITIME DÉFONCE // ¡YA BASTA!

This '90s tape maker was a nice one, slapping eight tracks from the Higgledy Piggledy comp at the end of the tape....there's never a reason for leftover tape, kids. Excellent French shits from OVER TEN INCHES, TILT UP, BURNING HEADS, OUT OF ORDER, MASS MURDERERS and more. Included in the DL of course, because I am also a nice one. 

BARREN?

This one kinda took me by surprise - I just thought I was putting in a tape by a regular band I had never heard of. I thought maybe it would be pretty good, or maybe it would be pretty forgettable (that's not an pre-assessment of this tape in particular, just a law of averages thing....every tape can't be great, you know?), but I didn't necessarily think it was going to kick me in the ass. Paris anarcho-punks BARREN? did exactly that, however, and I can't stop listening to their 2016 demo. File alongside ARCTIC FLOWERS and very few other bands who are able to make new sounds feel familiar (or make old sounds feel fresh and urgent), it's dark and fiery punk for a hopeless generation. That generation is us, in case you were wondering, and "Violence For Peace" is our anthem.

 BARREN?

TELECOMMANDE

It's been fukkn years since these French maniac graced these pages, and honestly it's been almost as long since I've crammed a TELECOMMANDE tape into my earholes. Well....if I was trying to make the heart grow fonder in the face of forced longing and prolonged absence, then it worked! 2013's En Ligne De Mire was their final release (as far as I can tell) and as you can see, my copy came to me sans artwork. The band cared enough to send me a final errant cassette (though apparently not enough to hit the local office store and run me off a copy of the cover, but I swear I'm not complaining), and the twenty minutes of fun contained in that blue plastic shell are as appreciated as the thought itself. High energy, infectious punk rock a la SOVIETTES or THE SPITS, with a lazy synth casually carrying the base notes of each riff like an adoring puppy following its human around the park on a Sunday afternoon. I'm pretty sure I fukkd up the track IDs (it was late), but I'm also pretty sure that my mistakes will not negatively affect your listening experience....because you will be dancing too hard to notice.

EN LIGNE DE MIRE

Find my blithering on the two previous TELECOMMANDE releases here, though the links to the actual tracks are long long dead. Their bandcamp, however, is still very much alive. 

DÉFAITE

I guess it's a shame that every melodic punk band from France will be compared to LA FRACTION, but then I suppose there's nothing wrong with keeping your standards high, so why not compare them all to the best? DÉFAITE hit the same verve - I know the two bands sound nothing alike (aside from, and I I can't figure out exactly why, the bass guitar - go figure) but this is (still) my blog so I'm gonna stick with that assessment. It's just exceptional melodic punk that makes me feel good for liking punk and makes me feel like it's OK to be alive. And that should be more than enough....right?

POST-HUMAIN

LA FRACTION

My introduction to LA FRACTION was in 2002. We played with AMDI PETERSENS ARMÉ and TRAGEDY at Gilman and Billy was wearing a bright fukkn red LA FRACTION shirt and it just stuck out, you know? It wasn't black, it didn't look "punk" in the generic sense of the descriptor, and it just stuck out. I knew all those dudes, it's not like we were tight or anything, so I didn't ask about the shirt and just kinda filed it away mentally....to be addressed later. And then five years later their third LP La Vie Rêvée dropped and I was driving that French band on their US/Canadian tour, a tour that included a boat in Texas and threats of violence in San Francisco and and drugs and botched border crossings at Niagra Falls and a crazy ass frontman in Pittsburgh and a show with WOLFBRIGADE and PISSCHRIST in Milwaukee (epic evening, seriously) and it was fukkn magic. Really, it was. I have toured with a lot of bands...good bands, and good people...and I have had a really good time with most of them. But the bands I have really connected with? I can count them on one hand. LA FRACTION lives on that hand. I could talk about the 450+ mile drive east from Missoula (no stops...my longest stretch to date) with Magali sitting shotgun. I could talk about Dédé showing up in Leipzig and making John and me snort soap (that happened). I could tell a lot of stories that are now a fucking decade old, but my point is that this band is special, and if you have yet to discover them...then today is going to be a very special day for you. Similar to the day I looked up at the Gilman stage and saw that bright red shirt and wondered what band would make a red shirt with an (even/already in 2002) outdated Photoshop 101 image plastered on the front. What band? LA FRACTION. They are from Paris.....and they are (still) fucking beautiful.  

LA FRACTION

This tape was released by Nikt Nic Nie Wie, and contains LA FRACTION's debut LP from 1998 and their EP from 1996. Twenty years cannot dull the power of these songs....

WOLF MEETING: PRÊCHEUR LOOP // SKEPTICS

You know those times when you just open your eyes and you are alive? It's a pretty good feeling, and a feeling that we all should have more often. That doesn't really have anything to do with either of the French bands on this tape, but it's a thing I was thinking while I was listening to it....so maybe they are related. Twee/pop from PRÊCHEUR LOOP, really really good shit. Subdued psych/no wave on the flip..."Spare No Time" is a lost Nugget. Get it...feel alive. 

WOLF MEETING

CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL

If you were around in the '00s then you likely heard about this French band. And if you weren't turned off by the art then you surely dismissed them because of the name. I mean, you have a lot of stuff to choose from, a lot of things to enjoy, so it makes sense that you would want to focus on the things you think you might like. It's cool...I did the same thing. Thankfully, the folks at Dratsab Records in Malaysia are here to help us to get right with this one, and they've made these tracks available to a new audience - even if that audience is made of people who should have paid attention the first time around. Absolutely relentless crust/grind with searing female leads and harsh male backups. The guitars are like rusty knives, and there's a vibe that touches the killer German shits of the era that we all fukkn loved for a season (AKEPHAL, ACME, etc.)....but mostly this tape just rrrriiiiipppppssss. No reliance on downtuning or crushing riffs, instead CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL just drop a monster in your earholes and leave. Because after a half hour like this? There simply ain't nothing left.

CONTAINER CRUSTIES FROM HELL

SEASON

What would you do if I said "mid '90s metallic French emotional hardcore"? What would you do? Time to decide...

...because I just said it.

SEASON

PEUR PANIQUE

I shared the 2011 demo a while back, but I think that France's PEUR PANIQUE got better after I did. The 61 seconds of "Gachis Permanent" sets the stage (and kinda validates the existence of fast hardcore), and the remaining baker's dozen tracks just keep on settling the score. Ferocious, blistering fastcore/PV with slow riffs that will bring you to your knees (or incite you to mosh the shit out of your bedroom). That 2011 demo takes up eight tracks, and the remaining six bangers (and they are basically all bangers) seem to come from two separate sessions...shit man, I don't care when they recorded them, I'm just happy that they did. It's worth noting that "A Quois Tu Penses?" has a sick Tragicore vibe absent from the rest of the tape...but mostly I just want More French Fastcore!

DEMOS: 2011 - 2013

LITOVSK

While I feel like the formidable '80s goth/new wave rehashed by punks might soon be cast aside for the next regurgitation du jour, releases like this one give me pause. France's LITOVSK just fukkn nail it on their 2014 demo, and I have every hope that the upcoming vinyl release will be even better. It's as close to perfect as any brooding punk could ask for - driving, forceful, catchy, engaging...all of the right adjectives apply. Five tracks that have been passed around the internet for some time already, but I like to be thorough and make sure your needs are met.

LITOVSK

TRAITRE

I know that all of you punks have scooped the RIXE single by now (and if you haven't, then you should), but there's another French Oi! band, slightly more under-the-radar, that you need to get hip to. You can thank me after you listen to this shit.

TRAITRE

KRIGSKADE

When I posted the NO REFLEXION LEFT demo a couple of months back, I mentioned that Mike was sending tapes from a couple of his newer projects my way and that I was looking forward to hearing them. But I gotta be honest: I didn't think the shit was going to be THIS good. KRIGSKADE play forceful and lurching hardcore punk with (excellent and poignant) lyrics in Danish and tortured guitars that use '80s US hardcore as a starting point instead and proceed forward in the direction of total damage. The breakdowns sound like they are included out of sheer exhaustion rather than a desire to start any circular (or wall to wall) motion, and the English explanations give a purpose to the intensity in the vocals. This is everything I want.

KRIGSKADE

¡KØD ER MORD!

TRASHLEY

Sometimes I listen to shit and I just think that the band knows something I don't, that somehow they have the inside scoop on life and sound and that's why I can't stop listening to them. TRASHLEY do this to me - there's a secret they aren't letting the rest of us in on, but they seem to have the formula for aural earworms perfected. The vocals remind me of FUZZBOX and the keyboards certainly serve as further justification for that comparison, but the rest of the music is much more in line with catchy garage punk...or maybe with some weird proto-pre-indie band like VASELINES that NIRVANA would have celebrated even though no one had ever heard them. It confuses me....both that it exists and that I like it so much. TRASHLEY...laid back and smart and I can't get enough.

TRASHLEY

HEIMAT-LOS

Sometimes life gives you lemonade, and you add too much sugar and wind up making it all gritty at the bottom of the glass. And sometimes life gives you a tape packed with killer '80s punk and hardcore demos and you share them with your friends one by one. Life is kinda funny that way. HEIMAT-LOS did a pretty killer discography CD with this dude that you should buy, but in the meantime, here is their five track creamer from 1984.

HEIMAT-LOS 1984 DEMO

TELECOMMANDE

After I posted their 2009 demo last year, Vincent from TELECOMMANDE was nice enough to send their cassette discography my way - call it a "tapeography" if you like, this combines their 2008 & '09 releases in one handy red plastic shell. No sense in reposting the B side, since those of you with taste have already snagged it here, so today I offer you the first TELECOMMANDE demo tape. Brilliant synth driven punk jams that will have your ass shaking all over the office...or bedroom, or warehouse, or wherever it is you find yourself today.

TELECOMMANDE 2008

DEFLAGRATION

For the last two weeks I've posted compilation tapes that were really more like Best Of collections. Last week's Bad Entrails was a comprehensive trip through '80s US hardcore, while the Us Against Them  comp concentrated on some of the best the UK had to offer.  But this Friday's compilation is full of deep cuts, and doesn't really flirt with anything more well known than DEZERTER or NEON CHRIST. The tape centers mostly on European hardcore, with the aforementioned Southerners and Canada's F.O.A.D. and UNNATURAL SILENCE as the only off continent contributions, and is full of lesser known killers like BLOEDBAD (Holland), UNDERAGE (Italy), CERESIT '81 (West Germany) and UNDERDOGS (Belgium) as well as French TE alumnus RAPT and KROMOSOM 4. Most of this shit is fast and raw hardcore, and some of the recordings leave a bit to be desired in the sound quality department (in the bands' defense, the tape was distributed on a sub-par Salvy brand cassette, which might have affected the distortion levels in an adverse manner...it just depends how much you care about such things and, in turn, how punk you are), but when you hear crucial blasts from Finland's PROTESTI or classic shit from Germans INFERNO and SCAPEGOATS or SQUIRT from Switzerland, do you really care about a little tape hiss?

DEFLAGRATION Vol. 3 Side A

DEFLAGRATION Vol. 3 Side B