SWEET POISON VICTIM

 

I was talking to a friendly civilian at work last week and they said something nostalgic about cassettes being "in the past" and I mentioned that they are very (very) much in the present and they seemed completely floored that the medium still existed, much less still had relevance. I hesitated for a moment, because when the circles of work world and real world overlap it can be weird, but it felt like an appropriate moment to share and soon I was talking to a normal ass woman in her 50s about the nuances of DBeat and crust and how HNW can share as much with quiet ambient as with electronic experimentation and how there are still bands who dub copies of their recordings in their bedrooms to give to friends. I talked to her about Pat and told her about the Copy Wright tapes (trying to connect the tape and punk worlds to the work world in which the two of us coexist) and I told her about '80s UK punk unknowns and powerviolence and '70s Bay Area new age shit.....and then I realized her eyes had kinda glazed over because I had just been rambling on about tapes. Which, to her, was equivalent to rambling on about nothing whatsoever. I didn't bother trying to recover though, because I had genuinely enjoyed my ramble.  Anyway - SWEET POISON VICTIM is (was?) an Afro-Beat band from Indianapolis. They released this tape in 2015 and it's really fukkn good. 

LOWLIFE // EZULI

JON HANCUFF

 

Looks like a comedian bit the cover of Movement for their comedy cassette. I'm fine with that move, just like I'm fine with the hi-brow comedy the cassette contains. I wasn't expecting this (I didn't read the text at the bottom of the cover - sometimes I don't really pay attention), and I was fine with that too. 

I MADE A WISH

COOL MUTANTS

 

I've been laid up sick for the better part of a week and still feel like a pile of moldy socks stuffed in a skin suit - headed to the Billion Dollar "Healthcare" Corporation this afternoon to get a chest x-ray to see if I have pneumonia, feeling pretty damn privileged that I can just get that shit looked into instead of stressing about the money or access or whatever. Who knows what the world of health care in this lost country looks like in a few years, but we're already the worst of all of the so-called "first world" nations (and most of the second and third) and I don't really feel any institutional motivation to move the collective US (get it?) in a positive direction, so I'm gonna really savor this x-ray, just in case. Normally when I'm feeling under the weather, I plow through cassettes - ripping and uploading and scanning and pontificating and whatnot, assuming someone will eventually read my missives, but sleeping bathed in sweat for 16hrs a day doesn't really lend itself to many extracurriculars...I did manage to handle this COOL MUTANTS slab for 2012 and honestly it's putting a smile on my face this afternoon. Think REATARDS, M.O.T.O., SONICS SPITS and you aren't going to be surprised, but there's a lot to be said for some hi energy comfort food for your earholes when you feel like shit. 

COOL MUTANTS

YOUTH IN ASIA

 

I would like to introduce you to a creature known informally as The Indianapolis Screamer, the rare and elusive monstrosity responsible for a raw and mysterious hardcore assault that will make you shudder. Before you have a chance to prepare your wits, you'll look down and see them scattered all over your small, trivial world and you'll be stuck gathering them while sick society laughs at your misfortune....and The Indianapolis Screamer? They will have forgotten you and moved on to remind another poor misguided soul what this life is really like, what this existence is really for. Some call them YOUTH IN ASIA...I hear the sound of dark gods. 

NUCLEAR WASTE ABOMINATION

PHOENIX BODIES

 

If it hadn't been for the split with SHIKARI I might have missed PHOENIX BODIES completely...but thankfully I didn't. Even so, I barely scratched the surface, and I'm grateful for the folks at Bullwhip for compiling some of the early essentials in one convenient format (hint: it's a cassette) because this is a shit I (still) need in my life. Kinda can't believe that HIGH ON CRIME never crossed paths with them because this kind of technical screamo/violence is exactly the shit that permeated that era and region (this is where Dave is probably going to tell me that we played with them....such is my life) - chaotic ultra-intensity that channels early century metallic emo but is still close enough to BORN AGAINST to stay honest. As the title suggests, this tape captures the first two years of PHONIX BODIES....a half hour of what I needed, what I missed, what I would have loved. A half hour of what I want. 

THE FIRST 2 YEARS

GUINEA KID

 

Midwest hardcore punk rules, OK?
OK.

GUINEA KID

DAGGER

 You want to find me a more furious dose of Midwest hardcore punk?
Go ahead...I'll wait.
Nothing?
I didn't think so. 
Seven songs. Seven minutes.

HEXES

DATA UNKNOWN

There aren't supposed to be rules, which is why a band like DATA UNKNOWN comes as more of a realization than a surprise....because when punk opened the doors, this is the freak shit that was walking out of the closets and into the world. Then came the damn rules, of course, and we got stupid CRO-MAGS. Luckily for us, someone lets the door ajar, and the weirdos are still sneaking out...a reminder of what we're leaving trapped inside. 

W/P

VERNAL PIKE

DIY as fuck, and I don't just mean the photocopied hand folded insert and weird shaped pocket outer sleeve just begging to get lost. I mean the DIY shit where you can see the heart busting out off the sleeve (double meaning there - you get it?!). VERNAL PIKE were a weird ass Indiana outfit kicking around the turn of the (last) decade. Singer played french horn, SUBMISSION HOLD by way of region rock vibes, the uncompromising and idealistic fire you read in the lyrics is clearly driving the whole band, recorded in Nathalie's basement in 2011...and it sounds like it. There are only 50 of these...and I bet less than fifteen still have that stupid oversized "cover."

VERNAL PIKE

ILLITHED

My jaw dropped when I heard ILLITHED for the first time a few weeks ago. They had a relatively short run in the late '90s with just two releases in their catalog so it's easy to see how they eluded discovery for so long (plus they were from Indiana - nothing against Indiana, but lots of stuff from there flies under the radar). Pogrom is a serious blow to the senses though, and it's not often that a blast from an unknown past hits this hard right out of the gate. It's from 1998, so the surge of heavy, powerful,"fully realized" hardcore was already overtaking the scrappy and earnest mid decade DIY sounds, but ILLITHED were holding fast and injecting that new energy into their sound while still embracing their Midwest basement foundation (I'm just assuming they played in basements, because it makes sense). Guitars are crunchy and loose, songs erratically incorporate elements of heavy chug but never sound like anything other than a determined, dirty DIY band, and the vocals (all of 'em) are the embodiment of '90s emotional hardcore. This band hits like ANIMAL FARM, ECONOCHRIST, DEMISE...this is the good shit. 

POGROM

DATA UNKNOWN

 

You know this one is right before it even really gets going. "Vibin' On A Hearse" opens up with some truly deranged synths creeping over a distorted tom beat with no cymbals, and then vocals kinda meander drunkenly through the outer edges of the mix until the whole outfit gives way to a mental episode with "Feathers n Eyes." True freak punk from Indiana, each track is an outburst and some are directed inward in the most damaged (and damaging) way. More than an experiment, DATA UNKNOWN sound like a plea for attention...or possibly help. 

PROMO ONLY

DURESS

I could probably spend a month hitting overlooked Midwest '00s hardcore bands (I won't), so let's roll from Chicago over to NW Indiana and blast DURESS. There's a hollow fire to the way this 2008 is recorded - drums resonate with an early '90s SoCal power (yeah, that kind of power), distant and in your face at the same time, and that forms the foundation for the way the rest of this motherfukkr hits. Which is so say: hard. There's only like five minutes of music on this monster, plenty of chances to savage everything around you and clench both fists while screaming at the ceiling. And breakdowns? And breakdowns. Check the opening 19 seconds of "Guilt" and tell me you don't want more from life. 

DEMO 12-26-08

MORGAN ELDRIDGE w/YALLA STOCKINGS

Quiet, deliberate, churchy, subtle keyboards serenade four poems written and recited by Morgan Eldridge. I'm not gonna lie: I like this way more than I should. Solitude and full concentration is required here. It's only 15 minutes, and I'm pretty sure you can find the time. We can grind later. 

AWAY'VE

CREEPING PINK

I seriously have not been able to get enough of this tape since I ripped it a couple of weeks back. The companion to the FSDC2 compilation posted a few years ago, I don't remember the CREEPING PINK track on that tape grabbing me as much as everything contained on this 2012 recording does. Equal parts CHROME, Desert Oracle, PHAROAH OVERLORD and alien intervention, the 70+ plus minute journey that is Thee Creeping Pink Sound (Creeping Pink's NeverNeverLand) is a lesson in vision and execution...or perhaps an example of the two disciplines feeding off of and building onto each other. Moments harken early '90s psychedelic/indie, but mostly because CREEPING PINK are rooted in the same dirt that those then-visionaries were. These recordings are nothing short of magical, and fortunately for (all of) us there are several more doses of magic that have come in the years after their release. If you do not have a warm desert environment near you, then I suggest listening inside, at night, at least (but no more than) one lamp (preferably in the corner), and alone. 

 THEE CREEPING PINK SOUND // CREEPING PINK'S NEVERNEVERLAND

C.C.T.V.

It seems to defy logic that I have not already posted this demo, but search engines don't lie....do they? There was a time back in the middle of the '00s that NW Indiana punks dominated all mutant conversations about cool, so much so that I entered my first CONEHEADS show with generally blah expectations. I got my ass handed to me. Supposedly the combination of BIG ZIT and OOZE were really the kings of the region (and maybe no coincidentally, the most hardcore of the lot, including the bands that followed), but CONEHEADS, C.C.T.V., DAGGER, LIQUIDS....the shit all rules man. There are more, to be sure, but I am an old and out of touch man, and they aren't making this shit for me - they are making it for their mutant friends. 1970s DEVO reincarnated, DEAD MILKMEN but faster and not as dorky, cerebral punk for drunk teenagers....just good, fast music. And if I've already posted this tape, then I'm not sorry. 

PRACTICE TAPE 3.6.16

VERA MALETA

Harder than normal to find the right words for VERA MALETA. These are sounds and feelings and conjurings that come from a distant time and an unimaginable place. Truly meditative, with layers of vocals and assemblages that take you on an inward path. Recommended for night listening, and seasonally appropriate...I don't throw out the "witchy" descriptor lightly, but rarely have I encountered an artist more worthy.

BEYOND THE TOWN

THE BILLS

Nothing fancy here, just some addictive swinging midwestern punk rock. A solid groove throughout, with downright sassy vocals and laid back bass driven grooves that focus on the rhythm as much as the riff while the guitar casually jangles its way along. It's a really simple formula, and it totally works....so well that it almost takes a minute to realize how damn good it is. "Looking For You" is the track - the drum fills sound like they were overdubbed two weeks after the rest of the demo was recorded, and in just 47 seconds THE BILLS leave us an under the radar classic. 

THE BILLS

SKULL CULT // MACK ENEMY

High praise time....you ready? SKULL CULT is like NW Indiana breakouts (CONEHEADS, CCTV) and THE SPITS smoking crack and listening to SOCKEYE demos (or maybe like 1976 DEVO on 45 rom). Flip the tape and MACK ENEMY sound like FRONTLINE ASSEMBLY smoking mescaline and listening to SOCKEYE and ANDREW W.K. demos. So....you can pretty much file this under: Essential.

APPLY THE BRAIN

And yeah....I'm pretty sure that people don't smoke mescaline. I only did it once and it was a pill.  OK, a lot of pills, but I digress....

FINAL VOID

I met FINAL VOID's drummer outside of Superiority Burger a couple of years ago (good taste attracts good taste, I suppose), and was pleased as fukk to find that this nice ass dude was also in a ripping band. Just a two song teaser, but if full throttle clenched fist headbanging hardcore punk is your steez....then maybe two is all you need. 

FINAL VOID

BELLY JELLY

Do you like mutants? Do you sometimes like to listen to art and/or garage punk even though you aren't really sure where the fuck it comes from or what scene these people could possibly exist in since all you ever go see is hardcore shows? And then do you ever realize while you're wondering all this shit that BELLY JELLY have been plowing through one damaged riff for just over two minutes with essentially zero variations? If you, like me, made it that far then you're in for a treat, because these Bloomington brillianaires are....well....brilliant. And weird. One song is like CCTV on mescaline, the third track is a nursery rhyme for children on LSD, and the thing ends with some nonsensical HALF JAPANESE meets KING MISSILE shit. So, while I don't actually know what this is, my day is seven minutes better than it was when I woke up. 

SONGS ABOUT HEADS

Also....they wrote me a note. I like notes.