LORETTA LYNN

This is how you're supposed to listen to this shit. It's not supposed to sound perfect. No one busts out a '70s country record so you can check out the fidelity and check the sonic ceiling on a fancy hi-fi system. They give you Revolver or Aja for that shit. You listen to They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy so you can fukkn cry. You try to listen to feel nostalgic for something you never actually knew, but really you just end up crying. You want to hear her version of "I've Never Been This Far Before" and think about how sketchy Conway's original sounds in hindsight and wonder what the actual fuck Loretta's people were thinking when they signed off on this shit....but then the tape starts to tweak and everything starts to feel fukkd and wrong and you wonder why you were ever doing anything other than crying into your solitary beer. You want t turn it off but you keep hoping it'll even out and you'll feel okay just crying, but by the time "Ain't Love A Good Thing" shits all over what's left of your listening experience and the beer is gone and.....dude, what were you even thinking. You don't get to have a good pathetic cry, you're too fucked up for that. There's one song left though....it's called "Nothin'" so sit with that while it grinds (you) to a warbling halt. It's your life, so keep listening and keep living. If you want to.

THE DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE MY DADDY

 

SWAMP HORSE

 

Erratic and oppressive drones from SWAMP HORSE on 2007's Crippled Witch. A supremely damaged sonic excursion that listens like a doom recording deconstructed and reassembled by a sound engineer on LSD. Doom, synth, noisecore, horror soundtrack and drugs in a blender and poured slowly into your ears, filling the canal with muffled mania. 

CRIPPLED WITCH

BRODY'S MILITIA

Why not stick with Underrated North American Bands from the '00s to finish out the weekend? I'm pretty sure that if people ever underrated BRODY'S MILITIA, it's because they were scared...which is probably exactly how BRODY'S MILITIA likes it. They play(ed?) dirty, nasty, punk rock 'n roll that can go toe-to-toe with any of the Scandi crust rollers (Won't Change A Thing"), just like they can drop fastcore bulldozers in the lap of any crew of posi kids ("Nietzeche In A Bottle"). The dudes know how to swing, and that's (one of) the thing(s) that sets them apart...they don't just listen to boogie rock in the van, they'll straight drop the licks into their hardcore bangers and make it sound like they were meant to be there....because they were. This demo is centered around SARCOFAGO and CELTIC FROST covers, which seems appropriate, and it listens really fukkn well now that it is a teenager. 

ROCK 'N ROLL TRAITORS

A.D.F. 914

Chalk this up with the reasons why unheralded cassette troves are still worth searching for. A 1986 recording featuring ASHLEY ALLEN (of SHAKIN' PAGANS "fame") and pals just being actual freaks - not dissimilar from the bedroom recordings likely made by scores of would-be geniuses from all over the world. Irreverent, sloppy, often twisted and awkward, mostly offered with only electric guitar and vocals. Recorded in Kentucky, with contact addresses in Louisiana and Ohio. Cassette appears to be alternately and/or simultaneously titled: Snare, Take One Of Theese, or Who Is Next? Pick one and get weird. 

TAKE ONE OF THEESE

JON EDIFICE

This is kinda perfect, and not just because it came as a surprise packaged up with a MARSHSTEPPER record. Ultimate proto-modern post punk, like a WIRE/WIPERS hybrid reincarnated in Memphis in 2004, JON EDIFICE sits (alone?) on a guitar shaped pedestal in the midst of the Ascetic House roster...and he seems to feel right at home. Angular, robotic and brilliantly tuned in to the important sounds of aural addiction. Also - it looks badass. 

HOW MUCH IS YOUR LIFE WORTH?

AREA FRIENDS

I think many Escape visitors will find Area Friends to be an excellent casual springtime weekend listen. A few catchy garage tracks, an ultra infectious driving dark wave number, some alt throwbacks reminiscent of the '70s indie/rock influenced '80s college radio fodder....and it's all just: good. Like every track holds you. LEONARD THE BAND, who probably deliver my least favorite track in "Observation Tower Headache," offer up some pure STEELY DAN-esque sounds that land somewhere in between yacht rock and '70s Mojave greats....and even though it's my "least favorite" track I totally love it. There's something (and something positive) to be said about a compilation filled with artists you've never heard, playing music that outside of your go-to comfort zone, that resonates this well. Featured acts include: KENTUCKY VULTURES, DEATH BRIGADE, HAPPY FOREVER, COCOONITUDE, JOAINE, QUAILBONES, SECULAR PETS, JACKSON PURCHASE and a few others from Ghost Orchard Records, who seem to have left us a few years ago based on (lack of) internet activity but have kindly left us with a soundtrack for a weekend. If not this weekend, then just stick it in your back pocket for another time, time to be spent with a few of beverages and the people of your choosing. 

GHOST ORCHARD: AREA FRIENDS COMPILATION

MURROWIND

Minimum fidelity, maximum determination. Long periods of atmosphere punctuate extended bursts of raw and primitive black metal. Whatever MURROWIND may lack in proficiency (not much), they more than make up for with intensity. It's not pretty....and it's not supposed to be. Also, these fukks are from Kentucky, which leads me to believe that the desperation in these voices is, in fact, real. 

MURROWIND

ELSINORES

I found this tape instantly compelling...washed out garage punk/pop with a waver in the tape, a warble in the vocals, and the catchiest tracks this side of early '90s indie rock. Not afraid of riding a good hook, Kentucky's THE ELSINORES will make fans of blissed out garage punk weak at the knees and hopefully win over a few codgers in the process. Consider me one of the latter.

CHAPTER I

CROSS

Sometimes it just sounds like a garage-psych/goth/jam session...and then sometimes it gets weird. The 5 minute "Sharon Days" could be a BIRTHDAY PARTY/DOORS hybrid, and then they follow it with "Life Not Dead," which basically sounds like the previous cut but on klonopins. Dreary, meandering tracks that drunkenly swagger with a confidence that shines a light to the fog, as if to remind you that CROSS know exactly what they are doing, that the apparent lack of direction (or motivation?) is nothing more than a ruse to tempt you to move along. Don't fall prey. It's a trap. The thing you will move along to is boring and predictable. Stick around for a while. Get weird.

PRESSURE MESSAGE

MA TURNER is affiliated with this project, and this cassette comes from Chondritic Sound - that's TWO stamps of quality to shine light upon any shade of doubt.

SALAD INFLUENCE

Melancholy rarely sounds as good as on this airy six track offering from Kentucky's SALAD INFLUENCE. Vocals float above the recording, guitars jangle and drunkenly sway while the band plays the most perfect modern incarnation of '80s college radio alternative that I've heard since the first incarnation of '80s college radio alternative. The tracks breathe, and the careful, deliberate construction of the songs and their placement on the tape is subtly stunning. "Feeding Time" is an absolute pop classic, followed the six plus minute warbling dirge of "Re(a)d" that sounds as much like a struggle as a lament. Sink in. 

S.T.T.

MA TURNER

It's Halloween, so you can play these sounds in your haunted house. Or you can just turn off the lights and turn up the volume and your world will become a haunted house. You get to choose, I'm only here to help.

RANKING DRIVER

A fine offering from our friends at Nostilevo.

ASHLEY ALLEN: THE SHAKIN' PAGANS

This Shakin' Pagans demo on the A side is a pure rockin' burner, just vocals and guitar but shit is super edgy and even on slower numbers like "Drive Me To The Bottle" you get the impression that this cat has something cooking far beyond some proto-hipster retro country shits. This might start out as one man rockabilly meets Buddy Holly, but tracks like "Wasted Life" are undeniably punk as shit...and even more so in the context of 1986 Kentucky. Ashley gets a "full band" (or at least a full compliment of instruments recorded on a 4-track) on the flipside, and the shit gets darker...it also gets better (the "Hands Of Time" number is indescribably brilliant). I do not expect many of you to dive into this one, but those who do will be justly rewarded.

DEMON-STRATION

BAD SALLY

Tell me you wouldn't buy this cassingle for $1.00 when you came across it in a box of religious tapes in a thrift store in New Mexico. Go ahead, tell me it wasn't worth the gamble. Now let me sweeten the deal:  BAD SALLY are from Henderson, Kentucky and their contribution to the world of butt rock was self released on the band's Party Time Records. That pretty much erased any hesitation.

ALL I EVER WANTED // YOU FOUND ME

WRETCHED WORST

The hand written sticker on the tape case read: Buzz-saw punk as balls bass bum-out! Have Fun! 

A few dollars and 21 minutes later I was a happy man.

WOMEN FROM RATS // HANGED FROM A CROSS

POOR WHITE TRASH

It sounds just like it looks. Somewhere between ANTI-SEEN and NINE POUND HAMMER in intent, but Brutal Truths is primitive teen angst in execution. Take one man, put him in Lancaster, Kentucky, and give him a 4 track - this is what you'll get. A couple of legitimately killer tunes ("Junkie," "Shut Your Mouth," and the "fuck you"/pickslide combo that closes "Don't Wanna Hang Out With You" is perfection) mixed with GG ALLIN attitude, rampant misogyny and the manifestation of complete alienation. Or maybe it's just a redneck with a tape recorder.

BRUTAL TRUTHS