SPETSNAZ // FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT

 

• Two doses of ramshackle noise punk annihilation from SPETSNAZ.
• Three minutes of raw anarcho/noise from FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT. 

• Enjoy your week... 

SPETSNAZ // FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT

VIVID SEKT

 

Maybe it's odd to wax nostalgic about a 'current' era, but then I realize that 2009 was two or three punk generations ago - shit, Jan's Room was not even a decade old when I learned about hardcore so I'm really talking about the before times when I blab about bands that were playing fifteen years ago. And fifteen years ago it felt like a damn rebirth. There were the Silenzio Statico ponx in LA, SF and Oakland felt like the same scene (even though SF really only had Thrillhouse to compete with the energy of East Bay warehouse gigs) and you could get wild at HOTDR in San Jose or roll up to Sac....and there was Portland. Not like that place wasn't already on the map, but the punks were doing something different there MORAL HEX, ARCTIC FLOWERS, BOG PEOPLE...and VIVID SEKT. I posted this demo when The Escape was only a couple of months old and when I came across a double copy a few weeks back I felt like I was catching up with an old friend. This particular brand of forceful, straight forward punk tempered with UK anarcho sounded like nothing else at the time, and when you listen to day it's almost as if VIVID SEKT are (still) standing determinedly mid stream just letting decades of sonic trends flow past them. They're awkward in the most juvenile way, a presentation that requires concentration results in tracks like "Horde" that are absolutely timeless. 

VIVID SEKT

LEBENDEN TOTEN // SKITKIDS

 

This tape was released twenty years ago. 

Let that sit there for a minute. 

This tape was released twenty years ago. 

•••

When I first started posting on Terminal Escape in 2009, I was sharing seminal UK crust demos that were just barely twenty years old. And now...I'm posting a split between two bands who are my contemporaries, and the tape is twenty years old. 

Weird things happen when you don't die, I suppose. 

DISTORT THRASH DISTORT HOPE

NERVESKADE

 

Do you remember when this happened? The noisy, chaotic shit was already a thing and other bands had started pushing the envelope to be sure but NERVESKADE was different. And after NERVESKADE...? Everything was different. 

NERVESKADE

CHOW LINE

 

What does it say on the cover? Can you fukkn read? No shame if you can't, modern industrialized educational constructs are an absolute motherfucker so it's probably not your fault. Let me help you out: SIX TRAX RIPPER. Can you read that? Because that's what it says, and that's what it fukkn is. A ripper with six trax. You're welcome. Fuck school. Listen to punk tapes all day. 

SIX TRAX RIPPER

FATAL STATE

 

Hard charging, relentless Portland hardcore. For reference points - think something between DETESTATION and SPAZM 151 with fierce vocals that remind me of Mariam from CONDENADA. The delivery is flawless, and "Terrorist Pigs" makes me wish hell would rain down from the sky and purify humanity. Their previous recording is good, but Pura Rabia is something else - you want to talk about a band firing on all cylinders, then let's talk about FATAL STATE.  

PURA RABIA

RESIST

 

Listen to "Hypnotized" a few times. It's so plainly....simple. Formulaic. Typical. Even the guitar break that comes out of nowhere is completely predictable. And it goes so fukkn hard - the power is undeniable and it hits me even harder as a middle aged man than it did when I was in my twenties. RESIST were ubiquitous in the '90s DIY world, so much so that you were never surprised when you came across a new record in a distro (or dollar bin) but maybe you were never excited either, because you knew exactly what was in the grooves. And if you were one of those people (full disclosure: I was) then I urge you to revisit one of the sturdiest examples of USDIY political hardcore. Maybe you know what's coming...but you keep listening because you want what's coming. You want the melodic sixty seconds that closes "Refuge." You want the brutally simple off the rails repetition of "It's A Beautiful Day." You want determined idealism housed in clenched fist black clad alcohol fueled punk. And that's exactly what you get. Draw a line between POISON IDEA and SPAZM 151 and you're going to bisect RESIST. 

THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

WARCRY

 

Sometime in the mid-2000s I was at an afternoon show in Austin talking to the first guitarist from WARCRY (maybe on the patio of a bar-b-q joint because....well, because Texas). While we were generally chipping it up about whatever and waiting for the first band to start, a raging DBeat song started blasting over the PA and we both took note (perhaps because it was loud enough that casual conversation was rendered temporarily impossible). After a moment, he commented that the then-relentless wave of DBeat clone bands had gone too far and that he was tired of hearing DBeat everywhere and more or less dismissed whatever new DBeat clone band had wormed its way onto the too-loud afternoon bar-b-q show playlist. We both laughed, since he was kinda right, and black clad two riff wonders did seem to be coming out of every dark alley around that time. And then the pick slide for "Without Warning" dropped over the PA and we were both struck momentarily silent, realizing that the band the WARCRY guitarist was dismissing was, in fact, WARCRY. Then we laughed more.

10 TRACKS NOISE

LOSE LOSE

 

I'm just gonna do it again - another post for folks who somehow missed history while it was happening. LOSE LOSE came and went in 2016, and left us with one monstrous recording - Kill Or Be Killed. Think about it: drums (FY FAN), guitar/vocals (DEATHREAT, TRAGEDY), bass (COLDBRINGER, WILD MOHICANS, CALL THE POLICE), and they blow it up by stripping everything to the bone. North American hardcore for the modern disillusionment moment. 

KILL OR BE KILLED

RESIST

 

Perhaps there's not much new to say about RESIST, but I feel like they're a starter band that people just kindof acknowledge instead of really listening to. They were a band whose records (and the patches) I'd see everywhere, so there was always this "I'll listen to them later because I can listen to them any time" casual acceptance. RESIST just were, and you knew they were good but lots of folks never dug much deeper than that. Well, I blast the shit out of Liberation and I have a very hard time thinking about RESIST in the passive sense ever again. Shit is like '90s political hardcore ripped from the clutches of POISON IDEA - driving and intense sub two minute bursts that command, and demand, full attention. Five burners plus a SABBATH cover (that works way better than you'd think it would) and a live version of "United States Of Apathy" from their first demo...this is eleven minutes of fire. 

LIBERATION

BACTERIA

They dropped this demo off and then disintegrated in a flash, and unless you were in Portland in the very early 2000s, you probably missed them entirely. Much like MIDNIGHT, their past and future projects probably over shadow them (the rhythm section would spend the following two decades forming the foundation of WARCRY), but there's something about the rock solid hardcore fronted by completely unhinged vocals that sets BACTERIA apart. Ten songs in less than a quarter hour. 

BACTERIA

GOLDEN PLIERS

Summer is a few months away for Northern Hemisphere residents, and this tape is a couple of summers old, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying one of the sickest mixes that's ever fallen into my lap. Whether this was crafted by bike shop staff to be played in the café, or crafted by café staff to be blasted in the bike shop, there are no losers here (hint: the bike shop and the café are actually and/or essentially the same). TINA TURNER into HAWKWIND. Drop ANN PEEBLES in before an insane and timeless ESG jam. Close the thing out rolling SABBATH into a smooth reggae jam and wrap with SUICIDE's "Dream Baby Dream"....come on, this is perfect. Best tape, best people. 

GOLDEN PLIERS SIMMER MIXTAPE

RESIST

RESIST shouldn't really need any introduction - straight forward, in your face, political punk rock. By the time they ended their initial run with 1994's Ignorance Is Bliss LP, the sound had definitely matured and admittedly the songs were more interesting, but there's something about the honesty of this debut release from 1989. Think about time and place.....Feel The Darkness came out the following year, SSD had only split a few years prior, and traditional US hardcore was considered by most to be dead and buried as bands either turned to midpaced pre-grunge or metal (or worse: funk) and new punks started venturing down the more melodic trails blazed by later BAD RELIGION records. And then there was RESIST....fast, pissed, hardcore. 

UNITED STATES OF APATHY

NOXEEMA

Four awesome people in a timeless punk band from Portland. Literally the only non awesome thing here is the garbage can cassette this was replicated onto. Fortunately you can hear the jams the way they were (digitally) meant to be heard here. 

NOXEEMA

PISS PISS PISS

I miss this. PISS PISS PISS sound like they predate the replacement of intense with pretense. It's fast, heavy, pissed, frustrated, powerful - it's all of the things that I need modern punk to be, and it churns like a motherfukkr too. I never saw PISS PISS PISS, but I have a feeling that no one cared...which kinda makes me love this demo even more. Fukk the flavor of the month and crank "Schilieren Lines" real real high...PISS PISS PISS just walks in, kills, and walks out with confidence. What the fukk more can you possibly want?

NEVER HERD OF AMEBIX

SWEATS

Can we talk about how good this band is? I mean, alternately I can just post a link to the demo (and the band) and you can listen and then we can discuss. Or you can just accept that SWEATS are really fukkn good and we can discuss from there. Up to you. Actually it's not - I'm the one typing. They are good. So yeah...let's talk about hardcore. You like hardcore? Cool. Me too. Turns out we all like SWEATS. I'm still trying to figure out why there's only one demo but hey - I'll take what I can get when it's this fierce. 

SWEATS

FRANKY

It seems like forever ago when this subgenre seemed like it was going to take over Punk World, and then suddenly everyone was into goth and I found myself wondering what happened to idiot punk...and wondering why I missed it so much. Portland's FRANKY help settle at least the second quandry: Because it rules. Brilliantly simple pogo punk drenched in white noise guitars - it's quite a simple formula, really, and one must be careful to not overdo things, which is where FRANKY excel. So "Drink Up, Here's The Piss" and get weird and get loud. 

NOISE AND MELODY: FUCK OFF

PMS84

This was one of my favorite straight punk demos from 2016, and I straight up missed the fukkrs when they rolled through town because I was at work. In the world of excuses, which is simultaneously the lamest and most understandable (or, at least in my case, predictable) excuse imaginable. Tough as nails and more infectious that anything else you're gonna listen to today....

PMS84

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Nasty garage hardcore, noisy pogo punk, blown out distortion fests, angular no wave...what the fuck do you want that this compilation doesn't deliver? Sandwiches? Well those don't come in plastic shells (at least they shouldn't) so eat these tracks or no dessert. CUM, SPETSNAZ, FLEXIBLE AMMUNITION BELT, CHEMOS, THE OINTMENT, MPK, FRANKY...and some guy named Steve. 

ALIVE FROM INSIDE CHAPEL OF THE CHIMES

Link repaired...thanks to all who let me know I fukkd up. It happens sometimes....

MACHO BOYS

Short and sweet today, punks: MACHO BOYS are from Portland. MACHO BOYS rule hard. MACHO BOYS are important. MACHO BOYS are not what you think. MACHO BOYS are doing it right. I want to be on the MACHO BOYS team. MACHO BOYS. 

TOUGHEST BAND IN HARDCORE