OUTRUN X SHADOWS

 

Another addition to the seemingly endless NecroSignatures (Occult) Library of sound. Each contribution different from the last, and often giving no clues as to what the next chapter might have in store. OUTRUNXSHADOWS effortlessly floats between manipulations of subgenres, creating distinct sounds that defy description or categorization - this is truly one of the most unique things I have heard in recent memory. Dark wave, bleak lo-fi metal, indie/punk, synth-pop....it all makes sense here and it all feels right here. Somewhere On The Southern Front, something incredibly special continues to simmer - it started with OLD THRASHERS REUNION a few years back, and this small band of freaks have delivered nothing but genius ever since. I offer this post (and the embedded links) with highest recommendations. 

OUTRUN X SHADOWS

JESUS CHRYSLER

 

You've heard the name forever - or at least that's what I might have said in 1992. There were a few names that everyone knew even if they didn't know the bands. There were the DEADs (MILKMEN + KENNEDYS), BUTTHOLE SURFERS, AxCx (if you got down like that  - I didn't), but the tongue in cheek brilliance of JESUS CHRYSLER was always something else. This tape from Ragin' Records was my first exposure to the band, even though I've known the name for well over two decades. Honestly, it was way more laid back than I was expecting and they aren't from Arizona even though their sole LP is on Toxic Shock. Instead, they're from Tennessee and they apparently jammed a shitpile of Aussie punk records before they recorded This Year's Savior in 1988. What do I hear....? I hear DEAD MILKMEN and DESCENDENTS and CELIBATE RIFLES and the entire Wanghead catalog even though ELVIS HITLER really ain't got shit to do with this shit. So get into those nasal-y R. Anonymous-esque vocals and those brilliant guitars and just....get into JESUS CHRYSLER. 

THIS YEAR'S SAVIOR  

A BROKEN HEART FOR EVERY GUITAR IN NASHVILLE

 

I feel like this one could have just as easily been compiled by some LA hipster trying to front as a country expert by releasing DIY mix tapes. This is to say: A Broken Heart For Every Guitar In Nashville is an absolutely stellar comp with artists you know, artists you love and artists you didn't know you needed. The FREDDY FENDER cut (one of my favorites from a criminally underrated singer) would be at home on a Barrio or East Side Story collection, you've got Willie and George mingling with Wilma Burgess and Jack Scott. THE STATLER BROTHERS' track is a shock to my system and the tape starts to fail just before you start to cry, B.J. THOMAS delivers an all star performance with "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" and if I start talking about the BARBARA MANDRELL contribution then I won't stop so.....so I'm just gonna stop. 

A BROKEN HEART FOR EVERY GUITAR IN NASHVILLE

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

 

ELVIS PRESLEY

 

Of course Elvis is easy to criticize. The schlock movies, the extravagance, the less than glorious swan song (which was actually extremely fucking glorious - you're not crying, I'm crying), the simple fact that he's the single biggest American pop star of the 20th century makes him an obvious target. By 1968, Elvis had seemingly run his course - the new rock 'n roll was taking over and he had a string of forgettable movie soundtracks in his wake and....he just wasn't cool. Or didn't feel cool. Or whatever. His first rebirth was this NBC special - campy, powerful, led by a voice that is pure fucking gold. The whole thing is worth watching, from the acoustic "sitting around the campfire in a leather bodysuit" segments to the over the top choreographed routines it's all quintessential Elvis and demonstrated that he was The King before anyone called him The King. Just twenty-one years from the release of "That's All Right" in 1956 to his death on this date in 1977 - to think that he needed to remind people who he was halfway through that run kinda boggles my mind. So yeah….Elvis is an easy target for cheap shots, if you’re trying to seem cheap. 

ELVIS

Also - the tape is pretty warbled and wrecked in a few spots but you should really be looking up the special and watching with your eyes anyway. There's a reason he's on a pedestal, y'all.

OLD THRASHERS REUNION

 

For all of the bizarre creations that Necrosignatures Occult Library has bestowed upon us, their opening salvo might still be their most ambitious. A full bodied some-kind-of-feeling album that doesn't remotely hint at the slew of varied (and excellent)releases that would follow, the 2019 tape from OLD THRASHERS REUNION is an evil nasal-y bedroom indie anomaly...maybe it just fits the description, or maybe because it fits the description and it's a perfect recording. A self released tape filled with should-have-been alt/pop hits is a rare treasure in any context, but knowing that the VÖLKERDÄMMERUNG tape came right on the heels of this masterpiece, and knowing that the same party (parties?) was (were?) responsible simply shoots this shit to the stratosphere. 

OLD THRASHERS REUNION

MENTAL ANGUISH

 

I dug this tape out of a Portland shop last spring. It was raining that day, and the bloke working in the register didn't say a word the whole time I was in the store....just flipped over a fee jazz record and kept doing something on the computer. I bought a few other things that day, but this is the one that I feel like I walked in for - you know what that's like? As if the other thing that you wanted was actually just a thing that was leading you to this. I can't describe MENTAL ANGUISH, but this dude was on (is on) and entirely different trip. Like a no budget '80s alien movie soundtrack come to life in this realm (Residue is from 1987, so in that realm as well), these are sounds of electronic isolation and theoretical escape. With over 100 releases to his name it's clear that I will never reach the bottom of this well, but I want to meet the MENTAL ANGUISH completist. Space rock for another life - I haven't even scratched the surface, and I still don't know what I walked into that record store to dig for.

RESIDUE

PRIVATE DETONATION

 

What a great idea - a complete reinterpretation of HIDDEN SPOTS' 2008 Secret Noise EP by the mysterious folks at NecroSignatures Occult Library. Murky, swampy, dark freak punk dirges punctuates by a bizarro psych-punk freak rendition of "Stand Up" before "Unkindness" provides the wildest comedown imaginable. A truly unique listening experience, and the context makes the PRIVATE DETONATION release even more intriguing - Plan-It X sounds completely reimagined for a new era. 

PRIVATE DETONATION

PARASITES OF GAIA

 

So hard to nail this one down - it's loose and dirty and they land like a dark garage / indie / shoegaze outfit...but they hit hard and they feel like a gnarly hardcore band ripped out of the late '70s LA freak punk scene. "Middleman" is like a lost damaged BAGS track, but then "Land Of Nob" rolls into "Alliance" and this organ drops in (seriously) and....maybe you should just listen to Parasites Of Gaia instead of reading me try to blabber about it. Shit is cool and doesn't sound like anything else, which is a (very) good genre.

PARASITES OF GAIA

SNOOPER

 

Enter The New Realm Ov Sound: SNOOPER, aka SNÕÕPER. I don't even know what these sounds are. It's a swarm of mutants on a steady diet of CONEHEADS and helium. Pre-1980 DEVO on 45rpm, but working their way through the Sun Records catalog. You think you have a couple of SPITS records and you've seen THE URANIUM CLUB BAND so you know what's up - but SNÕÕPER has some news for you, and you ain't ready. There's so much more that I need; so much more that I need to know. So many questions. 

COMPILATION OF THE...HITS

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES FROM DAY ONE

 

Here it is: Region Rock. Those shitty folk punk banjo playing inept coffee shop rock motherfuckers that ain't punk that people call Region Rock? Fukk that shit. Because you know what's punk? Fukkn STUN GUNS and SPAWN SACS and LES TURDS and KREAMY 'LECTRIC SANTA and shit like that. So forget what you think about some overly broad and arbitrary subgenre descriptor, because if this is Region Rock then I was there for it the first time and I haven't left. 

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES FROM DAY ONE

30 BANDS, 51 SONGS FROM "THE REGION"

DOLCIM

 

I remember clearly when I picked this up. We stopped by Ebullition on a trip to Los Angeles in 2010 (it's not on the way, no matter how many times I've tried to convince myself it is because driving I-5 is annoying) and I bought a couple of things as we were delivering records. Lisa smirked a little when I told her I had no clue what I was buying while she logged the DOLCIM tape...it just looked vaguely interesting and it was only a few dollars and, well, the compulsion can be strong I suppose. But I'm sure she understood. The tape got misplaced somewhere in the van on that tour and it stayed missing for some years (don't judge me) before it made its way into the house with a box of chud during a recent spring cleaning session. What had been a new release when I acquired it, was added to the shelf as a(n almost) decade old sonic relic from a lived lifetime and an expired scene. And eventually, I listened. Guillotine Ride came to life as one of those recordings that stops you in your tracks - like, you don't even remember what you were doing when you put it on, you just know that you stopped doing whatever it was and you didn't do anything except listen. Until it was finished. The recording is massive and oppressive in its presentation, the quiet parts are few and are your only opportunity to exhale and reload. Steeped in metallic and chaotic European screamo adjacent hardcore bands like ACME and CELEST(e), DOLCIM still draw from their statesmen (I swear I hear Nightmares-era Boatright in the vocals) and use these influences as references instead of blueprints. Like the influences are merely a roadmap to help get them to their destination. Their journey to me was long, and most of it was spent in the dark recesses of a van that leaks too much and is starting to mold on the passenger side headliner...but the vessel was enough, and for that I am grateful. I'm sure you understand. 

GUILLOTINE RIDE

HARSH REDACTOR

Oh come on, punks. Other punks just gonna hang up their twangy distorted angular fukkd up sounding pawn shop guitars when they hear this. Other punks gonna just go back to their Mark E. Smith Book ov Sounds how-to manual and start taking notes from scratch when they hear this. Bands with two guitars are gonna listen together and look at their two guitarists and fire them on the spot cuz they can't create mania like this shit. Rhythm sections gonna be all like damn we gonna learn about that "pocket" thang and figure out how to really get in it. Memphis quartet HASH REDACTOR just walk in, casually (and effectively) destroy the fukkn place, and take their shit and saunter off. Solid, damaged groove with the coldest no nonsense vocals this side of Big New Prinz. Also, the LP that Goner released last year is an absolute stunner. That's all.  

HASH REDACTOR

TWAT SAUCE

You have probably figured by now that I don't really do the dirty pop punk thing, or Region Rock or whatever...I typically take my hooks straight up, no dumpster. But as with all things, there are exceptions. Like TWAT SAUCE. I've been sitting on these monsters for literally years, so long that they've kinda become staples instead of casual plays. Sweaty, shameless, drunk, infectious, southeast US basement punk....and there's a recording of the band shotgunning beers on the demo. Vocals land dangerously close to BLATZ level supremity, you get the impression they've heard HICKEY more than twice, and there's just something about the way TWAT SAUCE put it all together. Two demos in today's link, from 2010 and 2011 - I snagged them both when they came out, so you know I been blasting "Can't Keep It Up" for a while now. 

TWAT SAUCE

BARRICADED SUSPECTS

Check the bass and drum break 45 seconds into "Guns In Trunks." It's so awkward, so off, so confusing, so unequivocally bad....you just can't create sounds this good. Sounds this good, like most successes, come only from repeated failure. Tennessee's BARRICADED SUSPECTS don't fail here, quite the contrary my friends...they succeed. And their success is your victory - if you like snot nosed hardcore punk. It happens to be among me preferred genres, so no complaints from this guy. 

BARRICADED SUSPECTS

DEAD CITY

Rising from the ashes of (THE) PEOPLE'S WAR, this Memphis, Tennessee outfit seemed to pop up and slip away in the blink of an eye, even though that blink, in hindsight, lasted several years. The sound owes as much to SXE 'crew revival subgenres as to the heavy aggression that Memphis (and Nashville) became known for in the early '00s, though the drawn out ending of the opener "Funeral" gives more than a casual nod in the latter direction. As I've said countless times in these pages, there are scores of bands like DEAD CITY - bands whose impact was rarely felt much outside of their respective epicenters, but who deserve far more than a casual mention in the footnotes of region specific DIY hardcore punk. My point is...these are good jams, and if you missed them when they were new? Well then here they are. 

DEAD CITY...IS PISSED AT OURSELVES AND OUR TOWN

FMDESTRUCTION

Who releases a tour tape with twenty two fucking songs? These Memphis freeks, that's who. By 1997, Memphis was already on the map - COP OUT and HIS HERO IS GONE will do that to a town. We saw little evidence of this scene when FUCKFACE passed through in '96 (for reasons obvious to most, including us at the time), and by the time WHN? played there in '01 the cream had been scraped off the top of the city and the dregs were left (the show was good, but you know what I mean). But this....this tape sounds like The Sweet Spot. Ferocious, blown out, crushingly heavy, frighteningly fast, and indescribably '90s hardcore. Clocking in at just under a half hour, these tracks have been played into the ground since I unearthed I Kill Cities! a couple of weeks ago. I miss this hardcore so damn bad - there was no pretense, they weren't trying to impress anyone because they were more focused on exorcising demons...and it shows.  

I KILL CITIES!

THE FLOOR ABOVE

I mean, it just sounds SO fukkd, you know? Those guitars are.....well sometimes I don't know what they are doing, but this bedroom-by-way-of-basement-or-vice-versa outfit from Tennessee spends just five short minutes reminding you that modern hardcore punk is weird, is interesting, is engaging, is alive....and is very very good. Noisy, chaotic, and infectious as hell, everything I said about the first two demos still applies. The guitar at the 0:13 mark of "Trespass," are you kidding me?!? Do this. 

THE FLOOR ABOVE

This one was gifted to the world by your friends at Not Normal Tapes...

BOOBYHATCH

Please, punk. Please do not let the cover of this '90s Tennessee hardcore demo allow The Doubt to sink in and lead you to the wrong decision. I urge you, punk. I urge you to make the right decision and download these creamers. Keep them with you, punk. I don't want you to be without, punk...I want you to have all of the metallic hardcore that you want. What were these mutants doing in 1997? File alongside OTTAWA, URANUS, MOHINDER...the kind of fukkd, discordant, chaotic 'core that would make your jaw drop when you witnessed a delivery by a van full of unpretentious and unassuming youngsters. That was BOOBYHATCH. Check the Grinding Asscore At Its Worst EP on Denied A Custom (dude - that guy used to send SO many stickers and weird shit with his mailorder packages...but I digress) and the slab with the same title as this demo (slightly different track list though) on House 'O Pain. Post REDNECKS IN PAIN and pre ASSCHAPEL, in case anyone is paying attention. Under appreciated hardcore is the fukkn shit.

HIP-SHAKING ASSCORE

HIS HERO IS GONE

I don't really need to say anything about this one, do I? There are two kinds of punks, the ones who already have this and the ones who need it.

MEDICINE