DEATH GASP

 

My fukkn stars this shit sounds so desperate. AMEBIX, INEPSY, VENOM. Low end cavernous churn. Absolute evil and/or sonic destruction. Pittsburgh man....let's go to Pittsburgh. 

EXECUTIONER

LITTLE ANGELS

 

File under: Bands I might have seen if my life were different. I bet they were fukkn great in a basement; nasty, writhing North American punk with some of the fiercest  (and destroyed) vocals in recent memory. Check the pick slides on "Clock In" and the urgent ramshackle drums throughout. It's really just a perfect example of what hardcore with honest attitude is supposed to sound like. Apparently there are more cassette releases from LITTLE ANGELS, please send them to me. Slide into my DMs or whatever kids use to request communication these days. I don't know; I am old and irrelevant. 

LITTLE ANGELS

NO TIME

 

Yet another band that I seem to have missed....and fukk how did I miss this shit? Boots on the fukkn street Pittsburgh punks NO TIME will get under your skin and into you head and make you (well....me) feel like there's no other punk that I need. 

NO TIME

COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT

 

Imagine you're on a walk (because you're young in this imagination, and you don't go on "hikes" yet) in the woods behind your house. Or a friend's house. Or your aunt's house. And you stumble on something that piques your interest. So you move some leaves. Or you dig a little. And maybe you're not alone and your friend (or your cousin) helps you and you're both curious. Not excited yet, but definitely curious. As you scrape and/or dig, you hear...something...and now you are excited so the scraping and/or digging becomes more fervent. Discovering things lost in the woods is a special thing when you're young. A coin, an old beer can, a rotting nudie mag, someone else's mail, a photograph - it all has a story and when you find it, you're the author. But today (or that day, in that imagination), as you scrape and/or dig, you've uncovered a moment. COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT are (in) that moment and you've arrived...uninvited and very welcome. You (and your friend or your cousin) stumbled upon a sound and an experience. And in that moment (this: moment), you cannot imagine ever walking out of the woods to your other home. Or your friend's house. Or you aunt's house. Because you are in this now. You are here. It's okay to be scared...you can have Some Fear, but you are here now. It's okay. Just listen. 

SOME FEAR

MACRONYMPHA

 

One hour of complete aural madness some of of the true masters. Thirty years in and MACRONYMPHA are still creating the walls of harsh noise presented on 1995's Psych Rot. Rough sonic abrasions that defy description just as they confound conventional listening. To be experienced, friends...even if not necessarily enjoyed. 

PSYCH ROT

INTENSE YOUTH!

Early 2000s Pittsburgh was something special, y'all. To a touring band, The Mr. Roboto Project was like 924 Gilman energy crammed into a Midwest basement, the kids were wild as fuck and the old heads recognized and appreciated the energy the young/er generation of punks brought to the scene. AUS ROTTEN was done, but SUBMACHINE were still going hard while CAUSTIC CHRIST and BEHIND ENEMY LINES were getting rolling...and WARZONE WOMYN and INTENSE YOUTH! were starting a whole ass scene that would spawn BRAINHANDLE, SLICES, FUCKEDUPMESS and a host of other bands. The reign of INTENSE YOUTH! was brief - this demo, one EP and a split with CAUSTIC CHRIST all in 2002/2003 - but the twelve minutes of furious hardcore here are a good reminder of just now wild the shit was in Pittsburgh. How good the shit was (is) in Pittsburgh. I've always loved that town.

INTENSE YOUTH!

INVALID

 

You surely know the recent LP on Sorry State (if you don't - you need to), so here's your reminder that Pittsburgh's INVALID dropped a steaming pile of fury a few years ago. Their sound is in line with furious USHC to be sure, but this monster is undeniably Pittsburgh through and through. It sounds like Pittsburgh hardcore - I just don't know how else to describe it. You hear Corey's bass ruble in the break that starts "This Life" and you just fukkn know. It's a churn, and it all rushes by you in a blur that forces you to search for the nuance - it's there, but you might be to busy breaking everything and questioning life itself to stop and listen for it. Look at the cover...INVALID is just fucking ugly. Like life. Pittsburgh (still) knows what's up. 

INVALID

DISSCHARRRGH

 

As promised yesterday, time to DBeat yourself to oblivion. Six doses of bizarrely demented DISCHARGE worship from Iron City that straddle the line between idiocy and genius, followed by eight minutes of....of something else. This isn't going to make you any smarter, but it'll make you want to crush all of the beers before you go to work. Also, I think I got the song titles fucked up. 

DBEAT ME OVER THE HEAD WITH A PLANK

EEL

I mean....I don't really need to go through this, do I? Total raw pogo mania from Pittsburgh, EEL have been wrecking shit for some time now and this 2014 "full length" might be their most realized recorded effort. Volume, people.....fucking volume. 

 ENDLESS FUCKER

 This one comes from Ukraine...

CAUSTIC CHRIST

I don't necessarily feel like CAUSTIC CHRIST flies under the radar of punk remembrance, but I definitely feel like they shirk the recognition that they justly deserve...even more in hindsight than at the time. AUS ROTTEN, SUBMACHINE and BEHIND ENEMY LINES members combined forces to create a wholly predictable juggernaut, and perhaps no one talked about it because no one was really surprised. Like, you knew CAUSTIC CHRIST was going to be amazing, so when you saw CAUSTIC CHRIST and they were, in fact, amazing, the response was more "duh" than "holy shit." But listen to this shit 15 years later - all of the power and low end of turn of the millennium USHC crammed mercilessly into the '80s hardcore punk construct. At times it doesn't even work - like there's too much energy in play for them to still be going that hard, but they are definitely going that hard. This cassette from Rabid Dogs came shortly after they released the Dark Thoughts comp (a C.O.C. tribute with HOLIER THAN THOU?, MUNICIPAL WASTE, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? and CAUSTIC CHRIST), and compiles the Can't Relate 12", splits with R.A.M.B.O. and INTENSE YOUTH, the self titled EP on Havoc and a ripping nine track demo that I have never seen in the flesh. This shit is so much more intense in retrospect, and the live shows were something else entirely...I miss this hardcore, but fortunately (thanks to Felix and antiquated 1990s pressing ethos) these slabs are readily available and affordable for current and future punk generations. 

CAUSTIC CHRIST

Above show was from 2002, one of my favorites on that tour, KYLESA didn't actually play, they stayed in Georgia after burning through two vans in the first three days, but it meant we had a lot of really killer flyers when we got home from tour. 

ASHKENAZI

Get some knuckle protectors kids, those shits about to be dragging all over the damn floor for the next eight minutes. Let the Lowest Common Denonimator Rule rule you, and dig into the Blood, Sweat and No Tears-era NYHC dropped by Pittsburgh's ASHKENAZI a few years back. Bizarrely sprinkled with THIN LIZZY sensibilities, Nature Of The Beast goes from infectious to addictive before the first breakdown (which comes at the 0:59 mark, assuming we aren't counting the mosh heavy intro). Why can't it all be this easy?

NATURE OF THE BEAST

CHILLER

It's funny that my first mental comparison is FUCKED UP....funny because CHILLER don't sound a fukkn thing like that (maybe on "What Can You Reach Through?" and the closer "You Reading New History") and also because FUCKED UP hasn't played hard and/or fast in at least a decade. But take those marble mouthed vocals and set them to ripping, meaty, Steel City hardcore and you're basically in the ballpark. A relentless eight minute collection.....you're welcome. 

CHILLER

ZEITGEIST

Decidedly more swing than their 2011 demo or even the (excellent) full length platter from the following year, 2013's Listen Once And File demo (OK, it was really just a tour tape and maybe that wasn't the proper title) burns from start to finish. I feel like the vocals didn't really settle in until after the first full length (check last year's Z2 - Judgement Daze for complete realization of place and purpose), and then ZEITGEIST parted ways just when they had shit dialed. Hey man...finish on top, I guess? Gritty punk with overt rock 'n roll overtones throughout - glad I got to see them in the flesh. 

ZEITGEIST

DRUG LUST // RADIUM GIRLS

Two years ago NO STATIK played in Pittsburgh. On the way to the show we had a spirited discussion about punks using, wearing or celebrating the rebel flag (to my non-USA friends, this is the flag that represented the Confederacy during the US Civil War, and the Confederacy were the ones who supported slavery, and that flag in modern times has come to represent right wing and/or racist ideology). It was stated by one van dweller that any punk seen wearing or celebrating the rebel flag on our tour might be met with some sort of confrontation. Without going into details, our van political conversation ran first into someone else's inside joke at the show that night, and a few months later I got this killer fukkn tape in the mail. And this was the return address:

EAT PILLS AND KILL YOUR FRIENDS

===============================================================

And a while later, even though I never got around to posting the DRUG LUST tape, this banger showed up on my doorstep. RADIUM GIRLS are grating high end hardcore, disjointed and wholly original in the same way that MUKILTEO FAIRIES made you perk up and go "...the fuck?" I want to hear a full studio recording bad, not because I feel like anything is missing from the demo, but because I want to know how much more they are capable of. And just to seal the deal, this was the return address:

(if you know the reference, then you know what I mean)

ISOLATION

NEW YEARS EVE in New York City? Are we fukkn insane? Find out at The Acheron with LA MISMA, GRUDGES, PERFECT PUSSY and CREEPING DOSE. And tomorrow, you should join me for the Coney Island Polar Plunge, because stupidity is better when you are surrounded by other idiots.

ILLEGALS

I often get tapes in the mail at TEHQ; I gotta admit that it's one of the perks of this whole gig. But to be blunt: even the good ones are almost never this good. Pittsburgh's ILLEGALS are near flawless midtempo USHC. Full of attitude, full of swagger, intense as shit and screaming for an elbows high creepy crawl circle pit...heads banging, fists in the air pogo madness fills my cloudy brains (yes, both of them), this is absolutely THE shit that keeps me stoked. There are band comparisons that are justified, but I feel like they would dampen my enthusiasm and make it seem like I am so stoked simply because ILLEGALS kinda sound like some other band that I already like. No. I am so stoked because I came home from seeing a shitload of bands and this tape was waiting for me and I just wanted to see more bands. I wanted to see this band. Ugly and fierce hardcore punk...you need it

ILLEGALS

RATFACE // DRUG LUST

Two of Pittsburgh's most irreverent exports team up on this cassette. DRUG LUST take classic Iron City punk rock and shove chaos up its ass, while RATFACE crank out more of their top notch rage. Both of these bands keep getting better (need to throw the DRUG LUST demo up here, dude mailed me a copy months ago and it rrrrrrips). Get into it.

RATLUST

EEL

More noise-not-music bands are going to start incorporating actual noise and power electronics, and it is going to be awesome. Pittsburgh's EEL are certainly not the first, but they take the chaos over the top in a glorious manner - urgent pogo punk is treated to an insistent barrage of mindfuckery and over indulgent manufactured sound. Howling vocals are buried under hollow guitars and a wash of electronics while the rhythm section pound out comically simple punk anthems. Confused? Just look at the title of their demo.

DRILLMESS MADNESS VIOLENT PUNKER SCUM

ZEITGEIST

Kevin sent me a copy months ago and I've been jamming ZEITGEIST regularly ever since. Equal parts THE GITS, LA FRACTION (obviously and especially in Tilley's vocals) and THIS IS MY FIST but with undeniable political USHC roots, this demo is just a taste of what their new LP has to offer. I listened to the LP a couple of times tonight and realized I hadn't gotten around to sharing the demo...I'm pretty slow sometimes. The demo is great, and the record rules. I suggest treating yourself to both.

ZEITGEIST

Every road I take seems to lead uphill // I'll find a moment's peace within the next cheap thrill

RATFACE // DESPERATE HOURS

You surely know the drill by now - a noisy drunken hardcore assembly recorded live on the radio from Pittsburgh's RATFACE (and yeah, for those keeping track, the band features dudes from ANNIHILATION TIME and FLAK) backed with a noisy drunken hardcore assembly from DESPERATE HOURS, who hail from the oh so very hippie beachside college 'burgh of Isla Vista. Or maybe they are from Santa Barbara, which is really just the insanely wealthy version of Isla Vista, but either way they rule. Have a good week.

DESPERATE HOURS // RATFACE

SHIT MAYOR

I can't even pretend to describe this. I can only say that SHIT MAYOR are awesome, and that the two song, seven minute investment required to discover whether or not you agree with me is a rather wise gamble. Maybe this is somebody's idea of an inside joke, or maybe some modern day outcasts managed to create a demo that sounds like a garage punk version of 1000 HOMO DJs, and either way I am smitten. 

SHIT MAYOR