Various - Making Children's Songs A Threat Again! LP

 

In 2006 I went to the grindcore festival Obscene Extreme in the Czech Republic, which at that time was the apex of grindcore, crust and powerviolence, but which has now become just another cash-grab mediocrity bringing stupid ass metal bands. Apart from the many awesome bands I saw, and the many drunken dudes running around the stage wearing just girl thongs, I went extreme record hunting in the festival's countless stalls, and probably the best discovery I made there was this cute LP focusing on the theme of alernative/punk/non-hierarchical parenting. Included in the printed material are a number of interviews (both in French and English) with members of grindcore/hardcore punk bands who had become parents, sharing their thoughts on the upbringing of their children. Quite interesting if you want to be a non-oppressive parent.

Musically, the tracks feature grindcore, crust punk, hardcore punk and powerviolence by many bands, with the lyrics focusing on children, growing up and even fairytales! So, there is spoken word introduction in French by Elo, which is members of the French crust band 20 Minutes of Chaos, violent screaming hardcore by Sugar Pie Koko, unhinged grindcore by Zanussi from Spain, an amazing punk/powerviolence track by the Japanese Power Of Idea with vocals in the Jap language shouted by a very cute girlie-girl, a grindcore fairytale about a fox by the Czech Gride , whom I had seen that year at the festival, moshingly cool grindcore by Disarm from Italy, an unnerving and hair-raising psychedelic experimental hardcore nursery rhyme by Karst featuring members of Damad (check out their two albums), fastcore/powerviolence by Jinn from the UK, anarcho/post-punk by Stracony, fast hardcore punk by Migra Violenta from Argentina, straight-edge fastcore by the Dutch Betercore (famous for the anthem "Straight Edge But Not An Asshole), dissonant crust by the French Inertie, epic d-beat crust by the legendary Irish band The Dagda, and the song "Struck by the Wild" by Żegota off Reclaim! which has already been posted here. 2005 red LP on Guerrilla Shooting Records.

PS.: I was too bored to upload all the scanned pics on this post, so instead I've included all of them in the compressed file.

Download

Żegota

I'll start my new year's post with something energetic, political and hopeful. In The Somnambulist Brain post I referred to Żegota, a hardcore punk band from Greensboro, North Carolina. who took their name from an illegal organization rescuing Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. They were a very politically-driven band belonging to the roster of the anarchist then-record label and now publishing collective called CrimethInc., which was founded by Brian Dingledine, vocalist of the legendary Catharsis. Their second bassist Ard, played also in the dutch chaotic hardcore band Cathode, which I have posted very early in this blog. Their music ranged from hard-hitting and emotional metallic punk on their first album Movement in the Music slightly akin to early Refused, to a very improvisational approach on their second album Namaste, which included medleys of songs from Movement, long punk-jazz-African percussion jams, and a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio" appropriated for the Bush era. On their third album Reclaim they combined a rawer, and more dissonant punk feel which sounds to me like a blend of Crass and Black Flag on the first side, with hypnotic African and lullaby-like melodies on the second side. On what was to become unfortunately their last release, their self-titled 7" contained an anthemic punk cheerleader song and an indescribably beautiful and passionate cover of "Sinnerman" (hence the Nina Simone pic below) which definitely ranks among the best cover songs of all time, and which they actually played when I saw them live in 2006, which was to be one of their last gigs).

Movement In The Music download (1999 LP, CrimethInc.)

Namaste download (2001 CD, CrimethInc.)

 
 

Reclaim! download (2004 LP, CrimethInc.)

Zegota 7" download (2005 7", CrimethInc.)