After going through the entire alphabet and all of my new purchases, I've decided to listen to all of the CDs in plastic sleeves, odd packaging and sizes. I'm transferring these to my iPod and listening to them in clumps. There's no self-imposed deadline this time, so no need for a daily breakdown. After re-reading some of my previous entries, it's clear that my writing has gone to shit since then. It could be that I'm less familiar with a lot of these CDs and I just have nothing to say about them. Whatever the case may be, here's the first installment. Forgive the typos. I haven't had a chance to proofread this.
7 MINUTES OF NAUSEA - "Old Noises of the Roses" CDR (Another quality R.O.N.F. release. I often don't like 7MON, but this old stuff is great. Two tracks in an I'm over this stuff, but all of the stuff on this CD is good if you're listening to less than 30 minutes of it at once. The live stuff on here sounds like garbage, but it's really fierce sounding. The Rudi Rat CD tracks are my favorite, though.)
A.M.Q.A. - "Mutant Cats From Hell" LP
V/A - "Always Catchin' Snot in the Wind" LP
IRON CHRIST - s/t 12"
C.O.C. - "Technocracy" 12"
(A collection of stuff I have on vinyl, but wanted to listen to at work and in my car, so I ripped them and made this CD. I first heard of A.M.Q.A. in the pages of Metal Mania zine sometime in junior high, then looked for this album for several years based on the album title alone. I finally found a cassette copy in 1997 at Wax Trax in Denver, then the LP at a record store in Australia in 2000. It was everything I had hoped it would be: sloppy, fast, thrashy and stupid. There are some guitar fuck-ups on the album left in, I assume because they didn't have time to do another take before running out of money. No matter... Compared to their more HC sounding 7" which I found a great deal later, this one is more thrash metal/crossover in style. The vocals are especially snotty, lyrics are really stupid most of the time, but occasionally serious. This is great, too bad more people didn't hear it. "Always Catchin' Snot in the Wind" is a great compilation released by Half-Assed Records (probably their only release) in the late 80s at the tail end of the thrash metal scene when the bands that didn't start playing death metal got really heavy and fast. This is a D.I.Y., lo-fi affair, right down to the one color cover art. Most of the bands' material sounds as if it was recorded under less than ideal conditions, almost demo quality, but the songs are ripping fast and aggressive. I searched forever trying to find more material from these bands finding only a self-released 12" by MALICIOUS GRIND in Wild Rags. Just this past year mp3s of MANIACAL GENOCIDE's demo surfaced and they were excellent, too. Sadly, other recordings from RMSD (the best band on this LP) and THE DOUCHE LORDS (Dino, pre-FEAR FACTORY), FUCK IT and MORTIS haven't turned up. This turns up all the time in record stores and I always give it my fullest recommendation to friends. I found this IRON CHRIST 12" in Australia, too. I had their "Getting the Most Out of Your Extinction" cassette since junior high and didn't know they even released anything before it. It's less technical, way heavier, faster and more aggressive than the cassette I had. The vocals aren't nearly brutal enough for these songs, way too much singing. It's pretty decent, though, well worth picking up if you see it - but you probably won't. I think "Technocracy" was probably the first C.O.C. album I heard, borrowed from my friend Chris. I prefer their earlier material, by far, but this is still wholly enjoyable. It's also the last C.O.C. release I can get into. I had this on cassette for years, but picked up the 12" in Iowa City for a few bucks sometime in the late 90s.)
ABERRAĆION / COLICO - split CDR (ABERRAĆION is a solo noise project from Guayaquil, Ecuador. As noise goes, this is fairly mellow. There's some rhythmic qualities to it, some pink noise sprayed over other noodling, some speech samples, etc. I hate trying to describe this kind of shit, mostly because I don't understand how it's made. It's very listenable, though, and held my interest. Most of the time this stuff just bores me. COLICO, also from Guayaquil, have been around for years and excel at the short blasts of noisecore style. This recording, though, it treated with some weird effects and it's hard to tell what's going on, which instrument is making what sound, etc. Most of the tracks are only a few seconds long, as long as the blank spaces between the tracks, so there's this weird start/stop thing going on at all times. It's like a gapper effect was added to the entire session breaking it up at random intervals. It probably would have been more enjoyable had they left the session one long track without the spaces.)
ANAL INAUGURATION / DEEP FRIED EMBYRO / STAN DARSH - 3 way CDR (I have no idea where A.I. and S.D. hail from. Jason from D.F.E. released this and sent it to me. A.I. do a total sewage harsh-noise thing with lots of feedback and vomiting vocal sounds. Definitely lo-fi, but not so shitty to make me want to skip past their tracks. I can handle this sort of think for up to 10 minutes or so. Luckily, it was over with within that span and it was still enjoyable. D.F.E. are great, never straying far from the noise/grind formula. This material sheds structure almost entirely leaving just short noise bursts broken up with funny samples. It sounds like a 4 track recording. The drums are a little weak in the mix, but everything else blends together nicely to make a big audio mess. This STAN DARSH stuff isn't very good. Its some guy screaming through a distortion pedal over Casio drums. Everything is pushed into the red so the recording crackles throughout. There's audio from an entire episode of Beavis & Butthead on here as an outro. Weird...)
ANTI-CIMEX - stuff CDR* (Some of this stuff I downloaded, some I ripped from my vinyl. The "Anarkist Attack" 7" is on here along with the "Raped Ass" 7", "Victims of a Bombraid" 7" and the "Scandinavian Jawbreaker" 12". The second and third EPs are the best, but the first is really good, too. I'm not too into the 12" on here, but burned it after downloading it thinking I'd grow to like it. I didn't. It reminds me of those POISON IDEA albums I could never get into.)
ARMENIA + POTABILIZADORA - "Armenbilizadora" CDR (This was an endurance test to sit through, but mostly because of it's length. Two greats in the underground noise scene hooked up for this collaboration and the results are pretty much what I expected: throbbing, mechanical noises with layers of feedback and distortion over it. I have no idea how this was recorded, but it sounds as if both parts were recorded separately then just dropped in so they both play at once. Even if this were the case, it sounds good this way. I heard what I thought was a sample from a porno movie half way through, but it was so far in the background it was hard to tell what was gong on exactly. Not quite HNW, but there's no letting up on this CD. It's brutal the whole way through.)
AXEMRANGERS - "AxemRangers Super Shit! Promo" CDR (I have no idea where I got this one. So many of these CDs were sent to me and I never got around to listening to them. When I go to load music on my iPod, I always go to my CD wall, never my box of CDs in sleeves. I had no idea what this even sounded like until just now. Turns out it's more harsh noise stuff, 68 minutes of it. I get the urge to listen to this kind of stuff once or twice a year. I couldn't even comment as to whether or not this is any good. I can only say that I didn't enjoy listening to it at all, but probably because my ears are fried from the ARMENIA + POTABILIZADORA collaboration. Sorry if anyone from AXEMRANGERS sees this and feels shorted because I didn't give this a proper run-down.)
BARTHOLIN - "Demo 2010" CDR (This is the new project of Mike from GOD'S DICK. Instead of spazzy HC/powerviolence stuff, these three short songs defy classification. There's a slight black metal quality to it with all the blastbeats and buzzsaw tremolo picking, but it's equal parts noise and doom, also. I didn't like it when I first heard it and I'm still not sure about it now. It's just too short and it changes too much to tell what the hell is supposed to be gong on.)
BENO - "Demo" CDR (BCM played a show with these guys back in 2005 or so and I picked up this CD from them. By some strange coincidence I worked with their drummer a few years later and had no idea it was him until we started talking weeks later. Anyway, when we played with them they played all instrumental post rock stuff, but this CD has a couple of punk sounding songs with vocals on them. The majority of it is instrumental, though, with lots of reverb-laden guitar playing plinky stuff that eventually crescendos into an epic explosion of volume and cymbals. That whole style is predictable and boring, but there was a time when it wasn't. When I bought this, that stuff was still fairly new to me. This is pretty good, but I could do with a slightly better recording. I love a noisy recording, but not on this kind of music. The sound does improve greatly towards the end of the CD. There's some nice noisy bits added as overdubs, too. Those sort of added touches are nice.)
BIRTH CONTROL - s/t CD (BIRTH CONTROL were a German rock band that existed for a long time and released lots of stuff. Most of it was pretty terrible, but their first album from 1970 is great anglo-style rock 'n' roll with lots of bouncy organ playing. A good chunk of this is instrumental, but when there are vocals they're soulful and very American sounding. There are long instrumental passages on here that remind me of the earliest DEEP PURPLE albums. Musically, the two are comparable, but DEEP PURPLE did this sort of thing much better. I loved this when I bought it and listened to it all the time, but I'm not feeling it today. Weird... My copy came in a round plastic case shaped like a birth control container. There's another standard version with bonus tracks that came later.)
BITCHSHITTER - "Don't Fuck It!" CDR (This gem came from one of the guys in SEÑOR LULULALO. I can't remember the guy's name now, but he used to work for Rhetoric Records doing mail-order. I met him at a DROPDEAD show years ago and we wrote each other off and on for a few years. This stuff is really noisy, sometimes sludgy and always sloppy. There are songs that go nowhere, some short and to-the-point noise blasts and some slow doomy tracks. It sounds like these songs were all improvised, played once, recorded and never re-visited. These guys are tuned FLOOR low and the guitar sounds are similar, but they sound nothing alike. I haven't listened to this in ages and forgot how good this is. Sounds like they had fun recording this stuff. The CD came in a hand-sewn cloth bag with the band name spray painted on with a stencil.)
BLOODY RECTUM - "I Watched My Lesbian Die" CDR (Noisecore in the vein of FESTERING PUKE from northern Iowa. Silly spoken/sang intros followed by a mess of noise. This isn't anywhere near as hateful or offensive as FESTERING PUKE, though, just silly and sophomoric. Fine by me, the world needs more of this kind of stuff. The recording is pretty good on this one. Strangely, the vocals sound loads better than the rest of the band does. It even sounds like there was some reverb added at post-recording. I prefer Jason's other band, DEEP FRIED EMBRYO, but this was a short fun CD.)
BLOODY RECTUM - "10 Years of Beer Shits" CDR (I suppose this is a celebration of their ten year anniversary as a band, but it doesn't sound like a "best of" release. I could be wrong, but this all sounds like it came from the same recording. These songs are even less structured than on the above CD. No spoken intros, either, just straight-up noise. The drums aren't particularly fast, and there's very few riffs at all. When there are discernable riffs, they're almost always thrashy. This CD is a mess. Sounds like a bunch of friends getting drunk and destroying their jam room. Sometimes pretension-free garbage is better than everything else because it's done for it's own sake. If you've never participated in a recording like this, you'll never know how great this is.)
BOY IN LOVE - "Gleegle Eagles" CD (I must have sold 80+ copies of this thing over the years, maybe more copied than anything I've sold through my distribution. As many as I sold and as long as I carried this, I forgot to keep one for myself and it took some work tracking down a copy. Much like Sockeye, I didn't like this much when I first heard it. Often is the case that some of my favorite albums require some effort before it clicks for me. This is an incredible CD, though, and the extra effort paid off. The singer, Scott McHenry, is the real draw for this band. His vocals are at once irritating, soulful, passionate and a complete disgrace. At times snarling, other times slipping into falsetto for seemingly no reason, but most of the time just sleazy. That he's singing so passionately about such ridiculous subject matter is what makes this so interesting. The lyrics, I assume, are filled with in-jokes, irreverent humor and numerous attacks on fat people. As a fat person myself, for the longest time this kept me from fully enjoying this until one day I decided I didn't give a fuck. I was a fool for being offended by a band who wrote a song called "Sensitivity is Ignorance". Joke was on me, apparently. The music is punk, but with somewhat of a folky overtone. I can't exactly pin what makes me think that, either. Occasionally we're treated to some trumpet and what might be the pussiest sounding keyboard ever recorded. These songs are catchy, filled with hooks and you'll find them popping into your head randomly after listening to it. This is a long CD with both old and new songs. The recording is 4 track, I think, but sounds great. Everything is well defined and mixed properly. I wonder how many of the 1000 people that bought this appreciate how great it is?)
BREAKFAST ON JUPITER / DEEP FRIED EMBRYO - split CDR (B.O.J.'s half is great improvised, mostly instrumental noisecore with sci-fi synth noises in the background. It sounds like something CSMD might have done early on in their existence. Nice boombox recording, too. D.F.E. are great, as usual, but B.O.J. wins this round.)
C.H.U.D. - "The Motherfucking CD" CDR* (C.H.U.D. existed first, but all of their members but one ended up playing in BLACK MARKET FETUS. They formed as teenagers in high school in the 90s out of a love for HC, broke up, then got back together after most of them joined BMF. They found they had an opening slot for just about every BMF show since their equipment was already there on stage. Switch out the vocalists and BMF became C.H.U.D.. I met them after they reformed and saw them live at least a dozen times during that period. I became friends with all of them and offered to record them on my 4 track. The results were just okay, mostly because of the limitations imposed by only being able to record on 4 tracks, but the playing was spot on. I know Zach was never happy with his vocals, but he never had any confidence in his ability as a frontman. On stage he could hide behind ridiculous antics, costumes and props - but playback on the tape was a sobering experience, I guess. They released it as a demo, but I don't think anyone heard it. I loved it, and C.H.U.D. were one of my favorite local bands (still are). After the demo, Zach and I talked about co-releasing a C.H.U.D. 7", so they made the trek down to my house again and did another recording. The songs were faster and heavier this time around. They recorded the vocals somewhere else and they sounded a lot better this time around. Zach ended up moving and we lost contact with each other until recently. The 7" didn't happen and these recordings went unheard all this time. I made this CD of the two recordings to preserve them in case I lost the tapes. The band was always confused as to why I supported them to the extent that I did. BMF was a better band musically, but there was an innocence and humor that existed with C.H.U.D. that appealed to me. Zach wasn't a great singer, but he did it and put 100% of himself into his performances. The shortcomings were what made the band interesting to me. As with my tastes in grindcore, that sound of things nearly falling apart is the most interesting and exciting aspect of this music and C.H.U.D. were at that line often. I love this stuff and can't wait until more people have the chance to hear it.)
CARCASS GRINDER / HASHDUM - split CD (I really thought this idea of releasing a split 7" worth of material on CD would take off, but it never really did. Not sure what happened to this label (Oriental Noise) because I didn't follow them, but their first two releases were in this format. CARCASS GRINDER were an excellent violent/fast HC band that bordered on grindcore, but they had a bad habit of releasing the same songs on every release. Their material here is great and sounds good, too. If you owned a few of their other releases, though, this is non-essential. HASHDUM are great, too. Their recording is totally blown-out and distorted, super noisy Japanese HC. I would guess that most people would be turned off by how noisy this recording is, but I love it.)
CATHETER - "Doomed to Not Exist" 3"CDR (These tracks came from a recording for a full length they did but was scrapped for some reason. It was recorded during that brief period when Nate from BMF was doing vocals for them. It's dirty sounding, but easily as good or better than the other CATHETER releases I have. I'd like to see the rest of this recording released some day, but I doubt it will happen. Good luck tracking one of these down, I think it was limited to 100 or so.)
CHADBURGER - "Demo" CDR (UK fronted Korean HC band. This is their only release, I think, and it's pretty good. Tight, fast HC with shouted group backing vocals. I suppose it was inescapable, but it sounds like a mixture of late-80s UKHC and Japanese HC, like CONCRETE SOX meets GAUZE. The recording is a bit too clean for my taste, but the rehearsal recording at the end is too lo-fi. Somewhere in the middle would have been nice, but for a demo this sounds pretty good. The vocals are painfully high (in pitch, not volume) and sound as if they caused the singer a great deal of pain in the process. Maybe his voice is just naturally that high? Who knows... I was told they started only writing songs about wrestling towards the end and that they played their last show in August of 2012.)
COLICO / CACASONICA - "Clitorisario" CDR (COLICO are back with another total noisecore attack. No structure, just short noise bursts 3-10 seconds in length on average. Rehearsal quality recording, but a little "distant" sounding. Good stuff, but tedious after a while. CACASONICA are terrific, the perfect blend of chaotic HC and noisecore. They're my favorite band from Ecuador and this is one of their best releases. One foot in the old school, for sure. I sold a bunch of these things through Mortville.)
COLICO / HANDICAPPED HANDJOB - split CDR (COLICO again, not straying from the formula one bit. This sounds exactly like the CD above, like it could have came from the very same recording session. H.H. are a sloppy affair. This is my first exposure to them, so I can't say if this is their (his?) usual sound, but it's reminiscent of old DECHE-CHARGE, but nowhere near as good. Just a drum machine, a vocal mic and lots of feedback - repeat for 10 minutes. The beat doesn't even change, just a constant rhythm and "woo! woo! woo!" for 10 minutes. There were only 30 of these made. That's probably a good thing.)
COLICO + ARMENIA - "Collaboraćion" CDR (I'm not sure what to make of this CD. It sounds like Colicowas used as source material for ARMENIA to work his magic over. Much like the G.B.N. and MERZBOW collaborations, the source material is barely recognizable. It's cool because the result is several short noise pieces, much shorter than usual for this kind of noise. The bad thing about it is that all of it kind of sounds the same, but then again, all of COLICO's material sounds the same so it's kind of inescapable. Half way through this CD I lost interest.)
COLLINS, PHIL - "Soft" CDR* (10+ years ago I downloaded a bunch of Phil Collins songs and burned them to CDR, one with all the upbeat and angry songs ("Hard") and this disc full of ballads. I've since bought a bunch of his CDs legitimately, but saw no reason to throw these away. Phil Collins rules, that's all you need to know. I've been a fan pre-American Psycho, so fuck off.)
DECHE-CHARGE / BIG FIST JOHNNY - split CDR (My friends Bill and Brian from JUHYO came down from Minneapolis to play the very last BILLY CRYSTAL METH show. While they were here, we recorded a bunch of noisecore stuff. Brian had never played bass before in his life, but that was the instrument he was assigned. Bill had some experience as a drummer, so we just started blasting away. Nothing was written or rehearsed beforehand, just recorded straight to tape with no mixing or overdubs. We all thought the recording turned out pretty well, so I found a band to split it with. DECHE-CHARGE were my first choice, and surprisingly they agreed to do it. Their half of this split sounds like 3 recordings played at once: one on the left, one on the right and one dead center. The result is a giant wall of sound, non-stop blasting and noise. This was released right at the end of my physical product days and at that point I had given up on trying to sell anything. I made 200 of them and still have a good chunk of those left. If I ever made a trip to Minneapolis, BFJ will record again. We already have a concept picked out and everything.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO - "5 Years of Shitty Noise" CDR (9 minutes of maxed out noisecore cut-up with silly samples. This particular release is really aggressive sounding, total sonic violence. The vocals sound like a cornered animal fighting for its life. The stupid samples really conflict with how intense this noise is. It's strange hearing them paired with stuff this brutal. This is really good.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO - "Asshole Casserole" CDR (I think this is one of their older releases. It's not as fast or as intense as some of their later recordings, but as far as modern noisecore goes, it's still really good. 20 songs in 6 minutes, no intros or riffs on this one.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO / CxWxCxFxLx - split CDR (D.F.E. are great on this one. Same style as the others, just more precise. The recording is really good and everything works this time around. No clue who CROCODILE WITH CROCODILES FOR LIMBS is or of they have other releases, but it sounds kinda wimpy after D.F.E.'s assault. Drum machine, metalcore guitar stylings and spazzy Mike Patton-like vocals that I find annoying. I'm not into their side at all. At least their songs are short. This was limited to 40 copies, probably long gone now.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO / HANDICAPPED HANDJOB - split CDR (At this point I've run out of things to say about D.F.E.. They're consistently good, so if you've liked one of their releases you'll probably like them all. H.H. sounds pretty much like they did on the COLICO split, a bad impression of early DECHE-CHARGE. Ten minutes of a single beat with screaming over it, no variation whatsoever. I'm not enjoying it anymore this time around. It's not terrible, just terribly lazy. Limited to 30 copies.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO / NOISE HELVITI - split CDR (This is my first time hearing NOISE HELVITI, and it's the only time I've even heard of them. It's hyper, always changing harsh noise stuff with a lo-fi recording. No clue how it was created and usually this kind of stuff is irritating to me, but it was over with before that irritation set in.)
DEEP FRIED EMBRYO / NOISE NAZI - split CDR (NOISE NAZI is one guy from France, I believe. He used to post on the Swampfoot forum when it was still around and he asked, like, every user if they would do a split with him. I'm sure I have other splits with them in my collection, but I had no IDE what they sounded like before today. More harsh noise stuff, decent recording, and shorter songs that sound like multi-track recordings. Each of their tracks sound different and within the songs there are lots of different sounds going on instead of one constant noise the whole time. This is a lot better than I thought it would be, but still not something I'll listen to often.)
DERANGED INSANE - "Grinding Audio Terror: Three Demos" CDR (I got a handful of these from Old Grindered Days along with some other stuff. Comparing these songs with my demos I ripped and posted online, I'm pretty sure they're the exact same files. D.I. were a grind/noise band from Brazil that relocated to Japan, then moved back to Brazil, added more members and changed to more of a straight grindcore sound. These three demos ("Death", "Deranged" and "Lament") are from their old grind/noise days and are similar in style to demo-era TUMOR, especially on the third demo when Cynthia switches from bass to guitar. Competent drumming, solid playing and angry vocals. Their newer stuff I've heard is great, too, but this was the material that made me want to do a release with them on Mortville.)
EARWIGS / HAM SANDWICH AND THE DONALD FLASHBACK MACHINE - split CDR (I'm beginning to think all I have in this box of CDs is harsh noise and retarded shit.)
FACIOUS KAHN - "Snowbush Fight" CDR (I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is my very favorite post-Sockeye project from the Wheelchair crew. It still kinda sounds like Sockeye, but super-charged and really angry with the same stupid/tough lyrics that made "Beefing Ting Ting" great. The recording is spotless, courtesy of Poopy and Moondog Studios, and Food's vocals are mixed loud enough to make out every brilliant line. There's even a blastbeat or two, for fucks sake. All of the WCFOOM releases are great because they're genuine and free of pretension (music recorded for music's sake), but occasionally it's just fucking great no matter what. This is one of those instances.)
FARTMONSTER - s/t CDR (Man, what a mess of a CD. The brainchild of B.C.A. of The Earwigs fame, his goal was to record the most disgusting shit ever. The end result is stream of consciousness guitar playing with the occasional recognizable riff and vomited vocals, fart sounds, etc. All of this is chopped up with farting, pissing, coughing, spitting, puking, belching + nose blowing noises. Sounds like everything was recorded on a boombox, occasionally maxing-out the condenser mic. This is really funny, but 60 minutes is way too long for this sort of thing. I think this CD compiles two different releases, though.)
FEEBLE AXIS - s/t CDR (How to describe this stuff? It's vaguely "Hardcore"-era Devo-like with vocals similar to Booji Boy's, but it also sounds like mid-70s Residents. It's a lo-fi affair, very mellow and plinky; both techno and punk, like a less aggressive version of Volkswhale.)
FUNERAL MONGOLOIDS - "New Wave of Mongoloid Heavy Metal" CDR (Brilliant old school style noisecore from Finland. 20 minutes of short noisy songs, probably all improvised, with a blown-out recording that makes it impossible to decipher what exactly is going on. You can't even tell there are drums behind this mess most of the time. A beautiful mess, one of the best recent noisecore bands.)
FUNERARY BOX - "Hell-Hammered" CDR (First wave death metal with a touch of black metal and a sense of humor courtesy of Poopy Necroponde and Doug from Brody's Militia. It's clear these two love metal and they pull it off really well. It doesn't sound jokey, exactly, but there's definitely shenanigans going on throughout. The vocals sound like Robert Deathrage most of the time, probably unintentionally. These 6 songs are fun, heavy and memorable. Look out for a MLP on Rescued From Life in the near future.)
GORGONIZED DORKS / DEEP FRIED EMBRYO - split 3" CDR (Today is my first time listening to this. GD sound different on all of their releases, this time around it's a mixture of noisecore, electronics and harsh noise with really stupid vocals. Their half is mostly good, though occasionally annoying. If this were on an unlabeled split with The Earwigs you'd have a difficult time figuring out which project was which. There's a strong shit-noise vibe throughout, in a good way. D.F.E.'s material on here is intense. Really fucking harsh, like the recorder was placed inside the guitar amplifier somehow. Short and to the point, just as it should be.)
HEADS KICKED OFF - "Discography 1996-1999" CD (Their 7" was one of my favorites back in the 90s. I didn't even know they had other releases until I picked up this CD a few years ago. Like a lot of great 90s bands, this straddles hardcore, crust + grindcore equally. Jay later played drums for The Kill and fronted Fuck...I'm dead, and those grindcore tendencies here here in H.K.O., too. Lots of nice blasting, pissed off screaming vocals and sped-up crust riffs ala Napalm Death. This is in the same vein as fellow grinders Warsore + Captain Clean Off, but a little more hardcore sounding. Those Aussies knew what they were doing in the 90s. So much quality shit, so many great bands. These guys were right up there with the best of them.)
HEP*Z - "Sings the Great North American Songbook" CDR (This time around Ohio's sleaze merchants do a CD full of cover songs, everything from ZZ Top to Circle Jerks to No Doubt. The results are about what you'd expect and it sounds like they had a lot of fun recording this, but I'd rather have another CD of originals. The cover of Glenn Frey's "Partytown" is excellent. I'm kicking myself in the ass for not covering it in my own band.)
THE INCINERETTES - "Cthulhu Selassic" CDR (I'm sitting here listening to this with no recollection of where I got it, who's behind it, etc when the bass sound gave it away. After confirming it with the man himself, this is one of Macka (Scroungers) many projects and he sent it to me as part of a trade many years ago. I'm embarrassed to admit that today is my first time listening to it. I've enjoyed all of Macka's output I've heard (and there's been a lot of it), so I'm not sure why I've been sitting on this one all this time. Most of these songs are instrumental with guitar, bass, drum machine and synth arrangements. When he does sing, it sounds somewhat like Ian Curtis: haunting and desperate. The songs are lose and fluid-like, like the soundtrack to a 90's indie film. At times it takes on a sci-fi feel reminiscent of what Matthew Akers is doing now, but this pre-dates Akers' work by a few years. Everything is really well done, not complex by any means, but cleanly executed and with nice melodies. It's great hearing those Scroungers tones in a different context. This is excellent, I thoroughly enjoyed it.)
JUHYO - "Mast" CD (This is great, but I'm probably going to fag out on describing it like I do most noise releases because I'm clueless as to how to do so. I like "noise" that tells a story and goes somewhere. There seems to be a story behind this (obviously of a nautical nature), but more importantly the sounds evolve and are sonically linear. Describing the individual sounds seems pointless, but the transition of sounds and the illusion it creates is what makes this great. "Mast" is one 30 minute piece, but it goes by quickly. As a bonus, you get the same piece performed live in it's entirety. There are subtle differences in the performances, but I know from talking to the guys behind this that these pieces are mapped out and well rehearsed. A wall of noise is sometimes very satisfying, but I'd much rather listen to more stuff like this.)
THE KILL - "Blast Beat'n the Shit Outta PBS" CD (This is great. Fast, intense, pissed and sounds great for being a live radio recording. I don't know who's doing vocals now, but he sounds like Bob from Dropdead. Enough with these EPs, though. When do we get a full length?)
LABRADFORD - "E luxo so" CD* (It's been a long time now, but years ago when I was listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor I took to the Internet trying to find similar artists. I mostly consulted Amazon's "people who bought this also bought..." suggestions, then hit up WinAmp at Sandi's house to download stuff because she had cable Internet and I didn't. I grabbed a bunch of Labradford's stuff and burned it to CDR. Most of it was great. I don't know anything about these guys, just their music. They seem to rely less on dynamics and crescendos (those tired cliches of the post-rock genre) and more on lush tones and creating melody. I didn't like this as well as GSYBE because of that, but it's the lack of those forced dynamics that make this great now. Everything is super clean, mellow and soothing. Lots of reverb, slow piano and the occasional string arrangement make this a winner.)
LABRADFORD - "Fixed Context" CD* (This one is darker sounding, but still great. I seem to remember putting their Peel Session at the end of this disc. I know the recording changes towards the end of this CD and those tracks are even darker sounding, at times crossing over into dark ambient territory. The above disc is better, I think, but the first song on here is amazing.)
LABRADFORD - s/t CD* (I can only assume this was their first release. There's a lot more vocals on this one compared to the others. There's also some shit that sounds like it could have been lifted directly from one of GSYBE's albums. Still pretty good, but less so.)
LABRADFORD - "A Stable Reference" CD* (My second favorite after "E luxo so". Still more vocals than I would like, but they're easy to ignore. I'm ready to listen to something else, though.)
LOBOTOMIZED - "Sperming Through Scotland Promo" CDR (One of the guys in Bonesaw sent this to me as part of a trade. They played some shows with them and had a few to spread around, I guess. This is fun stuff, more than capable sleazy old school metal with nice production and snarling vocals, but with some of the stupidest lyrics ever. "Drinking beer with Satan"... "I came beer in your face"....These lyrics are stupider than Dead's lyrics, but if you just have this playing in the background and aren't paying attention, it's pretty good. There's even a Mentors cover on here. Nothing I'd seek out or pay money for, but pretty good.)
MALEVOLENT SNEAKER TOOTH - "House Broken" CDR (A blast from the past! I used to trade with this guy, but forget who it is now. He also did a band called Metric Cheese Head, I think. I had also forgotten completely what this sounds like or if I have even listened to it before now. Sounds like this could be a one man project. This is a weird mixture of thrashy death metal, Sabbath riffs and 90s alternative/grunge rock. The guitars are sharp and precise, sometimes chuggy and the vocals switch between somewhat growly to properly sang. There's even some rapping going on in one of the songs. It's unfortunate the drum machine doesn't sound more realistic, it would improve my overall opinion of this if so. As is, it's a nice break from all the noise I've been listening to, but not something I'll listen to again anytime soon.)
MARAX / DISTANT TRAINS - "Napalm Zombie" 3" CDR (My friend Charles from Distant Trains gave this to me (thanks, Charles). I have a lot of D.T. stuff downloaded, but this is the only release I own a physical copy of. Marax do the harsh noise thing, loud and abrasive with some nice squiggly noise that sounds like knives being sharpened under running water. There's some vocal samples buried under this stuff, too, but you can't make out what's being said. C3L is doing a split 3" with Distant Trains soon with leftover material from our Homogenized Terrestrials split and, strangely, it sounds fairly similar to this Marax stuff. We probably spent a lot more time to achieve lesser results, though. D.T. is a solo affair of one Mr. Centipede Farmer, a man with wide ranging musical interests and pretty good at whatever he touches, musically. I suppose you could call this sound collage as it's not really music. The first track has drum machine, bass and some other noises going on creating a tense, creepy piece. The second track is a noise track created by bass guitar (?) centered around a Nut Screamer sample illustrating the awesomeness/ridiculousness of Steveggs. The other two tracks are even harsher, but interesting throughout. I like noise with short tracks that change sound frequently. This was pretty decent.)
MASHER - "4 Demos" CDR (It's difficult to tell if Masher were attempting to be a legitimate grindcore band and fell short or if they had intended to play really primitive, sloppy grind/noise. Regardless, the results are fantastic. Simple one part songs that almost always end in a blast of noise, guitars out of tune and often out of synch with the drums, two vocalists who sound as if they're ripping through the speakers. Each song with a spoken introduction ala 7MON, this is a pure joy to listen to. Those Brazilians really knew their noise. Bands like this were what made the 90s great.)
THE MIGHTY ACCELERATÖR - "Back From the Dead" CDR (This is our second release. We made physical copies to have something to sell cheaply ($2.00) at shows and put all of our first EP, "Soccer Mom", at the end as bonus tracks. We recorded these songs last year right before our lead guitarist moved to Nashville. I wanted to get his guitar playing on this recording and thought it would be easier to do it at his studio and just have him overdub his parts. After moving he found he was a lot busier than he thought he would be any only got the rhythm tracks done. He sent me the tracks and I ended up mixing them at my house with less than stellar results. In all, I think it sounds closer to our live shows than the first EP did, but it's a bit more abrasive sounding. I really like how the guitars sound, but overall the mix is a little off. The songs aren't as good, either. Everyone picks their best songs for the first release, as they should, so these were the songs we had leftover. "This Hand Needs a Job" wasn't even worked out all the way when we recorded it for this EP, but it ended up being my favorite song from this batch. Now that we've added a second guitarist, we can finally start playing it out. This one is bittersweet for me, but it's still pretty good, I think.)
MOLOCH - "Humane to Sheeps" CDR (Is "sheeps" even a word? Another one of those mystery CDs I have no memory of, but has been sitting in my collection for a while. Two long noise tracks, both of which sound like they came from a single sound source ran through loads of reverb: slow moving and minimal, and really loud. This CD reminds me of some of Stockhausen's noise experiments from the 60s. Cool stuff.)
MONGOLOID WITCHCRAFT - "Fetus of Our Demise" CD (I've probably said this elsewhere, but Ian (the drummer and vocalist) was a mutual friend of Ace's and I spent a week with both of them in Denver years ago writing and recording some grind songs. Nothing ever happened with those songs, but while I was there Ian explained that all of Mongoloid Witchcraft's material came from long, totally improvised recording sessions. The best bits were chopped out and vocals added after the fact. Once you know that, it's a little easier to enjoy this stuff. It sounds like a grind band working out new material and having fun in the studio. Some of the "songs" work better than others, some with more structure, but all of it is nicely disjointed and bizarre. It gets better with repeat listenings, too. If you see this, Ian, drop me a line.)
NATURALS - "Want Anal Sex" CDR (I'm not sure if that's the title or not, but it was the only thing written on the disc other than the band name. This came in a broken black plastic case with spray paint on the front, apparently limited to 17 copies and containing a mere 10 minutes of "music". Naturals is the noisecore project of Andres from Cogs & Sprockets. The drumming on this is crazy fast, the guitars and vocals barely audible over the blasting drums. A forced comparison could be drawn to bands like ASHIAIP and Purulent Shitface, bands who easily could be labeled grindcore if they toned things down a bit,added some structure and recorded a little better. Where's the fun in that, though? The sample to music ratio is about 1:1, a little irritating, but I suppose that was their goal. This is great, too bad you'll never hear it.)
NEOS - "End All Discrimination + Hassibah Gets the Martian Brain Squeeze" CD (Fast, frantic and super noisy early Canadian HC and an early example of accidental noisecore if there ever was one. Their two 7"s collected on one CD by Break Even records. Words can't describe how great this is, it simply must be heard to be believed. The second EP is the better of the two, but both are great. This is some of the greatest music recorded, period.)
NETJAJEV SS - "Discography 2005-2006" CDR (This was one of my releases. Magnus approached me about doing it since a lot of his releases were going out of print. I loved NSS and jumped at the opportunity to do it. Zach from Not Very Nice Records read about in in one of my email updates and offered to go in on it with me, so it ended up being co-released with him. I don't remember offhand which releases are on here and it doesn't matter seeing as it's out of print now, but you can grab a free download elsewhere on this blog. I went looking for my copy of this earlier this year and found I forgot to save one for myself. Thanks to my friend Mike for procuring a copy for me. I still get people emailing me looking for a copy of this all the time, maybe more than any other Mortville release with the exception of the Warsore 7", but Magnus has firmly placed his projects in that record collecting scene playing into it completely. It's a shame. I really like everything I've heard of his, but I'm not willing to play that game at this stage in my life. I'm sure I've missed out of heaps of great music as a result.)
NOISE WASTE - "Demo '95" CDR (I'm pretty sure I got this from one of my Ecuadorian friends. Noise Waste was a short lived noisecore project Mikko Aspa did in the 90s. I'm pretty sure I have a split 7" of theirs, but I can't remember for sure. This sounds a lot like German noisecore bands W.B.I. and B.R.B., especially during their blast parts. Really basic parts played as an intro, then erupting into noise. The vocals are silly and crazed, really stupid like a lot of those German bands were. It's remarkable that there's absolutely no crust influence on here at all seeing as they're from Finland. The second side of this demo is a lot heavier, both in style and sound. The songs are a lot shorter and a good chunk of them don't have any real parts at all. Great stuff!)
NOTOKEN - "Detin Marinde Dopingue" CD (Notoken are Ecuador's longest running hardcore punk band. I was first introduced to their music by way of their excellent split tape with C.F.D.L., picked up one of their 7"s shortly thereafter and it was equally great. Years later I found this CD in Crimes Against Humanity's website for $4.00. It's a little slower and not quite as good as the other releases I have, but still pretty good. The guitars are out of tune for the duration of this entire CD. Normally that sort of thong doesn't bother me, but it does here. This is anthemic HC with lots of group shouts and sung choruses, etc, but ocassionally the vocals are all harsh and screamed - not in an emotive way, just crazy and pissed like. The occasional sloppy blastbeat will creep in, too. I can't pin what it is I like about these guys so well, exactly. Maybe their borderline incompetence as musicians?Who cares?)
ORBITAL BULL CHALLENGE MISTAKE - "The Bo Diaz Machine" CDR (I really have to be in a certain mood to enjoy most of Wheelchair Full of Old Men's releases. Today this isn't working for me. Tomorrow it might, though. This is a copout, I know. Deal with it.)
PATISSERIE - "Kaibou No Dougu" CDR (You get used to listening to something a certain way and it's already awesome, then something like switching out a drum machine for a live drummer happens and it pushes everything over the edge of awesomeness. I don't know what the story is behind these 4 songs, what they were recorded for, etc, but I'm happy as hell I got a copy of it. I could listen to this on a loop for an hour or more, but there's all this other shit I have to listen to instead.)
PATISSERIE - "Sarcofagal Necrofology" CDR (The very first Patisserie release recorded when they were a 2 piece band. I haven't listened to this in a long time. The riffing and drum programming are a lot simpler than what followed. A couple of the songs sound like Dead or Butcher ABC. There's even some dual guitar parts and harmonies that shocked me this time around. It's still pretty good, but it doesn't sound anything like Patisserie.)
PIGBITCH / DEEP FRIED EMBRYO - split CDR (Another short one, 8 minutes this time. Pigbitch do short drum machine songs with toilet bowl pitchshifted gore vocals. This kinda sounds like Gruesome Toilet, in fact. D.F.E. are far more enjoyable. No progression from one release to another (good!), just consistently pulverizing lo-fi noisecore.)
PITBULL & SCUM - "Unplugged Punk" CDR (Not sure if that's the title or if this even has a title, but it was written on the disc. It's not really unplugged, either. They're a duo from Australia consisting of a guy playing bass through an amp and another guy playing one of those "Paper Jamz" toy guitars and singing. No drums. It sounds like a mixture of Australian HC band Eunuch and Rancid Hell Spawn with lyrical topics ranging from eating dog food, dumpster diving, diarrhea, etc. It's pretty good in small doses. I don't think this is an official release, just something the guy threw in with an order I made. If it was recorded a little better it would be slightly more palatable. As is, this is pretty rough.)
POOPY NECROPONDE - "All You Need is Toilet Rock" CDR (Poopy's solo outings have all been great. Working alone, I assume he has more time to work things out. The songs are better written as a result, musically at least. Some of the lyrics sound as if he just came up with a theme and made it up as he went. I remember him saying he wasn't entirely happy with how this one turned out, so he overdubbed a bunch of guitar noise over it to take focus away from the songs themselves. The songs themselves are fine, but the added guitar noise does add an interesting extra layer of sound that works well over this, especially on the Flipper cover. There's already some nice noisy Greg Ginn-like guitar noise on here as is. Lots of different genres on this one, all nicely executed, and the recording is excellent, too. The label is selling these really cheap, so there's no excuse for not checking it out.)
POOPY NECROPONDE - "Burlap" CDR (This one is even better than the above CD. It's a lot heavier and darker, some songs sounding like Neurosis and Pink Floyd. There are some fun bluesy romps mixed in and a terrific funk song, but primarily this is a heavy album and it's done really well. Same great recording as above (minus the added guitar noise), same great low price, too.)
POOPY NECROPONDE - "A Psychological Ku Klux Klan Meeting" CDR (I'm finding it difficult to write about these albums because there's so much going on on each release. The one seems to jump genres every song. Doing everything yourself allows this kind of freedom. Even on the more earnest songs there are lyrical passages that bring laughs (see "Power of the Lord"). Throughout listening to all of these I've been consistently impressed with the quality of song writing and playing.)
POOPY NECROPONDE / WHALE FUCKERS - split CDR (Poopy's songs on this one are really loose and jammy, with almost jazzy bass and drum arrangements and surfy improved guitar playing. If this were instrumental it would sound like the soundtrack to "Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend", but that's a reference maybe three people will get. Whale Fuckers have a similar loose, early 90s soundtrack-like vibe on their half of this split. The vocals/lyrics are stupider, but not enough to be annoying. There's a funny song about Erik Disorder on here thats either mean spirited or good natured ribbing. This is pretty good. I'd listen to more Whale Fuckers if the opportunity presented itself.)
PTAO - "Advance CDR" (I'm pretty sure this is the same material as that series of three 3"CDs released by Kaz Records a couple of years ago. I've already commented on those in my A-Z listening, but will say again that this shit is awesome.)
PURULENT SHITFACE - "Absturz Beim Kletterkurs" CDR (PSF were an excellent grindnoise band from Germany that came and went pretty quickly. I knew the guy behind this project from a message board and we traded a few times. I loved their stuff so much I asked them to do a 3-way CD with C3L and Whoretorn, but they broke up right after they agreed to do it and backed out of the project. They were excellent, though, completely boiling down grindcore to it's essentials leaving only screaming/blasting grindnoise devoid of any real structure. They sound like an exaggerated version of Unholy Grave, but heaps noisier. This is a short CDR, less than 15 minutes, and I'm not sure what sort of distribution it got, but it was pressed to a 7" and should still be available from someone if you wanted to check them out - and you should!)
PURULENT SHITFACE - "EEYOW 10 Songs" CDR (10 songs in less than 2 minutes. Nothing more needs to be said.)
RUPTURE - "Supernatural Sleaze Merchants" CDR* (Doug from Brody's Militia put this together, I guess as a Rupture primer for the uninitiated. It's a nice mix of songs, not the mix I would have made, but it's enjoyable from start to finish. It would have been nice to have had less studio and more of the rough sounding tracks, but it was a free download, so fuck it. The flow of songs on "Jubilee" works better, but this works, too. I should host this on the blog so people can download it and make their own discs.)
SAMUEL LOCKE-WARD - "Barely Regal Beagles" CD (SLW is a singer/song writer/home recording weirdo from Iowa City. Some of my readers would know him as the vocalist from Cop Bar who recently did a split CDR with C3L. There are times I can listen to any one of his albums and be jealous of how great it is. Sam has a knack for writing hooks that I'll never be able to achieve and that really eats at me. Other times I can listen to the exact same album and just be annoyed by it. I'm straddling the two today, but the last time I listened to it I really liked it. Sam is extremely prolific, recording 3+ albums a year is nothing for him. In fact, he just released a 40 song double CD last month. Music pours out of him at an alarming rate and I suppose some of it is bound to be less than stellar, but the majority of it is really fucking good. The sound on this CD is mostly good, probably a really good 4 track recording. The songs are great, too. The problem this time around is his vocals. I know Sam can sing really well - I've heard him do it on other releases, but his tendency to fuck up his own vocals by over-singing for an exaggerated effect and pushing them into the red is near constant on this CD. I'm sure his doing this and his offbeat sense of humor is responsible for a large portion of his fanbase, but at the same time, it probably keeps an equal number of people from listening to him with any regularity. Like I said above, the last time I listened to this it didn't bother me at all, but today all I could think about was how great this could have been if he had just sang normally.)
SCAT - "Final Mix" CDR* (This was labeled "final mix", but there are subtle differences between this and the finished version of "Addicted to Hell. None of them are worth going into because this version isn't going to be made available to anyone, but I kept it because of those differences instead of just throwing it out. There's a long and detailed history of Scat I typed up elsewhere on this blog, so I'll give you the condensed version here. They started out as a free-form doom/drone band years ago, then slowly started adding more structure to their songs until the thrash riffs took over and they kicked out one of the founding members because he really couldn't play anything. After adding a second guitarist and tightening up their sound even more I offered my services on bass to fill out their sound. Things went kooky after that and I was kicked out of the band (read the other post), but not before I recorded this CD with them. I can't listen to this and enjoy it now because of the bullshit history behind it and the stupid shit that went down. I can only enjoy it on a technical level because it sounds quite good for one of my 4 track recordings, especially during that period. The guitars are a little out of tune, but other than that it sounds really good.)
SCREWTAPE - "Let Noise Be Vomit" CDR (More harsh noise stuff, this time from Australia courtesy of Andrew McIntosh. I don't know at what point Macka started recording noise under all these different names or why, but with the demise of The Scroungers he started doing noise recordings under the name N:FIOS (Noise:For It's Own Sake). I always liked the idea of noise stripped of all imagery and ideology. I mean, why couldn't noise just exist with having to be about something? Attaching imagery to noise is sort of a copout, really. Sound itself can't be about anything. I haven't my N:FIOS tapes in ages, but this seems to be a progression in sound and in recording quality from those days. Again, I'm not too big on this kind of noise unless it's in small chunks and this stuff is broken up with interesting and engaging samples every few minutes. The noise itself changes often, too, making this an interesting listen.)
S.D.S. - "Mandatory Recordings" CD (A guy I know released this bootleg in the 90s, not because he wanted to make money from it, but because he loved the band and was frustrated that most of their material was out of print. Right after he made these, MCR did an official 2CD release making this obsolete. I never realized how much S.D.S. sounded like Taste of Fear (particularly on their s/t CD) until today. The vocals are quite different, but musically they were pretty close. This is crusty, metallic, cheesy and filled with guitar leads that don't really fit. The vocals are really over the top, sometimes bringing to mind Sakevi's growls. I've never been able to get into this stuff, and I've tried several times. Most of this Japanese HC stuff falls flat with me and this style of crusty metal stuff does nothing for me at all.)
SHITHOUSE - "Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice" CDR (Abrasive one-man Australian noise rock(?). I'm not sure how to label this stuff, but it reminds me of some of those Amphetamine Reptile or Sub Pop bands like Six Finger Satellite or even The Jesus Lizard. Sonically this is crammed full of treble and has more in common with Rancid Hell Spawn (how many more times can I drop their name?). I love Macka's vocals. Even when he's not singing HC style he approaches cartoon levels of anger. All of the songs run into each other making this play as one long piece, but it goes by quickly. This was difficult listening because of the guitar sound, but I was smiling the whole time.)
SHITHOUSE - "Relaxed and Comfortable" CDR (Compared to the above CD, this is angrier sounding, the guitars are a lot heavier and the vocals are easier to make out. Musically it's more aggressive, too, almost tough sounding. Usually "tough" is insulting when I say it, but not in this instance.)
SMOTHERED BROTHERS - "Promo '05" CDR (Man, I haven't played this in years. I knew this guy from the Relapse board and got a bunch of these for distro. This is crazy drum machine grind with over the top vocals and banjo and ukulele breaks. This is really well executed and heavy as shit, fans of Monastat 7, Naked City and Exit 13 would probably like this stuff. There's a great version of "Turning Japanese" on here, too. The best thing about this, though, is that there is 30+ minutes of great 1940s big band and traditional ukulele music tacked on the end, most of which is Excellent!)
SOCKEYE - "Red Salmon 2012" CDR (To coincide with the CD reissue of the first Sockeye demo, key players in the Wheelchair camp got together and re-recorded the demo in it's entirety. The addition of drums alone goes a long way towards improving this seeing as the original demo was mostly just guitar and vocals. They did a nice job of not changing things too much. It's still really sloppy, stupid and fun. People that have bought this from me have said they liked it more than the 1988 recording. I tend to agree.)
THE SONS OF SKIP SKIFFINGTON - "Warlords of Mars" CDR (A whole CD of guitar abuse with what seems to be some sort of a spoken story over it, but who the fuck could tell with the way these vocals were recorded? Every vocal line is fried and distorted because of the fucked up recording. The "music" is a single guitar track shredding on an amplifier as fast as possible making a god awful wall of guitar noise. Nothing else, just the guitar noise and spoken vocals that cut out constantly from being recorded all fucked up. 20 minutes in a second and more structured guitar part joins in, but the original track of guitar abuse is ever present. I can't say I enjoyed this one much. Sorry, Skip.)
SORDO - "Collection '08-'12" CDR (The earliest stuff with the drum machine sounds almost exactly like Vilently Ill. Following that is a lengthy looped segment of mellow-ish noise with mumbled, indecipherable vocals over it. Here we get into the meat of the disc: angry HC powerviolence played by kids half my age in California. Losing a guitarist, but gaining a live drummer, Sordo sound similar to the powerviolence bands from years past. Often the vocals sound like Infest or Lack of Interest. Most of the lyrics are in Spanish, so I have no clue what the songs are about, but the stupid samples they chose to use between their songs show they don't take themselves too seriously. There are a couple of tracks on here that are sped-up versions of their split, but for the most part they get increasingly better as a band as this CD goes on. I'm looking forward to hearing what comes next.)
SPLATTERREAH - "Reh/Demo '89 #1" CDR (I have a cassette dub of this I got from Dan Charge that sounds like shit. I traded for this CDR from a guy in South America hoping it would be an improvement, but it sounds even worse. From what I can hear, this is killer old school death grind with one of the most monstrous bass sounds ever. The drums are almost inaudible on this CDR, though. Someone needs to release this shit officially.)
SUPER FUN HAPPY SLIDE - "Rehearsal Demo" CDR (This was their second demo, apparently. My friend Dav sent me a download of their first demo recorded with a drum machine as a one man project and it's awesome, too. I heard this one first, though. At one point Mortville was cool and great bands would send me demos all the time. Towards the end it was mostly shit, though. These guys play dirty grindcore with pitch shifted vocals, lots of blasting and crust riffs. The sound quality is clean enough to make out everything fine. I was worried their full-length would be shit if they cleaned up their sound too much, but it's nice and dirty sounding, too. Strangely, this demo ends with the same Airplane sample that was used on the above Sordo CDR.)
TEA PARTY VIOLENCE / D.F.E. / STUMP - 3 way split CDR (I haven't heard from Mike in a while, but we used to trade years ago. This stuff is weird, a mixture of techno, gore, hardcore and noise. D.F.E. sound like they always do. Jason needs to collect all these 5 minute splits and put them on one huge CD. Stump is decent drum machine goregrind with pig vocals and lots of samples.)
THAT ONE BAND - "Cripple Sandwich" CDR (This collection CD was released by Wheelchair Full of Old Men. Man, if you ever wished Sockeye recorded more material (and who doesn't?), you should turn an ear towards That One Band. They're similar enough that you might have been able to trick me into thinking it was Sockeye at one point in my life. Musically TOB is slightly heavier sounding, but Tim's vocals sound really similar to Food's. I could go on more, but that's all the endorsement you need, really. This is excellent. Someone needs to release that Schlitzkreig stuff now.)
THEE PRETENTIOUS BANDNAME - s/t CDR (Instrumental rock from Macka, recorded while he was still doing Scroungers, I think. This is pretty good, and there's some nice use of dynamics on here. Im at a loss as to finding bands to compare it to, but that's okay. Nice 4 track recording with the bass guitar way out in front. Really melodic and upbeat sounding, a departure from the harsh sounds he usually generates, but I dig this. At 80 minutes, though, this is an awful lot to sit through at once.)
TRAVIS - "Digitillation" CD (I think I got this one from Reality Impaired. I don't think I've listened to it before today. It's another one of those difficult to describe albums that doesn't really fit in any genre. Some of the tracks are really noisy, others are just weird. The singing reminds me of early Suicide. Most music this noisy and messed up doesn't have as many vocals as this. There's singing over pretty much all of this and it's at odds with the music behind it. I'm not into this at all.)
VENNT - s/t CD (This is really good, like Khanate and M.I.T.B., but with slight black metal overtones. Slow, plodding, brutal drum and bass doom with a high pitched theremin-sounding noise over most of it and tortured, screamed vocals. The whole thing sounds desperate and bleak.)
VOMIT SPAWN - "Promo 2001" CDR (This is even better than I remembered it being. I've been a fan since their demo, but my tastes were changing around the time Ern sent this to me and I don't think I listened to it more than a couple of times before filing it away. This is great; totally spastic grindcore with crazy as fuck vocals and full-on blasting drums. The guitars could have been a little heavier, but that might have just pulled focus away from the drums and vocals. I'd have to check and see what this was an advance for, but I'm thinking it was the 3" they released.)
WARSORE / DISPEPSIAA - split CDR (I love Warsore as much as the next guy, but the live gig on this split CDR sounds like garbage. There's no reason to listen to garbage versions when my 7"s still play just fine. It's cool to be able to say your band did a split with a legendary grindcore band, but I'd rather hear two younger bands on a split working things out and killing it than throw-away tracks from a band that no longer exists. Bands like Dispepsiaa from Brazil that showed promise even on their earliest recordings and ended up wiping the floor with the competition towards the end (okay, so there is no competition. Give me a break, I'm sick of writing this shit). Their tracks on here are nice Napalm Death styled grindcore with a swell home recording. The high vocals are funny, but the rest of this is raging.)
YESMEANSYES / 7MON - split CD (YMY are an old Finnish noisecore band. I have a bunch of their stuff on tape and vinyl, but I hadn't heard anything from them in a long time and thought maybe they had broken up. This was released a couple of years ago and it's really good. The YMY tracks are great and sound a little like old Senseless Apocalypse, but less "fun". A lot of time 7MON's material falls flat for me. I've been on the fence with these guys since first hearing them, but I keep buying their stuff thinking some day it will click for me because I know I should like them. This isn't doing anything for me.)
ZILLION / PATISSERIE - split CD (I'm not really into this sort of lazy goregrind stuff, so I couldn't say if it was any good or not. None of these bands striving to sound like Gut have been any good, ever. In the process they've made me like Gut's music a lot less. Patisserie, on the other hand, are great as usual. This recording is great, everything sounds perfect. Totally sick and unrelenting.)
v/a - "Audio Terrorism" - CD (This thing is a nice snapshot of the 1990's noise/powerviolence/HC scene. 99 bands in 50 minutes, only three tracks break the 1 minute mark, two of which belong to the guy that compiled this. It's great to hear so many stupid bands (Tear You a New Asshole, Soiled, Lord Zillablaster, Sockeye, etc) mixed in with all the heavy "real" bands. I had no memory of Rupture being on here. Weird... Having put together one of these monster compilations myself, I know how much work it was and they pulled it off really well. I still think it's stupid for doom bands to be doing 10 second songs, but the rest of this is awesome. I'm glad C3L got to be a part of this mess. You can download this for free at Grindcore Karaoke now.)
v/a - "Building the World Out of Shit and Cork" - CDR (Another gem from WCFOOM. Dick Panthers do some cheesy lounge music with stupid lyrics. The results are quite good and they're probably the best band on here. Lörsson are a really noisy punk(?) band from Finland with a boombox recording. Their songs go nowhere, but are over with quickly. Loving Couples are pretty stupid, but occasionally funny. The music is cartoony and the vocals are really, really dumb. Compared Meats are pretty good, too, doing a couple of Rolling Stones covers with silly vocals. After Dick Panthers, they're the best band on here. Someone is Tired closes out this thing and are pretty dumb, too.)
v/a - "Crimes Against Humanity Records Sampler" - CDR (Nick tossed this in with one of my orders. I didn't order from CAH often, but he did have some great stuff in his distro. As a label, he tended to release grindcore that was more on the crusty end of the spectrum or shit that sounded like later Neurosis and a lot of it didn't interest me. This sampler works as it's own release, though. I just don't think I could sit through an entire release of most of these bands.)
v/a "Cucumber Tart" - CDR (Another WCFOOM compilation of silliness. Rotting Geese starts things off, sounds like Food on vocals over some broken acoustic jams. The Bible Thumpers are up next and feature at least one of the dudes from Vaginal Discharge singing faux-blasphemous folk songs. L. CaMINO sounds like another one of Food's projects. The guitar sound matches Fossil Fuel's almost perfectly. This is pretty forgettable, really. Vaginal Discharge's songs are live, but great. Bison sounds like drunken bedroom-core from Poopy Necroponde. It brings to mind that old Crotch Damage tape he recorded years ago. Slop Cake is noisy, weird stuff. Blllloclingk the Newton Sprangk rules, totally pathetic and desperate in the same way Cauliflower Ass & Bob is. Beeber and the Gab Gads offer up one song only.)
v/a - "Everything Make You Shock" - CD (I have no clue what this is or where I got it. I don't know any of these bands outside this CD, either. There's a nice mixture of grindcore, crust, fast HC, etc with varying levels of performance and sound quality. Nothing stood out as being great, though. I doubt I'll listen to this again anytime soon.)
v/a - "Folk War: Fuck the Bastards Broadcasts" CD (I think I got this from the C-UTTER guy in a trade. I've only listened to it once before today. I like some of the old dustbowl folk, but the idea of playing it today sort of turns my stomach. I keep visualizing punk/hippies (they're one and the same, after all) sitting in coffee shops playing their stupid songs and patting each other on the back, etc. Adding curse words to folk music doesn't make it edgy, just stupid. There's some interesting noise stuff on the second half of this (apparently the definition of folk has been expanded), but for the most part this is just folk. Making matters worse, this CD is really long. I'll be giving this to my friend Jake next time I see him. I'm positive I'll never listen to it again after today.)
v/a - "MT6 Records 2007 Sampler" - CD (I've had no previous exposure to any of these bands on this CD. I don't remember where I got this and I don't think I've listened to it before today. There's a lot of indie/alt rock sounding stuff on here, but there's some other stuff mixed in, some of which is really good. Social Junk's track is noisy and dark sounding. Needlegun is noisy and obnoxious with great skronking saxophone noise over it. Myo do some nice power electronics stuff that sounds like R2D2 having an epileptic seizure. Heroin UK's track was fun, too. There's a few more, too, and this was mostly good. Lots of variety, held my interest just fine.)
v/a - "Orchestral Manures in the Dork" - CDR (This is one of the older WCFOOM compilations, originally released on a sold out CD, then on CDR because there were leftover covers. This rules, everything is authentically weird or just plain good. I always assume most of these newer bands are contrived and stupid just for the sake of being stupid, trying to emulate this old scene, but the bands on this CD sound like they're really into what they're doing. These are the bands that would be doing this wether anyone was listening or not. Lots of classic Wheelchair bands on here: Sockeye, Fossil Fuel, Kill the Hippies, Boy in Love, Olson. Lots of other great projects, too: Colon on the Cob, Sludgecrypt, Nine Year Old Mudflesh, Kingdom Scum, Gang of Pork, etc. This one is worth seeking out, folks.)
v/a - "Small Doses" - CD (I wrote a great deal of text for the liner noted of this release explaining how I had lost interest in doing my label and wanted to go out with something substantial, so I'm not going to cover all of that again here. I've always liked those compilations with hundreds of short songs and wanted to do one myself. It turned out pretty good, I think, but mostly the only feedback I got was about how great it looked. I still consider it to be a success as I can enjoy listening to it from start to finish. I'm only bummed that a couple of the bands ended up using their material elsewhere even after I asked them not to and that I gave the douche behind Molecular Cloud a spot on the compilation only to have him say later that he didn't care if he was on it or not. Fuck that guy. I'm thankful so many people contribute towards making this thing happen by way of co-releasing it with me, donating their time setting up artwork files or by just donating money to help ship copies to the bands that participated. For the first time in years I felt a sort of cooperation and camaraderie with the bands I was working with instead of just funding something people should have been paying for themselves. The amount of work, however, turned the process into something I wish never to revisit again. Even compiling "Incident at Ape Canyon" (which I'm still in the middle of) with only 9 bands instead of 100 has proven to be more work than I wanted to take on.)
v/a - "050901 Compilation" CDR (Cauliflower Ass & Bob are terrific, one of my favorite projects from Food Fortunata. It's so miserable and desperate sounding. Wax Whales are really stupid and tough, great in the same way Fossil Fuel are. Ranger Dump do a long, noisy, go-nowhere track. Hogwood is sort of mellow sounding and, dare I say, bluesy. The Poops are really fucking dumb and obnoxious. Monotoneato is instrumental, loopy and noisy. Not bad, but nothing to get excited about. Tutufrongo closes this one out with another mellow number with crummy guitar playing and vocals that sound like Booji Boy. This compilation was okay overall.)
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