Re-up: Career Suicide - SARS

Why repost a Career Suicide 7" that I wrote about 11 years ago? I'd be a damned dirty liar if I said I hadn't had "Quarantined" stuck in my head for the past few weeks. Here's what I said in 2009:

I wish I could tell you why I haven't spent more money on Career Suicide's records. I love just about everything I've heard from them. I'm always stoked when a song pops up on my iPod. Yet I find my racks sadly skimp on product from them. What can I tell you? They rule.

What do you need to know here? Career Suicide are a snotty Dangerhouse-style HC band from Toronto. Two of the members are in Fucked Up, which I guess is why C.S. hasn't toured lately. They've released a metric fuckton of records over the past seven years. SARS was their second 7", and first release for Deranged Records. If you're so inclined, you can pick this up, along with the proverbial metric fuckton of other product, on their swell CD compilation, Anthology of Releases 2001-2003. $9 plus shipping gets you 44 tracks! Viva la punk rock!

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New jams from Manuela Iwansson

Stupid COVID-19, stupid unemployment. About the only good that comes from any of this is there's plenty of time to read, watch movies, and listen to records. Lots and lots of records.

I was a big fan of the late, great Terrible Feelings. They put out a bunch of fantastic post-punk/power pop records over the last decade, including a pair of LPs that came out in these parts via the folks at Deranged Records. Sadly, I missed their show in Baltimore at the Golden West several years ago due to...I was poor? I had to travel for work? I hear it was a ripper. But then this Swedish quintet, as most things do, called it a day, apparently in 2016.

Imagine the pleasure I felt when I saw that lead singer Manuela Iwansson had started making music again under her own name. She released a 4-song EP June of 2018, but what drew me to her was the digital release last fall of two new tracks by PNKSLM Recordings in Sweden. They're hitting a real sweet spot for me. They're a pair of icy new wave rippers that scratch a real itch for me.

The first place my ears went when hearing "Strangers on a Train" was to Haircut 100; I hear some musical references to "I Ran (So Far Away)". There's a lyrical reference to A Flock of Seagulls in the first verse which is a little on the nose. Still, this is the kind of track I like sinking my teeth into.


"Blank Surface" is even better. The newest cut released by Iwansson, this has a real "Heartbreaker" vibe to it. Mrs. Mummy, who never ceases to draw the links between Pat Benatar and Bikini Kill, asked me to play this three times in a row when I played it for her for the first time.

The ad copy on the Bandcamp page references "added noise and 80s Berlin noir", and far be it for me to argue against that. There's a lot less punk and more polish to both of these cuts than with Terrible Feelings, but, fuck it, I'm 42 now; that's not a bad thing.

It appears that these will be released as one of them there "double A-side, limited edition 7"s" in May by the folks at Night School in the U.K. Who knows what the pandemic will do to that release date, and it's not like this fella, who's currently "on the dole" (as a 1970s British punk might say), can afford paying $15 for a new release 7". But if you're flush with cash, or feeling like a wild person, I'd say fuck it, and order one, because I'm into these tracks.

Crude - Immortality

This is just a super quick one for all you hardcore kids. Besides, the good Senator stole all the vitriol I had stored up for his major screed below. I rediscovered this gem while cleaning my office the other day. When Deranged released Immortality a few years back, they also released a limited run of 300 CDs with a dope acetate cover. So that's where this is from. If you like Japanese D-beat, this is right up your alley. I feel like perhaps I should say more, like how this record had a major impact on my life, but I'd be lying. I found it in a stack of promo CDs, I ripped it, and I've been playing it loudly on my iPod for the past few days. And now I have to run off, since Mrs. Ape Mummy made cookies. Let the circle pit begin!










Crude - Immortality

RIYL: glue in your hair, adding studs to your leather jacket, hard cider


Live at Chaos in Tejas, 5/17/08