Masshysteri - Vår Del Av Stan

I popped into one of the many record stores that have popped up in the north Seattle suburbs in the past couple years today. I didn't know what I wanted; only that I wanted to hang out for a while, have a beer or two (it's a record bar, duh), and buy something based on someone else's taste.

It didn't quite work out that way. While my bartender and I discussed the finer points of late 90s power violence and I shared my opinions on Coalesce, my record tenders couldn't quite point me in the direction of something I didn't already own. They DID suggest Lip Cream's "Kill Ugly Pop", an Abrasive Wheels compilation, some Sleep records. All good recommendations; all recordings I already own.

In the end, I picked up a copy of World Burns To Death's "The Sucking Of The Missile Cock", a Portland crust classic, the Hardcore Holocaust release of which I probably sold in the mid-aughts to make a mortgage payment. This led me down the path of talking about records that Sonarize had reissued in recent years, which took me to Scandanavian hardcore, which brought me to Masshysteri, one of the most perfect punk bands of the past 20 years. This is their first of two full lengths, released by Feral Ward here in the States and by Ny Våg in their native Sweden. Masshysteri was the continuation of a line that includes the Vicious, Regulations, the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Insurgent Kid, and INVSN. Hell, one of their members used to be in Doughnuts, a Victory Records band that I actively ignored in the 90s but keep thinking I'll finally check out one of these days if I can just find a copy of their full length in the dollar bin.

ANYWAY...

Masshysteri: good-ass band. It's hardcore kids playing power pop, which is my favorite performance style of power pop.

Discogs

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The Vicious - Alienated

Simultaneous with his work in Regulations and the Lost Patrol, Robert Hurula Pettersson fronted a little four piece in Umeå called the Vicious. Remember that comment a few weeks back about Umeå being an incestuous scene? Well, maybe that's not the appropriate adjective, but the Vicious' lineup doesn't contradict that statement. Robert had been playing with drummer André Sandström in power poppers turned post-punkers the Lost Patrol/Invasionen/INVSN. Guitarist Sara Almgren had been a member of the (International) Noise Conspiracy since their inception, and in the legendary all-female vegan sXe group Doughnuts. And bassist Andreas Johansson had been playing with the Umeå post-metal band Cult Of Luna going back to their second LP. It was, to be fair, a murderer's row of players.

So it should prove no surprise that this, their only LP, is a full-blown ripper. Released in 2006 in Europe by Ny Våg Records and Cage Match Federation, and in North America by Yannick Lorrain's Feral Ward, this was the hot record all summer. They'd tour the US in 2007; of course I missed them, to my eternal regret. Andreas had left the band by that point, replaced by Erik Viklund on bass. Given the choice between vinyl and CD, I chose the compact disc, since it had the first two Vicious 7"s on it as a bonus. And that's how I'm able to share it with you.

After that tour, the four members of the Vicious would return home, drop their English-language songs for their native Swedish, and turn into the beloved Masshysteri. I did see them play in the back of a comic shop in Baltimore to a crowd of circle pitters and bummed-out gamers. It was fucking magic. They'd continue to build upon the Vicious's blend of Dangerhouse-style punk, New Bomb Turks riffs, and bubblegum pop.

Discogs

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Bastard - Wind Of Pain

The cool/weird part about shopping for records in Japan is the things you'll find that you've never seen elsewhere. Case in point: Bastard's "Wind Of Pain". Either I learned about this late 80s/early 90s Japanese hardcore band when they reunited for Chaos in Tejas in 2010, or via late night text conversations with Sean from Fan Death Records. Regardless of where I heard about them, my last trip (to date) to Tokyo coincided with the 2013 reissue of "Wind Of Pain" by Feral Ward. I walked into Disk Union my last day and saw a small stack on the counter. Fuck it, I'll drop 2,000¥ on a rumor. I haven't regretted it since.

If you ever wanted to learn more about Japanese hardcore, specifically the "Burning Spirits" style, this is a good place to start. How would I describe this? Think posi D-beat. Drummer Koba would continue, post-Bastard, to playing drums in Systematic Death, as well as running Fade In Records and doing some really cool record covers for bands like Rocky & the Sweden. So your chances are greater than nil of ever seeing/meeting one of these guys. Would it be nice if records like this were a little easier to track down? Sure...I guess. But the chase, especially when you have to go halfway around the world to hear a copy, is part of the fun.

Discogs

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