various artists - Reptilian Records Sonic Assault

It was approximately 25 years ago that I started working at Reptilian Records. I'd been visiting the store for several years by that point, steadily expanding my taste in music. I'm sure I've gone on ad nauseum about the things I heard for the first time within those four deteriorating walls. Even if it'd only been the Stooges and Unsane, it would be a huge influence in my life. But I discovered the Slits, Spazz, Cop Shoot Cop, American Nightmare, Pleasure Forever, the fuckin' White Stripes via hearing them at and buying them from Reptilian. It was terra firma, my home away from home, and by 2001, it was my paying gig.

This label sampler got a ton of play in the store. Everything appearing here had come out over the past 24 months. I ended up packing a fair amount of these for mail order and walking them the six blocks or so to the Fells Point post office. What a lineup: Pageninetynine's "Document #5", the Pig Destroyer 7" picture disc, "The Fuses Are Lies", the Cutthroats 9's "Anger Management" 10", Easy Action's self-titled LP, and Midiron Blast Shaft's "Starts Fires In Your Pants" all spring from the head of punk rock while presenting wildly different interpretations. It's loud as fuk, blasting alongside fellow travelers Man's Ruin, Amphetamine Reptile, Touch & Go, and Relapse. It was a golden age, if you ask me.

Discogs

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various artists - Audioflashcard

Note: fixed the link to include the entire comp. Thanks to Friend for leaving the comment.

GSL made it a decade and a half, starting out in Boulder in 1993 and wrapping things up in Los Angeles in 2007, with a stop-over in San Diego. During that time, they released no less than a half dozen records that I still find irreplaceable. Early releases from the Locust, the V.S.S., and Get Hustle built a track record that would soon include the Mars Volta, !!!, and the Rapture. This was the sound of late 90s hardcore growing up. And I'm not talking about the youth crew...these were the weirdos from your town who were booking Born Against and Heroin and Huggy Bear in their basements, then going off to college towns where they'd get into Christian Death or Albert Ayler or Karen Dalton. They'd meld it all together, making sounds that'd turn off every macho shithead and turn on their friends and younger siblings.

This sampler came at the midway point of Gold Standard Laboratories' lifespan. GSL would put out the first !!! full length, a Mohinder discography, a collaborative 7" between xBxRx, Miss Pussycat, and Quintron, the Locust's remix 12", and the first post-At The Drive-In release from Cedric and Omar as De Facto in 2001. The last of those would lead to the Mars Volta, who ultimately reached the sort of popularity that honestly blew everyone's I knew's minds. These were deeply different, viewed with some level of distrust, and thus were deeply, honestly, punker than anything else running at the same time. 25 years on, this still feels pretty transgressive, and makes me wonder why the hell we thought anyone was selling out.

Discogs

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various artists - Bread: The Edible Napkin

Look, there's no way I'll ever look at the late 90s as a golden age to grow up punk. You could grow up poor & ugly, yet still be happy, because the shows were typically going to be $6 ($5 with a canned food donation) and if you didn't live in NYC or California, you had no expectations of being offered the opportunity to sell out. So you just did it with a bunch of like-minded nerds and freaks, raised on Lucio Fulci and "G.I. Joe" and Tetsujin-28 and Fugazi shows. If you were lucky, you'd run into folks like Var, who created No Idea down in Gainesville, and they'd introduce you to a world of new sounds.

It's how bands like Braid and Hot Water Music show up alongside Cavity and the Locust, right next to Skankin' Pickle and Against All Authority on the same bill or, in this case, on the same comp. "Bread: The Edible Napkin" came as a CD or double LP attached to No Idea #12. My copy of the zine was long ago donated to the CCAS zine library, but I've held onto my CD copy for almost 30 years since getting it. It's a great snapshot of the underground from that time, featuring names that continue to tour and play regularly, and those who made only slight inroads outside their home scenes. No Idea was always good about that, drawing the bands together under one banner of punk rock, regardless of what subgenre you could group them in. It became aspirational for me, whether I was making my own zine or booking shows, to pull from disparate tribes and bring them all together.

Discogs

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various artists - Nothing's Quiet On The Eastern Front

I've been digging through boxes of CDs at the storage unit, looking to (re)rip stuff that I haven't listened to in forever and write about. I've come across unlabeled CD-Rs, a few of which I'll share here in the coming weeks. There's been a ton of promo CDs and demos. And there's stuff like this, which I should have never forgotten about in the first place.

I picked this up via mailorder from Revelation Records, along with a Texas Is The Reason long sleeve t-shirt and a Youth of Today tee, with the $100 my mom gave me for my 19th birthday. "Nothing's Quiet On The Eastern Front" was released by Reservoir out of Queens, New York, and documented the extreme hardcore, grind, and power violence that was coming through the Northeast in the mid-90s. I'm pretty sure I snagged this because Suppression was on it, and they were from southwestern Virginia, as well as fukkin' nuts; a very appealing mix for me, since I was a recent transplant from SWVA. I knew of Brutal Truth as well from being on Relapse, but the rest of it was a mystery at the time.

This one was a huge ear opener. I was diving fully into the relatively sedate sounds of contemporary hardcore and emo, and "Nothing's Quiet", like its West Coast namesake from a decade plus before, served as an immediate scene report of bands to check out. I immediately fell in love with Albany's Monster X & Devoid of Faith, who shared Nate Wilson, whose Gloom Records' releases were all must purchases in the coming years. Dropdead from Providence were already five years into their ongoing, illustrious career, and their two contributions were twin hammers to my forehead. Assfactor 4 had an amusing name, came from the Deep South, and made hardcore more in line with Born Against than Sick Of It All; of course I dug them.

And those are the highlights for me. Which is selling every other band present here short. Unfair, but it's the deal.

It's not fun to consider that I've owned this over half my life, yet listen to it infrequently. For the places it led me, for the labels and bands and showspaces it took me to, it should be up there as a more regular spin. But here's to fixing that, and cranking C.R. and Black Army Jacket while bombing down I-5 all summer long.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - This Comp Kills Fascists Volume 2

The follow up to 2008's "Volume 1", this one matches the intensity of its predecessor, and, frankly, is needed now more than ever. This one has homeys from back home on it: Triac, Drugs of Faith, and Strong Intention were regulars on bills I booked and shows I attended. There are true heavyweights present as well, with Apartment 213, Despise You, Vöetsek, and Lack of Interest all turning in superior offerings. It was my first exposure to Hummingbird of Death and Marion Barry. They still get turned up and blasted hard whenever they come on the old headphones at work orat work. Put this on and bash a fash.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - This Comp Kills Fascists, Vol. 1

I had intended this to be posted on Monday, January 20th, but having a move thrust upon me kind of threw things out of whack, Instead, you get a a few days late.

It's taken forty-seven years, but I can wrap my brain around why someone might embrace fascism. And by "someone", I mean a normal human. A person who 30 years ago might have resided firmly in the middle class. That stability no longer exists. The world has gotten faster, the sensory input amped up, and still no answers present themselves. In the ensuing madness, I can understand why anyone might turn to a strongman, someone providing easy solutions to difficult challenges. Fuck the immorality or cognitive dissonance that comes along with accepting giving in; the trains might run on time, and you might get a deserved bite of the apple, a taste of the good life that you've been told is your birthright.

But it's all bullshit. It always has been, and, especially now, it will continue to be. After all, I lived through 2017 to 2021. I remember what has already happened; I can anticipate what will come.

A lesson I took from a life in punk rock is that you can do it yourself. You can start your own band. You can release your own record. You can publish your thoughts. You can create and distribute and connect and evolve. The scale is irrelevant. Whether you make 25 copies of a fanzine, or you start a mutual aid society in your town, you reject the dominant message that you cannot and embrace the message that you can.

i guess what I'm getting at here is that this is not a time for whining, or despair, or surrender. It's a time for regroup and realign. Figure out what sort of world you want to live it, and set about creating it. I promise there are others who feel the same way, and want to help. What your President, your MP, your Premier, your Prime Minister, and the men who back them, doesn't change what you can do at home.

Anyway, here's a comp from 2008, embracing Conflict's message to see who's who. Let's not be afraid to fight for a better world with this as part of the soundtrack.

Discogs

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various artists - Ugly Music...For Ugly Minds

Another Sunday has come, and I have nothing in the queue, so let's fall back to an old favorite.

Relapse has ALWAYS had samplers worth holding onto. There are bands who I've never owned a record but, yet I can still still recall the samples used or the opening blast beat or riff from their track on "Spectrum Fest" or "Fast Forward" or "Contaminated". These led to my first exposures to Merzbow, Human Remains, Repulsion, and Benümb. I'm lucky that it expanded my mind and didn't melt my brain.

"Ugly Music...For Ugly Minds" finds Relapse celebrating its Sweet 16 with the sort of eclectic roster that we'd all come to know and love by that point. There were doom metal pioneers Pentagram, label mainstay Bongzilla, soon-to-be-major-label-megastars Mastodon, and the late, great Nasum; all names well known in the metal underground. But there were also contributions from also long-time Pittsburgh math rockers Don Caballero, Seattle thrashers Zeke, and techy instrumentals from Dysrhythmia and Zombi. There's an obligatory Dave Witte appearance in the form of southern "supergroup" Birds of Prey. In all, it's 19 tracks worth of the sort of sounds that are still well worth the $5 or so I'm sure this retailed for.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Disturbing The Peace: An Ear2theground Punx Compilation

Just a killer 20-year-old compilation of Bay Area hardcore/crust/power violence/grindcore. Simple as.

Listening to this for the first time in a long time, it makes me wish someone would put out a Funeral Shock discography. And I see that the Scurvy Dogs full length is a whopping $3 on CD.

It's a good one to walk your dog to...preferably on a rope leash.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Deadly Mince Grinder: The Third World Scum Project

The one had all the hallmarks of a "must buy" when I found it, tucked away on the dusty bottom shelf of a thrift store I'd never set foot in just an hour from the Canadian border.

Were there bands I'd never heard of? Check! Hailing from a place (Indonesia) I'd never been? Double check!

Was there a Carcass cover? Check! Was it "Reek of Putrefaction"? Lemme give ya a check!

Was this co-released by five or more labels? Check! Did at least one of those labels also release records by Unholy Grave or Agathocles? Mic check!

Recordings like this are a great reminder that you can find gold literally in the weirdest, most unexpected places, sorted in between an Elton John "Candle in the Wind '97" CD single and a Boxcar Willie cassette. I cannot tell you how much this made my day.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - ClePunk.com Volume One

Smog Veil Records in Cleveland put out a ton of great records over their 30 years in existence. The Offbeats discography they put out in 2002 just rips, "The Day The Earth Met Rocket From The Tombs" is a must have for any self-respecting Dead Boys or Pere Ubu fan, and they released great records from Obnox, This Moment in Black History, x_x, and the Pagans. It's all good stuff worth keeping an eye peeled open for.

This is not one of those worthy releases. That's not talking shit, or even implying it's bad. Compiled by the folks at clepunk.com, I'm sure I copped this because I've never been afraid of a scene sampler, and it was on S.V., who'd never steered me wrong. But there aren't much in the way of standouts here, IMO. I was familiar with Allergic To Whores when I got this; they'd put out a pair of albums on Sound Pollution. The Unknown came from that vein of Midwestern pop punk from whence sprang Screeching Weasel and Dillinger 4. There's a band called Hellvis who play...you guessed it...psychobilly. There's also a band called Standing 69s, and one called Jacknife Powerbombs, and one called Phestur, so if you're into clever band names, you'll probably be way stoked on this.

This one might not be worth the $3 (plus shipping) you'd pay on Discogs for a copy, but it's better than a sharp poke in the dick. Enjoy.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Chords Of Chaos

One of this week's thrift store finds...a single buck American for this late-90s slice of goregrind on a Brazilian label I'd never heard of. The standout is, of course, Relapse Records stalwarts Exhumed. These San Jose legends were still just in their first decade of existence when they provided seven tracks to this comp; they have a new record that came out a couple weeks back, which, if you're into death metal or goregrind, you probably already have, preferably on the limited-to-100-copies picture disc which looks sick as hell.

Ear Bleeding Disorder were from Colorado and left behind a split 7", along with a handful of comp appearances (including this one) before splitting up. Mortville compiled their discography in 2004, so if you ever wanted to hear a live version of their hit, "$300 And A Hand Job", taken from a second generation VHS tape, well, you can cop it for pretty cheap.

I won't presume to know much more about Spain's Execreted Alive other than what's in the unfolded booklet and what Discogs has to say about them. While they came nowhere near the discography size of, say, Agathocles or Unholy Grave, they managed a fair number of split albums and 7"s throughout the 90s. They had a compilation of their 7"s come out last year on cassette via the UK's prolific Grindfather Productions label.

Last, but not least, come Necrose from Brazil. I recognized the name from a comp of HG Fact they appeared on. This is easily my favorite material, hewing more towards a classic grind sound, a la Napalm Death. Respect to anyone cutting a track called "Football Hysteria Motherfucker". Mortville and Grindfather teamed up back in 2014 to put together a limited-to-100 discography cassette together; it probably wouldn't take a lot of arm twisting for me to drop $6 on a copy from a distro (those still exist, right?).

Look, it was a dollar CD, and "Creepshow" just got added to Shudder, and I've been running a bit low on records to post, so, here you go. This is not for everyone. But if you have a bit of the ol' "sik fuk" in you, you'll probably want to bang your head to this.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Supersonic Sounds from the "Fuck You" Movement

When I was a wee slip of a youth, full of piss and vinegar but still discovering myself and what my taste was, I picked up a comp tape from the counter of the local Record & Tape Exchange. I think I snagged it because one of my classmates' bands had a pair of songs on it. Very heady stuff at the age of 16...I knew people who made records!

It was all Roanoke bands, circa 1992-94, and while I've misplaced the tape, and no one's every listed it on Discogs, it was the first time I'd heard Swank, a ska-punk band of some renown who'd eventually put out a pair of recordings on the pre-Fall Out Boy version of Fueled By Ramen. It was also the first time I'd encounter Suppression, local audio terrorists who broke my brain more than just a little bit. How the hell was I supposed to get anything out of the Dave Matthews Band or Metallica or the goddamned Red Hot Chili Peppers when I'd just gotten my first sip of grindcore?

I wasn't aware of it immediately, but Suppression had a label they self-released on called Chaotic Noise Productions (C.N.P., as the literature goes). And while I never targeted their records, I ended up with more than a few over the years. From early cassette releases like the Cripple Bastards comp and the Agoraphobic Nosebleed demo to something more recent like the "Eardrill" comp tape, I'd cop something because I heard it'd be strong and extreme, I'd open it up, get my mind melted, then see that mailing address of Roanoke, then late Richmond, VA.

This one came out in 2001, during what might be called "the middle period" of C.N.P. The only release from the label that year, it's a goddamned cacophonous comp, featuring a bunch of noisy motherfuckers just going for it. When the most conventional track comes from Charm City Suicides ("covering" Reagan Youth), you know you're in for something nearly opposite a Def Jam street sampler or the current NOW! comp. There's a pair of Kojak tracks, a quartet of Suppression cuts, a little something from Bastard Noise that clocks in at (checks track length) 9 minutes?!? There's a monkey man making a man monkey suck his banana on the cover. This isn't for kids, ya know?

One last anecdote: P.C.P. Roadblock contribute three songs here, just one of a handful of appearances they made on aluminum, wax, or magnetic tape during their existence. I don't recall the other bands on the show, or even the instigating circumstances, but I remember them playing the most antagonistic set I've ever seen in my life at the old Ottobar, ending with at least two band members getting kicked to the floor during their set, and a Rubbermaid trash can getting lobbed at them. There's nothing really to take away from that, other than to note that's what you're getting yourself into here.

Discogs

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various artists - Fiesta Comes Alive!

This is an all-time slammer of a comp, bringing together live tracks from Fiesta Grande's five fests, running from 1993 to 1997. It ticks so many boxes for me: live from Gilman Street; featuring numerous luminaries from the extreme punk scene; out on the always-choice Slap A Ham Records; a cover inspired by "Frampton Comes Alive".

If you like short, fast, and loud, this is a must have.

Discogs

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Iron Lung // Hatred Surge - Broken: A Collaboration

I wish that I'd gotten into Iron Lung sooner. There's really no excuse; I was aware of them back when they did a split with Teen Cthulhu in 2001. But it literally took me moving to their stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest for me to revisit any of their records I'd picked up over the years. And that's a shame, because their entire catalog is brutal.

"Broken" was a collaboration between Jensen & Jon from Iron Lung and Alex from Austin's Hatred Surge. This isn't pleasant, easy going music.. If Basil Poledouris had grown up listening to Napalm Death, he probably would have written music like this for his score to "Conan the Barbarian". It's snakecult slaying music, the soundtrack to a wasteland ride towards glory. It's the opposite of yacht rock. And I'll never get to bang my head to it live. C'est la vie.

There were only around 1,300 of these made; 101 in a Chaos in Tejas press, 1000 on purple, and a third pressing of 170 on red. It's not particularly expensive, unless you're looking for one of those Chaos pressings. I would, however, suggest spending the $3 for a digital copy from Iron Lung Records. It's cheap at thrice the price.

Bandcamp

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various artists - This Is Springfield, Not Shelbyville!

Ah, maybe these minstrels will sooth my jangled nerves.

Here's a turn of the century tribute to the Simpsons, featuring a strong nod to "This Is Boston, No L.A." and a grip of Tri-State hardcore and punk bands. My favs? How about Milhouse adapting "Firestorm" with Bart-inspired lyrics? Or Lifes Halt's thrash paean to the state's first Aquacar factory? Maybe it's Black Army Jacket's tribute to Poochy? They all tread a thin line between clever and stupid.

Whoops, wrong reference.

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this record's existence for almost 20 years. Is this just an excuse to post a .gif from Frinkiac? No chance, nerd. Does it fit thematically with yesterday's post? Sure. Is this a cheap ploy to get some more eyeballs and ears to the blog? Probably. Did it work? Who knows?

This blog is over.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Kerum - Discography

Add a MFT of Kerum pictures on an ancient external hard drive to the list of things we lost in the war. Hence the above flier for what I remember being a pretty crucial show at the Bloodshed. Here's what I remember:

Kerum started out with Chuck and Clint from Baltimore A.R.A. and Brian Redbeard. Redbeard and my little brother were high school buds who were super into computers and once ate a bunch of acid in my backyard. He grew up down the road from our townhouse, threw awesome garage shows, and was a generally good dude. I knew fuck all about grindcore past Napalm Death at the time, so their arrival to my awareness became a bit of an education in death to false grind.

Brian left the band and moved down to D.C., and Kerum added my buddy Bachman on bass and Eric T. Neal on vocals. Bachman was a real-deal farm kid who was equally into punk and hip-hop; likewise, Eric T. was the assistant manager at the record store in town and was the first person I knew to get into John Zorn. Josh came in on second guitar; I'm sorry, but I literally have no recollection of him.

They kept playing out, literally all over the place. They were the first band from HarCo that I remember making a national tour. They were the local short/fast/loud opener du jour for half a decade; they could slot anywhere, and Eric T. had an incredible visual aesthetic that he applied to fliers for Kerum shows. They would eventually add Jimmy from In$pite on co-vocals, morph into Shitdogs of War, morph again into Deceiver when Eric T. left for Texas after a false diagnosis of brain cancer, and then fragment as everyone got a little older.

So, about this disc. This is everything except their split tape with California's Abysmal Terror: the "Twilight of the Apocalypse" LP, their split with Unholy Grave, some unreleased tracks and their 2002 demo. I know there are some recordings from radio show appearances floating around as well. While this lacks the visual flair of some of their physical releases, it does capture that moment around and after 9/11 when we played with reckless abandon, made records with no heed to anything but art, and occasionally committed some light larceny,

Discogs

Click here to download.