various artists - Voices N°2 - Auchardcore Punk Compilation

I have no clue how I got hold of this. I've never been much of a crust collector, and Auch is such a tiny commune in southwestern France. It'd be like someone not only pulled together a comp of ska bands from Mount Vernon, WA. And yet...

This is the second of three "Voices" compilations springing from the Gers Valley, a rural area known as the largest producer of foie gras in France. Is that the reason Auch was able to turn out Auchardcore? What sounds small-town kids create in their local bubbles will never not be interesting to me, even if it's taking place in a language foreign to me.

A note: this is missing the last track on the comp, Death Buring's "The Gates of Kthulu". Despite it appearing on both the track listing and the Discogs page, my copy, factory pressed and otherwise pristine, was missing this cut. A shame; I'll always geek out to a Lovecraftian crust jam.

Discogs 

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various artists - Capitol Radio

Wabbit wabbit, dear reader.

I miss playing records on the radio. I miss having ime to play records on the radio. The key here is that I wouldn't necessarily sacrifice the time and energy that it'd take to play records on the radio in 2024; I'm ure I could probably find a once-a-week slot at some left of the dial, 200 watt station around here.

Or maybe that's just ego talking.

The details behind this comp are a bit hazy, and I put it into a box after re-ripping it at 320kbps, so maybe one of my few readers who also lived in Delmarva around the turn of the millenium can fill in the blanks. At the same time I was blasting out punk, hardcore, and ska up near the PA border, there were a few dudes down around DC doing the same. They had much more juice than I; I believe Kent Stax was somehow involved in their show. So when it comes to members of Scream participating in your radio show, they had a 1-nil lead.

This 1999 comp bears their mark. There are a few familiar faces in the liner notes; dudes who you'd see at shows and record stores and the occasional Orioles game. And the bands harken back to an age I find particularly golden. It was a wonderful clash of sub genre; '77 punk next to org-core alongside third wave ska and Dischord post punk, all bounded by Chicago-style pop punk and . 1998 and 1999 were very good times, friends. The wave had just barely started building, and it felt like your friends wouldn't have to starve while they went out on tour.

And that was all a quarter century ago. Fuck, I'm getting old.

Discogs

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various artists - Punch Drunk III

I apparently own three of the five Punch Drunk samplers, which, as I acknowledge it, might sound like a complaint, but is more a reflection of just how much fucking music I own. It truly boggles the mind to

1. Try to remember when I grabbed these, and
2. Try to figure out why I held onto them.

My taste was so less refined in 2002 when this came out, and all these bands that Bruce Roehrs championed at the time wear barely on my radar, Electric Frankenstein and Angelic Upstarts notwithstanding. 22 years on, however, and I'm a lot more stoked listening to this front to back. I'm now a monster fan of that Riot City/Pax/No Future sound that TKO proudly carried the banner for, so this is just a treat for me.

To steal from the cover, this is definitely better than a kick in the head.

Discogs

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various artists - Oi! We Are The Bois...

This is a crazy shitty cover. Like someone asked a 14-year-old with a tenuous grasp of draftsmanship to draw up some skinheads hanging out while a hippie strolls up.

The comp, however, is really solid; an excellent international sampling of the mid-90s Oi!/streetpunk scene. I'd say it complements well with what GMM was putting out at the same time, and stands as a really nice 1-2 punch for the long-running Bronco Bullfrog store (along with their Oi! It's A World Invasion! release from the same year).

So ignore the cover, and hunker in for the likes of Lager Lads, Klasse Kriminale, and Destination Venus, to name a few.

Discogs

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2022: Life Won't Love You Back

If you're reading this, then you've made it. You made it through another year where the world and your brain all tried their damnedest to kill you.

To this, I say, congrats. Have a mixtape.

Discogs says I purchased around 600 pieces of music in 2022. Of those, only 33 were actually released in 2022. This is about par for the course for me these days. So much of what I pick up either comes via the thrift store or via a Bandcamp download. The best thing I got this year was Dischord's "First Six Records" box set; it's up there with any of Numero Group's finest reissues in terms of quality, and a Rosetta Stone of American hardcore. The new Björk and Ed Schrader's Music Beat 12"s are top notch; Ted Leo also did a few digital-only releases which warmed my heart by their existence.

I had planned/still plan to share this via Butterboy's My Compilation Series, an outstanding ongoing weekly that, if you're the kind of cat that avoids streaming and still spends time blogwalking, is worth visiting regularly. The downside to sharing there is there's no room for context, no opportunity to say, "this is why you should hear this." So let's go for the double dip. Let's spell it out and tell you why these were some of my favorite songs from 2022.

1. Poison Ruïn, "Not Today, Not Tomorrow" - let's kick this off with an absolute banger that scratches my metal and crust itches.
2. Brux, "La Mierda De Siempre" - I run with a lot of recommendations that come via Terminal Escape; I find that Robert & I share a number of music tastes in common, so if he writes that he's in love with something, I seek it out. He posted up Mendeku Diskak's latest sampler a couple weeks ago, and wrote this about this Brux track: "shit, if this were a one song cassette with the opening track from BRUX on repeat it would make the essential list." He was right.
3. No Future, "Vampiric Ego Fucker" - this one comes from their 3-song flexi on our local Iron Lung. It's some crusty Mad Max core...perfect for those moments when you're luring QAnonists into a punji pit.
4. Nütt - "Attack! (This Is Our Land)" - self-billed as indigenous hardcore punx from Buena Vista, CA. This is from their first of two cassette releases of 2022, both of which are total jean vest rippers.
5. Soul Glo, "Fucked Up If True" - it's been really rad seeing these cats get recognition for their second full-length. This song really spoke to me, with its theme of the disconnect between privilege and personal politics. It's a topic I'm facing every day now in my work and my personal life, and it's not been easy looking myself in the eye and ensuring I live as true as I speak.
6. Roman Candle, "Gaslighting Isn't Real (You're Just Crazy)" - Sophie's Floorboard is another blog on my roll that I check almost daily. Whether it's to sample someone I've heard of or haven't heard, to fill in a hole in my collection, or to learn about a brand new band without making it out into the clubs, Kevin's kinda awesome for keeping me hip to what the kids are up to. Roman Candle just put out their first EP in October, but drawing from that Ebullition hardcore tradition is a sure way to get me to listen to ya. These cats are down in Vegas, which gives me hope that they'll make their way to the Vera Project in the next year.
7. Stress Positions, "Lust For Pleasure" - Chicago's Stress Positions are another band that debuted this year with a phenomenal EP. "Walang Hiya" is exactly what I'd expect to hear come out of the town that gave us Repos, Los Crudos, and Articles of Faith; a top-notch hardcore outfit that you hope sticks together long enough to tour around and play your local.
8. Snorkel, "Half-Life" - the first of several Earth Girl Tapes-related bands on this mix. Their split cassette with Dumb Idea came out in November and, like so many other things coming out of Hattiesburg, has ended up being a constant play on my headphones at work and my stereo in the car. Just the sort of anti-pro basement punk that I'm always going to adore.
9. Chainsaw, "Emergency" - I think I initially snagged this because I was thinking of the crust-adjacent band from Osaka. These dudes are from Boston, played in bands like Brain Killer, and are drawing the best parts from Anti-Cimex. It's on RoachLeg. If you know, then you know.
10. Puffer, "Live N Die In The City" - another RoachLeg joint, although this one's more No Future Records than Sonarize. I think these folks are from Montreal, making streetpunk fun again with a real rock 'n' roll edge.
11. Foodeater, "Loose Fitting Mask" - hawd-core from Athens, GA. I think I threw this into an order for the ConSec flexi released by Futile Force earlier this year, and was quick pleasantly surprised at how quickly I wanted to mosh it up to this one.
12. The Chisel, "Keep It Schtum" - an emeritus award goes to the Chisel's "Retaliation", which I have been playing hard since it came out in 2021. But this one was a recent purchase, coming from their split 7" with Mess (see track #17) on Mendeku Diskak. As possible outtakes from full-length sessions go, this is a good 'un.
13. Sørdïd, "Blankhead" - yet another RoachLeg jam, this one coming out of their homebase of New York City. If you like D-beat and the hopelessness of existence, then this one is up your alley.
14. Warthog, "Four Walls" - it fucks me up to think that Warthog has been around for ten years. It feels like it was only yesterday that they were flying the flag of "new NYHC band that would fit in perfectly on an ABC No Rio benefit". This is their most vital work, well worth tagging billboards out on I-476 for.
15. Truth Cult, "The Bodies That You Keep" - it's getting harder and harder to keep up with what old friends in Baltimore are up to. I'm staying away from Facebook and Instagram has become nearly unusable. That said, every once in a while, something like Truth Cult's tour tape pokes through the morass, and I'm like, "yeah, I should snag one of those". $10 for four songs feels steep, but if it covers some gas costs on that Turnstile tour, then allow me to chip in.
16. End It, "The Comeback" - speaking of Baltimore buds...these dudes are the standard bearers of the through line of tuff-as-fuk street-level hardcore coming from Charm City that runs back through Trapped Under Ice into Stout into Next Step Up into Gut Instinct. This is their third EP and definitely their best.
17. Mess, "I Don't Like You" - Mexican Oi!, coming from their split with the Chisel. It's a wonderful feeling discovering a band you've never heard of via their side of a split 7" or tape. The mix on their two songs on this split is a little askew...like maybe you could have mixed it slightly more conventionally, but I think that's part of the charm in this recording. It gives it all more of a glammy, British edge that really does it for me.
18. Dumb Idea, "D.H.Y." - from the other side of that Snorkel split. I can't believe I have to write 16 more of these entries.
19. Klonns, "Crow" - there's something in the way that Jensen Ward writes copy for the bands he puts out that immediately grabs me. Case in point: this four song 7" from Klonns, a Japanese hardcore/noise band likened to Death Side, Bastard, and Lip Cream. Shhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeiiiiiittttt, cousin...that's all you had to say.
20. Kalashnikov, "Zuicide Machine" - I'm not sure I've actually seen a physical copy of this, and I'll also admit that I might be misremembering this whole thing, but apparently this is an Earth Girl release, so I asked Hampton for a copy, and it reminds me of I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism In Your Yearbook.
21. The Real Distractions, "FOSTA/SESTA" - the bonus, digital-only track from R.D.'s 7" on K Records. Tobi Vail made this in between Bikini Kill reunion tours and it fukkin' rules.
22. METZ, "Demolition Row" - one of the few new 7"s I bought this year, and one of two tracks from said 7" appearing in this mix. I've never been a big fan of METZ, but there's something about this song that I keep coming back to. Maybe I was wrong about METZ. Maybe I was wrong about a lot of things...
23. Big Screen, "Count" - eventually I'll run out of songs from Earth Girl releases that I've been obsessing over. But not yet.
24. GEL, "Vibe Fucker" - fukkin' GEL, man. "Violent Closure" was one of my favorites last year, a brutal seven-track banger of a hardcore record that I keep slotted right in between "Age of Quarrel" and "Systems Overload" on my list of "Records That Make Me Want To Run Through A Wall". "Shock Therapy", a split with Bucharest's Cold Brats, hasn't yet hit that level for me, but I've only been listening to it for the past few weeks. And "Vibe Fucker" is such a rad title for a song.
25. Black Dog, "Life Is A Lock" - the last of the RoachLeg releases on my list. This is Discharge worship, with a healthy respect for NWOBHM and early black metal. It's gunslingers sweating in black leather riding a bony stead under an unrelenting sun, like Motörhead scoring a Cormac McCarthy novel. Or if Venom was really good, and they wrote the soundtrack to "Red Dead Redemption III".
26. Daddy's Boy, "Work Won't Love U Back" - Daddy's Boy isn't just a killer outfit from Chicago, and the inspiration to this blog post's title. "Great News" is probably the best record in a lineup of fantastic releases from Drunken Sailor this year, And Jes remains one of the best dudes I've ever had the pleasure to know, a true gem amongst punx.
27. Girlsperm, "Return To Girlsperm" - Olympia keeps on bringing the amazing, but what do you expect when Marissa from the Punks, Layla from Skinned Teen, and Tobi from Frumpies put out a record together, their first in five years? If this is one of the final releases on Thrilling Living, then it's a hell of a climax (more of this in a minute).
28. Judy And The Jerks, "Buford" - you've probably noticed commonalities develop throughout this post. ApeMummy: he loves the Hattiesburg scene, he likes 'em short-fast-loud, he likes to mix the serious and the goofy. And if you've read my blog more than once, you know that I've been beating the drum for Judy And The Jerks for years now. These dudes play like I would want my band to sound. I'm not going to hold them up as some paragon of DIY, but...shit, man...lookit the places they come from, the places they play, the way they present their art. It's what I'm looking for; to be able to deliver meaningful art in an authentic way, with a vitality that can't be faked. This one's a bit of a cheat, since it's been out for a couple of years via the "Bone Spur" tape, but it's allowed; "Music To Go Nuts" came out in August.
29. Adulkt Life, "Book Of Curses" - the title track that didn't make it onto their 2020 full-length. C'mon, like I'm going to pass up a chance to put a new A.L. song on a mixtape.
30. Jawbox, "Grip" - it's a re-recording of a song originally released 31 years ago, with Zach and Brooks replacing Adam and Bill on the track. This is the musical equivalent of when you finally get that Camaro you've been working on for years back on the road. There's a new purr to the engine, a new hum as the frame hugs the curves and you rev it back up to full speed in the straightaway. I'm still thrilled to have heard new life breathed into a song that I've been listening to almost since the day I got into punk.
31. Envy, "Seimei" - like Adulkt Life, I'm going to grant Envy a slot on any best of mix that I make, because I know, even without hearing it, I'm going to fall in love. One of the most powerful bands to ever do it, back with new songs. It's amazing.
32. ConSec, "You're Not Going Anywhere" - you start to run out of interesting things to say in spaces like this, things that aren't just "this punk/HC/oi! band is worth checking out". And that's tough, because a band like ConSec, a band whose discovery led me to other bands and a new scene to explore, deserves better than that. I'll fully admit; I don't have it right this second, tho I'll reserve the right to come back to it at a later date and write more. This song gets right to the fukkin' point in 0:58, a nihilistic napalm attack of a song.
33. Botch, "One Twenty Two" - I cannot even believe this recording exists. A new Botch song in 2022. I guess it was worth sticking around.
34. Fat Jock, "Line Up Eat Shit" - well, if you want to sum up things, I can think of no better song. It's negative as hell and offers not a single thing for the future, but we sing it anyway, because to live with an unbowed back is the finest revenge.

Holy shit, we made it. 34 songs. 77 minutes. This blog is over!

Click here to download.

various artists - The U.S. Of Oi! (+6 Bonus Tracks)

I found this one sitting in the midst of a clearance section in a Half Price Books a few years back, and actually debated for a minute spending the $2.99 it would cost me. B/c, to be fair, Oi! in the late 80s could lean a bit dodgy. But I'm glad I snagged it, and generally surprised this has never had a more recent reissue, shitty cover and all.

This is the 1993 CD reissue on Step-1, featuring the original 1988 Link tracks, as well as six additional cuts. What's on it? "U.S. of Oi!" starts with a classic Warzone track, then follows it up with Atlanta's Moonstomp. There's three songs from Youth Defense League, all coming from the same time period as their track on "New York City Hardcore - The Way It Is". Anti-Heros and the Kicker Boys, also coming out of Atlanta (Oi!-lanta?), contribute tracks from their 1988 LPs on Link, while the Uprise, Immoral Discipline, and the Bootboys all chime in with bops from their respective demos and 7"s from the time. The bonus tracks include tracks from Uprise-related bands the Mad Hatters and Boneshakers, as well as Detroit's Grievance Committee.

It's 21 boot blasts total, lager fueled and an under-heard classic. If you're a student of the mid- to late-80s American Oi! scene, you probably already own this, or the source material for a lot of these tracks. But it you're like me, someone who's curious what was happening in DC at the same time as Revolution Summer, or alongside the youth crew revival in NYC, this is a record worth checking out.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Blitz - All Out Attack EP

Rabbit, rabbit, as the kids say. And here's what might just be my favorite punk rock 7" ever.

Yes, ever. More so than "Nervous Breakdown" or "In My Eyes" or "Realities Of War" or "3 Songs". More so than "Alachua" or "I Like Fucking" or "Her Jazz" or "The Sun Isn't Getting Any Brighter" or the self-titled NOU disc. More so than "Who Killed Dove?" or the Get Up Kids/Coalesce split or "Drive This Seven Inch Wooden Stake Through My Philadelphia Heart" or "Monoton Tid" or anything.

Prove. Me. Wrong.

(ripped at 320 kbps from my copy of "No Future: Complete Singles Collection", an absolutely crucial reissue that Captain Oi! put out in 2020 and WHY AREN'T YOU SLAMMING THAT "BUY NOW" BUTTON RIGHT NOW?!?!?)

Discogs

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various artists - Teenage Rebel ... ... Der Sampler - Volume 2

I've turned some fun, inexpensive records this week; very little of which I would post here. But when one finds a cheap copy of "Rumours", or the last Daft Punk record, or the only Yellowman major label release, I suppose one has to pick them up.

I snagged this because it reminded me of all the good things I've downloaded over the years from WhyDoThingsHaveToChange. I started visiting because they'd post up some great bootlegs, as well as some real solid records I'd never taken the time to rip on my own. I keep visiting for the insanely deep selection of European punk, power pop, Oi!, and hardcore they share, very little of which I've ever been exposed to. Just this week, they've paired a Steve Roberts (ex-UK Subs) solo record with a KBD classic from Victim. To keep it 100, today's post is T.S.O.L.'s 1981 deathrock classic "Dance With Me". It's a daily visit for me.

Just like the cover says, this is the second sampler from Düsseldorf's Teenage Rebel Records. The primitive cover was what grabbed me; it made me think of those limited-to-25-copies CDr's with handdrawn covers that you'd encounter on a band's merch table. I flipped it and recognized a few bands: Terrorgrupe, Artless, and Male. Once I ripped it and gave it a spin, I found it quite worth the $3 I paid. It's a small price to pay for 30 tracks of (mostly) German language punk, with a smattering of hardcore and power pop.

It also makes me miss the days before the common market, when I had to try to remember the basic conversion rates for 15 different countries, instead of two. I also enjoyed walking to school in the snow...uphill...both ways.

Discogs

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Section 5 - We Won't Change

How about some good ol' English Oi!? I found this one in a mixed box of CDs at work last year and snagged it for a measly buck.

Section 5 are one of those second wave Oi! bands that came to prominence after the 4-Skins broke up and Blitz went post-punk. As the liner notes go, they couldn't get a gig for the first two years of the band, no doubt a result of the live environment after the 1981 Southall riot. What that did do was allow the band to hone their chops, as well as trim to a three piece, with Tosh handling vocals as well as guitar. What you get here is their first LP, released in 1985 on Oi! Records, as well as their two tracks from the "This Is Oi!" comp and a mess of demos that predate the power trio. My copy came out back in 1994 on Captain Oi!; a vinyl reissue came out via Spain's Disco Nightmare in 2015.

I keep coming back to the Oi! Records catalog regularly. A track will come up on shuffle, which will lead me to listening to "Unite and Win!" or "Boston Callin'" or "Dead & Buried" or this. Pronounced, even leftist Oi! is still somewhat underheard. So it's cool to come across this period in the mid 80s when a pair of Welsh ex-cons got together, started a band in the Oppressed and helped foster a scene that crossed an ocean and genres. To proudly carry the S.H.A.R.P. banner back then...wow, pretty intense stuff.

Discogs

Click here to download.