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

Click here to download.

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 - Off Target: A Coalition Records Sampler

I've written a bit about a Coalition Records release before, but this sampler, which came out nearly 20 years ago, serves as a pretty great survey of what this Dutch label was. Inspired by the likes of Lärm and Seein' Red, Jeroen and Marcel helped set the trend for the turn of the century with a ton of über-fast hardcore releases. As the initial wave of power violence petered out, they then got weird with Mark McCoy and Nate Wilson in their post-Charles Bronson/Devoid Of Faith bi-continental outfit Das Oath.

It's tough to overstate how special the early aughts were for hardcore. There was still the cultural push against over-commodification, but that was running headlong into the possibilities, good and bad, of what the internet could be. The world was shrinking in a lot of good ways, to the point where it was easier to discover the more obscure parts of the scene than it'd ever been. But it still felt small; you felt like you could still be a part of it.

And that's what listening to this reminds me of. It's the first few years of the Art Space, bands coming from all over the world and playing in that dank-ass basement. It's Mark living in Tony's spare room for a few months...like, why did Mark McCoy even come to Baltimore? It's the natural progression from being pen pals, one letter at a time, to being email mates, sharing tips on what bands to check out and zines to read and, hey, did you check out this new website? It was a world of possibilities, in spite of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism and Bush's America.

I digress. Short/fast/loud. It's still pretty damn rad. And with 35 songs, a hell of a bargain, whether it's 2005 or 2024.

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 - 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

Click here to download.

No Comment - 87-93

I've been sitting on this zip file for a long time, trying to put the words together about what this means to me, nearly 30 years after No Comment stopped being an ongoing concern. And I'm still mostly at a loss. No Comment remains an intense, frightening band for me. Like their peers/brethen in Man Is The Bastard and Crossed Out, they were so far out beyond the edge as to make the distinction irrelevant. Listening to this today...shit, I can't really listen to this any more. Not for reasons of morality or quality; there's a darkness to it that evokes very visceral emotions in me, the likes of which I just don't experience in my art all that often and that I, frankly, try to avoid most of the time. I cannot imagine what it would have been to see them live. I probably would have either shit my pants, or gone home and cut myself up.

Tl;dr: West Coast powerviolence fuk shit up. I'm a depressed puss.

Discogs

Click here to download.

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

Click here to download.

various artists - Feer Of Smell

I'll keep this short because I got a new 9-5 job last week (work from home, benefits, the whole nine), which means I really shouldn't be writing at 1:30 in the morning any more. I guess we'll work that one out as time goes on, right? I'd better; it's the first grown-ass-man job I've had in over three years, and I really shouldn't fuck that up.

I sometimes feel like I was born just a few years too early. I missed out on the days of No Comment, Greyhouse, Native Nod...the heyday of weirdo, outsider hardcore, in a few cases just by months. I had just started exploring things when the last issue of No Answers came out, so while I was there as Ebullition kicked off, I felt more in common with Sam & Neil's Vermiform, a label firmly on the bleeding edge of things from its first release (the "Murders Among Us." 7") to the last (the Fast Forward CD). Some bright lad with a musicology degree will someday write a book about the Vermiform discography, and its impact of independent music throughout the 90s, and I'll be the ding-a-ling queued up to buy it.

Vermiform really nailed it with its compilations, which served as great snapshots for where the edge of the map was in a given year. Their first was 1992's "Fear Of Smell". It originally was a vinyl-only release, the first pressing of which featured distinct, hand-drawn covers, which is the exact sort of quixotic, money-losing scheme that I really appreciate. The collection of bands here is incredible: Nation of Ulysses, Moss Icon, Heroin, Infest, Rorschach, Man Is The Bastard, Tit Wrench, Native Nod, 1.6 Band, Merel, Sugar Shock and Hell No. This is ugly music for angry dorks who would rather make art than shoot up a school, the soundtrack to the last days before a band from 924 Gilman would turn up on MTV.

Plus, there's prank calls, which I think is always a nice touch, and is basically impossible nowadays, unless you're a genius like Longmont Potion Castle.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Social Coma - self-titled

I bought this when it came out because it was the band Mark McCoy was in between Charles Bronson and Das Oath, so I figured it'd have to be pretty good. And it was. It's Mark on guitar, Jeff Jelen (MK Ultra) on bass, Simon Czerwinskyj (Long Live Nothing) on drums, and a woman named Christina on vocals. It's 11:37 of power violence gloriousness that originally came out as a 21 song, self-released demo tape, then was paired down to a 15 song 7" on NAT Records in Japan. This here was ripped from the Youth Attack reissue that came out in 2000 as the second release on Youth Attack. It also is, coincidentally, one of the only records I've ever been able to successfully rip from that stupid-ass Ion turntable I wasted $80 on.

This is the freakout that's been going in the background of my brain for most of 2020. I know you feel me.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Neanderthal - West Coast Power Violence

I never cease to be amazed how eight songs can be such a complete body of work.

Neanderthal was a short-lived hardcore band from Southern California, a side project featuring Matt from Infest and Eric from Man is the Bastard. Joe from Infest shows up on vocals for a couple of songs. They released a 7" on Slap A Ham, did a split with Rorschach on Vermiform, and appeared on the first "Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!" comp. Their pedigree is impeccable, their output limited, their legacy...brilliant.

I got this in 2017 from Blogged and Quartered, a long-time inspiration for this blog, and a source for all the obscure hardcore that had its day five years before I was on the scene. I don't know if this is a straight rip from the Deep Six/Draw Blank 12", or if it's something Stormy compiled and remastered, but I've listened to it like I might not ever hear again. And that cover is a perfect visual for what you're going to hear.

Were they the first power violence band? Hell, I don't even know if they ever played out live. What I do know is that they were brutal, obscure, short, and to the point. It still makes everyone else look like suckers.

If you're stoked on this, it's worth tracking down a copy of the Exit Unit 7" from the same year. It's Matt and Joe, along with Bob from Low Threat Profile/Lack of Interest on drums. It comes from the same place, as one would probably expect.

Play loud. Smash everything.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Better Dead Than Read

Let's make this quick, as it's 2am and I've been tip-toeing around a panic attack all day.

I miss seeing AK Press tables at shows. I miss distros and Food Not Bombs and ARA tables and all the non-band-related activity that'd bubble around a hall in the 90s.

John Yates should be a lot more lauded than he is for his graphic design. Even 30 years on, his record covers remain some of my favorite design pieces of all time. Take the below: you can immediately identify that this is going to be some hard left material. His use of imagery and fonts do such a great job of communicating message. If you engage with Instagram, I highly recommend following him; he's been turning out pretty great leftist propaganda this year.

This might have been the first release on Epitaph that I made a point of purchasing. I had a mean hard on about barcodes on records and CDs in those days (thanks, Tim Yo), and most of what came out on Epitaph was more mainstream than I wanted to listen to. But this had a ton of interesting weirdo music on it (Spazz! Tribes of Neurot! Chumbawamba! The Levellers!), so I snagged a copy. Turned me onto a lot I'd otherwise never encounter. No regrets.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Crossed Out - 1990-1993

When you collect records, you inevitably sell off music that you regret disposing of. Such is today's jam, the 1999 release of Crossed Out's discography, "1990-1993".

You could always count on Slap A Ham Records to put out records worth buying. Even a release like "Caveat Emptor" by Ancient Chinese Secret was interesting, if unloved. So it was that I ended up buying damned near everything Chris Dodge released from 1996 on to the end of the label in 2002. Spazz and the "Fiesta Comes Alive" comp were my gateway drugs, Hellnation and Fuck on the Beach were my heroin. Crossed Out was the PCP-laced joint I smoked way too much of.

Bad analogies aside, I'd heard enough "whoa" statements, and fallen deeply in love with power violence in 1999 that, when the Crossed Out discography came out late that year, I bought a copy on CD AND a copy on vinyl. I didn't typically buy multiple copies of records, but I knew I'd probably just leave the CD in my shitbox Grand Prix, so I wanted to have something to play at home, too. The LP lived in the stacks and probably only got listened to a few times before I sold it at an Ottobar flea market for some beer money. I held onto the CD until 2015, when I saw what it was selling for on Discogs, and shipped it off to a new home.

Like a lot of now-legendary bands from the early days of PV, Crossed Out were short lived. They played only 16 shows, which seems insane to me. They released a 7", appeared on two splits and one comp, and they were done with a "Fuck grindcore." by singer Dallas Van Kempen at the Fiesta Grande #1. Hell, they didn't even leave much of a photographic legacy behind. As far as I know, no one from the band went on to additional punk fame. But where the world of extreme music is concerned, you can put these folks up on the Mount Rushmore of power violence.

Discogs

Click here for download.

Post #100 - Fuck, 20 Years Ago Was A Long Time Back

Here we go. A truly momentous moment. 100 posts...a huge portion of which have come in the past month.

To celebrate this joyous occasion, I've put together this delightful comp. It's 20 songs from 20 years ago. Pretty simple, no? It was a shit year personally, but a pretty great year for music. It was the year I got turned onto Belle & Sebastian, Cat Power, and Death Cab for Cutie. It was the year of "Voodoo" and "Supreme Clientele", "The Moon and Antarctica" and "69 Love Songs". I went to University of Maryland for the year, and failed out within 9 months. I moved back to the Baltimore suburbs, started working as a buyer for a bookstore, began going to three shows a week.

I could have turned this into one of those amazing Fluxblog-style surveys of the year; it was the first year I intentionally expanded my listening habits, and my record collection still reflects that. This, however, is a punk-focused blog, and I wanted to stick to 20 songs, so, there you go. I think it's a pretty decent cross-section of what I was buying at Reptilian and learning about from Punk Planet and HeartattaCk. Here's what you're downloading:

1. Spazz, "Let's Fucking Go!"
2. Dillinger Four, "Music Is None of My Business"
3. Leatherface, "Watching You Sleep"
4. Alkaline Trio, "Radio"
5. Strike Anywhere, "Chorus of One"
6. The Briefs, "New Shoes"
7. The Fuses, "Solution R"
8. The Hives, "A Get Together To Tear It Apart"
9. Charles Bronson, "Couldn't Fuckin' Care Less"
10. American Nightmare, "Protest Song #00"
11. Assfactor 4, "Free Tibet and Pussy"
12. Hot Snakes, "Salton City"
13. Skull Kontrol, "Primitive Offerings" (HEY!)
14. Lifter Puller, "Space Humping $19.99"
15. Braid, "You're Lucky to be Alive"
16. Shellac, "Watch Song"
17. Midiron Blast Shaft, "With A Fine Tooth Comb-Over"
18. Vaz, "Statik Electrik"
19. Cutthroats 9, "Prey"
20. Pg.99, "By the Fireplace in White"

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll acknowledge the elephant in the room. I recognize that there's a real dearth of non-male, non-white voices in this mix. I had less broad taste 20 years ago. It's probably why I didn't date much back then. But this IS perfect to slap onto a C-60, throw into the tape deck, and play full blast while you bomb around a back road with your best friends, chain smoking and drinking Big Gulps and talking about how the whole of your world is still in front of you.

Anyway, enjoy the mix, and thanks for coming back. This is Primitive Offerings 100.

Click here to download.

Spazz - La Revancha

(found this pic of Chris Dodge here)

Holy shit, I actually came back. Funny story there...maybe I'll tell you all about it someday.

Here is the first Spazz full-length, La Revancha, released all the way back in 1997, which, frankly, feels like a million years ago. I didn't grow up hip to Napalm Death, much less Infest & Crossed Out, so this was really a revelation for me. I really miss the whole "power violence" movement, and I still kick myself for not hoofing it out to Berkeley with Chamberlain for the last Spazz show at Gilman St. There's still nothing like a good wall of death to get the heart pumping.

More to come, I swear. And if you're just showing up for the first time, I think most of the links are still live, so getcher rock on, pilgrim.










Spazz - La Revancha
(click the record to DL)

RIYL: short, fast, loud