various artists - Mojo Presents: Roots Of Nirvana (Distorted Sounds From The Punk Underground)

I would have thought there would be no surprises in a "Roots of Nirvana" comp. The tastes of Msr. Cobain and Novoselic are fairly well-documented at this point. So it is that you se a lot of the names and songs you'd expect to see on this sort of comp.

There are the local influences: Melvisn, Beat Happening, Green River covering the Dead Boys. My all-time fav Stooges song in an extended live version pairs nicely with Flipper's "Sex Bomb" at the tail end of the CD. There are a few bands from Kurt's legendary mixtape that he was arrested with: Big Black, Scratch Acid, Young Marble Giants, and Shonen Knife. There are a pair of tracks present that Nirvana would later cover in their Unplugged set. Meat Puppets' "Plateau" and the Vaselines' "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" both appear in their original forms.

Two songs shared here weren't on my radar until I heard them here.  Clown Alley's "On The Way Up" was on their single LP for the legendary SF thrash label Alechemy Records. Alchemy would also serve as the initial home for Melvins' "Gluey Porch Treatments", Neurosis' "Pain Of Mind", and Poison Idea's "War All The Time". "On The Way Up" makes me want to drop some coin on the 2009 expanded reissue on Southern Lord. Big Dipper's "You're Not Fancy" appeared initially on a 1987 Homestead Records comp alongside songs from Naked Raygun, Big Black, Death of Samantha, and Dinosaur (Jr); it'd also show up appended to the cassette version of their 1987 "Boo-Boo" 12". All of this would fly below my radar until discovered here. Merge reissued their pre-major label output in 2009 as part of a 3-disc CD set. And this intro is a proper appetizer. To my aging ears, I can hear a band traipsing the same sort of aural ground that would lead Nirvana to become the biggest band in the world a few years later.

Discogs

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various artists - Tomorrow Will Be Worse Vol. 4

Well, that was an unwelcome bit of news.

So why not wash the political developments of Tuesday out of your brain with the aptly-named fourth volume of "Tomorrow Will Be Worse"? A snapshot of the waning days of fastcore, featuring six bands from the US and Japan, this was the final volume of the influential series from Covington's Sound Pollution Records. And it captures one of my favorite eras of punk rock, chock full of blazing fast sounds, perfect for circle pitting and skateboarding and flipping the brim of your baseball cap up.

For me, Vöetsek is still the stand out here. This was Scotty Tankcrimes and Athena of Six Weeks Records, and if you know anything about the records they've put out, you know they have expert taste in punk rock. That doesn't diminish any of the other bands here. Orlando's RunnAmuckS is the other "big" name here; they are still playing out and releasing records (as of last year, at least). No Value, the Sprouts, and Fasts all hailed from Japan, and are all bands that I'd happily have bought 7"s from back then. Finally, there's Michigan's Threatener, featuring members of xBrainiax and Saturday Looks Good To Me, a combination of related bands that tickles me to no end.

You want the advice of a white cis male, speaking from a place of privilege? You cannot change the path of a nation. You can change the path of your town, your neighborhood, your street, your building. Take a little time over the coming days to think about what matters to you and how you can help build the world you want to live in. Or download this, turn up your speakers, and circle pit in your bedroom until you get dizzy and pass out. There's a fair chance I'll do both.

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

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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

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various artists - Thrasher Skate Rock Vol.12: Eat The Flag

It has not been a good day. Or week.

My living situation, never a bright spot in my life on even the best days, has turned very shit over the past 10 days or so. To make a long story short, there's a good chance that, in a week, we may be evicted. We're doing what we can do, which hopefully will take care of the current situation, but who knows? I live in a very expensive part of the country, so even finding a decent place to live going forward will be impossible. Add in a long-standing diagnosis of major depression, anxiety, ADHD, and a possible executive dysfunction disorder issue, and, yeah, things are pretty fucked.

So while I submit a ledger of rental payments and start browsing governmentjobs.com, I'll play this in the background, and harken back to the days where I didn't have to worry about much more than finding a decent curb to skate and not bailing. "Eat The Flag" was the first Skate Rock comp in 12 years, and the only one outsourced by Thrasher to a third party (the now mostly-deactivated Volcom Entertainment). As a result, this one feels a bit more Warped Tour adjacent than previous editions; no doubt, this is thanks to the presence of Alkaline Trio, Gnarkill, and Riverboat Gamblers. But make no mistake; this one is still bona fide. I'd argue it's more listenable than other editions. Pressing this on a DualDisc was an inspired choice for the era. Yeah, this content is probably on YouTube now, but 18 years ago? Slapping this one in your PS2 and hitting play to watch video of Duane Peters and Turbonegro fits really well with the whole premise of Skate Rock.

Discogs

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various artists - In The Name Of Satan: A Tribute To Venom

Sigh...

In the positive column:

• Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Kreator, and Sodom, all appearing on a tribute to black metal "originators" Venom
• It cost me a buck
• This copy has a hole punched through the barcode, which tells me the first owner of this paid little to nothing for it

And in the negative column:

• This is the American version of the release on Deadline/Cleopatra, with an extra track by the Electric Hellfire Club jammed into the middle of the comp
• As the US-released version, they dropped the "In The Name Of Satan" part of the title, so as not to offend anyone in middle America
• This isn't an hour of bands influenced by Venom doing riffs on this EP

This isn't "good", but it's worth hearing at least once all the way through.

Discogs

(using the OG German cover b/c it's cooler/cornier)

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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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Razors Edge - MAGICAL JET LIGHT

Guys, if you like fast hardcore from Japan, then you're going to like this, Razors Edge's fourth full-length.

If you like this, then, well, there's other records I've also shared.

And if you don't like fast hardcore from Japan, well...get with the program.

Discogs

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Razors Edge - RAZORS RISING!!!!

I had nice things to say a couple years back about Osaka's Razors Edge, and I figured it was high time to revisit their discography with this, their second full length. Originally released in 2003 on Kenji Razors' Pizza Of Death Records, this is just some good ass turn of the millenium JP thrash. It's a bit more amateur (and thus a bit more fun, IMHO) than SONIC! FAST! LIFE!, and it covers a lot of the same ground. But the songwriting is there, and the Ramones built a wonderful catalog off the same sort of model, so there you go.

Dig those subtitles. MORE SOUL FOR THRASH!! WE ARE JUST BLITZKRIEG!! Can there be any doubt as to what you're getting here?

For those of you either already on the ground in Japan, or of the means to make your way there, Razors Edge is playing in Osaka in July with a gaggle of other bands. Should be a thrashin' good time. Flip that ballcap bill up and wall of death to your hearts' content!

Discogs

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Devoid Of Faith/Voorhees - Network Of Friends 5

Sunday circle pit, y'all. Join the Bedroom Dancer's Union Internationale, dive off the dresser onto the bed. You don't need a live band. All you need is a pair of bands from Albany, New York and Durham, England, a 22-year-old split LP, and a set of loud speakers.

I say - follow your dreams. Even if they're about a giant spider with your father's head and he keeps stealing your penis!

Discogs

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Crucial Unit - Everything Went Strunk

"Baby, I don't want to make out

"I just want to circle pit!"

-Crucial Unit

I remember my then-girlfriend being really bummed out that I wanted to go see Crucial Unit play in the basement of Charm City Art Space instead of whatever she wanted to do. It should have been a clear sign that it wasn't going to work out.

Crucial Unit kept things fun at the turn of the millenium. I'm kinda shocked they didn't play Baltimore more; I remember their only CCAS show being packed and steamy, with a crowd that didn't circle pit so much as make waves like the sea. Their songs were short, pun filled, with outstanding titles like "Freegan Reich" and "One Less Jeff Gordon Fan". They believed in consuming gallons of iced tea and smashing all buffets. In short, they were champion piss-takers and the antidote to far-too-serious punk rock of the early aughts. There should have been more of them.

They put out a split LP with fellow thrash revivalists Municipal Waste and a second full length with Athena and Jeff at Six Weeks. "Everything Went Strunk" was named after their first drummer and collected their first three 7"s and a mess of comp tracks, both released and unreleased. There's also a live set tacked onto the end. It's 38 tracks of thrash revival, more punk than metal, from the post-9/11 years, back before irony was dead. And it features an excellent illustration by Mike Bukowski of kindergarten children moshing around Chris Strunk. It's well worth your $4 + S&H from your local Discogs vendor.

Discogs

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Christer Pettersson - Empatihaveri

Swedish thrash, bordering on power violence, named after a Swedish assassin, from the days when fascism was still taboo, a fringe idea that everyone would at least pay lip service to condemning.

This is not a blog about politics, but it is a political blog. I find it impossible to align with the art I love and want to share without taking on a fair amount of its ideals. And thus it is that I grew up a punk. And punk says everything is political.

It's less than a month until the American presidential election. The wall between truth and perception has never been higher. I've never been happier to be away from the East Coast. Earlier today, the FBI unraveled and stopped a plot to kidnap and assassinate the governor of Michigan. Last night, I watched the vice president talk loud and say nothing, while his counterpart in the debate bragged about her law & order bona fides. A senator today bragged about ending democracy on Twitter. The people in power seem determined to finalize their erosion of the American dream. This was the plan all along, to use the levers of government to undo that government.

There's so much going on, and I get why people can feel like we have little to no hope left. I can count the days where I've experienced the fulfillment of the American dream on both hands, and still have fingers left over. I wouldn't call myself disillusioned, because I shucked those illusions a long time ago. I can understand the fear that so many are experiencing; somehow, they got left behind in the chase for wealth accumulation. Their generation was subtracted in the math of late capitalism. And they're told that it's a brown person's fault, a yellow disease, that a rainbow stole their birthright.

I don't think we're completely lost as a nation. If nothing else, keeping your hope alive is the ultimate rebellion against control. It's the middle finger to those who benefit from the division currently being sown. The title of this 7" is "Empatihaveri". Translated from the original Swedish, it means "empathy". Hope and empathy are our weapons to fight hate and fear with. This record makes a pretty good soundtrack for that fight.

Bandcamp

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Flash Gordon - Troma City Pollution Attack!

There are days when you can appreciate the subtleties of life. And there are days when the only answer is to blast a 19-year-old album of meathead Japanese thrash. I'll let you decide which kind of day Tuesday was. If you subjected yourself to the first American Presidential debate, then you already know.

I think I first heard Nisshin's Flash Gordon via the classic 4x7" box set from Sound Pollution, "Tomorrow Will Be Worse". That comp, along with the contemporary "Possessed to Skate" comp, was a roadmap of bands to check out. If you liked Spazz (and who wouldn't?), then you'd go check out Romantic Gorilla or Hirax, because they'd done splits with them. You'd start picking up the new records on Six Weeks and Lengua Armada because they'd put out Charles Bronson records, which would lead you to Capitalist Casualties and Los Crudos. I did it as a kid with encyclopedias and "thank you" lists in liner notes; I still do it today with Wiki-walking. You take natural leaps and learn about something brand new. I guess it beats buying something because of a clever title or a crazy cover.

So, Flash Gordon's "Troma City Pollution Attack!": it has both a clever title and a crazy cover. Even if I hadn't been prepared by their American comp appearances, I'd still get a good sense of what I was in for just from the outer package. That's a King Kong-sized Toxic Avenger destroying a city whilst being attacked by jets. Did a 10-year-old draw the cover? Who's to say? Is this Suicidal Tendencies worship, minus the gang violence. Well, maybe. But Suicidal was never this joyously dumb, willing to reference the world of Lloyd Kaufman, "Karate Kid", and Queen. The thrash revival of the early aughts was so much goddamned fun, consistently referential while still building upon what had come before.

I really cannot remember how I laid hands on this. I wasn't doing any overseas mailorder at the time. And while we got a wide range of North American punk & HC releases at Reptilian, we didn't ever really see any Japanese releases, short of some the MCR CDs that I think we got through Sound Pollution/Mordam. Maybe I picked it up through a touring distro? All I know is that it's a great bed mosh record, and a soundtrack well worth listening to when you're falling off your deck.

Discogs

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Primal Scream (NYC) - Volume One

This little slice of late 80s thrash is one of my favorite crate digging finds. My in-laws live on California's Central Coast, and when there isn't a pandemic on, and we aren't both unemployed and staving off eviction, Mrs. Ape and I try to go down at least once a year to hang out. Because my in-laws are rad, you see. And I really like the area south of San Francisco; it's the promise of California, writ large.

So we're putzing about one afternoon, checking out Salinas when we see this dinky little thrift store in a strip mall. I already have good feelings when I walk in, see a G1 Soundwave for $5 (a perfect gift for my brother), and Mrs. Ape grips a pair of late-60s, high-waisted gabardine slacks. I dig around in the vinyl, shoved onto a rack of industrial shelving, and pull a copy of "The Coming War With Russia". Not a ground-breaker, but who am I to resist the bat-shittedness of the good Rev. Jack Van Impe? I see a stack of around 25 CDs. Most of it is garbage, but I see Primal Scream on the spine of one and figure, "Well, maybe this is a Creation collection I don't have yet." I take my finds up to the counter. The fella behind and I start talking about the Germs and thrifting around Atlanta. He rings me up for everything. "How about $10 for it all?" "Sure."

I walk out to the car for a smoke, and start logging my music. And that's when I see that my fav Glaswegians (sadly) never put a two-faced baboon on the cover of one of their records.

This Primal Scream was a "throk" quartet from NYC that ran for about 3 years and only released this record along with a demo tape. The best known name here is guitarist/vocalist Keith Alexander, who had started Carnivore with Peter Steele and played with the band until 1986. This reminds me the rockier side of crossover: "Cause for Alarm", "Best Wishes"...you know, those first few years when the metalheads learned how to circle pit. This isn't perfect, but it's more fun than any number of Pantera records. And isn't that what we're all looking for out of life?

This would be the part of the post where I offered to let my cherry-looking copy go for a good deal to a friend of the blog. BUT! The good folks at Pittsburgh's Divebomb Records, who do a fantastic job with their reissues, are re-releasing "Volume One" for the first time in over 30 years in October!!! WHOA!!! That's incredible news for 80s thrash fans, or folks who don't want to spend three figures on a CD. Not only will this rarity be available again, but Divebomb has tacked on the 1986 demo, "The Outrage Continues", as a special bonus. You can preorder the deluxe edition here. At $12, that's a fuggin' killah deal!

Discogs

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Razors Edge - SONIC! FAST! LIFE!

RAZORS EDGE, circa 2016 (from Facebook)

While I've never seen them live, I don't think I'll ever experience a band as much fun as Osaka's RAZORS EDGE. There's an absolute joy that saturates every record, every flier, every live video I've come across. I won't say it's amazing to see a DIY group maintain that attitude across a quarter century and eight full-lengths, but it is inspirational. I listen to RAZORS EDGE, and I want to make the people I come in contact with feel as good as their music makes me feel. It's a small goal, but a noble one, I think.

2010's "SONIC! FAST! LIFE!" is RAZORS EDGE's seventh full length. You're not going to get any curveballs here; this is thrashy, circle pit heaven. There's not a single song longer than 2:19, with five tracks coming in under a minute long. There are songs entitled "SKATE RIOT", "SO MUCH FUN", "RAZORS FUCKIN' RULE", and "I HATE WRITING LYRICS". Do I have to spell it out for you? It's like a wonderfully distilled thrash tape fell into a wormhole and came out the other side in 2010. The result, as I noted above, is joyful, magical.

RAZORS EDGE hasn't made a full-length record in five years, nor released a new recording in 2020, but they had planned some tour dates prior to COVID-19, which, sadly, haven't been rescheduled. I'd love to see these fellas make their way over to the States, but it appears, if I want to see them live, I'll have to head to Osaka. Such a sacrifice. ;)

Discogs

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Indigesti ‎– Sguardo Realtà

I've always felt like my knowledge of Italian punk and hardcore was a bit on the weak side, so it was really cool to turn this up for $1.50 at a Goodwill a couple years ago. I had downloaded the Wretched / Indigesti split from Erich Keller's blog years before, so I had a good sense of what I was in for. But this 1998 compilation, featuring Indigesti's collected output from 1982 and 1983, was a mind-melter. I mean, who would you compare this to? They were among the leading lights of Euro-thrash; they just were doing it two to three years ahead of everyone else. What I like most about this is the D-beat-esque lyrical style: just slam poetry, dunked down hard atop a pulsing beat.

This is a reissue of the record that came out in 1994, which, of course, compiled their cuts from that Wretched split, their "Sguardo Realtà", 10 unreleased tracks, and an 8-minute live set in Milan. I won't say it's the best $1.50 I've ever spent, but it's definitely one of the best dollar bin/thrift store finds I've ever had.

Discogs

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various artists - End The War Zone

The quarantine has royally fucked up my sleep cycle. I know, I know; "Join the club," you say. Case in point: I slept for 14 hours Saturday night into Sunday afternoon, then 4 and 1/2 hours Monday morning. I woke up at a quarter til 8 today, got up, ate a bunch of day-old donuts, put on Forbidden World, and generally abided by the prime tenant of Primitive Offerings:

Do the thing you want instead of the thing you're supposed to do.

And that's how I came to write about "Enter The War Zone" this morning.

The practice of putting more than four songs on a 7" still makes me giggle. It's the acme of joyful amateurism: damn the fidelity or songsmithing...let's play it short, fast, and loud! While we're not quite in "Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!" territory here, the 17 cuts here are a wonderful blur, capturing a moment in the mid/late-80s extreme hardcore scene now best known as fast-core.

Lärm leads the way with a quartet of cuts, all of which also appeared on their 1984 split 12" with Stanx. This is what you get when you take a bunch of Dutch teenagers, turn them onto second wave sXe hardcore, speed it up from 33rpm to 78rpm, and toss in a liberal dose of European socialism. These dudes would put out one more 7", then reboot as Seein' Red, one of the best political HC bands of the 90s and aughts, in 1988.

Pomona's Pillsbury Hardcore were wrapping up their short time as an active band when they contributed a pair of live cuts, including a Negative Approach cover. By 1989, Pillsbury Hardcore had evolved into the even-faster Pissed Happy Children. Within another year, Eric Wood and Joel Connell had unleashed the mighty Man Is The Bastard, the progenitors of power violence. These two tracks show the progression that would eventually lead to MitB; short, bass-led blasts that just pummel the ears.

I think it's fair to say that Attitude Adjustment from San Francisco was the best known and most "traditional" of the four bands on "End The War Zone". AA would release their first album, "American Paranoia", on Pushead's label Pusmort in 1986; their two songs bordering sides A & B are pulled from that LP. I love hearing records from this time, as crossover was just starting, and the cross-pollination between metal and hardcore was really coming to the forefront.

Is Straight Ahead the outlier here? Not necessarily musically, tho it's fun to compare where these New Yorkers were coming from, compared to their European and Californian comp-mates. There are a number of tracks here that didn't show up on 1987's "Breakaway" 12", and, stylistically, this has much more in common with Euro hardcore from the period than the NYHC that would become prominent within a year. I always felt like I should give Sick Of It All more of a chance due to two of their members being in Straight Ahead.

Records like these should be hailed as the outsider art they are. Here are four bands, each from a different part of the world, assembled together by a short-lived label in the San Fernando Valley. I find myself talking a lot with friends and colleagues about authenticity; how it cannot be created or purchased, that it simply is. THIS is real. It is not musically proficient, or groundbreaking. But I'll be damned if I wouldn't rather listen to this a lot of the time.

Discogs

Click here for download