Montecarlo Compilation

Artist: Various
Album: Montecarlo: The Most Exciting Collection Ever Made
Release: 1997
Label: Elefant

Tracklist:

1. Katerine - Parlez-Vous Anglais Mr Katerine
2. Blueboy - The Joy Of Living
3. The She-Brews - Leave All Your Old Loves
4. Alan Clapp & His Orchestra - Something Strange Happens
5. The Pastels - Mandarin
6. Spring Vs Pez - Skool Bus
7. The Orchids - A Kind Of Eden
8. Trembling Blue Stars - What Can I Say To Change Your Heart
9. Holiday Flyer - Is It Hard To Stay Away?
10. Le Mans - Cancion De Si Tu Me Quieres
11. Dominique A - Le Twenty-Two Bar
12. Damon And Naomi - ETA
13. Harvey Williams - Don't Shout At Me
14. Benito - Ferrol, Spain
15. Eggplant - New Life
16. My Favorite - Absolute Beginners Again
17. The Autumn Leaves - You Didn't Say A Word
18. BMX Bandits - Your Class
19. Sneeze - Shaky Ground
20. Honeybunch - Mine Your Own Business

When I think of 90s indie pop comps, the first ones to come to mind are ...One Last Kiss, Why Pop Stars Can't Dance, or even Working Holiday!. However, I don't find many of these to be particularly mindblowing. Each of these are split pretty evenly between classic pop gems and complete and utter duds. While certainly all well worth seeking out, I can't call any of them purely essential in anything more than a compilation sense. If the major 90's indie labels (Slumberland, spinART, Simple Machines) couldn't conjure up a phenomenal comp, does that mean none exist? Quite simply, the answer is no.

Montecarlo, which was released by the great Spanish label Elefant, is definitely my favorite comp of this style and time period, marrying breezy indie pop songs with a few more shoegaze moments interspersed throughout. It has enough heavy hitters (The Pastels, Honeybunch, Damon And Naomi) to get the listeners attention, but the lesser known contributors (many of which are intercontinental European) hold their own over the legends they share wax with, sometimes even surpassing them. Some favorites include Spring Vs Pez's string-heavy "Skool Bus," My Favorite's "Absolute Beginners Again," Eggplant's acoustic "New Life," and the best Honeybunch song "Mine Your Own Business."

In the end, this compilation has very few lowpoints (if any) and is definitely more consistent than the other classics. Be sure to check out this incredible and overlooked gem from Spain!

Download Here

-Adam

Farben - Starbox

Artist: Farben
Album: Starbox
Release: 2002
Label: Klang

Tracklist:

1. Live At The Tahoe, 1973
2. At The Golden Circle Stockholm Vol. 1, 1965
3. Live At The Roxy, 1984
4. Raw Macro
5. Suntouch [Edit]
6. Loop. Exposure
7. Bayreuth
8. Silikon
9. Beautone
10. T.Microsystems
11. FF
12. Love Oh Love
13. Love To Love You Baby
14. As Long As There's Love Around
15. So Much Love

Starbox is the most thorough and definitive release by Farben, one of the many aliases of Microhouse god Jan Jelinek. Collected here are numerous 12" singles (Featuring The Dramatics, Raw Macro, Silikon, and Farben Says: Don't Fight Phrases) all released on Klang Records. Apparently, each release's cover star was a different member of the leftist Red Army Faction. A brief sidebar: for some reason this radical group is gaining a lot of attention as of recently, especially in privileged anarchist circles, both through literature and film. Not only do I find it weird, but holy shit does Der Baader Meinhof Komplex look fucking cheap, sensationalized, and just plain terrible. If interested in the subject, one should seek out the Margarethe Von Trotta films Die Bleierne Zeit (1981) and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975). Both are some of the best work by one of the New German Cinema's best directors!

Ahem, back to Farben. These four 12"s are some of the best electronic shit I've ever heard. Combining elements of house, dub, ambient, and glitch, Farben crafts breezy, yet textured songs that rely less on abrasive clicks and cuts, and more of the smokeweedeveryday feel of dub. Easily some of the most accessible work in this field, it's also just some of the best. Being a very large compilation, the highlights are numerous. My personal favorites are the disco-string laden "Beautone," "Live At The Roxy, 1984," and "Farben Says: Love Oh Love." Really though, since this is a collection of classic singles, every song is a home run.

Another essential release from the late 90s-early 2000s electronic scene. Get into it.

Download Here

-Adam

Doughboys - Happy Accidents

Artist: Doughboys
Album: Happy Accidents
Release: 1990
Label: Restless Records

Tracklist:

1. Countdown
2. Sorry Wrong Number
3. Deep End
4. Intravenus De Milo
5. Happy Home
6. Sunflower Honey
7. Far Away
8. Happy Sad Day
9. Wait And See
10. Every Bit Of Nothing
11. Dream Day
12. The Apprenticeship of Lenny Kravitz
13. Tupperware Party

Happy Accidents is one hell of a divisive record. The Montreal pop-punk-eventually-turned-alternative-rock band's third record is the halfway point of their career: at once a desperate escape from their roots in hardcore and a series of experiments in finding a new sound. As is mostly consistent until maybe their final record, there's still some punkish energy charging the songs, but instead of debut Whatever's speedy riffing or Home Again's written-on-the-road ruggedness, Happy Accidents saw the Doughs' sound become consumed in outright power-pop.

There's a total sunnyness to most of the songs that have made this record one of my most-listened to albums this summer. "Countdown" opens the record with a perfect pogoing verse. Jon Cummins' "Intravenus De Milo" is an explicit breakup song ("If I could hide behind your withered smile/just for awhile/you could even swallow me whole/then wash me down, so I could watch you choke"). His opening lead on road song "Far Away" conjures images of a sweaty band van shooting down a highway. "Happy Sad Day" is obscenely catchy. Frontman John Kastner's "Happy Home" will instantly resonate with anyone who's tired of housemates: "I feel amazing when I come from a date, and see my household all painted different shapes/It makes my feel like my home is never home/It makes me feel like maybe I should live alone."

A few strange qualities still abound, however. Three of four members of famed metallers Voivod made small contribution to the record, having been buddies and fellow Montreal residents, and "The Apprenticeship of Lenny Kravitz" recalls more of the despair of early Alice In Chains than the guitar douche who penned "Fly Away."

What we've got here, ultimately, is a total grab bag. Yeah, it's not as good as their other records, but it's guilt-free fun. Take a chance and harness Happy Accidents' spirit to soak up the last bit of summer!

Download Here

Bonus: Video footage of a chunk of their live set touring for this record in Orlando, FL. What I would give to have been there...

-Asa

Bastard - Wind Of Pain

Artist: Bastard
Album: Wind Of Pain
Release: 1990
Label: Bastard

Tracklist:

1. Misery
2. Flash Out
3. Never Change
4. Wind Of Change
5. To The Stumped Underdogs
6. Dear Cops
7. The Way To Survive
8. Truth

I make no claims to be a guru on Japanese hardcore, but I feel confident in making the claim that this is one of the finest records from that ever-so-vague category. Bastard take the Discharge-model of punk and fuse it with more thrashy solos and, well, that signature Japanese energy (racist!). There's nothing incredibly original about this, but who fucking cares? It's still one of the sickest hardcore LPs. When looking at the phenomenal production on this, it's amazing to think that this came out nineteen years ago; while heavily indebted to Discharge, it totally holds up much better and, as a result, maintains a sort of faux-modernity. Actually, this sounds exactly how Tragedy want to sound (maybe with a little Crude thrown in), but lack the filter and, as of their last two LPs, the talent to pull off.

This is Japanese hardcore in all its crusty glory and if you've never checked this shit out, now's the time to get on it.

Download Here

-Adam

Locrian - Plague Journey 7"

Artist: Locrian
Album: Plague Journal 7"
Release: 2008
Label: Bloodlust!

Tracklist:

1. Plague Journal
2. Apocryphal City, Portents Fallen

Locrian is the Chicago-based duo of Terence Hannum and Andre Foisy, visual artists and academics who meld processed synthesizers, guitars, vocals, and loops into fluid, shifting noise pieces. Their approach is influenced primarily by the more artistic/esoteric wing of black metal and the ambient/drone tone float experiments conducted by Fripp, Eno, and a host of electronic musicians in the 1970's; at times, elements of heavy, guitar-based post-rock and industrial seep in as well. They've been steadily amassing a catalog of highly limited releases across all the collector scum formats, gradually refining their approach, which culminated in this year's monolithic Drenched Lands full-length. Their fine-arts background shows in the artwork of their releases, focusing on abandoned cast-concrete buildings and esoteric sigils. Their live shows have made them popular on the festival circuit, and have led to some oddball show pairings (opening for Anal Cunt in New York City, for one).

The Plague Journal 7" was released last year as part of Bloodlust! Records' Private Series, with packaging that's a sharp break from the rest of their finely developed aesthetic. Like the other releases in the Private Series, it has a plain white cover, is on white vinyl with minimal information on the labels, and has an insert with only the most basic information about the release available. If the idea is to get the listener to pay attention to the music contained within, it's a successful one, as Plague Journal is an essential piece of Locrian's catalog. Side A begins with a particularly hypnotic delayed guitar riff played by Foisy, which decays into layers of synth static. Slightly over four minutes in, a shimmering, bell-like texture emerges, the piece shifting into a more melodic, floating tone for the final minute or so. Side B begins with a swirling, wind-like synth pad, as a repetitive guitar figure, reminiscent of Glenn Branca or Mogwai, remains in the eye of the storm. It gradually gets more intense and violent, before the side ends in a locked groove.

Both of Locrian's full-lengths are phenomenal as well, but may be too foreboding for a more casual listener. A shorter release, like this 7" or one of their many tapes, is a good way to get a taste of their sound before delving into the pollution-blackened depths of the rest of their catalog.

:Link Removed:

-CB Radio

Evan Roth - Explicit Content Only

Artist: Evan Roth
Album: Explicit Content Only
Release: 2008
Label: n/a

Tracklist:

1. Prelude (Still Talkin')
2. Straight Outta Compton (Edit)
3. Nobody Move
4. Fuck Tha Police (Edit)
5. Ruthless Villain
6. Gangsta Gangsta (Edit)
7. 2 Hard Muthas
8. Parental Advisory Iz Advised
9. 8 Ball (Edit)
10. Boyz N The Hood
11. Eazy Duz It
12. Something Like That (Edit)
13. Compton's In The House (Edit)
14. No More (????)
15. Dopeman Remix (Edit)
16. Imma Break It Down
17. Eazy Chapter 8, Verse 10

One of several bazillion gems to be found on Cosmic Hearse, this "album" is a real treat. I guess 4.9 minues of audio doesn't qualify as much...except in this case, when it's all of NWA's Straight Outta Compton cut down to only be the cuss words.

Had a little bit of trouble with the ID3 tags because it was badly tagged, but did my best to properly sort everything out. Enjoy! A great laugh for Sunday!

Download Here

-Asa

Merchandise - Self Titled EP

Artist: Merchandise
Album: Self Titled EP
Release: 2009
Label: Cult Maternal

Tracklist:

1. _____
2. I'm Still Right
3. Target
4. Kill The Light
5. Moving Out
6. It's A Man's World

Merchandise are a punk band from Tampa, FL, featuring members of Cult Ritual, Nazi Dust, and Divisions to name a few. While the band has been described as post-punk, that might only be appropriate in the attitude of the band (and that no punk would describe themselves as indie), as Merchandise seems to take its cues from early 90s indie stuff like Dinosaur Jr., only a bit more experimental. I guess the post-punk is there, but it's not exactly the Pop Group or anything. Dudes love the Wipers. It's hard to really pigeonhole this band, which works in its favor.

When I first heard this EP in February, I was almost immediately blown away by it and of all the time I've spent with it and many of the other Cult Maternal releases, this one definitely has the most staying power. It makes sense, as hype has eluded this band, but I find it to be one of the best (if not the best) functioning bands in Tampa right now.

Just about every song on this is great. The only track that I find sub-par is "Moving Out," but even in its follies, it still has many parts that are still endearing and make it well worth listening to. The rest of this album hits hard. Things start up with the lovely "I'm Still Right," which opens up the EP in the best way possible, drifting through a dreamscape all before exploding into a punk frenzy, which continues into the blistering "Target." These two tracks would be the best part of this release if not for the existence of "It's A Man's World." This is straight-up one of my favorite songs of the year. Emotionally affecting and utterly visceral, this song trumps all in its near-perfection. The bassline is genius in its repetition and Wipers-esque guitar line is pretty much mindblowing. Not only does the song end on this brilliant riff, it ends the EP on a perfect note, as well.

I can't wait to hear more from this incredible band in the future. They currently have a new tape out on Drugged Conscience that I haven't heard yet (soon!), but am told is awesome. Make sure to pick that up if you enjoy this, which I'm sure you will.

Download Here
Buy new tape here

-Adam

Inept - Images Of Betrayal

Artist: Inept
Album: Images Of Betrayal
Release: 1997
Label: Self-Released

Tracklist:

1. Teenage Hotline
2. Monster
3. Downfall
4. Number 14
5. Rock In A Hard Place
6. 40 Hours A Week, 52 Weeks A Year
7. Deadend
8. Self Destruction Is Not Rebellion
9. For Hands Outs
10. Number 9
11. A Cry Out
12. Your Story
13. Number 5
14. Sister (ManLiftingBanner cover)
15. Silence Is Violence
16. Instrumental
17. An Assault On All Our Egos
18. Love That Government
19. The 120th Reason Why Drunk Punks Shouldn't Have Dogs

This is hands down one of my top ten Hardcore albums of the 1990’s. Hanging strong up there with Born Against's Nine Patriotic Hymns, Los Crudos' Canciones Para Liberar Nuestras Fronteras & Assück Anticapital to name just a few. Inept hailed from Columbus, Ohio and I was lucky enough to see them live several times in high school. Their breed of hardcore can be compared to contemporaries like .NEMA & Ottawa, a mix of emotive hardcore and grindcore elements that flooded the airwaves back then. Battling male and female vocals, thick-as-fuck guitars, top-notch production and fantastic artwork and liner notes (included thanks to my mom’s scanner). I still play this LP on the regular and it still feels as vital as it did the first spin. Thanks to Midwest hardcore staple Jimmy Buttons for the excellent rip!

Download Here

-Evander Holywar

Slowdive - Live In Oslo

Artist: Slowdive
Album: Live In Oslo
Release: 1993
Label: n/a

Tracklist:

1. Machine Gun
2. Souvlaki Space Station
3. Slowdive
4. Avalyn I
5. Catch The Breeze
6. Melon Yellow
7. Morningrise
8. She Calls

Sad as it is, summer is hurtling towards its end. Autumn has its own sort of beauty, but summer is an infinitely brighter, less "heavy" season. And so to encourage one last bout of soaking up sunshine and relaxation and hopefully popsicles, I offer this awesome livetape of a true ICDT favorite, suitably soothing-sounding Slowdive from a 1993 Souvlaki-era gig in Oslo, Norway.

When the band released Souvlaki, their label not only delayed its release but also withdrew financial support mid-tour. The band then toured twice more on their own dime. It would be around this time, I'm guessing, that they released this tape from their show at the Centrum in order to help with the money end of things. The setlist is solid-- three cuts from Souvlaki, supplemented by older EP and Just for a Day tunes. The song quality is in the B/B+ range-- the only real downsides are the occasional but incredibly brief tech difficulty and the likely-drunk guy yelling "I LOVE YOU!" at singer/guitarist Rachel Goswell between songs (Rachel eventually calls him out, which is pretty golden). "Shoegaze" bands' records are quite often bigtime guitar texture affairs, and can be difficult to pull off onstage-- My Bloody Valentine, though a live juggernaut in their own right, are a great example. Slowdive may have a bit of technical trouble themselves, but when they go right back into the tunes, everything-- from Goswell's pretty vocals to Nick Chaplin's suprisingly ballsy bass tone to the band's signature guitar washes-- is clearly intact.

Download Here

-Asa

Grids - Self Titled (a.k.a. PGCOBUIBQTAUWTCS) 7"

Artist: Grids
Album: PGCOBUIBQTAUWTCS 7"
Release: 2009
Label: Lunchbox

Tracklist:

1. Suits
2. My Own Parts
3. Maeby

How exciting to receive this 7" in the mail! A note from the band included in the package apparently said something along the lines of "none of the zines I used to send records to exist anymore so I am sending one to your blog for review". I like the idea ICDT has somehow unintentionally usurped one of the roles of dying punk-printing. A sad demise to be sure.

The Grids 7in includes three tracks of mostly atonal post-hardcore that is a bit too riff-ridden for my personal tastes.That said, the sound they seem to be going for is well-executed, complete with lyrics that made my brother say "this is just like David Yow" as I was listening to it the other day. My favorite song, and the first on the A side, is called "Suits". It is a slower, mid-tempo song consisting of two parts that drone back and forth between verse and chorus; the vocalist driving home the word "suits". The repetition combined with lyrics that tell a story of aging produce a cool effect--the drudgery of the music acts as a metaphor for time. The following track is a faster paced version this riffing, dark sounding hardcore. They are definitely worth a listen.

Side B unfortunately takes the droning repetition of Side A to heretofore unheard levels. The music isn't boring, and it is different from most things I've heard lately, it was just demanding a lot from me the other night when I wanted to listen to my Fugees download that had just completed...

You can get this cute looking 7" from the sick Lunchbox Records.

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Buy Here

-Colman

Human Mess - Follow You Home

Artist: Human Mess
Album: Follow You Home
Release: 2009
Label: No Way

Tracklist:

1. Aftertaste
2. Useless And Unacceptable
3. At War
4. Glad That You're Dead
5. Underappreciated
6. Can't Escape
7. Bullshit Parade
8. No One Will Find Out
9. Exiled
10. Isolated Monster
11. ...
12. It's Just A Game

After hearing the debut LP from Bakersfield's Human Mess a few months ago, I'm pretty sure I won't be hearing another ten minutes of hardcore as intense as this. Follow You Home is definitely one of the best hardcore LPs I've heard all year.

The band plays raw, fast hardcore in the vein of early Poison Idea and other punkier hardcore bands. Songs rarely break the one-minute mark, let alone make it past thirty seconds and, let me tell you, I wouldn't want it any other way. The record rushes past in one blur, acting as one, cohesive piece. However, this in no way means that the songs are indistinguishable from one another, which is far from the truth.

This record is violence embodied. Not only does the music sound like a frenzy of pure, genius brutality, but the lyrics deviate from normal hardcore whining and fall into creepier territory, only without falling into the bunk-ass territory often inhabited by porno-grind bullshit; the theme seems sincere, giving it a certain "charm." Look at those song titles! The vocalist also plays drums for the great Loser Life and, while he is no Sakevi, holy shit is he one of the scariest frontmen alive.

I can't really recommend this record enough. This is fast, no-frills hardcore at its most violent and, I would argue, its best. Be sure to pick up this document of reckless abandon while it's still available.

Download Here
Buy Here

-Adam

Void - Live Bootlegs

Artist: Void
Album: Live At The 9:30 Club, February 1983
Label: n/a
Release: 1983 (?)

Tracklist:

1. Who Are You?/Time to Die/Get Out of My Way/Ask Them Why
2. Ignorant People/Organized Sports/Think/My Rules

Artist: Void
Album: Live?
Label: n/a
Release: n/a

Tracklist:

1.Who Are You?
2. Time To Die
3. Get Out Of My Way
4. Ask Them Why
5. Stalk The Night
6. Ignorant People
7. Organized Sports
8. Think
9. My Rules

If you like anything old-school hardcore, you gotta love this Columbia, MD-based gang of rambunctious ne'er-do-well youths. While Ian MacKaye practiced and promoted good morals and covered the Monkees, Void's members spent their basement rehearsals churning out thrashy, messy songs as a catharsis for their all-boys Catholic school, jocks, authority figures and everything else they hated. In every sense, the band were the black sheep of Dischord records, saying in interviews they hoped that "DC will get real big, more violent and lose control."

And in a live capacity, Void were indeed out-of-control and violent-- something both these bootlegs can attest. The 9:30 Club boot (taken from GoodBad Music) is a soundboard rip and likely the clearest sound you'll ever hear from Void. Yes, unfortunately it's one, long track of songs per side, but this only encourages listening to all of it. Live?, on the other hand, has tracks properly separated but is simply a lo-fi testament to how outright loud dudes were. Chris Stover and Sean Finnegan's rhythmic interplay is way off the railroad tracks, Bubba Dupree's six-string screech outdoes even Greg Ginn and John Weiffenbach's screech both dictatorial and obnoxious. The band likely never sounded tight on their best day-- and that's the fun of it all!

Download Here

-Asa

Divisions - Fin CS

Artist: Divisions
Album: Fin CS
Release: 2009
Label: Human Crush Recordings, NecroMegatonDetonation

Tracklist:

1. [Untitled Track]
2. [Untitled Track]
3. [Untitled Track]
4. [Untitled Track]
5. [Untitled Track] (Bathory cover)

Go figure, the years most profound release is on the most worthless of formats. That stale dinosaur still hanging on since the ‘80s: the cassette tape. To make this release even more a difficult being, it comes packaged with live ammunition (making it illegal to send through U.S. Mail). The plus-side is that you can load up your Daddy’s handgun and blast your brains out in unison with some of the tightest hardcore to come out of this shit-infested decade. Furthermore, who the fuck owns a tape deck in 2009? Haven’t we all moved on, past CDs and back to vinyl, now improved with digital download coupons?

I had to suffer a four-hour drive to my grandmother’s house and sit through four more hours of her telling stories starting with “when I was your age…,” the best one being about AIDS. Where am I going with this? Oh, eight fucking hours of pain just to play this tape on her Sony alarm clock with cassette. What ensued was a shock, something I could never have possibly prepared myself for. Sonic destruction, the fucking apocalypse sitting on a canopy bed with floral sheets. I immediately ripped my cock from my trousers, bent over backwards on the mattress my father was conceived on and proceeded to felate myself until I ejaculated my soul down my eager throat.

This should be pressed to vinyl.

Download Here
To buy, email fahy_john@hotmail.com

-Evander Holywar

Tsunami - Deep End

Artist: Tsunami
Album: Deep End
Release: 1993
Label: Simple Machines

Tracklist:

1. In A Name
2. The Spook
3. Slugger
4. Luck
5. Water's Edge
6. Genius Of Crack
7. 460
8. Sniffy
9. Valentine
10. Skinny
11. Waxed
12. Writing Letters
13. Stupid Like A Fox

Being the house band of the legendary label Simple Machines (run by band members Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thompson) should have solidified their status amongst other 90s greats, but proper recognition has somehow eluded Washington D.C.'s Tsunami. The band had a very guitar-oriented sound courtsey of the interplay between Toomey and Thompson. Never as high energy or poppy as some of their peers, the band took a more subtle and laid-back approach to the melodic sound of the time.

Admittedly, this album is a little too long, but the highlights are numerous: "In A Name," "Water's Edge," and the single "Genius Of Crack" are all brilliant examples of how amazing early 90s indie was. This is definitely the pinnacle of Tsunami's greatness and one of my favorite albums from the era. Be sure to check out this woefully underappreciated act.

Download Here

-Adam

Leather - Demo

Artist: Leather
Album: Demo
Release: 2009
Label: Self-Released

Tracklist:

1. Addicted To Suffering
2. No Motivation
3. Ejaculation Without Orgasm
4. Too Tired

This tape was introduced to me as "heavy negative-filled noise pollution from Philadelphia" and the tag is pretty appropriate. Unsurprisingly, this Philly-based band contains members who claim the Rust Belt as their bloodland. Leather plays dirty, grungy, pseudo-hardcore punk shit that sounds like some of the more well-known bands from the area (Pissed Jeans, Fresh Meat, etc.), only a little harder. Truthfully, I'm not so well-versed in the whole dilapidated, ex-industrial city scene of PA's music, so I'm probably just talking out of my ass.

Bunk-ass descriptions aside, this demo is really fucking good. For the past week, I've found myself listening to this over and over. The vocals thoroughly creep me out and the frenetic feel of the music makes me feel scummy. I actually had a friend of a roommate knock on my door and ask me what the fuck I was listening to before walking off and muttering about how I listened to terrible music. It's THAT good.

Listen to this and get judged by PC punx.

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To buy, paypal $4ppd to havefunstayinghard@gmail.com

-Adam

P.S. Included is not only this sick demo, but the cover and the insert, as well.

The Ambulars - Summer Fling EP

Artist: The Ambulars

Album: Summer Fling EP

Release: SUMMER! 2009

Label: HA! (a.k.a. Self-Released)

Tracklist:

1. Northern

2. Daily Inheritance

3. Southern

4. Summer Of The Ambulars

The Ambulars are a pop-punk outfit from D.C./Baltimore (lets be real here, Montgomery County). After recording most of their seven songs (I think) and realizing they wouldn't have it ready until their last show (of the summer?), they put together this four-song acoustic jam.

They're sound is best described by what I want to listen after I hear to them: Brand New, Alkaline Trio, Jawbreaker and, after I listen to this acoustic EP, I might even get down on some Dashboard Confessional (that's probably just me, though.) This EP was obviously recorded in a basement, but for acoustic, poppy jams like these, that's a definite bonus.

This is just a little something to warm people up to hurt. The Ambulars are about to unleash their fury the world when they release their electric band shit this Thursday. Don't sleep. Support this shit.

Download Here

Get the EP in your hand by emailing michaeldcantor@gmail.com

-Trey

The Atomica Project - Metropolitan

Artist: The Atomica Project
Album: Metropolitan
Release: 2005
Label: Positron!

Tracklist:

1. One Day In New York City
2. Delorian
3. Larsen
4. Salt
5. Recent
6. Quiver
7. Bittersweet
8. Sorrow
9. Pollen
10. Gun
11. Worry

Once upon a time, there was an incredible blog called Secret Music Box. It was run by a woman who had impeccable taste in all sorts of genres-- genres I knew nothing about and was eager to explore. The blog served as a springboard not only for my getting into styles like trip-hop and post-rock, but also delving into less-known bands in those respective scenes (ie, God Is An Astronaut-- not kvlt per se, but not as popular as Explosions in the Sky).

Then one day everything came to a halt and hasn't started back up since. But this record was her final post, drawing comparisons to Portishead and praising the tunes as "manag[ing] to sound somber without being depressing, intelligent without being pretentious, and relaxing without being boring and forgettable." I couldn't put it better myself, but I will expand on it and say that the right from the ride-cymbal accented "One Day In New York City," this album hits with the same kind of numbing, beautiful melancholy I associate with Lost in Translation. As I watched it with a then-girlfriend, she asserted the film "made being lonely seem so attractive." So does Metropolitan.

Download Here
Buy Here

-Asa

:Edit: Hey everyone, you should re-download this because we fucked up the labeling. The artist's name is actually The Atomica Project, not Atomica. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Helios - Eingya

Artist: Helios
Album: Eingya
Release: 2006
Label: Type

Tracklist:

1. Bless This Morning Year
2. Halving The Compass
3. Dragonfly Across An Ancient Sky
4. Vargtimme
5. For Years And Years
6. Coast Off
7. Paper Tiger
8. First Dream Called Ocean
9. The Toy Garden
10. Sons Of Light And Darkness
11. Emancipation

Like Whoa, this album is tubular. Like, it’s. like. so good I can’t stop using the non-grammatical “like.” It’s, like, totally the best ambient album I’ve heard yet. This guy Keith Kenniff is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and he studied percussion at Berklee College of Music, which means he will always be a better percussionist than you. This guy has made this beautiful composition of acoustic and instrumental electronic. This shit is so light that if you stepped on it, it would pass right through your foot like shadow people. I’ve recently discovered the difference between shadow people and ghosts. A friend had explained to me that shadow people are very intelligent and usually run away from you when they see you, but ghosts can’t really see you so they just constantly replay moments from their life. Y’all should just jump on this album. Seriously, it’s good. It’s the best electronic down-tempo-flip-your-shit ambient you will ever hear. Relaxing and midway between cheery and I don’t give a damn. I think every song has piano keys, that or calming guitar melodies, which make me want to cuddle with a kitty cat. JUMP ON IT!

Download Here

-Johnny B

The 4-Skins - Singles & Rarities

Artist: The 4-Skins
Album: Singles & Rarities
Release: 1999
Label: Captain Oi!

Tracklist:

1. Wonderful World
2. Chaos
3. Clockwork Skinhead
4. Evil
5. A.C.A.B.
6. I Don't Wanna Die
7. Yesterday's Heroes
8. 1984
9. Sorry
10. Evil
11. One Law For Them
12. Brave New World
13. Merry Christmas Everybody
14. Yesterday's Heroes
15. Justice
16. Get Out Of My Life
17. Low Life
18. Bread Or Blood
19. Plastic Gangster
20. Norman
21. Seems To Me
22. Chaos [Herbert Version]
23. On The Streets

Oi! While hanging out recently, a friend and I came to the consensus that skins are the most attractive people on the planet. Whether it's the Doc Martens, the Fred Perrys, the Ben Shermans, the Chelsea, or the fucking beautiful sideburns, skins are just perfect in every single sense of the word. :Sigh: Unfortunately, we also came to the conclusion that we didn't have what it takes to be a skin ourselves and that we would continue to live our lives in mediocrity. So it goes...

Blame it on fetishization and romanticization, but I've been listening to a shit ton of skin bands running the gamut of hardcore, bad RAC, black metal, and, of course, Oi!. The Oi! band I've been listening to the most is the skin staple of the 4-Skins. Legendary in the Oi! world, the 4-Skins were a group of (you guessed it) four skinheads playing straight-up mean punk. Lyrics revolve around typical punk themes, but are noteworthy for their inclusion of realistic (not glorified...sort of) violence.

The earliest material on this comp is also the best. Original frontman Gary Hodges has the best voice of the lot and the songs on which he sings are definitely the best the band ever recorded. The other vocalists are serviceable, but the band was way past their prime at that point. Still, this comp is probably the definitive release from this band, including the classics "Evil," "A.C.A.B.," and "Chaos," to name a few. Did I mention they were pretty cute too?

DC SKINS HAVE OUR STANCE.

Download Here
Buy Here

-Adam

New Releases

Just wanted to let people know that there are a few new releases that have just come out that you should totally pick up.

-First, there's the Nomos demo. For those of you who missed the tape, it has been pressed on vinyl as a 7" on Deranged and is available here on black and here on color. This demo is excellent and the band has only gotten better with a bigger lineup. Be sure to check them out on their upcoming tour.

-The Weed Hounds demo is finally out on cassette. Awesome shoegazey indie stuff from Long Island of all places. This is stuff seriously so amazing and I'm super excited for their future releases. To order, PayPal $6.50 to crookeddirection@gmail.com with your shipping address and be sure to specify what you're ordering!

-The Men finally released their debut LP. I still don't know if it's self titled or called We Are The Men, but I do know that it's really fucking good. "The Man" is one of my favorite songs of the year. Anyway, be sure to pick this one up by sending $12ppd via PayPal to markperro@gmail.com and be sure to see them on their brief tour.

-Fashionable Idiots has just released the new Drunkdriver 7" entitled Fire Sale. Just got it and it's really fucking awesome. Hopefully I will procure mp3s of it and post it for you. Get it here.

-Leather is a new band from PA that is really great. They play dirty, grungy hardcore in a similar vein to a lot of the other bands from their area. Their demo tape will be posted in a few days, but for now you should just take my word for it and just buy it. To order, email havefunstayinghard@gmail.com.

-A few new releases will be crawling out of the Cult Maternal camp sometime soon, specifically a new tape from Slave Scene and from Brother Fannie.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully some of you check some of this stuff out!

Also, this week's theme on Blog Bodies is Mobile Suit Gundam aka the best yet!

Jock Jams Volume 3

Madball - Look My Way

Artist: Madball

Album: Look My Way

Release: Roadrunner

Label: 1998

Tracklist:

1. Look My Way

2. Moment Of Truth

3. Cut Off

4. Temptation Or Restraint

5. Waste Of Time

6. False Threats

7. Pushin' Me

8. Walk Away

9. Our Family

10. Lesson Of Life

11. All I Can Take

12. Been There, Done That

To me, Madball is the band that all of the wannabe hard, hype hardcore bands aspire to be. Some really fuck it up and others pay tribute quite well.

Madball has put out some of the hardest shit NYC has to offer. Look My Way and Hold It Down give me the willies when I'm listening to them alone in my room. I would never want to cross one of them in a dark alley.

The music is straight up fierce proto-meathead hardcore. Family, never turning your back on your friends, having integrity, staying true. You know the drill.

On the real, get this shit. I DON'T NEED YOUR RESPECT!

Download here

No Warning - Ill Blood

Artist: No Warning

Album: Ill Blood

Release: Bridge 9

Label: 2002

Tracklist:

1. Behind These Walls

2. No Time For You

3. Answer The Call

4. Short Fuse

5. Wound Up

6. Growing Silent

7. Caught In The Web

8. All New Low

9. Over My Shoulder

10. Leech

11. Pushing On

12. Ill Blood

No Warning was a hawdcore band from Toronto. They came from the same scene that produced many golden acts, such as Haymaker, Cursed, Fucked Up (not so golden actually), Career Suicide, The Swarm, Ruination, Acrid and my personal favorite of the bunch (outside of No Warning) Left For (motherfucking) Dead. Seriously, I don't know why I've never been there.

With Ill Blood, No Warning takes the base that they laid out for themselves with their self-titled first release and do wonders with it. Taking their cues from Madball and a little Hatebreed, they deliver some shit that had/has the typical bedroom-mosher going buckwild. Watching videos of their live show is quite entertaining, awesome pile-ons and kids flying from everywhere. Head walking was still cool then too. Bummer.

It's really too bad that after this album they came in contact Sum 41's manager and then got signed by Linkin Park's Warner Bros. imprint, Machine Shop Records. They soon after released Suffer, Survive. That shit is garbage. Let this be a lesson to you kids, a tough hardcore band is a little self-loathing and a raspy singing voice away from touring with Linkin Park, Korn and Snoop Dogg.

This album is perfect. A forgotten classic.

Download here

Guns Up! - Outlive

Artist: Guns Up!

Album: Outlive

Release: 2006

Label: 1917

Tracklist:

1. Outlive

2. You Break

3. Won't Change For Me

4. Life's Ill

5. Test My Will

6. Frozen

7. Spitting Words

8. Losing Sight

9. Face it

10. (A Means)

11. To An End

In the midst of my hype hardcore-loving, flat brim-wearing and nike dunk-rocking phase, Guns Up! were in their prime. Hailing from Mass, these young-ass dudes took the hardcore scene by storm in just about one summer.

This band owes No Warning money. They straight up robbed their sound. Even the vocalists sound the same. Now with that being said, I love this. Isn't that what all hardcore is? Blatant rip-offs of other bands?

Guns Up! adds their nihilistic, shoe collecting flare to the blueprint No Warning set for them and kids ate that shit up, including me. They also pay tribute to Entombed in "Won't Change For Me" and in their live show they cover Leeway.

Download here

I know this was a lot but whatever. The Adam hype machine is over. I'm posting more regularly (hopefully).

-Trey

SQRM - Demo 09

Artist: SQRM
Album: Demo 09
Release: 2009
Label: Self-Released

Tracklist:

1. Political Song
2. You're Addicted
3. Love Song
4. Cut My Strings
5. IV
6. Nail

My first thought after listening to SQRM was that we had reached the climax of punk history. SQRM is a hardcore band from Western Massachusetts whose music is made from a thousand different influences or none at all. Listeners are whipped by the snottiest of snotty punk vocals, they are drudged through three-minute tracks of droning, heavily bent guitar strings, they are stormed by weirdo thrash riffs. The SQRM demo would be a suitable soundtrack to the apocalypse, or at least the end of definable, identifiable "hardcore".

There are hints of the Jesus Lizard here, I suppose, but not huge ones. This is only the case, though, for the longer songs. Even on the tracks "Cut My Strings" or "Love Song" which have central, repeating drone guitar riffs they are too atonal to really be compared to JL. Early Swans may be a better band to contrast to, though SQRM remain "punk" in their song structure and rhythms.

SQRM is degenerate and revolting; they are yet another sucessfully deviant fast hardcore act running in the Aerosols circuit. I love this demo. Not really for its song writing but for the way it transcends the rock and roll roots of most hardcore. Lyrical content is insane and wonderful. Real recognize real, peace to Banjo Tones.

Download Here

-Colman

Note: That is not the real album art. We don't have it and SQRM has no internet presence.

Buffalo - Volcanic Rock

Artist: Buffalo
Album: Volcanic Rock
Release: 1973
Label: Vertigo

Tracklist:

1. Sunrise (Come My Way)
2. Freedom
3. Till My Death
4. The Prophet
5. Intro: Pound Of Flesh
6. Shylock

Buffalo were one of the best hard rock bands the world never really got to hear and Volcanic Rock is the finest moment from Australia's best metal import (sorry Portal). Both heavy and catchy-as shit, "Sunrise (Come My Way)" is definitely one of the best moments in early metal. The greatness doesn't stop here, however, as the rest of the album (for the most part) justifies this album's legendary status. Occasionally, the music falls into the pitfalls of both tepid prog-rock and hippy jamming, but never for too long. For every occurrence of pointless wankery, the band has at least twice as many explosive moments to make up for it; This shit remains heavy, groovy, and tough throughout, all while retaining their psych edge from previous efforts.

Now is the time to get into this, as summer won't last forever. For fans of Sabbath, Led Zep, Pentagram, as well as hot, summer nights spent with friends just drinking ice tea (or getting grunished) on your deck/patio/stoop.

Download Here

-Adam