Droney, hypnotic rock that employs a lot echoed vocals and electronic noise sculpting But thankfully the songs don’t’ come across at too contrived or artsy although the 13 minute opener ‘Pale’ with it’s waves of reverb and tom beats may have some people thinking otherwise.
The highlight is the closing Alabaster, a propulsive song with the echoes on the looped vocals almost making them sound Middle Eastern at some stages. Not sure how they would hold up live, probably pretty good I imagine. On record at least they put in a good performance.
www.staticstation.com

Tim Scott

More Scandinavian electro pop that hits all the right buttons/nobs/gizmos and whatever other stuff you find on a studio recording board. It’s short, but then who can really listen to over an hour of synth pop no matter how good it is? The duo (Eric on vocals and Henning on music) are apparently Jens Lekman new favorite band and he being the indie pop darling of the moment you know that means a whole bunch of people are going to be curious. It’s got whistles in it ‘Looking for Gold’ and for a pop band to call songs ‘Looking for a Riot’ and ‘Neo Violence’ and pick fights with the audience while armed with baseball bats is pretty fucking cool. Kind of like Nik Kershaw channeling the power of Joe Strummer.
www.sincerelyyours.se

Tim Scott

In 2000 (or thereabouts) Total Fucking Destruction released an online demo causing a mini-stir in the independent music scene. Formed by former Brutal Truth skinsman Rich Hoak, TFD managed to take grindcore and add and indie flavour resulting in Weezer kids taking note of this horribly chaotic and noisy trio. Now a quartet, the band release their first album on Translation Loss, further embedding themselves in the very niche they created; indie-grind.

The album is split into three ‘sides’; electric, acoustic and video. Wisely starting with the electric the band belts out nine middle-finger salutes to the establishment complete with animalistic blast beats, subhuman vocals and mechanically grinding riffs. There are some damn fine thrash metal riffs thrown in for the old-schoolers, while the tech-dudes are kept bewildered with jazzy timings and groove-based rhythms.

A Terrorizer cover (‘Enslaved by Propaganda’) reminds the listener just where the band is coming from, but the overall feel of the album is a post-grind venture into art, weed, anti-establishmentarianism, basic tom-foolery.

The acoustic section opens up with ‘Bio-Satanic Terroristic Attack’ and is delivered in a smoky haze of free love in an underground jazz bar kinda vibe. Likewise ‘Kill the Jocks & Eat Their Brains’ is a lethargic, naturally acoustic affair, which if memory serves me well was originally done ‘electrically’ on the aforementioned demo. Lyrically the tune criticises fascism, lambasting Christianity, nazism, homophobia, racism and… err… jockism.

The video element from Hazel’s and quite simply is hand-held digital footage showcasing the relative ease that the band put into their chaos. Hoak’s style of drumming is unique insofar that he fuses grind with relaxed jazz (as opposed to the overly techy jazz beats of mathcore), whilst the guitarist/bassist hardly work up a sweat throughout the 9 or so tracks, but are no less visually entertaining.

By Warren
www.translationloss.com

Currently ripping it up (pun intended) around the country for the very last time, 28 Days are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a final hurrah and greatest hits package to spruik. Due to suspected publishing difficulties not all their hits are featured (‘Stealing Chairs’ is noticeably absent) but the album does have a batch of remastered tracks to make up for such omissions.

And while it’s generally accepted that 28 Days are not, by any stretch of the imagination, the best punk act to come from this wide land, props must still be given for introducing a whole generation to the new wave of punk: a generation whose older siblings were suffering from the grunge hangover, and whose younger siblings will ultimately don eyeliner and black nail polish and be blamed for an increase in youth suicide.

At the end of the day there’s some quality pop songs here (‘Sucker’, ‘Goodbye’) but there’s also some shite (the very Smash Mouth-ish tune ‘What’s The Deal’ come immediately to mind).

Given the high profile of the band there’s probably very little that needs o be said. You’re either an old fan in which case you have most of the stuff here (not remastered, mind) or you never really gave a shit, and have no intention of starting now.

By Warren
www.28-days.com.au

Starting off as a Bay Area battle DJ Teeko now seems to be concentrating more on composing songs and live jams with live instrumentation and the results are good news for anybody who likes innovative hip hop but gets a little tired of all the ‘trickery’ that comes with ’turntablism’ . Dude knows how to scratch but it’s not all scratches with some nice jazz influences and a fun laid back feel. A record you can enjoy for the music rather than the ‘magic show’.
www.4onefunk.com

Tim Scott

The debut album from this Bay Area three piece who deliver raspy vocals, simple but cool melodies and catchy chords. Recorded by Tim Green (Fucking Champs, Nation of Ulysses) with the help of Adam Pfahler (Jawbreaker) this shows how music inspired from East Bay greats of the past doesn’t have to sound derivate. I think its Annie’s vocals that steal the show – the snarling; spittle flying energy sure gets the toes tapping. Add to this well thought out lyrics and well, you get a little bummed out to know that they’ve since broken up.
www.noidearecords.com

Tim Scott

Jesus. Where did these freaks come from? The wild cornfields of Nebraska is where. Awesome trashy garage rock that uses just the right amount of keys. While too many of these kinds of bands go in for the cool hep cat shtick and give little regard to how they actually sound with producer Andy Caffrey (who runs In the Red records), these guys and girl get the mix just right. While comparisons between vocalist Liz and Lost Sounds/River City Tanlines Alijica will be made, the Terminals offer enough of their own spark, they do a cover ‘Liar, Liar’ which I think is by the Castaways, But from the upbeat opener Wild Bill’s Social Club to the closing (She’s Gone) Pop Corn this is a non stop rock and roll party.
www.dead-beat-records.com

Tim Scott

Excellent bluesy thrash from this husband and wife duo who channel the raw energy of every other quality blues rock combo then add some country outlaw type stuff. The three songs here are all recorded on a cassette 4-track but the low quality adds to their charms. Would love to see them play live after having drunk 6 beers.
The_Touch_Me_Nots@hotmail.com

Tim Scott

With the growing popularity of bands such as the Erg’s and the Modern Machines it seems that pop punk is enjoying a revival. Add to the list of 3 chord heroes Team Stray, a quartet who do the wacky, silly, nasally voiced thing pretty well. These guys sound comes from the Chixidiggit/the Mr. T Experience pop punk school. Songs about it- you guessed it, girls, making out and driving drunk (?).The trouble with simple and basic pop punk is that well after 16 songs it REALLY sounds like simple and basic pop punk.
www.teamstray.com

Tim Scott

Four bands spanning three countries. Yogyakarta (Singapore), Relationshit (Indonesia), Under Attack (Singapore) & Suara Anak Muda (Malaysia).
Each band has a pretty strong 625 Records-ish thrash sound but with much different lyrical content. What’s obvious with all of these bands is that they really love punk/hardcore and they sacrifice and devote themselves to it in a pretty big way. At times this spills out into some almost overpowering expressions of positivity particularly in the case of Relationshit but it also results in some intense anger and frustration. Every band on this CD is good but Suara Anak Muda and Under Attack are definitely more consistent.
Worth checking out because it shows a genuine quirkiness that (from what little I know of other bands in the area like Secret 7, Hark!... etc) seems particular to SE Asian thrash bands and the lyrics hold a passion that is sorely lacking in the general complacence of Aus & US bands.
Pretty cool release in pretty much every way, the bands are all sick and the gatefold digipack has some really cool artwork by Glen of GoxKillxYourself distro/label.
epidemic_distro@hotmail.com

Ari

While the world has slept, emo has not only become a saleable sub-genre, but has not taken over the airwaves also. All of a sudden My Chemical Romance are looking like Queen and sounding like worse, but raking in the girls and cash like a young KISS or Motley Crue. And just like other sub-genres that became a bankable commodity, emo’s sound has been bastardised and twisted, and left for fuckin’ dead in the pursuit of a number one record.

With that in mind, I’m gonna call Tiltmeter ‘emo’. Their bio doesn’t claim such a category, but what else can I call commercial punk with a Placebo-edge? And that’s essentially what Tiltmeter are.

Like Gyroscope with poorer production and less song-writing skills, the four Tilts are energetic and passionate enough, but they lack skills in the hooks and catchy departments.

The bands eagerness and lack of patience gets in their way of delivering the goods, imho. ‘Cut Both Wires’ for example, is a solid track but it’s played far too aggressively. There’s a good hook buried beneath the chorus, but the band’s enthusiasm prevent it from coming to the fore. The aggression of its delivery defies its patient structure. Had they stepped back and allowed the song to take on a life of it’s own, they may have had an alternative radio hit single.

‘In Plain English’ attempts to take the mood down a notch, but winds up sounding like a shitty, big-hair AOR band like The Darkness or some crap.

The production, though not of exceptionally high quality, gives the sound clarity, especially on the clean guitar parts, though the drums are muddied in the mix.

Ultimately though, it’s the bands lack of patience and insight that lets them down. For as long as they force the song out instead of allowing it to grow naturally, they will find themselves hitting walls. Sure, the kids may dig the band at the u18’s, but kids are fickle, and they’re not gonna stick around to support you on the long haul.

If it’s longevity you’re after, then apply the brakes, and consider the song structures a fuckload more.

By Warren

Straight up old school hardcore from Memphis, a city better known for it’s garage rock than it is kids in Champion hoody’s jumping around basements. The opening ‘While I Breathe, I Hope’ has the same guitar lead that has been heard on a zillion other hardcore songs but thankfully the band injects enough originality into the remainder of the EP to keep things ticking along. ‘Treading Water’ in particular stands out as a high energy/high kick song as does the title song which uses a sample from a Malcom X speech and is about the legacy of Martin Luther King. Vocals are strong. Guitars are good and clean. Songs while no means ground breaking are sounding good coming through my shitty computer speakers.
www.armadainflames.com

Tim Scott

A new Tragedy record and a new debate over who hates them and who thinks they’re a pile of shit. It sort of reminds me of primary school. At school, the only things we really looked forward to were maybe honky nut wars at lunch (kind of like Figs for all you unlearned FUCK-WITTS), unexpected Chinese burns, a good game of barcode, ciggies behind the library and maybe news (show and tell to all you FUCK-WITTS). One day, I did what I though was a stellar news presentation on why ''Kill em’ all'' was a better record than ''Justice''. Even if I did rate ''Justice'', I wasn’t going to let it be known. Besides, everyone hated it because UGLY KID JOE was so huge at the time. Anyway, a year down the track, everyone had scrubbed UGLY KID JOE from their pencil cases and replaced it with a ''kill em all hammer''. However I digress, but parallels can definitely be drawn between the two.

Nerve damage is not much of a departure from the last tragedy album. At first listen, this latest opus does not grab you by your bum-flap like the vengeance record did. However, the band has done something quite clever and devilish. Rather then the kick/crash/punch accented bridges and chorus structure, this record features a much more straight forward, flowing delivery. To all you retards, this basically means the hooks don’t jump out at you straight-away like on previous efforts. This record relies on subtle hooks that crawl under your no gods no masters tattoo, that embed themselves next to the spiders nest in dreaded mullet, that crawl into your unwashed ass crack and eventually make themselves known like a car park puke of homemade piss, or a bowel explosion from a particularly nasty Vegan stew.

Again, they run the gamut of fast Deathside style riffs, haunting black metal style melodies and the heaviness of the first Wolfpack lp. I think this reference is often overlooked! Shit, ''Bloodstained Dreams'' is such an obvious influence! I doubt this is the sort of stuff you would listen to when getting a hand-shandy behind Whitfords footy club, however when you are scaling the stairs of your tower block. When it’s pissing down with rain outside. When you are climbing over junkies and unwanted children to get to your top floor. When you are squatting on a milk crate listening to your Amebix, Axegrinder and Killing Joke records. When you realise that it’s you against all the fuckers on the outside, that’s when this record seems to have some sort of relevance.

Carl ''The Razor'' Katatovich

If I was in the music video industry, which I’m not… yet… but who knows I might be after writing this, but anyway if I was right now I’d have this shit all fucking mapped out. The opening scene would be your typical angry hardcore kid either skating (that’s cool and music videos are all about being cool) or walking home… either way she or he would be young and surly looking and hard-done by and would have camo clothing and tattoos and if it was a male he’d have one of those haircuts with the sides and back shaved so that they almost look like a walking penis.
They’d walk through the door into their apartment which would be shitty but have very chic and edgy interior decorating and up to this point there wouldn’t have been any music. As the kid walked into their house the camera would very subtly pick up the many Deranged Records posters and record covers that adorn the walls. This serves not only as a plot device but also to advertise the label. Then something would happen to further highlight the crappiness of the antagonist’s life be it notice of eviction or their boyfriend or girlfriend breaking up with them or not winning the clear red American Nightmare 7” on ebay… you know whatever. The antagonist would then put on a classic Deranged record such as the Haymaker LP or Our War 10” and it would play softly as almost background noise but rather than making our hero feel better it only seems to make him or her more restless as if… well as if they’re not satisfied with their paltry go nowhere existence.
And then!
The doorbell rings!
It’s the mail. The camera zooms in on the Deranged logo on the corner of what is obviously a 7” package.
Our hero looks happy at the sight of it and turns the other record off however there is momentary confusion as the 7” is unwrapped and the cover has really bright colours. It seems to make the apartment and by extension their life seem dull by comparison.
Nonetheless the stylus drops and the kickin’ bass line of the A-side track, ‘Bigger Houses, Broken Homes’, kicks in at full volume. In a genie kinda mini-whirlwind effect the kid morphs into someone with better clothes, skin and apartment. She or he frolics down the street with many other attractive friends and gets up to all kinds of hi-jinks involving product placements of trendy little cars and mp3 players.
I don’t know what would happen then. Either the song would end and they’d be transported back to their life having seen the problems of a life based around lots of material possessions vs a life of material possessions that more aptly fit the target demographics mean disposable income or the kid would get their muthafukkin’ face blown off by a carjacker and it would end with a shot of this corpse with nothing more than white earphones hanging from the mangled fucking dogs breakfast that was once the fukker’s head.
It would depend on what the test audiences tested most positive with.
Along with the Bayonettes and Observers this is another deviation away from the classic bitter hardcore sound that Deranged are commonly known for.
The Tranzmitors play really bouncy brit pop in the same way that The Jam and Buzzcocks did/do. Their sound is just beyond fucking pop. It’s like fucking uberpop! This is the third 7” they’ve released (in a rumoured series of five) and it’s doubly poppy than the second which was doubly poppy than the first. The first 7” was really poppy so if you do the math you’ll realize that by this point the pop factor is so high that it’s hard to restrain from bopping around the room with a shit-eatin’ grin on your face whenever they bust out their catchy choruses, punchy guitar riffs and jumpin’ bass lines.
It’s beyond fucking ridiculous. Something this catchy with the right group of people in the band could have the shit marketed out of it ala the Strokes to fully bring about some sort of ‘70’s brit-pop revival. As it is it’ll probably be hard to market anything because the people in the band are a bunch of ruffians, one of who was in the early UK OI band The Strike and the others from various Canadian punk/garage bands such as the Smugglers & New Town Animals.
They’re 7”s, which are all released in a two track retro A- and B-side style affair, would also hinder things in terms of format accessibility and because they’re pretty hard to find. Actually it’s worth mentioning that this is a band that can really do two song 7”s effectively. A band like Fucked Up doing it… sure you might make the effort to get up and flip it but with The Tranzmitors you want to hear the song again so bad that you don’t fucking mind having to start it again every two minutes. Anyways… the second 7” is sold out from a now discontinued label and I’ve yet to even find out any info at all about the first.
It’d be really interesting to see what will happen with this band. They’re music really is fucking amazingly catchy punch-me-in-the-face-I’m-so-happy-listening-to-this pop but they seem to be keeping the band fairly low-key and local.
So what will be the end result of the struggle between broad appeal and trying to stay underground?
All will be revealed in the next film clip where the re-animated corpse does a Charles Bronson style fucking bloodbath revenge all in silhouettes ala the ipod commercials. That’s fucking right now that I’ve made my mark of commercial success in the pop-vid world I’m biting the hand that feeds. Just like fucking Anti-Flag! Anarchy and hair gel all round muthafukkers!
www.myspace.com/thetranzmitors

Ari

Following up from their late 90's "Golden Shower Hour," which I now believe has become a bit of a collectors item. Third Sight release an awesome record of intelligent and challenging hop hop.
DJ D-Styles (formerly of Invisibl Skratch Piklz) and Dufunk on production and scratch duties bring dark brooding beats that really help distinguish the songs but the real star is emcee Roughneck Jihad, whose flows bring to mind MF Doom or Robin Williams in the height of his seventies coke binge – the guys has some fast rhymes! With a panache that is rare in sthis style of hip hop he waxes about everything from from old Warner Brothers cartoons ‘the Sheperd and the Sheep to shit pop hop ‘the People Vs the Fake’ and ,.crap rappers ‘Stop Rapping’ and the very cool ‘Run’ about a hired killber.
But the best track on the record in my mind that show offs both production skills and the flows of Jihad is ‘Idle Smasher’a song that Jihad warns may kids having seizures like Pokemon. Great song. Great record.
ww.greatestworldfamous.com

Tim Scott

Stop the madness! Two Canadian assassin squads combine for thirteen songs in twelve minutes! This is grindcore mayhem for those who believe black is not dark enough. Dynamite blasts of fists mixed with guitar strings and dried blood smeared on cheeks. Tower Of Rome start the proceedings with songs that steal your shit right in front of you. Gun Kata featuring people from 7000 Dying Rats and Hewhocorrupts close it out with a unique blend of old and modern grind. The two releases sent to me from Sonic Deadline this month (this and the Grey EP) couldn’t be further apart musically or style wise. That’s fucking rad. Sonic Deadline is like the Canadian equivalent of Stiff records or something.
www.sonicdeadline.cjb.net

Tim Scott

Fuck! I find it disturbingly easy to lambaste bands I hate but nigh on impossible to say a thing about bands I love and Terror Firma, I just realized, are definitely one of those bands. Maybe even the band!
This is the release that nobody thought was ever going to happen. They recorded an album in 2003 which was never put out besides eventually as a bunch of self-duplicated tapes. They seemed to play fewer and fewer shows. Members came and went. It seemed like a band that were amazing musically, amazing lyrically and fucking amazing ethically were pretty much going to fade away to little more than a footnote and a past band for a bunch of people that are or were in every other Melbourne band worth knowing (Schifosi, Agents of Abhorrence, Whitehorse, Breeds There a Man?, Sense of Purpose etc etc).
I remember everyone said they were due to break up by the end of 2005. But fuck! By the end of 2005 this CD was out. Erle of Sense of Purpose had joined the band! Jacquie seemed to start getting better mixers at shows and her vocals became really fucking crushing.
It all combined into this new thing and I remember the exact point where it first became really apparent (well to me at least); circa October 2005 when they played a house show with Fear Like Us and Brand Disloyalty. Their first song… every single element of it seemed to threaten widespread demolition! Guitar alternating between slow tension and chaos, out of control fast drums, the heaviest bass lines in Aus hardcore and vocals spat so hard that the words were hitting people in the face. Every member seemed to be feeding off of each other, perfectly in sync and acting more as one body than four parts. By the time they finished everyone’s jaws were on the floor and clapping as hard as they fucking could. It was nothing short of awe-inspiring!
This CD EP has six tracks in the new awe-inspiring-crushyourface style Terror Firma as well as five slightly more melodic tracks from the first album.
When you can count on one hand the number of bands in this country that show any true kind of passion, compassion, intelligence and meaning it’s really fucking great that at least one of them happen to be so good musically as well!
Terror Firma Myspace Page

Ari

A more appropriate moniker there ain’t, with Sweden’s Truckfighters sounding much like a brouhaha with a rig, in a tripped out, fuzzy, stoner kinda way.

A bakers’ dozen of an album, Gravity X is 13 tracks of riff-oriented rock that locks itself into organic grooves as often as it meanders in tonal experiments. Not averse to dooming it down a bit, Truckfighters do tend to peak on the higher energy numbers, appealing to fans of Australian stoner acts such as Rollerball and Thumlock. And like their Aussie contemporaries the Swedes have a penchant for space travel and sci-fi themes.

Nasum’s Anders Jakobson makes a surprising visit behind the kit for ‘A Zapruder’ and handles the task quite well considering his love of grinding blasts. Jakobson’s visit is even more surprising when you consider the album was recorded between Dec. 2004 and Jan. 2005, the same time the tsunami hit and swept Nasum vocalist Mieszko Talarczyk to his death.

The album is pieced together rather nicely, fuzzing out Fu Manchu style on some tracks, applying the rockier Kyuss method on others, and diverging into fuzzy jam territory a la Nebula in a few parts also. The incorporation of a brass section in ‘Subfloor’ gives it a slight spaghetti western feel, and Orquesta del Deierto fans would dig on it considerably.

Such consideration of the ingredients and the order in which they’re added allows the listener to be taken on a stoner journey, winding through desert canyons one moment, buzzing around coastal Californian roads the next (Clutch fans take note), and involved in a Clint Eastwood gunfight the following minute.

The artwork, whilst appropriately seventies in design, is a bit lame and predictable in the genre, and as such is nothing to write home about. But that’s a minor critique when compared to the monolithic sounds embedded within.

By Warren
Label website: www.fuzzoramarecords.com
Label website: www.meteorcity.com

During the mid-to-late nineties I kind of took some time out from rock-based music and explored electronica after getting into artists such as Mick Harris and David Thrussell and labels like Extreme and Clan Analogue. The latter of which introduced me to Telemetry Orchestra – a nifty little electro act that shared dance beats with acid grooves and dance floor anthems with chilled out lounge.

I’ve subsequently all but deserted electronica in favour of the more analogous sounds of Americana and Alt. Country, but this arrived in my post box the other day and I was curious to see where the sound was heading.

Telemetry Orchestra have certainly developed quite nicely, with a clinical sound that is not devoid of emotion, despite the samples and additional studio trickery that goes with such music.

Children Stay Free carries with it the friendly and typically cutesy concepts common to the genre, with the little caricatures in the artwork and the sweet vocals of Charlotte Whittingham.

There’s also a definite harking back to the late sixties with its embedded sci-fi themes, tripping soundscapes and Beatlesque concepts.

By Warren
Label website: www.silentrecordings.com.au

The digital age, along with all its benefits, has also contributed to an increase in agoraphobic lifestyles, as people work, shop, play and even form relationships from the comfort of their own internet connection. Musicians also can write, record, print and distribute albums without ever having to leave their bedrooms, or for that matter changing out of their tracky dax and into something a bit more socially acceptable.

Whether or not hermitude influenced their moniker is unknown. What is known is that this follow-up to ‘Crimes of Fashion’ is far darker and ominous than their previous whimsical output.

Taking the dub elements of Massive Attack, the funk of Jamiroquai, Prince’s coolisms, and the armchair politics of Spearhead, Tracky Dax slither from rockin’ electrogroove to chilled out jazz, and onto thick, funky beats in a matter of moments.

But whereas their earlier work reflected inner-city life of youth, Watch The One is a mature, world-wise affair tackling imperialism whilst celebrating the essence and value of life itself.

By Warren
Labelwebsite: www.silentrecordings.com.au

Very radio friendly power rock from this three piece that sound uncannily like the Foo Fighters in some places. This 6 song EP is produced well and though at times it falls into by the number power chord rock the pop melodies are strong enough. Of the six songs on offer the opening ‘Varsity Jacket’ is the best. That Budweiser True Music Live sponsors them leaves me feeling a little dubious though.
www.twincamband.com

Tim Scott

Cool arse beats from the Windy City, which once again goes to prove that Chicago is hot on the heels of California as being known as the number two hip-hop area in the States. Though having not heard their first album, word on the hip hop message boards is that the quintets follow up is not quite on the money but to these ears MCs Qwazaar, Qwel, and denizen kane, plus DJ Natural and 'special delegate' Kid Knish have what it takes to mix organic beats and fucking good lyrics to boot. Get their first album. Then get this one.
www.galapogos4.com

Tim Scott

These guys cough up the biggest loogies they can muster, spit them into the palm of their drummer who then shakes hands with the rock and roll music that you hold so dear to your sensitive hearts. Featuring the drumming and vocal talents of Dave Unlikely of the awesome Tyrades these snarling miscreants serve up a mean dose of dirty, punky garage rock meanness. ‘Do the Dahmer’ champions the late serial killer while the keyboard inflected ‘Gonna Snap’ will get you drunkenly bumping your arse with unshaven men with very long police records. Listen to ‘Itchin to Kill’ more than a couple of times a day and you will be joining them in the police line up down at the station pretty soon.

www.bigneckrecords.com

Tim Scott

Debut full length from this Marseille act that claim to play “violent rock and roll”. Weighty, edgy and dark European screamo more like it. From the opening riff of ‘Nos Epaules Meurent’ you’ll be holding your army issued rifle above your head as you wade waist high into the 11-track swamp of rage. The instrumental Pedre Le Sens, Surtourt allows for some respite but on the whole it’s a blaze of blurred black and white photography of guitars being held high aloft and singers with arms pinned hard behind their back.
www.impuremuzik.com

Tim Scott

www.whackloser.com
When it comes to hip-hop in that big arse state of Texas; the city of Houston has a rich, long-standing and self-contained rap culture. The Dirty South sound is big but Dallas? Yeah not so big. on rap. But while H-Town guys like Paul Wall are bragging about their diamonds "I've got a deep freezer up in my mouth and sno-cones up in my ear/ A ice tray up in my mouth, I'm looking something like a chandelier.” WTF??!! Tahiti goes for the more laid back and causal tip. His rhymes are positive but not in a Bill Cosby kind of way, well maybe a little, "I'd rather be whack than carry a MAC-10/And be rappin' about murdering black men/I'd rather be whack than turn my back/On my black people while we under attack." Still, the guy knows what he’s talking about. Shit he’s 37. He BETTER know what he’s talking about. But it’s all good.
- Tim Scott

www.shipsastnight.com
Recorded in Canada and partly in Nashville, the New Gentleman’s Shuffle brings together the songwriting talents of David Macleod, the guitar playing of Warren Spicer and the bluegrassy/folky vocals of Katie Moore for a country jam good time of strumming and picking. The title track is the kind of tune I imagine the men of an Amish village whistle while building barns and that the women break into chorus as they bring them fresh lemonade. While the following song, the bawdy Showtune sounds decidedly un Amish. It actually sounds like they are all fucked up on some hooch and going buck wild in the studio. This is only to be followed by the introspective and instrumental Rivers Rutherford, which shows off the guitar talents of Macleod and Spicer. The highlight though is Gossip, which highlights the trio’s delicate roots/folk arrangements.
Tim Scott

Surprisingly based in Chicago, this septet is a novel bunch with a predisposition toward all things traditionally associated with colonial Ireland. Utilising folk-based instruments such as mandolin, accordion tin whistle, banjo and fiddle the band are equally inspired by The Clash and Anti-Nowhere League as they are by The Dubliners and The Chieftains.

Combining a street-level, working class punk attitude with colonial and traditional concepts the band are novel if nothing else. A myriad of drinking songs led by the coarse-yet-melodic vocals of Tony Duggins, help the band recreate the emotion of down-trodden industrial folk songs with an aggression reminiscent of today’s punkers such as Dropkick Murphys, Bouncing Souls, and The Go Set.

But as good at their craft as The Tossers are naught can prevent the novelty to wear thin rather rapidly. Indeed by track four you’re beginning to skip through the tunes to see if anything lives up to the greatness of the first two tracks. Though there are some interesting moments in ‘Drinking In The Day’ and ‘Preab San Ol’ ultimately nothing presents itself so as to inspire repeated listens.

By Warren
Label website: www.victoryrecords.com

In the same way that Turmoil owe allegiance to Agnostic Front and Cro-Mags, modern hardcore is indebted to Philadelphia’s Turmoil. From 1993 the band have punished on stage and disc releasing some classic and now hard to acquire albums. Given the out-of-print status of all their releases, Abacus have seen fit to re-release them all in this tidy 2 disc set, together with older recordings and new material to keep completists smiling.

Working in reverse chronological order, Staring Back opens with ‘Pinstripes & Neckties’ – the band’s most aggressively impacting track yet. Clocking in at a mere 49 seconds this track even manages to cram a breakdown in it’s grinding delivery. ‘Great American Crime’ and ‘Commander and Thief’ are also brand spankin’ newies, before the disc spears of into The Process of – the band’s last full length.

Disc 2 opens with the Anchor EP and then as nature would have it, goes into the From Bleeding Hands album.

The final handful of tracks were of particular interest to myself, if for nothing else than providing me with some obscure underground metal/hardcore trivia, insofar as they were produced by Believer’s Joe Daub and Jim Winters.

By Warren
Label website: www.abacusrecordings.com

www.punkinfinland.net/tv
Toinen Vaihtoehto ('The Other Alternative') is a monthly counter/subculture-action (diy/punk/etc.)from Finland and wait for it, it’s written in Finnish. It gives a thorough overview of the Finnish scene, in Finnish! Featuring interviews with Unkind, White Flag and Eye for an Eye. They are in Finnish too. I’m only onto page 12 of the Dummies Guide to Finnish, but I am getting there.
Tim Scott

www.trioxin245.cjb.net
You have heard about evil right? Some of you may have even seen it. You may have watched some of those Shocking Asia videos back in Year 10. But have you sat down and listened to the E-V-I-L. If you haven’t there is always Trioxin 245 three freaks from Canada’s capital forever changing the stereotype that Canadians are ‘nice’. On this, their 15 song demo they raise a black flag and swing it violently for all that is Inespy, Motorhead and Skitsystem. Yeah, it’s d-beat and in their cess pit of a world the rainbows come in eight shades of black but if you want your Canadian rock a little more well, dark, then the Arcade Fire, pick this scab open.
Tim Scott

www.strictlyamateurfilms.com
Wow, this one floored me. Never heard of them before but apparently it is Aaron from Black Dice old band, when by the sounds of it they were taking a lot of fucked up drugs. Looking at the cover you would half expect some trippy shit to listen to but it happens to be indie (kind of prog) amazing rock that the Mars Volta so try hard (and fail miserably) to nail. The recording was done back in Janurary 1999 but be thankful that Strictly Amateur Films have had the good sense to dig it out. Kind of weird, kind of obscure but also kind of fucking good.
Tim Scott

www.thisrobotlife.com
This is not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, yet the rough as guts
recording, semi out of tune vocals and scrappy playing all adds to the charm
of this young Milwaukee band. Coming across as a cross between Fifteen and a
car crash, what they lack in slickness they more than make up for in genuine
punk spirit. The ten songs on offer include a cover of Bob Dylan's 'One More
Cup of Coffee' and Hot Water Music's 'Out Own Way' which really is an
awesome song that will have you singing the "On and on and on!" parts
loudly.

- Tim Scott

www.corleonerecords.com
Art and Gus. Just two facial haired guys who like nothing more than plugging
in and playing to all the young drunk kids at the warehouse space. Some of
the kids will pretend they are rocking out to Faith or Rites of Spring circa
1983, others will just fall down. There is no doubting the sincerity of the
music on offer on their debut 12", which has been reissued on CD. Mixing the
personal and the political, 'Are You the Kings of Olives?' is against
Israeli occupation and the building of that retarded wall while the opening
of 'Things' is a call to "show your tusks". A band you can both spazz out
to in the warehouse and have a cool conversation with in the car park later.
I like bands like that.

- Tim Scott

Cool as fuck art zine from the UK that features work from the Mentary
Brothers, Gomes, Bee Free, KABE, Ichi, Dave the Chimp, NEW Studios, Pinky,
Paris Hair and Maya Hayuk. It has kind of a skate vibe running through it,
particularly the work from the 243 Support crew. Good lines and ideas.
Proves that you don't need to be a wanky art student in order to create good
visual art - just a Sharpie and some attitude. Check it out. Recommended
listening while reading; Atmosphere and the new Sadaharu record.
www.ledilly.com

- Tim Scott

15:32 minutes of sporadic disjointed 2 piece madness. This CD plays more like a documentation of arrangments & changes rather than composed musical pieces. No vocal presence, however there are remnants of lyrics on the insert taken from a book put together by Dan. A little eccentric/indulgent, but that appeals to me. 7/10

- joel

Ever been shit faced and lost in a strange city at like 3am? You’re kind of shitting your pants but having fun at the same time, well your drunk for God sakes, so of course everything is fun and new and different and wait…. Do I know those people? Yeah everything is fun. Even the irate cab drivers that scream at you when you stumble into traffic. Ever woken up in a park hung over at 6am with paint on your clothes in the same city? Well Thema Eleven is kind of like that night. What starts off as kind of strange and different and fun ends up hurting and dirty. The Czech-core (I love that term) unit bring some whirling noises and strained vocals with a slowed down dirgey feel. The spoken samples in between songs deal with stuff like incest and suicide so you victims will have something to relate to. By the end of the 6 songs though you have a long cab ride back to wherever you are staying at.
www.thema11.czechore.cz

Tim Scott

Guitars. Loud guitars. Where would we be without them? A quaint little Amish village. Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Your grandmothers front room, perhaps? Tiger Bear Wolf play with two of the damn things. They play them somewhat spazzy. Sometimes they play them bluesy, at others more punky. Always loudly. Spazzy loud guitars. That seems to be Tiger Bear Wolf’s modus operandi. And why the hell not? Good luck to the young kids I say. Sometimes a simple instrument (or two) can just be the answer you’ve been looking for. Well that and cheap booze.
www.hellosirrecords.com

Tim Scott

Thaione (pronounced Tie-Wan) who was recently featured in an URB magazine ‘Next 100 for 2005’ story is a guy to definitely keep an eye on. While so called underground hip-hop has developed into nothing more than a clichéd and paler version of it’s more colourful and commercially viable (how many records has The Game sold?) cousin- shit commercial hip hop, Thaione sets a mood that is hard to beat when you wanna kick back and listen to some quality shit. While April January is more instrumental than vocal it’s a hip hop record for those who appreciate Fela Kuti or Pharaoh Sanders as much as they do Biggie or Madlib. Progressive and innovative beats that adds to an atmospheric listening experience. It’s jazzy but not wanky if you know what I mean. Like I said, keep an eye on this guy.
www.dominationrec.com

Tim Scott

What I like about Teresa 11 is that Rie has a Corrupted sticker on her Roland programmer. Another thing I like about Teresa 11 is that Anri plays a massive harp. Japanese girls who love Corrupted and harps! Tell me how you can wrong in this equation and I’ll buy you a fucking case of Asahi beer. Though I hate to use the word ‘ethereal’ as it is often used to describe the shite music they play at crap Goth clubs, it is probably the most succinct way in which to describe this amazing three piece. Imagine if good trip-hop (not the crap your ex girlfriend used to play during sex) was mixed in with some acoustic guitars and traditional Kabuki rhythms. Then add some phenomenal vocals. OK, your almost there. Remember there is a Corrupted sticker on the sampler!
www.elbionrecords.com

Tim Scott

Watered down Slayer style metal that would be pretty good if it wasn’t for the sung vocals in the choruses. Just to flesh this out a little more apparently Trivium means: The lower division of the seven liberal arts in medieval schools, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Peter qwwzz

Having just completed a ball-tearing Australian tour, New York trio The Turbo AC’s have blessed us with a half-hour’s worth of solid, straight-down-the-line punk. Three-chord aggression, vitriolic vocals, and a penchant for surf-guitar ensure the Turbos a solid first release – for our shores at least.

Certainly not offering anything that hasn’t been done before, The Turbo AC’s pride themselves in maintaining punk traditions – from the gang vocals to the 3 minute time limit on their songs.

‘Collision Course’ is an aggressive and fast-paced tune that sees vocalist Kevin Cole taking his chords to the limit, while it’s successor ‘Perfect Crime’ takes things a bit slower and more melodic like.

The rhythm section comprising of Kevin Prunty and Michael Dolan (drums and bass respectively) are as solid as a three-piece requires, though they know when to loosen up for the songs’ sake. Prime example is the surf-punk instrumental ‘Apache’.

The band also knows when to call on friends in high places, such as the legendary Blag Dahlia who produced this album. Again, it’s a solid production with few studio tricks, bar the odd sample scattered throughout.

Otherwise it’s an album that maintains its energy and enthusiasm from the first snap of the snare to the final frenetic riff. Simply but expertly done.

By Warren

Band website: www.turboacs.com
Label website: www.musicfarmers.com

Julie Gaylord has a voice that is both breathy and ballsy. Like a cross between a phone sex operator and the crazy shoeless woman who screams at me everyday on my way to the station, her songs are alluring yet unsettling. Guitiarist Drew Orlowski helps out on vocals on songs such as 'These Hands Are Mirrors Fronting', but it is Gaylord's voice that is the driver of this SUV of catchy indie rock. Comparisnons to Rainer Maria and Pretty Girls Make Graves have and will be drawn but the Philadephia outfit show enought nouse to step over the semi comatose rock comparisons. Also I like how the keyboards are used to accompany the songs and not blast them to smithereens. Nice.
www.franklin-records.com

Apparently these guys used to be a lot heavier, not so much in the girth, but in the rock. The new look Murder Of…. has the boys going a little more minimal and melodic. Lean Cuisine stylee. 20% less spazz if you will. The record comes with a picture book that tells the story of a music box from space. This is a limited release – something like 4 – but track it down if you can and make some kid in some small English town really happy.

Tim Scott

Six track EP of rock with a hardcore influence or hardcore with a rock influence depending on which way you want to approach matters. The CD starts off sounding a lot like The Bronx but with heavier vocals. To quickly summarise the sound of The Bronx its something like rock but with more aggression, speed and a bare minimum of bullshit solos. The later tracks move away from that sound a little. There’s still that fast rock thing but varied a bit with some slower sections, an instrumental track and a change in vocal style so that the heavier voice of the first few tracks is joined by a lot of sung/shouted backups. But yeah basically if you like The Bronx there isn’t much doubt you’ll really love this.

Peter qwwzz

A four piece rock band from Derby in the UK. The lesson here is that just because you really like Sonic Youth and you’re in a band with a female it doesn’t mean you have to start playing what you probably think is experimental music but what is really a repetitive badly played drone of guitar with annoying, bored sounding and very very repetitive male and female vocals over the top.
The problem with a really uninspiring band like this is that if you’re forced to listen to it or if for some reason you force yourself to listen to it for more than five minutes your brain just goes on holiday and all you can do is breathe, eat and shit. It becomes really hard to entertain yourself. All your emotions and feelings become dulled and you find it impossible to become interested or excited about anything. Maybe this is how people become Jehovah’s witnesses! They’ve been listening to really boring rock music and then all of a sudden someone comes along with a colourful pamphlet, a smile and some kooky story about Jesus dying on a pole rather than a cross or whatever and you just follow on after them because it seems so interesting compared to mid-tempo, lo-fi, bland experimental rock.

Peter qwwzz

"Oh Jerry, why'd you take a shotgun to your head? You used to have a pulse and stuff, but now you're cold and dead..." This lp is built around that satirical, story-telling playfulness you might find on releases by The Unicorns, Atom and His Package, Reggie and the Full Effect, and maybe even Ween. 8-track bedroom antics, songs about girls, selflessness, aspirations, saturated in dry, observationalist humour, casio beats, glockenspiels, acoustic guitars, close, un-certain and off-key vocals, which are hard to distinguish between nervous and care-free, but still manage to come off natural, with a strong sentiment of sincerity underlining it all, though i find it hard to believe Jerry (The Short Happy Life), takes himself all that seriously, the folk-inspired track "We are all... just fucking ourseleves" wins for proving that, "Love is for losers" is another life lesson gem, building to plodding, slack drums, Meg-White style, but the self-referencing suicide eulogy titled "oh Jerry", and pop ditty "You call that love", could be tongue in cheek, or less tactful attempt at Morrissey-esque self-assessment, either way, it's intimate, and light-hearted, so it can't do too much damage. 14 songs, clocking in at 30 mins, and there's enough variety, substance, and humour to assure that you don't get bored within that time-frame.

- Christopher Kelaart

This is what Hole was supposed to sound like; harsh, brash, rude, and downright snotty. None of this pompous, manipulative, have-a-hit-man-kill-your-hubby Hollywood crap. Just pure, unadulterated, raw-as-fuck rock n’ roll. Sadly, this release comes 10 years after Cobain’s and a mere few months after band leader Cate Dahl’s untimely deaths.

Also known as Cate Synnerdahl (and Twiggy Pop to her friends), the frail figure behind the skins of X, and behind the six-strings and mic of Tongues, Cate unfortunately decided to end her emotional pain in July this year, before the world could witness her debut release as frontwoman – and what a loss it is.

Ugly is grunge re-incarnate. Menacing riffs are coupled with Cate’s tuneful howls riddled with venom as well as a contorted type of introspection. Drawing obviously from her time in X, Cate knew the importance of simplicity in song-writing, a fact demonstrated clearly on the repetitive riffs of ‘Dazed’ and ‘Dead Man Walking’ – the former of which could well have been lifted from Nevermind’s cutting room floor.

‘Be You’ pays lyrical homage to The Cure, while ‘Wanna-Be’ is filled with societal spite and Nirvana-esque noise. The album isn’t without pop sensibilities, as evidenced on ‘Do It Again’ and ‘B-Side’, but the emphasis remains on feedback, loose structures, and apathetic aggression.

And whilst Cate’s passing is unfortunate, thankfully her life had not been in vain. The legacy she has left with both X and Tongues is something of a testament to original and passionate Australian rock.

- Warren

Artist website: www.tongues.com.au
Label website: www.laughingoutlaw.com.au

With the return of their original vocalist The Haunted try to move away from Slayer-live thrash metal kill-your-extended-family type songs towards writing a few thrash songs but trying to concentrate on slower songs as well.
That still sound like Slayer
Which is good!
There are solos but they’re bearable, good even, as they don’t go for so long that they become self-indulgent. Apparently this singer (Peter Dolving) originally left the band because he had a wife and kid that he wanted to spend more time with and now he’s back because his replacement now also has a wife and kid(s?) which he too wanted to spent some time with,
Dolving’s a bit of a pessimist though, his lyrics are about how much he hates himself (a lot), how much he hates everyone else (just as much), conspiracies, paranois and a few thinly veiled and a few all to obvious references to oral sex (not that there’s anything pessimistic about oral sex). There’s a strong recurring theme of killing people, killing himself and killing stuff in general and he seems really really pissed off about lies and lying,
One track has Lou Koller guesting but isn’t very interesting because his vocals are distorted in such a way that they sound almost exactly like Dolvings’. Meanwhile the artwork is an odd mixture of ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Coneheads’, which would make a great movie.

Lyrical highlights:
“Disobey the conform”
“I’ve walked the feed kill chain”
“No gets out alive” (I think this might just be a misprint)
“Like a Japanese girl with a taste for absurdity roped up and screaming for more.”
“Swear on the flag and the bible and my own mother’s grave. If you get to the bitch before I do.”

- Peter

Debut cassette, (yes you read right, - fuck your mini Ipods! - though truth be told, I think the last cassette I bought was Bad Brains Quickness) from these local Melbourne kids that feature Mark ‘Grover’ Groves (ex-Keeth, Paul of Blood, George W. Bush). It’s been said before but this is kind of like the Birthday Party playing paintball against Black Flag. Maybe it hasn’t been said before, but whatever, I’ve gone and painted a picture for you. The home Dictaphone recording on ‘One Day an Organ Will Give Way’ has Grover sounding like he has been possessed by a pit bull terrier that has been beaten and tied to a tree, while their cover of the Doors ‘Break On Though to the Other Side’ has him sounding like he has been possessed by Jim Morrison, beaten and tied to said pit bull. Drink to sip while listening to this? I’d recommend a nice South Australian red, that or gin and Listerine. Go and get this, go and find that Sony Walkman with the shit foam headphones that’s sitting somewhere in your cupboard, strap on some roller skates and get out there and enjoy the sunshine.
www.fsrecords.com

Tim Scott

So these guys aren’t the first hardcore band to use horror movie imagery/shtick and they probably won’t be the last but the Dutch outfit featuring ex- and present members of Spirit 84, No Denial, Icepick and Among the Living, play old fashioned Boston hardcore complete with hockey masks. They have covered Last Rights and Barfight songs in the past and if you like Barfight in particular you are sure to like these guys. Vocals are gruff and ragged, guitars are tight and the overall feel is a “fuck you asshole”. Good stuff. Features awesome artwork by Mike Bukowski .
www.njwrecords.com

Tim Scott

Listening to this record now you realize just how much of an influence these Florida spazz’s had on the modern day screamo sound. Whether directly or not, they combined all the elements that your Blood Brother riff off clones are now producing enmasse; blast beats, mathy time signatures and straight up hardcore. Back in the day these guys were the kings of the Southeast emo hardcore club. The booklet is all class with archival photos of the band playing basements in musical hotspots like Fort Smith, Arkansas, Eureka, California and Tampa, Florida

The 33-song discography combines all of the bands singles, compilation, and LP tracks on one cd. That makes for a lot of spazz, a spazzarama if you will. Imagine your favourite Gravity band after a three-day crack binge and you will have some idea where these cats are coming from. A great memorial from a great band.
www.coaxt.com

Tim Scott

One of those US punk bands that tear it up during their college days then break up when members go their separate ways/careers/lives, the Opposed play pissed off gruff punk rock that brings to mind the finer moments of Mid Youth Crisis. While they don’t call themselves a ‘political’ band the sentiment certainly reflects a pissed off attitude towards modern culture and the consumerist nature of most people. Song titles such as ‘Voter Responsibility’ and ‘Ugly American Policy’ lay it on the line and the music and lyrics back it up with a fiery tirade against all that is unjust or just fucked up. Though members have gone on to form the more metal Inside Recess, ‘Throwaway Society’ is a quality document of a small Cincinnati band that had a lot to say and said it well.
www.theopposed.com

Tim Scott

Not sure that the trend forecasters had Missoula, Montana in mind when they called in moody instrumental rock a couple of years back but such has been the spread of atmospheric rock that yes, even towns in Montana can lay claim to their own ambient and textural band who create brooding ‘soundscapes’. Not to trivialize the music of This Is A Process of a Still Life, for they are capable of and do write some mesmerizing music but it’s hard not to remain a tad cynical when so many like minded bands dot the indie rock landscape. Instrumental indie music, just like any other genre of music has formulas, formulas that bands often get a little too bogged down in. Thankfully these guys approach to songwriting stretches beyond merely imitating the Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You Black Emperor back catalogue. No Memory of the Airshow is a beautiful song, 8 minutes of rising guitar, bass, and percussions. From here the songs become a little more subdued but affecting just the same.

www.fireflysessions.com
- Tim Scott

Awesome 3” cd from these rabid thrashers who feature members of Bob Barker Youth and Spencer's on Acid. Musically it’s all over the shop, which is cool, the closet you could come to accurately describing it would be youthcrustpowerthrashcoreviolence – or something? Great energy, pace and songs such as ‘Don’t Thrash for Cash’ and the hilarious ‘SOA Not AFI’ . Hardcore for the Hardcore about Hardcore and the things Hardcore Kids care about.

www.richwhitekidrecords.com

- Tim Scott

The second album from this Seattle trio has that big guitar sound popular in the late Nineties. Not grunge per se, more like stuff being released on De Soto. Jawbox maybe? I just remembered how good Helmet’s Strap It On record was. What has this got to do with this review? Absolutely nothing but it was a fucking good record. These guys play honest straight up rock that ain’t gonna set the world ablaze but at some bar in Seattle on a Thursday night I bet they get their share of students and café/bar workers to pay money to see them play.
http://therubydoe.com

- Tim Scott

It kind of confuses me (maybe that is the point) when bands who play a soft, gentle and yes, ‘beautiful’ style of music choose to name themselves after something not considered well, beautiful. Of course it’s all in the eye of the beholder but I’m guessing most people would agree that a tarantula is not the most attractive member of the animal kingdom. I guess it’s better than calling yourselves Leper Colony or Anal Cunt or something, but still? Tarantula play mesmerizing beautiful music using violin, cello, bass and drums. It is both simple and experimental. Whereas Warren Ellis from the Dirty Three uses the violin both to caress and pummel, Tarantula’s violinist Jamie Reeder and cellist Danny Bensi use their instruments to lull the listener. Check "Rail", with its rising drama that brings to mind the Kronos Quartet and their piece for that fucked up last scene in ‘Requiem for a Dream’. And while some of the song structures share similarities to post rock –read -- simple musical figures, mixed and matched -- there is none of the bullshit repletion and wankery employed by so many post Shellac fools. Get this this 29-minute EP, play it and burn some incense or something. I forgot to mention it also has glockenspiel on it.
www.tarantulamusic.com

- < a href="mailto:dettolforever@hotmail.com">Tim Scott

Brazilian trashy garage rock that has been heavily influenced by Aussie bands like Birdman and the shronk piss and vinegar blues of Estrus and Crypt bands. Here you get 10 booty shaking rockers including the fantastic title track new dirty-ass yowling' originals, All the songs are sung in English and would have been good to hear a few in Portuguese but no drama, the music is fine and dandy to these ears.
ordinary@vol.com.br

- Tim Scott

This night Creeps seem to love feedback but not over the top Sonic Youth “do you know how to stop this? No do you? We’ll just pretend we meant it” feedback. It’s an occasional presence in the background, a rising warning at the start of tracks or during lulls, indicative of how observant they are of mood.
The music builds up to climaxes or starts strong and gradually fades down with the utilisation of plenty of time changes, emotion and skill along the way. Raw vocals interweave as much as the guitars do while the bass provides extra flourishes and the backline of the occasional grooves that they step in and out of. There’s plenty of feeling throughout but it doesn’t quite fall under the emo classification that a lot of people seem tempted to use. The underlying feel of melancholy isn’t an indulgent sadness; there are no clear expressions of self-pity or regret. The lyrics are poetic and personally ambiguous; sung more as a rhythmic part of the music then a separate message.

The only fault is the slight muddiness in the recording, especially the vocals which often don’t seem as prominent as they could, there’s not much differentiation between soft spoken parts versus screams and so it all comes across with the same volume and force, or sometimes, lack thereof.

- Peter

The bad: Some of the song titles on here are a bit iffy; ‘Hardcore’, ‘Time to wake up’, ‘Forgive’, ‘Friends’. Try going onto Kazaa or Soulseek to see how many other bands have the same titles, it’d have to be in the hundreds.
Then there’s the obligatory band photo where they have their arms crossed and the backgrounds some ghetto in Geelong, never seen anything like that before!
….and who really calls a song ‘Hardcore’?
Sure its cool and all if its supposed to be satirical but how the hell is anyone supposed to know that when you can’t understand the vocals and there’s no lyric sheet.

The good: The package it comes in might be a little dubious but the music itself is as solid as cheese. Nine songs in about 16 minutes (do the math!) that are kinda similar to Hatebreed with lots of palm muted slides contrasting with short ringing bursts but faster and with more rhythm.
Guitar really drives the whole thing but there’s no obsession with trying to fit a breakdown in wherever possible. The vocals are deep and tough, definitely from the Matt-Within Blood school of singing and the lyrics although fairly unintelligible seem to be about cooking marshmallows, flying kites, petting doves, standing strong and crushing skulls.
Other good points include the fact that it’s independent, cheap and recorded well but the best thing of all is that unlike Hatebreed where the albums go for too long this is a perfect length to get excited about how big your muscles are.

- Peter

The 'two member noise outfit' trend continues this time in the form of drummer James Islip and guitarist Andy Abbott, two dudes from UK band Kill Yourself who have stepped out to make some fine riffs and groove in the tradition of Ruins, Pink and Brown and to a lesser extent Lightning Bolt. The 5 song EP is all instrumental but also all quality. They play novelty equipment and are willing to come over to your house to play in your living room for beer and corn chips. The 5 song (25 minute) EP moves along nicely with it's staccato funk and odd time signature, the opener especially 'Beegee Dinner Sex' is a head nodding winner. They must get props (I hate that word, why did I use it?) for pretending that every show is their last in order to gain more attention and exposure.
www.jealousrecords.com

- Tim Scott

Beautifully improvised noise. I've had this cd on repeat for the past couple of hours while I sit at my desk typing and this shit creeps up on you, I tells ya. Totally hypnotic and intriguing. I think I'm supposed to use the words 'ebb' and 'flow' somewhere around here. Instead I'll just settle for improvised beautiful noises? I like fast and loud music. But sometimes it's nice to sit and enjoy slow and weird arse shit - this six-piece instrumental collective supply the goods in the slow and weird arse department. The violin of Peter Rosenbloom with the guitars of Mark Booth and Jonathan Liss sound beautiful and the music in general is characterized by the layering and interplay of acoustic (violin, double bass, percussion) with electric (guitars, keyboards, short-wave, signal processors, and turntable) instruments. Good for when the screaming punk and gangsta hip-hop or electro clash or whatever the fuck you listen to, gets a little too much.
www.falsewalls.com

- Tim Scott

This is the kind of music that needs to be playing on the shitty jukebox/stereo of your fave shitty/cheap bar/pub as you enter on a Friday night with your friends, looking forward to some rock and roll and drunken fun. I swear if you walked into a bar and they were blasting 'White Noise' from the Black Furies debut you know that you and your mates would be down for some raucous action. Maybe even a little stint in a holding cell later on. The Chicago four piece play a catchy style of 70's punk rock - all black tshirts and arguments over which is the best Stooges album. The album is simple but fun. Basic but rocks like a mother. Just the kind of music you need when drinking beers with friends early on a Friday night.
www.takerootrecords.com

- Tim Scott

Ok, so we are half way through 2004 already. Is it too early to start nominating records of the year? I think not and my so nomination for best record by a band who feature former members of Cut the Shit, Down in Flames and the mighty Tear It Up, is Wish You Never Knew by the Rites a band straight outta motherfucking New Jersey. These boys have seen it all before. They’ve fallen in love at hardcore shows, fallen out of love at hardcore shows. Been in fights and broken up fights in hardcore shows. But rather than the tired clichés of keeping the old school alive by sad fucks such as Madball and SOIA, the Rites play with some middle fingered cheekiness. They don’t give a fuck that the scene aint like it is. So what? Go home if you don’t like it. Whereas other hackneyed scenesters get all sentimental about lost friendships and sell outs, these guys write songs like ‘Fuck Your Drama’ and ‘No More I’m Sorry's’. Like Poison Idea these guys mix classic and modern hardcore into their own dynamic and energetic sound. So the 8 tracks fly by they are still full of speed, aggression and passion. Cut the Shit and Tear It Up are some of the greats in modern day hardcore. Good to see that the Rites continue the tradition.
www.coalition-records.com

- Tim Scott

Garage punk from Cleveland that actually sounds like it could have come
out of San Diego about 8 years ago. The 5 songs on this EP are arty but
rocking, kind of like a Norse God with a flair for finger-painting.
Vocals are spat out like battery acid. The guitar breakdown in the
middle of 'Karma and Stars' is radness. Their singer is called Rager.
Admit it, Brian or Cameron, or Audrey or whoever you are, Rager is a
better name than yours. The closing song 'Obsolete' and it's monster
riffs will stay with you long after the bruises and overextended
ligaments have healed.
www.thelovekill.com

- Tim Scott

I just watched a tribute to Marlon Brando who died a few days ago. The guy was certainly interesting. Talented- his role as Stanley Kowalski in a Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most powerful I have seen, forward thinking (he was an early champion of the civil right movement), neurotic and for most of his life an A grade arsehole. After watching the CNN program, I went up stairs and put on the Set Up’s Tuned to Drop Dead. They are a band who apart from most likely enjoying Apocalypse Now have no relationship with Brando whatsoever. But while listening to their album I was thinking about the dead fat Italian actor and was struck with the thought that if he was born 30 years later he would probably sing in a punk rock band. Not sure if it would be in this punk rock band, I’m thinking more along the lines of Poison Idea (he really was a fat fuck) but his attitude to life was pretty ‘punk’. The Set Up are pretty punk too, less of a ‘Stellllaaaa!!!’ kind of way and more of just playing guitars really loud and screaming down the mic. With members from the great and very underrated Marion Delgado http://www.screamingbloodymess.com/archives/cat_m.html#000175 and Light the Fuse and Run they 7 songs and a cover of Sepultura’s Refuse/Resist complete with metal guitar solo. Good stuff, not as good as the Godfather but quality punk rock that you should seek out and play loudly.

www.actiondriver.com

Tim Scott

These guys come from Atlanta, Georgia. That would be ‘the South’ for the geographically challenged. You know the place where Outkast get all jiggy. Being a southern city, Atlanta has the reputation of holding onto ‘southern’ values - read racial hierarchy and religious fundamentalism. This seven piece (two drummers, two bassists, and two saxophonists, yes two of them!) is said to challenge these conservative values through their music – a blend of cool post punk and abstracted Afro beat. They say that southern icons such as James Brown and William Faulkner have influenced them, but to these ears, musically it comes more from the Dischord records back catalogue mixed with the Rough Guide to White Guys Playing Afro Jazz Jams.

‘Gasoline Churches’, (a song about Church burnings perhaps?) has a dubby slowed down beat that builds into some cool sax and the great chant of “a head like a horse and mouth like an ass”- what this has to do with burnt Southern Baptist churches though I’m not 100% sure. Elsewhere you get urgent punky outburst ‘Beyond Recognition’ and Rites of Springy emo pleadings ‘Assembly Line Love Affair’ Good stuff. Look out for a full length in the coming weeks.

http://thepartisan.cjb.net

Tim Scott

The Frequency have recorded an album which sounds like an extended jam at rehearsal. The rehearsal consists of a little experimentation and heaps of fun for the musos involved, however it falls flat for the listener who wasn’t there, leaving them feeling left out of the picture. Much of the sound is taken directly from the new wave era of programmed synthesisers and keyboards, incorporated with heavier vocals and guitar lines, than say New Order.

The result is somewhat incomplete. Certain tracks particularly, Erasing Myself and Moonburn could have come directly from Andrew W.K’s catalogue except they lack the abrasive and confronting nature he seems to have nailed. The album does not quite fit together and while the band seemed to have a good time recording this, the finished version falls short of what they were aiming for.

- Michael Atkin

The Mighty Stars are a nostalgia band of the worst kind. They are revisiting a genre that was never good and won’t be better the second time around. Playing light riffing, trite pop punk of the British variety, it makes you wonder whether they are doing this as a joke.

Serious or not this 5 track EP may be catchy but lacks anything to grab the listener after the few chuckles it gets on the first listen. Songs titles like Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! and lyrics that ask a girl if they can hold her hand makes one wonder whether they failed to make the cut at the local boy-band audition.

The listener may instantly know the words and the audience participation at shows must be great but there is nothing else to bring the listener to play the disc of this novelty band more than once.

- Michael Atkin

Imagine you were back in high school and sitting in music class. Imagine you were lucky enough to have punk rock and its various sub-genres in your syllabus. Now imagine that you were given an assignment to write and record a three-song ‘emo’ CD. If you handed in this disc as your output, you’d no doubt be given full marks and heralded above your peers. Unfortunately, that is only because high school teachers are clueless hacks that essentially have no idea.

This CD is awful. I’m sorry, but it is. It is by-the-formula pop music that somehow believes itself to be punk – or more specifically – emo, simply because it blatantly rips off the Get Up Kids and adds the all-too-popular token screams into the mix. Screaming doesn’t make your music hard edged, kids, it makes you sound stupid. All the more so when it is combined with sugar-coated, nasally vocals that are almost criminal in their plagiarism.

Don’t get me wrong, these guys can play their instruments fairly well (and they no doubt have very expensive equipment) and the singing is ‘good’ in the sense that the aforementioned high school teacher would believe it to be so. I am sure there are a plethora of kids that will like this rural Victorian band if they are exposed to them. Me? No. I hate it. And I’m sure most people that have a clue will too.

My advice to The Cupid Initiative is to try again after careful consideration of why they want to make music. I suspect their motivation just doesn’t stand up.

- Paul Shirker

It’s amazing how quickly this Sydney band has become hyped lately in street press newspapers and on the street. I think a band always gets respect for playing lots of shows, like THE OPTIONALS do, around Sydney, and lately having toured to Queensland, but those bands usually always come with an element of local disinterest and become just a beercore band, like many other bands with brass instruments who fall to the mercy of writing music to dance to.
THE OPTIONALS never get boring really. They’re an awesome band to listen and watch live, drunk, or on whatever; they are a party a band – a “horny rock” band as they so self-proclaim. This review is hard for me to write in a totally non-biased way, as I have played in bands with a few members of this rock group, one of which was basically responsible for getting me into old school punk and ska.

Anyway, the street press, both in Sydney and online, seem to be mesmorised into confusing write ups trying to describe the so-called horny rock. Press kits make me laugh, please don’t be offended by this, I don’t dig em generally. But The Optionals have included a review from some European country, describing it as “the middle ground between ONE DOLLAR SHORT, STRUNG OUT and LESS THAN JAKE…”
No…
Another local one – “The Optionals have a strong skate punk/ska sound…”
Haha.

This slab is eleven tracks of wizardry. “Up in it” kicks it off, proclaiming singer and guitarist Johnny Optional’s want for an Afghan Whigs listening party. God bless. It’s hard hitting and god damned catchy with great hooks complimenting the harmonies, creating waves of singalong throughout all AW fans in any particular room. Nice HUSKER DU influenced guitar solos coming into play early on, which is always expected with Johnny’s guitaring.
“Social Spasms” starts off kind of psychobilly/surf leaning but is then cemented together by a hypnotic trumpet, riffs and hectic fills hinting at chaotic changes of tempo. Maybe it’s because they used to play it a lot faster when they weren’t so tight. “I can’t believe the social spasms twitching away yeah”. Great high hat build-ups and fast rock with an awesome sounding bell on the ride. Ross’ kick is always going damn fast.
The horns give it a melancholy edge, which do not associate them with any skacore band really, except for some slower MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES songs back in the day perhaps?

“Aim Low Get High” – sounds good to me. More upbeat and the horny rock is getting hard. Stoner rock vocals mixed with screams sound awesome. Double hits on the snare so constantly, cascading into the craziest fill, almost like a blast. The horns and the singalong nature is reminiscent of ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, but the general grungey drive of THE OPTIONALS suits more upon sibling bands DRIVE LIKE JEHU and HOT SNAKES. The song ends with a mildly funny sample about pissing on suit’s briefcases heheh. “Forces we do understand” tells us we are the chosen ones and it’s the voices right now. Nice noodling guitar licks and keeping that hectic bass and drum conglomerated drive. Nick’s backing vocals are responsible for making this that much more catchy. Try not and sing along with this shit. Ends with a teasing semi ska-core segment which live, pricks ears of keen ska heads and they get up, skank, then The Optionals destroy with their driving punk rock. The drumming reminds me of Peter Kostic. of FRONT END LOADER But probably better.

“Sunken Drunken” has a (real) reggae vibe to it, with picking guitars and beats and weird, constrained, ready to explode melodic vocals with a sick harmony. Going into abrasive as fuck rock, but at a real slow pace, for no longer than 13 seconds, back into the white man reggae. Johnny’s vocals are hard to follow, (no lyric sheet you fucker!) but contain lots of mad words, which you remember. The Optionals are good for that. If you have a shit song in your head, listen to this album and there you go. Clocking in at almost 6 minutes, this is an epic that might be looked back upon like a classic POLICE song but by angsty generation X kids.
“Sex with Strangers” poses Johnny’s horny rock issues to the world…”and then she walked away”. Great melodic-then screaming- vocals giving it a real urgent drive with phat sounding bass drum action and spanking snare hits.

“Safari Girls” sounds like it would be the soundtrack music for a boat ride through a safari full of naked strangers. It’s very Decoder Ring in it’s intro. Snakes into more scathing riffs and hornlines, giving its epic changes solid bases. There’s even a fast bit which reminds me of THE PANIC ATTACKS. Speaking of stoners, “So Long Lungs” is a classic which will be a hit on Triple M (in a perfect rawk world). Lyrical content which I can relate to. Huge, delayed chorus “so long lungs – don’t even try – pills are not the same – underwater I try to breathe; so long lungs”. Sky high, and a little less time to shine. Maybe they really do realise they could very well get big with songs like this.

“Danger Game” takes you back to that adventurous surf punk sound but going on tangents everywhere. Think this song sounded better faster though. “Horseback” spanks along, sounding very posty like the aforementioned DLJ band, but at a speed so hectic it could be hardcore. A breakdown reminiscent of LINK 80 or VOODOO GLOW SKULLS with its horns (trumpet and sax) twisting away suiting the lyrical content (that I always thought it was – pray for evil? but I think I’m wrong.).
They finish the album with the fast vibe with “Wing it” which is my favourite song. Just get it, schmucks. It doesn’t sound like ONE DOLLAR SHORT, they’re more like the new NANCY VANDAL.

www.theoptionals.com

- Micko

I cannot figure out which genre to dump this band into, but it’s somewhere between Refused-ish hardcore, rock n roll, screamo and (shock) nu-metal. Styles diversify throughout this EP so I’ll take you through it one song at a time.

The first track, “Hey Hey Hey”, opens with a sweet little hip hop beat supporting half rapped, half screamed vocals that are slightly reminiscent of 311, before breaking into a garage rock chorus (who would have guessed with a title like “Hey Hey Hey”?). Following is The Kinison’s attempt at a youth anthem, “New Way to Dance”. Why does this song remind you of Refused’s “New Noise”?

The use of the word ‘New’ in the title
It has the same lyrical theme
The Dennis-esque screaming occupying the majority of the song
All of the above

Track 3 “The Way I Used to Be” annoys the crap out of me. It has a cuteish ‘emo’ verse, followed by a much too catchy chorus that gets stuck in your head very easily, and stays there for days. It has a great bridge, but unfortunately it’s not enough to hold my finger away from the skip button. Skip.

“Sorry I’m A Pushover” is a great rock n roll song and I can’t help but move my head for the entire 2:13 of it. But the definite highlight of the EP is the ultra-pretentious “The Kinison’s Area 53”, mixing (almost) math rock with a chunky HC riff and some hell screaming. This track kills it, trust me.

This is a release for fans of Refused, The Blood Brothers, 28 Days and The Bronx. But hate one of the above and you’ll probably hate this too. I give it 7/10.

- CHRIS HEARN

Remember those bored teenaged nights when you and your drunken friends would crash trolleys into curbs of the supermarket carpark? Well ‘Ghost Town Crowd’ is the soundtrack for the kind of wanton vandalism. Playing sped up garagey pop punk ala Scared of Chaka, the Chop-Sakis blast outta Denton, Texas which is, as anyone who has been following the US garage rock scene knows is the place where all the cool bands are coming from. Featuring members of Tiltwheel, Reds, Riverboat Gamblers and the Marked Men their power rock pedigrees are second to none. Reds and now Marked Men guitarist/singer Jeff Burke switched around instruments and teamed with Jeff's older brother Mark to work on some more poppy material - the result is the Chop-Sakis. Poppy, peppy, pilly, punky fun!

- Tim Scott

Hailing from Anaheim, a landscape dotted with hotels catering to Disney tourists and supermarkets that sell cereal boxes the size of small microwaves comes the Willowz, three skinny white kids raised on a diet of said sugar coated cereal and the Stooges. Richie James, he be on the vox and guitar, the lovely Jessica Reynoza on bass and the feral Alex Nowicki bashing shit like it ain't no thing, deliver a raw dose of teenage middle fingered love. So every kid and his little brother is playing derivative 60’s garage rock nowadays but the Willowz take on the style