Cop Shoot Cop - Ask Questions Later

 

Label: Interscope
Year: 1993

Has this never been posted here? Why's that? Is it because this was the "sellout" major label debut? Is it because of the three-man horn section employed on this album?
Dude, I just don't know.
I do know this; what happened to all of the other contributors to this site? Ipecac seems to fall off the face of the earth every so often, but he generally reappears for a time before going rogue again. The other dudes (girls? doubtful, but maybe?) usually post for a short while, then completely disappear forever. Curbstomp Your Enthusiasm anyone? Where my dawgs at?

DL

Brainiac - Electro-Shock For President

Label: Touch And Go
Year: 1997

Unfortunately, the final release from Brainiac, as singer Tim Taylor passed away after a car accident the same year it came out.
Produced by Jim O'Rourke, it documents the band getting further away from their noisy punk roots and embracing the pseudo-futuristic Kraut rock and ambient sides of their personalities. There's more synth/Moog sounds than previous records, and "atmosphere" trumps aggression by a long shot. Only the final track, "Mr. Fingers", hearkens to the glitchy ferocity and swagger of their earlier albums.

DL

Todd/Part Chimp/Lords/Hey Colossus - Split 10"

Label: Rock Action
Year: 2006

Take 10"s, then take 4 bands, then take a phillips head screw driver and jam it into the front of your face, then try and force this mix of distorto-destructo noise rock back into that leaking hole. It will be your pleasure, and you can thank me later.
Once song per band, and for my money Hey Colossus might take top prize, but it's your world squirrel, decide for yourself.
Essential.

DL

Late Blomer - Late Bloomer

Label: Self Aware / Lunchbox
Year: 2013

This record could not be coming out at a better time of year (assuming you live in the Northern Hemisphere...and if you don't...well, why the fuck wouldn't you?!), the weather is changing, the trees are blooming, the birds are chirping, the perfect season for a loud, catchy, good-timin' rock record. I mean, listen to it and tell me that you can't envision a round robin badminton tournament in your backyard (front yard if you're a renter I suppose), a cooler full of Busch tallboys, and a couple good-enough-looking female neighbors hanging around. Fucking party time, man.
This one goes at it in a Dinosaur Jr meets Monsula meets Pavement meets Replacements meets post hardcore meets 90's indie rock kinda way. Poppy and bouncy, but still unpolished and urgent enough to be endearing.
Bring on Spring! Bring on Late Bloomer!

By the way, you should buy away here. Only $11 and it's on awesome half and half colored vinyl!

DL

Surgery - Shimmer

Label: Atlantic

Year: 1994

Ah yes, the "sellout" album. Like every card carrying member of the Church Of Tim Yohannon, I too was not willing to allow my heroes a chance at financial stability. So when Surgery decided to jump from Amphetamine Reptile to Atlantic Records...well, that just wouldn't do. It was an outrageous, treasonous act that surely marked the coming Apocalypse, and could not be tolerated. I called for an all-out boycott.

Until a copy of the album showed up at the radio station I was working in...

It wouldn't hurt to take it home and give it a covert listen under the cover of dark right? I mean, Steve Albini couldn't be everywhere at once could he? No one would be the wiser. And hey, it's not like I supported the corporate death machine by purchasing the record now did I (and no, the irony of it being posted here is not lost on me)?

So the bottom line...it sounded like Surgery 75% of the time, and sounded like 90's alternative rock the other 25%. I shelved it, and did not check back in on "Shimmer" for many years to come.

I am retarded.

This is a good record. Not great, but still really good. Surgery is a great band who had a knack for catchy songs that were heavy and dirty. This record is mostly that sound, in fact there's even a version of their classic jam "D-Nice" on here. I will say there are a couple songs that aren't too hot, but mostly, this is well worth your time. Especially if you ever liked Surgery in the first place. 

So at the risk of losing your entry to the Maximum Rocknroll Old Folks Home, give this one a shot.

*Originally posted 03-10-09, re-up'd 03-16-13

DL

Surgery - Nationwide

Label: Amphetamine Reptile

Year: 1991

By request, here is Surgery's Nationwide lp, a real humdinger of a record. I believe we've already covered what this band sounds like, so I can forgo the formalities of saying things like, "dirty", "bluesy", "noisy", or "gruff" right? Thanks. I needed a break.

I would tell you a story or something, but honestly, I'm not really feeling particularly funny or interesting, so we'll skip that stuff too.

Hmmm. Turns out when you don't talk about the music or yourself, this blogging shit is real easy. 

*Originally posted 03-16-09 , re-up'd 03-16-13 (hey, look at that, 4 years to the day!)

DL

The Future Now - Hangman/The Runaway 7"

Label: Kiss Of Death
Year: 2011

More 90's style rollicking roll, with big guitars and an underlying appreciation for "catchy". Stay with me now, what about JJ Paradise Players Club as covered by Shiner? Does that work? How about Tired From Now On mixed with Jawbox? Yeah? No?
You'll like it, I can almost guarantee that. And if you don't? I'll wash your car (assuming you're not some gross hippie who takes public transportation).

DL

Roomrunner - Super Vague

Label: Fan Of Death
Year: 2012

Sometimes I wonder where all the bands went that mix good, strong pop songs with gooder, stronger punk rock. The kind like the bands that littered every single college town of this great nation circa 1993. Remember?
Well, Roomrunner seems like they wondered the same thing, but instead of being a lazy turd like me, they formed their own band which draws from Polvo, Sonic Youth, Chavez, Seam, Rodan, Nirvana...that kind of stuff. The band Nine Black Alps sorta did a similar thing a few years back, but went for a "bigger" sound, Roomrunner stays in the Raymond Brake column of making more interesting sounds than just "big" ones. They're really great sounds either way. I love it.

DL

Cattlepress - Showered In The Love Of The Abhorher

Label: Devastating Soundworks
Year: 1995

If you're ready to smash a 2x4 over your own forehead, may I suggest you put that to music, and may I further suggest that music be none other than this Cattlepress 7". I truly feel that this will help you in your quest for total cranial annihilation. Truly.
The band was tangentially associated with the power violence scene of the middle 1990's, but had more in common with a band like Cavity or Damad or Iabhorher or Gob, than a band like Ulcer or Capitalist Casualties or Drop Dead or Despise You. Their brand of sludge/grind/hardcore was of the undulating, pulsating, waves of chaos variety, and never the flat out speed trial with mosh parts of most power violence bands. But, they put out records on Slap-A-Ham and Bovine, and they did splits with Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Sloth, sooooo...you know...pigeonholing.
Their motto was "pure hatred channeled through currents of electricity and vibration". Seems about right.
Plus, over their different incarnations they had members of: Incantation, Evoken, Born Against, Nausea, Hemlock, Assuck, and Dave Witte was once in the band, and he's been in everything.

DL

Shellac - Live At Bimbo's - San Francisco 1998

Label: Bootleg

Year: 1998

Shellac bootlegs usually sound pretty good, and this one is no exception, maybe a B-, better than average but a little muddy in spots. The material is pretty heavy with "Terraform" and "At Action Park" songs, but one jam off the then unreleased "1000 Hurts" album shows up, and a few 7 songs round it out. All in all, good stuff, which is what you would expect right? Right.

Did everyone have a good Xmas? Did you get the newest video gaming console/hi-tech gadget/overpriced rock-n-roll photo book/gift certificate to Amazon.com? Good, I'm sure you were sweet boys and girls all year long, and you deserved it. I drank dark and stormy's for a few hours on Xmas eve to get good and loose whilst hosting a get together of friends and family, which was a lot of fun. Missed seeing you there by the way.

*Originally posted 12-26-10 , re-up'd 03-11-13

DL

fIREHOSE - If'n

Label: SST
Year: 1987

I've said it before, you've argued with me about it, but I don't care and neither should you. fIREHOSE (I'm sick of spelling it "right") are/were the superior band to the Minutemen. Sorry. Minutemen came first (that's what she said), and were contemporaries of all these great bands and everything, and had the whole philosophy, and fought the good fight and shit, yes, I get it. They even have a ton of great songs, really great songs. I get that too. But, they also have a ton of shit songs (they had a ton of songs), and they're insistence on being contrarian to the hardcore scene while simultaneously trafficking their wares in that very scene was...annoying.
With all due respect to the Minutemen, and what they accomplished, and, blah, blah, blah, can we all just agree that fIREHOSE finally harnessed Mike Watt's ADHD into pop perfection with just enough bite to make it perfect. Well, the first three albums anyway. I can honestly say that I never have heard the albums after fROMOHIO, and kinda never want to, as I assume they are terrible, based on the fact that girls in my high school all of the sudden started going to see fIREHOSE, and wearing their shirts. That was enough, I was out. Bring on Gorilla Biscuits, this fIREHOSE shit is played out.
But prior to that tectonic shift in what was allowed to be acceptable in my stunted ego...I fucking listened to the shit outta those fIREHOSE records. Remember when the Ohio Skateout video was an all SST soundtrack, and Neil Blender skated to "Brave Captain"? Fucking Neil Blender was competitive in a STREET contest! Damn, skating was so much cooler when a guy like that who had no business bean planting his way across the Dayton Arena, actually bean planted his way around the Dayton. And the whole goddamn Alva team was there too! Those dudes should have HATED competition, but there they were, with their haircuts and their leather jackets, and their sneers. There they were.
And here I am.

DL 

No Age - Weirdo Rippers

Label: Fat Cat
Year: 2007

I kinda, sorta thought that this record had been posted already. Here. By me. But that seems to not have been the case, so here, by me, it is.
I love the way this band careens though songs rife with fuzzed out power pop, blistering noisy hardcore, and art damaged soundscapes. It's always interesting, but not in a head scratching way, in a "man, this really picks up a lot of elements from music I've liked for fucking years now, and splices it together in a fun way...how'd they manage that?" kind of way.
You've no doubt heard of No Age, so you probably have formed your own opinion about them by now. But if not, this is a pretty good primer record to test the waters with. It collects songs from a series of eps they put out in 2007 (Get Hurt, Dead Plane, Neck Escaper, Sick People Are Safe,  and Every Artist Needs A Tragedy), but not all the songs from those records...just the "greatest hits" or something.
For a modern point of reference, think: Abe Vigoda vs. Wavves vs. Deerhunter.

DL

Auxes - More! More! More!

Label: Gunner
Year: 2012

Look, I promise to lay off the Bandcamp stuff and actually post some records soon...I've just been....oh, what's the word...ummmm..."lazy"? Yeah. Lazy.
But in the meantime, there have been a ton of great, current bands posting their music on Bandcamp, and I wanted to point you in the direction of at least this one. Auxes.
The band started as the solo project of Milemarker (and Hellbender, Griver, Challenger, Sweet Cobra, Celibate Commands, etc) guy Dave Laney, who got a bunch of his friends from bands like; Milemarker, Sleepytime Trio, Rights Reserved, Fin Fang Foom, and the like to help him flesh out his ideas. His ideas of post-hardcore played with the same urgency as say, Hot Snakes, or Tanner, or Frodus, or Arcwelder, or...you know. Good bands.

DL

Glendale - Glendale 7"

Label: Art Monk Construction
Year: 1994

In the wake of the Lincoln post a few posts back, here's the Glendale record that was recorded at WGNS with Geoff Turner. Their only record mind you. It was Jay Demko of Lincoln teaming up with Darren Zentek (Kerosene 454, Oswego, Channels, Office Of Future Plans, Report Suspicious Activity), James Marinelli (Samuel), and Steven Kuhn (uh, Glendale) to hone the post-hardcore D.C. style that Lincoln was chasing on their second (self titled) 7", which ends up flirting heavily with the post-hardcore San Diego style. So if you like that kind of mathy post-hardcore, then this is a good one for you.

*Originally posted 11-03-11, re-up'd 03-04-13

DL

Surgery - Souleater

Label: Glitterhouse 

Year: 1989

I think we've pretty much covered Surgery in these pages, so if you don't know what to expect from this release, maybe you could search the archives and read what was said about the band before. That'd be easier for me, you know, so I don't have to type the same stuff over and over.

But, for the record, this 12" has a more bluesy-by-way of-old-SST feel to it. Think of bands like Saccharine Trust or Painted Willie mixed with Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or Royal Trux. Just you think about that for awhile.

And by the way, Glitterhouse was a rad label, what ever became of it? Are they still putting out records? Couldn't I find out this information by Googling "Glitterhouse" instead of asking you guys?

*Originally posted 09-16-09, re-up'd 03-1-13

DL