Kaiten - Unreleased Tracks 2001-2006

Label: Self Released
Year: 2014

More veiled threats, more harassment, and here we are again, sitting at the feet of Kaiten...the "greatest post hardcore band in all of Leon!". The band has reached out through the fetid waters of the internet to gently inform the management of this blog, that there has been a new (old) development in the Kaiten camp, the release of the previously unheard recordings presented thus.

Readers may recall that we found ourselves in a similar position some time back reviewing the Kaiten lp at the behest of (former?) frequent commenter, and muck-raker, the great Nacho. And here he go again.

First off, they should have released this batch of songs way back when, because they are superior (mostly) to what ended up on their self-titled album. This time around I'm hearing a scrappier version of the band, full of mid-Eighties SST Records influence; the deeper cuts of the SST catalog. There's still the Midwest noise rock sound throughout, the biting scrape of the Touch and Go touchstones that was evidenced on the previous release, but I prefer these more urgent recordings, the songs have more attack, more potency. And, for the record, I thought the full length they did was good, so this one being "better" means it's most certainly worth listening to. Maybe they really ARE (or were) the best post hardcore band in Leon.

Now, if only we could be treated to more of Nacho's tongue-lashings...THEN, this review would be complete.

DL

Hawks - Live 04-22-14 - Mondo Bizzaro - Rennes France

Lest anyone forget who's absolutely crush, killing, and destroying their way across France right now, please be advised to view the following video of Hawks doing exactly that. There might be none higher right now...

V/A - For The Sick - A Tribute To Eyehategod

Label: Emetic
Year: 2007

Who DOESN'T love Eyehategod? (rhetorical question bro, cause everybody loves Eyehategod).
My two personal favorite Eyehategod memories are as follows:
Memory One - Eyehategod playing the Scrap Bar in Atlanta in 1995(?) with Anal Cunt and Sourvein, to a handful of people, and most interestingly, some stragglers from off the street. The mic soundcheck was essentially Mike Williams repeating the bristle-inducing "nigger, nigger...nigger" over and over again until the levels were correct (not politically correct, mind you).
Memory Two - Eyehategod playing the Che Café in San Diego in 2000 with 16 and Suplex, and Mike Williams spending the time between each and every song berating the crowd as "California faggots", "pussies", and the like. Which, to me was humorous enough, but the real punchline was at the end of their set when he then inquires, "Who here can put us up tonight? Who here wants to smoke out Eyehategod and give us a place to stay?". I don't think any of the California faggot pussies in attendance stepped up to offer lodging.
The bands:
Dot                                                                  Minsk
Unearthly Trance                                            Ramesses
Cable                                                              The Mighty Nimbus
Bowel                                                             Lair Of The Minotaur
Alabama Thunderpussy                                 Sourvein
Deadbird                                                        Bloody Panda
Kylesa                                                            Mouth Of The Architect
Rue                                                                 Left In Ruins
Brutal Truth                                                   Watch Them Die
Byzantine                                                       Ozenza
Buried At Sea                                                Swarm Of The Lotus
Raging Speedhorn                                         Ichabod
The Unholy III                                              Kill The Client
Esoteric                                                         Sowbelly
Total Fucking Destruction                            If He Dies He Dies
Triac                                                             The Nain Rouge
One Dead Three Wounded                           Michael Williams
Halo Of Locusts

DL -Disc 1

DL - Disc 2

It's Casual - Stop Listening To Bad Music

Label: Friendly Hills Recording Company
Year: 2005

A two man champagne jam of riotous bombast. The roaring blast furnace of a band like 16, mixed with a reverence for the best LA County hardcore. It's deceivingly simple, and supremely satisfying. Don't always think so much, just do.

DL

Weed - Deserve

 

 

Label: Couple Skate
Year: 2013

In an effort to stay current with new music, or at least acknowledge that it's being made, I find myself browsing around the internets and other such unsavory places searching out exotic sounds and new musical vocabularies.
But, generally, I end up returning to, or at least being enticed by, sounds that I find familiar. It's that "return to the womb" syndrome thing I guess. Or, "if it ain't broke".
So, this band Weed, well, they knock it right out of the park, and then they're nice enough to return the ball right back into the park I grew up in so as to make sure I feel comfortable. They play on some of my favorite early 90's touchstones of poppy, sludgy, grungy type rock music, and then give it a new urgency and vitality. Like, they take the stony haze of a Dinosaur Jr jam, and cover it in the warm wash of a Waaves jam. Which, granted, isn't that far a stretch, I get that, but it's a recognition that Weed know where and to whom to doff their caps.
For our younger viewers, you might hear some (previously mentioned) Waaves, or No Age, or even (dare I say) Silversun Pickups. For our older viewers, you might hear some (previously mentioned) Dinosaur Jr., or Screaming Trees, or Truman's Water (not the super weird Truman's Water stuff, the more poppy songs). For our more obscure viewers, you might hear the second Castor lp, and how they deliver everything in that gauzy wall of sound that's so addictive.
This record has been on constant rotation for two days now, it's hitting a real sweet spot (my vagina?) of noisy, feedback-laden, catchy indie rock the way it was meant to be played, with ballz.

DL

V/A - Empty Skulls

Label: Fartblossom
Year: 1984

If you ever wonder why classic hardcore gets mixed in with the noise rock stuff on this blog (and it seems to bug a few of you), its simple: hardcore beget noise rock. The dudes (and occasional lady) who developed that noise rock sound did so based on a bedrock of hardcore. Hardcore took the streamlined rock and roll of punk, the dirty skuzz of early metal, the dissonance of early post punk, and painted it all black. You know, black, the color palette of noise rock. If you can't follow the line from bands like Black Flag, Void, or C.O.C. straight to bands like Big Black, Today Is The Day, or Unsane....well, I just don't know what to tell you.

The bands:
Outpatients (noisy, blinding hardcore, featuring a member of Deep Wound)
C.I.A. (catchy, not unlike a more straightforward Descendants songs, featuring members of 76% Uncertain, Vatican Commandos, Reflex From Pain, Onion, and Shelter)
Out Of Order (straight ahead hardcore)
Corrosion Of Conformity (the greatest North Carolina band in North Carolina history)
No Labels (speedy, no frills hardcore, featuring Reed and Woody from C.O.C.)
No Mercy (Venice locos, featuring members of Suicidal Tendencies)
Impact Unit (Boston hardcore O.G.s, featuring members of DYS and Mighty Mighty Bosstones)
Primer Gray (fucked up, harsh-core)
Against (the sound of the veins bulging in your neck)
Septic Death (truly ugly grinding hardcore, featuring Pushead and members of Condemned Attitude, and Raid)
Stalag 13 (fucking Nardcore!, featuring members of NOFX and Dr Know)
No Direction (straight to the throat hardcore)
Rights Of The Accused (fastcore forefathers, featuring members of Regress, White Zombie, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Local H, and God's Acre)
None Of The Above (ripping hardcore with a Bad Religion/Huskur Du steez), featuring members of Brother Inferior,
Electric Kool-Aid (raw and primitive)
Real Enemy (brutal hardcore, featuring members of Half Life)

DL

Dis- - The Small Fry Sessions 1 & 2

Label: Twelve Inch Records
Year: 1993

Straight outta Milwaukee, son! Straight outta the 9-3, boy! Straight up Albini production, kid! Released on a record label started by Poster Children's Rick Valentin, yo!

This is the debut album from the band that reportedly started with a flyer that read "Bass player looking to play in Touch&Go/SST type band". Seems good enough, right? And honestly, it's an apt description to boot, you get some of the later 80's more melodic SST influence (Dinosaur JR and Husker Du) mixed with the late 80's early 90's Touch and Go (Brick Layer Cake, Tar, Arcwelder).

They managed three albums total, with the final one being the "best" I guess, but they're all really good, and this one is a particularly great time capsule of this era...a particularly good era if you ask me (which you sorta did by being on this website).

DL

Fashion Week - Coextinction Recordings #11

Label: Coextinction Recordings
Year: 2013

The Coextinction Recordings series has a pretty bulletproof track record, each release from the Translation Audio Studios (currently being rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy went ahead and destroyed them) a building block in an impressive heavy noise fortress rising higher and the walls becoming more dense with each catalog number befitting the pedigree of the three headed hydra who run the joint (Dave Curran [Unsane, Pigs, JJ Paradise Players Club], James Paradise [JJ Paradise Players Club, Pigs, Fresh Kills], and Andrew Schneider [Slughog]).
Fashion Week bring their own warped celebrity into the mix (members played with Mans Gin, Jarboe, and Victory At Sea), to make you uncomfortable via three songs based loosely around...fashion week...get it? But not so much in a Right Said Fred way, it's less "campy and fun", and more "combative and fucked". It's noise rock that doesn't skimp on the metallic influence. It's a swarming biomass of thunderous heft. When they let a melody slip out, it helps to warn of how bombastic the gut punch coming is going to be.

DL

Diet Cola - Early Learning

Label: Army Of Bad Luck
Year: 2008

Most "famous" as being the band Josh Fauver from Deerhunter did as a side project while Deerhunter were at their (arguably) artistic zenith. Josh is no longer in Deerhunter by the by, although his replacement is another guy named Josh, which is admittedly confusing, but, you know, the world is a confusing place.
Diet Cola only released this four song 7" (so far as I can tell), and it's only 8 minutes long, but really 8 minutes is about all the blown out post punk influenced noise rock one can handle in a sitting.
If you were a fan of Josh's previous band, Electrosleep Intl., or his other project S.I.D.S., or you're familiar with a good share of his record label's roster (Army Of Bad Luck), the spiky, spazzy, antagonistic bands like Vera Fang, then you're going to know sorta what to expect....and you're probably from Atlanta.
Only 300 pressed, so one would assume it's out of print by now, but if you can, it's a highly recommended purchase.

DL