V/A - We No Fun - Athens-Atlanta 2009-2010

Label: We No Fun
Year: 2010

You are excused if the minor scene politics that accompanied the release of this record flew right over your head, as they weren't that big a deal anyway, and I don't think anyone cared 15 minutes afterwards.
Short version; Atlanta was chronicled in the documentary 'We Fun', which spotlighted the garage punk scene that centered around Rob's House and Die Slaughterhaus Records, and featured Black Lips and their satellite system. All good fun I guess, but those bands only represented one side of a much larger underground world of music, and the working musicians who made their own orbits may or may not have felt short changed by the lack of coverage in what was billed as a sort of "this is Atlanta" type film. Or maybe they never took it that seriously. Probably not. Or maybe.
Whatever the case, 'We No Fun' became the clearinghouse for another version of the city (and neighboring Athens), exposing a seedier underbelly of sorts. Less 'rock club' and more 'eviction house party', you know? The sounds of guys and girls weaned on smelly punk rock shows getting their kicks giving kicks.

The Bands:
Vera Fang - shout at the devil, and then continue shouting at everything and everyone else ever. Forever.
Brass Castle - the twin towers of power come staggering out of the gates with this motorik damage Kraut fuck that threatens to cloud over your weekend. Stay inside.
Retconned -try playing a Slaves 7" in a floppy disc drive and this paranoid chant is about right.
The Sunglasses - frayed edge post hardcore noise blow out. Easy cum, easy go home and eat a pizza.
Judi Chicago - dance floor freakazoid . I would hang the DJ, but he slit his wrists hours ago.
Hollow Stars - post punk informed stomper.
Lay Down Main - a touch of DC post hardcore propulsion commandeered by Atlanta noise rock alums who now how to rock noise.
SIDS - death-rock-y synth spazz that drags the corpse of a hundred mid-nineties emo bands through the swamps of your black memory. Their track gets split across two cuts.
Skin Problems - trash can Geza X ugliness, busted robot rock.
HAWKS - brutish, disrespectful, and easily agitated. Mouthbreathers to boot.
Thy Mighty Contract - threw you for a loop, but circles back to help you home. Loud on loud.
Chrissakes - back against the wall low blow throwing unstable types. Quintessential noise rock.
High Marks - Suicide solutions. Minimal to the max.
Chopper - if your friends started a motorcycle club for fun, this would be the house band.
Electrosleep Int'l - throw your future against the wall and laugh as the remnants slide dripping to the floor of your mind. Overboard always.

*Originally posted 05.17.16, reposted 09.14.22

DL