Hawks - Hawks

Label: Rejuvenation
Year: 2014

Limited to 250, on vinyl, issued by a French label, so...blink and you missed it.
Supposedly recorded live in the practice space, but you'd be hard pressed to think that while listening to this pristinely captured, furiously performed collection of eye bulging, guttural, fuck offs. Sounds as good as any studio session. Or at least, way better than any band practice I've ever been to.
Some of the songs on this record had shown up (in different versions) on other releases, and some were not released in any other form. Which is neat. The track 'Service Merch' (which I don't think shows up on any other record) is worth the price alone. Fucking lethal.
Hawks were so goddamn good. A truly amazing band. For serious.

DL

Boris - Pink

Label: Diwphalanx
Year: 2005

Boris, as you well know, have one of the more impenetrable discographies of the last couple decades, and frankly, one of the most frustratingly inconsistent. Or maybe "inconsistent" isn't the right term, maybe it's more "inconsistently enjoyable". Like, when they're good, they're great. But when they're bad, they're unbearable.
Remind you of the Melvins much? At least Boris code their releases with capitalization as a type of warning...like, "hey, if you're not into the droning noise, you can skip this one".
On 'Pink' they seemed to combine most of their sonic facets into one album that makes a statement on expectation and connectivity. I think. It's mostly heavy, which is good. It's accessible, which is good for the band I suppose. After this record they were embraced by non-metal types. Which, isn't a bad thing, "non-metal types" is not a shot, I more mean the kind of music nerds who would have scoffed, no doubt, at the split 7" with Tomsk-7 in 1997, but now pretend they "get it". They don't, but who cares. Fuck nerds anyway.
'Pink' has all the Boris mileposts on one long highway.
The waves of warm heavy distortion.
The freak-out acid rock boogie.
The lurching stoner sludge.
The fuzzed out hardcore slashers.
And the tongue-in-cheek supercharged rock tropes as run through a mountain of Orange amps.

So, if Jesu, Acid Mothers Temple, Melvins, Mogwai, or Flower Travelin' Band are in your wheelhouse, and you took a pass on one of the 6 or so versions of this particular Boris release...go for it. It's worth the investment.

DL

Today Is The Day - Supernova

Label: Amphetmine Reptile
Year: 1992

Is there a more laser focused, single-minded practitioner of self-loathing-cum-cathartic-noise-rock than Steve Austin?
(trick question: the answer is "no")
Is there a band more combative and abrasive as Today Is The Day...that you actually love to listen to?
(trick question again: the answer is "no")
Is there a more distinctive aura of general "creepy bad trip" exuded by any other band the way Today Is The Day do it?
(no shit it's a trick question: the answer is "no")
Is there a trail of better rhtyhm sections ever left across this land than those who cycled through Today Is The Day?
(surprise, another tricky question: the answer is "no")

Look, we (me) have made the arguement many times on this very ridicuous blog that Today Is The Day is the band who took noise rock's stilted time signatures and low end rumble out of the sarcastic college town bars and gave it a shot of metallic skree and then self immolated the whole thing on a pyre of paranoia, doubt, and walleyed hatred. It wasn't "funny" anymore. All the dudes with MC5 tshirts on at the show got a quick dose of blast furnace guitar scrapings and bile-flecked spittle as the tightest goddamn musical unit in the free world went about grinding them into the gears of the Today Is The Day Fuck You Machine. Wipe the smile off your face. Liberation through nihilism. Today very well is the day.


DL

Blacklisters - BLKLSTRS

Label: Brew
Year: 2012

If the demise of Hawks left a Jesus Lizard shaped hole in your heart, then maybe Blacklisters can help pull you back together again? And let's not quibble about how this record came out five years before Hawks pulled their own plug, or chronologies in general. Y'all motherfuckers know I cannot bothered by such constructs like "journalistic accuracy", or "telling the truth", or whatever square shit you seem to expect from a free blog helmed by an overweight old man. Can't abide.
The point was, just as Hawks gave the noise rock genre of kick in the proverbial pants by chewing up and spitting out the rulebook, Blacklisters follow a similar gameplan; synthesize twenty years of skuzz damage into a vitriolic maelstrom of familiar-yet-exhilirating full frontal attack.
Seems easy enough. But then...why didn't you do it? Or me? (why didn't you "do" me, is what I mean).
This is the band's first full length, and I'm here to report that it is essential listening from this point until the point at which you listen to their second full length. Or one of the eps or splits they've done. You choose.
I'll be over here trying to come to grips with numerical order and shit.

DL

Auxes - Boys In My Head

Label: Gunner / Field Bastro / Lovitt
Year: 2014

If you like shouty, sorta indie-rockish, kinda Les Savy Fav meets Pitchfork type music...then, boy have I got a....something.
It's smaller than a breadbox. It features an American ex-pat in Germany who used to be in Milemarker. It eats no less than twice a day, but no more than five times a day. It's the fourth full length under this moniker. It is not current on its vaccinations. It can only run for five minutes twenty one seconds before showing signs of being winded (though, ultimately it can jog up to twenty four minutes in a row). It has a lot of post punk records at home.
Do you give up?

DL

Useless Children - Skin

Label: Criminal IQ
Year: 2010

Why would you ever turn something down when the option to turn it up is on the table? Useless Children have never meet a volume knob they didn't turn as far clockwise as possible (real question: Useless Children are from Australia which is, by all accounts, "down under" on the opposite of the world from where I am [I can't speak for your street address, nor would I dare run the risk of offending you by doing such a think], and besides being a continent stocked with every classification of man-eating animal species known to man [AND Crocodile Dundee!], from what I understand the laws of physics get all kind of topsy turvy, with toilets flushing backwards, and sticks you throw that return to your hand, and some version of football that appears to consist entirely of punting...it's wild! So the question is - do volume controls operate in the same manner as I am accustomed to in the Northern Hemisphere [of Earth...not some dumbass other rinky-dink celestial bullshit]? Does an Australian Boss HM-2 pedal require a counterclockwise motion of the wrist to achieve max overdrive sludge?), and we appreciate that about them.

DL

Season To Risk / Glazed Baby split 7"

Label: AFFA
Year: 1995

Two songs.
Two bands originating 1400 miles apart, but somehow managing to share membership.
A record label never to be heard from again.

Noise rock as done by professional noise rock musicians. Gross, unhinged, rowdy, and relentless.

DL

Double Boar - Wrong b/w Friction Circus 7"

Label: Bovine
Year: 1993

The year and label should be enough. Should be.
If not, try the personnel:
Bob Schaeffer - Festering Rinyanons, Virgo Snakes on bass and vocals
Tim Mescher - Tar, Blatant Dissent on bass (right...the other bass)
Todd Rittmann - U.S. Maple, Mercury Players, D. Rider on guitar
Mike Waterman - on drums (I'm sure he's done awesome other stuff...please fill me in)
Brad Wood - King Kong, Tortoise, Shrimp Boat recorded it
So, there.
Only complaint you could possible lodge with management is that this is limited to two songs. Two gloriously nasty and ugly songs.

*originally posted 04.28.15, reposted 08.06.18

DL

The Last Crime - 2

Label: Sunken Temple
Year: 2018

Chalk this one up to eagle eyed SGM cub reporter Phil-Fay-Fock, working out of the Athens, Georgia bureau, as he hipped me to this one earlier this week. And we (royal we) thank him for his service.

From what I can gather the two songs here were recorded with J Robbins for a follow-up to their 1997 self titled 10" ep, but the band broke up, and the songs were shelved. Until now, when they have been remastered and released on cassette (ugh) in an edition of 100. Which we should all be thankful for,  as these two jams are spot-on jamming jammers. They continue and improve upon the band's post-hardcore previous output with a bigger, more fleshed out sound. Still paying homage to DC circa 1989, still picking up elements of Drive Like Jehu, June of 44,  and singer/guitarist Kevin Egan's former band 1.6 Band. Super good. And you get your money's worth, both songs are long, over 6 minutes apiece. What more do you want?

I think you will like it. Phil did. I did.

DL

Hoaries - Crudforms vol. 3

Label: self released
Year: 2018

Look who's back in the U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Survived the English capitol without being locked in (or even seeing) the London Dungeon. Did see the Tower of London though...which was pretty sick.

Hey, you know what else is sick (segue alert), this Hoaries record! The third in an apparent series of "Crudforms", whatever that means to them. What it means to you is a very familiar tightly coiled noise rock that lashes out with terse guitar stabs and shouted vocals. Lots of elements that you will undoubtedly find enjoyment in (so long as you enjoy a good challenge [physical and mental]). And you like bands like Arcwelder, Bitch Magnet, Johnboy, and maybe a Steel Pole Bath Tub. That type of thing.

Ok, I'm off to do American shit (gain weight and get a mediocre education), but we will talk soon!

DL