WOLVES AMONG US
My favorite Québécois noisemakers AIDS Wolf have been fine-tuning their destructive properties since becoming a three-piece, and this fall they’re releasing themselves upon America once more to promote their upcoming album March To The Sea. More angular riffs and screeches than ever before, the album looks to be a sonic punch to the jaw that will leave you sweaty and wrecked. They’re also releasing a record of remixes from their cover of the great Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Very Friendly’. Not suitable for shrimpy sissies or weak babies; this is music to destroy the world to.
MP3:
Teaching To Suffer
March To The Sea is out this fall on Skingraft, and the remixes are out soon on Lovepump United. Get ‘em.
SLEEP IS FOR THE DEAD
BTS mega-favorite Nero’s Day At Disneyland has been driving me nuts this year. Not only has he released his amazing new album From Rotting Fantasylands, he recently began experimenting with vocal for the first time in years with his song ‘Mascara Running Everywhere’. Now he’s released a new track just for his tour, a spazz-dance cutup killer featuring Philly beasts Mincemeat or Tenspeed and samples this video by Vanessa Harris. It’s the perfect thing for my brain, considering I have to catch a plane to Milan in less than an hour. Who needs a functioning brain when you have sheer awesome noise? The peripheral hallucinations are gonna be fun.
MP3:
Bent Choral (feat. Mincemeat or Tenspeed)
Mascara Running Everywhere
DO IT HERSELF
I go to a lot of different music festivals, but one that really strikes a chord with me is Titwrench. The three-day, all-ages festival is organized by Denver’s Sarah Slater and is focused on women making art and noise. The lineup is fantastic, a veritable who’s-who of noisy girls including Hideous Men, Kevin Shields, Marlo Eggplant, Christina The Hun, and BTS favorite Married In Berdichev, along with 43 other musicians and artists. Even better, there’s helpful workshops that teach you how to build your own noise device, FM transistor radio, and contact microphones, as well as how to run a live PA. So not only do you get to see an amazing DIY concert, you can learn how to start your own as well! I’m dying to go to this one but I’m STILL in Europe on tour; however I if you can make it then GO because it will be one of the best musical experiences you’ll ever have.
MP3s:
Christina The Hun - Sure We Can
Married In Berdichev - Golden Sheets
Hideous Men - Stage Magick
Hot White - ISTSWTD
Lustcats - Nothing Cool Happens On Dates
VIA - Xtasy
HAVE ONE ON GREEN
A couple days ago I got an email from Colleen from the criminally underrated Have Mercys. She has a new solo project simply called Colleen Green that she feels is even better, and I can’t help but agree. Upping the Ramones-style punk rock vibe while keeping her lovely cassette-pet vocals a bit fuzzy, Colleen whips together a sound that will make you want to pogo in the sun.
MP3s:
Worship You
Goldmine
I Wanna Be Degraded
Leaving on tour tomorrow, but I’ll update occasionally when I can! Expect more pictures!
NO PAIN IN PUNK
The Dutch group Lushus remind me a lot of the greedily thrifted music of my formative days as a post-punk kid in mid-’90s Midwest suburbia: ESG, Bush Tetras, Y Pants, The Raincoats. Music and performance art combine into a show that is bound to drive any fan of angular rhythms into a frenzy.
MP3s:
Bending Knees
At Me
SALTY SEAMEN
Ahoy, m8! Nothing gets me in The Mood like two burly brutes stomping and smashing their way into my eardrums. Good ol’ Captain Ahab are back with some new jamz coming out soon, and they’ve leaked a track for landlubbers like you and me to cram up our listen-holes. HELL yeah, song! Make a mess in there, get it real nasty and melted and then dump that melty mess on yourself because you’re a fucking dirty baby and you don’t give a shit.
MP3:
Was Love
Captain Ahab’s The End Of Irony is out April 6th on Deathbomb Arc. Get it.
THE FEMINIST GRRROOVE
I came up with Riot Grrrl and grunge being the main focus of my peers and, not being particularly interested in flannel-metal, gravitated toward the former. Maybe this is what initially sparked my attraction to loud, female-fronted bands. Whatever the case, I’ve long held an admiration for Kathleen Hanna and all of her various musical incarnations, so it’s always awesome to see her still getting attention. Check out this fun interview with her, and if you’re local, make an appoint to see the Riot Grrrl Collection at Fales Library, to which Hanna has donated all of her old ‘zines and related papers.
HISTRIONIC YOUTH
Some nights you wake up from a mind-bending sinus headache and God has mercy on your poor soul by pouring jagged shards of beautiful glass into your ears. This was the case when my favorite pharaoh Brian dropped me a link to Raunchy Young Lepers. More musically inept than The Shaggs and more atonal than Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, these three sixth-grade boys were the epitome of raw. One of the members, Jake Anderson, later went on to help found Gang Wizard, proving that he’s always been awesome. RYL cranked out 40 albums from 1989-‘91, and I’d love to get my hands on every one. Fortunately, not only do they have a massive box set available to buy for only 20 bucks, but for the slightly poorer they also offer a best-of CD from only 3 bucks! AND it comes with a New Kids On The Block sticker. Life is gold.
MP3s:
Grade School Sex Queen
No No No!
They Ripped Up My Mind
This mega-radness is available on Tape Mountain. Get it!
SCHWANN SONG
Canada breeds good, noisy punk like nobody’s business, I guess. A friend of mine sent me a 7” from Alberta’s Myelin Sheaths, which had me thrashing my way around the room in a ballistic spasm of bouncy energy…..have I mentioned my neighbors hate me? The band are still fairly new, having released only one other 7” last year called Stackticon (now also on its way to my mailbox) but they’re not exactly newcomers to music, being connected to the fantastic Endangered Ape who sadly split up last year. Looking forward to seeing more!
MP3:
Do The Mental Twist
Their latest release, the Do The Mental Twist 7”, is out now on HoZac. Get it.
THE SOUND OF THE SHAPES
Fuzzed-out garage-pop is fairly common again, but Golden Triangle take it to another level. Injecting an unhealthy dose of punk and swampy Birthday Party-esque blues into the mix, this Brooklyn band put on wild, raucous live shows that spin by in a whirl of noise and color (I’m still unsure as to how many people actually make up the band; at various shows I’ve seen as few as three and as many as eight people on stage.) After last year’s fantastic EP, they’re gearing up for their first full-length release. Check out a track from the album below, and get ready to spazz out.
MP3:
Neon Noose
Golden Triangle’s debut LP Double Jointer is out March 2nd on Hardly Art. Get it.
TEAR IT DOWN
Some of my best friends are monsters. Douglas is a kid I’ve known for about five years now. After cutting his teeth as a bass player and experimenting with the industrial noise of Elephant Skull, he began making thrashy electropunk tunes under the name BIRTH!, and he’s only been getting stronger. Like some deadly combination of Test Dept and Dandi Wind, he delivers shrieked vocals and war-whoops over brutal analogue electronic beats. Between his other musical duties in Bestial Mouths and Realicide, he tours and plays punishingly energetic shows, having abandoned his apartment and job for the sounds he loves. This kid is the fucking essence of mutant punk; violent, ever-evolving, and uncompromising.
MP3s:
Value
Arms Crossed
BIRTH!’s debut album I Will is out February 8th on Realicide Youth Records. Get it.
NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR HISS CONTENT
YEAR’S BEST FINALE!!
This is it, the final nine best albums of the year. I realize some of you might not agree with this (I want to hear that FEEDBACK, by the way!) and maybe you’ll be confused. “Ruddy heck, bruv” you’ll say in your thick Bristol accent, “What’s this rubbish? Time to kill myself, to fucking die.” But I’m here to tell you now….death is not the end.
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