Reviews

Cat Food Money

Oxygen Destroyer November Brain 10″

A wildly limited 10″ lathe compiling unreleased cuts and outtakes from OXYGEN DESTROYER, who started the early 2010s in Japan and finished out the decade in San Francisco. The title track is a wildly melodic (almost emotional?) opener that sets false expectations for ten noisy hardcore bursts that follow. OXYGEN DESTROYER would have fit in nicely in the 1990s Bay Area, with tracks like “Slowride” and “School Jacket” landing them somewhere between Mission District fuck-ups and West Bay Koalition sonic violence, and then there are straight raw punk crushers like “Manhunt.” As a swan song, November Brain has it all; from the nine-plus minute raw punk opus “Evolution Of Man” to a slew of sub-60 second blasts of chaos. Sure, there are only 25 physical copies, but I suspect that the intent was to make it clear that OXYGEN DESTROYER existed, and these eleven tracks make that abundantly clear. The punk world needs fewer sonic constraints and more of this.

George Crustanza / Oxygen Destroyer split LP

A “Sein Francisco hardcore, SF skate thrash” split, as per the text on the LP spine. GEORGE CRUSTANZA doesn’t take themselves too seriously as you may be able to tell, but song titles like “Social Disconnect” and “Depression” indicate they are not a joke band. They’re doing a familiar and competent thrash-influenced style hardcore, with the drumming and vocals in the forefront. I picture Calvin and Hobbes pitting with flipped-up-bill ball caps. OXYGEN DESTROYER takes a grungier, destructive punk approach reminding me of BAD POSTURE mixed with BUTT TRUMPET. Both bands dabble in some digital delay on the vocals, but OXYGEN DESTROYER tends to turn the knobs a bit further. These recordings appear to have been previously released on a tape and 7″ respectively. I could see the Thrillhouse basement full of stinking-ass kids going off to this pairing, probably a thing that happened prior to March 2020, and perhaps could resume in 2022?

Crack / Siberian Ass Torture split cassette

Split cassette of two current Japanese bands. SIBERIAN ASS TORTURE plays nasty mid-tempo noise punk. Their shorter songs are pretty cool, but the longer drone-y instrumentals lose my attention a bit. CRACK plays mostly very slow, repetitive, instrumental drone music but adds in noise elements with indecipherable screaming on top. All the songs on this split were recorded live. Not much information on this release or on either band seems to exist on the internet, and attempting to search for them just provided some very strange results, as you can potentially imagine.

V/A Cat Cerebrations cassette

Serious statement: I don’t know if you can take it. Eleven bands delivering some of the most distorted, blown-out, freaked-out punk jams in recent memory. I’m talking “jams” as in a bag of weed and your singer is late to practice “jams.” And I’m talking blown-out like everything sounds like it’s breaking down the wall of the studio next door and you can’t even hear yourself think. Cuts from SIBERIAN ASS TORTURE, BASTARD NOIDS, RACCOON COMPLEX CONTAGION, CLANDESTINE BRONTOSAURUS, TLCWATERFALLS, CRUST KAPPA RAMPAGE….jams from NO COMADRE!, DIABLO CON CARNE, OXYGEN DESTROYER, and GEORGE CRUSTANZA that all cram themselves into one shell to morph into smoke and vibrations and volume like PHARAOH OVERLORD and KALMEX having a session. If noise punks could jam, then….well, Cat Cerebrations says they can. Now: can you take it?