The Psylons Mockery of Decline / Clearer Sky 7″
Medium-fast paced neo-psych. High production, moody atmosphere, strong drums, and jangly guitars. Decent but a tad slick.
MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL
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Medium-fast paced neo-psych. High production, moody atmosphere, strong drums, and jangly guitars. Decent but a tad slick.
I could’ve guessed this trio was from NY by their thrash/metal/mosh sound, which reminds me a little of the CRUMBSUCKERS. Lyrics are in the abstract vein. Good job.
More of that irresistible British noise pop appears here on this second 12″ by the PRIMITIVES. The title track has the same mid-tempo guitar power and good female vocals that made their debut so special, though the two songs on the flip are lighter and slower.
21 songs of melodic yet powerful punk, alternating between driving and lighter cuts, enhanced by anti-war lyrics. Contains studio and live material.
A four-song release in the pop-punk mold—good pounding beat, lots of powerful clean guitar, and melodic songs and vocals. Sounds more like French punk.
A four-song thrasher with metal-ish solos. Lots of power but pretty generic — you know, flying-V guitars and all.
A three-song standard pop punk/thrash release. Nothing special, but as with most Japanese records, production and taste add. Decent.
Grungy rockin’ punk backed with vocals much like the late Darby Crash. Catchy tunes with personal lyrics dealing with religion, morality, and politics make this worth a try.
These guys call themselves a HC ska band and that’s pretty accurate: upbeat jangly ska tunes with Oi choruses. Mostly energetic stuff here, lotsa fun.
I like this group a whole lot and I think they’ve got some great sounds with them, and that’s why I’m just a little disappointed with this debut LP. They really thrash out here with some cool ideas, but there just aren’t enough great ideas and it suffers a sameness throughout. A good record, but not a great one.
This 3-song job is NO LIP after Roger Armstrong’s departure. Somewhat different, this is hardcore but there’s experimentation or complexity that both add and detract. Can’t say I like the singing, which is too damn clean.
This NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH hails from San Diego, not the Venice band. The lyrics are highly ironic and socially conscious, the instrumentals feature a crisp guitar attack, and the riffy punk ditty, “Man on My Street,” rates as the best cut here. Recommended.
Post-nuclear holocaust speedmetal, part of a new series of demo releases on this label. Eeek!
Rather like fellow Aussies LIME SPIDERS, this outfit opts for that rockin’ power on the A-side, while the ballad on the flip is slower and more “soulful.” Fragile hooks and a lack of real crunch put this one in the second rank.
Up-tempo punk appears on this 4-track EP, which sustains a curious ’78-79 sensibility — but with the typically Japanese gruff vocals. “Mother Fucker” is the only memorable song here, with its Farfisa/guitar backdrop and spunky songwriting.
Sounds a lot like the FALL or CREEPERS, with a steady (monotonous) beat and post-punkish feel.
Rock and roll with definite punk sensibilities or perhaps it’s insensibilities. A fun/dumb band a la SAMOANS or DAYGLOS, intentionally (hopefully) retarded lyrics and punk delivery. Singer sounds like he teethed on the HOLLYWOOD ARGYLES (“Alley Oop”) and Handsome Dick Manitoba (DICTATORS).
MOD FUN opts for more of that poppish ’60’s neo-psych, with the only drawback being that a certain telltale wimpiness accompanies the accessibility. Cute background choruses, jangly guitars, not much passion… Okay, I guess.
New recordings here as the band has re-grouped, though a few older songs (re-recorded) appear as well. This does rage throughout, an energetic blast of excitement with a very “live” feel to it. Get it.
A cut above most metal-influenced hardcore bands. There’s an urgency to their music and a feeling of more intelligence/thought than on many such groups, which combined with the hot production makes this highly listenable. Breakneck speed but tight as hell, like early MDC.
Lots of influences pop up here — neo-’60’s, power-pop, power chord punk — and all mixed so much together that no one style predominates. There are a few good songs (“South Africa” is my fave), but LOST PATROL doesn’t strike me as exceptional, either.
An unusual record—not so much in the music (good pop punk), but in how the first song continues onto the flip, and then abruptly changes to the second. Interesting.
Rocking pop music very much in the REPLACEMENTS mold. Four songs.
The NUN rock full out. They’ve always been a rock band and offended in a humorous way, but with this posing girl front cover, posing band back cover, big production, and some trite rock songs they’ve lost their appeal. Only one song I like. What happened?
Christian punk in a simple power chord style abounds on this, the LEAD’s second release to date. The slow songs are boring, the fast rippers have tiresome lead breaks, and the music is largely uninventive. And as to the lyrics…
Garden variety Japanese thrash is presented here — good tempos, passionate screamed vocals, riffy thrash guitar — respectable in all categories, but lacking in that extra emotional punch. And then, perhaps it’s a little too garden variety…
The touch is lighter here than on past KOHU-63 releases. “Salattua Historiaa” has good speed, but none of the three songs here have memorable songwriting or a HC punch. Sounds like they’re going through the motions.
This three-piece hails from the Pacific Northwest and features nine original songs on Side One in the pop-garage rock vein with personal lyrics. Side 2 features cover songs ranging from CCR to the DEAD BOYS. A very strong release with fantastic production!
The material here is about 1-2 years old, but that shouldn’t deter you from picking this disk up. From Japan comes EXECUTE, a mainstay of the HC scene there. Their tunes appeared on a 7″ there, re-released here in all their powerful glory, with little or no metal damage. INFERNO, from Germany, have a bit more melody but at no loss of power — and again no metal overdose. Hot!
The second record by Florida’s twisted answer to the MEATMEN has a mix of arrogance and humor that tries and will annoy and insult just above everyone. While I chuckled the first time I played “Pope John Paul Can Suck My Dick” and “I Wanna Fuck Your Dad”, I just don’t think I’m going to go back to this record. It’s a little like a little kid saying “booger” for the first time — the shit gets old fast.
Ultra-fast R’n’B based rock’n’roll — very cool and lots of fun. Better than most similar neo-’60’s bands.
Wild and woolly don’t even come close to a description to this gent. Here’s a scruffy singer/songwriter whose music is so wild and spastic he can’t teach a band his changes — so he goes it alone on the acoustic and cuts loose with his stylish rockabilly weirdness.
Missed reviewing this a few months ago, so I wanna make up for lost time by saying that this band plays wonderful pop-punk in the tradition of the RAMONES or LURKERS. Get everything they’ve put out.
Slow to mid-tempo punk is mutated by post-punk tendencies on this EP, which manages a gritty (and sometimes wanky) guitar sound abetted by sung vocals. Completely unnotable, stylistically or musically.
The band says they sound like the STOOGES, AEROSMITH, and the PISTOLS — and guess what? Yup, that’s what they sound like on both tracks here, with a dash of DEAD BOYS.
Necrosis adopts a slow, riff-laden YARD TRAUMA approach to its macabre theme, while the flip does much the same, with more of that restrained guitar. This record never really blasts off, either vocally or instrumentally.
This European equivalent of GONE—an all-instrumental band—claims to bridge the gap between hard rock and hard core. One such GO_E is enough (too much) for me, though this one does include a lyric sheet for their all-instrumental songs. Hmmmm.
Oh God, another Japanese packaging flipout—comes in a mylar sleeve, the record itself is a picture disc that looks like a circus clown on PCP devised it, and there’s an extra flexi included. After this, the music itself is a letdown.
One side is 33 and contains a pop-ish thrash tune, the other side is 45 and has a grunger and thrasher, both hot. Also hot is the packaging, a multi-colored, flecked white vinyl EP packaged in a fishnet, plastic cover with “sex” written on it. Wild.
Another in a series of ‘live’ 10’ers, this is one of the better ones sound-wise. Though the tracks chosen are mainly not their fastest material, they are powerful as hell—a modern STOOGES sound. Good one.
46 minutes of fast, energetic punk from this Czech band. Good production brings out the power of their 15 originals and 4 covers (DAMNED, RESIDENTS, etc.). Neat.
A potpourri of live recordings from between ’80-’85. The recording quality definitely varies, but it is truly a fan’s edition. There are a few songs that have never been available elsewhere and some rare early recordings. Most notable is the foldout and cut touring game/sleeve which is good for at least three plays. Not bad.
Hot upbeat melodic punk from this New England outfit. Live, but the good production brings out the power. Good up-and-coming band.
Two french bands of the HC variety. FINAL BLAST’s tunes are in a melodic vein with a somewhat English mid-tempo thrash feel, while RAPT are definitely on the noisy, raw production side of short-song thrash. As raw and “beginner” as this side is, I liked it better than all the pop shit I heard today.
A simple beat supplied by a drum machine, raunchy guitar chords, bass, and echoey vocals are the ingredients. Reminds me of some early punk bands that later went overboard on the art side of things. But the punk/art combo is something I’d like to hear more of.
A 4-song weirdo—they are more instrumental than not, a “Walk Don’t Run” sound meets garage punk. A Ray Farrell kinda band.
Melodic thrash with a dedicated Dischord influence (not only musically and lyrically, but with their cover art as well.) What makes this a bit different is their choruses, sometimes adding a UK feel (like, say, the THREATS — thanks for the hint, Achim!).
Every time these guys put out a record, which is quite regularly now, I really want to hate them. If I describe the mix of Euro-pop with electronic dance beats, it makes them sound awful and for the most part they are. But they also managed enough dementia, recording strangeness, and catchy pop numbers to be likeable.
Well, two of the songs here rock hard, though there’s a lot more guitar doodling than previously. On the flip we get one moody tune and a short reprise, both laced with malice. Don’t know.
This Michigan 5-piece has a song called “Spirit of ’76″ and that gives a good idea about their sound: garage-y pop-punk with jangly guitars and personal/political words. Pretty good.
