ANCRESS, “Victoria”
Ancress is a band from the Toronto area that has former
members of Villipend, and I believe this is their first offering to the
civilized world. Much like
Villipend (who released material through A389 Records among others) this
hammers out harsh metallic hardcore that double dog dares you to call it
metalcore, lest you enjoy getting slapped across the face with a rusty saw
blade. That being said, there are
a few different things happening here and I feel like with a bit more time
those influences will become more focused. As it stands, the band dishes out metallic heaviness with
some nods to noisemongers like Page 99 and a slight black metal feel
(particularly in some of the vocals).
It’s not a bad start, but doesn’t quite grab a hold of me
completely. (self-released)
ELTINGVILLE CLUB #2, by Evan Dorkin
And thus concludes the final chapter in the Eltingville
Club, a series of shorts started back in the 90’s (often in Dork- one of my
favorite comics ever), put on pause for many years, and brought back to life a
year ago (yeah, there was a year between issue 1 and 2), and now ends on a
pitiful note. And that’s not
disrespecting this comic. It’s a
remark on the characters who make up this club. They are the lowest of the low (arguably aside from Jerry). You do not root for them. And when they do bad things, which is
often, you cheer when they are hurt.
They represent everything that is wrong with people into comics, movies,
gaming, and other sorts of collector culture. They plot against each other, they argue about the most
minute of details, they have no allies, and the world is better off without
them. The first issue re-visits
the gang where a cordial meeting results in one of them burning down a comic shop. In issue #2 we fast forward 10 years and
none of them have spoken to each other, but all end up at San Diego Comic Con
where they end up getting together, discussing how awesome (i.e.- terrible)
their lives are now and then talking shit on each other and everyone else in
attendance until they get trampled.
Evan Dorkin’s art, as always is spot on, a great mixture of cartoon-ish,
but stunningly detailed. He’s a
guy who knows way too much about comics and puts it on display not only with
tons of background detail over the most obscure of references, but also in the humor, which gravitates between
absurdly hilarious and cringe-worthy insulting (I mean, he really makes you
hate these characters). Get this,
read it, laugh, enjoy comics, and be the complete opposite of the goobers in
this book in your daily life.
(Dark Horse)
INTO ANOTHER, “Omens” EP
This is one of the last groups I would have ever expected to
get back together and record new material. Into Another existed in a strange time. By all accounts, they should have never
been popular with hardcore kids and it remains a mystery to me, to this day,
how they were. Don’t get me wrong,
I loved this band, but yeah… how
did they do it? Between Ritchie
Birkenhead’s near-falsetto singing/screaming and the mind-altering talent of
the various players in this group standard meat and potatoes hardcore should
have put a hood up over a furrowed brow and crossed their collective arms as if
to say, ‘not here pal.’ But, just
the opposite- they were embraced.
And I say ‘great’. Picture,
if you will- a band that seamlessly melded the sludgy mood of Black Sabbath
with the virtuoso fantasy rock of Rush.
Yeah. In hardcore. In 1994. It happened and I was there to bear witness. And now, 20 years later they decide to
give it another go on this five song EP.
I’ll give them credit- they all have their chops firmly in place. Ritchie still has quite a set of
pipes. Peter Moses continues to be
a guitar symphony in and of himself, and new bassist Reid Black aptly fills the
void left by Tony Bono. These songs
have a little less instantly catchy flair that was found on “Ignaurus”- most
fans vote for the band’s zenith- but they are well-written songs, and after a
few listens they sink in . The
artwork is beautiful and works well to the band’s creepy nature. I feel as if they are a group that has
returned in a non-cheesy way. They
fail to be a poor imitation of themselves. They have simply continued, and done so respectfully. (Revelation/ Ghost Ship Records)
SACRED HEART,
by Liz Suburbia
After a bunch of self-published comical zines, and an online
series that started the first half of this book Liz Suburbia takes those
collected online chapters, re-drew/re-kajiggered them, and added what seems
like a zillion more pages, and thus spawns this big fat book called Sacred
Heart. It’s great to see her art
progress and the tone of the story get a bit more serious while still retaining
a quirky fun that only results from years of John Hughes films, the Decline Of
western Civilization, and a heavy dose of punk rock livin’. The story is that there’s a town where
all the parents and adults are gone and the kids are trying to go about their
lives as if nothing is out of skew (still going to school, still going to dumb
jobs, still hanging out on the weekends for shows, or prom, or high school
football games). There are plenty
of moments that recall those best of times- piling into your friends car to go
see a show, or chilling in your pals basement to watch horror flicks, the
typical tropes of being a teen in love with the person just out of your reach
and the awkwardness that goes with it.
But then odd stuff happens too- lots of people are getting killed, no
one quite knows why, and the kids seem to not react too heavily to it. Then a big flood comes, takes out a
bunch of stuff, and leaves you with a huge cliffhanger of an ending. It’s a wonderful story, though I guess
might benefit from a little more development around building up those
cliffhangers as the ending seems to come very quickly and abruptly. The art is exceptional- all black and
white, a combination of Los Bros Hernandez simple punk line art, but more fluid
and almost grafitti-esque in ways, as well as very inviting and fun. It shows a great deal of promise and I
can’t wait to see what comes next.
(Fantagraphics)
UNDERGROUND:
THE SUBTERRANEAN CULTURE OF D.I.Y. SHOWS, by Daniel Makagon
While I enjoy reading about punk history, and all sorts of
different aspects regarding it from a variety of different people’s
perspectives it always feels a little weird when someone’s book on the subject
reads like their doctoral dissertation.
There is a tipping point when punk-related subjects move from
philosophical discussion to… I
dunno… something else that’s
boring. But the older I get the
more attention I guess I have for that, which means I’m probably getting pretty
boring. This here is a whole book
dedicated to mostly the inner-workings of basement shows. The author has interviewed a number of
people who had lengthy involvement in booking shows at houses/living in houses
that booked shows, their effect on the community around them (both
neighbor-related and punk scene-related), the economics of it all, party vs.
sober spaces, dealing with cops, and the transition to community/legal spaces. I can get down with a good chunk of it
because there are a lot of good stories about different spaces getting busted
up, or evading authorities, sneaky ways in which places kept going, and so
forth. But when it gets bogged
down in the politics of it all and constant quotes from various MRR articles
and letters (seriously, there has to be tons of other source material to draw
from aside from an old stack of Maximum Rock n’ Roll zines the author has
sitting in his attic) it feels redundant and unnecessary. I’ve always felt that punk is a great
learning experience from not only just winging it and hoping for the best, but
also from great stories that listeners (or in this case, readers) can absorb
and make of it what they will. The
parts of this book focusing on the stories are great. The academia half of it really seems kind of silly when
trying to make a case study out of some bands playing in a basement for a bunch
of punks. (Microcosm)
WILD MOTH, “Inhibitor”
I remember listening to this band a year or two ago when
they were getting started and they had a really heavy older Sonic Youth vibe in
relation to a noisy reckless abandon to their otherwise punk-influenced indie
sound. I thought it was the sound
of a band with a loose notion of a song structure, but letting it totally fall
apart around them on purpose. This
full length record definitely makes a big effort to have strong song structures
and catchy melodies, however noisy they might be. I’m really digging this as they’ve gone to a more Superchunk
style of rock, but still kind of loose and airy, a bit more shegaze-y, for lack
of a better word. I was quite
surprised by this given how different I felt their previous material
sounded. Regardless, if you want
to check a great upbeat indie band that both has a lot of excitement within
their sound, as well as a laid back sort of beauty at the same time this is a
good record to roll with. (IronPier)
WINDHAND, “Grief’s Infernal Flower”
On their second release for Relapse Windhand seem to try and
sound exactly like they did on their last effort. Well, that’s half true. The production is a bit different and almost sounds a bit
cleaner, particularly in the vocals.
I kind of prefer the sound that they got on “Soma” though. The vocals have a bit more reverb, thus
making them sound more spooky, which works in their favor when the vocalist
already has a somber, melancholy wail to begin with. The music was grittier, dirtier, and had an almost sense of
attack about it, even though the songs were complete stoner doom Sabbath worship. Sure, it was nothing new to the trendy
doom style going on these days, but I liked it. “Grief’s Infernal Flower” feels like a band trying to ride
on the coattails of “Soma” and not quite grasping it. It feels like at least three of the songs on this start with
the exact same riff (a play on “Soma”s opening song “Orchard”), and a couple
more veer off into very long jam territory before coming back with a monster of
an ending. In some ways it works
nicely, and in others it feels really redundant. I’d like to see this band make something special because I
felt they really had something good with their last outing, but this one only
half gets there. I have to admit
though, the artwork on this record is something beautiful indeed and worth
getting a gander at if you get a chance to see it. (Relapse)
YAUTJA, “Songs Of Lament” EP
This was kind of a surprise follow-up for this band, as I
think most people are still reeling from their debut LP released not all that
long ago. On this EP (which I
guess you could call it a short LP really) they really don’t push any new
boundaries, but instead continue on the killing spree they began with “Songs Of
Lament”. Think early mastodon with
a crustier vibe. So, you know,
it’s good. Weird, twisting chords
on top of a crushing bulldozer rhythm section give way to grinding speed and an
almost non-stop assault of riffs and heaviness. Play both albums one after another and it will sound like
one big, long, enjoyable ride.
(Forcefield)
