REVIEWS FOR SMARCH

Generally speaking, March is one of the ugliest months for me.  By this point I'm so sick of Winter and hoping for some shred of sunlight, or mild warmth, to come forth.  but it's a cruel month that makes you wait at least another 31 days until you hope again (and then it's April Fools Day and it snows again).  But I remember that now I live in a place where when March happens it's pretty much assured you can start expecting warmer temperatures and the rain begins to stave off for the most part.  That's right.  I'm going outside again suckers.  And I *might* wear a light jacket.  Oh, and it's a time when it seems like bands come out of the woodwork and begin releasing some really cool stuff.
So betwixt all my endless packing of records (P.S- in case you didn't know, I just released the Great Sabatini/Great Falls split and The Funeral discography, with the new USA Nails LP quickly on the way...  you really ought to get them all if you haven't yet) I actually came across a bunch of new music (and one book) and I'm going to share it all with you.  So read on and check out some new shit, in addition to, of course, all the stuff I just put out.

ALL YOU KNOW IS HELL, “Gape”

I believe this might be a one-person project, but it sounds as if there’s a dozen people all tuning super low and hitting the same note over  and over.  All You Know Is Hell brings a very Godflesh-inspired brand of sludgy industrial-type heaviness.  Right off the bat it lets you know exactly what’s to come.  However, the songs tend to err a little on the lengthy side and the pace remains consistent through the entirety of the album, which is pretty slow and primitive.  A little more variety in the tempo might keep things a bit more interesting, but if the objective is to crush you slowly and repeatedly then I guess mission accomplished. (All You Know Is Hell)

ANEURYSM, “Awareness”

Great, off-the-rails punk hardcore rock.  Some times this band tears ass like Turbonegro or Burning Love, peeling out and leaving tire treads all over your face with endless riffs and solos, and other times they’re a messy accident on the highway, just bashing away until blood and flaming auto parts mix incoherently like the most unhinged side of Nirvana.  I prefer the Nirvana bit a little more, but I’m perfectly happy with both sides of this band co-existing happily.  “St. E's” is lyrically the soundtrack to my experience with dealing with Northwesterners who make a habit of going slow all the time and are never in a hurry for anything, ever.  I feel you.  “Handbook For the Recently Deceased” is not only a great Beetlejuice reference (and long-lost Spark Lights the Friction track), but it’s probably the fastest and rowdiest song on the record and I love it.  It’s their “Tourettes”, if you will.  So yeah, great wild tunes and super weird and cool artwork make for an overall killer experience.  (Tor Johnson)

DESPERATE LIVING, “New Concrete” EP

Philly characters that go way back do some musical chairs and come up with another iteration of the crazy-heavy, noise-rocking, riff-shitting, ear-blasting rock that they crafted back in Inkling, then to the Minor Times, into Ladder Devils, and now as Desperate Living.  This time, Brian Medlin, accustomed to usually playing drums in most of the bands he has done takes the guitar and mic, and our man Tim Leo…. well, he still plays the guitar too.  Vocally, it’s a bit more strained and howling, and definitely less on the screaming, but the music falls in line with where Ladder Devils left off.  The band keep things a little more primitive for the most part by just plowing through fast and ripping songs (“Ape” being the quickest and dirtiest of the bunch), with the exception of one slow song, aptly titled “Slow One”.  Yet it’s singular, smashing riff might make it my favorite track on this 6-song EP.  So far I believe this is only available digitally, but it’s worth the price of your time to listen to it repeatedly until your neck snaps off.  (Brutal Panda)

EGG CREAM #1, by Liz Suburbia

Egg Cream is the new book from punk comics creator Liz Suburbia and continues the tale started in the gigantic “Sacred Heart” released a couple years back via Fantagraphics.  This smaller book picks up on the Czap and Silver Sprocket imprints and gives some background (mixed with a little ‘where are they now?’) to that story’s yarn about a town full of teens and how they get by minus the whole town’s parental units gone missing.  Egg Cream gets into why all the parents went missing in the first place, why there is no alternate supervision of the town’s youth, and several years after the events that closed out “Sacred Heart” took place what those now grown-up teens are up to…  a little bit anyway.  In addition to the bulk of the book being about that story, you get a fun mix of Suburbia’s more funny pages style of things that she excelled at while doing her Cynanide Milkshake zine several years ago.  So there’s a fun section about various dreams she had, and a few pages of various illustrations.  So it’s a good mix of all things fans have come to know about Liz Suburbia’s work and I, for one, am pleased with it.  And, of course, her fun and cartoon-y style of drawing is wonderfully on display as always.  I’m glad to see another project from her and I always look forward to what’s next.  (Czap/ Silver Sprocket)

LASSITERS, s/t EP

This English band starts out strong, coming at you with a sort of Scratch Acid appeal.  But by the end of this EP they’re getting loose and messy as if they took a cue from Drunks With Guns and just abandoned all sense of taste.  For real though, it kind of sounds like this band went into the studio with a six-pack each and went to town and a couple songs in they’re three sheets to the wind with the record button still on and de-constructed the remaining songs into messy free-for-alls.  I appreciate the de-evolution happening across these four tracks though.  It just gets uglier as it goes on.  Overall, Lassiters have a heavy, dirty punk/noise rock thing happening that is rowdy and ugly and there’s nothing wrong with that. (Lassiters)

MUTANT SCUM, s/t LP

Mutant Scum are quite an anomaly that I’m appreciating for definitely not taking the expected path that a band with a name like Mutant Scum, and who have total thrash-style artwork, an obsession with slime and sewers, and other thrash-revival tropes would take.  Sure, there’s some thrashy punk up in their musical mix.  But there’s a low end that sounds so similar to the very distinct KARP and Big Business heaviness that it really throws the entire record off-kilter from what you think is supposed to be happening.  Plus, a bunch of this record lurches a little slower and even throws in some occasional psychedelic weirdness to the stew.  I mean, in all honesty, if you’re going to focus on themes of slime and sewers and mutation having a slimy, oozing musical soundtrack would certainly be apropos.  It’s just that that Troma films- thrash metal connection has created an expectation I guess and Mutant Scum are taking that in their own unique direction.  So hat’s off to them.  In addition, this comes in a cool gatefold package and on bright green slimy vinyl to boot.  My understanding is that they also play live wearing wild mutant costumes, so there’s a bonus right there in case you hate recorded music.  (Handstand Records)

OUT OF BODY, “Son Sun” EP

This Austin, TX-based band perfectly nailed everything great about 90’s post-hardcore and brought it up for the here and now with their debut LP, “Voiceless”. It was that perfect mixture of Handsome, Shift, Quicksand, and Stillsuit that I love so dearly.  And then they sort of stopped for awhile.  A couple member switcheroos later and they are back with a quick EP just to let everyone know they’re still in the game.  The lead-off track, “Leaping Faith” brings and energetic and melodic feel and lifts a part directly from “My Mind’s Eye” by Handsome for the chorus.  It’s not like those guys were using that part, so someone else ought to use it.  It’s a really good part.  The next song, the title track, goes for a little more stop-start aggressiveness that could have emerged from a Helmet song, but adds those melodic vocals and positive vibes for a quick burst made for jumping/head bobbing.  They close things out with “Interstate 108”, which not only clocks in at (wait for it) 1:08, but I’m guessing is a little nod of gratitude to one of the best hardcore bands to ever exist even though the track itself is a experimental little almost acoustic outro.  It’s good to know Out Of Body is still doing their thing and looking towards the future by referencing some great stuff from the past.  (Out Of Body)

SILVER CHAINS, “All Hail!” demo

From the rotating cast of Western Canadians who brought you (still bring you?) Taxa, Damages, Mouse Ear, and Black Pills is yet another project of players doing some unhinged, relatively scary/crazy Birthday Party worship.  Silver Chains has a murderous streak in them that sounds cold and calculated, but at the same time random and violent.  They go from upbeat, somewhat early Jesus Lizard-inspired chaos to lurching and grating heaviness (like on closer “Participate”).  Out of all the bands these people do together the vocals here are the most vicious, like Nick Cave on a drunken bender and having snorted a canister of Dust Off, and it’s an exhilarating display that I fully back.  I’m guessing they won’t get out and about all that much, but it definitely is worth your time to listen to and get freaked to.  (Silver Chains)