FAVORITES OF 2019. IT'S A LIST.

2019 was a really busy year for me. I put a lot on my plate and aimed to follow through with all of it.  Hence, this year went by incredibly fast.  Of course, I could pat myself on the back and say one of my favorite things this year was celebrating 20 years of operating Hex Records and catching up with all the bands and people that made it what it is, which has been a joyful undertaking.  I could also say that my favorite records were the ones I released this year (the Great Sabatini/Great Falls split 12", The Funeral, "Discography 2001-2004" 2xLP, USA Nails, "Life Cinema", Post/Boredom, "Ritualistic Time Abuser", and Pinko, "You & You" for those keeping score), but I like to shine some light on what others are doing, and doing well.  So here's my favorite records, shows, and events from this year that did not necessarily involve Hex Records stuff.  That stuffs that obvious favorite(s).  But here's some others:

FAVORITE RECORDS OF 2019

ALPHA HOPPER, “Aloha Hopper”

These Buffalo punks make such weird noise that just happens to be really catchy.  It takes a bit to adjust to between the wild bratty vocals and herky-jerky riffs, but there’s so much crazy energy going on that once it gets in your head it pays off in spades.

GIANTS CHAIR, “Prefabylon”

Nostalgia is a weird thing because I do not want to wallow in it, and I know it’s easy to want that old familiar thing and heap praise upon half-assed efforts just because it’s the old familiar.  But Giants Chair never got huge. For me, personally, the expectation was massive and 23 years after their last record the Kansas City trio really did it right.  They got right back into the pocket which made their heart worn Midwest rock so impressive while growing a bit as players.  It’s exactly the best case scenario a fan could hope for.

MANDATE OF HEAVEN, “Least Concern”

I will forever champion Greg Pier and company for being, what I feel, is the voice of Syracuse, for better or for worse.  His extensive body of work as (and with) Mandate Of Heaven has always been self-released, occasionally self-recorded, and remains a constant in a town that I spent the majority of my life in.  Since the century began Mandate has been cranking out a sort of bluesy-grungy rock that intertwines complex melodies and rhythms with Greg’s singular/signature vocal style into something unique and beautiful.  The initial version of this had the tracks in a different order, which I thought was perfect.  The physical CD copy is in a different order, which I don’t think works as well.  But good thing all the songs are winners.  “Human Ashtray” may be one of the year’s best rockers while “Numenoff” may be 2019’s prettiest/saddest ballad.

CLOUD RAT, “Pollinator”

Cloud Rat does grind like no other.  They are Discordance Axis for this generation.  Ridiculously precision next-level drumming, ripping guitars that tackle punk ferocity and emotive inventiveness all in one fell swoop, and vocals that screech through abstract tales of despair/disrepair and repair.  Oh, and they do all this as just a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist.  They’re extremely prolific, but they definitely saved some of their best material for this record, which continues their hardcore-punk-grind streak in new and exciting ways.

USA/MEXICO, “Matamoros”

The noisiest of sludge that barely qualifies as music, but comes in with just a hint of things that somehow get you humming in slow motion. It’s so abrasive in a ridiculous sort of way that I’m stupefied by how much I enjoy it.  Their nearly 6 minute cover of Cherubs “Shoofly” (with Cherubs Kevin Whitley singing it) is, as far as I’m concerned, better than the original.  They close out with the 17 minute long “Anxious Whitey”, which may as well be the sound of a jet engine firing up over and over again and somehow I’m completely enchanted by it.  Fucking Texans.  Those people are nuts.

TORCHE, “Admission”

Sometimes you just seek out consistency.  Torche is a pretty sure bet in that department.  Over their tenure they have crafted a sound so distinctly ‘them’ that there really seems to be no way that they could disappoint.  And on “Admission” they deliver with a bunch of songs both insanely catchy and bombastically heavy, and you know the rest because it’s Torche and they cannot fail.

CHILD BITE, “Blow Off the Omens”

Easily one of the most interesting bands in the ‘heavy’ arena going today.  Their grab bag of weird and obscure influences runs so strong, yet comes across so totally fluid, that it just makes these Detroit rockers come off as completely singular.  Voivod-meets-Laughing Hyenas-meets-Dead Kennedys-meets-saxophones set on fire and thrown off the top rope of the Royal Rumble of musical subgenres.

FAVORITE SHOWS OF 2019

1.13.2019- SUPER UNISON/ SLOW MASS/ U SCO/ HAIR PULLER- High Water Mark, Portland-  Sooo glad I got to see Super Unison before they called it a day.  I love both their LPs and they made me happy.  Slow Mass was an interesting surprise from Chicago, and a couple very solid local openers solidified the gig as legit.

                                  Super Unison

4.27.2019- ARCHITECT/ SHADOW SNAKES/ DIALYSIS/ GONER/ SUNFLO’ER- Apostrophe’s, Syracuse- To be surrounded by so many friends new and old that I barely ever see anymore and playing with bands that all make sense together and having a blast and eating HK.  That’s what it’s all about.

                              Shadow Snakes

5.16.2019-5.17.2019- EXHALANTS/ MARRIAGE AND CANCER- Kenton Club, Portland and Black Lodge, Seattle- One of my favorite locals playing a couple of their final gigs in their most solid lineup and killing it while my new favorite band from Texas utterly destroying ears and everything else with their huge sound and great set up.  So good I saw ‘em twice.

                               Exhalants

7.10.2019- JAWBOX/ HELMS ALEE- Wonder Ballroom, Portland- Seeing Helms Alee is always a treat because they’re one of the Northwest’s finest musical institutions.  Oh, and FUCKING JAWBOX.  I have been a fan since I was a teenager, but never had the opportunity to see them.  I’ve seen J. Robbins both solo and in several other bands, but never with the band he is most known for and oh my god were they incredible.  Still tons of energy, perfect songs, and exceptional playing and having lots of fun.  What else is there?

                                     Jawbox

10.16.2019- CHERUBS/ LOW DOSE- High Water Mark, Portland- Wonderful to see old Philly friends doing this amazing new project and having a ton of fun and passion while going for it.  Low Dose just totally slayed.  Cherubs were a sonic suplex followed by the dazed and confused, seeing stars, after-effect all at once with their noise-laden psych-heavy, totally balls-out rocking insanity.  It was my second time seeing them, which was not as awesome as the first, but I did get to hear all those new songs and that was nice.

10.24.2019- EYEHATEGOD/ NEGATIVE APPROACH/ SHEER TERROR/ FINAL CONFLICT/ THE ACCUSED- Dantes, Portland-  My god, talk about a show packed with so much negatively and skuzzy, dangerous music and I’m surprised I didn’t walk out of the place a murderous junkie waiting to huff fumes and stab regs.  Eyehategod is always a blast as they bring such a gnarly sound even with an altered lineup.  I haven’t seen Sheer Terror in 25 years and NOW I appreciate them to no end.  Maybe it’s because I’m older and more bitter.  I have never been able to see Negative Approach and they sounded so fucking mean they make Annie Wilkes seen downright charming in comparison.

                             Sheer Terror

FAVORITE EVENTS:

DIALYSIS NORTHWEST TOUR- I can’t believe I convinced the other two dudes in the band to come out here and play some shows.  I can’t believe we actually pulled it off either.  I can’t believe all of the shows were fun.  I can’t believe we almost made our money back.

VISITED ALASKA-  Sooooo many flies and mosquitoes. But I also saw glaciers and a whale and otters and some moose.

SYRACUSE FALL AND VEGFEST- There’s like a two week window generally in October in Central NY where things are pretty near perfect.  The weather isn’t too cold, it’s hopefully not raining, and the colors in the trees and hills are so vibrant you’d think you were in a painting.  Driving around all through upstate and into the pit of PA, hiking around, seeing friends and family, right at that time of year, just great.  Oh, and the first Syracuse Vegfest to occur since the last time it was held (10 years ago when myself and my wife put it on) gave me hope when over 3000 people showed up.  The new organizers did a great job.

Some scenic Alaskan beauty

RAN MY FIRST MARATHON-  So it was just a simple 5K.  I usually run almost double that on any given running day.  But I also tend to keep my runs on pretty flat ground, and at times of the day when the temperature is 50 or above.  This was Thanksgiving morning, around 8:30AM, up several hills, and in 30 degree weather.  It was tough.  I did not win. But I didn’t do too shabby either.

BECAME A CERTIFIED O.I.S.INSTRUCTOR-  This all has to do with my day job/career.  I work with folks with disabilities and if you do that sort of work in Oregon you are required to take a two-day training course every year called the Oregon Intervention System, which is like half lectures and topical discussions, and half physical maneuvers to assure the safety of your clients and yourself.  Well, I can now teach that course.  It also certifies me to fully author and train behavior support plans for people on my caseload.  I’m a pretty good teacher I must say.

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR043- NULL, "Act Of Love"

Null is a band that has been going on and off for nearly a decade.  The members get together, write sporadically, and then busy themselves with a myriad of other projects, and find time every now and again to play shows.

The project took a serious backburner role not long after gaining a bit of momentum when vocalist/guitarist Carter Wilson began playing drums in Coliseum.  Coliseum toured very hard and was a full-time project for several years, which left Null as almost an afterthought.  Once Coliseum slowed down and then quietly disbanded Carter went back to spending most of his time in the Birmingham, Alabama area where he was able to reconvene with his bandmates in Null and get moving once again.

Not long after Null released their first full length record, “Sleepwalking Days”.  I really cannot recall one bit about how I ended up hearing this record.  It may have been Ryan from Coliseum informing me of it’s existence, or I may have just stumbled upon it through various internet rabbit holes and discovered that it was members of stuff I was familiar with.  It could have even been through the split they did with Self Defense Family, a group that I follow pretty closely.  Either way, once I got an earful of “Sleepwalking Days” I was not only amazed by the unique sound they were creating, but also how different it was from Coliseum.  Granted, it’s one member who was playing a different instrument in that band than he is in Null.  But still, I was impressed and like all things I get a kick out of I investigated further.  It turns out I had met some of these guys ages ago when I booked a show for bands they used to play in, namely Legion and Die Young, two bands very much in the hardcore realm, and polar opposites of what Null get up to.

I eventually reached out to the band expressing my interest and a couple months later they messaged that they would be heading up the coast for a tour and asked if I could set them up with a show.  So I obliged and saw firsthand the way Null does what they do in a weird basement with other weird bands that, overall, went pretty well.  Upon seeing them I also realized they got that incredible low-end sound from using a synth instead of a bass guitar, which is far from unheard of, but it was cool to see on my end.

As I talked more with the other members we talked about Hex releasing their next full length, whenever that would come to pass.  They related that they were actually quite close to finishing a second record and would send me demos when it was done.  The thing is, they had been a band for a long time already at that point, but seeing as how they were on the backburner for so long they didn’t have the opportunity to do much for most of that time.  So they had this big backlog of songs saved up for whatever and were breaking some of them back out to add to a second LP.

So they sent me the second record.  And I let them know I was good to go whenever they were.  But they asked me to sit on it for a bit in case they wanted to make any last minute changes.  That lasted almost a year.  I thought maybe they had given up on the thing?  And while I waited they did a tour with Young Widows and I again asked them if they still wanted to release the record.  It turns out they did, but they were very perfectionist-minded about the whole thing and really wanted to ensure everything went right.

Between that time and when the record actually came out I had moved to Oregon, found a new pressing plant to work with, new projects to work on, a new job, and other big life hurdles and then there was a big problem with the Null record.  There was an error in the mastering and the whole thing had to be re-cut into a new lacquer before proceeding forward.  That being said, I also found a new place in my neighborhood to cut lacquers (it’s been very convenient for this label to exist in this city), and went through a ton of hassle, but finally got the Null record out there by early 2018.  It was a long process between getting to know these guys, working out releasing a record, and actually seeing the thing done.

So to elaborate more on the group, their long stretch as a band, and the record that became “Act Of Love” I spoke with guitarists Carter Wilson and Kevin Wright.  Here’s what came of it.

So Null has been a band for a pretty long time correct?  There was just a long stretch where you all were unable to do much of anything?

CARTER:  Kevin and I have been making music as Null since 2008.  Those first few years mainly involved a lot of improvised sets, a couple of which were recorded for some tapes.  I joined Coliseum in 2009 and was on tour for quite a bit from 2010-2013.  During that time Null would play sporadically, and then in 2014 we shifted from more improvised music to written material and started getting together the sound and line up that we have now.

KEVIN:  It started as a way for Carter and I to do something heavy when Kayhan (bassist, Coliseum, Yautja) and Jeff were gone doing Die Young stuff and Legion (former band of all members) couldn’t play shows.  At first it was just the two of us but that evolved into adding new people for shows.  But each show was different.  Sometimes the material would only be played with one line up foe one show and we wouldn’t play it again.  Some things were reoccurring, but the line up would shift for almost every single show we played.

How did you all come together as a group?

C:  It’s interesting to note that we come from Birmingham’s DIY punk scene and all started in a hardcore band called Legion.  Some members from Legion went to play in Die Young, some to Coliseum.  Me and Kevin formed Null out of that group while Kayhan went to school in Nashville where he formed his band Youtja.

Around 2013-2014 time I wanted to try and idea for Null that intentionally went against everything we were comfortable doing- cleaner guitars, vocals with melodies, really vulnerable sounds instead of just blowing people away with lots of amps and volume.  Some songs came from that idea and I think it took us by surprise, and we were really into it.  It was new and different from any other band we played in, and we thought it was worth exploring.  Every person in the band was playing an instrument they hadn’t previously played in a band, so it just felt like something exciting to do for people that have been  playing in this small local scene for so many years.  We’re still evolving from that idea and it’s molded us to where we’re at now.

Simple themes and trance-like repetitiveness seem to be at the core of Null’s music and you all do it very well.  I’m often reminded of Lungfish in that respect, except generally more heavy, or sort of stoner rock.

K:  I find a lot of comfort in the repetition.  One of the things that drew me to bands like Lungfish and Om was just finding something simple and getting lost in it.  For m, personally, it’s at the core of my inspiration for the band.  Although, more often than not, it’s very indirect.

C:  Yeah, Null’s music has always dealt in repetition from the beginning, and for me it was about getting into that deeper, vast feeling that we loved from those bands like Lungfish, Swans, Om, and even jazz records I loved with longer form songs.

My understanding is that many of the songs that ended up being on “Act Of Love” were written during, or right around the time of the first LP, but were sat on for quite awhile?  Is this correct?

C:  So by “Act Of Love” all those ideas were in place and I think we had a sense of identity and where we want to go with this band.  We had been playing live for a couple years and made our first album in that time.  I think we took what was working out of that first release and expanded on that for “Act Of Love”.  The songs came really fast after our first record and we toured with the songs before we tracked them.  After we tracked the music we took some time to straighten up the vocal ideas, and then eventually mixed over a long period because of life, jobs, children, etc.

What led to titling the record “Act Of Love”?

C:  “Act Of Love” was taken from the last song we wrote for the record and it was sort of a more global look on humanity’s highs and lows.  Particularly how easy it is to overlook all the acts of human kindness that happen everyday when you see so much injustice, senseless violence, and police brutality, especially through the lens of the American news media.  I think love, kindness, and empathy are very important.

So why use a synth instead of a bass guitar for your music?

C:  Like I mentioned earlier, we were all playing different instruments than we typically do in bands, and our synth player who is normally a drummer doesn’t play string instruments.  But he had synths.  We just tried it out and ended up liking the results.  I was happy about it because I’m a big hip hop fan and doing something with a really big low end was really appealing to me. I think the same goes for Kevin.

How did you arrange the artwork for “Act Of Love” and what was the idea behind the art?  It’s definitely something that I think people familiar with this label would not expect to see.

C:  That is Sara Roberson, a Birmingham artist who also sings in a punk band called Black Hole Kids.  We just had a conversation about all the lyrics and that was her interpretation.  She had done a shirt for us and some designs on a 7”.  I’m just a fan of her imagery and it seemed natural to have her do the cover.

Where is Null at at this point?  I see you definitely play around regionally, but things are pretty quiet on the touring end and recording side.

C:  We are getting ready to start recording new songs.  New material is incorporating bass guitar in addition to synth, using some electronic percussion here and there, and I think it’s heavier than where we’ve been previously.  As far as shows we’re playing local shows and shows around the Southeast, and short runs of shows elsewhere when we can.

What's been the best thing about Null and what has been the worst?

C:  The best thing is that Null is truly a gift that keeps on giving, as far as having an outlet for creative ideas for over a decade now.  I’m thankful for Kevin, who has been a partner in taking on any off-the-wall ideas I’ve had throughout the years and I’m grateful to still be playing with some of the older musicians I met coming up in the punk scene here when I was a teenager.

I really can’t say there is a negative to any of it because I’ve never set expectations for any aspect of my creative life.  I only recognize that the participation in these activities is one of the things that makes me want to be on this planet, and I’m humbled by anyone who has agreed to help us along the way.

K:  I’d say the best thing is just knowing that I always have a creative outlet to express whatever ideas I come up with and to be able to explore that stuff with a group of really good friends and fellow musicians that inspire me constantly to be creative.  Not only in this band, but in day-t-day life and other projects.  We always talk at practice about other bands in town, and all of our favorite local bands have band members that are also in Null.  We are also extremely lucky to have such a solid group of friends in the DIY community in Birmingham who are always super supportive of us.

As far as negatives, honestly, we’ve already accomplished so much in the lifespan of this band that I couldn’t possibly feel negative about any of it.  When Carter and I started jamming silly stoner riffs in a storage unit ten- almost eleven- years ago I’d never have expected it to be what it is today, and to have accomplished what we’ve accomplished.  It’s been a truly positive force in my life and I’m psyched to have gotten to share it with so many friends.

The test press jokes continue.  This is the first to use some letterpress technique on the text 

Well, that’s just far too posi.  There was the thing with having to get the record remastered after it had already been lacquered, which caused quite a delay and that was a bummer.

C:  I guess we’re more well-adjusted than I thought!  Man, I’ve had far worse disasters happen trying to put out records, so thanks for hanging in there with us!

So that's that.  And now, because you know what comes next- all this week LPs going for $5, CDs for $4 and the digital download for $4.  Get 'em HERE or HERE.

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE- HXR042: GRIZZLOR, "Destructoid"

As I’ve reported in the past, Grizzlor are not big on chit-chat.  They hole away, out of reach of most of humanity as much as they are able, write gigantic riffs, and then emerge every once in awhile to completely destroy people’s faces with their sonic negativity.  It’s a beautiful thing.  And honestly, when sharing a stage with them they become amicable, chill, and just pleased to have the opportunity to shred some eardrums.

So when it came time for the band to release their debut full length it was sort of a no-brainer to help them out.  They were extremely proficient at getting most of the pieces together with little delay- they write songs quick, they have the skill to record themselves well, and have people lined up to create artwork, which is always in line with their bizarre sci-fi/annihilation theme.

However, this record almost did not come to be.  The “Cycloptic” 7” had been out for a bit and was doing well.  The band went on a couple tours around the East Coast and Midwest, and I had the good fortune to book them, as well as play a few shows with them while all this was going on.  At the close of 2016 I had set up a two-day blowout right before New Years in Syracuse to get as many of the Hex Records-related bands in the same place to play some kick-ass shows.  It had been in the works for most of the year and went through a few iterations before things were settled.  Well, it turned out to not be as awesome of a thing as I had planned- hosting in an awesome venue that a lot of other people didn’t really care for, occurring right around the holidays which can be a hassle for many, and right in the snowiest city in America during a time of the year when it tends to snow a lot certainly caused some difficulties.

However, the Grizzlor guys were down to come out from Connecticut and play.  I checked in with them regularly to ensure things were all good and they were all on board.  And then the day they were supposed to play they just didn’t show up.  They had somehow not fully worked out work schedules and missed the show.  I think the overall frustration of having this thing I worked on for a long time have all these other problematic issues around it caused me to lose my cool as this was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I felt a bit slighted and said I no longer wanted to release the Grizzlor full length.  They were actually kind of understanding about it and right away I felt sort of bad.

About a month passed and I re-evaluated my stance and reached out gain to see if they still wanted me to release the record and they were cool with it.  So fences mended, we got right down to business and within a couple months “Destructoid” came to fruition and this ridiculous beast of a record was unleashed upon the world.  My band, Dialysis, and them even played a few more shows together in various spots once both our records came out (which was right around the same time in 2017).

By the end of the year though, things got a little quiet with Grizzlor and I was a bit unsure of what was going on.  It turns out their drummer, John Mohr was having problems with his hands, which made it very difficult for him to continue playing drums.  Grizzlor existed in quiet for some time as guitarist/vocalist/recording engineer Vic Dowgiallo continued writing music and searching out a solid replacement.  Being a rather anti-social person and playing music that doesn’t appeal to a wide swath of humanity finding that right fit proved to be a considerable challenge.  Eventually, by early 2019 a replacement was found, new songs were recorded (check out the “Coolness Factor 6” 7” on Learning Curve Records right now), and the band has once again taken to playing live shows.

This is the second part of the interview I did with Vic via e-mail, and true to character, the man keeps it brief.  Good thing I got most of the explanation for this record out of the way before the interview right?

Would you say you started out more with recording, or playing guitar?

Playing guitar.

How did you pick up recording, like were you self-taught, or did you study how to do it, or apprentice somewhere?

Self-taught.

Do you think that part (recording) was more out of not wanting to bother with hiring other people to record how you knew you wanted to sound, or just a useful interest?

A little of both, because to do it yourself you can work on things at whatever pace you want, and it is also nice to be able to be in control of your own project.

In terms of using a telephone instead of a microphone live what's the advantage of that and what was the reason behind doing that?

I use the telephone mic because you get a distorted vocal sound with no feedback.

There's definitely some Grizzlor stuff that is about the misery of living in the Northeast (or Connecticut), which I can certainly relate to.  What are the positives of living in and around the Northeast/New England area?

Nothing.

Now that you have a drummer in place again do you think Grizzlor will be touring, or is it a situation where you can only do like weekends or quick regional stuff?

We will probably only be doing weekends and quick regional stuff, because we don’t have the money or life where we can drive around for weeks playing shitty shows for no reason.

test press artwork that I imagine speaks to the band's core fanbase

The band has tended to write pretty short and to-the-point songs.  Was it tough coming up with an entire full-length?

No, those songs were probably already done by the time we talked about doing the record.

The band toured pretty regularly, but seemed to almost always tour with Bardus.  What made them regular touring partners?

We always toured with them because they are cool dudes and are on the same page as we are. It's always good to tour around and play with bands that play music you enjoy watching and who are cool people you get along with. Makes it not suck as bad.

                           touring partners for life

At some point about a year after the record was released John had to leave the band.  What happened with him and was it difficult to find a replacement?

John had some wrist issues that made playing drums difficult and didn't want to make it worse. Finding a replacement was extremely difficult, but doesn't matter because we have someone now that's working out very well.

I haven’t really felt as if Grizzlor fits into any particular sort of niche and you seem to be able to play with a wide variety of bands.  Have there been particular groups or types of bands you feel more comfortable with, or times when you felt completely out of place playing a show?

No, no particular groups, just anything heavy and aggressive works. Never felt out of place, we just do our deal no matter what.

What’s been the best part of Grizzlor and what has been the worst?

The best part is hanging out, drinking beers, playing music and coming up with what the next record's going to be. Besides that, and the 30 minutes on stage, everything else is annoying.

Be on the lookout for Grizzlor continuing a path of destruction in a limited fashion because they don't really tour hard or anything.  But they're out there playing shows again around the Northeast and I can only imagine they have a buttload of new songs coming along.  In the meantime if you want to get yourself a copy of "Destructoid" on vinyl or CD...  you know what's up.  Get it cheap for the next week.

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR041- DIALYSIS, "Pretty Men"

I didn’t tell the rest of my band this, but when we started writing for this record I was already planning on moving to a different city.  We were maybe 4-5 songs into writing when I finally settled on a decision.  But that move was probably 9-10 months away.  So I was fairly determined to do some big things with the band before leaving town.  It wasn’t really until the record was out that I broke the news that I’d be moving and so we played a bunch of shows all over the place because I wanted to squeeze out as much time playing with these guys as I could before the notion of doing that became a big question mark.

So in a lot of ways this record is very personal to me.  I had a great deal of input in regards to the music, themes, direction, and artwork; definitely more than I’d had in any other band I’d been in.  I’m really proud of how it came together and how we presented it.  I tried a lot of new things with this, as a band we tried a bunch of new stuff and it was a lot of fun writing it and playing these songs out.

The recording was supposed to take place in Buffalo with Doug White at Watchmen Studios in January of 2017 but right before we were supposed to go up there John caught the flu and it knocked him out for a solid week.  I had already put the record on track to be out by late Spring so we could tour around it, so we had to find a recording alternative and quick.  Within a week or two John’s brother Eric came to the rescue and secured a couple days for us at a very familiar spot- Moresound Studios.  Eric is a solid recording engineer in his own right and has recorded all of us in different bands in the past.  So we got in, nailed the thing in two days, mixed on a third day, and then it was ready.

In regards to the art, I have easily never been more impressed with a record cover that I was involved with.  It is my favorite piece of art for any record I’ve been on and that’s all due to Ryan Besch, AKA Your Cinema.  I’d seen his work online and began following him obsessively.  When I got in contact about doing some Dialysis art and sent him some rough concepts he was on board.  As it turns out he’s a Buffalo, NY native, was probably hanging around punk shows the same time as I was when I lived there, and even played in a band that I more than likely booked on at least one occasion.  Needless to say, it was a good fit and he did an amazing job.  The rest of the art I took care of and was pleased with how things turned out.  Our friend Chris Reilly took some very staged pictures that may not resonate as well these days what with mass shootings and all, but honestly I was going for some weird spy sort of thing.  I think it’s really unique and amusing. 

So since this is a very personal record for me I decided to do a song-by-song breakdown of the record rather than any sort of interview thing.  Dialysis, “Pretty Men” is a very satisfying listen for me, which is rather tough for any person involved in music to say.  We’re all our own worst critics.  But I enjoy this one.  Oh, and since moving in October 2017 Dialysis has played at least 10 shows.  Sure, most of them have been in the Northeast when I go back to visit.  But I got the guys to come out the Northwest for 4 shows in May 2019 and it was pretty much the best trip ever.  So, yeah, we’re still a band because it’s fun.  Here’s the self-involved thing about the record:

PRETTY MEN:  I pretty much wrote this one.  John and Matt came up with the ending by just bullshitting around and I gave them the framework for the arrangement, citing “Arctic” by 108 as the basis.  The hang-up signal sample is lifted from Cherubs doing the same thing on “Stag Party”.  The opening noise bit we wanted to aim for the same opening as “100%” by Sonic Youth, but far more wild.  The saxophone part I wanted to shoot for Morphine, “Honey White” by just hammering on that one key.  The meat of the song I wrote with that guitar riff and the pick slide in the chorus.  Just going for a ripping hardcore song with a ton of random reference points.  My favorite opener we have and a diatribe that just because men may run the world look at all the horrible shit that has resulted because of that.  “There’s no pretty men.”  Matt’s joke of an album title once again becomes fodder for my weird brain.

HARD SHAPES:  Another bullshitting thing that Matt and John did that I encouraged them to roll with.  Matt’s drumming in the opening sounds like “Burster” from All Else Failed, but I’m pretty sure Matt has never heard that band.  The rest is total Gravity Records/Sonny Kay/VSS/Angelhair worship.  I even did the vocal effect for it based on Sonny Kay’s vocal style and wrote lyrics in the vein of something that could be on one of his records.  A good second track, 1-2 punch of the weirder stuff we do.  I love how it works out.

THAT’S WHEN I REACH FOR MY EVOLVER:  I’d had this song title in my back pocket for a year or two before it had lyrics and music.  I just love Mission Of Burma.  The rest is just standard Dialysis fare though.  This was written fairly early in the process of creating the record.  I think I helped arrange the simplicity of the main riff, encouraging John to keep it just these short bursts of guitar while Matt just blasted away.  Also, we really wanted to use a George Carlin sample somewhere and this fit pretty well.

MESSAGE TO MYSELF, MYSELF:  The whole time we were writing we were trying to think of a running theme of interludes, or skits, for the record.  I wanted something as good as both De La Soul’s “3 Feet high and Rising” and “…Is Dead”, mixed with some of the more absurd, genre-crossing insanity found on Spazz records.  Plus, we needed to somehow exploit Matt’s endless stream of weird voices and characters he does.  So it became answering machine messages that don’t tie together necessarily, aside from being messages.  I think it was a Gangstarr track that was all answering machine messages that finally sealed it for me as the thing to do.  So this one, which I neglected to list in the proper track order, has Matt’s weirdo ‘Myself’ persona doing whatever it is that makes us laugh for no good reason.

ISHKABIBBLE:  I just really like that word.  So I had to build lyrics around it somehow.  I think I first came across the word in an Al Columbia comic maybe?  Messed around with the sax bit written for it after John came up with the main riff.  To me it sounded like an Every Time I Die bit but John pointed out that it was basically Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”.

QUEST FOR INFINITY:  We brought this back from our first demo.  It’s very progg-y to me, but that’s all Matt’s insane drumming.  He owns this one.

MASS DIE OFF ENGAGE:  I wanted to have one of those songs where almost every other line is the chorus, but “Mass die off engage” is the best I could come up with.  Still, it’s a decent Dialysis standard.  Short, easy, mean.  Another early one in the writing process.

MAYBE HIS NAME IS A KILLING WORD:  The title is a Venture Brothers quote that is referencing “Dune”.  It’s a reference within a reference.  Feel free to hate me at any point, but I love doing shit like that.  We finished this right before we went to record and have never played it live.  I recall John came in with this punk/melodic thing, which I’m usually lukewarm to.  But it works and I dig it.  Plus, it’s another title I was itching to use.  Matt knows how to work in a good punk beat and he added these awesome cymbal catches at the end, which solidified my opinion that it was a keeper.  I always wanted to add one of those Ramones-esque “Hey! Hey! Hey!” things and I found an opening for that here and went for it.

COLONY COLLAPSE:  This was written while I was out of town somewhere.  I come back and they have this Quicksand sort of clunky post-hardcore thing written that is totally out of line for Dialysis stuff.  I couldn’t think of lyrics for it so I thought it would make a good side A closer as an instrumental, as well as a good dumping ground for saxophone stuff (which John claims sounds like the Inspector Gadget theme) and a ton of samples I wanted to use.  The saxophone is questionably OK in my opinion.  When we mixed this John was zooted on flu medication and completely lost his shit when the samples of bees were incredibly loud and dominating the mix.  We reined it in and added a couple little bits from “Raising Arizona”, one of my favorite movies ever.

 Press photo straight out of our day jobs as secret government agents

XOXOUXO:  We needed a monster to open up the B-side.  I wrote a total Iron Lung rip off to do this.  It’s total Iron Lung worship.  I borrowed a Clutch lyric too.  Thankfully, Matt added some insane drumming to keep it from being complete copyright infringement and makes it a bit more our thing.  In the studio they altered the ending to add a very Sepultura, “Territory” mosh part that worked out great.  Matt threw in an Ed Gein drum part during the first break.  I lifted a line from Coalesce, “Simulcast” at the end.

ANDREW WEIGHS IN:  A few years back I went to a very metal-leaning Big Day In Fest in Ithaca.  John wanted to go but he bailed.  While there Andrew from Tombs/Bleak/Twin Lords approached me and wondered why John wasn’t present.  He pretty much got mad because he didn’t show so he wanted me to record a video of him chewing John out and send it to him.  We thought it was so funny we felt we needed to use it on the record and not tell him.

HEADLINES IN RED:  John came in with this ripping thrash riff.  I came up with the simple chorus riff.  The guys added the black metal style thing at the end.  Usually I’d put the kibosh on that, but in this case the song was so fast, thrashy, and violent it worked to just up the ante for the finish.  The lyrics were written right after I’d read “Trust Me I’m Lying” about media influence and sensationalized news.  Then, a few months later, ‘fake news’ enters the lexicon in a way meant to discredit legitimate news.  However, the lyrics I wrote are meant to attack sensationalized news that uses ‘might’, ‘possibly’, and ‘maybe’ to hype up headlines where the actual story is just hyperbole.  Vocal/lyrical lifts:  Rob Fish’s vocal inflection from 108 “Opposition” on the line, “Common sense cannibalism”.  The chorus is a direct quote/lift from Drive Like Jehu’s “Super Unison”.

 I present to you the most ridiculous test press cover of any I've ever made

GREASING THE WHEELS OF SALVATION:  There were some songs leftover from my old band No Idols that we never recorded.  Some of the lyrics and titles were good so I finally gave them a home.  The music is completely different.  John wrote the track, which is slow for Dialysis.  Big Turmoil influence here, at least we thought so.  It’s slow, moshy, and chaotic.  I gave him some direction for the pause in the middle and at the end for just the vocals and feedback.

MESSAGE FROM THE BEATBOX:  We are also obsessed with using samples from “Police Academy” (see the opening of “Mass Die Off Engage”) and hip-hop (see Spazz’s use of grimey hip-hop samples for chaotic effect).  I took the bit from Jonesy and turned it into an answering machine message.

BACTERIAL MIND:  Another unused No Idols title/lyrics, influenced by the Deadguy school of fuck work, kill your boss kind of stuff.  I’m pretty sure this song went through a bunch of alterations before we settled on a very Slayer-esque thrash thing that fit pretty well into our normal schtick.

CANCELLATION PRIZE:  I had a super suicidal moment before writing this.  That’s tough to say.  I wouldn’t say I have depression issues, however, living in a place that totally comes with Seasonal Affect Disorder, plummeting Vitamin D levels, and an almost constant dark cloud in the sky it’s tough to dodge that bullet.  Anyway, I thought I should document it so I know to keep myself in check if need be.  So I wrote the song and thought, ‘this ought to be played on bass.’  With Matt’s contribution it had a sort of Neurosis, “Eye”- meets- Today Is the Day, “Hermaphrodite” slow burner feel, mixed with some Rollins Band ‘lonely guy’ kind of lyrics.  I’m pretty sure I’d be totally OK if we never played this live.  I think it just needed to be made and documented.  Plus, it’s funny that people give us shit for not having a bass player so we wrote a song that was all overwhelming bass and no guitar.  Also, Matt totally wanted to use that Ren and Stimpy ‘history eraser button’ sample somewhere and what better place than a completely morbid song like this?  No matter how serious we can get we have to add levity to things in this band.

MATT SAYS YO:  I had another beat box sample I wanted to use and Matt made this other ridiculous vocal sample so we combined the two into another answering machine message.

LAUGH TRACK FACTORY:  During our recording session for the Bleak split the guys wrote a song on the fly that I had to come up with lyrics for on the spot and we called it “Cat Magnet.”  We did nothing with it.  It was more total Slayer worship.  And early in the writing process for this record we came up with a song I called “Laugh Track Factory” that went through a bunch of revisions before we totally forgot it and abandoned it.  So we brought back “Cat Magnet” and I used the lyrics for “Laugh Track Factory” instead, and that was that.  The opening line is lifted from Sweetbelly Freakdown’s “Pleas To the Action Figure”.  The line, “Cops are out to lunch” is an ode to KARP’s “Bacon Industry”.

SPIT TAKE:  Another Ren and Stimpy sample.  Great stuff.  This is the first song we wrote for the album, basically right after “Abastab” was done.  There was a great collaboration effort on making the chorus an ode to Helmet.  Riffy.

UGLY PEOPLE:  John came up with this ripper.  I feel like it’s a well-crafted simple burner.  This was, lyrically, an all-out vicious attack on the hysteria right after the 2016 election, and written right before we hit the studio.  I kind of thought about how immediate the lyrics were and reconsidered using them.  But then I thought that it’s good to document what’s happening in the here and now.  So years later I can look back and remember that this is the frame of mind that the state of the world put me into, regardless of whether the names and references within the lyrics are completely irrelevant or not.  Lyrically, there is inspiration from Sonic Youth, “Youth Against Fascism”.  It’s also a tie-in to the opening track with the title, and sort of wrapping up that idea/theme of idiots ruining things.  John found a great Bobcat Goldthwait sample (he’s a Syracuse native ya know!) to close things out.  It worked perfectly.  Of course, we had to add the “Firestorm” bit at the end, because, ya know, Syracuse.  It’s now a tradition to do so.

Hopefully that kept your attention long enough to make it down here to this week's deal.  You know the drill- $4 CDs/downloads, and $5 LPs.  You can score that HERE.  But also, there's this deal for all of Dialysis' material- that's 2 7"s, one split 7" and the LP for $22.  So try that on for size!  Get that one HERE.