IT'S DONE

It's been a good year or so, so it's about time for another issue of TRANSLATE. This time around we go back to interview style and catch up with the likes of Restorations, Fucking Invincible, Iron Lung, Mission Of Burma, and Nate Newton about growing up, having families (or lack thereof), and trying to still find time to do this 'punk band' stuff/nonsense. Additionally, plenty of rants as well as some comics to boot. 32 pages chock full of reading/viewing material.

I implore you all to check this out and/or buy.

TRANSLATE #7


* PS- I'll be heading down to Gainesville Fest again this week and will have them with me there if you are reading this and going there.  Otherwise, mailorder buddy.

ROCKTOBER REVIEWS

Yes, it's not an October without Rocktober.  I don't care if it's the name of a magazine, or probably some shitty local radio station promotion I'm taking it.  I will always take it.  And with that being said, I'd like to lay down some stuff that hath been reviewed in this month, the month of scary stuff, Fall colors, and hot apple cider.  Get into it or drop out of life.

BLACK GOD, “Three” 7”

If the title didn’t give it away, this is the third seven inch from this Louisville side group.  And like their previous records there are again six songs, each no longer than two minutes in length.  It’s a good rule to keep, and since this band seems to be more out of fun than anything it’s great to see that their quick songwriting doesn’t get too self-involved.  Since it’s basically what was Black Cross rejuvenated that ought to give an idea.  And when you get fellows from Coliseum and Young Widows teaming up for this thing imagine their styles colliding and birthing songs with an upbeat tempo and a love of Wipers jams.  Top it all off with vocalist Rob Penningtons very distinctive yelp, as well as his always thoughtful lyrics and you get another winner from Black God.  (No Idea)

GREAT FALLS, “Accidents Grotesque”

I know I’m in the old minority here because at this point audio violence such as this is a bit dated, but I don’t know how anyone can listen to this and not want to smash all things nearby in fits of miserable rage.  Great Falls have been churning out warped noisecore heaviness for a few years now, and before that two of their three members were fracturing skulls in Playing Enemy.  This is their second full length and it’s just as mean, noisy, twisted, and ugly as anything they have done in years past, over various bands.  I mean, ugly is clearly the proper word here.  If one were to describe the sound of this band in one word it would clearly be ‘ugly’.  Titles such as “God Arms the Patriot” and “Replace Me With Fire” give way to knotted, coiled riffs that bend and sink so low into your skull and then whip you back out of the water with harsh, pained vocals and frantic rhythms.  Noisecore at it’s nastiest.  I will never not be moved by heaviness such as this.  (Hell Comes HomeRecords)

“HENRY AND GLEN FOREVER AND EVER”, Tom Neeley & more (Igloo Tornado)

The original book/comic that launched this was hilarious.  Glen Danzig and Henry Rollins as ‘life partners’ and engaging in blissful domestic life together.  This one is a little short on content, but offers three short comics from Tom Neeley, Mark Rudolph, and Josh Bayer.  Neeley takes a stab at offering up his regular cartoon-ish style crossed with some Jack Kirby homage (in fact, there’s a few Kirby digs throughout).  Rudolph makes light of some recent Danzig foibles in “How the Chores Thrill”.  Finally, Bayer takes a surrealist approach to the pair’s lifelong path-crossing and their complaints through it all.  Pretty funny stuff, but I think I liked the hodgepodge of random nuttiness in the first edition.  Tack on another 10 pages and this thing would have been stellar.  (IWDYComics)

MALLWALKERS, “Shake the Rust Off”

This Buffalo ensemble collects various people from a number of local bands and splays them all out in an 11-piece no-wave funk band.  Imagine some wild alliance of James Chance and the Contortions, Parliament, and Bauhaus all blended together for some repetitive party jams heavy on the horns and somehow sad at the same time.  I don’t know how it works, it just does. However, I cannot see myself spinning this regularly.  It’s pretty weird, but funky and somehow these 11 people are organized enough to make it happen.  (Peterwalkee Records)

PSYCHIC TEENS, “Come”

For one reason or another I just assumed this band was a pop-punk band of some kind.  I couldn’t be more wrong.  Oh sure, at times they play kind of fast and I suppose what they do could be considered punk.  But this has way more to do with goth-y post punk with really wild and grating guitar effects.  Immediately I think of Peter Murphy fronting Year Future or The VSS (minus keyboards), but that might be too obscure a comparison.  Take the vocals of Joy Division, the repetitive rhythms of Gang Of Four and some really terrorizing guitar effects.  And somehow it’s all quite catchy.  It just works really well.  And while some songs have that more upbeat feel they also keep it slow, lengthy, and hypnotic with songs like “Lust” (one of the best here) and “Veil”.  The CD version also includes their first full length tacked on as well, which is just about as good, if not a little weaker on the production side.  (SRA Records)

RED FANG, “Whales and Leeches”

First things first, the band really outdid themselves with how insane this record looks (well, maybe kudos are in order to the designers right?).  It’s like some B-movie poster about some monster collage, except, ya know, way better.  Anyways, on to the music.  I remember this band’s first record and it was quite a ripper.  But I really can’t remember much of it to be honest.  And that was the last I heard of them.  So my gut feeling is they have evolved quite a bit since that time.  I do recall them having hints of Mastodon in their sound, and that remains here.  But combine that with some rather Queens Of the Stone Age style desert rock riffing, tones, and harmonized vocals (evident in the psych-fuckery at the end of “1516” and the stone-y “Every Little Twist”).  Now take those two band references, mash ‘em up, and bake on ‘beer party rock’ and you get a Red Fang soufflé’.   Yes, quite enjoyable indeed.  (Relapse)

SELF DEFENSE FAMILY, “The Corrections Officer In Me” 12”

I highlight this particular release out of the many, many records SDF is consistently excreting into the ether because of a few factors.  First, apparently they wrote and recorded this in a couple days and still came up with three songs that are better than most bands that spend months on compositions.  Second, the design of this record is ridiculous.  The cover is very plain but they managed to screen print all the lyrics onto the B-side of the record.  Really neat idea.  Finally, these songs are great.  “Pop Song Written On the Automall” rolls with a repetitive little riff and Pat’s hoarse vocals riding atop of them until a weird chorus melody comes in with a different singer(s?).  The damn thing has been stuck in my head for days now.  That is usually the sign of a good song.  The two other songs are fairly long, so don’t worry about spending a little extra dough, it’s worth your time.  (Family Drugs)

SPRINGTIME, “South Hill” 7”

The band is described as mixing up Dag Nasty and Swiz.  Between the melodic hardcore and gruff vocals I get where they are coming from on both counts.  The lyrics, though, fall a little bit into the bland Saves the Day field and musically it tends to veer into modern pop-punk/hardcore.  It’s OK though; their hearts are in the right place.  It’s the curse of youth looking up to awesome bands that were tearing it up while the members of this band were still wearing diapers.  What can you do?  It’s all time and place and to expect a young band to fully grasp the energy of older bands they look up to is a tough thing to grasp.  Kudos for trying and half-succeeding.  (TinyEngines)

SORT OF RIOT FEST REVIEW....

I cut out to Rochester early in the morning because for some reason it’s $150 cheaper to fly to Chicago from there than from Syracuse.  I don’t question it, I just roll with it.  Everything goes smooth and I’m in the air and then back on the ground again before I know it.

            I got my crib sheet for stuff to do today and it pretty much goes out the window when I realize easier plans can be made.  The new Chicago Diner is very hip and packed.  Get me a bar seat and feed me too much food.  I’m in over my head before the main course even shows up and move it straight from the plate to a to-go container because I’m way too full to eat anymore.  I walk a good mile down the street to Wicker Park.  I know the area a little bit so I check what I’m familiar with.  Quimbys and Reckless Records fall before my powers of perusal (is that a word?).  I scour bins and books, make serious business of viewing things over and make some astute purchases.  Once complete I figure I may as well head over to Humboldt Park to take in what I can of this Riot Fest thing, or at least get a lay of the land.  Plus, it’s awesome outside, chilling in a park all day is not an altogether bad option.

            I get close and I can hear the strains of Flag playing.  The future is then commodified, reunited, and sponsored by energy drinks.  Actually, I couldn’t see in so I had no idea if it was good or bad.  I could hear “Rise Above” and “Damaged” echoing for blocks.  I wandered up and down the length of the park area as seas of punkers wandered about.  The usual lowly caste of crusty punk beggars loitered in one smelly mass across the street like the bums they are and failed to realize the irony of begging for change to other punk kids.  When you stare into the abyss it stares back at you.  Whatever’s left of Blondie could be heard off in the distance and I took a good walk around the perimeter to get an idea of what was what.

            Soon darkness began to fall.  I noticed some kids sneak in through a gap in the fence before Public Enemy started playing and I figured I could do the same.  I cased the area a bit only to come back and find security guys beefing right in the area I saw the kids go through, so forget it.  I could see and hear well enough from the other side of the fence and caught PE play a weird set that consisted of portions of their songs, and rapping over AC/DC and mash-up’s of Nirvana.  What happened?  Is this the same group of musical terrorists I knew and loved from my youth?  I got a call from my group saying they were bailing out and in good time too.  This was getting weird.

            We headed back to the Wicker Park area to see an after show by the one and only Rocket From the Crypt at the Double Door.  I haven’t seen them since 2001 so this was a real treat for me.  Of course, two other bands had to play first.  Tight Phantomz opened and the legendary Mike Lust was in top form.  Not much had changed in the 15 years since I’d seen him front the massively underrated Lustre King.  The Flatliners were next.  I realized these were the same guys who were holding up the line at the Chicago Diner earlier in the day so my opinion was a little negative from the get-go.  But they played fast, short songs, had respectable stage banter, were quick and to the point, and then got the fuck out of the way.  I can get behind that.

            Waiting for RFTC to start some dude next to me asks me to save his spot so he can take a leak and offers me and another fellow drinks to do so.  Seems reasonable.  In the meantime, some mouth breather literally three of me wide rolls her way through to ‘talk to her friend’ and budges (if getting steamrolled by a house on stubs can be considered ‘budging’) right in front of me where this dude was standing.  Forget a polite shimmy past a person, or even a diplomatic negotiation of making some space.  No.  Your McMansion-sized ass (with two car garage) just plows right through with false pretense like you own the damn place.  I always get some basketball player standing in front of me, or some drunk disoriented push-pitter rolling into me.  This time I get the human personification of Lumpy Space Princess taking up the whole damn front row.  So the dude comes back with a water for me and somehow squeezes into some space.  I finish the water and throw the bottle under this enormous humans feet.  I hope she slips on it and crushes a cankle.  With my luck though she’ll step on it and the pressure will form a diamond or something.

            So Rocket From the Crypt gets on.  Speedos’s stage banter is in full effect and they launch into “Dollar”.  And odd opening pick, but incredible nonetheless.  I’m shouting, jumping, flexing, hooting, hollering, and loving life.  They dive into “Don’t Darlene” and four songs straight from “Scream Dracula Scream”.  Speedo goes on a rant about ND being in a leg cast and how he’s persevering despite having ‘foot cancer’ and kick into “SturdyWrists”.  This all goes on for a good hour, song after wonderful song.  I came into the show tired, and I left feeling like I could stay up another three days.  Heck, Speedo even got the crowd to give each other back rubs before closing the night out.

            We take the train back and it’s nearly 3 AM before I turn in.  The next morning it’s already dreary out before I even leave.  Nevertheless, we gear up and head out to Riot Fest. 

            Braving the cold drizzle we check out Peter Hook and The Light.  Picture this- the bass player from Joy Division covering Joy Division with a scab backing band.  The dude plays bass about half the time while a scab bass player does the majority of the work.  Hook looks fairly fat and tired, gives a lot of defiant rock poses while singing nothing like Ian Curtis.  I guess for a cover band they were pretty decent.

            I bailed about halfway through to see Mission Of Burma on another stage.  Now there’s a bunch of much older guys still making relevant music and doing what they used to do just as good as ever.  So given that they had all of about 40 minutes to play they mostly threw out the well-known stuff, peppered in a few newer songs, and all in all played a good set from across their large catalog.  Surprisingly, the only song off of “Vs.” they played was “That’s How I Escaped My CertainFate”.  Weird.

            Right afterwards Quicksand started on another stage.  They seemed a little out of place in a more punk-oriented fest and played mostly their slower, heavier stuff.  Again, not a long set s a lot of great stuff was cut out.  But I didn’t mind, I’d see them again tonight.  Their sound was a little funny for such a huge stage.  Overall, pretty cool, but not at their best.

            I took a little break to take in the scenery and rain.  For Upstate NY people out there just imagine a punk version of the New York State Fair with four Chevy Courts (no seats though) instead of one.  That’s what this looks like.  Definitely a lot less white trash, but I don’t know, punks can hide that pretty well under enough hair dye.   

After getting soaked and eating overpriced vegan pizza under a tree I took in the reunited Dismemberment Plan.  They still play incredibly well.  Travis Morrison still has a perfect voice and has not lost any of his vocal range.  Hell, they don’t even look like they aged at all.  Were they teleported here directly from 2002?  They played a mix of older songs and some promising new ones that made for a dancey, catchy, and fun set.  Good stage humor as well.

            I decided next to watch a bit of Bob Mould.  Good god, that man can play.  His band is incredible, his voice is still golden, the songs are still blasting.  He was not on my to-see list, per se, but I’m glad I did.  And he looked as if he pulled the entire thing off with ease, like kicking everyone else’s ass was no more difficult than brewing a cup of morning coffee.  The man threw in a number of Sugar and Husker Du songs in the set.  Very fun, very energetic.

            Duty then called because Rocket From the Crypt were gearing up to play.  The song order was switched up a bit from last night, and banter was similar as well, just abridged a little to account for a slightly shorter set.  Instead of repeatedly calling Chicago the Windy (wine-dee) City he kept calling Riot Fest Diarrhea Island like he really didn’t know where he was.  Classic.  Everything else sounded perfect.  He even did the back rub thing again.  The club show was better, but this wasn’t far behind.  Still, no “State Of the Art…” songs either night.

            It was getting colder and wetter and we weren’t sure how much longer we wanted to stay.  We wandered off to see what we could of Suicidal Tendencies.  And that was pretty wild.  I don’t know who all the dudes on the stage were aside from Mike Muir.  I assume it’s either Infectious Grooves, or scabs from Body Count or something.  They sure could play their asses off though and had boundless energy to run around and get wild.  Their stage banner had the whole family of band names going around it so I guess if Infectious Grooves plays they can just turn the banner ninety degrees and all of a sudden it’s an I.G. banner!  Turn again and it’s a Cyco Mike-o solo gig!  Comedy aside, I’d never seen ST and they were really pretty awesome.  Not many bands can insert their name in some way into as many song titles as ST does and still make it sound like a new song.

            At this point it was decided that we were all too old, tired, and wet to go on without some adult-baby nourishment from the elements so we headed back to where were staying, dried off, got something to eat, and then I made my way out to see Quicksand play a show in a place about the size of a shoebox.  I got front row center to witness them play a place smaller than I’d ever seen them play before (even in ‘94/’95 they were playing places bigger than this).  They plowed through about 15 songs, most of which was from “Slip” with a few jams from “Manic Compression”, as well as “Shovel”.  No opener, just them, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.  It was definitely the best set I’d ever seen them play.  I knew I’d never get an opportunity like that again, and even if I did, it wouldn’t compare.

            In the AM it was back to sunny Fall weather and no rain.  I caught the train to the airport, blew through the skies, and was back in Syracuse before I knew it.  Even though I was only out of town for a couple days it felt like a long time.  I guess having some fun experiences like this will do that to a person.

THEY'RE HERE!

The TAXA records have arrived!  I'll start putting them together tonight and sending out orders tomorrow.  And if you STILL haven't ordered it get off your heiney and reach for that nearly empty wallet and devote your last few bucks (and whatever is hiding in the couch cushions) to this awesome record.

TAXA, "Resurrection Year"

Yup.

PRE-ORDER THE NEW TAXA 7"!

Debut 7" from TAXA (members of Damages, React records) is coming out soon. Wanna hear a song from it go here:

http://taxa.bandcamp.com/album/resurrection-year

Pre-order the new TAXA 7" now! And for the next 2 weeks, when you order the record, along with anything else, enter discount code 'TAXAISRAD' and get 10% off your order!

Order here:
http://hexrecords.bigcartel.com/product/taxa-ressurection-year-7

Thanks!

THINGS GET REVIEWED FOR AUGUST!

A pile has stacked up and I have written about said pile.  But in order to cram all that stuff into one post I'm keeping most of them generally short and to the point.  Of course, there's a few I just couldn't shut up about, so take heed and read on. 

ALL PIGS MUST DIE, “Nothing Violates This Nature”

Is it a bad thing that between this band’s last record and this one nothing has really changed?  I mean, they just keep destroying me.  I’m like France, I just keep surrendering.  Boston dudes show a love for Entombed, Discharge, and smatterings of black metal speed, tune down, and blast your face off for a good half hour of nothing but disgust for humanity and a bleak outlook on everything.  Crazy beautiful artwork, unnecessarily difficult to read text.  Grind and punishment.  (Southern Lord)

“DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DECLARE”,  by Kevin Stewart Panko and Justin Smith

A Canadian rock critic writer and regular roadie teams up with an American musician and label owner to write a book about bands trying to cross the border.  Well, they’re not so much writing it as they are relating other bands tales of border woes and triumphs, and occasionally interviewing them and each other.  See, for some reason, crossing between the US and Canada is typically a breeze if you’re in a car.  But the moment bands in vans try to cross it suddenly becomes an international incident comparable to smuggling uranium.  Why this happens, no one knows.  The writers hope to ascertain this.  Instead, they mostly get lots of wild tales from bands mostly of the metal and hardcore persuasions.  Some times it gets very redundant (some of the same people relate their tales repeatedly), but overall it’s really entertaining and will make any band thinking of playing outside the borders think twice before they decide to forget their passport.  Typos abound, get an editor.  Read anyways and beware the latex glove.  (Vitriol)

DRUG CHURCH, “Paul Walker” LP, “Your Life…” 7”

I’m a 90’s sort of guy and I can’t pretend I’m not.  Drug Church seems to have been specially catered to the demographic of me.  Cynical Drowningman-esque song titles?  Check.  Snarky vocals pertaining to a lot of white trash and shitty suburban go-nowheres with catchy choruses of “Crush ambition!” and “You get less because I need more!”  Check.  Chunky, thoughtful, and considerably rocking post-hardcore with melodic nods towards Seaweed, Farside, and later-era Snapcase?  Oh, big check.  The LP is excellent through and through and hard to pick a favorite song (maybe “Clifton Country”, maybe “Attending a Cousin’s Birthday Party”).  But the 7” is a great one-two punch of a pair of heavier leaning songs and some of the ugliest artwork I’ve ever seen on a record.  (LP on No Sleep, 7” on Secret Voice)

HERO DISHONEST, “Alle Lujaa”

Cult of Ginn lifetime members here, Finland chapter.  The A-side goes at two speeds- fast and faster.  Side B has that whole “Process Of Weeding Out” feel to it.  All the songs are in Finnish, but rejoice, the fun and twisted lyrics are translated into English as well.  Black Flag style hardcore in the lively fun way, and not as much the hateful, spit-on-the-crowd way.  I actually can’t imagine Finnish people being mean enough to want to spit on others anyway.  (PeterwalkeeRecords)

JAPANESE FURNACE demo tape

Hard riffs, pure noise recording.  Is it possible for deconstructionist basement hardcore to not only sound like harsh noise, but to also sneak in primitive beatdown riffs as well?  You be the judge.  I can’t get over how the layout on this tape looks like a Discordance Axis release.  Get grimey.

LEMURIA, “The Distance Is So Big”

Lemuria have been at it for quite awhile at this point, and in that time their song writing remains the same- clever and quirky indie rock with some nods to pop punk.  The real changes are a greater focus on the vocals and using them as more of an instrument, especially with drummer Alex Kerns and guitarist Sheena Ozella collaborating more and more, instead of only one of them handling each song.  Another noticeable change is the production getting cleaner with each recording, moving away from being a little rough around the edges to being very crystal clear.  I like it.  A great collection of more awesome and catchy songs.  Get awkward and embrace it.  (Bridge Nine)

PHANTOM GLUE, “War Of the Light Cones”

Boston sludge masters return with a second LP filled with more of their depth-charge riffs and low-end rocking.  I have to say their first LP was a bit more memorable, but this one has a nicer recording/production on it.  Same ugly artwork at work again on this LP.  Looks like one of those first year of college, ‘finding my style through abstraction’ pieces that you hide in the attic years later and cringe over.  Musically though, pretty heavy.  Worth a listen.  (Black MarketActivities)

POOR LILY, “Vuxola”

The band’s name suggests they have a contract to gig weekly at some singles bar and that, any day now, they’re going to ‘make it’.  Their sound is probably too weird for that though.  It’s a real punk mish-mash of stop-start riffs, odd timing, some Jello Biafra school of nutty vocals, and old school NYHC punk.  I bet it’s fun for them.  As for me I’m not really moved by it.  (self-released)

SOKEA PISTE, “Ajatus Karkaa”

Another band out of Finland doles out a new record, which is more of an EP anyway.  In fact, it’s a re-issue of a 2011 recording.  I remember their last (most recent) offering as being a lot more raw, punk, and fast.  This has a heavier vibe to it, fairly beefy tones, and a little slower delivery.  It’s  still pretty cool though.  Weird nervous artwork adorns the cover, dark punk pulls you in, and they even do a Die Kreuzen cover for kicks.  (Peterwalkee Records)

TILE, “You Had a Friend In Pennsylvania”

I want to make friends with this Pennsylvania band, but I’m afraid they might spit on me with their ugly sounds.  Let me engage you with sweet lollipop dreams where Floor (get it, Floor?  Tile?  Home improvement enthusiasts take note), Pissed Jeans, and old Melvins riffs snuggle up together to make sweet, sweet, sludgy noise forever and ever.  Sounds like a fantasy land for noiseniks huh?  Yeah, well, I’m enjoying the shit out of this record and I implore you to do the same.  Killed by riffs.  (Limited Appeal)

TRUE WIDOW, “Circumambulation”

I don’t indulge in drugs, but if I did, this would be the perfect record to sit on a porch on a nice breezy day in a rocking chair and smoke a joint…  neighbors hoighty-toighty opinions be damned.  You just relax to this and take in the tones of the guitars, the deep lean pulse of the drums, soothing vocals, and fuzzed out bass.  True Widow are a sort of stoner rock band, leaning a bit on the shoegaze side of things.  While their past albums have felt a little fuzzier, a bit heavier, this takes a decidedly more minimal relaxed approach.  I have to say I’m fan of past efforts more, but this one ain’t too shabby either.  Now to go sit on my porch and think about life and stuff.  (Relapse)

NICE FRIGGIN' INTERVIEW!

Yours truly was the subject of a great interview that my man Eric Scobie posted up on his site regarding different record labels and how we operate.  I know it's a Friday night, but if you losers are anything like me this is the sort of stuff you busy yourself with on these wild weekend evenings.

Here's the link.  READ ON!

Enjoy.