GLOOM-Vokusatsu, Seisin, Hatansha

Hey everyone, remember me? I forgot my gmail password for 3 months or more, but I have it again and I've got a lot to share.

Here's the band that burst my crasher crust (blown out Japanese d-beat) cherry and still remain my favorite practitioner of the genre. Listen to Wargasm and Decay and pump your fist.

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IRON LUNG- SEXLESS/NO SEX

Disclaimer: If you do not like loud, angry, dissonant, and punishing music then it's very likely you won't like this.

Now, first things first... HOLY SHIT! I slept on this band for so long and I have no idea why. I listened to this album on the way home last night and it is so perfect. Not perfect in a broader sense of music, just perfect for what it is. The music made by this two piece is so perfectly untainted by any aspirations of success, popularity, notoriety, or any other desire that can often compromise the important aspects of good extreme music. I really got a sense that these guys are only doing this for themselves. This is pure modern powerviolence with such a perfect dose of harsh-noise and slower-parts to break up the wall of fury. PERFECT! PERFECT! PERFECT!

The songs totally bleed into each other but it's in such a perfect way that it feels like one continuous piece of music. The riffs are so atonal and percussive that none of the songs have an identifiable key or even a melody and alternately, could all be in some magical, imperceptible key that normal humans can't actually hear. The playing is flawless, the vocals are perfectly angry and they never veer too far into metal territory. This is exactly what modern powerviolence bands need to look to. No more angry frat boys taking off their shirts and playing grindcore with more tempo changes and calling it powerviolence. THIS IS POWERVIOLENCE!!! All hail the Iron Lung!!!

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BIG BLACK- RICH MAN'S EIGHT TRACK TAPE

If you are like me and came of age in the late 90's or early 2000's then you no doubt bought CD's when shopping for music. Why wouldn't you? They were fairly cheap (depending on how dedicated you were to buying music and looking for good deals) and basically the only way to obtain the majority of releases. I never gave much thought about why CD's had replaced vinyl or cassettes and my naive little brain was quick to assume that it must be because CD's sounded better than vinyl!

So fast forward to about 2005: I was finding that a lot of music I wanted to buy was either not available unless I got it specially ordered and if it was available, it was really expensive. Black Sabbath CD's were only $7.99 but other bands' albums (like Big Black's) were as much as $20... I bought the Rich Man's Eight Track Tape on CD for $22.99 because I had only heard Jordan Minnesota and knew this was a band I needed to know inside-out. Keep in mind, this was before I could just go online and find a download of any album in about two minutes. When I got home and removed the shrink wrap and the annoying-as-fuck security stickers Touch-and-Go loved to put on their jewel cases I popped it into my stereo and was instantly pleased. I began reading the love-letter to CD's Steve Albini had penned inside the insert:

"THIS COMPACT DISC, COMPILED TO EXPLOIT THOSE OF YOU GULLIBLE ENOUGH TO OWN THE BASTARDLY FIRST-GENERATION DIGITAL HOME MUSIC SYSTEM, CONTAINS ALL-ANALOG MASTERS. COMPACT DISCS ARE QUITE DURABLE, THIS BEING THEIR ONLY ADVANTAGE OVER REAL MUSIC MEDIA, YOU SHOULD TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO SCRATCH THEM, FINGERPRINT THEM AND EAT EGG AND BACON SANDWICHES OFF THEM. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEIR LONGEVITY AS PHILLIPS WILL PRONOUNCE THEM OBSOLETE WHEN THE NEXT PHASE OF THE MARKET-SQUEEZING TECHNOLOGY BONANZA BEGINS."

All analog? Real music media? By now I was not only interested in the mind behind this writing but what he was getting at. I was introduced to the mind and music of Steve Albini from there on. Needless to say, it changed the way I viewed the music industry, music production and obviously, music media. And oh yeah, the music was punishing, fucked up and really catchy.

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SHOPPERS- SILVER YEAR

ugh. Fuck school. This is the debut from Shoppers and amidst the sea of shit we call music these days, this band does something both new and good. It's very hard to describe using comparisons, so I won't. Essentially, this is very loud and very noisy but underneath the volume and static are these really driving and simple punk songs. Ok, so maybe that description immediately makes you think of Japanese hardcore and you're thinking "uh, this isn't new and original at all then..." but believe me, I say 'punk' songs because that's the only way to describe the structure and melodic approach. This sounds different than whatever my description may conjure. Maybe it's the intentional layers of static, maybe it's the female vocals, maybe it's some sort of cosmic force... only Shoppers know!!!

This record is the best one I've heard all year and unfortunately, no one seems to give a shit about it. I can't find it anywhere other than online so I'll have to buy it that way and you should too but if you're poor and would buy it if you could afford it, then here it is for free but please! support this band. Music this good no longer grows on trees

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U.S. MAPLE- LONG HAIR IN THREE STAGES

U.S. Maple are a band that took a long time to make sense to me. I briefly investigated at age fifteen when I first became interested in bands like Shellac, because I'd heard they occupied a similar niche. Well, I fucking hated it, to put it nicely. I just assumed it was another one of those bands that I would never get and anyone who did was simply doing so for the sake of conversation... fast forward six years and hey! shit is great! I'm hearing everything I didn't hear the first time around! maybe my six years of listening have expanded my palette or maybe I've become one of those douchebags I assumed were the only people capable of liking this in the first place. Probably the latter...

Anyway, the music here is not rock. Don't listen to people who call these guys noise-rock. This has way more in common with the jazz-ethos of bands like Harry Pussy than the tight-wound stuff we've come to expect from genre staples like Shellac or the Jesus Lizard. However, while Harry Pussy is all about exploring the extremes of punishing volume and depressing quiet this is more of a musical waiting-game. The 'songs' careen from formless jams and then tease you with a riff and a steady beat for a minute then careen back off into unexplored territory. Also, much like the Doors, no bass!*

...just two guitars. One downtuned and EQ'd for the heavy and the other one tuned for maximum dissonance with the treble in the red. Pretty cool in concept and execution. I'm done talking, listen to this shit.

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*Before you think "what a tool, the doors had an organ!"... this is a Kids in the Hall reference

MAYYORS- DEADS

Mayyors. These guys were very angry, very weird and very... Mayyors? This EP came out in a very limited edition with handmade covers that had actual muddy-bootprints all over them! They also sell for ludicrous amounts of money on ebay. Cool stuff though. Reverb-drenched vocals, Guitars that sound like synthesizers that have been left out in the sun and an absolute beast of a drummer. Too bad they called it quits.

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HARRY PUSSY- WHAT WAS MUSIC?

Harry Pussy rule. They rule a thousand times harder than 99% of musicians that have ever tried or are currently trying to make truly 'free' music. 'Free' from any influence or notion of what constitutes music. This is amazingly spastic, loud and impassioned sound for just two, sometimes three people. Like any good noise-oriented music, it involves a certain amount of patience but once you stop waiting for the chorus, the change in rhythm, the repetition of a part or a discernible melody, the music will really open up to you. I Don't Care About Sleep Anymore


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