bidhardcore.com

Seller zvuk-art has all kinds of stuff up for auction, doing a pretty reasonable job of covering all the genre bases, as you can see. However this is bidhardcore, and that narrows things down pretty easily here. I’m not going to talk about the Beastie Boys “Polywog Stew” 12″, because it’s not actually a good record, just a bad punk 12″ made by some guys that got famous later. It says it’s a Ratcage OG, but it also says made in France, so I’m not sure. If you care, you’ll have to research that. A much better record, one of my Brit-core favs, and one that set a standard: Ripcord “Defiance Of Power” 12″ with bonus “The Damage Is Done” flexi (in fact this is my second favorite Ripcord release). I think one of the things about Ripcord that I like the most is that they were unabashedly influenced by American bands of the early 80’s (SS Decontrol, Siege, Youth Of Today, 7 seconds), but still maintained some Britishness in their sound. Even if they considered themselves mainly drawing from American influences, there are still shades of groups like the Varukers, GBH, Chaos UK, Discharge, etc., that I can’t escape in their sound, which for me is part of the Ripcord appeal. Not that I’m a huge British punk listener, but the cross pollination, it’s good… like a strawberry-kiwi beverage, or the ever popular chocolate and peanut butter snack. It’s also pretty cool they had a song like Drug-Shit, being that they were from an area of the world where that would put them distinctly in the minority. They took a hard line (no pun intended) on animal abuse too, I feel like probably half their songs were about vivisection/vegetarianism/other animal exploitations, which I guess was kind of new at the time. The sound is kind of a heavy blur, with thick, thick fuzz on the guitar and bass, and jackhammering, simple drum patterns. The lack of flashiness in the music actually serves it quite well I think making it heavier and more focused in some way or other. Recommended shredding here…

Here’s a hot mess. Someone’s early 90’s shoebox of 7″s plenty plenty plenty of junk. But there’s some choice picks, like No Comment’s “Common Senseless” (why is this record so hard to come by?),  Trip 6’s one and only “No Defeat No Surrender”(plz don’t speak ill of the cover art), a bunch less remarkable things too like 7″s by Outburst, Against The Wall, Turning Point, early Seein Red, Confrontation. Also there’s 2 10″s, both by kinda weird bands, 1 is the post Brotherhood project, Resolution- foolishly this is not tagged as being pre-Sunn or Burning Witch. For all the bad music Greg Andersen has been involved with, he gets a pass for life for being in Brotherhood. Oh also there is the Demise 10″on Erich Keller’s Off The Disc, in fact it’s a rare variation limited to 100 copies. Demise were around the same time as Infest, and gigged around with some of the weird thrash bands in Cali but never found the same popularity that some of their peers did (I think in part because they took up some nationalist political views later on). This 10″, and their
Furnace of Tension 7″(which I believe is just remixed 10″ tracks?) are their best stuff which is still just OK at best. The clear gem in this stuff is the No Comment 7″. While it’s not an example of a perfect hardcore record (that would be their Downsided 7″), it’s damn near close. Andy Beatie (I think I spelled his name wrong), is one of the best vocalists ever to take up extreme music. Please someone - read this and get the Low Threat Profile e.p. released.  Trip 6 is a cool band probably most remembered for their track on the Revelation “The Way It Is” comp, and somewhat less so for being the band that The Psychos dissolved into. In fact the full recording session for this 7″ was actually a 12 song demo, about half comprised of re-done Psychos songs. Tommy Rat, the final singer for the Psychos has one of the burliest vocal styles in NYHC, kind of transposing the NY-Street vibe onto something that reminds me of Crucifix or some other such band… Trip 6 is hardly a peace punk band, but they have a dirty primitive sound and that’s what I mean when I say this.

Everyone get Swizzy… Recently I pulled out my Swiz “No Punches Pulled” discography and was kind of pissed to notice some skips on it. No sweat I thought, and pulled out my vinyl copy of “Hell Yes I Cheated”. The needle hit the vinyl, and I was shocked. I was furious. The CD sounded SO BAD by comparison, all the life had been sucked out — forced out in the re-mastering stage (and I’ve started to suspect a few things were changed in the mixing or possibly parts were rerecorded). The side by side comparison was almost like hearing a different recording of the same songs. It seems whomever was in charge of the CD project tried to make all the songs sound like they were one recording, and the only way to do this was to heavily EQ and compress them, but to the detriment of the original music. Even the vocals sound more urgent to me on the vinyl of Hell Yes I Cheated. When I went for the side by side comparison of the self-titled 12″ that predates “Hell Yes”, the story didn’t change much. You need these records on vinyl…

Swiz were such a wrong place/wrong time band being from DC in the late 80’s. The main things happening were the self-conscious and socially aware Dischord groups, and hard headed Skinhead and NY derived hardcore.  I can’t say that I was there (well I mean I was in the vicinity, but i was 8 years old), but it’s obvious listening to their music now Swiz doesn’t fit with the moralizing Positive Force crowd, nor the machismo of the tougher bands, in fact they were at times confrontational towards both. They played faster than either one, but kept their songs tuneful and melodic, most of them running about a minute and a half. That’s not to say they were a thrash band though as gear-shifts like Sun-Stroke and Won’t Breathe For You prove beyond a doubt. But what characterizes Swiz most to me, is how fearless they seem now. Shawn Brown’s delivery sounds venomous and focused as it does assured, even when he’s holding a mirror to himself, there’s never a note of doubt. Not afraid to spit in the direction of his former band-mates (Dag Nasty). Not afraid to stand alone between two of the most overbearing, heavy handed scenes to ever happen in the DC area. They were a straight edge band that decided to smoke cigarettes on the cover of their 2nd lp and call it Hell Yes I Cheated. I guess it’s a little juvenile, but if that’s not fearless, especially in the late 80’s, then I got nothing here.  Besides these two 12″ vinyls, there were two 7″s released during Swiz’s run, 1987’s “Down”, and 1990’s With Dave.

There was also the side project Fury, which was most of Swiz but shuffled around to different instruments, attempting to sound more raw. It doesn’t actually sound much different other than the vocals, but they seemed to be aiming for something like an early 80’s HC band, and even put “Thanks to: no fucker” on the insert. I think the recording is from ‘88 or ‘89. Eventually the lineup on With Dave, disbanded as Swiz, and re-named themselves Sweetbelly Freakdown, a terrible terrible name, but issuing a fine fine lp under it.

Today is Monday and this is volume 666, of Metal Monday. Actually it’s just volume 6, but an important rule in Heavy Metal is that if anything is the number 6, you add 2 more 6’s. A footnote is that if it’s a 3 you can also add 2 more 3’s, and if it’s a 9, you certainly add 2 more 9’s. I frequently see records released by “die-hard metal labels” that are alleged to be in editions of 333 copies, and I can only think what a lie this must be as no record I know of has ever been pressed without an over-run, and no pressing plant I know of would press in such an odd number.

REGARDLESS - I Found this Electric Wizard “Supercoven” E.P. which may go kind of cheap because of how it’s listed. It’s the original Bad Acid label pressing, not the repro on Southern Lord. Even though this is technically only 2 songs, and billed as an E.P, it’s actually over 30 minutes (though a lot is spaced out droning), and as good as the best EWiz stuff, (as it came shortly before they released Dopethrone). Of course 1996 saw the release of Come My Fanatics, which is their 2nd lp overall, but the first to really display their trademark sound of saturated guitar and bass, lumbering riffs, distant drumming, and “Lovecraft on Acid” lyrics, leaving behind the fairly classicist Doom approach of their s/t lp. What they came up with was much more sinister, a bit more “punk”, and often scoffed at by those who prefer masturbatory wanking over realism and primal heaviness (yea I just said Primal Heavieness). These are the people posting 4 star reviews of recent Cannibal Corpse albums on Metal-Archives though, so honestly, I feel sorry for them.

I’ve often wondered if Come My Fanatics was recorded on a cassette based 8-track, but even if it wasn’t, I feel as if it had to have been recorded in the band’s dank, smelly, practice hole - it just sounds that way - you can smell the mold in the walls and the ancient dust in the corners. I’ve also sometimes wondered if they just didn’t have a bass drum for that recording, but either way it turned heads, it was exciting and felt imaginative, even when it couldn’t have been more obvious from where it was derived. Most bands could take this kind of attention and run with it. Not Electric Wizard. No, instead they were all arrested.  Marijuana possession, assaulting an officer of the law, and of course armed robbery (each member got booked for one of these things, it was not a group effort). A lot has been made of where the line between fantasy and reality is in music. Electric Wizard never made a big production of being hardened criminals, the primitive recording and delivery of a record like Come My Fanatics no doubt feel thuggish and a bit depraved, but nothing more. There it is though: the bonged out, mean as hell hippies from Dorset have a better wrap-sheet than half the rappers on your TV. Well… I don’t know if I can really call them hippies, but they were at least long haired potheads.  So it was that their follow-up lp, Dopethrone (with a cover depicting Satan, doing what else, smoking dope) was not released until 4 years after Come My Fanatics, which is a lifetime and a half in the fickle and fast moving “underground”. But in the meanwhile, they were able to pull together Supercoven, the auction linked so many words above this spot. It’s maybe the group at their most self indulgent, but also at their best and most inspired.

The “stoner rock” craze has come and gone at least twice over since Electric Wizard started making a name for themselves, and yet 2007 saw the release of  their 6th lp “Witchcult Today”. Though only singer/guitarist Jus Osbourne remains from phase 1 of the band, it tells the same story that all their records tell, using the same phrases they always use like, “Wizard in Black” and “13 Candles” to tell it. It’s still a great story though. The best stories are the ones you want to hear again and again. Hail the Wizard from Dorset.

Today’s post is sort of a clearing house for the other most interesting tapes I spotted on ebay this week. As a result, none of the tapes have anything to do with eachother, they’re about as unrelated as could be.

Firstly is this Gai “Damnation” tape from Japan. It’s not really clear even after consulting a few heads, whether this was released before or after the group had already disbanded, but it is considered to be official, and judging by the fact that the seller is auctioning a legit copy of Stalin “Trash” (among other gems) I would expect it to be an authentic original. Gai are one of the template for so many noize-core groups there after, and sadly, so many embarrassing myspace only punk bands. If you want to know about fuzzed out, dumbed down, noized up Japanese punk, check out www.shit-fi.com. There’s a great series that walks you through the essentials, and has some good downloads.

Next on the list: a Half-Off “Who Writes Your Rules” demo. Billy Rubin was the original ex-straight edge agitator, except he was never smart enough to make the kind of name and career for himself that Sam Mcpheters did. In fact I’d say he was a bit of a dunce, and an average hard core vocalist at best. Half-off is a thoroughly so-so band, but this demo is not bad, maybe better than their lp (with such ugly cover art) on New Beginning. Maybe if the drumming had not been so terrible, and the guitars a little more in tune, I’d cut the album a little more slack. Eventually the guitarist took his own life, and the remaining members formed Haywire, which kind of mixed a muscular post-Flag Rollins Band/Bl’ast rock, with heady Dan O’ type pseudo philosophical lyrics. I always wanted it to be good, but like Half-Off, my feeling is that it never sparked and caught fire.

Continuing on the “has nothing to do with the one before it” line: a Merauder demo for you! Truthfully my interest in NYHC stops before Merauder came on the scene by a year or two. But for post-Madball, post-Vulgar Display of Power, post-Obituary, dusted, gang related NYHC groups, there really is no other. Wait, that’s wrong. The scene in NY was choked with others in the mid-90s, but Merauder are considered one of the lasting greats. For me, it’s too hard. It’s just too hard. But for my friend Rob Buschgans, it’s just right,  and when he says “Hardest Out”, he’s speaking the truth. This demo is infamous because it predates the line-up on their “classic” Master Killer lp, and instead has a very scary dude, by the name of Minus on vocals (not that Jorge, the singer on that album isn’t also extremely scary).

Last up, another “completely unrelated” item, by a band who would probably be bummed to know they were getting mentioned right after Merauder, (but, if I ever cared less…): Midnight (PDX) - demo. This is not to be confused with the superior Midnight from Ohio who have been making records for the past few years. No, this is from Portland OR’s fertile crusty HC scene of the early 00’s. Though it’s one of the lesser-known releases of the time period, I expect that it’s going to be more and more sought after as time goes on, and had this demo been followed by a record, it would have most likely been one that was well liked. Anyhow, I guess the hook on this is it features the guitarist/main vocalist of From Ashes Rise, and I think at least one member of Lebenden Toten as well. The sound is pretty much like From Ashes Rise/HHIG/Tragedy - that epic/arena Crust sound. Maybe it’s a little more metallic, but the biggest difference I guess is the female vocals (though you probably wouldn’t know if no one told you - they’re very burley).

So ends this week of tapes, with the seemingly solid (on Tuesday) concept, fraying into a scatter-shot mess by Friday. Nonetheless, I’ll be back after the weekend, and it shall be business as usual.

I am running a tad later than normal today, but here’s 2 more cool tapes to scope out.  First a real quick one, is this Sex Pistols ”Heyday” cassette on Tony Wilson’s Factory Records. I’m not like a huge Sex Pistols fan or anything (who is?), but this tape comps a bunch of interviews, which are probably more interesting than their songs, and as is customery with Factory in its own heyday, the packaging is cool as hell. It’s a low number in the Factory catalog too (Fact.30).

 The same seller is also offering a Charred Remains tape comp, which is a little weird. To be exact it’s a “promotional version” with no cover, but including the booklet for the comp. To my knowledge most copies do come with this large booklet, despite the description here, so you may be able to obtain a first generation copy of this for less than normal. Version Sound put out a couple of these 60 min. tape only compilations back in the early 80s and filled them up with tons of midwest and east coast USHC. One thing that’s sort of invaluable in these comps existing is finding out about less known bands along with hearing fairly raw offerings by the more known groups on them. Lineup on this one is:

• Articles Of Faith (one of their best sessions, like 5 songs!)
• Die Kreuzen (might pre-date their 7″)
• District Tradition (so unremarkable… kind of like a 3rd rate TSOL)
• Dogs Of War (typical Americanized Discharge influence… pretty good)
• Double O (much better than their 7″ on R&B, might be from their demo)
• Husker Du (live track - sounds like their live lp)
• Misguided (this track is always better than I remember the band being)
• Personality Crisis (never liked this… sounds like rock guys trying to be punk)
• Rebel Truth (sing-songy nursery rhyme HC, almost bad religion-ish)
• Sin 34 (could be the same as Rebel Truth w/ Female vocals, solid thrash)
• Toxic Reasons (classic track, kinda puts the last few bands in their place) 
• UXB (like a bootleg Youth Brigade Cali)
• Violent Apathy (surprisingly good considering their rep as one of the worst)
• Void (a couple tracks from the Condensed Flesh session; CLASSIC)
• 5051 (I guess about as good as Rebel Truth)

Somehow I’m falling into a tape theme up in here. I didn’t mean to but scrolling through a bunch of really good records, these 3 cassettes stood out to me. All most definitely originals (I once shared an apartment with 2 Raw Deal demos). I never took the plunge on buying up original demo tapes but they’re undeniably cool, especially when from my favorite demo tape locale, NYC. I mean it’s no secret I can talk about this stuff more than any other microgenre in hardcore. To be totally exact though, one is from Connecticut, and another Long Island, but Raw Deal is undeniably New York City, Yonkers to be exact. Raw Deal took the blueprint that most of them had already laid out in Breakdown, injected a level of percision Breakdown never really seemed to have, and made a hell of a band out of it. The main thing that always struck me as the difference between the two was the much tighter drumming, and guitar playing, everything is more in synch. Don’t take that as a slight to Breakdown, who I honestly prefer, but Raw Deal, and later Killing Time, just come off more palletable. 

From Long Island, comes the classic Beyond “Dew It” demo. You could make a sound arguement for this being better than the No Longer At Ease lp they recorded just a year later. I wouldn’t, but one could. The level of fleeting youthful anger and uncertainty about the future on display is impressive with how clearly it’s articulated, and despite the lyrics getting a little day/way, slow/go, fast/last, the vocal phrasing is surprisingly well thought out, frequently breaking with and going against the flow of the song. Of course focusing on that would say nothing of the music itself which is shockingly well performed and nuanced, coming across in a way similar to Absolution at their best, but sounding completely and altogether different musically. That of course is still leaving out one important fact: Beyond are all highschool aged on this recording. Seasons was written by a bunch of 16 year olds, think about that. I mean REALLY think about that. It’s one thing to hear a band like the Teen Idles and have someone tell you “they’re only 18 on this recording”. It’s not really a surprise. Beyond at 16/17 years of age, not only were worlds more technically skilled than most of their peer group, but had the compositional skills to lay pretty much everyone not named Gavin van Vlack to waste.

Oh and there’s also the Wide Awake - “Hold True” demo, which is their most well known demo tape. Seriously what am I supposed to say about a demo tape that has an X’d up character from Family Circus on it. The 7″ is pretty good late 80s SxE HC cheese, but like the same way Polly-O string cheese is good. It’s not exactly the best idea to try and subsist off it.

More tapes tomorrow?

Check out this dude selling some original foriegn HC demos. For me the 2 coolest pics are the original Raw Power demo, and this Bastards tape on Propaganda (one side studio, one side live).  Far as I know these are original as could be, and if you’re lucky haven’t been overplayed.  There’s something about the tape aesthetic that is irreplacable. Even though tapes are harder to mass produce than CDs at this point, sound worse than vinyl, or CD, and are easiest to break, bands keep making them. Maybe it’s some kind of OCD thing with how everything fits so nicely into that little plastic case. It’s the ultimate in portability.

belated year end list for 2007:

12”/CD

1. Gauze – 5th cd (don’t have the translated title handy)
2. Black Sabbath w/ Ronnie James Dio – The Dio Years (new songs)
3. Skitkids – Besoket Vid Krubban
4. Iron Lung – Sexless//No Sex
5. Electric Wizard – Witch Cult Today
6. Rampage – Limit Of Destruction
7. California Love – Reaping Whirlwind
8. Invasion – 12”
9. Crow – Hametsu No Haoto
10. Double Negative – The Wonderful and Frightening World…

7”/EP :

1. Framtid/Seein’ Red - split 7”
2. Waste Management – Get Your Mind Right
3. Death Church – Unsilent Hate Anthem
4. Jay Reatard – I Know A Place
5. Iron Age – The Burden Of Empire
6. Wasted Time – No Shore
7. Total Noise Accord -
8. Sex/Vid - Tania
9. Threatener – Bending Of Throats
10. Kvoteringen/Pisschrist – split 7”

REISSUES:

1. Imperialist Pigs - Pork Corkscrew
2. The Stalin - Stop Jap Naked
3. Thergothon - Sog Yogoth demo 12″
4. Talk is Poison - Condensed Humanity
5. Diatribe - demo ‘85 7″
6. Siege - Drop Dead 3rd edition (new song, i gotta include it)
7. Mob 47 - s/t 7 “
8. Despise You - West Side Horizons vinyl
9. The Kids - s/t
10. Deathyell - Morbid Rites

Welcome to another Metal Monday, this being the 5th. First cool thing I spotted for the installment before you, is this original Thergothon demo tape on “Wild Rags”. To be exact, the title of the demo is Yog Sothoth. One of the many rules of Heavy Metal is that if you can’t pronounce something, it’s either taken from an H.P. Lovecraft story, or it’s in a foreign language, (more likely the former though). As I’m not a huge fan, personally I may be wrong, but I recall Yog Sothoth as one of Lovecraft’s “Great Old Ones” who’s since been appropriated into junk like the recent monster movie Cloverfield. Also the frequent appearance of tentacled monsters on Thergothon items tipped me off to this. If you’ve ever read Lovecraft you know that it lumbers along with a sort of grotesque and Gothic fixation on all things unholy and profane. Thergothon really is a band that captures that feeling perfectly with the music on this demo, and their lone album, Stream From the Heavens, which cemented them forevermore as a pioneer of the Funeral Doom genre. The songs move so slowly, that even if it was sped up to double time it would still be slow. The vocals so gutteral it may as well be Cthulu himself speaking to you, and the music so sombre and cold, it feels like it’s coming from that Cyclopian world of misery and doom. It’s very dramatic yes, but also effective, and truly fitting of its title. Really I can’t think of a single band that is more downbeat and dreadful sounding than Thergothon.

Additionally I picked out a couple of Tom Warrior’s better works. First of all there’s this Hellhammer “Apocalyptic Raids” 12″ on Noise. Note that it’s original, not a repress on Combat, or some other bizzaro repress. By many accounts this thing was absolutely reviled by “professional” metal types when it came out. I guess it just took a minute for some people to get it, but boy do they ever now. You can pre-order (i believe on ebay via various distributors) an upcoming, deluxe 3lp boxset of chronicling pretty much all of the known Hellhammer demos, including some not really in circulation. I believe Century Media is at least in part issuing this, so it’s something of a professional production. On the other end of the spectrum you have Thomas Gabriel Ficsher Warrior’s arguably most ambitious, (though no less pretentious - that is always ranked at a 10 out of 10) release, Into The Pandemonium; Celtic Frost’s, 3rd lp (also the original Noise pressing). Now truthfully finding a copy of this album is neither hard, nor a pricey endeavor, but I want to note it because I personally find it to be a compelling and under appreciated album. I can’t say it is the best Celtic Frost album, but I sometimes can say I feel it is my favorite (and I’ve thought about it at great length). I understand it’s an instant turn-off for a lot of people with  this album stating with a cover of Mexican Radio, which I almost don’t consider part of the real album picture, but once Mesmerized kicks in, I think there’s a lot to sink your teeth into. It has a heavy groove, it flirts with melody, but to me anyway, it doesn’t feel like the band losing their sound like you could say they did on Cold Lake. It just brings some of the obvious gothy vibes that are more below the surface on earlier releases, into the light. When I went to see the reunited incarnation of Frost in 2007, they played only one song from this album (Mesmerized), and even after nearly 45 minutes of nothing but material from the first 2 albums, at least half the people watching looked bored or annoyed that they decided to play this number. In fact hardly anyone seems to make mention of how Monotheist, their first release since reuniting, draws as heavily from the goth type atmospherics, and experimental moments on Into the Pandemonium as it does from earlier phases of the band, or for that matter, from groups like Gorgoroth and Satyricon, who themselves were originally followers of Hellhammer and Frost. What I’m trying to say is that anyone who considers Into Pandemonium b-cannon is the kind of person that doesn’t listen to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath because “it’s got too many keyboards on it”. In other words, a fool. Tracks like Mesmerized, and Caress Into Oblivion are where I picture Sheer Terror getting the inspiration to come out and do a number like Roses.

Yo, I’m a little short on time today, but here’s some hott picks anyway.

 First off found a dude selling a Sean John jacket, a SOIA cd, and oh a little 12″ called Breakaway, by one of the finer HC bands ever, Straight Ahead. This is the first press w/ the white DJ jacket and sticker. One just sold for $150, which is effin crazy, but this dude (stupidly) refuses to ship international, meaning that only people with the weak US dollar will be bidding on it. It’s like he opened a cake shop where fat people can’t fit through the door.

Anyway, Straight Ahead made me think of Lärm and I found this store in austrailia with their “No One Can Be That Dumb” e.p. I wish there were more bands that played the kind of tuneless thrash that they played in their day, that were also straight edge, and I was disappointed to hear that the whole band no longer is, (although Seein Red is still pretty ripping in their relatively old age).

Anyhow, after checking the other records for sale by this seller I noticed an OG Hitler SS/Tampax split, which if you’re a real baller, might be of interest to you. Me, I gotta pay that rent check.