Build Walls

I've been waiting for this for what feels like years. Ivy is Ed from Brown Sugar on vocals, the guitarist from Deformity and I think a couple of people from Weird T.V. and while I've been underwhelmed by Deformity in the past, Brown Sugar is probably my favorite punk band. Ever. And after missing a handful of shows in Brooklyn (one with Iceage) I'm glad to see the demo is now online. And it delivers. It's hard to really say what Ivy is. It's as garage-y as you would expect from this lineup but the weirdness of all of it and the ease in which they execute it is whats so great about this tape. It's not hard to see that they're pretty much veterans at this shit by now. 

Download

This cassette came out in 1984 and at the time everyone in this band ranged from 13-15 years old. Akutt Innleggelse's young age is also indicative of their youthful spirit. They play a sloppy, noisy and fast style of hardcore with snotty miscreant vocals. Despite all of this, they still have the tendency to be incredible catchy with a couple of meaty riffs and some songs that sound a little bit like some other Italian bands at the time. It's a mess of a lot of ideas but Akutt may just be my favorite band that's filled with 13 year old Norwegians.

Download

Hailing from North Carolina, Weedeater is a stoner sludge metal band of legendary proportions. A band whose grooves are covered in bong resin and good old Southern Comfort they manage to carve their niche in a genre filled with bad Sabbath ripoffs through a crafty culmination of southern rock tinged riffs, vocals reminiscent of a perpetual bong hit, and a thick production. Starting off this album is the all out war of a title track, which includes the lyrics "LONG LIVE DIRT WEED" said with one of the evilest, vilest snarls ever. The guitar and drums are a fuzzy, whiskey soaked groovy force to be reckoned with while the drums pound out violent slams. The vocals manage to conjure up the image of a backwoods, swamp dwelling hillbilly. The song Dirt Merchant is a headbanging. face melter exclaiming "I'm not quite right...fucked in the head..." and it leads into a cover on Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gimme Back My Bullets which is truly menacing and not to be fucked with. My room reeks of weed just listening to this.

Download

Sometimes there are albums that you have to listen to in their entirety. There is no listening to your favorite songs on it, just the entire album like its one big song almost. Modest Mouse had the formula mastered since their first LP. They craft what's almost a concept album and then they engulf you in this very erratic and well written cacophony of angst, loneliness, and isolation that is not only portrayed throughout the vocals, and lyrics, but the all the instruments. This band is one of the few bands I truly think is unified in that sense. They feel each other through the instruments if that makes sense. Its almost a bizarre romantic relationship between all the people and the instruments. The Lomesome Crowded West manages to not only capture the energy, but the passion and the feeling they put into their music, and there is a lot of it. The songs range from folksy and slow that slide on the weirder side to fast and abrasive in an almost violent way (or both); accompanied by Isaac Brock's fantastic wailing lisping voice. The concept of the album, from what I've gathered, is the darker side of America and the isolation and the anger surrounding it which is brilliantly summed up in Teeth Like God's Shoeshine: "The malls are the soon-to-be ghost towns." This album almost makes you bask and revel in the slow degradation of The United States at times with songs like Trailer Trash that seems to pick up at the end with a happy or at least hopeful "everything-will-be-alright" sounding tune. The band explodes on songs like Shit Luck, belting out shouted acapella lines "THIS PLANE IS DEFINITELY CRASHING. THIS BOAT IS OBVIOUSLY SINKING. THIS BUILDING IS TOTALLY BURNING DOWN. AND MY HEART IS SLOWLY DRIED UP." Indeed it is, indeed it is. 

youtube video

I'm going to come clean and say I have no prior knowledge of Destruction Unit. I think they're from Arizona, and I saw a live video that ruled once. That's it. That being said, from the looks of this LP, the LP's name, and what I remember from the live video - I got all I came to expect and more. It opens with this was of almost blown out noise. Imagine the sort of 60's proto-heavy metal songs drenched in feedback. Then it fires into this fast paced slime fest of a song that just oozes psychedelia. In fact the entire album reminds me of 90's noise rock on mushrooms. The song 'Bumpy Road' even invokes a little Alice In Wonderland imagery in my head with its slow, pulse, and echoey, fuzzy, guitar. The vocals mix into the music so well it's like they just manage to stay afloat with waves of deranged noisey rock n roll crashing around them. This might be one of my favorite albums that came out this year. 

Download

I really have nothing to say about the Pygmy Lush side. Listen to a handful of songs and you'll pretty much have their sound pinned down which isn't an inherently bad thing but like who gives a shit. The most important part about this release is the Turboslut side. The Turboslut side of this LP is one of the best punk releases in the past ten years. It's obvious from the very beginning that this is going to be an explosive set of songs as Beck Levy screams "MORE LIKE A CHORE THAN A PRIVILEGE TO HEAR THESE WORDS COME OUT OF MY MOUTH" over a filthy sludge riff. This split actually has some of my favorite lyrics ever. There's something so powerful about the sneers the tackle sexuality and identification and paranoia. Turboslut is dirty, grungy, sludgy, sloppy, destructive, disgusting, fuzzy and sexually-charged and it's one of my favorite recent releases.

Bandcamp

The Presidents Of The United States Of America is a band everybody knows, but forgets about until they're brought up in conversation or they're on the radio. But in reality they're a fantastic band that has their own little niche. Utilizing odd instruments like a guitbass they make rocking and rolling songs with a southern rock tinge at times. The subjects of these songs range from songs about cats, to songs about peaches, to a cover of Kick Out The Jams by MC5. More often than not you'll hear a highschool kid say that their songs are metaphors for sex or some shit but they're really probably not. Also, someone make me admin of this Tumblr again, my email is in the description. 

Here's a youtube playlist

Oneohtrix Point Never has always been an awkward fit for the Pitchfork Sweetheart archetype when his output has been so rich in comparison to his contemporaries. The best part about R Plus Seven is probably the arc that it has and its urgency to constantly move forward. While most other ambient artists are more interested in throwing whatever they can at a wall and seeing what sticks. It also goes great with Dreamcast Commercials.

Download

Ah yes, I remember when I was a young lad just getting into punk and hardcore and delving into the depths of Myspace and finding Plates. I remember adding Feral Kids to my repertoire of labels to buy from when i can use my parents credit card. Promptly after hearing some of the songs and kind words about the band from friends I bought their Taking Pictures Of Poor People 7". I never really listened to much else but hearing this now and thinking back it was quite a descent from this record. Though this record is really good. It reminds me of a somewhat sloppier Rites Of Spring mixed with Unwound. The songs create a unique atmosphere of dark and brooding, mixed with vibrant fast moving colors.

Bandcamp

I'm so embarrassed

Download

Here's a release that gets overlooked/forgotten a lot. The Perdition/Dawn Of Humans split demo cassette. This tape is old. I think it's from 2008 and was recorded at their rehearsal space. If you know Perdition, you know what you're getting here. D-beat raw punk Framtid worship. The vocals are less intense than they would be on future releases but their urgency, aggression and noise is still here and it's proof that they've always sounded great. However, I think it's the Dawn Of Humans side that's really wild. Instead of their signature cavemen-playing-hardcore style, there's a much more metallic side to these tracks. They're a lot thrashier than anything else they've done. I actually prefer this demo to other Dawn Of Humans releases. Those riffs are too fucking cool.

Download