Exclusive: Hear the 1-2-punch of new Mums singles âAt All Timesâ and âBellow Outâ
Words: Andy Hughes(Photo Credit: Mike Warburton)
As we reach the vinegar strokes of yet another year, for a good portion of the music world, anything considered worthy of an end of year list placement generally has to be released between January and November. This means that more often than not, the poor sods releasing music in December are left out in the cold. From experience, weâve oftenâŚ
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Words: Ben Forrester
Mums â Legs(Society Of Losers / Hex Records)
Itâs been seven long years since Mums released their debut âLand Of Giantsâ and in that time, theyâve got a new drummer, two thirds of the band got married and one third of the band actually became a Mum!! So with life seemingly heading in the right direction, the trio are ready to explode back into our ears with their longâŚ
America. The Big Apple. Sweet Lady Gumbo. Old⌠Swampy. Home of gigantic portions and gigantic hospital bills, it still remains the nut to crack for UK bands.
Having had a prior tour of the states cancelled due to the pandemic, USA Nails were raring to go for a run of dates this month just gone. We got a little bit worked up ourselves (from home) and asked the band to document their trip.âŚ
Various Artists - âHex Records 10 Year Comp.â Welp, itâs been eight years since this 10 year anniversary compilation was released, but no matter, Hex Records is still going strong, and I enjoyed revisiting this label run-through last night. Featuring a string of catalog highlights and otherwise unreleased material, Hexâs affinity for off-kilter metallic hardcore is without fault. Ed Gein, Achilles, The Helm, Playing Enemy, Cursed, Engineer, and The National Acrobat, all bring the loud, tottering chaos. Melodic post-hardcore flexes a muscle on material from Sparks Lights The Friction and the supremely underrated Prize Country. The Bandcamp listing notes a short zine that went along with this when it was released, I think I gotta track that down.
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Gaytheist â How Long Have I Been on Fire? (Hex Records)
GAYTHEIST, "How Long Have I Been On Fire?" by Gaytheist
Depending on your tolerance for puns, Gaytheist may have one of the best names in contemporary heavy rock, or one of the most annoying. Many of their song titles walk a similar line between whatâs funny and whatâs cloyingly ironic. Their last record, Letâs Jam Again Soon (2017), offered arch fare like âAvenged Seven-minute Abs,â âLetâs Get Astrophysicalâ and âsCraps.â If wordplay and postmodern meta- maneuvers were all the band had to offer, this reviewer would be inclined to take a pass. But Gaytheist has always provided substance that operates in excess of the snarky surfaces. The band integrates melodically inclined noise rock (think Betty-period Helmet), sludgy grunge and the occasional measure of spiky post-punk into exciting, mostly uptempo musical forms. And the jokey stuff? Sometimes itâs not just silly.
In some ways, the bandâs name isnât a pun at all: Jason Rivera, who sings and plays guitar, is indeed a gay atheist. The songs deliver on the political bent you might expect, though always with the imprint of Riveraâs queer sensibility. âItâs Reigning Menâ alludes to the Weather Girlsâ song, long an anthem at gay clubs. But Gaytheistâs tune reconfigures the sort of âreignâ those men exert over the others in their midst. Rivera sings, âI must have control / Over your body / I am a man after all.â Gaytheistâs song doesnât celebrate sexual freedom, it satirizes sexual oppression â of women, for sure, but also of queer folks and of sexual pleasures that move outside of spaces and practices policed by traditional. âBorder Patrolâ invokes rightwing xenophobia as a metaphor for other sorts of border crossings. Rivera yells, âGet in here by any means / Cuz Iâm right here on my fucking knees / Get in here illegally / I have so much to show you.â Itâs an invitation, summoning the repressed libidinal longings that drive so much hatred of queer sexualities. At the end of each line, the rest of the band shouts âFuck yeah!â in hyper-masculine chorus. It sounds like a song from the Fluidâs Roadmouth (1989), but it repurposes the macho swagger of grunge into queer affirmation. Â
The clash of surface values and manifest affect reaches a climax with the albumâs closing track, âDoing Great! Never Better!â The title sounds like a worrisome answer to someoneâs idle question: âHow you doing?â The hyperbole verges on nervy, jittery overcompensation. Anyone hearing such a response would see through it. And the song itself doesnât attempt any ironies. Rivera sings, âPlease donât go, donât leave me here / I ainât got nobody else.â His bandmates Nickolis Parks and Timothy Hoff thump and crunch away under mammoth power chords, like Skinyard covering Cheap Trickâs At Budokan. Just when you think the song canât get any bigger or more fulsome with pathos, it lurches into a lower gear. Its last minute is a thunderous dirge, Rivera and crew shouting, âDonât goooooooooo! / Donât goooooooooo!â No cleverness, no games. Just urgent plea. One wonders what a more emotionally direct collection of songs from Gaytheist might sound like. For now, this record works hard to balance the bandâs tendency toward smart-assery with sharp notes of humanity. It works pretty well. Â
Album Review: USA Nails - Life Cinema (Various Labels)
Album Review: USA Nails â Life Cinema (Various Labels)
London based USA Nails release their fourth album âLife Cinemaâ on May 10 2019 through Dipped In Gold Records (UK), Bigout Records (France), and Hex Records (USA).
In the past year, USA Nails have toured the USA and Europe, played Best Kept Secret Festival [NL], Label Mates [UK] and La Ferme Electrique [FR], shared stages with the likes of Viagra Boys, Cocaine Piss, and Unsane, and recorded aâŚ
Our friend over at Hex Records was kind enough to review the new OLD GHOSTS /LONGEST WAR split 7" OLD GHOSTS/ LONGEST WAR split 7â For a couple years I lived in Buffalo and fully experienced what the locals referred to as âBuffalo styleâ. And believe you me, there is truly a Buffalo style to hardcore, and it survives on this split. Old Ghosts are totally a Buffalo band. Longest War have a few guys from Buffalo in the band, but also a Canadian and a Rochester fella, but it all averages out to Western New York in the long run. Either way, both bands present a very meaty and crunchy taco, not unlike a good midnight meal from Mighty Taco (also Buffalo related). While many bands currently aim for how many beatdowns they can cram into something resembling a âsongâ both of these bands understand the importance of a good fast part, meaningful lyrics, before knocking you down with a heavy riff. I think Old Ghosts overall have the better tracks on this split, but I dig both. If you like Despair, Buried Alive, Fadeaway, or Union you will probably enjoy this⌠and also because members of these bands played in like half the listed groups. (State Of Mind) You can read more of his reviews here http://hanginghex.blogspot.com/2016/04/heres-your-reviews-for-april.html?m=1 Pick up the vinyl here http://www.stateofmindrecordings.com/zencart Listen or download here http://www.stateofmindrecordings.bandcamp.com
