Noise for Zeros

Mind Control 7″ EP
Forward Records, 2015

Sure, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover nor a record by its sleeve, but when I stumbled across this visually intriguing little gem at a local used vinyl emporium, I was curious enough to throw down the $3 price of admission just to see what it was all about. Needless to say, I’ve discovered that it’s a fine document of midwestern hardcore, played on par and with the requisite intensity and fire of genre aces like Bib, Condominium and Q. Asylum-bound shouts, sudden gear shifts and a relentless track sequence glued together by squealing feedback, always poised to strike with snarling bass lines and a properly muscular guitar assert the . Tracks 1–6 go by in a flash while the final track “Trends” locks into a noisy rotation that sounds something like a skipping Big Black record pounding away while a five-star lunatic positively loses their shit next door. It’s an effective end to a memorable ride that leaves a mark.

Le Bal Du Rat Mort EP
Uproar for Veneration, 2012

It’s taken about a year for the five tracks on this deranged EP to saturate into my thick skull, and I’m grateful to finally make some sense of it. While this Belgian band’s own points of reference make sense (Dillinger Escape Plan, Jesus Lizard, Blood Brothers) their sound twists that source material into frenzied shards of raging hardcore served up in obsessively measured chunks that takes their sound into uncharted territory. Their balance of warbling, frayed-at-the-edges guitar and electronics to forcefully calculated, angular song structures make this record a beast sounding something like The Locust playing TFUL 282 covers of Coalesce songs. It’s a spastic, tendon-ripping good time that’s a few notches above the standard issue hardcore record. A new EP is in the works, so get acquainted with KGC before they unleash the next level of hardcore.

DOWNLOAD
Kabul Golf Club – “Demon Days” (3.9mb)

LINKS
Visit the Kabul Golf Club website
Buy Le Bal Du Rat Mort at iTunes

School’s Out 7″
SST, 1987

A few weeks ago, the Southern Lord label released an album of long lost Bl’ast! recordings, Blood!, remastered by Dave Grohl. It’s breathed new life into my love for this band with a collection of tracks from their prime It’s In My Blood era, the creative peak of these Santa Cruz heavies. At the time this 7″ came out, featuring a cover of the classic Alice Cooper song on the A-side and the Germs “The Slave” on the B-side, Bl’ast was often pegged as a Black Flag rip-off. Sure, guitarist Mike Neider killed it Ginn-style on a clear acyrlic guitar, and their SST discography definitely links them to that sound. Yet they need credit for bringing something new to the table with massive riffs that stretch time signatures like taffy and Cliff Dinsmore’s distinctively hoarse bark that gave their version of heavy hardcore a mighty guttural punch. Wisely, the new release (which is basically It’s In My Blood resequenced with a few alternate tracks) includes the song “Your Eyes” from this otherwise novel 45. “Your Eyes” sounds better than ever on Blood! with an additional guitar and a crisp mix that pushes this late ’80s material into a powerful roar that levels anything out there today. Here’s the original version of the track, which still delivers a hella heavy punch and stands as a great example of why this band shouldn’t be overlooked.

DOWNLOAD
Bl’ast – “Your Eyes” (2.3mb)

LINKS
Buy Blood! at Southern Lord Records
Bl’ast on Facebook
Video clip about remastering Blood!

Split 7″
Station Eight, 1994

As much as one can explore the music underground, there will always be treasures buried in time and obscurity. Entire scenes that barely blip on the most thorough subterranean radar may only yield utterly forgettable dreck, but every now and then a snapshot appears that gives depth to a scene that warrants more inspection. Here’s a an example of one such snapshot, this rare split between two Lincoln, Nebraska hardcore bands that captures two overlooked bands doing some interesting stuff at a time you wouldn’t expect this type of noise to be rumbling in a midwestern college town. Judging from the all-lowercase cover art and inside action shot of clean cut kids in band tees, you’d expect Caffiend to be some sort of straight-edge or proto-Emo band akin to Boys Life, Braid, or the Saddle Creek scene that’d soon follow. Instead, their track “Runaway” is an pent up burst of rambling noise skronk accented with intense blurts from a horn section and samples. The flipside by Filter (most definitely not the “Hey Man Nice Shot” Filter) offers more sample-driven chuggage with an even darker, metal sound that Neurosis was perfecting at the time. Both tracks make you wonder what else was going on around these bands and where to hear some more…

LINKS

Posting at TheBandBrokeUp.com

DOWNLOAD

Caffiend – “Runaway”
Filter – “Skinned Knees”