Sunday, June 21, 2009



MAKARA



from Cupertino, CA (Northern California) active in the late 90s. They played an extremely brutal style of with female vocals and highly distorted/noisy guitars (including bass). It featured James and from Mohinder. Other members later went on to Yaphet Kotto (Chris), Dosage & Usage/Dmonstrations (Nick), and other bands in the vein of Makara: Ruhaeda (Matt and Nick), Jenny Piccolo/The Anasazi (James and Chris), Welcome the Plague Year (Kerry Jo).They put records out on Witching Hour, Level Plane, Hymnal Sound, and released discographies on the Spanish based Carmen Diablo (C.D. version) and Blood of the Young (vinyl)



D/L


ASSHOLE PARADE



Fifteen songs in twelve-and-a-half minutes! Kickass, no bullshit, hardcore thrash! "Say Goodbye" collects the two lost AP recording sessions done in the late 90's. Half of the songs feature Drew DeMaio (STRIKEFORCE DIABLO, FLOOR) on second guitar, and half feature Matt Sweeting (TRUE NORTH, STRIKEFORCE DIABLO). All songs have the AP staples: blasting drum beats, thrashing guitars, and scathing lyrics. AP pick up where their legendary split LP with PALATKA leaves off, delivering hardcore that blends the anger of CITIZEN'S ARREST with the speed of early Slam-A-Ham bands like NO COMMENT and CROSSED OUT.



SAY GOODBYE



ANEVILFOREACHMAN




Intense Dutch screamy hardcore




SYSTRAL









ACHEBORN



Bremen HC, Their discography includes (The) demon love 7”, the split w/ Systral and “Tuesday is dead” lp/cd (1999, Trans Solar Records), i don’t know if they released anything else, some members later joined The Data Break.


SYSTRAL


Ultra intense, infernal, sick and brutal HC-attack from Bremen, Germany… with a deathmetal-edge and exceptional soundsamplings.



SPLIT

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

quest for quintana roo




Yet another band I like but know bugger all about!






The Birds Are Spies, They Report To The Trees



The Birds Are Spies, They Report To The Trees is a Norwegian Emo band, featuring members of Catena Collapse.



BEST DEMO EVER?



Kill The Man Who Questions




Kill the Man Who Questions was a punk rock band from Philadelphia, PA (USA). The group played its first show in October 1996 and its final show about 20 blocks west in 2002, having released a full-length album and several seven-inches, touring the U.S. and Europe in between.







ZEGOTA





Zegota is an anarchist hardcore punk band originally from Greensboro, North Carolina, formed around 1996-1997. The name alludes to Żegota (the polish word for ‘unity’), or The Council to Aid the Jews, a Catholic group from Poland, which saved the lives of many European Jews during the Holocaust. Their albums have been released on a diverse list of labels, such as CrimethInc, Stonehenge and Amor y Lucha. They have released 4 (5, including the demo) records this far, they are:- A demo tape (199?)- Movement in the Music LP/CD (1999) - Namaste CD (2001) - Reclaim! LP/CD (2004) - Self-Titled 7” (2005)The members are currently engaged in lots of things which have nothing to do with playing music, but they are planning on beginning work on another album in 2007. The band is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden, and Greensboro, North Carolina, and Durham.





RECLAIM



WHAT PRICE, WONDERLAND?





WPW? are a post-punk band from Warwickshire, UK, but nowadays, are spread between Nottingham, Studley and London. Been going in some form since 2002. Influenced by: 80s/early 90s Emocore, 80s Hardcore, Indie Rock, post punk… etc…





Thirty With A Wink



The Hal Al Shedad





Atlanta trio The Hal Al Shedad blends sheer unbridled chaos with thoughtful introspection, revealing a remarkable artistic depth that goes beyond simple hardcore fury. While taking plenty of cues from such truly angry bands as The Monorchid and Unwound, The Hal Al Shedad also goes on arty Sonic Youth-style tangents, and sometimes even explores the dreamy side of indie rock in the manner of Seam’s early records. It’s an electrifying combination that will make your every neck hair stand on end. The threesome has released a seven-inch, “Running and Falling,” and a pair of LPs, their 1997 self-titled debut and 1999’s Textures of Tomorrow, featuring “Machine Gun” and “Walking Blind Dancing.” While The Hal Al Shedad offers plenty of guitar pyrotechnics and vocal anguish, it’s their ability to create tension by inserting rambling, oddly peaceful interludes between the moments of fury that makes them such a mature and complex talent.





S/T



SWITCHBLADE





In the cold winter of 1997 turning to 1998, Switchblade slowly took form as a quartet with 2 bassplayers who both screamed their lungs out. A 7” and a few extra songs for a split 7” were recorded with Fireside´s mastermind Pelle Gunnerfelt (Fireside, Hives, Breach) in the spring of 1998.In March 1999 Switchblade recorded their groundbreaking and very well received 10”. This time with a newly recruited 2:nd bassplayer/singer. The 10” was recorded by Breach´s mastermind Anders Ekström. The 10” turned out very chaotic and fast in tempo. A few months later a few more songs were recorded by Anders Ekström and those songs ended up as the split 7”´s with Cult of Luna and The Jam Session. Then in late 1999 Switchblade took the decision to go on as a three-piece.During 2000 and 2001, switchblade recorded 2 albums together once again with Breach´s Anders Ekström turning the knobs. Switchblade toured both Sweden (with Cult of Luna) and Europe (twice) in support of the albums.Then in March 2003, Switchblade recorded their third selftitled full length album. The album was a 6 song, 47 minute sonic journey that ranged from subtle ambient soundscapes to monotonous, dark, instrumental passages to full on stoner flirting, yet epic heaviness. All with just sparse use of vocals. Previously having had some problems in truly capturing their sound and dynamics on tape, Switchblade turned to Carl Wikman at EAR Studios who is known for his big and true to nature sounding recordings. The album turned out to be the most powerful and focused material so far, and showcased a huge leap forward in the never ending evolution of Switchblade�s sound and songwriting. The album received great reveiws both in Europe and in the US, where the album was released by Jake Banon´s (CONVERGE) Deathwish/Icarus imprint. A 4 week European tour in support of the album took place in early 2004 and a shorter tour took place in the summer of 2004 based around an apperance at the legendary Ieper Festival in Belgium.In May 2004 Switchblade wanted to try out some new song ideas and approaches so they packed the gear and headed down to the Mission Hall studio located in the countryside in the south of Sweden. The weekend worth of recording together with Mattias Oldén from LOGH resulted in a 2 track 7” with guestvocals and guitar, on one of the songs, by Mathias Friberg of LOGH. The 2 songs showed, by far, the most dynamic Switchblade material to that date.Come late summer of 2005, Switchblade packed up their gear and headed down to Mission Hall Studio once again. Having felt so relaxed and enjoyed working with Mathias Oldén, the choice was easy when picking a studio for the recording of the fourth selftitled Switchblade album. The 43+ minutes album consists of 2 long tracks and sees the band more dynamic than ever before. Insted of a constant wall of sound and riffing, every riff and every tone get alot of space and time to “breathe”. To add further bleakness, beauty and depth to the album there´s guestvocals by “E” of swedish blackmetal band WATAIN and once again, guestvocals and guitar by Mattias Friberg of LOGH.The tempo of the songs has slowed down for each release and the vocals has taken a more subtle place in the music and more instrumental passages has been brought forward to create a very dark and almost instrumental soundtrack to the apocalypse.Switchblade are currently working on their 5th seftitled album to be recorded in the autumn of 2008.





Early Discography

Sunday, April 19, 2009







SHIKARI



Spring 1999. Mark and Maurice decide to start a new band beside Office Killer. They ask Michael and Bas to join. The name SHIKARI (Japanese for bodyhunters) makes it appearance. Obvious musical influences from bands such as Mohinder and Union of Uranus. 2000. First gig in local youthcenter Simplon (Groningen, Netherlands) in January. In February the first recordings (8 songs) are made in the Kuschelrock Studio in Bremen, and are released on Deadlock Records in December as the “Robot Wars” 10”.2001. February: six songs are recorded in the Kuschelrock for a split 10” with Seein’ Red from Amersfoort. Another 3 songs for extras (the song Biela for a Spanish compilation, an Unbroken cover and another). June: 4 songs are recorded in Kuschelrock for a 7” EP to be released on Throne Records from Spain. September: Shikari joins AÇÃO DIRETA from Brasil on some dates in East-Germoney and Czech Republic. On 25 November is recorded 1 live-song (Ons Land) for the “Maximaal Onthaal” compilation CD on Royal Blood Records from Amsterdam. On 14-15 December the complete 10” (split with Seein’ Red) recording session is re-recorded because of deletion of the original tracks… 2 Songs won’t make the eventual release. 2002. April/May: UK Tour with Seein’ Red. Due to constant delays of the split 10” release, Seein’ Red and SHIKARI decide to make a special UK tour mini-CD. This CD contains the Shikari and Seein’red songs that were especially recorded for the (canceled) Spanish compilation. May: the planned 7” EP on Throne Records is withdrawn and will be released by Level Plane from the USA instead. August: the split 10” with Seein’red is released. November: the 7” EP is released in the USA. The European pressing will be done by Nova in 2003. 2003. The European release of the 7” is canceled because of bad pressing/quality. The US pressing will not be repressed. Instead, a CDEP will be released with the same songs and a videoconcert (look here for one song). March: 3 songs are recorded in the Kuschelrock for a split 7” EP with SIN DIOS on La Idea from Madrid. October: The CDEP gets officially released.2004. The split 7” with Sin Dios is postponed. 2 songs will be used for a split 7” with Phoenix Bodies instead, and is released in May by Electric Human Project. 7th and 8th April recorded 6 songs for the SIN DIOS split 7” and LOUIS CYPHRE split 9”. In August the “Your Revolution Is Not Much More Than A Piece Of Paper” tape is released by Antagonia Difision/Rebirth Records in Chili. In september the “1999-2003” compilation CD is released on Level Plane Records. The songs for the SIN DIOS 7” are used for a split 7” with ACAO DIRETA from Brasil. 2005. The “1999-2004” tape is released in Malaysia. Shikari split up in January and the final gig took place on 7th May in the Simplon venue (where also the very first concert was done). The split 9” with Louise Cyphre from Germany came out in July. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Bas is now cooling down in a bluesband, Maurice jamming away in some garagerock and stoner projects, Mark still trying to work out a serious band and Michael going strong with Makiladoras.July 2006 update: Maurice is playing guitar in a new band called MARAT. Mark is singing in Grinding Halt. Makiladoras did their final gig in June so Michael is bandless for the moment. December 2008 update: Rumor has it that they might come back together and play at the Cry Me A River Festival in Germany in 2009 SHIKARI Line-Up Bas - bass (ex-Disengage, ex-One Day Closer)Mark - vocals (ex-Office Killer, ex-Orwell Nation, Grinding Halt)Maurice - guitar (ex-Office Killer)Michael - drums (ex-Puinhoop (voc), ex-Bloedbad (voc), ex-R.O.Conspiracy (voc), ex-Catweazle, ex-Tuco Ramirez, ex-PCP, ex-Makiladoras).



taken from last fm (links work)





Robot wars 10"





THIS SHIP WILL SINK


ex-members of The Assistant, In First Person, and others. technical, passionate, emotional metallic hardcore. some of the best in the genre.


s/t cd




Ethel Merserve




“The now defunct Ethel Meserve hailed from State College, PA, where they established themselves as a powerful yet soothing four-piece rock group. Owning a debt to Kerosene 454 and June of 44, these guys arrange the typical guitar, bass, and drums, and add a soft textures of clarinet, twelve-string guitar, tambourine, and some poetry to create their own realm. Ethel Meserve released their first full-length record, The Milton Abandonment, in November of 1997. Though the record contains just six songs, each is like a meandering path clocking in at seven minutes per. The band broke up in 1998 and Tree issued the posthumous Spelling the Names in 2000.”




ds-13




D.S.-13 (Demon System 13) were a hardcore punk/thrashcore band hailing from Umeå, Sweden, formed around 1995. The band existed to 2002.









POLARIS









BABY HARP SEAL








"my first band was called baby harp seal, we played from 93 - 96 when we broke up because of egos (mostly mine). we played kind of emo music, but not really - we were into hoover and fugazi and heroin, and two of us had a led zep fixation. we did a few 7 inches and one album, which i still listen to now and then. some parts make me cringe, and some parts make me nostalgic. with hindsight, i’m quite proud of it. it was what it was, some lads in their early twenties being a bit pretentious. sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. I was gratified to see on last fm that someone is still listening to it on their computer - i don’t know how it got there because we only ever released vinyl. happy days though, happy days… As someone else wrote above, it put me on the path i’m on now, nearly fifteen years later, and has, so far at least, given me a nice, if impovershed, life.” seth




Polaris were Leeds based and existed from 1993-2006. They were a seminal experimental hardcore act with unusual song structures and a preference for complicated rhythms and beautiful gutiar interplay. They produced 2 full length albums as well as a few single and compilation appearances. They excelled live where their obsessively good musicianship and re-interpretation of their own material ensured that their gigs were, more often than not, outstanding.







1905





1905 was a political melodic hardcore punk band from Washington, DC that started in 2000, played a few shows, had a line-up change in the summer of 2001 (adding a new bass player to the mix), regrouped and reworked some things, and played rather consistently since October 2001 until they broke up. The lyrics address the politics of our everyday lives and how the individual plays an important part in the greater scheme of things. These lyrics are conveyed through female and male vocals. The vocals go between singing and screaming. The music has a distinct feel to it and there is definitely a great deal of emotion poured into it. 1905 now has a full length CD called Voice on Exotic Fever Records.





7" (Voice)



.FUCKINGCOM





Stampeding hardcore charge-waltzing back and forth between stripped-down, straight-ahead thrashing to pensive mid-tempo breaks and edges sheened with melody and discordance. Vocalist Lyz and guitarist Kevin were in Antischismand Initial State and this served as a precursor to Kevin forming Guyana Punch Line.





7" ep

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Vollume 11-Prole Art Threat 12" and side of Gasp split7"

Prole Art Threat 12"
"Six of the songs were recorded live on the radio back in 1997 (great sound quality), while the last song is a studio track recorded in 1999. Most of Volume Eleven members were once in a band called Honeywell, and while there are some similarities Volume Eleven is certainly way more on the audio freak out tip" -Hand Held Heart

Gasp Split 7"
One of those ultra rare kill you mother and 4 orphans for it Witching Hour Records releases. I was lucky to borrow it from a friend to rip the audio. I think when we saw this in the record store we played rock, paper, scissors for it.(stack-C)

d/l

Saturday, March 28, 2009



DON KNOTTS



Hardcore/punk from Michigan. Fantastic.



Black Day ForMayberry
VOLUME 11


Any info on this band would be cool.








THE ROMANCE MORGUE


The Romance Morgue features members of Usurp Synapse, Mara’akate, Racebannon and Chris Williams of Witching Hour fame. The music is snappy, heavy and groovy.


CDEP



GOETZ GEORGE


crazy grinding german hardcore from the late 90s with high pitched screaming and keyboards.




DAS OATH


Das Oath have been controversially tearing up the hardcore scene for years, making themselves the ‘enfants terrible’ of their own scene! The band’s inception in 2000 started with the self-released first single on Youth Attack Records, Gloom Records and Coalition Records, who also recently released a discography CD of all their odd and nearly impossible to find vinyl material up to their debut album. Das Oath have constantly been pushing their own boundaries and their vision on punk, by subverting their art through their record covers and layouts.


Thursday, February 26, 2009



YACOPSAE


The Band was formed in August 1990 in Hamburg when Stoffel (guitar/vocals) met Pattex (drums) painting his room in a squad.After a small talk both decided to start an ultrafast Hardcore band, because their old bands had been split up.The most inspirationcame from bands like “Lärm”, “Electro Hippies”, “Nun-Fuckers”, “Septic Death”, “M.A.F.”, “Tin Can Army”, “Vorkriegsphase”, “(old) D.R.I.”, “Atavistic”, “Crap Society North”, “Rapt”, “SM-70”, “Napalm Death”, “Satanic Malfunctions”, “B.G.K.”, “S.O.B.”, “Active Minds” and some more…After a couple of months they decided to choose the name “YACÖPSAE”, which means the plural of the name “Jakob” withan unusual way of writing, because they don´t wanted to have a “brutal” name like most of the so-called “Grindcore/Thrash”-bands(set examples for yourself in this space…foolish Goofy-Grinders).After many intense rehearsals they entered the stage for the first time in January 1991. It was horrible, but thecrowd liked it. In April 1991, they recorded their first demotape with 21 songs on it. To support the demo,they made some gigs in the area of Hamburg during the next months. In the End of 1991, the drummer was toobusy with his job and he didn´t liked that style of music to much anymore, because the music became faster and morebrutal. So he decided to leave the band in Februrary 1992. Stoffel asked his friend Emu, who played in a localPunk/Hardcoreband called “Derider” (RIP), if he would join the band and he did. After several months of practising 25 songs,the band did their first gig with the new line-up in September 1992. It was horrible as well but the crowd liked it again. Unbelievable,but really true.From now on the path is similar to other bands, they have played a lot of shows and recorded several records as youcan read on the other pages. They made two tours in Germany with Active Minds in May 1995 after they played first in anothercountries (Austria/Belgium/Holland) in January 1995.In January 1996 Frank from another local Punk/Hardcoreband called “Sargnagel” (RIP) joined them to play bass. They werequite happy without bass guitar, while the main influences during all the time were two-member-bands like “Active Minds” and “SatanicMalfunctions” but somehow it was much better and offers more possibilities to them in the music. After more shows they recorded theirfirst own CD/LP in October 1997 called “Fuck Punkrock… This is Turbo-Speed-Violence!” which was released Winter 1998.




YEAR FUTURE



YEAR FUTURE was founded in early 2003 in Los Angeles. Originally comprised of vocalist Sonny Kay (THE VSS, ANGEL HAIR), guitarist Rockey Crane (DEAD AND GONE, CREEPS ON CANDY), bassist Sam Ott (THE FUCKING ANGELS) and drummer Jim Andersen (of THE PATTERN, TALK IS POISON), the band’s new lineup now includes bassist Pete Lyman (ex-LIVING SCIENCE FOUNDATION) and drummer Chris Hathwell (also a member of the band MOVING UNITS). In December 2003, the band issued their debut self-titled EP on GSL, including the tracks “Some Bodies” and “Each Others Futures”, which had evolved to become something resembling crowd-pleasers over the course of countless shows that year. In August 2004 the band played a brief string of shows across the U.S. before embarking on a 6-week European tour which took them as far and wide as Spain, Hungary, Norway and the UK, and then returned for another trip back across the states. The follow-up EP,”The Hidden Hand”, was released on GSL in September. Both Ott and Andersen departed at the end of 2004. 2005 began with YEAR FUTURE in the studio recording a cover of the BIRTHDAY PARTY track “Blundertown” for an upcoming Three One G compilation. The long-delayed YEAR FUTURE album was recorded in autumn2005, featuring the new and improved lineup.



CDEP


TAKARU


Their name is taken from the Kurt Vonegut book, “Player Piano”. Its the Brahtpurian word for “slave”.Members of this band went on to be in Burial Year and Horn Of Dagoth.





FRANKLIN


These four men from Philadelphia, PA bring their own unique style of multi-genre rock to the kids of the world. Take the spirited and soulful sound and then dub and mix it with the angst of punk rock. Blend in the intelligence and vague political overtones of the contemporary Washington D.C. scene, and you get this fine tuned slab of rock from Franklin whose ‘97 release Building In A and E is on Philly’s own File 13 Records. “Major Taylor” is from a seven-inch of the same name and “Inventor of Loud” is from their double LP/CD. Both of these are on Chicago-based Tree Records.


Friday, January 09, 2009

DEMO'S




OMAYRA SANCHEZ from Chile.




Omayra Sanchez is a band of Valdivia Chile, which starts in mid-2008, through changes in a former band name Murderotica. You can say it's the maturation stage of it (are the same members over a new guitar and vocals). This band was created in order to express the dissatisfaction felt by the negligence on the part of people who today leads the world. Expressing its ideals through screams torn, chaotic sounds and harmonics, which brings up a very chaotic scene and moved. The name "Omayra Sanchez 'comes from a girl lying dead in the mid-80's by an accident climate of his city (Armero) in Colombia. She remained buried in the mud for 3 days or more, with his family under his feet. The Colombian government did nothing to save what is in three days, while the press recorded his agony, she said his last words, which was shown on television. As we realize the indifference of the world at large. Well, it is understood that it is a way of expressing hatred that lead them against members of a superficial and indifferent to the misfortunes that affect our society every day. This band is completely self and supported by members. You could say that they have influences from bands such as Her Breath On Glass, Last Forty Seconds, The Vida Blue, The Khayembii Communique, Ampere, Arroyo Seco, 12 Aullidos, Tristan Tzara, Case Upon The Capitol, Orchid, Jerome's Dream, Love Lost But Not Forgotten, among others. It's similar to what was Murderotica, just a little more melodic and without the touch of Grindcore they had before.









CANDY CUTTER from the U.K.




I don't know much about this band but I hear a What Price, Wonderland? influence in there somewhere - which is always a good thing in my book. I hear a bit of Bob Tilton and The Vidablue as well.


"as for a bio, our story is unremarkable: we all live in cornwall and met on a music message board. after a break-up of a few local bands we were in, an SOS was sent out and we all kind of came together. the blueprint was to make noise, and as much of it as we could. being pretty much the only people we knew who were into this shit (they do exist but they usually leave) we met up, stuck Hoover's Lurid Traversals 12'' on, smoked out and spoke about hardcore, eventually leaving with a band or a plan or something. recorded a self titled demo - took a break - recorded an EP with a slightly different sound. the plan now is to try and find someone to put the EP out, that'd be nice, no idea if it'll happen, and start on that road that leads to dead hookers and hell. being a new band, we havn't played many shows but after a couple changes in circumstance (life, and me moving to London for uni) we expect to hit the road running by the end of October. we'll play anywhere if we know there's a semi-receptive audience, cornwall isn't a punk-rock playground. it'd be nice to think there are people who might even remotely dig this around pockets of the UK so that's the plan come late october.unfortunately (or possibly fortunately), no pictures of us together exist. up till now, we've literally just met up in an empty village hall and made noise for 5 hours a week before returning to our lives. i guess there'll be some when we're playing regular shows, although there are a couple pictures on our myspace that may be of some use.







YOU AND I





For Ryan - sorry about the delay





saturday/frame



REVERSAL OF MAN





A head-pulping collection of fierce and brutal hardcore ravings from one of Florida's most scathing. Twenty-seven tracks of sheer brutality taken from the band's entire output of split releases, singles, demos, and compilation tracks, none of which have ever been on CD prior. Packaged with a twelve-page booklet with cool photos and printed lyrics.





Discography



FORSTELLA FORD





FORSTELLA FORD was an indie/hardcore band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They started touring and releasing records in 1997 (known then as ONLY AIRPLANES COUNT), when the members were still in high school. The name was changed to Forstella Ford in 1998 to coincide with a stylistic change. Between 1997 and 2003, they released 4 full length albums and a handful of splits EPs on various different labels. They were never signed to any label and worked with many different labels throughout the course of their existence.Forstella Ford broke up in 2003, just months prior to the US release of their fourth album Well Versed in Deception. The album was released in May of 2003 in Europe, and was supported there by a tour. In 2004, the band got back together, but that proved to be short-lived. Less than a half dozen shows were played before they decided to call it quits again. The last show was in Milwaukee in January of 2005. Ex-members are now in TORNAVALANCHE, HEAVY WEIGHS THE CROWN, FT(THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT), and RED KNIFE LOTTERY.





Retrospective



FORENSICS





Rushing guitars and monstrous riffs pile high as subtle instrumental passages tip-toe over top. Forensics hammers out raw, heavy, and powerful music and creates a dynamic musical atmosphere. Forensics is on the Magic Bullet Records roster.





cdep



CUT THE SHIT




Cut the Shit was a punk/hardcore band based out of Boston, MA. It featured ex-members of Tear It Up, Cops And Robbers, Bones Brigade, The Pinkerton Thugs, DaysXahead and The Dillinger Escape Plan.