MASKE

MASKE is a new band from Berlin which, on top of having the name of the year, just released their first full length at the beginning of June.

A bit of history first with the 2-track demo released in May 2019.

Two (good) tracks that are included in the 2020 full length.

But let's come back to 2020...

Leere Blicke, the first song available on their bandcamp page, totally blew my mind and my expectations were really high for the rest of the Tape...

and finally after some delays because of you-know-fucking-what... here it is!

cover art by
Ferdinand Dölberg (great Egon Schiele / Gustav Klimt vibe no?)

ok let's recap a bit first: MASKE is playing some great german punk with a clear influence from the first waves of underground bands, at a time when hardcore was stammering its first words in the language of Slime and the art students of the Neue Deutsche Welle were not working in the Advertisement Companies of their daddies yet.

In a nutshell any songs from TAPE would not sound akwardly out of touch on Soundtracks Zum Untergang (the first one), alongside early punk tunes from Hass, M.D Blitz and other classic 80 bands from the not-too-rough side of Aggressive Rockproduktionen.

To be honest I was expecting a really good but classic post-punk album, instead I got a great mix of german rock/punk/post-punk with an 80s sound... yes this thing is pretty diverse, looking a bit too much like a tribute to the 80s sometimes...

Der Würstenkraut smells like Brian Setzer's favorite brilliantine, Ecstasy is (I guess) more a classic rock ballad than a punk song, Hardcore is (obviously) a tribute to the first "hardcore" german bands and Schatten will make you smile if you speak french and have heard of NTM (you have)...

I really like Virtual Reality which with a super classic punk song construction manages to give a blunt description of the digital power of multinational companies on our connected lives...

Keep your distance and enjoy MASKE!

You can listen to Maske on Rien à Faire #10

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Coriky

Ok I know everybody is getting crazy about it... and to be honest I am too!

(I was already super excited about it last october...)

YES, like baby Jesus on a cold night in a barn, we can say that it's finally here! 

CORIKY, the new band of the Evens duo (Ian McKaye, Amy Farina) and Joe Lally (Fugazi, The Black Sea, The Messthetics with Brendan Canty), has finally released its first LP!! (on Dischord of course).

The original release date was supposed to be end of March but because of the you-know-fucking-what crisis it was pushed back to the 12th of June, well at least it comes right on time for summer.

I am not going to go through the resumes of the three band members, everybody knows how impressive they are...

But maybe the less famous one is Amy's previous band, The Warmers from DC (of course), that I HIGHLY recommend...

But back to Coriky! 

So let's be clear, Coriky sounds closer to The Evens than to Fugazi, this is definitly The Evens + the bassist of Fugazi and not Half of Fugazi + the drummer of The Warmers.

Anyway whatever it is it is just insanely great!

Once again Amy and Ian are the ones holding up the vocals, both of them singing a lot, but the three friends are also singing a lot TOGETHER, a bit like in Fugazi some times yes, and it's cool. If you are familiar with Joe Lally solo work (and you should!), you know that he is not a bad singer even if it doesn't get out as powerful as what Ian and his wife can deliver. And that's probably why he doesn't sing much in Coriky, and that's also why Coriky sounds so much like The Evens...

At first I thought that Joe was indeed really discreet on this album, not adding so much to what could have been The Evens 4th album. But the more I listen to it (and I actually only listen to Coriky anymore), there is this cool and soft groove in the background that just makes it all rounder and softer... like a sunday afternoon in your warm living room, sitting in your favorite couch with a hot cup of tea in front of you...

As usual the lyrics are beautiful and super weird at the same time, full of this modern poetry vibe edging with total non-sense (BQM) that we got used to with Fugazi...

And as usual I don't care I just find myself singing and humming those songs after a few listens... Last Thing We Ever Wanted Is War...

Ian is taking advantage of the electric guitar to give birth to a few burst of Fugazi-like noisy "solo" (Inauguration Day, Shedileebop) that could sound weird in the quiet world of Coriky but actually don't...

It reminds us once again where those guys come from and that they have not forgotten anything of it...

And it ends with Woulda Coulda, a beautiful ballad, a quiet bonfire song, a 70s influenced happy ending... the perfect conclusion to another great album for the DC family...

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Meadow Burials

If you are familiar with this blog you may have had a glimpse of the punk-noise of Ghost Of The Avalanche, a duo from Bath, UK, in Rien à Faire #7 (if not it's not too late to catch up!).

Well it happens that Nick Tone, the man behind the bass and the mic in GOTA, is also playing/singing in (after being a solo project) the punk rock trio Meadow Burials, and that's what I am going to write about today. 

 

art by Gwion

As any good book it starts with a Preface, a preface before the real deal ok but I would also describe the band first tape (in 2019 on DIE DAS DER) as an Exercice de style (Exercise in Style).

All by himself Nick is having fun trying to catch the core of a few styles of punk rock, delivering 5 short songs full of references and love for rock'n roll. 

Addiction got a strong early Hives vibe, Let The Right One In is a love letter to the melodic garagish punk side and I immediately thought "I know a band which sounds exactly like that" but no name has reached my brain yet; in the lot I hear some Misfits, some Pisse without synth, and maybe even some early Black Flag...
In a nutshell it's a nice start but it lacks a bit of personnality to really trigger my attention. 

 art by Gwion

Almost one year later Nick is back with two mates and a 7" on DIE DAS DER.
The Modern Age was recorded "with a ‘real’ band in a ‘real’ studio" this time and delivers 3 tracks in 2 and half minutes, these guys don't waste any time!


A lot more punk hardcore than Preface, Meadow Burials keeps the fuzztone guitar sound and low-fi-but-not-too-much vibe of the 2019 tape but with a more urgent feeling... things are not going well, time is running out, the modern age is a disaster, there is no time for compromise, the trio from Bath is in a hurry.
With the speed and maestro of Circle Jerks, Off! or early Black Flag, the band doesn't neglect the melodic side of hardcore and delivers a really enjoyable but way too short 7". 

N,J'Oi!


 You can listen to Meadow Burials and a lot of other great punk rock tunes on Rien à Faire #11.


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Crucial Features

 picture by Kissi Ussuki

Crucial Features is an all-girl band from Vilnius, Lithuania, which has been around since 2016 and plays some kind of 90s Riot Grrrl grungy punk heavily influenced by Babes in Toyland. 

Oh and all the songs are in Lithuanian, which is both great and unusual to my ears.
The band started as a quartet and is now a trio. 

Crucial Features is, since the beginning, really close to the photographer and artist Kissi Ussuki who, on top of taking great pictures of the ladies, is responsible for the artwork of their two albums. As you will probably notice her collage technique is not without reminding Mr.James Patrick Shannon Morey (AKA Winston Smith) or the Crass Records era.

 

Released in 2018, Kaprizai (Whims) is the band first release and features 6 songs of fast and angry grungy punk. With the heavy guitars and drums, the band has clearly chosen the sound of the 90s and despite a few unfortunate metal-influenced drum patterns and guitar solos it is an enjoyable piece of what sounds in my ears like a 90s post-USSR eastern european punk rock. 

My lithuanian is a bit rusty but from what Evil Corp Google translates for me the lyrics are well written on top of being emotionnaly and politically engaged like in Badmetis (Bad Year: about hunger and famine), Ir Šuo Kariamas (And the Dog is Suspended: about social alienation and depression?) or Gyvatės (Snakes: about individualism and mercyless competition).

 

Venera Budo (The Awakening of Venus), the first full-length album of Crucial Features, was released in late march 2020 (self-released, digital only) and is without any doubt (and by far) their best release.

The band has clearly digested the whole discography of Babes in Toyland, I mean it's almost like a slav reincarnation sometimes, from the vocals to the recording everything is a vivid example of the successful result of their adoration for the Minneapolis trio.

No more bad taste, no more unsound hesitation, Crucial Features is delivering a perfect album of the best of 90s Riot Girl punk... 

Powerful, fast, angry but perfectly mastered, the 10 songs got the right breaks at the right moments, the perfect screams and gang vocals of feminism angryness at the right time... This album is a success from the first second to the last... 

 picture by Nannook

The lyrics remain a bit of a mystery but as it is stated on their page "Crucial Features are digging into subjects of unconventional beauty, the cult of vanity and “woke” culture hoping to find an awakening of their own."

And I do believe they do.

 You can listen to Crucial Features and other great stuff on Rien à Faire #11.

N,J'Oi!

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The Chisel

The Chisel is a mysterious band from London (I think) which has released Deconstructive Surgery (its first EP) on La Vida Es Un Mus a few weeks ago.

These guys play a great kind of fast and high energic oi! which brings us back to the golden age of No Future Records and all the great skunk bands like Blitz and Crux.

The singer actually sounds a lot like Fergus from The Strike And Emergency and as I know he is still very active in the scene I wonder if the mysterious singer of The Chisel would actually not be him...

Fast and angry The Chisel is a super punk pissed off version of your classic oi! band which doesn't forget to deliver some skinhead anthems like Billy Aaron and Rat Running Scared, two songs which could have perfectly fit on a 4-skins album (Gary Hodges era).

A fantastic EP that will equally delight oi! and punk fans!

Get it!

You can listen to The Chisel on Rien à Faire #11

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M80

picture by Oscar Aranda

M80 (slang or firework?) is a new band from Oakland, California, playing some kind of 80s female fronted american punk. Not much informtion about them.

  Just before their january south california tour, M80 released Apathy, a 5-track demo tape. The band is delivering some classic, but catchy, snotty punk rock you immediatly find familiar without being able to name any band it would be a copy cat of...

With fast-but-not-too-much songs, a very "crammed" guitar sound (à la Mudhoney) a bit unusual in this kind of punk and a very teenage-like female singing, M80 does not completely go by the book while respecting all the codes... and creates this mixed feeling of home safety in a newly discovered place.
Out of these 5 songs M80 and Void are the two with a clear hardcore vibe and I can see the band going to a more classic female-fronted punk hardcore direction as many bands did for the last few years.

In a nutshell it's a classic but enjoyable demo for a band that you should check out live!



M80 is on Rien à Faire #11

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Stuck

picture by Alicia Maciel

Stuck is from Chicago, Illinois, has been around since 2017/2018 and features current or ex members of Gentle Heat, Prairie Porn, Bloom, Clearance, Krozer, Furbie and Yeesh... 

But Stuck is different from those mostly indie/pop bands, Stuck is post punk.

By the way is the band's name coming from the Magazine song ?

 These "Three songs" digitally released on bandcamp in november 2018 were also included on a tour tape (self-released in october 2019) with an extra song.

Yes I know post punk "revival" has been everywhere for a few years now but some bands are super good and Stuck is one of them. 
Stuck manages to slowly build tension all the way, starting from almost nothing to reach a sharp expression of sad but angry relief... but these guys are smart enough to let us take an anxious breath in between the "action" parts, a short stop where the lyrics delivered in a talk-singing style is following us, ready to explode...

Ok so I could talk about how amazing it is to hear some Crisis influences....once again!

 but first it would not be really accurate and second I prefer to think of Bench Press or of an indieiiisher (yes I know) version of some early Marbled Eye... or a post-punker (ok that's plain stupid) version of Neutrals ?

Ok who cares?! this is higly enjoyable, relaxing and quite joyful (for a post punk thing) so go for it!

 

 Change is Bad... well I don't agree but it's an opinion shared with many among the punk scene I guess...
So this first Lp (out on Born Yesterday Records managed by the singer Greg) released as a 12" features 11 songs including 3 of their 4 previously released songs (too bad for People Pleaser that I really like).
Ar the border between the arty side of the late 70s New York scene, the cold british post-punk weather and some more modern influences like Negative Space or even Fugazi sometimes, Stuck is mastering the game and scores on every tunes. Obsessive light guitar riffs, melodic but heavy bass lines, light reverb on the vocals... a good recipe for a hit...



Stuck manages to keep the whole thing as coherent as possible while developping an impressive diversity of songs...
Bug Song is a beautiful ballad with a surprisingly successful 90s atmosphere (indie?grunge? DC?) that can be also found on the beautiful Anniversary; Plank II stretches the walls of the post punk box in every direction, Change is Bad is a short but highly enjoyable post punkish gem, Bells is closer to the Facility Men than to Joy Division... yes it's diverse!


So Change is Bad is a very good album that may need a few listens to properly stick but it's definitly worth the time...So give it a couple of listens!

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Une publication partagée par STUCK (@stuckband) le 30 Mars 2020 à 7 :23 PDT

 You can listen to Stuck on Rien à Faire #11

N,J'Oi!


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Thematix

Ok I know I'm late with this one but since I have written this post about Cold Feet a few weeks ago and discovered Thematix (two members in common) I can't stop listening to its great post punk demo so I've decided to write a little something about the Baltimore trio (and anyway I do what I want!).

So on top of Cold Feet, these guys are (or were) playing in bands like Wildhoney, Narrow & The Brights, Quitter and Smoking Guns.

  
So the band only release is this early 2019 self-released 4-track tape and yeah it's short, it's DAMN too short!

These guys like Crisis and Joy Division for sure (who doesn't ?) but to me this buzzsaw guitar and always-on-the-verge-to-burst punk attitude put them in the same bag as "new" post punk bands like Negative Space or Natural Causes (or even Eyesores in a more noisy way) and I absolutly LOVE those bands so you can easily guess what I think of Thematix...

Unfortunatly I could not find much more information about the band, I don't even know if they're still playing...
 But if you do... please guys... give me more!!

N,J'Oi! 


You can listen to Thematix on Rien à Faire #11 



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Buggy

Do you guys like Negative Approach ? 

I guess you do and these two gentlemen from New Jersey as well!

This 5-track tape released in march (including a cover of NA) is a great example of the legacy of the Detroit band: super loud stomping drum beats, heavy buzzsaw guitar riffs, bass lines you can hardly distinct in the noisy mess and of course the famous brutal vocals that made NA so popular among skinheads.

More recently it also makes me think of the angry french guys of Don't Need You and Gutter (Lille crew!) or Heavy Discipline from Pittsburgh or the first Boston Strangler lp with a more low fi recording... 

Oh yeah these two guys also play in Gel (and at least one of them plays or played in School Drugs), War Records is going to release their tape, Buggy is Tony's cat name and I love the cover art by Jon Mayo...

N,J'Oi!


You can listen to Buggy on Rien à Faire #11


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Spam Risk

picture by Ellie Euphoria

Spam Risk is a new trio from Chicago, Illinois, featuring Josh of Jollys who recently released his solo debut as Dry Dreams, Pamela of Blizzard Babies and Pledge Drive and Peter of Yeesh.

The band is playing an interesting kind of soft indy post punk which caught my attention, let's have a look! 

 

This release can be divided in two separate sets of songs... the mostly male-fronted ones (like Comfort Food, Akaname or Dyson) which are edging with the "innocence" of the indie side of modern post punk bands like Bench Press or Dumb... light guitar, light drum beats, kind of joyful vocals... that's enjoyable sometimes, don't get me wrong! it's just a bit different from the heavy negativity of most of the bands usually featured on this blog!


On the other hand you got the second set of songs, mostly female-fronted, which got under that nice looking varnish a faster and rougher punk core... Einstein, Google Bookchin, Destroy Madness and Fuck The Kids are great female-fronted punk songs with hopping bass lines, rock'n roll guitar riffs and a nice Kleenex vibe... I could think of Child's Pose but that's not really it... well I like it anyway!

So I am not too sure about this tape in the end, there are songs that I like (the "punk" ones of course) and others that I don't enjoy so much, so it's definitly an interesting start and I am curious to see what's coming next even if I need more to be completely convinced.


You can listen to Spam Risk on Rien à Faire #11 


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Fried E/M

Fried E/M is from Saint Louis, Missouri, has been around since 2016/2015 and has a strong relationship with Lumpy Records (from St Louis as well) which is managed by the singer of the weirdo punk hardcore act Lumpy And The Dumpers, who also is behind the drums in Fried E/M.

Fried E/M's first release is a 6-track 7" (out on Lumpy Records in 2017, digital in 2016) of some super snotty fast punk with some clear similarities with Lumpy and The Dumpers (with less weirdness though) or with the first Beta Boys Eps. I love the intro speech taken from a classic scene from The Network ("I'm a human being goddamnit!").

It's a good first EP of angry, dirty, classic and quite enjoyable american punk rock with great "Darbie Crash" snotty vocals.

Then nothing for a couple of years until this short late 2019 5min38s tour tape of great 80s american punk... the recipe of the 7" has been improved to its best and the main problem of this tape is that it's way too short!

And here is Fried E/M latest release and first full length, Modern World!
Released in february 2020 by Lumpy Records in the US and La Vida Es Un Mus in Europe, the band was supposed to tour europe to "celebrate" their first LP but, well... it was of course cancelled because of you-know-what! 
With 11 songs (including 3 from their 2017 7"), all under the 2 minutes mark, Fried E/M is delivering some great, straight forward punk rock. It's slightly too slow to be hardcore but with vocals a bit à la Career Suicide and some obvious Regulations influences we are clearly in the part of snotty american punk which is edging with hardcore punk.


It took me several plays for the album to really grow on me, obviously these guys didn't plan to write a new chapter in the big book of punk music history but they deliver an honest, well mastered and highly enjoyable album with all the perfectly dosed ingredients of what made me enjoy this kind of punk rock...
And well... it's good enough sometimes... innit ?


You can listen to Fried E/M on Rien à Faire #11


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Carnivorous Bells

picture by Chris Sikich

Carnivorous Bells is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has not been around for very long as their first release is from march 2019... so not an old band no but it doesn't mean however that these guys are newbies...

 David Vasalotti looks like he has been part of too many to count music projects (including the very punk hardcore Cult Ritual, the weird Dads, the poppy new vave Merchandise and his own solo work)...

 Leo Suarez has not been lazy either and has been seen behind the drums in bands like Meatwound, Primate Research and his own solo projects... 

Matthew Adis has been "famous" for his super energic live performances as a screamer in several punk hardcore acts around Philadelphia (Anxiety Hammer and Salvation among others) when he is not working on some black and white illustrations...

And our last lad, Michael Bachich, was part of the shoegaze band Nothing for some time but also of the great Human Headstone with Matt...

So now let's see what brought together this gang of dedicated noise makers... 

 picture by Donald

Big Bronze Allegory was released in March 2019 as a 8-track tape on Human Headstone Presents (which I suspect to be managed by Matt).

And the first reaction is... Damn what the hell is that??
It's jumping, it's sliding, it's rough and smooth, it's furry but slippery as fishskin... are we facing the platypus of punk rock? is it still punk rock?
Describing their sound as cave prog, these four guys are bringing us to the very edge of what post-hardcore can be... Prog yes, with songs over 4 minutes prog starts making sense... Cave??... Cave?.. Cave yes!.. the primitive rage of hardcore punk from where all these guys are coming is not gone, it's lurking in a dark corner, ready to bite, barking and growling, kept under control, domesticated... but still dangerous...


From freak shows' atmospheres, to space odysseys in far worlds, this album is taking you away, kidnapping your soul for a highly enjoyable journey to an unknown destination you're not in any hurry to reach...
I was totally blown away by this music, it's wild, it's bold, it's free and it's new with all the components of the old which made me jump into this scene...


As somebody wrote it: "this music is exactly the kind of shit that keeps me interested in punk as an art form"

February 2020, Carnivorous Bells releases The Upturned Stone, its first full length (on vinyl!) on Human Headstone Presents...
Eleven songs including 6 of the 8 songs of their previous tape so 5 new songs in fact.
After Big Bronze Allegory, we are wandering in something which is not completely unknown territory anymore but still extremely enjoyable.
With the short Body Of Work for example, the band delivers what could probably be the closest thing to a classic punk song... a strong concentrated version of their winning formula, formula developped for almost 5 minutes on the following Semblance with its long break, heavy bass lines and wandering guitar notes which are not without reminding me of some Fugazi parts... 


Same idea with the 5 minutes and 30 seconds of the instrumental Roused from Slumber in a Feud With Death which, through a thrilling path of heady guitar notes and out of space noises, reminds us of the progressive and "acid" approach chosen by the philadelphia quartet... finally concluded with the Upturned Stone itself, the one in the punk rock cave under which nobody had looked before and which has finally revealed its secret...
the fantastic work of the Carnivorous Bells!

You can listen to The Carnivorous Bells on Rien à Faire #11.

N,J'Oi!

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