Whipping Post

picture by Wonder Girl Photo

 

Whipping Post is hailing from Leeds, UK and has been around since 2015 or something.

Before getting together these guys already had quite a long list of musical acts on their resumes, especially from the brutal side of the UK hardcore scene with bands like Mob Rules and The Flex but also on the metal / power violence side with Closure, Brain Dead or Infernal Body...

More recently, and more in my sphere of interest, some Whipping Post members have been seen playing in the great Beta Blockers (check it out if you haven't already!), the furious Arson and the surprising Thick Syrup. 

Busy busy indeed!

 

Oh yes and the name comes from the Arthur G. Walker sculpture Christ at the Whipping Post which picture is on the band first release (see below) and not the Allman Brothers song (which would have been extremely surprising to be honest).

 

So introductions being made, where are we now?

 

 Well from the first seconds of Taste The Whip we are clearly somewhere in the late Rollins period of the Black Flag era, somewhere around and after My War probably (not like S.L.I.P which released a great LP heavily influenced by the early-ish Black Flag period a few years ago).

Yes this 4-track tape released by the band in 2016 (and as a flexi 7" by Flexi Punk in 2017) is an ode to Greg Ginn and his dark, tortured soul (I mean listen to Pull The Cord).

 

 

  Influences are great, especially when they come from such a genius band as Black Flag, and they are even better when you don't turn your band into a lame copycat and that's what Whipping Post manages to do. Yes you can hear a lot of the californian band in this demo but not only, there is also Whipping Post and its identity!

The heaviness, despair and tortured atmosphere of these songs is perfectly mastered, keeping it all together all along, forming a coherent whole

 

 

Two years and a half later, the four guys from Leeds jump straight to the LP format with Spurn Point (out on Boss Tuneage) and its beautiful refined artwork.

  Whipping Post keeps heading the same way with a slow, tortured and maybe slightly heavier hardcore than on the demo. Black Flag yes but also early Rollins Band or Swiz come to mind while listening to the noisy and chaotic despair of the 11 tracks of Spurn Point.

Probably even darker than the demo, Whipping Post proves to be able to keep it interesting on the long run without draining the source of influences. 

With Cheating The War Game, its second LP, Whipping Post keeps its artwork as refined as beautiful (these guys really have something for sculptures). Where Spurn Point was mainly black on the outside, this new full length is all white... but it does not mean that the inside atmosphere got more joyful at all...

Out on Donor Records this time, the latest production of the northern boys is also their most achieved to date. 

The recipe has not changed but the ingredients are perfectly balanced, benefiting from a great recording quality, the band sounds meaner, heavier and darker than ever.

It's slow and tortured hardcore at its best and I love it!

 

 

  But after two full lengths I hope the band will be able to find a way to spice up the mix a bit in the future or it may eventually sound tiring...

You can listen to Whipping Post on Rien à Faire #14.

N,J'Oi!

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Brandy

 

 

picture by Taylor Sesselman

 

Brandy is from New York City and has probably been around since 2017, so not so long.

But don't think these guys are newbies, in fact the three wannabe Lady Liberty already had quite a long list of loud and noisy acts on their criminal records before forming this new gang. Coming from the NYC low-fi garage punk (Pampers) and Chicago punkish noise-rock (Heavy Times, Running) scenes these guys' ears are not ringing for the first time.

 

 Laugh Track opens the band discography as a 11-track full length released by Monofonus Press in September 2018.

What immediately struck me with this album is the way the two musical sides of the trio's background are easily perceptible. You're A Dentist is a pure noise rock track, ok it starts a bit dirty and noisy and the lot sounds quite low-fi but these heavy bass lines, the stomping and repetitive drum patterns, the heavy guitar riffs... there is some Jesus Lizard nearby!

And Two Titles With a Slash (which are actually two tracks which could be one) is super noise rock too man! And don't get me wrong, I love it! It's heavy, full of screeching noises and stomping riffs while the vocals sound like a kid drowning in a toilet bowl.

 

 

  And in the end the comparison with Mayyors actually makes sense here (less crazy vocals I would say).

The arrival of a tambourine on Horse Chorus starts switching the atmosphere to something more rock'n roll, closer to some low-fi heavy garage punk or something like that... And that's the feeling I now get on Life Jail, Throw Out My Kitchen... but it kinda changes again on the super heavy but efficient Urgent Blowout which is a real ode to destructive urges... All this chaos is finally concluded by Blandy, a pure rock'n roll song, turning into a beast the nice and cool 70s American rock...

Yes Brandy manages beautifully to edge between these two worlds, leaving me a bit confused but happy and... that's great!

Brandy delivers a heavy and intense LP full of low-fi noise-rockish punk garage (or the other way??) that will not leave you unmoved... 

(And I love the cover artwork by the way) 

April 2019, Brandy releases Clown Pain, a new 7" on Total Punk.

After Laugh Track the band from NYC could sound like a surprising choice for the label from Florida.

But not at all actually! Brandy has evolved and is now a pure punk'n roll garage band, one of those that Total punk loves so much.

 

   Quite low-fi but catchy, Brandy has left on the side its noise rock roots and totally embraced the sound of the label. Urochromes, Golden Pelicans and Foster Care (which first LP on Total Punk is as fantastic as the second one is disappointing by the way) opening for them at their 7" release show could not be a clearer confirmation of their new "artistic direction".

And it is not a bad news at all! I mean they do it very well, these two songs are great!

But ok I regret a little bit the heaviness of the early days... 

 

September 2020: another cool artwork for the cover of The Gift Of Repetition, the band second full length and first LP on Total Punk Records. 

Damn I love to be surprised and this release is pleasing me a lot! I was expecting a longer version of Clown Pain and what we got here is just so much more than that, it's amazing!

Within 8 tracks (only...) Brandy is giving us a great lesson of rock'n roll... exploring the best components of the genre, the NYC band takes us back to the early days of punk (Dangle with its great late-70s-in-england vibe), the post-punk / new-wave times (Christmas Colors) but most of all delivers great rock/punk songs like I'm Shipping Up To Boston (which does not seem to have any link with the Woody Guthrie / Dropkick Murphys song, Text Home or Insane Screensaver!

 

Listen to the super catchy (Wish You Was) Madball Baby or UFO's To Heaven and dare telling me you don't see yourself spilling your beer all over your boots while shaking your butts like crazy in front of the stage!

This catchiness reminds me of Giuda (in a less glam and kitchy way of course) or some early Hives songs for some parts. 

 

   And Clown Pain got recorded again and sounds catchy as ever as well!

 

In a nutshell Brandy is delivering a very surprising and extremely good rock-punk album which will most likely be on my 2020 top in a few months!

 

 

 

N,J'Oi!  

 

 

You can listen to Brandy on Rien à Faire #8 and #14. 

 

 

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MSPaint

 

MSPaint is a new band from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which released a 4-track demo tape earlier this year. Not much more information about these guys so it's going to be a short one.

The tape is out on Earth Girl and for some reasons caught my attention.

I don't really know how to describe what MSPaint is playing. It's kinda slow, kinda heavy most of the time, kinda noisy but with always some catchy melody in the background... there is some synth (but not too much)... the singing style is edging with rap sometimes... yes it's a weird but really interesting mix in my opinion.

 

MSPaint songs sound to me like end-of-the-world lullabies, like Zach de la Rocha on Prozac directing the soundtrack of Twin Peaks with a drunk white trash synth band... there is a quite unique atmosphere that makes me want hear more from them...

 

Let's see what comes next... 

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par MSPAINT (@mspaintband) le 10 Août 2020 à 6 :10 PDT

You can listen to MSPaint on Rien à Faire #14.

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

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Kobra

 

artwork by Francesco Goat

 Kobra (not to be confused with the old hardcore punk band from the same city and the punk band from St Petersburg going with the same name) is a punk band from Milano, Italy, which has probably been around since 2017 and features members of bands like Dots, Cocaine Slave, Mirrorism and Da Sempre...

 I am really not an expert of the italian scene but these guys seemed to be part of a punk scene that can be summarized by the work of Occult Punk Gang which has released tapes, compilations and organized shows for years in the Milano area. 

After four years at the service of the scene, it looks like the activities of the group have ended a few months ago.

 

But let's come back to the music, Kobra is playing a mix of anarcho-punk, UK82 and italian hardcore punk with a noisy and quite dark atmosphere. Still not an expert but in the Milano area they can probably be linked to bands like Golpe and Scemo.

Kobra first release is a 5-track tape out on Occult Punk Gang in June 2018.

Dark, noisy, angry (I love how the bass sounds!), jumping from mid-tempo to faster parts, Kobra is delivering a super good piece of italian punk which fits well with a current dark/heavy hardcore punk trend you can find in bands like the Finnish-hardcore-obsessed Korrosive, the spanish Irreal or even in the fast italian anarcho punk of Lucta.

 

Kobra is keeping the good old recipe of the dark heaviness of the in-your-face punk of our elders and turns it smartly in a super efficient and quite well built dark modern hardcore punk.

Highly enjoyable!

      

screenshot from a live show shot for CVLT Nation

Two years later you can find a new Kobra song on the benefit compilation Vivi nel 2020 / Benefit Brigate Volontarie released by Occult Punk Gang.

The song will also be on the coming LP. 

Summer 2020, after a couple of line-up changes Kobra releases Confusione, its first full length, on Iron Lung Records.

Mainly keeping the recipe of the demo Kobra introduces a few changes: the guitar sounds super scrambled (drowning the bass a bit too much in my opinion), the drum sounds great (and has improved a lot!) and there is a saxophone!

I think I really like crazy saxophone in punk, it adds a touch of enjoyable weirdness that breaks a bit the darkness painted all over the songs of these depressed punk rockers.

 

  Confusione is a good album that manages to keep a depressing (but enjoyable? ok you know what I mean) anarcho punk atmosphere in a noisy mix which takes as much from the classic italian hardcore bands like Wretched or Indigesti (in the sound) as the super noisy Finnish and Japanese hardcore bands from the 80s... and this touch of saxophone is adding a lot in my opinion!

To be honest I find the super scrambled/distorted sound of the guitar a bit tiring on a 11 songs LP, but that's me.  

 

    

You can listen to Kobra on Rien à Faire #13.  

 

N,J'Oi! 

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Jackal

 

 

picture by Zach Rogers

 

Jackal is a young hardcore band from Florida and has probably been around since 2016.

 

Well to be honest, since the beginning of this blog I wanted to write a little something about these young swamps fennecs. Their demo and 7" blew me away and I was just waiting for a more recent release to keep it nice and fresh... and here is finally the occasion.

 

These guys play some great punk hardcore with a pinch of toughness, Negative Approach and SS Decontrol will of course immediately come to mind but also some more recent (great) bands like Back To Back, Obedience, Mind Violence and many others...

 

From the very first seconds of their 2017 demo, you know you have not stepped in a lounge bar: super dirty and noisy guitar sound, deafening cymbals, stomping drums and heavy (but not too much) vocals, these guys came here to stomp on your faces...

Sometimes fast, sometimes very fast, Jackal does not forget the heaviness of the mosh parts and respects perfectly all the codes of the genre: this is definitely hardcore baby!

 

The songs are dealing with classic hardcore themes about putting yourselves together, taking your life back, getting rid of bad influences etc... Predictable but efficient! 

 

 

 

 

Two years later, the Boston label Pain Killer Records specialised in Boston style HxC (gnarling vocals all over the place) releases the band first EP.

Jackal delivers 4 super aggressive, fast and heavy tracks which match perfectly the label criteria. Made from the same mould as the demo, this EP confirms that Jackal rules!

 

 

 

With a great sense of danger, urgency and violence of the Me-Against-the-world spirit (Jackal, Robbed Life, Cornered) but without putting aside the positive lessons of HxC (Help Yourself), these young dudes master a great EP in the tradition of the best 80s American Hardcore bands.

 

 

 

 

And here is their latest release which allows me to have Jackal on RAF!

Recorded live at the Paincave (Pain Killer Records recording studio I suppose) last September, we finally get to have a better idea of how Jackal sounds live.

Within these 8 songs (including two new songs from an upcoming EP), Jackal keeps stomping again and again some great hardcore punk. A great recording and live energy give to the whole lot a more interesting value than most live releases have (in my humble opinion).

I still believe the southern boys sound better on their EPs but well, I am a grumpy old man...

Digital only for now, it will be released as a tape in a few days.

 

   

 

Can't wait for the new EP!

oh and please make some new t-shirts, I love the artwork of the old ones but did not manage to order one on time! 

picture by Zach Rogers

You can listen to Jackal on Rien à Faire #14.

 

N,J'Oi!

 

 

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Expose

 

Expose is a mysterious band from Los Angeles, California, which has produced quite a lot of super weird songs since summer 2019.

So yes sorry I won't be able to give much information about the band.

 Both Demos released in July and August 2019 and respectively called E1 and E2 have been put on a single tape (called Demos) by the Californian label 5 Star Limo almost at the same time (August 2019). 

5 songs from E1, 4 songs from E2, these 9 tracks are probably issued from the same recording session anyway. But where the fuck are we here?

It starts fast, dirty, noisy and punk with Motive and Protest, almost experimental noise punk if I may say... a bit electronic as well... like Kraftwerk, Devo and Discharge jamming together in an unsanitary basement... 

  Then it slows down a bit with Max Reduction and Demons and its heavy synth lines, bringing a more classic Devo-ish on speed synth punk touch before reaching the proper new-wave track Deaf Trust... 

After CNS which can be seen as the intro of E2, Now, the next song, comes back to something more punk, a mid-tempo noisy mix with a lot of delay on the vocals and a very linear drum machine pattern... a bit like a slower version of a Murderer song.

Same recipe but so much slower for Arrest. 

 

And here we go slower and slower again with Glue which concludes these demos... a lot of delay, a really "crushed" synth sound, some depressed and distant vocals, sound almost like a slow EBM song!

 

Well it's an interesting start, I am not sure what to say about it, I like it though.

It's free, wild, a bit dirty and crazy... quite arty of course... but why not?

 

A few months later, in November 2019, 5 Star Limo releases a new Expose tape humbly named E.

With these 9 songs including Protest, Demons and Now, Expose continues its journey in the weirdest parts of noisy punk meets EBM meets art and synth.

Faster and more energetic than the demos (the new versions of the 3 songs are also shorter because faster!), the band is finding its way, keeping the atmosphere and the weird, insane and electronically deranged transitions but being more consistent in its use of noise effects and synth. 

 

  Expose concludes this second release with the slow, disturbing and EBMish Dagger reminding us that the new wave / electronic scene influences are not gone.

 

And BIM!

Expose comes back in June with what caught my attention in the first place and is their masterpiece in my humble opinion: their latest self-titled tape.

This time Expose sounds like a real, complete band, forget the drum machine and the EBM / Electronic side, here is some proper and furious noisy punk!

With only 2 songs out of 7 passing the 2:30 min mark, the guys from LA are now playing faster, stronger and louder! Screams all over the place, stomping drums, deafening guitar riffs yes Expose came to turn the place upside down!

Even Owl Sighting which started as a nice little punk ballad turns into total chaos...

The synth is gone for good as well but the arrival of a saxophone is a success and adds an extra touch of weirdness (think of a Lukrate Milk kind of saxophone) and buzzing atmosphere to the galactic craziness.

But this is not just a never ending downpour of noise and fury no! Expose is smarter than that, building slowly but surely the mayhem to come, giving some air to our poor eardrums before pushing them again to the limit, making sure to not let us leave untraumatized...

 

This is the kind of record/band that is pushing the genre to its limits, opening the way to another dimension of punk... thank you for that, thank you EXPOSE!

You can listen to Expose on Rien à Faire #13.

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