Viagra Boys: Welfare Jazz

 

picture by Paul Grace

 

 

I haven't written much about the Hard-Ons from Stockholm on this page until now, there was just this short and super enthusiast post in October 2019 about the release of the Shrimp Sessions videos, and then nothing.

There are several reasons to that, the first one is that the idea of this blog is to write about very recent releases and the VBs have not delivered much since late 2019, the second one is that what they did deliver was quite a disappointment... to me at least.

 

my Viagra Boys vinyl collection
 

  But let's take a step back:

When Consistency of Energy and Call of The Wild were released in 2016 and 2017 it was a total shock to me, where the hell was that super catchy kinda weird post-punk coming from ?

And I know I was not the only one to be totally blown away by the dark and slow build up of Baby Teeth or by the catchy as fuck, satirical and stupid Research Chemicals which perfect bass line made their waters break to many... 

Welcomed as the Messiah: a new band with a satirical but fun super rock'n roll attitude and a killer sound... finally!

(and some killer artwork, by Sebastian, on top of that!)

 

Ok I was a bit disappointed by the price of the records, the "let's keep it rare and expensive" marketing strategy... but well... I was just too enthusiast to really care. These records are gems period!

(I even put two VB tracks in my 2018 compilation)  

 

 

  Of course it was the perfect recipe for success: a semi-charismatic/semi-self-destructive leader full of rock'n roll tattoos, stories about drugs and stupid semi-provocative/semi-stupid stuff, some super catchy and easy-to-dance-on-even-when-wasted-AF riffs... how could first world hipsters not be seduced by the romanticism of the great rock'n roll swindle?... 

I mean good for the VBs! If the morons are buying, let's go full way and take all we can as long as it works, right ? and if the music is good, well it's even better! They're not the first and won't be the last, everybody has bills to pay! 

These guys are not teenage hipsters, some of them were in proper metal and punk bands, I mean there are two ex-Nitad in there, nobody's against a bit of success here and there, right? 

And when you read some of their interviews these guys seem definitely quite fun to hang out with...

So what's the problem? 

Well there was this sentence from Sebastian: "But after I wrote the EP I didn’t have anything left to write about so I just winged it, and then I realised months afterwards that it had a deeper meaning." in the above mentioned interview.

So I thought: humm these guys know they got something super valuable and they will keep going as much as possible even if they're totally out of ideas and inspirations. That's what most bands which got a big success at the beginning actually do, and don't get me wrong: it's completely understandable... even The Clash in their time you know (hallowed be their names). 

So I got a bit worried about what was going to come next.

 

 

 

  And then Street Worms was released... At first I was not completely convinced, Ok there were some good tracks and they tried a couple of different things, why not, it's good to keep moving, but overall you could smell a discreet and diffuse perfume... the smell of "ok we're not sure what we're doing but let's hope it will keep the hype high" you know.

And the marketing strategy? god they went full way into digital marketing, super expensive stupid merchandise, a deal with Rough Trade, no bandcamp, only digital streaming on mainstream platforms and all that bullshit...

And obviously these things... well these things tend to annoy me... 

But ok I am a bit demanding maybe, it's a good album, I enjoy it. 

Really, I do.

 

  I'm not stupid, I had understood for a while already what kind of money machine the VBs had become but as I was still reasonably enjoying their music I was still interested you know... (after all I don't exclusively enjoy underground bands, who am I to judge?).

 

 

 

  And then came Common Sense... and the "What the fuck is this shit ???" reaction.

Ok the running joke about the Shrimp industry was quite funny, the mini youtube series was kinda fun but waaaay too much (in my humble opinion)... so I gave up!

It was a bit like when The Clash dropped Sandinista, you had to make a decision (and if you were still there when they released Combat Rock... well regrets were all you had left)! 

 

  Soooo.... now let's talk about Welfare Jazz!

 

 

Seriously Sebastian....? That's all you could draw this time ??

 It starts with the catchy I ain't Nice which haunting bass line recalls the hits from the VB previous releases, it's (nicely) provocative, fun and kinda "wobbly" (in a good way). Indeed it's to Jazz Welfare what Down In The Basement was to Street Worms... so it starts tasting like reheated can food... but ok let's cheer up.

 

And then it starts falling apart...

 

 

 

In the middle of a succession of really average songs (the new wave~ish Creatures, the instrumental 6-shooter, Secret Canine Agent...), Sebastian's crew drops a bunch of wannabe sarcastic tracks (the bluesy Toad, the terrible indie/folk ballads Into The Sun and I feel Alive), which, at best, will put a little amused smile on your face for a second.

Ok there is Girls & Boys in the end which got a cool "crazy saxophone" vibe on a vintage disco background but.... hum no...

And the worst comes at the very end as the awful country song parody To The Country is followed by In Spite of Ourselves which features Amy (from Amy And The Sniffers) for something I can only describe as a pathetic and painful song... it's just a disaster (even for a parody)!

And OK I see the point of Amy's featuring (her band has been quite successful in the past years as well and everybody wants here, even Sleaford Mods) but seriously there wasn't anything better you could have done with her? really?

What's next? A Kiss parody with Idles and The Chats ?? Come on!  

 

Ok ok that's enough! I stop here.

I usually don't write anything about bands or albums I don't like (I find it way more interesting to write about stuff I like) but I felt like sharing here (it's cheaper than a shrink after all) a bit of my passionate (one-way) relationship history with the swedes on pills...

And it's done! 

 

I give way to hipsters and snobs of all stripes...

who, I'm sure, will enjoy it all very much! 

 

 

picture by Paul Grace

 

 

You can listen to Viagra Boys in Rien à Faire #16.

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Krigshoder

 

 

picture of Daniel from Negativ by Michael D Thorne

 

 

Ok ok I know I'm super late with this one, the tape was released last August for Christ's sake! Yeah but for some reasons I cannot really explain I missed it and only discovered Krigshoder a couple of weeks ago... and damn... I had to write a little something about this absolute killer!

 

So Krigshoder (to not be mistaken with the furious Japanese of Kriegshög or the, not less furious, swedes of Krigshot) is an international collaboration between Daniel aka Skunk from Oslo, Norway, who screams in Negativ, used to scream in Internt Oppgjø (Internal Settlement) and Jenkem Warriors and runs Byllepest Distro (there is a good interview of Daniel on NoEcho if you want to know more about all that), and a few guys from the L.A. label Suck Blood. Guys that I suspect to be behind a few bands like Hate Preachers and Cruelty Bomb, which tapes were recently released on the same Suck Blood, but also behind numerous hardcore punk / D-beat / Raw Punk bands from the L.A area over the past 10 years, including Blazing Eye. But information about all this being quite difficult to find on the World Wide Web, let's say it's mainly deduction.

Ok so whereas I'm not a big fan of all the bands mentioned above for personal taste reasons, with Krigshoder's Krig I Hodet it's another story, it's pure love at first sight!

This tape is pure super fast, super furious hardcore punk at its best!

With six songs in Norwegian, including one cover of the 80s hardcore punk Oslo classic Siste Dagers Helvete (Latter Day Hell, which almost full discography is on YT), Krigshoder takes us back to the golden days of No Way records and Grave Mistake when bands like Government Warning, Direct Control or Acid Reflux were leading the game!

There are no down times here, this is 100% no bullshit, full power, rippingly fast, top of the notch hardcore punk beauty!

I haven't heard such a tightly and impressive hardcore release since Loose Nukes!

This tape is a must, I need a 7" ASAP!!

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Youth Regiment

 

Here is a short one today: there is this band called Youth Regiment from Olympia, Washington, which released a 4-track tape on Impotent Fetus Cassette / Stucco last December.

I don't know if I can really say that but Youth Regiment seems to be a side project for the "gang" who brought us some of the best bands from the area like Beta Boys and Electric Chair (David actually plays the drums in these three bands as states a tape relevantly called Davey Plays The Drums) but also great bands from Kansas City, where the Beta Boys guys are originally from, like Nuke Cult, Cryogenics, Dirty Work, The Deacons and probably many more...

   The band's first release is the super low-fi tape from 2017 where the following track is taking from. That's all I could find from the eight songs released by Chapel Of Crimes. 

The recording is so bad it's not a big deal anyway!

   

The only other thing I could find from this era is this sick live video footage from a 2018 show (unfortunately the quality is terrible as well but the energy from the images is impressive).

 

 

 

  So yes I think you got it now, Youth Regiment is playing some very 80s US hardcore punk.

 

But more than just being inspired by the 80s classics, it looks like the main goal of this new tape is to sound like it was actually recorded between 81 and 83.

And it sounds exactly like that!

But to which classics am I referring to ? California's ? hum maybe... the This is Boston Not L.A. comp ? The Midwest's ones like The Fix ? the NYC's ones like The Worst and Urban Waste ?

Well it could be different places but I think that what we are really talking about here is the DC hardcore scene.

I can easily figure Youth Regiment being on my old Dischord 1981: The Year In 7"  CD I bought when I was a teenager but I guess the most accurate one would be the Flex Your Head comp, somewhere between Deadline, Youth Brigade and The Teen Idles.

 

Ok ok let's stop playing the hardcore nerds, this tape is fun to listen to a few times, it's a successful Exercice de Style (Style Exercise), it's good hardcore punk all right!

Now let's get back to listen and play punk from our times! 

You can listen to Youth Regiment on Rien à Faire #18.

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Die Schiefe Bahn

 

After Moron and Liiek here is another band from the Allee Der Kosmonauten (ADK) Berlin scene where can be found a couple of familiar faces.

There is the singer, Lisa, who has been involved in numerous projects during the past decade including Aus and the new Die Letzten Ecken (The Last Corners) but also the more indie-rock I Might Be Wrong and Zelf and then there are Anne Sophie who plays the drums in Liiek and Benzin (and plays bass here) and Jana behind the drums.

So where are these experienced musicians taking us now ? 

  

   

 Die Schiefe Bahn's (the slippery slope or the crooked track) 6-track tape was released on Billo (as many ADK bands) in late November 2020.
 If you are a bit familiar with this page you may know that I am not really into dark and cold music and that's why I was not seduced at all by Die Letzten Ecken (way too "cold" for me).
Well Die Schiefe Bahn are clearly splashing around in the post-punk pool as well but have managed to save just enough "heat" to keep me interested, and so to be featured on this page.

 

Heavy bass lines, minimal drumming, clear but discreet guitar parts, distant-quite-cold vocals and absolutely NO synth... here is the recipe of the "coldest" kind of post-punk I can enjoy... And yes in the end I have to say that I find it quite enjoyable.

It's probably going to sound weird to the German speakers who are reading me right now (if any) but there is something perfect in their language for this kind of music. I don't know, it's just the way the harsh consonants and "cold" accent sound to my ear...

 

As I was saying I am not an expert in German new-wave/post-punk, but to me Die Schiefe Bahn really sounds as if they had just landed from a time warp from an 80s Berlin club show to the present day (and the weird, but discreet, old school sound effects on Flammen and Pflanze make the comparison even more vivid). 

In an nutshell it's a short and enjoyable German post-punk tape that even a guy like me can listen to from time to time so... give it a try! 

 

 

  You can listen to Die Schiefe Bahn in Rien à Faire #18.

 

 

  

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DITZ

 

picture by Jamie MacMillan

 

Ditz is a British band from Brighton which has been around since 2016.

 I discovered them in 2018 and remember being immediately hooked up by their catchy noise rock tinged with post hardcore. I even included their hit song I am Chris Martin in my 2018 compilation Oktober Fist.

But let's go back to 2016 first:

 

 EP1 may be a 3-track release only but damn what a killer!

Ditz is clearly influenced by the 80s/90s noise rock scene and can be put on a shelf along bands like Metz, Girl Band, USA Nails or Buildings which have clearly chosen to bring back that sound in the modern world. And that sound is definitely heavy, loud and grungy!

But Ditz do more than just paying a tribute to the 90s Sub Pop and Amphetamine Reptile catalogues, they got a modern je-ne-sais-quoi that brings their music into our decade.

It may be the short clear guitar riffs and the electronic samples on Two, or the numerous breaks and energy "rodeos" on No Thanks, I'm Full... 

 

 

 

  But whatever it is, it makes this (too) short release an exceptional one, each track being different, powerful, beautifully built, but fitting perfectly in the whole thing...

Yes you understand that I was really waiting for more and have been checking, from time to time, for the past two years if something new would pop up from their drab bandcamp page... 

well it took a while...

 

 

 Between July 2018 and July 2020, Ditz released five digital singles, the first two on Permanent Creeps Records and the other three on Alcopop! Records which finally compiled all of them on the band's first physical release, the 5 songs 12" EP.

Let's have a quick tour... 

 

 

 

  Seeking Arrangement got a simple but efficient structure, playing with the ups and downs between the chorus and verses, both of which are based on a particularly snappy snare drum. It sounds very 90s (in a good way) in my opinion.

 

 

 

Gayboy continues in the contained anger range, where palpable tension is spread up all over the place, sparkling and smoking but without reaching the melting point. A taut bass line, a dry and high-pitched guitar, Cal's voice oscillating between dark complaints and desperate cries... this song confirms the genius of the Brighton guys for apparently-simple song structures and great control of "emotions".

 

 

 

  Same formula here for Total 90 and the beginning of this weird "tribute" video to 90's British football, but this time Cal and the others let themselves explode into a almost-hardcore chorus which finally frees us from all this tension accumulated since two and a half tunes...

I really like the heavy drums and the slow build-up at the beginning of the song. It'll take more than two minutes to finally break and damn! It feels fucking good!

 

 

 

  Role Model: hehe the recipe seems to be working well, a slow start, some "tiktiktiktik" rim shots and bim! an explosion of heavy guitars accompanied by plaintive and powerful vocals, yes yes that does work!

 

 

 

  Ah Fuck The Pain Away is probably my favourite song of the record (because of its name for a start), everything is there: noisy guitar riffs, heavy "noise-rock" bass lines, silly and serious lyrics (from what I think I understand), slow build up of the song turning into a noisy explosion... that's good!

 

I feel that this EP keeps Ditz as one of the most interesting band from the new UK scene, somewhere between the trendiness of the Idles (not for me!) and a quite active noise-rock scene. Less striking than their first 3-track release (probably because these songs were composed over a fairly long period of time as singles) I nevertheless appreciate the rising build-up of the tracks, the skilful mastery of the energy delivery and the construction of an atmosphere at once dark, unhealthy and explosive.

 

I would be interested to see what that would give on a proper LP.

 

 

picture by MABGATE BLEACH

 

 

 

You can  listen to Ditz on Oktober Fist #1 and Rien à Faire #18.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tetanus

 

Just a quick one today about this demo tape from Tetanus, a new band from Charlotte, North Caroline, which was released last month on Sorry State.

 

Not much information about these guys except what the label page is saying: 

"Tetanus came together when two other Charlotte area bands, Patho-gen and 7 Minutes in a Microwave, broke up just as the COVID-19 pandemic started to hit in the US."

Go check these two bands if you're not familiar with them, it's super good hardcore punk.

 

 

 

  But let's get back to the bacterial infection: with six tracks all under the two minute mark these guys didn't drop by to linger around. However, you can't put everything in the hardcore punk drawer right away. Let's say it's fast noisy punk with some (a lot actually) hardcore parts.

The vocals and the guitars sound "fuzzy" and distant enough to imagine oneself at the other end of a last century's handset, reminding me of that crazy story of HR recording the vocals of I agaisnt I over the phone from prison!

 

 

 

But I'm rambling and Tetanus is not: with six straight forward in-your-face tracks, this tape could have been just another loud and noisy release but it's a little bit more than that...

 *** (great song name by the way) for example manages to go back and forth between fast hardcore parts and slower and heavier, keeping us alert all the way while the noisy guitar start of Life Is Pain is a beautiful invitation to hear more... and that's the small details which make a huge difference!

And the cover of Chicago punk legend Mentally Ill's song Gacy's Place is a very enjoyable bonus, Tetanus turning the already-quite-fuzzy track into a proper super noisy hardcore punk song! Good job on this one guys!

In a nutshell Sorry State releases another good hardcore punk tape for a band that is far from revolutionizing a genre where the competition is more than fierce these days (the average quality of the hardcore punk tapes I have been listening to for the past years is extremely high in my opinion) but that masters the subject well enough to bring some subtle touches of originality which delight my tired hardcore kid ears...

And nice artwork by the way!

You can listen to Tetanus in Rien à Faire #18.

 

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Come Holy Spirit

 

picture by Kenny McNabb

 

 Ok I'm going to write about something a bit different today, a band I discovered recently and have been listening to a lot lately, which means I find their music more than enjoyable, I find it almost fascinating.

Come Holy Spirit has nothing to do with your local religious choirs, being a trio for a start and being also quite far from the religious crowd as you can imagine.

Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the band manages to bring up the very classic set up of drums, guitar and bass for a not classic at all result.

Here we got Sam (Centipede Eest, Gangwish) behind the drums, Aaron (Lungs Face Feet, Hex) playing the 6-string and Gina (Hymns for New Country, John Denver's Airplane, the super weird Beware The Blunted Needle, she also performs solo under different names like Evil Twin) on bass and vocals who is also a full-time multi-disciplinary artist on the side.

All these different bands are not all exactly my cup of tea, so what makes Come Holy Spirit so good to my punk ears ?

Before going any further let me say that I will skip some of the band's first releases and focus only on their last three. But don't hesitate to have at look at Weather, CHS's very first tape back in 2016, which is a bit too soft and "aerial" for me or Grand Island, CHS's first LP.

Come Holy Spirit is not an easy band to define, yes the trio overall delivers a quiet and relaxing kind of music (compared to the usual level of angriness and loudness featured on this page) but is also subtle enough to play with a very broad range of emotions and feelings through a purified and mastered musical construction.

 

Since their beginning CHS are compared to The Ex and Dog Faced Hermans which could be put together as the most experimental and daring bands to come out of the anarcho punk wave of the beginning of the 80's (and one of the best band at all for The Ex in my humble opinion). But not The Ex from Disturbing Domestic Peace no, I'm talking here about The Ex from Scrabbling At The Lock and later with absolutely stunning songs like Hidegen Fujnak A Szelek, Stupid Competitions or Huriyet where Katherina Bornefeld demonstrated that in addition to being an exceptional drummer, she is also an exceptional singer (and Gina is doing more than really well too!). 

 

 

Released in April 2018 on Water Wing Records from Portland, Asters And Disasters comes after enough time for the band to have digested their influences and mastered their sound.  

Yes there is a lot of The Ex in this third release (I mean: the vocals on Wandering Womb!) and G.W. Sok guest vocals on two tracks only confirm the comparison but the anarcho punk roots can also be more lively than on the recent releases of the Dutch band; Prescribed Burn or some parts of Human Animal for example take us back to the golden days of Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre on Penis Envy (which is another not-too-bad comparison!).

 

So yes CHS is a looot more than a copy cat, these guys have brought folk music into mutated anarcho punk, building a bridge between the protest tradition of a part of American folk music and the punks wearing black of Essex...

And the result is more than good, it's hypnotising and fascinating! 

 

 

  So make yourself a favour and take some time off to calmly enjoy the 6 minutes long bewitching tribal rhythm of Essayons (with some parts in French S'il vous plait), the Nick Cave-influenced Elephantine or the surprising S.O.L Song which vocals and horns evoke Patti Smith and early PJ Harvey...

 

   It's the kind of album I will always come back to, like a warm seat near a fireplace, one curls up there with the simple pleasure of comfort and regained security, and that's all we need during these cold and dark winter days...

 

 

  It's in November 2019 that landed this self-released 6-track split with Gnarrenschiff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin; a quite unusual band composed of one bass, two electric sazs (a plucked string instruments of Turkish origin) and one bodhran (a frame drum of Irish origin) which plays instrumental songs only. 

The two bands played a show together in 2016 and the outstanding Gnarrenschiff set up could only seduce our trio from Pittsburgh, a few beers and years later the split was born.

To be honest I find the Milwaukee side interesting but not really thrilling so I will not spend much time writing about it.

Let's focus on the CHS side three tracks. 

The two longest songs first appeared on Weather (the band's seminal tape) but were rerecorded, so it's not-really-new stuff here but it doesn't matter because it does sound new.

 

It starts with Panacea which got something of oriental in its guitar part, something ethereal in its carried away singing despite an overall quite tensed atmosphere made of ups and downs skillfully following one another, taking us along an eventful but pleasant ride. This is not the anarcho punk à la The Ex of Asters And Disasters but I can still feel this little "punky spikey" something underneath... 

Panacea is a 6 minute long tune and actually sounds like several songs one after another, it almost "dies" around 4:30 before coming back to life slowly to finally explode into a dry and nervous rhythm.

Cormorant Song is super short (1:43) compared to the two others but offers a nice jumpy bells interlude before taking us back to the main path with the 06 Female final ride (the longest song).

 

This final piece is an incantation, a eight minute long shamanic chant recalling the Indian invocations of the hidden ancestral gods, the powerful masters of nature. And the chant and the tension rise slowly, like a lament around a campfire in a faraway desert, before culminating in a high plateau inhabited by spirits and ancient forces, leaving us there... in the middle of a black sabbath dance... our exhausted limbs finally falling on the ground before a final outburst of our souls, possessed by invoked demons.... at last...

Ok ok I'm carried away a little bit here, sorry! But man, what a track!

CHS takes us really far with these three songs and believe me, it's a beautiful journey...

 

 

 

Mid 2020, CHS is back with eight new tracks written and recorded in 2019 and a cover artwork made by Gina herself.

Undiscovered Land (released by Water Wing records) takes it right where Asters And Disasters left it (and that's for the best)... but unfortunately the state of the world, and the USA, in particular has not gotten any better since 2018 and Gina is clearly pissed off! 

 

 

But it starts easy first with the dreamlike Easement which lays the, now famous, bases of the lively rhythm and bewitching singing of the group, introduction to an album that is much more punk than its predecessors.

 

Yes CHS are back to their anarcho punk roots with the punk Working Women Are Pissed (Believe Her), the very punk  A.W.O.L, the beautiful and very The Ex-influenced Gracias A la Vida (inspired by the Violetta Para's song) and the overwhelming First World Blues, which is clearly influenced by the best anarcho "ballads" (always edging with repressed angriness) of the golden era of the British movement and makes a bitter assessment of the first world glaring inequalities and obscene richness. 

 

 

  But once again CHS manages to be more than that and to take us by surprise very far from our musical comfort zone (from mine at least). For example the bells of Immortal Home (despite the lyrics coming from the gospel song Angel Band by William Bradbury) got a strong Gaman vibe which fits surprisingly well with Gina's voice whereas the (too?) short Sky is Falling can be considered as a deep and moving folk song.

 

And what to say about Tedious and Brief whose galloping rhythmic sections and powerful singing make it perhaps the perfect example of what this outstanding group is capable of embodying? 

 

 

Come Holy Spirit deliver another outstanding release which finds the perfect balance between their different influences, bringing back a "punker" side which can only seduce me.

As somebody wrote it somewhere, CHS defines the "post-everything" genre.

I would add that saying that the band from Pittsburgh is to anarcho punk what The Evens are to Minor Threat would probably be too much but (and I think you get the idea), it's a band which goes forward, straight to the future without rejecting the roots of the past... And that's what real good bands of their times do!

Post-anarcho-punk? post-american-folk?

Who cares?

 

CHS is CHS and I really wish it will stay this way for ever...

 

 

 

  You can listen to Come Holy Spirit on Rien à Faire #18.

 

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