I have already talked a bit about
Lewis Podlubny and the British Columbia, Canada, (Kamloops in
particular) punk and hardcore scene in my short post about
Nutrition, a few months ago. Well well well so here is another project from the
busiest man of the area whose life quest of "impersonating" every kind of
possible variant of hardcore punk our eardrums could bear doesn't look
like reaching an end anytime soon... and all the better!
This time he teams up with his brother Eric, who plays the drums
and had already joined Lewis' musical adventures on several
occasions, including in the very early days of
Bootlicker. A bit more than a year ago, January 2020, the duo recorded six tracks
which were released as a demo tape on Lewis' label,
Slow Death Records, which focus only on the BC local scene. At the same time I discovered what a culinary marvel headcheese
was, confirming the good taste of the siblings both in terms of food and
loud music.
Headcheese's demo
sounds like a low-fi and fuzzy kind of punk mid-way to hardcore.
Whereas the super fast and short Incel is pure 80s US hardcore,
Talk To The Therapist or Look It Up got, despite some fast
parts, a "groovier" rock'n punk vibe which gives an appreciable touch of
originality to a well-known recipe. Except for the heavy, half mid-tempo, opening song In The Mud,
Lewis' vocals short bursts of half-swallowed words keep the tracks
tight and tensed as the guitar jerky riffs are always on the verge of
falling, taking us into what looks like a long out-of-control
stampede.
I have to admit that Lewis manages to always keep a high level of
energy in the "new" concepts he develops in all his projects and this demo
is another example of his success...
Artwork by Athena Joan, another core member of the
Kamloops/Vancouver scene (Bootlicker,
Sick Astray,
Moxie,
Watchdog...), who has also done several artwork covers for several bands from the
area.
Interesting artwork cover (by Athena Joan once again) for the debut LP of the Podlubny brothers (and friends as the duo has turned into a quartet with the arrival of Wyatt and Trevor)... I could not really figure it out, and was probably not the only one, so Lewis was nice enough to provide an explanation to NoEcho:
"The artwork is based on an 1882 US mousetrap patent that involved a
load gun and a mouse activated trap. The idea of a loaded gun going off
at a mouse is fucking hilarious and also a really nice analogy on human
relations with anything other than human."
Released on the Vancouver label
Neon Taste Records, which gave birth to several Kamloops bands' vinyls over the last four
years (it's a small world), Headcheese's self-titled album
delivers, again, a no-fault hardcore punk meal. As Lewis' inhaling sound announces from the very first seconds of
the very first track (Don't Care), it's highly recommended to have
taken a deep breath before plunging into the frenetic sequence of short
punk explosions that make up this album. We're not talking ripping fast hardcore here, the intensity does not come
from the speed but from a sequence of frantic tracks, a
sequence that constantly leaves Lewis on the verge of breathlessness, of
discomfort almost, keeping us in the tense and merciless expectation of a
universe without pauses.
There is no time to get bored, no time to even think about what's
happening, we're all taken into a whirlwind of action, an unstoppable
suite of events that nothing can stop. You're a baby stuck in the washing
machine, a 15-year old kid stuck in the middle of a furious mosh pit at
your first punk show, a middle-aged respectable man in the middle of a
protest turning into a riot... it's too late you gotta live it till it ends,
there is no way to stop it! Featuring only one track from the demo (the week-long Talk To The Therapist), it's with almost only new tracks that the band keeps hammering their hardcore punk recipe... Front vocals, fuzzy (buzzy?) guitars and bass wrapping the songs in a cocoon of noise and fury, everything works perfectly, it sounds absolutely perfect!
Neon Taste recommends Headcheese to fans of White Pigs, Brutal Knights and F (bands with "fuzzier" guitars and rock rhythms which give an almost garage punk vibe to some parts, well Brutal Knights especially), maybe I could also add Cruelster (something with the guitar and the vocals) but well, you got the idea.
In one word, Headcheese LP just reached my Best Of 2021 list...
GO GET IT!
Bon appétit!
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