Ok let's go back to HARDCORE:
Illiterates are a three piece outfit from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a particularly fertile area for hardcore punk), from the same bunch of guys behind Speed Plans (check out their
Field Of Vision LP
from last October) and
Kill Enemy Records.
Illiterates release this demo in February 2019 (digital only?) and within five tracks show a lot of love for fast straight forward old school hardcore punk. The band clearly positions itself towards a midway approach of the early straight edge scene with quite heavy rhythms and, above all, the kind of recognizable gnarling vocals that recall Youth Of Today or SSD. But don't get me wrong, it's far from reaching the point of bands like 86 Mentality, Boston Stranglers or even their compatriots from Heavy Discipline.
The band doesn't sound exactly like the umpteenth incarnation of one
of the winning versions of American hardcore though, they obviously didn't invent
gunpowder (and that's not what we're asking of them), but I appreciate the
short melodic guitar passages and the bass line of Never Enough for
example, which take us off the beaten track a bit.
Honestly it sounds quite good for a demo, the guitars are a bit weak
though and take away from the energy of the whole (especially on the first
tracks) but don't prevent from greatly appreciating this cool debut release.
September 2019: this second release of the Pittsburgh's band, named Fall Tape 2019, takes it off exactly where the demo left with five new tracks of not-so-fast gnarling hardcore punk.
Yes at first sight not much new here, and yet there is clearly more of this "crew spirit" made of
a lot of barking gang vocals which
confirm the Youth Crew influences and give a "more hardcore" feeling to the lot. The overall sound is quite similar with some not-so-heavy guitars and "background" drums leaving a lot of space for the singer(s) to growl and roar at will. There is even a slight oi! vibe in Klout.
I dig the break/mosh part and silly lyrics of Illiterates :
An Indian
And two dumb hicks
The aptly named
Illiterates
It doesn't matter if you're from the sticks
Or raised by immigrants
Cause if the boot fits
You could become
Illiterates
And two dumb hicks
The aptly named
Illiterates
It doesn't matter if you're from the sticks
Or raised by immigrants
Cause if the boot fits
You could become
Illiterates
A cool tape that shows the evolution of the band in a more and more hardcore style that, after several listenings, makes me feel like the trio distinguishes slightly itself from the demo by more assertive but maybe also less "daring" choices.
But here is the release that brought Illiterates to my attention, their first LP released on Kill Enemy Records in March 2021. I recently read the interview of the guy behind the Richmond label 11Pm Records in Razorblade&Aspirin #8 and was a bit surprised to read him say that "I always tell the bands that the cover is way more important than whatever you put on it. ‘Cause 90% of the people aren’t ever gonna pull the record out and listen to it." Well I strongly disagree with that (It's probably true to some extent in the US but down here I don't know anyone who does not listen to his vinyl records, that sounds like a super dumb and snob thing to do...) but I do agree though that a record cover is damn important... and the Illiterates' one is a proper success!
Not a surprise when you know that the artwork is signed by
Keith Caves from
White Stains
(another great hardcore punk act from the city of bridges) who already
made a few great cover artworks for various punk bands/labels (mostly from
the Pittsburgh area) like the latest White Stains' LP of course but
also for the
Heavy Discipline's LP, the
Mutant Strain's LP, a couple of
Living World's releases (damn that band is sooo good) and the
S.L.I.P's Slippy When Wet LP
among others...
But back to the analphabetics; this LP has clearly one and only mission: stomp on your
face at high pace with heavy steel-capped boots all along twelve raging
tracks (including only one track from the previous tape, the unavoidable Illiterates, and one track from the demo). Luckily for you hardcore is still hardcore and none of them make it
past the 1:40 min mark...
Keeping the recipe of Boston-influenced / early youth crew hardcore the
band had developed in their two previous releases, they just made it
meaner, faster, heavier this time... enhanced by a perfect "hardcore"
sound (recorded at the Braddock Hit Factory, run by the
ex-Pissed Jeans bassist Dave Rosenstraus if I'm not
mistaken, guilty of producing and recording countless furious Pennsylvania
hardcore acts over the past ten years) that will instantly hit the right spot in your hardcore punk nerd frontal lob.
Yes it's fast, mean and angry and it sounds closer than ever to
Heavy Discipline,
Blood Pressure,
Concealed Blade
and all the PAxHC crew (it should be a thing if it's not already ahah) without reaching the, sometimes extreme,
heaviness of these bands; heaviness borrowed (and amplified) from straight edge ayatollahs like
Negative FX and
DYS.
In an nutshell that's the album the band deserved to deliver, it's all
you can expect from this kind of band.
A small remark however, I regret a little that the trio abandoned the
small deviations of the beginning (the bass lines and the guitar touches
mentioned above) to submit to a formula which is certainly more effective in its thrashing precision and brutality but which also is more predictable
and expected, bringing Illiterates back in the batch of the
bands which kick asses but don't mark their time.
Anyway if you're pissed off and feel like burning the whole world down...
You're welcome!
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