Jailer

 

Jailer's demo reviews have popped up a bit everywhere online over the past weeks and it's quite funny to see that while everybody agrees that this tape rips, it seems that Jailer's sound recalls very different things to each reviewers depending on their musical tastes and backgrounds. So now I guess it's my turn to add a little more confusion to the upbeat cacophony of the online punk world intelligentsia.

 

But first things first, according to various sources Jailer is one of the newest project of NYC and Philly punks who have a long record of obnoxious noise-making behind them, it even seems that one (the drummer maybe?), or some, of them, was/were involved in Sirkka, a great Finnish-hardcore-infused raw punk band from NYC which released a killer tape in 2020. Despite being obviously very talented, these guys also seem to love secrecy and I've not been able to dig up any first-hand information (congratulations, I usually manage to stalk almost everybody online).

 

 

  So first these guys like it loud and noisy, the guitars got that crushing buzz-saw sound and the deafening crunchy cymbals add the extra ingredient to something that could really fall into the "noise-worship" category. Thankfully the bass sticks out in that mess with a very medium round sound which gives an old-school anarcho punk vibe to the lot. On top of that the vocalist seems to particularly like the typical vocal flow dear to a part of the 80s British anarcho-punk wave (obvious on Vision Zero).

Yes, to me a lot in Jailer is reminiscent to the most "hardcore" bands from the 80s British anarcho-punk movement, I can think of Anti-System, A.O.A or some parts of Conflict's discography even if Jailer adds to that a "noise mayhem approach" closer to what Scandinavia used to offer at the time.

Something else entirely: the most music-loving or film-loving among you will appreciate the surprising reference to that good old Richard Wagner on Sexual Janitor.

 

 Whatever Jailer will make you think of, it's obvious that these guys' four songs totally rip. It got that in-your-fucking-face energy mixed with great songs structures and perfect punk vocals which make you wanna pogo AND listen to that shit on your way to work in the morning while you're being crushed in the packed subway wagon. The only thing that bothers me a bit is the tendency to play noisy but annoying guitar solos here and there (especially on Human Momentum), thankfully it doesn't reach the "Metal-inspired threshold" so it's still fine.

Let's hope that, not like Sirkka, something else will come out very soon...

Oh yes, of course I agree too... what the fuck is this cover artwork?

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Jailer on Rien à Faire #31.

 

 

 

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During

 You know the kind of highly-anticipated bands featuring members of already-accomplished and well-respected acts in the punk rock tribe? 

Well that's exactly what During is and, don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing.

And these members are three.

There is Steven Fisher, from Ballroom, Dozers (from the time he was still living in 'stralia) and the almighty Wilful Boys (go check them out NOW if it doesn't ring a deafening bell), who also plays in a couple of new projects called Pyrex and Big Kiss, there is Jordan "Lovelace", from Pampers, Tournament, Snoopy and The Who and "king of rock'n roll" Brandy, who's recorded a couple of bands you may have heard of at Spice World Studio and, at last, the third leg of the bar stool, Cory Plump from When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth and Spray Paint, from Texas, that became quite famous in the scene a few years back (I've personally always found them overrated but hey! taste and colours you know).

Yes, I warned you, that's a hell of a resume for a trio.

But let's come back to During and their first EP released on Chunklet Industries (an eclectic label from Atlanta I already talked about in my posts about Vangas) earlier this year.

Birds Of Juneau starts like a Brandy track, with a lot of "chorus" on the vocals and a "haunting" drum beat (which is always a good start) but During's identity comes quickly into play with some well placed synth layers, not at all built in a "new wave purpose" but rather as a support to the whole and as an additional layer of "space surf" atmosphere (if you know what I mean). Of course Birds Of Juneau is catchy as fuck (I couldn't expect less from this trio), another very good example of sleek and ultra effective song construction that Brandy masters perfectly.

Big Farmer is quite different: built like a mid-tempo noise rock song reminiscent of Brandy's early materials and of some Running's tracks, the song also perfectly mixes a heavy dose of post-punk (distant vocals, gloomish atmosphere etc...), Cory's influence I would say, without ever compromising the catchy side. Of course I could not help but hear "Big Pharma" all along (would it have been a topic in the air for about year or so hmm?).

Unfortunately it's a two track 7", two tracks only yes... but two bloody solid tracks which display two musical aspects the band may choose to develop in the (very) near future. It does sound like the Brandy influence is dominating the whole thing, which is real good news to me...

I also have to mention the artwork made by Ben from the great Cuntz, it makes me think a lot of some of the Pablo Picasso's freehand sketches (Ben will appreciate the comparison I guess ahah) he used to sow everywhere in his path... a taste of early 20th century decadence in a sense. Great artwork in my humble opinion. 

Chunklet announces a During's full length before the end of the year... based on this 7'' it's not unlikely it gets out just in time to make it to my year's top! Can't wait!

 

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to During on Rien à Faire #27.

 

 

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Children With Dog Feet

 

picture by

Kirsten Thoen

If you've read a few of my past reviews/posts/whatever you may have noticed that Goth/Death Rock/Cold Wave and all these kinds of "dark" musics are not my cup of tea at all. I don't know much about these genres to be honest as I was never interested in listening to bands affiliated to them (which does make sense I guess). 

But let's focus on death rock for a minute, I love death-rock-infused anarcho punk bands like Rudimentary Peni or Slimy Member so a friend advised to give a try to Christian Death's early materials and I did, and no, definitely no, not my kind of brew.

But I'm still interested in death-rock infused punk, and that's why Children With Dog Feet comes now into play here. 

 

 Let's start with the end for a change, I discovered Children With Dog Feet (CWDF) with this track recently released on their bandcamp and titled Killed By Goth. As far as I know the Killed By Death compilations (which have turned into Killed By Whatever-you-want) never reached Goth territories but did nevertheless venture into Death Rock, why not after all.

Killed By Goth immediately hooked me up, it's straight forward, full of low-fi punk energy and the way the vocals sound give a great death rock vibe. And yes the reference to the "KBD genre" makes total sense as this track got some of the characteristics of the early punk tunes you could find in the first compilations (and the "intro" is an obvious reference to that of course). 

But let's rewind a little bit.

CWDF is a new band from New York City featuring four punk veterans who've played in numerous underground bands for the past decade or so. The vocalist Chi, in particular, used to sing in the death rock influenced Anasazi and performs also now in another new act, called Blu Anxxiety, that you should check out if you're into dark "avant-garde" stuff.

Whereas I'm pretty sure Blu Anxxiety is not for me I'm trying to get into Anasazi's discography and there are some songs I like but I'm still not sure what I think about the whole thing though.

But let's come back to CWDF: their first record, the Curb Your Anarchy tape, was released on Toxic State Records (great NYC label which produced a few bands you should know about) in march of this year and was an immediate success.

As I explained above I discovered the band with the very punk and straight forward Killed By Goth which could only satisfy my old hardcore punk fan's ears but the this tape's four tracks are a bit different: the tempo fluctuates between a kind of dark mid-tempo and a fastest, more punk, one and the overall atmosphere is quite gloomy. But unlike a certain clean-sounding fringe of the black-eyed scenes, CWDF sounds always messy, angry, mean and chaotic... a bit like if the noisiest scandinavian punk bands were copulating throbbingly in the basement of a London goth party if you know what I mean. 

Of course there is the slower Leatherface which develops a very gothic atmosphere before exploding without restraint in a delightful chaos but even these parts, that I might not have appreciated in other circumstances, fit very well in the whole.

In the end Children With Dog Feet delivers a very interesting mix of things I'm not used to and it works surprisingly really well for me. I've already listened to their tracks numerous times and did not grow bored of it.

I'm very curious to see what comes next!

N,J'Oi!

  You can listen to Children With Dog Feet on RAF#25

 

 

 

  

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Young Ruins

 

 

Young Ruins is a trio hailing from New York City (Brooklyn) which has been around for quite a while now as they probably got together in 2013 or 2014. But despite all these years of existence the band's production remains very limited. It's in fact not so surprising when you know how busy these multi-artists are with their other various projects.

There is Roy who played in Brasilia (formerly known as Le Tigre but they changed their names for quite obvious reasons... who came with this name idea anyway??) and Crush 22 but who also works solo under the name Ice Orgy and manages the label Unovis; there is Mike who played in many bands including Flaws and Palatka but who works mostly as a visual artist; there was Gina who's drummed in numerous bands but also sings in Ötzi and Adrenochrome now that she's moved to Oakland and has been replaced by James in YR.

 

 

 

Released as a tape on Unovis in 2015, this 2014 demo features five tracks of hi-fi post-hardcore which would not have been ridiculous at all on vinyl for a first quality EP.  

Young Ruins digs deep into the 90s and 2000s post hardcore scene to take out the songs' construction scheme, the melodies and put them back together in something pretty dense, short and intense (three tracks out of the five are under the 2 minutes mark). I'm not talking of the "technical" side of post-hardcore, the one with a lot of arpeggios and string "knitting", but more of the "simple" and sincere side which keeps the bass player on a leash.

 

 

 

  Jerky but discreet drum rhythms, a guitar that doesn't hesitate to build interesting melodies but that knows how to stay in its spot to leave all the necessary space to melodic, sometimes sad and rather lyrical vocals. The quite typical of a certain type of American "rock" vocals that some did not hesitate to label as "emotional" a few decades ago.

Parts of the late 80s and 90s Dischord catalogue come to mind of course, I can think of bands like Bluetip for the melodic side, Embrace, Rites of Spring and Fugazi as well because you can't really find any bands swimming in those waters which have not been influenced by them anyway, a bit of Ignition maybe but also some of Steve Albini's bands (Rapeman? Shellac?) and the Touch And Go catalogue, the French guys of Pylone for the vocals and a bit of the UK math-rock / post-hardcore scene (Kill Yourself, Wooderson?)... well many things indeed!

 

Anyway enough with the name-dropping, Young Ruins delivers a very good first release which brilliantly mixes a beautiful sensitivity with a sober and efficient technical mastery full of energy (damn what a recap sentence!).

It took almost six years for the trio to deliver another tape under the Young Ruins name. Well it's not really true, a lot less than that actually as these songs were recorded in 2016 but Severance Play was only released early this year for some reasons. A little line-up change happened on the way as Gina left and was replaced by James behind the drums.

 

 

 

  And not everything is new here either, ok all the songs were re-recorded but all the five demo tracks are included, which makes it a kind of discography tape in a way. And what you notice immediately is that the four new tracks take a much more progressive approach than the majority of the old tracks, yes of course there is Rabbits (written by Eric Owens of Bad Energy and The End Of The Century Party) which already described a rather special trajectory, almost progressive and ethereal in a dimension of noise rock that I didn't expect to come across here. But USA Today and Actual Women also got this vibe recalling the "prog noise" of Carnivorous Bells whereas On hold leans more toward the math-rock sprinkled post hardcore of the above mentioned British bands.  

And if you're not a cheap fuck and finally decide to purchase the digital version, you'll have the pleasure to discover a surprising remix version of Shift Tense as a closing track (a version entitled Ryan Seaton Bummer Banger Remix, are we talking about this Ryan Seaton? Sorry I don't have the references) which gets a bit lost in vocal "bursts" that are clearly too melodic to be quite honest.

At the end of the day Young Ruins manages to wake up my love for the post-hardcore/math-rock scene which I admit to having neglected a little lately for more "brutal" genres. The trio delivers a solid record whose construction and relative complexity require several listenings to appreciate the finesse of the whole, although my old deaf ear was immediately hooked by what it was painfully guessing. It's the kind of record you go back to, like an old friend who recalls the good old days while living a fulfilled life in his own way now...

 

N,J'Oi! 

    

You can listen to Young Ruins on Rien à Faire #23. 

  

 

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Kaleidoscope: New 7"

 

If you're not new here you may have read my enthusiastic words about Kaleidoscope at the end of last year.

And as you have not, here is a chance to check the Decolonization 7", their latest release. 

Back on D4MT LABS after After the Future (their beautiful 2019 LP released on La Vida Es Un Mus and Toxic State), Kaleidoscope is once again jumping straight in the political side of punk with this 5-track 7".

Yes that's what modern anarcho-punk is: tensed, highly political and not-so-clichés from the musical side...

Some would call it hardcore punk, I don't think it's so accurate. Kaleidoscope got its own sound, its own vibe, and that's what important bands have the power to create I guess, a new dimension in the music reality. 

 

 

  The band from NYC has, since the beginning, managed to translate the most tensed and harmful mental states into music... To me these songs are the soundtrack of the fifth burnout of a small time office worker, the playlist of a heart broken lover's panic attack, the internal lullaby of agoraphobic 5-year old kid lost in Grand Central on a Monday morning, the mental break down's melody of a violent midlife crisis...   

 

 

Yes Kaleidoscope is all that and even more and they prove it on Girmitya, a beautiful  "ballad" about the Indians labourers sent to the Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa, and the Caribbean by the British authorities to work on sugarcane plantations during the time of the colonies.

Jumping on the throats of empires and all kind of exploitation systems, Kaleidoscope has a lot to say, a lot to denounce... I am not 100% behind the "new" decolonization movement the US and the UK have seen popped up over the last couple of years, but I get the point. 

Kaleidoscope is a great band, an important band of our times.

And I hope it will keep proving it to us.

 

You can listen to Kaleidoscope in Rien à Faire #16.

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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Snarling Hate

WOW!!

These guys are not fucking around! Snarling Hate is exactly what you can expect from its name, a straight to the face shotgun shot of hate, anger and negativity!

Out on Youth Attack records which is specialized in super pissed music (no surprise when you know that the label was created and is run by Mark McCoy, ex-vocalist of the legendary powerviolence act Charles Bronson), How To Kill was born of the meeting of two old legends of the I-am-super-angry scene...

On one side we have James Trejo a long-time friend of Youth Attack as several of his past bands were released there: Culture Shock, Cadaver Dog and now Life Support are a few examples of  James' interest in every aspect of the violent and the loud. Almost every aspect indeed as James is actually playing and recording all instruments on most of his records while a professional screamer is invited to add the hateful touch. Yes and that is exactly what is happening in Snarling Hate.

On the other side we have Shaun Dean who has been screaming and shouting in hardcore bands all over the US for the past two decades at least...

Repercussions, Bad Faith, Men's Interest, Cold Sweat... yes Shaun has not been lazy and seems to be as angry as the first day!

Oh yes sorry and also Matt Wilga decided to join these two cheerful lads with his guitar! Not a newbie at all as well, Matt has played in a bunch of bands featured on Youth Attack like Failures, Suburbanite and The Cancer Kids but also in Angel Flares, a quite surprising rock'n roll / folk solo project which did not make it to Youth Attack.

So as I am not a big fan of all the bands quoted above (most of them are a bit too much on the heavy/brutal side for me), Snarling Hate manages to find the right angle between speed, violence, brutality and hateful vocals... It's super pissed but it is still punk, it is still hardcore and there is even some more melodic parts which are not without reminding Kill Your Idols as we were talking of New York (Youth Attack is based in NYC).

Unfortunately this EP features only two songs, which is really frustrating as I would love to hear more!

Highly recommended anyway!

N,J'Oi!

You can listen to Snarling Hate on Rien à Faire #12.

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