Crotch Rot

 

Another short one today about this young band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose online information is unfortunately quite scarce.

Call them rude, call them highly offensive, call them what the fuck you want, Crotch Rot (to not be mistaken with the Brazilian grindcore band, the 80s metal band from NYC and the crust/punk/metal band from Sacramento bearing the same name... you can of course forget all that stuff and treat yourself with the Chronic Sick's song) is a band with an attitude. But let them describe themselves: "Shitty riot thirl punk. We eat men. Subtle, classy, ladylike, nuanced, mellow." Yes you got it, a lot of Riot Grrrl influences, a strong Queercore attitude and a taste for clown costumes... sounds interesting right?...

 

Sucker Cunt is, I guess, the band's digital demo and very first recording. It was released on bandcamp early March and features this cool Jackie Kolifrath artwork that fits the "fuck you" feminist punk attitude the band has clearly decided to embrace.

 A cover that immediately gives a certain "smell" to the record, now let's see how it sounds.

 

  Crotch Rot deliver seven very provocative mid-tempo songs midway between low-fi teenage punk and raw Riot Grrrl (a less grungy version of Babes in Toyland / Bikini Kill ?). It got this strong taste of a young band demo, it sounds like everybody just picked up some random instruments a couple of months ago with a strong urge to spit to the face of all kind of establishment (isn't it like all young bands start?). So yes it's hesitant, it's a bit messy, it's pretty basic but really... who cares? You've listened to the first Bikini Kill release right?

 

A bit like what Critter delivered a few months ago (with a less teenage vibe though) or what a more "american" version of Sniffany & The Nits (the vocals immediately made me think of the Brighton band) could sound like, Crotch Rot is in the lineage of groups clearly marked by a certain feminist/queer philosophy and is far from reinventing a rather well-established concept but on the contrary seems quite credible in the continuity of a "fight", or at least of a cause, which will probably always be relevant. And that's what Punk can (should?) be.

The meters of energy, radicalism and willingness to make a change are all at their peak and I'm sure the band will use all of it to improve and deliver more (and better) killer punk tracks in the very near future.

Get your ears ready for more...

"I just wanna be a whore!"

 

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  You can listen to Crotch Rot on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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Critter

 

After Ad Vitam here is another demo (an EP actually) from a Montreal-based band, demo which is also part of the Demo Fest initiative.

So Critter is a new band from Quebec featuring the video artist "Scabrielle" Mulholland on vocals who is also singing in Salt (which demo can be found on the Demo Fest page as well).

Critter's All Better is directly in line with the women's bands of the late 80's / early 90's, at the very beginning of the Riot Girl movement when groups like Bikini Kill and Sleater Kinney were "recycling" the 80's punk into the 90's "sound".

A slightly low-fi sound, some kind of background guitar/bass parts which melodies are not so distinctive and some powerful feminine vocals, very much emphasized by the bewitching punk voice of Gabrielle, that's the simple and eternal formula chosen by the three Canadian friends.

  The lyrics are quite something here, there are long texts which tell some kind of "stories" that got more or less a strong "personal" taste like Mad Max, Do They Know (Creep) or Noseblood and there are these little something about relationships (Shift And Drift), about depressed moments (All Better) or just about a poor dog life (Lap Dog)... But whatever it is it always sounds great, it always goes really well with the flow, as if the music had been created to fit the forms of the lyrics, making the songs instantly familiar... and this record feeling like home..

 

 

To me there is a lot of the very beginning of Kathleen Hanna's band (with less fury and anger though) here, the same straight forward, simple and honest way of making punk rock.

 

Playing punk rock simply to express oneself, to say intimate things, without trying to "overdo it", without trying to adopt the pose of the "punk rocker" or to fit into a genre or something, without trying to impress or seduce and it's the simplicity and the frankness of these 7 tracks that make me greatly appreciate this release...

All Better is a very exciting demo, a very promising start and I expect Critter to come back as one of the top female-fronted punk band of 2021.

But please... make more but don't lose what you got.

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

 

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All Hits

 

picture by Convertido Photography

 

 All Hits is a trio from Portland, Oregon which has been around for a couple of years now and play some kind of mostly mid-tempo punk.

Note that at behind the guitar and mic you can find Janie when she is not behind the drums in another good band from the Portland area: Collate. 

Izzy, at the bass and mic (as well), is also playing in the very (very) synth punk act Dress Forms.

 

Introducing is probably what we can call the band demo. Released as a 4-track tape at the very end of May 2019, it includes only 2 tracks on their bandcamp page and that's unfortunately all I had access to.

Rolling mid-tempo percussion, guitar switching between background melodies and open  riffs... the band is swimming on the edge of the punk pool, close to the indie side, and the great dual vocals singing of Janie and Izzy is stressing it a lot... and it's working!

Izzy takes care of the punk side of the chant while Janie does some proper singing, bringing a softer and more melodic side to the songs which makes me think of bands like Child's Pose or Catisfaction.

 

 A bit more than a year later the band releases Men And Their Work, its first full length, on Iron Lung Records (a label which really surprises me these days by the extreme diversity of its catalogue).

Within 8 songs and a short intro the band delivers what their demo promised, a great and well mastered album. All Hits keeps the same recipe with an extra pinch of energy (especially on the hit Blockhead) and punk attitude (Izzy taking the lead on most of the songs, taking us back to a long tradition of female-fronted punk bands).

Still mostly mid-tempo, the All Hits' songs do no hesitate to  move up a gear when it's needed and as an old punk/hardcore fan I always enjoy a little bit of speed.

I mean the three girls from Portland are writing good songs, keeping the whole lot diverse,  energetic and super enjoyable. We are now at the border between old 70s female-fronted punk, the riot grrrl movement (am I hearing some Kathleen Hanna influences in some melodic singing parts?) and more modern all-female bands as quoted above.

 

There is even something of the Dead Kennedys in the super tensed verses of Kickback (that surfish guitar and rolling bass lines man!) and I love it!

 

 

 

  In the end I have to admit that I enjoy a lot more the more aggressive singing parts of Izzy than the melodic side of Janie but well that's me.

All that matters is that All Hits IS A GOOD BAND!

(and it's not the below live videos that will make me say something else)

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Une publication partagée par Matt Cosby (@ottoroyal) le 5 Févr. 2020 à 6 :07 PST

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Une publication partagée par rc (@translucentgoo) le 1 Févr. 2020 à 5 :55 PST

N,J'Oi!

 

You can listen to All Hits on Rien à Faire #13.

 

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Crucial Features

 picture by Kissi Ussuki

Crucial Features is an all-girl band from Vilnius, Lithuania, which has been around since 2016 and plays some kind of 90s Riot Grrrl grungy punk heavily influenced by Babes in Toyland. 

Oh and all the songs are in Lithuanian, which is both great and unusual to my ears.
The band started as a quartet and is now a trio. 

Crucial Features is, since the beginning, really close to the photographer and artist Kissi Ussuki who, on top of taking great pictures of the ladies, is responsible for the artwork of their two albums. As you will probably notice her collage technique is not without reminding Mr.James Patrick Shannon Morey (AKA Winston Smith) or the Crass Records era.

 

Released in 2018, Kaprizai (Whims) is the band first release and features 6 songs of fast and angry grungy punk. With the heavy guitars and drums, the band has clearly chosen the sound of the 90s and despite a few unfortunate metal-influenced drum patterns and guitar solos it is an enjoyable piece of what sounds in my ears like a 90s post-USSR eastern european punk rock. 

My lithuanian is a bit rusty but from what Evil Corp Google translates for me the lyrics are well written on top of being emotionnaly and politically engaged like in Badmetis (Bad Year: about hunger and famine), Ir Šuo Kariamas (And the Dog is Suspended: about social alienation and depression?) or Gyvatės (Snakes: about individualism and mercyless competition).

 

Venera Budo (The Awakening of Venus), the first full-length album of Crucial Features, was released in late march 2020 (self-released, digital only) and is without any doubt (and by far) their best release.

The band has clearly digested the whole discography of Babes in Toyland, I mean it's almost like a slav reincarnation sometimes, from the vocals to the recording everything is a vivid example of the successful result of their adoration for the Minneapolis trio.

No more bad taste, no more unsound hesitation, Crucial Features is delivering a perfect album of the best of 90s Riot Girl punk... 

Powerful, fast, angry but perfectly mastered, the 10 songs got the right breaks at the right moments, the perfect screams and gang vocals of feminism angryness at the right time... This album is a success from the first second to the last... 

 picture by Nannook

The lyrics remain a bit of a mystery but as it is stated on their page "Crucial Features are digging into subjects of unconventional beauty, the cult of vanity and “woke” culture hoping to find an awakening of their own."

And I do believe they do.

 You can listen to Crucial Features and other great stuff on Rien à Faire #11.

N,J'Oi!

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Necking

Well well well what do we have here... 

Four young canadian girls, some great songs with killer bass lines and great vocals, a lot of anger about shitty relationships, gentrification, abuse and many other things...

humm promising..

And if I tell you that on top of thqt it sounds like The Slits were influenced by the all "Swimsuit Murder" era with a bit of post-punk on the side... well sounds damn good! would you say...

And that's exactly what it does, it sounds DAMN good...

Necking released in July of this year their first full length album Cut Their Teeth (on Mint Records) and all I can do is scream really loud in your right ear to go listen to it right fucking now!

Necking also plays live. I didn't find any really good live footage but here is a "radio live" which is pretty good.

Unfortunatly I am afraid the hype may quickly digest this straight forward and honest little gem and turn it into another crappy indie...thing... but well let's not be negative and let's enjoy it while it lasts!

Big Mouth and other beautiful summer hits are available on the allmighty compilation Oktoberfist Vol.2

N,J'Oi!

First picture by Alistair Henning 

Second Picture by Megan Magdalena 

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