Illiterates

 

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 

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

  You can listen to Illiterates on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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Bibione

 

picture by

Anna Baštýřová

Bibione is a new all-female trio hailing from Prague, Czech Republic, whose name seems to refer, for unknown reasons, to the Italian seaside resort of the same name, near Venice, where some of Prague's youth may go in search of sunny afternoons at the beach.

 

 

The first appearance of the Prague trio was with the track Kafe je kyselý (The Coffee is Sour) on the Crooked To Death III compilation released on the Czech label Stoned To Death, at the end of last year, in partnership with Crook, a Czech skateboard magazine. A rather uneven compilation I must say, with mostly tracks that are clearly not my cup of tea but a few cool ones though like the München Konflikt's, the Guest User's and of course Bibione's.

Kafe je kyselý is a very good mid-tempo punk track with a heavy and stomping rhythmic session but also an overall slight surf vibe distilled by the main guitar riff. It's dark and disturbing and immediately recalls some of the heaviest Riot Grrrl bands like Babes in Toyland (and a less "hardcore" version of the Lithuanian band Crucial Features).

Check out their killer video-clip (I find it super cool) made of video footages taken of the 1964 movie Straight Jacket featuring a disturbed and scary ageing Joan Crawford.

A few months later Bibione release their debut 7" on Stoned To Death and, in contrary to their first title in Czech, have decided to do it all in English (a bit of a shame in my opinion as I am strongly in favour of bands singing in their own language but ok).

 

 

  So with five new tracks (seven if you include the two bonus ones on the Stoned To Death's digital version) Bibione explores a side of DIY culture that is far from being limited to the heavy side of the  Riot Grrrl influences you could hear in Kafe je kyselý, on the contrary. The music of the trio turns out to be rather soft at first listen, the guitar sound reminds of bands like Shopping while the bass lines build discrete but catchy melodies, also reminiscent of the English band. But it would be a mistake to believe Bibione harmless, anger is hiding and rumbles in the background, ready to explode in short angry bursts at the bend of some surf-influenced melodies. The singer then transforms her beautiful melodic voice into screams and shouts that immediately take on a much more punkish quality that sounds like a warning, Bibione can bite, hard.

Bibione follows in the footsteps of bands like Bikini Body, MrWrong, Necking and Nape Neck which, perhaps influenced by slightly older bands like the above-mentioned Shopping, have incorporated the post-punk of the Slits and Delta 5 into a contemporary approach from which the Riot Grrrl movement cannot be absent but does not predominate.

 

 

 A remarkable debut EP which gives extremely high expectations for what's coming next...

 Keep it up!

picture by Dusan Kilco

You can listen to Bibione on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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Ataque Zerø

 

Ataque Zerø is a new international (French-Venezuelian-Colombian) band from Bogota, Colombia, featuring Guilhem from Dernier Futur from Lyon, France, at the guitar, Rafa from the well-known Muro behind the drums, Luis from Trampa and 1186 behind the mic and Oski on bass (also bassist in Trampa but now singer in Alambrada which recently released a great 7"). The band's name refers (I suppose) to a zero-day attack, an attack against software vulnerability unknown of its "owners" by hackers who are therefore able to affect the system (thank you guys, I've learned something).

 

The four punk veterans dropped early march five tracks on their brand new bandcamp page, is at a demo? a digital EP? No idea but it's clearly something to listen to and look at closely.

So what do we have here, another furious raw Colombian punk act? Well not really.

 

 

  You may have noticed on the above picture that Guilhem is wearing a No Hope For The Kids t-shirt (not surprising when you've listened to Dernier Futur) and it's far from a coincidence is this case as well... indeed there is a lot of the K-town punks' bleakness in Ataque Zerø, that kind of grey melancholy the Danish beautifully painted all over their discography in the early 2000s. They were not the only ones of course, I can also mention the "melocholic" Portland punk scene which was born around the same period with, the now punk legends, Autistic Youth / Public Eye and The Observers / Red Dons for example.

 

 

With "fast" mid-tempo songs (I know it doesn't mean anything), melodic and sad bass lines, sorrowful and lyrical vocals including heartbreaking notes perfectly handled by Luis, Ataque Zerø show that they know their classics and have done their homework. The four punks deliver powerfully mastered and efficient compositions whose relative length (not far from 3 minutes for each track) allow them to show the whole range of their capacities without ever being boring. Of course these guys are not newbies and it definitely does not sound like a "new band demo" if you know what I mean, and I would not be surprised if one of the "leading" punk labels would already be negotiating a "deal" to release a 7" or even a 12" pretty soon... fingers crossed! Update: I was right, the band informed me that Static Shock has contacted them!

 

But enough with the childish enthusiasm, back to the songs: my Spanish is unfortunately extremely weak but the lyrics (if i can trust their automatic translations) look moving, well-written (and dark of course), focusing on inner pains and malaise (thank you guys for having put the lyrics on the bandcamp page, not so many bands do it).

Ok ok let's stop playing, the band which immediately popped into my mind when I first listened to Destrucción is, of course, Peligro Social which is, to my limited knowledge in terms of Spanish-speaking punk, the closest thing to a "melocholic" band the 2000s latino californian scene has given birth to. If you don't know it yet you should check their amazing No Religión album at once!

I obviously love Peligro Social so you can guess that it was pretty easy for the French-Venezuelan-Colombians to seduce me with their sound...

Can't wait to hear more! 

 

You can listen to Ataque Zerø on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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Valse Noot

 

Valse Noot comes from Brest, the most western city of Brittany and therefore of France, a city whose contribution to the various rock / punk / noise scenes during the last decades is far from being negligible. You may have heard of Les Collabos (famous french punk band from the 80s), Thrashington DC (great hardcore punk band from the 2000s), Syndrome 81 or Litovsk (two of the leading bands of the current post-punk/oi! scene) or the current stoner/noise band Mnemotechnic...

 

Anyway today we're talking noise rock, first class noise-rock from the far end of the earth !  

 

 

 Valse Noot's debut release is almost a decade old now (2012), so yes these guys have been together for a while and I can guess that, already at the time, it was far from being their first rodeo. Valse Noot is an "experienced" band so don't let yourself tricked by their name (Valse Noot means False Note in Dutch), these guys know what they're doing.

And what they're doing here, on this 3-track but 25-minute-long EP, is definitely closer to stoner or progressive noise rock than grindcore.

On Run Off The Main the keyboard buzz in the background while the guitar builds melodies close to what you can find in some modern emo/screamo/post-hardcore songs, the vocals first accompanie the whole in a rather melodic approach, before letting itself go to heart-rending, and very screamo, screams.

With tracks that long there is plenty of time to build a really progressive rise in energy, for instance the 10-minute-long Young Epic People starts with a folkloric vibe, voices recalling ancient songs from the Celtic age, before it slowly mutates into a nightmarish modern screamo/post-hardcore lullaby and, at last, into something tribal, aggressive, almost metal...

I really like that some of the lyrics on the very MrBungle-influenced Forbidden Garden are in French, I'm always in favour of the use of mother tongue anyway. Despite a very "psyche" (The Doors ?) second part that I don't dig, it's probably my favourite track of the EP.

 

 

To be honest that's not the kind of music I listen to at all, and I did not enjoy it so much. It's clearly well done but it sounds way too polished, way too close to metal, way too progressive for me... and I would not have decided to write a few words about the band if it would have been for this kind of stuff only.

 

 

  Two years and a half later (late 2014), the four Britons self-release their first full-length, So Straight Architecture. With seven tracks (including The Forbidden Garden and Run Off The Main which were on the demo/EP) and a total duration of over 45 minutes, the band is still not on the power-violence path (fortunately!) but is on the way of more "compact" tracks, the longest one being one from the EP.

 

 

 

Well to be honest I'm a bit uncomfortable with this album, Valse Noot continue their exploration of a modern sound at the crossroads of genres I can appreciate (in a few words: Noise-Rock and all its more or less experimental and bouncy offshoots) and others I have a lot more trouble with (Progressive Metal, Nu Metal... and other things I won't even try to qualify), which makes for a particularly uncertain mix. Of course I can't help but be seduced by the killer start of Out Of My Mouth (until this unfortunate and painful background guitar part), the very good and heavy basslines of Be A Better Man, by the heartbreaking screams accompanying the bouncy My Eyes Will Not Dry, but there are also all those dispensable synth layers, all those excessively melodic vocal passages and slightly neo-metal (and cheesy) riffs that quickly irritate the thin skin of my sensitive eardrums. 

 

 

  And yet, behind it all, I can hear, feel, the scattered members of what the band will eventually deliver in the finally reconstituted body of the next album's noise-rock slaughter... 

 

Here we finally reach the main point of interest, Valse Noot's second album, and proper success, Utter Contempt. Released by a bunch of labels (Ideal Crash, Atypeek Music, Vollmer Industries, Super Apes, French Wine and Offoron), this LP is the one everyone was waiting for and was not going to let slip by.

As the drummer explained, the band wanted to make something way more tensed, more compact, more brutal and straight forward in a noise-rock kinda way... and that's exactly what they did. Six years have passed since So Straight Architecture, a lot of Noise-rock and angry music has been made and the Britons have decided to get to the heart of it, to cut the crap and distil a core of energy and mastery.

Yes Girl Band, Blacklisters and many others have happened during the last eight years, and they didn't pass unnoticed.

Embellished by a neat and sober but sumptuous graphic design (everything is made by David, the guitar player, who is also a successful graphic designer), whose elegant black and white aestheticism can be found in the clip above, this 7-track vinyl also marks by the power of its sound. Recorded in Brest by the bass player of Syndrome 81, the band has all the sound amplitude necessary to let burst almost 8 years of rehearsals.

Forget the 9 or 10 minute long tracks, Valse Noot brings it back to less than 6 minutes, which is more than enough to throw brilliant explosive Noise-rock to your face. Far from having abandoned their musical identity, the Brestois have extracted the substance of it to better concentrate it in shorter, but deadlier, attacks. The synth continues its background work, smearing with anguished layers the bases of a nervous and uncompromising rhythmic of which Angst is probably the purest example. But more than a band that has found the formula of a recipe that it will cook, re-cook, reheat and re-serve to addicted guests, Valse Noot succeed in delivering an album with a remarkable diversity. Each song is impeccably constructed, chiselled to the chord, the edges are sharp and you're warned, they're built to hurt...

Utter Contempt manages to build itself at the crossroads of the influences of a band that is far from displaying a fetish for the big names of the genre (aka the Chicago scene?) but rather feels always ready to grab from here and there the necessary dough to shape its clinching sound.

My only regret is that they have not finally joined their illustrious compatriots from Pylone, Poutre, Quartier Rouge or Harpon in the screaming-in-French Noise-rock clan... It's a pity as it worked so well on Forbidden Garden.

In any case, Valse Noot has joined the big league, the one in which bands whose records we never tire of listening to, again and again, bark and rumble...

Good job!

You can listen to Valse Noot on Rien à Faire #21.

 

 

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Electric Chair is back!

 I have already expressed much love and lust for Electric Chair in a short post back in late 2019 (damn I was bloody stingy with words at the time), to make it short they are probably the punkest dudes who ever moved from Kansas City to Olympia and are responsible for some of the sickest punk bands of the past 5 or 10 years including the almighty Beta Boys and the recent Youth Regiment, .

Well, let us be blessed again, we young sheep lost in search of the good word: They are back! 

 

Back on Iron Lung Records for the second time and their third 7" (the first two are immortal monuments to hardcore punk philosophy and should be hanging out somewhere in your messy record collection), the four cool boys deliver six new tracks of raging hardcore punk beauty! The end of the world is doing well thank you and really doesn't need a soundtrack, but if the bidding is ever to open, Electric Chair would be the only and obvious choice!

 

 

  Picking up right where Performative Justice left off, with Social Capital Electric Chair keeps hammering their uncompromising 80s US punk, taking the best of the Germs and bands like Deadline, The Freeze (Rabid Reaction era) or even Zero Boys to deliver, once again, what punk is and has to be.

It's fast, it's raw, it's straight-forward, angry and desperate, that's pure PUNK!

The band keeps shoving hard and efficient tracks in our faces, they sure got a rough and chaotic surface but the core is perfectly mastered, leaving us no chance to escape. Probably the best example of the purest expression of chaos in its most mastered form. 

BUT this time, in the middle of instant fast-punk/hardcore classics like Gutter or Bastards there are a couple of changes, a few additions like the delirious guitar solos of Way To Slow, the "bored-to-death" end of Life Is Hell and the mid-tempo part of the "long" Social Capital which concludes the 6-track in a very Darby Crash way for example. All those little details, those little extra attentions which make a band more than good, details that make it GREAT in capital letter.

 

And the lyrics don't disappoint either, see for yourself:

"Life is shit. You will be abused
Hierarchal bad man won’t pay for our future
Smash capitalism. Swear off the bastards!" 

 

"Birth is violence
Life is hell
You sell your baby on the black market
I hate the way they smell"

 

"You are no ones savior
You just follow fucking trends
Kill me now
You say you ain’t police
There’s stench upon your morning breath from all the shit you eat" 

 

There is no escape:

LISTEN TO ELECTRIC CHAIR OR DIE!

 

 

 

 

  You can listen to Electric Chair on Rien à Faire #21, Rien à Faire #1, Oktober Fist #2 AND Fuck The Virus This Is Quarantine #1.

 

 

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VA - Rien à Faire #21 - Punk, Hardcore, Post-Punk... new stuff only! April 2021

 

Oyez Oyez braves gens, young lads and old farts!

Here comes the new compilation of punk-related new (good) stuff from the last month or so.

Following my last month "policy" of trying to discover and share bands from non-english speaking countries RAF#21 features bands from the US and the UK as usual but also from Japan, France (2 bands), Indonesia, Czech Republic, Spain (3 bands!), Colombia and Germany...

20 killers for Easter!

 

 N,J'Oi!

 

 

  01 - Ataque Zerø - Destrucción
02 - Canal Irreal - Pestes
03 - Electric Chair - Bastards
04 - Hasss - I Don't Care
05 - Toads - Chumhum
06 - Crotch Rot - Fucked Your Daughter
07 - Bibione - Gloves
08 - Dead Meat - Son Of Sam
09 - Crown Court - Sect 59
10 - Nafra - Txarnego!!!
11 - Sublevacion - Laberinto
12 - Trigger Cut - solid state
13 - Mon Autre Groupe - La Joie
14 - Illiterates - 11 Born Here
15 - Esperanza - Identity Through Consumption
16 - Cunter - This Throat's for Smokin'
17 - The Juakinners - Jurasik Punk
18 - Valse Noot - Angst
19 - Predator - Never Anything Before
20 - NO NO NO - Can't live in the past

 

 

And you can of course listen to all past shows on Mixcloud!

 

Download the full compilation HERE

 

 

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