Posy is a new band from Olympia, Washington, which self-released
their debut tape a couple of months ago, tape that can be called a Demo I
guess.
I don't have much information about these guys except that the singer
(and maybe other members) most likely got Filipino origins as the tape's
title, Bongga Ka Dai (an expression in Filipino/Tagalog that
google translates in
Thank you day
which does not mean anything but you got the idea), suggests (as well as the water buffaloes on the cover?).
Posy have obviously chosen to pay tribute to Olympia's Riot Grrrl
legacy and deliver dark, noisy and grungy tracks which could have clearly
been played by Tobi Vail and her friends a few decades ago. But Posy is not a
"grunge" band though, yes you got the 90s guitar sound, the vocals
switching from the Kathleen Annah's melodic style to powerful
shouts but there is also
a strong punk side
with even super raw screams that wouldn't be out of place in a raw / crust
punk band. Posy is really halfway between the "traditional" early
Bikini Kill sound and a rougher modern hardcore punk with female
vocals style like
Khiis or
even
Axe Rash.
It's a bit disturbing at first to be honest, it starts so much like
the Olympia sound of the early 90's that the shift to a more hardcore punk
sound is quite surprising. But it works!
I'm honestly quite impressed, the tracks are well built, well written, not boring for a sec but most of all extremely powerful. It does sound like a kick in the nuts!
The "heavy" hardcore parts recalls GLOSS (from Olympia as well) sometimes, which is clearly not an example of gentleness, and yes the next second you're back with Kathleen Annah jumping around in her panties and then it changes again and you're somewhere between 7 Year Bitch, Spitboy and JJ Doll... Yes I'm talking about fairly different styles here but in the end they all connect surprisingly well, I got used to it quickly and frankly... I love it.
An interesting point is that the band, on top of putting the lyrics on their bandcamp page, which is cool, also wrote down what influenced their writings.
Thus Bongga Ka 'Day, the eponymous song, was influenced by a Filipino hit from the late 70s written by the band Hot Dog for the musical of the same name (thank god it does not sound similar). Roberto Bolaño's Savage Detective is written as an influence on the track 10 Cup - Bait (I tried to read 2666 and found it super boring but tastes and colours you know...), for A Few Reservations - R Connect it's Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog (yes I know it's a bit weird) etc... (no I'm not gonna go through all of them). Of course it happens that songs are strongly influenced by a book, a movie or a silly video on youtube but I think that's the first time I see a band putting so many references, I'm not sure it's always really relevant but why not after all.
Anyway my point is that Posy's debut tape is a high quality release, the deluge of energy and the mix of great influences could only convince the old Riot Grrl and hardcore punk fan that I am... and I'm very curious to learn more about the band and to see what will happen next.
Surely one of the most interesting release I've seen lately.
It's been a while since I made a post about an Aussie band, considering
the crazy amount of guys playing top quality punk and hardcore in a such
small country (from a population point of view) it was more than time to
have one back in here!
So these four guys are from Melbourne and play in a young band called
Cutters. I'm not gonna go through another speech about the
hyperactive Melbourne/Geelong scene, you've heard it before.
I could not find much information about these guys' background so I asked
Al (aka Destructo), the singer, who was nice enough to tell me that
Tim, the guitarist, is also playing in
Stiff Richards
and that the bass player and himself played in a metallic hardcore band
called
Risk And Reason (yes that's a short bio for once).
Released as a 3-track 7" by
Legless Records
in summer 2020, I think
Cutters' debut record drew the attention of many and
immediately put the Melbourne band on the watch list.
Let's have a look at the cover first: besides appreciating the clear reference to the sharpening talents of the executioners of certain European countries (a talent that is unfortunately being lost) linked to the band's name, I really like the cover's illustration. For info it is a very famous cartoon caricature published by a German newspaper in 1919 after the defeat of 1918 at the end of WWI and which expresses all the feeling of humiliation of the German people following the signature of the Treaty of Versailles, the guillotine having, on top of the obvious execution symbol, a strong French identity.
But enough with the wikipedia stuff, let's pogo.
Starting with Chewed Up Fortune, a gem of heavy mid-tempo punk edging with oi! or with some kind of skinhead
friendly hardcore punk (depending on the way you wanna put it),
these guys have clearly decided to go for the in-your-face option. But
don't get me wrong I'm not talking Boston style hardcore or Negative Approach-influenced hardcore punk but rather some straight
forward "slow" hardcore punk with a slight rock'n roll vibe (especially on
the 5-minute-long fascinating Twister which even wanders into
Black Flag / Noise territory for some parts). No super impressive
ripping fast parts or crazy drumming show off here, only the core of punk and
hardcore with a pinch of oi! put together for the best.
It makes me think of a less Rock'n Roll and more straightforward version
of another great Melbourne band,
Punter
(you should check out their last year demo if you haven't already, it made
my
Best of 2020
list). To be honest Cutters' songs recall a lot of things but I
struggle to put a name on a band that would be really close to what I
hear.
After many listens, I think it's safe to say that at first glance, this EP could be mischaracterised as some kind of classic, straightforward hardcore punk, but these three songs are actually much more diverse and subtle than that (on top of being severely catchy), making
this record a top notch debut release.
Modern Problems
was released almost a year after the self-titled 7" and features all the
songs from their first (and only?) recording session but surprisingly only
two of the 7"'s tracks were included (why not include
Chewed Up Fortune as well when it's a digital-only release
anyway?).
Cool cover picture once again, I can't really figure it out but I like the mix of geometry, fancy yuppie architecture and small boring Aussie town vibe.
So it starts with Modern Problems, a super catchy mid-tempo track which leaves a lot of space for the vocals and recalls the Wilful Boys, keeps it on with Revenge, a more classically built hardcore punk song with a strong 80s US hardcore vibe (still with that mid-tempo side though), then Robot Debt Blues that was on the first release and Circle The Drain, a very simple song with got a strong Rock'n Roll vibe before Surveillance Drones takes us back straight to some Black Flag-influenced hardcore punk with a couple of mosh parts. Twister concludes beautifully with the same hardcore punk wandering that we already had at the end of the first release.
Except for Circle The Drain which I find not very interesting, I feel that the whole session is really satisfactory, successfully including diverse influences in tracks with strong individual personalities that nevertheless fit into a rather coherent whole. But honestly I find that the Rock'n Roll side is too exacerbated on some tracks, breaking the dynamics and the balance that the band manages to find on others.
In my opinion the track Modern Problems is the purest incarnation of the Cutters' "sound", or at least what they seem most comfortable with and which frankly kicks ass and I hope they will keep going in that direction as much as possible.
I have no doubt that these guys are not done slicing and dicing so stash your fat and get ready to run.
Pink Room are a noisy trio hailing from Ghent (or Gent or Gand), Belgium,
whose the three prominent members are:
Bart, the bassist / singer / frontman, who, in addition to
cultivating a certain flattering resemblance for the legendary
Ron Jeremy, has only one musical antecedent of which I was able to track down, an
obscure band very appropriately named
Alpha Male; Bart is also deeply involved in the local scene as a DJ but also by making podcasts / radio shows.
Glenn Janssens who plays the guitar.
Jelle Lefebvrewho sits behind the drums and
also plays in the stoner act
Stereoseat
and the instrumental
Celestial Wolves, he replaced
Jonas Calu(drummer on the first EP and part of the first LP who also plays in
Little Trouble Kids).
The release of their latest album got a very decent coverage by various
media from Belgium and elsewhere and very good reviews too. So I got
curious and when I'm curious I become restless and extremely annoying so
the only option was to dive head first in the (not-too-long, thank god)
Belgian band's discography.
But before smashing my skull against the bottom of the (empty) swimming
pool, let's take a step back.
As you know Belgium is one of these blessed countries which, far from
shining by their size or landscapes, are famous for statues of children with questionable sanitation habits and for
the quality and size of their musical scenes (on both sides of the
language border); especially, and as far as we are concerned today, for their
punk / garage / noise / DIY scene which, compared with the size, has
always been better than the French one.
This being said, and having shamelessly flattered all my readers from the
"flat country", I think Pink Room can be associated with other
recent noisy / noise-rock Belgian bands that deserve your attention, bands
like
Youff,
Crowd Of Chairs,
It It Anita,
OX,
Kabul Golf Club
and of course
Cocaine Piss, to only mention the tip of the iceberg from a scene I'm far from being
an expert of.
But let's start, shall we ?
This four-track CD / digital EP called
Relationshit
(great title) is Pink Room's debut record and was self-released
in early 2018 (I therefore suppose that the band has been together since
2017). The cover artwork was made by
Valentine Gallardo, a comic book artist (Belgium is, after all, the country of the
Bandes Dessinées) who has
published several books
and worked for several media including
Vice.
The trio delivers four songs which wander between old-school Noise-rock
(Jesus Lizard), fuzzy grunge (Metz,
Mudhoney) and some kind of overall madness (Pissed Jeans
?) which can be linked to a more traditional kind of crazy rock'n roll
(the garage punk scene? the insane bands from the almighty
Voodoo Rythm Records
stables maybe?). The band described themselves as a
Noisepunk garagethrash trio anyway so I'm glad we're on the same
line here gentlemen.
The basslines are heavy and spellbinding like they should be (Liar) and the guitar conscientiously supports all this heaviness with its
harsh riffs only to better tear it apart, at times, with shrill blasts and
other times with round and bluesy layers (that garage rock vibe), while
the vocals, which seem to come from the depths of the most degenerate kind
of rock'n'roll, give off an unhealthy energy that Ron Jeremy's
cheerful face stuck deep into your retina does little to improve.
But Pink Room are not a noise-rock band by the strict definition
of the term, these guys have clear and undeniable influences but they
don't stick strictly to the book, they're doing their thing and they're
doing it very well... even concluding with
Proper Solution, whose fuzzing vocals are reminiscent of Jack White and
the White Stripes.
Yes it's a very good debut release!
One year later (that would be 2019) Pink Room releases their first
full length, titled Zum Kotzen (Disgusting), on
Belly Button Records
from Antwerp (I already talked briefly about this label in the post about
Ero Guro) and
Zoe Zoe Records, a record shop based in Ghent, whose very first release is this record.
As you noticed immediately the cover artwork was drawn by
Val Gallardo (again).
As an opening track, the heavy and nightmarish Wasted takes you
straight back to the worst times of you pathetic rocker's life, you know
when you went to see a band play in your favourite squat and got so
fucking drunk you could not remember a thing except that you did not
really "behave"... yes it could have been deeply embarrassing if anyone had
been sober (thank god nobody ever is)... in a nutshell: a hell of a show
aka another Friday night.
What a mean and nasty, but fun, song!
And then there is ??? (great title), a track that is rather
representative of the whole album. It's dark, heavy, grungy, a bit
chaotic, quite absurd, seriously noisy... and pretty good!
The (above) video of the song was also a good occasion to show the full
extent of the band's "plastic and artistic creativity": indeed the "band
gloryhole" idea is, to my knowledge, a first (would be interesting to see
if that can be done on stage, it looks like a very handy environment to
rock the hell out of your instrument) and deserves all my
admiration.
The album concludes with Fafafa, another heavy and super fuzzy track
featuring Lee Swinnen from
Tubelight,
Ero Guro,
Double Veterans
and the solo project in which he calls himself
Frankie
Traandruppel(great name).
A track whose singing recalled parts of
Danko Jones' Sticky Situation
chorus for some reasons... (yes I know it kinda worries me as well).
I would say that the best way to describe this album in a few words would
be to link it with the grungy-trash part of the 80s / early 90s
Sub Pop
and Amphetamine Reptile catalogues, obvious references when you
face a dark, heavy, fuzzy and noisy album like Zum Kotzen. But I
can also think of more recent bands like the Boston-based noisy duo
Bedtimemagic, the punk-noise act
Clockcleaner
from Philadelphia, the heavy punk of some of the
TV Violence's tracks, some
Gloop's songs and any other band that manages to successfully mix trash rock'n
roll madness and noise-rock.
All this to say that it's a damn good album!
Here we get to Pink Room's latest release, their March 2021 album
titled
Putain Royale
(Putain is an old fashioned French word for designing a
whore/prostitute and a very common swear word to signify irritation, in
some English speaking countries it evolved in the slang word
Poontang; so the album's titled would translate as Royal Whore or something
like that... or is it just another weird and meaningless Belgian saying?) which got out on the French label
Six Tonnes de Chair
(with a cool alternative cover and a 28-page zine), on
Zoe Zoe Records
(still that shop/label from Ghent) and
Rockerill Records. The artwork was made again by
Valentine Gallardo.
This LP sounds meaner and better than anything the band's released until
now. The band is produced by Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavicino, a guys
who seems to have been around the Belgium scene for a while and has played
in numerous bands I've never heard of, and I guess he knows people and did
what had to be done to make this album sound the best. And it does sound
great!
Starting with the mean and heavy Losing, Pink Room shows
from the very first seconds that two years have not softened them at all,
on the contrary! This track smells like rancid frustration and sweaty
anger, these guys didn't show up to play around and will spit in your
nostrils until you get it... It's simply a brilliant song, midway between
noise-rock and heavy punk, I just love that shit. I reminds me of the
nastier sides of
Pissed Jeans
and also of the almighty
Wilful Boys(something in the vocals and the overall energy).
Damn that track is pure inflammable Noise-rock!
Set in a kind of false satanic fascination, slightly spoofing the worst
bands of the genre and playing with multiple references (The Exorcist? ACDC?), this track is far from being a simple parody, it's
actually a fucking hit! And fire is cool guys (and it makes me think of
the
Goat's cover).
But the band is far from leaving it at that and will take advantage of the rest of the record to hurt you until you cum.... there is Stay White whose hammering drumming will not
let you breath for a sec, the furious rock'n roll of Live Laugh Love which succeeded in the challenge of sounding like the Braindeadlawnmower scene, the super villain All Breaks No Gas where we understand that sometimes it's better to just shut the fuck up, Skin which sounds like the Psycho scream scene played at the Sub Pop office, the very very bad guy Stay Black (probably the most punk track of the album) whose screams and rhythm will remind you of that time you fell to the ground in the middle of the pogo at the Motörhead concert and of course The Most Underrated Piece Of Art Is Power, maybe the most "psychedelic" piece, perfect soundtrack for a moldy mushrooms lonely bad trip in a dark forest in winter around 1am...
Nothing to dump, everything to gobble up...
I already did some heavy name-dropping a few paragraphs above from here but I can
also now think, in a more "garage" style, of John Toohill's solo
project,
Science Man, which perfectly mix noise influences with a lot of rock'n roll and a
pinch of punk. Reminder: John Toohill is a superactive
guitarist/singer from the Buffalo area (USA) who's been seen in numerous
bands including
Alpha Hopper
(one track on Rien à Faire #16),
The Hamiltones,
Night Slaves,
Johns
and many others...
But Putain Royale is also an excuse for a big celebration with all
the top rockers from all over Belgium (and beyond) and features guests on
almost every song. Nathan Roche (Le Villejuif Underground) on the intro, Cis Deman (Stake) and Bart Baele
(Tubelight, Speedozer) on Losing, Tijl Van De Casteele (Whorses) and Jonas Calu (Little Trouble Kids
and ex-drummer for Pink Room) on Hail Satan, Sam De Clercq (Brorlab) on Skin, Ruben Lammertyn (Vonnis) on Stay Black and Lee Swinnen (Tubelight,
Ero Guro,
Double Veterans,
Frankie
Traandruppel) on All Breaks No Gas... yes it's an
impressive guest list!
I think you've got it this album is a killer and has just entered with a bang my Best of 2021 list...
Can't wait to see these guys wreck the world as soon as shows will bloom again...
Here comes another batch of straight-from-the-oven punk, hardcore,
post-punk and whatever other genres you can fit in-between and around
those.
As usual these nineteen bands come from all over the planet, this month
we got three from Italy, two from Sweden, three from the UK, one from
Norway, one from Indonesia, one from Japan, one from Colombia, one from
Spain, one from Belgium, two from Australia, one from Germany and only
three from the US (I don't think I ever had such a low ratio of American
bands in any RAF compilation before).
A lot of raw stuff with a bit of a rough sound, I hope you'll like
it!
N,J'Oi!
01 - Reaksi - Tidak Ada Manusia Ilegal 02 -
Sloi- Sloi 03 - Candy Apple - Sweet Dreams of
Violence 04 - Posy - Rerun 05 - Golpe - Non
Piegarti 06 - Alambrada - Ilegal 07 - Presagio-
Antes Era Divertido 08 - MoE - Tephra 09 -
Cutters - Modern Problems 10 - Pink Room - Losing 11
- Maladia - Evil Eye 12 - X2000 - Apagando Incendios 13
- Spleen - Flower Basket 14 - LLRR - 週末のフール 15
- Kattpiss - A4-liv 16 - Waste Man - The Siren 17
- Health Plan - Post Traumatic Growth 18 - Italia 90 -
Declare 19 - Bitch Diesel - Hail
If you're old school you can of course download the whole thing
HERE(I like old school)
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 Cuntis, 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.
