Artist: Formaldehyde Junkies Title: Are a Total Wreck Release: 2005 Label: Underestimated Records
Track List: 1. Road Hazard 2. Shitty Life 3. Poison Control 4. Total Wreck 5. Nuke the Frats 6. Repressed
Here's a much better band from Minneapolis. One whose name, I am ashamed to admit, prevented me from checking them out for the longest time. If you like simple and obnoxious hardcore from the 80's you'll love this. For fans of classics like The Necros or modern bands like Career Suicide, Government Warning, Brutal Knights, and Social Circkle.
Artist: Endless Nightmare/Dissystema Title: split Release: 2005 Label: self released
Track List: 1. Endless Nightmare - Nostalgic Deathtrap 2. Endless Nightmare - Legions of the Dead 3. Endless Nightmare - No Peace 4. Dissystema - Limbless 5. Dissystema - Beggar at the Gates 6. Dissystema - A Dime's Worth of Difference
Hope ya like crust punk. Because that's what you're gonna get on both sides of this outstanding split by two bands from Philadelphia. I don't know anything about either except for what is on the inside of the sleeve (scans of which are included). I'm tentatively more fond of the Dissystema side.
Artist: Iron Age Title: Demo Release: 2005 Label: Next Level Records
Track List: 1. Intro 2. Forked Tongue 3. Brainwreck 4. Comin' Down 5. My Level
You've no doubt heard Iron Age's debut "Constant Struggle" and 2009's magnificent album "The Sleeping Eye". But, unless you own a copy of their demo I suspect you've probably never heard it as I couldn't find a digital version of it out there. Fortunately I have a copy and have taken to trying to rip my cassette collection.
I picked up my copy of the demo in early 2005 at a Terror show. I think it was actually Terror that was selling the demo which is kinda weird since they're from LA and all. If I had to guess they probably got a few copies to distro when they hit up Austin. I hadn't heard of Iron Age at the time and whoever was working the Terror merch table insisted I spend my leftover 2 bucks on the Iron Age demo. I'm really glad I took that dude's word for it. They may not have been at the time of the demo but Iron Age is without a doubt one of the best bands in Texas. I'd even go as far as to say one of the best in the country but I'm probably a little biased towards anyone from my home state.
This tape is a piece of crossover greatness in the rough. Nowadays Iron Age is pretty much straight up metal with only occasional forays into what is still obviously hardcore. This demo is sort of the opposite, hardcore with just enough metal to make it really stand out, especially back in 2005. Were this released in 2011 one could probably be excused for calling it generic or riding on a wave of similar sounding bands. But I like to think Iron Age is largely (at the very least partially) responsible for the popularity of more crossover-type bands we've seen in American hardcore the last few years.
Track List: 1. What's it Worth? 2. Release! 3. Up to You 4. Step Back 5. This Walk 6. Missed the Point 7. The Reason
Before there was Seeker there was Vitality!. I picked this up at a show at Across the Street bar in 2005. I don't remember what show it was, probably something like Kids Like Us or Life Long Tragedy. It's times like this I wish my hard drive hadn't crashed in 2008 because I had a list of every show I'd been to up to that point. Naturally the list I keep now only goes back to that time.
Anyways, if you've heard Seeker and this sounds similar it's because of David Horn and his vocals that manage to come across as positive as he is in real life. This demo sounds a lot like Uniform Choice and Dag Nasty to me. Which is great because I love both those bands. If you do too you'll love Vitality!.
While I'm thinking about it, David Horn went to Africa. You should check out what he's doing there. Some people talk the talk about making a difference, very few people literally uproot their entire lives and move far away to walk the walk. If you listen to David's lyrics it's not surprising at all though.
From their MySpace (since I'm lazy):
Formed in the summer of 2004, VITALITY! originally played shows under the name AsxOne. The Houston hardcore band put out a 7 song demo, "Reality Check Demo 2k5" in the early part of 2005, with Ramiro Rangel drumming. After the release of the demo, Ramiro and the band parted ways, and Ryan Endsley became the newest member of the band. In December of 2005 and January of 2006, VITALITY! hit the studios again to record their first EP, Introspection.
Artist: The Wrists Title: Free Demo Release: 2005 Label: self released
Track List: 1. Test Pattern 2. Toxic Waste 3. Main Directive 4. Bury Your Own 5. Surgery Party 6. Bomb the Dance Floor 7. Final Few 8. If I Can't Have What I Want (I Don't Want Anything) 9. Get Slit
Here's another self released CD-R by Denton/Longview's The Wrists. Some of the songs are the same, but different recordings I believe. I think this was put out before the other CD-R, but it was within such a short time period that I don't really remember at this point.
"Main Directive" is by far my favorite song on this demo. Even today, nearly 6 years later it still gets stuck in my head sometimes.
Artist: The Wrists Title: The Wrists Release: 2005 Label: self released
Track List: 1. Hatecrimes 2. Lights Out/Blackout 3. Toxic Waste 4. Livin' in the Eyeball 5. I'm a Bug (The Urinals) 6. Bomb the Dance Floor 7. Gon' Freak-Out 8. Final Few
It's not every day you hear punk bands that have forsaken guitars in favor of two basses. It's been a few years, but I seem to remember Daniel (vocals, bass) telling me that you don't need a guitar, you can just play only the higher notes on a bass for the same effect. It sounds crazy but for The Wrists it actually worked.
To say this CD-R is lo-fi might be a bit of an understatement. It sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom because it literally was. Despite the highly distorted bass, raw screamed vocals, and Casio keyboard (probably the kind you used to be able to win on Legends of the Hidden Temple) there is something undeniably catchy and memorable about this disc.
I'm still surprised that I was actually able to rip this without any errors (I left the log file in to prove it). The band thought it'd be a cool idea to take the CD-R and spray paint their logo on it. Too bad my copy got spray paint on the data side of the disc. The first few times I tried to play it my DVD drive couldn't even read it.
Members of The Wrists have been in far too many bands for me to mention. The Wax Museums, High Tension Wires, Bad Sports, Frank Castle, and The Pumpers, among others I'm sure.
Artist: Kuro Title: Who the Helpless + 10 Tracks Release: 2005 Label: SS Recordings
Track List: 1. X / 絶望 (Zetsubou, Despair) 2. Human Gas 3. Body 4. Who the Helpless 5. Selfish Cow 6. お前だ (Omaeda, You) / OiMaeda 7. No More No 8. A.N.P.R 9. Lightning Breaks 10. Furniture Fire 11. Dead Heat 10000V 12. Hey! Hey! Hey! 13. Midnight Baby 14. Jag Out 15. Top Less Go 16. Jag Out (1983 Gig) 17. Top Less Go (1983 Gig)
Kuro (whose name simply means "black" but is written with 白 (shiro), the kanji for "white" for reasons I don't know) played a type of very fast bass heavy hardcore that is now pretty distinctly Japanese. That isn't to say bands elsewhere around the world haven't done things in the same way, it's just that Kuro really helped get it all started and as such it's no wonder that sound is so heavily associated with what one thinks of when discussing Japanese hardcore.
This CD is a collection of all (to my knowledge) of kuro's records that they put out in their relatively short lifetime (1983 to 1986, I think). The only bad part about it is that it isn't any longer. Even including the live songs it's barely 36 minutes.
Speaking of the live songs, I have a very strong suspicion that Kuro's recorded output doesn't do their live show justice. When I first heard the last couple of tracks I thought the screams were added in into the recording but since watching some of their videos on youtube I'm not so sure anymore.
This encode I did myself from a beautiful FLAC rip of the CD that I was able to find (you probably can too if you can use google). I didn't think reposting the FLAC rip itself was necessary since V0 mp3 is pretty much just as good. Major kudos to the dude who remastered this though, since that's where the real bottleneck for sound quality lies, especially with hardcore from the 80's. I dunno if he worked with the master recordings (I doubt it) or if it was remastered from the vinyl but it sounds as good as one would expect from a punk band during that time.
I did manage to find the official site of the record label that put this out. If you've got ￥2,940 (about $32.33) lying around you might want to see if you can get them to ship internationally. It looks like they do mail order only so good luck.
I couldn't find album art larger than a small thumbnail for this so I just used the best I could find for the original "Who the Helpless" record.
Tracks 1-7 from "Who the Helpless" 8" flexi (1984, Blue Jug Records) Tracks 8-11 from "Fire" 7" EP (1986, KPP Records) Tracks 12-13 from "Pinch & Ouch!" compilation (1985, KPP Records) Tracks 14-15 from "Kuro" 7" flexi (1983, Blue Jug Records) Tracks 16-17 from "1983 Gig" 7" flexi (1986, KPP Records)
All tracks digitally remastered by Kotaro Kojima at Flair.
Artist: Nightmare Title: Early Years Release: 2005 Label: Hardcore Kitchen Records
Track List: 1. Black Window 2. Dick 3. Annihilation 4. Nothing 5. Euthanasia 6. Self Defence Power 7. Dark Side 8. Tumbling Down 9. Lost Anger 10. Acutuality 11. Positive Fact 12. お前 (Omae, You) 13. Keys to Mind 14. Give the Low to You 15. Annihilation 16. Find Your Way 17. Tragedy
Here we have a collection of earlier material from Nightmare. 17 tracks of fast Burning Spirits Japanese hardcore. This is a rager from start to finish.
I'd like to take a moment with this post and say that records like this one are exactly why I started this blog. Not only would this make my list of "required listening" for anyone who considers themselves a fan of hardcore punk but even with google and the myriad of websites dedicated to music and all that awesome stuff we have instant access to in 2010 it is still relatively difficult to find comprehensive information about this release in one place. That's sort of my goal here, to post gems like this and not only provide them for others to listen to, but to make sure that as much relevant information is included.
For example: it took me a good while to find the actual name of track 12 as everywhere save one website simply had it listed as "japanese title". Maybe I'm just exceptionally neurotic about that sort of stuff but I like to think I'm not the only one who likes to keep their digital music collection as neatly organized as their actual record collection.
Tracks 1-10 from "Give Notice of Nightmare.." (1990, Selfish Records) Tracks 11-24 from "Eye of the Thrash Guerilla" compilation (1998, Selfish Records) Tracks 15-17 from the split with Concrete Sox (1991, MCR Company)
Artist: Crow
