Musick

I first heard Exit-13 on the amazing Ax/ction Records Apocalyptic Convulsions compilation 10" (of which I've previously ranted on and on about); their tune "Only Protest Gives A Hope Of Life!" was a weird yet cool lo-fi grindcore mishmash which took a lot of listens to decipher. The neat breakdown at the end instantly had me hooked - seeing the involvement of S.O.D. fave Dan Lilker on bass was a clinch as well. I added their second full-length as a "alternative" on a random Relapse Records order and whaddya know - Ethos Musick showed up on my doorstep a few weeks later. Man, I can't remember what I originally ordered but who cares, Ethos is a fucking amazing album. Kinda like what Brutal Truth was beginning to do, Exit-13 brought a whole level of technicality, intelligence and maturity to grindcore. It wasn't simple speed, screaming and blastbeats (a la Napalm Death) anymore. Adding strange tinges of jazz, dissonant time signatures and enough vocal effects to keep a pornogrind band going for a decade; Exit-13 really raised respect for the genre. The song themes focus on protest-heavy topics: pro-animal, pro-vegetarian, pro-environment, pro-marijuana, anti-establishment; it reads like a college sophomore's hippie mantra. They've released bunch of other singles and such but none touch this one on either production value or entertainment. A final note: skip the last track on the album, per the CD cover:

   Track #13 was digitally mastered with continuous overlevel indication (OL) at the request of the artist/Producer, this CD is not in accordance with Sony-Phillips Red Book Specification, nor is this practice advisable in the process of CD manufacturing.
   Relapse Records, their affiliates and/or associated manufacturing facility will hold no responsibility for power supply component, recording, processing, loudspeaker or other, transducer, malfunction/failure and/or destruction of referenced audio playback system. Please exercise extreme caution when utilizing this Compact Disc on consumer grade high fidelity playback equipment.

You've been warned...

Facilitate The Emancipation Of Your Music Collection

A Small Victory

My previous nostalgic waxing notwithstanding, Faith No More is a band I have so been into at points in my life that to just hear a specific song of theirs can spark really exact memories of my highschool, college and beyond. It still baffles me how they never became the hugest band of the era, the fact that "Epic" a catchy-yet-cheesy raprock anthem is still their greatest Billboard claim to fame still chafes me to no end. Regardless, caught up in the wave that Patton and the boys were forging, I bought every fucking CD-single that the band released. Domestic or import. Australia, UK, Japan, you name it. Buy them for the bonus stuff: live tracks, remixes, occasional outtakes and rarities - some international releases contained the exact same songs as the U.S. version but had different cover artwork - and I tried to get them all. Years later as the realization that a decade of reckless credit card bills eventually have to be paid off dawned on me I dug into my considerable CD collection and wandered down to the local Buy/Sell record store to try and eke out 25% of what I originally paid for them to help in my war against Visa's debt collection department. I sold a lot that day but I remember the guy behind the counter pushing my big stack of Faith No More CD-singles back across the counter to me with the condescending comment: "Can't sell 'em. I have no faith in Faith No More." (like how he did that?) Shit, I thought I was gonna net at least $100 alone for those fuckers! Oh well. Long story short, all these years later I'm glad I still have that stack (and, somewhat more importantly, debt-free but that's another story). Spanning the entire Slash Records era from Introduce Yourself to Album Of The Year, I compiled all the bonus CD-single stuff into a complete album. I ignored the live stuff since it's mostly taken from Live At The Brixton Academy anyway and instead left you with a bunch of cool remixes, extended and radio edits, unreleased tracks, polka covers of Dead Kennedy songs and "Das Schützenfest." Enjoy.

Ashes To Ashes

Rudeboy's Arrivin'

Gotta give credit to my brother. Blackest fucking white boy out of Morristown, NJ and the main artery to what was breaking in the hip-hop world to our little neck of suburbia. I was listening to Incantation and Regurgitate. He was into Big L and Da Bush Babees. Hoping to relight the Jamaican wave started a few years earlier by quasi-MTV heroes the Fu-Schnickens and Das EFX; the Babees tried to break out in a world that someone named Dre had taken over with his brazen Clinton-sampling and some dude named Snoop. They failed. Enjoy this unheralded classic of mid-school hip-hop.

Swing It

Humble Beginnings

Purely out of curiosity fueled by the completely DIY album-cover I picked up the second indie release of Memphis hip-hop outfit Three-6 Mafia. Disappointed? Absolutely. Amazed that they are one of the biggest rap acts in the world right now? Absolutely. I was hoping to have found a hidden treasure before the band was influenced by a major label, instead Mystic Stylez showcases sluggish, tired horrorcore beats that haven't aged well. "Big Bizness (Screwed)" and "Break Da Law '95" are the only tracks that I can stomach. Try to enjoy.

666

Pussy's All That

I hadn't heard of Red Hot Lover Tone until I grudgingly dropped some bucks for M.C. Serch's mediocre post-3rd Bass solo effort Return Of The Product. Jesus how fucking white can I be? Regardless, his pretty cool tune "Back To The Grill" featured a bunch of other rappers who were totally eclipsed by a young Red Hot Lover Tone. His first eponymous album is pretty fucking good but I thought I'd link his second effort, 1995's #1 Player. A little more mellow then his initial LP, Player is a lot smoother and the best material features a bunch of other rappers including Big Daddy Kane ("In The Game") and the Notorious B.I.G. and Pharoahe Monch ("4 My Peeps"). It's amazing hearing BDK sound better then he ever did and Biggie fucking destroys as usual. Solid second (and final) album by a rapper who probably came along just a year too late...

4-Star Bitch

Let's Get Drunk

From the land of the Raiders and Too $hort comes an unexpected kick in the teeth - Oak-town's Instant Asshole. 16 minutes of blistering old school hardcore that makes you glad you started listening to the shit in the first place. "Problems" and "Secret Wino Headquarters" are such fucking awesome songs that I simply cannot get over it. So slap this sucker in and pretend it's 1982 all over again.

Fuck Reagan

Snackfood

Fucking awesome two-song E.P. from these Chicago sludge metal mainstays. Imagine spinning a brutal death metal 45 at 33 speed and you will kinda get the idea of what absolute bleak dirge to expect. Pounding riffs to mesmerize and rape your soul accompanied by the most pained vocal screams I've heard in a long while. Fucking bleak ass shit. The boys are still hard at it with their present style a chaotic mix of sludge, grind, hardcore and powerviolence. Check 'em out.

Bleed

Am I Shit?

Well here's one for all the old-schoolers everywhere. Straight out of Modesto, CA comes everyone's favorite proto-pornogrind band, the Meat Shits. The early 90's was a productive time for the band, releasing a half-dozen DIY cassette demos followed by a bunch of ep's and 7-inch splits. 1993's Make Me Cum falls in between their earlier noisecore sound and the more refined "movie sample+blast of grind" they would perfect with Ecstasy Of Death. Terribly lo-fi in production but a solid preview of the genius(?) to come. Enjoy.

Make Me Cum

What A Magical Fucking Day

Really cool 2008 demo by this experimental sludge duo from San Antonio. The guilty pair are the prolific Ryan and Jacob of both Intestinal Disgorge (brutal death) and Hordes Of The Morning Star (black metal) infamy. Normpeterson reminds me a lot of Black Mayonnaise - lots of huge riffs interspersed with feedback and assorted noise nonsense - with just enough of the latter to not be boring (or get annoying). Vocals are pretty minimalist - think Alien Jourgensen on "Scarecrow." "Traffic" is easily my favorite track - almost two non-stop minutes of an absolutely sick riff that is impossible not to get hooked on. The band folded a few years ago but all their demos are still available here for free so check 'em out. Enjoy.

Ahideoussprawlingasphaltabsurdity

What's in a name?

Don't let the handle fool you. No gorenoise/pornogrind nonsense here. Instead prepare for some bitter sludgecore courtesy of this Devonshire four-piece. The band managed to release two solid demos before splitting up in 2006. Demo I has a bit more of a stoner vibe to it, kinda reminds me of Hail!Hornet in a way. Demo II finds the band deteriorating into a bleaker sludgecore sound - think Fistula and some of the early Sloth big bass stuff. Significantly darker and harsher then their 2003 recordings - vocals have been reduced to acrid screams through a continuous wall of feedback. Fucking awesome stuff. And I don't know if it's just me but song "III" on the second demo sounds a lot like a sludge version of GG's "Beer Picnic." Just sayin'

Rose