From the same boutique New York noise manufacture that has brought us, among other things, the vigorous and smart hard-/postcore of Kaleidoscope, we're given another force of nature to deal with. The debut album by Tower 7 sure bears some resemblance to the aforementioned Kaleidoscope but, by also taking more than just a few cues from ancient UK crust tradition, manages to deliver a bunch of blows even more relentless. Their tools of choice are obviously a bit more blunt, though equally effective.
As you probably already know, i'm a total sucker for pretty much any weird chunk of noise Minneapolis dude awesome Connie Voltaire releases into the wild, so while we're still waiting for new stuff of his best-known project Neo Neos (or maybe its actual flesh-and-bones full-band incarnation Neotypes), another batch of raw and blown-out farts released under his hardcore punk alter ego Cells does an admirable job at satisfying my addiction in the meantime.
After last year's debut LP with his Beta Blockers pretty much blew everyone's socks and pants off, there's some new stuff out by one of contemporary garage punk's most blazing figures. First, there's been a tape earlier this year under the Psykik Vylence moniker, which sees him messing around with a properly raw assortment of hardcore punk sounds - the results of which are just plain gorgeous. And then, there's a new digital EP with him going it solo again, just as was the case with Psykik Vylence. But with or without Beta Blockers - he's doing what he's best known and loved for: Quirky and inventive Garage Punk with built-in earworm guarantee, this time also including a pretty obscure choice for a cover version (no, i indeed never heard of Taste Test before…) and an unfinished - though totally smashing - instrumental closing track with the promise of actual vocals for it in the near future. Gotta adore the shit out of this!
IMHO, at this hour Cement Shoes of Richmond, Virginia are the current kings of the garagecore micro genre, coupling a massive amount of borderline-sleazy rock'n'roll with an undeniably hardcore kind of energy you will find in relatively few other groups - Cülo or their quasi-successors Tarantüla, Man Eaters come to mind as a somewhat more hardcore-leaning comparison… just maybe. Or kinda like australian sleaze-garage rockers Golden Pelicans having a hardcore epiphany. On their newest 7" via the ever reliable british quality outlet Drunken Sailor Records we get more of just that, while the closing track Going Off The Grid , a rather straightforward, classic garage tune, might or might not indicate a future move away from hardcore speeds. But whatever they're gonna do next, they're an exciting act to keep both eyes on.
It took a while for new material of these Minneapolis punks to surface after their first two incredible 7"s. I'm glad to say though, that their unique mix of chaotic hard-/garage-/post-/weirdcore lost none of its spark and their refreshing disregard for common genre tropes and conventions is on full display here, making for another five glorious minutes of noise, just as i've come to expect from this group.
Sad to hear that not long after their genre-defying/destroying/fucking/deconstructing/exploding album of last year, this EP is already the swan song of North Carolina's hottest address in contemporary hardcore. So take this last chance to marvel at Das Drip's ambitious hardcore/postcore/artcore/weirdcore… certainly never boringcore.
An unrelenting storm of raw KBD-meets-stoner punk kicked loose by the Freaks of Philadelphia, enforced with loads of hardcore propulsion. Starts out kinda like an amalgamation of early Milk Music or Dinosaur Jr. with Everything Falls Apart-era Hüsker Dü, then settles into a mode that comes across like a mix of Tarantüla/Cülo, Fried Egg, a hint of Launcher and some added sludge and death rock vibes, the latter reminding me of Beta Boys.
San Francisco's Modern Needs let off one delicious fart after another into the atmosphere, consisting of straight, simple & effective Fuzz reminiscent of early 80s westcoast punk & hardcore as well as plenty of crude KBD-vibes. As such, they make good company to other contamporary bands like Launcher, Freakees, Beast Fiend or Liquid Assets.
On their recent EP some Cleveland, Ohio based group serves us ten flawlessly executed deep brown puddles of filthy and contageous hard-/noisecore, boiled down to less than ten minutes of quirky, messy joy.
On their newest EP, Washington's Iron Cages give us three excellent new blasts of garagified hardcore punk which indicate massive step forward for the band, towards a more compact and coherent sound friends of stuff along the lines of Fried Egg, Punk Guitars, Cülo, Anxiety or Electric Chair will surely appreciate.
