Not Fun was the first Brutal Knights song I ever heard, not counting the possibility that I may have been at one of their shows, drunk and not paying attention years and years ago.
This E.P. was also one of the first 7 inches I ever bought. Yeah, I haven't been collecting for long, but why the hell would I have bought records before I had a record player?
Anyway, Brutal Knights were my favourite local [Toronto] band for a couple of years (no offense, guys), probably from 2004-2006 (don't quote me on this). The Pleasure Is All Thine is still one of my favourite albums to come out of that city. I have many fond memories of Brutal Knights shows both in Toronto and in Kingston, including my then-future-boyfriend drunkenly teaching me how to skateboard after their set (I found out later he doesn't know how to skate at all), and the set they played in Kingston that was 2 songs long before they stormed offstage and vowed never to return again. I also have some not-so-fond-memories, like the time I realized that both Brutal Knights and Fucked Up were getting popular because I went back home to Toronto for a show they were both playing only to show up at 9:30 to find out it was sold out (i got in anyway, thx Mark) and full of hipsters, one of whom later tried to beat me up because she wanted my seat.
I far prefer The Pleasure Is All Thine and this E.P. (and anything else released around that time period) to Feast of Shame and Living By Yourself, but I know a lot of people who still fucking love them. So, download this shit.
Ideas Are Bulletproof-The Pist 01 - Still Pist 02 - Never Question 03 - Street Punk 04 - Dead In Its Tracks 05 - Alternative 06 - The Customer (Is Always Right) 07 - Slogans 08 - Ideas Are Bulletproof 09 - Small Town 10 - Energy 11 - Textbook Salvation 12 - Do What You're Told 13 - New School 14 - Great American Sportsman 15 - Perceptions 16 - Not Your Problem 17 - Song For You 18 - Black And Blue Collar 19 - Deal With It
THE PIST basically defined punk rock for me back in 1996 when a friend gave me a copied tape of their full length record IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF. I really had no idea what the record actually sounded like until about 3 years later though because the tape I had was in at least it's 6th generation: a copy of a copy of a copy etc. The best way I can describe this tape is to mention the cocaine that gets repeatedly stepped on hard by every biker in town before eventually ending up for sale to college kids at the local strip club. But, maybe everyone didn't grow up in a town like mine so I guess I'll just say it was shit and it was a relief when I finally got a hold of a vinyl copy.
All my tapes were like that back then though. I think I even got used to it and started to prefer the distorted and overly treble heavy sound. See, the only way I could get good music when I was a teenager was to copy tapes from travelling punk kids who actually saw the band play at some point, and were now stuck in Kingston, ON for some reason. These tapes were copied way too many times more often than not, but it had to be suffered. The local bookstore only ordered one copy of Maximum RockNRoll per month, and it was always on lay away for one of the employees (why they never seemed to want to order two per month was beyond me). The Internet was still a useless bag of smashed assholes for a lot of reasons then too, so even if you could find anything good on there it would take a week to download each song. With very limited access to mail order through zines and no good Internets it was tough work getting good records. But, I'm way off topic here now...
So anyways, the tape I had was of low quality but the album wasn't, and it was a big deal to me. Simple three chord hardcore/street punk put to some of the most genuinely pissed off vocals I've ever heard. Singer Al Ouimet sounds like a 50 foot tall skinhead who probably has cinder blocks for hands and could jump out of your speakers at any moment to rip your fucking head off because you bought a pair legit Chuck Taylors and everyone knows they're technically Nikes now. The delivery also makes it easy to understand every word on the record, which is rare, and perfect in this case.
Although most of the the lyrics don't have a lot of depth in the ideas they address, I think they are effective at conveying frustration and anger with American/western culture, and they put forward positive messages of equality, animal liberation, feminism, getting off your lazy apathetic ass etc. There is only so much that can be covered in a 2 minute song anyways, and I think it's important to keep these kinds of songs common in punk rock. There can never really be too many songs about how Nazi skinheads are shitty dudes and I don't think the punx should start ignoring how fucked up "the system" is either. I wonder if I would have bothered to educate myself on some of the issues that are so important to me now if it weren't for the politically charged punk songs I listened to as I grew up; as shallow and sloganary as so many of them might be.
All this being said, I hope I'm not giving the wrong impression... The lyrics are really well written, clever, and are a big part of what makes this album so fucking good. They are brutally honest and straight forward, and sometimes pretty funny. and I can recite every word on this record cold. Here's an example of why:
The Great American Sportsman
Here comes the Great American Sportsman With camouflage and a gun Here comes the Great American Coward If the odds were evened up, I bet you’d fuckin’ run
This ain’t no sport cause the deck is stacked against the prey You’re armed to the teeth, and they can only run away You’re a tough guy hunter, a real fuckin’ man If you are so tough, why don’t you hunt with your bare hands
Here comes the Great American Sportsman A member of the NRA Here comes the Great American Coward Hiding in the bushes, so you can sneak up on your prey Now you’ve jacked a buck and you can kick back with a beer Drowning all your sorrows, keep on running from your fear Finish off a six-pack and your feeling brave again Go brag about your murder to all your loser friends
I want to see a hunter caught in a leg-hold trap I want to see a hunter with an arrow in his back I want to see a hunter with a hook right through his cheek I want to see a hunter carved up like a piece of meat I want to see a hunter’s body, strapped to the hood of a car I want to see a hunter’s bravery when he is unarmed I want to see a hunter wounded and on the run I want to see a hunter through the sites of a gun…
Here comes the Great American Sportsman Who I wouldn’t mind seeing dead Here comes the Great American Coward I hope another hunter shoots you in the head
You carry a weapon to mask the weakness that you feel And your predatory stance mirrors the American ideal When the odds are in your favor, you go on the attack I’ll bet you wouldn’t venture in the woods if the animals shot back
Shoot back
IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF is in my top 5 punk releases of all time, and was a huge influence on me. I discovered it the band the same year they broke up, but luckily they did two reunion shows in 2007 so I got to see them play for the first time after an 11 year wait. The show was at some rented hall outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Cover was $5 or something and there was no stage preventing me from yelling my guts out into the microphone to all these songs. They played with ANNIHILATION TIME, CRIMINAL DAMAGE, and MUNICIPAL WASTE among others. Fucking ridiculous.
THE PIST are from Meriden Connecticut. They have a myspace page. IDEAS ARE BULLETPROOF was released on ELEVATOR MUSIC in 1994. THE PIST recently released a kind of discography record, so go look for that. If you like THE PIST then you might also like EAST COAST PANIC and VOMIT PUNX.
I'm not good at making internets so had to include this (non) video so you could hear the opening track from the record without having to download the whole thing. I'm sure there was better way to do it, but whatever.
Leftover Crack - Fuck World Trade 01. Clear Channel (Fuck Off) 02. Life Is Pain 03. Burn Them Prisons 04. Gang Control 05. Super Tuesday 06. Via Sin Dios 07. Feed the Children (Book of Lies) 08. One Dead Cop 09. Ya Can't Go Home 10. Rock the 40oz. 11. Soon We'll Be Dead 12. Gringos Son Puercos Feos 13. Operation M.O.V.E.
Leftover Crack is one of the bands that I spent my teenage years listening to, and is probably the most important one for drunken memories that I'll never forget.
When I was about 15 or so I started going to local Toronto shows, as opposed to shows that only more popular touring bands were playing. These shows had a totally different crowd, and the people at the second kind of show, which I had just started attending, were more into punk, generally more active and passionate about the music, and lived downtown like I did. In short, they were more like me. This made for more frequent hangouts since we lived closer together than the people I met at bigger shows, and we all had similar passions, interests, and were stupid kids with nothing to do but homework. I made closer friends, I'm still close with most of them even though we've all grown up a lot, and most of us are still into punk and hardcore, though our tastes have evolved.
Leftover Crack was one of the bands we all had in common. Being troublemaking punk kids in a big city, we needed a place to hang out that wasn't our parents' house or a bar (since we were underage and the Q Bar didn't always let everybody in, and alleys at Queen and Bathurst were bait). We found our perfect squat in the middle of Rosedale, interestingly enough: the Don Valley Brickworks. Though today it's some yuppified farmers' market with like condos in it or some shit, when I was a teenager it was a dilapidated, condemned old brick factory that nobody ever went to. On the outside it was fenced in and boarded up, and the inside was filled with old machinery and spraypaint. We would go at night, drink, and make campfires (inside in the winter, outside in the summer).
Nobody bothered us. We had a tape player and one tape: a mixed compilation of Leftover Crack and Choking Victim, with both their CDs and unreleased demos/unmastered versions/etc. So you can deduce that I listened to a lot of Leftover Crack over the years.
Whenever I listen to Leftover Crack, it brings back a flood of memories of campfires indoors, drunkenly singing along to Rock the 40oz and waving our Black Bull 40s with gloves and hats on in the middle of the winter. Looking for firewood on the floors of a few of the many hundreds of rooms and alcoves in the factory with only a lighter to guide us. Writing the lyrics to Rock the 40oz on my chemistry binder in grade 10. Climbing on the factory roof and Marie falling through rotting shingles to her elbows (she probably nearly died). Crawling through the brick ovens with Jamie. Walking through Rosedale at 3am with a boombox blasting Leftover Crack and yelling along. Memories of my drunken youth that I wouldn't have had any other way.
This album is their newest one, it came out when I was an older teen, about to start university. I think it's vastly underrated by their fanbase, whoever that is. It's fantastic and probably ranks up there with the new Limp Wrist as among my favourite "new releases" from established bands. It's not as raw as their older stuff, but it's amazing. The lyrics strike a chord with me that can't be rivaled by those of any other band.
If you didn't like Leftover Crack before, give this album a chance because it's different and more refined. If you liked Leftover Crack's older stuff, or Choking Victim, give this stuff a chance. It's similar, but not as raw,though I wouldn't at all say that they changed their sound completely. It's still totally Leftover Crack, not better, but different. It'll never replace older LoC, but it has its own place right beside it for me.
Paradise is the 2nd full length out of one of the best bands in hardcore right now, Paint It Black. They're an extremely political and passionate band started by Dan Yemin (a practicing child psychologist, former member of Lifetime and Kid Dynamite, started band after having a stroke and deciding that he wasn't going to let it keep him down and started the hardest band he could do) and one of the most influential bands of my recent life.
I had heard of Paint It Black from one of my friends and didn't think much about them at first. He was extremely into them, but every kid has their band to get stoked on, and it didn't mean I would like them. Nonetheless, when I checked them out at home, I was in for a treat.
It was some of the most powerful stuff I had heard. The inherent sound of outrage and anger hit me like a brick to the face. Here was a band with some passion behind it and lyrics that actually meant something to me. No more generic hardcore "I stand by my friends, I hate everyone" lyrics, but lyrics about what I was getting into: social and political activism, anti-authoritarianism, and in general, pretty radical stuff that most "hardcore" bands don't even touch. I could care less how straight edge the band was, I'd rather be hearing about shit like the corruption of authoritarian religion and the ongoing war between us and the established order.
After a slew of bands made up of kids being raised on dry, commercial metalcore with no real message, Paint It Black was a breath of fresh air - no, a hammer to the skull - in a scene that had lost its teeth.
Paint It Black: Making hardcore revolutionary again.
01. Global Empowerment = National Impoverishment 02. House Arrest 03. Societal Preconditions for Slaughter 04. Read a Fucking Book 05. Humyn Consequences 06. I Am Like You 07. Ya Basta 08. Me Dejaron Para La Muerte 09. Los Cuerpos Continuan
Experiment in Terror was an Ottawa band from 2001-2005 or thereabouts. Most people outside of Ottawa have never heard of them and I am not even sure they ever played a show outside of Ottawa. But I went to pretty much every Ottawa show they played until I moved to Montreal in 2004 right before they broke up. EIT was Ottawa's politically aware punk/thrash/core band formed by members of Course Of Action (Ottawa's best thrash band of ages past), Buried Inside, Fuck The Facts, Sleeping Pilot... basically every good Ottawa band. One and a half minute songs with a speech between each song so you knew what the songs were about (much to the dismay of Ottawa's drunx punx scene of the early 2000s).
Between me and my high school friends, EIT was our favourite local band to see. You could get us to show up at almost any ridiculous or far away venue if they were playing (that pita place in orleans?? a birthday party on argyle where everyone was 10 years older than us?). And pretty much my entire after school existence consisted of going to shows at Club SAW. So this photo is basically a time capsule from my life 2000-2004: seeing Experiment in Terror at Club SAW (probably 2003?). Pretty much every recognizable face in that photo is one of my high school friends, one of the kids in the grade below us who we dragged to shows, someone I was in a band with or someone I knew from Ottawa shows at the time.
This is the EP most people have (there was also a DIY cd put out right before their last show), "Who Will Survive And What Will Be Left Of Them?" that they put out in 2001 or 2002. It is without a doubt I think my favourite release by a 'local' band and I still listen to it regularly.
There are now multiple contributors with varying points of view on punk and hardcore.
I got bored of having a boring music blog where I attempt to review the music I am basically ordering you to listen to. If you wanted to read a music review, you'd buy a newspaper. If you wanted somebody to tell you what to listen to, you'd watch MTV. So, instead of posting a review or in-depth description of the CD chosen for that particular post, each contributor will post a memory triggered by the artist, album, or a song on said album, which is directly related to growing up in a punk/hardcore scene and generally being a dumb youth.
I’m also looking for more contributors so drop me a line if you're interested.
Spazz - La Revancha 01. WWF Rematch at the Cow Palace [Ahita Continua] 02. Four Times a Day 03. Desperate Throat Lock 04. Bobby's Jackpot Jamboree 05. Dewey Decimal Stitchcore 06. Swampfoot 07. C.I.A. 08. Camp Chestnut 09. No Shadow Kick 10. One With a Goat's Got an Orgy Up the Sleeve 11. Bitter (The Execution of a Chimp) 12. Let's Kill Fuckin' Everybody 13. Sweet Home Alabama 14. Raisins, Hate, Fear and Flower Power Violence 15. Climate Best 16. Urinal Cake 17. Drunkard Genaii 18. Sesos 19. Daljeet's Detonation 20. Turnbuckle Treachery
When I first started listening to powerviolence and grindcore, I was in high school. In the Toronto punk scene, bands like the Endless Blockade played alongside bands I would be at the show to watch, like Brutal Knights. So I was exposed to them early on compared to a lot of people, I think.
At the time, I didn't like it at all. I did not like the Endless Blockade. It didn't sound like music to me. It didn't even sound good, or like something anybody in their right mind would want to listen to. For the rest of my youth, I spent noisy bands' sets sitting outside or at the back of the venue, drinking. I deeply regret this now.
When I was about 19 or 20, I heard WWF Rematch at Cow Palace at a friend's house and freaked. Who was this amazing band and how had I never heard of them? They were so LOUD and I loved it, how could I have missed this band for so long? My older friend Alain explained to me that they were one of the genres he thought I disliked, since I had told him so.
I went home confused that day and eventually downloaded an Endless Blockade album (sorry guys, bought it since). To my surprise I liked it too! In fact I loved it.I loved how noisy and angry it was, and I loved that it didn't follow the traditional rules of music but still sounded good to me. But then I was even more confused. How could I have disliked this band (and genre) so much before, only to decide now I loved them?
My only possible explanation is that perhaps the human brain and aural system evolves as we age, and whereas before I only heard noise when one of these bands was playing, now I can hear that it is music, there's a beat or some sort of predictability - that's what allows me to like it.
Any ideas? Or you could just call me a poser because I didn't like Spazz from the womb.
Betercore - Youthcrust Disco!!!graphy 01. Vlees is Vies 02. SxE But Not an Asshole 03. Multidood 04. Invest 05. Read Between the Li(n)es 06. Betercore Vs. Right-Wing Jock 07. Where Do I Fit In? 08. DIY 09. Man U Suck 10. Punk Is Verzet 11. Fuck Your Pride 12. Soymilk 13. Freedom 14. Count Us Out & Pro-Choice 15. Hooded Sweater 16. Stand Up and Speak 17. For the Sake 18. Consequences 19. Education 20. PVVDA & Bill Gates Society 21. Reclaim the Crown 22. WA Marchiert & Green Woning, Ge 23. NSB 24. Gospelcore 25. 50% Vol. 26. AOV 27. Practice What You Preach 28. Punk Is Resistance 29. Count Us Out
"Betercore existed as a youthcrustcore band, who started in Amsterdam, from 1997 until the winter of 2003." (from Last.fm) This band fucking rules. Download this shit. Powerviolence similar to What Happens Next?, etc. Having a bad week, epic breakup, etc. Will post longer reviews when I feel sane. Powerviolence is pretty much the only thing that I can listen to right now.
Acid Reflux - Demo [i think the artwork above is wrong, couldn't find the right one] 01. Vasectomy Boys 02. Do Your Parents Know You're a Ramone? 03. Old Timer 04. Customers Fuck Off 05. I'm No Soldier 06. Do You Like Mangoes? 07. All Bosses Are Bastards 08. Bleed and Destroy 09. Oh Good, There's an Applebee's
Acid Reflux are a fantastically simple, quick-fire hardcore punk band reminiscent of Void and some of the more well-known Canadian hardcore acts like Career Suicide, in that their songs are upbeat and catchy in the same simple 80s-ish hardcore sense. [Do you know how hard it is to describe music without sounding totally stupid and/or repetitive?] I was really pleasantly surprised by this band's demo. My favourite track is probably a tie between I'm No Soldier and Oh Good, There's an Applebee's (if not simply for the name).
Behind Enemy Lines - Know Your Enemy 01. Behind Enemy Lines 02. Setting Things Right Again 03. American-Made Death Squad 04. Why Does She Stay? 05. The Cure 06. Out of Sight, Out of Mind 07. Devastated 08. Murder at the G8 Summit 09. Voice of Dissent 10. Dogmatic Slumber 11. Fucking Bastards 12. The Growing Wealth Gap
Okay, yeah, a good way to immediate date your band's release after like 4-8 years is to put the current president on the cover. And generally it's less time than that, because usually they have to have had enough time to fuck things up bad enough that bands want to hate them publicly on the covers of albums. NOTE: Dayglo Abortions - Feed Us a Fetus is a notable exception to this rule, probably because it's so fucking badass and well-done. And Reagan hate has lasted way longer than his tenure as president. Other than Behind Enemy Lines' choice of artwork, this album is fucking awesome. It's chugging tight political hardcore with screaming vocals that reminds me of Born Against or Brother Inferior. Though the music itself is simple and pared-down, it works well. I've often heard Behind Enemy Lines mistakenly lumped in with d-beat contemporaries, but they're totally different. Give them a shot. They're really fucking pissed off. My favourite track is the first one, Behind Enemy Lines.
Bastardizer - Demo 01. Uranium Fire 02. Crawling Chaos 03. Mekong Delta 04. Conquered 05. Dark Paths to Victory
Well I don't know very much about this band beyond the fact that the singer is the same dude who sings for Rammer (I posted about them yesterday). I can't even find a picture or show poster or anything. Oh well. I like pretty much anything the guy does anyway. Bastardizer (Toronto), not to be confused with Bastardator from Ottawa, or whatever ridiculous number of bands I'm sure exist which have the same root, are a thrashy kind of sludgy hardcore band, slower than Rammer by far. I dunno, I think they fucking ruled and it's too bad they didn't really release anything beyond this obscure demo that I don't even remember buying or downloading. Ex-members of Rammer and members of The Endless Blockade are currently collaborating on a new band called Slaughter Strike, which I haven't heard yet, but they played their first show a couple of weeks ago I think, so I'm looking forward to hearing it. I heard that it was going to be along the lines of Bastardizer, which I really fucking like (obviously since I'm posting it), so I'm probably not going to be disappointed. Long story short, great side project thing from the singer of Rammer and some other people.
[I changed my download format - Individual track downloading is a pain in the ass so I think I'll start uploading as a folder.]
U.T.I. are my favourite band to play with around here... Their sound is totally unique thanks to Leah's vocals, Magnus' fucking awesome guitar riffs that make me wonder how the hell you even think to write songs like these, and how tight the band is in general.
Their new drummer is freshly plucked out of the charred remains of Bad Skin, who unfortunately just broke up (or imploded) as a band for good as far as I can tell. I hate to see local bands go, especially when it's a local band who put on house shows in Toronto fairly regularly. But who am I to say "local" anymore anyway, I live in Kingston for the forseeable future.
Anyway, not only do I love playing with U.T.I., but I think I like listening to them as a band even more. Before we even started playing so many shows with them, we wore out an earlier recording of this same demo. I guess if I had to pick a favourite track out of these, I would choose Limp Generation.
"Cause you can't/you can't/you can't get it up./You don't/you don't/you don't know how to fuck."
Not that I wasn't before, but being affiliated with U.T.I. makes me feel pretty siked about being a woman in hardcore.
Oh right, and come to the show on Saturday, if you read this in time and happen to be from Toronto. Leah is fucking demonic on stage. And I have to make up for last weekend.
Rammer, from my hometown (Toronto), are one of my favourite bands of all time, probably. It has a lot to do with growing up in a scene that the band was constantly playing in, but they're an awesomely brutal thrash metal band in their own right. Drawing from bands like Kreator, Destruction and Slayer, this album is my favourite of theirs, as much as people like to say they like a band's older stuff.
They broke up last year, and their final show was epic and one of the best shows I have ever been to. I've been to a lot of shows, so that's saying something. The fact that I'll never get to see this band again is the fucking worst.
If you only download one track, make it Cancer, if only for the 3 most metal guitar notes of all time. You'll know which ones I'm talking about when you hear them.
Limp Wrist are an American queercore band, and probably one of my favourite bands in general. The band is made up of members of various existing hardcore bands (e.g. Los Crudos), though I'd say now the success of Limp Wrist as a side project has almost eclipsed their existing bands' success.
You know, it's rare that I ever say a new release from an existing hardcore band is even better than their old stuff, but this is one of those rare instances. This album is my favourite new release this year from any band at all. It's loyal to their older stuff but develops on it. The recording quality is way better than the tracks on their discography, but it doesn't take away from the sound of the band at all. It's fast, thrashy, with throat-ripping vocals.
For a highlight, Spun is my favourite track off this album. The vocals are brutally fast and the singer spits them out like it's nothing to him.
if you're in a band that has had music publicly shared on this blog, and you do not want your music shared in this way, please contact me at iisabelllle@gmail.com and I will take it down as soon as I am able to.
please direct questions, complaints and corrections to the above email as well.
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