Welcome to the start up of my new DIY collective (angsty blog)! In an Orwellian time like this, it's hard to listen to most music without realizing that it just sounds awful. So I decided to spread the joy of my own music, and the disputably alive culture with it.
Noise Complaint - Parasite
This little ska-core band from Chino, California released its first EP in 2013, and released this full length album this year. Noise Complaint brings you a buzzing guitar, verses between regular hardcore vocals and screeching, and some of the sweetest bass lines you'll ever hear. Switches between the cutting guitars and rage-fueled vocals of "Narcissism" and the smooth ska rhythms of "Self Division". You'd be doing a dis-service to yourself if you didn't listen to this.
Check out the album, and the rest of NC's stuff on Bandcamp:
http://noise-complaint.bandcamp.com/
Agent Orange - Living In Darkness
Known as one of the first skate punk albums. Agent Orange's surf influence is obvious, with its covers of "Pipeline", and "Mr. Moto", but also provides some great punk rock songs, "Too Young To Die", "The Last Goodbye" and AG's most popular hit, "Bloodstains". Still a great listen today after about 30 years. You know what's funny? The song "Bored of You" is played on Grand Theft Auto 5. Kind of funny how things come back around.
Listen to the album here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isNJ_lRzav8
Black Flag - Damaged
What's that? Don't like ska or surf punk? Just like hardcore? Don't even know what hardcore even is? Here's an album for you. Black Flag's
Damaged was a controversial album in the early So-Cal scene at first, since if was the fourth time the band changed its singer within two years. This is the beginning of the story about a young man from Washington D.C. named Henry joins a band and sees the world for what it truly is.
Damaged is brutal, hard and fast, like a mugger's fist in a dark alley. (Fun fact: Black Flag's roadie at the time was named "Mugger") Features all your favorite songs from previous albums, like "Police Story" and "Depression", and some newer ones like "Rise Above" and "TV Party", which turned out to be equally important songs.
Watch an MTV music video on TV Party here, since I'm too lame to upload a full album this time. Don't worry, it's G-Rated mostly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6otjCKg594
Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
This isn't even a punk album, but after listening to all those albums, your ears might start to bleed. In that case, rest your ears with the soothing sounds of Mac DeMarco, in his album Salad Days, featuring his gap-toothed mug right on the cover. Our Canadian five-paneled friend produces laid back indie rock known as "Jangle pop". What the heck is jangle pop exactly? Apparently it has to do with chiming guitars and 60's melodies. But who cares about that, just listen to the music! Mac brings us his classic style in "Salad Days" and "Blue Boy" but also incorporates some more 80's pop-ish sounding melody in "Brother". Nevertheless, another album worth looking at. Good for lazy days.
Listen to this album here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HQqXllXpfQ
Wastoids - Self Titled
Blasting out of Toronto, the Wastoids self-titled album from 2013 is like a burst of gunfire. This only has 5 songs but they go along way, from the building stomp of "Red Meat", the energetic Oi!-fueled attack of "My Toronto" and the slower-than-most-punk, but still attitude-filled "Brown Sugar, Brown Liquor". Like I said before, this album is short but still packs a punch, like a brick through a window. There's a lot of stereotyping about Canadians being passive people, but don't let that fool you. The Wastoids are pissed.
Wastoids in live concert here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlGNwhVD6zQ
Propagandhi - How To Clean Everything
Another Canadian punk hit, Propagandhi's
How To Clean Everything is exactly what its first song, "Anti Manifesto" (Which despite being a punk album, is a song about the bad aspects of punk itself) is, a backlash to all government systems, militancy and religion. Featuring melodic guitar riffs and smooth but still powerful vocals, Propagandhi sounds like a skate-punk album about anarchy. "Head? Chest? Or Foot?", a call to action against mass media, and even a backlash to the ska revival, "Ska Sucks". This album is an anti-manifesto indeed.
Listen to the album here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MEuY4ObLU
What's that? Don't like ska or surf punk? Just like hardcore? Don't even know what hardcore even is? Here's an album for you. Black Flag's Damaged was a controversial album in the early So-Cal scene at first, since if was the fourth time the band changed its singer within two years. This is the beginning of the story about a young man from Washington D.C. named Henry joins a band and sees the world for what it truly is. Damaged is brutal, hard and fast, like a mugger's fist in a dark alley. (Fun fact: Black Flag's roadie at the time was named "Mugger") Features all your favorite songs from previous albums, like "Police Story" and "Depression", and some newer ones like "Rise Above" and "TV Party", which turned out to be equally important songs.
This isn't even a punk album, but after listening to all those albums, your ears might start to bleed. In that case, rest your ears with the soothing sounds of Mac DeMarco, in his album Salad Days, featuring his gap-toothed mug right on the cover. Our Canadian five-paneled friend produces laid back indie rock known as "Jangle pop". What the heck is jangle pop exactly? Apparently it has to do with chiming guitars and 60's melodies. But who cares about that, just listen to the music! Mac brings us his classic style in "Salad Days" and "Blue Boy" but also incorporates some more 80's pop-ish sounding melody in "Brother". Nevertheless, another album worth looking at. Good for lazy days.
Woah. I've never heard of any of these bands. They sound pretty cool though. It's always neat to hear about all the diverse kinds of music you kiddos are listening to nowadays. Excellent use of pictures and links! You should post their videos next time. Where's your blog description?
ReplyDeleteDescription is up. Good to see you like the blog although everything is pretty obscure. Some of these albums are from decades ago, I don't know if it's good or bad if you hadn't caught on to any of them before.
DeleteI 100% agree with you when you say that it's hard to listen to music without realizing that it sounds awful.
ReplyDeleteSome of this music seems interesting and its different from anything that I've heard of. I'll for sure check out some of it.
I have to say that this blog looks and sounds pretty dang professional. I liked the way you describe the album and artist for every review, so that people who aren't that familiar with them can know at least a little bit of them. You gave nice descriptions on the genre of the music and what they would sound like to people , so they would know whether or not they would enjoy that kind of music. It was also really neat and convenient that you gave links to those albums or songs of the artists to see give a sample of their music. Overall a really enjoyable and simple review that people can understand and appreciate.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting and complimenting on my blog. Like in the description, I want to spread punk rock around more, so I try to make it as easy and accessible as possible. Running a music blog takes a lot of knowing how to describe sound, which is kind of the hard part. (Most punk records sound the same, luckily).
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