Blog: Going Through The Motions

This is from 1996 on Schuylkill Records . I don't know anything about Violent Society except what I've learned from the short Wikipedia article about them (which lists this record as having come out in 1998, though it came out in 1996). Apparently they were together for over a decade and toured with some big bands, but this is all I've got by them. I assume they're named after the Special Duties song, who they also happened to do a split with later on. Their tracks are solid examples of late-90s hardcore punk, but nothing compared to [...]

This is sort of a knee-jerk reaction to a comment posted today on this post . There's going to be a lot I leave out, and it might not "flesh out" alright, but it's in one draft, save for links I'm posting within the blog to give some people who don't know some of the bands we're talking about more information. You should probably read the comment before reading this. I ask that anyone with thoughts on this (on any side) to please add them in a comment. I don't think the ratio of good bands [...]

Police in Lansing, MI are in training for any disaster, and conducting mock disasters to establish logistics. Included in their scenarios is apparently a zombie attack . They've decided upon chainsaws as their chief form of defense. A hunter in Pennsylvania who set up a camera to photograph deer claims to have accidentally photographed a child Bigfoot . OK, that's it.

I always loved videos of Joy Division because they don't look anything like they sound, to me. Ian Curtis is so skinny and awkward and his voice just booms out of his tiny little voice box. There's also the fact that even when he makes an effort to dance and "put on a show" I guess, he still looks depressed and desperate as hell. I guess this video comes from a movie about Joy Division, but I never heard of it. I never was a very active Joy Division fan, so the fact that I've never heard of it doesn't [...]

I know I haven't been updating much lately. Not because of a lack of interest, I've just been ridiculously busy and haven't had to time to do much. I just wanted to draw attention to those of you into the whole thrashy hardcore side of things. It appears that Profane Existence is in some money troubles. I know a lot of you are wondering why you should care since it seems that a lot of the people that read this regularly aren't into their politics (and neither am I), but they're an important label/community for DIY and [...]

The Press, a SHARP band from NYC in the 80s and early 90s will have their discography available for the first time on Halloween 2007. Their biggest contribution to the national scene was their appearance on Oi! Record's "Punks n Skins Volume 5" LP with the Radicts. I like the Press, but there's a little something the press release (no pun intended) I need to dispute: " The Press were the first American Oi! band and this is the first time their collected works, including remastered rarities and unreleased material*, have been issued in one [...]

(NOTE: I was drunk when I made this post). This record was in my 'to-be-posted' pile, but HXCPunksn Skins beat me to it. The Best of Oi Records is a good representation of the late 80s Oi! scene, if a little biased. Roddy Moreno of the Oppressed started the label by putting out ads in all the punk zines that read "Oi! bands wanted, neither red nor racist". The result was a run of 16 records, mostly English material, and some great stuff from the late 80s. Obviously, the best stuff came out of the [...]

Korova played with the Flash Attacks a few years ago at a skatepark in Birmingham. It was a pretty good bill. It was us when we were a three piece (between guitar players, lasted like two shows), Skeptic? with the original line-up, a Nashville band called Public Offence (who went on to do small tours with a bunch of PunkCore Records bands and then break up, which was followed by several very tragic events involving almost every person to have played with the band that I don't feel the need to go into), and the superstar line-up of APA with [...]

Late 90s Oi from Finland. I seem to remember a lot of people making a big deal out of this band after their appearance on Punks, Skins, and Herberts (I'll probably put those tracks up here sometime). These songs would be great if they were shorter, but they get a little tiresome. "Bastards in Blue", the A side, is a great anti-cop anthem that's everything you'd expect it to be, plus about 45 extra seconds. This record was pressed by a German label called Blind Beggar Records and the original pressing was on white vinyl. Their [...]

I'm not 100% about this. I've got several different "versions" of this, but this has the most tracks (17), all of which appear in the other versions (most of the others that I've found have been 6-9 tracks. There are three versions of "Forward to Death" on this, though, and two sound identical. Everything else seems to be in order, though, so for the sake of digital completion I've included both, against my better judegement (maybe they just nailed it twice?). I think this may actually be two seperate demos, "Cold Fish" and "Dreadlocks of the Suburbs", [...]

I don't even know why I'm bothering to attempt to review this because if you've ever heard the Peacocks from Zurich you already know that they're incapable of writing a bad record. They're the only band I can think of that's been around well over a decade (I think closer to two) and manage to make every album better than the last one. Honestly, I'm a little scared of new Peacocks records because it means I appreciate the former one a little less. See, the Peacocks are one of those bands you sort of grow up with. Their last LP, [...]

I let this sit for almost a month after listening to it the first time. It was too good. After their last 7" delivered on my hopes, I was expecting even more out of this, and I honestly couldn't believe it was even better than I expected. I'm too much of a skeptic. This doesn't sound like their 7"s. This is much more matured. This is more nuanced and it's even darker than their earlier stuff. They put time into putting this together as a solid LP instead of a compilation of some stuff [...]

I popped this in after it came in the mail the other day and had it on the background while I was chasing my son around the house. I guess I immediately decided I wasn't really into it. One of the problems with listening to things peripherally is that you don't really soak up what's going on with it, and in this case, not paying attention to this record makes it sound kind of stale. I gave it another shot driving to work the next day and realized I'd made a mistake. This band walks a really [...]

I don't like giving negative reviews. See, I love getting bad reviews. I don't know why. I think I'm one of those John Lydon types that feeds on negativity. But I hate writing bad stuff about somebody else's music. I guess I just feel like anything I write will be read by the band and they'll just pass me as off an asshole because I don't like their music, and I'm not a jaded rock critic so it bothers me. As a result, I have quite a few records that I don't like sitting around waiting to be reviewed, and [...]

Scared of Reality posted two great documentaries in the past week. A few days ago they put up Skinheads USA: Soldiers of the Race War , which is an old HBO special from the early 90s about the neo-nazi skinhead scene in Birmingham, Alabama, led by Bill Riccio. The other post was from a documentary put out just last year called Jesus Camp , which follows the stories of a few children who attend an annual camp for evangelical Christians, which is run by a women named Becky Fischer. [...]

Saturday night I headed up to the Beat Kitchen to catch the First Wave and Hudson Falcons show. The crowd was a dissapointment (at most, it looked like there were only about 50 max, on a Saturday!), but the show was incredible. The First Wave is a Clash-influenced streetpunk band along the lines of early Rancid. They say they're a half Memphis/half Philly band, but to me they'll always be Southern boys, as they're friends and I know them from back home. Their set the other night [...]

I was going to add this track to this weeks Digital Mixtape, but found this video instead. The song "Eskamo" (which what they're playing in the video) is probably my favorite song by Mephiskapheles. The organ intro, which isn't as thick on the video as the record, is classic. I expected shows by these guys to be way crazier than this, but it's a pretty low-key song, so maybe the faster songs are a lot more wild. Defiance, Ohio are one [...]

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EDIT: For some reason when this was packed, it only took some of the songs and I didn't think to double check it. I have reposted the download with the full album. Sorry! The first time I heard the Authorities was on Killed By Death Volume 1 . I was completely blown away by both of their tracks on the record("Radiation Masturbation" and "I Hate Cops"), and immediately started for their record, Soundtrack for Trouble . After seeing the prices on eBay, I decided to search for a more economic [...]