Weekend Nachos - Worthless

“Oh my God, this is fast as fuck!!”, these are the words are screamed the first time a caught a listen to Weekend Nachos new album, Worthless. Hailing from Dekalb, IL, Weekend Nachos aims to be the light at the end of my dimly lit hardcore tunnel.

Leading off Worthless is the heavy guitar laden, breakdown consumed track “Hometown Hero."  An in your face, punch your grandma in the kisser, power violence ferocious track…done in about a minute flat. “Obituary”, the second track is much of the same.  Power violence at it’s finest.

Another stand out track on the album is, the title track “Worthless”. An instrumental track that starts off with lots of pa feedback that leads into doom style guitar riffs at about the 2 minute mark. “Worthless” is used as a lead in to the track “Friendship”. Which is 35 seconds of pure violent bliss.

Power Violence is a funny genre. Funny that, you either despise it or you love it. It’s not for the weak at heart and neither is Weekend Nachos. They are a high-intensity in your face band. If you are into fast music in the vei of Tragedy, Behind Enemy Lines, Infest, Mind Eraser or The Locust then Weekend Nachos’ Worthless is right up your ally.

-Cicatriz

Buy the album here:  http://shop.relapse.com/store/product.aspx?ProductID=43837

The Business - Saturdays Heroes

Oi! Oi! Oi!

With a roster that includes such Boston street punk bands as The Dropkick Murphys and Streetdogs, it only seems fitting that Taang! should have The Business kicking around their digs also.  So as we wind up our weeklong look into the depths of the Taang! roster, it's time to feed Saturdays Heroes into the player, grab a pint, round up the mates, and head out looking for trouble.

For those who don't know, The Business first raised hell on the streets of South London way back in 1979. With a career that has gone on to span 30 years, these streetwise punkers never slowed down and this 1996 release finds the blokes in fine form.  Sweat-soaked, beer stained, pint-in-the-air scream-along anthems is what The Business specializes in and you'll find more than your requisite handful here.  And just as importantly, the band show no signs of slowing down as they moved from young upstarts to elder statemens of working-class punk.  It's no wonder bands like The Dropkick Murphys look toward The Business as inspiration.

One look at the photos and you'd be hard pressed to predict what mayhem is to follow in the grooves of the disc.  Singer Mickey Fitz possesses a truly guttural set of vocal chords that spits out socially conscious rebellions with a heavy-handed cockney accent.  And all that venom is lost behind the more-than-boyish cherub of a face, polo shirt, and arms that look like they couldn't threaten a girl scout.  Likewise, Guitarist Steve whale, bassist/chief songwriter Mark Brennan, and drummer Mick Fairbarn each play with spit-soaked abandon but look like they're crawling off the cover of preppie Gentlemen's Quarterly not ready for a hardcore frenzy.

Don't let looks deceive you.

Like that kid in school who looked so calm and shy but really ran a meth lab in his basement, the gents of The Business may not focus so much on their image.  But they sure do on their music.  "Spanish Jails" kicks this frenzy off in high-tension velocity.  A true fist-pounder in the classic style of some of the best of the Clash's early punk.  Guitars buzz and chug and churn.  The bass thuds and punishes and the skins get pounded harder than a pool hustler trying to cheat the Hell's Angels.   You gotta visualize a pub for this one.  Full of working class stiffs, rowdy-ing up for a football match or a gang fight.  Fists are pumping.  Ale is sailing through the air.  Testosterone is rising.  It's good.  It's all good.

But the fist-pumping street punk doesn't stop there.  "All Out Tonight" "Never Be Taken" and Shout it Out" are all rousing anthems of working class discontent and fury.   Rocking, riffing hardcore with sneer, anger, and cynicism.  Again, forget the boys appearance.  One listen to the soaring chorus of "All Out Tonight"  and I know I wouldn't ever want to get on these cats bad side.  "You're all just hypocrites/got money on your minds/I know your name and I know your game."  This is a call to class warfare of the nth degree and you better believe that each of the Oi! punks listening will be packing brass knuckles, chains, and tire irons.  Stay off the streets when the Business comes to town.

"Never Be Taken" is chugging, hardcore riffery at its finest, motoring along like some cockey Ramones outtake and Sham 69 venom.  "Hold your heads up high" Fitz wails above the dissonant buzzsaw guitar riffs.  With it's message of pride it's clear that with The Business, the working class battles on with dignity, intelligence, anger and wit.  Inspirational in it's intent and execution.  If I'd been a working class yob in London, this song would've rallied me to storm the palace.

In addition to the original album, licensed from Link Music, Taang! throws 5 bonus cuts into the mix including the revved up cockney gang fight "Hurry Up Harry", the moderately sedate, melodic neighborhood observation of "Get Out of My House", the gunfight in a bottle "Outlaw" and the original version of "All Out Tonight."  Plenty of Oi! for your money.

While never as popular as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, or Sham 69, The Business do what they do amazingly well and just may be one of the most overlooked punk bands of the Oi! movement.

--Racer

Buy here: Saturday's Heroes
Buy here live: Saturdays Heroes (Live And Loud)

Part-Time Christians - Rock and Roll is Disco

Continuing on with our journey through Taang! week, we find this delicious, belly-satisfying smorgasbord of back-in-the-da,y East Bay pun- thrash courtesy of the Part-Time Christians.

Fast and furious?  Check.  Anger spat out in a spleen venting eruption?  Yep.  Gut-wrenching, grinding guitar riffs?  Oh, yes.  An absolutely bizarre fixation with . . . bowling?  Uh, yeah.  We got that too.  Forget skate punk.  The Part-Time Christians may just be the world's founders (if not the only members) of the Bowling Punk genre.  Yeah, maybe you hadn't heard of it before now.  But you should, because the P.T.C.'s are killer at what they do.

I gotta admit, I took to this CD a bit more rapidly than I may have otherwise once I read the liner notes where bassist-cum-lead screamer Cosmo lays out a tale that hit real close to home.  And I mean that literally.  While I'd never heard these guys before, it seems they formed back in my days, right in my backyard.  In those notes Cosmo reveals how he left his evil step-dad's home in Iowa and moved west to Modesto and then Concord, California.  Knowing that Concord was just a stone's throw from SF and having just seen his first Dead Kennedys show, he envisioned himself knee-deep in an alternative culture where punk kids ruled society, hardcore was the national anthem, and piercings and punk attire was the Gucci couture.  Big mistake.  Back in the early '80's, as Cosmo soon discovered, Concord, California was "quite possibly the most outwardly racist, heavy metal hell" he'd ever set foot in.  And it was.  I know this.  I nearly got my ass kicked several times growing up outside of Concord.  And I was a metal head!  But the difference was I didn't wear my AC/DC allegiance on my sleeve, drive a pick-up, and spout out like a lunk-headed, jock jackass.  I was into Maiden and Saxon and Motorhead back when Concord didn't know they existed.   In their one-neuron-shared mind, I was just as weird as the punks were.  So I got on well with the punk kids.  I wasn't one of them, but I was just as much an outsider by musical proxy as they were.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that rubbish.

Despite this wall of hatred around them, Cosmo managed to field together a band, get East Bay Ray from The Dead Kennedys to listen, produce their initial stuff and release some 7"'s on Alternative Tentacles Records.  After a blitzkrieg career that found the East Bay band playing alongside such acts as the Dead Kennedy's, Suicidal Tendencies, T.S.O.L., Exodus, Social Distortion, Butthole Surfers, Faith No More, Death Angel, and the Lords of the New Church, the band broke up.  Now, 22 years later, P.T.C. has reformed and this Taang! release compiles 21 songs into a must have retrospective and current snapshot of the underground legends.

First up, we get the whole 8 song Rock and Roll is Disco EP originally released in 1984 and appearing here on CD for the first time.  And there it is. Everything that made the band tick.  A vicious low rumble of bass, a maniacal smashing of cymbals and drum, a larynx shredding vocal attack of pure, unadulterated punk.  "Religion on a Stick" just attacks out of the speakers with a huge middle finger raised to the religious hypocrites who "church on Sunday, sin on Monday."  Probably just as powerful now as it was back in the day.  But the boys don't just vent.  There's a pounding to the guitars and bass that captivates.  There's some chord progressions that definitely take this out of the ordinary.  Dynamic changes.  Structure.  Nearly a singable chorus.  It's pure hardcore of the first order, and possesses that little something extra.  "Bonique" follows and again it become apparent that these guys may have been full-on punk, but that doesn't mean they were instrument bashers.  They knew how to play, how to write some songs, mash in some heavy metal elements to the punk assault.  Truly, they were a hybrid crossover between punk and metal long before that term ever existed.  And suddenly, the times they played with Faith No More, Exodus and Death Angel begin to make sense.

Then there's that other thing.  The bowling obsession.  And when I say obsession, I mean OBSESSION.  How do the song titles "Strength Through Bowling", " Bowling Pin Massacre," "Orthopedic Bowling Shoes"," and "Gutterball" grab you?  But don't worry, these weren't novelty attacks by the band.  "Strength" is a hardcore frenzy of staccato vocals and buzzsaw guitars.  "Bowling Pin Massacre" is a very early punk/funk/rap fusion that actually is more fun (and more funky) than you might expect.   "Orthopedic" almost qualifies as post-punk with it's chiming guitar lines, while "Gutterball" is anger and venom, just as it should be when your "life is a gutterball."

But one thing that makes this release so cool is the hint of what the future holds for PTC.  From their 2008 reunion we get four songs in the form of the P.T.C. Lives EP.  With a revamped, but familiar line-up P.T.C. come raging back sounding just a vital as ever.  "Chrome (Got What it Takes)" is pure hardcore/metal melding energy.  Rampant bass and roughshod guitars buzz under Cosmo's barely contained vocals.  This is seriously heavy, seriously intense, and seriously good.  It reminds me of the latest Leatherface offering, and if that band hit's your musical G-spot then you really should check P.T.C. out.   Compared to back-in-the-day,  the songs may be a touch slower, but if anything, they're a bit meaner.  A more metallic edge has been ramrodded into the mix.  "Electric Fence" almost sounds like a cross between Sabbath and the DK's.  Which, if you think about it, is pretty f-ing cool.  "Bionic Cop," keeps the crossover heat rising with pure thrash riffery and hardcore gang-vocal choruses.  Finally, "One Dead Bee" expands the metal-punk reformation to the epic with its 6:44 assault to the frontal lobe.

Adding to the cool factor of the whole thing is the final section.  8 song demo versions recorded in 1983.  Raw, crude.  An attitude more than an actual band here, the song's are fun for filling in the history line of the band. But truthfully, with the rough sound quality, these are probably more of interest to committed P.T.C. fans rather than new acquaintances.   Still, some of the cuts that never made it onto the Rock and Roll is Disco EP are pretty fricking fun, like "Sex in a Sub-Compact" and the gothic/punk horrorscapade of "Cemetery" leading the pack.

Funny, how I had to wait 27 years and needed the assistance of a Boston-formed punk rock label to introduce me to guys that fought the same battles I fought back in high school, right in my own backyard.  But there it is.  I'll be looking for the next P.T.C show in the Concord area and be sure to be there moshing to welcome back the boys. 


--Racer

Buy here: Rock And Roll Is Disco

Everybody Out! – S/T

As I continue down this path of punk rock discovery, one thing that is readily apparent is that, like most if not all other musical genres, there is wide range of styles. We have all this great crossover stuff, the early British punk, the New York hardcore, the O.C. stuff, and then there’s this Boston punk scene that I’ve always known about, but never paid much attention to. That is, until Racer turned me on to Street Dogs and then it was like someone turned on a light in very dark and cluttered room. I could suddenly see the brilliance of said cluttered room, and I now had the opportunity to really dissect the intricacies of the pieces of clutter littering the room.

Part of the now infamous Pope and Racer Taang! trip, is a band called Everybody Out! They’re a Boston punk outfit made up of Rick Barton, who played guitar in Dropkick Murphy’s, and The Dead Pets/Lost City Angels frontman, Sweeney Todd, and these guys play a most captivating brand of hardcore that I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Sure . . . there are probably a ton of folks sitting around who know their Boston scene, and that’s fine, I’m not necessarily talking to you. I don’t need to . . . you’re already in the know! I’m trying to reach out to the masses of folk who are stuck in some underground bunker or  . . . Alaska . . . those folks who are unknowingly screaming for a style of music that will have them bouncing around their domiciles, bobbing their heads in time with upbeat swagger, and ultimately singing along as if their voices belonged in some choir for the ages. These are the people who need to be spinning Everybody Out!’s self-titled debut record . . .yes, record. Sure, the CD is fine, but there are tracks on the LP that don’t make it on the CD and they are must have’s!

Everybody Out! is one of those records that you can’t listen to just once . . . it won’t let you. It’s too powerful of a force, and way too compelling and fun to go on to anything else. Opening with “Wide Awake”, the quick count off and the eruption of Sex Pistols-esque punk rock overwhelms the senses. Upbeat and sung with a defiant sneer, and then suddenly launches to a stratospheric raucous tirade, and man! I love every second of this! The chorus, the backing vocals, the immediacy of the face paced tempo, and in classic punk rock fashion, the breakdown with gang vocals sells me on this one way ticket to the Boston underground. Without a pause between tracks, “Everybody Out!” drops in and the living room bounce-a-thon continues. Another up tempo rocker and I dare you to knock sing at the top of your lungs . . . “Everybody out! Everybody out!” . . . it’s simply the most contagious song on the album. The best part for me is when the guys break the song down and hand clap the rhythm while chanting the chorus. The timing of the break is perfect . . . it could have come across as cheesy, but in this case, simply perfect. It totally captures the essence of this recording.

The sing-a-longs continue through “Ghettoblaster” and by the time we get to “Jack The Lad”, filled with its Mighty Mighty Bosstone ska inflections, our singing voices should be in top form to accompany the boys through the back half of the first side of this platter. This song caught me off guard a bit because I wasn’t expecting the horn section, especially the jazz tinged mid portion, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the coolest songs on the record. Seriously . . . this album is getting better and better as it goes along! Everybody Out! shows a great amount of musical diversity throughout, incorporating horns in one song, pianos on the next, straight up guitar, bass, and drums on the next . . . just keep me guessing, lads!

Putting the wraps on side 1 is the song that forced me and Racer to pick this beast up. “Billy Cole” was playing over the P.A. system at Taang! and there was nothing more we could do. We simply had to purchase the record. Without question, one of the finest purchases of the day! Sung with a very Irish cadence, almost in poetic form, “Billy Cole” is the punk rock equivalent of folk music. The boys tell a tale of a couple of people, one being a cat named Billy Cole, who lead completely different lives and probably die completely different deaths, but ultimately are just two people trying to eke their ways through life. Acoustic guitars strum a heavy rhythm and the vocals convey the lyric message that pulls on the heart strings. Then when they introduce Mike, the music turns darker and heavier, more imposing, and fuck! Just buy the record and spin this song over and over again . . . it’s that fucking awesome!

If you still have the energy to flip the platter over and attack side 2, go on ya’! You’ll find yourself bouncing along with more of that upbeat Boston punk sound, complete with even more sing-alongs. But what you’ll get with the vinyl edition that you won’t get from the CD edition is songs like “Boy” and the show stopper, “Home”. “Boy” is another acoustic guitar strummin’ folk-y epic that injects a ton of distorted heaviness and maybe even more raw emotion. “Home” is one of those songs that Racer and would categorize as a patriotic song calling for our troops to get home to the families that love them. Perfectly penned in a lyrical fashion and the music conveys the immediacy for action. It’s enough to make the strongest punker get a little weepy. And, my God . . . the chorus is one that will have you standing on your rooftops, leaning out your high rise windows, shaking your fist and singing along!

If I had heard this album back in 2008 when it was originally released, it would have been sitting comfortably at the top of that year’s Best of List. Truth is, it’s probably even better than I think it is. Everybody Out!’s self-titled album is one of those albums that I don’t want to stop listening to. I’ll be cruising around doing my day to day activities and I’ll be thinking about listening to this record. I’ve actually listened to a couple of other records and couldn’t wait for them to end so I could put this one back on. Upbeat, positive, emotionally raw, solid song craft, good story telling . . . all elements that are included in this album, and it downright rocks! This one is highly recommended regardless of what style of music you gravitate towards. This is a genre crosser and it needs to be on your playlist.

--Pope

Buy here: www.taang.com

http://www.myspace.com/everybodyoutboston

Poison Idea - Kings of Punk

After our whole Taang! experience, and listening to the Attitude Adjustment CD, The Collection, I got to thinking . . . and mind you, it wasn’t the type of stop everything, I need to sequester myself to an abandoned shed for forty days and forty nights type of thinking. This was more of the casual thinking as I sit in a drive-thru waiting for my latest order of gut bomb in a bag to be handed to me. The thought racing around my noodle (mmm, noodles) was, what makes good punk rock? I’m sure everybody reading this will have their opinion as to what makes good punk rock, and it was more of a rhetorical thought than an actual forum question anyway.

After listening to Poison Idea’s Kings of Punk, I feel that I’m that much closer to satisfying a portion of that burning drive-thru question. Kings of Punk is a blistering anti-everything tirade that got me blood boiling, my fists pumping, and my body shaking. The album is high intensity, fast paced, and irreverent as all good punk, in my mind, should be. But here’s the wrinkle, folks . . . and yes, it gets better . . . these guys don’t seemingly just bash their instruments into submission and scream nonsensical obscenities, they create massively moving punk rock epics filled with dynamic shifts in tempo and mood. I would hate to insult the Poison Idea guys by calling this progressive punk, because there isn’t that flighty, soaring silliness that inherent in a lot of prog. But what these do bring is a sense of song craft that’s more challenging that the standard fair of punk rock. I’ve always wondered why if punk rock is supposed to be so intelligent in subject matter that it had to be so 4/4 and standardized to the point that it takes absolutely no conscious effort to listen to it. Poison Idea, thankfully, solved this conundrum for me.

“Lifestyles” kicks off the album in full on classic punk rock fashion. High speed drumming and a wall of distorted guitar chaos, all given an exclamation point with the snotty sneering vocal attack of Jerry A, this is an attention getter from the opening minute. That primal assault on the senses does the job for certain, appealing to that dark and despondent streak that can run through me on the best and worst of days, but then . . . then, these guys pull the figurative E-brake and skid this bitch around a corner so fast that if you were in a pursuit car, you’d be shredding your tires trying to break yourself. Just a hair over a minute into the song, they drop the tempo way down, play distorted arpeggios and give the notes space to breath a bit. Powerful shit! There’s a great deal of stellar musicianship in this track, from the out-of-the-box bass lines to the mournful guitar passages, this song is a spotlight on headiness that hardcore can have.

“Ugly American” is a more mid-tempo crusher and the song is packed with more musical moments of brilliance. Again, great bass licks, heavy guitar riffs, but tastefully played, and the vocals are impassioned and venomous. And, it features one of the elements that’s always made punk rock so cool to me, a strong lyrical message. In the case of “Ugly American” the band launches an all out assault on the neo-Nazi movement and their views of racial inequality. A song with focused rage, though maybe not the most politically correct or tactfully diplomatic, it doesn’t need to be. The point is made that injustice won’t be tolerated and those who have intolerant viewpoints will be looked down upon. All of three minutes long and I feel like I’ve been rocked for an hour.

   

Throughout Kings of Punk, I’ve found myself gravitating towards the songs that have the richest dynamics, such as “Lifestyles”, ”Death Wish Kids”, and “Tormented Imp”.  I dig the change of pace . . . there’s only so much of the hopped up rock n’ roll and massive volume and insane speed that I can handle, so the tempo changes that Poison Idea inject into their songs is welcomed with open ears. “Made To Be Broken” is one of my favorites with its quai-Boston punk intro and bombastic assault on the senses . . . I mean, this screams punk rock in every classic sense of the word. Then as I found myself just about to collapse into a ball of battered flesh and bones, the band changes things up . . . slows the tempo down a bit, but without losing any of the earlier power from the song, and they return to the opening guitar line with punk-y melodic Celtic thing going on. That, my friends, is simply bitchin’ work!

“Tormented Imp” is a cataclysmic grinder full of subtle nuance that took me by complete surprise. Mostly performed in mid-tempo, the intensity on this track is damn near overwhelming. I love the vocal approach, building with intensity and rage from the first to the second . . . and then as we swing from the left to the right, fuck! And the slight breaks that the band place in this one makes the song one of the most compelling and interesting moments on the disc. The metalhead in me is disappointed that the song doesn’t continue longer while the punk rock in me thinks it over stays its welcome. I love it. Excuse me a sec . . . I need to play it again.

Originally released in 1986, while I was jerkin’ myself wild over the musical spectacle that was Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Kings of Punk could easily have been the most important punk rock/hardcore album of the time. It has everything one could want from a punk rock disc . . . high energy, uncompromising, intelligent, and completely unique from any other hardcore from this era. Recommended by the good folks at Taang! Records, I’m thrilled stupid that I paid enough attention and had the good sense to listen to someone other than the voices in my head. I grew up hearing the name Poison Idea in my various circles of friends, but no one ever had the balls to enlighten me to their sound. Now I’ve heard them and now I love them. I suspect my bank account will become more and more empty due to Poison Idea. I suppose I could do worse. A lot worse.

--Pope

Buy here:  www.taang.com

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/usa/poisonidea_main.html

Cancer Bats - Discography

Few bands in this world combine punk, hardcore and metal…and do it well. Canadian punk rock metalers, Cancer Bats are one of those that do. The Cancer Bats are influenced by  the likes of Black Flag, Refused, and yes even Led Zeppelin.  Based out of Toronto, Canada they have been rocking since 2004 and have released three l.ps and five e.ps in their short seven year span.

Birthing the Giant is the first full length album they released. This record is fucking non stop. I’m pretty sure I broke a sweat just listening to it. The lead off track “Golden Tanks” embodies the ferocity of the band. Singer Liam Cormier’s vocals are in your face though he is not screaming. Another amazing track, “Pneumonia Hawk” is done in similar fashion but with the addition of alexisonfire screamer George Pettit, for some dueling vocal action.

Hail Destroyer is the Cancer Bats second full length album. Much like Birthing the Giant, Hail Destroyer starts and ends in pure unbridled intensity. Keeping the trend alive with “borrowing” a second voice, many of Canada’s top band singers are also present on this album. Namely Tim McIlrath of Rise Against on "Harem of Scorpions”, Wade MacNeil of  alexisonfire on "Deathsmarch" Ben Kowalewicz of Billy Talent on "Smiling Politely". The title track starts off with the a gritty guitar worthy of any southern metal band that leads into Cormier shouting “Tear us down!”, instantly making you want to grab the nearest authority figure and punch him in the mouth. They keep up this pace for the next 11 tracks, without missing a beat. If you are lucky enough to pick up this album with bonus tracks, you are in for a treat. The bonus cd contains three covers, including my personal favorite  cover of The Murder City Devils’ “I want a Lot Now”

Their most recent release Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones was released in 2009. This album is exhausting..in a good way. There is a lot going on in this record. Multi-layered is understatement. Punk, hardcore, sludge: this album does it all. The opening track “Sleep This Away” is a sludgy mix of hardcore metal. The Cancer Bats also do a pretty nifty cover of the Beastie Boys “Sabotage”. The cover holds true the Beastie’s original but Cormier’s gruff vocals and the bands squealing guitars, make it their own.

Bottom line, the Cancer Bats have a bright future in today’s hardcore and metal scenes. They are defiantly one of the bands that is a “must see”. The bands overall stage presents is overwhelming and keeps you entertained.

-Cicatriz

Buy their albums here: www.indiemerchstore.com/cancerbats