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If you haven’t fallen in love with DONKEY BUGS yet, are you even a tru freek?

The description on the bandcamp page says it sounds like the B52′s holding someone hostage in a grimy garage, and I can get down with that. I don’t even know if this band will ever play live again (likely not anytime soon, at least) and that bummmmms me out (tho I can live without the threat of getting drenched in milk).

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Episode 6 is streaming now. 

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FLEA COLLAR is a new band from Cleveland featuring members of Bad Noids. It’s fucking strange in the best possible way. Check out “Land of the Free”, which opens with Thrope singing along to “Downtown” before the group flies into some wild lo-fi riffy punk. “Second Stop is Jupiter” is a great longform psychpunk jam.

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Little preview of what I’m putting on tomorrow’s episode, check out this killer garage punk jam from Cleveland’s own THE COWBOY

I love this band’s peculiar affinity for the prairie, cuz I grew up on the prairie and most people outside of it don’t give it much thought (’flyover state’ ugh).

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So far I have been much better about maintaining a podcast than a blog. 3 episodes so far, planning another one for tomorrow. There’s a loose music/talk format with an emphasis on music, and there’s definitely an affinity for heavier stuff but I play a little bit of everything because I listen to a little bit of everything. Lots of music, some musings, a little politics, art, and whatever else tumbles out of my mouth. If you’re into the whole underground music podcast thing you might like mine? Idk, here’s this!

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MADLIB - SOUND ANCESTORS

I’ve been listening to this album nonstop. No, really. Nonstop. When it ends I start it over again. So Madlib has been working on some of this stuff for years and Kieren Hebden arranged this particular release. I hear samples from everything and everyone from RUTH to Snoop Dogg. This record is simultaneously engaging/challenging AND perfect to just throw on and beeee. In other words this record is Heady AF. There is a pretty consistent rhythm to the whole thing, allowing all these tracks to flow together as one piece even though some of them are wholly different in every way. It reminds me a bit of the earlier, mellower Flying Lotus records at times in that way. I knew this record would be good before I listened to it, but god damn. Shit’s really great. “Road of the Lonely Ones” is my personal favorite. Maybe I just need to up my antidepressants :) Either way, this one comes highly recommended. Get after it.

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Not much going on these days. This remaster/reissue has been on repeat tho, making me miss seeing this and any band live. The drums sound fucking killer on this. Everything sounds fucking killer on this. Glad they re-released these.

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Enjoyable Music : 2020

I can’t do definitive year end lists of any sort, so don’t consider this a final word of any sort, but here’s some of the things I really enjoyed in 2020. Subject to updates, based on what I can remember, and in no specific order:

Mourning [A] BLKstar - The Cycle

https://mourningablkstar.bandcamp.com/album/the-cycle

Kaleidoscope - Decolonization

https://d4mtlabsinc.bandcamp.com/album/decolonization-ep

Sweeping Promises - Hunger For A Way Out

https://sweepingpromises.bandcamp.com/album/hunger-for-a-way-out

Nag - Dead Deer

https://werenag.bandcamp.com/album/dead-deer

Scraepers Papers - Spiritual Favorites

https://scraeperspapers.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-favorites

Powerplant - A Spine/Evidence

https://ppowerplant.bandcamp.com/album/a-spine-evidence

Soul Glo - Songs To Yeet At The Sun

https://soulglophl.bandcamp.com/album/songs-to-yeet-at-the-sun

Subdued - Over The Hills And Far Away

https://lavidaesunmus.bandcamp.com/album/over-the-hills-and-far-away

Public Acid - Condemnation EP

https://beachimpedimentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/condemnation-ep

Primal Brain - It’s All A Game

https://primalbrain.bandcamp.com/album/its-all-a-game

Clear Acid - Who Are U?

https://clearacid.bandcamp.com/album/who-are-u

Haircut - Cake

https://11pmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cake

The Cowboy - Feel The Chi Releasing From You

https://thecowboycle.bandcamp.com/album/feel-the-chi-releasing-from-you

Clock Of Time - Pestilent Planet

https://staticshockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pestilent-planet

Chronophage - The Pig Kiss’d

https://cletapatrarecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-pig-kissd

Innuendo - Demo

https://unlawfulassembly.bandcamp.com/album/demo

Living World - Future Built For Self/Ubuntu

https://unlawfulassembly.bandcamp.com/album/future-built-for-self-ubuntu

Knowso - Specialtronics Green Vision

https://drunkensailorrecords.bandcamp.com/album/specialtronics-green-vision-lp

Advertisement - American Advertisement

https://thisisadvertisement.bandcamp.com/album/american-advertisement

Pleasure Leftists - The EPs of Pleasure Leftists

https://pleasureleftists.bandcamp.com/album/the-eps-of-pl

.......and then some......

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PUBLIC ACID - CONDEMNATION

yeeeeeehaaaaaaw new PUBLIC ACID!! I was admittedly late to the Public Acid craze, I had no idea when they became a thing or got big in spite of being friends with Chubb which I chalk up to my general state of stoner forgetfulness. I snagged the first LP on tour with Ricky Hell and the Voidboys when we stopped at Sit and Spin in Philly on recommendation from Tony (fuckin lovers, allergy, etc), a person whose musical tastes I trust implicitly, and the record did not disappoint. This EP also does not disappoint. (Side note- I’m so here for this year’s new music across the board, so much good shit so few ears)

This EP hits hard out the gate and does not turn down the pressure. Public Acid are as angry as the rest of us, churning out riffs both fast and slow and keeping us on our toes listening for the changes. They’re a force to reckon with both on recordings and live (caught em at Skull Fest 11 aka skeleton head fest aka the mid atlantics premier punk endurance test). Fucking fast, fucking slow, fucking gut wrenching drums and buzzsaw guitars like an endless assault. Well, not endless, Public Acid don’t need 15 minutes to fully fuck up skulls and souls and this EP hovers around ten minutes. CONDEMNATION is an apt title for a record released in this hellscape of a year, and I think we can all agree that there are quite a lot of things in this country that need a little condemnation. Track titles like “Spoiled by Hate” and “Flag Fetish” pull no punches, “Flag Fetish” even culminates in a full on heavy metal guitar solo that gives way to a feedback outro that sounds like bombs being dropped. I can think of few other bands that match Public Acid’s intensity or their straight up mastery of their tools. 

The record is mixed impeccably well, which is usually my biggest qualm with punk releases (especially of the EP variety). The vocals land exactly where they need to, somewhere in the middle of the stack, and nothing competes for dominance in spite of the band’s pummeling approach on all fronts. And the art is fucking incredible. I’ve listened to this thing four times in a row and I’ll probably start it over again. Public Acid offers a bit of catharsis to the pissed off masses with this one and the only real bummer for me is that I’m still too underemployed to buy a physical copy (so many great records that came out this year that I’ll end up tracking down on discogs in the future.....) Here’s hoping these covid vaccines work so they can tour this one, I’d love to catch this band again and again and again.

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Are SOUL GLO the best band in America? Ya prolly

SOUL GLO- Close 2 Tha God

Shake down the world for that fucking wealth. I can’t even get a chance to kill myself. Maybe I won’t even have a face as I wait in line to dig my own grave. You extend/I anticipate an early death and drugs make this world easier to accept. We cannot shriek enough through these months which pass like minutes. If my life, Black life, is prohibited then I’m just gonna get it. And if there is truly no difference between us 2, and the values our potentials are equivalent, understand my fury at yr fucking violence and how to you it simply just means business. If you hear something enough you’ll think it’s true//while millions of little dins whitewash themselves against our solitude//while you think it’s the God that yr getting closer to.

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THE COWBOYS - LOVERS IN MARBLE

Bonus COWBOYS performing at Now That’s Class at West Side Punx Connect 2018. 

The new EP is great, expands on their last LP (Room of Clons) and surpasses it in my opinion. I’ve been working on a new physical zine with a review of this, in summary you should probably listen to this if you are a fan of this band and/or THE KINKS, THE TURTLES, and other such psychedelic pop music.

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Takeshi Mizutani of Les Rallizes Dénudés photographed by Gin Satoh in 1981.

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INNUENDO - DEMO

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NEW CRUELSTER - HYPER WITH U

I woke up this morning feeling really anxious!! New Cruelster (nee PERVERTS AGAIN) continue to deliver their timely, sinister, neanderthal stomp. It’s their COVID song, folks, and we all knew it was coming! The lyrics are typical Alex Ward, the master of ripping the facade off of every day banalities to expose the creepy crawly reality of humanity that lurks beneath the surface. How strange it is to be anything at all, eh? These folks have been making a gem of a tv show called LITTLE LIONS DEN as well, propelling characters honed on their WRUW radio show into a disturbing talk show format replete with suburban slime and absurdities. All in all, this single is just what I would expect from ‘ the kids who brought you perverts again’ and it sounds remarkably like their Total Punk single “My Accident”. I’ve always enjoyed the layered talking (rather than singing) that they utilize throughout their universe (I think at this point it is fair to call it a universe) and this track is no exception. Hopefully the album packs a bigger punch than this single, which is good but certainly is resting on the formula they’ve well established. Something in my gut says it will, these folks have yet to release anything short of fantastic. 

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CLOCK OF TIME - “PESTILENT PLANET”

According to Harakiri Diat’s youtube page, this band is on Static Shock Records, are from Berlin, and are kind-of-a-super-group-big-deal w/ members of Diat, Vexx, and Useless Eaters. 

Well, I don’t like Useless Eaters and i’ve never heard Vexx (I do enjoy Diat), supergroup aside this LP is really fuckin good! So often with post punk I just end up yawning these days, I tend not to listen to most of it outside of live gigs cuz disappointment. Not here! Yes it’s very Joy Division inspired, it’s got the ‘right’ atmosphere and the post punk vocals, but it takes some post hardcore cues as well and jostles it all together to create this super infectious, listenable as all heck record. Also their name is Clock of Time. CLOCK OF TIME. Just. Perfect. I clicked on this in my youtube sidebar yesterday and have been replaying over and over since. They mess around with both angular and riffy guitars. The drummers fucking great, propelling the whole thing forward with sometimes breakneck speed, and this LP never drops energy. They’re angry goths, no mopey stuff here. This record just sooounds good, if you know what I mean, like the mix is perfect. The layers, well textured layers of sound. Yes, this one’s a keeper!

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PEACE TALKS - A LASTING PEACE

One of the things I really love about PEACE TALKS is how totally unpredictable they are. You have no idea when a song is going to completely break down to its component parts and come back as almost a completely different song. In the best possible way. Is it crossover, is it hardcore, is anything anything? None of the songs is much longer than two minutes (the longest song is actually the outlier here at 2:19) because they don’t need to be, the five minutes or so of this EP are quite nourishing. This EP is positively coherent belligerence. Their best yet! Listen to/buy this freakin record!

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new CHRONOPHAGE <3

This band appeals to my love of 90s weirdo rock. (Think Camper Van Beethoven, Pain Teens, Breeders, etc generally). Their last record stayed on the turntable (and my BF’s tape deck) for quite some time and I expect this one will be no different (when I can afford to buy records again).