V/A - Not Normal Presents Welcome to 2013

Alright here it is, the whole reason we went out to the Midwest. After Kayla booked Poison Planet on New Direction Fest we made some friends who reciprocated our love. Ralph asked us if Adjustment to Society wanted to contribute some tracks on a comp he was doing, at the time called "Welcome to 2012" and we said of course. A delayed release retitled the comp "Welcome to 2013" and had us flying out there for a comp release show and a short Midwest tour. A quick recap: We flew into Minneapolis where it was 20 below and all Austin brought was shorts. After being up all night we finally arrived in Nashville Tennessee and did some exploring which included a visit to Margaritaville. We then played a cool space called the Owl Farm with bands Enough, Vacant Future and our friend's Strangers. This marked the beginning of what would be a beautiful week.

 

We stayed in Nashville again and made the trek through an ice storm to Indiana. The ice storm had us extremely delayed which caused much conversation and bonding and an almost tragic breakdown due to running out of gas. We then played a show MoMo set up for us which was mostly young kids and college students which ruled. We played with a band that sounded like 'More Beer' era fear. They ruled and I wish I remembered what they were called and that they had music. Interesting fact: drummer was wearing a Champion shirt. We were well fed and taken to stay in a dorm where we met the singer of Menanites whose demo I'll put up later because it's sick. We woke up and were well fed again by MoMo after boot stomping through the College dorm to the cafeteria.

 

We then continued on to Urbana, Illinois where we played in a basement with Laughboy, Lumpy & The Dumpers (who I wrote about earlier), and Chain's Gang. The show was awesome and down the snow covered streets was a wonderful coop which fed us all well.




The next day was a busy two show day. We glued some comps together which are all printed on the back of Razorfade and Poison Planet LP jackets which causes the color variation between the brown and white ones. The preshow for the comp release ruled and included Strangers, Distract, Lumpy & The Dumpers, Bored Straight, and Sucked Dry. The preshow was insane. Tons of Chicago and Indiana punks packed in a basement going completely insane the whole time. The next show was even more crazy, it was held in a sick warehouse and featured Ooze, Skrapyard, Adjustment to Society, Thee Nodes, Tenement, and Culo. Ooze is my new favorite band which I will touch on in a post sometime soon. Skrapyard ruled and I put up their tape, Thee Nodes and Tenement were great, and Culo was insane. i had never seen or heard that band and I was impressed. I knew they were notorious but didn't realize they were so young.



We got up early to go steal weapons and leather gloves and ate the most amazing food ever at a place called Quesadilla. I got vegan pastor and it blew my mind. Next we made the sad trip to Milwaukee where we ended up doing some late night sledding and playing a show in a basement where wrestling ensued afterward. This was where the trip was broken in for all of us so it was really sad to know it was our last show together. The show was great and we all crashed at Eric's from Tenement and Bored Straight who gave us a wonderful tour of Milwaukee the next morning. We burned our day away and had to take a sad plane trip home.

 

But enough about the trip lets hear about the comp. Welcome to 2013 is my favorite musical format... an LP compilation. Half of the bands I enjoy listening to have found their way to my ears through hardcore punk comps so it was an honor to be able to have tracks on such a sick one. The A side kicks it off with Handartzako Hondakinak who kill it. There is a sick eerie intro that then blitzes into raging hardcore. The song falls apart then comes back together to burn out your ear drums. The second track gets real wild and is reminiscent of bands like Terveet Kadet. Also the lyrical explications in the booklet are great. The next two tracks are by Chicago's Culo and they are equally ragers. The vocals on these tracks are so good. 'I Wanna Be A Bigshot' is a great track. The next three tracks are us and rule of course. We recorded all new songs with someone from Colter's work for the comp but didn't like how they came out so we ended up just using two tape tracks and one of the new tracks that was short enough to not show that the recordings sucked (that's why it sounds so different from the other two). Either way I couldn't think of a better way to appear on this comp than the way we did. It's how we do things. Big Crux then really switches it up to some funk influenced stuff that's reminiscent to Big Boys, Minutemen and at times Husker Du. Ooze then comes in to kill it. I remember them playing this song and thinking it was so sick. Haute Couture bursts onto the scene a'la Motorhead and proves to be one of the sickest bands on the disc. The Inservibles tracks are dirty and gross sounding, a Mexican Germs with delay. Their first track has some stop and go in the middle that's really sick and the second track almost reminds me of some street punk stuff. Tenement's track to close off the a side is really appropriate. It's soft and introspective and although I'm usually put off to that it's a welcome breath of fresh air in its place on the comp. I really like the chorus-y vocals on the outro. It's a great song. Flip the disc and you're on to the B side. Aspirina Infantil kick it off with feedback, foreboding drums and screams over an ominous sound clip. On a track called Police and City it seems very appropriate from this hardcore band from Spain. They sound like a cleaner Willful Neglect. Negative Degree from Colorado are next. These guys are really good. The first track is kinda melodic and has a really creative bridge. 'FOF' sounds like a straight up mash up of Negative Approaches 'Whatever I Do' and 'Lead Song'. Brown Sugar is up to plate and of course the track is nuts as always. I love this band. It's short and sweet and reminds me of something you'd hear off a mystic comp from the eighties. There's a melody of burps, inhales, and other mouth sounds at the end of the track. Porkeria then serves us some pounding Hispanic hardcore from Southern Texas. Intense stuff. Then comes NASA Space Universe who White Wards and GAG got to play with in Bakersfield where the bassist jumped into my drum set they were borrowing. Pretty bummed but everything got worked out. The first song is a short fast blast and the second track captures the sound they're known for, similar to Die Kreuzen. Love the bends in that song. Good Throb serves up a really catchy kbd style punk track then drops the ball on the second track. Bored Straight offers up two super short bursts that blend into one another. Don't blink or you'll miss it. Broken Prayer really threw me for a loop. Some crazy synth punk that I think I really like. It's really dynamic and breaks up the record really well. Catchy and sticks in your head. The last two tracks send the comp out screaming with Thee Nodes. These guys had a super wild live performance where they all dressed up crazy and their insert reads 'long live the freaky punks'. These ideals are communicated in the sound of their music. Long story short this comp rules and you need to download it and buy it from Ralph. To generate some more incentive to purchase it I left out all the artwork in the inserts from the bands except for ours and the well written prose to introduce the record. Also has a spread of Ben Trogden's art! Enjoy and pick it up from Not Normal.

  

   

   

 

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