GAG - America's Greatest Hits CS

Yeeha! So our LP finally came out, but not in time for tour. We had the wonderful privilege of visiting the East Coast again to play America's Hardcore Fest and tour on our new LP. Unfortunately we only got 40 advanced copies to sell so we rushed day of to make 150 cassettes of the record in Joey's living room. Here it is in all its glory, the newest of GAG releases. In my opinion it's my favorite thing we've done to date and I had a shitload of fun recording it. We debated a lot of titles but my heart was with this one and it won the title, I find it to be tongue in cheek to the "American Hardcore" trend happening right now and also just hilarious because of the absurdity of an album by that name. Some other runner's up were "Understanding GAG" and "Passion of the Punk". I'll post the real deal LP with some inside scoop stories soon because the art is amazing and recording was dope. Tour was incredible but we all missed Scott who has moved on from GAG to travel and pursue visual art. We love you bud. Music Video for "Pretty Boy" coming soon.



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Convict - Barred Life Demo CS

Oh yeah, I actually forgot to post this. For the record, we had the name before the southern California Convict and played our first show on the Flex, Violent Reaction tour. Our demo finally came out on Painkiller last year and if you like mean ass, hard hardcore you will love it. We wanted to start a band that just sounded like "War All the Time" Poison Idea and out came this beast which is more akin to Citizens Arrest with guitar solos. Death Metal influenced hardcore if you're into that sort of thing. Since the release of the demo tape we did one short Weekend tour to Oakland and barely kept it together. We are quite a dysfunctional band and our frontman tends to rub people the very wrong way intentionally. Due to this we will probably be doing mostly studio work. Keep an ear out.

 

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True Vision - Demo CS

More great hardcore from my friends in the UK. Got the tape in a care package from Judge and jammed it for close to a week straight. I'm a big fan, it's got that hard late 80s New York sound that's all the rage right now but it's uncompromisingly edge and reminds me of that early Rev catalogue. "Keep It Away" starts with half of a Straight Ahead riff so you know they're biting the hc you wanna hear with their own twist. Great stuff, check it out if not just to hear Tom pummeling the skins.



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Firewalker - Demo CS

The Firewalker demo is getting a lot of attention and deservedly so. This band claims 'Boston' on the cover of their release and fully exemplifies what it means to keep up with the legacy of that area. The music is dark, mean, and surrounded by controversy. It's muddy and cut through by mean guitar and gutteral vocals and punctuated by choppy start and stop drumming. Recipe for Boston. My initial impression was Deathwish (the fucking band you idiots) but for some reason I have yet to find people who agree with me. The only song that loses me a little is "This City", the late 80s hip hop drumming kinda thing doesn't always do it for me in certain contexts but because it's so out of place on this release I think it's gonna grow on me and end up being one of my favorites later haha. The lyrics to the song are very Boston-esque so it still keeps with the theme. "Scorcher" and "Sicker Than You" are my stand out tracks. Once again a breath of fresh air for hardcore punk. Lyrics to songs like "Sicker Than You" are ushering in a long overdue new wave of hardcore punk. You'd think it'd be intuitive but by and large, people are huge idiots.





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Union of Faith - Demo CS

I can't say how excited I was to hear that there was going to be a new "First Step" band. The northwest's own Aram is playing with these guys and adding some melody to these stripped down anthems as he did on the last TFS EP "Disconnecting". I remember having real high expectations for this cassette, finally nabbed one, put it in my stereo and just thought "fuck yes" as soon as it ripped into "Time and Faith". Stephen has an urgency unmatched by a lot of acts I have seen, the delivery is so sincere and concise.  Poignancy of tracks like "No Time To Lose" is really what is gonna hook me but it'll be quite a while before this band can impact me like TFS did. I mean, in 2005 I drove over 24 hours to LA just to catch them and I had already seen them before. Fortunately I'm looking at it through a completely different lense and hoping for a sort of musical evolution so to speak which is definitely being delivered with tracks like "I Want to Know Why". Damn that track goes. Long story short I am real juiced on this release and can't wait to hear more. Current favorite for sure. They were supposed to play Odd Man Out's kickoff in DC for our Mexico tour with Protester but apologized because they had to drop :( My only criticism is that the band is not named Onion of Faith because I love onions and I always say it in my head when I think of this band. Keep an eye out for these guys!









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Line of Sight - Demo CS

Welcome to 2016, and for my first addition to the blog here is some youth crew from the boys in DC done proper. I still haven't had the chance to catch Line of Sight but I got a tape for myself and my friend Griff while I was at edge day from Connor. This shit is good. Not drab or underwhelming like a lot of contemporary yc is and good lyrics. All the right pick slides, cymbal catches and snare rolls in all the right places. The demo starts out strong with its anthemic theme of LINE OF SIGHT and carries that energy through the whole cassette. I can hear some serious nods in content and structure to the best contemporary youth crew act since Floorpunch (The First Step) in their track "Through Our Hands". Check it out, if you're a fan of this stuff you're gonna find it top tier.



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WE'RE BACK! - Updates and an Odd Man Out discography

Wow, this is the longest hiatus I've had from this blog since creating it so I'd like to take this moment to sincerely apologize. Life got busy. I relocated to Seattle and just now got internet. Right in time to move back to Olympia in the coming months because it is the best city in the United States. Even if I had internet these past couple months I would have been way too busy. A million bands have started, a zillion tours have been had, and this goddamn city is popping off. I have a lot of very exciting announcements to make with the coming OHC round three, new GAG, BRICKLAYER and ODD MAN OUT records, and a ton of new stuff to keep you interested in this almost lifeless blog (at this point). I'm here to assure you it's back with a goddamn bang. I have stacks and stacks of discs and tapes that need love and they are all coming to you. Above is a picture of a few of the tapes I'm working through right now... not pictures is all of the tapes and any 7"s or LPs but there are a lot. There are so many great bands going right now and you're going to get them all. I just spent about three hours scanning cassette J-cards and trying to remember my logins so I'm going to sleep. To keep you satiated before I post anything tomorrow (probably after our gig with Battalion of Saints, before if I'm feeling up to it... also what a wild band to play with considering all the suicides and how much I liked them as a kid; will be weird) I have an Odd Man Out discography so far:




Odd Man Out - S/T on Warthogspeak Black
Odd Man Out - S/T on Warthogspeak"Chain" Green
Odd Man Out - S/T on Warthogspeak Test Press of 50 for OHC
Odd Man Out - Demo CS Self Released Black of 30 for Mexico Tour with Protester 2015 alt. insert
Odd Man Out - Demo CS Self Released Blue of 100
Odd Man Out - Demo CS Self Released Test of 1

Soon to come repress on Warthogspeak on Coke Bottle Clear and a whole new disc for our East Coast jaunt. See you guys on the other side... or tomorrow.