Drunkdriver- Drunkdriver LP

Drunkdriver- Drunkdriver LP

I've been hesitant to share this album because of some strife that occurred regarding this bands breakup.  I do however think it was handled properly, and if you want to know more about it, you are on the internet, so do your own research.

A friend in Chicago told me that this band, Drunkdriver was playing at a loft near my house. I asked him what it sounded like and he just told me, "It's music your girlfriend would hate." Something along the lines of pure anger. From the slower opening chugs in the menacing and properly named first song "The Accident", the the chunky, hate-anthem that is "Quality of my life" this record literally sounds like frustration. With abrasion around every corner and in every valley, it is easy to say this record is not for anybody.  It's at times a two note hardcore band, twisting in circles like a convoluted adolescent. The drums drive this band to a point of pure anarchy and slob, then seconds later bring the songs right back into reality.

All this being said, I rarely meet people who DON'T like this band. They were and still are a breath of fresh air in hardcore, noise and punk. They were groundbreaking and prophetic. I can't even begin to mention the intensity, commitment, and lust of their live show, which people who saw should feel literally lucky to have been graced with seeing. They are palatable, and I'll bet your girlfriend will actually like it. Featuring members of Wives and Pygmy Shrews, this defunct Brooklyn band might have just broken up at the perfect time, albeit under unfortunate circumstances. Download this album, now.

Link after the jump...

Kitchen's Floor- Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress

Again, I'm painted such a bleak disturbed picture of Brisbane. While there are other Australian bands that currently have the swagger and drug vibe down to perfection, Kitchen's Floor hold down the teenage kids drinking in the day and fucking with tourists. Just when you think that this record is all apathy, it breaks with some heartfelt and almost Vaselines influenced parts. The song "Back Home", could easily be on a K Records comp from the mid-nineties.

I love the recordings, lo-fi for the hell of it. Dirty, messy and all over the place. I am reluctant to use the word, but at times this record even has a "jangly feel". This three-piece knows exactly what they are doing, playing good music poorly and making it sound perfect. I think that there is much much more to this record than meets the eye. It's deliberate.

Link after the jump...

Baddat For Trubbel- Baddat for Trubbel

Baddat for Trubbel- Baddat for Trubbel

I definitely have a problem with geographically categorizing my music. I fervently follow fashions from certain regions while completely disregarding whole musical scenes based on location alone. That being said, Sweden makes some of the absolute best punk rock, garage rock, and hardcore. They have for decades now, and the scene is diverse, porous, and constantly evolving. Baddat for Trubbel is so fucking good. Baddat takes a step away from punk and more towards Swedish pub rock. Done correctly, although it sounds impossible. It keeps an edge while remaining remarkably palatable.

Ever since I heard that first Masshysteri LP, I'm stuck on the Swedish vocals. It sounds so natural, so smooth, and unbelievably cool. Baddat is riding the same hype machine that Iceage is, albeit to quite a smaller degree. They have an LP out on Punks Only titled, "Det Här Är Inte New York" (This is not New York). Their eye-catching seven inch, just came out earlier this year and turns the fuzz on in comparison to their rough and tumble full length.


Anyways, I can't find the whole LP, so I have uploaded 11 of the 15 tracks for the LP. It's frustrating, I know... but this record just isn't showing up online. I uploaded the seven inch to make up for it.. Enjoy.

Baddat For Trubbel- Det Har Ar Inte New York (only 2/3 of the album)
Punks Only, 2011 2010
http://www.mediafire.com/?rrmckmjf6m4vcba

Link after the jump...

The Vicious- Alienated

Let me preface this entire post by stating that, in general, I almost always hate punk rock. Let me follow that up by saying that this is, in my opinion, the best punk rock record ever made. I know that a claim like that is loaded, but fuck. My roommate and I were talking recently about The Vicious and our relationship to them based on our growing up in the same dead town. You have to make your fun in those towns. Excitement doesn't come to you, you have to find it. If you can't find it, you have to make it. If you want to play music and you and your friends don't really know what you are doing, you play punk rock. The Vicious sound like Spokane, Washington to me.

The Vicious hail from Umea, Sweden, leftovers of the venerable socialist scene of the late-nineties. They share almost no musical similarities to those bands though. They take the melody of 77 punk and the angst of KBD and work it to perfection. While their lyrics border tacky at times, "The pigs are/ kicking in doors/ breaking bottles/ I wish I knew how to solve all of your problems" goes the chorus of one song, they also seem relevant in a somewhat dated way. This band more than any other reminds me of the angst of adolescence, the hopelessness of being a fuck-up. This album has stood the test of time. Since I first heard it, I would easily say that I have listened to it three times a week (for the past four plus years).

Fast forward to The Know in Portland, 2007. Drinking in the back of a van on the way to Portland, peeing in empty bottles. Stumbling into the jam-packed bar, we pushed right up to the front. I was already feeling jaded on punk rock by a few years at this point. I remember (albeit faintly) that it was hot in the show side, to the point of terror and discomfort. The bassist of the band wore her leather jacket zipped up to the collar, sleeves worn straight. I have never seen someone show such little regard to body temperature in my life, she just didn't give a fuck. They played a half-hour of punk rock with such vigor and attitude that I easily refer to it as a turning point in my musical spectrum. I walked out of the bar with a new found respect for music and a strange, unexplainable hope for punk rock. It's a shame, because at this point, this is the only scene that I still hold that light towards.

Link after the jump...

Slug Guts- Howlin' Gang

Slug Guts- Howlin' Gang


Listening to this album, I can only assume that Brisbane is a pretty bleak place. The kind of city where mobs of hooligans slink down the street crossing to avoid hookers and drug dealers that they have beef with. The kind of town where the sun never really shows up, and you are always finding dirty syringes on your stoop. Slug Guts borrows from some common swampy influences, most notably The Cramps, Birthday Party, and Pussy Galore. This isn't a bad thing though. I never could get into The Cramps like some of my friends were capable of, but this album has all the things I would have liked about them if they could have broken with me. Take, "Chrome Crucifix" for instance. The vocals are laced with cocky yet still apathetic swagger, then the song breaks and there is a riff that could as easily be on the legendary "Only Theater of Pain". This is a "throwback" that I can get behind. I only call it a throwback because the wheel is still a circle.

Link after the jump...

Timmy's Organism- Rise of the Green Gorilla

Timmy's Organism- Rise of the Green Gorilla

Timmy Vulgar of Human Eye (ITR records) gifts us all with a ten-song, just over half hour nugget of demented, crashing, decidedly Detroit jams. Everything I read about this album claims to hear "space punk" in it, but I'll let that one rest.  It sounds like white guy blues, chants of inebriation, and just a smidgen of Beefheart. The ballad that breaks the album, "Move to the Sun Wave," shows the depth of the perennially odd Timmy Vulgar. I read an interview with him once when he was in Human Eye still where he said something about loving the Cleveland Punk scene and what it turned into, but also loving My Bloody Valentine to death. I think that might be a great way to explain Human Eye, but this Timmy's Organism record takes that level of weird and cranks it. The Sacred Bones people did a bang-up job as per the usual on the album art.

Link after the jump...

Terror Visions- World of Shit

Terror Visions- World of Shit LP

The polarizing Jay Reatard took some time between Lost Sounds and his eventually final self-titled project to record this gem of an LP. An understandable middle ground between LS’ darker synth-based jams and the straight up rock and roll of his final projects is where this synth-punk laced record lays. Think Holy Molar and some of the angrier GSL bands. Filled with all the angst you know and expect from Reatard, and a few epic song titles (my favorite being “Blood is Sweet but Semen is Sweeter”). Even if this wasn’t a one-off projects from one of my favorite artists, I would still enjoy it. Good summer vibes.

Link after the jump...

Diamond Head- Lightning to the Nations

Diamond Head- Lightning to the Nations

A pioneer of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Diamond Head was so fucking ahead of their time. While it’s easy to lump them in with other NWOBHM bands, it’s worth noting that they started playing music in 1976, half a decade before most of the other bands reached any sort of prominence. Anyways, enough with that bullshit. This is a heavy metal record. This band has been stated by Metallica to be one of the most influential bands. When fucking Metallica is influenced by you, you have to feel badass. Heavy British vocals over some solid seventies drum beats. Too bad they keep doing reunion shows, because this would be so bad-ass if it only happened once. I guess you can’t win them all. Start with “Am I Evil?” And not only because of the cover that eclipsed the original.

Link after the jump...

Pink Reason- Shit in the Garden

Pink Reason- Shit in the Garden LP

I have been trying to get a lead on this album for a while, but it didn’t really show up on the internet until it showed up in stores. Oh well, this is more of the same in a good way for Kevin Failure. Not reinventing the wheel of Pink Reason in any way, but definitely improving with every release he throws out. At times his tones border on a more psychedelic sound, with less grit, but it works. If you liked his other records, I think you will really like this record. (Warning: maybe I am just stupid, but I can’t figure out how to properly format this album. When you unrip it, you might have to find it in your unknown album folder and enter the artist and album name manually, my bad. It's just as frustrating for me.)

Link after the jump...

Metallica- Ride the Lightning (3/4 speed)

Metallica- Ride the Lightning (¾ speed)

I think that I have made clear at this point the fact that I literally cannot trust people who do not love the first three Metallica albums. I mean this in such a real life sense. These albums are some of the best heavy metal music ever made, period. This is a rip of the already perfect album, “Ride the Lightning”. Vocals aside, because vocals slowed down sound a tad odd, the music on this album might actually better at the slower tempo. This sounds like Metallica, just with more evil and a southern rock feel. Take RTL, and give it drugs. What a great fucking idea.  Play it loud. Also, this file is really big, so beware when downloading it.


Link after the jump...