I Want To Throw Punches

As if the Cult Ritual show earlier this month wasn't enough for one week, the July 4th show at the Whitney House just a few days later added the exclamation point with a total punk rock blow-out-- six hours, seven bands, and hardly a dud in the bunch, though I'm not going to speak on Yes Please since I walked in after their set had already ended (or else I've conveniently blocked them from my memory, one or the other).

So by my perspective, New London's atrilliongallonsofgas started things off, and they were seriously heavy-- like "first two Black Sabbath albums" heavy-- and thrashy, too. Fatal Film had mentioned their name to me before I ever saw them, which had me thinking that atrilliongallonsofgas were probably some sort of indie rock band, though they are definitely not. Their songs are shorter than you'd expect for this type of thing and alternate between doom/sludgy parts and fast parts, like Sea of Bones and Iron Hand getting into a fight or something (which in real life would probably be awesome). Their demo cassette has practically the worst sounding dub of any demo I've ever paid for-- the same songs sound much better on their MySpace page-- so maybe it's a good thing that I'm not able to make a rip of it right now (edit: rip is up now, muddafuggas!). Head on over to their MySpace page (atrilliongallons) if you want to check these guys out, and you should definitely try to catch them at a show because their live set is completely punishing.




Sister Kisser were back after their ass-kicking set at Whitney back in May, and even though this time I knew what to expect, I thought they were even better. Their demos (just re-released on cassette by Dead Broke Rekerds) are one thing, but their live set is completely another; the songs are played faster, the two guitars sound even thicker, and everything rocks that much harder. Now, I know that Sister Kisser are totally punk rock (Hot Water Music seems to be the comparison that everyone else reaches for) and I should stop trying to describe them by indie rock/hard rock standards, but when I watch them play it reminds me of two Replacements recordings-- the flat-out version of "Can't Hardly Wait" on "The Shit Hits The Fans" and their hopped-up cover of "Another Girl, Another Planet" on "All For Nothing"-- so if you can picture that in your head and maybe throw some really fast Cheap Trick in there too, that's a start.




This is the one picture I got of Coke Bust; I was able to break through the bodies and get up front just long enough to snap this photo, before the mosh pit closed in on me again and some kid spilled half his beer all over me when he got knocked into from behind. I probably could've gone all Young Republicans/Violent Children on him and slapped the bottle out of his hand, Porcelly-style, but jeez, it'd been practically knocked out of his grip already anyway, plus the sight of two or three open beer cans in a Coke Bust pit is fairly amusing (at least to me it is). Instead, I stepped aside into one of the side hallways of the Whitney House basement for the rest of Coke Bust and Sick Fix, where I could hear everything fine but just couldn't see anything, and gave my camera and shirt a chance to dry out. Oh yeah, I also took a break and went upstairs to the kitchen to clean up, where someone from Al Gore and The Alcoholics (love those guys) started telling me about how much improved they were since the first time I saw them, before he fell over.




Foreign Objects = the harder stuff on "Pink Flag" punked out a bit with female vocals, and it works most of the time. Actually, it's pretty great. I've been listening to the Foreign Objects demo in my car a lot lately, and I gone from thinking that the singer is the worst part of this band to thinking that the singer is the best part, so I guess I need to pay attention a bit more. They've got a 7" out now, too (on the same label that put out the Closet Fairies and Witches With Dicks!), which I bought from them at the show but haven't listened to yet; the two songs I'm posting here from the demo tape aren't my rips, either, but were swiped from the primo I Could Die Tomorrow blog. I couldn't improve upon the files that ICDT posted with my own rips, so I'm leaving them as they are.




I overheard Donn matter-of-factly saying to Lauren before Clusterfuck's set, "We're going to rip this place apart", and that they did. It was Clusterfuck's fourth show in three days-- they'd even played in NYC at ABC No Rio earlier in the day-- and, no shit, this was the best set I've ever seen at Whitney House. I know I might've said that about Sister Kisser back in May, and I'm sure I thought it about Cult Ritual earlier in the week, but Clusterfuck topped them all. The way the place went nuts while Clusterfuck were playing was unreal. Donn had already been planning on conserving his voice by handing off the mic a lot, which he did, especially after they ran out of songs that they knew how to play (I guess it's been a while) and ended up finishing with a cover of 7 Seconds' "Bully" as an encore-- though not before Jeff tried to go all Keith Moon by kicking over his drumset.


Clusterfuck -

"Flagfucker"

"Idle and Immoral"

"God Told Me To Buy Stocks"

"Bully"
(7 Seconds cover)

Foreign Objects -

"Lost Time"

"Fable"

Coke Bust -

"Forced To Live"

Sister Kisser -

"The Money Shot"

atrilliongallonsofgas -

"White Backgrounds"

(all of these files are now listen-only)

I Know It's A Warning And I Choose Not To Heed It

"One dreary day in 2006, as America slowly devoured itself, Clusterfuck recorded an LP. A record so grand in its dismantling of dead end culture and prefab politics that the universe had no choice but to destroy it. These 5 songs are all that remain. A scant 30 copies sold at 1 show in a skate shop basement. Don't look now, but time is already ravaging this little marker. Oxygen molecules are bombarding the minute metal content until all that remains is rust." -- liner notes to Clusterfuck's "Bootleg EP"

This little biscuit is a limited-run CD that Clusterfuck brought with them on their triumphant return back to the Northeast earlier this month, containing the few songs that were salvaged from the original recording of Clusterfuck's 2006 LP (lost forever after a hard drive failure). The second recording session that was eventually pressed up as the classic "How The West Was Won" LP is certainly no slouch in itself, but I like these earlier versions of the songs even better. I was told that only 25 of these "bootleg" CDs were made, and I'm figuring that they're all sold out now, but I've gone ahead and duplicated four of the five tracks just for you, before time and wind and rain turn my copy into tiny little specs of dust, no doubt. The question is, brothers and sisters: How Much Rock Can You Take?





Clusterfuck -

"Son of Sam"

"No No No Brain"

"I'm Fine"

"Disengage"

(these files are now listen-only)

So Maybe I'll Stop Calling The Advocate A Shitrag For The Next Week Or So

Just to show how easily manipulated I am (that's a joke, son), I'm gonna mention how the New Haven Advocate used one of my photos again a few issues back, and this time they even contacted me beforehand and gave me credit for it (you can read the whole thing here, at least while the link is still good). Okay, I know it's not really all that interesting, plus it's not as if I rank with the print media alongside the likes of The Needle Drop-- really, who does?-- but as long as my scanner is the only thing that's still working around here, I might as well get some use out of it. Plus it's about Kevin from Brava Spectre, who, as I've witnessed firsthand, is not a very careful skateboarder.


Here's another one where I'm not sure how it slipped by, either: an item in the Hartford Advocate from a week ago-- directly above a mis-spelled listing for Tony Harrington, who used to sing the national anthem at Wolf Pack games, no less-- for a basement show at The Whitney House (what, no ink for Misathropic Noise?). Kinda weird, I thought, especially since basement shows sorta operate outside the boundaries of the local authorities, if you catch my drift.

Anyway, Brava Spectre has a new full-length recorded, and they were even giving away free sampler CDs of the album at their show last weekend (which I didn't go to). Here's something from their earlier EP-- January '09, maybe? I could be wrong-- which I haven't posted anything from yet, so please click away.





Brava Spectre -

"The Village Daughters"

(this file is now listen-only)

What If I Don't Know

This single gives me a boner, even if it took the lab' a month after they banked my dough to put it in the mail to me (not that I'm bitching too much, plus it isn't even half the bummer that Siltbreeze is putting on me right now). Anyway, pretty much everything I own by these guys is astounding-- some Italian single that's a ripper in its own right, as well as a split LP with Teen Anger on ye mighty Telephone Explosion-- but what's it now, July? This one's got single of the half-year potential written all over it. I mean, this isn't your usual lo-fi donk that you've come to expect; the guitars roar like friggin' diesel trains, instead of plinking like banjos, and the drums could punch holes in your speakers. "Obliteration" has a great power-pop vocal hook, too, almost like The Move or Mersey Beat or something. Check out the song here, and then get on this shit sorta quickly (500 pressed, so they've probably still got one on hold for you).




Charlie and the Moonhearts -

"Obliteration"

(this file is now listen-only)

Just Crush My Face

The Whitney House has been batting a thousand lately, with two ripping shows last week alone, starting with Cult Ritual, Ampere, and Open Star Clusters on Wednesday. I'm not normally down for weeknight shows, but with the three-day 4th of July weekend coming right up afterwards, plus the chance to check out Cult Ritual-- and besides, house shows normally finishing earlier anyway, so why be a baby about it-- I decided to give it a shot. Turned out to be a pretty good idea, too. (Note that I'm still limping along on a laptop until my new computer shows up, which is why parts of this blog are looking crookeder than Don Mossi's baby teeth.)




Open Star Clusters (from Ct.) were first ones up, and they were friggin' cool; theirs is poppier brand of free-form noise, not quite as industrial, with one guy manipulating a bunch of interconnected effects boxes that are all sitting on a table, and two other guys bashing away on guitar and drums (I think there's usually a fourth member, but not this time). I had a chance to see these guys once before, at a Charter Oak show earlier this year-- the one with The Book Slave and Defective Fiction, I think-- but unfortunately I bailed before Open Star Clusters played. I'm definitely hanging around the next time I get a chance to see them, though, because their shit's a riot. I like to keep an eye on the drummer whenever I'm watching a band, and that's one of the keys to watching Open Star Clusters, because whomever's drumming (they switch off sometimes) is usually the one keeping the pattern that makes the most sense, while the other two guys are basically just freaking out.

Open Star Clusters have a split 7" with Dek Boo out on Pregnant (the Weird Diner folks), but since my ability to rip vinyl is sorta crippled right now, the track I'm posting here is from some live stuff that was recorded for a Z Radio podcast, which OSC has collected onto a CD that comes inside a spray-painted silver case with a big black "Z" stenciled onto it, if you're into that super-limited hand-packaged sort of thing.




I'll admit that I still haven't gotten the hang of Ampere's recorded output-- the noisier bits are nice, but the rest is a bit too emo-core for me-- but their frenetic, pointed bursts are way more destructive in a live setting, where you can just let the chaotic riffage crease your brain cells and ignore whatever it is that the singer is doing. This is 17 songs in 15 minutes type stuff, so there's no hanging around and waiting for the next song, either, which I like a lot (curiously, Ampere's set list was just a bunch of numbers).




Cult Ritual were completely face-altering, like diving head-first into a lawnmower. Here's a band that sounds like early '80s American hardcore without coming off as intentionally trying to recreate early '80s American hardcore (unlike all those awful bands that try to recreate '88 straightedge)-- it's just what they sound like. Their new LP is one of those records that, after you listen to it once, it cleans your head out of all other sounds for a week. It amuses me to read people trying to describe this stuff; these are likely the same people who didn't hear "Damaged" until 20 years after it first came out, or still can't figure out if side one or side two is better (STUPID FUCKERS!). Seriously, Cult Ritual are as hard as any band I've ever seen, and they chew right down to the same spot where bands like Void, Black Flag, SS Decontrol, and Blast dug in years ago and never let go. I used to have a 1984 Negative Approach soundboard tape (the one that ends with some dude saying, "Please don't jump off the stage... the management will shut the place down. Hüsker Dü will be on in 15 minutes") which remains absolutely the most brutal thing I have ever heard, and there was a then-unreleased song on it called "Tunnel Vision" that was pure unfiltered white noise with John Brannon's unholy guttural shriek clawing to get out from underneath it all. Cult Ritual aren't exactly like that, but listening to them does make me think about those kinds of things.

By the time they played Whitney, Cult Ritual were already sold out of the tour pressing of their new LP, but they did have the repress of their 2nd EP, which I bought. I'm posting all four tracks here, since they're the same ones that the band is giving away on their own blog site. The new LP is on a completely different level, though, so definitely try to track one down (the second EP is much more Neaderthal-like, which is awesome in itself).

Have some of this shit:


Cult Ritual -

"Haunted Ground"

"Hunger Pains"

"Civilized"

"Leather"

Ampere -

"Remain Unadapted"

Open Star Clusters -

"Pogs" (live)

(these files are now listen-only)