This is the first issue I went all book binding on you, more pages, better layout and all that shit. The intro says "This issue is noticeably fatter than previous issues. I have had less time on my hands but somehow have managed to skim hours and days off sleep, and my spiritual and physical loss is your gain because this is a good issue." There is a lotta writing on Sydney's best new punk band MASSTRAUMA, a little on Sydney's best old punk band the THOUGHT CRIMINALS and a interview with Marcus from the REGULATIONS. More from the intro: "Originally, I wanted each issue to focus on one particular band or regional scene: like the DISTORT JAPAN issue, which covered the history of Gauze and the best GISM related stories. This zine will still have a main band feature each issue, but the main focus is cult hardcore punk and hardcore punk cultists, so I'll be doing a lot of smaller features on bands who deserve your attention (but I may not have the time or energy to focus an entire feature article on them)."
THIS ISSUE IS SOLD OUT.
REVIEWS:
GORILLA ANGREB 'Long Island' 7" (Kick N Punch / Armageddon Label) On the single, it's two new tunes from the gorilla attack, and they're both a great deal more sedate than previous efforts, but repeated listenings have won me over and I think they'll do the same for you. If you thought of X when you listened to their other records, you're not going to stop doing so after hearing the great title track, 'Long Island', but, man, if you weren't thinking of X, I'd like to know what you were thinking! Still, the appeal of this band is less the fact they sound like X (which I've evidently been unable to avoid referencing ad nauseum this review, I apologise), and more in the fact they can write catchy second wave punk tunes with all of what makes modern Danish punk so exciting.
PINKEYE 'Worldwide Colombine' 7" / 12" (Slasher) Evidently Damien / Jonah (Fucked Up) didn't have enough of an outlet with their other bands (Career Suicide, Criminally Insane), either musically (this is a weird combination of crossover thrash and NYC mosh) or collector scum-ly (this is the 7" they released a few months ago on 12"). It is frustrating to drop money on a record to find it's a repress of another record barely a year later, but thems the breaks when it comes to buying records in 2006 of bands from Canada. Not wanting to write this off and have a crisis of faith and do a sudden turnaround in a couple weeks to declare this as genius, for now I'd simply suggest it has none of the impact or raw power of the other bands these guys share duties in, and seems more the kinda record to appreciate aesthetically and cognitively. For the moment. There is a school shooter boardgame in the 7" insert, and that is fucking funny.
PISSED JEANS 'Shallow' LP (Parts Unknown) Veterans of shitty third rate thrash / hardcore bands get together and churn out a sordid mess, and that's Pissed Jeans, brooding like the best of the second generation SST and Touch And Go bands (think Flipper, think Scratch Acid). Full of angst and repressed sexual hang-ups, it is good, great, fucking amazing, and on the list with Cold Sweat and Annihilation Time for the best LPs since the millennium bug failed to bring western civilization to it's knees. All hail Pissed Jeans.
US VS THEM #1 "This record makes me want to tear a whole in the world and fuck it." That quote was one of the first things I read in this zine, and gave me a false impression. Because that is legitimately one of the best descriptions of the Siege record that I've read, and Beau doesn't write anything of the caliber for the rest of the issue. Beau is evidently swinging from the nuts of the Knife Fight / Violent Minds records, but didn't take to heart the lesson both these bands taught when they approached recording: all killer, no fucking filler, and it's definitely filler to ruminate on such go-nowhere topics as why hardcore kids should or should not hate organized sports, why hip-hop is attempting to ruin hardcore, etc. If Beau himself had an editor, he'd be told to cut it. His rambling is the equivalent of Knife Fight playing an acoustic outro. If it was done well, it'd be great, but it's just unnecessary and a distraction. This is not a lousy zine, but I think most hardcore zine editors need to approach their writing / editing like the bands that they idolize. I'm only writing this harsh because I agree with Beau: hardcore is no kissing circle.
WINDPIPE 'demo' 7" (Non-Commercial / Stomp Your Gonads) I grew up listening to shit like Confront, and had a second take on life after hearing the h100's, so theoretically this record is kind of a sacred unification of my positive straight edge youth with the bitter headfuck of growing older. Fittingly, it's music from fifteen years ago, but lately I've come to the realization that the 90's were a great decade for hardcore, given most of my favourite bands were dealing with the shitty state of the 90's alterna-rock / Vic records 'hawd-core' and making this kinda hostile noize. The recording is shitty, the songs are almost impenetrable, the artwork is a typical Cleveland mess of strange imagery, the music is great. This record is one more reason to get excited about the Gag Reflex release.