COLERA - R.I.P. Redson

There was always a plan to post about COLERA here. I didn't really want the reason for showing some COLERA love on here to be because of somebody's death.

Edson "Redson" Pozzi formed COLERA in Sao Paulo, 1979 making them one of the first hardcore punk bands to come from Brazil. Through their lifespan COLERA released numerous albums, a few EPs, a split LP with RATOS DE PORAO and appeared on tons of compilations. They did three tours of Europe and remained active from 1979 all the way through to the present day. Thus making them one of the longest running hardcore punk bands from Brazil.

Unfortunately this may have all come to an end . Lead vocalist, guitarist and founding member Redson died today from a heart attack at age 49. A blow to the punk world for sure.




In honor we're all gonna blast some fucking COLERA for Redson, fuckers! Below I have uploaded their split 12" with RATOS DE PORAO and their live European Tour album.
Rest in punk Redson.

RATOS SPLIT
LIVE IN EUROPE

CHEAP TRAGEDIES live from Cleveland

Now that I have upgraded computers, converters and camcorders I am back to getting videos on line. Plus Youtube allows files up to 20gigs now. No more chopping live sets into a billion different videos to keep the quality. I will be doing sets as a whole and may even take down all the old posts and upload them again as one piece. So here is the first of 130 some odd sets I will start tackling.

STRETCHHEADS - Five Fingers, Four Thingers, A Thumb, A Facelift And A New Identity LP

The most bizarre punk noise band to ever come out of Scotland and probably best punk band from Scotland ever. I am pretty sure these guys were a bunch of spazzes suffering the most severe case of ADHD. I don't think Ritalin was part of their diet either.

The lyrical subject matter covers topics you are likely to hear from the mouth of your favorite schizo crackhead bum. The vocals have best been described as "reminiscent of nothing so much as Sesame Street's Grover with electrodes affixed to his genitals". There is a definite KILLDOZER influence and super choppy guitar riffs with Rimbaudesque drumming bring CRASS to mind as well. STRETCHEDS has managed to take both those influences and play them heavier and faster. I'll be damned if you can tell what the guitar is playing, if anything at all, through 90% of this disjointed noise bomb. The bass, although heavily fuzzed out, is enough to keep your bearings on the riffs. There are even some studio effects and trickery tossed in. Something that sounds like a phone ringing, bursts of electronic hum and some free jazz saxophone.

STRETCHHEADS have a solid spot as one of the quintessential twisted avant-garde punk bands. If you disagree I think you're dumb. Now go blast this and have a seizure.

1,000 copies released in 1988 by Moshka Records

IF IT'S NOT SCOTTISH IT'S CRAP!

RUPTURE - Split 7" Picture Disc

This is RUPTURE......the disc in question is a split with another band, but they suck so why bother to mention their name. This is RUPTURES best record.....it's not "in my opinion" rather than it's a fuckin' fact. RUPTURE has loads of records that are all worthy of your goddamn time. You may have read or heard some negative shit about these fuckers....it's all true. Who really wants to listen to shit approved by politically correct scene police fanzines anyway? What'll that get you, two steps closer to emo faggery?

These 7 inches and 4 some-odd minutes of scorch are the only things that made me crack a sideways smile on this turd heap of a fucking shitty day........Get fucked

PS: This record was released by so and so on blah blah.....

Have a shitty day, fuckhead....

METAL DUNGEON - Blut Summen cassette

This could be and should be the score for every slasher gore genre film from the 70's and 80's that wasn't going to make it out of the grindhouse. METAL DUNGEON's minimalist industrial is the most dark, evil, stark sounding shit I have ever heard. Not only is this noise creepy as fuck it is punishing and harsh. Maybe they watched Rose Mary's Baby drowned out by white noise trippin on shrooms one too many times.

Largely inspired by Maurizio Bianchi METAL DUNGEON have made themselves indentured servants to his sound. MD is unrelenting in their paying of homage to Bianchi with continuous output that always bares his influence. I am even guessing that Blut Summen, loosely translated to Blood Hum, is also a nod to to MB's Blut Und Nebel (Blood And Fog) remix series.

That being said, the first thing that always comes to my mind when I listen to METAL DUNGEON is Riz Ortolani. Well the songs Adulteress' Punishment and Massacre Of The Troupe Ortolani composed for the infamous film CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Only METAL DUNGEON removes the orchestral parts from Ortolani and cranks the drone to unsurpassed brutality with electronic hell screams layered over top. Seriously there are sounds coming out of this cassette that are like cows writhing in knocker boxes at the slaughterhouse as they suffocate on their own blood!

All total you get 27 minutes of demented and evil sounding shit released by the defunct Nurse Etiquette cassette label. I can't recall when this was released exactly... 2007? There is also a mystery number run of Blut Summen. Somewhere in the land of 40 to 70 copies.

HORROR AND MAGNETIC TAPE

Crash Worship - What So Ever Thy Hand Findeth, Do It With All Thine Might 12"

Look, I'm no hippie sympathizer......I'm not talking about the yer average cheeb smoker with long hair and a beard. Nope, I speak of the tie-dye wearin', liberal cause havin',outdoor festival attendin', hackysackin', patchouli stinkin', drum circle jammin', freak variety......Just thinking of these peace loving "free spirits" makes me wanna shoot up goddamn Coachella or fucking Bonnaroo fests. Fucking Hippies........

"Jesus Surly, where ya going with this" you ask? Well this record I'm posting has a little to do with the rant above. You see, this slab of wax has its roots in some kinda that hippie culture bullshit. But, after one too many bad trips and the realization that the peacenik act was pretty vapid and could only score you so much free love with the little flower chicks, something went wrong.......horribly wrong. What started out as "free and loving" turned into a dark sound track for the Bacchanalian orgies that occur right after the High Priests chant and satanic rituals have been performed.

"Initially starting as a studio project, Crash Worship soon learned the power of a live audience. During performances, the band's members (or often provocateurs) would manipulate the crowd, involving them more deeply into the show, ultimately eliminating any boundaries between spectator and performer. The musicians would also mobilize their instruments on and off the stage into the middle of the audience (or outside), lighting explosives and hosing down the crowd with various liquids, including piss and blood and creating an atmosphere of celebratory abandon and mirth. Epileptic strobing lights, nudity, mysterious liquids, sex and smoke filled rooms (at next to zero visibility) were all a part of the average show.The chaos of these events often invited unwanted attention from cops who would later forcibly shut down most if not all of their show". Yeah, thanks interweb......

Got to see em' live twice and by fucking god, they lived up to the above hype. Loud, pounding and DANGEROUS might be a few words to describe what I witnessed on those occasions. Mind you, I may be a bit biased, as I was cruising the atmosphere on a fistful of mushrooms each time. Never have I been to a show that scared me more than just a little (King Diamond not withstanding) These events in question involved thick, almost choking smoke from various combustibles including shellacked wood, plastic baby dolls, clothing and various furniture. At its pinnacle, it was like swimming in vaseline. Where there's smoke there's fire they say and these shows had it in spades. Fire in corners, fire on the ends of swinging staffs the "band" wielded, in multiple containers, people lighting stuff, including fireworks, it was just everywhere. At one point, when the fire fog dissipated, I was hypnotized by watching this ugly hippie goddess with the most amazing Waylon Jennings (tits) dancing. As I gawked, for what seemed like an eternity, my trance came to an abrupt halt by a 2 ft. fireball sailing about an inch past my face. It seems some overzealous reveler decided it was a good idea to kick small metal garbage can filled with fire. Fuck, in my heightened state of conscience, I couldn't help spending the rest of that show imagining I might be on fire and looking and patting myself down. Add to all that, ear-splitting volumes and band members, running around with partial (and very portable) drum sets inciting the willing audience into a sheer mouth foaming frenzy. Look, I've been to a shitload of shows in Cleveland, but the Crash Worship shows I saw made that place and its antics look like a fucking catechism class in Sunday school.

So ummmm....This record is a far cry from the live shows I saw. Not because it doesn't accurately showcase the bands vibe (or sound), but because the vibe WAS its live show and can't be duplicated by listening to mp3s on your stupid Ipod. You want the full (i.e. closest) experience to Crash Worships live show? Take these mp3s and burn them on a cd. Then, borrow your little sister's boombox that she inherited from your Dad and take it into the bathroom. It may help if you huff some spray paint or glue at this point. Turn all the lights off and light two gasoline soaked bath towels on fire. Flame up a pile of your old G.I. Joes and let em' get good and smoky. Push play on the boombox and turn that fucker all the way up. With one hand, swing both flaming towels above your head and with the other hand flick the light switch on and off. Repeat, repeat, repeat......... This will probably give you a ball park idea of what this bands VIBE was......

REGIE SATANAS!

ANANDA - Habeas Corpus 12"

There was a time before loads of suburban mallrat sceney-boppers all sporting girl jeans, eyeliner and pixie cuts existed. You know who I am talking about. These 17 year old know it all shitheads you just want face smash every time you see one. This new generation of "emo" and "screamo" kids. The ones that somehow distorted the genres of emo and screamo and dragged it through the mud without ever hearing an emo or scremo band into their entire lives! Thanks dicks.

How did emo go from RITES OF SPRING, EMBRACE and RAIN to platinum albums and garbage like TAKING BACK SUNDAY and PARAMORE? Things are so bad that some don't even know it as music. Many only know "emo" as fashion. The same thing has happened to screamo with current puke like HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, THE USED and STORY OF THE YEAR. This annoys the shit out of me if you haven't noticed. It's not just the shitty music. It's mislabeled shitty music. I'd be as quick to want to beat some ass if the masses believed zydeco music to be baroque. (Not that Zydeco or Baroque are shitty.)

Lets go back to the land that time is forgetting and stop the bitching. Remember when screamo was indeed screamo? Myriads of bands like MOHINDER, ONE EYED GOD PROPHECY, SAETIA, REVERSAL OF MAN, ORCHID etc. This is right where the lesser known ANANDA sits. While ANANDA did achieve some recognition in the punk and hardcore scene (and metal later on in their career) a lot of people have still never heard of them. So this post is to shed a little light on their existence.

ANANDA formed in 1994 just outside of Paris France. In their infancy ANANDA was a screamo band with great female vocals. After two releases under their belt, 1995's La Masque and Habeas Corpus they switched vocalists in 1998. This would mark a drastic change in their sound from screamo to heavy gloomy hardcore sludge. ANANDA played out all over France and managed to tour Europe. Their aforementioned obscurity may be attributed that, to the best of my knowledge, they never toured outside of Europe. Sometime in the early 2000's they disbanded or have been extremely inactive.

Habeas Corpus is still a stellar screamo 12" despite the lackluster production. The record is quite scratchy with lots of high end. I do believe several years later a remastered Habeas Corpus was released on CD. I would love to hear this if it is out there. By all accounts I can find Habeas Corpus was recorded in 1995 but not released until 1997 by Unfortunate For The Fortunate Records.

EMO FAG

CHEVEU - Belly Blade Visions Demo

Is it drugs? Is it because they're French? Who knows or cares. CHEVEU is all over the map on this demo just as they are with every release they have. CHEVEU pushes and bends the confines of minimalist lo-fi genius. Casio drum beats and quirky guitar riffs are the main force driving in their vast repertoire of styles. With their fingers dipped in waters of post punk, industrial, garage, punk and even forays that beat on the door of hip-hop.

To sum it up CHEVEU is fucking weird and out there. Despite that fact this trio is far more than approachable. This is an odyssey of sound that is easy to get sucked into and walk away from while still shadowing your memory forever. Especially when some of this is so damn catchy with juxtaposing respites of noise. There is nothing tedious about this.

I had to upload this with CHEVEU rolling through town next week on the 20'th @ El Club. Hopefully this will inspire some of you to get out to the show.

Sadly this demo came with no track listing. I didn't bother to try and tag them either because only a few of these songs have been officially released. So I have no clue what the name of 98% of the songs are.

Self released cd-r, 2006

Parisian weirdness.

TIME HAS COME - s/t 7"

The straight edge jocks in the sing along cover image and the band name itself scream predictable youth crew snooze fest. The throwback posi youth crew and modern era hardcore sound (that didn't really exist yet) usually don't work for me. Despite the foreshadowing album cover I knew somebody from FACE VALUE was in TIME HAS COME so I went out on a limb.

That whopping $1.99 gamble I took ended up being worth it. TIME HAS COME ended up a pleasant surprise. This record lands them in no mans land of their contemporary hardcore bands. TIME HAS COME has the aggression and speed of DOWN IN FLAMES, LIFE'S HALT and 97a meeting the burgeoning new era hardcore akin to BETRAYED, THE FIRST STEP and CHAMPION. The song writing is not entirely predictable nor the lyrics full on cheesy nonsense. They lean more toward the side of modern hardcore sound but overall there is just enough mixing it up to make this a great ep. It is no surprise a record of this nature would appear in the middle of a trend shift in hardcore. The anomaly here is that TIME HAS COME totally nailed it somehow.

Despite this nice debut release TIME HAS COME never received much attention. Getting lost in the fray means great things for you record scroungers. Keep those eyes forever peeled in the dollar bins. TIME HAS COME did another ep and couple of CDs after this. It's been a while since I listened to those but I can't recall them being of the caliber of the s/t.

Released in 1999 in CI Records. 500 copies pressed.

X UP

TV GHOST - s/t (white label) 12"

This isn't the first, and probably not the last, time TV GHOST will be summed up as an amalgamation of the media overload age. If this isn't the case then these Indiana psychos fill up 3x5 cards with band names, genres and adjectives and hang them on the walls of a room. Then they put an autistic kid in the room with 50 darts in his hand and then they run like hell. After spacing out on the tv for an hour, re-enter the room to see where the darts have fallen and get to work writing.

Either way TV GHOST has been making great records since 2007 proving they weren't just an adolescent one off acid trip gone beautifully wrong. Bizarre mic eating lyrics, spastic seizure skronk, post punk jangle, no wave, surf, noise, psychedelia all creep out at you from some dark place of hell. TV GHOST is the party jam for Swamp Thing, The Mummy, Frankenstein's monster and their other ghoulish buddies.

Die Stasi records released this 12" in 2008 and they seemed to have disappeared in as short amount of time as TV GHOST had burst on the scene. This could be a attributed to a low pressing run or TV GHOST had sequestered enough fanfare right off the gate to sell out records in few months. Die Stasi did a repress sometime around 2010 I believe.

http://www.mediafire.com/?7p4561nmqf25y75

Hammerhead - Load King 7"

Hammerhead were one of the few shiny spots in an otherwise turd of a musical decade, known as the '90s. Originally from Fargo, N. Dakota, they relocated to Minneapolis to follow their dreams as noise rock superstars (or to be closer to the ghosts of Husker Du, Princes' Paisley Park studios and the once a year drunken, Halo of Flies practices...). They eventually hooked up with Tom Hazelmeyers Amphetamine Reptile and released almost all of their recorded output through him and the label.

Paul Sanders (aka Stingray/Interloper, if you prefer), the guitar player, left in 1995. He was replaced and the group dissolved a year later. Jeff Mooridian (aka Sauce/Isolation dh-9) and Paul Erickson (aka Apollo Liftoff) quickly formed VAZ and continue to this day. Recently, they've reformed to play some shows and released a 7"/digital download, that's pretty true to their original sound.

This particular record is my favorite from their vast, and consistently fucking great,discography. It was some sort of limited tour deal (not sure how many?) and was sold only at their shows. The cover is a two colored, silkscreened affair that's 3/4 sleeve, like the old Dangerhouse records releases and it's pressed on gray,marbled vinyl. Both of these songs are rawer, earlier versions that were later re-recorded and came out on different releases,ethereal killer lp and evil twin ep, respectively.

Get you some......