Taking a Week Off

Hey guys, I'm going to take this week off. I keep getting too busy to post for some reason or another, and don't want to leave you hanging. I'll be back with a vengeance next week!

Bo!Rock→1 - Self-Titled [2006]

The end to a weird week, me off my schedule, the releases not the usual screamo/emo that you've come to expect. Well, let's end it weirdly then. Here's Bo!Rock→1 (pronounced Borokichi) with their self-titled CD, one I got blind from a trade with Satire Records. No date on the CD, but I think I got it around 2006.

I'm not sure the best way to describe this, because it's not really in my sphere of musical knowledge. I guess I would call it garage rock? Descriptions on other sites say its like Iggy Pop or The Stooges. I never listened to either, so I'll just have to agree with those references. It's messy, noisy, loud, and fun. Vocals are screamed, everything played with a purposeful sloppiness.

Surprisingly, they're still together and rocking pretty hard. Here's a video of them from two months ago playing the first track on this album, Masturbation:

Bo!Rock→1 - Self-Titled

1. マスターベーション

2. LOVE STOMP

3. フリフリ99'

4. 百人町GOTTA STOMP

5. プラス・ド・ライヴァー

6. P.S.

7. ブロイラー

8. ロッカン・ド・ロール

9. サグルソウル

10. GETTO JET MILK

11. 東京SEX

12. クロイチョウ

13. DEATH GO!

14. ドーナッツ

15. 33rpm

16. ラリラリブギウギ

[Bandcamp] Atari - 2 songs [2012]

I am just not doing great with my schedule this week. Hopefully none of you guys are checking this blog at 12:01pm and getting disappointed by my laziness. If you are, then I'm sorry (ps. get a life).

Today we're going to listen to Gauge Means Noth... oh... um.... Atari. We're going to listen to Atari. Sorry, got a little confused there. Well, when a band lists Gauge Means Nothing (GMN) as their biggest influence, you know you're getting something interesting. To their credit, Atari really nails it. And they nail it in the right sense.

What makes GMN so special and amazing is the refusal to cater to trends, only playing what they want. Other bands will fade with time as their sound is dated and rehashed, but GMN will always stand out as unique as when they were still playing. There won't ever be another GMN, no matter if a band tries or not.

So, we have Atari here, and they definitely sound like GMN. Essentially, if GMN had created a genre then Atari would be in the same genre for sure. There is some similar parts between the two, but I think Atari reflects the spirit of GMN even more than the sound. This is reflected in some of the parts that are almost more grind or d-beat, definitely not what GMN ever did but still feeling similar. It's that mad mixing of genres and moods that made GMN so special and unique, and I think it makes Atari pretty special and unique themselves.

They've put up two songs on their bandcamp that have nice studio recordings, and the songs are pretty badass. There's another song on their myspace, but the new songs on the bandcamp are the best, in my opinion.

Check them out and hopefully the band will be releasing this stuff physically somewhere! Here's a video of them playing recently:

Atari - 2 songs

Framtid - Under The Ashes + 8 Track EP [2004]

I picked this CD up at a used media store in Nashville called The Great Escape. They carry comics, music, movies, toys, cards, games, whatever, and get their product from local people selling stuff to them. Framtid seems an awfully obscure thing to sell to a place like that, for sure. But, there's an older scene of "crusties" in Nashville that were grouped around early Nashville crust bands like From Ashes Rise and Asschapel. His Hero is Gone being two hours away in Memphis didn't hurt. A lot of these guys got into Japanese punk and crust through 625, Prank, and MCR, so there's occasionally remnants of that stuff floating around Nashville places. I bought my first envy CD's at a local record store, 12th Ave. Records, which has since gone under. That place always had good stuff and stocked a lot of Japanese stuff like Forward, Exclaim, and some HG.Fact stuff. So, yeah, that line of people is probably where this CD came from. Ironically, I never associated too much with those guys, probably because I don't dress punk enough or something.

My other personal touchpoint with Framtid was in the Netherlands in 2007. Cease Upon The Capitol was playing Trashfest, which is a pretty old and well-respected music festival. We played earlier in the day, but I noticed that Framtid was one of the headliners. We had to leave soon after we played, but I saw them in the parking lot, hair spiked a foot high of their heads. A part of me wanted to go talk to them, but I'm super shy about speaking in Japanese, so instead I hopped in the van and we took off.

This CD collects an LP and EP they did around 2002. The music is pretty fast crust punk that is by the numbers. There isn't much of this stuff in Japan (can probably count the crust bands on my digits), but Framtid is pretty solid regardless of their origin. The sound is firmly Swedish, following after early Wolfpack or Skitsystem stuff. It's good, though, but doesn't have the melodies I would hope to see from a Japanese band. It's funny how Ekkaia, a Spanish band, integrates the Japanese style of melodies into crust, but a Japanese crust band tries to stay away from those melodies. I guess that's just how the world works, or something.

Framtid - Under The Ashes + 8 Track EP

1. Intro

2. The Total Arse

3. Over Population

4. Scapes Of Tragedy

5. Tomorrow

6. Consuming Shit And Mind Pollution

7. Centuries Of War

8. Death Protest

9. Curse

10. No Installation

11. Life's Hard

12. We Must Impart

13. Bomb Blast

14. Counter Attack

15. Third World Fear

16. Anguish

17. Crucified

18. Overkill

19. What's Going On

20. Homeless

21. Depression, Oppression

[Bandcamp] Trikorona - Various Embarrassments [2012]

In 2007, Aki from Impulse Records floated the idea of my band, Cease Upon the Capitol, doing a release on his label. A split seemed the best idea, and he offered Tokyo's Trikorona as a split partner. I'd only heard a song or two from their myspace, but I really dug it. That early stuff was reminiscent of Tiala, a blend of grind and emo-violence that I liked to call Tokyo-violence (stupid name, I know). The split went good, and their songs were amazing on the split, but not much communication happened after that.

Fortunately, they're still around and tearing it up. I got their split 7" with No-Yard from CCJ Records, and it totally rips, as expected. And now in 2012, they have some new nuggets for us to absorb, in the form of two songs on their Bandcamp.

Not much to say about these songs, they totally rule and are right there for you to gorge on. Thick, burly guitars riff metal while the drummer channels Spazz and Infest through sticks of dynamite. Just listen.

Here's a full set of Trikorona that will shred your face:

Trikorona - Various Embarrassments

1. 完全に架空_completely imaginary 

2. ある野蛮_A brutal one

Anthropic Disease - Come To The Same New War [2003?]

First, sorry this is late. It's been a bit of a lazy week for me. Ugh....

Now then, I got this CD one night after a show at EMSeven. I was walking home with the 3cm Tour guys, and one of their friends, who was in this band, handed me the CD telling me it was his band. That is about the entirety of my knowledge of this thing. The band was already broken up, or broke up shortly after I met him. I have a feeling that someone from the band went on to play in a more well-known band, but I can't tell from the members list in the CD.

So, what you have here is some brutal crusty thrash. It's pretty dang good, outside of the extremely fuzzy guitars that sound a little ridiculous. The song-writing and playing is tight and harsh, just like it should be. Overall, pretty damn good shit to go to sleep to.

No video, cause there ain't none! Enjoy!

Anthropic Disease - Come To The Same New War

1. U.S. Fuck Off

2. 1:30

3. 差別

4. 毒キノコ

5. 生存

6. 北方領土返還

7. 投下

8. 搾取

9. Domestic Violence

10. Icon Of Busterd

11. DESTROY

12. 誰のセイダ？

13. Youth Of Void

Killie - Split with Off Minor [2008]

Finishing off the week with one of the few Killie releases that was actually "mass produced." There were 2000 of these made, not 100 like the cloth packaged CD I posted on Monday, so it actually got around. You can find this for somewhere around 10 bucks on discogs.com, to name one place.

What's sad, is that with such great packaging, you get so little music. Seriously, only two Killie songs? And they needed their own CD? How about this, Killie. Give me something with, let's say, 10 songs. Anything. A collection of everything, an LP, a 5xCD. I don't care, I just want a bunch of your songs together on something that isn't a personal mix CD. It's like you're passing drugs out in a slow drip, and it's driving people like me into a frenzy. We want more!!!!

Ah, now that I've got that out of my system, these Killie songs are badass. I enjoy Off Minor, but only listened to their CD once. Killie's whats important here, and they certainly deliver (quality, not quantity). Umm.... I tried to get good scans of this, but it was super hard. There is printing on the inside of the cardboard as well, which is cool looking. How about, just go get this release yourself, since it's not being sold for an exorbitant price (yet).

Killie - Split with Off Minor

1. 体脂肪と戦う

2. 脳死が俺の側に