GRAVENITES / CIPOLLINA BAND

 

I picked this up on a whim because......well just look at the shit. You're curious, right? I made the right choice. Hard swinging Bay Area blues rock from ex-HOLDING COMPANY dudes and if you know where I'm coming from here then you're going to be well pleased. Recorded live in 1985, fifteen years after Janis Joplin died - fifteen years that seemed like a lifetime when I was less old. But damn, these dudes had played on legendary records that I read about in Rolling Stone and were already back to shredding the Chi Chi Club in SF in those fifteen years and it probably seemed like just a blip on their radar. The closer "Party" is the jam here, but every song is a literal party. For everyone? Nah. For me? Definitely. And that is the point. 

THUNDER & LIGHTNING

HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE

 

Gloriously dark instrumental broodsCome for the cat on the cover, stay for the gloriously dark driving instrumental broods. Monotony and repetition with indie hooks - like SPECTRUM reinterpreting INTERPOL and a touch of RAKTA energy. There are only four songs here...but it will make a lasting impression. 

SLEEP JOURNALS

MARTYRDÖD

 

It was a Pointless Fest, and honestly it might have been my first one. Maybe. Ken had mentioned MARTYRDÖD; he said they were like Swedish DBeat with tinges of black metal - this was when a "tinge of black metal" was a thing rarely mentioned in conversations about punk and hardcore bands.  I bought their first record at that Pointless Fest and I was fukkn floored when I got home and dropped the needle. It was pieces of things that I knew but it was something completely different. Soon there was In Extremis on Havoc and then after Ken helped with Sekt and NO STATIK toured the west coast with them in 2011 they started working with Southern Lord and it seemed like they were being presented to a world who didn't quite understand them. Maybe the world understands them now....but I cannot imagine that world appreciates MARTYRDÖD. This is all of the things that should be in all subgenres - listen to "Tentakler" and tell me different. Elddop was released in 2014 - there are (at least) two more after this one, and they are also perfect. Thursday is MARTYRDÖD appreciation day. 

ELDDOP

The fact that this tape is kinda fukkd makes Elddop spound even more sinister. 

LIMITED OPTIONS

 

A few weeks ago I was eating a burrito in the Mission and this nice dude casually slid a few tapes across the tabla as we chatted between scoops of salsa verde. He had a little tale to tell about each of them, but honestly I don't remember what he said about LIMITED OPTIONS. And once I jammed this think I didn't need to hear what anyone else said about the band because I was obsessing on what I was feeling while listening to themfor the first time. Fortunately, subsequent listens only increased my connection to the sounds so much that I don't even think about burritos when I listen.....and I think about burritos a lot. This is perfectly executed Y2K fast/thrash/hardcore that sounds not at all like a rehash of anything. The 1-2 punch of "Still Fighting" into "Tired" is one of the most powerful things I've blasted in 2026, this tape is a master clinic.

LIMITED OPTIONS

BIG

 

A while back, someone casually mentioned that they thought BIG were the hottest new hardcore band in the Bay Area. I noted this observation, and remembered the drummer for my old band telling me about his new band called....BIG. Eric beat the shit out of the buskets in STERILE MIND and he was constantly involved in the construction and evolution of our songs. I imagined that translating that energy and focus to guitar would probably lead to something I needed, but it was months (years?) before I saw BIG in the flesh when REALISTIC played with them in a San Francisco batting cage (it's a thing) earlier this year. I was right - that casual mentioner was right. BIG are advanced hardcore. Maximum intensity delivering every micro-hook you never knew you needed. Metallic breakdowns, pop punk sensibilities and occasional indie vibes (I swear a BLOC PARTY in "Fear & Hunger") driving hi-NRG squirm punk and it all sounds like the hardcore that you didn't know you were missing until you realize you (finally) have it. Anyway.....shit is good. 

DANCE MUSIC

CELENG THE ABSTRACT

 

Total fucking noisecore nonsense. Ten songs, four minutes. You might not know that you need this, and you might not need this at all. But you won't know that you don't need this until you have it. And actually, you need this.

DEMO 2025

EATING

 

As stated countless times: the compulsion is the draw, the results are the prize. 75 minutes of improvisational and/or experimental noise and/or sounds from Ange and Max. This is truly Music For People, and intentional listening is recommended. The compulsion and the drive is the thing, the sounds are the result....endless respect. 

NONSITE / SITE