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Nation Of Ulysses - 13 Point Program To Destroy America (Dischord Records)

I'm shocked that NOU aren't seen in the same high regard as other Dischord acts. I mean Minor Threat are the biggest sellers, no doubt closely followed by Fugazi, Rites Of Spring is some really seminal work. Things like Void and Dag Nasty get mentioned too. In recent years Q And Not U made things exciting for them again. But no-one really talks about Ulysses.

Maybe it's because they were the least "tough guy" of all, which is a huge cliche dished out regarding hardcore, but even compared to Rites Of Spring's pioneering emocore, the focus here isn't on brutality, and it benefits from that.
Instead, NOU were interested in a millitant kind of punk rock. One that celebrated sensitivity, youth, rebellion and excitement. They wrote propaganda that was involving and humourous and intellectual and accessable at the same time.
Their ideas were jacked by a bunch of bands, although most of those bands are good too. Notable are Refused, Ikara Colt and Huggy Bear.
So what does it sound like? Well, singer Ian Svenonius has perhaps a more "post-hardcore" slant to his voice, and a little bit of a soul music preacher man thing too, which of course is excellent.
The band play fairly straightforward DC Hardcore, but more melodic than most and often jazz and soul infused. Ian even lays down some trumpet skronk at one point.
The lyrics are what makes stuff like this, and they are all kid-centric slogan fueled missives to sing along to. There's really nothing not to like, if you really believe in punk rock more than just liking it from afar, then buy this record. If you don't know by now, releases on Dischord are pretty easy to find (especially online) and always cheap, due to their strict pricing policy. In England, LP's retail exclusively under ten pounds in shops (unless they're trying to rip you). There's no excuse not to hear some of the best American Hardcore punk, because most of it's on Dischord.

(Update! - you can download a load of NOU's zines, Ulysses Speaks, from this blog right here. )
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Featured Band - IRON LUNG





As promised I'm writing a bit more about Power Violence, keeping with the Hardcore theme of this post, and so I'm going to talk a bit about Iron Lung. I dont know that much about them so I'll just talk about the music. I borrowed their CD "Cold Storage" off a friend the other day, having soaked up a fair dose of Man Is The Bastard I figured I was ready.
To some extent I was wrong. That's probably my favourite thing about these bands, is that they all have very seperate identities depite sharing similar aesthetics.
Whereas MITB go for sociopolitical themes or just straight rage, Iron Lung deal in really macabre imagery as suggested by the name, medical conditions and surgical proceedures are clearly a fascination of theirs. But this isn't some gore-grind blood spattered stuff. It takes the old "human condition" thing to it's logical conclusion. It's pretty dark, but I highly recommend.

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Vile Vile Creatures

We are trying to put on Leeds shows with Real Feal and Vile Vile Creatures in the near future. I urge you to listen to both of these bands while they are still fresh. RF do a kind of spazz grunge noise rock thing with maybe a bit of Mclusky in the mix. VVC play uptight riot grrl jitters which nods to Erase Errata. Both of them rule hard.


Real Feal


Also a quick note to say I've enabled comments even if you dont have a Blogger account or anything. Please dont hesitate to use this function, as I have no followers and I'd like to know what anyone reading thinks and stuff.

That's all for now.

CASUAL T

What have I been listening to? Well let me tell you.



The Mars LP - MARS
(1977-1978)

So Mars were probably the first no wave band. Also the most extreme of the first wave in my opinion. This CD has just been reissued with all of their recordings in chronology. It lasts about 30 minutes, and it will probably be expensive (I dunno about you guys who buy records online, but I paid a crapload for it from an indie shop) but it's so essential to understanding that sound. The band said they were on a "countdown from ten to one" and that's more perfect than anything I could come up with. The first song "3E", is relatively standard. It cruises along like a Velvets song, with manic vocals which will probably remind you of Talking Heads or Devo or someone like that. It's still has a figety bridge section between verses that swerves into the kind of atonality the Fall made their own, and the guitar sound slashes through the whole song, not a ringing, sustaining powerchord but a brash, harsh clanging sound of two people violently attacking guitars with no regard for convention. It's also got the most lyrics of any of their songs by far.

With that out of the way, the B-side to that, "11,000 Volts" was the start of the real abstraction process. This one's fronted by China Burg, who sings in a kind of sexy slur, stretching the words like she's od'ing or just come out of a coma or something. It's hypnotic. This contrasts with Sumner Crane's style, who strangles and chokes on the words. He actually becomes slightly scary by the end of the record. He's dead now and that's a shame, because he was clearly an awesome front man to the few who witnessed Mars' 30 or so shows.

From here, description becomes much more difficult. Guitars never play what you might call a riff. Instead, China abuses the strings with a metal slide without fail, Sumner does his best to render his guitar unintelligable.
Unintelligible is the perfect word for what Mars were trying to acheive. It even shows up in the lyric book at one point. The instruments try to sound unlike themselves. The resulting sound can't be unscrambled easily. It's hard to tell a bass from a drum from a guitar from a voice.
Next up is the 4 tracks they did with Brian Eno for the famous NO NEW YORK LP.
2 tracks fronted by each singer, although this collection sees more overlap between the two. "Helen Forsdale" is an attempt to recreate insect sounds on slide guitar, over one of Mark Cunningham's straighter bass lines. "Hair Waves" is about a japanese woman listening to the radio. They finish up with "Puerto Rican Ghost", which might be their best song. China's anxious shouting interjected with male voices babbling word play and jumbled letters. It brews to boiling point and then stops dead. It actually sounds like they are having fun playing it though.



What follows used to be called the Mars EP, and was not only the final recording, but the last ever time they played as Mars. (although the members did play together in other projects afterwards)
Recorded in binaural - ie two microphones placed 7 inches apart and at head height to replicate human hearing - and live to tape in an old theatre, these songs are where they obliterate rock once and for all. They arent catchy in any way, often pretty terrifying. "Scorn" is probably the best example of this, where Sumner can be heard rambling inaudible words transcribed from a homeless man, before growling the song's title a few times.
Most of these songs completely forego lyrics for 'abstract vocalizations'. They are teasing music out into a tangle, smudging and blurring and stretching it way out of toe-tapping head-nodding safety. On the final track, they kill it. "The Immediate Stages Of The Erotic" is the furthest they could go. Noise is created with what sounds like the end of a guitar lead being pulled from the jack. Sumner goes mental as usual. Mark Cunningham cuts in with "ancient egyptian consonants" (seriously). Eventually they bring it to a teeming maelstrom and then call it quits for ever.

The whole thing's mind blowing for a few reasons. First, this was 77-78. Nothing like this had come before, it was before noise music as we know it today, before extreme metal, hardcore punk, all of that. They were contemporary to the Ramones, for example. Played the same clubs as them. But were lightyears ahead.
Also, this is devastatingly human music. It's abrasive and agressive, but not in the "I'm a massive demon" way that metal goes for, or even a "fuck you, I'm my own person" punk rock stance. It's unpretentious because it has the same effect no matter what you already know about music. No pretense, it WILL freak you out a bit.

No Wave was about saying "No", just to different things for different bands. Mars said no to all conventions. When people say things like "I wanna be in a band but I can't play well enough yet" I cant help think it's lame because of these bands, how they didnt care anyway, they just did it. Ideas are the currency, not the precision and familiarity of the execution.


(Last minute addition - If you buy this reoord, buy the BLUE one. There is a brown one which contains the same music at a lesser quality. They got the guy out of Foetus to fiddle with it and all sorts. Get this one instead, as it was intended to be heard.)
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Also I quickly want to talk about Power Violence. I'll write more about it in the future but it seems all the good hardcore bands are playing it these days. Power Violence is like grindcore but more punk influenced and less metal, basically. Some names to check off the top of my head include Infest, Man Is The Bastard, Crossed Out, Iron Lung and Capitalist Casualties.
Nowadays, Leeds is holding strong with this sound, we have Warboys (more on them soon), Afternoon Gentlemen (who are a bit more grind/doom influenced), Mob Rules (getting a lot of coverage lately) and to a lesser extent War All The Time, to name just some.



But I'm most excited about the discovery of Keep Screaming Records
http://www.keepscreamingrecords.co.uk/

who put out all sorts of goodness in this vein and even take cash through the mail! That's so rare these days.

I'm ordering the new Spoonful Of Vicodin 7", who are from Rochester, USA. They play short blasts of awesome, they have a girl guitarist (we need more of these in punk rock) and a screaming drummer. They also won my heart with the best song title I've heard this year - "I Dont Lift Weights Or Drive An SUV (Because I'm Comfy With My Genitalia)"




Ok I'm done.

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SOME A DEM A ASK ME WHERE ME GET IT FROM

This is the newwws.

New blog to check out if you like weird music, written by loads of cool guys like Chloe, Alex and Myles out of AIDS Wolf, Mark Mclean, George Chen of XBXRX etc...
Have a deek at this

Thee Outernet

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Lux Interior of the Cramps has died. They were one of those bands that was actually really original and pioneering but really misunderstood. I mean, they were really dark and a bit scary, they took rock conventions and twisted them into a whole new universe. They pre-empted the No Wave aesthetic and were an influence on it, but they were always outside of every scene. RIP, Lux.

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Finally, scope out this band, Breadcat. The plan is for Etai to do a split tape with them when we get recorded properly. They scratch out frantic Candian Now Wave like the good bits of Be Your Own Pet dosed up on Skingraft Records, ie, amazing.

Commotion In The Ocean Collective myspace

You can hear them there, and download an EP for free if you do some clicking.

And that's word.
xxx