La URSS

La URSS is a current melodic punk band from the Andalusian region of Spain.  The sound is infectious and melancholic, almost dark in a Wipers way, but with tenacious, scrappy vocals.  More modern bands like Neon Piss and Masshysteri aren't a bad reference, as well as first wave Los Angeles bands like the Plugz or the Dils.  This style of music is all about songwriting, and La URSS succeed!  "La Gran Caida" is my favorite song.  Download their records and pay what you want.

La URSS Bandcamp 

 

Generacion Suicida pt. 2

Back. No fanfare. I'm gonna do some bandcamp linkin' and take advantage of others' upload efforts.  I also feel like focusing (a little) more on music that's slightly more happening and relevant, if you will.

One of my favorite current bands is Generacion Suicida from Los Angeles. They take a worn out sound and make it sound new and their own. Really great and catchy punk rock.  They're playing Latino Punk Fest in New York this August, which has an incredible line-up and I suggest you consider going.

All Generacion Suicida's releases are available on their bancamp page for whatever amount you wish to pay for it, including 0 dollars.  No reason not to check it out, but do consider tossing them some dollars.

GENERACION SUICIDA BANDCAMP

Get Me Out Of Here (not really, though)

Dang.

Life's different now, and I haven't had the mental energy to do this thing.  Things are settling (kinda) and I'm gonna start posting again, but probably more sporadically.

Here's a band you probably already know and have, but if so, then you also know that folks that don't have these songs really really need to.  Thusly, here ya go, those folks...

CLICK IT

In A Car

This band is pretty famous compared to most of the stuff I put up, and this is their first 7".  It's 5 minutes long and I like it more than anything else they did.  I'm not saying they didn't put out other good records.  I'm saying I like this one way more.  Have fun.

HERE

Accidente

Here's a band I fell in love with last year.  So much so, that I put out a cassette version of their self-titled first record.  They are called Accidente and are from Madrid, Spain.  The music is melodic, forceful and dynamic and the lyrics are impassioned, urgent and devoid of cliche.  They are also some of the sweetest people on the planet.  Their second record was just released on January 1st and is entitled Amistad Y Rebelion. The pop sensibilities are stronger and the songwriting is slightly more adventurous, yet the feeling remains the same.  It's a triumphant and impressive second record and I can't wait to see what these kids do next.  Bands like this are what punk is about to me...I love nerding out on long lost 80's hardcore records, but those are just artifacts, long dead and fossilized.  Punk is about the now, it is about the people around us and what we can create together.  Punk is about a better life for each other, or at least a life that is more our own. Bands like Accidente keep the flames of the present burning, shining light on the now and showing us that we still have so much work to do, that we are every bit as important as the "legends" that precede us.

You can download both albums for free on Accidente's bandcamp HERE

LPs are available in various distros around the world and if you want a cassette of the self titled album, they are only $4 and can be found at my label/distro's site HERE

Grouch - Fuck The World As Soon As Possible

Hey you, hope you're doing well.  The first post for this new year is...my old pop punk(region rawk?) band.  Too bad for you!  We were called Grouch and we started a band even though we knew that two of us were about to move to the West Coast (I stayed here).  We were all about to explode from anxiety and life and whatnot and when I listen to these songs I feel like all that tension and panic is oozing out of the speakers.  That could easily just be me, though.  We hastily wrote and recorded this cassette tape, and it actually turned out well...but then some mysterious force got hold of the master tape and what we were left with is this warbly, trebley, scratchy and slightly sped up version of the band.  Oh well, it's what it is and somehow oddly appropriate.  I love these songs and I loved playing music with the other two people in the band.  One of them moved to the Bay and was in Neon Piss (Rest In Piss), the other you might know from his old band Shorebirds and he's in the Northwest somewhere, hopefully playing music still.  Enjoy maybe.

FTWASAP

Generacion Suicida

This is one of my favorite new bands.  Generacion Suicida consists of four folks from LA and they play a very stripped down and melodic style of punk.  They kinda remind me of Dead Moon's raw and primitive approach mixed with the slightly more melodic tendencies of bands like X, Masshysteri and Gorilla Angreb.  You will be bobbing your head and swinging your hips to these songs.  Catchy is an understatement.  Support this band and buy their stuff.  This file contains their 5 song demo and a 2 song single.  You can find more fantastic music to stream/purchase at their BANDCAMP.

 HERE

The Grumpies

I FREAKING LOVE THE GRUMPIES.  Hyper fast, toothachingly sweet and rocking as hell.  They play so fast that you almost miss the fact that the guitars are shredding so hard, they could put some buttrock 70's bands to shame.  I can't think of another band that makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.  They were from Alabama, this demo is from 1996 and these folks went on to play in other great bands like the Overnight Lows, Black Rainbow and Neon Piss.  Thanks to Greg for sharing and if anyone wants to upload the LP I'd love them for it.  Long Live Grumpies!

No One Knows Why

Amanaz

Here's an unusual post.  This is Africa, the sole album from Zambia's Amanaz.  It was released in 1975 and is a really interesting combination of western musical styles and African traditions.  You can hear rock, psych, folk, pop, Afrobeat and many other styles scattered about this record, but it is consistently groovy and the heart of the musicians glues all the disparate elements together very nicely.  "Sunday Morning" is one of the chillest jams I've ever heard, perfect for the first song you put on when you wake up to another godforsaken day.  Enjoy this excellent and unique album.

RELAX

Fastbacks - ...And His Orchestra

So great.  Like Joan Jett, The Ramones and Dinosaur Jr. in a blender.

NEED SOME HELP? 

 

Masshysteri - 2nd LP

Heavy hitter, and not quite so rare or lost to time, but it is out of print and all my friends love this band (I do too).  Syrupy sweet and sinfully delicious.  Your norm friends might even dig this album.  Enjoy this fantastic pop record from Sweden.

SATAN'S BARN 

The Mekons - The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen

Oooh!  Curveball for ya'll.  The Mekons are a post punk band from England, but they were doing their post punk while the OG first wave of punk was still alive and kicking (and selling out hard).  This is their first LP from 1979 and it's catchy, danceable and your friends won't hate it as much as the other crap you make them listen to.  I don't know what the hell "Strnen" is, though.

HERE!

Los Canadians & Chickenhead

CLASSIC Miami sounds!  Ivy's vocals are perhaps the most unique in punk and Erick plays guitar like Greg Ginn should play it these days.  Folks from both bands went on to be in countless others, including Black Rainbow, Miami (the band), Allergic To Bullshit, Hello Shitty People, Jack Palance Band, Hidden Spots and it just goes on and on.  If you don't have this, get it now!

LOS CANADIANS

CHICKENHEAD

The Victims (AUS)

This band called The Victims was from Perth, Australia (that's west coast, ya'll) and they recorded not that many songs during the years 1977-79, all of which can be found on this 12".  It's that '77 style rock n roll punk that ya like, kinda reminds me of the Kids or the Dils.  Good stuff.

ALL LOUD

GGGRRREEEGGG SSSAAAGGGEEE

The recent spurt of gloomier, less "punk" music I've posted here is entirely coincidental.  I don't really ever have a plan for what goes on here...I just look through my music and see a record that makes me go "ooh! ooh! that one!" and then it ends up on the page.  But I have to continue this recent dip into murkier, more groovin stuff because I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO share this solo album from Greg Sage.  The Oregonian band that was his claim to fame is maybe my favorite punk band EVER.  If you are not familiar with the band I'm talking about then I recommend getting on that ASAP.  I'd share it here, but I feel like the records are still somewhat in print so I'm wary.   This record, however, is hard to track down and and not cheap once you manage to (repress it please).  It's like Greg Sage's old band doing their songs with a more country rock/americana instrumental setup.  It's not really country, though.  It's just Greg Sage.  Shit's bleak and heavy and menacing and goes down smooooth.

Keep On Keepin On

(I fixed the link! sorry bout that!)

Here's that other band...

DA

Ooohh this is a nice post-punk EP from Chicago's DA.  "Dark Rooms" is the winner by far, a masterfully doomy and gorgeous song, but the more upbeat and off kilter "White Castles" is a keeper as well.

DADADADADADADADADAD

People Pee In Them

Are you freaking kidding me?  Stuck in my head for days and days and daze and dddaaazzzzeeee musick.  THE WORSTBESTELECTRICITY.

ENTER THE BLACK HOLE

The Stalin

Ooooh, this is a good and weird one.  The Stalin were a Japanese band that just played good, basic punk rock with a slightly strange style.  Vocalist and socialist activist Michiro Endo has a lot to do with the strangeness.  This CD is a compilation of their second LP (and major label debut?), Stop Jap and some other songs from some other record or something.  I don't have their earlier stuff but would love to...  Get it!

THE STALIN

DDIILLSS

No excuses, it's been too long.  Here's THE FREAKIN DILS from California.  Straight up '78 catchy good times.  This file is their 3 EPs, two from '78 which are raucous and excellent, and the third from '80, where the songs get poppier and more produced, but "Not Worth It" is a perfect song.   Local folks, Princess Thunderstorm's "Asshole" chorus  sounds pretty much exactly like "Class War" chorus from the second Dils EP.  Tell me I'm wrong.

You're Not Blank

Tent City Rollers

I'm prone to like bands from my hometown, especially when they're really good, like Tent City Rollers were.  Like so many Asheville bands, they put out just one recording, this one.  TCR had folks from Black Rainbow, Kreamy Lectric Santa, Kakistocracy, Flies Around It, Ennui, Endless Bummer, Princess Thunderstorm, Electric Damn and a bunch bunch more.  A flyer for one of their shows described Tent City Rollers as "melodic punk jams in a squeeze tube," and I think that's pretty accurate.  Thanks to Remote Outposts for the tape rip and scan.  I'm getting the hardware to rip my own stuff soon, so I'm not just bumming from others.

GET IT