Friday, November 27, 2009

OUT COLD


Another favorite of mine that has been in the current playlist is the debut album of Massachusetts Out Cold. Still considered one of the best kept secrets in American hardcore, this band has been staying true to their hardcore roots for 20 years now. This band truly embodies to me what is considered pissed off hardcore, and even though I like many of the newer bands coming out doing this style, I think Out Cold always have and always will do it best. I love this band! Part of the reason I moved back from California to Indiana was to start a band of this style with dudes in Daisycutter.

This album is prior to Mark Sheehan making the permanent switch from bass to vox, instead featuring Kevin Mertens on the mic. Although I think Mark tears it up with more effectiveness, Mertens does provide an ample amount of piss and vinegar on this outing:


AIDS, Toxic Shock, PMS, and more

Pick this up from ACME records if you don't own it already, and/or go to Out Cold's official site and grab it!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Stimulation Festival



Pain Teens were a noisy, quasi-industrial outfit from Texas that existed from @ 1985-@1995. I was introduced to them in high school by a weird guy I used to work on ambient/experimental type music with. This album is a fuzzed out, sample laden, hazy robotussin trip of eerieness, with some more aggressive, kick drum driven moments like in the the first track "Shallow Hole". It also has a decent Birthday Party cover ("Wild World") which you don't find often.

The Poured Out Blood

Kata Sarka


The new band I am in, Kata Sarka, just had its first few shows. Overall, they went well. We had our first show on friday November 20th in Indianapolis at the 1511 house. The show was well attended; people came out early to see us. However, there was the anticipated technical issues and sloppiness on our part that I was hoping we would have the fortune of bypassing. Also, midway through our last song we blew a circuit, and had to call it on that. The show was still good, and the rest of the bands were awesome. Disconnected was on the bill which features my friend Mahlon on bass. This show was the first time I got to hang out with him in at least 6 years, so that was a high point of the evening. And his band rips it up! Check out his blog here Thank You For Your Mediocrity You can download the Disconnected demo from there. Be sure and get it from him, or when they happen to roll through your town.

Anyway, back to our shows...Despite the lackluster debut we had in our city, the shows we played in Ft. Wayne the next night were significantly better. We played an all ages show at my old house 1624 N. Harrison St. The men in Daisycutter have been doing an amazing and commendable job of keeping the diy hardcore and metal scene strong in the Fort by consistently doing shows at the house after I stopped 3 years ago. I am always excited to get back there and see shows or play there, so this show would have been great regardless of how we performed. Na'Kay, the new band feat. 1/2 of DxCx plus Eric S. brother Andy slayed with their crusty brand of kvlt black metal. Dasiycutter brought the house down as usual, and Karloff impressed me with an energentic performance, and a great vocalist, however I would say they could stand to upgrade their equipment a bit.

After the Harrison House show, we played again to a 21+ crowd at the Brass Rail. I can't stand playing bars by and large, but I have always made an exception to play at the rail. I have never really played a bad show there and the crowds have always been the right amount of energetic and rowdy to keep the shows interesting. I had to miss some of the performance of my old band Graves of the Endless Fall, but from what I heard as I was loading in they played a strong, tight set. It was good to hear the songs I had a part in writing played live again. Our set was the best of the three we played that weekend. It approached what I felt could be our true live potential. I put as much as possible into my playing to point where I felt drained at the end. Finally the Lurking Corpses played. A good time is always had when watching them. They played one of the tighter sets I have seen them perform yet, and threw in a killer cover of Grim Reaper's "See You In Hell", which incidentally I have been spinning pretty frequently lately.

Our next show is at the Dojo with What the Fuck, Worldeater, and Picked Clean. I am hoping by then to have a separate blog up dedicated to the band, and also some form of a demo.