Spectres - Last Days Lp (Whisper in Darkness records)

Not having heard anything from British Columbia's Spectres after their two decent 7" EP's on Whisper in Darkness records from a few years ago, I wasn't sure whether this band was still active. With this new release (their first full-length Lp) I'm glad to find that they are indeed still around.

Those first two 7"-es presented Spectres as a band heavily drawing on post-punk/new wave as their main musical influence (especially the much heard and obvious comparissons to Ian Curtis' vocals). Stylistically and lyric-wise, Spectres is more in peace-punk territory. Together with several other bands from Canada and the Western part of the United States (most notably The Estranged, Surrender, Signal Lost, Complications, and recently also Arctic Flowers) Spectres seem to be part of somewhat of a peace-punk revival going on in recent years (though on a very small scale I might add). Fans of the aformentioned bands should definitely check this out as well.

On this new Lp, the two aforementioned influences are again overtly present. As on their EP's, the obvious comparison here is Joy Division, but also The Mob and Crisis serve as pretty good indications of what Spectres sound like. On their myspace page they also list as their influences (amongst others) The Sound, The Cure and Killing Joke: influences which I also definitely hear in their bleak and melodic brand of punk. In fact, I would say Spectres follow the blueprint of the aforementioned genres pretty much to a tee. Does that make 'Last Days' a bad record? Surprisingly: not at all. Though somewhat formulaic, the songs on 'Last Days' do manage to keep my attention throughout the record, and after quite some listens over the past two weeks, they're starting to comfortably nestle themselves in the back of my mind.

Of the 8 songs on this Lp, stand out tracks to me are the anti-war tune 'Our Time' which features dual screamed and sung vocals that add some extra agression to the song. ("we've seen it twice before / soldiers on the front lines won't come home') Also, the last two songs on the record 'Standing East' and 'Nazca' are personal favourites here.

You can download the entire record from the collective blog run by Taken by Surprise records and Sabotage records, of which the latter will be releasing the Lp in Europe, together with New Dark Age records. For those of you who are interested, you can also find the entire new The Estranged Lp on there, which will be released later this year.

Note: the picture of the cover of the record used here, is a picture of the European pressing of the record. My copy on Whisper in Darkness is largely the same, except for the fact that the bandname and title of the record are both set in a different type than on the European version shown here.

Talks is Poison - Rage to Infinity 7" (DIY)

People, pay attention! After more than 10 years, here it is: a new 7" by what is probably one of my favourite bands of all times: Talk is Poison.

To me, T.I.P. managed to create some of the best hardcore songs of the late 90ies/early 2000s. They did so by setting up camp in that space between crust and hardcore: the space carved out by bands like Crucifix, Citizens Arrest and Econochrist, and they updated the sound slightly without losing any of their punkness. Their two 7"-es and split EP with (the equally great I must say) Deathreat are absolute classics in my book. I can still listen to 'Control' or 'They Call it Law' and just want to smash everything to pieces. All three records were originaly released on Prank records, and a year or two ago they nicely re-released them as a 12" under the title: 'Condensed Humanity: The Prank EP's' 12". This should be easy to find, and even the originals shouldn't be too hard to track down.

The band has been back together for a little while now, and recently played the Chaos in Texas fest, as well as some show in the Bay Area. Included below are some recent videos of the band playing live. The first one is them playing a place called Knockout this past May and the other three are C.I.T. fest videos. I would have loved to see them live, but financially and time-wise there really wasn't any way for me to make it to Austin to see them play. Hopefully someday T.I.P. will make it over to Europe.

Now, the reformed T.I.P. brings us their first recorded output in the form of this 5 song 7" which was recorded in a single day sometime in March 2010. Fittingly, the first lines of the record are: "It still feels the same after all these years." And by listening to these songs, it does indeed feel like the band hasn't been away. A worthy addition to the T.I.P. catalogue in my opinion, and a record I for sure will be playing a whole lot the coming months.

You can order the 7" through the Bad Skulls webstore, run by the band's bassplayer Brian.

On the 'Do not resuscitate' blog I also came across a download version of it for those of you who can't control their curiosity. Needless to say: this little scene of ours exsists by the grace of people supporting their community, so support DIY bands and labels and buy a copy (!) of the record if you like what you hear.

Manipulation - S/t 7" (Fashionable Idiots records)

This 7" is one of the absolute best I've heard this year. Manipulation hails from Chicago and includes current and ex-members of bands like This is my Fist, Chronic Seizure and Civic Progress. I wouldn't have guessed from just listening to this, but apparently the band's singer is the same guy who used to sing for Pedestrians (also a great band by the way). Both vocal-wise and musically however, the stuff on this 7" is way more brutal and a lot less melodic than any of the stuff Pedestrians ever did.

The comparrison that's most acurate to describe the band's sound would be Talk is Poison. Manipulation has a similar approach to their music, in that they mix elements of a more crusty sound with straight up hardcore. The result is a sound that is punk as fuck without sounding retro (as so many bands do these days). Some of the stuff on Partners in Crime a few years back, like the No Parade 7" and Balance of Terror stuff also serve as good reference points. Considering how much I like those bands, it's no surprise I love this 7" as well.

The lyrics are bleak and have strong socio-political connotations, although in most songs, they remain somewhat vague in their exact meaning. There's definitely no sloganeering going on here, although the general sense of despair and anger certainly comes across well.

As said, this is one of my favourite 7"-es of 2010 and I can't wait to hear more from this promising band. Also check out their demo which features different versions of three of the five songs on the 7" (i.e. 'Secrets', 'End this Night' and 'Choking Man').

Glam - S/t 7" (La Vida es un Mus records) + shows in the Netherlands this week!!!

Spain has been treating us to some killer bands these past couple of years and Barcelona's Glam are no exception. Hailing from the same city as the popular and well-known Destino Final (and predecessor Invasión) there are definitely some similarities here sound-wise and fans of the aformentioned bands should definitely buy this. Hell, everyone should buy this, because it's really, really good.

Overall I would say that Glam is a little faster, the songs are shorter and their songwriting betrays more of an 80ies hardcore-influence in comparison to D.F.'s sound. Maybe it's the fact that members of the band used to play in (the also excellent) Über that shines through in the songwriting. Still, this 7" is a lot closer in sound to Invasión than it is to Über (which had more of a garagy-sound especially due to the less distorted and less heavy guitar-sound). No matter what the cause, the end result is sound that is a perfect mix of dark, D-beat-esque punk and raging straight-forward hardcore.

Having listened to it now a bunch, this is one of the best hardcore 7"-es I've come across this year. You can download the entire thing here or buy it from La Vida es un Mus records.

Most importantly: Glam are on tour at this very moment and will be playing three shows in the Netherlands in the next couple of days. They will be playing Heerlen tonight, Den Haag on Monday and the excellent SUB071 venue in Leiden on Tuesday. I'll definitely be attending the Leiden show myself, as there's no way I want to miss out on seeing these guys play live in a room that can barely hold 30 people. On top of that, Tense Reaction from Utrecht are also playing and I always love seeing them play live. Super excited about this show, and you should be too. Check out Glam's entire tour schedule on the band's myspace page.

Nerveskade - Insanity b/w Forced to Live 7" (Iron Lung records)

I don't think this Portland, OR band shares members with Lebenden Toten, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did. They definitely play a similar fuzzed-out style of punk. Or should I say: noise. Fans of bands like Atrocious Madness, Besthöven, Confuse and Kriegshog can eat their hearts out. This is completely over the top punk with an extremely distorted and screaky guitar-sound that definitely verges on totally going over into the 'noise not music'-realm. Had it not been for the driving bass, the band would probably be spinning out of control. Also, the vocal delivery is not as distorted or over the top as one might expect, which is nice.

I'm definitely no expert of the genre, but I've been enjoying this record a lot. Only drawback is that two songs on a 7" is fucking short for this kind of music. They definitely left me wanting more. Of the two tunes, the B-side is my favourite. Especialy the drums in the intro to 'Forced to Live' are powerfull as hell. No lyrics are in included in the very sparse packaging that we've come to expect from Iron Lung releases (in this case just a brown paper sleeve with the band's name stamped on it) so I can't comment on what the songs are about.

This record is released in a one-time pressing of 800 on Iron Lung records. It's the second vinyl release for Nerveskade after their excellent debut 7" on Whisper in Darkness records that is already sold out. A new Lp is scheduled to be released in a couple of months. Keep your eyes open for that one and track this 7" down in the meantime.

Masshysteri - new Lp

O.k. Just thought I'd share this with you. Got the new Masshysteri Lp in today, which I have been looking forward to for months. This song is on it. Different version though. The whole thing sounds great. Expect a review up soon.

Bloody Gears - S/t 7" (Taken by Surprise records)

Bloody Gears is a pretty new band from Boston, Massachusets. This 7" is their first vinyl release after a 5-song demo tape which was released last year. This record is released in Europe by Taken by Surprise records from Germany, and in North America throught the well-known Deranged records.

Artwork-wise I like the sparse and simple lay-out of the record. Especially the fact that from the looks of it, you can't really predict what the band will sound like. No insert, the lyrics and all the info is written on the back of the sleeve. Very sober, yet appealing.

On to the music then. My first thought after the needle hit the final was: The Estranged! And throughtout these 3 songs, the aforementioned Portland band remains an obvious reference. I would argue that Bloody Gears has a slightly less Wipers influence in their sound than The Estranged does, but the vocals of both bands definitely echo Greg Sage's. Musically, I would say this is a little more hardcore-influenced as I can definitely hear some 'Zen Arcade'-era Hüsker Dü in here as well.

Due to the Wipers/Estranged-resemblance, Bloody Gears doesn't score too many points in the originality section, however there's something about this band that (at least to me) makes them stand out from the pack. The songs are well-written. Especially the tracks 'Take a Ride' (which was re-recorded from their demo) and the opening track of the record ('End of the Line') are highly memorable. After getting this record in the mail, I tracked down their entire demo online which features some equally excellent songs. My favorites being 'Bite the Hand' and 'Pre-Occupation'.

I'm not sure what it is, but I have a feeling this 7" has the potential to slip under people's radar, only to realize in a year or two there are some really cool songs on this piece of vinyl. Do yourself a favour and don't pass this up.