Saturday, May 29, 2021

Sacramento punk reviews - 1

Maybe starting a semi-regular dig into local music releases posted on instagram for immediacy and on the sacpunkshows.com website for archivyness. Mostly new, sometimes old.



Gotta start with one of the most recent, Mescaline Maniacs, cuz YOWZA. Yeah it was out there on the bandcamps and a tape once upon a time, but local label Thrash Tapes teamed up with legendary label 625Thrash put this thing out as a 7" just a minute ago and distro it via the mighty TolLiveaLie for the premiere version so far. 


Methinks this record is a beautiful monster capturing the power and unique brilliance that is Mescaline Maniacs. The Mescaline recipe involves taking some of the gnarliest sounding breakdowns and mashing em like moist potatoes into some absolutely vicious grindy powerviolence and then frosting the whole pile with several layers of sticky grit. 


Absolutely filthy sounding power-filled rage that aint pretty, but sure is beautiful. And just absolutely packed with an emotional edge that feels like its all about to fall apart, but it somehow stays together perfectly. Good mashed potatoes, eh? 


There's a stack of guest vocalists on this thing from a whole buncha great regional bands hollerin out on the breakdowns that somehow totally works and manages to avoid sounding cheesy or gratuitous. It's a mystery how they pulled that off, but then you realize that pretty much the same moment this record came out, covid restrictions started to get lifted and then it all starts to make a little bit of sense. Coincidence or conspiracy?


I love this record. It already feels to me like a gonna-be sacto classic like many from this fine town that exist in a sonic space that is slightly off from what most other bands would even dare to try (filthy beatdown grind!?!). Yet, executed in such a way that you're left shaking your head wondering how come no one bothered to think to do something so fabulous before. 


Track it down. Play it loud. Mash your fuckin taters. https://625thrash.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-ep-625-269 https://tolivealie.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=2837


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