WORDS on SOUNDS. (Summer 2026, 1/24) M.A.R.C.U.S. - Demo 2026. It is time to catch up on some excellent local releases that have hit my ears in the last 6 months and I’ll start with the nastiest skum punk metal ball of fuzz that I’ve heard in these parts in quite a while - M.A.R.C.U.S.
Loaded with hooks and so many wild leads attacking from all angles flashing classic dirty shouting punk rock that never lets up.There’s a ton of grubby melody mixed with chaos here. Part of a very grand local tradition of fucked up rockin punk that layers the dirt with the fast and fist pumping rock. It’s crusty, it’s heavy, it’s punk. It’s nasty and twisted rock and roll, and it’s just so rad.
M.A.R.C.U.S. takes the time to pause and mess you up. Seven songs taking up over 20 minutes allowing the multitude of bright and delightfully ignorant sonic attacks to fully take shape and get explored.
This is out there on cassette somewhere if you can track it down. The digital version is available for free on bandcamp with a perfect grimy recording sound that makes it all the more special. Everything is pushed to the limit and the nasty guitar leads creep in and out and through and all over this thing. It is grotty as fuck.
I don’t wanna walk into the classroom shouting out the addictive choruses of “Scumbags on Nitrous” or “I Kill Everything I Fuck” or “My Girlfriend’s a Terrorist” (which has so many grand revolutionary one-liners in it, along with one the siqquest of sick breakdowns), so I gotta check myself at the door cuz there’s so much in these songs that get stuck in your head and just won’t let go.
Some of the guitar / brains / brawn behind this is a shadowy figure with a rad band resume, as well as the creator of two of the best local solo projects of the last chunk of years: Blackout and Don’t Talk to Me (whomst can also be tracked down on the camps o’ Band and and are well worth your time).
This band thing is something I want to see live, cuz if they can pull it off in person, it will blow minds. Rumors are percolating of a 4th of July show which would be the appropriate day for M.A.R.C.U.S to make their initial public explosion.
WORDS on SOUNDS.(Summer 2026, 2/24) SAN KAZAKGASCAR- This Slog. For 20 years, San Kazakgascar has been putting out some of the most provocative and adventurous music around. Their latest album, “This Slog,” continues that tradition while stretching out in new directions.
For my ears, SAN KAZAKGASCAR are exquisite crafters of moody excursions powered by an instrumental ensemble that has a rock kick in the guitar, bass, drums. The guitar grabs your attention with tasty West and Central Asian desert doodles while the rhythm section keeps it moving onwards. On top of that, there’s freaky keyboard blips and blurps, and two folks playing blowy windy instruments of a clarinety and fluty nature. When the bass clarinet rumbles beneath and the flutes float up high above the driving gallop, they unleash a power that can shift you.
Both familiar and unexpected, it’s got a trippyness that always sounds coherent and a looseness that is still precise. Their underlying radicalism warms my heart. The opening track “Billionaire’s Shrug” sounds exactly like it’s title and captures the visceral response one has to those shruggy fucks. “Long Grass Bends” twists in the wind while “Fangs of Commerce” surfs over waves of sand before descending into a pit of vipers and then gliding ecstatically out and above the evils of capital. At least, that’s how I hear it. “Driver Ate” wraps up the first side taking me on a more provocative than usual ride share. Side two features a long and twisting work capturing their drony improv side. “Passarell Spirit” enters the zone channeling powerful connections passing and living on. Sit with this one and go where it takes you. You will receive rewards.
I picked this up at their packed Sunday afternoon record release show with the wonderful Art Lessing & Flower Vato at Kicksville. You can get it on vinyl /cd / download from bandcamp or from Lather Records. Grab “The Slog “ along with any of their past great releases. Better yet, find their next gig, cuz they always play the coolest shows with the niftiest bands whether playing a succinct set of catchy mideastpsych tunes or taking things wherever the drones may lead.
WORDS on SOUNDS. (Summer 2026, 3/24). EYES OUT “Satiate the Blade” is an impressive crossover ripper occupying the thrash zone just released on CD this last week by the consistently pleasing and always pleasant Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Bathing in the rivers of cities whilst absorbing a colossal quantity of hardcore, metal and punk influences, EYES OUT puts on their own personal shred fest and thrashstravaganza.
There’s enough raging hardcore punk here to get me real excited as they keep things moving along quite speedily while also dropping in plenty of tricky riffs to keep my inner hesher banging thine head. EYES OUT is sitting at that crossroads where fast punk and metal look across the Chutes and Ladders board, lock eyes, and realize they actually have a whole lot more in common than they first realized (or ever wanted to admit).
Full of splendidly constructed songs with well thought out tempo changes to mix things up, there’s lotsa hecka heavy breakdowns dishing out bits of chunk that bite but never bore. Powerful and precise rolling drums drive things forward building the intensity while tasty and tricky lil’ leads jump out at you. A distinctive tense and gruff vocal approach lends urgency to it all.
There’s a dozen solid songs here in about 3 dozen quality minutes. Galloping out of the gate with the opening “Bleed Me Dry,” ripping through non-stop taut thrash like “Penchant for Brutality,” digging deep into mid-tempo headbopping with little squeals then building into the tensions and desperation of “Total Recall,” or shifting gears on “Ticket to Hell” where a burst of brutal blasting blues builds into great thrashin hardcore punk with excellent drumwork and an almost poppy bridge leading you to a rousing and raging end. The album closes with “Eyes of the Assailant,” a powerful moody track brimming with darkness before ripping open a wall of anger and paranoia.
The recording sounds great and captures a tightly locked in swing pushing up against the limits adding sweetly to the tension. EYES OUT has put out a pure powerhouse album that successfully embraces the two best flavours of thrash - hardcore and metal.
WORDS on SOUNDS. (Summer 2026, 4/24). COPPER CEILING has been around these parts for a while, but I was wretchedly unaware of them until earlier this year. All of which left me completely unprepared to witness a performance a couple months ago of the best song I have heard in quite a while when they opened up for the effervescently excellent Doom Scroll.
That song is “The Armadicana.” It takes a tremendous twisting journey through pain and anger (“I want to hear you scream like demons keep you up at night”), protest and resistance, and rising above and beyond. Not just surviving (“When the United States’ destiny realigns, I’ll be around”), but thriving in liberation (“I wanna hear you sing like your soul has been set on fire”). This song never fails to induce goosebumps and tears when I pay attention.
COPPER CEILING percolates a fascinating brew of sourthern gothic queer country darkness and beauty that somehow landed right here in Sacramento to captivate, inspire, and get a little spooky. Beautiful songs with stirring delivery and a fabulous presentation. Dark and twisted folk that is heartfelt, hilarious, insightful, sensual, and ultimately full of so many glowing secret messages to keep you living and loving. These are songs that keep people around.
They have an album on bandcamp which is a sheer delight. Opening with a spoken bit of Bukowski’s murmurings on death before sliding into gentle guitar and a solf lament rising into enthusiastic calls for the intentional funereal planning of “Devil in the Details.” The exultant yips of “Gay n’ New in Town” with its cascading hooks tell tales of movement internal and external (“Walked around the whole entire world inside my head, I’ve seen the world as it should be”). “Vetiver” moves through sensuous attraction, family disappointment, longing, body horror, and memory. “Hard to Remember” tells of community lost as the seasons of life change, yet forging forward in spite of the fear and doubt. And then, it all wraps up with that very best song I’ve heard in a really long time (and I’ve heard a few).
The Copper Ceiling is the world as it should be. Right here. Right now. And we are so lucky to have them.
WORDS on SOUNDS. Summer 2026, 5/24) - MIMIC - “Not Another One” has surfaced as a variety of entities: streaming on bandcamp and spotify last year; on CD earlier this year courtesy of 8991 records; and just put out earlier this month as a self-released 7” vinyl EP. There’s all sorts of alternate versions and covers, so you could own multiple copies of it which would seem appropriate if you think about it. And it would be well worth it. Cuz Mimic is good.
They play fast and passionate hardcore with songs pulling from the history of angry punk rock. From gnarly distorted slow gnashing walls of sound busting out into clean and spicy youth crew breakdowns that run into fast as fuck blasting topped off by enthusiastically ranting and raging vocals occasionally soaked in echo to great effect. It’s got a raw and nasty classic punk rock recording that isn’t delightfully dirty and still catches everything coming through really clearly so you can hear the exquisite grit and catch the creativity of their songwriting.
The entire release is seven tracks in a little over 10 minutes filled with blasts of anger tempered by touches of positivity. The tempo changes really grab me as they journey through decades of hardcore punk. Where parts of this sound like it could be off a classic 1980s demo tape that I played until it broke, other bits sound fresh and modern and channel much more recent developments in the field of hardcore punk rock.
“Till When” has a fantastic drive that feels like it is barely hanging on at the edge of a cliff. “Backstabber starts off with an unrelenting 1-2 blast that winds up with an ass-pumping / fist-shaking chorus with excellent reverby shouts. I love the tempo and energy contrasts of “Change” which manages to look both backwards and forwards with a combination of loss and optimism and has another wildly catchy shoutalong chorus leading into a delightfully collapsing end. The closing title track is a powerful hardcore ripper bewailing all those lost to overdose stretching out to take the time to effectively drive home the point with its gang chorus of “Not Another One.” An impactful and effective ending to a great release.
WORDS on SOUNDS - (Summer 2026, 6/24) MEGAPHONIES “Right to Double Down” is a glammy, punky, poppy, garagey rock n roll pageant recorded with a big old fat sound at EarthTone that completely captures and elevates the power of what they are doing. There’s a garage blast here at times, other times it's as sweet as can be.
There’s tons of finger snappin melodies and extremely memorable hooks that you’ll walk around humming while you water your garden, but all coated with a fantastic layer of grimy grit and fuzz that gives an edge to it with a snarl and sneer running through it that is perfect when you need to shovel out a big hole in the dirt.
The album opens with an infectious riff that immediately grabs on “Brainwash and Chill” which is a perfect power pop blast followed up by the in-your-face snot garage distorted shout of “I Don’t Want Nobody.” The opening two tracks provide a perfect overview of what the Megaphonies got going from sweet and catchy melodies to spit and piss attitude that grab influences from the history of good rocknroll, chew them up, and looch out something distinctive. There’s parts that make me think of what I always wished 70s classic rock sounded like - toughened up and dirtied up - while other parts make me think of how I always wished 90s garage had a better grip on melody. Chunks of angry blues, punky pogo, rocking boogie, tense rave ups, deceptive wind-downs, and songs as clever as their name.
There’s not a weak track in the bunch. Megaphonies bash out 8 songs in 20 minutes which is all they need to convince me. Seven originals that don’t stick around too long to wear out their welcome, and then it all comes to an end with a perfectly over-the-top Equals cover.
This came out late last year, but I don’t think their release show happened until 2026, so I still think of this as a new album from this year even if that makes me a liar. Try and track this one down at one of their live shows, as they are one of the more rockin bands to regularly play at the Torch Club. You can also hear some of it over on bandcamp or perhaps grab the cd down at Kicksville or other fine local record stores. Well worth the hunt.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 7/24) - ARUSPEX “The Death Instinct” - One of my favorite bands who have been crushing it and crusting it around here for the last few years. ARUSPEX never disappoint with their revolutionary dark and dank crust rooted in the foothills of nearby mountain ranges, yet this record feels like they are taking it to the newer and more crucial levels. Everyting they’ve put out in the past has been hella rad. This one is even hella-er raddererer.
Never afraid to speak to the urgency of the moment, ARUSPEX have always blown me away with their approach to fomenting radical sounds and radical concepts. Their commitment to seeding revolution is exceptionally well laid out in the accompanying booklet full of quality rantings, historical ravings, thoughtful lyrics and lyrical analysis, and impactful radical art. Aruspex is a band of ideas in sounds, words, and vision.
Their sonic impact derives from consciously and intentionally choosing to blend so many elements. Shared screaming hitting from different angles. Galloping crust and heavy breakdowns. Slow emotional breaks with gothy feelies and little deathy metal bits in the drums and guitars. “The Death Instinct” is a great headphone album with so much cool interplay between the guitars, the vocals of different timbres, and the shifting tempos. They know how to rage and go fast as fuck, and then shift into a low simmer to build up the power and impact. The instruments serve as a perfect complement to the perspectives presented here. As a lifelong seeker of the revolutionary potential of music, I am both floored and inspired by this one.
The album’s got 9 songs in a half an hour with 67% of the songs being 3 ½ minutes long (give or take 8 seconds) which provides plenty of opportunity for the musical and lyrical ideas to dig in, take root, and then bloom. Available on vinyl directly from the band and at some local stores; on cassette from the fantastic Fiadh Productions; and downloadable for free/donation from their bandcamp. You can see Aruspex at the most wonderful “Punks n Pronouns” at the Winters Public Library on June 26th. Free and ALL AGES and queer and punk as fuck in Winters!
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 8/24) - PETS “Dig the Skull” has an addictive driving fuzzy warmth that envelops you in sound and rhythms that digs right into your skull. After over twenty years of creating and refining that very unique and splendid thing they do, PETS knows exactly what they are doing.
Released right as last year ended and this one began, “Dig the Skull” is a great album full of deadly throbbing rhythms and buzzy fuzzy guitars and vocals. It’s danceable, off-kilter, head and ass shaking, engaging, trippy, twisted, loopy, and just so lovely. Is it punk, is it techno, is it noise, is it pop, is it disco, is it dreamy, is it dangerous, is it mischievous? Oh yes, indeed it is. And, it is wonderful.
Sometimes hazy, sometimes gazy, sometimes gauzy, sometimes saucy, make your way through the layers to find swell little pop ditties coated in sweet and sour. Take in how deeply they can dig into a riff and a beat. Chew on the bits where it feels like a spring is sproinging in your head. Sonically wade through the green algae and lick the blue bottom, but only when no one is watching (someone is always watching).
It opens with a bass beat that could be straight outta the club, but soon there’s fizzing guitar and faded vocals. A psychedelic explosion, some spaceships, and the whole thing just takes off from there yet feels focused as it travels all over a musical map. There’s so many secretive and creepy melodies in this thing that just take over and the rhythm programming is so fuckin cool. PETS is seriously playful. The whole thing is rooted in love that gives it all the more sweetness to go with the distortion. Crooning duets for an alternate, and better, reality.
13 songs on the album running from two-minute blasts to stretched out six-minute wanders. The recording captures all the beauty drenched in those layers of fuzz. Fabulous Matt Shrugg cover art. So many great songs. What more could you want? Get it from their bandcamp in a variety of forms (vinyl/cd/cassette/download) or you can probably pick it up on Saturday (6/26) when they play the Cafe Colonial with False Flowers, Spiral Electric, and Green Door. What a great lineup!
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 9/24) - CROSS CHECKED “Demo 26” is made for you if you dig the hardcore punk. The zippy youth crew. The smart EDGE stuff. I certainly do, so I loved it.
It’s got 4 songs that do all they need to do in less than 7 minutes. I adore the opening bit where for 15 seconds you find yourself thinking, “Hmm, I wonder where they are going with this?” Is it Coast Steamo? Gayshoes? Lindyhop? Crunk metal?...
And then BOOM, the song is literally “Unleashed” with rapid paced lyrics spit out over fast hardcore that kicks into a couple solid breakdowns. You are off and running getting your ass waxed by kick booty straight ahead straight edge hardcore as sparkly clean as a just-washed pair of athletic stockings. I can listen to this thing over and over. In fact, I have done just that.
It’s got a tension building into explosions with so many tasty bits where everything drops out and the rumble of the bass or the tumble of the drum builds it all back together for a big boom. Full of vitality, ripplingly fast hooks, barely contained rage, and so much power and energy. Cross Checked spits out a pissed off attitude and anger directed both inwards and out. Lyrics explore the limiting role of “No Ambition” and the struggles of shaping your own life without getting trapped in a“Cage” with that need to “Control” coming from internal and external sources.
The band has members of Whoreified, Panic and probaby a half dozen other Northern California hardcore punk bands who are responsible for so much good stuff going on around here. You can hear the “Demo ‘26” on bandcamp, perhaps on cdr, maybe some other forms later. I love this recording and can’t wait to see what comes next from them.
Give it a listen in order to prepare thyself for their leapingly lovely live show which always rules cuz I swear this band has powers of levitation unseen since Ruin (the old Philly Buddhist band, not the newer nasty metal one playing Wretched Rites). Cross Checked catch more air on stage than Artemis. I bet they are constantly fending off endorsement opportunities from sleazy bouncy sneaker companies and the trampoline plutocracy of Big Trampy.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 10/24) - LIZZ SHINE & the HRT - “The Reckoning” is such a wonderful and powerful album. On one hand, it serves as an incredibly varied and fantastic mixtape of self-realization, personal transformation, radical resistance, and total liberation. So many great diverse individual parts, but it is even more impactful when you let it unfold as a full album and take it all in from beginning to end as a deeply personal musical take on revolution.
The album opens with a peppy punchy punky powerpop party protest track, then drops into the fantastic “If I Could Talk to My Younger Self” where a variety of voices explore the prompt, including some crucial verses by Jakhari Smith, all presented on top of an engaging reggae backdrop. The album slides forward into a breezy folk-rock affirmation that heads into a quirky indie track exploring demisexuality before digging deep into a heart-tearing bluesy look at dysphoria then blasting off into the fantastic “Rebel Blood” spoken word piece by Mercy Rei Tanq. The righteous rage launches into unrelenting joy with another bouncing reggae track that provides a glorious celebration of fully knowing that “You can choose yourself.” Back into folk and sorrow tempered with resilience, before launching into a final keyboard-driven new wave rocker on the revolutionary joy and power of music.
Fantastic little touches throughout: little vocal hooks and effective insightful and inciteful lyrical lines, sweet guitar leads, swell keytar, flashes of mandolin and exceptional keyboard work throughout as the whole band and guests add so many flavors. It all holds together so well. Dig into this one deeply. You will be rewarded.
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This album is deeply connected to our community well-being that all of the band members build around here in Sacramento in their work on shows and benefits and art and protests and community gatherings. Reflected through a lens of trans liberation, there’s a vital message here for everyone seeking freedom, justice, and a better world.
Hear this on bandcamp, get more info at lizzshine dot com, and look for this on vinyl in the fall following their successful Kickstarter.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 11/24)- UNPROVOKED “Out of the Ashes” LP. Just released on pretty greenish vinyl on the greal local Sacra-Metal label. UNPROVOKED started thrashing and gnashing up in Auburn back in the 1990s, then hit pause on the raging for about 20 years, before being rebirthified and storming back around 10 years ago. They have been ripping it up all over Northern California since then. This LP is a newly remastered record revisiting their 2019 debut CD release.
UNPROVOKED play tight and tidy thrash metal with a chunk and heft to their sound. Mid-tempo twisting stuff that can dig into the dirt and then shift to hyperspeed to shred with abandon. Semi-demonic vocals and great group shouts for emphasis, precise and powerful drumming, bassing with the perfect amount of distortion running through popping up in all the right places, solid dual guitar work with very cohesive arrangements. Everything sounds really locked in and snappy. Ten songs that vary in tempo, but never intensity.
There’s really great songwriting going on here. I love the tension they build at the opening of many tracks before they unleash their thrashing mayhem. They write really well-structured impactful choruses and create quality bridgework that keeps things creative, but maintains the power. Quick hitting soloing that never detracts from the overall power. In complete command of the songs, they know what they want to do and execute it exceptionally well.
LP is just out on Sacra-Metal records who keep dropping rad metal stuff into the local universe. It’s cool to see them looking back a bit and putting out cool stuff from the past as well as great new stuff like their split 7” series (more on that soon) as well as their great Sacra-Metal Massacre double lp compilation I wrote a bunch of enthusiastic words about 6 months ago
You can pick up this album from Sacra-Metal Records online shop or listen and buy it from the band’s website. If you happen to be reading this on Thursday (6/25), you can probably get it when UNPROVOKED plays Goldfield tonight w/Nefarious and Defiance or at the loaded Sacra-Metal Fest happening at the Rink on August 1st.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 12/24) -JESSICA WILLIAMS “Blue Abstraction” LP. Every time Jessica Willams touched a keyboard, magic happened. Over 80 albums and 70 years - a solid chunk of that here in Sacramento - whether solo piano; leading a band; in trio celebrating Monk and others; making squishy synth noises and reciting poetry; or deconstructing a piano to invent new sounds with weapons of sonic destruction; if it involves Jessica Williams and some keys, you wanna listen. Grammy-nominated in a couple different millennia, a new Jessica Williams album is always cause for celebration. Even after her death in 2022, the rediscovery of her recorded work continues, and as her true life story comes to be told, she has become a trans jazz icon.
“Blue Abstraction” is her most recent posthumous release and came out at the end of 2025. An incredible album of DIY prepared piano recordings made in the mid-1980s in Sacramento that had been lost for decades. On the recording, she takes apart a piano, reconstructs it, resounds it, and creates recordings unlike any others. She described the process of listening back to these home tapes as “further investigation into my becoming.”
The title “Blue Abstraction,” perfectly captures what is going on. The prepared piano creates sonic abstraction, but there is such a deep underlying emotion that captures the blues. Even as the piano is transformed to create new sounds, those sounds are drenched in feeling. Mixing experimentation with deeply spiritual and emotional compositions, this has become one of my favorite Jessica Williams’ albums. On first impression, it is simply fascinating to hear what has been created by one person fuckin up a piano, but then comes the awareness of the fantastic melodic structure of the pieces and how they flow into different emotions and colors. Seven original works plus a phenomenal take on a traditional Nigerian tune that sounds like an orchestra of percussion.
A simply spectacular recording by a legend that was once given the key to this here river city, the album is out on Pre-Echo Press and is available on cassette, lp, and download at their bandcamp.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 13/24) - HELLA MANY WOUNDED - “Clandestine Terror Cult” EP is 4 songs and 12 minutes of delightfully nasty metal and so much more. Hanging out by that provocative intersection of extremely raw antifascist black metal, noisy grindcore mayhem, and atmospheric noisescapes, this EP covers a lot of territory and leaves a lasting mark.
The recording is mucky as fuck and I abolutely adore it. Layers of grime, grit, mud, and unholy sounds burbling up into blasting songs that feel like both celebrations of chaos and laments mourning the moment. It is so twisted with so much happening. Great play with dynamics, noise, and mood to create a powerful and terribly terrific release.
The first track, “Nameless City,” barks out howls over swirling guitar and unrelenting drums and never lets up. An absolute ripper followed up by “Mother of the Human Plague” with its slow strings and keys opening that then unleashes a great filthy guitar riff, more growling from the depths, a smashing breakdown, the guitar going fours door down so it sounds like everything is dropping out for a few seconds before returning to destruction mode for the final minute. “Flee the Light” is a slower atmospheric soundscapes building up with hoarse ranting and emotional wailing laying the groundwork for the final fantastic track “Rite of the Inverse Pentagram” which bursts with intensity then unleashes an absolutely fabulous cavedigging riff that will make you want to grunt in ecstasy whilst banging thine noggin and then they return to total shred and bring the EP to a ranting and raging conclusion.
South Sac proud, explicitly fuck ICE/free Palestine, and seemingly quite friendly with Satan, HELLA MANY WOUNDED was around a while back, crawled back into their cave to fester for over a decade, and then somewhat miraculously resurfaced last year bubbling up from the nethers to put out this striking and atrociously wonderful recording just a few months ago. Hope to see and hear much more soon cuz this band is horrendously great.
CD/digital available on bandcamp, it’s also up on youtube. Just so nasty and lovely and worth assaulting your ears with.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 14/24) - BLACK GOLD SUN - EP. One of my favorite new bands (at least new to me) from sort of around here just put out a recording and I am thrilled and can’t stop listening. I first encountered BLACK GOLD SUN on a Sunday afternoon several months ago when they were opening up the annual Valentine’s Gay celebration at Cafe Colonial hosted by Middle Aged Queers. Immediately struck by their sonic mix of glamrock proto punk with chunks of bluesy soul, I loved how their songs took a rad radical optimistic approach. When I saw them again a couple months later, I was even more enthused. They take all sorts of sounds and mix them together wonderfully to create something familiar, yet unique. Plus, they are clearly having so much fun doing what they do. It is so highly infectious.
A couple weeks ago, they released a great 7” single with a couple additional songs coming with the download. The opening track, “Feel the Up,” is one of those songs you put on repeat when you need to embrace life. With perfect fuzz guitar and walking bass lines that grab you and don’t let go, it moves from a soulful start looking for hope into a rockin bashing explosion of finding it and letting things fly in a frenetic fury of intensity and optimism as they/you ‘feel the up.” The flip side,“Trust and Believe” brings a boogie swing to a song of perseverance and confidence in grabbing back what was taken. “Fight” starts as a bluesy dirge before letting loose, and then it all comes to a much too early end with the slow burn of “Woke Up Today” taking you deep into the struggle to “chase the blues away” which leaves you wanting to listen to “Feel the Up” and start all over again cuz this is one to play over and over.
I love the range of what BLACK GOLD SUN are doing. Pulling from so many influences, past and present, in their songwriting. They draw from gritty rock, punk, blues, soul, funk and more. Their great lyrics that work on many levels as they seek optimism in these challenging times. That perfect sounding fuzzed out guitar. The phenomenal rhythm section. They are such a great and original band having a blast doing their thing and inviting us along.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 15/24) - OROMET - “Sinking Isle” came out at the end of last year, but because OROMET is really slow they didn’t play their record release until this March. They dig deep into ancient sounds of glacial shifts, collapse, desperation, rebirth with a a wealth of atmosphere that is gripping and inspiring churning the heart and soul.
Drums are slow, overwhelming, and I hear a gong. Layers of guitar form creeping and enrapturing harmonies that become bludgeoning tools. The growling howling vocals rise up through the depths and blend with the ambiance. It’s ominous and crushing, and you can get lost in it.
Three songs in over 40 minutes. The opening track, “Hollow Dominion,” is 20 minutes and gently enters the room with guitar notes and symbol brushes before a massive riff hits a couple minutes in to make sure you are paying attention as OROMET slowly barrels through the halls of decrepit and crumbling structures. Hoarse growls emanate from down below, “may we find peace again after their kingdoms fall”
Sitting in the middle is the 11 minute “Marathon” (must be their pace per mile). I love the droning howling war sounds and desperate feel as though hanging on for dear life unsure of the outcome. Then noise explodes into quiet plucked echoing guitar. You know it’s gonna build back up…it’s gotta build back up, right?...but the song toys with you stringing you along until the wall of sound finally unleashes
The final track, “Forsaken Tarns,” kicks off with ringing guitar, howls, and pounding drums painting a soundscape of desperation before taking a breath and then digging in deeper trying to find “what lies in the depths beyond.” As the track eventually ominously fades out and disappears, I find I want more
This great album was made by a couple of folks. LIve they bring out at least three guitars (maybe more, I always lose count) and their shows are a rare treat, so I would highly recommend seeing them July 30th when they open a rather massive show at the Colonial Theater with Sigh (From Japan), Deathgrave, & Dreadnought.
Out on LP/CD/Cassette/download. Get it from their bandcamp or from the wonderful Transylvanian Recordings.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 16/24) - BARC - “Barc Ranggoon” marks their most welcome return after 6 years of silence while they were off doing a few other things. BARC put out around 15 recordings between 2017-2020, most of them really good. Their first one had 20 songs in 3 minutes, their ninth one released less than two years later was 12 hours long and broke bandcamp so they had to put it on youtube as livestream. They released splits with a number of bands, including themselves. They are BARC, they make their own rules.
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Somewhere between the 3 minute album and the 700 minute album sits “Barc Ranggoon” with 10 songs in 20 minutes and featuring a third BARCer on lead vocals and rhythm bong rips. One of the things I love about BARC is they do fucked up shit more fucked up than anyone else. So if I tell you there is a fucked up psych prog metal song, you can bet it is going to be more fucked up than any psych prog metal song you could imagine.
And this whole thing is fucked up in all sorts ways. Delightfully unpredictable. Vocals from other realms, inspired drumming with an addictively moist and floppy snare sound, burly shredding electric guitar in attack and decay mode, effects up the wazoo, audio clips, stops and starts that happen whenever they feel like it.
And while my favorite song should probably be “there should be at least one track on the album named @ sacramento punk shows”, I am hesitant to pick favorites. Ok, don’t tell the other songs, but my favorites are probably the demented blasting pound into collapse of “if you think these songs titles are bad, have you looked at what they are calling weed these days?” or the feral mosh mayhem of “Bill Maher gets his dick ripped off.”
It is so very super swell to have BARC back, and I believe it may prophesy a new global spiritual awakening and a better future on the horizon. Does this rebirth of Sacramento’s most stupidly genius musical entity foretell a BARC reunion show at Golden 1? Perhaps not, but dumber things have happened (and are happening right now). Maybe if we are lucky, we’ll at least get four more BARC albums before the end of summer.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 17/24) - THE CONTRAPTIONS - “Stuck” is the latest batch of songs from a band made up of good folks who have been putting out fine music in ensembles both life-changing and obscure around the Sacramento area since way back in the 1980s. They are still doing it cuz it’s fun to write and sing and play songs. And I’m really glad they are still doing it, cuz it’s fun to listen.
The CONTRAPTIONS fire off stacks of swift and speedy one to two minute slashing punk rock rippers with bite and melody full of cleverly odd lyrics. While sounding like quick rapid head-bopping blasts of punk rock silliness on first impression, if you really listen, there’s layers of excellently thought out songwriting from people who have been crafting clever songs for decades.
The vocals on this are excellently arranged and distinctive, rotating between members, and throwing in great backup vocal bits. There’s splendid little twisty, quick guitar solos and rocking leads with great open drumming that is both wonderfully all over the place and totally in sync keeping things moving. I love the stop/start of the songs, and how everything is super locked in and precise through the twists and turns. It’s all got a great fun old school punk rock feel and pulls in some fantastic and diverse influences.
With songs about alternative uses for thumbtacks, one legged guys on bikes, the challenges of being turned into a frog or ending up in witness protectiion, there’s a darkly humorous current running throughout. Midway through the album they drop in a couple of their original Christmas songs that they released on a bandcamp EP a while back to address the horrible dearth of locally made truly rockin original xmas songs, “I’ll be home for Christmas unless they drop the bomb.”
This is their 2nd full album after 2023’s “Biggest Record Ever” cd which was also a total treat. Mayhaps one day “Stuck” will surface in a form you can carry around if you have big enough pockets. For now you can listen, download, and find out more info at thecontraptions dot com.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 18/24) - COCKRING / ALL BEAT UP - “Humiliation Ritual” is a split LP released earlier this year from two intensely sweet and delightfully nasty bands from different parts of this splendid state of Calfiornia.
COCKRING is, and always will be, one of the best and most important bands in the annals, as well as anals, of Sacramento punk rock history. “Humiliation Ritual” continues their evolution into sonic exploration of darkness and light, pain and joy, oppression and liberation, brain-grinding and ass-shaking hardcore.
It’s the gnarly twists of noise, the bursts into enraputured hardcore breakdowns, the sounds attacking from everywhere with vocals spit from deep inside that grab me. Raw and unrestrained, their side of the split offers up a half dozen songs all under a couple minutes, that are still able to build so much tension and explode over and over again. Slow crawling viciousness emerging from walls of feedback with perfectly distorted bass. Fist pumping drive (in more ways than one). In the midst of delineating the devastation of the modern moment, the power of Cockring is the power of strength and survival, “There’s still a home here in spite of it. I trade my numbness for fellowship. We’re dancing in the dark in the middle of it.” A band I love more than most, and I have loved a lot of bands. They wrap up their side by nailing a Hoax cover that has already become the anthem for a next generation of queer punx.
Cockring comrades in ALL BEAT UP take up their side with a lovely mashup of hardcore, metal, and noise rock intensity. I am always blown away by the urgency and twisted songwriting skills of this band. Digging deep into the pain of abusive religiosity, there is a venomous, and ultimately liberating, purging going on. They end their side with a droning draining Cure cover showing that they can do pretty much whatever they want, and do it so well.
Great art. Exceptional recording. Community, friendship, and rebellion in one fine package
You can get this fine hunk of punk music on vinyl, cd, and cassette from the fabulous No Time Records, as well as hear it/download it from Bandcamp.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 19/24) - SACRAMETAL records keeps doing great stuff. In addition to their double lp Sacra-Metal Massacre (that I wrote about at the end of 2025) and the Unprovoked LP (that I talked about last week), they’ve got a new Lysol Toast LP coming out soon, and just put out these two split 7” records providing a great glimpse at more local metal…
DECIMATION / REPLICATION split 7” - Listened to the DECIMATION side first cuz it’s got the skulliest logo of any of these bands. “Fearless” starts out with a powerhouse thrash opening that gets all tight, tense, and speedy with dynamics and effecrtive buildups, a solid and strong chorus, and powerful martial drumming. With elements of classic thrash mixed with modern metal flairs, this taste makes me want to hear more Decimation.
Flip it over and REPLICATION rocks the alt-metal with a vocalist with a really impressive range. She can do spooky gothy clean vocals and then switch into ferocious growls to shape the shifting moods of the song. Effective use of ambient sounds to break up the main chunking riff that drives the really impressively recorded and arranged song.
WURMFLESH / CEMETERY LEGACY -split 7” - Listened to the WURMFLESH side first cuz the font was harder to read. I was mighty impressed. Unrestrained chaotic attack out of the gate. Belching barfing vocals, killer guitar chunks, manic tech drumming all over the place. The song is a quick one, but never lets up. Just pure twisted intensity. I want to more of their death metal brutality
CEMETERY LEGACY had a track that kicked off the great Sacra-Metal Massacre and I’m happy to hear more of them here with “Demonology.” A longer song bursting out to a crushing start. Cool rock-gargling vocals and nasty guitar keeping the intensity going with a pounding attack. There’s a heavy breakdown here, bits of hyperspeed thrash, and wild soloing all adding to the solid pissed-off mid-tempo thrash churn.
You can get all this (and more) from thesacrametal dot com, Fat Elephant Records in Folsom has some of them, or grab them at the all ages SacraMetal Fest split record release for Lysol Toast and Unprovoked on August 1st at the Rink.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 20/24) - “NORTHERN AMERICAN NOISEBERG” is a fantastic benefit compilation that came out on Valentine’s Day of this year put out by Happynesnfrends916 in cahoots with End Meaningless Noise & Icepick Records This fine collection has already raised hundreds of dollars for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. You can still get it on bandcamp to add to the donation and to overwhelm yourself with good noise. If you are really lucky, maybe you can find a physical copy somewhere in the wild.
It’s got close to 80 songs in about as many minutes from 45 different bands & entities including some of the best current underground grind-fast-noise-core / drum and bass madness / powerviolence blasting folks around and is loaded with absolute ripping shit from the likes of Family Vacation, Shitbrains, Suppression, GodStomper, Pavel Chekov, Hummingbird of Death, Sordo, Domestic Immunity and many many more.
Part of the fun of any good compilation is discovering folks new (to me) who are making ridiculously great noise that I was previously unaware of. On this one, I was particularly impressed with Chest Pain (woah!), Fermented Mess (grrrr!), GLAD (yowza!), Harvester (huzzah!), Maryein (ouch!), Moisturizer (moist!),Mollywhopped (fuckin’ sick indeed)!, Quitter (oh my!), ROTBUS (Blargggghhh!), xSpiralBlasTx (blast!!).
There’s plenty of local / Sac / Norcal noise on here like Nyokensa (who were some the brilliant minds behind this monumentally wonderful creation), Camel, Xerostomia, Callous Extremities, and brief electro-interlude bits from Fifi of Crosswords in Pens so you can catch your breath.
Noisy as fuck, as it should be, the overall quality on this collection is really fucking great with far more hits than misses. A great cause as well a great listen whether you choose to punish yourself by listening to the whole thing straight through as I have multiple times, or just taking tasty little nibbles of tidbits when your life needs a little more blasting noise.
Go get it on bandcamp for a couple bucks (or more) and add your support to the PCRF and the Northern American Noiseberg.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 21/24) - “Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement” is the soundtrack album to the documentary film of the same name filled with Stockton, chunks of Sacramento references and ancient 20916 collaborations, some pretty cool puppetry, lots of early Pavement and buckets of Gary Young. It’s a sweet film that is widely available for streaming, but I’m gonna focus on the album cuz it’s got rare early Stockton punk rock that Gary Young drummed on &/or recorded at his home studio: very good old punkers by Fall of Christianity (from 1979!), Hot Spit Dancers (so very good!), The Authorities (a ripper & a droner), and CRLLL (getting all twisty).
The two original Pavement guys hit up Young to record their first 7” and then he became their drummer for a few years. There’s a few tracks from those early Pavement times recorded by Shayne Stacy of the Sacramento Music Archives in 1992 at the Cattle Club There’s also a couple songs from Gary Young’s post-Pavement band, Hospital, including the amazingly (or perhaps annoyingly) addictive “Plantman,” as well a track recorded by Gary Young with those original Pavement partners right before he died in 2023. It’s all broken up by some clever brief sound electro-experiments carrying Young’s voice through the ethers and decades interspersed as transitions creating an album that goes all over the place. And that wonderful place is Stockton.
More than your usual soundtrack, this album tells a story in song whether or not you see the movie. It is a mixtape of a provocative musical visionary and the life he lived amidst the underground music scene in Northern California. The film came out a few years ago, while the album was just released on lp/cd/digital this year on the spectacular Independent Project Records. Their releases always have fantastic design elements and this one includes extensive Stockton-centric historical notes, flyer pics, and photos, so I highly recommend getting this on cd or lp to see all that they’ve put together. If you need more early Stockton underground, the label also put out a great Torn Boys collection.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 22/24) - MAZY K JOHNSON “Love Fills My Heart Like Water in My Lungs” opens with a heart-wrenching track and follows it with songs wallowing in the very real muck of human suffering. The chimes of the banjo and the strained pained hollering walk a path that embraces contemporary screamo and the timeless creakiness of ancient laments. Most of this is a baring of the soul, barely hanging on, digging into self-doubt and breakup, desperate pleas and sorrow, loss and depression. Reaching into the depths of “I will give up, I will give in, I will never be enough.I will never win,” and yet they keep on, dropping some fantastic flamenco flair and touching on traces of the carnival. Attacking the banjo from different angles, there’s impressive traditional and old timey picking whilst elsewhere pushing through the edges of progressive or blasting into future phuckin pluckin chaos.
This is the 6th Mazy K Johnson album in just the last couple of years and listening to all of her nearly 80 songs on bandcamp was delightfully enriching. “Naive Circle” is full of meandering expressions of mult-tracked vocals and simple percussion and was released at the same time in 2024 as the engaging noise/ambient soundscapes on “Abyssal Conjuration.” “Grandma’s Kitchen” came out a couple months later and introduced the banjo scraping and hollering and was followed up by the exquisitely titled “Depressive Suicidal Bluegrass Music,” a fantastic album locking in that feeling of the new and ancient with strained and screaming vocals over galloping powerful banjo. Full of wild picking and banjo bashing including the excellent anti-work, pro-death “Worm Farm,” and a great depressing droner, “Gone” to wrap it up. The follow up, “There’s Not That Much of Me,” continues the arc towards this latest, “Love Fills My Heart…” which feels like the next step on the path. I look forward to seeing where it all goes next.
Screamo Folk. Punk venting. Tranjo mayhem. Blues regurgitation. Banj-Em-O. Call it what you will, cuz these are seriously striking songs being channeled by a brilliant individual. You can find it all on Mazy K Johnson’s bandcamp.
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 23/24) Geoffrey Miller & the Rockin Rousers just put out a new album and what a delight it is. 9 quick and tasty songs that wisely get right to the point and drive it all home in less than a few minutes each. 7 originals and a couple of old covers recorded in a garage in Elk Grove and a studio in Dixon, the sound here is absolutely delicious and will have you rocking, bopping, and singing along in no time at all.
I was familiar with his name cuz I type it in the sacpunkshows calendar all the time because Geoffrey Miller puts on and plays so many shows around here, but I had never really listened to his songs. When I saw he had a new recording coming out at the end of June, I jumped on a trolley over to bandcamp to see what it was all about. Once I arrived, I discovered he had released this album on what is, rather inexplicably, one of my favorite formats: the beloved 10-inch record. I ordered it right away and have been listening to these songs a bunch over the last week. They are so ridiculously catchy that I pretty much know all the words by now so I can sing along, but when I do, it doesn’t sound nearly as nice as Geoffrey Miller’s real purty deep voice full of comforting warmth.
But it’s not too comfortable, because the songs on this album do truly rock in a rousing way embracing the sounds of early rocknroll, rockabilly, and scrappy honky-tonk country with a few other delightful swinging treats popping up in the mix. In addition to his strong lead vocals, the Rockin Rousers bring in a great backing vocal flair that adds so much to the songs. The percussive thump of the stand up bass is perfectly in sync with the steady, driving drums and provide the excellent foundation for the absolutely tasty guitar licks to jump up and run around. The leads on this are a total delight and particularly rule on a wild instrumental that takes a thrilling turn on the honky tonk highway right into hot rod/surf territory. By that point, I am totally enthralled. When I first checked this out, I had no idea how much I would love Geoffrey Miller & the Rockin Rousers, but I have really dug digging into this album. Check it out
WORDS on SOUNDS (Summer 2026, 24/24) -The TEST DREAM exploded on the scene a few years ago and pretty much blew away everyone who came into contact with them. They’ve only released a handful of songs which “Skin Graft Poetry” collects most of. Released on LP near the end of last year, Daze Records has provided a valued public service by just reissuing it on CD with a bonus track. “Skin Graft Poetry” is a colossal recording that you want to hear in whatever form you can cuz the Test Dream is most definitely the shit. In the most wondrous way that you can be the shit, that is the shit that the Test Dream is.
I’ve heard people drop different genre descriptions of this band, but my ears hear them as an exceptionally innovative hardcore punk band. I may or may not have once described them as if the best parts of King Crimson wrote hardcore songs, but really they are better than that. They are the Test Dream. They make their own rules, they play fast, they play heavy, take little rest breaks, soak up the feels, and then rip your face off. In spite of the overall feeling of creative progressive expansion of heavy and fast sounds, they know how to write incredibly engaging choruses that will get entire rooms piling on top of one another screaming along fists a’ pumpin.
“Skin Graft Poetry” launches with an intensity that grabs you and from that moment on, everything rages.The pounding fury, the pauses for effect, stops and starts, turns down new alleyways, gentle sad bits that strain against bonds and break free. Hunky-ass bass; guitars that ring, scream, and break down walls; and an absolutely thrilling drummer that never fails to make me smile at how good they are and how much they drive this monster truck of a band.
One of those recordings that the more you listen the better it gets.There’s a chaos present, but they are in control of how they utilize it and they are nailing it to maximum effect. They show the sheer power of burly banging hardcore breakdowns doled out with discretion cuz when they hit, it truly is the shit. “Skin Graft Poetry” is 20 minutes of Sacramento hardcore punk greatness happening right here, right now.
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