Sac Punk Shows Review # 4

 

New Sacto stuph to get really excited about. @s.u.r.g.e_2020 demo is a monstrously delightful debut. One of the new local bands coming outta lockdown that make me glad I survived so I could hear and see this really impressive band mash up sludgy hardcorey grindy doomy rage into something this good. And on their first try.

3 songs in about 10 minutes immaculately pressed to a sharpie'd CDr (as it should be) and if you are anything like me (which honestly you probably aren't), you'll be spinning this beast of a demo incessantly.

The chart-topper is definitely the middle track, 'Anatomy of Misanthropy' which takes up over half the recording and travels from swirling rhythms to ponderous doom to desperate vocal cries with a thunking caveperson pounding breakdown to build back into a moment's reflection before the final song just shreds on the way out so you gotta listen again. And again.

Pretty sure you can pick up this rad shit on shiny disc at the Colony or grab it offa their bandcamp on Saturday.

SacPunkShows - Review # 4

 

Sacpunkshows - review #4

Frack - Accelerant

Another local pandemic album put out by an out of town label during lockdown. Forbidden Place records outta Colorado was kind enough to release this in the Spring of 2021 on lp/cd/digital. (Maybe cassette too? This would make a swell tape.)

Frack's got a unique power trio formula that reveals more layers the more you listen to it. Immediately recognizable is the prevalence of a very distorted lap steel guitar wailing over a noisy rockin punk rhythm section.

And while 90s noise rock feels like the obvious starting point, there's much more to suck up in your ears. Really tight rhythms throughout give it a precision that a lot of sludgier noise rock can't touch, lumbering riffs morph into intricate post-funk rhythms that slide into punk rock burners. 

It's all topped off with sneering pissed off political punk rock lyrics coming from the weathered perspective of folks who've seen some shit and survived. They are alive, but still good and pissed.

They wrap the album up with their crowd-pleasing cover of the Boomer Classic 'Rise Above' to keep the kids old and young happy and singing along whilst skipping in little circles

It all makes for a tidy 24 minute album that I always find myself putting on repeat so I can hear it all again.

Frack has their own sound that they have cultivated from years of local music experience and boiled it into a creative mix that manages to maintain the succulent piss and vinegar of punk while bringing in some more intricate and unique angles to make quite the sonic charcuterie board.

Good stuff to track down from forbiddenplacerecords.bandcamp.com

You can probably grab the LP locally from the band when they play the outdoor benefit they organized for Cafe Colonial on July 23rd at Sac Rehearsal Studios or when they open for Year of the Cobra inside Holy Diver on 8/22 (or the Brick in Nevada City, 8/20)

SacPunkShows review # 3

 Sac Punk Shows - review #3

Defecrator - Unholy Hymns of Bestial Warfare

One of the more sweet and pleasant surprises of this gosh-darned pandemic was that Defecrator put out a new album. You might ask, 'Well golly gosh, how could that have happened after they broke up right around the time they put out their one great album 'Abortion of Humanity' in 2019 when one of them members moved to a different continent?!?" 

And like most things, the answer would be: The Internet.

Kinda.

This Spring I saw a social media post from some bunny-lovin hesher that a new Defecrator album would be out and sure enough a few days later @goat_throne_records outta Texas had put out a new_ish cd/digital album by these local (and now not-so-local) metal giants. 

If for some reason (like your own dumbass metalphobia) you are unfamiliar with all of the greatness that is/was Defecrator “Unholy Hymns of Bestial Warfare” is a really good place to get a grasp on what they had going on.

Now I'm just a dumb ol’ punk who worships at the altar I built at the corner of Crust & Grind, so I don't quite get all the metallic distinctions between black and death and black death and blackened grind and bestial and brutal and ska metal, so I am probably gonna do a bit of misgenreing for which I apologize in advance, but as Jesus said, 'I knows what I likes and this is it." 

Cuz really Defecrator is just an absolute ripping band however you want to describe it. They play at and beyond super speeds while pounding the shit outta things along the way. Fast as fuck and heavy as hell with machine gun beats alternating with sledgehammer brain-thunkin. What has always made them stand out for me both as a once_upon_a_time live band and on all their recordings is the really excellent songwriting and all those delicious riffs. It's all brutal and intense and ridiculously fast as shit, but is anchored with brilliant hooks and an absolutely gripping tension in the songs.

There's layers upon layers of dynamic stuff happening in there and tons of great breakdowns thrown in that capture you. After a couple years, they really started to swing in the rhythms and use all three vocalists in a way that perfectly complemented one another. It's like high lonesome bluegrass gospel harmonies, but Satan. And as Satan mentioned in their memoirs, “If it ain’t got that swing (it does not mean a thing).”

In their several years of cursed existence, Defecrator grew into being a mighty powerhouse of a band that would both viscerally smack you in the face, and somehow grab you booty and make you want to shake it. Really fuckin phenomenal stuff. And those phenoms on full display on this new release which is a mix of pretty much all they did beyond the Abortion of Humanity album. In spite of being a collection of tracks from different moments, it holds together really well as a complete album. Probably cuz it was all mastered and shit.

Right in the middle, it's got my favorite thing they ever did: the massive Satanic Martyrdom 7" which has one of sickest (and swingingest) breakdowns I've ever heard that just pops up in the last minute of the track which is then followed by one of the fastest song openings you are ever gonna hear. And it works better here than having to flip a dumb record over. So yeah, if you don't have that Satanic Martyrdom 7inch just get this as it is one of the best local 7" records to ever come out and I think it's long sold-out. Those two songs would make this whole thing worthwhile.

But that's not clearly close to all that is here. It's got tracks from a couple of splits they did, so if your mom wouldn't let you buy the record they did with Goatpenis cuz of their name or cuz she was a little worried that Ritual Genocide was just a tad bit too specific about the targets on the whole genocide thing, this album will set you up. It's also got tracks from their 2015 demo on Transylavanian Tapes which will show you how they were a raw pummeling force from the beginning. If you get all fancy and buy the CD you even get a lil extra Impaled Nazarene crackerjack bonus which brings you up to close to an hour of a  magnificent metal maelstrom. Perhaps best of all, it kicks off with a cupola absolutely raging tracks that might have never been heard were it not for this showing up in 2021 thanks to Goat Throne.

Now this may not quite resonate with everyone, and perhaps you might find some of this unsettling, but really, does it scare you that much to be a tad bit unsettled? If you want to hear one of the best intense bands from Sac and/or just explore the intricate bass lines of Abhorrent Orgy Ejaculator of the Dead, then Defecrator and Goat Throne Records are here to provide for you.

Mount your throne on your goat and head to

Goatthronerecords.bandcamp.com or goathrone.com for this one on cd/digital

You may also want to graze on over to Defecrator.bandcamp.com to hear the fine Abortion of Humanity album - digital only I believe cuz it sold out a while ago, but hot damn that’s one sweet (and swinging) album.

p.s: In case you weren’t paying attention, Defecrator is a splendid band name (or name for your next child)

Sacramento Punk Reviews - 2

 Another Sacramento Punky Revue:

Sick Burn / These Bastards " Burn These Sick Bastards" split 7" ep. 

A pandemic release maybe made cuz these two buddy bands missed playing shows together. As the homer I am, of course, I am partial to the Siq Bern side, but one should not neglect the flipside of this pretty purply pink piece of vinyl. 

Over there, These Bastards rip out three fast blasters with some nice, tidy breaks that are full of great back and forth vocals. They know when to step on the gas and when to let up a bit to build up the pressure. Pay attention and you are gonna hear some really sweet intricate guitar perdiddlin in the midst of it all. Their side ends with a fine tribute to all things rad in sac: "Gonna play the Colony with our friends in Sick Burn" and it gets funnier from there, but you'll just have to buy the record to find out why.

The chants of 'Sick Burn' ending the These Bastards' side remind you to flip over the record which is good cuz on the other side Sick Burn does what Sick Burn does best: absolutely Tear it Up with five blasts of clever positivity, pit cheerleading intensity, and up with thrash/down with jobs reality. 

Full of awesome buildups and explosions that show that getting older can sometimes result in getting faster, it always feels like it is dancing on the edge of collapse but somehow manages to hold together with a tightness and great dynamic songwriting.

Its fabulous furious fast furryness all packed up neat and nifty with a patch that features Matt Shrugg's slimy cover art.

It may have sold out of the first press (in like 2 months!?!?!), but you can hear it on the band's bandcamps or bug @thrashtapes about it or maybe see if @phonoselect has some. Or maybe they'll burn it into a CDr and you can pick it up the next time Sick Burn and These Bastards rock together which I imagine will be happening sooner than it has in a while

Sickburn.bandcamp.com

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