V/A - Challenge: No Submission/Mercenary God/No Suicide LP

Here's a really cool 3-way split from Italy circa 1981, on Bootleg Records. I originally tracked this down for the NO SUBMISSION tracks after I found out they were pre- WAX HEROES, who released one of my favorite post punk/new wave EPs of all time! Luckily the rest of the material on here turned out to be stellar as well!

NO SUICIDE kicks this thing off with three offerings of infectious cold/minimal wave punk kinda stuff with female vocals in Italian. They don't seem to have any other releases as far as I can tell. MERCENARY GOD does 4 songs of 77 style KBD punk with distorted and jangly guitars, and snarling vocals in English. There's a 2004 reissue of a whole LP's worth of stuff called Burning Generation. NO SUBMISSION is the highlight on here for me, with their catchy upbeat punk and some post-punk moments. You may recognize their third track from the Killed By Death #201 D'Italia comp - it's got the same swaggering "d-beat" that the BUZZCOCKS did before DISCHARGE, hehe! All four of their tracks on here are just awesome and way ahead of their time. The vocalist/bassist has an especially unique singing style, just as is the case in his other incredible, and much darker band, WAX HEROES. Enjoy this rare Italian punk treat!

V/A - Challenge LP

DAVOVA PSYCHOZA - Antropofóbia LP

My seemingly never-ending thirst for awesome foreign punk has compelled me to make a lot of blind purchases in my record collecting life. If I'm digging at a record store and come across a reasonably priced foreign punk band that I don't know, more often than not I'll just buy it. 75 percent of the time I end up with something horrible, but in this case, I scored a classic! It makes the trial-and-error-style record buying worth the hassle. I bought this LP because the cover art rules and it looked like it might be Eastern-Euro punk, and hallelujah it was indeed! Fucking remarkable, in fact!

DAVOVA PSYCHOZA formed in Bratislava in 1987 and are still active to this day, and this is their debut LP from 1991. I played a show in a very small and pretty town in Czech Republic a couple of years ago called Ústí nad Labem (seriously, look at it), and met a nice local couple there, and we began talking about punk bands. I told them the only Czech band I knew about was DAVOVA PSYCHOZA, and their expressions lit up and they cheered (and corrected me that they are technically Slovakian) that I knew this band - and that's how I found out that they were important!

DAVOVA PSYCHOZA - Antropofóbia LP

You may have noticed that one particular trend in my taste in music is the melodic/aggressive combo. I like hooks, melodies, crafty songwriting, and high-energy in my punk, and this LP is oozing with all of those qualities. It's all about the up front sung/yelled vocals and guitar leads on here, it's fucking brilliant. If you're like me you will become obsessed with this record and start singing along with some of these undeniably catchy choruses in Slovakian, with no grasp of the language whatsoever (or making up your own English phrases that sound the same). The only other recording I have by this band is their split 7" with ZEMEZLUC from 2001, but I know there's more awesome D.PSYCHOZA shit out there, so please hook me up! And seriously, download this because it's probably better than whatever you're listening to right now.

The official DAVOVA PSYCHOZA site

GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA - Хорошо !! cassette

Here's another fine selection of GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA's distinguished brand of melancholic Russian punk. This album was recorded in 1987 but has a much more hi-fi recording quality than the Necrophilia tape that I posted previously, but it still has great material and is a great listen. I translated the song-titles into English, as I try to always do for stuff written in languages using different characters. Enjoy the tunes and the naughty pictures on the insert. 

Гражданская Оборона ‎– Хорошо !!

RATAS RABIOSAS Cassette

Sometimes being a MRR demo reviewer really pays off, and this cassette is one of those instances...

RATAS RABIOSAS  is from the burgeoning Peruvian punk scene and features folks from D.H.K. This tape reminds me more of the old Mexican hardcore bands like SEDICION and MASSACRE 68 with it's blown out production, simple riffs, tupa-tupa drum beat, and burly vocals in Spanish. For those who like it rowdy and raw, proceed straight to the link...

RATAS RABIOSAS cassette

Oh, and you can still order this fine cassette from the following distros in the U$A: Rust and Machine, Velted Regnub, and Soap and Spikes.

KORRUPTE OPPKASTERE - Moralen Ut Til Folket EP

My gorgeous partner organized a surprise party for my birthday last night and we were out late drinking and playing shuffleboard (it's actually fun, not as lame as it sounds). As a result I've got a pounding headache and  I'm playing hooky for half of the day. I was not gonna bother with this blog today, but why not just throw something up really quick right? That's usually not my style - I like writing a bit about the music/band that I'm posting, but I really have no info about this 7", so I don't have to say much! 

KO - Moralen Ut Til Folket EP

All I can tell you about this is I ordered it from a distro several years ago because it said it was from Norway, and it turned out to be pretty cool. There's dual male/female singing, punk, hardcore, and some experimenting with other styles too. "Kjønnsyksommer" is a really diverse and catchy tune that sounds like a mix between 00's Kick n Punch stuff and...I dunno...JOYCE MCKINNEY EXPERIENCE? Like if GORILLA ANGREB was angrier and weirder? Yeah, so don't overlook this one just cuz I don't know anything about it - it exhibits a lot of originality!

JUGGLING JUGULARS - ...For Humanity (Early 90's) LP

Today is a very special day for me, so I decided to share a very special record to me - the debut LP from long-running and inspiring Finnish political punk band JUGGLING JUGULARS!! This record has been in consistent rotation for me for nearly my entire adult life, and I'd have to declare it a 'desert island' record. After a few decent EPs under their belt at the time, I feel that they really made their mark with this LP. Upbeat, energetic, melodic, catchy, charming punk with a dash of hardcore. It's the perfect length and it has everything necessary to make a perfect punk record: great fast songs, catchy mid tempo songs, catchy melodic guitar leads, great slightly off-key singing in English with a Finnish accent, and a chorus that goes "United we stand/Divided we fall!" x 4. 

JUGGLING JUGULARS - ...For Humanity (Early 90's) LP

JUGGLING JUGULARS released so many more excellent records from 1990 til now, but this one always makes its way back onto my turntable, headphones, car stereo, etc. Nearly every mix tape I've ever made for anyone has included a song from this LP, and though I probably picked songs like "Disturbance," "My Lonely Day," and "Selling Privacy" the most, I'd have to say that I've picked almost every song at least once. I still feel touched by certain lighter moments, and get goosebumps on some of the more raging parts. Did I mention that the bass player Jantsa (RIP) played in the phenomenal late 80's hardcore band TREBLINKA? Talk about a criminally underrated band! Oh, and if you've heard their most recent stuff then yes, they have had a rad female vocalist in the mix for the past 13 years. Put this LP on a tape with UPRIGHT CITIZENS, POST REGIMENT, and HDQ and you've got the perfect Euro melodic-hc matchup. 

Ok I'll quit blabbing about this masterpiece now and enjoy my birthday. If anyone wants to give me presents, I need the JUG JUGULARS "Positively Fed Up" and "New Toys" albums that I believe were only released on CD in the mid 90s - I've never even heard them! Fuck! 

DURNOYE VLIYANIE - Nepodvizhnost Cassette

дурное влияние

I can't find much about this band on the internet written in English, which is unfortunate because this post punk/cold wave band from St. Petersburg, Russia, is really interesting, and this tape is a great listen! I got a big box of mostly eastern Euro/USSR/Balkan tapes a while back, and this was one of the shining stars of the bunch. Well, not 'shining' in a 'bright' sense - this is rather dark and desolate sounding, actually. I hear an equal amount of SISTERS OF MERCY and JOY DIVISION, while holding a tone of sheer misery throughout. DURNOYE VLIYANIE apparently existed from 1987 to 1991, but reformed a couple years ago. 

Дурное Влияние ‎– Неподвижность

This recording was done in a Leningrad suburb in 1989, but this tape didn't see the light of day until 2003, and I get the feeling it's very rare. The first track is a bit more upbeat than the others, but as the following tunes slow down a bit, they certainly don't diminish in quality. Some of the guitar riffs are really innovative, and the vocals have the monotone goth quality, but not in a boring or completely contrived way, and sometimes unleash with some ear-splitting howls to keep things interesting. Perfect for those depressing rainy days...