You Suffer: Grindcore, Death Metal, and their Offshoots

Extreme Noise Terror in their heyday.

In a recent post I discussed the evolution of English hardcore, from punk to anarcho-punk to crust punk and D-beat.  At the same time this evolution was occurring another major punk-metal hybrid genre was evolving out of anarcho-punk, hardcore, and NWOBHM, and that was grindcore.  Grindcore, for anyone unfamiliar with it, is arguably the most extreme, and most unlistenable, genre of music ever created.  Songs tend to be short, sometimes humorously so (including a Guinness book official world record of two seconds for the song that gave this post its title, “You Suffer”), and almost unthinkably fast, often making Metallica’s early work sound like Black Sabbath in comparison.  All the instruments are played at faster-than-light speed as a giant wall of brutal noise, and the vocals are growled and guttural and essentially undecipherable. 

Any talk of grindcore has to start with Napalm Death.  More a revolving musical collective than a band, Napalm Death have had a bewildering number of lineup changes over the years, with members leaving, returning, and leaving again. Napalm Death started in 1982 in Meriden (near Birmingham), England, initially heavily influenced by first-wave anarcho-punk bands like Crass and Discharge as well as by crust punk and D-beat bands like Amebix and Flux of Pink Indians.  They went through several lineup changes before recording their first full-length album, Scum, which was released in 1987.  Even at this early stage in their evolution their sound was almost uncategorizable.  “Multinational Corporations”, for example, consists of shimmering high hat and an atonal skirl of guitars that almost sounds like avant-classical.  “Instinct for Survival” is more typical of their sound, a whirlwind of machine gun drumming, an impenetrable wall of guitar noise, and growled, evil, unintelligible vocals.  It’s as if they have distilled hardcore punk and extreme speed metal down to only its most audially indigestible bits:  speed, noise, incoherence.  Scum has other songs (including the title track) which intersperse breaks where the tempo slows to a Metallica-like chug before erupting back into a cyclone of noise. 

The album I have the most material from is 1994’s Fear Emptiness Despair.  The songs here are much longer, typically lasting three to four minutes, and the wall of noise has resolved into recognizable, if still difficult to, listen to riffing and chugging.  “Twist the Knife Slowly” is reflective of this evolution; swirls of staccato drumming, huge, ponderous riffs and the still-unrecognizable vocals.  “Plague Rages” is another standout, an almost catchy, lurching riff starts this song out on a good track and the tempo here isn’t too extreme; it kind of reminds me of a slightly sped up version of Slayer’s “South of Heaven”.  Good stuff man.  “Fasting on Deception” sounds like the sonic equivalent of a firestorm, swirling and apocalyptic.  The only other song I have is off 1999’s Words from the Exit Wound:  “Repression out of Uniform”, which isn’t much of a departure from any of the above. 

Another English grindcore pioneer was the wonderfully named Extreme Noise Terror from Ipswich.  They formed in 1985 and quickly followed the lead of Napalm Death in making songs that were extreme to the extreme.  However, they were distinct for having two singers, for having more of a punk than metal feel to their music, and for writing lyrics that reflected more of an anarcho-punk standpoint of anti-establishmentarianism, particularly on songs like “Fucked-Up System”, the anti-meat “Murder” and the pro-environmental screed “Raping the Earth”.  Like Napalm Death, their sound evolved over the years to a more sophisticated take on noise and atonality.

A band that also slotted between crust punk and grindcore is Sore Throat.  Formed in Yorkshire in 1987, their sound (particularly on songs like “The Crossover (Is Over)” and “Noise Not War” hovers between that of Napalm Death and that of Amebix or even the Exploited.  Most songs off their album Unhindered by Talent have been uploaded to YouTube for your listening enjoyment.

Interestingly, at the same time Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror and their ilk were solidifying their sound in England, a couple of bands across the world were also moving in similar directions but from a completely different angle.  Repulsion were a metal band that formed in Flint, Michigan in 1985 and the next year recorded a demo that sounds astonishingly like the music Napalm Death eventually released on Scum one year later.  This is coming from a yet-more-metal place than even Napalm Death but the basic sonic template—guttural vocals, short songs (most barely top a minute in length), blasts of noise, 200 bpm drums, etc.—is all there.  This work was eventually released in 1989 and while the production is quite poor in comparison to Napalm Death’s early work, the songs otherwise stand up pretty nicely in comparison; Napalm Death even covered “Maggots in your Coffin”. 

Another early American grindcore influence was the early 80’s Boston hardcore band Siege.  This band had harsh, deep, growled (but still mostly intelligible) vocals and a wall of sonic noise set against a 200 bpm assault in which it is definitely possible to hear the antecedents of the Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror sound.   What Siege reminds me of is a less coherent, less technically gifted Black Flag; the songs I’ve heard on YouTube (“Life of Hate”, “Conform”, and “Walls”) sound like a ramped-up cross between “Forming” era Germs and Damaged era Black Flag; bewilderingly fast, sloppy, intense, almost incoherent.  There’s even an element of the Fartz and Flipper in songs like “Conform” and “Grim Reaper”, which alternate between almost obscenely fast sections and slow, sludgy parts.  Very weird stuff.  “Sad But True” is also whiplash fast and has some crude, metallic guitar solos and sounds like a crude copy of some of GBH’s work (like “Limpwristed”).  “Drop Dead” is REALLY out there, getting really close to Carcass or even Nasum. 

As mentioned, Repulsion’s sound was much more metal-influenced than either Napalm Death or ENT, and many people consider Repulsion to be more of an example of what was named death metal.  Death metal grew out of thrash metal and black metal.  Thrash pioneers like Metallica, Exodus, and Celtic Frost (“The Usurper” from To Mega Therion is almost brutally elegant in its structure and complex riffage) lent death metal its technical proficiency and song structure while black metal bands like Venom, with their obsession with dark, satanic imagery were obvious lyrical influences.  However, death metal lyrics are characterized less by the demonic imagery of Venom (which was in turn clearly cribbed from Black Sabbath) toward a more gruesome fixation with splatter movies and almost clinical human mutilation, necrophilia, vivisection and violence.

Though they share some similarities, death metal differs from grindcore in three critical ways.  First, the songs tend to be longer, slower, cleaner, and more metallic, with metal-sounding solos. Second, the vocals are usually much more understandable (though this is a matter of degrees and not always perfectly true).  And third, as mentioned, death metal’s lyrics are almost exclusively focused on gore and violence and only rarely if ever move away from these topics, while grindcore will occasionally foray into social topics and anti-establishment screeds. 

Slayer was the first recognizable death metal precursor; on their albums Reign in Blood and South of Heaven they fused the satanic imagery of Venom with more morbid excursions into violence and blood.  I got into Slayer in 1988 after hearing Public Enemy sample the break of “Angel of Death” off Reign in Blood on the song “She Watch Channel Zero” on their It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back album.  I bought Reign and South of Heaven; the title track to the latter album remains my all-time favorite Slayer song of all time for its slow, ominous, heavy character; my favorite part is where it eases slowly, scarily into the heavy chugging about halfway into the song.  At this same junction is one of my favorite lyrics from any punk or metal songs ever:  “forgotten children conform a new faith”.  Araya was singing here about devil worshippers but he could easily have been talking about punk or thrash fans themselves, who followed bands and who often lived lives of quiet desperation on the fringe of society.

Followers took this template and simplified it further, focusing solely on gruesomely violent imagery.  American bands like Death, Possessed, and possibly the most extreme death metal band of all time, Cannibal Corpse, took this violence obsession to almost ridiculous extremes.  Death’s 1987 album Scream Bloody Gore is a crucial link between Slayer and some of the extreme bands that came after them, only the gruesome factor has been elevated.  Songs like “Regurgitated Guts” and “Baptized in Blood” aren’t too different from Slayer’s pre Reign in Blood work, only with less polished vocals.  Death were pioneers in another way:  they were the first of what would in time become thousands of Floridian death metal bands.  Cannibal Corpse songs like “Meat Hook Sodomy” and “Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt” would probably be even more offensive if the lyrics were even remotely intelligible but thankfully they aren’t, and make even Napalm Death sound like elocution experts.  Cannibal Corpse he vocals fall somewhere between a belch and a croak and often sound less like human vocalization and more like some extreme piece of musical equipment. 

Another band noted for their extreme song titles was Carcass.  Carcass fell almost perfectly between grindcore and death metal; the songs are longer and the song structures are more complex typically than grindcore, but do not achieve the technicality of death metal and rarely have solos.  The vocals are closer to the growled vocals of Napalm Death, but the song titles are an almost comical alternate take on the ultra-disgusting ones of Cannibal Corpse, combining complex technical medical terms with made-up words to produce song titles that puzzle as much as horrify.  On songs like “Frenzied Detruncation” and “Pyosisfied” it isn’t entirely clear whether Carcass is serious or is making fun of this obsession with gore and mutilation.

Another band that has to be mentioned here are Anal Cunt.  A.C., as they’re often called, formed in 1988 in Massachusetts as a joke but continued to form and reform over the years.  They hew to the basic grindcore sound—jackhammer rhythms, crunching gui tars, and incomprehensibly growled vocals; they  stand out from most other grindcore bands because (a) nearly every one of their songs is less than a minute long (most clocking in around 30 seconds), and (b) they have consistently given every single one of their songs the most offensive title possible.  Like the TV show the Simpsons, A.C. are equal opportunity offenders, making fun of just about everything (including themselves, as seen in the song “Everyone in Anal Cunt is Dumb”) with titles like “I gave NAMBLA Pictures of Your Kid”, “Dictators are Cool”, “I Went Back in Time and Voted For Hitler”, “I Like Drugs and Child Abuse”, “Body by Auschwitz”, and their “Is Gay” series—“Windchimes are Gay”, “Caring About Anything is Gay”, “Tim is Gay”,  “The Internet is Gay”, “Pottery’s Gay”, “You’re Gay”, etc.  Anal Cunt also mock many of their peers in the music business with titles like “Extreme Noise Terror is Afraid of Us”, “Rancid Sucks (And the Clash Sucked Too)”,  “311 Sucks”, and “You Went to See Dishwalla and Everclear (You’re Gay)”.  Anal Cunt fill that mysterious niche between G.G. Allin and Napalm Death that nobody thought needed to be filled.  I actually find their schtick to be amusing for the most part simply because it is so offensive; its like if Fear reformed as a death metal band.

Grindcore has diversified in a manner of speaking; people often talk about sub-genres such as goregrind or porngrind.  I have yet to figure out how the former differs from simple grindcore but porngrind is distinguished by the fact that most of its gruesome imagery also works in a sexual element.  Certainly Cannibal Corpse can be considered a pioneer here with their songs like the aforementioned “Meat Hook Sodomy” and “Entrails Ripped from a Virgin’s Cunt”.  Other porngrind bands include Torsofuck; amazingly, their 2009 album Erotic Diarrhea Fantasy, which contains songs like the title track, “Pussy Mutilation”, “Worm Infested Anal”, and “Fistfucking her Decomposing Cadaver” all hew to this particularly crude timbre.  The vocals on these tracks are belched in such a low tone that they sound like a percussion instrument; to even call them “vocals” is actually kind of pushing it.  Similarly, Carnivorous Erection, Gut, and the Meat Shits also explore this same disgusting theme.  Carnivorous Erection occasionally foray into near death metal in their sound.  The Meat Shit’s vocals are much more comprehensible though they also devolve into weird guttural grunts too.  Truly out there are Jig-Ai, a Czech band that skirts between goregrind and porngrind in their subject matter, with a Japanese manga/anime twist as on songs like “Geishas Suck European Cock”.  Gortuary also traffic in dark, metallic fare.  Leaning more on the death metal end are Intestinal Alien Reflux, Atrocious Abnormality, Katalepsy, Abdominal Putridity, and literally thousands more.

Quite honestly, this is where I personally have to draw the line.  I find this entire genre to be abhorrent both sonically and thematically.  The gruesome lyrics would almost be funny in a who-can-top-everyone-else kind of way, but they aren’t.  It simply isn’t original or interesting to think of song titles and “lyrics” so vile, and the playing on many of these albums is mediocre at best, while the utterly ridiculous belched vocals are foolish to the point of self-parody.  Few if any of these bands does anything to distinguish themselves from any of their competitors.  It’s a travesty and a shame that Slayer even shares mention with any of these vile bands.

Other grindcore bands have carried on in the same sonic pathways blazed by Napalm Death, ENT, and Carcass, including Disrupt, Phobia, Rotten Sound, Weekend Nachos, Nasum, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed.  To be truthful, aside from “Engine of Death” by Nasum off their 2004 album Shift, which reminds me of “Angel of Death” by Slayer, and “Black Earth” by Weekend Nachos, I don’t have any music by these bands and it’s really hard for me to see the appeal of them and/or differentiate them from one another.  My “ear” is just not that sophisticated. 

New Direction: Straight Edge Punk, Youth Crew and Hardline

Youth of Today in their prime.

In a recent post I discussed the anarcho-punk movement and its offshoots, crust punk and D-beat.  All of these genres fall under the general umbrella of hardcore punk but were unique in that their songs were very often highly political. 

While a few punk/hardcore bands in America were extremely political, most notably the Dils, the Dead Kennedys, Corrosion of Conformity, Reagan Youth, and MDC, in America most bands have not adopted a well delineated political stance.  However, there have been some American punk scenes that have cultivated a stronger political identity.

The most obvious is the straight edge movement.  In America the movement first blossomed in the nation’s capitol, most notably in the work of Ian Mckaye, first in the band the Teen Idles and more notably in his band Minor Threat.  Minor Threat music consisted of short fast blasts of high tempo sonics with simple shouted vocals by McKaye. ”I Don’t Wanna Hear It”, “Minor Threat”, and “Straight Edge” (from which the movement took its name) are under two minutes long and blast through like a bullet train.  The sound falls somewhere between Black Flag and Bad Religion.

But it wasn’t primarily for their sound that Minor Threat were known.  They also took the then-radical stance of living a “clean” lifestyle free of drugs, smoking and alcohol.  Rather than wallow in controlled substance excess for its shock value like other punks, Minor Threat and similar bands (SS Decontrol in Boston, 7 Seconds in Reno, Nevada) hewed to this more ascetic lifestyle, and this eventually became more widespread as others flocked to this movement. 

In the late 80’s and 90’s several bands merged straight edge beliefs with a more hardcore-influenced sound strongly influenced by 7 Seconds, who were arguably the first to meld straight edge ideals with a purer hardcore sound.  In addition, other ideals, such as anti-racism, anti-war and violence, pro-environmentalism and –pro-vegetarianism became incorporated into the package of the straight edge belief system.  This package become generally known as Youth Crew, named after one of the major bands on the scene, Youth of Today.  Youth of Today formed in the mid-80’s in Connecticut and quickly became a major force in the straight edge hardcore movement.  Three albums and on EP are available on iTunes, 1985’s Can’t Close My Eyes, 1986’s Break Down the Walls, 1988’s We’re Not In This Alone and the 1990 EP Youth of Today.  Most of their songs have titles and lyrics that reflect the band’s positive outlook and clean lifestyle, including three of my favorites  from Eyes, “Youth Crew” (the song for which this movement was eventually named), “Positive Outlook”, and “Take a Stand”.  These songs are loud, fast, and heavy, but YoT’s music was also surprisingly melodic.  They also hewed pretty close to the punk sonic architecture, never putting much metal riffage in their songs.    I also like “Make a Change”, “Stabbed In the Back” and “Shout It” off Break Down the Walls; I particularly like how “Make a Change” occasionally slows from its breakneck speed into a chugging, sing-song  chorus; this reminds me of everything from “Split Image” by Excel and “Clean Up Your Act” by west coast punks Stalag 13.  “Stabbed” has an interesting bass interlude and also mixes it up from superfast to slow and chugging.

Youth of Today broke up in 1990 and its various members went on to form several other influential post-Youth Crew acts.  Vocalist Ray Cappo formed the krishnacore band Shelter.  Krishnacore was a short-lived movement that, in addition to the pacifist, vegetarian, positivist message of straight edge also incorporated elements of the Hare Krishna religious belief system.  The Cro Mags were the pioneer krishnacore band; I have “World Peace” by them off their 1999 album Before the Quarrel.  Shelter’s sound sounds like a crisper, chunkier hardcore music crossed with Check Your Head era Beastie Boys and often lyrically incorporates positive and clean life messages; “Message of the Bhagavat” off their 1995 album Mantra is a good example.  Cappo also formed the band Better Than A Thousand, who’s sound is more firmly traditional hardcore.

Youth of Today member Walter Schreifels went on to form Quicksand, whose sound was very reminiscent of that of Ian McKaye’s post-Minor Threat band Fugazi.  In fact, the guitar on “Backward” reminds me of “I Will Never Forget You” by Husker Du crossed with Steady Diet of Nothing era Fugazi.  “Delusional”, which like “Backward” is off their 1995 album Manic Compression, is a chugging, shimmering, majestic song that almost reminds me of a guitar version of “Eva Braun” by the Screamers as covered by Factrix. 

Schreifels and drummer Sammy Siegler also did stints in another pioneering Youth Crew band, Gorilla Biscuits.  Named somewhat ironically (given their straight edge lifestyle) for a slang term for Quaaludes, Gorilla Biscuits formed in 1987, and their sound was more metallic and closer to thrashcore than Youth of Today’s.  Like Youth of Today, they hewed closely to a straight edge philosophy and many of their songs emphasize thinking for yourself, the strength of community, and positive attitudes.  I recently downloaded “High Hopes”, “Hold Your Ground”, and “Break Free”, and all are good examples of their positive message.  “New Direction” off their 1989 album Start Today begins with a regal horn fanfare followed by a chugging, metallic guitar and breakneck rhythm that are very speed metal in structure. 

Following the breakup of the Biscuits in 1990, lead singer Anthony “Civ” Civerelli went on to form Civ; their sound was much much more pop-infused and melodic.  “Can’t Wait One Minute More” is terrifically catchy, with big rumbling drums, a melodic guitar chug, and a catchy refrain; this is much more pop punk than hardcore.  “Second Hand Superstar” is even poppier and more melodic and falls somewhere between emo and the pop punk of Blink 182.  iTunes has a terrific compilation called CIV: The Complete Discography. 

Another band that had a straight edge audience and whose lyrics preached unity and anti-discrimination were New York’s Warzone.  Warzone remained extremely popular in hardcore circles until the untimely death of front man Raymond Barbieri in 1997, which effectively ended the band.  I don’t have any of their 80’s work—it’s currently not available on iTunes—but I did download their theme song “Warzone” from the 1998 compilation album “The Victory Years”.  This song is pretty much straight-ahead hardcore, alternating between blistering rhythms and slow lurching passages.

In 1990 another band, Vegan Reich, released the EP Hardline, which espoused a particularly rigorous form of straight edge espousing no drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, veganism, animal rights, and hardcore ecology.  Hardline has since become a sub-genre of straight edge hardcore.  Hardline typically also hews to a very conservative, religious opinion on sexuality, being against premarital and/or non-procreative sex, against masturbation, and anti-abortion; these points of view have generated strong criticism of this movement.  One of Vegan Reich’s albums, 1995’s Vanguard, is available on iTunes.  The sound is metalcore/crossover thrash, with shouted vocals and heavily metallic guitar sounds.  “This Is It” is emblematic of their sound.

Earth Crisis is another band that centers its belief system around pro-environment, vegan, animal rights and straight edge messages.  Their music is slower and sludgier than Vegan Reich with growled rather than shouted vocals on songs such as “Inherit the Wasteland” off 1995’s Destroy the Machines.  On their song “Ecoside” they come off sounding like an Anthrax clone.  They have several other albums available on iTunes, including 1996’s Gomorrah’s Season Ends, 1998’s The Oath That Keeps Me Free and Breed the Killers, 2000’s Slither, and 2001’s Last of the Sane.  The band broke up in 2001 but reunited in 2007; their latest album was released this year but isn’t available via iTunes.

Chicago’s Racetraitor had another novel take on the basic straight edge message:  in addition to veganism and straight edge (i.e., no drugs or alcohol) messages, their music also espoused a strong anti-racism and anti-imperialism message.  The band was active during the late 90’s but broke up in ’99. 1998’s Burn the Idol of the White Messiah is one of their two commercially available releases online; “Curse” will give you a good indication of their sound.

While not officially part of the straight edge hardcore scene, Shai Hulud (named after the sandworms in the novel Dune) espouse a message of thinking for one’s self and youth unity.  I recently downloaded “Beliefs and Obsessions” from 1997’s Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion; its staccato drums, traditional hardcore guitar, and shouted rather than growled vocals characterize their sound.  Their most recent album, 2008’s Misanthropy Pure carries on in much the same vein but adds a little speed to the mix occasionally too, like on the song “The Creation Ruin”.

Finally, Detroit’s Walls of Jericho stand out from the metalcore sound of their peers primarily because of their female lead singer, Candace Kucsulain.  Five of their albums are available on iTunes as of this date, I particularly like the song “Through the Eyes of a Dreamer” off 2004’s All Hail the Dead.  Their sound leans heavily on heavy metal riffage a la Slayer.  Like Racetraitor and Shai Hulud, Walls of Jericho were signed to Trustkill Records.

I have to confess, my collecting of most of these songs is primarily for archival purposes; I don’t really enjoy Youth Crew/straight edge hardcore that much.  It’s just too loud, fast, and abrasive to me, but more importantly I haven’t discovered a good hook to any of it—none of the bands sounds radically different and while I appreciate the energy and passion with which they ply their trade, it doesn’t move me enough to be more than an archivist of this music.  I certainly agree with most of the messages they espouse, even if I don’t always follow them myself.  I have great respect for people who try to lead a cleaner, simpler lifestyle and while I’m not a proponent of veganism I respect their right to choose this lifestyle. 

Another major problem I have with bands like this is that their message gets lost in the noise and shouting.  If you’ve got something to say and you want people to hear it, you probably shouldn’t scream, shout, or growl it over a massive wall of guitar noise.  Because many of these bands are articulate and intelligent, I can’t help thinking it’s a waste that they can’t convey their beliefs in a more sonically coherent manner.  I do, however, respect their message and their musicianship; this is not the sloppy, amateurish 3 chord punk of yesteryear, this is very accomplished stuff.  I only wish I could understand what they were saying!

Neo-Psychotic Reactions: 60's Garage Revivalists

Justin Champlin AKA Nobunny, a cross between Iggy and a muppet

In early spring 1988 my on again, off again college girlfriend Stephanie broke up with me for the (mostly) last time.  Like most dumpees, I was devastated, and spent a good part of that quarter as one of the walking wounded.  This was made even worse by the fact that she and I had a class together and saw each other a couple of times a week.  Anyway, on the day she broke up with me, my best friend John drove up from UC Irvine to console me and we ended up driving into Hollywood, eventually stopping at the Tower Records on Sunset Blvd.  On a whim I bought the classic 60’s garage rock compilation Nuggets.  Originally released in 1972 and compiled by legendary Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kay, Nuggets (re-) introduced subsequent generations to the amazing music being made by American kids in the 60’s as a sort of counter-response to the British Invasion.  This collection also gained notoriety and fame for being the first use of the term “punk rock”, which was indeed appropriate; the crude but enthusiastic low-fi sound, the DIY/independent label distribution, and the young snotty attitude were hallmarks of the 60’s garage rock generation as much as they were their 70’s (and 80’s and beyond) counterparts.  I fell in love with these songs; my favorites were “Psychotic Reaction” by the Count Five; “Dirty Water” by the Standells; “Hey Joe” by the Leaves; “Pushin’ Too Hard” by the Seeds; “96 Tears” by ? and the Mysterians; The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night”; “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by the Amboy Dukes (Ted Nugent’s first band); “Nobody But Me” by the Human Beinz; “Gloria” by Shadows of Knight; “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” by the Blue Magoos; the Music Machine’s “Talk Talk”; “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl” by the Barbarians (the lyrics to this song are extremely reactionary but I love how the intro and rhythm were cribbed from “Ticket To Ride” by the Beatles). 

  In a recent post I wrote about the Lords of Altamont, whose frantic, supercharged update of 60’s garage rock is almost as cool as their monicker (almost).  There are several other bands mining a similar high energy, low-fi, wall of sound style.  One of my current favorites is Tennessee’s own Cheap Time, who have released three albums that highlight this melding of 60’s garage punk and 70’s/80’s punk.  Their sound seems to fall somewhere between the Sonics and Redd Kross, containing some of the snotty teenage sounding vocals reminiscent of Teen Babes From Monsanto with a massive wall of drums and guitar.  “Tight Fit” off their 2008 self-titled debut album is a great example of this.  “Glitter & Gold” sounds more like the bluesy doo-wop components of Johnny Thunders’ solo work but also sounds like punk revivalists the Soda Pop Kids.

Nobunny is the bizarre alter ego of Justin Champlin, who often performs in a weird bunny mask and nothing else and assaults audiences with loud, low-fi guitar riffs melding onto catchy pop hooks and a drum machine keeping time.  I particularly like “Tina Goes to Work” off Love Visions from 2008.

At the other end of the spectrum is Japan’s Guitar Wolf, who come on like a cross between the distortion-heavy horrorpunkobilly of the Misfits and the 60’s garage grooviness of the Count Five with every single amp turned to 12 and produced by Phil Spector.  “Fujiyama Attack” in particular comes across like “Where Eagles Dare” crossed with “Psychotic Reaction”.   “Cosmic Space Girl”, also off Jet Generation, is so loud and distorted guitar-wise that it will destroy your hearing even with the volume turned down; the basic tempo and sound reminds me of “Garbage Man” by the Cramps if they’d recorded it in a bathroom stall with the mikes INSIDE the amps. 

Ty Segall comes across like a melding of Nobunny and Guitar Wolf, leaning somewhat closer to the 60’s garage rock side of the equation.  Segall was a member of the Southern California rock revivalist group the Episolons before heading out on his own in 2008.   I love “Go Home” and “Pretty Baby (You’re So Ugly)”, off his self-titled debut album.  The latter in particular has the loud, insanely distorted guitar sound Guitar Wolf also favor but its surf music crunch keeps the toes tapping.   I also like the lurching chug of “In Your Car” off 2009’s Lemons.  I have only just started scratching the surface of Segall’s work—he’s been quite prolific, with 4 albums in as many years—but I know I’ll be back for more.

Another garage band that drew as much on the Standells and Them as on the Germs was the Reatards.  The Reatard’s music is also wildly lo-fi, sloppy and intense, particularly on songs like “Stacye”, “I’m So Gone”, and “I Gotta Rock and Roll” off the spectacular and comprehensive double album Teenage Hate/Fuck Elvis Here’s the Reatards from 2011. 

Front man Jay Reatard went solo in 2006ess overtly garage-y than the other artists here, but he often uses swirling organs and catchy 60’s garage pop lyrics to excellent effect.  He released two albums, 2006’s Blood Visions and 2009’s Watch Me Fall, before dying of a drug overdose in 2010.  His music was less distorted and sloppy than the Reatards but still had a manic energy to it that reminds me of the Soda Pop Kids or Biters, two contemporary bands who hearken back to 70’s punk and powerpop.  “Death is Forming” and “It’s So Easy” are cleaned up but still have that frantic 60’s frug to them.  “Ain’t Gonna Save Me” from Watch Me Fall rides along on a catchy pop groove, with Reatard’s shrill Johnny Rotten on helium vocals propelling it forward.  “Rotten Mind” sounds like early Oi!, Sham 69 say, poppified and low-fi’ed.  “My Reality” totally cribs the basic sonic template of Samhain’s “Archangel” and gives it a jangly psychedelic gloss.  Sadly, Jay died of a drug overdose in 2010 and so we’ll never see where he would have taken this music next.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how huge the Paisley Underground scene was in Los Angeles in the early 80’s; these bands, the Three O’Clock, the Bangles, Green on Red, the Pandoras, the Dream Syndicate and others, incorporated 60’s garage and psychedelic rock sounds into their music.  Other bands like the Fuzztones and Thee Headcoats were more purely influenced by the Nuggets bands.  It’s nice to see more bands starting to appreciate the wild abandon of these bands.