Been a moment! I know Struggle For Pride said that 'summer never ends', but it's moving very quickly for me. Gigs and dates fill my schedule, I went to Finland to see everybody and had a great side-adventure being a tourist in Iceland along the way, I suffered through a kidney stone that had me in and out of the hospital and reflecting a lot on how the body processes pain, two of my bands are recording next month so I need to hurry up and get good at drums again.
A feeling I'm having lately is gratitude. Two old (?) but not forgotten SPHC bands have resumed activity, and I am thankful for the chance to see my favorite people play my favorite songs again. I was so fortunate to see Backlash at an invite-only gig while I was in Finland, and they had me leaping on stage to sing along to my favorite songs, they were better than when we toured together however many years ago. To hear "A Dog on the Loose", "Never Gonna Give Up the Fight", "Danger" like that.....really meant a lot to me, was the highlight of my summer to be honest. Fingers crossed this won't be the last time now either! Other returning band isn't playing gigs yet so I don't want to blow up their spot but if/when they do, I'll have to see where I'm at, if it's possible to travel to see them again. I still remember flying out to do merch at their final show, bringing their copies of their final LP with me, and that was one of the biggest label highs I've ever had LOL. Of course I have the gig poster framed and hanging in my apartment.
While I was in Finland, lots of people asking me about USA politics, and one specific question from Mr. Helle was what books I would recommend to better understand current American politics. Cool question, because this year my New Year's Resolution is to read a book a month, which is pretty small compared to some people in my life, but whatever. In December my bff Kristella and I formed our own little two-person book club and we've been going for it LOL, bless her that she reads all the big brain nonfiction academic/politics stuff that I want to read. In the end, I actually have a good answer to Mr. Helle's question, so I thought I'd share my thoughts here too.
3 books for better understanding American politics (or, 3 books I really got a lot out of this year):
1. Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America by Kurt Andersen. Explaining and exploring the long-term right wing conspiracy to oppress the working class and turn America into a weird Christian theocracy, thoroughly researched and documented, but framed in a larger narrative of mainstream cultural shifts and written in a sort of conversational tone that makes everything very easy to track and digest in my opinion.
2. Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America by Joan Donovan et al. A deep dive analysis of how far right internet meme culture has trickled upwards into mainstream culture and come to influence real life political events such as Unite the Right rally, the rise of Trump, the January 6 insurrection. Terrific work in my opinion, having been relatively front and center for everything in this book (ie being chronically online from 14 years old to 30, when I deleted my Facebook after I got a smartphone in 2017 and started to rethink my relationships with technology), I remember all this stuff, I agree with all their takes and analysis, I see it all the same way. And, more importantly, I think this phenomenon, in addition to being so interesting, is so insanely misunderstood by...just about everybody over 40. Or maybe that delineation could be said as, my generation was maybe the first one to grow up being chronically online, and people older than us simply don't have the relationship and context, the experiences, with technology to fully grasp its effects on us.
This book was a recommendation from my parents. My mom read it and I think it made a big impact on her. And it absolutely annihilated my brain to hear my elderly (sorry) mom saying stuff like "I hate that Pepe the Frog", "It's a shame what happened to Lil B and his motto" LOLOLOL. Mom, there's a lot of good Pepe memes too, I swear! But Kristella and I got A LOT out of this book too and I think this is an underexplored and underappreciated angle of current American politics.
3. Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl. A balancing act of statistics and individual/group interviews exploring one of the questions I hear most often in current American politics: why do working and lower class white people so often vote against their own self-interests. I won't spoil the answer, you can probably guess, we all sorta know it. But I thought this book did a great job of having an even-keeled and data-driven approach to such an emotionally nuanced question.
One of my work friends and I talk a lot about books. She's an avid reader and we always talk about the completely insane erotic fiction and trash fan fiction and gay Chinese light novels etc etc she's always reading. I'm here for it, always. I just love freak shit LOL. I want to subscribe to her newsletter. But she threw me a curveball yesterday texting me that she read this book too after I mentioned it the other day, and that she thought it was so interesting. Cue a nice discussion about how this book perfectly illustrates why I don't believe in capitalism LOL.
Okay, that's books, now records.
-Dan
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JULY NEW ARRIVALS
First and most excitingly, there are 4 (!!!!) new releases out on SPHC. All crazy fucked up noise, all stuff that's been in the works for a long time now and I'm glad to bring it all to life and into the world. Two bands in particular that have been personal favorites since I was a young teenager, that have been such important pieces of the soundtrack of my life.
Please remember that SPHC now stands for "Slow but Purposeful HardCore" LOL, please cut me a little slack as I may be slow getting these out the door amidst my chaotic daily life + I am still waiting for 1 release's jackets to arrive in the mail.
Agathocles LP, well fuck what serious label that wheels and deals in grind ISN'T going to do an Agathocles record at some point? Even the guy down the street from me has released an Agathocles tape. I mean literally, I went to a party at his house and gifted him one of my Agathocles LPs, "from one Agathocles label boss to another" and we had a laugh and he gave me a Commence to Mince tape he put out LOLOLOLOL.
I say all this in jest but, Agathocles has been one of my favorite bands since I was a kid, and my appreciation of them has only deepened as I've grown up. One of the GOATs and I am really proud that this specific release is my contribution to their canon. Can't think of anything better.
Atrofia Cerebral/Yacopsae split 12", what a fucking dream for every party involved. Favorite people, favorite bands, warm memories, nothing but fuckin NOISE.
Sistematizar Odio EP is a bit of a white whale for me, similar to Abikyokan demo. I've been wanting to see this on a record for some time now, and was twiddling my thumbs for so long, then waiting for this and that, blah blah blah, FINALLY it's happened and, frankly, you can thank me later.
Materia Organica EP is one that the entire friendgroup contributed to, felt like everybody was pitching in through one angle or another, whether it was financially, with design work, with audio work, etc etc. A surprising amount of love and energy went into this humble reissue of a 1991 Peruvian grindcore demo tape onto a 7". Well, I think if you look at the SPHC discography, it is clear that "raw South American grind" is a BIG interest of mine so of course I wanted to help out with this too.
next up on SPHC: some crusty 7"s and Anal Butt 10 year anniversary drop
I feel like most of these distro updates have some degree of through-line and narrative but this month is a seriously random smorgasborg of stuff I like LOL. I'm just going to go off, one release, one line.
Arcadian Starship new single is a solid follow-up to their first LP. One of the best current Japanese power-pop bands.
Braincell EP, I grabbed a load of these while I was in Finland because it didn't get too much distribution at the time. A right proper brutal crustcore smasher that garnered a little bit of hype and momentum in Asia when it dropped, leading to a Western release and European tour.
Cuntroaches LP took me by surprise, the weirdo experimental noise hardcore record I didn't know I needed. Lives up to the hype. Essential shit for noise freaks and hardened cynical bastards. Someone PLEASE bring this band to the USA.
Deathcharge new LP is a special treat, been a good long time since we last heard from this band and I do believe this is their best deathrock-era work yet.
Dispose new tape is super limited and super essential if you are enthusiastic about noise-not-music raw d-beat.
Global Thermonuclear War LP has instantly become one of my favorite releases of the year and has everything I'm generally looking for in a punk record: blazing speed, total noise, tasteful use of influences to create something informed and with personality. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. File with your Extreme Noise Terror and Disrupt records...OR alongside Disorder.....or maybe even Electro Hippies and Atavistic??
Karoshi new tape is one of my favorite current Colombian bands, straight-forward and tasteful hardcore that's appropriately raw and noisy, from guys that have been making great Colombian hardcore for a long time now.
PI$$ER new LP is a delight, a seriously WEIRD hardcore record that I wanted to release and am extremely label jealous someone else wound up with it. A huge step forward from the LP I released a few years ago.
Plastic Tones new 10"....actually I like the LP more LOLOLOLOL but this is still good, some A-grade power-pop, and yeah "Black Star" is a proper hit.
Rebel Riot new CD gets a BIG RECOMMENDATION if you are dedicated to the core and/or someone that rocks a mohawk. One of southeast Asia's most exciting and essential bands, playing a sliiiightly metal-tinged street punk style that could be construed as very 90s but I'd just call 'timeless'.
Serpents Anus new tape yooooooo latest and greatest from one of the best current noisecore bands. Look out for a record on SPHC....at some point in the future....
Stormcrow reissue of first LP, one of the finest American crust records and a similar emotion to me as World Burns to Death reissue where I bought this when it came out and now I'm wondering "am I old?"
Ydinaseeton Pohjola new LP, I've been saying this for awhile now but Finland got maybe the best punk scene in the world for the past few years. Feels like there's a continuous stream of GREAT punk and hardcore records, because while USA and much of the rest of the world are too fucking slow, tepid, clean, and trite, Finn bands are still making exciting music (see: GAZE), still writing good songs (see: Tiikeri), still playing fast (see: Ohjus), and still making fucking NOISE (see: this record).
We're basically all caught up on FOAD Records stuff. One of the best labels in the game, for a number of reasons I've been happy to share with people in conversation. Recently I was talking with a friend about the difference between archival and reissue releases, and I suppose I hadn't thought so consciously about it, but yes I do love FOAD's archival style. Tatuerade Snutkukar LP is one I'm particularly excited by, a kvlt Swedish hardcore legend of noise-not-music who has languished in obscurity for too long. And Catasexual Urge Motivation first album on a 2xLP is another one that really gets me going. One of the extremely few drum machine goregrind bands I enjoy, a total kvlt classic finally makes its way onto the collector's choice of formats. Listening to this makes me feel 15 again lol.
After yet more post office hijinks (booooo!!) we finally got a nice box of all the latest 11PM Records releases. Yambag LP straddles the line between USHC and fastcore in such an exciting and fun way, they made me a true believer when they played in Minneapolis earlier this summer and the record is everything I could want. Norms LP too, fantastic, Hungarian scene is poppin off these days between Norms, Cayir, Balta.
Not on 11PM but if you're into all these releases, you NEED NEED NEED to check out Sin Tax EP out of Australia. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. If only every hardcore record was this good anymore....(but hey, Agravio EP would make you think they are!).
and finally. METAL.
If I were a metal guy, I'd be flipping my lid for these early 90's Malaysian and Singaporean black metal demos like Rator/Thartarus split 12" and Behemoth LP. And Necropsia LP reissue, WOW, cool!!
But. I am not a metal guy LOL. So I will stick with new Ego Fix CD, total Japanese grind madness but it's pretty metal nonetheless. I feel like there's lots of attention on this band now cause of the discography releases, so if you loved those, you're gonna need this for sure.
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coming in August:
boatloads of Euro crust and grind and 80's hardcore reissues
more More MORE
Thanks and talk more later.
-Dan