194 dB / BRYAN REED

No. 5: Hardcore Hit & Run

By Bryan Reed

I haven't done much writing about hardcore for a while. This is odd, given hardcore is the first music I truly loved. And, like any first love it never really leaves your system. You might stray for long periods of time, and you might even grow out of it, but any reminder of those happy, bygone days will bring a smile to your face. To this day, Minor Threat is still my all-time favorite band. So, I'm playing catch up, writing quick snapshots of a few (9) of my favorite recent hardcore records that that might have slipped your radar.

And to avoid confusion, they're in alphabetical order, not order of preference.

01. Aneurysm Rats - Dying To Live (Assassinated)

It's less than 15 minutes long, but that's all the time it takes for the Philly fivesome (featuring Colin McGinniss of Paint It Black and None More Black) to leave a dent in your forehead. The 12-track, one-sided LP is a fantastic mid-tempo slammer punctuated by both sub-minute ragers like "Perfect Skin," and fist-swinging anthems like "Babies Don't Eat Sandwiches." Straightforward hardcore beats are broken by flagellating swipes of guitar noise and unexpected moments of gang-vocal mantras. The feeling of the whole is as fun-loving as it is enraged, like a grinning drunk who'll hug you after punching you in the teeth.

"Left To Right" | "Classic Tammy"

02. Cloak/Dagger - Lost Art (Jade Tree)

Better to pogo than to mosh by, Lost Art has a bit of the '77 spunk (like The Damned or The Vibrators), a shot of The Briefs' amphetamine paranoia and a hardcore streak that marries Adolescents giddiness with Fucked Up stomp. The record is a caffeinated fit totally worth it for that inescapable bounce-around-the-room-in-your-socks-vibe. I dig it, and I'd wager even those not typically into hardcore might, too.

"Don't Need A"

03. Friends of Friends - Deep Search

Friends of Friends is easily the most approachable band on this list. Their No Idea Records aesthetic (read: beard punk) is as indebted to the gutter pop of the Replacements and Jawbreaker as it is to Black Flag and Agnostic Front. The songs are simple and earnest, and the choruses almost universally boast group-sung crescendos. But, even as this record walks confidently on well-trodden paths, it's brought a smile to my face every time I've spun it. Surely, that counts for something.

Download all of Deep Search here.

04. GRIDS - s/t 7" (Lunchbox)

Integrity demands that I disclose my relationship to GRIDS as friendly. We share a hometown - Charlotte, N.C. - and a fondness for hardcore and noise rock, and even the most cursory listen to the band's debut single reveals their massive debt to the Jesus Lizard and Flipper. But what appeals most to me about GRIDS is that I know where they're coming from, because we have a lot in common. Punk has always had its regional aesthetics and influencers, and I hear Charlotte when I listen to GRIDS. I hear the suffocation felt by anyone looking to carve out a niche in a city that feels much like a commuter college - its biggest draw is its proximity to beaches and mountains, not any of its own accomplishments. GRIDS isn't happy with that, and neither am I. But we can be pissed about it together.

05. Hawks - Barnburner (Army of Bad Luck)

Another bunch of Amphetamine Reptile addicts, Atlanta's Hawks have crafted a gleefully malicious LP in Barnburner. The bass dominates here, thick as tar and heavy as lead, it stomps the dominant thrust of Hawks' songs, as the guitars lacerate jagged swaths above it. Vocalist Michael Keenan issues threats with a garbled voice as though he's spitting his epithets with a mouthful of razors. But in the midst of the band's sonic attack, there are deep, undeniable grooves that make this musical miscarriage into a work of twisted beauty.

06. Just Die! - Garages and Basements (Self-Aware)

Hailing from Asheville, N.C., Just Die! won me over with the closing track of Garages And Basements, "Watch Your Speed, Chief." It plays like a Gorilla Biscuits anthem, roughened around the edges, more jaded that GB's often naïve optimism would allow, but still hopeful. When the chorus hits, it's something like perfect.

07. Lewd Acts - Black Eye Blues (Deathwish, Inc.)

Lewd Acts understand dynamic. They understand that opening space in a song only makes the dense parts feel heavier and more burdensome. They know that a well-placed slow riff makes a lightning bridge all the more shocking. And on Black Eye Blues, the San Diego band uses this adeptness with variation to its advantage, pairing Tyler Densley's bile-churning growl to an instrumental storm that surges and recedes, torrents and trickles. It can be the slow-dripping water torture or a sudden immersion in a boiling sea - both ways it kills.

"Wide Black Eyes"

08. Lowbrow - Broken Speech (Self-Aware)

Another Charlotte band, Lowbrow made a vibrant contribution to my hardcore listening queue this year. The band's punishing sound probably wouldn't be out of place on a grindcore mixtape (next to, say, Brutal Truth or Magrudergrind), but Lowbrow's got a surprising handle on dynamic - especially given this is their debut. For all its redlining speed and blitzkrieg aggression, Lowbrow shows itself to be a band willing and able to scale back for moments of spacious tension. It only serves to leverage their next blow into a knockout every time.

09. Psyched To Die - Year One (Dirtnap)

The way Psyched To Die -  pictured at the top, and fronted by ex-Ergs frontman Mike Yannich - so gleefully delivers their short, fast bursts of depressive anxiety perfectly balances sarcastic humor with pointed irony. But more than that, it lends itself perfectly to the band's dry, West Coast-style hardcore. This singles compilation is one of my hands-down favorites of the year. That it bridges the deliriously snotty fun of The Ergs, the bouncy venom of vintage West Coast hardcore with the sarcastic bitterness of both is just gravy.

"Conditioned To Fail" (.m4a)

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Also in rotation: Agnostic Front - Victim In Pain (reissue via Bridge Nine); Frodus - Conglomerate International (reissue via Gilead Media); Flipper - Generic Album (reissue via Four Men With Beards); Zero Boys - Vicious Circle (reissue via Secretly Canadian)

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Bryan Reed is from North Carolina and, despite his best efforts, he still hasn't grown out of the racket that irritated his friends and family in high school, and continues to irritate them in the present. Stalker-types should know that they can follow Bryan on Twitter @subparrockstar.