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Written by GE 138.  Hey! Isn't the title of this album a Loud Pipes song?? LOL The song Virtually Real came up on my iTunes shuffle just now (yeah, I'm a corporate whore just like you are), with it's haunting, hard hitting guitar intro, and after the song was finished I just started the album from song 1 onward and just let it rip, gushing and marveling at how ridiculously good this album is. I mean, seriously good. It's modern, it's classic sounding, it's got THAT Buzzcocks guitar sound, which I love, and the "new guys" rhythm section of Chris and Danny (What's up!) are fucking hard hitting, loose swinging, and more than capable of playing anything Messrs. Diggle and Shelley throw their way. As a whole the band sounds great - not Flat Pack Philosophy great - but close - and the songwriting is just beyond reproach at this point, because let's face it, Pete Shelley is one of the best songwriters EVER, and almost everything on here is just as good or as good as anything he's ever written, and vocally he sounds just as good as he ever has, with that snarky growl, the attitude, the Pop sensibility for a great hook, gawd damn, I can just spew like a rabid fan boy about the Buzzcocks all day. My Love and Adoration for this band is well known and well documented. Well, I hope it is anyways. So yeah, when this song came up on shuffle, I thought to myself I hope I gave this album the good review it deserved, I hope I got the words right, and I went to the website to look for it and didn't find it, because I didn't do it. Oops!! Yeah, every now and then an amazing album gets released that I fall in love with and listen to like, a zillion times over and over and over again, because I'm O.C.D. like that, and I never go public with my Love for said release, which is kind of... weird? Lazy? Stupid? I dunno, but I hate when I do it. The one album I did that to which comes to mind instantly, which kills me every time I think about it, was that self titled Dirty Babies release... UGH!!! I should have written millions and millions of words telling you how insanely brilliant that album is, but I didn't, unfortunately, but I digress. DO yourself a favor and seek and consume that album immediately if you don't already have that essential piece of Las Vegas musical history. Click here. You can thank me for it later. And now that I'm done shilling for the Dirty Babies, let me get back to raving about the Buzzcocks and tell you that, in closing, this is my feeble attempt to make amends to the situation and bring to your immediate attention that the Legendary Men from Manchester, the Buzzcocks have released a new album, and it's called The Way, and yes, it's amazing, and yes, it's everything that you'd expect from a fantastic band such as these guys. If you don't have this already, please do yourself a favor and get this NOW!! It's THAT fucking good. <3 Available on iTunes by clicking here, and other retailers such as Amazon (click here) and the lot, and also available from the band via their website by clicking here, which is interesting, because if you order it directly from the website, you can buy a special edition of the CD which comes with 4 extra songs - 1 instrumental - labelled as demos which are pretty fucking good. I think more bands should offer that incentive, and take the money out of the hands of others who don't deserve a cut of it. "Like" the Buzzcocks on Facebook by clicking here.
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Written by Karl Bakla.  I suppose this is the same band that released Screaming For Change, I don't recognize any one from that line up on this 7", but it doesn't matter! Weirder shit has happened in the world of Music, such as two bands that claim to be the same band, going on tour at the same time, & playing the same shitty songs. In the 80's I dived head first into the world of Punk Rock & Skateboarding, one of the bands that got us little skate fucks excited was Uniform Choice. We'd scream for change, we'd never listen to the shitty poem at the end of the album unless it was to mock it, & we thought Uniform Choice would be a Hardcore force for ages to come. Little did we know that in just a short time Uniform Choice would become the worst of both worlds… the shittiest parts of the Revolution Summer & the lamest parts of the Sunset Strip. For those that aren't 40, what I am saying is that they became a shitty Emo / Butt rock band! You thought Avenged Sevenfold sucked, try jamming the U.C. album Region Of Ice; the only one who will think you have good taste in music is your Uncle. Let me remind you, I am talking about the Uncle that sits in his broken down Trans Am, listens to Loverboy, and dreams about all the hard core trim he used to bang in the 80's. I am not trying to bag on your Uncle for being nostalgic. I often sit in my Ford Focus, crying, listening to GG Allin, while thinking about all the people that would never (and continue to not ) have sex with me. At least your Uncle has his memories & Loverboy! For fuck sake Loverboy is back at it. I am sure Loverboy will play the Eastside Cannery and your Uncle will be fucking all sorts of hot Grandmas. As for us Hardcore dudes we are stuck with this 7" that doesn't even sound like the Straight Edge Hardcore we grew up loving! At first I was taken back that this wasn't the West Coast version of Youth Of Today that I loved so much, but after the first listen I already loved this in an entirely different way. Sure I was drunk as fuck as my terriers & I rocked out to this, but this is some great Punk Rock with enough Pop to make any Descendents fan finger their butthole. I have listened to this at least 666 times and fuck, at this point in my Life I would rather listen to this & not some dick head reading a poem that goes, When there's Silence Friends need not Speak It's Understood Die I would... Just thinking of that poem makes me barf up last night's cum. Available from Dr. Strange Records, and you can click here to buy it, although I'm pretty sure the orange vinyl 1st edition is long sold out. If you're really hard up to get it though, you could always find it here. :-) Written by GE 138.  Fugazi's first cassette demo is the stuff of Legend. Before Bandcamp, before the Internet, the way bands got you into what they were playing was by handing you a cheap high speed dub of a cassette with the bands songs on them, and if you were feeling generous, or had enough beer money to spare, you'd kick down a few bucks for their effort and for gas money to help get the band to their next gig, and Fugazi, believe it or not, were at one time just another hard working band starting out, a group of friends getting together and playing music just for the fuck of it. If you, like me, were lucky enough to see Fugazi in the early days, before they even had a record out, then you might of gotten a copy of the 9 song demo they were handing out and that people were dubbing copies of and giving away to any one with an ear for the amazing. All the songs on the demo would eventually see the light of day on various later releases throughout Fugazi's musical career, and now, for the first time ever officially, all 11 of the songs that were recorded at that January 1988 session are being released, with all of it sounding incredible, and as a whole it gives you a fascinating glimpse into the intricate inner workings of this crucial band's musical school of thinking. Of course, the songs on here are nothing like the final versions you're familiar with, some more so than others, and to see what made the cut and what didn't musically is just seductive stuff. Some of the songs take on a more eerie, Goth heavy dub type of sound (And The Same), while others are more slinky (Song #1), more noisy (Badmouth), more Punk (Break-In), and more eccentric (Merchandise), although whether planned out or accidental is up to anyone's interpretation. One song on here was used for a compilation (The Word), and it sounds like it could of come off the Repeater album, and the 1 song that has never seen the light of day before that's on here, Turn Off Your Guns, is some pretty adventurous stuff, sounding like later-era Fugazi at it's best. I fucking LOVE listening to shit like this, because I too record every practice session of every band I play with, and that's what all this stuff is, just the sound of a band finding it's feet, testing musical structures, adhering to, and sometimes forgetting, the count, changes, whatever. This was recorded in some guys basement, if you can believe that, and like I said earlier, it sounds fantastic - both sonically and musically. Some bands release demo tracks as bonus material whenever they're trying to flog that dead horse they once called a vital musical career one more time for some much needed cash, and it's very rare that the demo tracks are worth listening to, because let's face it, demo tracks are never really meant to be heard by anybody but the band members, but in the case of Fugazi, the demo tracks are so strong, so interesting, so insightful and powerful, that they deserve a stand alone release like Dischord Records has given them, and I'm really looking forward to the next release like this to come out. I could see a whole 'Fugazi Demos' series of releases coming out of this, and I wouldn't have a problem with that one bit. Nope! :-) Available in every format imaginable from the fine folks at Dischord Records, and you can click here to purchase this release from them directly, as it's just the better, more "Punk Rock" thing to do. Damn the Man! Support Local Business!! :-) Written by GE 138.  There's a whole slew of new bands gigging around Las Vegas as of late, playing the same old 3 chords and beats you learn when you're first beginning to play and treading the same old boards we all did when we first got things going musically with our friends and people we vaguely knew here in Sin City, playing any place and every place you can, because it's all new and fun. Remember that feeling? Probably not. The same things that pissed you old Punx off as a kid still apply to today's youth, things like Cops, the Government, stupid people, druggies, girls, etc., and today's kids aren't doing anything new or original in starting bands and playing fast, obnoxious Punk Rock and yelling into a microphone, just like you did before you ran all out of angst, but when it's done good, well, it can still make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and maybe make you feel like you can go a few minutes slamming around in a circle pit again. You got insurance man, don't worry about it - your bad back can take it! LOL Anyways, this release from a Local up and coming band called Anti-Vision is everything you'd expect a release from a high school band to sound like, which is basically a poorly recorded, short, angry release full of Punk Rock songs with screamed out vocals that sound like the Singer is pretty much anti-everything from what I can decipher, but this release is not without it's charm though. Musically, there's some interesting changes and ideas going on, especially on the songs like Plug In, Slaughter House, Anorexamphetamine, and the song Anti-Vision, but it's hard to tell because of the muddy audio quality of this recording. Reminds me a lot of Aus Rotten or even Circle One if you remember who they were. Like I said, nothing new, nothing spectacular, but it's not that bad for what it is. Vegas has a thriving underground Punk scene, with a bunch of bands paying their dues before they are old enough to go to a bar and check out bands while drinking in the parking lot, as opposed to going to kegger parties and checking out bands and drinking in the backyard (LOL), and this band Anti-Vision is trying to get things going and has their shit together well enough to record this collection of tunes, and for that fact alone you gotta give them credit. Check out this Local band Anti-Vision and see what you think. Hopefully it will remind you of something good that you like and you'll get into what they're trying to do. I don't know if I'm there yet with them, but I give them an 'A' for their efforts! :-) Available from the band at every gig they play. No Place Like Home is also available for streaming and digital download on the Anti-Vision Bandcamp page, which you can go to be clicking here. Like the bands Facebook page by clicking here. |
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March 2022
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