There's just something about short but sweet releases from bands. Eliminates the need for filler, leaving just the meat and potatoes, which is what any good consumer of anything wants anyways, the basics. Get rid of the bullshit. Just give me the bare basics, that's all I need, and that's all you get with this 4 song release from the incredible Leather Lungs, one of the more productive and most impressive bands gigging around Las Vegas as of right now. This trio manages to pack more rocking power, more dirty reverb, and more spooky sounding riffs into each and every one of their songs, and they do it with a 'fuck you' swagger and drunken, drug induced stumble. This CD is called Are Humans Too, and it's a natural progression from their release last year called Hive Of Scum. The songs are more focused, and the production is waaaaaaay better, despite being recorded at a warehouse someplace. Just goes to show you what you can do with recording equipment these days. Any place can be a recording studio. Band have no excuse not to have something, anything, recorded nowadays. Seriously.

But I digress. The production on here gives the Leather Lungs songs a heavy, Cramps meets Nirvana vibe - not necessarily in subject material or song matter, but more like the rawness of it all. It's real. It's Rock 'N' Roll. I love it. Catchy, hooky, atmospheric Punk Rock and Soul that will get your head bobbing and your foot tapping. The guitar player on here sure knows the power of the riff, that's for sure. Every song just hums and zooms with Jose's guitar reverb soaked musical malarkey, nimble fingered fretwork, and always, always hammering away at the riff. Very cool stuff. The bass player / singer Lafe sneers and howls and screams and breathlessly punctuates every song with attitude and ambiance and a sense of urgency, like, his very life depends on screaming out these lyrics, whatever they are, and just pounding away at that bass of his. And all of this is powered by Steve's drumming that just sits in the pocket and punches and pounds away at the accent heavy drum lines, and he makes a lot of noise while doing so. Like I said, Leather Lungs pack more musical brevity in 4 songs than most bands do in 10. Check out their song The Rag or Death To Shitters, just to get an idea of how hooky, spooky, and just out and out rocking Leather Lungs are. I think they're one of the best bands to be gigging around Vegas right now, and it blows my mind that more people aren't into these guys. They're fucking great, and you're doing yourself a huge disservice in not checking these guys out or being into them. Leather Lungs. The real deal. Believe that.

Available from the band whenever they bother to set up and sell their merch. If not, just hit them up in the parking lot after they play, and they'll find you one somehow, probably from the back of someone's trunk. ;-) Not available digitally, but you can check out 2 songs on the bands Soundcloud page, which you can go to by clicking here. "Like" Leather Lungs on Facebook by clicking here.

This has been a long time coming.

5 brand new Unfair Fight songs; short, angry bursts of passionate hate and unending questioning of everything, all on a glorious white flexi disc that just reeks of old school Punk rockness. Fuck! And the songs, the songs, Holy Fuck are they impressive!! The perfect mix of Chris' and Derek's metal shred riffs and Dan's punk rocking vocals, and whoever is on bass this time around, all behind songs that burst and burn with a terrifying velocity and sniper like deadly sharpness. Think early Neurosis but more dark, more angry, and even more Punk Rock. The opening song Motivational Ramblings, is just, well, frightening. Fear / Is calling / Your name. hahaha It's a great lyric, and as always, the Unfair Fight tunes on here are chock full of them.  We look like children in our own children's eyes, Dan snarls on Mental Detox, which is my favorite song on this much too short release, and it's not because it's 1:38 seconds long, but that helps. ;-)

I'm just gonna come out and say it, fuck what you think, but the drumming of Mr. Pete is the shining fucking star of this release. Punk ferocity, Metal intensity, Thrash complexity. He is all over the place, powering through some harsh explosive drum lines with a hard hitting, machine like quality that's gloriously captured by whoever was working the board at whatever studio they recorded this release at. Not much info was given with the flexi I got, although there was a Jamaican friendship bracelet and some stickers in there, so you see? Payola is alive and well around here at onethirtyeight.org, and so is the Spirit of Punk Rock in the latest jaw dropping aural onslaught from Unfair Fight. It is waaaaayy tooooo short, dammit, clocking in at just a bit under 10 minutes, but it has been on a constant rotation ever since the day I got it. I really can't stop listening to it. It's refreshing. It's invigorating. It's what good, aggressive music is supposed to sound like. It's Unfair Fight, with what is probably the best thing that's going to be released this year, and I'm probably their #1 fan. This release smokes, and every release from Unfair Fight just keeps getting better and better and better, which is scary.

Seek and consume this essential Unfair Fight release up as soon as you can. It is seriously incredible. <3

I dunno if this is still available, but you can ask Unfair Fight the next time you see them play. These 5 songs are available digitally at the Unfair Fight Bandcamp page, which you can go to by clicking here. It's also available on iTunes by clicking here. Become Friends with the band on Facebook by clicking here.

Fuck, this only has two songs on it & I wish there were more! When I saw Good Grief play I was so blown away, I had to leave immediately after they got done playing. In all honesty, that mostly had to do with the next band sucking so much shit.  Good Grief plays Garage (Pop) Punk that would fit perfectly on Dirt Nap Records. If you dig Low Culture, Big Eyes, Radioactivity, Shang-A-Lang, Needles//Pins, The Post Teens… etc., you’ll dig this. I’ll keep this review like this tape, short! Essential!

Physical copies of this are available from every teenage house party these way-too-old-to-be-there guys play. The entire 6 song debut EP from Good Grief is available digitally via Bandcamp for a name your own price, and you can check that out by clicking here. The band has a Tumblr page as well, which you can check out by clicking here.