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Get Dead – Dancing With The Curse

I’ve been pretty uninspired for a few months now. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was pretty upbeat. Working from home, being creative, and generally enjoying things to the fullest extent possible with the obvious restrictions. As spring drifted, summer languished, somehow we careened straight into fall. With that passage of time I have become a bit despondent. Colors have dulled. Highlights and lows have all reached their eventual entropy. Sometimes though, every now and again, you get a little bit of a boost.

Today’s boost arrived in the form of a brand new album from San Francisco’s Get Dead. “Dancing With The Curse” is out on October 9th, on the now venerable Fat Wreck Chords. What can I say, it’s a cathartic delight.

We were given a teaser of the album at the end of summer, via video for the intro track Disruption, a syncopated punk/rap number. The lead track segues into the remaining 11 tracks in a seamless fashion. The tracks move in and out of tempos from the fast-slow-fast-faster-slow-slower-fast-faster-slow keeping the sound swirling around in your gray matter.

Elements of folk, rap, ska, and reggae flavor the tracks and the band’s punk rock DNA. It makes for a lively album, one which repaves well worn ground with fresh new layers. It’s good stuff. It’s dynamic. You know what I’m saying?

Things, of course, are delivered in a patently dark fashion, tonally, but especially lyrically. That’s what keeps us coming back, right? Take some lines from track 4: Stickup

Did you really think
You could start again
This place is collapsing
Hordes of incontrollable bastards
They are coming for you
It feels like this place is cursed
So do your worst
We are all going down

It’s not the sort of thing that engenders a lot of hope, not in a traditional way at least. There’s a certain comfort in knowing that you’re doomed, and it’s always nice to have a soundtrack to that feeling.

But, you know, there is hope. From track 7: Hard Times

Trouble breathing?
Feel like something’s wrong?
Have you felt like
It’s been like this for too long?
Is your heart beating?
Can you hear this song?
Then everything is okay

Maybe there will be better days? I know it made my day better.

Here’s the deal, there’s a new album by Get Dead and it’s the shit, as the kids used to say.

Cheers!
Jerry Actually

Tracks:

Disruption
Nickel Plated
Fire Sale
Stickup
Glitch
Confrontation
Hard Times
8 Track
Green’s Girl
Pepperspray
Confidence Game
Take It

Bio:

There aren’t a lot of bands like Get Dead around these days. Instead of worrying about gimmicks and trends, this fivesome from San Francisco, California have always focused on the music and that’s evident with every passion-filled note they play. Get Dead started out performing together in 2007 after their respective bands called it quits and eventually attracted the attention of NOFX frontman Fat Mike who produced the band’s first full-length, “Bad News”, as well as their new full-length, “Honesty Lives Elsewhere”, and released both records on his label Fat Wreck Chords.

Quaker Weddings – In Transit

We are living in a fucked up world, engulfed in chaos. Everything is fucking broken. Occasionally though, a small burst of joy breaks through. One such joy is unsolicited albums arriving at my door.

The new album, In Transit by New York trio, Quaker Wedding landed on my doorstep, predicated on the assumption that “Upstarter” generally digs The Lawrence Arms. That assumption has shown to be true, because “Upstarter” digs the hell out of Quaker Wedding.

Anyone that’s been here for a few know that I am a bit partial to the punk trio format. I like the rawness it often creates. It has more guts; seems more real. In Transit is no exception.

Gruff, exasperated, and emotive vocals are draped over chunky 4:4 punk rock riffs. The tracks, though clearly forged in punk rock, are delivered in an ethereal, dreamlike manner. Flitting and drifting from one angsty bit to the next. In another world, this album would be emo, and I’m totally alright with that.

Quaker Wedding’s In Transit has got it where it counts, right in the guts. A fine recording, for your listening pleasure. My only lament, I suppose, is that this album needs to be longer.

For fans of: The Lawrence Arms, American Steel, Hot Water Music, Soul Asylum, Things that are filled with angst.

Cheers!

Jerry Actually

Tracks:

1. Sinking Ship 01:19
2. Dark Thoughts II 02:56
3. Jilted Lover 03:56
4. Wrecking Ball 03:50
5. Vermont 03:56
6. Sleep 01:48
7. Aching 00:53
8. Knowing Smile 03:12
9. Searching 03:32
10. On An Island 07:29

Split – Voidcrawler & Deconvolution

I was in the mood for something a little more brutal today, and well, I guess I’m in luck. I’m listening to the new split with Deconvolution and Voidcrawler; Four tracks of pure fucking onlsaught!

The EP opens with blistering metal as Deconvolution belts out “Sanctimonious”. A track lodged between some seriously dark metal, and later era Hardcore. Razor vocals, but not screamo, inserted into a crushing metal cacophony of bass, guitar, and drums.

Track two, “Guillotine” introduces itself at a slightly slower pace, only to accelerate into Slayer speeds. It owes as much to 80s Thrash as it does to 90s Death metal.

Track three brings us into Voidcrawler territory. “Certain Fatality” offers further sonic assault. Relentless chugging riffs and an angry growl grip you straight by the throat. The song winds down with what I can only describe as death by weed wacker.

The final track “Torment” bursts at the seams with unbridled anguish, the very torment the title invokes. Extreme metal solos lace the tracks and neatly sew up its bone crushing grind.

A brief, yet brutal split from bands who, if they haven’t been, would be right at home at Wacken Open Air. (During some better year, when music festivals return)

Tracks:

1 Deconvolution- Sanctimonious

2 Deconvolution- Guillotine

3 Voidcrawler- Certain Fatality

4 Voidcrawler- Torment

Press Release:

Blindsided Records’ 4th release is about to be unleashed into the world. A 7” vinyl record featuring Voidcrawler (NL) & Deconvolution (CH), each taking up one side of the wax. Having played together several times the combination was a slamdunk as the music from both outfits complement each other perfectly. The riff filled record will drop both digitally and physically on 7” vinyl on June 12th, 2020.

DECONVOLUTION will kick off the record with raw hardcore combined with juicy thrash metal riffs. The Swiss band, hailing from Solothurn, has been working hard since 2015 and released their first EP ‘Fool’s Path’ in 2017. Sharing the stage with major hardcore bands Terror, Broken Teeth, Hawser and Expire to name a few, they gained momentum in the European hardcore scene. A promo cassette was released in 2019 and Blindsided Records is more than proud to feature them on this record.

On ‘Sanctimonious’ the band talks about the annihilation of our world, two faced politicians and the destruction of the environment. ‘Guillotine’ is about a group of people suffering and rising up against their leader through violent means. It’s easy to draw parallels with certain US leaders as the symbolic monarch, especially in these trying times.

Side two is occupied by the most terrifying band in the Netherlands, VOIDCRAWLER. In just two years the Dutch band have already played shows all over Europe and released their acclaimed EP ‘Maddening Descent’ last year. The band produces an unique blend of extremely angry metal and hardcore. Lyrically frontman Lennart explores similar themes as DECONVOLUTION, for example he imagines the end of the world on ‘Certain Fatality’.

Blindsided Records
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Voidcrawler
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Deconvolution
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Broken Trojan – Indecent Exposure

A quick and dirty one for Indecent Exposure, the debut full-length from Kansas City based Broken Trojan. 16 spankin’ tracks from the BBQ ravaged, storm-addled hellscape of the midwest.

The sound is definitely old school, a defiant low-fi, wash of sound, with gruff, but not growling vocals. Crunchy distorted riffs, with rumble bass, and popping drums. Guitar solos are sometimes tinny and dissonant, yet oddly compelling.

Tracks hover slightly in the power ballad territory of the two and a half minute average, but tempo changes help to keep things fresh and keep your attention. The style is an eclectic blend of punk and sludge with a smattering of other styles, e.g. some darker ska-esque sounds on Track 5. “Modern Day Slavery” and Track 12. “Fuck Boy”. Lyrics across the album are in both English and Spanish, depending on track, adding to the dynamic style blend.

Personal favorite part is likely the spongy/springy bass intro on Track 10. “Parasitic Memories”. Favorite track is: 15. “Rot”.

All and all Indecent Exposure is a solid if mildly perverted romp through the raw sounds of Kansas City’s Broken Trojan.

Cheers!

Jerry Actually

Tracks:

1. Indecent Exposure 03:36

2. Grimace the Menace 01:48

3. Bonafide 02:05

4. Triggered 02:41

5. Modern Day Slavery 02:45

6. Necio y Travieso 02:14

7. What Comes Around 02:16

8. Shattered Sexpectations 02:31

9. Mindfuck 02:46

10. Parasitic Memories 02:01

11. Bruce Jenner 02:37

12. Fuck Boy 02:19

13. Me Too 02:53

14. Me Vale Madre 02:28

15. Rot 02:38

16. Serial Cheater 03:06

Bio:

BrokenTrojan were formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 2017 by former members of Blindfolded Hero; A unique style of punk rock with a variety of punk related influences. The band was formed after being introduced to a Vermonter neophyte whose gothic metal influences immediately meshed with the BrokenTrojan “straight-up, no bullshit.” attitude.

THE LAWRENCE ARMS ANNOUNCE SKELETON COAST OUT JULY 17

THE LAWRENCE ARMS
ANNOUNCE SKELETON COAST
OUT JULY 17

SHARE NEW TRACK
“PTA”

Chicago bred trio The Lawrence Arms will release Skeleton Coast, their first album in six years, on July 17. The band offers fans a glimpse at the record with the release of the first single from the new record, “PTA.”

Skeleton Coast was recorded 30 miles east of El Paso, TX at Sonic Ranch Studios with longtime producer Matt Allison. It was kind of like album camp in the sense that we were in this very remote setting for two weeks and really focusing on making the record. That was a very different experience for us because we’ve always made our records in Chicago which is home and all the things about home are in the way,” says vocalist and guitarist Chris McCaughan.

The album contains the elements of the band’s sound that fans have come to love for the past two decades but recontextualizes them in a way that somehow sounds perfectly aligned with this strange time in our collective history. Although it was written and recorded before the Coronavirus upended the world, the band’s seventh studio album sounds eerily prescient as it imagines an apocalyptic future where coyotes croon and wolf packs roam free. “For a band who has been around as long as us, this is about as urgent of a record as we could make,” vocalist and bassist Brendan Kelly explains. “It may be kind of dark but it’s really about searching for light in the darkness and finding it, as small as those moments may seem. That’s sort of where we’re at: Collecting the scraps of things that could make for a bearable existence in dark times.”

SKELETON COAST TRACK LISTING
1. Quiet Storm
2. PTA
3. Belly Of The Whale
4. Dead Man’s Coat
5. Pigeons and Spies
6. Last Last Words
7. Demon
8. Ghostwriter
9. How To Rot
10. Under Paris
11. Goblin Fox Hunt
12. Lose Control
13. Don’t Look At Me
14. Coyote Crown

The Lawrence Arms have never had any agenda apart from just having fun and making good music. Since forming in Chicago in 1999—the trio of bassist/vocalist Brendan Kelly, guitarist/vocalist Chris McCaughan and drummer Neil Hennessy—have made albums that continually challenge the boundaries of their sound. In the process they’ve carved out a distinctive identity in the punk community that’s simultaneously gritty, beautiful, melodic and mutinous.

The Lawrence Arms by Ben Pier

For more information on The Lawrence Arms, visit:
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