Cusack on Bitten by the Rest Records

The good dudes from Cusack sent me another one of their singles after their I reviewed their split with laser geyser a little while back, relistening to "prayer for the weak", it still gets me. I'm still in shock when I realize anyone reads this mess and secondly that these guys are from Italy and sadly won't be playing around here anytime soon.
Cusack, as a band name, still strikes me as funny, but then again, this cover of sweet boys could easily have given him a run for his money back in the Say Anything days. It also says a lot about their sound, no nonsense, straight ahead post-hardcore in the professionally produced vein of Hot Snakes. This isn't a fashion show, they're focused on this sound, and are damn good at it. I must have listened to Automatic Midnight and Suicide Invoice a million times, like At the Drive in, they had an energy and sheer force that would literally keep me up sometimes. Cusack finds that same sweet spot, a golden riff and melody combined with that powerful lead vocal that always seems to deserve another spin.

Holy wood on the A-Side, (that's not a typo) they get right down to business finding one of those perfect power punk melodies. These guys really have this sound down, and every crunch of the guitar is recorded perfectly. The vocals have got a little bit of that Jello Biafra delivery, a little bit of vibrato in there and Rick Froberg's serious deep yell.
The layers of guitars working with each other and completely solid drumming, it also is taking me back to Sparta, when that rock formula is elevated by a group of guys dedicated to this craft of writing the most head bobbing song possible.

The B-side Operation Planet X, keeps changing on you, they find little pockets of rhythm and then switch it up, with those great starts and stops out of nowhere. The vocals are real hoarse on this one as he's giving it all up. Not as fist pumping melodic as the A-Side but that's probably just because I can't keep up. It's fast and bordering on hardcore...they can go from that almost too pop anthemic A-Side to bringing it back to older schools of hardcore. Could it be any closer to the Hot Snakes aesthetic? No...it's dead on.

Bitten by the rest Records seem to have that great punk DIY attitute, helping out bands, creating a mini scene of zine's and shows and records that should really spring up everywhere. If nothing else, god bless the internet for getting like minded people like this together with other mini scene's all over to press records and produce for the art of it. I swear if I win the lottery I'll start an endowment to pass out money no strings attached to projects/labels like this. But you can start by sending a contribution of 5 euros to Cusack's big cartel page, or ask those distro's that carry said imports.

CUSACK / LASER GEYSER split 7" on Avant! Records

Just heard about this split single that Avant! Records has available in their distro from two straight up power rock bands out of Italy.

Laser geyser, is up first, great name, it's two ridiculous weird words strung together but completely describes this explosion of frantic post-pop. 'Supervacuum' has a frantic power-chord feel, the thin sounding, punchy, big riffs of Hot Snakes. The unabashed, powerful, produced sounds of compressed layers of distortion, abrupt cuts. Equal parts late '90s emo and hardcore energy, they craft these densely guitar driven rock with multiple layers of spoken/yelled vocals that keep the tracks propelled at insane speed.
'Useless Crash', has more of this exhausting guitar, but they break down to a muted chord chorus section, which is one of those great moments when a band can contain themselves to make a bigger impression by holding out for just a second. It's never about sheer volume, but how quiet you get right before everything comes back in at once.

I wonder if Cusack is named for America's sweet boy, John, but then I would guess everything done somewhere else has to be US-centric...sheesh. Meanwhile this gets even closer to that faster/ screamer Hot Snakes aesthetic or that ATDI side project Sparta...for a while that's all I wanted to hear was those guys and be completely blown away by that massive energy over and over. It's addictive to keep this side playing...
'Prayer for a weak', starts off slow, just a lone guitar riff and builds into those layers of simply distorted guitars running as fast as they can. It's an impressive performance conveying this incredible energy and technical craft.
'In a trice', the vocals on this one go almost hardcore, definitely a rougher, raw feel. Not concerned with melody anymore, they want to see how far they can push themselves and keep the poppiest chords in rotation. The guitars are all up front, change the chorus on a dime, it's all about stringing these huge ballsy riffs together, reminiscent of Bleach.
Impressive tracks from both of these bands keeping that Drive like Jehu, Joan of Arc combination of hardcore and headbanging layered production more than alive.

Avant! suggests getting in touch first before placing an order direct and they can work something out with the insane shipping. You can also try from Cusack's bigcartel store. But I'm betting fusetron and SS will carry these as well, so go check there locally in the mean time.