Crisis Hotlines EP on Eradicator Records

Got a single from Eradicator Records here, this one from the Crisis Hotlines a three piece party punk band from Austin with the same kind of rocking, all together yell, easy to catch on chorus as another band on Eradicator, The Hussy.


"(Don't Wanna Go To) No Jail" Yelling right off off with this punk chorus "Don waaanna go! Don Wanna Go! To no jail", it's a rapid fire number, ultra gritty crisp distortion, super clean, almost jittery with changes. The vocals have a bit of that greaser '50s quality, we're all in this together, get in this trashy bar. Definitely not surf, a kind of leather jacket pusher sound focused on the energetic vocal half disappearing into yell. Find that three chord catch wave and ride it for the 45 seconds you can.

"Astral Projection" is this a sample about out of body experiences from Crispion Clover? Creepy intro with a solid bassline and it's all excuse to get right into a hoarse... Astral! Astral! Projection! Reminds me of the Hussy's Astro track. It's a great word to yell at the top of your lungs...a little close to asshole? Not an accident. There's a weird low, didgerido kind of sound, which checking out the liner notes has to be this baritone sax, a super weird sound to throw in the middle of this, maybe nodding to some kind of ska roots, a Reverend horton Heat revelation. It's party rock, and they're capturing the energy of this sweaty mess. Yelling over each other, it's as much about trying to sing over each other as it is driving the heck out of this rhythm to the inevitable crash head on into a brick wall. No brakes.

B-Side the aptly titled "Punch me in the Face" is actually a slower, gutteral distortion filled track with the title chorus "Punch YOU in the face" something about a party, maybe over a girl, so that it's from the POV of the guy he punched? Looking in the mirror the last night was a blur. These three would be a force to be reckoned with, you mess with one of them, you better be ready to just go down. It's trudging along with a thundering tom rhythm foundation. It's the clouded morning after sad realization this is just another normal day.

"Explorers" has a lower talky vocal delivery, sort of monotone and new wave sounding in how minimal it sounds compared to the rest of this take over party ride. You can hear a little bit more of the Minor Threat sound here or the Buzzcocks...it's got more of that thin, just figuring out how to record sound that's classic to this genre. Nuts and bolts showing. It's making me realize I think I might like these guys more if they weren't trying to get drunk, fight and go to jail all the time. But I get it, that's more fun.

Pick it up over at the Eradicator Records bigcartel store.

These Austin, TX guys really nail the obscure 80’s punk feeling right on the head without sounding redundant or dated. It seems like Austin just breeds this kind of punk. Contains members of Lost Controls, Sex Advice, Love Collector and former Horribly Wrong.
Full Colour Covers
100 on jailbird yellow
400 on jailcat black

The Hussy on Eradicator Records

Today's single is from Wisconsin big shots, The Hussy. I ended up getting this one from Bobby himself (on green!) out of the backseat of his car in the pouring rain after their ridiculously awesome set at The Archeron. He told me the craziest story about this blurred out double exposed sleeve photo, which involved not being able to sleep, nudity and found photos scattered all over the floor. Now that I'm looking at it it could also be medical textbook documentation of a 'weed seizure', the title of their full length I've been steadily spinning since that fateful almost Great White show...a little tip...beer and lighter fluid just spreads the flames...ALL OVER THE FLOOR!

A-Side's "Stab Me" is off their latest on Tic Tac Totally and it deserves to have it's own special highlight A-Side here, completely blows the doors off as usual... The Hussy on this whole new record finds them tighter than anything previously and makes all the gritty, raw guitar sound slick as hell. It also looks like Bobby has been recording and mixing everything of The Hussy's lately, including some bands on his own Kind Turkey Records.
He's distilled Weed Seizure into a really concise pop punk right down to every bell chime? There's some weird things happening just under the surface of these tracks but when you've battle tested every chord by the time you get to recording, you've probably got an idea of what this should sound like better than anyone else.
So I imagine Heather and Bobby (after a weed seizure of course) saying "Hey I wonder if we could get away with a flute sound mirroring this guitar track on the right channel?" Nestled among the handclaps and doubled vocal, greasy guitar, kicked out boom drums, it sounds like... yes you can.
That's why when you get to Turkatron, you're hearing for The Hussy what is the equivalent of a 4track cassette demo for crying out loud. It's got all the attention to detail of the bigger tracks, but the physical whallop is more restrained, and it's what makes b-sides throughout history so god damn important. Here's an early incarnation of this massive sound, but how they get from there to "Undefined" is anyone's guess. Heather gets familiar with the reverb back off in the distance under a little thinner drum track and takes the reins on this brief number.

B-Side's "Hard to Erase" is back into their greaser onslaught, what makes this feel kind of B-movie Cramps is the sheer enthusiasm they approach these tracks on their records. Bobby's belting out these vocals, and I'm not just thinking of the live show, they're dedicated to this chorus sound, and catching as much... straining as much sound out of that duo archetype, every last wave, every note.. crash and scuzz is compacted down into power pop punk. Ending with a bang.
"Molly Molly" is a Midwest Beat cover with that crazy echo on the vocal, everything is incredibly dense with possibly even some synth on this one. They always avoid that repetitive trap, by not letting it continue long enough to ever hear it really come back again but Bobby isn't resting on just any three chords, he always feels like he's packing the limits of melodies into a single measure. Solo the sam hill out of this section over here.

A crazy solid entry point from Eradicator Records if you still need proof positive to get on that larger format for a seizure inducing dose of...The Hussy. 4 colors still available!

The Midwest Beat 4 song EP on Eradicator Records

Here's another single up today from Eradicator Records, this one from The Midwest Beat, seems to be working on a super-pop, packed with catchy harmonies and hooks reminiscent of '60s garage and psych, but keeping things seriously crafted, leaning towards the brief, hook packed 4 song EP. That might have something to do with a midwest snowbound work ethic, the antithesis of smoking doobies at the beach...or an appreciation for those Kinks style garage origins that has never really gone by the wayside.

"Back to Mono", the first track on the A-Side goes right into a jangly, bouncy guitar rhythm. I learned that Logan, who's not even the regular lead vocalist is front and center on this, (thanks to the kind turkey blog) he's got an out of control enthusiasm which shows up across the entire band. There's a great bending guitar in this faux surf style for the breakdown that serves to bring this stuff back even harder when the chorus comes back. These guys have this insane energy, the punching in of harmonies, pushing this one forwards...and fast.
"Blind Flower Girl", starts up with no break from the first track, slowed down and reminding me, with this raspy scratchy vocal, of a Replacements type track, with a lot more harmonies. By the end another surfside guitar is furiously picking and the jangle is back. They're laying a vocal harmony on thick and heavy, almost in a Creedence type hyper-country. There's something far away from garage about this, it's a pretty straightforward rock, with a heck of a lot of energy they can't help but let loose constantly.

The B-Side starts out with "Sexi Ladi" a Hussy cover (!) who by the way have a bunch of new stuff coming out this year and they must be pretty psyched to have a cover on someone else's record already. The Midwest Beat's version sounds like it cleans up the original, taking it way back to those '50s surf jams down the beach from the garage. They have a heavy whammy bar bend, lots more handclaps and in place of Bobby's mischief sounding vocal, they lay on more of a layered approach with insane ammounts of vocals, everyone throwing in their sweet harmony as usual jam packing this in. "Smile Like a villain then takes a turn towards the psych acoustic, like a Strawberry Alarm Clock burner, full of their handcrafted vocals, distorted through all kinds of different patina's. Here there sounding a lot like the Fresh & Onlys, across this whole EP even, the same kind of pop experimentation. There's a lot of ways to create a psych-pop song and The Midwest Beat sound like they've got to try them all.

Get this one from Eradicator Records:

ER22 Midwest Beat "Back To Mono" 7"


Four song EP 7” by Wisconsin’s best “angry bubblegum” band The Midwest Beat. Obviously the whole EP pays homage to the 60’s vibes fans of the Beat have come to expect, but it’s definitely a unique Midwest Beat release. From the striking cover art, to the beautiful candy blue vinyl, the package is excellent. The Midwest Beat are ever expanding, both in style and delivery, both musically and lyrically. I’m glad the Midwest Beat once again showed us their extended depth. Great single by a great band. Buy it!-Bobby Hussy

The only thing cuter than a curious cat, is a curious cat in a sweater.

Moscow Moscow Moscow on Eradicator Records

Two things came to mind with this single, first I wonder if Eradicator records has anything to do with the Kids in the Hall and the ski mask character running around racketball courts, and then the band name being Moscow Moscow Moscow, all I hear is an annoying girl from the Brady Bunch. I'm lame.

Eradicator looks to be distro-ing everything from Almost Ready's entire catalog to The Hussy to The Spits, so this single is starting out in good company, but at the same time I wasn't expecting a 4 song EP of no-wave surf instrumentals from this duo of escaped prisoners* (see above sleeve).

A-Side's "Surfin' USSR" has a direct sounding scuzzy, one note at a time melody with all the rough slide sound of fingers on heavy guage strings and appropriately spazz wipeout style drums. Let's play melodies, since we're from the former soviet union we don't know English, don't expect vocals.
"Feeling Squamish (A Love Song)" is more of this bizarre rigid surf sound, but this drummer is on speed or something, he just seems to be playing twice as fast as any of this calls for, in a great way. The guitar is getting into layered chords this time, fancy picking and an acoustic is back there somewhere. My favorite track, hearing those messed up harmonies, letting the melody get twisted around into each other.
"North of Vomit" starts to sound like Half Japanese, they're a little bit more damaged here, the unassuming melodic pieces fitting together like a puzzle, but maybe its just the ways it's played that comes off like some kind of experimental jam. This one is pretty rough, the near misses keep this feeling pretty raw and spontaneous, not like Stalin's lockstep marching.
"Hammer, Sickles and Girls" Vocals! Repeat the title! They are taking this russian thing seriously, what was up with that Born in the USSR song? I want these guys to cover it all. A Link Wray Prinzhorn Dance School style, or an art brut science project. I bet these guys met in art school, this has thesis project written all over it. The conceptual look, down to the titles, hell they're a living museum to fascist style. We. Are. Rocking. out. Yeah! Down with the US. Makes the whole thing seem kind of ridiculous, was there ever really a cold war? We weren't really going to shoot nukes at the russians right? I mean that would have destroyed the whole planet!!! Dummies.

On red vinyl handnumbered in half cut sleeve, Eradicator says:

Dennis the Red menace and Red Sonja did it again. Hopefully this record want cause as many death threats as their first record. Red Sonja is truly the most talented guitar player kicking up dust as she stomps around on her Tetris cubes while Dennis follows Reds beautiful guitar lines with some of the most primitive drumming around.
They say that when it's cold in Russia you should throw another Moscow record on the turn table to warm things up. Here's four more songs to get you through those mid season blues. Three original instruMental stompers and one fucking blazer of a shouter.
Limited to 100 PHOTO COVERS ON RED VINYL
Limited to 100 SHAPES COVERS ON RED VINYL