Violent Bullshit on 25 Diamonds Records

I think a lot of times hardcore is just a signifier for listening to whatever you want. At this point it's a weathered style that's been through a lot of changes but still is always weirdly reinventing itself or just carrying on as fast and loud as usual. The speed and yelling aren't going anywhere. It's always going to exist on the fringes and those are the places that I want to go. Brooklyn's Violent Bullshit is made up of part Orchid, Panthers, Les Savy Fav, Halfman and Black Army Jacket and in their own nostalgic combination of origin hardcore writing songs that are short because you don't need to repeat that chorus over and over. We get the point and they don't have time to waste boring you with another verse. This six song EP is entitled "Age of Quarrel II by Amon Duul III' and I have no idea what that means.

A-Side's "Stain of length" has choked guitars and a yelling buried vocal that turns into a West Coast skater sound for a second, the Suicidal Tendencies strain and then goes real huge, everything mixed really tight with a nod to that classic texture but then piling it on a second time. On "Memorial Day" Jayson gets into his screamy high register snarl while Dan Crowell is pounding the shit out of those drums. I like a chorus with the rest of the band chiming in, like 7 seconds - all I can think of is that halfpipe punk rock. "Soc Moscot's Brass Knuckles" gets as complex and changing as At The Drive In, but feeling less conceptual and more blue collar, like it's after some real blood after a week of bullshit, and maybe that name helps.

B-Sise "DC Intellectual" is all emotion, they put thought into it, but it's important to have this catharisis, the guitars get crazy on this one, hitting off notes in a deliberate attempt to annnoy and them come back together in that post math way, just long enough to start to formulate the equation but it's already solved and they've moved on. "It's complicated" rough raw guitars open for a measure and they're back working this massive layered speed, you know bashing cymbals and screaming. *See band name. "Drunk boys" takes on a real bellowing melody in a weird love song, bursts of YOU'RE THE ONE I WANT FOREVER! They mine those primal urges and then puke them out into a hardcore punk sound. I can barely keep up. Thanks for the lyric sheet in this case its actually enlightening, all of their black and white photos are blurry because this is a sweaty lound mess of a show, and they never stand still for a second. Is this a catharsis for us or them?

Get it from 25 Diamonds Records.

Ex Nuns on 25 Diamonds Records

It was a sad day when I heard that Hydra Head had decided to shut it's doors. Out of nowhere this label that had introduced me singlehandedly to so many great bands like Isis, Boris and Pelican couldn't make it worth it to keep the lights on anymore? I guess when you read all those lazy stories in Newsweek about the return of vinyl ( I literally made that up, but here it is), it still isn't nearly enough to actually make a living. I only started thinking about Hydra Head because of this latest single from Ex Nuns on 25 Diamonds Records. Ex Nuns would easily fit into that catalog and 25 Diamonds is just the sort of label gong after wildly divergent sounds would snap up this precise post punk with distant roots in shoegaze. Turns out after their previous project, Heirloom, broke up they continued to write dense, static layered-gaze material but eventually scrapped it. They kept the most intense parts that presumably made their way into these two tracks in the form of hardcore post punk.

Maybe that's the weird edge to A-Side's "Dead of Zero" along with the completely insane snare roll from Jeff Truckenmiller his always fast hyper tempo able to include a heavy dynamic in the range of hits; the hard hard hard soft ratatat of this beating doesn't let up. Cymbals crash non stop while higher pitch screeching distortions from multiple guitars roll in like some kind of gritty pop Explosions in the Sky or Jesu. Ian on vocal's is half harmonizing with the higher pitch guitar tones with a content delivery that's almost it's own noise against this crazy speed rock. Jeff makes is determined to be the hardest working guy in this act. Where everyone else is harmonizing with feedback and crunchy distortion tones he had to go and ruin his kit in double time consistently raising the energy and stakes on this post rock. Towards the end of this track I appreciate the play on reverb, with a wet bounce that's loud as hell against these perfectly captured chords of power. Those upper stratospheric melodies make this something other than the thick punk that it should be. It's a massive epic sound that doesn't rest on the plateaus of This Will Destroy You or Mono but delivers it all as if things were already in full crumble, the city, those huge skyscrapers are coming down around you and they just have three minutes to get this track down. It's not going to change the destruction, it's just one of those things you have to do anyway.

B-Side's "Crash Meditation" opens on a low end distortion or fuzzy bass line running that one note straight off a cliff. A higher end is out there like some kind of siren call you can't quite place... where exactly is this high pitch bagpipe sound coming from? Jeff on drums immediately forces this into a higher gear and Ian is deep set into the mix not even attempting to fight with the rest of the instrumentation, secure to be the conscience of the track, the muddy, abstract conscience. Heavily melodic guitars keep this out of the usual punk or heavy hardcore, thanks to a heavy hand of control. They manage to pile sound into every possible crevice without that dense or heavy feeling keeping this light on it's feet. It doesn't even have to stop on a dime lacking any sort of inferiority complex.

Get this on dark brown/green, sludge color vinyl from 25 Diamonds Records.

Optional Body on 25 Diamonds Records

Optional Body is not only made up of guys coming from a long long line of bands, Year Future, The VSS, Angel Hair, Dead And Gone, Some Girls, Camera Obscura, Spacehorse, Champagne Kiss, Vietnam, and The Icarus Line to name a few but vocalist Sonny Kay is the same guy who ran Gold Standard Laboratories for fourteen years releasing incredible stuff of legend from Locust, The Rapture, The Convocation of (I forget how great these records were), The Faint and of course Mars Volta. Omar from Mars Volta eventually co-ran the label with Sonny, something I didn't know before comparing this project to ATDI I swear. I already had a lot of respect for these guys going in with this incredible resume, I didn't need any more pressure to not come off like a complete moron.

But "Surviving Avalanches" has a lot in common with At The Drive In, their frantic rhythms, the manic pounding drums with the guitars going off on single minded tangents. Sonny Kay on vocals is fighting through a distorted echo to push out these abstract post vocals. The kinds of things that hint at being a serious writer in just a piece of a sentence so packed with imagery, it's an entire premise for a trilogy.

Cold birds who dream of sleep in prison shine their beaks.

It's delivered as if this was a shocking memory. Disjointed moments, clips of some kind of situation that only music can describe in such a specific picture, setting the scene while being so obscured at the same time. Things that aren't so spelled out have more weight and the brief patterns of guitars and rhythms bend to cycles of that precise post rock sound. It's so off and running out of the gate that it's a little unsettling. The guitar composed out of non melodic rhythms but in their repetition they wind back around to hinting at those pop combinations. They never go straight but take certain pieces of the formula as a jumping off point to find the same place as those ATDI records which were over just as soon as they started.

B-Side's "Inelastic" comes out with a weirder rhythm, a sort of a twisted post reggae in the middle of a left turn and Rocky on guitar plays with high, piercing chorus sounds. A nightmare island beat in the middle of a storm, lightning crashing all around. They seamlessly change gears into related beats of an entirely different time signatures and this has a sludgier slower tempo that reminds me a lot of These Are Powers, not the digital twisting or heavy electronics but their ghost punk sound. There isn't anything nice or sunny about either of these two tracks, but they aren't obsessed with a dystopian future either. The sleeve points to both of those things already present in the past. History repeats...history repeats...history repeats...

Color or Black Vinyl from 25 Diamonds Records

Wooden Wand on 25 Diamonds Records

There are very few things I know about James Toth's Wooden Wand. I know that he's incredibly prolific and a dead serious songwriter. An artist that hasn't just magically hit on the stuff, he's put in the hard long work. It feels like hard fought talent, Townes Van Zandt hard and I'm willing to go that far in finding a comparison for James. He can sit on stage with a single guitar and it's going to be a compelling performance.

A hard, slow strummed electric opens A-Side's "When Your Stepfather Dies" I always forget what a great vocal he's got as well, there's no overlooking it. He can pick moments to hold back and then solidly delivering on substantial melodies. Like Owen Ashworth from Casiotone's style in a higher register with a huge range of delivery hollaring to half whispering. Setting his somber scene all the way down to the temperature, it's unbelievable this is a single guitar in this rolling ocean rhythm about reminiscing and regrets. The lyrics for this one are the only ones on the reverse of the insert and spelled out like this they hit even harder. If these aren't purely autobiographical then he gets so deep into this character it makes no difference.

"Country Graveyard Soil" starts out with a solitary guitar and his slightly gravelly vocal. It's purely born, after months of hard labor out in the back barn with a couple of friends creating for themselves. But they want to share these highly personal sentiments after all with no expectation of having the attention. It's quietly biding its time, if you don't get it now, you're going to come around in a vulnerable moment. So much room to breathe in these tracks, the abstract imagery about loss and turning things around are just as good as when he's as specific as the first track. Devoting himself to the altar of an acoustic, one of the few people that can get away with it.

A faster strummed rhythm opens on B-Side's "Free Seeds" with that single mic capturing an open strum in a room, this one sort of sounding like Pink Reason with a similar tense desperation.

songs don't get written

in loud and crowded bars

This is Mark Lannegan dark, someone kept his truck and it's time to get out of this bar. Less of that reverb echo on this side, closser and more into his space. He can get to those moments without sounding sorry for himself, with the feeling of the long road. Maybe that's what I hear in Cleaning the Mirror too, knowing a little of what he's been through. Gets catchy with no right to make you sing along with this, except maybe its the only way to look back on this situation now.

On lavender vinyl from 25 Diamonds Records with a spraypainted style two color sleeve, this one screen printed, all tracks exclusive to this release.

Golden Torso EP on 25 Diamonds Records

Based on this color insert in the single from Golden Torso you’re dealing with a four piece of bearded, tattooed giants. They’re understandably crafting thrashy, hardcore tunes and remind me of friends who would be guaranteed to help my grandma cross the street. Like Fucked Up, there’s way more than what you’d expect on the surface. Especially front man Monotone Sweatshirt who growls and yells through "Broken Extra Arms" along with a muted crunch from 2FirstNames on guitar. The amp hum is incorporated into the loose distortion and muscly riff that grinds around like slightly out of sync gears .

Take your arms and jump around / you are dead / in my head

There's an echo of space surrounding these chords when they stop, silent for a moment. A solo breaks through and they’re on to "I Killed Miss Elizabeth". They keep the sound quality appropriately hardcore, they don’t compress or add too much artificial room sound, half of the battle is won is in this recording. Great vocal rhythm in the lyric

Times are rough around this town / this town

They drop out so that bass line can come up front for a minute, keeping the vocal (sonically) clean, he's got a clear message which never stops speeding along. Who wouldn't want to play with this kind of energy? It doesn't give the audience much time to react but that's the inherent strength in the genre. There's no way to break through this aggression, you're powerless - take it in, this show of force with enough real melodic rock to actually move around to. I hear some Hot Snakes speed and complexity minus the crystal production, appropriately rough around the edges.

B-Side’s "Bear Claws" lays on phasery distortion and flying solos, on the attack from the first measure, they seem to be taking disjointed parts and slamming them together, fusing weird little riffs that shouldn't necessarily end up together. A melodic fast solo and the lead trade the spotlight with lyrics about wounds and fathers. “To Hell in July" has a grindy distorted harmony, which starts this tempo before the drums join in. This is most like Fucked Up, maybe in “These sheets are made of cancer!" punctuated with layers of band vocals. This riff bends down into a crowd of vocals, this track is their strongest to me, combining their energy to this point with unique guitar work, especially this crunchy unison part. This isn't typical hardcore that wallows in that end game, this has enough tune to become an anthem to sing along with at their show, and I don't think these guys would have a problem with that.

Cool purple and black smashed swirl vinyl on 25 Diamonds Records.

Red Pens on 25 Diamonds Records

Robert from Moniker records told me about this single from Red Pens, which I ordered right away... turns out this Minneapolis based label, 25 Diamonds sent me a bunch of their other releases just because they were nice...and making up for mailing it a couple days late (that's not even close to late in my book), so when I saw the pack of records, I assumed they were meant for the review and so now they ARE.

Little did I know that Howard on vocals is from the solo project, Busy Signals, not these Busy Signals, (that's a great record also). But his latest project, Red Pens... is a duo arrangement, the best kind with Laura Bennett on drums, and this sounds to be some kind of power psych garage pop. Massively blown out scuzzy layered guitar and snarl.

A-Side, "Next summer" has a massive echo on the vocal, it's loud as hell over this power dirt mix of guitar, all kinds of chorus-y distortion and phase, bleeding through into the drums, turning into this impenetrable mass.  A snotty vocal and power chords, sounding slightly Cramps style Howards vocal goes from a deadly whisper to snotty yell, all under this kind of hazy psych garage sound, exploding at the end of each verse with chorus distortion. Sometimes muting the fretboard, it's an overwhelming alien sound, hardly resembling the original tones. Cymbals have reverb.

"I Run This", on the B-Side, then shows the calmer side of Red Pens with a somewhat quieter electric but that warbling massive echo is still muddling the mix which this time is a slower ballad style sustained vocal. The drums are buried again under all treble and blown out guitar. But when you start out that clear and quiet, it's that contrast they're after. Picking up on that energy, it doesn't tale much to turn this into impenetrable layers of crisp hiss. Sort of a ninties indie sound, with some Make Up type of abandon, big vocals, that rae so effected it almost turns into a sort of alternate persona who's delivering this ramped up energy.

Go check out the Red Pens A-Side track over at 25d's soundcloud page.

This one is on a sort of grey/purple vinyl, simple crayon written center label from 25 diamonds Records.

Teenage Moods on Salvaged Productions Records

Got this one in from Ian over at 25 Diamonds a fairly new (?) label out of Minneapolis....this one has taken it's sweet time getting to the turntable...first getting xeroxed up, folded and hand stamped with 'Teenage Moods' stamp, packed up, then having a time at the post office. Then of course I would sit on this ramshackle pop single for far too long before it hit the record player this morning, but this vintage tattered guitar, thrift store pop is only going to get better. In fact it's almost working in the way that some of this reverb wall of sound homage stuff, but instead this one is going back to the middle nineties and mining some of those home recorded sincere sounds once again.

The A-Side, "Sugar Band" is beginning like a faster Eric's Trip track, those times when they got distorted out with sweeter more polished vocals, going for big sound. This isn't exactly high production, they've sort of moved out to the livingroom at least and have some different microphone options, it's still sounding frantically patched together, making sure to keep the whole thing dripping with cheery pop, and it helps to repeat, "Sweet... sweet". Chained together hyper vocals about this 'sugar' band, all the members chiming in on this pure indie number. The guitar leading a distorted wall, all the layers crashing together in a pinnacle of pop, like those early Lilys tracks. There's a learned student of the harmony and bedroom + garage rocker here. Not too much out there on the interweb about these guys, and for me, it's only working for them.

B-Side's, "Flower Hunting" is still getting away with what should be too damn cute again. This lyric about hunting for flowers (!), with a looping repeating jangle guitar...they leave enough room for this one to still feel loose, and I think it's all this noise that basically balances out that super melodic vocal that at the end of the day is still singing about flowers....the balls...I know it seems like that could never work, but there isn't a hint of irony or jaded listening behind this. Is it romancing that guitar distortion sound again? Is that why Dump, John Davis or GBV are still touchstones of that era, because they made the electric anybody-can-play guitar king again? Between that and laying everything down on a $300 dollar 4-track it was easy to feel like you could be part of the music game. Teenage Moods are far reaching beyond that initial pressing of record, but it's reminding me of the K recs days, and not being such a tough guy.

Get this handmade piece of work from 25 diamonds, (the distro'ers) who look to running out of these! Plus they have a full length? Where have I been...