another catching up/recap post aka yup, i'm still here!

columbus DIY is raging hard into the summertime now. the basements are steamy and the shows are many. every band is on tour this summer and columbus happens to be one of the treasured staples of tour. (let's try not to mention how spoiled our scene is currently.) lots of new bands bubbling up, and things are surprisingly staying fresh and interesting. here's some of my recent flicks from a couple of shows, please follow the links to see more!!


painkiller @ crackhouse 05.12.09



defiance, ohio @ skylab 05.04.09
http://defianceohio.terrorware.com/



the effort @ LOD 05.20.09
http://xeffortx.blogspot.com/



heath deadger @ monster house 05.23.09
http://myspace.com/heathdeadger



nukkehammer @ 15th house 06.05.09

photos: some DIY hc/punk shows jan/feb '09

drought, the radiant hour, kurt russell @ legion of doom 02.12.09

pictured here: kurt russell. the singer on the top right was bleeding all over the place.
click here for slideshow.

wildcat revival, kurt russell, reverse the curse, red sun @ legion of doom 02.03.09

pictured here: wildcat revival. the singer caught a cymbal to his nose at the end of the set and was pretty bloody.
click here for slideshow.

born bad, vile gash @ 15th house 12.28.08

pictured here: born bad. pretty sure the singer was bleeding from somewhere by the end of the set.
click here for slideshow.

ADD/C, landlord, peccadillos (aka panty hearst), welcome to concrete @ 15th house 01.01.09

pictured here: welcome to concrete. no known bleeding at this show.
click here for slideshow.

little lungs, ps eliot, the read, saintseneca @ legion of doom 01.04.09

pictured here: myself steppin' it up with the little lungs crew. bloody nice lads, they.
click here for slideshow.

we were skeletons, half gorilla, bubonic bear, daisycutter @ legion of doom 01.05.09

pictured here: half gorilla. even if there wasn't blood, there should have been.
click here for slideshow.

mountain asleep, heath deadger @ monster house 01.06.09

pictured here: mountain asleep. no blood, but there was a super soaker filled with root beer.
click here for slideshow.

bonus set from scanned negatives: fun people @ robot house 10.27.00

pictured here: fun people. blood oranges?
click here for slideshow.

cave 9 - birmingham, AL DIY space documentary

part 1 of 2

part 2 of 2

one can never stress enough how important it is to support your local/independent DIY communities. especially these spaces that struggle to provide a safe place for people to come together on the common ground of art, music, and even just plain old togetherness. talk to someone new, start a band, start a zine, make a blog. do it yourself.

visions of change - my minds eye LP

visions of change are not a band you hear about very often, which is a terrible shame.  i discovered this band partly by accident, partly by intuition.  you know the kind of game you play when browsing for records: filter through all the common crap, all the uncommon crap that you know isn't interesting.  then something catches your eye, perhaps it's the name of a band that you read about years before in the puszone, or MRR, or some other review.  maybe it's the artwork that sticks out, or a band name that piques your interest.  in this case it was a combination of the artwork on their first album along with the name of the band that struck a chord somewhere inside of me.  it also helped that the band were british.  luckily, i was shopping at jerry's records in squirrel hill, pittsburgh, where they have a few turntable listening stations set up to try before you buy.  the insert had a few good visual cues, too, but it was when the needle dropped that i was quickly sold.

visions of change played (active throughout the late 80s, as far as i know) a solid mix of melodic hardcore with a bit of a paisley bent (perhaps it's the hammond organ!).  i was going to write that they are maybe comparable to snuff, or later-era government issue and seven seconds, but this band really had their own sound going on drawing equal influence from the hardcore of the time, punk, and the soul/garage sounds of the 60s.  the band actually released a few records under the name "the depraved" before deciding to propel out of a stagnant HC scene, changing the name and taking the music in a little different direction.  the depraved albums are also brilliant and are worth tracking down if you like this.  my mind's eye is their second of two albums, i do believe.  not sure of any other records that may have released.



visions of change - my minds eye [vinyl rip]

mp3 320kbps VBR [57.58 MB]
http://lix.in/-3871ab
01 endless
02 still tomorrow
03 witness
04 i see in you
05 what i want
06 when i talk to you
07 intention
08 an accountant like miranda

vocalist ian murphy can now be heard in the absolutely fantastic UK hardcore punk outfit, section 13.

you can read an interview with visions of change from flipside magazine in the operation phoenix records internet punk zine archive here.

AG Aloe - self-titled EP - hyper-frenzied japanese punk rock

AG Aloe are another one of those bands that the internet provides nothing but a black hole inside of another black hole when digging around for information.  i've had this intense little platter since it came out in '96 or '97, purchased from the all-mighty vacuum mailorder (RIP).  if you're not familiar, vacuum was probably the best mailorder for hardcore/punk back in the mid-to-late 90s.  not only did they have a large selection finely tuned to my very tastes, but they also were very VERY timely with shipment.  sometimes you wondered how it was possible to have received your order so quickly.  i could place an order (this is snail mail, mind you) on a monday, and have goods in hand, along with an updated catalogue, by thursday!!  i'm sure you could understand the addiction this quickly caused.



i first heard this wild EP when i was DJing at KDVS in davis, ca.  DJ rick had a show which showcased tons of amazing punk and hardcore, new and old, from all over the world.  i became a devoted listener.  i would often make entire orders of records i'd heard on his show, many of which he announced getting from said mailorder.  the day i heard the needle drop on this, i knew i had to have a copy.  the band played with the speed and ferocity of fingerprint, yet had the pop sensibilities and wackiness of say, action patrol.  the description in the nat records ad included inside the 7 inch says "funny & melodic HC a la flag of democracy from osaka."  nat records, out of osaka was the label that put it out. 

i do not have any further information about this band, other than this EP exists, and it rules.  if anyone has any further infos, i would love to hear about it!  enjoy!

AG Aloe - AG Aloe EP [vinyl rip]
http://lix.in/-380405
mp3 320kbps VBR [31 MB]

01 newcomer is my boom
02 i run viewtto
03 saifu de knife
04 ni gi mi
05 sunday morning (early?)

cola freaks, forever, shannon and the clams, cars can be blue, jelly hearts, ignorant motherfucker @ monster house 10.18.08

click here to view the slidehshow on flickr.

after a bit of musical chairs for a last-minute space for cola freaks to play, we ended up adding them to a monster house show after broke as a joke canceled an hour before the show was to begin at the legion of doom.  even already with five bands, the monster house show actually worked out really well.  each of the other bands were really good and the entire evening kept with an extremely positive vibe.  cola freaks capped off the evening and melted minds.  my favourite of the other bands were called forever, and sort of had a tilt meets x kind of sound. plus, they ended their set with a cover of academy fight song by mission of burma, which was really nice to hear. 

click some links below to discover some sweet sounds of the bands that played that night.
shannon and the clams | ignorant motherfucker | the jellyhearts | forever | cars can be blue | cola freaks

photos: boom boom kid, samothrace, an albatross, and more!

too many amazing shows this week, so you get one post instead of a flurry of smaller individual posts.


boom boom kid, samothrace, empire, lose the tude @ lod 10.08.08



click here for the slideshow.


an albatross @ summit station 10.07.08

click here for the slideshow.


heath deadger, ignorant motherfucker @ lod 10.06.08

click here for the slideshow.

and now having said all that, i'm off to catch lemuria, gordon gano's army, and the sidekicks at the monster house! cheers!

screaming females, cop on fire, nukkehammer, night of pleasure, reflect @ lod 09.30.08

 

click here to view the slideshow on flickr.

fantastic show with a largely varied bill at the legion of doom.  nice turnout with lots of new faces.
click some links!
screaming females | night of pleasure | cop on fire | reflect

dean dirg, bill bondsmen, heath deadger @ monster house 09.27.08

click here to see the slideshow on flickr.
[all photos taken on my 6 year old, taped-together 2.0 megapixel digital camera]

what a completely fun show.  i'm really into three-band shows.  anything more these days it seems, exceeds my hardcore attention span.  bill bondsmen opened up with some gritty, raging hc, but these guys seemed maybe a little too light-hearted coming from blown-out detroit, perhaps they're not from detroit proper.  regardless, they put down some solid riffage that set the tone for the remainder of the evening.  dean dirg, all the way from germany, followed up with theirshort blasts of intense and catchy hardcore punk, complete with chanty choruses.  their live performance did not disappoint in the least.  they sounded pretty amazing, super tight, and somehow very close to their records.  maybe they recorded them live in a basement?!  their setlist resembled a groceries receipt, some 25-30 songs long, and they just plowed right on through it flawlessly.  heath deadger capped off the night with an unexpected tremendous debut.  born out of the bandluck band lottery earlier this year, they were pretty much the only ones to persevere the consequences.  not sure what happened to any of the other bands from the bandluck lottery, but HD certainly nailed it for what it's worth.  mickey pulls of growling vox, fronting this skate-thrash hc unit with ease.  also to their credit, starting a band in this style of music without all of the flip-cap-bandanna posturings is a very welcome gesture in my book.  kudos to a new band for columbus that seems quite promising.  let's hear a demo soon, heath deadger!

dissystema, nukkehammer, nightfall, pancreatectomie @ lod 09.22.08

nukkehammer	pancreatectomie
nightfall	dissystema

click each photo for more on flickr.  or click here for the slideshow.

pancreatectomie opened the show with a killer set of disgusting medical/gore grind rounded out with a few (maybe too short) mosh parts, too bad it was their last show for a while.  demo and other releases coming soon!  nightfall were up next and fucking set the tank on steamroller.  ripping three piece dis-crust, all three members also of dissystema, who (+1) were up next and thrashed through a similar set of epic metallic crust.  nukkehammer closed the show with their scandi-bulldoze style of hardcore.

   nukkehammer recorded a face-melter of a demo, which will be released on cassette sometime soon.  in the meantime, get your fix in the mp3 format here.

vile gash @ skylab 09.20.08

click the photo to see the slideshow.



vile gash are the new chapter in columbus hardcore. if you're not offended enough by the name, try make it out to one of their shows. several extremely limited tapes available from angry andy in person, first 7" out on youth attack! records on the come up.

photo roundup: cult ritual, dangerbird, reflect, lose the 'tude and more!

lose the tude	lose the tude	pancreatectomie
cult ritual	cult ritual	dangerbird
reflect	vile gash	couch forts

 each picture links to its own flickr page, you can click to the sets from there.