Kidnapped - Hungry

Kidnapped - Hungry (2018)

Kidnapped from CT play quick and violent grindcore. Charged with tight drums and start-stop blasts of chaos, Hungry is meant to be listened to 6 times in a row as loud as possible in your parents' basement.

At 2 a.m.



Similar acts/sounds: Iron Lung, Spazz, Exposed as Rot, Dropdead, SIEGE, Jarhead Fertilizer, Mind Eraser

Bandcamp
Facebook

NFT's Got You Covered - Favorite Covers of 2015!

Back from hiatus because I love lists and I can't resist talking about my favorite things of the year. So, to get the boulder that is list season rolling, here are some of my favorite cover songs of 2015!

Hot Chip - Dancing in the Dark from Dancing in the Dark EP

If you are like me, then you probably only know Hot Chip from the wacky music video for their 2010 single, "I Feel Better". Well, now I also know that they also do a pretty nerdy synthed-up version of "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen. This cover of one of my favorite Boss jams includes an Everything is Terrible-esque music video and a sprinkling of LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" towards the end. A lot of this cover plus the music video seems overplayed at times but I still enjoy it for what it is; tacky.

Tigers Jaw - In Between Days/Kevin Devine - Lovesong from Devinyl Splits No. 3


Two sincere Cure covers.

Girlpool - Cut Your Bangs from Chinatown

This cover of Radiator Hospital's "Cut Your Bangs" from last year frequently came on while I rode to work on my new bike this summer. Every time I was completely floored by how genuine it was. I personally like both tracks equally but I can't help but think that this version here is a bit more accessible to folks who can't stomach Radiator Hospital's unique vocals. Hell, I'm already seeing videos of people covering this version titled "Me covering Girpool's cover of Radiator Hospital". 

Somebody Kill Me Please - LVL UP from Faux Real II



Faux Real is a compilation of cover songs curated by Father/Daughter Records. The covers are that of fictional bands and singers from TV/films such as The Rutles, Sadgasm from the Simpsons, and The Blowholes from The Adventures of Pete and Pete. My favorite one of the batch this year comes from LVL UP and their rendition of "Somebody Kill Me" via the Wedding Singer. The original sung by Adam Sandler's character had been listening to a lot of The Cure at the time.

Tiny Rick (Let Me Out) - Sorority Noise from Tiny Rick (Rick and Morty Cover)



Another cover from pop culture. Didn't listen to a lot of Sorority Noise this year and I wished I watched more Rick and Morty. Smash this link to listen to the original.

Thou - Even in His Youth from Whatever Nevermind



Another year, another Nirvana tribute album. Out of this year's covers of Nevermind curated by Robotic Empire, I had to narrow it down to the bonus tracks by Thou, especially "Even in His Youth", as my favorites of the pack.

Went with because even with Thou's own signature mutilation, there is still some poppiness that bleeds out from time to time. Well, maybe not "pop" per se, but it does have a little groove to it for a Thou track.

Spazzin' to the Oldies - A Tribute to Spazz 



Probably my favorite tribute album this year, Spazzin' to the Oldies is a 26 song nail gun full of grindcore nails to the face. This is a tribute album for the one and only Spazz. Spazzin' to the Oldies features some damn good grindcore/powerviolence/spastic metal acts from today such as Purge, Godhole, God's America, Brainshit, Chinsniffer and OSK (to name a few that I recognize). If I had to pick a favorite here, I would have to go with OSK's cover of "Spazz vs. Mother Nature" because it includes the banjo outre (no mouth harp, though, but I'll still give credit where it's due).

Old Witch - Gallows from Keeper Split



Old Witch's interpretation of CocoRosie's macabre tale, "Gallows" is definitely my favorite kind of cover song. While there were plenty of true-to-the-original covers I heard this year on and off the internet, I always love a good rework of a song from a different genre or a song given new life. Isn't the whole point of a cover putting your own spin on someone else's work? Isn't playing a song exactly the way it was intended Karaoke?

I'm starting to digress here for a sec but I honestly wish I could list Weekend Nacho's cover of "Tired of Sex" by Weezer. Yes, Weekend Nachos covered Weezer this year. No, it was not the most violent retelling of Pinkerton's #1 hit known to mankind. Instead it was strictly "Tired of Sex" performed as Weekend Nachos playing Weezer. Well hey, there's also "In the Garage", maybe they were just joking around and this is the Weekend Nachos cover I was expecting. Nope. Whistling and all, it's a great cover, but it's no Weekend Nachos cover. Then again, maybe my opinion will change once I get a grip. Maybe I'm just mad they didn't cover "El Scorcho".

Honorary Mentions:

Screaming Females covering T. Swift's "Shake it Off" for the AV Club
Ironlung with Wizard of Ozz covering B. Sabbath's "Electric Funeral"
Leftover Crack covering B. Raum's "Left Legs"
Corrective Measure covering A. Front's "Discriminate Me" (gotta rep Maine Hardcore)
Holy Filth covering M. Otorhead's "Iron Fist" (gotta rep Maine Metal)
And a thanks to any bands that I saw this year cover stuff... a heard a lot of it and it was pretty good most of the time.


Also, I'm sure I missed something very dope.

NFT's Most Interesting Releases of 2014

A little late but 2015 can wait! Here's some stuff from last year you may not have heard.

Idylls - Prayer For Terrene

Prayer For Terrene is an off the walls and almost John Zorn-esque hardcore album from Australia's Idylls. The album includes two tracks that were rerecorded from Idylls' 2013 release Indian Circle, but it's hard to notice them without looking at the titles as the tracks have been polished up and sound much fuller. After all, this album did take Kurt Ballou and a whole engineering team to get the noise that is Prayer For Terrene just right. All in all, this album is sure to open your eyes as much as it does pry open your ears. It's certainly not for everyone but if you are a fan of overly aggressive and noisy hardcore this is a trip worth taking.

Facebook
Bandcamp
Last.fm

Dog / Big Neck Police - Split

From my notes it looks like New York for one reason or another was putting out bands that were catching my attention the most in 2014. While I had heard about Big Neck Police through blogs like Gimme Tinnitus, I actually heard the other half of this album, Dog, through word of mouth. When I went looking for a band with such a simple name, I came up empty-handed. Luckily, I just checked back in with Big Neck Police in November and found this incredibly interesting split with both cats... err, I mean dogs. These two bands almost sound more like they belong in the Washington, DC Dischord days with the way they use their guitars like little knives guarding obscure vocals.

Big Neck Police's side:
Dog's side:

Facebook (BNP)
Last.fm (BNP)
Last.fm (Dog)


Family Planning - John Wayne Frankenstein

Some more obscure music... this time from my home state of Maine. Family Planning is Billy Carr's full band now featuring Jesse Heasly on bass and Peter McLaughlin on every inch of the drum kit he could find. What makes John Wayne Frankenstein so interesting to me is how eerily addictive I find Carr's vocals. Reminding me of the mysteries that were my cousin's house or how to eat with my mouth closed, this album brings me back memories I haven't thought up in years.


John Wayne Frankenstein was one of a few albums from Portland that was released on Peter McLaughlin's very cool new record label, Pretty Purgatory. Check out that label and the "pledge" system that goes along with it!

Facebook
Last.fm

Salem's Pot - ..Lurar ut dig på prärien

While Salem's Pot wasn't the only Sabbath worshiping band to release lengthy epics this year - I'm looking at a you, Pallbearer - Salem's Pot are, as you can probably guess from the name, a bit more on the psychedelic side. With that advantage and the obvious influence of early doom music, Salem Pot probably make the most interesting Sabbath-inspired music today.



Facebook
Last.fm

Jizue - Shiori

If you were like me this year the most Jazz you listened to was that jazz-drum-solo Birdman soundtrack. I did however listen to Jizue of Japan's new release Shiori, which might not have been straight jazz, but included everything from jazzy math rock to coffee house pop to math rap. Some of what Jizue might sound like Mouse on the Keys at first as it's heavily piano-driven math rock, but where Mouse on the Keys tends to be a bit stomp-y, Jizue is much more light on their feet (ex. "Wind"). Still, Jizue are not playing around, this is not feathery or lightweight music by any stretch of the imagination.

Shiori features Shing02 (who rapped on the Samurai Champloo intro by Nujabes) and Ikkyu Nakajima (from Tricot).

Last.fm

UltraMantis Black!

UltraMantis Black - UltraMantis Black (2014)

Part insect, Part superhero, all chaos - his is UltraMantis Black's long awaited gospel.

Indy pro wrestler and leader of the Spectral Envoy of the Final Judgment has teamed up with the noisy crew of Pissed Jeans to unleash an ultra slick yet ultimately brutal Extended Play of hardcore scriptures. The hasty, out of control soundscape over UMB's piercing vocals heavily echo late 90's-early 00's noisecore and hardcore acts such as Deadguy, The Locust, Daughters, and Gaza. Plus, you have the wrestling influence that not only comes from the Chikara Pro Wrestling alum himself but from Pissed Jeans who, before getting into noise rock, where playing wrestling-inspired powerviolence in a band known as The Ultimate Warriors. The Ultimate Warriors were smart fans or "smart marks" as the internet would call it as they not only watched good ol' WWE (or WWF at the time) but also Japanese wrestling (puroresu) companies like Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling and Big Japan Pro Wreslting as well as American Independent promotions such as Combat Zone Wrestling. That being said, it's really no surprise that the first song off this album is titled after a villainous creature from FMW, Biomonster DNA.

Being a fan of both wrestling and hardcore music, UltraMantis Black as a whole is a super gratifying experience. This release definitely blows that other wrestler with a band's new album out of the water *cough* Chris Jericho *cough*.

Highlights: "Biomonster DNA", "Prescription Culture", "Oil and Gas", Stockpiling Graves", and "West Serbian Plain".



Similar acts/sounds: The Ultimate Warriors, Pissed Jeans, Antiseen, Deadguy, Daughters, The Locust, Gaza, Yautja, Weekend Nachos, Cult Leader, Mutoid Man, and other noisy hardcore that probably don't have a masked frontman.

Relapse Records
Bandcamp
Last.fm

Yautja - Songs of Descent

Yautja - Songs of Descent (2014)

From NFT's Song and Match of the Day:

Yautji are a mix of all sorts of pissed off sludgy hardcore and metal noise all tangled up in a big sharp clump and ready for you to step on it late at night as you quietly-as-possible walk to the bathroom. Your foot will bleed and you will be shouting, waking your girlfriend up and her drunk roommate. In this short yet excruciatingly painful moment you will confess your hatred for your shitty job and your mundane life. The next day you will buy a motorcycle and drive it far, far away. Eventually, you will ride it into the sun and mesh your skin and bones with the motorcycle's shiny metal and leather, becoming apart of it as much as it will be apart of you and you will ride the solar system from there on out as a mecha-humanoid motorcycle bounty hunter.

Never to return.

Highlights: "Denihilist", "Tar and Blindness", "Faith Resigned", "A Crawl", and "Of Decent".

Similar acts/sounds: Coliseum, Legion, Nameless Cults, Gnarwhal, Mutoid Man, Harm's Way, Mammoth Grinder, Nails, Black Breath, and eating dessert first... and last... and for all the other meals.

Bandcamp
Last.fm

NFT's February Mix

This mix is mostly about wrestling, hoverboards, the return of Shamrock shakes, and the Lego Movie.

Enjoy!

Monday XXXXXXXI

RIP Jason Molina

Black Mask. - Black Mask. (2012)

Finger licking good hardcore that falls right off the bones! From Pennsylvania.

At first I though this was another Black "something" band but then I saw the period.



Get mad.

Bandcamp
Last.fm

Scavenger - Cynical (2013)

Scavenger are a hardcore troupe from northern Maine that are quite reminiscent of early hardcore punk that requires a cassette player and big giant 80's speakers. Not bad, not bad.



Last.fm (#7)

Songs: Ohia - The Lioness (2000)

While clearly not as recognized as Magnolia Electric Co. or as truthfully and down right sad as Axxess & Ace (one of my favorite albums to play when I'm sad), The Lioness definitely has its moments of both sadness and glory that makes it stand out in my top three Jason Molina albums list.

Highlights include: "Lioness", "Being in Love", "Coxcomb Red", and "Nervous Bride"

Bonus:

Joe Beats's remix of "Coxcomb Red":

Last.fm

Ed Gein - It's a Shame...

Ed Gein - It's a Shame Your Family Can Be Torn Apart by Something as Simple as a Pack of Wild Dogs (2003)

Ed Gein is an everythingheavyandnoisycore band from Syracuse, New York. Their name comes from the American murderer and body snatcher who inspired the likes of Hollywood slayer stars Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill (Wiki). He was the kind of guy who would invite someone over for dinner and keep them a little too late, someone he may have picked up from a local graveyard or an innocent hardware store owner. Someone good enough for his personal trophy collection and bone and skin collection. So yeah, he was a pretty fucked up guy, perfect for such a gruesome sounding band.

Over and under all the noise and hybrid grind stuff in 'It's a Shame...' are samples from the 2001 cult classic, Donnie Darko. I'll admit it, I'm a big fan.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but all this finals/graduation/Berserk stuff is getting in my way...

I'll be relentlessly posting goodies for you all summer, I promise!

Bandcamp
Last.fm