BRUTAL TRUTH

I was a new wave kid with punk leanings. Sure, I had a METALLICA tape ( Garage Days...Rerevisited was where I started) and I bought Reign In...

IN SCHOOL

New York's IN SCHOOL have politely blown the ignorant hardcore paradigm out of the water in less than eight and a half minutes. If you w...

FATHER IGNORANT

I saw 10 bands during a 24 hour stretch Thursday and Friday, and strangely all of them were at least good. Some of them were really outstand...

RØSENKØPF

The third (at least) cassette release from these NYC nostalgist visionaries. Dispiritualized features longer dirges with more emphasis on t...

MALLWALKERS

Laid back and ultra infectious punk from upstate New York. Early '80s So Cal a la THE PLUGZ collides with BIG BOYS' affinity for fun...

BORN AGAINST

I posted their set from WFMU on Escape Is Terminal a while back, and this demo appears on the back end of the same cassette. Five songs (I ...

WEIRD KOREA // SPOOK HOUSES

Biting and hopelessly cool garage punk from New York's WEIRD KOREA , drenched in '60s pop hooks and swinging like there's a boul...

DEFORMITY

Already shared a couple of tapes from this New York City powerhouse, but this slab from June 2011 is an absolute creamer. DEFORMITY crank o...

HAIL MARY

BORN AGAINST is easily my favorite hardcore band of the early '90s. I saw them in Cudahay, Wisconsin in 1993, got the self titled EP and...

DIPPERS

Smart and snarky hardcore from New York City makes another visit to The Escape, one side live and one set of superb studio tracks this time ...

ANAL WARHEAD // NEUTRON RATS

It's been way too long since I posted a tape from Albany , but most of my friends moving away from there apparently doesn't mean tha...

PLANNING FOR BURIAL

They call themselves slowcore, I call them experimental shoegazing gloom. Either way New York's PLANNING FOR BURIAL are about to be cal...

BROWN SUGAR

After dropping one of 2011's sneakiest full length platters, it should come as no surprise to my ears that Buffalo's BROWN SUGAR ha...

GRUDGES

It has all of the appeal of low end heavy death metal, but the majority of this platter is delivered with a bare ferocity typically reserved...

ZATSUON

Just like the title suggests, seven ear piercing tracks of distortion drenched chaotic noise crust. The sounds that create the base of this ...

LITTLE ITALY

I must like that STARING PROBLEM tape a lot, because I keep referencing it. This time the nod comes not from another Midwest band but from...

CONSPIRACY OF GIANT NOIZE WOODPECKER MUTANT FROM OUTER SPACE (Vol. 1)

Averaging well under one minute per song, seven international bands blast through 27 fastcore gems on this comp. New York's I OBJECT sta...

FERAL KID MIX TAPE Vol. 1

Continuing in the tradition of mix tapes used simultaneously as promotion, celebration and hype, Buffalo's Feral Kid Records dish out th...

CANCER // DIPERS

Four posts in a row that barely (or don't) crack the ten minute mark, and the second from New York fukkn City. CANCER blaze through thei...

CREEM

Seriously, this shit is awesome. Four gnarly and pissed hardcore punk songs in under six minutes. Midwest hardcore meets '80s NYHC - I c...