However you figure it

As promised in my last newsletter, I'm going to share about a bunch of new, cool music in this one. So if you're new here, thanks in part to my pal Dan Ozzi's recent list, thank you for joining! But before we get into the fun stuff, I need to take a moment to address something serious.

On Tuesday, August 11, a barrage of heavy storms rolled through the Midwest. I was at work when the building's emergency system began flashing lights and an overhead speaker told us to head to the nearest stairwell. The sky was dark as night at 11 a.m. and reports of 100-plus mile-per-hour winds were coming in through frantic texts and uncertain weather reports. Thankfully, after a month that saw Chicago getting battered with flooded streets and downed tree, we were mercifully spared. But Northwest Indiana, where I grew up, wasn't so lucky. Heavy winds transformed into a tornado and a derecho, and they took did why powerful winds tend to do.

Initial reports estimated that over 90% of residents in Lake County, Indiana were without power. For those not from The Region, Lake County encompasses all the cities closest to Chicago, and it's generally considered part of the greater Chicagoland area—to the consternation of certain people in both states. Cultural issues aside, in practical fact, there's no denying it is part of Chicago, with Hammond being closer to downtown than some western suburbs. If you need an easy frame of reference, you could have one foot in Indiana and one foot in Chicago, and that proximity is exactly what has caused me so much despair this past week.

While I'm thankful that my family and friends back home are safe, I know they've been having an incredibly challenging time. Many are still without power as we near a week out from the storms. Necessities are scarce, and attempts to restore essential utilities has been difficult due to continued rainstorms throughout the week. This also says nothing of the extreme flooding that's happened elsewhere in the state, which has caused devastation of an entirely separate kind.

What's ultimately been concerning to me, though, is how little I've seen this natural disaster covered by both local and national media. At the end of last week, I was seeing more stories about whether the Chicago Bears were actually moving to Hammond than about the fact the city was almost entirely without power. That's changed a bit since the weekend, but after sharing resources across social media in recent days, I was having multiple people reach out to me—all of whom are good at staying up-to-date on current affairs—saying that this is the first they heard about any of this. For an area that often felt isolated and on its own, it's never felt more accurate.

This is the point where I wish I could direct you to organizations you could donate to but, as of this moment, I've barely seen any pop up. When even these kind of quick, monetary gestures are impossible to make, everything feels a bit helpless. It's also made me think a lot about water.

As essential as water is to our daily lives, it's also a powerfully destructive force. In some ways, it's the thing that you'll spend most of your life fighting to keep out of your home. It can come in from any an angle and, once it's there, it will continue to rush in and dismantle everything, drip by inevitable drip. Water was here before us and it will be here after us. It will boil and it will freeze, but it will always be. One day it will rise up and wash us away; it'll fill rooms stain floors and leave mineral residue on the outside of buildings. Then, with time, it will wash all those things away as if they were never there in the first place. It'll be as if none of this ever occurred, and none of it ever mattered.

What's New?

As I discussed in my Fiddlehead piece a couple of months back, I'm always grateful to be asked to write a band's press bio, but I also have the luxury of being extremely selective about what I say yes to. That means that I'm often in the position of feeling the need to disclose something to you before recommending an album to you. That's the case for two great records that came out this year, Daydream Plus' Second Last Day of Summer and Cel Ray's Cel Rayzer.

Let's start with Daydream Plus. The Toronto band features three-fourths of modern death metal greats Tomb Mold, but Daydream Plus is ultimately the passion project of Payson Power. After spending years writing intricate, ripping death metal, Power wanted to explore a different side of his creativity and that took the form of an instrumental math-rock band that pulls heavily from city pop and Steely Dan. Second Last Day of Summer is an absolute sugar rush of a record, one that I couldn't say enough good things about in the bio I wrote, and I struggle to even now. It's a concept record about summer's last truly great day, the one before the anxieties and obligations begin fully clouding your mind. This record encapsulates that feeling perfectly, and with summer nearing its end, this is the perfect time to take this one for a spin. If you're a fan of Minus The Bear, Don Caballero, or a hyperactive Tatsuro Yamashita, this one's will certainly scratch an itch.

Moving on to Cel Ray, my first exposure to this band was seeing them live, which I still think is the ideal format for this band. Cel Ray's previous recorded material was good, but it wasn't until Cel Rayzer that their full potential was unlocked. Falling somewhere between egg-punk and post-punk, along with some clear Dead Kennedys-isms in the mix, Cel Rayzer is jittery punk music that's elevated by Maddie Daviss' witticisms. Ritual Cross played with them back in May and they were totally lights-out. If you have the chance to see Cel Ray live, do not miss it. Until then, listening to Cel Rayzer is the next best thing.

Speaking of music that's fast and fun, I was a latecomer to Faucheuse's Comme un Poignard. Okay, that's not totally accurate; I heard it and something about it felt off to me. I came to learn this was more of a skill issue on my end. This band from Bordeaux, France makes punky rock 'n' roll music that's built for summer. If I were to give you a direct musical reference point it would be "what if Sheer Mag wasn't boring?" So if that sounds like something you'd enjoy, you probably will.

Speaking of scuzzy punk music with big rock 'n' roll influences, Chicago's Night Freak released Midwest Rattlesnakes, an album whose title should tell you exactly what to expect. While their previous releases never grabbed me, this one packs a wallop. Simple songs executed with the right mix of proficiency and don't-give-a-fuck attitude. It's leather jacket music that even works for people like me, a guy who couldn't pull off a leather jacket to save his life.

Speaking of leather jackets, let's talk some raw punk. Kinetic Orbital Strike's debut album The Terrifying Power Of Bombardment is finally here and it fulfills the promise laid down on their first two singles. I still hear a lot of Framtid and Anti-Cimex here, which is a winning combination if you're trying to make riff-forward raw punk. The band still hasn't played Chicago yet but, whenever they do, I look forward to having my face ripped clean off.

Was Kinetic Orbital Strike too listenable for you? Was the production too clean and articulate? Then let me introduce you to Barrows. Given how hard this one has been to track down, when I saw copies of Tomorrow's Fear finally landed stateside, I grabbed it only having heard that one preview track posted above. With blown-out D-beat, I understand how people think it all sounds the same, but that's just not the case for me. In the same way I appreciate black metal, this style of hardcore works because of its all-consuming atmosphere. Once you're attuned to this specific frequency, it's exciting to dig through the noise and see what's going on inside the chaos. Barrows' reference points are clear, but the trio executes them flawlessly matching the aesthetic, tone, and vision that makes this style so often replicated and so rarely perfected. Barrows just might have done it.

Finally, let's touch on the Destruct and Absolut split titled Deafen and Disarm. Two of North America's finest each up three songs each and it's essential stuff. I personally love how burly Destruct sounds on this recording, feeling a bit more heft behind the compositions this time. That said, it's Absolut that really shines here. Though Absolut have been around for nearly 15 years, it feels like they are only now hitting their stride. The solos in "Judas" are unreal, and this pairing of catchy riffs with vocals that sound like early-'90s Barney Greenway makes for a batch of songs I just can't stop spinning.

Speaking of splits, let's talk about the upcoming releases from the bands that just wrapped the recent Operation Hardcore tour: Invertebrates and Public Acid. I wrote at length about their show in Milwaukee in my last piece, but let's go deeper on their upcoming 7-inches. Starting with Invertebrates' Accosted, these seven songs may just be my favorite Invertebrates material yet. Tonally, the band nails the sound of early American hardcore. The guitars aren't incredibly distorted, leaving a lot of room for the high-end to pierce through and stab you right in the ears. There's a tunefulness running beneath Invertebrates ferocity, making these songs feel urgent and immediate, and they've only gotten better on repeat listens.

On the other end, we have Public Acid's Pay No More. Their last album, 2024's Deadly Struggle, was one of my favorites that year, so my expectations for this EP were unreasonably high. That's why I think the subtle changes the band made on Pay No More so immediately stood out to me. The guitars are notably more serrated, cutting through less cleanly and leaving a big, mangled mess in their wake. Vocally, I also sense a different stylistic approach, something that feels more European crust than I've picked up from them previously. It took me a second, but I've learned to love Pay No Mind for different reasons than Deadly Struggle.

Staying on the topic of top-tier 7-inches, Alienator's Brutal Occupation might be the band's strongest release yet. I was in the minority that felt their debut album Meat Locker was good, not great. The first two 7-inches landed better for me, and Meat Locker was solid, but it lacked a certain something, though I have warmed to it a good deal since. That's not the case with Brutal Occupation, which is four songs of crossover with every detail perfectly dialed-in. The songs here are all so memorable, with riffs, solos, and vocals all dashing off blink-and-you'll-miss-it hooks, I just keep coming back for more. You should too.

Speaking of hooks, let's talk about Crazy Clue. When Beach Impediment Records announced their latest pair of releases, I was completely unfamiliar with Crazy Clue. Throwing on Where the Dregs Dwell, I was immediately smitten. After listening to half of it, I had to order it. Only then did I see this band featured Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up fame as well as Bobby Cole of Annihilated and Total Con. Some real heavy hitters here, bringing tough-as-hell hardcore punk to the table while not being afraid to throw in some lead parts that sound totally unhinged and acid-drenched. Fun, freaky stuff!

After a six-year gap between full-lengths, Ceremony have returned with Tell Me Your Dream. Unlike most people, I celebrate the entire Ceremony catalog, and I think there's a glowing review of The L-Shaped Man kicking around somewhere, and I still stand by it. While I often hear people say that they respect Ceremony's sonic diversions, that becomes a backhanded way of saying, "I don't actually like or listen to this." That's not the case for me. I think every album has offered a new, interesting take on the band's sound, so even when they go all-out with synths, I still hear that same beating heart at the center of it all. In a lot of ways, Tell Me Your Dream feels like the summation of everything the band has done post-Rohnert Park; there's dark and gloomy post-punk, synth-driven pop songs, and jagged punk songs. Bless this band for always taking chances.

Let's move on to Ceremony's unlikely label mates with Warning's Rituals of Shame. I've often sold people on Warning's second album Watching From a Distance by describing it as American Football for metal heads, and I stand by that, even if I've found that record's abysmal drum sounds to be more of a stumbling block in recent years. I've continued to follow frontman Patrick Walker's work in 40 Watt Sun, and loved 2022's Perfect Light, which remains a top-shelf rainy day album should you ever need it. Because of that, I had the utmost confidence that Walker would bring Warning back to its former glory on their reunion record, and he absolutely did. The production is perfect, the songs are languid, and the riffs are utterly desolate. If depression was a sound, this would be it.

I want to talk about Twisted Teens for a second. I know so many people who have been singing this band's praises for two years, and I've been ambivalent for the bulk of that time. I never thought the music was bad, it just wasn't hitting me in any meaningful way. That's slowly started to change, as certain songs began opening themselves up to me; or maybe I was just opening myself up to them. That said, the track of theirs I've played the most has to be "Hand Me a Cigarette" from Florida Water Blues. The song's dirtbag melancholy jumped out to me right away, and Caspian Honeywell's vocal melodies are among his most inspired. "Hand Me a Cigarette" is a song of lonely longing that's filtered through a lens of peaceful acceptance. At their best, Twisted Teens take big, messy feeling and condense them down to their most succinct expressions, and they absolutely nailed that here.

Finally, you don't need me to tell you again about Fiddlehead's Baby I'll Change EP. I've said a ton already, but after seeing them play in-the-round at Thalia Hall on Friday, I'm now convinced this is a generational release. It's amazing to see an EP carry as much weight as this one has, and it's for a very good reason.

Old Obsessions

Back in June, I wrote about revisiting a bunch of 2000s hardcore classics and how engaging all of that material still felt. It logically follows that I made my way into the 2010s and ran through one of the albums that felt like the last gasps of that sound, Boston Strangler's Primitive. When this one came out, it was immediately a big deal. I recall vinyl copies being scarce, and people paying a hundred bucks for them shortly after their release. Noting this, the band opted to repress the album several times in an identical manor, helping keep the record available while deflating the secondary market. Yet, as the march of time has gone on, it's become a genuine hundred-dollar record. Which is a shame, because any self-respecting fan of hardcore music should have this on their shelf. It's Boston hardcore perfected; angry, mean-spirited, a touch elitist, and completely hooky. As essential now as it was then.

Speaking of hardcore essentials, the recent reissue of Septic Death's Now That I Have The Attention What Do I Do With It? has given me a good reason to revisit this classic slab of Idaho hardcore. Is there much else that can fit under that banner? Nothing else races to mind, but Septic Death is good enough to carry the state's entire legacy. Though it doesn't help that Septic Death has one of the most confusing discographies in the genre. Their are albums with nearly identical titles, featuring many of the same songs, but they are actually different versions; more precisely, they are half-different versions—as only certain elements were re-recorded from one to the next. Why? Who knows! Vocalist and visual mastermind Brian "Pushead" Schroeder released Septic Death's records on his own Pusmort label, and even the discographies he released didn't do much to clean up the band's assorted messes.

This reissue of Now That I Have The Attention… is a stunning package, done with completely reverence by Prank Records, though this release sure did make the collector nerd sweat. Allegedly only 1984 copies were pressed across a dozen or more vinyl variants, all distributed in limited quantities throughout the globe. I was lucky to land one thanks to knowing a guy, and I'm thankful I did, because I'm not sure I'd have been able to swing it otherwise. I hear rumors of a regular pressing being done, but there have been rumors of Septic Death reissues for 20 years now, so don't put your full faith in that. I sure hope it happens, so more people can learn why this band cast such a long shadow.

Speaking of tremendous reissues, I'm always quick to grab new releases from General Speech, and their recent run has been utterly fantastic. The MARGAReTS Hi-Tech Dinner is fuzzed-out punk that still puts choruses front and center. It's snotty and brash, in the tradition of the very best dumb-as-a-doorknob punk music. I have spent literal weeks with the repetitive "MARGAReTS Special" stuck in my head, where the vocalist syllabically whines, "Mah-mah-margarets / Mah-mah-mah-mah-margarets" over and over again. To some, I'm sure this feels like taking a cheese grater to your eardrums, but I love every obnoxious second of it.

On the opposite side of the Japanese punk coin we have Exclaim's Fusillade LP and the Reality and Future 7-inch. Fusillade was initially planed for release on Dogma Records, the home of G.I.S.M., The Swankys, and The Comes, but that release got shelved for unknown reasons—or at least reasons that are unknown to me. Thankfully, General Speech unearthed this curio and, my god, I am so glad they did. Fusillade bases its sound around Discharge and Crass, but there's a weirdo metallic filter that occasionally recalls Gastunk, but I think I like this better than almost all of Gastunk's material. After 40 years of this languishing in obscurity, I'm making up for lost time by listening to it as much as humanly possible.

How about some power-pop? Or maybe pop-punk? Actually, why not both! After a long stretch of them sitting on the shelf, I pulled out my Buzzcocks records and, by god, what a band! For a long time I subscribed to the prevailing—and completely incorrect—theory that you only needed Singles Going Steady. This is a stupid opinion! Yes, that collection is essential, but Another Music in a Different Kitchen, Love Bites, and A Different Kind of Tension are no less essential. Another Music, in particular, may be one of the best first-wave punk releases ever. Learn from my mistakes and educate yourself before you become an eternal poser.

Through random chance, a few months ago I heard the song "Aggravation Place" by The Jook and then was on a mission to hunt down everything this band had done. Lucky for me, a used copy of their 2013 discography Jook Rule showed up used at Bric-a-Brac Records and my prayers were answered. I'll admit, not every song on here is as good as "Aggravation Place," it might be the lone perfect song on this whole collection, but there are a lot of very good songs contained therein. The Jook is distinctly '70s, and certainly cheesy, but who am I to pretend I'm not a total cheeseball myself?

I was going to get into a some books and movies here but, wow, this is already a massive one. I hope you found something in here you enjoy. If not, better luck next time.