Q: Mankind? A: Dirt.

I won't get into all the reasons for this blog's dormancy; it's the usual case of taking on too much and having too little left to give by the end of the day. I'll slowly get the cogs moving again, and by the end of November, it should be back to clacking and clanking at its old pace. But what really matters is the music, so I'll continue on the therapeutic simplicity of the last post with a couple of splits by Connecticut's Mankind?. This short-lived peace punk/hardcore ensemble channeled all the best aspects of the 80's and 90's, albeit through only a handful of songs...

The first split represents arguably the best material from both bands present, the other being UK veterans, Dirt. Dirt's flickering presence throughout the 80's had exceptionally luminescent moments, but their brief return in the 90's was for me their most focused appearance. Maybe you'll enjoy their more raw material better, but the stylized direction of Deno's vocals just do it for me on this one.

While disappointing by comparison, Mankind?'s two offerings on their split with Final Warning are still solid efforts. The disappointment for me lies in the poor production and in the decision to not make Stacey the lead vocalist. Other than that, "Utopian Nightmare" is a more than passable contribution to American political hardcore, and their cover of "Electrodes" is a boiling, frothing brewpot of angst and loathing.

The original idea for this post was to gather a bunch of Final Warning tracks, including the Warning 7". Both Warning and Final Warning were New York-based bands featuring Neil, Nausea's original vocals-man. Mike of Twisted Tracks must have been eating the same thing this week or been tuned to the same frequency as me because he beat me to it. To complete your Final Warning collection, the track "Wasteland" on the split above is one of the finer examples of FW's post-Discharge bleakness, complete with Neil's burliest angry-sailor vocals. You can get FW's "Eyes of a Child" 7" here, some compilation tracks from both FW and Mankind? here, and FW's live LP here. In an interesting twist, on the LP Final Warning takes their stab at an "Electrodes" duet between Neil and Stacey (Mankind?).

Mankind?'s splits with Dirt and Final Warning

Life After Nausea

Final Warning was a band from New York City that didn't release too many songs. Hearing them on "Stop Vivisection" crank out 16 live tracks is pretty awesome indeed. Because of Neil's time in Nausea during the early days, we get a handful of Nausea renditions, and I believe a Hellkrusher cover. Stacey of Mankind?(I believe?) takes duet honors in lieu of Amy on "Electrodes" and I believe all FW tracks are accounted for too. Gruff and abrasive political hardcore for fans of Crucifix and Discharge...

"Stop Vivisection"

Song of the Week: "Power" (Agnostic Front)

It was great to finally hear "Victim In Pain" on vinyl thanks to Bridge Nine who put out the well packaged re-issues with butt-ugly covers. Well, they're not ugly; they would make good menus or something. Not that the original was pretty to look at, but it was authentic. They used the original recordings, why not the covers? Anyway, "VIP" is one of my top ten early '80's records (I was never into buying at collector prices. I settled for years with that cool Combat CD that also has "Cause For Alarm" on it), and easily one of my favorites of all time. Agnostic Front was often challenged for their politics (or other people's perception thereof), but on "Power" they dig their trench before an abstract enemy most of us can feel good uniting against. And, as the band professes on many songs, unity is in fact what we're all about...

"Power" by Agnostic Front

Hiatus (Not the Band)

It's time to take a little vacation from blogging. With all the things going on right now, I would hate for this blog to become a chore. If it isn't fun anymore, why keep at it? I think you see my point. After two or four weeks, I hope to be re-energized and back to finding hidden musical treasures under unassuming rocks and ripping the shit out of them! Meantime, I look forward to getting caught up on a ton of other stuff and listening to music for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of it! I've recently received a flurry of e-mails; some from nice people sharing music or saying thanks, as well as those hoping for a review/post. To the former, I say thanks! and to the latter... I haven't forgotten about you-- please be patient. If any old links are down, let me know; I'll be checking comments here and there.



To send you on your way properly, I present the Half Man/Kisses & Hugs split 7". Roman, a long time/sporadic FE visitor/friend, was blown away by the small-town angst and violence of Kisses & Hugs' 12" and suggested I post this mean little split. This one's for him and anyone else who dug that piece (all of whom are probably laid up with a sore asshole from the experience). X's & O's were definitely a singular monster, and what Half Man might lack in originality and insanity, is made up for by their sincerity and power on the two tracks here. Made up of ex-members of Campaign and future members of Countdown to Putsch, HM took old school grit and "modern" smarts (I'm look at you Born Against) and made plain, good hardcore punk! They released a couple of EPs, some comp tracks and an LP that sounded like a completely different band. Check with the Mountain Collective for related bands and straggling artifacts.

The Half Man/Kisses & Hugs Split 7"

Big Fat Bag O' Splits!

Splits are always a great way to learn about new and obscure bands, but how about a grab-bag full of them? That's what we're dealing in today- a series of split 7"s I've run across recently and wanted to share. You probably haven't heard most of these bands, so unlike a real grab-bag, I offer some descriptions to either dissuade or entice:

The first split in the bag is from a couple of awesome Polish bands. You may recall Stupor from their split with Harum Scarum posted somewhere below. They play more of that thick and intense crust, like a more raw and heavy Post Regiment, while their partners, Verrecke play one long Amebix-meets-Counterblast dirge. It's as good as it sounds.

The name Spider Cunts kept coming up in blurbs about the lineage of Burning Kitchen (one of my favorite punk bands), so it was high time to check them out. What they deliver on this split is four obnoxious songs, mainly about getting wasted. The slamming drums, simple and catchy riffs, harsh vocals... I'm thinking a more obnoxious and punk Sin 34? Sure. Obnoxious is definitely the word here.

Oh, and The Dregs rage hard too. I don't know why I thought I'd dislike them; I actually ended up a fan. Nicely distorted guitars and screamed and wailed vocals that don't get monotonous like some bands' do. The hardcore attack and street punk sensibilities are reminiscent of Filth, but I wouldn't get too carried away with that comparison.

Finally we get to the international pairing of Yokel and Pisspoor. I hadn't heard of Australia's Yokel, and was impressed by their four well-played and vicious crust blasters. The vocals (especially the female member's) are scathing as hell. Granted, nothing originally is going on here, but it won't matter as you scream along, railing against genocide and greed!

Austin's Pisspoor offered some pretty good tracks on the "El Guapo" comp and their split LP, but there's something about these tracks that show a hitting of a stride. A band like this can only be successful if their anger comes across genuine and abundant, and really, that's exactly what this is-- unadulterated rage that's both punishing and cathartic.

Download a sack o' splits

Oppressing Minorities/For God And Country

No matter how many "Punk Terrorist Anthologies" have been released, it's always nice to find more live Nausea material, especially from the not-often -heard line-up with Neil and Amy on vocals. Recorded in Connecticut in 1988, the three tracks committed to this little piece of wax are crushing and entertaining testimonials of a band hitting its stride on its way to greatness. More please.

Nausea live in Norwalk 1988 (ripped @ 320)

Tracks:
1. New Generation
2. Right To Live
3. Smash Racism

Satanic Jihad Music

This is easily my favorite Cattle Press record. How could it not be with such a profane miasma of sour, dense chords gushing from the amps, and screams shrill enough to shake you from your stale purgatory of a life. I'm not sure if this 7" is properly called "Cattle Press" or "Silence," but there it is above, and the track list is below...

1. Silence
2. Uprising Embodiment In Serenity
3. The Hole Is Home

Here (@ 320 kbps)

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

This split is about what you'd expect from Bovine Records, Cattle Press, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Cattle Press bring the evil slow and heavy, and include a reworked version of "Splint" (IabhorHer). Agoraphobic Nosebleed are in their prime and serve up 17 furious originals and a Voivod cover. Yeah, it's that friggin good!


Here. (@ 320 kbps)

Update: The files have been re-uploaded. If you couldn't download it before, here's "Information." Thanks Strangeranger!

I'm thinking I should post the Cattle Press 7" next...

Some Slow, Some Go!

All request week (month?) begins with the Iabhorher 7" for Mike of the great All Go, No Slow! podcast blog. Iabhorher didn't release much (this 7" on Slap-a-Ham, and some comp. tracks?) before morphing into Cattlepress (more or less). I don't want to name-drop too much, but you may recognize some infamous member(s) in the line-up and on the cover art credit. Although my copy is a little thrashed, the menace doesn't let up on the two bass-heavy aberrations presented here, and you hopefully won't notice it too much when/if you rock out to it. No big deal if you do, because as Mike pointed out, Hyperrealist is going to reissue all the band's material on a 12" soon (at which time, I'll remove the link).



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