Shrieking in Three Movements

Alarido is an anomalous arctic blast, ravaging the sun-smitten Nevada desert landscape. The band's first cassette is a three-part odyssey of what Painajainen calls "crust/d-beat with black metal influences," and that sums it up as well as any label could. What he's too modest to say is that this tape completely rules. What turns out to be nineteen minutes of music, seems like only five, as the band seamlessly navigates through violent blizzards of blast-beats, searing d-beat siroccos, and the occasional rest on an inland sea of acoustic tranquility. You definitely don't want to miss this one, or the next tape which is in the works.

Buy the first cassette here

Download here

Play At Any Speed And Fail

I'm gonna throw up a bunch of re-ripped slabs over the next few weeks, and Gob's opus seemed a fine place to start. When I posted the "Kill Yourself Commandment" LP the first time, I think I just stole some rips for upload, and that just doesn't cut it. Tonight we have the 320 treatment for one of the most sour affronts to music ever committed to wax. Gob took everything our ears have been taught to hold sacred and did things to them that are still considered illegal in some states. If you like your noise rock violent or your violence noisy, Gob might be your favorite band, or they might make you rethink your preconceptions about such trite labels. I hate name-dropping, so I won't mention that Mr. J. Kortland of Iron Lung was one of the Gob masterminds.

Download the 11th Commandment!

("The Kill Yourself Commandment" by Gob (Reno) released on Satan's Pimp Recs, 1999)

"NOT the pussy-ass pop-punk band..."

This blog is becoming GOB-central, but you're just gonna have to deal with it. There are several GOBular treats on this blog, just click here to see them all. This time we have an early split 7" they released on Bovine Records with obscure Swiss noise punk band, Designer. GOB's tracks are slightly different in the vocals department, but otherwise it's still the dreary, down-tuned, pulsating, heretical noise-sludge I've come to need in my life. The copy from whence these tracks were ripped was a little mistreated in its life, but these bands are noisy enough to the point that it doesn't matter. Neither band thought it necessary to supply song titles, but there's five of 'em-- two by GOB, three by Designer.

Enjoy

One Nation Under GOB

This double post concludes the GOB series (for now). The download link below conveniently combines two classic, rare, noisy compilations, starting with "Mandatory Marathon" (Amendment Records, 1999?). A comp. that boasts multiple tracks from Charles Bronson, Capitalist Casualties, The Gaia, Palatka, GOB, and Laceration should require no encouragement for download. Two warnings though: 1. The sound quality is rather ass-like 2. There are several "joke" or "experimental" bands/projects on this one that are less than entertaining. Regardless, there's some rare noise here that you need.

Back Cover: Try not to go blind reading the track list








Also featured in the folder below is this Food Not Bombs benefit comp. Six Weeks Records put out in the late nineties. There's some good to great Reno bands, and some other semi-well-known bands like The Dread and Bristle. There's also a decent amount of variety (all within the boundaries of punk and hardcore) and you may find yourself liking the bands you haven't heard of. Nice little record!

Back Cover:

Download these comps HERE

Agobophobia: The Fear of GOB

And fear them you should! GOB are here to destroy everything you've ever held dear, including what you call "music." We continue this series dedicated to all things GOB with an incredible split by two amazing bands: Agoraphobic Nosebleed and, well, GOB. ANB have collected some pretty impressive credentials during their veteranship in the fast-as-hell grind/powerviolence saga. They mix the fast with the heavy is such a way as to produce pure whoop-ass! I also really enjoy their terse, axiomatic, nihilistic lyrical spew-- and I do quote from "Computer Lethargy" --"Aspire to reduce your world to a monitor screen. Finger fuck a keyboard into ecstasy. Fat nuts, dumpy butt-- Dilbert fleshed into being." You need these seven tracks badly!

This time we get three tracks from the nebulous and surreal monster that is GOB. There's one about a guy who's really hard to kill, another about white meat, and finally one about... GOB! I would say this is the band at its best, but I've never heard them otherwise!

Preview: I have handful of comps with GOB on them coming up... soon.


Get your punishment here

Back Cover

You Can't Run Away From GOB

I've recently run across some GOB paraphernalia, so it's time for a series of posts! For more info and links regarding this noisy, subversive ensemble, visit an earlier post on their great LP. The first split for today is one I've had for a while, and was my first exposure to the band. Somehow these blaspheming corrupters-of-the-youth roped in God-fearing ex-game show host, Wink Martindale to do a split with them. Holy Shit, indeed! If anyone knows any info about how or why this scheme was cooked up, PLEASE comment. On GOB's side of the insert, the band puts on the sheep's clothing and claims to be a Christian rock band. They're pretty convincing until the end when they command "SAY YOU LOVE SATAN!" (well, then there's the large image of a little devil jack-hammering a guy's head...). To say that the band has a wicked sense of humor is a major understatement. The GOB track, "Soft Bodied" completely shreds, and the Martindale tracks, well, you be the judge.

I believe only 600 of these were ever pressed by the once mighty Slap-A-Ham Records. My copy's a little scratched to Hell, but here it is (and another GOB split will be coming up later today, hopefully).

Your Salvation here

Get their split with Spazz here

Get a live track here

Back Cover

The Eleventh Commandment

Gob's "Kill Yourself Commandment" LP (Satan's Pimp Records, 2000) carved out a niche big enough only for itself. Whatever label you try to slap on this band or record it is doomed to insufficiency, even though elements of noise rock, "Gravity Records" style hardcore, sludge, and grindcore rise to the surface in any given song. Gob's guitar sound is a twisted, drearisome, offensive hand gesture to all musical sensibility. However, in Jon Kortland's capable hands the murky discord lends concreteness to the sardonic spite that is Gob's gospel. The spontaneity of the rhythm section lightens the oppressiveness of the guitars by pulling the sludgier riffs out of their mire and into more chaotic, syncopated territory, incorporating jarring starts and stops, and integrating blast beats into the slower parts in ways I haven't heard elsewhere. Whether you end up loving or hating this band, you have to raise your glass to their uniqueness.

Members of Gob were/are in The Vae Victis (I believe) and Iron Lung (probably some other bands, as well). The only other Gob releases I recall are their split EP's with Spazz and Wink Martindale, although I have a feeling they released several others (leave a comment if you have more info!). There is also another band from Canada (pop punk?) of the same name, but there's no way you could possibly confuse the two.

D/L