Anarchy in a Cold War by Kurtis Sunday
162pgs
The story takes place in West Berlin, a West German enclave, in 1981, which was divided into four sectors after the Second World War. West Berlin is an American, British and French pocket that is surrounded by the Berlin Wall, separating it from the Russian section, East Berlin, all in East Germany. The main group of characters are a politically active group of squatters, all with vastly different life stories, who work together to carve out lives in old wartorn buildings. There are punks, hippies, college students, artists, alcoholics and even a surprise(though in real life it’s not too surprising, but I don’t want to spoil the story). The book plays out very lifelike with some cultural and language barriers between characters while they eat, sleep, play, make love and fight the system together. A lot of political history is injected through side notes adding depth while each scene is described in great detail: the color of the chipped paint on the walls, state of the furniture(if any) in a room, murals, police uniforms, beer/cigarette types, etc. I really liked how naturally the language flowed between characters even if they had to use body language and gestures to get their points across. It was easy to feel involved in the story, even the graphically described confrontations with the police where there were plenty of exchanges of harsh words, cobblestones, beer bottles and tear gas canisters. Because it flows so well, it was easy to keep the book in my bag to read little bits on lunch breaks or a few pages before starting the day without forgetting what exactly is going on. Totally worth picking up to slip in between Chompsky and Bookchin. (Jake)
Cambria Books, Wales
http://www.cambriabooks.co.uk
Chances are that if you read Profane Existence, that you’ve heard of WARTORN. In fact, I’ll bet that you’re a fan as well, because, well, you’re only human and these legends from Wisconsin are a crust force not to be fucked with. This is the third installment of the Profane Existence Limited Edition Singles Series and these two tracks are worth every cent. Side A, Domestic Terrorist, starts of rolling in a slow dirge. Long, drawn out and dirty. After a few minutes, one of the guitars takes off in a Wisconsin style d-beat fury, immediately followed by the rest of the band. Shit’s in high gear now and doesn’t let up until the final note with Bitty howling his trademark short sharp lyrics. The B side, Under Oath, doesn’t even give you a second to adjust your butt-flap or open another bottle of rotgut before you’re assaulted with a tidal wave size wall of guitars being pushed ahead by manic drumming. The riffing on this side strays from d-beat into some nice mid 80s thrash and is rounded out by some blazing solos that’ll have you playing air guitar like you thought you were Hot Lixx Hulahan! Just like everything else WARTORN has done, I give this a 10 out of 10. You can buy them individually for $7.77 or all four for $25. They come in red, black, white or clear vinyl. (Jake)
Holy shit! Yeah, that saying about judging a book buy it’s cover? Out the window. This is the second instaIlment of the Profane Existence Limited Edition Singles Series. I had certain expectations when I first set eyes on this beauty and they all came true. When the needle dropped on the Desolate side, the slow paced gloomy intro sets the scene heavy with dread and depression. It’s like being held down by a morphine drenched pile of sleeping bags. You can’t get up and realize that there’s just no good reason to try. The bleek lyrics and Hannah’s ghostly howls make it that much harsher once the band kicks into a fury of blackened crust riffing. Occasionally they slow down to open the mood up even further. On side Inebriated, the subject matter is exactly what you think: self medicating to get through this shit-circus of a human existence. This track is every bit as emotionally heavy and soul crushing as Desolate. Being experienced seasoned veterans of older Minneapolis bands, you know that the chances of this being a piece of crust magic is almost a sure thing and it is. I hope that we get many years and releases from DESPISE as they are nothing short of amazing! This is available in four different colors(black, red, pink or green) for $7.77 each or $25 for all four colors. (Jake)
I had no idea what to think when I pulled this out of the box. Between the cover and song titles: Who Shot Ya, Notorious Thugs and Somebody’s Gotta Die, anything could happen. Well, it’s three songs of super lo-fi, dirty punk rock and roll grit that at times seemed to pull influence from TRAGEDY and possibly EYEHATEGOD with the aggression of NAILS. I dig the style and enjoyed the songs, but a few things stood out that I wasn’t into. The sleeve was interesting, being printed on “tracing paper” and the 7″ was pressed on see though light purple, but the B side was blank. Wasted space is a huge pet peeve of mine and a little more info or a lyric sheet would have been nice. Other than that, I think it’s a really fun listen. And to top it off, I was surprised to see that it was Mastered by someone my wife and I lived with when we first moved to PDX: Brad Boatright at Audio Siege. Small world indeed. (Jake)
Man, where were these guys when I was in high school? In the mid 80s I dedicated every spare moment to skateboarding. We’d go down my buddy Chris’s mini ramp and skate our asses off listening to BLACK FLAG, DEAD KENNEDYS, CIRCLE JERKS, etc. Then I discovered thrash and shit got real! My first show was ANTHRAX, EXODUS and CELTIC FROST and everything changed. Once you get a taste of punk/thrash crossover, you can’t go back. IN DEFENCE from Minneapolis is the link to my shred-tastic youth. I now this may upset the folks in the band, but some of the writing reminds me a lot of M.O.D. Sorry, dudes, but it’s true. Not in a bad way, though. Fortunately the subject matter is way more funny than it is offensive and while they love to have a laugh, they do flirt with serious politics. Each song kills it riff after riff with solos that fill the song out without being wanky and they are usually accompanied by beautifully moshy breakdowns that I realized I was unknowingly banging my head to each and every time. There’s no way to listen to this without getting stoked. It contains the second LP and 2 7″s(in case you didn’t get that from the line I wrote above the picture). Unlike some 22 track albums that seem to drag on, you’ll want to put this on repeat, flip up the bill on your hat and circle pit around your room for hours. When these thrashers come through your town make sure you buy them lots of pizza….er, um, burritos. Lots of burritos. (Jake)
At first look I would have expected this to be a d-beat band. The artwork inside and out is a great big collage full of violence, oppression and death. Obviously this is my first go around with JACKALS and realized that I was sorely mistaken. While there are some elements of Scandinavian crust, they mash a few good style together to create some unique sounding hardcore. The 7″ opens with slow plodding drums, quickly being joined by guitar and bass creating a downright dreadful atmosphere. Then the vocals sere through with an animalistic yell and all hell breaks loose. All five songs are created in a similar fashion where harsh tempo changes are used to create orchestrated chaos. JACKALS would definitely appeal to fans of hardcore and power violence alike. It’s not formulaic or predictable, though. Brutal and intense would be a much more accurate way to describe them and the slightly dirty recording adds to it, though I doubt is was intentional. Each song is very political in nature and while the lyrics are short and to the point, this 7″ comes with a printout explaining the inspiration for the lyrics and sites the sources(books, lecture, news story, etc.) which include the the story of Troy Davis being murdered by the state, sexual violence and valuing profit over people. These folks are a perfect blend of intelligence and aggression. (Jake)