Record Review: Jaw Clencher - Demo cassette

This review by Nathan is an excerpt from the brand new The Soda Killers issue #5. If you want a copy let us know and we'll gladly get it out to ya!  In the meantime, listen to these episodes of HotDogDayz Radio to get an idea of the types of music you can expect to read about.  Thanks!

Jaw Clencher – Demo cassette (Hostile Input, 2012)
By Nathan G. O'Brien

Raw, primitive D-beat noise. Sent to me from Shayne of Hostile Input records and Stabbing Brains fanzine, who may or may not play in the band. I can’t remember. Recorded live on a cassette recorder. The type of blown-out wall of noise that either clears a room or drenches those left in attendance in high-pitched feedback. It’s fucking glorious and pretty much everything I love about current hardcore. Hardcore is not supposed to feel safe; it should always feel as if you’re teetering on the brink, about to erupt into to chaos and violence. This tape effectively conveys that feeling. Three of these songs appear on their 7” that came out earlier this year, which I have yet to hear, but can only assume is as raging as this demo. Highly recommended.

Record Review: Clell Miller's Corpse - The Bill Chadwell Demo CD-r

This review by Nathan is an excerpt from the brand new issue (#5) of The Soda Killers fanzine. Let us know if you want a copy and we'll get it out to you ASAP!

Clell Miller's Corpse – The Bill Chadwell Demo CD-r (Clell Miller CD-r Label, 2013)
By Nathan G. O'Brien

The liner notes say this was recorded in 1998 but not originally released until 2000, and only in a run of five copies. In 1998 I was living in northern MN in a city called Bemidji, and would have just died to walk into a basement party where some creepy, mean-sounding noise-type shit like Clell Miller's Corpse was freaking people out. I don’t know why but for some reason this really makes me think of that time period and that place; which is strange because it’s not pop-punk or Busta Rhymes or the Fugees or whatever else it was that was on the stereos at the house parties back then. Even though, to best of my knowledge nothing like Clell Miller’s Corpse this was going on in Bemidji (although I wouldn't be surprised if it was and I just didn't know about it) I can totally picture it happening there. Anyway, I am not much of a musician myself, so I have no idea what instruments are at play here. It’s possibly guitar, keys, and some type of electronic contraption that one would use to manipulate sound…maybe some sampling equipment like an MPC. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the work of one person. I’m thinking heavily distorted synths saturated in feedback with a very horror movie soundtrack vibe to it. Very high-pitched like they took the screechy violin part from the Psycho movies and just focused on that. Despite actually running across this type of thing fairly regularly, as it seems to be a type of music favored by the mail art underground, it always manages to take me by surprise. Not entirely my thing, but I appreciate it for what it is and am psyched that this type of stuff exists.

 

Thoughts on Jeff Hanneman and Slayer

The following Cheyenne B piece first ran in The Soda Killers issue #4, which there are a very limited number of copies still left of. Get in contact if you're interested in receiving one.

Thoughts on Jeff Hanneman and Slayer
By Cheyenne B.

5/15/13
The last time I caught a Slayer show was on the 2010 tour with Megadeth and Testament, where they played Seasons in the Abyss, start to finish. Despite catching a lot of shit from some of the more pretentious Slayer fans, I think Seasons is a solid album that houses some really vicious tunes, so I was pretty stoked on it and had a kickass time. That was almost three years ago now, and up until that point I had seen Slayer at least once every other year, if not more, since I was 12. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized that particular show was my last Slayer concert ever, under the circumstances that guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed on earlier this month due to cirrhosis of the liver.

No one can say for sure what Slayer’s next move is going to be as far as writing and touring goes, but I think it’s safe to predict that I will never see Slayer live again. Even if they don’t call it quits and keep on truckin’ sans Hanneman AND drummer Dave Lombardo, I have no desire to see the remaining weakest links plus a couple of hired guns pretend to be Slayer. See, at that last Slayer gig I saw, singer and bassist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King were just going through the motions. Araya couldn’t belt out a warcry like he used to, King was butchering solo after solo, and when they weren’t doing that, they were just standing there. Even Lombardo was a little lax on the skins. I realize that those guys are getting up there in age, but the severe lack of effort was disheartening. However, Hanneman was up there bangin’ it out and nailed it. Now I have accepted the fact that I will have to listen to Show No Mercy on loop playback for all eternity in lieu of ever seeing them live again.

So why does the death of a person I didn’t even know have any sort of effect on me? Well, because Slayer was my gateway drug into everything metal and punk. It was somewhere in my early preteen years that I rerouted my life down the Left-Hand Path, and I can at least partially, if not fully, attribute that to Slayer. At that point in my life I was suffering an identity crisis and needed to escape from the monotony and torture of the pop vomit that infiltrated the minds of my middle school classmates. When I first heard Slayer, I wasn’t anywhere near prepared for it. The song was “South of Heaven,” from a mix CD that a friend burned for me - I was just decimated. I didn’t know that kind of music was allowed. It awakened new levels of discomfort and anxiety, as well as rage that made me just want to get up and start breaking shit. That was exactly the contradiction of emotions I needed to get me through my middle school identity calamity. Since then, Slayer has been a staple through every phase of my life. I can directly link the band to some of my best memories.

Hanneman’s music has had a profound impact on multiple generations of metalheads and punks alike. Everyone from my 11 year old nephew, who I have forced Slayer upon since he was just a tyke, to my more middle aged friends who have worshipped Slayer since the tape trading days, has been cranking their favorite Slayer albums in mourning remembrance. My personal choice has been Show No Mercy. Hanneman’s riffs and compositions were truly a driving force in shaping the future of underground music and spawned infinite legions of metal and punk bands for years to come. He will be dearly missed.

It’s the beginning of the end of an era. All of my heroes are dying.

R.I.P. Jeff.

Thoughts on the Neutral Milk Hotel Reunion

The following Doomgoblin piece first ran in The Soda Killers isssue #4, which there are still a very limited number of copies left of.  Get in touch it you'd like to get one.

Thoughts on the Neutral Milk Hotel Reunion
By Doomgoblin

4/29/13
The Internet just told me that Neutral Milk Hotel got back together and has five shows scheduled. I’m not one to get excited about reunions, but this feels a lot different.

I used to check out CDs from the library in my hometown all the time. Whoever was responsible for buying CDs for the library back then really snuck some gems in there. So I was browsing the collection and I came across this bizarre looking CD. There was a chick in a dress with half a coconut for a head or something. The colors were muted and dreamy and I decided to check it out because I was 15 or 16 and it looked cool. The band name was just as mysterious as the artwork. What kind of band calls themselves Neutral Milk Hotel?

I took it home and sat in my bedroom and listened to it for the first time. I was confused as hell. The guy can barely sing, the horns are unbearably out of tune, and the lyrical content made no sense. But I couldn’t stop listening to it. And the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. The best records are always like that, it seems. Things that take a couple spins to really get under your skin. Not that I refuse to embrace music that is instantly enjoyable, but it just feels more satisfying when you have to put a little more work into it. So I found this record that I knew absolutely nothing about. I didn’t know if I was supposed to love it or mock it. I was a total tabula rasa, you know? It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to something without any preconceived notions about how I should feel about it.

I was young and I was just starting to really explore music. I was never attracted to top 40 radio, so I just listened to oldies stations and Broadway cast recordings. I started by checking out the musicals from the library. Do you remember those bulky double CD cases? Yuck. Then I moved to the classical section, and the jazz section. The rock section was kind of my final frontier. I didn’t like most of the stuff I picked out, but Neutral Milk Hotel, Radiohead, Cat Power, and Elliot Smith were my gateway drugs. So thanks old library! Thank you for planting the seeds that made me want to discover more music.

I’m so excited about this whole NMH reunion because I never thought I’d ever see them live. They broke up/went on hiatus/whatever shortly after In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released. Everything I read about them at the time (2002ish?) suggested that Jeff Mangum was a total recluse and it was highly unlikely that we’d ever hear from them again. It’s probably still highly unlikely that I’ll see them live. Even if they do eventually make it up to Minneapolis, I’ll probably forget to buy tickets and then not remember the show is even happening until the day of when it’s too late…unless I can convince someone to get me in for free. Because that’s how I roll. I completely suck at going to shows. But that isn’t the point! The point is that I’m being all nostalgic and happy that they’ve decided to play a couple shows in places far far away from here.

I’m Faster Than My Shadow

HDD Radio #17: New Zine Out!

To celebrate the arrival of the new issue of The Soda Killers, our guy fired up the old HDD studio again for a new pod.  He played a bunch of tunes from 2013, as well as some crusty hardcore punk 7"s and '80s thrash metal.  If you want to hear a dude pretend to smoke pot on the radio and mispronounce German and Swedish band names and song titles in a horrendous Spanish accent, this would be your stop.
 
Tracklist: 
Daylight Robbery - Distant Shores
Milk Music - Cruising With God
California X - Hot Head
The Men - Without a Face
Wavves - Mystic
Crocodiles - Give Me Some Annihilation
No Age - Lock Box
Accion Mutante - Experimental Disease
Coaccion - Amordazado
I.R.N. (I Ren Desperation) - Hakta Mig
Kvoteringen - En Acklig Rovdrift
Pisschrist - Run For Your Life
Aberrant - Anthem Track
Sacred Blade - The Alien
Death Dealer - Cross My Way
Trouble - The Last Judgement
War Cry - Forbidden Evil
Chelsea Light Moving - Empires of Time (live on KEXP 3/14/13)
Mudhoney- The Final Course
Pissed Jeans - Cafateria Food
Sneeze - Vaticant
Iceage - Rodf(ae)stet
Chelsea Light Moving - Frank O'Hara Hit (live on KEXP 3/23/13)

To subscribe in iTunes go here.  For direct download go here.  Leave us some feedback.  Thanks for listening!

Record Review: Deadly Reign - Slave 7"

Deadly Reign - Slave 7" (Profane Existence)
By Nathan G. O'Brien on Scene Point Blank

As to be expected, there is a heavy sociopolitical aspect in the lyrics and imagery. The lyrics center on topics such as worker’s rights and system injustice. The cover work shows a pair of hands chained together set against an aerial view of industrious smokestacks and a power plant-like compound. The vinyl comes in four different colors—blue, white, clear, and regular old black. Although I probably wouldn’t have sought this out on my own, I am still pleasantly surprised. It’s a pretty solid release and an excellent inclusion in what has already been a fairly eclectic PE single series.  ...read the whole review after the jump.

The Soda Killers issue #5 OUT NOW~!

The Soda Killers fanzine issue #5

PUNK//RAP//GRAFFITI

Record & show reviews, graff flicks, and a lengthy essay by Dale Danger of Bacon In The Beans fanzine.

Holler at us if you're into it.

FREE//TRADE//DONATE

HDD Radio #16

Well it’s been a long freaking time coming, but HotDogDayz Radio has finally returned to the airwaves.  When our dude sits down with a stack of records, a microphone, and no sense of direction or quality control who knows what will happen.  This time it happens to be hardcore, Oi!, ska, new wave, and peace-punk.  Check it out and let us know what you think.  If zines are your thing, holler at us – they’re ours too.

Tracklist:

Harry Balzagna & the Teenie Weenies – Skate Army

Right On – Choice?

Youth Riot! – Too Posh Too Mosh

Life Set Struggle – Get Over It

Deadly Reign – Suffer

Rifle Diet – Abuse Begets Abuse

Krang – Reclaim (De Aestus Espirit Et Tu)

The Shame – Kings of the Midwestern Plains

The Oppressed – We’re the Oppressed

Angelic Upstarts – I’m an Upstart

Cockney Rejects – Oi! Oi! Oi!

Bad Manners – Lip Up Fatty

Madness – One Step Beyond

The Beat – Mirror in the Bathroom

The Selecter – On My Radio

The Specials – Gangsters

Craze – Motions

Kenny Vaughan – Tonight I Need

Afraid of Mice – Intercontinental

Honey Bane – Girl on the Run

Flux of Pink Indians – Tube Disasters

Zounds – Can’t Cheat Karma

To subscribe in iTunes go here.  For direct download go here.  Leave us some feedback.  Thanks for listening!

PS - Sorry about the sound quality.  Some of the records are old and/or pretty fucked-up.  That and I recently borrowed out my turntable to my uncle so he could deejay an all dusty 45s set, which wreaked havoc on my stylus, because they were quite literally dusty.  Also, I was wrong when I called myself the King of Punk.  That's Justin Theroux.  I'm more like the Queen of Punk.