5 Years @ MR

Embarrassing to this day, not sure what the hell I was thinking when I agreed to take a picture labeled as "most unique"...what a joke.  A part of me feels like I'm still a joke, but wtf, just go with it right?  One thing the picture captures is the doo I was sporting there for a while, which led to the nickname Rug, as it looked like I was bald headed with a toupee sitting on top of my head. Had a crush on Danielle there for a while, but too chickenshit to make a move and never really got that vibe from her.  Had an even bigger crush on her sister Diedre, but she was out of high school, and yeah like that was going to happen.  They both worked at my favorite restaurant/pizza joint Numero Uno in Burbank, down by the Toluca Lake border.  Amazing what marinated onions can do for a salad and plus they had the best pizza crust (thick) I've ever had.  Their older brother Derek was part of that "older brother" clique of guys who had graduated from Burbank High several years before that would buy before for us youngsters, when we so desired.

Anyway today marks the five year anniversary of Mustard Relics, even paid the $95.40 to the server company for another year of service.  I'm asking myself why, it's not like I have that kind of money to throw around, paid it with plastic (what the hell?) and I gotta buy propane soon too.  Now that I think about it I could stand to buy tires, no metal showing yet, but a few of them are awfully bald.  This place isn't bald yet though, still a lot of tread on these here tires.  MR has come a long ways, check out those first few post to trip, fucking amateur.  Still got a lot to learn, but this blog has outlived a lot of other places and I wonder at the usefulness of places like this anymore.  Still tons of hits, but the days of 20+ comments on a post are bygone.  The content is still top notch, maybe not my words, but the music featured here, week in week out, shreds.  That is a completely objective opinion...hahaha.  So thanx to the characters that have continued to stop by and have something to add and welcome to any newcomers.  Rock and Roll lives (here).

Tracked a rip of this F.C.D.N Tormentor 7' down a while back and just had to share, but since it's not something I actually have we'll make a secret (hahaha). I posted a back yard party of them way back when as just Tormentor (there's a million bands, some pretty good ones, with that name). This 7" was released by my old buddy Bob's Deep Six Records (a must for extreme music) early on and is way out of print. It's much more polished than that live show and has a bit of a hardcore/power violence vibe to it. This is some serious shit right here and you MUST listen, dig it don't... Falsified Spirit Eternal Grave First Among The Dead Mystic Rites On a totally different tip, more along the modern psyche lines, I stumbled across a band called Clipd Beaks that captured my interest (featured in the vid below). As I was bouncing around the net from related site to site, I found that they had been on this comp done by a label called Moon Glyph. Anyway that comp, filled with all kinds of trip-out-ed-ness can be gotten form the label for free HERE.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PiEIdQ8kUA] Thanx again guys for helping to make the last 5 years around here, a blast. No thanx to all the fuckwads of the world in their many forms and disguises...you know who you are.

Culto del Cargo - S/T digital ep

All the way from Italy for my (our) listening pleasure.  This is the secong time I've gotten a record from an internation band, gratis, and in some way it make me feel like I'm doing something right around here (thanx Ennio!).  Here's the email I got after virtually giving them a listen and letting them know I was digging their sound,  "This is Ennio, “Culto del Cargo” drummer. I don't work today, so I answer to you immediately. Here you are some informations:  Yes, we are the guys in that video. This is another live show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKT2AWmVSXI A lot of friends, that night. A good party.  We are from Veneto region, in the north-east of Italy: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Veneto_in_Italy.svg&page=1  We are into the DIY punk and hardcore scene, so we love to play in squats, anti-fascist and self-managed places. Things are changed in Veneto compared to 15 years ago: there aren't many punk or hardcore bands, and is very hard to find a place to play for. There some places to play; but sometimes cops have something to say. We think they don't like our friends and our music. Anyway, we don't give a fuck: we wanna play and make noise, and that's what we do.  We have been active since 2010. In the 2011 we recorded that 7” (limited to 300 copies). We have played (and playing) in a lot of bands. Here you are a list: Gelo (still alive) http://www.necessitohc.com/index.php?page=gelo_baka-yaro_split2011#anchor Caprosmorto (R.I.P.) http://www.necessitohc.com/index.php?page=caprosmorto_demo2007#anchor Corporation of Consumption (still alive) http://www.necessitohc.com/index.php?page=corporation-of-consumption_go-to-die-killed#anchor Carlito (still alive) http://www.necessitohc.com/index.php?page=carlito_2010#anchor And others passed away: Timothy (a sort of Entombed/hc style), Terrorarium (grindcore), Cimex (anarcho-punk).  (Oh, check this site: www.necessitohc.com This is my free distro online. Only italian harcore/punk/crust bands. You can listen their music, and it's all in free download.)  We are in love with hardcore, grindcore, d-beat, crust, doom, sludge, death metal, punk music. We like underground bands from Europe. There are a lot of good guys and bands from east and north Europe with DIY attitude. (Personally I like some italian underground hip-hop bands, like DSA Commando: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJLaNoQ12p8 This guys have real HC attitude.)  We will recording 5 or 6 new songs in the coming months for a split with Brivido, an hardcore band from Croatia. We don't know if it will be a 7” or something else. Oh, and about our band name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult  And give me your house address: I'll send to you a copy of our 7” for free. If you need anything else, send me an email. That's all, I think. Thanks a lot, and take it easy too. Cheers, ennio"  You know just to put this out there, I speak English and some Spanish, but I'm out of practice with Spanish, being smack dab in the middle of mono-lingual America and with no Spanish speakers around (of course).  A hundred years ago around here, most people were bilingual, my Grandma was the last one in my line to be able to speak French.  Anyway I just want to say that it's a big deal that some guy in Europe can just get up and type me a message in another language besides his own, without using an online translator, you can really tell when a person uses one of those.  Instead of putting so much energy into English ONLY like a lot of people do in this country, we should be encouraging people to speak several languages.  That shit's brain food.  Like Smokey said in "Friday", "stimulate your mind".  That's my rant.  Now, about this band...smokin'.  If you like your band a straightforward blend of metal and hardcore, and doing it in the grizzliest of fashions, then this is for you.  Reminds me of the UK band Doom (that is a fucking GREAT thing) with that Italian hardcore edge to it. Culto del Cargo is Italian (duh, go figure and Italian band with an Italian name) for Cargo Cult (interesting read)...I imagine that's what the cover photo is. As Ennio said in his note, everything is free at the Culto del Cargo WEBSITE. A nice package, you get scans of the sleeve, lyrics in Italian/English (thoughtful stuff) and of course mp3s of all five tunes. The 7", which is limited to just 300 copies can be found there too. I've listened to thing like 10 times now and I just can't get enough. Ennio's drumming is this perfect metronome, rat-tat-rat-tat, and the guitar shreds all over that. The bass and the vocals do a nice job grumbling out the low end. Well worth a few minutes of your time to give a listen... Scarpe, divisa e cappio Pensare e rifiutare Immagina L'era dell'uomo Pensare e rifiutare

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3mtMNTd7ss]

The United Sons Of Toil - Forces Of Production CD

It's time for some United Sons Of Toil again...we heard from them a while back with their When The Revolution Comes, Everything Will Be Beautiful.  Russel the guitarist/vocalist is cool as all get out and sent me this a while back (I'm way behind on my reviews, I gotta do what's in my head every once in a while and all of a sudden I got a shit ton of vinyl/cassette/cd's).  Unfortunately shortly before I received this the band called it quits...check it out at their WEBSITE.  As for this record, to put it simply, this is a way out there (in a good kinda way) remix of some of the stuff they've done over the years.  Here's the band's take on it, "This record, Forces Of Production, has been a long time coming. We’ve talked about doing something like this since our first record came out in 2007. As fans of experimental, dub, and electronic music, we appreciate the recontextualization of art in our current cut-and-paste culture. Who’s to say that the only versions of our songs are the ones we’ve released? So we imagined the individual tracks as raw material — merely starting points for new compositions. We enlisted friends and fans and assembled radically different versions of songs drawn from all of our records. Some of these songs are unmistakably United Sons of Toil songs; others bear little resemblance.  Like all our records, Forces Of Production is available for free download. In addition a super-deluxe limited-edition CD package is available with bonus disc (I got the even more uber rare basic promo copy). The admittedly over-the-top packaging involves riveted metal asset tags and a custom wax seal."  Yeah, you read that right...FREE.  The only thing free anymore is venereal disease.  This ain't no bullshit big label drivel.  Being in a FTW space time continuum, it brings me intense pleasure when a record takes that and induces a state of WTF.  This record is a fuckin' trip.  Every song (composition works better) is so different from the next, and they suck you in like a vacuum (not one of those plastic $20 ones you get at Walmart, but a good old built to last Kirby).  It has an almost industrial feel at times and then this hip hop vibe and finally kind of a dub step (a new to me genre) thing going on.  Forces of Production is groovy, heavy, spacey, funky, dreamy, mechanical, driving, hypnotic and probably a person could come up with a whole lot more.  Now that the contributors have taken the tunes and done their thing, it makes perfect sense.  The harmony that the band endorses in lyric is right there in the mix.  Too fucking cool.  As promised you can get this in the form of a DOWNLOAD, or if you're not willing to commit the bits and bytes, you can give it an audible gander (man I'm a wordy mofo) as a STREAM.  Or you can get yourself a hard copy at their website.  Every song on here is worth a listen, you can do it intently or passively like I'm doing as I type, hell, surf and listen.  Picked out a few of my ever changing faves, to get ya started... Cast Lead Rumford Shining Path

Aperiodic - Future Feedback LP/CD

Another one from those guys over at Cincinnati's Phratry Records (if you follow things around here you might remember these bands, also on Phratry...Disguised As Birds, Mala In Se, Swear Jar, Rambos & United Sons Of Toil.  This time we have Aperiodic and I gotta tell you this band is way the fuck out there.  Here's the description I got, "Aperiodic is a meeting of Noise and Free Jazz with elements of No Wave, Musique Concrète, and Hardcore. In addition to standard rock instruments they utilize an arsenal of world instruments to create freely improvised music. The end result is free, but not aimless. Guitars shift between angular riffing and textural lilt, elastic drumming, and a multi-directional low end. Aperiodic currently shares members with HOLY FUCK (Young Turks/XL/Beggars Group) and THE EXPONENTIAL and previously shared members with ENON (Touch & Go Records), A TEN O’ CLOCK SCHOLAR (Grass Records) and LAB PARTNERS."  I don't know if I can describe it any better than that, "free, but not aimless" is just perfect.  But I gotta say something about this bad boy, don't I (cuz I never shut up around here...I'm actually very quiet in person)?  Well for starters, it's all over the place in a way that only something along the lines of avant garde would be.  It's passive and ambiasonic at times, and then builds into a monstrous crush that test the moxy of your speakers.  It's a whisper then a roar.  The average guy might not dig it, because it's not melodic and doesn't have that verse/chorus formula.  I remember when I was in high school we went to on a tour of the University of Redlands, to kind of give us a vibe as to what college was about.  Anyway one of the students who was a tour guide, was a music major and for a project he hooked up an old standup piano with all kinds of microphones and set it on fire.  He had a tape of it, and of course I asked to listen to it.  Well can you picture it in your mind or imagine what it might have sounded like?  It's sort of a natural sound with the crackling of the fire, the straining of the wood, strings popping, sounds that leave you wondering what it might be...that's Aperiodic.  Natural.  It just makes sense, it's exactly how it's supposed to sound for that moment.  Blah, blah, blah...I don't know.  They've got some reviews and more info about the band HERE. Here's what I thought was some of the best of it for your sampling pleasure...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvlwcp_2xQ]

...and if that wasn't enough check out their Bandcamp player (below) and then go pick it up at Phratry Records... [bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1913976764 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Johatsu - Demolition cassette

Had to hook up my tape deck to give this one a listen, another killer release from Freddy over at Wardance Records.  I don't even know where to start with Johatsu.  I got the lowdown from Freddy, "...that tape rules, for now it's a 2 man project by ex-Hell No dudes. They're working on new material & hopefully a full band soon. I'm biased, but I think that the songs in the tape are great, u can tell they grew up on HC/Punk/90's dissonant stuff & mesh it all together really well. I took it off the Wardance page as I only have a couple of copies left, but the band should have some." Over at United By Rocket Science they'll tell you "think New York Hardcore meets Amphetamine Reptile Records and gets stuck in the mud on the way to a Metal show.  The sound is heavy, ferocious and relentless." I don't know if I could describe these guys any better than that.  Not sure if it's because it's on cassette or the mix, but it has that demo sound, which makes it feel a lot older, but this is fresh and relevant.  Often times you can describe a band by saying that they sound like this or that band, which I'm terrible at, because my mind has trouble assigning a particular sound to a name, but who the fuck do these guys sound like...no one as far as I'm concerned.  With one guy doing vocals and the other doing all the instruments, it reminds me of some good times I had recording stuff with one of my buddies who could play all the instruments in your typical band.  Don't think these guys are just fucking around though, this is a band that will make people stand up and recognize.  Like a lot of bands these days Johatsu has a Bandcamp where you can give all the tunes a listen and for dirt cheap buy a download of the tunes and maybe pick up an actual copy.  There's two more tunes available for download on Bandcamp, that aren't on the cassette.  They also have a Myspace in case you want to do a little more exploring.  If you're of the European persuasion and location, you can also pick this thing up from Per Koro Records, a label/mailorder outta Germany.  I prefer side 1 over side 2, I guess because side 2 feels more like a jam, but really the cassette grabs you by the balls from beginning to end.  Hands down my favorite is the first tune (and a lot of times the band puts their best track first, so maybe the band is in agreement with me), I really like how the singer almost talks or narrates over some furious riffing.  If you can find this thing, go get your tape deck out of the garage or go get one at the thrift store (may as well, I think tapes are making a small underground comeback), and trip the hell out on Johatsu.  That first tune for ya... [bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2918916784 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

1984

Nineteen Eighty Four was a good year...9th grade, Luther Burbank Junior High.  Miss Harley swore that we looked stoned in this picture.  Bob, the drummer for Lack Of Interest, also the guy behind Deep Six Records is in there too.  In case you don't know me I'm the hesher 4th from the right.  Jack Purvis, another hesher, is 2nd from the right, that's the only other name my burnt out brain can remember from this pic.  Being a library assistant was a sweet job, you put away books for a couple of minutes and chill the rest of the period.  9th grade, the top of the heap at our junior high, not knowing that I would instantly and insufferably be flung to the bottom of the heap the following year at Burbank High.  King shit.  I was voted "friendliest" that year, because you know despite all the wrong I have done in my life, I'm a pretty nice guy.  Gilbert Bautista was my best friend and partner in crime.  We grew apart in high school, he ended up with the stoner gangsters, while I ended up punk rock.  Rode my skateboard back and forth, the 20 or so blocks to school.  Got my first job, with a paycheck, that year cleaning out bird cages at a pet shop.  The aviaries were the worst because you had to get inside with the birds and while you were cleaning up shit, they would shit on you.  Before I got the job I would get stoned at the park with the other stoners on the way home.  Saw Venom, Slayer and Exodus that year with my elementary school chum Roy Miyake (last I heard was at a Buddhist Monastery in San Fransisco).  One of my greatest shows ever, but I've told that story. I was going to lots of concerts around this time, my Mom's effort to educate me.  The Universal Amphatheater was a great venue for bigger concerts, not a bad seat in the house.  Saw Return to Forever, Bo Didley, Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, Kansas, Joan Baez, Pete Seger (and what was left of the Weavers...a group that had been blacklisted by McCarthy).  My two favorite bands at the time were Venom (or maybe Slayer) and Crass, go figure, I've never made sense.  There were two record stores that were a short bus ride away, one in North Hollywood and another in Glendale  Didn't have a girlfriend that year, I don't think I was even digging on anyone in particular, but two of my best friends were girls, Bonnie and Mindi (they ended up going to the other high school in Burbank so we lost touch).  Outside of school I played AYSO soccer as I had done since I was 5.  My knee blew up playing soccer in high school on my 16th birthday...that was the end of my soccer career (I wasn't that good anyway, too slow...short legs).  My life at home was cool, being raised by a single Mom who didn't really care what I did, as long as my grades were decent and I wasn't getting in trouble for anything.  Life was pretty good.  I was old enough to know the world was crazy place and stupid enough to think I knew everything.  Little did I know, life would turn out the way it did.  Anyway, here's some tunes that could sorta be my soundtrack to 1984 and wherever possible I've tried to include demo or live versions...what were you doing in 1984? Crass - What a Shame Slayer - Chemical Warfare MDC - John Wayne Was a Nazi Venom - Angel Dust Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus Dead Kennedys - Bleed For Me G.I.S.M. - ABC Weapons 45 Grave - Black Cross The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Manic Depression BLACK SABBATH - Electric Funeral