The Slow Death - Born Ugly, Got Worse

Is there anything more reliably solid than Twin Cities punk rock rock? JS-NYC would argue no, and The Slow Death make for a pretty convincing argument. Spawned from the ashes of Pretty Boy Thorson, The Slow Death shares some members (and a fair amount of the set list, as I understand), most importantly lead lungs/liver scarrer Jesse Thorson. To sweeten the pot and keep things scene compliant, Mr. Paddy Costello holds down the bass half of the rhythm section, with the ubiquitous Mikey Erg on the drum stool and Ms. Annie Soviette holding down the lady vocal slot. Not too shabby, huh.

And it's not less than the sum of its parts. Born Ugly, Got Worse takes the best part of Dillinger Four and The Replacements and pairs it with the high points of the Ben Deilly era Lemonheads (esp. on Stay High) to make one of the best bastard unions you have gracing your earhole(s) this year, even (or mayhaps because) one of the tracks is a straight Chixdiggit ripoff. You'll get 12 songs in just over a half-hour for your holiday dollar, insuring multiple replays with little in the way of diminishing returns. Get Born Ugly, Got Worse here from your friends at Kiss Of Death and keep track of all things Slow and Deathlike here. Buy it now, thank me later.

R

VRGNS - No Longer Entertainment 7"

I like VRGNS. The new record Manimals is a good one and they have managed to survive in the wake of douchey major label bands making power plays for their name. The No Longer Entertainment 7" pairs the banger from the new platter with a Born Against cover sung by Ryan Patterson of Coliseum. It's good. Pretty sure this is optimized for the collector nerds and limited, so if you want it in your hot little hands, get on over to Kiss Of Death stat. Here's a link.

R

VRGNS - Manimals

Full-length #2 from the Florida franchise, now forced to kick it Oedipus style due to the presence of the nightmare NYC band with the same name that will no doubt break up shortly, if they've not already. For the uninformed, Sam and Alex from New Mexican Disaster Squad and No Friends are 2/3 of this band. They aren't as core as the aforementioned franchises, but keep it moving briskly with short sharp shards of songs that have more than a few hooks hidden just under the surface. Manimals is a decent record, but it wouldn't be the first one I'd pay for as a broke ass NYCer. Lucky for us, the good folk of Kiss Of Death have leveled the playing field by giving it away for free here. Vinyl aficionados and lovers of the tangible can purchase same there as well. Enjoy. Keep tabs on their regular goings-on here.

R

Banner Pilot - Resignation Day remaster

It's been just a hair over two years since Banner Pilot released Resignation Day on Go-Kart. They have signed to Fat in the interim, releasing the solid, but arguably not as good, Collapser and garnering a fair amount of well-deserved props beyond the basement scene that spawned them. They don't tour out this way all that much, only twice in their existence that I've been aware of, which makes for kind of a bummer when one of them was last year's twenty minute CMJ set. Listening to the remastered Resignation Day, the fact that Banner Pilot need to get out East for a proper show can't be asserted more clearly. Damn! This is one hell of a good record, by 2008 or 2010 standards. The Fat remaster tags the two tracks from the Kiss Of Death split with Monikers to push the record that much closer to awesomeness. Make Fat Mike and four solid dudes from the Twin Cities a little happier and snap this bad boy up with the quickness. Here's a link.

R

The Measure (sa) and New Bruises split cd

Kiss Of Death has a good thing going on with their free downloads. It confounds me that vinyl is such a big deal in 2010, but if it's a lucrative enough endeavor to get me quality music on the regular for free and everybody still gets to eat, I say bring it on.

My most recent acquisition from KBD is this new split from Brooklyn/NJ rock machine The Measure (sa) and Tampa foursome known as New Bruises. I enjoy The Measure (sa) very much. They've got great tunes and I like the co-ed vocals a bunch. I tend to find one member of the band a tad silly, but by and large I'm pleased to be able to see them on the regular around town. There is a new Measure (sa) record coming down the pike, but this split serves up four pretty much unreleased new tracks to tide you over in the interim. All pretty uptempo, replete with some dual vocals and Black Flag interpolation on Ruby Is A Punk. None goes past 1:30, but you'll want to play Response over and over anyway, so call it a win and get over it.

New Bruises hail from Tampa and are also the proprietors of Kiss Of Death, which must make it easier to give your product away for free. I knew I was familiar with them, but confused them with another band with brothers. What I did not realize was that they were half of PA emo franchise Mid Carson July. NB cover MCFNJ for their last track and do it well, with obligatory studio joshery at the end. Save for that, our heroes ply their trade in a pleasant mid 90s Crank! Records rock that isn't terribly far removed from its predecessor. I bet they would sound good in a backyard with a keg. I'm not sure how much of a touring entity they are, but here's hoping we get to see this pairing live in NYC soon.

Get the vinyl or the download here from Kiss Of Death.

R

Free No Friends EP!

Another awesome blast of goodness from the friendless ones, this time in the form of the Traditional Failures EP. Wonderfully enough, this one's free. As often happens in this strange world, it's one of the few things I've heard recently that I'd be into paying for. Six tunes, five under the two minute mark, all in the Dag Nasty/Descendents vein. The closer even cops a little D Boon in the extended guitar coda that stretches the tune to an epic 2:45. You would be an idiot not to get this from your friends at Kiss Of Death here and certainly foolish to not see them on one of the dates below, if you were able.

See you in the pit!

R

Apr 2 2010

8:00P

The PourhouseRaleigh, North Carolina

Apr 3 2010

8:00P

MACROCKHarrisonburg, Virginia

Apr 4 2010

6:00P

Corpse FortressDC, Washington DC

Apr 5 2010

8:00P

The Skid Row GarageYork, Pennsylvania

Apr 6 2010

8:00P

BosniaNew Brunswick, New Jersey

Apr 7 2010

8:00P

Church of BostonBoston, Massachusetts

Apr 8 2010

8:00P

Bruar FallsBrooklyn, New York

Apr 9 2010

8:00P

The TerrordomePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

Apr 10 2010

8:00P

The BikelotRichmond, Virginia

Whiskey Trench - Television

Ah, Whiskey Trench! If I may digress from the onset, it's fairly irritating how much of a dick tease the internet can be. As it regards Whiskey Trench, for a while now I've been trying to figure out if Hugo Mudie is still in this damn band? Given the terse assertion that he is not on the web page, I'm given to think that I am right that he was, but that some sort of acrimony has facilitated his departure from the WT ranks. Not that Whiskey Trench are Rush or anything, but it'd be nice if there were somewhere one could get the skinny on the current lineup.

Not that I'm such a slavish Mudie jocker that I would disregard the band if he wasn't a member, but truth be told, The Sainte Catherines/Yesterday's Ring connection was the reason I got into the band in the first place. I grabbed the first Whiskey Trench record from the download section of If You Make It last year and was pretty taken with the Canadian inflected Jawbreaker-isms therein. Television keeps that legacy alive, adding a little Ben Deily era Lemonheads to the mix to keep things interesting. There is also an interesting Green Onions meets Planet Of Sound kind of instrumental turn on No Money For Bus Fare that heralds some interesting directions in the band's future. The fourteen tracks are all pretty sold, with Vicious Sore and Life Long Sentence taking the top two slots to these ears. As luck would have it, the gents are playing Bar Nine tomorrow night, so it appears I'll be able to get to the bottom of the Hugo thing and see if Whiskey Trench can pull it off live. See you front and center at the rock show. If you can't make it out, check the record out at their web presence or just buy Television from Kiss Of Death. Think about maybe buying two. It's the perfect holiday gift.

R

Mouthbreather review up at The Tripwire

Ladies and Gents:

Review of the new Mouthbreather record is currently up at The Tripwire. Pop over and check it. Here's a link.

Thanks to Derek Evers at The Tripwire!

R