NEW HAPPINESS - "Silence" - Tape - 2013

   I got this tape sometime last year without truly realizing the band was from the neighboring city of Oakland. Their location may be the least important thing about this band. Anyway, I listened to their tape, liked it and wanted to see them, but with a little bit of digging, I found that they had already broken up. My fucking loss.
   NEW HAPPINESS plays a dark style of post-punk that is so post that it's maybe not even actually punk. Like, maybe they just decided to start a band after listening to a bunch of SKINNY PUPPY one day. What the fuck do I know? It's a little goth sounding with some crazy metal percussion that sounds like synthesizers sometimes..but is actually just a bunch of metal junk. Sometimes, the vocals are a little too over the top for me, but that's just me. Maybe you like over the top.

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TRAUMA HARNESS - "Leechman / New Dark World" - Tape - 2012

    Whenever I see the unmistakable art of Lumpy, I pick up the release and take it without any thought because I know that the sounds contained within will be interesting, thought-provoking and/or fucking punk in the exact way that I like. I ran into this tape on an icy cold January day at a record store in Asheville, NC. It was only $1.95. The clerk looked at it and sniffed "You actually want this?" Yeah.

   TRAUMA HARNESS plays dark, noisy, fucked post-punk and the two songs on this cassingle are a stellar intro into what the band has to offer. "Leechman" is upbeat, yet dark and creepy, but "New Dark World" is what really made my $1.95 feel well spent. The song is held together by a dark, repetitive bass line while the guitar riffs away into single-note abandon. It sounds claustrophobic and tense. It also reminds me of how I wanted JOY DIVISION to sound when I was a teenage punk, rather than what they actually sound like, if that makes any sense. Download it and listen to it while walking down a cold, lonely street at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday and see if you get chills.

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To hear more by TRAUMA HARNESS, check out their Bandcamp page. You could also just download this tape from them, rather than getting my rip from the cassette. To order physical tapes and more, I urge you to click over to Spotted Race and spend your stupid cash on weird ephemera to clutter your room.

I meant to upload this yesterday, but I got terribly distracted by a text flurry...I mean, it's 2013. Deal with it. 

 

REMAIN INDOORS - Demo - Tape - 2012

   Sometime around the dawn of humankind in negative 84 BC, Joey Ramone decided to invent punk after knocking himself unconscious from running full speed into a brontosaurus. His friends dragged him into a cave and had a pizza party while he recovered. When he awoke, he decided that all he wanted to do was play fast, three chord songs and sing about cretins. Soon, a lot of other weirdos started showing up wearing leather jackets, sniffing glue and being generally obnoxious. Some of them even shaved their hair into weird creations and tied shoestrings around their heads. Joey decided that all of these outcasts needed a place to live, so he opened the first punk house and called it The Ranch. Somehow, the place survived earthquakes, floods, scabies, staph infections, the black plague, mold, folk punk shows and tornadoes. It still stands today as a proud testament to the lasting longevity of punk and they still have shows in their basement.
    Okay, obviously that's all a lie, but The Ranch is a real punk house in Portland, Oregon and it has been around for quite a long time now. They entered a hibernation period for a while, but they are doing great punk shows in their basement these days and it's easily my favorite place to play when I go to that fine city. The house is populated by punks (duh) and has a practice space/show space in the basement. Of course, people in the house use the space to practice with their band(s), but one day the entire house decided to all start a band together and they called that band REMAIN INDOORS (Some readers may remember that I mentioned in the GROUCH article that I needed a REMAIN INDOORS tape. Their drummer, Henderson was nice enough to send it to me. Thanks!) Their members have done time in bands like DRUNKEN BOAT, THE STOPS, THE CLOSET FAIRIES, SHOREBIRDS, UPSHIT CREEK and many, many more. So, you're already aware that these fools have a good idea of what they're doing. They play straightforward punk that has subtle tinges of that gloomy, almost-goth darkness that seems to permeate the northwestern punk scene. BUT, don't pull out your black nail polish and 48 eyelet stiletto boots just yet (actually, go ahead)...they keep it firmly in the punk camp but keep it gloomy enough to where you can put this on when you either feel like shit or wanna ride your bike in the sun all day. Unfortunately, this band only lasted for 7 short months before calling it quits. Is it awkward to live in a house with all of your bandmates after your band has broken up? I don't know. You can ponder that while you listen to this tape.

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Re-uploaded Feb 2013

If you'd like to order your own copy of this tape from the band (which I strongly urge), please write to themovieisalmostover@gmail.com

ARCTIC FLOWERS - Demo - Tape - 2009

   I knew ARCTIC FLOWERS would rule before I ever heard them because my friend (Spiky) Mikey (Napkin) played drums for them and he doesn't fuck around when it comes to playing music (unless, of course, he is fucking around). It seemed like most other people at the time were really excited that a guy from SIGNAL LOST was in the band (full disclosure: I didn't hear SIGNAL LOST until this year).
   ARCTIC FLOWERS started practicing sometime in 2009 without a singer, writing songs and trying to figure out who could front their band. I think I remember them telling me that they asked Alex to sing for their band after seeing her front an AVENGERS cover band at a house show in Portland. They clicked and threw out this demo pretty soon afterwards. This demo is strong, well-produced (the joys of having your own studio) and sounds like a band that has already been playing together for years. Their take on UK anarcho-punk sounds fresh and precise. "Technicolor Haze" sounds bleak and goth in a way that makes me want to pull out my nonexistent BAUHAUS and JOY DIVISION records. These four songs aren't much different from the recordings that later appeared on their self-released 7" and their LP, but I find myself coming back to listen to this demo over and over. Highly recommended!

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Re-uploaded 2013