Culture Kids – s/t LP (Make A Mess)
I do my level best to stay far, far away from anything that ever could be described as meat-and-potatoes hardcore. Indeed, I have no fucking idea what that would sound like, such is my avoidance, but I kind of imagine something kind of this, straight forward hardcore punk (straight outta San Francisco) of a classic cast, songs that could have been on “Flex Your Head” or “This is Boston…” But, oddly, a couple of things save this from the anonymity so richly deserved by folks working in the form. Guitar has surprisingly little distortion on it – we’re not at Minutemen levels of treble or anything, but there is a thin quality that adds to the frantic-rather-than-crushing sound – dude knows his way around a riff or three, the “wait, what was that again?”/take the needle back kind. The singer’s degree of throat-rip is genuinely exciting in spots. Not Finnish/Japanese/d-beat tribute, but firmly in the real-person camp, albeit a real person who is very angry indeed and may have just sliced his head open on a pipe on the too-low ceiling of whatever dank basement this was recorded in. Speaking of, live takes on exceptionally shitty-n-impressive, lo-fi recording here (four-track cassette?) adds to the vigor (or “vigah” if it’s an SSD lick) add to the thrills. Urge to skate … RISING. (http://makeamessrecords.bigcartel.com)
(Joe Gross)
