Dirty Wombs: "We Rise" Demo Review

Genre: metallic punk

Location: Patras, Greece

Band Website: bandcamp

Label: (-) self released

The Greek scene has a lot bands breaking out right now, and they are doing it in style and with ferocity. I am happy to say that some of these young fellas aim very high and really raise the bar, thus creating some music that's totally worth the attention of the worldwide metal/punk/hc world.

A good example of such bands is Dirty Wombs, an awesome metallic punk band based in Patras. Now people may want to call this style they're playing "japcore" and make comparisons with all kinds of crazy underground punk bands that I am sure the band listens to in order to craft their sound... however, since I am not too big on Japanese HC, I will break it down for you in a more simple way. What DW really do on this one is take the tight metallic basis of old school thrashy punk and combine it with crazy-ass solos, memorable double-guitar harmonies and barbarous crust vocals. Their style is all go no slow, and maintains its character throughout all the 6 songs of this self-released demo. This band could go down well with crust/dbeat fans but also with thrash freaks, and of course the more open-minded and underground-loving metal kids.

Anyways, so DW has just released this incendiary demo (which was a long time in the making) on a nicely presented, limited cassette release. What we got here is a neat little package with cool artwork that is loyal to the band's style, accompanied by a nice layout with lyrics, drawings etc made by the infamous Jerboa Illustrations. The production is ultra tight to the point I am quite amazed. The mixing brings the  flaming guitar leads at the fore, while the organic-sounding drums, rhythm guitars and truly distorted bass make this mother sound tight and mean. I want to give an extra point for the vocals, which are heavy but sound really clear (you can make out the words and everything) and go back and forth between english and greek.

All in all, this is a very solid piece of work by this Greek band and I am sure the underground will catch up on it fast. Won't you?

Thrash Friday: LEGION OF PARASITES

Legion of Parasites was a very noisy UK band that formed in 1981 and released three albums and an ep. Although they truly belonged in the political, crusty punk hardcore scene of their time, their sound is undeniably much closer to a proto-metal thrash sound that still sounds heavy and disturbing some 30 years later. All their recordings are different from each other, meaning that the production is totally different and that the band also fluctuated back and forth from metallic punk to the more traditional UK82 and anarchopunk sounds. This band has gone largely unnoticed throughout the history of heavy music, but I think that their contribution should be reconsidered and credited. Thrash it up with some original old school UK necro sound!

For some sparse info, you can visit www.myspace.com/legionofparasites. Moreover, the song below has been uploaded straight from vinyl (not by us) and it sounds just like it should, so enjoy!

Jack Terricloth (World/Inferno Friendship Society) Speaks on TYS!

Hey everybody, my name is Jack Terricloth. I sing and am occasionally forced to play various  instruments in the popular World/Inferno Friendship Society, a gang of musical girls and boys (mostly girls at the moment actually) from Brooklyn NY! I’m here today to answer questions posed from someone I’ve never met from somewhere I’ve never been; Greece! Let’s see what he wants to know!

- Can you tell us a few things about the recording of the new album “The Anarchy and The Ecstasy”?

Sure my friendly unknown interlocutor!  We Recorded our 13th offering here in Brooklyn at Vibromonk Studios with producer Dan Shatzky who is well known for his work with many well known or at least well regarded acts, many of whom straddle the world music/rock line.  I’d list them for you but I really don’t like other bands.  They muddy up the market share and steal my musicians.  Plus I don’t want you to think that I think you are a lazy journalist and wouldn’t Google the man yourself such is my respect for your profession.  For any of our shared listeners in the know- it is also the same studio we recorded our 2^nd album ‘Just the Best Party’ ten years ago.

- What are your main musical influences?

The desire to swing, swing freely and quickly, with really loud drums and a piano skiing down a high alpine slope, with a horn section on top of the piano, chasing a remarkably good looking pair of singers who are holding hands and kicking 2 electric guitars in front of them, and the guitars are feeding back . . .

- What is special about the new album so that people have to hear it?

Ok if that’s not enough, it’s a really talented drummer, a baby grand piano, it’s the Matterhorn, the horn section are all people you would know if you googled them, the two singers are making out and I stole the guitars.

- How would you describe your sound?

YOU WOULD LIKE IT!

- You incorporate a lot of anarchy talk into WIFS.

I just gotta be me.

- What does anarchy mean to you today?

That it’s Sunday and I’m drinking in a bar doing an interview.

- And how does it translate into everyday life in the big city (or elsewhere)?

Oh that. OK, that you examine your situation, decide what is the fairest thing to do for yourself, your community that will cause the least amount of hurt or sorrow then act on it. To not be constrained by so called common sense. Believe the impossible can come true. Never give up the joke, never fall down the stairs.  Give a Hobo a quarter if you have one.

- How is working with Chunskaah?

Working with Chunksaah is like going to a Bad Brains show with the sexy substitute teacher when you are 17 and all your friends seeing you at the show with her.

- What business advice do you have to give to kids trying to become musicians on their own terms?

Don’t wait! Don’t wait for a label or a manager or anyone to tell you are good! Get your stuff out there anyway you can! No one is going to do it for you and most people will want to stop you.  Also, there is no point starting if you don’t love the whole process- touring, recording, rehearsing.  If you want to make money it would probably take less effort to become a dentist.

- Do you tour a lot?

We tour about 6 months a year, though we did take last year off to record “The Anarchy and The Ecstasy”.  We are back on the tour cycle right now.

- What are the things you hate / love about touring?

I love touring.  It is where I get to do everyday the thing I excel at.  I don’t even mind the bus- at least I’m suffering for a purpose.  ‘We share everything’ a friend of mine once wrote me about a tour she was on, ‘the sickness, the filth and the drugs’. It is like being in the perfect army in a just and kind war.

- Do you have any plans for touring Europe at any point?

Yes we do, middle of July through end of August.  www.worldinferno.com do not think we are getting to Greece sadly but there is still time.  How you guys doing over there anyway? Heard a lot about riots over in the states.

- What are your creative plans individually and musically for the remaining of 2011?

Like I said, on tour forever.  Doing some solo shows during the brief period we are home.  Not losing my apartment would be cool-you’d be surprised how creative I need to get about that. In my negligible free time I’m working on a second novel (yes, I wrote a first one. Why not look at www.jackterricloth.net ?)

- What is the message you are trying to convey with your career as an artist?

Act on impulse, don’t be cowed, don’t quit.

- I would like for you to choose a topic that you feel strongly about and tell us a few things about it. It can be music, scene, social or whatever else related! Thanks for the interview and like we said, the last words are yours.

I don’t mean this to be a cop out but you choose the topic when you invited me to talk about The World/Inferno Friendship Society. Thank you for the interest and the opportunity.

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A note from the editor: Thanks to Talia for this interview, thanks to Jack for his time and awesome answers, thanks to you for reading this. Pics stolen from all over the web, if you happen to be the owner and want your name mentioned or something, then let us know! You can check the TYS review for WIFS's latest album here.

Greece Today

Absinthe Rose/HUMANWINE- Split CD (2010)

Well I knew Rodent Popsicle Records for putting out good HC/punk records of the crusty variety; what I didn't know is that they also put out quality folk punk. Yes! It may come as a surprise to read a folk punk review in a blog about hardcore but trust me, this is good. After all, we all want to occasionally listen to something lighter and unwind; this will do just fine cause it has the punk foundation to back it up.

Split out now on Rodent Popsicle

Anyways, so this is a split release between two bands, Absinthe Rose and HUMANWINE. Absinthe Rose starts the record  with some quality and straightforward acoustic/electric folk punk. It wouldn't be unfair to say that AR stick to the roots of Americana folk and go the extra mile by coating their sound with some punk/folk instrumentation. Yes--this is definitely more country than punk. What makes it punk though is the mind-frame behind the whole music, which is totally DIY punk, of course. The band promotes 'DIY awareness and skepticism' with incendiary political lyrics, which many will love and sing to howling at the moon on their drunken or tea-soaked nights. If you like to find your punk somewhere at the outdoors, in an old house in the woods or by the railroad tracks next to empty sticky bottles, this is for you!

Kimbo Rose forgets the lyrics again

HUMANWINE (always written in capital letters) is a different story. This band is much more experimental within their acoustic folk, drawing influences from everything ranging from Nick Drake to Matt Elliot, even fucking Tiger Lilies (which I hate). Just experimental acoustic folk sung by both male and female voices. These two take the whole indie-DIY punk mentality to a different level, and it's not necessarily based on music. On the contrary, they use music in order to transmit images, words and thoughts, like a primitive stream of thought into the minds of the civilized. The music is 'fluid and changing'. So sometimes it's mellow/sweet, some others discomforting, sometimes just plain weird. HUMANWINE needs a fair few listens before anyone can actually say they 'get them', but if it's your thing you should definitely catch on to them as they're a must for primitivist punk ethos!

HUMANWINE: back from the wild side 

So that's all new and different for Rodent Popsicle Records, I know for a fact that there are many out there who dig the anarcho primitive punk style, we got many such fans right here in Greece, so I hope they will discover the wondrous & mysterious punk world of Absinthe Rose and Humanwine. Salute!