It's My Choice If I Don't See The Point

I wound up seeing Sister Kisser more than almost any other band last year (three times, all at the Whitney House), and their sets were always flat-out great; like a lot of bands from their area, or, the bands on Dead Broke Rekerds in particular, they've got a rough-around-the-edges punk sound that mixes a good amount of rock in it-- Replacements, AC/DC, Nils, Judas Priest, and whatever. They've finally got a record out, a split LP with Ink & Lead (fellow Long Islanders who lean more towards melodi-core; good if you like Hostage Calm and Jettison, I guess) and the label, Gruff Beard, did a really good job with their first release: nice thick vinyl (the edges are square, even), hand-assembled jackets, hand-stamped labels, and the first 25 mail orders came with a numbered vellum insert. I think this actually came back from the plant in December, but they didn't start mail-order until the last couple of days of '09, so for the sake of my own stupid numbering system I'm going to count it as a 2010 release.

When you order the record through PayPal you get the download code right away, which includes 8 extra songs from Ink & Lead. This song, my favorite song from the record, isn't from the download, though-- it's my own 320kbps vinyl rip.




Sister Kisser -

(this file is now listen-only)

"Refusal to Pay"

I Want To Throw Punches

As if the Cult Ritual show earlier this month wasn't enough for one week, the July 4th show at the Whitney House just a few days later added the exclamation point with a total punk rock blow-out-- six hours, seven bands, and hardly a dud in the bunch, though I'm not going to speak on Yes Please since I walked in after their set had already ended (or else I've conveniently blocked them from my memory, one or the other).

So by my perspective, New London's atrilliongallonsofgas started things off, and they were seriously heavy-- like "first two Black Sabbath albums" heavy-- and thrashy, too. Fatal Film had mentioned their name to me before I ever saw them, which had me thinking that atrilliongallonsofgas were probably some sort of indie rock band, though they are definitely not. Their songs are shorter than you'd expect for this type of thing and alternate between doom/sludgy parts and fast parts, like Sea of Bones and Iron Hand getting into a fight or something (which in real life would probably be awesome). Their demo cassette has practically the worst sounding dub of any demo I've ever paid for-- the same songs sound much better on their MySpace page-- so maybe it's a good thing that I'm not able to make a rip of it right now (edit: rip is up now, muddafuggas!). Head on over to their MySpace page (atrilliongallons) if you want to check these guys out, and you should definitely try to catch them at a show because their live set is completely punishing.




Sister Kisser were back after their ass-kicking set at Whitney back in May, and even though this time I knew what to expect, I thought they were even better. Their demos (just re-released on cassette by Dead Broke Rekerds) are one thing, but their live set is completely another; the songs are played faster, the two guitars sound even thicker, and everything rocks that much harder. Now, I know that Sister Kisser are totally punk rock (Hot Water Music seems to be the comparison that everyone else reaches for) and I should stop trying to describe them by indie rock/hard rock standards, but when I watch them play it reminds me of two Replacements recordings-- the flat-out version of "Can't Hardly Wait" on "The Shit Hits The Fans" and their hopped-up cover of "Another Girl, Another Planet" on "All For Nothing"-- so if you can picture that in your head and maybe throw some really fast Cheap Trick in there too, that's a start.




This is the one picture I got of Coke Bust; I was able to break through the bodies and get up front just long enough to snap this photo, before the mosh pit closed in on me again and some kid spilled half his beer all over me when he got knocked into from behind. I probably could've gone all Young Republicans/Violent Children on him and slapped the bottle out of his hand, Porcelly-style, but jeez, it'd been practically knocked out of his grip already anyway, plus the sight of two or three open beer cans in a Coke Bust pit is fairly amusing (at least to me it is). Instead, I stepped aside into one of the side hallways of the Whitney House basement for the rest of Coke Bust and Sick Fix, where I could hear everything fine but just couldn't see anything, and gave my camera and shirt a chance to dry out. Oh yeah, I also took a break and went upstairs to the kitchen to clean up, where someone from Al Gore and The Alcoholics (love those guys) started telling me about how much improved they were since the first time I saw them, before he fell over.




Foreign Objects = the harder stuff on "Pink Flag" punked out a bit with female vocals, and it works most of the time. Actually, it's pretty great. I've been listening to the Foreign Objects demo in my car a lot lately, and I gone from thinking that the singer is the worst part of this band to thinking that the singer is the best part, so I guess I need to pay attention a bit more. They've got a 7" out now, too (on the same label that put out the Closet Fairies and Witches With Dicks!), which I bought from them at the show but haven't listened to yet; the two songs I'm posting here from the demo tape aren't my rips, either, but were swiped from the primo I Could Die Tomorrow blog. I couldn't improve upon the files that ICDT posted with my own rips, so I'm leaving them as they are.




I overheard Donn matter-of-factly saying to Lauren before Clusterfuck's set, "We're going to rip this place apart", and that they did. It was Clusterfuck's fourth show in three days-- they'd even played in NYC at ABC No Rio earlier in the day-- and, no shit, this was the best set I've ever seen at Whitney House. I know I might've said that about Sister Kisser back in May, and I'm sure I thought it about Cult Ritual earlier in the week, but Clusterfuck topped them all. The way the place went nuts while Clusterfuck were playing was unreal. Donn had already been planning on conserving his voice by handing off the mic a lot, which he did, especially after they ran out of songs that they knew how to play (I guess it's been a while) and ended up finishing with a cover of 7 Seconds' "Bully" as an encore-- though not before Jeff tried to go all Keith Moon by kicking over his drumset.


Clusterfuck -

"Flagfucker"

"Idle and Immoral"

"God Told Me To Buy Stocks"

"Bully"
(7 Seconds cover)

Foreign Objects -

"Lost Time"

"Fable"

Coke Bust -

"Forced To Live"

Sister Kisser -

"The Money Shot"

atrilliongallonsofgas -

"White Backgrounds"

(all of these files are now listen-only)

You Don't Know What You're Fucking With

I haven't been to a Whitney show since Off With Their Heads last November, so it felt good to go back there last night and catch up on why it's such an awesome place to see a show. The sound is always great, the bands are right in your face, there's plenty of room to sell merch, there's always one or two people willing to do something crazy... which is probably about the same as all the other basement shows around, but unlike bars and clubs, there's always one or two things at every Whitney House show that make it worth showing up.

Last night it was Sister Kisser, from New York, who I'd never heard of before but they just totally rocked my ass off. Even though their demo is pretty good, you'd have to play it full blast in your car with the windows rolled up to get any kind of idea about how heavy these guys are live, because they sure know how to rock the fuck out of their songs. Sister Kisser seems to be approaching things from about the same direction as Get Bent, Iron Chic, Sleepwall, bands like that, but then they take the basic template, add in some Replacements "Stink" and maybe some AC/DC "Back In Black" sped up a little, and turn the rock up to ten. They're on a short tour now of the Northeast (VT, NY, PA, NJ), so go see them if you get the chance and they will kick your ass across the room, I guarantee it.




Hand Grenade Serenade's sound seems to be getting more technical these days; I don't know if they were always that way, or if I'm just starting to notice it more. Not that they're not still a wicked punk band, because they are, only that last night by the end of their set they were sounding like a big, amped-up metal machine. Maybe it's because of the way Genesis plays like Bob Stinson and K.K Downing all rolled into one; the guy's like a freak with a flamethrower in his hands, and I mean that in a good way. Every time I see Hand Grenade Serenade there's always more people getting into them by the end of their set then there was when they first started playing, and last night was no different. Hopefully one of these days they get some of these songs on a CD, and make it loud (like, Motörhead loud) this time.


Sister Kisser -

"Fuck The Doomed"

"Soul Glow"

Hand Grenade Serenade -

"Inkblot"

(these files are now listen-only)