Altered Boys: "Reality Check"

Altered Boys are from Jersey, but their style of hardcore owes as much (if not more) to early 80's UK HC than it does to their neighborly NY brethren. They recently debuted with a self-titled 7" on Katorga Works, but little else is known about their background... for now, anyway, I expect to be hearing more from these motherfuckers forthright.

Converge: "Aimless Arrow"

At which point does "math rock" become "meth rock"?

Trick question: they were the same thing all along. Certainly helps to be rendered spastic if you're going to jam to the likes of Converge, who return here after an absurd three year layoff with the first cut from their forthcoming All We Love We Leave Behind. Wait a minute, wasn't that the name of a fucking U2 record?

OFF!: "Wiped Out"

Saw these boys a couple of times at SXSW, including a slot opening for Pennywise. Yes, that's Keith Morris (Circle Jerks) on vocals, so although I do recommend seeing OFF! - soon to be sued out of existence by a litigious insect repellent - on tour the caveat is you have to be willing to listen to Morris rant about politicians at length between each and every song. It's the price you pay.

Melvins: "The War on Wisdom"

I grew up more of a metal kid, so I didn't really get into the Melvins until Kurt Cobain vetted them upon going mainstream. I've grown to love them more and more over the years, each trailblazing new release solidifying their genius in my mind, their sheer inability to conform providing a quizzical counterpoint to Cobain's own fatal struggle to keep the mainstream at arm's length.

Well, no sooner do I tout the band's inability to sell out than they go and record an EP sponsored by Scion, but "The War on Wisdom" does not represent a band looking for a hit. It's fairly accessible by Melvins standards but it ain't fucking Gruntruck, alright?

If you want the whole shebang it will be posted as a free download March 13 on Scion A/V's website.

[UPDATE 3/13/12: adding official music video]:

Fucked Up: "Turn the Season"

This has been out for awhile but we're just now getting a video.  It's been amazing to me how few year end lists this has reached the upper echelons of.  As far as punk concept albums go David Comes to Life says everything that can possibly be said about why American Idiot is the overrated piece of shit that it is.

Ice, Sea, Dead People: "Ultra Silence"

PTO.  For most people it stands for "paid time off".  For me it usually stands for "passed the (fuck) out".  I'd intended to get caught up on a lot of writing over the past five days, but instead I couldn't be bothered to even keep up with my regular posting.  Is it too late to pretend I was out of town and preoccupied?  Fuck it, I'm talking into a void anyway.

Playing catch up - here or elsewhere - always puts me in a shitty, antagonistic mood, so this seems a good opportunity to clear out my backlog of heavy shit.  Ice, Sea, Dead People do not sound like Iceage but they ply the kind of amped up, infectious upbeat post-hardcore that would make both bands great tour mates.  Also they both start with Ice and I don't really need my free association skills being taxed too heavily right now, thank you very much.  Hopefully the above image is of the correct album.

Trash Talk: "Burn Alive"

In light of all the Occupy Wall Street protests, this seems timely.  Trash Talk have a new EP, Awake, coming out October 11 on True Panther Sounds.

Weekend Nachos: "Black Earth"

Weekend Nachos: not a lot of interesting background on these guys floating around. They do maintain a blog but it basically just serves to post tour dates and sell you merch. I guess they need all the help they can get since they seem to bounce from one record label to another with every new release.

Weekend Nachos - "Black Earth" by brooklynvegan