I love Anti-Clockwise and I make no apologies. It takes me back to the my days in Los Angeles as I waited in line to see X or Black Flag while the young punks wondered what this old guy in his 30s was doing there. This Lisbon based band has a good old school punk sound even though it leans toward heavy metal a bit too. While some of the lyrics on their album titled Love Bomb Baby are silly and overly violent (”Domestic Tattoo”: “You break my heart, I’ll break your face”), it mainly comes across as good comic book sensationalism. Due to lyrics like the one I quoted, I wouldn’t recommend this to the easily impressible. However, those mature punkers who understand the music’s cathartic benefits will like it.

The album is available from their web site in 320kbps MP3.

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In perusing the Lepork Records’ Mixtapes series, I took an instant liking to the South American punk group Mamushkas. Their EP titled MHKS is one of the current offerings from Lepork Records and I was immediately taken in by the catchy melodies and heavy hooks of this band. They remind me a bit of The Ramones; rebellious but with the appeal of a teen matinee idol. While the lyrics are in Spanish, the infectious attitude rings loud and clear. Give this 20 minute taste of Southern Hemisphere punk a try.

MHKS EP is available in 160kbps MP3.

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I recently featured a punk group called The Leftouts from the Argentinian netlabel LePork Records. Julian, who runs the label, wrote to me and informed me of his series of mixtapes that are also on the site. It features a number of excellent South American punk and post-punk bands. It is a solid collection representing the state of punk rock in the South American continent, well worth a listen by punk fans and music lovers alike.I especially like Distraccion Massiva, Mamushkas, and Silencia Apache whose “Reos Juveniles” has a nice Ramones thing going for it. Metmorfica’s “Invisible” is especially interesting as it reminds me more of Carlos Santana rather than any punk band although their “Mrs. Brain” shows they are really feminine punk. However there isn’t really a bad track on the three available albums of this five album series. Give these mixtapes a listen .

The three albums are in VBR or 192kbps MP3.

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Mixtape III
Mixtape IV
Mixtape V

Ultrabunny is a full frontal assault of noise. Wavering between comic book and avant garde, this noise-rock band is a no compromise ensemble that is confrontational in both its sound and political stance. They have released four live recordings which you can find at the Free Music Archive. Even I find four albums of this unrelenting sound attack to be overwhelming but one or two will be sufficient to curdle milk or agitate the neighbors. Live @ Cakeshop. NYC, 7/29/06 is a typical example. The first track exhibits a wide range of sound and noise. While they deserve the noise moniker you will also think of post-punk and avant-rock. “Squirrel Attack”, which they laughingly call their hit single, barely has a melody and a vocal. Vocals are not their strong point but they make it up in pure audacity. Give one of these marvels of madness a try.

All four albums are available in 320kbps MP3. If you enjoy their music support the band by buying their CDs.

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Live @ Cakeshop, NYC 7/29/06
Live @ Ratward Noisefest, Phoebus VA 8/7/04
Live @ The True Vine, Baltimore VA 8/8/04
Live @ Trash Bar, Brooklyn, NY 3/18/05

Lepork Records is a new net label specializing in South American punk artists. The small offering of online albums is interesting but I was especially drawn to The Leftouts and their free album titled Last One Standing. It is a raucous effort incorporating power pop with punk. I especially like the opening track, “19 Days” and the tense title tune. This album, as well as the albums by other bands on this net label deserve a listen for their inexhaustible energy but also to show how global the punk genre has become.

Last One Standing is available in VBR MP3.

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The rock and ska celebration continues with this German band called Boxing Fox. The album titled The Shepherd Hates Us is a rousing chorus of sharp brass riffs, skanking guitars and frantic vocals. Despite some nice metal and punk touches, This is fairly old school ska in the style of Madness and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. “The Last I Know” is a case in point, The guitar and vocals may hint of Rancid but that opening brass riffs and beat would have made The Skatalites proud. The seven tracks are all party music of the rude and celebratory kind. Highly recommended.

The album is creative commons licensed and available from the band’s web site in 192kbps MP3.

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It should be said at the beginning that there is no Wrench Tuttle. Former Blue Rodeo band member Bob Wiseman used the pseudonym and, from what I’ve read, went to great length to present him as a real person to the Canadian media. In Her Dream: Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle was the Canadian musicians’ first solo album and was released in 1989. CHART magazine named it as one of the top 100 Canadian albums. Blocks Recording Club out of Toronto will be re-issuing a limited edition vinyl but the free and legal digital version is now available through WFMU’s Free Music Archive.

This album may best be described as a casual mixture of country and punk. Bob Wiseman feels at ease in both genres. His somewhat raspy and out-of-control voice makes the perfect edge to this rough and ready album. The opening “Older Brother” is a good example of his somewhat outrageous folk-rock blend and is what Hank Williams might sound like if he was a punk rocker. Other tracks like “Bhopal” are pure and surreal alternative while “Dog on a Leash” is blues-rockabilly. Whatever genre Wiseman leans into has his unique touch which I am tempted to call a Canadian version of Tom Waits’ equally rough and mystic styling. This excellent album will grow on you.

The album is available in its free and legal online version at WMFU’s Free Music Archive in 192kbps MP3.

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I acquired Glass Candy’s debut album Love Love Love in 2003 when it was released and it still gets regular play on the CD player. Glass Candy has a somewhat campy sound that wavers between goth, punk and disco. Often billed as Glass Candy and The Shattered Theatre, Its primary attribute is the tortured voice of Ida No who often sounds like she is channeling Siouxise and Deborah Harry at the same time. She also reminds me a lot of Wendy O. Williams on the more turbulent songs. Johnny Jewel’s pulsing electronic riffs are also instrumental in giving the music a somewhat ominous sound.

Glass Candy has placed three of their earlier albums, plus quite a few demos, on WFMU’s new Free Music Archives, a rather unusual move for an established band that is still going strong. Love Love Love is more punk and goth than the others making it danceable but disturbing. “Crystal Migraine” and the title track are standouts but I also recommend the over-the-top “Love on a Plate”. There is an interesting take on The Rolling Stones’ “Last Time”. The Sick Sounds of Glass Candy has more of an electro-pop sound and shows strong Italo Disco influences. “Your Dream Lover’s on Video Again” and the following “Life after Sundown” are representative tracks, both unusual in their seven minutes plus duration. “La Brea Tar Pits” is a good atmospheric instrumental piece. The third album is titled Iko and the title track is the classic New Orleans “Iko” made famous by a number of musicians including Dr. John. Glass Candy’s version has little to do with the song’s Cajun roots which is why it is so interesting. However its jaunty rhythms also makes it one of the happier tracks by this band. There are two other tracks plus three remixes. As these albums become more recent it appears that the group is paying more attention to the disco aspects of their sound. Overall, I find Glass Candy to have a distinctive sound that will appeal to a number of rock, punk and electronic dance enthusiasts.

The three albums are available in 256kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their CDs.

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Love Love Love
The Sick Sound Of…
Iko

The Transister’s 2008 release is titled Under Control and it is a free and legal blast! The title tune starts this 25 minutes EP with a energetic riff that drives the equally forceful vocal. The energy of this danceable yet listenable album comes from a blend of punk, goth, darkwave, and electro-pop that is a more than a little hardcore yet has enough hooks and melody to entrap the most casual listener. I like “Walking in a Black Hole” and “JB is Dead” but the highlight has to be “Living Like a Superstar”, a smart and sassy number that is somewhere between Bauhaus and Disco. Goths, New Wavers and Dance freaks can all unite under this audacious album.

Under Control is available from AFmusic in MP3 and Ogg Vorbis format.

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Todd Millenacker of Avenpitch was generous enough to send me this ten track online sampler of their music. I previously reviewed the compilation series TC Electropunk in which Avenpitch provide some of the highlights so I was please to be able to listen to their sampler. I was not disappointed as Avenpitch has a fairly unique blend of punk and electro-pop that reminds me of of a 21st century post-punk version of such entertaining old school punk bands like Offspring mixed with 80s styled New Order. Take a listen to the sharp melodic hooks all over “Butterfly Radio” and you’ll know what I mean. If you’re the dance maniac type you’ll probably trip all over “Jack The Idiot Dance”. I didn’t find a weak song on the sampler but “Replay”, ” Maybe I Was Wrong”, “Wreckage” and the wonderfully rude “Dusseldorf” are impressive leaders of the pack. Anyone who consider themselves knowledgeable on the indie rock scene needs to become familiar with this excellent band.

The free album is available in 192kbps MP3 and can be downloaded directly from the link below. If you like the music. support the artists by buying their CDs.

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The reviewers on Distemper’s Jamendo page seem to be in agreement that the group is the best Ska-punk band from Russia. I’ don’t know just how big that category is but they certainly know how to rock. Having never heard any other Russian Ska-Punk bands, I can not offer an opinion but I will say this may be one of the best Ska-Punk bands I’ve heard, perhaps bowing only to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Specials, and Let’s Go Bowling on a good day in Fresno. Distemper have two albums freely available from Jamendo. The titles are probably badly translated but, for better or worse, they are Think Me is Your Friend and To Me on a Dick…!!!. I’m pretty sure the latter title is supposed to be describing a particular anatomically impossible sexual act that I have sometimes suggested in anger. The band itself has been around since 1989 so these are no overnight sensations. Both albums offer top-notch tracks bolstered by a crisp brass section, sharp guitar riffs and a pleasant but abrasive vocalist. I am sure the words are rude and punkish but since they are in Russian I’ll leave the lyrical analysis to someone else. The beat and overall musical fun is enough for me. And don’t forget to check out the very funny canine punk album covers.

Both albums are available in VBR MP3.

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Think You is Your Friend
To Me on a Dick…!!!

I am still awaiting the WFMU Free Music Archive but my patience is wearing thin. I just noticed that the deadline has been moved from November to December. What is a poor aging music fanatic going to do? At least WFMU was kind enough to release a second volume of goodies to hold us over until the archive is unveiled.

Like Vol. 1, it is a cornucopia of sounds all freely available under a creative commons license. There is some punk and alternative rock, some world music, some indie, and a lot of music that defies simple labels. The opening track by Kurt Vile is an addictive rocker in the alternative tradition and a bit more mainstream than most of the other songs. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s “Jules Lost His Jewels” is a sloppy but exhilarating bit of party rock. The Yolk’s “I Do What I Do” is so 70s garage rock I can smell the 30 weight oil. If you are looking for more experimental bits of music try the avant track by Mary Halverson & Weasel Waiter or Illusion of Safety’s shoegaze/ambient “I Could Be Wrong”. The global groove is represented by Fosboro and Getatchew Mekuria. I also like the contributions of Indian Jewelry, Ole Time Relijun, and Teeth Mountain. I am SO waiting for the archives!!!

This collection is available in 256kbps MP3.

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Leave it to Mary Shelly Overdrive to celebrate Halloween with class. They just released two EPs titled Shock Theatre and Bride of Shock Theatre loaded with their customized shockabilly / hardcore metal nuances guaranteed to rock you and shock you.

Actually Shock Theatre is a re-release, having first surfaced a year ago. This version is slightly re-polished with the most obvious change being a revamped vocal duet from lead singer Mark Wood and bassist Wyckedevil Jones on Rob Zombie’s “House of a Thousand Corpses”. The Rob Zombie cover is my favorite song on the EP but the other five tracks also deliver the goods . The recordings starts with a sample of the notorious Blood Feast trailer then glues the tracks together with samples of other horror/gore films. A great party game would be to try to identify all the films represented on this EP. I think I got 100 percent right but I’ve been a hardcore horror film fan since my childhood when I would sneak out of the bedroom to watch the forbidden Creature Features while everyone else was sleeping.

Bride of Shock Theatre uses the same technique of audio samples to set the mood. The songs are equally hardcore and spooky, all being originals except for three covers of songs by Blue Oyster Cult, Bauhaus, and New Math. The covers are good but it is the originals that really bring this EP to life…or should I say undead? The highlight of the EP is the pulsing “Lament of Janos Slorzeny”. Both of these albums are required for any respectable Halloween party.

The two albums are available in 160kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by purchasing their new self-titled full album…and thanks for featuring the blurb, guys!

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When I reviewed Beans’ first free albums I managed to miss their newest effort titled Sundown mainly because the link was suspiciously missing from their main website. Several readers were happy to tell me about the album which was released this year and available on the band’s MySpace page. It is clearly their best effort. While I enjoyed the other albums, Sundown reveals a tighter sound that is equally concerned with melody and lyrics as it is with just sounding rebellious. I still hear The Clash and Rancid but there is now a stronger lean to the driving melodies of Bad Religion. The music is old school punk and just the thing for my more mischievous moods (like when I want to drive my Classical music loving wife a little insane). The first three albums are good but this is the real contender.

The album is available in 128kbps MP3.

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The Croatian band 2227 appears to have been around for most of the 90s inhabiting their own bizarre corner of the rock n’ roll universe. They are (were?) decidedly hardcore but with more than a little sense of the artistic and outrageous. There is also bit of traditional music mixed with the punk atmosphere causing me to compare them to Ne Zhdali or, more recently, Gogol Bordello. Their web site appears to have most if not all of their music freely available. All three of their CDs are here. They are odd but occasionally brilliant bits of avant-rock and hardcore mayhem.

Stripcore appears to have been their first album and the first track exhibits their unique sound. Guitar, bass and drum is joined by violin in a neo-gypsy tune then seques straight into “Like it Like It”; a machine gun paced track with weird Zappa-styled lyrics. The band switches back and forth from metal to cabaret throughout, keeping the listener guessing.

No Brains No Tumor has the most punk sound of the three albums. The title tune and the cover of Tom Waits’ “Innocent When You Dream” are my two favorite tracks. Also interesting is the last track, a bonus live performance showing that 2227 must have been a very intriguing live band.

BI BI BI SABI appears to have been their last album and overall the most consistent and imaginative one. Lead songwriter and vocalist Macek seems more focused and the material seems tighter. There is also a more traditional hardcore rock trio sound on most tracks although there is some nice secondary use of violin and sax. This is the one that most punk and rock aficionados will enjoy. All three albums are a peek at a Eastern European rock scene that most of us were not familiar with until now.

All three albums are in 128kbps MP3.

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Stripcore
No Brains No Tumors
BI BI BI SABI

The Netherlands punk band Beans released their first record in 1999 but their old school punk sound would have felt at home in either the London or L.A. scene of the 70s. It is solid punk rock that way I remember it with the heavy political messages and the pulse of ska mixed with the punk guitar and vocals. They have three full-length CDs available on the web for downloading and listening.

Weapon of The Weak is their debut 1999 recording. The music tends to switch between hardcore and Clash-like ska-punk. I prefer the ska influenced cuts like “Back Off” but they are all top notch punk rock. My favorite track though is the played in hyper-drive “Forced To Violate”. The sound is amazingly professional for what is supposed to be a DIY session from the 90s.

C’mon Get It On!!! is similar but with a lean toward ska. The songs start to be tighter and better structured. An example is “Beautiful World” a ska punk tune that reminds me a lot of Rancid. melody is beginning equal time with the punk attitude. The title tune is also an great track and really shows off Bean’s political social stance. All in all, this is a really impressive effort. This is my favorite of the three albums.

So It Goes is more hardcore that the other albums so should appeal to the more hardcore punk music lovers. It is still a solid effort by a band that knows what it wants.

All three albums are available in 128kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music support the artists by buying their CDs.

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I’m not sure if the world is ready for Italian ska-punk-rock. Talco manages to deliver just that and it’s rude, confrontational and immensely enjoyable. Armed with a pulsing rhythm section, blaring rock quitars, a party-on accordian and a dynamite horn section, Talco should knock you out of your chair and on to the dance floor. The singer is no slouch either as he negotiates a vocal style somewhere between party time and road rage. The free online album Combat Circus merrily skanks through a dozen tracks with the highlights being “Tortuga”, the title tune, “Bella Caiao” and the pretty “Diari Perduti”, a waltz with an atypical female vocal. This is a great party album for the unconventional party.

Tutti Assolti is the band’s newest release, also free and legal from Jamendo. Talco goes from 10 to 11 on the intensity level with this album. They sound tighter and ruder on this sophomore effort. the opening track “L’Odore delle Morte” holds nothing back and it pretty much typifies the rest of the album. I’ve been told that Talco has very politically minded lyrics. Unfortunately I do not understand Italian but the emotional intensity Talco deals in defies all political and cultural boundaries.

Both albums are available in VBR MP3.

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Combat Circus
Tutti Assolti

I was never much impressed by the British punk group The Stranglers but the best thing about them was the testosterone loaded voice of founder and lead singer Hugh Cornwell. While the Stranglers are still around, Cornwell left in 1990 and recorded several solo albums. The latest album is titled Hooverdam and is available as a free and legal download from Mr. Cornwell’s web site.

Cormwell’s voice has mellowed out through the years. The music on Hooverdam is less aggressive than that of The Stranglers which is a plus in my book. There are some nice rock tunes here including “Please Don’t Put me on a Slow Boat to Plowbridge”, “Wrong Side of The Tracks” and “Delightful Nightmare”. My favorite track is “Within You or Without You” with its talking-blues styled lyrics and its Bo Diddley rhythm. Not every song is a winner but there are enough good times to merit a listen.

Hooverdam is available in 128kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music support the artist by buying the higher sound quality CD and check out his other efforts.

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I’m really excited about WMFU’s free music archive which will open in November. Anyone who has listened to the radio station or perused its blog has a good idea about how much great music must be hiding in their vaults. The new Selected Sounds From The Free Music Archives may be just a teaser to what we can expect. Since it is volume one, we might get a few more of these which is fine with me.

Volume one will more than do for now. The offerings are split between cuts from indie produced albums and tracks from live studio performances. The 21 tracks range from punk to experimental rock to world music. In other words, the album is as far-out as the radio station. Most of the artists are obscure so I hope the archive will provide more info on these musicians. It’s hard to pick favorites but Fursaxa’s eerie “Song of the Spindle Berry” sent shivers down my spine which continued with Nautical Almanac’s bizarre take on the children song “Rolling in The Green”. Of the live studio takes, I especially liked New Bomb Turks, Kinski and Citay’s somewhat Celtic “On The Wings”. Of the others, Lucky Dragon does a good job mixing cute with bizarre while Food For Animals w/ Faust provides the only hip-hop track of the anthology. This album will certainly hold you over until the full archive is unveiled in November. Thanks WFMU!

The album is available in separate tracks or a full album zip in varying MP3 bitrates.

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This bit of psychodelic punk psychodrama is brought to you from sunny Spain. Psicodelic FunKilljazz combines 60s psychedelica and 80s funk with a decidedly post-punk mentality. Sort of Country Joe and The Fish versus Funkadelic in a mosh pit. Their self titled album is a bit undisciplined but each track has a certain wild charm. The group sails through jazz riffs, flamenco, cabaret tunes, and screamed vocals with ease as if it makes perfect sense to them. Probably does. Fortunately they have the talent and imagination to get away with it. The four track suite “La Odisea de la Langosta” is the best showcase starting with a quiet mood and ending in hardcore chaos. My advice is to just play the damn thing and go with the flow.

The album is available in separate tracks or full album zip of 128kbps MP3.

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Mary Shelley Overdrive has all the attitude expected from a hardcore metal/post-punk group. From the name to the high velocity music to the gloriously exploitative artwork on their new free and legal EP, this is a band that is not afraid to look you straight in the face and sneer.

Their EP, Hideous Sexy, is a short 15 minutes album of cover tunes ranging from Bo Diddley to The White Stripes. There are also some nice versions of songs by Black Flag, Devo, The Vaselines and others. Some of the better tracks include The Vaselines’ “Molly’s Lips”, Blue Oyster Cult’s “This Ain’t The Summer of Love” and Black Flag’s “Wasted. However the real stunner is “Who Do You Love” in which the band manages to take the blues rocker by the late great Bo Diddley and turn it into a Gothic nightmare. This is a neat brief EP of cover songs that will please your inner punk.

Hideous Sexy is available as 192kbps MP3s in an album zip off the somewhat clunky 2shared web site (see the link below). If you would like hear some of Mary Shelley Overdrive’s original music, go to their Myspace page and listen or download a few tracks.

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Greg Ginn is best known as the founding member and guitarist of seminal hardcore punk group Black Flag and the owner of independent record label SST. He also has fronted quite a few bands and projects since his Black Flag days, one of them being the punk/jazz/funk instrumental ensemble of Mojack. Ginn has placed Mojack’s newest album, Under The Willow Tree on his website as a free and legal download.

Under The Willow Tree may be quite different than anything Ginn did with Black Flag but the attitude is still decidedly punk. Ginn’s guitar playing is hard edged but often leaning more toward avant-garde jazz than rock. Drummer Mike Lopez is hard and funky while the saxophone of Tony Atherton, formerly of Bazooka, adds favorably to both to the funk and the avant-garde aspects of this session. The eighteen tracks are all up-tempo howlers that causes the album to be a bit one dimensional and twice as long as it should be but there is no denying the exiting tension that they produce.

The album is available from the Mojack web site in 192kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, buy the CD in higher quality sound.

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A little Mysterons goes a long way. Basically shockabilly, The Mysterons are loud, surfcore, coarse, and more comic book funny than scary or shocking. To put it another way, sort of like The Cramps without vocals. Mainly instrumental, the Mysterons often use B-Movie samples to set the mood. Not being a band that advocates moderation, the musicians have placed virtually their entire output on the internet for free for better or worse.

Wiki Wiki has 20 tracks, ranging from 1998 to 2002, of their typical surf rock spiked with a little rockabilly and campy horror. It is mostly guitar based in a Link Wray tradition. In fact, you can hear the ghost of Link all over this album.

Leftovers is just that, stray demo tracks from other sessions. Actually it is one of the most interesting of their albums because the 14 songs do not always fit into the usual Mysteron formula. Try a jammin’ “Boweavel”, the racetrack ready “Frenzy” or the disco friendly “Red Menace”.

Boozin’, Fuckin’ & Fightin’ may have a title meant to raise a few hackles but the music is some of their most straight forward surf rock and boogie sound. While these tracks sometimes sounds like riffs waiting for a melody you can’t deny the party mood in cuts like “Wheels” and “Chicken Skin Gravy”. One of my favorites is “El Santos” which shows a rather pretty side to this usually raucous band.

Velvet Walls was recorded in 1994. Many of these tracks sound like they come from some sleazy exploitation film soundtrack. I think it’s intentional. Certainly much of it, like “Bone Death and “Dance of the 666 veils”, is meant to be tongue in cheek. There’s a lot of wheezy organ in these early songs. I have a fondness for wheezy organs.

Golden Showers offer the first released tracks from The Mysterons. The horror movie theme is already in place and their fondness for surf music a la Dick Dale or The Ventures is unmistakable. These 15 tracks are pretty much straight forward party fun .

There is also a live set, a “prehistory” album, and a huge collection of throwaway demos. But these five online albums are probably all you need of The Mysterons. Here’s a tip. Put on a DVD of Plan Nine From Outer Space, turn off the sound and play Golden Showers for the soundtrack. It almost works!

The albums are available in MP3 with varying bitrates.

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Wiki Wiki
Leftovers
Boozin’, Fuckin’ & Fightin’
Velvet Walls
Golden Showers

Electropunk is basically a catch-all phrase for a genre of music that combines electronic music with punk rock. Like original punk it has the feel of a do-it-yourself music spawned out of someone’s garage. (As a long time observer of grass roots rock from the Kingsmen to the Ramones, I can assure you that the best of all rock music was probably born in a garage) While no one area can claim to be the birthplace of electropunk, some people in the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul states their hometown musicians are at the cutting edge of this hybrid genre. I don’t know about that, but the ongoing album series titled TC Electropunk certainly makes a convincing case.

The Twin Cities Electropunk organization appears to be a collective of Twin City bands loosely headed by Todd Millenacker of Avenpitch. Each volume was printed up and distributed freely at the participating bands’ gigs. They are also available for free downloading at the TC Electropunk web site. So far there are four albums with weird and wild music by very talented and enthusiastic bands. Some are clearly punk with just a little electronic influence. Others veer closer to the electro-pop side but usually with a more boisterous and rebellious edge. Overall I find this music to be exciting and more innovative than any thing you’re going to find on the tired commercial end of either rock or electronica.

Some of the artists show up several times on the four albums so you get a good sense of what these musicians can do. The ones that I thought were consistently interesting were Avenpitch, Zibra Zibra, Mach Fox, and Tim Rally Gold. Best single tracks? Here’s my tentative at-the-moment faves…

Volume 4: Avenpitch’s “Desperado”, Ikki’s “Goodbye Cruel World” (Chumbawamba meets The Cure?), Milkbar’s “Stop (Check Me Out)” (The Spice Girls of electropunk?), Zibra Zibra’s “Lions on The Astroturf”, and Iron Ball Magento’s “Corporate Trance” (The Devo of Electropunk?).

Volume 3: Tim Rally Gold’s well crafted “Break-up at The Waffle House”, Mach Fox’s “Axion/FriXion” which could be called House Punk, Hondo’s all punk “H.A.T.S”, and Unicorn Basement’s way over the top “Necrophilia”.

Volume 2: Uber Cool Kung Fu’s “Stand Together”, Envy is Blind’s “Sea of Flames”, OBCT’s weird and hardcore “Consume Until Rupture”.

Volume 1: More cool tracks by Avenpitch, Mach Fox and Uber Cool Kung Fu, paranoid industrial punk rap in “Two Face” by Neo Void aka Audio Victim, and Endless Blue’s gorgeous “Ninety-nine” which is so trip-hop it sounds a bit out of place.

Over all, I was amazed by the consistently high quality of this overview of local talent in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Prince and Paul Westerberg better take cover. The second wave of the Twin City rock invasion is here.

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The Dead Betties is clearly punk but also more than a little art rock. On their free album F.U.A, You’re in The Army Now, their punk rock credentials are safe with such tracks as “Suspicious Package” and a cover of CCR’s “Fortunate Son”. Yet other tracks stray into a form of collage (the title track and “Message”) or some kind of musical psychodrama (”Slim Fast & Heroin” or “Icee”) resembling East Coast Punk as channeled by Nine Inch Nails or Pere Ubu. All of the nine tracks are fascinating but the last track is the real showpiece. “The Suicide of Britney Spears” is a barrage of sounds and emotions that reminds me of the intensity of Sonic Youth. Artistic and brash, The Dead Betties is a band that is hard to ignore.

The album is available as separate tracks in 160kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artists by buying their CDs.

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