All gal performative hardcore with B-R-U-T-E vocals (released by Crazy SKB!)...
Aggroman (DJ Bazooka) - "You're A Wild Man" 12" '96 & "Costa Mesa Biaaatch" 12" '97
A speedcore wolf in gabber sheep clothing. Your phat pants are on phire...
Ugly Americans - Discography '84-'86
Newspaper write-up by Bryan C. Reed 2014...
When Durham's Ugly Americans announced last month that they would soon return to the stage, the news wasn't entirely surprising: The early, infamous and important Triangle punks have been reuniting off and on for a quarter-century. After their heyday from 1984 to 1986, the punk group reunited for a yearlong 1989 run that yielded some shows and an unreleased recording session. They continued to play the occasional one-off gig every few years until their last get-together in 2004. But this outing, their first in a decade, promises more than just a nostalgic romp through old songs: Ugly Americans are back in earnest, with plans to record new material. "Depending on who you ask in this band, it's either going to be a single or a double album," guitarist Danny Hooley says with a laugh. Either way, it'll be the first output from the band in more than 28 years.
In their Reagan-era prime, Ugly Americans led the sort of career made for punk-rock lore. Hooley, who performed under the name Danny Hooligan, and singer Robert McIlwee, still known best as Simon Bob Sinister, founded the band in late 1983, recruiting bassist Chris Eubank and drummer Dan Adams, then sophomore college roommates. The Ugly Americans debuted in February 1984 at Duke Coffeehouse. "This sounds like something out of a silly 1980s movie, but we actually did stand outside of Chewning Junior High School with fliers," Hooley says. "I'm surprised we didn't get arrested. Nowadays we'd get arrested for this, like we're creepy predators, but we were 21 and still looked like kids."
In 1985, Adams, who'd go on to play bass with the California miscreants of Oxbow and engineer robotic animals for movies such as Free Willy and Anaconda, left the band. When Stillborn Christians drummer Jon McClain stepped in, the band turned toward the then-nascent sound of punk-metal crossover. "I had double bass drums back in the day when the little tiny punk rock kit was the standard," McClain says.
"I can remember the first time we played with Jon in the basement, and it was just like, 'Holy shit!'" Hooley says. "All of a sudden, I felt like I was a badass. I could tell that was going to be a fertile period." In fact, that lineup scored a deal with Death Records, the thrash imprint of heavy music titan Metal Blade. Death released 1985's sophomore album Who's Been Sleeping ... In My Bed, a follow-up to the rawer, self-released 1984 debut The Dream Turns Sour. By the time Ugly Americans broke up in 1986, they'd toured the country with The Descendents and made a fan of Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, sometimes seen sporting Ugly Americans shirts. They also helped bring punk rock to Durham by booking bands such as The Minutemen, Fang and Jodie Foster's Army at venues like Duke Coffeehouse and St. Joseph's Church. However small it was, their catalog remains both emblematic of and irreverent to punk's prevailing currents of the time. The Dream Turns Sour interrupted its raw, proto-thrash for the surf-inspired "Bob's Beach." In My Bed let that influence creep again into "Graveyard Beach." And between dynamic ragers like "Mess Me Up" and "Homophobia," Ugly Americans added the sing-songy juvenalia of "Weenie Man," a playful bit of Dead Milkmen-worthy goof.
For Sinister, who also briefly fronted Corrosion of Conformity, Ugly Americans' willingness to bend the template of hardcore was crucial. "It's never been pigeonholed," he says. "Our music has really varied throughout the years. I don't think it's a straight-ahead, one-size-fits-all kind of thing." But in 1986, hardcore was in transition. The music, so defined by youthful urgency and untrained musicianship, had to adapt to its players getting older and better. The bands that didn't break up started looking for new avenues to explore. "Writing songs became more of a challenge, and maybe we just couldn't come to an agreement about how to do that," says guitarist Hooley.
Then there were the normal issues plaguing young bands with a taste of success. "We were all young stars with big heads," McClain adds. Still, the members refer to each other even now like family, and their periodic reformations attest to their lasting bond. "We piss and moan with each other but haven't moved furniture to wrestle yet," McClain says. "You disagree, but your shit works out. We're stuck with each other, so it has no choice but to work out."
Sinister, who'll drive 18 hours from his home in Des Moines, Iowa to rejoin Ugly Americans, echoes the sentiment. "If I'm 90, and the guys call me and say, 'You want to play?' Well, if I can still walk, I still want to play." While many of their hardcore-era peers have staged nostalgic reunions and critics have reevaluated the genre's impact in books and documentaries, that's not driving Ugly Americans this time. They'll play the show on Friday night and spend a few days recording a mix of new songs penned by Sinister and Hooley and reimagined takes of their lost early-'90s material. There are no careerist objectives. They're pushing themselves beyond their past, celebrating their 30-year milestone while again trying to bend the notions of what "hardcore" can mean. "I play with these guys, and it always brings something out of me," Hooley says. "It just feels awesome at my age to still be a student of something, and it inspires me to be a student of the guitar to play with these guys."
"We're just four dudes who like to play in the band," Sinister says. "That's all we have right now."
Acroholia - Split Tape With Lixo Urbano 1993, Split Tape With Kakofonija 1993, "Ubistvo Sveta" UNRL LP 2001
'Bloc Grind!!!
2001 Interview...
1. For the beginning, tell us something about the long history of the band Acroholia.
You won't believe this, I've been thinking so hard. What is upstairs, I have the impression that it was much more to be written when we were a year old, but now we are ten. The historic perspective is a miracle...we gathered at the end of 1991, Ban's on the guitar, Oliver on Bass and I (Uros) on the drums. We tried various singers but unsuccessful until Ilija appeared after 7-8 months. We all had little or no experience and miserable music knowledge. From the first moment, we wanted to play classic, old-fashioned grindcore without any progressive influences (for which we later started other projects), so the formula of the central imitation of early attacks was rooted and cemented. In 1992, we recorded the first and second demo, and in 1995 the third, so we appeared on a million compilations (mainly cassettes, one LP and two CDs) throughout Yugoslavia, Europe, North America, the Far East, etc. The first and second demo are distributed in Switzerland, and Giulio The Bastard (from the Italian band Cripple Bastards) distributed them first alone, and then as a split cassette with one South American Band, who I can't remember at the moment. The third demo is distributed as 3 Way Cassettes with Yacopsae and Entrails Massacre. Then we two wonderful Slovenians published Split 7" with Belgian Bend Intestinal Disease for its ultra DIY label "Abnormal Beer Terrorism" and it was a first-time material. Then we did nothing. In May 2001 recorded new materials to get out of a German label soon. We appeared in a million fans on all sides of the world. We re-recorded the song "Murder of the World" from another demo for local television. The setup was changed over the years, after Olivera, played dry, and today is a slob whose lazy. I'm very much helped the fact that we're doing something right now. For all this time, we have almost no musical advancement. We still sound like we are fighting with our instruments.
2. What is your opinion about Grindcore scene with us and do you think there are few bands playing something like that?
And what do I tell you about this? Has Grind Scene ever existed? I would say that music was always listened to but a very small number of people. I believe that in Serbia there is a local Grind/Noise/Metal band as well as to cause euphoria on rare gigs, but how many people really listen to it at home? How long before the musicians reach out to stop fucking and start doing something more serious? Early was the best generation of domestic Grind: Brainstorm and Kerosene, Pataren in Zagreb, Fear Of Dog in Novi Sad, later Extreme Smoke in Slovenia...It was somehow the most serious and highest quality. After, a bunch of bands appeared everywhere in Serbia which were mostly awful, or anarchopunk grind-era who were terribly boring and pretentious. I'm not following the scene today, but I doubt things changed a lot. All in all, I don't mind that people make Grind as a cheap consumable valve for psychosocial pressures that are exposed, but no one is worth what I'm interested in listening to. To understand each other, it is not much better even abroad. It's wrong when you stop everything that you're thrilled to make a lot of noise. Grind (which rejects Russian traditional performances of melody, harmony, rhythm) are so much more than that, why do we stay forever on the first step? I wouldn't want this to be understood as a criticism. Acroholia is part of all this and I would lie if we did not contribute to the poor quality of the global grindcore scene. This is valid for the whole world, not just for our country.
3. Acroholia took part in a well-known compilation "Falafel Grind (Tribute to Cripple Bastards)", which was published for Obscene Productions. Tell us anything about that?
Giulio The Bastard and I have been rapping for years. I'm a fan Cripple Bastards, and he's a fan of Acroholia (at least so he says), so we were already promised participation. We re-recorded three songs from our third demo and I sent it to him in 1995. I was surprised by the CD last year, as he did not announce anything.
4. An interesting thing is that we heard your voice on the latest album of Napalm Death. Are you still influenced by them?
Napalm Death unfolded in 1989, after publishing "Mentally Murdered ". I am not following their work now. We've heard my voice on that album, but I credited them with their use of narcotics. Why wouldn't anyone listen to the fantastic album of the band Discordance Axis, for me is an inventive mystery.
5. Finally after a few years, you have recorded your official first album. How did everything go?
Well, it didn't get pressed yet. So 6th of May 2001 was recorded, and mixed on the 13th. The songs are 29 in some 37 minutes (the last song lasts about 13 minutes) and the sound is better than before and the music varies. Everything else is almost identicaly in style. We are currently working on a CD cover. When it appears, it appears.
6. Can you tell me something about your future plans (if they are)?
Ilija is currently in the military so it's a lot hard to make any planning. When he is back, we will see. We are all working and very busy. Ilija and Bane are married, and Bane is slowly on his first child (his kid is used to Grindcore) and starts planning another.
7. Something to End?
Nothing for the end. Standard thank you for the interview, good luck and be healthy and fat!
🐖🐄🦃🍺
Demencia - Lost 7" 2003 (Recorded Mid-90s, 256)
Bogota noisy hardcore and chorus-pedal-punk with the shit-fi feel of a mid-80s Japanese tape comp.
BITCHIN'!
Autopsy & Tugie - "First Blood" 12" 2007 (320)
Cyberdelic hardcore & gorilla-pimp core-breaks.
"Unbelievable kicks!!!"(lol)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)