Uncurbed - "The Strike Of Mankind" CD 1993 (320)



"Uncurbed was formed in 1990 with only 3 members: Conny Enstrom (guitar) Micke Gunnarsson (bass) Johan Jansson (drums). The influence then came from bands like Napalm Death. Some gigs were made in the neighborhood with various singers. A compilation demo was released with 4 songs in total grind style. After a while the style changed more and more to bands like E.N.T, because most of the members like that kind of music. After a while we picked up Henrik Lindberg and Jens Tornroos on the lyrics and Nico Knudsen on guitar. A demo was recorded at 'Unisound' and was sent to many record labels. After some detours the demo landed at 'Lost & Found' in Germany, and they were interested in a CD release. 5 new songs was recorded to fill up the CD. The name was 'The Strike Of Mankind'. In the meantime a tour in Germany with Disfear was under construction, and L & F released a crap EP with Uncurbed & Disfear (according to L & F it was a limited edition in 500 copies, shit! You can find it in every record store today!). Anyway, the tour in Germany was a success and we got a lot of fans (we hope!).

Michael and Johan also played in a band called 'Asocial', when they quit the singer Tommy joined Uncurbed instead of Henrik. The L & F was interested in a second CD so we recorded a 9 song Maxi-CD with the name 'Mental Disorder'. After some shit talk with the L & F we left them for 'Finn Records' where we released a new CD with 14 brutal songs under the name 'A Nightmare In Daylight'. Some gigs were made in Sweden with The Varukers, Chaos UK, English Dogs, and Hypocrisy. A gig at 'Dalarocken' also took place in 1995, about 300 people showed up and it was fun as hell! In January '96 we changed studio from 'Unisound' to 'Abyss' (the owner Peter Tagtgren from Hypocrisy.) The CD 'Punk & Anger' was then recorded with 16 songs and included one cover of Asocial. A split EP was also recorded with S.G.R/Uncurbed 4 songs each, and released on 'Yellow Dog' records in Germany. 1000 copies sold in a couple of months. In April '97 it was time again for us to go in the studio and recording the grooviest and best release we ever made (don't we always think that way!). The title is 'Peace Love Punk Life' and should be out in early '98."

Glue - Discography 2012-2019 (FLAC/320)



Write-up by Alex Birnel, Halloween 2016...

Bringing back an ostensibly bygone era of grime in punk, long before the snapback and hoodie made any appearance in the genre, the Austin-based band Glue is pissed and dejected in every direction. On Friday, the band played a free show at the Mix on N. St. Mary’s street accompanied by locals Sex-Ray Specs and Unit. Beneath a disco ball, standing on a pink neon lit wood floor that’s more welcoming to waltz than a mosh on first glance, Glue started their set with the band’s signature hello “FUCK YOU, WE’RE GLUE.” The room then promptly took ritual formation, with the crowd forming a huge-half circle encasing the band’s lead singer Harris Munger Greenwood. 

Led on by the fast and cathartic riffs supplied by guitarist Cody Cox, riffs that sounded as if leather face had joined the band and swapped out his chainsaw for a guitar, Greenwood moved frantically about the floor with rag doll limbs, dodging the debris of flailing bodies around him, smashing a mic against his teeth. Rabid sounding and psychotic looking, he screamed the lyrics to songs like “Enemy,” “The Jokes Write Themselves,” “Backward Society,” and “Disgrace” off their 2014 s/t and demo releases, all to match the expected entropy that takes hold at punk shows. 

Face to face with Glue fans, Greenwood spewed his misanthropy up close and personal with a marathon gaze that made you wonder if his eyes were stapled open. During the tiny interludes between songs, the audience got some clue into where some of the songs’ titles might have gotten their despondent inspiration. “I have to take a test tomorrow, I could care less,” Greenwood said. 

But it’s not at all easy to shoehorn the band into the jaded and sarcastic canon of punk music, even though it’s easy for me, the writer, to trot out the all the usual suspect adjectives. The band just returned from the jungles of Central America and the show at the Mix was a kind of welcome back home. And apparently, they left an impression on newly made fans who managed to catch a show. In the comment threads of the band’s 2012 demo video on YouTube, commenters from El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia are now praising the band in Spanish with phrases like “puro sabor” or pure flavor. The commenter from El Salvador even shouted out the rest of Central American punks who did or would see Glue. When your band is any common thread that crosses borders and makes strangers friends, there’s more than just loathing at play. “Saludos a toda la raza Centroamericana que en su respectivo momento los tendran en su casa” said the commenter.

Glue also played a benefit show at Mohawk in Austin the night after the Mix, raising money for native Sioux and their allies resisting at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In all, the band was a crucial part of the effort to raise the $3,500 that ultimately resulted. As Greenwood wrote on the event’s Facebook page “Punk is an incredible thing. I think we all get disenchanted with it from time to time and it's pretty easy to think that it's just music like any other genre, but when things like this come together, I'm reminded (and I hope you are as well) that we're all here because we care about fighting oppression and we care enough to make a change,” he says. “More proof that this is more than riffs."