If it wasn’t that the swastika was so closely related to nazism or that I’m such a sissy I would easily get a big fat swastika tattoo on my chest. Along with the Apple logo and the Nike swoosh the swastika is one of the most powerful and most good looking symbols/logos I can think of. The Crass logo don’t even come close here. And dude spot the swastika on the sleeve! Awesome!

From Ontario/Canada comes School Jerks who where kind enough to send me their fantastic debut 7″. Sounds like the early 80’s. You’ve heard it before. But they do have such a great feeling for it and I can’t clearly say that they try rip a certain band off though it has that early CA feel to it. Would love if the kids could just give a fuck about their influences and throw in a synth or a banjo in here. But still… it’s a great platter and you’ll get it here: School Jerks at Myspace.

Country: Canada
Year: 2008
Label: Riff Raff
Format: 7″
Songs:
Nothing Else.mp3
Stray.mp3
Passed Out.mp3

I simply can’t believe no one mentioned this amazing EP on the best of 2008 list/ discussion here as it is one of the greatest retro records made in a very, very long time. It’s actually so great that I had doubts about posting it here as I’m sure it will make their upcoming releases sell out faster than this nugget did, and I’m a bit afraid that will make me miss out on them. But on the other hand, most new stuff posted here gets comments from grumpy old men who just wants to hear the original punk/ hc/ power pop bands so maybe I don’t have to worry.

So what about the Secret Prostitues? The record has no info about the band, but luckily we live in the static age where you can find everything online, so head over to the bands myspace site for some info about these Scandi-loving collector geeks from Huston, and good luck going through distro lists for remaining copies of this EP. Maybe it’s time for us all to learn some tongue twisting Indonesian so that we all can sing along together?

Country: USA
Year: 2008
Label: Psycho Wolf/ArseGestapo1982/Death Exclamations/Cutthroat
Format: 7″
Songs:
Skandinavia ‘79.mp3
Awasi Gestapo Lepas.mp3
Aki Bencu Kamu.mp3
Punk Adalah Ginjalku.mp3
Sputnik.mp3

I feel guilty for telling Rickard(Guitar) to send me this for review. I will get beaten up and hated I guess but don’t take it personally. Rickard and Emma played in Disconvenience before Epidemics a band which I dug. But Epidemics well… They just try too hard to sound punk. And it fails miserably. I like one song(the song I heard and lead me to say yes to Rickard when asking if he could send it in for review) and that is Bloodstains. The rest just bores me to death. It’s too generic. The lyrics haven nothing to say and the whole thing just left my turntable with out a trace. And I guess that’s what’s going to happen after a few months. No one will remember this. Why didn’t Epidemics try to make a 7″ instead? 

And last but not the least the press release is so goodamn funny: “Waking Up The Dead” is that punk record that will get the teens to dye their hair, tag their Converse shoes, skip school and do something good with their life. You said what? Is that a joke? Who wrote this? Please tell me it was an intern who aspire to write for Vecko Revyn. 

Maybe next time Epidemics.

Get it here: http://nyvag.weebly.com/index.html

Country: Sweden
Year: 2008
Label: Ny Vag/Trashbastard
Format: 12″
Songs:
No Good Advice
Wake Up And Scream.mp3
Never Grow Up
At The Graveyard
Tanks
Bloodstains.mp3
City Of Desire
Cremated Alive
Hiding From The Light
Stratjacket
About To Explode

You´ve got mail! with Tom Hanks is a fantastic movie. Shows spot on what can happen in the modern era with new ways of communication. This is what happened to me boys and girls. Couple of weeks ago I got an email from Dave Brown the drummer of Career Suicide, best band out of Canada since Rush, asking about an obscure swedish band he read about in Peter Jandreus book The Encylopedia of Swedish Punk 1977-1987. He asked about Framfor Flotet which I´ve never heard so I couldn´t help Dave out. I saw my chance to kiss some ass since I absolutely love CS. First time I heard ém I got so excited I posted their split LP with Jade Whitey without even thinking if it was ok or not. So this time(after turning brown after the ass kissing) I asked if it was ok to publish the new tracks they have up from their latest release on the KBD blog since I thought they where totally amazing. Dave was kind enough to send me the vinyl in favor of me giving him a link to pick up Lamas first 7″. 

So here´s a vinyl rip of Cherry Beach which dosen´t sound really as good as the tracks on the CS site. Mostly cause digital recordings dosen´t transfer that well to vinyl. It really has to be an analog recording to get the full potential. You can hear it get´s a bit too distorted on the vinyl compared to the digital to digital rips on the CS site. Some may even thinks it sounds a lot better with the added distortion. Cherry Beach is really fucking fantastic. The track roars and oases from start to finish. I think I´ve not heard such intense vocals since Get It Away with SSD. I would call this a classic to be. Really. Double Life is good but feels like it goes on routine a little bit and the cover is a nice addition though I would’ve preferred an original.

Career Suicide is one of them bands that manage to make great songs no matter if it´s mid paced or in traditional HC speed. I´ve said it before but I strongly believe it has to do with their wide taste in music. These guys sure plays Hardcore but their musical influences comes from all over. 

NOTE! The a-side is actually the test press of Vicious Visions!!! YES! All the way from Canada. 

Country: Canada
Year: 2008
Label: Sewercide
Format: 7″
Songs:
Cherry Beach.mp3
Double Life.mp3
Your Body, Not Your Soul.mp3