The Problems - 2014 Cassette Demo

The Problems are a side project of sorts featuring former  Hello No frontman John Woods and some friends from Germany. The bands personnel originally crossed paths when John's band Hell No stopped off in Germany during their 1999 European tour. More than fifteen years later these friends have stayed close. Finally deciding to give their friendship a creative edge.

The demo opens with the song Drunk Again and while the opening skit/audio is absolutely unbearable. Problems Faced when Traveling. While Woods handles most of the vocal duties. You can easily detect a second vocalist on these songs.

It quickly moves in the right direction, ultimately winning this listener over with a sound that quickly recalls Soulside's
As for the previous mention of Soulside. There's no Dischord or Revolution Summer revival happening here. The rest of this tape seems to walk a line between the Killed By Death sound and that of early
Black Flag. Simple, raw and quite good. Not bad if you can get it.

Everything from the cassette format to the pedestrian cover art reads "No Frills" while recalling days gone long by and how, as kids of the 80's.
We'd scour our local indie record stores, fanzines and shows to get hold of the latest demo cassette before it was gone. So bust out the tape deck or dust off the old boom box and give this one a shot. James Damion

The Problems  Bandcamp
The Problems  Facebook

LVXVRIA - Peru Punk 7' 1987 Demo

Fast moving Peruvian Hardcore Punk from the late 80's that had an immediate impact on me. Having no prior knowledge of the band and limited exposure to much south of the border punk, I had no expectations whatsoever as to what I was about to experience.
Surprisingly, despite the language barrier,
(The songs are sung and the lyrics are printed in Spanish.) this little obscurity quickly proved the notion that music has it's very own language and the powers of rage and alienation are universal.

Each of the four songs featured offer something interesting and unique with surprising elements of melody and coherent vocals that have an interesting story telling appeal to them.
While the bands sound can best be summed up as Punk. Elements of Hardcore, Psych and to go out on a limb, Folk can be felt throughout.

Being how latin influenced the New York Hardcore scene was at the time of this recording,
I can easily see LVXVRIA being well received at a
Sunday CBGB's matinee.
The simple fact that the demo itself was recorded over a quarter century ago, somehow elicits the explorer in me. I can't help but want to dig deeper into Peru's early contributions to Punk, Hardcore, Psych and beyond. Released on RockSvb records and brought to me by my favorite archivist Freddy Alva of Wardance records.
This was as much a pleasure as it was a surprise. I highly recommend giving it a spin.
James Damion

Wardance Records Comprar aquí

Boiling Point Fanzine - Reissues

When I started writing the first issue of Unite in 1988. I had more than my share of inspirational building blocks and blueprints to ensure that my own endeavor would't fall flat on it's face. Guillotine, Schism, Smorgasbord, Yes Zista and many more had their hand in shaping what became the first and second issue of Unite would look like and even feature.

Imagine my excitement when each of the reprinted six issues showed up on Big Carte just weeks after initiating my search to track down the same issues of Boiling Point I sold on Ebay nearly fifteen years before.

Gone are the colorful covers. Gone are the thick as cardboard pages.What twenty six bucks got me was each of Boiling Points six issues hastily xeroxed on cheap, flimsy, white copy paper. Each held together by a single staple. Though the content is exactly what we saw in those original issues,the cheap quality of the paper and the scans don't come close to accenting or giving proper respect to the great layouts and photos contained in Boiling Point.
Though it's good to look back on many of the old reviews, interviews and correspondence. It's a shame they didn't take any care whatsoever to pay tribute to just that. This seems to be a very short and limited run on Big Cartel, One that will hopefully save you some money in the end. Though it was exciting to look back at a great fanzine from my time. I probably would have been happier tracking down the original copies. These don't seem worth the price in postage.The advertisement mentioned bonus material. I didn't even get a note.
File under "Half Ass". James Damion