Some true internationalism. Mass Separation is grindcore from Kuala Lumpur. Dregs of Humanity is crust from Brisbane. Released by a US label.
one-sided war
11.13.2026
9.01.2026
STINK - Diana / Never Will Forget 7" (1993 Megalomania Records)
One of the more unheralded pop punk / power pop bands from the 90's. Seattle's Stink seemed to have some sort of psychic connection to San Diego, doing splits with Building Club (i.e. Everready) and Peaceful Meadows. Maybe they are the punk Eddie Vedder or something. I dunno. This was their first 7" and it is fucking great.
8.05.2026
Stout - Mind In The Gutter CD (1999 Ashwa Records)
Another band that there is nothing out there on. Sad, cuz I like this. I was not expecting much based on the cover, but it's got a pretty cool power-pop vibe at times. I'm not saying I've unearthed some unknown classic, it's not that good, I'm just saying this is too good for there to be literally nothing online. I'm gonna guess they are from San Diego. If anyone knows anything, lemme know.
8.01.2026
Swiftkick - Don't Pass Out With Your Shoes On CD (2002 Self-released)
Don't know a thing about this. Was recorded in Riverside, CA, so I'm assuming they were from somewhere in the Inland Empire. SoCal 90's epifattish skate punk. Early NUFAN is probably the best comp, but I hear some slight Good Riddance and Strung Out elements at times.
7.26.2026
Natural Fonzie & Spoto – Alive! CD [1996 Rodent Records]
Hi, how have you been?
Couple of 90's San Francisco bands doing a kinda fuzzy-garage-maybe-hard-rock-with-a-sense-of-humor thing.
- Discogs
- Bandcamp
- YTM
- Apple Music
- Spotify
- OSW
3.15.2026
Oscars 2026: Best Movie
Just finished watching all of them. Here's my rankings:
- One Battle After Another. Actually lives up to the hype. PTA isn't always on, but when he's on, he's ON. Great movie.
- The Secret Agent. I thought OBAA would be a shoo in for my favorite until I saw this. It really does give OBAA a run for it's money. Fantastic, and I wouldn't be surprised if it pulls an upset.
- Marty Supreme. Went in skeptical, came out loving it. Propulsive, anxiety inducing, but in a less nauseous way than Uncut Gems.
- Bugonia. Very good. Nice twist at the end, even if you could see it coming a mile away.
- Sinners. It was good. It wasn't that good, and I don't think I'm ever going to understand the hype.
- Frankenstein. This is where the drop off begins. It was okay. But for a Guillermo Del Toro movie to have CGI this bad is inexcusable.
- Hamnet. Jesse Buckley's performance is amazing. The rest, eh. Like really, she had no idea her husband was kind of a big deal? The babe in the woods act, I mean come on.
- Sentimental Value. Great acting, a little up it's own ass.
- Train Dreams. Beautiful to look at. But narrative was annoying, and the story was not at all compelling to me. I'm sure the novella was great.
- F1. A complete insult that it was nominated. Just complete garbage and a reminder why I don't go see "blockbusters". Weapons was 10x better than this.
2.02.2026
Sinister Sam - Catfish Gumbo CS [1991 Self-released]
This is a pretty rare cassette that screams 1991. I originally bought this tape at a show in Fresno. I don't remember the details very well, but I wanna say it was a really weird bill at Warnor's Theater with Sinister Sam, The Crucified, and Circus Bogus (btw The Crucified was the weird part. Fucking love that band, The Pillars Of Humanity is one of the best thrash albums of the 90's IMO. But they are a Christian band, and Circus Bogus, well, ain't). If there's anyone who can corroborate this, let me know. I could have this completely wrong.
This was their only release, from when Thrash Funk was briefly a thing (don't get me started on how much I loved Mordred for about two weeks). I think they were from San Jose. At least that's what I always surmised from the lyrics to Fresno: "101 South to 1-5-2". I used to think this was really funny. Oh, the 90's.
Yes, I'm selling the tape for $100. A cool-ass kid wanted to buy it, but couldn't. So I'm posting it here. She's here, if anyone wants to be the dopest person ever and by it for her. I am not that dope. Or charitable. Don't be me.
1.14.2026
Arliss - S/T CDr [2004]
Perusing local thrift stores, you come across a lot of local stuff that no one really knows about. I'm not talking about Everready or The Neighbors. More obscure. And a lot of the times you throw it on Discogs and it sells immediately for a ton of money, often from buyers overseas, and you're like whoa, what was that all about? It's happened many times to me. Userfriendly and Skipjack are two that come to mind. I don't know if this is more true in Southern California than other places, but it does seem to be a thing.
It hasn't happened regarding Arliss, but it might. I put a YouTube videos up a while back, and immediately got requests to upload the whole EP. I never did, thinking it might discourage someone from buying this very, very rare EP. I would direct them to the Discogs page. But years later, I still have it, so here's the whole thing.
Arliss was North County MySpacecore. I thought I just made that term up, but google says not so! I don't know what its supposed to mean, but for me it means 2000's garage emo / post-hardcore bands. And by garage, I don't mean scrappy DIYers. I mean garage as in, while they probably had visions of being the next big thing, they never quite made it out of the garage. Sounds like that's a slight. I don't mean it to be. But it's not like you've ever heard of Arliss (shitty HBO shows excluded), right?
1.12.2026
Against Your Will - Drunken Daze CD [2005 Smelvis Records]
Epi-Fat type punk. I think they were from San Pedro, CA, but I couldn't tell you anything else about them, bro.
1.05.2026
Towncraft: Music And Words From Little Rock, Arkansas Comp LP [1992 File 13 +]
There was a 2007 doc about the Little Rock scene that was (likely) based on this, and added newer (at the time) bands. This is the real deal founding document though, and has mostly different songs than appeared in the doc soundtrack.
Bands here are:
The bands featured are:
- Chalk
- 12 Ft. 6
- Entrance
- Drain
- Substance
- Chino Horde
- Outlet
- 5-0
- G
- Sint
My rip is pretty noisy at times.
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