Month: January 2023

Annihilate This Week #2

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I’m happy to be making mixes to cast like a message in a bottle into the vast ocean that is the internet again. This was something I was just beginning to add to my writing practice a few years ago before my life fell apart and I stopped enjoying so much of what I loved for too long. It feels good to come home to myself just that much more.

It’s been a week since the last playlist, and I’m struggling with how to fill this space. I had a few ideas this morning, early in the AM when I was dragging my tired body out of bed. Now I am drawing a blank. It was a week of relative hibernation creativity wise. I struggled to even find time to read. I worked a lot and often found myself so drained by the end of the day that I just wanted to lift weights, play with the pup, watch bad TV and fall asleep.

I think this may be some iteration of the “American Dream”, but I’m not sure.

Over the weekend, I’m hoping to do some reorganizing and reinvigorating my writing/study space at the Signals Fill the Void bunker. I’m hoping that helps shift the stagnation of this last week. I’m not unhappy or anything, though. This week felt like a week of rest and recovery.

Highlight #1

This one occurred the week before last, but I’m noting it here, anyway. I forgot to write about it last week.

I got off work on a Wednesday and raced to Chapel Hill to get there in time to see The Chisel and End It with Maria. I got to town before Maria got off work and wandered around. Chapel Hill isn’t a city I ever think about much, despite having spent time living there a decade and a half ago. My time there was brief and the people I surrounded myself with were, for the most part, inconsequential. Walking around there feels akin to walking through another person’s memories, devoid of context or sentimentality. In hindsight, it looks more like a place marker, an interlude before moving on to better things than anything else.

We got dinner and walked to the venue. I know a few other bands played, but I’m struggling to remember who they were now. We hung outside talking shit and telling jokes during the openers, only occasionally peaking in to kinda say “nah” at whatever chugga chugga hardcore band was onstage. Fair play to you if that’s your thing. I think I’ve just seen so much of that at this point that it blurs together.   

We stood at the back while End It played, forever trying to peer over someone’s shoulder to see the stage, because we’re both so short. The bar emptied out after End It; we scoped out a bench off to the side of the room where we could sit and watch the band away from and above the crowd. We sat there holding hands, watching The Chisel play and maybe the set was a little underwhelming. I’m not sure. I was tired after work, apprehensive knowing my dumb ass was going to have to get up at 5 AM to drive back to the mountains for work in the morning. I think it’s also possible that nothing might beat the first time I saw The Chisel – with Xy in a Los Angeles dive bar packed full of rowdy punks and skins, my first punk gig back after well over two years avoiding public spaces.

The gig ended. The bar cleared out. Maria and I walked across the street and said goodnight. Just a little giddy from the gig and from sweet time shared, I made the foolish decision to drive back to the mountains at midnight. My rationale being that I could leave right then or get up at 5. Either way, I wasn’t getting much sleep, and if I left later in the AM, I had a greater chance of the slightest hiccup making me late for work.

The first hour of the drive went by fine. I listened to tunes, drank coffee, and thought about a story I want to write for some friends in Olympia. The second hour, well… That’s when the reality that I am no longer young came crashing in. Maybe I could have pulled this nonsense off in my 20s, even in my 30s, but my early 40s? Nope.

I pulled off at a rest stop near my mom’s house and slept for four hours. I woke up and kept driving west just before sunrise. I stopped at a grocery store, stocked up on food and coffee and hit the mountains just as the sun began to rise over them, bathing the landscape in brilliant orange and red. I caught that feeling I get – No matter where I go, how far I stray from Western North Carolina, nothing ever beats the feeling of returning to those mountains.

I made it to the office with five minutes to spare before my shift. My student was already waiting for me. I clocked in, set my stuff down, and got to work. Let me brag for a minute, friends. I fucking nailed that session. It was one of those shining moments at work, where I am able to connect with a student and send them away from the session feeling more confident in their abilities than they felt when they came in. My supervisor even stepped out of her office to compliment me on how well I handled the session.

And the whole time, I’m laughing to myself.

“Nobody knows I’m doing this shit on 4 hours of sleep in the back of a car.”

This type of punk rock foolishness, the late nights, the long drives, the gambling on gigs that have the potential to be life changing, or some mundanity that I’ve seen a thousand times before, I know how the sands are falling to the bottom of the hourglass on them. I’m getting older. Comfort calls. So do responsibilities and the weight of age.

So I will enjoy these opportunities to live life on my terms while they remain.

Highlight #2

This week we made serious progress with training my little chaos pup. A solution presented itself that seemed so obvious that I kick myself for not thinking of it sooner. With a new training regimen, I’ve noticed the ways he’s calmer, feels more comfortable in the house, and less anxious. I’m stoked.

Highlight #3

I got to work with a student who reminded me so much of someone I knew when I was a teenager who started shooting dope when we were kids, and to my knowledge, addiction has been a part of her path ever since. My student was bright and articulate and spoke without apology about what personal struggles she wanted to write about. She just didn’t know how to get the words out. We worked on an outline, and she left the session knowing what she wanted to write and how to start her project.

I thought about it for the rest of the day, how all the stories we tell, the stories we hear, they don’t have to end in tragedy. There don’t have to be sad scripted endings, and the written word is a way to circumvent those tragedies and write stories with new endings.

I’m not articulating this point as well as I’d like, but you get it.

Low Point #1

The state of the world. I mean… Have you seen this place lately? It always feels just a little strange to find so much contentedness and happiness in my personal life, while everything else is burning down. Did you see that the Doomsday Clock is now set at 90 seconds to midnight? I was joking with Grier about how it fucking figures that the world stands on yet another precipice, just as I’m coming to love living in it.

I’m only a little embarrassed to admit that that early to mid-2000s “Even if the world ended tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today” patch that you saw all over crust punk and folk punk kids resonates with me a bit now.

Low Point #2

I went on a miserable, and I mean miserable date. We talked on OKC for a day or so and I had some hesitations. I’ve had hesitations all around about dating for a while now, but I figured I’d meet up and feel it out. As soon as the person walked into the bar where we agreed to meet up, I could feel it. It was like both of us just said, “Nope.” I’m not sure what my body language telegraphed, but this person could not have broadcasted “not interested” any louder.

What followed was an hour or so of strained conversation where I sipped my mocktail and wondered when I could get a word in edge wise, ducking strange, and invasive questions about a close friend, and then a merciful ending.

I laughed about it with a friend who was DJ’ing, paid my tab and then went to my car to check on my little dude in his travel crate. I pulled out my phone to call Molly, and was just saying, “Yo, I just went on the worst date” into the mouthpiece, when I noticed my date was sitting outside the bar smoking and waiting for their ride, well within earshot.

Oops.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids. The greater the length at which someone blathers on about their self-tokenizing identity markers and “organizing” activities in a dating profile full of leftist academia buzzwords and superficial social justice language, the greater chance they are going to be a vapid, insufferable chump in real life.

Bullet dodged; shit talked.

That’s all for now. I turn 42 next week. I’m happy. I’m healthy. I am largely content in a way I never thought possible. I’m grateful. Take care of yourselves. Take care of one another.

Annihilate This Week Volume 2.

  1. From Ashes Rise – Reaction
  2. From Ashes Rise – Hell in the Darkness
  3. World Burns to Death—Babylon Endures
  4. Lions Law – The Reaper
  5. The Bois – S.H.A.R.P. Worldwide
  6. The Chisel – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet
  7. Mess –  Don’t Look Back
  8. The Last Resort – Beyond The Promised Land
  9. Angelic Upstarts – Ghost Town
  10. Slapshot – Say Goodbye
  11. The Cure – M (Live)
  12. Chain Cult – Witch Hunt
  13. Rancoeur – Rancouer
  14. She Past Away – Rituel
  15. Sisters Of Mercy – Nine While Nine
  16. Shannon & The Clams – The Boy
  17. Hub City Stompers – Dead Nazi Stomp
  18. Prince Buster – A Change Is Gonna Come
  19. Megative – One Day All This Will Be Gone
  20. Swans – To Be Kind

New Mix! Annihilate This Week Volume 1!

SaschaLeave a comment

Don’t have a lot to say this week. I think for now, most of the thoughts swimming around my skull are best kept private or shared with close friends, definitely not rocketed into the void. I’ve been getting back into the swing of work. The hours are long. The commute is hell. The pay is never enough somehow.

But it’s rewarding.

Here’s a sample of the tunes that have graced the turntable at the Signals Fill The Void bunker.

Hope you enjoy. Take care of yourselves, take care of one another.

Annihilate This Week Vol. 1

  1. The Chisel – Unlawful Execution
  2. One Way System – Stab The Judge
  3. Children of God – 31 Seconds of Blind Rage
  4. Battery March – NO GOOD COPS
  5. Attak – Today’s Generation
  6. The Selecter – Time Hard
  7. The Gift – Running Around this Town
  8. Trisomie 21 – Il Se Noie
  9. Skinny Puppy – Nature’s Revenge
  10. Front Line Assembly – Internal Combustion
  11. Broken Bones – Death Is Imminent
  12. Abrasive Wheels – Banner Of Hope
  13. The Specials – Concrete Jungle (Live)
  14. Squellete – Narcisse
  15. Violent Way – VWS
  16. Violent Way – Bow To None
  17. Tragedy – Power Fades
  18. Lion’s Law – Destined to fall
  19. The Selecter – Bristol and Miami
  20. A Silver Mt. Zion – Blindblindblind

A Year End Wrap-Up.

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I know I’m a few days late here, but here goes:

I spent New Year’s Eve alone, drinking a single hot toddy and reflecting while listening to Trojan Compilation LPs and Cure records like the lightweight middle-aged punk rocker I am. A year ago, I ended 2021 feeling worn down and heartbroken. Thankful for friends, for surviving the hardest year of my life. I ended 2022 in the opposite place.

It was a year of ups and downs, personal and professional growth while continuing local, national, and global crises unfolded around us. I went to work every day with the growing reality of anti queer violence gnawing at the back of my mind. During the coldest months of the year, I began to thaw. I made friends, even developed very occasional crushes while the world held its breath over a long winter, with so many of us wondering if we were in the opening stages of World War III. Everyone I love exists in a state of constant anxiety. However, I am inspired at not only their ability to thrive, but at the lives they live in defiance of those who would see the world this way forever.

This year I worked hard at a job I love. I lifted weights. I spent time alone and with friends. Despite the struggle to find a place for my work, I became more confident as a writer. I don’t take the struggle to carve out a space for my voice and for my stories personally or see it as a deficit or reflective of the quality of my work the way I used to. For this small step, I am thankful. I know my value and know my voice. I accept that the distaste I have for maneuvering and accumulating social and cultural capital comes with drawbacks and I live accordingly.

The tradeoff of being able to walk through the world authentically and without apology is worth it to me.

My biggest victory this year was taking new and scary steps to manage the depression and mood swings that accompany living with borderline personality disorder. So far, those steps have been positive. I have been able to experience life in a way I’ve never thought possible. I smile more. I feel lighter. I laugh. It’s nice. If you are reading this, and you are struggling, I want you to know there’s help out there for you. You and your beautiful, complicated life are worthy of that help, even if it feels like you don’t deserve it.

I want to close this out by offering gratitude to the care exhibited by my friends Grier and Maria. The two of you were such solid and consistent voices of encouragement and reflection while I made important and hard choices. Thank you, Xy for being the best globetrotting adventure companion. Thanks to Molly and Teal, who I didn’t get to take pictures with this year for the decades of best friendship.

Thanks to Sweetpea the pup for being a continual lesson in patience.

Keep your head up. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other. Onward.

Now, for the cheesiest part of this post, physical media! Some of these records are from late 2021 and 2022. I wasn’t in good shape last year, so I didn’t write about music much at all in general, or at the end of the year.

LPs

  1. Collision – I love this band’s whole vibe. A mixture of Oi/Street punk and post punk. It just works. To add the quality of the music, they have a schtick that adds to an air of mystery about them. Always wearing masks and Adidas Sambas and seemingly lurking about industrial parts of Paris.
  2. Criminal Outfit – A Million Saturdays: It took me a while to warm up to this. The vocals are a little rough at first. But the riffs are simple and infectious. The lyrical content sweet and wholesome, songs about building a nation accepting of everyone, and getting dressed up to go out on the town with the boys. More of this please.
  3. High Vis – No Sense, No Feeling, and Blending: My good friend Josef put me on to this band. Imagine a mixture of New Order style post punk and moshy hardcore. It’s fucking dope. For a long time, the No Sense No Feeling LP was hard to find in the States. When Xy and I were in England, I managed to track down two copies. One for Josef, one for me. When Josef and I lived in Olympia, his friendship saved my life on at least one occasion. No shit. One night when I was at the end of my rope, hyperventilating, feeling like I couldn’t go on, Josef was there. That’s one way to repay a friend, right? You saved my life, I stuffed an LP in my backpack, carried it across the Atlantic without it getting damaged, and mailed it to you. Even Steven.
  4. The Damned: Singles Collection Volume 1 & 2. I grabbed these on a whim in England. I don’t listen to The Damned as much as I did when I was a kid, but they were one of the first punk bands I ever heard. I will always love them for that. These LPs contain all The Damned’s singles from their early period, both punk and when they were going in a more Gothy/Post-Punk direction. All killer, no filler.
  5. Wolves in The Throne Room: Primordial Arcana. I connect with WITTR less than I used to, but this LP is still good. If you are somehow unfamiliar with this band and you like your Black Metal unambiguous politically, centered around nature and maybe a little less threatening than the genre’s progenitors, this LP is for you.
  6. The Bois: Rise Again. Anti-Racist Oi! from Singapore. I like The Bois’ previous output, but I love this LP. There’s nothing new or sophisticated about the music, but the lyrics and the vibe are so earnest, that I can’t help but love this. Songs about staying true to your roots, bashing the fash, and a better world.
  7. Syndrome 81 – Prisons Imaginaires: This LP comes in second place for my favorite record of the year. A blend of Oi, post punk, and dark punk. Many of us who grew up listening to the classic Street punk band Blitz, wondered at what might have been had the band not gone full New Wave with the follow up to their classic first LP Voice of a Generation with the synth heavy Second Empire Justice. Syndrome 81 may just answer that question.
  8. The Cure – Wish 30th Anniversary Edition: This is not a new record. It needs no introduction. The Cure is my all-time favorite band. While this LP may not be my favorite of their output, I love it all the same. I can remember with almost crystalline clarity the time and place where I first heard this album. Listening now, transports me back to a dirty teenage bedroom with blankets stuffed over the windows so I could sleep late after sneaking out to stay out all night skating. Before there was punk for me, there was The Cure. My entry point into the underground.
  9. Claymore – Crime Pays LP: Most ridiculous cover art of 2022, a skinhead on a moped with a sword and a bag of cash, riding over a landscape of cop skeletons. The music is hard as nails. The vocals took a while to grow on me, but once they did, this record was on my turntable for months.
  10. Converge – Blood Moon: Converge playing heavier sludgier material with a host of collaborators like Chelsea Wolfe – a venerable Goth institution at this point in her career. I love this LP. Maybe sometime I will see Converge tour on it, and it will be the first time I will have seen them without worrying about getting knocked unconscious by stage diving bros or seeing blood spilled all over the bathroom sinks when I go to piss.
  11. Slugger – EP: Hands down, my favorite record of the year. There is so much attitude, so much power packed in these six songs. The music is simple, driving. The vocals gruff and vicious. The lyrical content, spot on no lofty proclamations, no pretension just anti-racist Oi mixed with street politics, the way it should be. No mess. No fuss, just pure impact.
  12. Bishops Green – Dark Skies/Waiting. I grabbed both LPs either in late 2021 or early 2022. I don’t remember. I love them. Bishops Green seem to be moving into a slower, darker take on Street Punk, and I’m here for it. To me, both of these records ooze the sense of dread that so many of us felt in the earliest days of the pandemic.
  13. Violent Way – Bow to None LP: Knucklehead Skinhead Oi in the best sense. Heavy emphasis on the skinhead part. Seriously. These dudes are skinheads and won’t let you forget it for longer than a song. I like this LP just fine. I liked the debut EP better. There was a lot of hype around this record when it dropped. I mean, I bought the LP and the shirt, but still somehow felt underwhelmed in a way that I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe it was the unnecessary Combat 84 cover.
  14. The Chisel – Retaliation LP: A classic. This LP dropped in late 2021, but I didn’t get my copy until 2022, and hardly stopped listening to it all year. The best blend of Oi and hardcore. The opening track, Unlawful Execution is up there with anti-cop punk classics like Dicks Hate The Police as far as I’m concerned.
  15. Castillo – Self-Titled – Melodic Punk/Oi from the city of angels.
  16. Mess – Intercity EP: Street punk in the vein of Blitz and other UK 82 classics from Mexico. This EP manages to pay homage to the classics while still sounding fresh and vibrant.
  17. Plizzken – Their Paradise is Full of Snakes LP: Street punk from Germany. Catchy, upbeat. Infectious.
  18. Liberty & Justice – Pressure: This was my favorite LP of 2021. I listened to it a lot, heartbroken and driving a rumbling U-Haul filled with my worldly possessions from Pittsburgh to Philly. This album played while I ran every toll. Meanwhile one of the best friends I’ve ever had drove ahead with my dying dog in his car, ensuring the most precious cargo made it safely to Philly. The opening riff of Halfway Home helped give me the strength to go on during the hardest summer of my life.
  19. Front Line Assembly – The Initial Command: This record is over 30 years old too. Front Line Assembly was my introduction to more hard wired, less accessible Industrial when I was 14 years old listening to The Industrial Revolution compilation in my bedroom. I still love this band, and grabbed this LP on a whim at Angry Young, and Poor. If you grew up listening to just one genre of underground music, you didn’t grow up a lonely weirdo in a small town, banding together with all the other lonely freaks. Sorry, while you maybe missed out on a particular brand of rural misery, you probably missed out on some good tunes, too.
  20. Lost Legion – Building Electricity: Oi mixed with darker Post-Punk influences. I love this EP and want to hear more from this band.
  21. The Partisans – Self Titled: I think this record is as old as I am. I have been listening to The Partisans since I was fifteen, yet somehow never owned a physical copy of this LP. Bouncy, full of youthful energy. It feels weird to listen to 17 Years of Hell at almost 42 years old. I listen anyway. I remember waiting eagerly for my 17th birthday so I could sing along with that song in earnest.

EPs

  1. Empire Down – Split.
  2. 2 Empire Down – Gallows of Winter. From the frozen northern reaches of the Midwest, Empire Down go hard. A mixture of Oi and Hardcore.
  3. The Templars – They Use Hate/5446 EP: The Templars need no introduction. Classic, Lo-Fi Oi! The Toots & The Maytals cover is a must hear.
  4. Violent Way ­– EP. Full of punch and attitude. Each song is more knuckle hungry than the last.
  5. Warrior Kids EP – Tough Oi
  6. Beton Arme/Violent Way Split: See above, but in French as well as English.
  7. Wired Up – Gets Rich on Rock N’ Roll EP: I love this EP. Bouncy and full of attitude while somehow still being both tough and fun.
  8. Totalitar – Heydays Revisited: For the charged up, shoestring headband crowd! Totalitar were classic D-Beat. I still have a ratty as shit Totalitar shirt that I’ve been wearing for 20 years.
  9. The Prowlers – Serial Pouesser EP: Fine. I’m gonan be honest. I don’t remember what this sounds like at the moment. The Prowlers play a tough, yet straightforward style of anti-racist Oi. Nothing original, but you’ll like it anyway.
  10. Sous Escort – Somehow can’t remember what this sounds like easier. I’ll listen to it and get back to you.
  11. Dusters – Siege Warfare B/W Kalishnakov. Tough as nails, Oi/Punk from Dirty Jersey. Can’t wait for another LP.
  12. Brigata Vendetta – EP: I grabbed this right as 2022 came to a close. Features ex members of Harrington Saints and have a similar sound.
  13. Tchernobyl/ Force Majure – Split: Two tracks each. Both in French, on band from Canada, the other from France.
  14. Collision – Immortels EP: See above.
  15. The Chisel – Deconstructive Surgery EP
  16. The Chisel – Enough Said EP
  17. Chisel – Come See Me EP: Come See Me is one of the hardest tracks about defending your friends from racist violence ever laid to wax.
  18. Squellete – Tentative Homicide – Low down and dirty as fuck Oi from the City of Lights. Lyrics in French, title track is about the time one of the members got their face slashed in fight and nearly died.
  19. Faction S – EP – See above, minus the attempted murder story.
  20. Mess/The Chisel Split EP: Both bands manage to sound so reminiscent of Blitz on this one without sounding derivative. Powerful, somehow hopeful.
  21. Beton Arme – Au Bord Du Gofre EP: Tough and dirty Oi from Montreal.

Old Favorites:

  1. Northern Soul’s Classiest Rarities
  2. This Is Northern Soul. I listen to these records when I have to get up before it’s light out to go to work. If they don’t get you moving, you might not have a pulse.
  3. The Specials – Self Titled.
  4. The Specials – More Specials
  5. The Specials – Ghost Town – I love 2 Tone Ska. I’m going to put one of my oldest friends on the spot here, by telling you an embarrassing story of lost youth. When we were 14 years old, my best friend Forrest introduced me to the world of 2 Tone Ska, and later the dreaded third wave. Before any of us were old enough to drive, or when there weren’t any shows happening in our tiny corner of the world, we would gather in someone’s room and put on Specials or Selecter LP and skank and dance until we collapsed in a sweaty, smiling heap. Embarrassing, sure. But if you try to tell me you didn’t do something similar as a kid, I’m going to call you a liar.
  6. Selecter – Too Much Pressure: When my teenage friends and I had 2 Tone dance nights, a copy of this album and a live split with The Specials was my contribution to the pile of records and CDs. Upbeat ska. I grabbed a copy of this at a record store after work one day. I lost my copy of this album on CD some time in the ancient past.. I’m happy to have a copy of this on vinyl now.
  7. Symarip – Skinhead Moonstomp – A classic. I listened to this LP twice as I typed this out. It’s that good.
  8. Trojan Records – Rude Boy Rumble
  9. Trojan Records – Soul Reggae
  10. Trojan Records – Reggae

I listened to these compilations and other Trojan Comps in digital format during the darkest days of my heartbreak summer in Philadelphia. The sounds filled my room on the days that somehow felt like weeks when I just couldn’t stop crying. I would wake up in the morning, gingerly check on Hope sleeping next to me to make sure she was still breathing, and put one of these records on. Lucky for me, (kinda) these songs are so good that I can still listen to them without being transported back to that time and place.

Books:

  1. Moonstomp – Tim Wells – Aggro and Werewolves on the streets of London, 1979.
  2. Shine on Me – Tim Wells.
  3. Imperium – Ryszard Kapuściński
  4. Poverty Safari – Darren McGarvey
  5. The Aesthetic of Our Anger.
  6. In The Dream House – Carmen Maria Machado. A memoir of an abusive relationship told through the lens of a haunted house. This book destroyed me.
  7. Ragtime – E.L. Doctrow.
  8. The Original Rudeboy – Neville Staple.
  9. The Making of a Story – Alice LaPlante
  10. No Parasan – Edited by Shane Burley.
  11. A Crafty Cigarette – Tales of a Teenage Mod – Matteo Seddzari. This was my favorite book of the year. Well-dressed aggro and absurdity. Some of the stories in this book, like the brawl with rockers that spills out of the street, into a church yard and crashing into a wedding, dragging the attendees into the brawl, are so ridiculous, they must be based on the author’s experience.
  12. Broken Summers – Henry Rollins.
  13. Thriving with Adult ADHD – Boisserre – if you know me, you know how much I need this book. I haven’t finished it yet, no surprise there.
  14. The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron.
  15. High Desert – James Spooner – I sobbed at the end of this. Essential if you grew up punk in a small town in the 90s.
  16. The Way of the Vegan Meathead – Daniel Austin – Oh hey, I’m apparently vegan again. Thanks, middle age and high cholesterol. This time around, I’m going to get enough protein to keep up my strength training!
  17. Skinhead – Nick Knight
  18. Skins – Gavin Watson

Zines/Comics

  1. Hotwire – Nikki Allen – Beautiful and wrenching. Inspired me to keep writing when I felt like I couldn’t.
  2. Boots N’ Booze Volumes 1-3 – Autobiographical tales of an anti-racist traditional skinhead crew in Santa Cruz. Funny, ridiculous, musical, and so relatable if you spent your youth doing dumb shit and somehow made it to middle age.
  3. 1987 – James Reitano – Tales of the same skinhead crew mentioned above, albeit from a different perspective.
  4. No Fuss #1

Tapes:

  1. A mixtape from one of my best friends – I fell off on following Goth and Darkwave this year. Grier filled that void.
  2. Castillo – Promo – Melodic Oi from Los Angeles
  3. Battery March – Demo – The opening track, No Good Cops is classic! Melodic and catchy and ACAB all the way.
  4. Conservative Military Image – Summertime Skinhead
  5. Conservative Military Image – Demo – Everyone freaked out about this band, and I didn’t totally get it. The music is fine. The lyrics are ambiguously tongue in cheek, but they aren’t as fun or funny as Hard Skin.