Bastard / Paintbox / Super Frisky !!!

It isn't uncommon in the most productive scenes to find the same people involved in multiple projects, and the Japanese hardcore scene is no exception.

Using BASTARD as a starting point...

vocalist Tokurow is now in FIGHT BACK (with Iron Fist Tatsushima from CROW, GISM, DIE YOU BASTARD!, etc)

guitarist Zigyaku was in GUDON and SYSTEMATIC DEATH and went on to form JUDGEMENT

bassist Iizawa went on to JUDGEMENT, BUZZY 大和町バンド, and is now in RANGE AND THE DIRTY HOSPITAL and 鉄アレイ (Tetsu Arrey).

Zigyaku and Iizawa both played on OGREISH ORGANISM recordings with Pill from LIP CREAM. 

drummer Koba (aka Masaaki Sweden) was in SYSTEMATIC DEATH, DISARM, went on to ROCKY & THE SWEDEN, and is now in RYDEEN and SYSTEMATIC DEATH (if not more).

Bastard "No Hope In Here" official discography CD  $29.50

Fight Back/Hazard "Realities of Hardcore Punk" CD  $10.25

Gudon "Early Years" CD  $10.25

Systematic Death "Systema 6" 12"  $10

Systematic Death / See You In Hell 7"  $8.50

Judgement "Just Be" 7"  $5.50

Range & The Dirty Hospital CD  $11

鉄アレイ "14All All41" CD  $10

Ogreish Organism "鬼" CD  $31

Ogreish Organism "偽物の時間" CD  $31

Ogreish Organism "4th Pill" CD  $15

Rydeen "AAAA" CD  $11

SUPER FRISKY is a relatively new band, their CD just came out, really great, the first thing to come to mind is a mix of the Comes (for the female vocals) and Motorhead-ish Japanese punk hardcore.

SUPER FRISKY

vocalist Yoko from AKUTARE

guitarist Keiro from AKUTARE, 鉄アレイ, and formerly EXTINCT GOVERNMENT

bassist Sakura from JUDGEMENT and SCREAMING HOG

drummer Kaki from 鉄アレイ

WATERBED is

vocalist Jhajha from LIP CREAM and JUDGEMENT

guitarist 宇賀秀樹(MADORDEATH) 

bassist Ali (Deep Count)

drummer Kaki from 鉄アレイ

Super Frisky "For Buddy" CD  $28

鉄アレイ "14All All41" CD  $10

Judgement "Just Be" 7"  $5.50

Waterbed CD  $7.50

Lip Cream II DVD  $30.50

Lip Cream VII DVD  $30.50

all nine Lip Cream DVDs, poster, stickers special:  $250   --last set--

Lip Cream "Trash Til Death" CD  $27.50

Lip Cream "9 Shocking Terror" CD  $24

And that's just to start.  Add in the Death Side family tree and it seems to touch nearly every top tier Tokyo band by some degree of relation.

I should note that the Lip Cream complete DVD set is the last one I have and I don't intend to break it up.  I do a have some extra copies of the second and seventh DVDs to sell separately (two of the best in the series).  I have very limited copies of a lot of these things, particularly the Bastard, Super Frisky, Gudon, and Waterbed CDs, and I'm down to my last couple Lip Cream CDs as well.

And the Paintbox DVD is finally here!  31 songs from multiple shows, 146 minutes.  The opening clip is literally stunning, with the band in their early days playing 炎 from the first single, looking like reclusive hippie wizards conjuring their otherworldly sound...  Just awesome.  The DVD goes through the rest of their career, including their trip to the US, the later shows with Akira from Continental Kids singing (while Mune was incarcerated) and ending with their final tour with Osamu from ALLIANCE playing guitar after Chelsea passed away.  Includes a booklet listing every show they played.  There's a lot here, including vacation footage from the US trip, I haven't even had the chance to really dig into it yet.  Worth every penny.  Limited copies, of course...  I'm also down to the last copies of the "Trip Trance, Traveling" CD, these are the first press in a gatefold cover (the repress was in a standard jewel case).

Paintbox "Anarchy, Madness & Love" DVD  $28

Paintbox "Relicts" 12"  $11.25

Paintbox "Trip Trance & Traveling" CD  $22.50

Paintbox "Trip Trance & Traveling" 2xLP  $19

Paintbox "炎/砂漠" 7"  $45
Paintbox "The Door/Provided Railroad" 7"  $55

v/a Burning Spirits 2004-2005 DVD  $24.50

Slowmotions at Chaos in Tejas and west coast tour!

Chaos in Tejas invariably brings a batch of Japanese bands to the US, and while the full line up hasn't been completely announced yet, the Slowmotions will be coming over for it and to do some shows on the west coast.  I've seen them twice, fantastic band.  Definitely a favorite and a nice break from the Motorhead/bands that sound like Motorhead that I listen to 90% of the time.  I really think these are some of the best punk songs being written these days. 

June 2nd Chaos in Tejas

June 3rd Chaos in Tejas

June 4th Chaos in Tejas

June 5th Chaos in Tejas

June 6th Dallas,TX

June 7th OFF

June 8th Phoenix,AZ

June 9th Los Angeles,CA

June 10th Orange County,CA

June 11th Bakersfield,CA

June 12th San Jose,CA

June 13th Oakland,CA

June 14th San Francisco,CA

June 15th Sacramento,CA

June 16th Arcata,CA

June 17th Seattle,WA

June 18th Portland,OR w/ Origin of [M]

June 19th Portland,OR w/ Origin of [M]

from the Burning Spirits 2006-2007 DVD

from the Dead Heat Disco 05 VHS

the Slowmotions/Burning Leather 7"  $6.25

the Slowmotions "Mystery Action" 7"  $8.75

the Slowmotions "ダイオルを回せ！" CD  $6

the Slowmotions "マケロベ / Yes, Future!!" 7"  $15

v/a Burning Spirits 2006-2007 DVD  $32

Winter Update

I took it a bit easy this fall with the distro, mostly as I was saving up to release a 12" by...  Well, more on that later, tthe distro is going to expand into a label this spring.  I'm only planning to release one record at a time to roll the money from one to the next.  I'll announce the first one in the coming weeks when the artwork is completed by Sugi, who has done innumerable classic Japanese record covers, shirts, and flier designs.  So to catch up, I went to Japan for a week at the end of November.  Good trip, arrived and got to hang out with Slowmotions and FUK guys at the end of their tour, saw Forward, Zone, and 鉄アレイ (Tetsu Arrey) at EarthDOM (phenomenal show from all three bands, Forward with their new drummer playing a mix of early songs and four new ones, Zone making a rare Tokyo appearance, and 鉄アレイ not missing a note with the recent addition of Keiro (Akutare/Super Frisky) on guitar), and then things came to a wretched halt when I woke up the next morning and proceeded to throw up for 24 hours from a stomach virus.  Went to the hospital to make sure I wasn't getting dehydrated and then slept all day, meaning I missed the Burning Leather tour final with AI, Slowmotions, Forward, GATES and Nanox.  Squeezed in a whopping 30 minutes of record shopping the next day, took care of some other stuff and then went across the country to Hiroshima where I met Guy san (Bloodsucker Records, Origin of M).  Got to see Origin of M practice (killer), got some good stuff at Guy's store Misery, and hung out at Dumb Records (cool Ramones/garage punk record label, coffee shop and bar).  Woke up early the next morning to take the shinkansen back across the country and flew home the next day.  The trip was way too short, I felt like I barely had any time in Tokyo and wish I could have hung out longer in Hiroshima.

But I did bring back a few things, namely recent Bloodsucker releases and a few old 7"s.  First up is the Fight Back/Hazard split CD.  Hazard are long running Tokyo punks, maybe you know them from the split with Extinct Government or the recent full length CD, and they now have Eiji (ex DSB) drumming for them.  Raw recording, turn it up and destroy your speakers.  Fight Back is the return of Tokurow, ex Bastard vocalist, with Iron Fist Tatsushima (Die You Bastard!, Crow, GISM etc) drumming.  Crushing D beat/thrash hardcore, almost Swedish sounding.  

Next up from Bloodsucker is the debut ep from Waterbed.  Mellow sounds from the drummer from  鉄アレイ and the singer from Lip Cream.  I only got a few copies for people who are willing to take a chance on something unexpected, and Guy san gave me some screened patches that I'll include with them.  

I also got a handful of the last copies of the Gudon "Early Years" CD and some stickers to go with them.  This is all the insane early noise core that wasn't included on the discography on Bloodsucker and Partners In Crime, both demos and the flexi.  

Also the third Crossface CD, the Veihaiz CD (burly hardcore), both Persevere 7"s (UK punk style) and some other odds and ends. The first Nightbringer 7" came out in November, and the second one will hopefully be out by the end of winter.  Nightbringer 7" is on colored vinyl.

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Also new is the No Problem/Doomsday Hour CD on Under the Surface.  Doomsday Hour are from California, ex Star Strangled Bastards, and No Problem are the original bassist from Paintbox and the singer from Geshpenst and Sticks In Throat.  Got a few copies of the Nightmare "Bloodsucker Years" CD, crucial material from the 7"s and comp after the first LP and before the CD on Dan Doh.  Definitely some of my favorite stuff from them.

Long Overdue Update

Time for the first proper distro update in around three months.  The main reason is I spent just about every free night in April and May recording with Nightbringer.  We've been doing live track sessions of four or five songs at a time for the last year at Bottom of the Lake in Toledo and finally wrapped that up, so it was time to do the overdubs.  We had what I think is the best guitar and bass sound I've ever gotten, so we wanted to get everything done in one go.  I kept imagining I could get a couple songs done in a night, but it rarely worked out that way.  So 17 songs later (not including the brand new songs we demo'd for ourselves to work on), it's finally done.  Now we're going to take those songs in batches and do vocals and mix.  The second 7" on Deer Healer is getting done first, followed by two songs for an American/Canadian hc comp on Schizophrenic and a song for the Detroit covers comp on Spider Cuddler.  We should have test presses of the first 7" (on High Anxiety) as soon as Chris rolls back through town with Burning Love (one of my favorite North American bands going, if I may say so), so look for the real thing in a month or so.

Oh!  And we made new shirts.  We ran out of medium shirts in the black design (but we still have YL, S, L, and XL), so we made a new design in medium only (actually there are 4 larges too) and in a dozen different colors.  Just specify size and color when ordering.  Has "Fight Like Hell" on the sleeve and the NB/FLH hawk on the front.  

Fight Like Hell is the series of shows Len from Nightbringer and I have started putting on at the Shelter in Detroit.  Inspired by the Japanese Burning Spirits, Smash Your Chains, etc shows, we're trying to have one great show a month with an emphasis on local area bands to try and really get things moving in Detroit again.  The time is right, there are a lot of good bands and a lot of people doing the work to support the scene, so things seem ready to break out.  The first show was June 5th with Slang from Sapporo, Mind Eraser, Nightbringer, Final Assault and Disconnected and despite a torrential rain storm halfway through (that actually had water running down the entry steps to the Shelter) went very well.  There haven't been hardcore shows at the Shelter in years, so its very cool to be doing things there again.

But enough about me, on to the records...

The Alliance 12" was released on CD with an extra song.  I also picked up an inexpensive copies of the Blood Spit Nights discography, Portland's noise core outfit from a couple years back, the Slowmotions CD (the first four singles and a bonus track, same as the Partners In Crime LP.  A personal favorite), and the Bonescratch CD, which is an older HG Fact release, Born Against worship, oddly enough.

In the Japanese influenced department, we have the new Burial 12" and the Lotus Fucker 12".  Lotus Fucker just completed a tour with the Wankys from England and we had the pleasure of playing with them at Michigan Meltdown in Grand Rapids.  Total noise assault.  Burial have really come into their own and remind me a bit of a more metallic Talk Is Poison now.

Also pictured is the Systematic Death/See You In Hell 7", released for their European tour.  Bit of warning, two of the Systema songs are on the new LP and the other is a re-recording of an older classic.  Still worth it to get more SYIH material.  Glue it to the Crow/SYIH split and you can have a SYIH 7" or a Systema/Crow split.

I restocked a couple of the Lip Cream DVDs, so I have one complete set available and a few copies of the ACC and Lip Cream Only volumes.  At the same time I picked up the recent represses of the Ogreish Organism CDs on Pill's Oni label.  Ogreish Organism was Pill's project after Lip Cream.  He sang and played drums, Minoru from Lip Cream played bass on most of it, and Zigyaku (Bastard/Judgment) and Chelsea (Death Side/Paintbox) alternately played guitar.  Hardcore as you'd expect, with some of the Chelsea material getting a little more out there, but mostly kept together by heavy riffing and Pill's growling shout.

And last but far from least, I picked up the recent Crow represses on Prank.  The Neurotic Organization 7" is finally available again, Bloody Tear gets a red cover and is remastered, and Beating of the Wings of Destruction has been redone as a gorgeous picture disk.  That last one was gone in the blink of an eye the first time around, so I'd suggest getting it while you can.  One side is one crushing dirge and the other has four fast rippers.  The mysterious LP in the middle of the picture is the 解剖室 LP (Kaiboushitsu/Autopsy Suite).  Rumored to have Crow members involved (definitely sounds like it when he breaks from Gastunk/gothish singing into a howling yell), limited to 700 copies on 180g red vinyl.  Great record and very expensive.  (Sold out!)

And I picked up copies of the recent Paintbox 12"s, the Clown picture disk...  Check the list and see!

new DSB split 7" and UDI 12"

I listed the leftover records from my old distro on a few message boards two weeks ago to see if anyone was interested, and the unexpected response proceeded to take over all my free time.  Now that the feeding frenzy has calmed down, I can get back to this, as well as getting the layout for the first Nightbringer 7" finished and sent off.  Next weekend I'll update the old distro list and make a linked page for it on this site.

But as for new stuff, the DSB/Assassinators 7" is out and its really good.  Two DSB tracks up to par, and the Assassinators remind me of Post Regiment, so great stuff on both sides.  Unfortunately the other news this week is that DSB are calling it quits after twenty years.  Some last shows are in the work, possibly abroad in addition to Japan.  Sad to see them go, but they say new bands are in the works.

On the Detroit side, Jeff from Hellmouth released the debut 12" from Detroit's UDI, a ripping thrasher indeed.  Only 300 pressed, so grab it while you can.  He pressed them at Detroit's Archer Record Pressing, making this a proper "Made In Detroit" production.

This week also saw the passing of Bruce Roehrs, steadfast columnist and reviewer for MRR.  I didn't know him, but I'm honestly sad that I'll never get to send him a Nightbringer 7" to review.  His sincere enthusiasm for hardcore, punk, and rock n roll transcended the printed page.  MRR has organized a memorial fund to have him buried in the place he wanted.  Help out if so inclined.  He was the definition of a lifer, no question.

Alliance, Systema, Burial, Detroit....

Bunch of stuff in this week.  First up is the Alliance 12".  I did a post on them a few months ago, it's Osamu from Assault's new band.  Also featuring the singer from Frigora and bassist from Macrofarge and this recording also has the drummer from Assault.  The music continues in the progressive, tasteful metallic hardcore vein that Assault was working in.  Takayama san from Punk and Destroy described it as an Antisect for 2010.  180g vinyl, big 3 panel fold out cover, and it comes with a sticker.  Limited to 700 copies and by this time its probably sold out from the label.  Quite expensive, but its about what you would pay ordering it from overseas.  Next is the vinyl treatment of the most recent Systematic Death LP, great record and despite more than a ten year break, it picks right up where they left off.  Different song order and reworked artwork from the CD.  Also in is the Burial/Antimob 7", from Germany and Greece respectively.  Both bands pay tribute to the modern Japanese hc sound, but Burial are started to break out of the mould and establish their own personality.  I think its their best song so far.  On the Michigan side of things, I have three of the recent State 7"s, some of the last copies of the Heresy 7" (Detroit mid 80s Discharge style), the Pub Life CD from a few years back, and the Final Assault demo.  Final Assault are (to my knowledge) the only band in this area playing pure Discharge/Scandi style hardcore.  Ex Heresy, Social Outcast, and Pub Life.  I saw them a couple months ago with the State and both bands were great.  They're playing tonight (Feb 28) at the Magic Stick with UDI.  I also got a few copies of the Hellmouth LP from the band, they're possibly the hardest working band in the area and it shows.

Burning Spirits, Conflict For Freedom

Just got in a box of good stuff from Mr. Takayama, the man behind Punk and Destroy shop, Freedom Fighter label, and the drummer of Framtid and Nightmare (busy guy!!).  First up is the new Masterpeace 7" that he released.  Charging Japanese hardcore with eclectic breaks.  Also on Freedom Fighter is the Framtid DVD from their European tour.  And while we're on the subject of Framtid, I also got some copies of the Framtid/Seein Red 7".  Seein Red are a long time favorite of mine and its always cool to see such a great pairing on a split.  Finally for the 7"s is the System Fucker 7" on Crust War.  Full noise attack!!  Back to the DVDs, I got limited copies of the Burning Spirits DVDs.  These are incredible productions.  The first one includes Forward, Warhead, Delta Puree, Paintbox, Rapes, the Trash, AI, Crude, Final Bombs, Zone, Piledriver, Sticks In Throat, and Extinct Government.  Most of the bands are multi camera shots and sound board recordings, multiple songs from each band as well.  The second one is a double DVD with Forward,  Colored Rice Men, Slang, Conga Fury, Origin of [M], アグレッシブドックス, Slip Head Butt, Dioxin's, Veihaiz, Blowback, 8000, Gouka, Trust, Crossface, Padlock, クラウン, Extinct Government, the Slowmotions, 原爆オナニーズ, Mustang, ROM, トサカ, Asphalt, オーダー, 狂い咲きサンダーロード, KGS, Framtid, Flock, Naked Yeggs,  Buzzy 大和町 Band, 1-Minutes, Little Mirrors, and  ノープロブレム.  I ahve personally watched these DVDs a bunch of times since they came out, and these are some of the last new copies available "in the wild".  I have very few of them, so if you're interested, don't wait too long.  A word of warning though:  the Burning Spirits DVDs are Japan region encoded, so you will need a region free DVD player (or to tweak your computer or DVD player) to watch them.  I have a $40 Cyberhome DVD player I bought for that very reason.  Do a Google search for your DVD player model and "region free" or "hack" to see if there is a code you can enter to change the region.  I haven't checked any of these other DVDs I carry for it yet, I only realized the Burning Spirits ones were encoded when I tried to watch them on my computer.  Ok, back to the goods...  The most recent Extinct Government full length CD, which has ex and current members of bands such as Rocky and the Sweden, AI, 鉄アレイ, and Akutare.  Check out the video I borrowed from YouTube below, not least for that killer bass tone.  And last but not least, the Conflict For freedom 2009 DVD, which is mercifully less expensive than most other things (postage, paypal fees, and the exchange rate are all still killing me).  Shot at one show, pro multi camera and sound board recording, this one has Kriegshog, the Disclapties, Tom and Boot Boys, Hat Trickers (one of the craziest things I've seen), Order, Reality Crisis, Hazard, Outsider, Life, Framtid, Warhead, and Extinct Government.  Another phenomenal line up for this DVD, that must have been one hell of a show.