Although the mainstream music media will tell you that Punk was a revolutionary blip in the late 70’s that quickly went the way of the Dodo until High School kids all over the world embraced the sludgy sounds of 90’s Seattle, we really know that America has always had a thriving, prolific, severely under-documented Hardcore scene that has spawned at least 3 or 4 waves and has produced legends like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Youth Of Today, Uniform Choice, Dag Nasty, etc. We know this right? Ok. While your grizzled author has (for the most part) given up his days of sweaty VFW Halls and late night Zine assembly at Kinko’s, I have still kept half an eye on what is happening from afar. Every now and then something falls on my lap (Thanks Steve!) that blows me away and reinforces my idea that the indie rock that the aged tend to embrace is pretty weak. Today’s installment of blow me the fuck away are Sex Vid.
Five tracks of blasting, snotty hardcore is what’s on tap here. I know next to nothing about these guys (not easily Googleable are they?), except that they are from Olympia, are ferocious, and Sub Pop will be putting out their next 7″. For now you have 5 examples of very early American HC, ala Void, Necros, Urban Waste, and Die Kreuzen. If you know the sound, you know what this is like. Thankfully devoid of any Metalisms, thuggery, or melodramatic posturing, this is the real deal: hyper beats, impossibly fast chords, and pissed off yelling. You might have to drag yourself to an actual record shop or go to a show to get this but it will be worth it.
Here is some Youtube action to tide you over:
