2 bands

-Cortez the Killer (tour demo) - I heard this band on an awesome mixtape and made my friend burn me the whole CD. She had seen them in New Orleans years ago and said they played to barely anyone in someone's living room. It was hard finding a lot of info on them, especially since there are about 20 myspace profiles for bands of the same name (blame Neil Young).

What we have here is 5 lo-fi tracks that all have a garage-y pop-punk feel. Normally, this would be a complete turn-off to me, but the songwriting is fucking brilliant. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but the hooks are just really solidly executed. The best track by far is "Can't Quit Me" which is just a textbook example of a well-written, catchy rock song. I don't think the lo-fi-ness is really intentional,(the newer stuff on their myspace was definitely recorded more professionally), but it works well with their sound. I guess I just don't like people hopping on the lo-fi bandwagon. I mean, Wavves is okay and all, but sheesh.

Anyway, these guys rule and when I sent them a message online to tell them that, they said they'd let me book a show for them next time they come down South. So take THAT.

this is their myspace
All the other bands of the same name totally suck.

-O Haste Annihilation

Ok, so that mixtape had some other awesome bands on it as well as one insanely awesome Tilly and the Wall song that I was scared to admit that I liked for a while ("Rainbows in the Dark"). Whatever. Punk cred is a sham, and Bilal is the only person I know with an OFFICIAL "Punk Point" patch, anyway. And who can top that besides the hundreds of other people with the same patch?

A disclaimer: I don't really like folk-punk. In fact, I usually detest it. Sure, I was drawn to the beautiful posi-smile of Ghost Mice's violinist and maybe even connected with some of your boy's lyrics at that show at the Banks St Warehouse so long ago...but I have just seen too many spanging-crustlord-folk-punk bands by now, and I can't take anymore. I can't stand when the person singing says, "Ok, this song is about the WTO riots in Seattle....*sings* "The WTO riots in Seattle..."

IT'S OKAY TO BE VAGUE, YOU DAMN HIPPIES.

Enter this band, O Haste Annihilation. Yea, they got a folky-punk thing going on, but it's so much better than the usual. I can't find what album these songs are from, but their label (Anti-Civ) has one listed called Post Apocalyptic Sing-a-Long, so I'm guessing that's it. Anyway, the first track is epic as fuck. Yes, epic folk-punk. It exists. It's actually somehow kind of metal even though there's no distortion and the drums are pretty sparse. You can tell these dudes are having a blast, and even if you doubted it, check out their bio:

"still crazy in love after all these years, we are a serious bro-mance musical love affair that can't stop/wont stop. we have followed each other through the wilds of the eastern seaboard and soon will tour for our third time with charm. coming to a town near you if you are cuddling at least two days drive from the atlantic ocean, lets act like what we share matters, lets cut a rug and holler out our hearts. xoxoxoxoxoxox"

But on the real tip, I usually hate crap like this and I really enjoyed at least 3 of these songs, so that's saying something.

myspace