Pissbath

My life has been a D-beat D-esert lately, so i was excited for the chance to see Pissbath, a glorious noisy/distortion-y d-beat band from Murfreesboro Tennessee, last weekend. The main thing that stood out in their too short but sufficiently energetic set, was the quality and presence of vocalist Melissa Hurley. She and the band gets so into what they're doing, and the music is so distorted and raw that the whole room gets abraded, scabs over, and is picked open again with every song.  The band is sloppy and fast but it distracts from none of their goodness (If you want musically tight technical d-beat go get on a time machine/boat to Sweden).  Been in a D-beat D-esert? Check out demo I and demo II and quench yourself with some pissbath!

Shoppers

Shoppers was a band from Syracyuse that rightfully kind of blew the fuck up in 2010. I missed my chance to see them play but their recordings are plenty and incredible and i like them so much i even spent like way to much time just now watching videos on youtube of them playing live which is something i never do. Opps.  This band reminds me of manic-depression. The manic part is their music, It's noisy and riddled with feedback, its punk, it has a circulatory system that gets you pumping. You could almost call it poppy but really its just kind of speedy and frantic though there is some beautiful melodic riffing/moments of clarity you only get after speeding around in a fuzz. The depressive part of Shoppers is the lyrical content which covers bases uncommon to this style of music because its kind of sexually provocative and bold and jilted-loverish and worry-some. If I found these lyrics in my friends notebook I would be like, "dude you are fucking brilliant, but uhhh.. are you okay?" Anyways I am not worthy of reviewing shoppers. Everything they released was brilliant and most of it can be found here. (I'm in love with IV off of 'silver year' and I off of 'you shot me and i woke up in my next life') Let their music speak for itself but I'm just gonna say, if you don't like Shoppers you should probably make an appointment with your Veterinarian. Because you arn't human and there is something for-real wrong with you.

Recreant

Recreant is a four piece band from Tampa, Florida, who I saw in April at a Black and Brown benefit show in Chicago. I was so impressed with their performance, that I spent my last 10 bucks for the week (normally reserved for burritos or vodka depending on how the weeks going, vodka lately) on their self titled record which was released in December of 2012.  There was a lot going on as they played and I wanted to see if anything was lost in recording or if they really were as fucking good as I and everyone else at the show seemed to think. You can  distinctly pick out a gaggle of different contributing styles in Recreants music which is what i'm talking about when i say there's a lot going on. As their band camp describes it: "Cheddar wanted a screamo band, B wanted a grind band, Tristan wanted a crust band, and Jesse wanted a metal band, so we just threw it all together, mixed it with that Florida flavor, and made what we like to call swamp core." Also included are dual male and female vocals, and some pretty shredding electric violin, leaving no base uncovered. No base uncovered including spoken word, on the track VII which to me, because that's not really my thing, is the weakest part of the album (admittedly, I'm not really qualified to say what is or isn't good spoken word). I strongly prefer their self titled 2012 release over snakes and vultures which was put out in 2011 (Just sayin'...).
Although Recreant is one of those bands you really ought to see live, I am pleased with my purchase over all. For 10 dollars does not buy many burritos or very much vodka and this record is crammed to the brim with more than 10 bucks worth of a little bit of everything.