TLAL Summer/Fall 2019
It’s been a bit since you’ve heard from me on here has’t it? Since we last talked I’ve been to Damaged City, played a dozen shows with Tired Of Everything, and just worked a lot. Worked a lot with bands and releases too and have some things I’m keeping under wraps for now, so check back for some exciting announcement but until then I have a few tapes, an EP, and three LPs to get you hyped on, here are the summer offerings at TLAL.
Ugly – Betryal LP
Most people at this point expect a certain sound from the label but I have turned expectations on it’s side with releases from Suffering Luna, Sissy Spacek, and Fistula in the past. 2019 is no exception and y’all are going to be pleasantly surprised with the Calques CS (which I’ll mention later) and the Ugly LP. I hate directly comparing bands but Ugly is comprised on members of Endorphins Lost and Landmine Marathon and their LP reminds me a lot of Bastard Noise’s Skulldozer with some major differences – Ugly has created a super anxiety inducing soundscape of noise, keyboards, and sludge that weave in and out and loop together. Their EP two years ago was a nice bit to chew on but this LP is a big bite of a noisescape and almost feels like an aural version of a David Lynch film with high points, confusion, and a ton of emotion. Test presses are about to be approved and this is a month and a half off.
Sidetracked – Hollowed Out LP
If you’re familiar with my label you’ve probably heard and enjoyed Sidetracked before. Their EP Uniform I did the artwork/layout for when I was less good at Photoshop but to this date that is one of my favorite releases. This is the band’s first LP and it is a crucial piece of fastcore. If you liked the Hummingbird Of Death LP last year or even further back the XBRAINIAX LP, this sits in line with them as the fastcore triumvirate.
Pig City – Terminal Decline LP
So secret that I don’t have any audio or artwork. Artwork is being hammered out by Dan who did the Rhino Charge artwork forever ago. This LP sounds a lot like the faster parts of the Fistula LP I put out and not much unlike the Torch Runner LP. The band considers themselves crust punk but there aren’t a whole lot of d-beats on here, lots of punk and blast beats to get you pissed. I think a lot of different bands get labeled as blackened hardcore but that is my best description for this and when you hear this you’re going to flip out. Split release with King Of The Monsters.
Glue Traps – Future Shocks EP
Future Shocks came through and really impressed me. They play snotty punk ala E.T.A. that is fast and just grabs ya. Tony has been an important facet of punk running Celebrated Summer Records in Baltimore and being in Deep Sleep, No Friends, and more recently singing in WarxGames. If you grew up on nerdy snotty punk and don’t know where to turn now, here is your place
Calques – Old Man CS
Weave together noise, lo-fi black metal, and a smattering of grindcore blastbeats and you have Calques. This many-headed hydra of musicians hail from the deep south in Montgomery, Alabama and Old Man will truly melt your face. Imagine fusing together Sissy Spacek with Bastard Noise. Song titles make you anxiously hope they are okay. You might find this out of place in the To Live A Lie discography but that is why it’s right in place, miscreants playing as angrily as they can.
Needle – Self Titled CS
Remember being bullied in high school? You’d get angry, you’d go skateboarding, you’d snap your deck, you’d be even more angry. Imagine you focused that anger into a drumset, or a guitar, or you just yelled your brains out. I think Needle currently does that. Needle is a young pack of grindcore hoodlums who break the mold. When I was sixteen I was in a band that had ska parts, when they were 18 they are in a band that annihilates DIY venues. Hailing from DC you can imagine them being similar to D.O.C. or Magrudergrind, but they definitely have their own crushing sound honed in.
BrainxToilet – Pain Maker CS
While the name may harken some silly goregrind music, BxT is far from silly. Hailing from Greensboro NC and fronted by Jordan Noe of Priapus, BrainxToilet rip through seven anxiety-producing heavy grindcore tracks. Heavily riff laden but still brutal and blasting. Pinch harmonics, noise, and samples interspersed at choice times to keep you on your toes. This is a must have for grindcore fans. If you like past releases like The Kill, Nashgul, or Sixbrewbantha from the label, you will want to add this to your cart immediately.
Crypthammer – Demo CS
Featuring Ian from WVRM on vocals, this is a ripping death metal demo that speaks for itself. Listen with the link above.
Upcoming release announcement: Glue Traps – Future Shocks 7″
TLAL is excited to announce that we will be releasing the new Glue Traps 12 song EP later in the year. The band hails from Baltimore and plays snotty fast hc punk ala E.T.A., Scholastic Deth, and Life’s Halt. The band puts on a ripping live show. Members from Deep Sleep, War x Games, Daybreak, Can’t Say, and The Mishaps.
Tired Of Everything – Silenced
I started singing in a new band called Tired Of Everything. We recorded six songs that I’m excited to announce will be out on cassette/lathe in a month. Check Scene Point Blank on November 1st for an exclusive stream of all six tracks!
TLAL Bracket Battle
To change gears and do something less serious, I set up a bracket with voting. I may make trophies for the winner so put your vote in and make it count!
Vote here now: https://goo.gl/forms/iodvNUT5Cl86uLtk2
Regional Justice Center – World Of Inconvenience LP/tape Preorder
After releasing their demo early 2017, REGIONAL JUSTICE CENTER quietly worked on their song writing craft, no teasers, no promo tapes, just a constant display of force through live performance where they refined until their was no fat left to trim. WORLD OF INCONVENIENCE finds its home in ever shifting time signatures, punishing punk beats and constantly off kilter breaks. This record expands RJC from the one man band demo and adds players from the live band as well a brief guest appearance by Mark Palm(Go It Alone, Supercrush, Black Breath). Drawing from such sources as CROSSED OUT all the way to the THE BEATLES the record never leaves you anticipating what will happen next. Recorded in Western Massachusetts with Will Killingsworth and housed in art by Mark McCoy, WORLD OF INCONVENIENCE makes for a complete package of hardcore brilliance.
Pre-Order the LP here or through Forever Never Ends. For Europe order from Adagio830 orStraight and Alert Records.
Stream two songs exclusively at Noisey
TLAL 2018 Releases
Newly out:
TLAL137 – Hummingbird Of Death – Forbidden Techniques LP
Newest release from these Boise fastcore freaks.
TLAL138 – WVRM – Can You Hear The Wind Howl 7″
SC grinder’s crushing Kurt Ballou recording session
TLAL139 – Marx Bros / TRAVØLTA – split LP
Members of Seein Red/Larm pair up with Chris Dodge of Spazz in MxB and Travolta is crushing Belgian fast hc.
TLAL141 – Gasp – Sore For Days cassette
OG demo reissue, almost sold out. Stay tuned.
TLAL142 – Sidetracked – Impediment cassette
Lightning quick fifteen songs of fastcore in two minutes or so.
TLAL143 – ACxDC / Goolagoon – split 7″
West Coast grindviolence meets East Coast hc punkviolence
TLAL145 – Six Brew Bantha – Blight LP/cassette
Best grindcore you’ll hear all year
TLAL144 – Depraved – s/t EP
Cali PV
TLAL150 – V/A – To Live A Lie III 7″
Last in the comp series. Best? You be the judge.
Out Very Soon:
TLAL140 – Realize – Demo LP
– FFO GODFLESH, SKINNY PUPPY, and FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, all music by Kyle of SEX PRISONER
TLAL147 – Regional Justice Center
– World Of Inconvenience LP/cassette – raging Cali pv
TLAL148 – Bruised Ego – Roman Numeral One LP/cassette
– ripping Baltimore HELLNATION worship
TLAL149 – God’s America – The Undeserving cassette
– noisy Vegas hc punk
TLAL151 – Failure – s/t 7″
– Italian powerviolence
TLAL152 – Escuela / Reeking Cross – split cassette
– super popular split between Ithica and Baltimore grinders
The cassette treatment:
TLAL Spotlight – Burnout
I had a friend who had no idea who Burnout was until I explained some of the background of the band to him and that got me thinking that a lot of you don’t know some about the newer/more underground bands that I have dealt with. That brings us to the idea of doing a in depth spotlight on bands, much like I’ve noticed Ebullition does with labels.
Burnout is a newer band from Phoenix Arizona, but even though the moniker is newer, the members go back a ways for me. My first connection with the band was back when I had a good working relationship with Max Ward of 625 who would frequently ask me to do co-releases and I think I said to every single one of them because each one was a band I had not quite become familiar with until his email and instantly loved when he did. I was familiar with AxRxMx, but he introduced me to FinalDraft, Athrenody, Bloody Phoenix, and one of the catchiest powerviolence acts I had heard in the modern day, Get Destroyed!
Get Destroyed, to me, mixed the power and intensity of Despise You and the sound of No Comment into a tight package. I had the luck of saying yes and co-releasing Burnt Offerings and Shut In along with 625, my friend Paul from Give Praise, and two other labels between the two releases (one being Sandro from RSR). Somewhere between putting out Shut In and talking about doing an LP/the band’s last release/the ill-fated record that didn’t come out, I started talking to the band directly and not through Max and I became friends with Jay from the band.
[wpdevart_youtube width=”475″ height=”385″ autoplay=”0″ theme=”dark” loop_video=”0″ enable_fullscreen=”1″ show_related=”1″ show_popup=”0″ thumb_popup_width=”213″ thumb_popup_height=”128″ show_title=”1″ show_youtube_icon=”1″ show_annotations=”1″ show_progress_bar_color=”red” autohide_parameters=”1″ set_initial_volume=”false” initial_volume=”100″ disable_keyboard=”0″]mYDAMoE8gLU[/wpdevart_youtube]
Here is Jay’s take:
Get Destroyed was a band we started in high school, we only stopped doing stuff because the singer Ben moved to Olympia. We’ve had a bunch of reunion shows since almost always at Christmas time when he is in Arizona visiting family, the last one being in December 2015
Gay Kiss was a band that popped up and got big really fast. Jay was an amazing human and asked me to do their LP at a time that didn’t work for me financially and luckily the record got picked up by another label local to here, Sorry State. Honestly I think the sound fit well in the fold with SSR with the band having a sort of off the wall energy. They played here in 2014 and ripped up two shows in the same night if I remember correctly.
[wpdevart_youtube width=”475″ height=”385″ autoplay=”0″ theme=”dark” loop_video=”0″ enable_fullscreen=”1″ show_related=”1″ show_popup=”0″ thumb_popup_width=”213″ thumb_popup_height=”128″ show_title=”1″ show_youtube_icon=”1″ show_annotations=”1″ show_progress_bar_color=”red” autohide_parameters=”1″ set_initial_volume=”false” initial_volume=”100″ disable_keyboard=”0″]k4cGw0P2QDY[/wpdevart_youtube]
Jay quickly summarizes the birth of Burnout:
After the [Gay Kiss] break up, Burnout, which was a two piece, recruited Roger from Gay Kiss on vocals, and Justin (ex-Destruction Unit) to play bass in the band.
Jay excitedly told me about writing a few songs which was the formation of a new band he started. If my memory serves me right, he had a silly name for the band and I was like “man this stuff sounds rad but I question the name of the band”. The name Burnout or Burn Out was tossed around and the band settled on a name and wrote a crushing EP. With the additional two members the band sounded 30x heavier and took on a Artimus Pyle/Mehkago N.T. sound which you can hear on their 2017 tour tape.
Find Burnout on Facebook and on Bandcamp.
Each TLAL band is a weaving story to me and I love the connections to bands and evolution of musicians.
Music Sampler
1/37
Suppression - Wraith WrathSuppression - TransposedCAVEMAN - QUESTION (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)1/37Newest TLAL Releases
Social
