Sci-Fi Thrash, Heartland Punk, Skronk Groove
“Children love the meat tank.”
I remember Heathcliff‘s daily strip as kinda corny. As a kid who was forever waiting for adulthood (cue wells for boys), thinking himself mature as he played with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, the Other Cat Comic was “kid stuff.”
Then came @RealHeathcliffs, which is exactly as advertised: actual Heathcliff comics published since Nov. 2000, when the account started tweeting. They are absurd, but silly; weird, but not entirely obtuse. There’s a meat tank, poop butt graffiti, a meat robot, a band called The Cicadas that only reunites every 17 years, ham gum, a gum tank… variations on gags that tickle a kid’s giggle factory, but also (accidentally?) a dissociative sense of humor. Stuff that makes no sense how hard you squint, but at the same time, does?
“If you over-explain it, you ruin it. If you under-explain it, then people are confused, and they don’t know what to do,” says Peter Gallagher, the guy who’s written and drawn Heathcliff for over two decades. “And after doing it for a number of years, that’s the thing that I’m always concerned about: the amount of explaining and over-explaining, and I think I’ve decided on the under-explaining. And it’s a daily comic. So if you don’t understand this one, I hope that if people read it on a regular basis, maybe they’ll kind of start to understand what’s going on with it.”
Andrew Neal conducted a great interview with the current cartoonist (he also wrote a primer on the New Wave of Heathcliff Comics). It’s a conversation about the art of under-explaining, moving from emulation to creation, supportive family structures, wringing “every drop out of a gag” and how the reader elevates meaning. As someone who tends to take silly things very seriously, I appreciate the detail put into this kind of craft, something most folks probably don’t think twice about. I learned a lot!
—Lars Gotrich
Bandcamp 6-Pack
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Stress Angel, Bursting Church (Stygian Black Hand / Dying Victims Productions): I love an unruly, thrashing death-metal rager: cheap beer, roaring riffs, demented howls, sweaty mosh pits. Autopsy and Aura Noir are the backpatch influences here, but I’ll be damned if this duo doesn’t vomit its own fire. Stress Angel’s got that hunger, the kind you hear on beloved death-metal demos of yore: just listen to the snarling swagger on “Godless Shrill” or the maniac thrash of “Starving in a Closet.” My heart gets racing when “Life Alert” slows to a menacing mid-tempo and injects some gothic melodrama with keyboard horns. A debut that foams at the mouth, then passes the bottle.
Freezing Cold, Stuck on Hold / Drawn to Scale EP (Salinas): Two-song 7” from the New York indie-punk band featuring members of Bridge and Tunnel, Little Lungs and Never. (Oh, and Angie Boylan drums for Sleater-Kinney sometimes… you may have heard of them.) Tigers Jaw seems to be the main comparison made, but to me, Freezing Cold’s languid sense of melody contrasted with tightly-written, but dynamic songs calls to mind a Built to Spill for heartland punk. “Stuck on Hold,” in particular, manages a delicate balance between broken and hopeful — its lyrics could be about the last year or whenever life hits the brakes until the next thing, as the dreamy guitars look forward.
V/A, The Balearic Sounds of FAR (Faze Action): Balearic music is roséwave incarnate: easy listening with an airy disco beat and fruity bev in hand. I don’t spend nearly enough time drinking in these breezy funk vibes, so I rely on comps like this one to expand the palette. Faze Action has been around for decades (as a production duo and as a label), so here’s a mix of the past and present, with an emphasis on deep cuts from the catalog suited for poolside hangs.
Moin, Moot! (AD 93): Is it me or does anyone else miss the golden era of instrumental rock? By which I mean, a little over ten years ago when Oneida, Mammatus, Sunburned Hand of the Man and The Psychic Paramount blew up sonic vistas of bum-rushed psychedelia (yes, I know some of those bands technically had/have vocals… the jam is the thing here). Moin seriously scratches that itch for me, but from another angle, across the Atlantic. The London trio’s got a heady Shellac-ian, blown-out Slint groove, but laced with hyper-charged drums and cryptic samples. With members from Raime and released on a label featuring almost exclusively techno/downtempo/dubstep acts, it makes sense that Moin’s overall presentation vibes closer to electronic than rock. Skronk in the da club, y’all.
Scythelord, Earth Boiling Utopia (self-released): Look, I’m a sucker for technical thrash, progressive thrash, sci-fi thrash, whatever you wanna call it — stuff that nerds up one of metal’s more hellacious subgenres. Voivoid, Coroner and Death (especially Chuck Schuldiner’s more acrobatic years) are all twisted into Scythelord’s DNA, but by the time we reach “Equanimity,” the strands contort melody, double-helixed riffs, death growls and clean vocals to outer realms. As a result, the international duo has a fire-breathing gravitas and Krallice’s adventurous composition. Really freaking cool record.
Canal Irreal, Cana Irreal (Beach Impediment): Martin Sorrondeguy is the bilingual screamer for Los Crudos and Limp Wrist (among many others) — two very different hardcore bands, but both built on power chords, burly heft and speed. Canal Irreal gives that voice, which rips open the firmament and spanks it on the ass, space to roam over single-string riffs, chorus pedal chaos, throbbing bass and cymbal-thwacked drums. The result is something like the Wipers pounding one death-rock anthem after another. A totally exhilarating new context for one of hardcore’s most distinct screamers.
The Playlist: Viking’s Rhododendron
32 tracks. Starts with my favorite rager from the blistering Canal Irreal debut. More posthumous MF DOOM bars, this time for IDK. Peggy Gou’s supreme summer house. Fusion-wave weirdo Fire-Toolz says the new album is Deftones-core. Need more of Abolishing the Ignominious’ subterranean brutal slam. Honnda’s hyperpop soundtrack for a basketball game. Annie’s voice was made for this “Just Like Honey” cover. Hayden Thorpe’s voice was made for late nights dancing. d’Eon’s MIDI classical. Auto-Tune isn’t necessarily new in metallic shoegaze, but Lantlôs sure does make it sound alien rather than pretty. OFF! covers Metallica. Luggage carries Slint’s bags. Another devastating song from Starflyer 59; this album’s gonna crush me. Kalie Shorr is dirt emo, but glittery. Winterquilt’s syrupy, blackened vaporwave is so disorientating, but I can’t look away. Attaca Quartet’s pretty strings-with-butterfly-wings piece. Spirit Adrift leans into grunge balladry.
Stream the official Viking’s Choice playlist via Spotify or Apple Music. Here’s the permalink for this week’s mix and the archives.
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