O Pioneers! - Neon Creeps

Ten tracks of catchy as hell Hot Water Music worship sure to make even the shittiest of days seem a little bit better. Right now it's raining outside, frigid clouds obscure the Philadelphia skyline and I am sitting in a damp office at a job I hate, but "Neon Creeps" is on and things don't seem so bad.

"We can build the bridges just to tear them apart/ We can burn down cities just to build them right back up/ So many times have I wished for a chance/ Just to make a change and make it permanent"

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Cold Cave - Love Comes Close

Wes Eisold, of American Nightmare/Some Girls fame, is now making some pretty sweet electronic pop in the vein of early New Order. I honestly wouldn't have checked this out if it wasn't for this article in Philly Weekly and the fact that I have been listening to "Background Music" for a month straight.

Apparently named after Eisold's drafty loft apartment, Cold Cave is worlds apart from the chest beating rage that defined American Nightmare and Some Girls. It's a pop band, albeit one with few hooks, but a pop band nonetheless. The song "Life Magazine" was featured in some car commercial or something. I don't know, I don't pay for television. The girl singing? That's Caralee McElroy of Xiu Xiu.

"Love Comes Close" is a good place to start for casual listeners. The album reeks late 80s electronic Brit-pop, especially on the droning "Heaven Was Full" where Eisold does his best Ian Curtis impersonation. Get into it.

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In Cold Blood - Hell on Earth

One of my favorite albums to come out on Victory in the 90s (back when Victory Records actually signed good bands) was In Cold Blood's "Hell on Earth." Featuring members of Cleveland legends Integrity, In Cold Blood plays mid-tempo metallic hardcore that falls somewhere between the bleak nihilism of "Humanity is the Devil"-era Integrity and the mosh-heavy stomp of the Cro-Mags.

With apocalyptic lyrics that often take an environmental stance, In Cold Blood aren't unlike many other 90s hardcore bands, but they are leaps and bounds above any of the Earth Crisis ridiculousness that was all too popular among their peers. "Bleak Existance/Dead to This World" is the standout track, with downright punishing riffs and a face-ripping solo midway through.

If you grew up in the late 90s, when chugga chugga hardcore was all the rage, listening to this is just straight Xed-up work gloves, messenger bags and windbreakers nostalgia. For everyone else "Hell on Earth" is still a brutal record that does a pretty good job of capturing the sounds and ideas of a particular time in hardcore's history.

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Masshysteri - Var Del Av Stan

Masshysteri makes me want to start buying bottled water from Umea, Sweden because I swear the Swedes must have something in their water to consistently produce punk that's so innovative and yet still deeply nostalgic. Featuring ex-members of The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Vicious and Regulations, Masshysteri plays reverb-heavy surf punk with dueling male/female vocals that mixes influences from the riot girl movement, 1950s Americana and furious punk rock into an infectious package.

Masshysteri seems like it is from some alternate universe where the 1950s never ended and everyone drives around in nuclear-powered rocket-propelled Cadillacs. Remember that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode with the teenagers from Dimension X? This is what they blasted out of that flying convertible while cruising the pan-dimensional rift. Shit, that might have been the nerdiest sentence I ever wrote.

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These Arms are Snakes - This is Meant to Hurt You

Ah, this album brings back memories. It was 2003 and it seemed like ex-members of every band I loved as a kid were forming new "rock" influenced bands. These Arms are Snakes were no exception, featuring ex-members of Seattle's seminal Botch and Kill Sadie, and boasting a thick sound that instantly reminded one of a better version of Ink and Dagger's self titled album.

Sonically, These Arms are Snakes are closer to Kill Sadie than Botch, with thick nervous riffs and shouted vocals buried low in the mix. "Riding the Grape Dragon" is an excellent opener, but "The Blue Rose" is the real standout track on this E.P. The song is as subtle as a boot to the teeth, a frenzied post punk rager of throbbing bass and howling guitars that's unrelenting from start to finish.

There's a lot promise in "This is Meant to Hurt You," promise that eventually gets squandered by the band's first L.P. "Oxneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home," a jittery synth-heavy foray into dance music. These Arms are Snakes later return to form on their sophomore album "Easter," but can't recapture the same urgency that drives "This is Meant to Hurt You."

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Mass of the Fermenting Dregs - World is Yours

Hailing from Kobe, Japan, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs (Massu Obu Za Faamentingu Doreggusu) play shoegaze-influenced post rock with some stylistic nods to the choppy post punk rhythms of Gang of Four and the noisy freakouts of Sonic Youth. It's all wrapped up in an awesomely catchy package thanks to the vocals of Natsuko Miyamoto (bass, vocals) who sounds like a Japanese version of fellow shoegazing power-trio vocalist Caithlin De Marrais (Rainer Maria).

The bands name, which sounds like some awful bastardization of tofu, admittedly means nothing. and was chosen because the band members like how the string of words sounded together. Mass of the Fermenting Dregs also released a self titled 6-song E.P. on AVOCADO Records.

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Foreign Objects - cassette demo

Sick female-fronted punk rock from Massachusetts featuring members of Conversions, Red Thread, Ampere and Libyans. Foreign Objects sound sort of like Pretty Girls Make Graves on a really good day, all angular, jangly guitars and super catchy shouted vocals delivered at an up-tempo pace.

Foreign Objects also have a 7 inch out on Shock to the System records available here.

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