I really like listening to punk. Sometimes I go far too long without having my ears shredded live, and sometimes I go days without sitting down (in my case: pacing back and forth) and really listening to records at volume. But I blast these tapes…I rip and/or edit something damn near every night that I’m home, and these built in iMac speakers have pump countless low fidelity hours of DIY punk and noice into my earholes. Sometimes I’m distracted while I’m ripping – work, Murder The Cat, dishes – and the sounds are just kinda ‘there’ until I edit. But if I’m editing in a hurry I might not spend real time with these little plastic cases until it’s their turn to share them here. I’m not proud of the attention that I’m (sometimes) not able to give but…..life gets in the way of living sometimes. Sometimes. Not today, but sometimes. Today? Today I’m listening to TV DRUGS on repeat. I sat down with TV DRUGS whle it was ripping and I got lost while I was editing, wondering how I could describe the magic I was experiencing….apparently I came up with nothing because here I am talking to you about shit that has nothing to do with TV DRUGS, you know? This shit fucking demands attention. This is a ‘stop what you’re doing and recognize” kind of tape. I hear ’80s California beach hardcore, I keep hearing rockabilly in the double snare hits on “Medicated” and speaking of “Medicated” there’s a desperate MEDICATION TIME energy in the vocals that I am way the fuck into. Urgent ’10s North ‘Merican DIY stomp vibes creep in with some frequency, but it’s tracks like “Consume” and “How Far?’ that push envelopes and challenge descriptors. Look, TY DRUGS released a ripping hardcore punk tape back in 2021, pure and simple. Listen properly and you’ll get way more than ‘just’ a ripping hardcore punk tape. I’ve learned my lesson.
