Contributors To The Counterforce

Here we present the more concise 2024 Top Ten lists from new and old Contributors To The Counterforce....

Countdown 10-to-1 of her favorite sets of the year!...

After wanting and being offered to collaborate for several times I am finally pulling my weight to do this list. I’m Boris, I live in Montreal, I play in a band called TOTAL NADA and I’m part of the Noise Not Borders collective....

2024 Top Ten as told by Tay (of TAZ) (in no particular order)...

Absurdism is not always a friend of the gig. Sometimes it is. I will be allotting CHAOS ratings to each of my selections....

Anonymous submission This won't mean anything to most of y'all, but Bill Korecky passed away at the beginning of August.  Bill ran Mars Studios in Cleveland, Ohio. Through the late 1980s and 1990s, he recorded all the records by Cleveland hardcore bands (INTEGRITY, RINGWORM, FACE VALUE, and... more than one band that doesn't deserve to be named), not to mention bands from outside Cleveland like CATHARSIS and UNDYING. He recorded the "Firestorm" EP by EARTH CRSIS. He even fixed the guitar sound...

A new, possibly recurring, photo feature from Slim Bolt. This installment features THE NOT, BIG LAUGH, ZEAL, and EXTENSIVE SLAUGHTER....

Anonymous submission squatted shows and diy shows have been an essential part of the history of punk in "so called" nyc. for years there have been consistent diy spots that have been holding up the scene. unfortunately in these last few years most of those places have been stripped away from us. in a post-covid lockdown dystopia of hyper inflation, resulting in a housing crisis, diy spots are the front lines of demolition for gentrification/yuppie condos and businesses nobody asked for or can e...

Contribute by F.A.R. Company The term 'noise not music' gets thrown up these days like a cheap beer full of cigarette butts and usually by bands you can still hear the riff in a coherent way. Which is always kinda annoyed me, the amount of records I have taken home expecting the 'raw noise punk' label to actually produce a proper fukin racket just to chuck it on the player and find out it was actually a 'well cooked coherent punk' record done in a studio made by a music chef of some fancy sough...

Contributed by F.A.R. Company Spicy opinion, but sometimes it helps to judge the book by its cover... In a world where even your average jock hardcore band is using that blown out photoshop 'xerox' filter on there covers it can be hard to sought out the good and the bad. But thankfully las DUST COLLECTOR take the guessing work out of it for you. With the help of a good close friend to F.A.R. Company and obviously DUST COLLECTOR guns, Insane Moblish from Mexico doing the artwork, you can automa...

Contributed by P-lou I've been putting back on writing this review for a while now. Not that it's a very intricate or complicated release, I’ve just been having an awful time lately preventing me from doing anything really. That was until I decided to listen to this demo again after a period of time of feeling overwhelmed by the smallest tasks. I got back to it and it clicked, it did exactly what it was made to do. "DEMONSTRATION" 2024 is tough love on tape. From the beginning, the demo starts...

Contributed by F.A.R. COMPANY Doing a video promo for Roachy awhile back now I got given a glimpse into upcoming releases coming out on the ever so busy and consistent label from new york (Roachleg Records). In amongst this folder laid a folder called EVIL SPIRIT, ears pricked up like a scrap yard guard dog seeing an intruder on a Friday night when the tracks started to play. The sound quality was already sounding like it came from a boombox running on low batteries, so I was very keen to here ...

Contributed by Harry Yams I got reacquainted with iPods right around the pandemic. I was working construction and so many times I would have my headphones in, high-up in a scissor lift, hands in awkward places or covered in something nasty. I would be listening to whatever late 90s / early 2000’s punk and Spotify would be like “oh you like this? Have you heard SCREECHING WEASEL?” It felt like the most punishing co-worker trying to relate musically but missing the mark. “Oh not that? What about ...

Contributed by Greg The Builder I am a furniture builder by trade. I mention this because the use of epoxy (with a Y) has become something of a plague to my craft. I fucking hate epoxy tables. Unoriginal, tacky bullshit. EPOXI (with an I) on the other hand, fucking rules. EPOXI is from Bloomington, IN and the label that put out their tape says they are hardcore that sounds punk and I'm inclined to agree. This is the type of ripping and raging punk I tend to associate with bands from the often ...

Contributed by Hobbes First things first: ULTIMATE DISASTER’s demo is a refreshing blast of straightforward punishment, an antidote to my recent bout of math fatigue. Listening to their demo feels like breathing fresh air after being trapped in an elevator with a backlog of 2020s bands, all hell-bent on being the cleverest reinterpretation of d-beat. ULTIMATE DISASTER understands that sometimes, the real challenge lies in executing something simple. Thankfully, they deliver exactly what I’ve b...

Lettermail continues to be a somewhat overlooked option for shipping tapes, CDs, and other similar sized items. This information will prove useful to many who have been unnecessarily burned by double-digit parcel shipping rates....