The Counterforce - Columns

THINK! Column #3

2026-05-13T14:46:06.000-04:00

THE LIMITS (pt. 1)

I've been taking a lot more walks lately, dropping off newsletters in the little libraries. Punishment by proxy! A great big fakeout! Congrats, you have in your hands what looks like a punk zine but is actually 6-10 pgs of RFK's Exhibit A when it's time for my Tismternment at the Barron Trump Wellness Camp. Nerds, sloths, masturbators, they're coming for you and me alike so I'll see you on the chain gang for another 12hr shift spent smashing Kristi Noem's dog's head in for tinkling outside of designated tinkle time.

Walking, yes. Talking to myself? Maybe. Leave the house, buy thing, eat drink or play with thing. The headphones are on and it's FLOWER POWER or PARKING or FU-SCHNICKENS or C. Did you hear ever this band? Japanese band that took a chance on a letter that wasn't X, wrote an album called "Dear Fuckin' Shit All The Fascists +2" and if that doesn't make it move then it's no wonder RFK's coming for the punks last: you're their greatest warrior. 9 songs bop bop bopping on the bass and stacc stacc staccato on the drums, Steve Ignorant and Pete Wright jamming with D and Mike Watt. Fucking corndogs, but not for the cat, and on the walks continues.

Last week, the walks included NEVADA, fresh from their 10th tour just this year, out and about with HIRS or BLACK EYES and lord willing they'll regale us with those many torrid tales in these here pages soon-like. They were here for 9 days cut down from 10 and I saw them about half, rounded up for soup, chai, matcha, pastry, tacos. I like my quiet walks of solemn contemplation as much as the next red-blood american male, but it was nice to have a companion during daytime hours with whom I waxed nimrodian.

B_____, my neighbor, was out tending the garden during the one most recent. He plays picture pages on the same sets I shepherd, shifting chairs for 12 hrs and moving coffee cups lest we break the immersion when one pretty person screams at another, or professes their love, or pantomimes real good for Post. I'm certainly losing my lust for the whole ordeal, though not for eating or shelter, and it seems he's not far off what with all the garden tending, but my walks and the trimming and the snip snip snip of the sheers has afforded us enough time for the small talk to grow big before our very eyes. "Oh how's the dog?" "Fine, and how's the leg?" and now we're talking about our parents and planning potlucks and parting with a friendly embrace.

At the end, again most recent, check my messages, one from justa, lowercase, always. Older guy I know from the depths of the dead ccg underground. Creative, prolific, maybe somewhat lonely. His family lives closer to me than he now, or so I'm told. Won't speak up in the group chat, but always sends me reassurances and advice and confides to me directly. He told me recently he didn't feel qualified to speak on such and such topic and I responded, like I often do to Jeeny, that I believe in some circumstances that makes you even more qualified. I told him I wished I could give him a great big hug. Selflessness is selfish, I think I need one, too.

Everything feels... Feet go slow, muscles weighed down, air feels thick, distended, pregnant. I walk and walk and the concrete's uneven, shifting with every step as the earth beneath reaches a rolling boil. The sirens go off and you wonder who is it this time and the choppers overhead and you wonder if its passengers are the cause of all this or are they just passing by, observing. I walk and I trip and the concrete is bubbling and covered in bird shit and black black black gum and my legs are tired and the door is locked and I forgot the keys and I climb through the window and see the ants have breached the cracks in our walls and our floors and I collapse into bed and contemplate the absolute limits of everything. (End pt. 1)

I Will Do My Worst #4

2026-05-11T20:56:42.000-04:00

How-to Contribute to The Counterforce

The Counterforce is a distributed and community project! Through 11 issues and 280+ posts, we've been lucky enough to have contributors from all over the world: many are friends, many are strangers, and some were strangers and are now friends. But we can always use more contributors! I don't particularly like writing, and I didn't start this to have a place to publish my own writing. I would really much prefer to just do the shit-work and provide a platform for punks from all over to share and connect, replacing algorithmic recommendation with curation and community.

In that pursuit, I am often shaking down my friends and acquaintances to contribute something to The Counterforce, so this issue's column is going to be the little encouraging pep talk I usually give.

First, ideas on what to contribute:

Review a new release you are excited about. It can be your friend's band. It can be a record that you think everyone already knows about, or a record you think no one knows about.
Interview a band. Cold call a band you like, interview a band passing through on tour, or just interview a local band you are friends with.
Write a scene report. What's up in your local scene? What local bands are playing, what new releases are coming out, where do shows happen, how is the punk community engaging with local (or global) politics?
Do you know how to do something useful for punks? A bit of a DIY-type? Write a how-to.
Send a letter to The Counterforce for publication. This could be anything: a short idea, something you want other punks to read, a reaction to something you read in The Counterforce (positive or negative), and idea, a dream. Be creative.

Second, how to rip-off the band-aid:

Start small. Don't just get stuck on trying to decide on the "perfect first contribution". Just start with something small and easy, like a review. Spend 10 minutes re-listening to a demo and just a paragraph like you are selling it to a friend. If 50 people sent in just 1 review every other month, the website and each zine would be packed.
Similarly, an interview can be as simple as four questions: "1. Who is in the band and how did the band start? 2. What's the best show you've played and what was so good about it? 3. What releases/tours/shows do you have coming up? 4. What else is going on in your local scene you want to talk about/shout out?" Easy!!!
Don't overthink it. First thought = best thought. This isn't a newspaper, it doesn't have to be perfect. It's a punk zine. The bar for writing is, and should be, low. And we'll edit it for you to make sure what you are saying is clear and that your article matches the in-house style guide.
If you feel intimidated... you can use a punk name! We will protect your true identity.
You can contribute in the best way that works for you. Send it by e-mail, leave a voicemail, sent a text or message on Signal, or send a letter in the mail.

More tips:

Read past issues/stuff on the website and make sure you read the manifesto. Basically any contribution that fits under the broad umbrella of hardcore punk underground and is aligned with the manifesto is welcome. So remember, we want to highlight punk stuff happening outside of or in opposition to corporate social media and streaming platforms. No Instagram handles!
Try to include at least one photo or image. It could be a live band photo, a flyer, whatever.
This isn't some exclusive publishing house. If you have a blog where you post reviews, you can submit your reviews here too. You can do a column, and then collect all your columns into a zine. If you've done something for a local zine that you thing would benefit from a wider audience, send it it and we'll publish it too!

That's it. If you want to contribute something, do it! Check the contact page (it's always the last page of the zine).

The Counterforce CrosswOird #2

2026-05-11T20:22:53.000-04:00

ACROSS

1. Oi fanatics against white power, abbr.
6. Scooter-riding youth of the 60s, disdained by skins.
10. Grassroots union with a red logo and cat
13. Real name: Douglas Colvin
14. Sum, short form?
15. The sound of one befuddled
16. A no scratches, no wear, record
18. 1960s radical student activist org.
19. Investment yield, short form
20. End of the name for playwright Oscar
21. Philly's sandwich
24. Former Breitbart editor, target of 2017 Berkeley protests.
25. Snitch on
28. The 1990s predecessors to 46D, abbr.
30. What happens when protests escalate
31. Croft of Tomb Raider
33. Resting place?
36. Traditionally female shaved-head haircuts
38. Jerk (in Britain).
41. Italian “they”
42. Main actor in Trainspotting
43. DISCLOSE, “____ not music!
44. What you may use to slick back your hair
46. Made amends
47. An equal number of
50. THE MAD ARE ___
52. Argot
53. Salon service
54. Place to eat
57. External troublemaker, allegedly
61. Employ
62. Rookie, according to your 12 year old cousin
63. "Speed it up!"
64. Left-hand side, briefly
65. Hosp. workers
66. “ ___ target”

DOWN

1. Dispatch
2. Fashion lines?
3. A nickname for Addison
4. Stimpy's Pal
5. An oogle's squeaking companion?
6. New Zealand Native
7. Warning, of sorts
8. Fantasy role-playing game, for short.
9. Reputation harmer
10. CRASS, "Yes sir, ___"
11. "Just ___ you think you are?!"
12. Lessen
13. Shame
17. “Fuck capitalism! We are all just a __ in the machine!”
21. Rowdy football fanatics
22. Baseball stats
23. Stud site
26. Nirvana achievers
27. Cliche Father's day gift.
29. A type of punk, or Sashimi?
31. 1985 comp, "We Don't Want your Fucking ___!"
32. King of Judah
33. The theme of this puzzle!
34. Lab wire
35. Fashion brand with a laurel wreath logo and iconic polos.
37. Slippery
39. Poker stake
40. Exaggerated 'never!
45. It purrs when it's cared for
46. Right-wing pundit's favorite boogeyman
47. REPLACEMENTS, "Don't tell ____"
48. Blizzard aftermath
49. Blokes
50. Picket-line crossers
51. Summer mo.
54. What you put an instrument in
55. "___ boy!"
56. 6A vs 33D, e.g.?
58. A sub's counterpart
59. "End of Today" abbr.
60. Earth tone

Answers

For last issue's The Counterforce Crossword #1:

Questions & Statements #2

2026-05-11T20:15:13.000-04:00

Singalong Song

When’s the last time you saw a room full of people singing a song that wasn’t a hit on the radio at one point or another?

Growing up in St John’s, Newfoundland, one song stuck out for many years, most importantly for its story: "Dry Show" by CONDITIONER.

The band’s member have served in different punk projects over the years like BAD PLAN, YEE GIRLS and PILLOWCOUNT. It’s not a punk song, it’s a song about punk. The story describes the atmosphere of St John’s shows at one time.

I didn’t know it was a true story till I joked to the singer about the starting lyrics, asking “so who punched you in the face?” That’s when the story found me. It’s a small enough town that I think he even pointed to the person at that show.

After talking to another friend about my newfound knowledge, he told me excitedly that he was in fact one of the kids described in the song who the singer had stuck up for.

Sometimes you steal someone’s beer, tag the wrong shit or break a rule. We take it, dish it out and learn along the way. You never know when that stupid kid from the gig might act a bit smarter and become a lifelong friend. This song embodies that feeling of waking away in defeat (yet with a smile) after breaking some rules.

I hope this song does not get forgotten. There’s a great live session version on the Lost Opus YouTube channel that I recommend.

The lyrics as listed on bandcamp:

I was punched in the face by an aging punk outside of a house show a few years back.
I recall that.
I guess I shouldn't have said anything in defense of those kids.
Their only crime
was doing cocaine with the sketchy dude you invited but who invited you?
You stood outside gatekeeping with an open beer, arms folded you wore a sneer. They were nothing like what you lost.

When you really get a taste for it, it really sucks you in.
They want to be your friend.
You want to run away.
Makes you want to walk home

I Will Do My Worst #3

2026-03-15T16:03:36.000-04:00

The first and only time I ever used the DICE app was to go to a show in New York City. It was the only way to get a ticket to a show I was traveling many hours and crossing an international border to attend. The only way to buy a ticket was by installing the app on a mobile phone – a deranged, dystopic idea. To purchase a ticket for this hardcore punk show, I needed not only a credit card, but a decently-new mobile phone running an OS made by Apple or Google. I needed my phone to be working at the venue so I could show a QR code of my ticket to get in. I would expect this for a mainstream Live Nation concert, but not for a punk show. At the time, I figured "only in New York" – a place where one is likely to encounter strange, novel experiments in capitalism. But since then I've started seeing DICE relied upon by promoters in Toronto, and I've heard it's used in London too. Not just regular promoters, like people booking hardcore punk gigs. What?? I suspect the only reason we haven't run into it much in Montreal is for Quebec cultural preservation reasons (here it would have to be a Quebec-owned startup called DÉS).

(For the sake of completeness: according to DICE you can buy tickets through their website without using their dedicated app, using your legal name and having ID with you, if the venue/promoter has a list of DICE ticket holders at the door. So basically good luck with that.)

DICE began as a London-based startup founded by an UMG industry label guy. Ostensibly the point was to make ticket sales easy, without dynamic pricing or resellers/scalping. Which is fine enough, but those aren't really problems I have ever encountered trying to buy tickets for actual underground hardcore punk shows.

Pretty quickly DICE got loaded up with hundreds of millions in venture capital investment. SoftBank, French billionaires, Google subsidiary co-founders. This is all just on Wikipedia. These people are not looking to "enhance the live music experience" or whatever, they are here to squeeze massive profits out of you. Last year, the whole thing was bought by Fever (another international/multinational ticket platform) after Fever itself raised hundreds of millions in venture capital from investors like Goldman Sachs.

This isn't some plucky independent startup run by a homie who's trying to make ticket sales easier. This is billion dollar business. When there is that much money invested, it's all about making more money.

That's why DICE is so app-centric. You must install the app to get into the show, allowing them to collect tons of your data, which is shared with 3rd parties. They know exactly when you arrive at the show! They track your interests and desires. You are encouraged to link your account to your Spotify or Apple Music so they can provide better algorithmic recommendations of shows you might want to go to. DICE will keep doing this, and it will get worse and worse as they need to squeeze as much data out of you as possible.

This is the kind of data that gets collected, correlated, and sold to ICE and Palantir, by the way! You can't pretend this isn't true anymore.

Here's a fun thing in their privacy policy:

Your image or recordings – we might get photographs, audio or video recordings of events listed on the DICE Platform. We may reproduce and/or publish your image (as part of a general photograph of an event) on the DICE Platform and in other promotional materials, social networking channels and other materials related to the DICE Platform;

That kind of shit is just par for the course for apps and platforms like this. Most similar online ticket platforms are similarly evil. I'm picking on DICE because they really push you to install an app, and their cool hipster branding seems to have appealed to punk promoters. NO!

If you must sell advance tickets, there are simple, time-tested, DIY ways to take a bite out of these predatory, ticket-seller megoliths:

Sell some physical tickets at local venues/shows/record stores before the gig.
If you must sell tickets online, use a relatively chill online purchasing option (like Big Cartel – I'm pretty sure they are still independent and have not taken VC investment).
Always ensure dedicated people have a way to buy tickets in person, with cash, either by holding some at the door or providing physical pre-sales.

Yeah, it's a little more "work" for everyone – too bad! The tradeoff is worth it, especially in situations where something like DICE is essentially the only way to buy a ticket for a show.

BROKE ASS COMICS ZONE #2

2026-03-16T20:07:04.000-04:00

The Counterforce Crossword #1

2026-03-16T19:55:28.000-04:00

Across

1. What many punks have on their bodies.
10. 1920 play by Čapek that coined the word robot.
11. Suffix for the intensification of “funny.”
12. Shoes that have a sports mode.
16. DIY musical gift to make your crush.
17. What you might fold in a protest.
19. What you challenge a skateboarder to do in passing.
21. A group of canine furries, perhaps?
24. US narc cops, for short.
25. First band on the lineup.
27. No ___ Records, pop punk label.
28. National leader targeted by many 80s punk songs.
30. Your forefathers.
32. Original director of cult horror classic, Suspiria (1977).
35. 1971 prison uprising in New York.
38. If writing songs in an ABCD structure, reaching these letters means you've gone too far.
41. VAN HALEN, briefly.
42. Amp and gear set up.
43. Where lyrics get jotted down.
44. An affirmative you’ll hear in Quebec.
45. Store chain for “borrowing” nice camping gear.
46. What you might mutter after seeing a mediocre band.
47. Acronym seen on many show flyers.
49. A post punk or egg punk band may have this.
51. A hardcore kid’s favorite dancy dance.
53. Last word of a Germs song that is the title of the 2007 Darby Crash biopic.
54. Synonym to cherub, missing a middle letter.
55. Boston hardcore band, or an alternative to a hard drive.
58. Every anti authoritarian's favorite four letter acronym.
60. A class of happy pills.
62. Comes after "sub," "power," and "K."
64. What you may make your lentil soup in.
67. What members of LOS CRUDOS, SPITBOY, and THE BAGS all identify as.
69. Tough section of a bike ride.
70. FEAR played on this show in 1981.
72. Double word new wave outfit.
73. Homophone for hosts of an event.
74. Ease of use.
75. Abbreviation for magazine that originated from a Berkeley, CA radio show.
76. The name of Vivienne Westwood’s infamous clothing boutique from 1974-1976.
77. “This,” or “um” in Spanish.

Down

1.An essential for punk guitarists. Less so for a folk musician.
2. Series of 1970s punk fests, tours, and carnivals in rebuttal to the far right National Front.
3. Healthy fruit eaten in a bundle.
4. Alternate to “hey.”
5. The first three words to DEVO’s existential query.
6. The name of CRASS’s farm cottage.
7. What J.K. Rowling is.
8. It’s exposed many times when singing “YMCA”
9. What every guitarist hopes to have when putting together a song.
13. What you may need an hour before a gig starts.
14. Another word for sea, minus the last letter.
15. US west coast town abbreviation.
16. A bad customer doesn’t do this.
18. Prefix with masochism.
20. An essential tool for all zine makers.
22. Lord of the Ring's humanoid monster.
23. Certification abbreviation.
26. Intergovernmental military alliance that Tankies hate.
28. WU TANG CLAN Member, Robert Diggs, nickname.
29. Emo band, Joan of ___.
31. An elite potluck would have a table fully dedicated to toppings for making this frozen
treat.
33. Lake bordering US and Canada.
34. Alternate to "see ya" when the day is over.
36. 1970 song by the Stooges, and contemporary NYC venue.
37. Second half of the name for the"decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells," started in 1996.
38. SLC Punk (1998) main protagonist actor, for short.
39. 4chan board that Qanon emerged from.
40. The status ___.
43. Insult you use towards someone fake.
45. Web feed letters.
47. What screamo vocals lyrics "sound" like.
48. A gamers technical annoyance, if the number is low.
50. Obnoxious and outspoken crowd member.
52. The last word in the “same” repetitive line in TALKING HEAD’s “Once in a Lifetime”
56. Cheap airline or first word in a Miyazaki film title.
57. What you may do when a mutual aid request is shared with you.
59. a Dom and a CEO both do this.
61. First name of punk filmmaker Benning, novelist Z. Smith, and singer of GLOSS.
63. The GENUWINE song.
64. Pool stick.
65. What you set on a record player.
66. Guitar amp detail, measured in Ω.
68. Oklahoma city, minus the last letter.
70. A shady person.
71. Slack.

Questions & Statements #1

2026-03-15T17:37:25.000-04:00

2 zines that I can’t put back on the shelf

I’ve been collecting various zines since my friend Will showed me “Drawings in bars” when I was a teen. This past year two that I can’t seem to get enough of are a photo zine by Ivan Hitch and a zine of drawings by Willow Gallagher.

Ivan Hitch showcases his perspective as an adventurous young documentarian of Philadelphia. Friends, tags, landscapes and some archival graffiti photos make up this zine. Many names to look forward to like spy one, nemel, orb, hazel, item, IAO, SOS to name a few.

Keep an eye out.

Free the world 2k25 by Willow Gallagher is a visual packed full of machines, people, creatures, plants, daily horrors and so much more. I enjoy these kinds of detailed maximalist draws. Pockets of jagged lettering announce political ideas, daily struggles and systemic horrors.

My favourite page illustrates the pollution of our atmosphere by satellites.

I look forward to seeing more.

Columna Marginal - February 2026

2026-02-11T21:05:26.000-05:00

The occidental world is so fucked up that it's making the president of Spain seem like a good president. Even if the decisions of this government are pure opportunism, and if it fuels the game of polarization that all right-wing politicians started, the (leftist) international opinion seems pretty good about Pedro Sánchez and his government. But that's what happens when everyone reads the headlines instead of the whole article.

Let me say this loud and clear: Spain is not an oasis of the left, and one of the reasons is the existence of the party that is in power nowadays. But that's a long story that I can't explain here. I'll let the next elections show you a totally different face of this territory.

Anyways, Spain sucks, and PSOE (the so-called "socialist" party of Spain) sucks too. With this party in power, we had:

Several massacres on the borders or in the sea, blocking migrant people from entering the country while rich people get in through planes. Amnesty International is still asking for some answers for 30 dead and 70 disappeared (in the border??) on June 24th of 2022.
Prosecution of alternative leftist or anarchist political projects, including several cases of cops infiltrating social movements. These cases were defended by a minister that has been accused SIX times by the European Court of Human Rights for not investigating tortures of police while he was a judge. This is the same guy that defends the previously commented massacres. Suspicious, right?
In the middle of a housing crisis, they gave LOTS of money to be able to pay the rents, and what happened? Oh, the miracle: landlords increased prices, and the result: rich people getting richer. It's impossible they didn't know, especially when so many of the known faces of the party are landlords. In general terms there's a really bad management of the housing crisis just to protect landlords.
Corruption. Corruption is everywhere. All kinds of cases appear around the president, and yes, maybe many are created by a toxic political environment that lies to get votes, but many aren't.
Spain gave all the power to Morocco to do anything they want with Western-Sahara, leaving the Sahrawi people totally abandoned (even more than before). Even worse, this was used to improve relationships between the two countries and make Morocco control the border so Spain does not have to do the dirty work. Colonialism and racism from a "socialist" government.
More externalized dirty work: they opened jails for migrants in Mauritania. These jails were paid for by the government, yes. And they will hold minors inside too, yes, something that can’t happen here (but it’s done in another type of prison for migrants called CIEs). So poor racialized migrants can’t enter our border, or they will be killed, prosecuted, brutally assaulted and/or raped, and if they survive, they will work like slaves for people that don’t want to pay taxes and won’t ever be held as criminals. The same government that allows this also goes to other countries to create cages so fewer people cross two borders and/or get in a boat that is a nearly certified death in the Mediterranean.
Bought military technology from Israel after advertising an arms embargo on that country. Also, a few years before, they sold a lot of military stuff to Saudi Arabia that was used to bomb Yemen.
Etc.

I could continue writing about this, but I just don't want to. Spain sucks. PSOE sucks. Many think they are nice because they aren't horrible fascists, but they do a lot of shit. And now let me show you some punk music from this country that promotes anarchy instead of lame social democrats. If ESKORBUTO can't be voted for, let me show you who should be the ones I would vote for.

LAMPREA EXPLOSIVA - Anarquía de Montaña

From the mountains of remote Galiza, here you have a band that I really love and that I have been following and known since we (them and me) were kids. We met after so many years of some Internet relationship in Galiza, in a squat in a very, very small town (it has... 10 houses?) in the middle of a natural paradise. I always had a special love for duos (PIÑÉN or CIEMO, for example), and LAMPREA EXPLOSIVA, with their already long history and their parallel duo band with the same two people that change instruments (GIUSSEPPE), was always a special one. They also manage their own label, Caracol Negro!

LAMPREA EXPLOSIVA are for punks that love Thoreau, Emerson and Walt Whitman, but also Emma Goldman, Quico Sabaté and Kropotkin. Not many anarchists understand the secret words of the beating heart of the forest, its natural processes, and the art of waiting and letting things grow. I always hoped they were a seed for more Galician youngsters to get their instruments and make noise until their ears bleed, but as far as I know, only they did something like this beautiful eco-anarchist project in the last few years. Maybe the other ones are so hidden in their mountains that their sounds are unreachable for me.

In this release, LAMPREA EXPLOSIVA has a first track "Unha forza de combate / Guía breve dos mustélidos de Galiza", where they talk about another thing that I didn't mention before about our government. Their support of extractivism in our own land, the elimination of natural spaces for touristic projects, the constant help for fucked up real estate businesses, or any other economic profit from natural resources. Nature battles against these aggressions in so many ways, but also there are many people that do so. Defend your forests, deserts, and seas!

https://caracolnegro.bandcamp.com/album/anarqu-a-de-monta-a

Anarquía de montaña, by Lamprea Explosiva

6 track album

Caracol NegroBandcamp New & Notable Jun 20, 2024

ARREST - Pobre i Perillós

An already classic band from Barcelona. They have been playing since the start of the previous decade, and their music and lyrics are amazing. If you're into early 80s UK punk like the first few No Future Records releases this is for you. The band has members of TOTÄLICKERS, CRUZ, CRIMEN DE ESTADO and SIBERIA. They also have a fake band that is pretty funny called STOICHKOV. Sometimes I can feel like I'm a Barça punk too!

In this EP there's an amazing track, "Mentirán" that summarizes pretty well some things I didn't explain in the text of this column. The rise in the cost of living, evictions, and how it feels to be a poor person in this country. That's why the name of the EP means "poor and dangerous". The lyrics are translated on their Bandcamp page if you're curious.

https://arrest.bandcamp.com/album/ep-7-pobre-i-perill-s

ep 7″ Pobre i Perillós, by Arrest

4 track album

ArrestBandcamp New & Notable Apr 19, 2022

ROTURA - Al otro lado

ROTURA aren't a classic from the city of Barcelona yet, but I hope they will be. Watching them play live is always beautiful, and I loved this project since the beginning. They do a powerful melodic punk, very political, and have really catchy songs that have stayed with me since the first listen.

I wouldn't say that ROTURA reminds me of specific bands, but there's always an easy comparison of the vocals with ELEKTRODUENDES, but don't be fooled by these descriptions and listen to them! They sound very different in general terms. In my opinion, the lyrics of the songs are a big part of this band, and they also have them translated on their Bandcamp page. During the last year I've been listening to them nonstop. Also, they are in the Fediverse! The only band I know from here that has Mastodon and Pixelfed accounts.

https://rotura-punk.bandcamp.com/album/al-otro-lado

Al otro lado, by Rotura

8 track album

Roturadcdirkzwager

KIRATXA - Giza Ustelkeria

From Euskal Herria, this "new" band is bringing the noise to this column. I missed them and the "pomada" that Oscar always carries with him when they came to Barcelona, I hope I have a second opportunity!

Their raw punk sounds spit over nearly everything, from heroin to the military, from the countries that perpetrate a genocide that we all know to the bosses ("who doesn't want to kill their boss?"). In the song "Mare Mortum" they talk about the amount of people who are left to die in the Mediterranean Sea while they are trying to reach the coasts of this horrible country.

https://kiratxa.bandcamp.com/album/giza-ustelkeria

GIZA USTELKERIA, by KIRATXA

7 track album

KIRATXABandcamp Album of the Day Feb 6, 2018

DOLENT - S/T

Let's keep the noisy sounds on; this Valencia band is SO good. One of my favorites from last year. It is a modern-sounding hardcore punk sung in Valencià created by some of the people that helped to release a lot of punk around here in the last decades. They are pretty fast, and I think the guitars have an effect that is too loud for my personal taste, but besides that, I like it a lot. I've played this so many times already! I wish I could have gotten the tape, but I'm always late, and it's sold out now.

The track "Som l'amenaça" says something like "burn the flag, destroy Spain" (this is a free interpretation), which is all I want. In my opinion this band is a little gem produced in this area of the world that has been totally overlooked, but it's worth a listen or two. You will like it, I promise! I hope they keep doing this band for so long.

https://polzedelamort.bandcamp.com/album/dolent-dolent

DOLENT - DOLENT, by Polze De La Mort

10 track album

Polze De La Mortdcdirkzwager

THINK! Column 2

2026-01-11T17:21:26.000-05:00

ANON ANON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON

Yeah, no, I get it. Someone might poke fun at you. Someone might poke holes in yer not-so-tidy whities. Someone might not like you. (Or, worse yet, someone just might...)

i. LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AT THE GENOCIDE FACTORY

A fun thing every December is the big, panopticon-sanctioned recap of one's consumption habits (co-sponsored by Big P-roductivity). "Look!," it says, "I'm engaged in arts and partake in culture! AMYL & THE SNIFFERS lurked in the background of my each-and-every suicidal ideation, tilting the wheel imperceptibly just this side of zero degrees, while i yearned in private desperation for just one chance glance to toss me, end over end, one lane to the next, lest I pour one more Americano for some app-developing, balding Wicker Park fuck!" And then, with dull joy, we press play on Jan. 1 (1 Jan for those elsewheres) and the cycle continues anon.

But check it: Spotify fucking sucks. There is no debating this. Daniel Ek, like all CEOs, is an anti-art dullard, part and parcel to the ubiquitous and unyielding spread of the Tech Reich. The damage they've caused to mainstream music is likely irreparable and has been enumerated endlessly*. They've invested in war crimes and ran ICE recruitment ads. If the former transgressions were not enough, the latter should leave no wiggle room. And yet, the Big discourse (online, exclusively): self-assured -righteous & -informed (look no further than above!), all sides bleating back and forth, devolving inevitably into smarmy vagueposts underpinned by logical fallacies and loosey-goosey morals, marching ever onward, far past the last hard line, full-throated in our chants of "No ethical consumption under capitalism!" The rebuttal? Fuck off.

This phrase was never intended to mean "Do nothing." This phrase was never meant to assuage the guilt of ignoring each and every hard decision. Yes, those in power have corralled us all: Nestle poisons the water and the mothers and children who drink it, and Coke kills union organizers in South America, and Bob Iger cuts the ribbon at Disneyland Tel Aviv, but it's still your choice to buy a Night Sprite for half-price entry. No ethical consumption, but not all consumption is so hopelessly, vilely unethical.

Maybe, you're right. In fact, many of you are probably right: many of the online crusaders will abandon the current cause celebre for surer victories, like online campaigns to prevent Meta from soft-blocking activists, or begging Congressmen to limp-dickedly condemn an ongoing genocide, each surely one digital signature or two from fruition.

And yes, of course, we are confronted daily by seemingly impossible choices, exacerbated by intentionally esoteric branding and the infinite conglomeration of all things into one corporate eldritch mass, the increasingly brutality swept into banality by the 24hr news cycle. No one can have any way of knowing all things,** but many have ways of knowing some things, and those things should be acted upon. Not everything is a grey, unknowable mass.

ii. GREASE

In the caverns of my cranium, a truer meaning resonates: the walls are closing in, what will you do about it motherfucker?

iii. WELL?

I think my biggest issue with all of this is the tacit resignation to this idea that all things must be done under the auspices of some vaunted authority, that truly nothing may be accomplished without their existing infrastructure. Something as simple as a list of things you like must be collated and compiled by the same machine that put it all in front of you in the first place and this feels truly fucking insane to me.

For many, some form of primal atavism and/or monk-like asceticism are unlikely, yeah?, and in any case, this desire feels unhealthily nostalgia-brained, but it's not either/or here. The technology exists for us to connect with each other outside of the genocide factory. It's been nice to see these disparate freaks with niche interests utilize Neocities, and the proprietors of this here dirt rag have been some of the biggest champions of the Fediverse. The almighty Soulseek has never gone down, you can still interact with Old School Mike and his literal thousands of hardcore punk records, then connect an aux from your computer to a receiver and make a tape, or put all of that on your phone and forego streaming altogether.

If none of these things feel right to you, the world shakes with palpable anticipation for your solution. Better or worse is irrelevant, it simply must be done.

There's little left to say this month, my brain feels addled after all that ramblin'. My journey into the depths of Thee Canon was brief and shallow this last so long, but I did dig into one frumeach. SUBHUMANS - Demolition War 7" is the first indication that Pushead's tastes and mine will not entirely align. Some starter punk bands stand the test of time, but Dick & Co. really only have a handful of songs I enjoy ("People Are Scared", "No"), not one of which is found here.

Prank's #3, however, remains as potent today as ever. In the six-song MLP era, its almost inconceivable to think that a hardcore punk album could maintain its intensity (or that a reels-addled public could keep its focus) for longer than 20 minutes, but HIS HERO IS GONE - Fifteen Counts of Arson LP is a monstrosity that lingers beyond the length of the groove.

Flyin' down the Wire is ALBERT AYLER's Live In Greenwich Village. I highly recommend it, though not in one sitting, which makes total sense as it's a collection of two separate performances recorded at the tail end of the 60s. As experimental as the Wire's previous two entries, though no less unrelenting than HHIG, this is Jazz at it's absolute apex.

'Til next time, True Believers.

*If you've got yer output hosted on this wretched platform, congratulations! You've sold out and didn't even get fractions of a penny for your troubles. Mainstream bands such as MASSIVE ATTACK and XIU XIU have pulled their catalogs from the platform. You can still do it, too.

** All this said, no one is perfect. Deep in pandemic, naive as fuck, I flirted with the possibility that Midjourney Generative AI's four imperfect squares promised. I even found a random generation of a gang of skinheads and attached it to a flier for a show I was promoting, my name along with it. I truly didn't know where these images might be sourced from, but I paid attention to what was being said around me and have never used it since. Alas, one may only use "I'm An Idiot" as an excuse so many times.

I Will Do My Worst #2

2026-01-09T17:38:16.000-05:00

In lieu of a year end top ten list, I present to you a dirty dozen of selections from DEMO FEST 2025. In case you missed it, over 70 bands/musicians put together a new demo in October and November this year for our 2nd installment of DEMO FEST. All those releases are available online at 2025.demo-fest.org and all proceeds from donations/downloads go to the local Montreal mutual aid group Solidarity Across Borders.

I simply could not narrow this selection down to 10 releases, so it's 12. And even that was difficult, and many excellent releases were overlooked. I strongly suggest you check out the full collection of 70+ demos (and remember to donate). In alphabetical order, here's the list:

AMARGI - La única respuesta: la anarquía

La única respuesta: la anarquía

DEMO FEST 2025

One man band from Counterforce contributor Marginal. I think AMARGI wins the DEMO FEST award for "farthest traveled", contributing from Barcelona.

BASTARD IDOL - Demo 2025

Demo 2025

DEMO FEST 2025

Toronto-based recording project collab between Emily of TORPOR and INFLUX and Melody of HUMAN FORM. BASTARD IDOL has a live lineup with two Montreal members, and they've played one show in Montreal with a second one happening around the time this will be published... Not sure if it will be an ongoing full band but I hope so!

DISDICK S/T

S/T

DEMO FEST 2025

Some DEMO FEST projects come about when someone realizes they should finally complete some unfinished project. DISDICK seems to have been in production hell for almost 20 year. Drum machine hardcore punk with mysterious origins. It's shocking no one has used the name before.

EGIDE - Demo

Demo

DEMO FEST 2025

This demo was a total surprise from strangers in Quebec City. Perfectly executed mid 2000s crust. Usually time machine crust like this from Quebec (or Europe) falls totally flat for me. But not in this case! EGIDE is seemingly a recording project with members of ANEANTIX, but I hope they but together a live lineup and we see them at Varning this year.

IT CHOOSES YOU - Demo 25'

Demo 25′

DEMO FEST 2025

Scrappy an unpretentious hardcore that only a small town like Halifax can produce. This kind of demo gives me hope for the future of punk.

NORMAL NOW - Demo

Demo

DEMO FEST 2025

The result of a last minute DEMO FEST sprint by Kelly from RECALL/DUREX and Evan from PSYCHIC ARMOR and CELL. NORMAL NOW shows once again that Evan is a deep well of creative and weird songwriting (see also OUCH! from DEMO FEST 2020).

PICEA - Boreal Raw Punk

Boreal Raw Punk

DEMO FEST 2025

DEMO FEST received more submissions from Homer, Alaska than anywhere else outside of Montreal. It seems like a whole crew of people there embraced the spirit of DEMO FEST and got together in several different configurations to spit out a pile of raw noisy punk demos. This one from PICEA has fit into my regular listening.

PROGRESS? - DEMO 2025

DEMO 2025

DEMO FEST 2025

PROGRESS? is a proper new Montreal band who managed to rush out this debut recording in time for DEMO FEST. CF contributor Misery plus members of DUREX, DEADBOLT and NO WAR.

RECALL - DEMO II

Demo II

DEMO FEST 2025

Local heroes RECALL crammed to record a raw 4 song demo for DEMO FEST and it turned out amazing. I am sure you will hear more from this band this year.

RITALIN F.M. - Demo

Demo

DEMO FEST 2025

I thought I would hate it but I love it. From the mind of GLASS DOLLS and you'll hear familiar things here but pushed in even weirder directions. Is it just a troll or is it so sincere it hurts?

SYNAPTIC ISOLATION SYNDROME - Consuming Mental Isolation

Consuming Mental Isolation

DEMO FEST 2025

Montreal super-group with members of PORTAL TOMB, DRIP, WARKRUSHER and BALLAST (sorry Dave but it's true). I think it was originally pitched to me as some kind of crasher crust but in my (naive) opinion they ended up with more of a blistering fast hardcore crust sound. And a fun DOOM cover. "Crust!"

TRENCHCOAT - DEMO

DEMO

DEMO FEST 2025

The new IFO house band? Seb from DEADBOLT lineup joins Evan from PSYCHIC ARMOR and CELL plus CF contributor Corn. My guess is Seb and P-lou are finally getting to explore songwriting directions that falls outside of the DEADBOLT purview. More stripped down hardcore punk, but they still can't resist rocking with solos and bass lines.

Bonus: THE STEVE LAKE EXPERIENCE - The Feast of Stephen

The Feast Of Stephen

DEMO FEST 2025

After visiting Montreal to play with ZOUNDS, Steve heard about DEMO FEST and immediately committed to contribute something from his bottomless pile of unfinished tracks. DEMO FEST magic. A cosmic synth-based track followed by two sprawling rainy-day tracks that are vaguely psychedelic. A great way to cap off your DEMO FEST listening experience!

Columna Marginal - December 2025

2025-12-26T11:49:10.000-05:00

I hate this kind of list, but I'll do it for The Counterforce. I do not always discover the music of the current year, many times I find it too late. And I can't say I really loved albums I listened a couple times if they were released in December (or discovered at the end of the year). Also, I forget about music I discovered in January!

How can you do this in a proper, relaxed way? I just can't. It stresses me out to decide whether an album is better or not, but I definitely enjoyed some albums and bands this year and I hope this list puts them all together.

SÖT - Crema-ho Tot
DESTRUXION AMERICA - Gritos Norteño
LAME - Lo que extrañas ya no existe
SAYÓN - Demo 2025
LAKRA - S/T
KALEIDOSCOPE - Cities Of Fear
MERCY - EP
AYUCABA - Operación Masacre
UNIDAD IDEOLÓGICA - Choque Asimétrico
RIPCORD - Damage is Done (the reissue in LVEUM)
ZYFILIS - Don't Fear
TÀRREGA 91 - Ckaos Total

I also would like to say that I listened to LIFELESS DARK's "Forces of Nature's Transformation" frequently this year, and it's an amazing album. It doesn't matter when you read this, it will still be a great album. And same for LUMPEN's "Exterminación"! A proof that this already veteran band will be a classic from the rotten city of Barcelona.

BROKE ASS COMICS ZONE #1

2025-11-19T20:13:40.000-05:00

I Will Do My Worst #1

2025-11-11T17:18:10.000-05:00

I get asked by other punks pretty regularly about this or that new alternative online music sharing app or platform. This question has become more common in the last few weeks which suggests the tide is really starting to turn against Spotify. That's great, but I share the anxiety of many that a mass "Spotify exodus" is likely result in people jumping to something new that might be novel but won't really be fundamentally better.

I'm going to just share an answer I gave to a question about "Bandcamp alternatives" in regards to DEMO FEST in a recent (Sept 29th, 2025) interview with DIY Conspiracy. I've abridged my answer slightly, and at the end I'll add some updates. Go read the full interview if you are interested!

Those almost 200 demos from the first DEMO FEST were all uploaded on Bandcamp, but for DEMO FEST 2025 you’re trying out a static site generator called Faircamp. It would be really interesting to hear more about that. Also, what do you think of emerging Bandcamp alternatives like Ampwall and Subvert?

There are maybe a dozen different alternatives akin to Ampwall which are trying to callback to Bandcamp’s earlier days, sometimes with a slightly more ethical business model. These projects generally offer little or nothing that’s structurally or fundamentally different from Bandcamp. A few are cooperatives, which is more interesting. But overall, they are just proposals for another centralized online music distribution business. There is nothing to stop them from becoming shitty in 5-10 years, forcing us all to find something new again. I’m not interested in options like that.

Instead, I want something that lets us have more control and autonomy over how we share music online. A project that isn’t a new centralized site, but something that is open-source and self-hostable, so we can DIY it. I want punks to be able to both share and listen to each other’s music online without having to deal with a shitty company or corporate platform.

Faircamp is a (free, open-source) static site generator. Basically, it’s a program that makes a website that looks like a Bandcamp band/label profile. All the releases and tracks are organized nicely and presented for streaming/download. It doesn’t handle any payments or sales (but you can include a link to a PayPal to receive money). To use Faircamp, you install it on your computer, give it all your wav files, art, notes, lyrics, and Faircamp will put it all together and generate the HTML files. But, crucially, you need to take those HTML files and put them on a server yourself in order to have something people can reach on the Internet. It’s a bit technical and not easy for everyone. It’s not like Bandcamp where you can log in and just drag and drop everything to create or update a profile. You can see an example of a punk site built with Faircamp here.

But Faircamp is not what I’m dreaming of. Ultimately, I want something open-source and self-hostable so anyone can set up a DIY Bandcamp. Some technical skill from a person like me would be needed to set up each site, but bands could easily just sign up and upload their music as they do with Bandcamp now. I could run one of these for my local bands here, labels could run them for releases they put out, basically any person or group could set up their own. Hosting stuff on the Internet costs money, but any of these little autonomous Punkcamp sites could decide if they want to throw benefit shows, collect donations, or take a small cut of sales. It’s the same principle behind the decentralized Ask A Punk calendars, or Mastodon and the Fediverse.

There are two projects I know of that are working on something like this. One is Mirlo and the other is Bandwagon. Both are open-source and plan to be self-hostable soon. Bandwagon is also part of the Fediverse (you can follow a band’s page from a Mastodon account) and Mirlo has plans to add Fediverse features as well. I’m in touch with the creators of both projects, eagerly awaiting when I can try setting up my own version. When that happens I’m sure you’ll hear about it on The Counterforce.

Finally, as far as I can tell, Subvert is just a zine and a bunch of graphic design and unknown money sources pretending to be a radical Bandcamp alternative. I haven’t seen or heard anything about to suggest that it isn’t just a scam.

Two updates since that answer:

1. Mirlo

Mirlo has since received a substantial grant for developing decentralization features from the NLnet Foundation (a Netherlands non-profit that funds projects to contribute to an "open internet"). This means Mirlo is well-supported for the next little while to both become part of the Fediverse, and to be much easier for someone like to use it to build my own "DIY Bandcamp". Here's their blog post announcing their plans (https://mirlo.space/team/posts/funding-federating-mirlo). Following this work, small punk scenes or punk labels or anyone who wants to share (or sell) their music online could set up their own Mirlo. And I won't nerd out on the Fediverse stuff here, but it'll be cool too!

2. Subvert.fm

I was maybe a bit harsh on Subvert.fm as I had not looked closely at their website in a minute. They are now in "alpha" (though it's only open to members who bought the $100 zine). On their blog, they have published quite a lot of internal documents, demonstrating their formation of a complex cooperative model, with artist-members, label-members, supporter-members, etc., and a share investment model that allows them to raise investor capital a bit like a start-up. I'm a bit wary of that, particularly because they mention raising $650,000, but the link to provide more info "about the funding we took, the funding we didn't accept" doesn't actually deliver that (at least not today). There's just a lot of tech start-up vibes in general once you start to poke around. But I think their motivations are in the right place. It's probably not a scam, and at least they are mostly transparent if you can read through all the docs.

But is it a good fit for punks? Besides the vibes, it's a very bureaucratic business model with a lot of potential stakeholders who will have potentially conflicting goals. I don't think it really make sense for all musicians, labels, and interested investors/supports to be in one giant cooperative. It might be an ethical approach to being a "working musician" under capitalism, but that isn't a priority for me. You shouldn't have to join a huge complex business model just to share (or sell) your demo or record online. It's also just hype right now, and I'm skeptical of hype in general.

Conclusion: be DIY online

There is a clear contrast between Subvert, which is a closed-source single centralized platform (albeit with an ethical-ish business model), and Mirlo, who are working to build an open-source platform that anyone could use to create their own DIY Bandcamp. I find Mirlo more promising for punks, because of this alignment with DIY: it's a tool that any of us can use to do it ourselves, rather than yet another centralized platform that can fall out from under us.

If you are looking for somewhere to move your music to today, Mirlo's own instance is live right now for anyone to share/sell their music, but you can also DIY a band website using Faircamp (like RECALL), or use neocities (like DEADBOLT). Or something else. Just dub some demo tapes at home. Whatever you do, just consider: are you pushing the envelope of autonomy, or just joining another centralized platform with a makeover?

As this is one of my special interests, I'll be following all of these projects and continuing to try them out. Please get in touch if you have an opinion or perspective to share!

THINK! Column 1

2025-11-05T15:08:48.000-05:00

i. can ya smell it?

Disappointed some months (pushing a year?) ago at the various reactions and soundbites regarding Hardcore Band A and Hardcore Band B doing "Hardcore Band" things, I incurred the memetic damage and ruminated, holistically speaking, and now, a scant 8 months later - again, read elsewhere, time is meaningless, save the record keeping for the punchout clock, I spent those months working sixty hours and tearing my knee apart and grieving the loss of my best friend, and maybe, perhaps, this is all meaningless in the grand scheme-of-Things - I believe my disappointment warrants explanation and now We find Time.

Disappointed, not, I should clarify, because of any doubt regarding the facts of the case. They happened, we know this. Disappointed instead because of the explication amongst my Hardcore Punk fellows far more aligned in vision, focus, intention, aesthetics, et cetera with myself than the accused, that the actions of Hardcore Band A and Hardcore Band B were somehow in fact Hardcore Band behavior, as though these behaviors were not rampant amongst Punk Band A and Punk Band B and Punk Band C, and likewise speckled and spattered amongst the Grindecorers and Power Violent and Bicycle Messengers and Vegan Lawyers and the list is thousands long (though, presumably, not the way FILTH envisioned).

There's no names named this go 'round, because I've named them a million times and will a million times more, but it's a grave danger to assume that this is an Elsewheres problem. As we await the downfall of embarrassing bands with embarrassing web presence, circling the tent before we all point and laugh at the clowns, keep an eye on the danger just as likely found in our own backyards, personified not by strangers, but friends and confidants with bad haircuts and questionable chord progressions all the same. The depressingly banal truth is how evenly spread said behaviors are across all subculture and, indeed, all culture and all life.

ii. are you listening?

The big project this year was to work my way through three lists: the Pushead 100, its successor - Best of the 90s DIY Hardcore according to Prank Records, and the Wire's "100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening)," all distinct, yet surprisingly "in conversation" visions of What constitutes What demanding exploration. The project's purview was inevitably expanded to include the Wire's 30 album addendum, as well as all records granted the illustrious Five Mic designation by Source Magazine, but was delayed (read: abandoned) due to being a piece of shit, instead wiling away the months pulling pud (and, being charitable to myself for once, recovering). Every couple weeks, I remember this goal and, as I'm unemployed for another 3 months, I have absolutely zero reason to abandon (read: delay) this project any longer (save for an unyielding compulsion to pull pud, get the man a straitjacket!)

I've listened to the first six albums (two a piece from the initial three lists) so many times at this point that I probably don't ever need to listen to them ever again. Pushead's first two entries fucked up the curve for their cohort. What possible hope for legitimate pantheonic consideration can utter dreck like MEATMEN and SOCIAL DISTORTION have weighed against two of the greatest hardcore punk records ever conceived, included solely because Pushead balked at the idea of frontloading 7 consecutive records by the same band and, presumably, because he had never heard NOG WATT or the COMES at the time of publication?

Like a father confronted by the Old Testament God, Pus-y chose just one child: the "Fight Back" 7". Frightening, prophetic, the blueprint for a million would-be could-bes, no one has come close to replicating the message and mayhem of this record, and no one ever will. Likewise, despite their shirts adorning the barrel chests of now-erstwhile edgemen's high-gloss press photos for decades, the seeds spilled forth from the bitter fruit of SSD's "Get It Away" were smothered by the saccharine shade of GORILLA BISCUITS and UNIFORM CHOICE. Springa's unhinged ramblings over Barile's trademark crunch, the whole affair over and done before you know what hit you, they should have retired the trip Xs like a fucking jersey after Al died.

Fast forward a decade or so, Prank is here to educate. The 90s has always been unfairly maligned as an outlier in the Hardcore Punk timeline, forced repentance for pop-punk breaking into the mainstream and a greater emphasis on earnestness and feelings, but if INFEST, CROSSED OUT, and CRUDOS have failed to convince, it's unlikely IN/HUMANITY's "the Nutty Antichrist" will do much to drag you yobs closer to enlightenment. Of the six cuts in question, it's my least favorite, though not remarkably so. It's loud and chaotic, a forebear to the skinny white belt anemiacs still to come, with a petulant sense of humor and penchant for quirky samples, but once some of the songs hit 2:30 I start looking for the skip button, amusing when we consider the two track "No Reason Why" 7" by Japan's JUDGEMENT. Both clear that mark, but once the extremely 90s melodic intro finally wraps the fuck up, they hit the gas and never let up. Utter and absolute maniacism, and a pleasant start to this crash course of mostly unexplored territory.

While the Wire 100 mostly falls outside of this zine's purview, Martin gave me free reign, so blame him. An anecdote: one time, a mostly spoken word track of PIERRE AKENDENGUE's came on at work and got vetoed, but they were all fucking theater kids, preferring Sutton Foster's rendition over "Anything Goes" over Patti LuPone's, so what the fuck do they know anyway? Pete's "Nandipo" is a beautiful record start to finish, though I admittedly lack the critical language necessary to successfully contextualize it amongst its peers. For idiots like you and me, imagining some of these cuts in a mixtape nestled next to groups as diverse as 15-60-75, PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC, or ALGEBRA SUICIDE helps the brain grow strong.

I would imagine most of the assembled readership would be quickest to emulate the fucking theater kids transgression re: "Shooting At The Moon," the 1970 long player from KEVIN AYERS & THE WHOLE WORLD, but you'd be wrong and foolish. And dumb. A background spin may imply some degree of highfalutin, post-Woodstock, proto-AOR wankery, but every successive listen has revealed more and more. Sinister inclinations and heartbreak unrecoverable, the last dying breaths of the nuclear family, the soundtrack to societal collapse, the last flash of light before you get snuffed in a Michael Mann flick.

(The boss is breathing down my neck! Nearly 200 words over the line with still so much more to say! Til next time, True Believers!)

Columna Marginal - November 2025

2025-11-04T21:43:21.000-05:00

The powerful feeling after a good punk show is undeniably one of the best feelings you can have. This previous month I went to some shows that I enjoyed a lot, and I returned home a few times thinking that punk is amazing. Mostly I saw friends live, which is even better, some in projects I didn't know or that are just new.

Life is strange, and maybe even more so in our little punk corner. One day you're meeting some punks for a few hours, maybe staying at their house or playing together somewhere in the world, and after a few years with no knowledge of each other, you meet again and it's like finding some good old friends. This is what happened with NURSE a few days ago. We played together (I believe they even put on our show) in Atlanta in 2017 and stayed with them. Then in 2019 we were so lucky to play again there with them, and finally now, in 2025 they played in Barcelona (in my neighborhood!). I do not need to convince you that the show was amazing, they proved it everywhere over the last nine/ten years!

I was so excited to see NURSE and mildly curious about local bands. It was not the best day for me, I was kinda nervous, and I was ready to stay at the door the whole show. Well, that's exactly the opposite of what happened. Besides seeing all the bands, I was impressed by SÖT. I love to see people that have been part of many other projects for years doing a band that sounds as big as this one. Their sound was perfect for a melodic punk act, and there was even a MASSHYSTERI cover (and another one of THE CURE I think?), so you know what the deal is.

The next day I went to see the Berliners TERMINAL FILTH and SPEED KOBRA with their heavy crust at Blokes Fantasma, a classic punk squat from Barcelona that is at risk of eviction. They also played with SAYÓN (read review) and OFENSA. I wasn’t able to see OFENSA because I was talking with friends I haven’t seen in a long time, but SAYÓN did an amazing job. I think it was the best show I saw of them. After them, TERMINAL FILTH delivered tons of heavy sounds that smashed our heads. It was magic, I couldn’t believe how good this band was. Then SPEED KOBRA finished the job with another demonstration of musicianship and powerful vocals.

A couple weeks later DISAFFECT also visited our city! Again at Blokes, a perfect place for a punk show. These legends from the 90s still deliver an incredibly powerful anarchopunk, and I would say that more than a hundred punks went to see them on a weekday. It’s beautiful to see how different generations get together to enjoy punk! I left the venue thinking how beautiful this community is, how great it is that someone who started to play in the 90s can still come to Barcelona in a total DIY way, with the same passion after more than 30 years.

As you can see (or read), we had a lot of fun lately over here. I recommend you to listen to all these bands and support them if they come to your city (they will, I’m sure about it)!

SÖT - Crema-ho tot

SÖT is a new band with members of PÖLS and NAFRA, with mostly all the members from Almacelles or Lleida, if I'm not mistaken. You should check Almacelles on Wikipedia and then keep reading this. They have bands there, record their music, started a social center, publish easily the BEST punk fanzine in Spanish/Catalan that exists nowadays (SILENCIO TÓXICO) and are the nicest people on Earth!! These are things you don't expect from a town of around 7000 people.

The Spanish scene had many melodic punk acts like this one in its history. There’s examples like ELEKTRODUENDES and the more recent ACCIDENTE, but the list is so long. As many other punks from Spain I was also influenced by those sounds and lyrics. SÖT is a new take on that style, a bit more darker, sometimes it could be classified as post punk. Their musicianship is excellent, from vocals to drums everything is where it should be.

After a few listens of the LP the melodies of the vocals got stuck in my head, and some lyrics started to come to my mind in random situations. I love the compositions, I feel like every song has new details in every listen, and they put a lot of effort on making this a perfect album. I kinda feel like this band will be big as soon as they start to tour and release more music of this quality!

https://sotpunk.bandcamp.com/album/crema-ho-tot

Crema-ho tot, by SÖT

10 track album

SÖTdcdirkzwager

NURSE - S/T (III)

NURSE live in 2017

Referred as III in their own bandcamp page but as "Nurse" in State Laughter Records page, I do not know what's the real name of this release. Anyway, this is a pure NURSE record, very modern sounds, mixing some kind of goth vibe with what I see as a big influence from 00s/10s NYC punk, but I may be totally wrong. NURSE have been doing this kind of sounds for a decade, they probably are writing music in their own style already.

The references could be multiple, but think about weird hardcore. DIE KREUZEN, some CRAZY SPIRIT, certain YDI parts, etc. You know what I mean, right? Well if you don't, just listen to the damn album!

Along the tracks I can hear rugosities, textures, changes and a very great production in the whole album. I love the drums and bass, they give a solid presence to the music with a very specific tone for the second, a flavor with big personality. But what amazes me the most are the guitar licks, that escape of the classic power chords played as fast as possible. Combined with the bass and the dark growled vocals they take you to a very dark place.

I hope this band keeps writing music and touring for so many years, it would be a pleasure to listen to them for another decade (if we are not totally deaf by then).

https://nurseatl.bandcamp.com/album/iii

III, by NURSE

7 track album

NURSEBandcamp New & Notable Jan 20, 2024

TERMINAL FILTH - Traces Towards Oblivion

When you listen to TERMINAL FILTH you have to be prepared for long songs. But that kind of songs that are a good trip, with parts that evolve in total different passages. Use this music to take that train, metro or bus in the morning in the way to work: I promise you will want to kill everyone in that shitty workplace without a single drop of coffee. These Berliners are masters of the sounds they deliver, they control precisely the timings and how every sound should be in its correct place. Of course we are talking about a crust band, maybe nearly death metal one, or just a stenchcore band that could be already a classic with their own style.

Traces Towards Oblivion is an amazing release, and since I'm not even close to an expert of these sounds I will let you decide which are the influences. If albums were wine I could recommend you to take this one with a bit of HELLSHOCK, BOLT THROWER and DEVIATED INSTINCT. But that's just my opinion and albums are not wine, so do whatever you want to. Their live show here was incredibly good, making this album be on repeat in my mp3 player. This is a must for anyone into this genre. Really. Listen to it. Please.

https://terminalfilth.bandcamp.com/album/traces-towards-oblivion

Traces Towards Oblivion, by Terminal Filth

4 track album

Terminal Filthyaz

Columna Marginal - October 2025

2025-10-09T20:00:58.000-04:00

I don't care about Halloween. It's not part of my culture and I don't want it to be part of anything around me. I openly hate the North American/British culture, which, for some reason, is cooler than our traditional celebrations that are old (very old) and beautiful, normally related to nature. The only good thing about this cultural colonization is that I can speak and write English, so I'm able to communicate with many people that I couldn't otherwise. But why is English the global language and not Catalan? The same thing will be thought by the people of Peru about Spanish, and I totally support them in their defense of Quechua, Aimara, etc. Why do we have to use a colonizer language?

Well, since I'm aware of the good part of speaking an understandable language by many people (I refuse to consider it "common", since, for me, it is a foreign language that I was forced to learn in order to be able to study, work and be an average citizen), and I'll keep writing using it, but I'm going to invite you, dear reader, to learn new languages that do not represent the capitalism and colonizers of the world. Learning a language may sound challenging, but it actually takes an hour per day to understand the basic things in about a month or two. You probably have that time! If you're a native English speaker, you can consider it this way: many of those who speak English had that time to learn so we could communicate with you. Why are you not making that effort?

Okay, let's make it easier. There's a perfect language for those who don't have much time and speak languages that come from Europe: it's called Esperanto. Yes! It still exists! It's a beautiful language with a beautiful community, a bit similar to punk in many ways. For example, people travel through the world visiting esperantists because they know they will have a lot in common, so they trust each other. Sounds a lot like punk, to be honest. Also, esperantists hold events constantly so they all meet there, and if you attend one they will love to find new people into this language and values. Very punk, isn't it?

The values and political context where Esperanto is developed can be found in many places, I recommend you to check it. But since it's the start of the month and I'm actually recommending you some music from Bandcamp, I decided to add some esperantists that make music :) I hope you enjoy them and try to translate their lyrics and titles. That's how I learnt English when I was 10: translating Green Day lyrics!

SOCIO LA DIFEKTA - Kreski

My current favorite esperantist band is SOCIO LA DIFEKTA, a Japanese band that takes the sound of the crust anarchopunk from the 90s/early 00s and brings it back. They share members with another band that also uses Esperanto as a main language, MALIMPLIKI, and also share members with other amazing bands like UNARM and BLISTERING NOISE.

This EP is a little gem for those interested in anarchopunk. Using Esperanto for their lyrics is a big stand against any colonizer culture. Remember that Japan was (and could be argued that it still is) a colonizer nation, and that the US had invaded and controlled them since World War II, changing the country forever. Also, anarchism is not the most popular political option in Japan, not even in punk, so this band is challenging in many ways all that they have around.

The music is a non-stop hardcore attack, with brilliant musicianship and the amazing effect of two vocals that turn this noisy punk act into a ferocious stance. "Polico Fikas Aĉulon" (Police Fucking Bastard ?) is an amazing starting track, and now my favorite Esperanto phrase since I even wear a badge with it. It sounds way better than in English!

I would like to reference this music with other bands that you might like, but it's just a perfect example of Japanese uniqueness brutal hardcore, an experiment with sound that doesn't feel like an experiment at all, but a very well-prepared punk act. Do you like DISRUPT, DOOM, LIFE, even some DISCLOSE? I know, they sound different, but then you will like SOCIO LA DIFEKTA. Kreski is not the only release of this band, they later released a promo recorded in their practice rooms only for their Japanese tour with SUBDUED.

https://beachimpedimentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/kreski

Kreski, by Socio La Difekta

6 track album

Beach Impediment Recordsrufus_dayglo

VOĈO PROTESTA - Neniam Konfidu Al La Stato

Japan, Japan, Japan! Fuck Japan and every state! Fuck borders! But when we talk about Esperantist punk, I think the best we can do is not get far from this territory and their amazing scene. VOĈO PROTESTA are one of the first bands I learnt that were still using this language. We played with them in Tokyo in 2018 after MALIMPLIKI and I couldn't believe what I was seeing (or hearing). That night was probably the one when I finally started to have that feared chronic tinnitus. It can be a kind of punk baptism, or the start of a punk retirement, it depends on how you want to see it. Here I am seven years later, so I guess I chose my path for the rest of my life: being deaf and lying to myself making me think I like a lot of bands that sound like white noise.

Anyway, we are here to talk about music (not noise hehe). I decided to choose this VOĈO PROTESTA release because it sounds amazing, and I feel like it's a bit overlooked compared with their previous LP Vojo Al Libereco. "Never trust the state" is the title of these songs of classic sound passed through a Japanese crasher crust filter, but very subtle compared with their other recordings. Actually, it sounds more "hardcore" than their previous releases, but they still are pretty extreme in a good way. I'm talking here as if we were friends in a bar having some beers, so don't mind my vague descriptions, this is not a scientific investigation.

Neniam Konfidu Al La Stato is a powerful album, with incredible references like the one to "Historia de un sucio policía" by IV REICH. Soldida Policia is a perfect cover and interpretation that made me jump in excitement once I listened to the first riff, a classic of Iberian punk. It amazes me to see the different sound and style VOĈO PROTESTA used here. I'm not going to lie, I love IV REICH so much, but I wish they would have sounded like this. The rest of the album continues with this reinterpretation of 80s classics that I guess are from all over Europe, especially from the Scandinavian countries. The songs are short but not too short, the mix is, in my honest opinion, perfect. And the album cover, like the previous LP is made by Teodoro Hernández: if you don't know him, you better start to check OTAN and the zines that produced over the last 20-30 years.

I heard that some people from VOĈO PROTESTA were at the Esperantist society of Tokyo, but I'm not sure about this. I hope they are still active, but I guess they aren't since I haven't heard of them in the last few years. Please check their whole discography, it's pure gold! And translate the lyrics to find a way to express anger through a non-colonizer language!

https://lavidaesunmus.bandcamp.com/album/neniam-konfidu-al-la-tato-lp

Neniam Konfidu Al La Ŝtato LP, by Voĉo Protesta

12 track album

LA VIDA ES UN MUS DISCOSloberto06

Four Things At Once

2025-09-14T16:30:54.000-04:00

It's four things at once on my mind at 5am, dispatching, as we are, LIVE from the 3rd stage. And the bargain, True Believers, is maybe if you make up for the lost time spent shlubbing it up overnight in dank and humid Chicago alleys for two months straight makin' sin-ema (a contraction, if you'll allow it: Sin + Enema), stay productive, you're on your ass laid out like never before, but avoid the electromanic pull of the void, and maybe maybe maybe it will have been worth the last two months of your best friend's life. (Ohhhhh oh oh, I doubt it!)

Let's talk what this isn't: it's not a column, though I've promised one and it's been asked of me, no no no, this is the delicate act of balancing four things at once, and since we've established one may wax Bangsian times two in a space built for one, what's twice THAT while the Boss is away from his desk? (How's Varning?)

So, again, it's 5am, the last hard line between the real and the un-; the glow is inchin' and creepin', an old friend with yet another secret to tell, and there you are stirrin' and the leg's a throbbin' and so's yer noggin' and if you scroll for even one more fucking second you know, without question, that you've dropped your end of the bargain so stop!, STOP!, the finger hovers over the latest Crucified Freedom entry, a Croatian Hardcore Punk blog you follow to intermittently pore over in hopes a new name in an unfamiliar tongue might hop out and beckon you in your dreamlike state upon some clandestine excursion.

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA - Anti-politika

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA. Existential crisis. The synchronicity of it is astounding. The first four tracks on "Anti-Politika" are total mixtape bait: fast, sincere, no pose Hardcore Punk straight from Pula, Croatia. Very Italian in execution, evoking greats like DECLINO, INDIGESTI, and NEGAZIONE, bundling them up and reporting for duty at the SOLUNSKI FRONT.

LAS PALMAS - Primera Linea

Beyond the Front, we find the "First Line," specifically "Primera Linea" by LAS PALMAS, a short lived outfit from Verona, Italy. The label's write up describes the city as the country's most conservative and you can tell. Unhinged, repetitive, surreptitious, 3 tracks of catharsis boiled over. What Minneapolis' WILD COMBO would have sounded like if they got locked in a closet with only the TOTAL CHAOZ demos. Devoid of ego, the mirror pointed outwards. An absolute must listen as we journey further into chaos and arrive at "Heaven's Gate..."

PHIZ - Heaven's Gate

The latest offering from Dusseldorf's PHIZ, it's by far the most focused and produced of these dreamscape monuments, but no less primal. They fire with a higher success rate than the previously reviewed MOTHER NATURE, successfully merging their (presumably nascent) psychedelic inclinations with the burly, thinking man's Capital H as perfected by California's DIZTORT.

SOGNO LIBERO - Sogno Libero

At last, the end of the dream: SOGNO LIBERO, label-mates and members of LAS PALMAS, no less unhinged, but darker, surely. The drums are precise and ultilitarian, the guitars wail, the staccato, rapid-fire vocal delivery recalls countrymen EU'S ARSE and WRETCHED.

So, what, beyond some potentially overlapping influences, binds these seemingly disparate releases? Quite possibly sleep deprivation and mania!

But look, listen, feel: authentic, uncompromising, unrelenting. No bargaining, no reservations. Hard music for hard times, not background noise. Real punk music, whispering secrets fit only for the True Believers.

Music for fighting, that our dreams become reality.

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA - "Anti-Politika" EP, self-released, listen here: https://egzistencijalnakriza.bandcamp.com/album/anti-politika.

LAS PALMAS - "Primera Linea" CS and SOGNO LIBERO - "Sogno Libero" CS released by Sentiero Futuro Autoproduzioni, listen here: https://sentierofuturoautoproduzioni.bandcamp.com/music.

PHIZ - "Heaven's Gate" EP released by DBNO Records, listen here: https://phizband.bandcamp.com/album/heavens-gate.

Follow CRUCIFIED FREEDOM FANZINE here: https://crucifiedfreedom.blogspot.com/.

8/10 with DJ Buckingham Palace

2025-05-20T22:38:08.000-04:00

NINES? TENS? DON’T TALK CRAZY! HOW MANY REALLY EXIST OUT THERE? HOW ABOUT WE CELEBRATE THE BEST OF OUR USELESS TOIL AND LEAVE THE HYPERBOLE FOR PITCHFORK DOT COM. 8/10 IS NOT BAD! IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE BEST! BUT HEY, TAKE THIS AS PROOF THAT I’M NOT SOME BUTTER-UP PUNK TRYNA HAND OUT THE HIGH SCORE FOR A SNEAKY KEY AT THE BAD SMELLING GIG. I DIDN’T SAY TENS DON’T EXIST! - DJ BUCKINGHAM PALACE

LIFELINE - Endtime Groupthink

Back in February, I had the pleasure of watching LIFELINE play their first ever set at La Chaine’s ‘new band’ gig at LA Sotterenea. I think many would agree that a certain measure of looseness, a few glaring stumbles or maybe even a mid-song stop and restart are all fair-and-square expectations for a bill comprised entirely of brand new thumb-sucking punk bands, however, based on the bands cone-studded lineup alone which features members of LOBOTOMITE, CATEGORY 514, RECALL and countless others, I was pretty certain that LIFELINE would exceed expectations by a rifle shot, and they really, really did. It was a 15-or-so minute display of raw churning d-beat with a well-considered death metal inflection. There were lots of inventive riffs, a few tablespoons of melodic creativity, and vocals that oscillated between furious and mournful. Flash forward three and a half months later, and I’m exceedingly glad to report that the band has not sacrificed any of their scale or versatility on their way to completing this debut tape. It’s all in there! Just like I remember! Without a doubt Endtime Groupthink has got crasher crust at its glowing hot molten core, but Lifeline avoids a common mode of failure that other adjacent bands succumb to by reaching far beyond the parameters of their crusty rawpawnk foundation. Less inspired d-beat shakeweighters of the world should take note; make the style your springboard! Have a part that sounds like it would fit nicely on the album Heartwork! Why not? An easy 8/10.

Endtime Groupthink, by LIFELINE

5 track album

LIFELINEBandcamp New & Notable Mar 6, 2025

LIFELINE live, photo by Slim

EMPART - EXTREMENOISEHARDCORE

Is mysterious guy (insert subgenre title here) back? I have practically zero background information that I can add to this review beyond their bandcamp tags which are; “punk, dbeatrawpunk, Austin”. That’s Austin, Texas and not Austin, Quebec, right? We can’t say for true. Someone has got to know something! Anyway, who gives a fuck, I guess. I’ve been hangin’ on tight for a follow up from this project since 2023 and EMPART has finally delivered thee such reward with a seven track banger so unforgiving in its raw grit that by track seven you’ll feel as if you’ve really put your aural endurance to the test. If you have a hi-fi system at home, just be careful - this shit might actually delaminate every surface in your apartment and then you’ll lose out on that damage deposit :’( I mean, pick out one of these tracks blind and I guarantee that it would make a great playlist addition at any CIA black site prison. So yeah, I guess what I’m saying is that if you want to turn your tape player into a COBALT style no-touch torture device (the only time I’ve ever used a reference like that to describe something that I enjoy) you should buy this cassette… if you can. I don’t know if they made tapes or if they’re available or if EMPART has ever even played a show. All this scary CIA interrogation talk has got me a little suspicious of their mystery now. Better check if there’s a .gov address attached to the Bandcamp page. It’s an 8/10 even if they’re the feds.

EXTREMENOISEHARDCORE, by EMPART

7 track album

EMPARTBandcamp New & Notable Mar 6, 2025

SILO KIDS - DEMO

I’m enamored by their quickness, besotted by their wit,
Enraptured by their buoyant charm, by every snare drum hit,
I’ve been struck on Hub City’s SILO KIDS, and their warly wicked-sick riffs,
The demo’s out on Earth Girl Tapes, on this Bandcamp link, do click

https://earthgirltapes.bandcamp.com/album/demo-3

8/10

CORN'S CORNER: DEMO DUMPSTER DIVE #1

2025-02-28T17:11:34.000-05:00

I think a lot about the way things get lost: band shirts that evaporate, ignored buildings demolished after you leave the neighbourhood, faint acquaintances delete their social media and you never see them again, digitally or otherwise. Almost all punk demos are like this: tossed off to niche audiences in limited quantities, uploaded to incredibly fragile file sharing sites, and usually eventually abandoned for lack of interest by either the band, the audience or both.

This article lines up roughly with issue #500 of Maximum RocknRoll, so I'm going back into that musty pile of greying newsprint I've been lugging from apartment to apartment, finding some gems of yore (ie 2011) and re-reviewing them here on the Force. Fans of 2010 laptop mic recordings, bitloss, and the smallest JPEGs imaginable won't wanna miss this.

FUSS - Cold Porn - Greensboro, NC

"...VOID influenced stuff that seems so popular with all the troubled teens these days." - Aaron

Real deal teenagers in a basement shit, spazzy and straight ahead. I love the terrible album art and heart on sleeve lyrics, not a huge fan of the nonsensical and offensive Vietnam War sample, but such was the time. The EP they recorded a year later is the real treat I'd say.

Synaptic Havoc EP, by FUSS

7 track album

FUSSBandcamp New & Notable Oct 17, 2024

THE FUCKING COPS - You Have The Right to Shut the Fuck Up - Cleveland, OH

"A bit too much harmonization for my taste, but if they keep the guitar leads going everything should be OK." - Brad

Felt my JAWBREAKER tattoo tingle for this one, deep in the paint "orgcore" shit, the all-dressed hot dog on this tape: tired after work song, political song, song about a city, song about a girl. Pretty perfect.

You Have The Right to Shut The Fuck Up, by The Fucking Cops

7 track album

The Fucking CopsVolker J.

RAGRAGE / TWAT SAUCE - Discography / Clash of the Tight Ones - Chattanooga, TN

"So apparently there's this new thing called 'crust pop'..." - Kevin

Not a split, but might as well be, seems like they shared members and sent their demos in the same month. Somebody with more skin in the game should write about the Chattanooga / sloppy gay punk scene flowing out of this era, but I think part of the special thing about it that it never coalesced under a genre tag or something easily apeable (crust pop is pretty good though), and so remained specific to a small group of punks, a time and a couple places. Still, these songs all sound like being drunk in the summer and I love it.

discography, by RAGRAGE

4 track album

RAGRAGEBandcamp New & Notable Mar 1, 2025

TWAT SAUCE - “Clash Of The Tight Ones” - Tape - 2010

TWAT SAUCE, hailing from Chattanooga, TN, is a force to be reckoned with. They’re a group of rowdy, sleazy punk girls (and dude) who w…

2010Harvester

FAMILY OUTING - Demo 2013 - London, UK

"... weird and damaged and wrong in a compulsive manner." - Layla

Easily the best thing I found in this dig, mean as shit hardcore. Best tracks were 'Thicko' and 'Sickos', not the same old guitar lines as a lot of bands splashing around in this pool. Same singer as the almighty GOOD THROB, but much more straight-ahead. Already broken up by the time MRR was reviewing this, a classic move. I can't help but love a side project or a one-off. Each tape came with "an individually stamped old postcard from your auntie's crap trip to Ramsgate with her arsehole children", so that's cool.

Family Outing demo tape, by Family Outing

7 track album

Family OutingBandcamp New & Notable Jan 15, 2025

LITTLE ITALY - Demo Songs - New York City, NY

"It doesn't immediately strike me as garage, but if I had to encapsulate it in one word, I guess that's closest one I could come up with." - Langford

This is the kind of project I started this column to find. No real releases other than a live radio recording that got put on tape, and this bad photo of them playing in a park to three people is everything to me. It seems like they were tight with the mildly more popular outer borough band DIPERS, they played most of their shows with them. Are the songs good? Eh... 'Telephone' is pretty charming, but I think the fact that they're nothing special is why I like them listening back.

PS if anybody in Montreal knows who made the DEVIL'S DICK recording reach out - inquiring minds would like to know who's responsible.