I don't really care about stuff they had put out after Paganicons, but man, that debut EP is one of the best, if not The best EP ever.

Mark Hodson, the bassplayer from their first album, is a truly great guy. Not crap for this alone! His bar in Amsterdam, Jet Lounge, is still the stuff of legend.

Great band, extraordinary range and vocabulary (musically and lyrically) that create a potent, atmospheric sound. Even when the music gets a little more polished, there's an old-school religion / preacher energy that's totally compelling and unsettling: a great example of a vocalist contributing to a band w/out being a conventional singer.

Would struggle to choose between Surviving You, Always (more manic, skronky and convulsive - wide eyes and bad vibes) and We Became Snakes (transcendental, cooler fusion grooves, sans cheese).

Also, their snake nailed to a cross logo is one of my favourite Pettibon pieces.

N.C

Been a minute since I've listened to Worldbroken and that alone warrants one Not Crap vote.

I think I have every release and I dig all of it. Even got to see them twice. The Trust will always be special.

IMO one of the most underrated bands of all time.

If you have not watched this, you should do so immediately:



Not even approximating crap.

very great

Of that “classic” core of SST bands (BF, Minutemen, Huskers, MP, etc) probably the greatest, if not the most foundational (three way tie, natch: Minutemen/Huskers/Flag), in my personal canon. All of the albums are singular and inspired and crucial in different ways. Worldbroken is such an incredible feat, improv-ing both the vocals & music live (bass player chickened out a week before & Watt subbed) within a rock band format is rarely attempted and Brewer/Baiza swing it with aplomb (possibly cuz they didn’t realize they were doing something so hard). Speaking of which an incredible pairing of visionary front-man with visionary guitar player. Baiza is hot-shit, like Quine or something. And Brewer, I could talk a long time about his words & his delivery, both hugely inspirational. “Jim & Jimi in the same band”-R. Meltzer. They don’t fit snugly with their contemporaries and probably would have made more sense 10-15 yrs later if they were from Chicago (cf. Jack Brewer and Kava), but thems the breaks. They reunited way too early (no one cared abt punk-era reforms yet in ‘97) and turned in another classic in 2001 that was extremely hard to come by until 2017. Much to my eternal regret I’ve never seen them, though youtube clips of Brewer rolling on the floor before 20 people in some South Bay bar leads me to believe they would be awesome. Late era bass player Chris Stein passed away in 2018. Not crap.

The Classical wrote:(cf. Jack Brewer and Kava)

That one single they released is excellent. I wish there was more of it. I'm surprised and pleased that anyone remembers this in 2021.

Paganicons rules. Great hardcore that's completely excellent b/c it is, in fact, not really hardcore. Jack Brewer is also one of the few spoken-word type, poetry-influenced vocalists that makes it work. Not crap.