Duress - Indifference 7"

Duress is a straight edge band from Chicago that plays furious noisy hardcore brutality. Everything about this band pretty much rules. Prior to the 7", they had put out a demo tape and a song on The World Itself Is A Bad Dream, an excellent tape comp put out by Drugged Conscience. "Allergic to Hope", the track from the comp, as well as "Asshole" and "Guilt" from the demo, were rerecorded for the 7" and sound amazing. These guys also have an amazing live set, which I was fortunate enough to watch when they came to Toronto a few months ago. This record is pretty short (seven songs in four and a half minutes) and you'll definitely find yourself listening to it on repeat.

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P.S. Eliot - Introverted Romance In Our Troubled Minds

This is probably my favorite album of the moment. P.S. Eliot is an indie rock/pop punk band from the American South. As the name implies, this album is perfect summertime listening for hopelessly romantic, indie pop/pop punk-loving teenage geek types. That being said, it's hard to stop listening to anything but the record once you listen to it. The songs are really sugary but have a nice kick of biting teen angst and a little bit of country-ish feel which really completes the sound. Also, the lyrics rule and actually give the listener something to think about, something that's not always common on pop punk records.

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Bad Choice - Demo CS

No Toronto music blog is complete without a mention of the Bad Choice demo. Bad Choice was an extremely short-lived old school hardcore band comprised of several members of other local bands. These dudes were something like Toronto's Negative FX: straight edge brutality which was extremely influential despite the band's short life. The demo itself is a masterpiece. Recording by Jonah Falco (Fucked Up, Career Suicide), the mix is incredible, the songs fucking rip, the lyrics are perfect, and the vocals sound like an angry drill sergeant barking orders, which goes perfect with the band's military imagery. The band is clearly going for an early New York or Boston sound with some Oi influence in there and are often cited as Toronto's answer to 86 Mentality. This demo is a rare piece of perfection and a serious mosh. Check it out.

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Welcome to the Terrordome

Hey, my name is Alican. I wanted to start a music blog thing to post on a few of my favorite bands and releases and eventually got around to it. I'm mostly gonna be posting a lot of punk, hardcore, garage, psych and a lot of other fun shit. Check it out.