Cassette Tapes

Audiotree Live - March 23, 2012 Cassette

Cassette in collaboration with Audiotree & Get Better Recs. 

Session Tracklist
1. a Departure
2. The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit
3. a Letter
4. Edward Benz, 27 Times
5. All Our Bruised Bodies and the Whole Heart Shrinks
6. You and I In Unison

This is a pre-order item with a release date of June 27. Anything else purchased in the same order will not be shipping until around that date.

The plan was to start a band that was all longtime friends. The idea was to embrace the scene they grew up in. 

The conspirators are as follows: Matty Matheson (singer), who grew up in the Niagara hardcore scene (with his late 90's band, Hanging Hearts), and who has gone on to become a chef and restaurateur. Wade MacNeil (guitarist), an active member of Alexisonfire and Doom’s Children. The Romano brothers, Daniel(guitarist) and Ian(drummer), rock’n’roll veterans from Daniel Romano’ Outfit and Tommy Major (bassist) of Young Guv -Tommy and the Commies - Daniel Romano’s Outfit 

“It  was during the pandemic and we were all back home,” says Matheson. The conversations began - to make something heavy, noisy and touched on the classic 80’s hardcore we all love so much. Everyone showed up with a bunch of riffs, scraps of lyrics, talked influences and principles, bounced ideas back and forth, then got chinese food. “We wrote 10 songs in one day,” says Matheson, “and the next day we recorded them.”

What resulted is the band Pig Pen. And, from this flash of inspiration, the group’s debut full length, Mental Madness, will be released  on Flatspot Records June 27th. It’s tough and it’s harsh, the music is dark and noisy, and it’s got depth. There’s an ease to the energy too that spiritually aligns it with those rare fully realized hardcore demos from the classic era — one of those golden, hallowed megaphone announcements that show up now and then in the scene from a band with good ideas, who seemingly came out of nowhere, but who knew what they were from the jump, and who just did it.  

Due to the band members’ extracurriculars, Pig Pen is starting off as a contained explosion and a distilled expression, which is what the music itself is about. The subject matter on
Mental Madness sticks to themes that Matheson describes as “mental health shit”: topics like isolation, loneliness, and “letting your mind destroy you.” A representative sample: “Teach me to hate myself, teach me not to care,” bellows Matheson in “Mental Mentality,” the band’s first single—“I’m sick, I’m sick, I’m sick,” during the bridge. These are words that might ring an alarm bell, but sound perfectly at home in a hardcore song, but are they ever just hardcore lyrics? 

”You can be having a beautiful day, surrounded by friends,” Matheson explains, “and your brain can continuously ruin it. No matter how good or bad your life is, you can still hate yourself. I've got to ask myself why am I feeling the ways I'm feeling?” In other words, the record is about experiencing life, feeling all the feelings in the sunshine and the dark corners.

If that’s what the songs are about, the band is about something different: Just being a band. “Our love of each other is what makes it”, says Matheson. “Joyousness,” concurs Dan Romano. Friends having fun. It comes across on the record as an expression of happiness. Is that a dichotomy? Not exactly. “There’s a sense of community in that hardcore scene we came up in,” says Romano, “and those early enlightenments, they stay with you.”  And though everyone in the band has branched out since those days, “hardcore is always the same in some ways,” Matheson says, “this is a scene of of giving, of sharing, of going the fuck off. That’s it, really.” That’s Pig Pen. 

Pig Pen ‘Mental Madness’

Produced by Pig Pen
Engineered by Ian Romano 
Mixed by Arthur Rizk
Mastered by Alan Douches

Tracklist:

1. Inferno
2. Dawn Curse
3. Sabaku Kyu (feat. Volitile Ways)
4. Remnants
5. The Bond
6. Empty Promises

Birthed in 2016 from a cross-section of beloved UK punk groups, London’s High Vis have steadily become legends by virtue of their passionate performances and evolving discography of poetic, progressive hardcore. Comprised of singer Graham Sayle, drummer Edward "Ski" Harper, bassist Jack Muncaster, and guitarists Martin Macnamara and Rob Hammaren, the band fuse the fury of English street punk with touches of Brit pop melody, neo-psychedelia swirl, wiry post-punk rhythm, and even bits of Madchester groove. To Sayle, such melting pot energy points the way forward: “For years hardcore had pretty clear boundaries – other scenes were separate worlds. Now things are getting more blended, drawing from different places.”

With 2022’s breakout Blending, High Vis expanded upon their self-described “post-industrial Britain misery punk”  with an anthemic rock sound combined with baggy grooves. Lyrically, the album was a leap forward for High Vis as frontman Sayle took a more principle role in writing the lyrics and melodies. Sayle’s took focus on social consciousness addressing the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain while also looking at himself and his own emotional landscape. The process created something that feels universal and ultimately relays a message of hope.

The band’s third and latest full-length, Guided Tour, refines their lyricism and chemistry to its most potent nexus yet. Full of swagger and sneers, hooks and hope, revolt and righteous anger, the album’s 10 tracks hit like anthems for a new England. And while the songs’ specifics often speak to their native country in particular, the themes addressed are universal. Theirs is a camaraderie born of sweat and experience, years in the trenches of ripping shows and shit jobs, still fighting back, still fighting for something better. High Vis are proving themselves protectors of the flame, and avatars of the best hardcore has to offer.

Track Listing:

1. Guided Tour
2. Drop Me Out
3. Worth the Wait
4. Feeling Bless
5. Fill the Gap
6. Farringdon
7. Mob DLA
8. Untethered
9. Deserve it
10. Mind's a Lie
11. Gone Forever

This is a pre-order item with a release date of April 4. Anything else purchased in the same order will not be shipping until these are in stock and shipping.

Scowl is a band that sounds exactly like their name implies. Venomous, fierce, antagonistic. A sneer not to be crossed. Over the last five years, the Santa Cruz, California, band has firmly planted their flag in the hardcore scene with their vicious sound and ripping live show, sharing stages around the world with Circle Jerks, Touché Amoré, and Limp Bizkit, and filling slots at prominent festivals like Coachella, Sick New World, and Reading and Leeds. But with their new album, Are We All Angels (Dead Oceans), Scowl is aiming to funnel all that aggression through a more expansive version of themselves.

Are We All Angels is the highly anticipated follow-up to Scowl’s debut, 2021’s How Flowers Grow, a 16-minute primal scream over punishing riffs. But amidst the pounding chaos, it was the record’s sonic outlier, a cleaner interlude called “Seeds to Sow,” that, true to its name, planted the seed for what was to come for the band. “It kind of laid out this destiny for us, and I feel like now we’re fulfilling that,” says Gilbert. The band continued to expand their sound on 2023’s widely acclaimed Psychic Dance Routine EP, incorporating more pop hooks and favoring gentler singing over heavy screaming, paving the way for what would come next.

At every turn on Are We All Angels, the band explores ambitious new directions and bends genre norms. Moss makes the most immediately noticeable evolution, dropping some of the gnarling bite of the band’s previous work in favor of a more textured and sometimes delicate approach. She flexes harmonies and melodic sensibilities that might surprise even the most dedicated Scowl fans. Moss cites a wide array of influences outside the realm of hard rock—everything from Billie Eilish to Radiohead, Car Seat Headrest to Julien Baker. “The majority of us were really not proficient musicians when this band started,” she admits. “It was very Germs-esque in that way, like baby’s first hardcore band, which is awesome. But now, we still might not know what we’re doing, but we have a better idea of what we want to do.”

Track Listing:

1. Special
2. B.A.B.E.
3. Fantasy
4. Not Hell, Not Heaven
5. Tonight (I’m Afraid)
6. Fleshed Out
7. Let You Down
8. Cellophane
9. Suffer The Fool (How High Are You?)
10. Haunted
11. Are We All Angels

Self-designated as “Bangkok Evilcore” Whispers, based out of Thailand, are bringing an immense sound to modern metallic hardcore. Originally formed in 2014, the band picked up steam in 2021 with the release of their Narok Bon Din EP grabbing international attention. Now Whispers join the growing roster of pivotal heavy music label Flatspot Records for the release of Yom-Ma-Lok.

Hitting the studio in Spring 2024, Whispers set out to make a heavy, intense record that connects on an emotional level. The band worked with Suchai at Sixthirty Recording Studio in Bangkok to hone in on their sound, before sending the EP to Andy Nelson at BrickTop Recording for mixing and Brad Boatright at Audiosiege mastered it. Influence from bands like All Out War and Merauder comes through across the seven songs, giving a tough as nails delivery packed with menacing riffs. Thematically,  Yom-Ma-Lok addresses realism and human nature through a global perspective.

Yom-Ma-Lok opens with the aptly titled, instrumental “Bangkok Evilcore” before diving into the crushing “A Choice To Survive.” A hostile delivery is juxtaposed by lyrics of self-reliance based on proverbs from Buddhism. Speed’s Jem Siow, who also assisted with lyric translations on the album, guest features at the 2:50 mark of the song amidst a crushing breakdown. Lead single “Retribution” exemplifies the band’s ability to deliver a grappling hardcore song made for the mosh-pit while showcasing a knack for serious guitar writing. The guest features on the EP continue as Shaun Alexander of Demonstration Of Power and Stephen Bessac of Kickback lend their vocals to “Wisenheimer” and “Yom-Ma-Lok” respectively. Closing out with the title track, which translates to  “world of death people” or “underworld” in Thai, Whispers conjures the feeling of descending into hell and leaves the listener with a stark impression.

Over the years, Whispers has brought their menacing live show across Southeast Asia, Japan, and Europe, and will return to the latter this fall on the Flatspot World tour. With the release of  Yom-Ma-Lok, Whispers are setting out to spread the message and sound of Asian hardcore far and wide.

Track Listing:

1. Bangkok Evilcore
2. A Choice To Survive (Feat. Jem Siow)
3. Retribution
4. Close Your Eyes
5. This Is Not The End
6. Wisenheimer (You Were Never One Of Us) (Feat. Shaun Alexander)
7. Yom-Ma-Lok (Feat. Stephen Bessac)

Hailing from Santa Cruz, CA, hardcore band Scowl has burst onto the scene as one of the most authentic young voices in the genre, influenced by everything from '80s hardcore, punk, and oi, to modern, alternative pop. The band has made a name for themselves with songs that are as reflective and dark as they are fun. A new addition to the Flatspot Records family, the label presents their new album "How Flowers Grow." 

Track Listing:

1. Bloodhound
2. Dead To Me
3. Pay Privilege Due
4. Trophy Hunter
5. Seeds To Sow
6. Idle Roaring Room
7. Fuck Around
8. Roots
9. Four Walls
10. How Flowers Grow

Bursting out of the Los Angeles, CA, hardcore scene, Law Of Power makes music that gives you a glimpse into the plight of their everyday reality. The band draws from the direct approach of their influences like Blood For Blood and Sheer Terror, while providing a fury of guitar riffs and gang vocals. With the release of "Born Into War," Law Of Power is touting the pack of real-deal, no-gimmick hardcore. Cassette includes digital download.

Track Listing:

1. $80 Devil
2. Family Curse
3. Born Into War

Hands Of God returns after months of touring to deliver a two-song promo tape via Flatspot Records. The two tracks feature a healthy dose of death-metal riffage interspersed with the heavy, metallic hardcore assault that the band has become known for. Lyrically, vocalist Jeffrey Wang tackles pertinent social themes like mob justice, character assassination, and mutually assured destruction. Cassette includes digital download.

Track Listing:

1. 2 Shotz
2. Murdering Of Souls

Charlie Manning is Chubby and The Gang. The 30 something year old born and bred Londoner, kicked off the project in 2019 with the intention of blending hardcore punk with the most infectious elements of ‘70s rock n roll and doo-wop. Charlie brought in a “gang” of rotating instrumentalists performing on the albums Speed Kills (2020) and The Mutt’s Nuts (2021), both released through Partisan Records. Fast forward to now and Chubby and the Gang joins long-running hardcore label Flatspot Records for the release of the upcoming album, And Then There Was…

The album is 16 songs written and performed by Charlie, produced by Jonah Falco, and recorded and mixed by James Atckinson. It’s a mix of control and chaos, love and loneliness, rage and vulnerability. The songs scream to be heard in a live setting, but feel just as at home playing over the speakers of a dimly lit local pub. “There’s A Devil In The Jukebox” is a roaring punk track. “The Bonnie Banks” storytelling nature leads to repetitive refrain that is begging to be shouted along with. There’s the raucous and simply put “Anticop.” An expansive, drawn out moment of facing mortality on “To Fade Away.” And the record ends with an emotive piano ballad in “Cocaine Sunday.” Throughout And Then There Was… Charlie exposes his prowess for melody and exposition of true self.

In the five years Chubby and the Gang has existed, the band has done more than most in the double that time frame. An extensive 65 date UK tour, sharing the stage with chief influence The New York Hounds, celebrating Christmas and Valentine’s Day with original anthems. It’s no surprise the band has garnered praise across the globe, and across media with features on Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME and more. Inching towards the release of album number three, Chubby and The Gang is primed to continue to be an enthralling voice of authenticity in the world of punk and beyond. For him though, the only goal is to “Play good shows. Have good times.”

Track Listing:

1. Neither The Day, Nor The Hour
2. There's A Devil In The Jukebox
3. To Be Young
4. The Bonnie Banks
5. The Ravelin
6. Anticop
7. Some To Make You Better, Some To Make You Sick
8. To Fade Away (CD + Cassette Only)
9. Company I Don't Want To Keep
10. Love Song (A Response)
11. Since You Said Goodbye
12. Trepanning
13. A Lust For More (CD + Cassette Only)
14. Wish You Were Here
15. Two Hearts
16. Cocaine Sunday