Music - N.O.T.A.

None Of The Above (also known as N.O.T.A. for short) was a hardcore punk band from Tulsa, Oklahoma, initially active from 1979 to 1987, always featuring lead guitarist and vocalist Jeffrey Klein. Around 1993 the band would reform with lots of members coming in and out, before the band would break up in 2000. Since their beginnings in '79, they became a pretty well-known and respected band, and is one of the defining early punk-rock bands to come out of Oklahoma.

N.O.T.A. would release various EPs and singles throughout the years, as well as 2 full-length albums. Personally, I'm a big fan of their first few releases. Their debut 7" Toy Soldiers E.P. from 1984 is a particularly great sample of what the band has to offer. The third song on that EP, Fucked Up, is one of my favorite hardcore songs of all time. Amazing lyrics sung at frantic speeds with guitars so fast they'd shred your fingers into bits. I personally love songs about being a shitty punk (not to use them as an excuse to be a shitty person, though, that should go without saying), songs like these are just made to have fun, and that's a big reason why I love hardcore. Another great example of N.O.T.A.'s writing comes forth with their Self-Titled LP released in 1985; from the rocking ballads like On The Pavement and Frustration, to shorter, thrashier tracks like Ultra Violent, Takin' Away Your Rights, and so much more. The time N.O.T.A. spent was never wasted.

Then, there's the 90's. I quite enjoy what the band did in those times too, Jeff Klein keeps his vocals sharp like he did in the 80's, even if not as young as he clearly used to be. Their second LP, Give 'Em Enough Dope, is a very solid hardcore record, and I'd say alongside with their other 90's releases, they did their short reforming a good service. I'll be leaving downloads for all the stuff from N.O.T.A. that I have, which you can find below. Thank you for reading.

On The Pavement (Demo, 1982)

1. On The Pavement

2. One By One

3. Deadhead

4. Casualty

5. Nothin' Going On

6. Riot Kids

7. Nightstick Justice

8. Apathy

Toy Soldiers E.P. (1984)

1. Toy Soldiers

2. Justice In America

3. Fucked Up

4. Cattle Call

5. Riot Kids

None Of The Above (1985)

1. Ultra Violent

2. Den Of Thieves

3. I Should Kill You

4. Reckless

5. Takin' Away Your Rights

6. On The Pavement

7. Keeping You Out

8. Sick Society

9. Frustration

10. Self Destruct

11. Police Front

12. War On Wankers

13. Nightstick Justice

14. Propaganda Control

15. Redneck Mentality

16. Identity Crisis

17. Drugs And Sex

18. Cut The Shit

19. Summer Of '82

Give 'Em Enough Dope (1996)

1. These Streets

2. You Make Me Sick

3. New America

4. Face The Fact

5. Hell Hole

6. Overexposed

7. Blackout

8. Disconnect Me

9. On The Run

10. You Bore Me

11. Pawn Shop

12. When I'm Rich

13. Suicidal Cowboys

14. Natural Born Bum

15. Miserable Life

16. Hitler Was A Vegetarian

17. Untitled

18. I Should Kill You (Live)
19. This Country (Was Once Free) (Live)

20. Toy Soldiers (Live)

21. Identity Crisis (Live)

22. Frustration (Live)

23. Cut The Shit (Live)

24. War On Wankers (Live)

25. On The Pavement (Live)

26. Moscow (Live)

27. Nightstick Justice (Live)

Music - El Umbral

 

                                                                 Uruguayan Rock Since 1999 - El Umbral

El Umbral is a punk rock band from Montevideo, Uruguay, established in May of 1999. They're a rather old-school group, with a style similiar to other punk bands around latin america. This trio has to be in my opinion, one of the most underrated punk bands ever. They're decently well known in their scene, but outside of that they have recieved very little attention, or at least not enough which they deserve.

Since 1999, they've released multiple albums, EPs, and have appeared in a couple compilations, and were even able to play in places like Brazil and Argentina. Starting with 2001's debut album Despertando Del Silencio. A fantastic record which I happily own on CD, featuring lots of iconic songs like Pasadizo, Los Filos, or En La Cima, which some were made into music videos too. If you ask me, this is their best album, and one I would 1000% recommend listening to if you're interested in the band.

Even then, every album of theirs has at least one or two amazing tracks. They always have something incredibly catchy alongside some great, deeply thought-provoking lyrics. Like going back to En La Cima, a song about poverty and modern society; is a high-octane punk ballad with smart lyrics and a crazy good guitar that'll leave you with the need to start thrashing about in a mosh pit.

El Umbral does still feature a wide range of music that goes beyond distorted guitars and fast-paced drumming, Songs like Llamando a La Puerta or Una Luz come to mind, utilizing pianos or acousting guitars, or even a harmonica sometimes. You'll find that with a band like theirs with such a big discography, they've had time to experiment a bit with their style.

As of now, they're still active and even released an album last year (which I luckily have a vinyl copy of), plus, this year will mark their 25th anniversary which they'll celebrate with a gig this december. You bet I'll be there. :)

If you're a fan of ska punk and/or latin american rock then this trio should not be overlooked! For such a long standing band, they still know how to make excellent punk, and they deserve much more attention from the world. I'll leave their bandcamp here, as well as a download for my copy of Despertando Del Silencio, so if you wanna see what this trio has to offer, check out the album! Either way, support the band in any way you can! Support indie bands always!!

Despertando Del Silencio

1. Despertando Del Silencio

2. Pasadizo

3. Los Filos

4. Sobrevivir

5. No Voy A Caer

6. Llamando A La Puerta

7. En La Cima

8. Cambiar

9. Algo Más

10. Los Pasos En La Lluvia

11. Vive El Miedo, En La Piel

12. No Hables Más

13. Contra Lo Que Soy

14. Mirada Gris

15. Nada Queda Por Perder

16. Escapar [Bonus Track]

El Umbral's Bandcamp

This band means the world to me, as it ties very heavily with my father, who used to really support them back in the day. Plus, their guitarist/frontman, Alejandro Nuñez, is actually my godfather! He's an awesome guy, trust me, as is usual for people in punk bands, he is a super sweet guy, and his band really got me into punk, so I gotta thank him somehow. If you like this band, be sure to spread this post around, it'd do me a lot of help.

Music - The Movies

The Movies were a band from Los Angeles, California, active from the early to late 2000s. Featuring none other than Timothy James, who previously was the frontman of The Vehicle Birth back in the 90s. Other than him however, there's no returning VB members here. Instead we have a new line-up featuring Jessica Gelt on bass, Brian Cleary on keyboards, and Stevie Treichel on drums. The Movies share a lot of overlap with VB (hell, a couple of songs were originally written by VB), but follow a much more mellow, post-punk sound. Still doesn't mean Tim won't do some crazy thing on stage, as always he's trying his best to bring something new with every show by doing whatever comes off the top of his mind.

The band released 3 albums, easily their most iconic is In One Era Out The Other, released in 2002 for their tour in europe. A little later, they'd release American Oil in 2004, and finally in 2009 they would release their last album, Based On A True Story. I'd easily recommend all 3 records, but especially In One Era Out The Other, as it's a great starting point for anyone willing to get into this pretty quartet (and later quintuple). I'll leave a download to their first record down below in-case anyone wants to check them out.

Thank you for reading, and make sure that if you like this band, you share this post around. More people need to know about this band.

In One Era Out The Other

1. The Right Equipment

2. Secretariat

3. Creation Lake

4. Scary Footsteps

5. Don't Steal My Licks

6. Truth Knocking

7. Autograph

8. Pass The Music

9. Midnight Bloody Murder

10. A Better Life

Doom - ICARUS : Alien Vanguard

 

Icarus : Alien Vanguard is a 32 level vanilla compatible megawad released in 1996 by Team TNT, the very same team which made TNT : Evilution. Just like Evilution, this wad is quite a strange yet wonderfully interesting grabbag, full of that mid 90's charmful and cryptic level design. When I first played Icarus' first few maps, I immediatly fell in love with them and wanted to keep playing. To me, Icarus is the prime example of why I love 90s mapsets and others of similiar age; it's the small things. It's all the details you stop to think about, thinking to yourself, "that must have been a pain to make back then."

MAP01 - Shuttlecraft

The wad starts with MAP01, Shuttlecraft. A very warm beige-then-gray introduction to the crazy world of Icarus. Things like the big fuel tanks you turn on in the back of the ship, the front of the ship with that pitch-dark ambush, the random corruption of the ship's church... Moments like these that immerse you into what are meant to be real spaces with retro sci-fi (and sometimes paranormal) concepts are what makes up a lot of the experience in this wad, and I love it so much. I love doom wads that feel more like places and more exotic experiences rather than "doom wads", if that makes any sense. It's a big part of why I love 90s wads like Icarus.

MAP06 - P.E.T. Rescue

From the skyhacking of MAP06, to things like the midtexture doors in MAP16, the amazingly clever design of MAP20 and it's gravity flipping gimmick, everything in MAP32, this wad finds a way to wow you with every map, or at very least have one sweet piece of eye candy. There's 3 types of levels in Icarus: ship, simulation, and planet levels. Having this amount of variety in a 90s megawad is insane. It's amazing how in a 1996 megawad, you're going from a massive ship going through space, to a simulated computer program, or in some alien planet at midnight. And there's variety within those themes for each map too! There's always something, even in the smallest of it's simple details. Did I mention this is vanilla compatible too? You can play this wad on anything!

 

MAP12 - Hydroponics

 

MAP19 - Blessed Are The Quick

The gameplay in Icarus is, I'd say decent. Combat is merely something to keep your attention held while you encounter cool setpieces and details, and sometimes progression can be a little bit cryptic. The ways the mappers want you to get things like keys or hit important switches is sometimes very confusing, so you better play the wad with the idea that everything can do anything, and just start thinking outside the box to figure out progressing through a map.

Even despite Icarus' problems, I deeply love the wad and everything about it- flaws and all. I'm kinda tired of modern doom wads feeling more like levels rather than places, there's nothing wrong with this, but I personally love when maps have a sense of place. It doesn't even need to take over a map's gameplay to get this effect; Wads like Liminal Doom 1 & 2 do this balance perfectly, you can give your map that little flare of emotion it needs to be a little special. I like my wads being able to give me feelings besides fun, after all I deeply believe Doom is an art-form, and just like how things like music and paintings make us feel things, Doom maps can do so too! Even if its just entertaintment- that's a feeling as well, but y'know... I want folks to explore other feelings.

MAP24 - The Haunting

MAP30 - Nucleus

Icarus : Alien Vanguard is a fantastic wad that I believe people who like the doom wads of old should definitely play. If you love maps with a sense of place, that are odd and not the standard anymore, yet are great in their own right, you'll love this wad. Go get it on idgames!

Music - The Vehicle Birth

 i thought it'd be a good idea to start off this blog thing with something i'm very passionate about, so i'm gonna talk about one of my favorite bands of all time: The Vehicle Birth.

The Vehicle Birth (or TVB / VB for short) was an indie/math rock band from Fairfax, Virginia, which formed sometime in 1993. around 1994 the then young quintuple moved to Boston, Massachusetts, which is the state they'd stay in for the rest of their time as a band up until their break-up in 1999.

VB was well known back then in the indie boston scene for their unique, slint-esque approach to making music, as well as how explosive their performances were. Especially with their vocalist/frontman Timothy James who would make up most of what he sings on the spot, and often would scream and act manic on stage, the band very clearly also shows a lot of inspiration from dischord/D.C. indie bands as well as their shows being often described as intense. With VB, you never knew what you were gonna get, and that's exactly what the band wants- not to give you what you like, but to give you what you don't know you want.

The group would mostly give out tapes at shows, but they did put out a few records, plus a couple appereances in compilations. Their discography goes as follows:

- Limousine 7" (b/w Zero Work, Amsterdam, 1995)

- River 7" (b/w Level 90, 1995)

- Tragedy (LP, 1996. Later reissued in 1998 in both vinyl and CD through a deal with Crank! Records)

- They Came From Massachusetts (Comp, 1996. song: Coltrane)

- Pipeline! Live Boston Rock On WMBR (Comp, 1996. song: Two Minutes Hate)

- Split 7" w/ The Wicked Farleys (song: Toronto. 1999)

- Afterbirth : Unreleased Recordings (official comp of unreleased/rare songs, 2016)

- rock (EP, released thru bandcamp. 2021)

"Where are these guys now?" you may be asking, well...

Sometime in 1998 while the band was still active, guitarist Chris Jackson became part of stoner rock band Cracktorch, which became quite successful in it's own right. Nowadays he runs the Dharma Coffeehouse, which he had since the early 90s. I actually got to talk to him through Discogs! Real sweet guy.

In the early 2000s, Timothy James formed The Movies, another awesome indie rock band, very similiar to VB in style too. I guess their style goes wherever tim decides to go. 2nd Guitarist Leigh Thompson went on to form Milliseconds back in 2023 with members of The Dismemberment Plan (fun fact: Travis Morrison of DPlan helped VB with recording a lot of their early material, mainly from 94 to 95.), they'd release the album So This Is How It Happens. Bassist John Stephens seems to not have done much, aside from posting some stuff on soundcloud (including some previously unreleased VB songs). Finally, drummer Jeff Galusha went onto... help with The Dismemberment Plan's Uncanney Valley album.

Also, in 2011 TVB quickly reformed for two reunion shows back where they originally formed, in Fairfax. It's really cool!! I'll leave a playlist for some live recordings of one of their reunion shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqvqE9FMS7w&list=PL9FBfP3yJfhbsZnLsZgtuGoMLrgqEQK9v

All in all, The Vehicle Birth quickly became one of my favorite rock bands of all time, simply because of how creative and abstract they were with their music. If you're a fan of Slint, Shellac, and D.C. Post-Hardcore, you might love this band. I'd heavily recommend giving Tragedy a spin! It's a fantastic album, and frankly I just wish these guys had gotten popular. They were decently well known in their time, but man, I wish they had put out more stuff. But hey, at least Afterbirth exists! It includes their 7" records, their compilation songs, so much live and unreleased material- its insane. It's got everything except for Tragedy. It's so amazing, there's so much stuff that if this wasn't released, we'd be missing out on so much great math rock.

I'll leave the Internet Archive link to Afterbirth here, if you like this band then this album is a must-have.

https://archive.org/details/afterbirth-unreleased-recordings_202504