THE REPORT: 4/25/25
LIL CLENO PUTS ON FOR THE EAST BAY PUNX
Rap Rock Watch 2025 continues with a song that samples “Brain Stew” by Green Day. “Rockstar” came out almost a year ago but was rebooted earlier in the month, possibly post-Coachella, with a “From The Block” performance that features a random rock band “backing up” the rapper. YouTube commenter @JohnnyBaker-tf5wg: “Let’s just all come together and get along we can make more great things like this.”
Labyrinthine Heirs “The Loop of Human Flesh Told in Perpetuity”
I’ve been in my heavy bag recently, just as the weather is getting better. The one-liner on the new record from Austin band Labyrinthine Heirs is something like “The Jesus Lizard meets Celtic Frost.” It’s demented, lurching gear, music for denim-vested goons of all stripes. It could soundtrack the kind of horror movie that A24 wouldn’t touch but Troma might.
For many years, my dumb ass thought there was only one Black and Mild in New Orleans bounce music. As it turns out, there are two. One passed away in 2022, but the other one, the one who uses the spelling BlaqNmilD and has laced tracks for everyone from Drake to Big Freedia, is still going strong. Look, people, there are only so many hours in the day. I’m just going to take the confusion L and keep it moving. “We On Fire” is produced by the latter; it quotes the group The Hot Girls are modeled after and provides classic American music thrills. God knows we all need some right now.
The Dallas Cowboys “wrecking ball”
I finally caught a Dallas Cowboys gig last week. It was at a Bushwick sports bar, of all places, and it was the sickest karaoke punk throwdown I’ve seen since the days of Best Fwends. Also on the bill was 300SkullsAndCounting, a British fellow who dressed up like a member of Brokencyde and played a hard-ass set of MIDI grind. Using 2025 calculus, it shouldn’t be very surprising to learn that the lad also plays in the post-hardcore band Mitsubishi Suicide. Back to The Cowboys: They dropped a new rarities compilation on 4/20, and it includes a great Miley Cyrus cover.
XXHARDBIT3S “MARIJUANA IN THA HOUSE! (HARD HOUSE HIPPIES)”
Another 4/20 drop from a John’s Music Blog favorite. It’s a banging flip of the legendary novelty gabber tune "I Wanna Be a Hippy" by Technohead. XXHARDBIT3S throws a Sunday jungle party at a coffee shop in Brooklyn that I’ve been meaning to attend. I went to the shop once. It was pure second-wave majesty, the kind of funky punky java spot you rarely see anymore. There needs to be more of that energy in the world. Less clean interiors, more lava lamps.
Here is a nice, poppy slip hop transmission from Fine, who is part of a larger Copenhagen crew that has had the indie kids standing and saluting for a minute now. I would like to imagine there is still a certain kind of indie network out there—you know, kids wearing Fine pins on their anoraks, trading ML Buch seven-inches—but that is likely a creation of my imagination.
MIX OF THE WEEK: NTS Rush: Juliana Huxtable
Yesterday, I made the mistake of trying something from the Dunkin’ Donuts “Refresher” line of energy beverages, which is clearly a response to the infamous Panera “charged lemonade” drinks that were linked to a couple of deaths in 2023. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that I felt really weird for the entire day. I did have a nice moment listening to this Juliana Huxtable mix, though, and “peaking” while the hard house song “Playground” by Game Boy entered the mix. And here comes the big reveal: I wrote most of today’s blog post while in the throes of a Dunkin’-induced panic attack.
definitely going to check out the Labyrinthine Heirs joint, I can't resist a Celtic Frost comparison