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LP
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SWA 157LP
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"Swami Records is excited to glom onto Chicago punks Meat Wave for the release of their fourth album Malign Hex. Ryan Wizniak (drums), Joe Gac (bass) and Chris Sutter (vocals, guitar) strip back the 'Windy City Sound' and expose a more jagged and turbulent frame. The ten-track album, which features singles 'What Would You Like Me To Do' as well as 'Ridiculous Car' and 'Honest Living,' was recorded by Gac in 2019 and serves as the band's most cohesive, dynamic and ambitious work to date. 'Our sound in the beginning was consistently very driving,' says Gac. 'Now, that characteristic is merely a tool we can reach for. I don't think it completely defines what we're doing.' Meat Wave spent the last half of 2019 chipping away at Malign Hex. 'We recorded it the same way we always have -- live in a room together,' says drummer Ryan Wizniak. 'But we allowed ourselves to embellish more and take more chances with extra instrumentation.' While Malign Hex does incorporate synths, organs, and walls of guitar, it provides only nuance and atmosphere and does not displace Meat Wave from their meat locker. The album's lyrics center around themes of lineage and explores a litany of subjects and circumstances: addiction, greed, unreliable memory, obedience. All through a surrealist, collage-like lens. 'Everyone wears a backpack full of hexes,' Chris Sutter explains. 'It's heavy and familial. And it's yours.'"
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CD
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SWA 129CD
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"In the tradition of the fine Swami reissues of Crime and Testors comes a primordial belch of pathos crushing punk ineptness. The Penetrators' Basement Anthology chronicles this criminally overlooked Syracuse bands recordings from 1976-1982. Their sound was firmly rooted in the tradition of the rebellious rock n roll of the 60's and branded with generous amounts of the attitude and style that marked the first wave of American punk bands. Basement Anthology is a time machine back into an age that chronologically is not that long ago but culturally is beyond reach. The Penetrators liberal use of gigantic bumble bee guitar rip, paper tommy gun snare attack, sure echoed vocal proclamations of eternal rock n roll lore. In a time when eyeliner and synthesizers were listed as ground breaking musical influences The Penetrators upstate isolation bred a band worthy to hold the torch of garage blasting during what was then considered dark times. Until now only championed by the Killed By Death set (is there such a thing?), Basement Anthology rectifies elusiveness and puts these legendary noise makers on the radar."
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