Vinyl From The Vault

Anika “Abyss”

sfilzen — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:13:23 +0000

Anika “Abyss” 2025. Sacred Bones Records, limited edition black/burgandy/white smash variant. Grungy + noisy psychedelic post-punk, Anika hails from Berlin (we didn’t purchase this album there!) and recorded Abyss at Hansa Studios (which we did make a pilgrimage to, famed spot of Bowie’s Berlin trilogy, Iggy, etc.). It looks like Abyss is her sixth LP, though it’s the first in our collection I believe. It’s noise-laden, bass-heavy and hypnotic: not a 60’s hippie trip (however “Buttercups” does lean that way a bit), rather dank late night Euro-club strobes – think My Bloody Valentine vibes but with more options to dance. My top tracks include the title track “Abyss,” the chaotically ass-shaking “Out of the Shadows,” While the album is mostly dense and dark material, there are some lighter, sweeter moments like on “Walk Away” (the lyrics: not so much tho) and sparser/lo-fi tracks like “Into the Fire” and “Oxygen” upon which Anika seems to be channeling her inner Nico.

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The Obits “Die at the Zoo”

sfilzen — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:32:53 +0000

The Obits “Die at the Zoo” 2021. Outer Battery Records, yellow vinyl. Live, loud garage punk, from a show on August 26th 2012 at The Zoo in Brisbane, Australia. The Obits recorded this when they were on tour between their second and third albums for Sub Pop and Die at the Zoo includes tracks from those two LP’s like “Widow Of My Dreams” and “I Want Results,” plus single releases like “One Cross Apiece” and “Refund.” One of my top picks is the bendy, slightly sinister stomper “New August,” another is the snarling punk stomper “Talking to the Dog.” “Pine On” is great (but the video for the original single freaks me the fuck out – it’s linked below). The recording quality of Die at the zoo is really stellar (but not over-produced allowing for the band’s raw/real vibe to come through) and the crowd noise is minimal, just enough between songs to prove it is, indeed, live.

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The Crosses “Outlier”

sfilzen — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:28:38 +0000

The Crosses “Outlier” releases officially tomorrow, April 17th 2026. Triple Eye Industries exclusive yellow vinyl variant. Die Kreuzen’s Danny Kubiniski new(ish) band, their first full-length release featuring original Crosses material. We headed over to Wiggle Room last night for the record release spin: here a couple of poorly photographed images, one of Martin (of Triple Eye) and Danny spinning records and one of Martin and Fran (also Triple Eye plus the LP cover artist). Outlier is a mix of sludge and speed, noisy punk’d and metal’d hard rock with shreds galore, soaring vocals (Danny’s voice is still incredible all these years post-Die Kreuzen) and heavy beats (from the hype sticker “Great sounds and performances all around. The mix is amazing, drums are everywhere and vox scream!” — Kim Thayil, Soundgarden). Side A has three Crosses originals/new material: the thundering opener “Nails” – no easing into this release!, the speed punk “Hate Market,” and the growling “Natronium” that includes a wicked guitar solo (Jim Potter). Side B has two covers including Die Kreuzen’s “Man in the Trees” (from the 1986 album October File) and Hüsker Dü’s “I’ll Never Forget You” (from Zen Garage, 1984). Both are just as loud and fast as the originals but have much superior and modern production sound. I’m super stoked to catch The Crosses at a secret show next weekend.

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Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft “Für immer”

sfilzen — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:34:12 +0000

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft “Für immer” 1982. The album cover reminds me of that trend “tell me you’re 80’s euro-synthpop without saying you’re 80’s euro-synthpop” ie it’s dripping in electronic beep-boops, sparse drums (machine + real thing), though there is a mix of bright 80’s neon energy and dark industrial goth. We picked up Für immer last week in Berlin, I think at the weird 33rpm store. It was D.A.F.’s (translates as “German-American Friendship”) fifth LP; they formed in Düsseldorf in ’78, no doubt influenced by Kraftwerk. Their specific genre is described as Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) which feels a bit more industrial than most British or American new wave and artists in the NDW genre were big influences on the EBM movement. D.A.F. are also lumped in with the electropunk and art punk descriptions but this LP is, to me, synthpop/industrial; overall it’s not hypnotic enough to be EBM. Anyway, it’s great! The opener “Im Dschungel der Liebe” (“Jungle of Love”) is straight-up new wave/synthpop with delightful plink plunks to accent the bleep bloops. “Ein bisschen Krieg” (“A Little War”), the second track, does a sharp turn into industrial territory (this one does veer to EBM). One of my top tracks, “Verlieb dich in mich” (“Fall in Love with Me”) is 1000% Devo inspired, as is “Kebabträume” (“Kebab Dreams” – which is hilarious based on our continuous dreams of the Doner kebab we consumed in Berlin). “Prinzessin” (“Princess”) takes another dark turn, though this a bit more Cure-esque in its swirly late -night atmosphere.

I couldn’t find any live performances or videos from Für immer so here’s a contemporary video of “Liebe auf den ersten Blick” off their 1981 LP Gold und Liebe featuring most excellent 80’s style dancing.

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Daily Terror “Aufrecht”

sfilzen — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:47:29 +0000

Daily Terror “Aufrecht” 1984. Aggressive Rockproduktionen. German punk rock with a classic early 80’s punk sound. Daily Terror originally formed in Braunschweig (aka Brunswick) as Bombed Bodies in the late 70’s and dissolved fairly soon after in 1979, and frontman Pedder Teumer went on to form Daily Terror (the other two members, Kat and Pelle, formed Sluts). We picked up this LP last week in Berlin at the most excellent punk record shop Cortex Records which happened to be just a couple of blocks from the apartment we rented for the week in the Kreuzberg neighborhood.

Aufrecht (or Upright in English) is Daily Terror’s second release and it’s really great (though all in German so I have no idea what they’re singing about). My top tracks include the Clash-esque “Hinterlist” and the tight rat-a-tat “Hallelujah.” “Armes Schwein” starts off with an almost gentle acoustic-ish guitar lead-in and the track is borderline mellow, but also more than borderline menacing and then the next track “Leichenberg” launches into a gritty track super-reminiscent of Stiff Little Fingers. Given how long its been since this LP came out, it’s tough to find much in the way of video but here’s a live performance of the first track on side B, “Bundeswehr.”

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Manfred Krug “Das war nur ein Moment”

sfilzen — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:48:50 +0000

Manfred Krug “Das war nur ein Moment” 1971. Amiga Records. We picked up this GDR (East German) record in Berlin last week so I’m taking this opportunity to also share some of our (former) East Germany explorations/photos (on Instagram), including a visit to the small city of Luckenwalde⁩ on Good Friday and Dresden on Easter Sunday, seeing the remnants of World War II and Russian occupation/sphere of influence. Manfred Krug was an East German actor and jazz/pop singer until 1976 when the GDR forbade that work due to his activism and participation in protests. (He moved to West Berlin in 1976 and was able to revive his career.)

Das war nur ein Moment (translation: That was just a moment) is jazzy pop with a fair amount of 60’s flavor. We learned from the Über-weird 33rpm Record store owner that the co-credited composer/arranger and long-time Krug collaborator Günther Fischer also doubled as Krug’s “handler” – ie Fischer was spying on Krug for the Stasi (GDR secret police). Fischer excelled at both roles, apparently; besides ruining (temporarily) Krug’s career, he helped put together a pretty great album. It should be noted (this info also from weird record store owner) that only trained musicians were allowed to record in East Germany so the level of musicianship on Das war nur ein Moment is excellent. While this kind of jazzy pop is well outside of my wheelhouse, I do have a couple of top picks: “Der Tag beginnt” (“The Day Begins”) has The Turtles’ “Happy Together” (1967) all over it: bright, poppy, super-duper catchy and “Hör auf!” (“Stop It!”) which is funky and world-beaty. Das war nur ein Moment is not a record I’ll throw on often but the layers of stories surrounding this LP makes it a great addition to the collection as well as a non-traditional trip souvenir.

Here’s a long video of Krug (and Fischer) playing live with interviews (in German)

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The Chats “High Risk Behaviour”

sfilzen — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:09:39 +0000

The Chats “High Risk Behaviour” 2020. Bargain Bin Records. Limited Edition, Queenslander variant vinyl. The snotty Australian punks’ debut LP. We caught The Chats last night when they opened for The Hives at the Salt Shed in Chicago. So fun! This our third time seeing The Chats; this show’s extra highlight was the addition of a large black bucket for Eamon (singer/bassist) to spit in during the show. At previous concerts he didn’t bother with such niceties, with one spectacular gob landing on the ceiling of the Rave (basement) where it stayed, growing longer and longer, for the duration of their set. Anyway! High Risk Behaviour has a few of my favorite Chats tracks, including the single “Pub Feed” which they closed with last night. It’s a perfect punk song: simple, short, snappy, and fucking hilarious. Other standouts on High Risk Behaviour include the punk anthem “Drunk N Disorderly,” another naughty punk behavior song “Dine N Dash,” the punk personality descriptor “Stinker” and the Motörhead rager “Billy Backwash’s Day.”

High Risk Behaviour went to #5 in Australia. It is their only album with original guitarist Josh Price. Josh Hardy replaced him and I delight in his flummoxed expression at every single strum, shred and solo he plays. It’s like he’s super shocked at how good he is.

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Glyders “Forever”

sfilzen — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:06:25 +0000

Glyders “Forever” 2025. Drag City Records. Chicago-based bluesy, glammy and riff-heavy hard psych, Forever is Glyders fourth LP (their first two look to be cassette and possibly digital-only releases). Gobs of 60’s and 70’s sounds (Beatles, CCR, T. Rex), kinda similar to King Gizzard but less space jammy (usually – “Hard Ride” is pretty trippy and Side B’s “Steppin’/Tell Me About the Rabbit” is like a million minutes long). I haven’t seen Glyders perform, to my knowledge, but they did play at Milwaukee’s Psych Fest in ’24. Tracks like “New Realm” bring in their Chicago roots with a blues-forward guitar sound but that track also has some exotic flavors noodling around too. One of my top tracks is the psych-stomper “Stone Shadow.” The opening track “Super Glyde” is another great trippy rocker while “Moon Eyes” and “Thousand Miles” go a bit Americana twang.

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Red Rockers “Condition Red”

sfilzen — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:32:28 +0000

Red Rockers “Condition Red” 1981 415 Records. The debut LP from New Orleans-based 80’s punks. Of note: their cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” features Jello Biafra on backup vocals. It’s a good pairing as Red Rockers are less Cali or east coast hardcore which would become more widespread the next year or two, and more Clash, (they opened for The Clash when they toured Louisiana and Texas in early 1982), The Dils (from whom they got their name from) or DK in their political punk style. Their official first release, an EP from ’80, features a few of the tracks that appear on Condition Red: the single “Guns of Revolution” (also the EP’s title) backed with “Teenage Underground” (also on this LP) plus “Nothing to Lose.” My top tracks are the short, sharp and punchy “Peer Pressure,” “Grow Up,” the anthemic and politically biting “Dead Heroes,” the aforementioned Johnny Cash cover “Folsom Prison Blues” and the dark “Hold On.”

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The Art Gray Noizz Quintet “The Art Gray Noizz Quintet”

sfilzen — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:55:03 +0000

The Art Gray Noizz Quintet “The Art Gray Noizz Quintet” 2022. Bang! Records. The debut LP from the noisy, sometimes sludgy, frequently bizarre post punk band whose members have some solid noise rock pedigrees (though I admit to not knowing most of them: Lubricated Goat, The Beasts of Bourbon, Woman and Live Skull) and collaborations/show billings that include Lydia Lunch, the Scientists and Mudhoney. Fronted by Stuart Gray (aka Stu Spasm), he says, “The quintet was originally put together as a one-off to play at the afterparty for the film Color of Noizz, which is actually a tribute to Tom Hazelmeyer and Amphetamine Reptile Records.” (from a article/interview that can be found here) I’m guessing the band (and Stuart) put on quite a show – I’m pretty sure Joe picked up this record last year or so at a show here in Milwaukee that I didn’t attend – the vocals are dark and gritty, Wait-esque but a bit less gravelly. Deep spine pounding bass balanced by occasional high-end saxophone squawk, some tracks are swampy (“Take Over This Town“) while others are fairly ass-shakey, including a couple of my top picks: the psychedelic stomping opener “A Call to You,” “Life of Crime” (which is actually a cover, the original by The Weirdos), the thundering sludge of “Here’s Johnny” and “Harder.”

Here’s a performance of AGNQ with Lydia Lunch from last year.

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