Notes from the underground.

THE PEDESTRIANS' Future Shock LP (on Criminal IQ) is a furious blast from the past. It's balls-out, straight-ahead punk rock that would be right at home in 1982 as the music was cleaving itself into punk and hardcore camps. This shit makes me think of the Circle Jerks and Black Flag; I guess it's that classic LA-area early punk sound. Whatever it is, it's furious and high speed and I'm going to listen to it when I need to get the stoke going ... Tokyo Electron's self-titled LP on eMpTy Records is making my bowels shake and perhaps bringing tumors to the surface of my brain. It's another project from Arizonan Ryan Rousseau, who served time in the Reatards among other bands (and Jay Reatard twiddled the knobs on this one), and it's somewhat in the vein of that kind of stuff--noisy, unfiltered, and a kick to the neck. It's a reminder of trying to escape hot days by crawling through dirty and stinky bars, sweat competing with the AC. If this music had a smell, your mom would try to clean it with bleach ... Got the second LP from a band called Orange Roughy out of Pennsylvania, Picked Clean, and it's a doozy. Straight ahead three-chord power from a full sounding five-piece, this one takes no prisoners and spares no volume. Guitars up front, vocals hoarse and scratchy, in the vein of the best early New York protopunk ... 'Til next time, remember to floss after meals ...