Tangible Media Revue: April 2025

Folks, let's dive into some of the stuff I picked up over this last month, shall we?

Tungu's Successful Utilization of Elements, cast off form's strings, Pet The Tiger's Hail The Traveler

Let's kick things off with a haul from Public Eyesore.

Joe of cast off form is an acquaintance of mine and I always try to pick up everything he releases. He has a brilliant mind and is one of the hardest working people in noise today. We did a split album a couple years ago but sadly don't really chat on the reg. I wish we communicated more, but I rarely (if ever) use the No Coast Noise Collective Discord that he so happily curates. strings is one of his more recent efforts and I'm going to go ahead and quote part of the liner notes below to give you a better idea of this album's mission:

strings is the zenith of cast off form's Acoustics series, exploring the range of possibilities hidden within an acoustic guitar.

Percussive feedback paired with soaring harmonics, this is just more of what Joe does best: taking traditional instruments and reimagining them in a chaotic yet ambient manner. Check it out below if you're into this kind of thing.

Public Eyesore included a couple other bonus CDs. Shout out to them. Tungu and their album Successful Utilization of Elements sounds like a more sinister version of Town & Country. This record features 19 unique musicians playing instruments ranging from your typical orchestral vehicles, to turntables and pedal steel. The band name makes sense as there's a whole ton of tongue inflection and gargling. Cool stuff, but I was thoroughly grossed out near the end with all their throat signing, which is pretty rare for me. I usually have a lot more sonic tolerance.

Pet The Tiger looks to be the project of David Samas. Their album Hail The Traveler is broken up into four different groups of musicians: Pet The Tiger & Gamelan Encinal, Elegy for Victims of Gun Violence, Bardo, and Pahoehoe. Each section spans different genres and is a lovely mixture of meditative chimes, Gregorian chanting, Celtic neo-folk, manic field-records, and...more gross mouth sounds?! The Public Eyesore crew really loves the sound of lips smacking. Regardless, this whole album is a journey and well worth a spin.

This next handful of albums came from some Discogs pick-ups.

Joby's Opinion – Natty Bohemian/Ntwadumela

I first heard Joby's Opinion on Friction Media's Cognitive Mapping Volume II compilation and instantly fell in love and put all of their albums on my Discogs want-list. Classic 90's math/indie rock. This single pops up often, but usually in Europe. There was a seller in Germany who was selling a bunch of stuff I was looking for (continued below) and figured I'd bite the bullet and put in the order. Surprisingly enough, the shipping wasn't too bad and it all showed up in under two weeks. Anyways, if you're a fan of noodly guitar then you'll love these guys too.

Trick Babys Downpour and The 1985 Simmons

I don't exactly remember what compelled me to put both of these on my want-list but they've been sitting there for a few years and pop up often. Sometimes I'll buy something off my want-list just so I don't have to see it show up anymore. I like to hunt down records released by labels I enjoy, so I assume that's what happened here. I figured I was going to like Trick Babys more than The 1985 but it was the reverse. The 1985 is a noisy, synth band and they blew me away. I thought they were going to be generic indie rock, but man, they are really awesome. Trick Babys are a pop-garage-rock band, pretty run of the mill, and just okay. Real Gen-X/hot-rod-dude vibes. If you're conservative about your punk rock (sonically, not politically) then you'll love this.

Stabbed In The Face/LT. DAN/SHIT Life - Death To Metal Punx

This has also been on my Discogs want-list for years but it has literally never come up before. The moment I saw it I grabbed it without any hesitation. Classic Myspace era grind that focused more on the energy than the production quality. I miss these days. DeKalb always had a solid DIY grind community. In fact, I'm pretty sure LT. DAN played the Space a couple times after I'd left town. Some newer power violence acts sound like they've spent serious time in a studio, and while that in itself isn't a bad thing, I'll always have a soft spot for noisecore bands that set up in front of a single mic, press report, and let 'er rip.

Hal McGee & auvikogue - Personal Audio Letter and Hal McGee & Dylan Houser - Stipulations Without Frontiers

My good buddy Hal McGee sent me another care package this month - one that the USPS opened up mid-transit. That's a story for another time. Anyways, two more beautiful collaborations between Hal and a couple pals. First off we have Personal Audio Letter which was a collaboration with auvikogue and seems to be an ongoing project between auvikogue and other artists. If I was a better journalist I would have asked Hal for more information on this but alas, I hope he reads this and then provides me with some intel.

Any who, Personal Audio Letter begins with a four minute run of some beautiful, ambient electronics before we are greeted by the unmistakable voice of Hal McGee running you through his day and the day's weather. Really lovely stuff here, and very similar to his own collaboration series. Speaking of which.

The second of the two albums is a Hal McGee collaboration with my old friend Dylan Houser who I met back in the day on the Sluggisha Blogspot, back when that was the happenin' online hub for all of us weirdos. I know I'm biased here, but out of all the collaborations Hal has done, this has so far been my favorite. Hal documents the death of his father, which is something I can very much relate to. There are a couple mantras Hal runs through, such as "Celebrate the lives of people we know while they're alive and not mourn them after they are dead." Really powerful stuff here. Dylan has this propensity to daisy chain a bunch of pedals together and run pocket synths through them and it sounds fantastic and really adds to the ethereal vibe. Both of these folks are like me and nerd out over Casios and other old school keyboards, and there are a lot of those featured here as well. I love this album. A great outing from two great people.

TONGAN DEATH GRIP - Corny and The Muta Scale

Wrestling-themed hardcore out of Lake County. How could I not love this? It's your typical hardcore affair but these vocals are absolutely incredible. No one sings like this anymore; a gravel-laden bark. Sounds kind of like Dixie Dave from Weedeater. Muta Scale is great, and while Corny is solid as well, there's just way too much Cornette-love for my tastes. What did I expect though, you know? These fellas get booked on a lot of Shit Show Production gigs, which is a production company that books all of my bullshit quite a bit as well. I should ask them to put TONGAN DEATH GRIP and Zbyszko Cracker on a bill together. This is some grade-A stuff right here, even if they do get their wrestling opinions from Reddit. Real rural sounding, like Anti-Seen with more of a grind edge. Fuck Jim Cornette, Kenny Omega is the GOAT, Lake County forever.

Punk Disputes Compilation Vol. 1

Punk Disputes and Hardcore Disagreements Podcast and I follow each other on Instagram but I don't really know that much about them. They were recently selling this new compilation for cheap and I am a huge, huge sucker for CD-R compilations because I'm the Nostalgia Monster. Whenever folks talk about their punk band or podcast these days I always 100% expect it to sound like some Man Overboard bullshit. This comp was the exact opposite and was a very pleasant surprise. Bunch of solid hardcore/grindcore/garage rock shit right here. Super DIY and raw as hell. If they've got a couple of these left you need to pick this up. You can check out their most recent episode below:

Asking Alexandria - The Irony of Your Perfection Bootleg

Another appearance from my homies over at Honeysuckle Records. This was a nice little surprise that showed up in my mailbox. Looks like they sent these out to a handful of their repeat customers. At least that's what I'm guessing. This is numbered out of 16 so it's definitely not mass produced. I won't lie, I never got into these guys and actively avoided this type of music when it was popular. These types of comb-over-swooped- jet-black hair bands were taking over the local scene just as I was on my way out, right when I was getting involved with the more experimental acts in the suburbs. Ironically though, this gives me hella nostalgia and makes for a nice listen. Maybe I've finally come around to this type of music 20 years later. I'm old. This isn't available to the public, so go check out some of Honeysuckle's other releases here.

Food Fortunata's Jesus Pieces

Last but certainly not least is my dear friend and personal hero Food Fortunata with his brand new release Jesus Pieces. The true king of punk rock, Food improvised all lyrics on the spot. Really brilliant stuff here as always, and you're out of your mind if you skip out on this one.

That's all folks. See you in June for May!

See an album you love? Tell us about it in the comments!