Friday Heavy: August 19, 2022

Cliff: Welcome to Friday heavy your guide to abrasive, scary, loud, weird, aggressive music of the types that we like and scare us, brought to you by. The two folks behind tune dig, including cliff, the person who pitched the other person on this podcast and the person who’s about to introduce himself who I think I’ve

convinced to really like this podcast.

Kyle: I’m Kyle. I do

love doing, I do love doing this. Yeah. And I hope That other people enjoy that this little thing that we do

just for ourselves exists as well.

Cliff: I’ve pulled you along by coffee and it didn’t take you along. And now we love each other in this podcast. And it’s great. Each episode of this podcast on which we love each other and the podcast, we cover three things, one brand new release in the world of heavy music, and specifically why we think it’ll be worth a spin, specifically trying to bring in why we think it’ll be worth any time in the world of heavy music, where you can find a release every week.

That’s gonna rip quite. We also cover one playlist that we’ve curated usually based on sort of the release or a similar topic to help you explore a heavy sub genre or artist or scene. And then lastly, we always cover one organization, tackling a heavy issue by doing critical culture, impacting work in their community because we are punks and this is all we know how to do, in this world is figure out how to take some of that energy and

whatever money we.

And put it into things that, uh, write the ship. So let’s get into it. Kyle, you get to take us on this time.

Kyle: I’m excited about this because I’m a long time fan and it’s a

great outing from a long time. Favorite of the weirdos. that’s a foul form, the new record from the OCS, John Dwyer and company outta San Francisco. If you have spent any amount of time in a pit in the past 10 to 15 years, We probably don’t need to tell you to be excited about an OCS release, but maybe you only came to us from the wake side of things and you’re in a vowed like death, black metal person.

And this is not a corner of the world you’ve explored. So if you’re in that camp or you’re in that gray area where you’re aware of the OCS, but you click on their profile and you see 47 albums and. Immediate note eject. You’ve never jumped in on their massive discography. This is a great opportunity to start.

Just by way of reference teal, another prolific sort of God in the San Francisco garage rock scene, who has gone from playing very small shows to very big shows in his 10, 15 year lifespan. Taal himself called John Dwyer, the mayor of San Francisco. So in as much as there is a scene in San Francisco for this sort of weirdo stuff, the same way that there was desert rock in Southern California, or insane doom and primitive man type stuff in Denver, John Dwyer is, is sort of the, the resident, God of it all.

On this record, Henry Rawlins of black flag and Rawlins band needs. Some introduction had this to. OCS don’t seem to mutate or morph so much as remain extraordinarily open to what moves them to do next and capable of getting music done. That’s consistently good. It’s kind of like a, all you need.

what motivated the band to turn loose? This hyper concentrated slightly less than 22 minute burst of meteor density, somewhat punk zeal music. When it comes to the OCS, that’s best a mediocre inquiry is they just do the next thing. Genre, prevailing taste or whatever influence might guide a lesser unit are not even a consider.

A F form is a cool pivot from their 2020 studio efforts. Metamorphic Panther, rotate and protein threat, a F form vigorously shakes, the OCS etch a sketch clear. How do weigh Henry Rollins. So whatever comes next, which will probably be sooner rather than later, will likely be something completely different.

Yet again, as far as a potential inspirational indicator, you might notice that the final track on a foul form is a cover of rudimentary Penn sacrifice, which can be found on their farce. Seven inch released in 1982 of fitting way to blow out this

rad slice. So punks for rejoice.

Cliff: That’s Henry Rowlands, the artist not the writer.

Kyle: get in the van. For an even better description than

that. John Dwyer himself writes a sort. Beat poet, Gonzo description of every album that they release on his label castle face. So the castle face records, emails are worth subscribing to, for those album descriptions alone. I’m not going to read the whole thing.

I would encourage you to Google it, but it starts with the line brain stem cracking scum punk. So let’s set the stage with VA. Our guide. So the first single is called funeral solution. And with it, you drop in very fast on what sounds like and OCS. Yeah. Sort of characteristic four on the floor madness, except this time, right after it gets bitten by a rabbit dog.

 

Kyle: Then on the most recent of the three singles that were released prior to the album dropping it’s the title track of foul form and it hits. Perfect stride for power walking around the circle pit with your eyes rolled back in your skull and your arms doing that classic Nintendo donkey Kong thing.

 

Cliff: This is great. I got to see OCS last year at red rocks in Colorado, because it was one of the first moments where we could go see legitimate concert outdoors, you know, in a, in a safer environment after we had waited so long and it was such an obvious yes, to be able to see this band in an outdoor venue after everybody had been.

Pinned

up in all of their respective ways for so long. it was just exactly all the words that you’ve used in all of these descriptions so far.

Kyle: I watched the live stream of that because I knew you were going and made a playlist

based on that set list. And it’s like kind of a

perfect OCS career span. That was a really, really rad show that you can find on YouTube.

And in my Spotify playlist,

Cliff: The harmless, but sincere fun of a weird San FCAN is a very good descriptor of, of what I felt like I, I latched onto. And yet, if any of those sentences just sounded like how cool I would hate this? just, open up and get into it. Cuz there’s. as you’ve said, Kyle, there, there’s just so much energy that kind of comes from this band that you can latch onto.

It might not hit right every day. Um, but it hits right some days. And I’m really glad that you pushed me to like this band more. So check out a foul form out today on castle face. Uh, as always, we like to encourage you, go listen to it, however you want, cuz the way that you’re listening to it, doesn’t get anybody actually paid other than a label.

So then you need to go and send this band your money through. definitely shows, uh, but merch or,

or send them, send them money directly. Y’all just like hit ’em up on Twitter and be like cash app.

Kyle: the help. John Dwyer’s aluminum guitar stay tuned

fund.

Cliff: That’s I’d contribute a dollar at least. So, Kyle, uh, this was awesome. I’m sure you had a really good time. Not only putting together the description and, uh, basically

a hype artist in the podcast of this album, but then you also made the playlist and you ripped through all of this. So tell me what happened.

Kyle: well, what had happened

was, if you think about the.

what is OCS? What are an OC? they’re on the spectrum of music made by outsiders who smelled like they showered in PBR. And again, if you’ve spent any amount of time in a pit, you know, the archetype of a person, you can think of a specific person, you and I are probably thinking of the same person who used to work at Astoria.

Um, on the one end. You have the sillier happier, fair, like king Kong and the shrines who it’s been very weird to have one of their songs be like the most famous TikTok song right now. So king Kong or dead ghost sort of on the one end and then on the other end is like the deliberately terrifying stuff.

Like Harvey milk or horrors OCS. Oscillate across that spectrum as they continue to release music, super prolifically. Uh, but this latest record is, is Del is very deliberately on the scar you’re end, like right half of that bell curve. Um, and you can tell, you can literally judge a book by its cover. It’s black and white.

It’s got the skull on, and it’s very different than a lot of the record covers that you see. And if you’ve ever been in an OCS pet, when the opening RIF of the dream kicks in and like every fer old degenerate in your town sort. Activates in a Pavlovian way, you know exactly what I mean by that. So this collection has dialed into the more degenerate fuzz rock type stuff out there.

You can practically smell the secondhand smoke on your local dive bar patio to put it more succinctly it’s the description that we put in the playlist itself is Scud fuzz for fur freaks, a spit in your third eye and owner of new OCS. It’s tight and it’s rad and it’s good for a drive.

And it’s good for cheap beers with your friends sitting outside in a backyard and like cooling off in a kiddy pool. There’s thanks to global warming. There’s still a little time this year left for that. So if you’re in the mood to get weird, this is a great playlist for it. And it’s, it’s about three hours worth, I think.

So it’ll last, you Mo most of a good hang or

until you’re too drunk to realize there’s still music on

Cliff: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was gonna say at 76

tracks. You’ve got a very shuffle good time. Uh, and once you get to the end of it, you probably need to check in with yourself and drink some water.

Kyle: Yeah, go ahead and take an 800 milligram ibuprofen. If

you have it in your

Cliff: It is a total non seor, but I am getting very into this idea of like oddly specific

playlists for specific instances and periods of time.

And this is, this is really getting

me right.

Kyle: Well, welcome to the inside of my brain for the past 20 years, what I’ve been trying to do since I had to fit it on an 80 minute

CD. Uh, it’s like an, it’s like an itch in the middle of my back. I can never, ever scratch. There has to be perfect music at every single one of these things. I should

probably talk

to a therapist about that.

Cliff: This episode brought to you by talk space.

Kyle: men would literally rather make 75 song playlists every other week than go to

therapy. both. Well segueing into the last thing. I mean, this playlist reminds me of simpler times in our

beloved hometown of Atlanta that all of these physical places may be gone soon. Thanks to crass redevelopment in a political administration.

That’s like an episode of the wire if it were written and directed by Larry David Mount nine now, uh, so cliff, let’s talk about, let’s talk about

the issue of the.

Cliff: Yeah, always fun. we always talk about one organization doing work, so let’s go ahead and preview where we’re coming back to. Okay. Today we’re gonna talk about women on the rise in Georgia, which is an awesome organization. Uh, this part of a nonprofit but it as is customary for this segment of this podcast, we’re gonna have to tell you a shitty story first, uh, about weak people, uh, in order to tell you a story about brave and compassionate people and organizations.

and as usual, this is, or not usual, but as is often the case, uh, we are using our experiences in Atlanta. In order to help inform some of your experiences out there across, especially the us, uh, but wherever you might live there is a version of this fuck yet going on wherever you are too. So look for it.

So earlier this week in Atlanta, when I was trying to have a good week the city council approved an ordinance allowing Atlanta’s newly elected mayor, Andre Dickens to lease. Listen to lease the nearly empty Atlanta city detention center to Fulton county. So they could transfer 700 people for four years over to this jail.

Literally. Oops, there’s an extra jail. Can we fill it with more people? this was a pretty unadulterated, like, look you in the eye and lie. Type thing from politicians and specifically from the mayor and new council members who ran very clearly on progressive policies, built on the backs of community organizations and people who have helped the

government do better things.

and once they successfully got voted in, you know, their voting exactly like the people that they tried to replace,

who.

Kyle: and for a little bit of additional context, the Atlanta city detention center is for

crimes of poverty. It’s like people who can’t pay a small bail urinated in public, couldn’t pay a rent, got a big, like it’s very, very minor nonviolent stuff. Where immediately you’re inclined to cast versions on why

are these people incarcerated to begin with?

Cliff: we’re gonna show you how to learn more.

about this issue if you want to, uh, to understand more about it. But yeah, to your point, Kyle, this sounds backwards from what we are taught, but see, the thing is if a jail is built to sit there and be a jail, it will get filled. It’s like field of dreams for racist.

Like they. It’s just the way that it works. And the Atlanta city detention center was literally built in preparation for the 96 Olympics to lock people.

Okay. And the other half of the reason that that got built is because Atlanta assigned a contract with ice so that they could put immigrants in it.

Okay. And thanks in recent years to pressure from the community that contract with ice no longer exists. And so this jail is practically defunct. Okay. But in extremely brief overview of why this whole situation is fucked and why you gotta pay attention to what people say and what they do in your community.

Okay. First of all Fulton county, the, uh, institution that Atlanta is gonna let use our jail Fulton county has already had to settle lawsuits this year around the inhumane treatment of prisoners. And the issues presented are not resolved by shuttling people to another jail. It was not about the space that they were in.

It was about the treatment that they receive because prison is evil. Second. Mayor Andre Dickens personally introduced the legislation in 2019 to close and repurpose the very jail that he is now leasing or attempting to lease back to Fulton county. Okay. Because of the efforts that he agreed with and supported the numbers had dwindled down to 10% of daily capacity at this jail, which Kyle, as you had mentioned, are.

On the whole people that we don’t need to have locked up at all. Okay. And with this action, this. The mayor and the council made, this is what really got me. And this is why it matters to bring organizations up because in this single vote, they made a mockery of years of work by organizations, by community leaders.

By individuals. Okay. In those same politicians pretended to support those people while they were running. We’re talking about years and years of effort from people who have told the government, not only do you not need this jail, but literally here is a plan for you to use it for something better using the tax dollars that will save.

They did all of the work. Okay. Atlanta’s own initiative under the mayor called pad to divert people from police violence and prisons issued a fullthroated statement against this move. Okay. Despite the fact that that bravery puts them in the crosshairs of the people who clearly will do pretty much anything at this point.

So. This is just one instance of a situation getting ridiculous and terrible, but we wanna bring it to your attention because it matters. Every jail matters. Every prison matters. Every person that’s in jail that doesn’t have to be there matters. And I would personally make the argument to you on a different day, in a good situation.

That no one ever has to be in prison, but that’s a lot to talk through. I encourage you to learn more about it. If you wanna try to understand that at the very least we can agree. There’s a lot of people who don’t need to be in prison, just cuz they can’t afford, uh, afford bail because they got pulled over and had a traffic ticket.

okay. So what we want to do then because of this horrendous situation is then highlight one of those local organizations who experienced the setback, uh, at the hands of lying people. So the organization we wanna talk about is women on the rise. They’re an organization that co launched a campaign several years ago, called communities over cages, closed the jail ATL.

Okay. And they led, uh, and they, created. They help create all the positive momentum and the actual legislation regarding the repurposing of this center. Because in Atlanta, when people care, they don’t just put John Lewis’s name in their mouth for no reason. Okay. the proposal was to turn this into a center with the namesake of John Lewis attached to it, which specifically is designed to divert people out of this cycle and back into something healthy.

So women on the rise were originally funded or founded as a project of the racial justice action center, uh, before launching into its own organization in 2020 their grassroots they’re led by women targeted and or impacted by the criminal legal system. Okay. Their goal is to work, to educate and heal and empower.

Quote ourselves, one another in our communities to demand justice, dignity and liberation for all. Okay. These are the organizations where we, can’t necessarily, even in a segment like this, tell you everything you need to know about what they’ve done. What you need to do is go get involved in what they have already been doing.

These are the folks who have already been on the ground, talking to politicians, figuring things out. Like figuring out how to make compromises. Right? They’ve already done this work. That’s why it’s so heartbreaking to see things like this happen, but it’s all the more reason to support the people who are doing this type of work to give them more and more of a push whenever they need it like this.

And so, uh, we are. Heartbroken and, very angry. Um, if you can’t tell at the actions that the city has taken to diminish and erase the very thankless work that groups like this are already doing to keep people out of prison and to build healthy communities. And yeah, the old adage is true.

Like we shouldn’t forget this, uh, when the next time comes around to vote. Yes. Sure. But that doesn’t keep people outta

prison.

What we can do is continue to support the movements that lead to freedom and reverse the effects of mass incarceration. So if you wanna learn more about women on the rise, go to women on the rise, ga.org.

You can get involved, you can donate and you can also learn more about why the Atlantic city detention center is a monument to racism in the prison, industrial [email protected]. It really does a good job of taking you through. The basics of the story, why this was really never needed at all, and why the community has done a fantastic job telling the city how they can use this to benefit the community.

And so to everyone within the sound of our voices, okay, we need you to understand police in prison. Abolition. We need you to get it. Now, if you don’t feel like you’ve. General grasp on this idea. We need you to start reading some fucking books, okay? Because we need people to understand that this isn’t helping and that you need to support whatever movement exists in your community now to fix this problem.

Okay. The system is pushing back really hard, and we need you to be able to speak up and make a difference in your community because we need you to. Other people understand that keeping people out of prison puts them on the road to recovery and support and actually keeps you safer. It literally keeps you safer.

And if that sounds counterintuitive, it’s time to read some books. You’re gonna understand where this comes from.

Kyle: Bernie Sanders me. I, once again, asking you to read, we do this till we free us by Miam

Cliff: Yes. That is the place

to.

Kyle: regular plug for the best 1 0 1. , I would also emphasize if you’re a person that’s skeptical about abolition and, and this sort of thing in general, and you, no things. Aren’t great, but there’s just a little like crack with light coming through around this, but you aren’t ready to like in endorse a full throated abolitionist movement.

Fine. Great. Totally understand where you’re coming from, thinking about safety and, and your loved ones and all that, we would just encourage you to keep an open mind. And more specifically is you’re keeping an open mind sharing what you learn with. Your parents with your neighbors, um, with your HOA board, like whatever the sphere of influence of skeptical people is that you have around you.

This is a thing where like changing the narrative will really help change the legislation. So we do this till we free us is a great place to start for a macro understanding and following organizations like women on the rise who are regularly sharing resources and talking points. Stories that may slowly Bo surely change your heart and

mind around this.

One of the most critical issues of our

Cliff: Yeah. And take it.

Thank you, Kyle. Yes. And take a deep breath because if it feels like, oh, I don’t really want to care this much about a political thing again, don’t worry, dude.

Neither party agrees with this. Like this isn’t

political actual Joe ass Biden is up there being like, no, these are

terrible ideas.

Okay.

Kyle: People in power hate the idea of abolition and that, and that goes back to the 13th amendment. But again,

we’re trying to keep this podcast

short.

Cliff: so please don’t feel like it is a, a political stance you have to necessarily marry yourself to, for the rest of your life. There is a gradient and a spectrum for people to understand all the ways that it plays out. And become a part of the change because even if you can’t envision a police free or a prison free society, which I hope you can one day, but even if you can’t, at least you can acknowledge that, um, putting poor people in jail and then asking them to afford bail and then keeping them in jail because

they can’t afford bail. Probably doesn’t help anybody. It’s probably lunacy that just keeps people poor. You’re not

safer. Jesus Christ. Sorry.

Kyle: We hope that as a punk, as somebody who is sort of inherently anti authoritarian, anti society, the type of person who would even engage in a podcast like this to begin with that you can start from a place of how are things going? Oh, not great. Okay. What can we do about it?

How can we

change?

Cliff: look into women on the rise, look into the work that they’ve done, but also look into, again, the equivalent in your community. Look for the people who have been doing the work longer than you, so that you can learn from them and support them and join up with them. If you’re ready to join them in the

fight.

Kyle: And as that’s tightening up your muscles and

joints and making you feel real balled up inside the OCS and PLU ribbon are here to help keep your bones and muscles loose so that

you can stay limber in the fight.

Cliff: FOSS punk and PBR rations for the war to come. We are prepared and ready. This has been Friday

heavy. We’ll see you in two weeks.

go to tunedig.com or follow us on Instagram and Twitter for links to the new release, the playlist and the organization that we talked about today.