Flush it Friday: The World is a Kersed Place
Alternately: Take a Swing at The World is a Beautiful Place…
It’s not just that I believe The World is a Beautiful Place, and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is the best emo band on the planet, it’s an objective fact. Hell, they might just be one of the best bands, full stop. They survived the 2016 emo guillotine previously discussed, and they keep making end-of-the-year level albums, all while touring with as much energy and passion as they ever have. If you’ve never seen them live, go and watch David F. Bello leave you utterly in love with him and just wanting to hold him and tell him it will all be okay.
In the Year of our Lord 2024, we have so far been treated to two new salvos from the Philadelphia collective. On June 12, “Auguries of Guilt” fell in our bandcamp laps. Sounding something like a bridge between 2017’s bared-teeth Always Foreign and 2021’s staggering Illusory Walls, “Auguries of Guilt” is layers and layers of guitar that shift back and forth between a rankled fury and a galloping intensity. It’s not as furious as Always Foreign, but it’s not quite the return to form of Illusory Walls. The track shines brightest when Bello and Katie Dvorak play off each other vocally, sometimes harmonizing, sometimes supporting the other, sometimes one going one direction while the other goes another. It’s the kind of song that makes you wonder if this is the band’s direction for the next LP or if this was simply an idea that they needed to work through. All in all: a solid track! “An omen of an omen of an omen” is quite the way to end a song titled “Auguries of Guilt.”
And then we have what happened just this Wednesday. On June 26, TWIABP released a cover of Ceremony‘s stone-cold classic “Kersed,” first appearing on the band’s 2005 debut EP Ruined. Even though Ceremony has, over the years, evolved from a powerviolence band to a hardcore band to a Black Flag band to a Ramones band to a New Order band, they still play “Kersed.” One of the beautiful thing about a Ceremony live show is that they play everything from every era. No matter what era of punk/hardcore/new wave is the band’s current flavour, they have no contempt for their own history. It makes it immensely exciting to see them. All my love forever to that band.
“Kersed,” if you’re unfamiliar—and if you are, watch this live video from Atlanta about 10 years ago—is more or less a perfect hardcore song. It’s about a minute long, has an unforgettable opening line (“Pack your fist full of hate and take a swing at the world”), encapsulates perfectly youthful disaffection, and is just generally thrilling. You feel 10 feet fucking tall. You feel like you and everyone around can do anything together to smash the fuckin’ system. It’s pure hardcore rage. It’s beautiful.
So here we are, with TWIABP taking their own swing at the world with their own version, a version that doesn’t even venture from the original. It’s just a hardcore song! Guitarist and backup vocalist Chris Teti takes over vocal duties (Bello is not listed on the track). They draw out the intro in this really satisfying way, play the song just a hair slower, and then blast through the final “Burn to the fucking ground” with every ounce of acrimony and intensity as the original. I didn’t even know TWIABP could do that! It’s one of the coolest things that has happened in music in 2024. The album art accompanying the single, too, is a direct nod to Ceremony’s 2006 classic Violence, Violence, which, by god, treat yourself to the power therein.
I’m hoping that whenever TWIABP releases a new album and/or hits the road again in the US, this will make it onto the setlist. I can’t even imagine what might occur. Well, I can: there will be 5-10 old fogies who lose their absolute shit and a bunch of young turks who have no idea what is happening. And then a song later we’ll be weeping together.
I’m so fucking jacked, I might go snort a line of oolong tea and just throw all my belongings the 6.8 miles from my current apartment to my new one instead of hiring movers. Hot damn, let’s Flush!
The Monday Press is a Ceremony of Stick. This Toilet Tuesday is RolderaBliss.
Aaron is wrong about the best Thou album, but his review of the recent Umbilical is more than fair:
Toilet Radio featuring Ian and Carmine Appice. That sentence has to do something for somebody, right?
Aaron is not wrong in his assessment of Orange Goblin‘s legacy and place in the pantheon. The album review, too, is also spot-on.
Brock Samson is back to kisso you with disso:
That’s the week in the Toilet, y’all! I’ve got packing/moving to do, a niece’s 1st birthday to celebrate, and hopefully any amount of time to sleep. Hit us with those GBUs in the comments, and keep being the lovely people you are. Drop some comments on the articles above while you’re at it. It’s always a lot more fun when our posts get some engagement from our faithful friends. Kisses!
