[engl] Here we go again, ETT - 048. And we bring you one of the most unique and exciting punk bands in the world. ISS born in North Carolina a super group consisting of Edwin J Schneider y cuidado Ricardo Poison Ivey of the Whatever Brain Flannel family tree. If you heard the first record, you know whats up. This one expounds on the ground they already laid out. Second full-length from this North Carolina punk duo. In case you haven’t paid attention to our raving about ISS in the past, here’s the story: Eddie from Brain F? and Rich from Whatever Brains work together to construct songs out of samples from classic punk records, making entirely new songs. ISS’s songs tend to be really different from one another, but the general vibe is an extremely unique combination of dance music and punk that sounds utterly unlike anything that I’ve ever heard before. However, rather than being trance-y, ISS are very song-oriented, relying on Rich’s ability to pen a pop tune and deliver a big vocal hook, a skill which works particularly well in tandem with his bitingly sarcastic lyrics. Going along with the intertextuality of the music, the lyrics are also dense with punk references, my favorite of which smash together bits of popular culture in really evocative and unexpected ways, like the release’s title (which seems to refer to both G.I.S.M. and the Brian Eno / Robert Fripp album No Pussyfooting), or the song “Infinite Jast Last,” which gives me hope that I’m not the only person in the universe who both owns an original L.S.D. flexi and also loves David Foster Wallace. Another thing I love about ISS is the fact that they’re unapologetically funny, but unlike a lot of bands who use humor, the songs actually grow on you with repeated listens. I mean, the first time you hear “Part Time All the Time” you’ll giggle at its send-up of trendy punk fashions, but once you get past that you’ll live for the epic beat drop that sounds like it’s straight off the floor of a European dance club. In case you can’t tell from all of this description, ISS are one of the most profoundly original and exciting punk bands in the world right now, particularly because they’re one of the only “bands” that is actually responding in an interesting way to the profusion of pop- and sub-cultural content that the internet has brought us… whereas most artists I’ve heard either wring their hands about the overwhelming nature of “content” in the digital age (like Parquet Courts) or just shamelessly rip off what has come before (95% of punk bands of the past several years), ISS scrape up the half-digested vomit of information that the internet has brought us and fashion it into something that truly could not have existed before.

[engl] Nothing’s original. Everything’s up for grabs. Nothing is dead and everything is popular and we’re simultaneously experiencing restrospective appreciation for the entirety of pop culture in one fell swoop. Hey, fuck you man, I didn’t invent postmodernism; it’s happening all around us. ISS know this and they don’t give a shit, which is why they’ve concocted one of the best punk releases of recent years from a combination of samples from their record collections and ultra-stoopid but mind-crushingly addictive hooks from their own fertile imaginations. Eddie and Rich are the kids behind this North Carolina outfit, and their ‘we’ll take what we want from punk and make it punker’ approach makes for one helluva potent cocktail – just try listening to this without feeling like a brick in a rusty washing machine, I dare ya. (Dis)Charge It To The Game takes a breakneck D-beat, attaches it to an anchor made of sass and chutzpah then throws it into a canyon; meanwhile on Today’s Active Dads they make like Ty Segall (at his crudest) wrapping The Coneheads in gaffa tape, bundling them in the back of a car and driving them off a cliff face. Canyons and cliff faces? Hey, this isn’t about originality. Post-punk-garage-sample-lo-fi-snot-core at its finest, basically. Originally released on tape in 2015, now finally available on vinyl and wonderfully, gloriously horrible. Buy it and throw all your other records away; this has already commandeered their best bits anyway. Will Fitzpatrick.

[engl] Spikes+ is an expanded edition of ISS’s pandemic-themed 2020 cassette, whose uniquely packaged, self-released edition came and went before most anyone could hear about it. With some of ISS’s best songs—like the anthemic title track, the unexpectedly touching "Cellmate,” and the blistering “Facemask”—Sorry State couldn’t bear to let Spikes pass as a mere blip in the zeitgeist. Besides the five tracks from the original Spikes cassette, Spikes+ includes “Puttin’ on the Blitz” from 2016’s Studs cassette, 2018’s self-titled 7” on Sorry State, ISS’s three tracks from 2019’s American Idylls compilation, and the 2020 single Too Punk for Heavy Metal. Highlights abound here too, from the cowbell-infused “One-Sided Triangle” to the Agent Orange-inspired lead guitar on “I Wanna Be Dated” (courtesy Scarecrow’s Jef Leppard). Like the best odds-n-sods compilations, Spikes+ sounds great whether you’re revisiting old favorites or making new ones.