Happy Holidays from the Reglar Wiglar!

Luhey and T.R. Miller also wish you the best this holiday season.

RECORD REVIEW: Tyranny is Tyranny

TYRANNY IS TYRANNY
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

The fact that Tyranny is Tyranny took the subtitle of Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism for the name of their latest full-length gives you a pretty good idea where this band comes from politically. Musically, they come from a bleak post-hardcore region of noisy sludge. Geographically, they hail from Madison, WI, which has a fair bit of snowy sludge for a good chunk of the year. I lived in Madison for a stretch recently and was able to catch this band of raging lefties in action a few times. One show was at Mr. Roberts, which Chicagoans should imagine as the Mutiny only with Packers/Brewers garb and signage instead Bears/Cubs.

The album contains only five songs, but they are all either mini-epics or full-on multi-part tunes that push the album past the 40 minute mark. Throaty screaming about the ills of capitalism running unchecked and amuck provides much of the subject matter. The album opens with "Or Does it Explode" a reference to the poem "Harlem" with lyrics inspired by two other Langston Hughes poems, "Lenox Avenue Mural" and "Let America Be America Again". The second track, "She Who Struggles," concerns itself with J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program. It opens slowly with sparse instrumentation before bursting into rage. The album is not all full-on metal plodding, "Pillar of Cloud Pillar of Fire" features a somber trumpet as it builds and collapses. "Victory Will Defeat You" ends the album over the course of  a nearly fifteen minute march.

Being in a band can feel like a long hard slog sometimes and Tyranny is Tyranny delivers a good forceful pounding which post hardcore fans will enjoy regardless of their politics,

Photo by Bronson Karaff

Happy 10th Anniversary to the Reglar Wigar Blog!

2015 almost went by without me realizing that this year marks the 10th Anniversary of "The Reglar Wiglar Electronic Blog featuring Comics & Music News, Reviews & Interviews" -- a.k.a. the blog you are quickly glossing over right now! This post will be the 1,562nd and it's just as uninteresting as all of its 1,561 predecessors. Special thanks to Mr. Shipping/Receiving for setting the RW blog up a decade ago. As of this posting, there have been over 98,400 visitors to this site, all of whom have left a better person having read it. I hope there are 98,400 more in the next ten years. 

ZINE REVIEW: Every Day Failures

EVERY DAY FAILURES

Sarah B. (Punch Drunk Press)

Every Day Failures (meaning failures every day, not commonplace failures) is a perzine which recounts an eight-week period of time in the life of Sarah B. Shortly after Sarah's partner leaves her and their two young children for a job in the city, Sarah takes her daughters (ages 3 and 14 months) from the punk house where they've been living to her aunt’s much nicer home in the suburbs where she’ll be housesitting for the next two months. During her time of relative isolation in the 'burbs, Sarah cycles through periods of depression and decadence, shame in her poverty and annoyance by her surroundings. Like any good autobiographical zine, Every Day Failures provides a snapshot of Sarah's life and struggles to live according to her own principles. The temporary housesitting situation eventually ends and Sara presumably returns to the punk house where more every day failures await to become everyday failures. Hopefully there will be a few every day successes mixed in there as well.