Tues June 15, Crocodile, 9 pm, $6.
On the 1996 comp Agitprop: The Politics of Punk, mouthy mutineers like the Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Billy Bragg, the Stranglers, and New Model Army gave voice, over a three-disc set, to various political and social dissatisfactions. The seminal Dressed to Kill collection gave a look--at times playful, at times pointed--at the focused and dysfunctional alike, a chorus of inconsolable mouthpieces for generations of malcontents.
With a name like This Moment in Black History and a bio that espouses the "humanist politics" of the Minutemen, you'd expect a band to have a little more force in their lyrical commentaries. But instead of steel-toeing lines in the sand, the Cleveland band offers the restlessness and recklessness of its early agitated forefathers. They shout lines like "apathy's not cool with me" and command you to "wake up," and then their lyrics get compacted by overdriven guitars, toppling keyboard lines, and an angry mob of drum beats; instruments bum-rush the speakers and compete for your attention in a whirlwind of fury. Featuring members of the Chargers Street Gang, the Bassholes, and Neon King Kong, TMIBH would do well paired with both the skinny-tie pomp of the Fever and the knock-the-wind-outta-ya rock of Rye Coalition. Their latest disc, Midwesterncuttalistick--produced by Detroit magic man Jim Diamond--drenches the teachings of '80s hardcore in a hyper-spastic freakout more energetic than a mishap at Guitar Center animating all the instruments at once.
