Notes From The Record Room: Henry Rollins, Tropical Fuck Storm, IRK, Stimmerman, mclusky, Damaged Bug, Kathryn Mohr
Record Room: Friday, 2/13
65 candles for Henry Rollins…
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become somewhat ritualistic. For a few years now, it's been common every February 13th for me to pull a few volumes from my collection of Rollins Band LPs and CDs (all of my RB cassettes have somehow vanished over the years) and reconnect with the brutalized teenage weakling who found solace listening to them. Perhaps it’s shitty to admit, but I found some level of comfort in Rollins’s own abuse; his outward tough-guy posturing was not only meant to bolster the type of music he made with S.O.A., Black Flag, and Rollins Band, but also to create an aura of “don’t fuck with me.” It’s a defense mechanism, one I completely understood and likely embraced to some degree.
Anyway, I didn’t have the vocabulary to deal with the anger I’d had pent up and unresolved, expression a punishable offense in a “respect for your elders”/”what goes on in this house stays in this house” household. When I heard Life Time for the first time at age 15, especially “Gun In Mouth Blues,” I felt beat up. I’d heard metal up to this point. I’d heard Megadeth’s “In My Darkest Hour.” I’d heard Metallica’s “One.” I wasn’t so sheltered that I’d somehow avoided hearing heavy music about tough or terrifying subjects. But, Life Time was different. Life Time was a floodgate, and the subsequent deluge of agony, anxiety, heavy breathing, and eye-watering expulsion of grief that I heard spilling from my tape deck didn’t seem possible. How could a cassette, one I’d recorded from a loaned copy of the album, contain this much… pain? And it felt real. For the first time in my life, I heard actual catharsis. And Hard Volume, Life Time’s follow-up, was somehow more of a purge or exorcism than the breakthrough that was its predecessor: “What Have I Got,” “Turned Inside Out," and “Down And Away” were despair and rage made manifest. Suddenly, the safety goggles were left at home. I was done with knee pads and helmets. No training wheels. I had my guru. I found the guy who would help me out.
1992’s The End Of Silence would be my pep talk: 70 minutes of King Crimson-level composition and unbridled metallic assault acting as a courier to a litany of bad scenarios whose only way out was summed up in three words: “Deal with it.” Don’t check out. Don’t turn to alcoholism or drug abuse to soften the reality of what’s ahead. Just deal with it. As corny as it sounds—and it does, I know it does—The End Of Silence is the reason I’m here sitting quietly with a cup of coffee in a warm house, able to collect my thoughts and type them out. It’s the reason I’m less than a year away from turning 50, father to an 18-year-old daughter, and husband to a loving wife for almost 20 years. Music and art were my salvation, and I remain grateful for them.
Happy Birthday, Hank. And, thank you.
Australia’s Tropical Fuck Storm toured in 2025 in support of their album, Fairyland Codex, which landed fourth in my end of year selections. I was fortunate to see them play during this stretch, standing at the foot of the stage at Underground Arts, October 3rd. Easily one of the best gigs I saw last year.
TFS produced a concert film, BOWLO: Live In Sydney, from a gig recorded on November 22nd. The banter spent between each gap in the setlist is kept to a minimum, (some amusing back-and-forth about AC/DC is had between the band and audience), and TFS’s distinct blend of guitar-centric freakout and jagged dance punk is captured well.
Light observation: between this video and the live show I attended, I’ve now seen the track “Irukanji Syndromeis” performed twice and both renditions are better than the studio one recorded for Fairyland Codex.
— All images taken at Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 10/3/25 —
IRK
The Seeing House
Nefarious Industries
Released: 9/26/25
The Seeing House, the sophomore album from the UK noise punks IRK, was an unfortunate omission from last year’s block of listening. With discernible nods to The Jesus Lizard and Unsane, IRK’s unsettling and often syncopated bass-n-drum beatdowns are as turbulent as they are precise—tightly wound and violent.
Video company TechNoir recorded and mixed a live session for IRK, which was posted in mid-January. For the 13-and-some-change minutes of this session, the band is captured in sharp grayscale, exhibiting a level of volatility that I imagine could resemble their live show, the recording so well equalized.
I think this session should be released as an EP.
Links:
IRK — Bandcamp / Instagram
Nefarious Industries — Official / Bandcamp / Instagram
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Earsplit PR:
UK-based IRK has just posted a TechNoir live video session which sees the band performing several tracks from their second LP, The Seeing House, out now on Nefarious Industries.
IRK vocalist J.S. Gordon, bassist Ed Snell, and drummer Matthew Deamer set up shop at Glide Studio in Leeds, UK, where The Seeing House was recorded, to film this live session. The TechNoir crew – John Figler (director, editor), Will Cook (recording, mixing, mastering), and Sam Price (filming, lighting) – films and records their sessions in various locations, and here, they captured IRK performing four songs from the LP in all their ravenous live glory.
J.S. Gordon reveals, “We’ve worked with John from TechNoir on more than a few occasions now, he’s basically the fourth member of IRK at this point. He’s filmed live sessions like this one, filmed our first album launch show, and produced a heap of our music videos.
“It’s no surprise then to say that he has a really good grasp on what we’re trying to achieve musically. This makes him super adept at filtering our daft nonsense through his auteurial prism of cinephilia, antique film lenses from prewar Europe, and willingness to let us be idiots.
“Combining this close, even sensual, working relationship with the additional expertise from Sam and Will, we hatched an irrepressible plan to capture the energy of the new album in our very own space and pit of despair; Glide Studio in Leeds.
“The end product captures the physicality of the performance, often passionate, occasionally erotic, and always rippling with the unique dynamism of three aging blokes playing weird music. The monochrome visually amplifies the musical contrast of the songs, cutting out excess aesthetic noise in favour of the auditory racket.
“Hopefully it gives a little flavour of the live Irk experience and how it differs from the sound on record. If nothing else, we look cute.”
Stimmerman
Challenging Music for Difficult People
Invisible Planet Records
Releases: 3/27/26
Stimmerman is the work of musician Eva Lawitts, whose third album, Challenging Music for Difficult People, will be issued in late March. At the moment, two singles have surfaced: “Outer Planets” and “Before the Dove,” both of which ably point to Lawitts’s evident penchant for eccentric prog and the payoff of a mighty crescendo.
“Before the Dove,” specifically, is a loose adaptation of Noah’s Ark written with as much scene-building imagery as well-considered and nervous musical detail, a marriage of black midi meticulousness and nightmarish theatricality that recalls John Congleton’s The Nighty Nite.
As for “Outer Planets,” Lawitts aims more toward anthemic avant-pop, some guitar angularity coupled with enough psych-dusted sugar to resonate with fans of Guerilla Toss or Japandroids. There’s also some playful syncopation that keeps the dynamic colorful.
Links:
Stimmerman — Bandcamp
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Clandestine Label Services:
the mountain that i saw from a distance
If Stimmerman isn't the most inventive, intense, inspired rock band you've never heard of, then either you've heard of Stimmerman or I haven't heard of whoever is. This year, at the height of their power, Stimmerman (the brainchild of omnipresent New York-based bassist and composer Eva Lawitts) are making no bones about what kind of audience they're seeking with the title of their third album: Challenging Music For Difficult People.
i'd sell it all for a little more
On their debut full-length, 2019's Goofballs, Stimmerman created a narrative tour-de-force with story-songs comic, heartbreaking, and furious, attacking its themes of loss and regret with hard-earned compassion. Their 2023 follow-up, Undertaking, showcased their capacity for elegiac beauty and slow build-ups to a monumental climax. For these albums and for their ferocious live shows they've earned plaudits from the Impose Magazine, Post-Trash, Bass Player Magazine, The New Haven Independent, and Billboard Magazine. They've been aptly described as "loud and sour", "big-brained music that drags knuck", and "ugly beauty".
there's something in the water
With Challenging Music for Difficult People, they've come up with the bruising rock album they've been threatening to release for years, without sacrificing any of Lawitts's introspection or compositional elegance. The title is partly a dare, partly self-deprecation, but mostly it is an invitation to listeners who might find themselves reflected in the dark waters of these ten tracks. Like a turbulent sea, …for Difficult People shifts between shimmer and storm on the surface and teems with complicated life in its murky depths.
harmless fun
Whereas Goofballs recalled the naïve, stupid 2000s and Undertaking took on the claustrophobia of the early days of COVID-19, ...for Difficult People is an album of our current, overwhelming moment. On the last two Stimmerman albums, Lawitts responded to tragic personal losses with a mixture of somber grief and frank rage; here, her goal is to portray our collective confusion and to shred it through with sharp honesty. Like most skilled lyricists, Lawitts works in phrases, snatches of language that beckon the listener deeper. "Before the Dove" retells a nightmare version of the Noah's Ark story, Lawitts's snarled warning "Blood in the water!" rising from its horizon like a crimson rainbow. “Outer Planets” see-saws between a chanted description of an asteroid belt inside the soul and a sudden shout-along Blink-182 chorus: “I won't get what I want, not while I'm alive!” The hooky standout "Comedy Gold" begins with a low chug over which Lawitts drawls: "Our world sustains sad men and clowns/Which one am I when you come around?" before its title hook launches a ragged pop-punk guitar melody, and Lawitts demands: "Does it help just like it hurts?" On this album, she's here to do both.
rings of rock and sinew
Stimmerman's sound is sui generis, but draws from many traditions. Think of the music as a wild animal in motion: the bones are those of the Pixies and Archers of Loaf school of off-kilter alt-rock; the skin is textured with the hallucinatory prog-rock of the Mars Volta and the studio-rat psychedelia of A Wizard, A True Star; the flesh between them wounded with the sincerity and intermittent hushed beauty of Midwest emo and proto-sadgirl singer-songwriter indie. Stimmerman doesn't hop between these influences from one song to another; they are always doing at least two things at once. Anthemic guitars coexist with icy keyboard hooks, restraint and cacophony take turns, and above it all there's Lawitts swooping with utter commitment between whispery intimacy, little-girl yelps and big-boy screams. Every relisten highlights a new detail. This is an album that grows on you and that you can grow with.
just like dust and diamonds
Challenging Music For Difficult People is recommended to anyone who wishes they could listen to all their favorite music at the same time. It's recommended to anyone who feels like their thoughts are constantly racing against nobody at all. It's recommended to people who are a little bit afraid of birds. It's recommended to anyone who likes literally any weird rock music. (If you're pretty sure you don't want your music to be either weird or rock, it's only very cautiously recommended to you.)
mclusky
i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley
Ipecac Recordings
Releases: 3/20/26 (digital) and 5/1/26 (physical)
Post-hardcore outfit mclusky broke a long absence streak in 2025, releasing their first album in 21 years, the world is still here and so are we. Seemingly (and smartly) capitalizing on the momentum of last year’s successful return, a mini-album titled i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley is scheduled to release digitally on 3/20 with plans for exclusive vinyl variants to emerge on 5/1 via Ipecac Recordings and mclusky’s Bandcamp.
Composed of new (“i know computer,” “as a dad’), paused (“spock culture,” “hi! we’re on strike”), and previously released material (“fan learning difficulties,” “that was my brain on elves”), i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley precedes the band’s upcoming North American tour, which perhaps informed the video for its first single, “i know computer.”
Featuring mclusky playing live for an enthusiastic crowd, the video for “i know computer” could subliminally incentivize prospective attendees to check out the tour, as crowd surfers and participants feature prominently while our view briefly cuts to the band’s performance. Photographed stills of a good time being had by the crowd are spliced throughout the video.
It’s solid promo: “i know computer” exhibiting the throb, screech, and acerbic tongue expected from a mclusky track, snarled phrases laced with dry sarcasm (“GIVE BLOOD! THEN TAKE IT BACK… fair enough.”) over raw urgency.
Well done.
Links:
mclusky — Bandcamp / Instagram
Ipecac Recordings — Official / Bandcamp / Instagram
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Rarely Unable:
mclusky have returned with new music (and some not-so-new music) in the form of a mini album called i sure am getting sick of this bowling alley, which ipecac recordings will release on 20th march (digital) and 1st may (vinyl). it will be released in the following formats: digital, black vinyl, ipecac/band translucent red vinyl and the rough trade exclusive variant, crystal fuchsia.
this follows their album the world is still here and so are we which was released in 2025.
content. it drives the modern music world. photos. opinions. more photos. more opinions (please note - not all photos and opinions are bad, just 99 per cent of them). how about - and indulge me here - music? that content-y enough for you? fact is we can’t stop writing, at least at the moment. it’s fun (that’s all it needs to be). it’s the common denominator of band. only death will slow us down (note - it won’t stop us).
the idea for this release started as a bit of a stop-gap - a thing with which to help promote the north american tour - and ended up as something else entirely. ‘i know computer’ and ‘as a dad’ are new and are singles (they may make the next album, who can say, it’s already half-recorded and you will like it). damien probably likes ‘i am computer’ a bit too much but that’s okay, the heart wants what the heart wants.
‘spock culture’ and ‘hi! we’re on strike’ were recorded during the world sessions. why didn’t they make the album? i’m not sure. lyrically they are important historical documents, up there with the pusheen the cat books and/or the US constitution.
‘fan learning difficulties’ and ‘that was my brain on elves’ have only had a digital release before and are, to quote british children from forty years ago, ‘skill’. hopefully you can agree that i - and by osmosis, all of us - have read a lot of books. - falco x
Damaged Bug
ZUZAX
Deathgod Records
Releases: 3/20/26
Two months into 2026, and there hasn’t been any news of an upcoming Osees album. However, John Dwyer’s Damaged Bug project will be issuing a new LP titled ZUBAX. This will be the first Damaged Bug release since 2020’s Bug On Yonkers. “End of the War” is the new single.
Beginning with 2014’s Hubba Bubba, Damaged Bug was purposed to be a creative venture sans guitar for Dwyer, mostly synth-driven and electronic. Those parameters have seemingly relaxed as Damaged Bug’s discography has grown, but its basis in krautrock remains intact.
Links:
Damaged Bug — Bandcamp
Deathgod — Instagram
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR:
Damaged Bug (John Dwyer) today has announced his new album ZUZAX, due out March 20th via Deathgod Records. The announcement arrives alongside the pulsating, rhythmic lead single "END OF THE WAR," which also is the first track on the upcoming LP. Today marks Damaged Bug's first release since the 2020 LP Bug On Yonkers, which earned praise and support from Stereogum, Exclaim, Talkhouse, American Songwriter, Ghettoblaster, and more.
ZUZAX was recorded over a period of seven years, from 2018 to 2025, by John Dwyer himself. The record is an 11 track rollercoaster ride of out-of-the-box arrangements, off kilter yet infectious melodies, and dynamic rhythms. The LP is a forward thinking musical triumph, marking another outstanding achievement in John Dwyer's vast discography.
Kathryn Mohr
Carve
The Flenser
Releases: 4/17/26
Kathryn Mohr’s “Property” is bookended by two stanzas that are the track’s closest approximation to a chorus. The first single from her upcoming album, Carve, “Property” is a droning folk song with a troubling emotional depth that is difficult to characterize, itself a Burroughs-similar abstraction, lyrically “cut-up” though articulated with chilling multitracked harmonizing. Musically minimal, though there’s not an empty second to be heard, Mohr’s choice of melody is beautifully haunting, every plucked note emitting an air of unease and isolation.
I’ve repeatedly listened to “Property” more times than I’d like to admit, not with the unconscious impulse of an obsessive but with morbid fascination. I think this song is genuinely terrifying, and that feeling leaves me more than curious about how the rest of Carve will sound.
Links:
Kathryn Mohr — Bandcamp / Instagram
The Flenser — Official / Bandcamp / Instagram
Links, knowledge, and sounds were handed over courtesy of another/side:
Incoming April 17, 2026 is Carve— the second full-length by Bay Area artist Kathryn Mohr. Written over the course of five years and recorded over several weeks in a rural singlewide in the Mojave Desert, the album centers on love experienced as a form of grief, not as an aftermath of loss, but as a condition of intimacy itself.
Mohr describes Carve as an album about how memory exists outside the body, embedded in places and landscapes. It is shaped by her first return to the American Southwest since a childhood road trip at age five, and by the experience of moving through terrain that holds emotional weight long after its origins fade. The record considers how intimacy feels after years of isolation, and what it takes to carve out a life that allows for trust, presence, and feeling rather than mere survival. The project took form after a difficult tour that ended in Joshua Tree. Mohr pointed her car into the desert and drove alone, crisscrossing the Mojave on dirt roads. Months later, she returned to record the album, working alone with an acoustic guitar, a field recorder, and limited supplies.
Carve's first single "Property" premiers today and Mohr says it's
"...an amalgamation of dream images and visions I had throughout 2025. It's also inspired by an underground man made waterway I found that went on for miles under the city I live in. walking through, climbing 50 feet up a ladder to look out the man hole, see where I am."
Following that period, Mohr began to allow for intimacy and connection. The time she spent recording Carve in the desert did not create isolation so much as mirror it. Working alone out of an old, western-themed jail Airbnb, the physical enclosure reflected the emotional conditions under which much of the record had been written: distance, restraint, and long stretches of stillness. In that context, love was not experienced as escape, but as something inseparable from impermanence and the awareness of loss. This tension between connection and inevitability sits at the center of Carve.
Some of the album’s songs were written earlier, during a prolonged period marked by emotional distance and apathy. Over those four years, Mohr was working through unprocessed childhood memories and their long-term effects on her ability to connect with others. The work was slow and difficult, involving a fundamental reshaping of how she related to herself and to the world.
Carve was mixed by Richard Chowenhill of Flenser label mates Agriculture. Rather than offering resolution, the album documents the act of remaining present within tension. Carve is not about escaping grief, but about accepting it as inseparable from love itself.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
