Rob Shepyer
Hardcore’s Enfant Terrible: Kickback at 1720
Rob Shepyer
March 7, 2026
Dedicated to bringing Los Angeles the most exclusive, and sometimes most dangerous bands in all of hardcore; SOS Booking outdid themselves once again by bringing one of France’s most infamous bands, Kickback, to 1720 Warehouse on February 22, 2026 after their recent headlining performance at Hellfest West. As is tradition in the genre, an uproar followed but the genre I’m referring to isn’t hardcore. If you were to ask most people about the origins of punk, they might say The Ramones or the Sex Pistols, but those who know transgressive art is rooted in literature, know that punk’s origins are in France. Arthur Rimbaud’s literature and cultural persona were the original enfant terrible that inspired the Beats, who went on to inspire the punks and it is certainly present in the mouthpiece of the hardcore band, Kickback, There have been many French enfant terribles from Rimbaud, to Comte de Lautréamont, to modern day torchbearers of the artistic tradition like Gaspar Noé in cinema, Michel Houellebecq in literature, and Kickback’s Stephen Bessac in hardcore. *The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Janky Smooth” related:
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Gorillaz Invade Los Angeles With An Arsenal of Media For New Album ‘The Mountain’
Rob Shepyer
February 28, 2026
Gorillaz don’t just release new albums, they release new worlds. From Demon Days to their upcoming latest, The Mountain, each album has its own story, its own physics, its own ensemble cast, and in the case of The Mountain, its own spirituality. Blending eastern traditions and sounds from Hinduism to Islam into their traditional funky alternative sound, Gorillaz’s intention with The Mountain is to put their fans on a spirit quest. They brought this quest to The Hollywood Palladium for 2 nights on February 22 and February 23, 2026; but also through their current interactive exhibit House Of Kong at the Rolling Greens nursery, which we will cover in the second part in this article. related: Gorillaz, The Most Human Band at Youtube Theater Around the world and across time, mountains have always been significant as metaphorical obstacles meant to test believers and help them rediscover their true essence. In a time of much confusion, where the human soul is routinely compromised by what we consume, we are each called to climb our personal mountains and meditate on their peaks to find new meanings for the new world in its new age. As the world changes, so do the animated
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Janky Fresh Friday: New Releases from Peaches, Gorillaz, Rob Zombie and Nothing
Rob Shepyer
February 27, 2026
Happy Janky Fresh Friday! We hope you are transcending the societal madness today. We’d like to present to you 4 tools to do so. Today we have new releases from Peaches, Gorillaz, Rob Zombie and Nothing- four albums from iconic artists who have already established themselves well as weapons of mass destruction in fighting facism and repression. related: Janky Fresh Friday – Angel Du$t, Converge, Charli XCX and femtanyl Peaches: No Lube So Rude (released February 27, 2026): Kill Rock Stars related: Photo Recap – The Teaches Of Peaches at Observatory North Park Peaches is an electroclash institution, a pillar of feminist punk in the 90s, a Canadian. Peaches is still going strong, still putting on the most spirited shows in any genre, still releasing albums that are relevant additions to her discography and to the culture at large. No Lube So Rude may not be her most lyrically profound album, it may not be the densest with singles that will explode on the radio, but it is full of sex anthems that will assuredly pop off live and inspire sexual experiences across the spectrum. I remember the last time I saw Peaches live. I recall thinking, some artists age
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Janky Fresh Friday: Angel Du$t, Converge, Charli XCX and femtanyl
Rob Shepyer
February 13, 2026
Happy Valentine’s Day to all Janky Smooth readers! Today is an absolutely unhinged day for new releases; with alternative power-pop Angel Du$t bringing us their newest album COLD 2 THE TOUCH right before their upcoming 1720 Warehouse show on 3/21. Angel Du$t is collectively one of Janky Smooth’s favorite bands and they have been for years; but we also have the highly anticipated return of Boston metalcore legends Converge, an unexpected dramatic shift in tone from Charli XCX in her original soundtrack for the Wuthering Heights film also released today, and our favorite current hyperpop outfit femtanyl finally releasing their debut album after bringing us such a great year with their Danny Brown collaborations. While many of you are out celebrating Valentine’s Day with your lovers, today is not a day to be slept on for new music releases. related: Janky Fresh Friday – She Past Away, KMFDM, Mayhem, and Puscifer Angel Du$t: COLD 2 THE TOUCH (released February 13, 2026): Run For Cover Records related: L.A. Buffs Up – Angel Du$t at The Lodge Room Angel Du$t is an anomaly of hardcore history. Created by Justice Tripp to explore another side of his creativity apart from his efforts in
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Janky Fresh Friday: She Past Away, KMFDM, Mayhem and Puscifer
Rob Shepyer
February 6, 2026
The new year for music is finally starting to kick up again with anticipated new releases and exciting new shows already stacking the first quarter of 2026. Today is no exception with Turkish goth group She Past Away dropping their new album Mizantrop right before their upcoming show at the NOVO in Los Angeles on 2/7. To celebrate the year starting to pick up more steam, Janky Smooth is reviewing four albums today instead of just two; with anticipated new releases from black metal founders Mayhem, Maynard James Keenan’s freaky side project Puscifer, and kings of industrial dance KMFDM as well. No matter what your taste in the darker side of music is; February 6, 2026 has you covered from every angle. related: Janky Fresh Friday – New Releases From Joyce Manor and (Young) GUV She Past Away: Mizantrop (released February 6, 2026): Creature Comfort Turkey’s She Past Away has long led the resurgence of true goth and death rock music. The tones and vibes of the soundscapes utilized by the duo feel like updated versions of the infectious, moody, macabre, and danceable tracks of the 80s. Now, many years into She Past Away’s career, long after the ripples of the initial
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Habak Find Beauty In The Horrors Of Humanity At The Roxy
Rob Shepyer
December 5, 2025
The Habak show at the Roxy on November 29th, presented by Viva! was more than your typical winter punk rock invading West Hollywood. I first heard of Habak after seeing Lagrimas open for Soul Glo at Zebulon in 2022 and then following the band until their Teragram takeover with Habak- I knew Los Angeles was witnessing the formation of a new scene, subgenre, and phenomenon in punk music. Both Habak and Lagrimas represent a style known as melodic crust. related: Earth’s Crust- CY Fest 2024 at Belasco Sonically akin to a lovechild between Deafheaven and Doom, Habak represents the emotional interior of anarchism. With so much political activity both in underground and mainstream circles, we often get exposed to the surface of rebellion but never the glacier of emotionality underlying the action. We see the rallies, the chanting, the rioting, the rhetoric, but when anarchists go home, we rarely see the pain to empathize with. Habak gives the world a sonic synthesis of that pain so we don’t have to venture into every anarchist’s home to see it for ourselves. How does that pain feel? Like suffered screaming over the most beautiful, dissociative harmony. related: Avant Garde Headbanging w/ The
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Janky Fresh Black Friday: New Releases From Bad Brains and WITCH
Rob Shepyer
November 28, 2025
What are fans of rock and roll music thankful for this Janky Fresh Black Friday after Thanksgiving? They’re thankful for hardcore punk music and psychedelic rock, both genres owing debts to bands that released music today in the later eras of their iconic careers. The first is Bad Brains, out with Live at The Bayou, a lost recording from a Washington D.C. show on July 14th 1980, while the second is another lost recording in the form of legendary Zamrock band WITCH’s Fool’s Ride, released for the first time in the United States. Both were rediscovered as further evidence that the world is reaching some kind of spiritual completion on the other side of these turbulent birthing pains. related: Janky Fresh Friday- New Releases by Home Front and Oneohtrix Point Never For those unfamiliar with these bands, they have something in common besides the fact that both of these releases were once difficult to attain in America. There’s something that connects them beyond their positions as seminal bands in their genres, breaking new musical ground and inspiring numerous musical offspring. Whether you’re a pilgrim or an Indigenous native on this Black Friday after Thanksgiving, give thanks to our brothers from
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GBH at Ventura Music Hall- Street Punks In Paradise
Rob Shepyer
October 29, 2025
The scene was the Hi Hat. One of the most vibrant venues during its short life on York, a must attend space on Highland Park art-walk nights. I don’t remember who was playing, just that it was a punk show because Blaque Chris was DJ’ing between the bands that night. During his set, Blaque Chris spun a track that stood out to me as especially vibrant and danceable, but in that street punk way, like kicking up dirt in the discotheque. I didn’t know the song at the time and went on a long journey trying to find it. Before seeing GBH at Ventura Music Hall though, the planets aligned to tell me the song was Big Women by GBH off their “Leather, Bristles, Studs, and Acne” album. GBH is quintessential street punk- the exact sound and spirit of the punk genre and look. Songs like Big Women are exemplary of that vibe. Comical, crass, gritty, simple, rhythmic, and too much fun to stop your body from hopping up and down. It took me far too long to see them perform, but finally, I had my punk rock rite of passage on October 17, 2025 by seeing them with Slaughterhouse
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Janky Fresh Friday: New Albums from Tame Impala and Militarie Gun
Rob Shepyer
October 17, 2025
Welcome to Janky Fresh Friday- the busiest day of the week for artists and labels to drop newly released music. Check in every Friday for a fresh squeeze. As part of Janky Smooth’s Janky Fresh Friday series, we’ve been comparing two albums that come out on the same day and seemingly have nothing in common- for the sole purpose of discovering the wealth of similarities between two disparate things. In some respects, it’s an exercise in empathy, learning how to appreciate differences, placing yourself in the shoes of a different subculture, and putting forth an effort to celebrate music as a whole. related: Janky Fresh Friday – New Albums from Mobb Deep and Sanguisugabogg Today’s albums for Friday, October 17th, 2025, are two highly anticipated bangers, one from arguably the most vibrant and prevalent scene in Los Angeles and the other from one of the most iconic artists in psychedelic rock, the former pillar genre of LA’s underground music. First though, let’s define fresh or freshness. Before the term was ever appropriated for music, culture, or fashion, it was once a descriptor for food, something that replenishes us, quenches our hunger and thirst, and ultimately connects our bodies to
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Cannibal Corpse at the Majestic Ventura Theater: Butchered By The Beach
Rob Shepyer
October 13, 2025
Cannibal Corpse at the Ventura Majestic Theater almost sounds like a sick joke the first time you say it out loud to a local. Why on Earth would the timid, even-keel Pleasantville of the Central Coast host the most violent, vulgar, visceral death metal band of all time? Perhaps it’s because Ventura locals are, somewhere inside, the most violent, vulgar, visceral metalheads in California. For the longest time, this sub-species of Californian, geographically isolated on the Central Coast, never felt represented by the events happening locally. So often, concerts in Ventura ranged from reggae to Grateful Dead covers, with their one outlet for heaviness being Nardcore. Now though, with new booking leadership at the Ventura Majestic Theater, a whole new range of heavy metal bookings is on the horizon; including this October 3, 2025 Cannibal Corpse show. related: Dark Angel Brings Us Back To Our Primal Basics at Majestic Ventura Theater Cannibal Corpse’s autumn tour in particular brought together one of the most insane lineups in modern metal and hardcore. Bridging death metal, grind, and thrash, bands like awe-inspiring fresh blood Fulci, the animalistic, demonically possessed Full of Hell, and toxified-to-the-teeth party speedsters Municipal Waste rounded out the cannibalistic carnage
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Avant-Garde Headbanging with The Armed at The Roxy
Rob Shepyer
September 24, 2025
Seeing The Armed at The Roxy on September 20, 2025 was not just a whim- for me it was a necessity. Whenever the Armed play in Los Angeles, I make it a point to attend. Their concerts feel like rare glimpses into a future world. With their latest tour stop supported by Prostitute, another heavy and unpredictable band, I wanted to break down not only the performance but also why The Armed matter so deeply and why their most recent album, THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED, truly rules. related: One Friday Night In Hell- Show Me The Body and Twitching Tongues at The Regent The Armed have become my favorite modern band. I am not sure how it happened; I can’t always control what I gravitate toward. Perhaps they filled the vacuum left by The Dillinger Escape Plan, a band whose live shows once stood as the gold standard for ferocity and unpredictability. Perhaps they were the only group writing anthems with lyrics powerful enough to resonate like “Sport of Form” off Perfect Saviors, my favorite album of 2023. That track, which ends with a peaking sing-along verse of “Doesn’t Anyone Even Know You? Does
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Dark Angel Brings Us To Our Primal Basics at Majestic Ventura Theater
Rob Shepyer
September 19, 2025
Dark Angel at the Majestic Ventura Theater on September 6, 2025 might have been just another stop on a long national tour for the many iconic bands appearing on this monster show—from Sacred Reich to Hirax—but for the locals of California’s Central Coast, it was much more than that. For Ventura’s own hardcore and stoner metal scenes, it was a night to raise the speed, volume, and intensity of their jams alongside some of Los Angeles’s finest. It was an event that felt like a genuine summit of the underground, a night where the past and present of extreme music converged. If you’re a fan of extreme sounds—whether punk, death metal, hardcore, or black metal—you owe it to yourself to attend thrash metal shows from time to time. They act as a palate cleanser, a way to reset your taste and senses back to the primal basics. Thrash metal, at its core, is one of the most fundamental heavy metal art forms, a template that inspired so many of us to follow a path deeper into the underground. For every genre that has splintered off since, thrash remains the raw power source, the musical bedrock that feeds the rest. related:
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