DESCRIPTION:
I gotta take a quick break from my requests so I can ruin punk a little bit.

Yeah, sorry to put the kibosh on all the fun you pretentious wads are having with your “exclusive” punk gems—on your own, of course, since nobody actually bothers to talk to your boring ass—but I’m afraid that I’m gonna have to dig up some of your beloved NWI gold for the rest of us pretentious wads to enjoy.

Yep, here’s another punk band emerging from Hammond, Indiana, a city that absolutely no one would care about if the two MW’s didn’t choose to sit their asses there and make some hardly-hardcore punk rock music. NWI’s gotten a bit of an over-glorified wrap in terms of its scene, partly due to idiots like me who imply that there’s a lot worth giving a shit about in the area that we’re not hearing. That’s not exactly the case. It seems like people-punks don’t give the internet enough credit; the majority of what’s worth listening to has already hit the web in some shape or form, be it on a despondent-dork’s Blogspot that nobody bothers reading, or an over-hyped Youtube channel that nobody SHOULD be reading. I may be living on the other side of the country from NWI, but even then, I get the strong feeling that what we’re currently hearing is just about what you get. You know what I’m saying? NWI’s not some holy-hot-pot of punk that’s worth paying fifty bucks for any tape that just so happened to come from the region, it’s no different from any other Midwestern city. I still regularly get emails that ask questions along the lines of “What other good NWI punk bands are there,” or “How can I hear more of Mark Winter’s bands?” What, you mean the dozens that losers like me have already covered? That’s pretty much all there is, at least the bands that’re worth caring about. But I suppose I can’t blame newcomers for being so curious, because the NWI punk that we CAN hear is consistently amazing.

This is The Fritz, a punk rock n’ roll (“punk rock n’ roll” is STILL a cool term, don’t you dare tell me otherwise) project from the deepest, pus-filled abscesses of Clay Fritz’s mind. If you’re not aware, Clay currently plays in Liquids (which recently turned into a three-piece, dropping Antonio Holguin and Mark Winter from the band), while previously handling vocals in Pukeoid and bass in Scabs, both of which being hardcore bands that died a good-long while ago. I’m sure he’s been in other bands, but those bands don’t have tapes that sell for $30 on Discogs, so who cares? Anyways, this is his newest endeavor, humbly self-titled after his own last name like a turd—which I suppose is fair enough, seeing that he wrote the material himself. Presumably. I’m not so sure, the only information I have to go off of is the group’s Bandcamp page (that details nothing), The Fritz’s previous “2 Hitz” video on Mat Williams channel (that briefly states that they were “recordings of songs written by Clay”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04FPGyPU-SI), and a single flyer made by Mat, which focuses on “future abominations” that he plans to release (http://i.imgur.com/U9rM9Tm.jpg). There’s four “abominations” listed, with those being Liquids’ Hot Liqs LP (that’s now being pressed by Drunken Sailor Records with new artwork, not sure if Not Normal is still releasing it in the U.S.), Liquids’ self-titled 7” (that’s being released later this year by Yeah You! Records in Brazil), Dagger’s self-titled 7” (that’s being pressed by Madrid’s Lengua Armada, which I still haven’t heard anything about), and finally, The Fritz’s debut demo tape (that’s clearly being put out by Mat’s ass). Mat’s doing what America does best—with that of course being outsourcing all of our work to foreign countries—only leaving The Fritz to be released on U.S. soil.

Aside from this information, I don’t know much about the group. Judging from the artwork, I can see that both Clay Fritz and Mat Williams are involved, along with a third face that I don’t recognize. Looking at Liquids’ Bandcamp page, “Brandon” is listed as the second member of the group, so I’ll go out on a limb and assume it’s the same “Brandon” Stringer who currently plays guitar in Dagger. It’d make sense for the band to recycle the same Liquids line-up for The Fritz, but don’t take my word for it, I’ve been wrong before. Like, a lot. I could feasibly ask Mat about it via his email (something about nuking frats?), but based off of the few times I’ve come across Mat through this channel (only a single comment where he chewed someone out, and an email where he told someone that he was a 4’3” tall guy who played the xylophone and cell phone), he’s either been a little mean-spirited or insincere, so I kinda doubt that I’d get a straight answer out of him. I’ll just guesstimate instead, thank you very much.

[Remaining portion of write-up is in the comments.]

TRACK LIST:
Vicious Fix – 0:00
Stray – 2:09
No I’m Not Alright – 3:06
Wasted on TV – 4:13
Jocks with Guns – 6:23

DOWNLOAD: http://thefritz1.bandcamp.com/releases