Schifosi (2001-2008)

Schifosi is one of my favorite punk bands bar none. I guess this is chiefly due to the introspectively sullen lyrical content and melodic song structures, both of which tend to enjoy a longer half-life in my presence than the typical Conflict-esque punk dictation that ultimately sours my mood from protest to... a judgmental guilt trip.

Schifosi was an awesome crust band from Melbourne. And I actually mean that, I was in awe the moment I first heard this band's music while watching their video for "HALF LIT WORLD" that someone posted on a now-dead music forum. And, even more later on, when I realized that the lead vocals were smoldering out of a woman's larynx. Now you're asking why I would even bring chromosomes into the matter, correct? I did so to underscore what I mentioned in opening of this paragraph and attempt to explain what I am talking about here in the following one.

This is the first female fronted band that I did not notice the sex of the vocals until after watching a video. As a man, I have a deep voice and do not think that I can achieve anywhere near the deep force and clarity that Kate does, and she does it without any noticeable strain. Again, this mostly seems like a waste of time even mentioning except that it does mean something to me, and maybe for you as well.

The more I watched that video, the more I listened. And so forth. I listened through the pleasant buzzsaw guitars past the layered bass to probably the tightests 'ratta-tat-tat-tat' machine gun drumming produced by any crusty punk ensemble. I set off in a flurried quest to attain everything Schifosi ever recorded, which costed many years of search.

Eventually, I had my hands on physical copies of their entire discography. I even snagged their UNRELEASED EP from an online music player and made them even more available to the masses. All of their vinyl and the one cd was uploaded to my older blog, and then I came across something even better: Someone had uploaded 100% pure Schifosi digital tracks to Bandcamp. While I converted "Half Lit World" and "Ill Winds from Outopia" from vinyl to mp3, the play speeds are a bit off and "Ill Winds..." just sounds too deep and bassy. I suggest getting these two releases from the link below instead of from me. Follow the link, click on "Buy Now", enter $0 (if you're a cheap-o), hit download now.

HALF LIT WORLD & ILL WINDS FROM OUTOPIA: DOWNLOAD&LISTEN

ABSENTIUM EXISTENCE: DOWNLOAD | LISTEN