WILD//TRIBE

I grew up in Texas, I used to work there, and I still go back to the state for work. I’ve been to Ft. Worth a handful of times in the last 10 years. It’s in the North Central part of the state, a region that gets attacked by tornadoes, especially in the late spring and early summer of each year. It’s part of a broad north-south belt, extending as far north as Minnesota, that’s called Tornado Alley.

I was in an office building in downtown Ft. Worth during tornado season one year when an announcement came over the PA system in the building telling everyone to move away from the windows and into the building’s interior, because a tornado was headed toward downtown. Of course, the first thing I did was run to the windows to see if I could spot it. It was doubly stupid because, walking to that job, I had seen windows in high-rise office buildings throughout downtown boarded up with plywood because of damage caused by the last twister.

Looking out, I saw a massive wall of black that extended from the horizon up into a rank of equally black clouds, and I could actually see that wall moving — quickly — toward the downtown area. As it turned out, the tornado veered away from the area where I was and ripped the hell out of other buildings and homes. It still scared the living shit out of me.

Wild//Tribe is from Ft. Worth. Maybe Ft. Worth’s violent weather has something to do with the music that Wild//Tribe plays, because they’re like a sonic Tornado Alley, a fast-moving wall of black, a roaring, out-of-control, violent, whipping storm of hardcore Texas punk noise.

With rare exceptions, we don’t write much about punk and hardcore bands at NCS, and I definitely don’t have my finger on the pulse of that scene. So, it may mean something to you to know that Wild//Tribe used to be a band called Unit 21 before changing their name and adding a second vocalist from a band called Tolar, but I’m afraid those names don’t ring any bells with me. Instead, I was drawn to this band by a couple of videos of them performing in Japan earlier this year. (Yes, they seem to have both record distribution partners and a fan following in Japan.) You’ll see those in a couple of minutes. But first, a few more words about the music.

Wild//Tribe released a debut album called Endless Nights in May 2011. After watching those videos, I got the album and let it run over me (and I’ve got treadmarks on my face to prove it). This is punk music with a thick, fire-baked crust on it. Raw, rancid guitar chords slam and bang with infectious energy, and the songs include fire-breathing guitar solos. D-beats abound from the drum kit, and a bounding bass line jumps out front to keep the shit stirred up in a froth.

The dual vocals are a mix of in-your-face punk spitting and deeper hardcore howling — and both vocalists let it fly with vein-popping fury.

The songs are nasty, brutish, and short — most of them under 2 minutes in length. But they’re long enough to get your blood pumping hard and to trigger a bloody hunger to flatten someone in the mosh pit. It’s all honest, split-lipped, head-busting, fucked-up-edness. Check this out:

“Pressure”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Pressure_-_endless_nights.mp3|titles=Wild Tribe-Pressure]

And this one is my favorite track on the album:

“Midnight Tribes”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Midnight-Tribes-_endless_nights.mp3|titles=Wild Tribe-Midnight Tribes]

Endless Nights is available for purchase as an LP or a CD from Punk Alive Records. The very cool album cover was created by a Japanese artist named Sugi. Six of the album’s tracks are available for streaming at Wild//Tribe’s Bandcamp page (here). And to find out more about Wild//Tribe, you can find them on Facebook at this location. Now, those videos . . .

The first one is “Broken Head” performed in Tokyo. The second one, filmed in Nagoya, includes five songs in about 9 minutes, with both singers down in the pit by the end of it.

(Thanks to CVLT NATION for tipping me off to this band.)