Action Chemistry

This posthumous collection of singles and compilation tracks from Olympia, WA's mighty Karp will be a hit with their loyal indie rock fan base, but should also be heard by the larger metal community that's probably never heard of these guys. Like the Fucking Champs and C Average, Karp toured the indie rock circuit, but were devoted to far more brutal music than most of the other bands they usually played with. They were extremely loud and seemed like a band who appeared out of the woods with hatchets and guitars who then began terrorizing college kids. All of their releases are worth checking out, but this is a surprisingly fierce collection, considering that it's a bunch of tracks that didn't make it onto their other full-length releases. The first song, "Rowdy," is a terror and among their best tunes. It was released as their last single before they broke up in 1998. There's also a cover of Black Flag's "Nothing Left Inside," which was supposed to come out on a Black Flag tribute album that was never released, as well as "Gauze/The Falling Under," an early demo recorded in 1992. After Karp broke up, their singer, Jared, went on to form the more AC/DC-influenced and sillier Tight Bro's From Way Back When.