Where they from?
Los Angeles, CA. I feel like I’ve written about enough bands from L.A. for this column that I can no longer think of any original jokes about this place. I mean, didn’t Randy Newman write that one song about this place, like “L.A., WE LOVE IT!” trying to be the west coast Billy Joel or some shit. And then he wrote that song about short people. Body shaming is not cool, Randy. WTF?
Why the Hype?
My Spidey-sense went off as soon as I was prowling Bandcamp and saw that this group had done a split EP with Hong Kong Fuck You, who are basically Blast Worship royalty at this point. It seemed kind of odd that some band would decide to do a split with Hong Kong because they were basically gonna put themselves in a position in which they would be inevitably compared to one of the most creative and unique powerviolence bands in the world right now.
Trust me when I say that the insanity of Guilt Dispenser’s music more than holds its own. This stuff is some seriously chopped-and-screwed hardcore drawing comparisons with the likes of Chainsaw Squid and even the almighty Mellow Harsher. Their album from 2020 is a bit more traditional tough-guy PV in thee vein of more recent ACxDC, but it’s still thoroughly enjoyable, perhaps due to its more palatable nature.
Most recent release?
Split with Hong Kong Fuck You. Been listening to this bad boy all week, trying to figure out whether all the abrupt starts and stops are just studio edits or if the band just sat in the studio and was like “Hey, let’s write the most herky-jerky punk music possible and leave the audio engineer to pick up the pieces.” Both methods seem highly possible in this instance.
