Minus (Iceland)

"Considering Minus are a part of one of the biggest and most respected independent labels, Iceland's Minus don't get a lot of recognition. So I am very happy to give their spectacular album "Jesus Christ Bobby" an extra push. The song below, "Chimera", is the 'single' so to speak, but I'd like to point out that the band's website offers minute-long samples of all the tracks, and there are some amazing ones to behold. This band is extremely loud, though, so take that as a warning or an encouragement." - Tim Krysko of Punk International Minus - Chimera (MP3)
Minus is signed to Victory Records. Look out for their new album this summer.

Radical Noise (Turkey)

"This week's band is broken-up, but still very relevant to the international hardcore scene. Radical Noise was one of Turkey's most prominent hardcore bands, with a reputation for blending new school and old school influences. "Plan B" was their final album, and it was released on Istanbul's Hammermuzik. Their CD is still distributed in most countries, and all those details can be found at the label's website. The song for this week is "Angry Son", the first song on that album, and one of my favorites." - Tim Krysko of Punk International Radical Noise - Angry Son (MP3)

99Anger (Korea)

"This week's spotlight was originally a music video for the song "Stay Far Away", but that file is too big to host permanently, so here is the mp3 file instead. You can still get the video if you buy the band's CD "Who Comes First?" at Interpunk (http://www.interpunk.com/item.cfm?Item=53914&). 99Anger is a punk band from Seoul, Korea that plays a little bit of both melodic and screamy/noisy punk. This song is one of their softer ones." - Tim Krysko
99Anger - Stay Far Away (MP3)
99Anger is signed with Skunk Label. You can check out Tim's review of the album here.

Blind Pigs (Brazil)

"Anyone who knows me well or reads Punk International frequently is aware that Blind Pigs is one of my favorite punk bands ever. Hey, I even picked them as my #1 CD of 2002. If you haven't checked them out yet, now is your best opportunity, because I created mp3s off of their self-titled CD (now available at Interpunk). "Sete de Setembro" is in Portuguese." - Tim Krysko
Blind Pigs - Sete De Setembro (MP3) You can check out Tim's review of their latest album on Sweet Fury Records here.

Tarakany (Russia)

New weekly feature! Woo! You're all excited. Our good friend Tim Krysko from Punk International will be moonlighting as our international correspondant. Every week he'll be introducing a band from outside the United States and Canada along with an MP3 from one of their recent recordings. Any bands from around the world who would like to participate can email Tim for more info…

"The first featured band is Tarakany. They come from Moscow, Russia, and in their native language their name means Cockroaches. "Fear and Hatred" is the name of their most recent CD, but hardly a new band, Tarakany have been around since, I believe, 1992. Although their lyrics are in Russian, in my opinion it is clear that they are a band that would clearly fit into the current socio-political-minded punk scene. The song I have selected is called "Real Punk", or at least that is how I awkwardly translated the title."
Tarakany - Real Punk (MP3)
Tarakany's signed with Russian label FeeLee.