Sarushibai - The Melancholy of the Social Outcasts LP (SPHC-120) (Japan) Somewhere along the way, the world of DIY punk became extremely codified. A lot of the current punk enjoyed by myself and everybody else is very paint-by-the-numbers, genre-specific, self-referential. Play like THIS, sound like THAT, ideas that are easily identified and collectively understood. But punk wasn't always this way. And I think Sarushibai prove that even now, it doesn't necessarily have to be. Sarushibai has the spirit of adventurousness and the willingness to take chances that I associate with ADK Records bands like The Stalin and Aburadako, LSD and Kikeiji, or with early American punk like Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Dangerhouse Records. For me, Sarushibai harken back to a time when punk was more about "attitude" and its expression was more free and individualistic, and not set with so much regimented formality. Clearly The Stalin and Kikeiji are starting points, but Sarushibai create their own journey through loneliness and sadness, inferiority and abnormality, weaving in a variety of instruments and influences to create a unique experience that still resonates as PUNK. Because what is punk if not music for outcasts?