NOISEY 024: MOLESTED YOUTH

Molested Youth and their Canadian allies are once again making hardcore unsafe at any speed. These Toronto punks create a visceral, pounding racket, part and parcel of the new batch of hardcore bands currently on the rise. Along with local cohorts Career Suicide, they’re channeling the dystopian “No Future” vibes of Black Flag and Negative Approach, proudly burning through American-style hardcore of an eighties vintage.

Noisey filmed Molested Youth at the Garrison. The venue looks like a derelict Laundromat, but it’s a welcome addition to the bustling Dundas West neighborhood of Toronto, once the city’s Little Portugal and now home to an upscale art community. You can imagine the scene outside the spot, with crusties chilling on stoops next to chic design stores and gastro-pubs. Playing to that dedicated hometown following, the band whipped up the sort of breathless fury that triggers circle pits in basements and squats around the world.

This take no prisoners approach has definitely taken root in Toronto and Montreal; its been documented by High Anxiety’s new compilation City Limits: Down and Out in Toronto and Montreal, which features Molested Youth alongside other emerging DIY Canadian thrashers. Beyond the Great White North, the band’s a part of an international wave that’s excising the priggishness of nineties hardcore along with the preening of the last decade. This is blistering punk with no frills; everything’s louder than everything else, with guaranteed explosions in two minutes or less.