Piss

2016

Alright, so we’re clearly not punks. We’re clearly not experts on punk, either. We’d be noticeably out of our element trying to assign classifications, references, and sub-genres or claiming “yeah, they sound like so-and-so on tape x that was so difficult to find through y mail order back in the day.” As far as knowledge of the punk canon goes, we qualify as entry-level. Here ends the disclaimer. We’ll proceed by approaching this small portrait factually and objectively: Piss are from Berlin slash Barcelona. Piss consists of three people and Piss’s songs are short. Not three minutes long, you dear Brian Eno fan, but seriously short: 77 seconds (“Rest in Piss”); 49 seconds (“Puke on the Patriarchy”); 13 seconds (“How Simple Can Punk Get?”). Note that this last song title is relatively ironic. More sincere would be “How Raw Can Punk Get?”—Piss strategically straddle (and piss on) punk and hardcore, which typically honors tempo over melody and noise over verbal messages. Live, the whole affair is accordingly explosive; the Berliner Zeitung tells of having heard the words “fuck,” “piss,” “oi” and “uargh” shrieked from the stage and explains “jazz-rock -inspired so-called post-hardcore”. Piss have been spotted opening for the New York band Perfect Pussy, thereby characterizing the whole bill with a charming alliteration. These are three words you might want to add “band” or “Berlin” to before googling all at once.