Techie Blood

Since releasing its demo tape Millions of Dead Techies last year on a mysterious YouTube channel called Guy Fieri Official (which has no relation to the bleach-blond chef, by the way), East Bay hardcore band Techie Blood has been exceedingly prolific. For its most recent, untitled tape, which came out in April, the band further explores the discordant noise and electronic elements that set its first work apart. Feedback functions as an instrument in its own right, cutting through rumbling, rhythmic guitar riffs with abrasive, screeching pitches. The band’s work posits gentrification as a sort of apocalypse, and its music is intentionally bleak: “The songs are dry, the vocals like a death rattle, and it is topped by bizarre synth interludes that make you feel more empty than you ever will again,” according to the text on Guy Fieri Official. In contrast, Grids, the tape Techie Blood dropped in January, is a dreamy, ambient electronic piece with rife with retro-sounding synths that conjure images of the space-age visions of the future. The new band has proven to be versatile and iconoclastic so far, and they’re definitely one to watch this year.