CAUQUEMÄR - TOUT FOUTRE EN L'AIR

cauquemär are a french hardcore punk band who recently dropped their debut ep “tout foutre en l’air” (which translates roughly as “screw everything up”). recorded by ben and mixed with julien, then mastered by will killingsworth at dead air, this is spit-in-your-face punk in the vein of mutant strain - eight songs that clock in under three minutes each.

musically you get proper reverb on the vocals, distorted but still clear guitar, bass thumping along nicely, and drums that sound like they were recorded forty years ago. it’s raw, fast, and aggressive without being overproduced or polished. exactly what good punk should sound like: urgent, immediate, and making you want to move.

the lyrics are in french, which makes sense given how much more direct and punchy their message becomes in their native language. the themes run through everything: broke dykes struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage, shitty jobs where you’re cleaning toilets and killing spiders, pantry moths infesting your rice - the small daily humiliations that pile up until you want to burn it all down. there’s a song about calling the police for domestic violence and getting nothing but more trouble, another about the genocide in palestine with french politicians complicit, and one that simply says “you’re revolted? organize yourself! stop crying! only solution: revolution.”

what strikes me most is how cauquemär manage to be both deeply political and genuinely funny at the same time. the song about pantry moths isn’t just a joke - it’s about living so poorly that your food supply gets eaten from within while you’re too tired to do anything about it. the humor comes from the reality, not from making light of it. this is punk for people who are angry but still alive, who haven’t given up even though everything around them is crumbling.

favorite track: organise toi

p.s. - cauquemär sent me an email about their release and asked if i’d review it here. which i did! so to any bands reading this: yes, you can absolutely send me your music and ask for a review. i’ll check it out and if it’s good, it goes up on the blog. no promises, but i’m always open to new stuff.