STILL SINGLE

New COCKFIGHT Mix Streaming at WNYC.org

Me and Ronnie made this last month, and if you haven’t heard it yet, here’s the first half of it. Hope you enjoy!

http://tinyurl.com/yhxgkzq

DMPH (a/k/a Derek Monypeny Parties Hard) – “Oakland” b/w “Sacramento” 7” (Weird Forest)

Well, they don’t improv very hard. This 7” is two sides of trio-style, sax-included skree that wants to be Borbetomagus but leaves an aftertaste of less-studied folly. People OWN records like this; they don’t play records like this. Maybe one other male owns a record like this, for that mutual nudge-nudge, though it’s virtually impossible for even the most dedicated noisenik to be moved by a free jazz 7” that sounds worse than a flood-damaged Shrimper cassette. If there’s more than two minutes of play on each side, most honest listeners will need a stopwatch to prove that more than 30-seconds just passed. Wild, wailing abandon? Not even in theory. (http://www.weirdforest.com)
(Andrew Earles)

Eleven Pond – Bas Relief LP (Dark Entries)

Genteel, as-is reissue of a dark synth/New Romantic band from Rochester, NY. Eleven Pond sprung to life with this full-length around 1986, and it’s pretty easy to pick apart their bases of influence: A Flock of Seagulls, the Cure, early R.E.M., the roots of EBM, Aztec Camera; ostensibly a clearinghouse of what all the devastatingly handsome, isolated people skulking around college campuses and high school art classrooms were checking out. The band had a lithe, supple sound that weaves a unified personality out of all these styles, despite the trainhopping at play here. Their lack of a live drummer and the preponderance of FM synths and flanged guitars support these chameleon-like tendencies, at the expense of whatever edge these gents might have been cultivating. When they’re at their best, they are brooding and looking downwards (closer “Ask (Jealousy),” with its noble acoustic guitar lead and cloud-cover bass beds, is an example of that success), and it’s in these moments, about a quarter of the overall record, where Eleven Pond showed a bit more promise outside of being what was likely RIT’s only Goth band. First release on the Dark Entries label, and its hand-numbered, silkscreened sleeve suggests this release as a passion project for someone, but more likely an ideal debut release for a reissue label that’d put stock in something like this. (http://www.darkentriesrecords.com)
(Doug Mosurock)

Fungi Girls – Seafaring Pyramids LP (Play Pinball! Records)

The Fungi Girls may only know three chords, but they’re the right three chords. This record brims with an amateur enthusiasm that feels legit (no whiffs of “shit-fi” posturing here) just a bunch of teenage i’jots inspired by their limitations and making no bones about their love for the Jesus and Mary Chain and summer vacation. Bursting out the gate, “Pacifica Nostalgia” is the feel good tune of ’95, a sunny major key anthem that sounds like the best song the Breeders never wrote, recorded on Home Blitz’s budget (yet somehow sounding as loud as Dinosaur). “Into the Cosmos” keeps on chooglin’; it’s loud, catchy and fuzzy but never snotty or overflowing with ‘tude. In fact the vocals overall are uniformly pleasant (not that this guy has the world’s most distinct voice, but he knows how to use it and it’s well placed in the mix). “Dream of Oz” starts with the familiar “Be My Baby” beat but eventually launches into a double-time blast of punk rock heat that kicks the song into interstellar overdrive and ends before it wears out its welcome. The first side of this slab is great, and only during a couple of out-of-place snoozers on side two do the Girls sound bored.  Thankfully the gang picks up the pace and hit one out of the park with two-chord closer “Crystal Roads.” Seafaring Pyramids sounds crummy enough for the in-crowd, but not at the expense of the songs themselves. There’s a familiarity here that’s welcoming and begs for repeat listens. Ultimately our ears start to hurt from listening to too much “innovation”; we don’t want to listen to the Animal Collection all day. Give me C, G, and F and some searing, borderline-inept guitar solos and I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. (http://www.myspace.com/playpinball)
(Mike Pace)

Hunters, Run! – "If I Had Half a Chance" b/w "Simple and Calming" 7” (Battle Standard Recordings/At Arms Records)

Hunters, Run! is a band named after an exclusive gated community on the North Shore of Long Island and it sounds like it: vanilla and safe. No feather ruffling here, hands on 10 and 2, aiming straight for the middle of the road. If you want surprises, I would suggest ordering the fettucini alfredo at Denny’s. The recording is crisp and the band’s performance is a solid though ultimately workman-like stab at mainstream “modern” rock (the attempt at a catchy chorus and coda of “If I Had Half a Chance” didn’t go unnoticed and is applauded). The singer has a pro set of pipes, but it’s not clear who’s handling the vox since, sigh, the band is inexplicably using pseudonyms. There’s a hint of Peter Gabriel in “Simple and Calming,” but nowhere do their “RIYL” bands (Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Husker Du??? C’mon, guys!) come to mind. What else can I say? If you like music, maybe you’ll like Hunters, Run! Limited to 200 on white vinyl (limit two per household … sigh - Ed.) (http://atarmsnyc.com)
(Mike Pace)

I Heart Lung / DWMTG – Ecstatic Jazz Duos split 12” (Thor’s Rubber Hammer)

Three tracks per side/band, with each band deciding to lock onto some fun and rocking structure for a few minutes of What-Post-Rock-Should-Have-Been (skuzzy and…well, rocking?) This action, approximating 15% or 20% of the entire record, elevates it above a tough-to-swallow reality; that there’s a decades-old, perpetually-confusing landfill of similar releases hiding the good stuff, and showing some breadth by detouring into the forbidden (rock) side of the tracks is enough to push this split into the better-than-average realm. Too bad “average” is as relative a term as they come. And too bad that both bands are identifiable from one another when this record is taken between Electric Wizard and The Softies, but in the middle of some guy’s out-jazz college radio show … that’s when it disappears amongst all of the other records he’s going to sell on eBay within the next three years. (http://thorsrubberhammer.com)
(Andrew Earles)

Little Claw – "Prickly Pear" b/w "Crawl Around Inside" 7" (Columbus Discount)

If you’re going to teeter on the edge of falling apart, there had better be some charm to the flimsy glue holding things together. Tuneless, obnoxious caterwaul may pass for charm while the garage-punk scene finally makes it around to exporting/appropriating poorly-executed femme-folk-“damage” with a major focus on trying way too hard or cultivating aggressive leg hair rather than accomplishing the most rudimentary of songwriting skills. But the reasonable among us must hope that this won’t pass for anything but a semi-hearty laugh one, maybe two, years down the road. Like Nobunny, this is another entity that makes me feel as though I just found the box of sunglasses in “They Live.” What’s “catchy” and “brilliant” or “hilarious” is little more than sub-skiffle TV-jingle melodies coming from a guy in his underwear and a rabbit mask with mid-‘90s rejected-by-Estrus, eyeball-poppin’/boner-pants Fake Daddy Roth cover art. With Little Claw, I’m going to guess with a measure of confidence that lofty accolades are reserved for what’s really the ghost-of-Dame Darcy-past envisioned by a CocoRosie fan holding Joanna Newsom hostage and forcing her to play an out-of-tune acoustic bass with her knees and elbows while a contact mic is stuck in the throat of a really fat housecat as it’s being slowly bathed. Cream yellow vinyl, edition of 250, Columbus Discount Singles Club Year One release. (http://www.columbusdiscountrecords.com)
(Andrew Earles)

Mi Ami – Techno 1.1 12” (Hoss)

Early ‘80s Tangerine Dream soundtrack pulsing instro-pop infused with G. Moroder and first appropriated by Trans Am and ilk … was this ever a THING that WENT AWAY so as to be reevaluated a decade later? No, so we can remove the Trans Am part just to show that I’m not going to start submitting color-coded timelines and flowcharts when editors ask for reviews with actual words combined to make actual sentences that say something about actual music. Still, it’s next to impossible to personally erase the image of a woman being chased through a parking garage or a mish-mash of scenes from Michael Mann’s “Thief,” De Palma’s (drill-through-the) “Body Double,” and Paul bless-his-heart Schrader’s “American Gigolo.” Like the latter, these instrumental electro-workouts are a lot better than they should be. (http://www.hossrecords.com)
(Andrew Earles)

Pairdown – Holykyle LP (Sort of Records)

Judging by the black sleeve, weird pseudo-Olde English font, the name Pairdown, and song titles like “Soon You Will Flourish as a Caterer,” I was hunkering down for some dank basement-brewed caustic backwoods sludge. Imagine my surprise to discover that this is actually very gentle open-tuned acoustic folk that owes way more to Leo Kottke than Eyehategod. David Leicht and Raymond Morin are from Pittsburgh and both play guitars and sing. Sometimes they’re backed by bass and drums, as on the Kottke-esque “Spotted Eye,” but mostly the songs spotlight their dual-guitar interplay. The gorgeously simple “Three Coat” is one high point, the boys’ acoustics bouncing off one another in harmony. The afore-mentioned “Caterer” reminds me of an Americanized Richard Thompson, not bad by half. Occasionally they veer into “sensitive folkie playing guitar in the stairway in Animal House” territory, but I don’t feel the need to pull a Belushi brainbuster on their Martins. Instead, put this on and watch the light refract through the dusty windows of your barn right before the sun sets. Vinyl is limited to 315 copies. (http://sortofrecords.com)
(Mike Pace)

Pop. 1280 – “Bedbugs” b/w “Times Square” 7” (self-released)

In case you weren’t sure from the song titles, this band is from Da Apple. Also, evidence suggests they have spent many an hour with the collected works of Nicholas Edward Cave and Roland Stuart Howard. But since riffing on them two is better than pretty much anything, say, Grizzly Bear is doing with its time, we grade on a curve. And since we’re all idiot box addic-, um, critics here at Chez Gross and we don’t give a shit what happens on the F train half a country away, we find it pretty well impossible to think of bedbugs these days without picturing Alec Baldwin scratchin’ himself like a horny chimp in front of a grossed-out Tina Fey. Probably not the image these guys have in mind. But they do have the rolling brass balls to name themselves after a Jim Thompson novel. The B-side – which really does sound like a Junkyard outtake – gets a point added for mentioning a squeegee man and a point subtracted for mentioning “my lover.” Cover is old-school video tape-capture stills ‘88 stylee. Brand new you’re retro. (http://www.myspace.com/population1280)
(Joe Gross)