Chicago’s Æges offer a couple cuts of competent if not terribly groundbreaking sludge-power pop in the vein of Torche, or that band’s forbearer, Floor. “Roaches” opens with chiming guitars that give way to a meatheadbanger riff and good-cop-bad-cop vocals, and earns a +1 for dispensing with a guitar solo in favor of the extruded, echoed-outnoodle that fades in and out of the mix in its stead. The pop-grunge of “Dirt” shows early promise, with guitars sweet and heavy like a fudge-soaked brownie; but by the half-time/triplet-feel chorus sung by the “nice guys next door,” we’ve wandered into the heavily mined territory of what passed for emo circa the mid ‘90s, and it’s here that I take the point back. A buzzy, guitar-driven double-kick bridge/breakdown goes on to fully telegraph a heavy alt-rock influence – maybe a superfluous component that would have been better left by these guys in the cutout bin. Carapace-coordinated brown vinyl with a digital download card. (http://www.hawthornestreetrecords.com)
(Adam MacGregor)
1 day ago
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Four excellent tracks of total shit-on-the-walls from folks previously serving in the H-100’s and Pigeon Religion (I think). Per usual, the meatier the riff-cut, the nicer the song-steak and these are all juicy cuts. Hardcore bands always get to at least second base with me with mid-tempo noise, so the opener “Cyanide Lactater,” all random feedback, randomer pick slides and almost casual skin-pound under the Germsy rant-style, kicks it all off nicely. But the burners are also hook-rich, especially “Quality Programming” which breaks down into a rant about 1970s and 80s, both incorporated here without “TK worship” being needed in the catalog description. Closer “Power Failure” slows and speeds with the inner logic of a stomach revolting after that last double Don Julio you shouldn’t have had. An absolute highlight of 2011 and hell yes we await the LP. Price jacked up by classy foil-stamped jacket emphasizing commodity fetishism rooted in said object mitigated by fact it is hella easy to download for free, w/ band permission, all over the web. (http://katorgaworks.bigcartel.com)
(Joe Gross)
1 day ago
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Two dudes from the NW with an octave pedal and plenty of hubris approach the guitar/drum duo from known vistas, doubling down on the “Hassan chop” of Karp/Big Biz style fuzz riffage, and putting a guy on vocals who could be the voice of Chester Cheetah, all cool and detached. Much like you’d expected, this really gets them nowhere except maybe at the bottom of a four-band bill, but they take the mantle of such responsibility with serious determination. 400 numbered copies with download card. (http://www.whoaboatrecords.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago
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RECOMMENDED
Way back in the fall of 2006 I covered a Bright Ideas single for this column, the product of Sacramento songwriter Scott Miller (the other one, not the Game Theory guy, but the dude from Nar) and a couple buds rounding out the ideal pop trio for these days. Saturdays was apparently released on CD in 2005; its appearance on vinyl, years after the fact, is perplexing but very welcome, the sort of thing you hope someone with the taste and wherewithal to release records by dead bands would rediscover someday. Most would lump this in with indie pop – my wife, the Girl Detective, came in here just now and asked me why I was listening to that old Elephant 6 band Beulah. But the riffs and drive of decent garage rock are there, if softened and jangled to the point where it just started to break a little bit. There’s eight songs here, every one of them a winner, but especially “Falling Down,” ending side A with a rambunctious glory that is too rarely heard around here. I’d position them as a more mature Cause Co-Motion, with the occasional sit under Felt’s shade trees, but would have to insist that you pick this up really soon, or at least stream it from the release’s Bandcamp page. It’s a really good time. (http://squirmyrecords.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago
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Boston’s Cuffs are an All Star northeastern supergroup, featuring members of Pants Yell!, Big Trouble, and Reports teaming up to thoughtfully present some twee, twee, indie pop for gentlemen (of all genders). The gentle sweetness of “Privilege” is normally something far outside my purview, but Cuffs exhibit a dignified exuberance that roped me in. The spindly, layered guitar lines have a sweet hook, and despite sounding a bit like Braid for post-graduates, those qualities are balanced with guilelessness, and a rough-enough recording to keep it comfortably outside of Sea and Cake territory. “Archer” has a delicate center bookended by some punchy, rambunctious instrumental, that adds up to more than its initial sweetness. In fact, both songs manage to balance the soft with the hard (as they’d say on Project Runway), and these nice guys have won me over. They’d probably even tidy up your kitchen if you let them stay over on tour. Limited to 300 copies on 3 different “colorways” all of which are sold out from the fine folks at Ride the Snake, but the odd copy lurks in distros for the time being. (http://www.ridethesnakerecords.com)
(Killedbyjeff)
1 day ago
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Two offerings out of a projected dozen albums for the 2011-12 season (seven have already been released) from NNCK/Malkuth man Pat Murano. The music from these 12 albums is meant to serve as meditations on the zodiac calendar as described by Latin poet Decimus Ausonius. Murano has no beef with heading straight into the overbearing realm of darkness, with longform, claustrophobic, pressurized drones and rhythmic patterns that extend to a forced horizon, vibrating with a form of secular hostility not known in the artist’s other endeavors. Strange, hyper-present sound that you will probably have to meet halfway. Stenciled sleeves on these two; have not seen the other ten albums but many more are around now than just these two. (email to kelippah@gmail.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago
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RECOMMENDED
Some of the most accomplished country-rock I’ve heard in some time is on this record. HGM frontman M.C. Taylor is versatile enough to be able to project both weathered ballads and soulful crooning, right at the lip of “hot country” tropes, as well as your country royalty (Hank, George, Townes, etc.) but mostly passionate-sounding, his laconic demeanor positioned well in a five-piece rock combo, with plenty of soul, and an understated hand that brings out the best in his songs. It’s not hard to see this guy playing the lothario in some roadhouse, with secrets he keeps tucked in his denim jacket. There are a number of guys in this vein right now (D. Charles Speer and Zachary Cale comes to mind, albeit from slightly more specific directions), and Taylor and co. are among the best. For fans of the genre, this can’t be beat. 500 numbered copies. (http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago
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Bass and drum duos are just something that doesn’t seem to work for me, Agents of Satan being the rare exception. It’s tough for me to believe that most such combos have made such great use of the space, that nothing could improve it, and the sparseness becomes distracting. Though I have faith in the Records Nominal roster, this time via Portland’s Fast Weapons, Nu Sensae give it a righteous try, with some success, but ultimately not escaping my reservations. “Tea Swamp Park” is a moody opener that would seem to be part of a larger piece, but ends right as it’s about to get where it’s going. “Gumbo” makes solid use of Andrea’s searing voice and pulsing bass, but is still not quite there. It’s a stripped down and urgent punk song, but it’s missing something, the obvious guitar. “Dust” is more successful thanks to a bit of fuzz, vocal trading which balances Andrea’s screaming with Daniel’s singing, and some clever arrangement. I’m sorry guys, it’s not you, it’s me. (http://www.fastweapons.com)
(Killedbyjeff)
1 day ago
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1 note
Peter & Craig (their real names) revisit the time-honored indie rock guitar/drums/tuneless vocal format, plowing through unintentional odd meters and fIREHOSE- or Phantom Tollbooth-style stops and starts with slop and gusto. But the silly in-joke lyrics of tunes like “Rocky” (about the movie “Rocky”) and “Peter & Craig Practice Today” (about Peter and Craig practicing today) inevitably date songs that are otherwise brief and catchy enough to remain interesting. They’ll learn. Regardless, this would probably be a fun band to see in the context of a basement or warehouse show, where the scent of potluck vegan food commingles with patchouli and BO from a throng of dancing bike punks. No information as to Erode and Disappear’s membership is provided, but it sounds like two bassists and a drummer augmented with electronics that simmer and squiggle just above the noise floor. The side-long “Fire on the Wind” swings hard with its throaty double basslines and a vocal that vacillates from stentorian to crazed. We award extra points for correct use of a fadeout on the modal riff as catchy as any of those extended codas that Sabbath padded their earlier records with. The thick purple/lavender marble vinyl is rad and the two-color screen print cover sharply illustrated; but c’mon son, among at least five guys involved in this release did no one think to include any contact info? 500 copies. (http://www.erodeanddisappear.com)
(Adam MacGregor)
1 day ago
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Toothless indie rock with gentle Death Cab-style vocals and a crisp recording. These are the guys you work with, probably starting a band as a night away from their wives and kids, who either make enough cash to bankroll a vanity pressing of an LP, or else guilted everyone they know into a Kickstarter campaign to get these meandering songs cut to vinyl as soon as possible. Green vinyl, letterpressed hand-numbered sleeve, and a library card pocket/bookmark which contains all the lyrics. Impressed? (http://www.parksandrecords.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago
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Dullsville Friend Rock split by people I’m not friends with. The Super Vacations play standard modern variant of slouching mid-paced garage, without frills or charm. Their unremarkable riffs churn through the motions by rote and the singer’s delivery is monotonous like a supermarket white label version of Crystal Stilts dude, minus the swagger. You don’t need melody to make this work, but in lieu of that, the dissonance better be compelling, and Super Vacations manage neither. Ceiling Stares fare somewhat better by recycling a song they released on another EP. Side long poppy indie rock that despite its organ and full group vocal harmonies never quite reach what you’d call lush. “A Tunnel through the Air” takes some nice melodic turns, but not five minutes’ worth. It might fare better on its own record, which luckily for you Dear Reader is available, so desperate for new songs in these release starved times. Pretty teal vinyl. Limited to 500. (http://www.velocityofsound.com) (http://www.sweatersandpearls.com)
(Killedbyjeff)
1 day ago
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RECOMMENDED
Released on CD-R in 2003, then on cassette, and now in a limited edition vinyl pressing, the “grad thesis” of sorts by North Carolina’s Ashrae Fax is nothing short of incredible. It’s a goth/ethereal/synth pop record with a homemade quality that belies serious musicianship and establishment of themes in a Siouxsie/Cocteau Twins/Kate Bush opiate gauze sort of way, wholly a part of the ‘80s and ‘90s movements that spawned such music, and with a pedigree that goes back long enough to actually connect to those times. There are both the presence of expected, traditional instrumentation (guitars, synths and drum machines), handled like they should be, and the performers’ ability to operate completely within the identity that such music requires, providing a gravity to these eight songs that allows the performers to master the mood and contours of their sound. In a time where even the most basic and sloppy deconstruction of the music from this era is permitted, where your self-identification with a movement automatically makes you a member of it, there aren’t that many acts with a “total sound” as like what is presented here, a narcotic collection of songs activated by the bewitching vocals of Renee Mendoza Haran. Static Crash is a complete statement; it stands with its face towards the sea on some rocky cliff, swathed in black, wind-whipped, vivid and alluring. Next time you’re wrapped up in a cocoon on your bed, lost in a vortex of animated GIFs and drifting into the reliable vapors of chemistry, reach for this one before you pass out. 300 copies. (http://www.hot-releases.org)
(Doug Mosurock)
4 days ago
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2 notes
Mystery record from 2010, combining a dense, downtown rubbery Laswell/Ronald Shannon Jackson disco kinda thing that goes beyond mere groove into language itself. Brothers Joe and Tom Waltz play guitar and bass in collaboration with Cibo Matto drummer Timo Ellis and samchillian inventor Leon Gruenbaum. Frippery abounds, the rhythms patched together on “Nonno’s Scattone” slowing and speeding within a few beats of one another in a disorienting and multi-textural sphere of musical thought. They don’t stay with an idea for longer than 30 seconds without jettisoning it in favor of a more advanced groove, with closer “Supersong” allowing Gruenbaum to bend the entire output of the track to the robotic relativity of his synth. This record turns up a bunch of dead leads, its creators’ Soundcloud all but barren, and only one Youtube video floating around to verify that they exist. The label URL on the back of the sleeve leads to a dead page, and the name Frattura-Waltz turns uo in conjunction with a merit scholarship offered at a Catholic school in New Jersey. Big money, no whammies, stop. Two googly eyes are glued to the outer sleeve in a bizarre, slick, and weighty package. 180g vinyl, three songs, and includes a CD version with the aforementioned video cut, “DFYS.” Weird. Will you ever find one, and what will you do with it once that happens?
(Doug Mosurock)
4 days ago
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RECOMMENDED
Someone has to have thought of cross-pollinating Pagan and country folk before King Dude (Seattle’s TJ Cowgill) turned up, but his trajectory is a lot more exciting to witness. In the span of two albums – 2010’s Tonight’s Special Death and 2011’s Love – Cowgill has pulled together a refinement of the form that stands up to most any challenge you could throw at it. Despite the hokeyness and sentimentality that can taint efforts that pioneer one mode of expression through another, Cowgill has no issues portraying the grim mortalities of neo-folk with a strummy, cult-like, near-winsome sensibility. A more austere presentation wins out on Tonight’s Special Death, but it makes a good companion to the more recent album, just to witness how far Cowgill has come in the process, with a striking, spare ballad in “Please Stay (In the Shadow of My Grave)” worthy of being canonized by David Lynch, and the irresistibly hooky, sinister singalong “Lucifer’s the Light of the World.” Both albums are getting scarce, so if you’re interested (and you should be), act soon. Excellent die-cut sleeve on Love adds to an already striking work, King Dude being every inch (unfortunate name withstanding) the balladeer who can turn to smoke. (http://www.daisrecords.com) (http://avantdistro.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
4 days ago
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After dozen upon dozen of CD-R and tape releases, Canada’s Knurl finally receives a document on vinyl, and it’s no less punishing than the Nervescrap CD I remember from the new bin at WRCT, my old college radio station, back in 1995. Artist Alan Bloor has been busy in the interim, remaining on the harsh noise axis, and achieving his ear-splitting results by micing and manipulating actual metal sculptures. The six tracks here, made on these works as well as violin, deliver on the industrial clank and rough handling that all but overshadowed the power electronics/harsh experimental reign of years past; violent sound which all but provokes a violent response. It made my needle jump more than a few times, and will break your concentration towards anything other than itself while it’s spinning. Refreshing to hear this type of noise again, and removed from any other imagery that audiences might push towards it. It’s like being lashed to a post on a boat out at sea during a storm. I think. 300 numbered copies. (http://pantarheirecordings.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
4 days ago
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