October 2009
32 posts
Drunkdriver with Mattin – A List of Profound...
The best noise/heavy rock collaboration, from a time in history where power electronics and rock bands were not often commonplace, from an Alchemy Records compilation entitled Arijigoku Battle Royal that, at one point, finds Subvert Blaze flanked by Hijokaidan for a live cover of “21st Century Schizoid Man.” At the time change, it sounds like someone is being electrocuted, and this noise...
Marshmallow Ghosts – “Shrieks” b/w “Creaks” 7”...
Weird, seasonal, oversize rinky dink organ grinder action from this chance meeting of a Black Moth Super Rainbow member (I think it’s the girl?), along with unspecified personnel from Casket Girls, Dreamend and the motherfucking Appleseed Cast. Both tracks are bookended by haunted house sounds and, at one point, a phased-out female blues style singer. Rest assured, it’s not an Indian Summer...
Psychedelic Horseshit – Too Many Hits 2x7” EP...
This is the best Psychedelic Horseshit record, and the one that you should check out if you might have been turned off by some of their other releases. It’s also going to be one of the hardest to find, as it’s the last release in the 2008-09 season of the Columbus Discount Singles Club, limited to just 250 copies, and completely spoken for, down to the band personalizing the copies with each...
Rosemary Krust – Bernt Anker 7” (Dull Knife)
Second single for this Baltimore thing. Removing the skeleton from shoegaze and leaving the flabby remnants to drape over the surface in both interesting and perfectly ordinary ways, the group goes a lot further towards establishing a mood than most who straddle the labels of band and “project.” It takes a few listens for its charms to unfold, but there are several here, with a little more...
Social Circkle – City Shock LP (No Way)
After a few years, Boston’s Social Circkle finally steps up with a full-length, possibly waiting for that “diagonal line HC” tag they received to fade a bit. Whatever that shit meant (possibly a UK or Swedish influence, fashion that wasn’t there, etc.), it’s more stringently enforced here than in the singles; the record is pretty much fast-into-faster hardcore with a very slight rock/garage...
Whatever Brains – Saddle Up 7” EP (Bull City)
This is Ambition, baby – a North Carolina project whipping up serious cross-genre steam, trying to connect that anthemic huff of that scene’s prospects of past (big Archers of Loaf thing happening in “What Happened to All the Destructionaries?,” so sure of itself that it’s inventing words) with the unified child’s choir theory of bands that are popular with the blissfully unaware of today...
Woven Bones – “Your Sorcery” b/w “Howlin Woof” 7”...
The race is on for Austin’s Woven Bones, who seem poised to be one of the bands that does a little bit better than others in terms of receiving recognition for slapping a couple primary modes of rock expression together, firing off some low-flying garage-punk stiffness, twitchy and tight but playing it cool. They bop along on “Your Sorcery” like a dirty American scum version of the Raveonettes,...
Cause Co-Motion -- Because Because Because 12” EP...
The final six songs released (for the time being) from these Brooklyn junkshop-pop purveyors were seemingly beamed in straight from where the crossroads of Olympia and Glasgow in the summer of 1991 (or is that summer of 1983? 1986?). They came, they saw, the released a bunch of singles of cardigan-n-thrift-skirt indie-thrum with lots of reverb. Look for roomy vocals, the world’s most...
Extortion – Terminal Cancer 7” EP (Way Back...
I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to self-proclaim on your record’s insert that your band is “RAW AS PISS,” you’re either right, or you’ve got no idea what you’re talking about and should probably just give up. Fortunately for Extortion, a Perth, Australia hardcore band that’s been pushing at it for some years, this claim is backed with force. This latest EP is bar none the most withering...
Majeure – Timespan 2xLP (Temporary Residence)
Tony Paterra unleashes his debut solo effort as Majeure, three side-long excursions (and a calculus-influenced etching) into analog synth/drum sci-fi prog horizons not that dissimilar from what he does as one-half of Zombi. These are tracks that establish a pattern, ride it for a while, then shift into a change, be it subtle or slightly less so. And that’s fine, given that there may not be...
Mudlark – s/t LP (Fun With Smack)
Mudlark isn’t terribly powerful – yet – but has displayed immense promise on this debut LP, the downplayed charms of which have grown on me after only a few listens. Raised up on the first Dinosaur LP, Meat Puppets (and lots of the hayseed end of the SST catalog), perhaps Dead Moon or Roky and the Aliens, or most astutely the old Washington state band Gravel, here’s a power trio that doesn’t rely...
Various Artists – You Weren’t There: A History of...
Upstart DVD imprint Factory 25 debuts its freshman lineup with a series of limited edition DVD/vinyl sets, a fairly ingenious proposition that purposefully marries audio and video product to combine the best of both formats. When was the last time a DVD got the lavish spread of a gatefold LP sleeve, complete with two oversize inserts? Design points aside, You Weren’t There continues in a recent...
Accident du Travail – s/t 12” EP (Bruit Direct)
Five tracks of rounded, atavistic melodies and drones by this French duo of Julie Normal and Cheveu’s Olivier 2mo. Where many practitioners these days go the laptop/effects route, and dress up their compositions in effects that are meant to represent dread or fear, Accident du Travail get a leg up by playing real synths, human imperfections left whole, and let the tones speak for themselves,...
Bobpopkiller – “Rocker in Wasted” b/w...
More French garage from the LDS crew, who’ve been on a hot streak since conception. This won’t necessarily extinguish it, but it’s starting to feel a little retread-like; stompy, noisy, loutish drunk garage duo that owes a debt to the Country Teasers (side A) and the Oblivions (side B). Both songs fall just shy of memorable, but fanatics will certainly wanna grab onto its horns. 300 copies,...
Gas – Compressed Gas 7” EP (Siltbreeze)
Makes sense to not get to something like this to review until it’s fallen out of print, but them’s the breaks. Anyway, say goodbye to Gas, an archival project of three Christchurch musicians (Ian Blenkinsop, Gene-Pool Belmondo, and Mick Elborado, without whom the Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy, Axemen, the Shallows, etc., etc.), recorded in the mid-‘90s and thrown in a box somewhere for TJ...
Never Healed – “Untitled I” b/w “Untitled II” 7”...
Tough, melodic hardcore ripper with angry dragon vocals courtesy of Casey Watson (Look Back and Laugh). With repeated spins this has sunken in well beneath the skin and I’d have to become a cutter to get it out. Not gonna mince words on this one; they have the big clean pro sound, are tight as fuck, wrote two songs that’ll stay with you, and do enough to sicken up sports/jock inflected hardcore,...
Photobooth – Pretty Baby 7” EP (Raw Deluxe)
Jolly good-time garage pop from SF/Oakland returns with another blaster, bubblegum that’s melted into the asphalt at Magic Mountain, missing the trash can by a good bit and waiting to get matted into the soles of your shoe. That description makes this band sound more annoying than cool, and Photobooth very well could be that band for a lot of folks, but their pudgy, heart-on-sleeve songsmithery...
Pumice – Persevere 7” EP (Soft Abuse) / Magnedisk...
The button-down mind of Stefan Neville rears up and strikes again, with two recent singles more concerned with other peoples’ music than his own. Persevere contains the only Pumice original between these two releases, one very much in line with his very fine most recent full-length, Quo. “The Dawn Chorus of Kina” traipses along a wiry line of surf-studded nylon string riffage before coasting...
HPP – s/t CS (self-released)
That’s Hipster Piss Party to you. Side A consists of a batch of nameless, almost tuneless, but no less effective boneheaded punk rock dust-off huffer anthems, with a guy (who I believe is Dillan from trebly OlyWA band Sisters, late of a full-length on Parts Unknown) hollering about “bringing back the Bronze Age” and shit like that. Side B, recorded this past summer, seems a little more concise,...
RD Mauzy – Oppols Ond Bononos 7” EP (Big Spoon)
The cover certainly had me expecting the worst, like ska-punk worst, though the colorful imagery gave way to hard naked black bodies and fat devils with hard ons. Ohhh, Apples and Bananas, get it? Musically, it is even more of a pleasant surprise; jumped up, clattering and a bit cacophonous, just drum and guitar with a palpably seamy underbelly. It sounds like Pink Reason taking a proto-punk...
Random Cuts – “Sleep” b/w “Jail Stripes” 7” / “Rat...
Regional scenes have withered the last few years as record stores falter, and the Internet becomes the de facto, decentralized point of musical contact. Specific sounds are obsessed over and replicated. We’ve got dozens of Black Lips, Crystal Stilts, and Lebenden Totens (and even more of actual popular music), but the spatial disconnect means kids have been slow to make much of it besides...
Times New Viking – Move to California 7” EP...
The teen narcissism vehicle rolls on, prefacing yet another quality album with scraps that their generation is already trying to tell itself that it’s over. “Move to California” is The Big Single and shows growth and strength in all the good places. “City on Drugs” hearkens back to the innocence of earlier jams, put to tape by Home’s Andrew Deutsch last year, but it’s the harmonies you’ll...
The UV Race – Malaria 7” EP (S-S)
VOM fanatics from Australia get better, because there’s no getting around it if you’re gonna be in a band and continue to play and try to impress people. There’s enough piss-poor music coming out of there lately that the good stuff has to float to the top sooner or later. Pretty silly throughout, there’s a song with the sounds of sickness called “Malaria,” one about the TV show “M*A*S*H,” one...
The Feeling of Love – “Waiting for the...
Another two-sided killer from this flashy-trashy French outfit. “Waiting for the Cheerleaders to Get Drunk” actually steps away from the frantic blues revivalism of earlier releases and onto strummier, poppier times – from Doo Rag and the Blooz Explosion to the Feelies (or more appropriately, countrymates Bosom Divine). There’s a new focus on fidelity here too, missing from their body of work...
Son of Earth – Improvements LP (Amish)
Improv/real-life trio Son of Earth (featuring Matt Krefting, whose I Couldn’t Love You More album of covers was a high point of my summer) clatters away at ground wires, phantom blues, clatter, and breathing exercises on this second full-length, following a spate of CD-Rs. It’s a heavy, first-floor kind of ambiance projected here, and the utter quietude of the proceedings forces microscopic...
Cheveu – Cheveau LP (Permanent)
This French trio has a lot of things going for it: they work from minimal, economic ends (guitar, keyboard/drum computer and vocals, most of which could fit into a suitcase), and constantly find ways to break through these self-imposed sanctions; they have continued to surprise and invent throughout a series of near-flawless releases over the past few years; they understand rock ‘n’ roll as a...
Crash Normal – Finger Shower 10” EP (Rijapov)
Seven tracks of spacey garage-punk played by decommissioned military androids who have memorized Grotesque (After the Gramme) but have no idea how to crank it out like real little boys, bless their mechanical hearts. Being real is kinda overrated anyway, But French rock is not. As if to redeem themselves from countrymen who actually say things like “I don’t get the beeg deel about Elvees,...
Andre Ethier – “The Running of the Bulls” b/w...
The third installment in Dull Knife’s singer-songwriter series (dunno what else to call it; it’s part of a limited series of EPs, in identical packaging – Arigato pak printed cardboard pockets with color photos hand-mounted to the back, truly a striking and labor-intensive process, and part of the Dull Knife process, along with razor-sharp curation … possibly the only label of its size really...
Flight – “Flowers” b/w “Johnny’s Mixed Up” 7”...
Hailing from Mississippi (and guessing that they’re right over the border from Memphis), Flight keeps it slow and big, and have figured out the way to write a hook with minimal effort that’ll hang around with you for the day. The drumming is rudimentary and simple, and sets up some pretty big riffin’ on both these tracks. “Flowers” is the jammer here, couching an enormous alterna-hook into a...
The Rebel – Aiming Low 7” EP (Lexi Disques)
Four tracks of uneasy listening courtesy of the confounding Country Teasers front man: Ben Wallers. A great repurposed sleeve gives way to repurposed sounds as The Rebel meanders through this mini-suite of benzo’d tunes.” Aiming Low, Getting High” begins with a deep synth driven dirge and triggered punches, with a stack of shifted and effected voices intoning the title in recursive nursery rhyme...
Sex Church – “Dead End” b/w “Let Down” 7” (Sweet...
Vancouver kids rocket down the side of a rickety skein of Gothic/trash punk aesthetics. “Dead End” lurches around in this uptight double-time/half-time rhythm (“The Purdie Shuffle” for the tight black sweater set, maybe), buffeted by snotty vocals and three whole chords for a good while before breaking into this tight, early JD/JAMC coda – and believe me, this JAMC thing is starting to become a...
White Load – s/t one-sided 7” (Leather Bar)
From Providence, RI, the Mecca of costume rock, comes White Load’s debut one-sider, wearing an un-mask of its own. Sometimes a little bit of concept can go a long way. In most towns there’s a group of local do-nothings, mashing out no-talent three-note hardcore (the kind you’d have to endure before 9 Shocks played back in the day), and these guys dress it up in their no-concept concept to let...
