March 2009
66 posts
Boss Pile 3/31/09
Thulebasen — Guitar Wand LP (Escho) Lamburg Tony — Hip Hop Nation LP (Escho) Toymonger — The Nightvision LP (Deserted Village/Munitions Family) Dane TS Hawk & the Cerebral Hemispheres — Coming Up LP (Escho) dinner @ Blue Ribbon dessert @ Grom Stern “Tim & Eric” s4e9 (whoa, Josh Groban)
How odd is it that I rarely listen to music at work anymore?
Lamburg Tony - Hip Hop Nation LP (Escho)
One of three non-alienating avant-garde albums sent in by Denmark’s Escho label, which a few years back made a little splash with one massive 10” slab by post-rockers Mit Nye Band. Lamburg Tony is a computer guy, rockin’ a mid-‘90s IBM Aptiva and running his sound shuffling/sequencing software from DOS. Hip Hop Nation has fuckall to do with anything involving the rap game, at least as far as the...
Thulebasen - Guitar Wand LP (Escho)
Modern pop studies for guitar and beats from this well-heeled Danish ensemble, exploring some of the various paths set forth by what can be accomplished with a late ‘90s palette of alt/indie sounds (touches of Blonde Redhead on “Blue Bone,” Beck on “Riddletree,” various tropes of Slabco, Anticon, and Black Moth Super Rainbow releases throughout), pushed through the sausage grinder that removes...
Toymonger - The Nightvision LP (Deserted...
Heavy drone/improv outfit from Ireland, flexing their collective muscles on LP for the first time. I only tolerate the darker stuff that plays like true horror and not some dreamy, smoothed-out reinterpretation of same; you can sound cold, sure, but you have to find ways to distinguish yourself from, say, the ambient sounds of processing plants or the amplified sound of cars passing along a...
Boss Pile 3/30/09
Toymonger — The Nightvision LP (Deserted Village) Cannanes — Fine Line 7” (Harriet) Dan Melchior — Terrible Shame 7” (Dull Knife) Silk Flowers 7” (self-released) Ghost Hospital — D+ 7” (some label) Collie Ryan LP (Sebastian Speaks) “Breaking Bad” s2e4 “Twilight” DVD “Framed” DVD “Quarantine” DVD...
Scores 3/27/09
Teepee — Heal 7” (Florida’s Dying, white vinyl) Ean Eraser — Illegitimate Love 7” (self-released) Ghost Hospital — D+ 7” (Teen Ape) The Bats — Smoking Her Wings 7” (Flying Nun) Thee Headcoats — The Earl of Suave 7” (Dog Meat) Thee Headcoats — Time Will Tell 7” (Sub Pop) Thee Headcoats — Shouldn’t Happen to a...
Boss Pile 3/27/09
Vee Dee — Public Mental Health System 2xLP (Criminal IQ) Kurt Vile & the Violators — The Hunchback 12” (Richie) Silentist s/t LP (Celestial Gang) “The Office” “30 Rock”
Vee Dee - Public Mental Health System 2xLP...
Vee Dee is a good band, if an unassuming one, that operates at its own pace (the kind that allows you to take five years in between albums. But they’re not a garage band, even though they seem to play with them, and are on an associated label; they’re just one in a long line of underheard rockers that hang somewhere within the awareness of punk and garage, but are really into their own thing,...
Boss Pile 3/26/09
Jean-Pierre Massiera — Midnight Massiera LP (anybody got a tip on how to flatten a warped paste-on cover? I need to fix this and the Total Abuse LP sleeve before they warp these records in turn) Cairo Pythian — Night Errands 12” EP (Nasjonal) “Wet Hot American Summer” on demand MF Doom — Born Into This MP3s Wooden Shjips — Contact MP3s Finders Keepers...
Scores 3/25/09
interesting mail haul today: Jean-Pierre Massiera — Midnight Massiera LP (#’d of 100 “rude” cover) (Finders Keepers) V/A — B-Music Drive In Turn On Freak Out 2xLP (Finders Keepers) Angelo & Eighteen “Flight 2” b/w Tullio de Piscopo “Fastness” 12” (B-Music Weekend Breaks Volume 1) (Finders Keepers) Cherrystones — A Dying...
Boss Pile 3/25/09
all the records corresponding to the last batch of reviews Hatred Surge — Isolated Human 7” EP (Painkiller) Stern Chuck Jones night on TCM (What’s Opera, Doc? / The Dot and the Line / The Bear That Wasn’t / some documentary / The Phantom Tollbooth)
City Center s/t 7" (Party NGG) / City...
(not pictured: City Center s/t 7” EP)
City Center is Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me, Lovesick) and Ryan Howard, and their specific talents with pop music are put on display across half of this chain letter release. Working his guitar around loops and laptops, he comes off as more than just one of the first to acknowledge the post-Person Pitch era, and the sampler as a viable way...
The Intelligence - "Reading & Writing About...
The Intelligence puts conditions at random intersections between tool & die post-punk of the ‘90s and a surfy/wavo garage thing. Everything they do lately sounds familiar, from their last LP and this crudely-rendered pair of singles. You have to want to listen to a band constantly tweak its identity in order to get into them; maybe your life is in transition right now, so you can relate,...
Guinea Worms - "Lost & Found" b/w "Jeans & Heels"...
Four sides of the Guinea Worms, a Columbus, OH favorite of recent years, come to term with these two releases. Both “Lost & Found” and “Jeans & Heels” are guy rock, maybe lonely guy rock at that, but rock all the same, a big, unsteady mess of it, wobbling on toothpick legs and about to spill the Country Teasers discography (or pre-Are We Not Men? Devo) out the top...
The Shitty Limits - Espionage 7" EP/Here Are the...
First U.S. offerings from this obscurant British punk faction, whose first singles were pressed in criminally low numbers (but are available for free download from their Myspace page). High-energy, air-pushing punk rock with a near-identical attack to Fucked Up, but with a Spiv-sounding bloke in his place, clean crappy amp sounds in place of the Marshall mud, you get it. They’re a fast punk rock...
Axemen - Big Cheap Motel LP (Siltbreeze)
First of three reissues by this forgotten New Zealand punk trio out on Siltbreeze this year, opening up the world to their scarcely-heard ‘80s material. The record of theirs I have, Derry Legend, is just as irreverent, but still sounds far more refined than the cassette release Big Cheap Motel. It’s chaos, pretty much, of the Fall or Country Teasers variety; some guys who’d gotten their way into...
Comet Gain - "Herbert Huncke part 1" b/w "No...
Brand-new, limited-to-300 Comet Gain single released on the eve of their upcoming engagements in the US. “Herbert Huncke part 1” finally sees David looking towards the Velvets as inspiration (as with “Mainlining Mystery” from the Beautiful Despair 12”), shambling on with hope and fire; “No Spotlite” aims for more contemporary ambitions, and is the straightest example of twee, sensitive pop I’ve...
Dum Dum Girls - Catholicked 12" EP (Captured...
Sturdy, if redundant, solo buzzsaw pop from one Dee Dee, a young woman from southern California. She’s got the rudiments of guitar and drum machine down, and uses some primitive means to wring some valid feeling out of late ‘00s isolation. If you were looking for something that sounded like Siouxsie (or at points, Kim Deal) mixed into a Blank Dogs record, this is the sacred bonzer you’ve been...
Hello Sunshine s/t 7" EP (Les Disques Steak)
Rock duos are pretty stale, so if you’re gonna do one, do it right: accentuate your strengths. Hello Sunshine, from Bordeaux, France, know that garage is sort of de rigeur from where they stand, so instead they create fast, frantic noise rock with lots of nods towards American hetero indie rock, with lots of bar chords and screamin’. It works out great, both of these sweathogs laying into these...
Social Junk - Concussion Summer LP (Not Not Fun)
Personal, at times confusing statements offered forth from a young, drifting band that I believe originated in West Virginia. I’m less into their hectic, digitally chopped side and way more into their torchy, alienated singer-songwriter slide, sounding like they’re about to slip into a narcotic coma on “House Fire (He’s Still Dead),” buzzing, warped landscapes like “Depleted,” or “Tunnels,”...
Kurt Vile and the Violators - The Hunchback 12" EP...
Six new sketches (four of which are instrumental) from hero KV, definitely one of a handful of more recent artists I really give a shit about. His Constant Hitmaker album of 2008 was my favorite of the year, made by a guy whose natural approach to pop/folk/bedroom psych music, from several guitar-and-pedal-oriented directions, are all on equal, confident footing. This one’s a moodier record,...
Boss Pile 3/23/09
Weekend activity:
Axemen — Big Cheap Motel LP (Siltbreeze) John Hill — Six Moons of Jupiter LP (Finders Keepers) Shit Eagle — Girls in School 7” (Florida’s Dying) Hello Sunshine 7” (Les Disques Steak) Martin Circus — Je M’eclate au Senegal 7” (Disques Vogue) Siouxsie & the Banshees — Kaleidoscope LP (Polydor) Loop — Fade Out LP...
COCKFIGHT playlist, 3/20/2009
Ronnie does his thing and I do mine. I usually remember what I played, and remember to type it up the next day. Not so much to ask, really. Good crowd, everybody seemed to have a good time. Bon voyage to Steve K. on his trek out west; hope to see you again soon.
Trees “The Great Silkie” (The Garden of Jane Delawney, Sunbeam) Unknown Artist “Willow’s Theme” (Willows...
Scores 3/22/09
Peter Dello and Friends — Into Your Ear … Plus LP (See for Miles) Budgie — Bandolier LP (A&M) Inspiral Carpets — Island Head 12” (Mute) Milkwood — How’s the Weather LP (Paramount) Mick Greenwood — Living Game LP (Decca) Solid Senders s/t LP (Island) Motorhead — Orgasmatron LP (GWR) Red Aunts — #1 Chicken LP (Epitaph) Comet...
Boss Pile 3/20/09
Finished alphabetizing my 7”ers while watching:
“The Office” (dark) “30 Rock” (funny) “Carnal Knowledge” (superior)
Getting ready to DJ tonight at Daddy’s, hope 2 see U there.
Boss Pile 3/19/09
Hey, they can’t all be reviews.
1990s — Kicks LP (Rough Trade) Sea of Tombs s/t LP (Gravity) Richard Christy’s interview with porn star Ashley Blue (compelling!) Alphabetization efforts for my 7” singles
I have a review forthcoming for that 1990s record. What does it say about me (or the record) if I couldn’t make it all the way through side one? What the hell...
Boss Pile 3/18/09
City Center 7” (Partynogg) City Center/Grouper split 7” (self-released) Grouper/Pumice split 7” (Soft Abuse) Rudolph Grey — The Real Evelyn McHale 7” (Foreign Frequency) Guinea Worms — IKWWFL 7” (Columbus Discount) “The Biggest Loser” (the show that proves some people are not worthy of weight loss) Papacitos (nachos 4 life) Headband...
Boss Pile 3/17/09
Condo Fucks — Fuckbook LP (Matador) The Pop Group — For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? LP (Rough Trade) V/A — Andergraun Vibrations 3 LP (Hundergrum) Niagara Falls — Sequence of Prophets LP (Honeymoon Music) Secret Abuse — Violent Narcissus LP (Not Not Fun) Walls s/t one-sided 12” (Iron Lung) Teepee — Aware 7” (Weird Hug) Real Estate s/t...
Niagara Falls - Sequence of Prophets LP (Honeymoon...
I’ve spent far too much time on this one, and I feel depleted after these listens. Three guys with synths and some home studio skills from Philadelphia, trying to work it out in the studio with enunciated drone/ambient/longform psych exercises, all accomplished enough in the execution but just coming across as tired and with a lack of new ideas. Still, if you’re looking for something that’s...
Real Estate s/t 7" EP (Underwater Peoples)
Jersey kids (including that Ducktails guy) keeping it a little more traditional here on their debut 7”, with some ghostlike attempts at college rock, ‘80s style. Two of these three songs don’t really get moving at all, shambling around some shifting chords on “Suburban Beverage” and waltzing alone on “Black Lake,” but they still keep it interesting despite some puzzling arrangements which would...
Secret Abuse - Violent Narcissus LP (Not Not Fun)
Dark, noisy, drilling, shoegazerly abstractions for guitar, obfuscated vocals, and multitrack recorder. The man responsible is one Jeff Witscher, and it’s safe to say he has his setup pretty much sorted out. Angry waves of layered, distorted guitar crash down upon one another, sometimes within the confines of a melody (and he’s a pretty good songwriter, even through the layers of fuzz, as...
Teepee - Aware 7" (Weird Hug)
Mopey but redemptive songs by a Miami area blankdogger. These songs go on and on and leave the phaser pedal plugged in the whole time, tapping out a timid rhythm and draping somewhat monotone vocals and jangly, rainy day guitars over them. Things get a bit too emotional for my tastes on “Mbiso” but I really appreciate the austerity meted out on “So Sure That I.” He’s clearly channeling Felt, as...
Walls s/t one-sided 12" EP (Iron Lung)
Everything that the Walls LP wasn’t, this is. The well-meaning nth-generation Midwestern noise rock leftovers from this Seattle band’s earlier effort get dragged up a hill at top speed as Walls discovers its full potential: still a feel-bad band, but now imbued with a sense of purpose; they can bring the listener down, but they can also take them down any way they see fit. I’m glad they shook out...
Weekend Boss (3/13-15/09)
Whooping Crane — live Secret Abuse — Violent Narcissus LP Dum Dum Girls — Catholicked 12” EP “Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge” 2xDVD Papacitos Dumpy oysters @ “Oyster Bar & Restaurant” (tourist trap) Hyperactive kids @ Whole Foods Good meals cooked in-home all the worthwhile TV (“SNL,” “Tim & Eric,”...
Last Night's Bossing (3/13/09)
Bernie Schwartz — The Wheel LP Jimi Hendrix — War Heroes LP “The Office” (pretty insane) “30 Rock” (slightly less so but still good) “Role Models” DVD (a finer recent comedy you may not find) Shoyu ramen at Minca Ugly Things #28 new MRR Dirtbombs — If You Don’t Already Have a Look MP3s It’s text-heavy and relatively...
Scores 3/12/09
Bernie Schwartz — The Wheel LP (CoBurt) Dinosaur s/t LP (Homestead, pre-“Jr”) The Pop Group — For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? LP (Rough Trade) Jimi Hendrix — War Heroes LP (Polydor) Larry Young’s Fuel s/t LP (Arista) V/A — Andergraun Vibrations 3 LP (Hundergrum), thanks BT Dum Dum Girls — Catholicked 12” EP (Captured Tracks)...
Yesterday's News (3/12/09)
Covering things enjoyed up til this moment:
some TV (South Park “Mickey Mouse” takedown, fake/alive Mitch Hedberg impersonator Demetri Martin, older “Tim & Eric” on the DVR) V/A — Last Kind Words LP (Mississippi) Stern show “Tradio” prank calls: jesus god almighty
Art af Oryx - First Book of Sound LP (Büchel & Van...
Ambitious German avant-cabaret outfit, pitched somewhere in between Kip Hanrahan’s jazz voyages into the personal and tense, cathartic rock a la Oxbow, Slint, or Enablers. Working from a mix of traditional and electronic instrumentation, the five piece ensemble lays down the setting for a dark night of the soul on a city street after the rain, neon lights blazing. Requires a certain mood to get...
Ash Pool - Saturn's Slave 7" (Hospital...
My problem with most modern black metal is that a growing number of its participants seem to forget the metal part entirely, choosing instead to focus on feelings and bullshit. Ash Pool’s new single makes up for dozens of pathetic examples in the genre with a fury missing outright from much of the day’s output. Dominick Fernow (Prurient, also guitarist and vocalist of Ash Pool) also remembered...
Beyond the Implode - This Atmosphere 7" EP...
Archaeological reissue. Home studio recordings from a Runcorn, UK DIY outfit, barely known in their day and having had released two singles, both limited to 250 copies apiece, in their time. This isn’t an exact reissue, but rather compiles four of the five tracks from their Last Thoughts EP, some as alternate takes from the originals. Goes by pretty quickly but if you need those rarefied Syd...
Car Commercials - Eric's Diary LP (Soft Abuse)
More like Eric Gaffney’s diary! Two sides of temper tantrum and microphonic feedback from two young party dudes who kept it somewhat together on their first LP, Judy’s Dust. The concept of restraint is somewhat lost on them here, Daniel DiMaggio and David Sutton instead deciding to inflict pain – pain boged down with emotion – on anyone who dares check in on them. Could have been a field...
Cheater Slicks - Bats in the Dead Trees LP (Lost...
Small-press label convinces the Cheater Slicks to do a jam record. There’s actual rock on here coming through the improvisation, which is played in a way that removes a lot of the mystique from it, then partly obscured with gouts of cyclical feedback. This band has become particularly angry and more aggressive over their past couple of albums, having fully removed itself from their “pop” phase...
Circle Pit - "Total Waste" b/w "Everybody Left" 7"...
Straight Arrows side project of a guy and girl in Sydney, Australia, rockin’ in a vaguely neon Mick & Keef sleaze sorta way. “Total Waste” is inept enough in the guitar lead and confident enough in the vocal shouts and rhythmic authority that it could almost be a lost Huggy Bear track, though that’s not what it seems they’re going for. “Everybody Left” is a bit more straightforward, and more...
Dinowalrus - "Electric Car, Gas Guitar" b/w "Cage...
Young kids living in NYC playing on a vaguely garage/rockabilly/wavo twitch, with heavy synth and sampler use. There’s reverb on everything (and it’s “lo-fi” with a lowercase “l”), playing up drama wherever there’s room, be it on the strobing Numanoid break on “Electric Car” or the shit-kickin’ Birthday Party cowpunk bend on “Cage Those Pythons.” It’s clear these guys want to be popular, and...
Drunkdriver - "Knife Day" b/w "January 2nd" 7"...
More agonizing shred from the Michael Berdan Blues Explosion, sounding more like a torture session than a rock band in all the ways that would improve upon that lazy description. Kristy Greene produces riffs that transmute noise and borderline industrial chaos into early metal and heavy blues. The three vectors of performance in the band (guitar, vocals, and drums) are intense enough on their...
Embarker s/t LP (Malleable)
Well-constructed, deeply layered Center City computer crash from a Philadelphia artist with an ear towards the past and a thing or two to say about class warfare (“Resident Beardo” with its Caucasian guilt screed, fills more of a bill than anyone had thought to ask for). Decent effort, no matter how foreboding it comes across in execution – these are short, tightly-crafted blasts of...
Finally Punk - Coffee, Tea and Misanthropy 7" EP...
Four more tracks of historical re-enactment late ‘70s/early ‘80s DIY art-punk from Texas ladies Finally Punk. It’s difficult for me to determine what exactly makes these songs their own, aside from the fact that the band members ostensibly wrote and played them. They take so much from, say, old Girls At Our Best or Kleenex records that there’s not a whole lot left for themselves to claim. But...
Rafael Antol Irisarri - "Hopes and Past Desires"...
Deeply expressive minimal melancholy from Irisarri, whose fluid style on the cello and ability with a particularly sad computer both work out in his favor. Cold, slow, bright compositions of intense emotional depth, in a very settling, pleasing way. Pretty special stuff here, both pieces turning on their individual axes instead of going anywhere, allowing the light to catch their most striking...
El Jesus de Magico - Scalping the Guru LP...
Less the gold-leaf and resin glory of their last single, Scalping the Guru offers up a moody wander through spacey psychedelic effects, flashing lights, and riffs stretched out into songs. This isn’t the kind of album I expected from the band that made that stupendous 7” for CDR’s singles club. But perhaps this works into some greater scheme, a purging of ideas to make new for the new ones....
Liturgy - Immortal Life 12" EP (Infinite Limbs)
Grad student black metal abstractions, likening to those who would draw its label logo on the toilet seat in the mens’ room of the bar I like to go to, so that’s a bummer right there. That kvlt/graffiti kid crossover you didn’t want peaks around the corner as one Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (…) produces six cuts of prissy overtone bullshit that only takes flight when you drop it down from the...
