May 2009
69 posts
Boss Pile 5/29/09
Dan Melchior und Das Menace Thankyou Very Much 2xLP (S-S) Dan Melchior recent 7”s on Dull Knife and Convulsive filed a bunch of records too (four shelves to go!)
Rain. Some summer Friday this is turning out to be.
Boss Pile 5/28/09
13th Chime The Singles LP (Sacred Bones) TV Ghost “The Fiend” 7” (Columbus Discount) Mom Dirty Dog Dicks 7” EP (Grotesque Modern) Silver Shampoo Jethro Skull 7” EP (What’s Your Rupture?) “Rescue Me” s5e
And now, back to work.
Beluga – "Pet" b/w "Cowboy Boots" 7”...
Given the cover art, I wasn’t expecting the music. Looking like something you might find on Not Not Fun or Post-Present Medium, the Beluga 7” instead offers two straightforward songs of Brooklyn bar rock. This is not the bar rock of by-gone eras; no boogie or blues to be found here. Instead, this is the non-specific rock that lives between punk and something a bit more mundane. Beluga is...
Black Panda - Shake Me 7” EP (Super Secret...
“Well, maybe the next time around, they’ll push themselves to make a better album.” Only the most idealistic (a.k.a. inexperienced or terrified of an ass-kicking) music writer would offer this sort of pipe-dream when justifying an overtly negative review. Oddly enough, Black Panda’s Shake Me 7” EP (4-songs) does this fairytale duty by existing and providing other bands with a model to avoid when...
Clipd Beaks - Visions 7” (Lovepump United)
I feel like there is a formula or ratio for missing or additional consonants in band names and the quality of music, and the result of those equations is always negative. I haven’t wracked my brain too hard to think of exceptions to this, but Clipd Beaks are unfortunately not one of them. Though they came highly recommended, I am not particularly swayed by their brand of modern tribal...
Hindutronic - s/t 7” EP (self-released)
Once again (and no less refreshing this time around), band name, vintage calculator graphics, plus the use of “Port Side” and “Starboard Side” complete another bundle of aesthetic red flags promptly brushed aside by four distinct electro-pop ditties that, for lack of a better summary, are impossible to dislike. Of course, this stuff has been done to death since Eno discovered hooks, but anything...
Man Man – “Little Torments” b/w “Snakehandling the...
The latest empty gesture by Man Man is proof positive that Generation Lemming will gobble up every steaming coil approved by the board of tastemakers, whoever that happens to be this week. The Mysterious Tastemaker Machine is not such a mystery, to be honest. Man Man’s pointless and random cluster-you-know-what of sonic elements is no more adventurous than the equally accepted and popular...
Mom - Dirty Dog Dicks 7” EP (Grotesque Modern)
You think you got problems? I got this Mom 7” and it’s killing me. Perfect for the abject non-commercial radio circuit – and I say this in the nicest way, this was tailor-made for WFMU – Mom appears to be a young lady who went to art school and promptly lost it. Her shtick is as follows: moan and cuss through a pitch shifter (think the one used on the long track from Hairway to Steven) over...
Outer Spacist - “The Mind Is As Outer Space” b/w...
A crucial difference between the lo-fi ‘90’s and the lo-fi double 0s is that an artist must now pay someone (or at the very least make a concerted effort) to produce a recording that sounds like shit. With the tools available to a precocious eight-year-old, these two songs could’ve packed a serious mindfuck with the many layers of busy psych goodness, but Outer Spacist opted instead to suffocate...
Pictureplane “New World” b/w “Trance Doll” 7”...
It wasn’t THAT long ago that Out Hud was coasting on a handful of lofty or gorgeous songs and touring with Hella, so why does “Indie Dance” seem like another planet? Because yet again the story arc has us deeply embedded in a rockist world, the front line ready to hand out preapproved credit lines. Former garage-punks reinvent as poorly-recorded O.M.D. Jam-band hippies, peddling one-ninth the...
Scribbler - My Old Lady 7” EP (Stumparumper)
You know, I am starting to think there is a Bilderberg Group-type conspiracy going on in the independent music world, where like 98% of the bands and labels out there decided they would commit every single sound made by anyone with an instrument to some sort of format and release it. There is almost no other explanation for the amount of records that come out nowadays, with zero filters on...
Silentist - The Tunnel 7” (Zum)
On the plus side, I have never heard anything like this before. Then again, I am unsure if I needed to. Mark Evan Burden, who some may know from a split with Growing, has teamed with vocalist August Alston of Walls/Pig Heart Transplant, etc. to offer three varied compositions using drums, piano and vocals as the only tools. The end result is bizarre, the first impression being of a senior...
Spirit Photography - Time Is Racing 7” (Sacred...
If I chose a random sample of records released in the solo garage/bedroom/loft/random small space world in recent years, I would have to conclude that Joy Division is the most important and influential band ever. Some of these bands would have you believe their inspirations are more obscure or esoteric, but let’s be real. It’s not something to be ashamed of. That said, Spirit Photography mine a...
Suetta - Olympic Stain 1994-96 LP (Summersteps)
Suetta existed in Moscow, PA (yeah, I had to a look on a map, too – fucking SCRANTON is two hours away) for about two years, a four piece that kicked around while the dudes were putting up with high school. They played some shows, hit the studio before breaking up and moved on with their lives. They sounded an awful lot like that one Sonic Youth song that got a little popular and Unwound (since...
TV Ghost - "The Fiend" b/w "Prodrome" 7" (Columbus...
What I’d hoped would have happened with Lafayette, Indiana’s TV Ghost, has. They’ve tightened up enough to bring some menace, precisely what their UHF Saturday afternoon horrorshow needed. “The Fiend” bops along with panicked sine waves, frenetic vocals, fast tribal drumming and surf licks, an unsightly hair projecting from Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s eternal nose. “Prodrome” is the slow cooker,...
Tyvek - "Blessed" b/w "Summer Things" 7" (Les...
Tyvek, once seemingly the darlings of the elite message board circuit, have suddenly become a very polarizing entity. A lot of the complaints have to do with the number of releases that repeat songs from others, or are merely the same material in a new format. Is the band to blame for not saying no enough, or the labels who release all of this on a competitive and completist underground?...
Various Artists - Shiftless Decay: New Sounds of...
Detroit’s particular brands of urban decay, economic disintegration, political corruption, science fiction-worthy crime have individually, or as a whole, made for magazine-filling, CNN headline-grabbing content for some time now. For a statement like Shiftless Decay to really work, the element of surprise is a necessity, and regardless of the shrinking population or prevalent...
Boss Pile 5/27/09
Dead At 24 Blast Off Motherfucker! LP (Ride the Snake) Tor Lundvall Sleeping and Hiding LP (Dais) Eat Skull/Ganglians split 7” (Dulc-i-tone) The Inner Space Agilok & Blubbo LP (Wah-Wah)
Rough night, hopefully my mood improves and post-vacation bliss subsidence gets the gas face.
Dead At 24 - Blast Off Motherfucker! LP (Ride the...
I think I saw Dead At 24 once or twice. The Rickety organization, a loose and welcoming circle of musicians, artists, connoisseurs and well-wishers, cast a wide net around the short hair and neck-bulging aggression of Pittsburgh’s indie rock community in a time of schism, when math rock started to get tired, attitudes ran hot, and much of the country was stalled out in growing bliss. I was in...
Boss Piles 5/25+26/09
Amebix/Times New Viking/Pierced Arrows/Nodzzz/Judgement/AI/Strange Boys/XYX/Ratas del Vaticano/Warcry/Outlaw Order/Drunkdriver — live Phoenix United MP3s Phoenix Alphabetical MP3s Phoenix It’s Never Been Like That MP3s Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix MP3s Blue Oyster Cult Secret Treaties MP3s “Breaking Bad” s2e12 “Party Down” s1e10 “P2” on...
Boss Pile 5/23/09
Drunkdriver + Mattin/Country Club/Deflag Haemmorhage + Haien Kontra/Hatred Surge/Career Suicide — live “Star Trek” at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz (best movie theater I’ve been to) killer carnitas + avocado margaritas from Curra’s Getting ready to go over to Emo’s for more bands — killer lineups tonight, unlike last night, which I didn’t even...
Boss Pile 5/22/09
Ted Leo/Skitkids/Crude/Annihilation Time/FUK/Melvins/Harlem/Ponytail live Party of Helicopters Please Believe It MP3s Blue Oyster Cult Secret Treaties MP3s “Party Down” s1e10 “The Last of Sheila” DVD the latest “Real Sports with Bryant Gumble” (heavy … dangers of rodeo, aggro parents abusing their athlete children, and racehorses being turned into steaks...
Boss Pile 5/20/09
“Rescue Me” s5e6 (great, finally broke some of this season’s tension) intense workout “Classic Albums: Duran Duran Rio” Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix MP3s
Off to Austin, TX for a few days of Chaos in Tejas, BBQ, swimming, and the like. I’ll probably be updating things while I’m gone, because the review cycle is in full swing. Speaking of which,...
Bipolar Bear/Talbot Tagora - Abstract Distractions...
A warning to the “it’s about the music” types that find everything under the presentation umbrella an unimportant factor when judging an artist’s creative strengths: Dismissal, or even downright disdain, is in the cards when “Bipolar Bear” wins a band-naming conundrum … sound unheard. Even with the Avant 101 title of Abstract Distractions, all jaded and grouchy preconceptions are washed...
Gary War - Zontag 7" (Sacred Bones)
Gary War is a good example of the bedroom psychedelia aesthetic successfully transformed into pretty good songs. Sounding like a more lucid and focused Ariel Pink, this Massachusetts fellow runs through two sides of murky, heavily-affected keyboard-driven pop that predate his LP by a couple years, yet are the newest vinyl offering. While this material is not as immediate, it has an adhesive...
Jail - There's No Sky (Oh My My) LP...
Hailing from Milwaukee, Jail’s apparently inaugural release is a 12-song LP (with accompanying CD-R of the same material) of highly competent, well-composed and well-played rock. The lyrical witticisms and rosy sound call to mind the less fragile moments of the Shins, intersecting with something a bit grittier, but no more dangerous than Ted Leo. The simple presentation of this record belies the...
Jon Mueller - Physical Changes LP/CD/DVD...
Astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. This is an ideal future for noise and experimental releases. Let’s just hope the rest of the wide, unfocused and less convincing pack take notice. In “Physical Changes”, accomplished percussionist Mueller (primarily of Collections of Colonies of Bees, as well as stints with Swans, Rhys Chatham, and others, his Myspace tells me) has assembled a quality cast of...
Naked On the Vague - "Chitty Chat" b/w "Goodbye...
It is a difficult thing to sound totally bored with what you are doing and still be engaging. While Naked on the Vague seems to have pulled this off on their debut LP, the subsequent releases, including this most recent EP, have been far less convincing. This Australian duo does their best to translate detached apathy into simple songs with a slightly ominous quality, and they always seem to...
T.A.S.K. - Relaxing Time Is Over LP (Heartworm...
It’s all in how the source material is handled. The bedraggled, near-ruined sonic punching bag known and tolerated as 80’s synth pop is one of those full-circle influences now requiring a musical practitioner possess serious goods or risk immediate irrelevence. Therefore, it makes comforting sense that T.A.S.K. is a mysterious Berlin-based group brought into the world (over to the states) by the...
Boss Pile 5/19/09
check the reviews, that’s all I had time to listen to.
more coming!
The Breeders - Fate to Fatal 12" EP (Breeders...
New vinyl, and not an easy piece to obtain, from one of my favorite bands. The Breeders’ unfortunate dip in cohesion long past them, this is a self-released EP, silkscreened and hand-numbered by the Deals, and cast to the breeze at a peak of self-confidence I’m not sure this band ever crested to on record. This wasn’t easy for me to find, and it seems like the first 100 copies have unique...
Nothing People - Late Night LP (S-S)
Album number two for Nothing People, some older gentlemen from rural California who killed it the first time out and kill it again, subdued but sharp action from a darkened ranch-style home with astrological charts on the wall and some “Blue Sunshine” chillin’ in the freezer. The title really defines it all; underlit anthems that zoom past last call, using both rock and...
Pink Reason/Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones split 12" EP...
I want to acknowledge Kevin F. for making sure I heard this one, going so far as to give me his personal copy. “It’s being repressed,” he told me. “Nobody’s written about it anywhere,” he added, presenting another challenge that I have taken at his word. We both agreed that a lot of splits don’t work, and you don’t really even have to ask why. But he seemed convinced that this one did, and...
Various Artists - The World's Lousy with Ideas...
I feel like something has to be said about these compilations, which have been going on at a steady clip for the past couple of years (“Since 2007”). Drumroll, please … uh, they’re pretty good? At least the ones I’ve heard have been compiled with a careful ear, and have done a good job of uniting newer artists into the fold alongside the more established. Compilations, traditionally...
Boss Pile 5/18/09
Sloy Plug LP (Roadrunner) V/A The World’s Lousy with Ideas Vol. 7 7” (Almost Ready/Aarght!) Here and Now Give & Take LP (Charly) U.S. Music with Funkadelic LP (Westbound/Ace) Pulp This is HxC 2xLP (Plain) “SNL” finale “Quick Change” DVD “Breaking Bad” awful “Simpsons” season finale Free Tons of Sobs LP (A&M) Jasper Wrath...
The Eegos - s/t 7" EP (Felony Fidelity)
If there is one thing Fonzies love, it’s girls shaking it, and The Eegos manage to stress the importance of shaking on both of the tracks on the A side of this single. Initially, they posit that if you aren’t shaking it, you ought to get out of here (“If You Ain’t Shaking”); soon after, they consider that, even though your daddy might be rich, your lack of shaking it is a deal...
HEALTH - "Die Slow" b/w "Die Slow (Pictureplane...
The tail end of the screamo generation’s meds kicked in, and whipped them into neons. Instead of hurting themselves (or their girlfriends) I guess it’s my turn to suffer. “Die Slow” starts off with some looping microsampled synth tone, pitch shifted around, loop rate adjusted. An industrial pulse thuds in, and a brief glimpse of guitar grinds overpowers, before fading off to the...
One Hundred Dollars - "Fourteenth Floor" b/w...
There’s no reason why the ‘Nucks shouldn’t be allowed to take on country and western music; who knows, they might produce something as fractured and beautiful as mid-80s Mekons records. But these Torontonians play it straight, though they benefit from having a distinct direction rather than being confined by it. This single, the first in a “regional” series designed to be released on a different...
Our Love Will Destroy the World - Stillborn Plague...
The Lil Wayne of giant noisy New Zealand drones, Campbell Kneale recently retired his Birchville Cat Motel moniker in favor of the slate cleaning Our Love Will Destroy The World, which happened to be the name of a B.C.M. album, a bit like those guys in Hoover starting a band called Regulator Watts, but much less emo. Or maybe not. A Zen master at (among other things) taking the metal out of...
Reptilian Civilian - Dog Factory 7" EP (Felony...
I love these kinds of records. A sensibility-free cover (naked lady with a “Don’t Tread On Me” snake head wears bunny slippers and walks a schnauzer) belies some surprisingly great songs. “Dog Factory” kicks in like an anthem, their singer’s swinging drawl driven by some dingy bare bones guitar with a hint of twang, leading into a middle-finger solo. The band sounds perfectly ramshackle,...
Boss Pile 5/15/09
“30 Rock” season finale “The Office” season finale went through a bunch of vinyl for DJing tonight
More reviews coming up over the weekend, sit tight.
Boss Pile 5/14/09
that which I reviewed below “Rescue Me” s5e6 “The Best of Saturday Night Live: Will Ferrell Vols. 1 & 2” DVDs
Honestly I can’t remember what else. I was home sick yesterday and trying to work for most of the day, not a winning combination.
Welcome, new writers, to the fold. Andrew Earles and Justin Wunsch made their first contributions to Still Single yesterday....
Bundle of Fags - "Art School Asshole" b/w...
Nerds and outcasts play like they know the score. Look at a Chicago band called Bundle of Fags, who try to toughen up but can’t hide the strum-happy, breathless exhilaration of playing in a band designed to repel. Hey hey, sticks in ties may chafe your thighs and all, but names can only be repeated throughout the A-side, which tries to balance out a slightly tricky rhythm guitar line over...
The Loners - Revolution! LP (Churchkey)
This inoffensive garage/hard-rock two-piece, with a full-length on a tiny label and released in a hand-numbered edition of 500, could be any number of innocuous “Rock is Back” hands played by the majors over the past ten years. There’s something honest about The Loners gleeful disregard for a decade’s worth of faux-garage boardroom creations found on X-station radio or 561-sponsor festival...
Reports - "Bill Wyman, Metal Detector" b/w...
First new reports from Reports in a good long while, and it’s welcome whenever they’re ready to offer more songs. Centered around songwriter and ringleader Martin, they seem to operate at a hobbyist’s pace, rarely leaving the Boston area and reportedly playing with different lineups. Whoever’s backing Martin up on this one has put a fire under his ass; these are the fastest and most catchy songs...
Slices - His Presence Lingers Long After He's Gone...
A sizeable step ahead from their debut single, the new Slices EP (the Kasunic brothers, also seen in Rot Shit and Tusk Lord, free agent Greg Mantooth on vocals and Brain Handle’s Mike Ovens on drums) finds the band aware of its heft and throwing it around with little regard to safety or reason. This is a Pittsburgh band much like the ones I grew up on; past hardcore, into thick, ugly...
Sonny and the Sunsets - Love and Death 7" (Soft...
Or “Death and Love” might be a more sequentially correct title, since the A-side is “Death Cream,” a slightly macabre pop song. The vocal melody is a melting update of the Stones’ “Factory Girl,” but injected with its own vibe of ocean breeze and fragility. There’s a bit of bounce to this band, suggesting sunrise rather than sunset, and it undercuts the whole...
Boss Pile 5/13/09
Twinsistermoon s/t 7” and The Hollow Mountain LP (Dull Knife) Ringo Deathstarr s/t 12” (Fan Death) Angel, Angel, Down We Go sdtrk LP (Tower) Jim Ford Big Mouth USA — The Unissued Paramount Album LP (Bear Family) John Simon — John Simon’s Album and Journey LPs (Warner Bros.) “Taken” DVD last 15 mins of “The Biggest Loser: Couples” finale (my...
Fuck Knights - “Krystina” b/w “Moderation” &...
Jerk stupid two chord Headcoats stompers about America’s favorite pastime: puttin’ it in and gettin’ fucked up. Pink side (GET IT!?) is “Krystina” (“they can hear her callin’ their name”?), about ballin’ and cummin’. Black side is about getting fucked up, and a bonus one about needing to put it in. The Fuck Knights know what side of their bread is buttered. Sir...
