August 2009
74 posts
Recent Activity, week of August 24-30, 2009
Found all these:
Chrome — Alien Soundtracks LP (Siren, cover in bad shape but vinyl is pretty good) Sorcery — Stunt Rock LP (Australian press) Rahsaan Roland Kirk — Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata LP Bakamono — Urko 10” Geronimo Black s/t LP The Fatback Band — Yum Yum LP Danny Kirwan — Second Chapter LP Danny Kirwan s/t LP Pissed Jeans...
Bobb Bruno – s/t CS (DNT)
Very repetitive synth noodling at first with no sign of any build or concept and keeps this going for most of the release. Not to say this tape doesn’t have moments of great rhythmic layering as the tape goes on, but all in all it was a bit boring, like one of those Klaus Schultze-inspired “fan favorite” attempts in which all the basic ideas were down, but not very well executed. The moments where...
Coach Fingers – One Jack Shy of a Cycle LP (Black...
Once again, a band’s name or cover art erects an impenetrable barrier, forever separating listeners with good taste from whatever constitutes the music, good or bad. I always stop to give serious consideration to the following: If a band settles on a wildly unsavory presentation – moniker, art, or both – it’s a safe wager that the music is going to follow suit. This time, it’s cover art....
Cult Ritual – LP1 LP (Youth Attack)
It could only happen in the late ‘00s! A hot-on-a-weekly-basis band releases an album with variants that command top dollar almost instantly, yet can be ordered for regular price with a minimal amount of investigative work. In the case of Tampa’s Cult Ritual, though, does it really matter? The latest do-no-wrong ‘er in hardcore, or so goes every single thing ever written about them, it should...
Emeralds – Fresh Air 7” (A Soundesign Recording)
Bought this at the Throbbing Gristle show where they opened, and promptly forgot about it. Oh well, here we are now. Not clearly labeled, this one. Side A is some of the most melodic material I’ve heard from this celebrated drone ensemble, with actual discrete tones on top of the drones. It’s pretty, and you can tell that Emeralds is the sort of band that has put a decent amount of thought in...
Gary War – Opens CS (Captured Tracks)
Overnight pop-psych rock outfit Gary War complement their highly lauded LPs on Sacred Bones and SHDWPLY with a nice low-key offering on Captured Tracks. Starts off with catchy hooks, driving riffs and signature effects-laden drown out vocals and continues on that route until the end. Mostly more of the same that you’ve come to expect from this band … well written pop-rock songs with vocal effects...
Maniacs Dream – Zanzibar CS (Lal Lal Lal)
Free-form tribal rockers Maniacs Dream really outdid themselves here. Side A consists of a solid heavy jam sounding as if someone grabbed any art freak noise outfit out of the Providence/Load Records scene and dropped them feet first into the hills of Morocco. Side B goes on a bizarre psychedelic head trip starting off with inconsistent noise monikers, found object silliness and all out insanity....
Needle Gun – Afternoon Computer Umbrage LP (EHSE)
OK, here’s a joke for the ladies: What type of Harry Pussy album does Needle Gun’s s/t LP resemble? Give up? Well, that would be the one they kept sitting around for years in the event they had to initiate the three-pronged whammy of terminating a contractual agreement, getting sued, or cleaning the cobwebs out of their unwieldy fan-base! In case you didn’t understand the word-count advancement...
Pipeline Alpha – Darking Lights Of Mazil CS (DNT)
Just when I thought DNT had released some of the weirdest and most diverse recording this planet had to offer, they go ahead and slip out a nice gem by the moniker of Pipeline Alpha. PA seems to have crawled from the cutting room floor of The Conet Project and threw itself through enough effects processors and gristleizers to make one wonder what planet this is from. Spare keyboard drones...
Real Estate – “Fake Blues” b/w “Pool Swimmers” 7”...
I was waiting for this band to open up a little bit, based on some vague promise found in their debut 7”. With this release – in the interim, Pitchfork has become a fan, somehow grafting an association with Woodsist and Captured Tracks, labels that I really have no opinion of, unless they release bad records – they sound more and more like a band that just formed with a primary influence of that...
Teenage Cool Kids – Foreign Lands LP (Protagonist...
Foreign Lands has a could-be-anyone-this-late-in-the-game feel; consummately inoffensive most of the time, nudging up to the low end of “good” in spots, and on a debt consolidation plan to repay the first run of bands from earlier in the decade that neutered the Y2K version of the Flaming Lips. Let’s go over that again with the gift of clarification: Singer sounds identical to Wayne Coyne, the...
Uneven Universe – Nightcrawler Walls CS (DNT)
This tape seems to start off pretty slow and confused as to what direction this could possibly take, but that mystery soon reveals itself after a good minute into this release. Echoed sax drone perfectly layered on top of minimal soundscapes, very reminiscent of early Nurse With Wound with a strain of John Olsen/Wolf Eyes free drone jazz rhythms. It ebbs and flows into sparse and creepy structures...
Various Artists – Psyched Punch: DNT 3 Year...
Seems like DNT has been around a lot longer than just three short years; by looking at their impressive back catalog, you’d think they were around for ten or more. This two-tape set is the perfect introduction to anyone wanting to dabble in far-out experimental chromium culture. With such a bizarre and diverse roster of releases, these tapes take you through the “best of” DNT without going...
Black Lips – “Disconnection” b/w “99 Victs” 7”...
Sacrilege to some, I know, but I gave up on the Black Lips after their first two 7”s, and only picked up that Live at Rob’s House single on a whim. There were a lot of bands in my life, and there wasn’t room for any more. I’m not terribly interested in what I missed right now, but someday I may be – I find that it’s a great joy to discover a band I realize I am way into years after the fact. But...
BusCrates – 16-Bit Ensemble 7” EP (Harmony...
I used to sit around a big old college house (slept 12, comfortably) with a guy who likely had a hand (or the hand) in putting this record out, me drunk and him sober, listening to screamo records and playing Super Nintendo in the mid-90s, talkin’ shit like we used to do and trying to freak each other out with our new records and discoveries. That was a good time, and so is this record, four...
The Champagne Socialists – “Blue Genes” b/w “Young...
Indie pop dance party time, with ex-members of The Royal We, Sexy Kids and Bricolage powdering the floor and taking off their shoes. They’ve since changed their name to Neverever, which lacks the shared decadence of their moniker here. Husband and wife duo Jihae and Wallace Meek bounce and bop their band through the same pre-rock territory that glam resurrected in the ‘70s, like Sandie Shaw or...
The Cysts – Public Record 7” EP (Eolian)
A colleague recommended this one to me, saying they reminded him of Sex/Vid. I must respectfully disagree. One of the things I like the most about Sex/Vid – a top-down quality about them which I appreciate – is that great attention to detail is paid to how they present themselves to the outside world. Without necessarily having a logo to fall back on, they present striking images and a very...
Diza Star – Blues Reason to Live 7” EP (Fractal)
First thing I’ve heard from this possible Acid Mothers Temple extension from some time; quality psychedelic soul rattling cage treatises on X-ray vision from an exceptional pair of guitarists. Opening up with the elegiac “Howlin’ Tsuchy (Wolf Prayer),” a blistering, tremeloed duo to the sunrise, things kick into some bad politics with “The Soul of a Mountain Wolf (High Rise),” boppin’ along to...
Glen Iris – “Horseless” b/w “Big Hatchet” 7”...
Aimless, dirt-floor rock y roll from this Atlanta combo, featuring former or past members of the Rock*a*Teens and Brass Castle. Not a lot in the way of production, but “Horseless” has a nice break that busts up the white-guy-in-A-frame party, and shows these folks have a little dimension to their ways (and that they know when to aim for the ditch when overstaying their welcome seems possible)....
Fricara Pacchu – Lucy 7” EP (Vauva)
Finnish four-track madness from Maniacs Dream member Fricara Pacchu, all the way from Finland (and on a label, run by members of Kemialliset Ystävät, that hasn’t released anything in six years). Miles away from what we commonly dismiss as low fidelity here, Pacchu revels in crunchy, martial, lo-res beatwork, synth basslines, electronic squigglery, galvanized klang, and folk twiddling on...
Mike Rep – Donovan’s Brain 7” EP (Columbus...
Been crowin’ about Ohio rock and its restorative properties for so long that if you’re not on board now, you never were. Columbus Discount continues the singles club the right way, respecting the true legacy of that state’s finest export: music from people smart enough to put the world in its place. These 1997 recordings were designed to sting, busting up rock legends and Nancy Reagan as if they...
Sam Amidon and Aaron Siegel – Fiddle and Drum LP...
Improv fumblings on … guess what, fiddle and drums. Starts off searching for some sort of square dance with some down homey violin textures, but eventually busts some porkpie beatnik Knitting Factory moves. Because this record does not go for the jugular from the get-go, and it’s got “academia” written all over it, my bet is it was funded with grants. I’m glad all that “yes we can” money went to...
The Beets – Spit in the Face of People Who Don’t...
One of NYC’s best bands as of late is called the Beets. People get mad because there’s a band from the Nickelodeon cartoon called “Doug” named the Beets as well. You’d think a guy named Doug would know about that, but I prefer to live in the now when it comes to bands I would actually leave the house to see these days (and you know there ain’t too many). They’re three South American kids who...
B-Lines – s/t 7” EP (Nominal)
Most people obsessed with music have specific memories of bands that opened the DIY door for them. In that regard, I can see Vancouver’s B-Lines making great scene fertilizer for some impressionable kids. Their debut 7” crams in six bursts of snottily-voiced hardcore punk with some insidiously infectious hooks, though it shares a common border with pop punk on the tasteful side. The recording is...
Blue Sabbath Black Cheer/Penetration Camp – Bleak...
Half 45 half 33 rpm LP attempt at confusion that is just another slo-mo fumble at black metal atmospheres. This is sure to scare off every jean jacket in town. Not sure if this is a genre-dusted-buster coming from the pedal stomping crowd over to the other side of the parking lot occupied by grimy, face-painted metalheads. Or maybe this is vice-versa attempt to get noisy but still recycling...
Child Bite/This Moment in Black History – split 7”...
Some of the last remnants of the late ‘90s post-hardcore sound huddle together in this split 7”, resisting the call of the singer-noisewriter, the Brainbombs-esque pretend-sociopath dirge, or the Orange Amplification Sponsorship Rock. Saxophones and punk music are really hard to mix, especially if you aren’t shooting for a Black Randy sound, but nobody told Detroit’s Child Bite....
Scotty Coats & Wes The Mes – “Double Fisted” b/w...
Funky, well constructed electro-influenced nu disco from two names I am not familiar with. Coats and The Mes throw some heavy ‘80s boogie drums under a variety of synth licks including the tune’s trademark dirty bassline which dancers will pick out of a mix with ease. This is both a grower and a shower, as the drums will catch your attention right away, even before the synths swell and develop...
COUM Transmissions – The Sound of Porridge...
Here it is, something even the authors of Throbbing Gristle’s biographies couldn’t get hold of, and available to the public in a blink-and-it’s-gone edition of 500 copies. It’s the first-ever studio recordings of Genesis P-Orridge, and certainly the first time any COUM ideas have been heard outside of live performances in the early ‘70s. It’s been said that the band never released any of this...
James Curd – “We Just Won’t Stop” 12” (DFA)
James Curd, part of the much lauded house music unit Greens Keepers, tries his hand at disco by looping Sylvester, adding a couple of synth flares and a really bad rap track. Our man is obviously going for the innocent naiveté of early Debbie Harry-style hip hop incompetence, but it’s just not working here. There’s also no reason to try and breathe new life into “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” as...
Drama for Yamaha/Inquiet – split 7” (Brother...
Drama for Yamaha is pretty, zonked pop in a Here Comes the Warm Jets kinda mood. Arrangement on the song is on the progressive side of things, but it’s totally winning me over. Vocal stylings are baritone all the way. Maybe I should get over myself and admit it could sound like Stephen Merritt, but no matter. Overcomes a shitty lathe pressing to win repeat plays. Parts of it remind me of the Tall...
DJ Kaos – “Love The Nite Away” b/w Tiedye remix...
“Love The Nite Away” is consistent with Rong’s affection for disco-influenced dancey rock, and will appeal to the Cut Copy / MGMT loving brand of hip kid that supposedly digs ‘disco’, but doesn’t know what Salsoul is. Fair enough, it is 2009 and most of these kids were raised in the suburbs by a generation of people who were largely taught to repeat the “Disco Sucks” mantra throughout the early...
Drunkdriver – “Fire Sale” b/w “It Never Happened”...
Drunkdriver set the bar unattainably high on their first few releases, so think of this one as a breather: single-minded riffage mixed to oblivion, the kind of pocket mayhem a band like Unholy Two might mix up, but come on, these guys have done and will do better. I saw these tracks performed at an underattended set at Chaos in Tejas, joined onstage by Mattin, and was pretty sure Berdan was...
Eat Skull/Ganglians – split 7” EP (Dulc-I-Tone)
Sacramento’s Ganglians are a bit of a mixed bag. Much has already been said about the very obvious influence of the Beach Boys on their music, with other press throwing around descriptions such as “summer pop” to describe their sound. For the most part, these notions are a hindrance since they don’t really possess the vocal chops to pull off the harmonies they attempt; some painfully...
Expo 70 – Night Flights LP (Fedora Corpse)
Always thought this was both a ballsy band name and one so on the nose as to point a little too directly at the sounds being made (or is it that the music drifts towards the name like iron filings to a magnet?). Expo ‘70 was the first world’s fair held in Japan and to cop the title for your own is to evoke the decade of Krautrock, Japan, the intersection of both, Fela’s...
Failures – s/t 7” EP (Painkiller)
Multi-city, pseudo-celeb hardcore SALT talks here: Mark McCoy (Charles Bronson, Das Oath, Ancestors, Hallow, Youth Attack label, Virgin Mega Whore) on vocals, Will Killingsworth (Orchid, Laceration, Bucket Full of Teeth, producer/engineer of scores of heavy/HC/punk/metal records) on guitar, Andrew Jackmauh (Cut the Shit, Confines, Boston Strangler, Poison Control, David Spade lookalike contest)...
The Friendly Skies – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
This instrumental duo captures the brooding Portland raincloud sound that so many tragic youngsters have otherwise sold their soul to (re)locate near. The Friendly Skies aren’t trying to elevate their levels of Frippery, but guitar triumphs over keyboard and the energy of the room bleeds out with some several well articulated well played refrains. We can only hope the skies remain friendly...
Husband and Knife – An End LP (Div/orce)
Good label/band name match! K.C. Spidle is of Canadian extract and, like his countrymen the Constantines, he’s exceptionally good at couching a large bummer vibe in songs whose acoustic riff-logic hangs together like Spider-Man’s webbing without ever a) wandering into, I dunno, something Jack Johnson might try to cover, or b) the “I’m deep!” amorphous unplugged meander that...
Kohn – We Need More Space in the Cosmos LP...
Kohn is the pseudonym of Belgian musician Jurgen De Blonde, who is also a member of the band De Portables and, judging by his Myspace page, works in a variety of styles of music. This record is De Blonde’s tribute to the cosmic synth music of Klaus Schultz and Jean-Michel Jarre, and the results are mixed. What emerges is a slicker and more cleanly recorded take on those aforementioned heavy...
The Ramjac – Curserer 7” EP (self-released)
Is this the first rumbling of a Digital Hardcore revival? The Ramjac’s self released 7” EP sounds a lot like Land of Rape and Honey-era Ministry and Atari Teenage Riot on a shoestring budget. Martial drum machine beats, processed vocals, and trebly, distorted to shit guitars are the order of the day. Shades of Wolf Eyes creep into the picture, and the bass line from Big Black’s...
Random Touch – Turbulent Flesh LP (Token Boy)
A bizarrely mic’ed percussion jam featuring every bongo, chime, steel drum and cymbal in the closet. “Who else uses bowed drums but academic dweebs?” I was starting to ask. This record goes a bit further and really pushes the momentum against seemingly steep odds. While it frequently sounds like a new take on an old Nonesuch modern classical record, it has a drive that keeps interest. Genuinely...
Sand Cats/Car Clutch – split 7” EP (Wildfire...
The label behind this heavier-than-thou 7” (70 grams!) based in Baltimore proffers campus anarchy and exemplary public condemnation in the struggle of class warfare. Wildfire Wildfire assumes the stance of the Revolution, writes manifestos, make t-shirts, posters all with the intent of creating a parallel social structure. They also like to work with their friends. Sandcats is husband...
Sasqrotch/Puko Chino – split CS (DNT)
Sasqrotch side delivers punished doom ridden black metal, but don’t expect any easy BM riffs in this band. Extremely complex and nightmarish with a twist of Morricone-like epic style influence with nods to sounds like Sunn O))). But while other doom metal imitators feel the need to do “more of the same”, Sasqrotch took it to the more atmospheric and esoteric route. Other side contains new works by...
Static Static – Psychic Eyes LP (Tic Tac Totally)
Los Angeles Static Static offers up a space age take on a classic LA synthpunk sound with this full-length. If there is one thing that never gets old for me, it’s that dry monosynth ring, probably from an ARP Odyssey (or a reasonable simulator), the one which the Screamers used so well. Static Static mounts this appealing element on a sturdy Memphis garage frame, like Spider, but...
Stellar OM Source – Rise in Planes LP (Black Dirt)
Not much to “get” or “not get” on here, really – it’s solo synthesizer warble by one Christelle Gualdi. Analog, modular, stays more or less in key. Two sidelong pieces. Once the drone elements lay off a bit and a mood is established, she lets “The Oracle” get into some deep, meditative Laserium quality wander up and down the scales. For such a slight approach, it’s mystifying. On the flip, “The...
Talibam! with Daniel Carter – The New Nixon Tapes...
The synth and percussion duet of Talibam! is is well-served by the addition of reedsman Daniel Carter, a fixture of the NYC free jazz scene. Suprisingly, his flute and trumpet and sax don’t give the record much more of a jazz flavor, but instead balances out the sludgier keyboards with fluid, agile movement. The two side-long improvisations here are highly busy recordings, with Kevin...
Matt Wellins/Zac Wallace – split one-sided 12”...
Two fairly long experimental pieces by two distinct artists (no collaborations here) comprise this one-sided LP. Matt Wellins plays soprano sax, which is then processed through his computer, sounding almost exactly like Terry Riley playing soprano saxophone and processing it through his time delay system on 1968’s Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band: All Night Flight recording. This is...
YACHT – “Waste of Time” b/w “The Professionals” 7”...
I’ve ignored YACHT for a long time, and was planning to do so, even with their DFA affiliation (hey I trust those guys most of the time). Anything born out of K Records nerf idealism low self esteem cuddle usually gets the Heisman as I run away back to my hairy hovel of red meat and skin mags. I just don’t have time for it and, besides, they perfected that shit between Lois and Tiger Trap and...
Columbus Discount Records' Singles Club Year 2
http://www.columbusdiscountrecords.com/
Thought you might like to know. Subscriptions open now, will probably be sold out by tonight. 400 slots available, and a couple of payment plans too. Here’s the lineup:
Bassholes Electric Bunnies Deathly Fighter Tyvek Dead Clodettes Outer Spacist Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones Cheveu Puffy Areolas Jakob Olausson Necropolis Harrisburg...
Recent Scores July/August 2009
Haven’t done this in a while, nice to keep track of things…
13th Chime — The Singles LP 3rd Bass — Brooklyn Queens 12” AA — Essential Entertainment 7” acephalix 7” white Anals - Total Anal LP Atoll — Tertio LP Bauhaus - She’s In Parties 12” Bert Jansch — L.A. Turnaround LP Big Boys — Wreck Collection LP (red) ...
Boss Pile 8/11/09
The Cure — Three Imaginary Boys LP (Fiction) Danzig — Lucifuge LP (Def American) The Running Man s/t LP (Akarma) V/A — Cats in Our Backyard CS (Peas Kor) “Adventureland” DVD “True Blood” s2e8 “The Outfit” “Sitting Target” “The Outside Man” “Freebie and the Bean”
Hope I don’t get shitcanned. See you on...
