January 2010
58 posts
Exiles from Clowntown – s/t 7” (Greatdividing)
Australian pit-rock flail (pit can either be a quarry or a basement full of armpit stink, you make the call, or the La Brea Tar Pits, or the Dead C’s studio My Pit, but not Brad Pitt, or Mr. Pitt from “Seinfeld,” or the Pitt Panthers, or Pagoda’s Michael Pitt, or Eddy Current Suppression Pit). One side sounds like a Trapdoor Fucking Exit outtake, and the other follows the mechanical sci-fi pack...
Balaclavas – s/t 12” EP (Dull Knife)
Dull Knife reissues this 2007 cassette release by Houston’s Balaclavas, done to call attention to their first album Roman Holiday, due out just about now. They’ve been covered in these pages before, but the songs here predate that second release, finding a much moodier band, draped over antique furniture and howling at the moon. Most of the tracks feature saxophone, courtesy of no less...
Banned Books – Mission Creep! LP (Stumparumper)
Weird pop that tries so hard it negates any substance that might have been lingering around at some stage of the creative process. A yelled, yelped, done-to-death style of vocals favored by young guys, and a much too forced “all over the place” song construction based around blipping, burping, farting, and wheezing keyboards, the occasional guitar freak-out, and varying tempos kept by live and...
Hot Guts – s/t 7” EP (Badmaster/Suicide Tax)
As an obvious (though don’t ask me why) debut 7”, this one caused an almost déjà vu feeling until it became clear that Hot Guts released a 7” with the power to do what so few (obvious debut) 7”s do these days: Make the listener uncontrollably jump on the “other woman” (as my lady likes to call my laptop) and search for the possibility of additional releases … especially a full length! As of this...
Maya – A 10" EP (Discalcula)
Four tracks of beautiful and cold ethereal float. The instrumentation is synths, piano, strings, cooing female vocals, and a huge wash of reverb over everything. Comparisons could be made to This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance at their least precious, Opal, Valet, and the more melodic end of New Zealand’s Xpressway label roster. The simple and memorable melodies of these songs prevent them...
Mi Ami – “Cut Men” b/w “Out at Night” 12” (Thrill...
The force that is Mi Ami has been given a second shot, as their early singles went straight to those who knew, only to have their LP virtually disappear upon the collapse of the Touch & Go family of labels. Their confidence is building beyond the jostling they give the listener, which “Cut Men” leverages with a predilection for soloing. They’re getting to the stage where the rhythm section...
My Mind – Path Masher 7” EP (Badmaster/Suicide...
Two out of the park by the Badmaster/Suicide Tax camp, Hot Guts and this one. Both have been out for a while, without reaching the end of a 300 print run. Even if you don’t spend any money at the Badmaster site, at least read all of the release descriptions. Cuzz is on the level. My Mind is the only band influenced by They Might Be Giants that one might need, or need to have locked-and-loaded...
Ela Orleans – Lost LP (La Station Radar)
On Lost, Polish-born Ela Orleans sings some songs, assembling them via creaking guitar circles, keyboards, violin and samples. These elements are blended into a soupy haze that suggests 16mm film flicker, sweet candy and lost loves. As a sometimes-member of Hasslehound, Orleans is no stranger to samples and processing, but in her solo work everything is smoothed over by the songcraft. Her weird,...
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – “Come Saturday”...
One maddeningly ignored attribute of both shoegaze, indie-pop, or a hybrid of both, is that any supposed “revivals” over the past 20 years exist only in minds that haven’t been paying attention. Since the mythical ‘93/’94 “downfall”, and depending on the opinion (an opinion that’s hard-wired into the number of times one leaves the house each day), OG shoegaze bands did one of these things: one,...
Adam Payne – Maybelline Weeks 7” (Malt Duck)
This should’ve been titled From The Recesses Of My External Hard Drive Because I Promised Someone A Single Three Years Ago, or something that trumps my cruel speculation with accuracy, like “Bro, I can’t believe Thee Oh Sees didn’t want these songs!” And that’s the key point…these two tracks DO sound and feel like rejects, and every reader is encouraged to imagine just how unremarkable a song...
Protect-U – “Double Rainbow” b/w “Toughen Up” 12”...
Mike Petillo (ex-Navies) and Aaron Leitko (DC area scribe, ex-Manhunter) are part of a group that came of age in our nation’s capital, starting out in rock and punk but forging its own course into heavy rhythms, and continues to do so wherever it spreads (see also Mi Ami, whose ground-force post punk was honed there). As Protect-U, they make kaleidoscopic house with kosmiche flourishes. The...
Redtheplaneeet!!!/Les Trucs – split 7"...
Not one, but three Dutch labels came together to unleash this 7” of what I believe is called “chiptune” music upon the world, which for the most part sounds like vintage video game background music. The insert that came with the record describes these bands as “diy.noisy.postpunk.disco.beat.superheroes”, but this record doesn’t really conjure any of those...
Skeleton Warrior/Preaux Breaux Geauxld – split 7"...
What the hell is going on here? Two confusing split 7”s that sound like a mish mash of the more out Not Not Fun records artists like Non-Horse and Odd Clouds, Blank Dogs-ish synth pop, Caroliner Rainbow nausea inducing ramble, and primitive minimal techno. The Skeleton Warrior/Preaux Breaus Geauxld split is more on the electronic side of things and the Skeleton Warrior/Pharoah Faucett...
Youth:Kill – The Promise of Automation 10” EP (The...
Typically, if you told me, “Andrew, without any protection from the elements, you have to make 100 burritos outdoors during a heavy storm storm then eat a large house plant at gun point, or listen to the underground hip-hop version of Black Dice,” I would choose the former. Wait, I’ve already chosen the latter, or I wouldn’t be writing this review, you might be thinking. And you’d be right, but...
Anaphoria – Footpaths and Trade Routes LP...
Third album of ritualistic drone from microtonal sound artist Kraig Grady, under his performance name (and self-declared nation) of Anaphoria. This record easily appeals to listeners of minimalist composers such as Lou Harrison and Harry Partch, but takes on a more modern primitive approach by using synchronized chimes and lightly touched dulcimers, organs and bells, which will please followers...
Bipolar Bear – Harlem Pripyat LP (Mexican Summer)
In spite of a band name so execrable the inclusion of a Hacky Sack with purchase (or the chance to throat punch the band for charity) is not just expected but paradoxically desireable, these kids’ non-awful brand of mid-fi, semi-frantic chaos-pop drives well-considered riffs and reverbed vox into and out of ditches without letting the car flip. Easy to see them straightening out a little...
Cave Bears/ID M Theft Able – split LP (Feeding...
While I can appreciate and respect the concept of anti-music, music by non-musicians, etc., it is with bands like the Cave Bears where I reach my limit. Seems someone came along and told them that anyone can do experimental music and be avant-garde without even trying. Nothing could be more wrong; their effort is little more than pointless bullshit, unable to digest influences correctly and...
Cold Cave – Death Comes Close 12” EP...
Radio Shack money in hand, the fashion Cave closes on another EP. “Love Comes Close” you’ve heard before, but out of the four tracks here, you’ll be most rewarded with the aerobicized bounce on both B-sides: “Theme from Tomorrowland” (motorik, brazen, intense) and “Now That I’m In the Future” (disorienting tumble through gloomy synth-pop past, with extra noise). Don’t know that there’s much more...
Hunx & His Punx – Gay Singles LP (True Panther...
If any or many Termboners missed the five minute feeding frenzy, True Panther sounds has got your back, having compiled the five instantly OOP Hunx & His Punx singles in one hard-to-take, George Tabb-pleasing LP. The line on this seems to be “a gay garage take on 50s girl groups” but that seems like a song and dance to avoid the obvious. If you don’t remember the ‘90s, but dig nth tier pop...
Led Er Est – Dust on Common LP (Wierd)
No one really owns this whole new burst of soon-to-be-embarrassingly-nicknamed confluence of Gothic/dark/minimal synth/cold/wave music that’s been brewing for several years and finally rearing up from its pallor in these grim days of 20xx. Rather, it owns its participants; it holds them accountable for sticking to the plan, and seems to reward them for doing so. Genre revivalism is now dictated...
The Native Cats – “Catspaw” b/w “Lemon Juice” 7”...
Nothing but crunchin’ drum machine and bass guitar at the outset of “Catspaw” sounds like nothing else other than “The Model” as performed by Big Black. It goes down a different path, to be sure – vocalist Peter Escott sings his way through some manner of lifestyle espionage like he’s Simon Le Bon, while bassist Julian Teakle holds down a firm, even, hypnotic bass line. The make-believe vibes...
Old Yeller & The Pigbites – Songs for Nadine LP...
First brush with something off Milvia Son that isn’t related to the label owner’s own Bad Drumlin Grass project and it couldn’t be a further departure – here we have some detuned outsider freak folk with a bit of humor/parody lacing. While bands like Wigwam previously pulled this off in the past, this record seems to fall a bit flat of just the same nonsense over and over like...
Puerto Rico Flowers – 4 12” EP (Fan Death)
Post-Clockcleaner, and really, post-America action from the outback’s John Sharkey, offering up four songs of heavy, slow Gothic rock. He wrote and recorded this alone, and this phase of the project (two live sets and a lot of talk) is apparently complete. Clockcleaner’s posthumous recordings are outright Goth/death rock, like nothing they’d done before, and this record showcases a refinement of...
The Royal Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland – START!...
Elgaland-Vargaland is already a giant conceptual in-joke, but kudos to its creators for seeing their ideas actually come to fruition. This is the sixth version of their national anthem, this time performed by an ensemble of Portuguese musicians in an abandoned Porto shopping mall. I haven’t heard the other entries in the series (which include Klezmer, Mariachi, and Afrobeat versions) but...
The Scrotum Poles – Auchmithie Forever LP...
The ability to witness a group of idealistic musicians growing together should be something that anyone who cares about rock ‘n’ roll would want to share in. Across Auchmithie Forever, which captures Scottish students the Scrotum Poles throughout their existence throughout 1979 and 1980. These are interesting years for their time and place, when it would make historical sense to rethink the...
Soft Speaker – Conditions 12” EP (self-released)
“Mercury Park”, the leadoff song from Soft Speaker’s six-song EP, jumps out of the speakers with a crunchy, guitar-driven buzz. The first impressions recall late ‘80s/early ‘90s approaches; capital-I Indie rock such as My Dad is Dead, Prisonshake, and Silkworm. But once the singing starts, Soft Speaker’s mastery of pastiche is revealed to be far deeper. A bit of warm...
Death Domain – “Ethidium Bromide” b/w “Programmed...
If I gotta jam some coldwave synth minimalism, I tend to like it like this: fast, severe, robotic. Solo project of one Adam Stroupe, formerly of Atlanta synth-punk band SIDS. I never liked SIDS too much, and still don’t, but these aren’t very much alike. Both tracks sound human in name only, processed words that read like if a science textbook could become sentient and write poetry, and...
Ex Wives – Fucking Dutch 7” EP (Radio Is Down)
These guys, at this moment in their lives, probably think that they have found the be-all, end-all of music, and that’s what they’re gonna play. I dunno, lately I just get embarrassed when I hear a Bastro/Shellac clone this brazen. A decade’s worth of oddly-timed, aggressively funky rock, presented yet again. 300 numbered copies, white vinyl. If you name a song “every Woman Loves a Fascist,”...
General Interest – Right by the Beach 12” EP (Ride...
Short and sweet debut doozy from Boston’s General Interest, on the excellent Ride the Snake Records, and the first thing that jumps out is that it’s immediately Minutemen-esque. No point avoiding the obvious right? The important distinction, and one that really makes it work for me, is that it’s never wah-wah funky. The music is twisty and spindly, propelled by Wendy’s...
Hue Blanc’s Joyless Ones – “Smuggler’s Choice” b/w...
Best record I’ve heard yet from this long-running rock ‘n’ roll band from Algoma, Wisconsin. HB’s JOs (sorry, couldn’t resist) take solitary man-rock and give it those sort of clever bends that Devo did to standard/futurist pop music for an overwhelming sense of Midwestern-ness, a quality which they use as a platform to make things sound just a little too real. “Smuggler’s Choice” is one of the...
Mach II – s/t LP (Outlaw/Shifty/Maniacal)
Faithful, historical re-enactment metal, this time of the late ‘70s American/British variety (Riot, early Maiden, Priest, Dirty Tricks, Scorps). Terence Hanchin and Jamie Walters were the guitarist and bassist of Boulder, a Cleveland band that carried the torch for this sort of action long before it became fashionable to rock, roughly from the beginnings of Monster Magnet up through to...
Necropolis – “Love Theme From Necropolis” b/w “No...
Continuing their development, Necropolis nears the Mendoza line for their basis of influence, and lucky for us all, they’ve decided to push outwards. Particularly given the organ and drums interplay, this sounds a lot like Oneida, circa 2001-2003, furiously swinging away on both sides. From where I sit, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – it’s been my experience that even if most bands...
Six Finger Satellite – A Good Year for Hardness LP...
Successful, idiomatically correct approaches on how to be Six Finger Satellite over a decade after its defining work Severe Exposure, and the dissolution of the original band overall (guitarist John MacLean has migrated to other successes as The Juan MacLean, for example) are as follows: Get the rhythm section right – here that’s done by Dan St. Jacques of Landed with a guy named Brian Dufresne,...
The Wicked Awesomes – Punk Holograms LP (Psychic...
Edmonton, Alberta’s the Wicked Awesomes have produced a decent LP of lo-fi rock here. At the same time, they also sound like an amalgamation of other currently existing bands. I can pick out the influences of the recent output of the Columbus Discount stable, the rock side of recent Siltbreeze output, and the rawer end of In the Red records. The fidelity in the same league as the early...
Various Artists – Err On the Good Side LP (Three...
Most compilations I’ve come across in recent years always have more clunkers than stand-out tracks, so I avoid them. It always came across that a lot of these collections were the burial ground for unfinished music, worthless demos and sub-par recordings. So it was to my surprise to find a comp where every track was perfectly composed and sequenced, and were of album quality structure and sound....
Blue Sabbath Black Cheer – Dead Death, Death Dead...
The hardest working band in all of noise has graced us with another great LP this week to add to their prolific discography. While the past few BSBC releases have been more on the harsh noise side, this LP shows a bit of a shift into unleashed terror soundtracks mixed with elements of industrial doom metal. Both sides are comprised of separate live sets which surprisingly sound like studio...
Buckshot Facelift – Anchors of the Armless Gods...
There’s something so unavoidably positive about band dude sending this LP, complete with a hand-written note, to a music writer who, to the best of that music writer’s knowledge, is not a known quantity in the sub-field of grind/death metal/power-violence journalism. I don’t need a map to navigate the territory, and can claim the loud/heavy/riff-oriented of what is commonly...
Electric Tickle Machine – Blew It Again LP (Make...
During my time reviewing records for this particular outlet, I don’t think I’ve harbored a pre-listen hatred for a record like I did for this one. Since I’m in the habit of quoting my editor (because I’ve been really slow on the uptake), Mosurock referred to this as “the one with the boobs,” and I had to ask if he happened to notice the dudes on the back cover. It’s a photo of the band, showing...
"Frownland" (2007) DVD/Paul Grimstad – Frownland...
This is an insane feature film by director Ronald Bronstein (his debut), all about high-strung, imbalanced, damaged young people reluctantly colliding into, and inflicting themselves on one another, in dumpy parts of Brooklyn and Queens. I recognized quite a few locations from my tenure in Greenpoint. It’s far too intense to fall into the “mumblecore” trap, though it shares the absent production...
The Girls at Dawn – “Never Enough” b/w “Every...
I can’t believe I would ever say this, but I miss politics in music. I miss Fugazi. I miss Sleater-Kinney. I was never too into them but I miss His Hero is Gone. I’d even take Rage Against the Machine. I miss idealism, and people who feel like they can do something about the world they live in, instead of making the most bland, most frivolous music of 2009 this side of the Black Eyed Peas....
Iron Reminders – s/t LP (Plastic Airline)
Iron Reminders makes the “This DOESN’T sound like _____” device an obligatory one when it comes time to give a solid (if not sporadically great) band a proper review. That’s because they operate within a musical realm to which an unfortunate classification is assigned. That could be any number of terms, but for our intents and purposes, it’s the cursed “melodic hardcore” tag. Well, it’s what...
Spoon – Got Nuffin 12” EP (Merge)
A confusing EP by a seemingly polarizing band that I’ve always had a soft spot for since Britt Daniel was feeling his way around distortion and loud/quiet dynamics during the … Shiite Militia! … the decade before the last decade?!?! Is that possible?!?! No use dwelling on THAT guaranteed recipe for the inability to get out of bed all day. It’s worth noting that the B-side (either one or...
Truth – Of THEM and Other Tales 2xLP (Missing...
If you’re like me, you probably enjoy quality ‘60s psych more than you let on. While I find it my duty to cover most of the music you read about here, I consider it an honor to be able to hold this baby in hands, finally on vinyl since its CD release in 1995, and it’s original release in NEVER-NEVER LAND. Jim Armstrong, Kenny McDowell, and Ray Elliot, of the band Them, soldiered on in various...
Andrew Zealley – Themes & Variations LP...
A beautiful collection has finally surfaced of composer Andrew Zealley’s serene soundtracks all put side by side. This record collects various pieces culled from four years (2005-2009) of selected video, film installations and performance music showcases in galleries and museums across the globe. The first few tracks were the original rough draft and complete compositions to be used in a...
Beautiful Swimmers – “Swimmers Groove” b/w “O Yea”...
BIG CHOONS from DC duo of killer KILLER DJs Ari Goldman and Andrew Field-Pickering (Food For Animals), cutting together the situation of fat, parping synths, palm-muted guitar leads, and hot summer sunsets into an extended instrumental on “Swimmers Groove” that has perfect hair, a Nautica windbreaker and a hint of Joop. The Polo-Rican in all of us can get down to this, a colossal mash note to...
Black Math – s/t 7" EP (Lost Space)
I remember interviewing Ed Hall about six years ago, right before they played a reunion show at Room 710 in Austin – of course, it ruled. Gary Chester talked a bit about putting the band together and how they were completely terrified of sounding like anyone else, a concern which is tough to believe is lower on the list in u-ground punk/hardcore in 2010. Which is to say this Chicago trio does...
Cheater Slicks – “Erotic Woman” b/w “Can’t You...
A record like this made membership into the first CDR singles series such a winner – Cheater Slicks, back in full-on manic garage depression, away from the thousand yard stares their albums have become, or the disassociation of its primal elements on that Bats in the Dead Trees record. No further need to know if they can still shove an innocent down the stairs; “Erotic Woman” is all rock, all...
The Dictaphone – s/t 7” EP (Sweet Rot)
Six songs from a French combo, fitting comfortably in line with the state mandate of above-average to excellent punk/glam/rock-roll understanding. These guys dick around a little too much for my tastes, though, coming across as their nation’s response to a band like the Intelligence, too concerned with the style to worry about the substance. Your brattily strummed guitars and inexact melodies...
Duchess Says/Red Mass – split 7” (Alien8)
Split single of two weird/garage bands from Montreal. How is it that the two Canadian coasts could produce such punk rock music of differing quality is stunning and hard to comprehend. Both Duchess Says and Red Mass are outlets of a guy named Ray “Choyce” Vucino, who played in unexciting “crazy guy” band CPC Gangbangs. Duchess Says tries to toughen up Pere Ubu’s on-the-fritz vibes with their...
Edie Sedgwick/Aran Epochal – split 7” (Silver...
Somewhere along the line, Edie Sedgwick turned the corner from the strange Antelope/Supersystem side project to “oh, that’s just Edie.” Spitting in the face of historicity, Edie now exists just like she did up until 1971. It’s just a fact. On “Who’s That Knocking on My Door (Blacula Mix),” she creates something that is in effect what I would expect El Guapo (et al) to sound like eight years...
