October 2010
55 posts
Automelodi – s/t LP (Wierd)
More tuneful and exciting than most Wierd acts, Montreal’s Automelodi shares in common the one alienating factor it seems to take to get picked up on that label. The Wierd Compilation releases were exhaustingly lengthy, Xeno & Oaklander too frigid, Led Er Est too monochromatic … Automelodi sings in French. Actually, they do so in every song except the second, “Airline,” which positions the...
Brain Idea – The Survival Scrolls LP (Permanent)
I don’t want to seem like Mr. Old Timey Man, or lord knowledge/life experience over the readership, but I’m fairly certain people were aware of great bands from New Zealand before the last few years. I mean, it sucks that things like Bats LPs will run you around $60-80 now, and that none of that money is going to the band (Flying Nun just embarked on a CD back catalog campaign, but surely it...
The Martha’s Vineyard Ferries – In the Pond...
Didn’t know anything about this band until maybe the day before I saw Denton’s excellent Tre Orsi, and found out this band was opening. Bob Weston (Shellac) and Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine, excellent solo career) are the rhythm section, backing guitarist Elisha Wiesner (Kahoots) in short, dashed-off, fun-to-play rock and punk songs. That’s pretty heavy talent, and for what is ostensibly a band...
STNNNG – The Smoke of My Will LP (Modern Radio)
Minneapolitans STNNNG come from the attention-starved, post-Jesus Lizard ghetto that spawned such bands as Les Savy Fav and the Murder City Devils, bands with outsized frontmen whose crazy talkin’ delivery and/or wacky antics would’ve been better served in the career of carnival barker than in front of a band not even worthy to carry Rye Coalition’s shaving scum or the Monorchid’s tour-soiled...
YVETTE – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
Recent sounds from a very strong NYC duo. Guitar and drums, heavy effects on both when prudent, which pushes some kinda of the moment rote-n-beachy moments into the traffic of serious, locked-down industrial pummel and well-organized noise/scrape guitar. I guess for the Brooklyn hood which they rep, they probably need some sort of familiar element to rope in the kids, but once they get them,...
Zombie Dogs – s/t LP (Strength in Numbers)
Eleven blasts of lady-built feminist skatecore for women and supportive dudes who like to thrash and respect the world around them and one other. I am so happy that bands like this exist: happy that they have both a message and fun to deliver, happy that they kinda remind me of an awesome old Ohio band called Pet UFO, happy that they have songs about being smart (“Three point one four/Nerd in...
Ättestupa – Begraven Mot Norr LP (Release The...
There are black metal concerns that deviate so far from metal that the riff disappears, the atmosphere gets dialed up until the knob is ripped off, and if you exclude the reliance on synthetic percussion, the world gets yet another worshipper at the folding chair of Current 93, Coil, Nurse w/ Wound, “darkwave,” Psychic TV, Chris and Cosey, and the list could (and does) go on. Then there are the...
Dynamic Truths – Understanding is Overrated LP/CDR...
As I sit at this desk, I can count on one hand the people who were ever excited for the eventual release of these recordings: myself, Jordan N. Mamone, and Randy Costanza. Add Dave Martin for an even four. Dan Allen, too, that makes five. Existing in the dead years for indie rock, the Dynamic Truths were a Richmond, VA band with a long and storied pedigree. World-weary, reedy vocalist Bob Schick...
Grave Babies – “Gouge Your Eyes Out” b/w...
Noisy as all hell and clearly not from these parts, the B-side is Sisters of Mercy-style goth-pop hooks suffocated by tons of aural garbage. A-side is less sludgy with discernable lyrics; something that had me leaning towards its opposing side as the favorite, but the melody used in the only-so-slightly-less sparse “Gouge Your Eyes Out” is a killer, so both win. Too messy for the common rube’s...
David Grubbs & F.S. Blumm – Back to the Plants 7”...
Each attempt to process a work that exists in the world of visual art always manages to steal another tiny chunk of my soul, so I will avoid commenting on the booklet that accompanies this 7”, as one flip-through reveals a near-future with the same outcome in store. F.S. Blumm joins Grubbs on this soundtrack to the booklet; a disjointed ride through fractured versions of David Grubbs circa-early...
Ichi Ni San Shi – Everything 7” EP (Super Secret)
There are six people in this Austin, TX band and not one of them is a decent drummer? Putting a drum machine behind their combination of wide-screen pop and shambling late-‘80s C86 cutesy-strum is not a decision based on “wanting to do something different” or “digging the retro beats we can get out of this $20 box” … it’s a decision based on laziness. Ultra-upfront squeaky-clean vocals and...
Times Neue Roman/Kids on TV – split 7” (Art...
What should that spelling of “new” say to readers? It should say “WARNING: CONTAINS UNDERGROUND CANADIAN HIP-HOP!” Bragging of meeting a girl with a “Moleskin bulge in her back pocket” and name-dropping PJ Harvey, Jack Keuroac, plus numerous topically-cool “indie” entities is all too much. Can people still listen to this crap without convulsing with spiteful laughter? Is this a spoof of...
The Wiggins – “Walk” b/w “Sick” 7” (Needless)
Haven’t heard from this Houston-area songwriter since his last single on Dull Knife, and from the sound of things, he’s right back into the groove: twangy, abrasive Texan guitar ballads, laid against the cold steel of a drum machine and a dutiful reverb tank. A year or so out from the debut, these songs might not seem as special in the wake of all the similar projects that have fallen out of...
JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound – “Get it Together”...
Call me a negative ninny, but I’m just going to write what many of you are thinking anyway: I find the idea of a soul revivalist cover of a Wilco song to be infinitely irritating. Any guess as to what might be worse? Listening to a soul revivalist cover of a Wilco song. 100% of this is a safe and predictable made-for-NPR circle jerk. I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to soul,...
CSC Funk Band/Superhuman Happiness – split 7”...
“CSC brings the horns, the rhythm and the swagger like it’s 1972” … so goes the first line of proam-splooge included with this 7”. I’m really trying for a subtle way to put this … OK, here goes: That’s a lie. I’m tired of the lies. That last sentence makes no sense, but I love saying it to people (Raymond and Peter fans will understand). So back we go to questionable statements about...
Superhuman Happiness – “GMYL” b/w “The Hounds” 7”...
A-side is electro-pop with tons of instruments piled on top of a groove that vanishes from my mind five minutes after hearing this song eight times in a row. Oh, there’s a funk thing going on with this, too, but it’s 99 Records post-punk “funk” … not Meters or Undisputed Truth funk. The B-side is a little more memorable, and hits you upside the head with the TV on the Radio-style...
Tyvek – Blunt Instrumental one-sided 12” EP...
Kudos to these jokers for somehow evoking classic Ohio-based goofing off, the Fall’s fuzzier urges and, somehow, the Minutemen without any of the latter’s precision crackle. Or maybe it’s just that you dump those ideas together and hit frappe you come out with something like this, five tracks of sub-dermal fidelity (is that racket coming from the basement or inside my own head?) that...
Wilt – She Walks the Night 7” EP (Husk)
It looks like a one-man USBM 7”, alright, but the elitist fans of that terminally limited boys club will be giving this one the cold shoulder in no time. Sure, some of those records are pretty challenged when it comes to dynamics, but there’s usually a drum-kit nearby and an egomaniacal cobweb-crotch to sit behind it, who will likely fail at delivering what the chosen genre demands. This … this...
Brock Enright & Kirsten Dierup – Torben LP/Brock...
The gatefold LP/DVD enchilada in which Factory 25 delivers Jody Lee Lipes’ documentary is an idealistic future vision in packaging that may end up as little more than a hopeful gesture. Two thumbs and two toes up re: the packaging, even if it does include a congestion of blurb hype on the back cover. Now, upon first digestion, I had to beat back impulses to map out how Brock Enright: Good Times...
Picayune – Summer Bummer LP (Feeding Tube)
Distorted solo guitar banging from a guy in Pittsburgh, or maybe Ohio, with a return address in Richmond, Virginia (guess Pittsburgh got too expensive for him?) A really fine thing here, two sides of overdriven klang with melody and dried blood all over the pickguard. The guy’s name is Keith J. Varadi and I hope he didn’t have to sell his guitar and pedals to get out of town, as the late-night...
Purling Hiss – Hissteria LP (Richie)
One of two new albums on deck for Mike “Scrizzi” Polizze, guitarist in Philly basement smoke monsters Birds of Maya. I enjoyed the last Purling Hiss far more than the Birds’ double LP, and Hissteria continues nicely in that path of 4-track rock scuzz destruction. Moreso than on his stellar Permanent Records debut, Polizze has gotten a good handle on several forms of rock and psychedelia – budget...
Secret Prostitutes – Never Mind the KBD, This is...
I have a single by this band and didn’t know what the fuck to do with it. A full LP explains it all, though it’s going to seem like a joke to all but the 400 people who actually go out and buy this record. Those people are fucking badass, by the way. Anyway, here goes: Scando-style punk band located in Houston, TX, playing in the clipped, abrupt/inept style of late ‘70s bands like Rude Kids or...
Young Governor – “Call Me When the Cat Dies” b/w...
This gentleman’s current day job (in the not-so-witty parlance of music journalism when profiling side projects) is that of Fucked Up’s third guitarist and back-up vocalist. I’m naturally adverse to the practice of backlash, as it showcases an individual’s ignorance towards the target of criticism, not to mention a tendency towards predictable behavior. I know way too many people that dislike...
The Art Department – Paperwork/Birdwork 12” EP...
Speedy, birdlike guitar/drums duo races through twelve songs of proper, buttoned-up pop. Art definitely comes into it, particularly if you’re thinking “Art & Language” … though they sound nothing like the Red Krayola, I’m nevertheless stuck with that image of industrious, socialist types making pinched-off music that releases their goolies and satisfies their urges. Ecstatic Sunshine with a...
Bars of Gold – Of Gold LP (Friction)
Heard and sorta enjoyed that Charles the Osprey record on Friction – lo and behold, this one came along. Bars of Gold plays sprightly, slightly complex, progressive-minded indie-emo-rock with “LOCAL BAND” stamped on the forehead of each of its members. Aesthetic decisions of the label aside, bands like this give their hometown of Detroit the image of an ideological wall built around it, where...
George Cartwright & Davu Seru – Rag LP...
Saxman Cartwright, celebrating a good long while of having escaped from the proximity of that giant pyramid in Memphis that’s holding everyone down, dances around a live set with drummer Davu Seru. Nice, balanced relationship between the two, Seru giving the traps a light, freeform dusting that matches whatever intensity or mood Curlew’s main man wants to deliver, be it big, expressive streaks...
Castevet – The Echo & the Light LP (Tiny Engines)
1996-style jazzy emo rock by men, with the pretty boy vocals replaced by a hoarse, gruff yelling guy who can barely keep in tune. I remember a day when many of us couldn’t wait for this sort of music to go away. There is a small but dedicated number of people who are glad it hasn’t gone anywhere. For the rest of us, this is likely a dead form, and no amount of post-Don Cab noodling will revive...
Hans Chew – Tennessee & Other Stories… LP (Three...
Chew’s a member of D. Charles Speer and the Helix, and that entire project supports him on the kind of rural rock stomper that the Helix’s last album ought to have been a bit more like. A spirited pianist who also fares well on guitar and as a vocalist, Tennessee could have ended up buried in the Warner Bros. back catalog of 1970-75, with assistance by Ry Cooder, Lowell George and/or Jack...
Chora – Slates LP (Sergent Massacre)
Four-song collection of earlier recordings from this beatific UK free-whatever outfit. A lot more musicus-abruptus, if you will, than the plangent reach of their excellent Ruined Parabola LP. Side A is taken up by an untitled collage piece more jarring than anything I’ve heard to date from this ensemble. It begins with an assault of mechanical, rhythmically shook cuts of guitar and dislodged...
Chora/Quivers – split LP (Ultramarine)
Every Chora record is an adventure at the very least. This side (back in quartet lineup, same as Ruined Parabola) finds them in sax/percussion/whistle fight mode, which slowly transforms into a beautiful, dense rumination from the jungle canopy floor. Flutes, thumb piano and wood percussion swirl around and choke off the light. Great stuff, as usual. Quivers is a Brooklyn trio that plays in much...
Todd Congelliere – Clown Sounds LP (Burger/Small...
Mr. Congelliere (F.Y.P., Toys That Kill) steps out solo here, with a collection of tracks recorded in a bathroom somewhere over a long period of time. He’s got a fun voice and a good attitude, and is bold enough to stand up to the tragedy of the post-Reatard years with the requisite shouted, tone-deaf melancholy the end of the party really needs. A slight but rewarding walk through the dusk of a...
Couchie Poochie – s/t CS (Feeding Tube)
Here’s a real goofball live recording, keeping things simple and stupid up in the eclectic nexus that is Easthampton, MA. Couchie Poochie is the mindmeld floor dump of David Russell (The Frothy Shakes) and Tim Sheldon (Fat Worm of Error), coming together for some outsider jam sessions. This tape was hand painted and limited to 30 copies, recorded in what seems to be someone’s living room....
Cult of Youth – Filthy Plumage in an Open Sea! 12”...
More neo-folk from Sean Ragon’s life of turmoil, reaching some sort of lite-FM-meets-Ween apex by the second track, and some sort of Savage Republic free-strum revelry by its third. “Tough times” were reported during the making of this record, and brother I’ve been there too. Maybe I should have made a snarling, evil sounding paean to earth magick and everything would have been better in the...
The Dictaphone – s/t LP (Kill Shaman)
Having been underwhelmed by an earlier single by this French outfit on Sweet Rot, my levels of anticipation for this brand of boilerplate postpunk were not high. I’m kind of unsurprised to report that the full-length doesn’t do much to change those thoughts; a bunch of water-treading in the Fall’s wake (or the Country Teasers’ backwash) with purposefully obscured vocals doesn’t generate much...
Darin Gray and Loren Connors – The Lost Mariner...
Soul swallowing abounds in this late ‘90s sesh between bassist Gray (Dazzlingkillmen) and esteemed singular blues guitarist Connors. Roomy, doomy tones in a conciliatory mood, sad but profound and dignified, a virtual end of the line for some listeners who might hear this and never fully retreat from the masculine darkness within. The companion single, pressed in mono, captures the duo in the...
Sam Hamilton – Pala LP (Tumbling Strain)
Seizure-inducing electronic/sampler attack with Earth Day IDM riddims spazzing out all over the place, and vocalist/chief cook Hamilton providing some sky-high vocals, the real ghost in the machine. So much high frequency sound, you’ll go nuts – some may see this shooting in the general direction of Animal Collective or Yeasayer, but few will be able to make it through the entire record; it’s...
Heavy Winged – Fields Within Fields LP (Three...
Oh, Heavy Wangs. You tread onward, you spread out, and you make no sense to me. I was always slightly put off by your insistence on using heavy rock tropes, from your name to the amount of heavy, bassy distortion all over your records, against your refusal to address form or adopt riffs to what seems like a fine template for a song that’s waiting for something more to happen. The enormity of...
High Wolf – Ascension LP (Not Not Fun)
UK mystery meat man High Wolf gets all shamanistic on your ass, rattling cages with spiritual howl and Godstuff without necessarily providing the requisite cleansing or direction such loose efforts require. Cool if you don’t have a bunch of records already like this, but the level of entry is a bit low and the expectations way too high; if you’re still wont to check him out, might I point you to...
Sean McCann – Chances Are Staying LP (DNT)
Solo drone and tuneful ambient wander from McCann, a guy in California who seems to be channeling Emeralds’ recently-forsaken nature vibes pretty hard. That’s fine. I was looking for some warbly, multi-instrumental pulseweave sounds earlier, and this is hitting the spot. Side one is seventeen minutes of calm, as told through synth, guitar, and some sort of strings (violin?) and perhaps some...
Meltaot/Souls on Board – split LP (Ash...
Live recordings of longform experimental/torture sounds from London, featuring folks you know, dating to November 2009 and an event held by exp cassette label The Tapeworm. Meltaot is Savage Pencil, a man I admire, and his musical partner Sharon Gal. They go at it as only two artists would, guitar and bass leaking black sputum while Sav X bangs the cymbal, sticks the instrument cable up his...
The Neon Judgement – Early Tapes LP (Dark Entries)
If you ever wanted to piece together the story behind all those Neon Judgement 12”s you see littered in every used record store in the world, here’s your start – cassette tracks from this Belgian synth/guitar duo from their starting days in the 1981-82 timeframe. The vibe is suitably cold, despite some manic playing on a few tracks; sadly, after a while, a lot of minimal synth starts to blend in...
Olympus – Bold Mould LP (Soft Abuse)
Collaboration action between Stefan Neville (Pumice, the Coolies) and a man named Klaus (the Futurians) – this is like the decaying New Zealand Gibraltar version of My Life in the Bush with Ghosts, perhaps, only not as consistent or interesting. After a few listens, these songs evaporate from my conscious mind, something which rarely happens with Pumice records proper. It balances out into an...
Ouija – s/t 7” EP (Clan Destine)
There’s a saying that became popularized over the past couple of years, and it haunts me every minute of the waking day. “Fifteen years ago, around 100 bands could each sell 100,000 or more albums. Today, there are around 100,000 bands, and each has album sales of 100 copies or less.” Technological advancements have leveled the playing field, alright … leveled it so smooth, inviting, and...
Sleep Good – Skyclimber LP (Autobus)
Gentle, strummy, jaunty, non-committal pop from some urban bohos from who knows where. They really ran with that Fleet Foxes influence, lemme tell ya … there’s a good bit of exuberance here, but it sounds forced and played out, the kind of people who reference John Cale by accident and make this swirly, juvenile saccharine pop shit really stick in the wrong places. Teeth-rottingly gross, but...
Skind og Ben – s/t 12” EP (Mastermind)
Dramatic, striking surfy death rock with some angrier elements. This duo of T. Alexandersen (I’m assuming this is “Skind”) and M. Bender (“Ben”?) work it out on guitar, bass, synth and drum machine, and sing in Danish. Skind’s got a soaring voice and there’s nothing wrong with the music, but there’s not too much right about it either, sounding a bit generic throughout. Nerf Herder’s theme to...
Thisquietarmy & Scott Cortez – Meridians 12” EP...
Not so much a split as two collaborations with each artist taking the lead, this 12” matches up Chicago drone gent Scott Cortez (Loveliescrushing) with Montreal’s Eric Quach, a/k/a Thisquietarmy. They might want to call it “thisglacialimport,” as what you’re getting here are two sides of evolving but ultimately cosmetic drone, with a lot of parts and shifting ideas but essentially the same sort...
The Parish/Gâte – split 12”...
Two sides of basement metal ambition, courtesy of an oft-irritating label out of Wisconsin. The Parish plays up the death metal angle, while Gâte finagles the BM/doomier side of things. I am compelled to tell you about one of my BMs, and how it spelled doom for the toilet of some gracious folks I once crashed with in Texas. It would be more interesting than the lowered expectations you’ll need...
The People’s Temple – s/t 7” EP (Hozac)
First track follows a popular circa 2008-to-present recipe that calls for one ultra-simple garage-revival song template to be buried under suffocating, disorienting amounts of reverb. Save plenty for the vocals, and if any extra FX are sitting about unused, plug those orphans into the daisy-chain. Deception is thusly served, and it works on two levels: first, the thick buzz and rapid-fire...
Phantom Pains – Burden CS (Beach House)
Murky, lo-fi drone compositions for San Francisco’s Beach house imprint by Bay area moniker Phantom Pains. First track entitled Breathing Smoke has a slow build using bowed guitar (I think?) drone interwoven with low-end industrial sound clips like slowed down machinery or churning water at a snail’s pace. Flipside with the piece entitled Burden keeps the same sludgy industrial theme going, but...
The Polyps – The Gong is the Moon CS (N-Tape...
Lo-fi drone guitar folk, blown through broken speakers, on repeat. Great smashed-up electronics complement the reverb/treble-coated haze, the sounds of a children’s keyboard amateurishly looped with a fuzzy delay that just isn’t working too well. Featuring members of Idea Fire Company and released through some loose connection of the Raccoo-oo-oon folks, this tape is a real gem for those who...
