November 2010
51 posts
Recommend Still Single.
I wouldn’t be mad if you recommended my excellent record review blog to the Tumblr directory.
-D
Highlife – Best Bless 12” EP/7” (The Social...
The hardasses among you – those who would rather I only review noise cassettes packaged inside sandpaper – are likely to balk at any column inches spent towards praising an ethnically Caucasian man appropriating the guitar music of West Africa. Even those of you who have multiple volumes of the fantastic Ethiopiques collections in your racks or hard drives might find reason to bristle at such a...
Kitchen’s Floor – Loneliness is a Dirty Mattress...
Here’s a good pair from Brisbane, part of what seems to be a nonstop supply of quality music from Australia as of late (the LP came in a package with several other releases, the tape shortly thereafter). Kitchen’s Floor is a duo of guitarist Matt Kennedy and drummer Julia Morris, augmented by various others – there’s a bass player on Loneliness, which dates back to 2009, and an organ player on...
Passe Montagne – Oh My Satan LP (Sick Room)
There’s this other side of mathrockin’ that I could never really appreciate – the tuneless, attention-starved/deficit-having approach of a two guitar, no bass instrumental trio, needlessly tangling themselves up in the mirror. Oxes was the pratfalling impetus of this sort of nonsense and it’s troubling to see a band like the French/Italian project Passe Montagne carrying the unstable, poorly...
Three Second Kiss – Long Distance LP (Sick Room)
This Italian band has been at it for a while, swinging at low-strung postpunk of the Midwestern US and central Europe, its sound borrowing liberally from Slint, Bastro, US Maple, and Storm & Stress but fine-tuned to resemble a Faberge cinderblock. On Long Distance they take part in a conversation mostly abandoned by the domestic forefathers – compared to the instrumental intricacy and...
Zond – s/t LP (R.I.P. Society)
Debut album by a Melbourne outfit set to pave the Earth. Heavy, heavy shoegaze that reaches into black metal but thankfully does not cross that line. Rhythm section is big, guitars are beast. Vocals are reduced to a moan or a treatment here or there, as the focus in Zond is on the big, spreading mass of hot asphalt sound that spills out of its container and smothers every surface nearby. I’ve...
Condolences
R.I.P. Sleazy.
Dharma – Technology and Truth LP (Skrot Up)
Miss Kevyn Greene of Austin, TX is said to have made this music under a desk in her room, and the synth-cabaret of Technology and Truth, her first full-length following a tape or two, speaks to such claustrophobic climes. The dark content and compromised fidelity of these eight songs speak of a controlling personality and a science obsessive working within the limits of cheap recording and...
Sam Egan – “Good Album Cover? More Like BAD Album...
Certainly this is the most passive-aggressive presentation delivered to me since the Them, Themselves or They single. Check out what Sam Egan wrote on the back cover!
Okayyyyy … Anyway, Egan is from NY state somewhere (seems suburban), and despite his lack of social grace, he’s managed to string together an eclectic work here, using a wide variety of instruments, technology and treatments to...
Nihiti – Other People’s Memories LP (Lo-Bit...
Outta nowhere statement-pop/synth/darkness from a mystery NYC project. Nihiti crosses up electronic and acoustic instrumentation to offer up a somewhat cold but altogether intriguing mix of songs and sentiment, ranging from rigid electro/ball bearing sleet nightmares to piano-driven stress-pop to ruminations on melody. Many of the tracks run together, and on the first side, it gives the...
Red Mass – Jesus 12” EP (Florida’s Dying)
More all-over-the-map confusion from the man known as Choyce. Earlier efforts were very much in the garage/weird punk vein, but this new self-titled effort throws in balladry and greasy teener crooning that crawl into my personal intolerance zone – sorry, but adding a little white noise blast here and there doesn’t turn this doowop bullshit into something more, and reminds me of why I can’t...
Various Artists – The New Hope 2xLP (Smog Veil)
Alongside They Pelted Us with Rocks and Garbage and Cleveland Confidential, this is THE comp to have from Cleveland. Unlike those other two, The New Hope was 100% hardcore, and remains one of the kings of regional first/second wave HC documents. Scrappy and memorable, the eleven bands here play off slight variations on one another, but every last one of them is tough and intense, from...
BATS IN THE BELL HOUSE (Brooklyn goth night info)
Please visit http://batsinthebellhouse.tumblr.com and join the Facebook group. I’m sure some of you live in or around NYC and give a shit about getting dark and having fun.
Clear Band – s/t 12” EP (New Editions)
Three new offerings from Harris Klahr, late of Q and Not U and manning the bass in the latest iteration of the Rapture. The Clear Band material here is pretty far from either, the A side’s “Good Fortune” and “History is Paradise” brimming with progressive folk pleasantries, revealing the sort of caution you might have heard once before on a Gastr del Sol record before the algebra of that group...
Esben and the Witch – Marching Song 12” EP...
The transition of Matador Records, once an exclusive home for indie/slacker royalty, into an organization more accepting of Goths, has been a long, slow process. Their sublimation into the Beggars Group put the office gang in direct contact with employees of the 4AD label, and forced their back catalog to commingle with stacks of Bauhaus and Dif Juz CDs in their NYC warehouse. Sure, it took the...
Factory Floor – A Wooden Box 10” EP (Blast First...
Didn’t find out about this one until recently, because keeping tabs on the promo submissions comes first, but this one couldn’t be contained by import tariffs or a general ignorance of British indie labels towards these efforts to document what’s happening in modern music. Can’t tell you much about Factory Floor, other that they’re from England, but the four cuts on this 10” sting with...
Merchandise – (Strange Songs) In the Dark LP...
A Brooklyn label teams up with some folks who I presume are part of the two dozen or so people under the age of 30 in Naples, Florida – seriously if I am ever stuck down there again I am going to the address listed on this LP with some party favors in hand – to release this project, part of the post-Cult Ritual universe from how I understand it. On record, it’s a duo, moping around with great...
Sleetmute Nightmute – Night of the Long Knives LP...
No wave’s third wave represented a sharply-rendered, combative music and art movement that originated in NYC in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, moved west to Chicago in the ‘90s, and ultimately drifted to the West Coast in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s. By now it has likely drowned itself in the Pacific, but the care it was given by the proponents of its last uprising deserves attention. Portland’s...
Articles of Faith – New Normal Catastrophe 12” EP...
Vic Bondi rides again. Like getting five angry emails in your inbox, here’s some middle-aged hardcore that retains a lot of the speed and aggression of their earlier days, but informed by Bondi’s current take on politics – still left-leaning, smash the system, and the like, but a bit hackneyed in its attempts to proselytize. Really one of those things no human was ever meant to hear. This guy...
Cultus Sabbati – The Garden of Forking Ways 12” EP...
We are both the beneficiaries and victims of a media that screens war’s horrors. Though available as pacification, this state also renders frank outrage impotent. And so we, too, mediate. We mediate by appealing to the darkness of sacred systems, so rare now, that might treat the discontentment dysfunction so common in our age of glowing rectangles. Cultus Sabbati exhumes the fresh corpse...
Druid Perfume – Tin Boat to Tuna Town LP...
Might’ve been a little too rough on Druid Perfume’s last single, in light of this full-length, but hey, that record fucking sucked! This is a little more like it: crazyman Detroit art/sludge, sort of a demented carnival atmosphere (don’t read into that, especially given the group’s proximity to Juggalo Ground Zero) applied to a sort of jazzy take on Scratch Acid/U-Men style derangement. The...
Grandfather – Why I’d Try LP (self-released)
These guys got a mention in GQ by Steve Albini in the not-quite-infamous interview he gave at what may well be the last American All Tomorrow’s Parties earlier this year, the one where he calls out Sonic Youth for lackeying to a major label. So Grandfather gets points from their engineer for using Kickstarter to pay for their album, for being well-prepared enough to finish their record in a...
Heartbeater – Slow Waves LP (Meltface)
Same old shit, guys – loud, semi-tough indie/alt-rock that’s about a step or two away in either direction from flaming dice or surfing with the alien. Almost embarrassingly out of touch. Not much else to say, except that somehow the whole thing got funded by Kickstarter, meaning that two of the worst records that have come through in this cycle are proof that people are willing to pay for the...
Vampire Hands/Daughters of the Sun – Skull Judge...
Vampire Hands: they’re no Vampire Belt, nor are they a Vampire Weekend, though they’re leaning hard in that direction. Jangly indie rock bereft of good ideas or finer tastes. They put up six songs to Daughters of the Sun’s one, a sidelong gamble of well-worn moods, from droney awakening to warpath drums and fuzz-wah stun abuse. Not much going for either of these groups, so unless you work with...
Vomit Squad – Amon Ra Bless America 12” EP...
King Khan, Choyce (Red Mass), Danny Marks (Spaceshits/CPC Gangbangs) and outsider singer Rich Ritalin convene to celebrate the life of Jay Reatard, the death of restaurants, and the welcoming of a cannibal age. Bordering on hilarious, this record kicks out six tracks of wild-minded, buttoned-up garage punk, Ritalin’s vocals providing the strangest touches of all. Imagine an accountant with mild...
Informational posts for you to think about.
Still Single’s own Andrew Earles has written his first book. It’s about the band Husker Du, and is the first biography exclusively about their career. He worked himself to the bone on this book in order to get the story straight, and I can assure you it’ll be worth your time and money to procure a copy, which you can order from Amazon.com here.
Doug Mosurock’s DJ...
Biko/Izznyce – split 7” (Cotter)
Biko is an Oakland-based rapper who has a sunny, wistful delivery – his track is called “Sunday (A Song for Canon)” and deals with existential issues and life where he grew up, outside of the church. It’s propped up by a great turn-of-the-millenium production by Izznyce, on that whole sped-up R&B single sorta gambit, and it works well here. Izznyce also gets the B-side, an instrumental...
Caboladies – s/t LP (DNT)
A divine marbled slice of tuneful strobe-drone polyhedrons from a Chicago duo determined to do something more within the genre. Across the board, these guys succeed; this collection of tracks from tape and CDR releases is bursting with strong ideas, melodic collisions strengthened by a layered, vascular approach that allows them to bring in a wide variety of noises and treatments, while keeping...
Cacaw – s/t LP (Permanent)
Chicago noise-rock outfit Cacaw makes good on the promise made on their one-sided 12” from a little while back with this debut long player. They’re one of only a handful of bands around that understands how to do it right, the way it was done by the bands that originated this type of hostility: by finding a sound, but not letting their songs be dictated by it. You know how you can remember...
Colossal Yes/The Good Fear – split 7” (Gold Robot)
History is important, and the history of HOW WE GOT HERE is especially important. To clarify: How did we arrive at a musical landscape littered with bands like Colossal Yes and The Good Fear? Well, the first offender/step in this direction is a little something we used to call “alt-country”, or when indie and punk rockers woke up one day and decided to slum because whatever previous genre they...
Conspiracy of Owls – s/t LP (Burger)
From the remnants of Detroit retro-also-rans The Go comes Conspiracy of Owls, still mining the past but on a significantly mellower tack. With a scant few exceptions, this is straight up ‘70s AM Quaalude pop of no small effort – while some will obviously balk at the change of wardrobe these musicians have gone through, it’s kind of hard to argue with the three-part vocal harmonies and...
Dylan Ettinger – New Age Outlaws LP (Not Not Fun)
The perfect accessory to go with your vaporizer, for those times when you just don’t wanna do anything … Ettinger has a good sense of authenticity in terms of ‘80s science special on TV sorta soundtrack, or a score for perusing the back pages of an old issue of Omni or Popular Mechanics whilst on the crapper. I mean, the guy made a DIY, low-rent new age record, just like it says. Lots of...
Family Underground – Demon Parade LP (DNT)
Danish farm machinery comes alive and waits outside the shed to murder you and yours on the A-side, and for me that’s been a fairly typical response to most Family Underground product that’s come through here – some funny words to something that doesn’t mean much of anything. The good stuff everyone keeps referring to, the drivers behind how this group managed to bag so many releases in years...
Pekko Käppi – Vuonna ’86 LP (Singing Knives)
Finnish musician Pekko Käppi plays the jouhikko, an ancient bowed lute given to a rough, deep tone somewhere below the viola but above the cello in terms of range. His recent recordings haven’t necessarily showcased the instrument so much as made attempts to work it into the context of noisy, planned-out harsh folk improv/astral projections of strange and indeterminate shape. Vuonna ’86...
“Make-Out with Violence” DVD/The Non-Commissioned...
From Hendersonville, TN comes a group of visually/musically minded friends known as the Deagol Brothers, a collective of friends from high school and before, who use this banner as a way to bring along their friends in case any of them happen to make it in the world of indie cinema. Their ambition has been tested out through a number of short films and exercises, and with the group’s first...
Peripherique Est – Demos, Vol. 2 7” EP (Rob’s...
Speedy, tinny sounding punk from Belgium. Handles well in the flats, but with a completely utilitarian design that emphasizes velocity above all, which doesn’t always make for the most exciting music. Clean, matte finish, no surprises here. Kinda wondering how desperate one would have to be for French punk to get bombed on Peripherique Est, when there are so many great examples (literally) being...
Pregnant – Regional Music LP (Life’s Blood)
One Daniel Trudeau, of Placerville, CA, lets us know what’s up in his mind on this, apparently the fourth full-length as Pregnant. Don’t get it confused with the Brooklyn punk band of the same name we reviewed a few months back – this is a solo project of sample-based, oddball pop, where hyphy meets GarageBand, presumably. Loops of decadent world music collide with pop guitar hooks, hip-hop...
The Rebel – The Race Against Time Hots Up LP...
So it’s only the third Rebel LP to come past our way this year. Kinda slowing down, if you ask me … I expected way more material in 2010. Hopefully the slowdown can be attributed to “the recession” and we can expect eight full albums in the coming year. As it stands, this is a finer take on Ben Wallers’ internal monologue than the last two LPs from this outlet, which, perhaps sardonically,...
Running – s/t LP (Permanent)
Junior varsity squad from Chicago, laying into the caked-on distorted aggression and regional polka/oompah-band rhythms, coming off like a first-thought, reverent imitation of bands like Clockcleaner or Arab on Radar. It’s one of those situations where a band tries to switch out substance with noise, and even across a short (45rpm) record it gets tiring, the endless beltsander assault blending...
Umberto – Prophecy of the Black Widow LP (Not Not...
Second album of Italian horror soundtrack homage from former Expo 70 bassist Matt Hill, here doing business as Umberto. This latest batch of Not Not Fun releases certainly has a real clamshell VHS bootleg feel about it, which is what tends to happen when one lifts the queasy design aesthetic off some Argento PAL tape and makes the music to follow suit. Steering away from the florid prog...
Woodsy Pride – s/t 12” EP (All Hands Electric)
Five songs of kinda drowsy, noble, stern, slightly depressive roots/country rock. So straight-laced and by-the-book that it’s not going to provide much enjoyment beyond the No Depression crowd, if such a thing still exists. I mean, it’s gotta exist, right? Well-played, somewhat stormy, just not much to hold onto for people not enamored with the genre. (http://www.allhandselectric.com) (Doug...
Chen Santa Maria – “Jefferson Chopper” b/w “Great...
More like “Churn Santa Maria” from the sound of “Jefferson Chopper,” a 50-yard-dash of guitar textures, live manipulation of sound, and electric razor abuse. “Great Society” opens up a bit more to the night sky, and posits the sort of looped-out, hopheaded demeanor that Spacemen 3 might’ve accomplished, had that group decided to play a breaking-down refrigerator and flickering fluorescent light...
Consignment – s/t 7” EP (Sweet Rot)
Four songs of slow, sad-eyed, agreeable acoustic sobbers from one of the guys in Meth Teeth, chugging a mug of his own tears. Nothing new here, but it’s nice to be a witness someone using a lo-fi setting in the traditional manner befitting of the ‘90s and such, when this sort of sentiment flourished. One of these songs is going to catch a few hundred people off guard and it’s going to end up on...
Simple Circuit – “Boarded Up Houses” b/w “Moon...
Fun, loose indie rock from an Austin band that probably gets a lot of opening slots, due to their sprightly, confident sound. “Boarded Up Houses” has a synth squawking all the way through it, and “Moon Druggies” provides some high-reaching chorus and a self-assured momentum required to keep this kind of effort on the right side of the line. Somewhat close to a reincarnation of Oxford Collapse’s...
Spider Bags – “Take It Easy Tonite” b/w “Shaunda...
They’re not really taking it easy by the time A-side “Take It Easy Tonite” barrels towards the run-out groove, this North Carolina garage/roots s-sw outfit bashing away at a distorted snarl of lead guitar and rambling across a two-note bassline and hollowed out drumbeat, like the Country Teasers got hold of some Hooters or Outfield and tried to weird up the latter without forsaking the central...
Trailblazer – “Gut Reaction” b/w “Mallard” 7”...
This one might have gotten lost on the way over to Alter’d P’zones, as it speaks to the sort of chILLness that they like to push over there. Regardless, I’m on board with Trailblazer, a one-man band (gtr, zynth, drum machine, vocals), single-minded in purpose and theory (two-note structure, v. repetitive), but executed with a good ear and way more interesting than such a description would imply....
Cum Stain – s/t 7” EP (Florida’s Dying)
I’m writing this on Election Night, and if Marco Rubio isn’t a signal that Florida has died (at least from the neck up), maybe Cum Stain will finish off the state once and for all. Moderately catchy, NoBunny-style nasal garage pop where the central conceit seems to be Mr. Stain, pictured on back, smiling with a big mustache and sunglasses as his bandmates prop him up, his cock and balls pitched...
Heavy Water Experiments – “Hermes Told Me So” b/w...
“Hermes Told Me So” combines falsetto male pop vocals with a fuzzy, busy pop backing, mildly heavy guitar/bass, electric piano and a stuttering drum beat that produces a vague, loungey sort of sound that’s fundamentally at odds with itself in an attempt to try something new. “The Plunge” takes those same sounds and irons them out a bit, coming across as something Sebadoh might have written later...
Kito-Mizukumi Rouber – Midori Mishi San Connichiwa...
This is how things work: Tom Lax champions a record no one would ever think to own, then puts out a single by the band that made it which is qualitatively better than the album that drove many a man mad, both from their failed attempts at ownership, and from the work they had to do to unpack what came out of the stereos if they did actually find it. Truth be told, this one flew out the door as...
Total Control – “Paranoid Video” b/w “Real Estate”...
Third single out of this electronic arm of the Eddy Current Suppression Ring fam, and though I haven’t heard their first single, I’ll wager on this one being the best so far, if only because of the A-side. “Paranoid Video” fits right in with the frigid climes of the minimal synth revival, but does so with an ear for the music, eschewing outboard gear fetish in favor of laying down a memorable...
