May 2010
38 posts
The Golden Boys – Thee Electric Wolfman LP...
The Golden Boys’ Whiskey Flower was easily my favorite record of 2007, and one of the best live bands I saw that year as well. I didn’t see last year’s Goodbye Country around much, which can be a bad sign. Few bands can stay raw forever without relying on boutique effects or head trauma; the hunger for rawness is the perpetual motion machine that keeps the indie/garage machine moving, and the...
One Hundred Dollars – “My Father's House” b/w “The...
Well, I must be in my 30s, because I guess I’ve developed a taste for alt-country, arguably the worst country. Can Canada even have country western music? One Hundred Dollars might is better described as dark folk, with a heavy country flavor, like a rougher Allison Krauss & Union Station. Anyway, Deranged is keeping all bets hedged with this single. Smokey voiced singer Simon Schmidt paints...
Predator – “Honest Man” b/w “DLDD/No” 7” (Rob’s...
The Rob’s House & Douchemaster member shuffle continues. Brannon & Mike from Beat Beat Beat & Frantic swap instruments, and pick up where the underrated Frantic left off, heading down the KBD Hardcore route. The Atlanta garage element passes into DC Hardcore, like Artificial Peace plus The Mad. The garage boogie elements are gone, stripped down to 3 chords, and the vocals are barked....
Vapid – Practically Dead LP (Nominal/Deranged)
Debut long-player from Vancouver’s (Still Single’s official punk city) Vapid, two years after their only single “Do the Earthquake.” Two years between records in today’s punk market is an eternity. They’ve taken time to develop their songwriting chops from a basic snotty garage attack to something a little more substantial. Like many of their citymates Vapid is effective as capturing a moment of...
Crocodiles – “Neon Jesus” b/w “Neon Autobahn” 7”...
The A-side is a nu-wavey pop song that is so flat and linear that you can almost see the digital grid with two-finger keyboard lines and spiky guitar effects sprinkled over as simple a drum track one can bother to spend ten seconds programming. The B-side is an instrumental of the same song so you can really hear that keyboard solo. Nice idea for this “exciting” repress of a 2008 debut single by...
Cruddy – s/t 7” EP (Basement Scream/Let’s Pretend)
Austin hardcore trio bangs out six songs that balance out melody and splintered rhythm in the correct proportions, and thus gets praise instead of the indifference/scorn heaped on most of their contemporaries. Check out those triplets on “Running Rats,” that reverse grunge riff on “Berlin Wall,” that tentative two-note lead that dives into rotting dirge on “Snake Charm Man,” which immediately...
Puffy Areolas – In the Army 1981 LP (Siltbreeze)
Three wild ‘n’ crazy guys pose for a photo in one of those houses furnished with dumpstered couches and shit from the thrift store purchased in the hopes that they will help pass the time in Toledo before happy hour. The back cover looks like someone dumped an ashtray on an already-cluttered coffee table. Puffy Areolas want you to know that at least one of their members is absolutely bonkers,...
State Champion – Stale Champagne LP (Sophomore...
This LP comes in a heavy gatefold jacket and inner sleeve lavishly presenting the sort of amateur landscape photography that gives a distinct “Midwest emo” impression, in the late-90’s sense. This is from Kentucky, but rather than the Get Up Kids-style lad band you’ll anticipate, instead you get a solo project of rural indie rock with a backing band. Saddle Creek is more in the ballpark and I’m...
Birds of Maya featuring Harmonica Dan –...
Tour-centric release (read: not many copies, minimal artwork) from Philly beef-n-beer blast brigade Birds of Maya. That’s a lot of Bs. Likewise, this is merch table B-roll, the sort of horsin’ around that isn’t as likely from these guys – blame “Harmonica Dan” if you will, whose harp and hollerin’ takes to task this Tascam Blueshammerin’ to a somewhat disheartening degree. I get suspicious of...
Home Blitz – “Perpetual Night” b/w “Murder in My...
Two more unrequited powerpop hard-ons from New Jersey’s perpetual teen wunderkind Daniel DiMaggio. “Perpetual Night” jangles along like a junior Feelies, and distracts as the math class boner of your youth would from your course of study. “Murder in My Heart” resurrects a late-period gem from a depleted Searchers (who by the late 70s/early 80s had taken to covering “September Gurls,” and whose...
Malachai – Snowflake 12” EP (Double Six/Domino)
Some manner of sample-based duo out of Bristol, reared by Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and let loose on American shelves earlier this year. The album is called Ugly Side of Love, and this 12” single collects four of its strongest moments. Strangely, the full-length starts to lose luster towards the end of its 33 minute runtime, so maybe it’s just as well that most of the great bits have been...
Steel Pole Bath Tub – Unlistenable LP (Permanent)
No band of the post-punk era captured the acrid seizure of suburban fallout like Steel Pole Bath Tub. They realized, almost to a tee, the panic and dread of seeing something on TV that you can’t un-see, of bad news and social ills, wartime fear and sugar cereals, of derelict vans that circle our streets at night. In their nightmare world, every rock concert was Altamont; every movie was Fuller’s...
Twin Stumps – Seedbed LP (Fan Death)
Slum-living, post-collegiate chokeouts are once again on tap from outerborough downers Twin Stumps, who for as manufactured as that description may read, actually delivers but hard on their first album. While last year’s 12” made for a sickening introduction, Seedbed attempts to calcify their detuned, nihilistic plod with small turns left and right. The good news is that the formula almost...
Ultra – Roman Holiday 2xLP/7” (DOM America)
Here’s to the libertines, eh? Deluxe vinyl reissue of Ultra’s 1997 CD of the same name, given the business: over an album’s worth of compilation, singles, and unreleased tracks appended, in effect blowing out the impact of a very dense and troubling record to a level of mournful introspection rarely achieved in the noise/taboo timeline. Roman Holiday alone is a visceral lashing of steaming male...
The C&B – 1991 Pre-Shadow Ring Recordings 7” EP...
It is almost completely impossible for me to articulate to the uninitiated my love the Shadow Ring, why they were one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, and why they were so crucial to the dialogue of music in the ‘90s. Frankly, if I play Put the Music In Its Coffin or City Lights for anyone who hasn’t heard them before, and doesn’t know what they’re about, I’m usually challenged with the...
Bren’t Lewiis Ensemble – Three Christs of...
Hot on the heels of the super-limited Butte County Free Music Society Induced Musical Spasticity 4xLP box set comes this related platter on Siltbreeze. Because of the notable guitar droning and occasional industrial noise present, fans of the ‘Breeze may liken some moments on Three Christs of Ypsilanti to Harsh 70s Reality in spots, though there’s hardly anything on it that approaches the Dead...
Nudge Squidfish – 20,000 Leagues Under Nashville...
Despite the horribly prescient title, as Music City USA recovers from terrible flooding this past May, this “25th anniversary reissue” of solo recordings by V-3/Mike Rep and the Quotas member Nudge Squidfish is oddly satisfying, and a good companion piece to the two mysterious, recent appearances on LP of Vertical Slit’s Slit and Pre-Slit and that V-3 bootleg. Of course, there are plenty of...
Various Artists – Æsjo LP (Escho)
These days, it’s very rare for compilations to hold my attention, unless they’re filled with sidelong Afrobeat jams. Knowing absolutely nothing about Æsjo, or the Escho label that released it, my apprehension towards reviewing it was high, until I actually gave it a spin, and my apprehension turned to dread. Presumably filled with Danish artists, the record begins with songs that reside...
Altar of Flies – Förruttnelsen LP (Release the...
Swedish free jazz mainstay Mats Gustafsson puts aside his saxophone and delivers a monstrous and fucking creepy album of distorted tape loops, damaged field recordings, and shorted-out electronics. Each track consists of a crunchy sub-bass loop, with what sound like additional loops of slowed-down, backward human voices, piercing feedback, and other unidentifiable high pitched electronic noises...
Dead Wife – DWSYHF 7” EP (Psychic Handshake/No...
The best thing that I can say about this record is that Dead Wife probably aren’t misogynists. With a band name like that, and song titles like “Gentleman Rapist,” I was preparing to take in a torturous EP’s worth of Peter Sotos/Brainbombs worship in the vein of Total Abuse, but it turns out that this band is three-quarters female, so that most likely isn’t the case. However, that...
La Corde – “Black Salem” b/w “Urban Burqa” 7”...
A cool, if unessential, debut new wave/post punk single from what looks to be a new San Francisco band. Both songs here feature a steady rhythm section, somewhat histrionic vocals that sound like a cross between the Robert Smith and the Ponys’ Jered Gummere, and a whole lot of reverb and delay on the guitarist’s spindly handiwork. From giving this a couple spins, I would guess this...
Metal Rouge – Trails LP (Emerald Cocoon)
Formed in New Zealand by vocalist and stringed instrument manipulator Helga Fassonaki and guitarist Andrew Scott, the trio Metal Rouge have put down roots in L.A. and other west coast drone ranches, joined by Caitlin Mitchell on drums and occasional trombone. Fassonaki, very much from the Linda Sharrock vocal school of wordless abyss-hollerin’, has released recordings as Yek Koo, including one...
No Comply – It's Getting Hot 7” EP (Goner)
It’s interesting to see the great Goner label, which has unleashed a good number of the best garage rock LPs of the past decade, putting out a straightforward hardcore release. No Comply is a Memphis band that has an ex member of the legendary Deathreat on bass, and the drummer was in Left For Dead. They offer up eight songs of basic, fast hardcore that their label compares to Copout and...
The Puke Eaters – Y.M.I. Dead? 7” EP / Tsembla –...
About five or six years ago, I looked into the Finnish freak/free folk scene via some Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus cds, found them to be directionless and unexciting group improv, and stopped keeping up with the scene, with the exception of keyboard prog heros Shogun Kunitoki. However, it may be time to reconsider my decision, because both of these Finnish bands – featuring ex-members of...
Vermillion Sands – “Something Wrong” b/w “Mother...
Back with another A+ indie pop single is Italy’s Vermillion Sands. Both songs shuffle along at a laid back 1-2-1-2 pace, with the jangly guitars of the poppier C86 bands like Talulah Gosh, and topped off with Anna Barattin’s deadpan yet tuneful vocals. A Nuggets or Rubble influence creeps up all over both of these songs as well. “Something Wrong” gets a bit more frantic and has a big chorus with...
Tommy Jay & Mike Rep – The Grim-O Comix Sequence...
All of a sudden, it seems as if the world outside the few square miles of its existence has taken notice of the rock/roll and punk giants of Columbus, Ohio. Rightly so, in fact; outside of France and New Zealand, no single community has ever been able to translate obsessions with the Velvet Underground, Bowie, John and Yoko, and all the other worthwhile touchpoints of the cultural revolution,...
Titus Andronicus – “Four Score and Seven, Pt. 1”...
“Sigh,” as they say on the Internet. I tried. I really have. It’s just not happening – a whiskey dick of the ears, if you will. And like the biological version of whiskey dick for which ads are played during late night TV comedy, I think it has to do with being an old man. When they left me speechless at 2004’s SXSW, I didn’t think the Hold Steady steez/wolrdview would become a movement. I...
Buk Buk Bigups – “Hot Mess” b/w “Endless Itch” 12”...
What’s in a name? In the case of Buk Buk Bigups, not much, except for being one of the worst I’ve heard lately; it reads like something off a Korean BBQ menu. Actually, maybe it’s more like the Denny’s Rooty Tooty Fresh ‘N Fruity: embarrassing name, but ultimately a delicious slab of compact goodness that knows when to quit. BBB is a fun Sacramento-based one-man...
The Ex – “Maybe I Was the Pilot” b/w “Leaky Homes”...
Now past their thirtieth year of activism, only the Fall comes close, conceptually, to the racket stirred up by the Ex, a shifting assortment of Dutchfolk and one Scotsman, living the dream that anarchy in a cultivated environment can afford. They are responsible, even if many won’t cop to it, for any sort of Turkish or Roma influence (and cowbell) in this side of music, and the band’s...
Feel Free/Treasure Mammal – split 7” EP (Kingdom...
Feel Free are some shambling indiepoppers, very much in the Friend Rock vein. Could be their first band, maybe I’m way off, but they’re laying tracks so we better pay attention. Their three songs zip by with a trio of boy-girl-boy vocals sounding like a Silver Jews/New Pornographers tribute project though I really haven’t a clue where they’re coming from in terms of influences. There’s an...
Grand Trine – Sunglasses 12” EP (Div/orce)
I believe the guys from Muse would call this “skronk.” It’s all sorts of unintelligible garagey posturing, except for the blurting Fun House sax (or is it Blurt?), in that totally kooky WEIRD PUNK way. A sideways glance at the lyrics tells me that this Montreal band write a lot about drugs and paranoia, as if that should come as a surprise. OF COURSE the first track on side A devolves into...
Lucky Luke – Traveling for a Living LP (Mexican...
Counting drummer Alex Neilson as a former member, Lucky Luke hails from the same Glasgow experimental folk scene that’s produced Trembling Bells, Scatter and Alasdair Roberts. They lean closer to the UK folk rock canon than some of their contemporaries, although I’m not sure how closely a group with singers that deliver like a rural Kim & Thurston could ever be compared to...
Jakob Olausson – “Cornered In Your Circle” b/w “A...
Late entry here for a Singles Club release – I dropped the ball here, if you don’t have one by now, you’re not getting one. Will be funny, seeing guys frantically searching every blank-sleeved 7” in the store. Have to say I failed to notice Olausson’s debut album from a few years back, but the quest begins now. His Lee Hazlewood-esque drawl, the lonesome pine of his guitar playing, and the...
Ribs – s/t LP / Harbor Lights/Ribs – split 7”...
Ribs just broke up. I was at their last show. When they finished playing, I left. The next day a friend asked me if I knew of any drummers to back up their frontman, Jason Frederick. He had driven all the way from Chicago to play at a private college in New York, and Ribs warmed up in the basement of the Charleston, an exhumed Williamsburg bar that was so much stranger than it is now. An elderly...
Umberto – From the Grave LP (Permanent)
Mining the classic soundtrack work of John Carpenter and Goblin has become a small cottage industry in recent times, with Zombi in particular making a career out of this niche genre. Umberto (a.k.a. Matt Hill, sometimes of Expo 70) has provided us with the newest example with From the Grave, an LP that skirts the edge of Soundtrack for an Imaginary Giallo territory. What saves the project from...
Brain Handle – Baseball 7” EP (Dear Skull/Mind...
Limited to 200 and mostly given away at a show, this is tough news for Brain Handle fans who lived outside of Pittsburgh last month – it’s likely the band’s final record, and a weirder send-off you couldn’t hope for. The artwork is truly useless and frustrating., and the two complete songs here lumber around like never before, with an odd focus on. The punk record you hoped for turns into the...
Vienna Noise Choir/The Moore Brothers – split 7”...
A colour-Xeroxed split 7” between VNC and the Moore Brothers, an unlikely pairing that in some difficult-to-grok way, actually makes sense - and it works well. VNC’s tune “Harm Guitar” starts out as ‘90s post-rock Branca-worship, adorned by perky group vocals, and finds its way to a coda of moody ‘80s underground anti-aesthetic clatter. It’s a beautiful map they draw, reaching...
The Whines – Hell to Play LP (Meds)
Come to think of it, maybe it isn’t so bad if music is doomed to repeat itself in ever-tightening cycles. It’s not like any of us are going to be around for that long anyway, so when you find something you like, it’s always nice to have another rendition of it. So give credit where due to the Whines, a Portland rock trio that exemplifies the tension-release of the International Pop Underground,...
