July 2010
74 posts
The Gaming Commission – Electric Junk LP...
Two guys play instrumental guitar and drum duo rock songs, across two sides of fast 12” vinyl, no banding, no nothing. It would be a bit more interesting if it sounded as if they were doing this for anyone other than themselves – it’s more of a test for proficiency in the basics than anything in the way of originality, and it’ll be hard for them to keep much attention on themselves if they don’t...
Git Some – Loose Control LP (Alternative...
Really annoying but somehow kind of decent crazy-man rock band outta Denver, rising out of the execrable Planes Mistaken for Stars. Everything about the first few songs on this, their second album – atonal chord progressions and tiring, overwhelming presence. Then a strange thing happens: they figure it out. This is straight up math/noise aggression, with really unhinged vocals by Luke...
Heater – God and Hair LP (Permanent)
Guitar pop trio that has decided to go at it from the most basic of means and chord-heavy of approaches, strumming away with fury and purpose in a murky, austere environment. Again in this edition I’ll have to bring up Oxford Collapse, since Heater are taking a lot of liberties with that band’s earlier approach, making it a bit more winning in the process. Southern summertime rockin’, the Mitch...
Giuseppi Ielasi – Aix LP (Minority)
Jazz/minimalist/loop composer Ielasi has been caning Still Single with many releases lately. I have to admit, I kind of thought twice at Joel Hunt’s determination, from these pages, that the artist wasn’t performing in accordance with the time frame in which the artists who might have been his contemporaries years back have either moved on, or dropped out. I wouldn’t say this guy is behind the...
Inoculist – Spells LP (Heart Break Beat)
Younger kids in Brooklyn making a serious attempt at setting new lows in boredom. Tepid, luxuriant melodies come just short of memorable, as they’re smothered by sleepytime male/female vocals and dreary, forlorn piano plunking. Pianos really bring out the worst in last call ballads, and their slow-then-slower approach, hall-wide reverb and blindly allegiant percussive shuffles recall the worst...
Kid Icarus – Imaginary Songs and Aluminum Hits LP...
First there were too many bands like Kid Icarus, but now there probably aren’t enough. Curiously enough, this project was started as a hometaper solo affair by founding member Eric Schlittler. After five years of relative inactivity, he returns here with a full band and a batch of super-earnest jangle rock, evoking the much-missed Meneguar, Oxford Collapse, and the Van Pelt. The rhythm section...
The Moles – Untune the Sky 2xLP (Kill Shaman)
A most welcome reissue of ‘90s indiepop from an Australian cult favorite that should please fans of anything related to the Flying Nun/Dunedin sound, and all those folks from those other nearby islands. The Moles were a rather young and ramshackle band when these songs were recorded in 1990 Sydney, but they crafted an uncanny sound of their own. The band was shortlived, spanning from a 1989...
Paul Butterfly – LP (Replica/Mastermind)
Danish pop rarity from the ‘60s, of which its creators are probably banking on some sort of major rediscovery. It’s interesting enough but we’ll have to see. Poul Sørensen released this album in 1968, after having been part of several Danish beat bands (Panters, the Blue Stars … yeah, I don’t know ‘em either). He’s got a Buddy Holly sort of thing going on with his voice, and the music – early...
The Sandwitches – Duck Duck Goose one-sided 12” EP...
Chan Marshall worship through Hippie Goddesses fandom, in ACTION: the Sandwitches play the lonesome twang, female vocals burning off in the evening air as acoustic guitars gently drift in folk-ish patterns and spectral temperaments. I’m not sure I was expecting to hear anyone cover “Baby Mine” from Disney’s “Dumbo” anytime this year, and now that I have (and it sounds as if it was made by White...
Scorpion Violente – s/t 12” EP (Bruit-Direct)
New mindless electro minimalism from France, part of the whole crew with the logo (I suppose it is called “La Grande Triple Alliance Internationale de l’Est,” an umbrella operation for A.H. Kraken, the Anals, the Feeling of Love and related parties). It took a few listens to grok whether this duo was taking the piss, but there is a method here, even if it’s one that sets the drum pattern apart...
Sonskull – Birth Scene/Rewind 12” EP (Perennial)
First release for the Perennial label, which is laying the foundation for a resurrected Pac-NW punk scene that stands proud outside of easily-defined areas, as it reclaims definitions given up on by two or more generations. Sonskull are a messy-sounding, yet extremely urgent punk band from Olympia, with a hoarse-sounding female singer, and an identity fractured somewhere between SST-informed...
Those Attractive Magnets – Electromagnetic Pulse...
Dark Entries seems to be taking some of the slack from Europe for minimal synth-oriented reissues, and that’s probably a good thing. Most of the players responsible for curating what we are given to hear are known for shaking down the dozens of Belgians responsible for the tapes that make up the excavation efforts, but too often the effort embitters those on the hunt, and we end up with the...
White Boss – s/t 12” EP (Perennial)
Swampy, primordial punk/post-HC stew from Olympia, Washington, slugging it out with lofty introductions, long songs, and a mysterious drive that places them among very few bands of the day. They have a burly, trailblazing attack, but the songs all hang up on some weightier ideas left over from the decade before last. There’s a level of musicianship here, and of experience that acts as a luthier...
White Drugs – Gold Magic LP (Amphetamine...
So weird to be typing out the above. And whose idea was it to put Grayson Currin on the cover? JK bud. White Drugs, brash men from Denton, TX, kicks out mean-spirited noise rock, macho as fuck, ladies nowhere near this action. The band takes the Skynyrd hook-as-violent rhythmic pattern meme, opened up by Mule and Shellac in the early ‘90s, then was visible from every notable nth gen band of this...
Black Mayonnaise – Dissipative Structure LP...
B.M. (hah hah) is one Mike Duncan of Akron, Ohio. Dude’s been futzing around with a four-track and such for nearly 20 years, pinching out the occasional tape, CD, or split whatever. The low end hash-sludge from his last album on Emperor Jones has been tweaked into a spacier vibe over these three long-ass songs – not as much flesh-of-God drum machine thrum-and-groan, a lot more gurgle and bubble...
Gary War – “Reality Protest” b/w “Hollow Futures”...
Sacred Bones’ new slab from the enigmatic Gary War contains a couple of tracks that sound like more than a few songs being played at once; in essence, you’re really getting your money’s worth. On “Reality Protest,” a funktastic bassline pops beneath a swirling morass of gits, synths, and heavily processed vox, and while it may not be the most focused song I’ve ever heard, there’s a distinct...
Ike Yard – Öst 10” EP (Phisteria)
First recordings in nearly three decades from this moody, cold electronic project, helmed by three original members, Stuart Argabright (Death Comet Crew, the Dominatrix), Kenny Compton and Michael Diekmann. Virtually nothing of their initial approach – best heard on their LP for Factory, or more likely a compilation released by the Acute label in 2006 – has changed in that time. Busy, pinging...
MAP – Fever Dream 2xLP (Taiga)
Trio of Mary Halvorson on guitar, Tatsuya Nakatani on percussion, and Reuben Radding on bass, who also produced this session. Radding also serves as an anchor of sorts, mostly, across three sides of clattery, premeditative improv that occasionally breaks into a rudiment (“A Medicine for Melancholy”) but isn’t fearful of throwing all the pots & pans down the steps, either. I’d read a bit...
Uphill Gardeners – s/t LP (olFactory/Kill Shaman)
Cajoling out (at least, here) improvised rockish music of a reasonably high order, the Uphill Gardeners kicked around the mid-’90s Los Angeles scene, playing with roughly eight billion bands at places such as the Smell, Jabberjaw, that one warehouse space you all liked, etc. The instrumental trio left a mess of lo-rez, no-ish wave urk-motion sitting around— more than ten years after...
Weathered Pines – The Sky Between the Buildings LP...
Its cover exudes a bearded post-hippie return-to-nature aesthetic, but Vancouver’s Weathered Pines is pretty straight up country-rock (in this case, a lotta country, a little bit rock ‘n roll), in a high waisted jean/teased bang/bargain basement Mary Chapin Carpenter wannabe sucking on a Bud waiting for her turn at the open mic night down at Frank’s Place on a Wednesday night kinda way. Marissa...
Zola Jesus – The Stridulum 12” EP (Sacred Bones)
You don’t really need me to tell you about this one, do you? Great, short set from the powerful font of dark song that is Nika Roza Danilova, recently adjourned from Wisconsin to Los Angeles to take this music thing to the next level. These six songs replace an obvious thing (the lo-fi cabaret of earlier singles) with another (straight up high Goth, Siouxsie reincarnated), but you’ll never hear...
The Black Clouds – s/t 7” EP (Ride the Snake)
Parting shot from an RI/MA interstate garage rock ‘n’ roll outfit, who remedies some poorly-conceived earlier efforts with four belters. The big, loud gutpunch recording is by none other than Wayne Rogers. He doesn’t do a lot of work outside of his own projects – the last non-Twisted Village record I remember him having any involvement with was that “lo-fi” version of Thee Speaking Canaries’...
The Chickens – Chicken Shit 7” EP (Siltbreeze)
Offshoot of fairly worthwhile Philadelphia-borne outfit FNU Ronnies, here’s the debut Chickens single, following a tape on Fan Death (not too great) and a track on Siltbreeze’s Skulls Without Borders 10” from last year (great track). Where the Ronnies get more interesting when they reach towards steel-girder riffs of the old AmRep forges, the Chickens take the low road, throwing on layers of...
Druid Perfume – “Don’t Eat ‘Em They’re Poison” b/w...
Oh, good god. Steamy neo-flapperisms at the start of “Don’t Eat ‘Em They’re Poison” are a surefire sign of bad vibes. The ladies sing a few couplets, and then things REALLY get bad, with a drunken, lurching frontman barking nonsense about wanting to eat mistletoe berries, then answering himself with the reminder not to do it. Personally I think he should go all the way, to spare us from the...
Dum Dum Girls/Male Bonding – split 7” (Sub Pop)
Non-LP tracks from both of these recent Sub Pop signings. DD Dee Dee ddooeess a jjaamm called “Pay for Me” which struts along with a strong hook and powerful chorus, but a hollow sound that works on the LP, though not here. Singles need to be more exciting and punchier, and this one isn’t quite there. Male Bonding are some UK kids trying hard to be dudes/Wavves surfers, and their “Before It’s...
The Fuckin’ Flyin’ A-Heads – “Swiss Cheese Back”...
From the other side of punk/KBD reissues comes this H-bomb 1980, a bunch of guys in Hawaii for one reason or another (Army, I’m guessing) who conjure up a pre-Butthole Surfers inversion of punk rock and psychedelic blues sesh. Fuzz leads bump against bass feedback and acid brown rumble. Drums pound away somewhere in the distance. Vocalist Eric “Sep” Ishii rants about holes in his back and...
Gardens – Upside/Downside 7” (Just for the Hell of...
Two longish, smartass rock strutters from a Detroit band that has taken it upon themselves to plan out the next direction of where a handful of chords, shitty amp & guitar, sunglasses and a tight t-shirt will get you. Gardens takes it to a backbreaking, up-front rhythm guitar approach, bouncing through a few post-punk influenced chords with machine-tightened strum and tool & die bass....
Happy Birthday – “Shampoo” b/w “Alien” 7” (Sub...
It’s the King Tuff guy, tamping down the Ramones worship of that project and pointing things in a friendlier, more accessible pop direction. Harp-like guitar strumming and a busy, playful rhythm help to carry “Alien” over into somewhat of a crossover, but it’s “Shampoo” that breaks forth with a shameless rhythm guitar pigeon-neck, bursts and waves of taffy synthesizers, cute falsetto vocals, and...
Hype Williams – Han Dynasty I 7” EP (Destijl)
This sounds like the result of two guys reading David Keenan’s hypnagogic pop writing, realizing they already had a bunch of musical instruments on hand, then bought like an ounce of weed and threw it into the trash barrel at their squat, lit it on fire, closed all the windows, and suffocated in the sweetest way they could imagine. The music made before these gents went down recalls the sort of...
Kim Phuc – “Weird Skies” b/w “Suicide Circle” 7”...
Third or maybe fourth single for this killer Pittsburgh outfit, comfortably in the top ten American punk bands of the present day. Live, they’re devastating – participating across three generations of a local scene, they play strong, harrowing downers from the perspective of the paranoid and the rudderless. There’s compassion and judgment in these portrayals, courtesy of newly-svelte singer Rob...
The Marked Men – “On” b/w “The Other Side” 7”...
Two new songs from a mostly-dormant Marked Men, the band’s principles now living across the world from one another. This single was pressed up for their Chaos in Tejas appearance but it’s otherwise available, at least at this moment, and definitely should be sought out. The band doesn’t have too many slower ones, which makes “On,” its teenline anarchy ache and maxed-out hooks per square inch, a...
Mens Interest – More War 7” EP (Home Invasion)
Hideous monster of a hardcore/’90s noise rock/’85 Flag outfit, a project band staffed with Massachusetts HC participants from Mind Eraser and Waste Management, and Cold Sweat/Repercussions singer Shaun Dean. Six substantial no-name songs, compressed into one 7” single (this shoulda been a double, or maybe a 12”), project a burly, menacing demeanor, thrown over the top by Dean’s screeching,...
Void Vision – “In 20 Years” b/w “Black and White”...
First release from a new label, run by Cult of Youth’s Sean Ragon out of his Greenpoint storefront. The Philly/NYC synth duo Void Vision certainly doesn’t earn the “minimal” prefix here; most computer-driven pop of this vintage is skeletal by nature, and Void Vision are certainly headed in that path, but the sequencing on both “In 20 Years” and “Black and White” races along to the beat, layering...
Arctic Flowers – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
With uninspired, apathetic plagiarism and incorrectly-assumed entitlement befouling the spectrum of new releases/new bands, I sincerely hope that as many people as possible get to hear the debut, self-released Arctic Flowers 7”, and I hope those people appreciate the care, songwriting attention, production quality, and playing that went into this record. A.F. features Stan Wright (Signal Lost,...
Bill Bondsmen – “Disaster Prone” b/w “36th” 7”...
Why aren’t we in a Detroit hardcore renaissance, anyway? If there was ever a region that could evoke some hard feeling, Detroit is it. Bill Bondsmen, like their hometown, have been wallowing in misery for over a decade, largely out of the public’s eye. Their fifth record is a dark and gnarly single which marks a continued growth in the fast/loud hardcore path. Later Die Kreuzen is used as a...
Disfear – Misanthropic Generation LP (La Familia)
Originally released in 2003, Misanthropic Generation is Disfear’s fourth full-length release … on paper. This album is the line of demarcation between Swedish D-beat band and Swedish D-beat band fronted by Tomas Lindberg with 50% of the guitar duties going to Uffe Cederlund of The Entombed. These two additions hijacked a perfectly decent band and immediately transformed it into a vehicle for a...
The Fitt – When the Fitt Hit the Shan LP...
Possibly posthumous rager (they’re missing a drummer that can play like the guy on this record) from a Pittsburgh youth rock trio, steeped in grunge and the indifference that leads to chaotic-good chopbusting noise. Lots of chunky palm-mute guitar, lots of explosive drumming, lots of locking in on simple themes, and really, that is all this sort of music needs to qualify as a success. They get a...
Innumerable Forms – Dark Worship 7” EP (Hell...
So I throw this thing on the portable Ion (left or right of the primary laptop – whichever side isn’t the glorified abacus/previous laptop before it took a hit of lightning up through the power cord and became a “research” computer) and imagine my surprise when I soon reach the conclusion that this is among the heaviest bands I’ve ever heard. I’m decently versed in heavy, but more importantly,...
Mr. Russia – “Boys Keep Swinging” 7” (Lens)
Apparently this band thinks so little of their original songs that they had to record and press upon vinyl TWO slightly different covers of ONE Bowie song. In summary, that’s the same cover, twice, on both sides. Money to burn, I guess. (http://www.myspace.com/lensrecords) (Andy Tefft)
Nice Face – Immer Etwas LP (Sacred Bones)
So I’m about four years behind on turning in this review but I’m still dancing around in the Internetherworld doing a little of the dead art known as “research” when I come across the Sacred Bones site. Imagine how proud I was to find, among the promotional text written to peddle this full-length album, this passage: “locks Blank Dogs in the pound, erases ‘Psychedelic’ from Psychedelic...
Procedure Club – Slut Fossil 7” EP (Sixteen...
Bedroom blood from the streets of New Haven, this is the debut release from a modest xx/xy recording partnership who are also stoked that the JAMC/Black Tambourine sound is back again to blow the childrens’ minds. Who cares if the drum machine snare sounds like someone punching a plastic bag? Honestly I like it. I must still be crazy for that lo-fi whir, and it is indeed blown-out yet elusively...
The Sediment Club – s/t 7” EP (Softspot Music)
Jarring, beer league art-punk, coming off like My First Pere Ubu Record. Their solid, keyboard-featurin’ rhythm section churns out the kind of jerky sarcastic disco/freak beats this type of band usually decides on. They hold it down but vocals are a weak point throughout, sounding like a snotty 13-yr old James White spewing deep thoughts, occasionally counterpointed by some other bloke for what...
Zwischenfall – Heute 12” EP / Second Decay – La...
In the time of Imperial China, from the Five Dynasties and just beyond, landscapes were considered a form of painting held in such high regard that they supplanted the format and medium altogether. Masters reproduced fields and looming mountains in heavy calligraphic style for three hundred years. Flash forward a half-century, and Mao Tse Cold Cave unleashes an inverse Cultural Revolution,...
Broke Beads – Wave High LP (Bombay Cove)
Instrumental rock from Austin, playing it safe. Moody songs that tend to run long, with computer assisted ass-shaking to keep the kids from falling asleep. Not remarkable in any sense, that whole Miracle Whip on white bread sound done again. Why waste words, when the man-baby on the front tells you all you’ll ever need to know about not listening to this record, ever? No bueno. Green vinyl....
The Equalities – On the Street LP (Loud Punk)
Japanese re-enactment of early ‘80s streetpunk. Better than the Germ Attak record, at least, because it’s shorter. Live pic seats three Japanese punkers up front, leathers painted with the Adicts and Abrasive Wheels, so you know where you stand (unless you’ve never heard of those bands, in which case, this may not be for you). Most people know where they stand with this sort of thing: against...
Famines – “Syllables” b/w “Got Lies If You Want...
Edmonton duo Famines speedbags two flat-out frantic Morse Code messages to your forehead. Guitar and drums rush forward at a breakneck pace, knocking everyone out of the way. They keep pushing forth on “Syllables” but the flip take some breaks for artsy recompense and solid, open-sky interplay at the bridge. Recorded with the fuzz on, for sure. Annoying how these Mammoth Cave singles just cut...
Germ Attak – Cruxshadow LP (Loud Punk)
Punk for all the 18-year-olds with liberty spikes and acne shitting up MySpace, Germ Attak has received a bit of notoriety at this point, likely for playing simple, fast, traditional street/scumpunk. It’s loud, everything smashed up to the front of the mix. Makes sense, up to a point, where you want to hear something a little less lockstep conformed with the uniforms. These punks likely aren’t...
The Modey Lemon – “Wandering Eye” b/w “Cheetahs...
First material in quite a while from this Pittsburgh garage-psych outfit. The showiness of this band in the Jack White-meets-Cramps/torch your face off phase of its early career gave way to some lucid, slightly Paisley Underground-esque wander by the time of their second or third LP. This new single finds the group in a leaner, tougher mode, with “Wandering Eye” cribbing some of ZZ Top’s swagger...
Pierre & Bastien – “No Sex” b/w “Crise Boursière”...
Charged-up, chainlink electrified punk from two French gentlemen – guitar, drum machine, shouted vocals, maybe a little synth thickening things up in the very back. Zey play zese guitars like jockhammas but the songs and overall approach isn’t too far off from Metal Urbain or something like “Nag Nag Nag.” It’s a fine-tuning, of course; anyone doing this sort of thing had better establish...
Psychobuildings – “Birds Of Prey” b/w “Paradise”...
Believe it or not, Psychobuildings are a synth-pop band out of NYC, featuring a member of another NYC synth-pop band, Silk Flowers. No shortage of pixels has been spilled on the New Wave of Indie Rock New Wave and here is another group that could fuel wonderment or consternation regarding this found-again sound and its apparent return to popularity. Indeed they have been compared to Talking...
