October 2011
23 posts
Cruddy – Negative World LP (12XU)
Austin punk trio trades up scrappy punk noise for a fuller, nearly bulletproof production on their debut LP. Negative World finds Cruddy (current/ex Total Abuse, Best Fwends, others) extending their reach out of the garage and into – well, into another part of the house, as the Young’s Hans Zimmerman ably captures a band making reaches for higher branches in the punk tree, out of the squats and...
Cured Pink/Penguins – split 7” (Vacant Valley)
RECOMMENDED
The Australian goodwill committee(s) keep turnin’ and burnin’, mostly in a garage/punk sorta way, but occasionally in darker recesses, much like what’s found here, with two heretofore unseen acts presenting two unnamed offerings. The cover art sets up some intense expectations – one side depicts a redhaired man about to flog an electric guitar with a length of rusty chain, while the...
Dead Farmers – “Out the Door” b/w “Never Enough”...
More rock from Australia, who have seriously kicked into gear with regards to making good music and getting it out around the world. It’s a veritable rock & roll palace down there, minus the bush and the ecological collapse.Or maybe for those reasons. Dead Farmers seems to have more in common with brawny rock bands from down under circa the ‘80s, crossing up two common strains of native rock...
Malcolm Mooney and the Tenth Planet – InCANtations...
RECOMMENDED
Malcolm Mooney is my preferred Can vocalist. He doesn’t have the expansive array of ideas that Damo Suzuki did on those ‘70s records (and hell, probably now, benefit of the doubt), but he does have the timing that put the formative days of the band into a proper focus. He sounds so cool on those records, and he performs on most of my favorite Can songs, leavening the band’s bearded...
Wishgift – Folk Twain one-sided 12” EP (Sophomore...
Rubbery noise rock from a Chicago tool & die shop that is in need of some recalibration. The cloest these spaznosticators get to a specific sound is Rye Coalition, but in a trio, and with the rhythm section going for their best Watt/Hurley manjam, the result will make you want to not make eye contact with any one of these guys for the rest of their lives. Mars Williams comes in and blows...
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – YT//ST LP (Psychic...
Medium-sized Canadian ensemble goes for the big Eastern spectacle, the sort of progressive noise pop shenanigans you might find lurking about an anime forum somewhere. The spine of the record itself brands YT//ST as “NOH WAVE OPERA FROM THE BEAST ASIAN DIASPORE,” and OK, they can have that. Like any project with so much ambition and so little request for the outcome of ambition’s efforts, this...
Catching Up with Steve M.
Zombi – Escape Velocity LP (Relapse)
RECOMMENDED
Steve Moore – “Zero Point Field” b/w “Frigia” 12” (L.I.E.S.)
RECOMMENDED
Steve Moore – Primitive Neural Pathways LP (Static Caravan)
Gianni Rossi – Gutterballs OST LP (Permanent Vacation)
Gianni Rossi – Star Vehicle OST LP (Permanent Vacation)
Been picking up quite a few new releases involving Steve Moore, whose work has received...
Void review from Dusted
Sessions 81-83 (Dischord)
obviously RECOMMENDED
Acid Birds – Acid Birds III LP (Blackest Rainbow)
RECOMMENDED
Until now, it’s been possible to pigeonhole what Acid Birds do as free jazz meets drone. That’s the lineage, anyway; Charles Waters (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet) and Andrew Barker (drums, percussion, cello) have explored the former element from every possible direction in the Gold Sparkle Band, while Jaime Fennelly has proved to be no slouch at moving masses of wall-to-wall...
ChuCha Santamaria y Usted – s/t LP (Young Cubs)
Bilingual synth/club pop that really works, when it works. Vocalist Sofia Cordova and producer Matthew Kirkland work out of Oakland, CA, parsing out a varied mix of Latin freestyle and gamey electronic production, akin to the earliest M.I.A. efforts, but with more nuanced songwriting. A couple tracks really stand out, either due to their sultriness or the inventiveness of the melodies...
Landlord – Beneath the Wheel LP (Recess)
Been a while since such a slab passed this way – completely heartfelt, punk-influenced rock with zero pretense, lots of melody, and blood-stained shirtsleeves from where the band members’ hearts were resting while they played. Landlord hails from Bloomington, Indiana and plays on the pop-punk (and possibly bike punk) circuit, but they’re one of a handful of bands that reaches a cut or two above...
Night Birds – The Other Side of Darkness LP (Grave...
RECOMMENDED
Second LP of surf-stung, dour pop punk from this New Jersey combo, featuring shredmaster Mike Hunchback on guitar. I heard an early 7” by these guys and was not quite wowed, but a funny thing happened this year at Chaos in Tejas when my pal Jess said it would be a good idea if I attended the pop punk showcase on Sunday at the Mohawk. I wasn’t really expecting to like anything there...
Starfuckers – Metallic Diseases (Holy...
Holy Mountain digs this turn-of-the-‘90s Italian grebo nug out from under the sofa. Prior to Starfuckers’ avant-garde reawakening, they were churning out dingy, grungy rock sleaze like this, heavily indebted to American cuss words, as well as to Iggy and proto-punk/scuzzlords like him. Vague Drunks with Guns quality afoot here, mainly in how disassociated things can get within the context of...
Brendan Benson/Ben Blackwell – “Last Night in...
Raconteur (and estimable solo artist) Brendan Benson sings a last call downer about leaving Detroit. He sings that he’s “not sorry/that tonight will be my last” and I kinda believe him. Moving out of a town, even in song, can take a lot of emotions, and not all of them have to be positive or whimsical. I’ll bet he had a good reason to kick this one along. Cass guy and man-at-hand Dirtbombs...
Christina Carter – “Obelisk” b/w “Tholos” 7”...
Emerald Cocoon, which is run by Helga Fassonaki and Andrew Scott of Metal Rouge, has undertaken a series of singles that mull over the nexus of solitude and communion that occurs when someone spins a record with music made by one other person. The first volume of Alone/Together goes to Christina Carter, whose fearless undertaking of the most intimate expressions on her own, with Charalambides,...
Drainolith – “You Paid For It” b/w “Deepwater, PA”...
Drainolith (Alex Moskos of the band AIDS Wolf, for whom I have little worth saying) seems to be locked in on ‘80s xpr tape trade sounds, which can be fun, especially when found at random out of a big box of 7”s I’m going to get reviewed right away, yessir. On “You Paid For It,” guitar, synth, tuned drums and maybe a bass show up and start playing repetitive patterns with no rhythm, making for an...
The George-Edwards Group – Archives LP (Galactic...
When you take away the allure of rarity, a lot of collector-psych turns out to be pretty thin gruel, The George-Edwards Group’s 38:38 was an exception; it was tuneful, tweaked, and totally out of step with both its originating milieu (‘70s Detroit) and any other time/location you can name. The fact that it was originally pressed privately in a run of 100 might have added mystique, but it didn’t...
Michael Hurley – Fatboy Spring LP (Secret...
Usually itinerant, singer-guitarist Michael Hurley seems to have found a home on Mississippi Records as he closes in on his 70th birthday. Fatboy Spring is his fourth platter that the label/shop, which sips the same Portland water as does Doc Snock, has put out in recent years, and the second of previously unreleased stuff. For good measure, it’s jointly issued by Secret Seven, another label...
Insect Factory/RST – split 7” (Insect Fields)
Insect Factory hails from the DC area and RST from New Zealand, and the main things they have in common besides being one-man bands is a penchant for making lon- form music utterly unsuited to the 7” format. Jeff Barsky is Insect Factory, and the very thought of that name conjures up music that teems with active detail. But it won’t bite you; rather, it’s like brightly dyed water in a hot tub,...
Laurice – Best of Laurice, Vol. 1 LP (Mighty Mouth...
Do you know who Laurice is? If your answer is yes, are you Canadian? This singularly named pop star jumped all across the map in search of commercial success; the contents of this collection represent the years where he was trying to break through as a leather daddy. Almost Ready/Last Laugh/now Mighty Mouth label guy Harry Howes assembles this lost corner of Laurice’s career, studded with openly...
Ashley Paul – “Hidden Face” b/w “Leave Mine” 7”...
Ashley Paul is not the first person to seek reconciliation between the soundworld of free improv and the overt expressiveness of the song; Gastr Del Sol and The Magic I.D. are two particularly successful examples that come to mind. By comparison, Ms. Paul’s efforts rate just a notch above just OK. There’s a lot to like about her slithery, just out of reach guitar and sax playing, but that not...
Mike Weis – Loop Current/Raft LP (Barge...
Too often when songwriters write about their kids, quality control takes flight and sentimentality rules the roost. But a more complex set of forces comes into play when a drummer makes music in response to a new nipper. Sure, they can look ahead to bonding over the beating of kitchenware, but before that day comes are months when you have to be around, but you also have to be quiet. How many...
Yek Koo – “Oh Woman” b/w “Flame Creation” 7”...
The third volume of Emerald Cocoon’s Alone/Together series is an in-house affair. Helga Fassonaki, who handles the untutored steel guitar and untethered vocalizing in Metal Rouge, offers a solo turn that never feels too solitary. With its layers of fx-laden guitar and urgent/eerie singing, “Oh Woman” sounds like it was made at the tail end of a serious Dome binge. That’s no bad thing. “Flame...
