May 2011
74 posts
Bad Banana – Cry About It 7” EP (Puzzle Pieces)
Four wonderful pop songs here by an Alabama-via-Brooklyn group with a lot to offer in just being who they are, and being into what they do, on this record. Passionate bursts of tuneful, momentous bashing going on here, with insistent drums, satisfying riffs, and strong vocals. All four songs bristle with accomplishment, and make me look forward to what they’ve got going on next. What can I say,...
Bad Drumlin Grass – “All Night Long” b/w “All...
I’m sure the guys in Bad Drumlin Grass would love that their Sun City Girls fandom has been recognized by a kindred soul, but herein lies the tradeoff: this weird, weird musical act is better served on previous releases, but this 7” is being given away for free from the label presumably run by the band, so while this isn’t anyone’s best introduction to Bad Drumlin Grass, but it’s also the lowest...
Blouse – “Shadow” b/w “Nights & Days” 7” (Sub Pop)
First of the second wave of the wave wave wave wave wavo waverz? Sure. Curious as to why Portland duo (a producer plays a third role) with a real estate profile in its bio, though. Is this single what you can do with a 6,000 square foot warehouse space, then? It’s cool, serviceable chillshoetrianglewavegaze, pushing down all the keys on the keyboard in order to evoke totalitarian moods on a...
Holy Balm – “Hand Over Fire” b/w “Strange Water”...
Australian kids run with the general blueprint laid down by homeland duo Fabulous Diamonds, but take things further out on a trippy, dazed, house music-oriented tangent. Unlike Fab D, whose dance inclinations I’ve seen take shape only in the live setting, Holy Balm puts it all out front, proudly brandishing a drum computer and wobbly, dueling synth phrasing beneath vocals which bob across the...
Huckleberry Friends – Vision 7” EP (Pleasence)
Three women from Canada go through the motions of post-punk boredom. Three listless songs of low inspiration and foreign emotions, played with little to no conviction. Tedious and tired, they moan on and on through the most basic fragments of melody into a dead end. Hard to keep things going when the spirit of your music is standing in a corner and doesn’t know why. 200 copies, no export...
Induced Labour – s/t 7” EP (Pleasence)
For those who look forward to moments of agita, here’s some ungainly basement racket from Toronto, featuring a woman who delivers a ball-curdling crusty-screamo yell which tails off into a Rebby Sharp cackle, and the one OK person from Black Cat #13. Diarrhea bass plows through pounding drums and drowned out guitar (and maybe some electronics, but things are so muddily mixed that it’s hard to...
Merchandise – “Schoolyard (Club Mix)” b/w...
I really love this record. Merchandise continues to push for a grandeur in their sound that a lot of bands simply don’t have. Part of me wonders if it’s because I’m listening to guys from Cult Ritual playing something like the Pet Shop Boys, but I don’t care – “Schoolyard” retains the guitars and the Gucci for Unemployed Men vibe of their debut album and infuses it with decadence, through...
Mieze Katze – “Check Please” b/w “A Boy in Every...
DIY/bedroom/basement duo hook-punk-as-genre, notable only because the singer is German and well, the Fatherland is simply not known for this sort of thing. “I have a boy in every town” sings Simone Huesler and yeah, hearing a gal who sings even a little like Nico warbling that is vaguely disconcerting, no matter how hand-made-knit-hat she tries to sound. Two songs that demand you nod your head,...
Pujol – “Angelbaby” b/w “Over-the-Counter Culture...
More garage-borne nonsense – “Angelbaby” is “funky” and kicks the tires of an unfortunate Scott Bomar-meets-Black Keys sorta vehicle that I wouldn’t necessarily consider roadworthy. Flipside is an instrumental, formerly only available on iTunes. Who cares. Boring almost next-big-thing music from something that is far from next or big, and may not even be a thing. Three “colorways” of vinyl for...
The Pupils – s/t LP (Les Disques Steak)
French punk that’s dialed into ’76 Australia. The French were among the first to appreciate the Saints, right? Makes sense, especially here, with one of the most stripped down and direct records to come this way from over there in as long as I can remember. Great guitar tone, great presence of vocals, good hustle and aggression. The Pupils play less tribute than they do continuum, lean and angry...
Red Mass – “Drink My Blood” b/w “Freak Show” 7”...
Red Mass will not become a better band until they learn how to play against all the intentional weirdness in their music. “Drink My Blood” follows a corrective to this notion, and turns out to be their best song to date, a place where jittery guitar and punk-into-wavo notions work in favor of the goofy vocals and weird lyrics. They kinda sound like a Devo-esque band that would play on “The Young...
Rubble – The Farewell Drugs LP (Latino Buggerveil)
Psychedelic supersesh with a lot of Texan royalty – King Coffey, Bobby Baker (ST-37), Shawn David McMillen, Ralph White, Craig Stewart, and Matt Turner (Quttinirpaaq) make for a strong team where this sort of thing is concerned, that being one with an averse repulsion for the looming presence of fake psych and bands that are about as trippy as Radiohead. King’s signature caveman drumming styles...
Slugfuckers – Three Feet Behind Glass/Instant...
This is a band that had evaded me the time where their brand of destructive, sneering anti-development thpud might have been more my speed. The first few listens put me off, but I demanded the time and space to sit down with this one (probably because I paid a lot for it) and it’s starting to grow on me, but not all the way. A legend from Australia, this 12” compiles the first two Slugfuckers...
Timmy’s Organism – “Scum Revolution” b/w “When the...
Timmy Vulgar tells you what you can do with your money on “Scum Rev” and goes acoustic on the flipside, losing his mind in the process. “When the Bottles Break” is the closest I’ve ever come to sympathizing with this member of Human Eye and Clone Defects, communing around Virgin Insanity territory in a cold and dirty house in the dead of winter. Two very different sides. Gimme more of the bent...
Tropics – “Pale Trash” b/w “Earmarked” 7”...
The crossover between music and the dramatic arts for denizens of Canada continues to bewilder me. In America, guys in garage bands sleep in practice spaces, get hit in the face at parties, and if they’re lucky they get a $500 check from Scion now and again. The luckiest of them all get to be the Black Keys, and those who are just less lucky enough get to be in the Black Lips. In Canada, the...
Trust – “Candy Walls” b/w “Trinity” 7” (Sacred...
Mopey yet somewhat memorable dark duo sounds within! Trust is a Canadian project that chases Leonard Cohen vibes on a fixed income, finding a boon from extruding easily-recognizable, catchy melodies out of atmospheres of dread, melodies that daintily lift the remainder of the track home by its fingertips. “Candy Walls” is a good example of that in action, and possibly a great song. “Trinity” …...
Wax Idols – “All Too Human” b/w “Gooey Gooey...
Like a tougher Vivian Girls, SF’s Wax Idols hold close to a sound you probably recognize and maybe even enjoy. Reverbed out ‘60s style pop is transfused with a hostility that belies the sweet melodies here with an intriguing instability that peeks in on the fine, if overlong “All Too Human,” then takes over on the smeared ball of confusion present at the core of “Gooey Gooey.” It’s about time...
The Whines – “Shootinhead” b/w “Straybird” 7” (Mt....
What was so great about the Whines’ earlier records – a completely transparent window into the souls of those who made the music, which sounded ragged, worn, and triumphantly broken down – has hardened into something a lot more traditional and a bit less exciting here. Neither “Shootinhead” nor “Straybird” seem to know what to do with their inherent, rainy-day mope, and no amount of indifference...
Young Guv & the Scuzz – “Bedroom Eyes” b/w...
Ben Cook (Fucked Up, No Warning) continues his side project biz as the power popper Young Governor, and your tolerance of his music is going to hinge directly on your ability to enjoy every variation of starry-eyed, heartbroken/bankbroken rock crooner that the ‘70s and early ‘80s had to offer. “Bedroom Eyes” doesn’t even give you that, trading out a perfectly fine two-minute rager for a...
Where your tape submissions go to die.
No more tapes in Still Single, ever. If and when I ever decide to review tapes again, they will be relegated to Load Butthole. Enjoy it, because I won’t.
— Doug Mosurock
Comet Gain – I Never Happened 7” EP (What’s Your...
Comet Gain appeared in 1992, as American indie rock was becoming the most exciting non-hip-hop music is the Western world. (Stand aside, Riverdance fans). Ever since, this English act has been making mega-smart indie cutiepunk as well or better than anyone on this side of the pond – they are the Mekons without the country fetishism and with a background in riot boi Nineties-isms; C-86, Sarah...
Manipulation – 2 7” EP (Sorry State)
Found this one in the back of the box, long after I had intended to write a review. It’s never too late, though. Brawny Chicago hardcore (ex-Pedestrians, Civic Progress and Cardiac Arrest members) is on offer here, five songs of continuous, snarling, crustified rage, with accomplished musicianship that approximates the whole “automobile out of control” sound to a satisfying end. If they’re still...
Screen Vinyl Image – “Siberian Eclipse” b/w “New...
Screen Vinyl Image is a DC-area duo that’d have you believe the nascent shoegaze/ethereal bug that bit so many in that town back in the ‘90s is still raising the skin. Surely this single could have been conceived some 15+ years ago, a Bedazzled logo adorning the back of the sleeve, such is the tenor of their maudlin, somewhat discontented sound. It’s refreshing to hear a band more rooted in that...
Scrotum Poles – Revelation 7” EP (Dulc-i-tone)
Last year, when Dulc-i-tone released Auchmithie Forever, a collection of tape demos from Scottish DIY punk/pop/twee upstarts the Scrotum Poles, more than a few people were confused. After all, it takes two hundo in this day and age to own the band’s lone vinyl release (now reissued here), and instead of the almost-perfect single, we were treated to 20 odd blasts of even rougher sketches,...
Soft Shoulder – People Problems 7” (Gilgongo...
The only thing Phoenix, Ariz. is good for is drying your wet towels in under five minutes post-shower, bath or swimming pool, certain structures of golf course, and as the ancestral home of the Sun City Girls. Other than that … well, it’s a goddamn nightmare. And I lived in Dallas for two years, so I know. These wonderful mopes hail from Tempe, which I pray to the baby Jesus is better than...
Creepoid – Horse Heaven LP (Ian)
Any more bands mining the “fake psych/sensitive singer-songwriter” territory and we’re going to have to hold yearly telethons to raise money against their progress. I vote that this event takes place on Presidents’ Day Weekend and at some point we do some “celebrity haircuts” where Prince Rama gets strapped to chairs and have their heads shaved into proper businessman/lady coifs. Creepoid can...
Dog Leather – Greezy Man and Stinky Man Meets...
Meeting of the minds: DJ Dog Dick and the Sewn Leather guy get together to make “demented” hip-hop beats, blunted out and caked with noise and feedback. Horror-core at its most fetal and farty, a sweaty stew of analog synths, stoopid beats, and stupid lyrics (“goblin massacres” and the like). Must be cool to not care. Silkscreened sleeve, low grade. (http://ehserecords.com) (Doug Mosurock)
Estrogen Highs – Cycles 12” EP (Safety Meeting)
Hot on the heels of a fine LP comes six newer ones from Estrogen Highs, a garage-turned-quality pop band that continues to push a little further away from their noisy roots. Seriously heartfelt talent here from some folks who made sure to listen to and trust themselves – the sentiments that bubble up on an otherwise dry, contemplative song like “I Remember Everything” call to mind the wonder of...
Gang Gang Dance – “Glass Jar” b/w “MindKilla” 12”...
4AD continues to step to the cerebral class of modern bands, the ones that have spent a good long time doing their thing on a smaller scale until the gold-plated door is opened for them. This is understandable, even good; it’s nice that bands like Deerhunter, Ariel Pink and I guess tUnE-yArDs (cough), who’ve proven themselves as dynamic and wonderful performers of some reknown, who have all...
Hands and Knees – Wholesome LP (self-released)
Boston-area outfit of talented performers looking to unify a bunch of sounds for the purposes of creating their own. When you do this sort of thing, you really need to think about your presentation, and covering up your seams. Hands and Knees don’t do too well in this regard, working from a smeary palette of rootsy country/Americana, alt-rock, rockabilly and that sort of Arcade Fire-esque...
Simon Henneman – Black Magic & Moustache LP...
Soundtrack-ish noir from Seattle musician Henneman, last heard on the Diminished Men LP that Abduction released. Despite the treatments presented here, which move things closer to the familiar signposts of jazzy music meant to coexist with visuals, Henneman takes a very Zen-like approach to the sax playing that appears throughout, at times moving into the late Bill Dixon’s domain of...
Ignatz – Selected Songs from Cassettes 2005-2009...
Drone-like, rule-breaking songs with an improvised element, from a known quantity in the tape and CD-R field. Belgian musician Ignatz strums away in a small room with lots of loose noodling all over the place, holding onto the folk/loner traditions trapped inside with his teeth, preventing them from merging with its chaotic shell and spoiling in open air. Discomforting and weird, but...
Rake Kash – Herr Tambourine Mann one-sided 12” EP...
Singer-songwriter Lonnie Eugene Methe (we covered a 7” some time back) returns with a different project, very much in line with the Simon Henneman LP reviewed here, only much more rough-hewn and cobbled together. That’s not necessarily bad, and I suppose I’d rather take a bunch of musicians trying to make music for movies instead of commercials, which seems to be a strong narrative theme right...
Lougow – Dull Thicket LP (Ozark Level Full View)
… then we come around to the other side of the coin, the bands that probably won’t make it to the 4AD promised land, not due to their lack of ambition or ideas, but in their inability to form them into something the world might want. No, this is that sort of strummy, trainhopper brand of folk autism, with the annoying vocals and the Modest Mouse-like lisp, bashing away at acoustic guitars and...
Medicine and Duty – Sunken Carnival LP (Foolproof...
British trio of drums, synths, and samples that provides a stern and vivid counterpoint to the G-funk/stoner electro music I was exposed to earlier. The drummer lays down an engaging, sometimes treated, sometimes syncopated beat, while the synth players jump all around the beat with staccato fuzz bursts, ring mod abuse, sharp and forceful execution, and the sort of breathless, anxious vibe that...
Derek Monypeny – Don’t Bring Me Down, Bruce LP...
Meditations for oud, an instrument tuned to Eastern sounds, to the point where it sounds easier and more fun to just go with it rather than push it into a Western songwriting context. Derek Monypeny, who named a previous project Derek Monypeny Parties Hard, is in more of a contemplative mode here, with some spare, folk-inspired compositions on the acoustic side of this LP. These tracks are fine,...
The Part Five – Tightener LP (Cardboard Sangria)
Part of me thinks that by now, there are probably enough people who’ve taken in and enjoyed the screenprinting efforts of Midwestern artisans, particularly in their relation for designing posters/setting the aesthetic level for indie rock, that they have an idea of what their record/gig flyers should look like first, and a sound second. The Part Five, from Chicago itself, has this written all...
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – “Must Be...
Two new ones from the Superwolf, doing tit-for-tat on music and lyrics. “Must Be Blind” opens in as much of an “aw shucks” country mode as Palace could ever extend to, but develops into something simple and elegant, framing the doubts our narrator croons about with compassion and grace. “Life in Muscle” kinda blows it away on all fronts, though, Sweeney’s songwriting chops focused into a...
Violent Students – Party Addiction LP (Richie)
Churning nausea from the basements of Philly. People got pretty stoked on the improv/Drunks with Guns activity that came out of earlier releases, but this one takes it a bit further and murkier than it had been. Lea Cho from Blues Control sits in for Max Milgram, joining Father John Sharkey III and funnyman Richard Charles in an attempt to lower property values across an entire part of town. The...
Various Artists – Proximity One (Narrative of a...
DaM-Funk, TOKiMONSTA, Daedalus, Teebs and a host of other producer types pay tribute to Los Angeles with a collection of tracks that sound like Adult Swim bumper music. That’s just how it go, I guess. If you love the sound of aquarium splashing, finger snaps and large, formless bass with vocal samples distended behind it, have I got a record for you. (http://proximalrecords.com) (Doug Mosurock)
PROMO: Upcoming events
Saturday May 7th: Doug Mosurock and Mr. Vacation do their monthly DJ night COCKFIGHT at the Commodore in Williamsburg Brooklyn (366 Metropolitan Ave. @ Havemeyer). 11p-4a. It’s a fuckin’ hoot and a half.
Saturday May 14th: DJs Bunnicula and Doug Mosurock return … BATS IN THE BELL HOUSE, at the Bell House (149 7th St., Gowanus Brooklyn). 9pm til very late. Goth, industrial,...
Annabel – Here We Are Tomorrow 7” EP (Tiny...
Here we have a beautifully packaged 7” EP from this Kent, OH band. The 7” cover is beautiful photographs of beach scenes, and the outer bag is silkscreened with the band, song title, and label info. Looks great. Annabel’s press sheet calls them an indie pop band, but what they sound like is mid-‘90s Midwestern emo that could have been released on the Polyvinyl label. It’s very similar in...
B-Lines – s/t 12” EP (Nominal/Deranged)
Spazzy, suburban-sounding punk from the Vancouver foundries, a bright and silly offering that places somewhere in the Dickies/Descendents/Didjits lineage, maybe down the line alongside Action Patrol, or Popular Shapes. You know, bands of the persuasion that would have the jumpsuited/monkeysuited-hulk-on-vocals with speedy, aggressive punk musicians behind him behind him. They don’t let up across...
Brosby Kills and Kash – Lonely is the Night 7” EP...
This single, or more specifically this band name, would be great bait to place in one of those beartraps meant for angry record reviewers. But the jokey ironic name turns out be a set-up itself, as the music tries to astrally project you into the “If I Could Only Remember My Name” sunset with earnest hippie folk strumming and LARPing. Pretty sure this is out of St. Louis so not sure where...
Evan Caminiti – When California Falls Into the Sea...
Well, that would be one way to solve a fiscal crisis. But since the California is still only underwater in a monetary sense, you can say whatever you want about the matter, and Evan Caminiti says … nothing. He doesn’t even do any of the wordless intonations that he offers up with Barn Owl. He does, however, work with a newfound spirit of austerity that suits the subject at hand; his last album...
Captain, We’re Sinking – With Joe Riley 7” EP...
Philly/Long Island band sounds just as emoriffic as their name. Get Up Kids “Holiday,” Lifetime, perhaps a little of the Dillinger Four good bro-times moods are present, but mostly this is pretty earnest pop punk with traces of hardcore muscle. Perhaps they’ve heard this before. They play fast on all three songs here, with dual and occasionally screaming vocals and a good drummer, which gives it...
Cosmonauts – s/t LP (Permanent)
Reissued from a Burger Records cassette release, the Cosmonauts are the kind of band that sorta gets it, sorta doesn’t, and leaves it to you to decide. There are some very atonal, wild vocals somewhere in Cheater Slicks territory, there’s skiffle drums on a few tracks, there’s logy and lazy psych along the lines of what the Brian Jonestown Massacre pumps out, though without a lot of the class or...
The Dirtbombs – Party Store 3xLP (In the Red)
By now, anyone reading this has formed an opinion about this release. Obviously, that does not mean that said opinion was formed after hearing all six sides of The Dirtbombs’ tribute to Detroit techno. Considering the garage-rock/punk is the second-most homophobic demographic behind hardcore rap, and is therefore responsible for the term “gay” blowing up to simply mean “sucks”, I’d bet a little...
Foot Village – Lovers with Iraqis 7” EP (How to...
100% “difficult” with 0% purpose. Comes with temporary tattoos. When a room-clearer would also work on the writer giving it that very distinction, then someone needs to report to human resources before clocking in tomorrow morning (but after finding a co-band/worker to let them in the building because they’ve already deactivated the offending party’ s security badge). Perfect example of when...
Gibson Bros. – Build a Raft 2xLP (Columbus...
Missing-link early recordings from their pre-Homestead period. This is pretty wild – side A is early studio recordings, reaching back into country and folk traditions moreso than their orientation towards early rock ‘n’ roll; these bridge the gap handily. Side B is a collection of live tracks, including some from what would be a tremendous challenge for any band: to play in front of children....
