March 2012
42 posts
The Marble Vanity – “You Can’t Step On a Rainbow”...
The Marble Vanity is the summit of two former members of CoCoCoMa and one guy from the Hipshakes, united in their determination to shake off the stiff jacket of punk rock and embrace their parents’ music. With the guitar amps turned way down and groovy harmonies, brass, and a rollicking harpsichord at the top of the mix, the A-side comes on like the 1910 Fruitgum Company trying to be a happy...
February 2012
38 posts
Anne-James Chaton/Andy Moor – Transfer/3: Flying...
The Ex is a participatory democracy, which means that its members exercise self-restraint as well as self-expression. While many of the quartet’s individual skills are well exercised, there are some that gather dust. Guitarist Andy Moor has found plenty of freedom in various assignations outside the band, and he’s never freer than in his collaboration with Frenchman Anne-James Chaton. The latter...
Hotchacha/Summer People – Do It split LP (Exit...
The cover shows a spot-varnished, treated photo of Niagara Falls. You want me to jump? Me?! Can I listen to something else first? Summer People hail from Syracuse, New York, and take the rusty lusty old fence lady voice into some rough terrain, a steampunk approximation of the Jesus Lizard. What is this, Atlanta? Remember that band Prohibition? I guess these folks don’t. And they don’t stick to...
Mind Over Mirrors – Near Your Dwelling 7” (Dirty...
The whole point of inventing the harmonium was to make an organ-like instrument that was portable. But in the fall of 2011 Jaime Fennelly, a member of Peeesseye who records solo as Mind Over Mirrors, turned this virtue on its head by flying across the Atlantic to lay hands on one. These two releases are chiefly products of his sojourn in a repurposed lockmaster’s house in Antwerpen, Belgium,...
Mountain Cult – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
RECOMMENDED
I see a band that advertises a 7” release party at Pianos and have to wonder about them. I used to book there and I know what that shit is about. Too many Dandy Warhols wannabes, too much of the dishonest and alluring ruse of friend rock as it aligns with corporate cock, bands still trying to “make it.” But can something like Mountain Cult’s single actually get there? Can it even...
Nocht the Only Ghouls – s/t LP (Vwyrd Wurd)
RECOMMENDED
Self-styled black metal arrives on the wind, an ominous but very natural groan against ephemerally oppressed living, with only the mosquito-distorted guitar providing any real semblance of BM posturing. It’s an odd but mostly intriguing effort by two guys from eastern Pennsylvania who rely on sounds of nature and anticipated/antiquated (anticiquated?) stirrings of fear from within...
Pete Swanson – “High Time” b/w “Trees” 7” (Emerald...
The fifth entry in Emerald Cocoon’s Alone Together series (named for the transaction between a solitary performer and a solitary listener) purports to be former D. Yellow Swan and current Baron of blown speaker techno Pete Swanson’s love letter to the Xpressway diaspora. “High Time” was Roy Montgomery’s contribution to the first Dadamah single, and “Trees” is the lead-off tune from the last Gate...
Univox – “Tonight” b/w “Rug Stain” 7” (Green...
The one-sheet claims Philadelphia’s Univox creates “progressive power pop”, but that descriptor, along with the stark black-and-white crust/sewage punx cover design, serve only to mislead about what is an altogether different and very cool beast. “Tonight” stomps forth with three spindly chords, impassioned group vocals and a definite Mekons/Elvis Costello vibe that fortunately sticks to the...
White Crime – s/t 7” EP (Bummer Tapes)
The surveys are in: Being a dickhead of the highest order is still both fun and funny. White Crime cements their guilt gleefully in that regard by starting this offering with a sample of some annoying old bat griping about nuisance neighborhood kids driving without licenses. But past that, snot-punk it really ain’t. The murk-cloaked mix implies a scabrous, threatening quality further reinforced...
Woollen Kits – s/t LP (R.I.P. Society) /...
RECOMMENDED
Whatever was missing with regards to legit/genuine undergrad punk/lo-fi response as provided by Woollen Kits’ first single is remedied here. They’re an Australian trio (two guitars and drums when I saw them, though there seems to be a bass on some of the album tracks), cut and decorated to fit in between the rancorous sentiments of non-mersh Midwestern American rocknroll and the...
People of the North – Steep Formations 2xLP...
Here’s where the diehards show themselves and most everyone else taps out. Four sides of cosmic feedback and unsupervised percussion by Kid and Bobby from Oneida, who donned this duo format for a tour where Jane had to step away due to shoulder surgery. I think. Was that it? That was so long ago I can barely recall, and time/life/distance has kept me on the peripheries of the O for some time....
(D)(B)(H)/Seeded Plain & Hal Rammel – split LP...
Two Midwestern outfits get active. (D)(B)(H) side = Euro free improvisation, the type with a saxophone spastically/gingerly blurting while three guys clatter metal and percussive objects in restless fashion. Takes a whole side to resolve and doesn’t quite get there. Seeded Plain team up with Hal Rammel on their side for some even more abstract, noisome improvisation on homemade instruments and...
El Jesus De Magico – Just Deserts LP (Columbus...
RECOMMENDED
So few bands ever make a truly great record that the scrutiny for those that do becomes far greater. Why can’t they do it again? Such was the case for El Jesus De Magico’s “Unclean Ghost” 7” from a few years back, two sides capturing a band that was mastering the moment, the dishwater-brown lo-fi muddle from which raised a Velvets-bred spectre that held all the other facets of that...
Famines – 45 RPM: The Complete Collected Singles...
RECOMMENDED
Five 7”s and a track from Mammoth Cave’s Bloodstains Across Alberta EP make up this satisfying full-length by the Famines, spanning the past few years of operations in Edmonton. As far as guitar/drum duos go, these guys remain near the top of the pile, working from a sharp, abstract corner of rock arcana favorited by bands like Shellac and their acolytes, and turning what some might...
Hammering the Cramps – s/t LP (Wormwood...
RECOMMENDED
A fantastic record with no band to back it up. Hammering the Cramps existed from 2005 through 2007 or thereabouts; members are now doing time in the band Drunk Elk. Perhaps this band/this album was a bit ahead of its time, as the kind of people who are now just discovering New Zealand bands will no doubt flock to this effort, whereas it was still a bit of an antiquity back when this...
Hindershot – It’s Only Blood 7” EP (Hot Congress)
As the Great Culture Conflict of the Early Millenniteens rolls on, one of the resultant manifesto states that Brian Eno is no longer allowed to be a conscious or name-dropped influence. Not that Eno, in any variety, can be heard on this record of one of the worst, most lifeless and useless forms to fall under the meaningless term of “indie” – the wide-screen, ultra-safe sub-NPR non-style is what...
Ichi Ni San Shi – “Here Sometime Today” b/w...
Shameless and useless Gary Numan rip, updated with somewhat contemporary paper-thin children’s keyboard beats on the A-side, and poor-man’s Emeralds by way of late-period Tangerine Dream (or the other way around) on the B-side, makes for a record that can’t even bring its nothingness factor up to date. The world needs more of this like it needs all of those weird groaning sounds in the sky. If...
Innergaze – Shadow Disco 12” EP (100% Silk)
Brooklyn synth/beat duo Innergaze follows up an experimental, dissonant debut with some smoother offerings for their inaugural 100% Silk release. I don’t wanna be too down on this bunch, or 100% Silk/Not Not Fun in general, and this record gives me good reason not to be concerned, though it’s up to listeners to consider these four cosmic, well-considered pieces to be a step forward in their...
Mondo Ray – “Hypnotized” b/w “Nothing” 7”...
Probably rocks pretty hard for people who really need to listen to WAY MORE music. German band with a synth and a desire to steer completely clear of anything even remotely interesting. This is so boring that it doesn’t even warrant the slightest expenditure of wit on my part. Great fodder for enthusiasts of the “rock is dead” mantra. 500 pressed, with the first 100 on green....
Palo Verde – Zero Hour LP (Phratry)
Four long exercises in guitar/drum instrumental riff waggling, lightly improvised in a clean, precise studio environment. Palo Verde is a rock duo that highlights nearly all the faults of the rock duo genre, chief among which being that they sound like half a band. They can play just fine, but with one instrument making music and the other making rhythm, there is precious little else to fill the...
Purity Supreme – Always Already 12” EP (Ash...
Late night crooning amidst a dark carnival backdrop, a collaboration between lyricist and would-be raconteur Leslie Winer and guitarist Christophe Vah Huffel, late of cool-trafficking French band Tanger. Van Huffel has no problem building whatever moods are appropriate for the Joe Frank poetry slam antics of the whispering, leering Winer, be they the unwanted vibes of a mysterious drifter, or a...
Stacian – Pul 7” EP (Moniker)
The focus song on here has a competent hook, but the sonic choice of “minimal synth” or who-gives-a-fuckwave, turns my whole maxim about great hooks on its head. Wait, this isn’t a great hook by any means, and “minimal synth” wasn’t a real historical moment in music by any means, either. It was just DIY new-wave and most of it sucked so bad that the law of obscurity worked correctly for a...
This Is Cinema – “Mädchen” / “Gloom Cookie”...
Open statement to my dearest friends, musical and writer-related entities based in NYC’s most popular neighborhood: I wish for a safe island or other beautiful location designed for your escape and survival because this type of music actually justifies one diabolical Brooklyn-bound blast from HAARP’s weather-gun. (Uh, these guys are from Chicago. –Ed.) There are two distinct forms of Bedford...
TV Buddhas – “Hello to Loneliness” b/w “Just...
I used to like this band. That’s because this band is doing something good on this 7” and the EP released a short time back. But after visiting their site and seeing that they MADE A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THEIR UNSUCESSFUL FIRST U.S. TOUR, AND IT IS BASED ENTIRELY ON SOMETHING WHICH ALL BANDS WORTH THEIR SALT SHOULD HAVE TO DEAL …well, I cannot recommend them with a clear conscious because they are...
Moore/Majeure – Brainstorm split LP (Temporary...
While Zombi, the band for which Steve Moore and Tony Paterra became known, is more of a once in a while sort of thing, both musicians have kept active with their solo careers. This is the first pairing, to my knowledge, of Zombi’s two halves on the same record. It stays the course for both artists as well: driving synth/Italian horror soundtrack/dawn of New Age tropes, played for authenticity...
Loose Grip – Cereal 7” EP (Bedroom Suck)
RECOMMENDED
I’ve listened to this one a few times (it’s great) and sat down to write this, and just then I get an IM asking if I’d heard anything about Brendon Annesley, the editor of Negative Guest List and proprietor of the label of the same name, that he had passed. He may not have had anything to do with Loose Grip’s debut single, but seeing as they’re an Australian band he had something to...
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Without Sinking 2xLP (Touch) ...
RECOMMENDED
This will probably bum a few of you out, but like many kids who grew up on indie rock in the ‘90s, and who were fascinated by the drama and energy and release of some of its more notable acts, I rushed out and bought the Rachel’s LP as soon as it came out. It was a record I should have just kept in its sleeve, sealed and untouched. To listen to chamber music on that level of...
Italian Horn – The Bells of Spring 12” EP (Dais)
Hardcore archaeologist, author, VDSQ man-at-arms, and former Revelation recording artist Anthony Pappalardo surfaces with a new, promising project for the always-on Dais label. Italian Horn operates in lo-fi guitar pop mode, and seems to leverage the songsmithery of Guided by Voices (and as tribute, cover art created by Robert Pollard himself) with the Dictaphone-quality recording and vocal...
Little Queenie – “Blackout” b/w “SS Shipwreck” 7”...
Burly, somewhat mannered garage pop out of the Bay Area (probably because it’s played with two basses and no guitars), and fronted by the iconic Mark “Icki” Murrmann, performing with the wheezing, seen-it-all presence of the Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler. These songs don’t have a whole lot going on, but are pleasant enough, and it’s definitely novel to hear such a band sing about drinking too...
STAB – Stab Nation Rising 7” EP (Quality Control)
Furious and blackened hardcore with some crust leanings out of Leeds. Female-fronted rage boils out of the grooves of these six songs, telling us things we’ve heard before but with the vitriol to upend history with sneering, war-like conviction. Take a fucking stand or you won’t amount to shit, because the boot is coming down sooner than you think. Great looking record too, with a die-cut...
These Wonderful Evils – Little Church LP (Sparrows...
There was once a swell electronic band in Chicago called I ♥ Presets. These Wonderful Evils is the one man band of Zak Boerger, former Chicagoan, who has nothing to do with I ♥ Presets, but who seems pretty comfortable with preset drum machine rhythms. Since he likes his drum machines best if they’re old enough to run for president, this predilection is not at all problematic, but brings some...
Tetras – Pareidolia 2xLP (Flingco)
Overseas gathering of drummer Jason Kahn (L.A. expat, late of Trotsky Icepick, the Leaving Trains and Universal Congress Of, and who’s become a very busy musician in his own right), upright bassist Christian Weber, and Jeroen Visser on organ and electronics. The move is improvised, avant-garde rock with forays into prog, jazz and minimalism, but there are foundational elements (Kahn’s drumming,...
Things are happening.
Things are happening over here. More details to come.
Black Bananas review from Dusted
This record really sucks, but maybe this review will at least give you a few chuckles.
Adolf Butler – Holland LP (Motorwolf)
Kooky noise rock band from the Netherlands that seems to have cleaned up its misanthropy, or at least has found sensible ways to obscure it so that those of us with souls can enjoy the heat they throw without consequence. They really do nail the bloody smear of early Unsane and Slug records with little problem, and even find ways to remove the groove from oldies like “Green Onions” and the...
Brown Sugar – Sings of Birds and Racism LP (Feeble...
From Buffalo comes some sturdy punk-n-roll from a gravel-throated singer and a band that’s not unfamiliar with hardcore and speed, but who will slow it down to a respectable mid-tempo mosh beat for you to get loose by. The eight songs here come and go (mostly go), and while not much stayed with me (apart from some chugging choruses, and a breakdown on the final track “I Want To Be a Somali...
Happy Jawbone Family Band – OK Midnight, You Win...
Bunch of Vermont ne’er-do-wells here (maybe in the sense that they might have some weed in their homes for personal use, or steal pens and paper from their respective workplaces) jawing happily on a wild tear of hyper-melodic, joyous rock music. Shades of the Cherry Blossoms, Arcade Fire (scope, not practice), Heavy Vegetable and TFUL282 brighten the curious corners of these twelve songs, each...
Psychobuildings – s/t 12” EP (All Hands Electric) ...
Synth-led postpunk/wavo ensemble led by Peter Schuette, late of Silk Flowers. Psychobuildings plays it a lot more awake and active sounding than that group, pushing in a danceable direction somewhere between early DFA 12”s and a frilly/cold new wave decadence that too often takes the back seat to bass grooves and disco moves. Slight but altogether enjoyable. (http://www.allhandselectric.com) ...
