March 2012
42 posts
Vapauteen – Weld 12” EP (L.I.E.S.)
RECOMMENDED
Dark, single-minded early ‘00s 4/4 distorted techno crunch across three tracks on a white label, courtesy of Led Er Est’s Shawn O’Sullivan. This could have come out on Clone or maybe Underground Resistance way back when. Dubstep is done for all practical purposes so we get the noise on top of it put back where it belongs, with steady, driving beats (at a reasonable fucking tempo,...
Black Marble – Weight Against the Door 12” EP...
Putting this one on blind, it is very difficult to know what to expect from the opening synth phrasing of “Pretender” – there’s no clue as to production choices, though it sounds muted enough that it would hopefully match up with the new L.I.E.S. releases I was working through before I unwrapped this Brooklyn duo’s EP. Within moments I learned my fate: Blank Doggin’ into the niiiiiiight. But...
Balaclavas – Second Sight one-sided 12” EP (Dull...
RECOMMENDED
Cut in a hurry for their spring tour (if you’re reading this and it’s March 2012, they’re out right now, and playing Brooklyn at Lone Wolf Bar in Bushwick today, the 29th), these are the Balaclavas songs that those few of you who fell asleep to Snake People were looking for, and the rest of us can merely chalk this four-song sesh up as their most direct offering to date. The dub...
The Mentally Ill – Gacy’s Place 7” EP (Last Laugh)
RECOMMENDED
Yet another KBD monster repressed for modern appreciation. How many bootlegs would you have to buy to get the three songs from this torpedo bonzer? How would you ever figure out that the layer of GNARL on the guitar track was intentional and not just some artifact left over from a bad tape transfer? Decades after the fact, “Gacy’s Place” is still shocking, both in lyrical content...
Shoppers/Panzram – split 7” EP (IFB/Feeble Minds)
RECOMMENDED
Writing this to mourn the loss of Shoppers; the word is that the band is finished. I got to see them once, but could only stay for a few songs due to all the fucking pet dander in the crawlspace they played in. I wish they were still a band. Maybe at some point they will try again, or more likely go on to something else. I wanted to see what else they would do, perhaps moreso than...
The Great Tyrant – There’s A Man In The House LP...
RECOMMENDED
One of the more seamless blends of Goth, doom metal and progressive rock I can think of, Fort Worth, TX’s The Great Tyrant sadly couldn’t be here to see their lone album released to the public. A quick bio of the band revealed that they remained active, woodshedding the six songs that became this posthumous release, for several years, but setbacks – chief among which, and the most...
Little Gold – Weird Freedom LP (Loud Baby)
Christian DeRoeck (cool guy, I say, formerly of Meneguar and Woods) was initially projecting Little Gold as a solo outlet, sad-sacking out whatever demons he had to face. With Weird Freedom, it seems like he’s gotten rid of most of them, or at least the ones that would have otherwise told him “no” when he asked “rock?” He’s left them in Brooklyn and relocated to the balmy backyards of Athens,...
Nova Scotia/Eye – split 12” (Tipped Bowler Tapes)
Two far-flung groups of New Zealand improvisers get deep in the Drone Zone, each claiming one track per side of this release. Nova Scotia hails from Wellington and plays like the Dead C. with horns, and in an expansive, cloud-minded warehouse instead of the void/pit where the latter normally records. They work up a head of steam on a big, cacophonous, steady stream of dissonant noise called “A...
Nude Beach – II LP (Nude Beach Records)
Though the pop-punk elements of Nude Beach’s sound are apparently still relevant to the band’s live show, II finds the Brooklyn power-pop trio really going for it, pushing a realistic and determined Dwight Twilley/Tom Petty sort of agenda against the odds this sort of music carries with it. They project confidence, which this music needs, bravado where it helps, and get through it most of the...
The Pheromoans – Darby, Joan & Fosters LP (Clan...
The Pheromoans continue to evade account of an accurate pulse check, changing and reshaping their sound in efforts to write themselves into history, or entertain the sort of severe, frowning, sweater-baring repression as depicted on the back cover of Put the Music In Its Coffin. For most of the quick runtime of the urbane-sounding Darby, Joan & Fosters, the group, its ranks swollen to six...
Tape blog activated for some reason.
Enough good tapes have come in that they are worth discussing. Please don’t take this as a cue to bombard me with cassettes again, musicians/labels. There are too many and a lot of them are really terrible. Think about it before you send one in. If you think I am gonna mail them back to you, you’re nuts. If it is uninteresting or tiring, it will sit in my desk drawer, one more poison...
Drosofile – “Mal” b/w “Your Roberts” 7” (SDZ)
I’m more interested in the story of why a Frenchman who identifies with punk would exile himself to Columbus, OH, probably more so than the output on this single, which is in itself pretty good.
I’ve just learned the story, and it wasn’t that exciting (grad school, shoulda guessed – other reason might have been “love” but I don’t sense much of that going on here). So, yes, the music is more...
Red Mass – “Television Personalities” b/w “Kill It...
I’ll admit it – I don’t like these Red Mass records too much, never really did to be honest, and that they keep coming, each one as erratic and at the same time oddly faithful to some of the most hackneyed parts of rock ‘n’ roll history, is kind of a bummer. I may not sound too upset, because there’s nothing here worth getting upset over, just some dude from Montreal who probably has a mustache,...
Scraps – Secret Paradise 7” EP (Disembraining)
RECOMMENDED
Laura Hill (Scraps to the outside world) turned up here a little while back with Classic Shits, an album’s worth of Casio pop from a number of years ago out of her bedroom in Brisbane. Years later, the project is still active, and even better, with three new songs which have more of an eye on what’s going on now, and a better understanding of the “button” a good pop song needs to...
Terrible Truths – s/t 7” EP (Small Town City...
RECOMMENDED
Australia’s hit parade continues, now with Terrible Truths, a lady-led trio from Adelaide working the unadorned post-punk angle. This one’s great if you were looking for something unadorned and sinewy, geometrically correct post-punk plane drawings with great, uplifting vocals in the early Siouxsie/Annie Anxiety/Delta 5 camp. This sort of thing has been done so many times, and is...
Various Artists – The World’s Lousy with Ideas...
RECOMMENDED
After a certain absence – probably just Harry putting out about four dozen records between then and now – the esteemed World’s Lousy series returns. These are good compilations overall, with worthwhile bands giving up tracks far better than the throwaways you may have come to expect from the realm of comps/splits. Cheater Slicks light up “Silver Fox” for the last call crowd, Thee...
Disco Zombies – Drums Over London LP / Happy...
RECOMMENDED
Dan Selzer was one of the first people I met after moving to New York City, and also one of the most passionate about music, particularly postpunk, which he dutifully dusted off for a whole new, informed clique of dance acolytes Monday nights at the late lamented Plant Bar. The music in question was starting to inform a lot of what was going to happen with new bands in the city for...
Far-Out Fangtooth – Pure & Disinterested LP...
RECOMMENDED
Hardly anyone outside of the greater Philadelphia Tumblr community seems to have caught on to this quietly-released gem. They play dense, noisy, dirty rock for the late, humid August weeks in Pennsylvania (I grew up with these too, but across the state), death and buzzing lingering in the air. with thoughtful choices in guitar tone and production that gives a layer of clarity to...
Group Doueh – Zayna Jumma LP (Sublime Frequencies)
RECOMMENDED
The East’s first real taste of Doueh’s guitar playing (Sublime Freq’s Guitar Music from the Western Sahara) was a concentrated blast of psychic energy, the vein opened anew for the believers out there to stand under. Blood and sand oozed forth, and a relative handful of beings in the grand scheme of life got to anoint themselves, humors passed down from Magic Sam to Hendrix and...
Higuma – Pacific Fog Dreams LP (Root Strata)
Ambient guitar/feedback washes with phased-out, mostly wordless female vocals, as presented by Lisa McGee and Barn Owl’s Evan Caminiti. I’ve never particularly been a fan of Barn Owl, or lots of modern drone for that matter, much of it with roots in the side of the genre I cannot abide (the serious, literal side of it, from Stars of the Lid on down). There has to be some unique quality that...
Ketamines – Spaced Out LP (Southpaw/Mammoth Cave...
Gelcaps hardening in the narrow Calgary sun, the Ketamines roll through a quick set of ‘60s psych-flavored pop tunes on this debut LP. Some of the songs (OK, most) push a lot of buttons at once, which displays a willfulness to subvert the genre it’s playing a part of, and that will not go unnoticed by some listeners. But the psychsploitative components of the group’s approach (current/ex-members...
Dan Melchior – Catbirds & Cardinals LP...
RECOMMENDED
At this point Dan Melchior only makes worthwhile records. There are many, and nearly all of them go in a different direction, sometimes within the context of that release. He may be … scratch that, he is our most consistent singer-songwriter among those who’ve been prolific at every stage of their careers, and should at least be as widely known and accepted as guys like Robert...
Noh Mercy – s/t LP (Superior Viaduct)
RECOMMENDED
Now It Can Be Told. Noh Mercy, undisputed stars of the Earcom 3 comp (well, along with the Middle Class), were responsible for “No Caucasian Guilt,” a song that raced up my spine at a younger age and still rests as a singular experience, having never heard anything quite like it before or since. The song is short and very direct, nothing but a scorching female voice and a sniper on...
Sediment Club – Time Decay Now LP (Softspot Music)
RECOMMENDED
Nothing’s changed about Sediment Club, who at first I didn’t really rate as a force in NYC rock music – Voidoid Ivan Julian is back behind the board, the band is a little older, three of the four songs on their 7” are repeated on Time Decay Now, their first album. Yet in a homogeneous context of skronky, groove-attack art punk, these songs get it done, with a heart and circulatory...
Slices – Still Cruising LP (Iron Lung)
RECOMMENDED
The title Still Cruising suggests that Slices’ second album is the continuation of 2010’s Cruising, and sets up a few seedling ideas from that album to be worked over into an even better album. They have changed up their sound a bit and brought in a bunch of riffs that are more straightforward rockin’ than the immediate/prison riot HC lurch of previous efforts, played with a...
Trans Upper Egypt – North African Berserk 12” EP...
Some guys from Italy hop on the doubletime groove train. They play an organ/gtr sounding brand of locopsychomotive orgy soundtrack a la Oneida, but their native accents place their English vocals in the ballpark of Neil Hagerty’s, which give these five songs – four and a half, really – the air of a Royal Trux, if not the product itself. They probably need to let this whole sound simmer for a bit...
Wax Museums – Zoo Full of Ramones LP (Tic Tac...
RECOMMENDED
There have been plenty of opportunities in the past 12 months to take a better look at the family of bands under the Wax Museums tarp (Video, Silver Shampoo, Wiccans to name a few that have been acknowledged recently in Still Single). We’ve always been a bit blindly supportive of the works from this Denton, TX group, and it is wonderful to hear that we weren’t wrong. Zoo Full of...
Black Bug – Police Helicopter 7” EP (Hozac)
RECOMMENDED
So you’re getting a twofer here. As no speed setting is indicated, we’re left to speculate as to Black Bug’s aesthetic, which – intentional or not – works out to be a real bonus for those inclined toward participatory listening. At 33 1/3, you’re treated to three woozy and sick, chopped-and-screwed nightsweats that would and should be best enjoyed with the spuriously obtained...
Mars – Live at Artists Space LP (Feeding Tube)
Mars gets a lot of dap every time their record turns up or a reissue comes out because we want to believe in there being some sort of secret or key about NYC no wave as it happened, due in large part to most of us not being there. They did make some energetic, bent, though oddly rehearsed rhythmic whomp, the band’s collective roach-brain flailing its limbs all around, and were probably a wall of...
Powerblessings – s/t 7” EP (Manhattan Chemical and...
Powerblessings calls to mind the ugliness exemplified by those bands from various ‘90s indie rock scene subsets who never dismissed hardcore as a formative ingredient: the Cows, Steel Pole Bathtub, Kepone, Hammerhead (see collection of that guy you know who lives the noise rock lifestyle for more). But they whittle it down even further, to the basest essentials for a set that seizes you by the...
Scorch Trio with Mars Williams – Made In Norway...
While literally true – this live record was recorded at gigs in Oslo and Bergen, Norway – the title doesn’t ring quite true. The original Scorch Trio was an all-Scandinavian ensemble, but none of the guys on this double LP get all of their mail in Europe. Drummer Frank Rosaly and multi-reedist Mars Williams are from Chicago, electric guitarist Raoul Björkenheim is a Finn living in New York, and...
Baby Erection – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
The slip of paper accompanying this promo notes that this outfit “is Brooklyn-based.” I am not sure what this is supposed to mean, other than to imply a quality that doesn’t come across, and a hip cosmopolitanism that a band with a name like Baby Erection shouldn’t logically be concerned with anyhow. What’s more, we get a silly “Dear Consumer” note that comes off more as smug and self-important...
Bad Fate – “Lung” b/w “Between the Corners” 7”...
Saddled with dismal releases by Heavy Chains and Basketball, Vancouver label Broadway to Boundary does right by sticking to a formula: shifty, tuneful/atuneful translucent indie/pop riffage in the style of Versus, or, like, some band on Up Records from the late ‘90s that wasn’t Modest Mouse or Built to Spill. Both “Lung” and “Between the Corners” feature jangling guitars, an overall instrumental...
Cheater Slicks – Guttural Vol. 1: Live 2010 LP...
RECOMMENDED
Two ends of the figurative finger cuffs known as the Cheater Slicks, one from 1989 and the other captured live a few years ago. In between there is an incredible amount of filth, sweat, loogies, barf, burger grease, paraphernalia, resin, and other detritus that will ooze out and cement your fingers in permanently, so be warned – this is the harsh end of the spectrum, for the...
AG Davis + Jamison Williams – “Auto De Fe (1481)”...
If you are at all entertained by John Zorn’s duo recordings/performances of the early ‘90s with Yamatsuka Eye or Mike Patton, this alto sax and vocal duet record may entertain you in the same ways. Davis (vocals) and Williams (sax) prove themselves quite adept at the quick-cut call-and-response dialog of frenzied shrieks, yelps, blurts, and short overblown phrases and multiphonic-rich reed...
Keep On Dancin’s – The End of Everything 12” EP...
Had to figure on – even count upon – the moment when all the Australian records that come into Still Single stop being as special as they once were. Perhaps this is it, then, a derivative downer steeped in Holly Golightly style maudlin and some ill-advised kinship with the blues. The country will bounce back (and already has, really), but these folks will not. They’re not selling it, you’re not...
Lovehandles – Handled 7” EP (West Palm Beotch)
With shared membership to the estimable Cop City/Chill Pillars, the band Love Handles drifts out of Florida with a few tropes (psychedelia, intentional weirding, hopefully drugs), with the same sort of thick, humid atmosphere that has been sponged up by CC/CP on a more distinctly pop axis. The main issue here is that some of the lesser ideas are tiptoed around in favor of the saucer-eyed warlock...
Low Life – Sydney Darbs 7” EP (Negative Guest...
RECOMMENDED
Four blasts of weatherbeaten downer punk from a Sydney trio that gives “a special thanx to anyone who embraces the 9-5, day in day out, mundane, soul destroying, mindless, clock work thinking because you are why we do this.. and we fucking detest you.” That kind of attitude is still needed in punk/the seething world, and the music of Low Life suits it, all dirgelike chords, flange...
Skyneedle – Creepertown 7” (Independent Press)
RECOMMENDED
Brisbane’s Skyneedle plies a refreshing stripe of avant “rock” that relies not on earsplitting electronics or feelbad atmospheres. Driven by an incessant hooting from some kind of pump-driven horn, “Howlway” shambles along in an odd danceable mode. Singer Sarah Byrne juxtaposes a sultry vocal with the mutating caveman rhythm, tunelessly plucked slack-strings and an intermittent...
Tacocat – Woman’s Day 7” EP (Minor Bird)
RECOMMENDED
First heard of this band as part of a Bikini Girl/Huggy Bear tribute compilation they appeared on. Fun bubblegum punk which accomplishes a few neat tricks that a lot of bands don’t think about: getting ideas across clearly, writing songs about concepts and stories without the abstract notions of poetic license getting in the way. “Oscar” is about a cat who lives in a hospital and...
Yale, Massachusetts – Act Like You’ve Been There...
Some dudes who I envision looking like the band in That Thing You Do but updated to Dorkpocalypse Now (oh look, I’m … right) attempt to use a lo-fi/lo-skill GarageBand style production technique to their benefit, attempting to fit big Weezer-style riffs onto seven inches of vinyl with a scuzzy interface. On the pop part they succeed, but on the sound tip they tread dangerously close to, well,...
Box set review from Dusted
Various Artists — Titan: It’s All Pop! 4xLP box set (Numero Group)
