April 2012
60 posts
Roomrunner review on Dusted today
Coverage of very decent EPs by Roomrunner up on Dusted.
Candy Anne/Three-Eyed Gemini – split 7”...
Something called “The Unpop Sound” (looks more like “The Photoshop 4.0 Players” to me) presents two productions, both in a pop-psych sort of vein. Candy Anne coos and squeaks over bass guitar and a chiptune style melody, like a young lass singing over a GameBoy-derived Jesus & Mary Chain song. Three-Eyed Gemini deliver a hackneyed portrayal of commercial ‘60s raga-psych with some taboo...
Evening Meetings – “Forgotten in Seconds” b/w...
Another vector radiates from the Seattle axis that brought us A Frames, Love Tan, Factums, etc. I see how it goes in that city now, so a record like this isn’t as much of a mystery, but I’m cool with about 60% of it. “Forgotten in Seconds” … well yeah, I can’t remember this one, sorry dawggz. But “Hello Mr. Evening” seems more like it, and it’s one of those few tracks that can find success...
Group Inerane – Guitars From Agadez, Vol. 4 7” EP...
RECOMMENDED
Out of any of the “Group” recordings Sublime Frequencies has captured out of the Sahara, this is definitely among the best (along with the first offerings by Groups Doueh and Inerane, and the latest Doueh album Zayna Jumma), and definitely the most straightforward rock record of the batch. This thing will leave a fuckin’ welt on your conscience, three absolute BURNERS that work...
Hunting Party – Sub Rosa with Whispered Pacts s/t...
There’s always something to say about modern hardcore punk records, and it’s usually along one of two lines: “It’s OK/not great” or “this sounds exactly like [insert name of one of the few bands that ever got it right].” The former usually comes out of a band trying to temper an approach with some new ideas. Bay Area five-piece Hunting Party seems to fall somewhere in between those two lines of...
Martyr Privates – “Bless” b/w “Native Son” 7” (Bon...
Brisbane psych-garage trio that clings to the psych side, a la early Spacemen 3 or slightly less fucked-up American counterparts. Both tracks have kind of a stately feel about them that doesn’t dissipate in the gritty recording or workmanlike songwriting/playing. Neither one is too exciting, but play them a bunch of times and you’ll find things to like, such as their insistence on overdubbing a...
What Next? – “The Trip” b/w “Don’t Believe” 7”...
RECOMMENDED
After a brief respite following the dissolution of “party band” The German Measles, here’s Serge and Dave (a/k/a the bespectacled fellow from Cause Co-Motion) along with drummer Chie (ex-The Beast) to pick it up with a new band called What Next? The results kinda skew back to where Cause was going, with a little more ambition about them, and a drive to add something to the sound, no...
Astral Social Club/Tomutonttu – split 12” (Tipped...
Astral Social Club (Neil Campbell’s long-running “techno” project) is like opening your computer and finding a tiny, simple-minded rave going on inside. Tomutonttu (long-running Finnish electro-weirdness concern) is like opening your computer and finding thousands of little prismatic digital ants vibing the full spectrum of color. Both of these concepts are worth experiencing at least once, and...
The Blimp – Not Beer one-sided 12” EP (Violet...
Beefheart and Clevo-proto-punk comparisons abound but this conjures up a distinct memory (not that those aforementioned references constitute any real-time memories for me…I’m not that fucking old) of 10 to 15 years ago when I had a record-listening partner that would always try to turn me onto disparate but personally-insufferable crap like The Bonzo Dog Band, “early” Little Feat, The Band and,...
Bunwinkies – Map of Our New Constellations LP...
RECOMMENDED
Part of a woven and spindly new frond of psychedelia, we now find New England outfits like Quilt and now Bunwinkies to extend gentle, occasionally bitter, stylized and informed, but not really that precious forms of candlelight strum. The record is all over the place and generally worthwhile, gliding between Mazzy Star honeysliders and something more distinctly American and austere....
Daytona – Storm So Long 12” EP (self-released)
Carolina kids come to Brooklyn to get the band together. Some curious elements remain from what must have been a textbook regional upbringing in indie rock, in that we hear a need for utility outside of what a traditional rock instrument – or capable rock musician – can fill, and a reliance on a certain type of sound (the rangy, caterwauling, expansive form of pop that divides a meditative...
Deep Waters – s/t LP (self-released)
Solo project for an artist who self-identifies with both Smog, Red House Painters and Grouper, more like working in the disused spaces between such artists, where soulfulness and meaning are hard to come by, and are flyblown wrecks when they do. The record is ambitious but problematic to the core, an attempt at meaningful evasiveness in music which avoids sensible categorization in the context of...
The Enthusiasts – “Sinkin/Risin” b/w “Joanne” 7”...
RECOMMENDED
Young rockers from a short ride up the Metro-North come across with The Goods, straight up. This is an anonymous, even amateur looking record which arrived here held together with staples, and with a presentation like this I’d have expected the worst. NOT SO. Rarely are there surprises of this magnitude, a well-executed, smokin’ hot romp through the contested area between late ‘60s...
EZRAMO – Come Ho Imparato A Volare 12” EP (Corvo)
Improvs built around three of my least favorite musical concepts of all time (Roma folk music, aimless acoustic drone, synth/piano meanderings). Musically it’s as skillful as it needs to be, but conceptually it is like the trifecta of shit, like someone rubbing two big hunks of Styrofoam together, like one of those Las Vegas resort commercials with the old people fucking in it, and only a...
Foi Pour Pusillanime – s/t 7” EP (self-released)
RECOMMENDED
Putting this record on shut down the rest of the turning world, and dragged me by the ankles into a wheezing, festering sump of bilious quicksand. Creepy, icky experimental blips – six of ‘em, made by the French duo of Caroline Ehretique and Ogrob (he of Micro_Penis and a handful of other disturbing ensembles), given life by way of a number of instruments, tapes and tools, and...
Geffika/Skimask – split LP (Sophomore Lounge)
RECOMMENDED
Geffika side is the tits. Doom-noise via bass and drums and maybe a guitar that isn’t played like a guitar likes to be played. Heavy as hell and reminiscent of why noise-rock went from being a punch-line in my Y2K world to a savior in my current environment. Skimask is a little more challenging in the structural department but no less noisy and probably capable of future brilliance,...
Hey Colossus – Dominant Male LP (Clan Destine)
Like a combination of Black Elk and what you think all those quasi-darkwave/goth side projects on 4AD in the mid-80’s might sound like had you bothered to raise the curiosity level to “seek out and hear” mode. This record has been floating around in demo and maybe another form since 2009 but enjoyed proper vinyl treatment by Clandestine within the past year (I get the stuff that is already way...
Kam Kama – The Tiled House 12” EP (Sister...
Five-piece lite Goth from Indiana, where the flatness and cornfields and general air of loss fosters this kind of music now and again (see also state-mates TV Ghost, though those guys are from Lafayette and not Bloomington, which is harder somehow). There’s not a lot of consequence here, just six songs of yearning, college campus dark rock, with a singer who closely resembles Honor...
Koban – s/t 7” EP (The Broadway to Boundary)
Gothy post-punk duo with drum machine. Four skeletal tracks of guitar, bass, vocals and preset beats, a flatliner if there ever were. Not sure what they’re trying to accomplish here other than maybe have fun, and possibly guilt people into taking this record off their hands. There’s absolutely nothing new or original or exciting here, just a little noise and a little muffled sentiment that stays...
Lantern – “I Don’t Know” b/w “Out Of Our Heads” 7”...
Can-Am trade agreement band, currently whelming tens of people in Philly. What’s at stake here is … well, not much; the same old, tired Nuggets-style chestnuts, and the lack of audio fidelity hems in whatever peacocking their outta-site singer manages to peel off. “I Don’t Know” is a straight ahead frat rocker; “Out Of Our Heads” aims for the Stooges, and would get there if it didn’t sound so...
Master Cylinder – 301 N Everett Rd LP (Ramblin’)
Michigan rock ‘n’ roll outfit, clearly on the wavelengths of what Lester Bangs and Greg Shaw were pushing at the time (here, a vague mid-‘70s to early ‘80s run, which extended well after the notions of Flamin’ Groovies style rock – all periods – were proven to remain viable). If you’ve heard the bands that inspired them, then it’s clear that these guys took more than they gave back, claims of a...
Parton Kooper Planetarium – Glass & Bone LP...
Extra-creepy noise-drone-pop with spoken-sung vocals and an interest in UFOs (if their videos are to be taken at more than face value). From some folks who date back to Mohinder, if my sources are correct, and you’d be doing good to imagine the farthest place rock can go from that of Mohinder if allowed 15 – 20 years to do so. Interesting and worth assessing if you like the type of interesting...
Roommate – Guilty Rainbow LP (Antephonic)
Everyone loves this record. You can’t swing a bat (during a certain type of Google search) without hitting a glowing review of this obnoxious nonsense. That just proves that roving masses of online music “writers” (term is used in every sense but serious) are still trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with their ears and honest processing of modern sounds. The house band for an upcoming...
Ty Segall/The Feeling of Love – split 7”...
RECOMMENDED
It seems like only yesterday I was covering Traditional Fools records here and now that band’s Ty Segall has simply exploded, with more records (and more press) than almost any of his contemporaries in Bay Area garage/trad rock circles. Only Thee Oh Sees get more dap, and with Segall starting to run laps around them and most other bands in terms of prolific, overall quality output,...
Spectre Folk – The Blackest Medicine, Vol. II 12”...
RECOMMENDED
One of those “fell behind the shelf” deals here, and apologies for not getting to it sooner. Strident, well-composed rock ‘n’ psych jammers (JAMMERS) spearheaded by totally alright Magik Marker Pete Nolan. The tendencies that a couple of these tracks have for over-extension and indulgence doesn’t really steal focus away from Autobahn percussion (Steve Shelley guests on drums) and a...
State Champion – Deep Shit LP (Sophomore Lounge)
Aesthetic smartasses who allow themselves to be pictured with a banjo and ukulele. That’s a no-no, you know. Americana played with hardcore energy and umph is how the entire Internet would like this band to be known for, but there’s way too much slummer-soup being slurped for this to enter my comfort zone. Supposedly a fiasco live, but most assuredly a safe affair on record. Record looks like a...
Suuns – “Bambi” b/w “Red Song” 12” (Secretly...
RECOMMENDED
Don’t know anything about this band, nor am I gonna look anything up, but “Bambi” KILLS at 45 pitched down to -8. Anything else is too fast, and brings too much to bear on what’s going on in the track, which is well-produced, with remarkable percussion and drum programming – not-so-secretly Canadian outfit Suuns make it throb along like Clinic gone down the rails of Devo’s take on...
The Tee Pees – “You’re A Turd” b/w “Do the Smog”...
No, you are a turd for failing to intellectually or culturally advance beyond garage rock that Estrus Records wouldn’t take a piss on in 1994. Add all the non-necessity fidelity-lowering noise you want, I can still hear the gaping void underneath, and so will everyone else. This record sucked so bad that it peeled the paint from the walls and gave my cat some sort of infection that must be...
Zulus – “Surgery” b/w “Demons” 7” (Lemon Session)
Second single from NYC trio, featuring engineer du jour Jeremy Scott and ex-Battleship frontman Aleksander Prechtl. Noisy, more or less direct rock on both sides, with an interesting tug-of-war between shambolic and tribal/direct rhythmic approaches. Certainly sounds runic enough for a band such as this, with “Surgery” keeping things on the short and kinda manic side, and “Demons” breaking...
Archers By The Sea – They Were Floating Over The...
So if the Euro zone erodes further into fiscal woe, and there isn’t any grant money left to fund every last post-rock paean to Sigur Ros or late-period Talk Talk that pops up between small groups of disenfranchised post-collegiate citizens, does that mean that bands like Archers By The Sea are going to be making this sort of vague, atmospheric downer bullshit on their own volition? This could...
The Boston Strangler – Primitive LP (Fun With...
RECOMMENDED
Wow, where to begin? I mean obviously this is a great record, but for whatever reason it’s become so much more. So much more that some people are losing the ability to put together a coherent thought about it, when what “it” is, is just a perfectly-executed Boston hardcore record, made by guys who’ve been holding major strands of that city’s punk/HC/rock scenes together for the past...
Compound Eye – Origin of Silence 12” EP (The...
Boorish collabs between Coil’s Drew McDowall and Psychic Ills’ Tres Warren. Electronic/psych extensions that are about as diffuse as the design of this record (clear vinyl, clear screenprinted sleeve) would suggest. McDowall brings one of Coil’s most difficult to bear templates to play here (not the bowel-churning fear, or the beyond-fried acid house nonsense; more of the watery, lucid...
Fat Shadow – Foot of Love LP (Houseplant)
Unadorned, heart-on-sleeve rock with a female vocalist and some guys looking to babyproof the concept of pop-punk. Seems like feelings might be better expressed in a different format, without this bland music behind it. Tried filmmaking yet? Give it a whirl. (http://www.houseplantrecords.com) (Doug Mosurock)
Nelson Gastaldi – Symphony No. 3: Siddhartha...
The story goes that a cab driver in Buenos Aires once threatened bandoneon player and Nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla for his crimes against the tango. He might given himself the ceremonial Mohawk and gone totally Travis Bickle if he’d ever gotten Nelson Gastaldi into his car, because Gastaldi does things with this symphony that you just shouldn’t do. The most noticeable transgressions are...
Hana – SM 12” EP (Granny)
Commit to the strenuous content/image search on the electronic duo Hana and you find two Greek guys who hide behind images of beautiful women, and in particular, their legs. Deign to put this 12” on your turntable and you are left with subsonic microhouse that your home stereo probably can’t handle, or for that matter, the systems of most clubs in NYC, which would make this sound like someone...
Silencio – When I’m Gone LP (Three:Four)
Swiss ensemble that rises slightly above the dreck and gives out a Talk Talk/Bark Psychosis-style ponderer with a little bit more weight to it. Started in 2008, then put down for a while and resumed in 2011, When I’m Gone faces boomy, muted, weighty sentiments against one of these neo-chamber ensembles that is about two nosehairs away from going full-on classical (and probably why they are...
Thorsten Soltau/Preslav Literary School – split...
Soltau’s side is as fractious as the artwork suggests; turntable compositions that jump from here to there with kinetic indifference. His statement of intent is in German and mentions John Oswald, so keep a humorless version of that man’s work in mind when exploring this release. Preslav Literary School evinces as much overwrought, plaintive emotion as this act can out of a tape recording. The...
The Zoltars – Should I Try Once More? LP (Sundae)
RECOMMENDED
There have gotta be more bands active in Austin than in most American towns and I’m lucky that most of the good ones pay this writing any mind, as my limit on TV Torso has been reached. Not to besmirch the good name of the Zoltars, an Austin band of some great and rare quality, who with that handle might have you thinking about garage rock, a Cramps-style frozen dinner microwaved...
Various Artists – The Harrisburg Players, Vol. 2...
RECOMMENDED
Anti-fi all the way, these five quick, all-star songs jumps into the fire on this EP, a nice snapshot recalling the solidarity and vibe of a label like Datapanik, which is a wonderful thing indeed. T.A. Lafferty’s killer, tin-can drum machine punk “Consolation Prize” begs for a cover from, I dunno, Nazi Gold or something. Ron House hanging with the Players covering his own (uh,...
Amateur Childbirth – Brighter Futures Dialysis LP...
Speedstrum antifolk from Brisbane’s Ivan Hicks, akin to ordering the red pepper hummus enema for two at the Sidewalk Café. The artist’s note that came with the record claim that this album came from a passing fascination with a cheap acoustic guitar. Everything about these ten songs relates to that statement: the music seems entirely off-the-cuff, from the consistent, rubber-wristed rhythm...
Art Institute – People Like It When You Fail LP...
Accompanying this one was a desperate note for attention. So here you go: don’t pay any of yours to this band. Doing so would be a regrettable waste of time. There will come a point in your life where you have about 20 minutes left on Earth, and if you spent any of it thinking about this awful record, you will regret it. I am speaking from experience – 20 minutes was all I could take. Houston...
Brainworlds/Plosive – split 12” EP (These Are Not...
Weird incubator label puts out a split drone record and who are we to take it lying down? Both Brainworlds and Plosive are alter egos of musicians caught in the gears of blog hype – the former is cornhusker guitarist Mason Brown, who’s played with bands like Tilly and the Fucking Wall; the latter is a dude from Kentucky “known for his remix work” (hey, they’re just sayin’ … jeez!). Both projects...
Sandy Bull & The Rhythm Ace – Live 1976 LP...
If a musician ever needed his own personal Marshall Plan, it was Sandy Bull. The brilliant conception and execution of his 60s LPs on Vanguard, which merged Nubian and Brazilian music, gospel, jazz, Chuck Berry, and Carmen fucking Burana (on a banjo!) into a gorgeous, globe-hugging haze was matched by the disastrousness of his personal life. He crashed, he burned, and he cleaned up, but by the...
Erode and Disappear – Scythian Lamb LP...
RECOMMENDED
Just as life-affirming as Northern Liberties’ Glowing Brain Garden with the exception of one or two missing sonic layers, but then again, this exclusion doesn’t really take away from the ultra-special talent (and it should be reiterated that this is ACTIVE TALENT) at hand here. To clarify: this is the bass player and the vocalist/percussionist (Kevin Riley and Justin Duerr...
FNU Ronnies – Saddle Up LP (Load)
Slow and drawn-out drone-noise with booming Melvins-on-head-fuck-mode structure mixes with some balls-out rock and some Load-ish falling apart. Great shit that doesn’t really need my ravings to get things moving they way they should be. Band moniker means something funny but my brain won’t let me have it at the moment. Get this. (http://www.loadrecords.com) (Andrew Earles)
The Gang Violets – “Black Clouds” b/w “A Touch...
Do you know how many artists got away with this Ya’llternative bullshit back in 1995? About five, maybe six. Guess how many do in 2012? Negative for infinity and then some. I mean, this is a review of a band that settled on “The Gang Violets” as a moniker. Smart money, after this poisoned my house for an untold number of minutes, that The Gang Violets have one or two girls that do that...
The Golden Boys – Dirty Fingernails LP (12XU)
RECOMMENDED
Maybe simpler is better for the Golden Boys, an Austin roots-rock ‘n’ roll sing-yer-heart-out outfit with a wide and active membership. Whatever was the moment that they were basking in on their last album Electric Wolfman, which started strong but sounded unfinished and suffered from far too many hands in the mix, it’s all been sorted out on their fourth full-length Dirty...
Jefferson Mayday Mayday – G Threshold LP (Hot...
Cosmic analog synth interference clouds and distressed electro squiggles from a South Carolina musician/scientist, who seems to treat the keys on his unit like a seat or small bench (or at the very least, plays it with his butt). Recorded in Australia and other named places, this one seems a bit lost, more of a demo reel for what something like a Korg Poly Six can do when pushed to a known...
Locrian – The Clearing LP (Fan Death)
RECOMMENDED
This really has nothing to do with Locrian but I must reveal that a new development in music criticism has made itself known to me over the last year or two or fuck … I’m sorry, Doug, I’ve been writing for Still Single for four years. OK, creeping an arc of frequency that has lately reached one or two emails for every 10-15 reviews I turn in is this new breed of man-wafer that has...
The Lost Domain – Blondes Chew More Gum 2xLP /...
As part of his plan for the advancement of music, Brendon from Negative Guest List pushed forth these two missives of freely improvised rock & roll, recorded in Brisbane before he was five years old. Then known as The Invisible Empire, the group that took the name The Lost Domain (a core trio of guitarists who followed one another’s leads, here augmented by a trio of drummers), stretched and...
