March 2012
42 posts
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...
