July 2012
48 posts
Mad Macka – “Adidas Tracksuit” b/w “Bored@Ric’s”...
John McKeering from the Onyas and Cosmic Psychos offers up this little blemish of hard, tough, heavy punk rock and garish graphic design. One semi-anthemic blunderer in “Adidas Tracksuit” (the pronunciation of “Adidas” raising one eyebrow over here), and one AmRep-ready bulldozer mid-tempo crusher in “Bored@Ric’s.” Big, full sound. Check it if this is your sort of thing. Not a hip-hop record!...
Pampers – Guts 7” (JKSHK)
Brian Turner recently posted on Facebook that WFMU had received singles from three bands with eliminatory monikers. One was called Butt Problems (guys, send me your 7”, for real) and another was Pampers. As a new dad, I am all too aware of the need for diapers, but I don’t think we ever used that brand outside of the ones the hospital gave us. “Guts” is a decent punker but “Rathole” and...
Bobb Trimble & The Kidds – “Take Me Home Vienna”...
Two tracks from Trimble’s second album Harvest of Dreams, presented in the way the artist might well have intended: with a backing band of pre-teens, excised from much of the record for legal and parental reasons. These aren’t appreciably different versions than the ones you may have heard, except that “The Kidds” provide a number of overdubbed vocals and auxiliary instrumentation. Songs are...
Flesh Lights – Too Big To Fail 2x7” (Super Secret)
Four new songs from an Austin trio that overcomes their nomenclatural handicap by actually knowing how to rock. They’re good musicians who challenge themselves a bit over the course of these tracks, wielding all sorts of specific influences without allowing themselves to succumb to caricature. If they have any fault, it is that they are slightly overbuilt, and at least one of these songs has the...
Impalers – Demo 7” EP (Beach Impediment/No Way)
RECOMMENDED
Walked in on these guys at Chaos in Tejas a few years ago and was floored – maniacally heavy thrash with rock riffs, kind of in the same ballpark as early Venom or those Hellhammer demos, but worked out to a slightly more accessible but no less intense plateau. Maybe Motörhead with some of the directness swapped out for more confusion and flying bodies. Mammoth Grinder and Hatred...
Obnox – Masonic Reducer 7” EP (12XU)
RECOMMENDED
Obnox is the solo project of long time Ohio underground rock stalwart Lamont Thomas, who has spent time in the Puffy Areolas, This Moment in Black History, and the great Bassholes. This four song 7” is crammed full of heavy, near-classic rock style riffs, harmonies, multiple moments of Greg Ginn style guitar shredding, and on “Leaving Cleveland,” hip hop samples. It may sound crazy,...
Richard Papiercuts – A Sudden Shift LP (Pena)
Interesting, strange rock project from someone in New York who seems to want to remain anonymous, though from the looks of the credits on this LP, has aligned himself with noise artist Mattin, and members of the bands Talibam!, Ultrabunny, Pop. 1280, and Chinese Restaurants (he’s their drummer, it seems) – mixed company for sure, though they are effective in helping him get these messages...
Various Artists – Eat The Dream: Gnawa Music From...
The Gnawa are a brotherhood of North African musicians with West African roots whose music has exerted a focused attraction on Westerners. For decades, artists like Paul Bowles, Brian Jones, Randy Weston, Brion Gysin, Pharoah Sanders, Ornette Coleman, Lee Ranaldo, and Bill Laswell have all taken turns trying to convey the primal spiritual power of this hypnotic music. The ones who have done best...
Hey, RIP Dennis Flemion
I’ll be your dope man.
DIÄT – “Pick A Line” b/w “No Accent” 7” (Iron...
I’ll resist the urge to call Berlin’s DIÄT “efficient” – that’s for somebody else to embarrass themselves with. But this trio (two Australians and a German), said to have contacted the Iron Lung guys because they wanted to open for Total Control over there, seems to have a lot in common with some of the traditions in indie rock Germany has been known for: precision, power trios (18th Dye!!!), a...
Horsebladder – Not I’ll Not LP (Ecstatic Peace)
RECOMMENDED
Horsebladder is the stage name of musician, poet, and Western Massachusetts resident Elaine Kahn. Searching around online for other reviews of this record made it seem as it was just released into a void and no one noticed. This is a shame, as Not I’ll Not is one of the most captivating LPs I’ve heard so far in 2012. Over six songs, Kahn constructs quiet and unsettling soundfields...
Sitar Outreach Ministry – Groove Attack a/k/a...
RECOMMENDED
With a name like that, it’s almost a dare: Do you risk letting a record ruin your day? I’ve been burned recently. Reached into the box and it bit my hand, some sort of Jamiroquai-meets-Ben Harper sounding shit in a fucking zine from the communal band of a progressive living space way far out in the outer boroughs. In the zine, an artist flagellates himself for accepting what was...
Taco Leg – Printed Gold 7” EP (Richie)
Skint, threadbare cagerattle from some Australian boys who’d shown up with an earlier single on Fan Death, released at the insistence of the band Clockcleaner. This ain’t much like them, even in the attitude you might expect, but it is decent, rudimentary postpunk. Single-note guitar, thumping drums, and deadpan vocals explain the concerns of the title track in a way that makes it almost matter,...
Various Artists – Dabke: Sounds Of The Syrian...
Some might say that this collection of Dabke music from the southern part of Syria is, like those psychedelic Asian rock compilations, a warped representation of the style that simultaneously caters to Western notions of the exotic and serves up sounds not too far from certain things that record collectors already want to hear. I’ll go a step further; this record represents the sick taste of one...
Bent Shapes – “Boys To Men” b/w “Brat Poison”...
It’s A Motherfuckin’ Flexi. And it sounds a lot better than the other flexis I’ve been getting now and again, probably because it’s a legit Eva-Tone flexi. This one holds two songs from a Boston pop act, indebted to bands like Real Estate that have conquered the suburban pastoral on “Boys To Men” (the violin at the end, that tears it), and interscene sibling squabbling on “Brat Poison.” Does...
Meat Thump – “Box of Wine” b/w “Feel Good” 7”...
RECOMMENDED
It’d be easy for a lot of people coming at this record to deify it; the only sliver of output to make it out from a flat out brilliant writer who totally got it, who also died far too young and under far too unfortunate of circumstances. Do yourself a favor: don’t read into these Meat Thump songs. They’re not about Brendon’s demise, and the fact that it happened could not have...
Tropical Trash – Fear of Suffering 7” EP...
RECOMMENDED
Boasting one or more members from Sapat, this newish Louisville band makes a striking vinyl debut, with enough enthusiasm and wild, successful ideas to have come out of an earlier era. Several songs on this thing, ranging from skewed, agitated indie rock of both the Polvo and Trumans Water varieties, black metal, jazz (yeah, jazz) and far-flung aggression. The words “weird” and...
Twitch – s/t 7” EP (Supreme Echo)
RECOMMENDED
Glam-rooted hard rock from Vancouver circa 1973, with the morbid death wish of Alice Cooper folded in as a last-ditch attempt for notoriety. I’ll take the booklet author’s word for it that these guys were some of the wildest in the Northwest in the first half of the ‘70s – these tracks, collected from two self-released 45s on this reissue, really work in the ways that they need to,...
Volunteers Park – “Tragic Pote” b/w “Jerusalem...
RECOMMENDED
The next member of Silk Flowers to unveil a solo project (Ethan Swan is probably cliff diving or something incredible like that). This comes from Aviram Cohen, the group’s vocalist, and right away “Tragic Pote” gives off the feel of which parts of that group were his ideas. Nothing but synth programming and vocals, in a way that I wouldn’t call minimal, so much as it is...
Rrope – We Are You There 3xLP (Deathbomb Arc)
RECOMMENDED
Back in my college radio days, we used to get in these wild batches of promos from a company called Want A.D.D.S., which was run out of Los Angeles by a guy named Chuck Arnold, and primarily handled releases by bands and labels from California. Some of these records were so exceptional that they’ve stuck in my head for a long time – the first Comet Gain LP, for example, licensed by...
