Kicking Goals, Son!

This has been a long time coming. I’ve been a fan of Boston band Soccer Mom since their inception back in 2010; they were the subject of one of the first ever Sonic Masala interviews (an element that has come in fits and bursts, but has included the likes of Civil Civic, Angie (Straight Arrows/Ruined Fortune/Circle Pit), White Walls, Batpiss and Alpine Decline amongst others); my write-ups find a small space in the nether regions of their press releases. And yes their moniker is incredibly misleading. But if you haven’t jumped rampantly on their bandwagon, no need to go back to the beginning. Simply dive headfirst into the distorted world of their debut self-titled album – it’s an exercise in calibrated tension, serrated guitar lines opened up to the sky, a series of noise and nuance that embodies what guitar rock should be.


Start with opener ‘It’s Probably Not Your Fault’ – my favourite track on the album, because it IS Soccer Mom. Crawling out of an aluminium bin with the requisite fast-approaching din, we enter the kind of loud-sedate territory that Archers Of Loaf made (make?) their own, creating a cacophony of fuzz and cymbals amidst the sonorous chorus, everything tempered with gazed-shoe precision (including the feedback-toying close). Its that sense of frivolity and earnestness tagteaming amongst the chaos that makes them such an enthralling listen. Elsewhere the is the swirling guitars and disembodied of vocals of ‘Orejas’; the glazed dreaminess of ‘No One Left’; the anguished stutter of (im)personality on ‘Dry Mind’; and the crowded instrumental interlude in the middle of ‘Hideaway Sands’ is the kinda things that coalesces into a vibrant catharsis of crossed strings and smashed slings that Deerhunter-via-Sonic Youth revel in. The brooding closer ‘Open Heart Surgery’ is more openly abrasive, still tempered by crooned insistence, but offering an expulsion that to be honest doesn’t even need to come - if you aren’t an acolyte by album’s end, why are you still here?

The band continue to connect, playing alongside the likes of Weekend, Whirr, Speedy Ortiz and Nothing, bands in particular that embody the yin and the yang of Soccer Mom’s aesthetic. I know there will be albums this year that will grab my attention harder and for longer, but this is such a solid opening gambit longplayer, especially having listened from the beginning, that it’s hard not to get rabidly excited. Well done guys. Soccer Mom is out now through 100m Records – you should definitely get this.

Riding Canoes With Soccer Mom Brides

 

Remember Soccer Mom? I’ve been a big fan of the Boston noisemongers ever since they got in touch regarding their Bill Cosby In Glamorous Chains single back in 2010. Since then they released a great lil EP You Are Not Going To Heaven, and currently have this 7” out (again through 100m Records), which continues their quest for finding the plateau where walls of noise meet angularity, pop nous and a sliver of hope amongst the towering banalities of life (frontman Dan Parlin describe’s the band’s sound as simply “loud”, which is as succinct as you can get). Brides/Canoe flows on their already sizable adulation of the shoegaze aesthetic, yet we see more of the severer, acerbic lashes that has helped the quartet differentiate itself from the ever-burgeoning pack. The key is in the melody, something that many other Shields acolytes are blinded to, and will only become more defined over time. Another solid stepping stone towards that much-feted first LP…

 

You can get the 7” here, along with the EP. Soccer Mom is (apparently) hard at work molding what will be their debut album for later in 2013. If they continue to hone their craft, looking for nuances amongst the fuzz and feedback, Soccer Mom could provide one of the sleeper gems of the year. Here’s hoping.

Soccer Mom - A Canoe Shy

Video Vacuum - OFF!, Relations, Hugo Race, Die Antwoord

I'm finding it harder and hard to justify why I bother coming into work on a Monday, how about you? The unlimited download limit notwithstanding, there isn't much at the moment. I have holidays coming in sight though, so Ill suck it up - by watching some sweet music videos!

OFF! have just released this clip for 'Cracked', which promises to be the first in a triptych of videos with some sort of common theme or link. This one has a sign spinner losing his shit over another sign spinner's antics. He has a Walkman! So old school punk... It is quite funny too, and it's a great track.



100m Records (who put out the ace Soccer Mom EP last year) have just put out the new EP by NY synth-punk duo Relations, and here is the video for 'A Savage Way To Live'. It's certainly entrenched in subtle dissonance and shadows, and makes for an alluring listen.



The inimitable Hugo Race (The Bad Seeds, The Wreckery, Dirtmusic) has just released a solo album of covers called No But It's True, just another record to put in his massive oeuvre. He strips back a load of classics to their skeletal form, allowing the lyrics to shine through. Here he takes on the excellent Bruce Springsteen track 'I'm On Fire'. A dry rendition, this one...



Oh shit. I HAD to put this one up here. Those South African mentalists Die Antwoord are off the charts, a helluva lot of dumb, and they really make me laugh. I'm not sure if I like them or not, but I really like this video for their latest "song" 'Baby's On Fire'. It's crazy and a little bit NSFW - just sayin'.



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Loving Soccer Mom Won't Get You To Heaven - But It'll Get You Close

Another day, another bad moniker... I have discussed this with members of Boston band Soccer Mom in the past (read the 7" review and interview with Dan Parlin here), and true to their word they have stuck to it. What's in a name? Sometimes, not a lot. And when you hear the first strains of '(A) Natural History', the opening track to the band's new EP You Are Not Going To Heaven, it is clear that any conceived notions of what to expect are about to be shattered. Sonic Youth, Swervedriver and Dinosaur Jr influences are worn liberally on the sleeve - Parlin's vocal delivery is so much like Thurston Moore it's chimeric - yet such aping is not intrusive at all. There is a real sense of nostalgia here that rather than have you hankering for the masters, has you asking the question, "When will Soccer Mom stop mucking about and put out an LP already???" 'American Shirt (Eagle Flag 911)' is the truest sense of an amalgam of musical stylings that sounds so 90s that it MUST be from the 21st century - and it's these notions littered throughout that are exciting.


You Are Not Going To Heaven is out next week - pre-order this sucker here!

Soccer Mom - (A) Natural History