Spacek-Out Paranoia

It seems to be every week that I am discovering a new band in London - which makes sense seeing as it is over 7 million people's worth of working, rutting, fucking and dying going on. And right now I have been all over Ulrika Spacek, a five-piece with a heavy predilection for Spacemen 3 sonorous ephemera and walls of noise threaded with a nonchalant curiosity for the darker spaces, content to whir and march into the outer reaches and beyond. Space psychedelic rock this might be, but the band take pains to earth themselves (pun intended) by imbuing their lethargic motorik drones with harder edges - a BRMC riff here, a Viet Cong layer of echoed menace there. Everything seems crafted out of a gravitational pull, a kneejerk hypnosis, but is also heavily calibrated and maintained. The lyrics that halt the inexorable trudge of 'Beta Male' for example give us a lilting esoteric moment of respite before launching back out in the stratosphere, meaning that grooves aren't inherent, that bliss isn't constant, that they are always in control.

They released their debut album The Album Paranoia on Friday (through Tough Love, on white vinyl - impressive package, you can get it here) and will be touring it over the next couple weeks, check em out:

08 Glasgow, Hug and Pint 

09 Birmingham, Hare and Hounds 

10 Bristol, Start the Bus 

11 London, Rough Trade East 

16 Manchester, Soup Kitchen 

17 Liverpool, Studio 2

Crocodiles Are Like Cockroaches These Days

San Diego outfit Crocodiles keep spiralling further away from their batshit no-jazz Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower days, as new album Crimes Of Passion attests. Brandon Welchez and his cohorts have been about embracing and eschewing the garage punk-pop mantras of the past few years ever since they dropped Summer Of Hate back in 2009. Yet if 'Cockroach' is anything to go by, it's still a retro-view sound, more akin to early Raveonettes (especially their Pretty In Black era) and a smattering of the genesis of BRMC than anything that is going on now. Both of these reference are bleeding obvious too - especially seeing as Sune Rose Wagner is on production duties here, their last album Endless Flowers felt like a Raveonettes cast-off (in a good way), and Welchez holds an air and a sneer not too far from BRMC's Robert Leven Been, leather jacket and all. I've always been a bit of a fence sitter with Crocodiles - enjoying their output whilst unable to put a pin into why its any better than the myriad other acts that permeated this fetid earth. Maybe its that their overt, obvious touchstones hold a place in the genetics of my musical tastes. Nevertheless, I await the August release of Crimes Of Passion (out through Frenchkiss Records - pre-order here) with anticipation.

Gayzeing On A Black Soul

 

One of the better random “discoveries” that Sonic Masala has made in the past eighteen months has been Idaho outfit TEENS (see my post here). And although they haven’t produced anything for a bit, leading member David W Wood has released a pretty damn fine EP under the guise of Gayze.



The seven tracks on Black Soul EP delves deeper into the mythology of the garage rock sound, injecting the squall and swagger that is often missing in today’s carbon copies. As such, songs like ‘Ain’t It Brave’ have that heady mix of hard-edge and desert psych that Roky Erickson excelled at and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club used to nail to the wall. Again, the lo-fi aesthetic suits these tracks, especially the reverberating isolation that informs plaintive (and surprisingly upbeat, considering the grimly excellent music video by the growing talent of Tyler T Williams (remember Youth Lagoon’s ‘Montana’?) that accompanies it) track ‘Done To My Love’ – although sometimes Wood’s drawled vocals are lost. That is a minor quibble though – Black Soul is an epic sounding 7”, tapping the seamier side of garage rock that was encapsulated by the leather-clad motorheads of the psych-fuelled 60s, and such a down and dirty sound is a welcome return. I hope this becomes more than a “thing” for Wood – there is an exciting electricity riding through these songs that alludes to something bigger (and darker) just around the corner…

You can get Black Soul through Bleeding Gold Records here.

Black Soul – Ain’t It Brave
Black Soul – Done To My Love

What Happens If Doc Had Used A Flux Pentaphile...

Got this over the wire on the weekend and am suitably impressed. NZ trio Transistors have just released EP Flux Pentaphile (you can grab it over at their Bandcamp site) and its a nice intro to the band's take on garage rock. Having been a band in some form since the beginnings of high school, Transistors have created a fast and noisy snot-nosed sound that encapsulates their musical mores (AKA 60s garage, 70s powerpop and punk, 80s hardcore) and firmly places them in the realms of the Dirtbombs and compatriots Mint Chicks (both of which they have toured with, as well as Crocodiles and B.R.M.C.). They released an LP from last year too - Shortwave - which would be good to chase down. Overall though, Transistors do exactly what they say on the tin - fast, loud, noisy, obnoxious, garage rock. Which I absolutely love!

Transistors - Details
Transistors - Reception To Porter (Both tracks from Flux Pentaphile EP)

And...

Transistors - Two Shadows (from Shortwave LP)