Canadian punkers Fist City impressed me last year with their 'Boring Kids' and 'Endless Bummer' clip trips. All prepping their album It's 1983, Grow Up (out on Transgressive Records). I think the album took a lot of people by surprise, because here it is getting a reissue and a more global push. So why not get behind it? Especially when they are releasing as a new slice from the album 'Losers Say Die', which is the perfect encapsulation of what this band is all about? Get in or say die.
You can buy It's 1983, Grow Uphere on white vinyl - it's an ace little release.
Two coffees in, I feel like someone has injected my shoulders with concrete. Bad sleep, bad living. I would go to the gym, but that is, like, 400 metres away. Urgh. I could do with a massage right now. But not the sleazy kind. Is there a sleazy kind? I'm not sure. A "sexual" massage is pretty much as it says on the tin, so whilst deemed unsavoury, it's not necessarily sleazy. However getting a sweaty middle management type with his (or her - no gender bias here) hands on you sounds kinda gross - and that's all I've got at my disposal right now. Ah well - maybe some music complete with moving images might do the trick...
With a name like Fist City, these Toronto abrasive brooders aren't taking things lightly. Maybe that's what I need - a swift punch in the face to forget about my first world aches and pains. 'Boring Kids' harks back to the VHS style that the kids love these days -so retro! - but add some V/H/S satanic revelry in for good measure (you can't beat a little Manos - The Hands Of Fate...). Voodoo lady is doing it to me with her hoodoo, indeed.
I saw LA psych punk reactionary-tards FIDLAR at Splendour In The Grass the other weekend, and they were close to my pick of the festival. This only rises when the video for their latest single 'Cocaine' features absolute legend Nick Offerman. In his real-life woodcarving studio. Wearing his real-life woolly beard. Then proceeding to piss on EVERYTHING. Now, I'm not R. Kelly, but this clip sure is helping me to relax. Puerile yet comic genius - and a killer song to boot.
The Eversons supported the excellent The Wedding Present back in February. Now I've been a fan of the NZ band for a while - they somehow manage to walk the fine line between geek, cool and twee with just a whiff of garage simplicity and aggression to elevate them well above the potential pitfalls. This track, 'Creepy', is a prime example. The video makes me laugh too, and fits in with the middle management quip I said earlier, only to the nth degree. Ah - stalker love...
And whilst we're getting our creep on, Oakland's Kids On A Crime Spree are hitting back with single 'Creep The Creeps'. Not a bad idea really. Power-pop madness, it makes your teeth tingle and your back arch - so much sweetener in here! Except that the woman has killed that dude, then sits down to listen in to a faux-BBC rendition before walking out. On second thought, that massage can wait, hey...
Long time since we've attempted a good ol-fashioned brainwash, right? Here are four videos that are pretty rad, ranked in order of brutality. Let's get fried.
With a name like Batpiss, who needs enemies? Bursting out of the bowels of Melbourne, this trio have taken visceral annihilation to a new, bilious artform. Their debut record Nuclear Winter is out this week, and it is seriously the best thing I have heard this month. Melbourne has given birth to some killer acts of recent months - White Walls, Deep Heat, The Spinning Rooms. Speaking of, Nuclear Winter was recorded by Tom Lyngcoln - yep, the deranged redneck that spits vitriol and rhetoric when fronting The Nation Blue, gnashes his teeth like a blue-collar choirboy done wrong in Harmony, and recorded The Spinning Rooms. This dude always knows what he's doing, even when he doesn't. Don't trust me? Watch the video for Batpiss single 'Drag Your Body' again. This is indeed this. Listen to a stream of this killer record here.
Over to the UK and Wolverhampton's rakish rockers God Damn. I liked their first single 'I'm A Lazer, You're A Radar', and the video for 'Heavy Money' is just as impressive. A homeless man with telekinetic powers, going all Scanners on the scum of the earth? With a primary school kid in a Batman mask as his willing eyewitness? Gravy Records have unearthed a number of bands in the Midlands region that like to eat their candy with a liberal dose of razorblades - and with God Damn, they've done it again. This will be on an EP of the same name, pre-order it here.
I never thought I'd see the day that a band like FIDLAR would be a drawcard on the festival circuit. They aren't huge yet, by any means, but their name keeps floating closer to the surface with each passing week. And here we are with the band that brought you 'Max Can't Surf' featuring in RIYL's. None of this is derogatory - there is something aesthetically cleansing about a band that is so laconic in their slack-jawed stoner guitar punk that it feels like their tunes are aural hydro. And there is something equally great about a band mirroring such relaxed angular rants. that's where Canadians Fist City are at. Hit me.
Let's tag out with Cool Ghouls. This band from San Fran have been taken under the wing of Tim Cohen (Fresh & Onlys), and you can hear why. Talk about cruisy. But GOOD cruisy. Chilllllllllllllllll.But GOOD chillllllllllllllllllll. The more I listen to 'Natural Life', the more I want this to be my life. Cool ghouls indeed. Can't wait to hear the debut self-titled full-length - out now through Empty Cellar Records. Blow it - let's listen to it together!
