Half Kiss, Half Pain, All Callas

I stumbled across Greek avant punk rock outfit The Callas two years ago through their excellent 2013 album Am I Vertical? They are back, again joining with Jim Sclavunos (Grinderman) for Half Kiss Half Pain. The first taste off it, ‘It’s Sunday I’m Bleeding’, has a decidedly hazy Sonic Youth hue to it, melancholy morning comedown lyrics – so far, so good. Am I Vertical? was a surprise in that it jumped all over the place from its spiked post-punk foundation – I am expecting that Half Kiss Half Pain will be the same; the hooks here are plentiful.

Pre-order the album through Inner Ear Records here. NB - since writing this the band has released the album - here are a couple other cuts from it, 'La Jalousie', 'The Great Eastern' (also the name of a film they are making with Lee Ranaldo) and 'River.Drool.Ear.Rope'.

Cowbones

When I mentioned French band Cowbones late last year, I mentioned that I was very excited about their upcoming album, Vox Populi Polux. This anticipation was based on the above photograph and one track only, 'New Cobonnies'. I compared them to Grinderman, Jon Spencer and other rampant psychobilly misanthropes - and that comparison still stands. But Cowbones are a much stranger beast than this acknowledgement. Opening with the staccato drum machine and organ combo with warped vocals of 'No Law', we realise that these punks are unique in their derangement. 'Cramp' seems devoted to The Cramps/The Mummies et al, thus the name, but then there is the sparse, distorted dance-punch of 'Honey' or the syncopated belch of 'My Room'. 'Pink' whips out the Theremin and takes us down into the sordid Underworld. Most of the lyrics whether Gallic or English are delivered from a megaphone made out of rusted aluminium and razor wire. It's a special brand of hell that I for one subscribe to wholeheartedly.

You can grab Vox Populi Polux (out now through Casbah Records) here.

Flaying The Cow From My Bones

Here is a distorted chugging Western thug disaster classic if I've ever heard one. Probably haven't, but this is what I imagine it to be. French outfit Cowbones are bringing out their new album Vox Populi Pollux on Casbah Records (The Future Primitives, Bits Of Shit, Mesa Cosa) and first cut feels like a demented bastard child of Grinderman and John Spencer Blues Explosion if their dirtiest dirge got caught in a timeloop. The masked madmen look a sight to behold, and if this track is anything to go by, this album is going to melt the bones of the most hardened gunslingers. Colour me excited.

Callas Are Darkly Vertical

This is something else. I'm watching some shitty TV blooper show on silent in the middle of the night, blazed, listening to Greek weirdniks The Callas new album Is It Vertical? (out on Inner Ear Records). Its a warped, chugging menagerie of sounds, melodies, and genres, cannonballing from one extreme to the next without regard for rules, regulations, or your mental health. The insidious nature that these ten tracks growl and grind over these dirgey kraut tensions manifest, damaged and decidedly so, fits in with the nature of the album's producer, Jim Sclavunos (Grinderman). The voice helps with this of course, a lurking Mr Sinister, with the gnarled anger of an girl-gang choir spat from the shadows. Bauhaus, The Raveonettes, Rammstein, Grinderman - this is a relentless, spiked, cerebral menace that can't help but take control of you. Highly recommended at any time - but the middle of the restless night is most apt.

Pick up Is It Vertical? here.

Al(l) Loving That White Punk Slime

It isn't often that Sonic Masala has a self-professed "producer" in its midst, but San Francisco-based record scrubber Al Lover is an intriguing exception. As entrenched in psych and garage rock as he is in samples and beats, Lover takes on a wide variety of artists (mostly rock-oriented, from Grinderman and Davila 666 to SF alums Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees) and smudges them right up by smearing white noise and attitude into the mix, often infusing the tracks with even more bluster and awe than was thought possible (and these artists aren't known for their restraint as it is). He believes that psych music is the future of sampling, so he aims to be ahead of the curve. That said, he has original material on its way, most evident in his latest endeavour  Vondun Moon/Snake Hands, a 7" put out by PNKSLM (pronounced "Punk Slime" - a label run by London musicians that went from a blog to a clubnight to a label over three years). 'Snake Hands' is an incestuous love in with White Fence's Tim Presley, who wigs out on guitar and vocals, and it is a heady, hypnotropic mind melt of a track, the beats relentless and feverish, the needle in the red, in the vein, in the third eye. What always excites about Lover's productions is the energy and excitement that emanates from his work - not only is there creativity and flair evident in his musicianship, there is a holy reverence for his base material too.

You can pre-order Vondun Moon/Snake Hands here. Only 250 copies were canned, so expect these to fly out the door - GET ON IT.

Video Vacuum - Grinderman, Moonbell, Warpaint, Handsome Furs

What a week, already! Planet Masala in meltdown, due papers and articles, financial fuck ups - and it's only Tuesday. I guess that means we need some visual distraction then, huh?

First we have the irascible Grinderman, whose animated video for 'Mickey Mouse & The Goodbye Man' is a suitably cheeky trip.



Moonbell's 'Figurine' was a fuzzed out gem that we featured a little while back. Well, now it has a video! And any excuse to get back into bed with these San Franciscans is a good one.

"Figurine" by Moonbell from lisa dawn on Vimeo.

God, I love Warpaint! The fact Im seeing the LA quartet play at Splendour In The Grass in a few days is beyond exciting! So in anticipation here is a video for their self-titled track - lush...



Finally, Handsome Furs. I've never listened to their stuff before, but this decidedly NSFW video had me more interested than ever to become involved...er, listen to their back catalogue... And if this doesnt get you over the worktime hump, and just on the hump, then nothing will...

Handsome Furs - "What About Us" from stereogum on Vimeo.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Grinderman is Evil

Here's the new video by Grinderman, again helmed by director John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road). Its not as out and out psycho as 'Heathen Child', but its still unsettling - what the fuck is a vampire squid anyway?

Grinderman 2 is out now.

Mass Graves Tame Grinderman's Worm

A Place To Bury Strangers' Exploding Head was a visceral kick to the groin last year, and is still handing unwary punters their arses today.

Grinderman encapsulates the piss and vinegar stroke manner in which Nick Cave and his badder than Bad Seeds have ensconced themselves in, and are intent to immerse us all in their delicious degradation.

And now the two bands have jumped into bed together, with APTBS remixing 'Worm Tamer', the upcoming single from the esoterically named Grinderman 2. Its a sharp slap of chaos theory sonics - you can hear the seismic shifts and the echoes of a million souls being torn up by a grave natural disaster every time this track hits the airwaves.

'Worm Tamer' will be released on November 22.

Grinderman - Worm Tamer (A Place To Bury Strangers remix) by MuteRecords

Return Of The Grindermen

Im struggling to write here. What do you add to the plethora of reviews down the decades that have been penned about the inimitable Nick Cave and his various incarnations? On his own, with his Bad Seed, throwing Birthday Part(y)ies, as a Grinderman - he's covered the girth of the earth in just about every conceivable way. And it appears that he is coming full circle, with his last couple albums and his Grinderman project with his twisted right hand man Warren Ellis (in brilliantly unhinged form), and other Bad Seeds Casey and Schlavunos, that Cave is fully embracing the devil at the crossroads.

Grinderman 2, out last week, doesnt vary much from its predecessor, aiming for that dirty, sleazy, ballsy, psycho blowout to end all dirty, sleazy, ballsy, psycho blowouts. Its all about streamlining the mainline, exceeding the excess, cleansing oneself with filth. Opener 'Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man' is the epitome of what Grinderman encapsulated before - an eviscerating number that seems like a regrettable cast-off from Grinderman, with Cave lasciviously panting, "W sucked her, we sucked her, we sucked her dry..." But from there we are treated to a more diverse record, yet still steeped in debauchery, hilarity and lotsa lotsa noise. Even slowburner 'When My Baby Comes' gives no respite here, exploding from a lighter Bad Seeds-esque musing on a faltering relationship into a wailing psych wigout tunnel halfway through, without a light at the end - my favourite track here. Single 'Heathen Child' is an abusive crawler, eschewing conventions, eliciting smiles and grimaces in equal measures, as is the intended purpose of the track (and the music vid elevates that hundred-fold). Theres sleazy innuendo ('Worm Tamer'), unbridled aggression ('Evil'), jaunty to and froing ('Palaces of Montezuma')...basically, this just proves that Grinderman is Nick Cave doing whatever the hell he likes - drinking all the booze, smashing the place up, and sleeping with your wife, mistress, and entire family, before disappearing into the pale moonlight - and you'll be sad to see him go.

Grinderman play Shepheards Bush Empire Friday night. (Here's a nice review of their Garage show on Sunday by Kitty Empire at the Guardian. Oh, and our Independent debut!!!!)

Grinderman - Heathen Child

Grinderman - When My Baby Comes

When John Spencer Drinks The Kool-Aid...

There is something inherently sexy dirty about out and out sleazy bluesy rock and roll. Antagonistic anti-hero John Spencer has been doling it out in heavy dollops over a long period of time, under many different guises, and it never ceases to amaze me how something so two-dimensional can still enrapture an entire audience and turn them into a writhing sea of hormones, sweat and leers. But Mr Spencer is but one man...

Lucky for The Jim Jones Revue then. The East London rabble rousers have been relentlessly scouring every dive and dank den of iniquity for a few years now, and all of this is about to come to a head with the release of their new album, Burning Your House Down, released by Punk Rock Blues Records / [PIAS] Recordings on September 6th. Produced by Jim Sclavunos (of Nick Cave &The Bad Seeds/Grinderman), the LP captures the roar of an untamed band at the top of their game. With the microphone shredding wail of Jim Jones at the helm, fearlessly spurred by Rupert Orton’s six-string maelstrom, Elliot Mortimer’s savaged ivories and the jackhammer rhythm section of drummer Nick Jones and bassist Gavin Jay, The Jim Jones Revue swing like a giant ball and chain.

Just to get you salivating over this, here are two extra tidbits - first single 'High Horse', is out on Monday, and the fourth track from the forthcoming album, 'Big Len', is below for your perusal and abusal. If you think there is too much sleazy rock'n'roll in this world, you may as well reach for that red cup brimming with Ratkill, because with the likes of these guys, plus the neverending energies of Nick Cave and John Spencer, floating around this great wide planet, there's gonna be a whole lot more being passed around. Me? Im reaching for my bottle of whiskey as we speak, sweat-stained leer firmly etched into my features. You know you love it...

Nick Cave Being Nick Cave x infinity...

I really can't say anything about Grinderman's vid for new track 'Heathen Child' - it has to be seen. Preferably not around impressionable types though - this is all kinds of fucked up...

There Be Heathens...

Grinderman have their new album out in just under two months, and Ive told you and shown you the various bits of info that Nick Cave and his ill brethren have released thus far. Well, today we have their first single from the album, 'Heathen Child', for your listening displeasure. It has a different feel than its predecessor, but is no less squallid, diseased, filthy, and oh so seductive...

Heathen Child by MuteRecords

Grinderman is a she-bitch

New cover art for the upcoming Grinderman single, 'Heathen Child', out on August 2. And if that isnt shit scary enough for you, check out this John Hillcoat-directed trailer for their sophomore LP Grinderman 2...



Or how about this one?



I love these guys. Now Im not sure its of my own free will...

Any Knives to Grind This Autumn????

Nick Cave is a musical entity all on his own. All things he touches turned to gold; everything he does is inimitable. The Bad Seeds continue to surge forward; his second novel The Death of Bunny Munro is a work of twisted and yet empathetic genius; his ghostly scores for The Road, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Cowardly Robert Ford and The Proposition (which are all brilliant films) lift the heavy subject matter into the netherworld...

Then there is Grinderman, where Cave and some of his Bad Seedites (including the cracked genius of The Dirty Three's Warren Ellis, whose work on Cave's scores is immediately recognizable) harken back to Cave's roots in The Birthday Party to let forth a bilge of vitriol, spewing forth sleaze, noise and aggression. It scares you - you know you are powerless - and yet you beg for it to have its way with you, the rougher the better...

So before I have a cold shower, two bits of rad news. This electric side project is bringing out a second album to complement the self-titled debut of 2008. Recorded in various London studios, the LP (tentatively titled Grinderman 2) is due out September 13 via Mute Records. And secondly, they are playing at the Hammersmith Apollo on October 1. I saw them play in Brisbane back in October 2008 - I thought Id lost my musical virginity before then, but I was (not so) sadly mistaken... You have been warned.

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues