Stuttering Vultures Will Cut You

What an intriguing name is Vuvuvultures. The London-based quartet have just released a single 'I'll Cut You' through Popular Recordings. Now I'll be honest - on the band name alone, I thought this was going to be ordinary. The song title I loved though, so I gave it a spin. It's pretty good. I'd say that these guys are a pop band, when placed into a vice and ground into a dark and never ending goo. They are a very new band, having formed only last year, and I'm yet to hear the VVV EP this track came from, but I like where these kids are going. Check it out below. Also, if you're in London in June, they're playing Hoxton Bar & Grill June 26 (that's a school night).

To Be A Civilian Of Wye Oak...

Baltimore indie powerhouse Wye Oak released their LP Civilian a little while back, and its one that Ive been enamoured with for some time. It fits into the Heartless Bastards mold of heartfelt and emotive yet rolling thunder rock that the best alt-rock-folk-whatever aficionados harness and make their own. Furthermore, also like Heartless Bastards, Wye Oak is fronted by a woman with a hauntingly beautiful smoky voice - Jenn Wasner. Now Ive seen Heartless Bastards, and I wear the shit out of their shirt, and they are fantastic. Wye Oak sound like they can do the same thing - yet with only half the staff, as Wasner is joined only by Andy Stack on drums/keyboards. This actually heightens my love for Civilian.

Now I know that Wye Oak are playing in London at Hoxton Bar and Grill on June 16. But if you can, go to the Bowery Ballroom in NYC on May 22nd for a concert showcasing Dinosaur Jr's music, with the likes of Wye Oak, Tune-Yards, Titus Andronicus, Delicate Steve, Ted Leo, Dirty Projectors and Dan Deacon all getting involved. There are always great collaborations, but this one takes the fucking cake. Get there!

Wye Oak - Two Small Deaths
Wye Oak - Civilian

Death Vally, Comanechi and Divorce

Dalston's riotous punk-metal duo Comanechi and Glasgow's Divorce have just finished a tour together. Gutted I've been a bit slow on this one 'cos I'm sure that the combination of that much screaming punk madness would have ripped the Hoxton Bar and Grill a new arsehole. They also fitted in an Oxford date courtesy of the excellent Poor Girl Noise, although I'm sure the PGN lads can handle Comanechi and Divorce with bevvies to spare.

To top the tour off the bands have released a split 10", purchase here, and in a lovely break in convention the 10" includes a track recorded by both bands together, a version of Sonic Youth's legendary Death Vally 69, or Dv69 as Comanechi and Divorce have entitled it. Its one to grate your collective spines, for sure.

Comanechi and Divorce - Dv69

Voiceless Crocodiles

Hip as fuck-sters Crocodiles are doing their best to not get caught rehashing themselves. Seeing as Crocodiles itself is a new direction by members of The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, this is impressive. We heard a track from Sleep Forever, their sophomore effort after the much-lauded Summer of Hate, and it shows a cleaner, poppier approach to their snarling scuzzy post-pop. Now they are releasing Fires of Comparison, a four track EP that has the leatherclad brooders shifting styles, showing samples, and vetoing vocals altogether for what proves to be a great little instrumental record.

Each song has a different approach - 'Kill Joe Arpaio' is a Girls Versus Boys-lite driver, all slink, smirk and menace with the looped radio samples; 'A House With Skin Like Yours' is a stamping monotone, with reverbing guitar and incessant tambourine evoking a blue soaked Western vista replete of Wayne's and Ford's, replaced instead with Gallo's and Jarmusch's filling their snakeskin boots whilst BRMC revisit their roots at the local saloon; the title track sits comfortably with John/Ono noodlings and shimmering guitar with white noise overload from a data projector; with 'Hearts Reprise' coming at the bottom end with minimalist blips and sonic veils, a muzak number if imagined by Melbourne indie wunderkinds Minimum Chips.

I never thought I would say this - but Crocodiles have actually submitted a release that is not saturated in its own self-worth; that is not pandering to the disaffected masses; that is not bleeding kudos from the quiffed copouts and the denimed slackers that mark out their peers. Dont get me wrong - these guys are continually walking a hipster tightrope, threatening to disappear up their own arseholes at any given opportunity (we got strep from doing crack with a hobo; I cant do interviews cos Im stoned; Im sweating profusely cos Im wearing leather but refuse to take it off yadda yadda), but they are proving their worth as frontrunners for the new bands of the beginning of this decade. Which bodes well for Wednesday when Sleep Forever is due to hit...

Download Fires of Comparison from Fat Possum Records for free here, and sample 'A House With Skin Like Yours' below. In the meantime Crocodiles are finishing up a tour in the US with a New York gig with Reading Rainbow and The Girls at Dawn, and start a new one with Golden Triangle and Dirty Beaches late October. In between Crocodiles are treating us here in the UK with the first tour after releasing Sleep Forever - lucky us! SO get tix for the Hoxton Bar and Grill (5 October) or the in-store at Rough Trade East (14 October), or catch their shows spread across the land.

Crocodiles - A House With Skin Like Yours

A Sense of Vertigo

Just received the new single from Yorkshire's Exit Calm, 'Don't Look Down'. The music video is very slick, and its obvious that the band, signed to Club AC30, are getting some major push.

I have to say though that I wish Id heard the song before seeing the vid. I couldnt help but think that the lead actor was some Bowie fetishist sleazing onto some young tired thing with askew bedhair in the dark - all unsettling and kinda Snow Patrol-y.

Yet the track itself showcased some greater spiralling guitar noise at its end, a grandiose affair that uses the quiet-loud dynamic to optimal effect. They come across as brooding indie rock (a la The Twilight Sad) that hover on that precipice between pop and aggression, not knowing whether to fly or to fall - wherein lies the beauty. But hey, Im saying this on just one track! The jury is still out on Exit Calm, but they have certainly intrigued.

Their EP Don't Look Down is out in October, and they have a run of UK dates in September and October, including one at ICA on September 17th (supporting Sereena Maneesh) and at Hoxton Bar & Grill on October 14th. They were unlucky to have a gig at Electric Ballroom cancelled due to headliners Thrice pulling the pin (and as an aside - I kinda like/liked Thrice; have seen them twice, albeit a few years ago, and always start playing Guitar Hero with 'The Arsonist' - guilty pleasure haha).

Sunbirds, Sunshine, All The Time!

Paul is right - its hard to resist a band that evokes a sunny disposition when the English summer commences. Its even harder when the band's name evokes summer frivolity. Best Coast, Eternal Summer, Beach Fossils, are all on high rotation - and it helps that they are kick arse bands too.

Sunbirds, when reading of their make-up, would appear to have a confused notion of what it means to make sunny pop, due to dislocation of geography - members hark from London, Los Angeles and France. However their generous and upside down frown take on shoegaze fuzz is very refreshing, and marks them as a band to keep an eye on over the summer months - which you can start doing next week! Sunbirds are playing Hoxton Bar and Grill on Monday 29th June (supporting The Whigs and Expatriate), before launching their first EP River Run, out in July through Smoky Carrot.

Sunbirds - Sunshine

Pulling Us Bleary Eyed Into The Past

I saw Sleepy Sun in July last year over watching an apparently mental Dananananaykroyd gig at Hoxton Bar and Grill, where earlier in the year I had seen Dananananaykroyd, funnily enough. Paul, who saw the latter gig in July, thought I was mad to miss the frenetic thrashings of the Scottish wunderkinds, but Sleepy Sun’s unapologetic 70s leanings and stoner wigouts really appealed to me. Whilst it wasn’t the mindblowing event that it could have been, the San Fran-via-Santa Cruz sextet set out to, and achieved, exactly what it said on the tin.

We are almost 12 months on, and these ATP-backed rapscallions are a little more world weary, much more live stage aligned, but still very classic seventies rock and/or roll. With their latest LP Fever up for grabs tomorrow (1 June through ATP Recordings), it seems that the massive, sun-blasted riffs, whilst made richer and aurally more crystalline, will forever be entrenched in the Led-Zep school of rawk. Check out a track from Fever, plus a collaboration with UNKLE off the latest LP Where Did The Night Go?

Sleepy Sun - Open Eyes
UNKLE (feat. Sleepy Sun) - Follow Me Down

I always knew those old guys on the balcony were cool...

Menomena are about to launch their much feted 3rd album MINES July 27th, out through City Slang and Barsuk. Three years in the making, MINES offers more of the eccentric instrumentation that they are known for, their individual parts coming together to make amazingly catchy gems. They are also playing at Hoxton Bar & Grill at June 7th, showcasing the new gear and dusting off some of their greats from previous LP Friend and Foe. This will be an amazing gig - make sure you get tickets while you can.

Menomena - FIVE LITTLE ROOMS

Wildlife calamaties

I heard about John McCauley last year when I went to see Dead Confederate at Hoxton Bar and Grill. I immediately fell in step with his down home southern US folk vision - his voice a plaintive strangler, denoting a man who has seen it all and still gets out of bed in the morning. The fact that McCauley is only 24 somehow heightens the magic. Since his first dalliances with Hank Williams tracks in his bedroom back in 2004, he has formed Deer Tick, a rollicking 4 piece that truly showcase the strength and passion in each of his songs, and projects them on a wide canvas of dense Americana that somehow translates - maybe because i was brought up on Hank Williams, Charlie Pride and Johnny Cash, it doesnt matter really! The point is that the band is good, and this track is indicative of what they do. Its from 3rd album The Black Dirt Sessions, coming out through their new label Partisan in June. It would be worth your while hunting down 2007's War Elephant and 2008's Born On Flag Day. They are currently touring with Dr Dog over in the US, so hopefully they will make another detour to ol Blighty before the year runs out.

Deer Tick - 20 Miles

Waxing lyrical

Wax Fang are another band that I stumbled over late last year - their seminal track World War Two Part Two was, along with Menomena (see upcoming post) was an integral part of my moving-to-London soundtrack. And, just like Menomena, Ive been hankering to post about these guys since forever, but important information has forced my hand to do it RIGHT NOW.

Finally, the Louisville, Kentuckians are coming to the UK!

And how. Wax Fang splash down in May with their first gig being in Bath on the 10th (see what I did there? Ahhhhh...) They then play Huw Stephens' Introducing... @ the Social on the 11th, then a string of festivals throughout the month (ATP curated by Pavement, The Great Escape, Stag and Dagger, Dot to Dot).

AND - if that's not enough exposure, they will also head a double bill with Dead Confederate (who blew Hoxton Bar and Grill away last December) at Koko on the 28th of May.

I can barely contain my excitement! I intend to slake my thirst with as much Wax Fang as possible - check out WW2 Pt2 for evidence...

Wax Fang "WWII (Pt.2)" Music Video from don't panic records on Vimeo.

Some Pivot remixes for you...

Pivot are one of my favourite Australian acts out there at the moment. They are good friends with my best mate's brother (who was their photographer back in their Sydney days), and they have relocated to London (along with another amazingly unique Aussie outfit, Snowman), and they are amazingly affable chaps that are brilliant at what they do - tight, atmospheric, damn catchy indie electronica rock.

Furthermore, Pivot - Pike brothers, guitar guru Richard and drumming demon Laurence, and electronomaniac and all round nice guy Dave Millar - are currently putting the final touches on their 3rd LP, following up the out-of-nowhere explosively impressive Make Me Love You and the assured brilliance of follow-up O Soundtrack My Heart.

Laurence will also feature on a Bill Callahan live CD where he took over drumming tour duties.

They are truly special - their gig at Hoxton Bar and Grill in May last year was a ephemeral sweatbox of writhing limbs - and will be touring again soonish. They are currently doing SXSW (arent they all?) plus scoring support slots for the likes of Morning Teleportation, Nice Nice, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and the impressive Quasi. They need to be heard (and seen) to be believed.

I will do an album retrospective of them soon (I am that keen for people to start listening to them...), but for now here are two remixes the boys have laid down in the past few months. The first was done for Warp Records 20th anniversary, a reimagining of Grizzly Bear's 'Colorado' off their Yellow House record. The 2nd is an example of probably the ONLY time you will see the Temper Trap mentioned on our blog. Not that they are deplorable - not just my cup of tea. Pivot makes them palatable here though - especially around the 2 and a 1/2 minute mark - quintessential Pivot. More to come!!!!!

Grizzly Bear - Colorado (Pivot remix)

Temper Trap - Fader (Pivot remix)