Splits Are Double Trouble...

Fancy doing the splits? You should - especially if they come out as good as this quad of demented beauties...

Sonic Masala regulars Pairs have paired up (fitting really) with equally nutso Shanghai-based band Stegosaurus? (pictured doing the grooming thing above), another bunch of ex-pat lunatics all about strangling instruments and ranting and raving into blasted microphones. The release is a direct challenge - Splits Don't Work is a work of halves, as a split should be, but each band tries their hand at each others' songs, thus highlighting the anarchic thrashing of Stegosaurus? and the beauty in repetition that Pairs can create, when they aren't tearing the room apart (except for the last song 'Parasite', which is a typical Pairs rant ending in a dustbin rancour - that's good, by the way). It's a lot of fun for sure.

Next up is a split cassette that Nashville label Paco Tapes put out showcasing the talents of New Orleans trio Woozy and hometown raucous dreamers Dogtooth. Now sold out, Somebody Else's Problem is in turns a calamitous chugging ride through the desert, and a squalling party song drifting into the sky like a helium-filled balloon.

The next split sees us continue in the intercontinental vein, as we touch down in Aberdeen, Scotland, and the backyard of Cool Your Jets Records. The first release from the newly minted label is this 7" that features laconic punks Pinact and Min Diesel. The 7", imaginatively titled Pin Diesel, shows both bands thrashing out their guitar rock with typical laissez faire, distorted abandon, and reminds you why playing guitar in the 90s was so much more fun than most people playing guitar in the 00s. Dirty, devilish, dangerous - delicious.

Finally we'll settle in the lower bowels of the UK where Art Is Hard Records reigns supreme. The next in their long list of fascinating releases comes this delectable slice of 7" wax, featuring Exeter loose cannons Birdskulls on one side, and scuzzy kids Bloody Knees on the other. The bands provide two songs each for the record, of which Birdskulls' 'Alley Gorey' is the first cut. Preorder the release here.

Times New Viking Grammatically Plunder The Brisbane Woodlands

Brisbane, the excitement is at fever pitch! The upcoming few months closing out 2011 will see you awash with amazing overseas acts. You will see the plethora of local ace acts slowly littering these pages in due course (we've already heard from the likes of Nova Scotia, Tiny Migrants, Blank Realm and No Anchor), and yet its a trashy trio from Ohio that will kickstart this in earnest! Tomorrow at Woodland Times New Viking hit the stage, alongside local acts Cobwebbs and Meat Thump (the name has me salivating already!). Their latest album Dancer Equired cleans up the scuzz but does nothing to dampen the rampant energy these garage noise pop fusionists dish out.

Times New Viking were one of the first stellar acts that blew me away when I arrived in England back in the heady days of 2008 - they supported Los Campesinos! alongside No Age. What was Los Campesinos! thinking? These bands wipe the floor with their twee shit! AND it was the second gig after Offset Festival where I caught up with Paul, and a year later Sonic Masala was born - collective awwww...

Seriously though, this show is gonna be amazeballs. Tix are still available at $25/bf, and is not to be missed!

Times New Viking - Downtown Eastern Bloc
Times New Viking - Fuck Her Tears

Not Not a Bored Fortress for Infinite Body, No Age, Rangers, Gnod, Robedoor and NNF gang

No set of posts about Not Not Fun would be complete with out mentioning their Bored Fortress 7" club, thus picking out a couple of the many gems that make up this year's selection.

The Bored Fortress 7" Club, now in its fourth year, is a series of split 7" featuring some of NNF fave bands, such as Wet Hair, Sex Worker, Ducktails, Rangers, Infinite Body, Psychic Reality, No Age, Gnod and Robedoor, all married together with NNF fave visual artists, this year including Cody De Franco, Julien Langendorff, Carlos Gonzalez plus many more. The packaging is a big part of it, along with the limited releases and lucky dip nature of the club. The club runs from August to December, a precious 7" dropping every other month. This is really a 7" club at its best taking all out visually and sonically.

As you've probably noticed the club has finished but you can still pick up these gems on a individual basis from NNF and other places. One choice pick for me from this year's club was the Gnod and Robedoor split - both normally expansive bands from either side of the pond are forced by 7"s of wax to form tightly bound knots form the psych depths. Gnod's 'A Very Special Request' slowly plummets to the darkest regions whilst Robedoor's 'Solid State' descending into a hard psych meltdown.

No Age and the Infinite Body's 7" is another highlight. Two bands you might not naturally sit together but some how Bored Fortress has created a match made in heaven, No Age reeling back to their instrumental noise origins with 'Wintry Kk' and Infinite Body picking up from this year's LP, Carve Out the Face of My God, offering soft snow noise sweeping all before it with 'Between You Can Crawl Like This Is The End'. And don't get me started on the Sex Worker / Psychic Reality split, not to mention the Rangers/Ducktails spar off...

I could go on forever about these six slices of 7" awesomeness, a testament to the genius work of Not Not Fun in one top tip bundle. Of course my posts have only scratched the surface of all that NNF has to offer, hopefully they've convinced you delve deeper into their delights. Have a taste and support their sterling work here.

Infinite Body - Between You Can Crawl Like This Is The End

Gnod - A Very Special Request

Ghosts Fit These Sisters

Im mega slow on this one - whilst we showed you the first single 'Highway Scratch' a while back, Sisters' Ghost Fits has been out since September on Narnack. Whoops! So I wont go on and on here. All Ill say is that whilst this is no masterpiece from this fresh duo, it nonetheless is an infectious longplayer full of unhinged guitar pop gems, living in the same neighbourhood as No Age but opting out of prowling the streets for eating copious amounts of sugary sweets and bouncing off the walls, practising their best nonchalant singing in the mirror before scissor-kicking off their fire-truck single beds and powersliding across the bedroom floor, oblivious to the carpet burns such an audacious move has inflicted on their kneecaps.

Sisters - Glue

Sisters - Here It Comes

Breaching Adolescence Into A Black Hole

One of the great 'finds' for Sonic Masala this year has been Young Adults. The trio from Massachusetts impressed many with their demo earlier this year - evident from picking up a support slot for Male Bonding and Best Coast at the end of the month - and in November they are priming to release their debut album, Black Hole, in November (through Czech label AMDISCS). An apt title too. A band that immerses itself in caustic walls of bruising guitar and chanting vocals that cross Japandroids and No Age, Young Adults are a band that firmly fit SM's mold of bands we love. What is impressive about Black Hole is how these guys are ready to supersede these two bands in ferocity, veracity and playability. Opening with ethereal 'Reverie' they blister the wall paint with 'Let Us Out' and never let you get a breath for the rest of the album. A very assured debut that highlights a tight insular band whose intensely coiled aggression coalesces into a fine brand of angst ridden rock with enough punk, shoegaze and early 90s DC sound aesthetics to punch their way through to the speakers and sear themselves onto your eardrums. I havent felt so energised by a new album this year since hearing Male Bonding's Nothing Hurts - nuff said.

Drifing by TheKLYAM

And to brush up on Young Adults, check out our previous entry on their demo here.

The Glitter Age

No Age's Everything In Between is one of the most anticipated albums of 2010 - well, it is around these parts thats for sure. So the fact that they are releasing some songs from these sessions over the next few weeks is tres exciting! Here is 'Glitter', the second track off the album, to sink your teeth into! Its squally, chanty, even a little epic-y - see what you think...

No Age - Glitter

No Age Like New No Age...

As you may have noted, No Age are releasing an album this year, which is mega exciting of
death.  Well, now I can state that it will be entitled Everything In Between, and will
come out September 28 through Sub Pop Records.  They will be playing Field Day, so
make sure you get tickets for that - it should be an unbelievable day.  So - not much info,
but a good excuse for a No Age track!

No Age - Teen Creeps

The Friday Cover - mad with a duo make over

Really - this week I was trying to find a cover of New Order's World in Motion for the Cover Up, yeah I'm bitten by the World Cup bug too. But I failed (any help with that one?) so I thought a bit of Friday madness would go down well. So here's California duo (think they might be a trio now) No Age's Björk cover of It's Oh So Quiet, yes you did just read that right! Its as mad as it sounds but with a healthy smear of No Age drone. Thanks to Lou for the heads up.

No Age - It's Oh So Quiet

Eat Skull - More than just the coolest part of The Lost Boys

Siltbreeze has steadily built itself up into one of the most exciting labels on the planet. With acts such as Times New Viking, Sic Alps and Naked On The Vague on its roster (also Guided By Voices ?!?), expect to hear a hell of a lot more of what they have to offer...like right now!

Eat Skull have been dishing out a scuzzy as fuck noise pop formula for a few years now, alongside fellow Portlanders and Siltbreeze stablemates Psychedelic Horseshit (although PH take the cake in shambolic - don't worry, we'll post in due haste), and have inadvertantly found themselves on a wave of popular music...and yet somehow left behind in the slipstream. Crystal Antlers, Wavves, No Age and their ilk are gaining monumental popularity/notoriety. However Eat Skull deserve just as much of the accolades - even though they probably dont give two shits either way.

1st album Sick To Death really got things rolling, showcasing a band that could grab all of their favourite musical genres and put it through a shiny meat grinder to produce grisly slabs of murky gold (that sounds absolute rubbish, but listen to 'Beach Brains' followed by 'New Confinement' and you'll be swayed). 2009's follow up Wild and Inside was still awesome +, but didnt have the immediacy of its predecessor, despite the incessance of the organ on pop-tart of death opener 'Stick To The Formula'. You can definitely hear bands like the Clean in there - just not as clean. But still cleaner than before - even if less clean is cleaner...

Fuck, let me put it this way - Eat Skull are great. Really really great. Their abominations of pop, punk, garage rock, art rock, and scuzzy no-wave somehow add up to priceless soundbites that can be embraced wholeheartedly - and you will embrace them. They are criminally underrated. Chase down their albums, become devotees, and...eat some skulls...

Eat Skull - Beach Brains

Eat Skull - New Confinement

Eat Skull - Stick To The Formula

Interview with No Age

The folks at Dummy mag have posted today an interview with noise punk rockers No Age. Check it out here.
Having seen them a few days back at the Primavera Sound Festival (I'm sure Paul will be uploading some pretty amazing pics soon - better than seeing mine, believe me!) for the first time, I'm still under the hypnosis of it all and had to share it...

No Age will be playing Field Day in Victoria Park on July 31st... don't miss out!

Six Degrees of Deerhunter #6 – Neil Young via No Age, Bob Mould and the Ghost Dog guy?

Ah, the final instalment. I must say that this 6 Degrees… has been flimsier that the Sonic Youth collective from a couple months ago, but it has helped to unearth some gems. I didn’t even get to mention Bradford Cox’s involvement in the Karen O-driven Where The Wild Things Are score. But I had to include this last one, however - I think is an absolute doozy, and helped to fuel my very first Friday covers post.

The absolute brilliance that is All Tomorrow’s Parties has given birth to many an amazing collaboration, rendition, notorious event etc. Last year’s New York ATP was no exception. Pitchfork went through and got some clandestine recordings in apartments with band members from various acts playing the weekend, and it was extremely intriguing viewing. The absolute highlight of this was one of the curators, esteemed cult film auteur Jim Jarmusch, Randy and Dean of No Age, Bradford Cox, and Bob Mould. Their track? The epic Neil Young song Cortez the Killer. I think it is a fitting way to finish off this post. So, without further ado, enjoy…

Friday cover up #8

Stop the presses! I know Im not Johnny-on-the-spot with this one, as its now Sunday - but Ive just got off a plane from Australia, and am still somewhat jetlagged, so cut me some freakin slack! Still, ill make it up to yall by offering up not just a cover, but an album of covers! Those masters over at Stereogum put out a tribute album to Bjork's incendiary album of 1995, Post. Thetribute album is called Covered. The artists doing the covering include Liars, Xiu Xiu, No Age, Atlas Sound, Winter Hinterland, Dirty Projectors... It is a masterstroke. Hunt it down, for the love of God! Im pretty sure Stereogum still offer it as a zip file on their site somewhere. And in the meantime, here is a taste by one of my favourite bands, Liars...

Liars - Army of Me (Bjork cover)