Digging Up Stupid Stags

Amongst the first bands that I remember "discovering" at the start of this blog, LA five-piece StaG's debut album Rifle Meeker is one that I have found myself travelling back to, especially when one of its tracks (usually 'Whatapity' or 'Everything Is Plaster') cold-cocks me from out of the ether of the computer playlist. I thought it was a welcome diversion down the rabbit hole that Bradford Cox, Noah Lennox and Lockett Pundt have dug for themselves - read and listen here. Since then they disappeared off my radar for a bit, but the band have just released new EP Dig Up Stupid, a five song effort that has some pretty great elements in it, especially the excellent opener 'Even If It Hurts' (a song that plays on the frenetic guitar pop dismantlings of the likes of Krill, although not as roughshod and serrated - and is more anthemic). They are clearly more upbeat in their approach. It's always nice to be reminded of a small band that keep doing their thing, and the work ends up being this rewarding.

Ducktails, Listen To Ducktails...

I have to say that I've wavered on Ducktails - Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile's side project - almost as much as I have on my opinion of his "day job". Nevertheless, his Hamilton Road EP really impressed, in no small part due to the appearance of Panda Bear on the track 'Killin' The Vibe'. Now there is a fantastic video out for the title track, and Mondanile's guitar-driven expositions and wistful meanderings are growing on me in an A/V environment. What with Real Estate's 'It's Real' killing it, these New Jersey sun-dazed slackers might just win me over yet...And look at that above photo! Bromance looming...

Ducktails - Killin' The Vibe (featuring Panda Bear)

StaG Meekly Floats Past The Rifle

This week you will see a few albums that I've received from small bands over the last month and, although its taken me forever to get to them, they are ace. First one of the shelf is Rifle Meeker, the debut album from Los Angeles-via-Boulder, Colorado band StaG. StaG. It shimmers with so many Panda Bear references it would be overpowering, if Panda Bear wasn't one of the greatest solo artists out there at the moment. And the thing is, it transcends the comparison (if not Panda Bear himself) with the production values. The summery haze that permeates this dream-like existential drifter is so clear and beautiful that it is incredibly easy to find yourself lost in the sound, having inexplicably strayed from the path, and never wanting to find you way back to the real world. What's even more impressive is that this cacophonous beauty has been carved out by two guys who sound like a cross between Lockett Pundtt and Noah Lennox - if that doesn't make you weak at the knees, you aren't a sonic romantic...) And also the auxiliary percussion in tracks like 'Everyone Is Plaster' is warranted, not superfluous, and helps to buoy the soaring vocals. A very effective debut, and one I hope kicks StaG into the outer consciousnesses of all of you...

In their words, Rifle Meeker is about "living in a city I didn't think was right for me. It's about missing California and feeling like I was stuck along the seventeen-hour drive between Boulder and Calabasas, CA, constantly seeing road signs for places like Rifle, CO and Meeker, CO. It's also about going through a few months of constant panic attacks about issues that were way over my head. I think overall, though, it's an album about accepting that life in my early 20s comes with a lot of transitions and that relying on the constants in my life, that I care about, will make things a bit more manageable." Lofty? Maybe, but easily achieved.

Rifle Meeker is available at their Bandcamp here.

StaG - Whatapity
StaG - Everything Is Plaster

Broken Water - Stars On The Peripheral...

I think that one of the most underrated bands of the past twelve months is definitely Olympia, Washington's Broken Water. I love love LOVE last year's Whet LP - it was one I didnt put in my top ten much to my chagrin, and should have been in there, not enough people havent heard it and should! (Here are two instances last year that I talked about this stellar album (count em, one...two...; plus a piece on their Nothing Normal Happened EP is here). Well they have brought us another release called Peripheral Star (out on Perennial Records) and it is fantastic! Opening with the title track, these tracks ebb and flow along the faultlines of grunge, no wave and pop, mining territory that early Blonde Redhead harvested before glamming up their production and arting up their vision - and the trio are producing far more impressive results. I cant even decide on a favourite track. Ive listened to this pretty much non stop since getting it last week. Its been the punctuation marks between all the other albums and releases that have set down on Planet Masala (and that's including the new Panda Bear, Ponytail, Young Widows and Lil Daggers albums).

I implore you - please get into these guys ASAP and buy this! They're a must!

Broken Water - Peripheral Star
Broken Water - Kansas

Gala Drop those winter blues

This is another hot tip from Gorilla Vs Bear that they dropped a month back and in my own true style I haven't got round to sharing but now seems the perfect time to do so.

If you're coming down with the winter blues then you really should check out Gala Drop. The Portuguese quartet have just dropped a self titled 12" with Golf Channel Recordings and Gala Drop Records and its perfect squelching beats, jungle rhythms and sprawling tropical-psych takes me right to Primavera and messing about on the beach at four in the morning. As you might imagine Gala Drop get big thumbs up from Animal Collective and supported Panda Bear. It's perfect to pretend Autumn isn't here.

Gala Drop - Parson

WTF Music

I have no idea what just happened.

The last 42 minutes I have stopped all I have doing - nearly stopped breathing, in fact - because all faculties were necessary to try to compute just what was going on in Ullakkopalo, the LP by Finnish uber altered chic-a-zoid Kemialliset Ystavad. That actually sounds harsh, but for well over a decade, Ystavad has done all he can to subvert everything music has to offer. And Ill tell you now - no matter what anyone (Pitchfork, Quietus, Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio, Ystavad himself, or me - which makes this post kind redundant) tells you, its not what you are about to embark upon when you slip this on and press PLAY.

This is the second artist from Tampere, Finland that Ive posted about these past few weeks (the other being sludge monsters Consciousness Removal Project, which is also so worth your time), and Im starting to think that I need to go back there - if only to freeze my brain to the extent where I can orchestrate fucked up genius like this. Finnish for 'chemical friends', Kemialliset Ystavad (AKA Jan Anderzen, a creative arts junkie whose avid works include installations, photography and film) has taken the electro-acoustic approach to the conventions of folk, then eschews those conventions to display a suite of sound that has every element - squeak, squelch, gleep, glitch, bleep, bump, wail, wheeze - out of place, yet together, like a million piece jigsaw puzzle, making sense only when everything is in its right place. And the listener feels just like the puzzler when that final piece is hammered home - the sensations of disbelief, relief, and utter satisfaction pervades throughout. Its weird, because within this miasma is a semblance of sense - but, just like a Magic Eye apparition, it takes all your focus to see the light. And yet you will see the light - the orchestration here is at times breathtaking in its scope and breath, at others grin-inducing at its innate simplicity. This is what Tunng might sound like if they were possessed by early 00s Animal Collective, or what Panda Bear might broach if Beck, Nick Drake and John McEntire were his spiritual totems.

Im about to play Ullakkopalo again, for the third time (its been playing its second route whilst I type this). It mightn't surprise you that Anderzen has worked with mum in the past. If only I had a bowl of weed and a mug of peyote... Actually, that would make my mind cave in. Just trust me when I say that this album is the wildest trip Ive experienced this year.

Ullakkopalo is out now through Fonal, which is a label well worth checking out - its the best place to get your mitts on Finnish experimental music that isnt Black metal, therefore its wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful.

Kemialliset Ystavad - Ystavalliset Miekat
Kemialliset Ystavad - Kivikasan Rauhassa