Chained To The Ghosts Of Hell

It's been a while since I've delved in either Surfer Blood or Weird Wives territory. Well, Surfer Blood have new stuff on the way, so there's that I suppose. Weird Wives on the other hand - fucks me. I stumbled across this today though. Some WW members, slave to double consonants and their own desolate gnashing of teeth, have relocated from Florida to Brooklyn and given birth to Slavve, a quivering mess of twitches, yelps and continual angular pain. Seesawing between ephemeral dissections of post-punk noise, shoegaze acid baths and scalpel cuts to the earbuds, Slavve haven't wasted time stamping their intent with bloody-minded conviction. This is a great start to an increasingly volatile relationship.

Weird Wives Swear And Drone On A Lot

The incredibly abrasive alter ego of Surfer Blood, Weird Wives put out some insidious little demos earlier this year that got under the skin and into your cerebral vortex, shutting everything down whilst flooding the blood stream with endorphins. Not a bad way to get rigor mortis on I suppose. Well they have just released an album, and the title is killer - Motherfuckers Gonna Be Walking 'Round With a Size 9 Diehard up Their Ass, Cause Apparently They Ain't Never Seen a Short AC Man Get Bad Ass on Methadone. Someone's looking to piss off mummy and daddy...

It still follows in the Jesus Lizard mold, but has a slower, more lethargic grind to it. In some ways this works to their detriment, for all you want is a proper explosion of fury and intent, rather than such constrained, fitful fare. But there are some tasty tracks on offer, no less 'Plastic Masks' which is all yours below. The Pitchfork review is pretty hasty in my opinion, but then I haven't lived with the album for that long. Still - I'd hedge my bets it's a better stayer than those guys are letting on... It's out on West Beach Beotches now.

Weird Wives - Plastic Masks

Carnivores Know Best

I got an email from Bruce over at FFS (Flingco Sound System - started after he left Kranky Records a few years back) about some bands we might be interested in that he deals with. We get this kind of request quite a lot. As you can tell, we tend to sift through and pick what we like to listen to, then pass it on to you (except for maybe in Bad Panda Record's case - Ive gone a bit overboard this week - it should be called Bad Panda Week - but most of the music has been pretty stellar, and very eclectic...ahem, sooooo...) Whilst FFS have a lot of bands at their disposal, I was offered up a 7" sampler of San Fran via Miami's Dead Meat.

Its really fucking good.

Dead Meat's sound encapsulates the likes of Killdozer, Murder City Devils and a lighter (?) Jesus Lizard, but slowed down to a bluesy drawl and dragged the back of a pick up truck by a one-eyed alcoholic narcolept. There is something lazy and yet dangerously relentless in what coils at the heart of this beast. The name befits the band - it pulverises, rancifies and eviscerates, all in incremental stages...

Its also of no surprise that Surfer Blood have championed them earlier this year, not because they sound anything like Surfer Blood, but because they bear a striking resemblance to the dirge blues evillness that makes up their side project, Weird Wives. I wanted to put all Dead Meat songs on here, but I have to settle down and just a couple. I also tried to pick songs that arent floating about already so that you have a fresh ear to what these guys are going to bleed all over you. Hunt the 7" down, and you'll get a 9 track digital record of everything these boys have put to tape thus far. Deal, sold, gimme gimme gimme!

Oh, and make sure you check out their website - its amazing...

Dead Meat - Burger Bash
Dead Meat - Fuck Amsterdam

My Strange Weird Heaven

Just got an email from Strange Wave Records about a split tape they've put out by other (and in my opinion waaaaaay better) project of some of the Surfer Bloodians, Weird Wives, and The Band In Heaven, a Floridian shoegazey-murk piece. These guys go hand in hand when delivering murky dark slightly abrasive and oh so delicious rock, so this is a release worth having. Check out a track from each below.

Weird Wives - Wet Blanket
The Band In Heaven - Suicide Pact

Newsflash - Weird Wives Rip Off Bird’s Head For Fun…(Friday Cover Up...)

I know we only brought to your attention Surfer Blood’s excellent side project Weird Wives last week. However they have just released their 3rd ‘EP’ on their blog, and on it is a deliciously scary and off-kilter cut of Prince’s ‘When Doves Cry’. Prince must be in the water – after hearing about Wax Fang’s delirious take on the Purple Rain soundtrack at Pavement’s ATP, anything by the little dude as interpreted by someone else seems ever so exciting! And in this case, how can something this evil be so much fun?

Weird Wives - When Doves Cry

How about a bit of aquatic domestic violence???

Weird Wives highlight the fact that side projects of better known acts are often as great as the day jobs, and need to be encouraged. Especially as these bands prove to be the dark bastard twin that has been locked in the closet for days on end in order to repent, only to develop telekinetic powers and eviscerate all and sundry. Like Weird Wives.

Its rather incredible to think that a band as new to the scene as Surfer Blood should warrant another outlet for their creativity. But thank God they have. It makes some sort of macabre sense that a indie band with a visceral name should want to live up to the moniker... There are too few Jesus Lizard-meets-Melvins influenced acts around for my liking (although Manchester's Kong is a fantastic band who Paul and I have been following for 12 months, and its a travesty that we havent posted up about them before now - this will be rectified in due course!), and Weird Wives sets about setting the record straight. Vicious, loud, and a whole lot of fun. They are releasing a 7" soon - watch this space.

Weird Wives - Fudge

Weird Wives - Snake Boy