A Unitopian Since The Womb

Hey guys and gals! Yep, Yep, it's been a week between drinks, and I apologise heartily. Sometimes that bullshit known as LIFE gets in the way of a good time. So I am back and ready to make it up to y'all, and starting with this absolute gem that me and my friends have been smashing the past fortnight. They are a band called Wombs - a tough Google search that one... Their album, Unitopians, has been out for a year, yet its likely you haven't heard it - and it is fucking amazing. Consisting of Jayson, drummer of noise sugar rush Cloud Nothings, Wombs have taken their skewed brand of noise pop and added a helluva lot of drone, garage rock, and lack of meds. The result is wicked glory, something akin to a deranged summer afro jam between The Dirtbombs and Wolf Parade. Its a bizarre concoction, and yet it's like drinking for the first time - bitter, a little sordid, but goddamn if I dont wanna do this for the rest of my life...


Grab Unitopians here. How awesome is that cover art? How awesome is that vinyl design? How awesome is their sound? How awesome???

Wombs - Protein Shake
Wombs - Hearts & Lungs

Fa Fa Fa Far Out

Its nice to get a new album in the mail by a band you know nothing about, throw it on and fall for its charms on the first listen. This has happened to me twice today, which must be unprecedented.

The first album is this one, What Made Those Holes And Rents, by Reno indie kids Fa Fa Fa. Its got some pedigree - its been recorded by none other than Howard Bilerman, responsible for the Godspeed! You Black Emperor albums. Yet these nine tracks are more akin to Bilerman's more recent output, where he has worked on indie gems by the likes of Wolf Parade and the Arcade Fire. Its an interesting blend of sounds and genres, floating from the more generic college indie rocker 'Camden' (although it contains direct links to TS Eliot's amazing poem "The Hollow Men") to the OMD inflected 'Le Ciel '74' to the woozy jam that is the titular track. They love to play around with convention, which is fitting seeing as their name references the familiar repetitive refrain from Talking Heads' seminal song 'Psycho Killer' - and the hats are tipped further on 'Horns For Horns'.

Admittedly this amount of genre hopping does make the head whizz, but when most of the tracks hit the mark it makes for a great listen - and the perfect launchpad for a band to assault the sense both now and in the future.

What Made Those Holes And Rents is out now - you cant get it either at their Bandcamp or here. There's a rumour that they will be doing something with the cool San Franciscan label 20 Sided Records later in the year too - keep an eye out for that for sure...

Fa Fa Fa - Great Ocean Explorer

Fa Fa Fa - Give The Lie To

PS I Love You...Rock!

It is a well known fact that the name that a band chooses will make an indelible mark on the success of said band in many respects. Often the name of the band mirrors the sound that they convey. There are exceptions of course - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are not the bludgeoning speed metal act that might first come to mind - but these exceptions generally prove the rule.

Kingston, Ontario’s quick-rising duo, PS I Love You, also fit this role - and it is why its taken me a while to getting around to listening to their brilliant debut album. Meet Me At The Muster Station (is this a play on Murder City Devils' 'Midnight At The Mutter Museum"? God, I hope so...) is a relentless listen that grips and pulls the listener through just under thirty-minutes of squalling Marshall feedback, searing solos, soaring melodies and rock-steady beats. I was struck by the fertile ground these boys get their sound from - think early Wolf Parade or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! The vast majority of these ten tracks are mini-rock anthems - the titular track is a luscious take on Big Audio Dynamite covering 'Born In The USA'; 'Breadends' is tightly coiled a la Japandroids with Paul Saulnier's broken wails wringing every drop of emotion out of maelstrom created by the incessant guitar lines and thundering rhythms. These tracks are incredibly good - forceful yet playful, the hooks well and truly in place to pierce your eardrums and pull you crying and screaming up into their beckoning arms. For all the noise and bluster though, PS I Love You - like the aforementioned Japandroids - have their pop sensibilities well in check, best evidenced on tracks like 'CBEZ' or 'Facelove'. But for all my namedropping here, this duo are very much their own beast. I love this album, and the music on second thought does fit the name. You are hit with all the scuzzy fury of a garage grunge duo, but its the heartfelt infectious songcraft here that lingers. This is a very solid release, one that deserve much more lip service than they have currently garnered, I can tell you!

Meet Me At The Muster Station on April 26th, 2011 on Paper Bag Records (although it came out last year in the US, this is still technically a 2011 release). The band are touring the UK in May, hitting the Lexington on the 5th, whilst also playing The Great Escape festival in Brighton. Make sure you catch them - they are a new shining light.

Listen to the bookends of the album below - believe me, this is just a taster...

PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station
PS I Love You - Meet Me At The Muster Station (pt 2)

Wildlife Strikes Hard...Again

Wildlife are a Toronto five piece that are just prepping the release of their debut LP Strike Hard, Young Diamond, which was also the name of their EP earlier this year (?). First impressions? That this album will be 2010/11's Apologies To The Queen Mary, Wolf Parade's massive opener of 2005. Big call that's for sure, but this quintet already have savvy indie writing chops, a penchant for slightly left of centre soaring melodies and serious bombast. 'Stand In The Water''s plaintive call that 'I can be a good friend, and I can be your lover, but I cant be both of them' is startling and stirring in its strength and purpose, whilst 'Sea Dreamer' holds the rollicking off-kilter jams and voice-cracking vocals that Wolf Parade uphold as their driving forces. The tunes are bolstered by the dynamic mixing duo of Michael Keire and Glen Marshall, responsible for tweaking tracks for the likes of Feist and Apostle of Hustle, and they really accentuate Wildlife's levels of ferociousness, recklessness, and intensity, but overall highlighting their innate sense of fun - and its the best fun Ive had listening to an album of its ilk all year.

So that's the musical down low, but who are Wildlife? I spoke to the band and gleaned some facts of a more personal nature:
- they've been together since late 2006;
- they came together from a wide variety of backgrounds: from punk rock bands to campfire guitar, improv theatre to gospel music;
- at any given moment, someone in the band either has the flu or is on hard drugs. Only one of them is a full time smoker, but he's not allowed to quit because its the only thing allowing Wildlife to call themselves a rock n' roll band;
- they get compared to a few of those modern Canadian indie rock groups (such as Wolf Parade???), but don't really understand exactly why, even though we are big fans;
- if people see them play in Guelph, Ontario, they promise to be really, really drunk onstage;
- they challenge every band in the world to a sweating competition. Every fucking one;
- All of Wildlife's members share the same date of birth: December 25th, 1982;
- I once dared my friend Jack to eat a jar of mayonnaise. He refused;
- Wildlife release their first full length album on November 16th, 2010. The release party was on Friday, the 12th, at a place called the El Mocambo in Toronto. There were free mayonnaise and ecstasy sandwiches and lots of glitter, balloons, White Russians (the people and the drink), Sam Cooke, Ace of Bass and A Tribe Called Quest - plus premiered the new Coen Brothers movie at midnight!

So overall, Wildlife are striking as hard as they can, and can expect diamond results.

Wildlife - Stand In The Water

Wildlife - Sea Dreamer