Gayzeing On A Black Soul

 

One of the better random “discoveries” that Sonic Masala has made in the past eighteen months has been Idaho outfit TEENS (see my post here). And although they haven’t produced anything for a bit, leading member David W Wood has released a pretty damn fine EP under the guise of Gayze.



The seven tracks on Black Soul EP delves deeper into the mythology of the garage rock sound, injecting the squall and swagger that is often missing in today’s carbon copies. As such, songs like ‘Ain’t It Brave’ have that heady mix of hard-edge and desert psych that Roky Erickson excelled at and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club used to nail to the wall. Again, the lo-fi aesthetic suits these tracks, especially the reverberating isolation that informs plaintive (and surprisingly upbeat, considering the grimly excellent music video by the growing talent of Tyler T Williams (remember Youth Lagoon’s ‘Montana’?) that accompanies it) track ‘Done To My Love’ – although sometimes Wood’s drawled vocals are lost. That is a minor quibble though – Black Soul is an epic sounding 7”, tapping the seamier side of garage rock that was encapsulated by the leather-clad motorheads of the psych-fuelled 60s, and such a down and dirty sound is a welcome return. I hope this becomes more than a “thing” for Wood – there is an exciting electricity riding through these songs that alludes to something bigger (and darker) just around the corner…

You can get Black Soul through Bleeding Gold Records here.

Black Soul – Ain’t It Brave
Black Soul – Done To My Love

Arbouretum Come Out Of The Fog

 

Baltimore’s Arbouretum have covered most sub-genres within the rock spectrum over the course of their eleven year career. Yet there has been a smoky bonhomie ever-present in the music that, whether pared back or tearing apart the speakers, always underlined the fact that they were earnest songwriters, searching for the perfect way to convey their viewpoint of the world.

Coming Out Of The Fog is their fifth longplayer, and it focuses more on conciseness. It still remains a heavy mix – 'The Longest Night' and 'The Promise' have solos that are unrelenting – but the tracks don’t trail out as much (‘All At Once, The Turning Weather’ stands as the longest track at 6:47), the drones and drags reined right in. What’s left are eight doom-laden songs that still wallow in the direr side of human nature that frontman Dave Heumann revels in, but with a coiled precision that amplifies the darkness that belies these apocalyptic tokens of Americana and the Self.

Lyrically, it’s typically verbose, and obtuse – intent on focusing on the murkier regions of the human psyche, Heumann focuses on everything from futility to the story of St Simeon, who lay on a pillar for 37 years to experience death, in order to experience life and God. Sonically, its cyclical – repetition is key, with thumping, plodding drums (not a disservice – such efforts are perfectly in sync with much of the dirges that are on display). As an overall package Coming Out Of The Fog is a rocking album in delay overload, full of loaded imagery, smoke and mirrors, and a swirling repetition that evokes the best of Besnard Lakes at their dirtiest, or even Neil Young on his Crazy Horse (especially on a smokier track like the country-tinged winner ‘Oceans Don’t Sing' or the elegant closing title track).

 

You can grab Coming Out Of The Fog (out through Thrill Jockey) here. Arbouretum are launching an European tour next week, playing some usual haunts (London’s Corsica Studios, Dublin’s Whelans) and some not so usual (Clonakilty in Ireland, Hasselt in Belgium, Savignano Sul Rubicone in Italy). If you’re a fan and can get to one of these more out of the way shows, I highly recommend you do. Check the list below.

February

20th Brighton, England The Prince Albert
21st London, England Corsica Studios
23rd Clonakilty, Ireland De Barra's
24th Dublin, Ireland Whelans
25th Cork, Ireland Crane Lane Theatre
27th Hasselt, Belgium Muziekodroom
28th Antwerp, Belgium Trix

March

1st Schorndorf, Germany Club Manufaktur
2nd Leipzig , Germany UT Connewitz
3rd Prague, Czech Republic Klub 007
4th Freiburg, Germany The Swamp
5th Geneva, Switzerland Usine
6th Turin, Italy Blah Blah
7th Rome, Italy Circolo degli Artisti
8th Foligno, Italy Auditorium
9th Savignano Sul Rubicone, Italy Sidro Club
13th Cologne, Germany Club S
15th Creil, France La Grange A Musique

Arbouretum - The Promise
Arbouretum - Coming Out Of The Fog

Rational Hauntings Make For Brutal Brilliance

 

Ben Thompson has been a veritable mainstay on the Brisbane music scene for over a decade now. Seriously? Dude, that sounds insane, but it’s true. And whilst his Pale Earth electronica guise is starting to get a workout, and it all kicked off from Toowoomba band The Autumn Giants, the vast majority of that decade has been spent on the ever-evolving musical quest that is The Rational Academy. Three albums and a multitude of recorded material under their belt; a carousel of partners-in-crime; successful tours of Japan; some illustrious support slots (Deerhoof, Grails, Grouper). There was a stage in the mid 2000s where I'm pretty sure I saw them four times in a month – and that is probably an understatement. Saturation, clandestine, flirting with the breakthrough, shirking the mainstream – they have done it all. But for the true advocates of the band, it has been intriguing watching The Rational Academy grow in its amorphous way, the emotions riding on each track, release, performance open for all to see like a flayed cadaver. Choose to view this journey with the impassioned glaze of a disillusioned coroner, or the fascinated gaze of the biology enthusiast – either way, Thompson has never kept things close to his chest, for better or worse.

Which is why seeing Winter Haunts as a minor masterpiece isn’t a flippant remark. The gradual move from elegiac indie rock that revelled in its wispy delicacies as much as poignant pauses or therapeutic tremors, to a denser, more brutal sense of catharsis, is the result of a man who is throwing everything at the wall – not to see what sticks, but because he’s sick of second-guessing. Thompson’s vocals remain as hushed and reverent as ever, yet rather than the music crowding around it and buoying it up, it crashes over the top like a tidal wave of static destruction, an aural razing of the landscape. This louder approach doesn’t drown out the nuances of the songwriting though – rather it helps to embody the desperation that these songs hold at its core, and The Rational Academy have never felt more relevant, more alive – more there – in any of their other incarnations.

The musicians – Luke Zahnleiter (Guitar), Tom Roche (Drums) and Matthew Cooke (Bass) – hold a lot of responsibility for this, their performance preferring that denser soundscape that colours the songs in thick, abrasive swathes of darkness and light. ‘Vast Uncertain’ holds down the brutal drone of early Boris, no easy feat indeed. And although ‘End Of The Year’ may feel like a heavier squalling interpretation of Swans-era RA, when you hear ‘Yellow Pony’, if you didn’t get it before, the penny will drop here – their best all-round effort ever, it’s the entire history in a three-and-a-half minute soundbyte. Thompson hasn’t been stronger, and his presence is the calm before – nay, within – the storm. It shows the band breaking free of the carapace of the past and becoming something altogether different – harsher, yes, but therein lies the beauty.

If you finish with the acoustic wistfulness of ‘I Catch The Warmth’, you will feel yourself torn asunder by the wall of feedback that completes this epic sojourn, walking into the blinding light to disappear. Will this be a defining moment in their career? Is it a resurrection? A martyrdom? An ascension? No one knows, least of all Thompson himself. But something tells me that this won’t be the last we hear from him in this guise – and I wait with bated breath for his next reincarnation.

 

You MUST buy Winter Haunts(through Lofly Records) – the fullness of this sound is never more noticeable than on the purple vinyl – get it here! There won’t be many shows (if any) in this lineup for the foreseeable future, and when you put this record on, you will realise what a shame that is – but, as I said, the next manifestation will bring us something new. I can’t wait.

The Rational Academy – Yellow Pony
The Rational Academy - End Of The Year

Mogwai's New Score

 

As if I WASN'T going to post about this! NEW MOGWAI! Its a soundtrack to a a French thriller TV series called Les Revenants. I have only heard 'Wizard Motor', but it is perfect soundtrack material. I'm writing this quickly, I know, but this has been the soundtrack to my night, and will be on repeat for the rest of the week. So...enjoy!



The EP has been put out now to coincide with the series' finale, and has been released as a limited edition 10" vinyl via their Rock Action label. A full soundtrack release on vinyl, CD and download comes out on February 25. Get hold of the EP here.

Friel's Feral Sonics Become Total Folklore

 

Ex-Parts & Labor anarchist Dan Friel released an EP on Thrill Jockey late last year, and has wasted no time pumping out a full-length. Total Folklore is loud – a headscraping raspberry popsicle of noise that somehow manages to maintain a childlike wonder. Industrial electronics shouldn’t be able to exhibit such playfulness, but Friel’s aural exploration plays like a madcap mage, a sonic 8-bit loving Willy Wonka with tinnitus.

 

'Ulysses' is a lengthy track to open things up, and the first twenty seconds is an aural assault, alluding to a relentless cavalcade of abrasive white noise. But then the rhythms come in, the melodies, the soaring harmony – and Friel’s genius is realised. ‘Valedictorian’, the standout on the Valedictorian/Exoskeleton EP last year, still packs a candy-coloured wallop here, yet is propped up by the thumping gaiety of, well, ‘Thumper’ (and that melody is killer, I would actually buy a ringtone of that – not a glowing recommendation maybe, but I hate ringtones, so it works for me) and the frenetic squall of ‘Landslide’ (a schizophrenic cousin of what Civil Civic do in my opinion – yet more freeform and unhinged). The warped field recordings that make up the three Intermissions are necessary respites – seriously, this level of squealing, decibel-eating sound needs space to breathe – but Total Folklore stands as an exciting sonic scrapbook of confection and confusion, a cacophonous candy cane that rushes to the head. Expect headaches of happiness with this one.

 

You can pre-order Total Folklore through Thrill Jockey here. The first 500 LPs are orange, always an incentive to get in early. Even more exciting, Friel has crafted a series of homemade music boxes that play ‘Thumper’ on repeat for some lucky pre-orders. How fucking rad is that!?! Get in there!!!

Dan Friel – Thumper
Dan Friel - Valedictorian

Flamingods Dance Towards The Sun

 

On Friday I showed London band Darkstar's filmclip for 'Amplified Ease'. It's good, don't get me wrong - that's why I included it. But if you want to be honest - I think that it's all in who you know. Because there is another London-based band that have really killed a record that are in a similar vein, and I haven't heard much about them - despite Dustin Wong (Ponytail) having some involvement in their record (playing guitar on single 'Quessa').

The record - Sun. The band - Flamingods, a five-piece made up of Kamal Rasool, Charles Prest, Sam Rowe, Craig Doporto, and Karthik Poduval. They have an amazing genesis story too - 4 of the 5 members (Kamal, Sam, Craig, and Charles) met in Bahrain before moving to London and becoming friends with Kartik. As early gigs go, Flamingods’ couldn’t have gone much better. Having all bought tickets to the Animal Collective-curated ATP festival, they decided to take along a selection of their huge instrument collection and embarked on an 8 hour set in a chalet on-site – with up to 60 people crammed in to try and grab a view of their constantly changing line-up and enchanting tribal rhythms, and those who couldn’t squeeze in danced outside or tried clambering through windows.

Sun is a hypnotic melange of African inflection, tribal rhythms and quirk, all centred around discovering a loop or beat that serves as an electric bolt down the spine. Animal Collective, Boredoms, and Sun City Girls are cited as influences, with the former’s irreverence and innate sense of fun most evident in these tracks. This is dance music for those who don’t like dance music, and don’t hate Vampire Weekend enough to turn their backs on the brilliance Afro rhythms. Rave on, you crazy hipsters.

 

Sun is out now on the ever-excellent Art Is Hard Records - head here to get it in sexy green vinyl.

Flamingods - Quesso

And here is a stream of Sun in its entirety - it'll get you moving, even if rigor mortis has set in.

Hell Or Blankus Larry - I Know Where I'm Heading

 

There is this psychedelic garage duo (which has expanded into a five-piece, according to their website) from Washington, DC and VA Beach, VA, called Blankus Larry. AAAAAAAges ago they contacted me, letting me know that they had released the second song from their upcoming LP, ‘I Am A Heatseeker’. It’s a ripsnorter, that’s for sure – but for whatever reason I neglected to post about it. Well, they have finally released their album, Hell Or High Larry, and it’s pretty bloody good. The first two tracks show the band’s split personality – ‘Fall Forever In Tha Sun’ is slow crawling, howling psych rock from the deserts of your mind; ‘I Am A Heatseeker’ is that dirty garage blues that the likes of John Spencer can deliver when he isn’t wildly thrusting his loins and slinking around like a madman. The album ricochets back forth between these two extremes, making it a strong record that steams along with violent intent. And don’t be misled by the long tracks – ‘Nassau’ and ‘Scupper’ are the strongest songs on here. Its that grit that sticks in the gears of these tracks that truly makes this band – dark, rocking tunes that will tear your head off, if only you’ll let it. Douse that wound with a bottle of booze, and get back on the horse, because come hell or high water, Blankus Larry will be coming back for more.

 

You can get Hell Or High Larry for free here. Seriously good.

Blankus Larry – I Am A Heatseeker
Blankus Larry - Nassau

Morgan Doesn't Smudge The Lyrics On Orange Syringe

 

I got to see Smudge play last year when the band supported Sebadoh at the Hi Fi. Man, those guys still know how to play – but what I loved the most was hearing Tom Morgan utter those killer lyrics so many years on and they still resonate. Morgan is such a smart, literate songwriter that you cannot help but smile, even laugh out loud, at his seemingly throwaway turn-of-phrases that are nevertheless impeccably timed, a true ringleader (even if hidden behind the scruffy exterior and the warbled slacker hooks the band are throwing out).

Morgan is releasing Orange Syringe, a collection of solo material, and although he has moved on from those years (insert Lemonheads reference here…if you must), hardening his worldview just that little bit, these songs are as embracing as ever. Despite some of the subject matter being decidedly darker (or maybe just mature), the melodies are never discarded, nor is Morgan a skeletal troubadour, most of these tracks beefed up by a backing band. It may not be the kind of record that will go on and sell a squillion records – hell, how many people are going to even become new converts? – but it’s the kind of record that should. His fans, or even people seeing Morgan as a curio due to his Evan Dando affiliations, will be heartened to realise that he has not lost any of his lyrical prowess or that ear for a solid gold melody (especially on 'Virtuouso') – in fact, they might fall in love with him all over again.

 

 

Orange Syringe is available now (through Fire Records and Fuse), grab it here.

Tom Morgan – One True Love
Tom Morgan – Taste For Blood

Video Vacuum - Foot Village, Liars, James X Boyd & the Boydoids, Darkstar

 

First Video Vacuum of the year, so some of these may not be “new” as such. Nevertheless I've chosen three tracks because their film clips are awesome (so are the tracks) – and one because I like the band/song (although the vid is deliciously lo-fi and nerdy…)


I'm kicking it all off with a loooong one. Those crazy bastards Foot Village have a new record coming out next month called Making Memories (on Northern Spy), so they have released this music video for ‘The End Of The World’. Luckily for us the Mayans were wrong and we are still kicking on – but if I was doing a death march into fiery oblivion, these manic tub-thumpers would be my little drummer demons. Foot Village must feel the same – it is far more sedate than anything they have thus far done, which is not a detractor – it is beautifully constructed. It reminds me a little of Deerhoof’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, whilst the video is all anarchist slow grind. And the last minute and a half? Well, as far as streaming the new album goes, it’s pretty ingenious – if you live in America that is.



James Boyd is one busy cat. He is a part of garage centipede Velociraptor, garage commies The Majors – but he is tapping into something really special as a pop troubadour. James X Boyd and the Boydoids (great band name) are promising something truly special with their debut 12” through Long Gone Records later this year, this “video” for single ‘Elissa Says’ is all about kids fooling around in Brisbane sharehouses – a simple, innocent time where dreams are had and intermittently reached for. They haven’t played heaps of shows, but I'm hoping that 2013 puts Boyd and his ‘oids up at the top of the Brisbane pops.



Those twisted Liars certainly aren’t strangers in this neck of the woods. Sisterworld was one of my favourite albums of 2010, whilst WIXIW, although it’s shift had many people shuffling their feet, is a dark, sinuous grower, with ‘No 1 Against The Rush’ being my pick as song of 2012 (with an ace video). The title track from that album has become the trio’s third single, with a slick video to boot. A longhaired stoner type continually trying to dunk a ball but failing? Lots of people standing around, either bemused or confused? And that pagan god? Doesn’t really make sense – although the band love basketball apparently. Fair dues. Its still pretty intoxicating.



Finally we have UK band Darkstar. Now I haven’t had the chance to hear their album News From Nowhere yet – its getting some favourable reviews – I have listened to and watched the clip to single ‘Amplified Ease’ a multitude of times. It’s got that mantra-esque lyrics and warped rhythms that Animal Collective have claimed as their own (although you can name a huge number of other acts that now incorporated such elements), but with the film clip of the boys jamming their faces up against a tank (at Pinewood Studios, no less!), it heightens the experience. The song itself has an undulating presence that buries into your brain – a hypnotic pan flute of a track, leading you children away from the village, never to be heard from again.

Fantasmas Have No Soul

 

Last year I came across this Brooklyn four-piece called Fantasmas and their ‘Blind Children’ track. Since then they have had a few demos, and now are unleashing Static/No Soul 7” (on Low Life Inc).

Solid punk rock, wavering between Chapel Hill era noodlings, and more atonal dissonance. ‘Static’ is a strong track, fidgeting like Q And Not U tended to, although the production is a little stifling. Never truly allowing the quartet to break free. ‘No Soul’ is more towards the No Wave sound and almost breaks through the speakers. These guys sound pretty damn rad, and probably deliver on stage in a punk dive, but are just that little bit restricted here. Everything is moving forward though – and if they unleash the fury on their next release, expect some fireworks.

 

Pick up Static/No Soul here.

Fantasmas – No Soul

Psy Ants Bite Their Tongues and Disappear

 

Psy Ants were part of the first ever Sonic Masala Presents… shows back in October 2011. I had originally asked Per Purpose to play, but Joe (drums) was in America with Kitchens Floor. Glen the guitarist instead offered his “other” band, which was of course the noise rock trio, and they tore the place apart with a visceral performance that polarised the audience (the other two artists were the broken folk of Charles Curse and the wonky indie sweep of Nova Scotia – hence the beginning of the eclectic lineups that were inevitably to follow). I managed to catch them play one more show after that, but that’s it – the band have called it a day, preferring to focus on other bands.

At least we managed to get something physical out of them in the form of Bit Tongue Prik (out through Vacant Valley). It’s all saw-toothed, angular anger and bile, melodrama for the schizophrenics, shapes shifting in rust-gilded twitches and spasms. It’s ugly stuff indeed, David Yow masturbating over decapitated images of the Rapemen. Its broken, no reason to fix it, just listen, eat glass and move on.

Grab Bit Tongue Prik here.

Psy Ants – Spike
Psy Ants – Deny Flesher

A Killer Hot Lunch Makes Me Smile

 

San Francisco’s Hot Lunch blew me away with their visceral slice of riff-heavy rock on their Killer Smile 7” last year. They are back with a self-titled debut (out through German label Who Can You Trust?, and have just aligned themselves with Tee Pee Records) and it lives up to that release’s promise.

Self-proclaimed punk-n-rollers, the four-piece stampede through nine tracks of unadulterated retro-rock. Eric Shea is a throwback to the 70s era rock frontmen, all swagger, psych lyricism and throat-shedding howls. Aaron Nudelman takes these songs into the stratosphere with his thick-as-fuck guitar lines, whilst Tim Green’s production truly transplants these tracks some forty years in the past. As I stated with Games’ new record, looking back at past influences only works if its authentic and/or original, and Hot Lunch clearly embrace the heathen rhythms of the rock gods of yesteryear.

 

You can grab Hot Lunch here. Tasty.

Hot Lunch – Killer Smile

Teen(s) Held In Beatific Ambiance

 

Brooklyn “sister” ambient psych band TEEN released a really good record last year in In Limbo. They have just circulated this thus-far-unreleased track ‘Ambient’. Its bloody excellent in my opinion. I lose myself in it every time (ie go into a trance and find that whatever I was doing at the time – eating, cleaning my teeth, drinking, walking – shuts down entirely. Seriously – I was walking along and had to sit on a nearby bench just to drift away on this). I'm in love with these girls – anchoring the other end of the spectrum that Warpaint excel at, its all about mood and ephemeral urges, fizzing fissures in space and time. Love it.

TEEN - Ambient

Shanghai Grows A Pair(s)

 

Got this self-deprecating email last week from Pairs, an intense two-piece based in Shanghai. The band is one of opposites – boy/girl (Xiao Zhong on drums and vocals, F on guitar), Australian/Chinese, nihilistic/silly, angular/pop “that goes alright sometimes.” At times Xiang’s vocals are droll, a plaintive Australian drawl a la Brendan Suppression, whilst the musicianship hinges on F’s gunshot switches from slacker strumming to squalls of white noise, Zhou’s drumming hovering between a tight metronome and a sledgehammer.

Pairs have been fairly prolific, putting out a live recording, an eight track album and a double LP in the past few months, whilst they have dabbled extensively in videos and various formats (vinyl, cassette, CD, DVD, USB). They have come close to Aussie shores, having toured New Zealand thanks to SM mates MUZAI Records, whilst spreading their wares to much of Asia. They are intrinsically tied to China though, being part of a dun Shanghai that may be small but with enough bouncing off the walls to constantly refill the creative well.

But what do they sound like? Well, in the past the band have slated influences such as Royal Headache, Die! Die! Die!, Batrider, Kes…and Jason Molina. Seriously. And to be honest, there are moments on tracks such as ‘Cat Food’ from their If This Cockroach Doesn’t Die, I Will double album that I can take the bait. There is lo-fi slacker pop requiems to be taken, but in the main this is zany art noise with extra crunch (like those moments in Shooting At Unarmed Men when Jon Chapple nailed it – that was hit and miss, but Pairs get it closer to the mark) – which is built into my lifeblood.

Head over to Pairs’ Bandcamp to sample/buy any/all of their releases. Sonic Masala would love to get these guys to come to Australia for a tour – leave a comment or email them me if you agree!

Pairs – Gig Of The Week (from Grandparents)
Pairs – Mean Buzz (from If This Cockroach Doesn’t Die, I Will)

Ex Slugs And Butcher Birds Let Fly

 

Ex-Con came to be after Joanna Nilson (Butcher Birds) and James Dalgliesh (Slug Guts) got together in the feverish, nightmare-inducing humidity of a a Brisbane summer awash with monsoonal floods, kneejerk alcoholism and an inexplicable anxiety borne of idleness. The first combination of the band also included Cat Maddin (Dreamtime) and Alex Dunlop (Keep On Dancins), captured on their debut self-titled 7” (out through Bon Voyage).

Recorded live by Blank Realm’s Luke Walsh at the now defunct Woodland Bar this time last year (apparently accompanied by a bottle of Captain Morgan, a Holy Grail reverb pedal and some extra long Rizlas, these 3 tracks are icy fingers dug deep into the skull, tetanus behind the eyes, eczema for the ears. Nilson is at her best when she sounds tortured, and here she moans, screeches and howls like a death wraith with withdrawal symptoms, backed by barbed-wire noise and production-line industrial drum disorder. It’s a nasty mix, yet the heritage here (plus the feverish connection to the “Sunshine” State) gives it the rusted barbs to stay stuck in the flesh for a long time after the last note has been flayed.

Ex-Con comes out on Monday, and can be pre-ordered here. Nilson and Dalgliesh have absconded to Melbourne, and now have a new rhythm section comprising of Steph Cola (Spite House) and Andrea Blake (Chrome Dome).

Ex Con - Cuda '82

Definition Of Meatboy = A Cannon With Lovely Legs

 

Local Brisbane garage rock miscreant label Long Gone Records is promising some proper dirty releases this year, and to get a true understanding of what that means, we need to go back to their last release Meatboys, a split cassette between Cannon and Lovely Legs.

 

There arne’t many messier bands in Brisbane than Cannon. Their shambolism may infuriate some, but there is something inherently fun and slapstick about this five-piece’s rawer-than-a-dead-kitten take on playing. The recording, like much of their debut self-titled LP, is so low fidelity that it sounds like my old cassettes that I taped off VHS tapes – shit over shit. If you’ve heard it before, its because its verbatim their Blerndaddy EP. I still think that ‘Dogs In Space’ is one of their best songs, whilst ‘Poor Taste’ is the closest they come to being an actual band. Glad it doesn’t fire though – can you imagine? Cannon, a real band? The sky would definitely be falling in.

Cannon – Dogs In Space
Cannon – Get It On

 

Country punk Lovely Legs don’t exactly up the ante – these four tracks sound like The Growlers listening to The Johnny’s after snorting a bottle of amyl nitrate, hijacking a low frequency community radio station near Blackall, and hitting the record button on their stream-of-consciousness with the mics encased in corrugated iron. Such debauched foot stompers that you can taste the whisky before the bottle is smashed over your head. Hoedowns for skinny clowns, the soundtrack to Bob Katter’s feverish wet nightmares.

Lovely Legs – I Got It Made
Lovely Legs – Mr Death

 

Each tape is bright orange and feature volume drops, cracked cases and bad folding/cutting. The release is truly lo-fi in sound and quality – get it here. You can catch them both, alongside a rare-as-hen’s-teeth support from Chinese Burns, propping the stage up for irascible air-humping garage jackalope Nobunny. That shit is real, and is going down at the Primitive Room this Saturday. That poster (by the ever excellent Sam McKenzie) is just TOO good.

GET THERE.

Ex-Cult Still Haunts Your Filthy Dreams

 

When anything is given the seal of approval by the Svengali of garage rock, Ty Segall, you know you should sit up and pay notice. Mikal Cronin was one, Wymond Miles another. Memphis punks Ex-Cult (formerly Sex Cult) have a killer reputation, and now have their debut record out on the ever excellent Goner Records, and for the most part this is deliciously brutal stuff. Jagged, ragged and ramshackle, spit and vinegar their lifeblood.

The record sounds like a live album – not that “we wanted to go back to what we sound like live” kinda hype, but it sounds like a good recording of a live performance in some shithole in the wall in the backwaters of their hometown. A performance where they are killing it. ‘Knives On Both Sides’, ‘Shade Of Red’, ‘Shot The Beehive’ all have that sneering nihilistic venom that is hard to emulate because you have to inhabit it, whilst there are some vintage punk rock throwbacks like ‘Young Trash’, ‘Better Life Through Chemistry’ and ‘Post Graduate’.

There are a few songs that sound almost carbon copies of each other, yet this swing between grassroots 70s Brit punk and snarling sonic terrorism not only feel genuine, but archived – as if Segall dug Ex-Cult out of a 40 year old time capsule. This is a great record (am I just high, or have there been a high proportion of high-rotation killer albums out the past few months?) Segall can lead me to the jaws of death, and further, and I would trust him every step of the way – especially if these guys were the frontline attack.

 

Ex-Cult is available here. It’s a visceral slice of serrated pie – cut your teeth on it now.

Ex-Cult – Knives On Both Sides
Ex-Cult – Shade Of Red

Hits From The Box #58 - Back From The Grave

 

It has been a looooooong time since I pumped out one of these, hasn’t it? That’s part of the reason why my inbox got so bloated with unread emails. So I'm back on it, and have for your reading/viewing/listening pleasure six bands that I SHOULD have mentioned last year – better late than never I guess, as Lazarus was fond of saying.

 

Jehosaphat Blow. This dude contacted me a long time ago about his short, punchy, slightly nuts album Natural High For Low People months and months ago. Released by Chicago’s Cold Slice Cassettes (also featured the cool Super Minotaur cassette), it’s a simple affair – recorded on a 4-track in Blow’s then living room (he now resided in Prague, lucky devil) with the occasional backing vocal overdub scattered throughout, and the near-no-fi production actually does these songs a hell of a lot of service. He is a one man band – well, he DID just relocate to Prague, might be hard to convince others to do the same – but there are no drawbacks to this. You can, and should, still get your hands on this before he releases more stuff and takes over Europe, one drunken barhop at a time. 2013 is the year of the Jehosaphat.

 

Jehosaphat Blow - The Electric Light One Man Band

Jehosaphat Blow - Garagenese

 

There’s a minnow-tiny label in Dunedin, NZ, called Fishrider Records. They have some interesting young bands on there. None so more “interesting” than quirkfest Opposite Sex, who seem adamant to not only avoid adhering strictly to the guitar pop formula, but also to do it faux-shoddy, flippantly, with sly winks and cheap tricks abound. The sound they developed in splendid isolation is, they say, “an absurdist-logico mix of Euro pop, Beat poetry, and subterranean lo-fi adventuring." Not a bad summation really. With these kind of ad hoc insano tunes, some wont stick – some will grate – but some will grab you and never let go. You can grab their self-titled LP here.

Opposite Sex – La Rat

 

Nova Scotia trio Kestrels are pretty earnest fellas, and their second LP A Ghost History mirrors this. There are moments that makes me think of Ben Gibbard, if he fronted a Dinosaur Jr tribute band. All 90s college noise and shoegaze altruisms, Kestrels love what they do, and mean what they say. Furthermore, one of their main influences is Glaswegians Life Without Buildings. Now, they only released one album – Any Other City – but its one of the best art rock/pop records ever, with arguably my favourite song OF ALL TIME in ‘New Town’, so this has given Kestrels a hell of a lot of leeway. It helps that they are pretty damn good, too (and Tim Wheeler from Ash plays on one of the tracks. Say what you will, but 1977 is burnt into my childhood memories – I will forgive the plethora of misfires he has made since). It sounds huge, lush, and beautifully loud. You can get A Ghost History through Sonic Unyon Records here.

Kestrels – Drowning Girl
Kestrels – There All The Time Without You
Kestrels – The Past Rests

 

There might be a stronger focus on bands from “unfamiliar countries” this year (as in not from Australia/US/UK/Canada/France/Germany, my main focal points). I have a pretty amazing article in the wings from the Middle East. But before then, I have some bands coming out from Serbia. Vvhile got a bit of word-of-mouth last yeah, the noise-pop duo flailing about like a poppier Japandroids, an East European Wiper amalgam, and the 4-track EP Vvhile Is Vanity is pretty damn killer. ‘Vanity’ is their calling card, but the other three tracks here promise much is to follow. Grab Vvhile Is Vanity here, here, or here (they are on three labels in Macedonia (Napravi Zaedno), Germany (Twintoe) and their own (Jazz Chairs)), whilst it's about to be repressed amongst the three labels as well as distributed in the US through Dirt Cult Records. They have recently supported Bo Ningen, and will be the support for The Men in Belgrade next month. Expect more, and soon – they really are great.

Vvhile – Vanity
Vvhile – Vvorldending Curse

 

To more familiar terrain (Boston via Austin Texas, to be exact - Lira Mondal (vocals, guitar, and bass) plans to work as a chef in Cambridge whilst Caufield Schnug (Drums, guitar) pursues his film and visual studies PhD at Harvard University) and the little band that could, Silkies. Garage pop, and they don’t stop – these kids love L7, The Shangri-Las and some Segall, throw it in the melting pot, and a pretty killer concoction is formed. It’s the bite that gives Silkies a chance to climb up and be noticed, which you can hear on their first single ‘Like One’ (which they wrote and recorded a week after forming!) The Like One EP is out through Young Latitudes and also on cassette through Heart Throb Records. Nice.

Silkies – Like One

 

Finally we have Big Surr, a five-piece out of Nashville whose Baked + Bruised 7” is out on Infinity Cat. Whilst there is a bigger connection to beach/surf/garage/so on bands (they ARE called Big Surr, after all), there is much more akin to languid shoegaze flowing through their veins. Opener ‘Cosine Tangent’ was one of the songs of 2012, a slowburner with heft and warmth in equal measure. They love to have fun too, so this seesawing of genre staples has perplexed many; rest assured, Big Surr are five kids who love playing music, love mucking around, and who you may fall in love with. You can grab the 7” here.

 

Big Surr – Cosine Tangent

 

Happy Tuesday!

Tapped On The Shoulder By The Invisible Hand

 

Here’s another record that escaped my attention – but a little differently than most of the others. Funny/Not Funny Records sent me a copy of the Invisible Hand’s Aja EP last year, and I actually listened to it. A lot!

The Virginia are fidgety folk, playing within the garage format, lacing through some powerpop, 60s paisley psych, and some emotive riffs and wah’s so much that it’s hard to sit still yourself. Yet somehow I negated to give it the lip service it deserved. So here it is.

There are some thumping rock moments like ‘Psychic Cat’ – if anyone can tell me why this reminds me of Titus Andronicus, please help out, I can’t figure out why, it sounds nothing like them but that reference ALWAYS jumps in my head! – but it’s the psych moments with the organ and strings on ‘Home At Last’ (I thought it was going all ‘Baba O’Reilly’ there for a time, these painkillers are doing their duty) and the “earnestness” of ‘Bleach Bums’ that are the real home runs.

Invisible Hand are the real deal. Not really interested in the stadiums, but capable of it, if only the powers that be knew what was good for them. Seriously, these guys need to be much bigger. STAT.

 

Aja is still available here. It’s a great little record, I highly recommend it.

Invisible Hand – Psychic Cat
Invisible Hand – Eating Out

Vintage Gaming

 

Where the hell did Games come from? When I heard of this self-titled record, I thought it was the Lopatin & Ford coupling, but no, it’s a rock band from New York. The fact it was on Hozac was another giveaway. But it wasn’t until I put this on that something that has been gnawing the back of my mind for a while (at least since immersing myself in the Bed Wettin Bad Boys record – see my thoughts here) truly cemented itself – I fucking love 60s/70s rock and roll. Sure, I'm a massive fan of all kinds of music, and am a massive advocate of the modern garage rock “movement” (I'm not going into it anymore, just read my blog!). But every now and then a band or album presents itself that purely taps into the wellspring of that vintage sound, song structure and vibe, it is genuine and every time it slays me. You can hear the likes of Marc Bolan, Alex Chilton and Paul Westerberg in the songwriting, even the Beatles, some poignant touchstones. Games are a force to be reckoned with – knowing that rock and pop are destined to co-exist, that we got it right in the past, and it’s time to get it right in the present.

 

Games can be gleaned here. I was given this as a birthday present. Thank you so much (you know who you are).

Games – Listen
Games – When The Time