Backwards Looking Forward - Acid Kicks/Different Skeletons

Another couple releases that should have been at the forefront of your minds before you were lobotomised by Watch The Throne last year...


Acid Kicks are a Philly quartet (three of which play bass, and seeing as I have a distant connection to that instrument I am already enamoured) who put out this EP Life Dreams last year. I have had it floating around for months, and thought that seeing as it plays with me a bit, it should play with you too. It's the typical psych fare that I lap up like alcoholic milkshakes, yet there is a sweaty urgency underneath it all that shakes and rattles the bones. Noisy psych punk with a severe bottom end. Buy the 7" here.


Acid Kicks - Pyramidic Valley


Different Skeletons are a garage rock band from Canada's largest city, Toronto. Their album of last year Secret Jeers was one sloppy, jangly, irreverent jam, Black Lips and the Dirtbombs would be proud.Different Skeletons are delightfully jangled, chanting, and surf-tinged. For all the same reasons I recommended the Bleed Whites I can suggest these guys, especially if you're looking for something quicker and rougher. All and all, a sweet debut album. Plus, it has a great cover (see below) AND is a free download here! Imminently cooler.

Different Skeletons - All Going To Die
Different Skeletons - Samsonite

Backwards Looking Forwards 2011 - Hired Muscle, Charalambides, OBNIIIs

I'm almost done with the albums that I should have posted about last year but didn't. These three releases are deserved of more attention, so I'm gonna give it to them.


Hired Muscle are yet another band outta Leeds whose discordant nihilism elicits migraines and orgasms simultaneously. These crazy cats splurge on some balls-out mania on the tracks on their The Last Minute LP. Paul extolled these guys' virtues to me a couple months ago, and the proof is in the pudding. Pavement meets Action Beat. Delish bom bish.

Hired Muscle - Evil Genius


Exile is the new record from Charalambides. It is the only thing I've heard from the prolific spiritual conquistadors, and that is saying something, as they have releases a plethora of aural excursions since forming in Houston back in 1991. Their sound wavers in and out of sonic parameters, but their chakras are always aligned, ensuring that you never stray far from the ethereal pathway that the band has crafted for you. Its still ambitious, being a double LP and all, but when Kranky Records agrees to put it out, you know that the wealth within is worth mining.

Charalambides - Before You Go


This final album is related to one from two days ago, Bad Sports' Kings Of The Weekend, as Orville Neeley also plays in OBN IIIs (named after himself), whose The One And Only LP is razor sharp and energetic with gritty swagger and lecherous intent slathered all over it. Its verve and tenacity electrifies every song, never repelling the listener with overt aggression or obnoxiousness. These tracks are made for delighted repeat listens. One can only imagine how stellar these guys could be in the live arena... Grab their record here.

OBNIIIs - No Enemies

Backwards Looking Forwards 2011 - Bad Sports, AIDS Wolf, Acid Baby Jesus

OK, so here are three more releases that I "discovered" over my two-month sabbatical that, whilst not anything overly groundbreaking, were a hell of a lot of fun.


Bad Sports, on their 2nd LP Kings Of The Weekend, have chiseled out some major disaffected pop rock that'll tear holes in the seat of your jeans. The Denton, Texas trio are made for summer benders with a sleazy bent. Dirtnap Records put out this fun-loving, fuzzy gem, and it reverently does what it says on the tin. I guess there are elements of Bare Wires about Bad Sports, albeit with more protopunk snarl, which makes me like these guys all the more.

Bad Sports - Can't Just Be Friends


Richie Follin's sister Madeline of Cults' fame will be here on Saturday as a part of the Laneway festival, so it would be remiss of me to mention Guards' Do It Again 7" that came out in December that I found quite delectable. Put out by White Iris, these tracks cement two facts - that Richie Follin knows how to pen a heck of a hook, and that they need to bring out their debut album STAT.

Guards - Do It Again


There was a stage when I seemed to be listening to a lot of Athens, Georgia acts back in 2010 - kickstarted probably by my love of Tunabunny - and it's more than possible that Acid Baby Jesus is going to bring that love full circle. Yet these clowns are from the "other" Athens - the one that proclaims to be the capital of Greece, the starting point (and possibly the endpoint - oh, political controversy!!) of civilisation as we know it. Their self-titled debut came out in October last year on Slovenly Recordings, and it sounds like another 2011 fave of mine, Human Eye, in its insistence of sounding like psych punk played by Ming The Merciless off Flash Gordon. Such space jams are morbid and strange, and oh so goddamn rad. This is a pretty killer album, and may have made the top 40 of 2011 if I'd heard it sooner. 2012 also has them firing up to join the biggest and best lineup yet for the Austin Psych Fest. Live long and prosper, you awesome weirdos.

Acid Baby Jesus - Tooth To Toe