Google Give Me Mind Spiders

Sorry about the lack of posts yesterday! For whatever reason, Google locked me out of my own site just so I could set up a Google+ profile. I have no idea what the hell went on, but we seem to be back on board. So I thought as celebration we should all get down to the excellent Mind Spiders record Meltdown (on Dirtnap Records). Texas' finest exponents of garage rock (featuring members of Marked Men, High Tension Wires, Bad Sports and Uptown Bums) have totally smashed this one out of the park, whilst still remaining Mark Ryan's baby. This tracks sound simple, yet huge - no easy feat. See opener 'You Are Dead' as the perfect example - a Ramones-riffing rollicker that chugs along at two minutes yet implores that you don't listen to the rest of the record, just hit rewind and replay. The first half of the album is top-heavy with hits, and shows a nice downturn with the organ-fuelled 'More Than You'. There is a slight shift in the second half (see the sci-fi schizophrenia of 'Skull Eyed' or the synth-spazz meltdown of closer, err, 'Meltdown', for example) but the hooks remain indelibly infectious. A fantastic record.


Meltdown can be gleaned here. DO IT.

Mind Spiders - You Are Dead
Mind Spiders - Play Out Loud
Mind Spiders - Wait For Us

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