Friday Cover Up - Bela Lugosi's Bite Is Bigger Than Your Dog

I wanted to finish off the week with a Blondie cover. I have seen two movies this week that included Debbie Harry - the John Carpenter/Tobe Hooper Creepshow wannabe Body Parts (where she plays this camp sexual alien nurse - very Rocky Horror really...) and in a disappointing art-themed serial killer movie with Willem Dafoe, Anamorph, where she plays a disgruntled neighbour of Defoe's and says two lines in one throwaway scene. It's that kind of peripheral "Six Degrees" nonsense that I always get a kick out of...

But then I heard this. Atlanta's Dog Bite released LA, a four-track EP blaze through Carpark Records a month or so ago, and I was planning on writing about it - but then I heard 'Bela Lugosi's Dead', their cover of the Bauhaus classic, and it stopped me in my tracks. Not because it is particularly innovative or changes the form of the song itself - no, their 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' changes the form of Dog Bite. Rather than mold the song into their aesthetic, the four-piece have allowed themselves to be corrupted, to be fused with the Goth kings' DNA, and the result is a raw, broiling slowburn that is arresting in its darkness. Just so you understand what I mean, here is LA...


And here is the cover track...


I really like what has happened here, and I sincerely hope this bleeds into the band's future releases too. We won't have long to find out either - their sophomore LP Tranquilizers is due out in January 2014.

Have a good weekend people!

Surf Rolls Happily Over Gaza(r) Strip

Local trio (via Whitechapel in London - yep, the band gestated right across from the mosque) Gazar Strips brought out an EP Happy Valley for digital release about a month ago. At the time I was frustrated because I really wanted to put this out myself, to kickstart Sonic Masala Records with this Bauhaus-baiting, atmospheric gnashing of teeth. These guys are dark and brooding, and confrontational (not in a racial profiling way, a religious hazing way, or even a base amoral way - they just don't like you). It's really good. Most tracks are named after famous surfing spots due to the bassist's predilection for the blue stuff, a tidbit at odds with the dark squall that they manufacture. I'm a massive fan of these guys, and their new stuff (being recorded as we speak with Tape/Off thumper Branko Cosic) is taking things to the next level.

Gazar Strips - Spookies

You can get Happy Valley here. The guys played at my last Sonic Masala show and killed it. Their next show is tomorrow night at the fourth instalment of Eucalyptic Electrodes, the excellent little night run bu Angstrom Space. They will be playing alongside SM faves Nite Fields and Ultra Material (who are playing my next gig on Friday April 26), as well as unknown entity Heavy Toll. It's at the Brunswick Hotel, and I strongly implore you head along. There is exciting news ahead for Sonic Masala/Gazar Strips fans too - stay tuned...

Soft Moon Monday

Earlier this year San Fransisco band Soft Moon (or is The Soft Moon? I'm not sure) dropped a couple of unassuming 7"s, Breathe The Fire and Parallels. I say dropped but really these tracks seem to slide their way into my subconsciousness, popping up now and again when the iPod is set to 'random'. Each and every time I would dig the now battered player out of my pocket to answer the inevitable mental question 'Who's this?', make the mental note to check out more Soft Moon, even post about it, and then I promptly forgot about it.

Maybe it was the obvious and lazy Joy Division comparisons of Breathe The Fire or the fact that Parallels slides by in just over three minutes but feels like it could easily last twice as long that made move on so quickly, but whatever the reason I wont make the same mistake again 'cos the self titled Soft Moon debut LP landed today, out on New York label Captured Tracks.

Stretching out Soft Moon's intense darkwave themes over a whole LP makes so much more sense. This is pop but the coldest, darkest, most fucked up pop you'll land this year. Its low-slung basslines throb, its synth buzzes and distorts, soft noise seems to consume everything, it's like being consumed by black treacle. The Joy Division and Bauhaus references will always be there but dig a little deeper and you'll discover a slick and darker beast beneath.

Soft Moon -Tiny Spiders