Bass Drum Of Death

Mississippi two-headed garage behemoth Bass Drum Of Death are finally prepping their followup to 2011's GB City, and the first cut off it 'Shattered Me' feels like a concrete-slab-to-the-face level of raising the bar. And I don't mean that in brutality as I do with immediacy - the hooks lying within are relentless, so whilst you wont be able to label this as anything original, you won't be able to resist it either. Which is kinda the point, isn't it - losing your mind without blowing it? I don't know. It works for me anyway.

Innovative Leisure (also responsible for releases from Allah-Las, Crystal Antlers and Hanni El Khatib) is putting out Bass Drum Of Death in June. 'Shattered Me' will ensure this time flies by.
 

VIDEO VACUUM - Crystal Antlers, Summer Camp, Hindershot, Barn Owl

I've said it before, Ill say it again - I fucking LOVE Bloody Mary's. I don't remember my very first one, but I have so many memories of the ones after that that the genesis becomes a moot point. And whilst today Im a little shaky, just the memories of the Bloody Mary at the Junk Bar in Ashgrove, Brisbane has me salivating despite my liver's fervent admonitions. It makes the world go round people...

Which is probably why the first video today is of Summer Camp. Now, this is probably the only band that is attempting to capture 80s sunny pop sounds and doing a good job of it. And they certainly look cute. And my girlfriend will probably love the shit out of them. But me...I don't really get it. So when they were blowing up last year, I listened to a few tracks but it didn't interest me. C'est la vie, I thought. Until today, when I started watching 'Better Off Without You'. And it's probably the hangover, but I dug it's sugary charms. Some A/V Berocca? It's the precursor to the hotly anticipated debut LP Welcome To Condale, out at the tail end of next month. Summer Camp are following this up with a tour of Europe and the UK in November - playing Efes in London in the middle of that month - yet no word of their visit to Australia. However, they love their 80s shtick down here, so it won't be long Im sure...



Those Crystal Antlers keep forging forth off the back of new album Two Way Mirror, and this is a new video to keep the surge going. This one is for 'Way Out', a short droning rocker that trips the fuck on out of there. An instrumental number for the video is a weird choice, but I love it - Im sure you will too... If you're in London September 30, the band are playing at Tutu's (KCLSU), Im sure it will be amazing. Not as amazing though as for US audiences. Crystal Antlers are touring throughout October and November, and the second half of dates will be joined by WU LYF! Now, I havent mentioned these guys on the blog yet, but they are everywhere, they are good, and you will hear about them on SM very soon...

Crystal Antlers - Way Out from Cora Foxx on Vimeo

Now for a band I knew nothing about until last week. Hindershot are a Denver outfit who supposedly pump out the indie-pop-rock. I wouldn't know, I've only heard this one song, 'I Won't Change.' Now, it's a pretty good song, with tremolo well and truly in place to tickle my fancy, yet the video is doubly ace and thus has easily piqued my interest. They have an EP coming out soon called Curse Us All (through Hot Congress Records), and Im going to check that one out in due course. Until then - we have this.

Hindershot - I Won't Change from Hinder Shot on Vimeo.

Finally, my beloved Barn Owl have a video for 'Turiya' off their latest stellar release Lost In The Glare. Not much needs to be said here. They are the raddest. So drift off...

Barn Owl - Turiya from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Friday Cover Up - How About A Four-Way High Five?

Yep Things are about to get REAL messy around here...


First we have the widely praised duo Tennis. Cape Dory (via Fat Possum) has been very successful, yet rather than rest on their laurels, the band now brings us 'Is It True,' a Brenda Lee cover. Alaina Moore explains why they chose the cover... "Brenda Lee has been a great source of inspiration for me. We stumbled across the song 'Is It True', a less popular single she recorded later in her career and loved it not just for her more mature, crackly voice, but for the randomly awesome inclusion of a very young Jimmy Page on electric guitar. The song is such a jam, we really enjoyed the chance to record it ourselves. Despite the limitations of recording it on a 4-track cassette, and then having to mix it in a pinch on an 11 year old lap top, that crashed regularly, all the parts we love are there."

Tennis - Is It True (Brenda Lee cover)


J. Irvin Dally's new limited-edition vinyl 7" Sun Room / Teething comes out in a week, and it promises that there is more to come from the man who brought the excellent Despistado EP to us last year. So, along with a taste of the 7", here is a recent coer he did of the classic Stones track 'Wild Horses'...

J Irvin Dally - Sun Room
J Irvin Dally - Wild Horses (Rolling Stones cover)


Crystal Antlers - how you keep playing with me! I slated the first taste off their upcoming LP, 'Summer Solstice', then totally dug the track 'Two Way Mirror'. Now here comes another lovely scuzzy number in the form of 'I Slept In An Arcade', the Black Randy & The Metrosquad cover, which can be found on a compilation called Beat LA. The compilation is the result of the efforts by Narnack Records founder Shahin Ewalt, along with Toddrick Spalding and Angel mendoza of Greatminds Records, to help out the victims of the horrific earthquake that destroyed the nation of Haiti at the beginning of the year. A plethora of current LA artists (who also included No Age, Boom Bip, Imaad Wasif and Lucky Dragons) covered songs written by alternative, punk and rock musicians of the past that helped to define the LA sound (other covers are of The Germs, Gun Club, X, Minutemen, The Urinals and The Doors). Proceeds from the compilation benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the leading relief organizations working in Haiti. You can buy one here - as you can see it's a very worthwhile cause, and you get a lot out of it too!

Crystal Antlers - I Slept In An Arcade (Black Randy & The Metrosquad cover)


The "money shot" in this cover whorefest comes from Digital Leather - two posts in one day big guy! He is also an interesting musician when it comes to reinterpreting covers, as the below Jay Reatard song 'Hurts So Bad' attests. Im sure Jay (who was a close friend of Foree's) would love it, as I know you will too!

Digital Leather- I'm So Gone (Reatards cover) by digitalleather

Longing Stares Into The Two Way Mirror

I kinda bagged out the first taste off Crystal Antlers' new album Two Way Mirror, 'Summer Solstice'. I did attest to the notion that 'Andrew' was, and still is, a killer track. Well, the titular song from the sophomore album has arrived, and for me at least, this is a much stronger step in the right direction. 'Two Way Mirror' is more akin to their blistering garage psych ways that we witnessed on last LP Tentacles. We love our insurmountable mountains of shrieking guitars, our pummelling drums and our iconic, blood torn vocals, and all are present and accounted for here. It will be interesting to see how this album fares - the Long Beach collective have taken it upon themselves to release it on their Recreation LTD label. I can state that now, my interest has finally been piqued.

Crystal Antlers - Two Way Mirror

Crystal Antlers Go Pagan, Just Wanna Be Friends...

Not sure whether to be happy or upset by this, Crystal Antlers' first taste off their upcoming LP Two-Way Mirror. You see, I was having a debate with some friends last year about the 'relevance' of Crystal Antlers - I for one thought that Tentacles was still a good album, yet had been superseded by other bands of their ilk since its inception back in 2009. Now we can hear on 'Summer Solstice' that they are doing away with the lo-fi nature of Tentacles - but what's this? Is it just me, or does this track sound suspiciously like those New York mad stallions, Les Savy Fav? If you agree that they certainly DO sound like Les Savy Fav, then you might be swayed either way depending on whether you like that band or not. Me? I like Les Savy Fav - they are amazing live - but do we need another one? Im flummoxed...

Crystal Antlers - Summer Solstice


Two-Way Mirror is out July 12, and we will have a better idea then. until then though, give us your thoughts. And in case you forgot, they did create one of the coolest songs ever (in my opinion this is one of my favourite tracks of the 2000s...).

Crystal Antlers - Andrew

New Crystal Stilts Shakes the Shackles and Plugs It Up

I wouldnt have posted about this - many others have already - but its prevalent to a previous post, and its awesome to boot, so...deal with it.

Another conversation I had on the weekend at the glorious balcony BBQ we had (see Dungen's post for enlightenment), was on the current trend of bands to play that fuzzy, scuzzy dreamy summer pop thing. My opinion was that the bands to encapsulate that sound first may have ignited the craze, but as months have gone by other bands have come out that either diminish the sound (and to be honest, I think that includes most of the genre) or usurped them in their competency. I threw out the two Crystals - Antlers and Stilts. However I was shouted down about Crystal Stilts, that their sound was still distinctively loud and dirty, and that I should give them another chance (there was no such outcry for the Antlers though - sorry...)

And would you know it, but then Crystal Stilts bring out some new tunes, like Carrie's hand pushing through the freshly turned earth of her grave (that I had admittedly dug that night) and grabbing my ankle, reminding me that they will never go away... 'Shake The Shackles' will be available through Slumberland Records in October, so you still have a month to have the hard copy. Nevertheless, here it is, and I am eating humble pie. It is true swampy drone rock, and has me salivating at the thought of a follow up to the stellar Alight of Night, (and proving that they aren't missing Frankie Rose...but thats another story...).

Yep, Im sucking it up, big time.

Shake the Shackles by Crystal Stilts

Magnetic Moon by Crystal Stilts

Eat Skull - More than just the coolest part of The Lost Boys

Siltbreeze has steadily built itself up into one of the most exciting labels on the planet. With acts such as Times New Viking, Sic Alps and Naked On The Vague on its roster (also Guided By Voices ?!?), expect to hear a hell of a lot more of what they have to offer...like right now!

Eat Skull have been dishing out a scuzzy as fuck noise pop formula for a few years now, alongside fellow Portlanders and Siltbreeze stablemates Psychedelic Horseshit (although PH take the cake in shambolic - don't worry, we'll post in due haste), and have inadvertantly found themselves on a wave of popular music...and yet somehow left behind in the slipstream. Crystal Antlers, Wavves, No Age and their ilk are gaining monumental popularity/notoriety. However Eat Skull deserve just as much of the accolades - even though they probably dont give two shits either way.

1st album Sick To Death really got things rolling, showcasing a band that could grab all of their favourite musical genres and put it through a shiny meat grinder to produce grisly slabs of murky gold (that sounds absolute rubbish, but listen to 'Beach Brains' followed by 'New Confinement' and you'll be swayed). 2009's follow up Wild and Inside was still awesome +, but didnt have the immediacy of its predecessor, despite the incessance of the organ on pop-tart of death opener 'Stick To The Formula'. You can definitely hear bands like the Clean in there - just not as clean. But still cleaner than before - even if less clean is cleaner...

Fuck, let me put it this way - Eat Skull are great. Really really great. Their abominations of pop, punk, garage rock, art rock, and scuzzy no-wave somehow add up to priceless soundbites that can be embraced wholeheartedly - and you will embrace them. They are criminally underrated. Chase down their albums, become devotees, and...eat some skulls...

Eat Skull - Beach Brains

Eat Skull - New Confinement

Eat Skull - Stick To The Formula