Bringing The Wooden Shjips Back To Land (PREMIERE VIDEO)

My pink vinyl copy of San Francisco psych wizards Wooden Shjips’ new record Back To Land (out through Thrill Jockey) sits at home. It came in the day I left Brisbane for my English break. So here I am, in a Crystal Palace café, writing about the digital copy, imagining it spin in fairy floss revelry on my Aldi-sponsored turntable – it’s a great thought, because (unsurprisingly) this is a great album.

That said, not everyone will agree. There seems to be a trend of recent years that the lords of this particular rock domain – The Black Angels, Dead Meadow – have softened their droning edge, imbuing more pop and folk to their hardline regiment to the detriment of the foundations to the genre that they had forged out of relentlessness and marijuana smoke. In some ways I agree – Black Angels’ later albums haven’t had that immediate heft that the likes of Passover and Directions To See A Ghost held. Yet Back To Land has copped some criticism for being repetitive. Umm…hello? Isn’t that largely the point of these types of bands? They build an atmosphere, a ruthless rhythm with which to be taken away, never to return? It seems ridiculous that such an assertion be made about Wooden Shjips. Back To Land is an album of constants. You know that Ripley Johnson is going to drone on with his reverbed vocals; he will wail away on the guitar; Nash Whelan's sonorous organ (most likely wrapped in Alfoil); the metronomic drum/bass combo of Omar Ahsanuddin and Dusty Jermier... But the beauty of Wooden Shjips for me is their innate mastery of the groove - their incessant insistence that the groove stay well and truly in place, without much variation, but enough to evoke a shift in tedium, in motion, in space, so that the mood and atmosphere transforms without knowledge of such a change taking place. The languorous psych rock with pastoral imaginings 'These Shadows', the motorik urgency of 'In The Roses', the distorted whimsy of the excellent 'Everybody Knows' (the video of which is Premiere below!), the sunny warble of the title track - it's an album of tonal increments, of shimmering beauty, of transient glory, all with infinite replay value. Absolutely nothing to disagree with here.

Wooden Shjips played ongside labelmates Kandodo last night at SCALA in London. It was as spaced out, audio-visual and excellent as you can imagine. My musical sojourn into the haunted halls that was my time here 08-11 has begun.

Back To Land is out now - get it here.

Rebirth Of A Dead Meadow

I'm a massive fan of psychedelic rock music of all kinds, but especially the heavier, dirgier kind. I think the genesis of this may have come with discovering Led Zeppelin with my dad (who, whilst not a musical aficionado, did also introduce me to Johnny Cash, Australian Crawl, The Boss and 'Brothers In Arms' era Dire Straits, which I still have a soft spot for). The first album I can recall truly grabbing me in this mould though was The Warlocks' Rise & Fall, which was playing at the old Rockinghorse Records store PA back in 2002 (and a record very close to my heart). I've been a hapless acolyte ever since...

I haven't had the pleasure of bathing in the cavernous dirge of Jason Simon and his Dead Meadow brethren as yet - but again I have a sort of origin story for these guys too. Before wholesale piracy was passe, I remember being stuck out in the middle of nowhere in 2003 (Roma, Queensland to be exact) on my first stationed education position with nothing to do, so I delved into Amazon's then music website, CDNow. I discovered some pretty amazing things that year through that thing (Neutral Milk Hotel, Explosions In The Sky, Mono, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead), one of them also being Dead Meadow's third LP Shivering Kings & Others. From there it was The Black Angels, Black Mountain - further down the spiral I would go.

As the years have gone by I have drifted somewhat from the "lightening" of Dead Meadow's aesthetic - despite the excellence of Feathers (2005), 2008's Old Growth didn't grab me at all, whilst I only gave 2010's Three Kings a cursory once-over. I have to say though that new album Warble Womb is a true return to form (some people will strenuously argue that the form never dissipated - whatever). Certainly more sonorous and less kosmiche than compatriots Wooden Shjips, Dead Meadow does have the same propensity for creating a cyclical, familiar groove that permeates their records - Warble Womb is no exception. But when you have the lackadaisical, off-kilter wooze of a track like 'Mr Chesty' or a roiling magma purge like 'This Song Is Over', you can't deny the trio's inimitable power. And this might be a bit of cribbing (who doesn't in this genre?), but 'I'm Cured' sounds like the sun-blasted paisley malaise of The Warlocks - full circle.

They aren't mellowing out so much as becoming one with their mystical powers, and Warble Womb may be the moment that I fuse with them. They are still masters of the domain, after all...

Warble Womb is out through their Xemu Records label - I have no idea where to get it. Hassle them I guess? But never fear. Stream the entire record here.

Mega Video Vacuum of Death

It's been a couple weeks - you miss me? I missed you. So here is a veritable shitload of music videos for us to catch up over...



Let's kick off with a brace of ace Aussie releases, starting with Beef Jerk. Great name, right? Wait til you get a load of their single - 'Schooners'. Man, talk about a band after my own heart - hence me having them up to Brisbane to launch their 7" at Trainspotters October 12. It's shambolic but has a real kick. Jangle booze - a bountiful charm.



If you are yet to partake in a lil Day Ravies, more the fool you. The Sydney band are embracing the wall-of-noise brutality that shoegaze pigeonholes kids into, and imbuing it with warmth and purpose. Many bands like this drift off into the dream pop world, but as 'I Don't Mind' attests, these guys are more the stuff of uneasy yet pastel nightmares. Think Lynch, if he was a LOT more lighthearted.



Sticking with the lo-fi video shenanigans are Adelaide slackerhounds Bitch Prefect who are prepping their follow-up to last year's excellent debut Big Time. 'Better Next Time' is off their latest Adelaide 7", and it has that desperation masked as nonchalance shtick down pat - except here it is distilled to an acute pang. Wastoids with heart.



The jingle-jangle-jungle that is Australia is rife with beast of the wild, and The Ocean Party is yet another of these laconic animals. Their shows in Brisbane last week were great; side-projects Velcro (in a Sonic Masala Presents show no less), and Mining Boom also slayed; their 3rd LP Split is on the horizon; and they will be launching it with Sonic Masala in late November. The love affair continues with the eponymous single, sung by newish drummer (and brother of guitarist/vocalist Lachlan) Zac Denton.



It has been twelve years since radiant guitar pop degenerates Dollar Bar gave us an album, but in Paddington Workers' Club, that wait is almost over. One of Brisbane's - nay, Australia's - unheralded gems, the four-piece might be flung to all ends of the East Coast, but if their show at The Waiting Room back in May, and new single 'Everyone's Everyone's' is any indication, the time apart makes the time together all the sweeter. I'm expecting to fall hard for this record. Plus, I AM thinking of leaving Brisbane to go to Melbourne to hang out with people from Brisbane! How'd you know, Dale?


No Monster Club - The Best Thing About Us Is We Never Grow Up from Bobby Aherne on Vimeo

Now after that delectable smorgasbord, let's head across the seas. First stop - Ireland. Last year we thought that No Monster Club was dead. No - the resurrection has been staged, now its time for the band to take over the world. On the cusp of leaving for an American tour (as in, in the next hour), No Monster Club give Sonic Masala a quick taste of where the band is heading - just over one minute of rad thrashy silliness. They have a recorded album, Foie Gras, that is unreleased - someone get on that!



Across the ditch to England now to nestle down with now-trio Yuck. New album Glow & Behold comes out on Friday - I've been listening to it for a week, and whilst it hasn't grabbed me, it's one of those sonorous earworms that is likely to lay its eggs in your brain for a long time after. 'Middle Sea' is the best bridge from the past and the future for the band - and possibly for English tennis (sorry England, but Andy Murray is fucking Scottish).



Whilst we are in the Mother Country, let's get our brains eaten. Leeds noiseniks Eagulls have a great little 7" on the way, and this video for the track 'Nerve Endings' is the epitome of nauseous tension. Basically swirling wraithlike band footage, superimposed over the quick-frame decomposition of a brain. Grim. At least the maggots are having a good time... But then again, this track is killer, a noise maggot for your brain.


HABITS "TOYMAKR" from HABITS on Vimeo.

I've played one video from LA's Habits, and here's another. In the same vein of course - VHS weirdness with schizoid fried scattered colours - it's an acid trip into the loser brain of a karaoke-performing prepubescent Beck. The dude is playing a show with Deap Vally and JUUJUU this weekend, he's for real.



Darting back now to New Zealand and HDSPNS, an Auckland  band that already had two strikes what with having all capital letters and no vowels in their name... Luckily for me (and them - I have vengeful clout you know) they have scored with the metronomic guitar rock of '54000' from their incumbent VIVIDISM EP.  Fitting in with fellow angular stylists Popstrangers, this is the kind of atonal thrashing that isn't necessarily flaying the skin from the bones so much as lightly scouring your cheeks with acid and steel wool. You just taken morphine though, so it tickles.



I'm leaving you with a double whammy of live psych revelation from two gods of the genre, Dead Meadow and Wooden Shjips. Both bands have new albums out, and they have both been kind to Australia in past years, so maybe this is something we will see with our own peepers soon enough. Just lean back and let your mind expand...



NOW GET BACK TO WORK! (And hey, glad to be back)

Dead Angels and Black Meadows As We Wash Into The Sea...

 

This week the announcement of new albums from two of the world's premiere psych rock bands hit the streets, and it would be remiss of me not to shine considerable light on them both - especially as these bands have the tinge of the Apocalypse about them, with their search for the greater realms and all, and seeing as its getting all environmentally apocalyptic here in Brisbane, it is befitting to use these guys as the soundtrack to our demise...

 

Firstly, I have writ large on my love of Texans The Black Angels throughout these "illustrious" pages - the fact that their set at a hail-plagued and frankly underwhelming Harvest Festival this year was a clear highlight that their effect over me is far from diminished. The fact that their guitarist Christian Bland is responsible for one of the best curated festivals on the planet, the Austin Psych Fest, ups the ante. The fact that they accepted SM local faves Dreamtime to join the fray this year is cherry on top. So the announcement of Indigo Meadow, The Black Angels' fourth longplayer, piqued my interest no end. The first taste comes in the form of 'Don't Play With Guns', which is not about the Aurora Colorado Dark Knight shootings, but could very well be.

“Our music has always tried to shed light on issues that may be hard to deal with or confront,” says singer/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas. “If people think they can ignore the issues they are wrong. Don't play with guns, don't touch a hot stove, don't give your child a poisonous snake, don't turn the cheek when artists are willing to discuss these issues. In ‘Don't Play With Guns’ the antagonist is a female who has the power of persuasion over a man,” he continues. “Substitute the female antagonist with a Nation, substitute the manipulated man with yourself. Heed the warning: Don't Play With Guns.”

 

We mustn't get too carried away - this is a psych band that loooooove getting high - but their notions are spot on here, and the song is true BA black magic.

 

Trek to the West Coast though, and you find a band equally as adept at wielding the dark, chugging death rattle of psychedelic dirge. Los Angeles' Dead Meadow are resurfacing after a break in creative output (2010's The Three Kings was an exhaustive trip, albeit one bristling with darkly rich undercurrents), prepping a double LP to be titled Warble Womb (put out by Xemu Records). This is doubly exciting seeing as it marks the first album to feature returning original member and contributing songwriter Mark Laughlin (drums) since 2001’s Howls From The Hills. The reunited original trio of Laughlin, Jason Simon (guitar/vocals) and Steven Kille (bass) released the following statement on the new material. “The new material will strike many as a return to the heavier side of our first albums. However, it still retains a good deal of the psych-pop element that was more prominent on our Matador Records releases. The way Warble Womb came out, we are viewing it as almost a follow-up to Howls from the Hills.”

Hole. E. Shit. Colour me all kinds of LSD-induced excited. Now as long as I ride this wild weather out...

Mystical Specs Never Change With Woodsman

I don't know how Denver spaceniks Woodsman do it. They have a new release, an EP called Mystic Places (once again through Fire Talk), and somehow it maintains the excellent quality that they have been pumping out the past few years. Even more heartening is that they find new and unusual ways to keep these tracks tight yet languid and free-form - so much so that on 'Specdrum' it feels that twice as much time has passed, you have slipped so deep into its trance. Then when you realise the song is over, and so little time has passed, you immediately put it on and jump into their slipstream once more. Its a Herculean feat, but one Woodsman seem to be able to achieve on a whim. Furthermore, what with the recent addition of vocals (very Jason Simon of Dead Meadow in tonality and usage), it shows that the boundaries are continually shifted by these adventurous folk.


Mystic Places is out now - get it here. My big call for the day (other than Matt Kennedy of Kitchens Floor possibly becoming an icon - that one was pretty huge)? This EP is miles better than their Rare Forms album of earlier in the year. This is what I wished that album was. It is amazing.

Woodsman - Specdrum

Hunting Feathers

Those Brisbane ladies in love with the reverb pedal, Feathers, have a new album out in a couple weeks. Hunter's Moon - that title alone should be a fair indicator of what to expect, and why they have supported the likes of Best Coast, Vivian Girls and Dead Meadow in the past. Recorded in a few hours (!) in an empty hundred-year-old movie cinema, Hunter’s Moon is the band’s first release in their current line-up, marking a transitional period in the band’s history. The LP presents a collection of songs spanning from upbeat surf inspired pop love songs (like opener 'Darklands'), to hazy, reverb obscured ballads about lost dreams and tales of phantoms (the closer 'Wild Horse Mountain' is the perfect example of that). The Rolling Stones' 'Play With Fire' also makes an appearance. Its a lovely languid release, and just another reason to take not of what's happening in this under appreciated Australian city.

Hunter's Moon is out October 7 through Bon Voyage Records, and is limited to 100 pressings - tiny! So get here and get in quick!

Feathers - Darklands
Feathers - Wild Horse Mountain

Love Is Alive In The Dark

Darker My Love got in contact with us last week to let us know about their upcoming LP, Alive As You Are, their 3rd, that is out in August via Dangerbird Records. I have to say I havent really listened to these guys before - it wasn't until their great rendition of 13th Floor Elevators' 'She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)' on compilation The Psychedelic Sounds of the Sonic Cathedral: A Tribute To Roky Erickson & the 13th Floor Elevators that I realised why so many people raved about them. A compilation that included covers by A Place To Bury Strangers, The Black Angels and Dead Meadow no less! So here is a cut from the new album - I am quietly confident that this piece of vinyl will be a keeper.

Darker My Love - Dear Author

Darker My Love - She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)

A full moon gives me the blues

Just got my mitts on the new record by Wolf People. Of course the wolf band names are a dime a dozen, and frankly boring nowadays (even though its a cool word) and often come lumped with connotations of hipster wank (sorry Wolf Eyes and Wolf Parade...the rest of you, Im pointing fingers). Dont dismiss Tidings purely on the band's moniker. They are out and out 70s blues rock - and not your Wolfmother poseuring kind either. The LP drips of soulful and drug-fucked blues that we associate with Hendrix (although never reaching those heights), even placing the pops and crackles on the CD version, so you know they were born for vinyl. They are also very popular at the moment, being picked up by great label Jagjagwar (the first UK band to do so) and scoring support gigs with the likes of Besnard Lakes, Lightning Dust and Dead Meadow. I aim to be at all gigs, so could find myself howling at the moon in the very near future...

LONDON GIGS

31 March - Cargo (supporting Besnard Lakes)
6 May - Lexington (supporting Lightning Dust - side project of Black Mountain)
26 May - Bush Hall (supporting psychedelic giants Dead Meadow)

Wolf People - Empty Heart