Nothing Like An X-Rayed Eyeball

Brooklyn hipsters Xray Eyeballs (OJ from Golden Triangle's "other" band) released their debut LP Not Nothing earlier this year on Kanine Records. You may remember the cassette they put out on the mega rad Night People label - well, its business as usual here, although very nice to have a full length release from them. Its a more maudlin, languid affair than Golden Triangle - as Kanine Records themselves ascertain, this is OJ's morning after Golden Triangle came through and ripped up the party. That's not to say there arent rollicking numbers here - opening one-two 'Crystal' and 'Nightwalkers' befits the debauched slouch of an all-nighter - but Not Nothing focuses on the grungier aspects of waking up after a bender, still pounding at times, yet preferring to stomp along to their own beat - which invariably is bloodshot and destitute. Its distorted, clanging, rambunctious, sloppy - all the trademarks of a good time. It isnt reinventing the wheel - at all - but is desirable in that this is the kind of band I wanna see live, drunk as fuck. You will too...


Not Nothing is out now - get it here.

Xray Eyeballs - Egyptian Magician
Xray Eyeballs - Escape From That Girl

Can't See Through The Screens

Oh, you bands with every so difficult names to Google! Screens are from New York, have just released the album Dead House through What Delicate Records, and make a sound that is part times ATDI art rock, at others chillwave crossed with no wave, at other times has an industrial drone bent a la Factory Floor. Overall this is a very solid record, as the below tracks attest - and these aren't the best gems to find on Dead House at all in my opinion. They are making minor splashes in their chosen hometown too, if an upcoming show with the likes of Sightings, Aa and Golden Triangle is any indication - which it is, my children.

(NB - I think this is the band that my mate Andy was trying to tell me about. Mate, if its another Screens - and there seem to be a few around - let me know. But if Im on the money, kudos to you!

You can grab Dead House at their Bandcamp site, whilst physical copies are available through What Delicate here.

Screens - Shudder
Screens - Pop Logic

Voiceless Crocodiles

Hip as fuck-sters Crocodiles are doing their best to not get caught rehashing themselves. Seeing as Crocodiles itself is a new direction by members of The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, this is impressive. We heard a track from Sleep Forever, their sophomore effort after the much-lauded Summer of Hate, and it shows a cleaner, poppier approach to their snarling scuzzy post-pop. Now they are releasing Fires of Comparison, a four track EP that has the leatherclad brooders shifting styles, showing samples, and vetoing vocals altogether for what proves to be a great little instrumental record.

Each song has a different approach - 'Kill Joe Arpaio' is a Girls Versus Boys-lite driver, all slink, smirk and menace with the looped radio samples; 'A House With Skin Like Yours' is a stamping monotone, with reverbing guitar and incessant tambourine evoking a blue soaked Western vista replete of Wayne's and Ford's, replaced instead with Gallo's and Jarmusch's filling their snakeskin boots whilst BRMC revisit their roots at the local saloon; the title track sits comfortably with John/Ono noodlings and shimmering guitar with white noise overload from a data projector; with 'Hearts Reprise' coming at the bottom end with minimalist blips and sonic veils, a muzak number if imagined by Melbourne indie wunderkinds Minimum Chips.

I never thought I would say this - but Crocodiles have actually submitted a release that is not saturated in its own self-worth; that is not pandering to the disaffected masses; that is not bleeding kudos from the quiffed copouts and the denimed slackers that mark out their peers. Dont get me wrong - these guys are continually walking a hipster tightrope, threatening to disappear up their own arseholes at any given opportunity (we got strep from doing crack with a hobo; I cant do interviews cos Im stoned; Im sweating profusely cos Im wearing leather but refuse to take it off yadda yadda), but they are proving their worth as frontrunners for the new bands of the beginning of this decade. Which bodes well for Wednesday when Sleep Forever is due to hit...

Download Fires of Comparison from Fat Possum Records for free here, and sample 'A House With Skin Like Yours' below. In the meantime Crocodiles are finishing up a tour in the US with a New York gig with Reading Rainbow and The Girls at Dawn, and start a new one with Golden Triangle and Dirty Beaches late October. In between Crocodiles are treating us here in the UK with the first tour after releasing Sleep Forever - lucky us! SO get tix for the Hoxton Bar and Grill (5 October) or the in-store at Rough Trade East (14 October), or catch their shows spread across the land.

Crocodiles - A House With Skin Like Yours

A fresh golden triangle

On Thursday the already much mentioned Deerhunter gig at Heaven was kicked off by The Fresh and Onlys in support and I thought that if I was to post the pics then its only fair that I gave them a bit of a mention first.

Now The Fresh and Onlys have always foxed me a little. Everything of theirs that I had previously heard always seemed a touch lightweight to me, like they needed to invest in a proper bass amp or something (not that I know anything about bass amps). So on Thursday I felt it only fair that I approached their set with a clean slate, and it was a good job too. Live The Fresh and Onlys pack a major grizzly punch all wrapped up in their garage pop rhythms. Well worthy of a reassessment.

The band have also just dropped a split 7" with Golden Triangle, the Brooklyn band that Brendan posted about last week which I have also become just as fond of. Both well worth checking out.

The Fresh and Onlys - Head of Steam
Golden Triangle - Jungle Jim

Oh and more pics of The Fresh and Onlys below...

Golden Triangle sucks you in...

What is the Golden Triangle?

There is the infamous area in China that revels in the drug trade...

The isosceles triangle in which the two longer sides are the same length and the ratio of this length to that of the third length is known as the golden ratio...

The area in Victoria, Australia, famous for its consistency in the discovery of gold nuggets...

Then there is the 3 boy/3 girl Brooklyn retro rock wizards of pop bluster, with a distinctive Debbie Harry/Blondie edge and some sort of carbon copy hangover of mid career Sonic Youth whilst Joan Jett watches in disdain from the shadows...

The first I heard of these guys/girls/whatever, I saw they were playing a Dickies music call at South By Southwest (pushed hard by their label Hardly Art, which also stables Talbot Tagora) alongside Texan post rock legends This Will Destroy You.

The next time was through my good friend Tash, who mentioned that she'd heard them on Radio Six and I just had to check em out.

Well Tash, its taken me over a month, but I have finally listened to Golden Triangle - and thank fuck I did.

They released a split 7" release with the Fresh & Onlys a little while back, on which Cold Bones can be found. And for added pleasure, here is another track, Neon Noose. Im a big fan - they sound like an absolute blast, something everyone would want to get involved in as this English winter subsides and we begin to remember what its like to live again.

Thanks a mill Tash!

Golden Triangle - Cold Bones

Golden Triangle - Neon Noose