Stroke The Illegal Squirrel With Invisible Hands

Haha, lewd innuendo, always gets the Interwebz a-goin...

Charlottesville pop transgressives Invisible Hand released a cool little cassette a little while back called Squirrel Jail on Funny/Not Funny Records, and I've heard naught about it. A crying shame, because it is 19 songs - that's right, 19 songs - of awesome sonic flavours. What's more, it isn't an album but a large collection of demos and outtakes, on a cassette, so there is no reason why this should be as great as it is. Instead of lo-fi farts leaking out from the bottom of the funeral pyre of a thousand sacrificed vanity projects, we have infectious hooks ('Eating Out'), raucous energy that echoes of the better side of British paisley rock from the 60s on steroids ('Lowbaude'), warped Beatles-baiting psych melts ('Squatters Rights'), broken GBV spits ('Wounded Eels') and languid space-outs performed in aeronautical hangars ('Everything's Fair Game'). Brandon Flowers wishes he had written 'LIES LIES LIES'; Nathan Williams can't muster the warmth of 'Smile Forever' from a million smouldering alien bongs; and closer 'A Song Called Krautrock' has the gall to run almost eight minutes, play loosely with more 60s paraphernalia (this time pastoral psych pop) and be worth every second of the beautifully elongated outro. Stop it, Invisible Hand - it feels too good to be right - but how can this be wrong?

You can still buy physical copies of Squirrel Jail for $4USD here - far too generous of you!

Friday Cover Up - Songs In The Key Of Bob

To finish up the week, I'm looking at a 7" compilation that isn't exactly a covers release, although it fits tenuously within the mould.

Hear me out.

Songs In The Key Of Bob is the first official release from Charlottesville, Virginia label Hibernator Gigs Records. It features seven original songs from seven bands (a couple, such as Invisible Hand and Naked Gods, having graced these hallowed halls), all written and recorded in the style of DIY legends Guided By Voices. As you would expect from such an approach, the songs vary in fidelity and ambition, yet all achieve the purpose they set out to reach. Te idea stems from a moment when Adam Brock (Borrowed Beams Of Light/Invisible Hand/Weird Mob) started to re imagine the titles of theses and journals (some included Cream of the Jesters and Popular Dogs) he was sorting in a library warehouse into GBV titles. Brock held onto the best titles he found, circulated them to some of his fave bands to pick one and write their best GBV interpretation, and voila, this bizarre ode to the Dayton, Ohio gods was born.

Rather than pick a favourite, I'll let you dive into the entire thing, see what tickles your fancy. I do like Borrowed Beams...'s 'Stone Cutters Journal' though (couldn't help myself). You can pre-order this (on blue vinyl, no less) here.

Tapped On The Shoulder By The Invisible Hand

 

Here’s another record that escaped my attention – but a little differently than most of the others. Funny/Not Funny Records sent me a copy of the Invisible Hand’s Aja EP last year, and I actually listened to it. A lot!

The Virginia are fidgety folk, playing within the garage format, lacing through some powerpop, 60s paisley psych, and some emotive riffs and wah’s so much that it’s hard to sit still yourself. Yet somehow I negated to give it the lip service it deserved. So here it is.

There are some thumping rock moments like ‘Psychic Cat’ – if anyone can tell me why this reminds me of Titus Andronicus, please help out, I can’t figure out why, it sounds nothing like them but that reference ALWAYS jumps in my head! – but it’s the psych moments with the organ and strings on ‘Home At Last’ (I thought it was going all ‘Baba O’Reilly’ there for a time, these painkillers are doing their duty) and the “earnestness” of ‘Bleach Bums’ that are the real home runs.

Invisible Hand are the real deal. Not really interested in the stadiums, but capable of it, if only the powers that be knew what was good for them. Seriously, these guys need to be much bigger. STAT.

 

Aja is still available here. It’s a great little record, I highly recommend it.

Invisible Hand – Psychic Cat
Invisible Hand – Eating Out