Video Vacuum - Fraudband , Juan Wauters, Brief Candles, Weird Womb

It's hump day, let's loosen up a bit and watch some vids, yeah?

'(I've Got An) Eastern Block' by Fraudband from Kasumuen Records on Vimeo.

Fraudband come from the Neumusak realm in Melbourne (Faspeedelay being another acolyte). Their improv breakdown EP was pretty great. Here is a clip that is all about letting loose and freaking out. It's funny, weird, freaky, goofy, and a loose jam turned into flesh. Try these moves out at work - go on, I dare you...

Juan Wauters. Any more necessary? OK how about a weird and funny VHS film clip based on a show that I'm assuming shows film clips then people ring in and vote on whether to - yep - make or break it. In all honesty, Wauters would fit right in here in Australia. Goofy film clip, plaintive songs, silly sense of humour...and Coolio?

Brief Candles are a band I mentioned in 2011 that were taking the shoegaze fanaticism and running it through the sharpest filters, showing a leaner, meaner approach with the right degree of sugar and light and were all the better for it. Their new song 'Terry Nation' is significantly darker than much that was on their great Fractured Days album - it has some krautrock leanings, some rusted freakouts, and a killer filmclip pastiching 60s/70s television into an amazingly intricate and bewitching watch - especially around the 4 minute mark when the band break into a feedback wielding meltdown. And there are Daleks - a childhood nightmare/favourite. These Milwaukee kids have got it going on.

Saving the most NSFW video for last, here is Tuscan, Arizona's Weird Womb and the visceral and hilarious film clip for their newie 'Tanned Tits'. What is a grotty and offputting sex scene becomes a "when violated women fuck back" as the girl puts the headphones and starts to show this sweaty demon what it means to get down and dirty. This is a V/H/S clip without the horror. Weird Womb are a pretty incredible band, and to finish off here is their previous track 'Pale Piss' - yep, they are that kind of band...

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Poetic Bridge Over Juan Wauters

I moved headquarters last week, hence the week of silence here at Sonic Masala HQ. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes though, most of which concerns the label – writing promos, contacting blogs such as myself, talking to radio representatives, chasing vinyl jackets, organising gigs and tours, and finishing up with the vinyl entering the country (yes, the Roku Music LP and the Gazar Strips EP have made it safe and sound!). All of this around the hours of my day job. Busy indeed. But there is no relenting from the music – it stops for no man.

One thing I’ve noticed this week though is that there has been a fairly lukewarm response to The Beets’ frontman Juan Wauters’ debut solo album, North American Poetry (N.A.P.). A lot of the humdrum responses have come from the belief that it is too close to home, as it were. The Beets are renowned for slacker garage throwaway tracks, delivered in that disaffected, half asleep way that intimates that they don’t give a fuck when they so clearly do. I love it when a band pulls that off too, and I'm a fan of Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool, Let The Poison Out and Stay Home albums. But just because Wauters is casting off the rest of the band and stripping the fuzz off like a scuba suit, its still the same dude underneath, just a lot more naked. I'm not saying this isn’t a flawed record – some tracks drift away, appearing to be more of a bridge than a song in their own right – but there are songs that stand up to the test of time, like the jangly single 'Sanity Or Not', or the tracks where Carmelle Safdi comes into the mix, or the Spanish sung 'Escucho Mucho'. Damn, that may as well be half the album right there! At the end of the day, Wauters has poetic eclecticism, hooks a-plenty, and this album remains incredibly moreish. For whatever reason, the lack of variety of here was exactly what I expected, and as it turned out, exactly what I wanted. Plus I listened to this album pretty much nonstop as I packed the old place and moved to the new - so it's become a part of me now.

N.A.P. is out now through Captured Tracks - get it here.

Video Vacuum - Juan Wauters, Bed Rugs, Big Brave, Spring King

I just watched V/H/S 2. Breakdown - the surrounding story was better than the first V/H/S anthology wraparound; and each of the vignettes were really inventive with the use of "found footage" (mechanical eye and mounted bike helmet were both pretty great), yet the best by a million miles was the Indonesian cult story. Overall it's just a lot of fun - some great scares, but just a lot of fun. So let's get lo-fi and (potentially) get scared with these new tracks...

I showcased this track 'Sanity' from frontman of The Beets' Juan Wauters a little whiles ago. The vid for the song is bullshit crazy, with blunts, gimps, Juan doing psycho Z-grade wrestling against women (and Guapo!), a wonky American flag - and it's purely brilliant. "You know what country's ugly but they could have some very interesting ugly girls? England."



Some hazy rock pinned together by underwater synchronised swimming? Bed Rugs (hailing from Antwerp in Belgium) has you covered. This oscillating track 'Blinds' is off their just-released EP Rapids (out through Ample Play & Burger Records) - from this sound alone I'm intrigued to hear more.



I know even less about Montreal psych rockers Big Brave, seeing as this is all I've heard, but the simplicity and dirge held within has me very hopeful. The new song is titled 'There Is No Victory, Only Burning Flags and Fallen Men' - which I really, really like. More please.



And let's finish with this cut and paste slab of scuzzy silliness from Manchester's Spring King. I've meant to mention these guys for some time, but this dropped in the inbox over the weekend and has been played incessantly in the playlist ever since, so there is no excuse now. Spring King are probably certifiably insane, and I'm happy with that. They just supported Fair Ohs too, so the insanity is spreading.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Losing Sanity On These Juan Wauters

I meant to post about this 7" on Thursday TWO WEEKS AGO, but as always things got a little caught up...so here it is.

It has been a little while since we've heard anything from NY spazzniks The Beets. Their last release wasn't all that long ago - they released two albums in 2011, after all - but with their proclivity for brevity and insanity, it's not hard to understand why the wait has been a little concerning. Fear not, however, as frontman Juan Wauters spreads his wings and his sanity thin by taking on the solo thang. Sanity is the 7" single (see what I did in the last sentence? DO YOU SEE?), and it's a two minute slice of pop irreverence sublimely rendered for your easy and repeated consumption. It's radness in other words, and hope this isn't the only thing we hear from either of Wauters' acts in 2013...

You can buy Sanity here through Wayward Records. Wauters played Shea Stadium in New York last Thursday with Brisbane's own Dune Rats, hence me wanting to post back then. Wauters had been very keen for that particular show - I'm sure Dune Rats were the ones showing their gratitude by night's end... he has done a tour with Veronica Falls recently and has some Beets dates lined up too, so all's swell. Here's the rest of the dates:

04.09.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Silent Barn w/Sea Lions (THIS IS TONIGHT!!! GET ON THIS NYers!) 04.17.13 - Wilkes-Barre, PA - The Crimson Lion
04.18.13 - Oberlin, OH - Oberlin College
04.19.13 - Columbus, OH - Double Happiness
04.20.13 - Chicago, IL - TBA
04.21.13 - Ypsilanti, MI - Woodruff's
05.04.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Death By Audio w/Bass Drum of Death