Island Fears Forever

It's been a while, but Brighton band Fear Of Men have finally resurfaced, announcing sophomore record Fall Forever (pre-order it through Kanine Records in gold vinyl with a extra cassette here). The new taste of it, 'Island', is a sonorous, cavernous pop bliss bomb, Jessica Weiss' vocals soaring over the shimmering wash and kinetic pattering drums, a song of comfort amidst loneliness, an epiphany of needing the embrace and lead of another to take control in a relationship, or indeed of one's own life. It is over so quickly, a fleeting yet warming re-introduction. It's been a while since I embraced music of this ilk (maybe Globelamp? Or the less melancholic moments of Veronica Falls?), yet 'Island' hits home.

Cracking the Veneer Of September Girls

Irish brooders September Girls brought out the beguiling Cursing The Sea at the beginning of the year, but we have something new already, with whispers of an EP not far off. The first taste is 'Veneer', and it's a spike in the arm. There is a dirgey bassline playing as a cursed undercurrent here, lending a dangerousness to the five-piece's sound that has only ever been hinted at before now. I was not only surprised by this new release, but blown away by the sinister confidence that oozes out of every pore here. A great track that still holds the staple harmonies while hardening and baring teeth.

Veneer will be out through Kanine/Fortuna Pop! in November - can't wait.

Bleeding Is Reading

Changing names can throw you, but with Bleeding Rainbow there was always something lingering at the corners of the self-consciousness. The Philly four-piece used to be Reading Rainbow you see, named after the kiddies' show. The name shift comes from connotations from being named after the kiddies' show - and the fact Carrie Brownstein poo-pooed the name. It also happened at the tail end of 2011, so this ain't some new thing, but the band as RR hold a special place in my heart - I've been a fan since 2010, and their Prism Eyes LP of that year kept me warm on what was a weird time in my life, in Paris no less (read a little here...) The band as BR haven't not grabbed me - they are still the same core group - but it's taken until Interrupt (out now on Kanine) for me to slip back into their slipstream. The Superchunk comparisons are warranted, as is Sleater-Kinney - 'Out Of Line' for me could have been cut from that band's final LP The Woods. In fact the band has really toughened up in the past few years - even taking a Cloud Nothings-like angular stance on 'Images'. But overall Bleeding Rainbow are just a great guitar punk band with quirky scrap-pop sensibilities that will always take me back to my solo malaise in Paris, a weird yet grittily wondrous place.

Get Interrupt here.

An Eternal Summer Requires Correct Behavio(u)r

Eternal Summers are preparing to launch the follow-up to the excellent debut LP Silver with Correct Behavior (that's their American misspelling, not mine!) and they have handed out some tasty morsels to get your teeth into. The Virginia trio (the duo have added a bassist) aren't so much a scrap pop band in the same realm as compatriots Reading Rainbow as they are treading a new line that wavers between the Sundays ('Millions') and the Breeders ('Able To' - although a track not on the album). I'm really looking forward to see how this sucker works out.


Correct Behavior is out July 24 through Kanine Records.

Eternal Summers - Millions
Eternal Summers - Able To

X-Ray Eyeballs Look Squalid And Oh So Splendid

XRay Eyeballs are ready to foul up your living room and put out cigarettes on your cheeks once more. These blacker-than-thou noir-pop-punks have rejigged the lineup and are readying to tear down the foundations with Splendor Squalor, which 'X' is gleaned from. There is something decidedly glorious about this track, with enough glam, New Wave and Blondie references to poke a stick at before it's scuffed up with a Germs-monogrammed safety pin and set on fire.


Splendor Squalor is out soon on Kanine.



Xray Eyeballs - Die Little Love

Strangely Transfixed By Royal Baths (Updated)

I'm still not wholeheartedly convinced that I like Royal Baths. I mean, the Brooklyn-via-San Francisco band tick the right boxes - dark, brooding, garage based tendencies, drone tinged rock, a love of Spacemen 3... Yet I can't quite get them. Whether it's because I think/thought they're style over substance, or that they are/were a little over-hyped, I'm not sure. I wasn't enamoured with their debut Litanies (on Woodsist), but I listened to it quite a bit anyway. Weird.

I'm equally flummoxed by how much I'm enjoying them right now. I find their songs to be fairly insidious in how they squirrel under my skin without my notice or permission. It kinda hurts my head, because I can't put my finger on it, yet there it is, on repeat, making me happy and maudlin at the same time. Their new album, Better Luck Next Life, is coming out through Kanine next week, and it will be interesting if there is a similar sensation to the first. Likewise, I'll keep you posted as to whether it bewitches me the way the first one did, or if I genuinely dig it (or genuinely loathe it - nothing is off the table here...).

UPDATE - Royal Baths will be playing in Brisbane! Yep, they have lined up Woodland for Thursday March 29. I think it's time I settled my love/hate stance once and for all...

Royal Baths - Black Sheep
Royal Baths - Darling Divine

Rolling The Young Black Prisms

There have been announcements of all kinds of interesting releases in the past couple weeks, and I thought I'd focus on a couple more that are piquing my interest.


Seems that Black Dice are primed to drop Mr Impossible, their sixth official LP since their inception some fifteen plus years previously. Easily one of the most influential experimental rock bands to ever walk the dirty corridors of this earth, the NY trio never approach music the same way, offering instead a distilled focus on creating something insular, unique, and unequivocally Black Dice. THAT is why my skin is tingling at the thought of this release. Mr Impossible comes out April 9 on Ribbon Music.

Black Dice - Pigs


Whilst not at the heady heights of excitement, this one is still up there. An early highlight of 2011, San Francisco band Young Prisms' album Friends For Now married the shoegaze aesthetics that has attracted so many bands of late with an earthier, more playful style that nevertheless was a little too throwaway. Now they are prepping to hit us with some clearer, fresher dream pop madness courtesy of sophomore effort In Between on Kanine Records. I enjoyed the first album, but there were chinks in the armour, so I'm eagerly awaiting the drop of this LP to see if they come back stronger. The first taste is below. I'm not entirely won over to be honest, but the crisp production could play in their favour if there is enough deviation in their sound. The premise - the band has based the record on the loss of a dear friend and an unexpected stranding in London's Heathrow Airport - certainly alludes that this may be the case. Time will tell...

Young Prisms - Floating In Blue

Predicting Another Bloody Success In The Surf

West Beach, Florida's Surfer Blood had a stellar 2010, what with their massive debut LP Astro Coast making them the new Weezer (IE when Weezer was good) and side projects such as the Jesus Lizard-heavy Weird Wives kicked some serious arse. Well they are hitting back out into new territory this month on their new EP Tarot Classics (on Kanine Records) In some ways its more of the same, esp[especially on the catchy opener 'I'm Not Ready'. However 'Miranda' is a catchy Elvis Costello meets - you guessed it - Weezer blast, whilst end-track 'Drinking Problem' is a fantastic sidestep, a bit of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound/Lotus Plaza styled airiness pervading throughout. They are great songwriters, and vocalist John Paul Pitts' voice is as clear and enervating as ever. Ive been bagged out by my interest in this band in the past, but seriously, there is something about Surfer Blood which is like drinking an ice cold beer after spending an hour mowing the lawn in summer's mid-afternoon haze. A truly enjoyable yet refreshing experience.

Surfer Blood have picked up the support slot for the run of Stateside Pixies shows - very nice! If you can, make sure you get tickets for that. For the rest of you, bide your time - rumours afoot that the touring bug continues to bite...

Surfer Blood - Voyager Reprise
Surfer Blood - Miranda

Surfer Blood Play The Miranda Card

Those crazy Florida kids that make up Surfer Blood are ready to assault the senses again, opening up the campaign with this hungry, boppy number that is off their incumbent EP Tarot Classics (out on Kanine late next month). The Pixies reference is an inevitable one, yet the Ramones-style verses add the punch needed and makes it a truly insidious number, crawling into your headspace and curling up into a warm, fuzzy, irretrievable ball. Although the equalizer is maxxed out - seriously guys, nuance with the mix, where has that artform gone?

Surfer Blood - Miranda by daftdreamy

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

A Prisoner For An Eternal Summer

I think that last year's Silver LP was one of the most underrated albums of the year - by us also - and that is such a disservice to its creators Eternal Summers. They proved they were adept and creative with their structuring of glistening and sharp guitar pop - if you haven't heard it, do so, its ace! - but the Virginians arent waiting for a cult following to develop! Instead they've put out Prisoner, a four track EP that ups the ante on their tempos, saccharine vocals and infectious hooks. I cant get enough - hopefully this will be the perfect impetus for the thawing of the cold winter into a beautiful, (yes...) endless summer. May also marks their US tour with The Beets - now that will be something to get along to...

Prisoner is out April 19 on Forest Family/Kanine Records - preorder it here.

Endless Summer - Prisoner

Endless Summer - Childs Mind

Friends For Now - Spending The Parisian Weekend With Young Prisms

Hey kids! Guess what? Uncle Sonic Masala has just spent a weekend in Paris, walking around in the blistering cold, feeling snowflakes eviscerate his brain and looking at lots of cultural stuff. It was pretty rad. But my soundtrack made it even better. I listened to a gamut of great 2010 releases - Jesu, Merchandise, Deerhunter, Women, Best Coast, Grinderman - plus some other great bands. But the three that got into my head the most as I walked along the Seine seeing the Eiffel Tower through the mist were Weekend (who we rated the hell out of here), Young Prisms and Reading Rainbow. As Weekend and Young Prisms have a tenuous link outside of my malfunctioning iPod, I thought Id post about them first.

Having just finished a tour supporting Weekend, Young Prisms have been making a name for themselves with their woozy shoegaze with split records with Weekend, Mathematic and Small Black, and are now prepping their debut LP Friends For Now (on Kanine Records, who have been home to the likes of The Depreciation Guild, Grizzly Bear and Surfer Blood) in January. This album is infectious as fuck - think along the lines of their past touring buddies, but only if they listened to more Bradford Cox and a smidgen of early Dandy Warhols. The San Fran quintet live together, allowing for a tightness in their shambolic ramble that is reminiscent of other bands of their ilk. Its actually a fun record, despite the shimmering distortion, especially on tracks like 'Sugar'.

And its not long at all til you can hear them live! Check out any of the three London dates they are smashing - Dec 6th @ the Macbeth, Dec 7th @ the Lexington w/ Banjo Or Freakout!, and the support slot for ATP's Dean Wareham Does Galaxie 500 Dec 8th - that one is @ the Garage. Then they jet off to mainland Europe to support A Place To Bury Strangers. Yep, these crazy cats are flying high, and its a pity this album wasnt released in 2010 - Friends For Now would be pushing for my top album.

Preorder Friends For Now here.

Young Prisms - Sugar

Young Prisms -Eleni