Kinski Go For 7 (Or 8)

Kinski are back! After the cathartic menace that permeated 2013's Cosy Moments (remember the Repo Man homage jacket photo?) and their split earlier this year with fellow Seattle stoned droners Sandrider, the four-piece are prepped to release 7 (Or 8) (a play on whether the band has actually put out seven or eight albums - the jury's out, even for the band) through Kill Rock Stars. They continue to actively confound categorisation: 'Detroit Trickle Down' highlights their propensity for instrumental doom and destruction; 'Drink Up and Be Somebody' indicating their love of Raw Power continues to fuel the fires, along with their fused fuzz pedals; 'I Fell --' is heaver and faster still; while closer 'Bulletin Of The International String Figure Association' is a twelve minute gravity-crushing comedown. There is a cohesion here suggesting that after a decade Kinski have found their punk drone sonic slipstream too - very exciting indeed.

Grab 7 (Or 8) here.

Getting Cosy With Kinski

There is too much music in the world. I'm going to do some small (but hopefully relevant) posts over the next week about releases I'm sure you are all on top of, as I should have been, but they are too good to not mention seeing as they are amazing records.

Ill kick it off with one I was sent a few months ago, and kinda let slip until I saw Repo Man on TV a few weeks ago. I goddamn love that movie, I can tell you. The cover of the new Kinski record, Cosy Moments, is straight outta that movie. Now, Cosy Moments doesn't offer any straight up punk jams like Alex Cox's soundtrack (although 'Last Day On Earth' is close). But then again, Cosy Moments doesn't offer up classic Kinski either - gone are the ground-down post-rock stylings of yore. In its place we have a spaced-out grunge behemoth, Fu Manchu by way of Nirvana - the Seattle hangover kicking in two decades on. It might irk the purists (ARE THERE Kinski purists?), but this leaner, meaner Kinski is all right by me.

Grab Cosy Moments (through Kill Rock Stars) here - its a solid record all round.

Kinski - Long Term Exit Strategy
Kinski - Skim Milf

The Marnie, The Witch and the Wardrobe (And Me)

Man, I am sooooooo in love with Marnie Stern. I apologise to my fiance, I do, but head over heels, right here. She is an awesome guitarist, songwriter, she gets Zach Hill and Kid Millions to drum with her - that is just some fucking ridiculous shit right there. I could go on. She also seems kind of stupid, as in she loves to muck around just as much as she does to hunker down with her guitar and blow everyone away, which every truly cool person must be. Because the truly cool person, is actually someone just like you and me - except they are really good at something, and it doesn't change them. Her new record, The Chronicles of Marnia, may not be in the same frenetic mash-up of previous recordings, but she nails even more because of that - there is bright, shiny pop mannerisms hiding underneath the manic aural colour streams. It's like Ponytail in structured form. I wrote a review of the album already for theMusic.com.au, and I've posted it below. (And by the way, Marnie, you should have extended your Win A Date comp to Brisbane, Australia. Just sayin').

Bursting forth like a clusterbomb created by art-noise tricksters Ponytail and Lightning Bolt (helped by the fact that the drumming duties, normally held by eight-armed Zach Hill, are pinned down by Oneida’s whirling dervish, Kid Millions), Year Of The Glad, Marnie Stern’s opening salvo on fourth album The Chronicles Of Marnia, sets the tone for the entire record. Still featuring the jawdropping fretwork dexterity that Stern is rightly renowned for, the track is a maelstrom of hypercolour explosions for the ears, Stern’s high-pitched vocals swinging from shrieking vowels to hushed murmurs, all evoking a sense of giddy joy.

Yet Stern has always countered her manic musical presence with a lyrical inversion, straddling euphoria and melancholy in equal measure. And so it continues here: the raucous math-rock punch of You Don’t Turn Down is punctuated by Stern’s finger-tapping brilliance and a machine gun delivery in the middle third that decries I’m losing hope in my body; Noonan’s fizzing energy belies a tiredness as Stern implores Don’t you want to be somebody?/And you kept on bringing me down; the kaleidoscopic singsong of Nothing Is Easy underscores Stern’s proclivity for soldiering on. This continual tug-of-war is what electrifies Stern as a person and an artist, and The Chronicles of Marnia has perfectly captured this in all its effervescent glory.

And the pendulum continues to swing – the one-two punch of closers Proof Of Life (with Stern imploring All my life, it’s based on fantasy/And all the gods, they’ve stopped talking to me offering lows which seem bottomless) and the feverish Hell Yes (which quivers and jitters uncontrollably, and purred vocals I won’t give in/I won’t give up/All I’ve got is time). Marnie Stern may feel torn, yet there’s no need to be – her musical legacy continues to energise and impress.

You can get The Chronicles Of Marnia through Kill Rockstars here.

Marnie Stern - Year Of The Glad

Marnie Stern - You Don't Turn Down

I should mellow over Damaged Erase Errata

You won't believe this... but this is God's honest truth. For the past week I've been preparing a post about San Francisco's Erase Errata, one of those posts about a recent band that have drifted off the radar of late, where are they now? Wish they'd drop some new material, etc, etc. Then in a total coincidence they go drop a new track! The first since 2006 L.P Nightlife. I'm not making it up, its not some convoluted intro for news about a 7" release, honest.

So you can imagine my excitement upon discovering the Erase Errata's new 7" Damaged, out on Kill Rock Stars that dropped this time last week. It does have one slight drawback in that my original post is now totally defunct, but its a small price to pay to have Erase Errata back in the fold. But to be honest its not like the San Francisco trio don't have previous form when it comes to making us wait. Their last two long players, At Crystal Palace (2003) and Nightlife (2006) dropped three years apart, so surely after four years a new album in overdue? Anyway I was going to wax lyrical about how good the abrasive angular funk-punk shapes that made up Erase Errata's sound were, how the bucking bass of 'The White Horse is Bucking' was so perfect, how 'California Viewing''s thudding rhythm could batter even the coldest of hearts. Then there's Nightlife, Tax Dollar shouldn't need any introduction, if it does you're really missing out, there's the rumbling descent into chaotic noise and timing change that is 'Another Genius Idea from Our Government', the fog inducing heat haze of 'Rider', I could clearly go on forever but it seems all a bit academic now, you want to know about the new material.

Erase Errata - Another Genius Idea from Our Government

Well it seems the sands of time have smoothed Erase Errata's hard angles, they've softened their edges, rounded their sound like a granite stone lost at the bottom of a stream covered in a cold fog. But there's a catch - underneath their new mellowed pebble form Erase Errata are still as hard as they ever were, you can still feel that bass rumbling away, more so on b-side 'Ouija Boarding'. Its all points to a new subtlety, an intriguing prospect for any new Erase Errata L.P.

Erase Errata - Damaged

Deerhoof - The Greater Good...

I guess it has to be said that Deerhoof are an acquired taste. You have your supporters, who are enraptured with the tight coil of terse boppy fun ties down some amazingly precise drumming in the live arena, and cant get enough of the punchy quirks that this threesome doles out with gay abandon. Then there are others who cant stand Satomi Matsuzaki's Eastern pixie vocals, or the intentionally frenetic nature of their music. One of my friends thinks the vocals are like a drowning cat, that should be shot. Hmmm...

But I think that both camps might agree that the band's aesthetics lends itself to major indie label status, which is what these guys have done - with Kill Rock Stars and now ATP Recordings (and Polyvinyl Records?). There is a real love affair with ATP and Deerhoof - they have done many shows together, culminating in May's entire performance of the very impressive Milk Man album. Leading into this though will be the release of their 11th (?) album, Deerhoof Vs Evil, early next year. First impressions? They are solidifying their sound, then projecting it onto a larger sonic canvas. Its sounding bigger, although it is still the same organic force driving forth. I never listened to last year's Offend Maggie, and have love/hate relationships with previous efforts The Runners Four and Friend Opportunity, but 'The Merry Barracks' is a great number. Ill be queueing up to see them come 2011...

Deerhoof - The Merry Barracks

Let the Sound Unwind

I actually don't know how I came to know about Unwound. There is no definitive timing; no event, person, place that comes to mind. I cant even place them in that 'strike of lightning' moment of giving a band a chance based on a piece of artwork, or a photograph, or a snippet of article or sound bite. I just heard their final album, Leaves Turn Inside You, at some stage, somewhere, under muffled tones earlier this year, and now it is my current soundtrack.

Unwound were a noise band from Washington, existing for about a decade before dissolving in 2002. A mainstay of Kill Rock Stars, Unwound continued to redefine their sound throughout each release, something I have only come to realise in the past week as I hunt down their previous musical departures. Of course, having heard Leaves Turn Inside You makes that the watershed album for me, and the benchmark for all following albums, but its true to say that Unwound are an unheralded act, their angular attack on guitar rock at once a notion of its time and place within a 'scene', emblematic of an aggressive collective outlook on music that mirrored that of their forebears and able-minded peers (anywhere from Sonic Youth to Fugazi/Minor Threat to Shellac to Drive Like Jehu to Gang Of Four - traversing a number of genres whilst sticking steadfastly to 'louder is more'), and unique to the point of being criminally undervalued and ignored. Furthermore, it makes me wonder if these types of bands will ever exist again - truly agressive, angular guitar rock... And yet their legacy does live on through devoted kudos given by the likes of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and Cave In. This 3-piece should be listened to, ad nauseum, post haste. Thus it is my pick of the day, week, and month.

Here are a list of reviews for Leaves Turn Inside You, and a few tracks to cut your teeth on. Sincerely, get this album. It is fucking amazing. A true album's album - not as post-hardcore as previous offerings, but a fully immersive effort, I can't say enough about this album

Unwound - Off This Century
Unwound - Scarlette

And, just to diversify, here's a track from their 1996 album, Repetition. Every album is different, every album rules. I can't say enough about this band.

Unwound - For Your Entertainment

Absence Makes The Shadows Longer

Grass Widow are another great band being championed by Upset The Rhythm. See them at Old Blue Last 30th September, where they'll be supported by Dalston masked art punksters Trash Kit. But before you do, pay time to actually delve into Grass Widow (brilliant name by the way, definitions here) and their sound. Through their self-titled EP (through Captured Tracks) and LP (Make A Mess Records), Grass Widow cut a gloriously and heaven-sent swathe through the glut of dream beach pop et al bands by firstly daring to have high production values, and secondly to have genuinely infectious pop hooks and psychedelic whimsy amid their sunny dispositions. This will be further augmented when they release Past Time, which sees them climb the recording ladder another rung by signing to Kill Rock Stars. These San Fransicans could be up to something - combining the hip sensibilities that are all the rage, but steeping it all in the psych leanings that I know and love. And they fucking love the Kinks! That's all I really need to fall into love with a Grass Widow...

Grass Widow - Shadow

Sung Gongs

Quasi have been around for quite a while, having put out various sized and themed releases through Kill Rock Stars and and Touch and Go. They are also the "side project" of Heatmiser's Sam Coombes and Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss, ably supported on this album, American Gongs, by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' Joanna Bolme. Of course Quasi has outlasted both of those outfits (especially regrettable in Sleater-Kinney's case), but they have remained a niche oddity rather than a supergroup of sorts.

This is all about to change with this album. And they are actually touring it rather than sticking to Portland gigs, which will do much for their rotation. The album finally showcases Coombes' supreme axemanship and Weiss' authoritative drumming, and is further augmented by the fact that American Gongs is a proper album, with well constructed and cohesive songs. The Lee Ranaldo sounding "Little White Horse" and bluesy barroom glitter of "Rockabilly Party" show the band at its best sans the long workout jams (which are a treat live), whilst "The Jig Is Up" and "Everything And Nothing At All" denote their mournful, whiskey-soaked side. Quasi are a band that deserve to be noted - not just due to the superior musicianship of the parties involved, but to the fact that they are a fucking good band.

Quasi - Little White Horse
Quasi - Rockabilly Party