Hits From The Box #60 - Rewriting History, One Phantasm At A Time

 

I watched Don Coscarelli's 1979 horror Phantasm for the first time today. I can't believe it's taken me so long. Sure, it doesn't make all that much sense, and the acting from the guy who plays Jody is one of the worst I've ever seen, but that kind of Italian-style horror, with a fair bit of humour thrown in, is right up my alley. And all for chips! There are lots of cool moments, created by a guy who loves having fun with his craft. I also watched Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained for the first time. Worlds apart in many respects, but also the similarities (violence and gore, lashings of humour, abject love of the artform) really struck me as I left the cinema. And I have come home to write tonight's Hits From The Box, and whilst I really liked both films, it's that sense of adventure, of creativity, of taking a chance, that has really stuck with me. And I enjoy that when I see that in bands too. And tonight, here are six acts that have impressed me for their craft this week...

    

Plant Parenthood is a band from Knoxville Tennessee that delves into the rougher, lower end of riff-heavy guitar rock that duos like JEFF The Brotherhood and Japandroids revel in. Their latest cassette, Sick Summer Vol. 2, is filled with that laconic, flailing, silly rock that makes you want to scull a beer, throw the dregs up in the air, let it hit you like fat drops of rain and not even notice how sticky that shit is, that's how blissfully happy and young (feeling) you are. Then there is 'Transit Town', another track they have put out - and it shits all over what is on this cassette. That warbling racket over the phone-recorded guitar strum - the drawled/shouted vocals - the innate warmth and potential singalong lyrics - it's rife with teenage touchstones. That said, no one around here is still in adolescence, so to tap into those notions without being manipulative or - well, shit - is a rare achievement. I like this, and hope they continue to rise. Get the cassette here, and listen (incessantly) to 'Transit Town' below.

   

 

I received an email about NY duo Trabajo waaaaaay back (like in July last year), yet I let it slip through my fingers - until I stumbled across their self-titled EP last week. Accidents happen, and like the four tracks on offer, they can reap unexpected rewards. Heavy on the experimental sampling and electronics, with vocals that straddle New Age stargazing and noise nonsense, the artificial Eastern beats inherent in tracks like 'Monk' are hypnotic and with a heady pinch of fun added. These tracks are made for headphones too - not like ANYTHING is made for laptop speakers, but Trabajo really grabbed me when I could differentiate all the different elements at play. NB - as I was researching the band I discovered they had released a new EP this month called Gamelan To The Love God - and it's infinitely better. This duo are doing some really creative, immersive and fun experiments with their format - I really wish they were a Brisbane band actually, that's how much I want to see them play this stuff live...

 

Let's head to Fort Wayne, Indiana now, where sonic travellers Heaven's Gateway Drugs call their spiritual plateau. They have released a pretty decent cassette in CPF, five tracks of mostly short slices of scorched, melodic psych meanderings, hovering between 60s bohemia and 70s blacktop swagger. So far, so Black Angels then (especially on something like 'Psychic Firearm'). Well, there's nothing wrong with that in my opinion - especially if it's done well. The selling point? The rabble chorus that hovers in the background of some of the tracks, most notably on 'Highway Hypnosis'. And that their press release claims there are six members of the band - the five musicians, "and you". I'm with you on this one fair wayfarers.

 

 

Now you think July last year was a long time coming? Try May, which is when NZ band Teen Fortress sent me their record Tepid Vapid Callow. The home project of Zach Doney (he of Bang Bang Eche infamy), the Christchurch native has a cross-pollination of emotive Bright Eyes vocals (well, sounds a bit like Conor Oberst) with the grittier, industrial town of angry, angular pop that the UK have always pumped out at regular intervals, all swimming in a petri dish of malaise, anguish, and awkward emotion that teeters on a knife's edge between hilarity and morbidity. I'm a massive fan of the music that is bubbling and boiling on the Island of the Long White Cloud - this is just another example (although Doney is moving to Melbourne soon - so like everything else from NZ that "makes it", Aussies can claim him soon too). Grab the record here.

Teen Fortress - Ace Harlow 

Teen Fortress - Say

 

Brooklyn duo Steel Phantoms actually got in contact with me a while ago too about their Forer EP, but I only officially cottoned on with their current release Curtain Call/Friend To Friend. I can't tell you why - maybe its that guitar sound, and Aaron Harris (of Islands' fame) nasally vocals - but I can't get early Walkmen out of my head when I hear 'Curtain Call', albeit with more urgency when the crunching chorus comes to a head. There are a few tempo changes here, but it all develops into a soaring track that easily beats everything on what stands on their previous release (which is a little slower and "mature" - not a bad thing, but the paring down to a two-piece seems to have made the world of difference). If you want to find out yourself, head over here to get Forer AND the single, make your own assumptions. I'm sure we'll end up on the same page. 

Steel Phantoms - Curtain Call

 

Let's end with (a) Wedding Favor then, shall we? Wedding Favor is Philly artist Robert Perkins, who was planning to have his eleven-track LP Solitaries/Tanglements out by the end of January on Magic Death Records. I'm not sure if this has actually happened or not - I haven't been able to get back to him, nor have I found in available at the label - but if these two tracks are anything to go by, this is quintessential bedroom meanderings that echo the warbled scratchings of early Beach Fossils, but with a heavier focus on country and clear reverbed vocals (almost unheard of in this day and age, amirite?) These two tracks are cold but without being distant; the sonorous guitar echoing like a steel guitar on the side of a deserted highway on dusk, played by a youthful King Dude with Dean Wareham in support. These two tracks alone have me actually very excited to hear the entire album. And when I do, you will be the first to know. Until then - get the Wedding Favor itch... 

Wedding Favor - It'll Be Much Time 

Wedding Favor - What Have You 

Happy Sunday...boooooooooooooy!

Little Dreamers - Release The Kraken

It's the beginning of Spring, and it's getting ridiculous. I am writing more and more articles for various publications on top of putting on gigs, doing live reviews and my "day job" - and Sonic Masala is suffering a little as a consequence. My listening pile is overflowing - there is stuff here from May! So it's time for a bit of a cull. But before I do that, here are a bunch of tracks and releases from bands I've "discovered" over the past two and a half years that I think really deserve attention.


King Dude blew me away with his Gothic country-folk dirge on My Beloved Guest and Tonight's Special Death (out through the great Bathetic label). Since then the Seattle native has kept the ball rolling with another great LP entitled Love and a 7" release. He is showing no signs of slowing down either, with the imminent release of his next LP Burning Daylight on Dias in October. Really looking forward to this one, he is an underground cult figure of his own invention, and Im waiting for the exact moment when the penny drops and everyone realises how much of a genius he is.

King Dude - Jesus In The Courtyard


Sheffield nutbars Best Friends had a rad EP earlier this year called Throwing Up, and they have kept vomiting breakneck hits since. They put out a track with a grafittied (I think...) photo of Edward Furlong called 'If you think too much your brain will fall out', a single ('Surf Bitches') is coming out under the Too Pure Singles Club (an intiative that's seeing Aussie brats Step-Panther put out a 7" on too), and have a cassette split with Grazes in tow. You can listen to all and sundry below. A great little band, I think you'd agree. They are touring around the UK as we speak, popping into London's Old Blue Last this Friday. GET THERE!





Best Friends - If You Think Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out


Brooklyn/San Fran collective Bad Bibles had a deliciously dark EP out in January, and have returned armed with 'Nearsighted'. Continuing with the tarot card imagery and post-punk skewered roiling and toiling, these guys sound like they are only just now finding their feet. This track is a big leap forward.

Bad Bibles - Nearsighted


Honey were throwing their shoegaze sounds around last year, and I quite liked it. Emphasis on the were, because they have just changed their name to The Early Morning Satellites. But they released an EP Fantasist before the changeover, and it's a doozie. Sonorous shoegaze, you had me at noisy and sexy as all hell.

Honey - Fantasist
Honey - Cape Canaveral


Mrs Magician brought out the There Is No God 7" (the titular track is SOOOOOO awesome!), which I really enjoyed - but their debut record and I didn't know about it??? The shame! Furthermore its out on the excellent Swami Records. Strange Heaven sees the San Diego band in fantastic form, so much better in less than 12 months, and the album has had to be repressed so people must be lapping it up, which is excellent news. Listen to it below, then pick it up here.

Mrs Magician - There Is No God




Minneapolis outfit Phantom Vibration had a great warbled pop EP in Kids back in 2011, followed it up with the great Growing Up and are now here with third extended player Aged. Ah, continuity, hey? You need to get it all and play it in chronological order. Love the last track in particular. Grab all three here.

Phantom Vibration - River Rock


Yeesh really blew me away with their Little Stabs At Happiness cassette, and here is the first taste of new material, verbose silly title and all. It's big emotive rawk with the requisite twist in the tail. I can't wait to hear what comes next.

Yeesh - Because Johnny Depp Always Wanted To Be A Rockstar, And Because I Always Wanted To Be Johnny Depp


I hammered on about the eclectic, electric brutality of LA's Wreck & Reference, and a little while back they upped the ante with No Youth. At times obtuse, at others bludgeoning, and with some spaciousness in between, the ten tracks on offer really are wrestling with demons the likes you nor I have ever witnessed, nor would want to. I'm not sure this is a record I could put on all the time, but when it clicks - prepare yourself for a industrial flaying.

Wreck & Reference - Nausea
Wreck & Reference - The Solstitial


Dogson, LA enigma Plant Magic Man's collection of recordings from 2008-2010, was an interesting exercise in tape-warped hypnagogic malaise. A plethora of releases later, and nothing much has changed on new EP Groo. Whoever this is, they keep as low a profile as possible, which adds to the mystique but also frustration. I want more damn you! Have at all of Plant Magic Man's releases here.

Plant Magic Man - I'm At War


Ann Arbor duo Dreampeter haven't had much new on the move (other than the Boneglow/Delusions split, which is basically Dreampeter in their solo guises) since they released 'Mason Jar' last year, but there is this deliciously warped track 'Bluebeard'. Makes me remember why I was enamoured with these dudes in the first place - hell, it's dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut! Good stuff indeed.

Dreampeter - Bluebeard


Now for some haunting folk from the UK, jah? The Skeleton Dead are a duo who I really connected with, especially after my hasty departure from the UK. At the end of my stay I was staying at my girlfriend's house, and her housemate was in love with cooking, hash and Mark Kozalek. Three great things to be in love with. I got to see Kozalek earlier this year, which was lovely, but back to the story. The Skeleton Dead's self titled LP came into my inbox at this time and slipped seamlessly into the fold. Recently they released Two Days In February, two tracks written and recorded in the winter just fled (well it was the beginning of the year for these guys), and hearing these tracks reminds me of those times. Cold, warm inside, drinking ale and smoking cigarettes in the snow, roast chicken and puppy dogs at the Coach & Horses, Bloody Mary's and cracked ice. Strange, eclectic memories, but they warm the cockles.

The Skeleton Dead - True To Our Name
The Skeleton Dead - Life Goes On


After writing about Glenn Branca I received an email from a man from the Republic of Macedonia. His self-recorded pieces were guitar explorations that examined sinuous form and abrasive noise under the moniker fydhws were exciting. Now as Sferi, he has released a concept sound collage based on the 8 planets of the solar system, and it is - sorry - otherworldly. Ranging from space ambient/rock to psychedelia and drone music, Sound Of The Spheres is actually very impressive - see Sferi's explanation of it all here - and is an album you should definitely delve into, preferably with expensive headphones on...

Sferi - Merkur


Back to Brooklyn to see what Life Size Maps are up to. The trio have just launched Excavate, a five track EP that also marks a new lineup for the poppy noiseniks. They play around with Gary Numan-esque structure and 8-bit shenanigans, whilst still holding precariously onto the shoegaze shtick they first burst out with. Its a growing bliss bomb of a release, and promises much more on the horizon.




Now this one is only a stop-gap, as Im sure Ill be mentioning more about this release as it comes to hand. Yet Cambridge, Massachusetts trio Night Fruit, who brought the graceful Dark Horse 7" last year, have a new release that is preceding an album, it's called 'Human Touch', and it's bloody great. The music speaks for itself. Stay tuned!!

Night Fruit - Human Touch


Here is another artist you will hear more of soon. Guilty Ghosts AKA Tristan O'Donnell brought a great release in his self-titled debut in 2010, excellently followed up by last year's VEILS, but if 'All Flesh Is Grass' is anything to go by, his next EP Tresspasser will easily surpass them. I love this track, and Im pretty sure you will too. You can pre-order the EP here.

Guilty Ghosts - All Flesh Is Grass


And finally we have Thor AKA Just Another Snake Cult from Iceland, whose freak pop tapestries often defy expectation and categorisation. He has just finished a new EP of minimal electronic / dream pop material called Birds Carried your Song Through The Night. It actually took me a bit to warm to, but when these tracks sink in, its impressive. You can grab the release in cassette form here. Worth every penny, especially when the title track kicks in.

Just Another Snake Cult - Birds Carried Your Song Through The Night

Phew! Fly my pretties, fly! Well, they grow up so fast don't they?

Case Studies vs King Dude - Two Twisted Rustic Troubadours Throw Down

I've decided to put these two artists into a musical cage death match of my own devising because they have just had releases that for whatever reason are inextricably linked to each other via my muddled, viscous headspace. No one wants to get in there, so let me vomit it out on this here page so that you can pick out, between the corn and the carrot, what you deem to be the better corner to stand behind...


Case Studies isn't exactly a new kid on the block - that would be Jesse Lortz of The Duchess & The Duke fame, hitting out on his own. The release The World Is Just A Shape To Fill The Night already piques interest due to its release on Sacred Bones. But we are only interested in the result, and what we have in this finished product is some dark, lonely, windswept folk numbers that are coloured with water-damaged, smoky images of American melancholia. Sounds depressing as all get out, but therein lies Case Studies' genius in that you are locked into his vision, his stories, and marvel rather than despair. Think a more harmonic Micah P Hinson, with the Biblical quaking dialled down a notch, yet the nonchalant violence of the Cormac McCarthy stylings of America a prominent feature. Now you see why I love this record...

Case Studies - The Eagle, Or The Serpent


And then there is this guy. I have already raved about King Dude's My Beloved Ghost that was re released by Bathetic earlier this year (I grabbed it on vinyl before it disappeared, which it has. It is as hissy, warped and fundamental maudlin yet exciting as it seemed on first listen!). The self-confessed Pagan is one of the greatest underground enigmas that we have right now, and whilst I support his entrepreneurial skills with his clothing line (yet see as a goth version of Ed Hardy), I'm enamoured with his skewed (and probably skewered) take on folk and pop. His LP is weirdly - albeit fittingly - titled Love (out through DAIS Records), and whilst it follows more of a synth drive than his brilliant My Beloved Ghost, it still maintains his constant awareness of the Devil - this time with smoky blue peepers.

King Dude - Big Blue Eyes

Now...FIGHT!

Never Bathetic

After the King Dude release earlier this year, I thought that Bathetic Records had hit their 2011 peak. And in my opinion this idea still stands - but these two releases are mighty tasty...


Bitchin Bajas (the solo synthscapes of Cooper Crain - true analog zone outs) & Faceplant (Mr Aaron Coyes to his folks, or maybe more Peaking Lights to you?) come together in a alarmingly seductive menagerie of drone-pop. Its organ splurges, TRONic spazzouts and kraut coughs and splutters. This shouldn't really be enough to pack a dancefloor - but one drop of this and you'll be packed in like sardines. The vinyl is limited to 600, and if you get it now you'll get a free 7" of your choice! Isn't that the best, around?


But as if Bathetic would leave it like that! After putting the highly admires Pink Priest to bed, its progenitor William Cody Watson has decided to step out under his parentally-adorned moniker, and the result is this cassette, Her Tusk Was Adorned With Rose Petals, which furthers his musical layering of dreamy ambiance and droning minimalism. Feeling like Im caught in the backstreets of the city, dull streetlights guiding my way, when the world starts to slip off its axis...And with the closing song being called 'I Can't Listen To My Bloody Valentine Without Thinking Of Scarlett Johansson' did enough to tip me into the parallel worlds or bewilderment and elation. There are only 100 copies of this, 10 of which include a handwritten unique poem from Watson, corresponding to an individual song title from the release. These 10 copies are hand-numbered & come in 7" x 5 1/4" PVC cases with custom artwork. These are first come, first serve. HELL YEAH!

Bitchin Bajas - Consciousness 1 (excerpt)
Faceplant - Ride The Ether (excerpt)

William Cody Watson - Retractable Claws

Derek Rogers' Wild Bathetic Safari!

Now for Bathetic post #2... Two cassette releases came out a week or so ago from artists Derek Rogers and Wild Safari.


Rogers' effort, Relative Quiet, is classic distorted guitar effect collage, offering tremulous ambiance that the likes of Kevin Greenspon, Mike McGuire and Tim Hecker often mine. (Rogers has heaps of cassettes available at his Bandcamp site here).


Wild Safari's We Laid Our Heads In Their Laps on the other hand is Jon (Bathetic) & Cody (ex-Pink Priest) laying down sonic tumblers that drift in and out of nostalgic, schoolyard sidewalks into lush forests. These languid synthetic jumble jams electrify as they lullaby. Another solid offering from them after their Cave Sequins release through Night People.

Derek Rogers - Everything Is Pointless And Meaningless
Wild Safari - Smuggler's Den

King Dude Rides By

This is the first of two Bathetic Records related posts this week - great way to start off a week of amazing music!

And Im starting with the absolute highlight (no offence to the other two releases...) I had no idea who TJ Cowgill was before hearing King Dude - in fact I still don't really. He apparently runs a clothing brand called Actual Pain that Kanye West is a fan of? Weird. (But check out the website - best opening page!) Anyway, King Dude is this guy's project - and it is pretty damn awesome. The debut release from this project, the My Beloved Ghost EP, was released on Bathetic first as a cassette. Since then King Dude has released the Black Triangle 7" on Clan Destine Records, as well as an LP CD-R on Disaro called Tonight's Special Death. But Im focusing mainly on this reissue. Released in a batch of 500 (100 of which is on white vinyl), this reissue features the three tracks from the Black Triangle 7" at the end of the B-Side.

King Dude is making, hands down, some of the best modern neo-folk. Its quite dark, slightly otherworldly, but never truly authentic - c'mon, he's called King Dude! However you perceive it, just try not to get these tracks stuck in your head. They'll nestle in there like burrs. This is music sung at the break of a Western dawn, in the silence of the crossroad, around a flaming campfire, as the Devil approaches. Pass me the whisky and the shotgun - its my turn to watch over us tonight...


He's got a full length album coming up on DAIS Records. Until then, revel in the dark haunted beauty of King Dude's beloved ghost.

King Dude - My Beloved Ghost
King Dude - Our Everlasting Life