Eat A Gravel Samwidge Comes With Medicinal Requirements

What to say about Gravel Samwidge's new album Medicinal Requirements that doesn't require battery acid and a bilge pump? This shit is thick, diseased, and the best thing they have possibly ever done. They have been active of late, releasing smaller bits and pieces that seemed to exemplify the Gravel Samwidge of today - oh how wrong we were. This is all laid on the table from the first track 'Nervepowder', a song that has been doing the rounds for a while but is irrevocably turned into a behemoth here. Mark Spinks is in eye-rolled-in-back-of-the-head raging brilliance, and the guitars grind together (Spinks joined here by Kitchens Floor's Matt Kennedy) like a medieval torture implement, begging for dismemberment.


The buzzsaw attack continues into 'Rock God', where Spinks' vocal delivery delves back into his more recognisable deadpan rant, but the instrumentation here is what marks these tracks a cut above what has come before - Ashley Jenkins' bass cuts a swathe through the angular anger, a wrecking ball of monotone monstrosity. Alex Morrison lopes along, a pummelling metronome. 'Get Your Shit Together' and 'Carpool' march all over you with their Gestapo shitheel boots, and you love it, bloodied maw and all. 'Contact' is a tone-deaf precursor to closer 'Pronouncement', a warped swirling mess buoying forth Gerald Keaney's cracked poetics, before the speakers are blasted beyond all repair.

Such a virile and bilious shot in the arm - Medicinal Requirements is out now through Swashbuckling Hobo Records (you can grab it here). To add to the rough and tumble, Gravel Samwidge are supporting rock gods Mudhoney and obvious touchstones Feedtime in Brisbane at The Zoo Saturday 18th January! And here is a pic of the album in the new bin in the world's best radio station, WMFU! Thanks Ron!

Z*L

Came across this self-titled album from Boston's Z*L the other day (out now through Midriff Records). it reminds me a little of Mudhoney, a little of Bruce Springsteen, a lot of the resurgent adulation for 90s guitar rock sensibilities (see Parquet Courts, Milk Music, Cloud Nothings...I could very easily go on). It's a very solid album, and has me wondering - why the throwback? And why am I so pleased that such a thing exists? Because for me at least, not only did I grow up on this stuff (You Am I's first album Sound Of Ever, Girls Against Boys, even Nirvana if I must, were the stuff of wasted teenage days), but the discordant noise these guys create touches a nerve, lain dormant due to shifts over time for even more atonal sonic destruction, or the modern world's predilection for clean and pretty guitar lines and "rock". Z*L sound...honest. Its roots is in the working class, in blue-collar Americana, in slaving away. They aren't pretending, experimenting, confounding, conforming - they are just being. For a while there, such an existence was forgotten - I'm glad to see it flooding back.

Z*L can be gleaned here - a very solid release.

Splendid Spook Houses Of America

This song has saved my life today. After a heady weekend at Splendour In The Grass (working on reviews and publications, seeing some great sets from Explosions In The Sky, Father John Misty, Mudhoney and Dirty Three, but mainly having a hazy blast with friends and "acquaintances"), travelling back to Brisbane from Byron Bay at 6am wasn't conducive to a happy Uncle Masala. Then I stumbled across New Jersey quartet Spook Houses and their track 'American' that is on their upcoming LP Trying. That flat vocal when he drawls "I'm drunk and I feel like shit" says it all, let alone the fat bass line and the explosion of happy noise halfway through the blistering track. It's an anthem towards the inane beauty inherent in being young and dumb, which is usually what going to a festival is fuelled by. I know nothing else about this band AT ALL, but this is enough. They saved my life - now I am indebted to Spook Houses.


Trying is out soon on Philly label Evil Weevil. You can pre-order it here.

Some Touring Deets For Brisbane Folks...

OK, so this is random and heaps of bands come and go, but I thought I should relay at least a few national and international acts that are doin their thang very soon in the capital of Queensland...

Starting small (in many ways), local band Tiny Spiders (whose 'Shadows' vid we showed yesterday) are vebnturing out this week for a quick tet-a-tet -

Friday September 9th @ The Crown & Anchor, Adelaide
/w Fake Tan, Beige Abrasion

Saturday September 10th @ The Cornish Arms, Melbourne
/w Passport For Amy, The Battery Kids

Plus a whole lot of other stuff, Im sure...


Akron/Family are closing the GOMA Surrealism Up Late program September 30th. Unfortunately this one is sold out, but they are playing interstate - hit their website for details. This will be an amazing show...


Monolithic Japanese post-rockers Mono are hitting the Hi Fi Bar full force on Wednesday October 5. This promises to be one of those shows that takes the quiet/loud dynamic to breaking-point extremes, where in the space between you will hear a pin drop, along with your jaw. Get tix here.


Alt-country heroes Okkervil River are playing the Hi Fi Bar Wednesday October 19, in what is their fifth sojourn to these fine shores. The Texan six-piece come armed with a swag of new songs from their recently released sixth album, I Am Very Far, which is a startling break from anything the band has ever created before. Terrifying and joyous, violent and serene, grotesque and romantic. It's a celebration of forces beyond their control. This is likely to sell out, so get on these ASAP.


This year's Meredith Music festival is massive, but with the current trickle of side-shows about to turn into a flood come December, missing out won't be a hard pill to swallow. Already some of the bands have announced shows, including the seminal Mudhoney (The Zoo, Monday December 5th), the abrasively brilliant Future Of The Left (The Zoo, Tuesday December 6th), and the untouchable Explosions In The Sky (Hi Fi Bar, Tuesday December 13).

Most of these international tours are put on by the brilliant Handsome Tours.