Video Vacuum - Mesa Cosa, Bitches, Popstrangers, Nine Black Alps, Cull

Did you know it is Christmas... Or was. You probably noticed, seeing as it was jammed down your throat every five minutes. It's gone for another year, so relax. Or don't - because Valentine's Day and Easter paraphernalia are already in the shops! Fuck you, The Man. I'm gonna watch some videos instead...



Mesa Cosa are a bunch of loud, destructive idjits who love to rock. They don't want to go to Sydney either, enough to write a song about it. It's such a fun song though it sounds like they actually DO want to go to Sydney. Or maybe want to party hard so that they they don't have to go. But then 80 seconds in they ARE in Sydney...stop confusing me dudes!



London's Bitches have 'No Brain'. Read that sentence carefully - there are capitals and specific kinds of punctuation there for a reason. The duo are silly too, running around screwing with hipsters in garish ritualistic masks - but then they get their comeuppance by being chased down and killed - by themselves! Whoa. It's all typically serrated punk of the decidedly sloppy kind, fuzzy and loose as fuck, and all words are in their right place - a no brainer bitches.



Popstrangers burst forth with their excellent debut LP Antipodes earlier in 2013, and closed out the year with an EP with new single 'Rats In The Palm Trees', a little slower, glowier, and a fitting postscript to a highly successful twelve months for the trio. The film clip is simple yet intriguing. I want to never drink Red Stripe from a can again though (especially at venues like Scala where its almost five quid), and yet this video (filmed in London) makes it more than OK.



A surprise in the inbox this week comes from Sydney dreamers Cull. Their montage of vehicular-viewed landscapes intercut with other wind and snow swept footage fits the drifting cacophony beautifully - set your ears to swoon. I missed their album Ba Noi last year, Ill have to rectify that pronto.



Let's finish with some Brit grunge wails, huh? Well, it suits the fucking miserable weather they (and I) have over there at the moment. Nine Black Alps have always wavered in and out of favour with me, but the Manchester marauders have hooked me on the chorus of their single 'Novokaine' (REALLY could have done without the K though). The clip is straightforward band playing in a room stuff, but it's all about the bombast and bluster and gnashing of aural teeth. OK, lads - Ill crush my molars into dust too.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Nine Black Alps

Manchester's Nine Black Alps have been a little quiet of late, but all that is about to change with their fourth studio album Sirens set for release in October through Brew with the single for 'My One and Only' preceding the album on 23rd September. Its the best thing that these guys have ever laid claim to, really letting fly whilst also keeping things simple, justifying the years hiding under the covers. Loving their grunge overtones, it's what I love about Violent Soho too. They will be touring the UK shortly after its release too, so heady times ahead. Here's a couple of tasters anyway, let's get dumb, loud, and awesome.

Nine Black Alps - Living In A Dream
Nine Black Alps - Don't Forget To Breathe

Pawing The Milk Maid

Here are two linked acts that are prepping amazing releases through Fat Cat Records this year.


First up is another slacker rock album that owes as much to the 90s psych movement of the Dandy Warhols/Brian Jonestown Massacre era as it does to fellow revivalists like Yuck. Milk Maid are from Manchester (chief songwriter Martin Cohen used to be in the pretty rad Nine Black Alps) and Mostly No (their second after releasing Yucca only last year) is an album chock full of jangly guitar ramble and chunky guitar drive. I love me a guitar album. Yet I still think that due to trying to find that balance between the jangle and the crunch, the trio straddles both without embracing either, so things aren't as strong as they could be. It's not that I struggle with isn't that the trio aren't good - Mostly No is a pretty delectable album - it's that their name is too close to Milk Music, the Washington band that are one of the best things going around right now. So when I forget, or get confused, and hit up Milk Maid instead of Milk Music, I'm invariably disappointed. This isn't the band's fault of course, and Mostly No is an album that makes an impression, then falters, before winning you over in the end ('Do Right' and 'Bad Luck' are pretty killer). Let's hope the next one works harder to rock all the way through.




Much more upbeat are PAWS, a Glasgow based trio that dish out scuzzy garage fuzz with little regard for their own safety. They brought out their debut EP Misled Youth (in cassette form) back in May, and are quickly backing that up with their Jellyfish/Bloodline 7" (which rings of early Japanadroids, especially the A-side) in preparation for their upcoming LP Cokefloat! (which has been recorded and produced by Warm Brains' uber-producer Rory Attwell). I have to say that I'm a big fan - these two quickly constructed releases (everything except for 'Bainz' - my favourite - was written and recorded in under a week) allude to a world of promise.

PAWS - Misled Youth



You can grab all of these releases on the FatCat website here.