Pleasant Pinemen

Luke Reilly keeps rolling on with his Swedish invasion through his PNKSLM Records. The latest band to suffer PNKSLM Stockholm Syndrome is Pinemen, who released their Pleasant Pain EP through the label at the turn of 2015. Slices of hook-embedded hazed garage psych - imagine Goodbye Bread era Ty Segall living in the Woods - Pinemen are a band that would be right at home lost in the Bay Area. It warms the cockles, a necessity in the tail end of this miserable winter. Even when they hit the psych blaze trail on 'Praise Yourself', it is done with a warm fuzz. Nice work guys. Grab Pleasant Pain here.

Hits From The Box #113 - Re-Breaking Bad

Has anyone got a good show I should watch? At the moment I'm in the last four episodes of Breaking Bad after watching it again for the third time. Not complaining, mind, it's a great show. But I need to move on a bit. So hit me up with suggestions, and in exchange, here are six more Hits From The Box...

One of the premier bands in the PNKSLM Records roster is Stockholm's Sudakistan. Normally known for more party-central garage rock, new single 'Mundo Mamon' is a more visceral beast, with the scuzz wall shot with percussive Latin beats and psych phasers. It is a heady precursor to their debut record Caballo Negro, out at the end of October - you can pre-order it here (on transparent/black spattered vinyl, no less).



Olympia traveller Tapes & Tubes has crafted a quiet introspective gem in Man In The Window. The hushed vocals of the title track evokes Iron & Wine or a narcoleptic Pedro The Lion, with stories told in maudlin half-tones, the acoustic strums and echoed effects pushing us further into contemplation. Rustic ruminations sung from the peripherals.

Boston's ugly pop gurus Lady Bones released their LP Dying (out now through Midnight Werewolf Records) and its a corker. Following in the footsteps of Pile and Big Mess and the rest of the brilliant Boston bunch that are bursting into the stratosphere of late, Lady Bones employ a rambunctious and muscular delivery that is both avuncular, louche and rigid, the vocals warbled and rough, the bassline steely and fused to the centre, the constant that the pounding drums and growling guitars stay bound to. It remains somewhat skeletal too - this is sinuous, barebones rock, delivered with lackadaisical verve. Therefore, GET IT.

The second half of this post heads to Australia, starting with Melbourne collective Mallee Songs. Originally a solo project for Michael Skinner, Natural Times is a fully realised band concern, and like Antipodean contemporaries The Middle East it revels in harmonious multilayered instrumentation and a lyrical nous focused on an insular meditation on the world as it winds by - going from the warm amble of 'Since The Kingdom' and swirling jangle of 'A Warm Breeze'. 'Christmas '93' reminds me a lot of Karl Smith and Sodastream - so big win there. The band supported Lehmann B Smith launch his new record last month and are doing a monthly residency at The Old Bar this month, with the likes of Hideous Towns, Zig Zag and Sleep Decade in support - get down there.

To Brisbane now, Paul Donoughue AKA Big Strong Brute. His new release, the EP Good Work, is a fair jump in electricity and verve from 2012's Avalanche Of Truth. Not that doing away with acoustics and plugging in has skewed his songwriting nous in any way. 'Start making sense' are the first words sung on opening track 'Wait', a slight play on Talking Heads, but also has a buoyant drum machine and air-punching lack of inhibition. 'Wedding Pages' holds more gravity and chagrin ('Why throw it up if it just comes down') but the ebullient undercurrent to Donoughue's edgy yet tempered exasperation turns an anthem into a magnetic revelation. And when the electric guitar swaggers through 'Heavy Mountain', you know that Big Strong Brute is more confident than ever - good work indeed.

And I'm going to finish off with some Brisbane rock royalty here. Screamfeeder's frontman Tim Stewart has been plying the trade with his We All Want To project for some years now, and has just released new album The Haze. Steward has always had a enigmatic yet charismatic presence, his lyrics elliptical, poetic and at times acerbic, and his delivery is easily identifiable - so much so that when he launches into opener 'Eileen Afternoon' a sense of welcoming bonhomie, of feeling like 'home', floods through me. We All Want To lacks the buzzsaw edge that Screamfeeder revels in (and with new songs apparently in the can, we might get some latter day 'Feeder treats soon!), but 'Everybody's Damaged' holds more emotional heft while songs like 'Party Girls' and 'Road To Ruin' shows shadows of that rawness. 'Remove The Arrow' on the other hand sees Skye Staniford take the vocal reins and is one of the strongest songs on the record, hands down.



Happy Sunday everyone!

I Got PNKSLM'd

Luke over at Stockholm label PNKSLM Records has been keeping quite busy this year. Besides his own outlet Lucern Raze, he has a bunch of cool releases that are prepped and/or out there, diseasing the ears of all who deign to listen. And now I intend to continue that infection...

Let's kick off fullest and latest, with Melt, a four track EP by Stockholm trio Magic Potion that came out on Monday. It's the kind of wonky guitar pop that Unknown Mortal Orchestra kicked off with, with heady elements of Mac DeMarco, Ariel Pink and the more bucolic moments of Thee Oh Sees. The weird rounded vocal delivery adds to the bubblegum acid, and some liquid guitar in 'Booored' and jangled instrumentation in 'Deep Web' ensures that there is a lot more than quirky novelty here. They have an album on the way this year too...

Over to Russia now and Angelic Milk, a slightly grizzled indie band with a serious degree of hook addiction. Or should I say girl - Sarah is a 17 year old who recorded 'IDK How' in her St Petersburg bedroom. It strikes a ebullient chord, somewhere between Colleen Green, Speedy Ortiz and Best Coast. She now has a band behind her - the world is her oyster, not that she cares.



The Castillians are from Birmingham and have been kicking about for close to five years. PNKSLM is priming to release their second album You & Me later in the year, but are just as keen to get people dipping into the jumped-up retro party anthems from their debut LP Show Your Teeth. This is much more throwback garage rock than many of their contemporaries - it sounds more like a time capsule relic from the 60s than a barely-heard CD-r from 2011 - therefore is bound to have a longer shelf life. Go on, smile - show your teeth.

And lastly (for now) we have Holy, who I mentioned back in January. They released Stabs earlier in the year, and it is again a pastiche of pastoral psych pop and the modern garage rock movement encapsulated by San Francisco, with some warped warmth all of its own. These songs are ones that linger and lick at the ears, wanting lengthy gratification, begging for repeat performances

A Holy Razing

Things are cookin' away nicely over at the Swedish stronghold that is garage psych label PNKSLM. Two heady LPs are on their way.

Firstly there is the one from label honcho Luke Reilly (formerly of the excellent Sex Beet)'s own outfit, Lucern Raze. Stockholm One promises to be a blasted bastard in the vein of Ty Segall, especially if you take the yin and yang that this garage beast promises 'Someone Like You'. The song is a cruiser, ready to take the hiiiiiiigh road, taking things, and girls, as they come. However if you heard the carnage of 'Sunshine Blues' back when, you know that this is the lethargic calm before the cathartic storm. Grab the record here (which is also out on Burger Records next month).

Then there is Stabs, the new album from Swedish hazed psych dwellers HOLY. The crackle and pop inherent in 'Demon's Hand' gives the sense of the five-piece playing in their basement, bedroom or (indeed) garage, light filtering wanly through the small, grimy window, weaving pastoral magic over a landscape bereft of such charms. In other words, they create their own world. I'm extremely intrigued to hear the rest of the record. Grab it here.

Going Places On An Anti Pony

Coming out next month is this tasty 7" from Swedish duo Anti Pony (through PNKSLM Records). The A-Side 'I Go Places' has been out for a little while - a sonorous, blazed drift through the pastel prisms of the pastoral mind. The middle third of the song gets a hardened edge and a little weird, the fragmented visuals heightening the disorientation. The B-Side is 'Cry On The Floor' and again we find ourselves entrenched in the past, eyes squinting into the setting, blasted sun. Pre-order it here.

No Manatee(e)s Just MVPs

This post was meant to be about Manateees' new record - but I lost it. Somehow I deleted the entire album (yes, it's one that I don't have a physical of, sorry...) and in its place was this 7" by UK bluesy punks Thee MVPs (who have a connection with the cool PNKSLM label). Oh Sally is actually on Slovenly Records - and when you hear 'Amok Time' you will know why. Some fucked up rockabilly with references to Fenders named Sally and Star Trek (maybe) - all imminently playable, ready made to sweat out and consume a ridiculous amount of alcohol with no recourse (until the next morning when you start drinking again, that is). This is great.


Pick up Oh Sally here. Ill get to that Manateees record some day...

Blasting The Lucern Haze Through The Ozone

Luke Reilly, he of much missed London malcontents Sex Beet (the band) and most recently PNKSLM (the label), has been sequestered in Sweden helping the likes of Al Lover, Sudakistan and Black Mekon get their fetid faces out there. Now he is doing the rock and roll thang of his own devising, under the name Lucern Raze, and the debut single 'Sunshine Blues' is silly, loud, raucous, sunny, scuzzed up ecstasy.

Grab the limited 7" here. PNKSLM are busy with shows all over the shop, including a showcase at the Liverpool Psych Fest and their Label Mates day at Shacklewell Arms late August, so expect the party juggernaut to roll psychotically on.

Stealing The Black Mekon

General all-round good guy Luke over at London/Stockholm label PNKSLM Records (Al Lover, Charles Howl) has another killer release on his hands, this time the new LP from Birmingham's doyens of debauched debonairness Black Mekon. The third PNKSLM release in existence, Stolen Bible 2 is a chugging sleazeball of garage blues. Drinking liberally from the poisoned chalice of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, snorting the chronic crassness of Supersuckers, biting the hand of the Misfits that feeds them, Stolen Bible 2 is riddled with that much debasement and wanton gleeful destruction that your ears will need to be immediately quarantined. That said, what's been heard cannot be unheard - you're caught in Black Mekon's clutches forevermore. Ah well - total corruption does look like a hell of a lot of fun...

You can buy Stolen Bible 2 now (here for the last two copies of the ltd edition marble vinyl, and here for the standrad (misspelling intended) black).




And try this out for size - a Halloween track with theremin! These guys are great.

VIDEO VACUUM - Kirin J Callinan, Bleached, Charles Howl, Evening Hiss

It's November already?? Wow. No wonder I'm so tired. And lazy. I'm going to stop doing work now (it's 10am) and watch some music videos. You can too if you want, I'm not the boss of you.



Kirin J Callinan certainly ruffled a lot of feathers and beguiled many others with his debut album Embracism. I personally find his music far better in person, with visuals. That's why I tend to look forward to his film clips more than sitting down for just an aural taste. He hasn't disappointed thus far, and this incredible video for that album's 'Landslide' is incredible. Whilst it certainly helps that the song is probably my favourite from the album, the sight of Callinan hanging upside down above an ocean - that's in the sky - is incredible. And for whatever reason, I always get a kick out of seeing a dog swim. So win win, really.



Lots of bands get a kick out of having Halloween-themed songs for this bizarre commercialised holiday in America, whether it be kitschy tweaked originals or covers. Bleached have taken the former with 'Love Spells', a song that isn't really any different from what they do in the daytime, but have a decidedly ghoulish 80s VHS-era video to go with it. It's all incredibly fun, even if there are some evocative images held within (the woman with the severed hand and bloody crucifix in particular stick in the mind...)



Charles Howl is on the prowl, but he promises he will do you no harm. That doesn't appease me though, what with his extensive usage of white and the sleeping girl. He kicks off with his crotch in our face as he does up his fly! There's a glowing orb and smoke! Wait - he's going to smother her! Or is he? What a creep...or is he actually hugely misunderstood? Meh. He plays a mean garage line, and seeing as he has aligned himself to PNKSLM, he can't be all bad... Really looking forward to hearing more of this.


Evening Hiss - Melt from Daniel Ford on Vimeo.

Daniel Ford know no limits. I could be referencing seminal 90s act 2 Unlimited there. Maybe Ford should cover it? Probably not. He is in a gazillion local bands that would do a good job of it though - Black Vacation, Thigh Master, Kids Cryptic, just to name a few. Here is a song from solo project Evening Hiss, that started as a complement to an art exhibition he has coming up. This effort will be put out on limited release, and based on this track you will be sorry if you miss out. Or just pissed that someone has so much bloody talent to burn.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Al(l) Loving That White Punk Slime

It isn't often that Sonic Masala has a self-professed "producer" in its midst, but San Francisco-based record scrubber Al Lover is an intriguing exception. As entrenched in psych and garage rock as he is in samples and beats, Lover takes on a wide variety of artists (mostly rock-oriented, from Grinderman and Davila 666 to SF alums Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees) and smudges them right up by smearing white noise and attitude into the mix, often infusing the tracks with even more bluster and awe than was thought possible (and these artists aren't known for their restraint as it is). He believes that psych music is the future of sampling, so he aims to be ahead of the curve. That said, he has original material on its way, most evident in his latest endeavour  Vondun Moon/Snake Hands, a 7" put out by PNKSLM (pronounced "Punk Slime" - a label run by London musicians that went from a blog to a clubnight to a label over three years). 'Snake Hands' is an incestuous love in with White Fence's Tim Presley, who wigs out on guitar and vocals, and it is a heady, hypnotropic mind melt of a track, the beats relentless and feverish, the needle in the red, in the vein, in the third eye. What always excites about Lover's productions is the energy and excitement that emanates from his work - not only is there creativity and flair evident in his musicianship, there is a holy reverence for his base material too.

You can pre-order Vondun Moon/Snake Hands here. Only 250 copies were canned, so expect these to fly out the door - GET ON IT.