Taking Yuppies For A Ride

A bit of serendipity here. Yesterday I wrote about Boston's Sneeze; Sneeze played with Nebraskan band Yuppies; I receive the Yuppies album in the mail yesterday. We were meant to be...

Now Parquet Courts' Andy Savage has helped put out Yuppies’ debut eponymous album on his Dull Tools label, and it slays. The four-piece have crafted a record that has that febrile, unhinged energy that Savage's band harbours, but in the punk mentality of throttling a chord to within an inch of its life, seeing a song's lifespring slowly ebb away, Jack Begley's deadpan, acerbic vocals (reminiscent of Mr Dream) lurking in the dim streetlights, before the pressure is laid off the windpipe and everything coalesces into a vibrant upswing of violent glee. If these guys are yuppies, they are the slacker rock equivalent of Patrick Bateman. Excellent stuff - do yourself a favour and buy Yuppies here.

Sneezing Won't Kill You...Maybe

Boston, you continue to slay me. The "new" band to smash one into the bleachers - Sneeze. Well, their I'm Going To Kill Myself album(out through Midnight Werewolf Records, who also have the rad Kal Marks on their roster) has been around for over a year, but I came across their demo tape that they are taking on tour with them Stateside this month, tracks that will (hopefully) make it onto another LP slated for recording in November - and once again its loud, dissonant indie snot howls, echoing back to the future, the 90s afresh. Only one track breaches the three minute mark (which stands for their album too). It verges on grungy punk, is flagged by reams of flannelette and bile, it's dumb, it rocks.  They have a drawing of a Mogwai on their Facebook page. Seriously ticking all the boxes, guys.

If you are in Allston Massachusetts next Tuesday (October 1), you really should head to O'Brien's Pub to see Sneeze unload alongside Psychic Blood, Yuppies (both of which I will be posting about shortly) and Luau. You can pick up one of these bad boys while you're there...if any are left that is.


And here is the LP (which you can buy here)...

Cursing Psychic Blood By Seasons

It wasn't all that long ago that I was raving about Western Massachusetts band Psychic Blood's three track EP Strain. Some anonymous bystander immediately slung me their debut longplayer, Autumn Curses (whoever you are, you are radness personified!), and I've been listening to it intermittently ever since.

Unfortunately for me it doesn't quite live up to the expectations laid on by the EP, but that is also because the EP was three songs in length. At this point in time there is a similarity throughout Psychic Blood's sound that runs the risk of repetition - the same squalling guitar line seems to trickle through a brace of these tracks. There are many touchstones to the first And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead album here also, which is amazing and it still kills due to its lo-fi production and aggressive approach, as well as echoes of Conrad Keeley's vocal delivery - which depending how you look at it equals ten tracks of emulating brilliance, or ten tracks of varying degrees of 'Richter Scale Madness.' Not all tracks blend into each other - the ambience of 'Roving Mind' and the slow down harmonics of 'Here Is No Truth' offer other swatches of depth to the mix.


Autumn Curses (out on Feeble Minds Records/Damage Mailorder - grab the cassette here) is still a solid album, with some killer tracks on there that help to augment the effectiveness of this trio as a brutal live force. It's not all there as a rounded album though. Psychic Blood are a band to be fully supported though, and with their next recordings having Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth) is in the recording seat, I'm salivating already.

Psychic Blood - Annihilator
Psychic Blood - Here Is No Truth
Psychic Blood - War Paint

Straining To Read Your Mind Over All The Blood...

Here's another 7" from the not too distant past. Massachusetts noise punkers Psychic Blood pumped out this dissonant, vitriolic 7" and it's a corker. Strain is two songs that disappear down a corrugated iron tunnel filled with miscreants and crushed syringes. Both the title track and 'Drudgefest' lay it down like an eczema rash, so bad for you but you can't help but frantically itch. Think Wipers with a rabid fascination for serrated glass. Dirty, tetanus stuff. I wish I could say more - and I probably could - but my gums are bleeding from gnashing my teeth. Psychic Blood have an album on the way called Autumn Curses. Can. Not. Wait.

Psychic Blood - Strain