September Girls Get 360 Degree Guilt

I just had to show this to brighten/gloom up your Sunday night - technology! The excellent September Girls released 'Catholic Guilt' - and the  360 degree film clip is amazing. The song itself reminds me at times of Electrelane in a Gothic maelstrom; the film clip like being caught in a tripped out pagan ritual. It is all incredible, I can't get enough of these girls. They are playing in London October 22 at Nells Jazz and Blues (no, I don't know either - but makes me even more keen to search this out).

No Indignation In The Age Of September

Dublin's Gothic rockers September Girls have come back stronger than ever on new album Age of Indignation. Following in the darker, louder footsteps paved by their Veneer EP of last year, the ten tracks here are not only brimming with confidence but with bristling energy and intent. The opener 'Ghost' is a six minute powerful dirge, elevated in the final third as guitars build on each other and coalesce, a menacing caterwaul. The organ is prevalent here as it is throughout the album, haunting and instilled with lurking insistence, a choral clarion call to the Underworld. The bass growls on 'Jaw On The Floor', underpinning the disdain and sneers, kicking against the literal pricks, adamant that no one will "keep us down/And falling". The lyrics step up further, moving from feminist screeds to a funereal diatribes against religion and church ('Catholic Guilt' and its oscillating chapel organ is the obvious example here, with lines such as "You say this is for our own protection" and "You put us in this vessel/Built from our own fears" a clear swipe at systemic lies, cover ups and abuse). Vocally, again the harmonies are top-rate, and it is interesting to see the girls still alternating lead but tonally assimilating into an overall "September Girls sound". It screams of clarity and cohesion - the quintet are laser-focused here, cutting through the dark to incisively stamp their presence on the world. Their Gothic post-punk take on garage rock has evolved into something more definitive, and done with power and conviction. Age of Indignation can be bought through Fortuna Pop here. The girls hit out in May, playing Islington O2 on the 19th.

September Girls Love No One

Irish brooders September Girls are back with a new album, Age of Indignation, coming out in April through Fortuna Pop. The first cut from it is 'Love No One', which is expectantly propulsive and gothic, with some nice Morricone undertones, and the film clip evokes Jodorowsky, Argento, Warhol, Polanski's (namely his Playboy-backed Macbeth cut), Strickland, and the pagan rituals of Summerisle, all within the confines of a luxurious art deco building. It's beguiling, darkly beautiful - so great to have the Girls back from the dark, even if they are thrive in the shadows

Video Vacuum - Twerps, September Girls, Magic Bones, Los Angeles Police Department

It's starting to cool down/heat up in here (depending on your end of the world), but we all like music and not working, so let's link hands as one and skive off, yeah?

Twerps - Back to You (Official Music Video) from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Twerps' new single 'Back To You' makes me so happy. Its so bright and bubbling and happy (sounding) - and the random footage of Aussie exteriors, both commercial, industrial and residential - it really gives me the warm and fuzzies. That dog too, Jesus, did someone film a dream of mine? If so, I wouldn't mind this being my theme tune. And hopefully it all keeps coming back - to this, and to you.

The bewitching September Girls take things one step further on the video for 'Veneer', going deep Goth that puts the hex firmly on those Craft wannabes. The last frame, of the black dripping on the floor - for the woman to now have white hair - is a pretty cool concept. Shedding physicalities through a viscous liquid. A killer song (figuratively), a killer clip (literally).

Yet another addition to the burgeoning cesspool of Aussie garage rock antics, Magic Bones comes barrelling forth with a video for new track 'Anytime Anywhere', a song that holds firmly onto the nutso schizoid Thee Oh Sees mantra and doesn't quit. It's a really fun song. The video is normal garage lunacy - by which I mean it's anything but normal - further heightened by a drummer that is a mic between Wolf Creek's Mick Taylor and The Muppets' Animal (and a blink-and-you'll miss it floating head on a 70s Test batsman).

Finally, let's hang with Los Angeles Police Department! Not the force, just this one guy. Fred has been pretty much in love with LAPD's new album, and while I wait for him to put his skewed thoughts in check to write about it, I thought I would show off 'Enough Is Enough' in audio-visual form. It's a languid jam (as are all of LAPD's songs), but it is also pretty effortless, and the dude looks like a cool guy to hang around with. He also looks a bit like Brian Gibson from Lightning Bolt, but I'm pretty sure the polar opposites of those musical streams speak for themselves. A knitted Giants jumper is a nice touch too dude.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Cracking the Veneer Of September Girls

Irish brooders September Girls brought out the beguiling Cursing The Sea at the beginning of the year, but we have something new already, with whispers of an EP not far off. The first taste is 'Veneer', and it's a spike in the arm. There is a dirgey bassline playing as a cursed undercurrent here, lending a dangerousness to the five-piece's sound that has only ever been hinted at before now. I was not only surprised by this new release, but blown away by the sinister confidence that oozes out of every pore here. A great track that still holds the staple harmonies while hardening and baring teeth.

Veneer will be out through Kanine/Fortuna Pop! in November - can't wait.

Cursing The September Girls

I’ve been watching the progress of Ireland’s lost pop noir rockers September Girls for some time, ever since they dropped their Green Eyed/Danny Wood 7” through Soft Power Records back in 2012. The girls have built up a steady oeuvre of reverbed and honeyed harmonies with a buoyant instrumentation laced with something more sinister since then, and now they arrive with their debut album Cursing The Sea (coming out on Fortuna Pop).

 That undercurrent of darkness has bubbled closer to the surface over time; the quintet busy in the shadows over the twelve track on display here and is never more haunted and suggestive than on ‘Left Behind.’ It’s clear the 60s garage pop resurgence that continues to reverberate some years onward have left its indelible mark on the band – listen to the opening moments of ‘Heartbeats’ and you can hear a sneering Mamas & Papas, pastoral pop dressed in leather – but there are moments that echo further outwards into the early Gothic dourness of The Jesus & Mary Chain, as the broiling post-punk of ‘Ships’ attests. The slight shifts in nuance comes from the fact that four out of five members are songwriters, an evident source of inspirations that allows Cursing The Sea to shy away from the more predictable mores of the genre. September Girls still reminds me of Brisbane band Feathers, which makes me sad, because they were a great band that were really starting to flex their creativity. But Cursing The Sea makes me happy too, as September Girls are here to pick up the slack and run with it. The end result is a dark, seductive whisper from behind you – wind on your cheek, promising danger and desire in (un)equal measure.

Pre-order Cursing The Sea here.

VIDEO VACUUM - September Girls, DZ Deathrays, Surf Friends, Super Wild Horses

No mucking about today - I mean business (as you can tell from the buffaloes, who clearly mean business, and the stolen artwork that I don't give a shit about), so let's forget about everything and lose ourselves in these videos...



Dublin lovelies September Girls have a decidedly dark, dour, Gothic video in store for new single 'Heatbeats', with the bizarre colour coming from the flower tealights floating in the bathtub with one of them (?). It all feels a little Pandora's Box mixed with Psycho and a pinch of Eraserhead around the 1.10 mark, before they venture into the wilderness (A Field In England), and finishes with the gang at night standing in front of a car... I don't know what to think! Am I supposed to be happy? Put off? Perturbed? It's all good though. 'Heartbeats' comes from the forthcoming album they're unearthing on Fortuna Pop! Big things ahead, it seems...



Local party starters/heartstoppers DZ Deathrays have this glitchy little video to go with their decidedly glossier (and slower) newie 'Northern Lights'. The polygon scramble is pretty ace, as is the warped landscape screens. Its a fun little experiment at any case, and makes me want to get drunk at Alhambra to this - now THAT'S not something I say everyday...



Ever jumped into the water with all your clothes on? Surf Friends have. Here under the duress of incessant bullying and in the face of thankless work. I mentioned that idea of drowning under the wait of disappointment in the last post about Astro Children - here it is literally encapsulated for all to see. Surf Friends' new track 'The Sea' off upcoming Flying Nun-affiliated album Endorphins is pretty great, it has a bit of flange on the guitar, and because it's so hot today I would rather be deep in the sea rather than plying my wares on the shitty day job. Speaking of, it's almost knock off time, so I'm gonna hustle to this last song...



There isn't all that much to say about Melbourne duo Super Wild Horses' video for the latest single to come off sophomore LP Crosswords. 'Ono In A Space Bubble' is a killer chugging garage rager, all to the beat of Yoko's ridiculous bugout beats. Love the yelps too. A little creepy, a little silly, a whole lot of radness.

Normally I would yell at you to get back to work, but I'm done. It's beer time. See you on the beach.

Green-Eyed September Girls

It's been three weeks since I've properly put my blogging hat on, and I apologise for the lateness of this particular review as it was written last month, but not posted. Dublin's September Girls know when to bring a single out. Dropping on the month of their moniker, Green Eyed/Danny Wood is  the perfect mix of brooding and bubbly pop. They remind me of another all-girl band called Feathers, with the ability to slide around the 60s girl-led, guitar-driven pop tropes, crafting something that is immediate yet avoids being disposable. The A-side is especially killer. They are a bright commodity with lots of potential - I can't wait for something even more substantial to come into play from them. Until then though, Soft Power Records are putting this beauty out on 7" in a couple weeks - pre-order it here.


September Girls - Green Eyed
September Girls - Danny Wood

Hits From The Box #53 - TWO WEEKS

Today is the beginning of two weeks' holiday for me. Im not heading anywhere. Im glued to the couch, watching TV shows and films I need to catch up on (just watched both Bad Lieutenant films to kick it all off), reading books Ive had on the shelf since before English was invented, playing "old school" PS2 games (Splinter Cell collective, here I come), and talking about music to you guys. Because this is the kind of thing that kills it for me. Well, travelling to awesome places are great and all, but after ten weeks of killer lessons, my Masters degree and illness, Im happy to go into self-induced seclusion...at least until I go to see Supersuckers' Eddie Spaghetti on Thursday, at least. But I'd never leave you out in the cold! So here is another icy cold six pack from the box to get you nice and toasted.


I'm gonna kick off proceedings nice and slow with Paris-London pan-European folk collective Balthazar B and the Beatitudes. They have just released their debut record I Am The Tide, and it's a solid effort, swinging from blues growl, gypsy jitter and folk eloquence. I threw it on on Saturday when I had a splitter of a headache due to finishing work, my Masters degree and a thousand Polish beers, and it went down a treat. You can grab it here - you can also grab 'Hold On To Me' and 'The Greatest Story' (which has a bit of Broken Social Scene to its opening quarter) for free.




Tennessee's Dire Con are not good for a hangover. Instead these gritty tracks are all about hard southern living, strained through a roughly hewn grunge sieve (think of Violent Soho covering Incesticide on 'Miss Patty' for example). El Deth Recordings (who put out COP's excellent Urgency record) helped put this sucker out, and whilst a little too much like its Seattle forebears at times, there are some tracks such as 'Pills' and 'Wasted Youth' that offers enough light and originality to proffer repeated listens.

Dire Con - Pills
Dire Con - Wasted Youth


With a name like Panther Ray, I was expecting serrated, snotty garage punk or some such variation. Instead I got this Minnesota . Parallel Motions is their LP, and it is a weird hybrid of experimental sound compositions ('Soar', 'Color Tilt'), lo-fi pop thrown into a battered wood chipper (the great 'Water Towers', Deerhunter-esque 'Burning Palms', the Beatles on heroin 'Memory Bank'), with the occassional burst of rock licking at the corners. Actually reminds me a fair bit of Meth Teeth, although not as emaciated and rusted out - which fares well for the quartet. I really like this record, and reckon that such loopy multi-instrumental energy would be electric live. Do yourself a massive favour and grab Parallel Motions here.

Panther Ray - Stalemate
Panther Ray - The Bottom Down


Let's keep rolling on the left-of-centre angle here with Alan Watts. Their EP ...Is The Fantasy Band is...well, different. 'Africa Bats' offers bat screeches, incoherent dronal vocals, distorted synth and a swirling shoegaze guitar that comes off decidedly early Animal Collective, whilst 'Lee's Child' holds a bit more relevance to the shoegaze moevement that first brought the group together. On that, I'll let the trio speak for themselves...

"In a year, Alan Watts shifted shapes three times. We were founded in the basement of Party Expo (Bushwick) last spring, on a strict diet of industrial shoegaze ("Thank You, Spectral Void" EP). By fall we were consumed with finding the communal meeting point of glossy rave and the ghosts of No New York ("Post-Fantasy").
For the recording of ...Is The Fantasy Band, we ventured from bong-ripped basement chaos to a more ecstatic set of sounds: crate dug beats, über bass, trance guitar, howling angels, and the casio funk, all of which were wrapped up and recorded live at Shea Stadium on one night last November. We would like to thank the years 1913 and 2016, and the letters P and F. Peace to boom bap and Pizza the Hut. Ghosts in the machine are real."

Fair dues. You can get ...Is The Fantasy Band here.


Alan Watts - Africa Bats
Alan Watts - Lee's Child


Now for some dreamy fuzzed out guitar pop from Dublin, or more specifically September Girls (a spelling correction from the excellent Big Star track, I presume?). The quintet (Caoimhe, Jessie, Lauren, Paula & Sarah) love their 60s touchstones, reverb tsunamis and drum explosions, wrapping it all in trademark class. Their Wanting More cassette sold out in days, but there is a seven inch on its way coming out on Soft Power Records which is well worth getting ready for. The title track is the better of the two, musically and production wise, and gives a honest indication that they are the real deal. What with Girls Names coming out of the Emerald Isle also, Ireland is kicking serious goals in this genre of the musical void.

September Girls - Wanting More


I'll end today on Brooklyn-based duo Lushes. 'Harsh' is their first track proper, and I can't get it out of my head, partly due to the production by Bachelorette (aka Annabel Alpers) and mixing by Adam Cooke (Beach House, Double Dagger), two class acts, but the track itself holds real resonance, and promises so much more. Apparently their other tracks are more complex/experimental, so if this is their "mainstream" track we are in for a treat. They have a record in the wings that will hopefully see the light of day by the end of the year. Don't take just my word for it - they recently played a show opposite a veritable who's who of great 2012 acts such as Dope Body, Guardian Alien and Roomrunner (ex-Double Dagger drummer Denny Bowen's band). Lushes, ay? I'll drink to that.

Lushes - Harsh

Happy Monday!