Kicking Goals, Son!

This has been a long time coming. I’ve been a fan of Boston band Soccer Mom since their inception back in 2010; they were the subject of one of the first ever Sonic Masala interviews (an element that has come in fits and bursts, but has included the likes of Civil Civic, Angie (Straight Arrows/Ruined Fortune/Circle Pit), White Walls, Batpiss and Alpine Decline amongst others); my write-ups find a small space in the nether regions of their press releases. And yes their moniker is incredibly misleading. But if you haven’t jumped rampantly on their bandwagon, no need to go back to the beginning. Simply dive headfirst into the distorted world of their debut self-titled album – it’s an exercise in calibrated tension, serrated guitar lines opened up to the sky, a series of noise and nuance that embodies what guitar rock should be.


Start with opener ‘It’s Probably Not Your Fault’ – my favourite track on the album, because it IS Soccer Mom. Crawling out of an aluminium bin with the requisite fast-approaching din, we enter the kind of loud-sedate territory that Archers Of Loaf made (make?) their own, creating a cacophony of fuzz and cymbals amidst the sonorous chorus, everything tempered with gazed-shoe precision (including the feedback-toying close). Its that sense of frivolity and earnestness tagteaming amongst the chaos that makes them such an enthralling listen. Elsewhere the is the swirling guitars and disembodied of vocals of ‘Orejas’; the glazed dreaminess of ‘No One Left’; the anguished stutter of (im)personality on ‘Dry Mind’; and the crowded instrumental interlude in the middle of ‘Hideaway Sands’ is the kinda things that coalesces into a vibrant catharsis of crossed strings and smashed slings that Deerhunter-via-Sonic Youth revel in. The brooding closer ‘Open Heart Surgery’ is more openly abrasive, still tempered by crooned insistence, but offering an expulsion that to be honest doesn’t even need to come - if you aren’t an acolyte by album’s end, why are you still here?

The band continue to connect, playing alongside the likes of Weekend, Whirr, Speedy Ortiz and Nothing, bands in particular that embody the yin and the yang of Soccer Mom’s aesthetic. I know there will be albums this year that will grab my attention harder and for longer, but this is such a solid opening gambit longplayer, especially having listened from the beginning, that it’s hard not to get rabidly excited. Well done guys. Soccer Mom is out now through 100m Records – you should definitely get this.

Friday Cover Up - Fresh Lilys

Here's a bit of a throwback. Sonic Masala was conceived at My Bloody Valentine curated ATP festival Nightmare Before Christmas back in 2009. One of the bands (and there were goddamn many) that I was blessed to catch that weekend was Lilys, the 90s DC dream pop outfit that missed out on much in the way of adulation despite their inherent cracked brilliance and obvious influences. A couple months ago a compilation came out of early Lilys classics called And I Forgot A Long Time Ago How You Feel,  and it included covers from up-and-coming acts handpicked by the Clicky Click Music Blog. Many of these bands have actually graced the hallowed halls of Sonic Masala over the years, such as Lubec, White Laces and Soccer Mom. Another band to lend their talents, Speedy Ortiz, is blowing up due to the hype surrounding their latest LP Major Arcana (you will hear more of this soon). On here they tackle 'The Hermit Crab' - and it takes me back. You can get the comp for free here. Enjoy.

Speedy Ortiz - The Hermit Crab (Lilys cover)

Looking Beyond The Cyclopean

Monikers are funny things. Two of the bands I’ve posted about this weekend I had serious misgivings about, before I had read a line of press release diatribe or heard a note of noise. One is Soccer Mom, which I posted about yesterday – and I STILL struggle with that one (sorry guys...).

The other is Cyclopean. The only reason I opened up this email was because it came from Mute Records (alongside Spoon Records), I should add), and they have a much higher hit-to-miss ratio than most labels of their ilk. Then on opening it, I discovered the real reason people have have been muttering this word under their collective breath the past couple weeks. Cyclopean is half of Can. That is a holy shit moment right there. Jaki Liebezeit, and Irmin Schmidt, MAKING NEW MUSIC??? But then I thought, “How did I not know about this earlier?” And it’s simple. The name. I had possibly come across it and completely blanked it out. I know this is kinda bad – there are plenty of bands with TERRIBLE names that have made groundbreaking, earthshaking, era-defining music – but I cannot help it. It’s the blessing and curse of constantly sifting through the shit to find that nugget of gold. And for every ten, twenty, thirty artists whose name perfectly captures who they are (read: shit), there is one you miss. Cyclopean was that miss.

So – the EP. Four tracks of percussive ambiance combining with musical manipulations that belies the relatively small running time (admittedly two of the tracks exceed six minutes - but it feels like half that time). Pretty much what you’d expect from two dudes who pretty much carved the Ten Commandments of kosmiche rock into the heavens and etched the mission statement onto the soul of the unending zealous masses since. But that sounds rather throwaway, and it shouldn’t be taken as such. In fact, as you listen to the way these four songs - 'Apostles', ‘Fingers’, ‘Knuckles’, ‘Weeks’ – interweave and interact with each other, begging for the repeat button so that they segue into each other endlessly, the band’s name – Cyclopean – starts to take on resonance. This is repetitive music through contradictory methods; creating mantras through Newton’s 3rd law of motion (For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction). So in 'Apostles' we have percolating beats and electronic nuance, all syncopating without denying each other space; 'Fingers' a little more haunting, the guitar played like an intergalactic dulcimer, synth washing sonorously in the background before building into a 70s sci-fi mantra; 'Knuckles' and 'Weeks' crackle and fizz, the unorthodox drum machine and percussive manipulation reaching an apex.

It's hard to describe what is going on here, especially why it works. Cyclopean may be a play on form and composition, but its experimental elements are pinned down by the adroit mastery of the quartet's craft. You can buy the 12" EP here.

Cyclopean - Fingers

Riding Canoes With Soccer Mom Brides

 

Remember Soccer Mom? I’ve been a big fan of the Boston noisemongers ever since they got in touch regarding their Bill Cosby In Glamorous Chains single back in 2010. Since then they released a great lil EP You Are Not Going To Heaven, and currently have this 7” out (again through 100m Records), which continues their quest for finding the plateau where walls of noise meet angularity, pop nous and a sliver of hope amongst the towering banalities of life (frontman Dan Parlin describe’s the band’s sound as simply “loud”, which is as succinct as you can get). Brides/Canoe flows on their already sizable adulation of the shoegaze aesthetic, yet we see more of the severer, acerbic lashes that has helped the quartet differentiate itself from the ever-burgeoning pack. The key is in the melody, something that many other Shields acolytes are blinded to, and will only become more defined over time. Another solid stepping stone towards that much-feted first LP…

 

You can get the 7” here, along with the EP. Soccer Mom is (apparently) hard at work molding what will be their debut album for later in 2013. If they continue to hone their craft, looking for nuances amongst the fuzz and feedback, Soccer Mom could provide one of the sleeper gems of the year. Here’s hoping.

Soccer Mom - A Canoe Shy

Friday Cover Up #2 - Riding No Fucking Where

Normally I'm struggling for good covers to bring the week to a close, but today we are inundated! First The Horrortones, now this compilation of Ride covers conceived by cool blog Clicky Clicky Music from bands of Boston to celebrate the seminal album Nowhere. Poor Ride - they are the oft forgotten shoegaze band to rise out of that MBV/Swervedriver/Slowdive scene, but Nothing is a phenomenal record. There are some recognisable names on the list for eagle-eyed Sonic Masala perverts, with both Soccer Mom and Young Adults gracing these pages with various pieces of loud discontent (YA's 'Decay' is close to the best thing on here, and the best they have sounded). However other bands stood up to be counted also, with Gary Lyon in particular impressing with his elegiac take on 'Paralyzed' (and his brave rearrangement of the composition really makes it his own). Sure, like most covers compilations the new versions fail to eclipse the originals, but that is impossible with such material. Best case scenario though is that these young bands deliver on their promise and offer diligent, worthy interpretations - and can't wish for more than that.


Head here to get a free download, and enjoy!

Young Adults - Decay (Ride cover)
Soccer Mom - Dreams Burn Down (Ride Cover)
Gary Lyon - Paralyzed (Ride cover)

Have a good weekend, kids!

Loving Soccer Mom Won't Get You To Heaven - But It'll Get You Close

Another day, another bad moniker... I have discussed this with members of Boston band Soccer Mom in the past (read the 7" review and interview with Dan Parlin here), and true to their word they have stuck to it. What's in a name? Sometimes, not a lot. And when you hear the first strains of '(A) Natural History', the opening track to the band's new EP You Are Not Going To Heaven, it is clear that any conceived notions of what to expect are about to be shattered. Sonic Youth, Swervedriver and Dinosaur Jr influences are worn liberally on the sleeve - Parlin's vocal delivery is so much like Thurston Moore it's chimeric - yet such aping is not intrusive at all. There is a real sense of nostalgia here that rather than have you hankering for the masters, has you asking the question, "When will Soccer Mom stop mucking about and put out an LP already???" 'American Shirt (Eagle Flag 911)' is the truest sense of an amalgam of musical stylings that sounds so 90s that it MUST be from the 21st century - and it's these notions littered throughout that are exciting.


You Are Not Going To Heaven is out next week - pre-order this sucker here!

Soccer Mom - (A) Natural History

Interview - Soccer Mom

Boston's Soccer Mom originated as the bedroom noodlings of Dan Parlin, before being fleshed out into a four-piece - Danielle Deveau (bass), David Kaplan (drums), and William Scales (guitar). They have been developing their sound for a few years, and yet their current 7" Billy Cosby In Glamorous Chains is their first proper release. With this kind of slow gestation, maybe they should combine with Autolux and score the next Terence Malick film? However their vision is set - they aim to find the perfect balance between harmony and distortion, melody and debilitating feedback; they wear their influences (ie Swervedriver, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine) - but above all to provide a lot of noisy fun. I interviewed the band about their direction, their influences - but first of all, that name...

Sonic Masala - The moniker - Soccer Mom - I personally really hate that term, and was ready to write you guys off based solely on that! Where did the genesis of the name come from?

Dan Parlin - To be honest, the name started a long time ago, and the motivation behind it was probably more humour than anything else. At the time, I (Dan) was playing in other bands but making bedroom recordings in my free time - when I wanted to put out of tape of all the songs I had been working on, I chose the name because, initially, the song lyrics all had something to do with what some terrible, bored housewife would do in her free time. I had songs about a woman stalking her neighbor in the grocery store, one about putting the "care back in the caravan" - it was all pretty silly. While I always took the music itself seriously, the lyrics were just an afterthought. At the time I was in bands where the lyrics were all very serious - this was sort of an escape from that. But, when we decided to take some of the songs and form a band around it, we kept the name. Granted the first song we all learned was about going to the Mall, but it's certainly become less silly as we've progressed. It's kind of a bummer that it might turn people off but, when you think about it, lots of bands have names that are kind of silly. It could be worse - we could be called Vampire Weekend.

SM - Ha, exactly! But do you think Soccer Mom as a name encapsulates your sound?

Dan - I don't know many bands that have names that really do that. Besides metal and hardcore bands where you pretty much know what your going to get by the name (no one really expects a ballad from Cannibal Corpse), Sonic Youth is one of the only bands I can think of where you can almost hear the music reading the name - that could also be my obsession with them talking. So, no - I don't think it does. But I also don't know what would.

SM - You've listed references in the past such as Swervedriver and Polvo, both of which make sense, but is there any J Mascis lurking in the darkened corners here? Particularly on the opening of 'Bill Cosby In Glamorous Chains', to me it smacked of Dinosaur Jr's dissonant guitar wail...

Dan -Dinosaur, Jr. are a HUGE influence on me, personally. The first time I heard Bug, I almost lost my mind. They took these walls of sound and made something so beautiful with it. For me, it was like they took all of the abrasive and sort of off-putting pieces of noise rock and made these really pretty songs - but, at the same time, they are the loudest fucking band I have ever seen play live. There are still parts of songs like "Little Fury Things" that give me chills. I'll put it this way, if My Bloody Valentine has you listed as a huge influence, you know you've done something right.

SM - All right then, for a bit of fun, if you were to shoehorn yourself into a genre, or to give yourself a label, what would it be?

Dan -That's hard - and not because we are so wildly different from anyone else - but because we're all coming from so many angles, influence-wise. I mean, it's rock music - but It's not punk, and it's not just noise. It's not quite dreamy enough to be shoegaze, but it's also not hard to hear all of those pieces sneak in. I think the sound lends itself to sit beside a lot of different sounding bands, which we really like. When people ask us what kind of music we play, I just say "loud". It's not much to go on, but at least you'll remember to bring earplugs to a show.

SM - You certainly aren't the prolific types...

Dan -Lyrically, no. But that's not our goal by any means. There are plenty of bands with great things to say, and to try to imitate that doesn't interest us. Though you'll hear a lot more vocal tracks on the newer stuff, it's still not where our focus lies.

SM -Is it your MO to do little recording or gigging, just disappear to the back of the queue, then jump back out at people at an unforeseen moment to remind us all that you are here? Or is it more of a Marty McFly/Doc Brown moment whereby your Delorean gets stuck in the nineties on a regular basis? (AKA Will you do more stuff?)

Dan -We've been playing a lot more this year and will probably continue to do so. We actually just finished recording a six-song EP which should see the light of day in some format by early next year. So yeah, we took it slow in the beginning (a few of us were in other bands when it started), but it's gaining some momentum for sure.

SM - Any thoughts towards travelling abroad, preferably to grace the presence of us wee UK dwellers?

Dan - Lots of thoughts, but no specific plans. We'd rather tour over there then here!

SM - Boston has carved out some pretty rocking musical niches in the past. Whats the scene like at the moment in your opinion?

Dan -It's always been a little cluttered in Boston, in my own opinion - tons of bands for such a small city. And it's no different now. There has always been a wealth of amazing stuff happening here - and there is a lot of stuff going on now that people (myself included) just never hear - tons of little scenes. The bands that play the big rooms here, however, might not always represent the overall city in terms of diversity. Check out a show in a basement (it really is still 1994!) and you'll hear some great stuff. Young Adults, who I know you've mentioned in the past, are a great example of some of the coolest stuff going on out here. They're definitely starting to take off (as they should). We're excited to see what else comes next. The great thing about playing smaller shows around town is you just see cool bands that you might not have otherwise. There is no doubt that great stuff comes out of here - remember the Swirlies?

SM - If you could support any band in the world, either existing or defunct, who would it be and why?

Dan - For me, it would be Sonic Youth. And that is because they are the best band that has ever happened. (Besides the Smiths, but I can't even joke about playing with them...)

SM - Best album/release of 2010 thus far?

The new Autolux record is pretty amazing. There is a band out of Canada called Women that just put out a pretty awesome follow-up record, too. But to be honest, I don't have that much new stuff...

SM - Well that's more than enough! Two of our favourite albums too. Finally, what is sonic masala?

Dan - I think we cracked the anagram: anal mosaics.

Wow - anal mosaics? Nice call. Soccer Mom's 7" can be found if you contact the guys, and we'll let you know when that elusive EP is on its way.

Soccer Mom - Billy Cosby On Glamorous Chains

Soccer Mom - High On Dad