Who Are Spring King?

I picked up Spring King right back at the beginning, before they started kicking arse on a global scale (they are getting some good airtime in Australia, at any rate).  No, I'm not playing the I knew them before you did game. It's been a while since I dipped into these Mancunian waters, however. But with 'Who Are You?', I am getting a distinctly dark, Nordic garage cool vibe, something the likes of Division Of Laura Lee or The (International) Noise Conspiracy harnessed so effortlessly. And of course there is a sax solo in here... It's a frenetic furnace blast to the face.

Showing The Tropes Of Crushed Beaks

Another track that has made it onto the long weekend playlist alongside yesterday's Spring King has been another UK band, Crushed Beaks, and their title track from their upcoming Tropes EP (out on ASL Recordds). I've spoken about these fuzzed out garage kids before, and if you can't get all shiny-happy-drunk on life on this, regardless of how shitty your day looks, then we are on different train lines to Hell. This is all about catchy hooks as it is about peeling paint off the walls - HPV for the ears. I'm loving where these guys are heading.

Video Vacuum - Juan Wauters, Bed Rugs, Big Brave, Spring King

I just watched V/H/S 2. Breakdown - the surrounding story was better than the first V/H/S anthology wraparound; and each of the vignettes were really inventive with the use of "found footage" (mechanical eye and mounted bike helmet were both pretty great), yet the best by a million miles was the Indonesian cult story. Overall it's just a lot of fun - some great scares, but just a lot of fun. So let's get lo-fi and (potentially) get scared with these new tracks...

I showcased this track 'Sanity' from frontman of The Beets' Juan Wauters a little whiles ago. The vid for the song is bullshit crazy, with blunts, gimps, Juan doing psycho Z-grade wrestling against women (and Guapo!), a wonky American flag - and it's purely brilliant. "You know what country's ugly but they could have some very interesting ugly girls? England."



Some hazy rock pinned together by underwater synchronised swimming? Bed Rugs (hailing from Antwerp in Belgium) has you covered. This oscillating track 'Blinds' is off their just-released EP Rapids (out through Ample Play & Burger Records) - from this sound alone I'm intrigued to hear more.



I know even less about Montreal psych rockers Big Brave, seeing as this is all I've heard, but the simplicity and dirge held within has me very hopeful. The new song is titled 'There Is No Victory, Only Burning Flags and Fallen Men' - which I really, really like. More please.



And let's finish with this cut and paste slab of scuzzy silliness from Manchester's Spring King. I've meant to mention these guys for some time, but this dropped in the inbox over the weekend and has been played incessantly in the playlist ever since, so there is no excuse now. Spring King are probably certifiably insane, and I'm happy with that. They just supported Fair Ohs too, so the insanity is spreading.

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!