Friday Cover Up - A Pale Golden Beatle

I knew that when Brisbane artists Pale Earth and Golden Bats spoke about covering some Beatles songs for a split release, almost three years ago, that something special was building - if they could just get their shit together. And they have - finally - and we should all thank our lucky stars that we have By George in our midst. Pale Earth take the Mono riff vibe to his ambient permutations and smothers it in industrial clamour when attacking 'Blue Jay Way'; while Golden Bats' rendition of 'Long, Long, Long' is orchestral, funereal, and borderline between earnest and hilarious. This has made my month.

Logical Dreamlike Explosions In The Wilderness

Today is miserable in old London town, so I thought I would double down on two masterful acts releasing new records in anticipation of new albums this year. First up is Texan gods Explosions In The Sky. They have already released a feverish first track in 'Disintegration Anxiety' which hinted at a change of pace. 'Logic Of A Dream' is more EITS in its anthemic majesty, although there is a sonorous wash that bleeds into a Beatles-esque orchestral spiral and fluttering militaristic drums to the first third of the track here that certainly continues this push into weirder territory. And also continuing with their film clips being subtly changing photographs - how change bleeds incrementally yet irrefutably forth. Both tracks feature on the band's forthcoming album The Wilderness (pre-order here - you can get your own mug or slipmat too if you want!) and their Euro tour, where they play the Royal Albert Hall April 25. Yeeeeeeeeeees.

Carpet Shrapnel Yanked From Sam's Brain

Sydney basement dreamers Shrapnel have released Carpet Yankers, a cool cat cassette from Sam Wilkinson (Day Ravies, Mope City, King Tears Mortuary etc etc, out through his Strange Pursuits label). Shrapnel is Wilkinson letting fly, embracing his inner Bob Pollard, Stephen Malkmus, Jason Lowenstein and Calvin Johnson. From the frayed slacker bilge of chugging opener 'Chicken Fantasy', to the Sebadoh-meets-wasted Lennon in Erskineville warp of 'Floss The Boss' and the Doug Martsch fronting Superchunk in a tin can of 'Face On The Desk' - there are a lot of cantankerous, haphazard, blistering in the shade rock on offer. But there is as much time for cracked reflection, as is heard on the thin synth and crackling vocals wasting away on the title track, or the nascent acoustic dement-folk of 'Procrastinate/Disintegrate'. By eschewing the warm wall of sound of Day Ravies and the lo-fi (S)andpit growl of Mope City, Shrapnel is an experiment in freefall thoughts, allowing everything to ferment and take root, no matter how weird and wild. My favourite tracks (for the moment, the mood shifts like a serpent in the sludge) is the wonky, anaesthetised rock with added Beatle riff 'Duty To Do' and the Breeders cruise closer 'Stewing With You'. Yeah, there are a shedload of references rolled out today, but when listening to Carpet Yankers that is what it feels like - a carefree, bloody talented performer playing with the hits - and winning. Grab it here.

Blue Trupa's Double Headache

This one blindsided me. I had never heard of Polish band Trupa Trupa before, true; but more for the fact that it came from Blue Tapes, a label that is admittedly eclectic in sonic output but is generally more to the abstract noise/ambient outliers of the musical spectrum (Tashi Dorji, Henry Plotnick, Father Murphy). Headache, Trupa Trupa’s third album, is not like this – more akin to noisy indie rock meltdowns than overtly electronic  or jazz-inflected experimental fare. Their listed reference points include Swans, Sonic Youth and Slint. But then it isn’t as brazenly atonal as you may think based on these signifiers. 

‘Snow’ is a rambling unruly maudlin pop song with blown-out guitars, reminding me of 90s guitar bands like Australia’s Gaslight Radio. ‘The Sky Is Falling’ feels like a later-era Beatles track with a Soundtrack Of Our Lives vintage/homage aftertaste that explodes in the mouth with a cathartic rally of arms. ‘Wasteland’ has a chaotic musical middle third not far removed from the orgiastic, sumptuous noise tapestries that Blonde Redhead have become experts at weaving. In fact, Headache is simply a great record, regardless of the perceived influences – the minimal brooding and hushed vocals of ‘Halleyesonme’, the twisted shuffle leading into an inexorable organ-led miasmic meltdown on ‘Getting Older’; the liberating rise and fall of ‘Rise And Fall’; the motorik tension of the title track. Most of the songs dish out crescendos, but not in the cheap cop-out mould – every build up and release is poles apart, plumbing a different emotional depth and offering a respite, sonic acupuncture. 

By the time we get to the post-punk sworl of closer ‘Picture Yourself’, you will be begging to get to Gdansk and see these guys in person, rope them into being your theme music band, and have them follow you around every day in real time, scoring your failures, triumphs and ennui. Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of Headache here.

There's More Lehmann On The Inside Than The Outside, Honey

I don't often pay lip service to folk here - it's a loaded moniker nowadays anyway, but also it isn't a genre I visit that often. And I'm not saying that Lehmann B Smith is a folk troubadour, at all. But there are many folk and country flourishes on his latest Thank God For My Body (out through Special Award) and the wry introspective lyricism on display here lends itself to that description. the difference here is that these songs manage to haunt and lift simultaneously, like only the best can do. Think Bill Callahan, or Neil Young. Thank God... is a rumination on how the body works in all its form - as a physical bag of muscle, flesh and bone, allowing to do us so much and restricting us to doing so little; the mental anguish and acuity that emanates from each mortal vessel; the time that hovers menacingly over every waking itch and sleeping twitch; and the metaphysical expanse outside of our bodies, whether we belong in those bodies of water, of weather, of the cosmos. The bluesy melancholy of 'Blue Lake, S.A.' lingers just as it rises, euphoric; the honky-tonk ramble of 'Time' belies a Young-esque instrumental expulsion, both ebullient and broken, that bleeds out like a White Album meltdown; a reverent opening is eschewed to a more plaintive number in 'Inside/Outside'. Smith creates a warm album that is both simplistic and intricate in instrumentation and design; inquisitive without being overtly cerebral; moving and implacable. These juxtapositions also stand not to alienate but to align the listener with Smith's inquisitions - we too wonder about our own organic machinations, our spiritual yearnings, our emotional reach and longings. An existential exploration it may be, but Thank God For My Body is also a wondrous, striking body of work, irrespective of whether Smith finds the answers he's searching for. Maybe he never will; maybe that isn't the point. And like this Yarra Brown record, the world continues to turn, begins and comes to an end, and we fall in love and enjoy the ride while our bodies let us.

Buy Thank God For My Body here. Stunning.

Cold Crepes Work In Summer

The sun is getting long in the tooth around this time in Melbourne, but over here in London the light hangs around later and later, so that even taking a late-night leak feels festive. Summer is knocking on the door, so it's not a bad idea to crack out Cold Summers, the new EP from Crepes. The title track that opens up proceedings has that ebullient eloquence that Statesiders Real Estate hold in thrall, while 'Ain't Horrible' goes into its shell a little - which turns out to be a cavernous pop chamber, floating easy on synthetic smoke and bleary grins. The slight chug to 'Stages Of Fear' is underpinned by a cheeky garage pop malaise with enough of the 60s pastoral psych embellishments to throw a Mac DeMarco level of knowing devilishness into the mix. My current favourite here is the aptly titled 'Moon Dancer', the dappled drift seemingly perfect for drifting off into a kaleidoscopic netherworld of garish dreams (which also befits the album cover). The Beatles comparisons need to be sized up on closer, 'Size Of Your Town' - a piano-led number that saunters unhurried down the nostalgic twilight of memories. For a five-piece that look like they would be up to no good (and they probably still are), there is a great degree of tempered nuance to Cold Summers that surprises and delights. I expect Ill be sparked up, chilled out, and cranking this one a bit over the next few months...

Going The Gap Dream

In the space of a fortnight I have had two Burger Records releases come in the mail, yum yum.

First up I stumbled across Fiesta, the double album from Detroit garage devotees The Go, when heading into the local record store to pick up the reissue of The Living Eyes - and before I knew it I had two classics in my sweaty palms. How these guys haven't climbed to the higher echelon of the garage rock movement of the past decade truly escapes me; Fiesta is like listening to the authentic playlist of the greatest progenitors of the sound from the 60s and early 70s, an intricate patchwork of touchstones that the band have finally unequivocally embraced, and instead of sounding like a tired fade-out into aperisms, this is a retro slice of lime in the most refreshing of beachside beverages. All angst and grit has been shorn away, and left we have twenty capsules of easygoing fun times. Seriously, this has become my pick-me-up rock record for the ages. You can grab Fiesta here - so much fun to be had, you gotta share it around.

Then yesterday Shine Your Love, the latest LP from Ohio's Gap Dream flew through my bathroom window (or into my inbox), and once more I was hit for six. Expecting a downbeat dream pop netherscape, I instead discovered euphoric synth pop that was much more indebted to the Beatles and Euro-futurist consumerbabble than it was to Balearic pop. I was entranced by its tractor beam intensity, hypnotized by its faux-80s cheese yet enamoured by its inherent charm. Whilst the single is out through Fat Possum, the album proper won't be out until November, so I delved further back and tonight have been hooked on his self-titled Burger Records released record, a bit more rock oriented but still languid garage melodies. It's been like listening to the PG Irreversible of the garage rock world - no Monica Belluci, but no rape and a hell of a lot more sunlight. It's no wonder that fellow garage glam conquistador King Tuff is a kindred spirit - although Gap Dream certain goes into more transcendental realms. Thanks, Gap Dream!

Caught Up In The Jacuzzi, Boys

Miami garage bastards Jacuzzi Boys are preparing their third album (self-titled, it'll be out next month on Hardly Art). There have been glimpses of what to expect on this album - things have been glossed up, sanded out, refined, retooled. The two tracks on offer are two sides of the same adrenaline-fuelled coin - 'Domino Moon' is crystalline in sound and urgent in purpose, a gritty heartbeat hidden beneath shimmering production, whilst 'Be My Prism' is 60s bubblegum pop-psych re-appropriated for 21st century fringe-dwellers (with a Sgt Pepper's horn section bizarrely coming out of the woodwork), both of which are consumed far too quickly. Can you get an earache from listening too quickly? Jacuzzi Boys know the answer.

You can preorder the album here - look at the package! Golden.

FRIDAY (AKA SUNDAY) COVER UP - Mac DeMarco Meddles With The "Classics"

I meant this for Friday, but I got waylaid by - well, by enjoying not doing anything, just chilling out. Whaddayagunnadoabaddit?

Montreal master meddler Mac Demarco had a stellar 2012, didn't he? 2 pretty much blew the fuck UP. They've only officially released it over here in Aus this month, so reliving that all over again is rad. Even radder is this live medley of covers the dude did. Nothing is off limits - The Beatles, The Police, Huey Lewis, Metallica...Limp Bizkit? Killin it. Can't keep a good nu-metaller down, no one said ever. Anyway, listen to this and try not to laugh until your milk is coming out your nose. No Sunday blues (but a lot of dick sucking, apparently) when the Mac attacks.

Sufis Inventing The Past

Nashville duo The Sufis are truly a band out of time. Their latest record Inventions (out through Ample Play and Burger Records) swings along like a loopy psych pop peyote hiccup, all Syd Barrett and Beatles silly whimsy, so light it floats up and down the waves like sonic flotsam, perishables that will eventually wash up on the shore and adorn someone's mantelpiece for generations. Seriously, can you think of anything that sounds so distilled from a different age? An alien fossil unearthed by an earthquake; a message in a bottle from the Mary Celeste; Inventions is a time capsule from something that may never be real, imagined or explained. It simply exists, an echo of a time that may or may not have taken place. It's disorienting, isn't it? Still, if you are going to mirror the greats, you may as well be indistinguishable from them.

Inventions comes out next week - pre-order it here.

Sun(ny) Day Cover Up - Crystal Tickets Make Beatles Cry

It's been three years since Philadelphia’s psych surgeons Bardo Pond gave us something new – not that we need anything new necessarily, because their back catalogue is pretty exemplary. I've always thought the five-piece has been one of the most underrated bands of its ilk in the past decade. Fire Records can only bolster that claim, by lovingly reissuing 2006’s Ticket Crystals in a LP-only edition. Double vinyl and adorned with Joy Feasley’s new artwork, the album typifies the calculated yet fluid doom template that unrelentingly drives their sound, yet also showcased the pastel undercarriage that lightens the load enough for it to become immensely immersive rather than bludgeoning.

I realise this is a Sunday, but seeing as this is a stellar reissue I thought I’d give a special edition of “Friday Cover Up” to include the cover of the Beatles’ ‘Cry Baby Cry.’ Originally recorded for and broadcast by the BBC as part of their commemorations of the 25th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, it exemplifies the whole point I crafted the Cover Up segment in the first place. Taking great music and imbuing it with their own personality to craft a unique vision, this is Lennon in an iron lung filled with cryogenic fluid and absinthe.

Bardo Pond – Cry Baby Cry (Beatles cover)

And here is another Ticket Crystals classic…

Bardo Pond – Destroying Angel

 

Pre-order Ticket Crystals here. The band aim to release a new record in the latter stages of 2013, whilst also planning to release an exclusive 12” covers record for Record Store Day, so we haven’t heard the last of this stellar band.

Ty Will Be Your Love

Last week we swanned about in the sunny glare of Mikal Cronin – last Saturday – I revelled in the twisted genius of John Dwyer’s Thee Oh Sees – today, its their buddy and garage Svengali Ty Segall to kick us in the teeth with a new tune (well, he kinda does this most weeks, there’s always something on the boil). ‘Would You Be My Love’ is fop-haired Beatles growing up in Detroit; the Davies brothers covered in NY leathers; Davy Jones with a Mohawk, a flannelette shirt and a hacksaw. B-side ‘For Those Who Weep’ takes paisley acid-trips by the river, reads the Book of Revelations, and drinks the Kool-Aid. Segall swings whichever way he wants, and it works – he has that perfect vocal timbre, manic presence and maniac guitar twirl – Planet Masala is his for the taking.



Grab the 7” through Drag City here.

Ty Segall – Would You Be My Love

Vintage Gaming

 

Where the hell did Games come from? When I heard of this self-titled record, I thought it was the Lopatin & Ford coupling, but no, it’s a rock band from New York. The fact it was on Hozac was another giveaway. But it wasn’t until I put this on that something that has been gnawing the back of my mind for a while (at least since immersing myself in the Bed Wettin Bad Boys record – see my thoughts here) truly cemented itself – I fucking love 60s/70s rock and roll. Sure, I'm a massive fan of all kinds of music, and am a massive advocate of the modern garage rock “movement” (I'm not going into it anymore, just read my blog!). But every now and then a band or album presents itself that purely taps into the wellspring of that vintage sound, song structure and vibe, it is genuine and every time it slays me. You can hear the likes of Marc Bolan, Alex Chilton and Paul Westerberg in the songwriting, even the Beatles, some poignant touchstones. Games are a force to be reckoned with – knowing that rock and pop are destined to co-exist, that we got it right in the past, and it’s time to get it right in the present.

 

Games can be gleaned here. I was given this as a birthday present. Thank you so much (you know who you are).

Games – Listen
Games – When The Time

Doubling Down On The Family's White Fence

White Fence kicked off 2012 by combining with Ty Segall (I can't stop mentioning him, can I?) with the great record Hair, and now there is his double volume opus, Family Perfume Vol I & II. This is ambitious stuff. I know Tim Presley - and a lot of his contemporaries - are voracious musicians, continually pumping out the gems, but to put them all on one release risks shining up the occasional dud. And so it does with Family Perfume. Don't get me wrong - White Fence's penchant for skewed paisley rock with a dash of psychedelic charm is on full display here, and there are some absolutely warbled garage pop corkers to be found in this treasure trove - but some of these tracks feel a little half-baked. Maybe it's because after Hair, where Presley was all brushed up production-wise, I'd like him to step out from behind the 4 track and static hiss. I'm not talking about getting The Arcade Fire to back him or some such nonsense, I just think that now's the time to open things up a little more. Anyway, personally I like Vol II as an album proper more, but Vol I has some real highlights, which I've included below. There's 29 songs to sift through (chosen from a purported cache of 80), so take your time and enjoy. It's great to have something this ambitious floating around in the burgeoning garage rock movement (if you can call it such a thing) that embraces touchstones such as The Beatles (think of The White Album), and whilst the end result doesn't reach such heady highs, it certainly gives it a red hot shake. But seriously Tim - get on the blower to Segall and get another album running...


Family Perfume is out now on Woodsist.

White Fence - Balance Yr Heart
White Fence - Down PNX
White Fence - Take Away Life's Endless Take

I Lost My Acid Glasses In A Pale Garden

Memphis weirdo Acid Glasses impressed earlier this year with Polnara Setera, and Stroll On Records report that the band are following that up with a 7” this September. There is no doubt that the solo artist (AKA Nick Burk) specializes in a warped sense of pop perversion, and on ‘My Pale Garden’ he has effectively eschewed a couple of bands’ musical tropes – the Beatles’ White Album era stomping arpeggios, the Dandy Warhols’ slurred slacker vocals – by chipmunking the chorus and then dropping it down a transparent well for Ariel Pink to play with, the end result being radiant and distant at the same time. As I said, its warped, but it’s damned likable. Where Acid Glasses will shoot for next is anyone’s guess – but he is surely grabbing everyone’s attention.

Acid Glasses – My Pale Garden

White Fence Between The Harness And The Pool

I've decided to throw this release up for notice because I haven't done a review of White Fence's ...Is Growing Faith record, which by all reports is pretty ace, so this is as close as Ill get for the time being. This 7" is the first release put out by Afterlife Records - 'Harness' off ...Is Growing Faith, and 'The Pool' which is previously unreleased. Its typically warped, no-fi freak pop stylings from Tim Presley, all done in short stabs of two minutes. 'Harness' is a better song - 'The Pool' is played exactly like a warped Beatles cassette, Presley's vocals all high pitched and warbling, before the drums kick a sharper edge to the outro. Im still not sure I 'get' White Fence, but Im warming up to him...

White Fence - Harness
White Fence - The Pool

Death For All The Senses

We were one of millions who were blown away by the "found" recordings of Detroit late 60s-early 70s proto punk band Death, commonly known as For All The World To See. Sure, they were waaaaay ahead of their time, without influence from others, et cetera et cetera. What it all comes down to is, Death fucking rocked. Who knows what would have happened if fate didn't fuck with the formula, but at least we still have these remnants. And it's like discovering an influential band all for yourself - soemthing that doesn't happen half as much as it used to nowadays...

Spiritual, Mental, Physical (out via Drag City) is an odds and sods collection of demos by the band circa 1974-1976. The material presented here was transferred from old reel-to-reel tapes and the primitive sound enhances what could be the findings from an architectural dig. There are traces of what would become For The Whole World To See, but this collection oftentimes finds the band noodling around in much of the later content - true four track material then. Therefore Spiritual, Mental, Physical finds the band trading in jagged punk, 'Views' amongst Beatles inflected rock and roll on 'The Mask.' I love the Beatles angle, seeing as history dictates that it was watching the Fab Four on TV that made the Hackney brothers want to play music in the first place - even if their stylings would take them down a decidedly different route, such as the jangly 'World of Tomorrow' which is a brief glimpse of the straightforward style of rock that the Hackney Brothers were capable of.

It won't all work for casual listeners - 'Can You Give Me A Thrill' goes forever as far as punk rock songs go (although that's why I think it's brilliant) and the last three tracks are effectivly noodling solos. But its just another chapter in what is a curious part of rock history - and one that is not dry, but lays the rock sauce on thick.

Death - Views

Friday Cover Up - Sweet Lights, Its Daniel Johnson And His Monkey!

Well, this is a special way to see out the week. We have spoken many times about the sweet autumnal nostalgia that is Sweet Lights - but never in a million years did I expect to have four Beatles covers ('A Day In The Life', Cry Baby Cry', 'For No One' and 'Too Many People'), from the man recorded backstage with none other than the inimitable Daniel Johnston! Of course it should be known that Sweet Lights is Daniel Halperin, who's one of the Capitol Years, Johnston's backing band - nevertheless, these videos are a beautiful snapshot. Not much else needs to be said. Its very ad hoc and lo-fi - thus making it something else altogether to behold. Enjoy, and have a stellar weekend ok!

Harking Back To The Paperhead

The Paperhead are a Nashville collective that have just released their debut album from the Trouble in Mind label, and at first listen it's like listening to one of your dad's warped records from 1968 that has been forgotten about and gathering dust. Add to this that the trio average 18 years of age, and you have some amazing (in)authenticity here. I know I often harp on about people sounding like others and how that can be detrimental - hey, I said it about one of the world's hottest bands, Cults, only yesterday - but here The Paperhead sound energised. Possibly haunted by the spirit of Syd Barrett or the halycon days when The Beatles were parallel time travellers, The Paperhead is so strong, its warm, effects-laden, dreamy psychedelia almost an affront to the band's youth and the state of today's music. The understanding between these three is also astounding.

Yet this could be the end - the three members putting The Paperhead to one side so as to attend college. Let's hope its not for long. Sure, they have already collared a sound that stands shoulder to shoulder with the genre's best, and we can all be happy with that - but as with all music addicts, we want more, damn it!

You can buy The Paperhead here.

The Paperhead - Back To Those Days
The Paperhead - Let Me Know

Friday Cover Up - Jim Jones Gets Back

As you can see, its been a busy week of gigs here in lil Brissy, Down Under - and it continues tonight with the Besnard Lakes and Nova Scotia. And with this much excellence, its easy to burn out. So you need some invigorating, gyrating stuff to listen to, like Red Bull and vodka for the ears. Thank you Jim Jones then, for blowing out the cobwebs for this rollicking cover of the Beatles. Im primed for the weekend - you should be too!

Jim Jones Revue - Get Back (Beatles cover)