Poetic Bridge Over Juan Wauters

I moved headquarters last week, hence the week of silence here at Sonic Masala HQ. There has been a lot going on behind the scenes though, most of which concerns the label – writing promos, contacting blogs such as myself, talking to radio representatives, chasing vinyl jackets, organising gigs and tours, and finishing up with the vinyl entering the country (yes, the Roku Music LP and the Gazar Strips EP have made it safe and sound!). All of this around the hours of my day job. Busy indeed. But there is no relenting from the music – it stops for no man.

One thing I’ve noticed this week though is that there has been a fairly lukewarm response to The Beets’ frontman Juan Wauters’ debut solo album, North American Poetry (N.A.P.). A lot of the humdrum responses have come from the belief that it is too close to home, as it were. The Beets are renowned for slacker garage throwaway tracks, delivered in that disaffected, half asleep way that intimates that they don’t give a fuck when they so clearly do. I love it when a band pulls that off too, and I'm a fan of Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool, Let The Poison Out and Stay Home albums. But just because Wauters is casting off the rest of the band and stripping the fuzz off like a scuba suit, its still the same dude underneath, just a lot more naked. I'm not saying this isn’t a flawed record – some tracks drift away, appearing to be more of a bridge than a song in their own right – but there are songs that stand up to the test of time, like the jangly single 'Sanity Or Not', or the tracks where Carmelle Safdi comes into the mix, or the Spanish sung 'Escucho Mucho'. Damn, that may as well be half the album right there! At the end of the day, Wauters has poetic eclecticism, hooks a-plenty, and this album remains incredibly moreish. For whatever reason, the lack of variety of here was exactly what I expected, and as it turned out, exactly what I wanted. Plus I listened to this album pretty much nonstop as I packed the old place and moved to the new - so it's become a part of me now.

N.A.P. is out now through Captured Tracks - get it here.

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!

Losing Sanity On These Juan Wauters

I meant to post about this 7" on Thursday TWO WEEKS AGO, but as always things got a little caught up...so here it is.

It has been a little while since we've heard anything from NY spazzniks The Beets. Their last release wasn't all that long ago - they released two albums in 2011, after all - but with their proclivity for brevity and insanity, it's not hard to understand why the wait has been a little concerning. Fear not, however, as frontman Juan Wauters spreads his wings and his sanity thin by taking on the solo thang. Sanity is the 7" single (see what I did in the last sentence? DO YOU SEE?), and it's a two minute slice of pop irreverence sublimely rendered for your easy and repeated consumption. It's radness in other words, and hope this isn't the only thing we hear from either of Wauters' acts in 2013...

You can buy Sanity here through Wayward Records. Wauters played Shea Stadium in New York last Thursday with Brisbane's own Dune Rats, hence me wanting to post back then. Wauters had been very keen for that particular show - I'm sure Dune Rats were the ones showing their gratitude by night's end... he has done a tour with Veronica Falls recently and has some Beets dates lined up too, so all's swell. Here's the rest of the dates:

04.09.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Silent Barn w/Sea Lions (THIS IS TONIGHT!!! GET ON THIS NYers!) 04.17.13 - Wilkes-Barre, PA - The Crimson Lion
04.18.13 - Oberlin, OH - Oberlin College
04.19.13 - Columbus, OH - Double Happiness
04.20.13 - Chicago, IL - TBA
04.21.13 - Ypsilanti, MI - Woodruff's
05.04.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Death By Audio w/Bass Drum of Death

 

Beeting On The True Widow

Both of these tracks came up a while ago on the blog merry-go-round - in fact I have so many posts backlogged from past releases they are starting to grow mould - but I couldn't let them slide by, nor could I decide which one to write about to close out this balmy Thursday, so I'm hitting you with both barrels!


First up, it's well known now that I have begun a love affair with Captured Tracks favoured Queens trio The Beets. I love their silly cartoon cover art, their blase attitude, their slacker malaise wrapped up in Black Lips Halloween garb. They released an album at the beginning of the year - Staying Home - which I thought was a lot of fun. Now they are releasing another album called Let The Poison Out (this time finding its home on Hardly Art, still with the cover art though!). I have already gushed over first track from it 'Doing As I Do', but here is another. I'm yet to get my mitts on the LP, although when searching for it down at my local record store (which, after a huge closing down sale and the requisite mass protest, fevered vinyl purchases and gnashing of teeth, is still inexplicably open) I found their first album, Spit In The Face Of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool, so it still kinda worked out for me.

The Beets - Friends Of Friends
The Beets - Doing As I Do


I am a massive fan of True Widow, and their debut album slays me. So when I heard that they already had some new releases coming our way, I was more than stoked. I.N.O is in fact a mixed bag of both leftovers from their impossibly long monikered LP As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Center To The Circumference Of The Earth and brand newies, such as the track 'Bathyscaphe' below. Apart from the title that is at the other end of the length spectrum, it is droning beauty as usual from these Texans. Which means it's crazy good.

True Widow - Bathyscaphe
True Widow - Skull Eyes

NOW do you see why I've included both? Good! Now I'm off to the airport. I will be predisposed for the next few days - not seeing your girlfriend for ten months means there is some catching up to do - but I'm not leaving you hanging! Expect posts about Luke Roberts, Blasted Canyons, a Friday Cover Up, our next Hits From The Box and more!

There's No Beatin The Beets

The Beets are doing what they do, as is brilliantly essayed in cleverly-titled track 'Doing As I Do.' They are in that Black Lips realm, but a little poppier, thus at times a little nicer - and better than Smith Westerns in almost every way. Still funny kids though, and can totally acoustic the fuck out of their vibe. Let The Poison Out (out on new label Hardly Art) promises to be as good as Stay Home, their album from earlier this year on Captured Tracks. Yep, two Beets albums in 2011. Its good to be alive.

The Beets - Doing As I Do

The Beets Are Dead...

I love The Beets. Remember how I didnt, but now I do? Yeah, it happens. I could always swing back - who knows right? But for now they kill. Their second LP Stay Home (on Captured Tracks) is as awesome as you'd expect, and 'Dead' just confirms it. This is my fave lo-fi garage album of the year thus far, and as you well know there have been many! The best thing about Stay Home too is that they have cleaned up the sound but kept it decidedly lo-fi, which is the best way to have it! This is how The Beets were designed to sound - unless that is you get to see them live, and if you are in the US over the next three months there's a good chance you'll get that opportunity! They are on a national tour with the also brilliant Eternal Summers, and will be joined occasionally by other rad acts such as X-Ray Eyeballs, Brilliant Colors and Crystal Stilts. So, listen to the album, but dont heed The Beets' advice - get out of bed, out of the house, into the garage, and rock!

The Beets - Dead

The Beets Age Well When They Stay At Home

I mentioned last year that I didn't 'get' The Beets until I became hooked on their track 'What Did I Do'. Well they are hitting 2011 hard, with not one but TWO releases out on Captured Tracks, both coming out on the same day, January 11. Whilst I havent heard much from their second LP Stay Home, I am lucky enough to have the Time Brought Age 7", and it has helped to heighten my excitement. Featuring 2 tracks that wont be on the album, it displays two beautiful sides for the group - 'Time Brought Age' is a lackadaisical affair, infused with some slowed down Stones (hence the reference on the rad cover art), whilst 'Pick Another Corner' is mired in the garage wastelands of the familiar, yet definitive, Beets. Seeing as they are incessant on the live stage in the US, we should see them gracing our shores soon.

The Beets - Time Brought Age

What The Beets Did Next

I posted some time ago about my nonplussed attitude towards Black Lips, and yet how one track was able to turn me 180 degrees into the garage punkers' sweat-drenched corner. Its the way of the musical beast - many bands can surprise you through exposure, hard work and tightening of the screws, or a complete change of tack (The Horrors last year - who the fuck saw THAT coming?) I feel a few bands might surprise in their releases in the latter half of 2010 (more of that soon...), and in a minor way The Beets have done this to me too.

I say minor because The Beets havent really scorched across my radar like a Bruce Willis-riding asteroid trying wretchedly to bring down Armageddon on my arse (sorry - first Disclosure, then this - its been a guilty as sin pleasure watching bad 90s films this past week). However, they have been lighting up in enough circles to warrant some sort of attention.

So I listened to their Daytrotter session. I understand the brilliance of this institution, and how its for special intimate reproductions of bands' current songs/influences - but I was rather deflated by the whininess of The Beets' effort (feel free to disagree - you can listen/download here).

But then I had the pleasure of being introduced to 'What Did I Do', from last year's LP Spit In The Face Of People Who Dont Want To Be Cool (a title Im not sure is too awesome, or kinda shit...). Its a rollicking number that injects enough of the hip garage swagger with punk snot that such a genre deserves. Again, one track can be enough to give a band another try - and although Im coming late, this track is good enough to give The Beets that second chance.

Although I do agree that there is such a thing as good use of piccolo - just ask Tyvek - but Beets, be wary of overkill... Either way, its a nice way to start Neck Yourself Tuesday (so much worse than Death March Monday) - so get boppin to this, and your day will start swingin in the best kind of way!

The Beets - What Did I Do