Spend Your Money on OBNIIIs

I love the unabashed hi-octane rock and/or roll that Austin’s OBN III’s push with ferocious alacrity. It has always been about pumping out vein-popping, synapse-fizzing songs that are as hook-laden as they are loud and lairy. Worth A Lot Of Money (out now through 12XU) is no different. Here the hooks are even more brazen, blazing and bloodstained – take standout track ‘You Can Let Me Down Now’, a mixture of JSBX braggadocio, Wipers stop-start magnetism and bottom end aggression, and The Clash’s laconic wails. The thing about pointing out influences and inferences on an OBNIIIs album is null and void though – Orville Bateman Neeley III and his band of not-so-merry men are only interested on building the largest, loudest monument to rock on such foundations. The fidelity here is fully glossed but never shies away from the shameless abandon and garage swagger that the band have made their bread and butter – ‘New Money’, ‘Dismissive’ (a subdued filter of Division of Laura Lee covering The Stooges) and ‘The Stalker’ spit and growl. Grab this here.

FRIDAY COVER UP - Crossing The Telescopic Dog

It's been a busy week on the music calendar here in London. David Byrne has killed it with his Meltdown curation (I got to see Sunn O))) put in an incendiary performance at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday, and reports were that Jonny Greenwood's live score with a full orchestra for an airing of There Will Be Blood - of which I failed to get tickets - was brilliant); Pissed Jeans played two sell out shows at 100 Club and were on top of their (and everyone else's) game; and starting tonight is the crowdfunded noisy fest Wyrdout, featuring the likes of Gnod, That Fucking Tank, Silent Front, Bad Guys and the mighty Helms Alee. New Cross has also held some stellar gigs - the Witching Waves show at New Cross Inn last night in particular. Tomorrow night though looks to be an absolute peach too - with a "rare" performance from psych creepers The Telescopes. So in celebration of this, here is their cover of the seminal Stooges song 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' off their Fuzz Club Records split from earlier in the year. The other side of the wax? Held by none other than A Place To Bury Strangers.



The Telescopes play at New Cross Inn tomorrow with support from Vertical Slump, Virgin Kids, The Infinite Three, Sky Between Leaves and none other than SM fave James X Boyd & the Boydoids - get your tickets here (and it's meant to be a hot one so enjoy the sunshine noise and beers!)

Too Many Cassettes For This Sad Horse Town

I was not expecting to hear an album like Purple On Purple Makes Purple come out of the Field Hymns stable, but then again the label aim to surprise, forever throwing curveballs at the ears. Sad Horse may not fit the nebulous electronic weirdnik mold that Field Hymns often champion - this kind of slacker punk maelstrom is more suited to angular destructions than 8-bit eargasms - but on the strength of this album anyone would be stupid not to have put this out... The Portland duo have been compared to some heavyweights such as The Stooges, Pavement and Sleater-Kinney - all with misnomers of course (on Ritalin, with a sense of humo(u)r, etc etc), but the label itself gets the one-two punch combo right by saying that Purple On Purple Makes Purple has shades of Pussy Galore in its garish DNA, exploding in a "controlled sense of fuckall and abandon." Now before you start to throw the lazy writing what the bio states flag at me, I will say this - Sad Horse slay me, with fourteen sub-two minute slabs of barb(ed)iturate wails and loose-limbed flailing and laughing - on the inside and in your face. 'You Are Idiots' is probably my favourite slice of Sad Horse pie, but it is all delicious, if somewhat destructive to your health and sense of well-being. I'm heading back for seconds.




Purple On Purple Makes Purple is cassette only - put out for Cassette Store Day - and limited to 100, which is frankly dumb - this should be littering everyone's bedroom floor, preferably by the thousands. Get it here while you can - and put it out on vinyl already.

Scavenging Zigs & Zags

Out-of-control shredders Zig Zags have certainly done some shit in their two years as a band. Having released a few 7"s (one on Mexican Summer, believe it or not), a split with grinders The Shrine, a cassette on Burger Records and a collaboration with Iggy Pop, the LA trio show no signs on letting up the squalling fury. They have released their two sold-out singles 'Scavenger' and the most excellent 'Monster Wizard' on excellent German label Who Can You Trust?, and it's a stone cold slayer. Black Sabbath, the Stooges (obviously), Fu Manchu - the touchstones are loud, spun out and are set to kill.

You can buy Scavenger/Monster Wizard here.

Dreaming Of A Dirty Lantern

I have to say that the dirtiness that permeates Philly band Lantern's Bathetic release Dream Mine feels like the real deal. This isn't performance art - you believe in it. This isn't a band that wants to delve into Funhouse territory - they were born there, and will most likely die there too. Check out the lurching seven-minute version of 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' - it's already a great track, but here the trio fully inhabit it like a sweat-drenched second skin. The constant collaborators with Dirty Beaches revel in the grimy nether regions, and whilst it can be disturbing, it is so enthralling. This is how hedonistic rock music should be.


Dream Mine is sold out, but you really need this, so grab the digital copy here.