Real New Real Numbers

I'm writing by the numbers today (sorry...) Minneapolis band Real Numbers are about to release Wordless Wonder through Slumberland Records, and 'New Boy' is yet another example of the type of ramshackle yet hook-embedded scuzzball hits they deal out with strong regularity. There aren't many bands that can hold this tightrope walk like this (Terry Malts, Woollen Kits, and lately Salad Boys are ones that come to mind that hold down the fort in this matter) - it's hard to work out exactly how they manage to do this without it appearing lightweight, cliche or blase. But they do, which is a wordless wonder indeed (sorry again...).

Pre-order Wordless Wonder here.

Searching For The Innocent White Fence

Tim Presley cannot get out of the Sixties, even if he tried (which I'm pretty sure he hasn't). The only difference in his oeuvre as White Fence has been the alterations in production, culminating in the relatively high fidelity evident on latest release For The Recently Found Innocent. Presley pays huge props to his astral brother-in-arms Ty Segall - here he records and mixes the album as well as drums here and there - and you can tell why - this sixth album as White Fence is the most cohesive and focused sojourn into the paisley outer realms yet. The album focuses on more confident realms, such as anguish and anger towards the state of the world today, although still willing to turn the light inward in his recognised falsetto waver.

I will admit though  that White Fence rings truer to a spot-on tribute band, emulating the likes of The Kinks (ESPECIALLY The Kinks), The Troggs, The Who, The Mama & the Papas...the cream of the pastoral crop, sure, and done incredibly well. But it's hard to love an album wholeheartedly when there are touchstones that you can go back to and embrace more honestly. This is a disparaging remark, sure, but I do still like Presley's worldview and what he offers, and I will always catch him live when he trundles my way. I just wish there was something a little more iconic and unique in what Presley offers. The clarity is one step, but it also shows up the comparisons more readily (hence why he may have wallowed in the white noise no-fi for so long before now...) You will enjoy this record for sure, but more original, secret ingredients need to be thrown into the brew before it becomes a bona fide addiction.

For The Recently Found Innocent (with excellent self-portrait artwork) is out through Drag City and Spunk - grab it here and here (soon).

Hozac Takes Me To First Base On An Epicycle

Back in July I was sitting in a governmental café, waiting for the outcome of a court case and a lift to Byron Bay. That’s the start for a good story right there. Instead, I spent two hours listening to Hozac-sanctioned garage rock gems, specifically the new album from Shocked Minds.

Today I sit on a train weaving its way from Maryborough West to Brisbane, where I will drop off assessment pieces to a local university, pack a bag, have one final meeting about a special, exciting event that I am about to embark upon, then see mates in Ghost Notes and Cobwebbs support Chicago legends Cave (you can still gettickets here) before I wing my way to the UK. We have reached Nambour, where we have sat for an hour after a truck somehow ran into a bridge. I don’t know how to soundtrack the amount of emotions that are bolting around in my heart, my chest, my ever overactive brain. So now, much like that surprisingly balmy winter’s morning, rather than attempt to sum it up, it’s time to counter the apprehension and anticipation with some bludgeoning Hozac heaven.

First Base! No, I haven’t had a pepped-up virile lady sit next to me on the train – she’s four rows down, chugging mini red wines at 12.45pm – it’s the power-punk buzz of an album from the same-named Toronto sugarpunks. Its effervescent crack, hard to stay angry (or any other emotion other than giddy deliriousness) when this stuff is coursing through your brain like mainlined sugar. It has elements of a Superchunk/Thermals hybrid that loved Del Shannon and 80s made, 60s set high school romantic comedies a little too much and couldn’t make it out of their own basement, yet had more than enough money to build a good studio-slash-bunker so that they never had to leave. Song titles include ‘I’m All Alone Again’, ‘Get A Taste Of Your Love Again’, ‘She’s Boy Crazy’ and ‘That’s My Girlfriend’, seemingly attesting to such notions – but then tracks like ‘I Broke My Mind’ give a clearer notion to these crackpots’ machinations. Crazy yet gloriously infectious. The organ is what really sells this – a wailing call of the warm and fuzzies.

Then we have the excellent Epicycle, a late 70s punk act that Hozac are thankfully shining a light on once more. These clean cut snots from Chicago were healthily instilled in the brotherhood of punk's true pioneers, but their relative obscurity is a goddamn shame. This retrospective, You’re Not Gonna Get It, beautifully exemplifies the juxtaposition of Epicycle’s raw-edged pop with their propensity for scabrous wit and sweaty abandon. So it swings from Ramones aping, Kinks aping, The Who aping… Yet rather than remain an adept and chameleonic tribute band, Epicycle transcend due to their excellent songwriting chops and their insistent mining of insidious hooks. Seriously, I wish these guys could play at my wedding, if I ever get married of course. Perfect soundtrack to what I see as a tumultuous, scary yet life-affirming event. Or the soundtrack to a train ride with a bunch of tweakers. Plus they have the song ‘Radical Attitude’ with the line “I’m the guy that you shot down/I’m the guy with the long hair and a radical attitude/I'm the nigger white honky Jew all wrapped up in one.”

So we have the pop fizz with the sardonic fuzz. My day is infinitely better. How about yours?

A Communal Late Night At Gaza

I thought I would end on this piece of ambient brilliance tonight. I'm physically and mentally drained, and 'Nablus' from NY's Ajnabi (the song is one of two abstract reflections/meditations on the situation in Palestine crafted after spending a time volunteering in the West Bank) has me close to tears. I had a conversation only yesterday with James, the guitarist from Violent Soho, about those moments where music moves you in such a way, and that those moments don't appear as often as you get older, or wiser, or more cynical...I don't know. I still remember when I saw the emotion on display at the 2009 Glastonbury when Blur reformed. I didn't get it, that much invested emotion into one thing... But songs like 'Nablus' pulls me back. Ive been looking over the twinkling lights of Brisbane, this plugged into my cerebral vortex, and I started to remember all the moments when it DID mean something: dancing to Mogwai by the side of the road at 4.30am, the fog starting to lift, the sun starting to rear its weary head; listening to Sigur Ros as the sunset lit up Mt Cook in New Zealand in various pastel hues; Radiohead causing my breath to catch when 'Like Spinning Plates' staggered over an awestruck Melbourne crowd. The list kept spooling forth - listening to My Father My King for the first time, or Raveonettes' Whip It On ad nauseum one heady evening, or when Source Tags & Codes first came out...then there is the first time I heard The Who's 'The Seeker', or Led Zep's 'When The Levee Breaks'; Alex Maas sing 'The Sniper', or Dad playing Born In The USA. All of these things are me, they make me who I am. And at this very moment, at this core second within the miasma of infinite seconds, I am Ajnabi too.

Ajnabi - Nablus

Tapped On The Shoulder By The Invisible Hand

 

Here’s another record that escaped my attention – but a little differently than most of the others. Funny/Not Funny Records sent me a copy of the Invisible Hand’s Aja EP last year, and I actually listened to it. A lot!

The Virginia are fidgety folk, playing within the garage format, lacing through some powerpop, 60s paisley psych, and some emotive riffs and wah’s so much that it’s hard to sit still yourself. Yet somehow I negated to give it the lip service it deserved. So here it is.

There are some thumping rock moments like ‘Psychic Cat’ – if anyone can tell me why this reminds me of Titus Andronicus, please help out, I can’t figure out why, it sounds nothing like them but that reference ALWAYS jumps in my head! – but it’s the psych moments with the organ and strings on ‘Home At Last’ (I thought it was going all ‘Baba O’Reilly’ there for a time, these painkillers are doing their duty) and the “earnestness” of ‘Bleach Bums’ that are the real home runs.

Invisible Hand are the real deal. Not really interested in the stadiums, but capable of it, if only the powers that be knew what was good for them. Seriously, these guys need to be much bigger. STAT.

 

Aja is still available here. It’s a great little record, I highly recommend it.

Invisible Hand – Psychic Cat
Invisible Hand – Eating Out

EXCLUSIVE ALBUM STREAM - Icarus Himself Gets His Cultural Career On

Well, it is a week of firsts here for Sonic Masala, starting with this, our first ever WORLD EXCLUSIVE (I think, at least our day starts before most other bloggerinos so we should get first dibs!) I was getting ready to post about Wisconsin psych-folksters Icarus Himself and their sophomore longplayer Career Culture. Its an ace album full of delectable twists and turns, and I feel a real find for the tail end of the year (influences include Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, The Who and David Bowie - nice!). As I said, I was going to post about it - but then I got permission to stream the sucker in its entirety! The album isnt out until October 11 (through Science Of Sound Records), but on this glorious day you can have at it for the next 24hrs! So enjoy peeps, then head here and pre-order it!

You're welcome.

Career Culture by Icarus Himself

And if that aint enough - here is their very cool video for 'On Your Side'! Im the gift that keeps on giving!!!