Regretfully Depending On Hazels Wart

As you may have noticed I occasionally whinge about how I sometimes miss out on great new music, either because it slips through the cracks of my ever-overflowing inbox, because I'm overworked, because I drank five thousand beers and woke up in a strange bed. Whatever. It happens. There's lots of good stuff that hasn't graced this hallowed hall. But I always hope that when one of these bands bring about a new release, I can smash that one to the bleachers for all and sundry to scrabble over.

Today, that band is Hazel's Wart, a San Francisco trio whose sloppy emotive noise-pop has really struck a chord (three of my all-time records being The Lonesome Crowded West, Perfect From Now On (the dude sounds sooooo much like Doug Martsch!) and Dancer Equired!, it kinda makes sense). Back in 2011 they brought out a great scuzzy guitar pop album in Together We Didn't - not in the garage, throwaway sense, but more in tune to the early 90s alternative rock that pre-dated the "grunge" push, fuzzed-out guitars with slightly underdone production because that's all they knew how to do. But they are now onto a softer vibe that is akin to early Modest Mouse (which was always there from the beginning), if new cassette Regretful Dependencies is anything to go by - and the even lower frequency production actually makes this slight shift in sonic direction even better, steeping it in the era that its definitive influences come from. Hey, does that guitar on 'Checked' sound like a J Mascis-worshipping dip of the cap? I believe so!

 

Seriously, Hazel's Wart are a damn fine band, playing damn fine music that people seem to be a little adverse at taking on as their own anymore. I know, I know - trends and tastes shift etc etc. But that's for fools to embody - if it's this good, just like it already! You can grab Regretful Dependencies here, and I strongly suggest getting into Together We Didn't also - you can pick that up here.

Hazel's Wart - Cheap Thrill
Hazel's Wart - Checked

Melting Cobwebbs All Around You

Another Brisbane band making waves is Cobwebbs, a four-piece that has evolved substantially since I saw them support Times New Viking last year. Back then, they were still a garage-blues band in a wild showman in Sam Wightman. Since then their sound has gotten considerably darker, murkier, yet still with that surly sneer plastered across their face. Their support of The Laurels at The Beetle Bar was acid-tinged shambolism at its height. So it comes with great delight that the band have announced the release of their debut LP through local label Lost Race. Its called All Around, and if 'Ice Melter' is any indication it will be fucking killer - I can't get it out of my head.

Don't Steal The Beardy Durfs Ponce's Lunch Box

I love it when you open up the inbox and before you have to start wading through all the remixes, bad hip-hop and terribly written PR pieces, the first email inadvertantly floors you. This is what The Beardy Durfs' 7" Lunch Box/Ponce did to me. The Danish duo (seriously, Copenhagen's scene seems so disparate and incredible awesome!) are channelling no wave into makeshift pop compositions, then are extrapolated or truncated on a whim. 'Lunch Box' is a delectable slice of raucous garage noise-pop, whilst 'Ponce' is a lysergic jam into a bleached-white wilderness. Digital-only track 'Dead Poncho' is pure noise abandon, the kind of pop single Times New Viking or Japandroids might put out if collaborated with motorik annihilators A Place To Bury Strangers. This cacophonous ear orgasm is achieved via modified guitar pedals, homemade amplifiers, broken guitars and a seriously trashed drum kit built in the former East Germany. I seriously enjoy this 7". These are the kind of tracks I want to hear when I wake up people! (Actually, I want to hear them all day long. Keep it coming dudes).


You can get Lunch Box/Ponce from Pad & Pen Records.

Bearded Spaceships From Boston Guided By Voices No Longer...

Last week I gave out a taster from the new Guided By Voices record. I also stated in that post about an interview where fellow Columbus, Ohio band Times New Viking felt that they may have to call it a day as they were "growing up". Well, if that GBV incumbent LP isn't enough to shake the youngsters out of their doldrums, they should look to Robert Pollard's other projects, one of which is Boston Spaceships. They put out an album a month or so ago, Let It Beard, a simple play at the Beatles album. If people doubt the validity of elder statesmen rocking out to original tunes, Let It Beard should cast those aspersions into the fire where they belong. This trio have put out some fine releases in their time, and although this ambitious 2LP affair doesn't always hit the bullseye, the quality ratio is substantially high, and Pollard kills.


Sadly this is said to be the final release, so if you like what you hear (and you bloody well should!) get to buying the back catalogue. Start here, then in my opinion take on Planets Are Blasted first - but they are all ace.

Boston Spaceships - Blind 20-20
Boston Spaceships - Tourist UFO
Boston Spaceships - Let It Beard

Thos Voices Will Guide Us To The Very End

I saw Times New Viking play earlier this year in what was one of the best shows of 2011. However one thing they mentioned struck me as a little...well, sad, although I understand the idea. The band mentioned that now that they are in their thirties, they feel a bit silly from time to time creating noise and thrashing about, and are considering their options for the future. The Columbus Ohio trio are fantastic, and self-confessed Guided By Voices fanatics (no less due to the hometown connections), so I hope they look to Robert Pollard to see how it can be that they make it work.

Guided By Voices go from strength to strength, and have just released the below track off the forthcoming Let's Go Eat The Factory LP (featuring the classic line-up that includes Tobin Sprout - and he's writing songs again!). Pollard has also released an awesome album with side project Boston Spaceships which will be here very shortly. These guys have been around much longer than TNV, and are still finding ways of being inimitably awesome. Hopefully some of that Columbus mojo will rub off on them...

Let's Go Eat The Factory will be out New Year's Day - what a way to bring in a bleary-eyed 2012! Actually, maybe the world cannot handle this record - this is what the Mayans warned us about! Ah well. In that case, I guess there is no hurry in keeping TNV together...

Tracklist below (the amount and brevity of tracks also heralds TNV - come on guys, stay on for the good of humanity!!!)

Laundry And Lasers
The Head
Doughnut For A Snowman
Spiderfighter
Hang Mr. Kite
God Loves Us
The Unsinkable Fats Domino
Who Invented The Sun
The Big Hat And Toy Show
Imperial Racehorsing
How I Met My Mother
Waves
My Europa
Chocolate Boy
The Things That Never Need
Either Nelson
Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday)
Old Bones
Go Rolling Home
The Room Taking Shape
We Won't Apologize For The Human Race

Guided By Voices - The Unsinkable Fats Domino

VIDEO VACUUM - Times New Viking, Big Troubles, Cool Cult, Apparat

Just spent the day in Bundaberg. Went out to Bagara to the beach, ate fish and chips, had a couple of rums... That was it. Not much to do out here except marvel at the sugar cane. That said, what the hell is with the polar bear being the mascot for Bundaberg Rum? Its bloody hot around here. That bastard should have perished by now. Unless they use the rum as some kind of embalming fluid - which makes some kind of sense...

Enough of the crap, on with the vids! First up are Ohio native Times New Viking and a lo fi effort to promote their 'Try Harder' single. It's just a killer song, like all of their Dancer Equired album, and is here based on that. The video has replay quality too, so its pretty much irresistible.

Times New Viking - Try Harder from POPFRENZY HQ on Vimeo.

New Jersey quirksters Big Troubles are launching their new album Romantic Comedy through Slumberland Records, and its a very interesting, and somewhat difficult , listen - a fair leap from the excellent slacker effort of last year Worry, that's for sure. Im going to live with it a little while longer before making a decision, but this video for single 'Sad Girls' is pretty damn ace regardless. (And please visit their page above - its an Angelfire site so crappily amazing!)

Big Troubles - Sad Girls from Slumberland Records on Vimeo.

Auckland, New Zealand's Cool Cult have made their first ever video, for the track 'Tomorrow'. The track itself is a little more sinister than we generally get from this noise pop act, has a slight A Place To Bury Strangers vibe due to the abrasiveness of the guitars, and this can only be a very good idea.



Finally, Apparat can do no wrong! His The Devil's Walk album is seriously good, and this video for the new track 'Song Of Los' is another stellar indicator of this. Seriously, people, take note! This is some great stuff right here!



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Times New Viking Grammatically Plunder The Brisbane Woodlands

Brisbane, the excitement is at fever pitch! The upcoming few months closing out 2011 will see you awash with amazing overseas acts. You will see the plethora of local ace acts slowly littering these pages in due course (we've already heard from the likes of Nova Scotia, Tiny Migrants, Blank Realm and No Anchor), and yet its a trashy trio from Ohio that will kickstart this in earnest! Tomorrow at Woodland Times New Viking hit the stage, alongside local acts Cobwebbs and Meat Thump (the name has me salivating already!). Their latest album Dancer Equired cleans up the scuzz but does nothing to dampen the rampant energy these garage noise pop fusionists dish out.

Times New Viking were one of the first stellar acts that blew me away when I arrived in England back in the heady days of 2008 - they supported Los Campesinos! alongside No Age. What was Los Campesinos! thinking? These bands wipe the floor with their twee shit! AND it was the second gig after Offset Festival where I caught up with Paul, and a year later Sonic Masala was born - collective awwww...

Seriously though, this show is gonna be amazeballs. Tix are still available at $25/bf, and is not to be missed!

Times New Viking - Downtown Eastern Bloc
Times New Viking - Fuck Her Tears

Video Vacuum - Ding Dong, The Witch Is At Sea...

So the geriatric cave dweller who is our modern equivalent to a Bond villain has "finally been killed". Im not a conspiracy theorist as such, but Oliver Stone's JFK is my fave movie of all time, so...yeah, the US govt are evil and its all faked like the moon landing! There! Now watch my life go all Will Smith a la Enemy Of The State over this one...

So anyway, better get these top toons out at ya in a/v glory before I get my arse tasered and deep fried. First up is this nice little one from Parts & Labor, showing an awesome rehearsal shack building up as they math out, before some multicoloured hand trees sprout out the front... Trust me just watch it!



Next up is Times New Viking - their clip for 'Ever Falling In Love' is a futuristic Be kind Rewind esque affair crossed with Wall-E if done by Tim Burton when E-ing off his face. Which is EXACTLY what it is - Mel Gibson from Conspiracy Theory told me so...




And what about The Glass Canoe? We spoke about their album Chimera recently as part of our Hits From The Box Easter special here, and now here is some viz for the audio fizz that is the track 'First Ideas'. If this isnt subliminal for Allah is Great, then I don't know what is...

First Ideas - The Glass Canoe from Michael Shainblum on Vimeo.

Now get back to work!

Time To Fall In Love With The New Vikings

Dancer Equired is the new album by those scuzzy lo-fi rockers from Columbus Ohio, Times New Viking. I still remember the only time Ive seen these guys live well - as the support act to Los Campesinos! back in December 2008, they, alongside No Age, totally blew the headliners away. Their fuzzy releases disguise just how great they are live, yet with their upcoming album being put out by Matador expect things to change...well, just a little bit. They are still as steeped in old sounds and as awesome as always, and the track 'Ever Falling In Love' proves this!

Times New Viking - Ever Falling In Love

Eat Skull - More than just the coolest part of The Lost Boys

Siltbreeze has steadily built itself up into one of the most exciting labels on the planet. With acts such as Times New Viking, Sic Alps and Naked On The Vague on its roster (also Guided By Voices ?!?), expect to hear a hell of a lot more of what they have to offer...like right now!

Eat Skull have been dishing out a scuzzy as fuck noise pop formula for a few years now, alongside fellow Portlanders and Siltbreeze stablemates Psychedelic Horseshit (although PH take the cake in shambolic - don't worry, we'll post in due haste), and have inadvertantly found themselves on a wave of popular music...and yet somehow left behind in the slipstream. Crystal Antlers, Wavves, No Age and their ilk are gaining monumental popularity/notoriety. However Eat Skull deserve just as much of the accolades - even though they probably dont give two shits either way.

1st album Sick To Death really got things rolling, showcasing a band that could grab all of their favourite musical genres and put it through a shiny meat grinder to produce grisly slabs of murky gold (that sounds absolute rubbish, but listen to 'Beach Brains' followed by 'New Confinement' and you'll be swayed). 2009's follow up Wild and Inside was still awesome +, but didnt have the immediacy of its predecessor, despite the incessance of the organ on pop-tart of death opener 'Stick To The Formula'. You can definitely hear bands like the Clean in there - just not as clean. But still cleaner than before - even if less clean is cleaner...

Fuck, let me put it this way - Eat Skull are great. Really really great. Their abominations of pop, punk, garage rock, art rock, and scuzzy no-wave somehow add up to priceless soundbites that can be embraced wholeheartedly - and you will embrace them. They are criminally underrated. Chase down their albums, become devotees, and...eat some skulls...

Eat Skull - Beach Brains

Eat Skull - New Confinement

Eat Skull - Stick To The Formula