Panning For White Manna

One band unashamed of their squalling psych explosions is White Manna, whose fourth album Pan came out on Cardinal Fuzz yesterday. It reminds me of a harder edged Wooden Shjips - less interested in a lysergic motorik dirge though and more in a sandblasted fuzz storm. The title track confirms that the Californian five-piece haven't changed tack at all, a blistering intensity that revels in its circular devastation - a hurricane wail. The duo 'Dunes I' and 'Dunes II' ups the insanity, the former a hazed wall of desperation, the latter a narcolpetic drift through the aftermath - but not even the comedown can stop the propulsive jams that kick in at the half way mark. 'Evil' is the shortest track at five minutes flat, and is about as punk as these guys will get - The Stooges on Quaaludes. It's a killer track. 'Beta Travellers' floats into the cosmic either, evoking motorik tensions and howled epiphanies, while the epic closer 'Eshra' (they are all pretty epic, but this gets the title due to its twelve minute running time) starts with crashing waves, tremolo-ing into your cerebral vortex, fusing nature with fission, a chugging rhythm rising like the tide, a psych warrior's eternal dream.

Make sure you grab Pan now with its crazy limited edition vinyl, seen above.

Bringing The Wooden Shjips Back To Land (PREMIERE VIDEO)

My pink vinyl copy of San Francisco psych wizards Wooden Shjips’ new record Back To Land (out through Thrill Jockey) sits at home. It came in the day I left Brisbane for my English break. So here I am, in a Crystal Palace café, writing about the digital copy, imagining it spin in fairy floss revelry on my Aldi-sponsored turntable – it’s a great thought, because (unsurprisingly) this is a great album.

That said, not everyone will agree. There seems to be a trend of recent years that the lords of this particular rock domain – The Black Angels, Dead Meadow – have softened their droning edge, imbuing more pop and folk to their hardline regiment to the detriment of the foundations to the genre that they had forged out of relentlessness and marijuana smoke. In some ways I agree – Black Angels’ later albums haven’t had that immediate heft that the likes of Passover and Directions To See A Ghost held. Yet Back To Land has copped some criticism for being repetitive. Umm…hello? Isn’t that largely the point of these types of bands? They build an atmosphere, a ruthless rhythm with which to be taken away, never to return? It seems ridiculous that such an assertion be made about Wooden Shjips. Back To Land is an album of constants. You know that Ripley Johnson is going to drone on with his reverbed vocals; he will wail away on the guitar; Nash Whelan's sonorous organ (most likely wrapped in Alfoil); the metronomic drum/bass combo of Omar Ahsanuddin and Dusty Jermier... But the beauty of Wooden Shjips for me is their innate mastery of the groove - their incessant insistence that the groove stay well and truly in place, without much variation, but enough to evoke a shift in tedium, in motion, in space, so that the mood and atmosphere transforms without knowledge of such a change taking place. The languorous psych rock with pastoral imaginings 'These Shadows', the motorik urgency of 'In The Roses', the distorted whimsy of the excellent 'Everybody Knows' (the video of which is Premiere below!), the sunny warble of the title track - it's an album of tonal increments, of shimmering beauty, of transient glory, all with infinite replay value. Absolutely nothing to disagree with here.

Wooden Shjips played ongside labelmates Kandodo last night at SCALA in London. It was as spaced out, audio-visual and excellent as you can imagine. My musical sojourn into the haunted halls that was my time here 08-11 has begun.

Back To Land is out now - get it here.

Rebirth Of A Dead Meadow

I'm a massive fan of psychedelic rock music of all kinds, but especially the heavier, dirgier kind. I think the genesis of this may have come with discovering Led Zeppelin with my dad (who, whilst not a musical aficionado, did also introduce me to Johnny Cash, Australian Crawl, The Boss and 'Brothers In Arms' era Dire Straits, which I still have a soft spot for). The first album I can recall truly grabbing me in this mould though was The Warlocks' Rise & Fall, which was playing at the old Rockinghorse Records store PA back in 2002 (and a record very close to my heart). I've been a hapless acolyte ever since...

I haven't had the pleasure of bathing in the cavernous dirge of Jason Simon and his Dead Meadow brethren as yet - but again I have a sort of origin story for these guys too. Before wholesale piracy was passe, I remember being stuck out in the middle of nowhere in 2003 (Roma, Queensland to be exact) on my first stationed education position with nothing to do, so I delved into Amazon's then music website, CDNow. I discovered some pretty amazing things that year through that thing (Neutral Milk Hotel, Explosions In The Sky, Mono, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead), one of them also being Dead Meadow's third LP Shivering Kings & Others. From there it was The Black Angels, Black Mountain - further down the spiral I would go.

As the years have gone by I have drifted somewhat from the "lightening" of Dead Meadow's aesthetic - despite the excellence of Feathers (2005), 2008's Old Growth didn't grab me at all, whilst I only gave 2010's Three Kings a cursory once-over. I have to say though that new album Warble Womb is a true return to form (some people will strenuously argue that the form never dissipated - whatever). Certainly more sonorous and less kosmiche than compatriots Wooden Shjips, Dead Meadow does have the same propensity for creating a cyclical, familiar groove that permeates their records - Warble Womb is no exception. But when you have the lackadaisical, off-kilter wooze of a track like 'Mr Chesty' or a roiling magma purge like 'This Song Is Over', you can't deny the trio's inimitable power. And this might be a bit of cribbing (who doesn't in this genre?), but 'I'm Cured' sounds like the sun-blasted paisley malaise of The Warlocks - full circle.

They aren't mellowing out so much as becoming one with their mystical powers, and Warble Womb may be the moment that I fuse with them. They are still masters of the domain, after all...

Warble Womb is out through their Xemu Records label - I have no idea where to get it. Hassle them I guess? But never fear. Stream the entire record here.

Mega Video Vacuum of Death

It's been a couple weeks - you miss me? I missed you. So here is a veritable shitload of music videos for us to catch up over...



Let's kick off with a brace of ace Aussie releases, starting with Beef Jerk. Great name, right? Wait til you get a load of their single - 'Schooners'. Man, talk about a band after my own heart - hence me having them up to Brisbane to launch their 7" at Trainspotters October 12. It's shambolic but has a real kick. Jangle booze - a bountiful charm.



If you are yet to partake in a lil Day Ravies, more the fool you. The Sydney band are embracing the wall-of-noise brutality that shoegaze pigeonholes kids into, and imbuing it with warmth and purpose. Many bands like this drift off into the dream pop world, but as 'I Don't Mind' attests, these guys are more the stuff of uneasy yet pastel nightmares. Think Lynch, if he was a LOT more lighthearted.



Sticking with the lo-fi video shenanigans are Adelaide slackerhounds Bitch Prefect who are prepping their follow-up to last year's excellent debut Big Time. 'Better Next Time' is off their latest Adelaide 7", and it has that desperation masked as nonchalance shtick down pat - except here it is distilled to an acute pang. Wastoids with heart.



The jingle-jangle-jungle that is Australia is rife with beast of the wild, and The Ocean Party is yet another of these laconic animals. Their shows in Brisbane last week were great; side-projects Velcro (in a Sonic Masala Presents show no less), and Mining Boom also slayed; their 3rd LP Split is on the horizon; and they will be launching it with Sonic Masala in late November. The love affair continues with the eponymous single, sung by newish drummer (and brother of guitarist/vocalist Lachlan) Zac Denton.



It has been twelve years since radiant guitar pop degenerates Dollar Bar gave us an album, but in Paddington Workers' Club, that wait is almost over. One of Brisbane's - nay, Australia's - unheralded gems, the four-piece might be flung to all ends of the East Coast, but if their show at The Waiting Room back in May, and new single 'Everyone's Everyone's' is any indication, the time apart makes the time together all the sweeter. I'm expecting to fall hard for this record. Plus, I AM thinking of leaving Brisbane to go to Melbourne to hang out with people from Brisbane! How'd you know, Dale?


No Monster Club - The Best Thing About Us Is We Never Grow Up from Bobby Aherne on Vimeo

Now after that delectable smorgasbord, let's head across the seas. First stop - Ireland. Last year we thought that No Monster Club was dead. No - the resurrection has been staged, now its time for the band to take over the world. On the cusp of leaving for an American tour (as in, in the next hour), No Monster Club give Sonic Masala a quick taste of where the band is heading - just over one minute of rad thrashy silliness. They have a recorded album, Foie Gras, that is unreleased - someone get on that!



Across the ditch to England now to nestle down with now-trio Yuck. New album Glow & Behold comes out on Friday - I've been listening to it for a week, and whilst it hasn't grabbed me, it's one of those sonorous earworms that is likely to lay its eggs in your brain for a long time after. 'Middle Sea' is the best bridge from the past and the future for the band - and possibly for English tennis (sorry England, but Andy Murray is fucking Scottish).



Whilst we are in the Mother Country, let's get our brains eaten. Leeds noiseniks Eagulls have a great little 7" on the way, and this video for the track 'Nerve Endings' is the epitome of nauseous tension. Basically swirling wraithlike band footage, superimposed over the quick-frame decomposition of a brain. Grim. At least the maggots are having a good time... But then again, this track is killer, a noise maggot for your brain.


HABITS "TOYMAKR" from HABITS on Vimeo.

I've played one video from LA's Habits, and here's another. In the same vein of course - VHS weirdness with schizoid fried scattered colours - it's an acid trip into the loser brain of a karaoke-performing prepubescent Beck. The dude is playing a show with Deap Vally and JUUJUU this weekend, he's for real.



Darting back now to New Zealand and HDSPNS, an Auckland  band that already had two strikes what with having all capital letters and no vowels in their name... Luckily for me (and them - I have vengeful clout you know) they have scored with the metronomic guitar rock of '54000' from their incumbent VIVIDISM EP.  Fitting in with fellow angular stylists Popstrangers, this is the kind of atonal thrashing that isn't necessarily flaying the skin from the bones so much as lightly scouring your cheeks with acid and steel wool. You just taken morphine though, so it tickles.



I'm leaving you with a double whammy of live psych revelation from two gods of the genre, Dead Meadow and Wooden Shjips. Both bands have new albums out, and they have both been kind to Australia in past years, so maybe this is something we will see with our own peepers soon enough. Just lean back and let your mind expand...



NOW GET BACK TO WORK! (And hey, glad to be back)

Thieving These Golden Beaches

Aussie ex-pat Michael Beach never sits still, whether it be with the excellent Colossal Yes, his rock band Electric Jellyfish (which left San Fran earlier this year to alight on these southern shores, but didn't make it up to Queensland unfortunately, even though I pleaded), and of course his stellar solo gear. His latest offering though, Golden Theft (out on Twin Lakes Records), is the best thing he has put together. If you can't get into opening track 'The Exhilarating Rise', then you are dead inside (and to me). Seriously, I listened to this track incessantly for a week before I even took in the rest of the album. Rest assured the remainder is just as golden. Teaming up with drummer Utrillo Kushner (Comets On Fire), recorded by the idiosyncratic Phil Manley and mastered by Bob Weston, Golden Theft is a rollicking rustic pastiche pulse through raucous rambles and frayed flake-outs. Beach is alienated yet sane, voicing his internal concerns with passion, and he's never sounded better.

Beach has been playing some excellent shows of late with the likes of Estrogen Highs and Scout Niblett, and there are a few more on the horizon (one at the Hemlock Tavern with MV & EE on the 21st is of particular merit). If you haven't checked him out yet, do the whole world a favour and do so - it'll change your mind for the better. Word is he will be out this way again this year as part of Newcastle's excellent Sound Summit in November (which already includes the likes of Oval, Tyvek, Heatsick, Ooga Boogas, Bushwalking, Unity Floors, Cured Pink - the list goes on and on...) so hopefully he will venture north this time. I might see if he'd be keen for a Sonic Masala show? You can buy Golden Theft in limited edition vinyl here.

Triple Trip To The Moon

 

I need to whip this up quick, because I have to get to a cassette listening party, so here are the past three releases from San Fran cosmic sorcerers Moon Duo.

 

Two are through Sacred Bones, and we’ll start with the duo’s new LP Circles, which centres around philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s studies of circles within society and their function – really. Which kinda makes sense, seeing as Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada essentially deal in repetitive rhythmic patterns, stretched to a certain point before they furl back in on themselves. In the main, I found myself a little disappointed with Circles, which is a shame seeing as Johnson can just about do no wrong in my eyes. Yamada’s synth is more at the forefront, and strangely this is the best and worst element – what she does is incredible, but the songs seem to suffer because of it. It may be a direction that they need to work on, thus their next releases are pregnant with anticipation. That said, there are some killer tunes on there, especially the title track, ‘Sleepwalker’ and the thudding, seven-plus minute finale, ‘Rolling Out’.

Moon Duo – Circles
Moon Duo – Rolling Out

 

Preceding this was a 7” split with another great psych band, Psychic Ills. Their contribution is the six minute ‘Zoned’, which is more befitting of the warbling mind-bending kosmiche experiments that Moon Duo have delved in since its inception. This was left on the Circles sessions’ cutting room floor – thank God it found its place in the world though, because in my opinion, this almost betters every track on that album. ‘Take Me With You’, the Psychic Ills contribution, is also excellent, a folky trance that is more straight up than you might expect from them – the perfect counterpoint. In fact, this is one of my favourite splits of the year.

Moon Duo - Zoned

 

Finally there is the mammoth ‘High Over Blue’ that Sleeperhold Publications saw fit to put out (that should tell you enough about this release...). Twenty two minutes of fragmented, stretched mind-altering magic. Nuff said.

Moon Duo – High Over Blue

You can get ‘Zoned’ and ‘High Over Blue’ as a bonus CD if you purchase the CD version of Circles, which is nice. Get these releases here (for Sacred Bones’ releases) and here (for High Over Blue).

Get Lost In The Zoo On These Shjips

The great shows continue tonight, with SF psych legends Wooden Shjips sailing into The Zoo to deliver what will most likely be an incendiary tripped out performance. Ably supported by Secret Birds and Nite Fields, this is going to be one of the best shows of 2012, HANDS DOWN.

Wooden Shjips - Lazy Bones

Skewed Wooden Shjips? Well I Never...

San Francisco psych juggernauts Wooden Shjips has a remixes 12" out through Thrill Jockey, featuring remixes by Andrew Weatherall and Sonic Boom, and a collaborative track with kandodo (aka Simon Price of The Heads). The 12" was originally available on crystal clear vinyl with black streaks, yet those sexy pieces have been snavvled so you will have to be content with just plain ol black wax.

As for the remixes... Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, Bjork) remixed "Crossing". Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3/Spectrum fame mastered Wooden Shjip's most recent (and fucking excellent) West album, and contributed "Wiking Stew (aka Red Krayola-ing)".
Finally there's the track "Ursus Maritimus (Last Bear's Lament)", a long distance collaboration with Simon Price aka kanodo. Ripley Johnson, the wired lead of Wooden Shjips created the bed of the track in Colorado in between tours and sent if off to Simon, in London. Simon added all the additional instrumentation at his home studio.

These three tracks are incredibly special. Grab the 12" here.

Wooden Shjips - Crossing (Andrew Weatherall remix)

Finally, Wooden Shjips sails into Brisbane for a show at the Zoo Sunday March 25. Supported by Secret Birds and Nite Fields, this is going to be such a great show! Pity I have to teach kids in the morning...I guess it's never stopped me before though...

Video Vacuum - Wooden Shjips, Ghost Wave, Balkans, United Fruit

Ah, it's Friday. I was subjected to Staind's 'It's Been A While' when I got to work. Just needed to steel wool my brain. These four clips did the trick...

Can't get enough of Wooden Shjips - their West album really killed it, best of its kind this year I reckon (which is a big call, I know...) Yet another video coming from it, this time for the track 'Crossing'. Check it out below.

Wooden Shjips - Crossing from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Now here is a band I didn't know a lick about until last month. New Zealand's Ghost Wave are linked to Arch Hill Records, have put out their self-titled EP, and here is a taste off it. Pretty tasty...



This one is a wee bit NSFW... Daring slackers Balkans have launched into rebel mode here with their video for 'Let You Have It'. These guys are just simmering away on the hotplate, ready to boil over at any minute - be on the bandwagon with your bowl when it does, ready to lap up some more.

BALKANS - Let You Have It from Frank Broyles on Vimeo.

Finally we have United Fruit's video for 'Go Away Don't Leave Me Alone', one of the grander cuts off their great LP of earlier this year Fault Lines.



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!

In Between Mountains & Valleys Lies The Beach

Displaced Aussie Michael Beach had a nice little 7" out at the dawn of the year, A Horse (have a read and listen here). I really liked it. Well, he is releasing a mini-album to coincide with his forthcoming US tour, and it's the best thing he's done yet. Mountains + Valleys (through Spectacular Commodity and Twin Lakes) is a ballsy and accomplished collection of rustic rust, and it sounds amazing. This could do with the people he has roped in to help out - drummer Utrillo Kushner (Comets On Fire), Raymond Raposa (Castanets) on guitar and vocals, and Trans Am’s Phil Manley on the desk (Wooden Shjips and Barn Owl have enlisted his services in the past), Mountains + Valleys traverses darker terrain with more bluster than before, and is all the better because of it.


There are only 100 copies of these suckers (possibly much, much less), so try grab one here. Otherwise head here to get the digital. Its fantastic stuff. Reminds me of Jim Ward's or Jason Molina's solo stuff, but with Sonic Youth tracks occasionally coming across the radio wavelength. Really great stuff.

Michael Beach - Straight Spines
Michael Beach - Mountains + Valleys

VIDEO VACUUM - Ben Salter, Ganglians, Wooden Shjips, TV On The Radio

Only a couple days now until the inaugural Sonic Masala Presents... launch, and you can see how excited we are here on the ranch - that's a real life photo of me above... But we aren't dropping the ball, no siree! It still gets us to the grind, so here are four vids that should grease up those wheels - with music attached, of course...

Ben Salter is a Brisbane musical mainstay, his stints with the likes of Giants Of Science, The Gin Club and the Young Liberals speaking for themselves (is that even a grammatically correct sentence? Salts, can you help me out on that one?) Anyway, he brought out his long-awaited debut solo rekkid, The Cat, earlier this year (produced by none other than Gareth Liddiard of The Drones, no less), and it's a real doozy. Here is the video for leading single off it, 'The Coward' (which is so old it used to be called 'Yellow', but when Coldplay brought a certain song with the same name he deemed it necessary to change it. Wow...) I love it because it's on the Brisbane trains. And Salter looks like many of the crazies you encounter on the train to Ipswich at any given hour...



Wooden Shjips' latest effort West is pretty killer. Just to show HOW killer, the San Franciscan psych dwellers have gotten together a video for spiky number 'Lazy Bones' - directed by none other than Black Dice! You can't get more excellently referential than that. We saw Ripley Johnson in his other form as Moon Duo last weekend - excellente! - and we get to see Black Dice touch down in a couple months. Still waiting on an actual Wooden Shjips tour though...

Wooden Shjips - Lazy Bones from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Im kinda hot and cold when it comes to Ganglians. They are one of those acts that tend to drag me in with their recordings, then disappoint when it comes to the live arena. This is a pretty unusual dilemma, but it occasionally happens (Real Estate have also led me down this path...) Anyway, John Hinckley's video for Ganglians' latest single 'Bradley' is pretty ace. Ill probably keep giving these hipster hippies the benefit of the doubt til the day they die...

Ganglians - "Bradley" from John Hinckley on Vimeo.

TV On The Radio have had a tumultuous year to say the least, but they continue to roll on, and that adds more stars on their lapels as far as Im concerned. Their fourth album Nine Types Of Light may have perplexed some, but I liked it more than their last album. Go figure. They are playing in Australia next month, so here is a track to get us all lathered up for it...



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Double Moon Rising Over The Wood(land)

Its a grand thing for Brisbane to be getting itself a slice of Ripley Johnson tonight. The wildly bearded frontman for San Francisco's premier psych band Wooden Shjips has been incredibly busy in 2011, seeing as the band put out their new album West on Thrill Jockey just a while back - and it is amazing! But before the big touring schedule kicks off again for those guys, Johnson is gracing Australia with his presence, along with his wife Sanae Yamada - who also happen to form San Francisco's other premiere psych band, Moon Duo! They also brought out a stellar album this year, Mazes (on Sacred Bones). Tonight they threaten to blow all patrons at Woodland into the ethereal stratosphere, helped out by Tasmania's Tiger Choir and Brisbane's merchants of loud and abrasive noise, Secret Birds. Not sure if tix are still available - check here, I have my fingers crossed for ya! This will be a true show to drop out to...

Go Wjest

One of the greatest things about San Francisco's Wooden Shjips is that you are guaranteed one hell of a psychedelic trip. Not much changes from one WS release to the next, but when it is as intrinsically fused to the cerebral vortex as it apparently is for these four dudes, this is no misgiving. And so we have West, Wooden Shjip's latest opus, and it is instantly recognisable. Many people will notice this with a pang of chagrin, but it is the exception of the rule here - Wooden Shjips can stay the same for eternity, it will always be their trip. With the Suicide-heavy heady komische Velvet Underground Spacemen 3 melange present and accounted for, there is nothing much else to do other than put it on and drop out. It's great stuff - and we wouldn't expect anything less, would we?


West is out through Thrill Jockey September 13 (although it can be hunted down in Europe right now!). I just bought the vinyl package for less than $40, and that's with a 7" and tote bag thrown in for good measure! You should get on that, stat! And whilst they aren't making a Australian jaunt any time soon, they are visiting the UK, touching down in a hazy splendour at London's Scala on September 4. Ripley Johnson's other project, Moon Duo, will be in Brisbane in October though, so that is the next best thing! More details on that in future posts...

Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise
Wooden Shjips - Lazy Bones

Video Vacuum - Wooden Shjips, Brain Idea, Hymns, Peter Kernel

Ah, what a picture. A wooden vacuum? With a video from Wooden Shjips? How delightfully silly of me! Well, we are in the last vestiges of a Friday before it's weekend time... Anyway, Wooden Shjip's impending album West is looking an absolute belter, Ive had a listen and can't wait to share more... But until then, here is the video from album track 'Black Smoke Rise' - it's in true WS style too...

Wooden Shjips - Black Smoke Rise from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Brain Idea really connected with me. The Chicago band seem intent to fuse washed out fuzz Armageddon with Krautrock-canoodling, Flying Nun nuance and giddy grins, and you can't help but love a band for trying such a heady mix. I haven't heard much beyond this song, but have heard good things about their Cosmos Factory EP that came out earlier this year, so might have to hunt that down...

Brain Idea - "Oh I'm Free (Earn Your Card)" from Mexican Summer on Vimeo.

Hailing from the UK Midlands, †HYMNS† (yes, not the crosses - they aren't witch house/gaze/whatever, so go figure...). have emerged out of the band Blakfish that split in 2010. I liked the video for this. Am still unsure if I like the band though - I guess you could say, the clergy is still out? Oh dear...

Hymns - A Punch To The Temple from Luke David Bather on Vimeo.

And finally we have Peter Kernel. Ive intended to focus on these guys for one hell of a long time - sorry guys! - so here is a little bit of info about em:

- they are a noise pop trio from Sweden
- they are releasing stuff on cool French label AfricanTape
- Italian blog Rockit calls 'Anthem of Hearts' “one of the most engaging and interesting pieces of the summer,” whilst French blog the Drone has compared their sound to Sonic Youth and Blonde Redhead.

Now Im not that far up the championing pole, but this track is pretty good, and Im watching what they do next...



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Shjipping Through The Wooden West

What with the great Moon Duo release Mazes coming out on Sacred Bones earlier this year, it’s easy to forget that Ripley Johnson’s day band, Wooden Shjips, are also hitting us with their new longplayer. West (on Thrill Jockey Records) promises to be a hotly debated album amongst psych rock fanatics as the emphasis for the San Francisco band’s 4th album (and 1st studio-recorded one) has been touted as being about the American West. Basing such an assertion on track ‘Lazy Bones’, I'm guessing that whilst not much will have changed on the Shjips front, the included input of Phil Manley (Trans Am) and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3, Spectrum) will be like playing this record in the baking sun - this is one insistent little bugger, its locomotive hi hat driven percussive beats and repetitive distorted guitar underpins the psychedelic double standards that Johnson’s warbling vocals insinuate. It’s a warped trip, all right – just not as we know it…


West comes out in September. Wooden Shjips play London's Scala on September 2.

Wooden Shjips – Lazy Bones

Traveling With Moon Duo Is A-Maze-ing

(Photo by Hane Lee)

A release that I am looking forward to is Wooden Shjips' Ripley Johnson's side project Moon Duo. Their last LP Escape was pretty stellar, so this newie, Mazes (out on Souterrain Transmissions or Sacred Bones on March 28th) promises to be something equally as special. And to work us up into a suitably slimy lather is the title track from the upcoming album below. This may be blasphemous, but Ive liked Moon Duo's take on psychedelia more than Wooden Shjips - although I love both acts - just because there seems to be a good deal more cohesion between Johnson and his partner Sanae Yamada.

If you are situated in the US, Moon due are doing a rather large string of shows through March and April - the rest of us will have to wait.

Moon Duo - Mazes

Scandinavian Foliage?

Sorry about the lame heading as wordplay, but anyway...

Cloudland Canyon are releasing their 1st LP Fin Leaves this week on Holy Mountain Records (home of the likes of Wooden Shjips, Voice of the Seven Thunders and International Hello). Ive been lucky enough to listen to it in its entirety, and it is a very fine piece of work.

Starting with the 1 and a half minute title track, Cloudland Canyon make their point known from the outset - and it isnt an easy one to make. This is ambience from both the dark and the light end of the spectrum, all intermingled so as to become indistinguishable. We've already posted one track, 'Mothlight Pt. 2', and it is fairly indicative of what to expect here. Nevertheless it might be said that that track is the most accessible stand alone track on Fin Eaves, and that there is no way to listen to this album other than from start to finish, on repeat, for hours, as the sun wanes in the west until it rises again in the east. Its a truly mesmeric record of shimmering propulsion. Remember that Justin Beiber track by Shamantis from last week? The one that fucking kills like no other? This to me is a true kinsman - I could lay them side by side and watch them have a million babies and flood the world with their ethereal gorgeousness and drown in their relentless cymbals, echoed vocals and riptides of reverb and Id die a happy man. No need for a Noah's Ark - the end of the world never looked so blissful.

So what do you call this band? Id coin chillgaze (if it hasnt been coined already) - taking the best of chillwave and fucking it whilst listening to cassettes of MBV and JMC. Excellente.

Cloudland Canyon - No One Else Around

Jets Still A Mystery Thanks To Spaced-Out Ships

I'm going to be writing a lot about Offset Festival this year, now its 3rd year nestled in Hainault Forest in September. Not just because it attracts a vast array of interesting, exciting, new and blatantly weird acts, but also because it could quite possibly be the only festival I take in this summer…Anyway, enough about that. With the likes of Shit & Shine, Liquid Liquid and Monatonix in attendance, with many many more acts to be announced, its going to be an amazing weekend.


One of the acts mentioned in the new line up announcements is Mystery Jets. I knew nothing about them before today… although for whatever reason I had an uneasy hangover of an idea that they were indelibly shit. I was willing to wipe them straight away except for the fact that Wooden Shjips has remixed the Jets’ track ‘Dreaming Of Another World’, a crunching, droning, 6 minute splurge that has confused me in many ways. I know that Wooden Shjips are a damn cool band, but do they have the wizardry to polish turds into gold? Or is there something behind Mystery Jets’ synth stylings that suggests a band of some note? The jury is still out, but I do like this track enough to declare Blaine Harrison’s act innocent until proven guilty - just…

Mystery Jets - Dreaming Of Another World (Wooden Shjips remix)

Vampires On The Beach In A Wooden Sh(j)ip...

Another Neil Young influenced post - Im surprised its taken me THIS long! But, as the Cortez covers showed, Neil allows for some amazing covers. This time around we are focusing on 1974 masterpiece album On The Beach (my personal fave of Young's works), and the Manson-checked barnstomper 'Vampire Blues.' This here version is by San Fran Space psych weirdos Wooden Shjips. The song is brilliant - the band is brilliant - their intersection is...brilliant? Yes.

Wooden Shjips - Vampire Blues (Neil Young cover)

Wooden moon, duo shjips

Just got hold of the new Moon Duo record 'Escape'. Moon Duo are just that, a duo in the form of Wooden Shjips front man Erik Johnson and Sanae Yamada. Moon Duo is Johnson's side project and it bears all the hallmarks of his full time job, sonic, blissed out groovy krautrock with vocals hushed and distant. Not so much songs more a journey on a psychedelic highway all the way to the moon, enjoy and buy.

Moon Duo - Stumbling 22nd St.