The Haxan Cloak

YGR — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:06:24 +0000

In an ever-growing crowd of bass-heavy goth-techno acts, The Haxan Cloak stands out. Sure, the bass is as sweltering and impassive as the best of ‘em, and the rhythms frequently recall a candle-lit basement séance, but The Haxan Cloak’s Bobby Krlic ensures that every track is soaked in his own personal intent. He’ll take you through pensive, violin-drawn forests, bludgeon your senses with industrial rhythms, and kick you out of the car in the middle of the night and forcing you to find your way home. But it’s fun! The Haxan Cloak has both widened its scope and sharpened its focus over the past couple years, most fully realized on the recent release of Excavation, and I had a chance to talk with Mr. Krlic about where he came from and where he’s headed.

Okay, let’s start at the beginning… when did The Haxan Cloak begin? Was it always just yourself? At what point did it turn from you trying things out and making music into “The Haxan Cloak”?
Well, I’ve always made music. I played guitar from being about six years-old, and from around twelve onwards I wrote my own songs and played in bands and stuff like that. I made a lot of electronic music as a teenager, and I went on to study music and visual art at university. This really turned me on to thinking conceptually about creating things
which I had never really considered before.

Was it hard making electronic music on your own at first? I feel like, if you want to pick up a guitar and learn it, anyone can do that, but if you hear electronic music and think “I want to make that”, it’s practically impossible to figure out what gear to buy on your own… did you luck into picking up the right hardware and software, or did you have someone guiding you a bit at first?
Oh yeah, it was really hard. I guess I got into DJing first; my parents bought me some turntables and stuff, and then there was a point where I thought, “I want to know how to make the music I’m playing here”, and I remember on the inside cover of one of my LPs (I don’t remember which one) there was a picture of an 808, so I asked my dad what it was and he explained it to me. My mother at the time was friends with a guy who produced music and had a studio in his house, so she took me ’round one day and he showed me Reason and Cubase and he hooked me up with a copy. My parents bought my a second-hand iMac, and then I just kind of experimented and taught myself stuff. It was funny, because in those days we didn’t have YouTube, so there were no tutorials or anything like that, which kind of made it way more exciting and mysterious.

Are you glad you had to figure it out yourself, instead of being guided by a tutorial? Or did it just add hours of trial-and-error to the process?
I mean, it was incredibly frustrating, but I think that’s important. Learning the guitar is frustration, but it’s through those challenges that you feel accomplishment, and most importantly, you feel progression. I’m also incredibly stubborn. If I buy a piece of equipment, I throw the manual away. I like to figure things out the way that I want to use them as much as I can.

So what did your earliest stuff sound like? Was it “techno”, or something a bit off the grid?
Some of it was techno, some of it was just… well, probably completely shit. Haha. I was really into Autechre and Skam and things like that at the time, so I was trying to figure out how they made those rhythms and texures and edits. I went to as many live shows of that kind of music as I could at the time.

Did you have friends into the same sort of music?
Luckily, yeah I did. There was a really tight bunch of us and we all discovered it at the same time. I really vividly remember my friend Rob, he had an older brother, Chris (who I’m still very good friends with to this day). I was at Rob’s house one day and Chris came home with one of his friends and he had the Gantz Graf DVD by Autechre. We came down and were just like, “What the fuck is this?” Totally mind-blowing. So yeah, we all kind of starting researching and bringing different CDs and stuff ’round to each other’s houses to check out. We’d all come out of this scene of playing in punk bands together and stuff like that, so it seemed to make a lot of sense to then listen to Autechre and Russell Haswell and stuff.

Were your friends doing their own electronic projects too, or were you the only one actively making it?
Yeah they were, but I felt like I was the only one who was really taking it seriously.
I was probably quite precocious after I’d been making it for like a year or something. I was already sending demos to labels and I was sixteen/seventeen years-old. I listen back to it now and go, “What was I thinking?”

So at what point did The Haxan Cloak begin?
So that began at university. In my final year, I was conducting some research experiments.
I had the woofer from a speaker, and I was playing sine tones through it while placing different objects on top of the cone, and just looking at what effect different frequencies had on different objects, and then I really started to think about and realise the ‘physicality’ that sound possesses. That got me interested in a lot of deep ‘drone’ music like Om and SunnO))) and things like that. It just gradually progressed from these odd, tonal experiments into me buying a cheap violin and putting it in there, and then a cello, and just really seeing what textures I could exploit out of different instruments.

Did that end up on your first self-released CD-r?
Yeah.

Your follow-up EP pretty prominently works beats and rhythms into your music… was that just another side of what you wanted to do?
Yeah, definitely. I mean at that time, I hadn’t released anything. I knew the record was coming out, but not for a while, and I wanted to experiment with a more electronic kind of take on it. I wanted to kind of immediately have people question the identity of The Haxan Cloak, because they’re both very different-sounding things, but they have common threads (I think).

I noticed that too. So do you play all the violin parts yourself? It certainly sounds like the work of a studied player, and not someone just picking up a violin on a lark…
Ha, well thanks for that! But yeah, they’re played by me, and I taught myself. I listen to a lot of classical music, so I think I had a good idea of what kinds of things I wanted to get from the violin. You know, not like when you first start having lessons and you do “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or something, haha.

I don’t hear much violin on your Tri Angle release… are you done with that, or will it come back? Are there any other instruments you plan on taking up, in order to integrate into The Haxan Cloak?
There’s violin and cello on there, they’re just a lot more subtle to what was going on before. I’m definitely not done with it; I have such a love for strings, and live instruments. I plan on expanding the sounds even more, yeah.

Pardon my ignorance, but does The Haxan Cloak perform live?
Not ignorance at all! Yeah, I play live. It’s me solo most of the time, but I did do some shows early on with my friend Liam from Trencher drumming with me.

Do you integrate live instrumentation, or is it all coming from hardware?
At the moment, it’s all hardware, no computers though! But that will be changing very soon.

Care to reveal what you’ll be changing?
Well, I would like to expand The Haxan Cloak into an ensemble at some point, but I don’t know when that will happen. In the near future I will definitely be playing guitar and violin live, though.

To talk about the new record, Excavation… this one seems more atmospheric and heavier than what you’ve done before. Can we expect more of this, or will the next record sound different?
I’ve only really just begun to think about the possibility of another record. It definitely won’t sound the same, but it will be very heavy. Very, very heavy.

I feel like that sort of dark, foreboding heaviness is shared by other artists like Emptyset and Demdike Stare who are also putting out great records these days… are you familiar with them on a personal level? Is there any sort of camaraderie, or are they just separate people that you are only aware of, just like any other random electronic artist?
There’s definite camaraderie, yeah. Miles from Demdike is great, and I’m friends with Joe and Tom from Raime. Andy Stott, also. If we all play a festival together, it’s great.

Do you listen to their records? Do they affect the music you make, either by being like “I don’t want to do what they are doing exactly” or “their music makes me strive to step my game up”, anything like that?
I listen to their music, yeah, and I think they’re all amazingly talented, wonderful people, but it doesn’t really affect the way I view my own music. I think I used to think like that when I was younger.

Like, you never heard a Demdike or Andy Stott track where you’re like “fuck, I was gonna do something similar but now I can’t because they just did it!”?
I think you have to assure yourself that you have your own voice and your own uniqueness.
I think I’d hear it and go, “Fuck, that’s great. I’m going to do it how Haxan Cloak would do it!” But not in an egotistical way at all, I hope it doesn’t come across like that. What I mean is, well, it’s similar to how sometimes I’ll read about an artist for ages, but not check out their stuff, and I’ll get this really amazing, romantic idea in my head of what the music is going to sound like and then I listen to it, and it doesn’t fulfill what I expected it to. So I think the music I make always tends to fill that void for me, if that makes sense.

That totally makes sense. Do you ever come up with an idea for a track, and then think “this is great, but this isn’t appropriate for The Haxan Cloak?”
Absolutely, all the time. but it’s cool because you’re always learning stuff. Like, there’ll be certain elements of what I made that I can probably take away and work into a Haxan track.

I guess to wrap it up… if you could offer advice for someone who wants to start making electronic music, what would it be? Is there anything in particular they should not do?
Just to remember that music comes from your brain, not from a program. Just because you buy a Jaguar you’re not going to sound like J Mascis, and just because you buy Reaktor it doesn’t mean you’re going to sound like your electronic heroes. My advice would be try and find out how to express yourself and your individuality – and stay away from YouTube tutorials!

Consumer Report: Five Singles Under Five Dollars

YGR — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:42:13 +0000

That’s right, an addition to the Yellow Green Red family! The first Consumer Report post. Let me explain: see, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling retail fatigue when it comes to new records (since when did over $20 become the norm for a full-length LP?). It just doesn’t seem right or fair! And just as that has been setting in, I’ve been spending an unhealthy amount of time on my new favorite website, Discogs.com, buying records and occasionally selling them and just getting a feel for the digital marketplace that exists. If you’ve been on there yourself, you’ve probably also noticed that A: 80% of all records currently reside in Europe, B: those European sellers expect top-dollar, and C: there is no limit to the human’s ability to be a nerd. In my recent online digging, I’ve come across some really great deals, and plan on sharing those here when the mood strikes me. This post is about hardcore/punk/garage from the ’90s, and I think the next will be techno! Why waste your time chasing the latest ‘manufactured rarity’ when you can grab five killer singles for under $25, right now? If you are reading this post, and these records are no longer available on Discogs for less than five dollars a piece, it means my work here is done.

Code 13 A Part Of America Died Today (Havoc, 1998)
You probably know Felix Von Havoc as the standard for what an American punk rock lifer is – self-made, never sold out even slightly (you won’t see him in a Scion), massive record collection in custom-made shelves, leather jacket, MRR column, was chased out of a window by cops while Gordon Solie Motherfuckers played, etc etc etc. His band Code 13 was always good, and always under-appreciated, but their last single A Part Of America Died Today is an absolute monster. In a subtly-conceptual presentation, one side is full of blasting thrash tracks, speed-core that rivals anything on Slap A Ham, and the other side is the “punk” side, raging just as hard but with a focus on memorable choruses and circle-pitting (“Give The Kids” sounds like a 7 Seconds song performed by Jerry’s Kids). You probably need their whole discography (it’s just three singles and a split), but this is the place to start.

Humpy Humpy (Beer City, 1996)
Make no mistake… yes, it’s that Beer City Records! I know people love to joke about this, well, joke-worthy label, but I bought some of my first 7″s from their Thrasher magazine ads, thank-you-very-much, and when it comes to suburban gutter-punk, there is no finer stamp of approval. Humpy kind of side-steps all of that though by just being a completely out-of-control, violent-sounding punk band, accidentally stepping into a d-beat puddle and flailing with drums that just don’t quit. There are eight songs here, one of which is called “America Online” (which you’ll probably have to explain to your children one day), and it rages too. Plus they are from god-damned Montana and called themselves “Humpy”. What else do you want?

Jellyroll Rockheads Intense And Mild EP (625 Productions, 2000)
Okay, so it’s from 2000, but I’m not gonna let this heat pass because of a technicality. There was a great little window of time where hardcore bands were still willing to try something new, just as wacky thrash was rearing it’s brim-flipped head and kids were starting to learn about the multitude of amazing ’80-’82 hardcore that was utterly obscure before the internet came to town. Jellyroll Rockheads were hyped at the time, and for good reason – their music is utterly manic, possessed and hyper-fast (in that way that only the Japanese can do), like they took the concept of Melt Banana and applied it strictly to hardcore-thrash. They’re the sound of hardcore suspended in mid-jump. Plus, the 625 Productions label (later dubbed 625 Thrashcore) is full of overlooked dollar-bin gems just waiting to be enjoyed (among a large assortment of stinkers, to be sure). And furthermore, there is currently a copy available for $1.55… skip your lunch-time Twix and grab this instead!

Sad Sack Heinous Bitch (ERL, 1991)
Out of the five records I mention today, this is my top pick. When the Killed By Death series finally catches up to the ’90s, “Heinous Bitch” is going to be the first track on side A. Imagine a recording of Bobby Soxx singing for Flipper and released on the Siltbreeze label, and I say that with very little hyperbole! Can’t tell if the drums are a human or a machine, it’s just so damn trebly and painful, and the vocalist absolutely slobbers all over these songs like he’s rabid and about to die and just doesn’t care. All this with a guitar solo that’d make Watery Love blush! ERL is a pretty cool and frequently overlooked noise-rock / punk label from the ’90s, and this is the finest piece of art they’ve ever bestowed upon us. Mandatory listening, I say!

Unholy Swill Tapeworm In My Head (Noiseville, 1990)
Unholy Swill have a thick and meaty discography, and while some of their records are valued in the double-digits, you can still get this killer slice of fuzz-crusted belligerence for cheap. Imagine if GG Allin never got famous, and instead got married and had a couple kids, restricting his utter contempt for humanity to the shack in the backyard where he keeps the lawnmower and a room-temperature case of beer, and you’re close to the miserably-masculine suffering of Unholy Swill. The vocals are so burly that it occasionally sounds like a Muppet-ized El Duce, but there’s just so much distortion and ugliness to the recording that it still sounds great today. They’re like the miserable security guard that would confiscate Drunks With Guns’ beer and drink it themselves, and I will forever love them for it.

Reviews – June 2013

YGR — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:14:34 +0000

Action Swingers Miserable Life / Losing My Cool 7″ (Total Punk)
Can you go wrong with Action Swingers? I don’t think it’s possible. Maybe you’ve seen one of their LPs with cheesy ’90s cover art and thought “not for me”, but you were wrong – this band is primitive nihilist punk rock at its finest. “Miserable Life” sounds like Brainbombs, if they weren’t a bunch of Swedish pretend-serial-killers but rather a bunch of American steelworkers sitting at home collecting meager disability checks. If Watery Love were in their 40s instead of their 30s, they’d probably sound like this too. “Losing My Cool” is slightly funkier in that Pussy Galore / Jon Spencer sort-of way, but still about as pissed-off and grizzled as any Cheater Slicks record. As far as I’m concerned, this Action Swingers 7″ sets the bar for a singles label billing itself as “Total Punk” – unless you deserve to share the same cigarette-burnt stage and smelly microphone as Action Swingers, you should not working with this fine record company.

Bad American Bruises 7″ (Eleven Twenty Four)
So there are like four different Black Flag reunions going on right now… can’t we just cancel all those and send out a band like Bad American instead? These guys are all pretty old (or getting there), and they do a fine job of slamming out ugly mid-paced hardcore punk. Four songs here, using riffs that bands like Crowbar or Prong could’ve metallicized, but Bad American insist on squeezing them into the form of moshworthy hardcore. Definitely more singular-minded than the somewhat-recent Bad American album, as Bruises has no interest in thrashing; it just wants to hurt. If Drunks With Guns were actually Laborers With Tempers, they’d surely sound like this. Not sure if this is just a slight aesthetic detour for Bad American or what, but you can’t go wrong with four tracks of heavy, dirge-like punk such as this.

Bad Noids Everything From Soup To Dessert LP (Katorga Works)
Bad Noids came on the scene with a 7″ limited to like 84 copies or something stupidly inaccessible like that, and I’m glad to say that with this follow-up LP, they’ve grown up without getting any smarter. The recording is a step up from the boombox or four-track they used for the single, still raw but with a thicker mid-range and greater sense of clarity. The songs are better, and I dug the 7″, so this is all quite good! For those unfamiliar, Bad Noids are youngsters from Clevo who certainly seem like the kid-brothers of Nine Shocks Terror and H-100s, although they play a very American form of punk rock (no Japanese hardcore worship here), like a mix of Necros, Bobby Soxx and Sick Pleasure. The singer has a nasally Arab On Radar-guy voice, but instead of talking through his lyrics he squeals like an unmedicated toddler, a pretty perfect fit for the ramshackle, flailing hardcore that the rest of the band has assembled. I was expecting to enjoy this record, but Everything From Soup To Dessert is really a top-notch slice of hardcore-punk – you don’t have to toss fireworks in the pit or obsessively collective Cleveland hardcore obscurities to dig into Bad Noids.

Big Boys Fun, Fun, Fun 12″ (540)
Let me tell you about a Texas punk group called Big Boys! Seriously, how are you supposed to “review” all-time-classic punk records? “Boy, these Dead Kennedys are really onto something with Holiday In Cambodia and I think they will have a prosperous career!” I don’t blame you if Big Boys aren’t in your weekly listening rotation (they sure aren’t in mine), but they are one of the true gems of early Texas punk, really personifying the “do what you want” creativity that defined punk rock to so many people decades ago. They wore mumus, had a horn section, skated before anyone cared about kickflips, and generally just shocked the hell out of the norms while playing with a level of skill usually reserved for kids in Rush and Yes cover bands. This six-song EP covers breakneck hardcore, goofy funk and riotous punk rock, and even if the idea of “funk punk” is unappealing in today’s vigorously unfunky hardcore scene, it’s certainly worth hearing. I keep thinking this is a double 12″ reissue, but that’s because there is a gigantic, beautiful booklet filled with lyrics, photos and ephemera that is practically worth the price of admission on its own, a real inspiring package of what artistic freedom can foster. And if you’re still unconvinced, just spend half an hour or so skimming Big Boys videos on YouTube and see if you don’t decide to skate (rather than die).

Bitter Fictions Bitter Fictions LP (Shaking Box)
If “Bitter Fictions” is a solo project, which it is, I’m thinking it should sound like Pedro the Lion or Bob Nanna, like some emo acoustic guitar-pop that covers your local coffee shop in flyers. I thought wrong! Bitter Fictions isn’t the all-ages indie show in the basement, it’s the loft space art-gallery with musical accompaniment on the top floor. It’s pretty good, too… Bitter Fictions roams from Thurston-y guitar stunt-work to Birchville Cat Motel sunburnt drone to Oren Ambarchi’s electro-acoustic pitter-patter to the slow, haunting expanse of late-period Earth. Even some finger-picking in there, too. Bitter Fictions kinda goes to every place a modern solo “experimental” guitar record can go, but it hops around without seeming jittery or uncomfortable. More like one guy (in this case, Devin Friesen) just working out a series of interesting compositions and letting the chips fall where they may. To quote Borat: “very nice!”

Boddika & Joy Orbison / Kassem Mosse Think & Change Album Sampler 1 12″ (Nonplus)
I got so excited by the prospect of a split 12″ featuring Boddika & Joy Orbison collaborating on one side (as a duo, they’re solid gold) and techno reductionist weirdo Kassem Mosse on the other that I didn’t notice this is actually just some sort of “sampler” for what will be a larger-scale, official release. I hate that stuff… give vinyl it’s proper due, it’s not supposed to be used in the same manner as buttons and stickers! Anyway, my anger at buying just part of what will be a larger release quickly subsided as I put this one on and let these three gents smack me with their beats. Boddika & Joy Orbison turn in a great remix of their own cut “Mercy”, letting the pulse simmer while still aiming for the dance-floor (and hitting the bulls-eye). I dig Kassem Mosse, but he’s never clicked for me like he does here with “Broken Patterns”; the title implies some sort of undanceable groove, but it’s actually quite groovy, sounding like classic rave-tech shot through a helicopter’s spinning blades. For such a mysterious, white-label kind of guy, Mosse seems to be having a blast with this one, and that vibe seamlessly translates to my legs and torso. I’ll admit, this 12″ sample has me salivating for more… it’s impossible to withstand a marketing strategy that sounds this good.

Caged Animal Caged Animal EP 7″ (Warthog Speak)
During the day, Tony Molina walks around getting his heart broken and picnics in the park, but at night, he does a dozen push-ups, zips his black hoodie up until all you can see is the whites of his eyes, and becomes the maniacal frontman of Caged Animal. I hope the entire band is under 5’5″, because everything else about Caged Animal is short – the thrashing lasts mere seconds before the mosh part kicks in, the vocals are brief indecipherable bursts of anger, and I can barely finish typing a sentence of this review before I have to flip the record over again (I only type with my left pinky finger). Caged Animal have a real knack for writing intense mosh build-ups and breakdowns, and that’s essentially what this EP is, peppered with the occasional blast to give us a chance to crawl out of the dogpile. If Painkiller isn’t knocking at their door right now, the world is no longer what it used to be.

Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt The Raw And The Cooked LP (Palilalia)
I got kind of annoyed by those expensive and ultra-limited singles Bill Orcutt was dealing not too long ago, just seemed like the poor supply/demand ratio and high ticket price were meant to antagonize the fans, but this collaboration LP between Orcutt and drum-team captain Chris Corsano was too hard to pass up. And the KFC-based artwork! Even if you didn’t catch this duo live last year, I think we all knew what this one sounded like without ever hearing it – tangles of scalding hot blues-guitar with a free-jazz octopus seated on the drum stool. You can almost imagine these songs if you try hard enough, but even with that being the case, The Raw And The Cooked is a fantastic record and one worth hearing, not just imagining. It’s either tense or cathartic, and when Orcutt starts hollering like a wounded mutt, the thrill of the moment leaps from his body to yours. These guys could probably make this record while preparing breakfast, they’re both just such complete masters of freaking out on their respective instruments, but it still sounds amazing, no matter how easy it may come to them. Thankfully, this record exists, so the rest of us don’t even have to try.

Coyote Clean Up 2 Hot 2 Wait LP (100% Silk)
Coyote Clean Up is no longer just the worst job at the zoo, it’s a smoothed-out house project befitting of the 100% Silk namesake. If there’s anything vaguely “hipster house” about this one, I dare you to find it, as 2 Hot 2 Wait is like taking a night drive through Ibiza in a rented Mercedes, windows permanently down. Or during daylight hours, deep within the confines of the chill-out tent at a Cadenza party. It’s ethereal and precious, but with a comfortable, plush groove that can just as easily pull you out of your seat as it can tuck you under the sheets. There’s one voice throughout most of these tracks, and it’s a soothing coo that is frequently chopped (in the usual modern-day production technique) and occasionally given freedom to wander across the song, like an Anthropologie ad turned into a digital dance track. Same kinda look and feel as Sapphire Slows, but more refined, pop-friendly and glossy… could be some sort of relation? Either way, I’m more than willing to grab a scooper and join in with Coyote Clean Up.

Cuntz Aloha LP (Permanent)
Do we really need another band called some variation of “Cunts”, even if they mix it up with a Z instead of an S? There are at least five bands with this name already, and it’s a stupid one. These guys aren’t off to a good start with me, but their music isn’t bad… pretty standard low-IQ (but probably actually smart and just intentionally pretending to be dumb) noise-rock, like a mix of Degreaser and Running. These dudes are Australian, and the singer does kind of a “loud belligerent talking” vocal style, which puts him somewhere between Nick Cave and the guy from Feedtime. If you are absolutely enamored with this style (and go four out of four with the bands I just mentioned), you’ll probably dig on Cuntz just the same. I don’t fall into that camp though, as the music is good but not great, and with songs like “Meth” and their general “we are degenerate freaks, aren’t we, hmm, aren’t we?” vibe, I can’t say there is much about Cuntz that has me hankering for more. If the point of the band was simply to annoy their parents, however, I congratulate Cuntz on what is surely a mission accomplished.

Dangerous Boys Club Pris LP (Dais)
I think we’ve all read that entertaining interview that Aaron Montaigne recently did with Vice by now, chronicling his adventures from Heroin and Antioch Arrow to the US military and beyond. He’s a unique individual for sure (my one buddy swears Montaigne was the sole creator of the “white belt” trend), and his current musical offering comes in the form of Dangerous Boys Club, what one might call a “cold-wave” group. I suppose I might call them that too, but the music of Pris sounds nothing like the many punks-gone-synth with their fresh-out-the-box gear. I think there’s some sort of homemade electronic device at play here, and it gives the music this subtle-yet-constant layer of treble, like someone is playing a dog whistle and you are convinced you can kind of hear it. Or maybe like if you converted an electro-pop WAV to MP3, then back to WAV, then back to MP3 again, until the cymbals sound more like digital mist than intentional percussion. There’s not much to say about the songs themselves, there isn’t much in the songwriting department that moved me to dance or squeal or tense up, and the vocals are standard-issue, but their actual overall sound is unique enough that I keep listening in hopes that these songs will eventually ingrain themselves in my brain. It didn’t really happen on Pris, but I won’t be shocked if the next DBC record spins me for a loop.

Demdike Stare Testpressing #001 12″ (Modern Love)
Alright, time for another series of limited Demdike Stare 12″s that are released just far enough from each other that obsessive fans (such as myself) are forced to order them separately, lest we miss out entirely, and essentially causing us to pad our orders with other records in order to soften the import-shipping blow. I’d start to feel like I was being taken advantage of if all these records weren’t so damn good! The first cut on this “test pressing” (not sure I follow the aesthetic concept here either, but I am withholding full judgment) is a real treat – a wormy, slimy synth tone wiggles through narrow passageways as a dissected break-core beat tumbles around it, narrowly averting disaster. It’s so simple, but such a great pairing, that shifty synth pulse and a giant pile of confiscated jungle-drums. Flip it over and it’s another example of Demdike Stare’s rhythmic beauty, pulling percussion from places most English-speaking Caucasians have never ventured and building remarkably textured beats from their skin and bones. I have to admit, I may have had some slight Demdike fatigue when they were wrapping up the last couple 12″s in the Elemental series, but Testpressing #001 has me as thrilled as the first time I heard them. Get yours if it’s not already too late!

Deviation Social Tempus / Deathwatch “From End To Beginning” Vol. 2 LP (Dais)
Often when an artist or label releases a “Volume One”, the second volume fails to surface, but Dais has always been a label to live up to their promises. Really glad they are excavating these Deviation Social rarities, because this is great stuff, truly disturbed and outraged synth / musique-concrete / noise experiments from a man named Arshile Injeyan. This volume collects the Tempus Purgatio Part 7 7″ EP along with the Workforce / Deathwatch cassette, and they flow marvelously on 12″ vinyl. This material pushes further from standard song structure, instead flowing long-form with inaudible news samples, tidal synth pulls, echoed vocals, unsettling sound effects and various tones of unknown origin. It’s as if Nurse With Wound’s stream-of-consciousness approach was applied to the earliest dark-wave sonics and punk rock’s fiery anger (hence a song title like “F.O.P. (Fuck Off Prick)”). Deviation Social really nails something special, and even as these tracks casually morph into one another, Injeyan really has me captivated, like one of those grainy videos of terrorists sitting behind makeshift desks and barking out threats in languages I don’t understand. Pick up some Deviation Social today and say “yes” to Dais!

Dichroics Short Dirty Threads LP (no label)
Dichroics follow their self-released debut album with their self-released second album. Who needs a label anyway? In the case of Dichroics, unless they are just complete jerks as people, I’d imagine they had at least one record company sniffing around, as they combine a few easy-going indie-rock styles in their music, Short Dirty Threads being no exception. At times I’m reminded of the mathy yowl of At The Drive-In, the mental meandering of Modest Mouse, the artsy-cool of Talking Heads, and the slacker-y bumble of Pavement covering The Fall. Generally, this sort of cordial, talented indie-rock music isn’t something I want to listen to, and I suppose I don’t really have a desire to hear Dichroics when I’m out gassing up my car or at work or playing frisbee in the park or whatever, but in spinning Short Dirty Threads I am able to appreciate their talent. I guess no band wants to hear “I appreciate your talent”, like it’s a sneaky, politically-correct way of saying “you suck”, but I truly do appreciate that Dichroics are able to combine various influences into their own thing and perform it with gusto. If they were my kids, I’d be proud.

Ego Summit The Room Isn’t Big Enough LP (540)
540 continues to reissue most of your want-list with the Ego Summit LP, a late-’90s gem of Ohio’s finest dirtball indie-rock. There’s a beautifully detailed map inside the record documenting Ego Summit’s intertwined band member histories (linking Vertical Slit, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Great Plains and roughly 25 other acts), and it certainly sounds like a bunch of capable and wildly talented men playing together solely for the sake of it. Everyone shares songwriting duties, which leads to the Neil Young-ish bent of “Beyond The Laws” being tailed by the downer indie-pop of “Illogical”, and the rest of the record unravels in a similarly disparate fashion. It all sounds like the same group though, even if the musical ideas pull at different tablecloths, as the recording is pretty steady and none of these guys seem particularly thrilled by life. I’m no Ohio freak, I mean Pennsylvania is bad enough, but The Room Isn’t Big Enough is an obscure session worth revisiting, even for those of us who don’t know all of Mike Rep’s Quotas by first name.

Elgato Dunkel Jam 12″ (no label)
Elgato is one of the lesser-repped Hessle Audio artists, real easy to miss, but he’s one of my favorites. Alongside Bandshell, Elgato is making music that ostensibly is part of the British post-dubstep scene, but I swear the music is so strange that it could easily fit into some M Squared or Vanity Records compilation from 1981 and no one would be the wiser. “Dunkel Jam” wouldn’t be so easily concealed, though: the constant hits of indiscernible diva-flash are thoroughly modern, even if the rest of the song seems to float in stasis, paralyzed by the constant hi-hat tics and frozen groove. “We Dream Electric” sounds like the name of some stupid major label indie-rock band, but Elgato uses it to guide another subtle house track into the cold night air. The vocal trick employed here is essentially the same as that of “Dunkel Jam”, but I find Elgato’s minimalism and continuity to be starkly alluring rather than annoying and cheap. These tracks have barely enough functioning parts to be called dance music, but they make for a lovely stack of bones.

Emptyset Material 12″ (Subtext)
At this point, I consider my commitment to Emptyset a permanent one. I’m most comfortable when their records are housed in black-and-white jackets that display spooky empty places, like a dusty old cathedral, or in the case of Material, a creepy bath-house and a well-lit bomb shelter. This one is a pretty nice midpoint between the bombastic shrapnel shards of Collapsed and the tentative, fearful murmurings of Medium. Just as it’s always been, Emptyset’s music hinges on how and when they detonate their bass blasts, and for most of this one, the blows come slow and deliberate, the perfect soundtrack for someone slowly being chased by a sentient robot through a sewer (the early part of the chase, when there’s still a slight change of escape). I find Emptyset’s music to be so incredibly satisfying; they just really nail it, and Material is another same-yet-different take on their signature grayscale post-musical industrial electronics. Those who are familiar will not be disappointed, and if you’re not familiar, time to get on board.

Fat History Month Bad History Month LP (Sophomore Lounge / Exploding In Sound)
The curiously-named Fat History Month are back with their sophomore album on, umm, Sophomore Lounge, and if you had any inclination to give their first one more than a customary spin, you’ll dig this one too. The music is still surprisingly delightful, optimistic and loose, very Pavement-y but with a touch of the Modest Mouse blues. Usually when I listen to this sort of band, I’m refreshing my email on my phone by the third song, but Fat History Month manage to keep my attention, if not because the music is mind-blowing, but because I’m curious to know what the singer is going to say. It feels like Fat History Month paid such close attention in school that they were contradicting the teachers over meaningless details and realizing what a sham the world is while their classmates were doing Beavis impressions and making plans to get drunk. I don’t necessarily “agree” with all their lyrics, but Fat History know how to turn a phrase or two, so the lyric booklet/comic that comes with Bad History Month is a smart and useful addition. The record ends with “I was born with a body that works and a mind that works to destroy it. It’s easy being alive, it’s hard to enjoy it”… if you can’t relate to that at least once in a while, please get off my planet.

Good Throb Culture Vulture 7″ (Muscle Horse)
Record of the month right here! Good Throb destroyed my life with their debut 7″, it was just too punk and too good and too nasty for me to do anything but feel wonderfully bad about myself, like I ate the perfect brownie sundae and then immediately had another. And dare I say it, but I think Culture Vulture is even better! “Culture Vulture” slowly wakes up into a plodding, sloppy march through a field of icons worth demolishing. “Headache” is ironically the sweetest sounding tune on this EP, almost like Eddy Current if they weren’t a band of delightful boys but a rotten crew of cynical women, and “Torture Garden” features the lyric “shall I put these golf balls up your behind?”, a question the rest of the world has never had the guts to ask. I’m going to be in the UK next month, and I’m gonna beg to carry Good Throb’s amps around, in hopes that the tiniest bit of their punkness rubs off on me. It’s worth a try!

Kremlin Drunk In The Gulag 12″ (Beach Impediment / Bad Vibrations)
Neos aside, three-piece hardcore-punk is always kinda tough to pull off… there’s just something about having a solo front-person that seems crucial to the hardcore lineup. Like how are you supposed to jump into the crowd and do a backflip off the PA if you’re wearing a guitar? Kremlin are such a trio, and while they are cool, I feel like today’s hardcore standards are so high that you’ve really gotta blow minds to stand out, which Kremlin do not. They’re a mean melange of classic ’81 hardcore (The Fix, maybe Jerry’s Kids), crusty protest-punk (Crucifix, Flux Of Pink Indians), ’90s political hardcore (Disrupt, State Of Fear) and just a hint of Black Flag’s penchant for metallic wanking. Sure sounds like a recipe for success to me, but Kremlin’s vocals quickly fade into the noise, the songs tumble forward without any significant hooks, and while the guitars have a killer sound, the recording is a little too muddy to make any significant impact. Definitely a good record, it’s just that hardcore is now a university where you need a 3.8 GPA to graduate, and these guys are getting Bs and B+s on their finals. Hope they don’t get crushed by student loans a couple years from now.

Alexander Lewis A Luminous Veil LP (Blackest Ever Black)
The name “Alexander Lewis” strikes fear into the heart of no man or woman, but a record like A Luminous Veil certainly aims in that direction. This one is very much of-the-day industrial synth abuse, each track drilling a single idea into the ground. Most of this record is rhythmic, but without any 4/4 pulse, just undulating soundwaves that occur when you tape the keys on your synth down instead of just playing them like a normal person. I’m reminded of a smoother Alberich, Subliminal’s last 7″ EP or Will Over Matter’s Lust For Knowledge were it less charismatic and more po-faced. Really, this sort of record is so deep in my wheelhouse that even though it might not be adding much to the genre, it’s a style of music I enjoy so much that I find myself continually throwing on A Luminous Veil at all hours of the day, eager to let these sawtoothed synths jab back and forth until I’m fully under their spell. You might like things black, but this is the blackest ever, baby.

Lossmaker Lossmaker 12″ (Lo-Bit Landscapes)
Lo-Bit Landscapes is quickly cornering the market on avant-emo-electronics as they welcome Lossmaker to the family. This is electronic music that I’d imagine the 1% would listen to – it’s demure, often beautiful, subtle and melancholy, and pretty much the perfect soundtrack for Downton Abbey – In Space (please BBC, make it happen). I’m reminded of B. Fleischmann, but without the mumbly German vocals, or maybe if Four Tet put out an album commissioned by an herbal sleepy-time tea company, or Boards Of Canada if they were Boards Of Dubai. Kind of Her Space Holiday-ish too, when the synths start weeping electronic tears in that ’90s sadtronica sort of way. I’d say it falls pretty squarely into “not my thing” territory, but the EP never drags. If I had the proper ornamental 18th century cabinet, I’d probably hold onto this one… it’s just too dignified to dwell amongst the plebeians on my Expedit shelves.

Miles Unsecured 12″ (Modern Love)
As if to remind everyone that the Demdike crew holds the industrial-techno game in their grip, Miles has been back in solo action with a new album and this 12″ of material that didn’t make it on there. I actually have yet to check out the album (there’s only so many goth-techno hours in a day), but Unsecured is totally killer. Seems like he went deep into auto factories and oil refineries for the source material on this one, using steam exhaust in place of hi-hats and steel-on-steel hammering for accent percussion, with degraded acid-bass hurrying beneath. It’s way faster than any Demdike material, or even Miles’ first EP, reminding me of Shed at his most aggressive or a filthier Rrose. Not quite dance-floor oriented, as most tracks lack an obvious 4/4 stability, but it’s that unsettling herky-jerkiness that adds to the “Robocop versus Terminator” feel, really hitting the industrial-techno sweet spot. I hate to say you need to spend the money on this expensive Modern Love import too, but…

Milk Music Cruise Your Illusion LP (no label / Perennial)
Just in time for backyard grilling season, here’s Milk Music’s Cruise Your Illusion, suitable for both gas and charcoal. I’ve listened to this album a bunch now, and listened to their debut EP plenty, and I’m still not sure how I feel about this group. On one hand, the guitar sounds cool, they look like Wayne’s World extras in the best possible way, and they seem like genuine Pacific Northwest party freaks that are fun to be around. On the other, the songs kinda just blend into each other, they rhyme “high” with “die” in the first five minutes, and the record feels way too long, like they’re trying to jam but don’t know where else to go. And then there’s the vocalist: I appreciate that he seems to lack any self-consciousness and just goes for it, but he’s also clearly kinda tone-deaf and straining himself way beyond his range. I guess it’s a good record, but I’ve had more fun thinking about this band and wondering why they are such prominent internet-discussion fodder than actually just kicking back and listening to the record. Definitely feels good hearing those guitars in the late afternoon heat though, so while I will probably forget about this record six months from now, at least we’ll have had the summer of 2013.

R. Stevie Moore I Missed July 7″ (Sweaters & Pearls)
Shameful admission: I’ve never heard R. Stevie Moore before. I understand that he is one of underground-pop’s sweetest gems, a veritable Santa Claus of off-beat guitar pop (and not just because he dons a big white beard). This single has one song from 1978 and another from 1993, so it seems like as good a place to start as any, and after giving it a few spins, I can understand why the name of R. Stevie Moore is revered among critics and musicians alike. “I Miss July” reminds me a lot of The Apples In Stereo circa Fun Trick Noisemaker, except this song was recorded a good ten years before the Apples ever were a band, and it shuffles in a way that they never quite did. I’ll keep it! “Traded My Heart For Your Parts” is the flip, and a delightfully drunken walk on the beach, like if The Eagles weren’t an evil right-wing corporation but a non-profit music group overseen by Bruce Vilanch. Pretty amazing to hear two songs of equal quality, presence and vibe and to know that they were recorded fifteen years apart. Those of you who already own a bunch of Moore’s records are probably “no duh”-ing this review all over the place, but just let me enjoy my new discovery, okay?

Negative Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement 7″ (Coffin Cut)
Eight more songs of crushing hardcore care of Australia’s Negative Reinforcement. It’s really heavy – I’m reminded of Strife and Hatebreed and Left For Dead, although it seems like Negative Reinforcement are writing songs more in tune with Mind Eraser or Iron Lung or some other modern-day grindcore champion. Will Killingsworth mixed this EP, and I’m not sure if he is due all the credit, but this is a pretty evil-sounding record in all the right ways. The vocals are a deep bark that displays no sign of Australian accent (when your bark gets deep enough, it doesn’t even matter what language you’re “singing” in), and they fade in a touch of foreboding noise to appropriately match the spooky minimalism of their design. I wish the song “Koro Anxiety” was about the stressful state of mind one enters after dropping $1,500 on a rare hardcore 7″, but instead it’s sadly about a woman “gagged and bound” with a “bloated condom” on the floor. I can only hope this is a song decrying that sort of behavior (the lyrics are vague enough that the intention isn’t totally clear), but the whole “violence against women as transgressive artistic statement for hardcore dudes to use” thing is so bunk that I wish they just avoided it entirely.

Negro Spirituals Black Garden / Ancient Trees 7″ (A Wicked Company)
Man, naming your indie-punk band “Negro Spirituals” is poorly considered at best and shamefully offensive at worst. You really want to tell your niece and cousin at Thanksgiving that you’re in a band called that? If you gave up on this review at the band’s title, I don’t blame you, but for the few who are still willing to give this band a chance, they are pretty decent, run-of-the-mill queasy post-punk, like Factums with a touch of Joy Division’s dour melodies, or Blank Dogs with a meatier rhythm section (and those same underwater vocals). If I pretend this band is actually called The Pineapple Eaters or Backyard Friends or any of the million other unused band names that are not as needlessly offensive (seriously, why can’t bands name themselves these days?), it’s a pretty decent single of modern-day smeary goth-punk (if you melted early records by Section 25 and 23 Skidoo together it might come across like this), but I keep coming back to the name and how I want nothing to do with this band.

Optional Body Surviving Avalanches / Inelastic 7″ (25 Diamonds)
Angel Hair and The VSS will never not be cool. I don’t care how many dorks co-opt the worst aspects of screamo or wear black outfits with Spock hair, both bands are impeachable, and both feature the vocals of one Sonny Kay, who sings in Optional Body. Or maybe he sang, because this was recorded in 2008, and he seems like a delightfully volatile person. This band certainly fits in with his oeuvre – frantic guitars with staccato drumming, discordant melodies and his not-quite-pitch-perfect howl over top. Optional Body sound like a post-Interpol version of The VSS or At The Drive-In, in that there is an awareness that dark, gothy post-hardcore can successfully go radio-pop if pushed hard enough. This certainly sounds like a band of seasoned players at work, smartly produced and tightly performed, and if they ever manage to write a truly catchy tune (presuming they still exist, which they probably don’t), who knows how many souls they might steal.

Paint It Black Invisible 7″ (No Idea)
Paint It Black are my favorite MTV Video Music Award-winning punk band (you know, from being on the soundtrack to Tony Hawk’s Underground… take that Blink 182!). They are more of an institution than a band at this point, converging when schedules allow and dishing out the same impassioned, melodic hardcore we’ve come to expect from Dan Yemin for the past ten (twenty?) years. This single might look all Youth Attack-y with it’s scary black-and-white cover, but it’s still true to the ‘core that made Kid Dynamite hoodies a certainty at any punk or hardcore show between the years of 1998 and 2002. It’s a speedy and nimble six-song EP, with plenty of melodic backing vocals and sing-along choruses, all with Yemin’s sharp and pointed musings on life and punk (and in the case of “Little Fists”, what must be a sincere love-song directed to his daughter). There aren’t many punks that can get away with a love song to their children, but if anyone can make it seem stupid not to scream words of passionate advice for their kids, it’s Yemin. Chances are most self-identifying punks over the age of 24 will quietly ignore this one, as Paint It Black seem to belong to the youth, but I have to wonder if it’s not just out of a fear of sincerity and the lack of sarcastic distance, forcing the listener to stop hiding in an ironically-ignorant cave. Or maybe they just don’t like the music, who knows.

Psychic Blood Drrrty / Bed Head 7″ (Nerve Hold)
The cover features a blurry live image of the guitarist rocking out in cut-off jean shorts. That’s a punk rock sin! Unless you’re NOFX, or Henry Rollins in his tiny soccer shorts, there’s no excuse for any band to wear shorts on stage. I guess this record is pretty okay, though – too fast for grunge, too groovy for punk, and certainly not hardcore, I could see this fitting in alongside Roomrunner or Milk Music or the rest of the ’90s alt-punk resurgence out there, although Psychic Blood are certainly messier, noisier and less focused than the other groups I mentioned. Might be that little taste of Mudhoney that’s lurking in “Bed Head” that has me feeling this way. Now if these guys could just put on a pair of pants, they might be going places.

Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement Black Magic Cannot Cross Water LP (Blackest Ever Black)
No specific person is taking credit for the Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement project, but it’s gotta be Dom Fernow, right? I mean it got started on Hospital Productions (and this album is actually the vinyl reissue of a Hospital cassette), and how many other people out there are nutty enough to come up with “Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement”? The project is premised on some Christian missionaries who went to the jungle in hopes of converting the locals and dying horrible jungle deaths instead, which sounds like a pretty good theme to me… it’s like if Herzog made a horror movie. Very cinematic indeed, and Black Magic Cannot Cross Water plays out like a soundtrack, slowly creeping through unsettling bass tones, sparse rhythms, plenty of rain and just a smidgen of jungle sound-effects. I can just picture some white guys in robes and pope hats trudging through vines and mud, slowly getting eaten by crocodiles and fatally stung by insects as monkeys and colorful birds cackle from up above. I probably don’t need more than one Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement record, but actually maybe I do, as this one just really nails the vibe without ever overdoing it, and it’s a concept most other evil post-industrial, dark-ambient folks would’ve never dreamed up. The perfect record for those who want to see Bear Grylls fall down a ravine or get swallowed by a whale but would never publicly admit it.

Savages Silence Yourself LP (Matador)
If you haven’t heard about Savages yet, I suggest you reset your modem – if there’s one thing this group has full command of, it’s the indie music press. I’m not gonna hold that against them though (okay, maybe a little bit), because I dug their first single, and any band that can make post-punk disco-beats and Joy Division revision come across as interesting in 2013 has my support. I put on Silence Yourself for the first time, heard the cool and weird little intro piece, and then quickly found myself surprised at how polished, shiny and professional this record is. I guess I was hoping for more of that “Siouxsie Sioux meets Ian Curtis at a Rapture show in 2001″ vibe, but this record is radio-ready all the way through. Just listen to a song like “Strife” – if the singer was an elderly male narcissist instead of a youthful female narcissist, this would be U2′s new single. A few other tracks give me some pretty strong Killers vibes, and perhaps its the distinctive, suffocating-Sinead vocals of Jehnny Beth that make Savages sound like Savages, but if this group had some boring normal guy singing, they’d sound like anything else on your favorite cubicle-rock streaming internet radio station. I guess, good for them? I’d rather constantly read their ramblings and look at their posed photo sessions than that of Kings Of Leon or The Heavy or something. Maybe they’ll do something cool with the fifty grand they get for the Nissan Altima commercial that ends up licensing them.

Sic Bacchus Sic Bacchus 7″ (God Of Whine)
It kind of amazes me that kids ostensibly born in the ’90s are as taken with hoarsely-screamed melodic emo-core as those born a decade earlier. For me, that music is indelibly a ’90s art form, and for kids to be earnestly playing it now just seems weird. Not that that’s a bad thing… I mean it’s better than all the youth just being into Forever The Sickest Kids and Brokencyde, right? Sic Bacchus are definitely from the Hot Water Music school of rock, with multiple dudes yelling until they sweat through the pits of their thrift-store t-shirts. The lyrics of “Sweater Casual” are written in the form of a letter, they’re not afraid to have “whoa-oh” vocal parts, and one guitar gets to noodle around the riff while the other holds it down. If you’re a fan of the style, Sic Bacchus definitely do no wrong, although if you’re looking to be amazed or find the new band that could be your life, this debut 7″ single probably won’t be it. I’m sure that at the very least, their friends are stoked, and isn’t that probably how all the great emo bands started out anyway?

Sightings Terribly Well LP (Not Not Fun)
I don’t know about you, but after the recent Sightings interview, I sure wanted to listen to them. They’ve got such a deep, innovative discography, that it’s great to just pull out Arrived In Gold or City Of Straw and get locked into some weird musical moment you had forgotten about or never caught in the first place. It’s also great when they release new albums, like Terribly Well here. Not that I had any doubts, but it’s another killer addition to the Sightings family – they’re still forcing their instruments to behave badly, and taking routes that most bands don’t even know exist, let alone consider. The bass will trick me into thinking it’s drums, Mark Morgan will howl over torrents of scorched guitar, and I will comfortably soak it all in. Of note with Terribly Well is the occasional addition of Pat Murano on synth, but he fits in so seamlessly that I can hardly pull him out, particularly as Sightings frequently take delight in forcing their respective rock instruments to sound like synths. Some of these tracks are downright pummeling, “Mute’s Retreat” being a particularly exuberant cascade of industrial mechanics, and others just kind of tickle you in the dark. Nicely done!

Spent Flesh Spent Flesh 10″ (P. Trash / FDH / Sit & Spin)
The back cover of this 10″ reveals one band member in a Regulations shirt, another in a Jay Reatard shirt (and the third in a zipped-up hoodie, which isn’t quite as aesthetically revealing), so it’s not out of line to expect some sort of historically-reenacted punk rock with a dash of power-pop and maybe a nod to the first fifty Killed By Death volumes. Spent Flesh might sound like that, but played with such a frantic intensity that were they Japanese and were this 2001, 625 Productions would’ve signed them to a five seven-inch, two LP deal. Maybe if snotty, drunken ’90s punk like Filth and Assfactor 4 and I-Spy were played by Total Fury and Razor’s Edge, it’d be reminiscent of Spent Flesh. Although to be fair, Spent Flesh still maintain plenty of mess in their performance, even with the slightly unfulfilling lineup of vocalist / drummer / guitarist. (Is it really that hard to find a bassist? You don’t even have to be a musician to play it!) Regardless, Spent Flesh get it done nicely, screaming like maniacs and thrashing like there’s no school tomorrow. 10″s are a pretty hate-worthy format, but you’d have to be a real bigoted yuppie to try and diss this one.

Teenage Moods Grow LP (25 Diamonds)
I’ll never understand when bands that don’t consist of teenagers insist on referencing that age period. Have you hung out with any teenagers lately? They’re annoying babies, and if you can recall the time when you were a teenager, it was probably filled with uncertainty, acne and fear. I will hope for the best and just presume that Teenage Moods came up like the kids on Dawson’s Creek, highly educated and emotionally complex, because the music of Grow is pretty alright. They remind me of mid-’90s Bay Area punk with the addition of a healthy power-pop obsession, like Groovie Ghoulies or The Hi-Fives mixed with Milk & Cookies. Mostly all of the record is upbeat, fun, and sweetly innocent, like somehow none of Teenage Moods suffer from depression or unemployment or unsatisfying personal relationships. Definitely a fun record to have around, the sort of thing you want to play after a successful first-date or consuming a particularly delicious smoothie. Maybe being a teen isn’t so bad after all?

Uh Bones Only You 7″ (Randy)
Randy Records keeps the classic garage-rock flowing with four Uh Bones tracks on one 7″. “Only You” is pretty cool, reminding me of a straighter Los Cincos. Really, the whole EP is pretty tasteful, well-oiled garage rock, staying pretty far from punk or anything that may have occurred post-1974. The singer’s voice is well-coated in the usual modern-day reverb, but I can tell that he’s capable of singing this sort of music, which is somewhat refreshing when it comes to these semi-anonymous garage-rock singles I end up hearing. I might’ve gone for a brighter, bigger recording if I were Uh Bones, since it seems like they’ve got good-enough chops that they don’t need to hide behind a wall of quiet fuzz, but maybe this was the best they could afford, so I’m not holding it against them. Maybe it’s just that so much of Uh Bones’ competition is so mediocre, but I feel like Uh Bones did me right with this little single.

Iron Lung

YGR — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:11:54 +0000

If you’re into hardcore at all, Iron Lung require the same detailed introduction
as Infest or Youth Of Today – either you know what they’re all about at
this point or there’s simply no hope for you. I respect that not all readers
of this site are hardcore fanatics though, so let me break it down like this:
if there is a hardcore band to define the ’00s (in the best way possible),
Iron Lung are a strong candidate. They’ve done their share of split 7″s with
small-time grindcore groups, they’ve played Chaos In Tejas more times than
most punks have attended (including a breakfast show!), and they’ve put out
some crushing, meticulously-detailed albums that stand the test of time in
an era of good-yet-disposable hardcore. It will be a sad day that Iron Lung
calls it quits, but I’m convinced it will take the death of one of their members
for that ever to be a reality (and who really knows what future technology
holds – maybe Jon Kortland could get Kranged after his body fails him?).

So you just wrapped up a mammoth tour in support of your new album, White Glove Test. How’d it go? Is
it as brutal on your mental and physical well-being as I’d imagine a two-month tour would be?
Jensen (drums/vocals): Now that we’ve been home a couple days I can definitely feel the mileage.
There is a thing that happens to the body on tour that is somewhat remarkable in that you
really only feel a physical change in the first and last week of any tour. The middle, no
matter how long it may be is mechanical and consistent; dependable. I suppose the same could
be said for the the mental side of all that too. Jon and I have been doing this for long
enough to be able to anticipate any odd behaviors and adjust for them accordingly. Also we
like pretty much the same stuff so there is hardly ever any trouble. I’ve seen a lot bands
completely implode just because one guy wants this amazing canned hummus across town or
someone else hates record shopping when there is free time for it. People have their wants
but mistake them for needs far too often. The group mentality needs to have a little elasticity
to it. As for the trip itself, it was a weird great one. Tulsa, OK was cantankerous, Jackson,
MS was not. Portland, ME punks do it in the ice, Newark, DE’s do it in the dirt. We tried to
hit all the states we’ve never played before. Unfortunately because of bad weather we had to
cancel the Wyoming show which only leaves Alaska and Wyoming left for us to play in the US.
Jon (guitar/vocals): I’d almost say it is more brutal on my mental state when a tour is over. When
the constant movement and rhythm of tour ends, it can be difficult to adjust to the stagnation
of everyday life. A tour sets up a routine, but then there are always these unpredictable
variables. “Will the gear work tonight? Will the crowd break our gear tonight? Will this be the
worst night or the best night of my life?” All that being said, I was really happy that we
were able to do a full US tour by getting in a van and doing it the old fashioned way.

In your experience, is there anything that pretty much every American town has in common when it
comes to shows? Like, is there always one guy in a Void shirt, or Motorhead patch? Does the pit
always rotate counter-clockwise?
Jon: Now, thanks to the internet, there are several people wearing a Void shirt and/or a Motorhead
patch in every American town. As far as the pit goes, I didn’t see much actual rotation. Mostly
just back and forth or lunging forward or no movement at all. On a more positive note, I will
say that every town we went to had someone who was willing and motivated enough to make a show
happen and we all know that is a thankless labor of love.

For as much as I know you guys embrace technology (Bandcamps and Instagrams and all that), it
seems like your tour was booked the old fashioned way, just getting in touch with punks in
small towns and mapping it all out. Do you feel like you’re one of the few hardcore bands still
touring the way you just did?
Jon: I wouldn’t necessarily say we fully embrace technology. On one hand, we have a Bandcamp, and
we are both on Instagram, but on the other hand, we don’t have a Facebook or whatever the
new social network thing is. I guess you could say we are selective about the ways we communicate
in this modern world. The way this tour was booked was actually not that much different from
the way we booked tours when we were just starting out. Some of the same people even booked
our shows or are still involved. We also had to track down contacts for places we had never
been, much the same way we did years ago.
It seems like over the last few years most bands stopped touring North America the way we just
did. The economy of doing a lengthy tour just does not make sense, which is a real shame. The
coastal tour trend has left so many people out, and so many of these forgotten places deserve
more attention. This tour was a bit of an experiment to see if it can still be done, and it can,
but it’s not easy.

After all your years of touring… do you feel like the “old guy” band at this point? Like besides Dropdead,
who don’t really seem to do a lot of recording and new records, Iron Lung seems to me like the
last group to come out of the ’90s power-violence / hardcore-grind scene that is still relevant
and putting out killer records. Was there a point where you were like “oh crap, most of the crowd
was being born when I was at shows moshing” or anything like that? Or do you feel as youthful as
ever and I am totally wrong.
Jensen: I would say that we are on the older end of the age spectrum at most shows, but I prefer not
to think about our mortality in that way. On this tour there were several people that came up to
us saying they had been waiting “forever” to see us, citing that they were 12 when they first heard Sexless
or something. In that way, to these kids, we are a band that has just always been around. In my mind
it has only been a few months since the last tour. The last Spazz show (our second show ever) was
just a couple years back. We do talk about our age a little more these days but only as a side note.
Funny how that happens.
I have always looked to older folks in the scene for inspiration to keep going, and definitely look
to the younger people for the energy needed to carry out whatever ridiculous plans we may hatch. We
are in the perfect middle area for achieving anything we want to do. I also feel that people,
regardless of what interest area, should continue doing the things they love until they are physically
unable to do them anymore. You wanna lipslide the ten-stair handrail? If your knees will sustain you,
rip it! You wanna climb a mountain? You don’t even need legs for that. What are you waiting for?
Jon: Generally, I am the oldest person at any given punk show. This happens a bit less in the Bay Area where
there are a good amount of older punks still actively going to shows, making music, etc. We have been
consistently playing in bands, touring, putting out records, so maybe we sometimes forget about the
fact that we are physically growing older. At this point, I have been doing these things for way more
of my life than not. I will continue to make music as long as I am physically able. I think we both
agree that there would be no need to continue playing in Iron Lung if we were to run out of ideas. I’m
sure there are some that would disagree, but after all these years, I feel like we still have way
more life left as a band.

Regarding that “perfect middle area”…. it seems like Iron Lung can always sell new records, or get
at least 50-100 punks to show up in any town you play. You’re undoubtedly a successful
hardcore band, so do you ever think about getting “bigger”? As a hardcore band that stays DIY,
is it even possible in 2013 to become more popular and bigger than where you’re currently at,
without sacrificing the integrity somehow?
Jon: I think a lot of that has to do with longevity and consistency. I don’t really have any interest in
getting “bigger.” I am concerned with making the kind of music I would want to hear and to play
with bands I want to see. So, I guess that alone would stop any band from becoming a part of
“mainstream culture.” I’m sure there are people who think that putting out a demo or playing a
show out of town is somehow unpunk or some form of selling out. We make music and put out records
for other people to hear and hopefully enjoy. If someone does, great. If someone doesn’t, we don’t
really care. We will continue to do things our way whether anyone else likes it our not.

Going back a bit… how did Iron Lung get started? I know you were both playing in other bands… was the
intention to be a duo from the start, or did it just kind of wind up that way? And how’d you
manage to play Spazz’s last show? That’s like going straight from high school to the major leagues.
Jon: I had been playing in a band called Gob for many years, and around the time that folded, Jensen and I
started playing together. We worked on a project called Kralizec which was basically proto-Iron
Lung with a vocalist. All of the songs were based on Frank Herbert’s Dune series and the 7″
included long sampled segments from the film. We wanted to continue making music, but without
the limitations of such a rigid theme. Iron Lung has always been the two of us, but there have
been a few guest vocalists along the way. One of them was Mike Cheese from Gehenna who played
the last Spazz show with us.
I toured the US with Spazz in 1997 and we had been friends for years before that. Chris had
heard a recording we did and I guess he liked it enough to ask us to play. There was talk of us
doing an LP on Slap A Ham before he stopped doing the label and Max put out three of our records
on 625. It was pretty crazy playing that show, especially with Cheese in the mix. That was our
second show and it was in front of around 700 Spazz fans packed into Gilman with no ins or outs.
It was more like taking the SATs without any pants.

Are you just as psyched on hardcore in 2013 as you were in 1997? If so, what’s your secret?
Jon: Good question. It’s really hard to gauge the enthusiasm I had 16 years ago against how I feel now.
I will say that I definitely love music, whether it be hardcore, noise, chamber music,
whatever, just as much, if not more, than I did back then.
I hear a lot of people, young and old, informed and misinformed, talking about how there are no
new hardcore bands that are any good. Well, the same could be said for 1997 or 1987 for that
matter. I feel like I have consistently found new bands that interest or even inspire me over
the years, so I guess that would be my secret.
Jensen: I am definitely as stoked on hardcore now as I was back then. There is a different breed now but
it still excites me. Luckily there are so many other musical styles to delve into when hardcore
hits a stale point. I have just discovered trap-rap and it is ruling my speakers for now. There
is just as much energy and culture to that as punk, but it offers a completely different and
refreshing balance to my palette. I see people burn out of punk-life all the time and I really
put that down to them just not being creative or motivated enough to explore new things.

I never understood that, people who get super into hardcore, but carve themselves into such a specific niche
of the records and bands they enjoy that they eventually buy them all up, then just stop caring
or following hardcore. Do you think that this is kind of a side effect of people who get really
into the “historical re-enactment” style of hardcore, if you know what I mean?
Jensen: Absolutely. The civil war already happened. Let it go. People get stuck on this trip that no new
musical idea is any good. Tried and tested is so safe… and boring. Hardcore is not about playing it safe
anyway. Every other time we play, some joker yells “Crossed Out cover!”, which is just as clever
as “Freebird” these days. My reply has become almost automatic to this stating that “they broke up
and we are here now… and write better songs.” I love the response that gets from people. It’s
an equal mix of enthusiasm and skepticism. And that is exactly what I want from a crowd. Maybe if
we play a horse race in San Diego, Dallas and I can have a real conversation about song structure
and effect. Ha!
Jon: Also, it seems like a side effect of people who got into hardcore for all the wrong reasons. It’s no
longer limited to people who feel alienated. Now there is all this acceptance with being punk, and
all the information is at everyone’s fingertips.

You mention noise, which I know has always played a role in your label (Satan’s Pimp), other projects, and Iron
Lung too, most prominently with the extra noise LP to be played alongside White Glove Test. Do you view noise
as sort of an extension of hardcore, as far as intensity and ugliness is concerned, or is it
something completely separate?
Jon: For me noise was and is the natural progression from hardcore. It must be the addictive properties of
distortion. I am always intrigued by the endless possibilities of sound. There is nothing more
perfect than how a certain sound can elicit an emotional response.

You’re definitely known for your crowd banter / heckling responses. Was this something you slowly developed
over the years, or were you always down to break the invisible wall between band and audience
and get right into it? Why do you think more hardcore/punk bands don’t banter/joke with the crowd between songs?
Jon: The banter has always been there. I used to say more, but now I just leave it to Jensen.

To the rest of the world, the Pacific Northwest usually isn’t looked upon as a hub for hardcore punk. Are we
just missing out on some great bands, or has it really just been mostly metal-core and straight-
edge hardcore for the past couple decades?
Jon: Within the last few years the northwest has spawned some really excellent bands. Seattle has had
a pretty dismal legacy to live down, but as far as bands and shows recently, I would put it up
against any town in North America and it would probably win.
Jensen: It is sort of a buzz how many great bands there are in the Northwest right now. I think Seattle
has always had interesting bands, but the people in those bands have never been very outgoing or
even interested in letting the rest of the world know about their existence. There are flashes
of coverage. Then there was grunge and all that it contained. I think once that happened, the
people that were not in the big bands excused themselves from the light even further. A truly
underground scene in many respects. I can definitely get with that mindset sometimes. With that
being said, I refuse to ignore the talent here and take strides to make sure other people can’t
ignore it either.

Your graphic design is pretty distinct, from the hand-drawn art and imagery to the fonts that repeatedly
appear on your records. I’ve definitely seen some other bands doing an eerily similar thing…
have you noticed other punk bands kind of copping your artistic style? Is it annoying when that happens?
Jon: Thanks. That is a very important element of the band in my opinion. I’ve seen some blatant rip-offs
of what we do. Some would say this is just the nature of punk. Some would say imitation is the
highest form of flattery. I feel like we are trying to create an identity for what we do and by
no means is what we do without influence. I am informed by what I see in the world and what other
people do. I’d like to think that these influencing ideas go through our filter before the rest
of the world gets to see them though.
Jensen: The art has always been there. I used to draw more, but now I just leave it up Jon.

Reviews – May 2013

YGR — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:17:16 +0000

After Hours Sleepwalker 12″ (Not Not Fun)
With records like this After Hours 12″, I can no longer reasonably determine the fundamental differences between Not Not Fun and 100% Silk. Maybe this is just a hair too slow to be considered “dance” music? I guess it really doesn’t matter either way, because no matter who released Sleepwalker, I’m appreciating its subtle, sensual charms. The name is incredibly apropos – Sleepwalker is filled with early ’90s made-for-TV-movie soundtrack moves. I’m reminded of the programming that earned Cinemax the “Skinemax” nickname, or any of the hundreds of movies with plots that involve a hardened detective befriending a prostitute in order to solve the murder. Very slow, head-bobbable beats, but that’s really only if you’re absolutely dying to move around to some music – generally, After Hours keeps you chill and sedentary, deep within the cushions of your couch. For as nostalgic as the music is, there’s still a sense of modern-day motion to it, and the random images these tracks conjure are fun and easy to get lost within (and if you’re lacking in imagination, a track title like “4 A.M. On The Local 83″ helps get you started). While the rest of the world sleeps, After Hours makes sure all those nympho-insomniacs are getting their fill.

Art Of Burning Water This Disgrace LP (SuperFi / Bed Of Nails / Riot Season)
One guitar chimes on a discordant note, an audio sample of some depressed man is played over-top, and then the chugga-chug explodes all over your room like a shaken Pepsi. Art Of Burning Water are the walking definition of metal-core, proudly wearing their Converge / Cave In / Keelhaul / Jesuit / Dillinger Escape Plan influences like pins on their hoodies. It could almost be an expert parody of the genre if Art Of Burning Water didn’t seem so damn serious about their metallic riffing, endless breakdowns and tense build-ups. They definitely serve the genre well; the vocalist has a nice frothy bark to go along with the eighteen guitar tracks, the guitarists are more than capable at creating the right sounds, and the drummer is heavy without being flashy. My only question is: who really cares? Art Of Burning Water are so relentless with their riffing that I quickly become numb to what I’m hearing – the songs churn continuously, to the point where it just fades into a mushy, strung-out pile of non-descript heaviness. Maybe I’ve just already reached my personal quota for this sort of thing, because Art Of Burning Water are good at what they do, it’s just that This Disgrace is so unrelenting and same-y that it becomes easy to tune out.

The Blind Shake Garbage On Glue / Go Go 78 7″ (Sweet Rot)
I haven’t had a good experience with many “shake”-related garage bands out there today, but I trust Sweet Rot to treat me right. This band features the brothers Mike and Jim Blaha (good last name) and their bud Dave Roper, and they play a taught, Wire-y form of minimal punk rock that feels pretty good. “Garbage On Glue” is little more than two notes, but they picked a good pair, with a nervous tension running through the chords and crisp, snappy drumming. “Go Go 78″ is a song title I’d generally try to avoid, a little too “hot rods and Betty Page” for my taste, but musically it’s pretty much the same deal as the a-side, super simple and speedy, like Hot Snakes raging up an A Frames tune, or Jon Spencer sitting in with Lamps. Proof positive that as much as people can try to kill garage-punk by endlessly sucking at it, there will always be some folks dishing out the sweet stuff.

Case Studies Villain / Dull Knife 7″ (Sweet Rot)
Some surprisingly “sensitive soul” stuff here from the Sweet Rot label, who usually take pleasure in torturing garage-rock secrets out of guitars. Case Studies is Jesse Lortz, and he’s gotta be some sort of garage-rock guy, right? A-ha! Apparently he was the “Duke” (in The Duchess & The Duke), and while I avoided that group, this Case Studies single is a pretty nice stroll through an Allegra-commercial meadow. The lyrics are printed on the back cover in neat little stanzas… know what I mean? “Dull Knife” sounds like a direct continuation of the a-side, like The Band or The Yardbirds or Crosby, Stills and Nash or any of those bands my parents liked that I am forced to pretend to know about because many of my friends have grown out of punk and into craft beer and non-ironically following sports. Now please pardon me while I reach for my Dawn of Humans 7″ and figure out what sugary cereal to eat for dinner.

Cold Cave Oceans With No End 7″ (Deathwish)
Ah, just another band doing the Dais to Matador to Deathwish label route. Say what you want about Cold Cave, but Wes Eisold has done his own thing with this project since the very start, and it’s that sense of freedom from the usual “indie band trying to ‘make it’” nonsense that has always attracted me to Cold Cave (well, that and their knack for writing music I enjoy). This new single is just Wes at home in Hollywood, resting up after that tour with the AFI and Samhain guys, and it goes in a different-yet-understandable direction. Guitars take center stage here, ringing out with out-the-box distortion and a serious Depeche Mode sort of “black leather and sunglasses in the desert” feel. Not too far from The Jesus & Mary Chain either, although the electronic drums ensure that both tracks are ready for dance-club performance. I suppose I prefer Cold Cave when they are at their most synthy, but this single is another good one for sure, two more tracks from Wes Eisold’s seemingly endless wellspring of ’80s nostalgic melancholy.

Counter Intuits Counter Intuits LP (Pyramid Scheme)
Heard rumblings that this Counter Intuits LP, the product of Ron House and Times New Viking’s Jared Phillips, was an “album of the year” contender for a certain fella named Roland, and if that’s not the sort of approval-stamp that will get my PayPal finger itching, I don’t know what is. I can’t keep up with all the various Columbus side-projects and side-projects of side-projects, these folks just do nothing but make music all day everyday, but this one cuts through the noise loud and clear, a spirited and unhinged trip into one man’s psyche with a DIY art-punk soundtrack. Songs like “Anarchy On Yr Face”, “No Computer Blues” and “Non-Essential Personnel” really hit home with me, particularly with Phillips’ tin-can punk rock forcing me to show my ID upon entrance. There’s an image of House on the cover, screaming into a pencil-thin microphone as he stands at a desk stocked with paper and glue-sticks, which is exactly how I want Counter Intuits to be. No indie riffs, no hummable melodies, just a bunch of messy, nervous clutter that has me grinning so hard that you can actually see the one cavity I got as a kid. It’s back there pretty far.

Dead Ghosts I Sleep Alone / Spot A Trend 7″ (Randy)
I appreciate the redundancy of this group’s name, and went into this single pretty open-minded, looking for a good time. I suppose they don’t really let me down, but there’s nothing here that will have me searching for MP3s and telling my friends about Dead Ghosts – this is super-simple, by-the-numbers retro-garage twang, the sort of thing that Black Lips cast out in their ever-widening wake. There’s a tasteful organ solo on the slow-dance of “I Sleep Alone”, and a stompy, swampy beat to “Spot A Trend”, and it’s all well and good, just nothing I will ever intentionally listen to again. The back cover notes that these songs were recorded in 2008 and 2009, and I’m pretty damn sure this record was released recently, so I’m kinda just wondering why? If they haven’t written anything better than this in the past four or five years, maybe Dead Ghosts should call it a day.

Founding Fathers Rapid Transit LP (Snax)
Founding Fathers should probably be a Philadelphia band, what with their historical band name, or at the very least be a Columbus band, what with their driving, weathered indie-rock. Geographically, I’m wrong, but close – Founding Fathers are a Cleveland band, who somehow avoid being inebriated rock n’ roll miscreants (or at least do a good job covering it up with their music). I like this record – it doesn’t seem in place with any of the lo-fi trends, nor does it ever strive to be anything weird or crazy. Founding Fathers got themselves a nice, suitable recording, put together a bunch of catchy-at-best, pleasant-at-worst riffs, figured out a way to tunefully sing over them and let that be that. I suppose they’re kind of in that whole Dinosaur Jr. / mid-’90s Matador bucket, but they don’t seem to be striving for any sort of ’90s nostalgia; more like they just want to rock. Maybe I’m just thinking too hard, but Founding Fathers seem like one of the least conniving bands I’ve heard in a while, like there is no secret and unsavory scheme to their band. Even if I’m completely wrong, I’m having a fine time being fooled by Rapid Transit.

The Fucking Party The Fucking Party LP (no label)
This LP by The Fucking Party arrived at my doorstep with a note from a band member, going off about how drunk and drugged-out he is. Whatever purpose that was supposed to serve, I’d imagine it did the opposite, because who would be impressed by that? Did GG Allin have to go around telling people how crazy he is? They already knew, and if you’re really that drunk and drugged-out, it’s gonna come through the music; don’t worry. The Fucking Party, for example, make it clear they weren’t of sound mind and body when putting this album together – there are two songs with “Craig” in the title, they screened the front and back cover images on the wrong side of the sleeve, and they slapped some other sticker across the center sticker. Musically, they go a very Jesus Lizard / noise-rock (that isn’t actually too noisy) route, maybe with a touch of Shellac in the riffing and a hint of grunge when they break it all down. They might want to come across like The New Flesh, but their songs are mostly pretty coherent and deceptively intricate, the sort of thing that would take my gang of friends at least a couple weeks to get down. Maybe if the vocalist stood out, I’d be poking these guys on Facebook or something, but ultimately The Fucking Party are a good band that doesn’t offer much personality beyond your average heavy, herky-jerky underground-rock group. Which I suppose is exactly what they are.

Kerridge Waiting For Love 12″ (Downwards)
Downwards is easily one of the coolest, punkest techno labels of all time, so when I get the rare chance to scoop a new release that isn’t already instantly sold out, I make it happen. Never heard of (Samuel) Kerridge before this 12″, but it’s a name I haven’t stopping thinking about since I first threw on Waiting For Love. “Waiting For Love” comes in four numbered parts here, and with mean and imposing electronic fudge like this, I’d imagine Kerridge’s roses will have withered away long before love walks through his door. It’s certainly another entry in the overcrowded “techno gone noise / noise gone techno” field, but Kerridge proudly stands out from the rest due to the weighty production and technical superiority. The whole thing is incredibly thick, with very little space that isn’t flooded by sub-atomic bass. I’m reminded of Regis and Rrose, but Kerridge barely glances at the dance floor with Waiting For Love; sufficient beats are provided, and the music moves forward, it’s just that it’s such a flush of heaviness that you’re better off melting into a smelly leather couch in the basement of a club than soul-strutting under a spinning disco ball. The great utilitarian packaging only adds to the “futureworld in the grips of a fascist alien regime” vibe, but really there’s no aspect about this record that I don’t find highly appealing.

Leech Tusks 12″ (100% Silk)
I’ve never known an uncool Leech, so this new 100% Silk 12″ from a person I’d never heard of before (which is most of them) was on my good side from the get-go. I’d like to think I let my ears do most of the judging, though, and this four-track EP is pretty palatable in its own right. Leech does a pretty straight-forward, Trax-style acid-house thing, but with the ebb and flow of Tri Angle’s average tempo. Not entirely a world away from Ital either, but far more restrained and buttoned-up… Leech probably just slightly bobs his head as it hangs over his gear, and if he’s wearing sunglasses, no one is going to tell him to take them off. He (is it a “he”?) is more than a “let the pre-sets roll for the duration of the track” artist too, deftly mixing different patterns and rhythms into one song without it feeling rushed or overblown. There’s a nice mix of samples too, from disembodied vocals to wild sax, all of which fits nicely into nostalgia for places like The Loft and The Garage for people who weren’t there (yours truly). Last night this DJ probably didn’t save your life, but if you’re filling your Juno or Boomkat cart in a wild post-paycheck spree, I can safely say you won’t be feeling any remorse over the Leech 12″ that arrives a week or two later.

Love Chants Love Chants EP 12″ (Quemada)
I always enjoy getting these Quemada releases, as it’s a label with a distinctly fragile aesthetic. All of their records just sound so wounded and frail, it’s crazy – it’s like Quemada just hangs around the music ward of the terminally ill with blank record contracts in hand. Love Chants certainly fits their MO, and is even quieter, weaker and more patient than Mole House, even. Picture a one-handed Loren Mazzacane Connors by candlelight, his drunk cousin who just came back from a funeral on tear-stained vocals, and a drummer who’s into all that deep-listening / improvisation stuff (and probably has no business being a part of Love Chants). Quite a rag-tag trio, and it puts me in that strange place where I am both actively liking and disliking their music as I listen. Very late-night, cigarette-burned-to-the-filter music, kinda like if most of The Garbage And The Flowers was inside their one-room shack while one of them soothed the rest to sleep, or if you fell asleep with a mix of Jandek and The Velvet Underground playing at a low volume on your iPod. Not sure I can fully recommend this one, but check back with me in a few months when I’m laying in an un-air conditioned room with seasonal allergies and mild insomnia – there could be no better company for my misery than Love Chants.

Nostalgist Monochromatic 7″ (Nostalgium Directive)
The logical endpoint for the goth aesthetic has gotta be death, right? Like when you finally die and your soul can turn into a black butterfly or whatever the standard belief is. This Nostalgist 7″ seems to exemplify that, moving past “woe is me” thoughts to the point where the medication overdose starts shutting down the body’s organs one at a time, sending you peacefully across the river Styx. “Illusory” is the a-side, and I know it can’t be incorrectly slow because I’m playing it at 45 rpm, but this song barely has the will to live – it’s so plodding and woozy that it can barely be considered “rock”, and the waterlogged vocals just add to the confusion. “Twisting, Slowly (Cleansing Doubt)” rocks a bit harder, but it’s still traditional shoegaze goth-rock, without even the slightest hint of post-punk or modern tailoring. It even breaks down into some jam that sounds like Steve Winwood choreographing a Black Tape For A Blue Girl performance. This isn’t my cup of tea, I find it to be just a bit too one-dimensional, boring and cheesy, but they certainly hit the nail on the head with what it seems they were trying to accomplish as far as being traditionally, unerringly goth (doubly confirmed by their “Addams Family: The Next Generation” band portrait on the insert).

Oaks Field Beat LP (Ass)
That’s right – Ass Records! I love it. Hi, your band is good, would you like to sign to Ass? This label should really just put out Quincy Punx and Showcase Showdown reissues all day, but Oaks couldn’t be further from that. They don’t even crack a smile through the duration of Field Beat, a very modern-sounding record that incorporates trebly drum machines and ethereal goth-strum into a hazy day at the lakeside cabin. The inner sleeve reveals photos of the woods, a cat, and Oaks themselves (the duo of Jim Kolles and Erica Krumm), and it’s a perfectly suitable Pinterest with which to gauge their sonic sensibility. Kinda like a less interesting Tamaryn with heavy drumming, or My Bloody Valentine if the valentine actually wasn’t bloody at all, but lightly stained with some sort of artisanal ketchup one of the band members has started selling at the local farmer’s market. I can get down with Field Beat, as there’s this slight touch of Vermin Scum-style emo deep down in it that I will always appreciate. Regardless, I hope this is surely the start of a prosperous relationship between Oaks and Ass.

Octa#grape As Long As I Forget / Elephant Telephone 7″ (Thing Thing Thing)
Bands, I implore you: think long and hard about whether or not you really need a symbol in your band name. It’s not an advantage! !!! are the only exception that comes to mind, because when you start throwing dashes and pounds and asterisks in your name, you’re just begging to be ignored. I had enough problems with “Wzt Hearts”, and they’re entirely alphabetical! Anyway, this is a pretty good-natured single, mining the usual overblown garage-rock tropes with a touch of inclusive hippiedom. “As Long As I Forget” relies on a big “Ooh-OOH!” chorus, and “Elephant Telephone” takes a Flipper bassline and gives it the Wavves / Ty Segall / Oh Sees / King Tuff treatment, dressing it up in Raybans, scuffed sneakers and a pizza t-shirt. Not bad, even when graded harshly, but I feel like there is so much Octa#grape-style music out there that they’ll really need a grape-eating octopus on drums to stand out and catch the public’s eye. It’s gonna take more than a hash-tag in the middle of the band name, that’s for sure.

Ooga Boogas Ooga Boogas LP (Aarght!)
I maintain that Ooga Boogas’ debut album Romance And Adventure is one of the unheralded punk-rock gems of the past decade. It was just hit after hit of rough-and-tumble, snarky, stubbly punk, shoplifting artsy influences when no one was looking and selling them out back behind the pub. They followed it up with the half-baked Sentimental Stranger EP, which I desperately tried to like but couldn’t, and now on this self-titled follow-up… I dunno. I am pretty sure this band is smarter than I am, so I find myself cautiously wondering what it is that I’m not getting when listening to Ooga Boogas. There are some really long tracks on here, and the Ooga Boogas sound I loved so much seems to have been infiltrated by ’80s coke-rock, like Dire Straits or Squeeze or bands that seemed too old and out of touch when I would see their videos on MTV in 1989 or whatever. “FYI” is driven by chintzy organ, like it’s some sort of elevator music based on a spy movie, and “Sex In The Chillzone” kinda squanders that killer title by reminding me of Ariel Pink. I’ve stuck with it and played this record a bunch, in spite of myself not immediately digging it, and while it has definitely grown on me, I’m still a bit uneasy about it, like that feeling you have after drinking a glass of milk that was sitting out on the table for a few hours. I hope to come to terms with this record soon, but in the meantime I’m gonna keep subjecting myself to it, because I love Ooga Boogas, even if this record doesn’t love me.

Permanent Makeup The Void…It Creeps LP (No Clear)
“Permanent Makeup” sounds like the best synth-screamo band-name that was never used, but that’s not what this group is going for (which is probably a relief to most readers out there). No, this group goes for a loose n’ rugged take on noisy ’90s indie-rock, mixed with a touch of Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments and the multitude of roughshod Ohio rock that circles in the same orbit. Like an American take on The Fall, played by folks who spent the ’90s smirking at the Monica Lewinsky scandal and drinking cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon before hipsters discovered it (back when hipsters were called “scenesters”, at least)… maybe? Except I presume that Permanent Makeup exist today, exhausted by the disappointment of Obama and the inability to do a meager tour because gas is four dollars a gallon. I’m reading a hell of a lot into this group, and am probably entirely wrong, but while their music may not be the finest (or even fourth-finest) rock record I’ve heard this month, it has me envisioning and fantasizing over their lives a little, which is almost all you can really ask for a rock band to do at this point.

Pleasure Leftists Elephant Men / Not Over 7″ (Katorga Works)
I had all but forgotten about Ohio’s Pleasure Leftists, but I place the blame on the endless deluge of new bands and my deteriorating memory, not them. They’re probably the most distinct-sounding group that’s doing the whole new-wave goth resurrection thing, and while the music plays a part, the vocals of Haley Morris are key – she absolutely wails, like a zombie Kate Bush on the hunt for brains. Actually, maybe she’s just half-Keith Morris, half-Hayley (close enough) Williams (of Paramore, of course)… or not human at all, but a highly evolved sentient computer interface? At times it sounds like her vocals are in reverse, but I know that can’t possibly be true. I absolutely love her singing, and the way she commands the rest of the Pleasure Leftists, who keep to their dour, flange-effected post-punk pop with tidy efficiency. Both of these songs keep true to the sound established on Pleasure Leftists’ Fan Death debut, and are worth inviting into your residence. Esben and the who? Cold Show-what?

Purling Hiss Water On Mars LP (Drag City)
If I was a really lousy record critic, this is where I’d yell “rock is back!”, but since I’m just a moderately lousy one, I can assume we all know better than that. I’ve been watching Purling Hiss blossom from a feedback-drenched, one-man guitar meltdown into one of the most formidable rock trios around, and it has been an incredibly pleasant transformation to take in. I’d been waiting on this, their first studio record, for a while, with the exciting knowledge that people who don’t frequently see the band live can enjoy their catchy, riff-wild songs without having to strain their ears over a tinny, boombox-esque recording. And just when I figured I knew what the album would sound like before I even heard it, Purling Hiss go and flip the script with Water On Mars. Sure, opener “Lolita” is a prime-time shredder, but the ‘Hissers go straight-up mellow on most of this record! I was expecting street-walkin’ riffs and grizzled blues, but much of this record reminds me of The Lemonheads, the softer Dinosaur Jr. material or Soul Asylum. Who knew? After a mental realignment, I was able to grasp these songs for the slacker-rock jams they are, like a band that wants to be Nirvana but are deep down far too sweet and thoughtful to ever lash out and smash their gear because of failed father/son relationships. Water On Mars grew on me for sure, and if there’s any sort of heart under your denim vest, you might learn to love this record too.

Repeater Pan Together LP (no label)
It amazes me how some bands get other people to finance the release of their records while bands like Repeater Pan are putting it all in themselves. Maybe it’s more of an intentional choice than their only option, as this band really seems to have their act together, and it’s an act worth hearing. Coming right out with “Together”, they lead with their strongest foot – imagine some sort of Wire-influenced, snappy punk group with Jeff Buckley crooning his eyes out. The singer Dylan DiMartini really has such a Jeff Buckley voice, and he makes good use of it alongside the rest of Repeater Pan. “Together” is the hit and album highlight, an album that quickly tones down to NPR-friendlier adult-rock tunes, but it’s still quite enjoyable, and the songs never dip into dull territory. Repeater Pan is kind of what I wish Radiohead sounded like, big and sophisticated guitar-rock with distinct vocals that doesn’t go to such overcompensating lengths to prove how intelligent it is. And much like that one Radiohead record, Together is free on the internet (or I guess you can buy MP3s too, if you’re really that nutty), so why not go hear what I’m excited about?

Sauna Youth False Jesii Pt. II 7″ (Static Shock)
Am I even allowed to review this one? Am I breaking some sort of moral code here? Whatever, Static Shock sent it in and I’m not about to break my “review all recent vinyl” promise! Sauna Youth are an interesting English punk band, kinda taking ideas from various generational smart-alecks like Wire and Fucked Up, but generally just doing their own thing in the name of speedy, tuneful punk. The a-side is a surprisingly sweet rendition of “False Jesii Pt. II”, proof that certain chefs can make cilantro and garlic into palatable gelato flavors with the right expertise. I’d like to hear their angelic takes on other loud punk bands, as they managed to find the buried melody and wipe it clean. B-side “Oh Joel” is just as friendly, but with a high-strummed energy that reminds me of The Ramones or The Busy Signals or anyone else who can play guitar while wearing a leather jacket two sizes too small. I swear it’s not just the subtle ego boost this record’s existence gives me – Sauna Youth have done right on this simple and effective single.

Soviet Valves Death Trumps Romance 12″ (Vertex)
I remember reading high words of praise toward Soviet Valves a few years ago, when they did a 7″ on Smart Guy Records (or was it Cool Guy Records? I’m so confused). I wasn’t too impressed, so after spinning Death Trumps Romance a few times, I’ve concluded that either my ears were off back then or this is far and away their best stuff. Highly taut, poppy punk, but very classic sounding, and with lots of frequent changes… it’s like the drummer can’t go more than a couple measures without throwing in a tightly-executed roll and changing the direction of the riffs. Maybe like The Undertones, played with the urgency of Nasty Facts? Or The Exploding Hearts if they were released on the same label as that raging Burning Sensation LP and they felt they need to intensify their music at an exponential rate? On a nice slab of 12″ vinyl, these six songs sound thick and full as they whiz by, the guitars jangling near my throat and the vocals tapping my forehead. It’s my understanding that Soviet Valves broke up years ago, and while I don’t often understand the purpose of posthumous odds n’ ends records, this one is a clear necessity – Soviet Valves wrote some top-shelf, frenetic punk rock and the documentation is deserved.

Trade Untitled (Sheworks 005) 12″ (Works The Long Nights)
Works The Long Nights has quickly become a “buy on sight, no questions asked” label for me. All its releases seem to revolve around Blawan collaborating with someone else cool, and the Germs-esque logo seals the deal for me. Trade is the work of Blawan with Surgeon, a definite aesthetic predecessor to the techno punishment Blawan likes to dish out. I really dug the Karenn double EP, but this one is better – there are at least four cuts here, and they’re all massive and ugly, but with plenty of subversive groove, too. Whereas Karenn was grey-scale and minimal, Trade is bludgeoning with overblown 4/4 thuds, acid-bass carcasses and errant noises, but it has the structured, knowing flow of any seasoned Perlon producer. The second-to-last track on the b-side (they’re all untitled – there’s basically no writing on this record anywhere) is my favorite, with its Blawan-specific skittery chirps and a truly pounding beat. Add in the scratchy, metallic effects and spoken-word ending and it’s as if the Broken Flag label was reborn in the form of contemporary dungeon-techno – Ramleh ravers, perhaps? Can’t stop spinning this one!

Violent Change Violent Change LP (Catholic Guilt)
This is the third record in just as many weeks to feature a photo of Tony Molina on the back, and that’s starting to become a seal of quality of sorts. I liked Violent Change’s debut EP, even if I didn’t fully understand it (or find myself putting it on all that often), and this self-titled full-length helps extrapolate why this band is both interesting and cool. Somehow, Violent Change do the same things that bands like The Hospitals, Eat Skull, Sic Alps, Psychedelic Horseshit and pretty much any other pop band that did a record on Siltbreeze do, but their sound doesn’t tire me out. It’s probably the sweet, pop-punky blood that runs through many of their tunes, doing the sort of pop moves that many of their contemporaries seem more comfortable mocking, or Violent Change’s aversion to “the jam”, as these songs are all quick and tidy and leave no room for improvised interludes or messy detours. The recording quality is still a little too thin and lightweight for my tastes, but it’s been fun getting to know this album, one that grows on me further with every listen.

Violent Reaction Violent Reaction 7″ (Quality Control HQ / Static Shock)
It’s been almost fifteen minutes since the last “Violent ____” band showed up, and I’m getting a little antsy… oh wait, here’s Violent Reaction! They’re a British straight-edge hardcore group, and I’d say the Painkiller influence is plentiful – even if the one guy wasn’t wearing a Boston Strangler shirt in the insert pic, it’s clear that these guys are digging hard into Waste Management, Knife Fight and No Tolerance records. Many of their riffs come with the feel of a fresh Fred Perry right off the rack, melding Oi into angry, youthful hardcore (much like 86 Mentality). They’re ready to break your cigarettes in half and flush your pills down the toilet, and don’t even think about trying to stop them! Pretty good stuff for what it is, which is the same thing it’s been for years now, but some people don’t just listen to records like this, they build their entire personas off of them. At least Violent Reaction do it well, I suppose.

Wild Child Wild Child 7″ (Fashionable Idiots / Rock Bottom)
Can always count on Fashionable Idiots for trashy, smashy hardcore punk, so I had no fear going into this Wild Child 7″, which I believe is their demo pressed to vinyl. It’s good! At least one guitar has that clean-ish jangle to it, and the songs are frantic and tumbling, kinda like that recent Manic 7″ that I loved so much, or maybe The Grabbies or Brown Sugar. The singer does a lot of “yow!”s and “wow!”s, which might push Wild Child from punk rock to the dreaded “punk rawk” territory, but it never quite gets to be too bothersome. The songs are in-and-out and always pretty fast, and the energy nearly reminds me of early Gang Green, if not necessarily in speed but the feeling of youth on drugs. Wouldn’t mind hearing some more!

Zulus Zulus LP (Aagoo)
I know I had a Zulus 7″ floating around here somewhere that was a part of one of those “singles club”-ish punk labels. (Lemon Session? Total Punk? I’m getting old.) Pretty sure I liked it, and I like this full-length too – Zulus aren’t reinventing the wheel, they’re just coating it in a little extra reverb. It’s generally pretty heavy, roomy punk rock… the drummer pounds the toms for as long as he can reasonably stay away from the snare, and the guitars are twangy but loud. The vocalist is pretty sassy, not far from Sonny Kay or Lars Finberg (not that either are close to each other, but maybe I’m making sense anyway). Definitely sounds like something that would’ve worked in the waning years of GSL / Three.One.G, where screamo was moving out in favor of garage-punk and goth and other more interesting influences. This is a 45 RPM record, and it moves along briskly, so that by the time I find myself growing weary of the shrill, echoed vocals, it’s over. Brooklyn has done far, far worse than Zulus!

Tony Molina

YGR — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:00:17 +0000

Now that Spring is here and your allergies are back in full swing, it’s time to bust
out the happy, poppy, sunshine-y punk rock! Or better yet, check out something new for
2013, like Tony Molina’s album Dissed And Dismissed. Molina truly has the knack
for what makes guitar-heavy pop music great: the hooks are memorable and bountiful, his
singing is tunefully simple, the guitars explode with confetti at just the right time,
and no song ever overstays its welcome. As his group Ovens has been dishing it out for
years, Tony Molina proudly contributes to the Bay Area’s wellspring of catchy, anthemic
punk music both on his own and with the variety of groups he claims membership. I was
able to catch up with him while he was working his night job (movie theater projectionist)
and we talked about music, of all things.

You just released an album under your own name. Does that mean you played all the instruments,
or just wrote all the music and lyrics, or what? Was it weird having your own name instead of
a band name on the front cover?
Yeah, I wrote all the songs and played all the instruments on that record. It was very weird,
because none of my bands have ever done an LP, this is my first one, and it has my full name
and a big-ass picture of my face on it! I was a little bit nervous about doing that at first,
but now I don’t really care.

Who had the idea? I presume you are more than just business partners with the Melters folks…
Did you have the record done, and they asked to release it, or was the idea established before
you recorded it?
It was my idea. That record was originally going to be an Ovens record, but since half of that
band is scattered around the country and doing their own thing, I decided to do it by myself.
The Melters dudes are my friends and hit me up about doing an LP of my earlier solo stuff, and
didn’t know that I had recorded Dissed And Dismissed yet. So I played it for them and they were really
stoked on it and wanted to release it.

Will this forever be a studio-only thing? Have you gotten together some folks to play
these songs live, and put together a Tony Molina band?
I finally started to put a band together with Andrew from Ovens, Spencer from the band Baader
Brains and my friend Anthony who does a project called Swanox. Right now it’s just me and
getting the riffs down. It’s going to be awhile, but I do plan on playing shows and touring
and whatever. I am nervous about playing this shit live though.

You’re playing in other bands too, right?
Yeah I sing in a hardcore band called Caged Animal. And up until like a week ago, I was playing
guitar in this band Violent Change. Both bands put out records this year. My main band Ovens
isn’t very active anymore, but that band will never break up. We actually have two records
coming out this year!

Why’d you do these songs under Tony Molina instead of Ovens, then? Is there any fundamental difference?
It’s only because those guys didn’t play on the tracks. The music is pretty much exactly
the same, but those dudes are my best friends and we’ve been in that band for like eleven
years or something now. If they didn’t play on it, it can’t be called an Ovens record.

So about the record: the title Dissed And Dismissed, along with some of the lyrics… do
people really not want you around? The lyrics can be kind of a downer, especially when compared
with the upbeat melodies and poppy riffs.
All I can say is the last couple of years was a pretty rough time in my life and I think some
of the lyrics describe how I felt at the time. The title is a Breakdown song though.

You’re really into heavy, thuggish hardcore, for my lack of a better term right now. Does
that have any influence in your solo material? Are they just two very separate entities in your brain?
I think it influences my guitar style/tone a lot. Most of the ideas I have for my guitar
playing come from heavier, more riff-oriented bands, but it probably doesn’t influence my
songwriting very much.

What does influence your songwriting? Is it annoying when people say you remind them of Weezer?
Probably just a lot of the bands I listen to. I think Thin Lizzy, Guided By Voices, Big Star,
Teenage Fanclub and The Fastbacks are bands that are a big influence. It doesn’t bother me at
all when people bring up Weezer because they are one of my favorite bands. I get a lot of
guitar ideas from bands like Crowbar, Obituary, and heavier stuff like that.

What kind of ideas?
Just like, how those bands approach writing riffs and the tones they get is what I also
try to do myself. I want my music to be very riff oriented like those bands, even though
I play pop music.

Isn’t pop music riff-oriented? Or is that hook-oriented? What’s the difference anyway?
I think it can be both, but I guess I think hooks when I think of pop music, and when I
think riffs I just think of Merauder. Or something.

Which matters most? If you were exiled to an island and allowed only hardcore/metal or
pop, what would you grab on your way out?
That’s a really tough question! I’d probably grab my Big Star and Teenage Fanclub albums,
and then be very sad knowing I could never jam E-Town Concrete or Suffocation ever again.
It’s bumming me out just thinking about that right now. I really hate this question.

Thankfully that is a fictional situation that will never exist. I’ll change the subject…
what’s the Bay Area scene like these days? From my East Coast point of view, there’s a bunch
of cool bands springing up, doing skewed takes on indie rock and punk and hardcore and what-have-you…
is it really just like, five different people in a handful of bands and a bunch of internet
praise, or are there really lots of different bands and cool things going on?
There’s lots of different bands doing cool shit in the Bay. I’ve seen a lot of cool hardcore
bands, and made a lot of friends from playing shows with Caged Animal. I’m still mourning the
loss of the great bands like Ecoli, Yadokai, Sopors, and Jump Off A Building, who are important
bands for me. Thankfully I can still see Violent Change, Synthetic ID and Culture Kids though!

That’s great. What’s next? More Tony Molina records? Something by Ovens? Caged Animal
double LP on Lockin’ Out?
For the solo stuff, I got an unreleased eight-song EP from 2009 that I want to come out as a 7″.
I’m also going to the studio soon to record four songs for a split 7″ with Swiftumz. There are
two Ovens 7″s that are coming out on Melters and Catholic Guilt, both were recorded years ago.
Caged Animal is going to the studio soon to record our second 7″, which is going to be released by
Video Disease. Also I’m starting a new hardcore band with Blaine from Violent Change that’s going
to straight up sound like Biohazard. I think that’s everything, haha.

Reviews – April 2013

YGR — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:09:56 +0000

Acteurs Acteurs LP (Public Information)
Acteurs are ex-90 Day Men and Disappears folks making strange electronic music. Right off the bat, I’m unfairly suspicious, because I’m prejudiced against American electronic music nowadays – maybe it’s because I live here too, but I find myself wondering about the motivations of Americans making weird techno (truly inspired, or just following along with the times?). That’s my problem though, not Acteurs, and as they do more than just throw some overblown acid loops together, I’d have to say that I am in their corner. Each track is pretty different: they hop from classic Suicide-style electro-menace (“Cloud Generating”) to twisted Stuart Argabright beats (“Lowow”) and Nurse With Wound’s alien terrains (“Dusk Removing”), and that’s just side A. A variety of interesting and obscure avenues of electronic music are explored here, but it works well as an album, as though these six tracks are unified in their off-ness, like there is something distinctly incorrect about each cut (in a good way, of course). If anything, I could do with less vocals, especially when they’re as distractingly silly as those on “Golden Rabbit”, but Acteurs are onto something cool for sure. Maybe America’s not so bad after all.

Actress Silver Cloud 12″ (Werk Discs / Ninja Tune)
One of the perks of living in 2013 is that you can buy Actress records. This new EP entitled Silver Cloud is as good as any of them, and just as difficult, moody and peculiar as anything off his last album (though like most of his EPs, the fat of an album is cut out here). “Voodoo Posse Chronic Illusion” isn’t just four great words for a round of Mad Libs, it’s a disconnected dial-tone that slowly gives way to a beautifully brooding melody in the distance, like a woman wearing a giant white veil that slowly strides closer to you across a sandy wasteland. “Floating In Ecstacy” sounds more like “Drowning In Yogurt” to me, but regardless of the exact sensory experience the track conjures, there are multiple layers to it, all fighting for their chance to tickle you. The EP ends with “Silver Cloud Dream Come True”, which I might designate as “classic Actress”: the drum machine meekly shuffles forward, while garbage noises, subtle bells and sleek synths all perform their individual processes with little regard for their peers. If you aren’t listening to Actress these days, may I ask why not?

M. Akers Tough To Kill LP (Retrograde Tapes / Cylindrical Habitat Modules)
There’s gotta be more ’80s electro-soundtrack albums out there at this point than there are movies to feature them. M. Akers’ Tough To Kill is yet another entry in this growing field, and I dunno… your mileage will depend on how much you love this sorta thing. To my ears, Akers plays it incredibly authentic and straight, worshiping John Carpenter and Claudio Simonetti without throwing in any modern-day signifiers like hazy noise, intricate computer-editing or dubby bass effects. He practically makes Alden Tyrell sound like Prefuse73 in his historical accuracy. The songs generally proceed with one repeating idea, with only the most subtle of changes until the next track steps up. This all leaves us with a very by-the-books, nicely-done record that has seemingly no personality or twist of its own, which can be a stunning achievement or dismal failure depending on what you want out of an instrumental electronic soundtrack-style record. For me, it hits somewhere in-between; Tough To Kill is a pleasant ride, but it hasn’t stick to my ribs. If there’s ever a film made where Freddy Krueger is pitted against Charles Bronson inside a post-apocalyptic wasteland controlled by an evil witch, however, its music director need not look any further.

Animal City See You In The Funny Pages LP (Sophomore Lounge)
Animal City’s debut album was a charismatic slice of indie-punk, the sort of thing that has to really win you over and actually does. This is their follow-up, and I’m not sure if they lost a couple members or something, but a bedroom-pop sensibility comes along with the “full band” feel this time, with cutesy drum machines and dinky keyboards popping up all over this record. It still feels the musical equivalent of the hung-over, bearded-and-flanneled barista who is struggling as an alt-weekly writer / DJ, but in a way that you want that guy to succeed, like he’s worth rooting for. Songs like “Worst Kinda Crush” and “The Bosmoti Rice” are sweetly hilarious, and while something like this can easily fall into the sad depths of self-pity or narcissism, Animal City always keep the mood light enough that you’ll actually want to listen more than once. Fans of The Rentals, Chisel and Quasi would do well to seek this one out!

Dave Arvedon The Best Of Dave Arvedon LP (Mighty Mouth)
Here’s a plain-jane reissue of Dave Arvedon’s 1971 album care of Mighty Mouth, part of the Last Laugh conglomerate. Arvedon wasn’t afraid to proclaim this his very best back then, and while I haven’t heard his other material, I can’t imagine he was necessarily joking – this album’s a sweet, tender, nerdy trip into a ’70s college dorm with far too much free time. For something so silly, it’s pretty clear that Arvedon put a good amount of effort in these songs, from quirky lyrical turns to the various instruments that appear (some tracks are full-band proto-punk jams, others are merely Arvedon and a chintzy organ). I’m reminded of Brian Protheroe’s Pinball here, as they’re both clearly the work of intelligent goofballs with real musical talent, no matter how hard they try to obscure it with zaniness, or songs where the chorus spells out “Berkowitz”. Arvedon is probably someone’s father by now, and I can only imagine his offspring’s had a happy childhood, even when Dad tries to joke around with the waiter and it’s really embarrassing.

Babysitter Eve LP (Psychic Handshake Recordings)
Here’s some brash garage-punk that arrives in stained Alice Cooper t-shirts, funny sunglasses and leather biker jackets. Modern-day bar-rock that is proud of its beer gut, poor employment history and cigarette addiction. At its most raucous, I’m reminded of a Runaways-inspired Candy Snatchers, but Babysitter keeps the pace somewhat varied, getting mellow in a nearly Sonic Youth sort-of way and punk in a Dead Boys fashion, even if the vocalist still growls his words like he’s auditioning for Fucked Up. He’s probably my least favorite part of the Babysitter equation, as there are some songs where he is clearly pushing past his modest vocal range, and as Babysitter can get pretty melodic, they need a guy who can follow the guitars if he’s trying to do so. Overall, it’s an unremarkable, decent effort from a band that has probably helped sell beer-and-shot combos to dozens of locals. What else are you gonna drink when you are at a Babysitter gig, Vitamin Water?

Blanche Blanche Blanche and The Birds Of Paradise Scram / Press Dumps 7″ (Adagio 830)
Clearly Blanche Blanche Blanche and The Birds Of Paradise haven’t considered what will happen when they strike it big – how is that long name gonna fit on the marquee outside the venue? Perhaps their aspirations aren’t quite there, and that’s alright, as this 7″ is a pleasant little underground trip. If you’ve ever paid attention to Blanche Blanche Blanche before, they were a synthesized duo, but here they’re a regular four-piece band, nary a keyboard in sight, and yet somehow it still kinda sounds like Blanche Blanche Blanche (must be the nerd vocals). “Scram” has some cool shifts, kinda like one of those Messthetics singles that was made by a band that broke up by ’79 and are all environmental scientists and real estate moguls by now – like intelligent weaklings who just dabbled in obscure rock during their youth. “Press Dumps” is cool too, almost kind of Chrome-ish, or even Systematics-ish, two points that probably make the song seem cooler than it is, but that’s just because a group that sounds like both Chrome and Systematics would be the coolest band to ever walk the earth. Didn’t think this 7″ would be one I’d want to keep, but what do you know, Blanche Blanche Blanche made it happen care of The Birds Of Paradise.

Chron Turbine Skull Necklace For You LP (Peterwalkee)
Sometimes, the “ex-members of” ancestry is a pretty good clue for what the new band sounds like. I’d say this is the case for Chron Turbine, who boast ex-Les Savy Fav, Trans Am and Rye Coalition members (unless it’s just one guy who played in all three bands or something, which surely can’t be the case), and well, they kinda sound like all of that, at least here and there. Rye Coalition is probably the biggest reference point – Chron Turbine are big, swaggery rock, but with a sheen of irony (or at least sarcastic distance) that keeps it from getting too pretentious or serious. Their rock moves are pretty pro, after all – sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age covering Karp for more than a couple tracks, but without the charismatic vocalist or insane drumming. Clearly these aren’t a bunch of teenagers turning their amps on for the first time – Chron Turbine sound like a heavy rock group who have all been around the block enough times to avoid many mistakes newer musicians make, even if Skull Necklace For You isn’t a particularly thrilling record overall. I don’t begrudge them, and neither should you.

Connections Cindy, Jeni & Johnny 7″ (Anyway)
Took me a minute to figure this one out – it says “Cindy, Jeni & Johnny” real big at the top, with “connections” on side, and I’m wondering if this is a list of the band members, or the band name or what. Apparently it’s the two songs on this single (“Cindy” and “Jeni & Johnny”), both of which are taken from separate full-length releases, this 7″ strictly a “promo only” affair (or at least my copy). I thought this sort of obfuscation was reserved for techno records (I’m looking at you, Omar S), but once I waded through the unintuitive design, two sweet lil’ indie-rockers found their way into my heart. “Cindy” is a power-poppy ballad run through the past two decades of Ohio’s underground rock, like Polaris if they really loved Times New Viking, complete with two vocalists singing different lyrics at the same time and having it work perfectly. Same pretty much goes for “Jeni & Johnny”, like a Wilco I can actually relate to, or Spoon if they didn’t think so highly of themselves. Real catchy, but approachable, and recalling the ’90s without dwelling in the past. If you can’t finagle a copy of this single, by all means seek out the albums Private Airplane and Body Language, from whence these two tracks apparently came. Might’ve been a strange promo strategy, but it worked on me!

Den Electric Eyes 7″ (Retrograde Tapes)
There’s a blurry image of an enraged caveman bashing a robot’s tin cranium on the front of this Den single, and it’s not just a pleasant image – it’s Den’s musical aesthetic. Opener “Neary” is a sludgy, stoner fist-fight, like Bongzilla and Vaz improvising along with the Comets On Fire guy who just played oscillators, and it’s followed by a weirdly groovy rocker, somewhere between The Hellacopters and The Electric Six. They get back to the sludge with “The Coiled Cross”, crumbling noise over a Floor-esque bass churn. I could’ve done without that peppy second track, but the bookends of Electric Eyes are pretty good primitive stoner-grunge, something Bovine would’ve clamored to release in the mid-’90s and Man’s Ruin in the early ’00s. If you’ve worn a beanie with a band patch on it in the past six months, you probably should add Den to your list of bands to check out this week.

Factory Floor Fall Back 12″ (DFA)
I’ve been trying to get into Factory Floor for a little while now, but for some reason it hasn’t been easy for me. Seems like they’re either releasing 10″/DVD box-sets, hard-to-find import CDs or one-song EPs (like this one), but hell, this one is great, and worth the poor dollar-to-song ratio. “Fall Back” fires off with a rapid, two-note alternating arpeggio leading the way, throws in some tricky percussion jabs, sleepily expels some excellent pitch-bent vocals and strengthens the beat until it takes full ownership of your body. I really love this track! The vocals remind me of Portable’s “Life Magically Is”, one of my top three tracks released by Perlon, and the beat has a similarly Villalobos-esque playfulness, even though it’s ostensibly “minimal-synth”, and Factory Floor is a band, not a solo producer/DJ. I can’t remember the last synth-based dance group to display as much graceful, weird personality as Factory Floor do on “Fall Back”. Even the superfluous isolated loops on the b-side make for a little post-dance fun, even if it’s just by myself in my record room. Gotta cool down sometime, although “Fall Back” makes for an excellent argument against it.

Len Faki Basement Trax, Vol. 01 12″ (Ostgut Ton)
I just pick up these Ostgut Ton 12″s blindly at this point, because they are never not good, and quite frequently great, as is the case with Len Faki’s first edition of Basement Trax. This is exactly what I come to Ostgut Ton looking to hear: intimidating tech-house with plunging basslines, unwavering repetition and a general cloak of darkness surrounding the music. These tracks are raw, but not to a Sandwell District level, or even Shed – it’s more the thumping energy that gives Basement Trax, Vol. 01 its edge. Syllabic vocal snippets are a nice modern touch, but Faki’s sensibility could easily place him alongside British Murder Boys or early ’00s Planetary Assault Systems in his techno purity. Never had I previously considered installing a stereo in my basement, but this may be the record to change that.

Family Curse Twilight Language LP (Doormat)
Not sure why, but I never hear anyone else talking about Family Curse. Either I just don’t go out to the right social gatherings or post on the right message-boards, but Family Curse seem like one of New York’s best-kept adult-punk secrets. After some nicely-done singles, they offer the album Twilight Language, which builds on their prior tracks (and includs the catchy “Julia Armant” as well). Family Curse remind me of The Monorchid, Mudhoney, Le Shok, A Frames, The Nation Of Ulysses, and Popular Shapes, to name but a few, and as that would make for a pretty diverse (and killer) mixtape, Family Curse come out the other end mostly just sounding like Family Curse. The riffs can be either angular or stupidly simple, the vocals sung or gargled, the melodies tender or non-existent, but no matter what the case, the songs come together excellently on Twilight Language. Other bands might sound like they are consciously attempting to cop different styles if they packed all those influences (perceived or otherwise) in, but Family Curse blend it all into their own sound, and they don’t even forget to make the songs catchy in the process. Kind of amazed that writers and critics would rather talk about The Men than Family Curse in their “great new rock out of New York” articles, but I guess that’s kind of how it’s always been, hasn’t it? No one gets it.

The Fruiting Bodies Wilderness Pill / Battle Stag 7″ (Suburban Sprawl Music)
The Fruiting Bodies are a five piece instrumental rock band, and I as listen to this 7″ single, I can’t help but wonder – there are five of you, why doesn’t someone sing? “Wilderness Pill” is a swaying, heavy rocker that sounds like the lighter side of Quicksand, or a less-focused Torche. There’s nothing crazy about it, no wild psychedelic effects, ridiculous time-changes or frightening atmospherics, so I’m not sure why they couldn’t just get someone to write some lyrics and sing over it. Same pretty much goes for “Battle Stag”, which has a more triumphant, metallic vibe to the riffing, but it still sounds like The Fruiting Bodies are a band that’s lacking vocals, not an instrumental rock group that doesn’t require them. Not bad stuff, even if it’s not mindblowingly hot either. Come to Philadelphia and I’ll sing for you guys, okay? Been waiting too long to write some lyrics about a battle stag.

The Good Wife Charnel House / Teeth And Tongue 7″ (SuperFi)
SuperFi is the label that released the Good Throb 7″, so hell yeah I was ready to hear some Good Wife! Sadly, the shock and awe I felt when listening to Good Throb was felt similarly here, just in the opposite direction – quite plainly, this 7″ is not good. “Charnel House” is like a mix of early Hydra Head metal-core emotive-spazzing with ’00s radio-metal aspirations… and it’s vaguely funky! I wish I was lying, but I’m not. “Teeth And Tongue” is similar, like a less interesting Racebannon that suddenly collides with System Of A Down and Fugazi in a very unfortunate accident. The Good Wife are fine players, and the music is well-recorded, but by the time I’m offering “good players, good recording” in a review, you know I’ve got nothing else positive to offer. Definitely not the sort of thing I want to hear rock bands play, and if your feel like your scope of taste even remotely coincides with mine, you’d be smart to avoid The Good Wife too.

Hassler Amorality EP 7″ (Beach Impediment)
Hassler are another Toronto band heavily influenced by NYHC circa 1984-87, that sort of “homeless street kids start a band to play hardcore matinees” vibe that is so easy to romanticize decades later from our little internet portals and Expedits filled with rarities. Even the lyric sheet seems to share Porcell’s handwriting style! With Hassler’s big-mouth vocals, I’m reminded of Boston Strangler too, although not as huge-sounding, more “no frills”. They get super fast on some tracks (“Escape” being the rippingest), but Amorality is mostly geared toward stirring up the pit quickly and effectively. If we were forced to choose one Toronto hardcore group paying their homage to the New York classics, I’d probably still go with Omegas (they’ve just got the sound and image down pat), but Hassler are real good too, and they probably share band members, or at least hang out in the same living rooms together. If you’re trying to bulk up on meat and potatoes, it might be time to add Hassler to your regimen.

The Hecks Trust And Order / The Time I Play With My Puppy 7″ (Moniker)
What, The Hecks? It’s a fittingly sneaky and playful band-name for these two guys who use their full names (including middle names) in the credits, as if we didn’t already know they were studious and pretentious from listening to their music. “Trust And Order” sounds like a badly hungover No Age who forget their pedals at home, just kinda throwing something together. Messy but with the sense that The Hecks are still fully in control, and probably took jazz theory courses in college. Naming your song “The Time I Play With My Puppy” is a good way to never be mistaken for The Cro-Mags, and it’s got a distinctly Midwestern weirdness to it, as I’m reminded of US Maple, My Name Is Rar Rar and The Frogs in bits and pieces, from the positioning of the lead guitar to the manic vocals and high-pitched, disintegrating oscillations. Two different sides from a group that I am sure has many more. Can’t say I’m crazy about this one, but this record doesn’t seem too crazy about me either, so I suppose we’re even.

Hermetic Delight Heartbeat EP 12″ (Green Valley)
Hermetic Delight are a French shoegaze group, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to them – this sort of indistinct atmospheric rock could’ve just as easily come from Ohio or Osaka. “Heartbeat I” opens things with a hazy, space-gaze fog, and it slowly reveals its shape as “Heartbeat II”, a repetitive, krauty sprawl that works a wordless vocal-whine as the hook. Hmm. Flip it over and “Holy Sister” fares better, very Hooverphonic-y in mood and vocal, but with a sneaky Slowdive touch (I’m into it). They then decide to have two “secret” tracks, a weird concept for vinyl, where two minutes of silent grooves are followed by another light wash of rustling ambient guitar, which eventually leads into an uncredited live cut that sounds like Blondie covering Murder City Devils. Clearly there are a lot of diverging ideas and sounds at play with Hermetic Delight, none of which are bad, but there also isn’t anything that made me look up from my phone while the record was playing (I’m sorry but Instagram is addicting).

Housewives Housewives EP 7″ (R.I.P Society)
R.I.P Society isn’t getting soft with us, not with Housewives on their roster – this quick EP is a nice little burst of borderline-hardcore / youthful punk outrage. I’m mostly reminded of the early Recess Records bands, the ones that FYP’s record sales would subsidize, like Sheep Squeeze and The Yah Mos and Les Turds, bands that bashed away at punk rock until it reached a Circle Jerks level of hardcore confusion, with male, female and toddler vocals all screeching through the mix in an attempt to be heard. Can’t say I have any idea what they’re going on about in songs like “Special Power” and “That’s Chat”, but Housewives’ passion and charm cut through the murky recording, and I find myself singing “That’s Chat!” along with them. They really bash their way through these songs, but without any modern garage affectations, just house-show punk-rock played messily and triumphantly. If bands ever stop sounding like this, it’ll be a sad day indeed.

Inservibles Una Vida De Tristeza 7″ (Shogun / La Vida Es Un Mus / SPHC)
“Great noisy punk from Mexico” isn’t the type of thing you hear too often, and while Inservibles have been doing it for a few years now, this recent 7″ is my poseurly first time hearing them. It rules! They do that whole “blistering noise guitar with echo-effect vocals”, and while they could easily fall into a pit of mediocrity, Inservibles stand out. They’re ostensibly playing punk, but they seem to have accidentally arrived at black-metal too, as there’s this cavernous, trebly sound to the guitars, and the vocals never stop echoing, giving it kind of an early Mayhem feel. The riffs are punk though, not metal, so you’re left with this weird in-between sound that is so wonderfully difficult to listen to. I’m reminded of the same “how did they come up with this?” feeling I get when I listen to Exit Hippies, and it sure beats wondering why my cable bill is so high or what to eat for dinner. Hope Inservibles can crank out some more gems before their home city forces them to stop existing – it doesn’t seem like an easy life down in Santa Cruz Meyehualco, Mexico.

Last Year’s Men Clawless Paw / What I Can Get 7″ (Sophomore Lounge)
Nice n’ easy single by Last Year’s Men here, care of the keep-you-guessing Sophomore Lounge label. A-side “Clawless Paw” makes me wonder what would’ve happened if that guy from The Vines got cleaned up, went to college, got a decent graphic design job and started a new band, free from the stress of fame and fortune. It’s got a thick sound, lumbering pace and subtle sweetness, like if The Black Lips weren’t juvenile jerks and had some of that Walkmen-esque “you can take us home to meet your parents” class. “What I Can Get” has more of an updated Nuggets vibe, like it should’ve been played by a band called The Psychotics or The Supersonics in 1964 at their prep school’s battle of the bands. Not sure Last Year’s Men really stand out from the hordes of indie-rockers tastefully updating the first wave of garage-rock, but I had fun listening to this single and writing about it. At the very least, you’re not in for a bad time with these guys.

Magic Circle Magic Circle LP (Armageddon Shop)
I don’t know about you, but when I heard that the Painkiller / Mind Eraser / Boston hardcore brain-trust started doing a doom metal group, and that the guy from Rival Mob can actually really sing, I was anticipating this Magic Circle album with the excitement of both Christmas and my birthday combined. I suppose it doesn’t live up to my impossible expectations, but Magic Circle is probably the best “hardcore dudes trying stoner metal” record ever to exist – singer Brendan Radigan sounds almost exactly like Ozzy at certain points… maybe if Ozzy had straight-edge friends as an adult? The music, while I’m not going to chastise anyone for making the comparison, isn’t so much Sabbath-y as doom-y, with lots of St. Vitus, Pentagram and Trouble in the riffs, or pretty much any doom-metal band that relied heavily on Christian imagery (either pro or con). And with songs like “Rapture” and “White Light”, it’s clear that Magic Circle are sticking to the script, which these guys generally do best regardless of the style. I haven’t really caught any particularly outstanding tracks after a few listens, and am occasionally confused by the recording mix, but I’ve concluded that Magic Circle is a great genre record, propelled by the skill of the players involved and their impressive rock knowledge. I hope these busy band members give Magic Circle more than just a few fest appearances, as I’ve got a head and it’s ready to bang to something like this.

Magic Touch & Sapphire Slows Just Wanna Feel 12″ (100% Silk)
Magic Touch (Damon Palermo of Mi Ami) and Sapphire Slows (beats me, she keeps it mysterious) hold hands on this tender house 12″. “Just Wanna Feel” is pleasant, effervescent house music that has its share of ’80s nostalgia – it’s kind of like drinking an old Sprite. The beat is harmless, and Sapphire Slows talk-sings her way to your heart over top. The I:Cube remix that follows might be a bit more to my liking, taking things deeper with synthetic tension, breath-sounds as time markers and an overall wide-screen view of the club. “When I See You” is like Haddaway covering Bobby McFerrin, or Snap! if they made an album to be played in make-your-own-pottery studios. Reminds me of those colorful 4th and Broadway or Sleeping Bag 12″ DJ sleeves in a good way, all tattered in some record store’s used bin, like you managed to find some killer cut and it only cost you fifty cents. Can’t say Just Wanna Feel is really my thing, in that I wouldn’t often find myself in a mental state where I distinctly reach for it, but you’ll hear no complaints from me while it spins, either. I might even bust out some Rhythm Nation-style dance moves if I heard it in a public setting, how about that?

The Mentally Ill Strike The Bottom Red LP (Last Laugh)
A new Mentally Ill album? What? They were always one of the best question-marks of the Killed By Death compilations, like how or why this disturbed group existed, and now they are back with a full-length album. And it… kinda sounds like drunken, poppy punk from the ’90s. Old age, you have claimed another victim! I guess it would be crazy if some 30+ years later, The Mentally Ill cranked out an LP as vile and nasty as their first 7″, but I wasn’t expecting something as corny and non-threatening as this. It’s kind of impressive that their song topics haven’t matured in the slightest, with songs about torture, being rubbed with mayonnaise, Nazi war crimes, etc., but it just seems lame, coming from these old guys in “punk” costumes (even if the creation of their initial 7″ forever makes them cooler and punker than I could ever hope to be). Both of those songs are here even, “Tumor Boy” and “Padded Cell”, and neither come close to their originals. Really, my favorite track here is the George Thorogood-esque “Pablo Picasso”, a long, stupid, bluesy jam, and if the whole LP took on that direction, I might be singing a different tune. But instead, I am telling you to avoid Strike The Bottom Red if you wish to keep your memories of the original Mentally Ill singles undisturbed.

MFP MFP 7″ (Painkiller)
I ordered this MFP single back in November of last year, inexplicably had it sent to my parents’ address (have I really been buying Painkiller records for that long?), and picked it up at a recent visit, completely unaware of what MFP is or why I even ordered it. If there are warning signs of record addiction, this is one of them. Anyway, I later recalled that it was Painkiller’s promise that MFP is the “dumbest band” they ever released that sold me, but nothing about MFP strikes me as particularly dumb, especially when lined up against Cider and The Darvocets. The Stone Cold intro sample is great, and it’s followed by six tracks of mosh-heavy hardcore worthy of the “tough as nails” designation. It’s got a slight metallic / thrash tinge to it, but not in a Y2K-thrash way – rather, an intimidating “late ’80s CBGB’s hardcore gig” sort of way. Any given member of MFP probably weighs as much as all of Hoax combined, and it’s that mix of muscles and fat that makes this self-titled EP sound so convincingly mean (song titles like “Threats And Ultimatums” and “Powermaster” don’t hurt, either). Clearly I didn’t need this record, as I forgot I ordered it mere moments after clicking “Pay Now”, but it’s a nice little rager, and an excellent case for remaining on good terms with one’s parents.

Tony Molina Dissed And Dismissed LP (Melters)
I am willing to acknowledge that more than two Weezer albums exist (they’ve probably got like a dozen by now), but I can only think of Weezer in terms of those early classics. Thankfully, there are cool punk dudes like Tony Molina out there, carrying the flag of catchy, fuzzy and deceptively-heavy pop tunes that Weezer gave up long ago. There’s certainly more to Molina than that, though – I hear plenty of mid-’90s Queers pop-goodness, Chixdiggit’s hilarious self-awareness, a touch of Wolf Colonel’s off-kilter memorability, and of course the root of this joyous expression, the Ramones. Each song feels like it’s less than a minute (in the best possible way), like Molina plays the verse once, the chorus twice, slams out a dual guitar solo and cuts the tape. Pretty sure he’s a semi-member of Violent Change, and part of that whole Oakland lo-fi punk zeitgeist, and I gotta say that Dissed And Dismissed is my pick of that whole bunch thus far. Excellent work!

The Nubs I Don’t Need You (Cause I Got Me) / Dogs 7″ (Last Laugh)
Last Laugh continue to provide faithful reproductions of punk rock obscurities with this reissue of The Nubs’ I Don’t Need You (Cause I Got Me) / Dogs 7″. The original never came with a picture sleeve, so neither does this, just the most basic of info on the center sticker and two interesting punk songs within its grooves. “I Don’t Need You (Cause I Got Me)” is the upbeat punk-rocker, almost verging on power-pop if the singer wasn’t so rude and the riff so speedy. If this isn’t on a Killed By Death, someone isn’t doing their job. B-side “Dogs” has kind of a Cars feel to it, with a great one-note dial-tone that lingers throughout, and a surprising show of musicianship. Cool single for sure, and while this is far from the first (or last) classic punk 7″ to be reissued, I gotta say, I don’t find the idea of bare-bones punk 7″ reissues appealing, or understand its purpose. Like, if you want to hear these songs, all you have to do is type them into Google; it’s not like we live in an age where music is scarce, and while I love records, I love them as artifacts, where you can smell the time and place on them and understand that what you are holding and playing came from a very specific era and prior owner. I guess if you do a punk single DJ night and refuse to play MP3s (why, who cares?) or shell out serious bonzer-cash, this is for you, but otherwise, I kind of don’t see the point – it’s not like The Nubs recorded this single in a 64-track studio where every precise note has to be heard on an analog vinyl stereo-system with audiophile cables to be appreciated – it’s punk, a crappy dubbed tape would do just fine. Is the purpose more for the label to show off that they made it happen, that they have the insider connection to cool obscure punk groups? The songs are great, so don’t let me stop you from picking it up if you want it, I just don’t understand why the market for such reissues exist. A big retrospective with liner notes and photos, sure, but this…

Permanent Ruin Hell Is Real 7″ (Adelante Discos)
Permanent Ruin have been called “best live band in the Bay area” by more than a couple people, so I had to snag this 7″ when I could, as it seems to pop in and out of Big Cartels, whack-a-mole style. Opening with a blood-curdling scream, Permanent Ruin play faster-than-fast hardcore with plenty of contempt, energy and frustration. I’m reminded of those great, über-fast E-150 records, Fuck On The Beach if they were multidimensional (think it’s that same tight snare sound), the Hatred Surge 7″ on Painkiller, or maybe even Deathreat when they really get into it. Permanent Ruin aren’t as scared of thrash as most modern hardcore bands – this isn’t an exercise in 1982 perfection, it’s a fast-moving blast that verges on both screamo and grindcore while never quite becoming either. Can’t say I recall any songs, just a tidal wave of heavy, spastic hardcore, and in the case of one 7″ EP, that’s good enough for me. Still need to see them live, and what luck, they’re hitting the East Coast this month!

Stoic Violence Stoic Violence 12″ (Katorga Works / Video Disease)
This Stoic Violence 12″ is perhaps the finest recent Katorga Works offering, a killer slice of classic hardcore vitriol. There are touches of early Boston, Midwest and West Coast influences, and I could probably point out touches of YDI here or even Septic Death there, which essentially results in Stoic Violence having their own style by combining so many others, if that makes sense. Like this isn’t just an exercise in X-Claim! #1-3 or Dischord #2-5, you know? The singer has a great croak, definitely born to front a band like this, and the songs are in and out so quickly that there’s no way anyone could grow tired of what Stoic Violence dish out, raw without sacrificing the power. I appreciate that the cover and sleeve are sturdy enough that they could enter and exit a mosh-pit without sustaining much damage, and the newsprint poster is great because clearly at least one member of the band was forced to buy and wear a leather jacket for the photo-shoot (that guy on the far left might as well have a thought-bubble over his head that says “man, I wish I was wearing my hoodie right now”). Record-opener “Fight Them All” is the clear-and-present anthem, but there isn’t a dud in the bunch. Recommended!

Wen Commotion EP 12″ (Neuware)
First, gotta say that I dig the name “Wen”, or when any of these random British dubstep guys use tiny little names for themselves, like Joe or Mala or Quest, names that seem more appropriate for graffiti tagging than musical monikers. Wen’s Commotion is pretty likable too – while everyone else is experimenting with electro, house, techno and rave in their dubstep, Wen keeps it true to its roots, leaving wide open space between beats, plummeting the bass and giving his music that great “airy yet suffocating” dubstep paradox. The occasional grime-ish vocal samples / interruptions add to the 2003 feel, but Wen escapes stagnancy with smart and subtle production. Every sound feels like it’s moving past you in different directions…. stabs of synth sink into the ground, bass slowly drives past, house strings hover before floating away. When I listen to this stuff, I really just want to feel like I got off the wrong tube stop at 3:00 AM in London, that precise moment where I step out onto the street into a light rain, disoriented and possibly in trouble. Wen delivers.

Why The Wires All These Dead Astronauts LP (Rorschach)
Why The Wires? Because I already saw The Breaking Bads! My lame joke is as silly as you’re gonna get with Why The Wires, a very serious, emotionally vulnerable and jazzy post-rock group. There’s a guy who dances while playing one-handed saxophone among the usual guitar-based suspects, and together they create a music reminiscent of that time in the mid-to-late ’90s when big-city art-rock and suburban emo intersected, when bands like Karate and June of 44 were playing shows with Tortoise, Countdown To Putsch was horrifying everyone at ABC No Rio, Lifetime had recently broken up and jazz was cool to get into. Why The Wires make proper use of the form, with at least two members vocally emoting different lyrics at the same time, the bassist playing every string in each song and the drummer switching the beat before any four measures are up. I’m not sure there’s much on All These Dead Astronauts that I have much use for in my daily musical rotation these days, but I also stopped wearing band t-shirts years ago, as though that will somehow make me more of an adult. If you’ve memorized your vegan bakery’s hours of operation, or ever played four-square outside a three-day hardcore fest, Why The Wires might resonate a bit deeper with you, because they’re ultimately pretty good at what they do.

Sightings

YGR — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:03:17 +0000

Of all the great noise / noise-influenced groups to come out of the early ’00s, how many
are not only still kicking, but still getting better? The best (and probably only) group
to fit that bill is Sightings, a gifted guitar/bass/drums trio that has dismantled the
connotations of rock music and re-purposed its pieces into something else entirely. The
only thing that appears to be off-limits in Sightings’ world is predictability – starting
off with garage-crusted Harry Pussy-style rock assaults, Sightings have proven to be masters
of eerie tension, ambient soundscapes, proto-techno repetition and neo-industrial clank,
through the course of nine albums and a handful of singles. Their tenth, Terribly Well, is slated
for release on Dais Records next month, and if you’re not getting excited about it, go buy
some Green Day opera tickets or something. Sightings is what it’s all about.

Sightings have been a group for over a decade now. What has kept you from breaking up?
Jon (drums): I think there’s been a sort of mission to the group and a lot of common interests
musically, and then I think we’ve all been pretty happy with the music we make, so the
musical element probably drives the desire to keep playing together.
Mark (guitar, vocals): Yeah, we still like the music, so I guess that sort of helps with the
longevity. And while on occasion we might get on each other’s nerves like any other band
(or family), we generally still get along well after slogging it out in the rock wars for all this time.
Richard (bass): Short answer, beer. Longer answer is I think some of the music we have put together
in the last couple years is among our best. If we were doing mediocre shit we’d definitely stop.

What would you say the group’s “mission” is, that Jon references?
Richard: Beer. More serious, we all hated post-rock and emo. Really serious… from the start, I
wanted to have a ‘heavy’ band that wasn’t just rehashing hardcore and metal. Early
industrial was in the mix. But we definitely wanted to play instruments and not just
tweak knobs. I think the defining thing at a certain point was we were all interested
in exploring our instruments and really making them our own. Being players, while kicking
ass. Maybe Jon had another mission in mind?
Jon: When I mentioned some mission, it wasn’t all that specific, but I was thinking of when we
started out and we’d be listening to records and wanting to capture maybe a feeling of
tension or some musical idea and play it as a band with the instruments (and playing
ability) we had, and over time we developed our own vocabulary. And we could write songs.
And like Richard mentioned, we can still put together some good tunes, so we keep doing it.

You often get tagged as “experimental”… do you see Sightings that way? Do you feel any pressure
to keep pushing forward, to never do the same record twice?
Jon: In the sense that the conventional approach to guitar, bass and drums is replaced with
a more open architecture in the way we play songs and the sounds we use, it could be
called “experimental”. But it’s rock music in the end.
Mark: It’s a fairly loaded term, and I tend to avoid using it unless the subject of the band
comes up at a family Thanksgiving dinner or a job meeting. I definitely put pressure
on myself to keep on changing and developing my playing and don’t want to feel like
I’m repeating myself. That being said, it’s often a counterproductive mindset, and
sometimes the best shit just comes out of relaxed “let’s see what the hell happens”
situations in practice.
Richard: I think very little music counts as experimental these days. Within Sightings, we all
have pretty pronounced playing styles, so there’s only so far from a certain core
sound we are going to get. I don’t think our latest record – and there’s a second
record we recorded at the same time – is really Earth-shatteringly different from
the last couple records, but it might be an improvement in overall quality, and
definitely closer to the sound we want from a record right now.

Are there any records or tracks in particular for older records where you can listen
back to it now and be like “we absolutely nailed that”? For me, one of my personal favorite
Sightings memories is the first time I heard your debut LP. The opening track “Two
Thoughts” just kinda shocked me, that a band could allow such a song to happen after
such a casual “one two three four”. It felt really triumphant.
Richard: The song “Michigan Haters” was a one-off jam that sounded like perfect music to me.
That was the moment I knew we were really hitting it. “Guilty Of Wrecking” is off the
chain. “Anna May Wong” (that’s how it should have been spelled) on Absolutes fulfilled some
other higher order, we’re-not-stuck-playing-rock-music desire. Those were all recorded
in the same late summer/early fall, 2001. As far as the first album goes, still love
“Cuckoo”, but Mark hates it!
Jon: Every record has a few songs that I think are pretty amazing – good songs, well played, well
recorded and mixed. “Two Thoughts” would be one of my picks from that first record. Michigan Haters
and Absolutes are pretty solid all the way through. “Carry On” from End Times and “The Knotted House”
from Future Accidents are favorites.

How do you know when an album is “done”? Do you have a specific set of songs you go into
the studio to record usually, or is there a lot of improvising/jamming?
Richard: We love improvising in the studio and now seems like a good time to shill for Mr. Pat
Murano (ex?-No Neck, current Decimus) who has jammed with us on the last two studio
sessions. 3/4 of the new record includes him on synth. Some pieces we have worked
on previously with him, and some are improvs. Otherwise, we always go in with a lot
of songs, usually a mix of stuff that’s been vetted pretty hard live and some new
stuff we can have some fun trying out. And then some straight improv. I think City of Straw is
probably the only record that doesn’t have a one-off jam on it since the first one.
Jon: City Of Straw and Future Accidents were recorded at the same session and the improv tune is on Future Accidents.
As far as a record being “done”, we run out of time or money.

How much input do you guys have in each other’s performances? Like, will Jon ever recommend Mark
try a different guitar sound, or does Mark ever give Richard advice on what riffs he
should play along with you?
Jon: Once we have a song idea we’ve been playing, there is some talk about how to refine the tune,
and occasionally there are suggestions, but generally I would say no.
Mark: I’m often not too keen on telling other people what to do, and even recommendations strike
me as fascist when I’m in a certain mood (was I born this way or did my family do this
to me?). But, advice/input does happen, and the most heard refrain throughout the history
of band practices is, “Hey man, try to play less or keep it simpler”. Another fairly common
thing is someone will play something that he thinks is stupid, clichéd or ,and another
member of the band will say they like it.
Richard: We have been doing it for so long, there’s not a lot we need to say to one another. Even
if I have a negative opinion about, say, how Mark is approaching playing on a given night,
it’s pretty common for him to express the same opinion afterwards without me saying anything.
We do try to encourage each other to work with certain ideas or sounds when so inspired.
Positivity is always helpful, because it’s easy to get caught up in an attitude that nothing
you’re playing is new or different or good enough… maybe that also answers the last question.

Is your favorite Sightings record always the last one you’ve released, or is there one that you’re
just particularly proud of?
Jon: The Michigan Haters / Absolutes era (2002-3) was a good time for the band, so those two records
stand out. Those are 4-track records we recorded ourselves. As far as the studio records – Arrived In Gold,
Through The Panama, City Of Straw, Future Accidents and the new one, Terribly Well – yes, Terribly
Well sounds the best to me right now.
Mark: I would echo the Michigan Haters / Absolutes sentiment. I’m pretty sure though that
Terribly Well is the most consistent LP so far, but I’ll have to check back in a few years.
Richard: I would say definitely Michigan Haters and maybe Absolutes are the only records before this
new one that doesn’t have a glaring problem that makes me wince every time I think
of them. Mostly track choices. So much compromise of so many kinds goes into making
records, it’s hard to be satisfied. I laugh when people talk about records as if every
detail was intended by the artist… is it ever like that for any one? Sometimes the
accidents are happy ones. Sometimes the decisions are poor. Sometimes you run out of
time, sometimes money. Michigan Haters was the moment when I first felt like we were making
a real statement. It’s definitely my fave and the one I am most proud of.

Since there really aren’t many (any?) groups out there that sound like Sightings, you’re often put
on bills with rock bands, or with improvised noise… are there any particularly bands you
feel a kinship with, either for touring together or playing shows with?
Jon: We’ve often been labeled a “noise” group, which none of us would really agree with, but we
played the Minneapolis Noise Fest in 2010 and the audience was really frenetic. The group
before us was dragging metal around the room on concrete floors while we were setting up,
and when we played there was a lot of tension in the crowd, in a good way. People were
really engaged through the whole night of groups. One of the best nights of that tour for
me. My point being, the “rock” vs. “noise” thing doesn’t really matter to me, but that show
was an example of when the noise tag can be good. We played with Sword Heaven a few times
and that was always fun. More recently, we’ve played with Fat Worm Of Error and Bill Nace’s
groups, both out of Northampton, MA.

How did collaborating with Tom Smith come about? Was there a friendship prior to Sightings, or something
that came about afterward? Are future collaborations possible?
Mark: I met Tom when we were both working at Mondo Kim’s in ’99. We had some mutual friends and I had
certainly heard a lot about him through them. I’ll never forget reading his resume which
went back to like, ’76 or something, and it had pretty much any job you could conceive
of on it, all of them only lasting for four-to-five months. At the very end of it, he wrote
something to the effect of “As you see, I can do anything so you should hire me.” Hire him we
did, and I think the first time I met him there he was wearing a fucking Mark Ecko sweatshirt,
and I thought that about it in two ways: 1) this guy is fucking insane (he was in his mid 40s
rocking that shit) or 2) perhaps trying too hard to offend the more stylish denizens of the
East Village then. Or both. Either way, I was amused, and we hit it off real well and have
been friends ever since. He eventually met the other two guys; we did an aborted recording
session in 2000 (I think), recorded the Gardens of War album together, and have played a few shows
together here and there over the years.

You’ve all lived in New York for as long as Sightings has existed, right? Do you see yourself as a New
York band, or just a band? I’m wondering if you have any New York pride, or possibly see it
as a condition that has helped inspire Sightings.
Jon: We all met in New York and have existed as a band here, but none of us are from here. I don’t
personally have any sense that we’re a “New York” band.
Richard: On one hand, I don’t feel like there’s anything particularly New York about Sightings. The
bands I most loved and idolized growing up weren’t NYC bands, and other than a couple years in
the early ’00s, I haven’t felt much a part of any of the hundred or so NYC music scenes. On the
other hand, I think it’s disingenuous to say living in New York is not a part of who we are as
a band. We’re intense people, it’s an intense city, we’re an intense band. We choose the grind
of the city to make non-commercial music that can’t possibly get more popular. We have made this
choice for almost fifteen years. It’s all intertwined, but I can’t give you a pithy line about
the relationship.

Is there anything you still really want to do with Sightings that you haven’t done yet? Touring with a
certain band, playing shows in a foreign place, a gatefold triple LP of cover songs… anything?
Mark: I’d love to visit Australia or South America, go back to Japan or maybe play Tehran. As long
as we can continue to get on planes to play shows and not lose a ton of cash, I’m happy.
Jon: I would agree with Mark. Australia and New Zealand would be cool.
Richard: Still hoping for that album I am completely happy with… but maybe not being satisfied is
a big part of the band.

Reviews – March 2013

YGR — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:17:19 +0000

Agitated Agitated 7″ (Helta Skelta)
The ghost-mummies on the cover remind me of some early-stage Resident Evil boss, or the art you’d see on a Santa Cruz skate-deck in 1995, and the music of Agitated will most likely appeal to anyone who travels in either orbit. Fast, flailing, semi-jokey hardcore-punk that has zero personality of its own; just another sticker in the men’s room of a groady all-ages club. Song topics are of an anti-hypocrite / anti-human race nature, among some of the most well-worn punk rock templates, and offer nothing new to the field. This song and dance is as routine as the way our parents stubbornly keep going to church, and in this case, I find it equally appealing. It’s kind of odd, because while there is absolutely nothing wrong with Agitated existing and doing what they do, there is also absolutely no reason for this 7″ to exist beyond their state border, or even as a 7″ at all, and not just a tape or some MP3s. If Agitated just played for their friends and neighbors, all would be fine.

Ausmuteants Ah… What An Ugly Face Every Face Is 7″ (Heinous Anus)
Aus-mute-ants… ah, I get it! Pretty dece’ four-song EP from this Australian punk group, who generally keep it mid-tempo, chugging with just a touch of snarl. I’m thinking of the more straight-forward Tyvek material mixed with whatever comes to your mind when I say “Dangerhouse”, as it’s pretty classic-sounding, and one band member’s always got his or her finger jammed squarely on a crappy keyboard. The first three songs are a pleasant in-one-ear-and-out-the-other trip, but “Bloody Rip-Off” is the one I’ll be requesting – the chorus sticks with you right away, and is wonderfully unpoetic in its delivery. (It goes “It’s pretty embarrassing / to be from the same / town as you” over and over – who can’t relate to that?) The guitar rolls a sharp little lead over top, and it’s another fine reason why I generally take my rock in the form of punk. If Ausmuteants have any more “Bloody Rip-Off”s in them, I hope they aren’t stingy with them!

Autre Ne Veut Anxiety LP (Software)
I’m so glad the emotionally-overwrought music of Autre Ne Veut exists, and have been looking forward to chuckling while singing along to this follow-up album, Anxiety. A few minutes in, however, it becomes clear that the spastic art-school hilarity of the debut is almost completely extinguished, replaced with slicker production values, thoughtful arrangements, better vocals and just an overall quality improvement. At first, I was kind of disappointed that the grown-man-in-a-chicken-suit, Tim and Eric vibe was missing, but these songs quickly revealed themselves as the catchy, heart-on-sleeve, indie-R&B gems that they are, much farther from hipster irony and closer to Usher or Prince. The production goes much wider than the bedroom beats on his previous records; it’s clearly a strongly-considered studio affair, and the back-up singers’ vocals give the record a touch of Kate Bush’s whimsy, which feels completely natural and unforced here. The main man still sings with the passion of a dozen suicidal teenagers, but no longer do you want to laugh at him, you want to share his emotions while singing along. Or at least I do.

Bandshell Caustic View 12″ (Liberation Technologies)
That first Bandshell 12″ on Hessle Audio was such a strange little corker that I had to scoop up this new one, another four tracks of experimental electronics that glance or nod toward the dancefloor. Opening track “Winton” does more than nod, even, slicing all sorts of sharp-edged percussion bits into a groove worthy of the worm. Reminds me of Skream’s “Repercussions Of A Razorblade”, although faster, and with all sorts of disorienting debris lurking beneath the fairly approachable rhythm. “Perc” is almost kind of pretty, like if Actress made a love song. The two b-side cuts, “Nice Mullet” (har har) and “Landfill” seem to have pillaged heavy industry for their sound base, as if a cold-wave classic was disassembled by Mark Fell or some other dancefloor academic. “Landfill” in particular has the bleary touch of a Sandwell District product, where the bass has long since died out and robotic vultures circle the carcass. Think it’s gonna be a while before the rest of the world catches up to where Bandshell is at.

Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys Ready For Boredom LP (R.I.P Society)
The B.W.B. Boys are back in town, and in the fine tradition of recent Australian punk rock records, there’s a photo of a mess on the back cover. I dug their debut single; it was just catchy and gruff enough to keep me smiling (and I have to admit, I feel a strange sort of kinship with a band called the Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys, a name that so many others seem disappointed by), but Ready For Boredom takes a gentler, poppier route that doesn’t necessarily rule out the reality of the album title. I get from the album cover that these are semi-grown men, drinking in pubs and working jobs and not being kids, but the majority of this album sounds like slowed-down ’90s pop-punk to me, like something Lookout! and Hopeless would’ve fought over back in 1996. They use those super-pleasant, heartstring-pulling guitar leads that everyone from The Queers to MxPx have used in the past, and while they still work, I find it surprising that this band, in this year, has decided to play and record them. Maybe if they just fully went for pop stardom, and freshened up the singing and tightened up the playing, I’d be falling in love with Ready For Boredom, but instead it’s something that’s nice but ultimately forgettable, like the fifth beer of the night. Don’t get me wrong, I hope these bad boys keep on wettin’, I’m just hoping their next record shines brighter than this one.

Brown Angel Agonal Harvest LP (Thunderhaus Ltd.)
Brown Angel come through with another album, once again released by their own Thunderhaus Ltd. imprint, once again thicker than any slab of vinyl that tries to contain it, virgin or otherwise. This one is pretty much all slow – the music pulsates more than rocks, and the drums generally keep a Khanate sense of time, gradually pushing the iceberg forward. They still sound pretty mean at times, but overall Agonal Harvest is a slightly sweeter record than their first – there’s lots of actual singing (and it’s done well), the riffs are frequently melodic, and even the oppressive moments feel more like something SWANS would’ve done as opposed to a metal band. It’s almost as if the heavy-yet-soothing thunder of Jesu was performed with the spiteful, kick-you-while-you’re-down animosity of Clockcleaner. There doesn’t seem to be any stopping Brown Angel, so if you missed the last one, grab Agonal Harvest and freak out your nephew who insists that Tool is the heaviest band there is.

CCR Headcleaner CCR Headcleaner 7″ (Caesar Cuts)
It looks like CCR Headcleaner are performing in a hippie bonfire on the back cover of this 7″ EP. Not at a hippie bonfire, but in it, like they are slowly immolating as they jam through their tunes. It’s probably some sort of illusion, but I’ll be damned if the music doesn’t sound like an unbathed rock group slowly burning to death, flailing at their instruments in some sort of attempt to put out the flames. I’m one of the many mourners of Mayyors, and I feel like CCR Headcleaner are poised to replace them, if not by sound, but by spirit – this is a group that does whatever they want, touching on psychedelic guitar leads, shouted vocals, hardcore-punk dissociative disorder, stinging noise and crumbly song-structure. Kinda like Eat Skull, had they stopped at the Skulltones 7″. Really great stuff, and at over ten minutes, there’s a lot to soak in… a lot of strangeness that reveals itself over time. With a band like this, I won’t be surprised if they are broken up by the time this review is printed, so I’m going to cherish what they’ve already given us and just hope for the best.

Crap Crab Crab Riff / Crap Crabenstein’s Monster 7″ (Wild Animals)
Eesh… at least they said it, not me. From what I can gather, Crap Crab are a masked instrumental-rock foursome, and their music is not for me. “Crab Riff” sounds like Oxes covering Devo, slapping math-rock guitars on a disco beat. The b-side (whose title I refuse to type twice) has kind of a DC-ish stop-start funk, like Faraquet or Q And Not U, but without any vocals, and with a Nickelodeon sort of zaniness. I dunno, it’s not a bad record per se – Crap Crab are suitable players for the funky, tech-y rock they produce. It’s just that their combo of late ’90s, early ’00s attributes (math-rock, matching masks, disco beats, an acceptance of funk, wiry guitar lines, stupid band name, wacky song titles) creates a pretty displeasing cocktail. Can’t imagine anyone will be eager to hear this, but hey, Moscow Moscow Moscow’s Facebook page has 116 likes (“0 people talking about this”) so anything’s conceivable.

Dads Brown On Brown LP (Wharf Cat)
As if the Merchandise boys didn’t have enough bands going, Dads is another thing Carson Cox and David Vassalotti are doing, and dare I say it’s their strangest offering yet. Dads seem willing to sound like anything, and on Brown On Brown they offer six different and loose musical ideas, improvised (or at least endlessly repeated) for their own amusement. The first track “Disco Dad” sounds like a dancey Pop. 1280 song that went on for way too long, which leads into “I’m A Shitty Ghost”, a simmering post-rock wake-up call with plenty of echoed vocals. Brown On Brown comes with a nice thick booklet too, filled with wacky writing about dads and moms and being a dad and other nonsense that I am surprised (and impressed?) someone took the time to actually lay out and have professionally bound into a booklet. The last track “Ride The Moon Into The Sun” is painfully long, really more of an accomplishment in their ability to remain focused enough to slowly reduce a track to nothing over the course of what seemed like 80 minutes. (Can they fit 80 minutes on the side of an LP these days? What just happened here?) I can’t tell if I’m being bullied by Brown On Brown, or if it truly wants me to listen to it, and it’s somewhere in that uncertainty that the appeal of Dads lies – you can try to laugh at them or dance to them, but Dads aren’t going to let you off that easy.

Divorce Divorce LP (Night School)
The big ol’ sticky hand-screened cover-art mess of this Divorce LP harkens me back to the early ’00s when Wolf Eyes ruled (although technically, I suppose they’ll never truly stop ruling). Divorce follow that aggressive art-brut aesthetic straight through to the music, tossing a scalding pail of wet noise all over the audience until eventually belching out a thunderous rock riff. Kinda like if that Sword Heaven / 16 Bitch Pile-Up record morphed into a stoner-infected Coughs. Divorce certainly has that “screamo band who moved onto noise” feel, like the drummer is too good to trade in his kit for a no-input mixer, so the rest of the band lets him or her keep it while they scream and wail over top. Song titles like “AIDS Of Space” and “Stabby (Stabby) Stab” might not even be the most offensive ones on the record, resulting in an album that’s sure to appeal to anyone willing to wear Child Abuse or Test Icicles t-shirts. I like it best when they forgo the actual songs for the pure Hijokaidan noise dogpile, but their rock tracks are gnarly enough to get Lovepump United’s attention, at least if Load doesn’t return their calls. Worth a listen, this one!

Dog And Pony Child Of God LP (Founding Fathers)
Child Of God kicks off with a raging slab of garage-rock disillusionment in the form of “Dentist Appointment”. I don’t know anyone who likes the dentist; I don’t care if you’re old or young or poor or rich… this could be the most unifying punk song I’ve heard in a while. Great stuff, in that sort of in-the-red Ty Segall way, but Dog And Pony quickly take their music into a long-form direction, with heavy bass/drums grooves and plenty of riff extrapolation. I’m reminded of why I still own all those The Convocation Of… records when I listen to Dog And Pony, and it’s because heavy, bombastic rock is great when it’s gritty and unpretentious like this. Child Of God almost attempts some Psychic Paramount moves toward the end of the record (and with those gnarly mechanical-sounding drums on “Freedom?”), but as good as Dog And Pony may be, they’ve still got plenty of work cut out for them to ever approach the greatness that is The Psychic Paramount. Real satisfying record though; for as humble as it may be, there’s quite a bit of fire in Dog And Pony’s oven.

Elephant Rifle Party Child LP (Satan’s Pimp / Humaniterrorist)
Whoa, Satan’s Pimp! Here’s a great ’90s label that pumped out noise-rock and hardcore-grind with the best of ‘em, but never quite seemed to get their due. I was certainly excited to see that they were responsible for this Elephant Rifle LP, wondering if it wasn’t their version of Siltbreeze’s Times New Viking (you know, the band to wake a great label from dormancy), and well, it’s not bad, but not the explosive epic I hoped it might be. Right off the bat, they do kind of a Karp speed-riffing thing into a Harvey Milk musical-argument with a vocalist who could probably do a mean version of The Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom”. Elephant Rifle will breach full-on metal guitar-work one moment and then do a skronky Skin Graft Records-style twister the next, pillaging nearly every corner of obnoxious rock music to their own end. Like I said before, not bad, just not particularly memorable either, and while I probably would enjoy watching TV on the couch with these guys, making fun of whatever’s on, they kinda come across as less witty than they seem to think they are on Party Child. Whatever though, so long as this means Satan’s Pimp is an ongoing concern, I consider this record a positive contribution to the world.

Ghastly Spats We’re Breaking Through The Hymen! 7″ (Heinous Anus)
Yep, Ghastly Spats’ We’re Breaking Through The Hymen! on Heinous Anus Records. I don’t see any producer credits, but I can only hope that Donny Dingleberry was controlling the boards. Really, my hopes weren’t high for this one, but it turns out Ghastly Spats are pretty wonderful after all – they’re like the Mentally Ill of the modern Australian garage scene, in that these songs seem to be guided by true malice and perversion, not the standard punk-rock wave-length everyone else is riding. The vocalist definitely has a Sado Marquis vibe, and while the music is of a shambolic DIY post-punk nature, it’s still pretty twisted, with backing vocals that seem to have crawled from a crypt, and guitars so cheap that they can barely support metal strings. These tracks are more like pathetic moans than songs, but it ends up sounding like The Silver, not Xiu Xiu. Really, the more I spin this one, the more Ghastly Spats have tangled me in their web, one where bodlily fluids serve as beverages and farts a form of currency. At least the music is good.

Hoax Caged / Sick Punk 7″ (La Vida Es Un Mus)
In celebration of Hoax moshing the Eiffel Tower, stage-diving into the Mediterranean and wiping their scabby foreheads on Big Ben, La Vida Es Un Mus grant us this quick and easy Euro-tour single. “Caged” is the Oi-tinged mid-tempo stomper, pretty standard Hoax material with ample fist-pump opportunities and sweaty young men crashing into your thoracic spine. “Sick Punk” has some classic Boston hardcore elements to the rhythm, speeding up a bit in the verse and coming back to that DYS-ish breakdown before the grooves run out. These two tracks lack the low-end oomph and overall memorability of Hoax’s prior EPs, and the whole thing lasts under four minutes or so, but the cover art is killer (the long eyeball threads are an excellent touch!), and what are you gonna do, not keep up with Hoax? Hope they sell decent bandages over in the European Union!

Home Blitz Frozen Track 12″ (Mexican Summer)
Shame on me for taking so long to wrangle this Home Blitz 12″ EP… they’re one of those groups that has existed long enough, and been solidly great long enough, that they’re easy to take for granted. Like Sightings or The UV Race in that respect. Anyway, this is a pretty speedy six-song EP, worth filing next to F’s You Are An EP and the Russian Meatsquats’ Let’s Hang Out when it comes to great punk 12″ EPs. DiMaggio and company rock a little more straight-forward than usual here, feeling less disjointed (more jointed?) and ready to rock, even through a cover of Game Theory’s “Rolling with The Moody Girls”, which sounds like it may as well’ve been written by Home Blitz anyway. A song like “In Every Window” blazes hard, and if you didn’t expect that from Home Blitz, be aware that they can rage as competently as the best of ‘em (and still toss in a weirdo like the multi-tracked church-organ schizophrenia of “Blind Nova”). I guess it’s a natural result for anyone who moonlights as a member of Pennsylvania’s Toughest Band, Watery Love.

Iceage You’re Nothing LP (Matador)
After their stunning debut, which I initially assumed only I would enjoy but ended up being critically acclaimed the world round, it wasn’t long before I was dying for more. And now, here it is, and it’s as bizarre, great, confusing and catchy as I could’ve hoped. While the straight-forward punkitude of New Brigade might be lacking through much of You’re Nothing, the catchiness is still there – if not by song title, I can recall at least 75% of this record by rhythm and vocals alone. It took a couple listens to warm up to the seemingly scattershot nature of it – the sequencing seems to have been placed at random (the instrumental interlude as the third track – huh?), and the vocals are often hilariously up-front in the mix, with Elias Ronnenfelt’s vocals even more blusteringly tuneless than before. They try out different tempos (there’s at least a couple marches), almost get Hüsker Dü-ishly melodic at times, and the drums almost always seem at the verge of falling completely out of time, unable to keep up with the static hive that is the guitars. It’s a total mess in every way, and after building an initial tolerance, it’s easy to listen to You’re Nothing over and over, captivated by these weird Danish boys and how they’ve decided to go about making music. Not sure this one will be my favorite of the year, but if I keep listening to it and finding more delightful weirdness to chomp on among the deceptively catchy hooks, it very well might be!

Kangding Ray The Pentaki Slopes 12″ (Raster-Noton)
Kangding Ray’s weird name drew me in on this 12″… the moniker calls to mind either a Spider Man villain or a pitcher on the 1973 Milwaukee Brewers. I was expecting abstract shapes of bass and treble, but what Ray delivers is far more accessible, and as far as I’m concerned, quite palatable – “North” opens the EP, building on some mountain-sized slabs of bass that slowly mutate into the shape of a club with people dancing inside. The cardiovascular techno beats and darkened atmosphere makes me think of Petar Dundov hosting a night at Berghain, which is quite a tasty mix. “Plateau (A Single Source Of Truth)” it a creepy little passage of time, the grandfather clock angrily ticking as curious tones hover around it. The Pentaki Slopes eventually come down in “South”, a Maurizio-after-dark special with deep throbbing bass and dub-house effects. Pretty sure there’s a sizable amount of Kangding Ray records already out there, and I think I’m ready to venture deeper into his curious world.

Lark’s Tongue / Men Of Fortune split 12″ (Bird Dialect)
Lark’s Tongue and Men Of Fortune opt for the “all our gear set-up in a random space without us” cover shot, but presuming this stuff belongs to both bands, why is there just one drum kit? Do these groups share? Was one drummer against the idea? Anyway, Lark’s Tongue set the tone with three songs of tectonic shoegaze, veering oddly towards one of Stone Temple Pilots’ freakier tracks on “Black Sue” (think “Creep” as performed by Hum). Twice in listening, I was convinced that the first song was too slow at 33 until the vocals came in. Pretty cool how laid back they manage to get here while still holding things together. Men Of Fortune are a fitting vinyl-mate, slightly more alternative and choppier in their attack, with a singer that probably has at least one eyebrow piercing. I’m picturing Incubus if they signed to AmRep, which is cracking me up, even though Men Of Fortune are clearly no joke. I like that both of these bands seem to exist in that post-grunge major-label wash-out of 1995, a musical moment that seems to be getting more consideration these days (and rightfully so, if you ask me). None of these songs knocked me out of my chair, but if Lark’s Tongue and Men Of Fortune had a show in my town, I’d go simply to see what they looked like. I’m intrigued!

Libyan Hit Squad / Round Eye split LP (Ripping)
As this record came to me along with that bizarre RunnAmucks album, I expected something freaky. And I got it! Libyan Hit Squad (frequently referred to as LHS on the sleeve) are about as unusual as RunnAmucks, but in a different way… it starts off sounding like the usual “old guys who were punks in the ’80s try to make a punk record decades later and it sounds like the Warped Tour”, like a poppy mix of Black Flag / Descendents / Circle Jerks, but by the third track they devolve into this Burning Man-friendly jam sesh, with lead guitar by none other than everyone’s favorite hardcore icon to hate, Greg Ginn. After that undesirable excursion, they manage to mix the modern-rock stylings of A Perfect Circle and P.O.D. into their classic skate-punk, nearly verging on the psychedelic at times. Say what you want about Libyan Hit Squad, but they aren’t following any trends! China’s Round Eye are on the other side, who perform excitable party-punk, frequently instrumental and with plenty of sax, as if the only punk records that made it through China’s culture filter were The Stray Cats and Generation X. I give them credit for existing, but I certainly plan on never listening to Round Eye again if I can help it. Really don’t care for this record at all, but the sheer strangeness of its existence and single-minded bad ideas have certainly earned my respect.

The Lost Domain An Unnatural Act LP (Negative Guest List)
I nearly tapped out just at the sight of this Lost Domain LP… their previous Blondes Chew More Gum double LP was about as much drunken outback Fall worship I could take. So glad I dropped the needle on this one though, because it’s an entirely different beast, and I mean beast – right from the start The Lost Domain send their noisy transmission through a helicopter’s spinning blade, simultaneously disorienting and pleasing me. They follow that with a punchy sheet-metal beat and guitars so distorted and painful, it’s as if the Saw movie franchise chose Fenders instead of humans for its victims. If I think of the best possible outcome of a Thurston Moore / Sunburned Hand Of The Man collaboration, or Tetuzi Akiyama reforming A Band, I think of what I hear on An Unnatural Act; seriously, this thing cuts right to the bone and doesn’t even flinch. It’s bittersweet to know that this band is no longer with us, but I’m thankful that such a recording made it where it belongs – a thin, shiny slab of black plastic.

Napalm Hearts Urban Noise 7″ (Helta Skelta)
Whole lotta stencil font on this Napalm Hearts single, from the band name to the song titles, and I can’t blame them for that – this music is the audible equivalent of the punk-rock stencil-font. Highly generic pogo-punk with that mid-’90s sound, ala The Unseen, The Boils, Violent Society or Urbn DK. Pull out any random Beer City Records single and it’s a good chance you’ll find a matching riff to something on Urban Noise here. I don’t blame Napalm Hearts, I mean part of the beauty of punk rock is the years of riff recycling, but that doesn’t mean I have to sit in my chair and listen to Napalm Hearts doing it. I don’t get any particular personality or flavor from this record, just generic studs, straps and stencil-font. Starting a band like Napalm Hearts is far from one of the worst things you can do for a hobby though, so before I come across as a total snob, let me just say that I am glad these folks are having fun in the form of punk rock – may the Operation Ivy mascot never stop skanking.

Perspex Flesh Ona 7″ (Video Disease)
Perspex Flesh are a British hardcore band, and on Ona they appropriate the same “weird” indigenous culture body-paint people as that first Factums record (among others – I know I’ve seen this art a few times now). Something about these painted-stripes guys just makes kids in bands want to use it for their art, I guess. Perspex Flesh have a cool name for a hardcore band, and they make good use of it by pounding it pretty hard, with a vocalist who sounds like he’s at full anal-clench – kinda like Ross from Ceremony, but less peculiar. Musically I’m reminded of Sex Vid, in that the riffing somehow seems more hateful and miserable than most hardcore bands, but the Sex Vid mysteriousness is tempered with a working-class bomber-jacket touch, with musical influences possibly coming from Boston (the city) or 86 Mentality (the band). No standout tracks, just four solid cuts of unassuming, negative hardcore; it’s pretty nice, because up until this I figured all the hardcore bands in England just sounded like At The Drive-In or The Blood Brothers. RIP Voorhees.

Profligate Videotape EP 12″ (Not Not Fun)
The blurry, straight-to-VHS model with flowers on the cover sets the mood for Profligate right away, another glassy-eyed techno troubadour that seems to be borne of the recently deceased American noise scene. Kinda feel like a fool to find out that this guy was recording music in Philadelphia, and very well may be a native, as “Videotape” is a nice brooder – part John Carpenter and part Drexciya, it’s geared for long stretches of dark rainy highways with a lone set of headlights closing in from behind. It kinda goes on a little long, especially when considering the lack of variation or apparent technical prowess, but it’s my understanding that this music was recorded live with a table of gear, not in a beanbag chair with a laptop, so I am willing to let things slide. “Conditioning Trench” comes with a chill in the air, perched at that great point where new-wave and techno intersect (or so musical revisionist history has led me to believe), complete with distant, antiseptic vocals that act as a guide through this claustrophobic cut. The insert has a live shot with a very prominent Ren Schofield (aka Container) giving the Wolf Eyes invisible-orange hand-signal of appreciation, which probably sums up Profligate better than any written word. Honestly, I’d probably rather crack open a can of cheap beer in a dusty warehouse to a loud, blaring Profligate than Atrax Morgue or Climax Denial right now anyway. Maybe we all just needed a break.

Räjäyttäjät Räjäyttäjät LP (Dead Beat)
Finland’s Räjäyttäjät shocked my soul with their debut 7″, a true assault of punk rock sonics and hard rock riffage. I’ve nearly worn out the grooves in my copy, and when a 7″ is that good, you never quite know how a follow-up full-length will fare. Maybe they just struck gold that first time, you know? Forget that – Räjäyttäjät is a scorcher from start to finish, and overall, it’s even better than the debut EP. They still sound like maniacal punks (and as I’ve met them in person, I can attest that whatever vision their music conjures is actually far tamer than their real-life behavior), but the riffs are catchier, the choruses angrier and the attitude cranked even further. It’s like they took the best Thin Lizzy and Sweet riffs and played them through Vomit Visions’ crusty amps, with a vocalist who behaves like a young Ted Nugent that you can actually feel good about (when he’s not throwing up on your shoes or dry-humping your leg). They’ll swing from a noisy tape-collage into a Chuck Berry-esque rocker and it somehow makes perfect sense. My life is infinitely improved by having Räjäyttäjät in it, and as this was released on the Dead Beat Records label at an affordable domestic price, there is no good reason any of my fellow American citizens shouldn’t be reaping the same benefits.

Raw Prawn Raw Prawn 7″ (R.I.P Society)
This single is Raw Prawn’s vinyl debut, and as R.I.P Society are a trustworthy purveyor of punk rock potency, it might be worth paying import price based on their backing alone, but I’m here to confirm that this is indeed a tasty punk treat. Musically, it reminds me why I go out of my way to collect the Small Wonder Records discography – there’s just something so palatable about simple, fumbling-yet-snappy punk rock that will never not hit the spot for me. Raw Prawn certainly didn’t invent the chord progression that comprises “None Left”, but they make it as lively and cool as Murder The Disturbed or The English Subtitles ever did, you know? Same goes for the two b-side cuts, keeping it simple but not stupid – Raw Prawn know they sound cool, and don’t need to put a bunch of patches and chains on their jackets to prove it. Let’s get these folks on the fast-track to the “album release / US tour / break-up with formation of new splinter bands” plan, okay?

Rites Wild Ways Of Being LP (Not Not Fun)
If you ever wished Young Marble Giants weren’t so damn aggressive, allow me to point you in the direction of Rites Wild’s Ways Of Being album. This thing coasts by on an empty tank, rolling on simple drum patterns, modest synth sounds, plenty of reverb and echo effects, and the occasional androgynous underwater vocal. That description fits roughly 80% of the records being released in the underground these days, but Rites Wild succeed where others fail through sheer clarity of production. Could be chalked up to the Dubplates & Mastering mastering job, but regardless of why, Ways Of Being feels deceptively warm and comforting as it drifts past, like a dull-looking blanket that somehow is the one you always reach for on the couch. The album’s second side plays out almost as though it were a dub version of the a-side’s more tangible songs, and it’s a fitting way for Rites Wild to slowly dissipate into the ether. It’s not gonna blow you away, but it sure feels nice.

Skimask Cute Mutant LP (Infinity Cat / Sophomore Lounge / 100% Breakfast)
Anytime I have someone over and they’re flipping through my bin of new arrivals (yes, I like to pretend I live in a record store), they pull out this Skimask LP and ask about it. Gotta hand it to the group (and the three involved labels) for the cover, a die-cut black sleeve offering only two eyes and a mouth, which are revealed to be that of a mutated Spongebob. It’s a great look, and a fitting one for the noise contained within. A live drummer and one or two noise-makers jam slowed-down Lightning Bolt rhythms while a vocalist attempts to sing with a pair of socks in his mouth. The meaty oscillations that count as the “melody” remind me a lot of Skoal Kodiak, which is certainly a good thing. No guitars, just junk boxes that excrete noisy tones ala Mammal or Meerk Puffy, and Skimask make it work. Not sure if they wear costumes (or… skimasks?), but this is certainly the sort of psychotic art-school noise-”rock” that opens itself up to wearing homemade balaclavas and gold lamé tights on-stage. Nice record all around!

Society Nurse Society Nurse LP (Iron Lung)
You ever know a person who’ll bake the most intense desserts just because they’re bored? Like they’ll just whip up some lavender-mint macarons in an hour because there’s nothing on TV? I feel like that’s what the Iron Lung gang is like when it comes to hardcore bands, like they’ll go walk the dog, make some pasta and then pump out a killer LP by some new band formation. Society Nurse features Iron Lung and Walls personnel (among other bands I’m sure – Virginia Black Lung, even?), and they rage alongside the top-tier Iron Lung Records bands, taking cues from ugly Deep Six hardcore (No Comment, Despise You, Capitalist Casualties) but eventually landing on an earlier hardcore sound, something that Die Kreuzen or Mecht Mensch would be proud of (but not as good as those two, because who is?). Sometimes these Iron Lung groups will have a screamo after-taste, or get complex and technical, but Society Nurse play it pretty straight, very traditional and “American”. Dessert’s ready!

The Sulphur Lights Little Pills 7″ (no label)
The Goner Records mail-order catalog describes The Sulphur Lights as “Brisbane garage punk!” – sometimes all it takes is three words. Still, I don’t want to rip off the fine people at Goner, or deny The Sulphur Lights a more thoughtful review, so I’ll go into their sound a bit further, even if simplicity is at their core. “Little Pills” has kind of a Black Time crash-bang-boom, and it’s followed by “Sulphur Stomp”, an instrumental track, save for the high-pitched squawk that reaches a Jeromes Dream-level of annoyance/perfection (depending on your personal point of view). Very Monks-y, and my favorite cut of the record. “Hat And Beard” on the flip is like a mix of the first two, very shrill, but the super-simple drumming and plainclothes riff are the sort of thing Jack White would press twenty copies of and then drop from a blimp. Pretty good stuff, and while I don’t plan on keeping it in my personal collection, you may wish to consider such.

Troller Troller LP (Light Lodge / Holodeck)
Troller? So is this band just a bunch of message-board jerks who take joy in riling up strangers? If so, I wouldn’t have expected them to sound like this – a syrupy, glazed-over mix of Salem and Melvins. A drum machine is pushed to the lowest available BPM while electric bass coats the room in Black Mayonnaise, and the next thing you know a vocalist is trying out for the Satanic choir. It works pretty well, just so slow and oozy and vaguely sexy and contemptible, even when they forsake any signs of metal for a more predictable, Tri Angle-style softcore-techno approach. Not sure if I’m supposed to be taking a bubble bath or polishing my leather boots as I listen to Troller, which is a pretty nice conundrum to find myself in. If Sacred Bones wasn’t knocking before, this record should have them poking their heads out of their hole, prairie dog-style. Kind of odd that they put Jay Reatard on the cover, though… just kidding, you just got trolled!

Vondelpark Dracula 10″ (R&S)
Hadn’t heard Vondelpark before, just seen the name around, but the neon cartoon duck-beaks that adorn the cover grabbed my attention to the point where I had to find out what Vondelpark’s deal was. Was hoping to hear some sort of blood-sucking music in “Dracula”, but Vondelpark are much too studious and polite to go for the throat – rather, they sound like a smooth-jazz version of Animal Collective here. It’s quite nice actually, never too busy or too vacant, maybe like what I’d expect Tortoise to do if they were to put out a record on a dubstep label in 2013. The b-side is a remix by Happa, which bares little sonic relation to the original. Happa utilizes Blawan-style rattled-cage percussion and little else, maybe floating a tiny vocal snippet here and there, but generally turning “Dracula” into an angry, bristly dance cut. Cool little record, certainly nice use of the 10″ format, but it’s still really the cover artist who gets my gold star. Those beaks just really struck a chord with me.

Land Of Nod – Atlanta Punk & Hardcore Omnibus compilation LP (Scavenger Of Death)
There’s a rich tradition of regional hardcore compliation LPs, and as someone who grew up before MP3s made everything available at any time, there will forever be a fondness in my heart for compilations and the way they expose the listener to a scene’s heavy hitters and weirdos at the same time. I’ll have to consult with my team of researchers to be sure, but I don’t think there was ever a compilation of Atlanta hardcore-punk before, and even if there was, it couldn’t have been as good as Land Of Nod – it can’t possibly be true, but this LP makes it seem like no bad bands exist there, only raging ones! Not sure if it’s the pedestrian death-rates or real housewives that have raised the ire of so many Atlantan punks, but even the punk bands here rage with the intensity of hardcore (well, except for Gentleman Jesse, but no one ever expected that of him anyway). There’s a lone grind band (God’s Balls), and the aforementioned Jesse does his skinny-tie power-pop thing, and the rest generally fall somewhere between classic early ’80s hardcore-punk and scorching garage-punk (often hitting both posts at once). I’m particularly partial to the tracks by Cops (nice and twisted, like they were imported from Let Them Eat Jellybeans), and Manic doesn’t disappoint after their killer 7″ on this same fine label, but really there’s not a dud in the bunch. I’m both surprised and impressed that this unassuming city has such a rich selection of modern hardcore bands, and even if it doesn’t make you want to move there, you’ll at least have to consider it a touring destination if your punk band is worth its stripes.

Spacin’

YGR — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:15:26 +0000

Normally when a great band goes from sometimes-active to mostly-inactive
status, it’s a cause for great sadness. Not so with the case of Birds Of
Maya, though – guitarist Mike Polizze’s Purling Hiss is God’s gift to melodic
rock, and bassist Jason Killinger’s Spacin’ is the weed God smoked while
wrapping it. After some sporadic live shows, Deep Thuds made the
sweltering summer of 2012 tolerable, grooving with the spirit of the simplest
Velvet Underground and Hot Tuna licks, and resulting in an unpretentious,
captivating rock record suitable for noon or midnight. Killinger’s frontwards
ball-cap merely hints at the comfortable, casual vibe that Spacin’ exudes,
with just enough kraut-rock dalliances and artsy flourishes to keep the record
nerds at half-smirk while the local townies dance. Killinger doesn’t do
interviews, but I got him to speak about Spacin’ anyway! I sure am slick.

How long has Spacin’ existed? I feel like I’ve seen the name around for a
few years, and the occasional show, but I think it was pretty different
from Deep Thuds…
I’ve made late-night songs and recordings in my basement for many years. In
December of 2010 I recorded a couple of songs that sounded good together and
called it Spacin’. I convinced Ben Leaphart and Mike Polizze (the other two-
thirds of Birds of Maya) to play some really strange live stuff for a show and
that was the first time it became a band. Some of that stuff made its way onto
Deep Thuds in sections. Most of the album and live shows are comprised of myself
attempting to play guitar and sing, Paul Sukeena playing all of the good lead
guitar playing, Sean Hamilton on bass, and Eva Killinger on drums. We’ve
also been a ten-piece band for a couple of shows. Spacin’ is all of this.

So basically as long as it’s you on guitar and vocals, it’s Spacin’? Do you play
the same songs no matter if you’re a three-piece or a ten-piece, or does the
lineup dictate what you’ll play?
It’s almost always the four-piece band, we just sometimes do it other ways or
are open to doing it in other ways. Sometimes it’s the same songs, sometimes
it’s much different versions of already recorded songs. We played at the
Institute of Contemporary Art here in Philadelphia last fall as a ten-piece
band, half of which was percussion. We wrote a weird afrobeat-sounding song
that we were going to play for twenty minutes, but when all was said and done,
the song went for nearly an hour. None of us realized it was happening.

Was it weird playing in an art museum? Do you think Spacin’ exists in that sort
of avant-garde music continuum, or are you more of just a band geared for
backyard barbeques?
The only art world we’re ever really involved in isn’t far removed from the
backyard barbeques, so we’re into both. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.

So did the Rolling Stones really get in touch about your album cover? Were you
psyched that they somehow noticed, or was it more of a pain?
They contacted Richie Records. When Richie told me, I was indignant at the
idea that I couldn’t paint a mouth and tongue on our album cover if I wanted
to. I casually attempted to convince all of my friends that this was the result
of our grotesque economic machine that pressures people to syphon words, images
and ideas away from us and convert them into their own personal profit,
indefinitely. To which they all seemed to respond “Yeah, but you painted the
Rolling Stones logo.” Ha ha. So I changed it.

I know you are a graphic designer by trade… are there any other iconic rock
logos you are a big fan of? If copyright laws didn’t exist, what logo would you
appropriate next?
When I was a skater kid in central Pennsylvania I used to draw punk logos
on my closet door in colored chalk for some reason. I would try to copy the
logos and typefaces of bands from advertisements in either Thrasher or
Sessions. I definitely got good at drawing the DRI guy, Dead Kennedys
logo, Misfits skull and all that. That was the first time I ever really paid
attention to graphic design. I don’t think I’d ever incorporate another bands
logo into our own artwork again though. I do have a pin on my backpack that is
the universal “No Bullshit” sign. I might use that.

If guitars never existed, what kinda music do you think you’d be listening to?
I suppose jazz could’ve happened without guitar. I don’t listen to much jazz
(yet) besides Pharoah Sanders or Alice Coltrane or stuff that everyone knows.
Also, a lot of Brian Eno stuff doesn’t have guitar, I love Brian Eno, but I
don’t think that’s what you are asking. This is the most difficult question
I’ve ever been asked.

When did you first start playing guitar? I know you came up as a bassist…
I taught myself how to play guitar in the late ’90s when I graduated high school,
but I’ve still never actually learned how to play chords correctly. I think I
only ever play two strings at a time. Fortunately Paul is a much better guitar
player than I am, so it makes a cool balance. Bass comes much easier to me, so
do drums.

Simplicity seems to be a key component of the Spacin’ sound. Is that something
you purposely try to reign in, or is this just as complex as you can write?
There will never be a Spacin’ prog-rock opus, right?
I like a lot of music that I know we can’t pull off in good taste, but I
don’t want Spacin’ to be any one thing. I would rather it be without genre
and hard to define. I’m not saying that’s what it is, but that’s what I would
like it to be. Loose in every way.

Are you working on new Spacin’ material? Any plans for another record?
I have tons of songs that are waiting for us to learn them as a band. We have
a lot of stuff we’ve done since Deep Thuds and I’m constantly recording
everything. Sean was leaving my house one day and says “We should totally
start recording for the next album” and I say “We have been”. Ha ha. The next
record will happen sometime this year.