STEVE
ADAMYK BAND – Paradise (Dirtnap Records, www.dirtnaprecs.com)
Hell yes! It’s been a long three years since “Graceland,”
Steve Adamyk Band’s last album came out. For those
tuning in late, Steve Adamyk Band is a band out of Canada,
specifically from Ottawa, the nation’s capitol.
They’re masters of garage punk and power pop. They’re
right on the cusp between these styles, managing to extract
all of the best parts of both to create music that’s
bouncy, melodic, rockin’ yet has a toughness to
it. “The Letter” begins the album, and for
an LP named “Paradise,” it’s quite appropriate
that there’s a healthy dose of surf sounds, as well.
“In Death” is one of the most “punk”
tracks of the album, with a simple melody, simple rhythms,
and powerful guitars. The title track is a very driven
song, moving deliberately ever forward, in the way of
a Marked Men track. “Waiting to Die” is a
song in two parts. The first is almost ballad-like, but
can anything Steve Adamyk does really be a ballad? Part
two gets raucous again, with a Ramones-core feel, but
with a pall of darkness over the whole song. I love the
retro power pop feel of “When I was Gone.”
It’s got the feel of one of the edgier radio hits
of guitar-fueled pop rock from the late 70s. And so it
goes with the rest of the dozen songs – every one
is a gem. Recommended.
THE
COOL GREENHOUSE – Landlords b/w 4Chan (Drunken
Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
This new single from the UK band features two super-retro
tracks very reminiscent of the massive creativity of bands
in the post-punk era of the early 80s. The bands feature
synth bleeps and blips and minimalist guitar, along with
blasé spoken word vocals telling stories loaded
with sardonic wit. The A-side tells the tale of paying
too much to live in a crap apartment to fuel the luxuries
of the landlord, and trying to complain to the council
and having to deal with the sorts of monkeys they hire
to help the people, in this case, literal monkeys. The
B-side is told from the perspective of the sort of Internet
troll you find on the title on-line service. This was
my first exposure to this band, and now I plan to hunt
down their previous releases – it’s that good.
And even better, proceeds from the sales of this single
will be donated to the London Renters Union, a grassroots
organization that’s focused on changing how housing
works in the city.
DRUG
APTS – Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances
(Mt.St.Mtn., www.mtstmtn.com)
Formerly known as Drug Apartments, this Sacramento band
has shortened their name and extended the length of their
releases with this, their first full-length LP. Drug Apts
offer up a dozen songs of dark arty post punk. Though,
taken as a whole, the songs tend to blend into one another
a bit, there are some standouts to discuss. The opener,
“stereo,” features a throbbing bass and ominous
sounding guitar stabs. Whittney K’s vocals are often
violent and chaotic throughout the record; her dynamic
range is awesome and a highlight of the record. “Straight
Shooter” has more of a 90s grunge feel than most
of the record, and so stands out from the rest of the
tracks. The track has grunge’s hard guitar sound,
a classic rock and roll edge, and powerful vocals. I like
how “thursday at two” opens with just the
distorted, loud bass line and mysterious vocals, and when
the guitar comes in with its own winding line. Everything
slowly builds, getting louder, pitches rising, until the
full band explodes in a cacophonous rage. “saints”
is a great track that starts out with a hard edge, and
slowly transforms into a bouncy one. And the short instrumental,
“sparks break,” is a bright breath of fresh
air. This is a record that I’m likely to revisit
in the future, but maybe a track or two at a time.
FREAK
GENES – III (Drunken Sailor, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.
uk)
Another band has come out with a third LP and titled it
“III.” While the album title may not be creative
or original, the music on it certainly is. Freak Genes
are an English band that blend early punk, new wave, power
pop, and psychedelic music into minimalist arrangements
that are packed with energy and mania. Many of the tracks
feature synthesizer and drum machine. Some of the tracks
are angular and abrupt, while others are melodic and easy.
The album grabbed me right from the start, with “Waxing
Moon,” a track that’s very disjointed, with
buzzy sections that jut and other sections that are smooth
and relaxed. “Canned Laughter” is a favorite,
and is one of the oddest tracks of the album, with dark
and twinkly synths dueling with each other, guitar and
bass used as percussion instruments, and vocals that are
more loudly spoken than sung or shouted. The final quarter
of the track changes mood completely, as the synths and
guitar play a vaguely medieval melody. “Breach”
focuses on the guitar (but keeps the drum machine) and
is more of a traditional power pop or early punk sounding
track, and is another favorite. I like the bright melodic
lines and use of keyboard in “Strange Light.”
The bridge and run-out on “Get Ready to Go”
are stupendous swirly synth spectacles to behold. I enjoy
the bluesy “Stitches,” a track with a retro
50s rock’n’roll feel that’s been heavily
altered via synth and droll vocals. “Close Up Fear”
closes the LP with a hopping track that reminds me a bit
of The Legendary Pink Dots’ “Catch a Match,”
for it’s monotone rapid-fire vocals. III may not
have as good a name as their previous album, “Qwak
Qwak,” but it has even better music.
PROBLEM
DAUGHTER – Grow Up Trash (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.
limitedrun. com)
I don’t predict, I guarantee that this record is
going to show up on multiple year-end “best of”
lists. The songs are universally great and the songwriting
is creative, way above and beyond the typical pop punk
band, with unexpected shifts in tempo, in melody, and
in feel. “Mercury in Retrograde” is a perfect
example of this – this one song goes through so
many changes in its short two and a half minutes, yet
it’s all a cohesive whole. It starts off with a
big, epic sound, then goes through a short period where
it’s a little more standard pop punk, the tempo
slows, a short hesitation, and the song starts anew with
an almost RVIVR-like feel, with madly jangling guitars.
The song then has a cool start-stop feel, rapidly shifting
tempos and rhythms. It then picks up again as a slower
song with bigger emotional content, bringing us to a big
close. “Take a Walk on the Mild Side,” a spoof
on the title of a famous Lou Reed song, has similar shifts,
as if there are three or four songs within one. “Self
Amusing Smile” is a favorite, running the gamut
from dark, quiet ballad, to a mid-tempo Rocket From The
Crypt inspired lope, to Americana-tinged pop punk, time
signatures constantly moving. Pretty much the only song
that doesn’t shift around like this is the penultimate
“Tired About It.” It’s more of a standard
emotional pop punk sound familiar to West Coast fans,
yet still a powerful track. Front man Regan Ashton’s
vocals are among the most unique and recognizable in the
punk world, and only add to the excellent qualities of
these songs. This record is highly recommended.
SLEEP
IN. – The Stars On Your Ceiling (Know Hope Records,
www.knowhoperecords.com)
New Jersey’s Sleep In. waited a full five years
after their debut LP, “Setting,” to release
their sophomore effort. Both LPs are chock full of melodic
post emo songs, but where the debut was slightly mathish
and busy, the songs on “The Stars On Your Ceiling”
are smoother and more relaxed. And that may be the downfall,
at least for me. The smooth post emo sound, to my ears
at least, just doesn’t pack enough interest or energy.
To me it comes across as the adult contemporary version
of punk. That said, there are some moments of the album
I did enjoy quite a bit. “6th and Catherine,”
the second track of the LP, in particular, has a creative
arrangement, with rollicking guitar licks and a bouncy
melody. The singer-songwriter feel of “A Million
Messages” reminds me of LA’s Divided Heaven,
and is another favorite. It’s got a slightly Americana
feel and a more genuine emotional feel than many of the
other tracks. “This Old House” is a pretty
waltz-time song, with a tender sound. I would suggest
it might sound even better with a cleaner jangly guitar
sound. It would add a delicateness to the song that I
think would greatly improve it. The shift to straight
time on the chorus gives the song a different feel, a
change in texture that increases the interest. And the
closer, “Let Me Let You Let Me,” is a gorgeous,
sad song that opens with just bare vocals and acoustic
guitar. Piano and harmonized vocals join in, and we hear
where the album title comes from, as the lyrics tell us
a tale that seems to be about concern for an ex or an
ex-roommate, at least, that swallows their emotions along
with booze to keep secrets and feelings hidden. “Said
you’re taking a day to sort through your feelings
/ Now you’re half a bottle down, counting stars
on your ceiling / I think you lost it, I think you lost
it again.” It’s a beautiful way to end the
album, with a very moving song that slowly builds, as
do the emotions. Yeah, there are some really nice moments
on this album. But I need more than mere moments.
TEENAGE
BOTTLEROCKET – Stay Rad! (Fat Wreck Chords, www.fatwreck.com)
You know Teenage Bottlerocket, right? So you know what
to expect: Ramones-core inspired pop punk, with catchy
melodies, harmonized vocals, and tons of bouncy goodness.
As is typical with Teenage Bottlerocket records, there’s
little in the way of political content here, lyrics sticking
to themes of relationships and various juvenile topics.
Just the song titles can give you an idea of what I mean,
like “Wild Hair (Across My Ass)” or “Night
of the Knuckleheads.” That’s not to say all
of the songs are inane (though the inanity is part of
the fun of TBR). “I Wanna Be a Dog” is more
about wanting to live a carefree life than actually wanting
to be a dog, despite lyrics such as “You can teach
me how to think while I lick my balls and when you get
home I can hump your leg.” Yeah, even in the meaningful
songs, TBR tries to convince us they’re just a bunch
of delinquents. “The First Time That I Did Acid
Was The Last Time I Did Acid” may or may not be
a song about the dangers of drug abuse, but it’s
certainly a hard-hitting track, with more of a hardcore
sound than the usual TBR pop punk song. I don’t
know who Clint Carlin is, but TBR want to kill him, as
told in a song called “I Want to Kill Clint Carlin,”
one that sounds in places a lot like a classic Naked Raygun
track, making it one of my favorites of the album. “Stupid
Song” isn’t stupid at all, about the need
for distractions to take our minds off the drudgery and
crap in our lives. The bridge is extra poppy sounding,
reminding me of Masked Intruder somewhat. “Little
Kid” is the most poignant track of the LP, I’m
guessing written by Ray Carlisle about missing his brother
Brandon, who died just over three years ago (this is the
first full album of original TBR songs since Brandon’s
death). The song is about having difficulty accepting
the passage of time since then, remembering how they were
together as kids, and how he’s having trouble living
in the moment again, like kids do. I love the use of a
single guitar note percussion effect played against the
chord changes in the other guitar. Yes, we know what to
expect in Teenage Bottlerocket album. Great fun pop punk
music.
WEIRD
OMEN – Surrealistic Feast (Dirty Water Records,
www.dirtywaterrecords. co.uk)
French garage psych trio Weird Omen have released the
LP teased with a new single a few months ago, and it fulfills
the promise! Weird Omen are an unorthodox group, featuring
a rhythm section of drums and guitar, with the lead instrument
being a baritone saxophone. It’s an odd instrumentation
to use, but it’s used to great effect to create
music that blends garage punk, power pop, and fuzzed out
psych. The album opens with a rerecorded version of “A
Place I Want to Know” from January’s single.
It manages to sound darker and more mysterious on this
version. The production of the LP generally is darker
and less dry than the single. “Earworm” is
the perfect name for the fourth track, because it owes
a debt to pop punk; it’s a melodic, bouncy number,
even as it has a dark, thundering sound, courtesy of the
bari sax and the production. “Surrealistic Feast”
is a favorite track. It’s a heavily psychedelic
track, with droning guitar and sax plus swirling melodic
line in the modal vocal choir. “Collection of Regrets”
has a dusty sound to it, like it could be the soundtrack
to some movie set in the Old West, but covered by a psych
punk band. “Trouble In My Head” alternates
between a Sonic Youth feel on the verses and a jangly
60s pop feel on the chorus. The closer is a gorgeous 50s
rock and roll ballad, “I Will Write You Poetry.”
After a calm, quiet, clear start, though, the song gradually
gets noisier and more chaotic, ending in a glorious of
ringing vocals, fading into epic guitar feedback. A fitting
close to an amazing LP.
BAZOOKA
– Zero Hits (Inner Ear Records, www.inner-ear.gr)
Bazooka hail from Athens. That’s Athens, Greece,
not Athens, Georgia. And, as the songs are all sung in
Greek, I can’t tell you what they’re about.
But the music is a mixture of garage, punk, and funk.
Funk? Yes, funk! The first two tracks, “Ela”
and “Filaki,” are pretty straightforward mid-tempo
garage punk, full of energy and tension. I especially
like the jangly guitar sound juxtaposed with the garage
feel of “Filaki.” The third track, “Keno,”
though, adds a group of trumpets and 70s soul-funk guitar
effects to mix in with the garage punk, creating something
pretty unique. “Menos” and “Oi Vlakes
Kanoune Parelasi” are a pair of cool tracks, with
buzzy synth and ominous feel, the latter being a little
bouncier than the former. A lot of the tracks have a bit
of retro feel to them, harkening back to an era in the
80s when bands weren’t afraid to experiment with
new sounds and be different from everyone else. “Mesa
Stin Poli” and “Vradini Vardia” are
good examples of this, with clean minimalist guitars repeating
a couple of melodic lines, while the bass and drums pound
out the solid beat incessantly. They’re a couple
of my favorites of the album. And “Adiafores Maties”
reaches even further back to 60s garage sounds for inspiration,
complete with keyboards and just the right guitar tone.
“Min Kitas Piso” changes things up a lot with
an acoustic folk inspired track, with gang vocals keeping
things in a punk-like realm, loads of reverb giving it
a slightly other-worldly feel. The closer, “Ta Spao
Ola,” is another unique one, blending garage punk
with an Afro-Cuban sort of feel. If you’re looking
for something different, something original, yet retro,
give this a spin.
THE
BURNT TAPES – Never Better (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.
limitedrun.com)
You don’t normally expect a band from London in
the UK to sound like they’re from the West Coast
of the United States, but here we are. I guess the Internet
really is making the world smaller and smaller. The Burnt
Tapes play melodic, emotionally driven pop punk with gruff
vocals. It’s a sub-genre that’s been growing
quite a lot in recent years, and one that typically packs
people into small clubs, everyone pressing toward the
stage and singing all of the lyrics at the top of their
lungs. It’s the sort of music that usually finds
show-goers returning home soaked with spilled beer, their
souls filled to the brim. It’s a sound familiar
to fans of bands like Western Settings, Hot Water Music,
Bastards of Young, Spanish Love Songs, and many others.
The title track opens the LP strongly. After some initial
moments of ambience, the song explodes with a melodic
line that’s crunchy and soars, yet has bounce to
it. Gruff gang vocals shout out in conflict, “I
want to be alone / But it gets lonely.” The song
dissolves back into ambience in its waning moments. There
are some other standout tracks, too. “Yuzi”
reminds me a lot of Spanish Love Songs, with its great
gliding melody, dark feel, and self-deprecating lyrics.
“Forty, Forty-Five” is a great ballad with
instrumentals that alternate between epic and quiet, huge
gruff vocals, and guitars that sometimes jangle like mad.
It has a feel that reminds me of The Penske File. I do
like all of the tracks on the LP, actually, though I wish
there was a little more variety.
THE
CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND – This Is My Voice (Dirty
Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
The Chocolate Watchband began life some 54 years ago,
in California. The psychedelic garage rock band was short-lived
in its original incarnation, suffering multiple line-up
changes and breaking up in 1970 after just three LPs.
In 1999 the band reunited, including a few of the early
and original members, and have been performing ever since,
even releasing a couple of albums of new songs, including
this latest LP, on garage rock specialist label Dirty
Water Records. The record finds the band in familiar territory,
offering up psychedelic rock songs with politically charged
lyrics. For example, the bluesy “Judgment Day,”
written at the height of the Great Recession, is about
the desperation of those who lost their jobs and everything
else during those dark times, and the urge to fight back.
The title track, a hypnotic psych track, discusses the
lack of fact-based decision making going on in the world,
and how it’s been replaced with hatefulness and
division. “Trouble Everyday” is a Bob Dylan-esque
song with spoken lyrics over a funky jam. And the closer,
“Till The Daylight Comes,” opens with a snippet
of Donald Trump saying, “Remember, what you’re
seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s
happening.” The song is, ultimately, one of hope.
The daylight will come; we will get out of this darkness,
somehow. Musically, the song has a distinct feeling of
a spiritual, uplifting to the soul. Speaking of the music,
it’s quite varied. The opener, “Secret Rendezvous,”
is the most raucous, most garage-rock track of the album,
the closest to the proto-punk of yore. Other songs are
more blues-rock, some are folksy, some are roots rock’n’roll,
and some are more garage-like than others. The sitar,
a mainstay of psych music back in the day, makes appearances
on a couple of the tracks here, too, most prominently
in the instrumental, “Bombay Pipeline.” The
variety is great. The sentiments are great. But I can’t
help but feel that the music is a little too smooth, a
little too calm, other than that opening track.
FRANKIE
AND THE WITCH FINGERS – ZAM (Greenway Records,
www.greenway records.storenvy.com)
LA’s Frankie and the Witch Fingers’ fifth
full-length album in six years is a mélange of
psych, garage, metal jams, and power pop. Sometimes this
works really well, sometimes not. Some tracks rock like
mad, others are a little too wanky. Some have a modern
melodic component; others are retro rock and roll jam
snooze fests. One of the tracks that I like a lot for
its tension is the instrumental title track. Yes, it’s
an extended jam, not a “song, but the power and
energy in it are intoxicating, and the repeating swirling
guitar line and dissonant guitar clatter bring my ears
to the brink of exploding. I really like “Cobwebs,”
a track that’s primarily a slow burner, but has
a bridge that dramatically increases the tempo and injects
some great power pop melodic content, guitars jangling
away. “Purple Velvet” is another one rooted
in the power pop tradition, focusing more on the song
and the melody than on the jam, with the keyboards injecting
some bright flair. “Work” has a strong garage
punk streak running through it, and halfway through it
turns into a powerful psych-grunge track. On the other
hand, tracks like “Pleasure” sort of turn
me off. It’s a total throwback to stoner rock from
the 70s, full of wah-wah pedal and jammage. “I Am”
is another like this, but it’s just a short track
that ends very abruptly, leading into “Underneath
You,” an excellent oddball track with angular lines
and super processed vocals. Yes, it’s also an extended
spacey jam, but the eccentricities injected into this
make it worthwhile. Toward the end of the track, it begins
to smooth out and soften. The opening and closing tracks,
“Dracula Drug” and “Head Collector,”
are outliers that feel so very different from anything
else on the album. The former starts out with ambience
and odd sounds underneath a steady beat. Slowly, musical
instruments join in and it does become more like the rest
of the album, though more subdued. The closer, on the
other hand, is entirely calm and sedate, with strings
joining in on the trippy psych ballad. While the album
is a mixed bag, there’s more goodness here than
not.
THE
NATIONAL LIGHTS – Whom the Sea Will Keep (Bloodshake
Records, thenationallights.bandcamp.com)
It’s been a long twelve years since The National
Lights released their debut LP, “The Dead Will Walk,
Dear.” And this new EP, original conceived as a
follow-up LP, was written over a decade ago. But as these
things go, the band broke up and the members went their
separate ways. Until now. Reunited, the upstate New York
folk outfit have now released a five song EP inspired
by maritime lore. And, while the songs are deeply rooted
in traditional folk, the arrangements are rich and lush.
The first track, “Swift Ships,” is an ode
to regret, telling a tale of a man who left his love to
sail the seas. And while he had a full life, shaking “hands
with kings and thieves” and lining his shirt with
silver, he never saw his love again, and realizes that
he had been a fool and didn’t really have a full
life after all. I really love the vaguely Irish sound
of “A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat,” arranged
for piano, acoustic guitar, and concertina. I can imagine
a Celtic harp would sound gorgeous in this song, too.
Similarly, “Joshua Slocum Sets Sail” has a
Celtic feel, and I can imagine the delicate guitar and
ambience of the piano being replaced with a Celtic harp,
and the bridge being played on a pennywhistle. It’s
this sort of thing that gives these original songs the
feel of updated, modern arrangements of traditional sea
shanties. Quietly gorgeous.
PANDEMIX
– In Condemnation (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
This is a difficult album to listen to. Not because it’s
bad (it’s not!), but because the anxiety is palpable
in the ten tracks, and that anxiety seeps into you. Musically,
the songs teeter on the edge of old school punk and early
post-punk, with angry guitars, angular melodies, and accusatory
vocals. The lyrics of these songs are unsettling, full
of animosity and despair. For example, in “A Pox,”
Pandemix calls for “a pox on humankind,” decrying
the privileges of some, the indifference of others, and
the thought too many people hold that the fate of humanity
doesn’t depend on us all. The band doesn’t
exempt themselves from this damnation, either, as vocalist
Shannon Thompson cries out, “I am sickness, my own
malignancy / The worst possible version of me.”
Nor are those who are traditionally considered part of
the “left” spared as targets. In “Can’t
Assimilate,” Thompson, who is a trans woman, defiantly
states that she won’t assimilate into society’s
expectations, and says she will “Wear their hate
like a badge.” In the same song she slams the LGBTQ
“establishment,” asking, “Pride on whose
terms? Pride in what?” I’m more confused and
troubled by the opening track, “No Monuments,”
though. I’m not sure whether the lyrics are those
of resignation or defiance. “No monuments to honor
/ No history to remember / We are a generation / Without
heroes or splendor.” Are Pandemix saying that our
generation is one that has become powerless to create
change? Or one that willfully denies that past lessons
of history? Either way, the songs convey these mixed emotions
incredibly well.
EVEN
IN BLACKOUTS – Romantico! (Stardumb Records, www.stardumb
records.com)
Ever since I heard last year’s greatest hits compilation,
The Princess Foretold by Her Henchmen, Even,
Even In Blackouts have become one of my favorite bands.
I had thought I had discovered them too late, though,
as they had ceased activity nearly a decade earlier, their
last LP having been 2009’s
Thresholds From The
Basement. But, thankfully, the release of last year’s
compilation turned out to be a teaser for the band’s
emergence from hibernation. Now comes their first album
of new music in ten years, and I couldn’t be happier!
Sixteen tracks fill up thirty-two minutes on the album,
so most of them are fairly short. A couple of them are
“joke” tracks, in which John “Jughead”
Pierson and Scott “Gub” Conway use the track
titles in silly product pitches. And, though not all of
the songs here can be played even in blackouts (many make
generous use of electrified instruments), the care and
attention to detail that went into each of them is clearly
evident. [The name Even In Blackouts referred to the band's
original acoustic incarnation, which meant they could
play a show even in a blackout. - Editor]
Themes of separation and loss run through the record,
reflecting the amount of time the band spent apart,
not only due to the hiatus, but also due to Jughead’s
move to Japan and other losses. This is clear in the
two-part song “Doubt.” Envisioned as a single
song, Jughead says he ran out of music halfway through,
so he sent the rest of the lyrics to Gub, who turned
it into “Doubt Part II.” As you would expect,
the theme continues through both songs, but the sound
is very different. “I’m lonely when you
leave me but alive when you are near,” both songs
aver. The song(s) are/were written in the wake of the
initial reunion of EIB, Jughead musing on how much he
missed not only Gub, but everyone else in the band,
and how they complete each other. Part I has a very
martial feel, propelling ever forward with a solid steady
beat, while Part II has more of a grungy Americana sound.
The bouncy mostly acoustic “Blood” belies
the aching lyrics about a break-up so bad that it has
left the protagonist with a numb heart.
Jughead explains that he rarely writes pop punk songs,
because he feels it’s not his talent. But this
album has two good ones. “The Denouncement”
is a short simple one with a poppy darkness, and “Reason”
is a glorious sounding hymn in praise of living life
in the moment. “Who needs a reason / To watch
it all pass by?” the song asks. I especially love
the closing vocal choir, voices raised toward heaven.
“Intergalactic Space Travel” is a favorite
track. The music is truly glorious, epic sounding, even,
yet bouncy as all hell. The lyrics seem to refer again
to the physical separation of the band, with Jughead
halfway around the world; it might as well be an intergalactic
distance. “It was only movies and words that moved
me to our significance,” the song states, as if
the band didn’t recognize what they had and meant
to each other until they had stopped. But I think my
number one favorite has to be “Intention In Tension,”
both for the story behind it and for the song itself.
Jughead explains that the song “Sunshine,”
from Screeching Weasel’s second album, “Boogadaboogadaboogada,”
was one of his favorites (mine too!), and that Ben wrote
it mostly about a woman they had met on a tour. Jughead
had gone to visit her after the tour, and when he told
Ben about it, Ben wrote “Sunshine.” This
song is Jughead’s response, years later. Where
the first song was blunt and accusatory, “Intention
In Tension” is delicate and tender, the confusion
and mixed feelings of a young immature kid laid bare.
The music is light and airy, perfectly matching the
feel of the lyrics.
“Killer Bear” is both cute and dark at
the same time. Opening with a group of kids singing
a simple song, “You’re with me / You’re
with me / You’re with me / You’re my killer
bear,” the track is no kiddy song, though it has
the feel of one. Instead, the lyrics are about the worst,
basest aspects of ourselves that we all try to keep
caged inside. When they come out, the results are disastrous.
The melody is simple, the arrangement raucous, and the
old-timey sounding ending is one of those details of
production that make this record stand out from the
plethora of releases that come out every week.
The closer, “The Kindness,” is the song
of ultimate loss: that of a loved one, in this case
Jughead’s mother. The track has the sound of a
lament. “Oh mother night / With the darkest wit
/ You will be missed / The memory, the kindness, the
sound / And soon all of this will be gone.” But
as sad as the lyrics are, the music has a triumphant
quality. It reminds me of the Renaissance tradition
of the “merry dompe,” a musical elegy to
mourn the passing of a great person, but played in a
way to lift up the spirit.
Now that EIB is back, I’m fully on board. I hope
that, even with Jughead based so far away, some US touring
is in the plan. [As this review goes to press, the band
is touring Japan.] I’ve found one of my top albums
of 2019 already.
FEELS
– Post Earth (Wichita Recordings, www.wichita-recordings.com)
Feels, operating out of Los Angeles, is described as an
“American psych punk grunge post-rock band.”
And that may be accurate for a band that brings enormous
diversity of genres to its recordings. Lyrically, the
record is a condemnation of the current state of the nation
and the planet. “Car,” the grungy opening
track references current president DJT and our “one
nation under fraud.” “Just trust what I say,”
he tells the people. The title track is a blend of grunge
and indie pop, slowed down and telling the tale of a future
in which billionaires buy themselves tickets on spaceships
leaving a dying planet. The fuzzed out bass is prominent,
and the vocals slide, oozing the detestation that both
sides must feel toward the other. “Awful Need”
reminds me so much of Stereolab, with its minimalist repeating
lines and steady, smooth vocals. “Deconstructed”
has the instrumentals of an old-school punk tune, but
the vocals seem a little bit sarcastic. I like the stripped
down “Tollbooth;” most of the track full of
empty space, with minimal drums, bass, and guitar, plus
dry, present vocals very up front. The middle of the track,
though, explodes in a ferocious burst of punk energy before
settling back down into the slow groove to end the track.
“Flowers” closes the record out with a quiet
ballad that shifts from indie pop to noisy grunge. Taken
individually, many of these songs are timely and enjoyable.
Taken as a whole, the shifts in genre are sometimes jarring.
TINY
MAGNETIC PETS – The Politburo Disko EP (Vitamin
C Records, tinymagneticpets.bandcamp.com)
This is totally retro synth pop, straight out of the 70s
and 80s. Some of it is disco-like, some is more ambient.
It’s like mixing Vangelis with a softer, smoother
version of, say, Human League, and then adding a pinch
of Julee Cruise singing Angelo Badalamenti. There are
five tracks on this EP, and the sound alternates somewhat.
“Enigma Code Variations I & II” is a buzzy
instrumental that hums with a mournful vibrato. “Bitzed”
is a chill dance track, with throbbing bass-synth line
straight out of the 80s. “Non-Aligned” is
darker, more mysterious, and slicker. Synthesized strings
ebb and flow, as the buzzy bass synth bleats out a computerized
line with perfect synchronicity and drums pound with a
tribal ferocity. “A Strange Kind of Loneliness”
quiets things down, with the flowing synths reminding
me of Vangelis’ epic recordings of the 70s, while
the underlying ambience and breathy vocals remind me of
the Cruise/Badalamenti team up for the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
The title track closes things out with another chill instrumental
with a relaxed dance beat. If you miss 80s synth pop,
this is for you. For my tastes, it might be s bit too
smooth and chill.
THE
OLD FIRM CASUALS – Holger Danske (Pirates Press
Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
Anyone familiar with this band from the San Francisco
Bay Area? You should be, because it includes none other
than Rancid’s Lars Frederiksen. The band has been
kicking around for the better part of a decade, releasing
a plethora of singles and EPs, yet this is only their
second full-length LP. The band is described as being
a combination of street punk, Oi, and melodic hardcore.
OK, sure, though I always thought of “street punk”
being more of the sound of DIY punks than long-standing
accomplished punk “stars.” The Old Firm Casuals
certainly sounds way slicker and more professional than
your average street punk band. But what I like about The
Old Firm Casuals is that they aren’t afraid to mix
things up. Some of the songs are definite throwbacks to
old school hardcore punk, while others are more straight-up
rock and roll in the vein of bands like Motorhead. After
an ancient sounding blast of a battle horn, “Get
Out Of Our Way” blasts out with speed and fury.
Shouted vocals and gang backup vocals are key features
of this classic hardcore track. After this we get “Motherland”
and “Pendulum,” a couple of hard rock and
roll tracks, a short metallic instrumental, “De
Ensomme Ulve,” and a couple more rockers in the
title track and “Casual Rock n Roll.” Then
we get to the raging hardcore punk track, “Traitor,”
one that’s sure to get the circle pit going on a
massive scale. My favorite track, though, I think is “The
Golden Fall Pt 1.” It’s another short instrumental
track, but it’s the most interesting, most different
thing on the record. It’s in waltz time, and I love
the epic melodic punk feel it has. I wish they turned
this into a full-on song. It might not really be “street
punk,” but The Old Firm Casuals fills a niche in
the punk scene, and maybe fills a few.
GOLDEN
DAZE – Simpatico (Autumn Tone Records, www.autumntone.com)
Golden Daze is the perfect name for this LA outfit. The
music is a hazy blend of folk and dream pop, drizzled
with psychedelia. Acoustic and electric guitars intertwine
with moody synths and otherworldly vocals, while the percussion
subtly floats underneath. Playing this record is like
walking into a shimmering other reality. It’s the
beauty of a rainy day, the sun shining through a break
in the clouds, the laziness and haziness. Nowhere is that
shimmer more evident than on the opening track, “Blue
Bell.” Acoustic guitars twinkle and twirl as the
delicate vocals, sung in a half whisper into your ear,
turn the grey day into one of enchantment. “Wayward
Tide” is another favorite, again making use of glistening
acoustic guitars. Many of the songs also utilize synths
to create an ambience underneath the melodies, evoking
that otherworldly feel. I really like the repeating melodic
line of “Drift,” and its unexpected chord
change at the end of each iteration. The title track closes
the LP, with a simple song, ambient synths underneath
simply strummed acoustic guitar, electric slide guitar,
and those haunting vocals. This is one of those albums
that are perfect to play when you’re housebound,
sitting in front of a fireplace reading a book or something
like that. Gorgeous.
GOOD
SHADE – Way Out (Dirtnap Records, www.dirtnaprecs.com)
Garage punk meets power pop meets 70's pop rock? Yes,
yes, and yes, on this fourth full-lengther from the Ohio
outfit. The diversity and energy make this album a great
listen, nearly from beginning to end. “Maybe,”
one of the pre-release singles opens the album with an
epic sound, rapid tempo, driving beat, and soaring vocals.
The other lead single, “Must Have Been,” is
already a candidate for favorite song of the year. It’s
got that Marked Men rapid pace garage punk sound, but
the rapidly changing unorthodox chord changes really make
the song a treat. A lot of the tracks are kind of like
Marked Men meets the Buzzcocks. “We’re Open”
is an interesting one, because it has the garage punk
driving guitar sound, but it’s also got the 70's
pop rock thing going on in the chorus’s melodic
line. “Something’s Wrong” is a nice
slower one, with a garage pop feel – but a third
of the way in, it gets quiet and indie sounding for a
bit, then erupts in a psych explosion. “Just Leave”
leaves me a bit cold, though. It’s a tad too heavy
on the 70's pop rock feel for my taste. But, yeah, overall
this is a great listen.
KOMPLIKATIONS
– No Good News (Rockstar Records, www.rockstarrecords.
de)
There are no complications here on this, the fifth EP
from the Belgian synth punk trio. Keyboards, drums, and
vocals are what you get on these five stripped down tracks.
It’s all very spare, very simple, very uncomplicated.
Angry shouted vocals work closely with the buzzy synths
to fill the space that would normally be taken up by guitars
and bass. Imagine 70s punk crossed with early new wave,
then strip away everything that isn’t absolutely
necessary, and you get a sense of the sound you get from
Komplikations. And with song titles like “Mouthy
Leaders” and “Haters,” you know the
songs are politically relevant. The pared back sound can
be a bit jarring, but these are good songs.
LENNY
LASHLEY’S GANG OF ONE – All Are Welcome
(Pirates Press Records, www.piratespressrecords.com)
Lenny Lashley just may be Boston’s Boss. Like Bruce
Springsteen, Lashley plays energetic working class rock
and roll with elements of folk and punk in the songs.
Like Springsteen, Lashley uses organ and sax in his arrangements.
Lashley’s songs are maybe a bit more raw and honest
sounding. Though Lashley’s been kicking around for
the better part of two decades, this is only his second
full-length LP as Lenny Lashley’s Gang of One, his
debut coming nearly 6 years ago. Lashley also writes songs
that champion the underdog and make a statement. Case
in point, the title track, which references the poem,
“The New Colossus,” part of which is inscribed
on the Statue of Liberty. “Give us your poor, your
huddled masses yearning to be free,” he sings. It’s
a song aimed directly at the Trump administration, as
Lashley asks, “Have we forgotten what we stand for?”
“Where do we go from here, now that hope is lost?”
he pleads. The song even includes a clip of Martin Luther
King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech.
“Live Like Lions” has elements of country,
thanks to the slide guitar, and vaguely Irish music, courtesy
of the accordion or concertina (not sure which it is)
and the vocals that sounds a bit like Dave King of Flogging
Molly. “Lonesome” has that same dichotomous
character. I love the acoustic guitar and concertina,
but not being a big fan of country I could do without
the slide guitar. But that doesn’t apply to “Double
Miner, a tune that sounds like a traditional song out
of the old west. “Betty” is the most raucous
of the ten tracks, and the first to feature saxophone.
It kind of feels like something the SNL house band might
play for the live audience to get them warmed up and rowdy.
“Revolution” is another one that’s more
rock than anything else, and proof that the back half
of the album is more rockin’ than the front.
THE
LOST TAPES – Inconvenience (Rockstar Records,
www.rockstarrecords. de)
Part dark post punk, part goth this reminds me somewhat
of what you might get if you crossed early 80's TSOL,
late 80's DC band Strange Boutique, and mixed in a healthy
dose of Bauhaus. Though that’s the general feel
of this album, the first track, “Cyanide,”
is completely different and undoubtedly the best of the
bunch. It has a much harder, edgier feel, slightly angular
melodic lines, and angry shouted vocals. The rest of the
album from this German band doesn’t quite measure
up to the promise of that first track. Each song, in turn,
seems to lose more edge, become less focused, until we
reach the halfway mark with the dirge-like “Double
Vision.” On this one, the drums slowly and repetitively
pound, the bass line is unchanging, and the whole song
just seems to drag. The back half of the album picks things
up again, but never recaptures the energy of the opening
track. These tracks start to blend into each other, with
little differentiation. The penultimate track, “Buildings,”
tries to replicate the edgier feel, and to a degree succeeds,
with a more rocking sound that most of the LP. But it’s
only a couple of songs from this album that interest me.
SNAKERATTLERS
– All Heads Will Roll (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywater
records.co.uk)
Snakerattlers is married duo of Naomi and Dan Oliver Gott.
Hailing from the north of England, the guitar and drums
pair produce a huge, gritty, greasy sound. They play a
cross between garage and rockabilly, in all its raw powerful
glory. This, their sophomore full-length LP, features
eleven tracks whose big sound belie the diminutive size
of the band. Tons of reverb, as befits the genre, vocals
that are sung as much as shouted with gusto, and pounding
percussion are the main features. After a short instrumental
introductory track that sets the mood, we get “All
Heads Will Roll,” a dark dirty dirge sure to blacken
your soul. Other highlights include “She’s
Strange,” which has a Latin influence and “Rattle
Rock Stomp,” with its cool noisy intro, retro rock
progression and growled and shouted vocals pushing out
lyrics that merely consist of the title sung over and
over. Another great track, “I’ll Destroy Your
Soul,” sounds like they really mean it. The closer,
“Wild,” reminds me a bit of power pop garage
rockers LA Drugz, which is a high compliment. Dirty Water
continues its winning streak.
AM
TAXI – Shiver By Me (Mutant League Records, www.mutantleaguerecords.com)
Music always sounds better when the band playing it is
having fun. And that’s one thing that’s immediately
striking about Chicago-based AM Taxi: they’re quite
obviously enjoying what they’re doing. The music
has a bright sound to it, even the emotional “down”
songs. Unconventional instruments (for punk-based music)
such as piano, organ, and trumpet make their way into
some of the songs, adding a great feel to the texture
of these tracks. The opener is pretty simple, but a blast
of fun. “Saint Jane” is bouncy and melodic
garage-punk with some great sing-along parts. It sets
a fantastic mood for the record. “Harpoon”
is one of my favorites of the album, with a more of a
lean toward indie rock. Harmonized vocals, a pounding
beat, some great hooks, and sparkling guitars make this
a winner. “Fighting In Cars” is similar, but
with a bunch of jangle, and is another great one. I like
how the band mixes things up on this record, and each
song sounds distinct. “Movie About Your Life”
is acoustic, with handclaps and keyboard punctuating the
song, which sounds like something that might come from
Teenage Bottlerocket. “Swim Before You Sink”
has a punk rock show tune feel to it, in a way that’s
really fun. “L’Patron” is smooth and
almost lounge-like with its keyboards, but it occasionally
gets big and epic. Given the band’s bio and their
flirtation with a major label, I wasn’t expecting
to like this record much, but I really do like it!
EERIE
WANDA – Pet Town
(Joyful Noise Recordings,
www.joyfulnoiserecordings. com)
Marina Tadic has had an interesting life. Born to Croat
parents in the former Yugoslavia, her family was forced
to flee and become refugees during the Bosnian war that
ripped Yugoslavia apart. Settling in the Netherlands,
Tadic became an audio and visual artist, creating musical
act Eerie Wanda with band mates Jasper Verhulst and Jeroen
de Huevel. Eerie Wanda’s sophomore full-length LP
is a study in delicate minimalism. Acoustic guitar or
ukulele, bass, and miscellaneous percussion glide under
Tadic’s smooth, easy vocals, reminding me at times
of Julee Cruise, made famous by David Lynch during the
TV run of Twin Peaks. But, while Cruise was singing retro
rock song written by Angelo Badalamenti, Tadic’s
songs are more island influenced, warm and breezy, such
as the title track and “Magnetic Woman,” or
influenced by retro pop music, like “Big Blue Bird”
and “Moon.” Though they don’t break
new ground, the songs are very soothing and relaxing to
listen to. I enjoy “Rockabiller,” a “love
song” to the title character. It has a minimalist
repeating line pulsing under the vocals, with a hint of
rockabilly feel, but it’s still so quiet and understated.
“Hands of the Devil” has a great flamenco
guitar sound, complete with clapping, but the chord progression
is more of a bluesy one, making for an interesting listen.
Beautiful.
GULAG
BEACH – Potato Mash Bash (Rock Star Records, www.rockstarrecords.de)
Hailing from Berlin, Gulag Beach aren’t looking
to push the boundaries of punk rock, but they’re
very comfortably rocking out with some classic punk sounds
on this, their fourth full-length LP. There are eight
songs, four to each side – well, really seven songs.
The closer of each side is “Death Is Not The End,”
with part 1 on side A and part 2 on side B. Topics are
classic punk themes, too, with “Ode to Capitalism”
including lyrics such as “Work – Eat –
Die” repeated multiple times. “The Need to
Be High” is a song about the need to use substances
or activities – anything that releases dopamine,
to relieve the stress of daily life. Like I said, this
record isn’t earth shattering, but it’s a
fun one. I’ll bet the live shows are pretty raucous.
WEIRD
OMEN – Girls Are Dancing On The Highway b/w A
Place I Want To Know (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
New single from French band Weird Omen, a band that already
has four LPs and three other singles floating out there.
The band is hard to pin down, genre-wise, but they seem
to combine elements of garage punk, power pop, and fuzzed
out psych. Plus they’ve got a baritone sax! They’re
actually a three-piece, with guitar and drums filling
things out! That’s a pretty unique concept, and
it serves them well; there’s a lot of cool noodling
going on in the bass line, more so than if it had been
a traditional electric bass. This adds to the awesome
psych feel. The single is a teaser for a forthcoming LP,
and it certainly does whet the appetite. The A side is
a dark, chaotic track, while the B-side has the stronger
power pop sensibility, and is my favorite of the pair.
Good stuff!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BAND
ARGUMENT – Patchwork (bandargument.bandcamp.com)
Band Argument is a new San Diego band that features Jordan
Krimston and Sil Damone, formerly of Big Bad Buffalo,
along with Jake Kelsoe and Alex Simonian, performing music
different than anything that’s come from Krimston
and Damone’s previous efforts. First, Krimston steps
back from guitar duty and gets back behind the drum kit,
actually his primary instrument. Damone sings and plays
bass again, and Kelsoe and Simonian play guitar and MIDI.
The resulting music is a glorious mash-up of math-pop,
dream-pop, new wave, and a sort of neo-futuristic electro-music.
The five songs on this debut release are, to my ears,
more creative and original than much of the music being
released today. The lead single, “Buddy,”
opens the EP with angular melodic and rhythmic lines most
reminiscent of new wave, then adding in some hip-hop rhythms
and rapping. The electronics are front and center, giving
us a strong taste of what’s to come. “Standing
On Shoulders” sounds a bit like Cymbals Eat Guitars
tune, but with a cool underwater sounding warble in the
electronics. This one is dreamy but edgy. “Long
Jump” has a breezy island feel to it, thanks to
steel drum sounds from the synth, and a throbbing rhythm.
“Sneaker Keeper” has a cool jazz vibe mixed
with startling noises punctuating the track. “Dinner”
closes the EP with more angular rhythms and guitar/MIDI
lines over smooth, relaxed vocals, the opposition of these
elements keeping the track in an off-kilter balance. I
really liked Big Bad Buffalo, and I like Krimston’s
other current bands (Miss New Buddha, Weatherbox), but
Band Argument has the originality to make a real splash,
should they make the effort.
CALIFORNIA
HEARSE (californiahearse. bandcamp.com)
Southern California’s Gentlemen Prefer Blood may
have called it quits, but their rhythm section, consisting
of Dr. J on bass/vocals and Mike Spaid on drums, have
decided to press on as California Hearse. If you’re
familiar with the sounds produced by Gentlemen Prefer
Blood, you’re going to instantly feel at home here;
the half dozen tracks have the same general mix of anthemic
pop punk and power pop. “Welcome Home” seems
to reflect this, welcoming GPB fans home to this new band,
the expansive opening guitar licks sounding just like
GPB. Other songs add influences from bands as diverse
as The Descendents and Social Distortion. Their first
show will be at La Escalera Fest 8 in San Diego this April,
and I know I’m looking forward to that, based on
this EP.
OFFENDED
BY EVERYTHING – Evergreen (Standby Records, www.standbyrecords.
com)
Texas’ Offended By Everything call themselves pop
punk, but this reminds me more of the poppy emo that was
so trendy in the 2000s. This new EP from the still pretty
new band (they only formed in 2017) contains five tracks
that, if you’re a fan of that genre, are performed
in workmanlike fashion and should be enjoyable enough.
To my ears, though, these songs and so many like them
have little variation and are overwrought. The one exception
is the title track, which is an acoustic version of this
style of song, and I think this works so much better acoustically
than as a full electric band.
RADAR
STATE – Strays (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.limitedrun.com)
Wiretap’s latest release comes from a “super
group” of sorts, with Radar State consisting of
Matt Pryor and Jim Suptic of The Get Up Kids, Josh Berwanger
from The Anniversary, and Adam Phillips of The Architects
and The Gadjits. As a result, the music on this debut
LP is bouncy, melodic pop punk with a clean polished sound.
In a way, it almost sounds like it could be a new Get
Up Kids release, but this record has more of an edge and
less jangle than The Get Up Kids songs. Favorite songs
include the anthemic “Anywhere,” which contrasts
tough guitars with a poppy melodic line and a fantastic
descending line in the chorus. I really like the guitar
fiddling and flourishes on “Self Hurt Guru,”
which also has a great “Fat Wreck Chords”
pop punk sound. “Defender” is probably the
most aggressive, punk song of the album. It’s got
a power to it, as does “Good Catholic,” with
the latter having a lot more bounce. And a third track
in a row completes the troika, “Leather Dye.”
It’s dark, up-tempo, and gets all misty in the middle.
The only song that feels out of place is the closer, “Play
For The Game.” It’s acoustic for its first
two-thirds before the full band comes in, but even then,
the whole song feels so different from the rest of the
album, It’s more of a low energy ballad. I see this
band is coming through town on tour in a few weeks, though,
and I’ve put them on my calendar. Should be a good
time.
SLUM
SUMMER – Ababo (Jigsaw Records, www.jigsaw-records.com)
Fronted by Englishman Hugh Noble and formed after his
move to San Diego, Slum Summer is an indie band that includes
another UK ex-pat, Grant Stewart, on bass, as well as
Americans DJ Anderson (drums) and Jen Edwards on guitar.
The songs are nearly uniformly gentle indie pop, with
a slightly folk-psych undercurrent. Guitars jangle clearly,
while the bass and drums pump out the beats and Noble’s
smooth, even vocals sing out. The problem is that, within
those parameters there could be plenty of opportunity
for variation, but Slum Summer don’t take it often
enough. Well, I guess musically there’s some variation.
“Trampoline” has a doo-wop sort of feel, while
“Vauxhall” has the feel of a country ballad.
“Sing Sing The Rain” has a funky beat to it,
and so on. I think it’s really Noble’s vocals
that sound identical from song to song. And it’s
so dominant in the mix, maybe too much so. Every little
flaw is laid bare in those vocals because of that mix.
Then there’s how clean the guitar tone is on every
song, and the amount of reverb they have – again,
too much, I do like some of the songs. “The Rub”
is a nice driving indie tune, and the dueling guitars
jangle in different ways. And the opener, “Annabel,”
is, well, similar. The songwriting has some good potential,
I think, but Slum Summer could do with some help producing
their records.
TROUBLE
CUTS – Parasite b/w Who Is Right? (Lavasocks Records,
www.lavasocksrecords.com)
My interest in this record from a band out of Portland
that rarely plays outside their local area is clear: the
bassist is none other than Kyle Henner, formerly of 90s
Bay Area band Nuisance, and the drummer is Jonno Peltz,
who played in the short-lived hardcore band Breeders in
Urbana, Illinois in the early 80s. This 7” EP comes
on clear red vinyl and features a pair of tracks. The
A-side is a rocker, for sure, with early rock’n’roll
guitar flourishes. It’s a mildly up-tempo track
packed with a bluesy power. The B-side is a slow-burner
with a dusty desert feel. The vocals complement the style
really well, with a dry delivery. Not only is it good
to see people from bands I enjoyed years ago still making
music, it’s great to hear that it’s really
good music.
VAN
DAMMES – Risky Business (Rock Star Records, www.rockstarrecords.de)
Pop fucking punk rock from Finland! The Van Dammes, from
Helsinki, have issued forth a challenge to the world.
The six songs on this EP are nothing short of a huge blast
of fun energy. Lo-fi in just the right way, this record
is a must for all fans of garage-like pop punk. Formed
in 2013 in Brussels, the band has relocated further north.
This is the fourth EP from the quartet, which features
guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards – and the keyboards
add a lot to the fun here! Five of the six tracks are
under two minutes, with only the mid-tempo closer passing
that mark. The title track opens the record in spectacular
fashion, raging like mad. Things don’t let up one
bit for “I Don’t Like Music Anymore,”
with a bit of a Radioactivity vibe, but with more of a
melodic bounce. I really like “100m,” and
its use of the keys to echo the melodic line of the vocals.
That closing track, “Tax Free World,” is a
good one, too, but feels a little out of place with its
more loping feel and more of a focus on melody than speed
and power. This is a highly recommended record!
VINTAGE
CROP – Company Man (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
This four song EP features a classic punk sound out
of Australia. The mid-tempo tracks feature angular melodic
lines and shouted vocals. The band this most reminds
me of is Art Brut, the great UK band, as they have a
very similar feel. Song topics primarily seem to revolve
around economic exploitation, particularly the title
track and “Stock Options,” which closes
the EP. Favorite track: the off-kilter “Right
to Censor.” Good stuff.
WEAKENED
FRIENDS – Common Blah (Don Giovanni Records, www.dongiovanni
records.com)
OK, yeah, this came out in the last quarter of 2018. Our
fearless editor tells me it literally fell through the
cracks – he found it had fallen behind his CD cabinet.
But never fear – good music stays good, and this
is indeed good. The trio hails from New England (Boston
and Portland, Maine), and I hear a few different things
in here that make me happy; I hear influences from grunge,
from indie pop, and from pop punk. “Peel”
is a solid grunge track, with a tough feel, solid bass
line, and fuzzed out guitars. “Waste” also
has a big grunge sound, but with a lot of bounce added
in. “Early” reminds me so much of Washington
D.C.’s Tsunami, a favorite indie pop band from back
in the day. Some of the songs remind a lot of local San
Diego band. Squarecrow. Not that they’re an influence
– how can they be? Squarecrow is a tiny local band
– but the way the vocals have a bit of a tremor,
almost like a subtle laugh, reminds me a lot of Squarecrow’s
Todd Allen and the way he sings. The title track is a
good example of this. And the songs have the same light-hearted
feel like Squarecrow, though the lyrics may not be as
light-hearted as the music implies. “Not Doing Good”
is another example of this. The closing track, “Hate
Mail,” features a guest appearance from Dinosaur
Jr.’s J Mascis, and the unmistakable guitar tone
adds another layer to the song. I wish I had heard this
record earlier. Perhaps it might have displaced something
from my 2018 best records list…
RATIONS
NOISE / UNKNOWN RIVER DRIVER – Split 12”
LP (86’d Records, www.86drec.com)
This split LP comes from a pair of bands from Long Island,
and it features an amazing diversity of sound! Each band
contributes five tracks, with Unknown River Driver up
first. Just this one band likes to mix things up, with
styles ranging from post-punk to pop punk, but all with
a strong grounding in 1990s sounds. “Remains”
blends heavy early-era emo vocals and a grunge-doom feel
with a beautifully clear guitar tone. “Isaiah”
is a great, epic sing-along pop punk track with shouted
vocals and a simple melodic line. “Pour” is
a dark track, mixing second wave emo with an almost metallic
edge. “Song of the Cicada” is a pretty, delicate
instrumental that doesn’t even sound like it came
from the same band. It’s got a Japanese feel to
it, both in the melody and arrangement. The band’s
final track, “Misery and Liberty,” is a more
standard melodic punk rock tune. And then comes Rations
Noise’s side! Now, this is definitely not your typical
Jersey Beat fare. This is experimental noise and found
sound mixed with musical instruments. And I love it! This
is sonic art of a sort that was made during a very creative
period in the 1980s, but is not often heard anymore. And
these five tracks are a good introduction to people unfamiliar
with the genre, as the tracks are short and rhythmic,
some even with a discernable melodic line in places. “Screams
of the Wounded and Dying” opens with some eerie
sounds, and then distorted synthesized voices intoning
emotionlessly about pain and mourning. The nightmarish
sounds continue, as a pulsating melodic line repeats,
sounding like a distorted harmonium, and the eerie sounds
resolve into a rhythmic beat. “Litany for Hancock
Airbase” opens in a similar manner, but this track
remains dark and foreboding, until the very end when a
beautifully bass line takes over from the buzzing and
droning. “Dronestruck” (speaking of drones)
consists of dark ambience swelling and ebbing, punctuated
by a rhythmic banging pattern that’s repeated, while
a guitar plays rising and falling notes. “Consoles”
may be my favorite. It’s dark and buzzy, with a
strong repeated rhythm, periodically interrupted by some
other randomly evil sounds. “Cont’d Litany”
closes the side with a harsh noise blended with guitar
lines, distorted voices begging forgiveness at the start
and end. There is a consistent theme around unjust warfare
throughout these tracks, as well. Highly recommended!
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covering punk, alternative, ska, techno and garage
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AUTHORITY
ZERO – Persona Non Grata (www.authorityzero.com)
Authority Zero, hailing from Mesa, Arizona, have been making
music for some twenty-four years. This latest LP is pretty
representative of their style – strongly rooted in
the skate punk tradition, with ska and reggae influences
in some of the songs. As such, it’s a mixed bag for
me. The skate punk songs come off as too generic for my
tastes. There are so many bands playing this style of music,
and it all starts to sound the same, non-descript melodic
punk with harmonized vocals, like so many other skate punk
bands. There are a few tracks that vary from the standard
formula. “Atom Bomb” focuses pretty solidly
on ska for the verses, and back to skate punk for the chorus.
“Ah Hell” eschews the skate punk sound for more
of a modern pop punk sing-along, and is easily the best
song of the record. “Shake The Ground” slows
things down to a reggae lope. “Mush Mouth” is
Bad Religion style skate punk, but faster and harder. “Back
From The Dead” is more ska. The rest of the dozen
tracks are all fairly indistinguishable from one another.
MR.
LEWIS AND THE FUNERAL 5 – Before the World Beat
You Down (Chicken Ranch Records, www.chickenranchrecords.com)
When life hands you lemons, you make some lemonade. Mr.
Lewis and the Funeral 5 must be drowning in the stuff. This
past year they suffered the deaths of two significant others,
the divorce of a third, and the departure of half their
lineup. But, conventional wisdom says that hard times are
fodder for artistic inspiration, so front man Greg Lewis
recruited some new members, regrouped, and responded with
this new LP. Musically, the Funeral 5 are sort of like a
rock and roll lounge act (and I mean that in the best way).
“For Another Day” opens the album with ominous
percussion, and then surf-like guitars come in, keyboards
trembling in the background. Lewis’ vocals and saxophone
duel with each other in a dark dance. It’s a strong
start to a strong album. The songs all rock, but with a
retro-lounge edge, and more than a hint of garage. Many
of the songs have a feeling of gloom. “The Ballad
of Bones and Blood” is a dirge-like ballad, with eerie
keyboards providing a feeling of dread throughout the song,
with lyrics about a dysfunctional relationship. I love the
feel of “Bricks,” which makes use of bass clarinet
and piano in a waltz time to give the track a great old
timey feel. The song is about someone who has thrown bricks
off the roof onto the head of another; whether it’s
actual or metaphorical is unknown. Sometimes the songs get
big, and the vocals are belted out, in a Tom Jones kind
of way – and again, I mean this as a positive. “Burn
Down The Sails” is a case in point. “No, Sofia”
adds backing vocals from a “girl group” to give
the song a fun 60s R&B feel. And though “fun”
is not a word one would use to describe the darkness of
these tracks, they sure are great to listen to.
SLEEPERSOUND
– In Media Res (www.sleepersound.com)
The best way to describe this six-song mini LP would be
ambient post-rock. Dreamy instrumentals ebb and flow, while
the sparse vocals drift in and out. These are extended excursions,
with the tracks ranging between four and eight minutes each
(with one exception, the two and a half minute “Slow
Moon”). Lush guitars swirl about, while electronics
hum, buzz, and throb. “Slow Moon” may be my
favorite track. I love the opening bass line, the wobbling
phasing electronics, and the slow, lazy feel of it. Too
much of a good thing, though, as they say, can be bad for
you. The longer tracks seem a bit too long, and there’s
too much sameness. This seems like it would be great background
music for reading a book on a rainy day.
aBIRD
– Hard Times in Two Dimensions (www.abirdmusic.com)
aBIRD is Adam Bird, former front man of Those Mockingbirds.
There’s a heavy influence from lightly-goth 80's synth-pop
in these seven tracks. Think John Hughes soundtracks, Tears
For Fears, the Cure, that sort of thing. The bass synths
are deep and buzzy; the high tones are sparkling. All of
the instrumentation is synthesized, excepting for the occasional
guitar. You get a really strong sense of this on “A
Cool Island Song,” the second track of the LP. If
I close my eyes I’m back in my university apartment
with MTV playing on the cable TV. Sometimes Bird takes things
too far with this retro feel, crossing the line from homage
to kitsch. Descending synthesized tom drums is one cliché;
the “chick-ahh” vocal is another. Favorite track:
“If I Had a Gun,” because it’s the least
retro, least commercial sounding track, and the keyboard
tone sounds so much like a Fender Rhodes, something I fondly
remember from 70s jazz records. Least like the other tracks:
the closer, “Polluto,” an attempt at harder
rock sounds while still sticking with synths. Bottom line:
I liked aBIRD’s slow burner torch song from the Mint
400 movie soundtrack compilation more than this album. It
has its moments, but this is really for big fans of that
80's sound.
BRENDAN
KELLY AND THE WANDERING BIRDS – Keep Walkin’
Pal (Red Scare Industries, www.redscare.net)
Known primarily as the front man of The Lawrence Arms, Brendan
Kelly keeps himself busy, musically, between TLA’s
infrequent gigs and albums. Besides also performing with
other Chicago musical luminaries in The Falcon, Kelly performs
solo under the moniker “Brendan Kelly and the Wandering
Birds.” Kelly’s deep, gravelly voice will be
instantly familiar to fans of his more well known outfits,
but that’s where the similarity ends. These songs
are all over the place, from country ballads to funky soul.
Many of the songs seem to be tongue-in-cheek kitsch, showing
Kelly’s sense of humor, like “Shitty Margaritas,”
a bouncy track full of breezy synths (which many of the
tracks are). It’s a song simultaneously about the
joys and dangers of the self-same beverages. “Huggz”
is a funky synth track that reminds me of cheesy 80s disco-soul,
and I think it’s about addiction. Huggz are what he
craves and what gets him through the day. Some of the tracks
have more of a solo pop punk feel, like they’re Kelly’s
solo songs arranged with synths and percussion, and these
are my favorites – like “Black Cat Boy”
or the title track. One of the more interesting tracks is
Kelly’s twisted homage to the Beach Boys, “Boardin’
USA.” Imagine a song about a particular form of torture
made infamous during the Iraq war set to a Beach Boys tune!
Really! And “The Ballad of Buffalo Bill” is
an ode to the character from the film “Silence of
the Lambs,” complete with synthesized poodle barks.”
Bottom line on this one is it’s pure BK: sometimes
cheesy, sometimes dark, always fun.
A
CAST OF THOUSANDS – The Beige (Record Records, record-records.bandcamp.com)
Upstate New York’s indie-psych-folk band A Cast of
Thousands returns with a new full-length LP. Like past efforts,
“The Beige” contains some gorgeous, laid-back
songs that have both a 60s hippy vibe and a modern indie
sensibility. I adore Beth Beer’s vocals; they’re
just perfect for this style of music. And while there’s
still plenty of psych here, there’s more emphasis
on the indie this time around. Like on “Gaslight,”
which opens the album. It’s a waltz time song that’s
more firmly in the modern indie era than anything else A
Cast of Thousands has presented before. But just like their
entire catalog, the song is delicate and pretty. “Outlier”
brings things back to more “traditional” territory
for the band, with the psych-folk vibe. It’s another
waltz-time track, still delicate, still beautiful. I really
like the minimalist guitar line during the verses, just
a single plucked string, loaded with vibrato, repeating
the same simple line over and over.” Adventurer”
is back on the indie-side with a strong power pop influence
that I like. Some of the tracks focus on a more acoustic
folk sound, like “Magical Thinking” and “Around
These Parts.” These just add to the relaxed, laid-back
feel of the album. I like how the penultimate song, “Regret,”
builds in intensity throughout the track and then ends abruptly,
unfinished, like many things in life we all regret. After
a short pause, the album closes with “Savior,”
the prefect song to sum up A Cast of Thousand’s style
– part folk, part psych, and part indie, with Beer’s
smooth, even keeled vocals. This is the perfect album for
listening indoors on a cold winter weekend day – it
provides a nice warmth.
DRUG
CHURCH – CHEER (Pure Noise Records, www.purenoise.net)
What happens when you take 90s emo and post-hardcore, and
2000s emo pop punk and mix it all together? While it might
sound like you would get a mess, it actually works amazingly
well when it’s Drug Church doing it. This album relentlessly
pounds out the post-hardcore, but this is way more melodic
and poppy than post-hardcore is supposed to be. Drug Church
also use a guitar tone that seems to me to be right on the
cusp between late 80s rock and 90s emo. It’s a distorted
fuzzy jangle with a focus on higher harmonics, and it contrasts
really nicely from the crunch of the post-hardcore and gives
it a distinct sound unlike anything else out there. The
bass lines are strong too, giving these tracks a real groove
unknown in most hard-edged music. While there isn’t
a track on the whole album I don’t like, special mention
has to be made of the troika of tracks in the middle of
the LP, “Unlicensed Guidance Counselor,” “Weed
Pin,” and “Unlicensed Hall Monitor.” The
first of these three alternates between an early emo feel
(the sort that I was constantly listening to in the late
80s and early 90s) and a hard rock pop sound. “Weed
Pin” brings those amazing guitar tones to the fore
in a track that’s both head banging and bouncy at
the same time, “Unlicensed Hall Monitor” picks
up the tempo, keeps that gorgeous guitar tone, and manages
to feel simultaneously breezy and heavy. This album starts
strong and gets stronger with each song. The back half is
mind-blowingly good. Heartily recommended!
JAGGER
HOLLY – Last of the International Playboys (Mom’s
Basement Records, momsbasementrecords.bandcamp. com)
Hailing from Ohio and/or somewhere in Europe (it’s
not clear from the band’s internet presence), Jagger
Holly is a trio playing a cross between Teenage Bottlerocket
style Ramones-core pop punk and early power pop. The power
pop influence is apparent in the slight mellowing of the
pop punk, a feeling that it’s a little more “adult”
without losing its youthful energy or attitude. The record
opens with a sound clip of a woman saying, “He’s
sober. It’s not a good idea to be sober.” We
immediately then launch into “Party Tonight,”
with lyrics like “BYOBD – that means bring your
own beer and drugs.” The track is perfect for pogoing
to, with loads of bounce, and the song insists, “Gonna
have fun tonight with or without you / You know I’m
right, I wouldn’t lie.” The theme continues
with “It Ain’t Over.” “It ain’t
over ‘til it’s over / Well I’m gonna be
hung over tomorrow,” declares the chorus. Maybe I’ll
take back that assessment that this is more “adult!”
But where I get that from is “I Know I Know,”
a track that could have come from a Paul Collins Beat”
LP, because it’s such classic power pop, from the
melody right down to the lyrics that tell a tale of lost
love. “Let’s Hang Out At The Beach” has
a pretty good beachy punk feel to it, and I love the laid-back
power pop of “Bree Olson.” As a matter of fact,
the last third of the album lens more toward power pop than
the first two thirds. If you like mature power pop and juvenile
lyrics (and who doesn’t), plus a dose of Ramones-core
– this is a great record!
JIGSAW
YOUTH – Sorry For The Distortion (jigsawyouth.bandcamap.com)
Jigsaw Youth, from New York City, prefaced this recording
when sending it by calling themselves an “all girl
punk/grunge band.” I guess they feel they need to
say that, as if it would be a novelty, a selling point to
get us to review it and you to buy it. I prefer to just
call them a really good punk/grunge band – the gender
of the members is irrelevant to me. And, hey, the amount
of distortion is just right. The record starts with “Stillborn
Black,” a track that channels punk, grunge, and heavy
alt-rock, with a dose of funk in the bass, and even in the
guitar at the end! The lead vocals are powerful, sometimes
sung, sometimes shouted. “Don’t Make Me Freak”
slows things down and gets grungier, and the vocals drip
with attitude. The bridge is an abrupt change to smooth
indie, before things grunge up again for the finish. I really
enjoy “Flirts On Fire,” for it’s 90s LA
feel of pop punk with a strong edge. “Surf Rock Song”
isn’t really a surf track, but it blends grunge and
jangle really well. The closer on this seven song mini-LP,
“All Around (Fucked Up),” goes back to pure
grunge, and here it reminds me a bit of a band from way
back, Made Out of Babies, with how the vocals switch so
seamlessly between rough and sweet. Good stuff, this is.
JOHNNY
MAFIA – Princes De L’Amour (Dirty Water Records,
www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Not since Vacation’s LP “Non-Person” a
couple years ago have I heard an album like this. Blending
surf guitar, psychedelic sounds, power pop, and a strong
garage punk streak, Johnny Mafia is a revelation. The music
is raucous and it’s bright and sunny. You can’t
help but get up and jump around when these songs are playing.
The instrumentation is somewhat thin – just the guitar,
bass, drums, and vocals – but Johnny Mafia fills the
empty space with an infectious energy and glow. The lead
single, released a couple months back, is also the opening
track, and it’s the perfect introduction to this French
band and their sophomore LP. My favorites do tend to be
the faster song, like this one, “Secret Story,”
“On The Edge,” Feel Fine, Feel Time,”
and especially “Each Side,” which rocks hard
as hell while still sounding bright. Some of those slower
songs are worthy of a mention, too. “A.C.O.”
has parts that feel very retro beach-pop and parts that
are kind of grunge-like. And I love “Sun 41,”
(not a typo) a song heavy on the psych with gloriously fuzzed
out guitars. That aforementioned Vacation LP found a place
on my “Best of” list the year it came out. Johnny
Mafia just may follow suit this year.
NEIGHBORHOOD
BRATS – Claw Marks (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.
com)
FUCK YEAH! Neighborhood Brats are an on-again off-again
band out of LA, originally from the Bay Area. I first saw
them at Awesome Fest a few years back, and they blew me
away. They play super-fast, super-energetic classic punk
but with a strong melodic sensibility. Their live show can’t
be beat, and their recorded output is just as good. There’s
not a single ballad here, no laid-back tracks – everything
is high-energy, powerful, kick-ass punk rock. It’s
hard to pick favorite tracks, because they’re all
so rad. But I’ll single out a few. “Dark Angelo”
is the perfect way to start this record – classic
punk, classic chord progressions, with loads of melody and
even some harmonized vocals. “Late Stage Capitalism”
is almost slowed to a mid-tempo track, and the lyrics are
particularly relevant today, talking about how the upper
echelons of our society can literally get away with murder.
“Misery Parade” has a Bad Religion feel to it,
only faster and stronger, and I love the surf guitar tones
on this one. “One Way Friends” reminds me of
a more polished DFMK (great punk band from Tijuana). And
“Down 3rd” is bouncy as hell, while the topic
(Southern California tragedies) is anything but, always
a great combination. Actually, there’s only one track
I could do without – or more accurately, could do
with a different arrangement. “Night Shift”
uses piano to give the song an old-time rock’n’roll
feel, and I don’t think it really needed it. This
record is a more than worthy of your turntable.
PORCUPINE
– What You’ve Heard Isn’t True (DC-Jam
Records, www.dcjamrecords. com, Dead Broke Rekerds, www.dead
brokerecords.com)
Porcupine has been around for over a decade, based for a
good part of that time in Wisconsin. After relocating to
Minnesota’s Twin Cities and recruiting Hüsker
Dü’s Greg Norton back into active duty, the band
is getting a lot of buzz, and for very good reason. The
six tracks on this mini-LP are some great indie-rock mixed
with bits of dreaminess. “Lifetime” opens with
a minimalist guitar line and high-pitched harmonics floating
above. When the full band comes in, the bass line is hypnotic
and the vocals go from band-limited filtering to full-spectrum.
The result is a song that rocks with a bit of an ethereal
quality. “Distraction” is one of my favorite
tracks, the guitar swirling both in the line it plays and
the phasing effect. I love how the key moves between a dark
modal sound major key optimism. “Pull” has a
great power pop base with touches of psych, math, and indie.
The trio covers a track from Hüsker Dü’s
“Zen Arcade” LP, “Standing By the Sea.”
According to Norton, they made the decision to record this
song shortly after the death of Grant Hart, who, with Norton,
made up two thirds of Hüsker Dü. The cover here
has more of a prog rock sound than the original. My favorite
of the half-dozen, though, is “Exit 180,” recorded
live. It’s super mathy and edgy in the instrumentals,
with smooth, jazzy vocals. This is a phenomenal EP.
REVEREND
HORTON HEAT – Whole New Life (Victory Records, www.victory
records.com)
It’s amazing that Reverend Horton Heat is still kicking
around more than 30 years after their formation. Even more
remarkable is their signing a few years back by Chicago
label Victory Records, which started life putting out straightedge
hardcore music, then branched out into the burgeoning emo
genre of the 2000s. One normally doesn’t associate
the retro psychobilly stylings of the good Reverend with
such a label, but I’m glad that label founder Tony
Brummel decided to branch out all those years ago into new
genres. Jim Heath and company are just as strong as ever,
and if you’re into the retro 50s sound, jump on this.
And if you’re not into that sound, but like good music
– well, jump on this too. Because the good Reverend
isn’t a one-trick pony. Sure, the majority of the
record is rooted firmly in 50s rock’n’roll,
but that’s not all that’s here. The title track
opens the album with a solid old-time rockabilly track,
but “Hog Tyin’ Woman” blends 50s rock
with a strong R&B vibe, as does “Tchoupitoulas
Street,” named for a street along the Mississippi
River in New Orleans. “I’m just walking,”
the song says, “Got a smile on my face, music in my
feet.” It’s the perfect summation of ambling
‘round the Big Easy. I really like the countrified
“Hate to See You Cry,” too. The production is
wonderfully dry and present, putting Heath’s smooth
vocals right up front, the simple arrangement driving the
song ever forward. My favorite track of the album has to
be “Got It In My Pocket,” a hard driving jazzy
rockabilly burner; the powerful angular guitar line is amazing!
And “Don’t Let Go Of Me,” though it has
a retro feel, is more 60s movie soundtrack mod rock than
50s greaser rock. “Sunrise Through The Power Lines”
is more of a modern indie track than anything else on this
record or in Reverend Horton Heat’s catalog. The album
closes with great cover of Elvis Presley’s “Viva
Las Vegas,” with its bossa nova meets rock’n’roll
sound. A more diverse than expected Reverend Horton Heat
on a more diverse than expected Victory Records is a great
combination!
TIGHTWIRE
– Six Feet Deep (Red Scare Industries, www.redscare.net)
Fans of pop punk, rejoice! I mean the real stuff, the hooky
melodic stuff that came of age in the 90s and had its peak
with Insubordination Fest. Tightwire have this sound nailed.
They’re just as melodic and tuneful as Masked Intruder,
but with an edgier sound, for more punk goodness. They’ve
got a smoother sound than Teenage Bottlerocket – figure
somewhere between those two bands and you’re in the
right area. Only three of the thirteen songs break the two
minute mark, and that baker’s dozen of songs fly by
in a mere twenty minutes, so there’s no time to get
bored here. The best song comes first on this debut LP.
It’s called “Draggin’ Me,” and I
love the hard pounding instrumentals that bridge the vocal
sections. “Guts” is a good one, too, loaded
with melody and even harmonizing on the vocals, without
coming off as too sappy (something, sadly, that the title
track suffers from, the only track I didn’t care for).
I really like “Don’t Like to Lose,” too;
it’s got an interesting melodic line in the chorus,
and a sort of closed-in sound. Hell, you know what to expect
from these songs. They’re bouncy and fun. They’re
not going to set the world on fire, but this is great party
music.
USELESS
ID – 7 Hits From Hell (Fat Wreck Chords, www.fatwreck.com)
Useless ID present seven short blasts of mostly classic
Fat Wreck sounds – fast’n’loud and super
poppy punk. And by short, I mean the songs are all under
a minute long – with one exception in which the track
lasts six seconds longer than that mark. The tracks are
uniformly bouncy and melodic, the typical Fat formula. The
one exception to this rule is the closer, “Too Bad
You Don’t Get It,” which starts out reggae and
finishes with a punk burst. These songs go by so damn fast,
it’s hard to review, because just as I’m getting
into them they’re over. But there’s enough variety,
enough power, enough edge, enough speed, and enough pop
to make this a pretty great EP.
WESTERN
STAR – Any Way How (Saustex Records, www.saustex.com)
Baltimore’s Western Star’s sophomore effort
is deep into alt-country / Southern rock territory. And
for me, it’s a mixed result. Some of the songs remind
me too much of the southern rock bands of my youth, a genre
I despised. Bands like Thin Lizzy and the Steve Miller Band
spring to mind on some of the tracks, though the vocals
are more reminiscent of Axl Rose. Some of the tracks feature
wanky guitar solos, as well. “Back on Track”
and “Lookin’ for Action” are two examples
of this. Alt-country tracks like “Driving in the Zone”
and “Good Times Man” are pretty decent, focusing
more on story telling and a firmer country spirit than on
the rock side of things. And then there are tracks like
“Coast to Coaster,” that are more twangy indie
mixed with power-pop, and it’s a sound that I could
listen to more of. There’s more attention paid to
the melody than there is in being consciously “down
home,” and you know, the start of a good song is always
in a good melody. “Since I Learned to Dance”
takes this even further, reminding me of stuff Lou Reed
might have done. That one’s my favorite of the album.
More like these two would have made this album go from mediocre
to great.
THE
CALLAS WITH LEE RENALDO – Trouble and Desire (Dirty
Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
The Callas, from Greece, met and worked with Sonic Youth’s
Lee Renaldo a few years back, and collaborated together
on this new full-length LP. Seven tracks are each introduced
by a short, mysterious intro track, each titled “Octopus”
with a corresponding number. The songs vary, some with a
dark, tribal feel, some with a vaguely medieval feel, some
with a post-punk sound sort of like crossing Sonic Youth
and Lydia Lunch. Some are sung in English, some in Greek.
I’m a sucker for rock-based vaguely medieval sounding
music, so tracks like “?e?a??a´” get me
going. It’s a Greek song, so I don’t know what’s
being sung about, but it’s got a very mysterious feel
to it. The bass and drums throb in a repeated minimalist
pattern, as is the chorus, when the electric guitar comes
in, providing a droning background. It sounds exotic and
ancient, and as the song evolves, a chorus comes in and
everything gets louder, sounding like some ritual dance
and chant reaching a fever pitch. “?et?´”
has a similar feel, but this time sounds like something
more martial than ritualistic. And the album closer, “G????a´
??? ?´µ??f?,” has a dark quality to it,
featuring primarily very simple bass, drums, and vocals,
with droning guitars coming in for the chorus. It’s
slow and arcane.” The tracks that have that post-punk
sound are pretty good too, bringing back a sound I haven’t
heard much since the 90s. The title track and “Acid
Books” are probably the best of the bunch, with the
former lightening up the sound with a more modern indie
feel and the latter diving straight into modal darkness.
And something must be said about those numbered “Octopus”
pieces between each track. They’re fantastic. Ambience,
mystery, magic. Some sound like they could have come from
a Lynchian soundtrack, with evil deep buzzing underneath
incomprehensible spoken word. A perfect way to separate
out the tracks in this very interesting record.
THE
CRACK PIPES – Fake Eyelashes (Super Secret Records,
www.supersecret records.com)
I’ll be blunt. I don’t like this record. Some
of the tracks are supposed to be psychedelic, but the vocals
on these slower, calmer tracks are quite off-putting. Most
of the tracks have either a pseudo funk feel or a faux doo-wop
feel. The title track is one of those slower psych tracks.
It lacks any sort of energy or enthusiasm, and the vocals
get painfully off key at times. The two tracks that are
listenable are a couple of retro garage rockers, “Lil’
Cheetah” and “Bang Bang Bangs.” They’ve
got a good garage vibe and feel authentic enough. And some
of the songs are just bad rock and roll, like a cheap Rolling
Stones, like “(I’m A) Moon Man Baby).”
It’s supposed to be a rockin’ and rollin’
track, but it just falls flat, and feels more like a parody.
There are a few tracks that are particularly difficult to
sit through. “Sea of Beverly,” “Giraffe,”
and “You’re The Reflection of the Moon on the
Water,” the last trying to use weird effects to make
the vocals sound like they’re under water. “Giraffe”
has to be one of the worst songs I’ve heard in a while,
with inane lyrics and painfully bad vocals. I think I know
where the band got their name…
EMMA
DECORSEY – The Dream (www.iamthepolisharmy.bandcamp.com)
Emma DeCorsey, front-woman of Brooklyn’s indie band,
I Am The Polish Army, found she had some time on her hands
when band mate (and boyfriend) Turner Stough was away on
tour with Shilpa Ray. So she decided to write and record
some songs that would be separate from her band, and the
result is this four-song EP. But, if she wanted this to
sound and feel different from I Am The Polish Army, I’m
afraid she didn’t succeed to any great extent. Though
I was unfamiliar with that band (living on the other side
of the country, as I do), I listened to the band’s
album online, and find that the two records have a similar
vibe. That vibe, summed up in a word, is ennui. The songs
are played well enough, but they drag and they’re
listless. In particular, the third track, the overly lengthy
“Viber,” meanders aimlessly, a spaced out ballad
jam. And the closer, “Just Lick Me,” tries to
be a classic rock track and feels very out of place, compared
to the rest of the songs – but the feeling of low
energy persists.
TONY
SAXON – Manic Depressant Idiot Savant (Mint 400
Records, www.mint400records.com)
The common thread that seems to run through the nine songs
on this new full-length LP is a brightness. There’s
just a certain quality in these songs, likely partly due
to the tone of the keyboards and the amount of reverb used
in the mix, that just makes these songs sound sunny. The
individual songs range from garage to surf to psych to even
retro top 40. In this sense, Saxon reminds me of Chicago
performer Bobby Conn, though these songs have a different
underlying sense of kitsch than Conn’s. Saxon does
most of the performing here, handling all of the vocals,
guitars, bass, Omnichord, tenor sax, alto sax, Lowrey “micro
genie” synth, harmonium, Vox Jaguar, and drum programming.
The only parts he didn’t play himself are the drums
(played by Matt Olsson) and a few of the tenor sax solos
(played by Saxon’s 75-year-old father!). I think one
of the things that attracts me to this record is how each
of the songs sounds pretty different from the others, yet
they all share a common feel, too, so the album is quite
cohesive. There are a couple of tracks I don’t care
for too much. “Doe Eyes” is too much in the
vein of 80s top 40 for my taste, and “The 10 Year
Curse of Sidemouth,” which closes the album, is just
too long and repetitive, though it’s one of the more
soulful tracks. Favorites include the opener, “Retrograde,”
for its cool 50s lounge sounding keys blended with a retro
rock feel, the lively surf instrumental, “Sarcophagus
Juice,” and the raucous rock’n’soul track,
“Butt-Dials from Shlomo.” I also like the dream-lounge
stylings of “Ghost of Windows95.” This album
is pretty different, pretty quirky – and if you like
different and quirky, like I do, then you will enjoy this.
THE
SELFISH CALES – Haapsalu (Volcano Records, www.volcanopromotion.com)
The Selfish Cales, named for front man Andy Cale, hail from
Turin, Italy. Formed in 2010 through myspace.com, the band
focuses on a retro sound that blends late 60s and early
70s flower child rock, psychedelic, and funk. To be quite
honest, this sounds like the kind of music some of my high
school friends made in their bands back in the 70s. I think
the opening track is related to the album title. Haapsalu
is apparently a city in Estonia. And the first track is
titled “Baltic Memories.” It’s a song
in, I believe, 12/8 time for a good part of it, before the
heavy funky bass comes in, keyboards getting jazzy, and
the whole thing goes from listenable prog-like music to
something out of the 70s suburban band scene. The production
values add to that sense, in that it sounds like it was
recorded inside an empty high school gymnasium. This whole
record reminds me somewhat of a lesser quality version of
Ambrosia’s classic first album.
SLINKY
X (Drug Party Music, drugparty.bandcamp.com)
Here’s the debut EP from Buffalo’s Slinky X,
made up of members of Radiation Risk, Brown Sugar, Utah
Jazz, and Tap Water. The six songs here are a study in contrasts.
They have hard, edgy, buzzy guitars and, for the most part,
lighter melodies and wonderfully poppy harmonized vocals.
It’s like a meeting of grunge and indie pop bands
that decide to collaborate, and it works remarkably well.
The opening track, “Slinky,” startled me at
first. The band begins playing some hard guitar riffs, sounding
almost like classic rock. But then those harmonized vocals
come in sounding like something out of 60s mod pop. “Motherly
Love” softens the instrumentals a bit, and the resulting
song has a sort of Neu/Stereolab feel brought into a more
modern indie-pop mindset. “Boogie Man” changes
things up, with a bit more of a garage flavor, except for
the soaring harmonized chorus. Special mention should be
made of the indie pop mixed with punk “I Breed Rabbits.”
After starting out as an edgy indie rock track, it gets
much more raucous, with vocals alternating between sweet
and smooth and shouted, angry. I really like the unorthodox
mixing of genres and textures on this debut.
UROCHROMES
– The Beat Sessions (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunken
sailorrecords.co.uk)
Do you remember the early 80s? Do you remember hardcore
punk music of that era? Well, worry not. If you’re
too young to remember or your brain got too fried, you can
toss this record on and get a feel for it. The music is
raucous, angry, and distorted, but tightly performed. Some
of the songs have the feel of hardcore crossed with classic
rock and roll, with a Motorhead meets punk sort of thing.
Vocals are partly shouted, partly sung, just like the old
days. Of the five tracks here, the longest is a minute and
thirty-six seconds long; the rest are all under a minute
and a half. Favorites are the harder and faster ones, “My
Dickies” and “I Don’t Wanna Be Like Me.”
See you in the pit!
YOUNGER
THEN – Bad Life (Standby Records, www.standbyrecords.com)
Younger Then’s sophomore effort is a mixed bag. The
bulk of the eleven tracks have a very “alternative
rock” feel to them, and I mean that in the sense that
the songs sound like something a major label would put out
on it’s “alternative music” sub-label
and push heavily through “alternative” commercial
radio. The band cites U2, Kings of Leon, Cold War Kids,
and others as influences – all major label acts. And
I can definitely hear it. The guitar work and song structure
on “Sarah Told Them” could have come from a
new U2 record. “Sundazed” sounds like what the
major labels were putting out in the 90s to cash in on the
grunge sound. The lead vocals throughout really come off
as very affected, reminding me of the fake angst of Eddie
Vedder. It’s like vocalist Zack Dupuis thinks this
is what a successful rock singer is supposed to sound like,
so let’s do that. That’s not to say there aren’t
some bright spots to the record. A few of the songs are
pretty catchy. “California King” has some good
hooks and a more indie-rock feel. And the title track, “Bad
Life,” has plenty of jangle in it. But an 18% success
rate isn’t going to get me to buy an album.
SLEEPY
LIMBS / CHAMPAGNE COLORED CARS – Split EP (Know
Hope Records, www.knowhoperecords.com, Seafoam City Records,
www.seafoamcity.com)
Two bands, two record labels, one 12” EP. Each band
contributes three songs. Both offer up some pretty indie
music with math tendencies. Likewise, both bands previously
released their own EPs last year. Side A features Lancaster,
PA’s Sleepy Limbs, whose three songs (“Ocean
Dream,” “Boo,” and “Underwear-Wolf”)
are smooth and understated, with guitars lines that swirl
around the laid-back vocals. I love how the end of “Ocean
Dream” quietly shimmers and flows right into “Boo.”
The minimalist melodic lines on “Boo” are pretty
great to listen to. Atlanta, Georgia’s Champagne Colored
Cars are a little harder-edged than Sleepy Limbs, yet the
guitar sound is similar. Rapid-fire patterns are played
and repeated, given the mathish feel. Of their three contributions
(“A Dastardly Man,” “Curious Rover Birthday
Song,” “Post-Modernism”) I think I like
the first best. It has a sense of urgency to it, and I like
the gravelly vocals and the rough vibrato in them. All three
of the Champagne Colored Cars tracks have more forward motion
to them, I think. All of the songs are good, but this B
side rules.
SUICIDE
GENERATION – Last Suicide (Dirty Water Records,
www. dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Having signed a two record deal with Dirty Water Records,
the first was titled “1st Suicide.” So, of course,
this second one is “Last Suicide.” When I reviewed
the previous record, I commented on how great the music
was, but how awful the recording was. They’ve fixed
that for this second record. The recording is just the right
level of lo-fi, but the music is still just as raw and raucous,
the performance just as manic, and the vocals just as wild.
There are no clinkers on this eleven-track album that clocks
in at a mere 24 minutes. There’s nothing that stands
out above the other tracks, either. It’s just a solid
kick to the balls while someone is spilling beer all over
you. Can’t take it? Well, piss off, ya wanker! This
music is as real as it gets. No pretense, just pure energy
mixed in with some blood, sweat, and passion.
VISTA
BLUE – More Scary Songs to Sing in the Dark (wearevistablue.
bandcamp.com)
The prolific Vista Blue is back with another seasonally
appropriate EP. And this time, they mean business! Vista
Blue’s driving force, Mike Patton, used to host a
podcast and write a zine dedicated to horror films, so you
know these songs are near and dear to his cold, bloody heart,
wherever it is. Bwahahaha! The sound of these songs is familiar
to all Vista Blue fans: buzzy guitars and a beachy pop punk
sound. It’s an odd counterpoint to the horror movie
and campfire story topics of the songs. A new version of
Shel Silverstein’s poem “The Slithery Dee,”
originally set to music by The Smothers Brothers, is featured.
And one track halfway through has a radio dial being spun
to find some music and landing on a news report about…wait
for it...wait for it…an escaped killer! It’s
the perfect intro to “The Hook.” It’s
a familiar tale to everyone who has ever gone to summer
camp, and the “campy” story gets the pop punk
treatment from Vista Blue. If you want to be scared by happy
sounding pop punk, here you go!
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ALLVARET
– Skam Och Skuld (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Allvaret hails from Småland, in southern Sweden. The
Scandinavians, likely due to the long, dark, cold winters,
are known for depressing, dark films and music. This new
album from Allvaret has a strong, dark energy running through
it. That’s not to say it’s depressing –
not at all! There’s an energetic enthusiasm running
through the ten songs on this record. It reminds me of what
some punk bands were doing in the mid eighties post-hardcore
era, darkening things up. The songs seem to have a dusty
desert punk feel, like if Sergio Leone’s spaghetti
western films had a punk soundtrack. But amidst the darkness,
there’s also a sense of hopefulness, in the bright
vocals and melodies that try to shine through. “0253”
and “Iha°lig” are favorite tracks, the former
because it’s the brightest song of the bunch –
it features only guitar and vocals for much of the track,
and even when the bass and drums come in, they’re
very understated. It’s the most different from the
rest of the album. The latter brings back the dark, but
I love the melodic line and the extra-passionate vocals.
I can’t tell you what any of these songs are about
because they’re all sung in Swedish – but I’m
sure they’re epic lyrics to match the instrumentals.
Good stuff.
AUDIO
KARATE – Bounce b/w Landing (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.com)
Southern California’s Audio Karate were active from
the mid 90s to the mid 2000s, then fell silent. They recently
reformed, and Wiretap Records did a vinyl re-release of
their debut LP, “Space Camp,” previously released
in 2002 on CD by Kung Fu Records. Additionally, Audio Karate
has released two new songs with Wiretap, their first new
recordings since 2004, recorded shortly before the band
called it quits. These two songs are a preview of their
upcoming LP, which has been sitting, unreleased, for all
these years. The A-side is prototypical 2000s emo-tinged
pop punk, with angst-filled vocals and intertwining guitar
lines. The B-side, though, is something very different,
and I really like it a lot. More sedate and sparse, the
growled vocals are traded for smooth falsetto. The song
seems to float and sounds a lot more modern than something
that might have been done in the 2000s.
C.H.E.W.
– Feeding Frenzy (Drunken Sailor Records, drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
This record is, in a word, brutal. Sixteen tracks in thirty-one
minutes means the average track is less than two minutes.
And with the final song, “Belly Up,” clocking
in at over six minutes, the actual average of the rest is
just over a minute and a half. This is modern hardcore,
fast, furious, distorted, with vocals that are incoherently
screamed. There’s barely a discernible rhythm to many
of the songs, and they have an almost free-form feel. The
onslaught lets up at the halfway mark, with “Feeding
Frenzy Pt I,” a two and a half minute instrumental
that’s just the calm before the storm hits again.
“Shame” is the track that comes closest to a
more standard song structure, and a more standard hardcore
sound. There’s a melody of sorts, and a strong beat.
That long closer I mentioned is a slow, grinding dirge,
as I expected. I guess if you’re into this sort of
hardcore, you’ll like this – the musicianship
seems to be pretty tight. I just can’t get into it
myself.
THE
CAVEMEN – Burn Out For Love b/w Dancing on the Razor’s
Edge (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
You know you love down and dirty garage rock’n’roll!
These Kiwis are back with a new single. If you like this
style of music, you’ll naturally love this record.
I do know that the distorted lo-fi sound is a thing, especially
with raucous garage rock, but this one is maybe a little
too distorted for my tastes. But that doesn’t take
away from the raw power exuded by The Cavemen on these
two songs.
COLUMNA
– Las Cosas Que Perdemos (Dirt Cult Records, dirtcultrecords.com)
Spanish rockers Columna are getting some North American
exposure through Dirt Cult Records, with the American release
of their seven-song mini LP, which came out earlier this
year in Europe. The record features moody post-punk rock
songs, all sung in Spanish, of course. What strikes me most
is a strong consistency from track to track. The tempo is
identical across the board, the guitar tone, the feel, the
level of intensity – all the same. And because the
tracks all sound the same, it makes it difficult to listen
to this straight through.
EXTRA
ARMS – Headacher
(Get Party Records,
facebook.com/GetParty Records)
Berkley, Michigan’s Extra Arms is an evolution of
Ryan Allen’s efforts under the name “Ryan Allen
and His Extra Arms.” The LP features songs that walk
the border between power pop, pop punk, and rock and roll.
And these are pretty damn solid songs. Right from the start,
the album comes on strong. The title track is the perfect
opener, setting expectations for the rest of the LP. It’s
a hard rocking track that, nevertheless, has plenty of pop.
“Done to Death” is the same, but even more,
exceeding those expectations. I like the feel of “Old
Heads,” a song about being young, in a band, touring
the country. “There’s one thing I know is true
/ This is what I was born to do.” It seems that half
of all indie bands write a song about this, but it never
gets old. It’s not even just about touring –
it’s about living in the moment. “Hooray hooray
summer’s here / We won’t get paid but there’s
free beer / Where will we be this time next year? / We’ll
evaporate, we’ll disappear.” Life is short and
impermanent, so make the most of it, the song seems to say.
The song opens with just guitar and vocals, then piano comes
in briefly before the “whole band” explodes
with power. The album ends with “The Last One,”
an intense acoustic track. It’s the kind of track
that I can hear in my mind being a “full band”
sort of song, too – songs are always great when they
work equally well both ways. If you like power pop and pop
punk, get on this.
KRISTIN
HERSH – Possible Dust Clouds (Fire Records, www.firerecords.com)
Talk about eclectic! Throwing Muses icon Kristin Hersh is
back with her tenth solo LP. It contains songs that rock,
songs that are psychedelic, folksy songs, and songs with
some grit and grunge. The variety makes for a great listen.
I love the ease these songs have, like the band is just
hanging out playing for themselves. Nothing feels forced.
A few of the songs stand out for me. “Half Way Home”
starts out as an acoustic folk-influenced song, but adds
in some dark psych feels, with menacing guitar noise in
the background. The intensity builds as the song unwinds,
with thicker layers of sound. “Loudmouth” is
a great song in waltz time that has a dark, greasy drone
and vaguely medieval harmonizing in the vocals. The sleigh
bells are a cool touch, too. And the closer, “Lady
Godiva,” is a mainly acoustic track that has both
an intimate and epic feel. This is the sort of record I’ll
listen to again.
HEY
CHELS (heychels.bandcamp.com)
This Southern California super-group features Jacque Mendez
(from New Way On), Ricky Schmidt (from Western Settings),
Kevin White (from Squarecrow), and Steph Presz (from The
Newports). This, their debut EP, sounds nothing like any
of their other bands, which tend more toward pop punk. But
Hey Chels offer up some pretty awesome indie-dream-pop.
Mendez, normally focused on keyboards and backup vocals
in New Way On, steps to the fore here with some strong singing,
while Schmidt, front man for Western Settings, takes a step
back in Hey Chels, contributing only backing vocals. The
songs are softer around the edges than we’re uses
to hearing from these musicians, yet no less full of emotional
content. “Sludge Town, USA” opens the EP, and
encapsulates Hey Chels’ sound perfectly. The lonely
reverb-laden guitar at the start announces that this is
something different, and when the full band comes in, there’s
still a sense of dreaminess. The guitar tone is gorgeous,
and Mendez’s vocals are solid. The blending of keys
and guitar adds to the dreamy feel. “Take Me Anywhere”
demonstrates how the band has that fine balance between
indie rock and dream pop – the song is edgy enough
to not sound too soft, but dreamy enough to not feel too
rock. “I Know You Are But What Am I” is a favorite.
It’s the most pop punk of the songs, but at the same
time tempers that with dreaminess. The contrast of the fuzzed
guitar and clear-as-a-bell keyboard is beautiful. And the
closer, “Bring Me Back A Souvenir,” moves the
needle more toward the dream-pop side of things without
losing its edge. It’s so nice to have a new band in
the scene that’s not just cookie-cutter pop punk but
still has some of the DNA.
KID
YOU NOT – Home Again (Bypolar Records, www.bypolarrecords.com)
Hailing from the sunshine state of Florida, Kid You Not
don’t have far to travel to get to The Fest, which
is where they’re headed this year. And it’s
fitting; they have the perfect sound for the annual pop
punk mass gathering. All of the dozen songs on the LP are
big sing-alongs. Pack yourself and a hundred of your closest
friends into a tiny dive bar, grab yourself a PBR tall boy,
get to the front, and punch your beer-soaked fists into
the air as you shout out the lyrics – you’ll
think you already know them, because the songs sound so
familiar after just one listen, especially “Just Keep
Swimming.” I could swear I’ve heard that song
a million times before. Huge guitars with pretty flourishes
anchor these songs, with vocals just as big. While not gruff,
the lead vocals have just the right amount of gravel just
the right amount of angst, and the songs certainly are loaded
with sincerity and heart. The song titles are both humorous
and dark. “May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way,”
“When Life Gives You Lemons, Just Say Fuck The Lemons
and Bail,” and “Drink Your School, Stay In Drugs,
And Don’t Do Milk” are some good examples. This
last has a great reference to Robert Frost and his poem,
“Nothing Gold Can Stay.” I love literary references
in punk songs. While bands of this genre can fall into the
trap of their songs all sounding a little too similar to
each other, and Kid You Not does suffer somewhat from this,
the songs are expertly executed, energetic, and will have
you shouting along in no time.
LARRY
AND HIS FLASK – This Remedy
(www.xtramilerecordings.com)
Larry’s been sipping from that flask for some fifteen
years, yet I find myself listening for the first time on
this, their first new record in five years. They call themselves
the original “post-Americana” band. Imagine
taking an old-timey jug band and a pop punk band, putting
them into a blender, and pressing the puree button. The
result is country music, complete with acoustic guitar,
fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and acoustic and electric guitars,
plus trombone and trumpet on some songs – but with
a strong pop punk vibe and energy. Ian Cook’s lead
vocals sometimes border on crooning style, in the way Josh
Caterer of the Smoking Popes does it. The album is split
between rollicking tracks that might be called country jazz
and some slower, slicker tunes that are a little more on
the country pop side. I like the raucous, energetic songs
best. Like the opener, “Atonement.” It evokes
images from a century ago, yet still sounds thoroughly modern,
and it rocks out in a way that it shouldn’t be able
to with that instrumentation. “Ellipsis” is
another barnburner, with slow, smooth vocals contrasting
with the speed and intensity of the rest of the band. “Dearly
Departed has a strong streak of bluegrass through it, which
I love. “Begin Again” and “You Won’t”
meld rock’n’roll and old-timey music in a unique
and fun way. A couple of the tracks rub me the wrong way,
though. “Never All The Times,” “Hoping
Again,” and “The Place That It Belongs”
are just a little too slick sounding for me, a little too
bland, like something you would hear on “Live From
Here” on NPR. But for the most part, this is a really
fun, different record.
SMOKING
POPES – Into The Agony (Asian Man Records, www.asianmanrecords.com)
After making a big splash in the 90s, the Smoking Popes
saw some modest success with releases at Capitol Records,
but after bring dropped from the label the band broke up.
Upon reuniting in 2005, the band resumed occasional touring
and recording, but it was without original drummer Mike
Felumlee. 2011’s LP, “This Is Only A Test”
was fine, but most of the songs just didn’t sound
like The Smoking Popes. Flash forward to 2015, and drummer
Neil Hennessy announced he was leaving the band. But then
came the announcement that Felumlee was rejoining! Now comes
the first full-length album of original songs from the original
lineup since 1997’s “Destination Failure.”
And the magic is back! The album is bookended by a pair
of songs released digitally in late 2016. “Simmer
Down” is the opener, and is classic Popes material
that will sound familiar yet fresh. The song is so darn
catchy! “Someday I’ll Smile Again” continues
the Popes’ tradition of ending albums with a more
reflective song, this one about recovery from the great
emotional pain of lost love. In between are more awesome
songs than you can shake a stick at (why would anyone shake
a stick at songs?). “Amanda My Love” is another
one that sounds like the Popes of 20 years ago, but it’s
got some cool unexpected chord changes and a pretty different
bridge. In an unusual move, the Popes get a bit political
on a couple of their tracks. “Little Lump of Coal”
is a lament of how we’ve given away our future and
that of our children, just for more profit for energy companies.
It has the sound of a hymn, even as it damns our generation.
“We have stolen the earth from our children / And
we burned it all down out of spite / And we sold our soul
for a little lump of coal / Just to keep ourselves warm
through the night.” “Melting America”
is a reference to America as the world’s melting pot,
the land of liberty and opportunity for all people, and
how those in power have traded America’s open arms
for walls and refugee bans. Flatfoot 56’s Tobin Bawinkel
provides gruff guest vocals that befit this song. Sure,
there’s a cover on the record. They do “Get
Happy,” a Christian revivalist sort of song, but done
as a Smoking Popes special. But I don’t mind. The
other nine songs are a treat for this long-time Smoking
Popes fan, and I couldn’t be happier.
MARK
SULTAN – Let Me Out (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Canadian garage icon Mark Sultan has a new LP out, and yes,
it’s garage rock’n’roll. Thin arrangements
of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards back Sultan’s
vocals. Maybe a little too thin. The songs are fine, but
I’d like the empty space to get filled up more. Sometimes
Sultan’s vocals are a little off, too, such as on
“The Other Two.” With the arrangement being
so sparse, it sticks out a lot. I’m not sure what
happened there, because on most of the tracks the vocals
are pretty strong. “Everybody Knows” seems like
the vocals are more demanding, and Sultan nails it. I really
wish the band was bigger and the arrangements thicker, because
these are some pretty good garage tunes. Especially “Black
Magic,” an up-tempo track with some great hooks. But
the guitar is too far down in the mix and the vocals to
up front on all of these tracks, so it’s really not
as satisfying a listen as I’d like.
VANILLA
POPPERS – I Like Your Band (Drunken Sailor Records,
www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
When Christina Pap moved from her home in Australia to
Cleveland, Vanilla Poppers was formed. The band plays
a powerful blend of rock’n’roll and punk.
The instrumentals are pure hard rock, fast and furious,
while the vocals are punk as fuck. The four-song EP is
raw and intense, not letting up for even a second. Sadly,
visa restrictions forced Pap to move again, first to Toronto,
then back to Australia. However, two of the Vanilla Poppers
will be following her there, and the band will continue
to rock out. Best track: the opener, “Get Away From
Me.” It’s a punch to the gut. Best song title:
“I’m an Adult Baby.”
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PAUL
COLLINS – Out of My Head (Alive Naturalsound Records,
www.alive-records.com)
Paul Collins is back! It’s his first “full band”
album since 2014’s “Feel The Noise,” and
it sees him not only playing guitar, but also getting behind
the drum kit for the first time in a very long while. Collins
is joined by bassist Paul Stingo and Keyboardist/guitarist
Jason Perillo for what I think is Collins’ best record
yet. He digs through his past for inspiration, pulling in
plenty of power pop and rock’n’roll, but also
some hints of the alt-country songs he’s done. And
he’s brought in something he hasn’t done in
a while: collaboration with another songwriter. Stingo brought
some new songs to the party, including the opening track,
“In and Out of My Head.” The album certainly
has some rockin’ tracks (this is Paul Collins, after
all!), but the overall feel is quieter, more introspective
than past efforts. While some of the tracks are exactly
what you expect from the King of Power Pop (“Go,”
“You Belong To Me,” “Midnight Special”)
others are a brilliant surprise. “Kind of Girl”
may be the jangliest song ever released under the Paul Collins
moniker, and is the sort of song that will get stuck in
your head very easily. “Emily” is a gorgeous
ballad about the intensely mixed emotions around a break-up.
“Killer Inside” has a cool funky jazz feel to
it, and brings us to the softer, quieter last third of the
LP. After that is “Lost Again,” a track that
blends country ballad sounds with soft rock to provide a
pretty song. “Tick Tock,” a song that would
feel very at home in a David Lynch soundtrack, seems to
be a reflection of the passage of time. The references to
the fall and looking at the leaves, and gravity pulling
us down are an acknowledgement that we all age. And “Beautiful
Eyes” closes the album with another beautiful ballad,
the guitars plucked in a folk style. But I want to make
special mention of my favorite track of the album, and that
would be “You Belong To Me.” This is the sort
of song that made me fall in love with Paul Collins’
music all those years ago, and what keeps me coming back
for more.
JABBER
– Jabber Forever (Asian Man Records, www.asianmanrecords.com)
A couple years into bassist/vocalist Danny Baily’s
self-imposed exile in the frozen northeast, Jabber has been
criminally derelict in their duties in the pop punk world.
So, on a recent visit back to the Bay area, Baily and the
rest of Jabber (Kris Moya, Jordan Springman, Kelly Sullivan)
spent the time wisely, writing and recording five new songs.
And maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder. Because
I love these sunny, sparkling songs. The songs seem to be
a little more mature than earlier efforts, with stronger
melodies. The gorgeous vocal harmonies are still there,
too but the songs, while still firmly in the pop punk camp,
have leanings toward indie pop. I hear echoes of the great
Tsunami. Highlights include “Tempting and Exhausting,”
the opening track with a cool start-stop melodic line, and
“Melt,” with its ascending and descending melodic
line and dueling vocals toward the end. I hope Baily continues
to make frequent visits back home and I look forward to,
perhaps, a Jabber tour.
NIGHT
BIRDS – Roll Credits (Fat Wreck Chords, www.fatwreck.com)
Night Birds are, perhaps, one of America’s finest
current hardcore bands. And the New Jersey band is back
with an eight-song mini-LP of sonic blasts. Also back to
help celebrate ten years as a band is former Night Birds
guitarist Mike Hunchback, who played with band from 2009
to 2012. He produced this record and plays on it, too, marking
the first time Night Birds have been a five-piece. The eight
songs have a good amount of diversity changing things up
to keep listeners guessing. “Pull the String”
is the short opener, and is a rockin’ surf-garage-punk
instrumental. “Onward to Obscurity” is my favorite
track of the bunch, a throwback to early 80s hardcore punk.
Super fast and crunchy, this is the one where the pit will
go crazy at the live shows. “My Dad Is the BTK”
was the lead single released over the summer, and it’s
a bit slower, with a SoCal “funny punk” vibe
going on. Other songs range from mid-tempo 90s punk to darker
almost goth-punk, and back to raging hardcore. The title
track closes the mini-LP with another surf-punk instrumental,
this time a somewhat slower than the opener, but no less
energetic. Because if there’s one thing Night Birds
has aplenty, it’s energy. They never let us down.
RADON
– More Of Their Lies (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
One of the bands that put Gainesville, Florida on the pop
punk map, Radon kicked around throughout much of the 90s.
Reforming in 2005 for a performance at The Fest, Radon have
since continued to perform and record. This latest LP first
came out earlier this year in Japan on Eager Beaver Records,
the label run by the folks from the band Worthwhile Way.
Radon championed the style of pop punk that became known
as “beardcore,” the style so prominent at many
early Fests. Though The Fest has since expanded the range
of bands invited to perform each year, beardcore is still
a primary driver in that scene, and Radon continue to be
strong proponents of the sound. The baker’s dozen
tracks on this album are uniformly energetic, melodic, crunchy,
and gang-vocal-ready. The tracks certainly aren’t
innovative, but they’re sure a lot of fun and really
well played. A highlight would be “What Do You Want
From Me.” I love the open feel to it, and the use
of guitar harmonics. Immediately following is “Wired,”
probably the hardest hitting track of the album. “Roller
Derby Girls” sparkles, and I just love the feel of
“Just Want To Play Guitar,” maybe because it
feels a bit like East Bay pop punk crossed with San Diego’s
Pitchfork (the predecessor to Drive Like Jehu). “UFdUp”
may be my favorite of the album, though. I can’t pin
down exactly what it is I love about the song, but it’s
got a certain feeling of forward motion that gets to me.
You shouldn’t go into this album expecting revelations,
but do expect a good time.
ST.
LENOX – Ten Fables of Young Ambition and Passionate
Love (stlenox.bandcamp.com)
I remember exactly where I was and when it was that I first
listened to St. Lenox. It was at Christmastime, 2015, and
I was visiting my mom, sitting at her dining room table,
listening to new music and writing reviews. When St, Lenox’s
debut LP, “Ten Songs About Memory and Hope,”
began playing I was floored. Then, nearly two years later,
“Ten Hymns from My American Gothic” came out.
And it became clear these weren’t just songs. These
are stories from the life of Andrew Choi, the man behind
St. Lenox. What was merely astoundingly good music transformed
into a deeply intimate look into the life of another human
being. Now, St. Lenox’s third LP focuses on Choi’s
love life and his ambitions (his day job is as a New York
City attorney, by night an amazing singer-song-writer).
Musically, the album is the most diverse yet, with songs
featuring acoustic and electric guitars, saxophone, trumpet,
and violin, in addition to piano, synth, and drums. This
gives the songs a thicker sound.
After a quiet, sad, opener about the loneliness of going
to karaoke bars, “First Date” tells the tale
of a series of first dates with different people who may
be less than honest about themselves. It’s a typical
St. Lenox track, soulful Hammond B3-like keyboards mixing
with piano and drums, and Choi’s incredible voice.
I love “You Have Got To Feel It,” a breezy,
jazzy tune that tells us that, for all the learning we
might get from experts, we will never be good at whatever
it is without passion for it. Another favorite is “Vincent
Van Gogh.” Musically, I can feel the song breath
and sigh, the open sounding synths giving the song a raspy
dark feeling. The song seem to be about how our hopes
and dreams are always overwhelmed by our fears, self-doubts,
and the doubts we feel from others, and the oppressiveness
that brings. “Gold Star” is a song every DIY
musician can relate to, as they watch everyone around
them seem to “make it,” while they struggle
mightily, barely treading water. “Hungry Years”
is about scrimping and saving, making do with cheap substitutes,
like most of America these days. Piano and synth chase
each other as Choi’s passionate vocals cry out.
The closer is “Don’t Ever Change Me New York
City.” It’s Choi’s plea to himself,
for all the ambitions he speaks to in the other songs,
to not let the greed and vanity of the city change his
Midwestern values. The sparse instrumentation features
electric guitar and synth, giving it a bare sound, as
if to say, “this is who I am, nothing fancy.”
Choi wonders in the songs on this album whether he’s
ever going to “make it” as an artist. I supposed
that depends on your definition of making it. To my definition,
he already has.
SUBWAYS
ON THE SUN – Capsize (Spartan Records, www.spartanrecords.com)
Seattle may be best know for grunge and for beardo-punk,
but Subways on the Sun are out to change that perception.
Five years after their debut LP, “The Honeymoon Stagecoach,”
they’re back with a record that’s bigger and
dreamier than before. Now, don’t get me wrong, this
isn’t dream pop, really, but the sound is more expansive
than the debut LP, thanks to generous use of reverb and
electronics. But there are edgy guitars, as well, to contrast
with the smooth vocals and melodies. Some of the tracks
have a veritable jangle to them, like the title track. It
bounces, even as it glides. I like the tracks that have
that big sound. “Just To Be With You” is the
album opener, and is a good example of that. The chorus
is huge, while the verses are more intimate, a nice contrast.
“Works” makes effective use of dissonant electronics
to contrast with the almost folk music-like opening. I really
love the closing track best, though. “On Repeat”
is a quiet, delicate, reflective song that reminds me a
bit of early OMD, but with more guitars. Sure, there are
a couple tracks that are a little too smooth for my tastes,
bordering on “adult contemporary” soft rock,
but the good tracks outnumber these by a significant number.
THE
DIRTY NIL – Master Volume (Dine Alone Records, www.dinealone
records. com)
Canada’s finest rockers are back with their second
full-lengther (last year’s “Minimum R&B”
doesn’t count, as it collected together a bunch of
earlier singles and EPs). 2016’s “Higher Power”
was one of my favorite records of that year. So, have the
Canucks fallen prey to the sophomore slump? The answer is
no. The Dirty Nil give us a powerful, over-the-top LP loaded
with punishing rock’n’roll music. And, as much
as I love their early singles and EPs, the songs on this
record are bigger, stronger, and more powerful. Their earlier
efforts might be said to be like an out of control freight
train, flying down the track faster and faster, bits flying
off. This record, though, is like a massive diesel locomotive,
powering down the track and smashing everything in its path.
This is unabashed rock’n’roll, the way it used
to be, and the way it was meant to be. In an interview I
recently did with the band Round Eye, they decried the decline
of young people picking up guitars and starting bands, being
more interested in learning software and being a DJ. Thanks
be to all the powers in the universe that Luke Bentham,
Kyle Fisher, and Ross Miller thought differently, for they
may be the saviors of rock’n’roll.
The album opens with “That’s What Heaven
Feels Like.” The guitar riff that repeats throughout
the verses brings to mind the powerful rock bands of the
70s, while the chorus has a more modern indie jangle.
“Bathed in Light” and “Pain of Infinity”
come next, a pair of tracks that the band released in
advance over the summer. I particularly like “Bathed
in Light” for the way it mixes classic and modern
rock sounds. And then we get the incredible “Please
Please Me.” No, it’s not a cover of the Beatles’
classic. It’s a punishing rager, dark, pounding,
unforgiving punk rock. For me, it’s one of the highlights
of a stellar record.
The band slows things down after this blast of mayhem
with “Auf Wiersehen,” “You don’t
need me but I don’t need you,” vocalist Luke
Bentham declares. “And as long as I’ve got
your attention,” he continues, “I mean this
in a nice way. Fuck you!” Well, the title does translate
to “goodbye.” The song is a power ballad,
in a way, swelling and ebbing, like the rocky relationship
it describes. “Can’t you see, you’re
a fuck-up just like me,” Bentham sings, taking an
equal share of the blame. “Always High” crosses
the Nil’s rock esthetic with 90s post punk in another
great slow burner.
Another highlight has to be the mesmerizing “Smoking
is Magic.” Swirly yet angular hard rock guitar is
overlaid with an almost pop punk song. “Super 8”
has a sort of Hüsker Dü quality to it, and then
we get the third track released ahead of the album, “I
Don’t Want the Phone Call.” It’s a plea
to a friend who’s too deep into drugs and booze.
The song that feels most out of place among the others
is the closer, “Evil Side.” It’s got
a bit of dreaminess in it, a hint of a torch song. It’s
incredibly cinematic, and sounds like it should be the
closer not to a record album, but to a James Bond film.
It’s an overused thing to say that a band has matured.
But that’s just what I’m going to say about
The Dirty Nil. This album feels more focused, more solid
than their previous efforts. The blending of genres, including
grunge, metal, garage, and punk is more controlled, to
the point where the band fits into all and none of those
genres. And that’s one of the best things about
The Dirty Nil.
FASCINATING
– Communist Power (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Fascinating are a sludge rock outfit out of Cleveland, Ohio.
Fascinating have not been together very long, yet this is
already their third full-length LP, and their fourth release
in two years. A few of the songs aren’t too bad. “Going
Down” has a Ramones meets power pop sort of vibe,
“Dark Soul Of The Night” is pretty much a straight-up
power pop number, and the title track is a rockin’
garage track. “Continue To A Maze” has a very
strong sense of forward motion from its throbbing bass line.
And “Don’t Ruin My High” could have been
a pretty decent indie track, if it wasn’t so poorly
recorded. And that’s one of the complaints I have
with this record. I get that lo-fi is a sound some bands
are going for, and in some contexts it works really well.
In the arena of sludge rock, which much of this album is,
the technique works. But for some of these other songs,
a cleaner sound would have been better. And about those
slow, sludgy songs? I don’t get them. They drag like
crazy, and they not only feel like they lack energy, it
feels like their sapping the energy out of me. With the
majority of the tracks falling into this category, I can’t
recommend the record.
THE
HECK – For Cryin’ Out Loud b/w Panic Attack
(Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Heck yes! The Heck, from The Netherlands, have just released
a brand new single on Dirty Water Records. Side A is a great
60s style garage rock song, with a very classic sound in
the verses, and more of a power pop feel in the chorus.
Guitars jangle in a repetitive line while the high-energy
vocals scream and plead. Flip it over and “Panic Attack”
is a short instrumental, upbeat, in the garage vein. It’s
really just a quick jam to put on the flipside, but “For
Cryin’ Out Loud” is worth the price of admission.
TRASH
DEITY – Cross and Divide (Metropolis Records, www.metropolis-records.com)
Whoa, it’s the late 80s and early 90s all over again!
Growing up and living in Chicago, and especially DJing at
free form, non-mainstream radio station WZRD, it was impossible
to miss the whole Wax Trax! Records scene, born of the record
store of the same name (where I spent a great deal of my
hard-earned money). Industrial dance music with a hard-rock
edge was de rigueur for the label, with bands such as Ministry,
KMFDM, Test Dept., Revolting Cocks, Front 242, and My Life
With The Thrill Kill Kult thrilling a generation of club-goers.
The record store is gone, and the label was sold off and
then shut down, but the music lived on. And now Frank Nardiello
(better known as Groovie Mann of Thrill Kill Kult) and John
D. Norten (of Blue Eyed Christ) have teamed up to form Trash
Deity. Their debut album, “Cross and Divide,”
brings the Wax Trax! Sound to a new generation. What you
get is exactly what you expect, if you’re familiar
with the genre: a pounding dance beat, throbbing electronics,
found sound samples, and heavily processed vocals. And while
I never went out of my way to see these bands live or buy
their records (though I do have a few), the sound is definitely
compelling. It’s definitely more interesting music
to listen to than your typical dance club DJ mix of current
pop tunes. The tracks I like most are definitely the harder,
faster ones. The energy level is so much higher. “Frantic
Child,” in particular, has an unsettling feeling of
extreme urgency. “The problem with people is they
don’t want to take responsibility. They’re gonna
blame someone else,” says a sampled voice. How true.
“If you don’t speak up for you, no one will
speak up for you,” the voice declares, as the music
gets very dissonant. “A Perfect One” has such
an abstract, wonderful intro that it has to be called out
here, too. And it’s atonality is like a cross between
the Wax Trax sound and 80s post punk. “Emotions Matter”
is a departure from most of the record, having a cleaner,
more open sound, with robotic-like vocals. It’s like
a dreamy version of the rest of the album, the track that
would be playing in the chill-out room of the club. One
thing this genre usually suffers from is that there’s
too little variety from track to track, though Trash Deity
fares better than most. When the idea is that these songs
are going to be playing in a dance club, it’s hard
to vary things too much, but Trash Deity manage to mix things
up, with some tracks slower and more pensive than others.
Over all, I like this, and if you’re a Wax Trax fan,
you will too.
Mint
400 Records Presents: At The Movies (www.mint400records.com)
The folks at Mint 400 Records have put out a compilation
of music from the movies! Some are familiar, others are
obscure. Most are calm and sedating, a few are boisterous.
Here are some of my favorite highlights:
The Clydes have their take on The Beatles’ “Your
Mother Should Know,” from the movie Magical Mystery
Tour. It’s mostly nice and jangly, reasonably true
to the original, though a bit faster and with more jangle.
The organ breaks from the original become huge, dark synth
parts, giving a nice contrast. Pixl-Visionary give their
take on Radiohead’s “Exit Music (for a film),”
and it’s probably the most different from the original
than anything on this two CD album. Radiohead’s
version is a quiet, slow, acoustic number, very somber.
The cover is an up-tempo 80s dance-goth sort of thing
that’s pretty cool. I like The Duke of Norfolk’s
rendition of “The Sound of Silence,” the Simon
and Garfunkel track that was used in the film “The
Graduate.” It starts out seeming to stick very close
to the original, but after the first verse, when the banjo
comes in, and then bowed bass, you know this is something
special. Of Love does a rendition of “Pure Imagination”
(from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) that mixes
part jazz ballad and part Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and
it’s touching and beautiful. This song was also
famously covered by The Smoking Popes. And The Smoking
Popes also had a hit song (it actually did chart at #35)
from the movie “Clueless,” and it’s
covered here by etti/etta. It’s an interesting version,
with a thick distortion in the mix, and heavy reverb in
the vocals. The net effect is that it seems much darker
than the original. Zach Uncles’ version of the main
theme from “Cool Hand Luke,” originally performed
by Lalo Schifrin, remains true to the jazz roots, but
goes more toward a free jazz sound than the structure
original, and it’s creative and delicate. Finally,
we can’t leave out Jersey Beat’s own fearless
editor, Jim Testa. Yes, folks, Jim appears on this compilation,
along with The Hoboken Dusters, performing “The
Rainbow Connection” from “The Muppet Movie.”
It’s an ideal choice for Jim, because his vocals
are a bit reminiscent of Kermit the Frog.
In a double CD with 21 tracks, there’s bound to
be a few tracks that don’t wok very well. The Limbos
cover Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters,”
from the movie of the same name. It’s a bit messy
and draggy. The movie “Back to the Future”
featured Huey Lewis and the News performing their hit,
“The Power of Love.” I wasn’t crazy
about the song back in the 80s, and The Bitter Chills’
version doesn’t improve on it, even though they
give the song a Latin vibe. CK Vibes takes a stab at the
main theme from “Twin Peaks,” technically
a TV show, not a movie. And no one can improve on the
masterful Angelo Badalamenti. Defend The Rhino gives us
a very sappy rendition of the Theme from Jurassic Park,
and it has none of the grandiosity of the film score.
There are quite a few other tracks, all quite enjoyable,
and not very many clinkers. So I think this one is going
to stick around in my iTunes library.
BEACH
GOONS – Hoodrat Scumbags (GRNDVW, www.grndvw.com)
Don’t ever complain about your local scene being too
small with the same few bands playing over and over. That’s
not the scene’s fault; it’s yours. It’s
your fault for not exploring outside your little close group
of friends, for not venturing into other venues or parts
of your town, for not giving bands you’ve never heard
of a chance. I’m just as guilty as the next guy. Case
in point: Beach Goons, from Encinitas, California. It’s
a San Diego suburb, about 10 or 15 minutes north of where
I live, and it’s not known as a hotbed of indie music
– it’s a fairly conservative beach town. Yet
this band that I’ve never heard of before I was sent
this record, hails from there. And now I’m going to
be checking for their shows, which I hadn’t noticed
before either. To be completely honest, the record is hit
or miss – but mostly hit. Beach Goons play a brand
of grunge-pop – poppy bouncy songs, dare I say “beachy,”
but with a distorted grungy edge. The guitars sound strongly
of surf-rock, but the super distorted vocals contrast nicely
to that. Some lyrics are sung in English, some in Spanish.
The opener, “A.M.” is a good example of the
sound that the band does well. It encapsulates everything
I’ve mentioned in a simple song: jangly surfy guitars,
distorted vocals, an edgy dreaminess, and multi-lingual
lyrics. When the song goes waltz-time and the organ comes
to the fore, there’s even a bit of Mexican flare in
the sound. “Vatos Tristes” has a cool 50s retro
rock’n’roll vibe going on underneath the grungy
surf sound that I like. “HRSB” has a manic feel
in the guitars and drums, but the vocals have a more relaxed
feel, which provides an awesome contrast. I don’t
think “Chunti” works as well as the other tracks.
It’s a sparse ballad, with guitar and vocals performing
the melody in unison. And “Artificial Flowers”
is an odd instrumental track featuring a vaguely East Asian
melody with highly processed guitar and bass and super-distorted
recordings in the background. It’s interesting, but
really doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the album.
The same can be said of the instrumental “Chillón,”
a bass solo that seems to have been slowed down to sound
like it was played under water. The closer, “El Sol,”
Is a great track that starts out bouncy and fun, then a
minute and a half in, it abruptly stops – then starts
again as a dirge-like track to finish things off. But I
don’t want things to be finished off – I’ll
be looking to see this band live in the near future.
EXHALANTS
(Self Sabotage Records, (www.supersecretrecords.com/related-labels-activities/self-sabotage-records)
To quote Michael Buble from a viral video, “Holy shit
balls!” This is unrelenting! It’s a throwback
to the nineties in the best possible way. Remember the noise
bands from back then? Remember the bands playing angular,
powerfully intense music? This debut from Austin, Texas’
exhalants is just that. And it’s not just a poor imitation
of the greats of the past – this is fucking great
stuff on its own! Right from the start, exhalants hit hard
and don’t let up – the first few tracks flow
one into another without skipping a beat. Think bands like
The Jesus Lizard, Circus Lupus, Unrest. Think about Hot
Snakes and Drive Like Jehu, but harder, like Melvins hard
and heavy. Think about Quicksand or Refused. Then add in
some emotionally melodic and quiet parts here and there
– like Rodan or Slint. Fucking great. One of the best
parts of this album is that it was recorded in just one
day, without endless overdubbing and re-recording. So you
know that the energy level on display on this record is
what you’ll get in a live show. And dammit, I want
to see a live show, so these guys better tour to San Diego
or I’m gonna be pissed off! Those first three tracks,
“Latex,” “Cauterized,” and “Ego
Death,” are as perfect a start to an album as I can
remember. In particular, the minimalist swirlyness of the
guitars in “Cauterized,” while remaining super
hard and heavy, is a thing to behold. After this first trio,
“Public Display of Failure” is a slower, quieter
respite. I love its Slint-like use of harmonics. “Punishers”
is a punishing track, mid-tempo, smashing into your skull
and cutting you open with sharp yet jagged guitar harmonics.
Exhalants have produced one of the best debuts I’ve
heard in a while, and they’re sure to secure a spot
in my year-end list of best releases of 2018.
THE
FRIGHTS – Hypochondriac (Epitaph Records, www.epitaph.com)
OK, let me get this out right from the start. The Frights
are from my adopted hometown of San Diego. When I’ve
seen them in the past, they’ve played some really
awesome garage-surf rock’n’roll. The several
records they’ve released over the years have pretty
much been in that genre. So when I heard they had signed
to Epitaph and were releasing a new LP, I expected more
great garage-surf tracks. But I was wrong. So, gentle readers,
let me introduce you to the debut LP of the new Frights.
Still from San Diego, they’re playing completely different
songs. So I won’t compare to the old songs; I’ll
treat this as a brand new band. The Frights are a band I
want to see live and hear more from. The new songs are some
great nerdy indie pop rock. There are some awesome little
touches in the production, like the opening of “Me
and We and I,” utilizing some tape effects and harp
to introduce the song. And if you listen carefully in the
background you can hear some metallic surf-guitar sounds.
The track is a cool, light little song about self-sufficiency.
Tape effects are used nicely in a few places on the album,
most notably on the opener, “Tell Me Why I’m
OK.” Producer (and FIDLAR front man) Zac Carper needs
to get credit as a band member, I think, because some of
these touches really make the album. I love the feel of
“Over It,” a song about a break-up in which
one party is very much over it and the other isn’t.
I get a sense of wheels turning endlessly (it would make
a great road trip song!), the song propelling ever forward.
And it’s got a cool baroque sounding break in the
middle. “Whatever” is nice, and even has a winking
reference to FIDLAR. The song is bouncy, but it’s
alsop about a relationship gone bad. “I am so fucking
sick of you acting like a dick / I’m just trying to
pull my life back together / And I’m too fucking tired
of you calling me a liar / Just tell me what you want, I’ll
say whatever.” The closing track is a wonder. “Alone”
is a waltz time song that opens with acoustic guitar, vocals,
and accordion, sounding like a sad Continental song of lost
love. I can imagine listening to this, strolling along the
banks of the Seine. The one track I can’t get into
very much is “No Place Like (Not Being) Home.”
It’s got a white rock steady sort of feel, slower
than ska, not quite reggae. It just feels out of place among
the rest of the tracks. Some of the tracks on the LP seem
to be about resistance to change, generally in relationships
with other people. Accepting change can be hard, and not
only in love. It can be hard to accept change in bands you
like, too. I was ready to dislike this LP, because –
what did they do to my Frights? But we all need learn to
embrace change. It’s inevitable. And sometimes, like
in the case of The Frights, it’s for the better. Recommended.
GET
MARRIED – Songs For The Sleepless (Wiretap Records,
wiretaprecords.limitedrun.com)
There’s been quite a trend of adding keyboards to
pop punk bands over the past few years. Seattle’s
Success did it. Get Married’s label-mates Spanish
Love Songs did it. Add Get Married to the list, though,
I’m not sure Get Married would fall solidly into the
pop punk category. Certainly some of their songs, do, but
others are more rock than punk. The opener, “Adam
West,” certainly would fit right in at a pop punk
show, as would “Music Box” and “Sleep
Deprived.” “Music Box” is a song that
alternates between bouncy and poppy, and a little harder
edged. “Sleep Deprived” has a slight doo-wop
feel mixed in, as seems to be a trend in the last few years
in the pop punk scene, especially when you’ve got
multiple singers in the band that can harmonize well. “Cinnamon
Sugar” takes that theme even further, and is a modern
take on a 50s doo-wop song. After a simple intro, the noisy
modern guitars come in for the chorus. And “Coffee
2” is an unabashed doo-wop song, even including backing
vocals singing the traditional “ooh wah-wah ooh.”
Songs like “Weeknight Love” and “Living
Room” are decent rock tunes, but nothing that’s
going to set the world on fire. And that’s a good
description for the album, overall – it’s decent,
but not outstanding.
THE
LEGENDARY TIGERMAN – Misfit + Misfit Ballads (Dirty
Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
This album includes the four track “Misfit Ballads”
EP as bonus tracks. And don’t confuse this with The
Misfits – it has no relationship to the famous punk
band. The Legendary Tigerman is a one-man show, Paulo Furtado,
a Portuguese performer specializing in blues-laden rock’n’roll.
But there’s not a lot of consistency in that –
some of the tracks are pop songs, some are ambient., some
are soulful. I like some of the tracks more than others,
especially when he moves away from the more standard rock’n’roll
sound. Thankfully, that’s the bulk of the album. I’m
not particularly enamored with the opening track, “Motorcycle
Boy,” which was the lead single. It’s pretty
much standard bar rock. “Fix of Rock N Roll”
just feels really sleazy. It’s the kind of track that
would be playing in a movie scene with lots of nudity, cocaine,
and leather. The lyrics are pretty sleazy, too. Things improve
after this. “The Saddest Girl On Earth” has
a deep western desert sound, dusty and lonesome. “Sleeping
Alone” is a soulful doo-wop track. “Black Hole”
has a very cinematic quality to it. I adore “Holy
Muse,” which has an eerie feel, thanks to what I think
is a dulcimer or harpsichord and plenty of reverb in the
guitar. These tracks all make effective use of saxophone,
an instrument that used to be prominent in many rock bands
but which had fallen out of favor. Saxophone is making a
comeback!
The “Misfit Ballads” EP bonus tracks are
even better than the album. Softer, quieter, more contemplative,
these songs are great for a quiet weekend morning. “A
Girl Called Home” is a Western ballad which makes
use of slide on the guitar, and the keyboards in the background
are very atmospheric. “Lonesome Sweetheart”
is aptly named. The reverb gives it that big open, empty
feel, and the slightly out of tune piano adds to the sense
of abandonment. But it’s “Tango Til They’re
Sore,” the final track of the EP, that really does
it for me. Slow, and sparsely arranged, with guitar, bass,
tenor sax, and vocals, it’s incredibly haunting.
ONLY
ON WEEKENDS – Another Wasted Night (onlyonweekends.bandcamp.com)
Do you like 90s pop punk? Especially the kind that got sort
of slick and over-produced? Well, hey then, here’s
a record you may enjoy! The songs are smooth and poppy in
that Blink 182 sort of way. There are even a few songs that
border on 2000s “pop punk” emo! The dozen songs
last a mere 33 minutes, but it seems longer. Now, don’t
get me wrong. The record isn’t horrible. As a matter
of fact, the music is pretty tight, and the vocals are in
tune and on key, including the backing vocals. It’s
just that there’s nothing original or special at all
about these songs. It comes across like too much pop punk
of the 90s and 2000s did – as an attempt to cash in.
It’s all too inoffensive.
VISTA
BLUE – The Kids Still Don’t Like It (wearevistablue.bandcamp.com)
Vista Blue’s Mike Patton comments that when his kids
were growing up he “was thankful for bands like They
Might Be Giants, Ralph’s World, and Justin Roberts
(among others) who made music that was fun for both kids
and adults.” Thus, Vista Blue has wanted to do such
a record for some time, and now they have. The band’s
unique calling card of super buzzy guitars in the ultimate
poppy songs is still there, and the songs are just as bouncy
as ever. What’s different? Well, the lyrics are somewhat
simplistic, as befitting songs for kids. Topics include
the four seasons of the year, going on vacation to the planet
Neptune, dad listening to the Ramones, a tough as nails
teacher, and needing to work hard. If you’re familiar
with Vista Blue, you know what to expect. I love the band,
and the new EP doesn’t change my mind. But, really
guys, most of your songs are ones that could be enjoyed
by both kids and adults already!
THE
1984 DRAFT – Makes Good Choices (Poptek Records,
www.poptek.com)
The first track slays me! On a field recording we hear a
little kid singing a made up song whose lyrics are basically
the name “Jan Kawolski” repeated over and over.
Then the band comes in with a fantastic indie rock song
about the joyful imagination of little kids, and how that
fades over time. The ten songs on this debut LP from the
Dayton, Ohio band pretty much fall into that “indie
rock” category; they’re not too punk, not too
commercial. Most of the songs have that indie feel, but
a couple venture outside those boundaries, and they’re
worth separate mentions. “Miss Ohio” is a mix
of country and gospel, full of soulfulness. And “Honest”
has a soaring, dreamy quality to it. I also love the last
two tracks, “Megaphone” and “Lisbon Falls.”
The closer is a beautifully dark ballad, and “Megaphone
starts simply, with a lovely bass line an kick drum. The
song isn’t overly complicated; the melody is simply,
and the lyrics are too. But the song just feels so seamless,
and it’s got a sad, lonely feel to it, even when the
full band comes in and gets a bit raucous. I think this
is one of the key secrets to The 1984 Draft: their songs
aren’t over the top; they’re simple and straightforward.
Aren’t all good songs that way, really?
EVEN
IN BLACKOUTS – The Princess Foretold By Her Henchmen,
Even (Stardumb Records, www.stardumb records.com)
Remember the heyday of Screeching Weasel, back when John
“Jughead” Pierson was in the band? He was one
of the key members that made the band so great back then.
In 2002 he started Even In Blackouts, a punk band that focused
on acoustic guitars instead of electric (get it? Without
depending on electricity they can play sets even in a blackout!).
After releasing a few albums, the band ended in 2009. Stardumb
Records is now releasing a sort of greatest hits compilation
of the band’s favorite tracks from their recorded
output.
A lot of acoustic efforts fall flat, but this one is fantastic.
Liz Eldridge’s vocals are sparkling and electrifying,
the musicianship is amazing, and the song writing is engaging.
Eldridge’s vocals, in particular, blend East Bay pop
punk with the power of a Broadway star, creating a wholly
unique feel. I had already moved away from Chicago when
this band was hitting its stride, but now I’m kicking
myself for not being in the loop on this back in the day.
It’s that good.
Some of the songs are pretty straightforward pop punk, but
played with acoustic guitars. Other tracks are so much more
than mere pop punk. “If Leaving Were To Be So Easy”
is a standout track. The song is about a relationship hitting
a rough spot, the protagonist asking to be left alone, at
least for a little while. Even though she doesn’t
want to be alone, she needs to be. She doesn’t want
to have to cry herself to sleep every night. The song starts
out with just acoustic guitar and Eldridge’s impassioned
vocals. When the dueling vocals sing both “Don’t
want to see you” and “Don’t want to see
you go” at the same time, it shows the conflicting
emotions that occur in relationships. The same theme occurs
in “Romantically Inclined,” where Pierson takes
over the vocal duties, singing, “I can come up with
two, maybe 50,000 reasons you should s-s-stay / I can come
up with two, maybe 50,000 reasons why we should go our separate
ways.” The stuttering and tentative sound of his voice
reflect the insecurities and uncertainty. Some of the best
tracks are the ones that are less pop punk, like “We’re
So Tough,” with it’s odd meter and pounding
percussion. Or “The Writer,” with its folksier
feel (even with the intensity of the percussion that joins
part-way through the song). I love the delicate “Heaven.”
“I change and I can’t tell the difference /
I can’t feel the difference / God, I can’t feel
anything,” the song declares. “Let’s say
there’s this thing called Heaven,” the song
continues. “You’re there waiting for your memories
to return / Watching who’s stepping through the gate
/ Well, that’s all fine, that’s gotta be / But
when I die don’t look for me.” The music builds
and explodes, that last line repeating over and over. Feedback
fills the speakers, as the song slows down, then suddenly
we hear a click, and silence save for the sound of rain
falling, the same as when the song opened. Another click,
and the acoustic guitar from the opening is heard in lo-fi.
But this time, when the vocals come in, we hear, “I’ll
just kill you, you’ll be dead again, you bastard /
I’ll hug you, I’ll cry in your arms / I’ll
slap you and kill you again, you bastard.” Whoa! Talk
about conflicting emotions in relationships! We hear an
“el” train rumbling outside, then another click
and the track is over. “Gone” uses banjo as
the main instrument in place of guitar, for a more country-folk
feel, and has some amazing key changes that make this is
a special song to listen to. The most amazing track might
be “Skeleton Dance,” a song that uses electric
guitar, off kilter rhythms, and eerie vocals that are sung
and whispered to create something that’s really fun.
And “How Do You Kill A Ghost” is so cool! Really,
every song on this record is, and it makes me want to go
back and listen to all of the records these songs came from.
Highly recommended!
THE
BAR STOOL PREACHERS – Grazie Governo (Pirate Press
Records, www.pirastepressrecords.com)
The Bar Stool Preachers are a punk/ska/reggae outfit from
the unlikely location of Brighton, in the UK. Their sound
is deeply rooted in a tradition that originated thousands
of miles away from their home base, in Orange County, California.
And in that same tradition, the music is less raw and more
polished than typical punk rock. Some of the songs lean
more heavily in one direction or another, and some mix genres
fairly thoroughly within a single track. For example, the
title track, which opens this sophomore LP, is pretty straight-ahead
mid-tempo ska. Immediately following, “8.6 Days (All
The Broken Hearts)” is a mid-tempo punk track with
a strong, heartfelt sound. “War Chief” is a
pretty cool pub-rock sort of track. “Choose My Friends”
mixes pop punk and ska sounds and includes guest vocals
from the fantastic Aimiee Interrupter. “DLTDHYOTWO”
is a mid-tempo ska track with an angry edge to match the
politically oriented lyrics, and is one of the better tracks
on the album, because its passion is most palpable. “2_22”
has a Fat Wreck Chords sound, skate punk blended with a
more open heart-felt punk. Other tracks have more of a jammin’
reggae sound mixed with straight-on rock music, like “Drive.”
The bottom line – I like some tracks a bit more than
others – the ones that have a bit more passion in
the sound. Much of this album comes across as too formulaic
for my tastes. And, while I love a good mix of raw punk
and ska, as a good friend of mine once said, they need to
pick a sound. This is a little too all over the place for
me, too unfocused. And, finally, the mid-tempo on every
track needs to get varied a lot more. Give me some faster
tracks, some slower tracks.
CORNER
BOYS – Love Tourist (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
It feels like I just reviewed a record from this Vancouver
band. And so I did, last fall. They’re back with another
7” EP, this time on Dirt Cult Records. Last time we
got three catchy loose punk songs, and this time we get
four. The songs are upbeat, punchy, just poppy and fun enough,
and the vocals are even improved from the previous record,
at least a bit. But the vocals, again more spoken than sung,
aren’t the point of this record. It’s the fun.
Case in point: “TV Love,” the closing song.
It’s about someone whose girlfriend has a crush on
someone on TV. The lyrics are hilarious, and the music is
bouncy – but sounds like a lightened version of an
80s hardcore tune. Corner Boys are a band I’d want
at my party.
FRYD
CHIKIN – Fryd Chikin Stinks! (Dirty Water Records,
www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Electric guitar and drum machine make up the only instrumentation
on these stripped down rock’n’roll tracks. Mystery
Mongoloid spits out the vocals on this lo-fi recording,
with rawness equal to that of the instrumentals. Who is
Mystery Mongoloid? No one knows for sure, but rumor has
it that guitarist Jack from New Zealand’s The Cavemen
holds the key to the secret. There’s certainly plenty
of energy permeating the eight songs on this record. But
I think the tracks are a bit too stripped down for my liking.
The lyrics are a bit inane, too, with songs about food (Fryd
Chikin, Pizza/Beer), obsession with the morbid ((I Want
Your) Head), sex (Do You Think I’m Ugly), both (Every
Day Is Like Halloween), and failed relationships (You’re
the Reason, Not Your Kind of Man). It seems obvious that
this was just a lark, “Hey, I’ve got these funny
songs that don’t really fit with the main band, so
I’ll just record them and release them under a different
name.” I guess they can be sort of fun popping up
in shuffle mode, but I can’t see wanting to listen
to this album straight through.
PERSONALITY
CULT (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Imagine combining first wave UK punk rock and early power
pop, like The Buzzcocks, with modern high-energy garage
punk like that made by Radioactivity, The Marked Men, and
similar bands. North Carolina’s Personality Cult do
just that. Front man Ben Carr of Natural Causes put the
band together as a side project, but this needs to be a
full-time gig. The songs are catchy as hell, bouncy and
fun. And with ten tracks at a mere 22 minutes, the goodness
flies by, letting you listen several times in a row in a
short time, which is just what I did! The record has some
great moments where the sound changes a bit, too, like “Functioning
Fine” and “Fashionably Late,” tracks that
channels some of the more off-the-wall art-music that was
coming out in the late 70s and early 80s, a period of intense
musical creativity. And “Motivation,” the track
that closes the album out, has an awesome sparkly retro
60s British invasion feel mixed in with the punky power
pop. Recommended!
CAMPDOGZZ
– In Rounds (15 Passenger Records, www.15passenger.com)
Jess Price, Campdogzz’s vocalist, moved to Chicago
from Oklahoma to be a filmmaker, but the music bug never
left her. She continued to write songs, and Campdogzz was
born. There are a few tracks that are interesting weird
instrumentals, featuring spooky organ sounds, interspersed
throughout the album, each entitled “Bobbing on the
Plains,” with a part number, 1, 2 and 3. These may
be the most interesting tracks of the album. They’re
haunting, especially with the rough barking noises interjected.
The other ten tracks are a blend of indie pop, rock, and
Americana, with Price’s Oklahoma roots clearly showing.
“Souvenir” is one of the least countrified of
the tracks, though the twang in the vocals is still there.
I do love “Batshit,” a track that features some
pretty strings providing the instrumental backing (violins,
cello), along with piano, bass, and drums. “On My
Own” is another good one. It starts out quietly, with
vocals and acoustic guitar, not quite country, but with
the twangy vocals. Then the whole band comes in –
and I really love the melody, the drums beating out the
lyrics’ syllables, rather than simply keeping time.
And “Royal Rye,” with its breathy vocals and
minimalist instrumentation, reminds me a lot of EMA’s
incredible debut LP. Some of the songs are a little too
Americana for my tastes, though, too much lonely road sounds.
“Sorceress” is one of those. Overall, it’s
definitely a listenable record. It’s not getting deleted
off my computer, so its songs may turn up on shuffle once
in awhile, but I’m not sure I’d seek this out
on its own on purpose.
COUCH
JACKETS – Go To Bed (couchjackets.bandcamp.com)
Couch Jackets are from Arkansas, and put out a pretty unique
record. They’ve got elements of dream pop, math rock,
psych, and avant-garde. There’s a huge diversity in
the sounds, which makes it a treat and a surprise to listen
to every time. The album opens with some lovely acoustic
guitar and relaxed jazzy vocals on the song, “Sideways
Chicken.” It eventually takes on a slightly country
feel, like a couple of people sitting on their front porch,
just singing. Then the last part of the song becomes an
odd but beautiful instrumental that flows into “Pillos
N Rillos,” a dreamy track, but it’s not your
typical dream pop. Though there’s reverb-laden keyboards,
there’s a harder edge and plenty of mathish off-kilter
changes to mess with you. After “Vicious Children”
starts out as a gorgeous ambient number, it gets harder
and edgier, yet breezy. Then just after the halfway point,
it takes on an island feel. “Don’t Think Just
Breathe” blends funky psych pop and modern indie,
in a way similar to what Cymbals Eat Guitars has done on
recent LPs. The incredible variety continues throughout
the record, which is a pretty amazing thing these days,
when so many bands don’t know how to write songs that
sound any different than the last song they wrote. The most
astounding track on the record, though, may be “Kathy
Was All Woman.” It begins as an 80s disco-laced, sparkly,
dreamy number. Two minutes in it changes to a math-rock
pop instrumental, gets dreamier again, and at the 3:23 mark
changes completely into a gorgeous orchestral classical
piece, complete with strings, harp, piano, and chimes. Simply
mind-blowingly beautiful. At 4:32 it changes again to a
more avant-garde classical sound, picks up steam, and at
5:13 explodes back into a hard-edged dream-pop song. This
record makes me want to dive into their back catalog.
ODD
ROBOT – Amnesiatic (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.limitedrun.com)
In early 2017 a new band arose, seemingly out of nowhere,
and dropped one of the best records of the year. Odd Robot’s
“A Late Night Panic” blended together the 90s
Midwest pop punk sounds of The Smoking Popes and Alkaline
Trio, yet they made it modern and made it their own. After
a year and a half of steadily playing local shows and writing
new songs, they’re back with their sophomore LP, “Amnesiatic.”
And they’re better than ever! I may have said this
in my review of their first record, but if these guys had
been around 30 years ago it would have been them blowing
up like crazy, not Green Day. They’re that good. The
songs are all hook-laden, bouncy yet edgy, and they’ll
instantly make you want to get up and dance. “Sell
Your Soul” is a song they’ve been playing a
lot at their live shows, so it was very familiar, but the
rest of these songs were new to me, and I am in total awe
at how they could get even better than before. The title
track is one of my favorites of the album, probably for
the surprise key changes throughout the song. The other
favorite is “Green and Yellow Wires.” I just
love the super jangly intro and how it makes its presence
felt throughout the song. Even though the song is a ballad,
it jangles beautifully. But every single song is a great
one. I like the hints of doo-wop mixed in. like in “Take
Me Away” (which also includes glockenspiel in the
instrumentation!) and the aforementioned “Green and
Yellow Wires.” “Boil Through,” “Nothing
to Do with Anything, but,” and “West Coast Girls”
are all solid stand-outs, too, while “Hole Inside”
proves that even ballads can be great songs. But that closer.
“Screech the Turns.” Oh my! You know how Josh
Caterer of the Smoking Popes sometimes does these quiet
songs with just him and a guitar, his crooning vocals melting
your heart? Andy Burris takes his turn, proving his writing
and singing chops. The song is such a delicate thing, and
it’s the perfect way to end the perfect album.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CALLAS
WITH LEE RANALDO – Acid Books (Dirty Water Records,
www.dirtywater records.co.uk)
Greek band Callas, featuring brothers Lakis and Aris Ionas,
have dropped a killer single, featuring Lee Ranaldo, of
Sonic Youth fame. After an eerie sounding intro, the band
launches into a track that would have seemed at home on
a mid-period Sonic Youth album. Angry guitars shout, while
the dirty bass throbs. The song is very modal, giving it
a feel of neither lightness nor darkness. The strong beat
gives it a bit of an industrial feel, too. I guess the song
that comes to mind most is the single Sonic Youth did with
Lydia Lunch a few decades ago, “Death Valley 69.”
It’s got the same driving feel.
CHAIN
WHIP (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
If I didn’t know that this was a brand new release
from a pretty new band from Canada, I would have been confident
in estimating this release as having come out in 1982 or
1983. Five tracks of great hardcore punk music, in the vein
of all the greats from those early years. A few chords,
speedy riffs, and snarling vocals that are half sung and
half shouted are all you needed back then for a successful
hardcore punk record, and this follows that formula perfectly.
The best tracks are the opener, “Self-Destruct,”
and “Let’s Bomb East Van.” This is powerful
stuff. I thought I was over this kind of punk, actually,
because a lot of bands that try to play this older style
just can’t do it. It comes off sounding sloppy and
juvenile. But Chain Whip prove that this style of music
can be just as vital and energetic today as it was 35 years
ago.
THE
CHEAP CASSETTES – Kiss The Ass of My Heart (Rum
Bar Records, rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com)
This four-song EP is the follow-up to The Cheap Cassettes
debut LP, “All Anxious, All the Time,” and like
that record, this one features some good old power pop mixed
with rock’n’roll. You can tell these songs come
from the heart; they’re well written and played with
passion. This isn’t going to set the world on fire,
but if you like power pop you’ll probably like this
record. Like on the LP, though, I do suggest the band work
on their vocals a bit, so when they get multiple voices
going they’re a bit better in tune.
GOODBYE
BLUE MONDAY – Misery Punk Ruined My Life (Make-That-A-Take
Records, www.makwethatatakerecords. com)
Imagine taking a great gruff-punk sound like Iron Chic and
blending it with the positive vibe and open sound of RVIVR.
Not so hard to imagine at all, right? Given the connections
those bands have, of course. But now add a huge dose of
Scottish sensibilities, and you get Goodbye Blue Monday.
Upbeat, happy sounding music blends with depressing, miserable
lyrics. There’s a sense of Celtic chaos, as well –
and it sounds like there’s an accordion or concertina
in the mix, sort of like The Pogues. If you saw the band
set up for a live show with that, you’d think “what
the hell?” But damn, it works really well. If I’m
wrong and it’s just guitar pedal trickery, so be it
– but it’s awesome in the mix. Punk accordion!
Huge gang vocals abound on the three songs, and I can imagine
a live show is going to be an intense affair – don’t
expect to escape without bruises and getting soaked with
beer! The opening of “Love Is a Noose for Two”
(what a great title) even has a Highland reel sound. I love
this!
THE
GUESTS – Popular Music (Sabotage Records, sabotagerecords.bandcamp.com)
Philadelphia’s The Guests pair 80s synth-pop with
political lyrics, creating a compelling combination. The
music has a strong beat, but this isn’t sparkly new
wave dance music – this is dark stuff, more like the
sound of New Order and bands of that ilk than it is like
the B-52s. Songs with titles like “Watching the War,”
“Killing Spree,” and “Like a Cold War”
indicate this isn’t just party music, unlike so much
new wave synth pop of the era. That the band shares some
membership with hard edged rock outfit Sheer Mag makes it
all the more amazing. The track that sticks in my mind the
most is “Kicked and Punched, Rounded Up, and Stunned.”
It’s got a funky disco beat, and sounds a lot like
the musical tracks used in early hip-hop. Other particularly
memorable tracks include “Serpentine,” a track
that sounds a bit like western cowboy music crossed with
Sonic Youth crossed with new wave, and “Beast of Bolsaver,”
which has a cool, eerie keyboard on the chorus. I like these
songs, but, just as with even the best music of this genre
from the 80s, too much in one sitting is a little more than
I can take. This is best in smaller doses.
JUG
& THE BUGS / LEP – Lep/Jug Split (Keeper Records,
https://keeperrecords. bigcartel.com/
An enigma of a release! Jersey Beat received this cassette
release from a new label with its website still “Coming
soon” and no press release info. I can’t find
band pages online, either. But this is pretty unique stuff.
Six songs from Jug & The Bugs, plus five from Lep make
up this split LP. Jug & The Bugs offer up a hybrid of
psychedelic garage music and hippy folk rock. Lep are a
little more minimalist and quirkier. Both represent something
that’s been sorely missing in independent music for
the past 20+ years: creativity. While there’s good
music being made, too much music these days is very derivative.
It’s rare to come across true originals, but here
we are. From Jug & the Bugs, I really love “Calendar,”
a song that feels like it glides. The bass throbs on a single
note, and the chorus is simply one word, “calendar.”
But the minimalist melody is really pretty. “Dog Sleep”
has a great funky hippy vibe, with a bit of a lazy feel,
weirdly inappropriate for a song about a nasty dog that
doesn’t sleep at night. The first of Lep’s tracks
is the appropriately titled, “Challenge the Listener.”
A melodic line plays out on some unknown weird instrument,
sounding like a recording of a recorder that’s been
manipulated. Then a gritty bass picks up the line and some
intense vocals come in, with various noises interjecting.
It’s funky and fresh, and weird and crazy and amazing!
“Gerbil Boogie” is a favorite, with its super-fast
execution, including lyrics that are quietly understated,
yet flying by in a blaze. “Nothin’ On”
is an homage to the vast wasteland of TV,” And “Don’t
Bug” is a bouncy track to close things out –
but it has be done Lep’s way, with weird oddities
thrown into the arrangement. Like I said, this split LP
is probably one of the most musically creative releases
in a long time. I adore it.
THE
OPHELIAS – Almost (Joyful Noise Recordings, www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com)
Indie pop without guitars? Well, except for a couple of
the tracks, which have acoustic guitar, yes! It’s
like indie pop chamber music, with violin, bass, drums,
and vocals. Vocalist and songwriter Spencer Peppet sings
without excess emotion, in a matter of fact, almost world-weary
way. All of the emotion is saved for the gorgeous instrumentals.
This yields a more delicate texture than a typical indie-pop
record. About those vocals. On “General Electric,”
they’re almost robotic, in a satirical look at relationships
in which Peppet sings about having no control, and wanting
to “be just like the girls you like, I want to be
what you fantasize.” She sings about controlling nothing.
“Control me like a puppet / Call me on my cellphone
/ I’m General Electric / You’re a Casanova.”
It’s a dark commentary on society’s expectations
of “proper” or “traditional” roles
in relationships. On “Lovers Creep” acoustic
guitar is used as a percussion instrument and repetitive
violin lines give the song a minimalist sort of feel, even
as these repeating melodic lines intertwine with complexity.
“O Command” is one of the edgier tracks, alternating
between free-form and rigid beat, with the strings adding
tons of tension. The “chorus” varies in it’s
middle two lines each time, but the first and fourth are
consistent: “You do what you don’t want”
and “You say what you don’t mean.” Confusion
and contradiction abound. How are we supposed to understand
each other when no one is ever real? The studio trickery
on “Bird” is gorgeous, turning the violin plucks
into percussion, and making the whole song sound like it’s
being performed under water during the chorus. The penultimate
track, “Zero,” may be my favorite. It starts
in a very unsettling way, with the melodic line full of
dissonance and rolling up and down. If you have motion sickness,
take some Dramamine before listening. But after a bit of
this, the song changes to an absolutely beautiful, delicate
thing, with lyrics that are just the opposite: “Focus
on the things you want, Focus on the things you want, I
know what you really want, I know what you really want.”
The song alternates between these two polar opposites, with
the singer either claiming to know better than the subject
what they want or need or actually being more perceptive.
You choose which is right. But as far as whether to get
this record, you have no choice. You simply must do it.
POST
SEASON (Know Hope Records, www.knowhoperecords.com)
Formed some six years ago in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Post
Season have put out more than a handful of singles and EPs,
but this is just the pop-punk band’s second full-length
LP, their debut album coming five years ago. Post Season
specializes in 90s style mid-tempo pop punk with emotional
content. The songs are melodic, poppy, and have that epic
sound so common back in the day. A lot of the vocals are
harmonized, also a hallmark of the 90s sound. The band are
certainly talented, with tight musicianship. If you’re
a fan of this sound, you’re sure to enjoy this record
a lot. To me, though, the songs end up sounding too much
alike, too derivative, too much like so much music from
20+ years ago. They even sing about “watching 90s
reruns til 4 o’clock in the morning,” on “Picture
Frame Eyes.” Definitely for 90s fans.
WATASHI
WA DANCE PARTY – Skate Pop Suicide (Hidden Home
Records, www. hiddenhomerecords.com)
San Diego’s Watashi Wa Dance Party are an extremely
talented band. They’re tight, and their songs are
well-written, poppy, have decent variety, and they’re
exciting to listen to. So why haven’t you heard of
them before? Either they’re not playing out a whole
lot or they’re having a hard time getting shows, at
least in their hometown. I think part of that has to do
with them disrespecting the rest of the scene. I’ve
been to a couple of shows they’ve been booked on,
and their MO is to get to the venue in time to play their
set, play, and leave. They don’t stick around to support
the other bands or even hang out with the audience and make
new friends and fans. I think if they warmed up to the rest
of the scene they would have a lot more success, because
these are some damn fine songs. The opener is called “Daylight,”
and it’s got a sort of retro emo sound, over the top
epic, but with buzzy synths on top of the guitars. Then
the vocals come in, upper register and harmonized, sounding
kind of like Japanese pop punk a bit. The song is pretty
glorious, but way too short at under a minute and a half.
“Mio” is a great mathy pop punk track, with
stop-start guitar lines bouncing all over the place. “Really
Over” mixes harder pop punk with a grungier edge in
the first part of the song, then it goes into a rapid-fire
skate punk sound. “Halle” is a poppy punky track
that has some ska undertones in places, with some great
hooks. “Ruminating” takes things much further
into the ska punk realm, while “My Lava Lamp”
closes the EP out with a schizoid track that’s part
heavy post-hardcore and part light pop. It’s an odd
combination that works really well. This band makes life
difficult, because their music and their scene ethics are
out of alignment.
THE
HUDSON DUSTERS – Dare To Dream (www.thehudsondusters.com)
Named after a New York turn-of-the-last-century street gang,
The Hudson Dusters are Jon B Woodin and Foggy Otis, writing
and playing some gorgeous folk music, and this album is
an acoustic treat. Pretty guitars intertwine with gruff
lead vocals, smooth backing vocals, and gorgeous flute on
the opening track, “River Suite (Parts 1 and 2),”
while “Straight Away” is a little more countrified,
with more twang, courtesy of banjo, harmonica, and mouth
harp. “Don’t Be Blue Too Long” is a sweet
song of inspiration, with those lovely guitars and vocals,
along with piano and fiddle. The musical saw used on the
delicate “Carry Us Home” provides an otherworldly
feel, and when it duels with flute, there’s nothing
more beautiful. “I Don’t Mind” is a light
number with a down-home feel that would be right at home
on the radio program, “Live From Here” (formerly
“A Prairie Home Companion”). The moment on the
album that really hits me, though, is the penny whistle
solo on the final track, “Love.” It’s
a little known secret that I’m a sucker for Irish
folk music, and that sent a chill through me. This record
is not your usual Jersey Beat fare, but if you like folksy
Americana on the lighter, prettier side, you’re going
to really enjoy this.
CHARACTER
ACTOR (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
This is the debut EP from a pop punk trio made up of Jeff
Schroeck (The Ergs!, Black Wine) on guitar and vocals, Brian
Gorsegner (Night Birds) on drums, and Evan Kiel on bass.
Whoa! The songs are sort of what you might expect from this
line-up: poppy and melodic, yet hard and aggressive, with
powerfully tight musicianship. “Out of Hands,”
and “On Rubicon Beach” are both about two minutes
long, with a slightly better than mid-tempo pace and catchy
melodic lines. “What I Learned from Righteous Cowboys”
is a little more aggressive sounding, and feels faster,
but it’s really pretty much the same pace, and it’s
over in under a minute. The closer is “72 Paperbacks,”
and this one calms things down a notch or two. The pace
is a bit slower, the aggressiveness is dialed back a bit,
and the vocals and melody are smoother. There’s nothing
you haven’t heard before on this EP, but the songs
are catchy and played very well.
REGAN
ASHTON – And the People You Always Have With You
(La Escalera Records, www.laescalerarecords.com)
What do you get when you mix countrified folk songs with
a heavy dose of punk attitude, adding in one of the most
unique voices in punk music today? You get Regan Ashton’s
solo EP! Banjo and harmonica blend easily with electric
guitars, bass, drums, and some dark lyrics to create something
unique. “Nobody likes me / Everybody hates me”
repeats over and over at the start of the EP, on “Scumbag,”
the first of six songs. As that fades, we hear electric
guitar and Ashton begins singing that he should have been
a scumbag and burned out ten years ago. Those vocals are
unmistakable, especially as the country rhythm joins in
with plucked banjo, and the lyrics are sung loudly in that
raspy, throaty voice so well known from Problem Daughter.
The feel is light, bouncy, and twangy, the opposite of what’s
being sung about. This pattern repeats with variations,
including keyboard on some tracks and some big-sounding
backing vocals. There are some lighter moments, too, such
as studio banter at the start and end of “Junkyard
Parakeet,” and just the idea of a junkyard parakeet,
a creature that will say things it probably shouldn’t,
because it’s too small to back them up. And just beyond
the halfway mark of the super country, super punk “Anywhere
But Here,” we hear an apparent mistake and “goddamit”
shouted out before the music resumes. Ashton’s passion
and pain are clearly apparent in these songs, too, and perhaps
that’s the most important thing to note of all. Because
that always makes for a record that you want to listen to
over and over again.
BEACH
SKULLS – Las Dunas (Punk Slime Recordings, www.pnkslm.com)
Upon seeing the name of this band, I immediately developed
a set of expectations. Beach Skulls equals surf inspired
punk, probably pretty gritty, right? Well, mostly, Beach
Skulls shatter those expectations. The vocals are dreamy
indie pop style vocals, though the guitars bear a bit of
resemblance to a garage-surf sound. But this is nowhere
near as punk as you would expect from that “Skulls”
in the band name. “Sun” opens the record with
delicately plucked guitar and bass for a few bars, then
the surfiness begins, the song coasting along at an easy
pace. Then Ry Vieira’s vocals come in, floating lazily
over the music. There’s a very psychedelic quality
at play. “Come Undone” is next, and starts out
as a polar opposite, with frantic wall of guitar sound –
but just for a moment. Then everything calms, and once again
we have Vieira’s dreamy voice and surf guitar, bass,
and drums, with the same hazy lazy feel. Some of the songs,
such as “Sacred Citrus,” feature edgier male
vocals and lose the dreamy feel. I think these don’t
work as well as the dreamier ones. “That’s Not
Me” is a bit in-between, though, with Vieira back
on lead vocals, but with a bit edgier of a feel, and I think
this work well. The melody is somewhat retro, reminding
me of the way power pop and post punk were blending together
in some scenes in the early 80s. “Soma Holiday”
and “Interlude” are instrumentals that don’t
quite do it for me, though the dissonance in the guitars
in the latter adds some interest. No, I think those dreamy
vocals are what really make the record work best. The track
that works the least is “Walk Into The Temple,”
on which Vieira tries to do soulful vocals. Favorite track:
that opener, “Sun.”
BILLY
& DOLLY – Five Suns (Shit Krystal Records, www.shitkrystal.com)
Interesting synth driven pop music coming out of the San
Francisco area. Billy and Dolly are Bill Rousseau and Dahlia
Gallin Ramirez, formed in the early part of the last decade.
Some of the songs are pretty unique, utilizing dark harmonies
and mysterious melodic lines on the synth. The throbbing
drums, bass, and guitar of “Sunlight From Another
Life” is a great way to open the album, pulling me
in and making me want to hear more. “Bobby”
continues the feel, but when the vocals come in there’s
more of a stately sound, the buzzy synths providing the
throbbing this time. “Setting Sun” and “Please”
take a different direction, showing more of SF’s old
hippie vibe. The former is a light, bluesy track, heavy
on guitars, while the latter has that hazy, lazy psychedelic
sound made famous in the flower power days. The next pair
of tracks provide two takes on power pop, with “Everything
Is Off” being the softer track, with guitars and keyboards
mixing it up, and “Want It” being the louder,
buzzier, slightly funkier track. The tracks on this album
seem to move from style to style, some having a harder rock
sound (“Marooned”) others being gentle and smooth
and bordering on a country feel (“Lost Your Aim”).
Most of the songs are pretty listenable – there’s
nothing offensive here. But also none of the songs seem
to take any chances; it’s all so…safe sounding.
THE
COATHANGERS – Live (Suicide Squeeze Records, www.suicide
squeeze. net)
Live albums can either go really right or really wrong.
Seeing a band live, when they’re good, is an amazing
experience, but many times, attempts to capture the energy
in a recording fall short. In the case of Atlanta, Georgia’s
The Coathangers, the energy is palpable on many of the tracks.
The angularity of the music and, especially, the vocals,
plus the combination of female and male vocals, reminds
me of a more punk B-52s. It’s a great raw combination
of new wave mentality and punk aesthetics. Once in awhile
things change up and sound a lot like a more polished Cibo
Matto, like on “Arthritis Sux,” which uses repetitive
melodic lines and sudden vocal outbursts, and the closer,
“Squeeki Tiki,” a novelty track with the same
feel. “Gettin’ Mad and Pumpin’ Iron”
is insane! The vocals are off the wall, with the guitars
following suit. Loud and furious, the anger jumps out of
the speakers and throttles you, hands grasping at your throat!
Occasionally, things don’t work quite as well –
like “Captain’s Dead,” which tries to
be a more melodic tune, but it’s too even keeled and
smooth for The Coathangers. And “Burn Me” seems
to drag a little too much, and the vocals seem a little
bored. Bottom line, though, as a document of the band’s
live shows, it’s a winner.
DARK/LIGHT
(Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Following up last year’s LP, Portland’s Dark/Light
are back with a new EP. The sound is darker and more chaotic
than before on these four songs. Lo-fi garage punk, with
dueling male and female vocals remain, but this is even
edgier and more frantic than the LP. Especially on the second
track, “We Conjure Ghosts.” This one sounds
kinda like horror-surf-garage. It’s cool how the end
of this track, too, fades away, and then “Night Driving”
starts with the same line that “We Conjure Ghosts”
ended on, a slow throbbing drum and lonely guitar line.
But it quickly mutates into something harder. This record
makes me want to see Dark/Light live!
DARK
THOUGHTS – At Work (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Philadelphia’s Dark Thoughts doesn’t believe
in being too long-winded. Of the twelve tracks on this new
LP, only two significantly exceed two minutes in length,
one barely cracks two minutes, and the remainder range from
under a minute to about a minute and a half. They also don’t
believe in the use of too many chords, limiting the selection
on offer in any of these songs. In these senses, they show
their debt to The Ramones. In some ways, too, the band reminds
me of early Low Culture. This is the classic pop punk sound
of around eight to ten years ago, too. If you’re a
fan of bands like Dear Landlord, Turkish Techno, Chinese
Telephones, jump on this one. It’s a banger!
THE
DARTS – Subsonic Dream b/w Bullet (Dirty Water Records
USA, www.dirtywaterrecordsusa.com)
The queens of garage-psych rock’n’roll are back
with a new single! “Subsonic Dream” is a full-on
horror-psych freak-out garage track, heavy on the backbeat,
heavy on the reverb, and loaded with eerie keyboard sounds.
“Bullet” is a powerful paych’n’roll
jam with a huge sound that doesn’t stop. Since forming
a mere two years ago, this band that calls both LA and Phoenix
home has shown that they’re a force to be reckoned
with, and this new single reinforces that.
THE
ESTRANGED – Frozen Fingers b/w World of Birds (Sabotage
Records, sabotagerecords.bandcamp.com)
Portland’s The Estranged put out a new single recently
with Sabotage Records, and it’s unlike that label’s
usual hardcore punk sound. Of the two tracks, I think I
like the B-side’s “World of Birds” better.
It has an almost Renaissance ballad feel to it – well,
except for the fact that it’s performed in a garage
rock’n’roll style. The track starts with acoustic
guitar and some bells, and then the reverb-laden vocals
come in and it sounds very folk-like. The track is played
at a slow tempo, with loads of reverb, and has a morose
sound. Especially at the end, when all the instruments save
the electric guitar drop out, and the melody plays, sounding
desperately sad. The A-side is a more rockin’ garage
track with a power pop edge. It’s a good one, but
I love that B-side.
FUTURE
GIRLS – Motivation Problems (Dirt Cult Records,
www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Future Girls is a bit of a throwback to a sound that every
pop punk band seemed to try to imitate a decade or so ago.
Loose, noisy, and melodic, this is what everyone should
think of when they think of pop punk – not that super
slick stuff that gained major label popularity in the 1990s
and 2000s. Lyrics touch on teenage angst, feelings of hopelessness
(and the ways we try to fool ourselves into hoping), severe
depression, and similar typical pop punk themes. The tracks
have such a strong sense of sincerity to them – you
know these are real people experiencing the same real problems
in life we all encounter. I love the contrast between the
intense buzziness of the guitars and bass and the darkness
of the lyrics versus the bouncy feel and the bright melodies
and harmonies. Favorite tracks include “Words I Find,”
which has tons of jangle underneath the layer of distortion
and “Cause for Alarm,” for its harder and edgier
punk feel.
HARD
FEELINGS – Sideways (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, Hard Feelings is a trio
with a much bigger sound than you would expect from a three-piece.
The songs are crunchy and melodic, bright and powerful.
The more I listen to it, the more I’m falling in love
with this record. I think my favorite track is “Morality,”
the second song of the album. The off-kilter time signature
and melodic line have drilled into my brain and made a home
there. Immediately after is “Vision,” which
reminds me a little bit of Toys That Kill, I think mainly
in the vocals. There’s enough variety in the tracks
to hold my interest, too. “Black Skies has a modern
indie rock sound, but the chord progressions and vocals
remind me of something the Sex Pistols might have done,
yet “Don’t Need You” has the angularity
and anger of a hardcore song – though it’s a
little more melodic and somewhat smoother than hardcore.
I love “Silly Game,” a track that goes through
multiple transformations during the course of its four and
a half minutes, from fast-paced hardcore rager to quiet
ballad. The epic penultimate track, “Cycles,”
is very different from everything else on the album, an
Americana tinged ballad with a raucous, yet very sad feel
and sad lyrics. Recommended!
MANIAC
– Dead Dance Club (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Justin Maurer and James Carman are two fixtures of the LA
music scene, known from the great power pop band, LA Drugz,
and Justin also played in the legendary Clorox Girls. The
two team up once again, this time with Andrew Zappin and
Zache Davis for twelve cuts of power-garage-punk. From the
first track, I hear influences from The Marked Men, with
dark mid-tempo garage punk being the prominent element in
the verses, though the chorus is brighter, and the back
half of the song retains that more optimistic feel. The
songs on this LP show a good sense of variety, moving back
and forth along the punk and power pop spectrum, and the
really amazing feat here is sounding both raw and polished
at the same time. Favorite song: “Officer Jimmy.”
It’s very Beach Boys meets Ramones-core, but it twists
the form with loads of odd key changes, keeping you off-balance
for the entirety of the song. I also love “Midnight
Kino,” its chorus reminding me of the glory of LA
Drugz, but with a bit more edge to it. This is a great LP
that makes me want to go back and check out their debut
LP from a few years ago.
PITY
PARTY – Are You Happy Yet (La Escalera Records,
www.laescalerarecords. com)
I just recently saw the Bay Area’s Pity Party for
the first time, at La Escalera Fest 7, and instantly fell
in love. They play sweet melodic music with super loud and
buzzy guitars. The songs are high energy and loaded with
fun. Including the song titles: “Dank Sinatra”
and “Grindmother” are two of the four tracks!
The opener, “Trap House Xmas,” is completely
infectious and bouncy, transforming itself a few times in
the short span of under two minutes. “Dank Sinatra”
slows things down, grunging it up. “Grindmother”
gets more manic again and has some great sing-along parts.
The last song is “Pop Song 4 Evr.” It has some
intense vocals, eschewing sweetness for grit on the mid-tempo
track that, sadly, doesn’t last forever. Damn, I’ve
been sleeping on this band for too long!
THE
PRETTY FLOWERS – Why Trains Crash (Dirt Cult Records,
www.dirtcultrecords. com)
In a significant departure from the norm, Dirt Cult is releasing
a record that isn’t pop-punk or garage punk. The Pretty
Flowers are a full-on alt-rock band, and this record is
right on the edge for me. Sometimes I hear hooks that sound
a little too much like the stuff on commercial radio (back
in the late 90s), but other times they get something going
that sounds pretty cool. I think some of it might be some
of the over-production I’m noting, like the overdubs
on “My Alchemist,” with lyrics sung, then repeated
with a bit of distortion and pulled back in the mix. Sometimes
the guitar tone and vocal harmonies sound too radio friendly.
“Temple of Gunpowder” has parts with nice jangly
guitars and vocals sounding like a cool power pop tune,
but then comes a guitar solo sounding very “alternative,”
with fake emo vocals coming in after, then those too-slick
harmonies. When the synth and guitars play together it reminds
me of some of the most awful MTV videos of the late 80s.
“Filter the Grit” exemplifies this musical error
in judgment. But then we’ll get something like “Corner
of the Stars,” a pretty, jangly track. And I really
like “New Century,” a loping song with noisy
guitar interjections and crooning vocals. It’s hard
to make a call when the band is right on that edge between
tight indie band and a too commercial sound. The Pretty
Flowers need to make up their mind about what kind of band
they want to be.
PROUD
PARENTS (Dirtnap Records, www.dirtnaprecs.com)
It’s official. The Midwest is the home of much of
the best power pop music being played these days. There
is a plethora of bands playing in this genre, mainly coming
out of Wisconsin. Proud Parents, from Madison, are one of
these. On this, their debut LP, they present thirteen tracks
of jangly, bouncy, power pop in at the garage-band end of
the spectrum. There are dueling male and female vocals,
including gang vocals, backing vocals, and harmonies, sparkling
guitars, and tambourine – all adding up to give these
songs a bright, sunny feel. On occasion, though, things
get a little uneven. The guitars on “2 Fast 2 Serious”
are fantastic, swirling around like crazy, but the vocals
don’t live up to the instrumentals, or even most of
the rest of the record. Off-pitch double tracking doesn’t
work. But, for the most part, this is an enjoyable record.
Proud Parents aren’t about to break and become the
next big thing, nor are they pushing the boundaries of music,
but they make good, solid music that’s entertaining.
SLUMB
PARTY – Happy Now (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.
co.uk)
Slumb Party list their influences as including Minutemen,
Roxy Music, Contortions, Big Boys, and Kleenex. Yep, I can
see that. This UK band from Robin Hood’s legendary
home, Nottingham, play an oddball brand of post-punk that
includes saxophone punctuating the angular melodies, adding
to the general feeling of mayhem careening out of control.
The wailing of the sax is a perfect complement to the angry
and pleading sound of the vocals. The songs have a strongly
manic feel, high in energy and full of intent. “Good
Time” is a perfect example, with the bass and one
sax pounding out a repeating foundational line, two other
saxophones swirling around with a frenzy, while unhinged
vocals sing and shout. I am in particular love with “We
Used To Fight, especially the intense ending, in which the
guitar riffs on a single note while the bass and saxes repeat
an angular line over and over. I wish the song had more
of that. “Everybody” is like a twisted new wave
song, more insane than the 80s ever got, with synth providing
an eerie feel to accompany the funky pop-wave. And the closing
track, the title track, sounds like a twisted new wave cover
song, but it’s not – it’s an original!
And this band is an original – one of the most unique,
creative bands I’ve heard in awhile!
SVART
KATT – Når Allt Är Över (Sabotage
Records, sabotagerecords.bandcamp.com)
Take Denton, Texas power-punk heroes Radioactivity, slow
them down a bit, darken the melodies, and have them sing
in Swedish. Add keyboards and reverb, plus some dark post
punk guitars. Then you’ll get an idea of what Svart
Katt sounds like on some of their songs. These Swedes have
apparently been touring parts of Europe quite a lot, recently,
and this debut LP showcases a tight, melodic Ramones-core
sound that has more than a tinge of a lonely feel to it.
This is a dramatic change to what I’m used to hearing
from Sabotage. The German label tends to focus more on hardcore
music and harder classic punk sounds. And I usually associate
Scandinavian bands with thrashy metal. But this is downright
melodic, almost pop punk. I have no idea what the songs
are about, since I don’t speak Swedish. But I like
this. “Borde Jag Gjort Nät” has a great
fuzzy strummed guitar, and the vocals are prominent and
heartfelt. Some of the songs, like “Samma Misstag,”
mix in heavy reverb in the guitar and a prominent bass line,
reminding me of early 80s post punk. A worthy expansion
of Sabotage’s catalog.
DENIM
AND LEATHER – Sacred Autism (Drunken Sailor Records,
www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
This band is not a Saxon cover band, thanks be. No, they’re
a hardcore punk band from Manchester, UK, and “Sacred
Autism” is their debut full-length LP. It features
ten tracks of noisy, sometimes sludgy, sometimes thrashy
hardcore punk rock. The slower, sludgier tracks are less
palatable to my ears. The faster, punker tracks are better,
though the can be pretty same-same tedious after a while.
Atonal “melodic” lines and monotone shouted
vocals are the norm. When there’s something different,
it stands out, though. Like on “Cathedral Gardens,”
which has a few excellent moments. One, when the thrash
stops and all is silent save for some clear as a bell guitar
strums. Another is when things slow a bit and the vocals
are actually sung a bit, with a pleading voice. But the
track suffers from being too long; over four minutes is
way too long for this kind of song. “Ginnel”
is a cool track with an angular melodic line. The shining
moment of the album, in my opinion, is “Ancient Cowboy
Burial Ground,” a track that’s completely different
from anything else on the album. It’s a quiet song
that has a sound just like you might think, as suggested
by the title. It’s lonely and dusty sounding, with
lyrics quietly spoken. “Hatchlings” is a low
point, on the other hand, sounding more like a 70s metal
band than a hardcore punk band. The bright spots in this
record are just too few and far between for my tastes. And
even if you like hardcore, this is just a bit too atonal
to recommend.
ERA
BLEAK – Demo (Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Dirt Cult has gone through phases, in terms of the type
of music it puts out. First it was heavily focused on pop
punk. Then it moved toward more of a garage punk phase.
Then it started putting out neo-hardcore music from bands
in its adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon. Portland’s
Era Bleak’s debut blends garage and hardcore together,
creating the perfect storm for Dirt Cult. Portland seems
to have a great neo-hardcore scene, and Era Bleak is another
example of this. Garage-punk music that sounds like it could
have come right out of the early 80s, blended with vocals
that are shouted with plenty of attitude and inflections.
The result sounds both raw and polished at the same time,
a commendable feat. There’s also a darkness to the
sound that adds a lot to the feel. For instance, in the
opener, “Option Overload,” the lyrics express
the panic that comes with having to make choices from too
many options, while the music lends a claustrophobic sense
of paranoia; you feel the neurosis growing. “Tinderbox”
is a fast song with an appropriately explosive feel. Other
tracks similarly match the sound to the intent. Another
strong release from Dirt Cult.
GLOOM
SLEEPER – Luminous Galaxies (Dirt Cult Records,
www.dirtcultrecords. com)
It’s rare that I don’t rave about a Dirt Cult
release, and even rarer when I can’t even get into
one at all, but here we are. Gloom Sleeper play a brand
of new wave mixed with post-punk, a hint of a goth edge,
and loads of grade B dark sci-fi film feel. A lot of that
comes from the keyboards and dark feel to the music. Which,
normally, would be an intriguing mix to my ears. I think,
ultimately, the key things that bother me about this record
are the lack of dynamic variation and the lack of a feel
of energy. The tempo of the songs never varies by much,
nor does the loudness. Everything is kept on an even keel
throughout the ten songs. That probably accounts for the
feeling of ennui; no variation means no excitement. It’s
just there.
ISS
(Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
This is one of the most original records to come out in
a long time. ISS, hailing from North Carolina, use samples
and synths to create music that’s more punk than you
can ever hope to be. After a brief sampled intro that I
think comes from The Beastie Boys, we hear rapid fire drum
machine and buzzy bassy synths, on “Back Taxes and
Anaphylaxis.” “(Dis)charge It to the Game”
has a dark feel, filled with deep buzz, shouted vocals,
and ambient tones. It sounds sort of like it might have
come from the soundtrack of a low budget post-apocalyptic
sci-fi movie – and I mean that in a good way. In “Freemasons
Run the Country,” a simple rhythm underlies lyrics
that speak to the title conspiracy theory, exhorting listeners
to “smash the fucking state, smash the fucking country,
smash the fucking continent, smash the fucking world.”
“In the Mist” is another of those sci-fi sounding
tracks, and “What Should’ve Been” is a
track full of evil lyrics in which the singer wishes all
the ills of the world on others.” My favorite track,
I think, is “52 Holes,” featuring a bleak landscape
of percussion, bass, and deadpan vocals. The music isn’t
really punk in the traditional sense, but the attitude and
DIY spirit of this release are strongly punk. If you like
the oddball and the unique, too, this record is a must listen.
THE
JACK CADES – Music For Children (Dirty Water Records,
www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Dirty Waters Records continues to solidify their position
as the world’s preeminent record label for retro garage
music. Their latest effort, the debut from UK band The Jack
Cades, has a classic 60s garage pop sound. Perhaps the most
authentic sound of any of their bands yet. The arrangements
are fairly sparse, the songs heavily R&B and folk inspired,
the guitars jangly, and the vocals are more than a bit snotty.
“Big Fish” opens the album with a classic garage
track with a blues progression, heavy on the backbeat. But
it’s the next track “Identity Crisis,”
which is my favorite of the album. It’s an original
song, but the melody and tone will sound instantly familiar
to all fans of garage rock’n’roll. The jangle
of the guitar, the harmonized backing vocals, it’s
got it all. “Get A Life” is a great up-tempo
track that uses a blues progression but feels bright at
the same time. And I love “You’ve Seen It All,”
a track that feels too short but clocks in at 2:21. It’s
got a wild go-go sound, with a bit of psychedelic influence.
I like the rapid-fire spoken lyrics, something that’s
been done to death on a lot of records yet sounds fresh
and original here. If you’re a fan of garage, this
album is a must!
LUCY
AND THE RATS (Dirty Water Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
When I start playing a release from Dirty Water, I usually
know exactly what I’m in for – the label is
the home of some of the best garage rock’n’roll
being put out these days. Looking at photos of the band,
that’s exactly the sort of sound I expected –
gritty and raw. Imagine my surprise when this latest release
of theirs wasn’t what I expected at all. And it was
a pleasant surprise! Lucy Spazzy, famed punk rocker from
Australia, has started a new band based in London, and they
play some pretty great indie pop music. They remind me a
lot of Sugar Stems, a fantastic pop band from Wisconsin.
The guitars are light and jangly, and the vocals sweet and
overdubbed so as to be harmonized. This is the perfect summer
record, a little bit garage-like with a heavy dose of bubblegum
pop. The Rats put their best track right up front, to grab
your attention. “Pills” embodies everything
that makes this band so good. The lyrics seem to be about
facing your fears and going for it. “Can you smell
that in the air? / Oh no, baby, don’t be scared /
Keep swimming forward like a shark / That’s headed
for the deep blue dark.” I really enjoy “Lose
My Mind,” too. It’s got a retro pop rhythm,
a modern indie pop melodic line, and the sweet harmonies
are reserved for the chorus. “Melody” is about
hope – when the days are grey and you just don’t
want to get out of bed, but you know that some day the sun
will come out and everything’s going to be OK. “One
sunny day I’m gonna open up my eyes / And I’ll
hear something beautiful / I’ll hear a melody then
sing the harmony / And I’ll feel something beautiful.”
You’ll feel something beautiful, too, when you listen
to this sweet, sweet record.
SEX
TOURISTS (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Originally released in late 2017 in their native Australia,
Sex Tourists are seeing a limited vinyl release in Europe
from Drunken Sailor Records. Sex Tourists have a definite
80s UK synth-wave post-punk sound, reminiscent of New Order
and the like. Drum machine, multiple keyboards, and guitar
provide a dark backdrop to equally gloomy vocals. Even on
the brighter sounding tracks there’s always a sense
of foreboding. And even though the base sound and feel is
distinctly 80s retro, there are bits of modern touches,
too. On many of the tracks there’s a dichotomy between
the rapid-fire beats of the drum machines and the slower,
dreamier feel of the vocals. My favorite track is the very
martial-like “Carnival And Sports.” It’s
got a very rigid march time beat and instrumentals that
hint of glory. Sometimes the vocals come off a little harsh
sounding, not as smooth as the musical style would suggest
they should be. But if you miss this kind of 80s music,
this is something you’ll like.
TEACH
ME EQUALS – Fix History (Wild Klamath Records, www.wildklamathrecords.com)
Teach Me Equals is the duo of Erin Murphy (guitar, violin,
vocals) and Greg Bortnichak (cello, sequencer, guitar, vocals).
This is their sophomore full-length LP, a follow-up to the
split EP they released with Red Rumsey, the creation of
former Unwound bass player Vern Rumsey. Fix History features
eight tracks of gloriously experimental pop music, alternately
epic and understated, alluring and demanding of attention.
The songs take the basic pop song construct and turn it
on its head. The sounds that can be achieved with a duo
making use of a sequencer and other instruments is astounding,
and the rich layering is not just a mere studio trick. Seeing
this band live will make you a believer. The album opens
with “Cleo,” which served as the lead single.
Murphy’s hypnotic vocals cast a spell, while the steamy
and mysterious jazz instrumentals simmer underneath. “PCV”
has a gorgeous mix of classical and calypso feel, thanks
to the synthesized percussion and Bortichak’s plucked
cello. Bortnichak takes the lead on vocals on a few tracks,
the first being “So Much for Subtlety,” a dark
buzzy sounding track. “Velvet keeps things very dark,
Murphy’s sensual vocals bringing back the mysteriousness,
while the instrumentation contrasts with a harsh, angular
feel. On “Bobbing for Apples,” Murphy and Bortnichak
take turns on the vocals, and the track progresses at a
dark simmer for a while, then toward the end quickly builds,
with Bortnichak’s cello furiously taking the lead.
Teach Me Equals reworked a track from their split EP for
the next track, “Judas Goat.” This track slays
me, and in this new recording even more. It’s god
a very lonely sound, and when the cello takes the forefront
with its minimalist line it sends a chill down my spine.
“Smooth Sailing” is a slow, quiet, understated
track, once again featuring Bortnichak on the lead vocals.
The album closes with the title track, and it starts thinly,
with minimalist instrumentation and Murphy’s vocals.
Toward the end it explodes into a thickly layered dreamy
song, but when you take a closer listen to that dreaminess
you sense the noisiness beneath. As in life, all is not
as it seems.
WAX
IDOLS – Happy Ending (waxidols.bandcamp.com)
Catchy, poppy, swirly music comes out of Oakland on Wax
Idols’ fourth LP. Guitars, bass, drums, keyboard,
and vocals blend to create something that’s part indie-pop
and part dream-pop, but with more energy and power than
your usual dreamy pop music. The instrumentation is thick
and lush, the vocals strong and confident, while the lyrics
reveal the sarcasm of the album’s title. “Too
Late,” the second track on the album, showcases the
band’s sound well, with a solid beat from the drum
and bass, a dreamy yet edgy sound from the guitars, and
powerful vocals belting out the dark lyrics that contrast
starkly with the music. “No words can save your hollow
soul,” the chorus cries out. “No emotions left
to borrow / No one can fill that gaping hole / No sun will
come tomorrow.” “Belong” follows, and
is one of my favorites of the album. It’s got the
most indie-pop feel of all the songs, after a gorgeous dreamy
intro. “Crashing” is the polar opposite of a
happy ending – it seems to speak of suicide as it
tells us that “Rain fell down through the ceiling
/ On the day I wished the world away / Everything, disappearing
/ And a smile growing on my face / Cuz it feels so food
to leave this place.” The instrumental “123”
is simply breathtaking in its heartbreaking beauty. It’s
sound as art, painting a gorgeous, sad landscape with music.
The only thing that would change about this album would
be to shorten it just a bit. At eleven songs and 45 minutes,
it’s a little too much in these modern days of shorter
albums and shorter songs.
THE
WHIFFS (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Released last year as a cassette only album, The Whiffs’
self-titled LP now sees the vinyl treatment courtesy of
Drunken Sailor Records in the UK. I debate calling it an
LP; it’s got eight songs, but it clocks in at a mere
eighteen minutes. Power pop music is clearly most alive
in the heartland of the USA. One well-known hotbed is Wisconsin,
with several bands operating in the Green Bay, Milwaukee,
and nearby areas. Add Kansas City, Missouri to the list,
as this is where The Whiffs call home. There’s something
about the middle of America that seems to breed great basic
guitar-bass-drums bands and guitar-based pop songs. Even
within this genre, there can be some variety, as is evidenced
on this record. The opener, “Baby Tonight,”
has a retro 50s doo-wop feel, though at a more rapid tempo
and edgier feel. The mid-tempo “Never Be Free,”
also has a hint of retro feel, with lots of 60s jangle blending
with a 90s indie-pop flavor. I adore “She Lies,”
which takes part pop punk and part garage pop to create
a really fun track. And “I Need You Here” uses
the classic formula of jangly guitars and lovesick lyrics.
I’m glad there are still bands out there playing this
sort of music.
THE
BROKEDOWNS – Sick of Space (Red Scare Industries,
www.redscare.net)
The Chicago area’s Brokedowns are kind of a throwback.
They’ve got a solid Midwestern punk sound, very workman-like
without being too light or poppy, yet not too hardcore and
stern. The tracks are edgy and angular while still maintaining
a strong sense of fun. Vocals are pounding and powerful.
Every track is a satisfying listen. Right from the start,
“The One True Freak,” you know you’re
in for something special, as powerful guitars, bass, drums,
and vocals pummel your ears. It’s a short yet perfect
introduction to the album. “Trauma Czars” alternates
between retro post punk and modern pop punk sounds, with
an angular loping sound. The title track is a favorite,
with rumbling bass a la Big Black, strong a Chicago guitar
sound, and lyrics decrying urban sprawl and the ever-present
shopping centers and malls. The close of the track features
vintage Chicago TV ads, including Celozzi-Ettleson Chevrolet
and Empire Carpeting, staples of Chicago local TV in the
70s and 80s. And when you think things can’t get more
intense than that, “Shitty Little League” smacks
you down to prove you wrong. “Cave Trash Dumpster
Embassy” is a short bluesy punk track that’ll
stab you through your heart; that’s how sharp it is.
“Kings of the Dust” is probably one of the poppiest
tracks of the album, but it’s still hard-edged, even
with the definite sing-along vibe and ever so slightly jangly
guitars. This record is very different from Red Scare’s
usual pop punk fare, but it’s a strong, compelling
release that’s recommended.
CALEMBOUR
– Let The Wind Lead Us Home (StandBy Records, www.standby
records.com)
This four-song debut EP comes from an indie-folk outfit
out of Turin, Italy. And it’s gorgeous. Acoustic guitars,
keyboards, banjo, upright bass, and harmonized vocals blend
together to create a glorious sound. The title track starts
quietly and solemnly, but slowly builds into a real stomper.
“I Call Your Name” is a pretty twangy ballad
that uses the banjo differently than you usually hear (I’m
used to the rapid bluegrass style of banjo, but here it
provides quiet, lazy twang). “Away From You”
is another pretty track, in 12/8 time. It’s another
one that starts quietly and builds, but this time into a
big ballad sound, the banjo plucking away at triple the
rate of the vocals. “Yours & Mine” closes
the EP, this time featuring organ rather than piano. Again,
the song starts quietly and solemnly, and builds, sounding
almost like a gospel song. Two thirds through, it changes
into a loping feel, with huge organ in the background and
the banjo up front, with a feel of meandering down the road.
Beautiful stuff.
ELWAY
– For The Sake Of The Bit (Red Scare Industries,
www.redscare.net)
Elway is one of Red Scare’s bands that’s a little
different than their normal pop punk fare. Elway tends more
toward the indie rock side of things, and I like that just
fine. The songs are a little more mature, with a stronger
melodic content than a lot of pop punk. Some of the songs
have lush guitars that fill out the sound really nicely,
almost bordering on dream pop at times. But have no fear,
pop punk fans. There are still fun sing-alongs, too, like
“Hold On.” The chorus is tailor made for big
beer soaked sing-alongs in dive bars, yet the arrangement,
especially the beautiful open chords in the guitars, is
more reminiscent of indie pop. “Hold On” moves
back and forth between hard-edged and softer indie sounds,
with pretty climbing guitar lines. “Paper Guitars”
is another one that teeters on that edge between pop punk
and indie, with huge whoa-oh backing vocals, but also with
huge dreamy guitars. I love this song, especially toward
the end, a recording of a woman’s voice in the background
and the guitars seeming to move to another plane of existence.
Overall, this record does a great job of staying punk enough
to please old fans and being indie enough to gain new ones.
FOUR
LIGHTS – Kobayashi Maru – (Bomb Pop Records,
www.bombpoprecords.com)
Double pun time! The band’s name refers to the episode
of
Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Jean-Luc
Picard is tortured by the Cardassians, while the title of
this sophomore LP references the Star Fleet Academy test
that Captain Kirk cheats on in order to graduate. In Star
Trek lore, the Kobayashi Maru is the no-win scenario, something
we can all relate to. The album, building on the success
of the band’s debut LP
Death to False Posi,
starts strongly with “Bent Outta Shape” and
“ComRAD” pounding your ears with a wall of guitar
sound, but caressing them with super poppy melody and mutli-part
harmonies in the vocals. After that, things slow down a
bit. “Again and Again” slows and quiets things
down, with echoes of 60s pop blended with Teenage Bottlerocket
ballads. “Jimmy’s Song Part 2” is very
different from anything I’ve heard from Four Lights
before. It’s an outright epic ballad, more of an indie
rock song than pop punk. And “Let’s Burn Burn
Burn” is a loping mid-tempo track that simmers more
than burns. “We Got Em” cranks up the tempo
again, and has a spectacularly powerful chorus. “Characters”
starts out with a vintage recording of ambient music and
a vintage rock and roll drum beat. The doo-wop-like song
slowly morphs into a more modern pop punk sound. The song’s
tempo picks up the arrangement gets thicker, and the chorus’
whoa-whoa backing vocals make this a classic. As the track
abruptly closes, we hear that ambient music from the start
slowly fade away. “Scene of the Crime” also
has a retro vibe to it, like what pop punk would sound like
in the early 60s. And that short guitar solo! Such a huge
surf sound! The Kobayashi Maru may be a no-win situation,
but this album is a winner.
THE
COMMON COLD – Shut Up! Yo Liberals! (Action Records,
www. actionrecords.co.uk)
The Common Cold reminds me of the highly creative post-punk
movement of the late 1970s and into the 1980s. It was a
period of intense experimentation with how to make music,
and explored outside cultural norms. The Common Cold have
that same spirit, making music that no one else is making
today. There’s a strong sense of rhythm in many of
these tracks, and they’re also minimalist, in the
sense that there are repeating lines and rhythms. The songs
seem to be part dance pop, part punk, part dream pop, and
part R&B. Vocals are super lo-fi and mostly spoken rather
than sung. For example, the opening track, “Stop The
Traffic,” is primarily a single rhythmic line repeating
over and over, lyrics mostly consisting of shouts of “Stop
the traffic!” and meandering synths whirling around
above this. “Napoleon’s Index Finger”
is a pretty cool track; at the halfway point, the droning
rhythms and vocals pause momentarily, and like the sun shining
through an opening in a dark cloud cover, brilliantly sparkling
electronics shimmer clearly and starkly. But the moment
passes, the clouds close back, and the dark rhythms return.
But I think my favorite track is “Low Winter Sun.”
I love the melodic hooks – yes, hooks – and
the light glittery feel to the song. It’s so very
different from the others (which I like too, but in a different
way). Just listening to this record makes me feel like I’m
back in a dark, smoky club in the early 80s, the room throbbing
to the beat, the mass of arty punks in the room bobbing
around.
THE
CREEPS – Beneath The Pines (It’s Alive Records,
www.itsaaliverecords.com)
Four long years. It’s been an agonizing wait since
“Eulogies” came out, The Creeps previous LP.
Their style has evolved somewhat over the years. The tempo
here is a bit more laidback, the arrangements are less in
your face, the sound is cleaner, and the overall feel is
dreamier. But this is not dream pop, not by a long shot.
These songs are more driven by melody than anything The
Creeps have done before, and that gives the vocals a chance
to shine in the spotlight. The feel remains dark and sad,
maybe even more so than in the past. From the very start
of the album, you can tell this is a different sort of Creeps
record. “Shimmer” is a favorite track for its
strong vocals and distinctly bright vocal sound over a morose
melody, the harmonized backing vocals and heavy reverb add
to the glum feel. Another favorite is the downright indie-pop
track, “Even.” It’s got jangle unlike
any you’ve heard before – because the jangle
is in the vocals more than the guitar. I like “Superstitions,”
too, perhaps the bounciest track of the album. If I have
one thing I would change on this record it would be to introduce
a little more variety from track to track. The tempo and
feel of the songs is pretty consistent, more than in the
past. But that’s just a minor quibble. These tracks
successfully blend pop punk and indie pop to produce what
is probably my favorite Creeps LP to date.
MOJAVE
NOMADS – Phases (Standby Records, www.standbyrecords.com)
Blending danceable synth-pop and an indie pop sound, Utah’s
Mojave Nomads create a fairly unique sound. While most indie
rock outfits using synth today are creating a dream-pop
sound, Mojave Nomads use it like synths were uses back in
the 80s new wave days. Equally unique is the vocal style
of singer Tyler Harris, a throaty sound that is slightly
reminiscent of the late Amy Winehouse. There’s a strong
soulfulness to these six tracks, and Harris’ vocals
have a lot to do with that, and his range is quite wide,
sometimes going up to falsetto. My favorite track is probably
the opener, “G I R L.” It’s am up-tempo
number that blends in a power pop feel with the synths.
The other tracks slow things down and crank up the soul.
As the record continues, the reverb comes on, giving things
a dreamier sound – but this is never dream pop. If
you’re a fan of some of the better 80s synth pop,
check this out.
PINNED
IN PLACE – Rubbernecking at the Gates of Hell (pinnedinplace.
bandcamp.com)
Two years on from Pinned In Place’s wondrous debut,
“Ghostwritten By,” the LA band is back with
their sophomore effort. There is no slump here. Indeed,
if anything this release is stronger than the previous LP,
showing us a band that has grown stronger and more confident.
The math rock influence is even stronger here than on the
debut, yet it doesn’t overwhelm the songs. They still
have the same easy, breezy quality as before. And there’s
still the underlying intensity, despite the easy feel. The
album’s overarching theme is dysfunction. The songs
cover self-doubt and attempts at recovery, and especially
familial dysfunction.
The album opens with “Codependence Day,”
an ode to the disarray of pretty much every family. It’s
the perfect intro to the album, a short minute and a half
blast that includes many of the elements that make Pinned
In Place such a great band. Gorgeous melody, swirling
guitars beneath an intense wall of sound, shifting time
signatures, and beautiful backing vocals. “Won’t
someone clean up the mess that I am,” begs the opening
line of “Citizen Kane in the Basement,” one
of the mathier and janglier tracks of the album. The wall
of guitar is traded for a somewhat sparser sound, as the
lyrics speak to well-meaning friends who try to offer
advice that doesn’t really help. I adore “Linking
with a Vampire,” a song more at the indie end of
the spectrum. The fuzzy guitars and intense vocals contrast
with the pretty melody and keyboards, while the bridge
gets much softer in feel, while calming backing vocals
glide underneath the guitar lines that meander and wind.
But “Vanilla” may be my favorite track of
the LP. The song has an epic feel in parts, contrasting
with the quieter parts that feature dueling guitar and
keyboards, chasing each other around in circles. The closing
title track seems to be a song about how lost faith brings
freedom. It’s beautiful, both musically and lyrically,
distorted guitars blending with smooth vocals, guitars
and keyboards dancing together in waltz time – ironic
because all ecclesiastical music in the Middle Ages was
in ¾ time to praise the holy trinity. And at nearly
three and a quarter minutes, it’s the longest song
on the record. Which brings me to my only beef with the
record – many of the songs are just too short! Ramones
songs are perfect for two minutes, but these melodies
are just too nice to be over that quickly!
ARCHIE
AND THE BUNKERS – Songs From The Lodge (Dirty Water
Records, www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk)
Dirty Water Records just keeps finding cool bands and churning
out great garage rock records. Archie and the Bunkers hail
from Cleveland, Ohio, and consist of brothers Emmett and
Cullen O’Connor. Yep, it’s a duo. Emmett is
the drummer and Cullen plays organ, and they both provide
vocals. This has a classic garage rock sound…sort
of. There are no guitars and no bass – the organ and
drums are the only instruments. So the overall sound is
a bit thin in comparison to most garage bands. It doesn’t
have the rawness you find in most garage bands, but the
pair make up for that in sheer intensity, particularly in
the vocals. Favorite track: “Riot City.” It’s
probably the most raucous of the bunch. And “Lost
In Today” has a great angular feel. I can’t
help but feel, though, that something is missing. A guitar
and bass would really fill out the sound. With just the
organ and drums, the sound just isn’t gritty enough,
though the vocals are.
BUCKLEY
– Las Cruces (Rum Bar Records, rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com)
This new release from the nice folks at Rum Bar Records
is quite a bit different from their usual fare. Thy generally
put out some of the best power pop records, but this isn’t
power pop. The word “Americana” usually conjures
images of a blending of the Nashville sound and indie rock,
yielding twangy edges to alternative sounds. But Nashville
is only one corner of the United States. The vast deserts
of the West might not be conducive to growing crops, but
it can provide fertile ground for musical inspiration. Buckley’s
new LP focuses on the Americana of the desert: lonely sounds,
deep guitar tones, and plenty of reverb. The somewhat higher
register of the vocals, and the quality of the singing,
plus that lonely west Americana sound show the influence
of artists like Neil Young have had on Buckley. The opening
track, “Bakersfield,” encapsulates the album
in that single song. All of the loneliness of being on the
road out west can be heard in this microcosm of the album.
“Old Glory” is a straightforward rock tune right
out of the 70s that could have come right off a CSNY LP.
I love “Devil Slide,” a quieter, more solemn
sounding track. It opens with acoustic guitar, and then
electric guitar, slide guitar, bass and drums come in, but
delicately. “Three Chiefs” has a strong ZZ Top
sound, especially in the guitars. “Downtown”
has a rock’n’roll era Bob Dylan feel to it.
This is not the kind of music I go out of my way to listen
to. And it’s not the kind of music that I’ll
personally keep coming back to. But if these descriptions
sound like the kind of music you would like, check this
out, because it’s pretty well done.
DUSK
– The Loneliness of Pain (Goes On And On) b/w Go
Easy (Dirtnap Records, www.dirtnaprecs.com)
Dusk was formed in 2014, and readers of Jersey Beat may
be most interested that this band features Amos Pitsch of
Tenement. This sounds nothing like Tenement. Begun as an
informal project, the band serves to satisfy the country
rock cravings of Pitsch and Colin Wilde (drums). This single
serves as sort of a teaser for an upcoming album, though
these songs are newer than those on the LP. “The Loneliness
of Pain” has a rockin’ bluesy feel, most of
the “country” sound coming from the steel guitar.
This ain’t your granddaddy’s Nashville country
sound; this is rock’n’roll with a twangy accent.
The B-side slows things down somewhat, and has more of an
easy rock sound that was popularized in the 70s, albeit
with a twang. I’ll be honest, I don’t care for
“Go Easy;” it sounds too on-the-nose commercial
rock from the era of bell-bottoms, long hair, love beads,
and bushy moustaches. But that A-side rocks.
FASHIONISM
– Smash Singles LP (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
FASHIONISM – Come On Baby 7” (Drunken Sailor
Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
I dare you to listen to these records and not get up and
dance. Go on, just try it. You can’t do it, can you?
Fashionism describe themselves as “the bubblegum glam
of the early ’70s played by people who like late ’70s
U.K. punk so much that it has poisoned everything we do
in the best possible way.” It’s an apt description.
They play some great, punky power pop. Their four previously
released 7” singles and EPs have been out of print
for some time, so Drunken Sailor Records has corrected this
injustice by rereleasing all of these songs, along with
a brand new single. Of the songs on Smash Singles, two of
my favorites come from the Subculture Suicide 7” released
by Dirt Cult Records back in 2016. That record’s title
track has the hugest hooks and hints of retro 60s rock’n’roll.
“Nun Of That” from the same record is just a
blast, with rapid-fire lyrics and an Art Brut feel. “We
Got It Wrong” comes from 2015’s “Quit
Looking At The Time” and the chorus alone, with a
three-way vocal duel is worth the price of the album. That
brings us to the new single. “Come On My Baby”
is a briskly paced, bouncy power pop track that stacks up
well against the best of the previous releases. The B-side
brings a “That Thing You Do” sort of surprise.
It’s “Baby She’s Gone,” performed
at a loping place. It’s a pleasant enough track. But
on the Smash Singles LP there’s another recording
of the same song at a brisker pace. And, like in the classic
Tom Hanks film about the music biz, that makes all the difference.
In that form it becomes another favorite cut. If you’re
a power pop fan, and especially if you missed out on those
limited pressings of earlier vinyl, this is a must.
FREAK
GENES – Quak Quak (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.
co.uk)
Freak Genes take disparate influences and blend them together
into something quite unique. The overall feel is 80s guitar
and synth-based post-punk. The music isn’t loud or
full – the arrangements are quite spare. But there
is a bit of a manic feeling in a lot of these tracks, a
sense of urgency. There’s also a hint of 70s psychedelia
and weirdness, as if Syd Barrett had a hand in writing some
of these songs. I also hear the influence of Art Brut here,
who play a similar style, sans electronics. Some of the
songs, like “On The TV,” have more of a punk
or power-pop sound, eschewing the keyboards and following
the lead of pioneers like The Buzzcocks. “Give Way”
uses synths and drum machine as the primary instruments
under the vocals, and has a gloriously dark late 70s post-punk
sound. I like the mechanical, repetitive sound of “Romford,”
with its shouted vocals and dissonant keyboards. “Layers”
could have come right off a Syd Barrett LP. “7 or
9” is a fantastic old school British power pop track,
with jangly guitars and rockin’ hooks. “Vermillion”
has a cool shifting time signature that leaves you feeling
off balance. And “It’s Not There” uses
dissonance and very bare instrumentation to create the feeling
of anxiety. The LP closes with “Drainage,” another
early punk and power pop influenced track. While there’s
a bit of a split personality shown by Freak Genes on this
record, every track is worth listening to.
THE
FUR COATS – Milkdromeda (thefurcoats.bandcamp.com)
Hell yes! The Fur Coats are back with another EP. But where
recent releases from this band have explored a poppier punk
sound, Milkdromeda is a return to the harder-edged angrier
sound that front man Marc Ruvolo was known for back in the
day in Chicago. The lyrics, too, are less straightforward
than recent releases; either that or I’m just oblivious.
“Edging” is easily my favorite of the five tracks
presented. The guitars pound just as much as the bass and
drums, providing a dark drone. The song is pretty simple,
musically, but its effect is powerful. “Palomino”
is a quicker tempo, but just as hard-edged, as guitars are
used as percussion here too. The title track appears right
in the middle, and is about twice as long as the rest of
the tracks. It’s an outlier, for sure, having more
of an 80s post-punk sound. “Manta Rays” has
a cool B-52s new wave sound, thanks to judicious use of
keyboards and a minor key. And “The Charioteers”
is the track that shares the most in common with previous
releases. It’s got a strong melodic pop streak through
the tough guitars, moving back and forth between darker
and lighter sounds. As much as I’ve enjoyed previous
releases from The Fur Coats, I think this one is my new
favorite.
GOD’S
CHILDREN – Music Is The Answer: The Complete Collection
(Minky Records)
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, people were looking for
answers in a tumultuous political and social climate. “Music
is the answer,” sang Little Willie G, on the title
track of this new retrospective collection of unreleased
and long out-of-print music from God’s Children. God’s
Children came out of East LA in an era when bands were storming
the music industry with their soulful music and a message
of peaceful revolution, love, unity, and brotherhood. They
really believed that music was the answer, that it could
change the world. Enter Willie Garcia, Ray Jimenez, and
Lydia Amescua, the guiding voices of God’s Children.
The melting pot of Los Angeles was prime territory for a
cultural crossover group preaching this message, and East
LA was the perfect place to birth the vision. The music
on this album is soulful, and it’s psychedelic; it’s
a cultural mélange that represents Los Angeles and
the hope for America as a true melting pot. “I Just
Wish” is a gorgeous track focusing on piano and vocals
that blends psych-folk sounds with soul. “Dream”
is an interesting track, feeling like a gospel tune with
country roots. “Brown Baby” shows its jazz and
blues influence pretty strongly. There are influences as
diverse as Sly and the Family Stone, The Fifth Dimension,
Bob Dylan, War, and many others. There’s even a great
cover of “Put Your Head On My Shoulder,” putting
their own soulful spin on the white bread early rock’n’roll
classic. With so much soul and love and diversity on display,
and the palpable hope in the songs, you’ll believe
that, in these days of political strife and division that
music really is the answer.
GIUDA
– Rock’n’roll Music b/w Born Under A
Bad Sign (Rise Above Records, www.riseaboverecords.com)
This five-piece from Rome, Italy sound like they came right
out of 1970s Detroit Rock City on the A-side, but on the
B-side they’ve got a cross between that, glam, and
early English proto-punk going on. The A-side doesn’t
do it for me, because I was never into bands like Kiss.
“Born Under A Bad Sign,” on the other hand,
ain’t half-bad, though the lyrics are pretty basic,
limited to a chorus singing the track’s title over
and over.
LA ARMADA – Anti-Colonial Vol. 1 (Creep Records,
www.creeprecords.com/record-label)
Originally formed in the Dominican Republic, La Armada made
Chicago their new home several years ago. They blast out
an onslaught of speedy metallic hardcore loaded with cries
against political and civil injustice. An instrumental,
“Planned Obsolescence,” introduces the album
with menacing guitars, a tribal drumbeat, and what sounds
like a Central American folk chant. The metal power then
flips on, so you know what you have in store for you. Lyrics
alternate between English and Spanish. Possibly my favorite
track of the album comes early on with “Unquenchable.”
Easily the least standard sounding hardcore track, this
one might be called mathcore for its constantly shifting
rhythms atop the metallic hardcore. The lyrics reference
the profit-driven prison industry, especially with the Trump
administration’s reversal of an Obama era directive
ending the federal government’s use of private corporate
prisons. This now extends to the profit motive of detaining
as many undocumented immigrants as possible, and of building
Trump’s folly of a wall on the southern border. Other
tracks, though a little more standard in presentation, are
no less brutal. Topics include political and corporate corruption
and greed, police brutality, and the Latin American practice
of “disappearing” people coming to the Chicago
police department in its off-the-books “interrogation”
facility, “Homan Square.” “Fire”
is a savage hardcore denouncement of the rising fascism
in the US, in the form of the alt-right, racists, and religious
extremists crawling out of the woodwork under the current
political climate in Washington, DC. I adore “A Vision
Of Opportunity,” which comes at the album’s
midpoint. The ambient post-rock instrumentals serve as a
backdrop to competing visions of America. Found sound recordings
that sound like they’re from the 1940s or 1950s, describing
the United States as a land of opportunity for immigrants
looking to escape oppression and slavery are juxtaposed
with campaign speech sound bites from Donald Trump calling
immigrants criminals, rapists and drug dealers and talking
about closing America’s borders to immigrants. This
album is another example of the kind of music that I don’t
normally go out of my way to acquire and listen to –
but La Armada does a great job here, musically and lyrically.
This is something I’ll listen to again.
PANDEMIX
– Rank & File b/w Second Opinion (Dirt Cult
Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
This reminds me of late period hardcore punk of the early
80s when bands were starting to experiment outside the fast’n’loud
box. Where some bands went the metal crossover route, others
got a little more creative, slowing things down a bit, adding
more melody, maybe getting a touch of goth influence in
there. Bands like T.S.O.L. for instance (before they went
the full metal route). Pandemix has this sound, especially
on “Rank & File.” The music is dark and
heavy, with the basic structure of a punk song, but there’s
a strong melodic sense to the music, even as the vocals
are more shouted than sung. “Second Opinion”
has a more “traditional” hardcore punk sound
of the early 80s. It’s fast and loud, though even
here there’s more melody than usual hardcore. Good
stuff.
THE
FRITZ (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Who
says punk rock is dead? Not The Fritz. The Fritz play music
that has one foot in the ‘70s punk sound, one foot
in the early ‘80s hardcore punk sound, and another
in the classic garage rock sound. Yeah, that’s three
feet, but who’s counting? The recording is super lo-fi,
and the performances are raw and passionate. Only two of
these short blasts exceed the two-minute mark, with most
clocking in at around a minute and a half. Favorite tracks
include “Stray,” one of the more classic garage
tracks, and “No, I’m Not Alright,” for
its melodic chorus. “Dramatic Love” has an effective
dramatic opening, with the bass pounding away, then being
joined by angrily jangling guitar. But all the tracks are
sure to get you off your ass and jumping around.
IMPOTENTIE
– Demonstrative Opnamens (Drunken Sailor Records,
www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Hailing from Montreal, Impotentie play spare, noisy,
dirty rock music. The vocals are shouted and the bass
and guitar are so distorted and buzzy as to become nearly
unlistenable. On top of that, the band isn’t as
tight as they could be. The result reminds me more of
that new punk band that finally got the opening spot on
a show, at which everyone is outside smoking after the
first song.
MAN
MOUNTAIN – Infinity Mirror (Spartan Records, www.spartanrecords.com)
Six tracks normally does not an LP make – maybe a
mini LP. But in the case of this debut full-length release
from Man Mountain, it adds up to nearly forty minutes, so
an LP it is. With nary a single track less than five minutes,
and some stretching beyond seven or eight minutes, these
aren’t your typical pop songs. In fact, I don’t
think they would be considered “songs” at all,
since they’re all instrumental tracks. Now, I like
I wide variety of music, including instrumental music. Hell,
jazz and classical are two forms of music that are predominantly
instrumental-only, and I enjoy both. But when it comes to
rock music, or post-rock as Man Mountain seems to be classified,
the music needs to be really special to capture my attention.
Few instrumental rock acts have done that for me. Tortoise
is one of the few bands that have really gotten into my
psyche, and as one of the pioneers of “post-rock,”
bands that follow would need to, in my view, continue to
raise the bar. Sadly, Man Mountain doesn’t really
contribute anything new to the genre. The music is nice
enough. It’s atmospheric, and all. But it just seems
to be guitar-bass-drums-keyboards music to me, and it just
doesn’t go anywhere. Some of the guitar lines, extracted
out and used in songs, could be very effective. But here
they get repeated over and over, in a trance-inducing near-ambient
exercise in self-indulgence. And even though these are instrumental
tracks, there still are what would be considered “guitar
solos” in that the guitar goes “off-script”
and does some improvisational soloing. Or so it seems. And
when that happens, it shares more in common with arena rock
than anything indie. I love ambient music, and I wanted
to like Man Mountain, but I just don’t.
SPANISH
LOVE SONGS – Schmaltz (A-F Records, a-frecords.limitedrun.com)
I first saw Spanish Love Songs when they opened for The
Flatliners at Soda Bar, in San Diego. That was nearly three
years ago. They impressed me so much that I walked over
to the merch table and bought their LP, “Giant Sings
The Blues,” which had been recently released. I’ve
taken every opportunity to see them live since then. The
LA band recently retooled a bit, adding a fifth member,
on keyboards, and they announced that they had signed with
A-F Records for this, their second full-length LP. Where
the first LP was loud, gritty, and intense, the new one
is calmer, more polished, and more nuanced. But it’s
no less emotionally driven. Lead vocalist Dylan Slocum has
gained more dynamic range in his singing, and this amps
up the passion in his voice. The keyboards add warmth to
the songs. And as strong as the previous album was, the
songwriting on this one is up at a whole different level.
There’s a maturity to the sound – it’s
not just the rousing pop punk the band played before; there’s
now more of an indie sound, yet the songs are still rousing.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the song “Joana, In
Five Acts.” They keys are more prominent here than
in most songs, the guitar lines in the opening bars reminding
me of The New Pornographers, of all bands, and the bridge
is just gorgeous. That leads into the close of the song,
which explodes into a massive dream pop feel, guitars soaring
like mad. Listen to the guitar lines on “Buffalo Buffalo.”
There’s more beauty and complexity than in past SLS
efforts, but it’s subtle enough so as to not overwhelm
the song – the balance is just right.
Lyrically, the album is an examination of life as one
ages. The album opener, “Nuevo,” begins quietly,
with damning self-reflection. “Is there any way
to give a shit / Wake up in the morning without taking
a hit?” the song asks. It reflects on the “wasted
time” of youth, moshing with “edge kids”
who are now scorned, and the hypocrisy of those days.
The song goes on to describe current days, “Now
we don’t dance, we sit on our hands” …
“and peck at our phones, holding on to what it means
to be alone.” In “The Boy Considers His Haircut,”
Slocum looks at his life through the criticism of his
parents and sings, “My dad says I’d probably
have more fans if I could learn to sing about some happier
shit instead of wallowing in my shortcomings, my gross
insecurities, be less narcissistic, show some humility.”
He continues with commentary from his mother, as well.
“My mom sighs well from under her breath; she wonders
how the hell I can live like this.” “I’m
walking backwards” is the refrain in the chorus.
Not moving on in life, not progressing as a person, is
a fear many have. The song closes with a modest dream
for the future. “I wanna wake up and maybe be better,
I wanna come through and not be second guessed. I wanna
find the money to fix my nose…I don’t wanna
be depressed.” That’s not too much to ask,
is it?
The song that sounds like it would be the closer is “It’s
Not Interesting.” This penultimate track has a huge
epic feel, with semi-hopeful lyrics. After singing about
how his life isn’t interesting, Slocum declares,
“Maybe I should learn to love myself. Maybe I’ll
be happy in the end. Should I hold my breath and wait
for it?” The song is the hugest sounding of the
album and the lyrics seem to sum up everything on the
record, with a hint that, perhaps things might get better.
But this isn’t the final track. That’s “Aloha
to No One.” We hear a crowded room, with many people
having various conversations in the background. An acoustic
guitar comes in. Slocum sings a depressing song of being
stuck in a rut, having done “nothing the past ten
years.” In a reference back to the bit of hopefulness
in “The Boy Considers His Haircut, Slocum sings
in the chorus, “You might wake up but you’ll
never be better. You might come through, you’ll
always second-guess. You might breathe free but you’ll
never stop pacing. You might find love but you’ll
always be depressed. You might change your hair but you’ll
always look awkward. Your back might heal but you’ll
never get your rest. And you might move on but you’ll
never feel important. You might be fine but you’ll
never be your best.” This song, like the whole album,
kills me. I’ll be over in the corner quietly sobbing
and rocking myself back and forth. Goddamn if this isn’t
a contender for album of the year.
WILL
TO LIVE (Amor Fati, www.amorfati.com)
Originally recorded in 1985 and released on vinyl in 1986,
this six-song EP has now been reissued in the oddest format
imaginable – on a Blu-Ray disc. The thought is that
the sound quality on a Blu-Ray, with its 5.1 capabilities,
is superior to a CD or mp3 – and so it is. Amor Fati
plans to re-release their entire back catalog on Blu-Ray.
Will To Live was a post-punk band in 1980s New Jersey, opening
for international acts such as The Fall, The Gun Club, Butthole
Surfers, and Throbbing Gristle’s Genesis P. Orridge.
This is not the post-punk that morphed into “alternative”
rock – this is the post-punk that was also referred
to as “no wave.” Slower than punk, rejecting
many of the tock clichés, no wave made use of atonality,
dissonance, and noise. Will To Live may not have been one
the better-known proponents of the genre, but as this EP
shows, they were pretty decent practitioners. The songs
throb and pound, and the vocals cry out. In addition to
standard drum kit, the percussion includes something metallic
that punctuates the musical phrases. Amor Fati has done
a nice job with the release, too, including photographs
of the band from a live show they did at City Gardens in
Trenton, NJ in 1984. Additionally, there’s about twenty
minutes of video from that live performance, and though
the video quality is poor, it provides a glimpse into the
excitement and awe of a Will To Live show. Hopefully this
release will mean Will To Live is forgotten no more.
ANN
BERETTA – Old Scars, New Blood (Say-10 Records &
Skateboards, www.say-10.com)
After releasing a teaser single late last year, the reformed
Ann Beretta has rerecorded a batch of older songs. The band
that was born in 1996 and broke up in the 2000s promised
a new LP, and I guess this is it. This could go one of two
ways: either it could fall really flat and show that these
aging punks can’t keep up with their younger selves,
or it could highlight how energized they still are. And
you know what? This is great! Need I say more? OK, I will.
Best way I can describe this is tough pop punk. It’s
super poppy, but not saccharine, not light. The music is
hard and edgy, yet smooth and slick, but not in an alternative
radio commercial way. The music is energetic and vital.
These re-recordings also don’t just sound like rehashed
nineties punk, these songs sound perfectly modern, reminding
me somewhat of the style perfected by Seattle’s Success.
I could do without the song “Vengeance,” which
is a country rock song, complete with slide guitar. But
the other tracks are fun to listen to. But this isn’t
the new LP I was expecting. When they released the teaser
single, one of the songs was all new. Do that, guys! Write
some new songs and release that album.
BIKINI
COPS – Three (Drunken Sailor Records, www.drunkensailorrecords.co.uk)
Perth, Australia’s Bikini Cops need to get more creative
with their records’ names. “Three,” Bikini
Cops third record, is the follow-up to 2016’s “Two.”
Regardless of the title, the six songs on this 7”
EP are pretty rockin’. The overall feel is pretty
retro old school punk crossed with good old garage rock’n’roll.
“Stupid System” is the closest to classic 80s
hardcore punk you’ll find from any band playing today,
fast and loud and furious, while “(Not) My World,”
“Total Control,” and “Violence”
are sort of a hybrid of hard rock and hardcore punk, in
the vein of Tijuana’s great DFMK. The closer, “Lost
In A Dimension,” is the outlier, slower than the other
tracks, and longer. All the songs are pretty short, ranging
from about a minute and a quarter to a minute and a half
or so, but “Lost In A Dimension” seems to go
on too long in comparison, yet it’s only two and a
quarter minutes. But yeah, Bikini Cops are rockin’.
BREAKLIGHTS
– Don’t Try So Hard (Wiretap Records, wiretaprecords.
limitedrun.com)
Wiretap Records continues its winning streak with Austin,
Texas pop punks Breaklights. The 12” EP and digital
release features six songs of music that’s smooth,
poppy, dark, and edgy all at the same time. There’s
a strong 90s feel to the songs, as well. The songs are eminently
danceable, with bounce aplenty, and the guitar sound has
a grittiness to it that contradicts the strong melodies.
My favorites of the EP have to be “Waterloo”
and “Don’t Try So Hard.” Both are a little
more out of the ordinary than the others. The former has
some really beautiful harmonization, while the latter has
a bit of an angular sound and the chorus has a bit of a
Smoking Popes sound. This one is very enjoyable.
CANADIAN
RIFLE – Peaceful Death (Dead Broke Rekerds, www.deadbrokerecords.com)
Chicago’s Canadian Rifle hasn’t put out a record
since 2015’s “Sexually Fucked” 7”
single, and hasn’t put out a full-length LP since
2013’s “Deep Ends.” Talk about keeping
us waiting! As a result of these long gaps, the (r)evolution
that is Canadian Rifle is made clearly evident. They’ve
gradually moved toward a more melodic pop punk sound, though
never losing their tough Chicago energy. I think Peaceful
Death is their strongest, most coherent effort to date.
Fast, loud, powerful songs cajole you with playful melodies,
then punch you in the gut at the same time. That energy,
that power – it’s non-stop. Every time you think
the band has reached its peak, you get belted again. There’s
no breathers, no respite from the onslaught, and I love
it! The vocals match the instrumentals with their gruffness,
and those poor drums suffer massive pounding on every track.
The opener, “When in Doubt,” is a perfect intro
to the record. I love the calm start and the guitar harmonics.
Then everything explodes and the band is racing ever forward.
The guitar solo on “Investments” is quite simple,
yet very effective. The title track manages to be smooth
and melodic while remaining true to Canadian Rifle’s
toughness, no mean feat. “Shining Light” slows
things down to mid-tempo, and I can see this as CR’s
big sing-along number. “Graceface II” is a short
instrumental loaded with tension that pushes right into
“Less and Less Is Relevant,” a track that oozes
grunge from its punk. I guess the thing that really strikes
me about this record is that it may be the most “Chicago”
record to come out in a long time. It makes me kind of homesick.
CHILLER
(Dirt Cult Records, www.dirtcultrecords.com)
Imagine taking one of Jeff Burke’s projects, like
Radioactivity or The Marked Men, and slowing it down. There’s
a dark garage feel to a lot of these tracks, with plenty
of guitar jangle, loads of reverb, and some great melodies.
“Monophonic” in particular has a strong retro
feel, as if the Mamas & Papas had become a garage band
– it has the same sort of feel as “California
Dreamin’,” only edgier. I really like the soaring
energy of “Strangers,” too. And “The Void”
is a pounding manic number with a very dark psych streak,
as if Radioactivity and Vacation had done a side project
together. At only eight tracks and twenty-four minutes,
though, it leaves me wanting more. And I suppose that’s
a good thing.
COLD
LEATHER – Past Remedy EP (Sabotage Records, www.sabotagerecords.net)
This Berlin-based punk band sounds like it came right out
of the late 70s California punk scene. Moderate to up-tempo
songs, full of piss and vinegar, but ultimately very melodic.
The three tracks growl and sing in the best way, mixing
in a generous dose of garage rock. Best track of the three
is the closer, “Hyperactive,” which has a fantastic
melody that jangles a little bit when they let it, and about
halfway in it gets dark, with modal guitar sounds that remind
me tons of some of my favorite early to mid 80s punk sounds.
This is the debut release from Cold Leather, not counting
the demo they previously did, and it certainly makes me
want to hear more.
CVLTVRE
– All Life Is // Act 1: An Act of Letting Go (Standby
Records, www.standbyrecords.com)
Hailing from California’s Inland Empire, CVTVRE describes
themselves as a “music project that is driven by post-hardcore
ambient writing with testimony based lyrics.” What??
I think that means that they are post-hardcore influenced,
but smoother and less metallic than a lot of post-hardcore
bands. And their lyrics are confessional. And this is an
apt description, I would say. I normally don’t go
for the modern post-hardcore sound, and, indeed, the opener
of this five-song EP was not my thing. I was ready to give
this a negative review as just another mainstream wannabe
post-hardcore band. “Blame” is just so much
bland. But then we get “Birthday Song,” a quiet,
pretty waltz-time tune (with an intense moment near the
end). “Progression” is another slower track
with a nice yet simple melody and a power that heats up
to a boil. And “Drown” is a gorgeous ballad
that alternates between calm and storm effectively. The
closer, “Pour These Words,” goes back to more
standard fare, but doesn’t descend quite as low as
“Blame” in terms of commercial sound. But we
get three nice tracks sandwiched between two mediocre ones.
If CVLTVRE focused on that successful sound in the middle,
I predict some good things for them to come.
DIRGE
– Alma | Baltica (Division Records, divisionrecords.bigcartel.com)
I’ve seen this band described as doom and post-metal,
but hell, anyone who has been listening to a wide variety
of music for a long time will recognize this for what it
is – ambient music. Long-form tracks range from four
and a half to nine and a half minutes. The tracks are sonic
soundscapes, sometimes trance inducing, sometimes melancholic,
sometimes menacing. “Alma” is the nearly ten
minute opener, and it sets the tone for what’s to
come. Close your eyes, lie back, and let it wash over you.
You’re transported to somewhere else. Electronics,
guitars, percussion, and other sounds ebb and flow. “Red
Dawn Tibesti” is dark, with a martial feel. There’s
a background of droning, and the percussion and bass at
the forefront are angry and hostile. “Black Shore”
is very mysterious and alien, while “Baltica (Sine
Time Reoscillated)” has a very introspective feel
to it. The closer, “Pure,” buzzes and glistens
with glorious delight. So put this record on, close your
eyes, lie back, and let it all wash over you. Relax, chill,
and enjoy.
DRYSPELL – More (Highland Park Records, www.highlandparkrecords.com)
Four songs from Austin, Texas based Dryspell. “You
Without Me” is a pretty nice indie pop track with
slight undercurrents of grunge. Its lo-fi bounciness is
infectious. The remaining three tracks, “Can’t
Wait,” “Vyvance,” and “Leaving Town
Again,” on the other hand, are rather dull retro “soft
rock” tunes. Below mid-tempo, swelling organ, delicately
smooth melodies and what sounds like a lounge beat on the
drums add up to a snooze. Stick with what you did on “You
Without Me,” guys.