West End Motel on Ponce De Leon

Chad was nice enough to send me his latest single from West End Motel on his very own Ponce De Leon records a while back...I first heard about Ponce De Leon through his release of a Hubcap City single he put together. In emailing back and forth he talked about finally wanting to put something out there...loving singles and his experiences with the tiny artifacts, the packaging, printing surrounding the release and wanting to finally do it for himself on a modest scale...that's just plain good ol' DIY thinkin'.
This whole mess of file sharing and Chinese Democracy wouldn't even exist if people got into distributing and making the music out of a love for it. Not to say you can't make money, but when it's all business, then you are going to fail. No one will bail you out like the car companies. There is no sympathy for you anywhere. Your are middle men. And the record stores that support you should go down to. Fuck Tower, fuck Virgin, even the tiny mom and pop place that carries Prince...it's a bad idea. I can't feel sorry for you. You failed to adapt to an evolving business model and Apple beat you...big time. They are more of a record label now then you ever were.

That leads me back to the new Corporate press release from Ponce De Leon, who just finished pressing a massive run....ok I don't know how many they pressed but it's not many, I'm going to stop dicking around...the first 100 are on white and Chad may just have a few available.

But let's get to the single...this is really a mini EP with 4-tracks.
Side A: "Oh I'm On my Way" & "There's Gotta Be More to this Life"
Side B: "Under my Skin" & "Women Come and Go"

West End Motel features guitarist Brent Hinds (Mastodon, Fiend Without A Face) and vocalist Tom Cheshire (All Night Drug Prowling Wolves, Rent Boys, Kidd Boom Boom, Indigo Boys) My limited experience with both Mastadon and All Night Drug prowling Wolves leads me to believe that this is a hugely different direction for both artists. It's kind of country, kind of punk, with acoustic guitars and a minimal recording setup.
The insert says these songs were written in 2005, (but recorded recently?), either way I don't know if this is a side project unintended for public consumption or how much convincing Chad had in it's conception.
Not no-fi by any means, there's a really nice room tone here, a really intimate sounding recording that catches everything from Tom whispering before a take or someone distant yelling from a few rooms away. Completely recorded live, the instrument is in the same room. This sounds like some friends house in the middle of the night. 'Go grab the 4-track, we're wasted and I got an idea.' I love they include the moments while the tape was rolling and hearing exactly the mundane things they were talking about. 'Man you're thing is messed up.' Before literally every track is that disconnected rambling that gives it that homemade tape quality, you're present for this intimate moment, for this experiment.
But what exactly is the context here? Was this recorded specifically as this side project? I want to imagine in between All Night Drug Prowling sessions they would have a few minutes and Brent was stopping by to see how things were going and they ended recording a couple of tracks.

The A-Side 'Oh I'm on my way' ends up like all West End Motel tracks in a chorus of Tom's gravely voice layered with whoever happened to be in the room, like a biker sing-a-long. it has a sparsely sound, like the mic is in a old abandoned cabin or bar in a ghost town, some one grabs a high hat and pounds out a count during the chorus.
Tom's voice is just plain bad ass. He's from the Tom Waits school of vocal chord abuse, that what makes it sound to me at times like punk unplugged sessions. He's got the intensity of a live whiskey fueled show but is really selling this melancholy stuff to the alt-country set at the same time.
The second track on the A-Side 'There's gotta be more to this life' is another bar. The guitar work is great, the traditional southern jam with minimal percussion....especially on the B-side which features distant slide guitar and finger picked steel acoustic.

The cover is black and white photography by Ken Adkins. Minimal black and white shots of pieces of decrepit barns....and it's all coming together. One complete isolated desolate wilderness of a single.

Get it from Chad and Ponce De Leon records directly, or West End's myspace....I know Chad is really putting out these singles from the perspective of someone who lives music everyday, writes about it, and thinks about it. He's willing to put his money where his mouth is and press singles to share something great.

There's nothing better than that.

Podcast - Matt's Back! - Episode 41

Episode 41 - Matt's back! Matt's back!
Play unwound at our funeral! Don cab stories. Music starts at 1978? Says who?
Matt insults Tyvek. The usual unprofessionalism.
Matt cracks me up.

the one upstairs on Polyvinyl

How long will people still be listening to Cap'n Jazz? The echoes of their influence will be bouncing around probably forever. They will go into history like Slint...exponentially more influential every year.
It's almost like there is a weird mythology surrounding them...No one ever saw them live at this point, when they were first around, it's like 'My brothers friend saw them in this basement'....but Analphabetapolothology sells consistently, a touchstone for a genre.
I have to admit that's how I first came across this band, The One Upstairs, and their single. Formed by a member of Cap'n Jazz but before the current project American Football.
I'm making it way to confusing. Cap'n Jazz bass player formed The One Upstairs, they have a single just released on Polyvinyl but they are no longer.
Not to compare it at all, but it's somewhere in that emo world...slightly mathy with lots of feeling vocals from various leads, trading verses, yelling in their asides...a response to the main line of the vocal story. It's interesting musically enough to keep me coming back. It keeps doubling up the tempo and going back to slow it down, meticulously recorded....quiet...like Pinback even at times, really complex. Simple guitar, no effects, picking complex melody and somehow repeating it, working it into an entirely different vocal melody you don't see coming. A softer Don Cab with feeling....I could see liking this, but it's part of a very specific genre that I don't visit much these days.
They're hunched over guitars, working their asses off in rehearsal, the idea that the music is work, there's more to just a loud chord or sound for sounds sake..driving away the listener because they can't take it. That's my reference point anyway...a bunch of hardworking guys still doing what they love and not taking it for granted.

From Polyvinyl:

THE ONE UP DOWNSTAIRS-s/t 7” (Polyvinyl/PRC112) $5.50 “The One Up Downstairs is members of American Football, Owen, and Very Secretary. For years The One Up Downstairs was discussed on message boards and became the frequent recipient of questions sent to the Polyvinyl info e-mail account: were they actually a band, did they sound like American Football, did they ever record? The answers to all of these questions are a resounding "yes." In an effort to make the songs available to fans Polyvinyl released the band’s only recorded output a few years ago, which led to another question: would the songs ever see a proper release as a 7"? Long sought after, these songs are now available as a 7" that includes a digital download code for the entire release.”

Hozac club 2009!

Jesus, I almost missed this.
It's days like this that make me think I am really slacking and I'm doing no one any good. I know it's bound to happen but it will be a sad day when sweet rot or floridas dying does a singles club and it's sold out. That's why I started this god damn thing. And if I can't find out about it looking every day then I give up.
Who knows when this was announced. I feel like I was just at Horizontal Action about to order the 3xsingles pack of nobunny, nice face and france has the bomb...then I look over on the side and a singles club!!!!
'Finally a singles club for people who like to get fucked.'
I love self deprecating humor. Here take my money Hozac, I deserve to get screwed. I am collector scum.
It feels so wrong, but the Teeth single will be worth it alone! (Actually, no way, but I love Blank Dogs).
I want more Box Elders ....so check. Anyone else?
Nope. Looks like I'll find out.
Hozac has enough highly regarded stuff I trust anything they send my way. I just want this gravy train of singles and clubs to never end.

Here's the list
1. DUM DUM GIRLS
2. IDLE TIMES
3. WOVEN BONES
4. ART THIEVES
5. WHITE MYSTERY
6. MOTHER OF TEARS
7. FLIGHT
8. TEEPEE
9. BOX ELDERS
10. TEETH (project of Spider and Blank Dogs)
It's $65...I just happened to have sold some random electronics on ebay recently and had the money....lucky me.
This is a great way to start 09.

Next round of singles on me!

Real estate on underwater peoples records

If you've heard Ducktails, Matt Mondanile's solo project then you'll want to jump on this.
That Ducktails single has really grown on me, I can't exactly explain to someone why I like it, it won't blow you away the first time you hear it, but it works it's way in there and I keep putting it on. It's something I'll keep close to the record player and play while I'm figuring out what to play.
Real Estate is Matthew Mondanile III, Martin Courtney IV, Etienne Pierre Duguay & Bleeker.
One track from this single, Suburban Beverage is on their myspace. From this brief listen I think in the way that Ducktails uses a lot of etherial samples and loops, this is the same tropical vibe, but played live, drums, guitar etc. In a nicely room sounding jam, but isn't meandering. It never becomes tedius, which is usually my complaint...I know where it's going.

This is a pretty epic track building up with a kind of slow vibe I'm hoping fake blues is the b-side that track is killer, the tom drum rhythm with echoed high treble guitar melodies, It has a great room sound, like will oldham in Viva last blues, full of space between drum hits, the vocals match the shimmer of the electric guitar, it's very intellectual beach boys, what I always wanted from them lyrically, some smarts.
There's a haze covering everything, a little whatever-gaze...but combined with country slide ....

I sound like I'm describing something alt-country, but I'm just not getting that feeling here, it's more like Rex or Bedhead. Not the extreme of slowcore, but melancholic and deliberate.
I'm loving everything I'm hearing...every one of these tracks keeps me interested.

They are playing the Cakeshop this weekend, and I'm going to see this live...

From Underwater People's records:
Hey Everybody,
So, assuming all goes to plan, the official release date for the Real Estate 7" is February 1, 2009. The 7" costs $7.00 plus shipping, is pressed on wholesome white vinyl, and will include a free CD insert with all the songs. Pre-orders can be made by emailing us at underwaterpeoples@gmail.com, please put the subject of the email as PRE-ORDER and we will get back to you ASAP to confirm.

Wavves single on Young Turks

Just found out about this on Gorilla Vs Bear...he's beat me to the punch a bunch of times, but he's absolutley right this is only 8$ with shipping from Young Turks. I didn't realize the exchange rate was that good. I can't remember the last thing I ordered import. The too pure singles club is looking pretty good about now. It's good to get into a new scene every now and then.

From all the Wavves bashing on termbo I had to go back and listen to the full LP on woodsist and I have to say I'm really into it. Sure he has a publicist/booking info on his myspace...I don't know if that really kills it for me. What else are you making this for...to waste away in obscurity? Play a few shows....get some coverage where ever you can. Is there really a backlash because he's getting some attention for this? Do I change my mind about the Crystal Stilts because fucking Urban Outfitters is playing them? Then I'd be like this annoying girl Iknew in high school that would base everything she liked on what everyone else was into. Fuck that, it's good. I remember the first time I heard it, coming home from Academy and loving it for days. Nothing is going to change that. Same goes for wavves..even if they are on ABC news. I don't see every teenage girl loving this, or them opening for Interpol at Madison square garden.
I'm loving the melodic distortion...and since I way missed the grip tape Weed/speed demon single I'm psyched to get my hands on this. I'm just hoping the post office doesn't crush it on the way here.

So Cow on going underground records - more spencer, pt2 podcast

I just came across this single on Going Underground records the other day thanks to termbo and was in the mood for some ol fashioned indie rock and went right to so cow's myspace. There's a lot of different sounds, reenacting of eras here. A little garage, a little 90's indie...echo room mic amps, low vocals, feels pretty raw. Focused on solid songwriting, not too serious. Part of that garage, minimal effects, vocals bouncing off the walls, and hitting you with a melody to sing a long to and feel pretty good about it. That kind of thing to keep flipping over and over.
The A-side 'Commuting' is about riding around on a bus and girls of course. The guitar is a little off key, a little messy. It's got that homemade quality, clear sincere vocals with weird breaks and drum fill changes. Layers and layers of guitar lines come together and solo out right in the middle. Seemingly uninfluenced by whatever movement everyone is latching onto. Out there doing his own catchy pop thing.

He's also toured with Nobunny, whose album I've been waiting for every day, coming home and checking the mail. Nothing yet.

SO COW-Commuting 7” (Going Underground/RNLD15) $5.50
“When I first heard the A side " Commuting" I instantly fell in love with this guy..so a few months later we have this amazing 3 song ep . A little bit of Sarah Indie Pop, the Go-Betweens, the Undertones, the Outcasts and the old Irish charm and you have a 3 song record that will be stuck inside your head for months. Fucking essential.”

Here's the second part of Spencer Morasch's illuminating interview Episode 40...We delve deeper into the analog chain, magnetic vs ceramic cartridges, preamps,speakers and Warners battle with youtube. For nerds only. But hey, why don't you learn something for once?

Bob Log III on Munster records

It's no secret I love Doo Rag and these days that means Bob Log...what is he up to you ask? Still putting out singles....and on Spanish labels.
Still wearing a motorcycle helmet with a microphone duct taped inside, still stomping on the kick drum pedal through some combination of ho-down, messed up out of tune bluegrass? It's some reinterpretation of classic material. It's like taking the entire cannon of this style, and just forgetting it. To be aware of this era, and instruments and then working like you're from the year 2009. It's reworked. he loves this sound, he has forever...way before there even was low-fi ther was Bob, making his own god damn instruments.
Doo Rag was great. I'm going to go listen to those singles tonight. i really think he's responsible for my left turn into the full blown blues...I got some Robert Johnson and then was stuck on drinking and blues for months and months.
In one track on the myspace it sounds like he may have even electronic high hat? That's a first for Bob, but makes perfect sense, he's only one man god dammit, and he's already drumming and stomping...what , is his other foot going to run the high hat? Give me a break....computer, git over hea'. Robot, git on dat hi heat.
He probably talks like that....when he's drunk.

From Munster records:

Limited edition Spanish import 7", comes with colour picture sleeve. Bob Log III is a one man band who wears a space helmet with old telephone receiver and Cannonball man overalls. He plays distorted steel guitar & two acoustic drums [bass, hi-hat] & basic lo/fi digital drums at the same time. Blues/core. Break/blues.

Dead Luke - on Sweet Rot .....Done

I read on the Termbo Boards that Dead Luke is no more, that he is really dead, when it comes to this project anyway.
From his myspace:

Hello all, After much consideration I have decided to call it quits on the Dead Luke recording project. There will still be several more releases coming out this year, but that will be the end. Also the Sacred Bones showcase at SXSW will be my final live performance. This by no means a total departure from playing music as I will continue to play in Absinthe Minds, and in Zola Jesus' backing band as well as several other projects in the works. Thanks for everyone's support over the last couple years! It's been fun! ---Luke

So this is the final 7" installment from Luke on Sweet Rot.
The track from DL on their myspace player is full of the deep luke echo vocals all full of emotion, really killing it... the beats are pure casio auto accompanyment. I love that synth/electronic has finally ended up here, it used to mean something unlistenable... taking itself really serious and cold....at least for me. I love low-fi direction this ignoring or going against the very nature of the source. Anti-digital. Recorded with no-fi and minimal takes, real bedroom nightmare, punched in vocals....I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually on a cassette 4-track.
It's some kind of future alright. That sounds like I want to see it. Too bad.
I guess he's going on to backup Zola Jesus and others...well that seemed quick, just when I was catching on, thanks to that awesome box set, and this will have to complete the trilogy.

It's $7.50 US because it's just over the cheaper weight limit, this thing must be heavier vinyl so pick something else up from them direct...I've been getting into the Blank-its and the Anals so there you go. Pick your poison....on Sweet Rot records or Goner or Fusetron:

*Artist: DEAD LUKE Title: S/T Format: 7" Label: Sweet Rot Country: USA Price: $6.00 "The third single from Madison, Wisconsins DEAD LUKE following his first two releases on Sacred Bones. Four songs that range from dark and haunting, to surprisingly poppy and upbeat, all home recorded with a perfect balance between electronics and guitars. Eye catching cover art courtesy of Ilth. 500 copies." -Sweet Rot

The Soft Pack - Union Pool 1-17-09

'Alright,.... we're the Soft Pack.'
And with that the Muslims were no more.
The consensus overheard at Union Pool bar was 'What's the difference? It was a shitty name to begin with so who cares if you change a shitty name to a shitty name.'
Well, kind of. I mean, I've said it before, it makes no difference with these guys, just whatever name you want, let it stick already. There's already been so much great press surrounding them, I wonder what it's like to have to start over to some degree. People aren't going to be looking for the Soft Pack online.... how many records have already been pressed?...it must be a weird situation.
It's the case of taking a nothing name and making it fit. How many bands really sound like terrible names....forget animal names, that's a given, they are middle of the road at this point but Pavement? Boring. The Pixies? Are you kidding? It won't matter anyway, the content overrides whatever they end up with.

It was crowded as hell, sold out and packed to the fire code limit. I thought 'Ok the days of seeing them live with a crowd of maybe twenty in some tiny venue are done.' This is even probably the last time they play Union Pool. If they can draw a crowd like this on a freezing January night then I'm losing all hope in having the experiences I've been having, selfishly keeping them to myself.

One difference live that still gets me is their apathetic attitude on the recorded tracks, that kind of borderline monotone delivery, the so simple it's deceptively effortless playing. It's trying to be unaware in a natural way. Like they've done it a million times. You'd expect this to carry over into some kind of lazy performance. Like they are too good for you...and the pathetic crowd they're playing for.
But if there's one thing they care insanely about more than their name, more than onstage banter, more than a persona, is that they really give a shit about the music.
In all the live shows I've seen, they are only getting better, playing with more energy, still having as much fun with this material as I am listening to it every day.
I would have seriously been kicking myself if I missed this. It was crazy cold and I debated walking down the street. What's wrong with me?

With Matty, the guitarist you can visibly see his struggle to maintain that perfect sound -- he's fighting that guitar every performance, he just doesn't see any other way to play it. He's not going to let a half ass chord get away.
Matt of course is expressionless, he's got this character that's just pointing out the situations around him, the simple monotonous struggle.... in every song. Live everything is punched up faster, harder...making the set that much shorter, but they can't help but be propelled by the momentum.

It especially sucked they didn't play an encore...the people were calling for it. This wasn't Terminal 5, where we get an encore no matter what 1 minute after the band leaves the stage. The hits held back to play now, what we wanted to hear in the first place. But then this isn't that band. They came to blow the back out of Union Pool and they did it. What's left? They're spent.

After changing all the 'Muslims' to 'Soft Pack' in this post I'm having trouble getting used to it. They are still the Muslims to me for now.

I thought I got there in time to see 'The Browns' but instead 'Those Darlins' played second. I hate hating a band but it seems the Darlins PR and press quotes are more important than the music for these 3 Tennessee women who can reasonably play, but half heartedly sell songs and honkey tonk attitudes about whisky and horses...it just doesn't do it for me. They belong in a Quentin Tarantino movie...a stereotype of the neo-west. Ridiculous.

MP3 download of the show here...(it's far from perfect, they are loud as hell and even in my pocket my ipod mic is all blown out, heavily compressed 34min)

Locrian 7" on Bloodlust records

The Locrian mode is a minor scale of some kind used in all kinds of metal and I'm not musically trained enough to know if any of this material is built on this half diminished scale, but I have a feeling the name is more than related to this structure and the ominous, maybe inherent unsettling sound of this chord progression.
Are there sounds that in any culture would be universally frightening? (Other than animal warnings...) Another post for another day I think.

The band Locrian is Andre Foisy and Terrence Hannum on guitar and synth filtered through tons of electronics, distortion, delay, sampled loops and definitely in this ominous, dark feel. I don't know if I have been taught to fear these noises through popular culture or not, but this is not what I would call joyful music in any sense. I think the sound of a jarring distorted sample repeated over and over is so unnatural...you're immediate reaction is repulsion.
Their press materials list Terrence as vocals, but these two tracks on their 'Plague Journal' are instrumentals as far as I can tell. It may be so manipulated that any sense of the human voice is completely destroyed, unrecognizable. I would be amazed if they actually got to that point here. But this isn't just a barrage of extreme noise, I know it sounds like that. These two tracks are very different sides of their experimentation that I would say exists somewhere in the metal-psyche world. One side more metal/nu-noise and the other more ambient/environmental.

The A side abruptly starts with a distorted guitar phrase, looped into infinity. The hitting of the string keeps changing like the Disintegration Loops, the decay of the sound combined with the one being played on top becomes almost percussive. A low distorted bass or kick, with a metallic edge. It even becomes something of a didgeridoo kind of sound, a bass doubled in on itself...and on itself.
It becomes layers on layers of quick little heavy phrases into infinity....somewhere on this chain is ultra echo at the point where literally the waves...the actual sound waves themselves are building on each other like the ocean and doubling up creating this deep low end whomp sound, like breaking the sound barrier.
It's the slow evolving track that wherever it ends up you don't remember how it got there exactly, it's devolved into quieter electronics and atonality. I can't tell exactly again what these sounds originated as...a far away brass note...mountains of hiss, feedback...a long drawn out siren.
But you can barely hear any trace of a guitar by the end.

B-Side lots of ethereal effects turning into a wind sound....there's definitely organic sounding elements, but I tend to think it's an electronic sound bent to the point of high pitch echo, delayed out to just be hiss? Or it is just tape hiss amplified and faded in and out.
This is the contemplative side with this finger tapping guitar note style, like I've been hearing about with Marnie Stern, but way slowed down, it's turned into something switched on and off. Towards the end I must be hearing something that started out as Terrance's vocals, far off in the distance....the best kind of ending the endless vinyl loop finishes this off...it's on pure white noise vinyl...

They are playing tonight at the Empty Bottle in Chicago...go check it out for yourself.

Available on Bloodlust records:

BloodLust! 089 Locrian "Plague Journal" 7-inch $8.00 USA/$10.00 Canada+Mexico/$12.00 Rest of World @ postpaid (Pressed in an edition of 300 copies; White vinyl; White labels with minimal black text; Unmarked white cardboard sleeves - sealed on three sides; Black and white insert; Locrian's first appearance on vinyl sees the duo of Andre Foisy and Terence Hannum distilling their specific take on deconstructed metal trance music down to just over a dozen minutes of finely balanced, passive/aggressive, shimmering psychedelic drone; Includes locked-groove on B-side; private series number seventeen)

Spencer Morasch - a pioneer in 7"'s on Youtube

I really don't know where to start with this one....I honestly forget how I ended up at Spencer's youtube channel but his 400+ videos were basically this...a 45 7" held up to the camera for a minute....quickly taken out of the sleeve and played on a turntable.

That was enough for me, I was totally sold...I started dreaming of ways to have my collection at home played like this. A robotic jukebox I could control from work with a webcam...the arm...one of those robot arms that builds cars for Honda....would pick out the single I wanted,hold it up to the camera and play it...potentially a thousand miles away.

I had to contact him, he obviously loved vinyl as much as me, probably more. Little did I know that we'd get into Warner brothers pulling the rights to the music he's been playing, WABC, the inferior stereo mix, harmonics, and why these 7"'s are really important historic documents.


I'm putting together the rest of this interview but here is the first part Episode 39 of the podcast.
Go check it out.

GROUPER/CITY CENTER SPLIT 7" - self released

This is a self pressed 7" from Grouper and City Center...whose blog I've been following regularly, and I found I just missed at Death by Audio playing here in Brooklyn. I'm sure he'll be back, at the usual alternative space venues.
I'm pretty sure that is the sleeve for the release above, I had to track down what I think is his post on the single.
City Center has been posting tons of his work to download and it's really interesting to have the process so exposed and out there to watch daily. Demos, rough tracks...it's the stuff usually on B-Sides of singles.

CC's track 'This is how we see in the dark', lulls with a sleigh bell, with the echo on the vocals turned up way past 11. This is pretty heavily manipulated sound all around. It's actually going perfect this morning with the snow all drifting around, blowing huge snowflakes in between the buildings.
It's really muddy, insanely dense, the sounds really start to blend together. It's kind of the opposite of that harmonics thing...it's ultra echo and reverb, into infinity, but none of the sounds are in the same room with each other. It's separated layers working like harmony...I think. I'm no music scientist.
But really interesting, lots of exciting directions always experimenting...I want to hear a new sound, to get inspired by a particular sound. How did they make that? How would I go about reproducing this?
I want to go write some stuff now.

Grouper is quiet acoustic, I almost started to think it would be this minimal the entire way through. There's something in hearing the playing of an acoustic when the gain is all the way up. It's like looking through a microscope...every little nuance is exaggerated...it can't help but be beautiful in a kind of interesting way. Then the layers of dreamy lady vocals just usher in the sad.
These two performers go great together in that dense, out of focus way.

She's playing Feb 13th, at the New Museum...and I'm going to see what's going on that Friday

The fact this is self released makes it even more intimate and a cool thing to take down off the shelf.

This is from her blog, but she could be out at this point....
GROUPER/CITY CENTER SPLIT 7" No Label 500 Copies, Clear Vinyl, Printed Covers Available mid-December, but I'm taking pre-orders now. The record is $6PPD in the United States, $7 PPD to Canada and $10 anywhere else in the world. I know it's a while to wait until they come, but the majority of the pressing is already spoken for by distributors, so if you want to fully guarantee that you get one, you should pre-order cause who knows what happens if you sleep. I'll send records out as soon as they come and probably include some other stuff as well, as I've been working on some extra sounds/sights lately for mailorder ideas. Paypal is the best, to westsideaudio (at) gmail (dot) com, and if you have any questions, hit me there also, or leave a comment and I'll get back to you about it soon. Thank You!!!! http://citycenternyc.blogspot.com/

But Yay it's available from Fusetron!
*Artist: GROUPER/CITY CENTER Title: Split Format: 7" Label: No Label Country: USA Price: $5.50 "Two brand new exclusive songs from Portland, Oregons Grouper and Brooklyns City Center. Two like-minded one-person operations on the softer side of noise, the two have played a fair amount of shows together and now join forces on this split 7". Grouper (Type Records) comes with the multi-tracked vocal murk and snow-buried atmospherics of "False Horizon" and City Center drowns under tape-manipulation loop disintigration and raw echoes on "This Is How We See In The Dark". Limited to 500 copies on a no-label private press by the artists. Clear vinyl."

Fucked up

F#cked Up - Crooked Head b/w I Hate Summer 7" (Matador)

I just started reading about fucked up and how they have embraced the 7" 45 format, as a tribute to early punk days of releasing a few songs at a time, or if you were lucky an EP of 4, 2 1/2 minute songs, xeroxed sleeves with some politically charged photo...all anarchy. I think I kind of caught this vibe a little bit from the limited contact I had with Fucked Up. So I'm expecting this single to be real hardcore, fast, unintelligible to my untrained hardcore ears...but there's a lot of melodic elements...the chorus of these 3 guitar power chords. It's pretty close to Les Savy Fav at times in energy and experimental leanings.
The vocals are definitely hardcore, the half hoarse yelling, sort of Fugazi at times, very aggressive...this has to get violent at live shows. I'm looking forward to finding out Jan 20th at Market Hotel .....should be interesting...and with the Vivian Girls no less....they continue to surprise me.
The name wasn't going to help them either. As much as you might remember it, it's going to be turned down from as many distro places, shops...christmas lists. But then again...if we're going punk, let's go all the way, maybe we'll be a footnote or end up as influential and groundbreaking as anyone in the last 10 years as far as this genre is concerned.

The A-side Crooked Head...let's just say this guy Mike is an animal, the only thing that can sing over the sound of guitars all coming together in this mess of harmonics...high layers of chords that sound like a synth, or orchestra for christ sake.

The B side ' I hate summer' starts out as some kind lounge sounding bass driven soft core and then explodes. This is always changing...it seems like a accessible, but still sincere direction for a band rooted in hardcore. This is a direction everyone can get behind...and imitate.

I think it's going to take a while and a lot of singles to get a handle on this band, I know I have a few others I've picked up here and there just from hearing them mentioned constantly. I've been waiting to sit down and dig in.

The mythology going on here is pretty intense, the ultra limited editions of vinyl, the guy from Final Fantasy recording string arrangements. They played for 12 hours on the bowery, jamming with the guy from Vampire Weekend among other guests. I'm probably not telling you anything you didn't know, but putting all these things together for the first time...I'm overwhelmed.

They seem to want to confuse as much as break ground. One minute a whistling solo, the next writing fake tour diaries.
Mike Haliechuk sounds like 3 guitars, they can be some kind of emo at times even, basically saying anything you think you know about us is wrong.... we are going to surprise you constantly and you are either with us or against us.
They don't have a myspace...makes sense, so this will have to do.

Go get it from Matador records. Along with the Year of the Pig Japan/US/ and UK edits along with their double LP. I think this is how I'm going to have to do it eventually....all at once.

Idle times on Woodsist records

Woodsist is a name to trust in just plain new sound. If they are pressing this stuff into vinyl, then I am confident it's worth a listen. And God Dammit they are right down the street on Bushwick Ave. That makes the Wavves 12" even more special...it's like the neighborhood label I can get behind.
And they probably make it through the postal service more times than not.
This latest offering from Idle Times is really blown out, humming amps, cranked up with tons of reverb. The vocals barely make their way out from under the all treble high hiss of tracks and tracks of cymbals.
This is another solo, one man project. That really had to blow people away...to be able to record with yourself. Play the drums back and record the guitar parts. Rhythm sections cowerd in fear of being replaced by track 3 and 4. Interesting times.
'Get your feet off the ground' has that kind of psyche sound, all guitar based, stuttered, half stopping right at the end of a phrase. It makes for this weird rhythm that's a little off. Distortion screech solos here and there. Low, muttering layered vocals complete this rehearsal space side project. I love the way these drums sound....I can't tell if they are recorded first and they get kind of buried and then pulled out with weird eq-ing or there's a shitgaze pedal that just came out.

This can be had from Woodsist or Fusetron:
*Artist: IDLE TIMES
Title: Get Your Feet Off the Ground
Format: 7"
Label: Woodsist
Country: USA
Price: $5.00
"Debut release from 27 year old Brian Standeford. After the quickdissolution of his previous band Tall Birds, Standeford began recording songs onto cassette in his Seattle home using a Tascam 4-track, practice amps and a toy drum kit. Loner bedroom psych at its best. Edition of 500 on black vinyl." -Woodsist

banjo or freakout

There's nothing better to me sometimes than a good pop bedroom project, whether it's with a 4 track...well who's even recording to tape like that anymore, or multiple laptop tracks. Recorded in the dead of night, or impulsively like some kind of diary everyday. It's really like being inside someone's head.
Alessio Natalizia has one rule:

my rule is to record every track just one time. no second chance. but i can adjust things by changing the sounds with my cheap mac software.

You can hear that, the dense insanely layered sound, it starts with a note, a tiny guitar melody that's manipulated into swirling hazy echoed choruses. A click or hit on the desk is repeated and played backwards...you can hear the evolution, the frantic kind of OCD to capture the stream of consciousness. I appreciate it so much.
It's really inspiring me to get back to some old recordings I always start and then abandon using the same rule.
At the same time as haphazard as the rule might be, beautiful layers of Person pitch type things are coming out, it's amazingly ordered for being one take, building on itself. The LCD soundsystem cover is just icing on the cake. Really amazing and catchy...there's a foundation of pure genius songwriting here and all that leads me to sadly say I don't know where to get this other than from No Pain in Pop which is a long airmail trip away. Someone tell me where to get this please.

Get more inside this project on the banjo or freakout blog.

Found out about it from Norman recs:
Banjo or Freakout? There comes a point in everyone's lives where they must ask themselves this question. 'Mr. No'/'Someone Great' is a 7" featuring a nicely relaxed and floaty bit of indie on the A-side, maybe in the style of a more distinguishable Animal Collective whose new album YOU ALL MUST BUY, with its echoey vocals and electronically manipulated acoustic niceness it places you on a raft made of clouds and gently pushes you down the toxic waste-polluted stream of your mind. 'Someone Great' is and LCD Soundsystem cover, not that you'd guess it you weren't familiar with the original because the bloke behind this release has turned it into something all his own.

Silent Alliance Interview

Alexandra contacted me about mailing a single from her band, Silent Alliance, in for review but ended up in NYC for the ATP festival curated by My Bloody Valentine. We met for a drink at the only dive bar left on St. Marks to talk next to a giant ice machine (there went the podcast interview) about her latest single on Fastcut records in Japan, NY, LA, Germany and England ... and of course the Silent Alliance 7" single.
The band has existed in its present incarnation since September 2007, and consists of lead singer and songwriter, Philip Ybring, Tom Kirkham and younger brother Lewis Kirkham, both on guitars and backing vocals, bassist Alexandra Brettel, and Giles Taylor on drums.

7 - So tell me a little bit about Silent Alliance... 

A – Well, we've been around for 2 years now, and we've been gigging quite a lot in London. Our debut single will be released in September and our album in November, both on the Japanese label Fastcut Records, and we've been starting to get some positive reviews. So we're currently approaching UK labels as well as trying to find management.

7 - What about this picture on the sleeve?

A - This is taken in London, from Primrose Hill. It's a pretty view of central London, especially around dusk which is when the picture was taken... the girl pictured in front of the city lights is a friend of a friend actually.

7 - Why did you choose the format of the 7"?

A – Well, we are an indiepop band, some people say that we sound twee in particular, so releasing 7"s seemed like an appropriate format for our musical genre. We think that 7”s have charm, and the Japanese label also supported the idea, so we just went for it. I personally am a proper fan of 7"s. I'm really sad that I had to leave all my seven inches back in Germany though when I moved to London... mainly Sarah Records singles... I couldn't move them with me - I miss them!

7 - Are both of these tracks on the single going to be on the full length?

A - They will... We had a few combinations of songs for potential first single releases and these songs – Cities On Fire and The Edge Of Town - were in discussion anyway. We originally had suggested a different track for the debut A-side but our record label advised that Cities on Fire would promise very good reception through our Japanese audience. Further singles will follow anyway, so more songs will also become a chance to be presented this way sometime soon...

7 - When does the full length album come out?

A - In November. It’ll be called The Spirit Of An Age To Come.

7 - Have you toured outside of England? 

A - Not outside of England, no. Although we would love to! The thing is... most of us are in full-time jobs right now, so it is difficult to organize a tour ourselves. We’d hope that we will find band management soon who could take on this task ...approaching venues ourselves and planning the travel and all, it's just a lot of work and requires plenty of free time which we actually don’t have at hand, to be able to deal with all sorts of organisational things. So far we only played in London, and in Oxford, which isn't THAT far away from London and pretty much within England... (laughs)

7 - Did you guys produce this yourselves?

A - Everything, yes.... we produced everything ourselves... basically Philip, the singer, is the main songwriter, while guitarist Tom supports him in writing the parts... We all have and/or had our solo projects... we're all writing and recording here and there, but for Silent Alliance it is mainly Philip, supported by Tom, who writes the songs. Tom also mixed and mastered all the songs on the single and album. He did an amazing job, considering he's never done sound technician jobs professionally before. . One wouldn’t believe that the songs were all recorded, mixed and mastered in a bedroom!

7 - It seems like that must be nice to have someone from within the band producing and mixing, knowing exactly what you want.

A - I really admire him for this skill. Every band member certainly chipped in his/her opinion and commentary on the details for the perfect final mix. Those were many late working nights, especially for Philip and Tom. A great advantage of producing the album yourself certainly lies in the creative control that you have. You know what you want it to sound like... if you then manage to get there yourself that’s a great success. Having discussions within the band helped, and possibly partly made things more complicated for the mixing process I suppose. But now we are all totally proud of, and very happy about the end-product!


7 - Have you always played bass? 

A - No..... I actually played the classical piano as a child and teenager. I came to the bass a bit later. At uni in Munich, I met my then boyfriend and I started to play keyboards in his band. I enjoyed playing in a band but playing the keyboards was not my favourite idea... I always preferred the classical piano if it had to be instruments with keys. So I picked up the guitar, just taught myself the basic chords and started singing and writing songs, some of which we played with the band. After a little break due to uni commitments, I felt like joining in a band again and started taking bass guitar lessons from a friend. So I played in a couple of bands in Munich before I moved to London. There, joining Silent Alliance just happened... I wasn't looking for a band at the time. They were actually called Mica then. We met through mypace about 2 years ago and I loved their songs instantly. So I went to a gig and was surprisingly invited to rehearse with them, since their bass player happened to move away. It’s been great fun ever since, although we did have to change our name because there was another artist - Mika - appearing in the UK top charts, which was a bit annoying really... well, so now we are Silent Alliance, which was originally the name of Philip’s side project.

7 - How did you get involved with the label Fastcut Records?

A – I believe they approached us on myspace actually. They just really liked our songs. We seem to have quite a good amount of Japanese fans in fact.

7 - I have a love/hate relationship with myspace. That's amazing your single came out of that. 

A – I think it is a useful platform for the start. How else would people hear about a band at unsigned level? Not too much happened on our myspace page for a while...but all of a sudden, there was increased interest in our songs. It is definitely more pleasing to have an individual website, which we now do, at www.silent-alliance.com.

7 - It's been a good experience with the label? 

A - Oh yes, Fastcut Records is a charming and friendly little label with not too many, but good bands, you should check them out! In particular a Swedish band called Sad Day for Puppets who are also on the label. I think they’re great.

7 - Do you still play piano?

A - I have no piano and no space for one right now, unfortunately. Whenever I’m at my parent’s place once in a while, I keep playing the old repertoire that I had learned in my teens. I would love to progress rather than repeat though, and be able to play the piano whenever I feel like it. As a child, whenever I was sad, or jittery, or needed some downtime, I would sit down and play. Playing soothed me, or calmed me down, or carried me away... No prompting for exercise through my parents was required. I loved playing the piano – I could completely switch off my mind.

7 - Do you write any of the songs? What's the process like? 

A - Not for Silent Alliance currently. I sometimes think that I can only write songs that I also sing myself. Well, I usually record my own songs more in DIY guerrilla style, and kind of like it that way... As for Silent Alliance, Philip is bursting with song ideas anyway so there's really no need at the moment....he’s never running out of song ideas and is humming new melodies wherever he goes it seems!

The Single


A - Side- Cities on Fire: I'm really not just saying this....I woke up a couple days in a row humming this...in weird moments, waiting for trains, making coffee.
This could immediately be completely at home in a John Hughes movie. The opening sequence, school is starting... it's September, the characters are introduced. A camera fast pans across mostly weirdos, skating, lighting cigarettes, sunglasses. Since they have to be here they might as well look cool. A huge chorus of keyboards, the airy doubled up guitar sound. So chipper and cheerful it's impossible.... they get overwhelmed by the chorus synth line.
Phillip's vocals can't help but bring to mind Andy McCluskey from OMD, their Sugar Tax era. Pure indie guitar dance energy, and dripping with sincerity. It's like they believe in the happy ending to that movie...something is going to work out. We'll find a way to stop that corporate radio station from taking over.
Silent Alliance is working from that earnest pop cannon of the late 80's, early 90's. A simply complex crafty pop song. Bursting with sugar ...topped off by the 'Come on let's go!' yelled in between verses. Count it off and lay into the chorus again.
The astonishing thing is in trying to pick apart the melody's all supporting each other, the layers and layers of guitar lines, it's so dense this orchestral ensemble just can't go together. The kind of song that would be on in your car late at night after finally talking to that girl you've been avoiding all year. Anything could happen. You don't feel like such a jerk anymore.

The B side 'The Edge of Town' is a little more somber sounding at first, a bell sounding synth line and heavy chorus guitar slowly strummed but it doesn't last long until . They are filling every empty moment, packing it with total sing-a-long material. They take apart each chorus, change the breakdown. Take me to the edge of the town ...uh oh. Like the Psychedelic Furs left of center, it's that surface teen angst. You can't be that angry, that isolated anymore.

Finding out it's made by great people is just the icing on the cake It's inspiring to see the format supporting artists like this a real story of friends putting sheer joy out there into the world by way of Fastcut. Get the single from Fastcut records, probably an import wherever you are reading this.


The podcast (Episode 38, 33:51, 31.7mb) attempts to break the Silent Alliance sound into it's pieces and put it back together again.

My Silent Alliance thesis bibliography:

The Besties, Rod N Reel, Hugpatch records, 2006
The lilys, Returns every morning, Che records, 1996
Chomp, It's Arizona, Zero hour records, 1995
The Swirlies, Sarah Sitting, Slumberland records, 1991
Future Bible Heros, Lonely Days, Setanta records, 1997
The Lilys, Nanny in Manhattan, Che records, 1996
Dog Day, Lydia, Tomlab records, 2006
Bearsuit, Stop what you're doing what your doing is wrong, Sickroom records, 2002
Silent Alliance, Cities on Fire/The Edge of Town, Fastcut records, 2008

Wounded Lion on Down in the ground

Down in the ground is grinding out the latest in 7" innovation. The factory is working nonstop. Really, if there is a band going places, they have their scientists out in the field tracking and trapping the bands we've been dying to get on tiny wax.
Down in the ground has some serious funding and has captured the elusive Cold Cave, Blank Dogs and now Wounded Lion?
DITG, I am begging you to set up a subscription already. It's killing me to be paying shipping every other week after I read about your latest on the Terminal Boredom Forums. This time it's the Wounded Lions who won me over, just barely, with songs of Muppet Babies and Degobah. I am a little jealous they can just write this genius pop culture reference...without trying to be funny or a wink anywhere. It's deadpan funny.
There is this place where it's really dark. There are people with asses for faces. The degobah system. But don't call me from there because it would be expensive.
I'm paraphrasing....but you get the idea, these are serious issues.

This is the 'Creatures in the cave' single. What could they possibly be talking about on this one? Is it that thing that tries to eat the milennium falcon? Is it Fraggles? Something to do with Nancy Drew? That old videogame.
The possibilities are endless.
WTF Guys!

There are 3 left of the first 100 green pressing!

Shit.

jacuzzi boys on Rob's house

Parasol must have the last few remaining copies of this, because it's been long sold out from Rob's House. I'm practically about to go get it, if I didn't already order a bunch of crap the other day that probably went out already. It wasn't out on Rob's House very long before I saw the 'Sold Out' sign, and I'll admit it, it gets me to pay attention and look up the next single from them. I get caught up in it.
Plus if it's blessed by the house of Rob, then it's got to be good. I haven't ever been disappointed with a release...and that SIDS xmas single was great...best of the holiday season.

I became a fan based on this review from sevententwelve and the Island Ave single that came out a while back, sold out from the source by now too....although I saw Academy has a few copies left as of last week.

They have a 60's-gaze sound, like they are doing some kind of impression of that echo drenched era. It's a good one, more authentic...or satisfying then the original...heavy on the tamborine. It's like the number one instrument these days.
The changes, the song structure is even the same, but it's sloppy like the best garage bands. It's more than just burying the sound, or dare I say hiding it under all kinds of effects. This sounds really specific and catchy and from an older time when music mattered...or was at least trying to entertain you, instead of make you work for it.

Jacuzzi Boys
Fought A Crocodile b/w Blowin' Kisses
PS, US LTD ED OF 600 (500 BLACK vinyl, 100 COLOR vinyl)! Miami, FL's eerie & alluring JACUZZI BOYS float on a hot cloud of misty & hypnotic grooves that suck you into their morbid world of jangling, distant guitars overlaid w/ ghostly chants that swell & recede like the sands of time slowly slipping through your tarnished soul. W/ a rollicking beat that sticks to your ribs & forces you to look deep within yourself for the answers to life's toughest questions, they have that magical "something" that you'll feel the 1st time you hear them.
Rob'sHouseRecords
45
$5.25

Bass Drum of Death on Fat Possum records

There's something about the solo vision in music, everything exactly how you want it. Every sound is going to be yours for better or for worse. It's an interesting niche of music creation, there's no collaboration...no jam and not the singer songwriter folk dude, who probably doesn't record at all, sticking to the live performance. The solo artist I'm talking about here has the technology (relatively) to put it all down track by track. It can be the best thing if they really know exactly what they want or it can make everything sound like an overworked mess.
It rarely (if never) works this well in the rock/blues genre. Put Jack and Meg together, both fighting for a kick drum and the guitar and you'll have the Bass Drum of Death aka Mr. John Barrett.

To maintain this energy on this single is a feat recording all alone. The loose spontaneousness... that King Khan rough.... JSBX (without the screaming) or a hi-fi Doo Rag blues needs to sound right. You can hear the single mindedness, the determination to force this onto wax, but it keeps all the energy of the good fight against all kinds of bullshit. There's nothing too overworked, it's clean and separated but still loose and gritty and electric blues.
Of course there is a bass drum in these tracks, but there would be so much stomping anyway, on the ceiling, the wood floors... he doesn't even necessarily need a real kick drum in some venues I'm sure. It has to start with that rhythm though, stomping on the kick pedal and a tambourine every other beat so the guitar just effortlessly happens, improvised in the places between, all bent strings through a cracked cone amp.

The A - Side 'Stain stick skin': Quite honestly I don't know what this track is exactly about. Seriously, when I try to focus and listen for a storyline or message.....I just go back to the riff...it's all feeling...like a pure blues Jay Reatard, John could let this song continue forever, the pop structure is there essentially, it has a killer opening. He's got to happy with how this single sounds, it's been mastered loud for turning up, it's so crisp that the mess of distortion cuts all clipped and gated.....nice.
This has loose elements of something like Death from Above.(?)...what I'm talking about is that level of performance when you aren't necessarily relying on the instrumentation...the details... it's raw....pounding out a catchy song irregardless of equipment, space, PA's. This vocal could very well be accompanied by just the kick drum....of he could whip out a harmonica and blues the shit up around the campfire. It's dirty, electric, kind of surf, tons of distortion...coming from Mississippi, it just gives it that extra level of authenticity, I'm totally buying it.

The B-side 'The Bandit of Ballad X' breaks out the acoustic and handclaps, to accompany the drum. Far flung echo vocals.... set it all up for picked snarl distortion guitar. All about a new truck... this sound exists in dirty abandoned lots...or a country junkyard...with rusted out metal pickups, all they are good for is target practice. What's left of a crumbling coffee can...you can't even touch it, it's crumbling to orange dust.

But the real question is how 'one man band' is this live? How much of this will be backing tracks or band for his SXSW dates coming up in march? Some Youtube clips show John stomping away behind a kick, tearing it up on guitar and a friend shaking the tamborine...poor bastard...shake that thing man. Maybe it was audience participation? This is going to just get better when played live, at night, and in a smokey dirty room.

This is on Fat Possum records for $4...who just released some Townes Van Zandt vinyl by the way which I've been eyeing... I think it's kind of a unique label with a long term vision that seems like they are interested in sincere artists working with traditional and modern incarnations of blues and country (?)... whatever any of that still means.