Wheels on Fire on Kind Turkey Records

Bobby from Hussy, who I interviewed a while back has started a label recently with a buddy called Kind Turkey Records. He emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know about their first release...this single from Wheels on Fire out of Athens, OH.

There's nothing better than packing a 7" single with an EP length 4 tracks, and when they're punchy pop punk like this...that's pretty much what the format was made for in my opinion.

Wheels on Fire sound like they're stepping back a little further in the jangly beach surf canon that seems to be unstoppable these days. They're going all the way back to that 50's garage reverb mic in a can sound...the whole thing recorded a hollow box. Classic effects, solid

Lyrics about a...baby, baby, baby. There's a lot of cars around probably, and not shitty new ones with stupid rims. It's a reinterpretation definitely inspired by that tipping point in the 50's when the atom bomb started to feel wrong, and no one was getting happier in their identical tract houses.

I grew to love the title track, "Cherry Bomb" once I started realizing they were actually celebrating the classic explosive with lyrics like:

we would have so much fun / I know you're no toy

see that trashcan we just drove by / I will blow it to the sky

It's a slightly more agressive Fresh and Onlys sound, there's not a hint of psyche, they have that greaser attitude, which isn't really dangerous, but they aren't interested in any messing around. The track is written and they're going to get it done with a hint of blues peeking through the beer fridge in the garage, next to the motorcycles, painted black.

"Broken up" is that typical story of a dude wronged by that girl who just doesn't care, he's a bad ass, and now I guess he got what he deserved. Throw in a Johnny Be Good solo for good measure, just to show at least we can rock about it. You can be a sad bastard, loner without turning to wussy goth! Just recreating this now is a nod to the idea that the simplest sentiment, a classic rhodes organ, and reverb guitar, can still be the best.

Like Shannon and the Clams or Nobunny, Wheels on Fire owe a lot to the 50's harmony garage rock, it's a straightforward homage to that stripped down rock sound which is probably going to stick around in some form or another forever.

I was even reading that Merge Records book and supposedly Superchunk recorded a Ronettes track for the B-Side of their first single? (Ah shit it was the Shangri-La's - ed) I didn't expect to see it going on back as far as the indie rock nineties let alone the Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls recent revival of that sound...but there it is. All that nostalgia rolled up into a 45, which of course is really the only format this could exist on.

They've got another one from Trouble in Mind actually I'll have to look into. I can't keep up with those guys.

Bobby's writing reviews on the Kind Turkey Blog as well...lots of 7" reviews there as well, since I know you're looking for more.

Plus they're putting out Dead Luke? Look out for this label.

Turk 002 - Wheels on Fire - "Cherry Bomb" EP 7-inch - $7.50 postage paid to US (International orders please e-mail kindturkeyrecords(at)gmail.com)

First 100 copies are on purple colored vinyl! Features a slick screen printed cover by Big Action Records! Act fast to ensure getting a colored one! Rest of the copies are hand-numbered with black vinyl. All copies include an insert!

Hot Guts / Pop. 1280 split on Badmaster Records

This split single from Hot Guts and Pop. 1280 was in the bunch of singles that came from Badmaster headquarters out of Philly.

Pop. 1280 actually looks like it has something to do with the book from Jim Thompson of the same title…at least thematically, they seem to enjoy the fucked up dysfunctional crime-noir future as the author. Maybe it's also because I was reading about the Cramps today but I hear that imprint all over this as well. The relentless tribal sounding tom beat and the lead vocals carry that same attitude…or it's the lyrics about handjobs and the church of neon lights. I even love the title of one of their other recent singles: Bedbugs. They had to remind me. I'm waiting any day now for those inescapable bastards to surround the 7inches apt/office..it's better to just think they're already here than to be surprised one day….they must have evolved in the last hundred years. We will all have them sooner or later. The distinct synth melody is even a little bit Units, the whole track is finding a future-greaser hover-car hotrod vibe and runs with it alongside the distortion riffs up and down the frets.

The Hot Guts side, "Da'rat Hessla" has the Liars style ring modulation guitar tone working on this one. I really respect a band that can do anything with that distinct sound….Hot Guts tame it into their own Bauhaus goth territory turing the echo up in the vocal for that far off, back in a cave feel. You can't see them, they're too far away, which makes it even more disconcerting. It's like that These are powers, ghost-punk sound…the reverb all over this is just sinister. Weirdo percussion instrumentation and irregular rhythms.

"Ponys" feels more controlled than their previous effort on Badmaster and even more goth…maybe due to the massive synth sound droning in at a slower tempo even recalling some industrial skinny puppy. They are wrangling the sound more on this one, the distortion, the sustained feedback is so quiet, almost back ground…not that previously it was so chaotic….I don't know why I'm getting that impression.
Listening to a couple of Pumice full lengths has gotten me into that massive buried haze sound again and how the static and hiss really fills in the spaces around the actual melody…so maybe it's more difficult to slowly move in this kind of direction from hazy fuzz to clean goth is that you have to know exactly what you want…there's no room for those happy accidents…or just blurring the intention…which allows the listener to read more into it? Their setting the laser focus further on Suicide, stripping the trends away, leaving only that cold, bleak future ahead.

It's a no brainer match to put these two together, they're both a part the dark side of synth-punk. A few parts B-movie horror and a few parts nihilism.

Badmaster also has this sale announced just yesterday, so you can pick both of these Hot Guts singles up with a full length for just $15....till new years:

Next order of business. A Big Ol' Sale! Gotta make some room here. Our tiny, one-room shack is your gain! Here's how its going to work. **Any one 12" AND any two 7"es for $15.00 (post-paid for U.S. only). Available from now to the New Year (Jan. 1). ** That's the deal. Plain and simple.
One of the following 12"es:
Shit & Shine 'Bass Puppy' 12" (BM0022)
Tickley Feather 'S/t' 12" (BM0014)
Mincemeat or Tenspeed / Drums Like Machine Guns Split 12" (BM0010)
And two of the following 7"es:
Pop. 1280 / Hot Guts Split 7" (BM0023)
AIDS Wolf / Satanized Split 7" (BM0021)
Hot Guts 'Ballad of Jon Simon' 7" (BM0020)
For $15.00 (post-paid for U.S. Only)
For international patrons, please add $5 for Canada/Mexico and $10 to everywhere else.
Just paypal to badmasterrecords(at)hotmail.com with your choices.

Record Store Day? (bonus/fake out V2)

Here's the sad list of stuff available this friday on record store day... is this the third year?

The best thing is maybe the Iron and Wine 12", but I haven't been so into his stuff lately after that full length...the most ridiculous release is a reissue of a Sinatra xmas album.

Whoop de do.

I would even go out fo my way if there was another split with Stephen Merritt and Bono or something.

There used to be splits with Jay Reatard! Live Pavement LP's!

I know it isn't up to the people promoting this, and it usually gives me a reason to go pick something up, but really there's nothing...I'm a little sad the bigger indies didn't put out anything at all. How about Kurt Vile, Matador?

Interview with Mike from People in a Position to Know Records

Last week, I talked to Michael Dixon from People in a Position to Know Records about where he gets his records pressed, some of the lessons he learned the hard way and his current collection of record lathes...that's right multiple record lathe machines....they must have some kind of giant houses in Seattle...or garages...I remember those.

Check out his future lathe cut service site.

We talked about PIAPTK's amazing releases available on his site, including a picnic plate lathe series he letterpressed himself locally, his infamous wedding favor heart shaped lathe cut series and a wire recorded single he's got planned before Feb. Eclectic handmade releases... No one is going this far recording singles with amazingly obsolete technology...it's one thing to sound lo-fi with a pro tools plug in, but it's another thing to record directly to a wire recorder and handcut a plastic picnic plate.

If you're at all interested in pressing records or this technology download the interview here. (30mb).

That's about it for this week, taking a break until next monday...I'll be eating turkey, thankful for all the singles from labels this year...coming up I have a bunch more from Electric Cowbell, Soft Abuse, Badmaster Records, Obscurist Press Records, and Fort Lowell Records.

Pumice on Doubtful Sounds

Just got to a 10" record from Doubtful Sounds via Soft Abuse...a pretty amazing EP release, 3 tracks housed in a heavy screened graphic sleeve from Pumice.

Check it out in the Forums section.

Interview with Mike from PIAPTK coming soon...

Fiya on Obscurist Press Records

What we have here on this FIYA single is a classic example of the 5 song punk EP with loose your voice lyrics a little flat, recorded maybe separately....just barely getting louder than the distortion of guitar and bass. These guys are full of politics, and they're angry.

The slightly askew linocut sleeve and the fuzzy typewriter xerox lyric book insert that I'll be damned if I can follow just pulled the entire thing together perfectly already. But the line from Ryan in the liner notes hit home why 7"'s are so freaking amazing and stay incredibly relevant. I thnk his sentiment is true almost 10 years later: "I'm putting out this 7" and trying to document other local projects that'd otherwise be just suburban legends."
The sad thing, just a little, for me is I would have killed for this single in high school. In the pre-internet days any little piece of indie hardcore like this was few and far between, it would have been cherished. To even see that email address on the reverse of the sleeve got me a little teary eyed. It's so easy these days... does a 7" single still preserve, just a little bit, how important this sound and these bands were?
I think I associate this sound and energy with that powerlessness you feel growing up. Sure, now it probably doesn't seem so bad, in fact, looking back I was a priviledged little bastard when you think about where you could have been born into the world. If my biggest problem was our asshole drummer who wanted to go play with someone else...then you can see how no one under 21 is taken seriously. I understand that. That being said, you still have those feelings probably anywhere irregardless of geography, it doesn't take much to feel pissed off wherever you are at that age.
The purity of their sentiment is what gets me every time. There were no expectations, no one to judge but themselves. It was a whole new world of music everyday. Guys, I want you to know there are people out there still listening, and I'm so glad you documented your own scene...of Gainsville in all places. Sometimes a single like this even says: it doesn't matter what part of the country you come from, it's all fucked up. The sounds of Gainsville are as relevant as the sound from anywhere. It's the kind of band...and I sincerely mean this as a compliment....that could start at any moment, in any town...and could we use more bands like this?

Hell yes.

Is it important that they find a way to stand out in this copycat genre?

It doesn't matter.
My only regret is all the bands we came up with in my days of not knowing any better never went this far. To tour and press a 7"? Not only would it have seemed impossible, it wasn't even a thought. We needed a Fiya to expose us to that possibility.

Recorded in 2002 I think it's going to be tough tracking this down, but hey it's worth a shot emailing obscurist (at) hotmail...although a hotmail address is not very promising, and the bands site seems to be down as well...but Ryan did his job. I have to thank my friend Amy for bringing me a stack of stuff from her friends over there at Obscurist Press.

Fiya's full length is still available over there, check it out.

Peaking Lights/ Wet Hair split on Bored Fortress Year 4

"Blessed" from Wet Hair is Shawn Reed from Racoo-oo-oon and Ryan Garbes. They're using a lot of raw electronic sounds, recorded straight into a mixer, there aren't a lot of additional effects all over this. The drums are separated and slightly staggered between the left and right channels and If they are programmed they're doing a great job of keeping the triggers sounding live, someone back there actually was hitting the pads.
This main sludgy dance groove though…….it just sounds stuck in this monotonous melody. The little improvised variances aren't enough to drag it past the almost drone of this foundation melody. It's a little maddening…this is at 33 so goes for a nearly seven minutes. It makes sense as continuation in the thread that Racoo-oo-oon started, take that drawn out improv psyche and layer it over the demo hip hop rhythm, but it's so peppy and repetitive I get a little crazy.
The vocals could be from another song entirely, it doesn't really follow any of the layers of melody and I hear almost an autotune or harmonizer effect while it unnaturally jumps around the octaves. It's a little like the Butthole Surfers and 13th Floor elevators collaborated for NNF.

Peaking lights takes the neo-psyche repetition to a more dense place with "Birds of Paradise" by layering hundreds of mono/underwater forgotten world music samples. (Is that a racist term? There was some some message board discussion about that I read recently…but is that just because of people's stereotypes in that genre?)
Everything has that sort of Dub haze which would easily work alongside something like Ducktails which is my standard for this layered dream tropicalia….
They keep this perfect minimal bass heavy sample going forever with echo buried funk and reggae guitar and overmodulated reverb kick drum, but the vocals are in their own post Pylon or Young Marble Giants world entirely. It's really effortless, and I don't mind the drawn out 7 minutes here…but it's just one of those personal things….conceptually they're going to the same place…I just happen to like Peaking Lights.
There's a pretty mysterious two word super slowed down sample at the end of this track I can't decipher…even at 78.
The inner 7" label is the info in awesomely bad tech fonts…NNF really has a way with the most unsettling graphic design.

NNF has made all the singles available recently…go cherry pick them you bastards.

Greg Ginn and the Taylor Texas Corrugators on Electric Cowbell Records

I think this single from Greg Ginn, for me anyway, gets back to the idea about music being universal. It's not about forming a popular band, coming up with a groundbreaking new sound and selling millions.... or else forget it. It starts to feel like music doesn't belong to you, it's not something just anyone can do.
The internet has had a hand in dispelling this myth, since every possible form and level of talent is out there to check out. What's terrible to me might be the greatest thing someone has ever heard. But even more than that, the change in online social media is it encourages people to add their own music content, that music isn't just for cool people or a talented minority, it's a necessity.

I'm only thinking about the current state of things because I can't imagine the musical landscape when Greg and friends were attempting to just do whatever they wanted irregardless of an kind of scene. There was never a master plan, it was absolutely all about the music in it's purest form.
Music, all of art separates us from everything else on the planet, creating something that doesn't have an obvious, immediate evolutionary benefit. The first people here felt some kind of need to express themselves through sound, so that inherent idea is embedded in us somewhere.
It doesn't make sense to count yourself out of fulfilling that because you think you aren't capable of creating. It's not just for geniuses. I guess Karaoke and Rock Band are sort of filling that need for some people, even if it somewhat removed, but we could all take a lesson from Greg and pursue these forms of expression without worrying if it's good enough to hang in the Met. He happens to be that good, but I think the subtext of this single is just of simple self expression, take it or leave it.

On both of these side Greg is playing Guitar, Bass and Organ. It has a laid back vibe of playing through all kinds of takes, not punching anything in, or cutting and pasting…it just patiently waits for the good one. The A-Side, "Freddie" is a classic stoner jam meets the post-compositions of Tortoise. A couple of simple electric melodies weaving in and out of each other like one of those Minutemen interludes. Somehow they found a great groove and didn't overanalyze. June of '44 could find those pitch perfect combinations of institutional/classical underpinnings and indie. That structured kind of improv for Greg and the Corrugators.

The B-Side, "Tea" has that classic rhodes organ sound, the recording is so clear you can hear the creaking of a bench and air rushing out of the pipes. Electric Cowbell describes it as a free jazz haiku, and I like that. You end up anticipating some kind of beginning and instead deal with this brief rising and falling of tempo and instrumentation. The electric gains momentum and dies out just as quickly to make way for something else.
The last sound you hear is a screeching almost like a train coming to a stop.

It's a few moments of chaotic uncertainty in the directionless west.

Great rorschach wraparound sleeve art by Maya Hayuk. Handwritten inner labels by Electric Cowbell who, like Greg, are releasing whatever they hell they want to.

Go check out the tracks and order the 7" on Electric Cowbell.

Electric Cowbell Records is thrilled to release Greg Ginn's first 7" since his years with the seminal American punk rock group Black Flag. Also this single is his first non-SST release after the passing of many moons. A beautiful little cinematic-soundtrack-like gem, Freddie delivers some twang, and what sounds like a sitar, giving this instrumental a Middle-East-Texas vibe. It’s what the Japancakes would sound like if they saw Dallas and kept driving. Slightly sweet, reflective melancholy from a true road warrior of the Oregon Trail of DIY.creditsreleased 01 July 2010
Greg Ginn &
The Taylor Texas Corrugators

Greg Ginn on gtr, bass, and organ
sound, Gary Piazza on gtr, and Sean
Hutchinson on drums

cover art by Maya Hayuk
mayahayuk.com
hi@mayahayuk.com

This Heart Electric on Die Stasi Records

This Heart Electric's "Polar", off the A-Side has an amazing balance of tone that is equally scarily accurate and completely sincere. It's referencing every previous era, and Ricardo pays homage (?) recreating the whole expansive mess with nothing but a tape deck.
It's so off it could be a long lost relative to Ariel Pink. It's too early to call it based on just this one track but the range of vocals here are pretty impressive. From The impassioned 80's OMD echo vocal floating above everything to close mic'd deep verse vocal, falsetto, you name it. It's the multiple personalities disorder that comes from incorporating all the influences.
There's even a ghostly appearance of Tonetta that deep menacing vocal in between the synth and demo beat with punched in raw electric guitar, overboard vibrato glam…. these things shouldn't go together. It's seriously a masterpiece example of one man symphony. All of it somehow balanced. The epic emotionalism, buried under a pastiche of bizarre beats.

It's a pretty perfect name as well (and font), it's the title track from a band with a couple of hits a while back in those dramatic teen movies. They're trying to break out and get serious. Enough with the fringes, and their images, let's go big this time.

I just noticed that this was recorded in Miami. Someone commented on the Tooth Ache post about my being shocked they were based in VT, and that not every band comes from Brooklyn.
Even this coming out of Miami is shocking to me and I don't think I'm insulting an area because I think it's unusual such a specific sound came out of an area way off my radar.
Just logistically it's got to be more difficult to find other musicians, play shows, remain inspired. So, yes it's fucking surprising this came out of FL. Great musicians can obviously come out of a tiny hole of a town in Montana …and thanks to the internet, good or bad they definitely can get their stuff out there easier and connect with anyone… so really geography doesn't matter anyway. No matter what my bias and stereotype of that city is. Maybe it's a reach to think Wham city could only have evolved in Baltimore…I think there's something to that.
Or, maybe all these bands in Brooklyn are at a disadvantage because it's a given that another Gary War, Sacred Bones, Captured Tracks sound is going to come from whatever new band.
But the big difference between Brooklyn and that town in VT, or Miami...and it's the most important one:
No one is from Brooklyn.
They all moved here from somewhere else to be around other creative people and burrow into their weirdo niche and try to scratch out a living.
I actually meant it as a compliment, but every god damn city has a fucking complex when it comes to NY I guess. I love the fucking trees...I'll never have that here. I can't grill a hot dog outside or sit on a porch.
Let's just agree that if the next nobel physicist was born in south dakota that would be pretty weird too, and that doesn't mean wherever I'm from is the best.
I want to be wrong in assuming certain things about an area of the country but they vote republican and are fine with sending their kids to war and watching fox news. You can't tell me it doesn't piss off some awesome band out there who's on the verge of throwing in the towel because they can't get off from work at the shit service industry jobs they have to play their only show at the VW hall.

The other assumption I make, coming from a place like Miami and making music like this is that it might not be by choice. Sure, there is a scene everywhere, the fact that Ricardo Guerrero of This Heart Electric and Tooth Ache are in the places musically that they is even that much more impressive.

I'm ignorant of a scene in Miami but I'm not a Brooklyn elitist.
I think the whole point of the 7" medium is it's accessibility and exposure for a band from anywhere. I'm still going to be surprised that this came out of Miami for a bunch of reasons, mostly because it has nothing to do with what I've seen of Miami on this season of the Jersey Shore.

The B-Side, "Nowhere to Run" confirmed that I can safely say he's well into the weirdo pop world of Ariel. No-fi equipment used in baffling ways. The most useless drum rhythms and layers and layers of instrumentation that belong in another dimension. It's got the sparkle glam feel of a suburban basement before the chaperoned party. The video of the party has dissolve wipes, laser grids. It's mostly inspired by taking neon seriously as a graphic element. It also sounds a little bit like Casey from the Uncle Muscles show.

Its going to take a lot more listens to fully absorb this before I move on to just listening to it because it's awesome.

What the hell is this guy going to do next. The world needs another single immediately.

Get it from Die Stasi Records, email them at diestasi AT gmail DOT com.

The great garage Scion 7" takeover!

So what does a car company have to do with 7" records?

Kind of inspired by these Terminal Boredom threads I got on the phone with Darren from over at Velocity of Sound about how Scion seems to be making a play to take over the 7" world for some unknown reason. It's still a mystery, but we decided they're doing a good job. Then we talk about the Panda Bear singles, the latest he let me know about yesterday as well as a big mystery single announcement from his label.

You join us already nerding out on recent ebay purchases because of misspellings and thanks to sniper programs which then lead into the elusive Scion A/V singles.
Download it here (15min, 15Mb).

The next Panda Bear single on Fat Cat Records

Just a quick note today, Darren hit me with the news last night about the Insound preorder for a new Panda Bear single on Fat Cat.
This time they're pressing 3000, and it ships in time to hear it by Xmas day. Go ahead you deserve at least one present for yourself.
Come on!

VINYL FORMAT. Tracks: "Last Night at the Jetty" b/w "Drone." Limited to 3000 copies! Last Night at the Jetty is the third installment in a series of vinyl-only singles, released on four separate labels, previewing the highly-anticipated upcoming solo record by Animal Collective's Panda Bear (Noah Lennox). Highlighting his prodigious production and vocal talent, "Last Night at the Jetty" finds Lennox's beautifully layered, honeyed vocal harmonies morphing across a fairly simple grid of wobbly guitar, a whip-crack metronome-beat and a scattering of electronic sounds and effects. B-side "Drone" takes an even more reductive, minimalist approach, jettisoning the beat altogether with Lennox's long-held vocals hovering over a step-sequence of synthesized tone-blocks.

Hidden by the Grapes / Lambda split on Sooder Records

This split came to me through the interweb digitally, because the label, Sooder Records, is based in Graz, Austria… but I'll tell you it's a shame the only way to get this is going to be through crazy overseas import because this needs to be distributed here in the US by someone dammit.

I was not expecting the math, stop/start instrumental awesomeness from Lambda's A-Side, "Weiter Geht" (or according to google "continues"). They start out innocently enough with a catchy, jangly indie guitar and bass which are working completely independently. It picks up into a new time signature every couple of measures to then blow out with big distortion in all kinds of stutter stops and headbanging rhythms. It's one complex intricacy after another, challenge with the dynamics...drop out quiet and come back in huge again this time doubling up on the drum rhythm. They have that pop-post energy of Love of Diagrams and then get Pelican-epic. It's more melodic then just change-for-change sake, the core is going to consistently rock while all the minor chords pile up on each other building to a big finish but you don't get it. They change direction, split off, veer into traffic.

Personally I love any form of this intricate crafting of chord changes and attention to detail, it feels so impossible to pull off. It's like a comic-con and this shit is the anime cos-play girls….and I'm a nerd.

The B-side from Hidden by Grapes (that has to be some weird lost in translation) is a bit more traditional in it's rocking, but it's a great match for Lambda's epic highs. They get just as super rock high. The details are just as present, the elaborate rock changes, but HBG is holding the rhythms out, spending some time drawing out the sustained melodies instead of cutting them off. There's layered vocals (in English, by the way) that come in on this one over a tom heavy arrangement while the guitar distortion swirls away.

Not to mention both digital tracks are worth the download, they easily could have been another equally as strong single. Lambda's "SLB" for example is even faster and has an impossible rhythm that's completely counter intuitive. Hidden by Grapes then goes a little metal with more enthusiastic vocals and pummeling rhythm section.

Get it from Sooder Records for 5 euros, and since the dollar is doing extra great, that's only like 50 bucks. At least you can hear the tracks on their flash player...

Hidden by the Grapes & Lambda SPLIT 7"

The first release on Sooder Records. A 7“, shared by Lambda and Hidden by the Grapes – already the second release for both bands. Each will have one song on the 7“ and one song will be a digital bonustrack. Lambda will please your ears with „Weiter Geht“ on the record and with „SLB“ digitally, both songs were recorded DIY! Hidden by the Grapes will rock with the song „Blowout“ on the 7“ and with „92: Farewell Blue Period“ on your MP3-player, they recorded the songs with Tom Zwanzger in the Stress-Studio. Artwork by Mote Scherr.

The facts: 7“ split vinyl, handnumbered, limited to 300 pieces, 150 of them are in colored vinyl. It comes with MP3-Downloadcode, including 2 Bonustracks.

Hot Guts on Badmaster /Suicide Tax Records

This is the Hot Guts debut single on Badmaster Records. The pharmaceutical pills in a heart shaped box xerox sleeve could be a warning of something barfing-ly cute or just overly suspect but one minute of the thunder inside and it starts to look and sound like real danger. It's not a found photo anymore, someone in the band probably had this image in mind and went out to execute it. They just couldn't help making it happen in person.

Just when you think the whole world of loud as shit bands can't get any louder, when that wall of sound must have become too thick, that no one could build it any higher, Hot Guts adds another couple of stories. More than anything else they come off like a serious as fuck drone outfit, Harvey Milk style, advocating the aural sludge flow.

This "Ballad of Jon Simon" just completely destroys…and it's the full range of sound that does it. Tthe barreling kick drum and two finger bass, tests the subwoofer while two arms crash away on the cymbals, not to emphasize, more like deathly afraid of the silence.

"Abandon at Leisure" then forces a drum machine into hysterics while the rest glitches away with it's digital head cut off. I would not be shitting you if I said the guitar here sounds like bagpipes. Somehow the pieces come together into a low end recognizable structure, but there's no leisure here. Going down indeed.
"Did You Not go to the Dance Alone?" recaptures the slow defeatist creep of Suicide. Drone monotone with underlying atmospherics has this track coming off like the best sounding industrial era sound that just wouldn't have been possible in the '90s. There was too much promise in the technology, the focus of the "alternative" music world was too much for them, now it just sounds weak and insanely dated. Hot Guts take those same elements and this time do it right. Distorted vocals are somehow quiet, like a dread filled Nothing People…who are creepy, but once you had an idea approximately of where they were going, you could depend on it. Hot Guts, on the other hand, are playing with any kind of expectations learned on whatever track you heard from them last. They can ride the same dark gothic bus as Blessure Grave even, but then make stops for massive energetic fuzz that would make JAMC jealous.

Hot Guts is the perfect name…brief enough to not ever come off pretentious and the natural pairing only brings one thing to mind….they were just spilled.
Shit.... remember what I said about this track earlier?…well, I've been writing through an extended jam with waves of guitar distortion and rapid fire percussion I never saw coming.It's gone completely different. From moody garage instrumental to dense jam. It's a long road that deserves another listen at least.
The vinyl label looks like a photo of a xerox of letraset letters. it's minimal, and full of process. The entire single is a harbinger of the lengths Hot Guts will go at 33 1/3 on a lowly 7" single.

Get it from Badmaster Records.
There's a few left.
I can't wait to hear their latest.

Simple Circuit on Super Secret records

Listened to this single from Simple Circuit over the weekend, it came out a little while ago on Super Secret Records. Turns out it's their second single, their first being their own self released 7", still available on their myspace page if you send them an email. Sounds like their working around historic variations of garage rock pop. These two tracks even sound like a typical pairing of any two given songs from Simple Circuit...one minute they're experimenting with the usual instrumentation of the garage and then the next one is poolside, getting almost beachy and cheerful.

The A-Side, "Boarded up houses" sounds literally built from some kind of ....well simple circuit electronic melody. It's either a heavy ringtone guitar riff or he's found a useable setting on that damn MXR Blue Box pedal. Kevin's vocals remind me of an energetic Thurston Moore, the lyrics are half spoken sort of statements way up front in the mix. It comes off as stripped down, minimal post punk, laid back, straight ahead rock with that weirdo sound keeping it from sounding like anything else.

So the B-Side, "Moon Druggies" takes that stripped down garage rock jangle and combines it with a bit of a surf rock, minus the heavy reverb. Like Nodzzz, they have a natural leaning towards sticking with a simple catchy melody over everything else. It's inherent in every track... stick with keeping it simple, and the vocal keeps it pretty serious instead of the usual pointless lyrics about the sun or the beach. Maybe that's the difference for a band coming out of Austin, they're no pressure to follow that formula. They can apply that melody separate from the good vibrations. I could see this going down the same road as the Fresh & Onlys...it's classic always surprising and melodic pop garage that grows on you every time the needle goes down.

100 color vinyl, the rest black...with black and white photo insert, from Super Secret Records.

You can get this one by paypaling Super Secret directly. Check out their website for address.

TGI-Seven inches

La Sera is a Katy Goodman from the Vivian Girls sort of side project? There was a single earlier this year from another project "All Saints Day" on Art Fag which is still available over there. She seems to have a never ending supply of dreamy, reverb washed melodies.

LA SERA
[mp3] "Never Come Around" b/w "Behind Your Eyes

This is the first material from La Sera, in advance of a full-length due in 2011. "Never Come Around" is a track from the aforementioned upcoming full-length, while "Behind Your Eyes" is a b-side exclusive to this 7". Please note that preorders won't ship until early November.

Catalog #: HAR-024
Release date: November 16, 2010

From Hardly Art Records

Next up is a single on Mt St Mtn, from the Standard Tribesmen, who are bringing a similar scuzzy, distorted out mess that was Mayyors, with a decidedly rockabilly-hell feel. Plenty of reverb.

[9/9/10] The Standard Tribesmen "Waiting" b/w "Young Lovers/Luv In A Car" 7 inch [mtn-06] ships next week! What started as the one-man Sores side-project of Julian Elorduy IV (MAYYORS), Standard Tribesmen solidified as a skronky, rock n’ roll 6-piece (featuring MAYYORS’ Chris Woodhouse on bass) that crashed about Northern California for a couple of years before imploding. Luckily Woodhouse put a smoldering handful of tracks to tape, three of which are available on this very limited slab of wax. Packaging consists of a hand-punched outer cover with a 2 color offset insert featuring artwork by Jay Howell. “If you plotted The Sonics, the Contortions, and Feedtime on a graph, the Standard Tribesmen are somewhere in between that triangle, shading a bit toward the Sonics’ corner.” - DJ Rick of KDVS 90.3fm

Order: PayPal $6.50 USD to mtstmtn (at) hotmail.com or get it from Forced Exposure

Here's a sprawling epic track from The Soft Pack across two sides. Gagdad is as great as anything they've done, but keeping it different at the same time. They continue to prove that insane self titled 12" was just the beginning. This one takes their straight ahead catchyness and draws it out into their Stairway to Heaven about the sea.

The Soft Pack celebrates their jump over to the tanning rays of Mexican Summer with a brand new single. “Gagdad” sprawls across both sides of a 7” with a party-starting organ groove, slamming drums, and the unmistakable vibes that one of our catchiest acts has no trouble bringing across. No matter what time of year, the distinct Fall/VU groove of “Gagdad” will convince you to don some shades, make it down to your nearest body of water, and get your own beach party happening, under the auspices of no man-made laws.

On Mexican Summer Records.


The Coathangers have a split with the Numerators on Suicide Squeeze up for preorder this week, great gory sleeve of missing heads that the numerators are holding on the opposite side. They've been all over the place with recent tracks and you really never know what to expect except distinctive vocals and weirdo guitar lines. They're coming to Death By Audio Nov 14th. The Numerators are all blasted out echo punk trio, lots of noise in 2 minutes. Nice.

THE COATHANGERS & THE NUMERATORS SPLIT 7" PRE-ORDER

The Coathangers & The Numerators first got it together on the road. Summer tour 2009: Atlanta's favorite ladies were touring behind "Scramble," while the Lubbock boys were kicking it in the sun, rocking their local haunts. Their quick fling of shared dates and stages turned out to be a productive one, culminating in this split single.

The Numerators give us something called "Strawberry Dreams." Yeah, it's a song, but it feels more of a dirge, a drill in motion, coring out a hole to the center of your brain where you hope they'll stay and ravage forever in repetition.

"Chicken 30" struts its way into The Coathangers catalog of unforgettable anthems. It's the first new song they've released since "Scramble," plucky and punky, full of sweet fury; the kind of tune that, should you happen to meet it in a bar before closing, might buy you a shot, but most certainly would throw it in your face before you could say, "Thanks!" And still you'd dream about it...

Available from Suicide Squeeze Records December 7th, this 7-inch EP is limited to 500 copies (100 opaque red, 400 black) worldwide.

ORDER HERE:


Finally The Dum Dum Girls have a new one on Slumberland, and I think what sold me was the B-Side cover of Last Caress which I have to hear. I'm into their mix of the sweet and demented, so that track is a natural fit.

Led by the mysterious Dee Dee, Dum Dum Girls churn out pop music that adheres to her self-proclaimed M.O.: "blissed-out buzz saw." Dee Dee formed DDG in late 2008 as a solo project -- the name a nod to both The Vaselines' album, Dum-Dum, and the Iggy Pop song "Dum Dum Boys" -- and released a series of great singles on esteemed labels like Hozac and Captured Tracks, culminating in the fab debut album I Will Be on Sub Pop.

Dee Dee wrote and recorded the songs that became I Will Be over the first eight months of 2009, and upon completion handed them over to the legendary Richard Gottehrer (The Angels, Strangeloves, Blondie, The Go-Gos) for production. The result is one of the great pop records of 2010, a tribute to love, loss, fear, fun, the classic pop form of the '60s girl groups and early punk rockers. Deftly straddling the line between pop and the garage punk that Dee Dee loves, I Will Be is a textbook example of how to make music at once familiar but totally new, classic but also bang up-to-date.

"Bhang Bhang, I'm A Burnout" is one of the toughest songs on the album, a fuzz-laden slice of garage pop with a killer chorus that muses on the virtues of psychedelics. It's one of our favorite Dum Dum Girls songs, and thanks to our friends at Sub Pop we're now able to bring it to you on the perfect 7" single format. Trippy but also dripping with attitude, "Bhang Bhang" is Dee Dee's Sunset Strip '67 moment and we love it.

"Last Caress" on the flip is of course a cover of the classic horror-punk Misfits tune. It hearkens back to Dee Dee's more minimal roots, her fragile vocals and jangling guitar getting right to the pop at the core of the song. While most Misfits covers try to out-punk the originals, Dee Dee wisely plays to her strengths and comes up with something haunting and completely true to her vision.

From Slumberland Records.

Glass Rifle on 100m Records

Just posted a review over in the forums about a CD single I got from the guys at Glass Rifle. Amazing letter pressed riveted package that contained some classic post hardcore.

Check it out.

They're playing live tomorrow night at Arlene's Grocery.

Victory and Associates on Seismic Wave Entertainment

The guys from Victory and Associates sent their latest heavyweight gold single on Seismic Wave Entertainment. I love these heavy, thick singles and thick cardstock sleeves. It's actually printed with a gold ink, not the orangey yellow pictured above, something about this gold and red looks like some kind of ska sleeve or '50s smooth jazz...it looks like a casino. Maybe it's just me.
What's actually going on is crystal clear power pop punk. Catchy power chords and yelling choruses, about...what else? The party. Rocking out, throwing themselves into the riffs and harmonies, everyone's doing their part. Part Les Savy Fav and part Hot Snakes, it's scientifically proven punk rhythm and power chords, all at out of control speed.

The A-Side,"Party Savior". If there was any question in what direction they're taking, then this is their answer. There's a mythical character called the party savior who is going to turn this whole thing around, be prepared. It might just be Victory and Associates. It might be you...after hearing them. It all comes down to Conan's vocals, it almost seems like he hardly needs instrumentation. In those moments where they break that frantic melody to keep the track shooting forward with just their harmonized voices and a kick drum, for that fake break, for a chance to kick it all off again. Did you forget how loud it is? They aren't letting you off that easy. Their going to keep rocking you.

In "Thousandaire", Conan sets the tone again just vocally, kicking the track off to great back and forth separated guitar riffs that explode together bringing, once again, their massive sound. There's hardly a moment they pause vocally, if there aren't multiple harmonies at any given time then someone is calling back in between Conan's verse. It feels like they literally throw everything they can at the track, there's no room for a guitar solo. You want to like a band that's actually inviting you in to go along for the ride as opposed to being left out, fighting to understand what's going on. I can't help but picture this live and an audience being on board immediately. Prepare to win.

I could continue thinking about how to describe the energy on both sides of the single, but none of this is ever going to make a difference if you caught them live, they have to be converting fans everywhere.

Get this one from Seismic Wave Entertainment.

Superhuman Happiness / CSC Funk band split on Electric Cowbell

Here's another genre expanding split from a local label, Electric Cowbell Records, this time it's a split between the CSC Funk band and Superhuman Happiness.
Superhuman appropriately kicks off the A-Side with "Human Happiness". Of course these guys are a perfect match with CSC, only Superhuman immediately shifts expectations with an old school casio demo beat leading off the funk. I'm sure that's a first for funk and the 7" single. A bassline groove builds over the beautifully captured casio and horns launch into a the main melody theme. The entire track they're playing with various textures while the casio plods on: fuzzed out experimental guitar distortion and wood block fills. I can't tell if that horn section melody from Stuart Bogie keeps building with layers of harmony's underneath, or it's just by this point the funk has completely taken over. Most of all I like their attitude, they've really played everything, across the spectrum of experimental, minimalist, indie, but they just appreciated going back to this sound and applying those aesthetics to a big band funk. The label and these bands, if it wasn't enough already this is coming out on 7", they're really in it for the love of performing this music, and I have to see this in person.

The B-Side "A Troll's Soiree", continues the groovy horn blasting based funk, the main groove giving way to everyone's individual solo parts weaving throughout. Oboe solo, anyone? Amazingly talented, this super clean sound could have originated 30 years ago...it just highlights the major gaps missing from my music experience.
I get nostalgic for getting together and just playing music without all kinds of expectations, if nothing else I'm glad home recording maybe brought back that idea of creating music being a necessity and not just for the talented...even if it's a solo experience, but these guys have an amazing pedigree and decided to really authentically bring the funk. Damn.

You know most labels seem to document a particular part of the country by default, there's a few bands around, they have the same sensibilities and play together and get the attention of the micro-label, but Electric Cowbell seem to be going one step further and focus on documenting a particular genre within an area. The Captured Tracks for jazz and funk if you will.
They are making me a believer in the who cares about a scene, and it's exactly why I started talking about singles in the first place to randomly come across bands like this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with getting all funked up in the morning.
Get this one from Electric Cowbell Records.

Superhuman Happiness is the musical love of Stuart Bogie's life (tenor sax player of Antibalas and all-around awesome dude.) Using layered horns and funky guitar and bass lines, electronic beets and blurps, Human Happiness will make you shake your Superhuman ass happily. This track is sounding like a cross between funkish afro-beat-tinged beats with some Zappa's Yellow Shark mixed in for good street measure.

CSC brings the horns, the rhythm and the swagger like it's 1972. This track, from the band's forthcoming 7" split with Superhuman Happiness, grooves with an easy gait as tight brass takes center stage. Clocking in at just a little over the 3-minute mark, this funky instrumental could easily be the theme song of a new Brooklyn-based cop show. Close your eyes and let CSC take you undercover with a new breed of cop show funk!

Far-Out Fangtooth on Ian Records

Ian Records sent me their latest single from Far-Out Fangtooth a band out of Philadelphia, and as far as I can tell, this is their first release, and on 7" vinyl at that. A while back I talked about The Party Photographers another garage-fuzz band from the same city, and Ian is back at it again documenting this overlooked part of the country.

I like this matte cardstock IR is printing their sleeves on, and their monochromatic design, this one is an equally abstract photo of a warped high gothic room. The reverse shows the band on the side of a building sitting on the curb after a long night, leather jackets, dreamcatchers and plaid represent. No one really cares about the picture, but they're half demented smiling and that seems to be the direction they're headed on these two sides.

The A-Side, Pathways, is a sludgy, almost slowed down, sounding groove, the cymbals even sound delayed somehow. It's garage-y, but what the hell is that? Maybe it's some kind of attitude here. A cold, detached vocal delivery at the perfect level, just enough reverb for the distance, but it's not a gimmick. Super far off guitar melodies that sound like A Place to Bury Strangers hugeness, but instead of a dreamy washed out soundscape, they turn the wall into scary punches. I keep imagining there's a dark edge to this whole sound. There's a reason it's unclear, they probably play with the lights off and take Blessure Grave over to see The Big Sleep and ditch you while they go score snuff films on VHS. That's what good rock and roll is about, going to those places on a track I don't want to. I sit in my apartment and listen to records. I don't want to have those real world experiences, let Far-Out Fangtooth safely take me there until I have to flip it over.

The B-Side, "Why Don't You Cry" has a big classic sound. Long drawn out chords, slight Earth drone with a nonexistent BPM crashes. This works against a '60s tambourine double snare hit rhythm chorus....and there's even backup ooo's in this one. It's feeling like Wooden Shjips in their reinterpretation of a psyche-rock sound, with some of Woven Bones snotty punk style. They took a look at shoegaze, which can really go one of two ways: you can get cute, maybe a little twee, or take it to a regimented experimental place...and they just decided to get mean...not that this is goth, or cold wave or anything like that....

You know what I actually just thought of... Sisters of Mercy...on a fuzzy old fucked up cassette that was taped over something else.

Ian let me know that the highlights magazine looking 7" labels are actually reversed, so you know what that means collector dudes. It's like that stamp with the upside down plane.
After reading a live review from Chariot trip, I definitely hope they make it up to NY at some point.

Get this one from Ian Records.

Lost Sound Tapes lathe-cut 7" subscription series

Got an email over the weekend from Jon at Lost Sound Tapes about a lathe cut 6 month subscription series he's taking preorders on. I've talked about Charlie McAlister and Sandy City in the past. Charlie is probably going to have another single of his home recorded dixieland jug band weirdo folk and Sandy City should be headed in from the waves to harmonize on more laid back jangly west coast sounds.

I wonder if this is with singlepieceslate a new local lathe cutting operation...and being that there's only 50, that's about the size run they're into, which means by the way, if you want to hear any of this....go paypal.

Until the cassette compilation comes out.

Lost Sound Tapes 7" series, pre-orders this Monday, Nov 1st!

The Lost Sound Tapes lathe-cut 7" subscription series is limited to 50 sets which includes band copies, so there are really only 45 available for purchase.
You'll receive one 7" at your doorstep each month for the first six months of 2011.
Nearly all songs are exclusive to the subscription series.

The first 7" will ship at the end of December/early January.

DO NOT PASS THIS UP, subscriptions are guaranteed to sell fast.
I will post a link to the subscription page on our blog at 12pm (noon) PST on Nov 1st.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
* $50 for Seattle residents - includes local pickup options
* $60 for North America - includes postage for all six 7"s within the U.S., Canada or Mexico
* $86 for International - shipping is expensive! sorry!

The bands participating are:

Charlie Mcalister - Legendary weirdo home-taper from Charleston, SC

Sandy City - Lo-Fi surf punk wannabes from Washington state

Tyson Ballew - Catchy folk punk stuff, solid dude from Missoula, MT

Hair - Acoustic pop alter ego of the 8-bit Andrew WK synth rockers Math The Band

weakness - Raw garage punk from Cincinnati, OH, blown speakers and distortion

Stephen Steinbrink - Also known as French Quarter, important folk songs from AZ

--

www.lostsoundtapes.com

Crispin Mills - Healing Hands on Ho-Hum Records

I'm a bit of a disadvantage here, knowing nothing about Crispian Mills, an English based artist who's probably best known for Kula Shaker's psyche-folk lush sound, but Ho-Hum Records has finally released two tracks recorded 10 years ago with Mark Pritchard during a hiatus period with Kula Shaker.

"Healing Hands" starts out with a jungle soundscape which leads us to some kind of back porch blues psyche direction until the main acoustic melody expands into a modern electronic direction with more bass and instrumentation. Being recorded at the tail end of the shoegaze explosion era, the late nineties, it's heavily informed by the sounds of the time. There's a dash of northern soul in Crispian breathy vocals over warbly electric, funky organ and a slow shaker. She's got healing hands and he just wants to be her man.
The B-Side, "Be Merciful", is a slow acoustic picked track with Crispian's vocals heavy and up front in the mix. This one has a lonesome country-esque sound, a touch of folk, with psychedelic mystical metaphors next to essentially a blues theme, utter powerlessness, begging for mercy, being unable to control what comes next. The baritone flute or synth sound coming up from behind nails the whole sadness home...you know it wasn't going to do any good.

If you're a fan of the Kula Shakers or the fringes of the late 90's english psyche then pick this heavyweight vinyl up from the overseas label, Ho-Hum Records.

In a real coup for Ho Hum, we are excited to release "Healing Hands"and "Be Merciful" from the 1990s sessions where Crispian was exploring a solo album on Sony Records. Whilst the album never made the light of day, these two treasures now will.