Breakfast in Fur on Analog Edition Records

Today is another unusual format for 7Inches, a 10" from Breakfast in Fur, served up by the fine folks that brought you the Analog Edition Zine, in which I wrote a little piece reminiscing about 1990-1995 and the lo-fi singles of the early internet days...when 7Inches was just a BBS board and AOL charged by the minute. Looks like Matt over there at Everybody taste is hitting the ground running with this label, also releasing a 7" from Blake Mills, I should get to shortly.

The A-Side's, "I don't care" is has a ramshackle, bedroom ideology in the layers of cheap nylon string guitar. A laidback, high, toy piano and a twee-pop lens.
"High Hopes" gets more weirdo orchestral like something on Edible Onion, (Br'er?) It's possibly a Caribbean folk cover of that classic track that I think Frank Sinatra definitely did, which means, who knows who wrote it. Washboard, triangle, every possible percussion kit used on the drum machine, making it almost unrecognizable like any good cover.
"Shine" has an acoustic line feeling like Solsbury Hill. All over opting for a more succinct melody, much heavier produced than the rest. The number of instruments is always staggering and definitely belies that bedroom 'new toy' aesthetic but is perfectly recorded and assembled to feel like a slick carnival ride while being a quiet, introspective collage like Dead Gaze...or the Annuals ( that brother track is still an acheivement). Fade out to the voices of kids playing which you had to see coming with the sketch of a kid in a squirrel suit on the front of the sleeve. It's working with that naive spirit, the tracks conceived on the playground, the vocals scrawled in the sandbox. You'll never get that back and will spend the rest of your life trying.

10"'s do have the advantage over the single of looking like they were made for the turntable, the perfect size of the slipmat. That got me thinking about that Volar comp running at 45...are these two basically the same length? I would think so.
"A Quiet Place", from the B-Side is a real hushed number (makes sense) with heavy folk instrumentation against this layered near whisper vocal. This 10" seems to be growing up in a way the more it goes on. The real innocence is gone, things are getting more serious. Big distorted overdriven drums come in halfway, blowing the serenity apart...definitely live, just a hair out of sync at times in laying on that epic slow smoulder. The very definition of the title.
"Flying Saucers" is a barrage of bells with heavy delay ending up in an actual rhythm. Eventually a New Order guitar melody makes it's way in fading around the samples with a slow organ. Sort of Railcars in it's effort to put an obscene amount of instrumentation together. The way shoegaze did, but instead of a straight severe wall of guitar, it's a dense jungle of a million different impenetrable elements. Or like A Faulty Chromosome, this is a little more folk leaning but the experimentation keeps you guessing in the same way.
Finally, "Ghost Story" seems to have a lullaby-esque Bright Eyes temperament...as if it was going to suddenly shift back into darkness and reality at any given time. More quiet layers of acoustic and waves of background vocals with that organ, the spirit ohhhh's steering it away from catchy and towards the eerie.

Get one of the 500 pressed from Analog Edition

6x2x12 comp on Volar Records

Today you lucky jerks, I'm going to talk about this 12" comp from Volar Records, and it's been while since I had a 12" compilation in my hands. I remember old label cassette comps, but this is like the World Lousy With Ideas volumes. Why not have the modern comp be a label curated single mixtape...but on vinyl?

The Defektors kick this whole thing off with, "Not the one" a jangly stuttered guitar rock from the annals of post punk, except for that solo. Jittery rhythms that explode into a chorus looking forward inline with Hot Snakes.
Next up is a track from the O Voids: A minimal, lumbering away instrumental like some kind of ancient war song the third day into the ceremony. It's a great effort just to continue on, the drugs are wearing off and the villagers are leaving, but this transition is necessary to get to that transcendental place. This circle of melody repeats a few times and "Crawling Machine" is picking up their limbs and placing them a few inches forward.

Sharp Ends round out this Canadian side and I just caught their latest from Mammoth Cave. Terribly long stick count in...waaay past 8? Is that because they're on some weird alternate clock...well no, call this one straight ahead 4/4. Hit the kit on every beat all the way to the finish. The guitar isn't even really an instrument as much as another hitting device via strings. I love this far off heavy Bauhaus echo on the vocal, it turns an otherwise garage track into something much creepier.

I feel weirdly lazy not having to flip this thing over every song.
Maybe this is sort of a Volar faceoff? USA Vs Canada? No...wait Volar says competition through cruelty? Hmmmm, maybe the opposite, I forget.
Anyway I'm happy to see this kind of a comp that's like a split single times 10, you hear some new bands that undoubtedly are related and that's a good thing.

The (USA) Side features, Ale mania who are fresh in my mind from that previous Volar release but this one feels like it has almost nothing in common with that single. Pure chameleons of a nightmare Cramps style rocker with some yelling spoken word in the middle. The guitar section living alongside the machine gun sampled riffs of ancient Ministry.
The Beaters track, "They don't really care about us"...do what else? Beat on the tom and kick into this equally creepy buried track. If Blessure Grave approached their output from a more punk place it might have ended up in this place. It's no wonder BG had such a brief run, they were creating this ominously heavy, dark rock that inevitably has to explode, the same way Justin Beiber (I don't care how to spell it either - ed) is going to on the other end of the spectrum.
The Beaters here are dark and fast. Nice under-usage of a synth sound. Just enough to question who's side their on.
Spirit Photography make their ghostly appearance last. What's been going on with them since that single on Sacred Bones? A track like "Where is the Light"'s layered muddy drum machine, paced, slow vocal haze. Where's the light?... Where's the full length?
Just as creepy but pretty frantically hypnotic with a lot of distorted guitar work that honestly could have gone on a lot longer in my book.

A comp from Volar that says, what year are you living in anyway?

Have a listen to the streaming tracks from Volar or pick up a copy, still available on white vinyl.

Oberhofer on Inflated Records

This sleeve is insanely deceptive. This thrift store painting of a mountain? Must be somewhere in Washington? That would make sense...all of the info I can find on these guys leads back to Tacoma, WA...and then the reverse is an old sepia tinted pic of a circus ring of a thousand model T's. They're haunting, slightly mysterious ambiguous pics...I was imagining sparse acoustic tracks, nothing like this incredibly dense weirdo fractured pop from the last named band, from Bradely Oberhofer.

"Away Frm U" on the A-Side goes for a fingerpicked low reverb sound like those Real Estate slow burns until a booming tom comes in with off the wall untraditional vocals against a toy xylophone. Not that it's easy to pick apart these layers.
There's no faking that honest sound of a rehearsal room...or just the untreated recording room that the band finds itself in. I think that functions today the way the home recorded sound of the late '90s signified immediately the pure songcraft and anti-commercial movement of the time. This raw, playing together sound of Oberhofer on this side says, maybe you heard I started in a bedroom, but I can kick out the jams with a bunch of friends with the same care and energy. I also know now I can look forward to seeing this live because here's the proof...unlike the Cloud Nothings....maybe between having to play live and moving away from the layered mess of a home studio, they just lost a lot being reinterpreted live. Or when Blank Dogs played the Music Hall once, not one song sounded anything off of any album. I want an artist to evolve, but it's also confusing to sound like any old rock band, sans trademark analog archaic synth.
This track here ends with some weirdo feedback as if you weren't positive already they will consider any sound and this crazy experimentation is going to lead right into a full length. I love that they went for that text message title too. Alt Buzzworthy etc.

"Dead Girls Dance" on the B-Side.
I really had to check the credits of this to see if it is, in fact, some related side project to Animal Collective. Before I can even officially find out I'm blown away by hearing any project so closely resembling the creative philosophy of AC. The vocalizations, the unnerving polyrhythms, the explosive bursts of melody....it's uncanny.
The melodies are unfamiliar. How they're arriving at the same cacophonous solution s AC is impressive. It's clearly not riding the coattails of that sound, if that were even remotely possible, instead they come to the same conclusions in this primal blend of traditional rhythms and experimental noise. I wouldn't make that caparison lightly, they are completely out there on their own and how this is in the same neighborhood is unbelievable.
This one sounds so far to be in the experimental stage of Here Comes the Indian but with that frantic pop insanity of Strawberry Jam. I know this is going to immediately turn people off, but maybe for others it'll get them to take a chance on picking this up.
Those embedded rhythms weaves in and out of one another with a melodic understated guitar. It all comes in together in a brief refrain to punch away, hit after hit and then repeat the opening at an even faster speed, between the layers of different vocal harmonies that skip the catchy measure by measure melody to work on a greater scale. These patterns can only be heard from above.

It's really impressive forward looking debut from these guys. As much as I want to peg them to that AC sound after listening to the A-Side again, I know it's only one side (pun intended) of the story here, A happy coincidence of super talent.

Go pick this up from Inflated Records, who also have a great Ducktails 12" on WFMU that I'll be reviewing in the near future as well as another single from this wunderkind.

The Chemistry Set on Fruits de Mer Records

The Psychedelic genre has taken just about every possible direction since it's inception in the mid '60s. Fruits de Mer Records is doing their best to document a big piece of this ongoing scene and Keith at Fruits de Mer Records has recently launched a side imprint of his psyche label, Regal Crabomophone saying:

"ok, now this is exciting - we've created the sister label we've long-discussed, with the intention of giving a few of our favourite bands the chance to premiere some of their finest new material on strictly-limited vinyl. We're going to do our best to ensure we keep up the standards we've tried to build over the last three years."

Their first release is from "The Chemistry Set", who surprisingly broke up in 1991, are back to pick up the pieces of that Stone Roses, Happy Mondays acid house, post-shoegaze sound. A combination of psyche grooves, and repetitive ground rhythms to improvise the haze over, while keeping the focus relying heavily on the dance beats, it's one of those genre's that arose out of an unlikely combination. The Chemistry Set is pulling those old beakers and flasks out of the closet to see what kind of bubbling, smoking beakers and accidental explosions they might get.
"Impossible Love" starts out with a reverse sounding harpsichord and a heavily sampled trip hop type beat comes right in immediately over this devolving looped sample. Taking the trip-house a step further they even introduce a horn section which takes off in the chorus along with the huge sounding backup choir. All the elements of classic psyche are present....heavy use of the tambourine, the hammond organ, guitar solo… along with a rolling along, heavy dub sampled beat.
It's impossibly long at 6:40, this one has to be pressed at 33, but I'm glad they could find it in them to cut this down and held back in order to fit the 7" format...I hear a 12" dance mix rising out of the fadeout on this one.

Didn't get a chance to hear the B-Side but Regal Crabomophone says "The Chemistry Set's cover of The Rolling Stones' 'We Love You', renamed 'We Luv You' by The Set; if you think you know it and love it from their latest album, you haven't heard this remixed version - Manel Ibanez has psyched it to the max (which is 100% by the way, we don't go in for 110% and the like) to create the 'Put That In Your Pipe And Smoke It' mix - the perfect companion to 'Impossible Love'."

Going fast, better get this one imported from across the pond from Fruits De Mer Records.

3rd Man rolling store in NYC!

Just got this email this morning about this tri-color single from Stephen Colbert....didn't see the performance I guess on his show, but Jack White has done it again. Living out the 7 inch dreams beyond what even what all the 7 inch blogs put together could imagine.
So glad the truck made it to NY...a little sad that they are on sale literally right now...but mark my words...one of these days I will have you tri-color! From one of these artists!

In other great news The Rolling Record store is with Jack and the gang in New York and will be selling the Tri-Colors of the single tomorrow, Friday the 24th...And Stephen Colbert is gonna help us sell em. But that's not before him and The Belles rock their new jam LIVE for the masses.. Yeah. One gig world tour. Put that in the "Don't Miss" file.

It all goes down at High Line Park at 30th and 10th. The Rolling Record Store opens at 11 and the jams get kicked out soon after... So come see us for Colbert Red White and Blue Tri-Colors and other exclusive merch tomorrow. It's gonna be LEGEND.

Kestrels The Solipsist EP on Noyes Records

This single from Noyes Records came in the other day by the band, Kestrels, out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, a 4 song EP with a photo contact sheet sleeve. The Black and white negatives feature nothing but bleak surroundings without a person in a sight.
Which is nothing like the feel of these indie pop jangly tracks inside.

"The Light" on the A-Side has a quiet, slow intro, the haze of delayed layers is barely making it's way closer and closer to a frantic indie all at once surprise explosion. They get me every time dammit, just when I start wondering when the song is going to start...ouch. Just high enough borderline falsetto vocals with big power like Doug Martch, harmonizing with the tracks of himself. They hint at their handiwork with false starts, or a half beat behind the rhythm and even have time for a far away feedback solo then it's back to optimistic chords and dense pop.
Next up, "What Happens", starts off with a solo electric chord opening and then repeatedly stops on a dime for weezer-esque breaks and near acapella. A wah wah pedal raises the bar on the guitarwork...they love these changes, like exercise. A big refrain, drums booming and all of a sudden it's, "MY NAME IS JONAH...." That force of instrumentation building on one another in an instant. That expert bent chord sound coloring every note. A hell of a fast paced, sweaty windows down ride.
Putting this up next to that Dog Day release has this label, so far, stepping into the huge shoes of indie-pop pioneers, Slumberland. Back when "indie" was still something a little more relevant than "alternative".

Dead Time on the B-Side, has a far off, narrow echo, thin distortion distance from Something about Airplanes, a little bit tin can telephone just for a few seconds and only to flip the huge sound switch again, and if you think it's overused...you're wrong. Chad has a great vocal quality throughout, that natural abstract songwriting that doesn't get indie precious, while the song itself really highlights their love of the layers of guitar. It's always mixed into the background but it's the backbone of every piece. These harmony layered vocals as great as they are shouldn't be separated from this. They really get into it with this complete digital(?) meltdown towards the end of this one.
Finally they round out the whole thing with a Black Tambourine cover, "Throe Aggie off the Bridge", I still haven't heard the original but they make it sound like a natural fit.

It's feel good, summer pop worth firing up the turntable for. Totally consistent, fun, end of the century pop with honest guitar work that's never going to get old.
Even more impressive is that they jam pack this 7" with 4 equally great tracks, I have to think these sounds must come TOO naturally, and they aren't taking it for granted yet. There isn't a second of filler, a double A side definition.
If any of the bands mentioned above strike a nostalgic chord then let that indie flag fly to the put in cart button. It really shouldn't be one of those amazing sought after high priced singles 10 years from now...because you'll have one.

33 rpm EP with the first 100 on clear blue vinyl, a glossy cardstock insert and a full length coming in July. More songs then they needed to be noticed.

Get this one from Noyes Records or the Kestrels themselves.

Acid Baby Jesus - Hospitals EP on Slovenly Records

The only thing that can make William Burroughs creepier is to white out his eyes, and Acid Baby Jesus right away gets points for this punk rock cut up sleeve, de-eyeing Mr. Naked Lunch. Acid Baby Jesus might even be from something penned, or cut out by Bill...I wouldn't be surprised.

As for the first track, from "Hospitals" this is a dirty feedbacking garage effort with a bit of that Cramps creepy attitude. I think basically we're dealing with the best kind of punk garage energy from a 4 piece. Recorded in a thousand year old garage in Greece, proving that yet again, give me a blind garage test and I'd never guess it originated here. Greece is having some pretty massive political and financial problems and not to say this release has anything to do with that, but I could see a lot of bands springing up out of the ashes of the social unrest there.
This track has a huge surf reverb melody against the driving every other snare hit beat. Big delay distortion and snotty vocals that comes off like anything in the heart of Nashville for gods sake.

"It's on Me" seems to have a dirge horn sound that I'm starting to think is a distorted guitar? This gritty distortion has so much texture as it slowly vibrates through the wave form, it starts to turn into a low horn sound. There's some great Jacuzzi Boys style guitar lines, and they aren't pushing the tempo's like the boys either...it's a long distance run to the finish. Like a slowed down Bass Drum of Death with a phantom horn, created by a demon guitar. I really can't explain it, could be completely wrong. It's that sort of weirdness combined with the straight ahead garage punk that's going creepy places. Some messed up synth or piano banging rhtyhm brings this side to a close.

The B-Side, "Losing it" gets even slower, almost a ballad, or country western feel, with the surf garage underpinnings. There's a great endless reverb on the vocal where someone hits a decay button for a second and that part of the vocal goes on forever, twisting the knobs faster, slower. He's "losing it" vocally as well.

Get it from Slovenly Records, who have a ton more stuff I have to investigate.

Slovenly proudly kicks off 2011 with a monster 45 by Greek freak-scene Acid Baby Jesus! Vibrating from Athens, the most ancient depth of the garage swamp, this lysergic squad has delivered a three track psych-punk single that'll turn your speakers into ruinous rubble! The discus opens with "Hospitals," a classic stomper with an incredibly hooky vocal driven by a wailing riff overloaded with reverb, twang, fuzz and echo: a truly supreme anthem that ouzos with loud-fidelity wizardry. The single's single, and equally stellar as "Hospitals", "It's On Me" has a brilliantly trippy video directed by acclaimed Greek cinematography team BLICKER. The B-side, "Losing It," moseys forth with a hypnotic country stroll that seems to slide right off the wax with warped organ lines, desperate vocals and a criminally cerebral and percussive arrangement. A remarkable debut from this brand new band. Full length in the works.

Splintercake / Foot Ox split on Folktale /Stankhouse/ Tiny Panda Records

We go from found reel to reel psyche projects from yesterday into the '90s 4-track bedrooms of Splintercake and Foot Ox. A liner note even says: All songs recorded in Bri and Teague's bedroom, both bands jammed into a tiny bedroom, hunched over, on the dressers, one in the bathroom...No, they probably recorded one at a time thanks to the magic of multiple track home recording...this might be on a cassette 4-track? More likely these days it's your standard laptop...and I can't help but love this sound....the first singles I ever really heard were of this persuasion, not only were they amazing artifacts, but every one was full of new home recording techniques to emulate.
So a split 33 1/3 EP with 6 tracks like this...I would have definitely picked this up, yesterday or today, and it's a pretty amazing document of a scene going on in AZ.
The doodle 2 color sleeve I imagine is exactly the sort of jumble of influences that make up a lot of the tracks inside, like visual samples.

The Foot Ox side starts with "Colorado Springs", a masterpiece of almost The Unicorns proportions. Mathy off-rhythms combined in an effort to force together totally unexpected percussion phrases...and they do it in spite of the self imposed restrictions. There's heavy indie guitar work in here as well....it's just a solid, slightly experimental pop track that I wonder if only can be created in that kind of completely free form environment. I get it, you don't want to dick around like this in a studio...and it's too bad, so many bands could benefit from that.
"Robert", the next one, has a really moving cello track and wavery Jeff Magnum, rapid fire vocal craftily jammed together. "Swimming in your bloody stomach." They have that catching you off guard pop and then give you a lyric about birth like that.
This runs right into "Pomegranate", literally they must have been recorded one right after another.
All of this single has that abstract, naive, childlike longing sort of raw emotional feel with a slight nasal vocal, a bit like Built to Spill's Doug Martch. But it's the ramshackle, thrown together sound I love, a random array of elements they are drawing from... an essential part of that DIY ethic that says, "That broken keyboard just might have a great melody in there..." or "The SK-1? That's as good as a guitar." (Which they actually convince me of at the end of this.)
It's all so sincere, it's immediately heartbreaking. The kind of strangers diary entry that you actually have something in common with. A chorus of voices singing together over the layers of rhythms and instrumentation slightly out of sync in the way that's impossible to fake.
There's some obligatory crazy sample keyboard meltdown madness at the end of this side which is kind of nice actually, is this the SK-1 again? Damn you can hear the talent in just this little 20 sec cheap keyboard piece.
The Splintercake side, first track, "Forever Sleeping": if I was going to start from scratch and create the perfect indie pop sound, it would have to consist of a guy and girl vocal, like Splintercake. This combination over the densely interwoven guitar and bass melody...just like the Swirlies...or Krecs or Slumberland Sound. It's the sound of a bedroom and something you have to put together with friends. Maybe that's why ultimately this sound is so familiar and why it immediately seems like home.
Then, holy shit, "Unfair" comes out in the middle with big time synth break beats and a yelling rap vocal. It's so ridiculous, but completely committed. Just the fact they go in this direction, why not? It's the kind of thing that made the Unicorns tracks so fun to listen to. Their weren't any boundaries. There's even the old school use of samples...I'm glad to hear that coming back, maybe it went overboard at the time and went out of fashion, but that idea of random snippets of dialogue etc in a song can be so great.
"Proud partner" then goes back to that layered harmonic indie...like Bunnygrunt pure american home unassuming indie rock. This one even ends with the hiss of a cassette tape rolling and the hum of a TV. A quiet intimate conversation, an unwelcome explanation bordering on heartbreak. Exactly what both sides of this single are about.
Experimental pop home recording, hearing DIY from the tiny grooves. Really it's what the most successful 7" singles are all about for me. An EP of 6 track, 2 unknown (to me) bands and catchy raw imperfect recordings of talented friends.
Perfect sound 4fr.

Go listen to samples of these tracks and get it from Folktale Records who still has the yellow vinyl pressing available. Can also be found at Stankhouse and Tiny Panda.

The Young Sinclairs - we spoke our minds EP on Planting Seeds Records

There are a lot of bands recently on my radar exploring this '60s psyche sound taking it to new conclusions, or combining it with today's instrument sensibilities and then there are the bands that are the audio equivalent of civil war re-enactors. Not that The Young Sinclairs dress up or anything, but they take reproducing their sound very seriously. You can hear right away the painstaking attention to detail in this Byrds or Kinks era homage. It's uncanny, it may as well be a reissue from a psyche label version of Last Laugh...or is that Fruits De Mer Records?
It's not a Captured tracks release taking those musical ideas and moving forward. The Young Sinclairs are standing perfectly still, having studied this echo sound and then captured it completely, down the accurate mix levels of all the instruments. The sitar flavored guitar, double layered, high frequency eq'd vocal that sounds just the smallest bit like it's coming from a tin can.

The cover washed out field photo could have gone in that lonely acoustic direction, but it also applies to the abstract maybe substance altering perception of that '60s past. The Young Sinclairs are making a hell of a go of making those sounds unmistakably from the time. I almost want to play some kind of 7" gameshow where you could play something contemporary like this against an obscure '60s album and see if the contestants could tell the difference.

But even within this throwback genre these tracks stay catchy without being overly bubblegum or about holding hands...it's firmly rooted in those early psyche experimentation from 64-68, combining those pop songwriting elements with a more sinister, altered state side and adding more extreme reverb or echo effects. But here I am talking about this single like it's a part of that era... I honestly keep forgetting.

For a track like A-Side's "We Spoke our Minds" there's a groove bassline and delicate drum section, those two areas stay rock steady with subtle shifts while the electric takes liberties with that melody. The vocals have a tight plate reverb....it fluctuates between a tiny room and no effects at all. I'm getting a California Dreamin' feel from these and the Fresh & Onlys of course, they inevitably come up with any recent band that's close to this sound.
"Have a Home" has a softer harmony section and a more modern vocal phrasing then I think they would have tried back in the day. They've really captured that warm electric strum sound of the era, it's a more intimate space then the other distanced efforts on this one, and they just might have some updates up their sleeves once they get this exact reproduction out of their system. It's subtle.

"You can have her" goes back to the symbolic '60s elements; the tambourine, the acoustic. I can't get over this production, they nail this sound....I'm no expert but the memories of what tiny amount of experience I've had with this sound is all here. It doesn't matter if it actually was anymore. What I imagine all music from my parents generation has to authentically be here. The guitar solo and a heavy gain boosted amp sound, the strings almost cutting out. That little gem of an imperfect performance is what gives this track it's character....like Cinnamon Girl. That Neil Young solo is the most amazing one note experimental playing I've ever heard.

I like these guys a lot, but I worry someone found these 4 tracks on an old reel to reel at a garage sale and this band doesn't even exist. Someone see them live and say it 'aint so.

I can't help but think also the label really missed an opportunity here with that fancy paper that has seeds pressed into it you can bury in the ground and it will grow. Unless they did that previously...or it's a stupid idea, who wants to bury the 7" sleeve?

Get this single from The Young Sinclairs from the Planting Seeds Records store.

Roanoke, VA's The Young Sinclairs mark their debut release via Planting Seeds Records with the fabulous "We Spoke Our Minds E.P." (PSREC-065) Released worldwide July 20, 2010 on limited edition 33 1/3 RPM 7" Vinyl and Digital Download - the digital download version will include two bonus tracks . The Young Sinclairs have been bringing their brand of jangly 60's inspired psyche/folk/rock (RIYL: The Byrds, The Essex Green, Rain Parade etc.) to the world since 2005 as part of the Magic Twig Community. The band features: John Thompson, Daniel Cundiff, Sean Poff, Jonathan Woods, and Samuel Lunsford. In their five years they have self released several full length LPs and EPs. Along with their new "We Spoke Our Minds E.P." the band released the 18-song Vinyl only LP "Songs Of The Young Sinclairs" via Athens, GA's Kindercore Records. They have also toured with fellow PSR artists The Lovetones. They are gearing up to support both releases with their much anticipated summer tour with THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE.

Puncture on Last Laugh Records

I appreciate the archival activity that's been going on over at Sing Sing Records. Tons of amazing reissue punk, pop stuff that I would never have been aware of, let alone be able to actually buy from that late '70s early '80s time period. My 7" single purchasing started around the middle '90s and I pretty much just kept looking forward, mostly because original releases from these underground punk bands would be snapped up by serious collectors. And it's a little intimidating, you can't casually talk to the guys that know about this stuff, especially on message boards sadly. I'd like to know more but I just haven't taken the time.
But thanks to Sing Sing and now Last Laugh Records, they're giving you an inexpensive place to start. I was completely ignorant of Last Laugh until this showed showed up the other day: a single originally released in 1977 from the band Puncture.

"Muckey Pup" from the A-Side:
I don't think I even registered this keyboard sound the first few times through, I have no idea what instrument could have produced it in '77, let alone what the forward thinking was behind this combination of simple, line in bass and siren, feedback sounding synth. It's a big precursor to The Units, who are another band that took me a great reissue on Community Library to even know about.
The lyrics of course I get, picking your nose, eating it, sniffing people, being a Muckey Pup...actually... looking at the lyrics on the reverse sleeve the last verse the nine o'clock news / something to trip on / I bleeding love / angela rippon, is the kind of pop culture fuck it lyrics that made this era. When I started being exposed to Dead Kennedys and Dead Milkmen, it opened up a whole new idea that you could even write about the specific dumb things in your life, either politically or imagined...and that line about the newscaster doesn't get old. I don't know who that was, and it doesn't matter, the act of singling her out is punk enough for me.
I couldn't get enough of Sid and Nancy, and I even loved SLC punk when I caught it in the middle of farmland, upstate NY on HBO one night. So today, to be able to experience the real thing like this, would have blown my mind. You have a starting point, but it's so important to trace this back to the source especially if it's been so distorted by popular culture.
This wasn't popular, it wasn't playing on the radio, (except the B-Side, "You can't rock and roll (in a council flat), which of course ended up on Mr. Peel's show. What a loss, I hope there is someone close to carrying on THAT tradition as well) this track is pretty blues influenced, a standard rolling riff which vocally can only be pulled off by someone like Paul, and his fuck all attitude that's going off about something so mundane as council flat rules, but hey...this was that microcosm that's pissing him off. That is punk rock. Fuck you copy machine! This iphone sucks! Netflix stop pausing my watch it now movie! These are the punk rock tracks of today.

Get this one from Last Laugh Records, forget ebay, and listen to this like it was '77. You aren't the first pissed off band to be innovating the hell out of sound.

Sisterland on Too Pure Records

Another one from the Too Pure singles club...(I've got to get caught up, what are we 6 months in already?) this one from Sisterland.
It's amazing so far these are first efforts from bands without any hint of a full length yet...can they possibly have just recorded these couple of tracks one weekend? It's great a really established institution like Too Pure is getting behind new bands like this to be a part of this singles club.

"Tomorrow", the A-Side is setting the whole track in a real huge space with these buried echo-y vocals for off in the mix. A sort of shoegaze haze of the Twilight Sad through a post punk filter. The vocals have a great independent line not really relying on this guitar melody, or anything else in the track for that matter. Those disparate melodies working together a bit like those James Mercer, Shins harmonies.
There's a tightly wound, plate reverb guitar effect sounding like that Abe Vigoda timpany metal sound. It works to have this uncommon slightly experimental sound with
a heavily distorted, rough bassline it's a pretty unique end result, and really gets the best of both genres.
I read that this was put together in a bedroom, literally while getting dressed...and if you play this after the Slam Donahue single forgetting about what you did that weekend, Sisterland picks it up says, Don't worry about it, it's a good thing you can't remember because here's a new one all clear and full of promise again. Try not to fuck this one up.

"Bearing Gifts" has a much dirtier driving rhythm and that echo vocal that goes nicely into falsetto for any given syllable and that heavily effected non-guitar sound works it's way back in. In the same way Slam Donahue was using live drums in their electronic equation, Sisterland then uses odd gated drum machine cut off hits of a crash cymbal. It's a bit of the post punk jagged rhythm sound with a Crystal Stilts nod to shoegaze-psyche mixing this heavy delay sound with some weird elements and getting a new offshoot of the shoegaze sound. Lots of pop thrown in and plenty of unusual experimentation to separate it from just a wall of guitar.

Check out "Tomorrow" on Too Pure's soundcloud mix.

Get this one as part of the Too Pure Club or pick up just this one at the TP store. There's months and months to go still, and not all of these are going to be available individually, so that gets my finger hovering over the paypal button.

Slam Donohue on Too Pure Singles Club

Wouldn't you know it Too Pure has been at it again... you might think the singles club is over, but like Sub Pop, it just keeps going. I really don't know how you set this up with a plant...you must have to preorder the whole run?...and then get all the artists on board with mastered files....I have to hand it to them, and anyone else attempting a singles club, it's enough work doing it one at a time, I try to support these efforts as much as possible because it's also an opportunity to possibly not make even MORE money than usual...

Slam Donohue is surprisingly out of Brooklyn. I guess I assumed that most of these offerings would be the sort of indie pop hits that England had to offer, but here they are mining the basements and living rooms of Brooklyn! Well it's a good thing because I would have never come across these guys, and it goes to show Too Pure isn't a geo-centric organization...if there are catchy tunes, in that pop spectrum, Too Pure is out there with an ear to the ground.

The A-Side "It's Scary" is scary how Slam Donahue takes production to a new level, the crystal clear strum of an acoustic, the layered anti-progression electronic bleeps, the whole composition panned way hard to either side, just attention to every detail, it's such a shock to hear sound reproduction pushing the limits the opposite way of lo-fi. This stereo must be pretty good. I actually love this crazy nasal vocal, like the Drums or The Shout Out Louds, it's a specific instrument that doesn't want to be lost in the background. I sort of thought there was some kind of effect going on here but it's just a crazy layered, almost falsetto, soul voice. Sort of Prince with an electronic dance beat that's really just indie rock wired for choreography. It's a hell of an effort for three members recreating this live.
Then during a breakdown part it gets to just handclaps against just an acoustic with the chorus vocal. They don't even have to rely on the machines, they're always writing with an underlying dance rhythm, while avoiding the obvious glitch, hyper dance.
It's honestly hard to resist..I've been trying...you can't be taken seriously giving in to this.
Oh well.
No one takes you seriously anyway.

"Where Were We", the other A-Side, is kind of party call, with an infectious Matt and Kim kind of anthemic forget-everything-lets-rock track, Slam Donahue has that same attitude: they are determined to make you have the best time...and it's not even hard for them. There's plenty more of that strum happy guitar, asking "...trying to remember / where were we on the weekends?" Well,...we obviously were partying pretty hard, to the point of memory loss even, which sounds like a successful time. He doesn't sound like it's that important even...he doesn't really want to know what happened. Isn't it just funny that it was that insane?
Maybe it's the live percussion along with that acoustic that keeps this from almost spiraling out of control, drunk on the midi sequence rhythm. It mostly defies you to be anything but goofily happy. They have a way of making joyful enthusiasm sound palatable, hell, fun even. A few drinks in with this single on the turntable and where the hell was I Tuesday night?

You can get a feel for these tracks on their bandcamp page, then go get this from Too Pure Records, who have an exclusive pulse of worldwide party indie. They also hit the Knitting Factory on the 16th.

The Hussy, The Hussy, The Hussys on Fire

Got a chance to finally catch The Hussy last night at Fontana's and if I thought the recorded full length captured what must be the live energy of this band I was completely wrong. The studio recording captures the nuances and all the tiny detail of the songwriting and guitar sound, but when they play these tracks live onstage, they are new in a completely different way. Bobby and Heather, facing each other are pouring everything into playing these songs, it's all opened up to crazy effortless improvisation. I knew it was going to sound different from the record, but I really didn't expect the tsunami that blew in, you can't look away. It's over too quick, it felt like it just got started, there's no breaks, right into the next catchy wall. Bobby half staggered, half launched himself around different corners of the stage...out onto the monitor stands, about to topple over into the crowd and then swinging the guitar at the end of his arms back over to the mic when he wasn't singing. A totally natural out of control performance.

The only time Bobby stood still for a second and I managed to get a not blurry pic on my iphone was when he set his jaguar on fire.



I saw him reach for the lighter fluid and started pressing the button. The audience talking later outside were afraid they were going to also go up in flames. I don't blame them. It was the only conclusion to the friction that was building up onstage, something had to give...and not one bit of it felt premeditated.

They play again tonight at Don Pedros. Get some macaroni and cheese balls. Heat them up over the sweet flames of raw garage rock...and get their full length...it's going fast.

Leather on Jade Tree

Just got a copy of this in from Jade Tree: the band, Leather from Philly who have barely have a single cassette release behind them. (I swear it's almost getting to the point where I'm really going to have to pick up one of those dual tape decks at the salvation army just to keep up. I thought singles were supposed to be the leading edge of new, self released music, but cassettes are really making something of a comeback for bands these days. I did read that no manufacturer is even making blank cassettes anymore...and it is great that all these cassette only releases are recording over terrible old Tiffany tapes.)
If there's one thing I like about this hardcore, it's the brevity of it's message....that's not a dig at all, what I mean is take the title track "No Motivation" which has a lengthy feedback introduction and fadeout, it still only clocks in at 1:37 and feels hugely epic, probably because of the packed together riffs and frantic energy that doesn't just push the limits for limits sake. This is actually pretty tame tempo if we're comparing this to traditional hardcore...it's weird actually, I don't know how they're managing the feel of this concise, fully developed track in a little over a minute. It's somewhere in the middle of that punk hardcore and post hardcore, At the Drive in and Fucked Up, The Obits and The Minutemen.
The second track "Zek" starts to pick up crazy speed, getting into that weird hyper territory that I can't imagine putting together, it's getting amazingly complex and rapid fire...there is a great layered chorus that takes this out of the frantic yelling into unexpected areas. A Helmet style huge refrain, and it's all of these changes and the combination of melodies that make it seem like the timing doesn't matter.

These two make "Relapse" on the B-Side feel like a complete operatic score. The bassline starts out reminding me of Dive from Incesticide with even the clean, distorted, big guitar sound from that album. It's also feeling like that raw angst arrangements of Nation of Ulysses, they're really combining a lot of influences here, and it nearly starts to feel like their own mini-genre, dabbling in a bunch of directions at once, without feeling gimmicky or way overboard, or some conceptual project I'm not going to understand. It's subtle...a natural outcome of listening to these unconnected things for years and it turns into Leather.
At their live show I'll make sure I'm standing way in the back against the wall, so I don't get caught in the swinging arm circle riot in front of the stage.

Get it from Jade Tree.

With only a hard to find cassette demo, one sold out 7”, a smattering of blog posts and some messageboard banter in their wake, Philadelphia’s Leather have just begun to emerge from an existence unknown to all but those “in the know.” Sterile is surely not the first adjective that crosses one’s mind when confronted with the noisy hardcore on this 4 song EP, aptly described by compatriot and Clockcleaner frontman John Sharkey as the likely result “...if Tad Doyle had owned Age Of Quarrel and actually listened to it.” It’s safe to say that picking up this vinyl will mean reliving these ten minutes hundreds of times over while waiting for the next recorded dose or a chance to witness a live show (likely to be in a dilapidated warehouse or a basement as grimy as their sound).

By the way, over at Everybody Taste, Matt posted a viewable version of my article I did for their magazine/label...check it out, pick up a copy if you're so inclined.

The Hussy - Cement Tomb Mind Control

Bobby from The Hussy just delivered on his promise of a bad ass full length and a tour that is making it's way through NYC this weekend...with a live appearance on WFMU.

Have been giving this full length, Cement Tomb Mind Control a listen for the past couple of days and those early singles just hinted at this blown out echo to death sound that starts in from the first track, "I'm me". It got me thinking about this title, which could be the title of a Japanese Ed Wood horror movie, the Hussy have a fun, do whatever it takes spirit that equals completely rocking out this high energy, punk-garage. The vocals are distorted, the drums are explosive...this had to be mixed and mastered right on that line of fuzz, and often times right over it. But that's what makes it feel live...they obviously are at home on stage at full volume, leaving trails of motion in any still photo...and they captured this on the record. It's not easy to get that sense of space and more importantly the performance.
Heather and Bobby's back and forth vocal on any given track is what takes this beyond a traditional garage sound, it's the lyric sound of a duo along with the instrument interaction. They're both accomplished and half pushing each other to make this next one a little shorter, a little faster, and I'm going to get to the chorus first...no I am. Hearing Heather in this context, like on "Odd Duck", is this combinaiton of the the trained party howl of Shannon & the Clams with the raw scuzz of Bass Drum of Death. It's a dirty sounding surf, frankensteined together from the garage '50s and greaser rock blues. The back and forth of just 'Yea's" is priceless...they can get away with it sounding so good.

Everything hovers around 2 minutes and comes off as one endless bombardment. If you stomp your feet at high speed for 20 minutes you will have just gotten off the Cement Tomb Mind Control ride.

I have to further love a band that's open to just fucking around with sound and breaking up the A-Side with "Peace, bro", just an answering machine message over a crash jam completly fucked with a massive echo, then rewinding and looping the end of the message, "peace... bro -bro -bro"

Go give this a listen below...or better yet, catch the Hussy IN TOWN THIS WEEKEND! 3 shows ...you have no excuse.


Hussy is streaming the LP here, but of course then you'll want the vinyl from Slow Fizz Records,
or Bobby or Heather at one of these shows. Bring the extra 10 bucks.
Peace bros.

Clark8 "Snooze" EP on Folktale Records

I keep forgetting to take a picture of the awesome art all over the cardboard mailer that Chris from Folktale did...serious sketches, and layers of paint... reminds me of Unread Records personal touches that aren't even a part of the album release. It makes you kind of realize how ridiculous clicking 'like' or confirming a 'friend' request is. I've never met Chris and here's a real, one of a kind effort. Getting records in the mail never gets old.

The color sleeve of this single of a giant spider climbing into a sleeping guys ear caught my attention right away because it's pretty much my worst nightmare. It's that Star trek movie with the bugs things that were in the helmet that ate into your brain? Thanks for reliving this nightmare Walt Gorecki...appreciate it.

Like the 5" from Folktale there's lots to go through....a Clark8 glossy postcard, xerox liner notes, lyrics and a download card from deadformat.net (ha...digital is the dead format...nice).

The A-Side from Clark8 starts out with "Snooze", the title track and this lyric, "Right before I go to bed I brush my teeth with a cigarette." The layered emotional vocals have seen a lot of....let's say....L.I.V.I.N. as Matthew McConaughey would say. Cleanly produced, crisp isolated vocals, and percussion, you can hear each pinging soprano tom hit. It's weirdly reminding me of the Verve Pipe type of alternative rock sound. I know...that's not even a genre anymore. The next track, "No purchase necessary" has some abstract imagery about a mirror, and the vocals on this entire effort are mixed way out in front. There's a folk moment with some serious fuzz that picks this track up into it's groove. They seem to want to work with comfortable low tempo grooves for vocalist Rich to get in there and flesh out his epic narrative.

"Push Down" on the B-Side has a harder rocking core with an emo, Promise Ring chorus sound that then changes gears completely into a rumbly little reggae mix. An almost synth guitar effect from the very beginning is back and a heavy rock comes around full circle. It's a jarring change, they're really running the gamut of styles for a song that seems to be about ending up at a mental hospital...and is improbably upbeat....but then again, maybe these changes are reflecting that schizophrenic, multiple personality of the character here...nicely played Clark8. I never thought I would say this but....checkmate to ME.
The final track, "Blue Widow" is another way too catchy song about weed and blow, which would really be enough to pull me in but then they go and deliver a spoken word section "...another missed connection in a craigslist ad", and "just txt me so that I can hit you back". I imagine this is coming from the character dead set on self destruction in the earlier verses, that sentiment clearly clashing with the sunny direction of the instrumentation.
There's no mystery to any of the sounds captured here, a huge amount of attention was spent on the details, you can hear it...down to the eclectic arrangement of styles and clever lyrics. They could share a bill with Kid Icarus quite nicely...that party rock, alternative sound.
Rich drives the rock storytelling feel of Clark8 with a lot to say across 4 songs on the EP, from asylums to cigarettes...mirrors to craigslist ad's, the kind of rock star life where you try to get you best material out of salvaging these messed up situations and heading into the rehearsal space to put every last thing down in that notebook.

The reverse of this sleeve looks like the victim from the front has arisen to a rainbow of enlightenment...so that's at least positive for the protagonist...unless he's dead.

Get it from Folktale Records:

Had this record been made during the previous decade their is no doubt in our minds that it would have charted on alternative rock stations everywhere. Clark 8 brings you four new songs that are undeniably catchy and captured with warm perfection. Reminicent of mid-90's alternative rock/pop punk, these songs, despite being new recordings, will evoke some kind of nostalgia, and may even get you to start dusting off some of your CD (or cassette) collection you'd forgotten you had. These records were made in a pressing of 500 with 300 on black, 100 on transparent blue, and 100 on a mix of blue and white (think non-fat milk). They come with full color covers with art by Walt Gorecki and a lyric sheet as well as a download card for free MP3's of the record.

Los Buddies - Self released

Wes from Los Buddies sent this single in with a nice note a little while back. Silver printed 3/4 fold over sleeve with a beach bike illustration on the front, this 45 is dark grey marble with a black center label.

The A-Side, "Moon Bars" isn't about a watering hole somewhere other than the earth, but rather the handlebars on the bike on that cover sleeve. Those half circle bars on a bike that say, no big deal, I'm just out cruising around, no where to go. I don't have to aggressively turn on a dime to avoid a cab, or slip between 2 buses. I have white wall tires and all the time in the world. This is purely for fun. I might as well be walking, but this is faaaar cooler.
A lot like this '50s inspired slow dance, "I don't need no brakes on my bicycle", either he's so laid back it's cool if traffic creams this guy, or he's always riding 2 miles and hour and can just put his foot down. Either way, I'm getting a real laid back Wounded Lion sound from these guys....maybe throw in some Hunx sound, they have the form down completely. The trombone from Jeff Callaway is coming in over these harmonies is a big band nod to the form, busting out for a bleating solo. It's basically a love song to a bicycle, with all the innocence that goes with that nostalgic style...that sort of Beach Boys thinking of it's not what the song is about that matters, it's how you say it. This track is that slow ride down the boardwalk, it's hot as hell, like today.

RKO on the B-Side then gets a little update to that throwback sound, moving almost to the '80s...early pop punk, lots of ooo's and backup ahh's, starting with a big bassline and densely packed drum rhythm and layered vocals...all building to a double time end. The guitar here keeps a steady slow reverb undercurrent and it's authentically following those techniques and sentiments from the era, teenage misunderstanding, parents, staying out too late, let's face it, those situations never leave you. You think you can do anything you want now, record a single, buy records whenever you want, but sneaking out of the house, maybe to hang out with a girl, or 'borrowing' the car, will always be with you...and even if this sound wasn't a part of your direct childhood soundtrack...it's a pretty universal symbol for this simpler time...that's what this straight ahead, uncomplicated rock is for. Los Buddies are pretty easy going friends, hanging out...like Nodzzz. Get some pizza, cut off your pants into shorts, have a backyard show for 10 friends and destroy a kiddie pool.
This kind of thing is also the only way to get away with a purely nostalgic sentiment this otherwise sappy. if this was anything but music it would be completely ridiculous and overindulgent. In punchy, quick song form with this classic instrumentation you can get away with it.
Los Buddies are reminiscing. This single is their version of that group of older gentlemen sitting on the stoop talking about the old neighborhood used to be, the trouble they used to get into.
They constructively take those old times and fill a 7inch single. They could have just as easily focused on the negative and gotten more mileage out of it, but then they would be mean Mr. Johnson talking to himself, and yelling at the kids cutting through his yard...and I know know who I'm going to say Hi to on my way to work. Not that asshole Mr. Johnson.
Los Buddies.

Get this from Floridas Dying or Goner Records.

7INCHES in Analog Edition

Remember Zines? I do, I remember when instead of rambling all day in an html draft in blogger, you typed on a broken typewriter, or handwrote all over a piece of paper, copied them up and stapled them on the kitchen table and then got a couple of well hidden dollar bills in the mail and sent one off to a PO Box in Nebraska.

Well Matt from Everybody Taste invited a bunch of writers to see what it would be like to try reenacting that important underground ritual.

Here's your chance to get a taste of what it's like to read a bunch of great articles (not including mine) about Mississippi Records, Infinity Cat Records, and Father/Daughter Records; bloggers Aquarium Drunkard, Rollo Grady, Tympanogram, 7 Inches, Knox Road, Folk Hive, and Hugh Willett; and bands Sonny & The Sunsets, Lord Huron, and Levek. The rad cover artwork is by the ultra-talented Kaitlin Van Pelt of Breakfast In Fur.

Go get it from Analog Edition, Matt busted his ass to put together this mammoth zine, and I'm proud to be a part of it. I can't wait to read the contributing authors articles and interviews and I'm actually really honored Matt asked me.

Get a sneak peak here.

Dog Day on Noyes Records

I had heard Dog Day has since shrunk to a two piece from the days of Night Group and now the married couple, Seth & Nancy have not only the rhythmic telepathy inherent of a duo but also spend every waking moment together making them possibly at the very top of the duo pyramid. You don't get any closer than this. If anything can be held up as an example of the special magic of a duo then I submit Dog Day.
Night Group is still an amazing achievement. Insanely catchy, sparkling pop, with all the quirky composition of classic indie rock and even tougher twee leanings. I know that's a contradiction, but they seem to straddle that line. I've always been a huge fan of Seth's pitch perfect slightly post-monotone delivery, rising at just the right points to join the off the charts harmonies of Nancy. It's always been nostalgic indie pop that combines straight, experimental changes, playing with the odd time signature and vocals. A lot like Kurt Heasley from the Lilys or Ben Gibbard from....you know that first album. The one with the boat, the blue cover. Something about Airplanes had the fuzzy shoegaze sound and vulnerability....something I think Dog Day makes contemporary. Elevating traditional pop.

On A-Side's "Scratches", you can sense the effortlessness of their songwriting, these two have that insane talent of a group like the Dodos without the folk underpinnings, they take these simple elements, not relying on the allure of a completely new sound, but instead taking the 2 classic sounds of guitar and drums, and somehow making it new. The Swirlies could also take the simplest guitar riff that never sounded stereotypically indie and their sheer enthusiasm turned it into that undeniable indie rock. It really benefits them to strip down as a duo...and they don't sacrifice the size or polish in any way.
They actually put the lyric "A record skipping in my head" to vinyl...as ridiculous as getting away with including a sample right in the middle. They can do anything, and they're letting you know it.

Seth even did the cover art which for some reason reminds me of a Hozac sleeve, a slightly unsettling doodle, and on the reverse the geometric design could be a classic Doo Rag design. I always admired those guys design aesthetic based on the various 7" labels that released their singles, they seemed to have a consistent better homes & gardens/bauhaus style worked out years beforehand. That's all I wanted at a show at CBGB's was to buy one of those amazingly printed singles. I remember around the same time I was buying all the Chris Ware comics I could get my hands on...this Readers Digest ad feel is somehow classic... so simple that it could be old or new at the same time.
I sound like I'm still strangely talking about the music.

The B-Side, "Belle" has a less exuberant pop harmony pedigree. The chords are darker and distorted, the vocals have a bigger reverb. The usual hint of twee is missing, and I miss it. I would never admit to liking twee, it's a problem genre...I think because of very different artists that get lumped together under this banner...but it's also this unabashed pop they don't even try to make work, it just does.

"Give Me Light" is a real honest to goodness rehearsal space demo sounding track...and this is what you get singles for. To hear a band you already know and love, stripped down like this. It's also why the 'lo-fi' aesthetic is still relevant, to illuminate the processes and to recognize there aren't any machines involved in this sound, except the cassette player and microphone.
It's just Seth and Nancy live.
"Give Me Light" even sounds a little bit garage, with the hints of blues in the guitar scale here. A strong riff that should become the chorus...but of course Dog Day uses it as the intro. Then they top this side off with a neverending tape squeal in the final locked groove. The sound of a cassette winding to an end, looping forever around that last band of the 45.
When it's this good, raw and unburdened try to remember how a song can be stripped of a studio.... of every technological advance known to man, and be completely great...even better than any other way.
This track won't give you any more excuses, you don't need another pedal or a different god damn microphone. You can't fool yourself any longer, you either got it or you don't.

If you subscribe to the Single Noyes club, you get this one on green (yes please) with a download card, the sleeve is a double sided foldover with lyrics...100% perfect.

Milton Melvin Croissant III on Ash From Sweat Records

Got this single from Milton Melvin Croissant III via Endless Nest distro I liked immediately that the name symbolizes that kind of royalty pretension but then at the same time it's ridiculous. There had to be a sense of humor to this single...and the black and white hand drawn sleeve with blue lettering silk screened across it in a rough matte ink.

The A-Side, "The Song Remains the Same", which is not a cover of the Zeppelin song....or is it? There's a huge majestic vibe to this. From the get go all the sound takes place in this great expanse. Guitar's decaying and fading off into the distance...crashing far off cymbals. It's a folk psyche track with teeth.
With the sweeping strum of a huge guitar, I picture Lord Milton Melvin Croissant the third on the edge of a canyon with a wall of speakers, hair blowing in the wind. The strumming electric out to the canyon bounces back in waves with a steady tambourine rhythm and a low tom pounding right into a southwestern style, native American ballad, type of a track.
The vocals are equally far off, you have to be hearing this entire composition from a distance, probably because the sheer volume from that stack isn't safe to come anywhere near. A chorus of backup vocals join in for that choir, natural church sound.. It could be this sleeve art, which was penned by MMCIII by the way, that's suggesting this kind of turquoise geography to me, or it's the only place with the uninterrupted horizon to horizon line.
It sounds like the kind of song that grew out of communing with the experience of playing. Approaching the point where monotony turns into trance and in a way this repetition clears out all other musical experience...until a booming kick drum comes in like a miles away thunderclap. It's that big sound resulting from a heck of a lot of energy. You can just hear the destruction in a sound like that. A slow strummed hypnotism, a bit of Devendra Banhart fronting the Velvet Underground.

The B-Side, "High Plains Gothic", features an even slower drone percussion and acoustic melody. There's an electric strum every 4th beat, big and heavy fading out into nothing. More distanced vocals, slowly harmonizing and the feel of a long timeless unmarked journey when a huge picked distortion melody breaks this hypnotism like the lonely chords from Neil Young on the Dead Man Soundtrack...damn I have to find that somewhere on vinyl.
It's another ambient folksong sound kicked up by this aggressive anti-folk crash of heavy distortion that rises to a plateau of dynamic and never comes back down.
It's about as perfect of a song title as I think you could ask for with this one.

Coming from a label out of Denver, CO, Ash From Sweat, it has all the feel I would expect out of that extreme environment in the arid, expanse of the west. A huge sense of space, and monotony of traveling the distance... and especially the isolation. Milton Melvin Croissant III has at least some sense of humor in his moniker if both of these psyche folk tracks are a little bleak in their outlook.

Get this one direct from Ash From Sweat Records or the Endless Nest Store.

Interview with Fat History Month

I really can't explain why I like Fat History Month so much, I mean it's easy to understand why Cheap Time is so great for instance, the catchy, garage crafted punk...it's a hardwired party... but this is so minimal and runs the range of imperceptibly quiet to raging distortion. It also might have to do with these guys being a duo, that dynamic of two artists together, inherintly knowing when the change is coming, the ability to easily improvise epic changes and instrumentation with just a faint reverb. They are pretty naked out there, without a lot of facade to distract, and they're writing the most delicate and moving post punk melodies...sometimes purely instrumental and sometimes with just a verse of abstract lyric. A perfect combination as far as I'm concerned. I'm irrationally obsessed.

That's why I'm supporting their kickstarter effort for a new van to tour with Ugh God to the west coast. For a mere $25 you get both bands entire discographies and most secretive demos....and a single. Plus I want them to make it to NY in August.

Not to mention they talk about mixing and recording a full length coming out on Sophmore Lounge soon.

Listen to Sean from Fat History Month, download the MP3 here.

Cheap Time on Cass Records

Here I am saving the best for last from Cass Records, I finally got to spinning this last night. I think maybe because I just knew it would be perfect...
See... I get the fever when I listen to the dudes from Cheap Time. I get the rock and roll fever and I start thinking about cases of terrible beer from the gas station, T-top trans-am's, and peeling out in the school parking lot. If I had the chance I would recut the soundtrack to Dazed and Confused with Cheap Time, Hunx, Ty Segall, Bare Wires...and I mean it as a compliment...the same way that movie captured, in such a mythical, romantic way, that time period I think Cheap Time is doing the same thing musically.
It's not literally the same 'sounds' if you sat down and played that era against this one, but they capture that same feeling of no holds barred rock, the classic rock/garage fringe bands of the '70s maybe. The bad ass beginnings of rock.

A-Side's, "Another Time" has Jeff's main vocal real loud and upfront in the mix, a little distorted with smoother layers of singing underneath, all of course with that punchy, pure garage sound. Just that guitar tone is enough to make this recording, the brittle, thin sounding treble heavy sound gets even dirtier in the solo. They have to hold back a little bit and not show their whole hand to get away with something like this. Jeff sounds a little like"Pretty Vacant" Sex Pistols sentiment here, that similar cultural, anti authority whine...just here, it's not a commercial gimmick... and Cheap Time wasn't put together by some garage punk Barnum.
The track is about that endless search for something, being unsatisfied can be a good thing, to get you to excel and really push yourself....it's also the same thing giving the Republican Right a base of support that doesn't want to tax the rich because, "that's going to be me someday. My 7 Inch record label will make millions....billions, and I don't want to give that to anybody" I didn't even mean to go down this road, but Cheap Time is that freaking deep. If I were in English class in high school I would carve this into my cloth trapper keeper, and then break into the main office to play this single on the loudspeaker like Rock and Roll High School.

The B-Side, "Immediate Future", has a Stylophone synth sound sound that punches right in on top of this layered guitar that makes perfect glam sense. Could they go a synth punk direction? Yes. You can hear the arm windmills, the big strums while Jeff delivers the vocal narrative in a low register attitude, barely humoring the harmony changes on this track. Proof that he just doesn't have a lazy go-to style to crank out the hits, it's pure innovation baby, every time.
Cheap Time reminds me how much you can do with 2 minutes, the incredible range of changes, you wouldn't know it from the initial punk structure.

And of course there's Cass packaging, I hope to god he actually found an old dot matrix printer and ran these paper sleeves right through them to get this front image. It's like those awesome homemade newsletters with publishing software from the Mac Classic. It's a testament to perception...if you could only see what they get away with on film sets sometimes. If it's not right in front of your face, it's barely slapped together. Maybe that's how we got to iphones because at first even the Atari looked freaking amazing. This picture of a living room with a drum kit might as well be a sweet Christmas card from 1982. On the reverse of this sleeve is that great broken typewriter font, and this says "No. 4 in the Cheap Time Singles Series"???
Jeff - what the fuck man? Did you start a shattered records club and I missed it? Where do I sign up? I want a lifetime subscription option to the Cheap Time single series. I don't care what it costs.

But enough already, I like the hell out of it. Get it from Cass Records. Cheap Time is a god damn national treasure.

Cheap Time
MAMA-057 "Another Time" b/w "Immediate Future"

Jeff Novak and the boys strike back with their most straightforward, no frills punk rock they've ever done. The Aussie influence on these songs is undeniable and Novak's guitar tone is as close as possible to the Saints' "I'm Stranded" without having to pay Ed Kuepper royalties. If you like the idea of Cheap Time but feel they sometimes overdo it or put too many weird tangents in their songs, just buy this single and enjoy. Consider this your "no tangent" guarantee!

The Diving Bell on Fin Records

This single just in from a new label, (and by new this time I mean new to everyone) Fin Records out of Seattle, WA. A mere 4 months old, checking out the pics of the HQ, they hit the ground running. I'm assuming that's it's kind of Fin at the end of an Italian new wave subtitled movie, except this single marks the beginning of "The End".
It looks like they started off doing everything right, clear vinyl, weird cardstocks, exotic printing, even a heavyweight color paper sleeve? Money seems to be no object to these guys, and it's nice to see the lowly format get the royal treatment like this.
The Diving Bell (and the label itself) consists of guitars and vocals from Andy and Christian of Sister Psychic, who after checking out youtube, I do remember this Velvet Dog track from probably 120 minutes. They're joined by a couple different rotating members on the bass and drums on this single.

The A-Side, "Shooting Star, Falling" was written by Christian, his 13 year old daughter Hana and Christopher Freeman from Pansy Division. The main melody is based around a heavy tremolo electric guitar melody, the kind where you have to get that delay just right to sync up just right with the entire rhythm section. It's not a slow one and to get this to match up successfully for the length of the song is one of those engineering feats...or nightmares depending on how you look at it. The heavy percussion is a great balance to this ethereal airy guitar waves. The entire single is sparkling with that roomy super clean sound, capturing all the details of this performance.
At one point it sounds like the organ comes in in the same warm tremolo as the guitar during a refrain section. Andy has a casual vocal delivery that feels a bit like the lyric about a shooting star, falling...it's not some crazy violent, actual event, but a kind of abstract remembering, and indie folk song. Checkout an excerpt of this one from Fin Records facebook page.

The B-Side "Louisiana Highway" is a slow country psyche ballad, kicked off with a lonesome wavery organ melody, joined by an acoustic and heavy reverb electric. The Diving Bell sure is in love with airing out these big sounds, giving the melody room to wander around, the effects becoming as important as the notes. A falling backup vocal "ahh" along with this dreamy tempo and they're back reminiscing about that lazy afternoon sound of "Shooting...".
Lyrically they're down south, of course, and that highway isn't taking any prisoners, the devil is involved and Andy's deep vocals are way on top, reminding me of some of Mark Lannegan's solo album work:
"...buries his thoughts in an alligator (long pause) suitcase"....nice one...

This paper is that heavy stock wavy matte feel with silver embossed ink...pretty damn gorgeous, down to the offset label logo in the center vinyl label, and I even want to keep the press release they printed on heavy tan paper...it's moments like these I can relate to Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, getting caught up in the printing minutiae, the inks and weights.

Get this from Fin records, who are making me jealous.
Limited to 500 hand numbered copies, pressed on Beach Glass colored vinyl. Songs are "Shooting Star, Falling" and "Louisiana Highway." Produced and mixed by Martin Feveyear. Design by Asha Hossain.