Marnie Stern / No Joy split on Associated Electronic Recordings

Never expected to find a seven inch at Marnie Sterns show last night at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, which was criminally underattended, come on people! Oh well.. all the better to meet her at the merch table and say Hi. So on top of being completely amazing, she's super nice..there had to be 25 people ahead of me and they talked to everyone, and signed everything. I can't remember the last time standing at a show and being so completely into it...by my freaking self! Somehow making the whole thing feel like a tiny house party, but then rocking out way past 11. Her tour drummer/member Vince is incredible, matching the feel of Zack's out of control drumming...all around fun and you have to see this stuff in person, unbelievable.

So there's this tour only single from Marnie and her opener No Joy, Marnie's side, "Your kids are going to love this", sounds like her cassette demo stuff from Dog Daze, it's just her on guitar and vocals...a lot of layers, but otherwise sounding pretty stripped down, the vocals sounding tiny room mic'd up close, livingroom style...the guitar work is of course, amazing. Could belong easily on her latest self titled..the changes come fast and hard. A really cool section of super effects...almost getting into The Fucking Champs with that layered sine waves lining up ultra effect guitar sound. It's perfect just the way it is, that balance of creating something so out of control epic with the modest of equipment. That's how it all started anyway, and I'm glad to hear some of the solo creation side of her work. It's dense enough, and utterly baffling as it is, so in this one you get a chance to focus on how those layers get built up, the punching in of tapping...inspirational.

No Joy's side is actually a Shangri-La's cover...I wonder if they have any idea how deep some of their work has run into bands like this...recently I actually had to get Leader of the Pack and it is pretty amazing when thinking about it in the context of the early '60s, the way it's produced, the huge sound let alone the weird storytelling style of some of the tracks, the content...and they had great vocals. It makes perfect sense to acknowledge this, I just wonder if we'll ever see Mary Weiss jump onstage with the Dum Dum Girls at Bonnaroo. No Joy takes that sound and psyches it out with big swirling trippy warble, the vocals almost fading off layered into the background. The drum track is slightly distorted and the metronome is a super solid foundation for this track to take serious time, the guitars get hazier, more distorted, turning into a JAMC style fuzzfest. It sounds like there's even a huge crash or gong sound...if only Velvet Underground had looked a few years before at these guys...that's what No Joy is for...it's my first track from these guys and that's what the best split can do, expose you to something new. No Joy's track is over here on their bandcamp site.

This one is from Associated Electronic Recordings, who appear to be a management company who now press singles! Nice. Probably only available on tour, but you never know.

Ryan, take a look at that single buddy... you're never going to hear it!

Ok, you can borrow it....supervised.

Zulus s/t EP on Wizard Mountain Records

Got this single in from the guys in Zulus, who, according to Still Single are a duo from the Bay area who've existed as a number of different projects, this latest having been born along with a move to Brooklyn. Fugedaboutit.

I love the package these guys put together, a brown kraft paper screened sleeve, folded over and taped together housing a mini poster holding the single in there. Breaking the seal on the 45 hole covered by a zulus sticker, can't miss it, ultra handmade and even better, by playing it, you end up changing the whole thing...a little bit of destruction...but here at 7inches we don't hang singles on the wall like some kind of untouchable modern art, no you got to get in there and scratch a few records, drop them on the unswept floor, or drag a fingernail along the grooves trying to lift it off the platter. Oops.

I'm saying all of this because it speaks to where this super scuzz, hardcore duo sounds to be coming from...they aren't getting precious with this sound either. Even if the first track "Heatwave" has a backup surprisingly melodic 'ooooooo', like a Lightning Bolt meets Wavves pop sludge. It's a brief one, and they get down to business on "Illiterate Eyes", the vocal delay is ultra heavy on everything, lots of milliseconds just distorting the hell out of anything recognizable. When the pounding drums and distortion get going on this repeated chorus section towards the end, it's that nice overwhelming pummel....like staring into that supernova on the sleeve.

Duo's represent that kind of perfect union, you have someone to work off of, really it's all you need in a lot of ways...a beat, and a melody in some form or another. It free's a group up to pursue these really specific lines of sound, way past their end game. For essentially working with that overwhelming wall of mass sound, there's a lot of melody and structure here, not the things you usually encounter when 'harcdore' is mentioned. Mayyors were that example to me of a combination of those influences, but just so full of dread and volume, it doesn't make for easy listening....Zulus is something you can come back to, that isn't trying to drive the listener away, they're cutting some broad strokes with the huge sound, but it's coming together when you step back into something bigger. Like that guy that draws those 3D chalk images on the ground.

But awesome.

Wizard Mountain seems to be down at the moment, but these guys have this single available on their own site.

They're also playing at Public Assembly this Saturday October 1st.

Fat History Month Record Release Party!

Great show last night from these great guys, so awesome to meet them in person and pick up a copy of their full length on Sophomore Lounge Records and hear tracks from the Gorilla EP live. It's impressive to be a few feet away from the massive sweeping highs of that complex ever changing time signature rhythms and reverb guitar. My friend Evan was looking around to see what pedals they were using and was shocked not to find a single one...something I never even thought about. This wide shattering dynamic range is all due to Sean's attack on strings, winding down to an intricate melody and back slamming away in jagged riffs.
They are headed for Philly tonight and possibly back through NY tomorrow before they finally get a break, at least until November...

Their single is still available from my own Sweaters & Pearls label.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend / Horowitz split on Odd Box Records

Found the latest split from Odd Box Records in the review pile for today, I know I just saw an email that they are on to their second mailing batch in the split series club going on over there, so I'm guessing if you subscribe at this point you should get all 6, which is great, Blanche Hudson Weekend is a band I know I've come across before, but probably need a refresher and Horowitz is completely new to me. You know when you see sleeves like this, that the series is part of a unified whole, a sort of compilation if you will, and you're left making comparisons left and right to what comes next, where's the thread here? Do these guys know each other? What side vs. what side? Instead of just 6 records that came as part of the subscription...but I like when a band takes over the art too....I'm torn.

The Blanche Hudson Weekend, I was shocked to find still haven't released a full length yet...should be coming in October actually, but up until this point it's been comps and singles like this. They were an extension to Manhattan Love Suicides which I know I talked about at one point, and they sound to me like the girl group harmony, that they admit is influenced by that '60s Ronettes or Shangri La's, warped into a shoegaze, Lush or Blur dreamy pop, which has never really left. This layered dense pop structure of "If you're still together" can almost be off-putting, being so far removed from the raw stripped down sound of a garage trio, but then that's what makes it great in it's own right...being a bit mysterious, and completely atypical in todays musical climate. The high register ringing guitar delay against that tom tambourine rhythm is rolling in waves, when a band like this makes this fog of melody slowly creep up on you, the instrumentation bleeding into one another....well, that a great take on the MBV, JAMC tradition. The only problem must be, how do you make this stop? What's an acceptable ending once you take the time to delay this wall up....here they slowly fade it out, but it's still reverbing away in a room somewhere.

The B-Side, Horowitz does a track "Get Cleansed!", Odd Box putting these two together is a natural fit, with Horowitz on the other side of '90s indiepop you get the bouncy, shiny produced sound....when Psychedelic Furs were scoring films and the ramshackle twee sound of the Swirlies and all of K Recs was in it's infancy. The layers of vocals and guitars are still present, but they've been a lot more harnessed in favor of a specific melody here. The sort of surprise of effects is taken away so that jangly pop can be the focus, the next chord change, the next harmonic progression can have that stable footing. A lot like Bunnygrunt, the funloving happy pop is here to stay, that balance of heavily produced...or lets say composed tracks against that freewheeling attitude makes this twee or whatever you want to call it. The tracks ends with some of that improv guitar sound that appears way after the track ends...somewhat of a mini instrumental adding their own take on that sonic uncertainty both of these guys are trying to tame into pop.

Get it from Odd Box as part of their singles club, still reasonably priced for any type of shipping in favor of getting these great bands together under one entity, for your listening pleasure. Nicely done....again.

Revilers - Stand or Fall EP on Patac Records

The stencil font and the gothic title lettering of the Revilers EP let you, the seven inch browser, know that these guys mean business...looking further on the reverse sleeve has an old etching image of a guy hanging in some sort of a personal size cage from a hangman's beam over the ocean. I'm going to guess that he was probably a pirate because back in the old days, probably the late 1700's they would string you up like that to rot in the port where everyone could see. You are a bad person and no one is going to save you. In typical fashion this is more of Patac Records extreme music, from this band, Revilers, also out of Boston, or the Cape Cod area, if you believe certain reviews. I hope the cape cod area could support a band like this, but I kind of doubt it. I know what it's like in a small town, extreme music of any kind doesn't go over very well at the local bar, but then again, angry, fuck all, punk can find a home anywhere really, so that part of me wouldn't be surprised.
The A-Side has the title track "Stand or Fall", and the entire production on this record is really clean, seriously low end kick drums, they really spent some time mastering this, getting the levels in line to have one pretty massive wall of melodic punk, which is coming off to me like Agnostic Front, that defining of punk for the Northeast...really really angry, not trying to push the limits of performance or technical skill or attitude, but getting the job done with that blue collar aesthetic. we have to rock these people tonight, not piss them off because we're trying to suck as hard as possible out of our own boredom.
In, "Tried and True", it could almost be a hard rock, anthemic Replacements track, J-Had even shares that raspy gutteral vocal, which works to carry all the tracks really melodically in that Rocket from the Crypt or Murder City Devils way...don't write them off as only about the aggression and angst. There's definitely fist pumping attention to detail here and actual songwriting taking place alongside the attitude.
B-Side's, "Road Rage" has to be my favorite lyrics on this one:

So clever in your saab
You haven't seen the last of me
beat you in front of your children
while your wife holds my coat

Not that they aren't going slightly political, talking about standing together, union style, and losing power against corporations....all valid complaints, but I can relate to road rage, and this track would probably get you in trouble on the freeway.

Get it direct from Patac Records, extreme music purveyors:

5 new tracks from Boston's Revilers. These new tracks pick right up where the debut EP ISOLATION left off. The two opening tracks are strong Oi influenced punk anthems in the vein of BLITZ and UK SUBS, while Side B hits you like a sledgehammer with tracks inspired by the likes of URBAN WASTE, CHAOS UK, and INEPSY. 100 Blue Marble (Mail Order and Tour Only) 400 Black color vinyl is 1st, 1st served.

Woods/Kurt tour split + FHM record release party!

Hey there, super brief update this crazy rainy Friday, got an email this morning that woodsist has some of those split Kurt/Woods singles that were available on tour only! All exclusive to the single and I love both of these guys, so unreleased stuff is perfect for the single and I can't wait to hear this.

WE HAVE A FEW COPIES OF THE WOODS/KURT VILE SPLIT 7" FROM TOUR. 2
tracks from woods, 3 from KV. all exclusive to this release. limited
to 1000 on black vinyl. tracklist below

01 Woods: "Skull"
02 Woods: "Cold Blue"
03 Kurt Vile: "Commercial Reject"
04 Kurt Vile: "In/Out Blues"
05 Kurt Vile: "Water Fingers"

$8 ppd USA
$10 ppd CANADA
$12 ppd WORLD

PAYPAL TO:

cassettes(at)gmail.com

Raven Sings the Blues talked about it a while back and I wasn't able to catch them, so nows your chance.


I also want to mention that this tueday, September 27th, Fat History Month will be playing along with Lushes, Florida and Shareef Ali Elfiki at Legion Bar, 790 Metropolitan Ave. It's a Sweaters & Pearls Record release party for their single I just put out, so come by and say hi, see these awesome bands.

People in a position to know - R Stevie + Wooden Wand

It's hard to keep up with the People in a Position to Know Records, I hate to say it but I almost dread checking out their site, just because I know there'll be at least 3 new things I have to get and/or talk about, and not just, "Oh I pressed a record from a great band" but I handcut music exclusive to this release with a lathe cutter in my garage! And I letterpress printed them myself at a nearby printshop! I added the exclamation points because PIAPTK is such an inspiration when it comes to elevating the lowly single to and I almost hate to say it, something to hang on the wall and handle with white museum gloves.



Take this R. Stevie Moore and Billy Anderson release, it's hard enough to find R. Stevie stuff on vinyl, and it's usually way out my price range on ebay, and then to have such a cool handscreened, spraypainted matchbook style sleeve puts this over the top for just $5. The track is a great poppy, off kilter, falsetto Stevie number. Super clean production, full of high hat and electric organ bouncing along, I sincerely hope to still be half as much messing around with tracks for this long. To still have that sense of experimentation...totally inspiring. Only 400, a steal.
Then that Wooden Wand box set, and not just any box, a handmade wooden box housing 6 disks of James' archives. Mike assures fans that this isn't just pieces of unfinished songs or alternate tracks, PIAPTK was given free reign to choose work from the hundreds of unreleased songs over his 15 year career...too amazing. The gold vinyl is sold out, but black is still available...check out the disk listing:

Disc One: Hard Bargains – This disc contains the more “rocking” Toth tunes, mostly full band style recording with a heavier groove to it.
Disc Two: Roadside Peaches – This disc contains the lesser seen Toth song-type... the sincere, sweet, love songs.
Disc Three: Visiting Hours and Other Missteps - Full of the more Downer-type tunes. But don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of giggle-worthy moments despite the somber tone. A good disc for fans of Born Bad.
Disc Four: Get Right With The Goddess – A really good mixed bag of mostly acoustic tunes.
Disc Five: Preparing An Audience - Much like Tom Waits, Wand often writes tunes from the perspective of a character. Whereas Waits’ protagonist is a down-on-his-luck, hard living, skid row bum, Toth’s is more of a self-loathing, hard living, smarmy Southern jerk. This disc compiles some of the best tunes from that perspective.
Disc Six: Five Alive / First Songs – A collection of the lower-fidelity tunes, many of which are very old, and give a really good glimpse into a little different Wand than you are used to. Runs the gamut of recording type and vocal style.

You can even make an offer on his picnic plate 7" wedding favor discs! Jad Fair, Carcrashlander...only twenty of these exist! It's like you were there! I can't stop the exclamation!

Spook Houses - the Home EP - self released

Got this single in the other day from Spook Houses, a four song EP from a bunch of friends out of Ridgewood, NJ, who just finished touring... even opening for Little Gold at their record release party at Death by Audio. I know what you're thinking...isn't every band friends? Well, sure, but there's a different kind of dynamic growing up together in the same town, the comfortable freedom of the sound and the ability to experiment, all of which comes through on this single.
The A-Side kicks off with an epic length, "Home", lonesome thin electric guitar few and far between strums alongside some kind of atmospheric subtle swirling electronics, sounding a lot like some of the Animal Collective rehearsal tracks from the Crack Box. Low key vocals over this abstract landscape waiting for the entire band to drop in. When the bouncy guitar pop starts, it almost turns towards The Walkmen or Annuals, a really huge, rolling freight train of indie rock, with a raspy uncontrolled vocal, just bordering on a cracking yell, just keeping in front of that energy.
"Turn Twice" has a Replacements feel layered deep vocal, and gritty, crunchy guitar in this brief track that manages to start out with a bang and just builds on that climbing wave of sounds.
The B-Side's "Old Bones" gives you more jangly guitar jams, with an almost funk inspired breakdown part, that somehow matches the main rhythm, and I can't seem to get Paul Westerberg's "Waiting for Somebody" out of my head. It's an anxious track with the band joining in a chorus of MAKE / A / NEW / HO / OME.
"Walking at Night" launches into an off kilter jagged Abe Vigoda high echo rhythm for a minute that drops to a more mellow vocal here... I would even venture to compare them to another NJ nostalgia supergroup, Real Estate, in the way that they seemed to have come up with a body of work that's so minimal, built out of naive simple tunes that just plain work, no overthinking the progressions, the instrumentation. It's just how they always played it... granted they are going for that feel with laidback slightly tropical melody at power rock indie speed. I know there's a lot of content about home, and that feeling towards a particular place going on here, but I'm still just stuck thinking about this one musically. I think it's going to be one of those singles that sticks with me melodically until I figure out it came from Spook Houses single and after getting beyond the catchy indie, it becomes a completely different EP.

You can hear all the tracks over at their bandcamp site which will let you order the EP on black vinyl, with an old neighborhood photo sleeve, and the before and after drawing of what I imagine to be some kind of abstract crazy house. Simultaneously these memories are a home and a place to rip up and start again, at least when it comes to your childhood relationship to it.

Or head over to Evil Weevil, their second home.

Midnite Snaxxx on Total Punk Records

Got another one from the Floridas Dying offshoot label, Total Punk Records. You can't miss this giant red rubber stamp art sleeve showing the Snaxxx harassing the burger waiter with their punk rock ways. You've come a long way baby. Midnite Snaxxx are a trio from that Oakland, CA area spawning all kinds of great contemporary punk combinations like Shannon and the Clams.
In A-Side's "A guy like that", it's always hard to not hear the Ramones in every pop punk rapid fire track with that sweet harmony, but they've definitely captured that similar big layered guitar sound. All the snaxxx are contributing vocally in this track to that guy they just can't stop thinking about, together, over each other, in between the chorus...it adds to that loud party rock feel. They're in this together, with no lead singer dammit.
"Jackie" on the B-Side continues the seven inch historic tradition of offering two punchy all too brief tracks that force you to get off your ass and spin over and over. The drums are really pounding on this one, kick drum and cymbal on every beat with the nite snaxxx keeping up with as fast of a trio vocal. Like Personal and the Pizzas, Nobunny or Hunx, Midnite Snaxx has a knack for getting right to the punk point in a massive racket of power chord changes with a menacing bad ass attitude. You are going to be the burger waiter guy, get used to it.

Order it from Total Punk, black vinyl (duh) printed white sleeve. Insert with mail in coupon for giant badge. I think I'm going to have to get one of those. The internet has really spoiled the days of sending 'well concealed' cash in an envelope and waiting months to get a single before the company folded....on second thought...

[TPR-02] Total Punk is proud to bring these Bay Area broads (members of the Bobbyteens, Trashwomen, and Loudmouths) into the family. I met the Snaxxx in Atlanta and they manhandled me, picked me up, and treated me like a submarine sandwich; then tried to force me into a strip club to watch them yell at strippers. These two short blast of tough edged bubble gum punk may make them seem sweet, but beware these aren't those kind of snaxxx. This shit ain't cute its TOTAL PUNK!!!

Los Ribereños on Electric Cowbell Records

Electric Cowbell is insanely passionate and prolific in putting out way left of center music from all genre's, the most recently to pass across my turntable have been of the salsa-funk world music variety, but that's not even fair. If there's something really interesting I would have never heard of, EC is already there providing this kind of entry point to entire new worlds. Case in point is this single from Los Riberenos, a Peruvian band working in the Chicha genre. This is humbling stuff, as much you'd like to think you have somewhat of a handle on things happening in contemporary music, when something like this is happening out there, it's a sign of just how pigeonholed your own taste can get. Mix it up once in a while, it doesn't have to be a music lesson, but do you need another one-sided experimental noise single? I'm just saying be well rounded...and I'm truly thankful for these sounds.
So the A-Side, "Silbando" features some major crooning from leader John Beny, over a rolling slow conga fill opening, then that washboard scratch sound drives this one home. As soon as it picks up, a great twangy, sort of surf guitar sound plays the lead melody, improvising all over the rhythm in between John's vocals. Nice background kids singing backup. The mix of percussion is impressive, building through various slightly varied tempo's with triangles, kettle drums...an entire village of metal banging. I think that can't even be helped, performed live, you'd be compelled to bang on something. It's a brief one, they hardly get into another chorus which fades out, but there's still the B-Side which is a remix of the track by Brooklyn's Greenwood Rhythm Coalition, and that's another thing Electric Cowbell does that no one else I know of is doing, highlighting the interpretations and variations of these sounds by Brooklyn artists. Here they've kept the original largely intact, with the addition of a groove bassline, which until now, you didn't realize was missing. There's even more variation on the percussion, layers of more eclectic instrumentation with a dub slant at times, big time delay and echoing unrecognizable pieces of the original. The guitar is given even more room to shine when the whole thing comes to a stop. This one is housed in a pavement style collage sleeve on black vinyl.

So what do I think of the Electric Cowbell section of the seven inch shelves? It's making me a better person. Check out the tracks and pick this one up from Electric Cowbell Records.

Very excited about this one! Barbes Records has exclusively licensed Electric Cowbell Records a song from the new Roots of Chicha ll complilation. Chicha is essentially a sort of psychedelic cumbia-based music from the Amazon basin in Peru. Incessant twangy surf guitar playing montunos alongside propulsive, percolating percussion is the modus operandi of a chicha group. On side A we have the hauntingly beautiful track by Los Ribereños "Silbando" that gets a tasty remix on the B-side by Brooklyn's Greenwood Rhythm Coalition for NYC Trust. Los Ribereños, led by John Beny, is another Peruvian 60s band which specialized in a mostly Cuban repertoire but gave it what we can, in retrospect, call a chicha twist. A the time of this recording, chicha was getting a little more syncretic, with an occasional Andean flavor, but guaracha (a mid-20th century Cuban style of music) remained its strongest element....and this chicha-infused guaracha 45 is destined to be a world-class psych burner classic!

Ski Lodge at Cakeshop 9-16-11

Ski Lodge has more in common with Tennis than just conjuring up the images of boatshoes and popped collar polo teens engaged in leisure sports. That island, seabound sound is also a part of the Ski Lodge aesthetic on view last night at the Cakeshop. Jangly indie pop guitar with a tropical slant delivered underneath the christmas lights. A twinkling surf strumming over a delicate layered melody comes off with a '60s prom ballad feel at times. The lonely sounding reverb lines alognside the polyrhythm influenced rim shot percussion fills take the otherwise dreamy 8mm film clip into a more primitive place. Every part of the fantasy is explored; from the lazy windless drifting in the bay to the drum circles around the beach fires, there's a very definite summer inspired loose indie pop direction in every track with these guys.
It comes as no surprise then that Andrew Marr, on lead vocals originally is from Florida. He also produces and mixes their material that has a lot in common with The Smiths other than the family name, Ski Lodge seems to be drawing on a similar effortless songwriting out those seemingly minimal elements, with a hint of melancholy that comes with the inevitable end to that great summer. It can't last.



I recognized both songs from their bandcamp page, which they played, recreating the carefree, complex melodies shifting through the paces of catchy rhythms. The groundwork having been put in place by Andrew, whose breathy, upper register vocal is the perfect accompaniment, nearly harmonizing with the keyboard. There's a lot here to like if the Drums or Dog Day are on your radar, they've also nailed down that enthusiastic, catchy pop that's just plain fun to listen to live.

You can catch them October 8th at Pianos or pick up their 4 song digital EP from Dovecote Records released just a few days ago. That's not nearly enough once you check out this track, live is the only place to hear some of the future tropical pop they have in store.

A Game by Ski Lodge

Preview of Palmist Records split series!

Been meaning to check out at least one of these split 12"'s from Palmist Records, Fatcat Records sister label specializing in these exclusive tracks from a lot of really great bands. A great cohesive package, down to the Trouble in Mind style sleeves, of splits from the very inception. I appreciate a label like Mississippi Records that comes out of the gate from the first release with a look like this and then curating a particular bunch of sounds the whole way...

First up is their US Girls/Slim Twig split, The US Girls on the preview track sound like they're going all out on that Shangri-La sound, heavy reverb on the layered harmony vocals with tambourine all shrouded in this spooky haze. Slim Twig is a solo project that recently has evolved into this live incarnation, rooted similarly in a psyche organ sound with Slim's vibrato bass vocal, a very weird carnival ride.

Palmist says united them on this split goes even further:
each artist's participates in the other's side; Slim Twig co-produced and recorded Remy's side, while the U.S. Girl lent her pipes to Twig's 'Priscilla'. 

Next up is a a couple of damaged sounding punk acts, The Bitches who are a London based guy/girl duo, drums and scuzzy bass coming together in a Nu Sensae edge of experimental sound way. A towering wall of fuzzy rhythm, one hell of a racket yelling back and forth, like Divorce. Played loud and packing a full length amount of tracks on one side. The flip side features Yuppies, who are taking me back to The Sediment Club's roomy vocal and post punk jagged riffing. All energy and off kilter sounds, falling apart completely punk.

Then they dropped this Whines/Burning Yellows preorder, a perfect combo.

They have five so far, all handnumbered in an edition of 500 and up for sale on the Palmist site, get ready for some overseas shipping, but I've seen these everywhere locally, Permanent Records in greenpoint has a selection of these, so they are definitely carried by the big US distro's stateside.

Sic Alps - Breadhead EP on Drag City

Just wanted to mention another release from Drag City, this one is a seven inch from Sic Alps, who I've been checking out since the Semi Streets single on Skulltones, they always seemed to be working with all kinds of influences, garage, some pounding punk, experimental distortion and like the Ty full length from yesterday, this one seems to be exploring a similar 60's psyche sound in the Fresh and Onlys, White Fence ways. But when you look back at their involvement with Hospitals, The Coachwhips and Comets on Fire, it makes perfect sense.
A-Side kicks off with the title track, "Breadhead" is it a coincidence Ty's full length had something to do with bread? I don't think so. They got together, flying the same flag for DC.
They start the track out with that a slow reverb rhythm melody repeatedly punctuated by great splintered distortion, just banging out a crunchy mess of almost glitch rock, sounding like this barely contained force, overflowing with distortion. It gets away from you...by the end it bubbles over and destroys the stove. Like a tesla coil, sparking at inopportune times. It's a signature Sic Alps sound on this single at least, to create a mellow catchy psyche vibe and then introduce this otherworldly distortion. It doesn't phase the rest of the sound, plodding on with that booming tom beat.
"Jammy Soc" turns the reverb up with a ringing acoustic, and huge whispered harmony from Mike Donovan, panning back and forth across the speakers. A barely hit drum rhythm is trying to stay in the background with subtle hits, a creepy shoegaze feel that ends with the tape warbling to a stop. Remember when cassette's would get eaten in the car stereo? I don't miss that.
On to the B-Side's "1/3 Rabbit Sandwich with Fries", I would try that, anything weird on a menu, they get me every time, even if it isn't a whole sandwich. This one feels like that ramshackle rehearsal space jam, loud falsetto PA vocals over the sludgy rhythm of slow acoustic and an assortment of shakers, tambourines, bells. You could hear the fun layering in everything in the closet.
"Can't You See" then explodes with pure '60s influenced psyche-pop, the perfect amount of reverb strumming along, pounding snare, humming bassline, they found a perfect groove to wrap the whole thing back up in expert songwriting. Mike layering a front slightly distorted soul delivery over a quieter backup falsetto vocal. Bringing it all back to the Animals or Kinks...hey, I've been finding out they had some pretty good stuff going on back then, maybe because this is actually a Bob Marley cover? WHAT!

I had no idea they have another single coming out in a few days.. again on Drag City, and 2(!) double albums out with these guys already, put all these together and you'd have nine million hours of Sic Alps. I want.

Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread on Drag City Records

The bloodhound on the cover of Ty Segall’s latest full length, Goodbye Bread on Drag City could be something of a metaphor for the Bay area artist; the result of highly focused breeding with a single trait in mind, smell. It’s a bit of a stretch probably... does that mean then that Melted has something to do with deformed mannequins? Burn victims? I doubt it, but there is something to the idea to me about Ty being as determined to examine, experiment and rework his guitar sound as that freakishly wrinkly breed. His songwriting is quickly evolving, the number of singles and full length releases the last five years, counting only the work done under his own name is impressive by anyone’s standards, and with every release, the gritty, blues distortion is punched up with fast surf and 60’s garage rock tempo’s in unique ways. The stabs in different directions could be enough to provide paths for multiple bands to explore, but Ty is content to completely decimate a line of thought and move on.
The roots of Ty’s early work might have been recorded underneath a low-fi, over-modulated dense fuzz, but Goodbye Bread has the shiny gleaming production of something more classic, not that those elements don’t show up in different ways, the tortured squealing guitar sound is still there, and in this White-era Beatles reverb context it’s even more effective, it isn’t ever a progressive style pat on the back, it naturally settles into a comfortable crevice, reminding me of that single note solo on “Cinnamon Girl”. Ty’s guitar playing has the same economy and expression in an incredibly minimal melody, that’s his constant trick, to be a hell of a guitar player, and never let you know it.
Overall, Goodbye Bread is more laid back then the overwhelming bashing over the head, tom tom rhythm’s of previous records, but those raw influences and inspired songwriting has just taken a different form.
Take the sentiment of “Comfortable Home (A True Story)”, like “My Girls” from Animal Collective, Ty tackles the very responsible attitude towards buying a house, all done in typical stomping rhythm, and damaged solo with a surprising amount of vocal harmony, the track eventually devolving in breaking down the very structure itself. He’s also exploring combining this stripped down riffing with a drawn out psyche sound with a majority of tracks coming in at over four minutes. “I Am With You” even finds Ty playing a shimmery acoustic guitar, a stream of consciousness list of abstract things he’s sick of, until the song takes an optimistic turn towards appreciating the simple things. A heavy, stumbling crunch guitar gets down into the thick of truly mind expanding freakout. “You Make The Sun Fry” maybe the best example of both Ty’s traditional garage songwriting ability and his latest direction, heavy reverb vocal over a bluesy stuttered scale which launches into epic airy psychedelic heights. An album which is going to be a solid entry point for new fans and satisfying the ones who still cherish the 'Cents' single as a touchstone of dirty garage pop.

The Eeries on Evil Weevil Records

Mike from The Eeries let me know about their single out on Evil Weevil Records a couple months back and dammit if I didn't just get around to this today...there's just frankly getting to be too much stuff out there I haven't been able to even get to lately, and I'm not helping things by adding to the problem. Evil Weevil is based out of Philly along with this trio originally from NJ, and they have dropped an EP of sweet harmonies backed by reverb soaked jangle guitar. The unpretentious pop of Nodzzz with the teen wall of sound classic influenced Hunx or Shannon and the Clams.
Starting especially with the innocent sentiment of "Walk you Home", everything is coated in a distanced patina of huge room reverb sound, and harmonies from all the guys singing along together the entire length of this one, really every track. They're taking this singing thing as seriously as possible in the garage ballad direction of that bubblegum pop era. "Like You Do" is the slow dance disco ball starter, couple only, slow centered strumming and the guys are back in three part unison...really the more I hear this I can't get over the constant harmony work, always at the center of the surf pop.

B-Side's "I Don't Care" sounds like The Eeries are letting loose a little bit in favor of the weirdo raw, bluesy sound. The vocals are mic'd more from a distance and the harmonies are waiting until the chorus this time. "Listen baby" is the consummate crooning love song, the harmonies are back in overdrive, really belting them out, almost overpowering the smooth instrumentation, which is going to make for an excellent live show this Friday the 16th at Bruar Falls.

Get this one from Evil Weevil Records, who also just released today a 10 song cassette of some new material they're working on for another seven inch.

The Eeries are a 3 piece rock and roll band made up of friends from New Jersey who now call Philadelphia home. Recorded in one day by the band themselves in their South Philadelphia basement, the record showcases what the band does best. With exquisite and well thought out musicianship the band take pride in what they do with a nod to the music they grew up on. Comes Alive shows the band coming into their own, and becoming more comfortable with writing and finding their own voice. The Eeries are sure to turn some heads.

The Give it Ups / Santa Monica Swim and Dive Club split on the Odd Box Records singles club

Odd Box Records is based out of London, England and in addition to already putting out a bunch of releases from a bunch of diverse sounds they believe in, they recently launched this 7 inch singles club, I picked this one from the pile, The Give it Ups and The Santa Monica Swim and Dive Club, which is an actual organization who have to be scratching their heads at some of the google results that feature this Saturday Looks Good to Me offshoot project. Using the swim meet as a metaphor in "False Start" they girl guy harmonize in that classic indiepop combination with the help of an understated organ melody. The kind of thing that on the surface has this bubbly sweetness of completely joyous pop, but of course is dealing with an unrequited love, and failure. The sort of track for loveable losers who can't get a break. You've been there of course, and this will make you pick yourself up try again...not a bad soundtrack for Monday morning. It's going to get better, learn from those mistakes...or just keep doing what you're doing, what are you getting all worked up about? Put it on after the Besties, Bearsuit or The Shout Out Louds and get over it!
The Give it Ups blast their guitar ramshackle pop with a bit of post-punk couple of tracks, and "Why won't you go out with me?" yells insults at that guy's girlfriend this lead singer is clearly into. A little echo on the begging frustrated vocal, reminding me of Love is All or even Poly Styrene, with a sort of stripped down minimal jangle guitar. The straight forward beat and deceptively sweet melody is broken by this maniac and her inside voice yelling (let's hope). It doesn't help her that the backup vocal is delivered in a Shangri-La's '60s girl group harmony. She's going after them next.

I love this kind of attitude combined with a Beat Happening raw instrumentation. Like getting a cupcake tatoo, bad ass and not at the same time. "Knives Chau", is a Scott Pilgrim homage track to the character, sung from her point of view by one of the guy members in The Give it Ups, which is delivered in a voice cracking, just out of range vocal. It literally goes through her and Scott's history, also an unrequited love, with catchy harmonies, all working background to this up front gender bending unpretentious pop. I could see Eddie Argos loving this one all the more because it's on a seven inch. I would agree.

All 6 records are still available from Odd Box, everything from The Ketamines to the Gold Bears coming up next, for the very reasonable £24, which will make those shipping changes to the US go down easier. But who wouldn't want these exclusive tracks, from a this variety of completely different bands if the two I know are any indication. I'm not a fan of compilation LP's, it seems to defeat the purpose of listening to an album, but you throw these six records on and you'll have the Odd Box compilation split into singles...which I am totally fine with. It makes no sense... I know.

Fat History Month - A Gorilla EP on Sweaters and Pearls Records

I've been waiting to announce the latest single from my own Sweaters and Pearls label from Fat History Month. It's been hard... but until I finished printing those handcut linoleum sleeves I just had to suck it up. So there is it, ready to order, a 4 song, 33 1/3 EP clocking in at 14 minutes of mellow math equations and epic ringing distortion, from lead vocals and guitarist, Jeff Meff backed by Bobby Hobby's intricate pounding. I've always loved the dynamic of a duo, the back and forth between the guitar and drums, the stripped down nature of the instrumentation. Not that you would know it from B-Side's "Heart would take a Beating" where they build an intense wall of sonics from this minimal setup. Fat History Month takes pride in this kind of painstaking restraint, the intricate picked melody that explodes the next measure in growly distortion. Every track has these truly impressive ranges, the peaks of crazy time signature cymbals crashing, to muted heavy reverb picking, actually allowing notes to completely drift off out into nothing.
There's that underlying connection between a duo that comes across in the complexity of these changes, the kind of thing that comes from more than just the muscle memory of repetition. It's like all my favorite bands came together at once, A minor forest, Atvin, Unwound, June of 44... something like that....look, I'm already building it up way too much and I'm going to ruin it.

I urge you to go listen to their bandcamp page, check out the streaming tracks on the record player at Sweaters and Pearls and pick this up along with their recently released full length, "Fucking Despair" on Sophomore Lounge Records AND that "Safe and Sound" single still available from the Australian label, Bedroom Suck Records. I'm not the only one.

Almost forgot to mention when Fat History Month rounds up their tour to the west coast and back again, they'll be stopping in NY, September 27th at the Legion bar on metropolitan for a record release party show for this single. It will be the first time hearing these tracks in person and I'm counting the days.

Did I mention this is pressed on banana yellow vinyl with all kinds of smudges and swirls, some of them are even almost clear....very cool job from Archer Pressing.



I just couldn't let Darren at Velocity of Sound Records get away with putting out that Flesh Vehicle single and not responding with one of my own.
We're gonna have a 7 inch party tonight!
Alright!

Divorce on Gravy Records

Oh god dammit! I remember seeing this video of Divorce playing under a bridge in Glasgow and I was sold immediately, the crazy pure racket created by these 4 is unbelievable. The guitar noises that are created that aren't necessarily melodic, but completely awkward screeches and bursts combined with an odd rhythm drum section and of course Jennie Fulk losing it on vocals...all underneath a bridge. That's really perfect, reckless abandon and damaged noise put together with this energy in an abandoned public space. It's in line with the Coathangers, erase errata, lightning bolt and nu sensae, bordering on not even music, but a performance of music's possibilities...or something.
The A-Side, "Wet Bandit" starts off with Andy Browns cowbell and rimshot snare weirdo timing, and explosive bursts of scuzzy guitar delivered in pure rhythm, the actual melody is an afterthought, who tunes their guitar? Jennie has an equally internal vocal timing that's almost following the crash cymbal, jamming in verse after verse of semi-coherent lyrics. Fighting hard and matching this dense noise, she's changing it up right along with this manic instrumentation. Later, there's a magical call and response of the drums and an almost glitchy electronic distortion, the harmonics of blue box pedal back and forth. It's one new anti-rhythm after another. The silence when it's over is deafening.
B-Side's "Dildine" has that guitar and bass in staccato meltdown again against the fills from Andy, they truly appreciate noise, you can hear this attention to dissonance and those overlooked sounds that when put together like this have their own unique logic. Jennie is tearing through the lyric with energy that doesn't ever just get screamy, just caught up in this hail of sound, the individual phrases, yet another rhythm to contend with. They finally give in to complete noise breakdown in measured perfectly crafted punches, to build it back from scratch, in comes that off timing and gated screech of distortion. Divorce is in control the whole time, granted it's like watching sausage being made, it's messy and can be downright ugly, and not just anyone can do it. It takes a lot of secret ingredients to turn that mess of remnants into something damn good. Divorce please come to NYC.
They have an extensive blog, documenting insane tours, roundabouts and putting weird things on their faces, all of this is done under the pretense of playing some pretty great noise besides.

Get a taste of these tracks from their bandcamp page and order this direct from Gravy Records, or Shellshock either way, your getting this one airmail, but noise innovation is never easy.

Don't forget about their previous "Love Attack" single now available locally from Deathbombarc distro either.

25 Rifles -History of Flags EP - on Snappy Little Numbers Records

Snappy Little Numbers Records sent in another release the other day, this one from 25 rifles, also out of Denver, with a three piece of drums, bass and guitar sounding an awful lot like Mission of Burma or Husker Du's frenetic post punk. A similar straight ahead rock that doesn't have some of the theatrics or extremes of punk, but that early '90s adherence to a real structure and basically.... songwriting, which all comes across on the 4 song History of Flags EP.
In A-Side's "Episode", after checking out the lyrics on the reverse of the sleeve, it's taking me back to Unwound's "Laugh Track" and how their collective heads would explode today given the saturation of reality TV, where Unwound was referring to the idolatry of professional actors, 25 Rifles is marking the famous-for-15-minutes evolution with todays idea that some people will "...always need and audience to know / to know who you are". It's that weird increasingly self centered pressure to post minutiae on Facebook or Twitter. You know who you are. Musically, the steady 4/4 rhythm supports a distorted climbing scale, the vocals are understated, barely a melody until that last line has the rest of the band out of sync joining Jason in unleashing the chorus. It's all delivered with a deliberate energy, never out of control, just barreling along with a seriousness and real attention to songwriting. This track barely pauses and "Summer Fades" immediately takes over, Jason has these great Bob Mould style vocals, a little raspy, when he's drawing out the end of a chorus. It all comes down to the energy these tracks have, with all the nostalgic early days of this indie power pop, The Promise Ring, Rites of Spring, Nation of Ulysses, continuing a little piece of each of those bands through to get here.
The B-Side, "All Else Fails", even goes Replacements, that jangly distortion, the heavy melody, but did I mention that Jason has some serious guitar playing? Going from that agressive strumming to working in a separate single note melody in the middle of the speed, you wouldn't notice except this is a three piece that comes off sounding much bigger, when the band echo's those call and response vocals in the middle of this dense framework. In "History of Flags", they don't shy away from the politics of punk and hardcore, when it's done in a slightly abstract way, you get a classic track like this. You don't even realize where this is going before it's already there. A band that you want to get into that lyric sheet. The doublestrike typewriter font places it squarely into DIY punk and their sound is really classic. I'm going to finish that Andrew Earles Husker Du book and play this a few more times.

Check out their bandcamp tracks, this one is on marble purple vinyl, with download card from Snappy Little Numbers Records, documenting the underappreciated Denver scene.

Insult / Rampant Decay on Patac Records

If there is a one universal music law I've found to be true it's that the more insane, upsetting or extreme end of the music spectrum you're working with, in general the nicer the people who created it are going to be. So middle of the road, commercial artists are going to be the biggest assholes? See?
I guess it kind of doesn't make sense, but then again if you're in it for yourself, even if it sounds like the most hateful, apocalyptic meltdown that's just because it's all coming out in the practice space and not on peoples faces. I get it.
So obviously we've got some of the nicest guys in Insult, Derek, Nate and Paulie from Boston...this trio is pushing those human limits of speed, doom and growly vocals. There are six tracks here, from "Hate Your Face" and "Shitbag". It's amazing how foreign sounding the riffs are, unrepeating, and bordering on experimental at times, there's almost nothing to hold onto as the complete wall of noise starts in some internal hyper rhythm like in "Sheeple". There are hints at softer hardcore punk here and there, but mostly they're frighteningly dark and with inhuman speed.
It's in the final track, "Diddler on Parole" that they slow down for a minute and come up with a sludgy power riff between the tortured throaty vocal, a single repeated chord with kick and cymbal crashes, reminding me of a punkier Harvey Milk. A deliberately off key solo appears for a second, maybe just to flip off the whole idea.

The B-Side is from Rampant Decay, a 4-piece from Providence who's also throwing puppy birthday parties with Napalm Death listed as an influence...haven't thought about those guys since my friend Dave was carving their logo into the back table in art class. If they would have only accepted that desktop as his final project....
"Apocalyterian Party" is working with another switch between a semi-rhythmic structure that is mostly instrumentation being played at top possible speed and then slowing down to Melvins sludge, nice contrast guys. Rich's vocals manage to get even lower and more disturbing than the first side, it's truly evil. It's scary to even think how they ended up here musically, raising the bar. "Pigshit" gets more metal sounding with maybe their only attempt at melody, another track of insanely swapping tempos with Rich remaining king of the underworld. Truly frightening stuff that makes me question that music law altogether, this single is the anti-christ soundtrack.

Mostly clear, with black, like smoke trapped in amber....nice, from Patac Records.

Flesh Vehicle preorder on Velocity of Sound Records

Got a real holiday special for everybody: my partner in crime, Darren at Velocity of Sound on that Super Vacations / Ceiling Stares split single has gone and pressed another 7 inch already! Before the stampers were even cold, he was making the final arrangements on this one - turns out he has some connection to a member in the classic indie band, Superdrag, and they hatched this collaboration, pressing a single for his project, Flesh Vehicle. The Nashville trio features members, Jeremy Asbrock The Shazam, Steve Latination of Agent Orange on Drums and Tom Pappas from Superdrag, who are offering up a preorder of 4 tracks at 33 1/3 on this day of labor, 2011.

"What it is", first up on this EP, has that layered guitar indie rock feel, fat power chords and even gets a little sinister sounding sabbath hint at evil minor chords. Alternating between that power garage pop and classic metal. They've been keeping it pretty tame and catchy until the whole thing completely blows up with a scream, bass solos and cymbals shattering rumbling like Dead Meadow, in a psyche-metal meltdown..
"Fraud", has a hint of a country sounding bass groove with Tom's up front, bluesy vocal style, and the guitar injecting little bursts of rhythm, classy indie and classic rock at the same time, a stompy barnburner.
The B-Side, sorry, Omega Side, (nice) starts out with "Set free" and we cut right into Tom saying this is the third take of this one, I'm starting to hear more of a pop psyche sound in this one, sort of a catchy Hawkwind. There's a little of that classic, almost Ozzy vocals, their layered, just barely off harmonized in that prog rock epic way. This leads to a breakdown with backup ahh's and the slow reintroduction of the bass and guitar to rock out!
"Affluenza", goes a sort of blues direction again, combined this time with a reinterpretation of a classic '50s garage feel, deliberate windmill guitar strums giving way to the caveman tom rhythm and a chucka, chucka distortion. These are hard to pin down to any sort of specific genre, and would not disappoint any fan of these three artists.

Darren is also running a cool bonus, out of all the preorders for the single one person will get a signed test pressing...you think that crazy black and white split vinyl would be cool enough, but he raises the bar. Not too shabby, 7 bucks plus shipping for the split color or 5.49 for black.

Look, your family is pretty upset you killed the dog. Redeem yourself by winning a Flesh Vehicle Autographed Test Pressing!! One lucky pre-order will be randomly selected. Order by 9/13/2011.

This pressing of 500 includes fifty ultra-rare black and white split color vinyl. These go fast so be sure to order quickly. Limit 1 blw/wht per customer.

Exclusive hollywood insider photos from United! First time ever, black and white vinyl together! Genius!

The Sleaze on Total Punk Records

This latest single from The Sleaze is on the Floridas Dying's Total Punk label, and nothing says total punk like these giant rubberstamped sleeves, I didn't know they made them that big, either that or they carved them out of pizza boxes from the Dominos dumpster. Press the record, put it in a sleeve and stamp it, send it out. The Sleaze would want it that way. These guys are from Minneapolis and have the right kind of attitude and lack of low end.

The A-Side track, "Called you once" has this unbelievably paper thin sound, absolutely every trace of bass has been obliterated by the high end hiss of 14K. What kind of microphone could have captured this? How much is it at radio shack? The snare is like slapping wet plastic shopping bags. Snotty vocals about calling a lady friend on the phone, and leaving a message, but not too many, and why isn't she calling back, what's the point of this? Of course you write this totally nuts scuzzy punk song about the issue. Single note melodies, beating the hell out of that drum kit, cramming a lot of pop into the punk garage, which is already full of shitty equipment. Personal and the Pizzas probably put this single on to get hyped up. Fast, cheap and out of control.
The B-side, "Retro sexy in Blue" has those tin can drums leading us off with a slower groove, the guitar gets a minimal, with this post-punk (wha?) cool melody. They're getting a little bit sexy here, or should I say sleazy, some deep vocals way out in front, a little crunch to them. Nodzzz has a baby with the Stooges. They got a divorce immediately. Sort of laid back on this one, dueling thin rhythm guitars, but it builds to a spazzy feedback finish.
Two different sides of a low budget nightmare. The best kind.

Rich says we can thank Scion for all garage punk rock.
I'm looking at Florida in a new way.
It's warm down there right?
The whole year?

Get this one from Floridas Dying, I hear these are going fast.

[TPR-03] Minneapolis's shittiest sons are back to deliver more of their wisdom to an indifferent public. When they aren't smokin fuckin cigs, or doing pcp, their blowin up the phones of unimpressed teenage girls. "Called You Once" is a snotty start stop punker that's sure to be a "hit in the pit!" The B side is "Retro Sexy Blue" a slow punk burner that shows they've got something else brewing under the surface. I can almost hear their pimples popping.

Charles Albright on Permanent Records

This is the third single from Charles Albright, who's played in numerous Sacramento area projects until striking out on his own for a couple of early singles, I'm sorry I missed and delivering this latest on Permanent Records.
The A-Side "Weight" has a thin sounding, a couple of tracks bounced down distance, distorted riff with Charles just belting out a layered vocal. A home recorded fizzy garage unpolished wailing. Out there, pretty naked and ending up in a more measured, concise Ty Segall. A little bit more of the punk instead of dirty bending blues. A faux-pause sets up a squealing scummy buried solo and then abruptly cuts out. I can't put this voice together with the nice looking philosopher dude staring back...but I guess that's him, letting loose in a less is more way.
The B-Side, "I am a counter culture (Drop Out)" gets things partying with a couple of interweaving layers of pure distortion from those compressed, direct line in guitars. Phasers, grind metal, octave doublers...who knows what's going on here. Listen to Useless Eaters? How can just distorting a signal have so many distinct voices? He's got one, when you find that distortion right on the edge of feedback, where you can hardly even nudge the thing or it starts wailing, then you've got a Charles sound. There's some blues in this one, a little groovy solo that Definitely has nothing to do with psyche and more with experimental noise, a Cheap Time metal machine music by the end, those drugs are really coming front and center obscuring the harmony 'Drop Out!' backup vocal. Talk me down man, this one is going to be rough.
Do it again.

Not many left, get it direct from Permanent Records in Chicago, full length coming I think from Permanent in a couple of months.

Ela Orleans / Dirty Beaches "Double Feature" split 12" on Atelier Ciseaux, La Station Radar and Night People Records

Had to mention this split 12", not just because it features Dirty Beaches and Ela Orleans haunting idiosyncratic soundtracks, but that these three cutting edge labels joined forces in releasing this long player. It couldn't be a more perfect union and like all great split efforts, one will lead you to look into the others work...in this case I'd heard Dirty Beaches first a while back on the Italian Beach Babe label and his spaghetti western sound felt related to Deerhunter's subtly changing long form experiments and Suicide's stark futuristic minimalism.
Ela on the A-Side is also working everything ambient and atmospheric from soft tremolo reverb piano, on "Hope Lange"...or is that a guitar? Already this is going to be futile to try to specifically pick out and dissect the various textures and elements, that's the scientist part of the brain, and this is very much coming from that intangible dreamlike place that's better left to the unconscious. "Neverend" is even aligned with something like Ducktails, a real foreign tropical sound, made up of things that shouldn't necessarily be on an island list of typical instrumentation. A steel guitar slide, the heavily muted picked reverb surf melody, the layers of reverb, and high strung tinny plings above the frets, evoking a kind of seagull cry? Or is that a sample. Stop it. It's those mysterious uses of the familiar that continue to carry this into that futuristic place. Her floaty but in focus vocals keep bringing you to that Julee Cruise place, a mix of retro sounding instrumentation and voyeuristically witnessing this personal memory. Ela's "Movies for Ears" site mentions she has participated in BMI's film scoring program and worked with various experimental/noise projects in NYC, and composing a sort of narrative out of seemingly minimal elements is present in instrumental breaks like "Vertigo" where a string synth plays slowly over quiet field recordings, a stand in for our idea of an orchestra, the false promise of that transcendence maybe? It's quickly broken by "In The Night" as close to a pop feel as we're going to get, an uptempo loose feeling barely danceable track. There's a huge sense of distance from this side, everything is always out of reach, turning up the volume just increases the density and overwhelms. Finally "I know" utilizes a demo chord melody from an old Casio SK-1, and that improvisational sounding guitar slides, singing through a field of delay, this one could even be a part of that '60s wall of sound reemergence of the Vivian or Dum Dum Girls sound or the 13th Floor Elevators pop-psyche.

The B-Side from Dirty Beaches gets into "God Speed" a definitively sounding Suicide homage, the mechanical rapid fire drum machine track or sample and a repeated far off guitar pendulum swinging riff and his soulful vocal...a sort of Elvis animatron, constructed out of the samples from the idea of the vibrato rocker, with a lot of important pieces missing. "Crosses" then mines the repetition further with harpsichord strums and a lonesome electric again, like Matt Mondanile, flirting with the Velvet Underground dissonant sounds and neverending structure. The live drum sound here almost missing beats, nodding off alongside deeper plaintive vocals. "Death Valley" goes to his familiar western sounding place, in love with that slow reverb guitar sound, like Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack, lost on the tiny AM radio, a smaller steam train struggling down the tracks. There's such strong, specific references he's able to draw from, or just arrange. "Don't let the Devil F", has Alex emotively singing over a looped electric strum, a Leonard Cohen vending machine stuck in the back of that wild west bar, with the saloon doors that swing both ways. His attempts at homage always deliberately thwarted by the unnatural sounds. Next there's two pieces tied to New York, "A-Train" and "L-Train", the brush snare rhythm of "A-Train" decidedly creating that chugging away feel, while a massive delay on the guitar creates an eerie, unsettling effect...another reverb warble perfectly in time, not creating any notes, just humming away underneath...this is the stuff of Bladerunner, if I can nerd out for a second here...it's a dark future, maybe the most accurate because it isn't that far away from where we live today, it's not shiny and convenient, things are going to be even older. Are they going to one day replace the entire subway line? No, it's going to be replaced, piece by piece at different times, it's going to have these indecipherable layers of construction. "L-Train" is an even bleaker piece, which makes sense...mostly industrial assembly line machines stamping away, or the clicking of tracks underneath while a loop of an out of sync organ quietly bleats away in the corner. A kafkaesque mass.

Get it from your pick of various local source, Atelier Ciseaux or La Station Radar they'll be combining their catalog soon, if you're over there in Europe or from Night People who says:

Ela Orleans and Alex Zhang Hungtai are long time friends, artistic allies, and adventurous spirits who have both spent lives traveling between different cities, countries, and continents. Through their individual travels and life direction changes both have remained steadfast and dedicated to their own unique visions of musical outlet. The commonalities represented in Double Feature resound in a sense of space and time, a cinematic view of nostalgia. This is not a nostalgia that is trying to re-create the past but an art that seeks to use the presence and power of history to create more content in the present. Ela's lush baroque pop fitted against Alex's electric drifter blues creates for an eclectic but united pairing that serves as a good representation of their long standing creative dialogue and there correspondence as friends.