This one came in the other day from Rocco over at Disordered Records, looks like he teamed up with Lo-Fi Records also out of Italy for this single from Viva L'American Death Ray, a band I've been seeing a lot of releases out on Mexican Summer and I've been meaning to check out. Or it's that I've checked them out before and they keep turning out different every time? They aren't ever going in an easily definable or easily pigeonhole-able direction, so let's see where these two tracks are going.
"Wrong ways" on the A Side is a couple of layers of direct, slightly distorted electric melody playing in and around each other, a dense weave of brief single picked notes. A complex nervous melody for the see-saw bass groove to keep a hold of. A goofy story song about shoes, in an almost JSBX crazy screaming blues man style but more restrained. The shoes don't fit and chaos ensues, albeit within this ultra brief 2 minute punk structure.
The AA side with "Nothing" then sounds like an '80s era Lou Reed 4 track demo, right up to the mic, unemotional monotone vocals under a direct line in reverb guitar played to it's own rhythm despite an echo'd shaker. It's got the same kind of nihilism as Lou, he doesn't need anything either, and it's doing everything it shouldn't: making this really clear, direct statement about this choice to be a complete loner...in other hands this would be unlistenable, but they sem to have that disease where everything they touch turns to melody. That's not so bad now is it.
I also like the sleeve where every part of this guy is a middle finger, he really needs a friend.
The tough part is going to be in tracking this one down, try Disordered's blog or Psycheout's crazy wallpaper website.
P.S. God damn great interview, (well great because it's Captured Tracks anyway) at Clash Music, glad to hear their great attitude towards the single, and how it's played a role in their development...just how they treat their artists, making a ral go at a sustainable label of truly challenging contemporary music. One of the best.
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