Going through the pile I grabbed this Trouble in Mind single straight away because these records have been nothing but absolute hits from bands I just haven't come across any other way these days. They're really out there mining new stuff for themselves that just so happens to be stuff everyone else should be into. Including this single from Woollen Kits, a three piece out of Australia, unpretentiously hobbling together that sincere, heart on their sleeves garage-y sound. The sort of thing that's really baffling, there's nothing obviously to point to, the sum of it's parts infinitely more valuable than breaking it down. That won't stop me from trying.
A-Side's "Shelly" wastes no time in getting right into the heart of this rawkus chorus style sound. Huge sounding guitars, everything slightly blown out, the raw sounding hoarse distortion to just in the red vocals, but it's all because these guys are really letting the studio have it. They tried their best to set the levels up right, but when they got right down to it, the track and this energy takes over, blowing out the needles and those blinking eq lights. Oh well what are you going to do, you can hear that in exchange for that anal attention to detail, you get fantastically catchy riffs and laid back vocals working in their own just off melody. Like Natural Child's goofball antics combined with Yuck's indie pop style, Woollen Kits seem to be working both sides of that fence, but keeping it a great song at the end of the day. You don't hear any sort of master plan, or responding to trends.
Last week at the Word bookstore music bookclub, we talked about the Throbbing Gristle album, 20 Jazz Funk Greats and I got the sense the whole thing was a series of unsuccessful attempts to comment on the state of music in the late '70s, you had weirdo disco tracks with deliberately out of sync drum machines, but all that intellectualizing doesn't end up with anything I want to play over and over. It's this kind of instinctual, gut reaction to creating fuzzed out pop that doesn't have to have any gimmicks. It manages to be accessible and damn fun...which I would argue is harder than just throwaway critiques on popular culture. Yeah this sucks and we know it...so there. I guess I tend to want to really enjoy this maybe because it seems to be removed from the conversation. They're over there in Melbourne, Australia taking all those records they grew up with and ending up with another classic.
"Down Your Street" seems to take a bit more time working into this slow more of a beatup garage sound this time with a heavy echo on the vocal reminding me of that Rob's House release from the Fe Fi Fo Fums, or a jazzed up Velvets Track. The right out of the box jangle that goes back before indie and into that psych repetition sound to expand minds. The band and lead vocals (everyone is named Tom) trading this groovy chillout vibe back and forth. It's not a sound that has anything to do with the summer or the beach, even though it might at first sound like that sunny day. They haven't probably thought about it that much, like Nodzzz, this is just a couple of great snapshots that you really appreciate. Are they going to end up at MOMA....well, let's just see.
On crazy marble brown vinyl from Trouble in Mind Records. The track below should send you to the website.
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