IAMIS / Tamara Dearing split on Gubbey Records

I covered the last volume of this seven inch series from Gubbey Records who have been documenting the Louisville, Kentucky scene exclusively the past few years and actually just released a double cassette of over two hours illustrating the diversity of sound in Louisville, doing away with the idea of this part (or any other really) of the country having any kind of cohesive sound. This split with IamIs and Tamara Dearing makes sense paired together while still not having much to do with this part of the country in any stereotypical way.

IamIs is a duo of Shawna Dellecave and Jason Cox in a Mates of State arrangement of drums and organ but approaching these layers with more of a Flaming Lips or Quasi baroque pop feel. In A-Side's "Paperface" the guitar is sandwiched mid level in the mix while Jason on vocals takes a narrative route working in sweet harmonies with himself that are elevated when Shawna finally joins in on this chorus. Real dreamy stuff about a broken projector over jazzy high hat beats and breathy Hammond. The focus is always on those vocals and the layers of harmonies working on each verse. It's a dense kind of swirly pop that piles on thick out of what should just be this married duo layering in jittery drums and an organ off on weird parallels to the guitar's jangle. The abstract smooth psych vocals remind me of the Apples in Stereo slick pop sound but IamIs they have the advantage of immaculate guy/girl harmonies and their mind altering organ.

Tamara Dearing's B-Side track "Break Your Heart" features another keyboard cleaner and bigger in this mix and vocally she's got a fluttery Feist style echo. Live sounding drums and she's tracked herself in for the harmonies here with a slight country snarl about not wanting to break your heart. Well - just don't then. In the meantime she's going home and listening to records when she can't stand up straight. It's all delivered in an unassuming delicate Rhodes whir that could sound sensitive and heartbreaking. Now I think she's warning the audience. She doesn't mean to break it, she's just trying to sing a couple of songs with this Jenny Lewis attitude and style that got her into this solo place. Now I'm thanking her for the warning.

Get this on Pink vinyl from Gubbey Records. All Louisville...which apparently is everything. Are they kind of ruining the very reason the label is focused on this specific place? Are they saying it doesn't even matter? If you can find a cassette player it's yours to answer. Silly obsolete medium. Tiny records are the future obviously.

Furlong / Sick City Four on Gubbey Records

Got another mystery single in from Gubbey Records out of Louisville, KY who went all out on this vinyl. I think the last time I saw splatter color 7" was on a Comets on Fire/Crystal Stilts split from Slumberland? That's not cheap my friends...neither is the full color postcard/download code insert. Someone at Gubbey Records really pulled out all the stops on this one and this can't help but stand out just sitting on the shelf. Dropped right into Vol. 2 of this series this one is a split between two Louisville, KY weirdos, Furlong with their psych-o-sludge and Sick City Four's free jazz noise equations.

Furlong on the A-Side comes off with this track "Sex Bunker" apparently inspired by an msnbc documentary?... Well now I have to look up what that could possibly refer to (bad idea), to their credit, this sounds like a sex bunker, it's a beefy thick smelling sound with screamy vocals, all hoarse and of course the chorus: "Sex Bunker!" Like a spinal tap metal homage, the heavy power chords ringing out over this rock steady beat while the melody starts to veer off into high harmonized notes and Judas Priest cover bands, only to slow down again in some kind of fret olympics, going for the weirdest changes. Huge synth tones breaks in... a hyper bassline is flying under the heavy moog souds sine waves piercing the upper register of dog hearing, while the all thumbs bass gets to the solo. Where are those real bass gladiators? That seems to have gone way out of fashion...Primus was the peak of bass guitar. Towards the end it's like the sex dungeon or whatever took off and started flying through the atmosphere. Man Crazy ride this one, obviously.
The B-Side finds Sick City Four doing "Barundi Punchclock" that begins with some kind of crazy effected brass sound right before the free jazz avalanche starts. Bleating noises running through pedals maybe, stuttered possibly sampled percussion shards flying...but this was all live I bet...it just takes some real crazy or sick (take your pick) bastard to be able to torture/coax instruments like this.
The percussion is mental, high hat noodlings and snare bouncing, gnarly guitar work, seemingly out of tune in that deliberately obtuse, always hyper. The soundtrack for a time lapse shot zooming down the streets of manhattan at night. A sax sound steps back up, throbbing, low, a baritone sax? It's got that almot synth sound at times, truly leaping way underground. Drums are beaten again, taken through the paces of dymanics, then it all stops for bleats and a clambering woodblock. The whole composition is scracthing around, like that annoying mouse or herd of them in the country. Mouse city as they say, running across the sheetrock at night...only there happens to be something huge behind there also. Something you definitely don't want to deal with.
This woud play along with Z's or Jason Ajeman...or aA or An Albatross (wait are those the same bands?).

Get this from Gubbey Records.

We present you with the second volume of our split seven inch series, a series that pairs bands of varied musical style together on unique colored vinyl. This edition is no exception. Vol. 2 features two wonderful outsider Louisville, KY bands, Furlong & Sick City Four. The record is on super sweet translucent orange and green splatter vinyl, limited to 300 hand numbered copies.

Side one features the Louisville weirdo musical freak show, Furlong. Their curious single ,“Sex Bunker”, is a fiery tune that shamelessly blends speed metal, lo-fi punk and psychidelic experimentation into a meteor that breaks apart on impact.

Side two features Louisville experimental legends, Sick City Four. Their single “Burundi Punchclock” summons forces of hollow tree trunk echo, depth charge deep river guitar, Tsetse fly horn mutation and a million sputtering punchclocks to form a single side of dark spinning matter.

Included with the record is a download card that includes a high quality (320kbps) MP3 download of the record and additional bonus tracks from Furlong “Hoarder Fire” and Sick City Four “The Anacreontic Song”