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.

Sic Alps 'L Mansion' on Slumberland

When I heard about this Slumberland single from Sic Alps, and I saw it at Academy, I picked it up. I've been trying to figure them out for a while...some of the early youtube videos I first saw were black and white garage, super noise, a little wall of sound-y, I was into the duo sound, two guys lots of noise, sometimes catchy, messy, energetic. The single Semi-Streets just cemented it, The almost drone distorted guitar, playing slow almost behind the percussion time, buried distortion vocals...it's such a great song. How did they get a glimmer of a melody out of the layers of crackle, it didn't make sense. Then Strawberry Guillotine seemed to get slower and heavier, but to tell you the truth I can't think of anything off the full length US EZ on siltbreeze...I have to give that another go, because I heard so much promise in Semi-Streets, I love that single.

This single, "L Mansion" on SLR has this great sleeve with a million black and white pictures of mansions on the cover, you can barely catch the title in light pink floating around the excess. Then I'm reading that Ty Segall is part of the Alps!??? How many bands can one guy....how many singles???...I guess we'll find out. Supposedly he's playing on this, I didn't hear the influence right away on L Mansion. This is a slower acoustic number driven by the strum folk rhythm. It's kind of dorky 50's 60's with flat distortion vocals and reverbed harmonies. I guess I could see Ty playing the electric that finds its way in here and there, to add to that poppy melody.
Is that a washboard? Oh yea. A lonely electric piano vibe slides in for a solo at the end and I'm pretty baffled...that's nearly something I would expect from the Vivian Girls/hazy/shoegaze scene...weird.

The B-Side 'Superlungs my Supergirl' is a Donovan cover...but isn't Mike Donovan in the Alps? They are worse than area 51.
This one is back to the dirty pounding Alps I've been waiting for. They get great sound in the drums, I swear they are recorded separately, the kick is mic'ed differently or something...jesus, I know all these instruments, but they are really pushing some ideas about sound around here. I don't know this song, but it can stand on it's own. The vocals are layered, really clear and peaking. Crazy electric whines, a huge bass rumble from a mic behind a mattress...but all carefully layered, each sound was picked out, processed differently and thrown back together...it's a damn good one and continues to baffle. They might be even more interesting because I never know where they're going, and when they hit it for me, it's dead on..but I might get sick of song after song of semi-streets, so they're doing me a favor really.

They are all overseas this month, then come back to the West Coast for Dec...nothing my way for a while it seems, still haven't caught these guys...New Years resolution: see Sic Alps this year.

Also if you're interested I heard on All Things Considered yesterday this interview with Merge Records, when they started talking about their early singles, it was like NPR knew I would donate if they showed they shared my love of singles. Weird.

Sic Alps available on pink vinyl from Slumberland.
They have so many other singles that just came out, I'm never going to keep up.
Are they going to get a singles club already?
Check out their shop, bunch of new ones...sorry NPR, my support goes to SLR.

Sic Alps make music with their eyes on the past but their feet firmly in the present. Bits of psychedelia, folk, garage, punk and other fuh fairly well flow from their fingers, seamlessly worked together to render easy categorizations pointless. Over the course of numerous singles and albums on such fine labels as Siltbreeze, Mt St Mtn and Woodsist, Sic Alps' Mike Donovan and Matt Hartman have carved themselves a snug niche filled with fuzz, crackle, vibes and most of all cracking tunes. Now they're joined by kindred spirit Ty Segall, and the dynamic duo has become a true power trio.

Their first release as a three-piece is L. Mansion, a swinging little folk/beat tune that is totally timeless/out of time in the way of Sic Alps' best songs. As straightforwardly "pop" as anything they've done, and a totally effective summertime single. On the flip we get a banging cover of Donovan's ode to puff -- "Superlungs." Wild and thumping, Matt and Mike have definitely taken the Sunshine Superman on a little side trip to Detroit rock city. Two great sides of Sic Alps then, and another genre-busting addition to their excellent discography. - Slumberland

sic alps - Tour 7" - on parasol

Sic Alps can go right up there against the great duo's, especially in the low/no-fi category...it's kind of blues influenced, like the black lips, loosely based, but all rock... in that it's not so much noise based, they do have a sense of rhythm and melody, it's just hidden under a lot of other sounds.
Really looking forward to catching this live since their recent NYC tour was canceled after some arm breakage on a bike, they're coming to my favorite, Death by Audio and Union Pool.
They've released tons of limited cassettes, 12"'s and 7"'s, completely No Age style.
This is my favorite video of them playing live. The perfect combo of pure sound and melody, the in between place of low and no fi. The shitty audio on that one is probably how it actually sounded that night.
I love the idea of the combo like this and they really stripped down the drum kit, who needs all that shit, and then they can tour with practically nothing...it's how I would want to do it for sure, no wonder they turn everything up.

You can get it from Parasol distro
They have a full length coming out on siltbreeze.....soon


Sic Alps
United
PS, US This merch table gem is a one sided 7" limited to 1000 copies. 500 on blue, 200 on red, 200 yellow and 100 on green. Contained on this thick piece of love is a rockola version of Throbbing Gristle's track United. This will be gone fast and won't be repressed.
Important-192
45
$5.50

El Jesus de Magico - Funeral Home Session 7"

This was on some end of the year best list and I made a note to check it out.
El Jesus de Magico is the kind of thing that could sound like a pure mess, but it sounds like a mess completely working. The elements are so different, there's this trebled out crunchy distortion, the bass is practically hidden away. A little electronic melody or theremin wavers in and out phased into oblivion at times. It's along the lines of Sic Alps and Wooden Shjips, pure psyched-out gaze.
It's the stuff to blow young minds, it's dirty, imperfect, layering feedbacks on top of echos on top of each other always, permeating through everything.
I remembering listening to 90.5 'the only station that mattered', and they would have live bands play on friday nights. I wish I could remember the name of this band...I think it was Unkle Kong's Thud Factory (now there's a name that is ungoogle-able...that could have been the name of the live show? It just popped into my head) and the lead singer just had the most insane echo in every song, to the point where it just became noise, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was so jealous, it overshadowed everything, and it wouldn't quit from song to song.
this is a little like that but there is some really nice guitar happening here, it's reminiscent of something hippie-jam about it at points but then something weird and awesome happens.

On Columbus Discount recordings

Sic Alps - Strawberry Guillotine

This is more psyche/noise-awesomeness from the Sic Alps and they get some amazing distortion feedback sounds on the b-side of their latest from Woodsist records.
Side A is a wash of... I don't even know how many tracks of guitar, it's venturing into old Jesus and Mary Chain Barbed Wire Kisses territory. So much sound it's ridiculous...slow hidden vocals ...moving just enough to get out of the quicksand and not get sucked back under.

The B-side 'Ratroq' is a lot of distortion and something horn-like... I think a saxophone, making horrible screeching sounds with some big guitars and a word here and there. Pretty minimal with tons of effects, lots of breathing room. Like the worst factory making evil...just pumping it out.
Then 'The Drake' just sneaks in after and is a couple acoustic sounding guitars strumming away underwater. It always feel like it's mastered with tons of bass, lots of mud and no treble. This is actually a nice little tune. Hold my hand until we run into the sun.

The description from Woodsist actually sheds some light on the narrative, unless they just made it up:

"Sic Alps toss back 3 new tracks for this seven inch. Title track "Strawberry Guillotine" takes the listener on a guided tour of an imagined war between the sprawling Golden Gate Park homeless population and the more established model yacht community. Musket blasts sound off as shopping carts laden with gasoline and styrofoam emerge from the silent bushes and charge the blood dimmed shores of the cement bottomed Spreckles Lake. Cover art co-opted from 90s LA anti-legends The Summer Hits who themselves stole it from the Walker Brothers in the first place. Apparently Rex from Summer Hits is now homeless in London where his long beard is black on one side and fully grey on the other. This record is humbly dedicated to him." - Woodsist.

It's also available from parasol distro.

Sic Alps • semi streets

This was really interesting and I'm still not convinced that I was playing it at the right speed, I tried it a few different ways and I think 45 was the best.
I am cutting noise / experimental stuff a wide berth. I'll admit I want to like this stuff, I really do...I tend to listen to it in addition to the instrumental rock, pelican, explosions. This fits in with all that in a way that electronic can't. I've seem it described as psychedelic? but I think of completely different stuff...I would say maybe dead meadow is psychedelic, if anything. That word is too loaded with a time period...get a new word. New words come along every week in music, for a good reason, everything can't be rock, it has to be divided into smaller and smaller subsections...but you'll never hear me describe something I like with those words....they are reserved for nerd writing like this.
I recommend this release and I'm going to look for a full length as well.

This description doesn't bother me...I kind of like it:

sic alps - semi streets 7"
'Semi-Streets' 'And What Came Next' / 'Brill Building' 'Social Strats'

$5.50 ppd usa

$8 ppd world

Sunshine filtering through broken windows into a moldy basement, a hammock full of leaves, fire ants bogged down in a patch of honey, sprawled upon a sandy off-peach tattered beach towel in the park: Summer's come and gone. Sic Alps bring a warm haze and lo-fi fuzzed jangle to keep it's memory alive. A-Side previously released as a cassingle on Folding. B-Side has brand new noise.

It's on skulltones.