Protomartyr "Colpi Proibiti" on X! Records

I first came across Protomartyr thanks to their Urinal Cake Records single which ended up being a detroit history lesson about the infamous, Bubba Helms' and his photo caught in a rampage after some baseball game. Protomartyr is back on the baseball train with this 4 track EP Colpi Proibiti (the Italian title of the groundbreaking film "Death Warrant" from Mr Van Damme). The A-Side track titled "Baseball Bat" kicks right off into heavy fuzz zone which feels like a departure from that Urinal Cake one, they're always stripped down garage to me, but this is getting a little metal. It takes that low end buzz and even goes hardcore punk in big time chord progressions and a stutter quick snare kick combo. Big chorus of "Baseball Creep!" from the bleacher section, and then this drops down to a slow crawl and snarly Cramps echo only to blast back into some garage-core territory which robs you of that final "baseball bat!" I love the tone they strike between that heavy punk freight train and a Johnny Ill delivery. The no nonsense songwriting of less is more. Working just outside those conventions, piling it on in great ways. "You're with a Creep" is a bouncy little melody in that garage pop style with an attitude Kidda Band vocal or a raspy Walkmen style, stumbling along in that nice real way where he doesn't hit all the marks, because it's rock and roll dammit. This guy has obviously been stood up and the dummy has to remind himself about that fact in a melody that follows that picked electric. Not leaning to heavily on the fuzz or garage labels they just have that sense of economy that makes this go down easy.

The B-Side has "The Milk Drinkers" coming out with that hyper tempo again, just in case you forgot that they can deliver on the punk. A great rattly snare keeps everything on the straight and narrow. His father collected beanie babies? You'll just have to listen for that one. Buried minimal guitar comes up with a funneled melody but still has time to go completely mental. Proof they still want to party.
"Psychic Doorbell" (why is that so hilarious?) starts with guitar feedback distortion leading into a tom and groove bassline with bursts of scuzzy distortion and this sense of real space is still here and these vocals get better and better. They seem to be almost holding back with that push/pull tension, and the gravel vocal adds the immediacy. This time that open high hat is real buried, where is this exactly coming from?.. those subtle things that make this feel smart even when they are obviously out for damage. The guitar? here literally explodes and sustains off into the sunset. Another kind of darker number. It's got that barrelling energy but the recording says, we can do this at any volume and without playing as fast as possible. Such a weird mix of that garage shitty sound and a smart lead like The Muslims/Soft Pack or Johnny Ill. These weirdo's takes the reins and you just follow along for the ride.

Pick this up from X! Records, the more I hear these guys the more I like them. Getting better all the time.

Druid Perfume on X! Records

"Don't eat 'em they're poison" - This A-Side track kicks off with a country fried, sister trio harmony about the dangers of nature: "Don't put them in your mouth they're poison"...and a free form jazz cycle blasts into existence. It's ugly, head rolling around, looking for a rhythm in a cloud of free jazz. Vocals are essentially a ballsy, rough screamy affair using the whole dynamic register, like these sax scales. You've got the bellow and the loud scary growl against the bleats and yowls from the brass section. They're getting off on making as dirty a mess as possible. Captain Beefheart standing at attention, really listening to the layers of instrumentation writhing around again.
"Honk your horn" on the B-Side then uses those horns to jazz up a rock beat. Big throaty skronks, all those unkempt noises to throw any attempt at regularity off. But then this one skillfully pulls it together at the drop of a hat. It would be a bad idea to write this off an completely untalented, they are deliberately undoing all these traditions. Rolling distortion riffs and yelling blues combined with a new endgame of jazz.
Druid Perfume. They smell like a hodgepodge of sweaty blues and metallic brass horn sounds...or all the spit left at the bottom of the trombone... a chaotic cajun bajou band's tracks all played at once. The mystery of that back woods cabin selling moonshine to a couple of locals. Christmas lights in the yard and a couple of crappy chairs. They've been playing here for years in this weird time warp.

On X! Records

Check out a track from their full length on Urinal Cake:

Terrible Twos on X! Records

This single from the Terrible Twos is a repress/additional press of their single from back in 2005 on  X! Records, who were nice enough to send this over along with the Johnny Ill Band and Tyvek single...pretty cool that they seem to be set on keeping everything in print, like this classic single I would have definitely missed out on by now. This interview from Termbo has the 5 piece's origins in Detroit and playing shows with the Dirtbombs or Frustrations...they're still at it heaed down to SXSW this year and putting out a full length on Urinal Cake Records...Nashville move over.

"Plunderball" has the dual guitars crushing heavy riffs, with a weird synth sound in the background, otherwise a real tough affair, lots of authorotative singing and WOOOOOWWW!, fun screaming. Like something related to the Make Up, but really they keep completely changing the melody up keeping it massive, real serious party, heavy rock and roll. Maybe there's a little dash of Sabbath, the timed power chords, with a heavy soul sounding blues freakout, alternating between this speed metal and scuzzy garage, all high freaking fi. They're really going for speed, this high hat rhythm is pretty insane, Chris or Craig, they sound like they go back and forth on vocals as this track gets szicophrenic, two distinct parts fighting with each other, but in the end it's all just a variation of the balls out punk in the garage sound that Detroit seems to have no problem fostering.

"Spitting Image" starts with the rumble fade in of feedbackand they are just as determined this time to rock that greasy blues, sharpie'd denim jacket rock again on this one. Attitude, bigger chords, with impressive guitar craft, noodling solo style melodies appear between the hyper chords. Lots of technical guitar... same goes for these insane drum riffs. I would be rocking along, head shaking with these guys but I keep getting caught up in this kind of crazy mathy skill of prog garage they're achieving, and just staring off into space.
I'm also missing a lot of these killer lines like

She was twice my age / like my mother with money

This B-Side is more of the shit kicking blue collar aesthetic, full of the blues and distortion, a JSBX sort of sound but with a hell of a team seriously putting a dense, skillful package together. If you're really, really good, can this still be called garage?

X! Records just wants you to pick this up, who said you had to start thinking and jamming bands into holes for pigeons...damn!

Johnny Ill Band at Moon II • 1-27-12

Got a chance to catch Detroits, The Johnny Ill band at Moon II over on the Hasidic side of south Brooklyn Friday night, and ended up meeting one of the guys outside who helped to build out the raw space not more than 6 months ago. They've got a Silent Barn type space over there with a balcony and your choice of PBR or glasses of champagne....really keeping it classy.

When Johnny goes on tour, they have a lot of people and equipment to think about - the multiple levels of keyboard, two guitars and bass, and thank god for Paul's somewhat minimal drum kit because all of this already can't fit into one van. This has to be laid back bunch just getting off on playing these straightforward psych-pop observations, or they would have imploded miles and miles ago. It's also surprising that the deceptively minimal sound of "In the Wintertime", came out of this big band combination. They're really paying attention to the details, which don't ever overwhelm the songs, especially the two tiers of organ which Pete uses sparingly and keeps this well out of the usual raw garage sound which they otherwise are successfully going for.

I think Johnny's not trying to sell the performance, or this post-garage minimal feel....this isn't a crafted persona...and I mean that in great way. Like Wounded Lion, Johnny Ill Band is that combination of the mundane bits of life while turning it into a good time sounding party. They aren't afraid to possibly sound ridiculous and at the same time make this track about the future something you want to hear more than once. It's not as easy as it sounds to carry a song about living in the garage or hating the wintertime as obvious as these songs are. This is a sort of a reinterpretation of the slacker aesthetic in the '90s and, although this might sound like that on first listen, Johnny really cares about these mundane observations. It's not with a punk attitude when he's talking about posture, you should really try to do something about it.
This storytelling style delivery of Johnny is at it's best on "Used to be Confused" combining a solid bassline, thumping along kick beat, and stabs on the organ. Johnny is straightforward laying the lyric down, not too emotional, when he raises his voice on the end of a verse it's just to fake the enthusiasm. Let's not get carried away.



Their recordings are almost documenting the compulsion to create, and thank god Johnny is talented, and trying to temper some of this smarty pants instrumentation with an barely emotional vocal about his washing machine. When he sings about it being stolen because of where he lives, it's not with any kind of hatred, he isn't railing against injustice when he says he has to hide his things, it's just the way it is.
In winter, you can't play baseball, it's a fact.
It's done with this kind of naive openness, not the way some friends on facebook overshare their daily details, but in the way that he's really got a compelling personality that isn't trying to glamorize anything...it's almost a challenge for The Johnny Ill Band to see if they can pull this off musically. Matt and Cree have to come up with a little extra, the single note solo and the bassline hook is going to be brutal, just as raw as humanly possible. Pete on organ isn't going to ever overplay his hand, almost winding up into a windmill with the time he's got in between chords, a perfect compliment to these concrete personal details.

Johnny was nice enough to have copies of their amazing full length, Ask All the Doctors on Urinal Cake Records which I have been listening to nonstop, plus a couple of singles on Kaboodle Records and Italy Records. They've been flying under the radar for far too long for me and I got a chance to see Matt Larson from the B-Side in person and that was exciting.

They're currently on their way back to Detroit after wrapping up this mini-tour and I hope that the washing machine is fixed or at least not stolen because they've got some major laundry to do.

Tyvek 'Mary Ellen Claims' on X! Records

Here's another one in from X! Records, this one from waaaay back in their catalog from the guys in Tyvek, looks like X! repressed their first effort, and I'm glad to see you can still pick this up, it's a touchstone from the beginnings of this whole Useless Eaters, Cheap Time, Ty, Jay era of trashy garage-rock. The kind of thing that pays homage to the Sonics or Kinks while trading it all in for a no apologies, anti engineered sound that says, we don't want or need to clean this mess up. Take it or leave it.

So thinking back to 2006, this is exactly what I remember liking about the Tyvek tracks on the "Summer Burns" double 7" from What's Your Rupture. It's impossible to objectively take a listen to this, hindsight being what it is, but maybe it's an even more important document now at what I think was the beginning of a whole lot of this sound.

"Mary Ellen Claims" has a scratchy guitar, the treble turned all the way up, recorded with everything just peaking out. There's no depth in the drum track, just a thin smack of the snare slapping away. It's really related to that garage '50s or '60s(?) stripped down rock. A brief track, but what wouldn't be with those elements, you've got to get in there, slap the hooks together, can you hear the guitars? Great. Barely enough time to find working mics. What are you trying to undermine the whole thing? There's a great melody here, Kev sounding like an old AM radio held up to the mic, the guitars starting to feedback into themselves, the waves colliding briefly almost synth-like and fading out. This was six years ago? Totally classic touchstone, as fun and loose as the day it was recorded.

"Honda" on the B-Side, has to be one of the best Tyvek tracks, imagine their high peaking garage sound with Kev frantically asking:

Can you drive a Honda, like I can drive a honda?
Can you drive an escort? A fucking escort?
Can you drive a Geo all the way to Rio?

Totally inspired, and I hope someone who didn't know anything about these guys could hear the value in this reinvention of another splinter of post-punk.
So many questions about cars, and there's some kind of weird connection to the Sidewalk single - they really have some thoughts about modes of transportation. The big time bassline, and variety of textures on these guitars, from the shittiest, thin scrawl to a surf slight reverb. Kev is really losing his mind, the only lower end coming off that punk bass riff. This big, surf strum, and crackling vocals...it belongs in that wing of the West coast garage resurgence section, in the glass case next to "I Don't Wanna Smoke Marijuana" You should be as ashamed as I was I somehow missed picking this one up. Get over to X!! (and get that Johnny ILL Band single, I'm still playing that one).

The "For Booking" phone number on the inner label brings a tear to my eye.

Printed right onto the white paper sleeve, with that Tyvek random typewriter narrative running down the streets of this crazy cityscape.

The reverse says this was recorded in Brooklyn...and they list their myspace page! What a missed opportunity for that company, they had people using their crap product from the beginning to the bitter end. Good riddance...what a black eye to see that terrible reminder of the worst music ghetto ever.

Johnny ILL Band on X! Records

3 dudes from Detroit decided Johnny Ill needed a band for his no-wave punk 4-track recordings and ended up with this third single on X! Records.

A-Side's "In the wintertime" couldn't have come across my desk at a more perfect time. It has to be dumb luck that this was pressed in time for the freezing going on today. They're reading everyone's mind here with a Detroit slant, the lackadaisical sound usually associated with the West Coast and groups like Nodzzz or the Fresh and Onlys took a scuzzy garage turn when talking about the pure damn cold, and how all everyone does is talk about the cold. The track starts with a reverse tape rewind, the reels flying backwards for a second. Johnny's vocals are up front with a little distortion, close, and unfiltered in your face about the many shitty things about the winter, and I can't disagree with a single one. There's even a classic break where the vocals are out there all by themselves at the beginning of a verse and then the whole thing explodes, like Wounded Lion, the band is filling out this sound in the drunken party style that was almost handcrafted for these guys.

I Don't Wanna Smoke Marijuana = In the Wintertime. All people want to do is drink some tea.

Here's the idea, a couple obvious straightforward observations, a shit stomping jangly electric, kick drum 4/4 beat. A tiny xylophone beats away in the background keeping the whole thing light. The layered backup vocal is that great kind of unprofessional. It's earnestly trying to match a clunky harmony. Sloppy organ, I like your attitude boys. You won me over pretty much right away.

The sloppy pen notebook drawings on the front of the sleeve, the weird caricatures on the reverse, dripping with sincerity, goofy as hell, they'd probably buy you a drink after their show. They have a kidnap van that says "Mylie Syrus concert shuttle" scrawled on the side it. It's effortless punk, except punk sounds like too much work, I'd just be worried at X! that these guys are going to get high all day and smoke the records.

Every 7" single could benefit from having a portrait of the recording engineer on the inner label by the way.

The B-Side, "Matt Larson" is in the band, this is just such balls, so over the top ridiculous that if I was ever out, I'm in again. Matt sounds smart, he went to college. There's a bunch of other stuff about him. I appreciate their Dead Milkmen style of storytelling. These mundane details over a stuttered devo kind of spazz lockstep rhythm. Putzy solo, a few notes repeated, stiff armed, with a tongue hanging out. Great great great.

"Dan Braun" is another dude, not in the band, but I get that he hates everything, especially these guys, and they hate the shit out of him. HE sounds like the worst. I actually cracked up about the way he smokes a pack a day. It's so funny, I forget about the music. I want my friend to hear the lyrics. Did you catch that?
Fade out 4-track demo acoustic line, which is also gold. Consider this a perfect release.

Extra points for having a really nice website with virtually nothing on it. They got that about that far and then went to someone's house to jam and got drunk again. Also I hope the 'tabs' section is going to be ascii tabs of these tracks so I can play along.
Definitely looking up this full length, like Natural Child, minus the southern sleeze.

A reason why we need labels like X!, who have their shit together, or Almost Ready because you know Liquor Store can't even be bothered to DIY, that's what makes them great, don't mellow out their buzz with pressing details and color separation and sales and shit.

Get it from X!, who know a good thing when they hear it. Thankfully there's more from this label coming up which I have high hopes for, and for that matter, a full length from Johnny Ill.