I still play the hell out of Broken Water's full length from Night People, "Whet", it's immediately so familiar...it definitely brings back Goo and Repetition...experimental, voluminous trio rock. They must love this stuff as much as I do, to have come up with these sincere tracks that go some new places and fit right into the most revered and played section of the record shelves.
"Normal Never Happened". They have it nailed. Down to the cryptic title. Grungy off tuned guitar melody, that sludgy slower feel rock rolling in and out that plays off the following fast hi-hat section and harmonized vocals between Abigail and Kanako (I'm assuming Jon is the dead on Thurston vocal). They're raising the bar...it's one thing Unwound never had was that back and forth between Sara and Justin. They have an ear for those complex masses of distorted harmonies that come out towards the end on this track...they go from all delicate and Bloody Valentine to bowel breaking Mudhoney. It's authentic as hell, it's in every second of this. More than lost tracks from all the influences they bring to mind, it's a case in point for you only get to this point by working through you're history. They really could go anywhere from here... To sound this good already?
"Faux King Vogue", these are the vocals that are dead on Thurston, in the best way...to even try to pull this off proves they're just doing their own thing. A melodic picked electric melody goes from folk to jangly indie to steeple crushing almost Pelican metal. They obviously don't mind sounding like anyone...they have to know they do...but it doesn't matter, when it's done like this, they pay homage and innovate at the same time, continuing a line of thinking that I don't think is ever really gong to be finished. Great guitar tones that defined an entire decade, Jon pushes that sort of grunge sound into a huge pile, like the Big Sleep, the layers of low dissonant distortion. The song construction, drum recording, fading feedback...it's more than reminding me of an entire decade of Sonic Youth and Unwound... it's more than nostalgic, it might be a wake up call to get back to some basics...guys this is serious.
God knows I love Unwound, and this is very nearly filling that giant gaping wound. It's so great to think about some kid in Olympia coming across these guys and then working backwards to those ancient classic influences. Hearing that shit for the first time, after being blown away by this.
They also get major points for letter pressing all their singles so far, and these have random ink splatters all over the front. it's the kind of thing that makes the 7" so great...someone went through each one and flung the ink and hung it over the kitchen table from a clothesline to dry...and the best part is the blue cardstock sleeve was re-appropriated from some elementary classroom exercise hanging folder. Genius.
Soccer Mom contacted me about a single they just released from my second favorite city, Boston. Home to Mission of Burma and the Pixies, Boston seems to historically nurture some truly original bands. It may have something to do with the art schools, the east coast, the self marginalization of it's residents...they are outsiders to whatever popular scene is happening anywhere else. They aren't swayed by any trends, being brought up outside of them, and no one there cares about any of that bullshit. It's tempered by that physical distance from NY or Providence, they're free to make their own independent scene and be supported locally by an audience. That's the one thing that sucks about local radio going by the wayside in most cases, they would be championing a band like this...could Mission of Burma have done it without the kind of local support they got from radio, clubs etc? I think they would have stopped paying live or releasing anything. The older you get the more pointless it seems.
A dissonant quiet distortion fades in on the Don Cab titled A-Side, 'Bill Cosby in Glamorous Chains'. Chords come in with lots of effects, a slightly Dinosaur Jr. sounding guitar melody, and layers of distortion going My Bloody Valentine even...I'm gong to have to reference a solid combination of the '90s, a couple parts shoegaze, one part jangle electric, one part alienated loner dirty fuckup sound. They ended up in the same sonic place as *Film School, referencing that era, and continuing a lot of those threads....and like Blood on the Wall they're paying as much homage as probably creating something they've been wanting to listen to in the first place. That's always a great direction, and Boston's lack of limelight might have something to do with that... blindly going where no one else is attempting to go. Except Olympia's, Broken Water who ended up in nearly the same shoegaze-revisted, experimental guitar direction. The drums are massive, the vocals are buried in that layered way, the guitar sustained forever....I'm glad to hear this sound come back, sure I'm nostalgic for it but the guitar is still the best. I swear there's some synth sound in here, but the liner notes say otherwise. It's got an earnestness that a first single inherently has, and this could be me projecting, but between the influences on their collective sleeves, and lack of a single 7" label, they are in it sincerely for kicks, and it shows. What they have against Bill Cosby on the other hand, I'm not really sure.
The B-Side 'High on Dad', starts with a great bassline from Danielle Deveau, and yes, just like their "It's educational!' counterparts, it's a nice enough melody that lulls you a little into thinking you know where this track is headed. By the time the vocals come in it's utterly perfect timing, to hold back for this long, I have to commend that, it's a Slint nod for me to attempt this mix of instrumental song with an explosion of vocals that are at that point in the track, unexpected. The the washes of distortion get completely overwhelming with a soundtrack feel.This is a great B-Side, a song that's so catchy and will be some kind of staple rare track, but not played much live. Instead of the dream pop of *Film School, which quickly became derivative shoegaze, this has strong foundations of drone and distortion experiments. That's where this is going to stay relevant is building on this great foundation. But that's where it can also go wrong. To criticize Soccer Mom in saying we've been here before, and I just want to hear the original era bands is too easily writing them off...this sound is just as valid today, especially if you fondly remember the 'alternative' and watching 120 minutes for the 2 or 3 good videos with Dave Kendall. Damn good.
Soccer Mom is a 4-piece band from Boston, Massachusetts that began years ago, on another coast, as the individual writing and recording project for Dan Parlin. Over the course of time, and through a variety of people and places, the band absorbed new members and evolved to its current physical manifestation, featuring Dan Parlin (guitar, vocals), Danielle Deveau (bass), David Kaplan (drums), and William Scales (guitar). The band aims to explore intimate connections between contrasting ideas, finding balance between melody and dischord, clean tones and chaotic feedback. They also just like to get together and make noise. The vocals are often sparse and help to quietly deconstruct conventional song structure. Influences include but are not limited to Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, Polvo, Jawbox, My Bloody Valentine ….
Contact these guys via their facebook, or website to get a copy of this...no label required.
*=I'm only referring to the Film School who released a self titled album...the rest of their work is dead to me...and that goes for I Love You but I've chosen darkness....I've painfully come to the conclusion listening to your respective followup albums....it's not me guys...it's you.
I first read about their full length through Doug who mentioned Unwound and that was enough to pull up their myspace and come across this embossed single from Krecs. It looks like they were mentioned in a demo of the week segment K was doing for a while and I'm assuming based on the strength of that they pressed this single. I haven't been that interested in Krecs releases sadly for a while now, but the A-side of this is amazing...nothing low-fi, just massive drenched reverb guitar. They can get droney long distorted bass shaking chords, but it's Kanako's vocals that get MBV. It's dangerously slow, but insanely loud. 'SWOYM' is pure Thursten and MBV, delicate delayed melodies with crunchy refrains. A 90's version of The Big Sleep, a huge sound that borders on the goth side of the Cure somehow, really really great. I know exactly what they've been listening to and it's exactly the same things that make me keep buying unwound singles I already have 5 copies of.
Of course they were just here last week down the street at Bruar Falls and Death by Audio. I apologise. I'm going to start camping out in front. Jobs are overrated. Singles are the new currency and this one is easily worth giving up two slices of pizza. Rent is around 200 7"'s so I should be ok for a while.
If you're pressing 7" vinyl - you aren't in it for the money. I appreciate it.
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Check out the friends links for other safe places for scared singles.
I still play the hell out of Broken Water's full length from Night People, "Whet", it's immediately so familiar...it definitely brings back Goo and Repetition...experimental, voluminous trio rock. They must love this stuff as much as I do, to have come up with these sincere tracks that go some new places and fit right into the most revered and played section of the record shelves.
