The Fresh & Only's on Dirty Knobby + Dinowalrus pt2 podcast

Picked this up at Academy the other day after hearing a couple of people literally staring into the 7" case and talking about how good it was...that was enough for me. Nicely done raw 60's sounding grungy pop rock. Harmony and feedback, a beautiful combination.

They jammed two tracks onto the A-Side...the first one 'I'll tell you everything'...they get that nice fuzz from huge bass under everything, layers of distortion, but keeping everything separated and clean...it just sounds classic. Get a milkshake on rollerskates...but how it still sounds today, I'm not sure...it could be the feedback, or just the overall edge vocally.

I'm really loving 'I saw you seeing me'...this has a great background ahaaaha vocal melody with fast picked chorus reverb guitar...almost surf-like. I can feel the tiki torch heat. If I didn't know better this could really be on one of those wood door hot rod surfing compilation LP's, It wouldn't be at all out of place at all. Just a little tropical punk.
The straightforward unassuming vocals are a nice change for this style, not too affected and snarly or snotty, but not typical or too crooney.

500 snakes, the B-Side, gets a tiny bit more contemporary, bring it into 70's territory, something about the recorded quality of the guitar melody takes it there for me, like rocking Ariel Pink. I know, I'm obsessed.

Sold out at the source, Dirty Knobby Industries but the bands myspace still has a paypal button so get it from them or aquarius records who says:

FRESH & ONLYS, THE "I'll Tell You Everything & I Saw You Seeing Me" (Dirty Knobby) 7" 5.98 It's easy to forget that The Fresh & Only's are a new band as the songs they've been cranking out have the self-assuredness of a band who's been around for decades. Two new cuts of their garage pop sprinkled with enough punk spirit and weirdo undertones to make their songs always piques our interest. We hear a really cool Joe Meek influence in the sound of "I Saw You Seeing Me" proving that just because these folks are zoning in on some pure garage pop delight they haven't forgotten how to infuse nice touches of their wide range of musical influences into the mix. Can't seem to keep Fresh & Only's vinyl in stock too long, they're already flying out the door, so better grab one of these while you can.

As promised, the second part of the interview Dinowalrus. Episode 53 (22mb, 24min).
Pete talks about the difficulty with pressing your own singles, trying to tour outside NY, playing SXSW, booking your own shows, having a day job, and new tracks from a full length album.

T7IF.

Thank 7inches it's Friday.

I had nothing to do with it.

Dinowalrus interview - podcast 52

Pete from Dinowalrus contacted me after writing about their latest single a little while back and he agreed to talk to 7inches about the band some of their releases.

We talked about naming bands, how they are serious students of 70's psychedelic rock, taking quirky sounds and then translating them into the future. How Cause Co-motion inspired them to press their Electric Car Gas Guitar single which turned out to be a collaborative effort with everyone including friend Ian from Titus Andronicus who screened the sleeves.
They also have another split with Bachelor of Arts from Australia who hooked up with them online and ended up doing a split single and shows at SXSW.

These singles and CD-R's are available from Pete directly at dinowalrus (at) gmail.com....or:

ELECTRIC CAR, GAS GUITAR VINYL 7". $5, $7 with shipping. Available in NYC at Kim's, Other Music, Earwax, Soundfix, Academy. Online at www.igetrvng.com and www.insound.com.

Click here to download podcast Episode 52 (Played an excerpt from 'I hate Numbers' at the beginning and 'Made in CCCP' after the interview...(20Min-19Mb)


This is a great video of a rooftop show which gives you a better idea of some of the range of influences and instrumentation of Dinowalrus.

Dinowalrus - self released

Finally got around to checking out Dusted's still single and ended up at Dinowalrus' myspace a local Brooklyn band who has been playing a bunch of shows with the usual cast of characters in alternative spaces.

One track 'Numbers, I hate Numbers.' is so exactly not from 2009 it's kind of amazing. I guess there are two ways to go with dated instruments, you can twist them with effects until they don't resemble anything like the era or sounds they should be made of, and get something new or in the case of Dinowalrus, you can faithfully try to execute music in the style of when those instruments were created and their sound was heard everywhere. This is so completely channel 11 afternoon B movie soundtrack. Some piece of crap, with no name actors fighting over something in the future. God awful. But created yesterday, it's kind of genius. I can hear Ariel Pink all over this...with more mixed almost out distorted vocals.
'Duke Nuke 'em' is really great also...I was listening to the Make Up the other day, and even though I'm not remembering it as great as when it was first out, Ian Svenonius' vocals are amazing. I'm getting a little of that here with a little video game/8bit stuff, still sounding a little home recorded like the weirdo-ness of Ariel Pink. There's a lot of references here. Programmed rigid speed metal that completely makes sense. Of course those worlds would go together. Speed metal synth. But that's only a tiny bit of the picture, they went further then just hit that one note. There's a lot of different directions they bring together in a completely successful and original way.
But onto the tracks on the single...
The A-Side (?) 'Electric Car Gas Huffer' is hyper electronic clicks and whirring, but then the live drums kick in and this song is going somewhere. It's a little power chords and balls to the wall metal for my taste. But the synth/glitch stuff keeps rescuing this from just ok. Bonus points for saxophone...I can't tell if someone was actually there...or it's some kind of effect. It goes all jam psyche, reverb by the end, so now I'm just confused.
'Cage those pythons' is completely different from the other tracks mentioned above also. First of all, who needs these ridiculous track names, there's nothing that makes me click away then tracks named 'Ninja rainbow he-man'. Just pick something else...anything.
This track is mostly just rock with a lot of weird effects, and a sisters of mercy feel. I wouldn't be so jazzed about hearing this on the B-Side. I don't know what they are going for vocally, it's almost Danzig, or Blood Brothers. I can't take it seriously, but there is some definite promise here.

There are copies of this single left, email of if you're feeling lucky paypal them directly at dinowalrus (at) gmail.com.