Tight Bros / Rad Company split on Rad Girlfriend, Drunken Sailor, On The Real, Throwing Things, 86'd, No Breaks and Soapy Hand Records

The Tight Bros and Rad Company have locked up seven inch sleeve art of the year. Not a cover you could overlook in the 7" bin or ever forget if you happened across it. Congrats guys. Tight Bros are four dudes from Columbus and Rad Company are not far away in Dayton, both plowing into a pop punk sound with heavy layers and have the collective support of no less than seven labels behind them. Obviously good choice to pair these two together and sweeping the 7inches awards this year they also won in the category of most labels behind a split single.

Tight Bros side "Not What You Asked For" has a feedback hum that opens into a stompy high tempo beat and upper register vocals blown out in a super produced power punk repeating that title lyric leaving plenty of room for the solo which is a bleeding one note number. The layered vocals have a Built to Spill sheen but the rest of this is all attitude in a party Andrew WK feel with cymbals constantly crashing, sticking on that chorus and playing out the harmonies. They know a good thing when they hear it, just run that out to the end. A tight two minutes bros. "Trapped in My Head" comes into the song already running in progress, the gated high compression guitars are poised to blast their bursts of chords, playing off the snare in that crazy fast back and forth see saw while vocally belting this out in thick layers of huge sustained notes fading away behind the fist pumping because they aren't just about the speed. Keeping the beat for the feedback and bass to take this out to the end, making the absolute most of the three minutes left on the vinyl.

The Rad Company track "Hang in There" feels even faster with hundreds more chages with all the singing together punk harmony of Cap'n Jazz with chunky guitars. They don't have to line up harmonies exactly, it's about that emotion from hitting a take that just sounds right. A sunny Lync punk, loud and fast and not obsessed with their own technical prowess just getting an undeniable optimism across with muted chords and no room to shake out. No echo or reverb on the drums because that would just take up extra space. "Under the Blade" feels like an H-Street soundtrack outtake, I can't really explain it except that I watched that video nearly a million times and this would be right at home with a fisheye lens riding right next to someone grinding curbs.

Get this from Rad Girlfriend, Drunken Sailor, On The Real, Throwing Things Records, 86'd Records and No Breaks Records.

Astro Fang on Rad Girlfriend Records

Christian from Dayton, Ohio's Astro Fang sent me his latest a couple weeks back on Rad Girlfriend Records, who seem to be purveyors of all things Dayton, a clearly overlooked American rock city. From the sound of things this one from Astro Fang is pounding a number of heavy rock sounds into a brand new composite.

"Flesh Hand" on the A-Side takes heavy burst chords intro right into a dark sinister bass groove with up front, direct vocals and a masochistic lyric about wanting "to smack me around with your flesh hand". It's a dirty post punk funk until the chorus breaks into hyper layers with what has to be some synth working around over the huge riffs, or some serious guitar effects. Going No Age with the amount of punk distortion chanting FLESH....HAND. The drums are taking a serious beating, this one taking a real synth punk direction at times, intent on working all these sections into ever louder punches. Working this main melody and it's evil intentions straight through a double time snare. Insane energy, pulling this heavy crafted ROCK into the modern age of neon synth. Like nothing I would ever have expected from this part of the country.
B-Side winds up "I.C.U." with warped synth/guitar tones on a warped reel to reel and a blown out off kilter guitar section comes on fast and heavy. The vocals...hell the cymbals are distorted this time, taking sheer joy in their ability to stop on a dime. A hard and heavy sort of Unicorns influenced sound in it's combination of weird elements and ever changing rhythms. Working in a severe post punk direction, the electronics are buried under this swath of overblown sound. It takes a new turn and a scuzzy guitar takes apart classic metal riffs and scatters them in new directions, the heavy riffs switching directions and executing half a measure of that hard blues sound. Going as far as those impressive prog solos for days, a resume for their next band al played through a few hundred riffs.
A rattling snare and a count off in the empty room leads to more disjointed abstract melodies, an operatic howl and it ends up sounding more like "I see you", than the place in the hospital.

A secret obvious message pressed in the gutter, on a couple colors and black with double sided collage sleeve. There's something weird going on in the heartland where your Rad Girlfriend in Dayton says:

ASTROFANG is the best rock band to come out of Dayton, Ohio since Guided By Voices. These songs combine rock n roll, punk, and weird spastic indie rock in a way that FUCKING RULES. I believe in them and so should you. Limited to 500 copies.