Moon Duo / Psychic Ills split on Sacred Bones Records

Just heard about this spit single from Sacred Bones who also just put out that Eraserhead soundtrack, not sure how they managed the rights to rerelease that but maybe it had something to do with the Zola Jesus David Lynch remix of In Your Nature, he's got to be a fan of the label and that could have been the next obvious collaboration with the director...crazy. This one pictured is a split single from two big psych names, Psychic Ills who recently moved over to Sacred Bones from Social Registry and Moon Duo has been steadily putting out stuff on the label and are a perfect match. It figures they're already good friends and this is the best use of a 7" single, when you're already a fan of one of these guys and can be exposed to another related artist. In this case most people are already are into both so it's really a no brainer and why there's a strict one per person limit. I also appreciate when a label tries to get these into the hands of the most fans and not just the ebay flippers.
The track below is from Psychic Ills, who I haven't heard a whole lot of, the tremolo guitars are extra wavery, the distorted melody taking it's time over the mandatory airy organ. Tres Warren on vocals has a real clear, dusty western delivery, a little like MV+EE, or a southwestern POP 1280...a slow drawn out lyric. Could even end up in a playlist with some alt-country guitar based more somber numbers. Mirages and dustbunnies...down Kent Ave.

Get it from Sacred Bones says:

New split 7-inch offering from our two best-known psych roster acts, Moon Duo and Psychic Ills. Longtime friends, these two bands finally came together for a collaborative release. “Zoned” is hard charging burner which clearly indicates how much this band ups the ante with every new release. “Take Me With You” finds Psychic Ills locked into a deep repetitive choogle put through the same fried VU meter displayed on their recent Hazed Dream LP, yet clearly moving toward a more straight-ahead approach to song writing. The upfront vocals make this easily one of their most catchy songs to date and the right soundtrack for your travels; whether by subway, highway or other means.

Mac Blackout on Sacred Bones Records

Sacred Bones recently released a stack of singles/full lengths and I've been slow to catch up to their latest batch of releases but I read this draft post title as having something to do with computers...like the sad mac of death icon that used to come up sometimes ...or a lot if you were dicking around with start-up disks and that BS. It also reminds me of Blank Dogs....that generic name...Mac, dog, house, sam combined with a feeling of alienation. Mac Blackout, Blank Dogs....the same end result band name.
Musically he's not far off either...a sort of punk Gary War, instead of the ambient, buried vocals, Mac is pretty upfront and direct in his experiments. I think I prefer this to the sort of lack of direction in Deerhunter...that meandering kind of slow paced jam essentially...it repeats, there's hardly anything going on. Even Eno I have to say can be fucking boring...it never gets me going....sure it's background music...OK, you succeeded. I know that's the point, but it's not anything I think needs to be consciously made. Even something like Mac's 'Cold Hearts Will Burn Tonight', as insane video game blipy mess as it gets it has more balls than all of Deerhunter.
However none of the tracks from this single are on his myspace, so I'm really guessing to the specifics, but essentially it's a sort of home recorded one man project with a Suicide vocals sound. The same electronics caught in a void of era and It even sounds a little like Ariel Pink...if you can possibly believe one single could actually combine any of these references...but it's impossible to place this into a specific timeframe. I have to say that's when these things get really exciting for me. It's not about a trendy sound that's programmed into the latest korg...it's been so displaced from a frame of reference that it's new again.
The sleeve says, 'I'm punk', fuck you. and Mac looks like he has a hundred or so singles on other labels, come check them out with me.

Sacred Bones presents a new solo single from ex-Functional Blackouts and current Daily Void man Mac Blackout that sounds that could have been made either in the year 1980 or 2980. “Don’t Let Your Love Die,” a driving synth driven tune that almost goes pop—albeit in a very Alexander Robotnik kind of way—sounds like it might as well have been recorded on an NES console. On the B-side “Sometimes” is a dirge like midtempo song that goes beyond the obvious comparisons to the Helios Creed/Damon Edge orbit and at times recalls Sacred Bones label-mate Gary War and even Mac’s other project, Daily Void.

Get it from Sacred Bones, who has an amazing doc about Naked on the Vague that was successfully funded on kickstarter. Damn.

Naked on the Vague on sacred bones

Naked on the Vague to me is repetition and sustained tones, synth and guitar fed through a rock filter. They are definitely experimental, but play with rock ideas and build a solid beat to put weird sounds on.

'Chitty Chat' opens with long grating synth notes and an opposing electric guitar melody that's off on it's own. There's a great live room sound to their recordings which I appreciate. It sounds like a session, not separate elements layered or done after the fact. It's the sound of a group that knows what they're doing and then doing the opposite. The percussion can be drum machine or far away sounding sheets of metal, adding to the mystical...it's like they are summoning something really really bad.
It's reminding me of listening to the two full length Los Llamaradas LP's over and over. When it gets into this pattern with those unintelligible vocals, and I can't explain it, but it just creates this uneasiness. It's not a fun place.
When Chitty Chat turns rhythm it's a little like early Sonic Youth but it never entirely goes rock thanks to Dear Cliche's vocals it's always sounding really aggressive and mostly disturbing.
It's a challenging kind of ritual rock.

It's the kind of thing that will remind you we're not ever three days without electricity away from violence and perversion. There's just no hope with these guys.

Get it from Sacred Bones. Regular or Limited Edition.

Format: 7"
Catalog #: SBR-020
Naked on the Vague's MySpace

Side A:
1. Chitty Chat

Side B:
1. Goodbye Dear Cliche

“Chitty Chat” b/w “Goodbye Dear Cliche” - Australia’s Naked on the Vague return for another two-sider of serious harsh downer vibes. Drum, synth, bass and vocal ferocity from this male/female duo that comes out sounding like a surprisingly more danceable version of Whitehouse. Fans of last year’s Skulltones 7-inch and Siltbreeze full-length won’t be disappointed. The band will be touring the US with Blank Dogs and will appear at this year’s Sacred Bones showcase at SXSW.

Nice face preorder limited on sacred bones

Still haven't listened to Nice Face's latest hozac single yet that I ordered in their 7" pack, but saw this preorder on sacred bones and figured I better mention this before they are gone. I remember them from one of their singles.... I think the first one that was just a face, kind of a red cover, I think designed by Mike Sniper. I actually tried to find it the other day to listen to these together but couldn't. A huge reorder is way past due.
Academy actually has some of thoe cardboard 7 inch boxes for $4, I need a couple more. They started creeping into the closet shelves...it's bad.
Nice face has this insanely dense distorted sound, but it's not completely blown out and all overdriven. So I wouldn't immediately lump it into kind of garage...ther are some keyboards involved and phasers on vocals...it's like a little dirtier sounding pop punk. I appreciate someone who is also trying to make something interesting and catchy, not just completely experimental, and borderline work.
This track 'Situation...' sounds even more dense than previous singles, it sounds like he's pulling out all the tricks for this one. There's layers of differently recorded vocals, great chorus hook...you know I read that description about bridging the space between synth punk and pure punk...that actually makes a lot of sense. It has elements of both, but doesn't completely rely on either.
Mnemonic Device has a distorted bassline with weird keyboard melody, but the chorus again is where it goes somewhere special, it's just solid songwriting. LIke Blank Dogs, I heard he's going live and I would definitely have to see that.

Format: 7"
Catalog #: SBR-019

Side A: Mnemonic Device
Side B: Situation is Facing Utter Annihilation

“Mnemonic Device” b/w “Situation Is Facing Utter Annihilation”
— The third single from Nice Face follows on the heels of the recent HoZac 7-inch and an appearance on the “Wild About Jenkem” compilation alongside like-minded fellow travelers Wizzard Sleeve and Livefastdie. “Mnemonic Device” is a slower plodding mid-tempo song driven by a hypnotic repeating keyboard line and fuzzed out vocals. “Situation Is Facing Utter Annihilation” on the flip is the punkest Nice Face track to date bridging the gulf between disjointed no-fi punk rock and sinister synth and drum machine derangement. Keep an eye out for forthcoming live dates from this heretofore bedroom-only project.

Sacred Bones preorder special editions + podcast Ep 43 (wavvvvvves)

Gary War...I think I already missed his full length that came out on Shdwpy....(actually he just got back to me...the repress is available for $12)...this is mostly in line with the minimal dark low fi synth stuff I've been getting into lately. Dead Luke, SIDS, Blank Dogs...get in line guys...I can't get enough of this goth/synth/psyche avalanche.
They really can't release this stuff fast enough...more limited editions, cassettes that degrade after you play them, recorded over 8 track tapes....it's flying off the shelves.
Gary and Mike Sniper even team up on another soon to be impossible to find project called 'Roman Soldiers'. That's a super group if I ever heard one.
It really sounds like these are all found recordings in some goodwill...someone at sacred bones stumbled on this suitcase full of tapes a few years ago and is slowly going to release them over the next few years.
I would believe that story. There would be no live shows, then someone would try to cover the songs to come up with new material...the mythology would go on forever.

There's a free download of Gary's Album here... but I'll be damned if I can figure out zshare or whatever the fuck, but it's also at Ongakubaka. Email gary directly (gregarywaratgmaildotcom) and get yourself an LP.


From Sacred Bones records
Side A: Zontag
Side B: Don’t Go Out Tonight

Sacred Bones presents the followup release to last year’s New Raytheonport full-length LP on Shdwply Records. Gary War’s keyboard and tape manipulations exist in the loner sphere somewhere between the Legendary Pink Dots’ keyboard driven take on UK psychedelia and current fellow travelers like the Pink Noise. Like the LPD or Ariel Pink (to whom he’s garnered comparisons since the debut LP release) the odd experimental arrangements and off-kilter instrumentation never stray very far from melancholy pop song structures rooted around a catchy hook and melody.

So excited to hear this one...I'm pulling out all ariel pink and Jandek....this is that 70's that I'll pretend existed instead of the shit one that did.

Pink Noise single can be preordered here.

Don't know too much about them, except everything I've been reading was all over Dream Code...thought I'd give this a try...there's two more I didn't know anything about so I let them go...it seems like this past week everyones got a new release from something I want to hear...the 7" economy seems to be doing pretty well.

Limited Edition Screen-printed jacket with tipped-in photograph.
Pink Noise's MySpace
Side A: Gold Light Side
B: Prince Charlies Revenge

Canadian 2-piece The Pink Noise return for their second release on Sacred Bones. Last year’s Dream Code LP ended up topping most people's best of 2008 lists. Electronic and organic drumming with keys with staccato punk guitar blasts--think the Residents played through a Big Muff. A double sider of deranged bedroom punk that shames the dozens of one-man-bands hunched over a Tascam trying to make a cheap knockoff of the original. The record sounds like it was mastered through a boombox onto a thriftstore cassette. The Jerkwave cassette release, the previous 7-inch single, and their track on World’s Lousy (both on Almost Ready Records) are all long gone.


Here's the Wavves set from Underground Lounge as promised. Episode 43. (30min-mp3)
Just a few words...I just had a feeling watching Nathan that this wasn't the usual show of someone with some interesting sounds going on, some flavor of the minute...all hype and no substance....good for a sunday, put it on once in a while (like old skull)...it was a lot more... It could just be that kind of 'don't know any better' genius songwriting, unencumbered by everything going on, when you don't care where it fits into music, you don't care someone else sounds like that, uses that pedal, that your songs all sound the same...but that's what is so great about it. Sure he's young, and that's what makes it even better.

Dead Luke on Sacred Bones

Side A: Jumping Jack Flash Drive
Side B: Not Tonight

This is part two in the Dead Luke series on Sacred Bones (both parts still available directly)and I was lucky enough to preorder the box set of both which I have waiting for a night when I can take them in. The packaging on that thing is amazing, it has this metallic tape covered cover and all kinds of stuff inside..both 7"'s are in hand stamped paper sleeves...it's so homemade and one of a kind. I was alerted to this by SevenTenTwelve who first got me to take a listen to his myspace, where neither of these songs are available.
Dead Luke is in the Blank Dogs school but this maybe even takes no-fi and dark melting synth to an entirely different and more obscure place. It's like he's constantly fighting to be heard in this electronic void of metronome beats. The vocals at times can be so mutilated it's only creating more unrest and confusion. Truly dark....and there's nothing like it...one song could be future-psyche...the next Joy Division played through a distortion pedal and a bass amp.

It's also available from S-S records who has this to say:
Dead Luke - Record Two 7" (Sacred Bones) $5
Dead Luke's second single steps off into minimal synth of an Agent Side Grinder variety. The instrumentation is synth, rhythm machine, and slight percussion, as well a vocals. Good stuff.

Nice Face on sacred bones

The Nice Face single is limited to 100 copies? Shit, I think we have another Eat Skull on our hands...That is just insane, this is so great...It's jarring, stuttered, no-fi...really messed up fuzzy guitar and . It sounds amazing, really from another time period, another planet. There's so much going on here, hidden under layers but adding to this wash of 4-track melody. It's more than garage punk, it's manipulated through all kinds of analog hiss, and room sounds, so it's natural, but really unique.
I picked this up immediately. It's very SIDS-esque, or even Blank Dogs...there's some synth/organ on some tracks... I love this shit! Immediately it's all I want to hear.
Mike from DC Snipers AKA Blank Dogs did the silkscreen art, which is bad ass also....still waiting for the Dead Luke Box set which will be great too....Sacred Bones you are rocking my god dam world!

On Sacred bones records.

Artist: NICE FACE
Title: Thing In My Head
Format: 7"
Label: Sacred Bones
Country: USA
Price: $5.00
"Mid-tempo guitar and drum machine driven bedroom punk from this faceless one-man act. Clear the room at your next family function with this pair of unbalanced ballads. Another great Mike Sniper designed cover."-Sacred Bones