Tropical Trash on Sophomore Lounge Records

Tropical Trash are back it with a nightmare Pee Wee's playhouse in black and white on their latest on Sophomore Lounge Records. The Louisville trio plays hard and fast always managing to cram in the tracks and complicated noise into your earholes.

"Tremblin in the Pus pipe" gets right into that thunderous sound of impossibly complex drum arrangements of bashing fills. Heavy and blasting in full off kilter effects and some grungey bass but separated into multicolored strands, it isn't some huge congealed wall, all these separate pieces are coming for you, ominous and frightening, like the dark art punk of These Are Powers with more emphasis on the fear and metal. There's something almost industrial on "Eggers Banquet" the distorted vocals over a mutated foreign guitar and these guys sing off each other in a far off wail. Feedback squeals though an entire verse and these drums never rest, it's a constant spazz pulsing while the tape winds down and explodes.
"Drinking Man's Scab" has yelling in unison with riffs plowing in single file with a really frantic bass line, if it weren't for these Damon che drum fragments it would be a lot like Mayyors even - heavy hitting with that kind of collective power. I like they're collecting all these pieces and not just going loud and fast because they're covering something up, it's controlled chaos wandering into dark ccorners blasting one of those huge rows of lights from their clown jeep. Trust me you don't want to see who's driving it anyway.

Heavy crunch riffs up and down the frets open B-Side's "Ritual Bath" relying on these odd combinations for new sounds. Somewhere between all the tones they've actually created getting that third tone that comes out of the combinations. This one is real pop like a fast and pounding Hot Snakes with that yelling taking a new twist. They get experimental and weird but work togetehr take those elemnts somewhere else. This there's math involved but it's really just adding large easy numbers, no showing off equations. This starts to show it's breakdown point and solos off the tracks but lands on a highway below to keep grinding along. Like that sleeve sometime you have a good time at that crazy house but it can also be a freaking nightmare. Don't try to fight it. These guys excel at both.

All black center label and vinyl on Sophomore Lounge, this isn't messing around, looking pretty or anything.

PC Worship on Sophomore Lounge Records

Perfect end to the week. I've been meaning to get a single from PC Worship for a long time, it seems like they're playing in NY weekly at Death by Audio or 285 Kent (RIP) with all kinds of different bands. I first came across them on a split from Shdwply Records with the Super Vacations which put them in the company of Gary War, Dead Gaze and Sore Eros but they didn't seem to stick to as specific of a sound as as those guys but instead were exploring the entire spectrum of psych from the super damaged heavy jams to something like this A-Side "Preach under Cooked": solo fingerpicking shape shifting guitar. They're a challenging band that seem like they're always going to be surprising and demand an open mindedness.

A-Side's "Preach Under Cooked" features frontman Justin Frye wrestling with this acoustic guitar for a nearly seven minute track. There are passing moments of country and blues but it refuses to stick to any sort of rhythm. The melody won't even repeat except the heavy BOINGS of that E string which has an almost middle eastern feel, like a broken sitar plucked at just the right time every cycle. It's a crazy conversation with itself and on a weirdly tuned guitar I might add that when it's fully extended towards the end of this it's not pretty. But maybe that has something to do with their philosophy too, it's not about that typical pop structure or the repetition of psych even but a different kind of hypnotism that comes out of utter chaos. With nothing to grab on to there's no expectations about where this is going, you can't ever predict a sound or follow along in the audio equivalent of Pi. Except that you keep looking for it - I'll be damned which side I believe. Is that fucking with my mind? Yes. Psych mission accomplished.

B-side's "Mellow Moon" brings in heavy hitting huge room sounding drums with thick toms alongside a warbled sample, that could be some kind of slow Gregorian chant? I think it's Justin who comes in with an equally warbled vocal that's got the pitch turned all the way up on that 4-track. This one has plenty of damaged slow loops while in the background a thin, fragile sounding electric plinks away divorced from the whole feeling of this thing. Here is the Gary War, Woods or even Ariel Pink connection. It's almost folk in it's plodding along organic feel while still being from another planet of sound. Maybe it's these analog elements that need some kind of human involvement to destroy or they just are inherently always degrading and changing over time. PC Worship is heavily manipulating that flaw and the results are completely mysterious like that plain xerox style sleeve. You recognize elements, or you think you do, but it's blurry or has been resampled so many times it's changed into something else.

Pick this up from Sophomore Lounge Records.

Meah! / Phantom Family Halo split on Sophomore Lounge Records

The split seven inch has introduced flip side bands to fans of just the single side and can be the format to experiment, show some range or include an unreleased cover. In the case of this split on Sophomore Lounge from Meah! and Phantom Family Halo it could include all three.

"Kids/summer" is seriously bombastic, with literal kids (I think) in the background and beginning of this. I happened to just be listening to Health's s/t from '07 and there's similarities here in the heavy chopped up tom beats, cacophonous guitars and alternating heavy cymbals. But Meah! goes from a heavy hardcore feel to bouncing along like Zs with a jaw harp...or whistling the next measure. They create a crazy tension that's hard to wrap your head around, from childlike 'ha's' to blasts of hardcore tom, blown out with heavy distortion, then a rawhide country line dance blows in to build and build this to a mathy conclusion that leaves nothing but questions behind. Like 'how is a three piece making this much noise?' and 'What do they listen to?'. It uses a hip hop vocal rhythm for a drop out. Whirring guitars are so impossibly chopped up like hearing Battles for the first time. What are they trying to do? What led them here? Bizarre and impossible to pull this off live, let's just say they must take some liberties when reinterpreting this. A growly southern soul blues sound comes from the vocal for a second, but how they work this jaw harp into blast beats is a first. "Mystics" has a feedback low hum of a simple bass line and they're slowing things way down from that panic'd opening. I think one of the lyrics is '...microwaved fish sticks'? Here they caught Natural Child, high and yearning for some Gordon's fishermans. This one breathes big and stretches out...a three piece that has a ridiculous eye on each other to put together free jazz noise bursts out of any alternate tuning. They make you hear all that training every measure. Phaser wah guitars, before the laid back sound gets seriously heavy with a full throttle arrangement like some kind of Captain Beefheart Sabbath combination.

Phantom Family Halo drop a cover on the B-Side of Red Crayola, and it's always great to have a band I'm unfamiliar with make you reconsider a classic again. A lot of times and especially on a B-Side its there to educate, but then this is their only song on the split? I thought they were going in a super crazy direction when I played this at 33, but Sophomore got away with two different speeds on either side, you don't see that everyday. They cover "Hurricane Fighter Plane" sufficiently slow and crafting a hallowed out crackling ghostly echo, you have to hear to have an understanding of the lengths this took, or the flies buzzing around. The lead vocal has a soul sound trying to burst out. The slow train rhythm marches on and this is a version that you could manage to play forever. They pick up the essential elements and make this as minimal and post as possible. All the way to the very end, still figuring out if they compressed the drums so well they could be interchangeable with a beat or thats some better than average drum machine. It's a nice questionable blend of the real and fake, a fantastic cover that makes me want to revisit the original check out Phantom Family Halo more in the future since they went this far to pay such serious homage.

Pick up this split on clear coke bottle blue from Sophomore Lounge Records.

Last Years Men - Clawless Paw on Sophomore Lounge Records

I've been so focused on the Fat History Month full length Bad History Month that I might have overlooked this new single from Last Year's Men, a four piece out of Chapel Hill, NC. Chapel Hill has a long history going back even further than Superchunk with tons of late '70s punk coming from this part of the world thanks to all those damn college kids. These new punks came together a few years ago and put out a full length on Churchkey records, lots of beer and 3 years later herald this fine release on Sophomore Lounge.

"Clawless Paw" explodes, it's a smoldering, smoking pile that flares up, it hits an old battery or ziplock bag of gasoline and fuels the flames higher and higher. The crazy as hell acid trip drawing and lawless rock on all sides is like the Intelligence's san fran surf tinged garage sound. Throw in some White Fences with some of The Hussy's big pop punk sound. Starting off with a slow bassline and warbled electric GGreen comes to mind and his massively damaged chorus of layered distortion. These guys punch one after another like that hanging bag. The kick is positively shaking things taking over the frontloaded sound on this. Slowing down for a drawl verse, but it's not around for long, desperation and straight up angst, Sophomore Lounge has had it's hand lately in encouraging this particular garage sound of that Spider Bags single, alongside Nashville's Dead, the more the merrier. I'm staring at the thick, slightly opaque insert from Ben Carr, the ringleader of this swinging bare bulb scene as a soulful solo climbs out of this black, black sludge.

"What I Can Get" has a somber jangly electric setting a slow tone for the back and forth kick snare to work behind this in double time. A Big surf sound and that link wray moment of a solo, minor chord changes in a space vacuum Segall way. Lots of reverb and pop sensibility, even Ty's almost affected delivery, draaawwwn out vowels, playing with the loopy dynamic of quieter moments and the crash cymbals that play a big part in destroying that. Direct, simple sentiment right to the point, no time to mess with all sorts of nuance in a 3 minute song, heres the rub. Distortion and 4/4 timing, blues of the 10's, fantastic drug fueled blues of F.U.N.

Listen to them play the title track on this single at Slim's in Raleigh, NC. (Thanks Ash)

Spider Bags on Sophomore Lounge Records

Here comes Sophomore Lounge with a new single, seem like those guys were all about the full length's lately, but Spider Bags walked in with a couple of pouches full of tracks that Sophomore had to press into vinyl. Right or wrong, I have pieced together into some kind of weird narrative. Spider Bags are based in Chapel Hill, NC headed up by Dan McGee of DC Snipers fame with deep roots and connections to virtually everyone....Shawn from The Limes, John Wesley Coleman III??!!!, and Jack Oblivian among others have had something to do with their records...and vice versa I'd imagine. It's all incestural.... you know if this is anything you're interested in, and then you've got a whole lot of guys to keep tabs on, and Spider Bags has always been one of them.

"Papa was a shithead" has a big power pop sound, pounding this title lyric right down your tiny throat, Dan barely catching his breath from verse to verse, ending up as a somewhat restrained or matured? kind of punk though.... "gave mom syphilis"? It's a pretty scathing account but with the catchiness that keeps it interesting and not in that snotty fuck-off way, it's a jangle reverb tearing across the minute or so this song briefly exists. "Emotional security!" over and over, a pinging snare popping leads to this crazy breakdown... all the voices!!! In your head!!!!!

"I Wish That I Never Had Fed You" is from the dad's side of things? It's a slow country ballad, slide guitar. Sweetly high and soaring all over this authentic dust roller. I can't help but put these two together... that violent, emotional, adolescent A-Side pissed at Dad and then the B-Side about the responsibility the measured abandonment.... plain and simple put it out there. If I didn't make any effort I bet you would have just left. Big distortion comes rolling in and solos building up with pounding toms, driving this point home, the inevitable manic sing a long crescendo. A real drinking song with no love lost. Made for each other.

Get if from Sophomore Lounge Records on clearish light purple vinyl...a weird shade, like an old jolly rancher that clouded up...looks delicious.

Check out some tracks below from their 3rd full length on Odessa Records

Tropical Trash- Fear of Suffering EP on Sophomore Lounge Records

Sophomore Lounge has zeroed in on my heart and wallet, I mean if I didn't know better I'd be sweeping this office for surveillance, pulling apart the walls...it was one thing to go after a full length for Fat History Month, letting those guys really spread out and allow for serious tension. Their special epic push and pull of that kit and guitar, but then they went and pressed this single from Louisville's Tropical Trash and just raised the bar on this post, mathy guitar based future I want so badly in my life.

A-Side's "Baltimore" stars off heavy as hell... guttural head bashing chords over tight precise drumming and a vocal comes in on exactly at the beginning of the four count, brief far away breathy delivery worked into this driving complex rhythm right on the nose. That's the post punk part, acknowledging the vocal, but presenting it in an atypical way, it's an element to be broken down like everything else. The chord progression works it's way along with the single-word-at-a-time vocal up the scale. This beat here is jazzy and precise and a piercing huge treble reverb smacks the left channel, an extra loud crunch bfore you can even get to actually playing this thing before that low end riff kicks back in. I'm thinking of Milk Music and their specific guitar sound, finding that particular distortion of low end when that chord is struck, and that's it, mark the pedals. You don't want to lose that, it's not calculated...it's been a long search for this dirty aggressive sound, they'll know it when they hear it. The City of Baltimore, now that we're nearing it's more recent history, is breaking down, the jazzy free form rhythm is getting less and less recognizable and the guitar is scraped and scratched, put through the paces of being anything other than strings and pickups. I admire a band that can completely go after these ugly sounds and use them to their advantage. Restrained bursts, full of all the possibilities of anything can happen here.
The B-Side kicks off four barely minute long tracks beginning with "False Crypt" that piles on the layers of noise at a hardcore speed...with a little accordion or harmonium melody sadly humming away between the saw blade forrest of guitar riffs, completely overwhelming the beat. "Pentagram Ring Finger" continues this heavy barely separated movement, riding into that epic ditch and righting itself with distorted hardy barred chords and yelly vocals...a brief screechy solo section, and this could be exactly where the years in the basement experimenting with tones are paying off. "Raw Mind" then gets into a weird rhythm with vocal chantings, some kind of blown instrumnet not sounding at all like itself, a repeated impossibly stretched melody and carnival rhythm. "Burning Ghost" is the most free form jazz/punk sound here, a wall of something played low and blowing while the layers are just impenetrable. I can't decide what I like more, spending time with a sprawling six minute ride, or hopping on and off that crazy train.

This is a fantastic interview with Jim about this single. I'm already sold, so this is preaching to the converted, and of course he sounds like an awesome guy with an intense work ethic deliberately working without a formula, just seeing where this sound is going to take them.

On all white vinyl, no marks on the single, with a black and white screened urban dali scene from Sophomore Lounge Records.

John Wesley Coleman III on Sophomore Lounge Records

I knew I recognized this vocal and turns out this isn't the first time Sophomore Lounge has put out something by Mr. Coleman III, there was a split between classic Gary Stewart and John not long ago featuring a cover from John of Gary's "Oh Woman"...this time SL is letting John off on his own to take over both sides of this one, starting with A-Side's "Alone by the Door".

This one is a quiet, acoustic... half finger picked and strummed, with less than tuned piano strikes from way off in the practice room. John is recorded real big up front vocals with a booming bowed bass for the chorus. It feels like John is in love with the variances of every side to an acoustic string being plucked or played completely recklessly, this whole thing has a bit of an off edge to it that comes with this kid of freewheeling non-traditional approach that goes for the vocals too with this warbly phaser effect. The backup doubled vocal isn't so much of your typical harmony as just being slightly out of sync, going for the straight emotion with lots of little experiments and surprises along the way. Even a theremin finds a place for a second, there's some bangs on a tom, and scattered crash, lots of one takes, a flurry of composition in the middle of the night, singer songwritery, with lots of twists. High pitch piano key banging. That's what happens when you're trying to play with a dog on your shoulder.

On "I want you to be like everybody else" John has a quieter far off vocal this side going a pure 4 track direction like that old K-recs stuff, a little bit of sloppiness is going to feel alright, but I'm basically already on board with this because he's just talking about New York City. That same out of tune piano is great here in single note doses. Leslie Sisson of the Wooden Birds is a perfect backup vocal sounding like something in the hayday of home recorded Bunnygrunts, and the Yips... or the freaking Spinanes! That's it... Rebecca Gates. This is goofy, not taking it self too seriously, winning over the right hearts and minds. It doesn't have to be so serious, you can have fun with these happy accidents of the quiet distortions, mistaken notes finding a place, an anti-rhythm, a squeak of the vocal, It's that familiarity of making music that hits all the right notes. The thought that you've been there, and it sounded a lot better when you weren't trying so hard and reveled in those imperfections.

(commercial pop suicide) from Sophomore Lounge Records.

Another 45 from our friend John Wesley Coleman III (of Austin psych-country cronies, The Golden Boys) featuring fellow-Texan, Rob Halverson, and the sweet sounds of Leslie Sisson (The Wooden Birds) on guest vocals. This single shows perhaps a softer, more sincere side (than even his Gary Stewart rendition?) of a rock 'n' roll wild child, without sacrificing that boozily soulful, southern wisdom that made us love him in the first place. "Alone By The Door" marks Coleman's third slab of wax already this year (!), following the release of his homemade heartbreaker "Nightmare On Silly Street" (Monofonous) and killer new Greg Ashley-produced full-length, "The Last Donkey Show" (Goner), not to mention another Golden Boys album on the shelves this month. Coleman is a machine, and we're more than happy to keep his gears greased. Limited pressing of 200 copies (numbered) on black vinyl.

Check out some of JWC III's tracks, not from the single.....

Fat History Month Record Release Party!

Great show last night from these great guys, so awesome to meet them in person and pick up a copy of their full length on Sophomore Lounge Records and hear tracks from the Gorilla EP live. It's impressive to be a few feet away from the massive sweeping highs of that complex ever changing time signature rhythms and reverb guitar. My friend Evan was looking around to see what pedals they were using and was shocked not to find a single one...something I never even thought about. This wide shattering dynamic range is all due to Sean's attack on strings, winding down to an intricate melody and back slamming away in jagged riffs.
They are headed for Philly tonight and possibly back through NY tomorrow before they finally get a break, at least until November...

Their single is still available from my own Sweaters & Pearls label.

Gary Stewart / John Wesley Coleman III split on Sophomore Lounge Records

Ryan at Sophomore Lounge sent in this great split the other day, and it's one of those singles that has such an insane story behind it which lead to the kind of a single that is perfect for this medium, something that has to exist as a 45. Gary Stewart from Kentucky, had a 30 year career in country music and was one of those unappreciated songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, a musicians musician. There's even a story of how Bob Dylan personally drove to a show just to tell him how much he liked his Your Place or Mine record.
Ryan met John in Texas through a mutual friend and they ended up bonding over Gary's work and months later John mentioned he had just recorded a cover of Gary's "Ramona" with Vinnie from JAILL and this single was born.

Before I even knew any of this background story the simple pencil drawings from Mike Poland of both of these guys had me interested, then to find out just a little more about Gary's life and I couldn't wait to put this on and hear the original and cover version from John and Vinnie.

"Ramona", has all the big produced '70s sound in this rock country style, a slow calculated electric strum, heavily gated punchy drums, but the draw to any of his tracks has to be his vocal style which is loud and heavy with just a little room reverb. A slight Roy Orbison waver in that higher register, that seems to verge on that country near crack at times, and it's a sad song of regret you hear when he gets to belting, "Ooohhhhh, Ramona".
Track in a slick slide solo after the last verse over a chorus of sharp organ, their almost echo-ing each others pitch and you'd have a little piece of genius, hidden under the packaging, someone who was able to slip past the usual makings of artists and work damn hard at his craft until the day he shot himself with a shotgun. The recording on this side is crystal clear and it wasn't easy tracking down that licensing and masters to get this actually pressed, but clearly it was worth it. like all great songs we read so much into, Gary called his guitar Ramona, or at least that's what he'd like us to believe. It's just another girl's name.

John Wesley Coleman III has gotten great reviews already from his self released Steal my Mind and has a bunch more on it's way from Daggerman and Goner. Here, he's titled this one "Oh Woman" because he's talking about maybe more than just one named woman out there in his life...or I could see recording a song like this, it might be a little weird taking such a personal lyric over, probably just made sense this way.
John keeps that distinctive guitar and bassline from the original piece, and updates the sound with a huge delayed reverb that comes feedbacking in. John has a similar tortured howl when it comes to the chorus, and throughout he's got that same laid back vibe. It's an homage to Gary's style and coming from someone who obviously appreciates his legacy. There's a drum machine cowbell and a handclap and a backup oooo vocal tastefully bringing this to 2011. It's a great single that can introduce you to a new artist and revealing a underrated classic at the same time.

Get this one from Sophomore Lounge Records.

Little Gold on Sophomore Lounge Records

This single from Little Gold arrived from Sophomore Lounge Records. A lot in common with an earlier single on Heartbreak Beat Records, but the fully layered indie country sound is bigger, the melodies harmonically crafted, and the low distortion is always on the vocal. Mostly sounding like they're having fun without breaking bottles.

There's a color insert for the children of a crazy sesame street birthday scene with monkey stickers and adult, very out of place captions, sort of in the style of this party single, don't get too bent out of shape. A trifecta of folk '70s icons greets you over the handwritten lyrics on the reverse.

The A-Side, "Mike Swan" is just the name of a dude that hit Christian Deroeck, founder of Woods and Meneguar, who was innocently riding his bike one day. But of course Christian turned that catastrophe at the corner of Willoughby into gold with this track. The actual swans on the sleeve were extra confusing. I know swans can be insanely aggressive and I think I thought maybe one of the birds happened to chase Christian on a park path off his bike? It's not unbelievable.
But Little Gold is able to cleverly craft this song to be fun and catchy while essentially being a story song about a tiny inconsequential incident, and of course those moments can say a lot more about life. I can relate to this more than most songs and not just because it's about riding a bike in Brooklyn (wear a helmet) but because it's that everyday situation and the fact that they both 'allegedly' were drunk and also high diffused the situation into a simple accident. I'm constantly telling myself to calm down and not be so insanely defensive when an inevitable pedestrian or car runs into he bike lane....take it easy. I mean they both could have been watching out for each other a little better. But thankfully it ended alright, no hospitals no lawsuits, everybody go home, a little scrape, no big deal. It has a slight bar jam country feel, a bent electric guitar with layered wavering vocals. Great harmonies especially when singing the title of the track. "Mike Swan" is the most beautiful part of the whole thing, a nice tribute to the driver and Christians songwriting. There's a Beirut gypsy horn melody towards the end bringing this side safely home.

I hope Mike gets to hear this.

The B-Side, "Oh, Dad" is a cover of a James Toth (Of Wooden Wand) song which they grunge up a bit here. At first it sounds like quotes or advice from the Dad, but it's actually the son after the Dad. He's past that age of defiance when you criticize everything your parents do. Dad's an equal, he's a person, and the protagonist isn't disappointed here so much as just sad that he sees the way his Dad gets treated and is worried he's letting himself get walked on a little. It's a nice sentiment, the "In Defense of Dad" song, sounding very dirty garage'd out. A little distortion on the vocal, definitely with attitude. The sleeve photo couldn't be more perfect on this side of a '70s photo of a Dad in the backyard, next to the chainlink fence reluctantly waving to the camera. bog collar polyester brown jacket. Beard and sunglasses. Sort of happy times.
Dad's change and sometimes you start to question if his life choices make sense...Oh, Dad. Not unlike the teenage "Oh. Dad" which is always disappointed. It all comes back around.

Check out these tracks from Little Gold and get this one from Sophmore Lounge Records.