The end

I love tiny records, I always will. From buying Palace singles at Tramps after their show or another Sebadoh seven inch at Adult Crash on Avenue A they are inherently the format of the underground. Little did I know that history stretched back through the beginning of punk as the cheapest entry point for a band just getting started or destined to make one insane single before breaking up.

I believe if you put out a seven inch single you care about the music on it enough to go to the trouble of carving a wavy spiral into metal and smashing it into a hot blob of plastic a few hundred times.

After ten years with a new member of my family I'm stretched too thin. I never thought this was going to end up making money or being more than fun. Just like those tiny records it was done out of love for all these artists and labels getting a couple of bucks together and launching singles into the abyss of contemporary music. I made a lot of friends and I hope I called attention to unappreciated releases while selfishly keeping up with the never ending search for new music.

There's a lot of people listed in the friends section still writing about these tiny records and they will never stop being incredibly important to me.

To everyone who ever sent in a record; thanks. I hope I did it a tiny bit of justice and sent a few readers your way who spent a couple of bucks to pick it up.

The writing is over for now but I'm still going to be slowly but surely releasing records at sweater & pearls records including a new one from Part Time that I'm really excited about.

Thanks for reading.

Jason

Lady God presents the Pebbles - self released

Lady God came up with a genius idea for their record release party. Rent a bus and take everyone (with an opening band playing during the ride while the passengers got started on a case of PBR) to where it all started for the band, at Virginia Moonwalker studios. Set up a stage next to an old bus and play in the middle of the woods long into the night for the folks who made the trek. I love the idea of creating an intimate experience for a tiny group of people instead of a terrible three day long festival with reunited bands and going to the bathroom next to the port-a-poddy. That's what a seven inch single feels like next to itunes.

A-Side's "Nervous Talk" opens with a laid back reverb surf line and shuffle high hat over a tight snare. Chrissie Griffith's sultry sneer is describing that awkward social situation some people find themselves in; talking with nothing to say, all in a swampy '50s greaser dark sound. It's part Cramps and part pop style and natural vocal of Shannon from the Clams. Polka dots and patent leather, white t-shirts and jeans transported into a future that isn't blinded from the middle of the most prosperous period in american history. They've already been there and subvert things with rising feedback wails and snappy tics, like the Shangri-La's just out of prison.
B-Side's "Roll Tennessee" has a harder '70s hard rock riff on a cranky guitar with Skye on distorted vocals with an attitude matched by the bending blues notes through a busted stack. Harder into partying on this side the layers are stacking up from the garage. Joined by Chrissie they're improvising vocal parts, layering the chorus like a duet, the tambourine rattling underneath. The harsh fuzz is those horns on top of the virgin mary's head. A little bit sweet and A LOT BAD.

Get this from the band direct on their bandcamp page.

Room 101 "Vox Humana" on X-Mist / Beau Travail Records

DIY is the one man band. There is nothing more punk rock, more hardcore than one guy out there like Room 101, saying his peace without the help from anyone - well that's not true of course he's got help from a lot of people as the liner notes will attest. I think it's about having that drive to work on this project, playing shows, traveling, putting songs together...it's all motivated by that one person. If you don't feel like doing something than it's not going to get done. To be working in this hardcore punk style can't come easy either, conjuring up this energy when the rest of the world is asleep but you are fucking pissed about these god damn drones. It's the most boring job in the air force which is inevitably going to lead to a bunch of fuck ups, but it's just a video screen in a far away country - who cares. Room 101 gets me fired up about this stuff again and takes me right back to Bedtime For Democracy which was designed by Winston Smith, who put this sleeve together. Things never change, you just get older.

A-Side's "Drone War" drops the mechanical hardcore right on the first beat with regular bursts of kicks and tambourine hits, screaming that title lyric 'DRONE WAR!'. Room 101 has always been political from the beginning and I get too complacent listening to nice reverb songs about getting fucked up and the beach. There's real shit going on and maybe I don't want to deal with it, but it's not getting any better. The only way I can imagine Roburt doing this himself is with the help of a shitty drum machine track but it's not sounding like the usual crazy electronic punk like Sick Thoughts, DD Owen, there's more of a pop punk sound here with layers of handclaps and those guitars leaning towards a little garage. It's got all the jagged starts and stops of tirelessly going after these gated guitar bursts. Roburt's clearly just messing with us coming up with a catchy pop handclap chorus about dying and celebrating. Reminds me of another punk band that I used to skate to in the garage.
"Exterminate Adult Thinking (featuring XVC)" a slow ride cymbal leads to a relentless 4/4 at spastic speed but the guitar is cranking this even faster forcing that machine part to give up, this hardcore John Henry isn't going to be led by this tempo. More of that jagged punk that fires in machine gun bursts. Also the track isn't about just exterminating the thinking but literally get rid of those jerks who can't think outside that adult box, like say for example that maybe people who want to get married can? Damn this is getting me all riled up like Fox News.
The B-Side's "Boiys" has a smirking waltz rhythm of laid back organ and muted chords talking about this plague of boys at brunch and being sassy. I like this more subtle and twisted look at contemporary culture, you don't go after the obvious targets, it's about that weirder bigger picture while you poke fun at your own instrumentation at the same time. At the risk of not being cool you write the weirdest goofy carnival song sneering alongside your subject? It's not an obvious direction and what makes it that much better in the end, a direct result of a singular twisted vision just doing whatever the hell he wants.

Lots of inserts; fake money and a sticker to 'support the war machine', lyric sheet, liner notes and a picture of Roburt about to wipeout on the floor from singing like a maniac and thrashing all over the place.
Contact Roburt (room10101 at hotmail) for this one unless you live in europe and lucky you, it's down the street at X-Mist and Beau Travail Records.

The Ar-Kaics on Market Square Records

How did The Ar-Kaics happen to hit on that same tone as the Fresh and Onlys did a few years back not only in number of releases and buzz but in tapping a similar fuzzy soul psych that Tim Cohen did. I've always been a fan of this sound that has parts of a beachy reverb mixed in with a distant, cood post-psych sound. You're filling in a lot of those mysterious gaps while the melody just rises out of this satisfying fog. Another great single from this Richmond, VA four piece who also just put out that full length with Windian not long ago - take your pick.

A-Side's "Always the same" bashes in a heavy 4/4 beat, the snare echoing that kick because the god damn air is just MOVING. Shrill reverb taking it's place right alongside that downbeat, proof they don't have to speed things up to gain that snarling energy and momentum. Layer in a tambourine and busted static cymbal into that snare and you can barely make out these vocals. It's become a real primitive Mummies sounding garage with an everything is simple and new sound of Troggs demos. There's no denying a rhythm like this but still not an easy thing to pull off, it takes a skilled hand to get anything new out of it. A bent, uneasy solo piped in from the HVAC duct next door makes this sound even more dirty and dangerous. Guess what's 'always the same'? The hurt and pain.
B-Side's "Let Me In" starts with haunting high angled reverb with big distance, the notes settling into a foggy night marsh. It's cold until the drums shuffle in and another set of guitar tones start hardening this into place. It's all about this mood they create as much as the actual placement and tempo of the notes. The layers of space have as much to do with this sound as the struck notes drawn out by those cycles of circuits. Kevin Longendyke's vocal is floating in that midpoint of the mix not worried about keeping his head up above this thick blanket, you couldn't get to this place fighting. It's not the demand of 'Let me in' as much as it's the despair of getting shut out. Feedback upon feedback grows interrupting this analog sound in their interpretation of the lonesome solo, leaning that guitar up against the cabinets and letting nature take it's course.

As usual the Ar-Kaics let the music speak for itself and all you get is a brown paper sleeve. All they need is that name on the center label.

Sold out from Market Square direct but Goner has copies still.

No Other on the Negative Fun singles club 2014

There are some serious overlooked gems in this Negative Fun subscription series. First the Midnight Plus One single opened up a dark psych direction and that Positive No single introduced me to one of my recent favorite EP's. I think I'm saying that not only do I like a label blindly sending new music every couple of months but I NEED the curation. If Negative Fun has taken the time to schedule out a years worth of singles to deliver to subscribers it's because these are the singles they feel strongest about. No Other is a philly based trio with one of those naturally gifted lead singers in Maria Sciarrino that can pull off the demanding range of hardcore or go completely breathy and atmospheric alongside their equally eclectic mix of post punk and experimental shoegaze.

A-Side's "Option C" opens with a severe no frills punk bass line setting the tone for scratchy jagged guitar distortions and heavy foot stomp. Maria on vocals has a full sounding trained vocal like Corin Tucker that can all of a sudden fly into an upper register maintaining serious control of her quiver. The tone is all the way at the extreme end of post punk, modern and stark like those massive concrete eastern european housing projects. Rigid and sticking to a prescribed plan, the solo if you can call it that, is all stutter off kilter notes that work in those minor key ways over the repeating assembly line riffs, sliding or patched in from another track entirely they seem to be saying it doesn't have to fit. Just realizing that 'option C' refers to the other choice that wasn't even brought up. I don't like either of the choices and I'm going with the third one I just made up.
B-Side's "Opaque" slides in with a heavy watery chorus guitar flirting with reverb and Maria has a "Back on the Chain Gang" Chrissie Hynde sound on this one over the slow moving chords. It expands into a dense crashing distortions that get swallowed by delay and this tropical pop sound goes noisy shoegaze. This one breaks for an experimental effects filled solo also, the whole track a big 180 from where you'd expect this to go based on that A-Side. This seems to combine more obscure references into something more unclassifiable. If they can get that surprise on a seven inch imagine where they could go with two sides of a full length.

The only way to pick this up is getting that whole set direct from Negative Fun.

Tiger High on Trashy Creatures / Volar Records

After checking out Tiger High's latest single, a split release between Trashy Creatures and Volar Records, I think I'm getting their surrealist psych cover art on this single and full length Inside the Acid Coven. If ever there was a case for the direct link between T Rex glam pop and punk power psych than this may very well be the textbook example. These four guys from Memphis with ties to Rich Reatard and Jack Oblivian have a few well received full length releases out already and have honed this special combination to a unique point. They included a couple of non-LP tracks on the B-Side which is always appreciated by those looking for MORE on these tiny records. The sole reason I started writing about the seven inch was those unreleased songs from Sebadoh or The Palace Brothers that only showed up on the B-Side's of these things. They should be a place for a band to experiment, or in this case, take their brand of glam psych to an epic place.

A-Side's "Christine" shakes in with shrill riffs and an electronic throbbing bassline that dives into a thick garage psych with swirling muted clicks and chords, delayed and bouncing across this cloud ring. There's layers of high static guitars in a choir of glam theatrics with lines about 'purple women and purple haze' teetering between a low baritone delivery and out of control yelling into the mic. This mix can't handle the way they've pushed this right into the red giving it a clear coat of static that only enhances this contact high. Going for the most bizarre solo of the year so far not giving away how they've managed to strike these strings. Meticulous attention to those guitar details creating appropriately dense and mysterious textures and this literally blows up outside the grooves with it's big ass sound.
B-Side's "More" comes out with a jagged burst of chords from warbling guitars in such a gleaming racket without a second to take any of this in, only time to get swept up in this massive sound. It's a shock and awe approach to that sweaty glitter punk sound. Like anybody else, they "want more" in that almost religious, gospel yeh-yeh sound. The vocals play with various sonic distances in the spirit of messing with their own special party psych that aims to have pounding garage come at you from all angles. Glitchy squeals and feedback fade into "Shakey Legs" with a seriously blown out organ grind in that We Will Rock You primal stomp. Harmonies layered up each step, countless vocals before the warped circuits take over the guitar signals and the digital haze clears. Clearly taking the altered consciousness sounds of the '60s and injecting spit and gravel from the punk prophets.

Get it from Trashy Creatures or Volar Records direct.

Pillars and Tongues "End Dances" on Empty Cellar Records

A friend of mine from Ireland always used to swear by The Blue Nile. They rarely recorded, releasing albums every six or seven years. He made them sound mythical and different from the bands I knew who went after commercial success or pushed the underground envelope. They seemed to be able to redefine what intelligent and hugely produced sound could be. A band with the skill and resources to pull off something really unusual within a traditional pop structure. The resources required for production today may not be as taxing but that skill and direction is still a rare thing. The Blue Nile is the first thing that came to mind when listening to End Dances from Pillars and Tongues on Empty Cellar Records. Vocally Mark Trecka has a similar cavernous crooning delivery. It's a naturally gifted vocal that softly works over loops and weird atmospheric samples in perfect contrast to the mysterious dreamlike soundscape they create over both sides of this record.

A-Side's "Knifelike" begins the epic journey the way that a bleak landscape can convey the huge distances between people and places. The way those vast stretches of the planet aren't inhabited by much life at all like this understated rhythm consisting of an electronic sounding woodblock and rim shot. They favor these cool, minimal structures with just enough of a skeleton to be somewhat recognizable with haunting loops of scratching metal becoming an ancient kettle drum. Mark's vocal is an emotional chant, witness to a ritual, a primal, ancient rite reenacted by a trained classical vocalist who's aware of the space and the way a body can project. "Dogs" takes on a middle eastern quality with melodies that scatter everything at random managing to sculpt a form with enough structure intact to enforce melodic pop. Beth emerges from the background an essential ghostly element mirroring his emotional delivery. They can feel like the southwest, a purple, flat mesa style landscape mixed with Moroccan architecture. There's nothing specific being hinted at but something even harder; an attempt to understand the much larger picture. Over and over this record gives you the space to attempt to go to that place and the time with it to spend on the subject. "Bell + Rein" begins with the sound of a natural orchestra tuning up with the rattling of guitar strings, decaying loops and infinite feedback. Sounds that create themselves without any intervention if you're willing to let that chaos work itself out like the Dirty Beaches soundtrack to Water Park. You have to be willing to leave things to chance but you're never going to get tired of creating the work live. Any of these tracks are going to take new shape every night and always be surprising like The Disintegration Loops ending up in a completely new place from where it started. Set up the parameters and let it twist into a new shape. Heavily meditative and underneath a violin willing it's melody into a very specific direction after all and I'm hoping it happened in the same room, live while these sounds were rising and fading into something new. "Points of Light" is positively optimistic with Beth harmonizing to the point of pure religion of a layered choir of voices, the primary instrument of the band. It's the thing that honestly can't be duplicated. The one instrument that can't be replaced by any sort of technology - you can shape it with autotune, but the foundation has to be there. They create a slow moving, half height wall of sound that's exponentially growing, not in a threatening way, but coming in for a closer look. If the human voice is the centerpiece in their exploration of these huge themes then Mark's vocal is the the core of that search.

On B-Side's "Medora" they introduce more subtle rhythms and as much of this feels free and open, there are times it gets a little ominous or dark. I think those opposites are at work here. It can be a serious affair with no room for lightness. After all they're tackling huge existential questions, from the place of a spiritual echo chamber their voices expanding out into a supernova of harmonies. It's impressive the organic, natural sound they get out of clearly manipulated samples. They don't immediately give up their source and provide a foundation for Mark's vocal to squarely place this in a real place. The repetition and loops encourage a meditative trance like some kind of new age psych, mentally changing the way you approach hearing these sounds. This violin demands a thought process with a sort of math inherent in the melodies or maybe because it's such a frail temporary sound that seems to float by like some kind of balloon string just out of reach. "Ends" is one of the most memorable tracks giving in to the most random acts of chaos, the fading layers of loops come crashing in heavy waves with a skeletal tiny violin the only sign of humanity in this endless sea of bubbling static. "Ships" picks things back up and is the dawn breaking, harmonies flying, a clearing of the storm. This is Pillars at the height of their powers, the culmination of all the previos tracks, all the ways they've been building to this point with a real sign of hope. We might not have come up with any answers but they might be suggesting that we don't have to either.

Deluxe package here with heavy tip on sleeve and newsprint fold out insert with lyrics and liner notes. Really honors the material inside. Pick it up from Empty Cellar Records.

Blood Sister on Unpiano Book (Records)

Not even a month ago I covered Blood Sister's first release and now I find out about this independent book publisher who decided to make the San Francisco based trio their first vinyl release on their not at all a record label. I personally hope it starts more of trend getting small publishers and equally micro labels to collaborate with audio materials for their stories and vice versa - like Zoo and a Movie's long form comic which inspired the 4 song EP that went with it, it's something that very very rarely happens. Maybe this is the first step or maybe Unpiano just couldn't help themselves. I get it.

A-Side's "Why Would You" opens with the track's signature glitchy guitar (?) melody pushed through broken electronics and bending through path cables in a sort of watery Blank Dogs sound. These live drums are essential and you either go full circuit or have that balance of human drumming to keep things interesting live and this slappy static snare isn't going to be mistaken for polish or anything. Mostly guitar based in a Jesus and Mary Chain dense fog, it's weird when they subtract layers and there's still more working underneath. Magicians that conjure a catchy melody out of hazy chaos. You wouldn't begin to know how these pieces fit together and it makes for compelling listening every time. Call it lo-fi, but that's like saying a book is a lo-fi movie, it's just it's own mysterious thing. Dual guy girl vocals that also is the key to humanizing this sort of thing, making it even more haunting if the all black packaging didn't make you interested already. Sounds like an apocalyptic My Bloody Valentine or The Swirlies through a portable speaker that guy plays surf rock on under the bridge in the park. This is another document supporting that yet to be recorded full length.
B-Side's "Bart Simpson" only muddies the water further. This dark guitar chaos has something to do with the cartoon character? You can sort of hear that kooky twisted surf sound they create with swirling distortions shifting these melodies around with multiple chorus pedals and phasers...? Who knows, I can't help but get caught up in this sound, it's completely foreign like Gary War. Broadcast from another galaxy, proof of intelligent life but just try to enjoy it. The beachy woooooo's could be the cowabunga to Bart's presence here, all I know is I want to go listen to Barbed Wire Kisses again.

Get it from Unpiano Books direct.

Church Bats on Windian Records subscription series #3

Todd from Brooklyn's Church Bats was friends with Windian Records founder Travis Jackson before his passing early last year. They had always talked about putting a single out on the label so when the torch was passed to Eric Brady he included their latest as part of their ongoing subscription series. Windian has always felt like a label with a real clear direction when it comes to releasing contemporary punk garage bands and revisiting a lot of incredible forgotten singles thanks to Travis. The Church Bats are in good company and had the direct blessing from Travis himself. Since that tragedy, Todd has stepped up the bands efforts in remembrance of their friend and Travis' influence and spirit continues on now in Windian as well as The Church Bats.

A-Side's "Foreign Land" opens with a measure of jangly brittle riffs before the heavy hulk beat breaks in, Shingo is attempting to bash a hole right through the skins with a serious part of the budget set aside for for drum repair. Todd uses a doubled up vocal and what sounds like multiple guitars speeding through big fist changes, waiting for a measure so the huge solo can scream in over wrists firing in a snarly Blues Explosion sound. Riding the frequency right into the edge of the hissy peaks, boost the treble and mic a tweeter back through the board. It's full of static and crackle rushing this punk to the end in case somebody pulls the plug. It's always hard to capture this sort of spontaneous high energy sound like their coming right out of the speakers, playing directly in the room, but they nailed it.
B-Side's "Half Man, Half Shellfish" slowly wrings out this riff, twisting the neck between two chords in a meandering ocean roll. Slight shift up the register in that traditional blues scale. Dirty and crunchy sounding, it's all about how you bend your knees on this one. Turning out to be an instrumental that refuses to speed up in any way, trudging through molasses at night, the sun is going down and all kinds of animals are coming out for dinner. Bring out the broken bottle neck slide and make those strings squeal working it's way into a sewer surf sound with more gutteral distortion than reverb but this is that mix of spilled beer and alcohol that seeps into the wood bar. It can not be manufactured.

Get it from Windian. Have you even been paying attention?

Nervous Twitch on Punk Fox Records

Knowing better than to have any idea what expect from the Punk Fox label, I let this four piece from Leeds, UK, Nervous Twitch walk me through the past fifty years of music history across the two sides of this single. It's weird that I find myself going back to those girl groups from the '50s thanks to Guantanamo Baywatch or yesterday's single from Susan practically daily but you'd be crazy not to hear the direct thread between The Shangri-La's and something like Personal and the Pizzas. These guys start out in the early '50s and head straight into post punk that round peg in the square hole.

A-Side's "Jonny's got a gun" blasts right into that chorus lyric right along with a three chord jangle at spastic speed, whoever came up with their name gets a free drink. Erin on vocals and has got it out for this Jonny character, who's been historically maligned in so many songs. Bash that sentiment out on the fretboard, 'got a gun' repeated that over and over in the garage, cranking on chords, tracking harmonies together updating The Angels "Boyfriends Back" and uping the stakes. Enter huge reverb on "And we did" with muted clicking chords to slow things down. A toy xylophone sounding electric plunged under water and held down with weights. I like this slower, down low vocal sounding like the Midnight Snaxxx leather jacket harmony with the attitude of The Coathangers. Greaser '50s vibe with a tambourine and warbling wah of a reverb coiled up and sprung down the stairs like a slinky. The drums have that shallow cardboard box feel, a nice mix of homemade and studio sounding, nailing that crafty quality of these sort of reenactments. They should open for Shannon and the Clams or Hunx of course, there's room for more of this winking nostalgia.
B-Side's "Modern World" opens with a heavy Wire sounding bass line that shifts into post punk reggae Clash sound. Erin is right in the front of this mix, slightly blown out with a jagged vocal delivery over stabs of new wave strings between this stutter jangle. More ominous and bleak sounding until they hit that chorus and it's almost a hyper maximum density shoegaze. They seem to have absorbed the past fifty years and playing through all of it across these two sides, can't decide? You don't have to, play it all.

Get this by contacting Chris dot punkfox at gmail or their bandcamp page.

San Kazakgascar on Lather Records

Sometimes it's crazy when I realize I covered a bands previous single seven years ago. San Kazakgascar has been around for at least nine years now, an incredible feat for any band, let alone a four piece of experimental mideastern psych featuring a clarinet from Sacramento. I have to hand it to a group clearly out to please themselves and in the process create truly unique weirdness.

A-Side's "First Nation Spy" opens with a heavy kick thud and bouncy bass groove, a clicking tightly wound guitar melody is poised to spring out of the reverb with a heavy picked push on those strings ricocheting off the frets, definitely recorded live. That clarinet is an amazing touch, out of nowhere it pops into this soundtrack to a middle eastern Repo Man. The vocal hums along in the same minor key structure as this springy sitar sounding guitar. Plenty of weirdo percussion layers of triangles and shakers to keep the hookah smoke wafting. It's a psych sounding Turing Machine; plenty of tension in the chase sequences obscured by the smoke from the chronic. Loose and hectic they're still at it, flying that very specific freak flag.
B-Side's "Last Man Standing" smacks a tight conga drum while that bass nails the same notes somehow with a southern pacific, snake charmer feel in this dream mirage. It looks like there's water up ahead but it's this four piece just channeling their primitive side and you're witness to this raw, eastern seance. Really great anti-guitar tones out of that electric. This one happens to finally break into a darker, ominous feel, telepathically growing at the right moment. Jed Brewer's vocal about being the last man in an apocalypse among the pools of fracking water hits close to home. Just when you thought this was some futuristic fusion, like a klezmer Godspeed You Black Emperor they drag it back into the strange combinations of things happening today.

On black vinyl from their bandcamp page or Lather Records.

Makeouts on Radio Obligato Records

Even Stockholm, Sweden can't escape the snotty garage sound covering the globe. I like to imagine there isn't a city on the planet that doesn't have it's own drunken mess of a stripped down three or four piece garage band recording songs about pizza, drinking and the opposite sex on whatever recording devices are available. There is something decidedly classic about the instrumentation and impulse. It also selfishly means there's going to be a lot more seven inches to talk about. The Makeouts are a four piece that don't care where they're from only they've found blood ties with the likes of Hunx and Ty overdriving distortion, drums - vocals into the red. With a couple of full length releases on Bachelor records, their last single was nine years ago so lets face it those guys were probably influenced by The Makeouts in the first place.

A-Side's "All about you" rushes in with machine snare, high twisted multiple shreiking guitar melodies and bass running up the fretboard pushing the limits of the VU meters hitting the edge of that plastic box. A massive party sound, the whole band yelling in the back of this ensemble sound, somehow remembering to keep this on track in hyper Matthew Melton style in that sweet combination of speed and melody. Anyone that's opened for Jay Reatard is automatically good with me and there's a hardcore Nobunny feel to this, centered on melody but mostly out for speed and tough greaser vocal that sounds like the end of the party with a sinister undertone, made extra scratchy on this pressing. Pining for this relationship and sounding unbalanced and manic like the narrator in Blood Visions, off his medication and hopefully harmless?
B-Side's "I can't help myself" is subtitled '(ode to record collectors)' on the front sleeve cranks in a scratchy lead guitar strut, thuddy caveman smash drums and a stumbling second lead walks right into that shop with the boxes of dollar records out in the sidewalk. Completely snotty and coming on like a worn adverts single with no sleeve. The lyrics I'm catching are hilarious; comments on the message boards, reissues, driving hours to go look through a garage, stacking shelves to get satisfaction. It hits a little too close to home, but then this'll be the first song to actually address my serious problem. I'm not going to admit it though. They start to really pound away into a dirge version of the track just as it fades out though. Guess we have to wait for the import seven inch with the alternate B-Side.

I found it at this Swedish distro or head over to radio obligato.

Not from this single but you get the idea:

The Belltowers on Market Square Records

I honestly don't think I can think of anyone as single mindedly committed to the '60s psych pop sound as Paul Messis. It's one thing to have the ear and technical skill to pull off flawless updates like he has on his own full length records but now he's started a label and released records from contemporary artists working in the same paisley nostalgia on Market Square Records. His dedication to the reexamination of the sound of that era has got me rereading Jim Derogatis' Turn on Your Mind and tracing this experimental/super produced period into today. The Belltowers out of Orlando, Florida are taking that double hollow body jangle, tight snare precision and bass into a future psych that's drawing on those influences in completely authentic ways. Of course the four of these guys play a huge variety of instruments according to the liner notes, which is just about required for this sound.

A-Side's "Here To Stay" lets that acoustic slowly set the hazy parts per million ratio and expand the cloud right into a verse vocal piled with harmonies and doubled up takes, leaning towards the same '60s period Neil Young. An organ peeks out of the mix before a couple of solo's with decidedly new millennium effects, but they weren't ever setting out to be a cover band. "This love is here to stay." That's more like it, I equate this foggy bliss with the hypnotism that comes from that connection and this song takes those classic groundwork and relevantly expands on those ideas dropping you into the head over heels sound of first dates and the sun coming up.
B-Side's "Lovin' You (Leading Me On)" opens with that high treble shiny guitar line alternately picking and strumming into the opening verse from Paul Mutchler but I'm a little worried about their being taken advantage of. This far out psych shouldn't be about this downer side of love right? It figures that they're so dedicated to this sound they've missed the signs, blindly falling for it. The instrumentation of this mind altering sound is always complex and a twelve string lays down a foundation rhythm while the tambourine shakes in multiple time signatures. Thomas Miller on drums has that perfect frantic skittery energy for this mid tempo groove feeling like it's leading the rest of the track waiting for the melody to catch up, jabbing triple time fills at every turn. I'm getting a massive "Turn Turn Turn" vibe from this too. Multiple layers of harmony and talent.

Pick this up from 13 O'clock records here in the states. They're carrying a ton of great releases across the board from The Young Sinclairs to The Ar-Kaics, practically the entire catalog of just plain good psych.

Barons EP on Underground Communique Records

Barons is the all too familiar story of friends who were in countless bands in their collective pasts and didn't mean to start a new band after ending up in Pittsburgh together. Underground Communique posthumusly released a previous project, Voice in the Wire which got everybody in the same place for reunion shows and before you know it, new songs were written, lots of hanging out and their drummer Nick practically forced them to take this new thing, Barons, seriously. A few years later their in deep and Underground Communique collected four tracks of hardcore pop punk on their debut EP.

A-Side's "Wartime Lullaby" scrapes down strings to explode into heavy hitting drums and the tight compressed distortion sounds of the dual guitars from Jon Barker and Mike Rock reminding me immediately of Atombombpocketknife or Braid. The way they let everything go and conjured completely bonkers energy in massive blasts of chunky chords. Like the Promise Ring or Cap'n Jazz they've got a mature hardcore punk that you can't help but get swept up in. Impressive that the four vocalists (What Nick can't sing?) trade off lines and blend into each others energy and tone, they were meant to be together already, that sort of sound or enthusiasm can't be forced.
"Uncommon Ground" has Zack carrying this opening vocal singlehandedly next to the distorted layers of melody before the rest of this thickens up. There's something about this Sunny Day Real Estate sound, the way it's so completely raw and personal that's easy to relate to in those tougher coming of age times. These guys are really giving it everythign in a more than sincere way that has to make even cynical robot audiences feel something dammit, especially this track about losing friends and drifting apart. Makes me want to give them a god damn hug already.
B-Side's "Hitman" opens with an old time radio sample about rich guys dying disgraced and I'm suddenly into these guys applying some of this manic energy in a political way with lyrics about a part of society that doesn't actually do anything. Take it from the band from steel city to be pissed about the one percent. They may be doing themselves a disservice by making it sound so catchy but they trust you'll dig deeper. They give you a history lesson in "Berkman Needed Target Practice (But Had The Right Idea)" about the anarchist Alexander Berkman who tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick of Carnegie Steel in Pittsburgh in revenge over his ordering to kill striking workers. He managed to shoot him twice and even stab him a few times but failed to finish Frick and inspire the oppressed american people to rise up. Heavy stuff that you can trust these five guys to blow up into catchy power punk that's about more than 'things suck' or 'we broke up'. More inspiring than an 'A' patch on a demin jacket, they make intelligent powerful tracks.

Get it from Underground Communique Records. Black or Pink vinyl.

Susan on Volar Records

I don't know if there's such a thing as 'the sound of summer' or if densely layered pop can evoke that season but I'm willing to try anything at this point. The sweaty pop from the LA based trio of Susan is a pretty good start to at least start thinking about some warmer weather with teeth. It could be that laid back feel to a huge set of layers that reminds you of being too hot to move, the humidity settling in like an invisible cloud...but once you start paying attention to the lyric, you'd better not get too comfortable.

A-Side's "Just Call it" bounds in with a layered blast of vocals and fuzzy chords in a polished post Vivian Girls dense shoegaze sound of jangle and harmony. Something of a combination of Grass Widow and Frankie Rose or the off balance rhythms of Crystal Stilts, heading right for big harmonies and playing with the back and forth of channels answering each others vocal in a snarly Go Go's sound. Belinda Carlisle played drums for the Germs, believe it or not. It's a real crazy mix of throwing vocals around in all directions, stepping on each other, the airy mix packed with takes and takes of voices. This track is about the existential dilemma still around today, to call or not to call, especially since you're going to get that person on the other end of the phone. Well maybe that's easier these days, don't get me started about having to talk to a girls parents. They break for 'oooo's' and that three chord jangle spreads out for a bit, rounding the whole thing out nailing a weird half step rhythm finish.
B-Side's "Frenchie" slams in cut up blocks of chords, their jabbing of post punk sliding into a weirder chorus, making a little bit of fun of an angst ridden dude. This sugary pop is taunting and switches from a rigid chant to a laid back groove with that push and pull, sending mixed messages to the annoying poser. Screeching feedback squeals right into a delayed solo that pretty much destroys everything. "Pancake" rides on with heavy three chord rushes and the eerie harmony from these three in overdrive. You might have been impressed with their three part harmony before but here it's a real solid dense impenetrable fog of sugar. Forcing an unmelodic rhythm that works only because they will it into repetition with a chorus inspired by the classic '60s girl group sound ending with a pillowy "...I hope you die alone."

Pick this up from Volar Records, green or black vinyl.

White Town "I Wanna Be Your Ex" on Golly Jane Records

White Town is the project of Jyoti Mishra who had a #1 hit song in the UK back in '97 with the song "Your Woman" a gender bending track about being in love with someone who REALLY can't reciprocate. It's a sort of G Love track that plays with rhythms and junky, odd tones in a quirky late '90s way. He's continued to create music and this single comes 25 years (bad math - ed) later with another melted electronic pop song on the Golly Jane Record label.

A-Side's "I Wanna Be Your Ex" comes in with heavy square waves building into a massive mix of airy synths and Jyoti's vocal that slides in over top of this in one take, no auto tuning according to the liner notes. It's a spinning, chaotic track that fills up all available free space in the wave and as was the case in "Your Woman" makes the absolute best out of a potentially messed up situation. Heavy amounts of programming and midi sequencing, all of the sinks in the house thrown at this thing, the months of tinkering left to that one take, an interesting idea. An orphan of late '90s Depeche Mode and The Postal Service building and building the bonkers multi tracking until the very last second.
B-Side's "Rainy Day" was one of his earliest songs rerecorded in one take again with just an acoustic, capturing his intimate performance, very much what a great B-Side should be, you get that stripped down insight into the process especially of older material that the artist is still in love with. It sounds like this single is trying to get at the scope of his twenty five year career in two sides of a tiny record. A noble enterprise.

Pick this up from Golly Jane Records on yellow heavy vinyl.

Kappa Chow on Kiss the Void Records

Joe from Kappa Chow has a point in this interview with Secret East. The five piece from New Brunswick Canada have pretty much no online presence, no bandcamp, no Facebook, no site of any kind in a deliberate move to get those people who really want to hear it to pick it up. You'll have to email Joe directly and see if he's willing to ship this south of the border but you can get a feel from the video from A-Side's "Jump" which starts out slow and sinister as a distanced sax and big distortion sounds wash together while a stripped down tom/snare kit bangs away in the middle of a huge cave. Playing with psych reverb big sounds Halcyon her vocal with a solid melody in this late '80s sounding combination of Psychedelic Furs, Martha and the Muffins and midwest experimental stuff like Pere Ubu. These swashes of wide harsh guitar sounds alongside the classy sax could also be some kind of Siouxsie B-Side. Joe is back there with his response to Jump and making sure the high scratchy guitar stays unclassifiable and weird, grinding the gravelly distortion into dust. Mostly it's the slow groove of this one with the unusual instrumentation that makes me nostalgic for psych 'alternative' of the '90s. Doesn't sound like much else out there at the moment in a good way.
B-Side "Something Better to Do" spins up with a real crunchy succession of riffs in a jam fueled country bbq kicker. Joe and friends are all delivering vocals around the campfire, standing up crowded into the mic. Pounding out caveman beats with extra tambourine, invite everyone, blast the sax way out there in the field, we'll pick it up. Turn the amps up just outside the kitchen, this is real celebration psych that has pieces of Beat Happening or The Brian Jones Massacre. A real collaboration about loss and loneliness but the track sounds like anything but. Get friends together, play some music in the garage - feel better.

Get it from the band direct, email Joe at jchamandy at hotmail. Video for 'Jump' below:

Exorcisms - self released #2

I just connected the dots today that Hannah from the Exorcisms was a vocalist in all the White Murder singles I covered a while back. The only things they have in common might just be the tempo and punk spirit of both projects. Listening back to Exorcisms first single, this one further fuses their glitter garage sound with hardcore pop letting loose with an ugly mess of guitars and noise.

A-Side's "Scripted Lines" opens with an overdriven crunchy guitar over caveman toms and sliding headfirst into a bobbing burst of muted chords for the verse. David Lopez is delivering these lyrics without calculation sticking to instinct of where they'll land, separating thoughts in aid of this tempo and sound. It explodes into a brief moment of fills and hyper melody for the refrain that comes back with it's own distorted cut up memories blasting chords like the Hot Snakes. Breaking into an obscene crunch and the suffocated squeal of a solo before repeating that whole thing all over again, sticking to the explosive parts even more. The arrangement is dizzying, the back and forth between tempos forcing room for the guitar to stick it's head out just before they go into a tunnel again somehow getting faster and pounding harder all the way to the end.
On B-Side's "This Might Hurt a Bit" harmonic reverb chunky notes are all that accompanies David and Hannah while they lay out this lyric nearly a cappella before going revival prom night with jangly guitars and that shit eating beat. The slow dance is broken up by a Jesus Lizard/Bleach style convention of gravelly fuzz that deliberately brought serious pyro to the gymnasium. David keeps that crooner vocal style going on the top of this heavily compressed crunch that eventually takes over becoming the center of the universe. They really let the decibels go and sucker punch you at the end, making off with your date. All I can hear is incredibly thought out arrangements and a microscopic level of detail in the guitar performance and sound. Who the hell is going to step up and put out their third single? DIY 'aint cheap.

Go get this from these guys direct on their band camp page.

Matthew Melton "Outside of Paradise" on Southpaw Records

I think it says something when the copy I ordered of Outside of Paradise on Southpaw Records comes a few days before the review copy they sent. I blindly order anything involving Matthew Melton. It's guaranteed to be good, starting back with Bare Wires there isn't anything I haven't worn out listening too. I'd go as far as to say anything that anything Matt puts out on his own label Fuzz City Records is worth picking up also. "Outside…" is a collection of his solo material from the past seven years picking up where Still Misunderstood left off. He's insanely prolific and it makes sense that the same energy of the garage, the forces of springy reverb and power chords would propel his creative momentum. The energy inherent in this style would of course translate into output and not just in his own recorded material but even in producing bands like Shannon and the Clams, Hunx and Adam Widener defining the sound of Oakland, CA.

The front cover art actually makes me think I've been taking him too seriously all along since he's resorted to cutting and pasting himself in the middle of the woods or on a raft in space. He's always been a bad ass, posing next to old bikes, exclusively wearing jeans and leather jackets never shaving that mustache but I didn't expect this obviously subversive side to spell it out. But then I think that's what sets this apart from Ty or Seth, it's that wink along with the attitude. It's not as bluesy or grimy sounding as either of those two and has always had one foot over the wall of '60s sound but it's got a sense of humor that maybe isn't so obvious.

Outside of Paradise seems to combine surf and sandy beach together with packs of motorcycles and echoes from late '60s girl groups like The Shirelles or The Angels. In 2015 the sound is full of nostalgia while being deliberately dirty and honest. Flipping ideas about love through the use of guitar tone and recorded fuzz. He's after tracks that are going to be exciting with roots in ultra familiar themes and a verse/chorus structure that's perfection like the title track. It's the tightest most concise songwriting, there isn't a note that overstays it's welcome. Every track is a unique burst of punk that's obviously in the same family but took completely different paths.

He's got an uncanny ability to turn a simple distorted melody into an amazing chorus. He's delivering the same blindingly syrupy punk as in Warm Soda, it's such a part of his DNA. It should be a joke he's so good at it, but you can't study this as intensely only to parody it. He takes the drum sounds on this record as serious as the spectrum of guitars from the brittle tin foil high hat tones and bass pounded into that pillowy cinder block. He's forever exploring distorted buzz and finding new variations his whole life, impressively changing that instrument every track. It's a garage-soul-punk record from a guy trapped in the single speaker mono am radio on the workbench out in the garage. It's a well oiled, elegant piece of circuitry that's classic and cool. It's not an expensive or rare model just a perfect solution to listening to two sides of perfection.

Get this from Southpaw Records.

1/6 and The Public Opinion 6 split single on Hope Street Records

The story goes that while The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra were in the studio working on their latest full length when members 1/6 (Aaron Stephanus) and Lamine Sonko both came up with solo tracks for this single on Australia's Hope Street Records. They just couldn't help themselves - too much material is never a bad thing.

The A-Side track "Cosmetic Love" was born out of an old studio session at Hope Street from the PutBacks, the guitar smoothly transitioning from a lonesome solitary groove, emerging out of a shimmery cymbal as the intro to a shuffle back beat fires up and 1/6 builds a massive rapid-fire narrative about a relationship lost. A detailed play by play that walks through the feelings of this loss, going over events to see if there's anything he missed, where things went wrong. The introspection works against this groove decorated with bass phrases, slow building organ and brass from POAO's producer Tristan Ludowyk making something of a funk hybrid, the lyric working more like spoken word than traditional hip hop.
On B-Side's "Jappo", The Public Opinion 6, the rhythm section from POAO takes that same abandoned sketch and reworks the percussion and bass right off the bat with more layers and an expanded brass section. That guitar drops out and they end up completely taking this one in a new direction with Lamine delivering his vocals with a huge cavernous room echo almost going dub, taking massive liberties with the tempo his lyric at one point going from double time over this not laid back tempo and sliding right into the chorus with a smooth vibrato.

Get this one here in the US from Fatbeats.