Brick Mower lathe on Stumparumper Records

I mentioned this Brick Mower lathe cut Pat at Stumparumper put out a while back, and just got a chance to listen to it this weekend.
Thanks to Single Piece Slate I think there's going to be a million micro-labels popping up with this same structure in mind...cut 50 or so of them and do some handmade covers, (these are nicely screened however). They couldn't make the process any easier, and less you think it's a thin terrible sounding flexi that isn't meant to be played too many times, these are in fact super thick and great quality with barely any surface noise...if any more than normal.
The screened one color sleeve is like a Bruce Nauman neon sign; a brief passage of time between actions of an old man penned by Ryan Duggin. This one is even clear vinyl with a handwritten xerox insert with recording notes.

I was totally into the casual indie rock of their previous single on Viking on Campus Records and had to pick this up once I saw the B-Side was a GBV cover 'Exit Flagger'. That's an era of GBV I don't know at all to be honest, by 2005 I had long since moved on...and Brick Mower actually make me want to revisit this album in particular, even though I have to say in the end I'm into Brick's version more, but more on that later.
The A-Side, Box Turtle continues their classic indie sound, it's a huge rhythm part all distorted, laid down with the layers. Vocals are sitting right on top, the last thing to have been figured out at the very end of a drunken session. The electric melody is half playing along and I'm compelled to say it again, it's that home recorded, 4 track sound of Eric's Trip. Eric's Trip always seemed to fly under the radar in that cassette home recording explosion. They were less experimental and considered the melody more than some of the freakout explosions of the era, and kept it feeling really intimate...like a couple of friends had just passed you this tape at their show. It sounds like listening to a band through a heavy pane window, to get that thin sound...which is probably just the bouncing down of tracks, but it immediately becomes intimate...that quality is familiar, it's the promise of the possibility of making it, if they just heard this demo tape. It's also the bigger more complex sound of a trio working on these songs, it stays loose, but as a team they know what pieces work and make those hard decisions together.
I'm get a little sad and lonely because this sound and songwriting...it just makes me super nostalgic for the days of homemade launch ramps and sharpie marker t-shirts. Indie punk.

The B-Side, Exit Flagger, reminds me of how Robert Pollard would have moments of simple genius like this and Brick Mower took the core of this song and kept the core minima, blowing out the melody even further and adding the slightly distorted vocals. It's a lot more interesting, to have this massive contrast within the pieces. But you can hear how possible it is to get away with just 4 chords if you have to conviction and balls to know when it's over. To know when that's exactly right, and the song will practically write itself.
And back to back with the A-Side it fits Brick Mower so perfectly... if they didn't point it out in the liner notes, I would have never realized this was a cover. They acknowledge those influences, that entire era of music and then absolutely make it one of those ever changed cover songs.

Go check the super concert calendar because Brick Mower is coming to the Charleston March 10th, and then the almighty Cakeshop the 18th. No excuses.

If the lathe is sold out by the time you read this, go get the Floors EP and see them live dammit.
You're slow.

Brickmower on Stumparumper and The World is a Beautiful Place....on Topshelf Records

Pat has a new single out on his label, Stumparumper Records, this one is from NJ'ers, Brick Mower and was pressed by Single Piece slate, who I'm actually using myself to get a couple of 7"'s pressed for an art show in Boston...which I'll post about later.
"Garden Variety", still gets me, it's so rocking indie Eric's Trip in a perfect way. I've really been into that Merge book lately and this brings that all back..the avalanche of guitar rock singles in rows at the record store....do you get the xerox self released rock out garage single or another sad bastard Palace or Sebadoh single on Homestead. Brick Mower would fall into the first category... you want to see them live, with the singalong chorus, with a touch of weirdo in there, what is that slacker?...it's not pop punk.... they're just in that sincere genre....Fuck.... Garden Variety is on again...I want to hear these latest tracks.

Stumparumper says:
Brick Mower 'Box Turtle' floppy lathe cut 7" out now!!

We have a new release, and it's a very special one, for several reasons. Firstly, it's from those fantastic indie-punks Brick Mower, who have been tearing it up lately. But also! - it's a lathe cut 7", something we haven't done here at Stumparumper since our very first release almost 2 years ago (!!!!!!!!). But also also! - it's a totally new kind of lathe cut 7". It's called a 'floppy' because it's bendable, but it's nowhere near the thinness of a flexi. It occupies the space between normal vinyl and a flexi. It's cool. Plus, this new lathe cut has much improved sound quality over STUMP-01. This one was cut by a company in Seattle and, no offense in the direction of New Zealand, it sounds better than the ones Peter King cut for us way back when. But it doesn't end there! The 7" covers were designed and hand-silkscreened and super thick paper by one of our favorite artists, Ryan Duggan from Chicago. He's quickly becoming a premier poster artist and when you catch a glimpse of the illustration he did for this, you'll understand why. This release is hand-numbered to 50 copies, and we're already down to the last 16!! So get one now! http://www.stumparumper.com/merchandise.htm
(p.s. I know $8 is a lot for a 7", but each part of the final product is expensive and it's limited to 50 copies, and these things drive the price up. sorry, i know it sucks, but we're still losing money!)

It probably was their name that stuck with me whenever I came across it, so when I saw Topshelf records was releasing their first single, I went to go check out the tracks at their bandcamp page. The track names are equally epic and I have no idea how they're going to jam all of these onto a 7". It's sort of a Cap'n Jazz scream yourself hoarse along with a studio full of friends melodrama, combined with the massive dynamics of Explosions in the Sky, the complex intricate changes, to rock out walls of sound. But they even seem to ignore typical song structure at times reminding me of Firey Furnaces Blueberry Boat, that narrative story structure that dictates the direction of the melody...I'm into their completely unique direction in this kind of indie hardcore direction. Topshelf has 3 different color variations for $5:

Today we are thrilled to announce that we’ve got The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die’s spectacular debut EP 7” Formlessness now available for pre-order here. The first pressing ofFormlessness is 500 which we've split over 4 different colors. We have two different options: Single 7 Inch and a4 Pack (which includes every color of the album and is ONLY limited to 15).

Released earlier this year and taking some not-so-obvious cues from the likes of trail blazers like Sunny Day Real Estate or American Football, Formlessness plays like every record we love — but never quite just ONE in particular — and that’s our favorite part about it. The band has grabbed hold of classic moments like the more spastic buildups on a Kickball record or even the quieter lulls of Slint’s Spiderland in an entirely fresh and down-right invigorating direction. With the release of Formlessness, TWIABP are quickly joining the ranks of their peers like Annabel and Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate).

We’re ecstatic to be offering this record on vinyl. The first twenty-five orders will receive a FREE 2 song cassette titled “Josh Is Dead” and one random pre order will receive a free test press of the record with their order.

Granny Frost + Brick Mower split on Viking on Campus Records

Eric from Brick Mower contacted me through our mutual connection at Stumparumper Records, Pat, who recently started releasing cassettes including a Brick Mower handmade EP C-28. This split between Brick Mower and Granny Frost (who was also a part of Pat's Holiday single) is out on the Viking on Campus label, run by Eric himself. The circle of seven inches keeps spiraling back in on itself.

Granny Frost is Kevin Oliver out of Chicago working in the classic 4-track cassette genre, but not in those hushed 3AM bedroom acoustic recordings way. I remember from the 4-way xmas split that lyrically it's weird associations, non-sequitur's, "the future / is a photo / of a mirror" a little Beck, and Why?, anything goes, with a slight hip hop feel. There's a sense of humor in this I appreciate, like Eohippus, it's tinkering away...finding a beat or melody you can't help but work with, even going out to a rehearsal space and getting the room sounds from the amps.
This couldn't be further away from a sensitive 'Why'd she do it to me?' home record...real phat beats lead "Seed of Chaos", into a Pop Will Eat Itself, or Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine area (Can't remember the last time I thought about them)...machine gun drum programming and distorted guitars with the gleam of all things superpop...and executed with a 4-track is the perfect fit. Instead of the mountains of microphones and isolation booths, it's replicated with the cheap things at hand...like building the statue of liberty out of pennies. In the end it's better than the real thing it's trying to duplicate.

The xeroxed black and white sleeve of singles like this can lead to the best kind of originality. I'm easily swayed the opposite way with awesome handmade packaging, but the minimalism of this cut up collage imagery takes me back to my early days of randomly buying singles blind because of the DIY stylings. Brick Mower is from Keansburg, NJ and feels a lot like that classic xerox sleeve sound from those late '90s. Like good old Eric's Trip or the Loewenstein tracks from Harmacy...there's a blunt, homemade rock aesthetic. It's ok to be a little sloppy, with a nod to unprofessionalism, you don't want it to sound too good, or even lo-fi. It's smart punk with distorted huge chord guitar, combined with awkward vocal melodies the likes of experimental tracks on Freed Weed. "Cul de Sac": The jazz intro sounds like it was already on the tape right before they hit record. Then it's on to the live sludgy guitar rock based in catchy melody and vocals about "driving around in circles again", it's obviously born out of boredom and a garage to rehearse...the recipe for KRS, KRecs, the pacific Northwest DIY. The second track, "Garden Variety" is my favorite, back and forth vocals that sound punched in, quiet and loud, thin and homemade, like the Song's About Chris single, or a surprisingly rocking Sebadoh track. Sometimes you don't have to try so hard to innovate, or react against a scene, you just write what comes natural and end up with a classic. The jazz pokes through again, and I'm ready for a breakdown sound collage from a mini-cassette.

Get it from Viking on Campus or the Stumparumper distro:

Viking on Campus Records brings ya this slab of vinyl, a split between brick mower and Chicago's Granny Frost (the second split release we've done together). 2 brand new songs from brick mower, and two new tunes from Granny Frost. Limited to 300 on hand numbered vinyl.