The Ketamines (2 of 4) on Leaning Trees Records

The Ketamines continue to surprise me. Every time I start anticipating their earlier fuzzy psych recordings, they go and deliver something completely different. Like the other singles in this series they’ve continued to go off the rails. They’re in their experimental phase, pleasing themselves and hitting their stride in their own unique direction.

Right from "Take Me To Your Leader" I love how these guys combine abandoned garage with a hyper synth sound and their sense of sewn together melodies. It's completely bonkers like the Flaming Lips. Frankensteined chords and structures, forget the tempo, we're changing it, with an echo that goes straight from reverb to echo in a jagged Devo frantic sound. A talky vocal like some Camper Van Beethoven throwback, campy and bizarre talking about aliens but then really getting into such a great sense of timing, like a failed experiment they had to twist and break the findings to fit into a total success. Hearing some of the stuff Paul has recorded for Fist City and then the kinds of things he puts together himself with the Ketamines I'm in coomplete awe. LIke Matthew Melton or John Dwyer, every time I read the freaking liner notes he pops up. This runs right into "Lightworkers Lament”, gets more bonkers singing in a deep marching vocal, the effects heavy and winding all over. I don't know much about Pink Floyd but that mysterious English sounding prog is coming on strong here, like Blank Dogs covering the Kinks with a repeating off kilter stomp, a super psych with a haughty vocal that leads into a fantastic pop track "You Can’t Stop Time". This is schizophrenic in the best way. Don't think you ever know what to expect from the Ketamines, even after a couple of full lengths I'm thinking where the hell was all this stuff? How much do they think I can take? God this is a beautiful pop song, the kind of thing that wrote itself, once that harmony was introduced. It sounds like The Unicorns for christ sakes one of my favorite bands ever, in this flute and heavy drum treatment. Can't get enough of this song... of course you name the EP after this one.

By the B-Side I’m thinking Leaning Tree really got the good tracks, this is so much Ketamines. The lasers are back on "We Are One" and they built this seemingly out of a vocal with a slappy piano. Lay in the drums and I can't hear anything but a Ween sci-fi album about an abduction. Aliens came down for Prince when he was a little boy (true story) and he hadn't even dreamed of a purple latex studio - yet. I like this track is voiced by monotone aliens who are tying to convince us that ‘we are one’? "Right About Now" has tons in common with the Fresh and Onlys. Here's an acoustic near blasted understated layers of vocals right under this laid back density of a hazy dream you can't get out of for some reason. It's grey, but I know how this was put together, its not mysterious but then you’re slapping your forehead - damn of course this is the way you would do this. "Change Your Ways" reverses the flute and bass into free jazz vibrations. They go underground with a conga Jack Kerouac lounge beat here. It’s pysch in the way it starts to mess with perception and letting things unravel. It’s got so much experimentalism like Steropathic Beck’s 4-track experiments where the underlying nuts and bolts aren't so obvious. This isn’t the visible man, you’re going to have to spill some guts to see what this is all about.

Get this from Leaning Trees Records.

Ketamines "So Hot!" on Hosehead Records

The Ketamines have continued to step up their game this year with an impressive number of releases following their excellent full length release You Can't Serve Two Masters. They've managed to bring together FOUR labels in service of a full lengths worth of material across just as many singles. Their latest "So Hot!" on Hosehead Records is also a new step in the bands evolution, that caveman not only got upright, but found an astronaut helmet and a double neck twelve string flying V. The melodic fuzzy psych palette on Spaced Out exploded into catchy gleaming complex pop. I think I understand that title now, there isn't enough vinyl to press up other bands records, they need your complete attention. Bow down to The Ketamines.

"So Hot" kicks this off with a haunted surf sound and the band's distanced 'ooooooooo's'. Ghostly, precise jagged guitar and a jittery vocal. A crazy primitive rhythm sets up this jokey delivery of their response to Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher":

Teach on teachers

Bloodshot bloodshot and hooking up so hot 

then you realize 

YOU HAD TO GET A JOB

Thundery electric distortion punctuated by shimmery wah, swapping sounds measure for measure. 'Huh Huh Huh Huh Huh HOT!'. killer chanting that may have begun in pop psych but is an entirely new unrecognizable beast. A musical sabbath reference with a snotty punk Question Mark and the Mysterians. A hammond melody carves out the beginning of "New Skull Tattoo" and the vocals follow this jabbed rhythm in a chanting Devo sound, willing to give in to this robotic hilarious track about a painfully located tattoo. Needles don't have far to go until they hit bone there. This could be the aftereffects bouncing around his head with the heaviest echo drum and high hat chirps, with more of a wacky attitude with the instrumental chops to take this to a new level. They just don't want to sing another love song or bury the vocal back on reverb distortion island. They have something to say and it's wacky and loveable. Like Wounded Lion and Intelligence it's an ageless addictive dopey sound.

I thought "Summer Mothers" was a romantic track until the lyric unfolded with 'some will be mothers?' Is that because they got knocked up? An entirely Ketamines idea on summer love. Great slicing sine wave synth cuts through the fast sweep of jangle on this jaunty track with slightly distorted vocals. Sunny memories of the beach, going for the vocals and single note melodies. That backup rhythm guitar and synth working in pure indie nostalgia, a real fitting end to this ride. Anything's possible here, even a little regret leaves you with this faded polaroid track of the whole damn escape. Was it worth it? Of course you jackass...and this is just one slice of that four single pie.

Pick this up, import only from Canada on Hosehead Records.

Check out the A-Side track, So Hot below:

The Ketamines on Pleasance Records

Paul Lawton from The Ketamines has some major problems with the Canadian music scene. From what I can gather, Canada has some kind of funding for the arts (imagine that) with something called "FACTOR" which seems to exist to help Canadian bands financially with recording, marketing and promoting (??!!). The trouble is, Paul argues they end up funding the same boring bands that no one is actually paying much attention to. I've certainly never heard of any of the bands they mention in his National Post interview, but then again the idea that bands would be getting arts funding from the government to do anything seems pretty bonkers. Part of me thinks whatever they're attempting to do is better than here, which is nothing, but then again any government seems to fuck helpful things up, so nobody ever wins.

But the real point here is that the Ketamines are back with a new album, You Can't Serve Two Masters on Southpaw Records and the first of four (!!) new singles. The first one, "All The Colors of Your Heart" is on Pleasance Records and sounds like a shift in psych direction from last years fuzzy pop punch full length, Spaced Out.

"All the Colors of Your Heart" begins with a groovy funk organ jam, the bubbly warmth supporting this distorted choir of vocals. Everyone is in there, the whole band, playing with a falsetto call and response chorus. A hybrid of punk garage and a lighthearted Fog Hat. It's a late '70s psyche jangle of warm tremolo guitar complete with a solid cowbell line painting the leather moustache picture. They get away with this throwback sound because they've been so seriously devoted to raw garage history, honing their craft since the Myelin Sheaths. You can hear that starting point and the distance they've been willing to explore in the process, landing on this later beefy period. Walking that line between homage and sheer dismantling of the genre.
B-Side's "Turning You On" has even more experimental studio psych with a slowed down monster vocal that drops down into rhythm. On this track it's clear this is their new carefree attitude, the funnier side of The Ketamines who are willing to forget everything they thought they knew about this sound and have some god damn fun. The catchy static filled grooves are still swirling through this but this feels like they've been tuned into classic Beck or The Unicorns in messing around with effects techniques like this manic out of tune watery guitar solo! Even this waltz-y type rhythm in a Devo jittery half step with a laid back Nodzzz vocals singing, "Turning You On" is really the farthest thing you'd associate with this sexy sentiment. Their brand of psych is willing to get silly and come out the other side with all its sincerity and dignity intact.

Pick this one up, the first of one huge demented sleeve, from Pleasance Records.

The master plan:

Heading out for a massive tour tomorrow, they head west across Canada and the upper reaches of the US.
Paul is one of the nicest guys, I'm just sad they aren't coming to NY, but I'll make some life size cutouts and listen to this record with some friends. The next best thing.

PREORER!
(Orders will be shipped June 1st 2013)

The first of a four part series of 7"s by everyone's favorite space-out punks, The Ketamines. Collect all of them to complete a grand, mind-bending image of magic by artist Felix Morel.
"All The Colours of Your Heart" is The Ketamines staying from the garage and discovering a jazzier side of themselves; taking that swing into the sunshine of romance and power-pop.
Along the same gracious lines, the b side, "Turning You On," is like rolling down a grassy hill in the summer while Syd Barrett jangles away next to you.
For earworm lovers only.

The Famines on Reluctant Records

I went to see The Ketamines a while back at Death by Audio to finally meet up with Paul from Mammoth Cave (and plays with The Ketamines) who I've been talking to on the internet tubes for years...sadly there was a lineup change and I MISSED THEM. Terrible, especially since he gave a shout out to 7inches and everything. I'm a jackass, but we did get a chance to hang out and he loaded me up with about a million of his records and stuff they've been distro-ing at the Cave including this Famines single (and the most badass glow in the dark Ketamines shirt ever).
I forgot how much I liked their other single and that this is a duo! The perfect setup for some of the most interesting music created...they didn't disappoint before and this single is another stellar example of their unique, minimal, complex punk.

A-Side's "Free love is a sales technique" features a gritty acoustic coming on fast and furious leaving you wondering if this isn't the wrong speed...but insane speed is The Famines. High twingey PLAANGS from the electric, it neever really slows down... all this manic treble electric goes away and you end up with a steady single drone beat under this hectic kit pounding. I love these vocals. Paul never steers me wrong and this is completely amazing. I was compelled to order that full length collection on Mammoth Cave immediately. That thin scream over the instrumentation here is easily overwhelming the melody, he's screaming in an empty room. Poor sucker. This ridiculous speed is incredibly precise and controlled, a frightening kind of off kilter precision. Even the brief bursts of distortion hardly have a chance to fade. The drop out to the bassline and empty room drums is that great kind of tension where it's decpetively quiet, biding it's time. The best kind of reprive. Switch to toms, then crash the way through to end of this one.

The inner label printing is all blurry, like an old doublestrike typewriter, and a crazy wallpaper collage of old condom ad's. There's your free love. Turns out Raymond designs all the bands stuff, including all kinds of other graphics for print stuff, lots of serious posters on his etsy page.

B-Side, "The First World War" has that scuzzy bass sound back, just bursts of hummmm and rimshot sticks in separate timings hitting the side of this snare, maybe a woodblock? These guys are fantastic songwriters, both equally contributing and important to the skeleton and bare lines, ready to explode post punk. The most dangerous kind. The electric runs patterns up and down the fretboard off on it's own melody. The obvious way is to build this up to loud after loud section which seems to never actually happen here. Barely on the edge of distortion every line, yeling on the edge of that needle in the red. God damn great anti-war track on top of everything else. I would put this up there with The Happiest Place on Earth.
Abstract lyrics about nerve gas, germans, not too many specifics, just the idea that these were all democracies undone with guns. It's smart powerful complex songwriting with modern weapons; the guitar and drums, they make this track sound like an aggressive attack itselves. Crunchy distortion right in the gut. March snare roll, never obvious, always switching the expectations up, completely great. I will be looking out for everything they do in the future.

Black on black business card with insert details from Reluctant Recordings.

Sold out at the source, but Raymonds own etsy page has some of these long sold out singles for sale. Mind blowing below:

Ketamines and The Vignettes split single on Oddbox Records

Got another one in from the series over at Odd Box Records and wouldn't you know it, this one's got a side from The Ketamines, long time internet buddy Paul Lawton's band, and they just put out a great full length on Southpaw Records, which I'm finally getting around to pulling the trigger on, especially after hearing this...all the little tastes from their hozac singles and this one build up to this critical mass of ..."I have to hear that full length!"

So The Ketamines first track, "A Rotten Bond", had me remembering the crazy psych pop sound, from their hozac single, there's so much reverb at times it veers into monster mash party territory, like an old surf 45... god... even like Deadbolt. But on this track they don't even give you a second to figure out where their coming from before the haze has completely obscured everything. There's a real eerie vibe to this, like the surfy Tiki Men singles (Yeti has a great article this issue about those guys...and a single!), they're completely unhinged, slightly loose, packing an assortment of catchy melodies into the layers. Like the Fresh and Onlys this one keeps growing on me everytime I spin it, it's simply great, but packed with a layered amount of extras...like this twinkly crazy key breakdown, taking the swirl from the depths of the basement croon, bass vocal to this all out freak style.
Up next, "1yr" creates a see saw organ line and heavily separated slow surf guitar lines, they're working with that 13th Floor Elevators sound the way Hunx is after The Angels. The way they want 'Just one more year' is creepy in that 'I don't know how to deal with loss so I have my mother's corpse in a chair' way. It's a crazy world to live in for 5 minutes....and all too quiet when it's over.
Go get that full length already.

Then we've got The Vignettes, a duo from Memphis on the flip side, who take a more stripped down garage approach to their side, initially the name struck me as sounding like they'd come out of Shannon and the Clams field, but instead they've got more of a Cramps style sound, the guitars loose and flailing, with big time attitude and echo on the vocal.
First up, "Baby Angel Boy", uses a tom rhythm under a real frantic, nervous breakdown vocal, sounding like a three piece, trying to pack in that kind of overwhelming energy into these screamy brief tracks. It's a frantic back and forth between this crunchy electric and Francis's vocal, who's almost fighting with that guitar tone, battling it out for #1. "Not Too Much To Say", has Francis showing off again...because she's got one of those powerful voices that here.. combined with these bare distorted chords has a little bit of that PJ Harvey, 4track demos sound. A massive amount of attitude and delivery jammed into a single line of lyric. Both of these are punchy, tense power pop punches to the guts.

Get this one from Odd Box, who have a pretty crazy deal of 3 singles for 12 pounds if you don't want to spring for the whole series....you Ketamines completists out there.