TV Freaks - Leeches 7" on Hosehead records

TV Freaks seem to be excelling at their own brand of hyper compressed but raw and unhinged punk. I know that's like saying 'rock n roll' but there's a real speed and aggression to this stuff while sounding in the garage wheelhouse a the same time. Let's face it there's something to be said for tough speedy punk that takes itself seriously enough to spend time making it sound pretty damn good. You can do away with an pretension of recording technique or you can try to give this the due it deserves. Guess what's harder.

A-Side's "Leeches" fades in on feedback sweet feedback ready to blow, real ungrounded but nothing prepares you for this energy and density. They raise big riffs out of this haze which is Seth Sutton fuzzy if he was in the house band for Tony Molina. Super clean sounding and dirty that could remind one of the industrial period of Killing Joke in the late '90s. Vocals are fantastic, this guy can howl and sound sarcastic in a way thats all his own. Like David Johansen fronting that house band after Tony went solo.

I don't know how this stuff works on B-Side's "Mommy's Place" how they can get a clean but massively crushing sound while keeping these vocals coherent and cutting. It's concise and compact with shuffling changes and an incredible amount of speed. Rough and flying along with a real aggression they carefully laid out. I think I know I'm getting too old when I start to ask questions how you keep this kind of thing up? Except there's that expert sonic hand on "Lose It". Scrappy and smart enough to get it this big? It's almost too perfect, the tinny metallic parts drag this back down to a more recognizable sound - the high echoing treble that is near feedback and scraping strings. Make way for the thick compression that's almost too great sounding. In that mix of 'I just wanted a shitty garage band but I got Hot Snakes or Sparta style production. It's easy to predict this already gaining traction and not stopping anytime soon.

Pick this one up from Hosehead Records.

Steve Adamyk Band "Monterrey" on Hosehead Records

Been hearing a lot of the punk garage type stuff coming down from the waaaay north thanks to Mammoth Cave Records and now Hosehead. Great to hear that scene documented just like Hozac and In the Red. Hosehead's up there pressing LP's, spray painting sleeves, dubbing cassettes and putting out Ketamines singles. They've also got a new single from this four piece from Ottawa, Ontario, The Steve Adamyk Band, which does in fact include Steve Adamyk on guitars and vocals, but then according to these liner notes everybody's on vocals.

A-Side "Monterrey" opens with thick guttural guitars and slappy no depth drums, a weird serious punk sound. They have a thunderous epic pop sound behind this agressive force. Bendy chords wind up that guitar and drop into beefy chords of thin gritty textures like that bone in the taco meat. The chorus is the title of this one and spazzily jabs at a chord structure. It's a fast sledgehammer Hot Snakes sound, which forever are the yeardstick.
"You're Fired" cranks up this tempo with the bass line following it's own strange path. It's a party punk rock full of epic bead bashing highs and higher register vocals over the top of this power pop. A celibration of losing that job; "hell yes!", you have to just be ok with that -or maybe you were looking for it. Fast and skilled this has a lot of effort behind the scenes pulling off this theatrical punk bigger than the sum of its parts.

B-Side's "For You (Hold On)" bursts into driving chords but seriously how many times can you say this is big but they keep everything on an even playing ground whie staying melodic, they don't push this into an overblown out place. They seem to have a million of these catchy riff choruses int their collective pockets, making them a real important thing to see live. "Front to Back" is why this thing can be a 45 rpm EP, it's a thousand fast punk bursts but the vocals are taking this into a pop place. They have to be catchy, it's a requirement - if they don't stick in your head then they're tabled for something better. They demand you sit up and pay attnetion but also sing along. They're the kind of thing you'd catch randomly and love more than the headliner. It's fired out of a cannon never losing steam, continuing to pick up speed and miss everything in it's path, like it wasn't even there. There might even be keys or organ in this one. They really build up this plateau, it's a straight wall up - all of a sudden you look down and the ground is gone.

Get it from Hosehead.

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:

Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs on Hosehead / Uncross your arms Records

Hey 7inches, it's the perfect stormy day to hunker down with some canned goods and battery powered turntable and rearrange the seven inch shelves starting with this new one from Sam Coffey and the Iron Lungs on Hosehead /Uncross your arms records. A great kind of laid back country/garage with attitude, making me want to pull out the Natural Child records and give them another spin as soon as this over.

"All to Myself" is that sort of loose jangly, feel good classic porch rock sound, with the whole band coming in on this singalong, "Oh I love you baby, want ya al to myself". Sam that next verse has such a Paul Westerberg rough style vocal it's nuts. Not that it's any kind of impression, but with his raspy, half cocked delivery I could exactly see this type of american country demo style from those guys...way back at the beginning of their albums where anything goes, track to track. This is also related to that Nude Beach II album...this kind of working class straight up rock. This sentiment is great too, a drunken sincere moment that you probably aren't going to get if you didn't catch him at just the right time, when it's all coming together and you step back for a second and remember what it used to be like single. Couple of guitars, everyone stepping up the the mic, let's make some damn music.
B-Side's "Do ya Feel it Too?" goes further back into that layered harmony garage sound, poppy fun rock for an ancient worn out wood dancefloor in the basement of the VA center. Something like Hunx or Shannon and the Clams, that electric reverb shaking, solid backbeats and rumbling basslines, all classic rhythms, but really, it's about the band singing along together in the background, back in front all together, sloppy and all feeling. That live rock sound they hit on a pretty together take that's all about the moment of that imperfect session. Leave the punching in for a band that doesn't have this chemistry, you have to hear this exactly like this.
"Lose that bitch" then goes for that Nobunny gleeful, garage with punk nods, super pop, handclaps and attitude. They have to sing at the top of their lungs almost peaking out on the vocals, insanely catchy with advice for their friend. The sound of Sam belting out this verse in the hard walled studio, that touch of empty room echo is completely perfect. The slower warm reverb, back and forth across the speakers and crazy falsetto raspy or ultra baritone backup singing is going to make things alright in the middle of this wreck of a storm. Take it easy and kick your shoes off while the water rises.

On black vinyl, foldover xerox sleeve with download code, and insert, solid record, should be hearing a lot more of these guys, pick it up on Hosehead Records.