G. Green on Malt Duck Records

Oh Christ tell me that baby is sleeping!

GGreen is back with his second single, this time it looks like a band has formed, and it's taken a turn from the home recorded inside the brain space of G. and has spread to 3 other members and I think his material definitely benefits. It's one thing to come up with something in the middle of the night, delirious and fuzzy. I appreciate that specific vision, I want to hear it, but it's another thing entirely to make this leap and put together a group of people to add their take on things and even play live. Like Mess Folk,....it just gets better. You have to stand there night after night and belt this out, the vocals aren't quite as idiosyncratic...it's more desperate and I like it.

It's even like German Measles or Home Blitz, sort of punk, quirky, nerdy, raw...the song is the most important thing...there's enough rehearsal that they don't come off like the Germs or something...don't kill the audience. You're kidding yourself if you think it's shocking...it'll be original if you don't try. Does this guy even know he's good?

'Looks' is the only track up on the myspace, and jesus it could be a lost Nodzzz track, I can hear the x-ray glasses. I just like a mess like this, it isn't too garage, or even lo-fi...just playing catchy tracks with fucking feeling.

Take a listen to a live version of Mouth on the Floor, it's a totally different feel than the Out of Order single. The crowd is really screaming at the end, it sounds like a dungeon nightmare...kind of a weird idea.

Keep putting these 7" out. It's shaping up to be the start of something good.

::::NEWS FROM MALT DUCK RECORDS::::

G.Green 7-inch 'I Will Not Withdraw This Statement' now available on Malt Duck.
$4

Come on now.... how do you not like this guy after checking out his recording session?

A Second Opinion with Travis Kostell - part 2

Here's the second part of A 2nd Opinion with Travis Kostell, which is going to be a regular series. In this one we talk about the Mess Folk single on Hozac, and the Urthquake single on Spooky Tree Records.


Travis records constantly and you should check out his latest release, 'Whore's Eggs' on his blog, Choice Grinds.

Download it here

Friday podcast - Philip from Mess Folk

Monday I posted a review of Philip's Mess Folk single on Horizontal Action Records, for this Fridays podcast we ended up talking about recent 4-track trouble, his previous projects, why Mess Folk can't play Sydney anymore, and The Vice interview.
Download it here (18min-17mb).

I play a bunch of stuff throughout from his Hozac single and cassette, which you can get directly from him at philip420(at)hotmail.com.

Mess Folk on Horizontal Action Records

Philip from Mess Folk contacted me the other day about a single of his that came out on Horizontal Action, we ended up taling on the phone and I'm working on his interview for fridays podcast, but in the meantime I sat down to listen to his single again over the weekend. It's one of those inspiring stories that an established label like Hozac would take a chance on the strength of a cassette demo like this.

It's a full on solo homemade project starting with the sleeve a ballpoint pen xeroxed collage of....well.... pills and a 4-track. It goes without saying that's a match made in low-fi heaven. Phillip told me the entire effort was played entirely by him, layering tracks the old fashioned way, one at a time in the livingroom. Like an indie Naked Lunch it comes off as any number of home recorded singles from the early nineties, Eric's trip, Dump, Deluxxe, the endless Lou Barlow varaitions...with more of a raw rock edge, and less preciousness vocally. These aren't depressing I-give-up songs about love, they are part of that fight against everything normal, the boredom, a fuck you to an environment that's given up. I think the sincerely recorded project like this always comes off as intimate, there's nothing you can fake about the honesty. It's as close a glimpse I'm going to get to hear of an underground scene in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

'Something I Remember' from the A-Side is full of power chords, feeling a bit like Ty Segall's solo stuff at points, raw distorted bursts but then Philip's emotionless vocals, slightly echoed feel like a stand in track that ended up sounding better than anything else. 'Something I remember/ something / something I don't know', Whatever it is he's remembered he can't even bring it back. It just sounded good, and ends up a genius struggling document of apathy.
'Give me a gun' slows things down and Mess Folk's strength is in Philips vocals, this melody and delivery is decidedly his, he's this tortured character who can barely pull it together enough to sing. It's a dying death rattle from a completely powerless situation. It's a last resort song, but struggling to the very end. He wavers off from the song melody but makes it back every time, sort of leaving you hanging a little on that last chord change. The whole package is part of this picture...the notebook doodle sleeve, the imperfections, the pure sound of someone not interested in a single part of the business side of songs...it doesn't get better than this for me.

The B-Side 'If I don't get out' really let's loose with a massive blown out live sound. Philip is really losing his mind and vocal chords on this one, possessed in the middle of the garage haze of distortion and cymbals, but it never gets too freeform mess that looses the melody, it manages to keep it together to not be overindulgent or experimental, there is a song here after all. It's a confirmation of anti-everything and keeping yourself sane in the process.

Go pick this up from Hozac, they keep taking chances like this and I'll keep supporting them.

Mess Folk also has a cassette EP you can get from him directly at philip420 (at) hotmail.com.