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.

Positive No on Negative Fun Records 2014 singles club

It's almost too perfect that Negative Fun Records would have asked a band called Positive No for material for their singles series. I thought there might have been a direct connection to the label but the four piece from Richmond, VA are one of those familiar veteran band stories. Kenny Close and Tracy Wilson got together with no intention of doing anything with a few ideas they had kicking around and four years later they've released a 12" EP on Little Black Clouds Records and are in the process of a proper full length. Everyone here has been honing their skills in all sorts of projects and it shows.

A-Side's "Automatic Cars" opens with an ominous bass line and high two note response from a guitar poised to launch. The vocals from Tracy are all over the place in a punk Bjork emphasis on weird phrasing from timid whispers to breathy hoarse breakdowns in the same verse making for a real schizophrenic internal sound that matches this mathy Don Cab style instrumentation. The jittery strum bursts and or shifting time signatures are the external equivalent to this stream of emotional consciousness. It's punk and precise, recorded extremely clean drawing from post punk rhythms and then vocally pushing that formula over the edge. It takes extreme style to remain the centerpiece in the middle of these harsh equations and Tracy is pushing her delivery into it's own completely unique instrument.
B-Side's "Slumber Sequence" uses that bass again to set a concrete foundation with calculating guitars bursting with layers of jangle, interlocking melodies and high harmonies like The Swirlies. A cut up zine version with barrages of tom and cymbal fills between the dueling bass and guitar. They seem to have that same lean towards experimentation of pushing odd rhythms and smashing melodies together making the puzzle pieces fit. Like Dog Day or Love of Diagrams the melodies appear between complex phrases in these unexpected pop ways. I'm trying to sound as smart as this is. Duh, get it already.

Get the entire box set on sale from Negative Fun Records.

Bad Daddies on Negative Fun Records - singles club

I just realized Bad Daddies are from Northern California which I wouldn't normally associate with experimental speed punk. What am I talking about? Fast is self explanatory, they routinely manage to jam at least three songs per side but I've been noticing some new elements creeping into their tracks on their latest from the Negative Fun single club. I swear I'm hearing synth in the back of one of these tracks melting down and glitching into digital soup but the way they're playing feedback they have to finally admit they're more than just accidentally standing in front of the amps again.

A-Side's "You Ain't Right" plows in with boosted shimmery frequency cymbals and a guitar distortion that has gaping holes in it, you can see right through this gurgling crunch. Camylle has a hefty delay echo on her vocal as well as they wrangle feedback into some kind of squealing solo, between the hot crackle, using a high hat like a snare. Impossible to lose Camylle in any of these mixes, this thing grows faster and faster pushing their limits, with one last yell from the depths of this punk chasm of "You Ain't Right!" and the beat ends letting the sweet sound of feedback collapse in on itself. One song on a whole side? What are they in their psych period? Is this a Phish cover?

B-Side's "Teenage Hell" has feedback already in progress. I hope these guys wear earplugs so they can still hear the sweet voices of their babies someday. Camylle has an upper register delivery that pierces right through the middle range of this. A weird electronics freakout happens throughout that turns into a single barely audible note that runs right into "I Don't", sounds like they're putting this side together live and create a massive thick noise as soon as they count in with the sticks. Tight and concise, it's bitter agressive stuff thats near breaking guitars. "Head on a rail" uses more feedback labeling them experimental in my book, much thicker low end on this one, and a real brief attack of a melody. I don't know what came over them.

Negative Fun has the entire singles series and can tell you more.

Hot Dolphin on Negative Fun Records singles club

Hot Dolphin is the stuff they accidentally catch while net fishing for Hot Tuna. Don't be stupid, they're a rock four piece from Richmond Virginia with a massively blown out sound that's fuzzy, punk and hardcore. So maybe it is that stuff - no wonder people are pissed. It's the best part.

A-Side's "Body Snatcher" launches a heavy snare explosion right into a springy bass sound, like the stuff on Shellac records but the whole thing comes on with a freakish speed, overdriven many times into the red. I also thought this was playing at the wrong speed with her deep throaty vocals from Lindsey. It's clearly printed 45 and this hyper fuzz would be at an unplayable speed. I don't think I truly understood the level of peaked out fuzz until they pause at the end of a riff, winding up for the next chord and you hear that magnetic tape just giving up. These aren't effects it's the attempt to capture a sound that is beyond comprehension. Just like those guys that go into haunted houses with Infrared goggles and weird UV devices, they're only ever going to get hints at this bigger picture. I don't mind this thin horizontal slice, it's just going to make the live show that much more essential.
B-Side's "Cat Sweaters" is locked into the horrendously (awesome) blown out guitars which are smashed right into the top of things, the drums are splintering those sticks into splinters and managing to be heard under the crunchy thick groove of blanket distortion. Almost taking their time on this one, there's a feedback harmonic hum making up the pauses between verses sound like Low Fat Getting High covering Bikini Kill. Lindsey screams "You're dead to me!" over and over, must be because of the sweaters. "Paint Dry" finds Lindsey's lower creak vocal with a high tempo track about paint drying. You can't say they don't have a sense of humor, managing to get this fully between the limits of the recording device but not the speed. This might be the perfect metaphor for these guys though, if this is the sound of them watching paint dry then everyone else in the world is practically standing still.

Get this from Negative Fun Records direct. Or the whole damn set.

Midnight Plus One from the Negative Fun 2014 Singles Club

I'm late getting to this singles series on Negative Fun from last year as they sent me a bunch of releases and I'm finally pushing them up front to cover this great stuff. I'm always impressed when a label like this can have their act together to plan out an entire series a year in advance. I can't even have it together enough to listen to them for crying out loud. This single is from Midnight Plus One, a three piece out of Carrboro, NC who are playing with expectations going from a dark minimal psych to towering power chords in the same track.

A-Side's "Like Camera" starts with Casey's vocal by itself covered in distortion and thin guitars beamed through space on an AM radio wave from a far off the station. Casey repeats lines about ..'keeping you like a camera can do' when all at once this shifts clearly into focus with toms rolling under this meandering lead melody from the left channel. A stutter, jagged guitar works under this duo getting bigger as this creeps towards the chorus that shifts tempo. It's a slightly psych sounding dark track, Casey is hardly singing more like delivering the information without emotion, this is after all a narrator who wants to trap that partner under glass. This all blows up with walls of distortion and Casey layers in echo's getting more and more frantic in the attempt to keep things just as they are.
B-Side's "White Flowers" has those layers of guitars playing off each other again, the subtle airy background chorus versus a jumpy zig zag line played with mittens. The heavy sound against that lighter ghostly touch continues into the rest of the track where it turns heavy and punk like the A-Side. A minimal understated start is quickly abandoned in favor of total chaos and power. They don't seem to be bound by the structure of a verse/chorus either, it's unpredictable when this thing will erupt and the drum solo says you won't know where either. You end in an entirely different place, from the Chan Marshall style observation to tearing down the walls sound of The Obits.

The series includes singles from Bad Daddies, Positive No, Midnight Plus One, No Other and Hot Dolphin.
Pick it up direct (plus a test press!) from Negative Fun Records or just this one on their bandcamp.

Carton / Alpha Cop split on Negative Fun Records

It's perfect that Negative Fun is two friends Chris DeFusco and Jon Whitney who moved apart and planned a split series with the bands of each respective area. It's personal and also tries to tie regions together thematically. I can relate to that idea a lot, having friends relocated all over the place and trying to talk about our respective local scenes...I would honestly love a podcast where two semi-related bands talked directly to each other about that stuff. These two bands however, Carton and Alpha Cop are kind of doing just that on this record. Related in weird ways, I'm constantly making new connections between the two thanks to the Negative Fun founders.

On A-Side the boys from New Hampshire, Carton come up with "Fingertips" and a burst of feedback with guitars cutting a wide swarth through the landscape before coming together in this jangly single note rhythm. I've always been into that heavy, hard repetition because when this finally hits that chorus it's such a relief. Tight snares, high pitch pounding like Pile with some mathy elements. They create weird staggering rhythms that pitch and yaw but keep flying at a fantastic place. It slows into fills but providing this bizarro world for how sleek and fast the rest of this has been. There's a lot of atmopsheric feedback and and backing vocals that keep those dense layers as thick as possible. Ryan's yelling from the back of the room on this one, you can hear the shiny bathroom tiles that send the sound of this into every corner and back out again. That kid on the cover definitely started that fire. I think they might have gotten a little out of control, surprised how big this got. He didn't mean it. Oh well, too late now. No amount of quiet calming parts are going to ever make me forget those power sections of messy electric and feedback.

B-Side's Alpha Cop from North Carolina get into "The Low Flags" which has a Modest Mouse style, in vocals and their off kilter groove or even Cap'n Jazz...I know it doesn't seem like those two would be related. This is more concerned with the melody at first and then settling into a beaten, tired tone that quickly turns around on the listener getting heavy and throbbing with a vibrating distortion and bassline that winds around in on itself in a perpetual spiral. This section of repetition and loops becomes almost like Tool's dark, primitive metal sound. His vocal is damaged from the back of the chapel but in a great original way, a yell that isn't trying to break vocal chords, it's just controlled and defiant. It drops down to just a kick and subtle electric melody and a violin creeps in, high and out of place. A fleeting, alien sound in the middle of this aggressive chaos, a calm end to the storm that came on before you noticed and now it's wet as hell.

On white vinyl from Negative Fun Records, word is their running low on copies.

Wormburner on Negative Fun Records

There are those bands that you can tell from the beginning are in it for the long haul. Seven years since their debut album, A Hero's Welcome, Wormburner has longevity written into every effort. They're a band you can feel comfortable supporting, they've proven that they aren't going to just disappear, it's not just that this band thing was fun for a summer touring with friends.
There is a work ethic instilled into their indie rock that you get from Yo La Tengo, American Music Cllub, Nude Beach or Wilco. It's not a job so much as they just take rock and roll very seriously, it's a passion and a way of life.

"Today Might Be Our Day" opens on crisp, subtle, precise guitar, sounding immediately like Guided by Voices or the sincere pop or Sebadoh, piled up into enthusiastic pop indie rock. Great vocals about staying on his brothers couch, in a a John Darnielle talking pop feel with the same aesthetic, walking that line between funny and a little bit sad. It's a real thick pop sound giving in to this energy, reaching massive highs getting epic without feeling overproduced, somehow keeping those local ideals intact. The comfortable dive bar that you spend a lifetime in. Mostly this production has the skill and craft of a group very serious about indie power pop. The drum pattern that comes in over a post muted jagged jangle is fantastic - uncannily Mountain Goats if they had a little bit more humor, you get the sense they can get bigger. They have that a macro view of the past and a narrator who's summing up a failed past. Sitting around and reminiscing from prison? Sort of a criminal bullshitting from the corner of his cell with a weird optimism, or maybe it was that penchant for bullshit that got him in there in the first place. Poetic non sequiturs that are so universal but specific, my favorite. It's packed instrumentation wise and uses each piece to its full potential jamming together a gleaming piece of super pop. A Flaming Lips kind of indie that makes things seem like they're going to be alright for once. The title came natural. Either that or he's lying to himself again like an eternal criminal optimist.

An acoustic fading in on B-Side's "Parliaments on Sundays" gets Steve Henry right into this drinking bar song, a shiny pop balanced by his lyric about gloomy give up days where it's easier to drink and smoke the day away. What else are you gong to do. I like this prescription about balancing smoking with "Parliaments on Sundays' because you have to take it easy sometimes. This is a sort of punchy alt country a lot like early REM which seems to have a lot of breathing room in the tracks exactly like this. They manage a depressing high energy track about smoking cigarettes crafted as hell. Steve can sound like a higher, optimistic Bob Mould with the layers of compressed vocals. One of those gifted storytellers that reminds me that's what songs were always for. To put a melody and pass on experience. Someone has to be at that bar if I can't.

Pick this up on Negative Fun Records.

Red Hex on Negative Fun Records

Tacoma, Washington, home to Red Hex, is sandwiched right between Olympia and Seattle, two hotbeds of music and the center of DIY and grunge movements. It's hard to escape those references and thick distortion sounds when putting on this single from Red Hex. They seem to be running a straight line back embracing a sludgy metal and punk while at the same time managing a distinct break from that past.

Squealing feedback opens the A-Side "Shoulda Known" straight to a snappy, all treble wound tight drum kit so the rest of this black waveform can be dominated by the layers of square distortion. The vocals from Sam Olsen have a hefty distortion spread on them as well with tight reverb and twisting garage decay. Recorded with the energy and whiff of a dustbowl twister blowing through the whole session. The trio is doing their best to just stand up, leaning into the rush and taking out the entire midrange with the fuzz of No Age and the harsh almost industrial style brutish approach to this chiseled out tune. If The Hussy were filtered through Front 242 and performed live with those jagged, inhuman sounds created right in front of the mic. It's retained it's pent up raw garage energy, complete with an amp punishing Ty Segall squawk. This is ultimately pointed towards heavier horizons, but it's full of that reverb space and bouncy underwater tin can sound. It's also about a minute long but when things are going along at this speed, you didn't really expect them to keep this up - or is it that you can't?

"Down in the Dirt" starts the B-Side with a crunchy muffled loop of acoustic, a warbled country false start before launching back into their hugely anti-fi sound with thundering bass from the double time kick, getting more of a sweaty hardcore groove in place. Here's where that sludgy seattle superfuzz sound echo's in gravely vocals and a more restrained tight distortion, overblown and wrecked while sounding produced. A metal, garage stoner-drone with a sonic nod to Mudhoney this thundery low end growl and lyrics about dirt make perfect sense. When they get to the chorus it reverts back to a power punk sound, but with all the levels on the dials turned up it's still not plying very ice with others. Just as short as the A-Side working in knock down bursts to overwhelm and move on. NEXT!

On black vinyl with download code from the just barely one year old Negative Fun Records.