Yo suckas! It is a rare, nice day here and rather than blow it on loading up all these reviews I'm going to... wait, I am loading up these reviews. OK, I'm going to make it quick and enjoy a 50 degree day before it turns back into planet Hoth. Read and enjoy.
CARPENTER, “Sea To Sky”I can’t be too cold-hearted with this band. It may be hardcore dudes playing a style that is the furthest thing from punk. But at least they’re not fronting like it is. Essentially, this sounds like a Gin Blossoms record or something. There is nothing separating this from any number of middle-of-the-road radio rock bands, though it’s not overly-polished crap. At least they appear to have their hearts and ethics in the right place. The music, on the other hand, does not appeal to me whatsoever.
(Gold Stock Records)KITTY LITTLE/ SCIENTIFIC MAPS split 7”Buffalo/Albany band Kitty Little rears it’s head every so often to deliver some more sugary-sweet tunes, play a few shows, and then go into hibernation for another six months. It’s just good to know they still exist. On this split they once again turn on the Superchunk worship, but simplify it just a bit to their own blend of rock goodness. Scientific Maps, on the flip side, has another vibe going on that is more on the true indie side of things. Simple tunes accentuated by trumpet leads and female vocals. For some reason I am reminded of stuff off the final offering from DCs The Most Secret Method, “Get Lovely”, as well as other DC bands like Routineers. But I imagine that means absolutely nothing to 99.9% of you reading this. Just think indie style, horns, soothing vocals, and a bit of late 90’s Dischord style rock. I’m very into this. The download has an extra song from each band. The SM extra is in line with the two on the physical copy. The KL extra jam might be the oddest offering from them ever- slow, noisy, creepy, and talking of kissing ghosts. I love it.
(Peterwalkee Records)LEYLINES demoA very nice introduction from a new Syracuse band, done up quite well. Typically, I’m not a big fan of really noodly, tapping technical stuff like this. But they do a good job of it and the players in this group are quite talented. That is none more evident on the first track, which alternates between the aforementioned delicate tapping parts to a more solidified chorus with some harmonious vocal accompaniment. The second track is a bit more straight-forward rock style. The last track loses me a bit, and is back to that more techy-tapping thing again. Overall, it is a very good start for this new group. I’m actually surprised I dig it as much as I do.
(leylines.bandcamp.com)MOUTHEATER, “Colonial” 12”Here’s a band that I finally got around to checking out and man, was I floored! I immediately picked up as much of their output as I could find (as in, I paid for their records, you all should try it some day). This is exactly what I look for when I want a band that can make everything feel ugly and kick ass at the same time. This stuff is like heir apparent to the Unsane, it’s in the exact same vein and a worthy successor, should they ever keel over and die. So, onto the newest offering from Virginia’s Moutheater- this 4 song 12”. While 4 songs on a 12” might seem unnecessary it fits well as a couple of the songs break the five minute mark and the whole deal is on 45 rpm (sound quality geeks will understand). The A-side has two barn burners, more up tempo piss and vinegar rants. The B-side, which I like better, focuses more on slower material. While I have enjoyed everything Moutheater up to this point, I think they excel with the slower songs they write. Creepy guitar lines twist around the meaty low end and eventually blow up in a frenzy of mean spirited nastiness. This was even more apparent on their previous full length, “Ornament” (particularly on the track “Inept”), which I prefer over this record. but it’s still a damn good record. There is also a slight discrepancy over the recording between these two records, “Colonial” sounding a bit thinner than “Ornament”. I’m not sure what it is. All I can think of is maybe whoever mastered it played it a little safe for vinyl’s sake maybe? I’m not sure. Either way, get yourself something from Moutheater like now. It will be worth it to hate a little longer. This isn’t a bad place to start.
(Last Anthem Records)NEON BASTARD, “Meikhaus”Fucking off the wall crazy blast rock from some Australian goons. How else to describe this? Older Daughters with a sense of musical clarity? Converge further unhinged, blasting jams in their garage? Whatever it is, it’s all good. Their modus operandi seems shrouded in confusion and random imagery, strange song titles, and indiscernible lyrics shouting about who knows what. Musically it just rages with punk fervor, metallic dexterity, and throwing more than a few nods in the direction of both Sabbath riffs and noise rock nihilism. There’s plenty of fast whiplash that quickly degenerates into riff-fest bangovers. I guess what gets me most is the odd recording quality of this. It sort of has that purposeful ‘sounds kinda like ass’ thing that actually works in it’s favor to make it raw and dirty. I really dig this slab and good to see Robotic Empire releasing a record that will have long time fans of the label reminded of why they liked stuff from this imprint in the first place.
(Robotic Empire)SCAM Anthology, by Iggy ScamYo! The zine that truly lives up to it’s name, this is the original punk zine about scamming on the Man. This enormous book covers the first four sloppy, hand-written (mostly) installments of the legendary Scam zine. While having always known of it’s existence I never got around to reading it. But now that I have its a fun adventure read. This is basically where Evasion got it’s entire blueprint, except Scam is way more into public drunkeness and FYP instead of vegan straight edge and Earth Crisis. But Scam started the left-hand scam, the receipt scam, the squatting in a college library, and just about anything else involving criminal mischief based around a fun story of living free and clear. While most of this takes place in mid-90s Miami and starts as juvenile tales of fucking shit up it does progress over time to more clever and varied stories- squatting different places, setting up free public shows, Miami culture, train hopping across the country, short interviews with bands, and other things that seem a little more innocent and wild in our youth... before cell phones and GPS made everything accessible and familiar at the press of a button. It felt a little more brazen and wild then, to discover things and fail at them, only to try again and half-ass it. It might not always work, but it makes for a great story. And that’s what’s in here- a lot of fun great stories. Even if a lot of them revolved around getting wasted, which doesn’t pertain to me, it’s still a fun read. And believe me, this thing is mammoth. It will take forever to read.
(Microcosm)TO HELL AND BACK, “Will We Be Torn Apart” 12”I dig the cosmic trip going on with the cover art. It’s an invitation to music that shakes and swaggers with equal parts Thin Lizzy and Tight Bros. From Way Back When kept in mind. In other words, it’s a balls out rock record. To their credit I admire the frame of mind these dudes were in when they created this stuff, but it’s missing some of the excitement and energy of those raucous rockers. They play things a little close to the vest and planned out, whereas their clear inspirations let everything go and went for the throat with reckless abandon. This is certainly not cock rock, nor is it dumb party rock. I think an apt name to what they strive to do here is ‘bitchin’ rock’. They need to loosen up a bit first and let shit fly wherever it may.
(Peterwalkee Records)TRANSIT, “Keep This To Yourself”They got some slick-ass packaging happening with this release, and it’s clever too. The whole mailed packages thing is a nice touch. As for the music on here Transit really aren’t my bag. I give them credit for some of the things they do to separate themselves from the bloated pack of pop rock bands posing as punk bands. Transit toss in some good post-hardcore rhythms, a few unexpected quick transitions, various flourishes of melodies mixed with fancy guitar effects, but really turn me off with the whole broken heart white boy off-key singing. Very few bands of this ilk pull it off with any degree of potency. Transit, sadly, are not one of them. As a band they certainly do work hard and can play the shit out of their instruments. And they even have some original moments. But overall, I can’t get behind this style. If I could give them a good comparison it would be The Movielife butting heads with Native. I know some people will drool over that. But it’s not really working for me.
(Run For Cover Records)ZINESTERS GUIDE TO NYC, by Ayun HallidayAnother thoroughly exhaustive guide to a big city, written up by various zinester types and their recommendations on everything from food, to sightseeing, to where to go for yoga, and little nooks in parks you might not have thought of. Being from NY myself I have made frequent trips to the big city many, many times and thought I knew quite a bit about things to check out. Yet this guide offers pretty much everything one could want to see minus the trappings of the obvious tourist dead ends like Times Square. Big whoop. You see it once and that’s enough. It does not, however, skip over the museums, which should be a necessary stop on any NYC trip (even though they will cost you). About a million other things are broken down into categories from every kind of food you could want to bookstores, food carts, coffee shops, yearly events of every race, culture, club, and random organization. In a city where everything seems to be happening all the time this does a pretty good job of covering the bases of what there is to do for the person looking to diverge from the well-worn path of the common tourist and see some additional neat stuff. Works well if you happen to be a resident in the city too.
(Microcosm Publishing)
