CLOAKROOM, “Further Out”
I know it’s only January but we already got us a strong
contender for year end top 10 list stuff right here. I’m hearing all sorts of wild shit on this Midwestern trio’s
debut full length. It’s as if a
band has finally captured the exact sound of KARP’s lumbering over-the-top bass
sludge (one of the all-time best bass tones), turned it into an anchor for
melancholy dirges as opposed to rowdy demolition derby jams, and paired it with
guitars that quiver and dispatch eerie feedback, like some near-extinct bird
howling as it flies from a collapsing glacier. Bring Morrissey down to 12 rpm and you get somber, yet
melodious vocals (isn’t that what Morrissey is supposed to be anyway? OK, well, this is like an octave lower)
waxing poetic about swinging rusty blades through the night in service to
Satan. It’s such a weird, but
wonderful mix and I’m hooked on it.
The transition into “Moon Funeral” is one of the heaviest moments on
here, as is the upbeat and catchy (but still monstrously dense) “Starchild
Skull”. If I have to gripe, and I
will dagblamit, making this a double LP is sort of over-indulgent as one song
is just an almost acoustic version of “Moon Funeral”, while the D-side is just
the interlude “Sylph” looped for about 15 minutes. They could have cut those out and had a single, near-perfect
LP. Or, hell, add the B-side
“Dream Warden” from the “Lossed Over” 7” (that song appears on here as well)
instead of a repeat. Or, shit, why
not just write three more amazing songs before recording a double LP so they
could properly fill 2 LPs worth of music.
Basically, I’m saying I want to hear more. Much more. (RunFor Cover)
DRUG CHURCH, “Swell”
I’ll admit, I picked this up because it looks awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I really like this
band’s music. Diligent readers
will recall their last LP was one of my favorites of the year. But this 12” EP comes on this one-sided
record that’s clear with a hazy neon green center and this crazy silkscreened
back of a pig in a clown suit. It
looks fuckin’ sick. Even the sandy
shit that gets on the records (Pirates Press I presume?) fucking up my record
needle making the sound all shitty does not deter me from enjoying the finished
product. As far as the music goes
it’s really not a departure from their last record, which means it’s good-
super riffy post-hardcore in the best way possible. Quicksand with a bit more punk vibe? Seaweed with breakdowns? There’s some cross-pollination going
on. I have to admit, though, I’m
not as swayed by Pat’s lyrics as I was last time. There was a great sense of biting humor and cynicism present
on “Paul Walker” that is somewhat lacking here. “But Does It Work” has some underlying political themes, but
comes across well and not heavy-handed, and I can dig on that. As a continuation of what they’re
already damn good at, and maybe some more depth in the melodies (pushed to the
fore by the excellent engineering of J. Robbins), I’d say this is another
worthy addition to the Drug Church discography. (No Sleep)
GODSTOPPER, “Children Are Our Future” EP
I’ve been late to the game with this Canadian band, as they
have several releases under their belt and I just came across them a few months
ago. As I was diving into their
older catalog this thing was already hot out of the oven. This is the most current material from
the band, which stays true to form with the rest of their brilliant music. Both steeped in lurching abrasiveness,
as well as off-kilter singing Godstopper are an odd animal. I’m reminded of the short-lived
Northern brethren in Mare, who were adept at combining massively heavy riffs
with an almost angel-like seraphim wail.
Godstopper are like the ugly cousin who still plays in the mud. It’s got a fantastic quality to the
heaviness that seethes, takes some odd stylistic turns, sings and grunts, and
isn’t so caught up in it’s own unique nature that it can’t thrash around a bit
and get rowdy as well. To date
this is only online. Who’s going
to be the lucky chap to empty their wallets and press this on to vinyl? Hmmm?! (Godstopper)
KRILL, “A Distant Fist Unclenching”
And then sometimes a record just emerges from the ether and
lights up your fucking world and you wonder how you got by all these years
without it. I know Krill have been
around for a minute, but this is my first experience with an entire record of
theirs. They have a couple other
things out but this is the brand newest thing. I decided to give them a try because it was weird enough
that I couldn’t exactly place what they were doing, which ultimately makes it
pretty interesting for me too.
What stands out most about this band are the odd vocals. There’s a sort of nasally twang to
them, but it’s more than that.
There’s a hard nod to Brandon Butler of mid-90’s greats Boys Life, but
I’m not sure if this band (or readers) will know what that’s about. Either way, that guy went on to do a
more rocking band called The Farewell Bend and his vocals came to the fore a
bit more in that group and that’s what I’m hearing with Krill. And while their music does indeed
‘rock’ they have a bizarre, yet catchy, way of delivering it. They use all manner of stop-start
reverb-y guitars, a bit of off-time signatures, and generally take their time
with building up a song. There’s a
hint of maybe The Pixies if they were a little more reserved? And then they close out the A-side with
enormous, shimmering wall of guitar sound, like an explosion of light engulfing
us all (“Tiger”). They bring us
back into the fold going into the B-side and then end it all again (on a song
called, strangely enough, “It Ends”) with a similar effect and repetitive riff
backed by some tastefully used synths.
A gem of a record.
Investigate for yourself.
(Exploding In Sound)
LEMURIA, “Turnstile Comix #3”
Let’s get one thing out of the way- any band that includes a
comic book with their record automatically wins. I don’t know what they win. Accolades, kudos, nods of approval, gushing praise. Those are worth winning right? So artist Mitch Clem has done this with
a couple other bands (hence, this being #3), but I didn’t see those so this is
a first for me. Plus, it’s Lemuria
and I always adore whatever this band does. Lemuria singles, in the past, have been hit or miss. Some are totally classic (“Ozzy”, duh)
and others definitely throwaway tracks (anyone remember the Cheap Girls split? Yeah, neither do I). This falls into the awesome, memorable,
eternally catchy side of the fence.
The two songs on the physical vinyl are both songs that have great
vocals, hooks, and just a bit of swaggering rock riffs. There is a third song on the download
(“Courtesy Mercedes”), which is a quick and fun burner. Very enjoyable. The comic is over twenty pages of
adventure that serves as a document of when the band toured Russia a couple
years ago and all the insane experiences that came with it. Would you ever expect a mob of Nazis to
show up at a Lemuria (of all bands) gig and start clobbering everyone in sight,
police included? It happened. And that’s just one of the crazy parts
of this killer comic by an awesome artist about a great band. It’s a winning situation all
around. (Silver Sprocket)
SICK FEELING, “Suburban Myth”
This is a weird collection of dudes making some weird-ass
punk music. OK, so the drummer of
the Mongoloids is here. And a guy
from … And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of the Dead. But so is fucking Don Devore, the mind-bending wild guitar
genius from Ink & Dagger. So
right there you got a few different worlds meeting up. I’ll admit, I picked this up solely to
hear what sort of crazy shit Don Devore was conjuring up these days. And I’ll assure you, this does sound
fucked up. It’s like all the songs
come out of some eerie, dirty underground cavern, then explode into all out
noisy punk anthems. Suddenly,
without any sort of warning they just disappear into quiet whispers, odd
noises, bits of feedback, before leaping out for the attack once again. A lot of it is in the
production/engineering and I have to applaud them for taking some real wild
chances between blasting you in the face with walls of sound and then almost
disorienting quiet. The opening
track, “Gave Back” and “Liberal Arts” are the most vicious attacks on the
record. But between the weird
intros and sudden drop offs I can’t figure out if this is a band just not sure
where they’re going yet, or if they’re mad scientists who know exactly how to
fuck with the listener and doing this all intentionally. Either way, I dig it a lot. (Collect Records)
SPRAYPAINT, “Clean Blood, Regular Acid”
Another one that sort of got away from me. This has been out since, I believe, the
fall? I didn’t hear about this
band until last summer when they played my town and threw me for a loop,
bringing their crazy no-wave Texas strangeness with them. By then they already had out two
LPs. This is their third and the
band continues to grow, if only by small steps. Essentially, if you enjoy their previous stuff this is not
much different, although the recordings continue to get better. Spraypaint offer up their dual vocals
with nasally drawl, reverb-ed out guitars (no bass), and Spaghetti Western film
score as played by nervous meth heads.
In short, it’s jittery and weird.
But it’s so fucking cool at the same time. “Do Less Things” is early on in the record and displays a
repetitive saunter before it breaks into a frenzied panic. “Rednecks Everywhere” bursts forth with
quick, raw power and blaring anxiety.
“Cory’s Theme” closes out the record with a herky-jerky riff that
carries on for several minutes (with some added bass guitar for a change!) like
some low-level criminals speeding away through the night after experiencing a
David Lynch movie in real life.
And while I make this out to be total weirdo music (which it is), if you
listen to the lyrics there is humor contained within reflecting on all manner
of trashy denizens, probably lurking in the alleys of the members
hometown. A great addition to an
already very unique catalog.
(Monofonus Press)
THARSIS THEY, “Formless/Shapeless” 7”
New-ish label Dropping Bombs once again releases a record
with cool artwork and packaging, but I have to admit I’m not really wild about
the band making the music. It’s
the sort of early 2000’s metalcore that was a step up from chug-mosh with
stolen Slayer riffs, but before the total onslaught of stupid Dillinger Escape
Plan wanna-be’s cramming as many parts as they possibly could into one
song. The band knows the value of
a spastic and heavy part, but also doesn’t do anything to keep my attention either. It’s a lot of screaming, a lot of chunky
metal, but hasn’t quite found it’s niche yet and isn’t terribly memorable. Four tracks on seven inches. Mosh, headbang, forget. (Dropping Bombs)
TITLE FIGHT, “Hyperview”
Bands that are somewhat popular tend to cause some fire on
both sides of the isle when they decide to go and change the way they
sound. Purists turn into crybabies
and long for things to just stay the same. Smartypants who want to appear that they ‘get it’ applaud
the change and point fingers at the crybabies. It’s all kind of stupid and ugly. I most definitely applaud Title Fight for the leaps and
bounds sort of growth they have displayed over their last few records. I appreciate that they get into a
thing, figure out how to do it really well, and then make an album over
it. I thought “Floral Green” was
an incredibly good representation of kick-ass Superchunk and Hum worship. And on this new record… I guess they’ve really gotten into
Slowdive and The Smiths. There’s a
couple really good songs here that keep with that energy I enjoy about the
band, but the majority of these songs are kind of boring to me. Regardless of any changes they have
made to their sound they always seemed to keep that sort of youthful energy in
their songs. That is lacking quite
a bit here. But whatever, if they
want to make a mopey, phaser pedal-saturated shoegaze-type record that’s their
bag, let ‘em go for it (or get it out of their system). I’m just not really all that psyched on
what I hear. (Anti)
TORCHE, “Restarter”
Death to false sludge pop. Torche are the one and only. I’ve always been a bigger fan of their EPs than their full
lengths, for no particular reason, it’s just what appealed to me more. But I think this is the first LP of
theirs that I’m 100% down with everything. I’m sort of reminded of “Songs For Singles” when listening
to this as it has a similar approach.
A number of tracks have a sort of slow, steady riffy vibe. Some other songs are in upbeat, poppy
mode (though not one has the sort of guitar acrobatics displayed on previous
catchy songs like “UFO” or “Hideaway”).
And then you get the bomb string.
Oh yes, the glorious bomb string.
It is used more liberally on this record and I couldn’t be happier. “Undone” and “Blasted” give a taste of
that great power. But then you get
most of the way through the record and they present “Barrier Hammer”. “Barrierrrrr HAMMER!!!” Everyone
dies. They get to that break and
it’s like the band carpet bombs wherever they are with a never-ending
riff. I actually cranked this
incredibly loud in my car HOPING to blow out the speakers. It would be a fine death. So yeah, Torche come back strong on
this. Mandatory
listening/headbanging. (Relapse)
