BATTLES, “La Di Da Di”
I have been in awe of John Stanier’s drumming since I was a
wee teen, when he was killing it in Helmet. I knew Battles was a big departure, and I kind of had an
idea of what they did, but it wasn’t until “Gloss Drop” had been out for some
time that I actually explored it for myself. And holy shit, that record is balls out wild. I asked myself why I would be so drawn
to this music, which relied heavily on electronics and synths to create a
danceable stew of loops, blips, and all sorts of other sounds that pedal nerds
lose their shit over. And it
occurred to me that, in a way, Battles is sort of like Tortoise for this
generation (even though Tortoise is are still kicking it quite hard). In, again, my strange deviation from my
usual listening habits, I have also been digging Tortoise for a good 20
years. So, yeah, Battles returns
on this double LP with more wild electronics, building up bit upon
textured/effect-driven bit until this giant mosaic comes into view and explodes
forth in wild array of percussion, synth, guitar and bass that more often than
not, does not sound like a guitar or bass. Stanier’s drumming pulls everything into a ‘rock’ direction,
but remains solid, anchoring all the wild shit the other two members of this
group want to play with. The whole
thing is instrumental. I’d say
this doesn’t experiment as much as “Gloss Drop”, what with its various guest
vocalists and ridiculously catchy oddities, but this one is growing on me
nicely. It remains a bit more
consistent overall, which doesn’t add up to being as adventurous. But it’s still going to take me months
to deconstruct exactly what they are doing here, and that’s cool too. (Warp)
CHRON TURBINE/ VIOLENT BULLSHIT split 7”
It’s kind of hard to nail down what Chron Turbine are
exactly, and that’s fine because easily –identifiable bands can often be
boring. This one song here
deviates pretty strongly from their debut LP from a year or so ago. It’s basically one cool riff repeated
for a few minutes, instrumental, with various leads coasting on top of it. It’s kinda mean and dirty, but has a
garage-y sense of fun going on over it.
So take that as you will. I
kind of like their vocals though, so the absence of them on this song was a
minor let down. Violent Bullshit
are basically exactly what you think they would be. If you’re going to give your band that name you’d better be
willing to drink piss out of a jar while purposefully playing a song out of
tune and encouraging the audience to spit at you. Their song on this split is all anti-authority punk rock n’
roll. There is no need for further
explanation. Comes in a weird
silkscreened sorta-Void rip-off cover.
(Peterwalkee)
DEPARTMENT, “Aporia” 7”
In the ‘things I forgot to review over the summer’… uh… department (pun really not intended) this 7” from Syracuse’s
own Department flourishes like the complicated rock n’ roll flower that it
is. For starters I ought to point
out that I play in a band with one of these guys, so, ya know, conflict of
interest and yadda yadda. Either
way, things begin on this record sounding a lot like Braid in their heyday and
that’s just fine by me. It’s
really energetic and high-end noodly rock with exceptionally sung vocals. But I feel with the two songs on this
(an extra two tracks on the download) they go a little unnecessarily long and
lose a good chunk of that momentum as it gets a bit self-involved with
displaying just how complex the musicians here can play. If you’re a fan of technicality than
this will probably rock yr socks.
My somewhat short attention span has a little trouble keeping up but I
will say some parts are really great while others didn’t do it for me. I really like the semi-homemade feel of
the record artwork though. It
looks real sharp. (LRS Records)
GODSTOPPER, “Lie Down”
Here it is. Why
this is only available digitally is beyond me. Toronto’s best-kept secret unleashes their new full length
and it furthers the pop-sludge direction they have slowly been hinting at with
each new record. Older material
veered on a lot of slow and stompy riffing, while vocalist and guitarist Mike Simpson
offered up some very well-sung vocals to differentiate it from the slew of
other sludge rock bands out there. This new material keeps that low-tuned
dirge, but pushes the hooks further.
They instantly seep into your brain and keep you humming. Think Melvins with more uplifting
anthems, some of the feel-good sludge of Torche, or even a more accessible band
like Jawbox tuned exceptionally low. “Save It” opens up with the big anthem, a perfect
opener, while “Long Night” starts with ‘ooohs’ sung over a chunky riff that
would be out of place on a Kiss record played at 16 rpms. “Piss On Gardens” is a faster, more
relentless stalker of a song, probably the most overtly aggressive song on the
recording. “Remiss” begins with a
pretty melodic guitar riff and a quiet sung vocal pine before slow, molten
sludge takes over the song, crushing anything left standing. The record closes with “Magpie”,
another upbeat rocking anthem that was probably the obvious choice for a
closing track as it climaxes into a wild soaring lead that fades out with the
song. If this band played in
standard tuning they’d probably be packing arenas. But seeing as their choice of musical delivery rests heavily
on distortion and low-tuning we get to keep them for our own little secret,
perfect band. Check this at all
costs (or no costs because it’s pay what you want on their bandcamp). (Godstopper)
MEATWOUND, “Addio” 12”
I picked this up for a couple reasons, all rather
superficial. First off, this has
some ex-Combatwoundedvetern members and anything related to them generally
means really awesome artwork is part of the deal. I’d say it’s fairly successful. Not Earth-shattering awesome, but pretty cool. Next, this was described as heavy noise
rock. That always piques my
interest and I’d say that’s right on the money. This is indeed very lumbering, very dirty, very sludgy noise
rock. It’s Coalesce in a blender
minus most of the wild time changes and the dense sludginess of Kiss It Goodbye
minus the frantic insanity.
Lyrically, there are some heavy themes, which don’t always go
hand-in-hand with the whole noise rock thing. But I’m happy to see this band addressing some interesting
stuff in a fairly poetic way. If
there is a complaint to be made it might be that some of these songs go on a
little long as they don’t always seem to have a solid direction and seem like
they keep going, searching for that direction, but not quite finding it. It’s a work in progress. Or maybe it’s a band that just thought
about maybe laying down some gross-as-fuck noise sludge, saying ‘fuck it’ and
pressing record. Either way, you
could do a lot worse. (MagicBullet)
NOISEM, “Blossoming Decay”
I’ll admit, my knowledge of metal is fairly limited. There are plenty of bands that I like
that lean on metal, or pay homage to it.
But I don’t typically find myself fully committing to music that is
wholeheartedly METAL. Noisem are
very much metal. They play
incredibly fast. Thrash and grind
elements enter strongly into their sound, as well as classic death metal. They whip out ridiculous solos quicker
than the Waco Kid can draw on you, and they’re really young too (which means
none of the members will probably get the reference I just made in that last
sentence). Regardless, there’s an
urgency that I really enjoy about them and it led me to picking this record
up. Actually, it was the
incredibly awesome package this came in (crazy die-cut cover held together by
string) to be honest… and the fact
that I caught a listen of their previous record on a road trip. So, ya know, it wasn’t just by
chance. Sometimes I think young
bands act as if they’re re-inventing the wheel when they’re just doing a very
poor imitation of it, or they’re just completely ignorant of tired-ass shit
that has already been done to death.
And sometimes a band like Noisem comes around that completely pays
respect to what came before and just pushes it to an awesome new extreme. So yeah, thumbs up for legit
brutalizing metal played at warp speed.
(A389 Recordings)
PIGS, “Wronger”
I imagine this band might be sick of all the Unsane
comparisons they get, but when one of your members is in Unsane, and the bass
player records most of Unsane’s material…
well, that writing style may seep in a bit. And that’s totally OK.
And let’s be clear- Pigs are their own band. Dave Curran trades in his bass to play guitar in this group
and some of the songs that he lays down for this group are a bit more upbeat
and fun… in a very dirty, filthy
sort of way. “Wronger”, on the
whole, feels a little more nuanced than their debut LP, “You Ruin Everything”,
which was grimey and mean all the way through. On this record they throw a banjo in on one song, play
around with some interesting melodies here and there, and rope Julie Christmas
into singing a track (which sounds like they pulled her out of a dumpster after
chain-smoking fiberglass-laced cigars… it’s pretty rough in a great way). The grit is ever-present, but it’s easy
to see that this band has some other ideas they want to toy around with as well
which serve them well. (Solar
Flare)
SPRAYPAINT, “Dopers”
Continuing their trend of putting less songs on each record
they do Spraypaint return with their second LP in one year, this time with 8
songs (“Punters On the Barge”, released in the Spring had 10 tracks). To be fair, a few of these songs are
considerably longer than most Spraypaint songs, which tend to often be in the 2
minute range. Three of the tracks
stretch between 4 and 6 minutes, so I guess that counts for something. Also strange is that this material was
recorded in 2014, but not released until just now while “Punters…” was recorded
in early 2015 and released just a few short months later. Nerdy fact-dropping aside, the band
continue to try new things, adding bass to a couple songs here (they operate as
a two guitars and drums trio), creepy synth on a couple more, and one track
that is an exercise in headphone-geared soundscapes intended to put the
listener at complete unease. While
they show up with some new tricks Spraypaint is all nervous anxiety and frayed
nerves displayed with heavy reverb guitars, herky-jerky beats, and dulled
vocals describing all aspects of hick/white trash life. If Spraypaint were the soundtrack to a
horror film the script would begin as follows, “Somewhere an axe murderer lies
in wait behind a remote Texas 7-11”.
Take that as you will.
(Monofonous Press)
SWEET COBRA, “Earth”
It’s been a few years since we checked in with Sweet
Cobra. After the death of their
other guitarist Matt Arluck it was uncertain if this Chicago group would
continue to lay down their brand of riffy stoner-rock fury. But they have soldiered on and come up
with something very evolved from their often heavy approach. And it might be the best thing they
have done to date. While I found
the heaviness of previous Sweet Cobra outings to my liking there was always
something missing that typically led to many of their songs not sticking in my
memory. On “Earth” the band have
consciously added much more in the way of crooned/sung vocals paired with
effect-driven harmonies that bear a strong resemblance to Queens of the Stone
Age (particularly on “Jealous Of Drugs” and “Complaints”), or the rambling
heavy rock of “Perfect Pitch Black”-era Cave-In (see “Blue Rose” or “Future
Ghosts” for reference). And in
some spots they deviate heavily from past work (“Repo” wouldn’t be out of place
as a B-side from the first Interpol LP).
To me it’s a great showing from a long-running band that has always
taken their time with producing output.
And they had some serious life events in the last few years to
contribute to the task of creating this seriously awesome record. (Magic Bullet)
WHY+THE+WIRES, “Flame Failures”
An Ithaca group that will never quit as far as I can
tell. They have released 4 LPs in
almost as many years, most of which were on their own. They don’t tour, and rarely play
outside their own town. Yet this
group of mostly dads, in their hidden corner of upstate NY, manages to
continually crank out thoughtful and interesting indie/punk rock. Their hybrid of mid-to-late 90’s styled
post-hardcore rock leans heavy on the Chicago/Champaign scene of the era, as I
remember it, and bands such as Sweep the Leg Johnny, Braid, and Dianogah figure
into their sound, while like-minded bands such as (early) Karate and even a bit
of Drive Like Jehu show up as well.
The most notable aspect of Why+the+Wires sound comes from the use of
saxophone or accordion in almost every song, done so in a tasteful way that
adds a lot of texture to the music.
It sounds a little weird to read, but it works really well in the
music. It’s also a nice looking
record, so if that doesn’t finally tip you in the direction of checking it out
I’m not sure what will. (JetsamFlotsam Records/ One Percent Press)
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