REVIEWS OF PUMPKIN SPICE AND SWEATERS. I MEAN, RECORD REVIEWS FOR SEPTEMBER...

For fans of black record covers with minimal art I give you a bunch of stuff that coincidentally looks very bleak.  I mean, just look at that mashed-up cover selection!  We got a mixed bag here.  Generally, I enjoy extolling the virtues of stuff that I like.  But sometimes stuff comes my way and I'm just not feeling it.  I try to be positive, but, well, I'm an honest person.  So here's a bunch of stuff that is both good and not-as-good.

CASUAL BURN, “Mean Thing” LP

Casual Burn kind of sound like what would happen if acid casualty hippies into Black Sabbath caught wind of punk ten years before it actually became a thing and tried their hand at it.  The first half of this record is lo-fi garage punk with sung vocals that have a bratty edge to them and a scrappy recording.  The B-side opens up with a lost Pentagram riff buried under piles of used heroin baggies, and honestly, it’s really the only part of this record I’m feeling (not because I’m into heroin or Pentagram, it’s just a solid riff).  The B-side kind of continues in that vein, so it really sounds more like two EPs of different styles thrown onto one record.  I get why band purposefully roll with semi-shitty recordings in order to create a certain vibe (because in 2019 there’s no reason why a band can’t get a decent recording with just a smidgen of effort), but in this case I feel it kind of hinders the band.  I can’t say I’m really into this overall, but if this description gets yr gusher flowing who am I to stop you from checking it out?  (Handstand Records) 

CHILD BITE/ BRAIN TENTACLES split 7”

What a fantastic pairing.  A couple of heavy music’s most interesting weirdo rockers team up with a song each in a package that really goes all out with fancy printing, detail, and originality.  Speaking of originality, Brain Tentacles is a band comprised of uber-drummer Dave Witte, Keelhaul bassist Aaron Dallison, and avant-garde saxophonist Bruce Lamont making some wild noise.  On their track “Yes” Lamont lays down an incredibly hummable (and effects-ladden) lead and some reverb-y vocals while Witte supplies a super trippy off-time beat and Dallison keeps the whole thing moving along with a great pace.  It’s weird, and you gotta expand your palette a bit, but it sounds fucking awesome.  Brain Tentacles rule.  Now on to un-originality.  Child Bite is on the other side and I only say their track is unoriginal because they didn’t write it.  However, their choice to cover “Nerve Quake” by Lubricated Goat is musically in line with Child Bite’s already proto-punk/rock n’ roll/noise rock/ slightly metal rollercoaster.  Accentuated by spazzmodic vocalist Shawn Knight’s quivering howl it’s really the only major deviation from the original.  Child Bite’s been a on a roll lately with new offerings, which is always great.  Brain Tentacles needs to get back in action and wreck minds.  (LearningCurve Records)

EYE FLYS, “Context” EP

If Wrong is a perfect rip of peak-era Helmet, and Eye Flys sound a lot like first-EP era Wrong, what does that make Eye Flys?  I don’t want to reduce this new band to anything minor because their sound is like instant gratification of heavy noise rock goodness.  But this project of members of Backslider, Triac, and Full Of Hell seemed to set out with the intention of having fun playing riffs completely based off the Melvins, Helmet, and Killdozer back catalog.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!  That’s what side bands are sort of for- scratching that itch of other interests their primary bands don’t quite get to.  However, Eye Flys got a little more attention than they probably bargained for and here we are with their debut EP “Context”.  And, yeah, I get quite a bit of instant gratification listening to this because it’s what I like.  But I’d also love to see this band branch out just a bit and develop their own identity.  (Thrill Jockey)

MONOLORD, “No Comfort”

Relapse already has Windhand doing great things for them, so maybe they thought they’d roll with a second-string European version of that just in case something happens to the Americans?  I mean, this is a sort of more folksy version of Windhand, but with more boring vocals.  In fact, most everything about Monolord is pretty boring.  I have a pretty limited tolerance for sludge-y doom metal, with only a few bands really doing it for me, and a vast ocean of others doing absolutely nothing.  Monolord are one of the ones that do nothing.  (Relapse)

SECT, “Blood Of the Beasts”

Multinational hardcore conglomerate Sect went and surprise dropped their third LP on us out of nowhere and to be completely honest it sounds exactly like their last two records.  They really are running with a theme here- short, fast songs balancing hardcore, grind, metal, and riffs revolving around the misery of human existence, animal liberation, and that ‘ol punk chestnut of sticking it to those in power.  If you dig that HM-2 riff accelerator as perfected by the likes of Entombed, Trap Them, and All Pigs Must Die this is in that exact same ballpark.  Musically it does kind of run together for me, and that might be because I have heard a number of bands follow this play book.  Sect remains interesting in part because I always appreciate the design aesthetic of their records, as well as Chris Colohan’s eloquently penned missives that can tie together vegan straightedge, how it relates to power structures, human and animal issues of subjugation while still remaining clever and insightful.  No sing-alongs here, just a lot of misery that makes you think.  Live it sounds like a sledgehammer to your face.  (Southern Lord)

SPRAY PAINT, “Into the Country”

After a years of quiet as the members spread out across the globe to do whatever it is they’re doing Spray Paint have reconvened again to offer “Into the Country”.  I used to be able to count on getting one or two full lengths from this Austin-raised trio each year.  So when this finally dropped I was pretty excited to see what they had been up to.  Well, if their goal was to be unsettling, disorienting, and discomforting Spray Paint still have it. But the sound on this is quite a bit different than all their other material, often using drum machines and synths, along with their well-worn ultra-reverb’ed out guitars (no bassist) to get the music across.  I’m definitely far more partial to their weird attack of dual guitars, dual Texas-drawl vocals, and simple beats, which they only offer up on a couple of the later tracks on the record.  But I can understand that having done that for 6 other LPs they might be interested in trying something else.  I get it.  I’m just not as into it.  (12XU)

TEETH TO YOUR THROAT, “A Life Without Pain”

Some noisey boys from Vancouver, British Columbia return in a new form after previously operating under the moniker Black Pills (who put out a hell of a demo a couple years back with a different singer).  A couple of these cats also play in about-town stalwarts Taxa, as well as the exceptional Silver Chains.  They’re just veritable renaissance men of punk, all playing together in a variety of bands with different sounds and really nice gear.  Teeth To Your Throat may be the most directly hardcore-leaning band of the bunch (that I am familiar with anyway), even though it does venture into the noisey and chaotic side of things, maybe even slightly ‘metal’ at times.   Shades of Rorschach, Deadguy, and even a few riffs that could have found a home on early Rollins Band records show up here with hoarse, shouted vocals leaning heavy on the socio-political end of things.  In a unique twist, there are 5 songs here, but 10 tracks because the same songs are present- once in English and again in Spanish.  So, you know, international punks can scream along too.  (self-released) 

TRVSS, “Absence”

I didn’t know what to expect here because the artwork doesn’t tell you much and neither does the band’s page, plus I have no idea what their name is supposed to mean, or how it’s pronounced.  But I gotta say, nice work TRVSS.  You get yourself 10 tracks of kinda noisey, kinda spazzy durable rock from Pittsburgh with just a little bit of sass (mostly in the vocals, I’ll allow it).  There’s a quality to the guitar sound that is very reminiscent of Midwest rockers Call Me Lightning, whom I’m sure no one remembers or cares about, but believe me, that’s A-OK.  At their most out-of-control they could have even had a record out on GSL in the late 90’s.  And at their most direct it’s chugging along with a good post-hardcore vibe like on “Late Night Monologue”, which shows up later on during the record.  Whatever the case, TRVSS get a nod for surprising me with a great sound far off the mark of anything I thought it might be.  (self-released)