BOTHERS, s/t
These dudes play really fast. As far as no-frills punk rock goes this is just what I’m
into. Imagine Hot Snakes playing
shorter, faster, dirtier, and spit-frothing vocals instead of a raspy
howl. Bothers, from right here in
Portland, OR are a fairly new band but wasted no time in blasting forth with
this hot shit record. They break
out 10 songs in probably all of about 20 minutes and it’s that long in part
because mid-record jammer “No Trust” takes up 5 of those minutes. It’s a nice break from all the speed
and puts forth another angle to the band, churning out some slower, strangely
melodic vitriol and is possibly the best song on the whole record. That nod to noisy-melodic anthem-jamming
shows up on “Claw To Bone” and album closer “Deader Ends” as well. The rest you need to strap yourself in… or, you know, fuck it, just get loose
and spazz the fuck out. That’s
kind of what this music is meant to have you do. Thoroughly enjoyable and a heck of a debut. (Dirt Cult Records)
CANDY, “Super Stare” 7”
From out of nowhere comes new material from Candy, one of
the gnarliest and downright vicious newer hardcore bands out there. This is in preparation for a new LP and
I can only assume both these songs may end up on it. But who cares, they’re two of the best songs they have
written. Candy seamlessly meld
dirty, mosh-y hardcore with doses of Japanese –style d-beat, noisy samples, and
some Integrity guitar solo worship.
And for those who love their completely off-brand design style this is
another record cover that’s about as ugly as they come. The casual observer may believe this to
be a nu-metal band providing soundtrack music for a dystopian video game. But
no, it’s Candy and they fucking rip.
So get moshed into oblivion for the title track, stick around for the
quick ripper “Win Free Love” on the B-side. If you live count your days until the new LP rolls around,
or until Candy says die. (Relapse)
DAUGHTERS OF SAINT CRISPIN, s/t
These dudes play really slow. It’s like Jesu with more
jangly guitars, or Young Widows on “In and Out Of Youth and Lightness” minus as
many effects and more growled vocals.
The band uses a drum machine, but it’s tough to tell (from my
perspective), so props to having a good drum sound. A couple of the songs are
fairly long and add to the moody nature of the music and the whole thing sounds
like it was recorded in a big, empty, sad warehouse. If you want to feel down and mope around like a sad bastard
this might do the trick. It’s a
bit too morose for me, but maybe I’m just hoping for a little more dynamic from
song to song to keep it from getting too repetitive. (self-released)
DRUGS OF FAITH, “Decay” 7”
Drugs Of Faith is a super-dependable, albeit infrequent,
band out of Northern Virginia. By
this I mean they only emerge every couple years or so to release music and
don’t play out all that often.
However, every time they do something it’s a guarantee it’s going to
destroy. This is no
exception. 5 new songs (one of
which is an intro) of face-crushing punk-rock n’ roll- grind. This isn’t quite as heavy as previous
releases and maybe that’s simply because it has a nicer recording and there’s
an occasional cleaner guitar break (like on “Anonymity”), but that’s not really
saying much because Drugs Of Faith still sound relentless. Really, you can start anywhere in their
catalog and get consistently solid releases. They maintain a seemless mesh of faster, aggressive and
metallic grind, with a punk attitude, and some bad-add rock riffs. I fail to see anything wrong with any
of this. Get into Drugs Of Faith
now. (Selfmadegod)
DEN, “Iron Desert”
I feel like this record is one of those releases where the
cover is rather indicative of the music.
Like, you start listening to it and as you take another bog hit, and
dust the resin off the cover, staring into it like it’s some sort of Magic Eye
trick, you think to yourself, ‘yeeeeah, this makes sense.’ Den, a trio out of Chicago, are a
vortex where sludge, psychedelia, and sci-fi converge into a weird mosaic of
sound. Just based on that last
sentence I know what you’re thinking and the answer is, ‘no, I do not do
drugs.’ But I imagine Den indulge
in copious amounts of them and that’s why they make the music that they
do. And I’m cool with it. There are some sections that get a
little too far-out into psych for me, but when they hit their heavier riffs
they’re realllllly good riffs and very heavy. Did I mention they don’t use guitar either? Just drums, really distorted bass, and
some very distorted and heavy synths.
And burly vocals too. Sure,
you’re thinking ‘synths can’t be heavy’.
OK, square. Give a listen
to the closing title track and let me know when you’re able to reattach your
face. So while all of “Iron
Desert” doesn’t transport me to the riff-filled land, enough of it does in that
I feel like I’ve enjoyed the ride.
(Corpse Flower)
LACING, “Without”
For fans of bands that have pedalboards the size of your
kitchen table and like to sing in hushed, breezy tones. At this point I have heard a lot of
bands that do the atmospheric-to-somewhat-heavy shoegaze thing and Lacing are
certainly a band of that ilk that do so quite well. I’d say this album is a little on the long side and maybe
having four different interludes of playing with every possible guitar pedal
that wasn’t used on other songs might be a little much, but when they get down
to it it’s pretty enjoyable. There
are several tracks which err on the more loose and lush side that can be a
little hard to follow insofar as how atmospheric they sound. I suppose I’m more a fan of when bands
such as this lean on riffs to complement their MBV worship, as Lacing emphasize
a bit more later in the album with a couple upbeat songs (including an album
closer that sounds almost out of place, and totally like Smashing Pumpkins, “Geek USA"
but comes off as so energetic that I don’t really care), but there’s enough
hooks to go with their spacey moments to keep any fan of this style thoroughly
entertained. (Handstand Records)
PROCESS BLACK, “Countdown Failure” 7”
There was a blip about this project a couple years back,
which I’m guessing is relegated to just being a studio band, but now it’s a
little more real. I also think, at
the time, most of the material on this 7” was up online and then taken down not
long after. It feels familiar to
me. Either way, this group
features the vocals of Tim Singer, one of my favorite vocalists ever (Deadguy,
Kiss It Goodbye, No Escape), being 100% Tim Singer as well as Aaron Edge (every
Northwest band ever in the last 25 years) handling all the bass and guitars,
and a drummer I have zero knowledge of.
The first song carries a super heavy Unsane vibe to it in both guitar
tone, excessive feedback, and general pissed-off-ness. It gets a little slower after that, but
just as mean and grouchy. I do
like my grouchy mean music and Process Black does the trick, even if it’s just
three songs that were sort of already released a couple years ago. I am, however, just pleased to have it
on physical format to play loud and annoy others. Mean music as played by lifer punk dudes and design
nerds. My kind of folk. (Deathwish Inc)
SALVATION, “Year Of the Fly”
On their new LP Chicago noise rock trio Salvation channel
Jesus Lizard at their most unhinged and free-wheeling, while also giving a big
nod to Nirvana “In Utero” in regards to it’s most ham-fisted moments. At least on the first half of the
record anyway. By the midway point
a couple completely out-of-place pieces emerge which almost made me wonder if
another band had been shoehorned into the record by accident- one a short piano
interlude, the other an acoustic ballad called “Failure”. It kind of gets a bit more dark from
there, even dare I say, a bit sketchy.
But when you kick things off with a song called “Dark and Stormy” I
suppose it’s expected that things might get rough. The record closes out with another brief instrumental that
sounds like closing time at a funk-themed dive bar from the 70’s. It’s a rather mixed bag from Salvation,
but a welcome range of heavy and wild to calm and strange. It’s worth a go. (Forge Again Records)
No comments:
Post a Comment