REVIEW DUMP FOR OCTOBER AND IT'S A GOOD ONE.

 It feels like so much of this year is delayed.  It's like waiting on good things, and then waiting even longer for those things, and then by the time they get here some of the magic is gone.  But for this round of stuff I got here I feel like the wait was just the right amount of time for many of these releases, one of which was a complete surprise to me.  Bonus!  So here you go with a bunch of guitar-heavy madness and one comic dripping with madness!  Check it all out and enjoy!

 

BUMMER, “Dead Horse”

There’s a lot of bands whose live sound doesn’t always translate as well to recorded material.  Sometimes you hear a very over-produced record that sounds great but live the band is a little flat.  Or maybe a band you love live who have a huge sound just doesn’t get that across as well on their albums.  But with Bummer every time you hear their records you can almost feel the massive volume they play at, the sweat and spit flinging off the stage and through your speakers, and they somehow manage to translate through audio mediums a sore neck from headbanging too hard to their incredible riffs.  It’s just non-stop riffs and heaviness and screaming and it’s awesome.  Imagine, if you will, the earlier stuff from Rye Coalition rocking the fuck out mixed with the dizzying heaviness of Coalesce (heck, Coalesce vocalist Sean Ingram contributes guest vocals to two of the songs on this…  “Juice Pig” definitely adding a total Coalesce part in the song tailor made for the dude), and that ought to provide some context for what to expect.  Whether they’re going at a quick clip, like on “Barn Burner” or moving slower and laying down one of the meanest grooves you’ll hear all year on “I Want To Punch Bruce Springsteen In the Dick” this second full length from Bummer is going to kick your ass up and down the street.  It’s definitely one of the most bad-ass heavy records I’ll hear all year and unless you have something against a recording beating you with a tire iron before being road hauled you’ll probably want to check it out too.  (ThrillJockey)

 

 

CHERUBS, “Slo Blo 4 Frnz N Sxy”

Leave it to the acid casualties in Cherubs to record a new EP that has a handful of songs at regular speed on one side at 45, and then those same songs on side B slowed down to 33.  If I had to guess a cue for inspiration (outside of drugs), take frontman Kevin Whitley’s vocal guest spot when sludge/noise group USA/Mexico covered Cherub’s own “Shoofly” and dragged it out to comically painful lengths.  Or just chalk it up to Cherubs own demented headfuckery when destroying innocent minds with their crazy noise.  Anyways, on this EP you get four new tracks that are totally in line with all the more recent stuff you’ve come to love from Cherubs that err more on the heavy/rocking end rather than their occasional forays into psychedelia.   There’s also an acoustic version of “Sooey Pig” from their last full length “Immaculeda High” and it truly makes you realize, when distilled down to just an acoustic guitar and a voice, that Cherubs are just writing catchy pop songs with warped vocals and heaps upon heaps of feedback and distortion.  It’s a great thing they have going on.  Flip the record over and there’s the slowed down versions of all of these that could be mistaken for the aforementioned USA/Mexico or Harvey Milk.  I have absolutely no clue what’s up with that title, but I do know you need Cherubs in your life. (Relapse)

 

DIFFICULT, “Tea With the Times”

How do I describe the new effort, long in the making, of Difficult without showing favoritism to a group of people I’ve long associated with in other bands, label releases, booking their previous bands, and friendship?  Honestly, I just want this record to get some attention because it’s self-released, likely with no physical release, and I don’t think any of the members would consider themselves as self-promoting PR machines. So if I may throw a little hype their way I’m more than happy to do so.  This is the second full length by this Syracuse group.  All of the members have exhaustive backgrounds in dozens of bands, and most of them all played together in Night Owls as a semi-recent reference point.  Difficult play very thoughtful rock music that has extreme dedication to detail, in part due to the members experience on stage and in the studio and part due to mixing from Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City.  There’s some subtle differences I’m hearing between this and the band’s initial offering- a bit more heft and grime in the bass tone, as well as using the interplay of vocals between guitarist Jon Davis and bassist Rachel Bass as even more of a melodic instrument than before.  “In the Sun” begins the record as a slow burn with mostly vocals and occasional studio-affected drum hits before exploding into a big ‘ol ending.  “Neurotic” picks up the pace though as a quick ripper more in line with the members Night Owls output before they get into “The Promise”, which might be my favorite song on “Tea With the Times”.  It plods along with a heavy, grinding bass but remains gorgeous and idyllic throughout between the guitars and vocals.  Well, ok, that song and closer “Medic Medic”, which also has that slower vibe but goes from morose and melancholy to upbeat and anthemic and ends with an almost tribal drum beat carried by synchronized by long, drawn out ‘whoh-ohs’ that just demand a big audience singing along.  How’s that for descriptive without being too gushy while attempting to be objective? (self-released)

 

FULL OF HELL, “Garden Of Burning Apparitions”

Full Of Hell have become very consistently good at throwing every extreme music subgenre in a blender and not having it come out as disjointed, or ill-fitting.  They just are who they are and they are extremely prolific.  So while some songs may break into Discordance Axis-like future grind, others parts go into tech-y death metal dirges, and occasional hardcore breakdowns, with twists of noise rock skronk.  They make it all fit into their stew seamlessly.  And most of the time they cram it down your throat in the space of about 90 seconds so you don’t even know what hit you.  The band definitely enjoys adding noise when they can with mixed results.  When it’s the entirety of a track like “Derelict Satellite”, which literally sounds like a warehouse full of aluminum siding caught in a mudslide, count me out.  But when it’s added as texture to a track like “Industrial Messiah Complex” where an entire section sounds like the band raging through the filter of a helicopter it sounds awesome.  I’d say at 21 minutes and 12 tracks (two of which being noise tracks) I’m not sure if I’d count this as a full length, but honestly, this is just the right amount of Full Of Hell I want in one sitting to make a lasting impression.  After all, they are throwing a lot at you.  Best not to overwhelm, but at the same time keep people wanting more. (Relapse)

 

GRINS, “Unflattering Angles”

Upon first listening to this album from Finnish noise rock band Grins one might think they have it playing at the wrong speed until you realize that this isn’t a physical record.  The guitars drag and vocals lurch like they’re channeling Big’n through the spirit of Harvey Milk.  But then they pick up the pace and smack you up and down with a galloping racket.  It’s an odd feat for these Scandinavians but I’m pleased to listen to it and enjoy the filth they’re peddling.  When you get a song called “Adult Diaper Blues” it’s not that tough to get a sense of what’s about to transpire here ya know?  However, closing track “Sleeping Song” is the anomaly as it’s a solid four minutes of whispered, quiet fog before you get another 6 minutes of build-up and burnout, all the while their vocalist is trying out his singing voice and doing a pretty good job of it.  The rest of the record- adult diaper blues set to music.  Heavy and ugly. (self-released)

 

KOWLOON WALLED CITY, “Piecework”

Get ready for that slow burn.  Worshippers of tone and nuance have no doubt already been slow-jacking (edging?  You all into that?) to this new masterclass in sonic prowess.  Kowloon Walled City play slow and heavy, but have an excellent sense of crushing listeners without having to crank the distortion up all the time.  They have rich tones and through their exceptional understanding of recording and engineering ensure that the listener hears every note, every strum on the guitar, all clear as a summers day.  But the patience, the intentional quiet moments, the restraint, the slow pace… it all has a profound weight to it.  And that’s part of what makes KWC heavy.  Well, that and they do play very loud in the rare live settings they engage in.  But I digress.  While personally I enjoy older material from them (“Gambling On the Richter Scale” being a favorite) because it’s a little more immediate and definitely makes use of that thick-ass distortion, I have great respect for what they are doing currently because it’s heavy in a different sort of way and their last three records attest to that.  Closing track “Lampblack” may be the best example of this, combining big, open melodies and those moments of quiet heaviness they do so well. (Neurot/Gilead)

 

TALES TO ENLIGHTEN, by Matt King and James Edward Clark

I got hip to this massive tome by way of a few artists I follow contributing pin-ups to it and I figured if all these people whose work I admire are getting in on this thing then I should check out because the actual creators of the book likely have very good taste of their own.  However, I’m at a bit of a loss to fully describe the multitude of batshit crazy stuff happening throughout Tales To Enlighten.  First, let me try to summarize the plot- the grandson of Satan seeks to find enlightenment.  In order to do so he needs to collect the heads of 666 superheroes so he and his reprogrammed killer robot friend travel the multiverse to butcher their way to their goal.  Once the deed is complete access to enlightenment is granted in the form of a nightclub in which one DJ Megatrip supplies the music and offers our characters a private lesson in Buddhist/Far East teachings.  As our characters become enlightened the DJ reveals himself to be…  well, I won’t ruin it.  But let’s just say Grandpa Satan catches wind and a battle follows.  So it’s weird, for sure.  All the superhero butchering is a 50 page excuse to delve into explicit gore and cheap yucks via not-so-subtle send ups’ of popular heroes we all know.  The enlightenment bit is quite extended as well with a bit too much philosophizing for it’s own good, which our author openly admits. Finally, the entire book is wrapped up in an endless parade of pop culture, hip-hop, and punk references shoehorned in wherever possible.  At times it’s wonderful, other times it’s a bit too much.  The artwork is nothing short of spectacular- visually bright and engaging, totally weird, expertly dished out and with a mish-mash of interlude-style classified ads to break things up.  The story itself runs a couple hundred pages while there is a bonus section well over 100 pages of just pins-ups by a bevy of awesome artists including Shaky Kane, Paul Rentler, Samplerman, and Phil Bratuhim.  The entire endeavor at times feels like a bit too much, but at least you’re more than getting your money’s worth.  (self-released)

 

TUNIC, “Quitter”

Tunic are relentless.  They will tour like 6 months a year or something and then put out a full length pretty much when they’re not touring.  I can only imagine how much the last year or so sucked for them not being to tour and then spending all that time in the Arctic Circle of Canada in which they reside.  So outside of likely hiding from polar bears or avoiding steamrollers plowing over the tundra to install oil pipelines in any available stretch of land I’m sure the members of Tunic just bashed out more abrasive punk screeds to spit out at the eventual promise of live audiences.  And now that that last part seems to be a reality they have this new record, “Quitter” in which to inflict the damage.  So in the past I’ve made strong comparisons to Metz and I’m sure they’re sick of it, but in some ways it remains apt, respectfully so- both groups are power trios, both play noise rock that leans heavy into a punk ethos complete with weird guitar effects, both are Canadian, and both are really good.  However, I feel like Tunic tends to be a little more economical overall with their songs.  11 tracks here clock in at all of about 22 minutes and the longest song on here is still under 3 minutes.  Despite the brevity of this record I hardly feel ripped off.  I appreciate that Tunic not only get down to business with no delay but also don’t overstay their welcome by making up for a brief record with like 17 songs or something just to pad the length.  Save that for the grindcore nuts.  An additional difference I’d like to add is I find Tunic to be more jarring.  They may make quite a bit of use of different effects pedals but the guitars don’t sound like chainsaws.  Often there are somewhat cleaner tones which make the jangling and quick picking sound panicked and unsettling.  In regards to how this stacks up against other Tunic releases?  Just as good, you really cannot go wrong with this band.  They have a particular sound and style and don’t fuck with it. (Artefact)

NO COAST FEST OCT. 1-3 WRAP-UP!

 

As life began to get a bit more back to normal around the Spring of this year shows and tours started popping up everywhere.  We all thought things were going to be A-OK right?  Ah, that was a really nice month or so wasn’t it?

That being said, the third iteration of the No Coast Fest in Texas seemed to be a solid option for a fun thing to do, even if it’s in Texas.

The initial lineup looked bonkers- a dream come true for noise rock heads and aficionados of weird, heavy music in general.

However, as society in general took a big dump on otherwise responsible types and set us all back to…  I don’t know… confusion and a lot of maybes about the safety of actually attending shows or counting on bands to be able to follow through with tours the lineup for this shindig shifted considerably.

I already had my plane tickets and a clean bill of health so I wasn’t going to back out.  If anything, I could just have myself a weird adventure.  And I did!  So kudos to uncertainty.

 

I arrived in Austin a couple days early because I was connecting with the Exhalants dudes, who were set to play No Coast and figured I would ride up with them.  Additionally, one of my best friends from childhood (and throughout high school) lived in Austin and we hadn’t seen one another in at least 5 years.  And I’d also been in Austin exactly one other time to play a show on tour and that was 15 years ago.  So it was high time to see what all the fuss was about regarding this supposed ‘live music capital of the United States’, as well as sample the massive gentrification that likely has mowed down the local culture like a reaper’s scythe across the Red River and surrounding community.

 

My man Steve picked me up from the airport and put me up for a couple days while my old pal Nate showed me around town to see the well-known End Of An Ear record store, a great vegan lunch spot called Project Pollo, and a little bakery with the ‘wink, wink, nod, nod’ name Zucchini Kill (complete with a hearse out front stating ‘our cupcakes are to die for’).  Let me tell you this- Austin has way too many strip malls literally everywhere.  Just thought I’d put that out there.

This is Austin, not No Coast
 

But you came here to read about bands and stuff so I’ll get to that.

On Friday I set out with the Exhalants dudes, who all traveled separately for logistical reasons, up to Denton for the first night of the fest.  Texas got itself a traffic problem because that stretch from Austin to Denton should have been around 3 hours and took like 5.  For whatever reason I did not blow my top, which I’m prone to do in traffic and it’s probably because I wasn’t driving.

 

So we show up in Denton and people are just loading in.  For those unfamiliar, Denton is a small college town between Fort Worth and Dallas.  It’s quiet, quaint, extremely chill and is host to a music school, which lends itself to being amicable to live events.  It doesn’t seem to fit the stereotype of Texas as some backwards hick-filled, God-fearing conservative hellscape.  It just seems chill and easy going. 

Additionally, the venue- Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Space- is an incredible spot with an indoor stage that has a big wide opening to a giant patio space with another stage, as well as being close enough to the downtown area to be super walkable, but situated between railroad tracks and a concrete factory so as to leave absolutely no one to complain about excessive noisy racket.  It was awesome.

Rubber Gloves, the back view
 

I quickly met a few people I’d only talked to online up to that point, as well as saw a few familiar faces I hadn’t seen in a long time.  The Grizzlor dudes traveled all the way from Connecticut to play and I hadn’t seen them in well over four years.  Plus, their new record (which I released, ahem) had just come out today.  So it was a pretty special event.

 

Grizzlor being Grizz-lords

Things started off not long after with openers Sub-Sahara, who I was wholly unfamiliar with.  They had a sort of post-punk vibe going on with very topical lyrics and weren’t afraid to talk about them between songs, which is always cool with me.  The bounced between rhythmic grooves and abrasive chaos and it was a good way to set things off.

Moon Pussy, out from Denver,was next.  I was a little slow to catch on to them but once I gave their record some attention it stood out pretty strong.  Seeing them live was interesting as it provided some insight into how they get all those weird sounds and effects from their guitars… in part because the guitarist built his own instrument and added plenty of bells and whistles to it.  Pretty neat!

Moon Pussy- a name social media probably gets frustrated with
 

Salvation from Chicago followed and did their thing of crazy heavy rock with a lot of leads and a weird, unsettling swagger.  Definitely greasy.

So I’m totally partial here but Grizzlor followed and put on a hell of a set.  I know a lot of people in attendance were very excited for them since the band had never made their way this far South, or West.  This was my first time seeing them play with their drummer Warren and it was probably the best time seeing Grizzlor overall.  They were incredibly loud, crazy energetic, and sounded super tight.  They played a bunch of stuff from “Hammer Of Life” as well as sprinkling in a few older tracks as well.  I know they’re supposed to be really anti-social types but I may have had the longest in person conversation with Vic ever at that show at over 10 minutes.  It was beautiful.

This was my first time (since I think they hardly ever leave Austin) seeing Easy Prey and they may have had my overall favorite set of the weekend just because of how wild they were and how much their music kicks ass.  It’s definitely a thing of hardcore kids playing noise rock… so too hardcore for the noisy boys but too noisy for the HC sticklers.  I feel you.  This is my life.  Also, dudes had a solid shirt game going.  When your members can sport both classic Napalm Death t’s as well as a Garfield shirt, I mean, you gotta love that.

So good they got two photos- Exhalants
 

As much as Easy Prey kicked everyone’s butt the room truly filled up for Exhalants.  They’ve received a great deal of praise over the last year for “Atonement”, which was well deserved.  It’s a great record.  Personal preference aside, it was easy to see that most everyone present was very excited for them.  And by god, it was one of the loudest sets I’d seen in a long time, completely blowing my ears out in the best way possible.  I hadn’t seen them since before they recorded the LP so I was catching a lot of these songs for the first time and I was so satisfied and blown away by the volume and heaviness in which they were played I found myself at several points being physically pushed back a bit by the sound and excitedly ‘whooooooah!’-ing during songs. 

And, of course, everyone was very interested to see what was up with this iteration of Unsane who closed out the night.  I have seen Unsane many times in my life and they have always been amazing.  However, as the band officially split up a couple years ago one had to wonder what this was all about.  So main dude Chris Spencer found himself living in Texas and Eric Cooper, a former band mate from another project (and an arm’s length resume of other awesome bands) also lived there, as well as drummer extraordinaire Jon Syverson (Daughters) residing nearby.  Spencer had recently recovered long lost demos from early Unsane sessions and finally released them to the public.  Since the original Unsane lineup is either musically retired, or passed away recruiting these two musical talents to perform some of these old songs just for fun seems like a fitting and respectable tribute.  Not so much a reunion, just a worthy version of a thing that would be nearly impossible to do otherwise.  And they sounded perfect.  Syverson played with the intensity and determination of Vinnie Signorelli mixed effortlessly with the late Charlie Ondras chaotic swing.  Cooper already had a bad ass bass tone so he was a shoe in who energetically bounced around on stage to fill the spot otherwise commanded by Dave Curran (and Pete Shore before him).  And Chris Spencer remains Chris Spencer, just as vitriolic as ever.  They played mostly tracks from the demos record, but threw in a few other random songs I was happy to hear- “Body Bomb”, “Committed”, “Scrape”, and a couple others. 

 

Unsane, meet 'Unsane'

The next day I had mostly to myself since nothing was getting started until the evening and I was happy enough to spend it wandering around town solo.  I love towns/cities that are walkable versus just driving all the time so I must have schlepped a solid 7 or 8 miles through the day to check out a wildly overpriced record/used book store, a vegan taco joint, a great little coffee shop, and stumbled upon a massive pro-choice rally/march in progress outside city hall.  Not a bad day!  Oh, and it’s still totally summer out here as opposed to the rainy fall weather that has suddenly engulfed Portland that I am accustomed to.

People get pissed, so people march
 

However, upon the start of day 2 the lineup on this particular night had varied so much over the last few weeks that I had to basically just show up and see what was happening and go from there.  To say I was a bit let down by some of my favorite bands canceling for reasons outside their power is a bit of an understatement, but some of the replacements proved to be a good bit of fun so whatever.

Whep opened things up and played a really fun set of tight and wild sludgy rock.  There were a few others that did their thing in the mean time but I got a bit caught up in conversation with others, as well as getting some food so I missed out a bit. 

And, if I may put in an aside here, when I think of the noise rock scene and food it’s often an image of Waffle House (or other grease ball establishment with plenty of meat) chased with hard liquor or beer.  I don’t roll with any of that so I often feel like a bit of an outlier.  However, set up on the patio on the venue was a full-on vegan pop-up with some of the best food truck style dishes I’d had in awhile (this coming from a spoiled Portlander residing in the vegan capital of the USA).  Ah, noise rock, you’ve truly entered the 21^st century.  AmRep would be so disappointed in us all.  But I was a happy camper for sure.

Easy Prey don't take it easy
 

OK, back to fest stuff.  I’d also like to add the idea of this being a ‘fest’ but there were really just a couple hundred folks present total.  Like, the perfect sized crowd really.  It wasn’t a huge event.  Most everyone was masked up all night, things were safe, the promoters did a fantastic job of ensuring safety protocols were followed… it definitely put me at ease.

 

OK, so a last minute band addition happened and a duo called Honduh Daze played.  I had no idea what to expect.  Their whole shtick was ‘dealership punk’ and goofing on the Honda corporation.  It was wacky.  They both dressed in Honda uniforms, spouted off radio-ad styled skits between songs about getting free key chains, not being sellouts (yet obligated to give the sales pitches), and making everyone in the audience sign up for a lease.  The songs were blistering mindfucks of caveman beats and guitar-pedal overload noise freakouts.  It was bizarre and wonderful.  The best part:  generally if you’re going to have a gimmick-y project this ridiculous it’s contained to an in-joke between friends who play twice a year locally and that’s it.  These cats were ON TOUR.  Like, doing this every night.  How’s that for commitment to a thing?

 

Dug is a duo, formerly of Minneapolis riff-masters Buildings.  Dug is something different- droning amp worship that is typically not my thing.  I’ve listened to a bit of Dug and personally I just don’t find that sort of obsessiveness over playing a single note for several minutes with an occasional scream to be all that interesting.  But I’ll give ‘em this- watching Dug live they definitely added in some chugging Sumac-styled parts and Harvey Milk-inspired sludge, and they seemed to be having so much fun doing it.  So that really changed my mind on it.  Sure, I’m not all that keen on droning, but watching a person having a ball while playing it brings about a bit of joy in an otherwise sullen subgenre.  Good on them.

I also cannot say their name without thinking of the old The State sketch show character of the same name.

Bummer, not bummed at all
 

Alright, Bummer came up and totally deported everyone to riff country without hesitation.  I haven’t seen these dudes in a few years and my neck is still sore from too much headbanging.  It was joyous and heavy with plenty of joking on the audience, fucking around, and killing everyone with riffs.  No one survived so Season To Risk followed up and played to no one because we were all dead.  Just kidding.  I think everyone was just tired by that point and Season To Risk really did play to very few people.  I stuck around for a few songs but called it a night soon after.

 

I didn’t go to the Sunday show.  Honestly, none of the bands were of all that much interest to me, with the exception of a curiosity about Chat Pile.  Apparently the whole thing was moved to the outdoor stage and watching a couple post-fest videos of them it looked as if they killed it. 

I walked out to Spiral Diner in the morning and had one of the most pleasant outdoor breakfasts ever before leaving town, heading back to Austin and chilling out for awhile before I had to catch a flight back to Portland at like 5 in the morning on Monday.  Airlines and airports blow, but the trip overall was a whirlwind of activity and noise.  I can hang alright with that.

Here’s to hoping No Coast continues on with a quality set up and only grows in stature to an event people from all over can convene upon and enjoy!