Got a bit of variety here for you all. A couple big things dropped that I'm sure you've already listened to repeatedly and a couple other things that you might not know about and that's always the point here. Get into new shit. I got nothing else witty to impart. Buy some records and hope that you get them someday.
CERCE, “Cowboy Music”
This was a bit of a surprise because I thought this
Boston-area band had split up several years ago. Cerce was a young band that had a bit of a burst back about
10 years ago and then sort of fizzled away almost as quickly as they popped up. They mixed short, raging riff-fueled
hardcore punk that leaned slightly metallic but more on the fastcore side with
vocals that ranged from sort of bratty to screaming bloody murder. They had a well-received seven inch,
and then a couple follow up demos, toured regionally, and then split up. However, it seems that now they’re sort
of an on-again, off-again thing as one of the members is an engineer at God
City, thus making studio access to exercise any new and deranged ideas
considerably easier I can imagine.
So, seemingly out of nowhere, “Cowboy Music” arrives a few years later and
tosses out 11 new tracks of material that sounds pretty similar to what the
band had been doing from the jump.
The vocals this time around lean less on all-out screaming and stick to
mostly the shouted/bratty side, while lyrically it appears to be a bit more fun
and not as deadly serious as past stuff, though familiar topics from past
releases revolving around manipulation, coercion, and relationship abuse still
linger in certain songs. Musically
the band is on point as ever and things sound considerably better, given
guitarist Zach Weeks growing expertise within the studio they’re able to get a
worthy recording to adequately match the harsh musical destruction going
on. This was a nice surprise. (self-released)
DUMMY, “Mandatory Enjoyment”
This is such a nice breath of fresh air to listen to outside
of the usual instrument abuse, screaming and yelling I’m generally harming my
ears with. Dummy hail from the LA
area and play some very relaxed and breezy indie rock that incorporates a lot
of different elements into their sonic stew. Much of it has a very Stereolab feel to it, while the end of
the record even reminds me of early Tortoise (probably because of the
electronic stuff paired with what I think is a vibraphone?). Whatever the case, it sounds really
cool. Throughout the record you
get back and forth vocals, both male and female, that are light and airy
amongst music that is frequently mellow, but generally has an upbeat tempo,
sometimes motorik, sometimes relaxed.
A lot of this sounds like what a potential commercial in the 70’s trying
to imagine a future technological utopia would commission for background music-
“just write us peaceful future music that still shows how bold mankind can be!”
Their last record displayed a similar course, but the experimentation with
various sounds and instruments made it a bit less consistent. I feel like this record achieves
various experimentation while still sounding like the same band throughout its
dozen tracks. (Trouble In Mind)
EVERY TIME I DIE, “Radical”
I understand that for a very prolific band like Every Time I
Die waiting four years to release a new album must have been maddening. And instead of tearing up stages across
the world pretty much all the time, not playing a single show for well over a year
probably led to an added level of Jack Torrence staring out into a wintery
landscape with an axe and a head full of bad ideas sort of depravity. So after this uncommon dry spell we get
what could have probably been two full albums from the band in one. “Radical”, with artwork as ugly as it
gets (80’s Trapper Keeper enthusiasts will be stoked), is 16 full-on tracks of
insanity from Buffalo’s finest purveyors of metallic hardcore. Personally, it’s a bit too much for
me. Every Time I Die has never shied
away from cramming a shit ton of ideas and riffs into a single song, along with
vocalist Keith Buckley’s very wordy diatribes. A full album of it tends to be almost overwhelming in it’s
own right, but they typically make it work. I think here 16 songs might be just a bit too much to
handle. It’s not to say they
haven’t made another record of wild music and immensely impressive
musicianship. Fans will certainly
be more than satisfied. It’s just
a bit too filling for me personally.
They could have shaved off a few tracks, slapped them on a separate EP,
and all would be awesome. And the
tracks where they’re completely slaying it? Oh, they’re fucking slaying it. Buckley’s lyrics are possibly some of the most intense he’s
ever written and I suppose if you’ve been through the wringer over the last
couple years like our man has I’d be pretty bitter and angry too. It’s a whole lot of ‘everything is
awful’ and I’m particularly taken with the line “try loving man while fucking
hating mankind” from “Desperate Pleasures”, one of the best on the record. That song, along with “A Colossal
Wreck” and “All This and War”, make a trifecta of the records most bruising
moments. However, later on in the
record, particularly the last couple songs, it seems like a lot of ideas are
being thrown into the stew and not exactly coming out entirely successful. Or hell, maybe I’m just exhausted by
that point. The soundtrack to
intentionally crashing your car into a fireworks factory. (Epitaph)
OVLOV, “Buds”
It’s been a few years since we heard from Ovlov. They have already put out a couple
wonderful loud and fuzzy records and on “Buds” that trend continues. Quite honestly if you have enjoyed the
band in the past you will be exceptionally pleased by this one as well, though
I personally feel as if it’s a bit short compared to other outings. But that’s a minor gripe.
Each of the 8 tracks here are full of plaintive melodies, slacker-sung
vocals, and giant, fuzzy bursts of distortion in each song. If anything, the band just has an even
better command of their abilities than in the past and it shows on the
under-two-minute opener “Baby Shea” as they rip right into things. “Eat More” follows up with a mid-tempo
beat and light, airy guitars as main dude Steve Hartlett sings with background
accompaniment by Alex Gehring, who offers up some spooky crooning later on as
the guitars enter full-on distortion and scream away. But I think my overall favorite track might be later on with
“Cheer Up, Chihiro!” as it rumbles along with a heavy stoner sort of vibe for
much of the song, has a big ‘ol fat chorus riff, and then breaks off out of
nowhere into a wild saxophone solo about ¾ of the way through the song… and I’m a sucker for saxophones in a
non-ska context. Yeah, I
definitely love what they’re doing here.
You could say I Ov-love it.
Get it? If you like Dino Jr
but a bit more upbeat, crossed with a little Hum if they were more relaxed and
less tone-obsessed you’d find Ovlov waiting in that space. (Exploding In Sound)
STRESS, “Across America”
My pals Tyler Farren and Matt Werts have been playing
together in a million different bands over the last twenty years or so. They’re always up to something and many
of those bands they switch duties over who does what and the results are always
entertaining. For the last few
years they have been doing a band called Stress and it’s very rooted in early
80’s hardcore. It’s lo-fi
sounding, raw, short, fast ridiculous songs that sound like everything is about
to fall apart or blow up at any moment.
Like if any song actually made it past the two minute mark (one track
just squeaks by) the whole thing might just explode. So here you have it.
But I enjoy the fact that lyrically this is more pondering and being
kind of wistful in a way, despite that Matt’s voice sounding like he’s being
dragged by wolves. Tracks like
“Yep”, “Nope”, “Apple” and “Trains” have this simple kind of prose to them but it’s
really engaging and totally out-of-character for what you’d expect things to
sound like given the violent nature of the music. You even get some interludes of the sounds of a trainyard
just to make you think about becoming a hobo. (Sore Ear Collective)
WHAT’S THE FURTHEST PLACE FROM HERE #1 by Matt Rosenberg and
Tyler Boss
I don’t frequently do write ups on comics unless I think
it’s really something worth adding to a bunch of yammering about records. But I think this is an apt addition
because not only is this team responsible for some other wonderful comics that
give a lot of wink and nods to punk within their stories, but as some of you
may have heard this series is offering limited split 7”s with each issue with
musicians and bands giving exclusive tracks. It’s not some hipster-come-lately gimmicky thing
either. Writer Matt Rosenberg used
to run Red Leader Records back in the aughts and booked numerous punk shows in
the NYC area before breaking into comics.
I don’t know Tyler Boss’ backstory but I absolutely love his art, which
has a quality lying somewhere between Jamie Hernandez and Tim Sale. But on to the book. What’s happening here? Well, there’s not a ton of info going
into this first issue, but it seems it’s a sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland
ordeal free of adults. Gangs of
teenagers have sectioned off into their own turfs and our main characters are
holed up in an old record store as their base of operations. How convenient for the end times! So the obvious backgrounds of punk posters
adorn their home base as they duke it out with a rival gang sporting pig masks
due to accusations of a member trespassing on the other’s turf. One of their own goes missing after this
ordeal and that’s where things are left.
If you were lucky enough to score a record with this one (it was quite
limited as I understand it) you are treated to Blake Schwarzenbach on one side
and Joyce Manor on the other. Next
issue will be Screaming Females tearing it up with Worriers. So yeah, stories featuring punk. Heck, the title of this issue even comes
from a Silent Majority album. (Image)
WIPES, “Dumpster” b/w “You’re the Boss” 7”
Wipes is a new band that came to be when two members of the
Allentown-based crushers in Tile decided to keep some momentum going when their
guitarist began to have more grown-up responsibilities happen. So the other two guys hooked up with
the person who recorded/engineered all the Tile material, who happens to be a
pretty good guitarist as well!
Tile have been one of my favorite bands over the last several years as their
records absolutely bury listeners under mountains of feedback, noise, riffs,
and plenty of agitated shouting.
It’s truly glorious stuff.
What their incarnation as Wipes bring to the table is more of the same,
but with a bit more playing around with some guitar effects, perhaps even a
weird little melody here and there.
It makes for great listening and a slightly different approach than the
non-stop shellshock Tile heaves at listeners. Now I may be kind of wasting your time with this review
since this particular record is a two song lathe cut that they only made just
over 50 copies. So unless you got
in on this I’m pretty certain you won’t find a physical copy available
anywhere. But will these songs pop
up online? Who’s to say. At the very least you can check out
their bandcamp and hear stuff not on this record for yourself and then keep
your ear to the ground for whatever sort of craziness they cook up next. (LimitedAppeal)
