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)
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