Hey, it just ended up this way. There's a bunch of rad stuff that popped up over the last month that's going to force me to make room on the top left side of my record shelves and push everything further down the line. So yeah, check out some excellent bands (a couple of which from right here in Portland!) and they new music they're dishing out to you all.
ABANDONCY, “Pastel//Anguish”
The second full length from Abandoncy shows them exhibiting the traits of their native Kansas City emo/indie musical DNA- that Midwestern rock laid down by the likes of Season To Risk and Giants Chair but they go and make it weird. They insert an uneasy, tension-filled distress to all their songs and just a bit of chaos here and there. They’re kind of pissing in the genepool, if you know what I mean. The exceptional cover art (by NYC-based illustrator Caroline Harrison) furthers the sounds on here- tranquil, Muscha-esque backgrounds with a seemingly distressed character in the foreground. It’s kind of the sound that the band puts on display throughout the recording. In some cases it works quite well, and certainly makes them stand out as originators in their scene. Other times it gets a bit far off course, particularly on the last couple tracks on the album; at least for my tastes anyway. But if you like discomfort (and not just narcissistic gratification) with your loud and abrasive/scatterbrained rock this could be a decent place for you to start. (self-released)
ALMANAC MAN, “For Your Cause”
This is kind of a hard band to pin down because they definitely have their own sound. While that sound owes a great deal to post-hardcore rock staples like Traindodge, or even stuff like Prize Country, one would think maybe these cats are from the Midwest. But then they throw a sludgy backbone into much of their material that gives off a bit of a Northwest vibe. And atop it all, a lot of fuzzy yet melodic and clever guitar work and now any sort of geographical indicator is about as useless as a map of Antarctica on Mars. Turns out this trio hails from Denver, so there’s that. I guess if you’re in Denver you should probably seek these cats out. I’m not sure if this record qualifies as an LP or an EP… maybe, let’s say a mini-LP? You get 6 songs, but they’re all sort of long to give you a solid 26-27 minutes of music. So you tell me? Either way, it’s a good mish-mash of different sounds that work very well together, even though it may not be easily categorized, and that’s a good thing, as it makes them their own thing despite a lurking familiarity to other like-minded artists. (The Ghost Is Clear)
BITTER BRANCHES, “Your Neighbors Are Failures”
At first I had a hard time mashing Tim Singer’s one-of-a-kind abrasive stream of conscious howl with music that wasn’t trying to murder you at all times. Bitter Branches seemed to be coming from a somewhat less heavy direction and that was just weird to me. But then they did a 7” last year that brought their sound into a bit more focus and made me a believer. And now, with their first actual full length the group bring in a lot more Touch and Go/AmRep musical vibes that I feel are far more befitting the vocals than on previous recordings. They have just embraced a sort of creeping, wild energy that sounds just as unhinged as the man behind the microphone and it works to wonderful effect. From the Jesus Lizard-esque bass-drum dominance on “Circus” and tension-filled anxiety of “Solo Trip” to the Andy Coronado-style (Monorchid, Skull Kontrol) bouncy stop-start guitar work on “The Man Who Never Cries” and “Sorry, You’re Not a Winner” some of the influence is apparent and a great path to explore. While Bitter Branches are at their best (in my opinion) when they’re ripping more aggressive, faster songs, or going for a deliberate lurking sort of nervous restlessness they do step back into familiar territory of some more melodic material on the longer songs reminiscent of their first EP but just more honed and articulated into a band that has figured themselves out. (Equal Vision)
COORDINATED SUICIDES, “Frankie’s Chrysalis” EP
This Wisconsin-based group released a couple of these songs last year and I’m not sure why the significant lull between what is half this EP and all four tracks now, but whatever the case, here ya go. In all likelihood you’re probably not familiar with this band, but a few years back they had another release and this is very different in a ‘damn, they really progressed, haven’t they?’ sort of way. This new (ish?) EP combines a sound that can best be described as the unsettling screaming/singing manic heaviness of “Willpower”-era Today Is the Day mixed with some of the shoegaze-y elements that Sonic Youth would sometimes bring to the table, and then add a fuck ton of noisy sludge to the whole thing. Yeah, odd mix right? But it’s cool. I played a show with these dudes a few years ago too and they were, by far, one of the most socially awkward bands I’ve ever encountered, which is good. Bands this weird and unsettling should be strange humans as well. Check out the wild style of the first three tracks and stick around for the fourth closing track “Victorian Gift” and it’s Neurosis-styled end times apocalyptic riffs. A most interesting mix of sounds by weird dudes, it’s a win-win. (AVRCRC)
DAY JOB, “Be a Friend, Make a Friend” EP
I say ‘god damn’. If you know me you will know exactly why I absolutely fucking love this EP because it combines a couple of my favorite things in music. But while you start taking predictable guesses towards what that is let me go off for a second just to mention this is a couple of the guys from Null’s side thing so I’m clearly going to be a bit biased. Plus, you can hear some of that meditative repetitiveness here and there (particularly on “Finger Prints”). OK, did you guess why I like this? Day Job have successfully done the pairing of a lifetime- managing to extract the ear-shredding, revenge-tinged, vicious noise rock of the Unsane with the riff-centric, fun, face-melting heaviness of KARP. I mean, there’s a canyon-sized landfill full of bands that worship and attempt to emulate both these bands but very few come close and Day Job full-on succeeds. You get five songs that just start out ridiculously heavy and crazy and it does not let up one bit through the 15 or 16 minutes of this thing. It’s early in the year, but this is probably going to be my favorite EP, or demo, or whatever this year. Go listen to this right now and then listen to it again. (self-released)
DRUG CHURCH, “Hygiene”
At this point, four albums and several EPs in (I’m going to vouch for this being classified as a unit of time measurement, like ‘four score’), and going on 10 years as a band, how does Drug Church keep it interesting? I think from the get-go they never claimed to be a band attempting to re-invent the wheel. Listen to any one of their records and there is a level of consistency throughout which may not yield leaps and bounds of artistic growth, but continually pays off in the ‘fun’ department. At heart I think they’re a hardcore band as the overall tempo of their songs is fast enough, the guitars crunchy enough, and the vocal delivery (overall) barked/shouted/screamed enough to keep a steady stream of stagedivers pleased. However, the band take enough influence in bouncy post-hardcore sonic mutations and grungy riffs just to throw Hard X Core purists off the scent. I feel like it’s the band’s stock-in-trade. So while aside from a couple new effects pedals on display during various songs’ bridges and the vocal pairing between Pat Kindlon (not yelling on this song) and Husbandry’s Carina Zachary on the slower, more subdued and poppy “Premium Offer” the band pretty much offer up what you expect of them. Maybe some will see this as a shortcoming because it’s the same sort of music they’ve been giving you all this time but so what? The riffs are great, the lyrics are clever as always (“You fooled fools but that’s worthless/ Your pulse asks “what’s the purpose?”/ When tired is the entire sum/ That shit just makes you tiresome” on “Tiresome” for example), and the whole thing wraps up in under a half hour how can you complain? Just give a spin on songs like “Million Miles Of Fun”, “Piss & Quiet”, or the chugging breakdown that closes out the aforementioned “Tiresome” and try not to jump around like a dum-dum. (PureNoise)
DRY SOCKET, “Cessation” 7”
For a band that has lain dormant for the last couple of years from the live setting Dry Socket kept themselves relatively pandemic-busy. They added a second guitarist (though not on this recording I believe) and came up with a new 7”. While it’s only three songs (and under 6 minutes) the degree of ‘ripping’ that occurs here is boss level, so certainly an issue of quality over quantity is at work. The disturbing cover image immediately brings to mind the famous Warhol suicide print, but I think this is something a bit different. That striking image is made even more unnerving when opening track “Phantom Pains” starts off with a rush of feedback and noise and howling screams repeating a coda then breaks into a powerviolence clip to make it known that these are songs borne from a great deal of frustration, uncertainty, and anxiety (maybe all too familiar over these last couple years, yes?). Second track “Red” is almost just as fast as vocalist Dani Allen trades back-and-forths with bandmates alongside a fastcore beat that recalls some of Portland’s well-worn crust punk/fast hardcore tradition. Closer “Shake” has a bit more variety (fast, and faster!) within it’s overall structure and is somewhat more, for lack of a better word, ‘fun’ despite it’s dire seriousness lyrically as the chorus is repeated ad nauseum at the end to great effect. (Dropping Bombs)
HELP, “2053”
So I’m officially late to the party here. Help are a Portland punk band, and getting a snippet of their wild live show via videos is making me feel a bit stupid for not catching on earlier. However, I’m rectifying that through writing up their brand-new LP, “2053”. The band serve up short little panic attacks in the form of repetitive noise squalls, pulsing drums, and an almost stream-of-conscious vocal delivery that would come off as the ravings of a madman if it weren’t so poetic. Imagine the likes of The Fall (or for a more modern comparison, Protomartyr), but far more aggressive. It’s all short bursts of destruction behind a barking voice with lines like, “I just kicked a suicide to death. The murder was incomplete” to get you fixated upon some deep thoughts long after the song has disintegrated and rolled right into the next barrage. 10 beatings, 20-some-odd minutes, a whole days worth of manic contemplation as a result. Get Help. (Nadine Records)
