I have a complicated relationship with summer. I don't really do all that well in the heat. I get sluggish and lazy and I feel kind of gross. Also, as a fairly pale white guy with a bald head the sun tries to kill me.
But I love the long days and cooler nights, and drinking root beer on my porch, and actually experiencing sunlight (as opposed to the 6 months of the year where it's always cloudy).
This particular summer I have, so far, made the most of it despite it being hot- tons of bike rides at night, enjoying the company of friends, swimming, and catching tons of new music which has seemed to just come out of nowhere all at once. So why not read about some of it here and then enjoy your own summer.
Anyone who is the least bit familiar with the tectonic sludge of Thou will know their unyielding love 90’s alternative and grunge as evidenced by their mountain of covers of bands from said era. It should come as no surprise then that when a couple members of that band offered up this side project that it’s a big wet, sloppy mash note to the Clinton years. This most strongly resembles Hum, and of the multitude of bands that try and ape their style I’d say this group is doing a really good job of it while still finding their own voice. There’s that low end at work that helps make Thou magic sauce, but a bit more upbeat grunge-y guitar rock at work, along with a lot of shoegaze energy. There’s a lot of times where this also presents shades of the most wonderful collaboration Thou did with Emma Ruth Rundle a couple years back and harkens to songwriting in that vein. Plainly said, I’m in love with this surprise of an album. It really makes me wish it was a full time endeavor rather than a project. Perhaps some live shows are in order for the not-too-distant future? (Gilead Media)
CONSUMER CULTURE, “The Future Is a Pile Of Bodies”
Though they have already dropped some material over the last couple years Consumer Culture is pretty new to me and I gotta say, I’m really into what they’re doing. They don’t nail themselves down to a specific style, but instead seamlessly meld riffy stoner metal, hardcore-punk, and even some grinding blasts into a noisy stew that makes the 7 tracks on this 15 minute slab of wax an almost perfect amount of material that satiates while piquing my curiosity for more. The opening track, “Pile Of Bodies” is the riffiest of the bunch here and lays a great foundation for what’s follow which is primarily faster, and more pissed off, culminating in the 19 second scorcher “Liars”. From there they begin to head back in a rocking, riff-oriented mode that closes with “Wants and Needs”. The record takes a wonderful arc, slowly moving into more chaotic territory before reeling you back in, all the while laying down screeds against your usual suspects of villainy- the man, working dumb jobs for the man, exploitation by the man, you know the drill. If the awesome cover art doesn’t make that clear perhaps the bands very obvious name will. Whatever the case, you should probably get listening to this right away. It’s 15 minutes, so make sure you’re doing so while on the clock. Maybe listen 2 or 3 times while you’re at it. (The Ghost Is Clear)
DEMONS, “Under the Western Heel”
Whereas this Virginia bands last EP, “Swallow” was a quick burst of raging, violent and noisy hardcore, their latest full length harkens back a bit to their initial LP they released a couple years before that. By that I mean to say they bring back more of the Converge-isms, and some of the moshy metallic punishment akin to Every Time I Die, particularly in some of the more elaborate and descriptive lyrical prose. It’s not to say this doesn’t make for a crushing collection of songs, but I suppose I felt a bit more shock with the blitzkrieg immediacy of that last EP. These are, for the most part, much longer songs than they have displayed before and at times it works well, other times I’m just looking to get my skull caved in through a quick audio hammering ya know? Still, between “Eternal Shithead” and “Albatross” I get my wish as they each clock in at under two minutes, while opener “Husk” just crosses that mark but rips twice as hard. Later on, “By the Blood” has the band trying their damnedest to grasp at that Unsane-level of saltiness. “Man- The Herald Of His Own Condemnation” might be kind of a low point as it has a sort of rappy cadence in the vocals that comes off a bit weird and out of place for this band. My preference is on the fast and brutal with this group but I’m not gonna knock them for doing other variations on musical ass-beating exceptionally well. (Knife Hits/ The Ghost Is Clear)
END REIGN, “The Way Of All Flesh Is Decay”
Imagine if you could basically make a wish list of all your favorite musicians, put them in a room together, and make a record. Pretty awesome fantasy right? So Dom from A389/Integrity/Pulling Teeth/all sorts of stuff basically did just that with End Reign. It doesn’t hurt that he’s probably one of the most shredding guitarists in underground music and appears to have the work ethic of a 1900’s coal miner. Dude seriously needs to be checked on for some Tyler Durden-level psychosis because I’m not sure if he ever sleeps. So anyway, he went and wrote a bunch of thrashy heavy fuckin’ metal, which you kind of expect from the guy anyway, and enlisted Mike Score from All Out War to sing, Adam Jarvis from Misery Index and Pig Destroyer to play drums, Art Legere from friggin’ Bloodlet to play bass, and Sebastian from Exhumed/Noisem to double up on the shredding. While supergroups can often be a mess of big personalities playing what they want to play and lacking cohesion, this group seems more about one person’s vision and having the most competent players imaginable to make it reality. So while I’d love to hear some weird jazzy/sludgy Bloodlet bass parts, or Pig Destroyer chaotic blast beats, it’s not really what was planned here. The result is more of what you’d imagine is probably playing in Dom’s head all the time. (Relapse)
GRAF ORLOCK, “End Credits” 7”
They’re finally calling it a day. 20 years, a bunch of records, and endless samples later Graf Orlock are giving us their final piece of audio violence, packed into a 7” record with partially burned covers. It wouldn’t be them if they didn’t put some elaborate thought into the presentation of their record because they always do and I applaud them for it. Half the fun of checking out any Graf record is catching the samples, attempting to parse the lyrics (AKA, chopped up movie dialogue), and if it isn’t immediately apparent, catching what movie they’re referencing in each song. On this final outing they skewer “Children Of Men”, “Dredd”, “Mad Max”, “Snowpiercer” and “Waterworld”. I can definitely get behind 3 of those 5 movies, all of which are tied together through their own individual vision of an apocalyptic future. Musically though? It’s always a good time- thrashing hardcore/sometimes grind with plenty of wild breakdowns and super fast, ultra pissed mania. Never a disappointment. And after 20 years of crazy shows, totally over-the-top looking records (some of the best packaging on all their records of any band ever), and a true dedication to a theme, Graf are closing out the cineplex and this ain’t a bad way to go out. See you at the movies. (Vitriol)
JAYE JAYLE, “Don’t Let Your Love Life Get You Down”
The latest full length from Jaye Jayle (AKA Evan Patterson of Young Widows with various collaborators) continues his path of dusty Americana and folk, mixed with a variety of other influences. On the last outing I had from them, “No Trail…” it was a smorgasbord of styles from krautrock to jazz to atmospheric rock that somehow all worked. Things feel a bit more reined in this time around as all the songs have a slower pace, stick to a rather folksy feel, but put a good deal of emphasis on synths to add a great amount of texture. At times the lush synths make things sound like they could be part of the Twin Peaks soundtrack (“Waiting For the Life”), other times it follows a catchy song structure on “Black Diamonds and Bad Apples” (which repeats the album title as the chorus), or it’s a simple vocal cadence throughout that makes the opening track, “Warm Blood and Honey” sound like a Fleet Foxes outtake. Or, in the case of closing track “When We Are Dogs” it’s a slow thump amongst a swirling chaos of saxophone. All in all, it’s another effort from Jaye Jayle that takes some time to fully appreciate, and it’s a slow burn, but it’s a cool effort you’ll enjoy. (Pelagic Records)
LACING, “Never”
Despite being a scant 5 songs, this new record from Lacing comes in at a solid 30 minutes so that ought to let you know you’re getting an ample amount of music for your buck. And if shoegaze stuff is your drug of choice than you’ll probably be blissfully entertained by the big atmosphere Lacing bring forth. But, ya know, it’s a thing now. Lots of bands do it. So what does this band do to separate themselves from the horde out there already filling up stage space with gigantic pedalboards? Well, I guess Lacing’s trick is to play all pretty and slow and just lay on the atmosphere really thick. There’s plenty of British school of gaze at play and to be perfectly honest, I find a lot of that to get a little boring after awhile. And then just when you think maybe the song is going nowhere, or has been doing the same thing for ten minutes, they hit every available pedal all at once and you get a wall full of noise, laser sounds, bells, whistles, clangs, whatever. So for the head-in-the-clouds types you’ll have your trip ruined at about the 5 minute mark. The rest of us who enjoy the chaos just need to be patient for it to eventually arrive. (Handstand / Bummer)
LIFEGUARD, “Dressed In Trenches”
It’s pretty exciting when you hear a new band you were otherwise unfamiliar with doing a really creative and unique thing with their music that evokes some familiar sounds but in a way that is very much their own thing. It makes it sound as if these cats have been at this for awhile and developed an identity very much their own. It’s even more impressive that everyone in this band looks as if they’ve just passed their driver’s test (or are still practicing). And so Lifeguard premieres their new EP (and first for Matador) for eager listeners such as myself. While only 5 songs (one of which being fairly short and almost an interlude of sorts) it displays a great breadth of creativity between jangling, clanging guitars, prominent bass leads and hypnotic, almost spoken, vocals. The whole collection is somewhere between Jawbox’s talent for balancing tunefulness with chaos, Unwound’s otherworldly beauty amongst audio annihilation, and Sonic Youth’s experimentation with anything involving an amplifier and a guitar. It’s extremely promising and I, for one, am excited to see what else they come up with. If you grab the LP version of this it also includes their previous EP tacked on to the B-side where you can hear the band still figuring things out but grasping at a sound to call their own. (Matador Records)
OMEN ASTRA, “The End Of Everything”
This is half something I’m way into, and half not-entirely-my-thing. So their self-description I’d say is pretty spot on: a volatile mixture of bands like Neurosis, Sumac, Cave-In, Gojira, Cave-In, and Disembodied. So yeah, most of this is super heavy, sludgy, filled with giant, crushing riffs and I’m all good with that. It’s done well. Sure, thousands of other bands have done it; this is just done exceptionally well, so no complaints. There are some more melodic/spacey/atmospheric parts with singing that don’t really shake my spray can. Again, not to say it’s not executed well, but I’m a very hard sell for singing parts in crazy heavy metal and I just don’t feel those bits. They’re good for breaking up the songs from being nothing but full-on assault all the way through but I’ll personally take the beatings. Also, I think there were a couple other players on this record, but for the most part it’s the passion project of Canadian hardcore lifer Dave Buschemeyer, who has been in like a million bands over the last three decades so he’s no slouch I tell ya. Also, these are all really long songs, so ya got to really soak it in. “Glory To the Crown” may make the best use of some of that alternating singing/melodic-meets-ultra heavy as it incorporates some unique percussive elements before transitioning to a repeated breakdown that registers on the Richter scale. (Protagonist / Hypaethral)
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