I know I’m extremely partial to Wipes, so rather than some biased puff-up about how great they are I’ll just give you the facts. They haven’t been around long really but they’ve been prolific- a full length and split (both released by yours truly), as well as a 7”, several comp appearances, and now this new tape EP “Vacuum” showing off what they’ve been up to lately. One of the things I love about them is that they can take a very simple riff and then just beat it to death through tons of distortion and feedback to the point where you’re just as honked off as they are. All four of these new tracks move rather slow, as in focusing on the sludgy side of the band but opener “More To This” has one of their well-worn bizarrely melodic leads while the other three focus more on blunt force. They released this one locally so follow that link to the Lehigh Valley and get crushed.
But let’s cut to the big guns here: It’s already been a big year for some of my favorite noisy bands, what with both Pissed Jeans and Gouge Away releasing awesome new records. Now we got Metz entering the fray with their fifth formal outing, “Up On Gravity Hill”. What do you do when you’re as prolific as these guys and you’re this deep into your time as a band? Is it any surprise they’re trying out some new things here? On one end it’s the same Metz you know and love. On the other, they take those melodies (both in the vocals and guitars) that they regularly display under sheets of guitar scree and distortion and bring them up front. They also go in on songs that stretch out a bit more, which they will do with a lot of their fan favorites in the live setting, playing with some longer form tracks. But this is the overall cleanest-sounding Metz record to date. They’re still writing mostly the same kinds of songs, they just recorded them a bit differently to be honest. “99”, “Glass Eye”, and “Entwined” are rippers but I bet every one of these tracks will sound massive live, which I fully intend to experience when they out my way next month.
Following up on that, as in bands I’m seeing next month, Couch Slut are the kind of band where if you were to encounter them on the subway you’d be torn between feeling compelled to call a crisis line to do a wellness check on them and slowly backing off to the next train car because these people are fucked up and you don’t have time for that mess in your life right now. One their fourth full length, “You Could Do It Tonight”, I’m considering calling 911, but also compelled to watch the carnage like slowing down when passing a car wreck on the highway. Though I think members here lived in bumfuck, PA the band is basically NYC and I make that distinction because they feel like true heirs to the throne of Unsane’s NYC scum-rock crown; the kind of filthy, mean, and fucked up harshness that came from existing in the city in the 80’s. Couch Slut kind of bring that harsh unease to the present tense with stories of self-injury, bad jobs, and lots of drugs. “The Weaverville Home For Boys” is some total nightmare story that I really hope is true, or gets made into a John Carpenter movie. Crazy visuals, as always, ties this whole thing together.
On to the category of ‘follow-up’s to things I picked up on not too long ago and they already have something new out’ bands and there’s a few:
Edging dropped their hilariously titled “Concrete Cumming” EP just recently (I mean, along with the band name there’s definitely some humor there) and it’s awesome when a band can be a total force between great music, addressing some serious ideas while being engaging, and still have a bit of fun to back it all up. Their live shows look like they’re completely off the hook and musically? Well, let’s say this leaped out at me when I caught wind of them a few months back because I’m all for saxophones in punk. And this is some wild-ass saxophone punk. Sure, they toss in a more chill, slower vibe here and there like middle track “Dawn”. But by and large the songs are short, the music is fast, the vocals are howled, saxophone is wailing, and you’re flipping out or dead if you’re not. Compared to their last release I’d say they doubled down on some more harmonized vocal parts to make things a little catchier, but they still manage to teeter on the edge of chaos and ass-shaking punk rock.
If I can be as concise as possible, Vulture Feather was my biggest ‘holy shit, where did this come from’ band of last year. Granted, I came across them just shy of the new year but it still counts. Their debut LP, “Liminal Fields”, they released last spring should be on your immediate list of things to check out because it’s damn near perfect. For those who love the sound of Lungfish this is your replacement fix. Think lots of clean guitar, trance-like repetition, fantastic melodies, and wailing vocals. So now that I’m in the loop I was quick to snap up this new 10”- “Merge Now In Friendship”- they released that is three new songs (though it feels like four) and it takes a bit of different turn in terms of overall feel. “Liminal Fields” was full of shimmering, beautiful songs. The first two tracks here have more of a dark feel (despite the opening track being titled “Friendship”), and the B-side sort of continues a bit of that darkness before it breaks into it’s second half (hence the EP feeling like a total of four songs) where it turns into that familiar full and shimmering sound of their LP. It’s not exactly what I hoped for from the band, but it’s a nice placeholder until they deliver another full length.
Finally, there’s not much that’s more immediately gratifying than hardcore played super fast and angry. It’s that quick shot of adrenaline that’s just so satisfying. It’s even better when the people playing it are actually really good at their instruments and Planet On a Chain prove that once again on their newest album “Culture Of Death”. Their resume of past bands reads like a fastcore directory of royalty so you know you’re in good hands with this. The riffs are sharp, the sound is huge, the drum fills are constant and mind-boggling, and writing about records like this is super easy because there’s no deep nuance to be described. It’s fucking fast, it’s hardcore, and it will make you want to drive your car off a cliff at full speed. ‘Nuff said.
And now to a few things that are very new to me, and that I have enjoyed very much:
First off, I’m fully aware that I’m an incredibly predictable person. It serves as both a positive and a negative. On one end predictability can equal boring. On the other hand, it also makes me reliable and I know I have very good taste about certain things. So trust me when I say that the new album from DC’s Tosser, “Sheer Humanity”, is fucking great. I’m a total sucker for big, heavy 90’s guitar rock and Tosser must have taken a time machine and followed me around high school taking notes and then crafting songs based on sounds farting around in my brain all day. They take cues on tone and drawling vocals from the likes of Hum, but also energetic rock that harkens to riff-sniffers like Smile, Shift, Dino Jr, even some time-change fuckery and feedback worship you’d hear in a Helmet dirge. I think they have been a band for awhile now and have some other stuff under their belt so the real question is ‘where have I been this whole time?’
Continuing (the joke will pay off in a moment) on bands from DC, I need to preface that we all have some of those people who no matter what band they’re doing you’re going to check it out because you trust in them as musicians to give you something of value. Continuals (ba-dum-dum-pssh) are one of those bands. I know they’re not going to really ‘get out there’ per se, but they have enough bona fides in their resumes to have Dischord release their debut album (after a few singles). So Ryan Nelson (of The Most Secret Method, at one time of Beauty Pill) and Darren Zentek (of Kerosene 454, Oswego, Channels, Report Suspicious Activity, etc) are the two names here I know. Some of those bands I listed are favorites of mine of the DC realm. Continuals doesn’t really sound like them, though I’ll say there are similarities between this and some of the stuff Nelson was a part of when he was in Beauty Pill and musically it reminds me quite a bit of Zenteks project Oswego. It’s mostly relatively mellow, but there’s always cool drum stuff happening, especially with interesting arrangements and patterns. Is it what you might expect from something released on Dischord these days, that being middle-aged fellers who used to sweat it out in basements playing very loudly who now hash it out on the weekends playing interesting music at a respectable volume? Yes. Is it still good? Oh yes.
Lastly, there’s been quite a bit of fanfare around the locals in Amusement. And while they’re a new band they’re hardly ‘new’ as members have resumes the length of a telephone pole. The excitement is palpable as I caught their first show last summer but didn’t actually see much because I was crammed into a basement the size of a shoebox with like 200 other people. If this group isn’t already booked to play Fest those Floridians need to put down the Pabst and get crackin’ on ensuring this is every attendees favorite new band. So even though they will surely appeal to that crowd with their nods to stuff like Samiam and Leatherface there’s a bit of Northwest dirge in their sound too with some chunky guitars and great tones reminiscent of Seaweed. They put it all out there for ya with not one, but two different debut 7”s.
