This month is all about either very well-known bands presenting their latest, or bands who should be really well-known offering incredible new work…. for the most part anyway. It’s really been quite a stellar year for new music so far but I’m starting to think this last month has presented some of the most impressive stuff I’ve come across so far. Literally everything on this month’s listening platter is a true gem. And it’s all super varied and wild stuff. So here we go…
And on the 26th year (since their last record) the noise rock Jeebus arose from the grave to give us a new album. So, of course, THE JESUS LIZARD is going to be the lead review here. Sure, they’ve come out of retirement on a few occasions to bless us all with live shows (which, in their case, is just as good as, if not better, than their albums). But far be it from any one’s minds that they actually felt the need to write more music. Well, in my humble opinion, “Rack” picks up essentially right where their last proper album “Shot” left off. It’s as if the rest of us took a very long nap and they just kept writing. I’ve always personally been more of a fan of frontman David Yow howling and grumbling incoherently like he did on many of their classic LPs from the early 90’s because it just sounds so fucked up. But I respect that he made a conscious effort before “Shot” was recorded to clean up his vocals a bit, enunciate, and keep in time with the rest of the band and that effort continues here. Thee’s still a good dose of howling and hollering to be found, of course. My favorite tracks on the record close out the A-side and open the B-side: the off-the-wall and chaotic “Lord Godiva” and the slower and thought-out “Alexis Feels Sick”. They’re two of the bands strongest songs in…. well, at least a quarter century! But honestly, everything here is a worthy effort with several other tracks being exceptionally strong too. It’s pretty wild to think a band that has basically not existed for over 20 years can come back this strong as if they never stopped playing together.
I’ve been a casual listener of the extremely non-casual UNIFORM for years now, and it wasn’t until last week that I finally saw them live (which was awesome by the way), so some things jumped out at me immediately when I checked out their latest LP, “American Standard”. First off, these are long songs. The first track is over 20 minutes, which is definitely out of the norm for the band. Secondly, this sounds so massive compared to their other releases and leans more into Swans and metal territory rather than the more ‘industrial’ tag they were branded with early on. I didn’t catch any of the splits and collabs they’ve done in the last few years, but as a band this seems just like a natural progression of getting better at what they do both from a songwriting and recording quality perspective. I don’t particularly care for some of the more black metal elements they added but they make it fit into their sound with ease and it only appears in two areas. What’s very present is the crushing repetition and raw emotion on display that’s captured with clarity and volume. It’s almost overwhelming in a good way and the creative use of ‘melodies’, leads, and minor use of synths to push their sludgy and weighty riffs into something original is awesome; in particular on “This Is Not a Prayer”, definitely my favorite track on the record.
Next, I had the distinct privilege of hearing the new record from KAL MARKS months ago and immediately thought that it was somehow more catchy and pop-oriented than their previous efforts. I was slightly confused, but I decided after a couple listens to let it rest and re-visit again around when they actually released it. So my thinking on “Wasteland Baby”, the bands fourth or fifth full-length at this point, is a little more clear: they have simply managed to develop many of their eccentricities with noise, bizarre sound effects, and Carl Shane’s distinct yowl into more honed songcraft. There’s not as much of the extremes between their ‘too heavy for indie rock, too indie and weird for heavy music’ that were at the core of “Universal Care” or “My Name Is Hell”. But believe me, I love that aspect of the band and it’s a big reason I’ve become a huge fan over the last few years. On this new one they smooth that out a bit and the heavier moments (such as the sludgy ending of “Any Way it Goes”) blend in more with the catchier moments, as opposed to being one-or-the-other. On a few songs it makes for a rather new experience for the band, at least to my ears, but there are other moments where it just works wonderfully like on “A Functional Earth”, “Midnight” and the closing title track. A little less screaming/shouting, but just as much howling and lyrics about the daily drudgeries of life, banal existence of debt, groceries, and encroaching apocalypse while throwing in some great “Mad Max” lines while they’re at it. I personally took way too long to get into this band so if you still haven’t checked them out don’t be like me, just get in on this.
One of the great surprises (of which there were several) of this year’s Caterwaul Fest back in May was catching the locals in SCRUNCHIES tear up the microscopic indoor stage at Palmers. They’ve been cutting their teeth in various dives for quite awhile I discovered and they were on the cusp of delivering their third LP, “Colossal”, at the time I saw them. So since then I’ve been anticipating this record and it’s no let down. As a trio they utilize every bit of distortion, melody, harmonized vocals, and all out rock to land somewhere in the early 90’s Dischord riot grrl arena (think Slant 6, Fire Party) with something a bit more aggressive, though not quite as steamrolling as fellow Minneapolitans Babes In Toyland. Hell, just consider those aforementioned references and update it to 2024 with a strong nod to catchy and melodic grungy punk of the past and you’re golden. This is an excellent listen and fuckin’ rocks from start to finish. I could put “Generator” on repeat all day and not get tired of it.
I don’t often make a point of beginning a review with the way a record looks (though it certainly is important) I’ll start things off with saying this is one of the loveliest-looking records I’ve seen all year, a real treat to the eyes. And secondly, this is definitely something way out of my wheelhouse, but I enjoy it nonetheless. I’m speaking of the new record from DUMMY. “Free Energy” takes things even further into dream pop, shoegaze, experimental electronic and pop soundscapes, as well as a few other descriptors outside of my pay grade. In a sense they’re all over the place and they really went for it in terms of expanding their own horizons as a band. While their previous material certainly resided in the more pop end of shoegaze with some coloring outside the lines this one expands on those inklings and puts them out in front and it pays off as a successful accomplishment. I’m not saying I’m going to be listening to this non-stop or anything, but I’m certainly impressed with how they’ve thrown in a variety of interesting sounds, textures, and hooks and made it work. Your best bet is to listen to this on some nice headphones for a true experience. It’s pretty obvious they were aiming for that too with the deft attention to how they could use the studio as an added instrument.
But now I’m going to reflect on something from the past, brought back up to the present: For such an insular and hyper-local band almost entirely relegated to Detroit-area lore THOUGHTS OF IONESCO were one of the most intense live bands you could ever witness in the late 90’s. I had the good fortune to see them once at the annual Michigan Fest in ’99, not too long before they imploded, and it still sticks in my memory as one of the most visceral and mind-blowing sets I’ve ever seen and that was probably one of their better shows I’d guess. They have a pretty good clutch of material for you to explore and it’s all fantastic. They did a brief reunion a few years back, released a very good EP, and did a handful of shows around it and then once again closed up shop. “Live Detroit” documents one of those shows (yet just released now) and they sound just as killer on this as when I bore witness, or on any of their records. They run through the songs most fans know of, spread across several of their records. To give an idea of what you’re in for with Ionesco is absolutely gut-wrenching emotional catharsis via late-era Black Flags sludgy/jazzy head trip, channeled through seismic Crowbar-sized riffs, and Voivod’s bizarre arithmetic. There is not a single moment on here bereft of tension, even as the band is slithering through freeform jazzy segues; you feel like they could strike at any moment. But rest assured, most of this is volume, power, and emotional bloodletting of the heaviest variety and it’s in your best interest to explore any and all Ionesco.
Finally, the Australian duo of PARTY DOZEN made a name for themselves when on their last record they got Nick Cave to guest on a track, which helped to shine a much-deserved spotlight on them and their super bizarre, wild skronk rock. Actually, I have no idea how to classify them. It’s mostly instrumental music, with just a drummer and a saxophone player. But they add in sampled sounds and beats, and you’ll hear guitar here and there, but for all I know it’s the saxophone being run through various effects pedals. Whatever the case, it all sounds gnarly. So, they keep it going on their third LP, the wonderfully titled, “Crime In Australia”. Everything from chaotic and sludgy punk, to psychedelic trip-outs, to dance-y rippers is all filtered through sax and drums and the various other sounds/accompaniments to make it all work. The best examples of this wild mish-mash working together are on the back-to-back “Judge Hammer” and “Bad News Department”, the first with it’s sleazy and swampy rhythm, the next having an almost motorik/new wave that breaks out in squalls of fuzzed-out horn blasting. And they then follow those harsher songs with “The Righteous Front’, which sounds like it could be an early DJ Shadow construction. Give these Aussies a shot. It’s a varied collection, but trust me, it works on some weird level.
