HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR041- DIALYSIS, "Pretty Men"

I didn’t tell the rest of my band this, but when we started writing for this record I was already planning on moving to a different city.  We were maybe 4-5 songs into writing when I finally settled on a decision.  But that move was probably 9-10 months away.  So I was fairly determined to do some big things with the band before leaving town.  It wasn’t really until the record was out that I broke the news that I’d be moving and so we played a bunch of shows all over the place because I wanted to squeeze out as much time playing with these guys as I could before the notion of doing that became a big question mark.

So in a lot of ways this record is very personal to me.  I had a great deal of input in regards to the music, themes, direction, and artwork; definitely more than I’d had in any other band I’d been in.  I’m really proud of how it came together and how we presented it.  I tried a lot of new things with this, as a band we tried a bunch of new stuff and it was a lot of fun writing it and playing these songs out.

The recording was supposed to take place in Buffalo with Doug White at Watchmen Studios in January of 2017 but right before we were supposed to go up there John caught the flu and it knocked him out for a solid week.  I had already put the record on track to be out by late Spring so we could tour around it, so we had to find a recording alternative and quick.  Within a week or two John’s brother Eric came to the rescue and secured a couple days for us at a very familiar spot- Moresound Studios.  Eric is a solid recording engineer in his own right and has recorded all of us in different bands in the past.  So we got in, nailed the thing in two days, mixed on a third day, and then it was ready.

In regards to the art, I have easily never been more impressed with a record cover that I was involved with.  It is my favorite piece of art for any record I’ve been on and that’s all due to Ryan Besch, AKA Your Cinema.  I’d seen his work online and began following him obsessively.  When I got in contact about doing some Dialysis art and sent him some rough concepts he was on board.  As it turns out he’s a Buffalo, NY native, was probably hanging around punk shows the same time as I was when I lived there, and even played in a band that I more than likely booked on at least one occasion.  Needless to say, it was a good fit and he did an amazing job.  The rest of the art I took care of and was pleased with how things turned out.  Our friend Chris Reilly took some very staged pictures that may not resonate as well these days what with mass shootings and all, but honestly I was going for some weird spy sort of thing.  I think it’s really unique and amusing. 

So since this is a very personal record for me I decided to do a song-by-song breakdown of the record rather than any sort of interview thing.  Dialysis, “Pretty Men” is a very satisfying listen for me, which is rather tough for any person involved in music to say.  We’re all our own worst critics.  But I enjoy this one.  Oh, and since moving in October 2017 Dialysis has played at least 10 shows.  Sure, most of them have been in the Northeast when I go back to visit.  But I got the guys to come out the Northwest for 4 shows in May 2019 and it was pretty much the best trip ever.  So, yeah, we’re still a band because it’s fun.  Here’s the self-involved thing about the record:

PRETTY MEN:  I pretty much wrote this one.  John and Matt came up with the ending by just bullshitting around and I gave them the framework for the arrangement, citing “Arctic” by 108 as the basis.  The hang-up signal sample is lifted from Cherubs doing the same thing on “Stag Party”.  The opening noise bit we wanted to aim for the same opening as “100%” by Sonic Youth, but far more wild.  The saxophone part I wanted to shoot for Morphine, “Honey White” by just hammering on that one key.  The meat of the song I wrote with that guitar riff and the pick slide in the chorus.  Just going for a ripping hardcore song with a ton of random reference points.  My favorite opener we have and a diatribe that just because men may run the world look at all the horrible shit that has resulted because of that.  “There’s no pretty men.”  Matt’s joke of an album title once again becomes fodder for my weird brain.

HARD SHAPES:  Another bullshitting thing that Matt and John did that I encouraged them to roll with.  Matt’s drumming in the opening sounds like “Burster” from All Else Failed, but I’m pretty sure Matt has never heard that band.  The rest is total Gravity Records/Sonny Kay/VSS/Angelhair worship.  I even did the vocal effect for it based on Sonny Kay’s vocal style and wrote lyrics in the vein of something that could be on one of his records.  A good second track, 1-2 punch of the weirder stuff we do.  I love how it works out.

THAT’S WHEN I REACH FOR MY EVOLVER:  I’d had this song title in my back pocket for a year or two before it had lyrics and music.  I just love Mission Of Burma.  The rest is just standard Dialysis fare though.  This was written fairly early in the process of creating the record.  I think I helped arrange the simplicity of the main riff, encouraging John to keep it just these short bursts of guitar while Matt just blasted away.  Also, we really wanted to use a George Carlin sample somewhere and this fit pretty well.

MESSAGE TO MYSELF, MYSELF:  The whole time we were writing we were trying to think of a running theme of interludes, or skits, for the record.  I wanted something as good as both De La Soul’s “3 Feet high and Rising” and “…Is Dead”, mixed with some of the more absurd, genre-crossing insanity found on Spazz records.  Plus, we needed to somehow exploit Matt’s endless stream of weird voices and characters he does.  So it became answering machine messages that don’t tie together necessarily, aside from being messages.  I think it was a Gangstarr track that was all answering machine messages that finally sealed it for me as the thing to do.  So this one, which I neglected to list in the proper track order, has Matt’s weirdo ‘Myself’ persona doing whatever it is that makes us laugh for no good reason.

ISHKABIBBLE:  I just really like that word.  So I had to build lyrics around it somehow.  I think I first came across the word in an Al Columbia comic maybe?  Messed around with the sax bit written for it after John came up with the main riff.  To me it sounded like an Every Time I Die bit but John pointed out that it was basically Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream”.

QUEST FOR INFINITY:  We brought this back from our first demo.  It’s very progg-y to me, but that’s all Matt’s insane drumming.  He owns this one.

MASS DIE OFF ENGAGE:  I wanted to have one of those songs where almost every other line is the chorus, but “Mass die off engage” is the best I could come up with.  Still, it’s a decent Dialysis standard.  Short, easy, mean.  Another early one in the writing process.

MAYBE HIS NAME IS A KILLING WORD:  The title is a Venture Brothers quote that is referencing “Dune”.  It’s a reference within a reference.  Feel free to hate me at any point, but I love doing shit like that.  We finished this right before we went to record and have never played it live.  I recall John came in with this punk/melodic thing, which I’m usually lukewarm to.  But it works and I dig it.  Plus, it’s another title I was itching to use.  Matt knows how to work in a good punk beat and he added these awesome cymbal catches at the end, which solidified my opinion that it was a keeper.  I always wanted to add one of those Ramones-esque “Hey! Hey! Hey!” things and I found an opening for that here and went for it.

COLONY COLLAPSE:  This was written while I was out of town somewhere.  I come back and they have this Quicksand sort of clunky post-hardcore thing written that is totally out of line for Dialysis stuff.  I couldn’t think of lyrics for it so I thought it would make a good side A closer as an instrumental, as well as a good dumping ground for saxophone stuff (which John claims sounds like the Inspector Gadget theme) and a ton of samples I wanted to use.  The saxophone is questionably OK in my opinion.  When we mixed this John was zooted on flu medication and completely lost his shit when the samples of bees were incredibly loud and dominating the mix.  We reined it in and added a couple little bits from “Raising Arizona”, one of my favorite movies ever.

 Press photo straight out of our day jobs as secret government agents

XOXOUXO:  We needed a monster to open up the B-side.  I wrote a total Iron Lung rip off to do this.  It’s total Iron Lung worship.  I borrowed a Clutch lyric too.  Thankfully, Matt added some insane drumming to keep it from being complete copyright infringement and makes it a bit more our thing.  In the studio they altered the ending to add a very Sepultura, “Territory” mosh part that worked out great.  Matt threw in an Ed Gein drum part during the first break.  I lifted a line from Coalesce, “Simulcast” at the end.

ANDREW WEIGHS IN:  A few years back I went to a very metal-leaning Big Day In Fest in Ithaca.  John wanted to go but he bailed.  While there Andrew from Tombs/Bleak/Twin Lords approached me and wondered why John wasn’t present.  He pretty much got mad because he didn’t show so he wanted me to record a video of him chewing John out and send it to him.  We thought it was so funny we felt we needed to use it on the record and not tell him.

HEADLINES IN RED:  John came in with this ripping thrash riff.  I came up with the simple chorus riff.  The guys added the black metal style thing at the end.  Usually I’d put the kibosh on that, but in this case the song was so fast, thrashy, and violent it worked to just up the ante for the finish.  The lyrics were written right after I’d read “Trust Me I’m Lying” about media influence and sensationalized news.  Then, a few months later, ‘fake news’ enters the lexicon in a way meant to discredit legitimate news.  However, the lyrics I wrote are meant to attack sensationalized news that uses ‘might’, ‘possibly’, and ‘maybe’ to hype up headlines where the actual story is just hyperbole.  Vocal/lyrical lifts:  Rob Fish’s vocal inflection from 108 “Opposition” on the line, “Common sense cannibalism”.  The chorus is a direct quote/lift from Drive Like Jehu’s “Super Unison”.

 I present to you the most ridiculous test press cover of any I've ever made

GREASING THE WHEELS OF SALVATION:  There were some songs leftover from my old band No Idols that we never recorded.  Some of the lyrics and titles were good so I finally gave them a home.  The music is completely different.  John wrote the track, which is slow for Dialysis.  Big Turmoil influence here, at least we thought so.  It’s slow, moshy, and chaotic.  I gave him some direction for the pause in the middle and at the end for just the vocals and feedback.

MESSAGE FROM THE BEATBOX:  We are also obsessed with using samples from “Police Academy” (see the opening of “Mass Die Off Engage”) and hip-hop (see Spazz’s use of grimey hip-hop samples for chaotic effect).  I took the bit from Jonesy and turned it into an answering machine message.

BACTERIAL MIND:  Another unused No Idols title/lyrics, influenced by the Deadguy school of fuck work, kill your boss kind of stuff.  I’m pretty sure this song went through a bunch of alterations before we settled on a very Slayer-esque thrash thing that fit pretty well into our normal schtick.

CANCELLATION PRIZE:  I had a super suicidal moment before writing this.  That’s tough to say.  I wouldn’t say I have depression issues, however, living in a place that totally comes with Seasonal Affect Disorder, plummeting Vitamin D levels, and an almost constant dark cloud in the sky it’s tough to dodge that bullet.  Anyway, I thought I should document it so I know to keep myself in check if need be.  So I wrote the song and thought, ‘this ought to be played on bass.’  With Matt’s contribution it had a sort of Neurosis, “Eye”- meets- Today Is the Day, “Hermaphrodite” slow burner feel, mixed with some Rollins Band ‘lonely guy’ kind of lyrics.  I’m pretty sure I’d be totally OK if we never played this live.  I think it just needed to be made and documented.  Plus, it’s funny that people give us shit for not having a bass player so we wrote a song that was all overwhelming bass and no guitar.  Also, Matt totally wanted to use that Ren and Stimpy ‘history eraser button’ sample somewhere and what better place than a completely morbid song like this?  No matter how serious we can get we have to add levity to things in this band.

MATT SAYS YO:  I had another beat box sample I wanted to use and Matt made this other ridiculous vocal sample so we combined the two into another answering machine message.

LAUGH TRACK FACTORY:  During our recording session for the Bleak split the guys wrote a song on the fly that I had to come up with lyrics for on the spot and we called it “Cat Magnet.”  We did nothing with it.  It was more total Slayer worship.  And early in the writing process for this record we came up with a song I called “Laugh Track Factory” that went through a bunch of revisions before we totally forgot it and abandoned it.  So we brought back “Cat Magnet” and I used the lyrics for “Laugh Track Factory” instead, and that was that.  The opening line is lifted from Sweetbelly Freakdown’s “Pleas To the Action Figure”.  The line, “Cops are out to lunch” is an ode to KARP’s “Bacon Industry”.

SPIT TAKE:  Another Ren and Stimpy sample.  Great stuff.  This is the first song we wrote for the album, basically right after “Abastab” was done.  There was a great collaboration effort on making the chorus an ode to Helmet.  Riffy.

UGLY PEOPLE:  John came up with this ripper.  I feel like it’s a well-crafted simple burner.  This was, lyrically, an all-out vicious attack on the hysteria right after the 2016 election, and written right before we hit the studio.  I kind of thought about how immediate the lyrics were and reconsidered using them.  But then I thought that it’s good to document what’s happening in the here and now.  So years later I can look back and remember that this is the frame of mind that the state of the world put me into, regardless of whether the names and references within the lyrics are completely irrelevant or not.  Lyrically, there is inspiration from Sonic Youth, “Youth Against Fascism”.  It’s also a tie-in to the opening track with the title, and sort of wrapping up that idea/theme of idiots ruining things.  John found a great Bobcat Goldthwait sample (he’s a Syracuse native ya know!) to close things out.  It worked perfectly.  Of course, we had to add the “Firestorm” bit at the end, because, ya know, Syracuse.  It’s now a tradition to do so.

Hopefully that kept your attention long enough to make it down here to this week's deal.  You know the drill- $4 CDs/downloads, and $5 LPs.  You can score that HERE.  But also, there's this deal for all of Dialysis' material- that's 2 7"s, one split 7" and the LP for $22.  So try that on for size!  Get that one HERE.

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR040- ED GEIN, "Smoked" 2x7"

The final offering from Ed Gein came several years after everyone had kind of thought them to be disbanded anyway.  In the words of bassist/vocalist Aaron Jenkins, ‘we probably should have broke up a long time ago.’

But I’m glad they did this last thing that they did because it did show there was some gas left in the tank and the whole thing was an overall fun experience.

To back up a bit, Ed Gein hadn’t toured in years.  After finishing a relentless touring schedule for “Judas Goats…” where they were on the road for the better part of two years they took a hard break.  It was time to settle down for bit.  Drummer Jesse Daino put most of his free time getting Recess Coffee off the ground and that soon became a very full-time endeavor.  Aaron further developed his skills as a screen printer and eventually opened his own business (the Black Arts Studio) as well doing just that.  Guitarist Graham Reynolds, after time, became the head roaster at Recess and running a lot of the day-to-day.  Music took a back seat for all of the members.

After a few years getting situated in their new roles the band felt the itch to write new music, but definitely not tour.  They started getting together again to compose new music that was decidedly far less technical and way more just fast, metallic punk.  The result was “Bad Luck”, a record that was considerably different than other Ed Gein records insofar as most of the songs focusing on just a few parts instead of 1000.  The constant with all other material is that it remained fast.  Really fast.  It went quite underappreciated amongst fans and they only played a few shows during this time to promote it.  It retrospect it is definitely not their strongest material, but it’s a lot of fun and there’s a handful of total thrashy rippers on the record.

And then they went quiet again.  Work and adult life took over once more and it seemed Ed Gein was put to bed for good.  And yet, they got back into it one more time.  This time some of the music saw Aaron taking the lead for composition and out of that came a couple songs of slow, riffing, chunky dirges.  They followed it up with a few more fast, thrashy songs that had a renewed vigor.  The band approached me once more about doing something with it all.  It was to be the very last of the Ed Gein stuff.  For good.

The entire effort was completed in secret.  We began working on things in the late Spring and surprise released it right before Christmas.  I even managed to keep the whole project secret from my own band, who was sharing a practice space with Ed Gein.  It was tough to keep a lid on it all, but we succeeded.

The result of this discreet planning was a project Aaron and I worked closely on bringing together, as he has traditionally been the more art-minded planner in the band.  We went with once again using the unique arigato packages created by Stumptown Printers that I have used for several other records (Playing Enemy, “My Life As the Villain” and Lemuria, “Ozzy” 7” most noteably).  Aaron had a whole idea in mind that he designed and screenprinted onto the blank packages himself at his shop.  We also thought it would be fun to try doing a double 7” instead of a 10” or one-sided 12”.  I thought that if you’re going to get this cool package that’s one step away from being a box you may as well fill it with more than one thing.  So the five songs that comprised “Smoked” were spread out over two records because why not?

 Part of the elaborate screenprinted packaging for the record(s)

Plenty of time was accounted for ensuring the recording came out right, all the steps of pressing the actual records, and printing (and then the origami-like task of folding them together) the covers.  It honestly couldn’t have come together more smoothly.  I was surprised at the ease of it all.  Of course, except the part about keeping it a secret.

The guys had planned a big show for right after Christmas which was not kept a secret.  There was no mention of the new record.  About a week or two before the show the surprise was unleashed.  No pre-order, or teaser track.  Just, ‘hey, here’s a new Ed Gein record.  Enjoy.’

I knew there would be some interest, but it was far greater than I could have imagined.  It was nice to see that after all these years, and the very limited, sporadic activity from the band, people were still excited for anything they did.

And that’s really the story of Ed Gein.  Over the next year they played a couple shows and then called it a day as they transitioned into the band they all do now- Shadow Snakes, which also features former Breather Resist vocalist Steve Sindoni and Architect guitarist/recording engineer Jay Bailey along with Aaron, Jesse, and Graham.

To say that Ed Gein was a foundation for Hex Records is truly an understatement.  Before they came along the label had some well-received records.  But even now, when I meet people who are familiar with what I do inevitably Ed Gein’s name will frequently come up.  It’s almost as if the label really started with them sometimes, and they started with this label, and then they wrapped up their time as a band in the place they started with.  It’s humbling.  And after all this time we’re all still friends, we still play shows together (as infrequently as that occurs), and we support each others businesses.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Smoked” is a solid chapter to close the book of Ed Gein on.  No interviews necessary because at this point I’ve talked their ears off enough.  If you haven’t heard the record(s), give them a listen.

 I have a total of about a dozen of these double 7"s left.  If you want one (or more) it will run you $5 this week because I want to get rid of them.  You can find those HERE.  If you're just a digital connoisseur feel free to drop $3 and get the tracks on sale this week HERE. Half the copies are on the bandcamp, the other half in the BigCartel store.

COZY UP WITH SOME COFFEE AND REVIEWS, MAYBE A SWEATER OR A CAT ON YOUR LAP.

Yo, it's full-on Fall.  Get comfy.  Drink something pumpkin-spiced, or roast root veggies in the oven, we're going fully LL Bean here.  While other people are getting ready their year-end lists (or decade-end lists? fuuuuuuckkk), I'm over here still checking out new stuff that's dropping late into 2019 and thinking some of these jams are top 10 year end contenders and such.  Late bloomers, if you will.  Sleeper hits.  Anyway, see for yourself.

A.M. NICE, “Man On a Wire” 7”

I checked out this band’s last offering, which was straight 80’s power-pop bliss.  This three-songer is a mixed bag, and I’m not mad, it just throws me back to a different time…  in three different ways.  The first track is a nod to 90’s alterna-radio-rock, the kind of stuff that when it emerged and I was an angsty teen I thought it was kind of lame and below par of the aggressiveness I craved.  So Gin Blossom fans rejoice, this song is for you.  Track two, the title track, is an ode to Cursive, “Domestica” in every way possible.  Again, not mad about it.  They do a nice job homage-ing (if that’s a word).  Finally, they clean up with “Elliott the Man”, 90 freewheeling seconds of the kind of stuff I recall this band doing before- fast power pop straight out of the garage, channeling Ted Leo from 1995 into 2019.  It’s honestly the best track on the whole thing and quite wonderful at that.  More track 3 please.  (Phratry Records)

BUMMER, “Thanks For Nothing” 7”

Fuck yeah Bummer.  If only we got more songs on this new slab of wax.  As usual they deliver riffs heavier than a dozen TADs weighing down a garbage truck falling off the side of a cliff and somehow make how ridiculously loud they are live translate perfectly to record.  Opening track “Second Chimes” hits you with that steamrolling two-note riff of destruction and if you’re not dead afterwards “Grim Sleeper” will peel what’s left of your face off with it’s bass-driven lurch in under two minutes.  And then they do a cover of Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”...  and ya know, it’s a generational thing because I never because I never got into that band.  But if you’re going to pick a Marilyn Manson song to cover this would be the one simply because it’s pretty fuckin’ heavy.  Finally, Bummer throw on a demo version of their song “King Shit” from last year’s “Holy Terror” full length.  So even though I’m fiending for a new full length already thanks for something.  (Learning Curve Records)

CHILD BITE, “Blow Off the Omens”

The newest full length from Detroit’s Child Bite is a lot to take in.  When you are a weirdo noise rock/punk/metallic sort of band and the core of your group is the singer and bass player I can imagine it’s tough to round up a guitarist and drummer who can properly envision what it is they want to put out into the world.  To be fair, though, vocalist Shawn Knight knows his way around a guitar and bassist Sean Clancy has a truly one-of-a-kind low-end thunder that is equal parts David Wm Sims and Brian Cook, and both long-standing members have strong artistic backgrounds that lend themselves to the exceptionally unique visual and musical experience that is Child Bite.  And they have also been a band for a long time and have evolved considerably during that tenure.  So I think with the new additions to the band they have managed to stay true to their sound while expanding ever-outward into the realms of weird chaos.  It took me a few listens to fully wrap my head around “Blow Off the Omens”, and part of that has to do with the recording by Steve Albini.  Purists will call out blasphemy, but I feel like a number of recordings he does seem to lack a bit of punch (when it’s a band where that is called for) and go for warmth instead.  It’s strange, I can’t pin it down.  But differences in recording aside, a few spins into this release and I’m a total believer and would place it right on top of the Child Bite catalog (which is vast with numerous splits and EPs scattered across several full lengths).  There’s a few less of those bellowed ‘whoh-ohs’ that Knight belts out so confidently, but when they arrive they are exceptional.  The music is heavy, weird, bombastic and is indebted to Voivod just as much as it is to Cosmic Psychos, MC5 and Dead Kennedys. They have Bad Brain roots and filter them through proggy metal and noise rock.  I love it.  And the guests on the record- from a couple of instances of Bruce Lamont’s wild saxophone, to Chewy from Voivod laying down a great solo on the title track- feel less like guest spots and more like natural occurrences.  I can’t recommend this enough, even if it takes a bit of time to digest before it fully comes into focus as the great chunk of music that it is.  (Housecore)

GREET DEATH, “New Hell”

Upon checking out the first single from this young band out of Michigan I thought, ‘this is good, but I already own every Cloakroom record’.  But as I gave the whole thing a few spins some really interesting stuff started coming out.  For starters, there’s a significant emphasis on the interplay of the dual vocals that both have a unique cadence and timbre to them that would probably sound kind of annoying (to me anyway) in almost any other kind of band.  But here it’s just slightly odd enough to work in a strange and colorful sort of way.  Musically it plods along and songs stretching out for 6 minutes or so are commonplace.  I mean, they really do nail down those Cloakroom riffs/vibes/tones exactly and I’m unsure if that’s a little too close to source material for me to take this seriously, or if I just say ‘fuck it, who cares’ and enjoy this for being a really cool collection of songs that I find satisfying.  (Deathwish Inc)

LUGGAGE, “Shift”

This one is a real long slow burn.  Luggage, from out of Chicago, rely on minimalist noise and rhythm, Shellac-level attentive detail to tone and precision, and the patience of listeners because this takes a few listens to sink in.  I’m reminded of another record released in the not-too-distant past by Corpse Flower Records and that would be German post-hardcore group Heads who share a lot in common with the sounds that Luggage is laying down.  Both go for heavy by way of space and frequent clean guitar.  But that guitar is struck so sharply that the resulting twang is like a piano wire garrote to the jugular.  Luggage sneak in late at night, steal your shit, and leave a knife stuck in the family photo as a calling card.  It’s surreptitious, and cold-blooded, and just a bit chaotic too.  But they’re secretly controlling it every step of the way. (Corpse Flower)

SLEEPCRAWLER, “HTN” b/w “Albatross” 7”

I remember when Sunny Day Real Estate came around and then a million hardcore/emo kids jumped on the bandwagon and started bands that sounded like Sunny Day.  Some were decent, others just bad.  Sleepcrawler brings me back to that time where groups like Mineral and Ethel Meserve were doing their thing in a very second-tier Sunny Day Real Estate sort of way, and they hone in on that vibe pretty well.  Sure, it’s slightly updated with some fancy guitar pedals that occasionally go into space-rock-era Cave-In territory, but this is where Sleepcrawler are at and it’s honestly just fine.  Two songs on this record, both fairly lengthy and overflowing with earnest emotion and melody and heartfelt something or other.  (Phratry Records)

SUNSTROKE, “Bloom At Night” 12” EP

I have a bit of a regret in that I drove up to Seattle a little while back to see a show and this band was opening and I did not concern myself with being exactly on time (to be fair, I was coming from an earlier show elsewhere in town).  And due to that I only caught the last song of Sunstroke’s set. It’s too bad, because not much later I finally listened to their music and found it be quite enjoyable.  So yeah, here’s a new EP from them that has 4 new songs, as well as a Dag Nasty cover and comes in a fancy package that’s also very colorful to boot.  Sunstroke are of that ilk that take many cues from Revolution Summer-era harDCore  whether it’s past luminaries such as Rites Of Spring to more current practitioners like Give.  However, choosing to cover Dag Nasty is very appropriate for this group as they really add a good dose of melodic hardcore (with a lot less singing and more gravel-throated hollering) in their sound overall, which I’m usually doesn’t move me all that much.  Sunstroke stoke the flames of familiar sounds, which combines some other familiar sounds to create new and enjoyable sounds.  Got it?  This is definitely more melodic than past efforts, but I dig it.  Lyrically, almost all of the EP seems to focus on mental health issues and brought up in an interesting, story-like fashion.  Good on them for offering up a powerful and sincere effort, I look forward to more.  (New Morality)

 

TILE, “Stendell” 12” EP

My dudes.  It’s a rare gift that Tile present new music more than once every three years or so.  So getting a new EP a year after their monumental “Come On Home, Stranger” LP is like Christmas come early.  I’ll say that “Stendell” doesn’t carry quite the absurd heft their last LP had, and the recording is a little less bombastic overall as well (OK, it’s just less songs and I want more, so what).  But as a placeholder to hopefully more music in the not-too-distant future I’ll take it and play the shit out of it.  You get five new tracks of negative, down-tuned sludge/noise rock grumpiness and piledrive it into yr skull.  Things do start off on an upbeat, faster note with “Scarf Of Vain” before breaking into the thudding clomp of “Not Ready”.  The next two tracks play around with some cleaner sounds before walloping you with the heavy, and then record closer “Kyle’s Paperclip” drowns the listener in one big, gigantic heavy riff and a trunk full of bad feelings.  Tile are one of my absolute favorite current bands in the game and it makes me giddy just to have some new stuff from them.  I’d suggest getting it all.  (Corpse Flower)

HXR20YR RETROSPECTIVE: HXR039- PSYCHIC TEENS, "Hex" 12" EP

            My association with Psychic Teens was a complete fluke.  I had seen their first LP, “Teen” around here and there and it’s extremely simple cover art, for whatever reason, made me think they were some kind of pop-punk band in the Screeching Weasel vein.  Whatever the case I didn’t think I would be interested in them.

Around this time I had discovered another Pennsylvania-based band called Tile whom I thought were just amazing and I considered pursuing them in regards to putting out a record.  I saw they were playing a show at Siren Records in Doylestown, PA, a store I hold in high regard and a place I had been familiar with playing before (for real, take a gander at Siren Records if you ever find yourself in the quaint burg of Doylestown).  The lineup for the show featured Tile and Psychic Teens.  It was kind of a drive for me, but there was enough cool stuff close by (what’s up Vegan Treats) to make it worth the hike.  Plus, I wanted to see what Tile were like live, and as people, before I hit them up about recording something for the label.

            As it turned out this was probably the worst show Tile ever played.  They got through about three songs, broke a guitar, and then gave up.  I was heartbroken.  It was a rough night for them and temporarily soured my opinion on them.  I’d like to add, though, Tile are one of my current favorite bands and I highly suggest getting all of their records right now and playing them repeatedly until your head falls off.

            Feeling let down I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stick around and just drive back to Syracuse.  I watched the second band, who were decent, and then figured I came all this way, I may as well see if I was right about this Psychic Teens band before taking off, as they were headlining.

            Turns out I was totally wrong.  They lurched through weird post-punk, goth, and noise rock dirges all the while incredibly intense strobe lights pulsated from behind them.  Guitars screamed as frontman Larry Ragone remained hidden behind dark shades the entire set and belted out spooky, low-register vocals over everything.  I was thoroughly shocked.  I stuck around for a good portion of their set and then decided to hit the road since I had a long drive ahead.  Before departing I left some money on their merch table and grabbed a CD for the drive home, which had their second LP “Come”, as well as their first LP on one disc. 

            I started listening to it as soon as I began my drive and was so drawn in by the sounds that I wasn’t paying attention and totally got lost in the weird labyrinth of roads that is Eastern PA.  I eventually made it home, listening to Psychic Teens almost the entire drive on repeat.  I had just never heard a band that combined influences like that and made it work in this new and original way.

            Afterwards I dug in more and saw that they had made a couple of really funny and unique videos for their songs and had toured a bit as well.  I also learned that their drummer, Dave Cherasaro, had briefly done time in Gods and Queens, another Philly-area band that I adored.  So I figured I was in good company by listening to this trio.  I reached out to them to see about having them come up around my way to play a show and they ended up coming through on a few occasions, as they had other friends in the region they had played shows with before.  I also continued to travel to go see the band- Asbury Park with Coliseum and Child Bite, Ithaca with Restorations, and more. 

As I got to know them I reached out about releasing some material for them.  They had recently released an amazing 7” through Reptilian Records and were on the cusp of releasing their third LP, “Nerve” when I offered.

What ended up occurring was Psychic Teens released their third record through channels they already had set up, and not long after they reconvened and recorded the “Hex” 12” EP as a follow up since “Nerve” was a considerably huge undertaking.  For five songs “Hex” is pretty long and feels almost like a full length record.

Since that release Psychic Teens has remained active on and off as they all have adult lives, and also all play together in a second band called Ex-Maid with their friend (and occasional PT collaborator) Miranda Taylor.

But since it’s been awhile I got back in touch with Dave Cherasaro to discuss the band a bit and the making of the most-excellent “Hex” record from Psychic Teens.

 Psychic Teens (l to r):  Dave, Larry, Joe

I initially wrote off your band because I thought the art on your first release, “Teen”, resembled something a pop-punk band might use.

That’s funny.  It wasn’t necessarily intended to be a stand alone release like that, like a whole album.  The original intention was to be a combination of a couple of songs to put on the internet as a demo and then see if somebody wanted to do a 7”.  It was sort of a brain dump of the first 7 songs that we wrote, we went into the studio to record them, and they weren’t even all complete when we went into the studio, and there was one in particular that we weren’t sure if we were even going to use it and we ended up using it.  It’s a song that we still play, whereas a number of them have not been played in awhile.

I think the art on all the releases since then are more indicative of what you do insofar as being a bit unsettling, or oddly mysterious.  It seems like you all put a fair amount of thought into the artistic presentation side of the band.

And so Larry (Ragone, guitars, vocals) is the one who sourced a lot of that.  He has been the person who found the artists that he liked and artists he wanted to work with.  He went to them and figured out how to work with them and what parameters they wanted to work in.  But that first release Larry did the artwork.  He did that himself.

I think a little bit of it was that art was really a placeholder to put up on a bandcamp page with two songs, and then it morphed into ‘this is going to be a record’.  Our friend started a label and put it out.  So we ran with it and tried to make it a little more interesting than just the heart with the ‘X’ through it by doing the large die-cut ‘X’ sticker that was on the outside sleeve of the LP version.

I think that sort of mysterious, but oddly inviting, art plays out as well in the song syllable record titles and song titles as well.

Yeah, I agree.

After meeting you all it became apparent that a big part of Psychic Teens is approaching your music from the perspective of serious record collectors.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense.  We all like records.  You are correct, we do all collect.  We want to have something that looks good as a record package.  We want something we would be interested in.  We want something that we would want if we hadn’t put it out.  I think I would be a little embarrassed to admit how much time on Psychic Teens tours we spent in record stores.  That was pretty much our M.O. on every tour we have done.  We definitely have detoured through towns we weren’t even playing so that we could go to record stores on long drives just to break up the day.  We definitely spent a lot of time on Psychic Teens tours in record stores.

I can’t think of, offhand, of any towns, or cities, that we went to where we didn’t try to find at least one record store.

Tell me this- when you would book tours would you purposefully book tours to places where you knew there were good record stores.

No, we don’t have that much booking clout.  It’s more of ‘we just want to find a show where we can find a show’ and we will find a record store somewhere.

You’re not that obsessive.

No.

I’ve always liked the idea of how you had described Psychic Teens tours- they’re like vacations to visit record stores in different cities and then play shows.  I never got the impression that you treated the band like a career sort of thing.

For sure, that’s 100% how we have viewed the band.  We had the joke saying, and it still rings true, that Psychic Teens are regular adults.  We have never tried to make the band a full-time thing because I think we all are a little too old and maybe a little too far past that point in our life.  So we’re going to go out when we can.  We all work.  We’re going to take time off from work, but we’re going to have fun on that time off as best as we can.  So just like with the artwork and the record collecting, you hit the nail on the head.  We try to have fun and do as much as we can.

So rewind a bit and give me an idea of how the band came together and also how you came to choosing the style of music you played.  It’s a pretty niche mix of subgenres.

Well, the impetus of Psychic Teens was Larry.  He wrote the first few songs and had these ideas in his head and wanted to do a band.  I think he had a very specific influence in mind, and I don’t want to particularly call him out on it and name it, but I think it was a little bit bigger of a band than you would think given all the subgenres in there. 

So Larry wanted to do the band and he then approached me because we had been in a band together a couple years before that kind of fell apart.  So then we reached out to Joe (DeCarolis, bassist) because Larry and Joe have been friends forever and their old bands were on split 7”s together, played like 100 shows together.  And in-between when Larry and I were in a band him and Joe were in a band together that kind of fell apart after they recorded a demo and maybe never played shows or anything together.

You know that story of the insular world where everyone is trading band members.  So this is the combination that we came to this time.

I like, too, that you guys are Philly, or Philly-adjacent, and there has always been a wealth of bands to emerge from that region that are really onto something original.  I don’t think there’s a ‘Philly sound’, but instead a lot of bands all trying to do something different and keep it exciting.

Yeah, it’s very interesting how that has all played out over time.

How did the band come to use strobe lights and lights when playing?  Was that something you did right from the beginning or add them in eventually?

It took a little while.  I think it came about maybe 6 months after we started playing shows. It was intended to keep it interesting for ourselves and do something a little different.  There was one or two of our early shows where we tried to bring a projector and project stuff on us, or behind us, and that ended quickly.  We realized that was too much effort to have a laptop, to have a projector, to keep things going, and that wasn’t for us.

I had done another band, the story of all stories- and we had done the whole lights thing with cheap $10 Home Depot pots.  So I had some of that stuff.  I think one time Larry came to practice and was like, ‘I got a really good deal on a stobelight on Craigslist’.

It was this crazy strobe light that works very well.  We’ve played larger venues and it’s still effective in a large venue.

He got it on Craigslist and met some guy in a diner parking lot, or something, and got this crazy stobelight for pretty cheap.

Can you describe a bit of the process around writing and recording “Hex”?  It wasn’t that long after “Nerve” had been released that things came together for that record.

I think it didn’t seem like it was that long for other people, but for us it seemed really long.  And I think part of that was the process of writing and recording “Nerve”.  It took a long time to get everything together for that record because we entered the studio recording drum tracks a whole year before that LP was finally out.  We had spent a year and half, or two years, writing “Nerve”.  During that time we also did a live score for “The Shining”, which is a really long movie.

So we were writing all these songs for “Nerve”, and then took a break to do “The Shining” thing, and then pulled two songs off our writing to do a 7” with Reptilian Records, and by the time we finally got done and figured we were ready to record the “Nerve” songs it had been a really long time of writing and rehearsing those songs into the ground so that they were ready.

So after we went in and recorded we had a really long break where we were waiting on the availability of the studio to mix, and in that time frame we started the  writing process again because that’s just kind of what we do.  We like to write and practice, and always moving forward.

So I think before “Nerve” was even fully done we had laid the groundwork for a couple of the songs from “Hex”.  Those songs were some of the easiest songs we had ever written, and I don’t mean that in a way where we didn’t just phone it in.

We had over thought those “Nerve” songs so much we wanted to get back to something more towards how we started as a band.  We just wrote songs that went with what came through and not over-thinking a structure, or a part.  It was a bit more of an organic experience.

I think that does shine through on “Hex”.  Even though a couple songs are on the slower and longer side it just has a bit more of a feeling of being immediate, if that makes sense.  “Nerve” definitely sounds a bit more planned out and deliberate and “Hex” feels a little looser.

I agree.  I do like having a bit of the over-rehearsed thing.  But we spent so much time collectively between writing, rehearsing, and then recording and mixing “Nerve”.  And when we went to press that record it was at that peak of records taking a long time to get back from the pressing plant-era.  I mean, we knew it was going to take a long time to get back from the pressing plant so we planned our release show so far out and then our records came in really early.  We had them sitting in our basement for so long just because had built in this really long lead time to be on the safe side.

And all that time we thought let’s just write new songs, and play new songs, and not over-think it, and that’s what bore “Hex”.

 Check those neat-o records out!

I also recall “Hex” going pretty quick.  It wasn’t a super-long turnaround.  Maybe that too made me think it was a pretty quick follow up to “Nerve”.

Also, with that record, which I think confuses people to this day, is the packaging on it.  The spine is on the bottom, you can turn it around and it’s still the same thing, and then the sticker could be turned anyway and was still the same.  Was it deliberate to be that confusing?

I honestly don’t remember.  But it was likely just an idea to do something different and put the spine on the bottom and the opening is on the top.  As for the artwork, if you look at it long enough you see what side is right-side up.  But at a glance it is a little confusing, and the sticker did not help matters out at all.

(laughs)  Yeah, for sure.  So at this point the band has been pretty quiet for a bit and Ex-Maid seems to be the current focus.  Do you see yourselves keeping on with Psychic Teens, but just putting it on the back burner for now while Ex-Maid does stuff?

Yeah, I think that’s the idea.  As people get older and everybody is doing more stuff we have hit a couple of scheduling bumps where we just didn’t get enough time to practice on a regular basis.  It has caused some newer songs we had to not necessarily fall apart, but never really made it from that rough stage to the completion stage.  And when we have had the time to practice we have put that effort into Ex-Maid.  And some of the Ex-Maid stuff takes a bit longer because there is a fourth member and some of it takes more time because there’s a lot more stuff that happens in New Jersey than happens in Philadelphia, so there’s a bit more travel investment if we’re playing shows up in New Brunswick or Asbury Park.  That’s historically where we have played more than Philly.

What has been the best and worst thing about doing Psychic Teens?

I will forever say the best part is getting together in the basement and writing songs, playing the songs we have, coming up with new parts.  That’s my favorite part.  But at the same time I mentioned earlier that Psychic Teens the intention was never to do anything specific.  We’re just three friends playing together in a band, and I think overall the best part was that we have exceeded any expectations we ever had for ourselves.  We have played out more, put out more music, we’ve been together longer, played better shows, and done some longer tours than any other band we had all done before.  Psychic Teens has gotten more accomplished than we ever intended to do.

Worst part?  I don’t know.  I might have to get back to you on that one.  We’re all friends.  There’s no hate.  The worst part sometimes is the cycles of writing and then pausing to record and trying to figure out when to play shows.  It takes away a little bit of the fun of being in a band and playing shows.

What about that show in Ithaca in the record store?  Wasn’t that a really bad one because everything kept breaking on you?

Oh yeah, if you want to talk about really bad shows I can talk to you about specific bad shows.  And yes, that was a really bad show for us.  That whole tour was a specifically ‘everything-is-breaking’ tour.  It was a really great tour because we had a really great time and the shows were really fun, most of them anyway, but we were renting a van that we were perpetually having issues with.  It wasn’t anybody’s fault but we were renting this van that had just been tuned up and fixed and ready to go and we got right outside of Baltimore and it died.  We place we rented it from brought us another van, and we got into the other van and a day or two later that one started having problems.  So we spent an entire day in Kentucky getting the catalytic converter fixed while that same rental company was trying to get us another van.  We eventually got it fixed and we kept going on.  And then the day of that Ithaca show, right before Ithaca we went to some state park, maybe Watkins Glen?  So we were just walking around and when we got back to the van it just wouldn’t start.  I don’t even know what the final verdict was, something was off with the transmission, we had to put it in neutral just to start it.  So we drive to Ithaca, which is all hills, and the transmission was having trouble going from first to second, so that was a good day.

And the night before that show we were in Buffalo and Larry dropped his amp, so his amp wasn’t working right in Ithaca, which is a problem. 

It’s funny because for a band that loves records, and record stores, and record shopping, I can tell you that two of our absolute worst shows were in record stores.  And that was one of them.

(laughs)  So there ya go, there’s a ‘worst of’!  You think things will be great because you’re in a record store and it ends up sucking.

We have had good shows in record stores.  We have just had two particularly bad ones in record stores.

What was the other one?

There was a record store we played in Jersey City.  I don’t think it’s open anymore.  We played there right before “Nerve” came out.  So we played this store with a band that Joe was friends with and I’m not sure if it was conveyed to the store that we were a ‘loud’ band and I think the record store was expecting something not as loud.  Like we were going to play with combo amps or something.  But there was a problem with our volume.

I see.

That’s been a particular issue at a couple of places.  We’ve been cut short at a couple shows because we were told that we were too loud and we were told that we had to stop.

But that’s not the worst part of the band because that’s like some little badge of honor!

Yeah, right!  I can appreciate that part.

I got some records at some really great prices at that Ithaca show though so that was the silver lining!

There’s always a silver lining!

And now, if you'd like, you can get yourself a copy of "Hex" on LP, or CD, or digital, and it will be super cheap for the next week.  We're talking $5 for LPs, $4 for CDs and $3 for digital download.  And you can get it all HERE.  Let's hope to hear more from Psychic Teens in the future, but in the meantime, check out their other band Ex-Maid.