EP Grab Bag vol. 68

I always feel very productive after I finish an EP Grab Bag, but I guess that is just imaginary it really just means I sat around and listened to a bunch of music. Does make me feel more worldly when I can get a large geographic span covered in the EPs, so that's something. Oh, and the music, the music is fucking good, that's why I do it, right?

To be had here:
Druggy Pizza - Chili Cheese Crust (2014)

This is the solo moniker of Cédric of most righteous French garage rock band Dusty Mush. I must imagine any diligent follower of SRM would be sold just by that, but in case you're head is in the sand I'll tell you more. Chili Cheese Crust are six short and loud tracks of very fuzzed out garage rock with lyrics that cannot be understood and moaning keyboard playing. Basically, the exact kind of squalid rock and roll that I thrive on. In particular give a listen to the amazing song, "I'm Cramped" for its simple effectiveness. Mind you this is his third EP as Druggy Pizza, so there's more to eat up.

Nick Oleksiak - Carrie (2014)

This is an EP I found when looking around on bandcamp. Carrie is five songs by a young man from Detroit that is studying music in Cincinnati (I guess they know shit down there). It is rather hard to describe the music generically, he even goes to the length to tag it "whatever i feel like" but it is certainly electronic pop music of some sort. Has a new wave-ish feeling. Perhaps one could call it  an updated 80s/post-disco thing. Whatever the fuck it is I caught my attention, the first and final songs of the EP in particular.

Boards - Care & Handling (2014)

A Norwich-based musical project with very stripped down instrumentation. Blends acoustic guitar and a few accompanying instruments with light electronic tones and beats. So in a reversal of my usual stance on vocals, it is really the singing that carries this EP from being a competent yet humble ambient release into something more beautiful. The overall effect of the songs is a mesmerizing calm, like a mediative piece, so when a spoken word story appears in the midst of the eponymous track I was very willing to hear it. Excellently done.


Garrett Linck and JESSIE'S BREATH - /Split/ (2014)

Garrett Linck, who you might recall from his solo work and in babydog, is back with a track on the two song split with another musician that goes by Jessie's Breath. Linck's track is a folksy indie rock tune that is very catchy as has become expected from that dude. Jessie's Breath matches it with his own lo-fi folk tune that's every inch as charming. Good combination for a split and looking forward to hearing more from each of these songwriters.

El General Villamil - Archipiélago 32' (2014)

This is basically an addendum to Amazing Larry's post of the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. He found four really great acts from that city, and I was downloading them the other day and trying to see if I wanted to make an episode of the podcast out of the bands and I saw these guys pop up. More fucking garage rock that was so good I could not help myself but add it here. Old of my favorite parts is how on the bandcamp page they have an explaination of their name in Spanish even I can decipher: "El General Villamil fue el conquistador y primer gobernador del Archipiélago Galápagos en 1832"

Scenes Of A City, Vol. 1: Guayaquil, Ecuador

This is the first in a series I hope to develop where I pick a random city and post some musical examples of what's going on there. 

Guayaquil is a city close to the size of Houston. The largest city in Ecuador, it's a bustling port with plenty of delicious seafood, plenty of football fans, and strangely enough, plenty of great psychedelic rock bands. This is perhaps not so strange, except for the fact that, until now, the only Ecuadorian musician I knew of was the 1990's one hit wonder Gerardo, whose "Rico Suave" song was equally hilarious and terrifying for it's almost cartoonish machismo. But this garage/psych revival of today seems to be just as international today as it was in the 1960s, if these bands are any indication.

Espumita - Vacaciones Infinitas (2014)

Male and female vocals adorn this psychedelic garage EP by a band named after the sugary, light brown crema of a specially prepared espresso shot. These songs are more sweet than bitter, and more mid-tempo than one might expect from a caffeine-related band name, but a solid example of Ecuador's young bands dabbling in the mind-expanding production effects we've all come to love from the psychedelic genre.

The Stoneheads - S/T (2013)

Here we have a more stripped down garage band along the lines of Russia's Karova's Milkshake. The production reminds me of crisp, warm, and clean values of the late 1970s, giving these 4 songs an aura that they could almost be bluesy Soft Boys b-sides. They have a track called "The Ballad of Rita Jones", which I'd like to think is an homage to Os Mutantes member Rita Lee Jones, but that may be a stretch. Elements of the Kinks also. Super good EP, this one.

Macho Muchacho - Eme Eme (2012)

I threw this one in as a wild card... and wild it certainly is, showing that Ecuador's musicians are also making forays into the tangled experimental sounds of math rock. Bringing to mind bands like Don Caballero and Battles, these instrumental tracks are beautifully ordered chaos, displaying some the most fantastically inventive guitar playing I've heard in awhile. While some atmospheric psych is thrown in as well, this one might be for progressive music listeners.

De Pelucas - Al Boom (2014)

This one's a full length and probably the strongest offering of the bunch, if for no other reason that it's a psychedelic surf rock record with streaks of darkness throughout. Tracks 6 and 7 especially. Each has a moment where a strange instrument comes into the mix.. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of bowed string instrument, cello maybe, and the effect is haunting. Judging by pictures of the band, they're a trio and they're all young as hell. Which is always great to see, even if it makes me feel slightly like an old man who wasted his youth. Deserves repeated listens.