EP Grab Bag vol. 105

Been meaning to get this one up for a while. Got lazy or forgetful or whatever, who cares really? It's here now. Anyhow, I am late in the sense that all the album art seems very well geared for Halloween, which I missed by a week. Oh well, better luck next year.

To be had here:

Peixefante - Lorde Pacal EP (2015)

Another EP I was sent from my Brazilian friend Barbara. Her impeccable is apparent in this awesome psychedelic indie/electronic pop outfit from Goiânia, Brazil. The songs possess a wonderful ethereal quality, just a touch spacey, but at their core they are wonderful modern psych tunes. They remind me of my favorite modern Brazilian psych-rockers, Supercordas, yet bent more toward pop music. An incredibly alluring EP, not to be missed.

Seamus O'Muineachain - Blood Apple (2015)

The songs of an Irish songwriter. Minimal in composition, ambient in tone, and folksy in style they are lovely instrumental songs. Done largely on guitar and piano they songs are a finely interwoven tapestry of those instruments, though a healthy level of percussion is used as necessary. It's as if that sort of acoustic music you've doubtlessly heard played in a coffeehouse could carry many times it's weight by utilizing more musical avenues than the bare guitar playing. So much so it is more sedimental than many lyrically based compositions.

Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands - Black Pudding (2015)

This Floridian outfit has routinely sent me music over the years, though I have failed to always post it. I am sloppy like that. However, I did take the time to hear this seven-track release and found myself enjoying even more than I already imagined I might. The songs are short garage rock jaunts. And I mean short, not any of them top the two minute mark. All upbeat lo-fi with howling singing reverb in the vocals and great distorted guitars. Check them out and look into their admirable catalog while you're at it.

The Dyna Jets - The Calling (2015)

Recently I posted the Fizz Pops, a garage pop band from Capetown, South Africa. Well, two members, Johnny Tex and Warren Fisher, of that band also have another project called the Dyna Jets. So here is the EP they put out this summer and I somehow missed until a couple of weeks ago. Two-piece garage rock as it should be, markedly fuzzy and playful, has a very surfy tone in the guitar playing. Four brief songs that left me eager for more. I Hope there will be more, under whatever name the choose to use next time.

Enema Noise - manual pouco prático do desapego (2014)

Back to Brazil, this time to the capital city of Brasilia. Lo-fi rock for sure, though of a more intense sort than the prior two EPs of this Grab Bag. Post-hardcore, which is a genre that is hit or miss for me overall, but there's not a doubt in my mind that Enema Noise is anything other than a hit. This release is absolutely exciting. The speed, intensity and excellent musicianship engaged me from the very start. I would love to hear them play in a dirty basement for sure.

The Fizz Pops - The Fizz Pops (2015)

While I always look forward to hearing more music from bands I post on Spacerockmountain and wish I had vast amounts of time free to listen to it all, there are some artists I will go outta my way to hear. I just know they're gonna be a real treat, something worth pausing all the busy, dumb shit I gotta do. These lads from Capetown, South Africa are a perfect example.

The Fizz Pops is the latest in a series of bands to emerge from Capetown features several of the same members. Singer/guitarist Johnny Tex and drummer Warren Fisher were in the Future Primitives, a band those split also lead to another South African Favorite of mine, the Gumbo Ya-Ya's. I feel like I re-explain this each time any of these guys puts something out, but guys it is important. This shit is all golden and should be sought after with vigor.

The name of the band could not be more straightforward. They're making fizzy sounding garage pop that as catchy and lovable as sugary soda. And here's the thing, they've got a cover of Thee Milkshakes' "Can't Seem To Love That Girl" on this album, a song that is a personal favorite. This isn't where the connection to Billy Childish ends as far as I am concerned, as the sound of their songs bear a heavily influence from the British garage rocker. Johnny Tex has a noticeably more British affectation to vocals than in the Future Primitives albums and the guitar playing shares Thee Milkshakes' mixture of quick, flashy pop and touches of surfy reverb. I get it, that music was fucking amazing and making anything akin to it is laudable. That said, these songs sound incredibly fresh and current, like it is exactly what I was looking forward to. Not a single dud in the tracklist, yet certain highlights include "Alright," "Tell You Something," and "Feel It In Time." Furthermore, I really gotta give huge kudos to the drumming and bass playing on this album, they carried me through each song like a tidal wave. Really neat stuff, folks.

To be had here:
The Fizz Pops - The Fizz Pops

EP Grab Bag vol. 94

Been a minute since I've gotten around to writing up a Grab Bag. I know I am passing over some EPs I failed to dig out of the pile, but that is life and I'll see what I can do to write them up in the future still. Yet what we got here are a fine mix of lo-fi, electronic, punk and pop. Not a dud among them.

To be had here:

The Gumbo Ya-Ya's - Bad Juju EP (2015)

Heino Retief and his pals are back with new EP of garage rock tunes out of Capetown. The songs bear the fuzzy, jangling sort of lo-fi rocking I've come to expect and cherish from these rather productive South African musicians. Perhaps this EP is a bit more laid back than last year's LP, Superstitious Kisses, as they've taken a more laid back psychedelic and surfy sound. The title track of the EP exemplifies this most wonderfully. Not sure if or when there's to be physical release, but to enjoy soundcloud link for now (unless I wasn't supposed to share it, he didn't give any stipulations though).

Grenades in the Archives - Dressed Up Like Armageddon (2015)

The Boston-based punk rock outfit Grenades in the Archive are back with the second EP to make it into a Grab Bag. In fact, it was just four of these ago I posted Toyko. Nothing wrong with a quick turnaround and certainly not if you'd like a fix on fast, trashy punk rock. The songs are short, loud and intense with a bunch of sounding and very cool guitar playing. My original sentiment from the prior EP is only reinforced upon hearing this latest effort, the perfect thing for a dirty, small venue in which I often have my very best of times at shows. Though it doesn't hurt to hear it alone in my apartment right now either.

Lolita - Doll House EP (2014)

This EP is something I stumbled on when I was doing the Scene of a City: Zagreb post. As they're not from Zagreb but rather the town of Koprivnica in the northeast of Croatia, I decided to save it for a Grab Bag. A short set of songs all in English and display a profoundly excellent understanding of indie and power pop. These are some lovely tunes. The sort of songs that I heard as a teenager and was immediately drawn to without really understanding what they were singing about at all. I'm thinking particularly about Beulah and generally of many others. Of course these songs only got better once I understood them better.

The Penguin Conspiracy - Gazing at the Sky (2015)

A pretty EP by a band from Newton, Massachusetts. Like the prior EP of this Grab Bag it is a fine show of indie/power pop sound, though more washed out and loose sound (whatever the fuck that means, but I think you'll hear it). The singer sorta mumbles through the songs but it is rather endearing and the instrumentation is more complex than a being of the tracks would indicate if you give them the chance to develop. I haven't got any more details on this outfit, but I can say I'm really open to hearing more from them.

Misled Navigator - Cycles of Then (2015)

An EP by the epic electronic and drone musician from Brooklyn, Misled Navigator. Now if I am getting what's happening here correctly (huge chance that I'm not), this dude runs Outward Records, which just released Cold Clouds. But the guy from Cold Clouds runs Revolving Door Records, which this album from Misled Navigator is on. This incestuous loop aside, what we've got here are some phenomenal spacey electronic tunes. They've been tagged as "snythscapes" and "snythwave," which by itself should merit a listen. I know I'm not giving much info on what it sounds like, so you're really gonna have to trust me that this guy's music is always worth hearing.

The Gumbo Ya-Ya's - Superstitious Kisses (2014)

This is good news everybody. More South African garage rock fronted by Heino Retief. In case you're not as an avid of a follower of Retief's work as I am, I can happily recap. There was a little thing called the Revelators that only post-defunctly (I know I made that word up) sent SRM an album to share that was undoubtedly one of the most rocking albums I've heard through the inbox. Then there's the Future Primitives that equalled the garage rock intensity and made ripples all the way over the world with a split with the amazing French group Dusty Mush. Not resting on any laurels in Capetown, it seems there is a new group with a freshly released full-length I get to add to the pedigree. I should add that this new outfit has the same drummer, one Warren Fisher, as the Future Primitives and if he keeps this up he'll have me following whatever does as well.

Superstitious Kisses by the Gumbo Ya-Ya's doesn't leave the lo-fi garage rock realm that the Future Primitives and the Revelators occupied as well, which I still consider good news, never enough good good garage rock. The most noticeable difference is the guitar playing, which makes sense as that is the only musician that is changed out from the last Future Primitives record, with this album featuring a dude called Giovanni Votano. This playing suits what feels like an even more rockabilly, swaggering variation of garage from this nucleus of South African rockers. It's less fuzzed, not totally unfuzzed mind you, but ranges from subtle to showy, displaying some remarkable skill. The vocals are more forward, but still awesomely rather unintelligible until you listen several times. And of course the drumming and bass beat along just so sweetly it is makes for the whole damned album rather endearing. I can listen to albums like Superstitious Kisses for hours on end and I already have.

To be had here:
The Gumbo Ya-Ya's - Superstitious Kisses

EP Grab Bag vol. 62

Tunes, dudes, new tunes. Here's a batch of shit right out of the inbox that seems just happily be a bunch of lo-fi for the most part.

To be had here:
Naysa - Troubled Heart EP (2014)

This a lovely EP from a Winnipeg band that reminds me of Bishop Allen, the Unicorns and Beulah in how they've composed a great set of song with joyful music and gloomy lyrical content. Just four tracks but the last track kinda sucked yet the rest was enough to show me that they are skilled at this charming sub-genre of sad sack indie pop. They thought to compare themselves to the Pixies, Tripping Daisy, and Superchunk but all the shit means next to nothing to me, but I get why it does to people, but as Public Enemy put it "Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me."

The Amphibious Man -  Fraternal Curses (2014)

From the Connecticut I have so recently fled comes this garage rock of a grimy sound with a retro aesthetic that is probably best compared to the Cramps. The tracks have audio sampling of hypnotism and other bizarre older spoken word dropped into their gloomy guitar and deeply croaking singing. Even sounds like they have that distinctively spooky theremin sounds, although I am not sure if it is synthetically produced or sampled. The songs are of a longer, brooding sort of horror punk but some promising garage rock overall.

Mr. Kito - Where Are the Lizards? (2014)

I found this to be a very strange EP. It is electronic music with lyrics in English and sung by a Frenchmen with a pretty heavy accent that now lives in South Africa. Not my usual sort of go to music but I think that perhaps that best thing about this blog other than getting to write puns for time to time is getting exposed things that I normally may not come into contact with. This is a prime example, and it is a pretty neat electronic EP from a man that clearly knows his sound very well.

The Social End Products - Ego Trip (2011)

Here we've got a Greek lo-fi psychedelic band, which is becoming a more common thing for me to type these days and I'd consider that progress. The tracks are on the garage rock side of the psychedelic spectrum, which as you can easily imagine is to my liking. They're raunchy, fuzzy and full of steadily pounding percussion. There's no way I won't be listening to this over and over again on my commutes to work, and perhaps whenever I can hid in the back of the piles of books and pop on some headphones. They also have a more recently full-length that could merit its own write up.

Suzy Blu - BLU (2014)

This is another submission from the rather well curated label Russian Winter Records with an international selection of artists, the same label that Mr. Kito is being release on and the Feel Bad Hit of the Winter. This is an EP from Leeds, United Kingdom and is a electronic pop/post-punk/psych pop admixture that is seems incredibly more adaptable to a dance floor than most of the music we post. Despite this club-friendly sound it is pretty damn rocking in a way I wish the shit I had hear in darkened, overpriced shitholes cost.

The Future Primitives - Into The Primitive (2013)

Hello pilgrims, been a minute since I've posted. Life got busy as it does, and I was in the process of relocating to Connecticut from Detroit as I've grown weary of the Motor City and I have an deep existential dread of dying in the same area I was born and raised in. So my buddy had a spot at a house in the suburbs of Hartford, CT and there I sit now, just need to find some steady work (yes, this is a cry for help). More importantly I wanna thank Elvis for keeping this blog going while I was experiencing my burnt out and fed up phase in Detroit as my ceiling buckled in from flooding, my boss refused to give me a decent raise and I dropped totality of my saving on an old ass Caprice to escape the city. Without Elvis's contributions this blog would have gone silent and that would have been a shame for all the wonderful musicians getting some much needed promotion here, so I thank him again for keeping it going so admirably.

Now for the music, a returning favorite of mine and my favorite band from South Africa (admittedly not the longest list), The Future Primitives. They have released a new full-length and it is every bit as righteous and rocking as there previous work. There skill and musicians and songwriters is developing nicely as the songs, while a raw, distorted and so very sweetly lo-fi sound to be composed with more care and attention. It really allows the guitar playing to absorb a keen listener with the drums hypnotically seducing simultaneously. As with there previous releases this is a great mixture of psychedelic and Dick Dale-esque surf. These guys are truly something else and if you haven't gotten a chance to hear there earlier work I recommend it all. Freely streamable on bandcamp, and a paltry $7 to download for keeps.

To be had here:
The Future Primitives - Into The Primitive

The Future Primitives - Songs We Taught Ourselves (2013)

The much awaited new release from South Africa's premium garage rock outfit, the Future Primitives. Before I let too much out of the bag, this is an album of covers, which if heard without looking at the titles can be really fun trying to place who did them originally during your first listen. I won't say I got them all, but [spoiling begins here] I was so jazzed to hear the Index's righteous "Israeli Blues" that I almost told the homeless dude outside my place about it. Now I know covers are a mixed bag sometimes, but I think garage rock is my absolute favorite way to here anything covered. And it is nothing new for garage rockers to do so, in fact it is a staple of the genre to cover classics. However, most of these tracks aren't from the usually selected sources and it is a credit to the band's knowledge of fine tunes and lo-fi skills to make this endeavor come off so flawlessly. From the Primitives to the Milkshakes to Bo-Weevils they didn't take a misstep. Can't recommend this download enough to anyone that even thinks they might like garage rock.

To be had here:
The Future Primitives - Songs We Taught Ourselves

The Future Primitives - This Here's The Future Primitives EP (2012)

A new South African garage rock release from The Future Primitives, which features membership overlaps with defunct garage rock band The Revelators. Most obviously Heino Retief that sent both of them to me. Recorded to cassette in a Cape Town garage, this is some real lo-fi rock and roll. Loud, fast-paced, surf-tinged guitar and pounding drums drive the EP. Eight tracks, two of them covers, that feel all too brief. The cleverly monikered Johnny Tex appears to be a deft songwriter and guitarist. Very much sounds like something I might hear at a tiny bar show in Hamtramck or Detroit, which is exactly what makes it so appealing to me. Stands up to all the other garage rock I've posted lately without a doubt.

To be had here:

The Future Primitives - This Here's The Future Primitives EP

The Revelators - Kill The Revelators (2011)

This is the unofficial album of Cape Town, South Africa's The Revelators. Recorded at the time the band knew they'd be breaking up it is likely all there'll be from them. Luckily, the bassist, Heino Retief, decided to share it with us. The Revelators are a garage rock band that has that raw, lo-fi punk-inspired sound of the Spaceshits, Oblivions, or Epsilons. Most of the songs feature some rather howling vocals, but there are two instrumental covers that stuck me as particularly good choices: the often redone "Jack the Ripper" and amazingly Dick Dale's "Let's Go Trippin'" which is one of my favorites as done by the Beach Boys. I've listened to it several times over, especially during what has become my favorite time for garage rock, bicycling to and from work. Since was done up as an official release there's no real album art, but Heino sent me in this picture to serve as one. I hope you all enjoy it as I have. Thanks to Heino for some corrections for mistakes I made in my haste to post something before this computer's battery died.

To be had here:
The Revelators - Kill The Revelators [320 kbps]