King Cayman - Mirror's Carnival (2015)

As promised the return of another artist that I highly, and I still believe rightly, praised. This time the Madrid-based extreme lo-fi garage rocker known a King Cayman. Although he's got more work out there, the only other album I've written up by this dude was last years Dream. The core of King Cayman's style has carried over into Mirror's Carnival, which specifically is an very intense lo-fi punk sound complete with harsh, growling vocals. Although those vocals bear an adorable Spanish accent. But truly, it is fast, loud and trashy in a way that makes me think of the King Khan & BBQ Show, Ty Segall or Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion in overdrive, even perhaps Jon Spencer's work with Pussy Galore mightn't measure up to quite how blown up King Cayman is aiming for. That said, it isn't all off the rails, he does take time to make more drawn out, though no less fuzzy and weird, tracks such as "Hole."

Also, when you download the whole album from the bandcamp it comes with a series of bonus tracks. Six in all, two of which were recorded in Venice and four from a basement of some place called Pad Pend's basement. These songs are all fucking totally great and worth your trouble.

To be had here:
King Cayman - Mirror's Carnival

Wolf Mountains - Birthday Songs For Paul (2014)

A garage punk album has been overdue on the posts lately. It is always overdue in my day-to-day. I cannot ever get enough if it, though as you can very well see from what I've been posting recently I often stray for considerable periods of time nonetheless. Yet that time has come that I've hit a wall, and without seeing any garage floating around in the submissions (perhaps I didn't dig enough, but I am fundamentally lazy the inbox), I looked for something on my own. It took very little time to find Wold Mountain, who aren't to be confused with any of the other panalopy of bands that have "wolf" in this name, nor written off for the same reason.

Wolf Mountain are from Stuttgart, Germany and play a very lo-fidelity garage punk. The songs do get quite heavy and sleazy sounding, and overall the band does fall towards the trashy punk style. However, they don't just jump into it (not that there's anything wrong with that in punk rock). What I'm trying to say is they make a real show of it. It isn't all howling and fuzz though these have a prominent place. The songs are pretty complex and artsy as far as garage punk goes. Moreover, while there are likely many more contemporary comparisons to make I am gonna go grandiose and say they remind me of Television. This is about the highest praise I can give a band. Birthday Songs For Paul does many of the things I cherish in Television's albums, they're real and deep, songful compositions. In the sort period one gets to dwell within them they do more than satisfy the desire for noise done up with an overlay of melody. These Germans are musicians.

To be had here:
Wolf Mountains - Birthday Songs For Paul 

King Cayman - Dream (2014)

Another album from Spain,  this time a very different sort of lo-fi record from Madrid's King Cayman from what I've been writing up lately, but a style I am so very familiar with. King Cayman is a moniker for a one-man band of very trashy, bluesy garage punk and with nothing more than that description it already can summon references to Jeans Wilder, King Tuff and BBQ, which of course was name used by Mark Sultan's early name on his early albums and still does use when teamed with King Khan. Musically I find it hard to imagine that this Spaniard doesn't listen to all of these musicians and dozens more that could be dug up from the beer-soaked barrooms they tend to play in. 

The songs you'll hear on Dream are oscillate between heavier and trashier blues punk along the lines of a stripped down Jon Spencer project like Heavy Trash or Pussy Galore, yet other times he gets quirkily creative and offbeat in a way that reminds me of Jeffrey Novak's solo work. King Cayman's tunes are incredibly seeped in the DIY philosophy of punk; the album was done on a low budget as you can imagine, so low that real drums were out of the picture so a drum machine is substituted. Nevertheless, this guy clearly isn't any old fool playing rock music as he has an remarkable prowess for forging some energetic bursts of garage rock majesty. The songs became immediately stuck in my head and required a re-listening, all the while digging for whatever it was that compelled to me heard it again and again.

Not every album I hear and like causes me to want to hear the music, not even some albums I that've become favorites of mine and others I want to hear repeatedly sometimes burn me out and I don't wanna return for prolonged times. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to which albums take hold of me in these ways, but I'm fairly confident this could become a garage classic for me. King Cayman has captured a feeling of irreverence and bravado that I have a supreme longing and might only exist in works of art, in which case I might have to settle for imagining it to songs like these.

Should you desire to hear more of this fella's music he had a demo album released on the UK label Foxbourne Tapes.

To be had here:

King Cayman - Dream

EP Grab Bag vol. 34

Sunken Seas – High Rise (2013)

I love Acid Mothers Temple, and I got a distinct whiff of that band in this first EP from New Zealand’s own Sunken Seas. Layered psychedelic guitar effects hang over a driving, constant beat that eventually introduces a pulsating riff. If you like your rock and roll to be spacey and experimental without losing its rock sensibilities, this is a record for you. As I pull on my work clothes, this is the kind of music I want to hear.

The Inverted Orange – ST (2013)

It was a psychedelic morning here at SpaceRock when I played through the aforementioned release and then this nice release from Prison Art records in Brooklyn. I assumed someone had spiked my coffee with acid, but then I realized I always eat an omelet with magic shrooms. This release is more on the bedroom pop, reverb heavy side of the equation and would be a fine wake up set for any of you struggling to face another day as a mindless wage slave. 

Wonderflu – No End in Sight (2013)

I am on to my drive to work. Lots of assholes moving in and out of traffic. I catch a view of a kid on a skateboard and wish I would have chosen that form of transportation to get to where I need to go. France’s Wonderflu only added to my angst, with their fuzzy 90s inspired power pop and more-than-pissed vocal delivery. 

Gasoline Eyes – Gasoline Thighs (2013)

Speaking of kids, this group from Los Angeles is made up of lads all still in high school. That pisses me off, because this is great lo-fi garage rock that only makes me think of the wasted years I spent as a teenager trying to bang cholas and get trashed. It is pretty lo-fi and heavy on the fuzzy side of rock, but if you read this blog you probably think that is a good thing. I do, and I dig this shit. 

Sneeky Creeps – Bell St. Radio (2013)

Fuck, my boss is a dick. So what if the woman in the cubicle next to me is a uber-Christian and doesn’t like the sweet sound of Slayer? Ok fine, I’ll put something “nicer” on. The Sneeky Creeps are two dudes from Kansas City that make some pleasant mid-tempo trash rock. I really loved this sound back in 1999, and I am glad to see some folks are still out there doing it right. 

Dead Leaf Echo – Thought and Language (2013)

I don’t know about you, but the last 3 hours of my work life is a drunken haze. Today especially so. Too many people have pissed me off, and I need music that will relax me and take me to a different place. Thankfully Dead Leaf Echo has come along with their outstanding new shoegaze release. Tracks like “Kingmaker” provide the lush vocal/guitar harmonies that you have come to expect from the genre, and give me a taste of relief from the terror that is cubicle life.