Painted Faces - Tangleweird (2012) & New Jams (2012)

It seems that mail that isn't a bill or junk is rather hard to come by, and in my neighborhood even harder to insure it'll be there at all if it doesn't fit in my tiny mailbox. Yet the best scenario is to find a package containing cassettes tapes, and I've been lucky enough to have this happen for the second time this month, this time with three tapes. From the Brooklyn-based label Cookies N' Creme Records there were two tapes of experimental music by Painted Faces and one by Michael Amason and DENSITY (which I'll go into more detail about in the next Grab Bag).

As mentioned Painted Faces (really the solo project of a dude called David Drucker) makes experimental music, of a pretty fantastical and outlandish sort. I listened to Tangleweird first so I'll start with noting the intense use of noise and disordering feeling it lays on like mole sauce on a wet burrito. Dissonance is the game and they've got a cacophonous strategy. In contrast, New Jams seems much more subtle; coming closer to ambient for long stretches than any part of Tangleweird. In fact a whole range of experimental music appears, from slow droning to avant-garde art-rock complete with guitar riffs and crazy vocals. I've found the variety and the uniqueness to be quite endearing, especially if repeated listening is undertaken. Thanks for the tapes, keep on freaking me out just a bit and see a promising future for us all. Final note, each of these is $3 to  download via bandcamp, but obviously streamable and like 90% of the tracks are downloadable for free individually.

To be had here:

Tangleweird

New Jams

Heat Dust - S/T (2011)

Well, it's about 100 degrees in Portland today. We don't really know what to do with extreme weather, except drink, which is one thing Portlanders do best. A few years back a heat wave brought 100+ degree weather for a whole week and I must've seen at least 5 drunken fights as I drove around the city. Known for milder summers, Portland was void of air conditioners by the third day of that week, just as during the "Snowpocalypse" of 2008, when automotive stores ran out of chains and everyone had to use gardening shovels to clear their sidewalks and streets. If you take these examples, along with having more strip clubs per capita than any other US city, Portland is invariably the city caught with it's pants down.

But I digress…

Given we're in the middle of summer and it's so hot, it seems only fitting to write about New Orleans band, Heat Dust. Reminiscent of 90's indie rock like Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, Heat Dust play their songs through a thicket of distortion and feedback. In that respect, they shows hues of shoegaze and grunge… even on the slower songs, the crunch remains. I really enjoy their songwriting and vocal delivery, which is melodic and laid-back despite the urgency of the faster songs.

Also want to point out their excellent lyrics. In my stints of songwriting, I always found words to be the toughest part. The kinds of lyrics Heat Dust write are poetic. "Saved by a woman's arms, we plummeted and flew. A trail of blue velvet was left behind in figure 8's." There's something so triumphant about those words, that image. Much of the other lyrical content is darker, a standout line being, "You'll serve a purpose when wild flowers grow from your lifeless bones. Just give up."

Really good stuff, and I don't think it's all a 90's nostalgia thing, though that's undoubtedly a part of it. I'm going to be keeping an eager eye on this band.

Heat Dust - S/T

The Golden Growth - October 12 2011

This is a cassette I recieved from the same fella in Arizona who submitted the Dual Mausoleums (now called People's Temple, I believe) album last year. I think, not with complete confidence, that they're labelmates rather than the same person behind this project. Either way, this is a related sort of sound, namely dissonance. The whole thing appears as a half-jest regarding the rejection of rock and roll, which is in fact played out avant-garde noise contained on the cassette, and more obiviously pointed out by the label's site: I Sold My Soul To Destroy Rock and Roll. Also found the note on the tape stating, "In October of 2011 the mentally ill joined forces and cut a hit record," to be rather enjoyable. However, it doesn't really matter all that much how you feel about their stances being a joke or honestly held, the fact is they've given you some noise music to consume if that's your thing. Goddamn fit perfectly with the latest extentialist novel I've decided to torture myself with this month.

To be had here:
The Golden Growth - October 12 2011

EP Grab Bag vol. 22

Got a fuck ton of EPs lately so I feel I'm gonna be rolling out Grab Bags like a madman for a bit, but I have gotten some real good tapes lately, just need to sit down with them another time to write them up, so look forward to that, or not, whatever.

To be had here:
Horrible Houses - Be Alright (2012)

Now if only from this EP alone I felt I had to do another EP Grab Bag. Also helps I've been sent like 90% EP submissions in the last month. However, this is a Swedish project (I believe) that makes some of the most charming lo-fi rock I've heard in a good deal. Got a lighthearted tone that in equal parts reminds me of early psych and garage rock as it does 80s/90s lo-fi pop. Really wonderful and most highly recommended. Here's their soundcloud and the main link's to the EP I was sent via mediafire.



Minaret - Black Tower (2012)

This is a five track album/EP (sorta mingles in the middle) of psychedelic drone. Does have vocals, which are rather good, but still does that instrumental mesmerizing that's ever so sweet about drone/post-rock. Some pretty solid epic tracks are included especially the closing song, "Enemy of the Stars," which is easily my favorite off the release.

Planet Magic Man - GROO EP (2012)

Finally, as I am sitting outside the closed library snagging this wifi and the rains beginning to fall I'll end this Grab Bag with this third excellent EP from a Los Angles-based "folktronic" group. Now I've got nothing against that term, but I think they're a bit more jangling pop music than folk-anything. Nonethelss, there are for stellar tracks that'll sink right into your brain and leave you hankering for several re-listenings.

The Woolen Men - S/T (2012)

Here's the new release from Portland's hardest working band, The Woolen Men. A few months back I posted their first tape, Pavilion, which came out in 2009. Three years later, they're up to their 6th or 7th tape, I think. This is definitely the second one to drop in 2012.

That's a lot of numbers.

They are simply a great band interested only in writing some of the catchiest pop songs possible. Their songs are well-crafted and reminiscent of The Kinks, Guided By Voices, The Clean, and Camper Van Beethoven.

This release comes as the band readies themselves for a small west coast tour. It's "name your price" for the month of August only, so grab it for free or toss them some coinage.

And if they come to your town, get off your ass and go see them, for chrisakes. Tour dates below.

The Woolen Men - S/T

August 15 - Portland @ Holocene w/ Wymond Miles (of Fresh and Onlys)
August 16 - Eugene @ Wandering Goat w/ Autumn's Done Come, Father Figure
August 17 - Oakland @ TBA
August 18 - San Diego @ TBA w/ Mad Kiwi, Lame Drivers
August 19 - LA @ TBA w/ Corners, Buffalo Eye, Radios, Lame Drivers
August 20 - SF @ the Knockout w/ Lame Drivers
August 21 - Sacto @ Luigi's Fungarden & Slice w/ Charles Albright, Apache Dropout, Lame Drivers
August 23 - Portland @ Record Room w/ the Bugs, Lame Drivers

Spiral - Mind Trip in A Minor (2012)

This is the second time appearing on Spacerockmountain for this New Mexican psychedelic/progressive rock band, Spiral. Like the previous albums, The Traveler and The Capital in Ruins, this release is a highly cinematic and epic effort, sometimes reaching close to macabre (just look at that creepy album art). Heavily effected vocals, building instrumentation and shifting melodies make it hard to not pay attention while it's playing. Does as fine a job as the other stuff they've sent into me for all the same reasons, so I do recommend it to any and all that enjoyed their other work or other albums I've tagged at progressive. They're only selling it on their bandcamp page without streaming but gave me permission to share it via another file service for readers, so take advantage of that and throw them the $3 if wanna help them out.

To be had here:
Spiral - Mind Trip in A Minor

Coyotes in the Room - Love Stuff Cheap Smokes (2012)

Every time these Indianian fellas send me in an album, and that's quite frequently as they've been pumping out these babies multiple times a year, I sit down to listen without quite being sure what'll hear yet in possession of strong confidence it'll be mighty fine. If you're unfamiliar with Coyotes in the Room, which would be awfully surprising for a regular reader of this blog as they're easily most commonly legally posted band, the group makes genre-crossing lo-fi ranging from ethereal folk to noisy rock to washed out covers of classic songs. Having mentioned the covers I can't restrain myself from applauding their selection of Mississippi John Hurt's "Nobody's Dirty Business" this time, a song that hold a special spot in my heart and I can't stand to go more than a week without hearing. However, this isn't the whole album naturally, and hardly the only song that caught my ear. The title track is a particularly well done folk/rock tune, "Queen of the Bus Stop" is a dreamy sounding lo-fi pop number, and "Hubba Hubba" has those screeching guitars I adore so very much. I've said before that I want these guys to keep it up and this album only reinforces that sediment.

To be had here:

Coyotes in the Room - Love Stuff Cheap Smokes

Pussy Riot - 4 songs

Maybe you've all heard by now, but there's a riot grrrl/punk band from Russia who were arrested this past winter for performing an anti-Putin song at Russia's main cathedral in Moscow. Three members are still in prison and face up to several years in prison if convicted (they are being charged with "hooliganism", which sounds like something old people accuse young people of practicing.) Many protests in Russia are ongoing for the band. One Russian artist went so far as to sew his own mouth shut in protest of their incarceration.

Even Amnesty International has called for the release of the women, calling them "prisoners of conscience".

Not to get too political on what is purely a music blog, but the whole thing is fucked up and Russia is being run by crooks, clowns, and sadists ... not unlike many countries including my own ...but at least I could write a song called "Every Politician Is A Fucknut" and not serve years in prison for it. 

That's all I'll say about that.

Anyway, it's surprising that there's hardly anyone posting the recordings of this band. The four songs below are super lo-fi and in Russian so I'm completely in the dark as to what they are saying... so maybe that's why. Despite my ignorance, though, I was able to pick out words that sounded like "protest" "Putin" and, yes, even "vodka". The songs are more similar to Minor Threat in sound than Bikini Kill, but either way, it's frustration and anger that ties Pussy Riot into the same class as both those bands. 

I hope that the protests in support of Pussy Riot continue to grow until shit hits the Russian fan. If nothing else, what's happening is a testament to the power of music.

Want to get involved? Write a letter to Vladimir Putin yourself.

Or just give these whippersnappers a listen.

Pussy Riot - 4 songs

Roselit Bone - Live at Ella Street Social Club (2012)

In a city with so many musicians, it's surprising how uniform the music can sometimes feel. The venues, who only seem interested in booking indie/garage/punk bands, get the lion's share of blame. But, truth be told, so are the people that go to those venues ...those who'd rather feel their adrenaline surge than have their ears and, whatever's left in-between them, stimulated. 

This is why Roselit Bone, who play minimal gothic country with twinges of punk, are kind of a Portland anomaly. They often find themselves playing to these crowds and the audiences are usually more polite than ecstatic, which is a shame because this duo is something pretty special. 

Here's a live set they recently played in downtown Portland at a tiny venue called the Ella Street Social Club. One of the first things you'll notice is frontman Josh McCaslin's forceful, bellowing vocal delivery as he spits lyrics like "there are figures in the shadows of the seeping mist, that find you choking on your sorrows and the smell of piss". On other songs he's the opposite of this, crooning melodically over guitar lines that hint at Josh's skill at the instrument, which is most apparent in the ballad "My Coward Heart", a mellifluous song about the yearnings of a parasitic love. The crooning continues on the song that shares the band's name, where we're transported to a tragic scene as war has exiled a couple, "love me like you love the ocean, love me like you love the open sea, there are horses on the road and my legs are weak, love me, and stand up to meet them". 

This is not your bubbly, teenage love note … this is some epic shit.

Lyrics go on to weave images of desperation, death, and self-loathing. The songs are dark, but aren't completely without optimism. In the fantastic closer, "In My Egg", the narrator sees a pitiful old man crossing a bridge and thinks, "I hope I am not him one day, and that I still find some beauty - in the yellow lamplight of decay - in a dirty, rainy city." Well, maybe that's not very optimistic... but, as Anne Frank said, "Where there's hope, there's life."

Roselit Bone play around with folk and country traditions but inject it with dust, blood, gasoline, and tears. It's loud and rageful, it's quiet and solemn … it's probably one of the few bands, not just in Portland but in any city, keeping the flame of the oil lamp lit for this musical style and I cannot urge you enough to give them a listen.

Roselit Bone - Live at Ella Street Social Club 

EP Grab Bag vol. 21

So here's a damned admirable selection of EPs I've received lately. Two returning acts and two new bands. Forgive any writing mistakes, I know I do them all the time but I've got an excuse of drinking a whole pot of coffee and reading Ernesto Sábato's existentialist novel The Tunnel. It's kinda fucking around with my head, its got a strange structure to it. Perhaps I need to just cut to the chase and start taking psychotropics, but in the meantime check out all this shit. Also, there's some damn fine album art this time too.

To be had here:

Secret Geometry - EP (2012)

A recently released EP from a Grand Rapids-based band. Four psychedelic garage rock tracks which toward the end seem to unravel  into improvised noise. I think they're quite capable of putting together a good album and I look forward to hearing if they do so, especially if it takes after the first track found on this EP, "Wage Slave."

Happy Daze - Centralized Revolutions EP (2012)

After I posted up Happy Daze's Ghost Tales a week ago I was also informed there's a new EP, and since it is in every bit as delightful as the full-length I've decided to include it in this Grab Bag for all those unaware of its release. The looping effect on the acoustic guitar reminds me of Entrance's Honey Moan EP, which is still one of my favorite things to listen to.

How Scandinavian - Pity Won EP (2012)

Another returning band, as I posted the full-length titled Dolorous some months back. If the note on the bandcamp page is read it'll explain that this is a meant as a bridge between that album and a planned new release. This did a good deal in clearing up the noticeable transition that happens through the EP from noisy post-punk toward a rhythmic slowcore. Left me curiously interested for the next project for sure.


Tiny Swimmers - Spurtin' Spirit (2012)

Out of Minneapolis here's some "semi-electronic psychedelic garage punk" as they've helpfully self-described it. As the series of adjectives imply, they've got a range of styles and influences appearing seemingly haphazardly throughout the eight songs of the EP. Nevertheless the less out of dissonance comes an order, and the whole affair gives me images of a grimy, loud future. Like that food stall in Blade Runner.