Baby Jesus - Baby Jesus (2015)

Glorious low fidelity, how I cherish thee. Organs wailing and droning, crashing cymbals, guitars fuzzed to perfection and a singer you couldn't dream of understanding without having hear the tracks nearly a dozen times. The building blocks of a wonderful garage rock album, here executed by the cleverly named Baby Jesus. 

Baby Jesus hail from Sweden and are a newer release from the blog-turned-label, Ongakubaka Records. And that's right, back to back Swedish write-ups (might be time for an examination of a scene). The music of this self-titled album is raw garage, though clearly not amateur, rather it bears a groomed level of dissonance and psychedelia. Heavy hitting too, the band doesn't let up on the intensity anywhere in these songs. Moreover, the organ most especially, added by same wild guitar licks, creates a retro feeling that is very easy to get behind. As if a band from a Nuggets of 4-Wheels 1960s compilations really cut fucking loose and made something powerfully lo-fi. There's nods to 60s surf rock as well, such as the Dick Dale-esque "Nice Walk." Not an album to be ignored by a fans of garage, new or old, or anyone seeking to hear an excitedly washed out sound.

To be had here:
Baby Jesus - Baby Jesus

Eating Cake with Friends - Fork Your Tongue, Hold Your Breath (2015)

I like that despite the fact that I've got more music sitting on a hard drive on my office desk and even without it I have more music than I can ever get to hear merely from submitted albums that I can still lament that a beautiful album is finished all too quickly. Fork Your Tongue, Hold Your Breath provoked this convivially delirious affect in me.

These are songs of a Swedish man opening himself up quite admirably. His submission email was very brief, giving only the details that he recorded to on one track, the microphone was stolen, and that he's had some troubles in life. Haven't we all got troubles? However, he's got some talent to balance it out with, apparent through these murkily recorded songs. Simple in structure, the tracks haven't much more than his voice, an acoustic guitar, and some occasional keys and percussion. Naturally, the lo-fi recording technique adds a warm, cozy buzz. The songs, and especially his vocal delivery, are exceedingly lovely and without need of embellishment. It also sent me back to listen to the music of his fellow Swede, Horrible Houses. They're very much of the same gloomy folk vein. And one could cast back for references to the lauded Nick Drake or the Canadian outfit Timber Timbre, keeping in mind that Eating Cake with Friends is far more stripped down and lo-fi than either.

To be had here:
Eating Cake with Friends - Fork Your Tongue, Hold Your Breath

EP Grab Bag vol. 95

A heavy, lo-fi and strange Grab Bag today. Mixture of American and European bands, a few of them previously featured and others are new outfits to keep on eye on. Just the beginning of an absolute deluge of submitted material I came back to after taking even a few days off from writing this blog. Man can't work on labor day after all, not a good socialist like me, nor the couple of days after seemingly.

To be had here:
Cavedweller - Small Wonder EP (2015)

The return of the Texan who records as Cavedwelller. Last I wrote this guy up was when they had a couple of EPs out in 2012, but I am glad he thought to send me this latest effort. The main tone, that of a laid-back psychedelic sound, is consitent with what I was familiar with from him. However, this time I get a much more punchy, indie pop feeling, something like Apples in Stereo with much more garage rock influence. Beautiful EP anyway you wanna describe it.

The Beardy Durfs - Poppy (2015)

First band I've written up from Copenhagen in many years (I should look into rectifying this). The Beardy Duffs are a fine band to break this terrible streak with however. Their songs are eclectic, but all veering toward the unconventional. The first track "Get Back in Line" is a real gem, selling me on the band straightaway. The rest of Poppy does a fair enough job at maintaining the weird noise rock thereafter, especially with the bizarre and charming "Fat Cat." There'll be more to come, as this is purported to be the first of a three EP series.

Monster Surprise - Joie EP (2015)

The freaky French outfit Monster Surprise has a new two track EP, again from the Parisian label/blog, With A Messy Head. Keeps the weird psychedelic tone that's been the theme of this Grab Bag so far as well as what I was prepared for from Monster Surprise. Yet I wasn't expecting to be so enamored with these two short songs. Both of these tracks are out there and in markedly different ways. "Manège"is very brief and jaunty, while "Le Sens Contraire Des Aiguilles Du Monstre" is rather ethereal and experimental. Fine work all the way around.

Salem Wolves - Black Books (2015)

Unadulterated garage rock from Salem, Massachusetts. The album art and lyrics are referential of their town's puritanical/occult history but musically they remind me a great deal of Midwestern garage rock bands. This is no slight, for Midwestern lo-fi rock is by bread and butter music and what I spent much my adolescence and adulthood listening to. The outright catchiest songs are probably "Rumblr" and "There Be Wytches," though my ears always perk when I hear a lyric about a 'Southern Michigan town' in "Black Books."

Vespa Woman - Never Louder Than Lovely (2015)

Speaking of Midwestern garage rock, here is some of the genuine product. Wisconsin-based Vespa Woman makes some righteous guitar-driven rock ('alternative' as some may say, but that term means nothing to me). As it leans toward the punk end of the garage spectrum as far my ears go, and does a good job a laying everything on delightfully heavy. A compelling debut EP, and I hope I get to hear more of them as they hone their sound further.

Brother Low Elephant Grass - Alien Anarchy (2015)

I've been thinking about places lately. Places I'd like to live, places my friends tell me they're planning to move to, places I'll only get to see via photography. As I'm pondering all these locations there's a large oversight. I'm only looking at Earth, and if it is all fantasy in the end why not throw in outer space to the pondering? At least, this is what Brother Low Elephant Grass inserted into my mind as I heard their very weird music.

Alien Anarchy isn't simply a creative title. Rather it particularly describes the sound of the album. It truly contains an incredibly far out avant-garde sound, full of prog-like guitar, an massive amount of effects and a very competent composition of all these multifaceted parts into enjoyable songs. The experimental nature of this album is what prodded my brain out of considering various exotic locales and straight into the limits of what science fiction has to offer. In a quite brief time period at that. What I'm trying to say is, this album is transportive. It'll take you to some legit cosmonaut nightmares if you want. That said, the tracks "Monk" and "Reality Clashes With The Content Of My Mind" are some spectacular lo-fi tunes that I'm ever so eager for everyone to hear.

To be had here:

Brother Low Elephant Grass - Alien Anarchy

Kudzu - Cairoglyphics (2015)

Springfield, Missouri's Kudzu are now out with a full-length effort after providing us with a glimpse of their potential in last year's EP. And, yes, before you wonder too long this is the band that's the sister band of the most righteous garage rock outfit, the Gorlons. Their memberships overlap as does the penchant for fine lo-fi songwriting. However, Kudzu makes songs that are more aptly called post-punk, though they're rather nebulous to categorize overall. Perhaps the best comparisons other far to place bands like Cretin Stompers or The Dictaphone, though these are not analogs. The tone of Cairoglyphics is kinda eerie and surreal, the songs being heavily washed out and psychedelic to brilliant effect. And let's get it straight, these are fucking outrageously good these songs. It bears the marks of being a hard to exhaust album, those which repeated listenings will reveal another of the tracks as being your new favorite. At this moment I'm really digging on "Thick Airs" and "Crumm" but I am certain that'll shift soon enough.

Finally, not sure if I ever mentioned it but I have a cat named Cairo, so the album name Carioglyphics summons the image of that fat, furry dude writing down picture words. Now I'm gonna be thinking about that as "Death Rattles" plays in my head all day...

To be had here:
Kudzu - Cairoglyphics

Slanted - Forever (2015)

Now that "the 90s sound" has been making a comeback. I've spent some time trying to figure out exactly what the fuck that means. Whatever one's opinion is, most would agree that the sound in question refers to indie rock. It's not "gangster rap", "ska punk", "rap metal" or any other genre that helped define the American popular music of the 1990s. No, it refers to the genre that percolated just beneath the topsoil, dimly lit by it's proximity to the spotlight shining on those who were thrust into the mainstream.

Underground bands made it big in the 90s... bands like Soundgarden or Pavement, or at least made it bigger. I don't think Kim Thayil or Steve Malkmus are, now, wiping their asses with one hundred dollar bills, but for a moment there, they probably could have and it wouldn't have broken their banks. But even those musicians didn't really play the kind of music that is now making a comeback. The 90s rehash sound is more pop oriented.

Nashville band Slanted have this sound. They could've easily existed along other indie-pop bands of the mid-90s: Syrup USA, Verbena, Elf Power... American bands that built upon the sound birthed out of the UK and New Zealand in the 80s. Slanted's music takes me right back to my high school days, before the internet, where I tried to find cool music by listening to Princeton College radio, recording 120 minutes to VHS, and buying records I'd never heard just because they were in the Parasol catalog (that's right: catalogs of records! Made out of real paper!)

I'm a sucker for this sound, and a sucker for this band.

11 songs.

Slanted - Forever

The Whiskey Predicament - Escape From the Meat Market (2014)

Charlotte's The Whiskey Predicament is an excellent name for a band. Resonates acutely with my personal relationship with the brown liquid, namely that I like to drink it but it never turns out to be a good choice. It's lovely yet troublesome, like most women I find myself attracted to and the sentiments of a good folk song. And while I'd still call Escape From the Meat Market a folk album, it isn't the stripped down sort. In fact, it's more along the lines of full sounding garage-folk artists like the Strange Boys, Dead Ghosts, or even Bloodshot Bill. While acoustic guitar makes the centerpiece of the songs, there's so much going on from organs, horns, harmonica and hard to identify yet rather cool squealing. 

I received this album in the inbox a bit ago and I have been steadily listening to it ever since. However, as shit goes I haven't gotten a good chance to sit down and spout off about it. Business as usual there, but I do get little tingle of guilt whenever I would hear it and know I should get to saying something about it. Though I was enjoying it too much to stop listening. Found the entirity of the album quite appealing, with the tracks "The Architect Song," "Better Than Before" and "Don't Look Back" begin among the highlights for me.

To be had here:
The Whiskey Predicament - Escape From the Meat Market

Shakey Graves - Roll The Bones (2011)

Shakey Graves is the music project of Alejandro Rose-Garcia. The music is country-influenced lo-fi folk. Looking at his bandcamp page, which features several booking and publicity contacts from all over the world, I feel like Shakey Graves is a bit bigger than bands normally posted on Spacerockmountain. This Austin musician is also on an extensive tour of North America, and will soon be playing Portland's Crystal Ballroom in May - that's no small feet for someone I've never heard of, considering this is a venue where bigger names play while visiting the "Rose City".

I really enjoy the music on Roll The Bones. It's got an old-timey folk vibe throughout. It's his earliest post to bandcamp, though I imagine he's been writing and recording prior to 2011 judging by the quality of his musical abilities. The tunes are bold, but not overbearing. There's a good pace from song to song ... hills leading easily into valleys rhythmically, and the harmonies are minimal but lush. Roll The Bones is that rare record you could easily play while commuting or making dinner... anywhere where silence can be filled with a record that's easy on the ears.

I'm not one to quickly subscribe to this sort of music, either, a testament to the quality of this music. That said, I'm always a sucker for a good voice, and Alejandro definitely has one.

It's pay what you want for 10 songs, including a fantastic cover of Johnny Chash's "I'm On Fire", done with only an acoustic bass guitar and vocals.

Listen and download here: Shakey Graves - Roll The Bones

Buy the vinyl: HERE

Like him on Facebook: HERE

Khun Narin - Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band (2014)

I throughly enjoy the music I get to write up on this blog. Wouldn't bother to write it otherwise, right? However, I have noticed it can fall into periods of similar music on which I have many thoughts, all them being some form of psychoanalyzing myself. This makes it nice when something is genuinely new to me, breaking any mold I've created in the past and forcing me to scramble to understand the new sounds in a vacuum.

Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band has a title that merits attention in and of itself. I hadn't a clue what a phin was and whether was usually electric. Turns out it is a lute from Indochina and that upon being electrified can produce an amazingly psychedelic sound. There's actually a compelling history in a couple of paragraphs on the bandcamp page as to how these Thai musicians got exposure in the West at all. It includes details like the rotating membership of the band, including a wide range of ages for the musicians from teens to those in the 60s. I am sure the story has been written by someone already, better than I can relate it, but I do wanna express how fucking cool this music is. Some of the finest psychedelia I've gotten to experience in weeks and will certainly be added to the list of albums I pull out when trying to impress folks with something under-heard and brilliant. 

Finally, as much as I'd like to take credit for finding this band, I must say that this unique and obscure find is thanks to my friend from São Paulo, the same that alerted be to the recent reissue of the Bonifrate EP. Truly making herself an valuable asset.

To be had here:
Khun Narin - Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band

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.