Cody Blanchard - HALLOWEEN EP VOL 1 (2020)

Here is an ode to Halloween from Shannon and The Clams guitarist/vocalist Cody Blanchard. It's a lean 2 songs, both covers, done with acoustic guitar and vocals. 

Blanchard's approach is perfect: taking upbeat, punk rock classics and conjuring each into a dark, cold folk song lead by his ghostly but beautiful falsetto. These covers are so good they might just become staples to your Halloween playlists for years and years to come. 

Released 3 years ago in the thick of the pandemic. Hopefully we will be getting a volume 2 sometime soon.

Featuring "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" by the Ramones and "Halloween" by The Misfits.

Cody Blanchard - HALLOWEEN EP VOL 1

The Sad Bastard Book Club - The Crow Nose Quartet's "Carrion, My Wayward Son" (2014)

The Sad Bastard Book Club are a San Francisco doom-folk band that has been playing their brand of depressing, climatic rock music for a few years now. More than willing to wear their literate hearts on their sleeves, I personally find this type of post-rock to be some of the best the city has to offer. While most bands regulate themselves to a specific scene and tone, the SBBC crafts music that can easily fit next to many of the competing genres rubbing shoulders in the Bay Area. Sure, the song titles are long as hell (I find myself having to go back over them a few times as I write this guarantee their correct wording), but the ideas presented in them are ones that are universal. Sadness, depression, death: few bands operating today weave together tales incorporating these concepts more competently than this group. In fact, even if no vocals were present, the music is so strong that the entire record could operate as an instrumental. Hard to say that about most acts.

Get it here:
The Sad Bastard Book Club - The Crow Nose Quartet's "Carrion, My Wayward Son" (2014)

EP Grab Bag vol. 51

Fuck all that romantic love shit, how about love for some of the submissions sent to SpaceRockMountain that got lost in the shuffle? You see folks, we get a lot of submissions around these parts, and just giving 10 minutes per release can be a time consuming task. Sometimes great music goes unposted, and these are just a few I pulled from the depths of the email box.

Eddie Brnabic and the Cosmic Fellowship - Subtle Realms (2013)

These stoned out psychedelic jams should have gotten the proper spin they deserved when they were submitted. This stuff is like smoking a blunt and then riding a water slide into hell with Tony Lommi. I love me some sloppy lo-fi guitar work, but this is as far from that description as one can be. Highly competent and polished, in all good ways.

Chris Naish - Reasons to Run (2013)

Any song with the lyric "you make a rainbow of my grave" is worthy of a Valentine's Day post. Straightforward, fuzzy singer songwriter stuff with just enough piss and vinegar to add to your lonely french fries dinner.

Leaves Aflame - ST (2014)

I know people still say they hate it, but Prog rock still has a lot of room in my hallow heart. Building worlds is not an easy thing, whether it be literature, film, or music. When done right, a cast of characters interacts with a setting I am willing to travel to, and this Illinois group does that well.

Slenko and Hyde - Back Roads (2013)

I think we have written something about these chaps in the past; they sound awfully familiar. Creative anti-folk from Connecticut. What is with all the good music out of Connecticut these days?

Palermo - Still Life (2013)

What would be a EP Grab bag without a little experimental post-rock? These kids from Prague made one of the better vinyl releases I should have been enjoying for some time prior to this. "Monochrom" is my favorite track off this release.

Temples - Temples (2013)

By this point, you sad single bastards in the crowd are starting to well up thinking of some unrequited love. Well, grab another beer because Temples wont make you feel any better. Plodding post-rock from Middle America. Just be thankful you are not from Utah like these kids are, and then you will feel a bit better.

Harry Cloud - Our Love is Bad (2013)

There is no more fitting release to end our depressing Love Day special. This band mentioned in their submission that this was recorded under extreme duress. Stylistically, I would put these in the "folk music made alone in a dark room category" so maybe this kid really was at the end of the line. Although, he made a record after this one, so I guess everything worked out.

EP Grab Bag vol. 49

Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty (2013)

When you are a dark lord like myself, you often require minions to carry out nefarious plans. Yet, minions provide little in the way of conversation and companionship, and thus a black queen is required. Chelsea Wolfe would be an ideal ruler of my evil domain in hell, and her 2013 is one of the best "pop" records I have heard in some time. "We Hit a Wall" showcases her haunting vocals as a cold beat lurches the track towards its ominous end. Even if she were to reject my advances, a shrine will be built to her visage in Hell.

Yosa Buson and Travel by Train - Izarra (2013)

My label-mates have crafted another fine set of drone and dark-synth inspired jams that were played while I tortured a few pirates from the 18th century.  Pirates from that era have a real aversion to experimental music, and my master on high wanted to send a message to all the miscreants on the open sea.

Atu - Pictures on Silence (2013)

Hip Hop is a new thing in your world, so we have only started to recruit members of the community into Hell's fold. Little do most humans know, but simply owning a Rap record is enough to get you a meeting with a dark lord once you have bitten the dust. I think we will make an exception for Atu. This is clean, bouncy Hip-Hop that is just odd enough to make it out of place at a high school dance party. Beautiful and enchanting beats that show what a producer can do when not confined to the whims and ego of a popstar.

Vinter - Vinter II (2010)

It was unknown to me when it was released a few years back, but this gem forwarded to me last week would have surely been on my best of that year. This Swedish band crafts some of the best haunting psych-folk I have heard. This is music that captures the sensation of dark mist rolling over snow-capped mountains. Mold clinging to the dead and the living. Ancient spirits reaching out from the hills, pulling you along with the slow moving wind. This is music made for the darkness and the loneliness felt in an unknown, distant landscape. 

This is patient, frigid music that makes the most out of the lo-fi ascetic and builds without the customary crashing peaks. This is titled “Vinter II,” and while I am unsure if there ever was a “I”, this should be a fine point in introducing yourself to the group. I only hope they have new music on the horizon.

So turn out the lights, forge a fire, and let this bring the old gods into your room. 

Get it here:

Vinter - Vinter II (2010)