Music For Sleep - Music From A Sinking World (2021)

If I had to choose a theme for the current state of things it would certainly be "uncertainty". Covid-19 continues to mutate and spread, posing difficult realities for everyone from vaccinated adults to unvaccinated children. (PSA - please get vaccinated or we won't be able to get off this shit-rollercoaster.) On top of that, a massive report just released by the UN paints a dire and quickly drying picture of our current trajectory with regard to climate change. 

Threats of another insurrection loom while justice continues to be so blind it can't ever quite spot the people/person in need of punitive action.

Sheesh! The mind is pulled from one terrible loop of thought to the other several times per day. It's fucking exhausting.

Thankfully, there's Music For Sleep: the ambient-meets-analog instrumental music of Italy's Andrea Porcu. Now, I will be the first to admit that I've avoided anything tagged "ambient" with much success throughout my life. But after hearing Andrea's Music From A Sinking World -- I FINALLY get the appeal. Ambient music is a different beast from rock, but it offers something very similar to it's listeners: escape. But whereas rock music gives you lyrics to relate and identify with, defined rhythms, and anticipatable verse-chorus patterns.... ambient music (at least that of Music For Sleep) is more amorphous in shape and completely void of human voice. Without these tangible elements, the listening mind turns inward for things to grab onto.

The music here is distant, almost as if heard through a neighbors open window halfway down the block. The reverb on opening track "A Quiet Storm" conjures feelings of dreaming while walking through an empty mall. Nostalgia is easily evoked in these songs... I found myself thinking of things and people I hadn't in many years. 

Not to overstate things, but this release by Music For Sleep was transformative for me. That said, I've spent months exploring other ambient music and have really yet to find another artist that "does" it for me. So, maybe it's a fluke... a right place at the right moment thing that I stumbled upon  Music From A Sinking World. Then again, even flukes can impart lasting change.

7 songs.

Music For Sleep - Music From A Sinking World 

The Selfish Cales - Throw Your Watch To The Water (2015)

I'll skip the apology for not posting for a bit. I just burnt out, and that is gonna happen from time to time. Was feeling burnt out all around for a bit there, even in my attempts to have a conversation seemed like I'd just revive the same few jokes my mind could summon before I could manage to scurry off. Feeling better now, and I am wondering what made me think of those particular jokes and conversation pieces when I was run down, why would I go back and revive those ones of everything I recall? That got me thinking of why we revive any notions from the past when we do? Why do we keep going back to certain styles? I am still not sure why, but I have a prime example to share with you today.

Revivalism is still going strong in Italy. Here again we've got an Italian band that'd pass easily for a British or American psychedelic-garage band from late 60s. This might seem vaguely familiar, perhaps because of other fairly recently posted Italian outfits like the Plastic Man, Big Mountain County, and most similarly the Vickers. However, the Selfish Cales aren't mimicking a British accent to the degree the Vickers are. In many ways the sound like a indie pop band from Athens, GA bearing a heavy 60s psych influence, noticeable in the groovy guitar hooks, the most excellent deployment of the organ and use of Eastern sounds not unlike the Beatles. At moments the album features some proto-disco beats, like one of my favorite Beach Boy's albums, Wild Honey. In fact, the whole affair bears some likeness to that fine album, admittedly more fuzzy and bombastic. The Selfish Cales are retro to be sure but it doesn't seem to prevent them from being engaging.

To be had here:

The Selfish Cales -  Throw Your Watch To The Water

Pueblo People - Giving Up On People (2015)

I always envision I'm gonna be able to make the most of the two day weekend every week. It is a pretty novel concept for me, my current job is the first time I've had two days off in a row without holiday or a special event since I started working. While I plan in my mind to crank through a bunch of music, I never am as productive as I'd like. The outside is so enticing after all. Yet as far as I'm concerned there's few better ways to begin a day then lazily listen to lo-fi rock while consuming an entire pot of hot coffee.

What I got to hear today was the full-length follow up from an Italian musician whose EP I posted up some time ago. I recall that release, Sentiero di Guerra, fondly and my description of it as "a Bright Eyes from 1976" still feels accurate. I thought I was pretty damned witty. Anyhow, this new album still bears a considerable amount of Saddle Creek-esque sound. If I told you this fella was from Nebraska you'd have little reason to question me. Regardless of where he's actually from, it seems like he jump his stylistic influences up a couple decades for Giving Up On People. Whereas the EP has long, fuzzy and sorta progressive feeling tracks the full-length contains shorter and more decidedly post-emo indie rock tunes. Makes for a delightful mixture of cozy nostalgia and warm lo-fi humming even with the gloomy lyrics, in fact largely because of those angsty lyrics.

To be had here:
Pueblo People - Giving Up On People

B.M.C. Big Mountain County - Breaking Sound (2015)

The series of returning artists has yet to let up, keeping on track with Big Mountain County issuing a full-length album to follow up a set of singles and seven inch releases. In fact if you remember the self-titled 7" from a Grab Bag a bit ago, you'll already be familiar with a few of the tracks on Breaking Sound. That said, I'm gonna spout off about it some more. As I do.

Big Mountain County are from Rome, Italy but in a common form for Continental European psych and garage rock outfits they sing in English and take heavy influence from British and North American bands from the 1960s and onwards. They share this with recently the posted Madcaps and Max Mayall Fine. It's as I've had explained to be, English is the language of rock and roll and that's isn't changing. Indeed, listening to B.M.C. provides a good argument that nothing is wrong with this arrangement.

The sound of B.M.C. is quite heavily into the psychedelic, with guitars the are abstract and droning all the while the deep voiced singer belts out in a definitive style. The organ also plays a prominent role in the songs, giving the album a very retro feeling at times and providing much of the dynamic of my track of the songs "1945." At times dreamy and others energized into garage rock, this artful distorted record is great for this spring's sunshine and my desire to blast loud music for the neighbors to hear.

To be had here:
B.M.C. Big Mountain County - Breaking Sound

Plastic Man - Don't Look At The Moon (2015)

Finally beginning to shake the cold that's been weighing me down and keeping me from posting for the better part of the week. Nothing better to come back from a forced sabbatical than a good, fuzzy garage rock album. Plastic Man are a band from Florence, Italy who play an exquisite form of psychedelic garage.

We've gotten a good deal of music from both Italy and the United States that from good points of reference for where Plastic Man lies in the psychedelic and garage scheme. Firstly, take the fast, very fuzzed out artists like Sonnyskyes and Robby Fischer and the band Big Mountain County who've been featured lately. Then there's been a batch of more dreamily psychedelic outfits like The Vickers and The Conquerors who've been reaching back to the 60s British style. Of course there's plenty more toward the experimental and avant-garde from each as well. I'd place Plastic Man in the middle of these axes. It is fuzzy, loud and fast but still finds a way to incorporate a kind of old fashioned rock and psych feeling into a number of their songs, while others are pretty weird and even playfully strange. Makes for a wonderful listen all around and a fine album to add to one's springtime rotation and listening to upbeat garage rock doesn't feel like you're just tricking yourself that isn't the bleak winter for a few minutes.

To be had here:
Plastic Man - Don't Look At The Moon

Max Mayall Fine - Now (2015)

Max Mayall Fine has an intense sound. These are not meek songs by any means. In fact they're some of the more bombastic tunes sent our way in a while. The European songwriter (I believe to be Italian, but I'm not sure about that yet) has gathered an incredible amount of sounds and styles into a single album, even in single tracks on the briefly titled Now. 

The album possesses incredible swagger and bravado along with just a pinch of sleaziness. The first couple of tracks "Moka Lee" and "Floating" are showy, fast and full tunes that kick off everything off at a nice pace. Then it slows down for "First Evening Star" wherein a lounge vibe is mixed in. At this point I thought I got what was up, a flashy sort of club performance turned into cool indie rock album. Yet Max Mayall Fine had more up his sleeve. The next tune, "Maharaja'" throws in elements of Eastern music and what I believe to be reggae-ish tones. I could blabber on through the whole album track by track like this but it is all the better not to spoil it all for you before the first listen. You're gonna have to trust me when I say it one hundred percent worth investigating.

Now has been released by the most excellent Kraków-based label, Resonating Wood Recordings. If you haven't gotten hip to how sweet they're at selecting albums to issue you should check ourself immediately and get on it.

To be had here:
Max Mayall Fine - Now

EP Grab Bag vol. 88

EPs from four different nations of various genres. I guess I get around, at least in my music listening. Anyhow, all of these are recommended listening, and the European features are particularly good for expanding one's musical palate.

To be had here:

Kemialliset Ystävät - Kultaista kaupunkia etsimässä (2012)

I am still planning to write up a bunch of Finnish music, I just need to get over the motherfucking cold I have got and get the motivation to hunt all the albums down. In the meantime, I am gonna reiterate how good Kemialliset Ystävät is. This is an EP from 2009 that went unreleased until 2012, but is shows off the very unique experimental electronic-acoustic folk of this most magnificent band. It isn't downloadable unfortunately, but hopefully the stream will convince you to find and get 2004's Alkuhärkä, my favorite of all their releases.

The First Part - The First Part (2104)

Indie rock/power pop outta San Angelo, Texas. That they've heard a good deal of 90s rock is a near inescapable conclusion, and this places them right into my range of nostalgic listening. They're good rock tunes, from the time when the term "alternative" might have retained some meaning. Yet these dudes are doing it now, and it is never too late to do something well, which these guys certainly have. The track "The Catalyst" stood out as my favorite of the four songs, but I recommend giving the whole EP a good listen.

The Rashita Joneses - The Rashita Joneses (2015)

These guys picked a good name, who doesn't love Rashita Jones? This Wisconsin-based garage rock outfit has put out three tracks of lo-fi bliss. The songs are fast, loud and exactly the sort of messy garage I like to hear from young bands. As I've stated many times before, this is my bread and butter sort of music and I can't doubt that the Rashita Joneses will enter into my driving rotation with Yelephants, the Prude Boys, and King Cayman. Can only hope the produce more.

B.M.C. Big Mountain County - 7" BMC (2013)

Saw this group on the twitter, and very much liked what I heard from these Roman garage rockers. Their sound is lo-fi and of that bluesy, punk style of garage that I often associate with the middle of the United States (i.e. Memphis, Chicago, Detroit). Enjoyably abrasive singing and loud instruments in un-complex tunes. You've got to hear the organ in "1945." In fact you've got to hear everything in that track. This is exactly the kind of EP that ends up in my driving rotation, which it already has as of this morning. After hearing A Big Silent Elephant, the Vickers, IL CULO DI MARIO and this I am not sure if there's anything these Italians can't do fantastically.

Love, Hippies & Gangsters - Sun Over Babaluma (2015)

Psychedelic rock from Dalston, London. It blows my mind that London is so huge that merely saying the city isn't enough. Also, this music is blowing my wine-riddled brain. Let's start with the fact that the guy responsible for writing, singing and recording these songs goes by the name Yiğit Bülbül. The tracks are anything but a let down even after learning that information. Swirling, lightly droning and showing off skills in both rock and electronic composition. So settle the fuck in and get ready for a far out sonic treatment.

The Vickers - Ghosts (2014)

A few days rest does a wonderful thing for the ears. So much music so fast there for a minute. Always say I'm gonna cut back but it doesn't seem to work out that way too often. There's the knowledge that I've got a submitted album from some dudes from Italy or wherever chilling in the inbox that makes me come back sooner than I imagined to writing shit up with rapidity.

The Vickers are indeed from Italy, the city of Firenze to be exact. Yet you'd be forgivable if you thought they were a British band hearing them without any other information. This is no accident, as they seem to have plotted an act that pulls directly from the British Invasion and later psychedelic music that was popular on the island and held international attention in the 1960s. The Vickers is a name that could fall in with the likes of the Kinks, the Troggs, the Searchers and so on very neatly. In light of this the title of this album, Ghosts, takes on an meaning it otherwise lacked. The Vickers are a reincarnated form of the iconic style that we all grew up hearing on the radio and from our folks records collections, at least if we were lucky. To this end they're an endearing band, if not the most cutting edge. Of course, how or why would you want to be cutting edge if what you'd like to play is hazy, 60s-esque psychedelia? Certainly why should you if you're as good at it as the Vickers are. I recommend it to those that enjoy that British form of the psychedelic revolution, so long as you don't fret too much over it coming fifty years later and from Italy. Or as Craig would say. "sounding like a band that I'd rather hear." Expand your mind, even if in a direct that you fell you know, why don't you?

To be had here:
The Vickers - Ghosts

EP Grab Bag vol. 84

December must been when we are getting our shit together. I finally signed up for some healthcare on the last day possible, been thinking seriously about getting my teeth all fixed up, found a new job so I am not shifting piles of useless books from one spot to another all day for peanuts. Oh, and I found all these submissions to share with you all on top of all the shit we've already been posting up.

To be had here:

Honeybucket - Honeybucket EP (2015)

Damned charming lo-fi band from Portland, Oregon. Sounds like a garage band in the sense that they very well wrote these songs in a dusty garage and didn't change it up too much from there. Most excellent already as they're fuzzy and happy tunes, just a bit krauty. "Wizard Mountain pt. 2" makes me wish I got to hear a part one. Then again EP could have been 4 times and I long and I could have wanted more. Put out by what seems to be a cool indie label from Pacific (Hong Kong currently) called Metal Postcard. Oh, and it seems to be out despite not being 2015, so enjoy it now.

How Scandinavian - Drowning In Myself (2014)

The kids from Palmdale are back with another single. You might recall the Educator single from earlier this early, perhaps not, but you can always catch up. I'm not grading you, after all. "Drowning In Myself" is a quirky tune that's not easy to classify, but the lyrical delivery itself is worth checking out as it isn't very usual. How Scandinavian stick to a bit of the melodramatic tones of the emo I am sure we all endeared when we were younger yet didn't forget new wave had merits. Gotta keep it catchy, even with the slowcore. Fine work, and when is there gonna be a longer EP is what I'd like to know.

Tufo - "Aspettandoti" EP (2014) 

From the Southern Italian city of Mola Di Bari comes a drum and bass duo. No, not the electronic genre, but an actual drum kit and bass guitar doing it to it. They're playing math rock, and the bass is doing what the angular guitar usually handles, in a sort of double duty that actually sounds fucking remarkable. It is rather minimal, thrashing cymbals, pounding drums and quick cords changing melody rapidly. Tufo has done a wonderful thing on this EP, and all I can do is hope to get to hear more like this in the future.


Swutscher - OKIDOKI EP (2014)

A very brief three track EP from Germany. While short is packed with lo-fi goodness. Fuzzy, even when acoustic somehow, and tints of surf and garage rock. It is almost over before you know it but does very well in the middle of a mix of all the other lo-fi tunes we've all been throwing at you en masse lately. Just let the songs permeate every waking moment of your day, as you waltz around and do whatever the fuck people with real jobs do and be happier for it.


Amos val - A Foundry (2014)

Back to Portland, Oregon for this final EP. I heard you need for atmospheric post-rock. You remember saying say that? I am pretty sure you did and you'll like it just fine. Amos val has several releases under their belt, but this is the first I've gotten a chance to hear them. The songs are engaging and rather sophisticated instrumentally, and it has some melodic singing to boot. I'd certainly recommended A Foundry to anyone that liked Jura's self-titled album I posted up earlier in the month.

Brigitte Roussel - Amber Hole (2014)

The experimental music has been getting submitted frequently lately, and it isn't something I'm gonna complain about. The Italian musician Brigitte Roussel has been featured on SRM, but it was some time ago and with her band known as Nac/Hut Report. While they've put out releases since then it seems it is what must be many albums that've slips through the cracks in my highly imperfect system of arranging write-ups. So my bad on that, but at least I get the pleasure of sharing Brigitte Roussel's solo work on her new album Amber Hole.

It is difficult to place Amber Hole into a genre beyond experimental or avant-garde. It is a dark, strange series of tracks, with an eerie mood predominating. That said, it is tastefully done, like watching a good horror film, it is capable of unnerving and entertaining the consumer in equal measure. Not that Brigitte Roussel is scary, but she certainly isn't aiming to be comforting. Amber Hole can seem like a lost recording, distorted and tracks layered upon on another with static bursts, faint vocals and humming electronic noises. Basically, it is the sort of album one can imagine being played at a contemporary art museum with a projection of grainy black and white footage on a wall playing in a loop. Sure, it is a wee bit pretentious, but all art is if you're not into it. Personally, I am into it and thought it was a fine thing to experience.

To be had here:
Brigitte Roussel - Amber Hole

A Big Silent Elephant - Sonne (2014)

Sonne has a fragile sound. A low fidelity and bizarre instrumentation of this psychedelia causes sound like it on a stiffening magnetic tape, ready to break and leave you wondering at the songs you've missed out on. It is like were lucky to have found these delightful, weird songs at all, which even if they are a digital release that's infinitely reproducible. Surely it is thanks to the internet that something like this could even find such a wide potential distribution.

The songs are mesmerizing in their minimalistic states. Often there won't be much more than enchanting lyrics, sung in a irreverent or ghostly choir-esque style, over acoustic guitar, simple percussion and various key and chimes that sound as if they could pass for child's playthings. This isn't to say the songs lack in any profoundness, they are moving in their own strange way, being very relaxing yet surreal. Perhaps the best example of this is "Oh Acid" but I would also suggest "Junk & Poison" and "Kollapsed" as fucking amazing tunes to have a beer and stop worrying about life to. Overall, I would highly recommend this album to fans of Nate Henricks or IL CULO DI MARIO, as while neither of these are quite the same style, they share a mood.

A Big Silent Elephant is a new moniker for an Italian musician sometimes known as Mauro Da Re, who's become a reoccurring presence on Spacerockmountain. He previously went by a Man with a Broken Piano, having put out a few EPs under that name and a collaborative effort with the Turkish musician called Beyza. This new full-length from Poland's Resonating Wood Recordings was previewed in the Starlight 7" release of two of the track through the same label.

To be had here:
A Big Silent Elephant - Sonne

EP Grab Bag vol. 77

I won't lie. I have been burning the candle at a dozen ends lately. Working two jobs, trying to hustle up money on my only day off, writing this thing nearly daily. It is beaten my down, but I still had these gems ready in waiting to share with the pilgrims. Anyhow, posting might slow a bit, but I can't sustain this pace, never really have been, hence a history of blackouts. I won't leave the site unattended, just no more 6 or 7 posts a week, more like 3 or 4, as a human being can handle.

To be had here:

J Moss - Weak Off (2014)

Another psychedelic folk effort from our pal, J Moss, the fella behind the Modern Folk musical project and website, where a great interview with Charlie Slenko of Sioux Trial Records can be read right now. Four songs of earnest and surreal folk with a heavy buzz and lo-fi vocals that create an eerie ambiance of a lonesome setting that all too many of us know very well. So not just a good promoter, someone I am pleased to think of as a colleague, but a fine musician as well, which makes me more than a little envious.


JIBÓIA - Badlav (2014)

Remember these guys from last week? You should, was they were fucking great. Anyhow, seems there's a fresh EP just out so I get to share them twice in a row in the Grab Bag. The way their describing the EP like the Prince of Persia on acid, and that's a rather apt way of explaining they mixture of Mid-Eastern/Indian and psychedelic sounds form Badlav. The singing is absolutely hypnotically fantastical, with the far out guitar and electronic effects the songs have a power to transport the listener to somewhere wild and exotic, modern and ancient. Once again, released by that top-notch Portuguese label, Lovers & Lollypops. 

Caveman Woodman & Bam Bam Moss - Caveman Woodman & Bam Bam Moss (2014)

This is a Detroit band I ran across in my post-work, exhausted internet browsing. While I try not to post something merely because it is a Detroit area outfit, and that's where I live, I do get some small swelling of joy from hearing a good garage rock band from here. Mostly because the likelihood of me getting a chance to see them is highly increased and it will probably be affordable or free, which works with my budget of near destitution. The songs are fucking sweet, totally worth giving a whirl.

Lust For Breakfast - Lust For Breakfast (2014)

When I was casting around for a Scenes of a City location before the writing up either Lyon or Gijón I considered Turin, Italy. I still most talk myself into that place as a post, but I am spent on energy like you would not believe lately so I am not sitting on this goddamn awesome EP any longer. Lust for Breakfast has made four lo-fi garage rock songs I keep coming back to and continue to give me enjoyment. More on the pop side of garage, but very tastefully done and not all shitty like when a pop band fuzzes a guitar, like a garage rock back that got a bit more like a Mod rockers and wore a tie for once. Though as you can see in the album art, no shirt is actually wore.

EP Grab Bag vol. 73

This is what I got from the inbox. From all over the place again, which is a good thing. Been busy, moving to Hamtramck and I have realized I have a huge amount of anxiety surrounding paperwork like leases and the official nature of such things. Puts me all out of sorts and I haven't had any working earbuds nor iPod for a week so I am basically a lunatic at this point. Hope you like what was the best few hours or respite I got this week.

To be had here:

Red Nectar - Red Nectar (2014)

Our friends over at Cheap Miami have a new EP from a new garage rock outfit. Red Nectar are loud, fuzzy rock with a dash of garage and a female vocalist fronting the group. The four well-done tracks are very endearing. Among the fast and loud songs that were all enjoyable I found the one track called "Hush" was very nicely crafted as a more subtle number. Overall, the songs do feel very much in the vein of lo-fi female rock that's post-riot grrrl. Nonetheless I'd say they're doing a wonderful job at and deserve a listen, and I cannot wait for another release already.

A Big Silent Elephant - Starlight 7" (2014)

The latest release from the Italian phenomenon known as Mauro Da Re. The dude behind a man and his broken piano that's I've shared previous on both in his album with Beyza and his two Demos and Demons EPs. He told me this release started as a part 3 of Demos and Demons but evolved into its own thing. It retains the lo-fi garage folk that was the hallmark of the prior EPs, this time more bent toward bizarre psych-pop. Just like everything else this dude touches I am completely enthralled by it.

Roadhouse Blues - BlueSnow (2014)

I found this loud blues rock when I was being a nerd and dropping in the hometowns of authors I bought into bandcamp, specifically Pietro Aretino lead me to Arezzo, Italy. Should you give this EP a listen you'll find it has some funky bass lines and a dude singing English with a very thick accent. It is an odd hodge-podge of 70s and 80s rock and roll vibes and foreign interpretations that makes it absolutely wild. Not sure I get it but I certainly dug it.



Godfrey Turner Overdrive - Visceral Light (2014)

Hardcore/post-rock that brings back many memories of my high school years and the sort of music that was predominate in my Midwestern town. These guys are from Orange, New South Wales and therefore basically on the other side of the planet from my experience with the hardcore scene. Time and geography have apparently been transcended, and it has improved on what I recall. A compelling and emotionally charged EP, definitely good way to have one's angst validated with awesome guitar playing.

Marc Neibauer - Summer (2014)

I keep thinking about bringing back the random singles posts that I used to do and then I recall I stopped because I can't listen to a single song that long to come up with any words to say about it. I need to hear an album, or at least throw into into a mix. There's gotta be a way, I am working on it folks. In the meantime here's the excellent song "Summer" by Philly musician Marc Neibauer. Shimmery indie rock that is a good ending to this summer, as today was the first cool autumn-esque day in Detroit.

Beyza and the Man with his Broken Piano - Yellow (2013)

Yellow is a stunning folksy, lo-fi acoustic album. It's a collaborative effort of a Turkish Beyza and the Italian who releases his music as the Man with his Broken Piano. Now the Man with his Broken Piano has been featured on SRM in the past with a couple of EPs he recently released and submitted. This album I was in the dark about however, as it wasn't submitted to my knowledge and I happened across in while looking for something completely unrelated. Yet with a long and distinctive name as he goes by it was obvious we were dealing with the same fellow.

I've been listening to this album over and over through the last couple of days, as I get a lot of listening in while reading or playing this video game where I am Batman and I beat up people (I'm not good at either one of those hobbies so they take some time). It isn't very much like the Man with his Broken Piano music that he did in his solo work, in fact besides being vaguely folk orientated it is very different. Perhaps this is due to Beyza, of whom I know nothing really beyond being Turkish. Regardless, Yellow is wonderful to hear: soft acoustics with electronic layered on top and in turns melancholy and buoyant. The competency of the songs in face of the remote collaboration is remarkable and every song is masterfully put together and can stand alone. The singer has an absolutely stunning voice and the tunes are hard to resist. Just fucking trust me on this one, it is about as swell as it gets.

To be had here:
Beyza and the Man with his Broken Piano - Yellow

IL CULO DI MARIO - Italian Cucadores (2014)

Lately as a result of the reoccurring segment of our podcast I've been revisiting the odder and more alluring tracks of my music collection for good "lost and found" fodder. In addition, I've been exploring more and more nooks and crannies of music I've not ever heard before, and it has done wonders in invigorating my love seeking out musical oddities and forgotten gems (look forward to Peruvian garage rock of the 1960s at some point). However, this is a more refined task as you keep up the habit, much like acquiring a taste for beer, wine, cigars, bad movies or any other manner of things that are construed as a waste of times my those that don't find the appeal of indulging in them.

Well, one of my pleasures, beyond likely all those mentioned above, is the bizarre, lo-fi, DIY album that mingles in that murky zone between folk, punk and art rock. I've got friends that do this wonderfully, I bet many of you do. The guy that knows philosophy, has read a few novels by Hermann Hesse and some "metaphysical" books, engages in spiritual practices you've not heard of before, and tries often to craft remarks that display wisdom but come of as strange. I love that guy, he is refreshing in his unabashedness and one of the few people you can count on being wholly genuine despite how much they confuse and baffle you.

Now I'm not sure this describes any of the members of IL CULO DI MARIO. How could I, right? It is a submission from Italy after all, but the feeling I got when listening to their album was dead on. The songs are undoubted trying to be weird, to push the listener outside of a comfort zone just to allow them to feel there way back into the songs. This is a similar sensation to watching a surrealist comedy show. There's a uncanniness to it that is unsettling, but at the same time piques your curiosity. You just gotta see where they're going with this, and by the time it is done it is like you've been on board the whole fucking time. It is like it took your head in its hands and uttered, "This is your thing now, dog, best get used to it."

As I was saying, Italian Cucadores is a collection of songs that invoked this feeling perfectly for me. From the slow, somber folk to the vaguely 80s snyth-heavy post-punk and very nostalgic guitar rhythms with fucking insanely sung Italian lyrics on top. They alternate between English and Italian, which I found only makes all the more fantastical to hear, the electronic instruments appear to vanish in the next track, and so many other absurdly pleasing elements. Finally, it was put out by the delightfully named Black Vagina Records. Among their merch you can find a great hat.

To be had here:
IL CULO DI MARIO - Italian Cucadores

La Piramide di Sangue - Tebe (2012)

Here's a belated treat. Belated because I missed it's submission in the pre-organization days where my inbox was truly the wild west, but a treat as in this avant-garde album is incredibly exciting no matter when you first get to hear it. As many could have guessed, La Piramide di Sangue is an Italian band, and they play a bizarre sort of psychedelia that combines a melody with dissonance to create a maze for the mind become increasingly lost in. It is jazzy, noisy and tribal somehow all at the same time. The album gets rather close to noise, as in the genre, but will loop back around with reframes to more melodic music. Overall it's trippy as hell and an album I regret not getting to sooner, but that'll be the case for everyone older I post on here I suppose.

To be had here:
La Piramide di Sangue - Tebe

EP Grab Bag vol. 60

I am incredible sore from hauling what could not have been less than four thousand records (no hyperbole) from a hoarder's basement today. Thank god I moved back to Detroit in time for that mess, right? Anyhow, I found solace in some Coor's banquet and these EPs. Use them wisely, by like... listening to them, I guess.

To be had here:

The Feel Bad Hit of the Winter - The Feel Bad Hit of the Winter (2014)

Punk, garage and noisy indie rock from Kansas City. Their name is a mouthful but the tunes are far from being overly complex, which I say as a good thing considering the genres. No surprise that I am a fan of the simple, fast rock and roll, given my track record with lo-fi music. This band is on to something and they know how to play, and they do a great job showing off the guitar work, especially on the instrumental track "Chato." I'd say they're play even dips close to post-rock at moments just to hop back into garage-like fuzziness.

bm79 - Can't Stop It / Noisy Funkadelica (2014)

A couple of tracks from Patras, Greece played by the former bassist of the previously featured band, the Moofs. Each of the songs are instrumental, psychedelic rock jams that short and pleasurable. Show good potential show he care to pour the time into a full-length endeavor. He's also in a band with some other fellas that is in its infancy and without a real band name yet, but can be heard on soundcloud.

The H - Sewer Club EP (2014)

This is a collaboration of two Montreal electronic musicians the release music on their other projects Hobo Cubes and Noir. Sewer Club EP is being put out by Debacle Records as part of their Motor collective. Again, just two tracks but these add up to 16 minutes of otherworldly electronic sounds. I don't normally quote the press releases I get but whoever they've got writing their shit up dropped this tight ass description: "effortless blend of ambient sensibilities within techno-informed zones." Seems I gotta step up my game.

a Man and His Broken Piano - Demos and Demons Part II - Acid (2014)

Psychedelic garage folk coming out of Italy. I fucking hope the statement makes you as excited as it does me. The songs are brilliantly mesmerizing in their lightly done psychedelia and lo-fi folksiness. The songs are like if a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western was done with music a bunch of peyote in the mix. This is actually the second release of a two-part series of EPs from this outfit, with the first also highly recommended.

Evil Sons - I've Got A Knife​/​No Bad Luck (2013)

Again it is time for me to admit to my laxness as a blogger and share something wildly overdue for a glowing review. Can't believe I allowed these two songs to fall through my fingers back when I was sent them in January last year. It is a two-piece from Dublin and they made two absolutely rocking tracks that one could love about fast, sleazy garage rock, white dudes in collared shirts having a knife fight and dying young so as to leave a beautiful corpse. How about that writing, Debacle-promoter-I-respect. No new releases since then sadly, but I am gonna personally try to set a fire under these guys' asses.

EP Grab Bag vol. 59

Here's what been coming in lately (for the most part lately at least). A truly international mix again and some really eclectic mixture of genres.

To be had here:

Pueblo People - Sentiero di Guerra (2014)

I know on our last podcast we had some fun at the expense of Italian music, but truth be told I am a huge fan of Italian tunes if not necessarily the disco. Pueblo People is a fine example quality music from the boot-shaped nation that I am digging. This is a 3 track EP but is a longer one nevertheless because of the lengthy tracks. This may sound strange, but it makes me think of a Bright Eyes from 1976, in the best of all possible worlds. The last song is my favorite, an epic, distorted and sprawling number that isn't supremely awesome.

Barry Walker and the Tanks - L.T.D. (2013)

This was the second band I was send by Portland's Snake Handler Recordings, along with Sinthaxis. This group plays alternative country, which is a genre I hold a fondness for despite my intense dislike of modern popular country music, and sadly I post too little of it. It's got what you want out of a good country song, a mournful tale sung in a soulful voice with twangy guitars. I highly recommend the full-length album, but I felt I should share something streamable so what we've got here is the single with two accompanying tracks. Plus the live version of "White Freightliner Blues" is fantastic.

Lady Flint - Lady Flint (2014)

Back to Europe with this EP from Marseille. This French duo plays some rock and roll that is swaggering and sleazy, you know in the complimentary sense. Bluesy, a bit heavy, and full of provocative lyrics it is a minimalistic punk at it's core, but as we know from too many two-piece bands to name it doesn't preclude some amazing and full rock and roll sound which these guys have in spades. If nothing else, check the final, awesomely distorted, very garage final tack "Problems" and I believe you'll be sold.



Wave n400 - Wave n400 (2012)

Another one of the older submissions but something I thought was interesting to share now nonetheless. Based in Bristol these guys were making a strange sort of electronic experimental music with a deeply psychedelic style. It has the slightly unsettling art rock feel of being more sophisticated than perhaps you thought, but really it is playful music with an artsy theme. Again I am gonna recommend the final track here, "Fuss" as it is really pulls together the whole EP and has gotten itself lodged into my head.