Truly - Fast Stories... from Kid Coma (1995)

 

 A lot of people have strong opinions about the word "grunge". It's divisive because its one of the few music genres that doesn't have have definable sound. Pearl Jam and Tad are about as different as Jimi Hendrix and Judas Priest, but they both receive the label "grunge". 

The progenitors of the genre are nearly all from Washington state, and in fact grunge was also referred to as "The Seattle Sound", but if one uses that as a metric then both L7 and Stone Temple Pilots don't get included, which would upset many to the point of pitchforks and torches. Another interesting thing about the genre, if that's what we're calling it, is that none of the people credited with it wanted any ownership of the word. Punk bands proudly call themselves such. Not the case with grunge.

Whether they liked the term or not, Truly was a band from Seattle that no one in their right mind would debate calling grunge. For starters, the rhythm section features founding members of both Soundgarden (Hiro Yamamoto) and The Screaming Trees (Mark Pickerel), 2 of grunge's biggest bands. 

Frontman Robert Roth, the least known member, was actually very well known in Seattle's grunge community of the early 1990s. He was considered to join Nirvana when the band began seeking a second guitarist. Roth's voice actually brings to min
d Kurt Cobain during his most somber moments, and the nasal screeching of Mark Arm from Mudhoney when he screams. His guitar sound is incredibly dense and distorted but without sacrificing melody. Where Truly TRULY stands out is their incorporation of 60's sounds and song styles. "If You Don't Let It Die" almost sounds like The Kinks if they'd been a strung-out Seattle band in the 90s. A Rhodes piano featured on "Angelhead" lends a Doors-esque quality to the song's stoned feeling, not to leave out the use of a mellotron in the song's chorus, harkening to "Strawberry Fields Forever" (Roth would later earn mellotron credits on Built To Spill's Perfect From Now On).

Make no mistake however. While the songs on "Fast Stories... from Kid Coma" all have a psychedelic 60's vibe, the bulk of the sound is firmly rooted in punchy distorted rock music more akin to plaid shirts than paisley bellbottoms. This was producer Adam Kasper's first produced record... his other credits include heavier bands like Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age... and he would later go on to winning a grammy for Foo Fighters "There Is Nothing Else to Lose".

This album has been described as grunge music's lost masterpiece. It has also been called grunge's swan song. While it was released to critical acclaim, it seems like it should have been bigger. That said it is almost too weird for what MTV was selling at the time: the tides were shifting away from grunge and toward pop punk and grunge-lite bands like Silverchair. Truly was too dark and heavy for a world still hurting from the death of Kurt Cobain. But in retrospect, this album deserves to be listened to and talked about by those still interested in whatever grunge is (or was). It is a fantastic sounding record that feels like the 1990s. They say the 1990s are back... which is maybe true but you never hear bands like Truly anymore.

Truly - Fast Stories... from Kid Coma

EP Grab Bag vol. 104

I have been working on this post for a long, long minute. Sorry it took so long but I can't keep up with this shit very well anymore. It is like have bills to pay or some shit. Anyhow, this were some cool fucking EPs. I hope you like.

To be had here:

Hierofante Púrpura - Boas Bestas EP (2015)

Pilgrims, I love this band. I get they're strange, at bit hard to dig straightaway because they're conforming to much popular music conventions. It is a bit like they're scaring us away at first but if you listen further its like something of a Jad Fair and Lou Reed fusion in Portuguese. Experimental psychedelia at it's goddamned best. Also, this isn't the first time I'm posting this outfit from Mogi Das Cruzes, Brazil. Their album from last year, Sutil Arte de Esculhambar Música Alheia, is great and did not get nearly enough attention.

Exploding Clouds - Exploding Clouds EP (2015)

An incredibly well-made electronic project from a fellow based in Greenville, South Carolina. It doesn't fit a genre cleanly, like many of my favorite electronic releases. Rather is combines snyth-pop, ambient and shoegaze together in various combinations to form something unique and markedly engaging. Manages to be both retro and futuristic, like watching a sci-fi film from the 80s. Truly worth checking out by everyone, even those disinclined to listen to snyth-heavy songs, this could be the one to sway you otherwise.

Baswoon - Baswoon EP (2015)

A rather stripped down post-rock release from an Portuguese musician. Baswoon's songs are surprisingly cinematic and evocative without requiring constant shimmering guitars and methodical drums. Get me straight, I don't feel post-rock is mostly these things, but they can be over done, and yet Baswoon has an incredibly understated approach. The final track, "Embrace me, float with me" is perhaps my favorite and the most outstanding example of this understated style.

Copneconic - Never Knows Best (2014)

A new EP from the Copneconic, who hail from the "Fenton area" of Michigan. I like how they called it that, I always have to say the "Port Huron area" when I refer to where I raised (as few know where Marysville is). Anyhow, I posted a prior EP called Bein Sweet, and it sounds like they have advanced markedly in their composition and technique since. All this will having recorded the EP for a mere $100 is very impressive. Fuzzy Midwestern garage pop that's charming as fuck.

Unqualified Nurse/Azzurro Peaks - Split Single: Whatever Happened to Syd? / Dickheads Anonymous

A bit of a rare thing on this site, a split single. Two British bands, one I one for a goddamned fact I post and the other I feel like I recall listening to but I can't find evidence of posted. The first track is from the latter, an electronic rock outfit called Azzurro Peaks that is very catchy. The song bears repeated enjoyable listenings. The former made the second track, a band that specializes in being especially low-fidelity, Unqualified Nurse. Naturally I am a fan though the songs hasn't too much to it, but who said a song need much? Also hear his other stuff while your at it.

The Black Waves - Thousands of Visions (2013)

Took a snooze on the blog for a bit there. Got burnt out writing too often; it was all blurring together. The unbearable heat has been keeping me out of my house as well. Hard to listen to as much new music if I'm not forcing myself to be all cooped up in my apartment reading books and playing albums. Been made to hide from the humidity and sunshine in bars, friends' houses, and even working extra long hours. Yet tonight I'm feeling guilty as the submissions roll on in and I need some lo-fi for my mental health.

Although it isn't a brand new album, Thousands of Visions, is worth doubling back for. I've always felt that lo-fi rock is a rather universal medium, it is after all what young musicians are capable of producing with the most minimal of technology in most any place. Nevertheless, like many forms of artistic expression, the French excel at lo-fi rock. Now, admittedly this band isn't particularly French sounding, as they sing in English, with an accent that somehow combines the UK and northeastern America. What is very French they know what the fuck they're on about. The Black Waves have an incredible grasp of psychedelic rock and shoegaze. Wall of sound, organs, cymbals just pounding away as necessary and a singer that could've fronted for any righteous garage rock outfit from the 60s (the Monks and 13th Floor Elevators come to mind). My recommendation is that you find a few good beers and try them out and you enjoy this album with some nice headphones. Rattle your brain around a bit.

To be had here:
The Black Waves - Thousands of Visions

Kill West - Smoke Beach (2015)

To the attentive follower of this blog a few things about this album will be quickly familiar. Beyond it being a lo-fi psychedelic rock album, which is such a normal thing for me to write these days it is competing with my signature for top motion memory, it should be that they've been featured in an EP Grab Bag previously, but also that this album is released via the indie label/music blog Ongakubaka. And if you were really paying attention you'll recall that Ongakubaka doesn't put out shitty albums. Like never. Just don't know how to, I suppose.

The lo-fi outfit known as Kill West are from Buenos Aires. They seem honed their sound from what I recall hearing on their self-titled EP, shedding some of the more garage and surf sounds for a more dreamy style. That said, Smoke Beach is exactly what I hope for out of a hazy psychedelic rock album. It has enough droning/shoegazing elements to provide a fine trace-like quality for the listener while maintaining enough energy and bursts of excitement to not be able to fade from the forefront of one's thoughts. The nailed it, plain and simple. I'm not afraid even at this early date to call this one of the best psychedelic albums of the summer.

Finally, I can't think of a better way to celebrate the United State's Independence Day than by continuing to read Uruguayan writer Felisberto Hernández, drink Spanish and German wines and listen to Argentine rock and roll. Really making the most of globalization and modern American imperialism. So get drunk, shut your mouths and open your ears up.

To be had here:
Kill West - Smoke Beach

Debris Slide - Araido (2015)

Not getting enough sleep lately. It's hot and humid here. For all I dislike about wintertime, it is easy to get to sleep in a cold, dry room on a December evening when the sunset at 5:30 in the afternoon. Basically, I hate this temperate climate altogether and I'm blaming it for why my mind feels so off lately. Muggy weather makes for a fuzzy mind. So in a kinda 'like cures like' method of self-healing my solution to fuzzy thinking is fuzzy music.

Debris Slide are a group from Nottingham, England who've embraced a very fuzzed out way of making songs indeed. They're shoegazers, taking hints from many previous wall-of-sound deploying outfits we're all familiar with. Moreover, they've kept it minimalistic, as far as shoegaze goes in that direction. What I mean is that nothing in these songs aren't capable of feeling complex in the board, constant fuzzy sound. I can't understand the singing (which remember is often fine by me) and the most outstanding instrumentation is some shimmery guitar and drum beats rhythmically emerging and fading quickly back into the noise. All it adds up to a drone-like effect that caused the blissful state of mind good noise/drone music should. Though they'll wake you up with some loud, crazy reverb in there as well. A well composed album, but you'll really have to have a fondness for very lo-fi music to get the most out of it. Thankful I am quite fond of that stuff.

To be had here:

Debris Slide - Araido

Jura - None of This Was Ever Real (2015)

So I am a bit of a shitty friend. My pal Frank (aka Frankomyalgia) gave me this album to hear as soon as him and the other lads in Jura finished their years long mastering process. Then I put in the queue without special treatment. No reason why other than absentmindedness. However, I'll say that my personal fondness of Frank 'n' Beans aside, this album deserves to have been kicked up up in the line. Shit's fucking tight, professional-ass-tight. So with my apologies, Frankadoodle-do, I final am delivering my write-up.

None of This Was Ever Real is a largely instrumental and entirely enthralling album. The songs have a shimmery quality to them, along with a mild shoegaze droning in the background that lays an excellent bed of sound to build on. At the few moments when vocals appear, they are subtle, echoey and don't step on the music in any way. Rather the blend seamlessly into the tapestry. Moreover, there are no spoken word audio sample interludes, which can be used well but are often over-employed as the expense of good songcraft. It not only sounds Jura like the took their time meticulously picking over the audio of these tracks, I know they took their sweet time putting it out. A labor of love in every note and it is audible. Most impressive, Frankincense.

Finally, until most bands I write-up, I have gotten to see Jura play live. I haven't a clue if they're going anywhere to play any shows, once again I am not a great friend and should have asked Sprained Frankle about this.

To be had here:
Jura - None of This Was Ever Real

EP Grab Bag vol. 97

This might've been the longest hiatus the blog has taken all year. However, I have been sick for well over a week and trying my damnest to keep up with the work from my paying job. Sadly this meant the enjoyable, unpaid duty of writing up music had take a backseat. However, I seem to be on the mend now, even though chunks of nasty lung butter are still flying out in coughing fits. Needless to say there is a metric fuck ton of submissions I've yet to get to, but this is what I was able to chip off so far.

To be had here:

Nicholas Fair - Small Songs (2015)

Three tracks released as an EP, really serving as a demo for this musician from Corpus Christi, TX. These tracks fall very much in with the folksy, lo-fi bedroom sort of music I've been spouting off about for the last few weeks. They're piano-heavy, which is all too uncommon and done quite beautifully by Mr. Fair. Musically it's all rather airy, but his singing is deeply resonating. Creates a wonderful contrast to hear. He's got a whole series of releases all the way back to 2002 on his bandcamp if these interest you enough to check out more.

The Pretty Greens - Lonely Hearts Club "No Jerks Allowed" (2015)

A garage pop outfit outta Philadelphia. This all-female three-piece that makes use of the girl group pop sound of the 60s, but rely upon it. Musically the Pretty Greens are akin to Peach Kelli Pop, Bruiser Queen and Silkies. However, they don't lack in individual flare, especially in the song "Once Before" where I dude throws in some fast Sir Mix-A-Lot style singing the middle. Can only hope they don't dally too long in producing an LP. However, this EP is being put out by Negative Fun Records, an indie label with a fine looking roster even beyond this ladies from Philly.

Timberwolf - Flux (2015)

An extremely well-produced folk project of the Adelaide-based musician known as Timberwolf. The songs are full with accompanying musicians on strings and drums along with a range of background singers. At times has a ghostly feeling, but it really blows up into a much larger sound quickly. It's impressive how good this all sounds in fact. I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy spreading around into ambient music selections of trendier business's like Seawolf. Wait... Seawolf, Timberwolf... connecting dots.

Piglet Outlet - Paradise in Progress (2015)

Now this is a far more decidedly unconventional sounding EP. The band hails from Malmö, Sweden and has members that've belonged to notable regional acts prior. They make experimental indie pop, with many strange instrumentation choices, quirky singing and lyrics and frequently changing rhythms. Fucking great stuff if your a fan of the Unicorns, most E6 or any number of strange indie pop bands. Finally, this has been released via Shallow Shit Records, a new label started by Martin M Sjöstrand (aka This Heel).

Malka - The Constant State (2015)

The album art of this EP really explains a lot. The rising sun in a bucolic forest. Doesn't matter where the band is from, and this time it is from New York City, album art like that symbolizes an effort to make something epic. I wasn't disappointed to hear some long, meandering and well-composed shoegazey post-rock. The songs are excellently put together and I found myself rather entranced even on the first listen. Also, my neighbor is doing work on his house and I can hear the drills going with my windows open but its too hot to close them, so I got to hear an industrial remix the second time I heard the EP.

The Citradels - A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music (2015)

I've made reference to my now living in the city of Hamtramck, MI. It's a unique town and really only for bizarre historical reasons not part of Detroit, which completely surrounds it. It's status as separate city isn't the most bizarre part about it. It's dense, more so than any of the city's suburbs and even much of the city proper, packed with immigrants, cheap hipsters and a lingering breed of poor blue collar folks who worked in the automotive factories. All stacked up in these duplexes with children playing in the streets, Arabic radio blasting through windows, calls to prayer, and bars loaded with rock and roll. The drive bars deserve special mention, they're seemingly unstuck in time, still hosting the Polish speaking old men that used to be common here, selling small drafts for $1.75 and a television mounted to the wall in 1985. I spend my evening yesterday wandering around this town full of ethnic grocery stores, holes-in-wall, and fashion retailers it is hard to imagine still existing while hearing the retro-styled psychedelia of Melbourne's The Citradels. It was pleasantly surreal to say the least.

Hopefully some of you are familiar with this group, as I've written up three of their albums before, most recently last year's Nepenthe. Everything I have heard from them bears the same seed of retro-rock, heavily focused in late 1960s psychedelic and incorporating elements of drone, shoegaze and psych-pop that came in later years. A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music is not exception, in fact that explicitly cite 1968 in the introduction track. Without having gotten a chance to dip back into their whole catalog, I do feel this new album has created a fresh sound despite how the seem to keep in similar genesis of atmospheric throw-back in the others. Moreover, the second half has tracks like "Dear Ivy" and "Pretty Smooth, Ey " that're excellent fuzzy pop songs. Then there's the non-Western instruments such as the Armenian Duduk, Balalaika, Pungi, Djembe and most noticeably the Sitar providing the experimental and mystic sound that made early psychedelia so distinctive. Finally, when you download this check out the nicknames they've given themselves, they're all great but hats off to coining "Coolerbreeze Cloverstream."

To be had here:
The Citradels -  A Night Of Contemporary Feedback Music

Sister Palace - Count Yr Blessings (2015)

Sometimes I get jealous of how Amazing Larry lives in Portland, Oregon. Especially so considering all the fine music I find in the submissions from that city. I imagine that if I lived there I could go to shows all the time, see all the stuff happening with my own eyes. Then I recall I live in a city with a ton of music and I don't go out and see it here, opting to let people send me music so I can sit down with a book and a drink as I listen instead of standing around and overpaying for cheap beer. I guess I am saying keep sending these albums my way, just like Sister Palace has by sharing Count Yr Blessings.

Portland's Sister Palace makes a kind of lo-fi, mildly noisy pop songs. Subtly is a key element to the songwriting, with the most pronounced of all features often being the clear, stark and quite alluring singing of the female vocalist. Though is isn't the singer, as it is most charming demonstrated in the final track of the album. Often instruments hums, whine and jangle behind them for beautiful stretches of sad lyrics, and then in parts without words they cut loose to show their shoegazing noise-making full potential. It is a lovely juxtaposition to base to songs' structures upon. Mildly experimental, quite melancholy and a fine listen.

To be had here:
Sister Palace - Count Yr Blessings

Witching Waves - Fear Of Falling Down (2014)

I've had this album in my library already for months, and it has embarrassingly taken me until today to get my shit together and write something about Fear of Falling Down despite having hear it a dozen times at least. It is almost as if Witching Waves are just elusive enough in their sound that I was intimidated to try to break it down. It's like this, you see, there are many elements poured into Fear of Falling Down that every song has multifaceted qualities. It certainly is a lo-fi fuzzy sound but pull subtly from 60s garage rock, DIY punk and perhaps most interestingly power pop and shoegaze at the same time. Pile on top of that they take turns singing it remarkable how unified the artistic vision this band has retain with everything going into it. It's sorta like hearing My Bloody Valentine cover the Breeders or some wild concept like that. However, I am sure there are many that'll hear just a noise pop outfit with some charming guitars and vocals. If that's all you get that should be plenty good enough, but I am pretty sure they're doing a lot more here if you give the album time to marinate in your ears. At very least be sure to hear "Better Run" as it must be among the best songs I've heard this year so far.

Also, a little while back I posted an EP from the British garage rock band H. Grimace who are on the British indie label Soft Power Records. Witiching Waves are also of this very same label and I am going to restate my admiration of what Soft Power is putting out and tell you all to check what else they've got going on.

To be had here:
Witching Waves - Fear Of Falling Down

Rum for Your Life - Punch (2014)

I have not been in San Diego for about a year now, and as we get closer to summer (at least here in sunny California), I have started to turn my fine-tuned ear to new sounds coming out of the city to act as my own personal soundtrack. The lo-fi shoegaze act Rum for Your Life has recently played their inaugural show at the Soda Bar (the hipster proving grounds for those not in the know), and have an EP that promises great things in the future. The band owes a debt to shoegaze pioneers that have come before them, but when you craft fuzzy tracks this cohesively, you are allowed to borrow more than a few shreds along the way. Tracks like "Swinger" have a bass riff that could sit well next to proto-metal and garage acts often celebrated here at Space Rock, and by the time we hit "Tower," the whole gloomy set is brought to a fitting, sinister close.

It is free to stream, but sadly no download is available. What is this, 2011? Anyhow, check it now while it is free and pristine.

Rum for Your Life - Punch (2014)

Lindberg Hotel - Lindberg Hotel II (2014)

Right after I write up Albino Father's II album that has a II in its title. Roman numerals must be en vogue. Also en vogue and overdue for attention is South American music. People like it and not just with the few of us that are writing this blog, but the readers seem to be reacting substantially to the Brazilian and Argentine music that's been shared here. Larry's São Paulo post is our most viewed of all the Scenes of a City features by a long way, and I still find myself listening to the bands from his first installment of the series on Guayaquil, Ecuador. I am very excited about getting to discover all these Latin American artists that if this was even 15 years ago what stand an extremely pitiful chance of ever getting such a diverse audience as this wonderful internet provides for. In this spirit I am glad to introduce you to Lindberg Hotel.

As the title suggests this is the second album by the largely solo project known as Lindberg Hotel. It is the efforts of Claudio Romanichen who resides in the Southern Brazilian city of Curitiba. Lindberg Hotel II is my first exposure to his music, and honestly with all the submissions pouring in lately I haven't got a chance to check out his first full-length as much as I'd like to. However, that's hardly a prerequisite to enjoy a musician's current work. Lindberg Hotel II is a very appealing, washed out indie pop album that has a creative melding of 1960s pop (there's a song called "Beatles Posters") and shoegaze influences. The songs are endearing and sweet and I can't even make out what he's saying, and mind you I do think he's singing in English. Has a definite romantic feeling to the songwriting, without getting sedimental or morose. While it does possess a bedroom project sound; I was informed he does play live shows in his home city with a guitarist called Eduardo Ambrosio (these names are fucking top notch). Finally, I'd like to add this is another release from young Recife-based label Transtorninho Records, who you may recall from the 151515 write up from a couple of months ago. 

Albino Father - II (2015)

I've been keeping up with Albino Father since the full-length entitled AGE from 2011 and then the EPs Chrimbus and For. Always been luckily enough that the man who makes these tunes happen has thought to share it with me and through me to whoever reads this. Albino Father is typically a one-man wherein the fella plays all the instruments. And if you can do that, why not? I didn't bother to ask him that before I wrote this review, but for this album he didn't play everything. Dude got himself a band. With said band he's gone and recorded a new album, simply titled/numbered as II.

Regardless of who's playing what, one thing has most certainly remained the same: Albino Father is an exemplar of loud, lo-fi rock and roll. Rest assured the songs are most righteous in their rock-ness, and rather psychedelic as well. The sound has changed over time however, and I found myself going back to AGE and listening to hear the difference (found that AGE was among the higher played of all the albums in my collection, by the way). To boil it down to a sentence: it is less jaunty and more epic. The songs on AGE were an eclectic sort, but all upbeat, fuzzy tunes. Upon hearing on II  a noticeably longer, deeper composition style is shown, evident of  a dynamic songwriter in action. Varies between a heavy shoegaze or a highly distorted brand  of psychedelia, two sides of one coin truthfully. II is certainly a highlight for me, and I should like to think anyone that really likes what I post show enjoy it as well.

To be had here:
Albino Father - II

Jura - Jura (2014)

I heard about Jura from a member of Jura. He is actually a coworker of mine at my new job, in fact he's the man whose position I assuming upon his upcoming departure. Just so happens he plays in a post-rock outfit based in metro Detroit, so I couldn't help be find myself rather curious about what they sound like especially as I have been listening to a bit more post-rock and shoegaze music, recalling my fondness for those etheral songs from Montreal's numerous Silver Mt. Zion connected bands.

As listeners for the more experimental genres, especially the often subtle post-rock and ambient tunes available, will recognize the key to a good album is sustaining a heady, intangible mood throughout. It's very easy to approach such music passively, in fact that is the first instinct. To soak in the sound. However, lately I have found it incredibly rewarding to set other tasks aside, to merely listen and imagine with the music with nothing more than a single can of beer or a hot cup of coffee in my system. This is how taking in Jura's self-titled album went from me pretending to read a novel while listening to sitting, eyes shut in a wooden chair, and not worrying about a thing. The album is indeed subtle, with few flourishes and those that appear aren't long or loud, instead the songs are markedly sparse at times, floating along with echoey lyrics and shimmering cymbals. The tracks entitled "Kalamazoo," "Lullabye," and "As a fool, I will follow you" all held me in complete captivation, even more so with some of their extended playtimes. Now, I cannot promise everyone will get this tranquility for hearing Jura, but as with much competently done post-rock, ambient or what have you it has the potential for a dispositioned person to thoroughly enjoy it in a calmness unparalleled in other modern music.

To be had here:
Jura - Jura

The Citradels - Nepenthe (2014)

Back to Australia and to a band that I've been very impressed by before as explained in the post on two of their albums, Droned and Rethroned and Our Lord's Secret Service. Well, the Melbourne lads are at it again with another full-length only a scant six months after the prior one. It continues the washed out, mildly droning psychedelic style I liked so much from each of those earlier releases. Moreover, they seems to try playing around with that sound and succeed in making an album with a unique flavor compared to the others in the process.

Nepenthe still has the 60s British still influence on it, and it doesn't help that I am an American and therefore the accents are easily conflated in my ear. However, I dare you to listening to the very dazed and catchy tune "Judas" and not agree. It successfully has exactly what I'd like of a psychedelic track: sedated meandering vocals, a fine guitar hook, loud drums and bass setting the rhythm. It isn't alone among the songs do deliver this either. The final track "ECT" somehow in a clumsy error on my part got set on repeat and I must've heard it five times over and was still enjoying it. Of course, Nepenthe is best heard from first to last, taking int all the odd bits of spoken words and the changes in mood, as with any well synchronized release really. And there's no excuse for you not to, as you already know this Aussies are up to snuff from the other albums, and this one is completely free digitally, unless you're a kindhearted soul that willing pitches them some dough.

Also, that religious and psychedelic album art, in its simplicity and photoshopped nature, does make me very happy to see. Like a collage of odd feelings that life animates while tradition bears down distorting it all. But that's just my take.

To be had here:
The Citradels - Nepenthe

Luna Moth - Celestial Shades (2014)

Found this in the inbox the other day, sadly overlooked for a few months. My bad on that, guys, but you'll have to trust that a little late is not a huge deal for us on the receiving end as this digital replayable songs still sound fine. I do feel bad I didn't jump right on Celestial Shades when it came out in March however as the music is deserving of some good old fashion praise from a stranger on the internet, which I'm sadly late in bringing. Nonetheless, we'll see what is salvageable for both the band and my reputation as a music blogger. Shouldn't my parents be proud?

Luna Moth is a psychedelic band from Norman, Oklahoma that brings it on heavy with the distortion, wall-of-sound and general noisiness. They've done a superb job at incorporating influences from 60s psychedelia to the shoegaze of 90s into a shimmering and ethereal sound. Then you get to hear that sonic bliss strip apart into droning noise, something that I always find to be a welcome development in a track. They put it better on the little descriptor blurb on their bandcamp page, "Entheogenic love mantras/surfing into dissonance." Not sure what the anthropological theory of ethnogensis has to do with it, and the term does bring back some haunting memories of papers I wrote in college on the subject, but a poetic and otherwise accurate way to explain what Luna Moth seems to be all about. It sounding fucking great is a shorter way to say it. With any luck they'll sit keep SRM in mind for the next release they may put out and I can truly redeem myself then.

To be had here:
Luna Moth - Celestial Shades

FoneZ - Adhesivo De Contacto Espacial (2014)

Musical globetrotting afoot, yesterday a band from Spain and today one from Argentina. FoneZ are from the city of Córdoba in the center of the Argentine Republic, a country already on my mind as I just enjoyed reading the Invention of Morel by Argentine writer, Adolfo Bioy Casares. Now what I didn't know going into that novella was how much the plot elements would incorporate science fiction, and I had no clue as to how this spacey and pop-like this album would be. A musical parallel to the pleasant literary surprise I'd gotten.

Adhesivo De Contacto Espacial is hard to label with a genre because of how well the songs seem to hang between more recognizable styles like Krautrock, indie pop, noise pop and shoegaze. The mood of the music seems happier and upbeat and all the keyboarding makes me think of cheerful indie pop like Bishop Allen or, if this doesn't lose everyone, Hemstad. The Swedish band that seemingly disappeared but I liked in 2006, you guys recall that, right? I fear you'll have to take my word for it. Anyhow, this is a good release despite my inability to describe it very well, but I think they were going for something outside the box yet catchy and they certainly achieved that goal. It is mostly an instrumental album so I do encourage you to throw some headphones on and listen to this next time you wanna read a story of the fantastique. Free download via bandcamp, released by Lo-Fi Records.

To be had here:
FoneZ - Adhesivo De Contacto Espacial

The Baudelaires - Be a Baudelaire! (2014)

While I am sure it wasn't their intention, this Australian four piece really played to me well by naming their band for a French poet that I have lost more hours than I'll ever confess to my boss reading when it got too hot to shelve books. What I bet they might've known when submitting is that they're from Melbourne and I have been fixated on exploring the lo-fi indie music from Australia as of late. However the circumstance, I have taken the bait and listened. As far as I can tell the name is all they share with eponymous poet, as I don't think he was making shoegaze and blues rock tunes (but, holy shit, think of what that would've been like). What these Baudelaires have put forth almost seems like two bands, with the first series of tacks on this six song release being dreamy shoegaze songs with shimmery guitar and mellow bass, with a seven minute plus drifting epic in there. In fact the psych-shoegaze tone hold true until the fifth track, "Samariterstrasse," during which the beat becomes markedly more bluesy, and this is even further delved into with the final song, "Broke Down Blues." For this last song they've made a music video of for all our enjoyment. It is like the Lazy Aftershow, from my other fixation nation of Greece, meet with the most influential blues rock band of my teenage years, the Soledad Brothers, but like oil and water they are sitting separated in the bottle. I suppose to nice things are better than what could have happened if they tried to force them together, and I sincerely liked all these tracks for what they are.

To be had here:
The Baudelaires - Be a Baudelaire!

The Grease Arrestor - What Was, Is. (2014)

This is another of the groups I've been listening to lately from Australia, on the recommendation of their fellow countrymen, the Citradels. However, unlike the Citradels and the others they're not from Melbourne, rather they hail from Sydney. The music that the Grease Arrestor plays is pyschedelic-shoegaze rock with a healthy dose of Eastern influence. While not to the intensity of Eastern-ness of John Berberian the Rock East Ensemble's oud playing, which is a must hear if you've never done so. I've got a soft spot for psych music that infuses that Eastern so openly, for either the epic droning style or the short rock numbers such as this group produces. The songs have a sedated, hazy tone, especially the delivery of the singing, creating a floating sound. It never amps up and cuts loose, which some might find bothersome, but personally I think that it is just fine to makes something that doesn't need to blow out my speakers but has all those wonderful psychedelic sounds. That aside, What Was, Is. has some excellent qualities, including a very polished and professional sounding recording that's all the more impressive because the band does it all themselves. Basically, if you like 60s psychedelic a bit updated and reinterpreted you'll be on board with the Grease Arrestor, and I am happy to say I meet that criteria nicely.

To be had here:
The Grease Arrestor - What Was, Is

The Citradels - Droned and Rethroned (2014) & Our Lord's Secret Service (2013)

Following up on what I said in the Grand Rapids post, I looking into other bands on Melbourne's Psych Ward label and it seems they're got a small but fantastic roster. The Citradels are the other band that they're promoting now and even since the release of 2013's Our Lord's Secret Service the band has put out another full-length, Drone and Rethroned, although it doesn't appear to be via Psych Ward. Nevertheless, I liked them both well enough that instead of deciding which to write up in some possibly chronological confusing manner I thought I would just cover both. How's that suit you? Good? Fine.

The Citradels influences are quite easily identifiable even if they didn't literally tag their releases with Velvet Underground and Jesus & Mary Chain on their bandcamp page. And there really isn't a point is brining in more examples of what they're akin to as those suckers are two of my go-to references that I think most all of the readership should know well. Yet as they say the devil in the details, so I'll try to enlighten everyone a bit better. Earliest release first I suppose, Our Lord's Secret Service is full of experimentalism a healthy degree of anti-pop. However, it's not a clone or knock off, although I'd consider it a loving reference to VU throughout, especially the earlier John Cale co-written songs. What's most noticeable is the use of psychedelic droning to warp that sound into a lovely contrition. The late 1960s is a dunked into a bucket of noisy wall-of-sound. Now, Droned and Rethroned as the name suggests is even heavier on the droning. It is basically a collection washed out, dream-state inducing epic tracks that have identifiably Indian music swirled in. To sum it up, they are both fucking excellent records and I've been throughly impressed by what I have found coming out of Melbourne. Always knew they were up to something down there I was missing out on.

To be had here:
The Citradels - Droned and Rethroned
&
The Citradels - Our Lord's Secret Service