Arvid - Old Factory Living (2014)

What we have here is a good old fashioned eccentrically irreverent, weird rock album. A solo project of a fella from Rochester, NY has spawned the series of bizarre but undeniably charming tracks called Old Factory Living. I've set a bit a precedent for enjoying this sort of lo-fi and far-out singer-songwriter style of music, as I have friends who make tunes like these including Paully Moonbean and my boy Jason that is the mind behind Forest Porridge and Twin Man. Regardless of your familiarity to those deep recollections to SRM history, this is a finely done 4-track attic record hat rapidly shift in tones from each track, with some being catchy rock tunes and others being elongated psychedelic infused trips, and yet others smacking of E6 falsetto heavy tunes. It comes off as exactly what it is meant to be, a somewhat immature version of a songwriter possessing a good deal of talent. He's fleshing out his sound and doing a great job at it already. Finally, I'd like to point out that I could dig in and a take a cozy rest in this sort of early version of artist expression. It is more than getting in at the ground floor of something that could be big, for it never need be a big deal. However, you shared a roughly contemporariness connection with a musician that might not be necessarily saying anything heavy or deep than you choose to read that into it, but reflected feeling of your time so very coherently, despite its messiness and because of it.

To be had here:
Arvid - Old Factory Living

Salad Boys - S/T (2013)

My new long term goal is to go to grad school, then get a job I can stomach and that I know will pay well. I will then run a record label on weekends, getting bands like Salad Boys, with their wonderful lo-fi indie rock, to let me press 7" records for them. After years of investing tens of thousands of dollars in awesome little bands and not making any profit, my wife will burn all my books and clothing and leave me for another man with un-squandered money. I will lose my well paying job due to depression and have to move into a storage facility with all the boxes of records I couldn't sell. Starving, I will resort to letting teenagers beat me up for money. After many years and many many beatings, I will use this money to buy a shitty little bar. I will acquire a 7" playing jukebox and fill it with all the records I pressed years earlier. Then I will sit in my bar and drink all the beer therein while listening to the infectious melancholic pop of the Salad Boys song "Best Kept Secret".

I will probably then piss myself and die.

8 songs.

Salad Boys - S/T

Modern Delusion - Wasteland CS (2014)

A most righteous garage rock album from Zagreb put out by Doomtown Records. This label operated by a longstanding member of the lo-fi music blogging community who also does one of my favorite blogs, the long-running Teenage Lobotomy. As an avid fan of garage rock, post-punk and all varieties of lo-fi he's found a most excellent band to include on his label. I feel a bit bead having to hear this album with a doozy of a head cold, but duty calls and this shouldn't be put off another unnecessary day. Modern Delusion is three-piece with a remarkably full sound of distorted guitar, bass, and if my ears are working through the cold, keys backed by some of the better drumming I've heard in a garage band in a while. One thing that stands out is that they seem to sing in vague British accents, so I kept recalling English garage rockers like Thee Milkshakes but they've got a list of your own influences on the bandcamp page I am sure they'd prefer I make for more musical sophisticated reasons. All I know, and all I likely need to know, is I really fucking dig this album. Loud, fast and aggressively punk without losing an inch of snazziness, it's a show I liked so much I listened twice, then like four more times.

To be had here:
Modern Delusion - Wasteland CS

Dangus - Cannon (2014)

Dangus is a 2 person band from Oslo, Norway. Their music brings to mind a different sort of retro than what's normally talked about on this blog: glammy, '70s cock rock(hold the cock). That's perhaps an oversimplification (and something better suited for a different website) but I can't help but hear some early Kiss in these songs, minus the cheese and raunchy lyrics. One thing that stands out is that their lead singer doesn't sound like the type of singer normally associated with this kind of music. It's like a young James Mercer was asked to front the MC5 for a recording session. It takes a little getting used to but, in the end, it's worth it.

Dangus describes themselves as "garage rock born out of exile", and their bandcamp page says the music was recorded during the "economic recession". I don't know what an economic recession generally means for Norwegians, as my cursory understanding of matters is that Norway has things far better figured out than we do. What it means for all of us, is that Dangus had some time to create and share their contribution to the rock world in a modest but loud way, whether you'd call it garage or not.

If this is garage, it's garage that hung out at the bar every night from 1965 to 1975. It's garage with hair on it's chest, unafraid to keep those top few buttons open while brutalizing a cowbell and wailing mean guitar solos.

10 songs:

Dangus - Cannon

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

Space Rock Mountain Podcast 10 - Peyote and Race Records

Submissions
 1. White Owl - You Just Don’t Really Get How Much it Still Fills Up My Mind
2. Wizard Oz - Black Bag
3. Home Alone - Drive All Night
4. Evil Sons - No Bad Luck

 Lost and Found
1. Kim Jung Mi - Wind in the Trees
2. Damon Albarn - You & Me
3. 16 Horsepower - Sac of Religion

 Life Through Music
 1. Skip James - Crow Jane

Suzi Trash - Sleep Through This (2013)

I like Suzi Trash a lot, which surprises me because I'm usually stingy with my love for punk. I first heard of them when randomly stumbling on their So Totally Dissonant record which I wrote up a couple years back. Their sound has changed during that time, the move from Arkansas to Missouri having flushed the cow from their cow-punk to make space for an even meatier, Kanye West sort of sound(read: harder, better, faster, stronger). On their most recent release, Sleep Through This (a title that takes a poke at Hole, which isn't a euphemism for anything), the music strikes a chord with teenage me and the punk bands I used to listen to growing up in eastern Pennsylvania.... bands that no one remembers like Strychnine And The Rat Traps and Mr. Yuk... hard-edged but with flares for humor. This is most evident on the killer track Please Stop Talking To Me.

Suzi Trash has several full lengths on their bandcamp page, all generously made to be free downloads ... all really, really good. If you're in the market for a dose of an exhilarating, punk rock amphetamine while you plant your summer gardens, Suzi Trash is just the pill.

Suzi Trash - Sleep Through This

Black Pages - Pg. 1 (2014)

Our Floridan garage rock friend are back at it again, in fact he put out this release on hot on the heels of us sharing his Acoustic EP a few weeks ago. In case you're not familiar with this fella, because you just skip around willy-nilly with posts or whatever, Black Pages is a bedroom operation by a dude from Orlando. It isn't polished, perhaps he's still getting his sound down and recording techniques tweaked, but I still find in his music a notable talent for lo-fi rocking. He mixed it up a bit with a piano number in the middle of some garage ditties that are his more usual fare, but it wasn't a poor track so much as a break in the pace for this otherwise speedily heard five track release. However, I'm fearful of writing anything that might discourage this guy from keeping at it, and really I do enjoy his music more than I can find any fault. I can only imagine with more time and experience in songwriting we could have a sensation here.

To be had here:
Black Pages - Pg. 1

Lasso - Golden Lasso (2014)

A new release from a band I wrote up some time ago, Lasso of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Golden Lasso is a weird western, combining psychedelic, country and avant-garde offbeat antics into an whimsical yet captivating album. I don't mean to paint it as an off-the-wall sort of release, for it is markedly restrained in its composition, instead skewing toward a subtle approach to the weirdness. It's warm and charming in tone, leaving me elated by the end of my first listen. The delivery on the vocals is great and well-mastered throughout, plus whoever the lady is they've got singing on "Tangolassi" is exceptional. However, I was most intrigued by the way the made the westernness of this album so present without the usual twangy guitars and lamentations of tragedy (not that those aren't great too). It seems they've been busy in the interlude since my last post of their work and put out a few albums, which you can find on their bandcamp page linked below.

To be had here:

Lasso - Golden Lasso

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.