The Dictaphone - Hazmat (2015)

A new album by the French heavy psychedelic garage project known as the Dictaphone. Released by the Viennese label, Totally Wired Records, who you might recall as the folks that put out the Drunken Draculas' songs in Austria. I haven't posted about the Dictaphone since the release of 2012's Let's Not. However, it took mere seconds of listening to Hazmat for me to recall why I would have taken the trouble to write them up years ago.

I called the Dictaphone 'heavy' psychedelic garage for a reason, though a looser term like lo-fi is likely more applicable. The songs are incredibly dense and rich and only at times fast and messy, perhaps best exemplified by the amazing song "Wrist Job." Yet in the second half of Hazmat the tone shifts in tracks like "Ex-Cop" and "Remove The Need" to a slower and a more droning style overtakes the brash garage rock. Then in the end it changes back into very lo-fi garage rock, with the fuzzy guitar, pounding percussion and belting, echoey vocals one should expect. Throughout all of them is an innate connection to electronic music, especially in the building introductions and layering of rhythms. Check out the track "Stalker" to really see what I mean and just how excellently the differing dynamics are integrated into a cohesive song. It is a stellar album all around, one I won't soon be moving on from.

To be had here:
The Dictaphone - Hazmat

The Raw Nerves - S/T (2012)

I got lazy with this record - for almost a year. Not sure why - the punk contained herein is of the lo-fi, fun, and garage-y ilk... quite possibly the lone punk record I've listened to multiple times over the past year (save for The Wipers impeccable Youth of America). It wasn't until I saw a Pitchfork recommendation for it that I was reminded that Spacerockers need to hear this thing. Unfortunately, since Pitchfork is like the Whole Foods of music journalism, as soon as they graced the record with it's attention, it went from being a "pay what you want" record to $5.

But, much like fresh caught fish is worth the extra money over the farmed variety, The Raw Nerves are worth your shekels.

Imagine Billy Childish meets Australian punk rockers X (different from the other band called X). There's no sophistication, which The Wipers had in spades and I champion them for, but that's a fine thing for The Raw Nerves. Punk doesn't need sophistication and most of the genre actively shuns it, which is why this record is special I suppose. It doesn't really stand out in any discernible way, it's just a straightforward take on a classic, and it's great.

Catchy without being poppy, snarky without being bratty.... if all punk rock sounded this good I might actually give a crap about it most of the time.

The Raw Nerves - S/T 

Häxxan - Häxxan (2014)

At times there is nothing better one can do than wake up, drink a pot of very black coffee and listen to garage rock. Really sets a tone of excited invulnerability for the day to follow. Honestly, this is as close as I get to eating breakfast. Of course, not all garage rock is equally suited for this task. In particular the fuzzier, faster and more psychedelically hazy the better it is when I'm in this state of mind. Found just the thing in the submissions, a group called Häxxan, billed as a "mega-huge garage band" by their label. Gotta hear that, right?

Though they hail from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, Häxxan could have fooled me into believing their where among the Capetown garage rockers or one of the numerous awesome Spanish or French lo-fi outfits. The reason I bring all these other places up is to make a sloppy reference to how I think Häxxan is as good as any of the garage rock I've recently posted like the Fizz Pops, Baston or Bicycle Day. Their sound could be described as between the Stooges and the Ganglians, sharing heavy, distorted rock elements of the former and the charmingly surreal vocals and composition of the latter. Songs that really display the psych-garage fusing best are "Never See Me Again," "Ben Zona" and the utterly brilliant "Hail C-La-C." The whole damn album is awesome really.

The vinyl was issued Munich, Germany based label, Heroic Leisure, although there are very few left at the time of this post being published. Good news though, a Dutch label called Geertruida is issuing it as a cassette and those only came out earlier this month. Hopefully there's plenty still be available.

To be had here:
Häxxan - Häxxan

EP Grab Bag vol. 105

Been meaning to get this one up for a while. Got lazy or forgetful or whatever, who cares really? It's here now. Anyhow, I am late in the sense that all the album art seems very well geared for Halloween, which I missed by a week. Oh well, better luck next year.

To be had here:

Peixefante - Lorde Pacal EP (2015)

Another EP I was sent from my Brazilian friend Barbara. Her impeccable is apparent in this awesome psychedelic indie/electronic pop outfit from Goiânia, Brazil. The songs possess a wonderful ethereal quality, just a touch spacey, but at their core they are wonderful modern psych tunes. They remind me of my favorite modern Brazilian psych-rockers, Supercordas, yet bent more toward pop music. An incredibly alluring EP, not to be missed.

Seamus O'Muineachain - Blood Apple (2015)

The songs of an Irish songwriter. Minimal in composition, ambient in tone, and folksy in style they are lovely instrumental songs. Done largely on guitar and piano they songs are a finely interwoven tapestry of those instruments, though a healthy level of percussion is used as necessary. It's as if that sort of acoustic music you've doubtlessly heard played in a coffeehouse could carry many times it's weight by utilizing more musical avenues than the bare guitar playing. So much so it is more sedimental than many lyrically based compositions.

Waylon Thornton and the Heavy Hands - Black Pudding (2015)

This Floridian outfit has routinely sent me music over the years, though I have failed to always post it. I am sloppy like that. However, I did take the time to hear this seven-track release and found myself enjoying even more than I already imagined I might. The songs are short garage rock jaunts. And I mean short, not any of them top the two minute mark. All upbeat lo-fi with howling singing reverb in the vocals and great distorted guitars. Check them out and look into their admirable catalog while you're at it.

The Dyna Jets - The Calling (2015)

Recently I posted the Fizz Pops, a garage pop band from Capetown, South Africa. Well, two members, Johnny Tex and Warren Fisher, of that band also have another project called the Dyna Jets. So here is the EP they put out this summer and I somehow missed until a couple of weeks ago. Two-piece garage rock as it should be, markedly fuzzy and playful, has a very surfy tone in the guitar playing. Four brief songs that left me eager for more. I Hope there will be more, under whatever name the choose to use next time.

Enema Noise - manual pouco prático do desapego (2014)

Back to Brazil, this time to the capital city of Brasilia. Lo-fi rock for sure, though of a more intense sort than the prior two EPs of this Grab Bag. Post-hardcore, which is a genre that is hit or miss for me overall, but there's not a doubt in my mind that Enema Noise is anything other than a hit. This release is absolutely exciting. The speed, intensity and excellent musicianship engaged me from the very start. I would love to hear them play in a dirty basement for sure.

Invisible Things - Time AS One Axis (2015)

I'm so damn stressed about being back in school. I remember, years ago, when I first went to college ... there was almost always that one much older person in the class. Well, that's me now. And I can't fuck around like I did 15 years ago when I was first a student. People look at me like I know something they don't ... like if they look closely enough at the grey in my hair they'll see fucking algebraic equations etched in the cuticles. The Beliebers in my psychology class can try to sniff answers out of my wrinkles all they want, but they'll be disappointed to find they're only smelling the black licorice deodorant I drunkenly purchased off Etsy last week.

Age rarely means wisdom, as we are only as wise as we fool people into "beliebing" we are.

Mark Shippy must be an exception to this rule. Once a guitarist for the famed deconstructionist rock pioneers, U.S. Maple, he's just released this explosive record along with drummer Jim Sykes from noise rock band, Parts & Labor. Shippy's guitar work brings to mind his atonal mindfuck style from the 90s, where your preeettttyyy sure whatever he's doing to that guitar is highly illegal. But the chaos is reigned in, somewhat. These songs do feel like songs... nothing one could dance to, but there is structure in here, somehow. The end result is a really engaging experimental rock record. For fans of the above mentioned bands, and for anyone who remembers the heyday of Touch And Go and Skin Graft. Maybe Marnie Stern and Deerhoof, also.

8 songs. Also available on vinyl.

Invisible Things - Time AS One Axis

Paradise Brut - Violet Violence (2015)

So people are compelled to make music, well, many people are compelled. Not all of them are terribly good at it, not that that's a reason not to keep making it (unless there's gonna be the new Billy Joel or something equally ultra-horrific). However, it is even less common for someone to be awesome at two genres of music, and then to be a bedroom recording artist at that. Nonetheless, our friend Dani in Madrid has managed this feat.

A couple of times I've posted on a very noisy, messy garage rocker that uses the moniker King Cayman. You might recall how those albums are best heard loudly and with a beer in your system. Well, he has translated that notion into electronic rock with this release. It holds much of the same spirit as his garage punk music, but grinds it down to a sparser core that is only thereafter elaborated with electronic affectations. Few vocals are heard, though when they rarely do show up they are with his customarily spooky effects. Yet this is not where your focus should be. It is in the fundamental breakdown of lo-fi rock that he's offering up. I mean this in the same since that when you crush an orange it yield delicious juice, he's managed to mush up garage rock into core elements and giving them a wholly new texture. He's taken the components of most good lo-fi rock; angst, excitement, confusion and irreverence, and made them into bare sounds. It is like imagining your own irregular heartbeat and somehow knowing it has universal currency. I adore it.

To be had here:
PARADISE BRUT - VIOLET VIOLENCE

Jorge Bernstein & The Pioupioufuckers - Meet The Real Bernstein (2007)

Often times when sifting through the mountainous amounts of music on bandcamp, there comes a release that really clicks for me. It takes a lot of time and a lot of sifting.... it makes me wonder: is this all because I've been adrift in an ocean of shit that I find this small dinky island, with one lousy jackfruit tree, that I think this is the most amazing piece of land to ever exist?

Maybe. But that feeling of discovery is invigorating enough to keep returning to the shitty sea, in hopes of finding more land, and to claim it for the nation of Spacerockmountain. However, with Jorge Bernstein and the PiouPioufuckers, I can't help but believe this music is truly fucking good, and that any reader with an ounce of the grey stuff between their ears is going to enjoy this.

"Let me introduce to you the best drummer in the world. First member of the Bernstein Corporation. President of the United States of rock'n'roll. Look at his yellow shirt!" So the band is a corporation headed by a mysterious Jorge Bernstein, who I guess is their drummer... whether or not that is his real name or a fictional character that he plays, we'll never know. Originally released in 2007, "Meet The Real Bernstein" may have been a smidgen ahead of the most recent garage revival. But this record could easily be released on Burger records tomorrow... because it's full of awesome, high energy garage punk with a bit of an old rock'n'roll feel to it... dare I say rockabilly? This may be more to do with the singers Elvis-meets-Jello Biafra sound.

Well worth a listen, and well worth checking out their other releases.

14 songs, pay what you want.

Jorge Bernstein & The Pioupioufuckers - Meet The Real Bernstein

SHAKY SHRINES - SHAKY AT BEST (2015)

A couple of years back I posted an EP from a Pittsburgh outfit making a droning psychedelic rock. I thought it was pretty great and I still do, so I am happy to say SHAKY SHRINES still at it, in fact they've never let up, I just missed all the releases since then until now. My bad, folks, but one can't hear it all no matter what one wishes. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have hear this new album, SHAKY AT BEST. The surprise for me was how different the band sounded to me. I recall a lo-fi garagey psych band, and this album has an immediately identifiable polish indie rock style. But hey hey hey, don't turn it off, just keep listening. It might be more pop and shine than what I came in expecting, but it is done well. A good tune is a good tune, and why should a band stick to one genre anyhow? I missed what might have been evolutionary steps towards this in the last two years, but I like what I got anyhow.

All this isn't to say they shed all of the garage rock elements of the songwriting. Several are still quite catchy, lo-fi fuzz-fests. The vocals are clearer and more forward however, and the structure of the songs are more cohesive overall. A good album, totally worth checking out by eager indie rock fans. Highlight tracks for me were "Yr House Isn't Haunted" and "Tomato Tomato."

To be had here:
SHAKY SHRINES - SHAKY AT BEST

Swet Jafari Meck Mett - Error de continuidad (2015)

Gonna really make an effort to knock out some submitted albums. Finding I am in the mood for the tunes and holy fuck do I ever have a backlog of them. Sorta gonna randomly cherry-pick the submissions as there is more than I have time to handle. I suppose it is time to find some help again....

Here is what I stumbled on for tonight, a Chilean musician now residing in Palma De Mallorca, Spain. Living the dream of moving to a Mediterranean island and making noisy bedroom post-punk, like that is totally something I could only imagine. The music is damn fine as well. Very experimental, taking cues from all sorts of post-punk influences like Half Japanese, Sonic Youth and many others this guy likely knows that I haven't even heard of, it has a 80s vibe with a repetitive beats, guitars freaking out and highly distorted singing. Yet at times he steers more Nico & the Velvet Underground-esque with droney sounds and those elongated vocals Nico excelled at delivering. The album is broken up with gentle instrumental interludes, or "instancia" as he calls them. These make the cacophonous sounds of the rest of Error de continuidad really burst forth more powerfully. Finally, I'd be lying if I didn't say that was some of my favorite album art I've seen in months. Good packaging is always a plus.

To be had here:

Swet Jafari Meck Mett - Error de continuidad

Robot Speaker - Error Pop (2015)

An experimental album from a Japanese electronic music called Takuma Ebisaw, a.k.a. Robot Speaker. It isn't easy to describe what he's made in this large collection of songs he's titled Error Pop. The tracks are all over the place, but that is completely the purpose of them. It is like running through a menagerie of audio landscapes at an increasingly rapid pace. It incorporates elements of j-pop and psychedelia with electronic genres like glitch and breakcore. Leads to a schizophrenic level of dissonance of the surface, but if you give it time to sink it there is a method to the madness that comes out the unlikely and short outbursts of sounds.

Also interesting to note is that this album is being issued by the Detroit label, Placenta Recordings. Looks like have a good deal of releases, as this is the #316, but it is the first I have heard of them. I should really like to find out what else they've been up to.

To be had here:
Robot Speaker - Error Pop