Antique Pony - Museum of Blood (2012)

An eccentric album from a Glasgow-based group of self-professed art rockers. The songs shift in mood and style throughout the album, but altogether they've got a wonderful mosaic of neatly strange tracks. It reminds me of a mingling of various bands I' gonna rattle off knowing full well it'll makes sense to like 3 people on earth: Bunky, Bablicon and Pill Wonder. However, an easier comparison would be Deerhoof, you all know that, right? Regardless of similarities they're doing their own odd thing and doing it right. Really do make the effort to listen to the album fully in one sitting. I found that really rewarding, even if slightly exsperating of the unsettling moods created from my reading Knut Hamsun's Hunger simultaneously. You get what you ask for though.

To be had here:
Antique Pony - Museum of Blood

Car Seat Headrest - Monomania (2012)

A new album from one of my favorite bands to ever submit music to this ramshackle of a blog. Although he didn't send me an email about this one... whatever my feeling aren't hurt, my fault for being an absentee blogger. Whining aside, this guy is just too good not to talk up no matter how I can across it this time. The lo-fi sound that made Twin Fantasy so incredibly amazing is maintained wonderfully in Monomania, even the Julian Casablancas-style of vocal distortion (which I love for no reason beyond a warm feeling in my gut). Some tracks were instantly stuck in my head like "Overexposed (Enjoy)," "Maud Gone" and "Souls." This fella isn't skimping on the tunes either, he's letting us soak in tracks up to 14 minutes long. Epic lo-fi indie rock is something I'm down with. This isn't a free album, excepting of course the streaming that one may partake in via bandcamp, but its only a finely-priced $4.

To be had here:
Car Seat Headrest - Monomania

Truma Harness - The Way You Press On Harder... (2012)

A second tape has been sent to me by the friendly Ohioans that makes music under the name of Trauma Harness. I posted their previous cassette, Trauma Demolitional, shy of a year ago in case you missed it. The band is still a lo-fi menace that isn't afraid to deploy all manner of warping effects and distorted sounds in the quest to make exciting post-punk. It's got gloomy, touched-by-goths mood, but at the same time I think it is really easy to get worked up while strutting about with my busted up tape player hissing their songs. Although I am far from backing away from my recommendation of Trauma Demolitional, I must say this album is a dramatically superior release that goes to show Trauma Harness is only improving. Appears the cassette can be gotten at Dingle Records for $4 but the digital is name your own price.

To be had here:
Truma Harness - The Way You Press On Harder...

EP Grab Bag vol. 24

I really do need to pick up the pace on this shit and as usual I'd like to say I think it could happen soon as I have been cleared of the false charges with the telecommunications company and therefore can get internet as soon as I've got the money, which I unfortunately for the blog spent on a recent vacation. Oh well, snail-paced or rabbit-quick posting doesn't seem to stop the flow of EPs.

To be had here:

Fogo Amigo - Casa, Cordas E Alguns Geradores (2012)

Here's an offering of post-rock from Brazil. It is fairly quick and exciting stuff, but it did the wonderful post-rock trick of setting me blissful adrift for moments. The track "Sonhando" has a particularly endearing tune, with a great drum intro and all manner of interludes. "Queda Livre" and "Nós Contra o Mundo" get more fantastical yet with some psychedelic rock fused into them. A fine EP that I must've listened to 4 times over while reading books this week.

PLant Parenthood - EP (2012)

In case you forgot, I fucking love garage rock. If I could live on garage rock, tamales, coffee and beer I would have already. It's a lovely day when a garage rock EP comes in, so naturally PLant Parenthood was a welcome sight. Roughly done and simple for sure. The singing is a bit high pitch yet it sounds like a live recording from a basement because of it, which has a certain charm. "Jungle Cat" is a pretty solid anthem and makes me think I could stand to hear a full album from these kids.

Preludes - New York EP (2012)

A returning stalwart, Preludes has yet another EP to grace us with. This band is classy, remarkably so to a fella that wakes up and listens to "Your Ass (My Face)" by the Mummies a few times a week. They've got strings that are played with bows, you know, all fancy-like. I'm really not trying to be patronizing because the songs on Preludes EPs are often exceedingly more beautiful than any thing else I post in any given month.

Fins - Lawnmower EP (2012)

A four track 7" released by Obscure Me Records out in Connecticut. Specifically from New Milford, as if I knew wherever the fuck that is, the Fins are a noise-punk band that in huge contrast to the just mentioned Preludes are not about classiness so much as fuzzy energy and hollering. Jitters-inducing exciting of an unrefined sort, as if jitters can be induced in any other way, right?

Wolfgang strutz. - Wolfgang sings, Hymns. (2012)

This came in telling me nothing more than it was a redoing of church hymnals in a lo-fi freak folk style, which the submitter said reminded him of "the singing flowers in Disney's Alice in Wonderland!" Well, that is a mouthful to grasp on its own, it sent my mind spiraling off into all sorts of tangets. Most notable of them is my boss at the bookstore I'm now employed at in Detroit where I've a boss that's a self-described holy roller that doesn't preach. What she does do is walk about the shop humming gospels and saying the sole lyric "Jesus" every few seconds. Needless to say it is distractingly strange practice. Moreover, makes me wonder very much if she's ever learned any other words to the song. Now people do odd things, but I've a hard time imagining this is really kosher even in the conservative parts of the midwest, right? To each their own though.

So basically, this is everything that my boss's gospel performance isn't is the best way. It is charmingly warm and sweet while still maintain enough of the songs to be nostalgic. And holy shit is it right to bring up this crazy flowers from Alice's adventure, for it does seem like Disney's big dick would have been all up in these vocals, yet maybe not so in the finely done instrumentation. For real though, the reinterpretation of these songs is so fantastically done it has resulted in a solid half-dozen consecutive listenings on my part, esepcially loving the versions of "Nobody Know the Trouble I've Seen,""Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Morning Has Broken." So I apologize for my vulgar manner of speaking, but I immediately told my old buddy Bebop, "put down your dick and look up to the sky, I got something to listen to."

To be had here:
Wolfgang strutz. - Wolfgang sings, Hymns.

Jackie - Greatest Love Songs (2012)

This is another Swedish band that's massively impressed me (you might recall the other Swedish act, Be Alright from a recent Grab Bag). As usual for things I adore, Jackie makes lo-fi rock music, and they managed to be particularly delightful with a how sweet yet washed out sound. I must've listened to this album a dozen times in the last three days, and I've been eager to post it up but I just got a new computer and I got a bit pre-occupied with setting it up the way that makes me feel all cosy. Now with my obligatory excuses for my laxness in posting out of the way, I can can tell you that these guys do the whole simple, fuzzed out rock thing with the most excellent of skill. Literally the first 40-second long track'll had me swooning. The singing is suitably distorted and blends right into the thumping drums and bass and jangling guitars that come together to basically be a wall-of-sound. Perhaps what I like even more is that although I have heard it quite a few times now, I still haven't a fucking clue what he's singing about, and it is in what's technically English. Some of the songs are absolute gold though, and I recommend "Graveyard" and "Snowdiver Down" as examples. Everyone that's been in the room as I put it on seemed to agree if that means shit, so get after it.

To be had here:

Jackie - Greatest Love Songs

EP Grab Bag vol. 23

The latest collection of overdue EP reviews in brief. Hope they're to your liking as much as they were to my own.

To be had here:

Bad Jeans - Bad Jeans (2011)

Found this on the 'recommended by' list of Fun Guns on bandcamp page. Liking what those fellas were up to enough I thought I couldn't go wrong trying out whatever they gave a thumbs up to. My trust paid off in full, as this EP by Bad Jeans is outrageously sweet. Six beautifully done lo-fi rock songs that are equally catchy pop and garage rock. It's almost as if the songs are immediately familiar, but I can't imagine there isn't a healthy amount of good influences we all may be aquatinted making that the case. Just remarkably fresh for something so perfectly lo-fi rock it sound like it should've always been there.

My Little Underground - My Little Underground (2012)

This band makes me think of Gang of Four and Josef K for the get-go, which pulled me in for the duration. Doesn't let up either, the comforting repetition of the drum beats, angular and dreamy guitars alternating and even vocals that summon recollections of Entertainment! or Echo & The Bunnymens' Songs To Learn & Sing. In short, some damned fine post-punk. So thanks to these guys I am gonna be listening to British bands from the 80s for a couple weeks. Seeing as I can't find any email record of this being submitted it's likely I actually stumbled onto this myself. How novel...

One Leg Mary - Yes Exactly, Maybe Not (2012)

I should stop being so surprised by the fact that heavy rock/post-metal bands that submit me music intrigue me so much. Well, I've never feel any dislike for that sort of music I realize I've come to listen to it only when a musician see fit to send me some, each time reminding me that it's something I can thoroughly enjoy. Obviously most recently this thanks to Athens, Greece's One Leg Mary . The songs are wonderfully composed of loud guitars, pounding drums and dynamic singing that altogether creates an enveloping sound capable just manhandling my state of mind. Even when the slow way down such as on the track "Outfit" the music remains potent.

Michael Amason + Density - Southern Tombs/Sacred Drones (2012)

Southern Tombs/Sacred Drones is the band I was sent along with Painted Faces from Cookies N' Creme Records in cassette form (in which it is still available). The title Sacred Drones is not beating around the bush either, it is really some magnificently intense drone music. My first listen was waking up hungover to put it on while drinking coffee and preparing for work, I might as well as starting drinking all over again for disorientating pleasure it caused me. It's a stalwart example of drone and noise if I've ever heard one, and this blog makes plenty sure of that. Lastly, this is some really fucking great cover art, like for reals.

Painted Faces - Tangleweird (2012) & New Jams (2012)

It seems that mail that isn't a bill or junk is rather hard to come by, and in my neighborhood even harder to insure it'll be there at all if it doesn't fit in my tiny mailbox. Yet the best scenario is to find a package containing cassettes tapes, and I've been lucky enough to have this happen for the second time this month, this time with three tapes. From the Brooklyn-based label Cookies N' Creme Records there were two tapes of experimental music by Painted Faces and one by Michael Amason and DENSITY (which I'll go into more detail about in the next Grab Bag).

As mentioned Painted Faces (really the solo project of a dude called David Drucker) makes experimental music, of a pretty fantastical and outlandish sort. I listened to Tangleweird first so I'll start with noting the intense use of noise and disordering feeling it lays on like mole sauce on a wet burrito. Dissonance is the game and they've got a cacophonous strategy. In contrast, New Jams seems much more subtle; coming closer to ambient for long stretches than any part of Tangleweird. In fact a whole range of experimental music appears, from slow droning to avant-garde art-rock complete with guitar riffs and crazy vocals. I've found the variety and the uniqueness to be quite endearing, especially if repeated listening is undertaken. Thanks for the tapes, keep on freaking me out just a bit and see a promising future for us all. Final note, each of these is $3 to  download via bandcamp, but obviously streamable and like 90% of the tracks are downloadable for free individually.

To be had here:

Tangleweird

New Jams

Heat Dust - S/T (2011)

Well, it's about 100 degrees in Portland today. We don't really know what to do with extreme weather, except drink, which is one thing Portlanders do best. A few years back a heat wave brought 100+ degree weather for a whole week and I must've seen at least 5 drunken fights as I drove around the city. Known for milder summers, Portland was void of air conditioners by the third day of that week, just as during the "Snowpocalypse" of 2008, when automotive stores ran out of chains and everyone had to use gardening shovels to clear their sidewalks and streets. If you take these examples, along with having more strip clubs per capita than any other US city, Portland is invariably the city caught with it's pants down.

But I digress…

Given we're in the middle of summer and it's so hot, it seems only fitting to write about New Orleans band, Heat Dust. Reminiscent of 90's indie rock like Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, Heat Dust play their songs through a thicket of distortion and feedback. In that respect, they shows hues of shoegaze and grunge… even on the slower songs, the crunch remains. I really enjoy their songwriting and vocal delivery, which is melodic and laid-back despite the urgency of the faster songs.

Also want to point out their excellent lyrics. In my stints of songwriting, I always found words to be the toughest part. The kinds of lyrics Heat Dust write are poetic. "Saved by a woman's arms, we plummeted and flew. A trail of blue velvet was left behind in figure 8's." There's something so triumphant about those words, that image. Much of the other lyrical content is darker, a standout line being, "You'll serve a purpose when wild flowers grow from your lifeless bones. Just give up."

Really good stuff, and I don't think it's all a 90's nostalgia thing, though that's undoubtedly a part of it. I'm going to be keeping an eager eye on this band.

Heat Dust - S/T

The Golden Growth - October 12 2011

This is a cassette I recieved from the same fella in Arizona who submitted the Dual Mausoleums (now called People's Temple, I believe) album last year. I think, not with complete confidence, that they're labelmates rather than the same person behind this project. Either way, this is a related sort of sound, namely dissonance. The whole thing appears as a half-jest regarding the rejection of rock and roll, which is in fact played out avant-garde noise contained on the cassette, and more obiviously pointed out by the label's site: I Sold My Soul To Destroy Rock and Roll. Also found the note on the tape stating, "In October of 2011 the mentally ill joined forces and cut a hit record," to be rather enjoyable. However, it doesn't really matter all that much how you feel about their stances being a joke or honestly held, the fact is they've given you some noise music to consume if that's your thing. Goddamn fit perfectly with the latest extentialist novel I've decided to torture myself with this month.

To be had here:
The Golden Growth - October 12 2011