Detroit's Small Stone label is the one of the most reliable "stoner rock" standard bearers these days. While we don't necessarily like everything they put out, you can bet your bong it's ALL stoner rock. And they do have some great bands on their roster, a few that really push the stoner rock thing into interesting psychedelic directions, including recently reviewed discs from AQ faves Los Natas (El Nuevo Orden De La Libertad) and Sons Of Otis (Exiled), both highlights on our last couple lists. So we figure its worth checking out other stuff on the label, and guess what? Here's one from last year that we had overlooked when it came out, but just one listen and we knew we should get some copies in and review it!
Basically, we could describe Salt Lake City's Iota as being a mixture of trippy Hawkwindiness and more aggressive blues based hard rockin', sorta like (early) Soundgarden or Skin Yard meets the heavier, more spaced out sounds of Sons Of Otis or UFOmammut. One reason we mention Soundgarden and Skin Yard is 'cause of the grungy melodic vocals, which bear a certain resemblance to that of those bands, but otherwise this is HEAVIER and SPACIER than any Seattle grunge for sure. And it's not like the singing is the focus of any of this, whereas interstellar jamming IS. However, it's easy shorthand to say Soundgarden + Sons Of Otis, when you hear this you know what we mean.
The five tracks on this 50 minute disc are programed so you get the two stormers out of the gate, tracks 1 and 2 being the throbbing metallic riff attacks of "New Mantis" and "We Are The Yithians", respectively. Then, it's time to blast off and bliss out, as tracks 3 and 4 are extended trips into the alien drug fantasies depicted in the disc's cool cover art. Those two cuts, "The Sleeping Heathen" (10:42) and the even more massive, nearly 23 minute "Dimensional Orbiter", are equally as heavy as the disc's first two tracks, but just a lot more spaced out. Then there's the fifth and final track, Tales closing with the 8+ minute bluesy nod scene that is the harmonica-laced "Opiate Blues", though it still seems it's a transmission from outer space, despite the earthier overt blues element.
Like we said, one listen and we were bowing down, Iota's Tales pushing all our psychedelic stoner rock buttons, with killer guitar soloing, scifi freakiness, sheer heaviosity, and surprisingly excellent vocals. Very, very cool.
A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED debut album from this Olympia Trio! Lo-fi drum & bass whose ethos of live instrumentation at all costs lends comparisons to a quirkier, more lively Red Snapper or at times Can (like what the 'Sacrilege' remix album was supposed to sound like)! This is one of the few groups who can carry off their sound live, including theremin, turntables, standup bass, and keyboards (and NOT ONE preprogrammed tape) into the mix.
What was your teenage dream? IQU (formerly a trio known as ICU, now a duo, but still pronounced ee-koo) and friends give hints to their adolescent aspirations in the liner notes of this cd. "Teenage Dream" just happens to be the name of an IQU song (featuring some very rock guitar and various samples of Japanese singing, greetings and spoken word), and it gets the remix up and down by such pop electronic luminaries as Looper (aka Stuart David ex-Belle And Sebastian) and Sonic Boom. The latter track is one of the two cd-only bonuses. The other is IQU's own K.O. treatment. Quite boogie-worthy indeed.
Better known as ICU, this Olympian electronica trio provides a minimalist downtempo electro squiggle for Miranda July to do her best Laurie Anderson impression.
The eagerly anticipated follow up to the nearly perfect noise pop tUMULt twofer of Iran's s/t and Moon Boys albums, whose sound was a strange hybrid of Pavement-y jangle, Sebadoh sad boy folky flutter, and full bore crumbling Merzbowian noise. We described Iran back then as Smog covering Skullflower, Pavement on Siltbreeze, Harry Pussy covering Built To Spill, you get the idea. But much has changed in the years and years since those records were recorded.
First off, Iran mainman Aaron Aites moved to Norway and made a movie about black metal called Until The Light Takes Us (doing the festival circuit, maybe coming to a theater near you soon!), then returned to the states ending up in New York (instead of SF) and reconnecting with former Iran member Kyp Malone, now of course in TV On The Radio (Kyp also played in an awesome band out here in SF called Rocket Science and The Nigger Loving Faggots, wonder how come that band never gets mentioned in TVOTR press releases haha), and spent a good long while recording Dissolver with Kyp, two new bandmates as well as Kyp's TVOTR bandmade Dave Sitek, producer extrordinaire, handling the production. Sounds like a recipe for a hit record, and Dissolver is definitely about as close to a hit record as Iran's come. To give you an example, I (Andee, who put out those first two Iran records) heard this playing up in the front of the store, went up to see what was playing thinking it was either the Evan Dando solo record, or some weird Lemonheads disc. A lot of that has to do with Aites' voice, which is definitely Dando-esque (in the old days it was buried in buzz and hiss), but also, the new sound is all super well produced jangle, lush guitars, skittery drumming, and multitracked vocals, plenty of harmonies, oooh's and aaah's, even a bit of soul here and there.
There are still some noisy experimental bits, but on Dissolver those are relegated to their own tracks, like "Digital Clock And Phone", a swirl of processed psych guitar, but even that ends up sounding less chaotic and more textured and cool. There are also some moments of punky thrash, bits of blown out pop psych and various shades of jangle and drift, but this is basically just a classic sounding slab of nineties style indie pop, a little modernized maybe, a little more fucked up and freaked out than usual, but catchy and hooky as hell. Fair warning to the noise poppers that loved the first two Irans, the pop is fully in tact, but the noise is sadly (for some) nearly no more...
After a small break comes yet another record in the massive avalanche of tUMULt releases headed our way in the next few weeks (Iran, Painted Black, Leviathan, OCS, Diamatregon, Worms). This is the second missive from San Francisco's premier NOISEPOP band, not 'noise pop' in the jangly-pop-punk-San-Francisco-festival-Creeper-Lagoon-Overwhelming-Colorfast-Fastbacks sense but the gorgeous-pop-songs-buried-under-a-thick-splattery-wall-of-buzz-hum-whir-skree-guitars-set-on-self-destruct-Beatles-flitered-through-Skullflower sense. Like Sebadoh or Pavement being backed up by Throbbing Gristle or Whitehouse. Or Nurse With Wound fronted by Elliott Smith. If you get our drift. For record number two, Iran has scaled back the noise just a bit and let the pop shine through. And shine it does. Gorgeous, heart-breaking, voice-cracking lo-fi love (and un-love) songs, delivered in a wavery falsetto, over gentle guitars, naive drumming and strange but wonderful backgrounds woven from vocals, amp hum, guitar buzz, as well as rumbling low end and squealing feedback. When the noise does kick in, it's not noise for noise sake, Iran handle the squirming serpent with a deft hand, molding gorgeous sonic squalls and speaker shredding skree from overdriven amps and detuned guitars, with buried melodies and strange and mysterious rhythms laying beneath the storm, like looking through a murky pond at the secret life below. Adventurous indie rockers could very well be looking at their new favorite band, and experimetal/avant garde-niks may just find themselves developing a sweet tooth, cause everyone know the sugar goes down easier with a mouthful of medicine.
Another new release from tUMULt laboratories, finds our coworker Andee's label dipping its toes into pop, and recoiling in horror, as it pulls its feet back covered in muck and crud. Iran take 'Indie rock' and bury it in fuzz and hiss, taking ultra catchy pop, and dragging it through the detritus of lo-fi noise rock, picking up an ungodly assortment of buzz and blur and scuzz. Imagine a Pavement record on Siltbreeze. Or Sebadoh, if Lou Barlow was a jaded fuck instead of a sappy romantic. Or old Smog covering Skullflower. Or Harry Pussy playing Built To Spill. A beautifully cacophonous mess. Iran play damaged folk music, bombarded on all sides by a wild assortment of squeals and shrieks, static and hiss, and speaker clogging grit. Huge and slowly shifting, dronescapes that evolve into perfect little pop songs and then explode into jagged shards of high end skree. Iran are psychedelic and textural and noisey and totally catchy, hardcore, hook-filled low fidelity un-pop noise. Pop. Plus fucking wicked 'tiger' cover art.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
These two San Francisco bands, take their indie rock streaks, and bury them under a layer of buzz and hiss and electronic skree. Iran sound a little like the Grifters if they were on Siltbreeze, and you were listening to them through a shortwave radio. The Church Steps take the lofi, and use the hifi to make it sound even more lo fi. Both sound beautifully damaged.
Tag team grind metal battle. Arizona versus New Hampshire. Arizona's entry is Structure Of Lies, blasting grind with dual lead vocals, screech and bellow, but with cool stretched out parts where a riff is just pounded over and over and over, as well as some weirdly melodic breakdowns. From New Hampshire comes Iranach, who have one of the most insanely gurgling cookie monster vocalist ever. Sounds like he's burping the alphabet or something. It's cool though. Creepy and bizarre. The music is super compressed metallic grinding, double kick, gurgling almost-death metal, with some strangely out of place acoustic-y bits.
You'd think Neurosis and Isis would be getting royalties at this point for the sheer number of bands that have 'borrowed' their sound. Then again, if that's how it worked, everybody in Slint and the Pixies would be millionaires. But as we've stated repeatedly in the past, maybe there's nothing new under the sun, and yeah all bands steal/borrow/are influenced by other bands, but it's what you do with those borrowed sounds afterwards that makes a difference. Sure, without Neurosis there would be no Isis, but Isis took their Neurosis obsession and went in a whole new direction and created their own super distinctive sonic world. Hence most of the Isis and Neurosis influenced bands we love, have done just that, taken certain parts, and incorporated their own angle, added their own unlikely influences, and created a sound that if not ALL their own, was at least a unique take on a familiar sound.
Irepress definitely fit right in that whole post rock metal crowd. So all you fans of Isis, Pelican, Rosetta, Mouth Of The Architect, Tides, Grails, Angel Eyes, Conifer and the like, can probably just stop right here and press that BUY button and be done with it. But for those of you who are maybe a little saturated in terns of the whole postrockmetal thing, and wonder why exactly you should free up precious space on your cd shelf for Irepress, well, we'll tell you.
First off, these songs are just awesome. angular and complex, convoluted and tense. Emotional and super catchy. Not as metal as a lot of their brethren, but still pretty dang heavy, crunchy riffs, that go from jagged and harsh, to smooth and spacey often in the same song. But what makes Irepress really stand out is their unabashed, over the top progginess. Sure the genre itself has a built in prog aspect, with long songs and lots of parts, but Irepress take it even further, with LOTS of super proggy spacey breakdowns, swoony and blissed out, but mathy and a bit noodly as well, guitars are muted and understated, weaving complex soundscapes of subtle shuffle incorporating hand drums, trumpet, spaced out FX, drifting minor key melody, lots of delay and reverb, and a whole bunch of super unexpected little flourishes before lurching back into some loping monstrous metallic groove. Some of those parts sound like Santana, others like Genesis, but the thing is, they aren't just little breaks, they are as much a part of the sound and the songs as the crushing riffage or the mathy post rock. It's a strange combination, it takes a little while to get used to, imagine some jammed out fusion breaking into some almost Maidenesque guitar over a chugging metalcore breakdown, or some blissed out percussive ambience slowly building into a massive sludgy epic. Beyond the bands unique progginess, a lot of the riffs themselves are really strange, cobbled together from or broken up into convoluted chugs and soaring high end leads, bits of indie jangle and some seriously downtuned crunch.
A super strange band for sure, pushing lots of our favorite buttons, moody math rock, crushing metallic groove, spacey proggy noodle, dreamy ambience, all pretty dizzying actually, which is exactly why we can't seem to stop listening to this!
The first Irepress record was one of those essential discs for folks into that whole post rock metal hybrid Neur-Isis thing, Pelican, Rosetta, Mouth Of The Architect, Tides, Grails, Angel Eyes Conifer, and yeah, we still love that stuff. And Irepress's take on that sound was definitely bad ass, angular and complex and mathy, but with plenty of spaciness and a little bit of fusion(!), we know, we know, that's a scary word, but in the context of the songs it was just another element that sounded so right. If anything, this new Irepress is like a way more advanced version of the first record, which makes sense. The songs are way more epic, the playing is incredible, so tight and impossibly tangled and intricate, the fusion aspect is cranked up a bit too, which to some might be a bit off putting, but as far as we're concerned it makes Irepress just that much weirder. In fact a few times throughout the record the band slip into something almost funky, with handclaps and weird jangly guitars, but whenever that happens, you're usually only seconds away from an explosive blast of Meshuggah like chug, or soaring Godspeed-ish slow builds.
Anyone into the above mentioned bands, or THAT sound, these guys are definitely stretching the boundaries, the opening track is a dense chug fest, with crazy stop start lurching rhythms, and a long cool stretch where the band infuses little flurries of grinding crunch into glimmering chiming drifts of ethereal guitar, and then a cool sort of hard to describe groove, where the guitar seems all swathed in glitchy electronics. Cool stuff.
And the whole record is pretty out there, definitely not your typical post metal thing at all. Lots of long mellow melodic bits, and some of the metal parts are super intense and grindingly brutal, but those are more than balanced by all the weirdness, fucked up almost jungle jams, woozy melancholy buzz, soaring tangles of lead guitar, lurching start stops, plenty of programmed beats, and weird power metalisms, although most of the record is definitely spent shimmery and jangly and in that 'fusion' mode, which only makes the heavier parts that much more explosive and intense. But be warned, folks looking for nonstop heaviness will either be confused or disappointed, we however are digging this big time!
Two-fer of early eighties rock from founding member of The Jaggerz. Back on the Streets from 1980 and King Cool from 1981.
A little sneak peek at what's to come on the new Iron & Wine album which isn't comin' out until September. Oh cruel world, can we wait that long?! Well, we're just gonna have to. So in the meantime let's enjoy this one album track and two b-sides. Fifteen quality minutes of Iron & Wine is better than nothing. There's no drastic departures, maybe a few variations in instrumentation is all. Sam Beam sticks to his tried and true sleepyhead folk pop dreaminess.
So here we go again! Iron And Wine's The Creek Drank The Cradle was an AQ record of the week last year, was a unanimous staff favorite, and made most of our top ten lists for the year. Rightfully so we might add. A more beautiful and perfect record we hadn't heard in forever. And a lot of times we try not to make another record by the same band a record of the week, since usually it's hard for a band to deliver another record as good as THAT record, the one that blew us away and convinced us it had to be record of the week. But of course sometimes we do, and sometimes a band does, and this new Iron And Wine just happens to be that record. Sam Beam, who pretty much IS Iron And Wine has upped the ante, somehow navigating the precarious course of trying to progress and grow and explore, without ruining what was already basically perfect. And somehow he's done it. All of the things we loved so much about the first record are still present: gently fingerpicked guitar, sweetly breathy vocals, gorgeous harmonies, melancholy melodies, twangy banjo, slippery slide guitar, wistful and cryptic lyrics amd songs. The songs! So perfectly sweet and instantly classic. Songs that you find yourself humming to yourself even after only one listen. So what is it about this new record that makes it worthy of record of the week status? Hard to say. In fact we weren't sure if this record was actually better, or if we were just so excited to have more Iron And Wine! Because on first listen, Our Endless Numbered Days sounds like the perfect part two of The Creek Drank The Cradle. Which is a good thing. A very good thing in fact. We were all wishing The Creek was twice as long or even ten times as long. One of those records you want to never end. But the more we listened to Our Endless Numbered Days, the more it revealed itself as an entirely new record. But subtly so. It's a little more aggressive, and propulsive, the drums play a bigger part, and there are some distinctly intense bits, where the guitars are rough and the drums kind of rock. But only kind of. The core of the record is still Beam's perfect pop songs, twangy and folky, but sweet and lush, with melodies that while totally memorable and unforgettable, are so unique and fresh to your ears that you just have to sit and listen and let the sounds and songs envelop you. Some obvious reference points are Elliott Smith, America, Bread, Palace, Songs:Ohia, but the more you listen, and the more we hear from Iron And Wine, the more we realise that Beam occupies a singular place in popular music, referencing all sort of other musics, but existing totally and completely in his own sonic space. It's a rare performer who can pull that off, especially nowdays drawing from a century of recorded music.
In a perect world, we would have a new Iron And Wine record every day. EVERY DAY! We NEVER get sick of Sam Beam and his summery dream folk. Lilting and sweetly melancholic. Shimmering crystalline melodies and hushed angelic vocal harmonies over lush and suble instrumentation. So so gorgeous. But since we will apparently never get our wish of a daily Iron And Wine, this three track ep will have to hold us over. One track from the recent album and two unreleased tunes. All three absolutely PERFECT!
Okay, is this lame or is it awesome? Sub Pop has re-released Iron & Wine's admittedly fantastic rendition of "Such Great Heights" (one of their labelmates Postal Service's bestest songs). The cover version originally appeared on PS's 2003 ep by the same name. While we're more than happy to hear the song again, we're not so sure as to whether folks need to buy it again. Granted there are two previously unreleased live recordings from Radio Vienna, but the pair don't veer all that far from the original studio versions. They are "Naked As We Came" (the studio version can be found on Our Endless Numbered Days) and "Trapeze Swinger" (the studio version was on the In Good Company movie soundtrack). Plus, the cover art is just a hurriedly dashed off pencil crayon copy of the cover to Our Endless Numbered Days. We don't wanna get all harsh on Sam Beam and co. but, geez! That said, if you missed the title track the first time around and/or are an Iron & Wine completist, this may still become a cherished addition to your music library.
There was a time where we would buy ANYTHING that came out on Sub Pop. ANYTHING. And we still kind of miss those days once in a while. Where you didn't say "I like, ya know... Mudhoney, Soundgarden, and Nirvana", you just said "Yeah, I like Sub Pop". Where there was a label 'sound': you know, grunge or whatever, you knew that if you liked Tad and the Thrown Ups and Mudhoney, you were probably gonna dig the Afghan Whigs and Soundgarden. And we were the first to balk when Sub Pop started deviating from their 'sound'. A sound so comfortable and familiar. But whether it was a desperate attempt to battle the massive grunge backlash or just label heads Jon and Bruce showing their age, or an attempt to actually do something really new and exciting, the end result is a catalogue at once brilliant, and totally confounding, perfect, but not right at all. Sure there were some real stinkers, and some records that were definitely 'friend rock' (you know, the only reason we put this out is because they're our friends), but nonetheless some of the most essential and under appreciated gems of the last decade exist -because- of this varied and eclectic take on indie/underground music. The two Zumpano records are all time unanimous aQ favorites, and there's the twangy rootsy country rock/pop of Beachwood Sparks and Chapaquidick Skyline, the gorgeous stripped down pop of Damien Jurado, as well as Mark Kozelek, Mark Lanegan, the Pernice Brothers and this one, the debut from Florida's Iron And Wine, a one-man-and-his-4-track, stripped down, Southern, country/folk/mope rock wash of dirgey back woods ballads sung in a plaintive whisper accompanied by banjo and acoustic guitar. SOOOOOOO NICE. So nice in fact, that this would definitely have been our record of the year if it wasn't for the near simultaneous release of the equally brilliant, but infinitely darker, Woven Hand record. And that said, it's definitely threatening to overtake the 'Hand as one of our most listened to records. You've all heard the lonely boy with a guitar, dreamy twangy heartbroken singer songwriter. It's been done to death (but what hasn't? Don't get us started!) But once in a while it's just -done right-. So right in fact, that it transcends its meager aspirations and becomes a volatile and intense emotional piece of art. Such is the case with Iron And Wine. Simple songs are strummed and plucked, the vocals are sort of whispered/sung, melodies surface occasionally to embed themselves permanently in your brain, banjos and acoustic guitars gently lift the vocals above the fuzzy dreamy ambience with a recording quality that makes everything sound like it's dappled with morning sunlight. Think a less damaged Elliott Smith. Think America or Bread (but think it in a nice way, c'mon). Think early Sebadoh without the jokes. Think Sentridoh recording for Folkways 50 years ago. Think Bread recording for K records and playing basements in Olympia. If there was any justice in the world, this would be the record all the little grrrls would put on their mix tapes, this would be the hapless singer songwriter that gets co-opted by the man and inexplicably records soundtracks and ends up playing a song on the Grammies and this would be the next big thing (which since this was first released, actually sort of is/did!!). But at the time, it seemed like it never would be, so that just leaves us with Iron And Wine, a twangy, shimmery, dreamy missive full of aching heartbreak, unrequited love, wistful hope, bitter resentment, untapped faith and inevitable diappointment, and a soul soothing contentment with the ways of the world. The perfect record to wile away breezy summer afternoons, to drive aimlessly through the rain, music keeping time with the windshield wipers, to fall asleep to, or to break the heart that keeps yours from breaking. One of the nicest records this year.
Hard to know exactly what to say about this record. I gushed endlessly about the full length, and it being one of my 2 or 3 favorite records of the year. And like any great record, you're always left wanting more. So here ya go. MORE. More of the same. Five more songs of sun dappled, melancholy strum and twang, totally understated, but all the more powerful because of it. Wistful and heart wrenching, dreamy and soulful, mournful and completely perfect. Simple acoustic guitar strum and plucked banjo weave simultaneously lush and spare, perfect little folk masterpieces. Lyrics of surprising depth and intimacy are given subtle urgency by Sam Beam's gorgeously smooth croon, equal parts Elliott Smith, Joe Pernice, and Nick Drake, with a melodic sense that is uncannily Bread like. And that is NOT a bad thing. Everyone who bought the full length definitely needs this, and those who didn't, it's an inexpensive way to convince you that you need BOTH. The perfect addendum to one of the best records of the year.
It's really difficult for a musician to develop a distinct sound, and then to progress from record to record in such a way, that your 'sound' continues to grow and change without losing the elements that made it so unique and personal in the first place. Sometimes, if you like a band enough, you don't mind if every record sounds the same, ten more songs that sound like the last ten songs you absolutely loved can only be more of a good thing, right? But it's the folks who do manage that delicate balancing act of moving forward but remaining true to their original vision that continue to truly inspire and blow us away. Iron & Wine happen to be one of those bands. After two full lengths and one ep in about two years, this newest ep takes Iron & Wine's hushed melancholia, with its gently strummed guitars, Sam Beam's whispered/sung breathless vocals, sweetly miserable arrangements, and brings the songs' emotional urgency to the fore, where before it was only hinted at lyrically and alluded to in minor key melodies and bleak lyrical imagery. This new batch of songs is much more aggressive in tone, reflected by more percussion, more propulsive tempos and a bigger reliance on different instrumentation (violin, piano, etc.) adding a sonic veil of death and despondency to this already mournful / melancholy song cycle. But even without these changes, there seems to be no end to Sam Beam's songwriting genius. Every song is a new dreamlike world, populated by pain and sorrow, hope and happiness, love and loss, immediately warm and recognizable, like a long lost memory from your childhood, or a song you already love and cherish, but at the same time each song is a wholly unique new musical discovery full of unlikely melodies and gorgeous musical landscapes that stick with you, as if the song is an experience you lived through and remember, catchy, timeless and totally unforgettable.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Ara Anderson's sure stacked the decks in his favor for his debut release with a supporting cast that includes the beloved Jolie Holland on vocals, guitar and violin (perhaps repaying the kind favor of his stellar performance on her own Escondida album), and fine SF composer Erik Walker (psst, we also just got his wonderful album in stock on which you can also hear Mr. Anderson play). Much like that of Ms Holland, Mr. Anderson's music has an earthy, somber old tyme-y feel that's quite an anomaly these days. Much like the namesake of the seventh song ("Musee Mechanique" - the fabulous antique penny arcade here in SF) it's almost as though he's conjured his songbook pages from a very distant yesteryear. Richly expressive instrumentals are woven from player piano style ivory-tickling frolicks, wheezily congested horns, downtrodden strings and sullen woodwinds among other things -- occasionally off-kilter, whimsically carnivalesque, and often very melancholic. You might even wonder if Anderson was a silent movie score composer in a past life. The easiest (or, ahem, laziest) comparison that could be made is that many of these songs sound very much like the intimate rough-hewn music of Tom Waits minus the voice of Tom Waits (and actually Anderson has appeared on a couple of Waits' albums, Blood Money and Alice!), while others can be likened to the eccentric splendor of the Tin Hat Trio. Fans of both (as well as the abovementioned artists) should certainly take note of this talented gent. Simply wonderful!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another special Record Store Day release, this one from one of our all time faves, Iron & Wine, this live recording captured in 2005, and featuring tons of I+W favorites, 18 songs, almost seventy minutes. The sound is great, lush and full, but still plenty raw and immediate and live, no real banter, just the occasional sheepish thanks, and thunderous applause, but for the most part this is just Sam Beam and a guitar.
There's a batch of tracks in the second half that feature Beam with a full band, "Teeth In The Grass" is the hardest track of that bunch, pounding drums, and fuzzed out guitars, the song gets some serious teeth live, but the rest of the set is appropriately hushed and whispery, delicate and oh so beautiful.
We got a whole bunch of these, but most of them sold on Record Store Day, we did however hang on to a handful so you folks who couldn't make it in person, could still grab yourself one of these.
Cool packaging, designed like a cardstock floppy disc, with a printed inner sleeve featuring some of the Sub Pop catalog, which shows through the diecut big hole on one side. And sorry to say, once these are gone, we won't be able to get more.
(And psst... If all goes according to plan, Iron & Wine will soon be playing an instore at aQ! Stay tuned!)
Originally intended to be released for Record Store Day, this split lp features long time aQ faves Iron And Wine, teamed up with new aQ faves the Low Anthem, both performing live (from a recent tour they did together). The four Iron And Wine tracks are expanded to a whole 100 minute set with the download coupon, and is heavy on the newer stuff, with a whole band, fairly rocking, big drums, horns, synths, if you dig the new sound, the new songs sound great live, as do the old ones. Not for newbies so much as for already-fans. The flipside finds the Low Anthem doing their dark brooding folk thing, taming a rowdy crowd, their sound, lush and dreamlike, haunting and meditative, lush vocal harmonies, all melancholy and sweetly moody, nearly 30 minutes of folky softly psychedelic drift.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Supposedly only available and indie stores, it's apparently already out of print, we have just 5 copies left, and then that's it! Comes in a full color jacket, with a swank letter pressed 2 color silk screened insert, and includes a download coupon, with the Low Anthem tracks and the WHOLE Iron And Wine set.
Seeing Iron And Wine perform live in the store recently was a revelation. We've long been huge fans of Sam Beam and his gorgeous hushed country folk (and even the later, more ramped up, full band sound), but seeing him play live, with just an acoustic guitar, and hearing the SOUND he conjured all by his lonesome, was totally breathtaking, impossibly lush and expansive, while remaining totally whispery and intimate, intricate fingerpicked guitar that didn't sound intricate, and his voice, so warm and soothing and almost angelic, and of course the songs, totally lovely and captivating and emotional and moving (we spied at least one person in the crowd and the I&W instore fighting back tears!).
Around The Well is a collection of odds and ends, B-sides, unreleased tracks, radio sessions, live performances and coolest of all, a whole bunch of unlikely covers. The songs throughout tend more toward his earlier stripped down, guy-and-his-guitar sound, which as far as we're concerned is what we like the best, it does seem to be in some sort of chronological order, as by the end of the second disc, Beam is joined by a full band, and while still stripped down, the songs are kitted out with bass and piano and even drums here and there (featuring Joey Burns of Calexico).
Not sure what to say about Iron And Wine that we haven't already. Check the multitude of gushing reviews on the aQ site, listen to the sound samples, Iron And Wine are just amazing. Beam creates some of the most moving, achingly heartfelt modern country folk we've ever heard, his voice is magic, his guitar playing sublime, even here, on what amounts to a collection of songs that didn't make it on the records proper, there's not a bad one in the bunch. And the above mentioned covers, Postal Service, Flaming Lips, New Order, even Stereolab, Beam totally makes them his own, folks not familiar with the originals would certainly be forgiven for assuming they were I&W originals.
It says a lot that a singles / B-sides comp holds up to an artist's records proper, but Around The Well certainly does, lately we find ourselves digging this as much as The Creek Drank The Cradle, the debut record that started it all. Like all Iron And wine, so very recommended. The triple vinyl version includes a download coupon for mp3s of all the tracks, by the way.
We got a taste of Iron And Wine's new sound on the Walking Far From Home cd ep released a while back, the title track of which opens up the new full length as well, so we figured we oughta just revisit what we said about that track when we first heard it:
Still present are Sam Beam's gorgeous vocals, and the lush instrumentation, piano, guitar, but what is missing, is the low key almost lo-fi sound, and in its place, is a seriously lush production, not to mention a fleshed out band, complete with piano, keyboard, background vocals (which swoop and soar E.L.O. style!) and all sorts of buzzy basslines, and random dubbed out percussion. It's jarring at first, but it only takes a few seconds where you begin to wonder why Beam didn't try his hand at lush dubbed out orchestral pop before, cuz "Walking Far From Home" is totally fantastic. The sort of song that will finally get folks to listen to Iron And Wine, who might have found the old stuff too folky. We're definitely hearing some Animal Collective, and other forward thinking pop groops too, seems unlikely, but damn, we've listened to this song about 20 times. So great.
And since then, we've probably listened to that song another fifty times at least. And it still sounds just as good, and just as exciting as it did the first time. And once you hear Beam and Co. playing this lush, Technicolor pop music, it makes the old stuff sound more like sketches of what was to come. Nothing will ever replace those records, they're gorgeous and practically perfect just the way they are, but it was definitely time for Beam to try something new. And this new direction is pretty fantastic, although it's bound to alienate plenty of long time I+W fans. The sound is way more slick, and thus more commercial, some of these tracks, it's not hard to imagine hearing them on a commercial, or in Starbucks, but maybe that speaks more to the times than to the particular sound, cuz really, the sound is not THAT far removed, it is the same voice, and the same songwriter after all, and the last few I+W records were moving in this direction anyway, it's the same songs, just cleaned up, and dressed in organs and chimes, and swirling harmonies, and keyboards and synthesizers, but it's still Beam's voice that defines the sound, whether it's the almost Beach Boys sounding harmonies of "Tree By The River", or the whispery croon on the weirdly funky "Monkeys Uptown", or the old school I+W vox laced over the dubbed out wah guitar driven psychedelia of "Rabbit Will Run", it still sounds distinctly like Iron And Wine and nobody else. And these experiments are still rooted in the timeless sound of Iron And Wine's old records, "Half Moon" stripped down, could have been off his debut, but here, with extra harmonies, the song sounds almost like Iron And Wine covering Fleetwood Mac, and "Godless Brother In Love" at its core sounds like classic Iron And Wine, but here it's piano instead of guitar that drives the song, not to mention strings and lush vocal harmonies, and thus musically it sounds more like Joanna Newsom or Antony or Rufus Wainwright, but it suits him, this all does (well most of it, there is one clunker, a WAY too funky groover with too much sax. No amount of tripped out synth or lovely vocalizing can tip those scales back). All in all, a wonderfully eclectic and exciting new chapter in the ever evolving sound of Iron And Wine, and one that we're digging quite a bit.
Ahhhh. Finally. A new Iron And Wine. Another delicate intimate breathy song cycle from Mr. Sam Beam. Every record is an absolute gem, and�this one is no different. But wait, this one is actually quite different... Still a gem, but a whole new sonic world, much more varied and lush, expansive and haunting, with what sounds like a serious backup band, other voices, strings and percussion, it would be enough to get our heads spinning if the songs weren't so goddamn perfect.�
In the past, on other Iron And Wine records, you know those slow motion shots of fields and plains, the horizon going on forever in every direction, the sun making rainbow flares, and little bits of dust and pollen drifting in the hot afternoon sun, billowy white clouds drifting in a deep blue sky... that's what those records sounded like. Exactly. Slow and lazy and languorous, soft focus, hushed an intimate. Eyes closed, you were immediately transported to some lost field filled with flowers, laying in the breeze, staring at the sky, the blades of grass tickling your skin... But with each successive record, the sound of I+W got a little bit darker, a little bit less fluttery and folky, more rocking, but never veering too far from that immediately recognizable safe and warm sound... until now.�
This is a dark record, especially for Iron And Wine, minor key, intense, propulsive, with a strange steely edge, a little ominous, and yeah, just a little bit dark. Not all the way through, glimmers and hints here and there. But on some songs, like "White Tooth Man", the sound is definitely edgy and slightly sinister, electric slide guitar offering�up menacing little filigree, the strumming more insistent than usual, even the vocals are frenzied, slipping into a gorgeous falsetto. All very tense. The rest of the record is more classic I+W sounding, that mysterious dark edge, more a shadow in the background, but the sound is like a whole 'nother band, lots of percussion, drumming, warm organ, harmonica, electric guitar, it almost pushes the sound into Eagles / America territory, bands Iron And Wine definitely had some affinity with in the past, but now made more solid, sonically. It's definitely a nice change, and lets the songs spread their wings. And while these changes were hinted at on the Woman King ep, Beam and Co. have definitely made those changes more sweeping, creating a whole new Iron And Wine sound in the process. And those aren't the only changes, check out "Boy With A Coin", with its strange almost electronic rhythms, weeping slide guitars and stuttery handclap backdrop, strange and alien sounding but really really cool.��
Maybe this new sound is not quite as intimate, it no longer sounds like Beam is sitting at the foot of your bed, singing for you, whispering in your ear, every song a special personal lullaby, but these new songs have other riches to offer, layers of sound to unwrap, melodies to unfurl, now it's more like sitting in some strange clearing, late at night, around a fire, all the players cloaked in shadow, the branches casting strange black shapes on the ground, the songs coming to life and filling the night air with music both lovely and haunting, mysterious and familiar...
A "Black Friday Record Store Day" 3 song teaser for the new Iron And Wine full length due early next year, and our first glimpse of I&W's new sound. Still present are Sam Beam's gorgeous vocals, and the lush instrumentation, piano, guitar, but what is missing, is the low key almost lo-fi sound, and in its place, is a seriously lush production, not to mention a fleshed out band, complete with piano, keyboard, background vocals (which swoop and soar E.L.O. style!) and all sorts of buzzy basslines, and random dubbed out percussion. It's jarring at first, but it only takes a few seconds where you begin to wonder why Beam didn't try his hand at lush dubbed out orchestral pop before, cuz "Walking Far From Home" is totally fantastic. The sort of song that will finally get folks to listen to Iron And Wine, who might have found the old stuff too folky. We're definitely hearing some Animal Collective, and other forward thinking pop groops, seems unlikely, but damn, we've listened to this song about 20 times. So great.
And the two exclusive non-album tracks are equally kick ass. "Summer In Savannah" is all jazzy and krautrocky, you can almost imagine the song rearranged for OLD Iron And Wine, lazy and softly strummed, but here, the basslines buzz, the guitars are alternately jangly and jagged, there's an almost funky vibe, playful xylophone like melodies, more lush background vocals, swooping backwards effects. Again so unexpected. And then there's "Biting Your Tail", which might be the most surprising of the bunch. A weird bit of minimal electro pop, all clipped skittery beats, buzzing basslines, squelchy electronics, all laid beneath lush vocals, steel drum like melodies, and some glistening psychedelically shimmery crescendos, and a distinctly rhythmic post rock vibe running throughout.
Wow. We never would have guessed, but we're definitely digging this big time, and are dying to hear the full length...
Iron Bitchface. Some names just tell you all you need to know about a band. If your response to the words Iron Bitchface was "Umm, euuuw, whatever, ok, well�" or something along those lines, then you might as well stop reading right now. But if you immediately thought "FUCK YEAH!" as you brushed your Misfits style devillock away from your corpsepainted face, your obsidian painted nails shining in the black light glow of your cave like domicile, and hitched up your leather biker pants, after lacing up huge Frankenstein boots, your be-spiked wrists and fishnet clad arms scarred from dancing wildly in the pit, whirling and thrashing on a very grim dancefloor.
Or if you're like us and just love you some fucked up freaked out synth drenched digital hardcore gabber-grind black metal. We reviewed a split release from Iron Bitchface ages ago, and ever since we had been waiting anxiously for this, their first proper non cd-r full length. If you got the other disc you know what's in store for you here, and you're probably DYING for more. If you've yet to experience the grinding glory of IB, you're in for a treat, that is if a treat for you is being pummeled by buzzing synths, programmed blast beats, howled vocals, Atari 2600 jams and furious riffing.
Long stretches of synthy ambience, Goblin-y haunted house soundtracks, all gloomy and proggy give way to garbled digital freakouts and soul shearing blasts of howling black metal, bits of 8-bit glitch pepper the tracks, sometimes becoming full on lo-fi old school techno jams, usually quickly turning back into grinding black buzz, but more often than not, all of those sounds at the same time, for a head spinning brilliantly confusional, heavy as fuck, weird as all get out black metal / techno / video game music hybrid.
Packaged in a mini dvd style clamshell sleeve with full color cover/insert.
We weren't really sure what to think when we were first exposed to the strangely named Iron Bitchface (thanks AQ pal Guy from Guelph), ostensibly a black metal band, IBF ended up being so much more than a mere metal band. In fact, barely a metal band at all, more some sort of metallic techno digital hardcore sort of thing. Needless to say, we LOVE it. And odds are you will too. That is if the idea of grim black metal crossed with spastic DHR style techno pushes your buttons. And c'mon, it really should, cuz this stuff is amazing. Completely baffling, wild and heavy and totally fucking bizarre.
Iron Bitchface is K-Rot and We Are Trolls collects four out of print releases, Return To Gran Mountain, Flirtinis All Round!, I Hate The Internet and Caffeine:Caffiend. Each one a confusional blend of relentlessly inhuman drum machine blasts, bizarre synths, buzzing blackened guitars and growled demonic vocals. The synths pluck out playful melodies over washes of guitar buzz, the drums spastic and hyperspeed. Some songs are almost straight black metal, others are weird abstract synthscapes, others are weird block rockin' techno, like some sort of lo-fi Basement Jaxx, while still others are some weird sort of alien house music. But as you might imagine, the best bits, and thankfully, that means most of the tracks here combine all of the above into totally damaged danceable black thrash techno hardcore whattheefuck. Awesome.
And even more awesome is the fact that this is a split, with the also strangely named Chaos Through Programming, who as much as we hate to admit it, might be even cooler and weirder than IBF. Where Iron Bitchface is sort of buzzy and lo-fi and home brewed, the sound of Chaos Through Programming is HUGE, a dizzying chopshop, mixing big dance beats, bizarre samples, and massive crunchy metal guitars, like a metal obsessed Chemical Brothers with ADD, but with surprising moments of melodic lucidity and killer rhythmic complexity scattered amidst the brain melting bursts of collaged metal dance weirdness.
Packaged in an oversized slimline DVD case with full color artwork and a full color insert.
Rockadrome's Vintage label has been on a roll of late, delving into the misty, musty, mystic proto-metal past to find some heavy holy grails - first and foremost, our recent Record Of The Week, 1972's self-titled album by Jerusalem! Also a reissue from New Zealand heavies Human Instinct, and now this, the eagerly awaited yet ultra obscure collection of previously unreleased tracks from a '70s Scottish band called Iron Claw. Well, previously unreleased except for bootlegs, which accounts for the anticipation with which we looked forward to this fully authorized, carefully compiled disc. Iron Claw never managed to put out an album in their lifetime, but they did record quite a few studio demos circa 1970-1974, which is what you'll hear here. And yes the Claw is HEAVY.
We've heard plenty of bands over the years who have tried to sound like Black Sabbath in various ways. A lot of our favorites in fact, being as into doom metal as we are. But before Witchfinder General and Saint Vitus and Trouble, before Candlemass and Cathedral, before Sleep and Sheavy and Electric Wizard and Witchcraft... there was Iron Claw. They didn't grow up listening to Black Sabbath albums. No, this is a band who fell under Black Sabbath's spell after seeing 'em play... in 1969! That was *before* the first Sabbath album came out, please note. (Which brings up another interesting story - apparently Iron Claw's bassist had actually recorded that Sabbath gig - and not long ago made a pretty penny selling the tapes to Ozzy and Sharon, it being the earliest known live Sabbath material extant.)
Pretty soon after this "revelation" of seeing Sabbath, the mostly teenaged blues rock combo Iron Claw became what must have been the world's first Black Sabbath tribute band, doing Sabbath covers, while simultaneously working on original material for the first time. So the influence of Sabbath over Iron Claw's own songs is pretty strong, especially in the guitar dep't, less so with the vocals. But for heaviness and a general doomy vibe, Iron Claw are clearly indebted to Iommi & Co., while also reminding us of such bands as T2, May Blitz, Nazareth, and Budgie. Maybe some Grand Funk Railroad too. This was heavy stuff, especially for the era. Heck you've got to admit that the band name (which comes from the lyrics to King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man") is pretty darn metal. IRON CLAW!!! Plus, good grief, they did a song called "Skullcrusher" in 1970 when everybody else (except for Sabbath) was all peace and love and flowers and beads. Inspired by Sabbath they sure were, but they get credit for being one of the first, taking it (down?) to the next level of underground downer rock worship and metallic menace. Later on when bands like Judas Priest and then the whole NWOBHM thing took over, these guys must have known they'd been ahead of the curve.
The sixteen tracks here span several years and several slightly differing Iron Claw lineups, and we were impressed by all of 'em, from their earliest, rawest recordings like the lumbering, blown-out "Clawstrophobia" (about the mental breakdown of someone stuck in an elevator!) to the riffy blitz of "Crossrocker" to their occasional attempts at something more 'pop' (but still heavy, even with horns, as on "Loving You").... all the way to the proggier final phase of Iron Claw's existence, on tracks like "Winter", with flute, yay! There's also a bit o' harmonica on "Strait Jacket" (a la "The Wizard"). But mostly, the Claw is all crunching guitar distortion, pounding drums and wailing vocals. Plus, psychedelic freakiness abounds in interludes (like the backwards Mellotron at the start of "Pavement Artist" and the spooky tripped out FX going into "Devils" - a song inspired by the band seeing the premiere of the Ken Russell movie of the same name at the Edinburgh Film Festival).
It's all pretty badass early doom action. Seriously we think folks into Sabbath (of course), Witchcraft and suchlike are gonna be blown away by a lot of this. And it's a really nicely done disc, the cd booklet featuring photos and several pages of band history, along with lyrics and notes on each track written by one of the surviving Iron Claw dudes (sadly, a couple of the members have passed away already). Sound-wise, it varies, generally lo-fi but pretty decent for demos, and not nearly so rough as that Bedemon disc ferinstance. No complaints there. Way to go Rockadrome, again! Now that they've unearthed the Claw, perhaps we can look forward to a sequel second cd of archival live material - we'd love to hear Iron Claw's cover of "War Pigs" with complete with their use of Ozzy's original, alternate lyrics....
We had been planning on reviewing the new album from our favorite Canadian metalpunks Iron Dogs on this list, but alas the cds & lps we were waiting for still haven't shown up - next time, we'll have 'em. But, we can at least list this, the new disc from Iron Curtain. They're on the same label, and have the same prefix to their name, and also play old school speed metal - but of course are somewhat different than the 'Dogs.
Spain's Iron Curtain are hot rockin', Motorhead lovin', loud n' proud Flying V warriors, ripping it up with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm - and some damn catchy tunes too! The riffage is simple and speedy; the lyrical content is totally cliche (with "Cheaper Whiskey Woman" being the best song title here that hasn't been used before but sure sounds like it should have), and we love it. Somehow their interests in drinking, and the ladies, and being free to rock the hell out, are expressed with so much passion and purity, they're on another level. The ESL aspect adds to the poetry of it all, as well. Steel Mammoth couldn't write better lines than some of these. Plus, it's hard to argue for more 'sophisticated' lyrics when you're banging your head like a maniac. This is fun stuff, no denying it.
To digress briefly into a discussion of the packaging - Iron Curtain's female cover model here is a lot more demure than the much less modest girls Iron Dogs employ. While both Iron Dogs album covers feature naked women covered in blood, wielding swords, in the great outdoors, on this Iron Curtain album, the fully-clothed woman on the cover (which first off, is hidden by a slipcase with different artwork), and whose face you can't even see, is poised to, MAYBE rip her shirt open with both hands... maybe. She's presumably feeling an excess of the "Jaguar Spirit". It's a real missed opportunity that she's not shown again on the inside of the cd booklet, having revealed a jaguar tattoo on her chest or something like that.
Anyway... While we're not quite sure what "Jaguar Spirit" means exactly, we're guessing that jaguars must really like to rock! Certainly 'liking to rock' is the big takeaway from this album, and Iron Curtain's intensity level about that activity makes it a success.
Like their first album, reviewed here last year, there's a bonus track at the end of the disc, another cover of a song by one of their NWOBHM heroes, this time they do "Set The Stage Alight" by Weapon.
Not too long ago you may recall we raved about a Canadian metalpunk band called Iron Dogs, and in that review we mentioned that the same label that put out the Iron Dogs actually had two other "Iron-" bands in their catalog of very much NON-iron-ic metal. Iron Dogs are still by far our favorite, but we did enjoy both Iron Kobra and Iron Curtain as well, so we thought we'd review 'em too!
So, this band, Iron Curtain, are not from an Eastern European country as you might think from their name, but instead are from Spain. One of their biggest influences is undoubtedly Motorhead, evidenced by the gravely Lemmy-phlegmmy vox and simple catchy riffage, though their flashy Flying-V antics are cranked up to even speedier levels a la Accept. Ripping along at 100 mph, Iron Curtain deliver the goods with alcohol-fuelled aplomb, servicing all your lyrical needs in regards to whips & chains and other cool subjects like motorcycles, jungle cats, and Marshall amps. It's a nonstop barrage of energetic '80s styled speed metal, damn good fun for those who like such stuff - we do! And we applaud their choice for a bonus track - they do a cover of a song by, not obvious choice Motorhead, but better yet Motorhead's female proteges, Girlschool! Iron Curtain's version of Girlschool's "Hit & Run" ends up being the poppiest part of this album, perhaps unsurprisingly, and makes us want to go listen to some Girlschool now, too. (Fun fact: Girlschool once did an instore meet-and-greet appearance at aQuarius, sometime in the '80s when we were located up on 24th Street in Noe Valley - we've seen photos!)
The Iron Dogs are a Stratocaster-wielding power trio playing '80s inspired denim n' leather, punked out speed metal, that sorta sounds like a hybrid of Speedwolf and Slough Feg. They hail from the far northern climes of Ottawa, Canada, where it's not that hard to find husky sled dogs to pose with a naked bloody warrior woman in the snow for the cover photo of your album, apparently! That somewhat cheesy cover pic and the band's fairly generic name (they're on a label whose roster includes at least two other "Iron" bands, Iron Kobra and Iron Curtain, by the way), while piquing our curiosity, had actually kept our expectations low; little did we know that Iron Dogs would become one our our favorite new metal bands once we actually heard 'em - indeed Allan here has become a little bit obsessed, proclaiming this to be his fave metal album of the year thus far, though technically it came out in 2012, but definitely hasn't been widely distributed or reviewed. Seriously, as you can imagine, we listen to so much new music here all the time that if something winds up in actual heavy rotation, garnering repeat play, can't wait to go home and listen to that disc again and AGAIN status, it's something pretty special.
Their name provides a few clues. First off, it clearly references two of their biggest influences, namely Iron Maiden and the English Dogs. With Maiden, we're talking first two albums, short haired singer Paul di'Anno era, and English Dogs, they were an '80s punk band who just happened to do a couple of amazing heavy metal albums - so yeah, think NWOBHM at its closest intersect with '77 punk. Also, "Iron Dogs" was a song from the first album by Canadian speed metal pioneers Exciter, so they're named after that too. And they live up to it all, totally back alley punk, totally fist waving metal, plus they possess their own special, undefinable X-factor that just puts this over the top.
Vocalist/guitarist Jo Capitalicide is no Paul Di'Anno but his rushed, rough vocals still possess yobbish punk charm and sound both sincere and spirited, and totally works with this music, which is soooooo energetic and catchy, played with sloppy, off-the-rails abandon. The lo-fi garage production is totally PERFECT for this too. The combo of their rollicking riffs and the raw sound is just killer, Iron Dogs rockin' like excited, inspired kids.
Lead off cut "Razors Of Doom" gallops into view riding a riff that's straight up Iron Maiden Paul Di'Anno era. Ooooh-yeah. Then the magnificent "Dragon Chord" appears, a song that's somehow a punk rock version of mystical Manilla Road metal. Literally fantastic. Next up, "Wrath Of The Barbarians" has got another one of those classic Maiden-ish riffs to it, it's (again) quite a stormer� but heck we could go on and on talking about each and every one of the nine tracks on here, they're all great, full of hooks and feeling, it was friggin' tough to pick which ones to make sound samples of, or maybe it was easy since we couldn't go wrong with any of 'em.
Basically, THIS is metal at both its purest, and punkest. It's practically joyous. Probably not for everyone, but if you "get" this you'll really really love it.
By the way, anybody who might be worried that the aforementioned cover or album title is (however quaintly) not that PC, should be comforted by this note from inside the cd: "Iron Dogs is fiercely anti-fascist! Homophobes, sexist idiots & bigots: F.O.A.D.!!" They also proudly state: "Only Fender Stratocasters were used in this recording! Total Strat-metal!" Maybe that's the X-factor?
As promised, these brilliant Canadian metalpunks are now back with their second full-length album. Like their debut Cold Bitch, it's another "single-coil assault" of rollicking, punked-out, '80s influenced speed metal that's absolutely unfuckwithable. No, not in the sense that it's the most technically advanced musically, or super high in fidelity, no, we're talking about the sheer spirit of it. And it's the sort of thing that's just kind of perfect in its DIY imperfection. Not by any means a tired, unimaginative exercise in emulating the past that we hear from so many retro thrash bands, instead the Iron Dogs fashion inspiration from their '80s faves - the likes of early Iron Maiden, English Dogs, Exciter, Cirith Ungol, and Tank - into something newly vibrant and alive. Proudly old school while still sounding 'young'. Delightfully loose and exuberant, ready to rock right off the rails, but not careless or half-assed, despite the raw garaginess of it all.
As hopefully you well remember, we freakin' raved about Cold Bitch last year, likening it to a cross between Speedwolf and Slough Feg, and this new one takes the sound of that album and runs with it, delivering the goods with another batch of songs just as good or better than the first, if anything. So while Free & Wild isn't super different than Cold Bitch, that's just fine with us! Some bands are about 'progression', you want 'em exploring new sounds and ideas from record to record; others, you don't want anything to change, you just want MORE, new killer songs in the same style, which is what you get here. And since we loved Cold Bitch so much and spun it so often, we HAD to make Free & Wild a Record Of The Week. Free & Wild even sports a similar cover concept - a photo of a sword wielding, blood-drenched naked lady. She's being "Free & Wild" we guess, taking men's heads and putting them on stakes (or perhaps this tableau is inspired by track six here, "Cannibal Death Cult"). Cold Bitch's cover was a bit more clever but this one is no less striking.
One change with this album, not that you would notice it, is that Iron Dogs are no longer a trio, but a duo, with Dan Lee on on drums and Jo Capitalicide on vocals, guitar, bass, and even some synth. And as a two piece, Jo and Dan are now our favorite metal duo since Fenriz and Nocturno Culto - and we'd imagine that those two Darkthrone dudes would highly approve of what the Iron Dogs are up to, the mix of NWOBHM gallop and crusty punk fervor is right up their alley.
Now, some other, less enlightened people might find fault with the production (solid but certainly not slick), or not be on board with Capitalicide's untrained rough-and-tumble vocal holler (with Dan Lee's backing vox adding even more jubilance). But those folks are obviously not punk rock enough - and/or cult metal enough - to 'get it'. To us what makes this so special comes through loud and clear in each of this album's eight tracks, all of 'em exploding with energy, catchy hooks and epic feel, crammed full of delicious bits of metallic goodness. Opener "Firebird" (for which they've made an entertaining low-budget video, perhaps inspired by Benny Hill as much as the videos of Canadian antecedent Thor, see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZsD2kFeSo) is a melodic, motivational speedy anthem to get things going. From there, the half-hour run time of this album rips by with highlight after highlight, Jo singing of fighting, freedom, and fantasy. We love every bit of this. The heartracing riffage. The majestic Moog moments. The up-and-down cascade of wordless vocal woah-oh-oh-ohs in the middle of "Island Of The Dead". The way Jo's voice cracks on that one verse in "Storm Warning". The folky fast picked guitar motif on "Adversity" - indeed all the melodic guitar licks bursting out everywhere. This rousing Iron Dogs album, non-ironic but not over-serious, epitomizes the positive power of metal in a shitty world.
Ok, so we're hopeless Iron Dogs fanboys... but there's a reason for that! Listen and learn. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. We won't call you a poseur. But we'll still feel sorry for you. 'Cause Iron Dogs RULE!
(Note: this is the handsome cd digipack edition - but if you act fast and ask, you could possibly snag one of the few "vinyls" we have left, or even a cassette, neither of which we're actually listing 'cause we have so few.)
Second album by this German heavy metal unit with a super dumb/generic name. Allan had dismissed them as yet another bunch of second rate Helloween/Hammerfall clones, but Andee gave 'em a chance and now both of us are fans, as we've discovered that there's
Body Horror is the second record from Iron Forest, whose sound is a dizzying mix of crushing industrial rhythms, blacknoise terror, power electronics, mutated dub and churning downtuned doom dirgery. Longtime aQ list readers might have crossed paths with the man behind Iron Forest, maybe without even knowing it, with him most recently contributing a B side remix to the newest 7" from USBM weirdos Venowl, but going way further back, operating under the name Crown Of Amaranth, a harsh, harrowing drone project that was an early release on the Crucial Blast label imprint Crucial Blaze. Iron Forest definitely displays much of the same sonic malevolence as CoA, but has honed it into something more focused and rhythmic, taking thick swaths of gnarled and gristled sound, and anchoring it to blown out, almost Digital Hardcore sounding beats. The opening track is strangely lovely, a black sprawl of reverbed melodies over distant rumbles, and grinding glitched out buzz, wrapped around a skeletal stretch of dubbed out pulses, and peppered with machine gun bursts of spastic drum splatter, somehow managing to be both grim and fierce, but haunting and sort of space-y and atmospheric. And that carries over to many of the tracks here, although some like "Rust And Decay" sound a bit like the robotic machine music heaviness of Author & Punisher, lurching and lumbering Godflesh like through fields of static and churning doom-crush riffage. The sticker on the front had us prepared for more of an all out noise assault, but in reality, this could have been some weird Wordsound record, or some Alec Empire related jam from back in the day, not hard to imagine this as being some weird Kevin Martin project too (Ice, God, etc.). tracks like "The Divide" lay down warm, woozy swaths of majestic slow build thrum, and inject weird bits of fragmented rhythm, and shards of more caustic noise, but all of that is sort of smeared into the whole, making for a seriously heady and hypnotic listen. In fact barring a few moments of doom-ed heaviness, the whole second half of the record is all sinister doom-death-dub sprawl, beats for doomheadz, haunting, textured, cinematic, noisy, psychedelic, grim and totally tranced out and hypnotic. So good!
Packaged in an oversized dvd-style case, LIMITED TO 400 COPIES, each one hand numbered, inside a printed insert, as well as a handful of full color art cards, wrapped in a black on black printed cardstock cover, and held shut by a similarly black on black printed Japanese style obi!
Not too long ago you may recall we raved about a brilliant Canadian metalpunk band called Iron Dogs, and in that review we mentioned that the same label that put out the Iron Dogs actually had two other "Iron-" bands in their catalog of very much NON-iron-ic metal. Iron Dogs are still by far our favorite, but we did enjoy both Iron Kobra and Iron Curtain as well, so we thought we'd review 'em too.
Iron Kobra basically sound just like you'd expect a band called Iron Kobra to sound, and that could be either a good thing or a bad thing. Well, we think it's a good thing, of COURSE it's a good thing, in part 'cause while there's no dearth of faceless European power metallers going on about dragons and swords and stuff, these guys are so much more raw and old school in their approach, underground and cult all the way, baby. They're a band of German young 'uns who love metal and beer, lots of both at once we assume, and doubtless do have a sense of humor about what they do, just check out their stage names - Don "The Warrior" Viper, Sir Serpent, Lightning Lord Python, and Ringo Snake (on drums of course), though ultimately their love of ye olde metal is indeed ultimately non-ironic we're pretty sure. They've a bit like a German version of Japan's Metalucifer (leaving aside the fact that there already IS an officially-sanctioned German version of Metalucifer, that's another story), but they only do ONE song on here with the words "Heavy Metal" in the title, an anthemic number called "Heavy Metal Generation", though they do it twice, including an alternate version at the end of the disc. They also do a track called "Metal Rebel" so there's that too. Along with other such titles as "Valhalla Rock" and "Speedbiker". They also get points from resident DM Allan here for the album title (and title track) "Dungeon Masters". So you get where they're coming from. Total D&Dish '80s metal worship, influenced by Maiden and the rest of the NWOBHM, Runnng Wild, Thor, Manowar, etc. The thing is, at first we thought it was gonna be amateur hour, but while charmingly fannish and garagey, they're pretty dang good at making this rockin' metal, despite the not-so-pro vocals and deliberately cliched subject matter. Iron Kobra's songs rely on their speedy swagger, catchy choruses, crafty licks - and of course sheer heavy metal attitude, which as the disc spins you'll realize they've earned the right to have.
We've long been fans of Seattle's Iron Lung, but this is the first time they've made it on the aQ list, it's about time too, after about a million splits and a couple proper full lengths. A drums and guitar duo, not that you'd ever know it from their sound, Iron Lung are dense and thrashing, lurching and pounding, thrashing and grinding modern power violence.
And yeah, we know that all the real power violence bands are dead and gone (Man Is The Bastard, Infest, No Comment, Spazz, Crossed Out) and that most bands these days who call themselves power violence, are typically NOT, and are just trying to garner cool cred by aligning themselves with the above mentioned bands. As far as we know, Iron Lung don't consider themselves power violence, probably more like thrashcore, or just hardcore, but their sound is way too varied and fucked up and metal to be so simple to describe. Sure there's plenty of thrashing and blasting, but the band spend just as much time plodding along doomily, with some serious metallic riffing, and plenty of lurching stop/start arrangements, huge slabs of churning downtuned groove and caveman like pummel, but even at their doomiest, the tracks still occasionally splinter into atonal angular melodies, mathy off kilter rhythms and freaked out squalls of tangled grind. Brief bursts of complex fury, stretched into churning, sprawling mini power violence epics.
Awesome cover art by Rudimentary Peni's Nick Blinko!!
The most influential & important veteran heavy metal band ever who still maybe MIGHT make a really good record present their fourteenth album, A Matter Of Life And Death. Is it "really good"? Well, not exactly, but it's not bad either. Maiden have had their ups and downs since the early '90s, including several AWFUL albums with Blaze Bailey on vocals, after long time frontman Bruce Dickinson quit. But Bruce came back and we really liked 2000's Brave New World (we made it a Record Of The Week, actually!), which brought back some of the spirit of the Maiden of olde while also indulging in bassist / chief songwriter Steve Harris' most proggy tendencies. Their next one, Dance Of Death, didn't have the same charm, sounding more like one of the Blaze efforts. But this one's better, not as good as Brave New World though (or Bruce's heavier and more diverse solo album last year, Tyranny Of Souls). It's very proggy too, their longest (72 minutes!) album with many over-long tracks of dour bombast. The shortest song, and the only one we'd imagine could be a "pop hit" (though it's not the single!) is the opener, the vaguely Thin Lizzyish "Different World". After that, we're pretty much in the realm of 7, 8, 9 minute long songs. And like we said, they're dour, downer material for the most part. Maiden are NOT exploring the "lighter side" of war, death, and religion, this album's themes. There's a track about the sacrifices of Allied soldiers on D-Day, and one about the Manhattan Project, the invention of the Atomic Bomb. We haven't figured out who this "Benjamin Breeg" character is though. Amid the gloom and doom, though, you can't deny some of the catchy choruses, nor the occasional old school Maiden "gallop" that always makes us smile.
True, Bruce continues to prove that it's not a modern-day Maiden song if the song title isn't repeated over and over too many times to count (the atom bomb song, "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns", which has a GREAT main riff, suffers from this repeat-the-title malady, though it DOES get stuck in your head as a result). And they continue to employ three guitarists when we all know two would do just fine. But it's Iron Maiden fer chrissakes, which counts for a lot. Definitely check this out if you agree with that last statement! And we'll say this: they're STILL the most significant '80s era metal band ever who might still have a really amazing record in 'em. This wasn't quite it, but we'll take what we can get now, and eagerly check back with them again in a few years also...
With the triumphant return of vocalist Bruce "the Human Air Raid Siren" Dickinson, as well as guitarist Adrian Smith (so now there's three guitarists in the band!), the reunited, rejuvenated Iron Maiden 2000 is all set to kick ass, and redeem themselves for their last few painfully bad outings (for which you can't entirely blame Bruce stand-in Blaze Bayley, although he really did suck). "Brave New World" is of course no "Piece of Mind" or "The Number of the Beast" but it's waayyy better than anything the band did in the '90s (with Bruce or without), and certainly has many moments of "Maiden-esque" glory as only Maiden themselves can deliver. Actually, it's refreshing that they didn't entirely try to go the retro-route and copy themselves wholesale, 'cause in addition to the several very satisfying numbers on here that timewarped in from '84 (like the storming "The Fallen Angel") there's also pieces that explore bassist/mastermind Steve Harris' obsession with '70s progressive rock a la Genesis and Nektar. Certainly metallic but not exactly super-heavy, much of "Brave New World" is mid-tempo and quite catchy, almost a prog-pop record in fact (not like Radiohead, though!). The mostly seven-minute-or-so long songs do take some bad turns upon occasion but also venture into areas new for Maiden, so no one can accuse them of playing it safe. Basically, this is a record that will definitely please Maiden and melodic metal fans. If your record collection does not already include "Killers" or "The Number of the Beast" then maybe you should pick those up first (although for some this new album would actually be a more accessible starting point), but everyone else can get this and enjoy not only Eddie-nostalgia but some fine new tunes, which I for one have found stuck in my head after only a few listens. Recommended. Up the Irons!
Revisited this album recently (upon the release of The Final Frontier), and guess what? It's actually pretty good, with a few truly great songs like "Paschendale", and definitely makes for an ok-at-least follow up to reunion album number one, Brave New World. Glad we gave it another chance. Maybe it was the terrible cover art that inspired the original review we wrote of this when it came out, which goes as follows:
Ouch. We loved their Bruce-led comeback album Brave New World, but this follow-up is a big disappointment. Not so hot. Maybe our expectations were raised too high (whereas with BNW were weren't expecting so much) but this seems like a return to the crappy songwring of the Blaze Bailey era... better luck next time we hope!
We've got just one of these in stock, the new limited edition "Eddie's Archive" box, basically the Iron Maiden fan's wet dream. A 10.5" x 7.5" x 2.5" tin box, embossed with Maiden mascot Eddie's face, enclosing 3 double cds of Maiden rarities -- live stuff from the BBC archives circa 1979-1988 including their Donnington '88 and Reading '80 festival performances, two more discs of Maiden live at Hammersmith, and two discs of Maiden B-sides, including covers of Zeppelin, Montrose, UFO, and the Who. The live stuff is all "previously unreleased" (except on bootlegs) and there are some great songs among the B-sides. And, if that wasn't enough, this also comes with a crystal & pewter Eddie shotglass (yes, a shotglass) and an Iron Maiden family tree by Pete Frame on a rolled up parchment scroll w/ an Eddie ring!! Get it before Allan buys it -- Andee got the other copy we had already...
Well here we go, Iron Maiden album number 15, potential post-reunion disappointment #???... or maybe not. Crikey, we can't tell any more. In fact, before we comment on this album, the first thing we need to do is take back what we said about the Iron Maiden album before the Iron Maiden album before this one, Dance Of Death. Listened to it again (and again) the other day, and actually it's pretty decent, with a few great songs in fact ("Paschendale" mos def). Not at all the disappointment we claimed it was when it came out. Sorry about that guys. And while the cover still sucks, you can flip it over, the booklet's back cover photo looks better.
So, we're not even sure we trust ourselves to review this new one. Who knows what we'll think about it in a couple years? Maybe just let folks buy it (and they have been!) and decide for themselves. Though of course if you don't already have Killers, Number Of The Beast, Piece Of Mind, et. al. we actually won't LET you buy this, you need to get the original '80s classics first. But if you're a Maiden fan, then the question we'll ask is, have you heard all their Bruce-back-in-the-band reunion albums? We loved 2000's Brave New World, made it a Record Of The Week (really), then were mistakenly meh (until recently that is!) about 2003's Dance Of Death, and thought 2006's A Matter Of Life And Death was all right, but flawed, definitely over-long... The Final Frontier is flawed too, and longer even than AMOLAD, but not as glum and gloomy, much more bright and varied. And it's NOT the sci-fi concept album that it might appear at first glance, in fact the title track (which is joined to a surprisingly experimental, almost Hawkwindish space-metal intro entitled "Satellite 15") isn't about the outer space final frontier of Star Trek fame at all, instead it seems to be about dying, facing the final frontier of DEATH, and whatever may lie beyond. All right, a few further notes...
PROS: It's IRON MAIDEN, dude!! And even 21st century Iron Maiden, despite their unfettered tendency towards long-winded progginess (and sometimes cheesy poppiness) have that special X-factor (ahem, well...) that makes 'em sound like nobody else. Gosh, we can't be objective, really, since we're pre-programmed to respond to the soaring sound of Bruce's voice and the gallop of Steve's bass and the harmonized guitars of Dave and Adrian (um, and Janick?) and the battery of ol' Nicko... not to to mention the visage of Eddie on the cover (a much better cover this time than than the last couple, by the way, with Eddie starring as both Alien and Predator it would appear).
CONS: Well there's that aforementioned long-winded progginess etc. This album is 76 minutes for crying out loud, their longest yet! Featuring ten (long) songs, many of which once again display the "repeat the song title as the chorus waaaaaaay too many times" syndrome they've been suffering from for a while. And needless to say, they're never ever gonna write another "Hallowed Be Thy Name" or "Aces High", can't be done. Though they could probably come closer with a little more aggression, and editing...
Yet, at the same time, it's the (relatively) shorter rockers, like the single "El Dorado" early on in the album tend to be the weakest tracks here, but the uber melodic prog epics later on, in the second half of the record, like "Isle Of Avalon", "Starblind", and "When The Wild Wind Blows", are quite stirring and satisfying to our adjusted-for-expections 21st Century Iron Maiden desires... or again maybe it's that Pavlovian response of ours kicking in. Basically, we're enjoying this for what it is, cringing a bit at some parts, totally digging others, sometimes 'cause they sound like old Maiden, sometimes 'cause they don't (ferinstance the spacey, fusiony, jammy guitar parts in "Isle Of Avalon" and elsewhere). If you DO like reunion Maiden, like us, then all we can say is, this is a your-milage-may-vary situation. Right now, repeated spins of this are still eliciting guilty grins from the Maiden fans at AQ.
NB. we're stocking the regular compact disc edition, and the double picture disc vinyl... but not the special "mission edition" cd, which despite some bonus web-only content it allows you to access, doesn't seem worth the extra bucks.
After being out of print for the last year or two, all these classic Iron Maiden titles (and a few, later, not-so-classic ones) have been reissued domestically in remastered, repackaged (big booklets of photos, artwork & lyrics, slipcovers) and cd-rom enhanced (with videos!) form. We've got Iron Maiden, Killers (that's a metal must-have sez Allan), Number of the Beast, Piece of
