We'd been hearing a lot about this band, lots of folks calling them the 'next big thing' which tend to make us pretty skeptical. But the descriptions made us think we'd actually probably dig it, and we do. Like a lot of recent faves, Swearin' channel that while nineties indie/college rock sound (Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., the Pixies, Pavement, etc.), and sound like they would have been our favorite band back in the day, and since it seems folks our age, never really got over THAT sound, they definitely have potential to be a new favorite. The sound is definitely derivative, but that's the point right? To these ears, sometimes Swearin' sound like a super charged Blake Babies, with Dinosaur Jr. guitars, and at others, like Pavement crossed with Sebadoh, and really, we'd be hard pressed to think of better band math than that. And although aping a sound is pretty easy, with the right gear, and the right recording, it's not nearly as easy to come up with the sort of SONGS to go with the sound. But Swearin' have it dialed in. With multiple vocalists, boy AND girl, they kick out the nineties indie rock jams, like, well, like it was still the nineties, swaggery and slackery, noisy and a little bit shoegazey, fuzzy and distorted, loose and ramshackle, jangly and hooky as hell, it's hard not to love, and really why try not to. A BIG TIME new favorite around here for sure. For fans of the Pixies, the Swirlies, Pavement, Dinosaur, Liz Phair, Superchunk, Sebadoh, Built To Spill, the Breeders, the Silver Jews and all the rest...
They don't make music like this any more. At least not much. But it seems that in some little corner of Virginia (let's call it Richmond), there's a healthy scene of emo/screamo/punk rock/post punk whatever the fuck you want to call it happening, and all we know is it's noisy and heavy and chaotic and angular and mathy and we love it. There are probably tons of little scenes like this all over, and if you're in one, then by all means send us some music. But for now we'll keep digging deeper into this particular scene. We listed the debut cd from Richmond's The Catalyst recently, and holy shit did that record kick our asses, and now we have Sweat Lodge, who take a lot of the same influences, old Amrep, Drive Like Jehu, San Diego Gravity style screamo, all sorts of post punk, and pack it into 6 songs in ten minutes, angular, frenzied, frenetic, heavy, lots of parts, throat shredding vocals, freaked out drumming, guitars that chug and crunch and squeal, and even some actual hooks snuck in there.
By now you know if this is your cup of tea or not, it's most definitely ours.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!! The packaging is super complex, intricate line drawings, water colored, printed on beige cardstock and hand cut into an elaborate fold out sleeve, really really cool!
FINALLY HERE ON VINYL AND BACK IN STOCK ON CD TOO!! This Record Of The Week (and Allan's #1 of the year), went completely AWOL from distribution shortly after we first listed it last summer, d'oh. Now at last the label sorted out a new distro, and so we have the cd back from limbo, and also the vinyl version now available too for the first time!!! Here's our original review...
Not to be confused with a few other Sweat Lodges out there (we reviewed a tape by a screamo punk band called Sweat Lodge a few years back), this Sweat Lodge is a heavy psych stoner rock band outta Austin, Texas, and they are AWESOME. Seriously, all the stoner rock digging peeps here at AQ immediately fell in love at first listen, they're that good. Actually we meant to list it a few weeks ago, but our supplier was out of stock - but now we've 'em are not only listing it, but making it Record Of The Week, just 'cause everybody here (not just the stoner rock digging peeps) has been digging it so much and we're still spinning it a LOT.
There's a big Black Sabbath influence evident here, you know, jamming grooves, powerful riffage, and Ozzy-ish (but not too Ozzy-ish) vocals... Sure, lots of bands play that game these days, but these guys are winners. Just super solid, with catchy songs, a dark and trippy vibe, and maybe most crucially, those vocals - the guy is good! Also the sound and mix is just right, clean but not too polished or produced, just a very satisfying, listenable sound, heavy but accessible and melodic. Along with the Sabbath, what we're hearing reminds us of the likes of Uncle Acid, Freedom Hawk, (fellow Austinites) Fogg, maybe even some Golden Void, and other heavy, rockin' faves so if you're into stuff like that, do yourself a favor and check out Sweat Lodge!!!
Weirdly, this band started out as a three piece, of just bass, drums, and vocals - no guitar! They performed and even put out a 7" and demo tape with that lineup, and that stuff WAS cool (lotsa heavy fuzz bass and those killer vocals, yeah why not?) but really they made the right decision recently to expand the band to its current five-piece format, as documented on this debut full-length, bringing in not just one but two guitarists for not just a fuller, even heavier sound but a lot more interesting psychedelic interplay and texture. Sabbath with twin guitars, nice idea. Just listen. Everybody we've played it for so far has gotten hooked!
This cdep is credited to Bonny/Sweeney, but we did our sleuthing and figured out the not-so-hard-to-figure-out fact that it's noneother than Bonnie... ahem, Bonny "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney. Seems Will Oldham (aka Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Palace... etc) has roped Mr. Sweeney into his moniker hijinks. He keeps on rearranging and respelling his many names. Geeez, it'll drive ya to distraction! Anyways, this is four more barebones songs from those two fellows, plus the cd is 'enhanced' to include what the traycard describes as "Mike Piscitelli's visualization" of their song "I Gave You". If you dug their Superwolf full length, this will surely please your ears (and eyes) too.
After just reviewing one of our old favorite records, Chavez's Gone Glimmering, we were pretty darned excited to discover that the new Bonny Prince Billy record was actually a collaboration between Will Oldham (aka BPP) and Matt Sweeney from Chavez! Sweeney also just happened to front one of our favorite eighties/nineties college rock outfits Skunk (someone should definitely resissue the first Skunk lp on cd!!) as well as playing guitar in the post Smashing pumpkins supergroup Zwan. This collaboration was born of a challenge, Oldham had Sweeney write music, and Oldham would then write the lyrics and they would record the record together. The overall result is not immediately all that different than a Palace or Bonny Prince Billy record. The vocals are still sweet and warbly, the music is still twangy and mournful. But Sweeney has definitely come up with some beautiful tunes, well written but also nicely arranged, often augmented by big drums and rich keyboards, much less spartan than a lot of Oldham's past recordings. And a bit more rocking, with hints of the Allman Brothers, seventies rock, fuzzy psychedelia, and once or twice some big crashing chords and wailing leads that are straight out of the Skunk / Chavez songbook. Sweeney's vocals sound perfect with Oldham's, the two weaving and harmonizing beautifully. And of course Oldham's lyrics are as wry and cryptically sweet as ever. This definitely ranks up there with Ease On Down The Road and Master And Everyone as one of Oldham's finer moments.
Imagine your favorite emo math rock band with the addition of a skronking free jazz style sax player. A little June of 44, a little Slint, a little Charles Gayle. Awesome.
Talk about some fine cover art!! A watercolor silhouette of a warrior, carrying a bloody scythe and a shield on horseback. Nice. Chicago's finest post rock warriors return with another blast of complex, stop/start, loud/soft saxophone studded RAWK. Long songs. Complicated but melodic enough to be memorable and rocking enough to kick ass! Super tight and super fierce, after an almost break up, and some line-up changes a few years back, this band just keeps getting better and better. Fans of Hella, Don Caballero, A Minor Forest, Dianogah, Rumah Sakit and all that sort of stuff will very likely have a new favorite record!
Newest release from Chicago's kings of math rock. STLJ add saxophone to the mix turning what could be just another math rock band into a swirling whirling melange of Shellac, Slint and Albert Ayler. This is easily their best record so far. Tight and heavy and relentless, but somehow catchy and melodic at the same time. The cover is a parody of a Hall and Oates album but somehow ends up looking exactly like the recent posthumous A Minor Forest collection (a band they have quite a bit in common with). Recommended.
"Mind Blowin' Hippie Music" they do say so themselves. Ah, I remember we used to stock this album back when it was a vinyl-only offering (to/from the gods of Psych) around ten years or so ago. Ten years...wow. Now the good folks (and Ghost fanatics) at Drag City have at last made it available on cd, along with the reissue of Ghost leader Masaki Batoh's Collected Works cd. Batoh was also the guitarist in this band, a Tokyo psych quartet that flourished circa 1989-1993. Their lone album Live At Your Cosmic Mind is a fine slab of whooshing, driving, badass, acid space rock freak out stuff, by and for the stoned. What at the time was Hawkwind and Les Rallizes Denudes worship, contemporary with the likes of Fushitsusha, High Rise and White Heaven, now fits in perfectly with the current crop of psych-overload-overlords like Comets On Fire, Pharaoh Overlord and LSD-March. And Acid Mothers Temple too, of course -- in fact it's surprising not to see Kawabata's name on the sleeve! A sleeve decorated with (as I think someone else has pointed out before) some really rad Pedro Bell (Funkadelic cover artist!) styled color felt-tip pen psychedelic artwork. From the side-long opener "Badstone" to what was formerly side two, "White Lightnin' Boogie" and "Last Cosmic People Still Dreaming", this half-hour three-tracker is altogether heavy and blissful. Or, as Sweet & Honey put it, "Far Trippin' Out, So Cosmic--So Deep". So, thanks Drag City for doing this reish (and the Batoh one too, especially!) but we have one small complaint: Drag City, c'mon, we know you could spring for more than a single square of paper as the cd "booklet"...if you're gonna do that, at least use heavy cardstock or something! Well that's our cd packaging pet peeve Number 493...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Psychedelic pre-Ghost Japanese trio with Masaki Batoh.
From the same folks who brought us the Carlton Melton "Handling Snakes" single, here's a 7" by the band Sweet Apple, featuring several members of doom rockers Witch (namely drummer J. Mascis, better known for his gig as guitarist in a band called Dinosaur Jr., and namesake bassist Dave Sweetapple, who insists that the rest of the band thought it would be funny to call themselves Sweet Apple). The other two guys in Sweet Apple are also from Cobra Verde. So its a semi-super group we guess.
We missed reviewing their full-length on Tee Pee, which apparently features both of the tracks found here, and to be honest this isn't entirely convincing us to go back and give it another listen, though maybe we should. At least check this out if you're interested in some authentic, anthemic, kick ass, good ol' fashioned rock n' roll. Definitely a bit "bar band" sounding, so grab a beer, and go with it
Limited to 500 copies, with a nice cover by poster artist Alan Forbes!
The UK label Soundway pretty much kills it every time, concentrating on reissues and compilations of super groovy stuff from West Africa and Latin America in the '70s, especially wowing us with the material they've dug up from Nigeria and Ghana... that's what we have here, one of two new Soundway reissues on this week's list, both of bands from Ghana, the other being Hedzoleh Sounds, highlighted nearby. Sweet Talks (great name!) knock out six energetic, get up and dance numbers on this 1974 album, their second, originally a hit release for them in their native country, where they were one of the top acts of the day, mixing up Afrobeat, highlife, and Western JB's styled funk in a fresh and exciting manner. This music's always in motion, relentlessly rhythmic, the exuberant, expressive vocals vying with frenetic percussion and tooting horns. Catchy little melodies are also a big part of the Sweet Talks equation, with tasty electric organ licks galore...
Even though it's from a quite different part of Africa, we'd venture that this should appeal to folks into the funkier entries in the Ethiopiques series!
For this facsimile reissue, the compact disc comes packaged in a nice miniature lp style sleeve, and of course the lp format is packaged in a nice regular sized lp sleeve. Another great Soundway release, big thanks to them for performing such a service, since otherwise we'd probably never know about, nor be able to find or afford, the original records by these groups that so very much deserve lasting exposure and a wide audience.
During the years 1990 through 1993 there was a burst of absolutely incredible pop music. A few in particular come to mind: The Posies' Frosting On The Beater, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, Velvet Crush's In The Presence Of Greatness, Redd Kross' Third Eye and this one by Matthew Sweet. Oh yes, our love for these albums is like an everlasting gobstopper.
The seeming direct descendent of Big Star, The Raspberries and America, Mr. Sweet's Girlfriend is filled with ache in your heart, heart on your sleeve, lump in your throat pop at its best. Power pop that is. Big guitars, huge choruses, amazing harmonies, and hooks galore. There is probably not a person alive who doesn't immediately recognize the intro to "I've Been Waiting" or the chorus to "Girlfriend". This was the sort of pop music that oozed emo before emo was cool! The other interesting thing about Sweet's Girlfriend was the backing band, featuring two very un-pop players, Robert Quine (Richard Hell & The Voidoids) and Richard Lloyd (Television) who gave the record some punky punch and added all sorts of unlikely guitar parts, which helped make Girlfriend so much more than just another commercial pop record. The band also featured some other equally unlikely contributions from folks who played with K.D. Lang, Velvet Crush, Scritti Politti, and Material as well as Mr. Lloyd Cole himself.
This swank reissue comes packaged in a deluxe double digipak with a slipcover and tons of photos and liner notes as well as a whole extra disc, featuring the companion to Girlfriend, Goodfriend, a disc of home demos, alternate versions, as well as killer covers of Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" and John Lennon's "Isolation". Awesome!
Not long ago we highlighted a cool compilation on the Psychic Circle label devoted to '70s British glam rock, entitled "Blitzing The Ballroom" - an obvious reference to a song and band that didn't actually appear on the comp, The Sweet and their biggest hit, "Ballroom Blitz"! That song is an immortal glam anthem, up there with anything by Slade, T-Rex or Gary Glitter... and definitely provided some inspiration to the far more obscure acts who populated that collection, Sweet being a band who began as bubblegum lightweights but soon became glam champs with hard rock guitar chops.
So, if you're one of the folks who picked up that comp, and loved the catchy, campy, kick assery found on it, and DON'T have anything by The Sweet, well this new double disc anthology is just the thing for ya. Particularly since Sweet's albums, with the exception of Desolation Boulevard, are still sorta hard to come by in the States (and on top of that, their discography is a confusion of UK- and US- only releases, including separate versions of the same albums with wildly different tracklistings). It's probably easiest to go with a comprehensive 'best of' like this one, which brings together tracks taken from various of their albums '73-'80, plus the b-side of the "Love Is Like Oxygen" single, a boogie number called "Cover Girl".
There's 16 songs on each of the 2 discs, ranging from the band's earliest pre-fab pop incarnation circa 1973 to the quasi-metallic, semi-symphonic genius stuff they came up with once they came into their own in the mid '70s... all the way to their declining years as the '80s were about to dawn, the glories of glam far behind them, the new wave getting a try out. All of Sweet's styles are represented here, starting off with the bubblegum pop likes of "Funny Funny" and "Alexander Graham Bell"... soon The Sweet start revving it up, though, with tracks like "Little Willy" and "Wig-Wam Bam" being just as sugary as their earlier stuff but with extra rock n' roll oomph. Then track ten, disc one rolls around, with THAT drum intro, and it's time for a good ol' "Ballroom Blitz", that the band has been building up to! And that's more or less when the action really starts, the rest of disc one filled with equally worthy hits like "The Six Teens", "A.C.D.C.", and "Fox On The Run". Total teenage kicks, delivered with panache (and vocal harmonies) that we imagine would surprise and thrill quite a few Queen fans.
The Queen comparison continues on disc two, which also provides some real evidence for considering Sweet something of a METAL band, ripping it up with a pop/prog twist. Definitely the likes of "Action", "Sweet F.A." and "4th Of July" (which reminds us of a jazzy Uriah Heep) display their share of heaviness! There's a reason why the Scorpions covered Sweet songs (they did - we've heard a bootleg!). The Sweet were pushing into Queen -and- Led Zeppelin territory for sure (they parallel some non-metallic Zep moves here too, like their funk side, a bit). Eventually, as the disc progresses, they tend to retreat from the rock, the kitschy synths taking over from the guitars, as the band tries again for pop hitmaking success, leaving you to wonder what would have been had they simply 'gone metal' instead... ah well, 'twas good while it lasted.
As with any anthology, one can quibble with the selections, we'd have included more tracks from 1976's Give Us A Wink! (like the stomping, almost Sabbathy "Cockroach") but, all in all, the compilers of this set did pick the best Sweet stuff for the most part, without over-representing any one facet of their career (which we might have done, if we'd be asked to make our own, single disc collection, concentrating on the more metal side of Sweet, the stuff that sounds like it would fit comfortably on Queen's Sheer Heart Attack...).
Fun stuff from an often underrated yet talented band whose commercial success came at the expense of classic rock cred, though if you give this a spin you'll realize they were indeed badass rockers, when they wanted (or were allowed) to be... again, if you're partial to any '70s glam jams, you've gotta get into The Sweet! And if you thought this band was all just "Ballroom Blitz" and nothing else, you've got another think coming, especially when you hear the song "Action".
Ace Of Spades is a cd-r series of live recordings showcasing the intimate acoustic music of a variety of local indie artists. The series so far boasts consistently strong performances from all participants (well played and well recorded at Mama Buzz Cafe in Oakland).
Volume 4 is from the December 12th 2004 show starring Dave Gleason's Wasted Days and Sweetbriar. You get nine songs from the former (including a great version of Gram Parsons' "A Song For You") and seven from the latter (ending with a fine medley of "The Wild Side Of Life" and "Honky Tonk Angels" originally by Hank Thompson and Kitty Wells respectively).
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Maintaining the loyalty to twisted Beefheartian overtones with Birthday Party dementia, this album is less of all out noise attack (as previous Sweetheart albums have been) and more of the trash blues that Pussy Galore wallowed in so well.
An excellent retrospective compiling ten long out-of-print singles and eps from this beloved SF veteran band. Bastards & Rarities resonates warmly with their distinct gritty and slightly trippy down-to-earthness. Early '90s college indie rock heaven: raw fuzzy guitars, steady shuffling drumming and drowsy boyish vocals. You can certainly hear connections between these songs and those of Swell's Bay Area contemporaries such as American Music Club or Pavement as well as their younger brethren like Grandaddy. Pretty darn great!
Swell co-founder David Freel stands alone at the helm a decade after they hit the indie-rock air waves. The latest effort maintains the integrity of David's heart-felt, shiny-sad lyrics and the swell's distinctively angular riffs that culminate in catchy pop choruses. Recommended.
Following up their fine retrospective Bastards & Rarities from a few months ago, please welcome Swell's brand new full length! This time around, mainman David Freel, the recently rejoined drummer/co-founder Sean Kirkpatrick and company seem to have shifted their rock stylings (usually quite akin to their indie rock brethren Pavement and Grandaddy) ever so slightly into an even more shuffling, expansive sound, not unlike Badly Drawn Boy. Mildly mopey, weathered vocals weave through the often soaring, catchy compositions that feature some of their most fully fleshed out instrumentations. Hard crunching electric guitars punctuate the proceedings while the vigorously strummed acoustic guitars drive the songs and add an overall breezy warmth. The sound of the guitar pick on the strings adds a nice percussive counter element to the drums. The album is laced with plenty of subtle textural details such as this - the sound of a train rushing by, glimpses of dialogue, puffs of static hiss. A complex and richly hued yet still very earthy album. As always, very recommended.
Newly Reissued on Vinyl!
The Swell Maps were a brief late seventies / early eighties solar flare of totally brilliant, clattery, jangly, ramshackle experimental art pop like no one had ever heard. And without the Maps we definitely would not have had Sonic Youth or Pavement or about a million other bands. Fronted by brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks, Swell Maps were a bouncy Britpunk kick in the chin, mixed with druggy clumsy psych rock explorations, speaker bashing freakouts, hypnotic droney dirges, whiny snotty British vocals, brittle guitars, splattery drumming and and downright free-noise.
A Trip To Marineville was their debut record from 1979. Reissue comes with a download card plus bonus 7" that accompanied the original release!
Awesome collection of hits and non-hits from this seminal post-punk rock band, featuring both Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks.
Newly Reissued on vinyl!
The Swell Maps were a brief late seventies / early eighties solar flare of totally brilliant, clattery, jangly, ramshackle experimental art pop like no one had ever heard. And without the Maps we definitely would not have had Sonic Youth or Pavement or about a million other bands. Fronted by brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks, Swell Maps were a bouncy Britpunk kick in the chin, mixed with druggy clumsy psych rock explorations, speaker bashing freakouts, hypnotic droney dirges, whiny snotty British vocals, brittle guitars, splattery drumming and and downright free-noise.
Jane From Occupied Europe was their second and final record from 1980. The band split soon after with Sudden forming the Jacobites and Soundtracks going on to join Crime And The City Solution. Download card included!
"While 1999's 'International Rescue' compilation focused on rare and unreleased material, 'Sweep the Desert' focuses on the more experimental side of the Maps" according to the press release, and it is compiled by the three living members Nikki Sudden, Richard Earl and Jowe Head. While "Sweep the Desert" has classics such as "Midget Submarines" and "Then Poland", this compilation is less essential for longtime fans as it contains only previously released material. However, it may be of interest to those having a hard time tracking down the Maps' out-of-print back catalogue. Speaking of back catalogues, why can't somebody just reissue theirs and eliminate this continuation of compilation bullshit?
What the hell can you say about songs you've been listening to on and off for 16 years?! How about... they still sound as great as they did when we were 20 years old! Most of you probably remember Swervedriver, a UK combo who took the whole introspective shoegazer movement and added BALLS, huge guitars, blown out psych rock squalls, thrashing chaotic drums, and some of the best songs of the last two decades. Easily the heaviest shoegazer band of them all. Like a heavy metal Ride or something.
We really are at a loss for how to explain how great these songs sound. Most of Swevedriver's records were or still are out of print, so this massive double disc greatest hits is a godsend. It's also one of those greatest hits that is a little frustrating for fans, as pretty much every record was jam packed with greatest hits, no filler all killer as they say. There are plenty of tracks from Raise, their debut and arguably finest moment, including both "Son Of Mustang Ford" and "Rave Down", two of the greatest rock songs EVER. I challenge anyone to listen to either of those tracks and not agree. "Son Of Mustang Ford" is a thrillingly propulsive manic rocker, sort of sun baked and blissed out (almost like a shoegaze Kyuss) with squiggly guitar lines draped over a killer main riff, perfect indie sadboy vocals and a hook to die for. Then there's "Rave Down" more of a sort of sprawling midtempo groove, with distorted jangle guitar and a loping lazy rhythm, and verses a million times catchier than most hit songs' choruses. The kind of part that has you air guitaring or singing along or headbanging or both. Plus there's "The Birds", a jangley shoegazing slab of hooky dream pop, which must have ended up on a million different mixtapes back in the day.
And it just goes on from there, with the band swerving (couldn't resist) from Loop-ish drone rock dirges, to shuffling almost surf rock, to full on acid drenched neo-psychedelia, to Beatles-esque britpop. Everything they touched turned to blown out psych rock shoegaze gold. Fans of Dinosaur Jr., the Telescopes, Sun Dial, Loop, Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, Galaxie 500, Mercury Rev, the Lilys, Catherine Wheel and all that sort of stuff who somehow missed out on Swervedriver should definitely pick this up and catch up.
Heavy enough to appeal to metalheads who might be in the market for something a little bit more dreamy or blissy, washed out and hypnotic, but groovy and spacey enough for indie rockers who need more ROCK. One of Andee's all time favorite bands EVER!
The second disc includes a handful of previously unreleased tracks, demos and rarites. Big booklet with liner notes, track notes and tons of photos.
There definitely seems to be a pattern developing with recent Records Of The Week. The Loop reissues a few lists back, The Telescopes last time, and now Swervedriver. We hadn't really noticed at first, we were just so damn excited that so many of our favorite records were getting reissued. And while it might seem a bit strange to be looking back instead of forward, most of the music we love now wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these bands, or if they did they'd sound WAY different. And the thing is, the aQuarius list is in no way comprehensive and complete, as we only started doing it about 12 or 13 years ago, which means everything pre-1995 or '96 is not represented, which is a huge bummer since the late eighties and early nineties are the very times that defined most of us musically. Thus we've done our best to review reissues of lost classics, or even not lost classics, from those eras, eighties metal, shoegaze, grunge, nineties college rock, the list of records we discovered during that time, that STILL resonate and kick ass could fill up a hundred aQ lists. So instead of dwelling on the fact that these are not actually new, let's just consider then records we loved, and still love, and records we're convinced folks out there who are too young to remember, or may have just missed out the first time around, will probably also love, records that had they been released later, would have no doubt been showered with adoration on the aQ list. Which brings us to a unanimous aQ fave, UK heavy shoegazers Swervedriver.
Calling Swervedriver shoegaze is a bit misleading, they were tangentially part of that scene, and their sound definitely had a bit of drift and shimmer to it, but unlike the rest of the shoegazers, Swervedriver were HEAVY. Super rocking, their wall of guitars was not ethereal and ephemeral, it was crunchy and distorted and thick, and besides all that, they wrote some of the catchiest songs ever. EVER. The sort of songs that explode into frenzied psychedelic shoegaze freakouts, but just as quickly slip into a dark chugging grooves with hooks that stick in your head like crazy, and parts the still to this day illicit shivers, even after a hundred listens. Rare is the band who can define a sound, and a scene and then totally transcend it.
For those new to Swervedriver, they definitely share much in common with their shoegaze scene compatriots My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, and the like, but as mentioned above, that shoegazey haze was just one element in their arsenal, and not at all the main one, that would be the dueling guitars, heavy and crunchy, melodic and lush, soaring one second grinding and chugging the next, often tangled into gorgeous harmonies, or layered to create thick walls of sound, those formed the basis of their sonic blueprint, over which they crafted incredible hook filled songs, some washed out and swoonsome, others hard and jagged and HEAVY. The vocals melodic but still plenty rough and raw, perfectly complimenting the heavy guitars and pounding drums, an impossibly perfect balance between heavy and pretty, hooky and hard, which is precisely what makes Swervedriver, one of our favorite bands ever.
Mezcal Head was Swervedriver record number two, released in 1993, and featured a slightly altered lineup, that if anything made the band sound even heavier. Almost like Raise part two, with the hooks dialed back again, and the heavy guitars cranked, but again, like on Raise, it's hard to pick any losers, every track here is catchy and heavy, and sounds like Swervedriver and nobody else. And as if to balance the heaviness, there are a handful of tracks more dark and drifting and almost mellow, interspersed between the bursts of shoegazey heaviness.
"Duel" is definitely the one here, the band's biggest hit, and it's easy to see why, with an incredibly heavy main riff, and swirling effects all over the place, the vocals a lazy drawled afterthought, and the hook, totally destroys, and still gives us chills, the second half is much poppier, with the song growing gradually more mellow and washed out, a sort of low key space rock outro.
Then there's "Last Train To Satansville", with another killer main riff / hook, and some truly haunting vocals, lots of effects too, in fact this record found the band's obsession with pedals becoming even more evident, with various elements wreathed in delay and reverb and flange and phaser, and impossible combinations of all four, creating swirling clouds of psychedelic shoegaze space rock, a sound even more expansive than on Raise. The rest of the songs, while maybe not as immediately catchy, are still fantastic, the sort of songs that become later favorites, one at a time. Whatever song was least listened to, gets rediscovered and blossoms before your very ears, making you wonder why the heck you weren't obsessed with THAT one in the first place. That's the magic of this record, and of this band. Both Mezcal Head and Raise are essential, two parts of a larger ever evolving whole, so buy one at your peril, because no doubt you'll eventually find yourself needing the other.
Like Raise, totally essential, WAY recommended, and absolutely required listening.
For the reissue of Raise, they tacked on 4 extra tracks, B-sides, outtakes, which includes is one of the best Swervedriver songs ever, "Planes Over The Skyline", a Japanese bonus track on the original release, a B-side we think, but holy shit, if the band was kicking out B-sides of this caliber, it's no wonder their records proper were so mind blowing.
New packaging, a deluxe 6 panel digipak with a thick booklet packed with photos and new liner notes from the band.
There definitely seems to be a pattern developing with recent Records Of The Week. The Loop reissues a few lists back, The Telescopes last time, and now Swervedriver. We hadn't really noticed at first, we were just so damn excited that so many of our favorite records were getting reissued. And while it might seem a bit strange to be looking back instead of forward, most of the music we love now wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these bands, or if they did they'd sound WAY different. And the thing is, the aQuarius list is in no way comprehensive and complete, as we only started doing it about 12 or 13 years ago, which means everything pre-1995 or '96 is not represented, which is a huge bummer since the late eighties and early nineties are the very times that defined most of us musically. Thus we've done our best to review reissues of lost classics, or even not lost classics, from those eras, eighties metal, shoegaze, grunge, nineties college rock, the list of records we discovered during that time, that STILL resonate and kick ass could fill up a hundred aQ lists. So instead of dwelling on the fact that these are not actually new, let's just consider then records we loved, and still love, and records we're convinced folks out there who are too young to remember, or may have just missed out the first time around, will probably also love, records that had they been released later, would have no doubt been showered with adoration on the aQ list. Which brings us to a unanimous aQ fave, UK heavy shoegazers Swervedriver.
Calling Swervedriver shoegaze is a bit misleading, they were tangentially part of that scene, and their sound definitely had a bit of drift and shimmer to it, but unlike the rest of the shoegazers, Swervedriver were HEAVY. Super rocking, their wall of guitars was not ethereal and ephemeral, it was crunchy and distorted and thick, and besides all that, they wrote some of the catchiest songs ever. EVER. The sort of songs that explode into frenzied psychedelic shoegaze freakouts, but just as quickly slip into a dark chugging grooves with hooks that stick in your head like crazy, and parts the still to this day illicit shivers, even after a hundred listens. Rare is the band who can define a sound, and a scene and then totally transcend it.
For those new to Swervedriver, they definitely share much in common with their shoegaze scene compatriots My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse, and the like, but as mentioned above, that shoegazey haze was just one element in their arsenal, and not at all the main one, that would be the dueling guitars, heavy and crunchy, melodic and lush, soaring one second grinding and chugging the next, often tangled into gorgeous harmonies, or layered to create thick walls of sound, those formed the basis of their sonic blueprint, over which they crafted incredible hook filled songs, some washed out and swoonsome, others hard and jagged and HEAVY. The vocals melodic but still plenty rough and raw, perfectly complimenting the heavy guitars and pounding drums, an impossibly perfect balance between heavy and pretty, hooky and hard, which is precisely what makes Swervedriver, one of our favorite bands ever.
And Raise one of our favorite -records- ever. Released in 1991, for anyone our age, or thereabouts, it was pretty difficult to not see Swervedriver everywhere, MTV, 120 Minutes, college radio, when Raise came out it was like nothing we had ever heard before, incredibly catchy and hooky but so rocking. And the songs, shit, most bands would give anything to have written "Son Of Mustang Ford" or "Rave Down", or heck, anything on Raise. But yeah, let's take "Son Of Mustang Ford". Plenty of folks will recognize it within seconds, that pounding rhythm, the thick layered guitars, and that main guitar hook, immediately exploding into an almost Treepeople (pre-Built To Spill) guitar tangle beneath killer vocals, before returning to that opening groove. Furious, and dark, and minor key, but so epic and kick ass, total head banging air guitar shoegaze nirvana. Then there's "Rave Down", their other big hit, that displays Swervedriver's other sonic side, guitars that a languorous and sunbaked, but still distorted and heavy, the song woozy and lilting without losing any of its power, and a change that still gives us goosebumps almost two decades later.
The thing with Swervedriver was that even though they had actual hits, the record was packed with could have been should have also been hits. Pretty much every song is hooky and heavy and catchy, not a weak track in the bunch. "Sandblasted", "Sci Flyer", both heavy blissed out rockers, "Feel So Real" sounds almost like a tougher heavier Lemonheads, with it's sweet little main melody and total pop main hook.
Totally and absolutely essential.
For the reissue of Raise, they tacked on 4 extra tracks, B-sides, outtakes, and damn if they don't sound just as kick ass as the album tracks proper. New packaging, deluxe 6 panel digipak with a thick booklet packed with photos and new liner notes from the band.
Four versions of the title track, which can also be found on his solo album, plus three versions of "Do You Dance". Once again in budget-priced cd format.
DJ Rob Swift of NYC's amazing X-Men! You remember him from Return of the DJ Volume 1. His full-length debut utilizes his turntable skills on some great jazz-funk grooves, getting into soundtrack-y DJ Shadow territory at points.
Highly anticipated solo record by one of the X-Ecutioners NYC turntablist crew.
UK tape label the Tapeworm launches their new, non-tape imprint, called The Wormhole, with two new releases, the double 7" vinyl debut of Drcarlsonalbion aka Dylan Carlson from Earth, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and the oddly named outfit The Swifter, a trio of piano, electronics and drums and percussion, featuring long time aQ fave BJ Nilsen manning the electronics. This record documents the group's first encounter, which took place in an old German church, and found the trio taking full advantage of the space's incredible acoustics, for a fantastic bit of dreamlike minimalism, beginning life as a creaking ship's hull, channeling Nurse With Wound's fantastic Salt Marie Celeste, but quickly letting the piano move to the fore, the sound transforming into something much more Necks like, the flurries of swirling notes reminding us of Lubomyr Melnyk, the drums a subtle background shuffle, the electronics alternately adding texture, or manipulating the sounds of the other players, but on the opening track, the sound is quite organic, minimal motorik free jazz drift, that gradually splinters into something much more rhythmic and abstract, and electronic sounding, but due to the instrumentation and the space, even the electronics sound organic.
The rest of the record explores similar territory, the piano adding most of the melodic color, while the drums and electronics supply the texture, dreamy and washed out one second, spare and skeletal the next, with some really fantastic moments throughout, the looped piano fragment and martial snare on "Neap Tide", or the No Neck Blues Band like soft cacophony on "Swallow", the record finishing off with the fantastic "Wave Guidance Allows Three", which again on the surface has a Necks like feel, but the low end piano is looped and layered and processed, creating huge dense blackened billows, churning and strangely atonal, while the drums supply a simple subtle driving rhythm underneath, before dissipating into a gorgeous glistening bliss out coda.
If you read our in-between list last Friday, the one where where highlighted some of our favorite things on the Holy Mountain label, you may remember us mentioning this new, soon-to-be-reviewed Holy Mountain release, the debut album from Swiftumz. As promised, here it is, and it's awesome. But, those of you you familiar with Holy Mountain's usual output might be expecting something deeply psychedelic, acid folky, or even experimentally abrasive... so Swiftumz might throw you for a loop, 'cause instead it's quite poppy. Hum-along, stick in your head, lalala-ishly poppy, wow! But it's lo-fi bedroom indie pop, of course, kinda on the Ariel Pink or Art Museums tip, delirious and distorted enough to find favor with the Holy Mountain mystics. REALLY distorted on opener "Don't Cha Want Me Back?" in fact.
It's the work of a local fella, super nice guy and man about town, Chris McVicker. Who until now, we hadn't realized was such a hidden pop talent. Perhaps we should have known, apparently he wrote a hit single for Hunx & His Punx, but we tend to think of him as the guy who hangs out with Oakland heavies Pigs and brings us their records (and one of the Pigs guys plays on this, as does Myles Cooper and some other folks). So, surprised were we that this was such a catchy affair, inspired by the '80s British stuff from the C86 scene, but also reminding us of all kinds of other good ol' underground indie faves like Dinosaur Jr and The Supreme Dicks. There's plenty of strummy guitar jangle, shimmering FX, tick tockin' drum machine beats, and gentle vox to lift these tracks to the top of the pops in your heart. Really good stuff, it was tough to pick which songs we liked best out of the bunch to make sound samples of, 'cause they're all so good. Some mellow and dreamy, others uptempo energetic, all hooky and hazy and full of heartache.
By the way, that cute name, Swiftumz, is that McVicker's secret nickname or something? Sounds kind of like a term of endearment - or perhaps the opposite. "Good one, Swiftumz!" one could say, sarcastically. But we will say it sincerely, this IS a good one, Swiftumz, we're impressed!! Enthusiastically recommended. And by the way, the phone number that's on the sticker on the front cover, below where it says "call me", that IS McVicker's phone number! And he really doesn't mind if you call him.
Though unfortunately vinyl-only, this does include a mp3 download code.
Woah! The boys at Melters continue to absolutely amaze by releasing the most catchy, heavy, trippy pop music being made in the Bay Area. In addition to the Tony Molina (of Ovens notoriety) solo lp, they've brought us the fucked up bedroom pop of Violent Change, whose full-length we made a Record Of The Week last year. So, when Mr. Eli Melter himself came in with a stack of the new Swiftumz album, we knew we were in for a treat. Well, we kind knew it also 'cause we're Swiftumz fans. We've gushed over Swiftumz releases before (the last one being a two-song 7" released back in 2013 that we still have a couple copies of), but on Everybody Loves Chris, the titular Chris McVicker has stepped up his game on every possible level, crafting a stoned mix of stuck-in-your-head pop hooks, saccharine love songs that you want to play over and over again, and Ariel Pinkish bedroom lo-fi weirdness. Did we mention wanting to play them over and over again? This record is seriously difficult to not start right up again after it ends.
By the time we finished track three on the first listen, this was pretty much automatically a Record Of The Week, bringing to mind Teenage Fanclub power pop, Guided By Voices, and maybe even the more sunshine-y Sparklehorse tracks out there. Then you get a track like "Come My Way", just blown out synth and harmonized vocals, but it totally works, adding to the spaced out stoner vibe of the record. "Taste the Gray", too, gets spaced out towards the end, heavy and repetitive, but still totally catchy. "Walter's Song" and "Ladybird" have a drugged-out, childish Ariel Pink vibe that still manage to be total hook-centric pop tunes.
Another stunner from McVicker, and Melters, a totally unexpected masterpiece. Everybody Loves Chris, or at least, Everybody Should!! If there was any musical justice in the world, Swiftumz will blow up and McVicker will get famous for this, but, at least those of us "in the know" will be able to spin this record again and again.
Yay this is making us happy! Our pal Chris McVicker aka Swiftumz is back with a blissful blast of indie pop goodness on this new two song 7". Super catchy, sunshiney love song stuff here, with jangly guitar strum and sweet tender vocals, but don't worry there's something about it, some hint of heartache around the corner, that keeps it from getting too icky gooey lovey dovey, even when he's singing the letters (and number) "I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U-4-E-V-A" in the chorus on the flipside, the track "4EVA Redux", an update of a song from Swiftumz's debut lp on Holy Mountain from last year. We loved that record, and it's nice to hear more from him. He should keep it up, 'cause there's no reason why Swiftumz shouldn't have as many fans as, like, King Tuff or Best Coast.
LIMITED TO JUST 200 COPIES, FYI!
Yay! Two brand new songs from this no-longer-a-one-man-band, Swiftumz, the brainchild of local who-woulda-thunk-it indie pop genius Chris McVickers, whose debut full length on Holy Mountain, Don't Trip, we swooned over in 2011. We know he's got a 'real' band now, they're listed in the credits to this single (Brian Hamilton of aQ fave metalpunks Pigs plays guitar!) and also there was a record release show just last week at the Makeout Room around the corner from our shop. Earlier this year there was a 7" on Roadcone, entitled Love Ya 4 Eva, also a fantastic blissful blast of Swiftumz pop smarts, and now this.
The two songs on here, both the noisepoppy anthem "Willy" as well as the rollicking twanged-out romp on the flipside that asks the musical question "Can We Get Together?", are squarely in the Swiftumz tradition of super infectious, play-it-again-Swiftums, heart-tugging good times, fulla breathy sincere vox, distorted guitar, and hella catchy hooks.
Comes in a nice looking full color sleeve w/ spot varnish for the text.
Warning: this review contains movie spoilers!!!
An ancient vhs copy of this 1968 movie starring Burt Lancaster clothed only in a little black Speedo swimsuit (the whole time!) made its rounds around here back in the late '90s, and it's a total understatement to declare that everyone who watched it had their minds blown, melted, fried, and otherwise levelled by the viewing experience. Beyond the shock of seeing Lancaster in a Speedo (often in, ahem, profile we will add!), The Swimmer is a pretty darn bleak tale - one man's nightmarish unravelling presented in a unique, slightly perverse and boggling way. Over the past two decades, its cult classic notoriety has mushroomed to the point where there's been talk of a remake starring Alec Baldwin. Absolutely unnecessary, in our opinion! Anyhoo, as Andee pointed out recently, oftentimes when reviewing a film soundtrack, we inevitably end up gushing or going on at length about the movie itself. Kinda hard not to do, expecially with a flick like this one. So, we're doing our best to restrain ourselves (we'll just say that if you haven't seen it yet, please do so... immediately!). The Marvin Hamlisch composed music on the soundtrack is pleasant on its own, an instrumental blend of easy-listening '60s jazz pop and orchestral melodramatics. It's very much unlike modern-day movie soundtracks riddled with well-known popular hits, that lazily push the buttons of viewers' personal nostalgic and kitschy associations with those familiar tunes. It may mostly seem to lean towards the innocuous, however when combined with the film's visuals, it does what a soundtrack should do. That is, for the most part, it provides an unintrusive complimentary sonic backdrop, and occasionally making its presence felt more prominently, subtly influencing the viewer's perceptions. While it's not really something we'd listen to on its own on a regular basis, it definitely does serve as an effective memory triggering device for fans of the movie, stirring visions of Burt Lancaster in a Speedo running with a galloping white horse, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo wooing a nubile blonde, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo fighting to reclaim his hotdog cart, Burt Lancaster in a Speedo...
It's strange what a huge influence Bay Area black metallers Von ended up being on pretty much everybody. Not really all that surprising really, they did after all totally destroy. Filthy and grimy and so heavy and primal and raw. It seems like every black metal band has at one time or another covered Von, there was even a full length tribute, and of course, there have been about a million bands who did everything in their power to channel the spirit and ferocity of Von, one of the most successful being Swine, the Von worshipping side project of a guy called Swine appropriately enough, frontman for Hateful Abandon, whose most recent record, Famine (Or Into The Bellies Of Worms), a collection of blackened gothic gloom, we highlighted a while back.
On Marked By The Baron, it's Satanic Blood Angel time, ALL the time, blasting drums supplied by a furious frenzied drum machine, the guitars thick and gritty, buzzy and intense, the vocals drenched in reverb and effects, grunting and growling, as much as howling and shrieking. The sound manages to be weirdly moody and dramatic too, with moaning guitar melodies drifting over the churning black filth below, giving most of the tracks a weirdly wistful vibe, considering how fast and furious the rest of the music is. Rapid fire, frenzied and relentless, pounding and punky, but so atmospheric and with such a vile vibe, and that aforementioned moody melancholy, culminating in the final track, that dips into some super emotional classic sounding doom, even slipping into some mournful clean guitar, and after a few minutes of silence, returning with a bit of washed out dreamy drone, weird.
But beyond those little bits of strangeness, this is some gloriously heavy, harsh, beautifully depressive, raw blasting blackness.
The Foundry is a San Francisco ambient label, whose definition of ambient resides squarely in the mid-'90s. At that time, the utilitarian chill out rooms of warehouse parties and raves intended to calm the over-stimulated, ecstacy-addled brains of ravers; yet it also began to produce a very specific variation of synth-based ambient music that converged with world beat, post-industrial, psychedelia, and anything else that you could zone out to. Labels like Beyond, Emit, and Silent offered warm and fuzzy ambient cocktails with holistic claims of inter-dimensional travel, brain-tuning, and other new age drivel. Yet, with any aesthetic form, gems did emerge, with the mid-'90s ambient highlight being the Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Vol 2." Ben Swire's debut EP aspires towards that Aphex pinnacle, and comes respectably close with an interesting use of IDM-informed / post-drum & bass rhythms spartanly skittering amidst the synthetic floes of ambience. Swire, who has previously worked with Neotropic on one of her NTone singles, displays a slippery use of nursery rhythm melodies that unveil themselves to be quite sublime, not unlike Boards of Canada's "Geogaddi" album.
Utterly gorgeous and meticulously crafted sounds infused with warmth and a glimmering, strangely tender vibe. Almost like a more melodic Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, Ben Swire intertwines traditional instruments with field recordings and electronics to create a totally seamless sound that has been the soundtrack to constant drifting, dazed daydreaming.
While Swire resides right here in San Francisco, it actually makes a lot of sense that this was released by the great Australian label Preservation, who have proven to have such immaculate taste in soft focus underground sounds (Eddie Marcon, Caethua, Aaron Martin, etc.). But we also think he would be a perfect fit for the roster of Root Strata, as his music really taps into a similarly perfect hazy, delicate, droney yet melodic sensibility. We hear hints of so many artists that we love like Philip Jeck, Es, The Fun Years, Part Timer, Mountains, as well as a more organic interpretation of early recordings by folks like Mum, Opiate and Markus Archer. While we are reminded of all those great artists, there is something so striking about Swire's soft touch, understated and assured with some pleasant surprises of a slightly darker nature, subtly tense and ominous, which unfold in the later half of the record. But for sure this the perfect soundtrack for staring out the window on long road trips as the scenery washes by and your mind floats away in a million different directions. So beautiful!
Wow, Preston Swirnoff has been one busy (and versatile) bee over the last several years. From his collaborative vinyl only releases on Eclipse with Ilya Monosov, to their blown out psych-rock band The Shining Path, his avant jazz outfit, The Seesaw Ensemble and his amazing dub project Habitat Sound System, a record we were blasting all last summer. Maariv is a collection of solo works composed and performed by Swirnoff from 2004-05 only now finally seeing its much deserved moment in the sun. Using 20th century minimalism, ritual drones and early tape and electronic sound experiments as his launching pad, he's tapped into a mystical realm that can be both gorgeous and disturbing.
Each of the four pieces use a different set of instrumentation and various tape loops. The opener filled with rolling piano thunder and a delicious fog of electronics had some of our favorite AQ customers drooling as they heard it blasting from our speakers, as it recalls some of the most breathtaking work by Charlemagne Palestine. The next piece is probably the most intense and disturbing of the lot, as a room full of organs create a cacophony of sound which radiate with a scary and relentless passion. Then comes the most delicate and pretty track in the collection where Swirnoff uses a sequence that Ilya Monosov played on electric-guitar and uses a tape machine and speed control to create an otherworldly gamelan-like sound that would be right at home on a Colleen record. The album ends with a really nice nod to the kind of works that came out of the SF tape music center of the '60s as four tape machines go back and forth between speeds and pitches to create a mesmerizing mood that we could listen to forever!
Whether tapping into the power of Gyorgy Ligeti or showing an amazing range that rivals Barton Smith, Preston has created a vivid work of electroacoustic music that will most surely stand the test of time! Highly recommended!
You'd have thought there'd be a band by now called Switchblade, but these guys I think are the first we've seen here at Aquarius to use that moniker...from the name you might expect some sort of garagey rockabilly punk or somesuch, but this ain't the Stray Cats. Nope, Switchblade are a punishing metalcore trio from Sweden, who could just as easily be labeled a 'post-rock' band. First off, you'd swear this was recorded by Steve Albini (though it's not): it's got that spacious, dry, natural room sound recording quality with BIG drums. Mix that with quiet-loud dynamics and electric drone potential and you'll be wondering if this metal at all until vocals make a rare, screaming throat abuse appearance to remind you. Oh, and also 'cause when it's heavy it's, yeah, heavy! Totally hypnotic and dark...kind of like a slow, epic version of old AQ instro-metal faves Fuehler. Or some sort of Albini-produced krautrock. Or a downer Circle. Or an evil Mogwai... Shellac, Pelican and Isis would also be good reference points. While some metalcore outfits have a densely layered, hyperkinetic, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink modus operandi (i.e. Converge, Coalesce), Switchblade, with their stripped-down, mostly instrumental, repetitive-riffing approach, seem to utilize a keep-it-simple aesthetic that really works for them. There's not even any song titles, just six numbered tracks (47 minutes total) of Switchblade's sinister, soporific, satisfying music.
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Self-titled records are strange. They are definitely a statement. It's sort of like 'our record doesn't NEED a title, it speaks for itself'. We can't help but think sometimes though that it's just pure laziness. The sort of band who would forgo an album title are only a hop skip and a jump away from ditching song titles too. And then what's next, no band name? That's part of the fun, part of the magic. Part of the unique world that a band creates. Sometimes the title of a song or album is exactly what makes us want to listen to it. Along the same lines, we're often frustrated by bands who have multiple self-titled records. Quite confusing, there's the OLD self-titled one, and the NEW self-titled one. But what about these Swedish metalheads. Not one, not two, not even three self-titled records, BUT ALL FOUR of their release so far are self-titled. Even their first seven inch! And they HAVE gotten rid of song titles, opting instead for numbers. So I guess it is all about the music after all. So yeah, the music, that's why we're here, right? All we can say, is what the hell happened to Switchblade?! Something seriously scary we'd have to guess. Last time we checked in, they were one of those metallic post rock metalcore hybrids, exploring drifting loping melancholy rhythms that would explode into chugging grinding sludgy metal freakouts. They also had a strange Albini-esque vibe, big booming drums, really spacious recording.
But now. Holy shit, these guys are a whole lot scarier. A lot slower. Even heavier. It's like they discovered their inner Khanate. This is downright doooooomy. It's almost like the last Switchblade record played at 16rpm. In fact, maybe it is... Hmmm? Anyway, this has much more in common with Moss and Bunkur and Earth and Nadja and Marzuraan and Khanate, than the bands that occupied a similar sonic space as their last record, the Pelican's and Isis's and the like. The new Switchblade is a slow lumbering beast, two lengthy tracks, one 16 minutes, one almost 30 minutes, each a plodding, slow motion, glacial, dirge. Riffs are drawn out and allowed to drift and dwindle before the next riff arrives to take over. The drummer sounds like he only has one drum. And one cymbal. But both of them are really BIG and really LOUD. But unlike some of the sludgelords this disc is obviously indebted to, Switchblade keep their sound warm, and spacious. This isn't murky or muddy. It's wide open and spacious, the guitars are clear and bright, distorted sure, but more thick and heavy than downtuned and sludgy. A bit like recent discs from the Angelic Process and Nadja, a sort of beautiful sludge. the first track is the more overtly evil of the two with super creepy harsh whispered vocals, like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings, a raspy demonic growl. The second shorter track, sounds a bit like a heavier version of slowcore legends Codeine, with whispery crooned vocals, drifting minor key chords, all strung along a skeletal doom plod. Haunting and malefic, but at the same times strangely delicate and introspective. A truly mysterious and utter metamorphosis. We can hardly wait to hear what their fifth self-titled release will bring...
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We've long been fans of this Swedish post-metal / dirge-sludge / metal-gaze duo, and their ever expanding discography continues to confound, as this is their sixth full length since 2000, and the sixth record without a title. So yeah, self titled, AGAIN, and as we mentioned in our review of their 2006 self titled record, they also chose to jettison song titles as well, which continues to be the case, this three song, 37 minute epic divided into 'movements', and each of those movements further divided into 'coda's and 'elegy's and 'finale's. Which may seem a bit pompous, they are after all a rock band, and a pretty stripped down one at that, being just a guitar player and a drummer (their set up pictured on the front cover), but as the saying goes, it's not what you got, but what you do with what you got, and these guys turn two instruments (and admittedly a LOT of amplifiers), into something mightily metallic and majestic, with long passages of dark dreamy droniness, and dense dynamic sprawls of droned out psychedelic math-kraut heaviness, as well as lumbering driving dirges, and yeah, of course, heaving walls of crumbling distortion doused sludge, all driven by some serious drum-damage bombast, and this time around, some super tripped out vocals, contributed by not one, not two, but THREE guest vocalists (one known simply as "The Cuckoo", who we like to think is the one contributing the weird heavily effected gurgle-vox). There's also some keyboards this time around, adding a little more swirl and spaceiness to the proceedings, but the sound is still in keeping with the previous five self titled records, heady and heavy, hypnotic and metallic. Maybe imagine a mostly instrumental Isis, stripped way down, and then slowed way down, and recording with Steve Albini, or Dutch instru-metallers Gore, with a slightly more expansive soundfield.
At this point Switchblade are truly masters of their craft, weaving lush landscapes of chug and churn, those landscapes often blossoming into impossibly majestic sonic sprawls, tranced out and mesmeric, peppered with the occasional dense sonic blast, or fluttery fields of ghostly psychedelic drift, the whole thing laced with all manner of warped sonic subtleties, but spending the majority of their time locked into endless stretches of head nodding hypno-rock drone-dirge-metal bliss out.
The cd comes in a six panel full color digipack, while the deluxe 2lp version is pressed on 180 gram vinyl and includes a download code.
Being in a metal band and calling yourself Sword, or anything plus Sword (Demonsword, Devilsword, etc.) you're just asking to be confused with the hundreds of other Sword bands out there. And c'mon, there have been several fairly well known Swords in not too distant metal history as well. The same goes for anything Witch, Super anything, Jesus whatever, the list goes on. Remember a math rock band from back in the nineties, called Table? At the time we all thought that was the stupidest name ever, but faced with ANOTHER Sword, Table seems downright brilliant. How many weird heavy bands would actually think to call themselves something as innocuous and uncool as Table? Probably none. But we digress. You've probably been reading a lot lately about a 'next big thing' band called THE Sword. That THE is very important. Cuz this isn't them. That (The) Sword, from Texas, has a sort of Fucking Champs, ironic metal thing going on, where as this Sword, just Sword, from Virginia, is a down and dirty, sludgy, scummy filthy downtuned skull cracking metallic headbutt. Huge crushing Eyehategod riffage, all slithery and sludgy and tuned WAY down, with howled hate fueled vocals and big pounding drums, simple and heavy as fuck. Think High On Fire, EHG, Minsk, Buzzoven, Sleep, Kyuss, Electric Wizard, this is black t-shirt, faded tattoos, torn jeans, shitkicker boots, long hair, big beard heavy fucking metal rock and roll. Let's imagine a Sword fight shall we? The Sword clashing mightily against Sword. The Sword is a fancy fantastical +2 magic sword, with a super ornate, betassled handle, some sort of jewel set in the hilt, with a real alligator skin grip, the blade is sort of curved and delicately etched with ancient runes, while Sword is a big six foot broadsword, rusted and dinged up, heavy as fuck, impossible to lift without both hands, but once raised skyward capable of splitting a man clean in half, the handle wrapped in deerskin and duct tape, the blade brown with the dried blood of vanquished foes. It's up to you how you'd rather be armed as you head into battle. (Well, it seems that this Sword did not in fact win the battle as we just learned that they have now changed their name to Lord By Fire to avoid all of that confusion we were just discussing!)
After a couple of live cd-rs, a tape, and numerous live shows, the energetic but short-lived free music trio Sword & Sandals have called it a day. Comprised of John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees), Randy Lee Sutherland (Freak Out label) and visual artist Shaun O'Dell, the trio bow out with their most layered, expansive and exciting release to date! Containing seven tracks, their normal instrumental set-up of two saxophones and a drummer is fleshed out with bells, flute, piano, bass clarinet and even a synth. Good & Plenty is definitely channeling the spirit of those BYG Actuel release from the late sixties from the likes of Don Cherry, Sun Ra or Sunny Murray. The dueling dynamic of O'Dell and Sutherland's horn interplay is not one of willful free jazz cacophony, but a means to reach a harmonic connection through disparate starting points, often sounding like the horns are worrying back and forth over the same small tonal point creating a tense movement of sound. But unlike their live shows and recordings, the horns are not always locked in battle. The overall flow of the record tempers the noisy urgent moments with quieter moody tracks of looser and more playful rhythms, sometimes ramshackle and other times more martial with strange washes of bell sounds, out of tune piano, weird bleeps, and minimal plaintive horn drones. It's one of those records where the band has finally come into their own, harnessing the ferocious energy of their live shows into something deeper and more reflective and at times quite beautiful. Limited to 300 copies, each lp comes with a download card. Highly recommended!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Sword + Sandals are a two saxophone and drums improv jazz trio comprised of local artists Shaun O'Dell (Corn Silo of Skulls, Beak), Randylee Sutherland (head of cd-r label Freak Out) and the irascible John Dwyer (Coach Whips, The Oh Sees, etc.) on drums! The recordings on their Live #1+2 cdr are circa 2006. Get 'em while you can!
