In the last years of the seventies, X-Ray Spex, fronted by singer / songwriter Poly Styrene, were one of the most visible and artistically successful punk originals. Led by Poly Styrene who had charisma with a capital C, the British band's songs were super
Simply put, this is one of the best albums Punk ever produced (and one of Windy's all-time favorites). If you haven't already, you owe it to yourself to hear this record. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
That said, this here reissue just might turn out to be the definitive anthology of X-Ray Spex's career. There's the entirety of their Germ Free Adolescents album, and the "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" single. And even if you have Germ Free Adolescents already, here are some plum reasons to get this double disc set: an additional ten tracks of rough mixes, instrumental versions, a song never before released, a fantastically energetic recording of their second live gig ever (1977 at the Roxy) where Poly's voice is so shot by the end of the concert that it's totally cracking (in a good way) all over "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!", and last but not least, three (quite good) songs from their 1995 reunion. Also lyrics, photos and some hard-to-read liner notes. I'm taking this home right now and seriously so should you.
We're not going to go into too much detail with this as it is limited to 612 copies worldwide of which we managed to get 10 or 15! Not sure we'll be able to get more. So act fast. A match made in heaven. Assuming heaven is packed with broken amps, detuned guitars, beat to shit drum kits, cheap beer, and all manner of freaked out smashstomp noise rock! And lots of us are praying to Jeebus it is!!! In one corner we've got SF's total destruction unit, Total Shutdown, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, harmonica and double sax!! In the opposing corner we've got the East Bay's (that means Oakland) new wave angular swat team XBXRX. Two 5" vinyls, one red, one blue, each vying for the noise rock crown, we're leaning towards a good ol' fashioned tie, the kind that after the post battle hug, once the opponents turn their back they each lurch back into action wielding flaming drumsticks and spiked axes (that means guitars). Dig in if you dare!
Utterly amazing packaging. A massive fold out, technicolor acid drenched cartoon freakout, all creatures and shapes and clouds and elves all on cool fuzzy paper, the inside is similar just with all the color sucked out, with little sleeves for each of the 5" vinyls. COOL!!! ----* ----* Compilations : ----*
We just woke up. It's like 7am and we're pretty sleepy - but tomorrow's "list day" and there's still records to be reviewed... Let's see what effect this Michael Yonkers + GR lp will have on us.... woah! Better'n coffee... these two plug their electric guitars directly into your frontal lobes! With incessant, reverbed, choo-choo train rhythms on rattling percussion to make you get up and go. Alien distortodelic rock n' roll. Yowza.
Or, maybe, we're still asleep... 'cause we've GOTTA be dreaming. Is it really true that outsider underground guitar wranglers Michael Yonkers and Gregory Raimo team up on this lp? Yes indeed they do! Milwaukee's Yonkers is a big AQ fave best beloved for his 1969 proto-punk Microminiature Love album, and continues to kick out the jams 40 years later. Youthful French motorpsychoguitarist Gregory Raimo we also really dig, both in his badass band Gunslingers and for his krauty solo album GR & Full-Blown Expansion. That these two would collaborate actually makes perfect sense. A couple months of trans-Atlantic 4-track tape trading by these two resulted in the 9 songs on this record, that alternate between Yonkers and Raimo compositions, not that you can tell. Each added their own elements to each other's songs, frying 'em even further, as you can imagine when, besides mere guitars, the two are credited with such things as "drumming feedback" and "wall of noise".
We already alluded to the rattling perc, and pedal-mashed muzz of distortion that's ever-present. Perhaps redundantly, GR wrote a song entitled "Distortion, Blow My Mind!". Based on his Gallic ranting amidst gurgling geetar skree, we're of the opinion it already did! Meanwhile, Yonkers sounds as wearily Iggyish as ever on the gunked up garage of "Why Didn't", and kinda old-timey too, on the gospel-blues-punk (?) of "The News". And like that awesome GR&FBX disc, this lp mixes Bo Diddleyisms with hypnotic psych drone.
Whoa. Haven't even had breakfast yet, and we feel like we've already definitely gotten our daily dose and more of slashing distorted guitars and trance inducing rhythmic in the red blowouts. It's gonna be a good day.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES.
AQ fave, garage rock outsider singer/guitarist Michael Yonkers is baaaaack, with another whomping, stomping blast of his uniquely eccentric heavy duty distortodelic grunge, again in the company of relative youngsters, The Blind Shake, a quite suitable backing band for Yonkers at his most electric and energetic. Yonkers himself, as you probably know, is, like, in his 60s. And his magnum opus, Microminiature Love (so recommended!!! plz read our review if you haven't) dates from over 40 years ago. But you'd think it was just yesterday, the way the man kicks out the jams here. No surprise, he's wowed us on several other records in recent years, with The Blind Shake and Plastic Crimewave and GR and solo. So now, wow again. With his homemade geetar howl landing square on your skull, and his elder Iggyish yodel singing strong o'er it all, Yonkers RULES and so does this record, raw and direct, the Blind Shake shakin' it up with gusto behind him, the whole thing a throbbing good time, catchy and noisy and gnarly and blown out, with pounding drums and whooshing wind tunnel guitars n' effects... these songs n' sonics are the stuff that freeks for such bands as The Heads, High Rise, White Hills, and The Stooges should dig. Best punk-psych outing on our list this week fer sure, and would probably qualify as such almost any other week as well!
Includes a killer, updated take on their signature tune, the title track from a few albums back, "Carbohydrate Hydrocarbons", here called "Carbo Hydro".
Young Marble Giants' minimal masterpiece, Colossal Youth, receives yet another reissue (the fifth or sixth to date)! This one is extra super special because it's a three cd set which compiles ALL of their previously released music! So you not only get the fifteen songs that make up the Colossal Youth album, but also a five song Peel Session from 1980, six songs from their 1981 Testcard EP, three from the Final Day single, sixteen from their 2000 Salad Days album, and their first ever recorded appearance titled "Ode To Booker T" from the 1979 compilation Is The War Over?.
Needless to say, it's a cause for celebration! Absolutely essential listening. This UK trio's existence was ever so fleeting, and they only had one proper album, but what a leftfield classic it is. It sounds *totally unique*, like nothing before and pretty much nothing since. Amid the aggression and edginess of the post-punk movement, YMG emerged as a remarkably stark, understated and utterly engaging wonder. It has made an enormous impact in the many years since its original release in 1980. Seriously, this is one of those classic albums that has influenced tons of musicians (Hole even covered "Credit in the Straight World", but don't hold that against YMG!). It ranks up there with, like, The Velvet Underground's first record, Neu!, the Raincoats, Pere Ubu's Modern Dance, etc., etc.
Their music's simplicity is deceptive. A very hushed, metronome-sounding drum machine ticks out the tireless beat of each song like a friendly clock, and its neutral tone is also reflected in Alison Statton's girlish, earnest, not always pitch-perfect vocals as well as in the muted string strum of Stuart Moxham's electric guitar. Spartan, angular strikes from the same guitar punctuate this steady atmosphere as a frail organ does its wheezing, bleating melodic best and Philip Moxham's rubbery bass line hesitantly bends and bounds. Minimal and no-frills, yes, but somehow there's so much more going on, and so much more expressed than its quietness belies. The songs are tiny and simple and total perfection. Powerful and totally f**king timeless and yes, very highly recommended.
As we mentioned above, we believe this just might be the fifth or sixth edition, and we hope that it's kept available forever and ever and ever!
It's been a busy 2011 for Brontez and The Younger Lovers. They released an awesome full length earlier in the year released on an Austrian label, that sadly we were never able to get enough of to list (but we're told we will be getting a cassette version soon). They made another awesome and endearing music video with aQ pal Gary Fembot, and Brontez's modern dance company performed at museums in the bay area and beyond. On the flipside, they also had a terrible incident happen to them in the summer when Brontez and bandmate Adele Castellon were gay bashed outside of an Oakland club, resulting in five broken bones in Castellon's face (who ironically is heterosexual).
But we're super glad they haven't let someone else's ignorance and stupidity bring them down as the band seems to be hitting a new stride as of late. These three new songs are some of their best yet. "Boy From Senegal" features some pretty infectious lalala's by Matthew Melton of The Bare Wires, who also recorded these jams. That track has been stuck in our head for weeks with its Oh Sees like mixture of intensity and poppiness. The other two tracks keep the energy high and the power-pop garage punk sound delivered with raw perfection.
The 7" comes with a digital download, and with some UN-intentional punk spirit the labels on each side are wrong so the A side is really the B side.
We're so happy this is now on vinyl as these are songs meant to be slapped on the turntable and blasted in bedrooms for full on pillow fight and punk rock sleep over action. An added bonus is that the vinyl also comes with a cd copy of the record. Now on to the music inside...
Full on DIY scrappy and delicious garage punk jams brewed up by the Bay Area's own Brontez, best known for being in Gravy Train and beloved by many for his amazing DJ nights (such great taste in music!) and his overall contagious inviting and exciting spirit and high energy. Ever since moving to the bay from Alabama several years ago he's injected such a great bolt of sexually charged queer spirit into what can often be such a straight and white dominated punk rock scene. In true punk fashion he taught himself how to play guitar and with Gravy Train on a bit of a hiatus had songs pouring out of him that begged for a home so The Younger Lovers was born.
His covers of The Rip-Off's and The Replacements show how he loves his rock n roll to be loud, fast, scrappy and full of relentless energy. We love how honest and direct his lyrics are, whether coming clean about his wandering heart in "Ballad For All My Bandmates And Lovers" or singing about how he can't resist a hottie in "Low Top Chucks & Skinny Jeans." You can tell that Brontez loves punk, garage and riot girl a as much as he does girl groups and sassy bubblegum pop. These are songs that are as rocking as they are endearing, making us want to jump and dance as much as they make us wanna lick an ice cream cone and have a pillow fight with a room filled with our punk rock crushes. So damn fun!
This awesome & underrated record by The Younger Lovers is now available on chrome colored cassette with four demos recorded by K.B. from the legendary '70s New York power pop band The Nasty Facts, and they kill! The cassette is limited to 250 copies, so act fast on this one. Here's what we said about this record when it first came out three years ago:
Full on DIY scrappy and delicious garage punk jams brewed up by the Bay Area's own Brontez, best known for being in Gravy Train and beloved by many for his amazing DJ nights (such great taste in music!) and his overall contagious inviting and exciting spirit and high energy. Ever since moving to the bay from Alabama several years ago he's injected such a great bolt of sexually charged queer spirit into what can often be such a straight and white dominated punk rock scene. In true punk fashion he taught himself how to play guitar and with Gravy Train on a bit of a hiatus had songs pouring out of him that begged for a home so The Younger Lovers was born.
His covers of The Rip-Off's and The Replacements show how he loves his rock n roll to be loud, fast, ramshackle and full of relentless energy. We love how honest and direct his lyrics are, whether coming clean about his wandering heart in "Ballad For All My Bandmates And Lovers" or singing about how he can't resist a hottie in "Low Top Chucks & Skinny Jeans." You can tell that Brontez loves punk, garage and riot girl as much as he does girl groups and sassy bubblegum pop. These are songs that are as rocking as they are endearing, making us want to jump and dance as much as they make us wanna lick an ice cream cone and have a pillow fight with a room filled with our punk rock crushes. So damn fun!
Metalcore has such a seemingly stringent set of sonic rules, that it's hard to know what to say about a great metalcore record. Or how to explain what differentiates this record from a more inferior one. But let's give it a try. Since this is actually a really amazing record, and is a whole lot better than most of the metalcore we hear these days. Zao are the rarest beast in metal circles... a Christian metal band. And a GREAT Christian metal band at that. The last Christian metal band we totally dug would have to be...umm...oh yeah, that's right, STRYPER!! Fear not though, no matching outfits, or Christmas singles or soaring falsetto vocals. This is downtuned, pummelling, crushing super dynamic, heavy-as-fuck METAL. With just enough melody (and of course the occasional emo breakdown to ensure some MTV play) to keep it catchy and interesting. A dense and emotional concept album based on the idea of what would happen if man lost sight of God so completely that He just disappeared. Cool concept. Insane double bass drumming, howled maniacal vocals, and some amazing riffs (some distinctly Voivod-ish moments too which is always a good thing) make this one of the best metalcore records we've heard in a while, since the last Converge, maybe. And definitely the best Christian metal band we've heard in forever. At least since Stryper!
If you're a follower of the aQ list, you know that there's this retro-but-fresh Canadian metal band called Iron Dogs, that we think is really, really special, eh? We've raved about their two records of punked out, DIY old school heavy metal worship - in fact, we made their Free & Wild album a Record Of The Week about a year ago. Well, the singer/guitarist in Iron Dogs, a talented & busy bloke with the very punk name of Jo Capitalicide, is also in a few other cool bands, one of 'em being the freaking great Zex, who sound kinda like a cross between Iron Dogs and the Rezillos, because compared to Iron Dogs they're more punk, more poppy, and they've got a female singer. This is their debut album, which also has to be aQ Record Of The Week for sure, 'cuz they've waxed a classic, we think, when it comes to records with a "youth gone wild in the streets", us-against-the-world vibe, that will make you feel like a 16 year old runaway again. Heck, we've been wanting to list something by Zex for a while, ever since we first heard 'em, but their two 7"s sold out too fast. But now we're so happy Magic Bullet has just released a US edition of their full-length on both cd and vinyl that we can at last stock and shout about.
Zex, who like Iron Dogs are based outta Ottawa, find Jo playing guitar alongside Gab Sex (bass), Tasha G (drums) and Gretchen Steel (vocals).
On Fight For Yourself this crew crank out ten catchy 2-to-3 minute long blasts of energetic, anthemic streetwise punk with a NWOBHM inspired flair. (That's New Wave Of British Heavy Metal - though plain ol' New Wave is a factor here too!) Really, take Iron Dogs, keep the early Iron Maiden influence, but add a bunch more Ramones, maybe some Fuzzbox, the aforementioned Rezillos, some Joan Jett perhaps, and you've got Zex. So Iron Dogs fans oughtta dig this if they're into punk at all; really quite a few of the tracks, like "Savage City", could easily have been Iron Dogs songs, they've got the same guitar tone, same riff-writing knack, same gnarly, twangy Strat soloing from Jo - but when the vocals kick in, instead of Jo's charmingly rough yobbish yowl, you get Gretchen's more melody-capable, obvious-frontperson-worthy singing, which is tough & sneering enough to convey commanding metalpunk attitude, while also sealing the deal on the uplifting pop side of this band. And, she's got zex appeal (ba-dum-bump). Gretchen's vocals and Jo's riffing make for, at the end of the day, quite a poppy listen indeed - just spin songs like "XXX" or "Wanderlust" and dare them not to get stuck in your head, especially when the choruses (often with gang vocals) roll around. This is one of those albums where it was tough (or easy, depending on how you look at it) for us to pick which tracks to make our sound samples for, 'cuz they're pretty much all killer.
Obviously, we got into Zex 'cuz we love Iron Dogs, and Zex have so much of the same sound & spirit. But even if we'd never heard Iron Dogs, we're pretty sure this still would have grabbed us. So for those of you not yet hip to Iron Dogs, well, do you like, say, the garagey metalpunk of Zig Zags? Or, do you the ripping girl-powered power pop of Ex Hex?? Fans of either could totally get into this. For that matter, d'you just like the teenage excitement of some good ol' rock n' roll? Then check this out. We've been spinning it so much that you could almost call us Zex addicts...
FYI, vinyl version we have at the moment is limited colored (clear, actually) and includes insert with lyrics and show fliers, whereas the cd comes in a slim cardboard sleeve.
Reissue of the reissue. Previously an actual black box, with 2 cds, now everything fitted onto one disc. When these two Naked City records originally came out, it was before aQuarius had started doing our "list". But then Tzadik reissued 'em in The Black Box back in 1996, and we had a chance to review them... but all we said was: "Stars John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, Joey Baron & Yamantaka Eye. For their re-issue, Zorn has packaged these two albums in a black box, presenting all of the original, controversial artwork in the liner notes. Zorn gives a bit of history behind the graphics for Naked City releases. The albums, one fast and furious, the other slow and brutal, are without equal. They demonstrate the most aggressive sides of these incredible musicians."
True that, but there's more that could be said! Perhaps we figured, at the time, that everyone must already know all about Zorn and Naked City and there was no point in any extensive description. But, nowadays, there's gotta be people reading this who haven't yet experienced the mindboggling, genre-jumping musical mastery of Naked City, especially as intensely expressed on Torture Garden, originally released as a 45rpm 12" on the Shimmy Disc label in 1989, and if you're one of those folks, you're in for a treat - as long as you dig the idea of a "jazz" band playing almost every style of music imaginable, from lounge to country to surf to grindcore, in jarringly short, sharp stop on dime bursts, with Eye from the Boredoms vocalizing over top like a gibbering demon, screaming along with Zorn's saxophone, performing songs with titles like "Thrash Jazz Assassin", "Speedball", "Jazz Snob Eat Shit", "New Jersey Scum Swamp", and "S&M Sniper"! It's like the cartoon music of Carl Stalling meets Napalm Death meets, well just about everything else in the realm of music. Utterly insane and influential (though it must be said, Napalm Death was a HUGE influence on this). It's how we first heard about the Boredoms, too!
Blew us all away the first time we heard it. 12, 17, 28, 43 second songs that had more and better riffs in 'em than some ten minute Metallica epics. Well maybe that's exaggerating. But you get the idea. Amazing. And definitely Naked City's most "metal", grindcore-iest moment. Utter mayhem, with Zorn and Co. cramming a crazy number of changes into each track. Videos of them performing reveal a reliance on sheet music, but we don't blame 'em. That almost makes it more insane.
On this disc, the 42 tracks of Torture Garden (the longest of which clocks in at 1'19", but most don't come anywhere near the minute-mark) are followed by the single, 31'38" track that comprised the entirety of the 1992 Naked City album Leng Tch'e, long out of print, the yin to Torture Garden's yang for sure. Leng Tch'e is like the Naked City version of Earth or the Melvins, one long sludge trudge, super heavy and doomic and nightmarish. Again, Eye's vocals vie with Zorn's saxophone in emulating the screams of the damned.
If we had to choose our favorite Zorn album from amid his VAST discography (The Big Gundown? Spy Vs. Spy? Spillane? Bar Kokhba? Absinthe? Execution Ground?) Torture Garden would get a lot of our votes... it's certainly one of the most "extreme", though an argument could be made for Leng Tch'e too. No wonder they both belong together here (which also has something to do with the original, controversial cover art, necessitating the "black box" treatment). Nice to have 'em back in print, for the uninitiated, and also for old fans like us who had almost forgotten how incredible this shit is.
FYI some of the Torture Garden tracks also appeared on cd on the self-titled Naked City disc on Nonesuch (1989) and the Avant-label release Grand Guignol (1992).
Those crazies over at Troubleman have done gone and let Mick Barr (Orthrelm/Octis/ex-Crom Tech) 'curate' a series of releases under the Vothoc moniker, devoted to obscure prog-core weirdness from the NYC underground. The first Vothoc release is also the first release from Zs, a mostly-instrumental very very very prog band not unlike a chamber-rock version of Orthrelm, with a lineup of two drummers, two guitarists, and two saxophone players!
The first three tracks on here are total herkyjerky, typewritery, stop-start stuff, with that 'cartoon mouse tiptoeing around' kinda feel to it. All the more impressive considering how together six musicians have to be to do this. Math for math's sake. Can't call it math-rock, even, 'cause there's not a lot of rockin' going on. Guaranteed to drive certain people insane, whilst simultaneously provoking twisted delight in others (you know who you are). But, after three tracks of this maniacally hectic stuff -- culminating in the under-2-minute frenzy of "Olympics" -- they calm down quite a bit. Track four, "Mimesis", is a slow, spacious 15-minute epic of mournful jazz-drone. Real nice n' spooky. And then they follow that with an album-ending track that's even mellower and prettier and features some sorta Brian Eno-ish singing! When that's over, even if the first few tracks annoyed you, they will be long forgotten... But the proper audience for Zs is folks who are gonna like both the mathy and the mild.
