Shredding instrumental math-metal played in happy, major keys on downtuned guitars with dual (or even triple) harmonies?? Sounds good? Check. Sound familiar? Double check. If you're a fan of San Francisco's The Fucking Champs it should. But this ain't the Champs. A glance at the colorful, Aaron Turner (Isis/Hydra Head) designed packaging reveals that this is a band called Hematovore, and they're from Alabama. We guess it had to happen. The Champs had some downtime, people got antsy, and then along comes a band that sounds so much like 'em it's absolutely uncanny. Unoriginal maybe, but what the heck. If you've been eagerly waiting for a Champs VI, well, you need to get this now!! It's just what the (rock) doctor ordered.
What's weird is that according to their online bio, they've been around for, like, 13 years (just like The Champs). And no mention is made of them as an influence. So perhaps it's a case of parallel evolution, inspired by the same cool things -- Carcass, Thin Lizzy, Metallica, Maiden, technical death metal... But we doubt it. They've GOT to be really into The Champs. Though, there's a few differences. Hematovore rocks with THREE guitars and a bassist, whereas The Champs make do with two guitars (sometimes three, when the drummer isn't drumming) and no bass. And the blend of extremes, death metal on one end, indie/post-rock on the other, seems more pronounced with Hematovore. They get more hardcore METAL than the Champs do at times, but at others also more mellow and pretty.
There's almost no point in describing this further, 'cause if you're NOT already into The Champs you either wouldn't like this, or need to get some Champs cds first. But if you're a Champs fan (and why wouldn't you be??) then this is basically the new Champs album you've been wanting, just under a different name. More ear candy for Champs fans basically. So we can't help but recommend it!!
Wow! The wonderful, wonderful music of organist Merit Hemmingson combines a bunch of stuff we just simply LOVE but never heard quite like this before. The title of this "best of" collection boldly suggests as much to you too, right? Swedish Hammond Folk Groove, yeah!! We hadn't heard of her before we came across this, but now we know she made a handful of records in the '70s that brought together ancestral Swedish folk melodies, jazzy Hammond organ grooving, and some colorful psychedelic moves. Merit's Hammond is at the fore, playing her own swingin', riffin' take on these traditional tunes, but the arrangements also variously incorporate '70s funky wah-wah psych guitars, her lovely, wordless vocals, flutes and bongos and more... It's all so sunshiney and delightful, reminding us of everything from Hansson & Karlsson to Turid to The Free Design to a calmer, mellower version of Aavikko! And of course modern-day Swedish folk organ duo Sagor & Swing.
Merit's music is gentle, soulful, rhythmic -- so nice! It's total "grooving with trolls and flowers in the forest funk". Not your everyday organ jazz that's for sure, though Merit got her start in the '60s playing jazz -- she came over to the New York City to study, taking piano lessons from both Joe Zawinul and Lalo Schifrin and even getting to sit in with Miles Davis's band! But soon she went in a more pop/funk direction, and then became inspired by Scandinavia's rich history of olden folk music to create the sounds heard here.
The twenty tracks on this collection are all from albums originally released between 1971-1977 (Huvva, Trollskog, Bergtagen, Balsam, and Hoven Droven) except for a couple of recently-recorded tracks at the disc's end done in a similar style, featuring as sidemen members of currently happenin' Swedish retro-leaning rock bands (and big Merit fans) Dungen and The Ark! That's right, while obscure for years even in Sweden, she's undergone a bit of a hipster rediscovery lately and in fact this disc (the first time on cd for most of this music) is the prelude to a new album due out this year.
Queen Of Swedish Hammond Folk Groove is a nicely deluxe package, in a slipcovered jewelcase with a thick booklet full of photos, liner notes in both English and Swedish, and Merit's own track-by-track commentary. We had to go to a bit of trouble to import these from Sweden, but it was worth it!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The return of everybody's favorite imaginary rock couple, Henry & Glenn, as in Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig, and more tales of the forbidden love that dare not speak it's name. Yep, just like the first issue, Henry & Glenn imagines a better world, where the forbidden gay love these two don't actually share (or do they?) is real, and they live together in a house with a partially finished sacrificial altar in the front yard, their next door neighbors the Satan worshipping duo Hall & Oates, and we are given a glimpse into H&G's daily lives, where we observe Henry as the responsible one, the one who does the housework and pays the bills, and worries what the city thinks about the above mentioned unfinished altar in the yard, while Glenn is the dreamer, the one always full of crazy ideas, oblivious to poor Henry and his desire for more. It's all pretty irreverent, and pretty gosh dang hilarious. And this time around, original artists Igloo Tornado (which includes aQ pal Tom Neely) bring in some guests, most notably, Ed Luce, who longtime readers of the aQ list will no doubt know as the man behind the awesome Wuvable Oaf comic, who here imagines H&G in couples therapy, which of course includes guest cameos from Kerry King of Slayer, Ian Mackaye of Fugazi and of course a demon kitty.
Neel does a cool back cover color comic, which features a striking likeness J Bennett of Decibel (and Ides Of Gemini), who bums out Glenn by showing him the original H&G - which is apparently (maybe) a true story? Benjamin Marra pit our couple against Leta Fjord and Hall And Oates get in on the demonic action. And the opening comic is mostly just a hilarious build up for a distinctly Danzig punchline, and of course there's more more more.
One of our favorite comics for sure, and as always, leaves us wanting to know what could happen next in the lives of our heroes, Henry & Glenn...
First there was Henry & Glenn Forever, then the sequel Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, and now the saga continues! Comix about these two muscular manly man punk rock icons, as a loving gay couple - brilliant, hilarious concept! Some of the major contributors this issue include Tom Neely, Mark Rudolph, and Josh Bayer, their Henry & Glenn strips all getting pretty fantastical - and funny - in illustrating the titular duo's hypothetical romantic dynamic, with probably more of the laughs at Glenn's expense 'cause, y'know, of course - and the real-life Henry has stated that he thinks Glenn "would not be amused", as for Henry, well, we saw an interview where he said he's autographed copies of the comic for people but has never actually looked inside, which seems kinda weird too, doesn't it?
Neely's strip continues exploring Glenn's "Mother" issues, Rudolph's shows how Glenn does the household chores (and includes a cameo from Hall & Oates, H&G's uber friendly, Satan worshipping neighbors!!), Bayer's delves into bromantic existential angst in an epic way - and besides being funny, these comix end up being surprisingly sweet and heartwarming, too. Gotta love it!!
Color cover, b&w interior, 32 pages.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
"Western Culture" was the final recording of Henry Cow and the end result of a tumultuous two year period of tour mishaps, line-up changes and general hardship amongst the group's many members. Formed in 1968, this legendary English group (which takes its name
Besides having an awesomely demented band name (who the hell is Henry Fiat?) Henry Fiat's Open Sore are so smoking hot and so ultra kick ass, it's amazing we're only now discovering them. I was going to describe them as the Hives meet the Mentors, which I still think is pretty apt, although the rest of the AQ staffers hear more straight ahead punk rock a la the Ramones. But if you're into that hypercharged Swedish guitar sound, this will definitely be right up your alley. Dressed in tattered mod suits and heads wrapped in black bandages, they look like the Mummies' scary older brothers. But no retro lo-fi garage rock here. This is fierce and furious, ass kicking 3 chord, bounce up and down punk rock and roll!
One of the more amazing curios of the late sixties folk-rock era, this sole record by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester is a strange and heady amalgam of baroque pomp-rock, lilting folk-pop and experimental electronic weirdness. Henske is best known for a series of early folk-revival albums on Elektra, that featured her howling blues vocals and cabaret like wit. Yester, best known as a producer from an assorted array of folk and psychedelic bands including The Association, The Loving Spoonful, Tim Buckley (and more recently No Neck Blues Band!), made his debut as a musical artist and singer on this record. Originally released on Frank Zappa's Straight label (like those Alice Cooper albums we made Records Of The Week last time!), the album never did real well, but has always remained a cult treasure due to its genre-defying song styles and early psychedelic synthesizer experiments on the title track. Written in the voice of a dying star, Henske utilized an early vocoder device for the vocal tracks which also features Moogs and Theremins. Although it's the only track to feature that effect, it seems to fit right in with the rest, as no two songs are quite alike. That might make it a hit and miss listen for those craving consistency, but those who like the more unpredictable corners of sixties music, this cult gem is well worth it.
Begins with a lovely string arrangement that will easily draw comparisons to recent Rachel's. Not a bad thing, but from there Her Space Holiday tracks a different much more... umm, intergalactic course. Mainman Marc Bianchi (formerly of Mohinder) certainly
The debut by Hercules & Love Affair back in 2008 was an absolute game changer. Not since Daft Punk's Discovery had a dance record moved so many people into pure ecstasy. It helped usher in a new generation's appreciation of the magic that disco and house are capable of conjuring up. But most of all it transcended any genre, and became one of those records that just about any fan of good music would end up blasting nonstop.
So how do you follow up a debut as amazing as that? You take your time! No doubt Andrew Butler, the mastermind behind Hercules & Love Affair understood the kind of pressure riding on his sophomore outing, and he was smart not to rush it but instead take his time in crafting a new batch of songs. That's one of the things that often gets overlooked with Hercules & Love Affair, is that Andy Butler is an excellent songwriter. Sure he has immaculate and obscure taste in vintage disco, house, and techno but under all of that you can tell he is a student of good songs. The tracks on Blue Songs all carry an emotional weight, and it's the music that leads those emotions to moments of ecstatic release, and energizing empowerment.
A lot of the attention of the first Hercules album was due to the vocals that Antony contributed to several tracks, but he doesn't make an appearance on this outing. And in a way we're actually happy about that, not that we don't love those tracks with Antony, they were amazing, but it's nice for the world to see that Hercules can stand on their own feet and no matter who they collaborate with they are able to reach amazing heights together. This time out Kele Okereke, of Bloc Party fame lends his voice on a few of these tracks with awesome results. In recent years Kele has publicly embraced his sexuality and this seems like such the perfect vehicle to allow him to sing on dance minded tracks with a pride and freedom he's been yearning for. On other tracks Hercules members Kim Ann Foxman and Nomi take the mic with dynamic flare, and Mr. Butler sings some as well.
Blue Songs is a grower, and with each listen we get more and more into its grooves. No sophomore slump here, this is another great album!
We're happy we waited for this domestic release as it includes three bonus tracks as well as an entire extra disc of remixes of a couple songs from the album (cd version only).
We've been so excited for this one for a while! While disco has received a much deserved renaissance in the last couple years there has been a big void of anyone new really making true great disco that captures the best moments of the golden vintage days of the genre. Luckily the guy behind Hercules And Love Affair, Andy Butler, has had quite an education in the history of the last three decades of charged and soulful dance music , due to his experiences dj'ing at a leather bar in Denver, and his last several years immersed in New York's club culture. With a super talented cast around him, Butler has made one of the year's best records, for sure one of the greatest and smartest vocal driven dance records in years!
While Antony (Antony & The Johnsons) has been lending his voice to many records over the last few years, Butler uses him in such exciting ways knowing that under the usually mournful and melancholic side to his voice there was an inner dancefloor diva just ready to let loose. Antony's vocal delivery evokes a sound and spirit that is reminiscent of Sylvester and you can tell that Sylvester, Arthur Russell, Patrick Cowley, Frankie Knuckles and the heyday of the Chicago house scene all served as major inspiration to the making of this record. Along with Antony there are also great vocal contributions from Nomi (who has toured a lot with CocoRosie) and Kim Ann Foxman as well as Butler himself on a few tracks. The album is a full band affair with great horns, strings, keys and Tim Goldsworthy (DFA) production and drum programming all merging together for such a full and rich sound. Above and beyond anything, these are such well crafted songs that aren't just winks to the past but instead carry the torch for impassioned and joyful sounds well into the future, keeping your body moving and your spirit raised high. Highly recommended!
Our good customer and friend Daniel Coffeen loves this album so much we invited him to write about it. Take it away, D...
Compared to HATFYR's last record, Shock and Struts, Felt is streamlined, restrained, clean. But then again, these are the facts you requested and as is their nature, they deliver the goods with a stylistic excess. The result is that Felt is at once understated and deluxe, careful and daring, contrived and pathetic. As usual, the band moves through the breadth of pop music. But unlike say, Ween (a certain influence), The Facts don't quote genres: they metabolize them. The result is that while listeners may hear strains of Prince or Bongwater or Flaming Lips these same listeners will always here The Facts: songs that are round and luscious, happy and crafty, clever and sprawling, a grab bag of boys, girls, guitars, trumpets, beats, harmonies, samples, and strumming. Three different songwriters and four different singers take turns showing off -- from the Prince-laden Peas to the bubbilicious stereophonic Tulip to the boy ballad, Remember, this record covers a lot of territory. It's inspiring to hear an album that offers so much -- and that's downright joyous to boot. Like the best pop music, Felt is complex, odd, familiar and unfamiliar, embedded in pop tradition and utterly and thoroughly itself. And as is usually the case with such music, it takes some time, some patience, precisely because it proffers the new. Listen well to this record and you will be felt. Check out "Tulip" and the truly exquisite, crafty "Homebody".
The Bay Area's Here Here make willowy indie rock graced by accordion and strings. Makes a nice counterpart to their emotive yelpy male vocals which are at times akin to Arcade Fire, and at other Modest Mouse. Many of the songs on The Boy With An Orange fit in well alongside both of those bands, but also give a healthy nod to Brian Eno's Here Come The Warm Jets on songs such as "A Place To Find".
The band-not-person named Herman Dune is back, with their second release for US uber-indie Shrimper. From Sweden by way of France, Herman Dune's sound is part Velvet Underground, part Palace, part Mountain Goats, maybe even part Neutral Milk Hotel. The plaintive melancholia of their prior Shrimper album (and the in-between import "Switzerland Heritage") harbored much subversive, subtle humor. Dark humor. This time, the Herman Dune boys can be just as sad -- minor key guitar chords, doleful tempos, wavery vocals, heartbreak lyrics -- but at moments on this album do now get positively lighthearted. That's nice for them, but it makes some of this sound goofy -- the worst offender being "The Monkey Song", which we'll blame on the guests who helped write it. But they make up for that lapse into indie-jokester rock (which admittedly some will enjoy anyway) with the sheer melodic misery of songs like "Why Would That Hurt? (If You Never Loved Me)" -- featuring guest vocals from Julie Doiron, and a positively Faust-ian drum beat -- and "Taking Taxis In Winter Clothes" among others. So, definitely more hits than misses on here, if you're into the sort of ramshackle sad slacker-folk sound the Dune dudes purvey!
Herman Dune is a band, not a person, consisting of two Swedish brothers named David-Ivar Herman Dune and Andre Herman Dune, plus a drummer named Neman. We really liked the "They Go to the Woods" cd they released last year on Shrimper. It was a dark, but
A band, not a person. Herman Dune is a Swedish trio (2 brothers and a non-brother drummer) living in France, and making a pleasant, lo-fi indie-pop sorta mellow racket with a certain melancholy charm. They claim the ever-popular Velvets and Can as influences, although that's not any more obvious than with anyone else."Woozy" does apply, however. The vocals sound a bit like
Wow, when we reviewed those two J.P. Massiera Psychoses compilations, a couple of years back, we somehow assumed that this eccentric French producer recorded so prolifically under so many monikers that many of the groups (especially the space disco ones) were probably just single releases and not complete full length albums. Well, the Mucho Gusto label has proven us wrong once again, by reissuing the full length albums of both Venus Gang and Herman's Rocket, two of the zaniest freakout space disco-funk outfits that Massiera ever created. Commissioned in 1977 and 1978 by an Italian producer to jump on the European Space Disco craze, Massiera teamed up with his half-brother, Bernard Torelli and the singers Mickey and Joyce to create these two amazing groups. Amazing also in the sense that while he used what is basically a cookie-cutter disco template (he blatantly borrows lots from American funk and disco - but really who didn't? And at least he borrows well!), he managed to create such a crazy, unique sound with lots of Moogs, strange vocal effects and lots of spacey noises and sounds. Considered too crazy at the time for marketable appeal (check out the great covers!), both records have gained a cult following over the years and sound so good right now especially with all the modern throwbacks of Italo-disco trying to sound like this, these two groups are by far way freakier and so worth your time. We're curious if all of Massiera's disco incarnations released full length albums, and if we'll be soon gifted with reissues of The Human Egg, Sex Convention and The Starlights too. Here's hoping!
Both albums were only reissued on vinyl, not on cd, but do come with mp3 download cards!
We reviewed a record from local garage pop indie rockers the Herms way back in 2006, and if memory serves, we did dig it, but Castle Face head honcho and Oh Sees mainman John Dwyer insisted we forget all about that old record, and revel in this new one, which is not actually a proper record so much as a collection of demos and outtakes and unreleased rarities, but all the songs were hand picked by Dwyer, and definitely demonstrate the sort of lo-fi outsider pop what-the-fuck weirdness these guys were capable of, which wasn't really even hinted at on that way more polished record proper from back in the day. In fact, all it should take is a quick listen to the first track, the awesomely titled "Power Joystick", which sounds like some alternate universe Kinks, with way more bass buzz, some trippy psychedelic keyboard noodling, everything just a bit detuned, maybe recorded on a boombox, and with a totally unexpected midsong burst of blown out super distorted baroque pop majesty, before lurching right back into more of their noisy, jangly, wobbly Velvets-y groove. Fuck, so good. We had to listen to that track 5 or 6 times before letting it play any further. And if you dig that first one, pretty much all of Drop Out Vol. 1 is gonna push all the same buttons. "The Organisation" sounds like some weird archival track from the sixties, replete with dramatic spoken word vox, over warbly whirring organ, crunchy trebly jangle and simple drum pound. "Volleyball" ups the fidelity a bit, hinting at the band's more polished potential, but it all still sounds just a bit off kilter, the mix kind of just slightly wrong, the vox down in the mix, the keyboard melodies WAY up front. Hooky, and fuzzy, and jangly, and pretty much a perfect fit on Castle Face. Fans of Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, the Mallard, Bare Wires, and of course Thee Oh Sees will definitely dig. We're also reminded a bit of the idiosyncratic home brewed poppiness of Cleaners Of Venus, albeit the Herms are a bit more ramshackle and garage-y. For every moment of classic garage pop jangle, or fuzzy hooky indie pop crunch, there's some twisted, almost avant sounding blast of fractured art rock to balance it out, or sometimes completely cancel it out, often in the same song. A new (old) aQ fave for sure!
Whoa, this is such an amazingly eclectic album, Record Machine is indeed like The Herms' own version of a jukebox. Put it on for a spin and you'll get all shapes and sizes and shades of pop that draw inspiration from each of the past four decades of music. In turn they recall The B-52s' "Rock Lobster" camp, Robyn Hitchcock's engaging cryptic eccentricities, The Kinks' wry pop snap, The Fall's angular snarkiness... and these SF fellas do it all exceptionally well. A super impressive debut that's positively bursting with confidence and energy.
Espers On Fire? Why not! Heron Oblivion is the new supergroup featuring former members of Comets On Fire, plus Meg Baird of Espers on vocals and drums (!), and it sounds exactly like how you would think the two groups would sound merged together: heavy, psychedelic, druggy and beautiful! We saw them open for Kurt Vile last year, and they killed! Huge squalls of acid-laden guitar fuzz that clear away for Baird's incredible vocals that transport us back to the British psych-folk of Trees and Fairport Convention. Mystical, rapturous and, did we say heavy? Recommended!
We just got the very welcome reissue of Throwing Muses' excellent University album. Prior to its original release back in 1995 and following the group's first album sans co-frontwoman Tanya Donnelly, lead singer/guitarist Kristin Hersh went it alone with her first solo album Hips And Makers. Now a dozen years later, we're graced with her eighth solo effort and it's fresh, energetic and coincidentally the most 'Muses sounding to date. Mind you, it's fancied up with strings and other embellishments that totally compliment her mostly guitar and vocal based pop tunes... y'know, things that you wouldn't necessarily expect to find on a 'Muses album. Each song strikes a perfect balance of flowery and fiery. Great stuff!
Former leader of Throwing Muses.
Those who have continued to follow Hersh thru her lengthy career post-Throwing Muses will already know that the beautiful ferocity of the Muses is completely gone, replaced by a more delicate and mature take on songwriting (read: we have to pay attention to the
Perhaps Kristin Hersh's most subdued and spartan work to date. Threadbare emotions are conveyed via fragile voice and a loosely woven shawl of hushed guitars, piano and strings. She's joined by the solid presence of Howe Gelb of Giant Sand and Squirrel Nut Zipper Andrew Bird. Very intimate and lovely. For more of Ms Hersh, check out the new Throwing Muses' release - yes, they're back together! - which came out right at the same time as this solo full length. It stands in stark contrast to this work (for one thing it's completely amped up as opposed to this being fully acoustic), and together they make for a wonderfully well-rounded and enveloping Hersh experience.
Psst... by the way, to save you from the puzzlesome search, we'll slip you the tip that The Grotto's song titles are printed on the digipak's spine. Cup finally spotted them after much scrutinizing.
We made the last record from these Ohio noise poppers our Record Of The Week, and that one, Cartoon Violence, was the perfect mix of classic nineties indie rock, and the sort of hook heavy noise pop we can't even seem to get enough of, and seems like lots of you agreed cuz we could barely keep that one in stock. So we were of course super psyched to discover there was in fact a brand new record, and this is it, Boys. While it does have loads in common with Cartoon Violence, it's also different enough, and enough of a progression to make it both familiar, and super exciting and adventurous. The sound is noisier, and grittier, the production too, the whole thing sounds heavier, a bit more punk, but not in any way that disguises the pop geniuses these guys are, and with every listen we're more and more convinced that that's just what they are. Opener "Full Stick" is 100 seconds of impossibly catchy fuzz drenched bash and pound, with a sing along chorus that any other pop band would kill for. And from there on out, it never lets up. Every track here crazy catchy, lurching from fuzzy jangle, to blown out noise pop heaviness and back again, the guitars are thick and distorted, just listen to "Alcoholics", dig the jangly verses, and then let that super guitar heavy chorus get your pop head banging. It's tough to balance poppiness and heaviness so deftly, but these guys do it like it's nothing, the songs sound just loose enough to feel like that band that plays at the bar down the street from your house, the one you're convinced would be huge if just the right people heard them, and that's pretty much how we feel about these guys, why the fuck are they not MASSIVE. Like the Ovens, another pop fave, this band is so much better than so many of the other groups that get hyped to high heaven, so all we can do is hype the shit out of it ourselves and hope it gets into the right ears. Although really, the right ears are YOURS, cuz if you dig noisy, catchy, heavy pop, fuzzed out jangle, silly, sardonic lyrics, and sing along choruses that should be all over the radio (speaking of which, check out the Weezer like synth solo on "Publishing"!), this is so up your alley. But for now, like so many other amazing insanely talented bands we love, these guys will just remain our little secret, but it's one of those secrets we'd be so happy to NOT keep. Here's hoping this record is THE ONE, that finally gets the rest of the world to wake up and become as obsessed with these guys as we are, cuz goddamn, this stuff is so good. For now though, they're all ours. And yours...
A weird thing happens when we're figuring out our end of year faves. Beyond the record nerd arguing about -exactly- when certain records came out, and the endless struggling of trying to whittle down our lists to a manageable amount, we also often end up with two dramatically different lists. There's the one that we post and share, which features mostly stuff we've reviewed on the New Arrivals list, lots of our Records Of The Week, etc. But there's always another one, packed with slightly stranger faves, guilty pleasures certainly, things we thought maybe aQ folks might not care so much about, records we weren't able to get for the store, or weren't able to get enough to review, but every once in a while, a record that belongs on the first, somehow ends up on the second. Which is almost what happened with this, the first we'd heard from these Ohio indie rock geniuses. It was another instance of a record that just showed up in the mail, and immediately blew us away. We were instantly hooked, even before we heard it, first off, there's the band name obviously, c'mon, how good a name is Herzog, and then the awesome album title and the cartoonishly ultraviolent cover art featuring horrified onlookers peering through the glass at what appears to be a blood splattered nursery, with two very self satisfied looking seals wielding bloody clubs! And then there's the music, the opening two track one-two punch is perhaps the catchiest, most kick ass blast of fuzzed out indie rock noise pop radness that we've heard in FOREVER. So the pop nerds around here began listening to the record like crazy, as in ALL the time, and for whatever reason, it just didn't occur to us that hell, we should try to get these for the store, until someone pointed out just how obsessed we'd become. So we finally did, and after a few attempts to get in touch with the band, here it is, and right off the bat, before we go any further, just know that this is hands down, a contender for pop record of the year. Maybe even top spot on the year end top ten list, regardless of genre, certainly if you base it on how much we've listened to it. Anyone out there in aQ land who's been digging other recent aQ faves like Mrs. Magician, the Ovens, Violent Change, Telekinesis, etc. But really, Herzog sound like a band out of time, think of your favorite indie rock bands from back in the day, Weezer, Pavement, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., the whole record oozes with that classic sound. And while ANY band can fake the sound, no bands can fake the songs, and the songs here are SO crazy catchy, fuzzy, crunchy, hook filled, with super funny lyrics, killer choruses, weird arrangements, all wound up into pretty much perfect jangle rock noise pop jams.
Just give a listen to opener "Fuck This Year", with its cool busy / frantic super dynamic stop/start verse, the awesome lyrics, the super catchy slithery guitar melody, the chorus that will stick in your head only slightly more than the verse, there's warm chiming harmonics, the sound lush and layered, hell, there's even some cowbell in there, and it rules! And as if the song wasn't catchy enough, near the end the band toss in a whole other part, that's somehow even catchier than the song proper. The second part of the aforementioned one-two punch is just as good, with it's slow build opening, and weirdly syncopated verses, wreathed in tangly spidery guitars, some cool crunchy riffage, and again, super memorable vocals, and impossibly hooky melodies, and then after some soaring falsetto vox, and some shredding noise guitar, they do the same thing here too, tossing in a part right near the end, two parts in fact, that are SO crazy catchy, any other band would have turned them into their own songs. But instead, it's just a barrage of constant catchiness that we can guarantee, doesn't lose anything, even after literally hundreds of listens.
And while we could go song by song, we'll just nerd out over one other one, the awesomely titled "Rich People Ballad", which sounds again like it was transported here from 1995, with its crunchy super distorted J Mascis style guitar shredding, its lilting moody indie rock brood, not to mention, yet another classic pop chorus, super heavy guitars, wild drumming, the sort of song you might have expected to hear from Weezer circa the blue record, and yeah, it's that good. And these three songs have gotten so much play, we barely made it to the rest of the record, but there's so much more good stuff lurking further in. "You Clean Up Nice" threatens to give those first three a run for their money, with its flanged riffage, and classic pop hook-age, then there's "Dreaming Man II" which slows things down, even adds harmonica (!!) for something a bit more swoonsome and twang flecked, heck there's even some shimmery slide guitar too, and then comes "Feedback", which is all quirky organ driven garage rock, but peppered with cool oddball pop moments, sounding almost baroque at times, and laced with some seriously heavy noise pop blowouts throughout. There a few more seriously rocking noise pop blowouts... plus throughout, Beach Boys like vocals, Beatle-esque harmonies, and on one track a little Camper Van Beethoven (!), all get woven into the mix... Every song here a gem, worth it alone already for those first four for sure, but really Cartoon Violence is truly one of those rare pop records that really is all killer and no filler, AT ALL.
So totally essential... Indie rock / noise pop nirvana! And for some of us here (Andee in particular), this has been almost the only thing that gets listened to literally every day, for going on six months now... Which is obviously about the highest recommendation we can give...
The jackets are really nice too, the aforementioned amazing artwork with some super cool (and subtle) metallic ink printing, and includes a download code too!
Another missive from the wilds of foresty Finland, this time two of our favorites team up, we think, for maybe the first time ever. Jan Anderzen, he of Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Islaja, Tomutonttu and Anaksimandros (phew!), and Hirvonen, he of the mighty and mysterious Uton (who have a new lp reviewed elsewhere on this list) together, as Hevoset.
Between the two of them, these guys have probably released 50 or 60 records all told. maybe even more, and they definitely have similar methodologies, but each has their own distinct take on music making, mixing folk and free noise and ambience and drone, so it makes sense that the two would be drawn to each other, and the results are quite fantastic, infusing elements of both artists' various groups into something new, yet oddly familiar.
The vibe here is definitely more drone-heavy, the tracks all seem rooted around various long tones, lots of layers, plenty of looped repetition. The opener begins with a scalding burst of grinding buzz and squealing feedback, what sounds like processed throat singing and strange keening high end tones, before slipping effortlessly into a murky lullaby, all muted plunks and shimmery whir, before wheezing high end melodies surface from below. The next track again roots itself in the drone, but this time, it's more washed out and dreamy, organs wheeze and whir, the melodies looping and overlapping, while over the top, a guitar feeds back and grinds out a strange burnished melody. A few tracks eschew the drone all together, instead, offering up strange tribal rituals, simple percussion, mewling wordless vocals, haunting abstract guitar groan and skree, others are super minimal stretches of shimmering tones, and woozy plucked strings, spread out into drifting amorphous soundscapes, while others sound like symphonies of scratched records, blurred and smeared into something much less distinct, but even those tracks take those disparate sounds and ground them in a loose drone framework, creating a surprisingly varied, but quite cohesive, and imminently mesmerizing collection of abstract drone divinity.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!!
Aaaaaarrrggghh!!! Total grindcore brutality here from these heavy Chicago-area punks. These guys originally formed when the guitarist of fellow Chicago-area power-violence kings Kung Fu Rick decided to give the drums a go, forming this band after playing for only a few months -- fairly mind-blowing once you hear his speed and intensity. This guy is seriously one of the fastest blasting drummers around. The band compliments him with a crushingly heavy sound, especially in the impossibly detuned bass riffs. The same smart-ass sense of humor evident in such neighboring bands as 7000 Dying Rats and Charles Bronson pervades just about every inch of what Hewhocorrupts does as well, from the lay-out to their (often nude) photos to such song titles as "I've Got Two Words for You and They Aren't Happy Birthday" and "I'll Give You a Candy Bar if You Get the Fuck Out of My Face" and "Young Boy Attacked By Bees (Boy Is Allergic To Bees)". This is a nearly complete discography (their self-titled LP on 625 Records is omitted for some reason) of early EPs, including their hilarious full-on assault on Metallica -- the "Master of Profits" EP with songs like "Sell 'Em All", "One Million Dollars", and "Ride the Limo", plus splits with Wilbur Cobb, Third Degree, Tusk (yes, the members-of-Pelican Tusk), Godstomper, Infestation of Ass, Don't Worry About It, comp tracks, live stuff, remixes, their first demo when they were called Optimus Prime and even a surprisingly faithful cover of "Welcome to the Jungle"! All in all, a must hear for fans of Pig Destroyer, Capitalist Casualties, any of the above hardcore bands and people who appreciate short fast funny bursts of controlled chaos.
Record number two from these Virgina heavies, who kicked our asses with their Omen Mas debut. And this new one is just as good, if not even better. The core sound is still the same, thick, dense churning guitars, frenzied mathed out super complex drumming, thick sinewy bass, and cool howled/crooned vox, hell if this had been Omen Mas Mark II, we would have been perfectly happy, but from the first track it seems like these guys got a whole lot poppier. Or catchier, or both. For all the gnarled guitarnoise and noise rock grind of opener "Chub", it's also got a killer main melody, and a hook most pop bands wouldn't be able to pull off. And it's all the better for the fact that it's delivered wrapped in face melting noise rock crush. But don't panic, Hex Machine haven't gone soft. The second track opens with a barrage of double kick driven math rock noise, that's as heavy as anything on the last record, but then bam, in come the vocals, and goddamn if it ain't crazy catchy again.
Seems like maybe these guys just unlocked the secret code. It's a tough thing to pull off, being super heavy, super noisy AND super catchy, in fact most bands who try to pull it off fail miserably. We don't need to tell you about the bands that DID pull it off (Torche, anybody?), but you can now add these guys to that elite pantheon of hook heavy heavies. And while there's plenty here that is absolutely and intentionally NOT poppy, the band seem to fall into it sort of naturally now, with even the noisiest, gnarliest, heaviest jams here displaying some serious hookage, even (and especially) warped weird unexpected catchiness which is the best kind, and the sort of thing most bands luck out and stumble on, but seems like something these guys just do. A Lot.
Anyone into noise rock new or old, catchy or brutal, mathy or dirgey, heavy and hooky, if you've yet to discover these guys, this record is gonna kick the living shit out of you, and you're gonna love every second of it.
This was a nice surprise, just showed up in the mail one day, and knocked our fucking socks off. These Richmond Virginia noisemakers kick out the face melting, head spinning jams, equal parts gnarled Voivod-ish math metal and grunge infused Amrep style noise rock, the guitars chug and howl and churn, the drums pound, the vocals are all over the place. From howled feral shriek, to punk yelp, to weirdly melodic croon, all wound up into killer, sprawling, epic SONGS. Catchy, tangly, dense, and so heavy.
From pounding midtempo dirges, all Jesus Lizard swagger and lurching Ved Buens Ende lope, to chugging nineties style post rock math metal, the Voivod-ness on tracks like "Lunatic Sun" are undeniable, but they're all tangled up with more modern noise rock like Young Widows or Daughters, a sound at once familiar and retro, but forward looking and utterly headbangable.
"Black Skeleton" opens with a flurry of tangled riffage and chaotic drumming, before locking into a stuttery groove, the vocals wound around the constantly shifting arrangement, and somehow, while all this weirdness and complexity is going on, it manages to be CRAZY catchy and super rocking.
"Godheads Full Of Candy", the 8+ minute centerpiece of the record, unfurls a weird, lumbering, almost Godflesh sounding industrial dirge, with some cool gnarled chug, flurries of double kick, clouds of tripped out processed guitar, eventually launching into some twisted, super mathy angularity, and for the rest of the track, flitting back and forth between the two, with some surprisingly melodic vocals, and yet another bunch of weirdly irresistible hooks.
The second half of the record, sounds weirdly way poppier than the first, to these ears, which is in no way a bad thing, hints of Bleach era Nirvana for sure, especially on record closer "Vivisection", as well as OLD Queens Of The Stoneage, but all twisted up with plenty of the aforementioned noise and math, the result a killer collection of convoluted pop flecked mathy and metallic, noise rock bliss, that we find ourselves unable to stop listening to...
Member of Hella, Who's Your Favorite Son God and Prints goin' percussion crazy here on this DIY slab of weirdness.
For past releases from this UK noise rock combo, we've employed descriptors like: head caving, throbbing, distorted, bad trip psychedelia, fuzz-distorted metallic, rhythmic heaviness, sheer nihilistic sludge, bludgeoning... you get the point, these guys are sonic crushers of the highest order. Or maybe WERE. Cuz this new lp displays a whole 'nother side to Hey Colossus, one that falls much closer to the psychedelic space rock side of the sonic spectrum.
The record opens with a super psychedelic groove, sorta space-kraut, chordal synth swirls wrapped in clouds of shimmer FX and laced with streaks of feedback, total hypno rock bliss out, that is until the vocals come in. Growly and demonic and raspy and intense, removed from HC's normally noisier sound, those voKILLS take on a much more sinister vibe, and make for a weird combo, mad man ranting over otherwise tranced out psychedelic mesmer, but it works. And those clouds of effects bleed right into the next track, all tribal drumming and spidery guitar melodies, and yup, those crazed vocals, the whole thing building to something much more noisy and rocking, but only briefly, before slipping back into a sort of proggy space kraut psychedelia. Minus those vocals (heck, even with 'em!), the sound falls somewhere closer to outfits like White hills, Mugstar and Carlton Melton, which is not a bad thing at al, just maybe a bit surprising.
The B side though is a bit sludgier and heavier, with thick, almost metallic riffing, but still, kinda space-y and proggy, those swirling FX from the A side still all over the places, the B side remaining pretty dark and heavy, at least until the weird, almost croony, countryish outro, which adds dusky twang, to the broody space-y drift, and of course those vox!
Cool weird stuff. Hey Colossus fans will probably still dig, but so might space/psych rock fans this time around.
London's heaviest, most hypnotic head-cavers, Hey Colossus, have found a home for their third album on the Riot Season label, who have previously brought us noize from the likes of Mainliner, Shit and Shine, and Aufgehoben. Heck, the label's logo features a trio of tanks, so of course Hey Colossus is a good match for their aesthetic. Being so brutally heavy and all, tank-like basically.
Happy Birthday (ironic title we guess, this is about as far from "Happy Birthday" the song as you can get) sees Hey Colossus doing what they do best: throbbing, distorted, kill 'em all action. Uber heavy, totally bad trip psychedelic. From the feedback intro of opening track "War Crows" and the rasping, ranting throat abuse that follows amidst pulsating, amped up electric murk, this Hey Colossus album destroys like a more rockin' version of Khanate... the Khanate comparison even more apropos on the next track, the more slowly thudding "Tight Collar". Part metal, part punk, part psych... what to call it? Ugly rawk doom drone maybe? With wailing Hawkwindy ampfriedification n' FX, heading into tortured dead zones of sheer nihilistic sludge, Hey Colossus fits in with such faves as Indian, Brainbombs, Unsane, Cadaver In Drag, godheadSilo, Pissed Jeans, Vincent Black Shadow, Cavity, Rusted Shut... and those other Riot Season acts mentioned at the beginning of this review. In other words, glorious stuff for those so inclined (like us!), pulling the listener who dares inexorably into its extreme vortex.
There's eight tracks here, 46+ minutes of the Hey Colossus experience, which threatens to run itself (and you) off the rails into total insanity as it rocks and rumbles on. Can't pick fave tracks really, they're all pretty badass, but the driving uptempo umph of the waveringly blown-out "Fire Up The Tambourine" is certainly quite wicked. Even more out there, "Permanent Vacation" parts 1 and 2 is full of bottom-of-the-abyss, buried alive vocals in a shitstorm of droning distortion... And how can we not like a track, especially a pounding, noisy, rhythmic near-13 minute epic, that's called "Overlord Rapture In Vines Part 2"?? It's the psycho-delic explosion that ends this album appropriately apocalyptically. Happy fuckin' birthday indeed.
Throbbing, fuzz-distorted, metallic, rhythmic HEAVINESS. Loud too, of course. That's the modus operandi of London, England's oddly named Hey Colossus. Bludgeoning, repetitive riffing, with lotsa wonderful noisiness and modicum of hidden post-rock prettiness, that can definitely put you into a dazed and confused, headbanging trance, the same way our Finnish faves Circle/Pharaoh Overlord can and so often do, right? Described somewhere by somebody as a mix of "Fudge Tunnel and Can" (yes, the grungy UK dirge metallers meet the classic krautrock masters), Hey Colossus themselves would probably admit to sounding more like the former, but legitimately reference such bands as Can and Neu! as influences, along with '80s hardcore and psychedelic stoner rock and more... So while it might be hard to hear beneath the THREE bulldozer guitars, and droning feedback, and cathartic, raw-throat screaming, but a krautrock-inspired 'pulse' is kicking your ass too!
If you don't remember Fudge Tunnel (a good band despite their dodgy name, rather like Hey Colossus) we'd also cite the likes of Zeni Geva, Melvins, Isis, godheadSilo, Shellac, Figure Of Merit, and the aforementioned Pharaoh Overlord as diverse batch of comparisons towards the primarily sludgey aspect of HC's sound.
It's the return of British sludge bludgeoners Hey Colossus, whose prior releases, including a split LP with Japanese doomsters Dot [.], we've recommended. Rhythmic and rumbling, this band plays a heavy hybrid of noisy punk and post rock, clearly conversant with both the unlikely extremes of krautrock and death metal. On Project: Death, the influence of the latter results in parts of such tracks as "On The Pleasure Of Hating" for short stretches approaching the pummelling tranciness of the Boredoms' Super Roots 3 (to reference a reissue recently reviewed). Shouting vox and down-tuned guitars also put these guys in league with such not-metal-but-even-scarier acts as Burmese and Unsane, their grinding grooves awash with an almost psychedelic level of FX (someone in the band plays nothing but Korg Kaoss Pad, apparently!). Menacing, murky, massive, murderous.
Latest batch of noise rock pummel from these UK crushers, although the first few minutes had us thinking we might have stuck the wrong disc in the player, a cool droned out slithery expanse of dense layered shimmer, of mysterious ritualistic buzz, tribal percussion, disembodied vocals, all hazy and druggy and mesmerizing, but fear not, apparently that was just the intro, as track two comes stumbling in like some downtuned AmRep avalanche, all Melvins-y stomp and swagger, with knuckle dragging drum pound, bellowed processed vox, all beneath squalls of feedback and grinding FX, and let's not forget the guitars, there are after all THREE guitar players (four if you count the bass guitar, and we DO), a thick wall of crumbling blackened slo-mo tarpit riffage, churning and roiling, some sort of sonic mad scientist channeling the Butthole Surfers and Shit And Shine, and sort of like in the movie The Fly the two are fused in some horrible laboratory mishap, but in this case, the result is fantastic, a gloriously sludgy dirgey pound, heady and hypnotic, a looped sounding chunk of metallic mesmer, which is pretty much what these guys specialize in. The rest of the record offers up variations of that theme, "The Drang" slows things down to a swampy crawl, letting synths shimmer and feedback squall beneath a sea of swirling buzz and bellowing howls, while the title track blurs everything into a stretched out sprawl of FX drenched space rock bliss out, that gradually becomes more and more metallic, more and more pounding and propulsive as the track progresses, the last half sounding a bit like the Melvins covering Hawkwind, which is no way a bad thing at all.
"Almeria, Spain" is an epic bit of post-sludge, sounding all majestic and mighty, a bit like Harvey Milk at their most melodic and bombastic, while "Warmer The Belter" gets all sensitive, acoustic guitars, some shuffling drums, dreamy melodies, and the vocals a deep dreamy croon, the whole thing underpinned by a symphony of demonic sounding effects and sinister drones, which finally gives way to the final jam, "I Am Bunga Bunga", which far from the crushing closer we were expecting pairs weird garbled vox with shimmery shuffling almost krautrock sounding thrum, which really only briefly explodes, offering up a final glimpse of these guys' crush and pummel proclivities, before slipping right back into a final minute or two of swirling effects wreathed ambience.
As always incredible stuff, and a pretty awesome document of how these guys drag their noise rock kicking and not always screaming, far beyond the boundaries that define most of their similarly sonically inclined brethren...
Hey, Hey Colossus - you're on a roll! This out-there outfit from England, unclassifiable specialists in heaviness and krautiness and spaciness and other awesome-ness, wowed us earlier this year with an eclectic album entitled In Black And Gold, and now are back already, somehow, with another groovy album full of surprises, Radio Static High. Seriously, Hey Colossus are one of those rare bands who seem like they must have secretly broken into our homes and carefully studied our record collections before going into the studio and synthesizing a sound that brings a bunch of stuff we love together in unexpected ways. Certainly some Circle, a little Harvey Milk, a bunch of krautrock, a lot of '80s UK prog & post-punk... Hey Colossus themselves claim that this album was inspired by, uh, Jane's Addiction, Fleetwood Mac (late '80s Fleetwood Mac, no less), and Cypress Hill - probably they were joking, but if true in some weird way, that's pretty cool. In any case, these ten tracks are filled with driving rhythmic pulsations, dubby psychedelic effects, new wave-y catchiness, fuzzed out riffage, post-rock moodiness, stomping distortion, and melody, yes melody - compared even to In Black And Gold, this seems to us to be the most melodic album Hey Colossus have yet made. Maybe it's the vocals, starting with the spaced-out stoner pop of the title track. Though the 'groove' here is also very, very significant, tracks like "Hop The Railings" sounding a lot like Circle. Then you've got the precision prog element, with the likes of "Snapping Undone" in the mode of Belew-era Crimson - but also sorta Circular. It's a pretty unusual & fantastic mix as far as we're concerned, even if we can't really hear the Fleetwood Mac et. al.!
Another recommended release from these guys, making us wonder, what will they come up with next (and when)?
Latest Teutonic slab of colossal crunch from these slow motion UK sludge lords, and since we've last heard them, they have appended their already odd monicker with the even more confusional "And The Van Halen Time Capsule". But don't expect any drastic changes, or anything remotely Van Halen like, right out of the gate these guys throw down hard, demonstrating again, that even though they still tend to slip beneath most folks' radar, they might be one of the best slow and low heavy bands happening these days.
A boiling cauldron of sonic black tar is upended and so begins the first track, as the black sludge oooooozes from the speakers, glacial riffage, weird looped samples, crushing 16rpm black hole drum plod, all sorts of gnarled glitchy distortion and buzz, which gives way to something weirdly dramatic, vocals clean and crooned one second, processed and garbled the next, while the music gets downright pretty, before spiraling into jagged shards of hiss and howl, the rest of the band stumbling back to a funereal crawl, and that's just the first song.
The rest of the record is a dizzying assault of midtempo noiserock pound, drugged out abstract ambience, downtuned throbbing sludge, twisted crusty dooooom, and heavy heavy drones, but it's not just the sounds, it's what these guys do with them. The riffs don't just buzz, they drip and ooze and creep, the vocals are inhuman and alien, totally disturbing, the guitars chug and churn and rumble, the songs veer from total ultra dooooom to twisted post rock lumber, to abstract hypnorock stutter, to weird epic almost chamber sounding sludge, taking something filthy and foul and making it majestic. Not sure why these guys are not HUGE, but anyone into Harvey Milk, and other practitioners of slow low crush and dense doomic dronemusic, should definitely be freaking out over these guys, and this record.
Latest eruption of doom-sludge-drone heaviness from UK kill team Hey Colossus, here teamed up with the awesomely named Dethscalator, but more on them in a second.
Hey Colossus continue to expand their epic dirge space rock, with three sprawling slow-jams, that oozes from slow burning drones, to lurching stumbling blackened crush, to metallic krautrock and back again, rumbling drones erupt into looped sounding riff heavy sludge workouts, the vocals a hellish bellow, feedback swirling all over the place, the band a beast, a lumbering sonic juggernaut, downtuned and crushing, but spaced out and psychedelic too. Folks into Shit And Shine might want to give these guys a try, the same sort of noise drenched fucked up mantra like mesmerizing heaviness. Amidst all that heaviness, the band do unwind into hypnotic post/space rock jams, simple and rhythmic, under a haze of murky buzz and jagged skree, but seem to eventually explode into either a squall of melting lysergic effects drenched freakout, or pounding black murk slow motion metal crush. We dig it either way!
Which brings us to Dethscalator, who we liked already, cuz, well, they're called Dethscalator, we're like that. Thankfully the sound lives up to the name, a gnarled blend of Gore like repetitive heaviness, and lo-slung Jesus Lizard like noise rock, the vocals especially, a dead ringer for David Yow, all scowly and sort of sung / spoken, and super distorted, with the band swinging all downtuned and seasick, until they lock into bursts of cyclical riffage, that sound almost looped, occasionally lifting off into some serious space rock territory, before falling back into another stretch of woozy metallic noise rock, culminating in the weird brooding noise rock slowjam that ends the record, murky and washed out and gloomy, weirdly melodic and super dark and creepy. Rad rad rad. Definitely need more Dethscalator in our lives, and heck more Hey Colossus while we're at it!
Features some awesomely fucked up and garish (and badly photoshopped) cover art, one eyed creep and headless biker anyone??
Hey Mercedes has almost everything down pat to be as good of an emo / power-pop band as the Get Up Kids, Jawbreaker, or Rival Schools, but it seems that Bob Nunna doesn't really love the girl he's singing to in all of his songs. He doesn't really want to
It's taken quite a while for local boys Hey Willpower to have their debut full length come out here in the states. But finally it has arrived, and the party jams are a plenty. The mastermind of Will Schwartz, also of Imperial Teen with most of the music and beats created by Tomo Yasuda from Tussle & Coconut. Hey Willpower have really perfected their live show over the years with impeccable and endearing dance moves and a stage presence that's as sassy as it is sincere. P.D.A. has a couple tracks re-recorded from their debut ep as well as nine brand new songs that tap into their feel good take at unadulterated dance minded pop that lands somewhere between the Junior Boys and Justin Timberlake.
Hip party kids around town have been droolin' for this one for months! Yup, sliding in beside their old Stacy Q and Kylie records, it's the debut release from local candy electro partymeisters Will Schwartz (formerly of Imperial Teen) and Tomo Yasuda (formerly of The Boy Explodes). In response to those naysayers who've been expecting to find irony amid the cheese (we mean that nicely!), Schwartz has proclaimed emphatically that their '80s dance pop love is true... and yes, unlike many music-makin' kids these days whom you know weren't even born when that music was first made, Schwartz is indeed old enough to have experienced it first hand. These cats genuinely adore the most fluffiest and shiniest sounds -- ones that many folks perhaps would've preferred be kept in the past. They along with their pair of dancers have dusted them off and brought them back to their basement discotheque hideaway, along with their shiny rainbow patches and gold sequined skirt 'n' pumps set (except for Schwartz who's opted for the shirtless beefcake pose!). They've offered up just four songs to get the good times rolling, but they've loaded 'em up with fun fun fun! Actually that might be all you can take in one dose before succumbing to sugar-shock. HW partner in crime Yasuda has programmed up a remarkable replication of that decade's lip-glossy backing tracks, while Schwartz has come up with an avalanche of coy, naughty lyrical cliches such as those that pepper the giddy second track "Magic Window". "I play you like a baby grand, I feel you melting in my hands" and "I can make you scream, I'm better than a Krispy Kreme" and "Come to the party in my pants!" Oh my!
While Architectural Failures may be the first release from Brooklyn, NY quartet Hi Red Center they have been making quite a footprint live, having played with the likes of Deerhoof, Cheval De Frise and USAISAMONSTER. Like these contemporaries, Hi Red Center are masters of wedding rock hooks with avant-jazz & prog structures/harmonies. Although only a mere four person line-up Hi Red Center creates a big and varied sound through their battery of instrumentation which includes guitar, trombone, vibes, drums, electronics and vocals.
Planet Pimp's Sven loves 'em and so does BAM. What does this tell you.
The problem with a split lp featuring two bands who are somewhat unfamiliar, when there is no specific info on the record labels or cut into the grooves on the vinyl, is deciding which band is which, going on number of track (here both bands have three), instrumentation (HGP list no instruments, Zond have a guy credited with skateboard, which seemed like it would be a dead giveaway but sadly we could hear no skateboard), but then, usually we decide fuck it. It doesn't really matter until you decide you need more by either / both bands, which unfortunately (or fortunately!) you probably will after listening to this twisted slab of sonic weirdness.
We'll tackle the B side cuz that's what we threw on first, and we'll assume that this is actually Zond, who we have never heard before, but are digging BIG TIME. Super distorted and blown out, sludgey dirgey noise rock, howled vocals barely audible over the din of downtuned riffage and in-the-red psychrock squalls, the drums a buried muffled pound, the whole thing a churning, grinding, gloriously filthy trudge. Maybe imagine a more Dead C-ish Brainbombs and you'd be close. That is until the extended final track, the eschews all the damaged outrock that came before, and offers up a stretched out expanse of buzzing shimmering ambient drone, not really tranquil, still a bit noisy, a little off kilter, the sounds bathed in distortion, wrapped in feedback, but stretched out into a weirdly hypnotic noisescape.
So working under the assumption, that the B side is Zond, then the A side must be Hi-God People, who we have heard once before on a split with none other than the Dead C, but the sound here is dramatically different, which is probably what threw us off in the first place. The first and longest track, is a sort of fractured free folk, detuned acoustic guitar twang, sitar like buzz, crooned atonal vocals, wreathed in shimmery effects, swirling clouds of wah wah guitar, strange bleepy bloopy ambience, it almost sounds like some sixties hippy jam, but completely fried and fractured. A more spaced out, free folk, No Neck, or maybe a Sunburned Hand / Avarus musical summit. Until the track slips into something a little different, unleashing more of a krautrock vibe, a subtle pulsing propulsive jam, underneath all of the twisted twang and abstract strum.
The second track is much more abstract, a tripped out buzzy dronescape with random clattery percussion, wheezing organs, swooping melodies, fluttery woodwinds, all very creepy and somewhat cinematic, finally finishing off with the brief closer, a gorgeous, hazy, druggy buzz drenched psych jam, that begs for a whole 'nother side for it to drift and unwind.
Good stuff, from both bands, whichever is which. Super limited of course, and housed in super swank hand screened sleeves!
Finally! This long in the works vinyl version of a long out of print comp gathering up pretty much everything ever recorded by late great SF punks Hickey, is available again, thanks to the folks at 1-2-3-4 Go! In fact, even if you have the cd version, this swanky vinyl version has NINE extra songs, as well as some super extravagant packaging (more on that in a second).
For those of you who were around back in the nineties, you no doubt experienced Hickey once or twice (or EVERY time), their live shows wild and loose and ramshackle, frontman Matty Luv (who passed away in 2002), the funniest fucking guy ever, whose onstage banter was brilliant and baffling, drummer Aesop, who would go on to drum for Ludicra, Agalloch and others, an animal behind the kit, never averse to leaping over the kit and into the fray if some sort of confrontation required it, the band generally wasted and fucked up and brilliantly on the verge of collapse, and the songs, punky and a little bit metallic, noisy and hooky and heavy and catchy as fuck, the lyrics hilarious, just check out some of the song titles: "Make Sure There Aren't Any Squares At My Funeral", "Hickey Is About Long Hair And Getting High", "Everything I Know About Sex I Learned From KISS", they even recorded a tribute to El Farolito, thee late night Mission burrito joint, then and now. The recording surprisingly hi-fi all things considered, and sounding better than ever here. Some of the songs pure pop perfection, others feral blasts of punk fury, most of the jams here somewhere right in between, and yeah, the quality definitely varies a bit, seeing as most of these tracks came from different sessions, from comps and singles, but the energy is through the roof, and is a glorious tribute to this awesome band, who really could have/should have been a WAY bigger deal, and it definitely speaks to a vibrant time in SF's music history, when the Mission was a fucking hotbed for weirdo punks and killer DIY rock bands, and pretty much any night of the week you could end up at some wild house party or some crazed club show or just hanging out on a corner drinking beer eating burritos and shooting the shit.
RIP MATTY LUV!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!! Packaged in a super swank full color gatefold sleeve, adorned with all the various record covers and a bunch of flyers and an old tour diary, inside is a massive booklet jammed with still more old photos and flyers, original record covers, some liner notes, there's even a Hickey patch, and a download coupon.
