There are times we think we are on top of all the really amazing Brazilian gems from the '70s, and then something rare and beautiful comes out of left field that we've never heard before, and we're totally humbled. Such is the case with this 1974 masterpiece of hazy Brazilian psychedelic folk-pop by obscure singer/songwriter Sidney Miller. In the same esteemed realm as Lo Borges, Lula Cortes, Joyce, Congregacion and Eduardo Mateo, Sidney Miller takes us through a dreamy melancholic realm full of beautiful pop hooks, soft sedated vocals and soulful jazz-funk grooves with double tracked flutes and acidy-guitar leads. Sadly, this was Sidney Miller's best and last record, as he died mysteriously in 1980 at the young age of 36. A breezy summer record with a touch of sadness for sure, one that has us dreaming of warm nights, hazy sunsets and longing for days gone by. If Nick Drake made a Brazilian record, it might sound something like this! Thanks to Sol Re Sol, who also released the fantastic Alceu Valenca lp, Molhado De Suor (elsewhere reviewed on this list), for keeping these gems from total obscurity.
Polyglot might be just the right word to describe what Robert Millis and his Climax Golden Twins have been up to for the past two decades or so. An album might be a ramshackle collage of blisterfuck noise-rock, another might be a graceful set of murder ballads, and yet another might hypnotize the listener through an alpha-state minimalism. And then, there's Millis' acclaimed collections of olde-timey '78s and raw field recordings of indigenous folk songs, much of which has been released through those tasty labels Sublime Frequencies and Dust-To-Digital. The solo work from Millis tends more toward the dronemuzik and hallucinatory collage axis of CGT's multi-headed agenda, although he has been known to strum out a sadsack blues number that might straddle the worlds of Alan Bishop and Roscoe Holcomb; but here on the impeccable new album Relief, Millis tunes in and drops out with a blearily psychedelic album of forgotten sounds, ghostly fragments, and Pacific Ocean drones. The album begins with a comedic outburst from one of Millis' 78s with a helpful direction to "hear the secret sentence played out on the talking typewriter" followed by a jaunty clatter of a manual typewriter all wrapped in scratchy-vinyl, crackling goodness. Immediately, the album delves into a swarming tone-float of harmonic overtones pecked with trilling glissandos. The source for this sound has got to be a plung - a Bangladeshi mouth-organ used specifically by the Murung peoples living deep in the rainforest, as this sound is uniquely atonal and wrigglingly eerie in its wavering notes. Millis furthers this wooziness by rarifying these sounds into the holy minimalism conjured by LaMonte Young, Angus Maclise, and company. After swimming here in these golden pools for a good five or six minutes, Millis drops the needle on a dramatic orchestral swell that would be the envy of the Caretaker's sunken ballroom recordings. A couple of hip-swaying recombinations of temple music rhythms and Les Baxter exotica glide in and out of Millis' glassy-eyed shimmeriness and post-Eno piano constellations. The album's finale is an impressionistic driftscape of languid, temple bell & gong tones stretched into a gorgeous, expansive cloud of lush harmonics giving way to a metronomic wooden rhythm that leads to a set of solitary piano notes suspended over Mariana trench diving-bell ambience. Limited to 400 copies, and comes with the requisite download code. So fucking good.
Here's one I remember reading about in one of them rare-ass record collector books and thinking, wow, I'd like to hear that. A 1970 jazz-rock improv trio from Norway, featuring the young guitarist Terje Rypdal (later an ECM staple), balanced somewhere between psych-rock and Impulse-inspired energy jazz. Well at last it's been reissued on cd (first time ever legit reish we're told) and it is indeed damn good. Rypdal makes a good claim here to being Norway's answer to Sonny Sharrock or Ray Russell, and rips it up on some soprano sax as well as electric guitar. The six tracks here range from sheer freakout implosions to calmer, groovier stuff, with bassist Bjornar Andresen's Mingus-meets-Cream composition "Champagne of Course" being a monster highlight. Definitely a jazz record more than a rock one, but quite intense and heavy and experimental and sometimes beautiful too. And it's another NWW-list entry by the way. Recommended.
Harmonium! Tape delay! Oscillator! Oh my, this is ever nice. A solo project by Peeesseye's Jaime Fennelly, the "harmoniumist", tape delayer, and oscillator operator in question (he's also responsible for assorted synth processing, and there's other sounds such as pipe organ heard on here as well), Mind Over Mirrors is already up to its fourth album (in only 3 years) with this cd and lp for Immune, following releases on such labels as Aguirre and Digitalis, that we foolishly ignored, this being the first Mind Over Mirrors we've reviewed - and once we tear ourselves away from its warm embrace, we'll have to look into those earlier outings. 'Cause the six tracks here, ranging in length from under 4 minutes to over 18, of blissfully melodic, minimalist repetition, are all quite delightful and droneful indeed. So soothing and sacred-sounding, some with gently surging rhythms, others with placid deep drones. The mystic glow emanating from this release is hard to resist. Our newest nighttime drifting off to sleep listening favorite (we should make section for that in the store - come to think of it, we did a whole in-between list about music like that once, didn't we?), and nice to put on in the morning when you wake up, too.
Includes some guest guitar from Scott Tuma of Souled American and Matt Christensen of Zelienople, btw, and also the vinyl version comes with a download, fyi.
For some reason, we always thought Mind Spiders were from Australia. They definitely have that Aussie post punk vibe, but they are in fact from Denton, Texas, and our description in our review of their last record, still pretty much applies:
"Imagine Thee Oh Sees via Gary Numan, or the Ramones if they were on Captured Tracks, or maybe even Bare Wires covering Snowy Red..."
If anything, this new one is more stripped down, more old school power pop, with swirling synths, and drum machines augmenting the group's kinetic garage pop crunch. Just check out "Suicide", which doesn't sound so much like Suicide as it does Cheap Trick or the Cars. And in fact, those two bands are pretty good reference points, although some of the record gets more buzzy and fuzzy and punk, but even at its most revved up, the songs here are still CRAZY catchy, hooks galore, these guys tossing off timeless popisms that most bands would kill for.
But the record IS kinda all over the map. "City Stuff" sounds like it was plucked from a different record, even down to the production (and volume!), with its Casio-core rhythm, wheezing synth swirl, and Wall Of Voodoo guitar, but then it slips right back into almost Ramones sounding punk stomp, still shot through with plenty of Yellow Pills power popisms, but then a song or two later, and the sound blossoms into a sort of FX heavy psychedelic space garage, a little bit Moon Duo, a little bit T-Rex, a killer slice of kraut-glam, garage-synth, fuzz pop that KILLS. And then like the last record, the band deliver the coup de grace, another record defining jam, this time around sounding like a modern fuzzed out garage rock Gary Numan, swirling and sci-fi and psychedelic and swaggery and crazy catchy to boot. Goddamn we wish we hadn't already finished our 2013 top tens, cuz had we known, you can bet this would have definitely made it, and probably been right near the top!
When we first listened to Meltdown, we found ourselves crazy obsessed with the title track, a killer slab of synth heavy drum machine driven cold wave electro, with cool squiggly Perrey And Kingsley like analog melodies over the top, the sound raw and urgent, a bit frenetic, dizzying and psychedelic and a little bit noisy too, but also atmospheric and cinematic, definitely reminding us a little of the current crop of retro-futurist synthscapers. The rest of the record, at first blush, could hardly compare, sounding more like a straight ahead garage rock. But a strange thing happened - the more we listened, it was like all the sci-fi synthy weirdness and electro-noisiness of that title track seeped into all of the others, revealing the record as something so much more, an awesomely psychedelic melange of crunchy garage punk, seventies new wave power pop, and brooding cold wave gloom pop, with some of the songs all jangly and fuzzy and garage-y, while others are more weirdly robotic and futuristic, although even the poppier jams are peppered with rad theremin like squiggly melodies and thick buzzing synths, all tangled up with super hooky classic fuzzy punky garage pop, giving them a cool retro-future-pop vibe, and making them a bit more dark and tense than your typical garage rock. Elsewhere the band craft some seriously perfect power pop, sounding like some lost Yellow Pills style B-side from the seventies, all kinetic and crunchy, big chiming jangly chords, super melodic basslines and kick ass propulsive drumming, but the strangely new wave-y vocals once again change the feel just enough to make it sound totally original (or at least as original as something so beholden to sounds past can be).
Imagine Thee Oh Sees via Gary Numan, or the Ramones if they were on Captured Tracks, or maybe even Bare Wires covering Snowy Red... this is fast becoming a new favorite.
Synth-garage psych-o-nauts return with another blast of hew wave post punk, that once again sounds a bit like a Gary Numan record on Castle Face! The songs are dense with squalls of feedback, fuzzed out distortion, swaggery garage rock pound, but are equally driven by pulsating synths, and laced with salvos of tribal drumming, and kinetic angular guitar crunch, the sound like past records very reminiscent of the golden age of Aussie post punk, the vocals the other distinctive quality, and what really gives the sound a new wave/cold wave vibe. Fans of Crystal Stilts, Total Control, Thee Oh Sees who maybe have a soft spot for Devo, the Electric Eels and the like, this should probably be your favorite band!
Wow. A quite wonderful surprise from The Minders, the two gal / one guy trio hailing from Portland, Oregon. 5 songs (plus 2 video tracks), each an individually perfect piece of classic British-Invasion-style pop a la the Kinks. Past affiliated with the underground pop collective Elephant 6 and having released one-off comp tracks and singles, and one full length, for a variety of labels, The Minders are obsessed with the past yet their music sounds totally fresh and unpretentious. From the Kinks-like opener "Young and With It" to the doleful piano-led "Time Machines", which sounds like the soundtrack to a 'twenties silent film, this is real honest to god beautifully written music you can sink your teeth into that doesn't copy the past so much as it is inspired by it. Recommended.
Of all the pop bands that've been coming more and more to people's attention in the past few years, bands that specialize in reinterpreting the proudly pop roots planted by the Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys, etc., Portland's The Minders are, in my humble opinion, head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Like the Olivia Tremor Control and Apples in Stereo, The Minders' version of toothy pop is so well-executed that what in lesser hands might get dismissed as retro pretentiousness instead seems really fresh. With female and male vocals, careful, exact instrumentation, and hooks galore, this particular Minders record reminds us of all the bands mentioned above, plus the Velvets, Big Star, and at times even T-Rex. Nice.
Sweet, strong pop very reminiscent of the Kinks and the Beatles on the wondrous Elephant 6 label, home of Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel.
3rd album (right?) from this band of Rhode Island noise dance nutters... really great, like their others, and dig that D&D module referencing/punning title!!
First an album on Bulb (last year's Take Your Skin Off), now an album on Load? Must be some trash-fi, heavy-duty freakishness... Indeed it is: it's Mindflayer, those squidheaded noisniks from Rhode Island who just wanna party! Party like it's you-know-when. The electro-noise-dance duo of Mr. Brinkmann (Mr. Brinkmann, natch) and Mr. Chippendale (Lightning Bolt) are back with another bunch of zappity zap zap for your overstimulated earholes, all pounding tin can drums, cheapass electronics, and distorted distortion distorting. Approach with caution, partygoers.
Uh oh. A Bulb release. That usually equals aggravating, though sometimes inspired, silly arty noise stuff. And that's what this is. Rhode Island's Mindflayer is named after a particularily fearsome D&D monster -- which of course earns 'em points with Allan, as long as they live up to the name, which they do! Band members Time (drums, vocals) and Space (synth, backup vocals) are pseudonyms for folks better known, respectively, as Brian Chippendale (drummer extraordinaire for the amazing Lightning Bolt), and Mr. Brinkmann (of Forcefield and, uh, Mr. Brinkmann fame).
In Mindflayer these two don squid heads (at least on the cover) and get down to some feedback-filled, uber noisy dancefloor terrorism, asking the musical question, "Are You Fucked Up?" (track six). Pounding rhythmic battery, distorted electronics and vocals...it's like a malevolent, metallic Christine 23 Onna, or early Quintron maybe. Imagine listening in on a desperate, low fi 911 phone call from a defective synthesizer held hostage by drugged out industrial rock hippies...
Yep, yet another indulgent Bulb release, but a good one -- so watch out, earholes.
MPEG Download: "Head Of State On A Plate" [/audio/mindflayerhead.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Head Of State On A Plate" [/audio/mindflayerhead.m3u]
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Emo! People have been waiting for this record for ages! Really intense but not really loud or rocking. A lot like Karate and Sunny Day Real Estate...
Maria Minerva is the latest shining star in the Not Not Fun hypnogogic pantheon, chanelling the dreamy slow disco of Nite Jewel through the breezy post-punk tropical sounds of Brenda Ray and Translucence-era Poly Styrene. It's often been a hallmark of recent artists to use the cheesier sounds of vintage synths and drum machines to get in touch with some ironic nostalgia for the recent past, and Minerva is doing her best to ward us off with some intentionally terrible cover art and font choices. But luckily the music wins us over with its warm exuberance and its blithe but mind-warping embrace. Reverb-soaked and dreamy with a slow motion submerged romanticism that is near impossible to disentangle from its gleaming charms.
Soooo darn dreamy! Imagine a not so distant Australian cousin to Brits Stereolab and Broadcast, and you might find Minimum Chip fluttering into view. We've got a bit of a soft spot for this sort of krautrock inflected pop with all of its warm deep hypnotic synth bass lines, organ-y drones, shuffling drumbeats and feathery female vocals. The dozen songs on Lady Grey are sweetly sigh-inducing.
The first Ministry album since 1999's disappointing Dark Side Of The Spoon is certainly cause for fans' celebration as it marks Al Jourgensen's return to prime form. Following years of albums that sounded like pallid imitations made by Ministry wannabes, Animositisomina sounds like the Ministry of old. Pummeling, aggressive, malevolent and huge. You may be asking (as many around here have already) why you'd want / need any more Ministry records if you already own the classics such as Land Of Rape And Honey and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste. Well, good question... but there are definitely plenty of fresh new ideas brewing in the Jourgensen camp and a kick-ass group of players to execute the mission including longtime bandmates Paul Barker, Louis Svitek, Skrew mainman Adam Grossman and drummer Rey Washam formerly of Scratch Acid who alone elevates and propels this album immensely. Ten tracks in all including a cover of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out Of Me".
Probably for diehard, longtime Ministry fanatics only! Early Trax is the very-similarly packaged companion disc to Side Trax (which we reviewed in the last AQ List). This compilation of, yes, early '80s Ministry 12" faves features multiple mixes of "Every Day Is Halloween", "All Day", Nature Of Love", and "I'm Falling", plus individual versions of "He's Angry", "Move" and "Overkill". Definitely from their more gothy, less overtly politicized, dancing-in-the-batcave days than their later times of harder living, sharp-tongued nu-metal. Recent Ministry fans might find their young synth and drum machine sound a bit too foreign and fey for their fist-pumpin' aggro taste, but for those whose black pointy toed buckle boots still lurk in their closets' shadowy depths, it's pretty great to have these tracks available once more along with four previously unreleased.
Andee's been casting aspersions on the new Ministry for a while now and our pal and Andee's former housemate Josh "Josh Rock" Gottlieb has had just about enough:
As Andee has repeatedly asked me over the last couple of years "why would I possibly need another Ministry album?", it once again falls to yours truly to point out the fallacy of his nonsensical aversion and embark on what is most likely another futile attempt to pry the scales from his ears. This is the first album since 1988 without long time cohort Paul Barker, but the machine remains intact. If anything, it's now a nastier little beast. All the Ministry hallmarks are accounted for: blistering heaviness, technical perfection, and unfathomably catchy song structures. And, of course, the production is without peer, dense and multi-layered while retaining a sharpness akin to a freshly unwrapped scalpel moving through flesh. A good chunk of the cd finds Al Jourgensen and Co. in full throttle mode, basically hardcore with huge production values. But as with anything Uncle Al touches there's always something unexpected, off kilter and just a wee bit fucked wafting above and below the surface. Witness the slide guitar that drives the bruising "Worthless," the long, whiny chorus of "Wrong" colliding headlong with the fuzzed out gargle lurking in the verses or the dozens of samples that serve as the foundation for the insanity of "WTV." It's not all about speed though and when they decide to slow down the results are majestic. "World" is a rumbling mid-tempo march which re-envisions a peace march as Nuremberg rally whereas "Worm" sprawls its nine minute frame over a simple lumbering riff buoyed by a haunting harmonica melody, dueling choruses and murky atmosphere. So good. And to top it off, this is the most virulently anti-Bush album unleashed on the masses -- reading the lyric sheet certainly helps, given Jourgensen's penchant for heavily treated and distorted vocals. Gentility is in short order here, traded for raging diatribes and a plethora of samples of George W. himself making the case for his dismissal from office. Crushing, topical, essential.
We all loved Ministry at some point or another. Whether it was the deathlike disco of "Every Day Is Halloween", the pummelling metal/techno hybrid of The Land Of Rape And Honey and The Mind Is Terrible Thing To Taste, or the goofy White Zombie-ish "Jesus Built My Hotrod". But it was easy to miss some of Al Jougenson's finest moments as they didn't necessarily occur in Ministry. There were a handful of side projects that are as good as, if not better than the best Ministry. There was Pailhead, a slowly building powderkeg of emo aggression and soul shearing cascades of metal guitar and big beat pummel, featuring Fugazi's Ian Mackaye on vocals and folks from Naked Raygun. And wwho can forget 1000 Homo DJs, who reinvent Black Sabbath's "Supernaut" as a relentless, crushing industrial metal hybrid! This collection also includes tracks from PTP, a very early nineties sounding industrial pop, featuring Chris Connelly and Ogre from Skinny Puppy, and Acid Horse, which teamed up Ministry and Cabaret Voltaire for some gothy techno goofiness, complete with deep vocals and simple 4/4 rhythms and surfy guitar, sort of like Ministry with a Depeche Mode makeover. All cool stuff, but the 1000 Homo DJs and Pailhead tracks are all you really need. In fact, just throw on "Supernaut", crank your stereo, and find yourself in an alternate universe where Black Sabbath were not just metal demigods, but also dance floor destroyers!
There has been no shortage of bands using The Cure as a major point of inspiration over the last several years. While most of those bands take from the more obvious, goth and gloom side of The Cure, what makes Minks stand way above that crowded field is how they inject a warm breeze into that sound capturing the romantic side of early '80s dark pop and in the process creating what really is some of the most irresistible pop of the last few years.
The A side is another immediately catchy and rewarding track, the kind you put on mixtapes for months to come. The B side shows that Minks are capable of expanding their reach beyond their most obvious influences as this is a track that sounds nothing like The Cure, but instead some awesome version of The Chills covering Big Star. Wow!
Similar to how The Soft Moon delivered on the amazing promise of their first two 7"s with their recent aQ Record Of The Week debut full length, Minks have managed the same feat, their brand new full length offering us everything their 7"s got us hoping for.
Dreamy blissed out pop that sparkles with such a suave touch and an impressive dynamic range. In fact as much as we loved the 7"s it did seem like maybe the Minks were just gonna be another band tapping into that of '80s and '90s shoegaze sound, but with By The Hedge, Minks demonstrate they have surprisingly wide sonic horizons and have added some serious depth and scope to their sound. It's an album that really has it all, from totally catchy warped pop nuggets, to subdued and stoney daydream moments. While pulling of course, from My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Field Mice, Slowdive, Ride, and even Ariel Pink, Minks have found a way to take those influences and make something very much their own. It's an album that we dig more and more with repeated listens. We really do think there is something to be said for what folks like Minks and Soft Moon have done in releasing a few 7"s before jumping into a full length, as both parties were able to take their time with the origins of their creation to make an album without any filler or throwaways. So damn good!
One of the catchiest slabs of vinyl we've heard yet from the crazily prolific and pretty much always awesome Captured Tracks camp. With nice undertones of a warbly and disjointed demeanor along the lines of Blank Dogs, but taken in a more sleek and shoegazey direction. It's got this awesome hint of past C86 glory while infusing darker elements into those swirling and seductive hooks. Kind of like The Cure's mid/late '80s sound trimmed of its fat and recorded on a four track, or Ride at their most focused and infectious. What's so exciting about the Minks is that these two songs prove they know how to write totally infectious and melodic songs that evoke that perfect kind of hazy and blurred emotion. It's not just nailing a style and aesthetic, as these two songs are just so damn good, so good that we've been flipping it over and over playing it more times in a row then is probably healthy. But when a band starts making us obsessive we know that's a pretty great sign. We're super excited to hear more, and this is a fucking awesome introduction!
The first 7" we heard from Minks a few months ago immediately became one of our favorite singles of the year. We love when bands use 7"s as a way to introduce themselves, offering up a few perfect jams on a handful of singles before releasing a full length. And Minks are doing just that, as these three songs show once again that that debut single was no fluke. Minks are able to tap into the best parts of The Cure without sounding like clones, and part of the reason is that while so many other bands who are influenced by The Cure tend to focus so much on trying to emulate Robert Smith's vocals, Minks instead explore the overall sound and dirgey instrumentation that those great Cure albums were rife with. Minks conjure a hazy and washed out vibe, creating a sound that is like a much darker and dingier side of shoegaze. So excited for a full length but until then we have three more songs from Minks to play over and over and over!
92 minutes of live Minor Threat footage, from three shows (1980, 1982, and 1983 in DC and NJ), including a Q&A session with Ian filmed in '83. There's a sixteen page booklet in here as well. Haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but we imagine all true Minor Threat fans will want this. And punk fans of today (if you're reading this) could probably learn a thing or two from these kids... man do they look young in the pictures on the DVD case!
Elsewhere on the list you'll find a review of Sleep's Dopesmoker demo reissue. One track, 60+ minutes, and slooooow. Well this here Minor Threat demo re-issue is pretty much the exact opposite. Eight tracks in 9 minutes. And faaaaast. It would be even shorter if they took out the before song banter/studio talk. No new tracks, just demo versions of those amazing songs that started it all! 'Minor Threat', 'Stand Up', 'Seeing Red', 'Bottled Violence', 'Small Man, Big Mouth', 'Straight Edge', 'Guilty Of Being White', and 'I Don't Want To Hear It'. Also available on 7"...
All time classic! Remastered and comes with a digital download.
All time classic! Remastered and comes with a digital download.
First we've heard from these local math/post/kraut rockers since their The Ringing Silence Between Your Ears 7", which we LOVED, and even then we were already hankering for more, so here we finally have a new full length, five new songs, clocking in at more than 30 minutes, and all it takes is about a minute of the first track to remind us of why we love these guys so much. If this was 1995, these guys would be HUGE, and fuck it, even in 2013, these guys should be. Equal parts old school math/post/noise rock and more modern slow build heaviness a la Mogwai, Minot are masters of nuance, so tight and controlled, the sound intricate, rhythmically complex, heavy as fuck, and somehow, totally crazy catchy, a tough feat for sure when you're all instrumental, but after repeated listens, we find melodies and riffs stuck in our head like crazy. Progged out mathiness fused to moody jangle, all wound up into sprawling hypno-rock mesmer. The opener manages to be alternatingly dizzying and moody and melodic, while the second track dials the math back a bit (except for the drums which seem to be in constant motion) unwinding a fantastic sprawl of mesmerizing minimal post rock, the track already locked into a super dramatic slow build, atmospheric, majestic and epic, but these guys mix it up like crazy, the track constantly shifting into dense rhythmic tangles, stuttering start/stops, some seriously dense metallic mathiness, somehow all the while remaining utterly catchy.
The rest of the record follows suit, the band deftly weaving super intense soundscapes of chiming harmonics, busy drumming, angular guitars, thick super melodic basslines, even some electronics, the band nimbly flitting from dense brood to majestic metallic swirl and back again, loping post rock waltzes that morph into psych-prog jams, woozy droney dirges that lead directly into minimal mathy skitter, only to somehow get even mathier, but again, remaining kind of melodic and catchy. Rare is the band that can pull that off, and pull it off so consistently, but if you haven't figured it out by now, Minot is one of those rare bands. Totally recommended. Essential listening for fans of mathrock / postrock then AND now!
First we've heard from these local math rockers, who KILL IT in a way few bands have since the heyday of this kinda stuff. These guys are obviously totally beholden to nineties style math rock, which we're totally fine with, as longtime readers of the aQ list know, we LOVE math / post / noise rock, and love all the old bands from back in the day, and actually, some of the guys in Minot may even have a pedigree that reaches that far back, regardless, this is so good, with a sound that manages to evoke that old sound we love, but still be super modern and not any sort of retro trip at all.
Instrumental, dense, melodic, intricate, driving and heavy, but super moody and textured, the A side manages to be catchy as fuck while delivering said catchiness in a barrage of constantly shifting arrangements and tempos, in fact in a way it sounds like slow build Godspeed style post rock all cranked up and tangled up, into something more dense and dizzying. We actually played the A side like 4 or 5 times before we even made it to side two. And as you might imagine, the B side kicks ass too, digging a bit deeper into the moody meandery side of math/post rockiness, but after a few second of rhythmic loping, the sound explodes into a dense drum heavy groove, driven by a super melodic bassline drifting over the roiling instrumental below, it begins to sound like strings at one point (probably a mellotron, which one of the guys plays in addition to bass!), and then the song splinters into a jagged start / stop breakdown before swooping right back into into it. The 'strings' surface again, and even though it's a wild wrangle of guitar and drums, the sound blurs into a brooding, dreaming epic that so much has us wanting to hear more!
Pressed on pretty clear blue vinyl, and includes a sticker. And they just so happen to be named after one of our favorite places on earth, Minot, North Dakota!!
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While this is noisy, chaotic metalcore (a la Converge, Coalesce, Botch, Cave In) on Victory, there -are- some twists: First of all, these guys are from far-off Iceland (and to prove it, they even got an ex-Sugarcube to sing on one song -- not Bjork though)
Scott McCaughey is one of pop music's tireless commanders and criminally unsung heroes. Following over a decade with Seattle's legendary Young Fresh Fellows, he formed his music collective called Minus 5. Its ever-changing, but always stellar line-up includes Peter Buck of R.E.M. (with whom he's also toured extensively) as well as AQ faves The Posies' Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. This time around, as the title of their fifth album states, there's a bunch of Wilco fellows along for the ride too. Not at all surprisingly, the songwriting's pretty darn superb and the chemistry is near-magical. The enthusiasm and sincerity they all convey is uplifting and infectious. Stylistically it's definitely out of step with virtually everything going on these days - truly much closer to the honest to goodness sixties and early seventies. The influences of the three B's (Beach Boys, Beatles, and Big Star) are readily apparent, but when have they ever not been for any of these individual artists? However, this by no means defines nor limits them. No sir! Much of the time it may seem like there's nothing fancy or elaborate goin' on, but that's the key to the Minus 5's pop mastery. Each of the thirteen songs is so finely composed, arranged and performed, it all seems absolutely effortless. Alright, enough gushing. Check it out for yourself.
Okay kids, check out this super duper group's stellar lineup... mainman Scott McCaughey, Jeff Tweedy, Glenn Kotche, John Stirratt, Leroy Bach, Peter Buck, Mike Jorgensen, Rebecca Gates, John Ramberg, Bill Rieflin, Ken Stringfellow, John "Spider" Moen, Jimmy Talent, and Tucker. If those names don't sound familiar , perhaps you might recognize the names of those musicians' fine bands such as Young Fresh Fellows, Wilco, Posies, Spinanes, Neko Case's backing band The Boy friends, Bottle Rockets, Ministry... ring a bell? Thought so! We've said it before and we'll surely say it again, Mr. McCaughey is a criminally unsung, mighty pop songwriting force all by his lonesome, not to mention one of the nicest guys around. His contemporaries know this well, which is undoubtedly why they clamber to be a part of his Minus 5 band. So it's not at all surprising that this seven song ep is a dandy! It build on the already solidly built sparklingly witty foundation of its full length predecessors from the last couple of years -- In Rock, I Don't Know Who I Am, and Down With Wilco: A Tragedy In Three Halfs. Consistently great pop music laced with plenty of nods to early psych, country, and yes of course, pop too!
Around these parts, new music is always welcome from any of the individuals who've participated in this ever-evolving group -- mainman Scott McCaughey (formerly of the criminally unsung Young Fresh Fellows), REM's Peter Buck, Jon and Ken from AQ faves The Posies, Wilco, etc. When they assemble as The Minus 5 the gloriously trippy pop blossoms flourish again and again. It's much like a visit from an old friend... one who comes bearing gifts of song laced with the sweet melt of ice cream and the smooth burn of bourbon. Drawing from pages of pop's history books (particularly those of the Beatles, Beach Boys and Big Star), they skillfully succeed in being warmly familiar while seldom being redundant. Check out the mellow "Queen's Head". These fellows are truly kickass veteran songcraftsmen with well-oiled, wry senses of humor to boot, and on this their contribution to the German Return To Sender series they keep 'em coming. (limited pressing of 2000)
Lead by Mr. Scott McCaughey the perpetually boyish-voiced king of Seattle pop (also longstanding multi-instrumentalist for REM, and formerly of the fabulous Young Fresh Fellows), The Minus 5 will lift any droopy spirits with their unmistakable trippy, bouyant hooks. This incarnation of the ever-evolving band lineup includes REM's Peter Buck, John Ramberg (of Model Rockets, and guitarist for Neko Case's backing band Her Boyfriends), Bill Rieflin (of Ministry, KMFDM, REM, and Swans to name just a few). The effervescent supporting cast features Chris Ballew (Presidents Of The United States Of America), Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service), John Wesley Harding and mad genius Kurt Bloch (Sgt. Major, Pure Joy, ex-Fastbacks, ex-Young Fresh Fellows). If these songs (or at least eight of them) seem familiar, well, it might be because you were one of 1000 who swapped a ten spot for one of the original pressing of In Rock (it was a hush-hush ten-song album released back in 2000 on Book Records) that they sold at their shows at the legendary Seattle venue Crocodile Cafe. They dropped two of the original songs and added four new ones for this edition. A delight!
