Finally reissued and available once again, thanks to the fine folks at Slumberland, this time on colored vinyl [whoops, almost all gone already, being repressed though], and CASSETTE!!
Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over.
There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do.
So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.
Fans of local pop geniuses the Ovens, which are a whole lot of you, but should really be ALL of you, rejoice, and enjoy another incredible blast of noise pop songsmithery courtesy of Ovens mainman Tony Molina, whose solo sound is essentially, and really EXACTLY like the Ovens, fuzzed out pop, metallic chugging, soaring harmonized guitars, a dreamy croon, and ridiculous self deprecating lyrics, INCREDIBLE hooks, and the sort of poppiness that will get lodged in your head forEVER. SO yeah, anyone who bought and loved the Ovens cd Andee released on his tUMULt label, well, you're gonna want, nay, NEED this. As always, Molina's songs (and by extension, the Ovens' as well) are equal parts Weezer, Thin Lizzy, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, and pretty much every other fuzzy jangly pop band you ever loved, but all that boiled down and rendered into ultra brief, fragmented blasts of micro pop brevity, and we're talking boiled down as in thirteen songs in twelve minutes! One of those records you'll no doubt play over and over and over.
There are tracks like opener "Nowhere To Go", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off the Ovens cd proper, so much crammed into so little time, soaring harmonized guitars, the occasional metallic chug, the fuzzy main riff, the laid back vox, the melodies impossible to resist, and like many Ovens songs, blink and you'll miss it. None of that verse chorus verse shit, if you're lucky, you'll get verse chorus. Sometimes just verse! Like on tracks like "Sick As Riff", where you don't even get a riff, more like a dreamy little acoustic guitar interlude. Check out "Change My Ways", which should most definitely have J Mascis looking over his shoulder, the Dinosaur Jr vibe HUGE, right down to the guitar tone. And like we've said before, if Tony wasn't so brilliantly ADD, and could make a song longer than 90 seconds, he and the Ovens could/would/should be HUGE. But we're not complaining, it's part of their charm, the barrage of crazy hooks, perfect melodies, definitely pushing a lot of the same buttons Guided By Voices do.
So yeah, needless to say, these 12 minutes the probably gonna be our favorite 12 minutes of pop music this year, so grab one of these before they're gone, and leave a little space at the top of your 2013 year end lists, cuz even only two months in, and we're pretty sure, unless there's a new Ovens record that somehow pops up, this one's gonna be tough to beat.
Not to be confused with the Russian black metal Moloch, this Moloch is something much grimier and grittier and doomier, treading a path closer to Eyehategod, and of course the current crop of ultra doomlords like Moss, Bunkur, Monarch, and of course Noothgrush and Corrupted. In fact, if it sounds like we just described your collection, you might as well stop right now and grab one of these, cuz if sloooooow, ultra heavy, doomic crush is your thing, then Moloch will definitely hit the spot.
Four songs, 25 minutes, this UK foursome offer up some pretty fearsome heaviness, slipping easily from plodding lumbering slow motion, to swinging stonery groove and back again, the guitars thick and viscous, the drums pounding and pummeling, the vocals a wild shriek. The more we listen to this we're also hearing plenty of Grief and Bongzilla, the riffs like 16rpm Sabbath, the band's crawl druggy and dissonant, but laced with some super swinging NOLA-esque grooviness, and some surprisingly Pantera-ish vox, which makes some of this sound like Down, but only if Down were WAY crustier and filthier and DIY and lo-fi. Which is most definitely not a bad thing. Heartily recommended for you drugged out, stoner rock, ultra doom, slow and low misfits, some seriously crushing black hole brutality, with just enough swing to keep it interesting.
Released on the same label that did that kick ass Ghast / Yoga split!
The prolific, inventive, and cheekily clever Momus is at it again. The last time we heard from him was 1999's Stars Forever on which he performed songs of "patronage pop" (thirty patrons paid one thousand dollars each for the privilege of having a song
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... in which the fine dandy Scot known as Momus remakes his dazzling downer album Tender Pervert. The result a new perhaps odder beauty that can be admired all on its own.
Yet another step in Momus' quest to be the Jeff Koons of indie rock. This post modern putz somehow convinced 30 suckers that it would be worth $1000 to have a crappy electro-pop song with inane lyrics written in their honor. There is some history behind it, like he got sued for ripping off somebody else's song, or something equally as lame. The patrons of this collection include a few stores (Other Music, Reckless Records), a few indie establishments (Team Clermont, Minty Fresh), the aforementioned Jeff Koons, and a bunch of dilletantes we've never heard of. That said, Cup, a Momus fan since the days of 'Tender Pervert' must raise her hand in defense of Momus. Although she too balks at the lofty price tag, she admires Momus' musical diversity, and thinks the idea's pretty darn clever and funny. By the way, the $30,000 went towards his legal bills 'cause he got sued by Wendy Carlos. Oh yeah, and there's also a 'bonus'...eight Momus karaoke parody contest winners' tracks.
Over the last couple years San Francisco's Mon Cousin Belge have earned quite the reputation for their raucous, theatrical and dazzling live performances. And in a city that's got such a great history for campy, subversive and wonderfully queer art and music it's actually kind of sad to say that it's becoming more rare to find a really good charged and dazzling homo-rock band around these parts lately. Luckily Mon Cousin Belge have been filling that void quite nicely. With a sound equally influenced by glam-rock, torch songs and the sparkling seedy side of high octane pop, Quelle Horreur is an action packed flamboyant and proud album that fits perfectly in any record collection containing the soundtrack to Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Ziggy Stardust era Bowie, Sparks, B-52's and Nina Hagen. With song titles like "Tweaker Bitch", "Sodomy" and "Pigdog" and the trashy chops to back it all up, someone really needs to get this in the hands of John Cameron Mitchell and John Waters as this could be their new favorite band!
Previously a side project collaboration between Pram's Rosie Cuckston and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier, Monade has blossomed into a full band fronted by the dulcet-toned Ms Sadier, and well... they reeeeeeally sound like her other band! Her legions of fans probably knew that this release was on its way eons ago, and therefore don't need us to tell them that it's finally arrived. For those less rabid, we'll let you know that this is the group's follow-up to their 2003 debut Socialisme ou Barbarie (The Bedroom Recordings), and as can be expected, it's a much more fleshed out and polished affair. Back-to-back listening of this and the recent reissue of Stereolab's 1992 debut Switched On makes for a dreamy, sunny afternoon double scoop! Sure to please Stereolab and Sadier lovers everywhere.
Oh, Latetitia Sadier you can sing in our ear anytime! Of course best known for her main groop, Stereolab, Sadier has also kept busy over the years with her project Monade, an outfit that leans much more toward the laid back elements of Stereolab. Monstre Cosmic finds Monade in top form, with rich and lush instrumentation, a range of tempos and of course Sadier's trademark suave vocals, in French and sounding so damn irresistible! The color palette that Monade's songs invoke are just as wide and dazzling as those of Stereolab with enough highs and lows to keep you on your toes but with just the right feeling of comfort to makes you want to just dive into these sounds and stay forever, and bask in their swirling melodies and groove filled charm. Like so much of her best work, we love how the songs unfold and reveal more of themselves with repeated listens. Monstre Cosmic sounds great on first listen but it's when you begin to get hooked and are listening over and over again that you really begin to fall in love with this batch of musical goodness. Laid back without being lazy, driving and catchy without being too perky. It's just the right ingredients mixed and made with total pop perfection. Highly recommended!
Monade started as a 1996 joint side project of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier and Pram's Rosie Cuckston, with Sadier making the bulk of the tracks in more recent years. Here then is Monade's debut full length, licensed from Duophonic by Drag City here in the US, which includes the impossibly rare tracks and other out of print gems, along with new material. As expected, the music is akin to Stereolab's bubbly, melodic electronica albeit with a bit more of a lo-fi bedroom feel, with strummed guitars, a light touch on the synth effects, and Sadier's comforting French croon.
MPEG Download: "Enfin Seule" [/audio/monadeenfin.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Enfin Seule" [/audio/monadeenfin.m3u]
Finally! Been waiting for the vinyl version of this for a while now. Taking the slow boat all the way from Spain, but it was well worth it, sounds awesome, looks amazing. Metallic gold and black on shimmery silver matte finish, all new artwork. SUPER LIMITED, we got a bunch, but we won't be able to get more. Here's more about the music inside:
A while ago we were informed that French ultradoom combo Monarch had called it a day. We were crushed. One of our favorite purveyors of filthy slow motion doooooooooom, fronted by a woman, a rarity in doom for sure, and with a penchant for smiley skulls and Hello Kitty. A band that seemed tailor made for the very bizarre tastes of the AQ faithful, seemed to be no more.�
But before we could begin our campaign of mourning, black clothes spray painted with cute skulls, black Hello Kitty armbands, we discovered that in fact we were misinformed, or maybe the band had taken a break, or something, but we cared not, for whatever reason, Monarch was still alive, and would live to doom another day. And doom they did. Gracing us with more and more glorious downtuned heaviness, including their bad ass cover of Turbonegro's "I Got Erection"!
So now that we're pretty comfortable with the continued existence of our favorite cute doomsters, we can wait patiently for each new, massive slab of harsh slow motion glacial dooooooooooooooooooooom. And for folks new to Monarch, don't go expecting this to actually -sound- cute. They may be fronted by an adorable French girl, who spins playfully on the beach in their videos, but when she opens her mouth to sing, it's the sound of blackness and misery, a demonic caterwaul, unrivaled by most male metal vocalists. And sure the art on their records may be cute cartoon burning churches and big eyed ghosts, but the sounds inside are slow and black as tar, guitars tuned so low they rumble instead of roar, drum beats so far apart, the drummer can probably smoke a cigarette between beats.�And we're happy to report that this 16+ minute chunk of doom is all that and more. The more being the haunting ethereal female vocals partway through... Crushingly heavy, weirdly beautiful. A plodding symphony in slow motion. Essential Monarch beautiful brutality.
The surprise here is the Grey Daturas track, also a 16 minute epic, that on first listen sounds surprisingly doomy, and a lot like the Monarch track. The Daturas are often heavy, but rarely doomy like this, but it suits them. And they pepper their doom with all sorts of sonic weirdness, bits of electronic fuckery, strange modulated feedback, subtle FX, until about 13 minutes in, when the song suddenly morphs into a muted wall of smeared and crumbling white noise, a blast of blurred sound that eventually fades into nothingness.�
Pretty amazing stuff, from both bands. Doom hounds will be well pleased.
Michigan space rockers Monaural have altered their extraterrestrial trajectories from propulsive Fuxa / Windy & Carl style drone to the dub filtered electronica of bands like Pan American and Labradford. Beautifully lazy Hammond organs, phased guitars and sleepy delay make this one of the best dreamy/sleepy/mopey electronica records we've heard in a while.
While he does still inject a little funkiness here and there, Money Mark has grown progressively more pop and less soul over the course of his last few albums. His Beastie Boys days are a distant memory. No complaints here. He does it all utterly effortlessly and with such an easy charm. His new album is his most completely soft rock/pop to date.
Brand New By Tomorrow is brimming with solid songwriting and performances in the tradition of Elvis Costello or Joe Jackson. No, they aren't gonna burst out and grab you by the knickers, but with each subsequent listen they'll snuggle up closer and closer until you just can't live without 'em.
This is a weird one, the latest from local reissue label Superior Viaduct, who have so far reissued recordings from Factrix, Black Humor, German Shepherds, Noh Mercy, and the Sleepers, and even still, amongst some seriously weird company, this might outweird them all! We had never heard of Monitor before (although we just learned Scott is a big fan!), apparently the musical offshoot of a seventies LA art collective called World Imitation Productions, who fused modern technology with more archaic influences, and whose music somehow struggled to sonically represent that hybrid.
The group was part of a loose group of like minded outfits, know as the Associated Skull Bands, which included Nervous Gender, NON, among others, but even amidst a weirdo Hollywood punk scene, Monitor proved too much for the not so weird weirdos. And hell it's easy to see why listening to this now.
The record opens with queasy synths and ominous rumbles, from which emerges a minimal rhythm wrapped in primitive synths, peppered with burst of drum freakout, and angular fuzz guitar, super hypnotic and darkly dirgey, the vocals are breathy and reverbed, dueling boy girl voices, trancey, and woozy, the guitars seem to grow more detuned, the sound seeming to fray at the edges, super psychedelic and crazy creepy cool. That's the core sound of the group, the drums driving most of the tracks, the guitars and synths doled out a bit more judiciously. The track "Mokele-Mbembe" lays down a sinewy bassline, and some tribal drumming, and then over the top, the group deliver some very straight ahead sounding African high life style vocals. "In Terrae Interium" drapes distorted guitars, over a dirgey rhythmic stumble, tangled vocals croon and moan over the detuned dirge, super trippy and abstract.
And so it goes, the group unfurling twisted ditties, rhythmic and playfully synthy one second ("Herb Lane Theme"), distorted and and almost carnivalesque the next ("Amphibious"), replete with weezing organ and angular guitar skronk, cold wave twee pop one second ("Pavillion"), minimal washed out drone-psych doom creep the next ("Phosphorea"). And when they came up with a song that required more rocking than they were equipped to do, well hell, they just hired it out, in this case, to the Meat Puppets, who kick out the jams on "Hair", a fierce staccato punk rock blow out, all howled vox, swirling sci-fi synths, noisy buzzy guitars, serious drum pound, squiggly Black Flag like leads and some seriously harsh vox! Almost wish Monitor had written a whole record for the Meat Puppets.
The reissue tacks on a handful of bonus tracks to the nine from the original 1981 album, which like the record proper are all over the place, from murky rhythmic minimalism, to wild squiggly angular electro-punk to tripped out backwards recorded noise experiments.
Psychedelic, surreal, bizarre, expansive, campy, politically charged, charming, stylized, kitschy, technicolorful, captivating. Oh my god, what the heck could all of those adjectives apply to? The Monkees' Head of course! Yup, it is all of that and so much more! If you've passed on watching Head in the past because you saw The Monkees' name on it, you've been seriously missing out on a work that is *exactly* whatever you might think The Monkees and their music was, but it also reaches far beyond their scope as well as that of more shall we say 'serious' auteurs... and successfully so. Co-written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson, this 1968 movie continues to kick ass almost forty years after its original release. Seriously, DO NOT MISS THIS!
A couple of years ago you might've heard us gushing about how happy we were that the Monkees' movie Head had finally been released on dvd. If you somehow missed it, please visit our review AND see the movie posthaste! Well, we're happy to report that much like they did for the early Bee Gees' albums (which we were equally stoked about!), Rhino Records has reissued three early Monkees' full lengths in deluxe 2cd editions -- 1966's self-titled, 1967's Headquarters, and their fourth full length Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones Ltd. Many might still scoff at this band as being prefab pretty boy fluff, but hearing these albums today just may quell the doubters for good and (re)charm fans of '60s pop, both of the innocuous vanilla and more wildly tripped out flavors. Sure, they could dish out the toothsome teen idol syrup scientifically formulate to make the young girls swoon, but they could also nail a fantastic pop hook, a paisley psych trip-out, a solid country rock bootstomp, and more. Yep, they had their fingers in pretty much every musical style of the decade, and they (yes, along with some expert producers and other songwriters) pretty much expertly navigated each one of them. Album highlights: the delicious pop of "You Just May Be The One" and the comparatively bizarre "Randy Scoue Git"!
These deluxe versions include mono and stereo versions, bonus rare tracks and plentiful liner notes and photos. Above all else, these reissues are simply a damn delightful good time!
A couple of years ago you might've heard us gushing about how happy we were that the Monkees' movie Head had finally been released on dvd. If you somehow missed it, please visit our review AND see the movie posthaste! Well, we're happy to report that much like they did for the early Bee Gees' albums (which we were equally stoked about!), Rhino Records has reissued three early Monkees' full lengths in deluxe 2cd editions -- 1966's self-titled, 1967's Headquarters, and their fourth full length Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones Ltd. Many might still scoff at this band as being prefab pretty boy fluff, but hearing these albums today just may quell the doubters for good and (re)charm fans of '60s pop, both of the innocuous vanilla and more wildly tripped out flavors. Sure, they could dish out the toothsome teen idol syrup scientifically formulate to make the young girls swoon, but they could also nail a fantastic pop hook, a paisley psych trip-out, a solid country rock bootstomp, and more. Yep, they had their fingers in pretty much every musical style of the decade, and they (yes, along with some expert producers and other songwriters) pretty much expertly navigated each one of them. Album highlights: "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday"! Yeah, we know those are obvious choices, but can you blame us? Pop doesn't get much better than this!
These deluxe versions include mono and stereo versions, bonus rare tracks and plentiful liner notes and photos. Above all else, these reissues are simply a damn delightful good time!
A couple of years ago you might've heard us gushing about how happy we were that the Monkees' movie Head had finally been released on dvd. If you somehow missed it, please visit our review AND see the movie posthaste! Well, we're happy to report that much like they did for the early Bee Gees' albums (which we were equally stoked about!), Rhino Records has reissued three early Monkees' full lengths in deluxe 2cd editions -- 1966's self-titled, 1967's Headquarters, and their fourth full length Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones Ltd. Many might still scoff at this band as being prefab pretty boy fluff, but hearing these albums today just may quell the doubters for good and (re)charm fans of '60s pop, both of the innocuous vanilla and more wildly tripped out flavors. Sure, they could dish out the toothsome teen idol syrup scientifically formulate to make the young girls swoon, but they could also nail a fantastic pop hook, a paisley psych trip-out, a solid country rock bootstomp, and more. Yep, they had their fingers in pretty much every musical style of the decade, and they (yes, along with some expert producers and other songwriters) pretty much expertly navigated each one of them. Album highlights: "Sweet Young Thing" and "Last Train To Clarksville".
These deluxe versions include mono and stereo versions, bonus rare tracks and plentiful liner notes and photos. Above all else, these reissues are simply a damn delightful good time!
Finally, another full length from The Monkeywrench, Mark and Steve from Mudhoney, Tom from Gas Huffer, the infamous Tim Kerr and some guy named Martin. And it's on Estrus, where they belonged all along.
Drunken and garagey and surprisingly not all that unlike Mudhoney. A definite fix for those of us who miss Mudhoney (who aren't breaking up like they were intending to). Awesome.
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No... it really can't be! But Yep, it gosh darn is. The Monkeywrench are back after a mule's age. Please don't ask me what a mule's age is. Just figure it's a pretty long time. you may better know The Monkeywrench as: Mudhoney's Mark Arm and Steve Turner, Gas Huffer guitarist Tom Price, Martin Bland, and the infamous Tim Kerr. Many moons ago, these fine fellows released an awesome bourbon and reverb-drenched fiery full-length on SubPop. Join them today in the ol' saloon as they perform "Sugarman" by Jesus Rodriguez and Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher" as only they know how. The latter features that familiar raspy howl courtesy of Mr. Arm. Sigh, very cool.
The classic proto-punk record made by these weirdo American GI's in Germany circa '66, now reissued on vinyl. Not too many in stock...
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Omplatten, after reissuing those fabulous Os Mutantes records, has dug up the demo tapes from the Monks before their infamous "Black Monk Time" album. Formed in the mid 60s by five ex-GIs stationed in Germany who sported monk-styled coiffures, The Monks mastered a minimalist 60's freakbeat driven more by amphetamines than by songwriting ability. Even in demo form, these proto-punk songs still pack a nasty punch with caustic organ chords and a wall of reverb drenching the primitive rhythms--indeed, to these ears they don't sound that much different from the actual "Black Monk Time" sessions. But, with the domestic cd reissue of *that* sadly out of print (and with some differences in song-selection anyway) this disc will be essential for Monks novices, and tempting to fans.
The legendary ex-GI beat group that invented nihilistic punk rock back in '66, return thirty years later for a phenomenal reunion show (at the garage-rock fest Cavestomp '99 in New York City), documented here. Even though their trademark monk-style haircuts are more or less naturally occuring now, these guys don't seem all that old from the sounds on this disc! Nothing lame about this at all! Monk Time '99 sounds just like Monk Time '66, wild and crazy, and all Monks fans will be happy with this, it's a blast. There's also some cd-rom video footage of the show for those with computers.
Monno are definitely a noise rock band. In fact, we're not even sure if they are a band, so maybe they're just noise rock. But actually, this doesn't really rock in the traditional sense, so maybe it's just noise. But the thing is, it's NOT. Monno ARE a band. And they DO rock. And they are about as noisy as a rock band can get. They produce a dense sonic squall that sounds like someone took Merzbow, Total, Skullflower and SUNNO))), chopped em all up, sprayed them out of thousand watt speakers, at a drummer who head down, resolutely pounds his way through a dense cloud of caustic, skin peeling, ear shredding noise. Rock. There are occasional riffs, and they totally slay, like a way more blown out Scratch Acid, and there are massive slithering low end bass grooves, but then the vocals, holy fuck, it's like some feral howls being run through a million distortion pedals with dying batteries and broadcast through a wall of tweeters with broken speaker cones. All wrapped in barbed wire-like swirls of shrieking tangled feedback. So harsh and heavy and so fucking great. Fans of Violent Students, Butthole Surfers, Clockcleaner and just loud fucking rocknoise in general will dig this in a big way!
Packaged in an oversized black on metallic silver booklet, with original artwork from Dennis Tyfus (who runs the Ultra Eczema label!).
With all the talk of metallic post rock, or post metal, or whatever, bands like Isis and Pelican and the Grails and Conifer and Tides and a bunch of others always get referenced, but it seems like folks forget about Japan's Mono, who traverse similar sonic territory, but in many ways do it a whole lot better.�
We've loved pretty much everything we've heard from Mono, but this singles and rarities compilation has really kicked our asses, so much so, that whenever someone is playing this in the store, inevitably anyone else working, or anyone in the store shopping, ends up heading to the counter to find out what's playing.�
The thing with Mono, sure their loping moody post rock soundscapes are gorgeous, expansive and epic, they definitely hold their moody melancholy own in the esteemed company of bands like Mogwai and Godspeed and Sigur Ros, but they make that sound their own, steeped with emotion, gorgeous melodies, and deft arrangements, but where they really shine is�in the heavy parts, they don't just get louder, and they don't just unleash big downtuned riffs, they EXPLODE into dense swaths of noisy fury, often drawn out into length stretches of swirling static and glitchy crunchy white noise, dizzying and gloriously suffocating. The end of "Black Woods" is the perfect example, what begins as a jangly mathy workout, builds into a full on fury, with the drums crumbling into clouds of cymbal sizzle, the guitars becoming jagged shards,�enormous cresting waves of feedback swallowing everything whole, abrasive and intense, caustic and furiously fiery, sounding a bit like maybe Merzbow got a hold of the tapes. Elsewhere, the band seems to let loose any semblance of song structure, allowing the guitars to spill out of the amps like thick black pools of sound, but always to be deftly drawn back in by some gorgeous spidery guitar line, or simple soft melody.
And while the proceedings definitely tend toward the loping and melodic, the drawn out and pretty, and don't get us wrong, a whole record of nothing but Mono's dreamy moodiness would suit us just fine, it's the band's ability to simply destroy, to musically torch everything within sight, to turn guitars and drums into incendiary devices, all without ever completely letting the song crumble into chaos, always eventually finding their way back to a place of beauty and melody, that really makes Mono so special.
Lost compiles all of Mono's essential musical odds and ends: their track from the split album with Pelican, two out of print eps, their track from the TRL Thankful compilation and all the tracks from their Travels In Constants disc.
Amazing packaging too: die cut tray card, with the cd visible through the back of the jewel case, and a corresponding die cut slip case, which also allows the cd to be visible, the whole thing ends up looking like some cool mysterious map like buried treasure artifact.
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There was perhaps a time, when Japanese post rockers Mono were just that, a post rock group, but that time is long gone, now, they are anything but, or more accurately, so much more.
Mono take the soaring sweeping epics of groups like Godspeed into an entirely different dimension. Their sound is so grandiose, so emotional, so absolutley and stunningly epic, that it almost ceases to be rock. Sure there's plenty of rock like bombast, many of the songs culminate in a huge flurry of crashing drums and soaring guitars, but in the grand scheme of Mono's sound, those moments are fleeting. Like the old adage that it's more about the journey than the destination, the sound of Mono is all about the journey, the band weave elaborate soundscapes, that smolder and glow, rhythms pulse and throb, guitars are blurred into lush sonic backdrops, melodies are delicate and crystalline, the sound while instrumental, manages to sound choral, a sky full of weeping strings and angelic hymns. We can only assume that if Arvo Part, or Morton Feldman started a rock band, it would sound something like Mono. Hymn is like some post rock score to a massive role playing game, Final Fantasy 100 or something.... How can you not envision sweeping vistas, endless seas, crumbling cities, heaving seas beneath blackened skies, these sounds evoke so much emotion (this is REAL emo!) and passion, it does seem almost too reductive to call them a post rock band, or to call this 'rock', to us it sounds more like a symphony played by a rock band, or better yet a symphony attempting to play rock music, the result is grand, majestic, moving, stirring, something more momentous than a mere record, or a rock concert, Mono manage to conjure up a sound that seems to be alive, living, something capable of adapting and growing, every song sounding like a collection of sounds blossoming into still greater sounds, eventually a field of blossoming sound becoming Mono. It sometimes sounds like the most dramatic moments from every film you've ever seen distilled and converted into sound, then arranged into music... hyperbole? Probably. But the more we listen to Hymn To The Immortal, the more we're convinced that there's something truly magical going on here. And somehow, without even realizing it, we've listened to this record about 20 times in the last few days, which is most definitely saying something...
Mono are an instrumental rock quartet from Tokyo making their debut on John Zorn's Tzadik label. Let us quote from the obi: "[Mono combine] elements of minimalism, psychedelia and trance rock to create a distinctive and powerful new sound via John Fahey, Sonic
Is Temporary Residence looking to get some kind of award for having the longest album titles of any record label? Well, the long album title kind of goes right along with the music produced by this Japanese band, as they're masters of the epic, soft-loud, post-rock-athon. Instrumental, slow-building majesty, that will sound familiar to, and be welcomed by, fans of Mogwai, Kinski, Godspeed, Explosions In The Sky, etc. Not groundbreaking per se, but a consistent band who does what they do really well. Funnily enough, when we reviewed their debut on Tzadik a few years ago, we said that they'd fit in perfectly with a lot of the acts on the TRL roster, and now here they are! TRL followers will not be disappointed.
If you've followed Tokyo's Mono, you will know that their brand of post-rock is the kind that is equal parts orchestrated beauty and slow building metallic eruptions. This sound gets them mentioned in the same breath as kindred spirits Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky. There is no denying that they aren't really reinventing this sound by now, but what they are doing is releasing really consistent and good records one after the other. This one unfolds really nicely as an entire album. The slow build, the pretty beginning, the subtle tension building, and then the loud eruption which breaks down in shimmering waves. Unlike some of their contemporaries, they have kept their songs vocal free and we thank them for that as we can all attest to the fact that so often post rock or metallic post rock or whatever you want to call it can suffer from some pretty uninspired sounding vocals thrown sort of randomly on top. You get the feeling listening to this record that Mono are quite particular and precise in a way that doesn't feel forced but instead you can feel their labor and thought as you listen to every note on this record.
Wow. This collaboration between Japanese epic art rockers Mono and their equally arty countrymen World's End Girlfriend is nothing short of gorgeous. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain is an absolutely breathtaking five-part mood piece that enshrouds the listener in looming desolate shadows cast by classically composed guitar, strings, piano, saxophone and even a fleeting vocal chorus. A staggeringly moving work definitely for fans of Godspeed You Black Mogwai or anyone else looking to have their jaw dropped by some seriously bleak beauty.
As some of you already probably know, this limited 12" is a split release on both NYC based post rock label Temprorary Residence, and now-L.A. based thinking man's metal label Hydra Head. Accordingly there are about 7 or 8 different versions, some on Hydra Head, some on TRL, some with different colored labels, but you know what? That's just tough. We have to draw the line somewhere, and it's now right here. We have about 30 copies of the Temporary Residence version, which is already out of print. When we run out of these, we might get some of the HH version(s). Not sure which ones. This collectable vinyl business is beginning to obscure the whole reason we all buy records, because we love music, and we love to hear amazing music, and this record is absolutely fantastic. So try to stop worrying about the color of the vinyl or the number pressed or any of that stuff and just pick this up because it's so damn beautiful. Pelican deliver a massive slice of gorgeously grandiose post rock, sweeping and emotional, melancholy and but weirdly hopeful with its minor key arrangement. Not a trace of 'metal' to be found here. Which is fine by us. Imagine a slightly heavier version of the song that plays during the final scene at the end of the movie, after the boy has gotten the girl and we finally realize everything is going to be okay. It sounds a little like that. Really beautiful. The second track makes up for it though, as James Plotkin (Khanate, Joy of Disease) takes Pelican at their dirgiest / sludgiest and adds tons of extra grind and grit and grrr and effects and crumbling distortion and malfunctioning electronics. Like your favorite Pelican song dipped in blood and rolled in the dirt. Wow.
Mono, who are often touted as being metal, stick closer to their mighty epic post rock sound with a sidelong track that is as Godspeed You Black Emperor as a non-Godspeed band is likely to get. Brooding and melancholy, building to a huge explosive coda, before drifting back into a creeping maudlin dirge, that sort of drifts and fades into the dark. So nice. And as we mentioned before, far too limited.
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Brand new lp by East Bay's Mono Pause. Taking cues from the early days of Thinking Fellers and Sun City Girls then building on it, Mono Pause's compositions range from off kilter ethno-prankster-rock, to seemingly semi-German classic psych, to improv skronk. The multitude of such musical tangents are at times discreet and others brilliantly blended. Quite good.
Split between east-bay ethno-rockers Mono Pause and Icelandic organ power-trio Aavikko, with each band covering the other's work. Mono Pause takes a mighty fine stab at "El Cebo", slowing down the tempo and filling out the arrangement with guitar, ud (mandolin? other ethnic-lute-thingy?), whacked synths, drums, bass, trumpet and more. After a Kraftwerk style vocoder intro, Aavikko, for their part, do almost the opposite with their arrangement of their chosen Mono Pause tune: stripping it down to fit their organ, organ and drum format and speeding up the tempo to a lively jaunt. Very purdy cover art on this Seeland release, makes it worth the slightly steep 7" price. We wonder if Seeland has designs on possibly reissuing some of that out of print Aavikko stuff.
Years and years and years ago (2001!), we reviewed a record by a Canadian seventies worshipping hard rock combo with the bizarre name of Sir Hedgehog, and it was one of those classic records pretty much all the aQ heavy rockers here were obsessed with, we sold a ton too, and always sort of wondered what happened to those guys. Well, apparently at least some of them now play in another goofily monikered outfit, this one called Monobrow, and while they may not worship the seventies as much as they once did, they're still heavy and hard rocking and psychedelic, the new band is all instrumental though, with a more stoner metal vibe, big riffs, killer leads, bombastic drumming, the songs mathy and a little bit proggy, we even hear a little Fucking Champs, if the Champs were on MeteorCity. And actually, the deeper we get into the record, maybe these guys haven't ditched that seventies love as much as we thought, plenty of proto-metal sounding grooving, wild wah wah guitar freakouts, thick meandering melodic basslines, and songs that are pretty goddamn catchy considering they're instrumental, as well as pretty dense and proggy, but hell, we can't imagine anyone into heavy psych, stoner metal, riff rock or just classic heaviness, not flipping out over these guys.
Most definitely recommended, and another one of those records we can't seem to stop listening to.
The awesomely titled Love Zombies was record number two from UK post punk combo the Monochrome Set, released a handful of months later then their debut in 1980, and while the band professed that Love Zombies was meant to be more accessible than their Strange Boutique debut, it's hard to get that from the album opening title track, which sounds like it could have come right off Strange Boutique (then again, the records were recorded just months apart), but weirdly enough reminds us of a band that would come way later The Cardiacs, proggy and bombastic and cabaret-like, the music intricate and lush, the vocals crooned and dreamily dramatic, with strange bits of pop bombast and weird production, a buzzing main melody (a synth maybe), some spidery guitar leads, the word 'zombie' chanted ominously, it's hard to believe this was their idea of more accessible. And while the wild tribal drumming that was all over the debut is notably absent, and the vibe is definitely slightly less dark, everything else is still present, the songwriting, the strange arrangements, the fey vox, if anything, Love Zombies reminds us a little bit of another seminal post punk pop reissue, the Cleaners From Venus, we'd imagine most folks who dug those Cleaners reissues would like this as well, although Monochrome Set, especially on Love Zombies, are a whole lot more precious, a bit jazzier for sure, in fact, in the review of Strange Boutique we mention Murray Head and "One Night In Bangkok", which again, much of this reminds us of, but there are plenty of subtle surprises and bits of weirdness here and there, like the garbled freak out opening of "In Love, Cancer?", which sounds like it came straight off a Teenage Filmstars records, but for the most part this is just a classic slab of eighties (post punk) jangle pop.
We missed the Monochrome Set the first time around, then again we were only ten or eleven when this record, their debut full length, came out in 1980. But then a few years back, someone turned us on to these guys and we became sort of obsessed, total seminal post punk radness from the UK, catchy and weird and a little bit fey, jangly and hooky, with wild tribal drumming, Morricone-ish guitars, dramatic crooned vox. Apparently, the Monochrome Set was born from a band called the B-Sides, a group that also featured the future Adam Ant, and at least on MC's debut, it's easy to hear that both Adam Ant and the Monochrome guys shared similar influences, especially in the drumming, just give a listen to the "The Monochrome Set (I Presume)", the opening could be an Adam Ant song, big tribal drumming, pounding toms, surrounded by all sorts of jungle sounds, but where Adam Ant would take that song in a more rock direction, the 'Set add some spidery minor key melodies, and the result is almost like a sped up Tom Waits jam, the guitar very Marc Ribot-ish, it's not hard to imagine Waits' raspy growl, but instead, more guitars enter and add a little woozy groove, and then the vocals a sort of sung spoken croon that reminds us a bit of Murray Head ("One Night In Bangkok"!), then the chorus, with it's weird sing songy vocals, it's such a weird, killer song. Our favorite for sure. But the rest of the record is nearly as good. "The Lighter Side Of Dating" unfurls a string of low slung bass pulses underneath some effected guitar strum, and then the drums come in, a dizzying spray of fills, which lead right into an almost Smiths-like chorus, very twee and again dramatic. And so it goes, the record rife with coulda/shoulda been classics, some dark and churning and groovy, others lighter and poppier, with a cabaret streak a mile wide running throughout. So good!
Brand new band from our own backyard brings us 9 impeccable pop songs. Their debut album, "Here Comes The Monolith" sounds more like the work of a seasoned rock mainstay than a rookie's first time at bat. The Monolith successfully harken the sounds of Cheap Trick, Beatles, E.L.O., Big Star and more recently, The New Pornographers. The latter probably most noticably distinguished by the silky vocal harmonies present in every song. Superbly crafted pop arrangements with heart-snagging hooks, bridges & choruses filled with horn sections and strings are merely the icing on the cake. The cherry on the top is the gorgeous production that is so often sadly lacking from debut releases. Highly recommended!
Oh the yummy pop power of The Monolith! They continue to dish it out in heaping spoonfuls on this their second album. This terrific Bay Area foursome take the standard pop band instrumentation of vocals, guitar, bass and drums, and plush it up so nicely with horns, keyboards and strings. The Monolith sound is alternately reminiscent of Quasi, Apples In Stereo, Big Star, Beatles, Beach Boys, maybe even a bit of Bread too -- y'know, all the best popsters! Bright, bouncy, harmony filled sweetness. Meet you there? You bet!
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The sleeve must be seen to be believed -- full on glitter in rich brights (by Thingmaker of course).
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A massive scuzzy, sloppy, fuzzed out, psychedelic, deleriously damaged blast of spaced out garage rock from the (not so) legendary Monoshock. This collection gathers up all the singles, compilation tracks and demos from this criminally under appreciated band. Overblown, and lo-fi, stumblingly brilliant, psych rock jams of the highest order. All chaos guitar and splattery drums, howled vocals, and a surprisng amount of hooks buried under all the fuzz and grit and blown speaker detritus. Think Hawkwind played by the Stooges, recorded on a boombox. They even cover the Hawkwind classic "Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke)".
Now available again on vinyl, the only proper full length from this legendary crew of SF psychedelic punks whose sound was a drunken and drugged out freakout equal part the Stooges, Flipper and Hawkwind, makes sense that some of these guys also play(ed) in the equally noisy and fucked up psych rock garage punk outfit Liquorball!
Needless to say, if you love Liquorball, you'll definitely want to get a load of these guys, who sound like a more fucked up and freaked out Comets On Fire, every track a full bore psych-punk blowout, dirgey and crusty and droned out, the drums and bass locked into endless grooves, the vocals a distorted bark, the guitars though� wild swirls of wah wah everywhere, constant leads, shredding one second, spitting gouts of textural noise the next, slipping easily from hypno-rock crunch to loose almost free form psychedelic space rock, or dirgey swaggery Stooges-y churn. Gloriously loose and ramshackle, lo-fi and noisy, atonal and angular, the sound constantly on the verge of collapse, but for every stretch of fractured damaged psych, the band were capable of conjuring some equally genius blissed out drug rock radness, often impossible to tell which was which. While maybe a bit too lose and fucked up for the current crop of psychedelic space rockers, this stuff is fierce and feral and delivers the kind of true psych few bands were or are able to conjure.
