You'll have to excuse us if we seem to have found ourselves at a loss for things to say about Mr. Pollard and his innumerable projects and releases. We've totally lost count. C'mon, cut us some slack! His songs may be utterly human and personal, but the man behind it is an almost inhuman music-making dynamo. While there are plenty of GBV and Pollard supporters around aQ, we're pooped. There's barely enough time to digest the last release before a new one lands in our lap, and there's always a few numbers that get their hooks into us. That said, this is pretty darn classic Pollard in indie rock mode... meaning there's very few of his weirdo wacko noisy detours. Normal Happiness = sixteen engaging, endearing poppy nuggets, the kind he does so well! Whew, looks like we weren't at such a writer's block after all!
Maybe not the place to start for GBV/Pollard neophytes, but will surely more than please his legions of devoted fans.
Another week, another Robert Pollard release! Had enough yet? If so, we (and probably he too) would understand. Many of his solo outings can be a bit haphazard, but allow is to reassure you that this album is actually remarkably solidly packed with Pollard pop gems and quite light on the overt weirdness. Maybe he should have titled it "Robert Pollard Gets Down To Business"? Diehard fans should certainly give this one a spin!
If you happen to somehow be new to this musical gent, this probably isn't the place to start. Figuring out the best introduction can be a daunting task. At last count we had about 59 Pollard and Guided By Voices entries in our database, and that's not even including his alter egos and side projects. There's so many that a few times we ran out of words with which to review them! Nonetheless we can advise you to head first and immediately to Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand.
As if he wasn't busy enough, Mr. Robert Pollard now adds "record label exec" to his curriculum vitae. Silverfish Trivia is the first release on his new label Prom Is Coming. Seven songs = twenty two minutes... most of the tunes are captivatingly short'n'sweet under-three-minute nuggets in true Pollard fashion, but one "Cats Love A Parade" stretches out longer and psych-ier than the rest reaching almost the eight minute mark... which is also in true Pollard fashion.
Hey, here's a new rock album from Uncle Bob!
He may have laid his Fading Captain label series to rest, but Robert Pollard ain't shutting down any time soon! He can't be stopped, and Merge Records is helping to ensure that with not one but two new albums at once! The label has suggested the age-old Beatles vs Stones debate as a fitting differentiation point between the two faces of Pollard's current double whammy -- that is, a poppy one and a harder edged rock one. Standard Gargoyle Decisions is the latter. It's grittier and more distorted with more electric guitar dissonance. We personally favor the brighter, sweeter sunbeam that is the former (Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love), but perhaps you'll see things differently.
Pollard's releases are seldom so clearly sorted and defined. We can usually count on some element of bee-in-his-bonnet randomness, but not so this time. And you know what? As much as we've always loved and appreciated his devil may care approach, it's really a pleasure to hear a relatively even keeled seventeen songs in a row. That's the case with this here album.
Mister Pollard keeps on keepin' on... and on and on! Is there a word beyond "prolific"? His musical output is ceaseless! It's a neverending string of lo-lo-fi pop meanderings and dishevelled bizarre noisy shambles that's been peppered with some absolute winners as well as some stinkers. We've got two new ones in this month, Superman Was A Rocker (under his own name) and We've Moved (under the moniker Psycho And The Birds). Right now, we're leaning in favor of the latter because this one is a bit too wacky with its radio clips and other random tidbits of mischief interspersed with the songs. Might be your cup of tea though! If you're gonna get your feet wet with this or any other Pollard release, you've gotta be prepared to accept the wheat with the chaff, the dreamily tuneful with the discordantly tuneless. Of course if you're already a Robert Pollard fan, you probably already own this! Heck, we often wonder why he doesn't just set up an Uncle Bob's cd of the month subscription club.
Second solo album from Guided By Voices singer and songwriter.
We'll go out on a limb here, and say that of the hundreds, maybe thousands of songs Guided By Voices recorded over the course of sixteen full lengths, and about a million eps and singles, most if not all, were pretty damn great. Sure there were some throwaways, but for a body of songs that epic, the ratio of good to bad was impossibly high. And most folks credited songwriter / GBV head honcho Robert Pollard, and rightfully so, but then a funny thing happened after the dissolution of GBV, Pollard started releasing solo records, and records with other ad hoc outfits, and that ratio turned around, WAY around, and suddenly, a new Pollard record didn't elicit the same sort of excitement that a new GBV record did. Even here, we didn't bother with a bunch of the Pollard releases, partially cuz it's just impossible to keep up, but also because it seemed like the magic was gone, where GBV records were inspired, Pollard records seemed more like a job, just what he did. To be fair, there were a bunch of records that we loved, and even the ones we didn't had at least a handful of killer jams. But We All Got Out Of The Army sees Pollard and friends returning to form big time. Opener "Silk Rotor" sounds like classic late era GBV, a little glammy, super hooky, with a lurching angular verse, and a soaring totally memorable chorus, one for the GBV / Pollard pantheon for sure. And the hits just keep coming, from slow burning brooding lopes, jangly pop dirges, to weird almost new wave sounding angular jams, to totally classic British Invasion worship via four-track and beer, to warbly acoustic lo-fi bedroom indie folk, to the record's other GBV style classic, the title track, with its stop/start verse and super heavy hooky chorus. Killer stuff for sure, and an essential addition to your already shelf busting GBV / Pollard collection!
Robert Pollard may have closed the book on his band Guided By Voices, but he sure as heck ain't stopping the music makin'! For that we're very happy, but having said that, we're much less happy about this new ep. Simply put, these four songs seem uninspired and hurriedly dashed off. Sure one of Pollard's particular talents has always been nailing the hooks and the hearts with alarming brevity, but such is not the case with Zoom. There's only a couple of fleeting glimpses of that dear Pollard pop magic, and taking the eight minute long running time into consideration that's a rather poor ratio. Disappointing.
This record contains sweet, sad rock songs from 3 Guided By Voices alumni fronted by the seemingly inexhaustible Mr. Robert Pollard. Any fan of these gentlemen will be impressed and pleased with this record. It is very much in the same vein as previous
Many pop fans were severely saddened when those Scottish dreamboats The Delgados sailed off into the sunset in 2005 after ten years and five albums. Well, we can all dry our tears... at least a little bit because Ms Emma Pollock (who was one of the charmingest voices from that band) has emerged with an album that respectfully carries on in her former band's wonderfully sumptuous and poignant pop tradition. On the surface Watch The Fireworks reflects the sound of lemon meringue, dew drops, crushes, and snugglin', but there's more to it than simple sweetness. After you get swept up immediately in the opening number's carousel waltz tempo and Pollock's voice, you'll find songs with a bit more burly energy than that of the Delgados. The backdrop of electric guitar crunch, sturdy bassy organ lines, solidly struck piano keys and insistent drums make for a pleasing counterpart to her sweet singing. It propels each song up-up-up into the super pop stratosphere, burning off any grey clouds and leaving nothing but warm golden sunlight. It's easy to see why it was such a good idea for her to open for the new Pornographers on their latest tour for their album Challengers. if you get a chance to see her, don't miss it! Otherwise, buy this now!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Pollock and Krasner were a couple, they lived in a house on Long Island and made paintings we hang in museums. This is a recording of them talking with William Wright (1950) and Marc Miller (1982), respectively. And you know it's got a nice cover.
The previous outing for Polmo Polpo (aka the Toronto based musician Sandro Perri) was a collection of very hard to find 12" singles, encapsulating a sound that merged hazy organic melodies from slide guitar and cello with the minimalist techno archetypal of Chain Reaction. It was, quite simply, a gorgeous sound. Here on "Like Hearts Swelling," the rich orchestration remains while the pronounced techno rhythms settle quietly into the background or are completely avoided on most tracks. That said, the undergirdings of techno are still Perri's basis for sound organization. Compact blocks of sound denoted by synthetic bass lines and tightly looped samples repeat themselves in hypnotic phrases, following the same patterns established by Gas on the majestic "Konigsforst" album and its more playful cousin "Pop." The strength of "Like Hearts Swelling" is found in the counterpoints between these subdued structures and the expressive melodies of cello, slide guitar, glockenspeil, accordion, and ambient passages culled from these instruments. The jubilant melodies from the album's second track "Requiem For A Fox" slide up and down the guitar frets, returning to a simple descending melodic fragment that is remarkably similar to the chorus from Blondie's "Dreaming." While this is probably an unintentional appropriation, the timbres and moods of this album reflect many of the sounds proferred by likeminded canucks Godspeed! You Black Emperor and their side projects. In other words, it's beautiful.
As longtime readers of the list no doubt realize, we love The Austerity Program, a dynamic duo of guitar and bass, accompanied by a drum machine, who are heavy as fuck, technical and brutal, but catchy too, their unabashed Big Black worship and goofy sense of humor as much a part of their sound as anything else. So we were pretty thrilled to discover there was in fact a band that came before The Austerity Program, called Polonium. So what was that band all about you ask? Well, they were a two piece, same exact members as The Austerity Program, instrumentation is just guitar and bass. Like The Austerity Program. And they had a drum machine. And they were pretty metal. Like� well you know. The label makes a point of talking about how Polonium played death metal, and we of course foolishly assumed they were being serious, foolishly because the label is in fact run by the Austerity Program guys themselves, who can not be trusted (remember this?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WcsV7hQ1V4). Thus we quickly discovered that Polonium were not in fact death metal at all, but our disappointment was short lived, cuz what Polonium DO sound like is the goddamn Austerity Program! In fact, this is essentially proto-AP, churning and chugging, machine rhythms driving downtuned riffage, Justin Foley's howled vocals in full effects, gnarled drum machine prog meets tranced out metal minimalism, the band noise rocking with the best of them, but then locking into total hypno-metal blowouts that go on for ages, totally mesmerizing, and even in this more lo-fi and raw form, totally fucking amazing.
Obviously essential for Austerity Program fans, but really, anyone into avant robot metal, downtuned noise rock nerdcore and/or churning dirgey heaviosity should definitely get a load of these guys.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
If we had to rank our favorite nineties math/post/indie rock bands, it would be pretty tough to pick a favorite. Rodan, Slint, Archers Of Loaf, Pitchblende, we could definitely go on, but rest assured, Polvo would be up there too, most definitely vying for the top spot. But as much as we love Polvo, were were definitely a little nervous about a brand new record. It's been a long time, and there are pitfalls either way. It would be sort of disingenuous to make a record that sounded EXACTLY like you did back in the day, but that's sort of what people want. Cuz if you make a record that sounds NOTHING like the good old days, people will definitely be confused. In the case of Polvo, it sounds like maybe they split the difference. The new sound is actually quite different, but enough Polvo-isms abound that it could really be nobody else, and while we weren't super into it on first listen, it's definitely grown on us, and we're digging it quite a bit now.
"Heavy Detour" starts off with what sounds like the theme from S.W.A.T. all jangly guitar and high hat, but once the band kicks in, that gnarled riffage could be no one else. Although there is a bit of 'groove', as the song progresses, that groove seems to make more sense, and then there are the strings, these big bursts of almost symphonic strings, a weird bit of bombast that takes some getting used to. As do the raspy way up in the mix vox, the sound surprisingly accessible for a band, we always thought never really was, but the second half of the song fixes that, sort of, with some layered riffage, some serious metallic chugging, and tangled guitar harmonies, before returning to the chorus. The second track is a bit more low key, but is again all about the vocals, which are strident, and pretty much drive the jams, which is WAY different that the Polvo of old, when the vocals were buried in the mix, but once you get used to that, these songs begin to stick, and the Polvo-isms definitely become more prominent, especially on the rocked out instrumental stretches.
The 7" comes with a download coupon, which includes the single tracks as well as a bonus alternate mix of the B side which might be even better than the song proper, laced with handclaps, electronics, and way bigger, more bombastic drumming.
The reunion / reissue onslaught seems like it might never end. But when bands like Polvo decide to get back together, why would we ever want it to?
Easily one of our favorite math rock bands from the nineties, whose sound was truly unique, tangled Eastern sounding guitars, slippery riffs, complicated song structures, weary laid back vox, all wound tight into some of the catchiest, most unlikely indie rock songs ever.
We knew Polvo had gotten back together, and then we found out they were recording a brand new record, which could definitely have been a disappointment, but this is most definitely not a disappointment. Not at all. There are awesome reunion records for sure, but this isn't just an awesome *reunion* record, In Prism totally stands up to the rest of their catalog, Today's Active Lifestyles, Shapes, Exploded Drawing, only the pickiest of ears would be able to pick one of the In Prism songs out as not belonging, and only then it would probably be mostly because they didn't know it by heart like the rest of the catalog. Which is sort of the magic of Polvo, their music is so NOT typically catchy or poppy, it's obtuse, angular, off kilter, twisted, tangled, but somehow it IS both catchy and poppy. Those slithery woozy riffs get stuck in your head as hard as any radio hit pop song.
And yeah, In Prism carries on that tradition, another kick ass set of songs, hooky and heavy, warped and mathy, with a bit of a classic rock vibe going on, which we didn't really notice until someone pointed it out to us. But goddamn this stuff is awesome. Opener "Right The Relation" is perfect Polvo, with one of THOSE riffs, vocals and guitar lines getting all tangled up, and some incredible drumming. And then there's "Beggar's Bowl", the most classic Polvo track of all the jams here, with one of the best riffs ever, draped over shimmery high end guitar whir, super rad jagged start stop arrangements, hazy production, layered lush guitars, and a main hook that slays.
Anyone who loved Polvo back in the day, or who still loves Polvo (which we imagine must be everyone right?) will go nuts for In Prism, and folks into mathy, crunchy, indie post rock and have somehow never heard Polvo before, this might be an introduction to your new favorite band.
5 songs.
If you're swayed by enthusiastic, nickname-droppin' soundbytes on shrinkwrap from the likes of David Bowie, then you've probably already snuggling up to this new Polyphonic Spree cd. He says it is "probably The Poly's best and deepest album yet!" We say "the first track sounds like they're ripping off Blondie's "Dreaming"." Well, doesn't it?! Don't worry, we're not getting all down on this band, we love 'em! Anyways, as per the album's title, Polyphonic Spree sure has grown into an army, a deliriously glorious pop orchestral choral one. Their lineup isn't so fragile though, numbering twenty, and they're a mighty force of uplifting and sugary jubilation. If you dig Langley School Music Project, you're gonna luv this... and vice versa!
This comes with a fervent endorsement from AQ pal and man-of-many-hats Kevin Clarke, a man with pop smarts you can certainly trust. Following the break-up of Tripping Daisy, TD mainman Tim DeLaughter shifted his attention to assembling The Polyphonic Spree, quite an unusual musical group from Dallas, TX. What's so odd about them? Well, there's over two dozen members for one thing! And they're all clothed in long flowing white robes for another. Their music is a supremely uplifting gospel pop complete with vocal chorus a la Up With People backed by a pit orchestra of sorts (with woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings, and theremin). Very out of step with the times. There's so little these days that exhibits such a mass vocal outpouring, and it's all lushly and trippily composed in grand Brian Wilson and Flaming Lips-y fashion. Actually the latter is reinforced by Delaughter's ultra-sensitive lead vocals which closely resemble Wayne Coyne's. Just imagine an enormous musical embrace, and you'll be close.
MPEG Download: "Track 2" [/audio/polyphonic2.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Track 2" [/audio/polyphonic2.m3u]
Hop aboard this new Polyphonic Spree album -- imagine a souped-up It's A Small World ride at Disneyland! Although the musicians come bursting out of the gate on this album's lead-off song, the Polyphonic Spree keep you waitin' for their beloved glorious en-masse vocals to come in -- only making their entrance very briefly late in the song. The group's grand orchestrations and frontman Tim DeLaughter's lead vocals are even more 'Flaming Lips' than before. The resemblance is truly unbelievable. Full of swelling heart lyrics, spring shower piano tinkling, butterfly flutes, lofty filigree'd horns and rainbow smiles, Together We're Heavy is sure to please the 'Spree's legions of loyal followers. On a side note, in the liner notes along with mentions of the expected woodwinds, brass, strings, keyboards, voices, toys and percussion, a number of "The Cast" are credited with "teeth"! Rather odd!
Bonus: Includes a dvd filled with a DeLaughter interview, videos, a game and footage of the group performing live in Chicago and Tokyo.
Here's a little teaser while we wait (see the clever title) for the next Polyphonic Spree album. Two new songs which will be on the forthcoming full length, and three covers of The Psychedelic Furs, Nirvana and front man Tim Delaughter's old band Tripping Daisy. Bright eyed pop for the white robe brigade.
You know with a name like Polyphony, this '70s outfit is all about making music for music's sake. Factor in the trippy psychedelic/mythological album cover art, and it's really no surprise that these guys are in fact a full-on prog rock band, making COMPLEX music for complex music's sake, in the vein of the English masters like ELP, Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson. But they're not British (or even Italian), they're Americans, early adopters of that classic progressive rock sound, releasing this, their sole opus, back in 1972. It's one of the best underground hard prog artifacts from the USA which which we're familiar. Utterly bombastic and boisterous, with tons of crazy Moog synth and ponderous Hammond organ, lighter melodic la-la-la moments but plenty of acid guitar heaviness too, long-form, multi-part song suites, mystical lyrics, the works.
Track one, a 14 minute epic, is aptly titled "Juggernaut", its many moods encompassing frenzied rhythms, distorted riffage, and spaced out vocals. If you dig it, you'll dig the rest of the album. Which, we should mention, boasts some great track titles: "40 Second Thing In 39 Seconds" (which is actually more like 77 seconds, an instrumental mostly consisting of pulsating Moog-fart noises), "Gorgons Of The Glade" (the first of three parts that make up the headspinning 15 minute "Ariel's Flight" suite), and "Crimson Dagger" (a track that is as lovely and ethereal as it is quirky and violent). Prospective purchasers of this remastered vinyl reissue are pretty much required to be down with the PROG, and if you are (like we are!), you'll find lots of enjoy here. The Out-Sider label has provided an insert with photos and liner notes as well.
Until we live in the perfect world where frantic Japanese 'kids' shows such as Kure Kure Takora, Booska and Domokun ran non-stop on the telly, we'll have to make do with the aural equivalent... which is this new Polysics cd. As suggested in the album's title, there's an air of insistent immediacy, but for what we're not quite sure. Curses, you language barriers! We'll just say, Now Is The Time is a manically hyper Japanese collision of no wave and new wave. Lots of tweaked synthesizers and chunky guitars, but with more singing, spazzy shrieks and hollerin' too. With the exception of the second to last song the sugar-shocked "Baby BIAS", this is a heavier, noisier and more darkly dissonant Polysics than the band we remember from their last album, 2001's Hey! Bob! My Friend! This domestic release includes two bonus tracks not on the import! Recommended.
We like! Ears find super fun! Polysics!
Even though this is Pontiak's SEVENTH album, we had never heard anything of theirs before now, and to be honest we weren't really sure to expect, but it most definitely wasn't this. Not sure what it is, the name, or the fact that they're on Thrill Jockey, but everything had us expecting something more minimal and post rocky, even perhaps a little electronic, which ended up being WAY off. All it took was about 30 second of the first track, a blast of super distorted Stooges-y buzzsaw riffing, some thick low slung bass buzz, yowled vox, a sort of laid back almost stoner rock vibe, hell there's even some organs, all blurred into a sort of heavy rock desert groove that KILLS. Sorta bluesy, sorta stoner rock, pretty goddamn heavy, but also moody and atmospheric, we're hearing Dead Meadow, Comets On Fire, seventies proto-metal, Bardo Pond, Burning Brides, even some classic rock like Zeppelin, slithery swaggery verses, soaring crunchy, heavy as fuck psychedelic choruses, the band as deft at crafting a slab of heavy psych pop as they are at putting together tripped out mathy space rock epics, check out the 6+ minute closer, that sounds like some crazed Boredoms meets Earthless instrumental jam, while super distorted chaotic drumming, wild blown out psychguitar tangles, the sound dense and heavy as fuck, but still spaced out and seriously trippy. And while that's fast becoming our favorite jam here, along with the face melting opener, in between there's plenty of kick ass psych pop, fuzzy garage rock, classic rock crunch and mathy brooding space rock epics, all of which tells is we should really be tracking down all their other records as well...
The last Pontiak record, 2012's Echo Ono, seriously threw us for a loop. Not only was it the group's seventh record (and yet the first one we'd heard), but it was also sonically, at the time at least, totally removed from what we normally expect from Thrill Jockey. Some seriously heavy, riffy, psychedelic, stoner rock, massive fuzzed out guitars, bombastic drumming, wild whooping vocals, but whatever it was, we dug it BIG TIME. So here's the follow up, and from track one, it's more of the glorious same. The first track a short sharp blast of crunchy riffage, spidery psychedelic leads, everything doused in fuzz and echo, a little bit mathy, seriously stonery, it's the sort of stuff that should appeal to underground heavy rock nerds as much as more mainstream folks into Queens Of The Stone Age and the White Stripes. In fact, spun correctly, it's not hard to imagine this being Pontiak's breakout record, and if some band like the Black Keys took them on tour, their big-rock-success fate would be sealed. But for now, they're still ours, and they're still plying their sweaty, bloody knuckled, hard rawking wares in tiny clubs and spitting out darkly psychedelic, eminently headbangable stoner groove, hard psych records like this one, and we seriously can't get enough. Fans of Golden Void, Dead Meadow, Comets On Fire, Bardo Pond, Burning Brides, will flip their lids. Swirling organs underpin some tracks, sounding straight up seventies psych prog ("It's The Greatest"), others like "Ghost", sound almost like Dutch instru-metallers Gore given a serious heavy fuzz makeover, the band locked into cyclical tranced out hypno-rock grooves. Other tracks are laid back, Southern rock slow jams, channeling the Allman Brothers or the Outlaws ("Noble Heads"), and still others are seriously slithery heavy rock dirges, with some of the fuzziest guitars since Kyuss (check out the chugging, churning "Surrounded By Diamonds") and a bunch are just awesomely noisy, psychedelic garage blowouts, swirling clouds of FX, the band kicking out the jams, swaggery, stomping hard rocking, hooky heaviness that just KILLS.
And while they last, which won't be long by the way, the copies we have will come with a bonus cd, featuring 44 minutes of exclusive material called "Heat Leisure", recorded on the band's farm in Virginia with Greg Fox from Guardian Alien and formerly of Liturgy, as well as a dude from Arbouretum and Beach House, and originally featured in a short film. The bonus cd is only available direct from Thrill Jockey, the band, and a tiny handful of stores, one of which is OURS!
The Ponys nuance up the post-punk here on a follow-up to their debut album. Celebration Castle, recorded by Steve Albini, smooths over some of the rawness from their first album. This might disappoint some of their fans while others may see past its production to the songs themselves. And they'll love em!
They may not be very good at spelling, but they've sure studied their rock history books. The Ponys are revivalists of a sound that never really went away. They fuse together all the many flavors of nineties college rock which in turn drew influence from the lanky rockers of the seventies. Turn The Lights Out is packed with big wall o' effects dissonance, sinewy picked guitar melodies, trippy space rock noodlin' and more straight ahead rock'n'roll bombast. Easily conjures up references to rock heroes Sonic Youth, Television, Jesus & Mary Chain, Pixies, Husker Du and Dinosaur Jr. Oh and did we mention that they even have a song titled "Exile On My Street"? Uh huh, check.
Heavy psych and metal freaks, perhaps you remember we reviewed a reissue of this power trio Poobah's 1979 album Steamroller a while back? While '79 was a late date for "proto-metal", that's definitely what this Youngstown Ohio outfit sounded like, heavy duty acid rock n' roll action with plenty of psychedelically shredding guitar work. Well, now you can check out where they wuz comin' from, 'cause this "Special Collector's Edition" of their 1972 independently released debut has just been "re-unleashed". Just peep the vintage b&w photos of the band, all long hair, beards, head bands. Total hippies! HEAVY hippies. Hard as nails. But definitely hippies (like the fabulous furry freak bro looking dude depicted in the crude cover cartoon, spitting up into a toilet - or is it the other way around?).
So, yeah, Poobah is "proto-metal" fersure on this one, right from the get-go with the aptly titled "Mr. Destroyer", which despite the peace-loving message of the lyrics seems to demonstrate that violence for violence's sake can work, in rock anyway! And aside from one (quite nice) laidback number, "Enjoy What You Have", the six tracks that make up the original release of Let Me In are all similarly raw rifftastic freakrock heaviness, very underground, their unhinged high wattage psychedelia almost kinda punk, a la the UK's Crushed Butler, Detroit's Death, or Australia's Coloured Balls. BAD ASS in other words. Heck the ominous creepy-crawl of "Bowleen" is practically doom metal, though Poobah do have their lighter side, with a penchant for funny voices and trippy rhythmic passages, hippy potsmoking stuff y'know...
The bonus tracks (there's 10 on the gatefold double vinyl version and 12 on the compact disc) are all also quite worthy, recorded circa '72-'73, mostly more high energy ass-kickery in the vein of the album tracks, with a few weird noisy studio experiments thrown in for good measure... or maybe not "studio" exactly as most of the bonus cuts were recorded live to 2-track in the guitarist or bassist's living room. It all sounds great though, from the surprise vocal harmonies in the midst of "Make A Man Out Of You" to the Ted Nugent style gonzo goings on of "Going To Rock City"...
Quite a treat, now we're waiting on a proper reissue of Poobah's second album, US Music, from '76, that's gotta happen someday too...
The Rockadrome label down in Texas is, as we have said, on a roll, digging up the awesome likes of Jerusalem and Iron Claw for our proto-metal listening pleasure. The both of them were early '70s bands from the UK, but Rockadrome, and related label that preceded it, Monster Records, have actually concentrated more on reissuing records by late '70s/early '80s American hard rock acts, private press obscurities that in a perfect world maybe woulda made it big, but had the misfortune of coming out right when new wave and/or disco was what the record companies wanted.
Here's a great example, something previously reissued by Monster, now at last made available again in the Rockadrome catalog. The mighty POOBAH! A power trio from Ohio, featuring in particular the talents of guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Gustafson, the most kick ass guitar whizz you probably have never heard. This one's their 1979 album Steamroller, and aside from the unexpected, lovely piano intro to the instrumental "Atom Bomb", it pretty much IS a steamroller of rockin' and rollin', wailing guitars, bashing drums, psychedelic effects, and screamin' vocals. Although '79 might be a late date for "proto-metal" that's what we'd say this is, 'cause of the weird psych and prog elements, it's just a little too weird and wild and wacky to fit in with the straight-up metal scene, maybe that's why they stayed underground. The overload of raw, chunky riffage and squiggly, slashing guitar leads (along with campy, tongue-in-cheek lyrics) here wasn't exactly radio-friendly either, though great for a party. Basically the appeal of Poobah can be summed up by image found this disc's back cover of the band's curly-haired drummer wearing a homemade t-shirt that reads "Poobah Jams" in iron-on letters. Damn right, jam they did!
So if you dig lotsa guitar, from a band influenced both by '70s heavies like Led Zeppelin (they do a cover of "Rock And Roll") and '60s surf music too, then you oughta ignore the budget cover art (both old and new, the one you see here is the new version Rockadrome came up with but the original is also fairly hideous) and check 'em out. You'll know if Poobah's for you after the seven minutes and thirty eight seconds of their track "Jump Through The Golden Ring" that opens the album! Oh, and like the previous edition on Monster, this includes some extra unreleased/live tracks also from '79.
We'd like to hear more by these forgotten Midwestern hard rock heroes. Hopefully Rockadrome will also re-reissue the other Poobah album Monster did, 1976's U.S. Rock. And, eventually, all the other cool out of print Monster titles, like Cain's Pound Of Flesh. We'll keep you posted.
Wooha, Poobah! We've previously reviewed reissues of this kickass if undeservedly obscure Ohio outfit's 1972 proto-metal debut Let Me In, and also their third album, the aptly titled Steamroller, from 1979. Now at last we've got the missing link, their 2nd album, U.S. Rock, originally released in the bicentennial year of 1976 - hence the title, and the band's patriotic pose on the cover, dressed in Revolutionary-era costume.
Lead by guitar whiz Jim Gustafson, Poobah here deliver another potent dose of their gonzo acid hard rock action. There's a song here called "Let's Rock", and another one called "Keep On Rollin'", so you get the idea, yeah, they're all about the rock n' roll good times! The former is a total '50s style rave up with boogie-woogie piano; the latter a heavier, glammier Alice Cooper-ish number. But the thing with Poobah is that they've got a crazed psychedelic side to 'em, we've written before about 'em being "weird and wild and wacky" - and we're not just talking about the song here called "Crazy", definitely one for the Dr. Demento hit parade.
On a bunch of the tracks they pull off some maniacal falsetto screamin', and speaking of that, get a load of the almost-kecak-like "Chicky Chicky Cha, Chicky Chicky Cha" chant featured in the song "Watch Me", that had us staring at the stereo the first time we heard it. WTF? That's entertainment!
For this reissue they've added 4 bonus tracks to U.S. Rock's original ten, and really across the album there's a lot of varied moods, including some nice melodic stuff - like the dreamy and majestic "Your Way, My Way" (one of the bonus tracks, which also include a 9+ minute live version of "Steamroller").
The MC5 and Ted Nugent and Grand Funk could be common reference points, to cite some big names; also Poobah are in the same realm as other underground American seventies rockers reissued by Rockadrome like Cain and Hooker - but with more unhinged hippie humor we think!
(Note: Ripple also did this reissue on cd, unfortunately we were sent the wrong title this week, so we'll have to list the cd version next time... and it's the cd that has the 4 bonus tracks mentioned above, they're not included on the vinyl.)
First full length from this Fleet Foxes offshoot, and as we mentioned in our review of their recent Illusion ep, the sound really doesn't stray that far from the FF mothership, hushed delicate country folk dreaminess, all crystalline acoustic guitars, lush vocal harmonies, lilting melodies, the opening track is super stripped down and dreamy, but the second track is where the sound begins to blossom, becoming almost orchestral, layered and lush, and in doing so, definitely starts slipping firmly back into Fleet Foxes Territory. "Same Way", with its reverbed vox and sixties jangle, sounds a lot like the recently reviewed Father John Misty record, yet ANOTHER Fleet Foxes related project. And so it goes, the sound so lovely, and twang flecked, laced with lots of extra big band instrumentation, cascades of marimba and vibraphone, bits of percussion, strings, everything wreathed in echo and reverb, a total classic twang flecked pop vibe, a la Roy Orbison, or the Byrds. And like the preceding ep, some serious gems tucked away, like "Waiting For", which might be the catchiest of the bunch, or "Come Home" which sounds like some folks standard done sixties style, or "Holiday", that reminds us of New Lines, the same sort of Beach Boys beholden retro pop, the whole record brimming with dreamy old school pop, that while most definitely of interest to Fleet Foxes fans, should find much love with fans of Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast, and all the rest of the current crop of retro poppers.
Another rad new band to add to the legion of SF psychedelic garage rock outfits who have been kicking our asses. And if you need a hint as to what these guys sound like it, just notice that out of place 'y' in the title of the tape. Sorta like the 'j' in Wooden Shjips yeah? While Poor Sons don't really sound THAT much like WS, they definitely would be right at home on the same bill, the core of their sound a droned out garage psych, hypnotic and buzzy, the drums shuffling and propulsive, the big difference are the vocals, there seem to be two singers, both WAY up in the mix, their vocals doused in effects, echo and distortion, to the point that when both are singing, in cool unlikely harmony, they nearly drown out the band, and when the vocals fade, and the band ramp it up, like on the second half of opener "Cool Buzz", these guys let loose and tear it up, shredding and pounding, the bass driving, the guitars shooting sparks, while the rhythm section holds everything down, that lead break is the sort of part you want to go on for minutes instead of seconds.
The rest of the tape is just as ruling, the band definitely swimming in similar waters as their scenemates in Thee Oh Sees, a sort of distorted blown out ramshackle garage pop, swaggery and snarly, fuzzy and jangly, slipping from churning sweat soaked pound to moody psychedelic shamble and back again, with plenty of falsetto ooooh's and frantic drumming, meshing moody jangle pop with droney psych and making a sound that ends up their very own. Which is pretty tough in a field as crowded as the psychedelic garage rock scene, but these guys are positioned to give The Oh Sees a run for their money. We've yet to see these guys play out, but based just on the tape, we're guessing they kill live too. WAY recommended. Anyone into Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, Bare Wires, Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall and Blasted Canyons can now add Poor Sons to your list of favorite local bands.
Latest from these NY noise rockers, and like their last record, The Horror, the awesomely titled Imps Of Perversion is another killer collection of dark, rhythmic noisiness. In our review of the The Horror, we compared these guys to everything from Aussie knuckle draggers Lubricated Goat, to fellow NY noiserockers The Men, imagining then that they would be way more at home on AmRep circa '95, and all of that definitely still applies. Some things have changed though, Imps is not nearly as raw and lo-fi, less noisy too, and the Cop Shoot Cop style junkyard percussion that peppered the Horror seems to have been ditched too, but all a fair trade off for a sound that's much more confident, better songs, better production, and while some of the raw energy might be missing, this is still and awesomely fierce and broodingly heavy and noisy blast of gloomy noise rock swagger. And there's plenty of sonic weirdness going on as well, between the blasts of organ driven stomp and pounding downtuned crush, there are spaced out swaths of FX heavy psychedelia, sounding a bit like some sort of Hawkwind / Clockcleaner hybrid, or the super blown out Pussy Galore-ish intro to "Population Control", that sounds like it was recorded on a handheld tape player, the drum set sounding like a pile of rusty old trash cans, when the sound suddenly attains high fidelity, the song now a drum machine driven noise rock new wave, that almost sounds like a super charged alien Devo. There's the synth heavy "Do The Anglerfish", which pairs some punk swagger and stomp, with some psychedelic synthwave, or the creepy slo-mo FX drenched blooz jangle of closer "Riding Shotgun", and hell, even the less far out songs are peppered with random weirdness, all of which would be pointless if the songs didn't kill, but they do, and they'll end up getting lodged in your head like crazy, every twisted little blurt, just give "Lights Out" a listen and see if you don't find yourself wanting to listen to it over and over, or even humming it to yourself days later...
We Are Time is a collection of odds and ends from The Pop Group, first issued on Rough Trade in 1980. All of the material was recorded around the same time as their seminal album Y from 1979, though nothing except for the title track and "Thief Of Fire" had appeared on their two albums from that time period. With the exception of those two tracks and an obscure B-sides (all of which appear here in live, demo, or alternate forms by the way), everything else is unique to the compilation. The recording sources are all different, making the entire album a bit uneven in terms of sound quality; but that criticism is pretty fucking minor, when it comes to a reissue of this fairly obscure album from this incredible Pop Group. Always an adventurous proposition, The Pop Group took the feral energy of punk to dub production techniques and a self-immolating funk sending limbs and legs in too many directions at once. We Are Time - with its much more raw sessions - tends towards the dislocating rhythmic aspect of The Pop Group's sound and less of the dub-punk delirium. Frontman Mark Stewart is a much of a madman as he's ever been, very much on par with his contemporaries of Nick Cave then of The Birthday Party and James Chance. His yelps and barks punctuated the jittery guitar spangles and that rhythm section that seems always on the verge of coming unhinged. Very nice to have this work in print!
Ever since the release of that great Soul Jazz "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" compilation on which The Pop Group appear, and also with the rise of current artists like San Francisco's Erase Errata whose work shares and reflects the spirit and energy of
Formed in 1978 by four young men from Bristol, The Pop Group unleashed itself from the frigid political environment of their native England and its narrowing punk scene. Lyrically and visually committed to leftist political ideals (much like their peers in Crass and some time later, The Ex), and sonically more "out" and dissonant than any other "punk" act of their time, The Pop Group abandoned the "no future" stereotypes for more serious and thought provoking ideas both ideological and musical.
Produced by veteran reggae/dub producer and musician Dennis Bovell, who was also responsible for "Cut" by The Slits, another post-punk outfit with whom The Pop Group happened to share an early single (the fabulous "Where There's A Will" backed by The Slits' "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm"), this explosive 1979 debut kicks off with "Thief Of Fire" in which short blasts of guitar noise fills in the gaps where an aggressive bass funk and a primitive percussive drive weave in and out of each other. From there on, the record just gets more and more angular, outrageous, and weird as it unfolds. "Snowgirl" features crackling guitarwork accompanied by macabre tinkling piano and the odd wail of vocalist Mark Stewart (who would go on to form Tackhead and become an integral part of the On-U Sound collective). And of course there's the "hit" single (and arguably their defining moment), "She Is Beyond Good And Evil", a must-hear (it's also on the "In The Beginning There Was Rhythm" comp).
The booklet has lyrics in English and Japanese as well as a nice collage of photos. Highly recommended! While we are sure to soon run out of this hard-to-get import, we've been assured we'll be able to get more of them within a few weeks, never fear.
The title does not lie. Iggy live on tour in '77, with Bowie in his band!
Punk icon Iggy's back for another round. This time, in addition to his own band the Trolls, and celebrity guests including Peaches, Sum41 and Green Day, he's got his old friends The Stooges (!!!) on board for four songs. As you probably have heard, Iggy and the Stooges (with road dog Mike Watt filling the shoes of Dave Alexander, the bass player who passed away way back in 1975) have done a few, wildly successful reunion shows in recent months. I, Allan, just came back from the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in LA this past weekend, where Iggy and the Stooges headlined the second night (that's basically why I went)...and I can tell you that it was 'real cool time' getting to see 'em, even if they didn't utterly blow my mind or anything. Iggy's like 56, twenty-two years older than me, but I sure couldn't jump around for more than three minutes like he did for the duration of the entire show! And maybe I've led a sheltered existence, but I've never seen a performer jump *onto* a crowd surfer and surf *them* before. They did songs from the first two Stooges albums only, EXCEPT for two of the four new ones found here on Skull Ring. And sad to say, these songs aren't that great, largely 'cause of the inane lyrics. Back in 1970 the Stooges never woulda done a song called "Dead Rock Star" would they? Anyway, I must admit I actually prefer Iggy's collaboration with Peaches on here over the Stooges tracks, maybe 'cause there's less room for disappointment. Still, worth checking out if you love Iggy.
"Hardcore is a place where upper-middle-class white kids take all the good pan handling spots away from the bums who really need them". So said the irreverent punk rock sage that is Joe Pop-O-Pie in his classic "The Words of Jamal -- The Rainbow Bridge Version". Along with the Butthole Surfers, the Pop-O-Pies were the perfect antidote for punks who were tiring of a stale, formulaic genre and a scene that took itself way too seriously. Started in 1981, the Pop-O-Pies were the brain child of New Jersey raised, 'Frisco' transplant Joe Callahan (A.K.A. Joe Pop-O-Pie). And for those who weren't there for the legendary first two years of its existence, the rumor is true, the Pop-O-Pies really did play only one song: "Truckin'". According to Joe the reason was because the band's lineup changed so often, there really wasn't much time to learn anything more. The end result however, was a band tailor made to piss off punks and hippies (or pseudo-radical youth culture) alike. Joe eventually found a competent, and consistent backing band in the form of none other than Faith No More and recorded the now out of print (and master tapes lost forever, sigh) "White EP" on 415 Records. But that, due to its nonexistent nature, is not the subject of this anthology. The bulk of the material here are the complete Joe's Second (also featuring Faith No More) and Joe's Third Records released in 1984 and 1986 on Subterranean Records -- at the height of punk rock's uber-hip, uber-tough, uber-serious "hardcore" era. If there's one thing that self righteous punks needed at that time, it was a good satirical slap in the face and Joe Pop-O-Pie was there to administer it. And administer he did, replete with well played, overindulgent Hendrix-esque guitar parts market tested to irritate the minimalist punk rock purists. To be fair (to the punks and Joe), that isn't all that the Pop-O-Pies satirize. Joe takes on the music industry ("Industrial Rap"), New York City ("I Love New York"), the Beatles ("I Am the Walrus"), bummed out guys ("Bummed-Out-Guy"), morons ("World-O-Morons"), the Grateful Dead ("Truckin' Slow Version" and "Sugar Magnolia") and much more and all throughout peppered with the unique punk rock salt-of-the-earth wisdom of Joe Pop-O-Pie. Not only does this anthology contain the Second and Third Records in their entirety, but also includes four additional tracks: two from Joe's 1993 comeback "The In Frisco Single" released on Amarillo and two previously unreleased tracks from the same recording session (featuring Mr. Bungle alumni Trey Spruance, Danny Heifetz and Dieselhed bassist Atom Ellis). Included with the disc is a three panel fold out featuring historical notes on the Pop-O-Pies, photos new and old and a brief account of an actual conversation overheard by Robert Mailer Anderson. And what's best is that, buying this, you don't have to worry about the artist getting screwed. Yes, that's right, Joe has come out of hiding himself to put this collection together in 100% true D.I.Y. fashion. So every dollar goes to Joe and not some A&R clown in some office building somewhere.
Not sure what it is about these NY noise rockers, but the album name is pretty right on, cuz this is some awesomely horrifying, paranoid, synth soaked, rhythmic, heavy, dark weirdness. Record opener "Burn The Worm" starts with the line "Two dogs fucking" and it's ON from there on out. The vibe is dark and swaggery, grungy and crusty, swampy and bluesy, psychedelic and post punky, you can totally imagine these guys being on AmRep or being from Australia, there are hints of Cop Shoot Cop, and Lubricated Goat, even Pussy Galore, but these guys take those influences and jam them into something brand new, low slung and fuzz drenched, a little bit gothy and gloomy, a little bit angular and new wave, but loose and chaotic and fucked up, rife with surprising hooks, and killer melodies, industrial junkyard percussion, thick slithery bass, and huge bursts of white noise crunch. At times these guys sound like they could be one of those third string Sub Pop bands we were totally obsessed with, that sort of druggy, almost glammy, swampy blues sound, but with hints of new wave, fused to a lurching lumbering noise rock and all tangled up with some sweaty bloody garage punk pound. All that and songs too. Not hard to imagine these guys born from the same fertile sonic soil that gave us past Record Of The Weekers The Men, similarly noisy and heavy, but infinitely more twisted and gloriously fucked up.
Along with composing the scores for some of Werner Herzog's greatest films, Florian Fricke was as much a musical pioneer as were his contemporaries Faust, Neu and Cluster. Unlike his contemporaries, Fricke's music is informed as much by music from arounds the world as it was rock and classical composition (in which he was schooled). Sitars, pan flutes and assorted ethnic percussion have as much a place in any given Popol Vuh album as moog synths, guitars, bass and drums. One only need look at his choice of a band name, taken from the title of a sacred Mayan text, to see where Fricke's affinities lay.
Affenstunde, recorded in 1970, was Popol Vuh's first album. The four original album tracks are a combination of dark, droning synth soundscapes, hippy drum circle-ish drum james and improvised moog keyboard workouts. Imagine if you could crunch the bubbly synth era of Tangerine Dream into their dark, early days circa Electronic Meditation and Alpha Centari. In contrast to his later works for film, Affenstunde is much more textural, intentionally devoid of any melody. As a bonus this remastered edition, like the others in this series, comes with an additional -- previously unreleased -- track from the same period. And that cover picture! Hard to resist.
