The first in a new series of archival shoegaze reissues from Captured Tracks comes from the late great and almost entirely unsung Texas shoegaze outfit Should, who were in fact called shiFt when these tracks were first recorded and released in 1995, the record was re-released a few years later with more tracks including some killer covers (18th Dye, Jean Paul Sartre Experience) and the cd version of this collection is essentially a new version of that record (the lp version includes the bonus tracks as downloads), and Should / shiFt offer up exactly what you would expect from a mid-nineties shoegaze combo, shimmering atmospheres, dreamy male/female vocals, hushed minimal drumming, and warm washed out woozily distorted electric guitars, the guitar sound of particular note, as the liner notes explains that Should mainman Marc Ostermeier not only didn't own a guitar, but also couldn't PLAY guitar, so created loops and samples from pre-recorded guitar parts, and also didn't own any distortion or effects pedals, so basically just misused and abused his mixer to achieve the desired effect, and the results are pretty fantastic. Indie rock jangle, a little twee, wreathed in thick swaths of warm whirling guitar buzz, minimal programmed beats, lazy vox, sun dappled and dreamy, warmly distorted, sometimes thick and lush, other times delicate and crystalline, but dreamy and divine throughout.
The third full length by this Stockholm based band is the first to reach our ears... thanks to those fine folks at Merge Records. Seriously, have they ever steered us wrong? We think not!
Although the black and white band photo on the front cover made us think this was an obscure '80s Talking Heads or Camper Van Beethoven record, Shout Out Louds are a perfect fit on the label who delivered Superchunk, Destroyer, Arcade Fire, The Clientele, She & Him, and Camera Obscura among many others. If you dig pretty chiming guitar lines and sweet boy vocals, don't miss this! The album starts out with a punch then gradually mellows out over the course of the next few songs. Along the way they incorporate elements of '70s soft rock, '80s art rock, '90s college rock. Yes, that's a lot of rock rock rock, but they do dish out the pop aplenty too! Definitely for fans of New Pornographers, Death Cab For Cutie, Peter, Bjorn And John, and The Pernice Brothers!
Any band who compares themselves to legendary Aussie noise rockers Lubricated Goat, one of our favorite bands EVER (someone PLEASE reissue all their records!!) has some serious sonic balls, and of course, that makes us definitely want to hear them, but at the same time, sets expectations so high, that they'll be lucky if they can live up to that sort of promise. aQ pal Michael Beach, whose solo records we've reviewed here, fronts this self described "Australian psych-post-punk" combo Shovels, whose record sports a sticker comparing them to the aforementioned Lubricated Goat, as well as Feedtime, the A-Frames and My Disco. All bands we dig a LOT, and we're happy to report, Shovels sound right at home amidst such esteemed noise rock company. And while they may fall a bit short of the Lubricated Goat high water mark, there's no doubt that if you dig the 'Goat as much a we do, odds are you're gonna like this stuff too. Wild squalls of swirling, guitar noise, clingy angular riffery, wild chaotic drumming, the sound lurching from sinewy low slung slither, to chugging groove, to almost free form freakout, the vocals buried in the mix, almost an after thought, often disappearing completely for minutes at a time, letting the instruments to all the heavy lifting, and we do mean heavy, tense and intense, minimal in structure, but maximal in abrasive intensity. The guitars are often wiry, almost jangly, but also explosive, long stretches of droned out hypno-rock often splintering into furious fractured crunch and howl, but often remaining simple and stripped down, brooding and heavy lidded, those two sides constantly jostling for supremacy, and resulting in an urgent, psych-punk downer rock that definitely pushes all our buttons.
Fans of the above mentioned bands, as well as other sonically similar noise rock / gloom punk / post punk / psych garage combos will find a whole lot to dig here�
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES. Includes a download code.
You may recall an ultra-soothing self-released cd-r we carried here a while ago by a local atmospheric post-rock band named Carrier. Well, Jerry Jai from that very band has moved on to this like-minded new combo, and this 7" is your pleasant introduction to them. A short'n'sweet pair of glistening indie pop tunes. Nice!
For many a year Chicago has churned out some of the most polished, impressive musical artists. Shrimp Boat's membership boasted many of them back when they were mere... uh, brine shrimp? Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge went on to form the Sea And Cake, while Brad Wood went on to produce Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, as well as loads of Chicago bands. Shrimp Boat's sound is a childlike haphazard amalgam of folk, jazz and pop (among other things!). Percussion is tapped out in rustic, ramshackle fashion. Vocals are often hillbilly-ish yelps and yowls singing spur of the moment storytelling lyrics. Wheezing woozy saxophones stop in for neighborly visits. Really, this gets stranger and more dislocated, but also more cohesive, as it progresses. There are definitely hints of the smooth suave sound that would eventually become the Sea And Cake, and it seems like musically adventurous Sea And Cake fans will definitely want to check this out. For a limited time, this three cd set is actually a FOUR cd set with a whole extra disc of bonus unreleased rarities. Beautifully packaged with a huge book of liner notes and photos.
If you're a Shrimpboat neophyte who found their recent Something Grand boxset (three cds packed with an immense amount of previously unreleased material) simply too massive and unwielding to digest or conversely if you're a fan who just yearns to revisit their more familiar old songs, this is the cd you want/need! It's the reissue of this highly influential Chicago band's debut album from back in 1989. Hurrah! Often seeming inspired by the quirksome likes of Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers (check out "Greenhouse") and clearly a precursor to the yelpy ramshackle pop sounds of bands such as Modest Mouse (check out "Seven Crows") as well as the breezy jazz-inflected postrock sounds of band member Sam Prekop's later endeavors (both solo and in Sea & Cake).
These irrepressible SoCal stoner skate punks come ripping and raging back with their 2nd album for Tee Pee. Not unlike the self-proclaimed "primitive blast" of their debut, it's again an explosive concoction of high energy rock 'n' roll, sure to catch your ears and show 'em a good time, even as these tracks speed by in full on party mode. Part metal, part punk, The Shrine are both heavy and hooky, mixing up some Kill 'Em All era Metallica riffage with SST/Black Flag 'tude too (and in fact, one song features lyrics by Chuck Dukowski originally written for an unrecorded Black Flag tune from '83). Lest we forget, some other longhairs named Soundgarden got their start on SST, and The Shrine probably say, Ultramega OK to that.
Among this album's highlights, we'll single out the remarkably poppy shred of "Tripping Corpse", you just gotta love lines like "he combs his hair / he doesn't care / he's living free / acid casualty", as sung over some suitably tweaked Voivoid-esqe chords. The sheer no-fucks-gven rock power of that track is fairly representative of the whole dang disc.
No sophomore slump here! No slump of any kind. Indeed, this is pure anti-slumping music for sure. It's get up, get going, skate and destroy music!
The Shrine to what? The gods of high energy rock n' roll action, we assume. Such a shrine, we're imagining, would consist of one or more big ass amplifiers, probably draped with an Amerikkkan flag (upside down?), ringed with empty beer cans and broken bottles. Oh, and skateboards, a bunch of skateboards. Musically, that's what we're gettin' here, the three hairy dudes in heavy, punked out power trio The Shrine mainlining such influences as Black Flag, Black Sabbath, and the MC5. They don't hold back, with opener "Zipper Tripper" defining The Shrine's style of speedy SoCal "psychedelic violence" pretty plainly from the get-go. Furthermore, as the disc spins, The Shrine soon make it obvious that their particular primitive blast is in fact a damn catchy one, yeah! They rip it up with snakey riffs and plenty of 'tude on all nine tracks here, a little over a half hour of gnarly shake appeal for stoner punks & skate metallers; this is definitely for anybody who was into another, sorta similar Tee Pee band, Annihilation Time (R.I.P.), recipients of a T-shirt shout out from The Shrine on this album's back cover band pic. Another good comparison would be to the 2nd, more SST-ish album from J. Mascis doom project Witch.
For us, what really seals the deal is that track four happens to be a cranked-up cover of "Run The Night", originally by '70s heavy psych British biker band Wicked Lady, whose reissues we just highlighted. We were like, hmmm, this sounds familiar, then figured it out. And it fits right in with the vibe of the whole album. Killer!!!
We'd be into a new release from SoCal skate punk metal blasters The Shrine in any case, 'cuz they kick ass, but this new 12" maxi-single of theirs on Tank Crimes is extra-awesome, as The Shrine prove themselves to be the coolest kids in skool by doing a cover of "Waiting For The War" by obscure early '80s French punk rawkers SOGGY!! If you've been with us for a while, maybe you remember when we had the limited vinyl reissue of the Soggy album, we sold a ton of those while they were briefly available some years ago. The awesomely Stooges-y "Waiting For The War" was Soggy's best, heaviest jam. You should check out Soggy's live-on-TV version of it on YouTube if you've never heard it - and/or pick up this, The Shrine doing a killer cover, it's a brilliantly perfect choice for them. (They have a good taste in covers, having done a Wicked Lady tune on their debut album.)
The A-side also includes an original by the Shrine, the rollicking stoner rocker "Rare Breed", while on the B-side, you gets an instrumental version of "Waiting For The War". Colored vinyl, and it comes with a download card!
Most people cringe upon hearing the word "supergroup," and not without good reason: most supergroups fucking suck. Shrinebuilder, however, is a rare beast, an exception to the general rule, and it almost seems offensive to call them a supergroup. BUT... that's sort of what they are. Consisting of Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), Dale Crover (the Melvins), and Wino (you should know him by now, but let's mention The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan and Saint Vitus!!), Shrinebuilder raised some pretty high hopes, and it seemed impossible that these four living legends would let us down. Thankfully, they haven't. In fact, Shrinebuilder's debut has far exceeded any expectations we had for a project which was pretty much destined to kick our asses in all kinds of different directions. You can detect each musician's individual style, sure, but more than anything, Shrinebuilder seems to follow a decidedly old school approach to heaviness - think Sabbath, Buffalo, that kind of thing - delivering five lengthy songs of groove laden metal heavy on the riffs (no surprise there), doomy bass, awesome to the point drumming, and plenty of spacey FX. There are moments where you have to remind yourself that you aren't listening to Sleep, especially when Al lays on the wah wah pedal, and parts of this album fulfill the fantasies of those who sometimes wish Om had a guitar player. Scott Kelly and Wino are one hell of a guitar team, and there are some amazing moments of fuzzy, sustained harmonies and plenty of chugging overdriven riffage. Crover's drumming is particularly impressive here, not that anyone needs to remind you that the guy slays. His playing here is less busy than it tends to be with the Melvins, and his steady pound suits these songs perfectly. The unmistakable vocal stylings of Wino, Scott, and Al all show up, but one of the band's greatest strengths is the fact that this sounds like the work not of some half assed side project, but of an actual band. So yeah, don't let the whole "supergroup" tag throw you off, as this is a potent brew of fully realized HEAVIOSITY.
By the way, this is on special sale here ($2 off the regular $14.98 it would be) for the next two weeks only. Not that we can imagine anyone who'd be into this not picking it up right away anyway!
Here's something we haven't had in a while, so it seemed worth highlighting again now that we've tracked down some more copies. It's the 1986 debut album (plus 2 bonus tracks) from an amazing French prog band with a shuddersome name, and sound. It combines the classical grandeur of their obvious influence Magma with looser, more experimental sounds. Very dark, heavy and ominous; creepy like Universe Zero. Spooky soprano female vocals give way to noise guitar freakouts and rhythmic passages that bring to mind This Heat. It's kind of mind-blowing, actually in keeping with the concepts of cosmic horror evoked by their H.P. Lovecraft-inspired band name (and if evoking Shub Niggurath weren't enough, there's also a song here called Yog Sothoth). Really, if you want something that sounds like Magma venturing into the realms of sanity-blasting horror, this is it. The first, nearly 17 minute track should have you knocking on the door of the nearest asylum, begging to be let in. Such ominous art rock. Definitely one of our all time fave "Zeuhl" albums outside of the actual Magma masterpieces themselves, indescribably infused with epic Magmoid drama, and that band's signature throbbing bass heavy rhythms.
This review comes courtesy of former Outpunk label head, current A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. label mastermind, gay gangsta and AQ pal Matt Wobensmith!
First time ever on CD, after being out of print for over a decade! Before "emo" was a noun, it was an adjective used to describe the sensitive, post-hardcore stylings of artistic DC punkers, who weren't afraid to cry in public and dedicate songs to trees. Some say Rites of Spring's 1986 self-titled debut album (Dischord Records) is the holy grail of emo. However, this album may well be that genre's defining document. The operatic wailings of Craig Wedren's falsetto -- not unlike Pere Ubu's David Thomas -- were a peculiar contrast to the band's more aggressive punk leanings. Says Craig of this era: "I joined a 'hardcore' group, we did not like each other's sound, they banged, I screeched ... [it] came out sounding, a little like, Ozzy?" From a time when "US hardcore" was mired in socio-political aggression and macho posturing, STT were perhaps a reaction -- ironically from within the ranks of DC bands that were so influential to that movement in the first place. This is a beautiful and enthralling album, impossibly melancholic, with perplexing lyrics from someone who's "heart is filled with 'All May Rise' and 'X Ray Eyes'". Lots of people know Shudder to Think's bizarre, dramatic alt-rock material from subsequent recordings for Dischord and later, Epic, from which most of their fan base is likely drawn. But this record -- while technically inferior and unpolished from a production standpoint -- is still many fans' favorite STT release.
If Googoosh and Shirley Collins were somehow melded together into one incredible singer, you would have Shusha. Shusha was a Persian singer from the early seventies most famous for her debut album, Persian Love Songs and Mystical Chants from 1971. But her love of music extended beyond her native Iran towards the British folk of Shirley Collins and Sandy Denny and the American protest music of Dylan and Joan Baez. That is what inspired her on these two 1974 recordings, Shusha and This Is The Day. Reissued together for a very affordable price, these two albums of chamber folk-rock divide time between English-sung originals, covers and reworkings of traditional British songs and poems. No native songs here, the only inkling that we're given that Shusha is not English born is her woozy phrasing on some of the American covers such as Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and the Elvis Presley social ballad, "In The Ghetto". But her singing really becomes transcendent on the British traditional material, where her range is allowed to soar around the song structures rather than being confined by them. This is an incredible discovery of two rare recordings by this amazing singer. Fans of Bridget St. John, Vashti Bunyan, and Joan Baez take note!
You might find the title and cover art of this new Shut-Ins' album to be a bit deceiving... We sure did! They give nary a hint of the ol' style hoedown -- with a little luau ("Hawaiian Cowboy" and "Hapa Haole Hula Girl") and sock hop ("Just Because") thrown in for good measure -- contained within. Although the instrumentation (deep warm standup bass, frantic banjo pluckin', sparkling mandolin, slip-slidin' pedal steel) and overall tone is certainly traditional country, the Shut-Ins keep the barndoor wide open and inviting, ably hoppin' about from style to style as they so please, and they do so at such a fevered pace. They even cover Blondie's "Dreaming" in earnest twangin' fashion! Such fun! Just don't forget your gingham tablecloth, saddleshoes and grass skirt. Eighteen songs in all.
Folks in SF probably remember Brian Girgus from stints behind the kit for AmRep noise rockers Lowercase and of course beloved SF popsters Track Star, but since then, Girgus has been doing something a little different. Well a LOT different than Lowercase, a little different from Trackstar.
The sound is still pop, but unlike Trackstar's jagged loud/soft noisepop, Si, Claro is more straight ahead, more simple and heartfelt. For a while now Girgus has been playing around town with nothing but an acoustic guitar, but for his first foray into a recording studio, he recruited a whole band, and even recorded one track in Sweden with Wyatt from Trackstar. The sound is quite reminiscent of nineties college rock, pure jangle indie rock. Though where Trackstar channeled Pavement, Girgus is less concerned with the noise and dynamics and snark of that side of indie rock, and instead focuses on simple solid songcraft. The two track are both straight ahead, verse chorus verse, acoustic they sounded a bit folky, but fleshed out with an actual band, they sound surprisingly lush, multiple guitars, strummed acoustic and sharper electric, some piano here and there, the drumming solid and swinging, and Girgus' vocals sweet and earnest, the lyrics are simple, sincere, the delivery plaintive, perfectly suited to the strum and jangle and shuffle that backs it up.
A sweetly solid chunk of modern indie jangle pop.
We recently received an lp simply called "Thai Record". Hmmm, very mysterious we thought, so we threw it on, and were instantly smitten. At the same time, it sounded sort of familiar... but how could that be, what were the odds that some random Thai recording would just so happen to be one we had heard or already owned. It finally clicked, this was no mysterious "Thai Record", this was an old AQ favorite, renamed and pressed on vinyl. Not to infer that it's not mysterious, it most certainly is, it just so happens to be a mystery we had faced before. The record, titled Siamese Temple Ball, was one we had reviewed years ago and was always a steady seller, and for good reason, it's an amazing album. The lp was gone as quick as it came, but it reminded us, that many of you probably missed out on the Siamese Temple Ball cd when we first listed it waaaaaay back, so now here's your chance. A brief discussion of this musical mystery from our original review:
Not much information comes with this disk at all, on the shrink wrap there's a faux pidgen English description claiming: "Flight comes to Thailand in the Year of the Rat. Siamese Temple Ball provide the lilting soundtrack for a chemical journey. Schoolgirls dance bashfully for the expectant throng. Life continues at a comparatively slow pace away from the rigours of fierce sun-light." Which is followed by the (label's) description: "In the tradition of Sun City Girls, Ya Ho Wha 13, The Spacious Mind, Taj Mahal Travellers, Mu, Word of Life, Group 1850, and Ghost, Siamese Temple Ball give maximum pleasure for thirsty brains." Quite a roster of comparisons, the most fitting of which is definitely the Sun City Girls. So while we assume that this record was recorded by a group of precocious, dilettante, ethnomusicologist hipsters, we like to suspend our disbelief and imagine this to be a genuine Folkways-style field recording, as the recording certainly has a genuine field recording presence - a single stereo microphone in a good location. The music itself is a catchy and mesmerizing steady pulse of various and sundry percussion instruments (metal, wood, skin), hollers, yelps, and rococo melodic lines spun out by tinny electric guitars, xylophones, flutes and Khan (mouth organ.) And yes, it's quite good.
Thought Noises spans the brief career of the Belgian post-punk outfit Sic, whose short run from 1979-1981 amassed three singles and some demos, which are all collected here, thanks to the wonderful archivist post-punk / minimal-wave label Dark Entries. Sic grounded their sound on an axis balanced between Micheline Dufert's vocals and the expressive bass of Francis Pourcel. Drums, synths, sax, and an occasional guitar would accompany Sic's sound, as additional members gravitating to the group to bolster the live sound. Dufert broadcasts an innate sneer through her scabrous vocals, which sharply and gutturally articulate the lyrics with plenty of venom. At times, she comes across like a disco-punk diva akin to Lesley Woods from Au Pairs or Eve Libertine from Crass; and at others, she looks to the Neue Deutsche Welle sound with its dark cabaret croon and caterwaul. Pourcel takes his cues on the bass from Peter Hook (Joy Division / New Order) and Jeremy Kerr (A Certain Ratio) with plenty of disco funk overtures. Sic weren't terribly compatible with their Belgian contemporaries, instead looking toward other parts of Europe for their mutant strain of strident, minimalist post-punk.
We've long been extolling the kick ass retro distorto pop virtues of SF's own Sic Alps. A series of awesome lps, 7"s, cassettes, all way too limited and gone in a flash.
Well the dudes at Animal Disguise have got your back, compiling almost all of those out of print goodies, here's a list: the Description Of The Harbor 12", the Strawberry Guillotine 7", the Semi-Streets 7", the Teenage Alps cassette, the Soft Tour In Rough Form 12", a track from the Hip Hop Shop Sweepers comp and one unreleased song. Whew! That's 26 tracks, in less than an hour, a joyous chunk of noisy, distortion drenched noisepop, lilting, falsetto vocals, detuned guitars, plink plonk piano, everything soaked in reverb and delay, gloriously ramshackle and DIY.
The disc opens with a Strapping Fieldhands cover (definitely one of Sic Alps' sonic forefathers) that begins all pretty and minor key and evolves into a super abstract field of high end ambience, random percussive clatter and feedback. From that point on, the disc offers up short and sharp track after track, acoustic guitars, woodblocks, maracas, shakers, simple drums, more piano, sing songy Lou Reed-ish vocals, super tinny electric guitar, blown out distortion, awesome druggy fuzz, woozy grooves, buzzy distorted old school garage rock, acid fried psych pop, and lots and lots of NOISE. It's no coincidence that Sic Alps shared members with other noisepop locals like Iran and the Coachwhips. Fans of those bands will definitely dig this stuff too.
Messy, chaotic, wild and wooly, rocking and weird, stripped down and distorted, fuzzy and noisy, what more could you want?
Two new singles from SF's own Sic Alps, aka Mike Donovan and company, and both sound kind like they could have come from the same session, even the artwork makes them seem like two parts of some sort of maxi double single. Hard to imagine most folks not wanting both, as they're both pretty great.
"Battery Townsley" starts off with the A side title track all urgently strummed acoustic guitar, cardboard box percussion, and thick reverby vocals, a seriously hooky melody, the sort Sic Alps seem to have a lock on, which leads right into the oddly titled "Cambridge Vagina", a kick ass distorted blast of fuzz drenched psychedelic jangle, that should have fans of The Oh Sees who haven't already discovered the joys of Sic Alps making up for lost time.
The "Breadhead" single offers up the title track, which is another primo slab of fuzzy, jammy jangle, plenty distorted and reverby, with that subtly folky undercurrent that all the Sic Alps seem to have, like some lost Dylan track cranked and super charged, which gives way to two short blasts of experimental psych, one a big guitar-ed heavily panned acoustic groover with whispered vox the other a super lo-fi wild rhythmic practice space jam, before finishing off with "Can't You See", a Wailers cover, that sounds like some lost classic sixties psych pop a la The Who or the Kinks, which makes sense as it features Matthew Melton from the Bare Wires playing bass, as well as Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees playing guitar and Ty Segall playing drums, a veritable SF garage rock supergroup. Needless to say, you should probably just buy both...
Two new singles from SF's own Sic Alps, aka Mike Donovan and company, and both sound kind like they could have come from the same session, even the artwork makes them seem like two parts of some sort of maxi double single. Hard to imagine most folks not wanting both, as they're both pretty great.
"Battery Townsley" starts off with the A side title track all urgently strummed acoustic guitar, cardboard box percussion, and thick reverby vocals, a seriously hooky melody, the sort Sic Alps seem to have a lock on, which leads right into the oddly titled "Cambridge Vagina", a kick ass distorted blast of fuzz drenched psychedelic jangle, that should have fans of The Oh Sees who haven't already discovered the joys of Sic Alps making up for lost time.
The "Breadhead" single offers up the title track, which is another primo slab of fuzzy, jammy jangle, plenty distorted and reverby, with that subtly folky undercurrent that all the Sic Alps seem to have, like some lost Dylan track cranked and super charged, which gives way to two short blasts of experimental psych, one a big guitar-ed heavily panned acoustic groover with whispered vox the other a super lo-fi wild rhythmic practice space jam, before finishing off with "Can't You See", a Wailers cover, that sounds like some lost classic sixties psych pop a la The Who or the Kinks, which makes sense as it features Matthew Melton from the Bare Wires playing bass, as well as Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees playing guitar and Ty Segall playing drums, a veritable SF garage rock supergroup. Needless to say, you should probably just buy both...
Psst, here's the skinny about the latest Sic Alps release Description Of The Harbor: It's an ultra ultra limited pressing of 300. Most of them have already been gobbled up by audience members at the shows on the SF band's recent tour. We have very few in stock and might not be able to get more. BUT if you miss the vinyl boat, fear not, the tracks will all reappear on a forthcoming cd which is gonna compile all of material from Sic Alps' limited edition cassette and vinyl from the last couple years.
Oh yeah, and they do a pretty awesome cover a Strapping Fieldhands song on it!
Another little chunk of fractured noise pop from local popkid Sic Alps aka Mike Donovan. This is not super new, but odds are most folks never got their hands on it, as the label (Donovan, actually) sort of stopped making them for a while. So after a bit of nudging and cajoling, Fool's Mag is finally available again... for the first time, sort of. An ep length collection of that fuzzy washed out pop we've grown to love, and that only Sic Alps seems to kick out. Folks who dig stuff like Iran and Oh Sees, who haven't heard Sic Alps should really give it a chance, as they traffic in the same sort of hook filled noise drenched poppiness.
Short and sharp, warm muted distorted guitars, simple Pavement-y drumming, whiney sad boy vox, that occasionally slip into a strained falsetto, awesome buzzy sort-of-leads, lush harmonies, all buried in hiss and murk, the sound WAY lo-fi, but somehow the pop still shines through, hooks galore, melodies that will stick in your head like crazy, some of the best Sic Alps songs so far.
Not sure how long we'll have these, we did get a bunch, but you never know...
Latest single from Mike Donovan, aka local avant psychedelic garage pop one man band Sic Alps, and it might just be the weirdest one yet. The A side is a pretty pop song pulled apart and deconstructed and wedded to all sorts of blown out beats and experimental 4-trackery, super percussive and abstract, almost funky at points, with acoustic guitar strum, and sweet falsetto croon peppered with bursts of distorto drumming, and some wild production, this twisted arrangement hiding what seems to be a sweet hooky jangle pop gem, but it's hard to tell at times, with the sound flitting from strummy and sweet, to bombastic and chaotic, to angular and abstract. It's a pretty potent combination though.
The flipside almost sounds like an alternate version of the A side, or maybe a 'dub', the same fuzzy dream pop, all urgent strum and sweet croon, this time pocked with clouds of radio interference and more of those big booming distorted drums, but it's still not enough chaos and skree to disguise the perfect pop and its center. Nice!
Sic Alps just keep getting better and better. This new jam "L. Mansion" is definitely one of our favorites so far. Cool and stripped down, acoustic guitar and shuffling drums, a killer vocal line, lots of 'woooooo's, a rad reverbed piano 'solo', sounds like an acoustic version of some classic post punk / new wave jam from the eighties. The flipside is a cover, of Donovan's "Superlungs My Supergirl". We were pretty much convinced that Terry Reid's version was UNTOUCHABLE, and while Sic Alps' take on this classic doesn't quite measure up, it's still plenty bad ass, and they definitely give it their own flavor, super distorted lo-fi guitars, big booming drums, pounded piano, softly crooned vocals, some wild psych leads, plenty of feedback, and all wrapped in an awesomely buzzy wall of sound production.
Another fantastic twisted slab of lo-fi psychedelic shitgaze noise pop from these SF rockers, formerly the duo of Mike Donovan and Matt Hartman, now expanded to a trio with the addition of former Comet On Fire Noel Harmonson, and while it's inevitable that bands get more polished, and their songs get better, and recording techniques improve, as we all know, that's not always a good thing. Thankfully in the case of Sic Alps, the new record manages to move leaps and bounds beyond their last one, with out losing any off the oddball ramshackle charm and on-the-verge of collapse songsmithery that made them so endearingly lovable in the first place.
The songs this time around are somehow more immediately catchy, the band ditching their purposefully obtuse fuck you vibe and some of their sonic spikiness, for a noisiness and looseness that seems more organic, less calculated, and somehow the songs seem the better for it. It helps that these songs are super catchy, maybe Donovan's best batch yet, the sort of songs that recorded in a big studio with a crack band could be total hits. Okay, maybe not, but for a lo-fi noiserock band on Drag City, this is sorta like Sic Alps' Slanted And Enchanted, the perfect blend of new more polished songwriting, and the old, don't give a fuck, whatever vibe.
The opening three track salvo is pretty untouchable though. "Jolly" is a brooding noise drenched ballad, all lumbering tempo, and ominous piano, laid beneath, weary vox, falsetto harmonies, and shuffling drumming, "Eat Happy" is all minimal acoustic strum, wreathed in jagged psychedelic noiseguitar, mumbled mush mouthed vocals, and a super poppy, almost GBV sort of classic Brit pop sounding chorus, with a crazy catchy stuttered vocal line, and finally, "Cement Surfboard" might be the dreamiest Sic Alps jam yet, lilting and super melodic, with some sweetly melodic singing, and a hazy harmony vocal driven chorus. And we could probably go on. Expand that three track salvo to four, or five, or ten. Things do get more chaotic and noisy, abstract and murky, but even at its loosest and most fucked up, Napa Asylum is pretty solidly pop, and no amount of fuckery can disguise that. Awesome.
Yet another slab of gorgeous echo drenched psych folk / noise pop from this local treasure, Mike Donovan unfurls another mini songsuite, beginning with some softly distorted, reverb soaked falsetto vox draped over simple stripped down steel string strum, like some lost sixties folk gem newly discovered, a hazy artifact from some lost time, the second track though is more rocking, loose and wild drumming, angular fuzz guitar, snarly and swaggery, with some killer psychedelic crunch, and a serious T-Rex vibe, before things get noisier, some lilting folkiness doused in distortion and feedback, underpinned by whirring organ, like some classic sixties pop nugget mostly obscured by clouds of noise and fuzz, before finally finishing things off with a loping dirge folk pound, driven by the death rattle of a creeping loose-stringed guitar, distant echoey drumming, druggy and swaggery and plenty spaced out and psychedelic!
What manner of warble is this? Why, it's AQ pal Mike Donovan's local cave pop unit, Sic Alps, in what looks to be their debut full length that (thankfully!) for once is not uber-limited. Featuring members of Erase Errata and The Hospitals, Sic Alps brand of noise pop is akin to listening to a beat up Troggs 45 while robotripping. Subterranean beats, murky vocals, echo-y sheets of feedback and dirty shimmer mask the sublimest of pop songs, leaving us to suspect if the Coachwhips were played on 16 rpm, they might sound a lot like this. Love it!!
More limited edition noisy guitar dissonance from SF's Sic Alps. Four gnarled songs including the title track which also appears on their most recent full length Pleasures And Treasures.
Limited to 300 hand numbered copies.
Latest from Mr. Mike Donovan, aka Sic Alps, a short three song 45rpm 12", the A side of which might be the most high fidelity jam we've heard from him, a glammy hard rock stomp, swaggery with big crunchy guitars, pounding drums, and killer vocals that slip easily into a soaring falsetto, not to mention a wicked hook and kick ass chorus. The flipside is more of the same, another glammy, groovy, hi-fi jam, this one though more slithery than swaggery, all woozy and druggy with some killer psychedelic leads, and some seriously fierce crumbling guitar crunch. The second track on the B side is almost as catchy as the A side, a sweet slab of big rock power pop, the main riff a dead ringer for some other classic jam, but here it's all Sic Alps, lots of swing and swagger, another glam rock stomp that kills, and a super cool falsetto mathy breakdown that weirdly reminds us of the recently reviewed new record from aQ pop faves Pretty & Nice, but then it's right back into it. Definitely dying for the upcoming full length now!
Fans of Sic Alps, your fave band is keeping their primal distorto-rock love flowin' with their latest 7"! Three new songs, the title track "Strawberry Guillotine" is a commentary on and a dedication to the Bay Area homeless. As with most Sic Alps releases we don't know for certain how long we'll have these in stock, so best to get 'em while you can (which is now)!
Local noise pop murk merchants have pretty much inherited the grimey, grungey, blown out psych pop crown from the seemingly now defunct Iran. They have the same sort of Beatlesque pop sensibility and choose to bury it in all sorts of grit and hiss and crackle and feedback. Total blown out indie jangle, warped and warbled super affected vocals, lurching grooves, guitars drenched in crumbling distortion and swaddled in swirls of fuzzy shimmer, the drums a Neanderthal pound sounding like they were recorded in a cave, the vocals like Lennon heard through a cracked kaleidoscope. This is the NWOSFNP (New Wave of San Francisco Noise Pop), a wonderfully fractured, totally free and massively fucked up pop music. We love it!
Released and designed by the arts and music collective Mount Saint Mountain (who also released the Mall 12" reviewed a few lists back), packaged in a super cool three panel silkscreened chipboard sleeve, adorned with weird hand drawn bulls, and limited to 300 copies!
Now that Iran seem to be dead. And the Church Steps are gone. And the Coach Whips are no more. Well, it's up to Sic Alps to keep the SF noise pop freak flag flying!
It always seemed that sonically, these guys belonged on Siltbreeze, and lo and behold, it has come to pass. For those who are new to Sic Alps, imagine a fractured noise drenched lo-fi garage pop, rife with blown out drums, simple detuned guitars, lazy drawled vocals, tons of reverb and distortion, all tangled up into some seriously catchy pop. Guided By Voices, Strapping Fieldhands, Pavement, but with plenty of hazy sixties psych, a killer lo-fi Phil Spector-ish wall of sound production, and a bit of corrosive noise and fractured amp buzz a la the Dead C.�
U.S. EZ leans way more toward the pop than the noise, many of the songs, eschewing any sort of noise or distortion completely, offering up instead, a sort of shimmery sixties soft pop, all jangly guitars, and reverbed background vocals, but elsewhere the band rocks pretty hard, channeling classic nineties slacker indie rock, through modern noise rock, via some fuzzy retro garage, the result as we mentioned before, often ends up sounding like a Beach Boys or Hollies record on Siltbreeze. Which should be recommendation enough. Dwyer from the Oh Sees says it's worth it just for the track "Gelly Roll Gum Drop"!!
Ultra ultra limited one sided 7"s from local noisepop faves Sic Alps. Pressed on clear blue vinyl, packaged in a plain white sleeve with a black and white sticker and NO information, this just might be the poppiest Sic Alps yet. Beginning with revving engines and super distorted drums, the track soon launches into some sunny jangly reverb drenched pop, all clean jangly guitars, summery sing songy vocals, a super catchy melody, classic old school Phil Spector style lo-fi production, it's almost a shame it's only one song. Like a noise rock Archies, or the Beach Boys recording for Siltbreeze. Good stuff. And, it's a Throbbing Gristle cover fyi!
Here's a short cassette released by AQ pal Mike Donovan (Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records) of his current band Sic Alps whome you might recall from their split 7" with California Lightening (featuring members of Erase Errata)! As with most releases by the very DIY San Francisco fella Mr. Donovan, there is only going to be a very small homespun run of these made, so needless to say, don't snoooooze!
Pssst... we also have a small number of some other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a short one from Death Sentence: Panda plus a compilation he compiled with artist Chris Johanson called SSSSSOSS2 and ones by Dark Yellow Swans (aka Yellow Swans) and NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!
A super limited split single by two raw SF art-rock hotties! On special occasions half of Erase Errata (namely Jenny and Bianca) splinter off to form the dynamic duo California Lightening (no, not Lightning). And when Sic Alps convene they usually star Hospitals' Adam Stonehouse and Mike Donovan (of Big Techno Werewolves and Church Steps and a heap of other projects), but on this record the abovementioned Jenny (oh yeah, and she's also a member of Burmese!) and Flying Luttenbachers' Weasel Walter join in the S.A. fray too. The record sleeve features those participants, minus Mr. Walter, remaking the Lennon/Ono Two Virgins album cover photo. That in itself is an attention grabber, but then there's their music to keep you glued too. Sic Alps proclaim "I Am Grass" in their peculiar hazy, glazed-eye dissonant fashion and California Lightening offer up a churning menace in "Basement". Ultra limited pressing of 300 of which we've only got a handful, so either act now or whimper to yourself when they're all gone!
Hello! A three-song import single from the side project group of famous Scottish postrockers Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) and Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai). It's really nice, albeit a bit of a novelty as all three songs are covers. There's a gorgeous downer version of #1 hit "Whole Again" by girl group Atomic Kitten, a version of The Fall's "Bill is Dead" that's tighter and better than the original, and a short but sinister rendition of the Mills Bros' "You Always Hurt the One You Love". There's incandescent guitar dripping with emotion, Moffat's whisper-growl of a voice, and a lovely sheen of depression throughout. Well done.
Is Sick Anchors slang for anything?
Reissued documentation of guitarist Mick Turner's punk days, before the Dirty Three and Venom P. Stinger!
Peter Christopherson, John Balance, and Boyd Rice recorded three tracks in 1985 under the moniker Sickness Of Snakes for a split single with Current 93 entitled Nightmare Culture, which understandably has been long out of print. According to the liner notes by Boyd Rice, there had been talk of the three continuing their collaboration by travelling to Calcutta and hiring a really cheap orchestra to perform some sort of atonal mass, whose content and score had yet to be determined. The adventure never took place, leaving the sum total of the Sickness Of Snakes material at very small amount of material (a fourth track was created for a German compilation around that same time, but strangely is not included here). While this reissue from Soleilmoon is commendable in uncovering these rare and quite impressive tracks, the price of admission is rather steep.
When the trio went into the studio, they had rented one of the Fairlight samplers which had been making the rounds in England, and they happened to get the machine right after Kate Bush had used it for her Hounds Of Love album. Samples of tubular bells, noir trumpets, and saccharine strings got repurposed for Sickness Of Snakes, whose opening track "Various Hands" is very typical of what Coil would have crafted on their debut Scatology, with lugubrious sampled strings marching through a doleful electronic sonata, but topped with the sounds of bombs being dropped into the WWII trenches. Those noir horns and electronic bells spill into an elegaic atmosphere on "The Swelling Of Leeches;" and "The Pope Held Upside Down" is a mangled collage of pigs squealling, for an unsettling coda to this unduly short collaboration. In full disclosure, Coil reissued these tracks on their Unnatural History compilation (also out of print), and Boyd Rice tossed "Various Hands" onto his compendium The Way I Feel. If only there were more tape to be scraped off the studio floor.
The beginning of Sickoakes' Seawards album may make you mildly seasick. The notes ringing out from the guitars list back and forth, bending and reverberating in a woozy fashion. This Swedish post-rock sextet augment the basic rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums with saxophones, trumpet and trombones. Their first album's seven tracks are big on haunting, soaring atmospheres with no vocals save for a smattering of dialogue samples. The standout is definitely "Oceans On Hold" with its brisk tempo (sorry no pun intended) driven forth by the slinky swift guitar picking and propulsive drumming. The number gradually slows to a thawing glacial glisten. Yes, fans of Godspeed and Mogwai, there's a new kid in town. A beautiful debut.
So many grind/metalcore/hardcore bands over the years owe more than a few pennies to Boston's hardcore/grind pioneers Siege. In fact, a lot of those bands owe them EVERYTHING!
Much like the length of their songs, their time as a band was brief, but in just two short years they laid waste to many with their intense sound and energy. Bands like Napalm Death and a whole slew of early Earache/Noiseville acts made pretty decent careers for themselves taking that Siege sound and running with it, some of them continuing to do it even now, in fucking 2007!
This cd collects all their compilation tracks as well as all the "official release" stuff, and while this ain't a very long player, Siege managed to get to the point REAL QUICK, without wasting much more than some picks, some guitar strings, a bunch of drumsticks and last but not least YOUR GODDAMN EARDRUMS! One of the greatest and heaviest punk (metal?) bands ever!
Noisy, lo-fi (read: poorly recorded, but that's the charm (read: novelty)) "art" punk from New York (where else?). The press release says "DNA meets High Rise" and makes many no-wave references (what better way to hype your band?). Don't want to be a prick and write this band off just yet, but it sounds like a bunch of emo kids decided emo wasn't hip anymore and decided no-wave
Some of us here at aQ feel like Brooklyn's sightings have never really gotten a fair shake (and some of us here, also, never gave 'em a fair shake!). Their particular brand of speaker-fried, uber-distorted, 4-track noise bludgeoning has never really caught on in same way as some of their Load Records cohorts, despite being every bit as jagged, intense, brutal and engaging as anything else that label has to offer. That said, over the course of a half dozen records Sightings have slowly and quietly (well, as quietly as a band this mammothly loud can do things...) refined their aesthetic, adding subtle electronic tones and touches, and moving slowly away from the confrontational pummeling that characterized their earlier recordings.
For Through The Panama, their 4th full length on Load, Sightings have taken a step further toward reinventing themselves completely. Gone are the blown out production values, the throat shredding yowls, and the muscular relentlessness of their earlier records. In their place? Cleaner production courtesy of Andrew WK and a simmering, sinewy intensity that ties together a range of disparate influences (This Heat's fractured tape loop groove, DNA's angular guitar skree, to name but two...) into something so tightly wound that it feels constantly on the verge of completely falling apart. The whole thing churns along at a low boil of muttered vocals, rumbling bass, tinkling piano flourishes and rhythmic density with occasional bursts of their old, frenzied selves breaking through. It's almost like you can hear the band trying to reign everything in and failing in really fantastic ways.
Hopefully this will be the record that pushes the band out of the shadows and garners them the attention they deserve. Totally, thoroughly, completely recommended.
The pristine, calming baby blue and pink bars that make up the cover art of this release give not a hint of the chaotic sonic stew contained within. Sightings are a New York cacophonous trainwreck spewing a distorted murky mess of vocal screaches and howls over
This is the dissonant and flailing full length follow-up to their debut 7".
