I (Andee) don't know too much about the super complex and convoluted history of eighties post punk / industrial / whatever music (Einsterzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Birthday Party, Lydia Lunch, etc.) but I do know how totally blown away I was the first time I heard this record (that was just about 2 weeks ago). Hey, sorry! In the early eighties I was busy beginning my rapid descent into metalheaddom! Anyway, this is Die Haut's 1983 debut full length, only now finally getting the deluxe reissue treatment 20 years later, and man has it withstood the test of time remarkably well. Perhaps most well known for Nick Cave's guest vocals (although guest vocalists on other Die Haut albums have included Kim Gordon, Lydia Lunch, Deborah Harry, Blixa Bargeld and loads more), Burnin' The Ice is a chaotic, jagged slab of swampy propulsive gloom rock. Acidic dual guitar melodies slither and intertwine over pounding heavily reverbed drums and throbbing distorted bass. Cave's wailing testifying is the perfect match for Die Haut's intensely bleak sludgescapes.
A dark and desolate mix of punk, surf, sludge and gloom. Think Joy Division, the Bad Seeds, Gun Club, Birthday Party and the like. Actually, a much more apt, but way more obscure comparison would be the late great Lubricated Goat (one of Allan and Andee's favorite bands). Not just because they are Australians like Mr. Cave, but because they too trafficked in the sludgy, driving darkness that Die Haut got so right on Burnin' The Ice. In fact now that I've finally heard this record, I'm a little suspicious that Lubricated Goat owe more than a passing nod to the band that was doin' the Lubricated Goat thing at least 4 years before they were. Burnin' The Ice is a relentless musical death march, blighted and austere, grim and funereal, and so so good.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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For the second installment of Ache Records' Di/vorce split 7" series, they've corralled AQ pals Matmos and the haphazard Die Monitr Batss from the Pacific Northwest. For their part of the bargain, Die Monitr Batss offer up some skronky, lo-fi, no-wave aspirations. Meanwhile on the flipside, Matmos tackle Gladys Knight & The Pips' "On And On" although it's pretty darn difficult to recognize it once it's been put through the duo's surgical choppity chop treatment. Indeed, their contribution is an assemblage of deep, gravelly fragments of funk. Limited pressing of 1000.
What makes me think Bobby Conn is behind this? Especially on the rollicking second song "America's Burning". A generous scattering of strange, effected movie dialogue samples, blankets of seething drones (check out the sixth track "Bad Weather Circuits" for an affecting, textured soundscape), quirky, noisy melodies, and the very Conn/William Shatner/Harvey Sid Fisher-esque vocal stylings make this quite a freakishly entertaining ride. A ride that comes to a bit of a wistful close with the sampled strains of the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants Of Inter Planetary Craft". Of course, Bobby Conn actually has nothing to do with this, it's a UK group with folks from the legendary Homosexuals.
A couple of these singles came our way when Yellow Swans blew through town a while back. John Wiese is from Bastard Noise and Sissy Spacek; (Die/ Das/ Dance/ D.) Yellow Swans are from Portland and they use a table full of outdated electronics to make blisteringly distorted yet dancable noise punk, or sometimes simply blistering noise, depending on their mood. This record definitely falls into the latter category! Loud and crunchy.
As we've no doubt mentioned before, there was a time, when aQuarius was one of the few places you could get NZ underground music, and in particular, Flying Nun records, and the Flying Nun sound sort of defined aQ, we were the source for so many amazing discs by bands like Tall Dwarfs, The Chills, The Bats, Bailter Space, The Dead C, The Renderers, The Terminals, The Gordons, Able Tasmans, Straightjacket Fits, The Clean, The Verlaines and so many more. All of them so different, but somehow all tied together by this distinctly NZ sound.
While over the years we continued to dig that NZ sound, but Flying Nun seemed to cease functioning, or at the very least began to focus more on New Zealand and less on getting those records overseas. Not sure what, but something happened recently, some new distribution deal we presume, maybe new management, but Flying Nun is still a going concern, and all the old classics are available again, legendary records by those abovementioned bands, available to a whole new generation who just might have discovered their new favorite label.
Along with all those classics, seems FN is also actively releasing records by a new wave of NZ underground rock, groups like The Mint Chicks, Ghost Club, Garageland, Grayson Gilmour (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and these guys, Die! Die! Die! We actually saw D!D!D! play in SF years ago, but that ramshackle somewhat underwhelming performance hardly prepared us for this killer collection of frantic shoegazey punky power/noise pop.
Apparently, the band have indeed and perhaps purposely transformed from a more angular noisy unit into this, a heavy, hooky, shoegazey pop band, capable of creating jangly indie rock one, dense brooding downer pop and frenetic caffeinated noise pop, more often some twisted hybrid of the three, we hear a LOT of Built To Spill, especially on tracks like "Daze", with its droney crunchy guitars and very Martsch-like croon (which the more we listen seems to pop up quite a bit), but we also hear bits of Maximo Park, My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, Wire, the sound alternatingly noisy and punky, tightly wound and almost new wave-y. There's a definite nineties inde rock vibe, with some crazy catchy songs, and a super lush, driving bass heavy sound that perfectly balances the big crunchy angular guitars. The more we listen to this, the more these songs grow on us, quickly becoming a new pop fave...
Even if all they had were their unbelievably catchy melodies and those heartbreakingly lovely harmonies, Dieselhed would fucking rule. But there's so much more. The band's brilliance lies in being able to set marvelously "regular" slice-of-life lyrics to the most unexpectedly epic song structures. (Example: One of their most epic pieces of bombastic melodicism, "Forklift Test", is set to lyrics about passing a forklift driver test.)
The band has always been foremost a rock band with twang in its heart, and often that heart is worn on Dieselhed's sleeve. Chico and the Flute, however, marks a very slight turn away from the twanginess and into a more gently-mocking AM-radio soft rock/soul flavor -- as evidenced by their cover of the classic Stax hit "Starting All Over Again". It's great stuff, and this album features three or four of their best songs ever. We recommend that if you're new to the band, you start with "Elephant Rest Home", their fourth album, first. If you're already as big a fan of Dieselhed as I am, though, then this record is pretty much a necessity.
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Dieselhed's 4th album is a sweet collection of all of the slow songs and ballads that have become their well loved standards in their live sets, yet have not made their way onto tape until now! Their 'real life' catalog of straightforward, quotidian lyrics about life in Eureka, drunken mishaps on Alaskan fishing boats, lap dancing, etc... are perfectly complemented by twangy, melodic hooks and stunningly sublime harmonies worthy of comparisons to Louvin Brothers and Lennon-McCartney. One of Windy's all-time favorite bands.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of San Francisco's best bands breaks out with their 3rd full length, a little more twang and slow and a little less rock than their previous work but JUST AS GREAT. We can't stress enough how rewarding a close reading of Virgil and Zack's lyrics can be ("Is that paint, I can't tell / A white square where a picture fell"). And don't forget to wait for the last hidden track, "Yoga Instructor").
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My favorite local band has come the closest to recreating the glory of their live shows! All the recent favorites are here: "Brown Dragon" (which everyone thinks is the "Station Wagon Song"), "Pizza Box," "Wedding Song," "John the Butcher Boy," "Snow Blind in the Liquor Store." Bonus: all the lyrics are printed on various casks and teapots. Guests include "Neckhead" (Bungle's Trey Spruance) and Ralph Carney. The lyrics to "Forklift Test," one of Dieselhed's more epic songs are so brilliantly mundane: > this guy at work he just bought > a revolutionary car part. > it's called the ionizer and it reverses the electrical charge > as the gas hits the carb. > well he tried to sell me one > even though i did not have a car.
From the same studio that produced the amazing prog rock blowout that was the Cannabis India record from last list, comes this amazing flute led free jazz freakout from the Dieter Bihlmaier Selection, and as you probably know full well by now, we're suckers for the flute, especially when it's in the context of some fierce prog or far out jazz, as is the case here, a stripped down trio of just flute, bass and drums, recorded in 1973, this finds the band lean and mean, and so fierce, yet melodic and moody, groovy and jazzy and dreamy, slipping from fluttery drift to full on frenzy, Bihlmaier is an incredible player, expressive and all over the place, pure tones give way to stuttery breathy bursts, wild melodic runs, all tangled up with the bad ass rhythm section who lay down some seriously krautrocky jazz rhythms, locked in tight, mesmerizing and hypnotic, letting the flute do its thing over the top, but occasionally rising up and meeting the flute head on, the instruments doing a dense and dangerous dance, swirling, whirling and wild. The drums and bass get their time in the spotlight, but it's definitely all about the flute, and how the three mesh, even when they're all going full bore, which is much of the time. Hard to get your head around how three guys can be playing so wildly and so free, and yet the sounds can all fit together so perfectly. Heavy and heady and definitely far out, one of our new favorite jazz discoveries. Dying to find out what other amazing stuff SWR has tucked away in their vaults...
Usually it takes some time - months... even years - for muzak versions of "hits" to surface, but this one plopped out quite swiftly. A dorky, cheesy Bontempi organ-ified rush job of an EP covering four Strokes songs (dubbed a "heartfelt tribute to New
The seemingly tireless Ani Difranco pleases her legions of fans and herself with this new album, the follow-up to last year's Evolve. Ever since her first album back in 1989, she's proven herself an incredibly inspiring, consistent and prolific independent force. Now sixteen (or is it seventeen?) albums later, she's exploring some new sonic and songwriting territories, not to mention performing all of the instruments and vocals herself - so truly d.i.y.! But yes, it all still resonates with that distinct Difranco quirky poetic earthiness.
New Ani Difranco.
Ani's "double live album containing over 2 hours of music and a spankin' 36 page photo book."
As the cd package clearly states "Two discs. 29 new songs. Two hours of music. One righteous babe." Do you really need any more? I didn't think so.
More live Ani.
The album cut "Swing" plus 4 otherwise unreleased songs, including a live Woody Guthrie cover with help from Gillian Welch and others. Also studio versions of songs by Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan, as America's #1 alt-folkie gives props to her heroes of the past.
Newest record from everyone's favorite folk rock heroine/ businesswoman/ entrepeneur. This time with special guests Maceo Parker and Prince (!).
When you think Bay Area and 'metal', you probably think Metallica, or Exodus, maybe even Testament. But had things gone a little differently, you might be thinking Dig That Body Up, It's Alive. Okay, well, maybe not, but if you were us, and you had been lucky enough to experience the freaked out metallic damage of this SF trio back in the day, this record would be having you losing your mind. And hell, even if you missed out on the DTBUIA years, which most folks probably did, one listen to this record, will immediately transport you to some dark sweaty hole in the wall, right into the middle of a heaving mass of sweaty kids, while right at the center, a guitarist and a drummer duel to the death, while the vocalist grunts and growls, climbing into the rafters, hanging� from pipes, leaping into the crowd, rolling around on the floor. You may not have been there, but it's easy to hear what it must have been like.�
Dig The Body Up, It's Alive featured SF luminary John Dwyer (Coachwhips, OCS, Ohsees, Pink And Brown, Landed) on guitar and Oren Canfield (Child Abuse) on drums and the mighty Nate Denver (Total Shutdown, Nate Denver's Neck) on vocals. Dwyer's guitar is most definitely the focal point, his guitar emitting short bursts of convoluted metallic fury, the riffs squiggly and angular as often as downtuned and chugging, the drums the perfect foil, blasts of double kick, strange mathy grooves, full on blast beats, everything lurching and stumbling, stop start stop and start again, chaotic and furious, like some alien strain of death metal filtered through these three guys' cracked musical filter.�Above it all, Denver growling and grunting, death metal gurgles, telling tales of dragons and monsters and other completely off the wall stuff.�
Side A is a serious of brief metallic bursts, riff after riff, squealing and grinding, thrashing and flailing. Dizzying and confusional, heavy and dense and completely damaged sounding. The flip side however is a whole 'nother thing entirely. A single side long jam. A single riff, repeating and looping, mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like a more aggro and angular Circle. Totally crushing, but strangely trancelike. Near the half way point, everything stops, Denver hisses out some creepy lyrics and the band launch right back into it. A couple more false endings, but each time the band head right back in, picking up right where they left off, pounding that riff into utter oblivion.�
Finally, when the song really does end, the last note rings out, a shimmering ominous metallic drone, over which Denver recites a lengthy and super tweaked chunk of spoken word, more princesses and monsters and the like... So awesome.�
Originally slated to come out on tUMULt before the band died a premature death, this is finally seeing the light of day thanks to the always killer Rock Is Hell label. Vinyl only, limited to 333 copies. The covers are hand screened, inside and out, and there's an insert with Denver's history of the band.
And as if we even needed to say it, WAY RECOMMENDED!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Faithful readers of the aQuarius list likely know Daveed Diggs as the MC of experimental hip hop crew Clipping. (former Record Of The Week honorees); although these days, he's likely even more well known as the breakout star of historical hip hop Broadway show Hamilton, but on his solo joint Small Things To A Giant, he channels that experimental side into a somewhat more traditionally hip hop framework, crafting some killer cuts that in a perfect would get the rest of the world to wake the fuck up, and realize just what a wicked rapper he really is. Listening to Small Things, and even Clipping., we can't understand why bigger hip hop super stars aren't clamoring for Diggs to do a verse on ALL their tracks. Small Things makes that eventuality seem even more likely, or at least possible.
Displaying a flair for crafting unlikely hooks, sculpting surprising sounds into the sort of loops that stick in your head for DAYS, and unfurling some impeccable, smarty pants wordplay, Diggs destroys here. All it took for us was a listen to the title track, with its Indian beat, and exotic Indian vocal loop, peppered with thick, grungy synth blurts, and Diggs spitting rhymes over the top, with some of the smartest, snarliest, funniest lyrics EVER. The guest verse by Rafael Casal is sweet too. And we say this a lot, but this was another case where we found ourselves listening to the same track non stop. But once we finally dug deeper, as we pretty much expected, the rest of the album is jam packed with super original, pretty far out, crazy catchy hip hop of the highest order. "Trappers" sounds like it could be co-opted by Kanye, "Dirty World" injects a little woozy R&B, and then the sort of companion title track that finishes things off, is a slow, skittery creep with a killer verse from Chinaka Hodge, and a swoonsome chorus/hook. Not as avant or experimental as Clipping, but in its own way, equally inventive, and much more accessible. Perfect on its own for sure, but also an alluring sonic gateway drug to the fucked up Clipping. weirdness that lies just on the other side.
The debut album from this German crunchy synth-rock duo fuses lots of analog keyboard, fuzzy guitar, open/closed post-punk hi-hat repetition, mantric vocoder vocals, and a pretty killer remixed "Fire In Cairo" (Cure) sample. Most songs build at a calculated pace giving listeners an overall sense that the circuit board is about to explode. Idealism is a really impressive first album that is highly recommended for fans of The Faint, Justice, M83, New Order, Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim, and The Rapture.
Brand new batch of twisted psychedelic summery druggy dream pop from this oddly monikered UK one man band, and it's simply more of what we loved about the last record. If anything, this new one sounds way less lo-fi, the guitars are alternatingly warm and jangly, crumbly and crunchy and fuzzy, the vocals are multi tracked into strange harmonies, the sound simple but so sweetly shimmery, the vocals reverbed and draped over lilting major key jangle pop, sounding almost like a more home brewed bedroom version of aQ pop faves Telekinesis.
But it's not all sunshine, the band do manage to get a little bit dour and minor key now and again, and those might be our favorites, "Like It Was Again" (a redone and polished up version of a song from the first record) is total mix tape heaven, simple propulsive drumming, fuzzy jangle, sweet vocals, and a haunting Cure like melody wrapped around everything, there's also a buzzy minimal guitar solo that just sort of replays the main melody. "Stream" is another one, a brooding strummer, with creepy fields of feedback, and a gorgeous main minor key melody, the song exploding into full psychedelia, the guitars distorted and heavily effected, before slipping right back into the lope and brood. And in fact, the record gets less and less summery feeling with each listen, maybe more like a rainy summer day, indoors, the sun hidden behind the clouds, the sound a little bit gloomy and barely cold wavey here and there, but so catchy, and as much as we dug Tendrils, this one sounds EVEN better. Most definitely a new fave. And fans of the Captured Tracks usual suspects (Beach Fossils, Blank Dogs, Hanoi Janes, Minks, Soft Moon), who have yet to check this guy out, well, this would be as good a place as any to start!
Latest full length from UK garage poppers Dignan Porch, and like Tendrils before it, Nothing Bad Will Ever happen is another fantastic collection of sunshiney, jangly, crunchy, ramshackle pop, heavy on the hooks, lots of swirling keyboards, sad boy vox, and all the usual garage pop stuff we dig, but this time around, the band seems to rock a lot more (due in part to the fact that it really IS a band this time, whereas Tendrils was a one man band type deal), just check out "Sad Shape", which starts out all minor key and jangly, stripped down and spare, but soon, a heavily effected guitar swoops in, giving the song a seriously psychedelic vibe, and then the choruses, kind of crunchy and fuzzy, the drums busy, the guitars soaring, and then for the last minute, the band go full on psych rock freakout, and it sounds amazing! The swirling synths somehow keeping it grounded and firmly rooted in garage pop territory rather than psychedelic space rock, but it's a pretty potent combo, and one that suits DP pretty well. And while those moments tend to be fleeting, some crunchy riffing here, some weirdly sci-fi effected murky psychedelia there, stretches of super distorted fuzz guitar and some seriously heavy feedback drenched dirgery, they perfectly compliment the groups impeccable popsmithery, which is in full effect here, with the group delivering some of their catchiest songs yet, and even minus that extra heft, this record would be blowing up our stereo like crazy, but that extra fuzz and crunch just seals the deal. A new favorite for sure!
One of FOUR new Captured Tracks 7"s on this week's list: Hanoi Janes, Cosmetics and Wetdog, all reviewed nearbly, but this one is from a UK outfit called weirdly Dignan Porch, whose sound is total summery feel good, lo-fi, jangly garage pop, with effects heavy guitars, rebverby lilting melancholic sad boy vocals, shuffly drums, very lo-fi but still in its own way a bit lush. Hazy, washed out, shuffly and slouchy and crazy catchy.
The B-side is way more stripped down, with acoustic guitars, and a vibe that's a bit more dour and gothy, kind of like some cold wave groove mashed into a Sebadoh / Guided By Voices chunk of jangle pop. So catchy and fun, and definitely reminiscent of that era in the nineties, when this sort of thing filled our every mix tape! Another winner for sure.
Another Captured Tracks band, whose recent 7" had us all in a tizzy, with its reverby jangle and slouchy sad boy indie rock shuffle. We compared that Dignan Porch release to Sebadoh and Guided By Voices, which totally hit the spot.
The full length offers up more of the same, but with some subtle changes, a swirling folky, jangly swirl of weirdo distorted vocals, heavily effected guitars, short short songs, most hovering around the two minute mark, the vibe melancholy and minor key, the sound raw and rough and lo-fi, the hooks subtle, but definitely there, the indie jangle of the 7" infused with more of a dour doom folk vibe here too, with lots of acoustic guitar, hazy reverb, washed out ambience, the songs lilting and darkly personal, with vocals that shift from cockney croon, to distorted howl, to high keening falsetto, the tracks laced with buzz, a patina of grit, layered and murky and mysterious, and definitely poppy, but almost as if the poppiness was an accident, a byproduct of this soul baring, home brewed folk pop, a darkly dreamlike, bedroom-recorded, old crummy cassette, late night, druggy, summery mixtape, of strummy, starry mystery. Whew!
Finally, the long awaited full length from these eighties beholden jangle pop shoegazers, formerly known by the same name, but with a much more standard (and already taken apparently) spelling. This Brooklyn outfit features members of aQ faves the Beach Fossils and the Smith Westerns, and takes the sound of both of those previous groups, tangles it all up and douses it in thick swaths of reverb and lush layers of crystalline guitars, the vocals nearly buried in the mix, a hazy washed out croon, that more often than not is simply another lush layer to add to the already blurry, bleary dreamscape. Within this fuzzy dreampop soundworld, Diiv manage to conjure up some surprisingly disparate sounds, sweet twee indie pop one second, and loping, almost krautrock like mesmer the next (just check out "Air Conditioning"), but the sound remains consistent, like listening through ears full of cotton, everything deliriously and dreamily hazy, with various elements slipping surreptitiously to the fore, whether it's a twangy bit of guitar, a soaring bit of Big Country / U2 like melody, or some slithery Joy Divisiony bassline, the tracks rife with hooks, and perfect melody, the group nearly obscuring their deft pop songsmithery with their druggy production, but it makes for a potent combo, and on repeated listens, what at first sounded like another entry in the already crowded reverb heavy retro pop field, has blossomed into what is fast becoming a new pop favorite. WAY recommended.
This new(ish) SF quintet have some recognizable faces from the Bay Area music scene onboard. We suspect there might not be over a hundred tambourines on this album, but front man the mutton-chopped Joel Gion (formerly of Brian Jonestown Massacre) gives the one he's got a thorough workout here nonetheless. His band The Dilletantes blend the key sounds of all the '70s rock kingpins. Y'know, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, MC5! The tambourine and maraca peppered results are the kind of loose bluesy rawk'n'roll that never goes out of style!
The Dillinger Escape Plan has to be one of the weirdest coolest bands I have ever seen live. The last time I saw them was in NY, and there were three things I distinctly remember, besides how unbelievably complex and heavy they were. The first thing was the drummer, who was absolutely insane, playing impossibly complex stuff, but wearing a goofy bandana and smiling maniacally the whole time, as if he was exerting no effort at all. The second thing was the number of stage divers. I think maybe I was the only one in the crowd who didn't take a turn. At some points there were 40 people on stage. So much so you couldn't even see the band. But easily the most memorable part, was the guitarist, who had his guitar all the way up beneath his chin Buddy Holly style. And who repeatedly charged right off the edge of the stage, into the pit, and would constantly run full bore into folks in the pit, guitar and all, often ending up laying on his back in the middle of the pit, but NEVER MISSING A BEAT. Played every part perfectly. It was amazing! Okay, then. That was years ago, and since then, Dillinger has collaborated with Mike Patton, signed to Relapse, and gotten a new singer.
So how do they stack up now? Pretty good actually. Musically they are still unbeatable. Ultra complex, and dizzingly complicated, with lots of angular riffing and hooky little bits that definitely lift this stuff above standard grind / metalcore / whateveryoucallit. And the new vocalist is not bad either. The only troubling bit is how much the new vocalist seems to be channelling Mike Patton. Conicidence? We think not. But that's okay. It suits the music actually. And when he's not doing patton he's a howling deathmetal / emo demon hovering somewhere between Guy from Fugazi and Sean from Coalesce. For a limited time, Miss Machine comes with a bonus DVD featuring behind the scenes "making of" footage and some other cool stuff.
A new four-song ep from New Jersey's out-of-control mathcore metallers Dillinger Escape Plan, with Mike Patton (Bungle, Fantomas, Faith No More) as guest vocalist! With the unmistakable throat abuse and tuneful croon of Patton, this new Dillinger ep is a bit different from their previous recordings, which were some of the most extreme, complex metalcore efforts ever.
Irony sounds more like a blend of Slipknot (especially with the yappy, almost rap-like vocal cadences of Patton), Melt Banana (again, the 'yiyiyiyiyi yi yi' vocals and sharp dynamic bursts), and Faith No More (when Patton's vocals and the music take turn into more melodic, lush realms). It's still extreme and complex, just less so, which Dillinger fan Andee found a little disappointing, but others might disagree. (Allan's always been *impressed* with Dillinger, but finds 'em hard to listen to, believe it or not -- so this is in some ways an improvement, to him.) Whether you like "Irony" will have a lot to do with your taste for Patton's vox. There will probably be a lot more to like here for fans of Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Melt Banana, Fantomas or Slipknot than those just looking for a new metallic grind fix. But it could be Dillinger's ticket to a wider audience, which is definitely a good thing!
Oddly enough, not released on Relapse (as with prior DEP discs) or through Patton's Ipecac imprint, but on big punk label Epitaph. Imagine, Tom Waits and Dillinger on the same label, that's getting weird!
A brand new blast of filthy fug from this ex member of noise rock legends Wolf Eyes. Since Dilloway left the fold, his solo work has gotten more and more interesting, and more and more far out. Culminating in the confusional chaos that is Chain Shot. A two track 12", created using just tape loops, metal and horns. And it sounds nothing like you could possible imagine.
"Chain Shot" is a side long epic of grimey gruesome minimalism. A murky soundscape of creaking machinery, whirring industrial hum, and a loop of what sounds like that sound roller coasters make when the cars are being pulled up that first big hill, the various sounds looped and locked and repeated, sped up, slowed down, doused in grit and buzz and lots and lots of hiss. It sounds like some cracked field recording (which it sort of is), the various sounds and loops becoming more and more distorted, and getting louder and louder, eventually becoming more and more musical too, which seems sort of impossible, but it does. The harsher it gets, the more, listenable it gets. A symphony of grind and buzz and clank.
The B side, another extended dirge, "Execution Dock" begins with processed vocals, drenched in effects and looped into some weird almost funky groove, but as it's repeated, just like when you say a word over and over, it starts to make less and less sense and sound less 'funky' and more haunting and hypnotic. And very very creepy. The track dissipates into more field recordings, bits of clatter and shuffle, all subtly looped, in the distance a horn plays a mournful melody, the loops ramp up slightly, creating weirdly dreamy minimal rhythms beneath that waiting horn, until that all falls apart, leaving a series of fragmented and rapidly decaying loops, overlapping, falling apart, and eventually grinding to a halt.
Packaged in a SUPER thick, textured sleeve, with a bad ass painting of a pirate on the cover. Yaarrrrrrrr!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Two AQ favorites team up together for one great lp that shows a more pensive side to these noise rock heavyweights: Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes) and C Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). Squid delivers on its title as the sounds on this lp make you feel like you're deep underwater tangled by up in the undersea world. Using tape loops, bowed tape, tape delay, violin, voice and electronics, Dilloway and Yeh create dark, moody textures brimming with mystery, suspense and restraint. We could totally hear this as the score to some Matthew Barney piece, as it shares much of the same influence as his films. As much as we love Wolf Eyes there is something pretty magical and always unexpected about what happens when Dilloway steps away from the world of his main band. And C Spencer Yeh continues to show that he has one of the most unique visions in the noise scene. And together it's pretty fucking magical. Excellent!
We loved this record when we first got it on LP which is sadly out of print now. But luckily it's finally been re-released on cd with a long bonus track tacked on for good measure!
Two AQ favorites team up together for one great record that demonstrates a more pensive side to these noise rock heavyweights: Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes) and C Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). Squid delivers on its title as the sounds on this lp make you feel like you're deep underwater tangled up in the undersea world. Using tape loops, bowed tape, tape delay, violin, voice and electronics, Dilloway and Yeh create dark, moody textures brimming with mystery, suspense and restraint. We could totally hear this as the score to some Matthew Barney piece, as it shares much of the same influence as his films. As much as we love Wolf Eyes there is something pretty magical and always unexpected about what happens when Dilloway steps away from his main band. And C Spencer Yeh continues to show us that he has one of the most unique visions in the noise scene. And together it's pretty fucking magical. Excellent!
The Cali punk legends, live in 1980. (Plus their first single from '77.)
Available on vinyl for the first time since the original lp on SST way back in 1987! Limited to 2000 copies on Baked Goods, the label of Dinosaur mainman Jay Mascis.
Wow. Never thought we'd be reviewing a Dinosaur Jr. record. I mean, they are one of those bands that were always around. We all loved them. Had all of their records (at the time). Had the cassettes on the floor in the frontseat of the car, just a quick lean from the driver's seat, ready to pop in for the next long drive. They definitely stopped being relevent (and -good- some might argue) after Bug, their third record. But for three or four years there, Dinosaur Jr. took everything we loved and stuffed it into one perfect little indie rock package. Punk rock snarl, metallic crunch, indie jangle, squiggly guitar solos (!), and a Neil Young like whine in the form of frontman J. Mascis' stoned drawling vocals. You can definitely hear the influence Dinosaur had on Nirvana, Polvo, Swervedriver, and about a million other late eighties rock bands! Lou Barlow, bass player for Dinosaur Jr., would go on to send indie rock from the studio back to the practice space and launch a million bedroom rockers with his home recorded 4-track project Sebadoh (whose first official release was actually a track on the second Dinosaur Jr. record You're Living All Over Me) while Mascis (formerly of punk sludge outfit Deep Wound and metal weirdos Upsidedown Cross) would go on to more commerical success before dropping off the face of the earth and giving up music altogether. But for those first three records, Dinosaur Jr. were the shit. And damn if these records don't sound just as good now almost a decade later! All three re-issues have liner notes by Byron Coley and bonus tracks!
You're Living All Over Me was the transitional record, where Dinosaur Jr. started sounding, well. like Dinosaur Jr. With Mascis' Neil Young like drawl way up in the mix, swirling squalls of wah guitar, and most importantly, KILLER songs! Not even remotely punk rock anymore, this was the sound that would define late eighties indie rock. "Little Fury Things", the opening track is the perfect Dinosaur microcosm, starting off with a blast of noisy guitar feakout, a jangly strum takes over, and Mascis belts out a melody that remains stuck in our heads even to this day before the whole thing is subsumed by a suffocating swirl of guitar noise. The rest of the record is practically perfect, veering from loping heavy guitar grooves, to slow shimmering jangle, to full on Crazy Horse instrumental guitar jam. In fact YLAOM is the record that turned Mascis into the first indie rock guitar god. Live, every track would stretch out into endless psychedelic jams, while on record, those jams were compacted and stuck between perfect pop choruses and plaintive, sad boy verses, which again became the blueprint for every indie rock band that followed. YLAOM also included the track "Poledo" which while technically a Dinosaur Jr. track, was performed and recorded by bassist Lou Barlow at home, and was the first officially released Sebadoh song (or songs, as it actually sounds like several song fragments strung together), a mumbly lo-fi acoustic dirge, interspersed with tape hiss, noisy interference, found sounds and bursts of white noise. Weirdly, the first cd version of YLAOM included the Peter Frampton cover "Show Me The Way", replaced here by their infamous cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" with its dirge-y blast of a chorus and wailing guitars, and which, in a testament to Dinosaur's songwriting brilliance, sounds like it could be a Dinosaur original.
Wow. Never thought we'd be reviewing a Dinosaur Jr. record. I mean, they are one of those bands that were always around. We all loved them. Had all of their records (at the time). Had the cassettes on the floor in the frontseat of the car, just a quick lean from the driver's seat, ready to pop in for the next long drive. They definitely stopped being relevent (and -good- some might argue) after Bug, their third record. But for three or four years there, Dinosaur Jr. took everything we loved and stuffed it into one perfect little indie rock package. Punk rock snarl, metallic crunch, indie jangle, squiggly guitar solos (!), and a Neil Young like whine in the form of frontman J. Mascis' stoned drawling vocals. You can definitely hear the influence Dinosaur had on Nirvana, Polvo, Swervedriver, and about a million other late eighties rock bands! Lou Barlow, bass player for Dinosaur Jr., would go on to send indie rock from the studio back to the practice space and launch a million bedroom rockers with his home recorded 4-track project Sebadoh (whose first official release was actually a track on the second Dinosaur Jr. record You're Living All Over Me) while Mascis (formerly of punk sludge outfit Deep Wound and metal weirdos Upsidedown Cross) would go on to more commerical success before dropping off the face of the earth and giving up music altogether. But for those first three records, Dinosaur Jr. were the shit. And damn if these records don't sound just as good now almost a decade later! All three re-issues have liner notes by Byron Coley and bonus tracks!
Bug was what you would call Dinosaur Jr's breakthrough. Or maybe sell out record. But who really give a shit what you call it. This was the ultimate kick ass indie rock record. Period. Heavy and catchy, melodic and weird, totally derivative and totally original! The song "Freak Scene" is what did it. A perfect pop song if there ever was one. AND the best use of expletives in an indie rock song ever. Even people who didn't know the song, would sing along to -those- parts: "So fucked, I can't believe it", and "Just don't let me fuck up will you, cuz when I need a friend it's still you", at the top of their lungs. And why not? Every inch of that song was a stone cold hook, the chorus, the verse, even the guitar solos. Track two, "No Bones" is maybe as Neil Young as Dino Jr. got, a totally unforgettable riff, and perfectly drawled vocals. Then there was "The Post", a doomy dirge that somehow morphs into into a perfect little pop ditty, wrapped around one of the most kick ass rock riffs ever and some wicked leads on top! This is maybe the first (and only?) truly perfect Dinosaur Jr. record. The sound is still buzzy and heavy, guitars are big and distorted, but the pop songs are just too strong to stay buried and against all odds, and often battling crushing guitars and freaked out noise, they rise to the surface and shine brightly through swirling shroud of distorted psychedelic haze. So so so great!!!
Bonus tracks: videos for "Freak Scene", a sill assemblage of wacky band hijinks and some poor kid getting his head shaved, and "No Bones", a gorgeously arty live video, that perfectly captures the mood of the song!
It's weird to think that in the current climate of rock reunionism, there's probably not a single band you loved when you were younger that you can't imagine reuniting, touring, even making a record. It's even weirder to think that once that band did get together, they might make a record the rivals any of their classics from decades earlier, and while Farm is no Bug or You're Living All Over Me, it's really not that far off. Especially considering what you might expect from a band making a new record nearly 25 years since their debut. Even harder to believe with a band like Dinosaur Jr, whose acrimonious (to say the least) breakup had most of us assuming they would never speak again, let alone write and record and tour.
But here it is, record number two since the original Dinosaur lineup reunited. 2007's Beyond was great, and Farm just rules. It's heavy, catchy as hell, the band are tight, Mascis' voice sounds exactly the same, his leads are wild and all over the place, and while we never thought we'd be hankering for some seriously jammed out guitar rock, Dino Jr. makes us wonder how we did without it for so long. Some of the tracks on Farm ("Pieces") are so catchy and so rocking, they sound like they could have been Bug outtakes. Farm is even more like an old Dinosaur Jr. record as bassist Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion) contributes a couple of his old songs, and unlike the old days, when his tracks were gorgeous sad boy 4-track loner folk gems, his two tracks here are dense and intense, super heavy, super catchy melancholy rockers, that sound like kick ass Sebadoh jams, and have us hankering for a new record from those guys too!
We're getting tired of reunions like everyone else. Not every band we loved needs to come back from the dead, and most already have a catalog that's pretty perfect without adding some modern sub par attempt at relevance, but fuck, it's tough to argue with a record as good as Farm, and a band who still kick as much ass as Dinosaur Jr.
While they last (not long we're guessing), we have the deluxe version, with a 4 song bonus track, which includes two Dino originals, a Zombies cover, and a cover of a psych pop classic by Elyse Weinberg.
Dinosaur Jr. continue to be one of the few reunited bands, whose new stuff, sounds pretty much as good as their classic stuff. That might be a bit of an overstatement, considering this is the band that was responsible for "Freak Scene", "Bulbs Of Passion", "Repulsion", "The Wagon", "Little Fury Things" and a bunch more, over great record after great record, but ever since they got back together, and released Beyond, it was like they never left. (We were totally prepared for the worst, but they just totally blew us away with that album.) And I Bet On Sky is just the latest great record from these guys, their third since reuniting, and just like Farm before it, which we also loved, all the things we love about the band are present and accounted for: crazy catchy songs, fuzzed out guitars, J Mascis's buzzing leads and whining plaintive vox. The first track on I Bet On Sky, is uncharacteristically jangly, with what sounds like a Mellotron offering up a string-like shimmery backdrop, then the vocals come in, and it's like some sort of minimal stripped down Dinosaur, there's even piano, plonking out a simple melody; gradually, Mascis' guitar swoops in, and unfurls wild soaring leads over the top, all the while, the song stays locked into that single loop/groove/riff/melody. It's a weird one, but impossibly catchy, and great opening track. Next, "Watch The Corners" is much more standard Dinosaur, chugging guitars, lilting melody, Mascis's Neil Young like croon, killer rhythm section, a super rad chorus, with weird harmonies, and super dynamic start/stop arrangement, and of course hooks galore. The rest of the record is pure Dinosaur Jr, which also means super varied, strummed acoustic guitars, under crunchy distorted riffage, all washed out hazily psychedelic, woozy, tangy almost slow-core, plenty of wah wah guitar, some serious rockers too, and some unlikely surprises (one aQ-er thought one of the tracks sounded like Steve Miller Band!), but for the most part, fans are gonna want this, and are likely gonna end up loving it. And while it might not be the very best place to start, it's still good enough that Dino newbies could find themselves hooked, with the added bonus of one of THEE most amazing back catalogs in indie rock to subsequently discover!
Our heads are nearly exploding from getting not only The Beach Boys Smile Sessions box, but also this beautifully elaborate quadruple lp, in a hand pulled screen printed box set containing the 24->24 Music sessions of Arthur Russell's Dinosaur L project complete with remixes and extra Russell related Sleeping Bag Records singles! Both sets have more in common than you might think in the way they show what fastidious creators both Brian Wilson and Arthur Russell were, in that they both sought to take their musical visions to the limits and didn't know really when to finish. And in both cases, under different circumstances and contexts, had to have others come in and pick up the pieces.
It's really funny scanning back over all of our past Arthur Russell reviews. The first couple from 2004 suggest that a lot of people were into this, "but no one at aQ has become a big Arthur Russell fan", although since then there have been more than a few of us here who have become HUGE fans. While we admittedly have gushed over nearly every release, the Dinosaur L sessions have always been our favorite of Russell's work, probably because it is the one project that went beyond just being a singles project and it also unified his avant experimental leanings with his love for disco and extended dance forms.
Not to be confused with Dinosaur, the single project that Russell worked on with The Gallery's Nicky Siano and David Byrne for Sire Records in 1978 (the single, "Kiss Me, Again" was Sire's first disco single release!). Dinosaur L was born of a performance at the Kitchen in 1979 where Russell compiled a band of downtown regulars including Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo with a congo player and a drummer with Russell on cello, and presented orchestrated disco music as an avant classical performance. The move was a bold and calculated political statement, thumbing their noses at the snobby attitudes of the new music scene towards club music, to which Russell claimed no such hierarchical distinctions. But the performance created strong divides in the downtown scene even though they were largely more bemused bafflement than outright hostility. Emboldened by the reaction, Russell next step was to get these performances on tape, using most of the same musicians and enlisting vocalists like Jill Kroesen, Julius Eastman, and Marie-Chantal Martin, as well as various members of little-known New York new wave and punk bands. While the original performance project allowed the musicians to work freely and expansively, the overall music was highly composed, which adds a strange element of chance to the proceedings, allowing the pieces to include many deliberately wonky and unpredictable twists and turns. The vocals adding both a disaffected no-waveish delivery from Jill Kroesen on "#5 (Go Bang!)", as well as strange operatic fits on "#3(In the Corn Belt)" and Yoko Ono-ish yelps on "#1 (You've Gotta Be Clean On Your Bean)", make this the perfect punk and disco hybrid that delivers highly on both counts. The entire original project consisted of 4 extended cuts with two shorter interludes, the last song, "#6(Get Set)", going the deepest in to no-wave guitar territory but maintaining a forward thrusting momentum through its strange and beguiling devolution.
You probably wouldn't unleash such a leftfield dance classic like "#5 (Go Bang!)" on an unprepared dance audience unless you had the timing exactly right, with the crowd all extremely revved up and sweaty. We imagine that was the thinking when stalwart downtown DJs like Larry Levan, Francis Kevorkian and Walter Gibbons each took their editing chops to the Dinosaur L sessions and made them a bit more dance-floor friendly. Stripping out certain vocal parts, adding others, allowing tension to build up and release, each producer taking a different approach to Russell's maximalst visions with the composer's full approval. Russell thought the remix process was just another form of extended creation, and while he favored some remixes over others, he was very generous in handing his creations over to the club DJs he was affiliated with for further manipulation. Included in the set are 3 remixes of "Go Bang!" which are all highly different and all very worthy. The Francis Kevorkian mix is probably our favorite, taking a dub like approach with a tight focus on the rhythms yet utilizing dream-like atmospherics. There are also two Larry Levan remixes from other Dinosaur L sessions. The last three sides are devoted to various Sleeping Bag Records singles from Russell related projects like Felix ("Tiger Stripes"!), Indian Ocean, The Sounds of JHS 126, and Bonzo Goes To Washington.
Packaged in a deluxe screenprinted box with each record housed in a hand-pulled screen printed mat sleeve, and a 20 page booklet with liner notes, production information and testimonials from all the musicians and Djs involved. So unbelievably fantastic!
