Art for Spastics

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

AFS v. 254 ~ Wellspring Has Sprung!

POMPOIR | Unrequited | Exploding Time 12" EP | Isolated Now Waves *new
DEAD GHOSTS | She Likes It | split 7" w/ Smith Westerns | Bachelor 2009
DEAD GHOSTS | Holy Ghost | Holy Ghost 7" | Boom Chick 2008
THE WHINES | trk 9 | debut LP | Meds *forthcoming
NERVE CITY | Golden City | Recordings 2007-2008 | Sweet Rot *new

Get ready for that new Whines LP coming soon from Meds because it's gonna be brilliant! As I said in AFS v. 213 that "[t]he style of this young Portland band is kinda like the more ruminative moments of The Hunches, thanks to the shimmering sprawls of psych-punk guitar that spiral toward the edges of the incredibly stalwart rhythm section"; that's still completely true, but with confidence, they've outgrown the sorta kid sibling status and into their own shoes which kick so much ass that they're surely one of the best bands on the west coast now. Powerful when stonefaced and beautiful when emotionally vulnerable, this album's range is rare and tremendous. It's everything I hoped it would be after seeing them wallop their debut 7" when they played live. Look for the band to come down the I-5 corridor for a tour to kick off promotion of this new album in March. Dates will be announced here when they are known.

Could the third LP by the Nothing People really be even better than the 2nd, which was better than the 1st, which was also really great? Has any other band from 2000-2010 succeeded in outdoing themselves three times in a row after such auspicious beginnings? The Hospitals? Yes, but I can't think of another off-hand. I don't wanna render my final verdict 'til I let this sink in some more (two at-length listens so far), but I have a hunch it's true. Soft Crash has a more driving pulse than Late Night, but it's just as psychedelic and delightfully dazed.

Sacramento treasure Charles Albright has a new LP out, but not a solo effort.

It's the first album of his band The Megacools, a trio also including his better half. Fans of last year's Charles Albright solo 7" on SS (and previously self-released in an edition of 100) will surely dig this LP. Maybe even just as much! It's quite a riot of wild punchy riffs, hooky melodies, and humorous goofball surprises including some of the best-integrated TV and movie samples since Spazz and No Le$$ succeeded in that arena during the powerviolence era. This record is totally Charles-style which means homemade and limited to 100. If you wanna get this thing....gee, I don't know what to tell you exactly. Do you still use MySpace? Does he even? The band hasn't logged in since November. You might as well just email me and I'll forward it along. Otherwise, if you wanna hear more outta Charles, reportedly there's a solo album to pick up where the 7" left off coming from Permanent Records, so stay tuned to their channels for forthcoming release info!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

AFS v. 253 ~ Catching Up w/ Weird Forest!

This week in AFS...

* All the latest and greatest Weird Forest releases!
* Davis' creepiest crimson-wave queen, Waxy Tomb's about to debut live!
* The Bay Area's most under-rated musical treasure, Kreamy 'Lectric Santa!
* & much more!

Download this program within two months at this link...
CLICK HERE for 192kbps rate.
or
CLICK HERE for 320kbps rate.
or, if you have a slower/20th century connection
STREAM IT HERE by next Monday night!

(Email me with any downloading problem questions...)

KREAMY 'LECTRIC SANTA | Everything? | Operation Spacetime Cynderblock | Starcleaner *new
KREAMY 'LECTRIC SANTA | Like Friggin' Gone
THE FEELING OF LOVE | Young Jesus | OK Judge Revival | Kill Shaman *new
THE FEELING OF LOVE | La-Bas C'est Naturel | School Yeah 7" | Sweet Rot *new
U.S. GIRLS | Sleeping on Glass | Go Grey | Siltbreeze *new
BREN'T LEWIIS ENSEMBLE | Memories of Foam | Three Christs of Ypsilanti | Siltbreeze *new
WAXY TOMB | Grey Ice Box Gardens | self-titled CDR | no label *new
HUMAN SKAB | Bein' Bad | Thunder Hips and Saddle Bags | Family Vineyard *new (orig 1986)
HUMAN SKAB | Piano Concert
ALBOTH! | Juerg Solothurnman | Amour 1991 | Permis de Construire Deutschland 1991
MANYMENTAL MISTAKES | Wild Power | Clean the Bloody Tape CDR | ManyMental *new
SHEARING PINX | Xpanding | Weaponry | Divorce 2009
N.213 | Slauterhaus | Sun Knowledge EP CDR | Isolated Now Waves 2005
CHANNELS 3 + 4 | Jesus is Free | demo | no label 2004
RED MASS | Too Many Parties | Too Many Parties 7" | Wallride *new
NÜ SENSAE | Don't Panic | self-titled CS | Oms-B *new
MESS FOLK | Something I Remember | Something I Remember 7" | HoZac *new
AMBER ALERTS | Somewhere Under a Shit Cloud! | Antibodies 7" | Sweet Rot *new
NOTHING PEOPLE | Late Night [Syd Barrett] | Late Night | S-S 2009
BANANA HEAD | In the Tubs | In the Tubs CS | Goaty Tapes *new
ROY MONTGOMERY | Used To [Wire] | 324 E. 13th Street #7 | Drunken Fish 1999
SAM GOLDBERG | untitled (excerpt) | Current | Weird Forest *new
STARVING WEIRDOS | The Density of Life part one (excerpt) | Self Hypnosis 2xLP | Weird Forest *new
STARVING WEIRDOS | Hagen Dazs | The Path of Lightning 2xLP | Weird Forest *new
MAURIZIO BIANCHI | New Heavens New Earth | M.B. Das Platinzeitalter 2xlp | Weird Forest *new
LOVE CRY WANT | The Great Medicine Dance | self-titled 2xLP | Weird Forest *new (orig 1972)
DOUG SNYDER & BOB THOMPSON | Hit & Run | Daily Dance | Cantor *new (orig 1972)
TOUGH TROUBLES | Big Rig | self-titled CDR | Geneva Lake *new

A word to the wise...Buy one of everything on Weird Forest Records! I'll come back later in the week to tell you why. Just trust me for now.

Also, if you are in the Sacto/Yolo area, please come meet Davis' most outstanding upstart noise artist since Slobberaht--Waxy Tomb--as she debuts in live performance at The Hub (1819 23rd Street in Sacto) on Friday, February 5, in support of Pompoir from Vancouver, Canada. If you're lucky, she'll be selling this demo CDR pictured above which is a riveting 31-minute creep-out traverse on the knife edge of timeless proto- and post-industrial sounds and resonant metallic drone. I was intrigued by this CD when I first discovered it floating around in a box a few months back. I had no idea whether it could be from Sheffield, England, 30 years ago, or the newest MySpace mystery profile linked to the FNU Ronnies and Blood. The liner sheet was just a spare torn-off piece of paper with no artist information. So, imagine my surprise to learn that it was KDVS' own DJ JJJulllia of the "here ear" program on Friday afternoons. This would sound really good on a slab of vinyl, so if you're ready to pony up to add her to your stables, ask me to put you in touch. Your mailing list will thank you later.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

AFS v. 252 ~ Splish, Splash...I Was Taking a Bath

If you peel away Banana Head's layers of neu-blues-folk-psych outer-zoning dreariness, you'll find that there's actually a discernable kernel of pop sensibility at the core of several of these songs, and especially the ones with vocals, however distant or whispered. Surely a vinyl-ready release, and like all things Goaty, it's handsomely packaged with a colorful, creative J-card, stamped and exquisitely hand-cut to enhance the consumer's intimate, personal connection to the music. If this doesn't take the prize this week, then surely this new A-side from Jakob Olausson's appearance in the new Columbus Discount Singles Club does...absolute stunner! Two phone calls came in demanding to know, "What was that!?!?!"

The next Ratas del Vaticano LP is due to drop next month, and it's got 16 more psychopathic punk rippers, including one epic bludgeoner that is the new savage weirdpunk's answer to the Subhumans' "From the Cradle to the Grave". HBSP-2X will be serving that up with an EP from another group of Monterrey punks, Inservibles. I'll get to them next week!

Wounded Lion covered Wildman Fischer again, and this time, it's the crowdpleasing chant of "Omar! Omar! Omar! Omar!" that'll worm into your head. I know it seems like every Wounded Lion song so far is immediately catchy and contagious as you sing it everyday to your significants, co-workers, kitties, and everyone else in earshot, ("Pony People" rates serious consideration for feelgood song of the decade!) but there's actually some rather subtle songs on this upcoming debut LP--due March from In the Red--which grow on you over time. I think it was upon the fourth listen that I realized what an ingenious song "Hunan Province" is for containing the best lyrical passage that rhymes a word with itself (twice even!) since 1982 when Marky de Sade sang "I tried everything, I tried counting sheep!/One sheep! Two sheep! Three sheep! Four sheep!/Shut up while a I try to count these sheep!" in "I Can't Get the Sleep in My Head" on the should-be-classic Indoor Fiends LP by The Hypnotics.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

AFS v. 251 ~ Don't Call Me from the Degobah System!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

AFS v. 250 ~ Spite One & Embitter the Other...

If you think the words glacial gloom-metal sound tasty, or the idea of guitar-riffs built on a system akin to cubic crystals, then hurry and become one of the 150 lucky people to score this momentous double-cassette release by the Goslings! This band is at the top of the outer-zoning metal game. The rest of you can have your SunnO)))). Hey, I like them, too, but if SunnO)))'s riffs creep in like eerie shrouds of fog, the Goslings' riffs enmeshing with Leslie Soren's vocals are like a freezing fog that falls from the sky to reveal Northern lights...chilling to the bone and haunting with beauty. With the very recent proper CD release of Heaven of Animals (a 2005 collaboration with Warmth, then known as Roxanne Jean Polise, the Goslings also have three (arguably four with Crucial Blast's issue of the Space Heater and Perfect Interior CDRs on one proper CD in 2006) full-length albums which are all worth the effort of hunting down. Really, this strikes me as a truly momentous and awesome band. Highest recommendation!

Speaking of momentous and awesome.....I've yet to compile my 2000-2009 decade-best lists, but I'm sure that my choice for the best metal album is

self-titled by Jex Thoth. The album was released initially on CD only, but I Hate Records from Sweden has recently unleashed it on vinyl LP with a stupendous gatefold rendering of the cover art. I've included the entire sprawling "Equinox Suite" and the mind-scrambling finalé of the LP to convince you of its absolute rulingness.

If I find time to write down more thoughts about any of this music, I'll try n' update this post. But for now.....just havva listen, and trust that the new Nothing People 7" sounds and looks tremendous enough to be worth the high price, and the new Home Blitz is a grand slam, and be ready for the Guinea Worms to rule you for the entire length of a double LP in a few months. Next week, hear another sneak peak of the forthcoming Wounded Lion debut LP!

Also, SoCal...brace yourself for the Mayyors at the end of the week. They're tour is coming your way...

Thu, 1/14 @ Eagle Tavern///San Francisco, ca - 9pm, $5, 21+
w/Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Ganglians
Fri, 1/15 @ Five Stars Bar///Los Angeles, CA - 9pm, $8, 18+
w/the Lamps, Audacity, Bipolar Bear
Sat, 1/16 @ house party///Los Angeles, CA - 8pm
w/Le Face, Wounded Lion
(this show's location is a secret...sorry...I hope you know somebody!)
((I'm not even sure I'll be any help!))
1/17 @ dudes' house (637 W, Woodcrest Ln.)///Fullerton, CA - 7pm
w/Francis Harold & the Holograms, Audacity, Pterodacdudes

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

AFS v. 249 ~ Thee Best of 2009!

highlighted by the Monster Headroom album--which are the antidote to the lo-fi pop doldrums. While the Ganglians are part of the "glo-fi" or "hypnagogic pop" movement named by Pitchforkmedia.com, they are emerging from the backlash against this unfortunately-named subgenre because of the strength of their songs, their genuine funloving spirit, and the indubitable fact that amongst all the contemporary bands which critics compare to the Beach Boys, the Ganglians are the best at those vocal harmonies. They criss-crossed the continent playing second billing to Wavves during their first nationwide tour, and now the future's bright for them with a new label for 2010 and a planned European tour in late spring. While their future is bright, they truly became a local treasure when they strengthened a link to our past; one of the true highlights of all the live music I saw in 2009--approximately 400 bands--was the Ganglians' cover debut of "Aliens in Our Midst" by late-70s Sacto legends the Twinkeyz.

The most momentous local record of 2009 was the Deads 12" EP by the Mayyors, and its B-side opener "Clicks" was the most integral full-band achievement following two earlier EPs in 2008. The most tenacious mach-speed motorik

drumbeat drives forward a supremely nifty interlocking bass/guitar riff while singer John Pritchard is in his very best and most aggressive form, and that's just describing the first verse! As the band varies from the riff, it becomes even more thrilling as the Chris Woodhouse's arcane guitar synth device is deployed to warp waves of perfectly tuned guitar scree in time with the constantly stout cadence, and as a grand finalé, the rhythm section flourishes with thundering tumbles and divebombing bass slides. Each member is achieving optimal performance simultaneously within a stunningly arranged and peerlessly produced song. The Mayyors remain elusive to most Sacramentans due to limited live local activity and zero web presence. If you would like your noise-rock to be as partyhardy as it is pugnacious, then you should find these Mayyors.

While the Mayyors and Ganglians sound nothing alike, they share many fans here in Sacto and Davis because of their propensity for rocking the same intimate living rooms and basements, and because the ever-expanding definition of "psychedelic rock" actually bridges their music. Indeed, the weird, wild, and far out has crept into every cranny of underground music, and that has brought a wide variety of music closer together, as well as fans. Tastes have become eclectic enough to endure--if not embrace--a four-band bill of glittery pop, thuggish sludge, fancy-free improv-scribble-jazz, and a weirdfolk troubadour from start to end. As the bands influence each other and the fans share it together, you know something important is brewing.

Music that is broadly influenced has a tendency to be broadly influential (and vice versa...just think of how the ska-punk of the 90s became an evolutionary dead end). A few bands can blend nearly all of it together on one album, such as Wild & Inside by Eat Skull. The Portland band is best known for a style that cakes punky scuzz around a pure jangle-pop kernel, but on this second effort, they summoned the ghosts of Syd Barrett, Joe Meek, and Bruno Nicolai for some chilling moments of filmesque beauty.

Among the best albums of 2009, many ghosts of psychedelic's past flew into the future over a field of punk, garage, lo-fi pop, and even minimal synth and industrial music. On Low Blows by Mattress, the macabre croony warble of Rex Marshall's posi-self-help lyrics over a bed of downer darkwave sounds like an odd mix on paper, but it flows outta the speakers dazzlingly and seemingly very naturally. Facilidad?, the sixth album by Impractical Cockpit, harkens back to the earliest days of industrial music, but reflects the experience of the last decade and a half of no wave and noiserock damage, the cultural experience of living in pre-Katrina New Orleans, and coping with Katrina's after-effects. Little Claw's third album, Human Taste, brilliantly bridges awesome post-riot-grrl ladypower with primordial ooze of the protopunk era. Talk Normal's Sugarland brings similarly striking ladypower to stridently atonal yet seductive artrock. Purling Hiss burns brightly on his self-titled album with blown-out white-hot guitar crunch and pyroclastic leads. Meercaz achieves the same on his self-titled, but varies the pace with a protopunk stew with a hint of every type of spice. Sonny & the Sunsets revive a fancy for Donovan alternately with Jonathan Richman on their alluring debut, Tomorrow is Alright. On Men Are Talking, the Life Partners playfully dish perplexingly dubious lyrical matter over clever rock with surprising AM-gold flavors. Best of all, the local SS Records label unleashed a stunning double-LP by Dan Melchior und Das Menace and the most enchanting album of dark wonder, Late Night by the upper Sacramento Valley's Nothing People.

Top 20 full-lengths...

Meercaz self-titled
Mattress Low Blows
Hunches Exit Dreams
Purling Hiss self-titled
Talk Normal Sugarland
Eat Skull Wild & Inside
Little Claw Human Taste
Audacity Power Drowning
Nothing People Late Night
Dudu Geva Retrovulva 2003
The Intelligence Fake Surfers
Ganglians Monster Headroom
Impractical Cockpit Facilidad?
The Magnetix Positively Negative
The Life Partners Men Are Talking
The Bassholes ...and Without a Name
Ratas del Vaticano Mocosos Pateticos
Sunny & the Sunsets Tomorrow Is Alright
Dan Melchior und Das Menace Obscured by Fuzz
Dan Melchior und Das Menace Thankyou Very Much

The Anals' Total Anal was the toughest to cut, and I'm still pondering who else to cut to make room for Agent Side Grinder's Irish Recording Tape which I heard for the first time in the last couple of weeks.

Top 20 EPs...

Vibes Psychic 7"
Flight Flowers 7"
Mayyors Deads 12"
FNU Ronnies Golem 12"
Pheromoans Revamper 7"
Red Mass self-titled CDEP
Moon Duo Killing Time 12"
Wounded Lion Friendly? 7"
Puffy Areolas Lutzko Lives 7"
Silver Shampoo Jethro Skull 7"
Druid Perfume Other Worlds 7"
Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones Cry 7"
Happy Burger Pizza All Around 7"
Black Pus Down Down the Drain 7"
Pink Reason/Electric Bunnies split 7"
XYX Momento Acido Contemporaneo 7"
Cheveu Like a Deer in the Headlights 7"
High Castle You're On Your Own Way 12"
Hammer of Hathor Tooth Eeth or Teeth Ooth 12"
Dan Melchior und Das Menace The Post Office Line 7"

Best cassette releases

NoBunny Raw Romance
Butcher Cover self-titled
Michael Stasis self-titled
Warm Climate Edible Houses
Rank/Xerox / Grass Widow split
Crappy Dracula The Lockhorns EP
Absinthe Minds The Song of Returning Light
Tyvek Blunt Instrumental 2: True to the Game

Most outstanding live performances...

Tyvek @ Bomb Shelter House in Davis
The Cysts @ Funcastle in Sacramento
XYX & Rank/Xerox @ Mama Buzz in Oakland
Mayyors & Hunches @ Funcastle in Sacramento
Eternal Tapestry & Ganglians @ The Hub in Sacramento
Coconut Coolouts & Personal & the Pizzas @ DAM House in Davis
Mayyors, Thee Oh Sees, & Eternal Tapestry @ ORMF VII, Plainfield Station in Woodland
Quartet of Davy Bui, Chad Stockdale, Nick Julian, & Kevin Corcoran @ Funcastle
A Burning Bus, Box Elders, Sonic Chicken 4, & Davila 666 @ Gonerfest 6 in Memphis, TN
Traditional Fools, Grass Widow, HPP, Nodzzz, et al @ Wizard Fest, Wizard Mountain in SF
Defektors, Sex Church, & Charles Albright XXXperience @ 300 Room in West Sacramento
Necessary Evils, Box Elders, Wounded Lion, Slippery Slopes, & Wild Thing @ Budget Rock in SF

Art for Spastics Awards '09...

Best Overall Album.... Wild & Inside by Eat Skull
Best EP.... Deads 12" EP by Mayyors
Best brainworm pop hit...."Flowers" by Flight
Best song for headphone listening..."Blue Tentacles" by Dan Melchior
Best cover version..."Late Night" [Syd Barrett] by Nothing People

Best late-night listening album....Late Night by Nothing People
Best festival....Gonerfest 6
Best singles club... Columbus Discount Singles Club, Year One
Best reissue... Something That Would Never Do by Mirrors
Best new local band in Sacto/Davis....GGreen (the full rock band version)
Best new bands on west coast....Rank/Xerox, Sonny & the Sunsets, and The Whines
Best song about pizza (and there were a lot of them!)...."Pizza All Around" by Happy Burger
Best song for cleaning out ears...."Golem Smoke" by FNU Ronnies
Best overall live band....Thee Oh Sees
Best band to hang out with....XYX
Best band to party with....Dadfag
Best new trend in music right now....FUN!
Best trend that I hope gains more momentum in '10...."They're rather like industrial music of late 70s/early 80s"
Best album cover art....Electric Bunnies board-game gatefold
Best drone....???? (Squim didn't make an album this year, as far as I know!)
Best irreverent band name....Juavves
Best song titles for future band names....The Pheromoans
Lifetime achievement award....Michael Yonkers
Most vinyl-worthy cassette....Edible Houses by Warm Climate
Most face-melting psych-rock scorch-fest....Eternal Tapestry
Most humorous between-song banter....Cave
Most sweltering show....Coconut Coolouts @ DAM House in Davis (my fingers got pruney!)
Most physically taxing band (for me literally)....The Hunches @ Funcastle, Sacto
Most surprising "the old guy still rocks" moment....Paul Collins' Beat @ Fire Escape in Citrus Heights
Best energy drink....NOS punch (red top) in blue 24oz canister
Best-value burger overall....Faisal's Halal in Sacramento
Most sinful burger....Back on the Block in Sacramento's "Italian Combo Burger"
Best Mexican food here in Sacto or maybe even anywhere....Lalo's or Toledo's Market
Most ridiculous place to see a show....Loco's Only in Oakland
The band I wish I coulda started....Puffy Areolas

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

AFS v. 248 ~ GGreen Across California!

Sun 12/27 in Oakland @ Fuzzplex
w/ NoBunny, Uzi Rash Group Band, Bare Wires & Hobocop
Mon 12/28 in Oakland @ TBA
w/ Uzi Rash Group Band Oakland, California
Tue 12/29 in San Francisco @ Pissed Off Pete's
w/ NoBunny & Uzi Rash Group Band
Wed, 12/30 in Ventura @ Mai's Cafe
w/ Sea Lions & Catwalk
Thu, 12/31 in Los Angeles??? SoCal???
(help?!?!)
Fri, Jan 1 in San Diego??? SoCal??? Anywhere?
(help?!?!)
Sat, Jan 2 in San Luis Obispo @ 3069 Broad Street
w/ TBA
Sun, Jan 3 in Stockton @ Plea 4 Peace
w/ Satan Wriders, Craft Spells & TBA
Tue, Jan 5 in Sacramento @ The Hub

w/ Brilliant Colors, English Singles, & Uzi Rash Group Band

GGreen's cousin band a recent in-studio guest Vichy Water also saw the release of their new cassette, so look out for more new sounds of young Sacramento! Fans of Teenage Panzerkorps' more dance-accessible moments should enjoy it, I think! Follow the label link above or Paypal $7ppd to dylancraver at gmail dot com....

Art for Spastics

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

AFS v. 254 ~ Wellspring Has Sprung!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

AFS v. 253 ~ Catching Up w/ Weird Forest!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

AFS v. 252 ~ Splish, Splash...I Was Taking a Bath

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

AFS v. 251 ~ Don't Call Me from the Degobah System!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

AFS v. 250 ~ Spite One & Embitter the Other...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

AFS v. 249 ~ Thee Best of 2009!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

AFS v. 248 ~ GGreen Across California!

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Art for Spastics

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

AFS v. 254 ~ Wellspring Has Sprung!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

AFS v. 253 ~ Catching Up w/ Weird Forest!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

AFS v. 252 ~ Splish, Splash...I Was Taking a Bath

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

AFS v. 251 ~ Don't Call Me from the Degobah System!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

AFS v. 250 ~ Spite One & Embitter the Other...

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

AFS v. 249 ~ Thee Best of 2009!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

AFS v. 248 ~ GGreen Across California!

About Me

Subscribe to AFS

Other Blogs I Check Regularly

Blog Archive

Followers

My Yelp Reviews