Art for Spastics: AFS v. 273 ~ The Thicker Riffer Upper

BAD SPORTS | Why Say Don't | self-titled | Douche Master 2009
BAD SPORTS | Should've Known

I'll be leading a big Sacto/Davis caravan out to the third of three San Francisco Bay Area shows for Eddy Current Suppression Ring when the rulin'est Aussie rockers hold court with Thee Oh Sees, Fresh & Onlys, Sic Alps, and Ty Segall at the Serra Bowl in Daly City. I figure on a quadruple-capacity crowd showing up for this, so I won't take any chances. Who else wants to pitch a tent? And if you see me in the front during ECSR, gimme a little room 'cos I'm not gonna be able to control myself. I'm geeked for this like a kid on xmas eve.

Fellow readers, listeners, and KDViateS....Have I built up enough anticipation for the new debut LP--Dark Ages--from Portland's Big Black Cloud? If you've been following the last couple months of AFS, you should have heard a few sneak peaks plus their live-at-KDVS session and songs from their 7" EPs. This fantastic LP will soon be out in an edition of 500, sleeved in beautifully hand-screened red, yellow, and silver covers. They had copies during their recent long-weekend trip to Northern California, and you can hear another hit of bombastic futurepunk from the grooves of my own copy. Can you hardly wait to get yours? Don't worry....I'll keep watching for public availability. Keep checking back!

Another exciting new musical discovery--White Drugs from Denton, Texas--finally found me about three years late, but just in time to pre-order their 2nd album, cooperatively released by their own Kunstwaffe label and...whoa!...AmRep?!?! Okay...hold your horses. Don't read this as a license to submit your band's demo to Tom Hazelmeyer. He is still officially retired from the label business. But when he first heard White Drugs' debut album--Harlem--in 2007, he effusively sang its praises on the AmRep message board, and now he's endorsed the next record (due July 20 and pre-orderable now HERE) by putting the AmRep logo and an AmRep matrix code on it. It looks like a genuine AmRep article....and more importantly, it sounds like one, too! It's supremely pummeling, pugnacious, and creative with its twin-guitar attack and nifty rhthmic divergences, but it's mostly linear and plenty punk, and so many of the riffs and songs invite repeat listens, so I don't imagine I'll forget it anytime soon. It certainly sounds like I cracked open a mid-90s time capsule of a coulda/woulda/shoulda-been-classic unreleased record by a worthy contemporary of Hammerhead. But bands like this were all too rare then, as now, so this sounds plenty fresh. This thing is limited to 350, so don't let the word of mouth grow too long before you cop your own copy!

Another Denton band is on the move on the West Coast this week. Don't miss the Bad Sports, people!

Tue, Jun 29 in Fullerton, CA
@ The Continental w/ Pterodacdudes, Stranger Danger

Wed, Jun 30 in Long Beach
@ Que Sera

Thu, Jul 1 in Santa Cruz
@ ???

Fri, Jul 2 in Oakland
@ Harmchurch
w/ Shannon & The Clams, Uzi Rash, G. Green, and Mike Hunchback

Sat, Jul 3 in San Francisco
@ Pissed Off Pete's

Sun, Jul 4 in Sacramento
@ The Hub w/ Gay Beast and Pistol Pete

Mon, Jul 5 in Portland, OR
@ Slabtown

Tue, Jul 6 in Seattle, WA
@ Funhouse...Death by Steamship

Wed, Jul 7 in Provo, UT
@ The Compound

Thu, Jul 8 in Colorado Springs, CO
@ Rubbish Gallery w/ Dirty Dives

Fri, Jul 9 in Lawrence, KS
@ Replay Lounge

Sat, Jul 10 in Oklahoma City or Noman
@ ???

Tue, Jul 13 in Denton, TX
@ Rubber Gloves

Finally.....Here's fun blast from the past and the AmRep family tree...