Noise for Zeros

Soft Crash LP
S-S Records, 2010

After last year’s sleeper LP Late Night, and the short but sweet Enemy With An Invitation 7″ on Permanent Records early this year, a lot of people were getting worked up over this, their 3rd album, and I’m pleased to say that it’s looking like one of the best LPs of 2010. While Late Night took a number of spins to fully absorb due to its sophisticated, slow-mo aesthetic, Soft Crash has the immediate hooks and scrappy charm of their first LP. Their sound has moved well past the Roxy Music/Bowie tags their early Hozac and S-S singles got and into something distinctly their own. There’s sustained synth and a subtle glam polish to their songs, but the mood of Soft Crash exists in a grittier, electropunk realm that echoes the wild buzzing pulse of Chrome and the rich aural textures of modern day Sonic Youth. All in all, that’s just a fancy way of saying that this record sounds great at first spin and continues to sound great after weeks on the turntable.

LINKS

Buy Soft Crash at S. S. Records
Nothing People on MySpace

My Pal / Jackwoman Nunhammer 7″
Au Go Go Records, 1987

While this late-80s Aussie band doesn’t quite live up to their cheeky moniker, God did manage to have a few decent tracks spread across an album and a couple singles that made their way into the import bins of fine record stores worldwide. The A-side is fairly unremarkable proto-grunge, along the lines of weaker tracks by peers like Green River, The Fluid or early Screaming Trees, but the B-side has some of the best Stooges-worship you’ll ever hear, with detached-cool vocals and a searing riff as massive as Ayers Rock. Along with other Aussie bands under-appreciated in these United States, like the Celibate Rifles or Grong Grong, God deserves at least little respect, if not outright worship.

DOWNLOAD

God - “My Pal”
God - “Jackwoman Nunhammer”

Raw Candle Vote / Antonin Artaud 7″
Radial Records, 1993

A number of factors may explain why this Athens postpunk outfit never got the respect they deserve. It was easy to confuse them with Jaks, another excellent band in the mid-nineties that mined similarly angular, bass-driven noise rock alá The Jesus Lizard. Their name could also be confused with Tim Kerr’s (Big Boys, Poison 13, Monkeywrench, Lord High Fixers, etc) mid-90s project Jack O’ Fire. Or perhaps all the accurate but dismissive fanzine reviews describing them as a Jesus Lizard with a female singer didn’t appeal to the unwashed, male-centric indie masses who were still dealing with the Riot Grrl backlash. Whatever the reason, it’s a damn pity because they definitely had a unique take on the tense, mangled-but-regimented sound that cropped up in the 1990s underground. The good news is that their two LPs are relatively easy to find, so if you dig this great single — which includes a solid Bauhaus cover — you can easily score some more Jack O Nuts.

DOWNLOAD

Jack O Nuts - “Raw Candle Vote”
Jack O Nuts - “Antonin Artaud” (Bauhaus)

LINKS

Jack O Nuts on Built on A Weak Spot
Jack O Nuts on Beyond Failure

1980–2010

It’s been a month since the Memphis garage maestro died and I’m still recalling all the raging records he left behind. I remember the first time I heard The Reatards, blown away by the intensity and freshness he brought to the safe, conventional confines of the garage punk scene. Jay really took it to the next level and influenced a whole generation of in-the-red ragers as a mere teenager. He continued to evolve and was never afraid to push into new territory, as demonstrated with the darkwave synthpunk of the Lost Sounds, or the jerky, angular postpunk of Nervous Patterns and Angry Angles. Even his last solo release, Watch Me Fail, the most polished and commercial album of his career, his masterful combination of KBD-style primitive punk and classic pop tweaked convention enough to make his music his own distinct beast. It’s ridiculous how many quality releases the guy had under his belt. It may have seemed like overkill at the time, but ya gotta be thankful for the massive back catalog he left behind without even reaching 30. Here are a few of my favorites…

DOWNLOAD:

The Reatards - “Blew My Mind”
The Reatards - “Sick When I See”
The Reatards - “Teenage Hate”

Final Solutions - “Eye Don’t Like You”

Nervous Patterns - “Beautiful Brutal”

Angry Angles - “Apparent-Transparent”

Lost Sounds - “Dark Shadows”
Lost Sounds - “You Don’t Know Remote Control”
Lost Sounds - “Black Flowers”

Finally — the second installment of the NFZ Best of 2009. January was a blur and there were a lot more singles and EP releases to sort through, so it took a bit longer to narrow ‘em down to these ten…

1. Mayyors - Deads 12″ EP
After two hyper-hyped 7″ releases, it’s almost embarrassing to have this at the top of this list because it will no doubt go down as one of 2009’s most-hyped releases. But fuck, at first listen it’s clear what all the hype is about with this Sacramento noise punk crew. Taking a page from the intense short sharp shock style of no wave bands like Lake of Dracula and Curse of the Birthmark and channeling that noise into barely controlled bursts of melodic chaos, Deads is the best four songs this band has released so far. It’s scary to think about where they can go from here.

2. Gary War - Galactic Citizens 12″ EP (Captured Tracks)
I finally caught up with this bedroom psych master this year, absorbing last year’s excellent New Raytheonport LP, so 2009’s Horribles Parade on the Sacred Bones label and this killer 12″ EP were at the top of my must-have list. While oddball bedroom psych pop is all the rage these days, with “groups” like Pink Noise, Ariel Pink, Blank Dogs, Dead Luke, Pink Reason, and tons of others pumping out cassettes and limited vinyl releases of lo-fi weirdness, Gary War’s output piles on way more weirdness than the others, who often offer little more than slightly tweaked pop songs. With layers and layers of effects and warbling out-of-left-field sounds piled on solid pop song structures, Gary War’s records reveal surprises with every listen.

3. The Fresh & Onlys - Horrible Door / Laughter is Contagious 7″ (Trouble In Mind)
This fairly new Oakland group launched into indie stardom with a slew of releases and numerous interviews in 2009 and it was this 45 from Chicago’s awesome Trouble in Mind label that made me a believer. Sort of in the realm of the Thee Oh Sees‘ modern blow-fi take on ’60s punk psych, the Fresh & Onlys concoct an addictive sonic stew that gets better with every listen.

4. Statues - We’re Disparate 7″ (P. Trash/House Party Records)
This Ottowa Sudbury, Ontario trio specializes in tight, full-caliber pop punk, which only a handful of bands can do well. And they do it especially well, as evidenced on this tight 45. Angular enough to have a sneer, but tuneful and poppy enough to pair nicely with bands like The Futureheads, Jawbreaker, and the ultimate pop punk band, The Buzzcocks.

5. Crash Normal - Flying to NY 7″ (Plastic Idol)
This smoker earns a spot for the A-side alone, since the B-side is a spot-on cover of The Country Teasers‘ “Hairy Wine 2″ that sounds more like the Teasers than the Teasers. “Flying to NY” shows this Parisian duo at their best, with a raw, scrappy garage punk tune that’s on par with the genius of The Intelligence.

6. Condominium - Barricade/Big Plans 7″ (Fashionable Idiots)
It’s taken 26 years, but finally the B-side to Black Flag’s My War album has been adopted by hardcore kids. Not to sound like a bitter old fart, but I’ve been championing that record for fuckin’ decades to deaf ears who chose to focus only on early BF without realizing how groundbreaking and heavy that plodding monster from BF’s late period is. Thankfully, the kids these days with their internets or whatnot are taking in all this history and creating some pathologically intense, lumbering hardcore that has roots in the My War sound, as showcased in this perfectly brutal 45 and releases from their peers, Cult Ritual and Kim Phuc.

7. Sex Church - Dead End 7″ (Sweet Rot)
Even if I weren’t a sucker for repetitive trance garage psyche, this Vancouver band would be aces on account of the noisy and raw edge they bring to their dark-tinged music. There’s a crackling coldness to “Dead End” that’s instantly absorbing and perfect, like a Velvet Underground for the new millennium. Sounds cheesy, I know, but of the hundreds of bands going for this type of sound, Sex Church has absolutely wired their interesting take on that sound and it’s leagues better than the rest. The flipside “Let Down” is an epic downer that’s something akin to a raw version of The Dead Boys playing a funeral dirge in an echo chamber.

8. The Sess - Authentic Black Coke / Brain Ruster 7″ (Slovenly)
Righteously named, The Sess (pronounced “Sesh” as in “session”) pop off a fun pair of partypunk tunez that sound like they could’ve been one of the highlights from the 1983 Hell Comes to Your House Part II compilation that featured rollicking country punk ragers from classic bands like The Minutemen and Mau Maus, or maybe one of the more aggro songs from The Plugz discography. Both tracks clip along with support from a garagey bit of organ and enough loose ends to keep it raw, warm and fuzzy.

9. Kim Phuc - Weird Skies 7″ (Deer Skull)
The 3rd single by these Pittsburgh mutants further cements them as one of the most intense heavycore bands of the day. And by heavycore, I don’t mean that mallrat by-the-numbers chugga-chug pap that your retard cousin’s into. This is the real deal, tempered (or distempered) with late Black Flag blowout guitar bent into swirling riffs that hook you into their terrifying world.

10. Dark Ages - Vicious Lies 7″ EP (Cowabunga)
I’ll admit that I’m guiltily gobbling up all these classic thrash retread bands the kids are into these days. Deep down I want them to push their music out of the confines of established genre standards, but spinning this 33rpm rager from one of KC’s fiercest bands makes me forget all about higher aspirations and retro guilt. These kids are for real. With a sound that harkens back to the late ’80s glory days when thrashy hardcore 7″ EPs pushed the genre into vicious territory with heavy breakdowns and high-velocity, raw throated intensity, Dark Ages keeps the HC spirit alive with a strong dose of politically-charged hardcore.

BEST ALBUMS

1. The Intelligence - Fake Surfers (In The Red)
The number of bands that get better with each release are few. This Seattle mainstay is one of those few, making each album a notch or two better than the previous release. From scrappy-but-awesome beginnings to this well-crafted, thrilling LP of weirdo/garage/punk/whatever, The Intelligence continues to make some of the most interesting and inventive records with their endlessly cool, multi-layered sonic cut-and-paste aesthetic.

2. Hex Dispensers - Winchester Mystery House (Douchemaster)
This breathlessly addictive album showcases some of the tightest and solid punk rock out there. Sort of poppy with hooks and choruses galore, Winchester Mystery House avoids the usual pitfalls of the played-out pop punk genre with unforgettable crooning vocals (Danzig minus the cheese) and a horror aesthetic that plays out like a midnight matinee.

3. The Spits - s/t (IV) (Recess)
It’s hard to pin down the dumb genius (whuh?) of The Spits. Lots of bands’ records sound great the first few times you hear them, but gradually sound less and less interesting. The Spits’ records have the opposite effect. Even as a diehard fan, my first listen to their fourth self-titled album evoked the same response as my previous experiences with their records, which is me thinking, “that’s it?” There’s something about their puzzling, silly lyrics and rudimentary pogo punk that doesn’t set in until the 3rd or 4th listen, and by that time, they’re your favorite band again. Dumb genius!

4. Dan Melchior und das Menace - Thankyou Very Much (S-S)
It’s easy to overlook and dismiss the work of such a prodigious talent when there’s more releases put out in one year than most put out in five, but you gotta give Dan Melchior props because nearly all of his records are top notch Billy Childish-style garage punk blues. And when you have one of the best labels around putting out a double-album by the guy, you know that that’s gonna be essential listening.

5. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (Mute)
Just before the release of this record I’d become a fan of their self-titled 2007 release and wasn’t expecting this record to bowl me over as much as it did. Usually, when the indie hype machine starts chortling out the heavy praise this record’s been getting, it means that the band has softened up and polished their sound enough to become marketable to the fickle indie/college rock crowd. But fuck, this is a monster full of shrieking, feedback shrapnel shot from a roaring wall of sound that’s as massive and raw as anything you’ll find in the noise cult underground.

6. TV Ghost - Cold Fish (In The Red)
It’s been a while since such a destroying record has hit my turntable. The Cramps comparisons this Indiana group have had thrown at them only slightly reflect the dangerous guitar twang that emanates from this heavy slab of noise pound. The Birthday Party hits a bit closer, but still doesn’t give enough credit for the sinister and twisted world these sounds come from. Echoey, evil, and way off kilter, this monster slays pretty much everything that attempts to cover this dark territory.


7. Ty Segall - Lemons (Goner)
Like Dan Melchior, Ty Segall seemed to have a new release coming out every other week throughout 2009 — not counting releases or reissues from his other bands The Traditional Fools or The Perverts —so you’d assume that there might be a few weak spots in his discography, but alas they all smoke and this LP is the perfect showcase of this garage punk wünderkind’s talents. Catchy hooks and an surly surf guitar sound frame his rollicking, reverb-drenched vocals and stomping beats, with the brilliantly tweaked pop sensibility that Kurt Cobain used to make grunge palletable for the masses.

8. Converge - Axe to Fall (Epitaph)
Metallic hardcore in this day and age is a played-out scene. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of horrid little groups that clumsily throw together a few of the extreme elements that Converge perfected many years ago, rendering this genre lifeless, boring, and worst of all, unimportant. If only they spent as much time on their songcraft as they do on their 3rd-rate ripoffs of Jacob Bannon’s iconic artwork and plastering their band logo on overstocked merch tables, they might just breathe some life back into an otherwise dull scene. In the meantime Converge has continued to hone and perfect their state-of-the-art metallic hardcore, pushing it in new directions, while maintaining the intensity and precision of their earlier releases. All their releases on Epitaph have been high water marks for that scene and this one’s no exception.

9. Mika Miko - We Are Xuxa (PPM)
This LA group that emerged from the energetic all-ages Smell scene has aged nicely into a seasoned band that can at once sound current and fresh while also capturing the rawness and daring of the early LA Dangerhouse scene. Songs like “Sex Jazz” and “Keep On Calling” which add some blaring sax blasts could be mistaken for X-Ray Specs or The Subtonix, while others connect Siouxsie & The Banshees to Bikini Kill with a streaks of carefree fun. An excellent cover of The Urinal’s “Sex” also secures this LP a top spot among 2009’s releases.

10. AFCGT - AFCGT (Uzu Audio)
This and Factums’ Flowers LP were the two best headscratchers from 2009. Both skirt any sort of convention or predictability and both continue to sound great after repeated spins on the turntable. This cryptic LP from the hybird band made up of The A-Frames and Climax Golden Twins is nudging out the Factums record simply on account of it being released first and the fact that I’ve already said my piece about that great record here. Many have said that AFCGT sound like the amalgamation of those 2 groups, but I don’t see that at all. This is an entirely different animal, perhaps leaning more towards the sprawling compositions of CGT, but there’s really not much to connect either band to the sonic terrain covered on this record. It’s more aggressive and less jazzy than their 10″ release, all while keeping a certain modicum of sophistication, which make this record even more exciting and unique. I’m looking forward to their Sub Pop LP, coming out later this month.

BEST REISSUES

1. Loop - A Gilded Eternity 2xCD (Reactor)

2. The Units - History of The Units, The Early Years: 1977-1983 CD (Community Library)

3. Cheveu - Cheveau LP (Permanent Records)

4. 13th Chime - Discography CD (Sacred Bones)

5. Dog Faced Hermans - Hum of Life LP (Mississippi)

6. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange LP (Kranky)

7. The In’bred - Legacy of Fertility CD (Alternative Tentacles)

8. Jesus Lizard - Goat LP (Touch & Go)

9. Jesus Lizard - Liar LP (Touch & Go)

10. Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart LP (Dischord/DeSoto)

Jubilix / Nitro Burning Funny Cow 7″
Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1991

From where else but Iowa City, Iowa could such a burly ass sludge punk band named Iowa Beef Experience go ripping into early-nineties grunge obscurity? Actually, IBX did have a bit of clout in the pre-Teen Spirit world of grunge, with an interview in Maximum Rock ‘n Roll and an LP released on the London-based Vinyl Solution record label. In 1991 they may well have been the best-known punk band from Iowa, despite the fact that Iowa had, and has always had a pretty healthy little scene. Learn a more about it from previous posts here and here, or from The Secret History of the Cedar Valley wiki site here. Anyway, IBX had a fairly unique take on the pigfuck genre, namely with some of the gnarliest growling vocals you’ll ever hear, and a gut-rumbling guitar sound that can only gurgle up from the deepest depths of the rural midwest. This 45 is their best release, featuring forceful, antagonistic riffs and a floor-rumbling production that some of their other releases lack.

DOWNLOAD

Iowa Beef Experience - “Jubilix”
Iowa Beef Experience - “Nitro Burning Funny Cow”

Mr. Devil CD
Third Gear, 1998

Have a taste for dark, atmospheric, spaced-out trance rock? Then you need to aquaint yourself with the out-of-this-world tunes of Detroit’s Keir McDonald, aka Medusa Cylone. This relatively unheard classic from the late ’90s is essential listening, with a slight krautrock influence, warm analog electronics, and layers of ethereal effects-laden guitar. And where many similar-minded groups tend to get a bit monotonous from setting up a nice repetitive groove, Mr. Devil never gets boring as its songs are masterfully constructed to expand and contract and pull the listener in with an unending palette of pulsating exotic guitar, heavily-processed samples, and other sinister aural oddities. If your iPod is full of tracks from Loop, Hawkwind, Spacemen 3, F/i, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, or even the sample-happy urban sonic decay of Illusion of Safety or tense clang of Sonic Youth’s quieter moments, chances are this album will be of interest to you.

DOWNLOAD:

Medusa Cyclone - “The Smith Can”
Medusa Cyclone - “Invisible World”

LINKS:

Medusa Cyclone on MySpace

Brazilian Post-Punk 1982-1988
Man Recordings, 2005

This excellent compilation came out a few years back when Brazilian rock was hot stuff in the indie world, as evidenced by the resurrection of legendary rockers Mercenarias and Os Mutantes, and top-notch collections from the Soul-Jazz label like Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revoluton in Sound and The Sexual Life of the Savages: Underground Post-Punk from Sao Paula Brasil. While the tracks on this CD definitely feel dated with synths galore and vocal styles clearly inspired by their UK counterparts (Joy Division, The Cure, Killing Joke, Public Image Limited, etc) you can also hear an era when the possibilities were wide open and passionate bands weren’t afraid to take new ideas a run with ‘em. There’s a freshness and originality captured here that breathes new life into what your ideas of what “post-punk” and “new wave” sound like. There’s a real charm in these bands and period of time, where synthesizers are treated like something new to experiment with and not as an ironic, empty gesture. Check out the Killing Joke-style percussive drive in Musak’s “Ilha Urbana” or the hypercool atmosphere of Chance that’s something like Tangerine Dream covering Suicide, or the intensity of Vzyodaq Moe’s Tragic Figures-era Savage Republic sound. It’s one of the best comps to come out in the last 5 years, and if you like what you find here, you can find more on the also great Soul-Jazz comp mentioned above, with plenty more choice cuts and only a couple duplicate songs.

DOWNLOAD:

Muzak - “Ilha Urbana”
Chance - “Samba Do Morro”
Vzydaq Moe - “Redencão”

LINKS:

More info at the Man Recordings website
Buy CD at Forced Exposure

The Warming / Your Spaceman 7″
Amphetamine Reptile, 1991

No self-respecting blog with the word “noise” in its title would lack at least some mention of one of the most mind-blowing noise-centric brainfry guitar gurus ever to drift across this mortal coil. Grandiose introductions aside, the contributions, or more accurately, distortions, to the rock music form that Helios Creed made starting from the late 1970s are nothing short of legendary. And while his radically inventive work in Chrome rightly overshadows his long and prolific solo career, the slew of releases he cranked out throughout the 1990s are worth taking a closer look at. Some of my favorites came out in the early part of the decade, after his first tinny and weaker solo records X-rated Fairy Tales and Superior Catholic Finger — both listenable, but synth-heavy and staid compared to the blown-out fuzz of his following records, starting with 1989’s The Last Laugh. This single, released between 1990’s Boxing the Clown and 1992’s Lactating Purple perfectly captures the best elements of the Helios Creed oeuvre: overblown effects-ridden guitar, synthetic alien vox, and swirling psychpunk riffs that practically ignite speaker cones.

DOWNLOAD:

Helios Creed - “The Warming”
Helios Creed - “Your Spaceman”