Noise for Zeros

Andy Human and the Reptoids – Andy Human and the Reptoids (S-S)

No other album had the ability to get under your skin quite like this debut from the Bay Area’s finest export. With a timeless sound that draws inspiration from, but doesn’t directly ape the gurgling glops of glam and protopunk (Brian Eno, Pere Ubu, Devo) that spouted them, this band’s exceptional songcraft has given this LP a high rate of return and listenability. Soon all the references to classics will fade as this records has all the indicators of a classic in and of itself.

The Chewers – Dead Dads (Self Released)

There are weirdos and then there are people trying to be weirdos. These freaks from Nashville couldn’t be normal if they tried and their musical output benefits from this tragic anomaly in that they’ve been able to create a truly unique body of work that allows more adventurous listeners a glimpse into a world that’s more fascinating, frightening, and funny than nearly any other band you’ll hear. Truly unique and truly weird. Read more about it here.

Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue – Lords of the Manor (In The Red)

Dan’s prolific discography of solo records and records with Das Menace have been a steady source of brilliant ramshackle rock n’ roll on par with other masters of the form, like Billy Childish, Jay Reatard or Jon Dwyer. As great as that gravy train has been with multiple releases hitting the vinyl bins year after year, I have to admit that when I heard the Broke Revue moniker was being tossed out for a new record, the first since the band’s last recordings in 2004, I was more than a little amped, being that Oldtime-Futureshock, Heavy Dirt and Bitterness, Spite, Rage, & Scorn still sit high on my list of all-time favorites. Lord of the Manor has all the rickety hooks and stomp of those earlier records, but now wraps it in a detached psychedelic swirl that darkly spins off into fractured Chrome solos or relentlessly heads down krautrock. The new Broke Revue is an entirely new beast and one I hope rears its ugly head again sometime soon.

Killing Joke – Pylon 2xLP (Spinefarm)

After 35 years, you might expect the legendary UK postpunk pounders to loose a little steam and/or piss and vinegar, but so far they’ve kept right at it and have continued to make killer records decade after decade. From the masterpiece of their eponymous debut LP through 1983’s percussive Fire Dances, even through their weaker new-wavy late ‘80s records on to the more metallic Pandemonium in 1994 and through the 2000s, there’s been enough trace amounts of their original fire in all their releases to make ‘em worth paying attention to. And this double whopper again shows how malleable their sound can be by pleasing not only lovers of metal, industrial, dub, EDM, punk, and all points in between, but by demonstration how their unique vision has influenced underground music overall. The tracks on Pylon span from drifting hypnotic anthems to bombastic marches, all roaring or at least gurgling with layers of texture and Geordie Walker’s unrivaled minor key guitar swells. Needless to say, Pylon is an epic addition to an already epic discography.

Male Gaze – Gale Maze LP (Castle Face)

Delivering on the promise of their 7”, Gale Maze reels in the noise a wee bit and serves up a cool slab of postpunk built with commanding gothy vocals and thick fuzzy bass-driven songs that channel the frenetic dark energy of Tones on Tail or the coldwave songcraft of Total Control. It’s instantly catchy and will wrap itself deep into the folds of your brain as it also rumbles in your gut. Body music for the brain or brain music for the body?

Mick Futures – Banned from the Future (Telephone Explosion)

Only the Andy Human record earlier this year got as many plays as this surprise treat from Canada’s Mitch Houle. Endlessly listenable pop damage for mutants of all ages, Banned from the Future pulls you in with hooks in the form of synthetically-enhanced punk so catchy that you’ll finally be able to put something new between all those classic Chrome, Devo, and Roxy Music records you’ve spun into oblivion.

Shadow in the Cracks – Shadow in the Cracks (Goner)

What could be seen as a side project of Minneapolis’ The Blind Shake, this 9-song convulsive devotional deserves some credit for discovering a new space in the well travelled garage punk sound continuum. They exist in a plane where tranced out shamanistic krautrock mingles in the open, singular spaces Wire discovered on Pink Flag, while getting scorched by the burning, grizzled fire of Dead Moon. One of the freshest records the garage canon has seen in a long time.

Sleaford Mods – Key Markets (Harbinger Sound)

If you consider the mountains of halfwit shitass punk bands out there clogging the bins and clubs with formulaic and conventional tripe, you have to wonder how it is that two Brits armed with nothing more than minimal beats and primitive bass lines can lay waste to all of it with 12 cuts of spittin’ working class rage. Key Markets is what the The Fall would’ve sounded like if Mark E. Smith grew up listening to Crass and Wu Tang Clan instead of Can and The Seeds.

The Soupcans – Soft Party (Telephone Explosion)

Toronto spazzoids The Soupcans are back with 13 hits of Grade A ass-whooping garage punk jolts. Their tantalizing 7” EP, Parasite Brain, from 2013 left a thirst for these lads brand of huh that can finally be quenched, with pleasantly deranged bangers like “Hairicide” and “Razorface”, full of tales about who the fuck knows what. They even put up a splash of quasi black metal blast beats and howls with the punishing track “Murder Parade“ that shows a wild new angle on the Soupcans sound. They’ve managed to both hone their sound and push it even further too. Absolutely as essential as their previous LP.

Ufomammut – Ecate (Neurot)

As the various branches of metal continue to mutate and push into new territory, it’s always rewarding to slog through a few tons of tedious metal clones to find records as remarkable as this monster from Italy’s finest metal trio. The riffs on Ecate are unforgivingly heavy and relentless, textured with mysterious samples, buried vocals, and vicious electronics that pound you into putty while also giving what’s left of your brain a psychedelic treat on a trajectory as convoluted as its retina frying cover art. It’s a sublime sludge stew to fuel 45 minutes of infinite astrological exploration.

Dead Dads CD
Self Released, 2015

Right as the July heat began to simmer the sickly humid air and warp the atmosphere into a sweaty stew, the latest collection of madness released from this Nashville duo became an unexpected soundtrack to summer, permeating the psyche with tales of madness and absurdity told through the most weirdly seductive freak bungle. Plodding, lopsided, and spacious, The Chewers have honed their oddly odd sonic stew on Dead Dads, their third album, with disciplined songwriting that forces every pit and peak of their idiosyncratic music and madcap storytelling to shimmer in the haze. While they’re completely in a league of their own, those who are susceptible to the spaces between Tom Waits and King Missile, or in league with indie oddities like The Guinea Worms or The Country Teasers, may also be attracted to this lumbering freak feast.

LINKS

The Chewers on Bandcamp

The Chewers on Facebook

The Chewers on Soundcloud

The Chewers website

blue thirteen C30
Blue Tapes, 2014

The UK’s Blue Tapes cassette microlabel (that now also serves vinyl, books, and film!) has steadily released noteworthy releases in small batches, each capturing wildly inventive takes on diverse genres. Acapella death metal, sound art, rock improv and whatever fits between, they’re always up to something interesting and always worth a listen, even if they end up being a bit of a novelty or one of those “challenging” listens you partake in when the mood is right. Their description of this mysterious Estonian duo links their expansive rock noise sound to the most focused LP from the long-running UK group Skullflower, IIIrd Gatekeeper, and holy fuck does it ever deliver on that promise. Starting from that sonic reference point, this 5-song (a solo track by each artist and 3 collaborations) tape stretches buzzed riffs into hypnotic, transcendent sounds that twist, turn, and drift for just over 30 minutes of blissed-out heavy psych. This link is not really a reference to Skullflower as much as a mark of quality on par with the greatness of that essential album, or the sublime quality of Skullflower’s 15-minute mind-melting “Diamond Bullet” from Obsidian Shaking Codex, a track so expansive that it could almost be its own genre. If you like your noise rock to push beyond the predictable and formulaic trappings of the form, prepare to meet this true form destroyer.

LINKS

Threes and Will + Huerequeque on Blue Tapes website

Watch “Sea Fourth Pt. II” by Threes and Will on Vimeo

Big Day for Blimps 7″ EP
Self Released, 1989

A handful of bands get referenced to a degree that it almost becomes a insult when they’re used to describe a lesser-known band. The work of Fugazi, Slint, Black Flag and others get name dropped so much that you can’t help but dismiss a band described as such, assuming that they try too hard to follow in the footsteps of a greater band. That hazard shouldn’t really stand when those bands’ collective output is in fact so noteworthy that any band that earns such a nod should at the very least be worth checkin’ out once. Don’t Mean Maybe definitely fall in that camp with a sound that admittedly cribs more than a few notes from The Minutemen — shit, the cover of this debut 7″ is even an homage to their 1984 landmark double LP Double Nickels on the Dime — but this San Diego trio’s slightly more forceful twist to their songs that makes this 7″ a compelling listen. If you love The Minutemen, you’ll find it hard to resist this one or their Doctor Dream Records releases.

DOWNLOAD
Don’t Mean Maybe – Big Day for Blimps EP (13.8mb Zip file)

LINKS
Don’t Mean Maybe albums on iTunes

Self-Titled 7″ EP
Puppet Combo, 2014

If The Fall were hardened by the pummeling misanthropy of the Brainbombs and fueled by Big Black’s dynamic of jarring guitar shards slashing across throbbing, propulsive bass lines, you’d find yourself on the receiving end of something like this Brooklyn trio’s excellent vinyl debut. The repetitive and tattered anti-songs on this seedy 4-track stumble through the gutters of Gotham, detached and rambling, barely coherent enough to wrangle enough tortured notes together to make any sense of the mess. In other words, brilliant.

LISTEN

LINKS

Sex Scheme on Bandcamp

Sex Scheme on Tumbler

How We Learned to Live Like A Bomb LP
Our Voltage, 2014

Scan through the reviews section of any recent issue of MRR and you’re likely to see gallons of ink touting a substantial percentage of vinyl being pressed of 10+ year-old punk. Many of these reissues pimp bands that continue to sell to an established fanbase, while others give light to some bands unknown and underrated during their day. This reissue from the German label Our Voltage is a record you’ll want to take note of as it gathers some of the most essential tracks from one of the late ’90s most underrated bands. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with Red Monkey yet, check out this previous post about their first 7″, then find yourself a copy of this vital collection before it disappears as quickly as the original pressings of these killer slabs of angular post-punk. 18 remastered tracks (16 on red vinyl, plus an additional 2 with album download) collecting all their 7″ releases and compilation tracks, plus a 20-page zine style booklet featuring anecdotes and art from the band members make this an essential release for those new to the razor-sharp sounds of Red Monkey as well as longtime fans.

LISTEN
Listen to the first track “Trespass” on Soundcloud

LINKS

Get How We Learned to Live Like A Bomb from Our Voltage

Record Store Day 2014

After the 7th year of Record Store Day and reading a few intriguing if not wholly accurate lists from the likes of Buzzfeed, LA Weekly, Paste, Pitchfork and Spin, I reminisced about all the music meccas my addiction to noise has led me to over the years and assembled a list of my own. There’s no better way to experience a new city than hunting down what audio treasures it has to offer. Some of these shops I visited decades ago but most are still kickin’ and hopefully as mindblowing now as they were when I first stepped into ’em. Each shop offered the all-circuits-are-busy overload a kid in a candy store experiences, stocked with so many killer slabs of wax that it required some tough improv decisions to edit my stack down to a (semi) affordable stack of jams. I look forward to some day hitting some other legendary spots like End of an Ear (Austin), Goner (Memphis), Mississippi (Portland),  Other (NYC), Waterloo (Austin) and others I hope you’ll be compelled to share in the comments section. Until then, make note of these sweet shops…

Amoeba – San Francisco, California
I’ve yet to visit Amoeba’s newest store in Hollywood — the world’s largest indie record store — and I can’t fathom how massive that place is. Can’t wait to hit it, but I have sincere concerns about choking in the face of so much vinyl. I’ve nearly had that experience at their S.F. store, where there was so much awesome music at my fingertips that I couldn’t begin to decide where to start. My want list went out the door as I just jumped in and improvised, stumbling across more heavily desired records than I could carry. It is hands down the best place I’ve been in the U.S. for buying records. Sweet finds: the first Red Monkey 7″, Striborg Embittered Darkness, and Fushitsusha Allegorical Misunderstanding.

The Antiquarium (RIP) – Omaha, Nebraska
Before moving out of its original location, which shared a 4-story building with a used bookstore, comic book store and art gallery, you’d have to walk past reading groups to descend down the staircase into the record shop. It offered you a quick scan of the ample selection of quality goods that were offered at ridiculously low prices. Most used vinyl was in the $4 range and there were tons of thing you’d see here and no where else. Their last location wasn’t as funky, but it still offered a more than healthy selection of indie punk garage jams, with lots of local product. Sweet finds: the first Box Elders 7″, Halo of Flies Garbage Rock, High Rise 2, For Against Echelons, Whitehouse Great White Death.

Aquarius Records – San Francisco, California
If you aren’t on their email newsletter, loaded with contagious fandom for all things weird and outré, do yourself a favor and sign up. Every week you’ll be exposed to dozens of reviews by obsessed audiofreaks with encyclopedic knowledge and unbridled enthusiasm, plus sound samples to back it up. With an eclectic mix of “….indierock, punk, metal (black, doom, sludge and all things in between), reggae, sixties psych, seventies proto-metal, international music, experimental electronic music, hip hop, field recordings, found sounds, country and bluegrass and avant garde music of all types,” this densely packed shop in SF’s Mission District is always worth a visit. Sweet finds and discoveries: Urfaust, F/i reissues, Skull Disco imports, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, the Russkie Wig Out! compilation.

Love Garden – Lawrence, Kansas
Now celebrating 24 years in this college town about 40 miles west of Kansas City, this Mass Street mecca is always stocked with a heap of great used vinyl, local treasures, and a wide swath of genres to satisfy pretty much any sound craving. While the original second floor location had the charms of a magical stairwell adorned with hundreds of album sleeves and a creaking wood floor, their new street level digs have added character to a shopping district that’s done fairly well defending against the encroachment of corporate retail. Sweet finds: first Slug 7″, Pitchfork CD discography in limited-edition Monkey Army screen print cover, first Unsane LP, Fag Cop 7″s, Helios Creed The Warming 7″, Savage Republic Tragic Figures LP.

Permanent Records – Chicago, Illinois
Like Aquarius, the refined tastes of the PR staff is reflected in a weekly email newsletter that drips with a palpable fervor for weird and wild sounds. Unlike some big shops with loads of less-than-interesting filler, the quality of stock cultivated at this tiny West Town shop is unparalleled, offering a focused degree of browsing that’s highly efficient and highly rewarding. In addition to this shop, they’re now operating a store in LA as well as a super clued-in record label. Sweet scores: Haunted George’s Pile O’ Meat, Bitchin’ Bajas/Moon Duo split 7″, Steel Pole Bath Tub Unlistenable, Cheveu Cheveau.

Record Collector – Iowa City, Iowa
Now at its third location within the handful of blocks that constitute downtown Iowa City, this college town mainstay has outlasted dozens of other shops with a small but well considered stock that reflects a clued-in group of buyers with sharp ears for sharp sounds. The original location that I grew to love was up two flights of stairs lined with flyers and not much bigger than the size of a bedroom, but it was absolutely bursting, stacked floor to ceiling with the detritus of indie punk weirdodom, stocked with a dazzling assortment of zines like Your Flesh, Bananafish, Bad Vibe, You Could Do Worse and more, plus more vinyl and CDs than you could imagine possible is such a small space. Sweet scores: Harry Pussy Zéro De Conduite double 7″, bottledog Hot Dolphin Terror @ Chirpgobble, Los Marauders Every Song We Fuckin’ Know, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 Tangle.

Rotate This – Toronto, Ontario
This Queen Street honey hole houses a heap of vinyl with a healthy cross section of any genre worth dropping a few loonies on. With a healthy assortment of stock that’s heavy in the punk and garage department, it’s the place to go if you’re sniffin’ around for all stuff underground Canada. Their used section is bountiful and priced well, so if you’re able to make it there be sure to wear some good shoes and prepare to walk out with a sizable stack of wax. Sweet scores: The World’s Lousy with Ideas Vol. 2, The Intelligence Boredom and Terror, Pink Noise Memory Box.

Singles Going Steady – Seattle, Washington
Specializing in punk, as the Buzzcocks-inspired name implies, this scuzzy jewel of the northwest is a riotous shop crammed with quality jams in 7″, 10″ and 12″ varieties. What’s great about SGS is unlike other shops that specialize in punk that feel more like a t-shirt/lifestyle accessory shop with a few records, this is an actual vinyl junkie utopia with loads and loads of rare vinyl both new and used. As someone fairly well versed in punk, I felt like a noob novice digging deep into the crates here with tons of crusty punk, thrash, doom and grind that was completely foreign to my eyes. It’s a great immersion point going deep into scenes yet to be discovered.
Sweet scores, A Frames 1 & 2, Spits 7″s, Night Kings 7″.

Twist and Shout – Denver, Colorado
While it may not live up to the legend of Wax Trax records in it’s heyday, Twist and Shout has become the go-to spot for all things vinyl in the mile high city. Their current space is a healthy sized space on Colfax that houses not only a deep collection of vinyl, but lots of DVDs and other stuff too. A trip to one of their earlier locations was amazingly fruitful, when they had a storefront across the street from the main shop that housed all the vinyl. At the time CDs were still the main business of the day and iPods had just begun turning things digital. While the main shop was hoppin, the vinyl shop had a much more focused feel and an huge amount of wish list material. Sweet scores: Faction Epitaph, Killing Joke Almost Red 12″, Coyote Insides, Destruction Unit Self-Destruction of a Man.

Zulu Records – Vancouver, British Columbia
Zulu retains the feel of an ’80s record shop, harkening to its 1981 opening date and the wide gamut of genres it expertly serves. If you remember digging in ‘import’ sections, where releases and labels that fell outside the main channels of music distribution, Zulu caters to any and everything, well stocked in punk classics as well as bleeding edge experimentalism and electronica. And, not surprisingly, they have a righteous selection of actual UK imports including some rather hard to find stateside electronic plates. Sweet scores: Scorn Plan B, Mick Harris Hednod Sessions.

Other fine shops of note:

Atomic Records – Milwaukee, Wisconsin (RIP)
Brave New World – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (RIP)
Drastic Plastic – Omaha, Nebraska
Vintage Vinyl – St. Louis, Missouri
Wax Trax – Denver, Colorado (RIP)

I’m Good to Drive LP
Permanent Records, 2013

There are a number of higher profile groups pulling from the AmRep handbook of knuckle-dragging pigfuck noise rock, but this Chicago unit (with members of Heavy Times, Loose Dudes, and Running) plows deeper and harder with a dose of dark humor that draws a line of influence from groups like Scratch Acid to Mudhoney to Tractor Sex Fatality. Featuring vocals that oscillate from David Yow-style mumbling lunacy to full-throttled Mark Arm wails, backed with the lowbrow gut-punch of Tractor Sex Fatality, Basic Cable delivers the goods in a manner that won’t get them pixel plastered throughout the blogosphere. Heartily recommended for those with refined tastes for the unrefined.

LISTEN

LINKS

Basic Cable on Bandcamp
Permanent Records

Scratch ‘N Sniff LP
Safety Meeting Records, 2013

Despite an endless parade of doom metal bands crisscrossing the globe in mutilated Econoline vans reeking of weed and spilled PBR, there are only a few bands that can actually deliver the low-end punch in the gut that makes the genre worth your time. This gnarly two-piece from the wilds of Connecticut is one of the few bands that’s channeled enough generalized misanthropy into 7 slabs of steaming downtuned Doom to make it well worth the tinnitus Scratch ‘N Sniff dishes out by the pound. With the bile-infused rage of squealing feedback-ridden southern sludge like Eyehategod and Buzzov*en, fused with the epic inertia of riff riders Noothgrush and Damad, topped with a tinge of psychedelic stonerisms alá Bongzilla, Stone Titan deliver the goods and put themselves at the top of the doom metal heap.

LISTEN

LINKS

Stone Titan on Bandcamp
Stone Titan on Facebook

Cop City / Chill Pillars – Gift Shop 7″ (Hozac)
The oddball vibe within the grooves of this 45 instantly pull you into a bizarro world where warbling effects-laden guitar and chanted vocals might be considered acceptable entertainment. Living up to the weirdness of their moniker, these wack Floridians continue to amaze.

Endless Bummer – Ripper Current EP 7″ (In The Red)
Four bare knuckled blasts from the most excellent Permanent Records folks and a Spit. This LA band with the ultimate SoCal name offers up a version of bitter garage punk that’s no fun and fun at the same time, perfectly wrapped up with a funny/not funny cover.

Life Stinks – Shadow on the Wall 7″ (Total Punk)
Stripped down no-frills downer punk with a less-than-positive attitude. Their snarl is evident, yet they don’t give a fuck about getting overly worked up about it. Endlessly inspiring negativity in two parts. Brilliant.

Magic Shadows – Sunburned Mind 7″ (Magic Shadows)
The wave of punk-infused psychedelia continues. Sex Church, Destruction Unit, Human Eye, etc — there’s no shortage of killer bands swirling loud tranced out guitar around mind expanding riffs. And if that sort of thing is your bag, you gotta check out these Canadians’ echoey barrage of scorching guitar stomp. Read more here.

Optional Body – Surviving Avalanches 7″ (25 Diamond)
As a huge fan of The VSS and the first few Year Future records, my ears have been craving some Sonny Kay-style jams for a number of years now. This killer pair of songs has his distinct yelp over a wash of doomed postpunk guitar — the ingredients of a classic.

Schonwald – Mercurial 7″ (Hozac)
The second the needle hits this record, a wave of atmospheric synth washes over you — a thrilling mix of ghostly vocals flowing over sustained chillwave and thin beats. A Flock of Seagulls from hell. This Italian duo’s second LP (out soon on Hozac) will be on the must-hear list for 2014.

Scorpion Violente – The Rapist 12″ EP (Teenage Menopause)
Similar to The Dreams, another French duo with repetitive, droning vocals and noise over cheap drum machines, Scorpion Violente ups the menace with minimalist disco dirges that are seedier than a Tijuana back alley at 3am —something like what a Brainbombs dance album might sound like. Their cover of The Sonics’ “Strychnine” on this record is mystifying and fascinating at the same time. Even the sleeve is morbidly unsettling and a brilliantly provocative image for setting a scene.

The Soupcans – Parasite Brain 7″ EP (Telephone Explosion/JKSHK)
If you aren’t acquainted with Toronto’s Soupcans yet, grab this 6-song EP and prepare to be atomized. Breathing new spastic life into noise punk, their brand of racket is as warped and wild as it gets. If you’ve subjected yourself to last year’s killer Good Feelings record, get ready for more righteous shocks to the system.

Straight Arrows – Never Enough 7″ (Hozac)
A-side drops bigger than life rubbery riffs that pull you in with a surge of buzzsaw guitar, while the B-side rounds out the fun with a catchy garage punk punch to the face. These Aussies have been making big waves stateside and here are two more great reasons why.

Verglas – Excommunion 7″ EP (Found Dead)
Trve to form, the 4 songs of black metal delight on this Montreal band’s vinyl debut are recorded thinly and tinny, but even that slipshod production can’t keep the fury of Veglas from shining through. Mixing the pained shrieks and buzz of standard issue isolationist black metal with the articulation of D-beat hardcore and galloping thrash metal makes this band a pleasantly aggressive anomaly in an oversaturated musical form.