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Friday, March 30, 2012

Thursday, March 29, 2012

review from your flesh

THE LOST DOMAIN Blondes Chew More Gum 2xLP

Peter Davis | Mar 29, 2012 | Comments 0 |

Brisbarbarian no-fi sludge-drone from 1995 cassette re-issued. This is the first ever vinyl pressing of The Lost Domain’s sprawling Blondes Chew More Gum, brought to us by the inestimably tune-wise blokes down (under) at Negative Guest List. Featuring a lineup of three drummers, a very uncorked Dave MacKinnon yowling electric guitar, and mumbled spoken vocals from Simon Ellaby. The groove here is deep, distant, astral, tribal, and yet immediate, like somebody field recorded a gutter-punk drum circle on one of the moons of Saturn. Fans of the Axemen, Greg Ginn instrumental Black Flag tracks, Ya Ho Wa 13-style tribal chant psych, and blackout drinking should definitely check out this epic of loose, fuzzed out and spacious group-gropes. [Negative Guest List]

-Paula Permanent

http://yourfleshmag.com/music/the-lost-domain-blondes-chew-more-gum-2xlp/

review from rettman

SCRAPS – Secret Paradise (Disembraining, 7”)
That Scraps LP from last year certainly won my ‘Best Record Title’ for ’11 award (Classic Shits) but I didn’t really find myself listening to it more than once or twice. And that’s not to say it was lousy or anything; it just failed to register in my barely pumping brain. But this three songer from the lady from Brisbane is having the opposite effect on me; it’s registering out the wazoo! Those unfortunate enough to return to my house after a night of carousing will know I have a great fondness for the first two singles by Thick Pigeon and Ms. Scraps (Laura Hill if you’re nasty) seems to have nailed down the pristine, creepy electro feel of those tiny little discs on this single, for sure. I could assuredly see this 45 being lined up after a sauced jamming of Subway or Dog the next time I come home from a liver damaging session. Max Milgram: you have been warned. - TR
http://200lbu.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

mark it in your calender

APRIL 10 IS JEFF EVANS DAY!

Tuesday, April 10 will be declared
Jeff Evans Day
by the Mayor of Memphis. For real!
A showing of
Ron Franklin's surreal Jeff Evans documentary
THE MAN WHO LOVED COUCH DANCING
will be shown at the Blue Monkey in Midtown.
This was last seen in Memphis during Gonerfest 4 in 2007.
Not known at this time if it will be shown anywhere else.
If you are into this stuff, I would not miss this!
After the film, there will be a performance by Msr Evans
with Ross Johnson & Ron Franklin and possibly others.
Insane Memphis night in Midtown!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

still single reviews

http://still-single.tumblr.com/

Scraps – Secret Paradise 7” EP (Disembraining)

RECOMMENDED

Laura Hill (Scraps to the outside world) turned up here a little while back with Classic Shits, an album’s worth of Casio pop from a number of years ago out of her bedroom in Brisbane. Years later, the project is still active, and even better, with three new songs which have more of an eye on what’s going on now, and a better understanding of the “button” a good pop song needs to come across as well as these ones do. What’s more, she gets it done through a very limited means of expression (‘80s synths and vocals, run through ProTools and arranged to her satisfaction) that works for what she’s doing. “1982” is like a two-minute dash through the recorded histories of both Stereolab and Broadcast, but against the cadence of a jilted wordsmith, staying on the beat and cramming the whole thinig with contextually novel lyrics. It’s so great I just listened to it again. “Simple Mind” runs a racing beat and rides some high-frequency scales up and down in its drive to get you moving, and “Secret Paradise” features this killer vocal break that puts me in the mind of Nite Jewel. Every one of these songs stands out, and the single is so short you’ll just flip it over and start again. Might be on the twee/pop side of things for some of my readers, but others who know better will want to track this down, no matter what. (http://disembraining.tumblr.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
19 hours ago • 0 notes
Terrible Truths – s/t 7” EP (Small Town City Living)

RECOMMENDED

Australia’s hit parade continues, now with Terrible Truths, a lady-led trio from Adelaide working the unadorned post-punk angle. This one’s great if you were looking for something unadorned and sinewy, geometrically correct post-punk plane drawings with great, uplifting vocals in the early Siouxsie/Annie Anxiety/Delta 5 camp. This sort of thing has been done so many times, and is very hard to get wrong – you need that groove, you need to work both for and against it, and you’ll achieve the rest based on what else you can bring to it. Guitarist Stacey Wilson and bassist Rani Rose understand this, and work with their own voices to bring a sense of urgency to the music. I will probably never get tired of this sort of thing and I doubt a lot of you will, either. Four great songs, with the side A tracks shining a bit more brightly (especially “Lift Weights”). Liam Kenny of Kitchen’s Floor plays the drums and boxes things in quite nicely as well. 300 numbered copies, gold vinyl. Grab a few. (http://terrible-truths.tumblr.com)
(Doug Mosurock)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

stillsingle reviews

Low Life – Sydney Darbs 7” EP (Negative Guest List)

RECOMMENDED

Four blasts of weatherbeaten downer punk from a Sydney trio that gives “a special thanx to anyone who embraces the 9-5, day in day out, mundane, soul destroying, mindless, clock work thinking because you are why we do this.. and we fucking detest you.” That kind of attitude is still needed in punk/the seething world, and the music of Low Life suits it, all dirgelike chords, flange pedal and space-absorbing vocals that suck most of the air out of this recording, like putting a plastic bag over your head and drawing deep. Sounds like it crawled out of a pit to harass shopping centre patrons with hopelessness, blight, and demands for cigarettes. Nods to dark early ‘80s UK punk are evident, if not necessarily intentional; it all adds up to a hissing, nasty, bruising music that has nothing but disdain for the outside world, and an inner sanctum held together by symbols and mythology. In the wake of Brendon’s passing, I do hope that their album will be coming out regardless, and that this single will not be any harder to find. A real day-ruiner, and not in an easy or obvious way. Put your shoes on, dump water in them, then go about your day, and you’ll probably be upset enough to make this kind of record yourself. Visit this link for reference only: (http://negativeguestlist.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
1 day ago • 1 note
Skyneedle – Creepertown 7” (Independent Press)

RECOMMENDED

Brisbane’s Skyneedle plies a refreshing stripe of avant “rock” that relies not on earsplitting electronics or feelbad atmospheres. Driven by an incessant hooting from some kind of pump-driven horn, “Howlway” shambles along in an odd danceable mode. Singer Sarah Byrne juxtaposes a sultry vocal with the mutating caveman rhythm, tunelessly plucked slack-strings and an intermittent low-end grind produced by something else entirely (presumably the “Speakerboxbass” as operated by one of the quartet of noisemakers, Alex Cuffe).vWith instruments like the “Strungpanel,” and the “Latex Leghorn Drum Machine” credited, part of this record’s fun is in imagining what these homemade doodads even look like. Owing to their design and the resulting arbitrariness of the pitches produced, they evoke a crude junkyard/industrial version of far-eastern folk music. And the instrumental B-side “Creepertown” has that in droves, accompanied by a stumble of sheet-metal percussion and more of that rhythmic two or three-note hooting that alternately recalls some of Elliott Sharp/Carbon’s early large ensemble works and/or Canada’s pep-peps of noise, the Nihilist Spasm Band. It would be tempting to pigeonhole this (inaccurately) in some kind of no-wave or even neo-primitive revival, but Skyneedle’s atavism is less ritualistic/confrontational and much more playful. It might be the influence of the medium here, but the unit also deserves credit for keeping these tracks brief, wrapping them up after ideas are explored with sufficient thoroughness and before they would meander into self-indulgence. The whole limited-to-200 copies shebang is packaged in a jacket screenprinted with high-contrast, retina-confounding patterns, only adding to its mutant appeal. http://www.skyneedle.org)
(Adam MacGregor)

http://still-single.tumblr.com/

Sunday, March 4, 2012

from volcanic tongue

Hammering The Cramps
s/t
Wormwood Grasshopper Records WG-02
Totally fantastic archival unearthing documenting this pre-Drunk Elk project from Hobart, Tasmania. The sound is classic edge-of-the-world hypnotically degraded avant lurch, with the kinda grasp of extended rock tongue that defined the more damaged group sounds coming out of the Xpressway stable but with an emphatically powerful grasp of massed No Wave guitar movements and the kinda higher-mind feel for tortuously beautiful melodies of This Kind Of Punishment. But it’s the walls of endless strung-out guitars that really seal the deal with a euphoric repeating aspect that comes over like a Valkyrie Dead C or The Clean play Glenn Branca topped off with classic wasted/desperate vocals. Hard to believe they kept themselves a secret for so long but this is fantastic. Edition of 300 copies. Highly recommended!

Woollen Kits
s/t
RIP Society RIP-024

Great wide-eyed stumble punk from this Australian group who mine the more melodic/primitive end of the Flying Nun catalogue, with keen dual vocals over two guitars and stand-up drums. There’s a hint of the Sound Of Young Scotland here, with a DIY aesthetic that reflects on Postcard Records as well as associated satellites like the early VU-worshipping Go-Betweens sides while there’s a little of The Smashchords to the way the twin guitars tangle around each other and some of the ‘deeper’ male vocals summon the ghost of Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson, which is to say that is a great side of DIY teenage rock with a classy non-musicianly appeal and the kinda winning naivety of your favourite bedroom rocker. Comes with a download. Recommended.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

yellow green red

Mad Nanna I Hit A Wall 7″ (Quemada)
Mad Nanna is one of the few Australian acts with a handful of 7″s that I’ve yet to previously experience, so this I Hit A Wall single arrived just in time. It’s pretty much what I was expecting – barely functional guitar-strumming duct-taped to drums that sound like they’re slowly disintegrating as the song progresses (although “progresses” is probably the wrong verb for a song like “I Hit A Wall”). Rather, the a-side plugs away like a malnourished Swell Maps, groggy and annoyed. The untitled b-side moves faster, but it’s equally unpolished, telling a serious story that is just slightly too muffled to parse. I was expecting a real bare-bones, shambolic DIY thing, and I certainly got it. I find myself just as likely to hate something like Mad Nanna as much as like it – maybe it’s the killer nonsense artwork that’s all over the cover and center stickers, or just the combined vibe of both tracks, but I can truly say I’m on board with the Mad Nanna mission. Hoping to figure out what other 7″ or two are the essential ones, and that I don’t have to delve into the sad world of CDrs to properly sustain my fix.

Rettman's got a 'zine coming soon








MAD NANNA – I Hit a Wall (Quemeda, 7”)
That last Mad Nanna 7” on Wormwood Grasshopper really blew me a new one; so I was all too ‘cited to see this surprise in my mailbox a few weeks back. Laying an ear to this recent 45 has made me realize these young gents are a rare breed. They seem like the types who can wear many hats and still have you admiring just the shape of their head. Case in pernt: The above mentioned 7” seemed to be a single minded reach for the sun in an almost hippy fashion. Now on this un, both sides seem propelled by tiny, potent riffs that both tingle and chug. Sorta like a Lost Cause informed take on 3rd LP Velvets or Fowley produced Modern Lovers. And although it sounds absolutely nothing like the single before it or the single before that one (on Little Big Chief here in the U.S) they still got me on the line. I’m guessing an LP by these would be a smorgasbord of different stabs at greatness…so let’s fuckin’ hear it. – TR

http://200lbu.blogspot.com/