Sunday, November 30, 2008

Sourpatch - Demo


I read about Sourpatch over at Skatterbrain and listened to the tracks they had on MySpace after seeing that there was a show in Richmond. Sadly their DC show was last night and I'll be back in DC tonight when they play in Richmond. Shame because I really like the songs I heard. I assume they are off Sourpatch's demo, which is the only thing they have out (you can buy it for $4 if you mail them). You and Fun are fast, poppy, punky songs that make you want to sing along. These two are my favorites by far. The others aren't quite as good (and I kind of hate the part of Toothache where the girl starts talking. If that were cut out the song would be so much better) and are a bit slower.

Sourpatch sound like the Vivian Girls with more pop, less feedback, and clearer vocals. So if you like the Vivian Girls try out the songs below. I found some program that lets you download mp3s from MySpace so that's where these come from. They aren't from the demo (which has 7 tracks). Once I get the CD I'll post if the seventh song is any good.

You
Fun
6 songs from Sourpatch's MySpace

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Off the Charts: The Song Poem Story

I saw this movie about two years back and it made me crack up. Off the Charts is a documentary on the business of song poems. Basically these are newspaper ads that say you can send in X amount of money along with a poem and someone will come up with music and vocalize the poem to turn it into a song. Then they send you a tape of the recording. Obviously song poems are ripe for comedy with all the strange people who would buy in to this sort of thing.

There are a few talentless rednecks who are horribly embarrassed after playing live. An old man with a scratchy voice sends in his poems all the time. But the best by far is Caglar Juan Singletary from Elmira, NY. He is just amazing and I want to hang out with him. Caglar likes to write about martial arts, ladies, religion, and science fiction. His song, Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers is a story of love, loss, and Priscilla Presley. I don't think Caglar knows how genius this song is and I am surprised that every new rock band isn't covering it by now since the movie has been out for five years.

Youtube clip of Caglar Juan Singletary in Off the Charts
Buy the movie
Non Violent Taekwondo Troopers mp3
From Off the Charts soundtrack

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Moscow Olympics - Cut The World

This could possibly be my favorite release of 2008. Moscow Olympics come from the Philippines and play catchy pop music that sounds like all my favorite genres mashed into one. Cut The World is their debut album (or mini-album. It clocks in at under 30 minutes) and it is spectacular. Not a dull song on this disc! Here is what IndiePages has to say:

This Filipino group was the talk of the indiepop world after their single last year, and this mini-album is just further proof of their greatness - in case one was actually needed! If you missed 'em the first time around, the band plays dreamy pop with a very noticeable New Order influence (especially in the guitar melodies), in the same fashion as bands like the Airfields and the Radio Dept. Simply put, the result is stunning, with a sound that's lush and beautiful and dense with jangling guitars and ambient synths, and with the requisite Pale Saints-ish lost-boy vocal style that often goes along with this kind of music. And the melodies are immaculate, as well. The only fault I found was the drum rolls in the chorus of "Safe", which were rather conspicuously off-time; I know it's one of those things that not everyone would notice, but it definitely stands out to me, though it thankfully doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the song. Brilliant and recommended!
Selected tracks:
Second Trace
Safe
Buy Cut the World from Tonevendor

The biggest fault of Cut The World is that it doesn't include Moscow Olympics' best song. Their only other release was a 7" in late 2007 and the A-side, Still, sounds like it could have been released on Factory in 1982.

Still
Talk Like This
Download the 7"
Buy it from Tonevendor

Extra: Moscow Olympics demo download

Monday, November 17, 2008

Some random tracks from Wavves

Wavves is one guy making noisy pop songs that sound like The Circle Jerks and Jesus and Mary Chain crashed into each other while ripping up an empty backyard pool. Really catchy, really distorted. I ran across a folder of unreleased stuff on Soulseek. I don't know where these tracks originally came from. What I do know is So Bored, which I had heard earlier on Wavves' MySpace, is one of Nathan Williams' best songs.

Be sure to keep an eye on Woodsist for the upcoming CD release of Wavves' out of print first album.

Download here
or head over to Katie's blog and check out Wavves' self titled cassette

The Barbaras - Summertime Road 7"

I picked this up over the summer after hearing some clips on The Barbaras' MySpace page. These guys are from the garage scene in Tennessee and two of them were in Jay Reatard's band.

Once you get past the cheesy sleeve and listen to the music you'll find some catchy pop tunes that sound like they were recorded with a tape player. The fuzzy guitar and vocals on Summertime Road make you smile and wish it were a breezy summer day so you could lie by the creek and forget about everything. The two tracks on the b-side have cleaner production but still sound great. I especially like Flow.

Summertime Road is The Barbara's first and so far only release. As far as I know they are still together. I hope to hear more soon, and if I do you will hear about it here.

Individual tracks
Summertime Road
Day at the Shrine
Flow
or download the whole 7"

Buy it at Insound
(use the coupon code "insound_rocks_07" to get 10% off. Yay!)

Extra: Five live recordings from Gonerfest (with Jay Reatard on drums!)

Friday, November 14, 2008

The Homosexuals post

This post is in honor of me not being able to go see one of my favorite bands play their first ever show in DC (god dammit). That band is The Homosexuals, a '70s punk band from Britain. But it's a bit unfair to label them punk since many of their songs sound less like Anarchy in the UK and more like something Gang of Four would put out. Post-punk sounding guitars and DIY production in punk fashion. The Homosexuals were around for 7 or 8 years but didn't release many records. What they did release didn't garner much attention mainly due to being on obscure labels. Their last output was an LP in 1984.

But now the reissue front is going strong and weird bands like this are being compiled on CD. Shortly after The Homosexuals' Record was reissued in 2004, Chuck Warner's awesome Hyped to Death label put out a three disc compilation that basically amounts to everything the band ever did. Stylistically it's all over the place. There are fast punk tunes like Neutron Lover, slower songs like Hearts In Exile, and numerous instrumentals. Go buy Astral Glamour at the Hyped to Death webstore. I promise it is worth the $21.

Now that the band has reformed (well, sort of. Bruno Wizard, the singer, is the only original member) there is a new 10" record titled Love Guns coming out next week on Serious Business Records. It is fully streamable on Last.fm and what I listened to sounded decent. The cool part is Bruno Wizard will be putting a slip of paper with lines from a story in each sleeve. It's limited to 300 pressings so if you want it go and preorder. And if you hate the record hold on to it for 10 years then put it on eBay!

You're Not Moving the Way You're Supposed To (Pt. 2)
Neutron Lover
Astral Glamour
Technique Street
Hearts In Exile
Snapshots of Nairobi

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Mix #1 - We're Not In It To Lose (Texas Punk)

Time to break away from the stuff I've been posting recently and put up some punk music. Forget indie pop ever happened and pogo to this little mixtape I whipped up. Special thanks to KBDrecords and Good Bad Music for some of these tracks. I'll definitely do more of these "small scope" mixes in the future (mostly out of necessity as the website I found only supports eight tracks).



1. My Girlfriend Is A Rock - Nervebreakers
2. Narrow View - Big Boys
3. Nova Lust (Dick Lazer Meets Midge Meteoritz) - The Shades
4. Ultimate Orgasm - Non Compos Mentis
5. Zyklon B - Hugh Beaumont Experience
6. Monotony - The next
7. Crowd Control - Really Red
8. The Badge Means You Suck - AK 47

Monday, November 10, 2008

My Bloody Valentine - Two live bootlegs


Seventeen years and hundreds of thousands of pounds later, Kevin Shields is again working on a My Bloody Valentine album.

Shields confirmed the rumours at the My Bloody Valentine-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival this weekend, taking his earplugs out for long enough to talk to the New York Times. He will be returning to songs started over a decade ago, during abortive sessions for Island Records. "I realised that all that stuff I was doing in 1996 and 1997 was a lot better than I thought," he said.

-Guardian

When MBV tours for this album I will not miss them like I did this year.

Live at ICA, London June 13th, 2008 (first show in 16 years)
Tracks 1-10
Tracks 11-17
Live at Roundhouse, London June 21st, 2008.
Tracks 1-9
Tracks 10-16

Both end with a 20+ minute wall of sound. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Disco Ditto and other stuff by Az

I'm posting about this mainly because of a freak coincidence. While searching SoulSeek for some music I ran across a guy named "Disco Ditto." The name seemed familiar and it took a few minutes before I remembered listening to a band with the same name on MySpace a few hours earlier. I asked him if he was in the band and he said yes. He then told me about another band of his called Stellarium. Now, if the "Shoegaze/Shoegaze/Shoegaze" tag on Stellarium's MySpace or the dozens of references on Disco Ditto's page didn't tip you off, these two bands are shoegaze. Well, I guess it's called nu-gaze now that we're in the 2000s but whatever. MBV and JAMC inspired noisy music.

Disco Ditto released a free EP titled Into The Void earlier this year. Here is what Az has to say about it:
For starters, here’s a brief info:

Disco Ditto started as a one man solo project that I did to do stuff bordering on how I feel and for nostalgic purposes. It was 2004, and I was concurrently in Valium, a post punk band, and in Athena Flight, a shoegaze band which had lotsa potential and songs but fell out in the end. So in the midst of being in those two bands I decided to do something for myself as a way to remember particular feelings and emotions. And that’s when I recorded Love in a total time span of 13 hours at home on my busted computer. A few other songs fell through from there, some good, some bad, but it was personal to me.

In the path through time, I met different sets of individuals who expressed interest and liking in the songs, though I thought they were merely simplistic and too personal for anyone to comprehend, these three individuals joined the band and now it has evolved into a complete band with different sounds entirely, in which I’m glad and interested in exploring. I have since decided to let go of the EP as a sign of a closing chapter, and the opening of a new one with the current line-up.

I hope you guys will enjoy it, and treat it as a walk down memory lane yourselves.


Love,

Az

Disco Ditto
Download Into The Void or head to MySpace and preview the tracks

Unlike Disco Ditto, Stellarium is not a one man project. You can head over you their MySpace to listen to some tracks. Drift, my favorite, has a definite Slowdive feel to it. Very relaxing and smooth.

As a bonus, here is a song Az had on his SoulSeek. It is from a band called Athena Flight which is yet another band he played in. In the quoted message about Into The Void he mentions Athena Flight disbanded. I'm not sure if there are any other recordings out there, but this one is nice.

Athena Flight - Away From The Sun

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Hotels - Thank You For Choosing


I bought this after finding it on CD Baby filed under "Sounds Like: Joy Division" and liking the previews. After listening the the album a few times I've come away disappointed, but still want to talk about three of the better tracks. The first, Atlantic, prompted me to buy the CD. Right away the Joy Division influence is obvious in the singer's vocals. Atlantic benefits from not being synthesizer heavy and drawn out like some of the other songs. A few of the instrumental tracks go on for too long and don't have enough hooks to be interesting. The one instrumental that does stand out is Farewell To Love. It clocks in at less than three minutes and has a fun bass line. Last comes Many Happy Returns. Again the Ian Curtis vocals are present and are joined by a Garlands-era Cocteau Twins bass sound which I love. Doom-y but pleasant sounding.

Here are the tracks I mentioned. If you want to hear the rest head over to Hotels' MySpace and order the CD.

Atlantic
Farewell To Love
Many Happy Returns
From Thank You For Choosing by Hotels

Friday, November 7, 2008

Either Deerhunter were so loud they puréed my bowels or I shouldn't have eaten Taco Bell

Something clicked inside me when Deerhunter stopped playing and announced Barack Obama had broken 270 electoral votes. I felt as if the world had been altered. President Bush still sits in his throne and the economy remains in turbulence but my chest warmed to the news. For the rest of the set I completely lost myself in the noise. A blissful wall of sound underlain by Bradford Cox's vocals washed away every anxiety. And though I knew no promised change would be seen until January 20th, the streets of Washington, D.C. professed that it had come sharp at 11 o'clock. Hollers and sirens and honks echoed around the city blocks. People blanketed an entire intersection, blocking traffic. Bits of the 93% of D.C. that voted for Obama sprawled all of U-Street, cheering his victory. It was incredible. Never before have I seen such unity achieved through an election.

The DCist pointed out that perhaps Deerhunter made a poor choice in playing election night. For me, November 4th made the show. Decades from now some kid will be digging through my old CDs, find Cryptograms, and I will recall the night Obama was elected. I will tell him how everyone came together on the corner of 14th and U and hopefully he will have never experienced the opposite.

Deerhunter put on a fantastic show. They played tracks off both Cryptograms and Microcastle, their newest release. The sheer volume made up for the disappointing omission of Strange Lights. Days later my ears are faintly ringing but that has only encouraged me to fill silence with music. I eagerly await the band's next visit to D.C.

If you haven't listened to Deehunter yet, go buy Cryptograms and Microcastle right now.

Deerhunter - Oh It's Such A Shame
Jay Reatard cover from Jay Reatard/Deerhunter split 7"
Deerhunter - Agoraphobia
From Microcastle
Deerhunter - Strange Lights
From Cryptograms