Nov 23, 2016

COUTEAU LATEX "Hostile Enviroment" 7inch

     Sometimes when you hear about to musicians collaborating with each other, especially if their styles of music seem quite kindred, the sound of what it will sound like is already imagined in the head. When I first read that Seth of the Useless Eaters was doing a thing with Lise of Switzerland's Staches I figured it would be something a bit ansty in a somewhat trashy/most likely ratty garage rock way.
      I was a bit off in my assumptions about I was about to hear. Minimal synths bloops and a fat poly drum snap teeter between a bouncy pop ditty and Rev/Vega bad trip on "Hostile Environment." Seth lays hypnotic bass rumbles behind and Lise's processed vocals sound like a robot that got programmed to show emotions but the only two that it uses are frustration and alienation. On the flip "Morphée" it seems that the machines have now seem come also understand anxiety and paranoia. The beat is jittery, the noises harsher and the fast swirling induces an effect that is similar to having vertigo and falling down into a spiral painted bottomless pit.

Nov 18, 2016

The MIAMI DOLPHINS Perlite 7inch EP

   Now that every schmo in who has ever had a band is going around talking about how vinyl is "back", every band in the planet is clamoring to get what would've been on a CD-R "record label" on to venerable format as their artistic statement.
     I don't know how many records the Miami Dolphins (who are actually from Minneapolis and are not dolphins but actual human beings) have released before this one but they're making sure that they get the most out of the package as far as the art side of things are concerned.
     The sleeve itself is jam packed with a bunch of stickers and everything appears to be hand designed. Inside there's a 12 page booklet that only includes the usual credits, lyrics and contact info but things like pen drawings and brain teasers.
     The music itself is a bit of a brain teaser too. The bedroom-core-fi goes full band sound makes one wonder if they're concentrating on putting on an arty psych punk Halloween party for a kindergarten kids and subliminally turn them onto Yoko Ono and Half Japanese records  ("Quail Birth" and "Piling") or, like on "Disconnected" and "Scarlette", they experienced Deerhoof have a nervous breakdown in front of them and they only way they can explain what they saw is by banging it out themselves.

Nov 16, 2016


     When space blues crashes back into earth it can make several different sounds. Depends one where it plummeted into and whether it explodes in a fireball or disintegrated into a gazillion pieces.
     In Fur Helmet's case it's a bit of both.
     Comprised of some of the rabble that make up NYC's band's like JJ Doll, Hank Wood & the Hammerheads and Pleasure Industry among others, the band takes the swamp punk of the Scientists and the Gun Club, kick it around until it's pocked with few new dents and ripples while staying fully aware, as the opening track "Ether" shows, that there's plenty of beauty that lies in the forefathers bent dingy grooves and negative attitude boogie .
     Eschewing deliberately lo-fi recordings that plenty of the bands that hone this sort of sound for something more sonic in adds a bit to the grit and grime trip. The swirling blare of "Void Drip" makes the brain think it is actually going to disengage from your skull and acid biker scuzz of "Lunar Tomb" will have looking over your shoulder thinking death wheelers are hot on your trail and wanting to introduce you to Satan.
     Even when the psych trip seems it is entering some type of calm after a storm like on "Curse", the skies still seem like they could start dripping with blood and needles. Things probably ain't gonna get much easier nowadays considering the way the less that 25% of this nation decided a couple weeks back so many are considering other planets. Prepare yourself for a long travel through the galaxy with "Soaked Skull" on the headphones. Just remember though, once out in the nebula the doors back into the land of gravity might be locked when you return.

Nov 14, 2016

December 3rd: Record Night At The Water Tower

     Michigan newspaper network MLive recently sent out a couple of it's people out on an adventure to find the best pizza in the state. They listed a bunch of places to nominate and for people to vote on. The Water Tower Sports Pub in just south of Lexington was not on that initial list. People started picking them as a write in and when all was said and done they ended up getting picked as #10 of the top 12 in the entire Mitten!
     Franck and I have spun records there before and it was a blast. Not only does the pizza rule but they also have a lot of other great eats on the menu along with an awesome choice of Michigan beer on tap.
     Come join us for another night of groovers, shakers and whatever else we pull off our shelves and put into the crates on Saturday, December 3rd.

Nov 13, 2016

Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout

     Ahhhh, Sunday mornings. Usually the only morning of the week where I can take my time to do anything that needs to be done as well as pick and choose as to what I want to do.
     Well, for the most part at least. Sunday is usually the day that my usual partner in crime have the same day off so we can do whatever we do together. It's getting to be the busy time of the year for her line of work though so that means it's up to myself to figure out what to do. I already had plans on watching and rooting for the Tiger Cats to beat the Eskimos in the CFL Eastern Semi Finals in the afternoon (what a sloppy game and poor offense game on the Tiger Cats part but that's another post for another blog) but that was still a few hours away.
     The weather was decent this morning. The sun was shining and some yard work needed to be at least considered. My secondary partners in crime, a furry beast of a feline known as the Ripperpotamus, joined me in the back forty to survey what should be done. A beverage to sip on would help with the pondering so I grabbed the Weyerbacher Sunday Morning Stout off the shelf.
     I was hoping Ripper would offer some takes to make my blogging job a little easier but other than giving it a sniff, a "That's pretty cool, bro" look and then expecting some scratching behind the ears he wasn't much help. So here's my take.
     The darkness in color was impenetrable as expected from an imperial stout. The head was study and chocolate malted in color. At first the aromas seemed subdued but after a few minutes of breathing a strong cup of morning coffee, oak smoke and vanilla came to a fore. Still not highly pronounced in the smell but much more noticeable.
     While those flavors were laid back on the nose, they were much more pronounced in the flavor. Very creamy and smooth feeling in the mouth it became all espresso bite and chocolate cake intermingling while the woodsy and vanilla bean essences gave high fives in the background. As the brew adjusted to the air temperature the bourbon barrel aging started to make it presence known adding a hotness to the proceedings. In the finish, molasses and dark chocolate made themselves known.
     After it was finished I considered opening the other one I had stashed away. Then I remembered that I still had a day ahead of me of things to do and maybe delving into another +11% abv brew so early in the day would most likely sidetrack them from getting done. What you've got here is a great take in style, flavor and and attitude of Founders KBS. That second bottle of this will serve as a good fill in when I need such a fix until the 2017 batch of that legendary comes along.

Nov 7, 2016

HONEY RADAR Ignore The Bells 7inch EP

     Listening to Honey Radar is like walking through a meadow. And depending on the weather such a thing can be sunny and sublime or cold and itchy. Either way though, their ramshackle and anagogic pop always sounds its of the earth.
     On this record we get both kinds of weather. "Ink Circle" introduces itself with a guitar blare that glares like a blinding sun before settling in a hazy groove that is part blurry basement boogie and icy bedroom psych. Wah-wah oozes fluorescently while Jason Henn's voice smears a mentholated salve over a whispering ghost. Later that day, "Telephone Betty's Aneurysm" gives a farmhand a reason to shirk his field duties to zone on in the meadow and think about Mersybeat country western music.
     The sparse and wobbly choppiness of "Paper Car" has a parched feeling until halfway through when cold clangs condense a crystallized mist. "The Calvin Coolidge Clarion" closes the record with a march that heads out of spring sunset into an autumn evening.

Nov 3, 2016

BAD NOIDS "It's A Doggie Bag World" 7inch EP

     In 2013, Cleveland's Bad Noids was one of the few bands that renewed my faith in hardcore (or whatever the kids are all it this day) with their album Everything From Soup To Dessert. It was bent, twisted and absolutely raged.
     In '14 and '15 not much was heard (at least record wise) from them. Did they rage so hard that it caused them burst into flames and/or vaporize? Well, this three song blaster out confirms that such a thing hasn't happened (yet) but their world of weirdness was off on an adventure or two.
      Some of it time traveling even. The acid punk slobberer "Into The Future" rumbles like it shoul be gurgling out of a biker club house that has members who are hell bent to run the drug trade along the asteroid belts. Subhuman wah-wah guitar heroics battle it out with rock throwing neanderthals over who gets to slither first into a bog of beef tallow, dirty underwear and kerosene.
     Whatever it was though that induced the band to take that psych trip wears off the crash is hard and the hangover harsh. The hundred tiny jackhammers in their brain cause the lash out fast and furiously. "Twelve Years Old" is something like a bunch of 8 years old were given an hour to think up the most punk rock song ever while "My Friend Greg" could be those same 8 year old thinking up a song to play while strapping their big brother's bully friend to the front of a locomotive.