Notebooks Out Plagiarists: The Fall Removing Clutter

April 26, 2010 at 9:53 pm | Posted in mp3, Music | 2 Comments
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Thirty years into it and they still make records like this?  I challenge you to come up with a band that has been going this long and still retains the ability to challenge and engage.  Mark E. Smith walks the fine line between creative genius and mad scientist.  The Genius side has put out albums like Hex Enduction Hour, This Nation’s Saving Grace, Extricate and the Unutterable.  The mad scientist has created the likes of Levitate, Are You Are Missing Winner and Cerebral Caustic.

Smith has gone through a rough patch, at least physically, in the past year.  He fell and broke his hip (the second time he’s he’s broken it), which saw the Fall only releasing one single last year and Smith performing on stage in a wheelchair.  Fall fans have become accustomed to getting a new Fall record every year, but last year we had to make do with the Slippy Floor single that got a stealth release at the end of last year.  The wait is over though, with the band releasing their first new album since 2008′s Imperial Wax Solvent.  I for one will settle for a Fall record every two years if we’re guaranteed to get ones as good as Your Future Our Clutter.  For a Fall record, it’s short at only nine songs, but there’s no filler. No songs where the band wanks off for nine minutes while Smith goes off on multiple tangents.  No, YFOC is the Fall at their leanest and most straightforward.  Settling into a period of band stability, at least by Fall standards, this is the second album in a row with the same band personnel.

Smith has said that he thinks this is the best line up he’s ever had in the Fall.  That’s saying something, especially when you think of the Scanlon, Hanley, Brix, Wolstencroft years.  Not sure if it’s that good, but this is the best batch of songs The Fall have come up in a long time.  Pete Greenway’s  guitars are endlessly inventive and  seem to have awoken Smith’s muse .  Smith is obviously transfixed with his recent hospital experiences and growing old.  Instead of leaving the capitol, he’s going on about quitting the hospital and watching Murder She Wrote.  Don’t worry, it’s not all sitting back and watching episodes of Golden Girls, YFOC is full of adrenalin. During Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor Smith rants, I’m 95 percent! He’s at least that.  Hell, Hot Cake sounds like it could have been off of Wonderful and Frightening World complete with current wife Eleni’s backing vocals, and they dust off Wanda Jackson’s Funnel of Love and gives it a kick in the behind.  This guy is not slowing down.

Smith definitely burns the candle from both ends, but it must be an infinitely long candlestick. Your Future Our Clutter shows us that the Fall still matter, and that Smith will still be coming at us with great records well into the future, even if he is confined to a wheelchair.  People who are just getting into the Fall always ask:  What album should I get? Where should I start?  You should start right here.

mp3: The Fall – Y.F.O.C. / Slippy Floor


Order up your copy of the new Fall album.  CD is nine songs, while the vinyl gets you two extras.

Bizarro!

April 23, 2010 at 10:57 pm | Posted in Crocodile, Gigs, Nostalgia, Seattle | 2 Comments
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The Wedding Present At the Crocodile, Seattle | 21 April 2010

A few years ago The Wedding Present played a set of shows celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album George Best where they played the entire record at each gig. Those were exclusively UK gigs, since George Best was only available as an import in the US when it came out and consequently never gained much notoriety over here.  It is now the 20th anniversary of the band’s second (excluding their Ukrainian dalliance) album Bizarro, and David Gedge and his current incarnation of the Wedding Present are doing the same celebration of their better known (at least in the US), record. Bizarro was the first I’d ever heard of the Wedding Present back in 1990.  It was the post-Smiths era and lonely kids everywhere were in search of a band to take their place.  The Wedding Present were sensitive, but with a rough side.  Gedge’s gruff voice singing about betrayal, unrequited love and apple pie juxtaposed with the band’s aggressive, jangling guitars seemed to fit perfectly into my life.

Wednesday night The Wedding Present brought their nostalgia show to the Crocodile, and considering that the record is 20 years old, the crowd at the Croc didn’t appear too aged.  We didn’t get Bizarro right at first, Gedge and company warmed up with a smattering of old and new songs which acted as kind of a warm up to playing the album.  Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft, Corduroy and Queen From Outer Space were early set highlights with Gedge using these songs to loosen up his strumming hand.  They also did two new songs, I Wake Up Screaming and Deer Caught In Headlights.  I Wake Up Screaming suffered from it’s lyrics referencing, of all things, an iPhone (perhaps he’s getting product placement money, a possible new revenue stream for musicians), while Deer Caught In Headlights was more to my liking building into big roar at the end.

After six songs, it was finally time for what everyone was there for, Bizarro.  The PA bellowed with various presenters announcing “The Wedding Present” and finally culminating with John Peel’s voice uttering the band’s name and we were off into the jangly throws of Brassneck.  Side one rushed by with fast paced Crushed and Thanks, the jangle of No, and the crushing pop of Kennedy (Gedge jokingly said he thought it was most definitely a b-side when he wrote it).

Side two of Bizarro is a bit more dense with no song under four minutes except for Be Honest.  Songs like Granadaland, Bewitched and Take Me! are all lengthy jams that probably try the band’s endurance but were a lot of fun to hear live. The more straightforward crowd pleasers like Kennedy and Brassneck have made regular appearances in Wedding Present set lists over the years but I had never these longer side two songs played live.  Gedge’s hand went into blur mode on his guitar, strumming faster and faster on each song.  Drummer Charlie Layton was a machine at the back, playing these fast songs precisely and tirelessly.  Take Me! was glorious in it’s nine plus minutes.  It was the highlight of the set for me, and took on a slightly different feel than the album version.  Maybe I had just never noticed before this night, but the song sounded like it could have been on the first Feelies album.  The Wedding Present have always been able to distill their influence down to a point where they’re unrecognizable, but hearing Take Me! kind of shed a little light on what made and still makes the Wedding Present tick.  Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Seamonsters, I hope Gedge and company see fit to celebrate that album as they have the previous two, because as good as Bizarro is, Seamonsters is arguably their pinnacle.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Take Me! (from Bizarro)


Under the Paving Stones, the Beach

April 22, 2010 at 10:37 pm | Posted in 7 inch, La France, mp3, Music | 1 Comment
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As they say in La France: Quelle surprise! The two singles currently on the street from The Liminanas were something of a surprise to me for a couple reasons: It’s not often that you hear a band wrapping Stereolab, Ye-Ye, surf, and a bit o’ that wall of sound thing into a soufflé and; You don’t expect to hear a band like that on Trouble In Mind or Hozac. Both labels are Chicago based and known for their grimey punk singles, not the beaches of the Mediterranean. The band call Perpignan, France their home.  Perpignan is a short drive, or bus ride to the beach, which seems to color the bands music.  The b-side to their Trouble in Mind single evokes sunsets, crashing waves and bonfires.  The a-side would more likely be found in a disco than the beach.  The spoken dialog reminds me of listening to how to speak French tapes, only there’s groove a mile wide that will make you want first Dance and then start speaking French. The perfect hot and cold single.

mp3: The Liminanas – Je Ne Suis Pas Trés Droguee (order your copy from Trouble In Mind)


The second Liminanas single out on Hozac is a little more in line with the Garage/Spector sounds of the day, but no less agreeable.  This time singing in English, the band go for the jugular with Baby I’m Dead, and then switch back to 60′s Ye-Ye style for the b-side.  Trouble In Mind are promising to release the band’s first album later this year.  It will be the first 12 inch from the exclusively 7″ singles label to this point.  A Liminanas album could quite possibly be a genius move for both the Liminanas and Trouble In Mind.  In the meantime, get these two singles and count the days until the album appears.

mp3: The Liminanas – I’m Dead (order your copy from HoZac)

Blank Dogs At the Lo-Fi

April 18, 2010 at 9:48 pm | Posted in Gigs, mp3, Music, Seattle | Leave a comment
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Blank Dogs, Cosmetics, and Grave Babies at Lo-Fi, Seattle | 17 April 2010

With bands that release as many records as Blank Dogs do, you kind of feel like you see them grow up right before you eyes. They are the kind of band that do not sit around mulling over whether or not to release something.  My guess is that if they record it, they release it.  Early songs saw Blank Dogs firmly in the difficult, dissonant category.  Their songs tended to be un-melodic, poorly recorded affairs that only a mother could love.  Since those early days the band, or at least top Dog Mike Sniper, has continued to evolve and refine its sound.  Last year’s double album Under the Under had a decidedly friendlier sheen to it with some of the rougher edges smoothed and melodies coming to the forefront.

Blank Dogs continue to evolve, their newest 12″ Phrases sees them going for an early 80′s Mute and Factory sound and for the most part succeeding.  I wondered how serious they were about this somewhat new direction.  Was it a one off thing or the general progression of the band?  If last night’s gig at the Lo-Fi is any indicator, they seem committed to sounding like early Depeche Mode and Movement era New Order, but on their own terms.  The three piece set up contained a rig of wires and nobs controlled by Craig Mileski, Pamela Garavano-Coolbaugha on keyboard and second guitar and Sniper on guitar and vocals.  Last year, they played the Funhouse with a full guitar-bass-drums set up and I came away disappointed.  Last night I was fully prepared to be disappointed again when I saw the lack of drummer and bassist, but I ended up coming away more than a little bit impressed.  The songs stood out, and the strong pre-recorded beats provided the scaffolding on which Sniper and Garavano could overlay their Bernard Sumner style guitars.  Sniper’s vocals have come a way to being more captivating.  He can still at times sound monotonic, but last night he came through loud and clear delivering the goods more often than not with minimal vocal distortion.  Sniper and his Blank Dogs will probably be taking their licks for this new more synthy direction, but I like it, and the bobbing heads at the Lo-Fi appeared to dig it as well.

mp3: Blank Dogs – Heart and Depression (from the Phrases EP)


Order up a copy of the Phrases EP over at Captured Tracks.

Locals Grave Babies opened with their dark, reverb-heavy goth and an annoying guy in a trench coat dancing on stage. Kind of like Fields Of The Nephilim with a Bez. Vancouver’s Cosmetics, also on Sniper’s Captured Tracks label were ok, but I wasn’t really feeling their neo-goth thing.  Granted, they were plagued by bad sound that forced the singer to stand off stage to hear here vocals.

Together Alone

April 12, 2010 at 9:48 pm | Posted in mp3, Music, Sweden | 1 Comment
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I missed the first two EP’s put out last year by Göteborg, Sweden band the Isolation, but with EP number three, I am now on board.  Not that the first two EP’s were lacking, au contraire, both are packed full of quality bliss fueled songs, heavy on the jangling and distorted guitars, and breathy, sighing.  Somehow the band hasn’t reached critical mass in blogland, which is kind of surprising since they draw on obscure references cherished by likes of people like myself.   What obscure references you may wonder?  The singer sounds like Alan McGee from his Biff Bang Pow! days and the music ranges from early Church to House of Love to Stone Roses to Ride to Razorcuts.

EP number three was just recently put up for download by the band on Pirate Bay, the same thing they’ve done for the previous two.  Call me old fashioned, but somehow I feel like I should pay for music this good.

mp3: The Isolation – Drop (from EP 3)

mp3: The Isolation – Decade (from EP 2)

mp3: The Isolation – Dancing Away (from EP 1)

Doing What Comes Unnaturally

April 11, 2010 at 9:46 pm | Posted in mp3, Music, Seattle | 4 Comments
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photo by Kelly O

Not sure how the Unnatural Helpers got their name, but my guess is that drummer/singer Dean Whitmore has to twist arms to get people to be in his band. He must be a pretty good arm-twister because he’s got Brian Standeford of Idle Times, Leo Gebhardt also of Idle Times and his own solo endeavors, and Kimberly Morrison of the Dutchess & the Duke. Whitmore himself has been around the block in Seattle, doing time in both the Dipers and Intelligence. obviously working up the muscle to form his own band.

Up to this point The Unnatural Helpers have been releasing stuff mostly on Seattle’s Dirty Knobby including last year’s very entertaining split single with the Intelligence as well as another single and a full length. They also had a single in last year’s Sub Pop singles club before inking a deal with Sub Pop’s kid sister label Hardly Art.

For their new album Cracked Love and Other Drugs the band went into the studio with Fastback, Sgt. Major and all around Young Fresh Fellow Kurt Block to record it.  The first fruits have just been released on the first ever Hardly Art  7″ single.   I can state unequivocally that the A-side Sunshine / Pretty Girls is the best Unnatural Helpers song I’ve heard, and it could very well be the anti-summer jam of the erm, summer, though it’s a bit early to predict those kinds of things.  It’s backed with three non-album songs and is limited to 500 copies.

mp3: Unnatural Helpers – Sunshine / Pretty Girls


Order up a copy of the 7″ or pre-0rder the album from Hardly Art.  Unnatural Helpers are also opening for King Khan & Shrines and the Fresh & Onlys this Tuesday, 13 April at Neumos.

Nice Face

April 6, 2010 at 9:48 pm | Posted in mp3, Music | 1 Comment
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Initially I was a little hesitant about Nice Face.  I don’t normally buy records that have giant penises on them.  Think what you want, but I don’t normally buy records with giant vagina’s on them either.  Being an American, I’ve got nudity hang-ups.  So, it’s lucky for me that the Nice Face record that just came out on Sacred Bones has a cover with what looks like a small child ready to be strangled by a cat headed snake.  You have it right, we Americans love demented violence,but freak out at the sight of genitalia.

Hang-ups aside, this one man band (Ian Magee) should be right up your alley if your alley is lined with the Damned and Cabaret Voltaire.   Half of the songs on Immer Etwas are straightforward punk rock numbers while the other half employ synthesizers that create a dense atmosphere reminiscent of the afore mentioned Cabaret Voltaire or Suicide.  It’s pretty immediate stuff, and sometimes brilliant.  Favorites of mine are Nobody’s Dead Here, Beater, I Want Your Damage and A Minor Altercation.

The album comes in both vinyl and CD format (no cassette yet). If you opt for the CD it tacks six additional songs from previous singles.  Who says the CD is a dead format?

mp3: Nice Face – Nobody’s Dead Here


mp3: Nice Face – I Want Your Damage


Order up your own private copy, CD or vinyl over at the band’s label, Sacred Bones.

Sourpatch and the Space-Time Continuum

April 4, 2010 at 9:31 pm | Posted in indiepop, mp3, Music, time travel | Leave a comment
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Emmett Brown did it using a Dolorean, a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of electricity. I read in this month’s CityArts magazine that University of  Washington professor John Cramer is trying to do it using photon lasers and crystals. Einstein even had a theory about it.  No question about it, physicists, Sci-Fi nuts and the general public are kind of obsessed with time travel. So, it’s pretty amazing that no attention has been paid to a little band from San Jose, California who have figured out how to do it with a record.

If you put on Sourpatch‘s record Crushin’ you will immediately be swept back in a whirlwind of fuzzy guitars, smile inducing choruses, and the general bliss of those heady days of the early 90′s when SpinArt, Slumberland, K, Pop Narcotic, Simple Machines, et al. ruled your stereo.  For those of you too young to have memories of that time, or not born yet, give it a try, it’s guaranteed to work for even you.  Who would have thought time travel would be so simple and cheap.  For the price of a record you can have a go.

Sourpatch are currently on tour and bringing their spring-time charm to the Pacific Northwest this week, they play Seattle on Thursday at 20-20 Cycles.  Check the dates below for a venue near you where the band will send you back in time:

Apr 5   Blast-O-Mat House (2935 w.7th ave.)  -   Denver, CO
Apr 6   Salt Lake City House Party! (1963 Evergreen avenue)  -   Salt Lake City, UT
Apr 7   The Office (5320 emerald)  -  Boise, ID
Apr 8   20/20 CYCLE (2020 East Union) – Seattle, WA
Apr 9   Vajay street house (1602 Vajay Street)  -  Bellingham, WA
Apr 10  Punk All – Olympia, WA
Apr 11  Portland – Portland, OR

mp3: Sourpatch – Crushin’

Order up your own personal copy of the time defying Sourpatch record from their label, Happy Happy Birthday To Me.

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