Weekend On a Monday

September 29, 2011 at 10:40 am | Posted in Crocodile, Music, No Wave, Noise Rock, Seattle, Shows | Leave a comment
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Weekend and Talk Normal at the Crocodile, Seattle | 26 September 2011

I’m not sure why this show was booked at the Crocodile. With only a handful of people showing up to see Weekend and Talk Normal, someone had to lose money. This show would have been much better for all in involved in a smaller place like the Comet, Lo-Fi, or Sunset. At any of those places, it would have seemed like enough people showed up to see them. At the Crocodile it was conspicuously empty. This didn’t seem to phase either band in the slightest. Weekend filed on stage, switched on their red lights and smoke machine, turned up the bass amp to 11 and proceeded to pummel all 25 of us.

Sometimes a band pummels in the right way and sometimes it’s not. I wanted San Francisco’s Weekend to do it the right way. Their records do it correctly, balancing just the right amount of noise and melody, but Monday at the Crocodile it was mostly noise devoid of any melody. Weekend feature bass guitar prominently in all of their songs, but live it overpowered everything. I moved around to see if it was where I was standing (there was a lot of space to move around), but the mix was the same. The guy would sing, but you couldn’t hear it. The other guy would play guitar but you could barely hear it. Everything was overwhelmed by out of control bass. Last year at the Vera Project they seemed to have a better handle on their live sound, or maybe I just had higher expectations for them the second time around. Their new Red EP is a leap forward for them. The songs are less buried and a more nuanced atmosphere is created than on their album from last year. Hell, you could even dance to Hazel. Any nuance flew out the window Monday and it was replaced by sheer volume, making it hard to tell one song from another. Kind of a bummer.
stream: Weekend – Hazel

Openers and tourmates Talk Normal come from Brooklyn and can trace their roots to their city’s rich No Wave past. The duo of drums and guitar created a respectable cacophony in the cavernous Crocodile. Screwdrivers were insterted into the necks of guitars and drums were pounded in rhythmic patterns. Not being a conoseur of No Wave, I can only assume that this made for a great set.
stream: Talk Normal – Lone General

Dot Dash (Dip Flash, Don’t Crash)

September 26, 2011 at 8:15 pm | Posted in Bands Named After Wire Songs, DC, Music | 2 Comments
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Dot Dash are named after a Wire song and consist of Washington, DC veterans who are old enough to remember Wire from their Pink Flag/154/Chairs Missing days. Terry Banks, when we last tuned in, was co-fronting Julie Ocean with ex-Velocity Girl and ex-Piper Cub Jim Spellman. Julie Ocean ended and now Dot Dash is his latest band. Banks is joined by Julie Ocean bassist Hunter Bennett, Bill Crandall who played in A Modest Proposal in the ’80s and drummer Danny Ingram formerly of Youth Brigade.

Your first question of a band named after Wire might be, do they sound like Wire? Answer: a little, but not tons (song Gripped has a throbbing bass and Banks kind of growls a few lines the way Colin Newman does sometimes and a few other songs have some wirey guitars). Really, though Dot Dash are an amalgam of Banks’ former bands Tree Fort Angst, the Saturday People and Julie Ocean. Banks shared vocal and writing duties in Julie Ocean with Spellman and Saturday People was more of a democracy in the songwriting category. Dot Dash is soley Banks’s band in the way that Tree Fort Angst was. Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash is a album full of power pop songs that Banks delivers with his sometimes whispered, slightly strained voice that has been a constant in all of his bands.

The songs are in the vein of Julie Ocean’s power pop, but there is still some guitar jangle left in him too. Opening song The Color and the Sound has a modish, jabbing riff that reminds me of another DC band from the past, Ted Leo’s Chisel. Dissolve starts out sounding a little like a Tree Fort Angst song, except with a big meaty bass and a swooping angst filled chorus that ends up making it an entirely different beast. The band also know a thing or two about sequencing a record in this age of front-loading. They don’t wear themselves out on the first lap and save some of their best songs for second half of the record. The detective sounding bass and drums of Alright, Alright is smile inducing (and reminds me a little of Max Eider) and the chorus keeps the grin on your face, and Seconds In a Day has a vein of melancholy in it but the jangling guitars and the hook to keep you above water .

This is record with so many good songs. It’s not groundbreaking, just well crafted the whole way through. Every song burns bright, and the each listen to the album, a new one flares into my long term memory. Spark, Flame, Ember, Ash indeed.

mp3: Dot Dash – The Color and the Sound

mp3: Dot Dash – Seconds In a Day

Both songs are from Dot Dash’s album Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash, available from The Beautiful Music

Edsel: Back For Another Spin

September 20, 2011 at 10:04 pm | Posted in Music, Reissues, DC, Bands Named After Cars, History | 1 Comment
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With the 90’s revival in full swing, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to do a little research to find out what all the rose colored nostalgia is about. We here at the Finest Kiss are here to help. Stop number one on the 90′s history tour is Washington, DC’s Edsel who have just digitally reissued two of thier albums from that era: The Everlasting Belt Company and Detriot Folly.

Edsel mined the more atmospheric side of post punk. Early on, their records sounded good, but the they didn’t really stay with you, but as their career progressed the songs got better and the band developed a distinct sound that would worm it’s way into my long-term memory. The transition seemed to happen between their second album The Everlasting Belt Company and the third one Detroit Folly. Everlasting Belt Company took the heavier elements of the shoegaze movement, some DC hardcore and some old fashioned Krautrock to form a dense album that had its moments, but it didn’t really leave a lasting impression. It felt self-conscious as if they were still trying emulate their influences and overwhelm you with sound.

mp3: Edsel – Buckle (from The Everlasting Belt Company)

By the time Detroit Folly arrived. It was obvious that Edsel had made some great strides with their sound. Their influences had been distilled into something new, and unique. The first thing you notice is their sense of restraint and use of space. They’re not in a rush to bowl you over, instead they sneak up on you. Songs slithered like snakes into your sleeping bag. The twin guitar and vocal front of Sohrab Habibian and Steve Raskin was at the forefront and much more intricate than on Belt Company. They seemed to finish each other’s sentences and their guitars intertwined into this kind of restrained, dissengagement that created a unique intensity. There was a new sexuality in their sound too, like they figured out how to incorporate T Rex, Rolling Stones and Gang of Four into one record. Detroit Folly was the record that cemented Edsel in my mind permanently. It’s a record that many history tours don’t stop at, but off the beaten path tours are the best ones.

mp3: Edsel – Draw Down the Moon (from Detroit Folly)

Both the Everlasting Belt Company and Detroit Folly have just been remastered and digitally reissued by Comedy Minus One.

Let the Drummer Have Some: Sea Pinks

September 15, 2011 at 10:25 pm | Posted in Jangle, Music | Leave a comment
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Earlier this year Belfast, Northern Ireland’s Girls Names unleashed their scorcher of a debut album. Its bright pop sensibility broke through clouds of gray that you would expect to find from a band that makes the northern reaches of the island of Ireland their home. Its a moody little thing that takes the soaring vocal cues from 60′s girl groups while the music tends towards 80′s post punk. Shake the Boggle container and and the letters that formed Girls Names now read Sea Pinks. The whole band move one space to the left (or right). Drummer Neil Brogan moves out from behind his kit to play guitar and sing while bassist Clair Miskimmin takes his place at drums and Girls Names singer/guitarist Cathal Cully becomes the bassist.
Sea Pinks have just released their first album in a super limited way of only 250 copies. It follows a cassette and a 12″ ep. Sea Pinks are of course cut from the same cloth as Girls Names, but Brogan’s songs have more of a 50′s rock n’ roll bent to them. The song Dead Seas takes it’s cue from Elvis Presley‘s Marie’s the Name of His Latest Flame (and the Smiths‘ Rusholm Ruffians?) and Harbour Shake shimmies like a sock hop. His guitar playing is janglier too. I bet he’s listened to a few Byrds records because Fountain Tesserae jangles like it was 1967.  The record also has some swagger in Oh London, Heir Apparent. Both brim with an infectious confidence that has made this record continue to grow on me. Sea Pinks won’t change your life with their jangly goodness, but they will make your life more bearable when you spin their record.

mp3: Sea Pinks – Heir Apparent (from Dead Seas on CF/ Records)

You can also download Sea Pinks’ Youth is Wasted album/demo for free at their bandcamp (It contains a cover of Felt’s Ballad of the Band).

Rats

September 13, 2011 at 9:35 pm | Posted in Music, Vinyl, 7 inch, Down Under | Leave a comment
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Rat Columns is a one man pop project from Perth, Australia. The one man David West no longer lives there. He’s since relocated to San Francisco, USA. Earlier this year Frisco’s Ros Records put out a Rat Columns Cassette and now the highlights of that cassette have been released on a 7-inch on another San Francisco label SmartGuy Records.

Even though West is now living in the US, Rat Columns sound decidedly down under. Both the Clean and the Moles are good points of reference. I Wonder, and Darkness have dark pop essence to them. Catchy yet moody, verging on goth. The other two songs Keep Waiting and Glass Coffin come from a more experimental and weirder realm. The former drones with screeching guitars while the latter sounds like he’s been listening to John Cage records. West is also in Rank/Xerox who have  just released their debut album on another SF label Make a Mess. He seems like he is a restless guy, trying different styles of music on like jackets. They all seem to fit quite well, but I’m more partial to his more straightforward side on which this SmartGuy single focuses.

Grab one of the 500 copies pressed from SmartGuy Records.

stream: Rat Columns – I Wonder

stream: Rat Columns – Darkness

The Big Red Round One: Basementcast #17

September 11, 2011 at 9:59 pm | Posted in Basementcast, Music, Podcasts, Tomatoes | 4 Comments


Welcome to basementcast number 17. It seems like these things are becoming seasonal, not that this one has any kind of theme, just that the last one was at the commencement of summer and this one just happens to land as autumn is beginning. What does the Red Balloon have to do with it, you may ask. Nothing really, except for the giant red tomatoes finally ripening in my backyard. They’re kind of pesky like that troublesome red balloon. You plant them with the highest expectations of big red round juicy fruits ripening on the vine and sometimes you reap the rewards and sometimes your hopes are dashed by foul weather. You’ll be happy to know that this year has been a good one for tomatoes. The basementcast is kinda like the tomato, it’s not ready ’till it’s ripe and this one has finally ripened. Like Orson Welles use to say, “There will be no basementcast before its time.” This one will either carry you away like the red balloon did the boy, or it will be like a tomato in face. Either way, it’s red and it’s round.

download: basementcast #17 (~177 Mb)

Race Horses – Benidorm from Soundcloud
The Brilliant Corners – Emily from Joyride 
Cleaners From Venus – Julie Profumo from The Very Best Of Cleaners From Venus

Charles Leo Gebhardt IV – Chardonnay from Begin Again
Peggy Lee – Everything’s Movin’ Too Fast from  The Capitol Collector’s Series

Sweet Bulbs – Ring of Protection from Various Deficiencies Vol. 2
Evans The Death – Threads  from the Fortuna Pop 7″

Wendy & Bonnie – The Paisley Windowpane from Genesis
Super Furry Animals – Hello Sunshine from Phantom Power
Pale Saints – Kinky Love from Flesh Balloon EP

Ketamines – Line by Line from Hozac 7″
Mc Tells – Snowy White from What Happens Next
The Creation – Biff Bang Pow from Our Music Is Red – With Purple Flashes
The Lemon Drops – It Happens Everyday Crystal Pure (The Definitive Collection)

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – The Night from Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-1973
The Skids – Sweet Suburbia from Sweet Suburbia: The Best Of The Skids
Hausu – Weaving Spiders from Lebens Strasse 7″
Lilac – Cathedral from Lilac EP on Omega

The Field Mice – Emma’s House from Where’d You Learn To Kiss That Way?
The Free Design – Bubbles from Bubbles
Francobollo – Try? from the internet
Eleanor Friedberger – Roosevelt Island from Last Summer

Exlovers – Blowing Kisses from the Blowing Kisses 7″
Whirr – Junebouvier from June
Weekend - Hazel from the Red EP

Metronomy – The Look from The English Riviera
Baxter Dury – Trellic from Happy Soup
Tommy James & The Shondells – Crystal Blue Persuasion from Crimson & Clover/ Cellophane Symphony

Swooning With Devon Williams At the Comet, Seattle

September 7, 2011 at 10:09 pm | Posted in Comet Tavern, Gigs, Seattle | Leave a comment
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Devon Williams brought his Euphoria tour to the Comet Tavern last night. His new album (his second) just out on Slumberland is full of intricate and lushly textured songs. The guy obviously is a student of the 80′s. Euphoria is an understated winner that I recommend heartily to fans of the Church, Modern English, East River Pipe and the  Icicle Works. It’s an easy record to like combining Williams’ big sounding songs with his plaintive delivery that strips them of any pretentiousness.

As I was standing in the somewhat redesigned Comet (the place actually has a stage with space for an entire band can stand) watching them play, a couple things came to mind.  I liked the extra muscularity that his five piece band brought to the songs even though some of the instrumental flourishes, had to be given up in the live versions of the songs. The second was how much they reminded me of Prefab Sprout. Not that Mr. Williams sings like Paddy McAloon, but his songs have this undeniable sense of hope and optimism while at that same time sounding sad. Sounds crazy I know, but it’s a great trick if you can pull it off as a songwriter and Devon Williams did exactly that last night. He and his band played a for about half an hour and seemed to enjoy every minute of it and the handful of us in the audience did as well.

mp3: Devon Williams – Sufferer


mp3: Devon Williams – Your Sympathy

Both songs are from Williams’ album Euphoria, available now from Slumberland.

Here are the remaining dates for his west coast tour:

THU 9/8 – Sacramento, CA @ Luigi’s Slice Fungarden
FRI 9/9 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place
SAT 9/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ House Show
SUN 9/11 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar

Doing It

September 1, 2011 at 9:41 pm | Posted in Vinyl, 7 inch, Living the Dream | Leave a comment
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I always admire people who actually do the things that I only sit idly by and think about. Starting a record label that puts out 7-inch singles is one of those things that I daydream about quite often. That is exactly what the 7 Inches blog has done. Not the daydreaming part, the starting a label part. The label is called Sweaters and Pearls and the inaugural single is a co-release with Velocity of Sound. It’s a split single between Virginia’s Super Vacations and Pittsburgh’s Ceiling Stares. Super Vacations take early Unrest and splice it with some Guided By Voices to come up with  some spikey good sounds. If you haven’t checked out their album from last year and their other current split 7-inch with Eternal Summers  this is the perfect place to wet your feet. I’m less familiar with the Ceiling Stares, but their side is no let-down and keeps with the 90′s indie vibe set by the Super Vacations.

The single is limited to 500 copies, 250 on green vinyl from Velocity of Sound and 250 on purple from Sweaters & Pearls. Choices, choices…

stream: The Super Vacations - Controller

stream: The Super Vacations – Hexing

stream: The Ceiling Stares – A Tunnel Through the Air

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