Fire Eyes on Random Acts of Vinyl

This one was flown in direct over the Atlantic from Random Acts of Vinyl, which I found out was formed by Palm Springs, a UK band with a major DIY attitude. This single is one of their latest releases from the band Fire Eyes a duo with Sally Megee and Paul Beat, who are both dishing out the back and forth vocals over this basic, lonesome western package.
The A-Side's "Cherry Black" is definitely evoking a Suicide cowboy sound, or a country-alt Dirty Beaches without the sonic medium textures, a really clear version of that spirit of sadness. Sally begins this conversation when she asks "What're you doing with that gun in your hand?" and Paul answers her back in his deep JAMC style vocal. They even introduce a massive glitchy synth solo in the middle of this slow bluesy stomper. I'm even thinking about a country fried Prinzhorn Dance School...a similar absence of crazy layers, just a heavy tom rhythm and tambourine, long distance reverb dusty guitar, and a couple of chords. This abstractly seems to be about a Bonnie and Clyde story, setting the scene, like the Neil Young Deadman soundtrack....one of my favorites...if I could only find that on vinyl...
The B-Side, "Out of Dust" is heading even further into the desert with a simple mic'd acoustic guitar, steel strings and all...and Sally is massively reverb'd into another dimension, like a mescaline dream, in the bottom of the grand canyon, a surfy sustained guitar wavering in out of the dust. A violin creeps into the background and those tumbleweeds really start to blow. It's a subtle vision with Fire Eyes, no distractions from recording technique, they've managed to create all this kind of imagery out of elements which individually shouldn't necessarily add up to this neo-country. The convertible rusted classic cars and sunglasses...a Julee Cruise Calexico sound.
How'd they do that.

Get it from Random Acts of Vinyl, preview the tracks, here on their Soundcloud page.

Eww Yaboo on Summersteps Records

Eric over at Summersteps Records has been at it over there in Dunmore, PA for the past sixteen years, putting out his own personal band projects along with a roster of friends and relations of various sorts on big vinyl and the occasional tiny single like this one from Eww Yaboo. A couple friends relocated from Brooklyn and put together the current lineup of Eww and hooked up with the Summersteps.

"Make it Fast" on the A-Side sets this sense of urgency from the minute the tape started rolling, with Nathan or Drew sounding frustrated into the mic: "I'm on?" right before they launch into an epic sounding indie, with background hints of piano, and bursts of gated swirly distortion with all kinds of counterwoven melodies, the cymbals crashing. They go from that overwhelming huge melodious pop into a bassline breakdown the next measure. Lot's of echo on the vocal, which is really great, full of hope, raukus, off kilter, on the verge of dismantling the whole sound, like the punk pop of The Balkans. Odd time signature muted guitar gives way to a wah wah solo....which might even belong on the heavier side of a tropical pop sound of something like Ski Lodge or Abe Vigoda...with their own brand of sheer optimism, and punchy single note grooves that has all the unjaded enthusiasm of dudes from the underground of PA.

The B-Side with, "So Many of the Kids", slowly fades in with a rolling tom beat and the drawn out distortion of layers of guitars. It's nice to hear a 180 like this... as much as they can go for that catchy pop on the A-Side, here it's getting heavy and a little more out of control in working within that signature huge sound. Heavily on effects, the thin vocal is a pretty serious choice, the whole thing showing off their experimental side. Here, they embrace those grungy sounds, and this hollow slapping snare track. In the age of unlimited tracks... go ahead and use them. Make it sound like a brick wall is coming for you, an old speed racer cartoon background, the lines flying all over the place, one big a crazy blur, and these guys want you to run straight into it.
The bookend studio banter taking this out says a lot about how these guys got here, one take, no edits, see you later, we gotta go open for Turbo Fruits (which they've actually done by the way).

On black big hole vinyl with handwritten download card from Summersteps Records.

Weird Party "Honey Slides" on Sex and Death Records

Weird Party from Houston, sent their "Honey Slides" single in a little bit ago, this one off their own Sex & Death Records. The best thing I like about their Facebook page is the fact that they list Van Gogh as an artist that they like and the drummers name is "Dick Cravings", which is my vote for best band member name so far this year, an early entry but a strong one. Honk Honk.
It all kind of points to where we're headed with this one, but who is that freaking hunk on the cover? I still haven't decided if that's someone in the band, or an possibly an old Teen Beat cover? I have trouble believing this guy has anything to do with this energetic Cramps-style punk, even if it is a weird party. Is everyone invited?
"Honey Slides" starts off with the party tom beat and groove-ass bassline with some guitars coming in over on one channel. Rowland on vocals starts off pretty low key, talking about the sings that he's possibly losing his mind, and that's where the vocal turns to a scream. There's a little bit of a psychobilly trashy punk feel going on here, especially talking about insanity and in such a peppy, dick dale way. I'm going to invoke that genre's standard, Deadbolt, and these guys are the younger bratty relatives, who even get a little Jello Biafra sounding at the emotional, lost his mind points. There he is singing, "I'm not your maniac", but clearly he is, at least by the second chorus...at least he's being honest. They've got an obvious wink feel to this single so far that works between party punk rock and disturbing.

The B-Side titled, "Sarah Palin" is going to pose a lot of problems, starting with the name of the track, you risk a lot by even talking about this waste of time at this point. It almost feels bad to even have wasted a side on her...the radio dial is spinning through the stations, all the static eventually leads to an off kilter distorted riff, with even a Frank Black type moment with the return of his maniac vocal over this melody. The chorus of this one is full of similar big layered guitars, huge chords of Sparta style punk, and a great chorus about how evil she is...but still at the end of the day, you're stuck with singing about that idiot? It's a damn shame to waste perfectly good chords on her....let alone a whole side of a seven inch? No matter how catchy...but who would have thought "I'm emperor Ronald Reagan..." would have worked either.

On black vinyl with download card and lyric insert...well, I guess they could have put her face on the cover if they really wanted to be jerks. Weird Party alright. Give my regards to Mr. Craving.

I Dream in Transit - self released

I Dream in Transit sent me their latest self released halfway across the world, from Melbourne, Australia. A very cool chipboard matchbook style screened sleeve, on thick black vinyl, with a red xerox insert and download card.

Both of these tracks are intensely intimate, quiet droning pieces of minimalism. "Explosion" starts with a massive thump of a hollow electronic kick with drawn out, etherial vocals from Louise, as lonely sounding as the harsh electronics. She's buried under a metallic distant echo, like some kind of broken telephone line, and it plays against the full sounding lower register response lyrically from either Stephen or Phillip. This morose hymn-like back and forth has the best lyrics about our anti-relationship with technology. The kind of detachment that happens from being desensitized or too close to a tragedy...this abstract pop-drone goes all the way back to the sparse whispery pop of Young Marble Giants or The Spinannes the same brand of deliberate and minimal. Even slightly combined with the swirly shoegaze warmth of Portishead...well warmth is the wrong word...it's more lonely sounding or apocalyptic.
Thanks in part to the background of slowly bowed strings, it's an unsettling, perfectly clear vision, crisply recorded with huge gongs and live room sound non traditional percussion that deliberately doesn't follow the mechanical rhythm. It's a sort of dystopian future, clouded by who knows what substances and overall dread, all of which is in the tone of Louise's vocal, which says it all.
"A Drop of Blood on The Surface of The Moon" uses a more organic structured instrumentation this time with the gentlemen in the trio layering vocals over an electric. More lonely sounds, with a woodwind instrument of some kind, all spread out with plenty or room to breathe. Louise, barely floating above their combined loud vocal about the most isolated idea...a person, millions of un-rescuable miles away from earth, gets cut. I think that's what got me about the Kubrick/Speilberg AI movie...seeing little helpless robot automaton Haley Joel sitting in that helicopter under the water for all eternity. I lost it.
This trio is capturing that Godspeed You Black... melancholia. There's nothing overtly as ominous, but it works in the same subtle, environmental ways.
I Dream in Transit has an amazing handle on their own creepy, shoegaze, filtered, slowed down MBV, carefully taking important stock of each word as if it's the last thing you'll ever hear.

Import this direct from the band on their bandcamp page. $10 AU is about $10 US. An edition of 250.

The real tragedy is that I probably will never get to see them live and say thanks for this single.

Preorder Epic Ditch on Velocity of Sound records

Darren over at Velocity of Sound ended up getting in touch with the guys from Superdrag who told him about their latest project, Epic Ditch, and naturally talk of a seven inch started to come together...and it went up for preorder this weekend.
That sleeve, which I just saw myself, is a shredded logo...from what you might ask? Grinding curbs, or pvc on the edge's of halfpipes probably. The second you buy that brand new deck, just throw it in the street, or scrape it down a bench. If there aren't gouges in the bottom from day one, then what kind of a skater are you?
Here's my review for the VOS Site:

Here’s a packed to the grooves power sk8 punk seven inch from Nashville’s own Epic Ditch. Having long paid their dues in various bands, John Davis for one was a founder of early nineties alternative band, Superdrag and bassist Nick Raskulinecz is a Grammy award winning producer for up and comer bands like the Foo Fighters, Rush, and Alice In Chains. Adding Pegclimber's Stewart Pack and The Pink Spiders Nick Slack to the mix, this isn’t a bunch of new kids on the block.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t going to rock punchy distortion driven riffs with energetic, anthemic punk vocals
This is evident from the A-Side opening track, “More Juice”, which comes off as an updated speed hardcore track with roots in Suicidal Tendencies, godfathers of that skate punk sound, and playing about just as long, the abrupt stop echoing off the walls. They’re setting the bar high for delivering a tight, explosive package. By “Singular Form”, the riffs stretch out a bit and that layered guitar crunch is heavily on display, the soaring harmonics of skilled sonic manipulation ranking this right alongside the best examples of power punk from the likes of Hot Snakes or Sparta. “Unexploded” continues to build on those layers in rapidly increasing starts and stops becoming a show of force in power chords. The epic layers of head thrashing chunky guitar have their fair share of screaming solo moments in the rapidly disappearing time of this side, which, even over too soon, has already been exhausting.
The B-Side, “Tried and True” now ventures into proto-punk Dictators territory, the all tom rhythm drives the track right into windmill distortion strumming, the levels all peaked to the very edge of the sound, compressing every last decibel out of their own wall of sound. “Resistance is Victory” then brings the whole single full circle and we’re back to their thrash punk, hyper melodic roots, recorded in a mere 36 hours, this single captures the frantic energy of their power hardcore, more than just a late night halfpipe session soundtrack, they’re shredding record needles.

Preorder this one from Velocity of Sound Records, they definitely have some of those stickers, pre-grind, ready and waiting.

Mrs Magician on Grizzly Records

Got another one from Mrs Magician, their third single by now, this time on Grizzly Records. I'm just getting into this matte feel monochromatic green sleeve when their completely out of control harmony from "Prescription Vision" on the A-Side, starts up. The heavy layered blasts of 'whoa oh's' on the first breathy vocal note is an unapologetically pop storm of glee. Not the show, but earsplitting grinning. This is overwhelmingly enthusiastic, it can throw you off a bit, so I'm preparing you now for the unbelievable brightness. The reverb inverts over a pop surf single then double snare beat with just a little bit of a grim twist in the vocal:

prescription vision / blinding my baby's eyes 

Even taken metaphorically there's some kind of drug abuse problem referred to here which is in direct contrast to the higher than high surf chorus.
It embodies pure goofball beach antics, and it's no surprise they're from the west coast, I mean not to pigeonhole the sound, but what is it about all that damn sunshine? It makes you this kind of happy manic, that's for sure. The vocal is so strong here, it almost makes those a capella clubs make sense...you know the one from Social Network, except Mrs Magician all have PHD's in surf, and are wearing jams with tuxedo jackets.
On the B-Side, "I Know What Girls Like" takes a hard nostalgic turn into Hunx territory, with plenty of reverb but slowing it down to that high school dance feel...the disco ball spinning, chaperones checking hands. The tamborine echo on this stickier bubblegum track is yet again hiding the lyric just under the surface about how the lead vocal Magician was:

...way to fucking nice to you

Because if he was a jerk then she would be into him, but then he wouldn't her...just a circle of lies that when delivered with under such sunshine is turning the whole thing around, like the 'oh so quiet' bjork video in an insane asylum.
Both tracks time in at under 2 minutes, being that we're in the middle of the dark days of solstice, this single might actually save your life... or push you completely over the edge.

Mountain Cult - Self released EP

The trouble with the never ending onslaught of great singles out there is that it's easy to get behind on posts and end up missing the release party of this single from Mountain Cult that happened right before the holidays at Pianos, which after hearing the first track on the A-Side, I'm regretting already.
This sludgy, buried under reverb, raw feel has elements of The Sentiment Club or the German Measles re-imagined no-wave sound with a classic Stooges stripped down garage, dirty soul. Maybe it's the growly bass fuzz on "Christmas Day" over the low end squeal of Ben's guitar work, along with his lackadaisical whispery delivery...in the abstract way where the vocals are secondary to the overall sound. I tried to listen for some kind of holiday lyric like a maniac.
They've decided to find a ballsy, earthquake riff for "2pm special", becoming all about the sustained distortion ringing out between slow chords, slightly out of time with each other...it's the best thing to hear, when the core of the track is this decisive. They're just completely focused on pure, distilled, sludgy stoner jams right before things historically went punk and then faster and faster.
"Mailman" the third track on this side (!) starts to pick up with a melody, and the heavy echo on Ben's vocal along with the heavy delay on everything is almost getting into a JAMC type of layered distortion...it definitely doesn't sound like this was recorded on an old 4-track. There's just the right amount of sloppiness here, like Los Llamaradas, there's a core of authenticity in going for this sincere reworking of those sounds and they're nailing it. Like Earth, getting as slow as possible, and then adding the punk anarchy...really, it's exactly like what I like about the Stooges, only mellow. I don't think Ben's going to be smearing peanut butter on himself. Does it need to be that uncomfortable anymore? Does music need that kind of masochistic performance art? Anyway, who knows, it could have been a messed up release party...

The B-Side opens with "Dog Specimen", I'm getting the sense that they all know their parts, they've all rehearsed them, but they don't necessarily have to come together exactly, and that's why I love what they're going for, it's almost the approximation of a song, nearly conceptual in that way. Here's all the pieces, you get the idea, we're going to slow this way down, and keep it simple...the spirit is all there and I'm glad to hear they're taking it to it's logical extreme, like the last track, "Friends" which could be The Mekons and Dirty Beaches collaborating on quaaludes.

Go check this out on their bandcamp page, then go make these guys rich and pony up $4 bucks.

Baby Tears on Rainy Road Records

Got a single in here from Baby Tears on a label out Omaha, Rainy Road Records. Baby Tears started with Ethan Jones (ex-The Faint and Church of Gravitron) who invited Todd VonStup and Jef Shadoan to round out this scuzz-noise trio which involved a donkey laying across some kind of organ on the sleeve there, but mostly a broken 4-track and a few bucks for beer and a tape in the livingroom, but that didn't stop these guys from getting the most blown out peaking trash sound since the Mayyors, and where you didn't want to probably be in the same room with those guys once the music ended, Baby Tears suggest they might not kill you favoring a slightly more melodic sound and recognizable vocals.
On "Homeless Corpse" the vibrating sludgy wall of reverb is massively impressive when you think this sound is coming from a three piece, and this is not a blues inspired garage sound, it's more like a dirty basement with a single bulb swinging slowly in the middle of the room... possibly a bad situation, maybe you shouldn't have come by yourself at least. Everything is just crackling, those 20 extention cords and adapters plugged into the 2 outlets on the verge of tripping the whole neighborhood. When you can get a kick drum to peak out and have a trebly snap sound to it, well you've accomplished something loud my friends. It sounds like the tascam starts to run out of batteries during a breakdown part, and they're just verging for a minute into those pure sound experiments, and the spring reverb coming to a quick halt with a yell. pOWerful stuff, with a capital OW on your ears.

B-Side's "She sells eggs" uses those incredibly overdriven drums from Jef right out of the gate and Todd playing along in menacing Shellac style (if Steve lost all of his fancy microphones of course) which in a weird new way makes it sound that much more dangerous, and that's where this kind of rough recording can serve the sound. It says a lot when seemingly they aren't concerned with showing you the entire scene, you're sort of making it up, coming to your own conclusions to this punky trash beating. There's some crazy effects or synth in the chorus, and it's even sounding like some of the best moments of Terror Visions, there's still a lot of possibilites in that Units combination of synth-punk (that never sounds good). You can take unnatural sounds from electronics and have them play nice with blown out rock like this, The Faint background serves them well here, building on those crazy sounds...not afraid to use them.
Not that it doesn't take just as much time and effort to find the right peaking places and mix those three tracks together, but then this isn't the first time for any of these guys. The sum of experience and starting over sounds a lot like this.

200 black, 100 gold with xerox insert and big font rpm guide, which I appreciate...on Rainy Road Records, who also have a crazy back catalog of Brimstone Howl, Alija Trout and even a single from Darek Lyn Plastic, so you know who you're dealing with like Baby Tears themselves, they didn't just press records yesterday.

Viva L'American Death Ray on Lo-Fi / Disordered Records

This one came in the other day from Rocco over at Disordered Records, looks like he teamed up with Lo-Fi Records also out of Italy for this single from Viva L'American Death Ray, a band I've been seeing a lot of releases out on Mexican Summer and I've been meaning to check out. Or it's that I've checked them out before and they keep turning out different every time? They aren't ever going in an easily definable or easily pigeonhole-able direction, so let's see where these two tracks are going.
"Wrong ways" on the A Side is a couple of layers of direct, slightly distorted electric melody playing in and around each other, a dense weave of brief single picked notes. A complex nervous melody for the see-saw bass groove to keep a hold of. A goofy story song about shoes, in an almost JSBX crazy screaming blues man style but more restrained. The shoes don't fit and chaos ensues, albeit within this ultra brief 2 minute punk structure.
The AA side with "Nothing" then sounds like an '80s era Lou Reed 4 track demo, right up to the mic, unemotional monotone vocals under a direct line in reverb guitar played to it's own rhythm despite an echo'd shaker. It's got the same kind of nihilism as Lou, he doesn't need anything either, and it's doing everything it shouldn't: making this really clear, direct statement about this choice to be a complete loner...in other hands this would be unlistenable, but they sem to have that disease where everything they touch turns to melody. That's not so bad now is it.
I also like the sleeve where every part of this guy is a middle finger, he really needs a friend.

The tough part is going to be in tracking this one down, try Disordered's blog or Psycheout's crazy wallpaper website.

P.S. God damn great interview, (well great because it's Captured Tracks anyway) at Clash Music, glad to hear their great attitude towards the single, and how it's played a role in their development...just how they treat their artists, making a ral go at a sustainable label of truly challenging contemporary music. One of the best.

Charlie McAlister 'Savage Arena' on Tick Tock Records

I've been waiting for this Charlie McAlister from Tick Tock Records to get to the top of the pile, sadly it wasn't before this light blue lathe cut was sold out from the source, so you best be quick on the draw yourself checking back regularly with Tick Tock because you obviously can't rely on me to break any of their new releases. Charlie McAlister last showed up on a Tick Tock lathe cut about a year ago, the same kind of awesome screen printed white inner sleeve and handnumbering. Charlie has been writing his particular brand of scuzzy no-fi swamp folk numbers since at least 2009, when I came across this Carolina by-product single co released with Unread Records, each time I end up poking around the world wide web for this guy I get more intrigued, imagining the front porch of a cabin in the middle of nowhere, an ancient 4-track machine, broken instruments...a bathtub of moonshine maybe in the basement. A combination of Beck from the one foot in the grave era with the patina of Mountain Goats early cassette recordings and the personality of Jonathan Richman. Hearing it delivered on this one sided handcut lathe is the icing on the cake, giving the whole thing this weird authenticity, like an old blues 78, buried under layers of hiss, taped off an old AM radio...there's nothing better to compliment this sound. It started out in the backwoods without a decent mic for miles and it will end up on this slowly degrading thin piece of plastic, leaving anyone within earshot to wonder exactly when the hell this was recorded.
The first track, "Savage Arena" has something to do with a book by Joe Tasker as noted on the reverse of this sleeve but more than that the plague of mosquito's referred to many times, every other word in fact, as 'fuckers'. I have a similar reaction when it's dusk in the middle of nowhere in the woods of the northeast...they are everywhere, and they are complete fuckers. There's no escape. The beat up stabs of guitar melody from both a halfway decent acoustic and I think one of those little plastic numbers with nylon strings is giving this a carnival ramshackle feel, fighting with the instruments to make this noise, not lasting much past a couple of go's probably. Beating on the floor, or a piece of wood, the succinct, perfect argument for making gold out of whatever is lying around. Old necessity is the friend and trademark of Charlie McAlister. At this point I don't want to hear this on anything but a hissy lathe record...do they distress brand new LP's like jeans? I bet Charlie could. I want a full length, but I'm afraid of those perfect, clean grooves. THAT'S NOT CHARLIE.
Next track, "Piss Parade", is about having to really use the restroom, as you could imagine, lots of wine, gatorade, whatever he could find to drink and I won't ruin the ending lets just say he 'rained' on their parade if you know what I mean. A couple layers of bluesy, slow bending chords...vocals right up in the blown out mic, narrating the story in a slight nasal whine, a mellow Bob Log III, I would love to hear those guys collaborate on something....or hell, play on the same bill.
Finally, "I ain't scared of shit", Charlie ends this side with a really classic almost protest track of lists of things that he's not afraid of, nuclear bombs, fire, ghosts, you name it...I also think that he's probably just really trying to convince himself most of all. A true contemporary folk sound, this is carrying on those traditions in a south carolina endgame. There's probably no one like Charlie steadily carrying on in those broken chords, and holy guitars, beating on washboards, hating mosquitos, not afraid of anything.

Marshall Mcluhan would also approve of this format.

Advance Base / Hello Shark split on PIAPTK Records

People in a Position to Know have been consistently coming up with the most amazing packaging for the lowly single and beyond, from an 8" square colored vinyl of Springsteen covers from Owen Ashworth and his brother to a sprawling 6 LP Wooden Wand boxed set (in appropriately enough...a wooden box), picnic plate shaped lathe cuts if I remember correctly he cut himself on his own machine...well machines plural because you can't have just one....literally, every piece breaks and you probably need to have a couple just for spare parts. It makes you want to move out into a part of the world where the cost of living is way less than brooklyn and start tracking down enough pieces to press your own records...in the meantime I will just be buying what PIAPTK is crazy enough to put together, always amazing, and worthy of blind buying their entire output. Consistently great, I admire all the projects they come up with over there.
It's no wonder Owen agreed to release a second single from his latest project, Advance Base, this time split with Hello Shark out of Burlington, VT, in a really nice matchbook printed chipboard sleeve from Stumptownprinters.
The Advance Base side starts out with a typically heartbreaking track, "Whirlaway The Horse", a Rhodes organ and a Whippany Rhythm Master (thanks liner notes) which is the sole core of his ever skeleton minimal structure. It serves to highlight Owen's songwriting, and this one is just a perfectly crafted story of the horse, Whirlaway that reveals a bar owners story verse after verse, and if this isn't based on some actual conversation late one night in a lonely bar then Owen, you are more of a genius than ever. Delivered in his deliberate understated style, barely rising above the trembling warmth of the organ melody, which against this ancient drum machine always reminds me of the sparse lonely sounds of Arise, Therefore, but Owen always manages to make these sad stories sound optimistic, the pieces seem to be always sort of working against that idea, and that's always the biggest trick of his songwriting, to give those kind of melancholy moments enough charm to be a little bit deceptive almost....once you start to investigate a little deeper.
Next up from Base is "Spanish Flangdang", which is listed as a traditional cover, and has a carnival uptempo carousel melody, which actually is so related to the Whirlaway melody they may as well be twins. This one still is riding that line of sadness, but maybe it's the closeness of these two that makes this sad somehow.
The B-Side from Hello Shark, starts out with "Stayed on an Island", recorded by Joey Pizza Slice in his apartment, the 4 piece reserved band lead by Lincoln Halloran on guitar and vocals, sounds like it works right alongside on old Palace album, he's just as understated in his delivery as Owen and the simple sentiments of making an island out of a mattress or giving a good friend a solo cigarette, come off as intensely personal, you're being let in on this intimate performance that doesn't ever need to be loud or scream for your attention. "Stars are Glow" continues this loose, good friends together writing music, a sleepy melodic track with Brooke Morrison bringing a high register harmony to the low key proceedings. A great pairing with Advance Base, and a serene end to 2011.

Get this one from PIAPTK who says:

The debut release from Casiotone For the Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth's new band, Advance Base is a split with his Vermont buddies in Hello Shark (voted one of the 50 best new bands in America by the Boston Phoenix). 2 tunes each, in hand-screened arigato paks with free digital download coupon (and instant download upon checkout!).

Cousins on The Noyes Records singles series

The Noyes Record subscription series is still going strong and their latest from Cousins came in just before the holidays. In the same ways Yuck or Broken Water...or fellow subscription series-mates, Dog Day, this duo from Halifax is mining the attitude and guitar tones of the nineties. "Secret Weapon" on the A-Side carries the ramshakle good times of Pavement with a loose, gritty electric blaring out of a broken practice amp from the right side of the stereo. The percussion jerky, odd timings and slightly distorted at times, high falsetto vocal from Aaron Mangle gives this a less than deadly serious delivery which makes them immediately likable. When you can coax out a near perfect rhythm like this, the combination of gutsy muted strumming with double time ceramic (?) cowbell  it doesn't need any extra dressing up, the simple capturing of this rimshot stomper is plenty. It's not getting into anything near lo-fi, but the exact right amount room sound and immediacy, and more importantly precise, catchy songwriting. That's what reminds me of Dog Day, The Hussy or another 'related' band, Blood on the Wall...there's pure classic innovation pouring out of these guys.
B-Side's "Speech", brings out a bit more of this raw practice room, garage side. There's some kind of down the hall sound from a record being played...or someone singing and a bluesy blown out garage number blasts in. This combination of Aaron's high vocal under heavy reverb, this elegant almost frail vocal alongside this scuzzy guitar is a great crazy direction, not to say he can't completely belt this out when the drums, with all fills take this solidly into the red. A raw sound expanding on the loose groove....I think that might be Leigh Dotey on drums, if the video below is the current line up.

Fantastic single, playful and stripped down, elements of garage and loose indie-rock, but classically all in service of the songwriting.

Damn this came out a while ago and should have been in contention for the year end thingys, but that isn't what this is about, they deserve to be picked up from Noyes Records...another solid edition to the singles club...you need more reasons?

Get this one direct from Noyes Records.


COUSINS - Speech from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.